117 Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen – The First Spell (1/2)

The first spell she cast was Assay.

It took hours to get all the mana she needed to fill her Valences, and all the time she had a really bad feeling, as if something was happening around her. The second heartbeat she heard seemed to be getting weaker, and breathing shallower. She couldn't see, but she could hear, and feel to a limited degree.

She couldn't feel the magic around her, something was wrapped around her and interfering with that sensitivity, despite her ten Ranks in Meditation.

Something alive.

She was curled up and couldn't move, surrounded by something warm and wet, like being in a womb. And she wasn't breathing.

She had enough power to do something if required, and it looked like something was going to be required very soon.

She couldn't move her hands or say anything, which meant that the spell had to be Still and Silent, forcing her to spend more Valences on it then a Valence I normally required. On top of that, she didn't have a Focus, and she was very sure she didn't want to channel a spell physically, so the Casting took a full minute instead of a handful of seconds.

The fact that it actually worked, exactly how the massive amount of information in her head said it would, was a massively wondrous moment unleashing a thousand dreams and possibilities... and totally anti-climactic, proceeding exactly as it should for a Ten Caster.

Assay, the bread-and-butter assessment divination spell of the Power of Ten. It was the spell that put numbers on Stats, Classes, Levels, everything. Assay was the spell that turned magic into understandable math.

Normally, you just Cast it until you could Siege it for no cost, then never truly Cast it again. She could remember doing just that, but her rep counts seemed to be no more, regardless of what her memory told her, so spending Valences was the only way to go.

The spell was directed at herself.

Magic rippled through her, reading everything from physical condition to spells in memory. Normally this would be transferred into a Visual File for ease of updating and reference, but she hadn't cast that yet, either.

Hazé, NG Wizard/10, Sorceress/6, Arcane Theurge/5, Archmage/5, Archsorceress/5, Female Human/1

Bloodline: Arcane

Okay, nothing wrong with that...

Strength: 1 (Infant) (-2 Female Human penalty not applied)

Dexterity: 1 (Infant)

Constitution: 5 (Infant)

OMFG!

Intelligence: 26 (18 Base, +2 Human, +2 Intelligence Mastery, +1 Age, +2 Levels, +1 Ten)

Wisdom: 18 (14 Base, +2 Wisdom Mastery, +1 Age, +1 Ten)

Charisma: 23 (16 Base, +2 Charisma Mastery, +1 Levels, +1 Age, +1 Ten, +2 Female Human)

She whipped her eyes around at her Matrix.

No Cleric levels, no additional Wisdom bonuses or Domain spells, no Mystic Theurgy on her Class Levels.

Health: 1 (1d8 -3, minimum 1)

Soak: 10 (10d4 -30, minimum 1)

!!!

She didn't look at most of the remaining information, as it was basically just breaking down what she had already done with spells, plus listing out her Feats and Masteries.

She only had the Mental Stats, Visual File, Spellcraft, Shards, Meditation, and Concentration Masteries!

There were no lists of Rep Counts, not even a shadow of Detect Count at work, matched by the untempered hum of her Matrix.

She was this ridiculously powerful Ten spellcaster, and she was a baby still in her mother's womb!

And right then, she heard, or rather, didn't hear that heartbeat, and the gentle swell of breathing went silent.

A shudder went through the magic around her, a skirl across the manaweave as necromantic traces moved in. She felt a tug and release, as if something around her had just let go... and everything around her began to die.