The mage cell deactivated and Nym followed Lord Feldstal out of it. The outer-outer room was just as plain and unadorned as the cell itself, with the exception of several large arcana batteries set up to power the cell and the hundreds of rune sequences drawn on the outside wall. Two men waited for them, one holding the door to the cell they were in open, and the other holding the door that led out of the room.
“Sir,” both men said in unison. Lord Feldstal ignored them and strode out of the room with Nym in tow.
“First things first: the geas. Then we’ll want to do a few more scans on you. Master Healer Doliar will be in charge of that. Then there’s going to be a discussion that’ll probably be far longer than you want. That will involve your future plans. Last step, you’ll be teleported somewhere and given more secure lodgings. We’ll talk about where exactly ‘somewhere’ is once we get there.”
“Back to Ebalsan,” Nym said immediately. That was where all his friends were.
“Really? Not the safest place in the world, but that’s fine. We’ve got a lot of staff stationed out there anyway, so you’ll fit right in.”
Lord Feldstal talked while he moved, not stopping to make sure Nym was keeping up, and he kept up a pace fast enough that Nym didn’t have any time to look around. His overall impression of wherever he was was that it was big and confusing. Everything was made of stone, and not the quick earth-works version he’d gotten used to seeing all the outposts and bases the army using, but real quarried stone. They didn’t run into many people as they walked either.
The two men from the mage cell were following behind at a discreet distance. Both looked military, which was to say big, muscled, and far too serious and grim. They kept eyes on everything, especially Nym. That was probably a good idea on their part. If Nym thought he could have escaped by attacking Lord Feldstal, he would have. But since he didn’t expect he could overpower the older mage by himself, let alone with his two bodyguards, he followed along quietly.
They stopped at a door, which unlocked with a distinctive click when Lord Feldstal channeled some arcana into a ring on one hand and pressed it against a seal carved into the wood. He pushed it open and revealed an office that was far warmer than the stone halls they’d been traveling. It was carpeted, with wooden panels on the walls. Book shelves flanked a writing desk. There were four chairs, one behind the desk and three in front, and a couch pushed up against the wall near the door.
“This is my office,” Lord Feldstal said. “Sometimes it feels like I live here though. Come have a seat.”
The guards took up positions just outside the office, both of them looking distinctly annoyed by the fact that they weren’t invited in, but neither voiced an objection. Once the door was closed, Lord Feldstal rolled his eyes and sat down behind the desk. “The affectations of nobility. Sure, either of them could arm wrestle me into submission, but if this lab ever came under attack, I am the one whose magic would be defending us. And actually, if we’re bringing magic into it, neither of them could beat me at arm wrestling either.”
He rifled through a few drawers and finally brought out a single sheet of paper. It had rune sequences inscribed around its border, and the text in the center was written in flowing script. “This is the geas,” he explained. “Think of it as a magically enforced legal document. Once you’ve agreed to this, the runes will lift the commands off the paper and brand them to your… well… soul isn’t the right term, but it’s close enough. Your very being, perhaps, but it’s not physical. It’s complicated. Regardless, we’ll both be signing one today.
“This details your agreement to keep silent regarding source of the information you learn as part of this Collective, to keep silent on the information itself, to keep silent on the existence of the Collective, to not risk capture and interrogation in foreign lands, to report back to the Collective in three years for renewal, and to not reveal that you are under a geas regarding any of the above. Once activated, the magic will last for five years, so you’ll have some time between that three year mark and when the geas really starts to compel you to return.”
A second sheet of paper joined the first, but this one was mostly blank. “This is the geas I will agree to in return. We’ll list out your conditions, and as long as I am in charge of the Collective, they will be met. Well, for five years, at least. When you come to renew your geas, we will renew mine as well. Go ahead and read this over while I pen your terms onto this blank one.”
Thankfully, it was written plainly. Nym had seen a few contract examples when he’d been staying with Bardin and Analia, and nobles sometimes deliberately made the writing as obtuse as possible in an attempt to screw each other over. He wasn’t sure if that wasn’t the case because the geas didn’t allow for it, or if Lord Feldstal just didn’t want to go through the trouble. If he needed capable and willing mages to do research and experiments, it was probably in the Collective’s best interest not to go out of their way to take advantage of their members.
Nym did not want to sign it, even though it was far less restrictive than any other contract he’d been offered. It didn’t even bind him to work for the Collective, and he couldn’t find a genuine reason to refuse it based on the contents alone, but he found the source highly suspect.
