Magic is Programming

[Alright, Purple, let's run down the list: what synergies are left that you need help to activate?] Carlos stretched in the early-morning light that only barely outshone the purple dungeon core's namesake glow. Amber sat behind him, watching curiously as he rotated his shoulders and contorted his body in a few different ways. Trinlen was slowly walking in circles around Purple, trying to watch everything at once. A few tents were arranged next to each other in a circle around them, and the rest of their traveling companions were either in their tents or scattered outside the circle,

Purple's mental voice was calm and focused. [Out of 45 possible synergies, I have already activated 39. Of the 6 remaining, 5 involve the bond maker. The last is between the automator and the difference finder.]

Carlos nodded absently. [Good job knocking out that many of the non-bond synergies on your own! Let's start with the bond maker's synergies. Helping you with the other one will be easier with those already set. What's the first one?]

[Bond maker and knowledge repository.]

[Right. Let me put some knowledge into that…] Carlos focused on the design of a specific small and simple object. It's hardly revolutionary, but I haven't seen one of these yet in this world. Admittedly, I haven't actually looked for it, but still. The knowledge flitted over the mental link and went into a storage space that he could faintly sense if he focused on it. [Okay, it's in. Trinlen, see if you can view that design.]

Trinlen looked at him for a moment, then at Purple. "I could sense that you did something, but picking out any kind of detail is hellish in the ridiculous torrent of aether the dunge- Purple, sorry, is pulling in. As for accessing the information…" He narrowed his eyes and focused. His eyes had barely begun to light up in excitement when he flinched back as if struck. "What the-?!" He averted and closed his eyes while frantically waving his hands toward Purple. "Nope, nope, none of my business. But you seriously need to put some kind of lock on that!"

Carlos stared at him in confusion. "What are you talking about? The design of a screw isn't that big a deal." Oh, there's a word for it in Ganler. They must have the idea already.

Trinlen took a deep breath and pointedly switched to telepathy. [Yeah, your screw design is no big deal, and I got that just fine. But there's something else in there, too. I stopped looking as soon as I realized what it was, but it's detailed notes about soul structure design ideas. That's like, the biggest of house secrets, ever!]

Carlos's jaw dropped, and he blinked several times before finally recovering. He looked at Purple and stared for a moment, then groaned and slapped his forehead. [You used it to store your brainstorming notes, didn't you? Yeah, you need to put some security restrictions on that repository. Selectively allow different people to access different pieces of knowledge. Oh, and allow some people to view but not change certain things, and…] He sighed. [Okay, let's pause the synergies activation effort for a bit; information security controls are important to set up properly from the beginning, and that means I need to take some time to explain the principles of that to you. Oh, and Trinlen? That reaction earned you some serious trust. For serious matters, at least.]

Ressara sat inside her tent with her legs folded under her, her hands resting in her lap, and her eyes closed. She was breathing slowly with some difficulty, as her excitement was urging her to leap up and dance joyfully. That would rather spoil the point of what I'm excited about. I've never absorbed aether anywhere near this fast before, even when I had a chance to try, and I have to focus on it to keep doing it.

She shook her head and tried to put the distracting excitement out of her mind. I've made the soul self-manager that Purple told me about, and the soul self-examiner Carlos taught me to go with it, and both of those make this faster and easier. The major boost, though, is having a dungeon calming the chaos of the aether before it even gets to me. A dungeon that doesn't mind me taking it, even! It's so much less abrasive that I can take it in at 4 times the speed I could last night. Of course, that's still nothing compared to what Purple's absorbing himself. She snorted. An entire level, from beginning to end, in less than 3 hours! I've never heard of such absurd speed!

Ressara slumped forward, then sighed and straightened herself. Ugh, I lost focus on the absorption again. Back to work. She lost track of time for a while as her thoughts slowly stilled, meditatively immersing herself in the sensation of so much aether pouring into her. After an indeterminate period, she was suddenly startled out of her trance-like focus by someone throwing the entry flap of her tent open.

"Aha, there you are! Ressara, I presume?" The man holding her tent flap open wore a black robe, decorated with thin lines colored the orange of orichalcum. "You're the only one here low-level enough to match the information I have."

"What? Who?" Ressara scrambled to her feet and struggled to get her wits about her for a moment. Adamantium-black cloth, with orichalcum-orange tracery. That's the color scheme of the Crown's service. We met with Princess Lornera not too long ago. Is this some kind of followup on that? She bowed low. "My apology, sir. I was not expecting any visitors."

The black-robed man - probably a mage, judging by how the aether swirled around him - laughed. "This far out in the Wilds, of course you weren't. In any case-"

"Hey!" Carlos's voice interrupted from outside. "Crown Mage… Felton, I think it was? If you have business with someone sworn to my house's service, shouldn't you come to me about it, first?"

Felton froze for a moment, then released Ressara's tent flap and turned to face Carlos. He gave a small bow and smoothly stepped aside as Ressara came out of the tent. "High Lord Carlos Founder. My apology for the offense. I forgot myself in my eagerness to investigate the remarkably subtle sabotage done to this armor." A fully assembled suit of gleaming steel full plate appeared beside the mage, empty and floating in midair.

Carlos raised an eyebrow. "You can't decipher it on your own, even with warning of its existence? And her ability is that unique?"

Felton shook his head. "Not with the degree of confidence about its details that we need. And yes, we have records of efforts to defeat attention-diversion by various means, including specialized soul structures, and none were as effective as hers. Some of them worked very well, but never against such an extreme disadvantage in power as she has overcome."

