Bonus Episode 3: Advanced Electromancy - Magnetism

[A CLASSROOM]

LUCAS: I don’t think I can do this, Ms. Harper.

KATYA: There is no question that you can do it. You are more powerful than I am. I can do it, therefore so can you. 

LUCAS: If I could take off this blindfold-

KATYA: If you take off the blindfold, then your eyes will tell you things you don’t need to know. Reach out with your powers. Tell me what you see.

LUCAS: There’s a big block of steel right in front of me. I assume it’s not floating in the air, so it’s probably sitting on a table made of wood, at any rate the table isn’t generating a magnetic field that I can see.  The chairs are some kind of non-ferrous metal, probably aluminum. I can barely see them. The door is iron, so is some of your jewelry. And there’s a brick on the table - I don’t know what it’s made of. It’s got a stronger natural magnetic field than the chairs, but not by much. 

KATYA: Thanks for reminding me about my necklace, I should take that off and move it out of range before you get started.

LUCAS: Other than the block, which is huge, nothing else in this room is magnetic enough for me to affect it. I don’t get what you want me to do. 

KATYA: Watch me and see if you can copy.

LUCAS: So I can take off the blindfold?

KATYA: No.

[we hear an electric buzz get louder and softer and louder and softer, oscillating faster and faster. Then something heavy clatters to the ground.]

LUCAS: How did you- there’s no wire coiled around the block-

KATYA: Believe it or not, Burns, in the heat of battle your enemies will not have convenient wires coiled around them. But. Science informs magic, magic informs science, especially for electromancers. You know how you would turn the block into an electromagnet if you had a wire. You can do it without the wire.

LUCAS: The lightning is going to fight me at every turn. It doesn’t want to go in circles.

KATYA: And yet you are strong enough to impose your will on it. Give it a go.

LUCAS: Urrrr. Uh! 

[same sound as before but the oscillations are uneven. The brick shakes a little but doesn’t move.]

KATYA: It will take a lot of practice, but I think you have the basic idea. Once you can use this technique to turn any sufficiently large piece of iron into an electromagnet, you can do all sorts of very useful tricks with it. 

LUCAS: I don’t doubt it. But don’t military-grade automata have built in Electromagnets? Why would I ever be without one in the field?

KATYA: War is not as neat and tidy as it is in the movies, Burns. Pyromancers, Cryomancers, Oramancers- they’ll make up the majority of other mages you’ll be facing. And they don’t need any special tools for their magic. We must be able to match them in versatility. 

LUCAS: Truth be told, I’m more worried about mundanes with bullets. 

KATYA: Well, armor-piercing rounds have steel cores, once you master magnetic shielding you can swat them away like flies. But normal bullets are lead and copper, which is a bit trickier. Of course copper still has a magnetic field, just a very weak one. There are electromancers who can keep any kind of bullet off an army, but it’s beyond me.

LUCAS: Is it beyond me?

KATYA: It’s borderline.

LUCAS: Then wouldn’t it be better for me to practice magnetic shielding?

KATYA: This will help with that. You’ve still got a few years before you’re deployed. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Focus on using the block to get that brick to the other side of the room.

LUCAS: Can I take off the blindfold?

KATYA: No. 

[transition music]

KATYA: I think that’s enough for today. Good work, Burns.

LUCAS: I barely got it off the table.

KATYA: My first time trying this I wasn’t even able to move it more than an inch. You’ll get there.

[footsteps/ music as Lucas walks down the hallway]

SUSAN: Hey.

LUCAS: Oh. Hey.

SUSAN: How’s advanced Electromancy?

LUCAS: Really slow going. How’s advanced Floramancy?

SUSAN: Fascinating. Don’t want to bore you with the details but classroom four is all raspberry bushes now. Can I interest you in a raspberry?

LUCAS: Sure.  [beat.] You’ve got to be the only one who can just… create food. I’m jealous sometimes.

SUSAN: Well, I can’t create food exactly. I needed some raspberry seeds to start the process, I mean, I can’t do anything without a seed. And most weaker floramancers would need, like a cutting and a lot more time. The growing environment in classroom four is terrible so without my magic feeding them the bushes will probably be dead by… tomorrow? But it was good practice and hopefully people will eat all the berries before then. Anyway I’m wiped. What did you do?

LUCAS: I moved a brick about six inches.

SUSAN: Oh.

[beat]

SUSAN: Was there something, like, really special about this brick?

LUCAS: It barely had any iron in it.

SUSAN: Electromancy’s, uh, not the most thrilling discipline, is it?

LUCAS: Apparently not. 

[beat]

SUSAN: Are you coming to my duel tomorrow?

LUCAS: Yeah. If I beat Tessek I’ll probably face whoever wins. Who’s your opponent?

SUSAN: Some ice mage. I don’t really know her. Diana? Dana?

LUCAS: Diala? She’s pretty tough. 

SUSAN: You’ve dueled her?

LUCAS: Not yet, but we’ve had our run-ins on the Pazik court. Her ice walls come up really fast. They’re not quite as strong as Katari’s, but they sneak up on you. And she’s crazy fast herself. Does that thing ice mages do where they freeze the ground a little in front of them and skid past you. She got three goals in on us last match with that trick.

SUSAN: Thanks for the heads up. I’ll wait until she’s about to do one of those and throw up a briar patch for her to slide right into.

LUCAS: Ouch. Nothing would make me happier.

SUSAN: Why are you giving me advice anyway? Just rather face me in the final than her?

LUCAS: Who says I haven’t told her any of your tricks?

SUSAN: Oooh, you’d better not have. Well, this is me. Uh, have fun with your barely-iron brick moving.

LUCAS: Thanks for the raspberries. Good luck tomorrow.

SUSAN: Good luck next week!