The Agartha Loop: Loop 2 by Ravensdagger

Author:Ravensdagger [Ravensdagger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mango Media LLC
Published: 2024-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter twenty

Ritual Magic

The class occurred much the same way it had the previous time Amber lived through a Wednesday. Professor Ploof and a Seelie (wearing a tall, pointed cap made of purple cloth that Cassy immediately identified as a wizard’s hat) stood at the front of the class on a box and atop the podium respectively and gave them a quick lesson on the importance and use of rituals in magic.

Then with the diminutive professor’s guidance, they worked though planting and ritualizing a yam.

The big difference this time was that Amber was working with Cassy, which made things a little more complicated.

Morgan had been a fantastic assistant. Cassy was… a little more laissez-faire about her work, and definitely less precise with the ritual. This time, Amber’s sprout wasn’t as impressive as it had been the previous loop, but she supposed that was fine.

“I’m not sure about this kind of magic,” Cassy said.

“Ritual magic?” Amber asked.

Cassy nodded. “Yeah. It’s all weird and like, symbolic and witchy.”

“You have a witch’s hat,” Jade said from the next table over.

“Yeah, but as a fashion statement,” Cassy said. “To show people that I’m awesome. Not because I want to own a cat and spend time brewing stuff and growing warts.”

“I actually agree with Cassy somewhat,” Morgan muttered, earning her everyone’s attention. “Ritual magic is esoteric and its applications aren’t direct or often easy to understand. Growing a plant quickly like this is interesting, sure, and I can see the application, but this is almost more the exception than the rule. I prefer more… direct magics?”

“Yeah, come here, we can be bonk sisters.” Cassy extended a fist over to Morgan who just looked at it.

“I refuse,” Morgan said.

The team shared a few giggles until they noticed Professor Ploof’s unimpressed look from the front of the class. The teacher cleared her throat and went on with the lesson, talking over the several little conversations that had started up.

“As you can see, the simple applications of ritual magic are simple to execute and result in simple outcomes. Can any one guess what a complex ritual leads to?”

Someone braver than Amber raised their hand and the professor nodded for them to answer. “A complex outcome?”

The Seelie laughed, a strange noise from the creature. “No. There is no proportional link between the complexity of a ritual and its results.”

“That,” Professor Ploof said. “Is because magic doesn’t care about what we consider to be complicated or not. Or rather, the underpinning rules that guide magic are unknown, and so there isn’t an easy correlation to make between the steps of a ritual and its results. New rituals are more often than not the result of nearly blind trial and error, though we have discovered some small sets of rules that can lead to some predictable results. It’s like… if any of you have studied scientific history, you can liken it to early chemistry. After humanity stopped calling it alchemy and before we truly began to understand the underpinning physics that govern chemical reactions.

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