Vex Magic

It seems off to only begin addressing Vex magic now, but it won’t be the last time either. It’s experience is almost impossible to put into words. It is everything. Everything you know, and so may you haven’t even heard of. It feels hot, cold, sharp, soft, it tastes sweet; it makes you smell florals or candy on the breeze; it’s all these things and so many others.

But of course, describing what it feels like is only part of it. What can it do? Also everything. You might think I’m joking but I’m not. There’s nothign vex magic can’t do; it’s why the Vex are so powerful! Which also feels like a cop out, right? I’ve told you what it feels like, and what it can do, but neither of these things would require the kind of explanation and detail if this was simple. But both Scar and I have come to know and acquire other types of magic as well, and let me tell you, there re very real differences.

For example, the Pharaoh’s magic. It burns hot, it produces light that makes me glow. There’s this persistent smell of frankincense - as Ra told me it was. It’s earthy and woody and a little sharp like pine but not pine, you know? It also works very differently to cast spells - heka - with the Pharaoh’s magic, it requires voice, spoken words, gestures and hymns and tools I don’t need to cast Vex magic. It’s highly ceremonial, highly formal, and things have to be done a certain way.

To cast with Vex magic is very different. It’s partly wordless, in that if you desire to create illusions to trick others, you can just think of it, and it will do the work for you. Want to shift into another form? Just think it.

Much fo this is instinctual to Vexes - this isn’t something that needs to be taught. Vexes just know what to do. Scar and I had some of that knowledge when we became Vexes, but it was more basic stuff, and there was a lot we needed to be taught.

There’s a lot that I don’t really remember from those early days. The pranks were done under possession and amnesia, so there’s a lot that’s just lost to time. So if you asked me how I learned all this stuff, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t remember. I just know it’s become instinctual. I know what I want, and I channel that Vex magic into my body, and it comes into being.

And yet. There are formal ways to use Vex magic. These are the techniques used by Evokers. As creatures who are not Vex, the way Vex magic works for them is very different to how I use it. It’s almost Pharaonic in a way, in the ritual and structure of it all.

I’ve learned that style too, of course. I find it’s more effective when I’m not in Vex form. There are spoken words, gestures, potions to know, it’s complicated, but also not. It’s just straight forward, follow the spell’s steps and it’ll work.

Vex magic feels different there too, like it's… like it’s something outside of me. The Vex lending me Their power like Ra does when I cast heka. It’s an external force, one that works through me.

Which isn’t to say that Vex magic doesn’t do the same to us as Vexes, because it does. But it feels different. As a collective, as a hivemind, it’s our energy, our power, that I’m using. It’s never just one Vex casting magic, but all of us. Vex magic is an expression of the collective Will, and that’s why it’s the most powerful magic in the world. What’s one magician against an infinite number of Vexes? Nothing. No one can best us.