"What would a Decree Spell entail then?" Amy wondered aloud, unafraid of anyone listening in with Tod having left some time ago. Verdant mana danced between her fingertips as she played with it, watching the arcs it tore through the Ocean, that which seemed to burn brighter than any other subject in her Sight. Fae was like that, always asserting itself over all, taking prominence in her mana pool and seizing control of her mind and soul. She couldn't help but be enchanted by its splendour, more so than any Element she had ever touched, none feeling more right than this one. There wasn't any doubt as to why she felt that way, her affinity blaringly obvious, except for a moment Amy decided to consider an alternative.

Why am I so infatuated with Fae? The Witch pondered, studying the mana in her grasp intently. Fae is surprisingly versatile for one, able to be used in a variety of different situations. I'd even consider it a jack-of-all-trades Element if it didn't have clear unmatched strengths and weaker holes. Another advantage is its ability for quick improvisation and workings; I can't exactly say I'd feel comfortable working up a random Unknowable or Illusion Magick on the fly like I would with Fae. An aspect of that could be to do with my affinity, yes, but that only helps my attunement not its power. Finally, I suppose is the largest strength of the Element: its ability to deceive. I can circumvent typical rules both magical and real in small ways with the Element. A magical example of that is the very existence of Fae Bolt, a Spell that can seemingly be 'controlled' without mana linking it back to the caster. Of course, it's simply an in-built homing effect, but it does not seem that way at first glance.

Or... is it? If I were to reword that in my own language, then it's not a homing effect, it's an Enforcement. It apparently Distorts the rules by in fact Enforcing an already existing one, a tendency for a Bolt to strike a target. Fae always seems to do that; by Deceiving the world, it in fact Enforces something new of my choosing.

"...I've gotten off-track," Amy admitted with a frown, yet her thoughts lingered on that last revelation. Despite the lack of importance she lent to it initially, something about that last phrasing seemed poignant. Almost as if it was central to her path. Wording to keep in mind for later ruminations then. "I'm supposed to be working up a Decree, not navel-gazing."

Decree then. Amy shook her head, sitting up straight where she had been slouching before. How should I lay out the working. I plan it to be Tier 5, obviously, and also something that I can extend into later Tiers. So it needs not just power but room to grow. How would this Decree actually accomplish what it sets out to do? Well, going back to what I used against the Pigeon, it would have to be that Fae corruption. I'd lace the surroundings with subtle lines of Fae to sink in and sneakily start to distort. I'll base the distortion Magick off of what I tried in the museum, the way it tricked the Spells around it to malfunction. It will construct and Enforce a new order, a new set of Laws, that are different and seemingly chaotic. Through this sprout of chaos, I'll be able to supplant the old order and establish supremacy with a Decree to make my words the truth, the Law.

That is a lot for a Tier 5 from what little I know of the Tier but it just might work if it scrapes the bottom of Tier 6. Even if it does enter Tier 6, would that be so bad? Decree is going to be a powerful and mana-intensive Spell anyway. I'm supposed to be facing Archmage level threats; even if my mana pool struggles because of it, I need that upper-hand to have a chance of properly succeeding. I'll plan for Tier 5, but if it wanders into Tier 6 then I won't try too hard to bring it down a step. Hah... To think I was dreaming of Tier 3 not so long ago and now I'm almost expecting to break into Journeyman. The old me would've been ecstatic. Of course, Spell Tier breakthroughs don't count how I thought they did before but still... It's nice to dream.

Standing up fully, Amy got up from the sofa and did a thorough search of the apartment, making sure that her experimentation wouldn't accidentally catch anyone or anything out. The las thing she wanted to do was hurt someone with her new Spell, even if it likely was going to be used that way in the future. She looked around one more time before she was happy, checking the doors were locked and everything was in order before beginning. Slow breaths in and out cooled her nerves and excitement as she tried to suppress a growing smile.

This was, as Felin might put it, proper magic after all.

More ready than she'd ever be, Amy's focus sunk deep into her mana pool, already swirling as mana coalesced around it in a grand whirlpool of possibility. Her Magecraft was the same as always, the stage of the universe ready for her to dance upon, to slowly enrapture the audience and bring them under her control. Fae, as was typical nowadays, slunk around the sides of her soul, her pool, already brought to surface by just imagining her Magecraft. Today, she would entirely focus on that aspect and the Fae would overwhelm everything.

