(20) Look To The Future

Nephthys exhaled forcefully. Had she been too short with a potential king? Probably, in retrospect, but she was annoyed. There had been several attempts to scry Nemesis over the past few days, but she just gained a small awareness, a thought of, “Oh, the enchantments just blocked another scry,” whenever it happened. It was unobtrusive, handled automatically by Nemesis, so she ignored it.

She now floated hundreds of feet above the pyramid, having wanted to use her Gate spell. As luck would have it, not only had someone attempted a divination yet again, while she happened to be outside the guild, but it was Farsight this time. Rather than a brief awareness, this spell felt like someone shouting in her ear when it arrived.

She felt justified for being slightly terse, considering.

On the plus side, it had given her the chance to test more magic. Counterspell was the obvious choice whenever loud, unexpected magic came screaming into your ears, but reversing a Farsight would have simply allowed her to view the caster and his surroundings. Instead, she decided to try chaining a second spell to her counterspell.

The process turned out to be simpler than she imagined, though she suspected her mental model deserved the credit more than any cleverness on her part. In her mindspace, she saw the myriad strings, all vibrating together to create a chord, a spell. All she had to do was smoothly transition the chord into another.

Playing two chords consecutively tickled her mind in a way that was hard to describe, the counterspell chaining a mind mirror to ‘possess’ the caster. Obviously, it was not true possession. Nephthys did not transfer bodies or anything so extreme. It simply paralyzed the victim’s mind while making his body mimick her own.

Granted, this was as close as she was willing to get to the ‘icky’ territory of mind magic. Prelude had precious little of it, but what did exist was unquestionably crossing boundaries. Most players ignored it simply because it could only be used on NPCs, and manipulating NPCs was never efficient because they were not as powerful as players. However, there were nasty implications, now that this world was real.

Nephthys surveyed the Crater, barren and hellish, as always. To her eyes, it was beautiful. Tremendous plumes of mana of all colors swirled and mixed violently across the landscape. A low green cloud clung to the ground in a depression over there, a column of dark blue mana swirled like a tornado over here, probably indicating—

Whoosh!

A geyser of superheated water and steam erupted from the ground, shooting into the air and scalding the rocks nearby, which sizzled where the water hit. Sure enough, as the mana foretold.

This world, or perhaps this continent specifically, was violent and brutal, turbulent beyond prediction, but unquestionably alive. This was a real, living world. The fact settled over Nephthys as it had not yet, always being pushed to the back of her mind. She was in an entirely new, yet also familiar, world.

“Yes, Ramose?” she asked, finally acknowledging his presence.

He hovered nearby, great wings of black feathers on his back. Strangely, they did not flap. They shifted around slightly a few times every second while his body remained motionless in the air. It reminded her of the videos she had seen of birds, where their heads remain centered despite their bodies shifting around mid-flight.

“I merely wished to accompany you, my lady. Much of our situation is still unknown. I would not leave you without an escort,” he said, somehow managing to bow gracefully while hovering.

Nephthys chuckled internally, though it did bridge the gap between her mind and expressionless body. She appreciated the gesture, but the notion of anyone from Nemesis protecting her was laughable. It would be the other way around, if anything. Ramose likely recognized this as well, but something-something-something ‘duties’ or somesuch.

Truthfully, it was only laughable literally right this second, after she had completed her field test of spell chaining. Only now did she feel safe enough to fully emerge from Nemesis, competent enough to cast all the spells in her arsenal, if needed. She even fantasized about conducting a mental symphony of hundreds of chained spells.

What wonderous music would that make?

“Did you have any plans out here, my lady? I might be able to help make preparations,” Ramose offered.

Nephthys looked out across the Crater again, taking in the sight, burning it into her memory. She had to remember this. The world is real. The people are alive. She, for some reason, has tremendous power at her fingertips. She could not use it carelessly, and she could not behave as she did when this world was a game.

If it ever was.

“I only wanted some fresh air. It has been two centuries, after all,” she said.

“Understandable, my lady,” Ramose nodded. He glanced up at the sulfurous, red sky, “Perhaps ‘fresh’ is not the operative word, but it is good to get out occasionally.”

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She chuckled, this time audibly, though it was, once again, a strangled, gurgling sound. Were Djinn actually emotionless creatures by nature, or was it her body specifically that was…malfunctioning?

With a crack that was felt more than heard, a mirrorlike rift appeared in the air behind her.

“Come. Use my gate this time,” Nephthys ordered, having witnessed the poor man fly all the way here from the front gate.

“Many thanks, my lady,” Ramose said.

They both passed through the mirror, and it winked from existence.

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8th day of the13th swell, 1355 PE

Today is an auspicious day. I have been appointed to a project of Grand Importance to the Empire—by the Emperor himself, no less! Me, an average, everyday magister!

My new title is: Chief Magister of the Dimensional Division. It sounds so grand when I say it aloud! Apparently, the Primus of Kankadia informed the emperor directly of my skill with gates. This news shocked me more than the appointment itself. I had no idea the Primus was watching! I would have dressed better!