It didn’t take Lord Feldstal long to pen his own geas, which he slid over to Nym to review. It stated more or less exactly what Nym had asked for. He would become a member of the Collective and work to create a technique that allowed mages to artificially expand their soul wells so that they could cast third circle spells. In return for sharing his own techniques and his continued work on the project, he would be given a modest home in Ebalsan, a monthly stipend of ten crests, assigned a body guard not of his choice to ensure his safety until such a time as Lord Feldstal agreed that he was safe, and was otherwise free to do as he liked.
It was… extremely generous, and that made Nym even more wary about the whole thing. It was all too good to be true, even if he was giving up a measure of his freedom. There was even a clause that said he could still travel to another country as long as he notified the Collective and they agreed to it. It was a good deal. He knew he should take it, not in the least because he wasn’t getting out without agreeing to it.
“Ready?” Lord Feldstal asked him.
Nym nodded, trying not to let the dread roiling in his mind show on his face. “Let’s do it.”
Simultaneously, they scrawled signatures across their geases. Everything washed out for a second and all he could see was the rune sequences on the paper he’d signed glowing gold. Reality clamped down on his heart like a vice as the geas wrote itself onto his… wherever they went.
Nym gasped what felt like his first bit of air in forever and his eyes started working again. Lord Feldstal was sitting across from him, grimacing and rubbing at his chest. “Those never do get any easier,” he told Nym.
They both took a minute to recover from the strain of accepting a geas, then Lord Feldstal stood up. “Let’s get to work. I’ll escort you to the lab so that Master Healer Doliar can scan you. I’d like to go over the results with him, then while you get brought up to speed, I’ll make arrangements for your compensation. Do you have any preferences on your home?”
“I… don’t know? What are my options?”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’ll find something suitable for you.” Lord Feldstal hesitated for a second, then added, “A personal favor, if you don’t mind. I’ll find a home with an extra bedroom. Keep my daughter safe. She’s headstrong and thinks she’s invincible. I’m sure she won’t be too difficult a roommate.”
“I think she might have some questions about how I acquired the funds for a house, even just to rent one.”
“Tell her you’ve joined a government research team, but that the subject of the research is classified. It’s basically the truth anyway. Your geas won’t allow you to answer any specific questions, so if she gets as insistent as she normally does about knowing everything, you’re going to be in for an argument there.”
Nym sighed. That sounded depressingly accurate. Once Analia got interested in something, she didn’t just give up until her curiosity was satisfied. That was why he had an air golem spell floating around in his head. She’d probably obsessed over it for days to have completed it that quickly. “What happens if she finds out?”
“Nothing. You just can’t confirm anything. It’d be like asking the furniture questions. She can ask as many as she wants, but you physically will not be able to even acknowledge them.”
They arrived at a room while they were talking, one that was filled with specialty magical tools like nothing Nym had ever seen. He didn’t recognize even one in ten, but he did recognize their purpose. They were all divination tools, used in rituals to help strengthen them in some way.
“Right, here we are. Nym, this is Master Healer Doliar Kents. Doliar, this is the newest member of the Collective. I’m sure you’ll remember him.”
“Ah, yes! Of course,” Doliar said, clearly excited to meet Nym. “I do want to apologize for that rough start you got with us. When I showed the scans my colleague sent me to Under Commander Cremont, well… he was a bit over-zealous.”
“Doliar,” Lord Feldstal cut in, “let’s just get the scan started so we can go over the results.”
“Yes, yes, right away,” the healer agreed. “If you’ll just move over to this spot here. Perfect, now we’re going to do the first scan with an empty soul well.”
Nym allowed himself to be steered through the room and scanned several times by various devices. They did it with his soul well empty, with it full, while he actively channeled a spell, and with his matrix ‘flexed’ into the off state. Once they found out he was able to selectively flex certain node clusters, they redid all the scans a dozen different ways with those patterns.
“That should just about do it for tonight. I do have one request,” Doliar said. “Feel free to refuse this one, because it’s a little bit dangerous. I would like to see what happens if you have arcana in your soul well while some nodes are active and others are not. Will you get arcana poisoning? If so, will it be as fast as a normal mage who’s shifted their entire matrix? Or could this technique be used to draw in arcana and form healing spells to deal with it?”
“A little bit of arcana poisoning won’t kill me,” Nym said. “Should I draw it in first, and then shift the nodes, or the other way around?”
“Hmm… that is an excellent question. What do you think, sir?” Doliar looked over at Lord Feldstal.
“It would be ideal to get scans of both, but… let’s start with the nodes shifted and then arcana added, that way Nym can cut off the flow if he has a bad reaction rather than flooding himself with whatever’s already stored.”
“I’ll start with just a few nodes open, and open more every few seconds,” Nym said. “Ready?”
“One moment. And… go.”