For some strange reason, it had been a while since Amy had fully focused on casting a purely Fae Spell. She might've cast Commands with Fae, yet with how she used them recently, they were never entirely Fae. They had always been mixed in with a dash of Mind to support the influence she Commanded. Familiar was the only real Spell she repeatedly used and even that had seen less and less use as the new size of her mana pool allowed Felin to be summoned for longer and longer.

Decree would even be the first entirely Fae working she had planned. Monstrous Visage always had Illusion and Unknowable tainting it, and since then she usually attempted other more esoteric workings than simply Fae on its own.

Amy slowly realised, a small gasp escaping her, that she hadn't ever used Fae like this. And something about that felt terribly wrong. Something that needed to be corrected.

Like never before, viridescence drowned her in inescapable green, inundating her the instant she began the Magecraft. In her internal image, the Witch had barely begun to dance before the audience already sung her praises, almost letting themselves come under her sway. There were only two explanations for it and Amy didn't quite know if she liked either of them as they both came to the same conclusion.

By the new volume of mana available to her, her influence with Fae had dramatically increased, somehow making her attunement with the Element even easier than before. Or, unfortunately, something had happened with her affinity. Either way, Fae just became that much better for her to use and far more irresistible.

Practically swimming in the waves of virid mana, Amy sent it flying across the room in small slithering lines like snakes, slipping into every nook and cranny of the space around her. All the while she kept her will trained on what she demanded, keeping the focus of her working as clear as possible in her mind.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Amy grinned when the room seemed to shine with green mana, coating every surface in a certain way that'd be hard to notice with an undiscerning eye. Then, the working truly began. That same mana seemed to disappear, merging with the surroundings and flowing into thin air. Except the world around her seemed to gradually twist at the edges, the corners of the room seeming paradoxically both further from and closer to her. The edges of the flat seemed to swirl and ripple, like the walls were made of jelly. At the centre of the chaos that corroded the room, spreading further and further, affecting even the furniture and distorting that too, stood the Witch.

Mana sharpened around her mouth the second she opened it, reacting to her intent, wishing to be used by their ultimate ruler.

Amy spoke in words of great power, Decreeing as she saw fit,

"The world twists, and so it does."

Chaos straightened into new Order.

The Laws of everything Distorted into something otherworldly.

And, for just a second, the Witch instantiated her will onto Reality.

Lasting for less than she could blink, the room she was in wasn't just seeming to twist and bend, only appearing that way in the Ocean, barely impacting the real world. No. The floor under her feet undulated like she was riding a large wave; the walls rippled and bent as if crushed and smashed; furniture and other decorations began to float and spin in the air; and the air itself refused to be moved, deciding to move its intruders instead. In the midst of the terrible forces of Magick acting around her, pushing in all around, Amy watched it enraptured.

Then, as quick as it had been cast, it stopped. No Spell at this low of a Tier could truly change Reality in such a way. For now, the Witch's Decree became just that, not a demand for something greater. In a flash of virid light, the world returned to normalcy, leaving only Amy a remnant of that chaotic realm, crouched on the floor, heaving as she suffered from the magical backlash.

Still, in spite of the immense pain, Amy admired the deaspecting mana around her, the endless fractals more beautiful than ever. And, of course, she too admired the runes that seeped into her mind, showing her where she was wrong and where she was right.

"Tier 5," She spluttered. The working is definitely more than just that, but the Spell will always be more restrained. I doubt I'm twisting reality like that every time I cast Decree. I hope at the very least it'll be a little more low-key than that.

Clutching her hands to her chest, Amy tried to power through the pain the best she could but it was unavoidable. Damnit. I still hadn't treated the wounds I'd gotten from the Pigeon, and now I have to deal with slight mana exhaustion as well. Teaches me right for trying something like this without proper preparation I suppose.

Amy suffered through the depletion of her mana pool for around twenty minutes before it began correcting itself, enough mana to have accumulated to start snowballing, escaping the gut-wrenching emptiness that was mana exhaustion. In comparison to her previous experience with it, it seemed especially worse, Amy gathering that now her mana pool was greater, its absence had a worse effect. Once she was in a position to start casting Spells, the soothing glow of Treat Wounds covered her entirely, trying to erase some of the injuries from the Pigeon and from what she had just attempted.

