4.93: Reassessment

Stacey didn’t have any particularly difficult questions for me. She asked me a lot about the problems and perks of being a familiar, of how magic affected me and how that impacted my life. It was fortunate that the questions were so basic and easy, because I wasn’t focused at all.

I was thinking about the magic wand in my bag.

Fionnrath’s Destiny had said that we had an unfinished version of the vessel we needed on hand, one that Max had begun work on, and we needed to finish it. The wand, with the power cartridge we’d found, technically fit that bill, but… I just couldn’t see how this was supposed to help us. It could carry a small amount of ichor… so what?

Maybe we needed it as a defensive tool or something? No, that didn’t fit the characterisation of a ‘vessel’ at all. Besides, as Alania had said, better tools already existed for that. Why would we need Max to make something new for it?

Kylie and I went to the Lake of Inquisition, where nobody would be able to find and bother us, and looked over the wand together in the light of our tablets.

“I just don’t see how this is useful,” I said.

“Maybe it isn’t. Maybe we’re looking for something else.”

“I can’t think of anything else it could be!”

“Perhaps…” she chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Perhaps we need to take a step back, and forget about the prophecies for awhile.”

“They’re our main source of information.”

“They also tend to be misleading. Our friend misinterpreted what he’d have to give up and blindly followed the Destiny’s advice to his death. We were on the wrong track for months over that whole Heiress prophecy because we were too busy obsessing over the specific terms of the prophecy instead of stepping back and looking at the actual world around us. Maybe we need to forget the prophecies for a second and focus on what we’re actually doing.”

“Okay. Yeah. That’s a good point.” I put the want on the ground and rubbed my eyes. “Okay, so. The crux of the problem is that this school has collected too many spells for its capacity, and – either through design or accident, we’re not sure – they’re coalescing into some big spell amalgamation thing that’s going to destroy the world, or at least destroy humanity, if it finishes developing.”

“And our goal,” Kylie said, “is to stop that as happening, with as few casualties as possible. Finding some way to just blow up Refujeyo is probably impossible and even if it did work it’d kill a massive amount of people and possibly start a worldwide mage war, so we’re not doing that.”

“Not if we don’t have to,” I agreed. “Even that would be better than letting this thing exist. Reginald implied that that’s the janitors’ last resort plan, but hopefully we can do better.”

“According to what we’ve garnered from research, and the prophecies, and the janitors, the best method of saving the world with as little destruction as possible is to find the ‘heart’ of this thing, extract it, and take it up out of the school and to Duniyasar to release the spells,” Kylie continued. “This makes sense, theoretically – Duniyasar’s whole metaphysical deal is about being a place where the whole world can be seen and reached, where seers stand on the top of the world and survey it. But I have no idea how to accomplish this on a practical level.”

“And that’s what we’re trying to find out,” I finished. “The practicalities of safely extracting this heart, getting it up the tower, and releasing the magic within it, without dying or collapsing the school or causing some other kind of mass destruction.” I looked down at the wand. “And we have this thing.” I looked out over the lake of empowered water. “Hang on, I want to try something.” I pulled some climbing rope out of my bag.

“You just brought climbing rope?”

“I bring climbing rope everywhere these days. Rope, water, first aid kit. We keep getting lost in tunnels and stuff, so I don’t leave the main part of the school without it.”

I took the ichor cartridge we’d found in Max’s notes out of my pocket, tied off my safety rope, and went to get some ‘dead water’ from the lake. “Let’s see if this works as well as ichor,” I said. I loaded the empowered water into the want and, grinning triumphantly, turned it on to the ‘torch’ setting.

Nothing happened.

“Hmm,” I said.

“Fionnrath’s Destiny did say it was unfinished,” Kylie pointed out. “Maybe it needs some adjustments before it can take empowered water?”

“Hmm. Maybe. Still not sure how it’s supposed to help us.”

“Well… the Destiny said that the ‘dead water’ was basically an impediment that renders things unstable, and needs to be removed for that reason, right? So, maybe, the power of it is all supposed to be used up by the wand, to make it safe?”

“The whole lake? And attached miles and miles of underground streams?”

Kylie shrugged. “It’s an idea.”

“We’re missing something here,” I said. “I’m sure of it.”

