jmclarke
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Chapter 737: Doing the Maths
🕑 Added 2023-12-12 18:23:42 +0000 UTCFor three hundred years, Kelda of Clan McCallum’s sanctum had been silent. For three hundred years, her laboratory had been dark. For all those many years, no living soul had walked its floors.
But no more.
In recent days, it had stirred, coming to life with activity.
When Birger wasn’t busy with other tasks, he’d be cooking meals in the unremarkable, galley kitchen that was equipped with enough stoves, ovens, and hearths to make meals for eleven people at a time.
Through a door at the end of the galley, was the panty; a narrow, deep room loaded with food supplies; dried beans, ground grains, rice, oatcakes, flour, salted meats, dried fish and an array of hard cheeses. A glyph—emanating, preserving magic—was etched in the ceiling, letting the staples last for all this time.
A magical fountain provided water, continuously pumping and circulating clean water into a barrel shaped vessel.
Across from the fountain, stood Birger, towering over the stove, frying salt cod and beans for a simple, but filling breakfast. The kitchen lacked spices—except for pots of ground salt—which meant meals were bland, but what they lacked in flavour, the giant made up for in quantity. No one would go hungry if he had anything to say about it.
When he’d finished his preparations, he scraped the meals onto three tin platters, picked them up, and floated—thanks to Alex’s flight magic—to a portal at the end of the galley, across from the pantry.
He drifted through the portal, emerging in the laboratory.
Bjorgrund was there, hard at work.
The young giant was moving across the floor, carrying heavy equipment from one end of the lab to the other, placing it on a spot Alex had outlined in chalk.
He exhaled, wiping his brow, looking up at his father and nodding. “Breakfast time already?”
“I thought you might be hungry by now,” Birger said, looking over the lab. “This place looks a lot different.”
Kelda's machinery—which had been thrown into disarray by the disaster that claimed her soul and those of her assistants—was mostly rearranged. When the trio had first found the sanctum, the lab was in chaos, frightening in some ways—with strange looking, mysterious devices scattered about, lying haphazardly around the room—but all of that had changed.
As Alex went over Kelda's notes, he’d made up a floor plan, and Bjorgrund rearranged everything according to that plan. Now, those strange devices were organised—with plenty of room to manoeuvre around them—even for the giants. It definitely didn't make the room feel homey, but it did make it feel less like a torture chamber.
They’d made other practical changes as well. Originally, the only doors leading from the lab, led into the eleven bedrooms. Now, dozens of portals had been created in the walls, each one leading to a different room within the sanctum. One led to the entrance chamber, with its twin goddess statues and the defaced statue of Uldar. Another led to an armoury filled with leather and metal armour, but very few weapons, while others took them to various trapped rooms throughout the sanctum. The traps were still inactive, all were controlled from the same place: an area where Alex now sat, reading and taking notes.
The young wizard was bent over a desk crafted of thick stone, wide enough for three or four people to sit at. Numerous metal handles protruded from the stone, each one labelled in the Traveller’s secret language. By holding one of the handles and channelling Hannah’s power into it, Alex could control how fast, where the sanctum moved in the world, the portals between the complex’s many rooms, and whether or not the traps were active.
There were maps of each floor of the sanctum built into the control desk. Three circles of light shone on the map on the desk—indicating the three figures of Alex, Birger, and Bjorgrund in the lab.
The spot representing Alex hadn't moved; the young wizard had been working at the desk for hours.
Around him, a swarm of Wizard’s Hands were busy taking notes, recording the information on parchment as Alex muttered, mentally performing calculations. Finally, he sighed and took a deep breath, finishing the last of Kelda MacCallum’s notes.
In front of him were two books: the first was a copy of Uldar’s notes, the second; notebook number twenty-two, the final notes Kelda had made describing her process. He’d taken his own notes and calculations as he’d read, sometimes crossing things out, sometimes circling them.
All across the pages were sketches of the Fool’s and the General’s Marks, with observations about names, the nature of the soul, and deities.
The Fool of Thameland paused, scratching his now thick beard, then continued his note taking.
“Do you think he’ll even hear us when we call him for breakfast?” Birger asked his son.
“I doubt it,” Bjorgrund said. “Seems he's in his own world.”
“I can hear you just fine,” Alex said, though his eyes never moved from the books. “I'm just working on the last bit of the problem.”
“What problem?” Bjorgrund asked.
“Why Kelda’s process failed,” Alex said.
“I suppose that's indeed a great mystery,” Birger sighed.
“Actually, it's not, I think I know why she failed. Exactly why, and it's a damn tragedy,” the Fool said grimly.
The giants looked at each other, then Birger quickly put the tray down and rushed to the young wizard.
