by Blink, Bob
The science of magic had advanced over the centuries, and this was one of the more useful tools. Any tutored wizard could create a Bypass, but few could create one so large and as easily as Daim. The arched opening was apparent to all, the glowing edges a warning not to pass too closely. Serious burns had resulted, even deaths on rare occasion, by those who had encountered the edges of an active Bypass. The secret was to pass through at least a couple of hand-spans from the dangerous edge. That simple rule observed, and one could move between distant locations as easily as stepping through a doorway. Those on the far side of the Bypass didn’t see it at all, of course. The construct was a one-way opening, and those watching from the far side would simply observe anything that passed through suddenly appearing at that location.
Daim nodded to the others and stepped through, finding himself instantly relocated to the reddish rock above the site of the tower. He held onto his own Brightfire just in case, until the others had arrived to provide protection. The vast sea of glowing flowers with their obnoxious smell extended all around the base of the rocky outcropping on which they stood, extending past and completely surrounding the failed tower. Daim could see several dozen or more of the beastly Hoplani wandering through the field of flowers, apparently attracted by the smell as they meandered westward toward the lands they had been blocked from so long.
Daim already knew that Brightfire didn’t work on the flowers. That was surprising in and of itself, because he knew of nothing else that could withstand the magical energies of the intense blasts. Normal magical fire worked, however, and he sent sheets of powerful fire into the nearest field of blossoms, turning them almost instantly to ash.
“Burn it all,” Daim instructed the others. Kill any of the Hoplani that come near as well.” He closed the Bypass behind them, then returned to the task of eliminating the nearby blossoms.
The others followed his direction, and sheets of intense fire, augmented by the occasional beam of Brightfire shot from the rocky ledge as the group proceeded to wipe out the infestation of the plants. Once the nearby plants had been eliminated, Daim started down from the rocky ledge and started toward the tower.
‘Spread out and burn them to ash,” he instructed the seven younger wizards. “Don’t leave any of the plants growing. If the field extends too far for you to deal with, we’ll send back for additional support.”
Daim walked directly toward the inert tower, followed by Juda and Hobar. The powdered ash from the burned flowers puffed up in small clouds under their feet. Daim was reasonably certain that the danger from the flowers was past once they had been burned this way, but a small risk remained that he might be wrong and it made him uneasy. Naeem had said that someone had been here to investigate recently. He would have to inquire who it had been and see to his condition. Daim was concerned for the health of whomever had come if they had foolishly wandered through the field of dangerous blossoms.
“The magical linkage in the tower metal has been disrupted,” Juda said as they approached the massive structure. Daim had observed the same, and could even see where the metal looked different where this had happened. Fortunately it only extended up the tower three to four times a man’s height. Above that the tower appeared intact, so they wouldn’t have to replace the entire structure.
“We’ll have to replace the infected metal. Even with the plants, which I am certain are the ultimate cause of the problem removed for now, the infection might continue to spread. What do you think Hobar?”
Hobar used his magic to sample the tower metal. “It is clearly damaged. I cannot argue the likely cause, but I believe if we replace it, the towers can be activated once again. We will need a supply of tower metal, however. I can go and get it,” he offered.
Daim nodded his agreement. The Council had built a facility that was located on the edge of the Ruins and stored a large supply of the special metal used in the towers. Hobar could use his magic to create a Bypass to go there and then bring what was needed back here.
As Hobar walked off a couple of dozen paces before creating his doorway, Daim looked around to check the efforts of the wizards who were busy clearing away the infestation. More than a dozen burned Hoplani corpses were scattered around the field and most of the flowers had been eliminated as well.
“What do you think, Juda?” Daim asked.
“I am uncertain,” she replied honestly. “Something certainly affected the tower, but do you really think the flowers are responsible? I have heard that you believe they are responsible for a number of deaths as well.”
“The flowers are something new. There are no records of their existence in any of the texts. Shortly after the presence of the Rift was discovered, they started to appear. It must be the source of them. Since the Rift, more frequent failures and unexplained events than ever in our recorded history have occurred. And still there are those who don’t see the problem.”
“I would like to study them more closely,” she said.
“Take great care if you do so. Make sure you are not exposed to them, Work at a distance or with them carefully contained. If what I fear is the case, you could be risking your very life in doing so.”
Their discussion was interrupted when Hobar suddenly returned, a large cylindrical mass of metal preceding him as it floated above the ground seemingly materializing out of nowhere. Hobar followed after it, and allowed it to sink to the ground. He closed the Bypass and turned to Daim. “This should be more than enough.”
It took them almost a glass, Daim stripping the old metal away while Hobar and Juda applied a new layer of the metal immediately behind him wrapping around the tower as they worked upwards until all of the damaged areas had been eliminated. Once they had completed the task, Daim reactivated the tower. It came to life, but was unable to connect to the neighboring towers which were damaged as well.
