Magic is Programming

Carlos yawned, stretched his arms wide, and slowly blinked the grit out of his eyes as he sat up. He shook his head a bit to nudge along the unhurried process of waking himself up, and looked around at the room that was definitely not his own bedroom at home. The bed was very comfortable, though. He yawned again. If this was a hotel, it seemed a bit rustic, but high quality. They apparently even served hot breakfast in bed, judging by the heavenly scent of bacon and eggs coming from the covered platter on the nightstand. Strange that he didn't remember planning to stay at a hote-

He froze. The events of the past two weeks came back to him in a rush, and he tensed up, ready to lash out or maybe run. Then he noticed how comfortable the bed he was lying on was again, and relaxed, releasing an extended sigh of relief. Yes, he'd been through some crazy, dangerous, and high stakes stuff, but he was safe now. He'd have to go out and face more otherworldly dangers again before long, but right now he was resting in a highly secure and expensive inn in the middle of a city that he nominally ruled. He could afford to drop his guard and just relax for a while.

Carlos took a deep breath, stretched and yawned one more time, then leisurely reached out and removed the cover from the breakfast platter, sat up still in bed, and picked up the platter and plopped it on his lap. He breathed in the aroma, and sighed happily. There was crisp bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, a warm and fluffy biscuit that seemed like it must have come directly from the oven, three kinds of berries he didn't recognize that all tasted pleasantly sweet and juicy, and some kind of fruit juice to drink with it. It wasn't the right color for orange juice, but it had a nice tang to it that washed down the sausage and bacon's grease very well.

Something tipped him off to look up a moment before a knock sounded on his door, and Amber's voice came through it. "Still sleeping in there?"

"I'm eating breakfast now, actually." Carlos paused eating and cocked his head, thinking back and wondering how he'd reacted before she knocked. He hadn't heard any footsteps. There was just her knock, her voice, and the mana of her soul. ...Oh, right. He'd sensed a soul's surface layer of mana approaching, and he'd recognized that it was her soul.

Carlos realized she'd said something while he was thinking, and mentally slapped his forehead as he returned his attention to the present moment. "Uh, could you repeat that? I was distracted for a moment, sorry."

"I said the morning's already half done, and we should be doing things. I would have woken you up over an hour ago, but Lorvan stopped me."

Carlos blinked. "Lorvan? Our lead guard? Why would he do that?"

Lorvan's strong baritone voice projected through the door. "It would not be proper to disturb your rest without pressing need or your prior instruction, m- uh, sir."

"Oh." Carlos let his hands settle onto the platter, loosely gripping the knife and fork, and stared vacantly at the remaining portions of food on it while he thought about the recent events he'd been through and how he felt. "Hmm. Guard Lorvan, I appreciate your defense of my rest, but for the future if Amber believes I should be getting up then I am inclined to trust her judgement on the matter. Really, I've had a bad habit of sleeping later than I should for a long time, and it's high time to correct that."

"Ha! See?"

Silence reigned for a moment before Lorvan replied, his voice still directed through the door at Carlos. "Yes, sir."

"With that said: Amber, we've been through a lot recently, and I think we could both use a break. As far as I know there's nothing we need to do that can't wait a day. Let's just... take the day off and relax. Wander around Dramos, explore what's here, see what interesting and fun things we can find, and just enjoy ourselves for a little while. How does that sound to you?"

"But- but I want to learn more magic!" Amber's voice rose in pitch near the end, though not enough for Carlos to consider it a whine.

"We'll be stuck waiting for Trinlen for that plenty soon enough regardless. Moving one day of that wait to now instead of a month from now won't change anything. And hey, we could see about finding where Sandaras fought off those thieves. What do you think of that?" Carlos grinned to himself.

"Oh! Um, er. That... Um, well. I really like that idea, but I'm also worried it will just be another disappointment." Carlos thought he could almost hear Amber blushing through the door.

"If it is, that just means we can have fun thinking of ways to make it stop being a disappointment. Brainstorm the best ways to dress up the place and show it off. Huh, come to think of it, if Mayor Stelras is handling that the way I think he is it could be a real missed opportunity that we could fix. So many people come here because of those rumors that he bothered to make a standard answer pamphlet for them. A lot of them would probably be willing to pay a bit to see the place where it happened. Could be good money in it."

"...Huh. You really think people would pay for that?"

"Wouldn't you pay to see it, if you had never met me and eventually came here?"

"Well... Yeah, I would, but I'm weird. You can't expect normal people to be like me."

