LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 32: Dernporost
The dinner table buzzed with chatter, the smell of just-herbed, meaty feast filling the air, at Xiaxoan Blues where platters of steaming porcupine stew, made fresh quills gotten from iron and Mistbloom petals and sprinkles of Starfruit Sage atop, sat bowls of steamed wild grains over which Larin, Tyrs, Mynta, and Uncle Ted had been eating furiously arguing over dinner about their sparring match the night before.
"Next time," Tyrs said with a grin, "you won't catch me so easily with that Ripple Surge trick."
"You say that now," Larin teased, taking a sip of spiced wine. "But I'm already thinking of ways to improve it."
"You should be," Mynta said, leaning back with a contented sigh. "Fighting is never static. Neither is magic. There's always something new to learn."
She halted, her eyes flashing as if lights had been turned on. She flicked a quick gesture with her hand. Thin strands of magic wrapped around her, glowing dully before they sank into invisibility.
"I love teaching," she said, her voice full of excitement. "It's marvelous: when you teach, you clear your own mind. Watch this."
Others sat and watched as she paraded her find. "I call it Living Barrier. It's a spell of continuous defense that becomes as natural as breathing. The beauty is in its simplicity-it draws so little mana it's almost negligible, and it doesn't require conscious effort once it's in place."
Tyrs raised an eyebrow. "A passive defense that works without draining resources? That could change everything.".
"Exactly," Mynta replied. "It's made from core principles—Basic Barrier, Divide, and Levitate. The issue is to create tiny barriers the moment these touch your skin, your clothes, and even your weapon so that they will levitate and distribute impacts on their own. It follows you."
Larin leaned forward. "Divide and Levitate are easy enough. But these put into a fluid. that's advanced magic."
"It is," Mynta agreed. "That's why we also need Combine and Deconstruct. Those are the keys to refining and evolving spells."
Magic, like knowledge, was never absolute in the Dernporost school of philosophy. Where traditional schools of magic sought mastery through rigid formulas and structured hierarchies, Dernporost magic embraced the dynamic, ever-shifting nature of reality. Divide was the spell of breaking down a construct into its smallest, most essential parts; it was the stripping away of assumptions, and truth in those fragmented possibilities is seen. In contrast, to [combine] was to weave those fragments of pieces into forms anew, which, in any case, makes creation subjective, layered, open to reinterpretation. Finally, [Deconstruct] saw a spell as a fluid idea rather than an absolute concept that unraveled the deeper relationships of the other spells besides introducing questions and changing the central concern of what is to be shaped about. --
Tyrs picked up quick. She retreated back out of the way while Mynta went through the steps again to [Living Barrier] then went through herself, her magic keeping pace with it all as though she were automatically moving. "This is almost marvelous for so very precise technique," she sighed, feeling the fine, soft sheets of tiny barriers flexing and shifting fitfully about the skin. "I hardly notice it's here."
His troubles, however, Uncle Ted had worse, for he had his fingers resting against his temples as he made continuous efforts at trying to corral the thin layers of [Divide] and [Combine] under something of control. "It is like trying to balance a hundred spinning plates all blindfolded."
Not blindfolded, Mynta amended gently. New eyes. Envision the obstructions as inhalations in the wind, each and every one traveling with the current, not contrary to it. Stop focusing on control. Allow it to happen.
Ted released a slow exhalation of breath, shaking his mind of its typical expectations. He probed his mana again, but this time letting it flow easier. A shimmering settled around him as the [Living Barrier] started to build.
"There you are," Mynta said brightly.
Ted smiled. "This could save a lot of lives."
"It will," Larin said, his eyes growing hard as he built the spell. His work was harder, but he was a furnace of will. He could feel the pieces fitting together-the obstacles, small, but like them, the winds gave way to serve his passage, as pliable as the breeze.
Hours passed as they experimented. The room was muffledly quiet, as if a kind of vibration inside the magic had settled there. They were experimenting with different versions, seeing where the technique failed. Inspiration struck in Larin; he worked from what they did earlier with [Ripple Surge], taking aspects of [Living Barrier] but infusing a build with an absorption of kinetic energy, one that could burst into control the impact.
"Call it [Reflective Coil]," Tyrs suggested, watching him finish. "Aggressive defense; exactly your style."
Larin laughed. "It still needs refining, but it's a start."
Mynta wasn't content to stop there. She modified [Living Barrier] with a dispersion effect, allowing it to spread across multiple allies within a short radius. "If we're working as a team, why not extend the protection?"
Shared Aegis, Ted called it, and his eyes had a glow of pride. "That's a game-changer for the battlefield."
As night wore on, their conversation spread to encompass the way of the Dernporost.
"Why do you believe the Kirat avoid this method of magic?" Larin inquired.
Tyrs furrowed his brow. "Because it shakes the very foundations of their world. Dernporost magic is averse to any fixed rank. It challenges everything, including the boundaries of power itself. For a society based upon strict control, the challenge to the rules is blasphemy incarnate.".
"And frightens them, Mynta added. It is the part they cannot keep in check and define. Strength is only really in that point of weakness in the matter of susceptibility to change, with the power to break whatever there is, in order to shape a new thing."
"It's the Sinlung way," Larin murmured softly. "We do not conquer, we liberate, we take part."
The night stretched out and over into dawn, yet the pleasure of discovery ran in their veins: Xiaxoan Blues, every one of them glowing with an ember of something new, some deeper understanding of what they were and why. No warriors or magi but explorers of possibility, architects of a future yet to be written.
They wove spells of fluidity and freedom in the heart of Monarek, an empire of iron and stone. And with the shifting light of morning, they knew change was coming.