The Cantus Lobe

The Cantus Lobe is a special area of the brain unique to magic users. It is responsible for the summoning of magic from The Aether, and then processing it to be usable by the summoner. Being unique to magic users, it only develops in the brain after an attempt to summon magic, and grows the more the magic user uses it. Therefore, the more a magic user practises, the more magic energy they will be able to channel at once, and so the more powerful they will become. Likewise, if it isn't used for a long time, it will shrink. To have a cantus lobe removed is called a 'cantectomy', and renders the person permanently unable to use magic, which is an operation ORCHESTRA often employs on captives it wishes to keep for a longer time.

Anatomy

The cantus lobe has several areas: The Herrienn Gap, the Cantorigo Area, the Anti-Cantorigo Area, and the Venaspis Cortex.

The Herrienn Gap

The Herrienn Gap, named after ORCHESTRA biologist Linda Herrienn, is a small area in the centre of the cantus lobe where the magic summonned, and can be considered the 'ground zero' for magic in the body and magic summonning generally. The Herrienn Gap contains gaseous diatomic carbon (C₂).

Cantorigo Area

The Cantorigo Area (from Cantus (magic) + Origo (origin)) is where stem particles are stored after they are split from their antiparticle.

Anti-Cantorigo Area

The Anti-Cantorigo Area is where anti-stem particles are stored after they are split from their particle.

Venaspis Cortex

The Venaspis Cortex (from Venefice (magic) + Aspis (shield)) is a special layer of quickly regenerating brain tissue covering the whole of the cantus lobe. It exists to absorb the spontaneous transformation of some stem and anti-stem particles into high-energy photons or other particles, and thus shield the rest of the brain from the damage they may cause during the summoning process.

The Summoning Process

The process of summonning magic can be split into 3 stages:

1. Summoning
2. Magelysis
3. Storing

Summoning

This is the first and least understood stage of drawing magical energy. The stem particles are summoned into the diatomic carbon in the Herrienn Gap, though it is not understood how and seems to happen simply by will. In each diatomic carbon molecule a single pair of stem and anti-stem particles (called a 'stem pair') will appear, and only in the nuclei of one of the atoms. Once the stem pair is within the nucleus, the next stage begins.

Magelysis

Magelysis (named as a magical version of electrolysis) is the process of splitting and separating the stem pair. After the stem pair has been summonned, either the stem or anti-stem particle will transfer to the nucleus of the other carbon atom through Statcher Transference. Once the two particles are separated like this, the diatomic carbon is split into two separate carbon atoms. The atom containing the stem particle is then attracted towards the Cantorigo Area, while the anti-stem particle is attracted towards the Anti-Cantorigo Area. It should be noted that there is a very short window between the particles being summoned and them annihilating each other for this process to take place, and hence it does not begin for a lot of summonings. However, for those in which Magelysis fails, new stem pairs and easily and quickly be summoned to try again.

Storing

After the particles are attracted towards their respective area, they are stored in high-carbon protein chains, ready to be used by the magic user. Note that if the magic user keeps them there for too long they will begin to return to the Aether, in a decay-like process with a half-life of two minutes.