“Wait, if you know why she failed…” the old giant paused. “Does that mean her process can be fixed?”
At last Alex looked up, sadly meeting Birger’s gaze. “I think I’ve already fixed it. All I'm doing right now is trying different mathematical simulations, to see if I made any mistakes with my calculations. I'm not going to know for sure without trying the process…but things look really promising.”
“What are you talking about? Mathematical what?” Bjorgrund said.
“There's an arithmetic when it comes to some kinds of magic and alchemy,” Alex said. “Mana input and mana output. How a magical circuit’s engineered will usually let you predict what it does. It means that if you know enough of the variables, you can do some maths to try and figure out what a device might or might not do. Basically, I'm drawing schematics for her magical devices, doing some mental adjustments, and seeing what the result might be.”
“That all went over my head,” Birger admitted.
“It's kind of like building a small model of a wagon before you build the full size one, so you can get a better idea of how it moves, but the idea’s a little more obscure, I suppose. Just doing the maths is nowhere near as good as being able to do actual experiments, but we can't really do that with something like this.”
“Alright, whatever you say—I'll trust that you know what all that means—so you think you fixed it?” Birger asked. “So fast? You fixed the thing that killed Kelda?”
Alex sighed sadly. “Yes.”
“Well, what was it that killed her, then?”
“It's a bit more complicated than what I'm about to tell you…but these are the basics. “He took a deep breath, preparing to explain what had destroyed the only Fool that nearly escaped the Mark. “Let me just start by saying she was absolutely brilliant.”
He tapped on a pile of her notebooks in front of him. “When she started, it’s obvious she didn't really have much knowledge when it came to magic, divinity, or alchemy. The notes in her first book…how can I put this…were a bit basic. It was like seeing someone just starting a journey, and not having all the gear they need to make it all the way. Over time though, her notes got a lot more complex with lots of interesting insights: she gathered together some brilliant minds around her, and also taught herself a lot of magical theory. The crazy thing is that she couldn't cast a single spell: she didn't have any magical background when she got the Mark—and she didn't have the mana pool needed for wizardry—so she couldn't use any spellcraft her entire life.”
Birger nodded. “She’d often ask me to show her magic, because she couldn't do it herself.”
“And yet, she absorbed magic lore like a dry sponge sitting in a bowl of water. She learned certain theories about divinity, and different philosophies about the soul, she learned about alchemy as well as how her own power—Hannah’s power, could be used to its full potential.”
He clapped a hand on his right shoulder. “Combining the theories together with her research on the rune-marked, she came up with a pretty inspired solution to change the Mark. It's actually shockingly simple if you break it down to its basic components.”
Alex looked at a machine, the one resembling a cage that had a table, arms, and blades inside it. “What she figured out is that Uldar places the Mark on a person’s soul. The Heroes’ Marks are basically a fusion of magic and divinity that embeds in the soul. They change the soul, granting new powers—or in the case of a Fool—new limitations. Kelda figured that out when she examined the rune-marked.” He nodded at Bjorgrund. “Your runes and my Mark work kind of similarly.”
Bjorgrund touched his chest. “Maybe that's why the runes glow through clothing. They're on our soul, not just our flesh.”
“Exactly…ish. The runes seem to be designed to glow through clothing, they don't just do that naturally. Thankfully, Uldar didn't make his Marks do the same thing…or I would've been in deep trouble. Anyway, that's not the point, the point is, Kelda realised that in order to change the Mark, she had to separate it from her soul.”
He pointed at some of the other devices in the lab. “She got her hands on some very rare materials—things I've never heard of before—and when they come in contact with the soul, it enters an energised state…kind of like running a current through a piece of wire. Now, since souls are a source of immense power, energising one would be very dangerous. When the soul has that much energy going through it—according to her notes—you're in great danger of it breaking down or…causing a kind of backlash that…well also creates a massive burst of energy that destroys souls, even those near it.”
“Like what happened to Kelda and her assistants,” Birger said solemnly, glancing at the glass coffins in the back of the laboratory.
“Exactly. You might be wondering why she would need to energise her soul in the first place. Normally, you wouldn't be able to tell what's the Mark and what’s the soul if you're examining it…but by energising the soul, it makes your natural spiritual essence resonate. And the soul resonates from Uldar’s Mark… which allows you to actually see the difference.”
He pointed at the cage. “Once you can see the difference, you can start to cut it away. It seems she’d examined her Mark by energising her soul many times and figured out that it had been changed. With runes, though, each one is a single magical…object. One solid piece. But with the Mark of a Fool…it's like a Mark stitched on top of another one. A patch. So what she tried to do was energise her soul so that the Mark would be ‘visible’ inside her spiritual essence.”
