The morning sun broke over Xiaxoan Blues, spilling golden light onto the gardens and courtyards of the place. Shining-plumed birds flew through the leaves of the Silver shadows, their sweet trills weaving invisibly upon the still air. Larin sat cross-legged in his study, surrounded by scrolls and books, the very air seeming to thicken with the subtlety of mana as he focused on concepts of Dernporost.
He filled up pages and pages of jots, sketches, and random ideas as he battled with the concepts of [Divide], [Combine], and [Deconstruct]. His writing in the journal was almost furiously quick with his pencil sharpening as ideas came his way.
"The heart of Dernporost is to say no to abstractions. Each spell is never a strict formation but an infusion pattern, holding together with assumption. If you know the assumption, then unweave this magic and rearrange it wholesale. It isn't about fragmentation; it is about looking where one was forced to ignore before.
Tyrs and Mynta sparred in the courtyard, glyph-etched staffs glowing as they dodged and parried one another. Shimmering forms of protective barriers flickered between them; laughter rose with the sound of Mynta disarming Tyrs with a twist, her barrier spell rippling like water before firming into a shield.
Larin stepped closer, his eyes aglow with a glint of purpose. "I've been thinking on how we might be able to stretch [Living Barrier] to its limits. It's wonderful just as it is, but what if we took it one step further?"
"How?" Tyrs asked, reclaiming her staff with a smirk.
"By busting up its assumptions, let's rebuild it from the ground," Larin said, infectious enthusiasm. "Let's get a closer look at what is wrong with the original barrier. The static shape protects the fixed point, but it's only reactive. What if it could threaten ahead of time rather than just block things?"
"Predictive defenses? You want that?" Mynta's eyes went wide. "Layered combinations of perception runes and temporal anchoring. That would work."
"Exactly," Larin said, pulling out his notebook. He started drawing a complicated overlap of runes. "If we use [Deconstruct] on the base structure of the barrier, we can isolate the moment where impact is detected and tie that to a preemptive trigger."
Tyrs leaned over the diagram, her brow furrowed. "You're layering predictive magic onto an already active field. That's a nightmare for mana stability. You'll need a way to prevent feedback loops."
"That's where [Combine] comes in," Larin replied. "We merge a stabilizing construct with the flow of the barrier itself. Think of it like a river dam—redirecting force rather than absorbing it entirely."
They passed their ideas back and forth all morning. They begin with [Living Barrier], peeling the thing back down into its constituent pieces. The mini-shields flexed in the air above their skin, one flashing with a tiny amount of power. Larin fixed on the tiny pieces and divided those again, and again, till he'd narrowed it down just exactly where it took force to spark the shield alive.
Through Mynta, he created a rune that stabilized a perception field just beyond the barrier. Every pulse of energy bled into the space around it, so things knew it was coming.
Tyrs brandished her glaives, probing the strengthened barrier with careful strikes. Her blades shimmered with enchantments as they sliced toward Larin, only to be repelled by an unseen force before they touched the surface of his defense.
"It works!" Larin exclaimed, feeling the predictive flow of mana guiding the barrier before the strikes landed.
"Not quite," Tyrs took a step back. "There remains a gap between perception and response. If I increase the velocity—" She was back again, this time threatening and darting sideways through middle-strike. The barrier blazed, but not enough to entirely stamp out the unpredicted motion.
"That's where [Reflex Weave] comes in," Mynta said, thinking ahead as much as already envisioning what lay ahead. "If we attach a reflexive layer, merged with the foundation field, then we have something to construct on: an active counterbalance."
She spent hours hashing this new construction into place, installing reflexive magic upon predictive barriers. This meant messy combinations of sequences of runes: glyphs for motion, sensation, and evading etched out across multiple overlapping levels of mana.
As she experimented with reflexive magic, Larin's notes grew more complicated.
Journal Entry:
"Reflexive magic is the dance with perception itself. The trouble isn't to look-it's to sense the shift before it implements it. [Cracking up] the protection showed its rigid quality, and with greater degree of temporal sense, we've granted it a countenance and its belly. However, all enhancements breed in their turn novelties with weakness. Predictive power drowns out noise. I will need to think of words in chaos theory.
By mid-afternoon, the three met up on the shaded terrace, tired but elated.
"That was brilliant," Mynta said, wiping sweat from her brow. "We have created a living system that adapts, predicts, and counters threats. This could change everything."
"But it's also fragile," Tyrs cautioned. "If someone can introduce enough chaos, the whole structure could collapse."
"Chaos is always a threat," Larin agreed. "But what if we embrace it instead of fighting it? Use [Deconstruct] to let the barrier fragment temporarily, absorbing the chaos rather than resisting it. Then [Combine] it back into place before it destabilizes."
"Like a forest fire clearing the way for new growth," Mynta said, eyes lighting up. "Controlled destruction as a form of resilience."
They worked till the evening, and the courtyard was alive with arcs of energy and flashes of magic. Ted watched them, an expression thoughtful and serious. "You're no longer just building spells," he said, his voice heavy with admiration. "You're casting philosophy into magic. Every step you take with Dernporost pushes past tradition. That's a road few have the courage to tread.".
Larin's eyes raised as determination ignited there. "We cannot fear it. If the Kirat Empire and the invaders of the skies hold onto stationary power, we, at least, can't be stagnant and unpredictable. We have no choice but to forge through that way. We survive this way. We will win this way."
Ted nodded slowly. "Then teach me. Show me how to break the rules.
And so they did, night stretching on, sparks of innovation lighting up the darkness. It was in those quiet corners of Xiaxoan Blues that the future unfolded itself, one spell, one idea, one challenge at a time.