Caroban Lighthouse
Installed near the airship docks at the edge of the School of Air, the lighthouse is a tall, slender tower topped with a birdcage dome. Held aloft ten feet above the floor of the dome, the world's largest and brightest glow-crystal serves as a navigational beacon and signal light, the sweeping beam managed through an enchantment of the Sphere of Light instead of a mechanism.

During the daytime, the lighthouse doesn't have an attending mage and is left to run its primary enchantment. It's only at night when the beam needs to be controlled to guide in individual airships. For someone like Samael, that makes it a handy spot to experiment with the more physical sorts of Light magic without being disturbed.

Samael stands gazing up at the giant light-infused crystal, rubbing his chin in thought. "Are you familiar with the nature of this device, Apprentice Xander?" he inquires of the Lapi behind him.

Hiding his hands behind his back guiltily after having wiped his nose on the sleeve of his robe, the brown Lapi looks up at the lighthouse crystal and squints his eyes. "Oh… uh… it's a big piece of… quartz… I think. And it's got a fancy permanent enchantment on it. Light, of course."

It isn't particularly visible during the day, but the majority of the crystal's light is formed into a beam that sweeps around in a circle, controlled by a Light spell.

"Of course," the senior mage agrees. Being the easily light blinded type, Samael's donned a pair of tinted glass spectacles. Without them, he'd likely be cringing about now. "As you may not be aware, while the appearance of the spell is simple – a light circling endlessly – the actual details of gathering and focusing light are fairly complex as far as light-management spells go. And of course, it is an enchantment, and thus many times more complex than the basic spell would be. For our purposes, it provides us with an unlimited source of focused light, that we not need to continue to gather and focus the light ourselves … " He tilts his head, 'hmm'ing to himself. "We will need to control the spell, however."

"What could you need that much light for though?" Xander asks, scratching one of his long ears. "I mean, besides what it's being used for now. Are you gonna make a hello-giraffe… err… I think that's the word. Envoy uses words that sound made up a lot when she explains things."

"I intend to set something on fire," the senior fire mage answer. He reaches up, pointing a finger at the rotating beam. "As an apprentice, your familiarity with Primus – our sun – may have weakened considerably, but I'm sure you recall its warmth. Therein lies the key to this experiment: light generating heat, but to what purpose and what connection? It is a very simple look into the connection between the spheres of Light and Fire."

"You mean like in the alchemy lab?" Xander asks. "They use these pieces of glass that make light do weird things, and… uh… you have to expose certain things to certain colors and such," the buck says, holding his hands in various positions to try to illustrate what he's talking about. "You need a lens, I guess is what I'm saying. A really big lens for a light like this… "

"In this case, I will act as the lens, through my knowledge of light and fire. We will utilize the light of this lighthouse in three ways: one," Samael turns, holding his hands spaced apart in front of the Lapi, "we will gather and focus the light, testing various levels of focus and strength, to simulate similar uses of fire. Two," he cups his hands in to a sphere, "we will condense and capture light in one place, preventing its escape, before putting this sphere of light to use, and third," he expands his hands in an explosion-like gesture, "we will attempt to combine light and fire in cross-sphere magic effects."

"Ummm," Xander says, looking nervous. "We aren't going to blow up the lighthouse, right? And you're saying this hasn't anything to do with ripples of light?"

"Don't be silly, we will not be destroying the lighthouse. That will be your homework assignment," says the Khattan-styled fox, who manages to keep a completely straight face as he turns back around to gaze up at the crystal. "Now! Arrange your circles, you will be utilizing your basic offensive fire spells in the next several hours. I shall do the same, to form the mystic lens."

Xander starts arranging his components and chalking his circle, before eventually asking, "What will I be attacking, exactly?"

"Do you recall the large paper-wrapped piles I had you fetch from the amphitheater storage area? We will be incinerating the scenery and several props from last year's presentation of Twice, the Gooshrum." The mage kneels down, beginning to trace his own circles, which as it happens, appears to begin with a single circle overlapped by a smaller circle.

"Okay, I'll work on a fire arrow then," the Lapi notes. Even though it's only a minor spell, it still requires almost ritual-level preparations for the novice. "If I can stop thinking about the ripples. Gah, why'd I bring it up?" he mutters.

"Mage Envoy often speaks of matters that twist and boggle the mind – it is her way, I think. You may find some wisdom in it," the senior mage says as he begins detailing his circle, creating what looks like a smaller circle rising over a larger one. "Or not, as the desert wills."

