Magic is Programming

Carlos stared in silent thought for a while after Lorvan left. Amber was equally quiet sitting next to him. Finally, he sighed and shook his head. "Well, that was… more of a lecture than I expected."

"Yeah." Amber spoke quietly, and had her arms clasped across her chest like she was trying to hold herself. "It felt like when Mom scolded me as a child for doing something stupid. She'd pick apart and count every single different way that I'd been stupid and scold me for all of them, making me feel like I was the worst idiot ever."

"Was it useful for you?"

Amber looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Your mother's analysis and critique of exactly how and why what you did was stupid. Did it help you?" Carlos returned her gaze with a small smile.

"Uh." Amber blinked and stared for a moment. "Actually… Yes, I think it did. I hated when she yelled at me, and I learned to think about every possible thing she might call stupid and then deny her the chance."

"That may not be the ideal motivation for you to have, but if it got you to avoid doing stupid things…" Carlos shrugged. "Anyway, while the experience of learning it was unpleasant, the insight Lorvan just explained to us about how most nobles think and what they care about will be useful for more than just this one decision. So, I'm thankful for it."

Amber took a deep breath and sighed. "I suppose. Maybe it'll be easier to see it that way later. For now, I just want to get it over with and set it aside for a while." She paused. "So… Do we still help Kindar?"

"The main takeaways I got about helping Kindar are 'Be wary about loyalty and betrayal,' 'Absolutely do NOT make a habit of this,' and 'If we're going to do it with someone, choosing Kindar will at least minimize the grumbling from other nobles.' That's basically just a more emphatic version of what I already thought. My opinion is that we should go through with it, but be really cautious about the details."

Amber chewed her lip as she considered that, then nodded decisively. "Yeah, sounds good." She picked up her notes from the small table and flipped to a new page. "Now, let's make plans for second-stage advancement!"

Carlos chuckled. "Sure, but let's be smart about how we go about doing that."

Amber cocked her head. "What do you mean?"

Carlos mentally reached for the telepathic bonds Purple had made for them. [For one thing, make certain Lorvan can't eavesdrop on the discussion.]

[Oh, right. And?]

[Keep in mind that the limits Lorvan told us about are just the limits that every noble house knows about, not necessarily the true limits of what is possible.] Carlos glanced at his own notes. [We merged 10 soul structures into 1. Going only by what he told us, we should next make a new set of 9, merge those, then 8, and so on. But I'd bet nearly anything that there are ways to get more than that - every merge comprised of the full 10 structures, or maybe even more - and that the Crown knows and uses one of those ways. The whole thing just kind of reeks of being a limitation of the process, not of the end result. Do you remember how Lorvan's soul felt, the sense of how solid it was, when his soul disguise stopped working after the battle?]

Amber got a distant look in her eyes as she thought back. [Now that you mention it, yeah, that did seem strange, but I assumed it was just from how high-level he is, or a special soul structure. And then the princess visited, and she made Lorvan's soul seem flimsy by comparison.]

Carlos nodded. [I think that solidity is from having merged structures, and the bigger the merges, the more solid it feels. I'd guess Lorvan's soul plan is the best possible within the limits of what he's trusted to know and without making him noble; merges of 8 structures, 7, 6, and on down as far as his level is enough to still merge. And then House Kalor's own soul plan packs in as much as the Crown itself knows how to. If we can figure out a way to match that…]

[I… Even if we can do that, should we?] Amber hunched over and seemed to shrink into herself. [If you're right, then you're suggesting that we try to rival the Crown's power. The Crown doesn't have rivals! They're the Crown! Supreme, above all other nobles! If the Crown sees us as starting to become a rival, I… I don't know what they'd do. I don't want to find out. Just thinking about it scares me.]

Carlos remembered the depiction they'd seen of Kalor Founder utterly slaughtering an entire army, and the overwhelming presence of Princess Lornera Kalor when she'd visited, and he shuddered. [Okay, yeah, we don't want to risk provoking them. But this isn't all-or-nothing. We could just put in a few extra, enough to get a leg up over other nobles, but hold back from pushing all the way. Or… I don't know. There are too many details we don't know yet. We should at least try to figure things out, and then we can decide how to use what we discover.]