“Do you have the relevant prophecies with you?” Kylie asked.

I tapped my head. “I always have the relevant prophecies with me.”

“I mean written down.”

“Oh. Yes.” I pulled a notebook out of my bag and flipped to the relevant page.

In a time that’s mostly been, a Hero dreamed a thousand dreams.
A goal, a wish upon a star, a kiss blown to travel far.
In a time that’s partly been, a Child screams a thousand screams.
Imprisoned in the buried heart it pushes, presses, tries to start.
In a time that’s not yet been, the Hero dies, the Child free.
Breaks mirrors, chains, and crushes pearls, to rise from the top of the world.

The Hero’s life cannot be saved. The Child will not be enslaved.
But jailers have a chance to choose just how much they wish to lose.
Safety has a simple price – a single Child sacrifice.
Prepare its heart in offering, and be the music – climb, and sing.

“I think we’ve pretty much got this one,” I said. “Spells have been created and gathered for a long time, the Child is being created, its birth is going to be violent and destroy everything. We can limit the damage by preparing its heart in offering, however we do that, taking it to the ‘top of the world’ before it’s ready, and ‘singing’.”

Kylie nodded. “What about the big one?”

Staffbreaker brings to hidden lair

Both scout and vessel, unprepared

Unaware of tribute thrice

He will be called to sacrifice.

They travel, lost, around the Heart,

Walk deep in shadows of old scars,

But when the soulless shades they find,

They’ll pay a part of their own minds.

Staffbreaker’s soul will be laid claim

By ghosts of spells that wax and wane;

Surrender brings with shocking ease

Truths no real person ever sees.

The shades will watch and act as one

And he will see what must be done –

The body of the New God’s home

When broken, also breaks his own.

The Heartbound has now made his choice,

And Destiny lives in his voice,

Restless and still settling –

He lacks the strength with which to sing.

He arrives early, circles brief

Within the ring of metal teeth

Marked, followed, by the speaker’s Kiss,

To call him back to what he’ll miss.

To imitate the ancient home

With hallways etched down to the bone

He bears the power locked in pearl

And carries it above the world.

The Airess carries in her blood

A power without room enough

And once the vessel is refined,

It’s grown too much for just one mind.

To stay alive so far from home

She must borrow another’s throne

A place she can open her mind

To truths hidden deep in time.

But foresight alone does not bring

Knowledge they need to climb and sing.

Assistance must the Airess find

To break a tooth and open an eye.

“Scout and vessel,” I noted, pointing at the second line. “Do we know anything about the scout?”

Kylie shook her head. “Doesn’t come up again.”

“Fair enough.” We silently skimmed the first few verses. The last time we’d analysed this prophecy, we’d skipped those, because we’d assumed that Max being gone rendered them irrelevant. This time, I read them carefully.

They didn’t tell us much we didn’t already know. Max had to sacrifice mind, soul, and body, and hadn’t been aware of that back when the prophecy was made in the Labyrinth. We explored the Heart, and had to give up our memories to get out. I wasn’t sure exactly what the ‘shadows of old bones’ part meant, but we’d been wandering there, so it had to be the Labyrinth itself.

“‘Soulless shades’,” Kylie said, tapping the phrase. “The janitors.”

I nodded. “And his spell was taken by the ‘ghosts of spells that wax and wane’; presumably the rising tide in the well. Calling that the ‘ghosts of spells’ lends credence to your idea that the ‘dead water’ that Fionnrath’s Destiny was talking about is the lake itself.”

“And dying gave him access to ‘truths no real person ever sees’,” Kylie said, wrinkling her nose in distaste. I agreed with the sentiment. The spell deciding Max wasn’t a ‘real person’ any more was pretty gross. I suspected that the janitors, being so heavily comprised of Malas’ magic, probably couldn’t have spells, which might be why a spell would see them like that. Still. Gross.

“So the last paragraph of his is stuff he’s doing with the ‘soulless shades’,” I said, “and they don’t want any contact with us. So, not much for us to do there.”

“Now onto yours,” Kylie said. “You became my familiar, had Fionnrath’s Destiny in your ‘voice’ but weren’t yet strong enough to ‘sing’ it…”

“… Got to the heart early, we know that, we weren’t ready to do this whole save the world thing back then. Got bitten by that spell thing to tip us off about the impending memory wipe.”

