by Blink, Bob
Nycoh was the stronger, but at this task Jeen had the finer touch, so she led the way. She reached out with their minds, and found the crystal of the ring, locating the small opening in the metal of the band where the personality transfer would take place into the subject. She followed the opening up into the crystal, and proceeded to probe deeper into the structure. At first there was nothing beyond the small pockets where energy could be stored. Then she reached where the structure of the crystal was subtly altered. This was where the memory and personality of Daim had been recorded in some manner that Jeen couldn’t understand. She continued deeper into the crystal, guiding their minds and showing Nycoh the storage locations carefully spaced through the interior that she had seen the last time she had explored the interior alone. Once she was certain that Nycoh understood the pattern she withdrew their minds back to the beginning. They would start where there was no information stored.
Jeen located the spot where energy was to be placed, and Nycoh manipulated the magical energies, pushing the smallest amounts of energy into the location. It seemed to be going well, when suddenly the energy reservoir broke. Too much energy had been pressed into the location and the crystal had been unable to contain it. Jeen could feel Nycoh’s frustration and concern.
It’s okay! Jeen passed the thought to Nycoh. There is no information stored near this location.
In truth, Jeen didn’t know if it was okay or not. Perhaps every location had to be filled properly for the ring to work. If that were the case, they were doomed already. But Jeen thought Daim would have been more conservative than that. The ring had sat for thousands of years and had to work after all that time. One would expect some energy to leak and some pockets to fail over all that time. She hoped she was right.
Having learned from the first failure, the next three locations filled properly. They had learned how to proceed. More quickly now, Jeen pointed the way and Nycoh filled each location with magic. Jeen was pleased with their progress, when Nycoh mentally urged her to halt.
What? Jeen questioned across the link.
Nycoh had her look at the ring with her eyes and not just her magical senses.
Risos! The crystal was glowing. It was becoming far too hot. They were moving too swiftly and the ring was in danger of melting.
Jeen paused in their progression and watched as Nycoh brought a cooling air to surround the ring and withdraw the heat that was being generated. It took a quarter glass before they felt they could proceed once again, this time more slowly and with the cooling air present under Nycoh’s control. Twice more the small chambers burst when they tried to fill them with energy. This time, adjacent structure was damaged as a result. Jeen could sense Nycoh’s frustration, but Jeen also knew it wasn’t Nycoh’s fault. The failures had been the result of weakened structure. The ring hadn’t been meant to be exposed to this kind of refilling. However Daim had done it originally had been far more elegant.
Finally they were done. Jeen withdrew them from the crystal, and once they were well away, they slowly withdrew from the linkage.
“Look outside,” Nycoh suggested once they were separate once again.
Jeen looked out the window behind her. It was getting dark. They had been at the task for at least seven glass. No wonder she felt spent.
“I damaged it,” Nycoh said, taking blame on herself.
“It wasn’t designed for what we did,” Jeen said. “The damage was small. With luck, it won’t matter.”
“And if it fails?”
“Then it fails. We have done our best. There is no one who could have done better.”
“When do we try it?” Nycoh asked. “Soon I would think. The crystal did not feel strong. I doubt it could be recharged again, and it could fail easily.”
“I’m spent, but I fear you are right,” Jeen said. She looked at the ring on the table. Outwardly it looked the same, but now she could detect the contained energy within. When Rigo had first found the ring he hadn’t been elevated to a full wizard and his senses had been dull comparatively, otherwise he would have known immediately the ring had been charged and waiting.
“I’m going to send for Uona,” Nycoh said. “We should speak to her before proceeding. If she agrees, I suggest we make the attempt immediately.”
“I want to be there,” Uona said, after they explained what they planned to do to Brice. Jeen had explained the risks, but also the potential benefits.
“You must realize if this goes wrong, we could be forced to destroy him,” Nycoh warned. “There were minor problems charging the crystal, and that could result in unanticipated side effects.”
“Even if we are successful, it won’t be Brice who awakens,” Jeen cautioned Uona. Jeen had been there when Rigo had woken up after putting on the ring, and the change had been very disconcerting.
“I understand,” Uona said softly. She was a small woman, with short brown hair and a slim body. “I am certain Brice would have wanted you to try, but I cannot agree and then let his body be used without being a part of it. I know it won’t be him if this works, and I will have to let him go as you have explained how Daim is. Do you understand how hard this is?”
Jeen smiled and nodded. She knew how difficult this had to be for Uona. “Let’s go then. We don’t feel confident our patchwork on the ring will last.”
The three woman made their way to the room where Brice had been cared for these many weeks. He looked pale and shrunken, despite the best efforts of magic to keep him alive and physically sound.
“He won’t be as strong as Daim was,” Jeen pointed out. “Nor even as strong as he was when he shared Rigo’s body. Brice was never as strong as Rigo, and after all this time, who knows what to expect.”
“We don’t need his magical strength,” Nycoh said. “We need his knowledge and wisdom.”
