Who needs to summon magical power when they can summon a mechanism to handle already existent stored chemical energy?

Brooke??

The first insight came from AI.

A virtual object's persistence required one of two things to be true. The first and most simple is is a self preserving statement in it's definition. Call it a desire to persist or a resistance to change. If it 'wants' to live on, it will keep it's shape each iteration.

AI adapts and changes a large field of information which is changed from the information within interacting with it's rules. A virtual object resistant to change is somewhat of an anchor, but can still be affected by other virtual object's influence.

The second way a virtual object can be maintained is through projection, or external maintenance. It's a much stronger protection when one virtual object maintains others because the objects being maintained cannot have their own influence disrupted as easily because they're "saved" remotely. This has a cost however. A maintenance protocol cannot be allowed to self maintain, or else it can cause a corrupting influence if it's interfered with by another virtual object.

In ages past, there were people interested in metaphysics. Consider them savants for catching on to patterns that nobody else did. They didn't have computers around as a representation for nested interactions, or really have much idea what was going on. They did however notice they could affect things around them in ways that didn't make sense so long as they abided certain rituals. You see, the world itself is something we can can virtual so far as it has a set of rules which allow for things to be maintained from within.

Some of these metaphysics had caught on to the fact they could help others so long as they made it their sole wish to keep them safe and made sure to regularly check in on them. Usually this effect came to people naturally, but the metaphysically minded were drawn to these patterns of interaction for their desire of understanding. It turns out that doctors, shamans, priests, etc all have the same thing in common regardless of their rituals or practices in the way they interact with the fundamental foundation of existence.

You can save others. It's just like hitting the save button! You do this at the cost of saving yourself, so you have to hope someone else does the same for you.

Fast forward to today and these teachings are the asking most important thing we convey to all our children! We're called the savior's college and our mission is to make sure nobody is left behind who risks their life to save others! There are many strange phenomena still being uncovered, but we are going to be much more safe while we explore them now.

Doing that to someone else though, is pure fucking evil.

Gotta say that it's divine bullshit to be punished for feeling a certain way. It's not like you can decide how to feel.

I imagine that sometimes the cost is, "Oh shit, I pulled that off!" Followed by why it was a bad idea.

Kinda sounds to me like the people at the tower exist more to suppress magic out of fear. This could be a crazy style of story if it can waltz into abstraction nicely.