Adamant Blood

Episode 1 of the introduction to the horrors of magery ended with a 'to be continued'.

Mark had found it kinda boring, but now he was excited again. "Time for Sigaldry!"

Eliot was having a moment.

Isoko said, "I need to go down to my vault first. See what Elaria put down there— No. Wait. I need to actually go talk to her."

Sally was looking at Eliot for some very good reasons, but she ignored him as much as she could and said, "We should see what Tartu has to say."

And now Mark looked at Eliot. Isoko followed suit.

Eliot was having a minor revelation, brown eyes wide, gaze distant, vector far, far away. A gold tinge touched his soul in every direction, and for a moment, Mark saw what Eliot saw, but he wasn't sure what he was looking at. It was a golden undulation in the world, and it was here, in this room. It was in the walls. It was in the people everywhere, their vectors pushing through emptiness, creating gold in their wakes—

Eliot snapped back to the moment, taking a deep breath, like he had forgotten to breathe until now. And then he blinked, and looked around at Sally, at Mark, at Isoko. "Uh… There was a lot of stuff there that I didn't… uh, realize."

Sally almost opened her mouth, about to say something that might have been 'and now you see that all mages are bombs waiting to go off', or something like that. Mark wasn't sure. But Sally felt something, too, as she looked at Eliot. As she had a second thought, she realized that her first thought was wrong.

Mark and Isoko became observers, and both of them had nothing to do with what Sally did next.

Sally said, "It's good to know about magery so that you know how to defend against it."

"Yes!" Eliot said, eyes a little wider, something crystallizing in that moment. "… Yes. Exactly yes— Like… There's this thing you do against radiation— Radiation is a big problem inside cities. We use nuclear generators all the time, in so many places. Nuclear power is the perfect combination of magic and physical processes, whereby you can use barely any mana to create exponential outpourings of physical energy that's useful for everything from hovercars to houses. This is actually a big problem, but the benefits are too much to overlook. But there's this thing you do with Castellan… It's not a big secret, but there's this thing that Castellan does that sucks off all of the exponential power fluctuations inside of a city and redistributes it elsewhere.

"And that's a pretty amazing thing, but you have to work Castellan in weird ways that cause other problems elsewhere, in order to fix this one problem… But to get back to it:

"This video talked about power crystal detonations in the year 3,400 Before Reveal, on Daihoon. Back then there was this proliferation of power crystal magic that did back when what nuclear generators do for us today. All that extra power caused a great resurgence in society, with walls being stronger and weapons being better, but then the demons got around to triggering the crystals and detonated half of every city out there. The people at the time thought it was an issue they could solve, and that they had been solving, but demons had been detonating crystals constantly, the whole time— Well that's a long story. I heard about it a lot back in Mexico City, though, when studying Castellan at Citadel Hearthswell.

"And we solve that issue and a thousand other issues with Castellan, but that one is one we focus on a lot, around every nuclear generator, to keep them safe for use." Eliot excitedly continued, "And Castellan does this for more than just the generators we use. As long as we know beforehand, or if the grid is large enough, you can take pretty much any critical reactor that is turning anything into power and plug it into the power grid in a city and the very act of plugging it into the city will de-critical the reactor. And that's why we do… a certain thing that we do with Castellan.

"But it's more than that.

"We do certain things, certain ways, because it works well, and for multivariable problems, from radiation spills in a city to monsterfication to critical reactors…" Eliot finished with, "Knowing the history and the reasonings behind why we do what we do makes me realize..." He rapidly added, in an almost-dismissive way, "Of course Azocar was right about eventually becoming part of Mage Society. He's going to be insufferable. Now where's Tartu! Shouldn't he be back by now? Or... can we watch the next one?"

Mark, Sally, and Isoko all made the same decision, at the same time. "Let's watch the next one."

As Eliot turned on the next video, Mark settled back into his chair and he started up a Union of Understanding with his friends, and himself. Isoko teased something small about why hadn't Mark done that before, for episode 1, and Mark just shrugged. Eliot was already enthralled with even just the start of episode 2.

Sally looked smug and happy as she grinned in Eliot's direction.

The day had started at 8 AM with the team getting to Mage Society by 8:30.

It ended at 10 PM, with them taking the entire introductory course, each of them focused the whole time.

Tartu and Lenny showed up at noon with food for everyone, saying things about how it was weird how they had stayed here for multiple hours and how they had been waiting for them to finish, but then Eliot shushed them. Eliot was only half-present, but that half was very, very focused, and Mark was helping him to understand stuff far beyond the current video marathon.

