The Chained Watcher

Backstory: Privacy (pt3)

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This rock is going to be extremely useful.

He's finally found out what the rock can do, after submerging it in the sparkling water produced by the purifying bottle. Before he did that, he could still sense minute traces of worked magic from the water, but now it tries to convince his magical senses that it is perfectly ordinary.

The reason it felt so ordinary was because it removed any and all abnormal magic signatures from whatever it touched. This meant that it was constantly making itself feel like a neutrally oriented rock despite the presence of Watcher magic, his magic. But does this apply to everything it touches?

Feeling a little silly, he tapped the rock on a purple-stained sword with a bit of a goofy flourish. He hadn't meant to stain the sword purple at the time, but it can be a bit hard not to do that when using heavy amounts of concentrated magic.

It wasn't instant, but he can see the color around the spot touched by the rock drain away, returning to its original silvery metal. The area covered wasn't very large, but considering he'd just tapped it briefly against the afflicted sword this was very promising. Holding out the rock again, he let it rest on the hilt of the sword, watching closely as the blue hilt returned to its original shade and faded from his magical senses.

That wasn't to say it had disappeared from his senses, no. It just felt like an ordinary, non magical sword now is all. But then a doubt wormed its way into his mind. Surely the rock isn't just... removing the magic from the item entirely, right? No, that shouldn't be, right?

Picking up the sword, he swung it, heaving a sigh of relief when it released a thin wave of fire. For a moment there, he'd thought he might have managed to enchant a rock of disenchanting or something, ironic as that may sound. Actually, he should look into making an item like that at some point. It could prove quite useful to have the ability to strip away the enchantments on an opponent's weapon or armor in the middle of a battle.

Turning to look at the basin of mist, he frowned contemplatively. The level of mist is exactly the same as it was an hour ago, despite having nothing keeping it from dissipating. As a matter of fact, the small bit he'd accidentally spilled on the floor when poking at it hadn't wisped away either, instead collecting in the seams of the tiles on the floor. Did this stuff not disappear naturally?

Collecting a small portion into his hand, he examined it as it flowed around his fingers. Much like an ordinary mist, this felt cold and mildly damp to the touch, though it was definitely thicker than any ordinary mist could achieve without condensing.

He created another basin, and held a tiny amount in his hand above it. If this mist that interfered with magic senses couldn't be destroyed, he might have a very interesting tool that he would have to be very careful with.

Focusing intently, he channeled magic through his hand and into the mist while flavoring it with destruction. The mist evaporated like a fog bank beneath the sun, as the destructive magic tore apart its cohesion. Well, at least it's still destructible, though he's got the impression that larger quantities are harder to eliminate.

As he goes to remove the rest of the escaped mist however, he pauses. The method he'd used to erase the mist was... not something he'd thought he could do, or even could be done. He'd channeled his intent to erase the mist through his magic, and it had responded by coming out somewhat optimized for that task. Since when could he apply the intent-reliant methodology of imbuing to the casting of magic?

It's not like he was a particularly avid user of structured magic before, but even freeform magic is heavily reliant on willpower to get the desired effects. This new way of commanding his magic, simply telling it what needs to be done rather than how to do it, is... foreign to him. It just doesn't mesh with his understanding of magic.