“Who is going to place the ring?” Jeen asked.
“I will,” Uona said. “I should be the one.”
Jeen handed the ring over to the young woman.
“I can’t tell you exactly what to expect,” Jeen said. “When Rigo put on the ring, he collapsed for a short time. Brice is already in a coma-like state, so we won’t see the difference. It might also take longer. We don’t know how Brice’s current state will affect the transfer, nor how effective our recharge will be.”
Uona nodded, then knelt beside Brice’s form. She reached out and pushed a lock of hair from his face, a small tear trickling down her cheek. She bent and planted a kiss on his lips, then taking a deep breath, lifted his left hand and carefully slipped the ring onto his finger.
At first nothing happened. Uona stood up and stepped back to stand beside Jeen and Nycoh.
“Nothing appears to be happening,” Uona noted.
“It looked that way after Rigo collapsed,” Jeen said. ‘We need to be patient.”
“That doesn’t look good,” Nycoh said, and pointed to the ring. It was glowing brightly and the metal of the base was melting. With a sharp flash the ring exploded, pieces dropping away.
“Curse Risos!” Jeen swore. “We must have damaged the ring more than I believed when we charged it. Something failed and it couldn’t contain the energies.” She looked at the few pieces scattered around the floor next to the bed and the burn on Brice’s finger. “We won’t be able to try again.”
“Jeen,” Nycoh said softly.
“What?” Jeen asked sharply, her sense of failure strong. She’d been so certain. Then she saw where Nycoh was looking. A pair of deep blue eyes looked back at her from Brice’s body. There was intelligence there once again, something that had been missing for so long. But the eyes looked old and knowing. Jeen had seen them before.
Chapter 36
Daim opened his eyes with a start. He noted the three women who were standing next to him. That was unexpected. So was the place in which he found himself. It took only moments to verify it wasn’t his own. A transfer had taken place as he’d hoped, but this wasn’t his hideaway. He didn’t recognize this place
at all. He monitored the body he’d been given for strength. The nodes were all activated, not what he’d expected to find, but the abilities were horribly weak. Weaker even than two of the women next to him. Had the staff failed him somehow? It was to have chosen a wizard with more capability than he appeared to have. Even one of the women would have been better, and the staff had not been precluded from selecting the opposite sex, as strange as that would have been. No, something else was at work here.
“Where am I?” he asked, finding the voice scratchy as though it hadn’t been used in a long time.
“Master Daim,” Jeen said formally. “Welcome back. You are at a place you helped build on the edge of the Ruins.”
He found the words a bit strange, as if the language had been altered by the passage of time, but he could make them out. “You know my name?” He asked caught off guard. “How can that be, and why am I not where I expected?” His voice remained ragged, and to the women his words were oddly accented.
One of the women, a young brown haired girl who had tears in her eyes, handed him a skin filled with water. He found he needed help sitting up, and his arms felt weak from disuse as he reached hesitantly for the liquid. He was not yet fully in control of the body nor fully adjusted to the realization the transfer of his memories had worked.
“There is much you need to know,” Jeen continued. “Much has changed and a great deal will surprise you. To begin, this is not the first time you have returned to this world. This is the second time you have been transferred into a body.”
“The second time,” Daim parroted. “That is nonsense. The ring was designed for a single use.” Already his mind was sensing the change in the language and adapting. He could feel himself becoming more lucid.
“We were able to recharge it,” Nycoh said. “A need has arisen for your help, and we brought you back. How do you feel. Do you feel as you would expect? Are your memories intact?”
Daim looked at the dark haired woman. She was young as well, even younger than the one who had given him the water. She was also quite beautiful. She was strong with magic. He could sense the power in her. The other was only marginally weaker, but had skills even the strong one didn’t possess.
“Why am I so weak?” Daim asked. “And what are your names? It would make it easier to converse if I knew who you were.”
Nycoh introduced them and explained who they were. She also explained that the body in which he found himself had been damaged in a fight with the Hoplani, and had been appropriated for this attempt to bring him back. Now that someone occupied the body, it would be a matter of a little food and some healing magic and he would rapidly regain his strength.
Daim listened to Nycoh’s explanation somewhat impatiently. He had never been a patient man, and there was much that needed to be done. Of course, if this woman was telling him the truth, perhaps it had already happened.
“If you are telling the truth and this is the second time I’ve come back via the ring, where is the other version of myself? You said this body was harmed by the Hoplani. Has that battle not been won?”
“You originally came back later than you expected,” Jeen said. “I was there when it happened. As you expected, that took place in your secret hideaway in the Ruins. The first of your staffs failed for some reason, and the second also didn’t perform exactly as planned. The body selected failed to be transported to your intended location, and it was almost ten years later when the wizard that had grown into that body found his way to where the ring waited. After he placed it on his finger, you and he shared the body for a time.”