They all still devoured the food, though. That very much happened.

Mark also supported them, and mostly Sally, with a Union of Sustenance/Deprivation, taking from the plants and otherwise out there in Mage Society and giving them back some connection in turn. Mark felt as gardeners out there got to work to clean up the new plants Mark was growing, some of them a little mad at that, but they kept working.

Tartu and Lenny got into the introductory course as well, sitting in the back, both of them mumbling at each other and under the effect of Mark's Union of Understanding. Eliot shushed them.

Tartu and Lenny switched to Sigaldry-talk and Mark was there for that, and for everything they discussed about the intro course, through Sigaldry. They had comments about everything and Mark barely understood any of their rapid hand flashes, but he was getting there. When Tartu offered to slow down for him, Mark shook his head. He was not able to sign at them, but he could almost read what they were signing to him, and to each other.

Lenny liked to sign 'from the sex' every now and then, which was apparently how you cursed in Sigaldry.

Mark laughed and laughed when that notion clicked.

Lenny, and everyone else, eyed Mark. "… What?"

"You were signing from the sex all the time and I was wondering if you and Tartu were an item! But no. You're just cursing!"

Tartu burst a laugh.

Lenny grinned and put an arm around Tartu, saying, "I could land him if I wanted!"

Tartu scoffed and pushed Lenny away and Lenny laughed, and then the moment passed, though Isoko was grinning and Sally rolled her eyes. Eliot was still focused on the video, but his vector was still mostly elsewhere, as he put together connections that he never realized before now, before Mark's Union of Understanding.

From what Mark was seeing, and understanding, and in a way that was kinda 'duh!', Castellan was charged with solving —or trying to solve— for every single Magefall that had ever befallen humanity.

Tartu ordered food delivered for dinner, when dinner came around, and they all ate again. It was burritos, Isoko's choice, and they were fantastic. All thin-stretchy tortilla and filled with rice and beans and spicy chicken and crispy lettuce. The cheese was melty and creamy, and they were good. Mark had two. Sally had seven.

During that dinner break Tartu asked, "Are you going to do a Sigaldry thing tonight?"

"It was kinda the plan," Mark said, "But Eliot wanted this and it's really helpful for him in ways he can't really say—"

Eliot smiled, mocking Mage Secrecy as he said, "Castellan secrets!"

Sally snorted.

"—yes, that," Mark said, "So we'll probably do Sigaldry tomorrow. If there's changelings then I suppose… something will happen? Or not?"

"Lola," Isoko said, reminding Mark of her.

"Need to talk to Lola about all that, too," Mark said.

Tartu said, "Mage Society has methods in place for finding changelings, if you want to learn them, but they are complicated. They involve taking scans and doing prognostication work and then more scans and more prognostication… I think video 9 or 10 talks about infiltrators to humanity, from goblins to dragons to cultists to changelings and all the rest of the lesser monsters. You'll learn what I'm about to say now when you watch that video… Do you know about prognosticators?"

"Oh yeah," Mark said. "Of course. They have some Battlesenser in the Command Center watching the battles with the kaiju all the time. They send us basic tactics and warnings. There are a lot of early warning systems. I think I've met the Battlesenser, but we've all been told to never talk about them, so I don't know if they're them."

"We have 3 prognosticators, and the Battlesenser is just one," Eliot said. "We have an actual Seer prognosticator, too, and they're always super busy."

Eliot and Tartu shared a combined vector for a moment, eyes locked with each other.

Mark realized that both of them knew the Seer prognosticator, but they weren't allowed to talk about her… And Mark was pretty sure 'they' were a 'her', just like how the Battlesenser was a 'her', and her name was Adansa Lukago. She was the woman that Mark had fought to a loss during Brawny Battle nights every so often, on Tuesdays.

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"When the prognosticators are working, they work overtime," Tartu said, "Prognosticators are able to see possible futures, and usually only the most likely one. Seer Prognosticators swim in the seas of possible futures, though. For them, changelings are actually incredibly easy to spot, if the prognosticators look for them, but the prognosticators are always busy with kaiju battles and bigger threats and generalized threats, like monster waves and areas like that. The Mage Society here in the settlement has a prognosticator working all the time to spot every issue with every possible mission deployment, to keep casualties as low as possible. I don't have clearance to tell you about them, but if you go through Lola you can likely meet them.