"I would have paid better attention if the girls weren't all in bikinis at the time," Xander says, correcting a part of his circle.

"You will need to refine your focus, for as a mage of Fire, you will be exposed to many hot regions and scantily clad individuals. Why, when I was … Well! No matter, you don't need to know about that." The mage continues to go about his circle, until the completed design looks rather like how Primus might look rising behind a distant planet, if Primus and the planet were both hollow, rune filled circles. He sits in the center of his circle, and waits for the apprentice. "We'll commence our casting when you are ready, apprentice."

"Okay, I'll have it ready in an hour or so," Xander says, and sits in the center of his own circle. He starts to chant, then sneezes and has to start over again. There are a few very squeaky parts.

The senior mage begins his own chants, which seem to include a number of words in Khattan the apprentice doesn't recognize. The spellcasting is fluid and poetic, an echo of the mage's master's technique, and in time motes of light begin to gather around him like fireflies around a fire.

The younger Lapi is not so fluid, and depends mightily on repetition. He occasionally lapses into Skeek, which is a much faster language, but still doesn't offer any advantage in spellcasting. He holds a thin reed in his hands, the focus of the spell. Every so often a puff of flame appears on it in a random spot.

Calmly, and with steady speed, Samael's magic begins to manifest its visual component. The firefly-like motes swirl up, up around his body, creating an inverted funnel pattern until one by one they impact each other at the apex of the cone. Soon the small lights have grown into one big mass, which begins to bleed light that in turn distorts the air around the glowing sphere.

With a foomp, Xander's reed ignites. The twig is consumed in a few seconds, but the flame doesn't die out: it keeps the shape of the original reed. The Lapi's chanting eventually stretches it out into a more slender arrow shape.

Samael's hovering ball continues to bleed light as the final few motes gather into the larger mass of luminescence. As the distortion caused by the bleeding light intensifies, a ghostly metallic gloss forms, pillars hovering in the air. Four appear, followed by a pyramid-shaped top, and a flat base – the structure of a lantern. Soon, a phantom lantern hovers about the mage's head, made of translucent gold, holding a flame of golden light.

"That looks hot," Xander observes after he's gotten his arrow ready. It hovers between the palms of his hands, which he concentrates to keep a fixed distance apart.

"It is just an illusion, Apprentice. As you have been taught, it is a manifestation of intent, unique to us all. Mine is often a lantern. The lantern was the original source of light I used to practice with when I was an apprentice, and I find it a useful focus for both Light and Fire magics. It illuminates much, while containing and manipulating flame," the senior mage explains.

Xander still eyes the ripples of air around and above the central orb of light. "Still, I wouldn't try to touch that," he notes.

Mage Samael reaches up and wafts his hand through the hovering, ghostly lantern. The image distorts, but his hand does not singe, and the walls of the lantern prove no resistance. "These manifestations are but intent made manifest. They are the sign of ambient, held magical energies. They are not dangerous, but they are a sign of danger. A warning. It may be that you come to face a mage some day, and you will see these signs if he is prepared," instructs the fox. He then stands, and looks up. "For the rest of this test, we will need to step outside, and setup several of the figures. Please start with the Gooshurm standups, I am told they need to be burned." The fox grins a little.

"Oh… couldn't you have mentioned that before I cast my spell?" Xander asks. He stands up very carefully, as if holding a full bowl of hot soup in his hands and trying not to spill any of it.

"Focus under duress is an important aspect of a mage's art, especially a fire mage. Some day, you may need to cast a spell while under siege, when your airship is aflame, or in other situations of havoc and calamity," instructs the fox as he begins walking towards the exit. The lantern follows dutifully, bouncing along through the air after him.

"That's easy to say when you can hold a spell," Xander mutters, trying to keep his arrow from shooting off on its own.

"A little secret: this is part of your eventual education in holding a spell. It is all concentration, m'boy!" Samael steps outside, walking over to the stack of props and using his reagent-cutting knife to break the strings holding them all together under the brown paper. He then removes a large, standing Gooshurm prop. "Of course, if you cannot manage it, I can see to this. I would not wish to incinerate an apprentice so early in the day, and I enjoy such … " he eyes the Gooshurm, " … indulgent disposal."

"Mmmm," Xander says, biting his lower lip. Maybe it's the word 'indulgent' that does it, but the Lapi has to fight against thinking of his female friends in bikinis again. Drying off after a swim at the School of Water. Glistening… and talking about light on the water and ripples and things that are waves and particles at the same time. The arrow wavers in his hands, wiggling for a moment like a serpent.

