One evening, during dinner, Konrad shares his own thoughts on the vis gathering. "I know you're having trouble harvesting all the vis that manifests," he says, "and I've been giving it some thought. To start, let me say that I'd love to help you out more directly, and would do so in a heartbeat if Fengheld permitted it to stand in place of my yearly payment to them. But as things stand, I have to spend a full season distilling vis just to pay for the right to be here."
"But I have been considering the problem, and I've come up with one possible way to improve the harvesting efficiency. It would just involve three spells, though it would still require a magus to do the harvesting. Take a look at this." He lays out a sheet of parchment with a rough map of the chapter house and some notes in the margins.
"There are three obstacles in harvesting the vis, as I see matters. First, you have to locate the bursts of flame that contain the vis. Second, you have to get to the vis before the flame sputters out. Three, you have to get the vis from the flames into another receptacle, also before the flame sputters out."
"You have a solution to the third obstacle already in the spell Gather the Magical Essence. So, once you find the vis and get to it, you can transfer it to a different receptacle. Renatus Ibis, at least has a solution to the second obstacle by flying to the vis, though that's a solution for him alone."
"Two things struck me, though. First, hearing works far better over a foggy swamp than sight does; and second, you only need to get magus and vis together. It doesn't matter whether the magus travels to the vis or the vis travels to the magus. So here's my plan."
"We start with a simple Intellego Ignem spell to let you hear the heat of the flares. They seem hot enough that we can calibrate the spell so that it won't detect the heat of animals, just flames, or flares, or whatever the vis appears in. True, there are fires in the buildings. But they're behind walls and should be muffled. All the magi have to do is listen for flames out over the water and they should hear them across a surprising distance, fog or no fog."
"Then, once the flame is identified, why not bring the flame to you with a simple Creo Auram spell, rather than worry about trying to get out to the middle of the bog and perform the transfer in a moving boat? It should be simple enough to create a concentration-based spell that summons a wind from a distance off, blowing toward the magus. Since the flares are floating in the air, they should come along with the wind. You'll know what direction it's in. And if you set the wind going the distance of a good shout, you should capture the vis. Once the flare arrives, the magus can transfer the vis and he doesn't even have to get wet."
"So the magus can walk around the island as so." He moves his finger around the edge of the island on the map. "When he hears flames out in the bog," he points to a spot away from the island, "he summons a wind that blows toward him on the island. The vis is blown toward him and can easily be harvested." Konrad moves his finger from out in the bog onto the island.
"What do you think?" he asks. "Does it seem feasible? The Auram spell is within my capability to invent in a single season, I think." He taps on the notes in the margins. "I'd need either take longer to develop the Ignem spell, or I'd have to spend some more time studying Ignem. But regardless, it's doable. The real question, and I ask this of those of you who have been harvesting the vis, is whether you think the combination of spells will work. I'd love to join one of you one evening to give it a test. I can spontaneously cast the wind spell, and likely a shorter duration version of the Ignem spell, at least enough to see if it works. That way we haven't invested too much in the effort."
[hr][/hr]
Wind to Me
CrAu 5
R: Voice, D: Conc, T: Ind
Creates a wind at the extent of your voice that blows steadily toward you for as long as you concentrate.
(Base 2, +1 Conc, +2 Voice)
[This one could be spontaneously cast to see if it works before any effort is made to research it properly.]
Sound of Flames
InIg 10
R: Per, D: Sun, T: Hearing
Allows you to hear the heat of flames.
(Base 1, +2 Sun, +3 Hearing)
[This one could be spontaneously cast at Diameter duration (InIg 5) to see if it works before any effort is made to research it properly.]