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Only level 3 majiya controllers and above can confidently pick out light and dark majiya users from a crowd. When they come nearby, their outstretched detection majiya, also known as 'the sixth sense', touches the person and the level of majiya remaining, be it unchanged due to it not being effected by the same type, or a somewhat lower level then before, can be measured to tell what majiya something has in it. Even so, a level 2 can put lots of effort into creating such a field, but it would be very exhausting for the controller just to figure out if someone is light or dark, so it's never worth it.
One can only be one type of majiya. Either light or dark. A light majiya-based being cannot convert to dark, nor dark to light. Any attempts at a conversion, usually by suppressing an extreme amount of majiya opposite to the type one is to surpass the neutral stage and carry on in the other end, would mean instant death. Neutrality in a container cannot be passed. It can only be re-balanced through either taking majiya from it or adding majiya to it.
The reason a re-balancing wouldn't work to convert is because not only would they die through the suppression and neutralization, but their body and soul would forever vanish, as it ceases to exist. Any extra majiya used to re-balance would merely enter the atmosphere. Thus, only a fool would attempt conversion.
The only way one could actually convert is to separate the mind and soul from the rest of the majiya, compress an extreme amount of its own majiya into itself, and recreate the body through the other type. This is NOT advised, for the majiya in the body and mind will be forever conflicting until neutralization, and the person will become immensely fragile, short-lived, and hardly able to move or think whatsoever. No benefit will come out of this conversion.
However, that doesn't mean that conversion is truly impossible. There is a rare occurrence that may allow conversion.
If this compression is done to the soul only and, as an uncontrollable and fragile spirit, it possesses a being that houses the other type of majiya for support, it will slowly consume the being so long as its ability to retain majiya exceeds the host. If the host is stronger then the 'parasite', the host can control it, but only for the duration that the host is able to continue to maintain this higher level. Once the parasite consumes the entire soul of the host, it can force the majiya of the hosts body into itself in order for this new body to adapt itself to both types. However, at doing so, it becomes extremely aggressive and uncontrollable, striving to defy anything that conflicts with its gathering of majiya to continue to support itself, which is can only do very loosely. It also loses the ability to reason.
As a result, not only are they converted, but they also gain a control over both types of majiya, as it has a grasp over the ability to both types. Such a being, however, is yet to be discovered and named. There is a very VERY low chance of something like this existing; a 0.000000002% chance that if one were to attempt it, he would succeed. The remaining percentage is that both he and possibly the host die.
At the same time, they develop an actual resistance to both types. A weakness to this is that it can only gather neutralized majiya from the air and must convert it between both types, so it would take a very long time for it to recover from serious majiya-based techniques. A level 6 based attack would drain it completely and revert it back to a wandering spirit in search for another host.
So all in all, if you're light or dark, you must abide to it. After all, there is no difference to light or dark, so there really is no point in converting.
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ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE EASTERN FORT
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All eyes turned to Dex, expecting an answer as to whether or not the illusions would work.
"Yes and no." he replied after a pause, which I assumed that instead of thinking about the answer, he just realized we asked him the question and gave the answer without hesitation.
"Now why is that?" I asked.
"It would work ..." said Dex, "Because they are mindless and soul-less illusions that are extremely close to the neutral stage, but at the same time have lots of light majiya. I will assume that if they were trying to detect them, they would have a very difficult time finding their majiya sources, and thereby would be almost invisible to them. Even if they do attack, it does take lots of effort to extract majiya for level 2s just to perform majiya based attacks, and they wouldn't easily be able to destroy the illusions.
However, the reason that I don't think it'll work is because the concentration of majiya in the air here is off-balanced. There is more dark in the air then light. Since the illusions are light based, as everyone here but myself and Vahyn are light-based, it will take quite a bit of majiya to support the army, so they can only be summoned for such a limited period of time before the controller of them becomes too deprived of majiya to support them. When this happens, they will linger for a little longer as their majiya drains, and then ultimately vanish into the air.
Of course, if the air was neutral or, like Gielinor, more light then dark based, the army could last almost indefinitely."
"So in other words," I summarized, "It will work, but not for very long. That's all you had to say, really."
Dex shrugged and returned to his book. He chuckled for a sec, more likely at the book then me.
"You think you can take it?" asked Karl.
"We'll give it a shot. What have we got to lose?" asked Michael.
A pillar of earth shaped like a wet rocky cylinder rose from the ground until it was slightly taller then Dex. Once it stopped moving, a number of semi-transparent humanoid shapes appeared all around it, standing in a double circle formation around it. Finally, they finalized into fully armored solid spirit beings.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Falkor strain a bit. The spell was indeed difficult to maintain, but he still took off towards the fort. After a minute, the illusions darted forward towards the wall.
We were in luck. I heard panic in the door guard's voices and their loud heavy footsteps (each step sounded like shuffling fish fins) slowly died away. At least, that's what Gia said.
Michael then sighed and transformed himself into a battering ram. We carried him over, stopped inches from the door, and Gia punched the doors almost inside out with a tight fist.
There was a pause as we absorbed our shock from seeing such a powerful punch. I imagined at least one of my allies suddenly decided to want to follow Gia's eating habits.
The army pooled into the guard less gate and spread out. A perfect distraction while we made our way inside.
"Dex, before we continue, is there anything we should know?" I asked, "Because what I gather, you did not immediately teleport us back right after we went unconscious."
Dex almost dropped his book and quickly caught it.
"No, I didn't." he said.
Everyone stopped.
"You were in here before, weren't you?" I asked.
After a pause, "Yes, I was."
I grew annoyed.
"And you didn't tell us."
"Well, none of you ever asked what happened while you were unconscious." he argued.
"It can wait." I quickly said, as the sounds of war started up to the left, "Is there anything we should know about this place that could be a major threat?"
"Only 3 things." said Dex, "The dark majiya in the air is enough to hinder your spell-summoning, which means you can't summon Pureblade here."
"I can live with that." I said, somewhat disappointed.
"Secondly, this is merely an outpost. An army is being gathered here with the weapon for an invasion. This is not their homeland." he explained.
"Why is that important?" asked Vahyn.
"Because they could recieve reinforcements at any time from any direction." he said.
Quite risky, I knew, but we were usually good in the luck department.
"And third ..." said Dex with a tone of concern. He saved the worst for last.
We listened intently. An explosion nearby hardly effected the suspenseful silence.
"Their captain is a level 3 dark majiya user." he said, "Almost as powerful as I am, and just as bad tempered."
I stood fast. We might be encountering an evil Dex?!?
"That's all I can think of, unless you already knew that every single soldier here is trained to be a level 2." he said, "And that there are a number of internal walls as well. We breached the main one, so the others should have some easier-accessible entrances that are 'probably' being guarded, as the alarm is up."
"Ok. Remember, you guys. Our mission is to sabotage this secret weapon." I said, "Do whatever you can and live. As Dex said, stay healthy and full of energy, and dark majiya won't be too much of a concern."
Everyone acknowledged the order and spread out in search. Everyone, that is, but Dex and Gia.
"Dex." I said.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"You got in there already, didn't you?" I asked.
"... yes." he said.
"Did you see the weapon?" asked Gia.
There was a long pause.
"It's not supposed to be a weapon." said Dex, a twinge of sorrow in his voice.
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