"APPRENTICE XANDER." The voice of Samael Kessler invades the Lapi's fantasy, strong and accusing, if not especially loud. "Your concentration is wavering, I can feel your spell's pattern suffering disruption. If you do not concentrate, you will be aflame." He shoves the end of the Gooshurm standup firmly in the ground, so that it stands on its own, then proceed to gather more of the brightly painted monstrosities.

"Rrr-right, Senior Kessler," Xander says, snapping a bit to attention and focusing on his arrow again. Of course, now the back of his mind is worrying about exploding while the front tries to maintain the arrow's stability. Quietly, in that whisper that only Lapis seem capable of maintaining, he repeats the main verses of the spell.

"Good, good," Mage Kessler says, satisfied that the apprentice has resumed his concentration and will not be needing a rush to the burn ward. After several more Gooshurms are placed, one even having a fox's tail in its slimy maw, the fox mage steps back and looks up. "You will feel a distortion as I expend my energies, take control of the lighthouse, and manifest a mystic lens using its energies as the luminescent 'fuel' for the spell. Normally, this would require the assistance of a true mage of Light, as this much gathered light is beyond my ability to focus and gather, but with access to this crystal, we are in luck."

"Oh… good," Xander says, hoping the mage actually knows what he's doing and isn't going to give the Lapi a nasty sunburn. The line of Gooshurms gives him pause as well. Mage Kessler is a 'fox' after all, so might he be getting a little extra pleasure from burning his natural enemy in effigy?

Judging by the grin on the mage's face, yes, it seems he is enjoying this very much. "Now then! I am no actor, but this calls for some dramatics. Let the show begin!" The mage raises his hands, and the lantern ascends with them. It rises in to the air, and as the mage speaks the final words of his spell, the translucent metal case of the phantom lantern shatters. The internal fire glimmers, hanging in the air, then fades from view entirely. Up above, the sweeping light of the great Caroban lighthouse begins to slow …

"Arrow arrow arrow," Xander mutters, trying to keep focused and not get distracted by the more complex magic going on next to him. Everything will by fine. I will not explode. I will not set fire to Mage Kessler's tail. The Gooshurm army will be defeated. I do not look like I have to run to the bushes right now.

Oblivious to the apprentice's internal struggle, Mage Kessler holds his hands to the air, turning as if to get the great lighthouse's attention and call down its might. "Now then, just need to … mmm … focus the light and … " The beam of light wobbles, then swivels wildly, shooting in to several open windows and across a courtyard before the mage gets it to shine firmly in front of him, illuminating the stone ten steps away. "Ah! Now, the beam … let's see … been a few years since I had … lighthouse duty … " The lighthouse beam distorts, suddenly splitting off in to a rainbow of colors, " … No, no, that's not right … "

The Lapi dances away from the swinging beam of light and keeps clear of the spot it eventually focuses on. Please be ready soon, I don't know how much longer I can hold this spell back! he pleads in his head.

For several seconds, Samael attempts to get a hold on his mystic lens, working with the light in an effort to narrow and focus the beam. Several times the light splits, skews, or sprays the area in a diffuse array of bright color fragments before he can manage the lens correctly. "Ah! There! You see, not so hard as all that. It truly is a wonder of Caroban magical engineering, this lighthouse. Now," he turns, using his outstretched finger to physically direct the beam even as he works the rotes over in his head, "we will focus on the first target. Apprentice, feel free to destroy the target on the far left now, with your held spell. We will then compare results with various levels of pure light."

"Thank you!" Xander blurts out and launches his arrow at the far left of the line. The bolt of flame strikes the paper-mache prop and sets it on fire. There's no grand explosion or anything like that. It could just as easily have been done with a match.

"We'll just let that burn naturally," the fox mage insists. "Be sure to count and measure the progress of the flame, while I focus the beam in its unmodified state on the next prop." Slowly, the beam of light form the lighthouse creeps along the ground, until the diagonal cylinder of light is squarely on the Gooshurm prop.

"Measure… " Xander mutters, getting as close as he comfortably can to the burning prop. The upper half is burning away, so he tries to gauge the rate of downward spread.

Time passes, and the bright light of the lighthouse merely illuminates the Gooshurm like some sort of gigantic stage light. "Well," the mage says after a moment of frowning, "we see this amount of light is insufficient. Welton the Luminous speculated light is a quantity, much as water is, and one can extrapolate from that and simple observation the heating properties of light are in their quantity. However, Mage Valeria of Babel suggested that it is as much focus as quantity, such as with the lenses in the lab. In order to create an effective light approximation of destructive fire energies, we must figure out which method – or both! – is accurate, and to what quantity." As he speaks, the mage begins to narrow the focus beam, switching it to focus roughly 25%.