Carlos looked at Ressara. "Intriguing. Well, Ressara, what do you think? Can you help him figure that out?"

Ressara looked back and forth between Felton and the armor and pressed her lips together. "Hmm. Maybe. I can point out when and where the attention-diversion wards activate, and what they try to divert attention from. I know very little about enchantment runes and design principles, though."

Carlos eyed her speculatively and turned to consider Felton as well. "She can notice what the wards divert attention from, but likely won't know the specific significance of it. You may understand each part that you examine, but such subtle wards might misdirect you about exactly which part she points out to you. Ideally, you need both capabilities in the same person. You could teach her, but that may take longer than you want. You could have a crown mage duplicate her soul structure, but it would have to be one who hasn't completed the Crown's standard soul plan for their mages yet. Any mage new enough to still have room for it probably hasn't learned much more than Ressara yet anyway, and it would disrupt the rest of that mage's soul plan, weakening their general capabilities in the long term."

Felton cocked his head. "An accurate summary of the problem I face, Lord Carlos. You have a solution to suggest?"

Carlos smiled broadly. "It's quite simple, really: Me. Or Amber. We already have the most essential knowledge, plus a house secret to help learn more, and we have already been considering incorporating Ressara's counter to attention-diversion into our soul plan for the second stage. We believe we can make it work well for us." He looked at the levitating armor, then looked back at Felton and shrugged. "We're not quite at the point in our plans where we'll do that, but we'll get there before long. Maybe a few days, I think, and then we could work together to analyze it."

"An interesting proposal." Felton's gaze slid to the guard who was silently observing the conversation. "Colonel Lorvan, you know Lord Carlos's capabilities best of anyone in the Crown's service. Is his offer credible?"

Lorvan nodded firmly. "It is very credible, Mage Felton. He and Lady Amber may well be better-suited to analyzing this sabotage than anyone but its architect."

Felton looked back at Carlos again. "In that case, do you mind if I stay and accompany you on this expedition, Lord Carlos? I'd like to begin the moment you are ready."

Carlos considered for a moment, then grinned. "That depends: Do you mind answering our questions about magecraft? We don't know everything about it yet, and the more we know the better we can help you, after all."

Trinlen glanced over as he noticed the visiting crown mage moving again, but the man was just clearing a spot to set up another tent. I guess he's staying for a while. I wonder, can I get him to show any tricks the academy doesn't teach? Eh, I can try that later. He shrugged and returned his attention to the design he was editing in Purple's shared knowledge repository. A mouse was walking in circles in front of him, clearly following artificial behavior, the result of triggering Purple's monster maker a little while ago.

Purple needs to have a bond-holder, like me, trigger his automator rules to make or update a monster, make or update an item, make or update an enchantment, and have the difference finder determine what the changes for the update are. That should hit every remaining synergy link all at once. I'm starting with an overly simple-minded mouse, unadorned and unenchanted. What should I turn that into? He contemplated ideas for a while, but all the obvious options were just so boring.

Trinlen shook his head and looked around, seeking inspiration. His gaze landed on someone and his eyes widened. Oh, now there's an idea. This should be fun. But what exactly should I have this thing do…

He lost himself in thought, tinkering more and more with the design as he kept imagining more fun details. Many minutes later, he put the finishing touches on it and looked up to find Carlos sitting quietly, watching him. "Oh! Uh, I just finished."

"Well, go ahead and trigger it, then! I'm curious to see what you came up with."

"Me too." Amber rushed over from where she'd been sitting in another part of the camp.

Trinlen cocked his head. "You haven't checked the repository to see it?"

Carlos chuckled. "Why spoil the surprise?"

Trinlen looked at Amber, and she just nodded with an eager smile. "Alright, here goes." He mentally reached out to a specific trigger with a very specific intent in mind, and the circling mouse was suddenly engulfed in a storm of Purple's mana. Some extra essence poured into the mouse and reshaped it, some more encased it, aether pressed in on it, and mana fueled and empowered the whole event.

The storm subsided, and Carlos and Amber stared dumbly for a moment, then started laughing. Where a mouse had been before, now a miniature armored figure stood on two feet. It was completely encased in gleaming steel armor, complete with gauntlets and helmet. It bore a tiny shield on one hand and held an equally tiny spear in the other.

The tiny figure looked around for a moment, then locked onto a target and charged, yelling out battle cries, of a sort, as it ran. Its voice was instantly recognizable, though it lacked the volume of the original. "For the Crown and seriosity! Your jokes cannot affect me! For dignity! All humor shall be destroyed!"

Carlos and Amber's laughter escalated, and Trinlen joined them in chuckling at it.

The miniature Lorvan threw its tiny spear across the 4 feet remaining between it and the real Lorvan's foot. The spear bounced off with a light tink, but instead of falling to the ground, it flew back to the miniature's hand. Just as the figure's arm was rearing back for another throw, it was suddenly impaled by the full-size spearpoint of Lorvan's weapon. The tiny figure and all of its equipment broke apart into streams of essence, most of which went back to Purple.

Trinlen stopped laughing and gulped hesitantly. "Uh. Sorry, sir."

Lorvan stood still and silent for several seconds, then returned his spear to its upright resting position. He spoke in a completely calm and level tone. "Why do you seem to expect me to be offended? Your jokes cannot affect me."