CLOAK OF BLADES: Telepathy & Shapeshifting 101

Today we’ll answer a couple of questions about CLOAK OF BLADES and the CLOAK MAGE series.

A reader asked why Nadia simply didn’t use the mindtouch spell to ascertain the trustworthiness of her crew in CLOAK OF BLADES.

The reason is that Nadia wanted to conceal her ability to use magic until absolutely necessary, and she can’t use the mindtouch spell without the target realizing what is happening. Owen Quell and Tarlia are skilled enough with the mindtouch spell to use it without the targeting feeling it. Nadia isn’t – with the mindtouch spell, she tends to brute-force things. Additionally, one of Nadia’s crew was another wizard, and it’s much harder to effectively use the mindtouch spell on a wizard. In the CLOAK MAGE world, wizards have to discipline their thoughts to keep from frying their brain like an egg on a skillet when using magic, and so it becomes easier to fight off a telepathic intrusion.

A second reason is that the target has to be conscious for the mindtouch spell to work. Like, if Nadia did her trick of dumping bad memories into the target’s mind and seeking for information while they were unconscious, she wouldn’t be able to find anything because the mind in question would be rebooting. (The mindtouch spell doesn’t work on sleeping people for that reason.)

Finally, Nadia is often reluctant to use the mindtouch spell because it’s a disturbing experience. Imagine walking up to a total stranger and sticking your fingers into their mouth and feeling around. The mindtouch spell is the telepathic equivalent of that. Now, obviously, with training and experience you can get used to sticking your fingers into total strangers’ mouths – dental hygienists and dentists do it all day. Nadia could learn to use the mindtouch spell more effectively, but she doesn’t want to and – more importantly – it hasn’t occurred to her that she could do that.

So I suppose this is an example of something I’ve written about before – how to create challenges for powerful characters without de-powering them to artificially generate dramatic tension. In CLOAK OF BLADES, Nadia could achieve her objective by simply blasting her way through everything. But to actually achieve her objective, she has to not get caught doing it, and her target must not realize that anything happened. This is not a challenge that raw magical power will solve.

Ben asks:

Weird question but can elves shapeshift a little in terms of their appearance. I don’t mean using the mask spell but actually changing it.

Generally not. There are a few exceptions – an Elf with the bloodmorph magical talent could do it, along with specific spells. But it’s generally not a common talent. In the CLOAK MAGE universe, shapechanging tends to be the province of really powerful and innately magical creatures like dragons, or as the result of creatures from other realities inhabiting a human form – like a wraithwolf or a Dark One.

Tarlia, for instance, cannot shapeshift, and neither could Morvilind. Prince Valcander, the most of powerful of the Archons, never bothered with Dark One-induced shapeshifting because he had no need for it. The lack of shapeshifting would not hinder any of the three from destroying entire armies on their own.

Tim asks:

When is Cloak of Iron going to come out?

Tentatively, I think CLOAK OF IRON will come out in January 2022. Which sounds far away, but is a lot closer than you think! 🙂

A little preview. CLOAK OF BLADES had only Nadia’s POV, but CLOAK OF IRON will have three:

-Nadia.

-Neil Freeman, who you might remember from CLOAK OF DRAGONS and CLOAK OF BLADES.

-Lauren, the owner of the best (and only) car & tractor repair shop in a small Montana town.

And on the worst day of her life, Lauren stumbles across something so dangerous that Singularity will unhesitatingly kill thousands to claim it…

-JM