34: Miscast

I immediately reached for my foot upon awakening. I pulled it to a place where I could survey the damage and make an assessment. It didn’t look good, but it wasn’t hurting that bad. I instinctively tried to wiggle my toes and winced. The area where my toes once were was scarred and ugly, but it wasn’t anywhere near as gruesome as it had been. I felt a strange pain in my foot, it was quite unreal. It felt as if I had stubbed my toe, and it wasn’t especially pleasant, but the weirdest thing was it originated from where my toes used to be. I had heard of the so called “phantom pains” that some amputees experience, but never felt them before. It was quite odd.

A soothing spell calmed the pains and I attempted to stand up. I put all my weight on my good foot, yet I almost fell over when I tried to take a step with my toeless foot. “Whoa!” I exclaimed as I caught myself, “This is going to take some getting used to.” I practiced walking around without my toes for quite some time, never quite getting the hang of it. I was starving, so I pulled myself downstairs to see what I could mange to scrounge up.

I was greeted by a dozen smiling faces, all sitting at the main dining table. I greeted them all as they made room for me at the table. I plopped down into the chair and reached out for what I could get. Without realizing, I used my telekinesis spell to bring a platter of toast to me when I put it back in its original spot I recognized what I had done and chuckled. They all talked quietly around me, and though I was not questioned I knew they were curious about how I had lost five toes. I gorged myself on the glorious food, but as I began to slow down I started chatting with my fellow diners. They skirted the issue, and I was glad, as I wasn’t quite ready to tell everyone at once. Every once in a while I had to heal my pain and the people I was talking to would draw breath sharply.

One particularly interesting plate of sausages on the far end of the table drew my interest, and I let my telekinesis spell into it, aiming to draw its deliciousness to me. Curiously, the plate had a larger magical profile to it than I would have expected, but I dismissed it as being part of the wondrous meatyness. However, when I attempted to lift the plate, half of the plates on the table were thrown several feet in the air, and their contents were thrown everywhere. I jumped a bit, and so did half of the people at the table. The room went to a somewhat stunned silence, and I looked ashamedly around. I began cleaning up the area with my hands, so as to avoid another mishap with the spell. I stood up and bent over to pick up the food on the floor, but I felt a hand on my shoulder and the others all cleaned everything up. I sat down, pondering what had gone wrong.

It wasn’t like any other failed spell I had cast. Generally when a spell is miscast it simply fizzles out. This time it was amplified to an extreme magnitude. In fact, telekinesis is specifically designed to effect only one object. My miscast had affected probably close to twenty objects! I was a bit confused by this, and I resolved to read up on miscasting spells. I finished my food and began to puzzle over the curious miscast. After a while I noticed everyone was staring at me, and I looked around nervously.

“What?” I asked anxiously, I’d had my fill of surprises the last few days.

“You, uh…” A Breton said, “You have a sausage on your head.”

Everyone burst out laughing, even me. I swiped the sausage from my head and threw it at the Breton. I then mocked being indignant, and refused to talk to anyone. We all had a good laugh, but then I excused myself to read up on miscasting spells. I hobbled back upstairs to look through the small library there.

I spent the rest of the day reading, though I found little about miscasting. Mostly it was just consolatory words about how it happens to everyone and “Just keep practicing!” nowhere did I find mentions of anything like my mishap. I then began pondering about magical fields and their effect on spells. Perhaps a strong influx of Magicka had influenced my spell. I checked through the books I had available, but none of them mentioned magical fields, save one. It mentioned that magical fields are generally only seen after strong spells have been cast, or around powerful objects. Also, it made mention of the stars, and how they are simply holes in space through which magicka flows. “Likewise, tears in space can be found much closer to us all, as those who are not careful with truly powerful magic can create such holes, though on a much smaller scale.” I read, on deeply interested. “Such holes can release waves of magical energy, but are often invisible to the unaided eye. Be wary, as these holes could be considered extremely dangerous.” I glanced down at my toes, and a wave of terror ripped through me.