Carlos chuckled and shook his head ruefully, even though he knew Amber couldn't see it. "Everyone is weird, Amber, just in different ways. You'll understand that eventually if you meet enough different people from different places. And I'd bet your variety of weirdness is more common than you think it is. Especially among people who chase rumors about Archmage Sandaras."

"...I suppose."

Carlos looked at the unfinished portion of breakfast still on his platter, firmed his grip on the utensils, and took another bite of scrambled eggs. They had cooled only slightly, and still tasted excellent. "Anyway, give me a few minutes to finish eating and get dressed, and then I'll be out and ready to do things."

"Ok." The mana of Amber's soul moved away, but didn't go far. Carlos speared a sausage with his fork, and he turned his focus to consuming the rest of his food. He'd have to remember to compliment the cooks.

Ressara made sure to get up early that morning. She had people to investigate, and it wouldn't do to miss an opportunity by being late. She didn't dare try snooping around their door again, but surely those guards couldn't object to her wandering around a bit on the floor her own room was on, right? She was just one floor above them, and the floors had the same layout, so it was trivial to find her way to the hallway right outside and just above Carlos and Amber's suite.

She noticed the two guards' souls from the end of the hallway, barely after turning the corner. Their actual soul development, whatever density it was, was still well hidden, and soul development of the density they were disguised as would normally be difficult to pick out at that distance with barriers in the way, but they were still artificially attracting her attention as always. Both guards being there meant she didn't need to worry about either of the youths having left already, but it also meant she needed to be cautious. They probably wouldn't recognize her soul after just one brief encounter, but they'd get suspicious if she lingered.

Ressara marched down the hall as though simply on her way to another room, keeping her soul-focused mana sense alert for the two other souls she expected to sense soon. Ah, there was Carlos's soul. Its surface was smooth and calm, so quietly still that he must be either sleeping or deeply meditating. Even in sleep, though, it was still passively absorbing ambient mana at a remarkable rate. Hadn't it been doing that faster yesterday, though? Yes, she was sure of it. That was odd; even sleep shouldn't slow down that natural process. The only thing that should slow it down was-

She stumbled to a shocked halt, staring with her mouth hanging open in the direction of the soul she was sensing. She closed her mouth and checked again. Yes, she was certain of it. That was definitely Carlos, and his soul's development had definitely reached the second density compression. He'd had once-compressed density the day before, and the splotches of extra mana accumulating on his soul had been nowhere near the full coverage needed to fuel a new density compression. Even if he'd been actively driving the ambient absorption far into the night, filling out the rest would have taken an insanely high absorption rate!

She narrowed her eyes, a formless suspicion starting to take shape in her mind. She resumed walking, and soon sensed Amber's soul, which had also reached twice-compressed density, despite having had a long way still to go just one day before. Ressara paused, took a deep breath, then turned around and walked back to her room. She had some thinking to do. There was only one explanation that made sense, and it meant this was either an opportunity beyond anything she'd realistically hoped for, or a danger she should flee from and never look back. Maybe both.

Those two were no mere gold rank, or even platinum rank, glory seekers. Even the highest tiers of platinum could not absorb ambient mana that quickly. Carlos and Amber were scions of a noble house. Maybe even high nobility. She had no idea which house, but any noble house could make or break her entire career at whim if she drew their attention. Was it a gamble worth taking?

A short muscular woman in trousers and a plain woolen shirt casually sauntered up to the guard who was leaning his back against the wall of a tiny building, about ten feet square, next to its only door. "Had any breaks in your boredom recently?"

The guard idly tossed a copper coin into the air and caught it, then shuffled it from one hand to another. He looked up at the woman from his well shaded spot in the building's shadow from the early morning sun and shrugged. "Still early, today."

The woman leaned her shoulder against the wall a few feet beside him, and crossed her arms. "Yesterday counts as recently too, you know."

The guard flipped his coin again, and stood up from the wall to stretch a bit. "What, did the new arrivals do something?"

"Maybe." The woman uncrossed her arms and stopped leaning. "Mostly they're just being mysterious, and I have a friend who doesn't like to leave mysteries unsolved."

The guard caught his coin from another flip and pocketed it, then turned to face the woman. "Don't really know much myself. They just showed up, and demanded to see the mayor."

The woman shrugged. "Hey, that's already new info for me. Wasn't even sure they arrived by teleport. Pair of young folks, guy and girl, barely any development, with two well armed chaperones, right?"

The guard laughed. "Well armed? Heh. You could say that. Or you could say wearing the finest damn steel plate armor I've ever seen."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Oh? They weren't wearing full plate when my friend saw them."