Alex nodded toward the bane knives. “She then planned on using those knives to release ‘stitches’ on the Mark’s ‘patch’. Afterward, she was going to use the Traveller’s power to basically teleport the detached patch off of the original Mark, reverting it to what it once was.”
“So, what went wrong?” Birger asked.
The young wizard held up two fingers. “Two things stopped her. One, she didn't have Uldar’s notes, which meant she basically had to guess which parts of her Mark were the new ones that had been stitched onto the old version. One small mistake would damage the whole framework, and start a chain-reaction that—with her soul being energised—well you might be able to guess what happened next. The second thing that got her…might have been even worse.”
His jaw clenched. “Birger, Bjorgrund…the sad truth is that she never had a chance. When it comes to souls and spirits…names are critical. You have to know what something is called if you are to truly know it. The trouble is, she knew that the Mark of the Fool was patched…but she didn't know what the old version was called. As a result, she was basically transforming it into nothing…so nothing is what she became. Without knowing what she would become…there was no hope of the process working. Not ever.”
“It was all in vain…” Bjorgrund said sadly.
“No, she went down fighting,” Birger said sternly. “And sometimes that's what counts.” He looked at Alex. “But still, it's better if her sacrifice had helped. You sound like you have the things she didn't have.”
“I do,” Alex said. “Her process was nearly there…it didn't take a lot of modification to turn it into something that I think will work.”
“Then…what's stopping us from doing it?” Bjorgrund asked.
“Normally, I’d tell you there has to be a whole bunch of safety procedures…the need for experimentation to test the hypothesis before we went onto working with a human subject, and so on…” Alex said. “But I am literally the only person in the world that could serve as an experimental subject…and I don't know how much time we have for strict safety procedures and waiting.”
“So that means…” Bjorgrund began. “That we could start real soon?”
“Now, preferably,” said Alex. “I've lived with this Mark for a long time; it’s been causing a lot of suffering for a lot of people, including taking Kelda's life and soul, and the lives and souls of her assistants. We have bloodthirsty people hunting us, and the Mark of the Fool will just allow them to kill us because I can hardly defend us from them. It's time for this to end. Get ready for soul-surgery, gentlemen, it's time for the General of Uldar to return to the world.”
###
Author's Note
Hello thirty-seven cool fools, almighty chosen, wise sages, and mighty champions! Thank you for your support!
IT IS TIME. IT IS TIME. IT IS TIME. IT IS TIME.
WELCOME BACK, PARTY PEOPLE.
Cya tomorrow :)
Comments
George R
Awesome- loved the explanation
Scott Schluter
It was long and deep
Enif
I just realized. When he opens the portal to let Birger and his son watch him work he's going to be creating a stable link to the world through which that fae will be able to find him. which means that as soon as he starts he's on a clock to finish before the church arrives to crash his party.
Clark Price
I was worried half of a book would be devoted to researching her notes so this is a relief lol
DuB
"Through a door at the end of the galley, was the panty", oh my!
Jessica
I’m so puuuuumped
Kris Piskorski
He can teleport to generating give her the notes and a day to check and that should be fine
Kris Piskorski
If he's not going to at least let prof Jules doublecheck his work before he starts cutting his own soul I'm going to be very pissed because thats ridiculous and out of character and just simply stupid
Laura López
I want to see what the General can do, but mostly i am excited to get back with Selina and Claygon. Those slice of life parts make me feel warm.
JacksAreWild
Thank you so much for not making this the cliffhanger Saturday
Allastin
Maybe Uldar created a program to do updates every few hundred years or so? It would just take the divinity emoted by his dead body and do its thing. Hmmm, there might be something that might trigger upon detecting any mark being tampered with. Wouldn’t be surprised if the ravager starts pumping out monsters for all it’s worth
Clark Price
I'm honestly glad Alex got to this point no in a chapter or 2. I really didn't want to read him going through notes for 5 chapters lol
Randall Jones
I REALLY don’t want to have to wait till tomorrow!! Lol
Mason
Makes me think tho - if Uldar is dead, how did the divine Marks get pushed down? Wonder if he will fix one problem but open another.
SherbertSheep
YES IM SO EXCITED PLEASE LET IT BE TOMORROW
Voror
Very exciting! And like I'd been wondering, it turns out that with the knowledge Alex has combined with all the work Kelda already did he's ready to go. It is sad that for as far as she came she was doomed to fail due to lacking specific info. Still incredible though. I actually hadn't thought about the fact she wouldn't even have the background as a wizard Alex had that let him use spells. Now I'm going to be curious if the Stalker gets thrown off next when his ability to track is thrown off. I don't think it would outright stop since he still has the full name but certain things like titles and whatnot that define a person appear to be key perhaps in being able to better narrow someone down.
