The Spell Realm (The Sorcery Code #2)(67)

She also comprehended that if she concentrated on the different shapes and colors, she could discern the effects these spells would have in the Physical Realm.

Someone was casting a fireball spell, which looked like a blue fractal pattern here—a pattern that didn’t resemble a ball of any kind. And yet Gala knew that it would produce a ball of fire. This pattern was more than just the shape; it was also the temperature, trajectory, and location in space and time in the Physical Realm. A lot of information was encoded in that blue pattern.

Then there was another grand display. Instinctively Gala knew that a magical object would be formed when this spell affected the Physical Realm. There was information about the permanence of this object in the Physical Realm, and details about what it would look like, with all of its various attributes. There were myriad stipulations on how and when it would break the laws of nature in the Physical Realm—how it would be lighter than air under most conditions—and Gala knew that this would be a flying chaise, like the one she and Blaise had ridden.

Another fantastic shape looked like a giant fountain, spewing colors and sounds; that was someone’s Interpreter Stone doing what it was made to do.

Gala imagined that when she was in the Physical Realm, she must have been creating displays not very different from this.



*



She wasn’t sure how much time passed while she admired these displays. After a while, some of her overwhelmed awe faded, and Gala began trying to figure out where she was. As soon as she focused on that, it became clear to her that the concept of ‘where’—the concept of location—had a different meaning here in the Spell Realm from what she was used to on Koldun.

She was wherever her attention was. Her thought was what seemed to determine her location in the Spell Realm. How this process worked, Gala didn’t know, but that didn’t seem to matter.

She knew she wanted to go back to Blaise. She needed to go back. However, focusing on getting back to the Physical Realm didn’t work the same way as simply moving about in the Spell Realm. Gala tried to demand it from her surroundings, but she had no idea how to achieve what she wanted. A disturbing thought crept in, a thought she had been trying to push away this whole time . . . What if she never saw Blaise again?

No. Gala refused to give in to it, to admit defeat. She would find a way to get back to Blaise.

Suddenly, her attention shifted. She sensed something out there. There were things here, Gala realized, things that were not spells from the Physical Realm, but something else entirely. Something completely foreign to her mind.

There was thought here. Some kind of alien reasoning.

Fascinated, Gala tried to discern what these intelligent entities were. Their thought patterns were constantly moving and shifting, and she could occasionally glimpse something in their minds. These brief glimpses revealed intelligences that were beautiful, yet frightening in their otherness.

Intelligences . . . Something nibbled at the back of her mind, some memory that had long been suppressed. Gala had a feeling that she was forgetting something important, and then it suddenly came to her.

The dreams. She’d dreamed of the Spell Realm before—and in her dreams, she’d interacted with an intelligence here.

An intelligence that she knew as Dranel.

As soon as Gala recalled Dranel, she sensed a thinking pattern. It was recognizable as the one from her dream, but at the same time, there were differences. It wasn’t just the fact that the Spell Realm of her dreams had been different from the way she was experiencing it now. No, it was a change in the nature of the being she now sought. There was something like a flaw in the otherwise beautiful pattern.

“Dranel,” she called out in her mind, trying to talk to the pattern as she had done in her dream.

There was no response coming her way, but Gala was suddenly immersed in a vision.



*



Dranel became lucid. The being he had found so interesting, Gala, was casting spells again. He had observed her do this many times, and the algorithms she produced evoked serenity in Dranel, the kind of serenity he otherwise only felt when he was not lucid.

Somehow he knew the effects these spells would have in the Physical Realm. The concepts were distant and foreign: floating, healing, thunder . . . Dranel had only a vague understanding of what those were.

He observed it all with a faint sense of curiosity, his mind sifting through the different patterns of the spells. It was only when he felt something powerful gathering out there that he realized it was not going to be a pattern that reached into the Spell Realm next—it was going to be the destructive energy of that spell itself.

He felt the jolt as the energy entered the space surrounding him, and he instantly knew that, if left alone, this force could wreak havoc on his world. Without hesitation, Dranel made a decision, taking the energy into himself.

His mind exploded in agony, and lucidity faded.



*



Horrified, Gala emerged from the vision, separating her mind from the shreds of the pattern that had once been Dranel.

She had done this, she realized in despair. She had sent the energy of the spell the Council directed at her into the Spell Realm, seeking to protect herself from its destructive force. And in the process, she’d managed to hurt this intelligent being.

Desperate to fix her mistake, Gala closely examined Dranel’s pattern, trying to determine what went wrong with it. She could feel the breaks and misalignments, the damage from the explosive force she’d inadvertently introduced into this entity’s habitat. She found the errors and tried to mend them, letting her mind focus on what the pattern should be. What it used to be in her dream. As she fixed the errors, she could sense Dranel changing, his mind healing in a way that felt almost physical.