"Maybe two pairs of newbies with rich parents showed up yesterday and one of them walked?" The guard shrugged again. "None of my business. I'm just here to greet new arrivals and raise an alarm if somebody tries a teleport invasion for some reason."

"Sure. Well, thanks for the chat. It was nice talking with you." The woman handed him a few coins, and walked away.

Carlos strolled along the market street, looking around at all the open stalls and shops, enjoying the relief of actually not having to hurry to handle some urgent and critically important issue for once. Danger and high stakes projects would come, but that was a worry for the future. Right now, he and Amber were safe, under the protection of the highest power in the country, and had no looming deadlines approaching. He could relax with confidence, and investigate whatever he cared to. And right now, what he cared about... was lunch.

Amber was almost bouncing on her feet, looking around excitedly at everything. She'd dash off for a minute every time she spotted a store that looked like it might possibly sell spellbooks, or unusual adventuring gear. There were a lot of places that advertised supplies for adventurers. She had already collected several minor gadgets, and found a few places that had Archmage Sandaras's beginner textbook and similar books, but this area didn't seem to carry any of the really serious enchanted gear like they'd seen Tornay use, or anything for mages trying to expand their repertoire.

For his part, Carlos was glad that Amber was enjoying herself, but right now he was paying more attention to the scents of food in the air. He sniffed, and cocked his head, trying to sort out what he was smelling. There were plenty of stalls offering a variety of meats, vegetables, and breads, prepared in a variety of ways, but he thought he'd just caught a whiff of something else. He sniffed again. Yes, there was a hint of a blend of seasonings that reminded him of curry. His mouth started watering. Curry would be a great change of taste from everything he'd eaten recently.

"Hey, Amber. Do you smell that?"

"Hmm?" Amber turned to Carlos and looked at him, reluctantly taking her gaze away from the name of another shop she'd been considering checking out.

"I just smelled what I want to eat for lunch. Help me track it down?"

"Oh. Sure. Now that you mention it, I am feeling hungry. What is it?"

"Hmm. Does 'curry' translate?"

Amber paused, blinked a couple times, and stared a moment longer. "Ok, that felt weird. I did not know a word for that, but the meaning came through. Anyway, seems like it should be tasty? Let's try it!" She started sniffing and moving around, tracing the scent to its source.

Ressara furtively peeked around the corner of a stall, watching Carlos and Amber as they... sniffed for something? What could they be looking for? She was at a loss for what the purpose of their slow journey through this market area was. Their two guards shadowed their every move, of course, but so far she'd managed to avoid drawing their attention. She hung well back, stayed out of sight much of the time, and relied heavily on her ability to sense and recognize specific souls to keep track of them.

She'd seen Amber rush into store, after store, after store, but she had no idea why. She knew these stores, and everything available here was just minor things that should be trivialities to any noble, cheaper and less useful or interesting than their childhood toys. Carlos, meanwhile, didn't seem to be doing anything in particular, just bemusedly observing Amber as he slowly wandered. Their guards were just being unobtrusively watchful.

Ressara huffed, and sighed in exasperation. This didn't make any sense! They were obviously on an expedition to develop their souls after building their house's soul plan, so why weren't they preparing to go into the Wilds?

Liafra turned the page in her book, and chuckled. After that young newly noble couple (or was she assuming too much?) had shown up out of nowhere yesterday, and even they expressed interest in Sandaras, she'd impulsively decided to indulge in one of the novels those rumors had inspired. Apparently, there were quite a number of people who responded to learning the truth by imagining their own alternate reality of what they had wanted the truth to be, and writing about it at great length. Some of them were truly absurd. Sandaras somehow impressing dragons so much, with just his determination and intelligence before he'd even built his soul structures, that they taught him their supposed secret knowledge of an orichalcum rank soul plan that not only made him the ultimate mage but also let him freely transform into a dragon himself? What utter nonsense, yet it was strangely fascinating to read.

She shook her head and looked up as someone knocked on her door. Ah. Time to do her job as the mayor's receptionist. She put the book aside and called out, "Come in."

The woman who opened the door and walked in had long dark hair hanging half way down her back, and wore an elegant dark blue dress that swirled around her legs as she walked. She stood tall, and confidently strode to just in front of Liafra's desk, where she remained standing and looked down at Liafra.

Liafra put on a cheerful smile and looked back up at her visitor. "How can I help you?"

"I have some potential business with a certain pair of youths who met Mayor Stelras yesterday. Carlos and Amber. Tell me about them."