The working didn't just actually distort reality, it distorted me as well. All those spatial fluctuations... I can't believe that just happened. Amy shook her head in disbelief, eyes wide as she took in the rest of the apartment. It was in a bit of disarray, but nothing compared to how it was during the Decree. Still, I can distort space with this, huh? That's another application I can exploit then. Obviously it would need to be a new Spell, I don't want to have to say Words every time I want to do it, but some sort of Spatial compression Spell could work. However... Does it need to be Space? Fae already demonstrated its ability to bend the world. Rather than rely on something I have a low affinity for, let's try and use the Element I have an outstanding one for.

I really want to do it now, but... Amy's thoughts wandered as she assessed her own condition carefully, feeling over the ideas in her head with caution. If I at least try to cap it at Tier 5 this time, instead of over-reaching and then restraining, I should have enough mana. What would this Fae working be then? Similar concept of spreading Fae out to the space I want to 'compress' and do it? Yet, I don't think that would work. Conceptually speaking nothing of what I described is to do with Fae; it's entirely Space in application. I need to find a way to reframe it, so that Fae would actually work.

Thinking back on previous applications of Fae, Amy tried to fit her idea to other Concepts she'd manipulated using Fae before, not just this new Decree. And, oddly enough, her mind found purchase in the strangest of memories. It was only thanks to her enhanced memory that it was even brought to the surface of her consciousness, a scene replaying in her head with Felin. A small moment of celebration, when Felin was examining her own work, her Record. Further back than that, was Felin's examination of her Spellform. In that, held a secret.

"...-hints of theft... …substitution perhaps...? …other traces in-..."

Theft. Words said in passing, not meant to be heard by his Apprentice and still holding something of use weeks in the future. Why would a Fae Spell like Record, albeit working alongside Elements like Mind, have something to do with theft? Perhaps there didn't need to be an Element Thievery for Amy to steal things. Maybe it existed already, hidden in the multitudes of interpretations that such an Esoteric Element held. What better Enforcement through Distortion exists, what better assertion of supremacy, of pride, is there than a usurpation of power?

Record holds hints of theft because its very Concept is about taking from the real world and Enforcing something new upon it as a form of, well, recording. What if I applied that to Space itself? What if instead of compressing space, shrinking the gap between me and my target, it is rather a theft of distance, stealing away that which lies between us? The Spell asserts itself over Reality and Enforces a new Law, that the space between two things is not the same as it was, accomplishing that by Distorting the natural Law of distance, stealing it away.

That might just work.

Gathering mana once more, Amy readied herself among another storm of verdant green and honed her will once more towards a singular purpose. Fae serpents spread out across the distance between her and her target, the sofa she once rested upon. Together they laid out a path between the two, biting into the very fabric of the space they occupied, poisoning it with their caster's ideals. Building to a crescendo that only the Witch could hear, the working clicked and the world changed.

Suddenly, Amy was no longer standing by the far door to the bedroom. Now her feet were firmly planted in front of the sofa as if she had teleported to her target. Of course that wasn't the case, as Amy felt the limitations of the workings in her bones, the runes finding their way into her thoughts telling her of the Spells potential. This working was a Theft of Distance, and as such needed a distance to be observed. Unless her target could be witnessed, unless she had something to train her Enforcement onto, the Theft would not function.

"Tier 5 too, but clearly in the middle and not the high end," Amy muttered, feeling the hollow of mana within her pool. Fortunately, it wasn't enough to edge into mana exhaustion but it was close. If she had attempted this any sooner, the results wouldn't have been pretty. "If I build up on top of these two Spells then... I'll need a few more, not necessarily just Fae, but it's a start. I can already think of ways I'd use this for the ball. Maybe..."

Thoughts wandered back to Felin, guilt at betraying him and shame at hiding her true actions from him. He had helped her, unknowingly, with this latest Spell and she wouldn't be able to tell him about it. To hear his words of sarcastic praise, to listen to his voice, to...

The Witch stuffed down those thoughts, locking those emotions behind a veil of fake stoicism. No. Until this was all done, until she had finally accomplished her revenge, she would not rest, and she would not linger on longed-for sentimentalities.

Archmage Harrison Clarke must be taken to justice.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.