Voror
Interesting question. I don't believe so since they've already been applied. What could stop working might be specific functions. Specifically those that relate towards divinity.
Michael Sou
Let's goo!
Aj jain-perkins
Argh… another day!!! Feels like this has been building since Uldar’s tomb was discovered!
BelligerentGnu
Fuck. Yes. At long fucking last.
Silver Beard
Kinda wondering what the lizard Prof would do with Kelda's lab. Implode?
Decide
Or! Better yet, I wonder if he could force the patch onto a certain Chosen
Code Reed
Hell yeah.
LEMON
Since he is changing his soul and name wouldn't the fae not know the new name?? 100% the stalker is going to notice a change or not be able to find him at all
LEMON
Alex about to hit that upgrade button. Been waiting for this for months now. Anyone up for some mass disintigration spells or maybe an army of war spirits or maybe a mass bloodmagic spell that sucks the church rats essence right out. Possibilities are endless
Al
I wonder if he can turn the patch material into a very good mana pool 🤔
Skruf
Hannah's the only one who could've done it.
Jay Allen
I would imagine it's a similar reason to why he wouldn't test out his magical body enhancement theory on Theresa or other people he's close with: if he makes a mistake and accidentally causes damage, the mark could go off and he could make ruin or destroy someone's soul. Even if he used people as seemingly singleminded in their bloodthirst as the runemarked, I can understand why he might be hesitant to risk someone not even getting an afterlife. Just my take tho.
Josh Cothran
These nerds eating out of a panty, they need to go talk to girls
ItWasIDIO!!
I'm hoping a variation of 2 gets it done then has to defend right away 1 is kinda cliche & involves plot armor imo
ItWasIDIO!!
Let the stacking commence & damn that's a shame queue John Proctor “I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”
p Sherman
Why won't Alex do some experimentations on the rune marked? He even mentions they are similar...
Axim
Love the last few chapters. But did anyone catch who put Kelda and her assistants into the glass coffins if the sanctum has been sealed and it was the soul blast that killed them all?
Decide
Space Vegas will do that to you.
Decide
I am beyond hopeful that Kelda turned into the fool spirit. I know, I'm a broken record at this point, but Alex did say that she turned herself into "nothing". Maybe there's a slim chance her soul wandered off and turned into that spirit. It'd be interesting if it starts following Alex around and he realizes it's Kelda, thus reuniting her with Hannah. I can dream. In other news, I hope we don't get a bait and switch tomorrow. If we open the next chapter, and suddenly Giant Junior volunteers for the surgery, I saw we riot. Other than that, though, I'm excited for the success of Alex becoming the General! And somehow releasing the True Ravener in the process. When the mark changes, some of the spells I want Alex to learn are the force ones. It would be a great callback. Plus, now that he has extensive knowledge of magical engineering, he can freely, and easily alter the spells on the spot, and even create a business for creating marks! PS: Does anyone else imagine the giants in nothing but loinclothes?
Silver Beard
Kinda surprised Bailen hasn't checked in at all. Seems a little reckless for a Headmaster to disappear so long from his school.
Silver Beard
That's a curious twist. Will it truly change his 'name' that the Fae is looking for?
Silver Beard
Wager the General figured out Uldar's twisted plot to harvest faith power going from resource to liability which had to go.
Sam
Hopefully it all goes well and he can start kicking the churches ass
Silver Beard
Shouldn't he get the 'band' back together for this? Going to hate missing out.
Obi-Wan-Sage
Betting poll.... 1. Bad guys arrive during procedure 2. Alex will test his new mark in the Thieves hideout?
Knight Axel
Damn this is gonna be a long week waiting on these chapters lol
Evander
I am so excited!!! Thanks for the chapter!
Steven Lamb
Hopefully when he becomes the General they fully lose where he is so he has time to learn new spells and take the fight to them
Adunn
If Uldars throne was destroyed would the mark be destroyed as well?
Enif
Ahhh! It's happening!
Stephen
Damn. This chapter is exciting. I can’t wait for tomorrow.
Tom Roettger
I hope tomorrow doesn't leave us with a cliff regarding success. Please make it complete with alex mock-attacking bjorgrund as proof of concept or something! :)
mhaj58
I hope that when Alex reclaims the General he learns how the Fool came to be. My money is on the General needing to lead the heroes to make them stronger together than they could ever be on their own.
Shelbo
Oh wow this is really early
Bru-
Early chapter today
Michael
Sorry, I like to help make corrections
Michael
“Through a door at the end of the galley, was the panty”
