“I’m getting old,” admitted Blake. “Doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot to teach you.” The look on the older man’s face implied that he felt he had a lot to show Will.
“Fine,” said Will, relenting. “After dinner we’ll spar. No magic. If you can convince me, then tomorrow I’ll teach you how to properly cook a roast.”
Blake held out one hand. “Agreed.” They shook on the deal.
Chapter 7
Will’s classes were predicated upon his successes and failures from the previous semester. Professor Karlovic had exempted him entirely from the core curriculum Alchemy classes, though Will still rented a lab room for personal use. Professor Dulaney had moved him to Advanced Spell Theory, moving him entirely past the second-year classes on that subject. Math had been a success, but he hadn’t been moved ahead, and Composition had been a failure. He was retaking the same class with Professor Conrad this semester.
Currently he was sitting in his last class for the day, Advanced Spell Theory. Most of his fellow students in the class were working on fifth- and sixth-order spells, while Will was working hard to manage eighth-order. In terms of difficulty, he was already well ahead of where he needed to be for the next semester’s class, but being able to master eighth-order was a personal goal for him. He wanted to be able to cast Selene’s Solution, the cleaning spell created by his wife.
Wife? It still seemed unbelievable to him when the word ran through his mind. Am I really married? He supposed that most newlyweds had trouble adjusting to the new labels, but he felt it was even more difficult in his situation. Most newlyweds get to live together.
“Do you have someplace better to be, Mister Cartwright?”
Will’s eyes snapped back into focus. Professor Dulaney had gone quiet and was now staring intently at him. Most of the class was looking back at him, but rather than show his embarrassment, Will grinned. “Yes, Professor, but I can wait until you’re done before I go.”
“Since you’re bored, perhaps you can explain to your classmates the primary use of transducers in artifice.”
Will groaned under his breath and began getting to his feet. Dulaney preferred the students stand when answering. “Sir, we covered that last semester…”
“Some of us need a refresher, if you would be so kind,” said Dulaney, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Transducers are used to modify turyn, to convert it from one type or mixture of types to another. They’re required for any enchantment or magical item, since they must operate without a human to provide the proper turyn needed for them to function.”
The professor nodded. “The transducer is modeled on a fundamental spell construct that performs the same function. What would happen if we used them in everyday spells and why don’t we?”
Because it would be a damned waste of time—for me, thought Will sourly. He couldn’t say that, of course, so instead he answered, “A transducing spell construct would improve the turyn efficiency of any spell to nearly one hundred percent, but it would drastically increase the complexity to a degree that any spell that included a full transducer would be unworkable.”
“And yet most transducers are relatively simple. Explain why they create such a problem in spell casting.”
Will sighed. “Because every person has a unique mixture of turyn, so every spell would have to be personalized for the transducer to be of any benefit.”
One of the other students, Phillip Wakefield, raised his hand. Professor Dulaney pointed at the young man. “You have a question?”
“Yes, Professor. This occurred to me during the reading. Even though everyone has a different turyn signature, once the proper transducer was calculated for that person, they could memorize it and apply it to—”
“I see where you’re going Mister Wakefield,” interrupted Dulaney. “It won’t help. Not only is each person unique, but every spell requires a different mix of turyn. Your hypothetical wizard would still have to create a unique transducer construct to interface with every spell.” He nodded at Will. “Thank you, Mister Cartwright. You can sit back down now.
“This brings me to the next topic. As you know, and as some of you have begun to see in your Artifice classes, the things we create fall into several broad categories. Many engineering tools are simple and general-use. The transducers built into those enchantments tend to be simple, standardized, and users are chosen according to their affinity for the implement. Efficiency is rarely greater than seventy percent. On the opposite end of the spectrum we have personalized items created for wealthy individuals. Such items are built with transducers tailored to the owner, so their efficiency is as close to perfect as can be achieved, usually in the ninety-seven to ninety-eight-percent range.
“Most such items are made for the nobility, due to the cost, though some wizards craft such items for themselves. The benefit of such efficiency is even more important to wizards, naturally.”
Will raised his hand, then stood and cleared his throat when Dulaney recognized him. “Professor Salsbury told us that the oldest examples of powerful enchanted items didn’t include a transducer component at all, but he didn’t say why. Could you shed some light on the reasons for that difference between the work of artificers back then and that of modern craftsmen?”
A flicker of disgruntlement flashed across the professor’s features, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. “I should have known you’d bring up the topic of relics, Mister Cartwright.” Then his gaze swept the room as he addressed the question for the class. “What William has brought up is a subject of some debate, because we don’t really know how most of the enchanted items of the past were meant to function. We call them relics simply to denote the fact that they are of considerable age, but there’s nothing fundamentally different about them aside from age and the lack of a transducer.
“One theory is that relics were paired with a second item that included a transducer and that these transducers simply haven’t been found or they didn’t survive the passage of time. Another theory is that the items were used by individuals who happened to have exactly the right sort of turyn to make them function, although the odds of that are extremely unlikely.
“What we do know, is that because of the lack of a transducer most relics are able to house more complex enchantments. The Rod of Breven, for example, has three separate functions, each requiring a different mixture of turyn. To my mind, that makes the idea of a secondary transducer even more likely. The original owner of the rod probably had three different customized transducers that could be switched out depending on how he intended to use the item—”
“Or Lord Breven was able to modulate his own turyn,” interjected Will.
Dulaney sighed. “I would have dismissed that idea out of hand, but you are living proof that such a thing is possible, though I still believe that your hypothesis is highly improbable.”