Amber hesitated, but reluctantly nodded. [Okay. Just figuring out what's possible should be fine. What else? I get the feeling that you're still getting to your main point.]

Carlos nodded. [I am. The biggest point is that I think we should start our brainstorming separately.]

[What? Why?]

[It's a principle I learned in school. Suppose each of us has our own different great idea, and one of us starts explaining their idea to the other. What happens next? Think about it.]

Amber looked down and chewed her lip. [Well, if it's a great idea, we'd get excited about it and discuss all the details and figure out how good we can make it.]

[And?] Carlos raised an eyebrow expectantly.

[Um. I'm not sure where you're going with this.]

[What happens with the other great idea, the one that didn't start getting explained first?]

Amber stared for a moment. [Oh. It gets forgotten. Just like I forgot about it in your scenario. Your world teaches things like that in ordinary schools? You're making me wish I'd gotten to learn from your schools.] She wrote a double-size line at the top of her new blank note sheet and underlined it, "Take reminder notes before distraction." [Okay, so… We split up, "brainstorm" - great word, by the way - on what, ways to get bigger merges, ways to get more of the biggest merges, and ideas for what actual specific structures to use?]

Carlos nodded. [Those things, plus how to organize them, however many details we can think of, and maybe some concepts that sound nice but we're not sure how to do. I'll focus mainly on using ideas from my world's knowledge; you focus on whatever ideas seem most important and interesting to you. Oh, and Purple? You too, see if you can come up with any creative insights for any of this.]

The dungeon core replied with the mental feeling of an agreeable shrug. [Sure, why not?]

[I'm serious, Purple. Even if you're not very creative right now, the way to get better at creativity is to practice it, and you already have experiences and context to draw from that we don't.]

Purple responded with more emphatic agreement this time. [I'll try.]

[That's all I'm asking for.] Carlos gathered his notes and stood up. [So, how about we share our ideas and delve into them together tomorrow after lunch?]

Amber stayed seated and nodded absently at him. [Sounds good. See you then.] She bent over her notes and started writing.

Carlos quietly left to seek a private brainstorming spot of his own.

Far away, a man trudged wearily toward the city gate in front of him, finally stopping with a sigh of resigned annoyance when the young guard beside the gate stepped up to question him. The guard seemed bored, as she should be for handling the arrival of a traveler as routine and typical as Bruman appeared to be. He was of average height, reasonably fit and strong, with short brown hair. His features were plain, neither particularly handsome nor ugly. He wore well-made but affordable leather armor, carried a spear that he was using as a walking stick, and bore a shield strapped to his back on top of his pack. He was the very picture of the average aspiring new adventurer, hoping to find his fortune in the Wilds near a frontier town like Fimmas; exactly as he should appear to be, considering how much effort had been put into making sure no one would realize what Bruman really was.

Bruman gave short answers to the guard's questions, seeking to get through the tedium as quickly as possible. Name, profession, notable affiliations, business in Fimmas. He was an adventurer, independent, looking for a party to venture into the Wilds with. All lies, of course, along with the fake level his soul was disguised as, which she checked with a small enchanted wand to write down along with the rest. In truth, he was a royal investigator, in direct service to the Crown, and he was here to sniff out if any young nobles were here illicitly harvesting from the Wilds without the Crown's approval.

Soon enough, he left the guard and gate behind him and navigated his way through the evening bustle to the cluster of inns that served the more successful or better-funded adventurers. He took note of their names as he inspected each one from outside for visible signs of quality and price, then intentionally entered the second-best and walked up to the bar. "Room and meals for, let's say 2 days."

The barkeeper looked him up and down and raised an eyebrow. "That'll be 7 silver, and if you can actually afford staying here then you need to upgrade your gear. What you've got on you won't get you far in the Wilds, much less a dungeon."

Bruman paid and took his room key with a smile. "Yeah, I know. I recently came into some money and haven't gotten to shopping for better gear yet. I came straight here, first thing."

The barkeep nodded knowingly. "Ah, an excited newbie. If you're suddenly rich, though, why aren't you staying next door at the Wild Feast?"

Bruman chuckled. "I'm not that rich, yet. If I were, I'd be hiring someone to escort me for some power-leveling. Though…" He cocked his head. "Maybe I could pay to join someone who's already doing that? Is there anyone around here for me to ask?"

