Just a Bystander

Arcana Reframed

Now that we knew how to beat Reeves' infusion, all we had to do was apply that understanding into an actual technique we could use. That, however, was something easier said than done.

Even though the theory of frame-shifting was easy to understand, it was a lot harder to actually make practical use of it. For my entire life, I had viewed arcana as a nebulous energy that suffused our bodies and the environment. Manipulating ambient arcana, in my mind, was almost analogous to manipulating a physical thing. Now that we were actively thinking about how we thought about arcana (I still found myself tripping a bit over that particular bit of metacognition), I realised that my physical-centric interpretation of it was actually quite limiting.

Whenever I shaped the ambient arcana, I would imagine my auric arcana to be a sort of extension of my body that I used to do the shaping, like how one might use hands in order to shape clay, scoop water, or disturb the air. Even in my attempts at infusion, I defaulted to the concept of an arcanic 'body' - my auric arcana would 'radiate' my intent into the ambient arcana, much in the same way a body would radiate heat into the surrounding air.

But this meant I had very little control over the ambient arcana that was not in direct contact with my auric arcana. If I was not actively shaping it, then I lost any hold over it. And it also meant that I had a limited measure of influence over the ambient arcana. You can scoop water and manipulate it with your hands to a certain extent, but it is still subject to the limitations of its form, and to gravity. You can't make water flow upwards or form into a rigid column just by using your hands.

Then it hit me. This was why glyphs were important, and why even our interpretation or understanding of a glyph could affect how much control we had! The concepts tied to the glyphs helped us to engage in limited frame-shifting, regardless of our personal interpretations of the nature of arcana. Our understanding of the language of arcana changed our perception of arcana. And that was why it was possible to manipulate arcana without even using glyphs, because all they did was help to shape and focus our minds, which were the instruments all along!

I hadn't confirmed that by any research, but once again something about the direction of my thoughts felt instinctively right. I was absolutely convinced that I had just enjoyed an epiphany about the nature of arcana itself.

But that didn't exactly help me at the moment. Knowing was only half the journey. But no matter how much I tried to think my way around my own conceptual bias, I was still grasping at straws. I didn't know of any other frame of reference I could use.

The others were similarly engaged in their own furious introspection. Anyone walking in would have seen six guys just sitting or lying around in the duelling chamber, staring holes into the floor and walls. From the looks of it, none of them were any closer than I was.

'Why can't we just use glyphs?' Devon hissed in frustration.

'Don't tempt me,' Kevan said through gritted teeth.

'The point is to develop greater arcanic control without them,' came Jerric's weary reply.

We lapsed into silence again.

Maybe I didn't have to abandon my body-centric view. What if I just focused on fashioning a part of my auric arcana into set of 'arcanic scissors'?

As soon as the thought occurred to me, I felt quite certain that it wouldn't work well. Still, in the spirit of being thorough, I went back to my default perspective of arcana and thought of shaping the outline of some scissors using my auric arcana. As expected, it responded sluggishly, barely maintaining coherence as it forced itself into the form I had visualised. I experimentally snipped around. The ambient arcana parted reluctantly, then flowed back into one seamless whole. It was obvious that this facsimile wouldn't be able to cut through an arcanic net when it could barely part the ambient arcana.