As easily as the Magic Knights forced me to "fight" alongside them, they convinced me to report to the King. That is to say, I tried every excuse in the book to not go, only for my cries to fall on deaf ears. Steppen picked me and plopped me on his back. Aysha sat behind me, holding Miska in her hand. Marlen disappeared in a blur; that same blue blur arrived at the same time we did to the castle.
When Steppen noticed Marlen's sudden arrival, the centaur raised a brow "Where were you?" he asked "I thought you'd be here already? It took us at least ten minutes to get here, and we don't have the unnatural speed spell like you."
Marlen grumbled something none of us heard before saying, "Busy."
I felt unease in Steppen's muscles; there was a clear lack of trust between the two.
I dismounted from Steppen. My behind was sore from the ride. By the time we made it to the castle, Miska had returned to her natural size. Behind a wall of ice, she donned her pink dress skirt, socks and shoes. As we walked, Aysha helped her with her hair.
"So why did you shrink after going big?" I asked Miska. "Isn't it a waste of energy to use two spells like that?"
At that time, I thought she used two spells: the gigantification spell they mentioned earlier and then some spell that shrunk a person. It made no sense why she'd shrink herself after going big instead of just reverting to her natural size.
The four of them exchanged glances. "Well, you see," Miska said, "My growth spell, gigantification, is a higher tier of magic."
"Okay, and?"
"And, higher tiers of magic have a greater drawback than regular spells." That was Marlen. He spoke so fast I had to pause to comprehend what he said.
"Drawback? What's that?"
"A drawback is a consequence caused when using magic. Because we are manipulating the laws of nature, the universe will instill an effect. And depending on how many laws we break, the greater the punishment." Steppen pointed to Miska, who's hair was almost done. "Since Miska's spell defies the laws of energy, mass and creation, her drawback is massive."
"Yeah," Miska agreed. "If I didn't use the shrinking spell, when the gigantification spell wore off, I could be ripped to shreds. Thanks to Aysha, I learned a certain loophole to balance out the drawbacks."
Drawback? Loopholes? Tiered magic? What are they talking about?
One of the things that should have been taught in mage school but wasn't, is a thing called the rule of exchange. When a mage manipulates the fabric of reality, i.e. uses any magic, a drawback happens. For example, when a mage fires a fire bolt, they are conjuring matter in the form of fire. Then, when they launch that fire bolt at something, the firebolt doesn't have the energy to be fired. The energy to actually fire the firebolt is created using magic.
(*matter can not be created nor destroyed.)
The drawback for that spell alone takes heat from a person's body to generate a fireball, while also dealing a concussive blast equal to the energy needed to fire the blast.
Now loopholes make it easy to lessen that drawback. For example, a mage can equip something that regulates their body temperature. Or, like Aysha, they could wear clothes to help combat that. And for the concussive blow, they could equip something like heavy armor or an enchanted item.
Aysha showed me the soles of her boots. On the bottom of them were two triangles with a line through the top of them. Above the line at the head of the triangle was a ring with an arrow shooting from it. I recognized the triangle as the symbol for earth, the element for grounding. The entire symbol was drawn in a green glowing script which I recognized as green mana.
"So that's how Aysha doesn't go flying back five feet everytime she fires an ice bolt." Marlen told me. "And she wears that skimpy outfit so she doesn't burn up whoever she fires an ice bolt."
He gained a second welt on his head for that comment.