“Which leaves imitating an ancient home and bearing the power locked in pearl,” Kylie said.

I nodded. “I think imitating the ancient home might just be… navigating the labyrinth. Getting out of there and up to the tower.”

“How do you figure?”

“Well, the spells’ ‘ancient home’ is the Labyrinth, right? And Fionnrath’s Destiny has told me multiple times that I’ll need my sense of direction and my navigation instincts. I think it’ll be kind of like the Initiation, and navigating the Labyrinth of Dreams. I mean, it is in the middle of the Labyrinth of Dreams. So to get out, I think I’ll need to… understand how it works, I guess? Go with it, like not swimming directly against a current? I don’t know.”

“Moving through the ancient home requires imitating it,” Kylie said thoughtfully. “Hmm. Maybe. And the ‘power locked in pearl’?”

I shrugged. “I’ve been looking up every potion containing pearls that I can find. No luck.”

“It might not be a potion. It might be some fetish or enchanted trinket that we need.”

“Maybe. But I’m pretty sure Max never made anything out of pearls. Nothing he showed us, at least.”

“I’ll look into famous enchanted objects,” Kylie said. “I’m sure I’ve heard the phrase somewhere before.”

“It is a really familiar phrase, isn’t it? But maybe we’ve just read this prophecy too many times.”

“Ha, maybe.”

We looked down at Kylie’s stanzas.

“Hmm,” I said. “That’s interesting.”

“What?”

“Well, we assumed that the vessel was for carrying the ‘power locked in pearl’, or whatever. And when talking to Fionnrath’s Destiny at Duniyasar, I assumed it was for carrying something up out of the Labyrinth. The Destiny said it wasn’t for the heart, but…”

“But for the dead water. What of it?”

“Well.” I tapped the paper. “This prophecy doesn’t mention the vessel being carried anywhere. It only mentions the vessel in relation to you. Specifically, when talking about the Destiny getting too powerful for you to handle.”

“So you think…”

“I think that maybe, this unstable element we need the vessel for isn’t part of the school itself. It’s Fionnrath’s Destiny. Maybe the ‘vessel’ is something to bleed off your extra power so it doesn’t kill us or, I dunno, damage the school in some way.” I picked up the wooden wand. “That’s what this is for.”

“I can draw ichor to bleed off some power, but I don’t see how having a wand for it helps any – ”

“Nono, other way around,” I said. “Do you know why everyone gets their empowered water from Refujeyo? From this lake, this stream system, that acts as a magical shock absorber from the school? It’s because empowering your own water is an intensive and inefficient process. It’s quite complicated, and you have to put a lot of magic in to get just a little magic in the water. Now, this wand takes magic out of fluid, uses it to create an effect and emits it. What if if were filled with magicless, unempowered water – ‘dead’ water – and its function was reversed?”

“You think I can channel magic into the wand to empower water, getting the magic safely out of the way?”

“Probably not with the wand as it is now. But with some alterations, when it’s ‘finished’… maybe? I mean, Max was Alania’s student. He picked up all his basics from her. Remember that staff she had, in our initiation semester?”

“The staff that ‘the Staffbreaker’ broke?” she asked with a small smile.

“Exactly! It did something very much like this, remember? On a smaller scale. Maybe that’s what we’re meant to get this wand to do.”

“Maybe,” Kylie said. “Except for the obvious problem, which is that neither of us are anywhere near good enough at runes to do that.” She looked back at the prophecy. “Although, it says here I need assistance. Assistance to gain knowledge and ‘break a tooth and open an eye’. Not looking forward to any tooth-breaking, but opening an eye might mean being able to bleed extra magic off into the vessel so that I can channel the spell better.”

“Assistance with fixing this. Do you know anyone who can help?”

“I don’t think so? I mean, di Fiore’s a bit of a genius at runes these days, right?”

“Too risky,” I said. “He knows us too well, he might realise that something is up. We need someone who doesn’t know us well enough to be suspicious of this kind of request, but who still might – oh! I know! I think I might know someone who can do this!”

“You do?”

“Oh, yeah.” I grinned. “She’s kind of a magical hacker, and she owes me a favour for granting her an interview.”