“What a disaster,” Daim moaned, and lay back on the pillow. Then he peered at Jeen with Brice’s eyes. “What about the Hoplani. Did we activate the barrier?”
“That task was successful, but it took a very long time. There were far too few of us with the gift. It has now been more than ten years since the barrier was brought back to full operation.”
Daim seemed to relax somewhat. “Thank the gods!” he said softly. Then he looked at the women. “The other version of myself is gone now, of course.”
“Yes, Nycoh said. “How did you know?”
“That would have to be the case. If the body was already occupied with an intellect, the two would have fought and eventually gone mad, or if the other was extremely strong, then my overlaid personality would have surrendered and eventually faded away.”
That’s what happened,” Jeen said. “One day Rigo said you simply weren’t there any longer.”
“Rigo?” Daim asked.
“Rigo was the wizard who owned the body that your staff selected,” Jeen told him.
“Where is this Rigo now?” Daim asked. “I want to speak with him.” Daim spoke suddenly with some of the self assurance that Jeen remembered.
“That will be a bit of a problem,” Nycoh said.
“Part of the reason that you felt it necessary to bring me back?” Daim guessed.
“One part,” Nycoh agreed. “Much has happened. The Hoplani, and their larger cousin, the Morvane, have been destroying the towers. Rigo has been taken prisoner far across the Ruins, and we have no way to help him. The Three Kingdoms are going to fall unless you are able to help us.”
“Morvane? Across the Ruins? Woman, this is going to require a great deal more explanation, but I am not up to it at the moment. I feel a strong need to rest. I also am hungry. Is there something that can be done about that? Perhaps this conversation should be held after I have regained some strength?”
Uona offered to see to food and to look after Daim. Jeen and Nycoh agreed to a full explanation of events after he had rested.
“He’s different than before,” Jeen said as they walked away from the room after Uona had returned with a bowl of broth. “He’s less forceful and less demanding.”
“That could be the result of a lot of things,” Nycoh suggested. “The body he finds himself in is less fit at the moment than Rigo was at the time Daim took him over. He also finds himself in a place and a situation much different than he expected. Finally, we might have damaged him. We know that some areas of the crystal were disrupted.”
“I pray he has retained enough of himself to be able to help,” Jeen said hopefully.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” Nycoh replied. “But we have more hope than we did a mere day ago.”
Chapter 37
Nals, Capital of Sedfair
“What did you learn from the Reading?” Carif asked. She and Kimm were alone in her quarters. The Specialist had been sent to oversee the probing of the woman the Saltique had chosen to be subjected to the Reading magic. That probing allowed one to examine a person’s deepest thoughts and memories. Kimm was a no nonsense woman, who had little sense of humor and had been very effective in her position, having been responsible for such probings more than once in the past.
“The woman had a strong mind,” Kimm replied. “Ultimately that was why we lost her before we had finished. She didn’t submit and we had to force our way past every barrier. The strain was too great and she died.”
“Hopefully you learned something of value,” the Saltique asked, concerned they may have sacrificed one of the strangers with little to show for it.
“Of course,” Kimm replied, unruffled. “We were able to extract a large number of images, many of them very interesting. The woman traveled frequently and widely. There is no doubt that she was gifted, and one of those who was capable of making Doorways. The land from which she comes is varied, and appears to be somewhat larger than Sedfair. I only wish she had spoken our language. Because of her inability to do so, we have to try and interpret the images. They are accompanied with a background of useless sounds.”
“Do you believe she and the others traveled here alone?” Carif asked.
“From what we have seen I would say that was the case. They appeared to be searching through the Wastelands for something. That search brought them here. There were others, but none approached the island of untainted land in
the Ruins where we captured the woman.”
That, at least, was reassuring. Carif had wondered whether a full-scale invasion might be at hand. She could back off on the effort to watch for more of the strangers, and allocate her people to the much more persistent threat caused by the Baldari. She had been running out of excuses to feed the Queen why the border troops were not getting the full support that had been requested. She had hoped to keep the presence of the four strangers a secret until after the Queen had been replaced, now not that many weeks away.
“We also learned there is no doubt their magic has some differences from our own. The use of prepared symbols, and the frequent use of staffs to support their Casting is not required. Somehow, they are able to initiate spells without needing to resort to such preparations. Unlike those who can trigger spoken magic, thereby producing weak parallels to our full spells, the magic of the strangers is strong and effective. Much of their efforts seem to exceed our own.”
“Is there anything to tell us where they come from?” Carif asked.
“From the west, I am certain,” Kimm replied.
That told Carif nothing new. The sketches in the older travelers journals suggested as much. Somewhere to the west, beyond the Wastelands was obvious from the sketches, even if they couldn’t read the annotations.
“How did they manage to cross the Wastelands?” Carif asked.
“They traveled slowly, working their way between the regions of untainted land. Between those, they were able to make Doorways to rapidly return home for supplies, and to continue their journey.”
“There are more of the patches where magic works then?”
“Many, from the images we gathered.”