"And that brings me to this: I know you, Mark. You want to fight monsters and now you want to learn magic, so, if you want to ignore the changelings, you can, and we can suss out the changelings ourselves. In that case you can empower the Inquisitors already here, and make a plan for your Understanding Parties instead of deciding to do them on a whim." Tartu said, "That's the main reason that Lenny and I came here today, but staying late and taking the course again has been…" His voice trailed off as the words he was looking for did not encompass enough.

Lenny simply said, "Enlightening. It's been enlightening. And if you ever want to do study hall with anything at all, Mark, you let us know."

"Yes, that," Tartu said.

"I like all of those ideas a whole lot," Mark said, unreservedly. "Let's make a plan for a Sigaldry Event, every night for the next week, up until Gate Day. We've got, like 7 days? So let's plan it."

Tartu offered, "Noon to midnight? Magic Street? The entire street from the entrance to arcanaeum to the tram?"

Mark's eyebrows went up. "Holy crap. That's… A lot! I like it! Sounds good to me."

Isoko tapped at her phone, mumbling, "I need to talk to Elaria about getting in on that, or whatever she says."

Sally said something small about, "It's a good enough thing to learn, I suppose."

Tartu told them both, "I would be loath to interfere in the decisions of masters for their apprentices, but Sigaldry is basic and everyone should know it. Everyone. It is the foundation—"

"Which not enough people do!" Lenny added.

"—which must always be honored," Tartu said, giving Lenny a Look that said a whole lot of 'be more polite'.

Eliot said, "Next video!"

The next video started.

And eventually, the videos ended, and Tartu was right about Episode 10 being the Infiltrators of Humanity episode. It was all about Cultists, both the general demon-loving kind of cultists, and cultists of Thrashtalon, and goblins, both the mundane variety, and the goblins of Goblinhome, which were a massively larger threat. Dragons were a 'lesser' 'infiltrator of humanity', because they were a threat that the average person did not need to think about, almost always, just like how the average person didn't need to consider kaiju, most of the time. If you encountered a kaiju were either incredibly unlucky to have it spawn on top of you (ultra rare) or stupid enough to go toward a kaiju instead of running (not as rare as it should be), or on the kaiju squad (Good luck to you! All the best to the kaiju killers!). All others should run as far away from kaiju as fast as they possibly could.

Changelings were barely touched upon, because while changelings were insidious threats even worse than Cultists to the individual (what with all the kidnapping, mind reading, torture, and the horror of having one's whole family replaced without even knowing they were being replaced until you were targeted and in the basement next to your sister and brother who were probably dead and rotting) everything one could do to fight Cultists served to fight changelings as well.

The video ended. There was one more left.

Mark needed a break, though, because everything felt dark and hateful, and Mark wanted to kill something that needed killing. But instead, he beat his heart with Good and Bad, and black veins splashed outward in every direction, out of him, and out of everyone else in the room, too.

The room had gotten dark without Mark noticing until he drew in the Good, and the light came back.

Isoko shuddered, standing up to walk around a bit.

Sally merely sighed, her vector inward and backward, feeling a seasoned veteran looking down at yet another dead teammate.

Eliot said, "So I have a few more ideas to use against goblins, too, which is unexpected but welcome."

Sally asked Tartu, "You heard anything about the goblin investigation yet?"

"Not as such, no," Tartu said.

Lenny spoke up, "Emperor Salvation met with a representative of Goblinhome this morning. The meeting lasted two hours and then it was over. We thought they'd put out a press release around noon, but that never happened." Lenny pulled his phone out as he talked, glanced at it, then added, "Still nothing."

Sally hmm'd.

Isoko checked her phone, then said, "In good news, Elaria is happy for me to learn Sigaldry." She put her phone away, saying, "I need to visit the Vault before we leave for the night. I can do that myself, though, and come back home later."

Sally asked Tartu, "Is the buddy system being enforced inside the walls?"

"Informally, yes," Tartu said. "Not due to any changelings, but because we are in the wilds. Technically."

"Gods, I fucking hate monsters," Mark muttered.

Eliot said, "Last video!"

The last video was all about kaiju and a little bit about the Veil, and about the gods of the Pantheon, which the video called the New Pantheon.

Mark knew about kaiju and so did everyone else, especially Eliot.

But Mark did learn something new by the end of the video. A big damned revelation. About the Veil between the Two Worlds. About the reason for kaiju. About demons and motivations, however esoteric, and about the gods, but not too much about the gods, at all. Mark kept waiting for that information to drop, but the video ended, and then the course was over.

