This week the first part of a 2-parter. I had fun writing something with a little length and something almost resembling plot for a change. Consider this one toward the more conventional end of the experimental platform. And of course, may you enjoy.
The Craft
Part I
Writing, the conjuror’s art. Remote mind-control at it finest; the direction of ordered creation. The pen the wand; the wielder the practitioner of the art. Ultimately, the practice of directing the consciousness of another. Those who truly are skilled in their craft will direct the reader’s attention even after the physical words have been put aside. In this way wizards have waged war for millennia.
The burning of the Library of Alexandria more than 2000 years ago was the result of a particularly noxious spell written by Ed the Arch-Evil in the times when water canals were one of the greatest achievements of the wizards practicing the arts of illumination. Centuries later, the great wielders of the scepters of light realized their greatest accomplishment since that tragic fire after weaving together spells to keep such a calamity from ever again befalling the minds of men. After ages had passed, their great web of words strung together interconnected boxes of the force of lightning containing all spells ever cast. They were confident that the knowledge necessary and newly formed to create man-kind in the image of the sun would never again be lost.
The light wielders knew that trapped in the lightning boxes would be the spells of darkness next to and interconnected with the incantations of light, but, they trusted, just as they had as far as the recollection of their order could recall, that the darkness would always be illuminated by the light and thus disappear where light would remain through. The beauty was that the inter-connectivity of lightning boxes could be spread evenly across the globe, each a library of its own; millions of such libraries as far as feet could reach.
Through the destruction of the word and with incantations of fear the dark ones had attempted to suppress this new spell and the enchantment of harnessed electricity for ages. As the battles raged, however, the casters of the shadows could not stifle all the nations inspired by the knowledge sewn by the bearers of light. Those of light had become adept at inspiring beings to fight to protect joy, and they had become adept at moving quicker than the darkness to be able to continue cultivating their words and share with those also imbued with the knowledges of magic. Where one went, three would be inspired. And so, over time, their magics grew slowly and became ever-more powerful until the industrial ages were ushered in.
It was not difficult for the worshipers of dark words to turn the new tools toward the detriment of humanity, but they could only corrupt what was inherently helpful in nature, they could not truly turn it against itself. That which was created to help had no choice but to help even in the instances such contrivances were cursed to create a byproduct counteractive to the creations of the light. In this way, by degrees human progress developed slowed from its natural inclination, but moved steadily forward, even when at a crawl. Though the appearance of setbacks blinded wizards working for the light from time to time, these illusions were only ever confined to localized areas; these “setbacks” inspired the light bringers to work harder and innovate ever more-clever spells to keep them safe and their minds clear against the shadows that would confuse and inspire others to chase them toward a doom preventible only by innovation of the mind and the craft of the light of the word.
One of the most powerful spells of light was sewn accidentally by the shadow-wielders in the 1950s of the current common era. In an effort to better enslave the minds they had turned toward embracing destruction, they invested great time in monitoring those manipulating the basic elements which they identified to themselves as combinations of letters and thus, in principal, as words. As a particular chemist for a particular pharmaceutical company ingested his own potion, which in his simplicity he deemed no more than a “chemical compound,” those of the pure night took delight to see him appear made simple and malleable so long as the effects of the substance lasted. It was then that they wished as quickly as possible to obtain the potion for themselves that it might be used to deepen the mind control on those they manipulated to destructive means. In the process, they unwittingly unleashed a powerful potion that turned their subjects minds to truth, and thereby light in its purest form.
Initially the minds of the soldiers the drug influenced resembled a more pliable state and the experiment was thought to be a success. It didn’t take long, however, for this to be realized to be a false assessment.
Before having the chance to use one of the many spells developed during the last world war to cast illusion of the semblance of darkness over the words creating the new potion, several of the wizards of light working under the title of “psychiatrist” for the military created a loud spell casting a belief of research toward the words of the potion in question, and so new innovations in white magic were developed.
By the time the manipulators of shadows were able to cast a spell of suppression against the formula, the knowledge had already been disseminated, and more minds had been opened to the light than by any mass spell the light wielders could remember having ever cast in their recorded history.
So many minds had been opened to naturally, organically manifest light against those who cultivated the dark, without a spell being cast by those of light, that the environment was perfect to begin weaving together the web of knowledge they had striven to enchant for centuries.
Amongst the prodigious contributors of the great indestructible library was a man who had consumed of the potion himself, a man named “Jobs.” One of many to contribute the pieces necessary to construct the ever-enduring network of the house of ever-cultivated knowledge. And after about two and a half decades of accelerated building the wizards of light working tirelessly amongst the sector of individuals known as “scientists” finally brought to fruition the foundation upon which was laid the structure for the permanent housing of arcane knowledge, much to the chagrin of the servants of the shadows that had attempted to use said structure, to no end, strictly for organizations called by the title “defenders of the people.”
And so it was from the creations of the beings of darkness the infusion of arcane knowledge the light bringers had been working toward since the destruction of the great library so many years ago finally came to be. The solidification of their great spell came finally also as a result of one of the supposed great accomplishments of the slaves of shadows: the spells of illusion to see women otherwise than people.
(End Part I)
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