Law of Shadows

“We like new toys. That’s why we like the humans.”

- A memory of the Old Ones.

***Carinthia***

***Magnus***

“So that's it?” Hatlix raises the small bubble of glass and inspects the surface for damage. It's nothing more than a small marble with a diameter of three centimetres. Inside it is nothing more than air and its surface is littered with delicate runes which hold the enchantments in place. It took the two of us three weeks to produce just one of these little wonders.

Grandpa shakes his head in wonder. “I admit that we wouldn't have solved the problems so fast without your help, Annia. What do you call it? Coding? It's certainly an interesting approach at placing enchantments on top of each other. Do you want to learn the craft from us? I think you could become an excellent enchanter.”

I raise my eyebrow and turn my attention to the gloomy teenager who poured all her energy into assisting us. She clearly played a role in the creation of this artefact. At first, we tried to achieve our goal with a single, complicated enchantment. It never worked out and we had to trash a lot of failed attempts.

It was Annia who suggested to stack several small enchantments on top of each other, each of them aimed at creating the spell matrix which we desired. I always did my enchanting like Hatlix taught me to, and he was caught inside the same thinking processes.

Sometimes, it takes someone to take a look from outside the box in order to find the solution.

But once the idea was on the table, we solved the problem of creating a stable spell matrix quickly. It took just a few failed attempts.

Advertisements

Annia shrugs, not realizing what great honour it is to be taught by Hatlix. I assume that he already forgot more about enchanting and artefacts than I'll learn in a thousand years. “If you want to teach me? I am not someone who would deny knowledge. And this enchanting thing seems very similar to programming. I can apply what I’ve learned about computer languages.”

Her eyes turn to the small bubble of glass. The delicate threads of silver and gold which form the runes on its surface seem like they could come off with a single rough touch. “So when will we use it? Right here and now?”

I clear my throat. “Do we dare to use it? Don't misunderstand me. After weeks of work, I would smash that little wonder just for the heck of it. At the very least it'll spell the end of all fae, but it could also doom us all. Just a little mistake in the spell matrix is enough. If this turns into a spell of wild magic, only the gods might know what will happen. If they exist.”

Hatlix clears his throat. “We could demand a gathering and allow everyone to decide? Then using this little marble can't be blamed entirely on us.”

Annia sighs. “Do you really think that it would make any difference? If the spell goes wrong, those who created it will be blamed, no matter what.”

I nod. “I am more worried about the other races. What will they do if we show them what our magic is capable of? Our people are already feared enough, not that it's a bad thing. With this, the others will freak out.”

Hatlix scratches his chin and sets the marble down onto a red cushion. It's enchanted to hover the sphere one centimetre above it to make sure that our weapon doesn't get damaged under any circumstances. “We can say that we could've done this any time we wanted to. It would make us look like very patient-”

“Genocidal!” Annia inserts her own two cents.

“Godlike!” I add absent-mindedly. The imaginary little-gamer-me who is sitting on my left shoulder is already rubbing his little hands. I wonder if there is a game which announces a kill-count after godlike? In terms of MtG, this little marble is the personification of a wrath of god.

“-and restrained beings.” Hatlix finishes his sentence.

I roll my eyes. “I seriously doubt that there will be any way to save our reputation once we let this genie out of the bottle!” I gesture at the little marble. Hadn't I created it myself, I wouldn't believe that it's a weapon of mass destruction.

But then again, my chewing gums aren't exactly safe to eat either.

Annia takes the cushion with the marble on top of it. “Let's go and see the others. They can add their own opinion as to whether we should use it, or think of something else.”

Together, we take the stairway from the basement. I call for Oilell and the brownie appears dutifully in front of us. A few instructions later, she disappears to call everyone into the garden. This is a grave matter, and I want everyone in our community to give their opinion. At least we can share the blame if something goes wrong.

A few minutes later, all the Old Ones and Oilell are assembled. I can see on their faces that they are eagerly expecting a solution to their problem. And we are the ones who are supposed to give it to them. They are waiting in a half circle in front of us. I give Sely a wink before Hatlix presents our creation.

Hatlix clears his throat and takes the cushion from Annia. “This is-” He stops, realizing something of importance. “Hmm. How should we call it? Something like this needs a name.”

“Wrath of god?” I suggest in a questioning manner. Okay, I admit that I am not very imaginative.

“The last device!” Annia calls out and claps her hands together.

Hatlix furrows his forehead and eyes the marble. “Let's name it 'The End'.”

Sely steps forward and shakes her fist at us. “Just tell us what it does! You three were holed up in the basement for four weeks, while we did our best to delay the fae! The siege on Vienna and several other cities was about to be broken several times! The various supernatural races even moved in to help the humans in holding the fae at bay.”

Really? I was so concerned with our project that I didn’t pay any attention to the war.

Hatlix clears his throat. “Fine. This little marble has a set of enchantments on it. Once the marble is broken, the spell will activate and wipe out the fae. But it could also be that the spell wipes out other races too. Or everyone.”

“You want to say that you don't know!?” Fiacre shrieks and is joined by Cecilia. “Old fool! Didn’t you make that thing? Why can't you say what will happen!?”

Leila raises her hand. “Can't we test it in a safe environment?”

Hatlix shrugs. “Yes and no. We obviously know what it should do. And we can't 'test' it, because we designed it to circumvent any known defence or containment. The spell is incredibly complicated and we didn't dare to run a 'test'.

“The enchantments on this marble are designed to create a spell matrix, which creates another smaller spell matrix and so forth until we end up with an incredibly small, self-replicating enchantment. The enchantment will continue to reproduce as long as there is enough energy available. Its nature should allow it to bypass most magical defences. We took the human idea of nano-machines and adapted it to nano-magic.

Advertisements

“The spell spreads like a living organism and should reach every notch and hole all around the world and beyond. As long as there is an open doorway, it will even reach Fairy. The various enchantments also interact with each other and check their surroundings for certain types of organisms. They recognize them by their magical signature, which is very distinct for every race. Once a certain threshold is reached, the various enchantments activate and release a little, localized disintegration spell. Any affected fae should turn to ash in the blink of an eye, or anything that is touched by their magic. The problem lies in guaranteeing that the spell doesn't change or mutate while it copies itself again and again. We tried to keep it as simple as possible, to reduce the chance of mistakes. We also tried to foresee various mutations which could change the spell's intention or turn it into wild magic.”

“We think that it will work!” Annia adds helpfully.

Hatlix huffs. “We think that the risk is minimal, but this is a new field of magic. Much like when we realized that E=mc².”

I look at their faces and try to make eye contact with everyone. “The question is, do we want to use it?”

Hell, yes! I want to use it and go back to playing cards.