Mark instantly began, "So let me get this straight… The Veil exists as a permeable membrane that the demons thrive inside, as basically a transition world, and it lets through mana every now and then from Daihoon to Earth, to rip away potentiality, to give demons power in all things."

"Kinda sorta?" Lenny said, unsure.

Tartu withheld judgment.

"It's part of the demon's energy system," Eliot said, comprehending more than he knew before. "There's the high density on Daihoon and the low density on Earth, and the Veil is the wheel upon which the mana turns, and produces work. Energy. Power."

Isoko stared off into space, saying, "The Veil fills the gap between the Two Worlds and the demons use that gap to make themselves stronger."

"It's more than that," Sally said, realizing something, too. "The Veil determines where mana exists and where it does not exist. Mana exists on Daihoon and not on Earth because of the Veil. It's more complicated than that, but the Veil is an Earth/Daihoon/Moon-sized waterwheel."

Mark put a few things together, and said, "And that's why the demons didn't like Memphi opening the gate, why it took an entire world and some very strong Powers to open Tokyo's gate, and why the Sahara gate isn't able to defend itself well at all. We almost lost the Battle for Memphi, which would have doomed this gate here… and… And the demons didn't want their literal source of life and power to be punctured more than it already is."

Isoko asked, "What about the Crossings? North Crossing and South Crossing, to Endless Daihoon, and Earth?"

Sally said, "The axle of the waterwheel."

"Oh shit," Isoko said. "Was that in the video?"

"No, but it makes sense," Eliot said, nodding… He asked, "Are the gods just great big demons, then? If they ascended through Malaqua taking over ultimate control of the Veil?"

Sally and Isoko were uncomfortable with that question. Eliot was too, but he had asked the question anyway.

Mark asked, "What about dreams, then? What do dreams and demons being birthed from dreams have to do with each other?"

They all looked to Tartu, and a little bit to Lenny.

Lenny bowed out of answer that one, putting up his hands and wincing as he shook his head. "That's too deep for me."

Tartu answered, "To say it succinctly, the Veil is the Dream. The Darklight. The Passage. Hell and Heaven, and all of that. We're all in the Dream and also not. Our Bindings are in the Dream and also not. Veil studies are huge, and that video explained basically none of it. There are a lot more important things to be thinking about, anyway. At least for right now."

Well that was true.

The group kinda broke up.

Isoko got up and stretched, saying, "I need to go to my vault for my books. I think you said something about having a couch in yours, Mark? Is that common?"

"My vault had a nice couch, yeah… You gonna spend the night in yours?"

"I'm thinking I want to read until I collapse, yes." Isoko asked Tartu, "Tartu?"

Tartu answered, "Every vault is kinda the same, except for the contents. If you know you're going to be in there for a while you should request for pillows and such from the Librarian. He's a good construct, and is well able to craft all basic amenities for any and all personal vaults. Toilet, couch. Small bed if you want that. No food, though."

Lenny yawned. And then Sally yawned.

Isoko said, "I'm gonna sleep in there, then. See you all at noon for Sigaldry?"

There were nods and agreements, and Mark suggested a late night dinner and Tartu said there were some good places open on Magic Street, and while Isoko went off toward the Vault on her own, Sally, Eliot, and Mark went with Tartu and Lenny toward his restaurant suggestion.

The night sky was a wash of rainbows, gently shifting positions overhead, the universe a black background of stars, far, far beyond the aurora bleed-through from Endless Daihoon.

Tartu took them to a burger joint, and Shawn, also a Paladin of Drakarok like Sally, was there holding a table for them.

Shawn happily smiled as he saw Sally, and said, "It's a den of demons in here, ain't it!"

Sally cracked a smile. "He speaks the truth!"

Tartu sat down, telling Shawn, "You could have joined us."

"Heck no!" Shawn said, "But I am absolutely here to discuss… Wait? Where's Isoko? I wanted to talk about the next HVP battle?"

"Studying in her vault!" Mark said, tapping on a screen to order food for himself. "But we can still talk about it. Not happening for at least 10 days, though."

"We can't do something before Gate Day?" Shawn asked, a little sad.

Mark chuckled, and then he talked about Sigaldry, and then Eliot talked about the introduction videos, and they were all talking about magic and catastrophes and all of that, well into breakfast, around sunrise. Eventually Mark, Isoko, and Sally left, saying goodbye to Tartu, Shawn, and Lenny, as they hopped back on the tram and eventually got back home.

They crashed for a handful of hours.