"Umm, when in doubt, use more than you need?" Xander suggests. "More light, smaller spot?"

"That's the gist of it," the senior mage agrees. "Of course, were this for a military application, I would need to expand on the variations, but this is only a simple trial. Once I can quantify this to some degree, I can attempt to replicate the effects without relying on such a massive device." The beam continues to narrow, until the Gooshurm begins to smolder. "Ah, there we are, you see? The lens in effect. I can feel the basic energies of the lighthouse: the controlling magics are like a report to a mage versed in the ways of Light. With this knowledge being fed to me, and with your material comparison … Yes, I can get excellent knowledge, very good."

"Envoy says you can use a good beam of light over a really long distance," Xander notes. "So… if you could see an airship coming, couldn't you aim the light at it like this? And eventually it'd catch fire?"

"I've read as such, but I haven't heard of anyone trying. There are political, material, and magical problems with the idea, for one." The beam of light continues to narrow on the Gooshurm, until even with Samael's tinted glasses, it becomes too bright for him to look upon. He turns away, blinking as his eyes water. "For one, few mages of Light wish to have any association with destructive powers. They are typically the most bookish of scholars. Two, the physical lenses required without magic would seem to be exceptionally expensive, as would the large mirrors for the light needed. As for magic, well, it is something of a study in cross-sphere magics."

"My cousin says the Amazonians have a way to use mirrors to turn away airships," Xander notes, paying less attention to the burning Gooshurm prop now. "And something that blows them up too, but he's never seen it used."

"Quite likely myth and fantasy," the senior mage says. Focusing the beam as far as he can manage, the light burns a hole straight through the flimsy prop and begins to singe the stone walkway. He tilts his head, gesturing the highly focused beam to slowly swing to burn through the remaining props, before looking away again. "I see that the energy required is quite immense. Surely, such a magic would be laughably impractical in low light conditions, and useless at night. A great deal of ambient light would be needed. Hm, yes. Mid day, in the desert sun. It might be more effective than conjuring pure flame, as the materials are already present in great quantities."

"Not very good for combat though," Xander says, and then frowns as he watches the pinprick of light trace across the stone behind the props. "Ummmm," he starts to say, and then edges back a bit. "I think you're leaving a mark in the stone. Or else it's just an afterimage in my eyes… " the Lapi warns.

"Oh we can fix either one, in any case. Magic is about exploration, not masonry," Mage Kessler says dismissively. When the beam has cut through all the targets, he releases his grasp on it, and the column of light snaps back in to its unfocused circular rotation.

Xander pokes at one of the bisected props, noting, "You cut them, but the edges are scorched and not actually burning." He blows on the dark edge, and finally it begins to crinkle up and burn again.

"Really?" The senior mage steps forward to look at his handy work, rubbing his chin as he peers at the cuts. "It is almost as if the heat was too much for the material, slicing cleanly, as if a knife of the sun itself. I was expecting more of an immolation, slow and steady, but this is quite a bit different, isn't it?"

"Yes," Xander says, frowning. There's entirely too much soot from the burning paper, and it's leaving stains on the ground. As the lower-ranked mage, it's almost certain that he'll be the one responsible for cleaning up the mess.

"Well, that was enlightening, don't you think? Excellent job maintaining that spell, Apprentice Xander, I'm sure you'll go far." Samael reaches over and pats the apprentice's shoulder, smiling. "I think that's enough for now, yes? The other experiments can wait. See about removing this mess, and feel free to store the remaining props within the lighthouse. I need to record my findings."

"Of course, Mage Kessler," Xander says, bowing to the inevitable. "Perhaps next you will try divination by staring into a flame?" he asks, only slightly in jest.

"Oh I've already looked in to that," replies the senior mage, his tone speculative and neutral such that it's uncertain if he's masking his amusement at his own quip or is simply oblivious. "THAT will require another journeyman, I just can't monitor the effectiveness of both sides of the spell alone."

"I guess you won't be needing me for that experiment then!" the Lapi says cheerfully, as he starts carrying back the unburnt props.

"Oh we shall see, for who knows what lies beyond the next dune, Apprentice?" The senior mage smiles again, then leans down to pick up the severed head of one of the decapitated Gooshurm props. "We shall see." He walks off now, mumbling to himself as he runs a finger along the burn line.