Robot Adept

Then they went to work, explaining to him the nature of the relevant spells in the Book, and how to invoke them. They were of all types, not limited to the mode of any single Adept; he had no need to speak or sing them, or to draw them, or use any other particular mode. He could implement them any way he chose; all modes were one, in this amazing Book. Many were complex; without the help of the two Adepts, he would have taken much longer to assimilate their significance and application, let alone master them.

In minutes he understood that the power of magic in these pages was greater than any he had guessed at. In hours he saw that in those minutes he had vastly underestimated the case. By the end of the first day, his awareness of the nature of the universe had changed fundamentally. Reality had assumed a new dimension.

By the end of the second day, he was able to perform magic consistently of the level of the Adepts, and to counter spells made by either Trool or Translucent.

On the third day he went beyond. He learned a spell to invoke his robot information storage capacity in his human frame, so that he could instantly memorize spells without understanding them. That meant that he could ponder them at leisure, without using the Book. He learned other spells to enhance his comprehension and applications, so that he could make far better use of magic than any ordinary person could.

On the fourth day he studied organization and discipline, so that he grasped precisely what magic was appropriate when, and understood without having to reason it out when minor or no magic would do the job as well as a major invocation could. Now, with the most minor spell, he could accomplish what might require the full magic of an Adept. This magnified his power in another way.

On the fifth day he studied the philosophy and responsibility of magic. This was a necessary concurrent to the power he had developed.

He was truly becoming the Robot Adept.

Fleta came into heat. The first time he had encountered this, she had demanded copulation several times an hour for several days and nights, until her animal nature had completed that aspect of the cycle. Had any of the efforts taken, her heat would have abated sooner, but his human body had been unable to fertilize her equine nature. She had remained in human form, but that was superficial; man was genetically incompatible with unicorn.

This time he invoked magic that in effect translated the language of his seed to the language of her egg, enabling them to communicate and merge. Even so, they differed, much as a man differed from a unicorn despite their ability to converse with each other. Only a part of the union could occur while she was an imitation human woman. But another part could occur in her natural form, while he was an imitation unicorn, and the completion could be accomplished when both were in avian form. Trool had seen that, without possessing the magic to enable it. Mach now possessed the magic.

He mated with her in human form, and it was a deeply gratifying act, because it was for love and procreation and pleasure. Then he applied a spell to himself that gave him continual potency, but allowed no actual seed to be expelled, because that was needed for the next stage. Because she was not yet bred, her ardor continued; he sated her lust continually through the day and night, his pleasure more of accomplishment than of sexual fulfillment. They snatched bites of food and gulps of water in the few minutes’ respite between sieges, so as not to suffer deterioration of health.

After the full day/night cycle, they left their bedroom chamber and went to a private garden. He made a spell to transform himself to the form of a unicorn stallion. She reverted to her natural form. Now the odor of her need smote him, and he found he required no instruction to do what was necessary. In a moment he had expended the seed of the past day, and invoked another seed-conservation spell.

They snatched mouthfuls of hay that Suchevane had thoughtfully provided, between bouts of mating. They drank from the water of a clear fountain. Mach would have enjoyed the experience of being a unicorn, had he not been kept so busy with the breeding. As it was, the matter became somewhat tedious. He had to use subsidiary magic to abate the soreness that was developing. How did a Herd stallion manage?