“We’ll have to repair the others before we can close the link,” Hobar said stating the obvious.
It took the rest of the afternoon to repeat the process at the towers on either side. Tower forty-one was surrounded by a large herd of the Hoplani for some reason, and it had taken some time to eliminate the beasts. Daim had used his incredible power to send out flat sheets of Brightfire rather than simple bolts which were all the others could manage. The sheets cut through dozens of the creatures at a time. If every wizard could control Brightfire like he could, there might be a chance to eliminate the beasts entirely. Past attempts had always fallen short, and while the herds were thinned, within a couple of years they returned in large quantities. Hence the towers and the barrier they presented to the creatures.
With the last of the towers repaired, Hobar stayed at the last to be mended, while Juda and Daim each went to one of the others. When re-linking a single tower to the system, a wizard could do it easily, but with multiple towers down someone with the proper skill had to be physically located at the site of each downed tower. It was then a relatively simple matter to activate the fields. Sure enough, within moments of their mentally linked agreement to proceed, the slightly greenish barrier sprang into existence, disappearing into the distance and extending between the towers. The Hoplani would be trapped in the Ruins again. Someone would have to hunt down those that had gotten through while the barrier was down, but that wouldn’t be Daim’s problem. He needed to get the Council to establish a crew that regularly visited each tower and made sure that none of the flowers were able to gain a foothold. He wondered if Juda was right and that modifications could be made to the towers so that they wouldn’t be susceptible to the destructive blossoms. Something needed to be done as the plants were becoming more common all the time. Just last week he’d burned a bush that had been growing right outside the Citadel. They were no longer confined only to the Ruins.
Chapter 59
“You have been preoccupied,” Naeem said, looking across the small table toward Daim. He hadn’t seen much of the senior wizard in a number of weeks.
“I have been busy. There is much
to be done.”
“The Council has requested your presence more than once and you failed to appear. Now you insist on coming before them. What am I to think?”
“They continue to believe the Rift is not a problem, at least not one significant enough to require action. I now have more proof that what has been happening indeed originates from the Rift.”
“It is true that many are not as concerned as you. Opinions vary on the matter. Something has been happening, but few can see how the anomaly in the Ruins could be at fault.”
“Those who deny the risk are fools. They must be the leaders who spend all of their time in chambers and don’t get out to see the world and what is happening.”
“There are those who claim you have become extreme in your old age,” Naeem said softly. “You used to be more tolerant in your views.”
“The world wasn’t at risk before,” snapped Daim. His eyes flashed his annoyance. He was tired of dealing with those who couldn’t see what was before them, or worse, hoped it would simply go away in time. “Have they not consulted the Seers?”
Naeem nodded. “The Seers are of little use. They claim the end is coming, and that no matter what action is taken the result will be the same. The world as we know it will not last much longer if one is to believe them. They cannot say how long or the exact cause. You know how they are.”
“Indeed I do. But in this case I believe what they are saying makes sense. I have spoken with Frad, and he sees the same ahead of us.”
“Frad? He is not viewed favorably by most. He lives in exile and no one seeks his visions any longer.”
“I do. He is not liked because he is deformed and has abysmal personal habits. But he is stronger and more insightful than a dozen others tasked against him. He has been very revealing and I find nothing in my studies that suggests he might be wrong.”
“I would not mention to others that anything you believe was supported by Frad. It will only weaken your case,” Naeem suggested.
Daim nodded, and changed the subject. “How about the towers? They’ve been running smoothly enough since you’ve had teams blasting away any flower concentrations, haven’t they?”
“I’m sure you already know the answer to that. We have to check each tower at least twice a week. We’ve only had two failures in the last two months. That’s still a lot, but less than we were seeing, and those haven’t resulted in damage to the metal of the devices.”
“You can see that I was correct that the flowers are the root of the problem that we were having. That should tell you something. The remaining two failures weren’t caused by the flowers,” Daim explained. “In each case a pair of towers went down at the same time didn’t they?”
“Yes, but …”
“The Rift has been releasing other things of late. Both a kind of bird and an animal roughly the size of a small dog. They impact the barrier between towers causing a feedback which brings down the tower on either side.”
“No one has said anything about these creatures. How do you know about them?”
“No one wants to put the time in to understand the problem as I have.”
“Suppose you are right and that everything that has been happening is tied to the Rift. Why are the towers so susceptible? They were designed to be impervious to almost everything.”
“Everything that was known about. These things from the Rift are attracted to magic, and are deadly to it. Hobar and I ran some experiments. We set up a pair of fake towers, much smaller than the real thing. One was activated with magic and the other wasn’t. Within a week the one we had energized had hundreds of times more flowers clustered around the base which were eating away at it. There is no question there is an attraction.”
