>>5279704“What we do know is this:” Darby continues, clearly getting into it, “We can liken magic to energy… or a FUEL, to be more precise. No fuel, no work. A car with no fuel doesn’t move. A wizard or witch with no fuel-” The professor blows a raspberry into the speaker. “No magic! The good news is that while magical energy isn’t as easily-detectable as electricity or heat, we can assume it’s abundant… in a manner of speaking.”
You blink. What manner would THAT be?
“When a mage casts a spell, a reaction occurs.” Explains the professor. “Success or failure doesn’t matter–<span class="mu-i">some</span>THING, intended or otherwise, will happen 90% of the time. But why?”
Uhh…
“Because it WANTS to transform!”
Oh. Right.
“WILD MAGIC acts like an atom with excessive charge--it doesn’t WANT to be <span class="mu-i">WILD</span>. It wants to be STABLE!”
Okay, you nod, mind drawing a blank on atoms, so why doesn’t WILD MAGIC chill out, then?
“That’s the thing, Stanley–it DOES!” Darby exclaims! “The unexplained phenomena we witness, the strange occurrences–all of it can be attributed to WILD MAGIC stabilizing, you see? That transformation, whether it’s a mage casting a spell or a tree absorbing energy–we hypothesize that all of it is caused by magic attempting to become stable again!”
“You mentioned absorption,” Sybil interjects, “does that imply people could, well, become conduits for this energy?”
“Most certainly!” Darby replies, barely phased by the new speaker! “An account by Raphael DeCourt comes to mind: in the mid 1600’s DeCourt documented a series of events surrounding a group of neighbors in a shared tenement building–each one about as different as can be in background, profession, and health. Despite their differences, they all complained of similar symptoms: sleepwalking, lethargy, and an ability to commune with the recently deceased!”
You hope Syb made a mental note to read more about this DeCourt guy. So what did they find out?
“Well it took some time, given the limitations of the time period, but DeCourt and his assistants came to a similar conclusion once they removed the patients from the tenement–something was influencing them. After spending several months on DeCourt’s estate, the patients were eventually ‘cured’. They required no medicine of any kind–merely a change of scenery. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg!”
Let me guess, you sigh, it didn’t end there, did it?
“Thankfully not!” Darby laughs. “In the time that the patients spent on the estate, other tenants began to suffer from similar, but completely different symptoms: clairvoyance! An aversion to water! Seizures! It was only after DeCourt and a few hired hands dug into the tenement’s basement that they discovered a possible source: a MASSIVE, PURPLE TREE with roots dug deep into the masonry! Quite a sight!!”
Yea, that’s wack!
>CONTD. 