"Heh." The barkeeper snorted. "Good luck with that, kid. You can ask the rich brat who's renting the Wild Feast's best suite in between his excursions, but I doubt he'll even listen to you. Or wait a while and ask the next one; seems like every time the last rich kid leaves, a new one shows up soon after."

"Oh? Every time?" Bruman raised an eyebrow. "And just one at a time? Sounds curious."

"Oh, hmm…" The barkeep thought for a while. "Not quite every time, and I do remember a few occasions of having two in town at the same time, but most times, yes."

That sounds suspiciously organized. It would fit perfectly with the "rotation agreement" I'm investigating. Definitely something to look into further. Bruman kept his expression carefully controlled to show merely idle curiosity. "Huh. In any case, could you point me to him? And a good shop for my upgrades, too?"

"Last I heard, the kid went into the Wilds again the day before yesterday. Might be a few days, or a week, before he's back, but if you stay that long I can let you know when he shows up again. As for a shop, try the Proven Sundries if you're on a budget. They resell stuff that more powerful adventurers have outgrown. Their stock can be a bit random, and they never have the absolute best top-tier items, but they'll always beat the Enchanters Guild's prices on whatever they do have. And tell them I sent you." The barman winked at him.

"Sure, and thanks for the tip!" Bruman smiled and waved as he headed for his newly rented room. He wouldn't actually stay there long, but keeping up the pretense of his disguise's role would help avoid suspicion. He should actually take a look at Proven Sundries, too, for the same reason. And then I will see about tracking down a rich young man in the Wilds, who I suspect is a noble scion, and keep tabs on him until the signal to act is sent. It wouldn't do to tip off our quarry before we are ready to catch all of them at once.

Crown Mage Felton looked at the three sets of enchanted armor laid out before him and considered his new task. On the left was the suit that had originally been issued to Crown Guard Lorvan, which had dropped the emergency signal he'd tried to send through it and falsely reported success to him. In the center was a suit that, according to a third party who Her Highness believed was trustworthy, had shown signs of the same issue. On the right was a suit just now fetched from storage in the main armory of the royal guards. He had compared each of them to each other in a thoroughly in-depth inspection, and they were all identical to the best of his ability to tell. That suggested some profoundly disturbing things about how the failure had been caused.

He dismissed out of hand the possibility of alternative explanations. Royal guards are too loyal to ever betray their duties, I trust Her Highness's judgement, and even if she were mistaken about Ressara after all, that would be a matter for others to handle. He shook his head. That leaves only two remaining explanations: either something is preventing me from noticing the differences, or the sabotage involved something that was built into every suit of royal guard armor.

The former possibility was tricky to truly rule out. There were many ways to divert, deflect, or distract attention, some of them were very subtle, and even the best ward spells could never be truly infallible. Spells to conceal subtle effects and to counter such concealment were endlessly competing against each other in the craft of spell creation, with each new innovation on either side designed to defeat what came before. Felton had done his best to protect his mind from attention manipulation, but it would only take one novel invention in these enchantments to potentially circumvent that.

Even so, Felton thought the other possibility was more likely. I already suspect that the culprit might be the Enchanters Guild; they are the only entity that I know even has the knowledge to be capable of meddling with royal guard armor in such a sophisticated way. Such a feat is beyond even my own expertise as an elite royal mage. And if it is the Enchanters Guild, then building it into every suit would be almost trivial for them. He snorted. They make the damn things in the first place! Would they even need every enchanter involved to be knowingly in on it, or could it be that some enchanters just work from a design schematic they don't even understand?

He sighed and started disassembling the suit from the armory, peeling apart the layers of metals and cloth until he could pluck out one specific small sheet of steel inlaid with tiny platinum runes. He knew the spell that this set of runes was supposed to cast, and he knew the runic script. The incantation as I learned it is definitely correct. Comparing the runes to my incantation will be tedious, but if I find a discrepancy, that would identify at least a part of the problem. He began methodically scanning the script, rune by rune. And if I don't… Then my next guess is that it's hidden in the parts that are specific to enchantments, and that only the Enchanters Guild understands. If that's the case, then we will have to get creative.

Felton dismissed that thought for now. Ensuring full accuracy of checking every single rune required complete focus.