“That’s why I haven’t seen much of you recently, isn’t it? You have been busy with these special towers.”
Daim shrugged. “That and other things.”
Realization dawned on Naeem. “You’ve been going to the Rift. You know that the Council has forbidden that.”
“Arrogant fools! No one dictates to me. Nothing is off limits to me! They’d be wise not to even consider such a move.”
“What have you been doing?” Naeem asked, concerned that his former mentor was risking censure from the Council.
“We have been …”
“We?” Naeem interrupted. “You and who else?”
Daim looked at his former apprentice sharply, his annoyance clear in his eyes. “Myself, Hobar, and of course, Juda,” he said finally. “No one ever gave the Council oversight over what a wizard studies, and they have no right to assume it now.”
Naeem didn’t know how he was going to dance around this matter the next time he met with the members. Before he had been unaware, but should any ask him now if he knew, he would be unable to hide his new awareness. Deceit wasn’t part of his set of skills. Of course, if Daim were seeking to speak with the members of the Council, it was likely his activities would soon be known by all, letting him off the hook. “I assume you learned something or you wouldn’t be seeking a meeting with the Council now?”
Daim nodded. “In addition to confirming that the Rift is the source of our problem, Juda believes she has found a way to close the fissure.”
“I am unaware of everything that has been done to study the problem, but I know the Council has decided that taking any action against the Rift has been deemed too dangerous. If something went wrong the Rift might well expand and destroy the world entirely. That in part is why they had dictated that everyone should stay away.”
“So at least they are aware the Rift poses a danger. I wouldn’t have given them even that much credit. What no one seems to understand is that the Rift is already destroying our world, slowly and subtly, and it will destroy all we know if left alone.”
“There is no evidence of that,” Naeem objected.
“On the contrary, there is a great deal if one only looks. How many wizards have died in the last six months?”
“Too many,” Naeem admitted. “More than I can ever recall, but what does that have to do with the Rift?”
“The flowers and creatures from the Rift are attracted to magic and have the ability to destroy it and those associated with it. We are far more susceptible than those who don’t have the gift of magic. You must be aware that the number of wizards who have been exposed to the flowers in the Ruins and died shortly afterwards is abnormally large.” Daim knew that Naeem was aware, but wanted the man to think about the connection.
“There must be another cause. The increase in deaths is a recent occurrence. Many encountered the flowers and worked with them without problem when they were first discovered.”
Daim nodded. “The early appearance of the flowers represented immature plants. They had not yet developed the deadly spores that are the root of the problem. That is no longer the case. Mature plants have now spread across the Ruins and are even encroaching on the settled lands now. Soon they will be everywhere in ever increasing numbers. These plants must now be considered deadly.”
“You are suggesting that anything or anyone with magical ability will be destroyed by these plants? That is why the Seers are saying our world will be forever changed. Ours will be a world without magic?”
“It is worse than that. More than magic will be affected. Unless something is done, nothing of our world will remain much longer. Even those without magical ability will be destroyed.”
“So the Seers are right?”
“They are right that we have lost the war. We might yet win a battle or two, but the world we live in will be forever changed no matter what we do. There is a chance we can salvage something, but prompt action is required.”
“Why are you so certain of this?” Naeem asked.
“How many towns and villages have been afflicted with the spreading sickness in the last month?” Daim asked.
“I don’t know the number, but it is not small. Fortunately our wizard healers have been able to control the outbreaks and bring it un
der control.”
“I know of two villages that have been completely wiped out,” Daim countered.
“That was before our healers learned how to control the spread,” Naeem objected.
“The disease is a result of the flowers spreading into inhabited areas,” Daim explained. “The spores affect those without magic as well. The effects are different, and some actually survive, but the death rate is very large compared to other illnesses. Also, the disease can be spread between persons. Once the plague is established, no longer do the flowers even need to be present. As the flowers spread, the disease will become more widespread. Before long the flowers will exist in all of the known lands. The presence of the Rift not only ensures more will be released, but it also somehow helps sustain them.”
“The healers will deal with it,” Naeem objected.
“How many healers have you lost as they battle the disease?”
“There have been losses. Not so many.”
“That is not typical, is it? Wizard healers seldom are afflicted or affected by the diseases they treat. In fact, they are the least likely among us to become ill. Most live very long lives because they are generally immune to everything because of their power. I’ve heard that over fifty have died attempting to treat this breakout. There are not so many of them that this can continue. What happens when there are no more healers? What will halt the spread of the disease then? I’ve learned that nothing short of the magic of the healers has had any effect.”
Naeem sighed. “There is a growing concern among the people. We thought an answer had been found, but you are right that healers have been dying at a growing rate. Once infected they cannot heal themselves nor can their fellows do anything to help them. Within a day or two of contracting the disease they weaken and die. You really think something can be done by attacking the Rift?”