Chapter 4: Magic

Chapter 4: Magic

Carlos tried to assess the girl he'd been directed to as he approached her. She had short hair of a light brown or perhaps very dark blond color, and a thin build with almost spindly arms. She was wearing mid-thigh length shorts and a slightly baggy shirt, and she was slouching forward over her book, paying as little attention as possible to her meal while still periodically taking bites of stew, careful to avoid spilling any on the book. She did not react at all even when he arrived standing right beside her.

"Uh, excuse me, miss?"

The girl ate another spoonful of stew and quickly returned to reading.

"Ahem." Still no reaction. Carlos gently tapped her on the shoulder. Instantly, she jerked, accidentally tossed her next spoonful of stew down the table, sat bolt upright, and twisted around, looking in every direction before finally focusing on Carlos.

"Ack! Wha- Oh! Sorry, sorry, I was distracted. Um. Why are you here? I'm not bothering you, am I? I can go." She picked up her bowl of stew and book and started standing up before Carlos could even respond.

"You're not bothering me. Calm down, please stay." Carlos held up his hands and gestured back at her seat, then pointed at the cook. "He said you might help me if I join your party?"

"Oh!" She stared at him with wide eyes and a poleaxed expression on her face for a moment. "Omigosh-a-party-member! Um, yes please! Um, what do you need? I'm Amber, by the way."

"Carlos. At the moment, I just need three copper for some stew, but if we'll be adventuring I should get some armor and equipment too."

"Oh, is that all?" Amber quickly pulled out three small coins from her belt pouch, but paused before handing them over. "You really mean it about joining my party, right? Promise you won't leave before doing even a single adventure with me?"

"I take it you've had a lot of people do that before."

She nodded glumly. "All the people I've tried to party up with around here say I'm too annoying and want nothing to do with me."

"Ah." Carlos had a hunch about why Amber's other would-be party members found her annoying, and if he was right this could turn out being perfect for him. "I promise to at least stay in your party for one adventure. After that... we'll see. I don't want to get your hopes up too much."

Carlos soon returned with his own bowl of stew, and once he'd taken the edge off his hunger he decided it was time to strike up a proper conversation. "So, what's the book you're reading?"

"Hmm? Oh, um, n-nothing special. Just something to pass the time."

Carlos raised an eyebrow at her. "Whatever it is, I'm not going to make fun of you for it. I'm just curious."

Amber blushed slightly. "Is it that obvious?"

Amber shook her head. "Oh, no, that makes it a lot harder. You'd have to understand each word on its own, plus the structure of how they fit together, in addition to what the spell does and how, and there are words in most incantations that I'm not sure anyone really knows what they mean when singled out without the rest of the spell. Maybe not even Sandaras for a few of them."

"Huh. Does that book have an example incantation I could read?" Carlos was curious to see what his wish-born translation ability would make of it.

"Sure. It's a simple light spell, to make a dimly glowing ball of light." Amber turned back several pages in the book, skimming rapidly, then held it out to Carlos. He looked, and stared in shock at the crisply formatted monospaced text block he saw overlaid on what was actually written in the book.

spell begin;

use mana = 0.1;

loop begin;

parameter color = white;

parameter shape = sphere;

parameter direction = all;

parameter intensity = 0.01;

parameter location = target;

effect glow;

loop while = (any mana unspent);

spell end;

spell cast;

"Wait, what? Magic is programming?"