Nym flexed a small cluster, forged a conduit, and fed arcana into his soul well. He’d always thought of it as a liquid. It felt like his soul well was a barrel and arcana was water pouring in. He knew he wasn’t alone in that visual. It had been described in similar terms by many other mages. When that arcana entered his soul well, he knew he was wrong.
Even though it was just a little bit, it instantly pushed against every open node he had and flowed out past it. It was more like a fine mist escaping. Arcana instantly spread through his body, causing Nym to cry out in pain. He cut the conduit and collapsed to the floor.
The mage cell deactivated and Nym followed Lord Feldstal out of it. The outer-outer room was just as plain and unadorned as the cell itself, with the exception of several large arcana batteries set up to power the cell and the hundreds of rune sequences drawn on the outside wall. Two men waited for them, one holding the door to the cell they were in open, and the other holding the door that led out of the room.
“Sir,” both men said in unison. Lord Feldstal ignored them and strode out of the room with Nym in tow.
“First things first: the geas. Then we’ll want to do a few more scans on you. Master Healer Doliar will be in charge of that. Then there’s going to be a discussion that’ll probably be far longer than you want. That will involve your future plans. Last step, you’ll be teleported somewhere and given more secure lodgings. We’ll talk about where exactly ‘somewhere’ is once we get there.”
“Back to Ebalsan,” Nym said immediately. That was where all his friends were.
“Really? Not the safest place in the world, but that’s fine. We’ve got a lot of staff stationed out there anyway, so you’ll fit right in.”
Lord Feldstal talked while he moved, not stopping to make sure Nym was keeping up, and he kept up a pace fast enough that Nym didn’t have any time to look around. His overall impression of wherever he was was that it was big and confusing. Everything was made of stone, and not the quick earth-works version he’d gotten used to seeing all the outposts and bases the army using, but real quarried stone. They didn’t run into many people as they walked either.
The two men from the mage cell were following behind at a discreet distance. Both looked military, which was to say big, muscled, and far too serious and grim. They kept eyes on everything, especially Nym. That was probably a good idea on their part. If Nym thought he could have escaped by attacking Lord Feldstal, he would have. But since he didn’t expect he could overpower the older mage by himself, let alone with his two bodyguards, he followed along quietly.
They stopped at a door, which unlocked with a distinctive click when Lord Feldstal channeled some arcana into a ring on one hand and pressed it against a seal carved into the wood. He pushed it open and revealed an office that was far warmer than the stone halls they’d been traveling. It was carpeted, with wooden panels on the walls. Book shelves flanked a writing desk. There were four chairs, one behind the desk and three in front, and a couch pushed up against the wall near the door.
“This is my office,” Lord Feldstal said. “Sometimes it feels like I live here though. Come have a seat.”
The guards took up positions just outside the office, both of them looking distinctly annoyed by the fact that they weren’t invited in, but neither voiced an objection. Once the door was closed, Lord Feldstal rolled his eyes and sat down behind the desk. “The affectations of nobility. Sure, either of them could arm wrestle me into submission, but if this lab ever came under attack, I am the one whose magic would be defending us. And actually, if we’re bringing magic into it, neither of them could beat me at arm wrestling either.”
He rifled through a few drawers and finally brought out a single sheet of paper. It had rune sequences inscribed around its border, and the text in the center was written in flowing script. “This is the geas,” he explained. “Think of it as a magically enforced legal document. Once you’ve agreed to this, the runes will lift the commands off the paper and brand them to your… well… soul isn’t the right term, but it’s close enough. Your very being, perhaps, but it’s not physical. It’s complicated. Regardless, we’ll both be signing one today.
“This details your agreement to keep silent regarding source of the information you learn as part of this Collective, to keep silent on the information itself, to keep silent on the existence of the Collective, to not risk capture and interrogation in foreign lands, to report back to the Collective in three years for renewal, and to not reveal that you are under a geas regarding any of the above. Once activated, the magic will last for five years, so you’ll have some time between that three year mark and when the geas really starts to compel you to return.”
A second sheet of paper joined the first, but this one was mostly blank. “This is the geas I will agree to in return. We’ll list out your conditions, and as long as I am in charge of the Collective, they will be met. Well, for five years, at least. When you come to renew your geas, we will renew mine as well. Go ahead and read this over while I pen your terms onto this blank one.”
Thankfully, it was written plainly. Nym had seen a few contract examples when he’d been staying with Bardin and Analia, and nobles sometimes deliberately made the writing as obtuse as possible in an attempt to screw each other over. He wasn’t sure if that wasn’t the case because the geas didn’t allow for it, or if Lord Feldstal just didn’t want to go through the trouble. If he needed capable and willing mages to do research and experiments, it was probably in the Collective’s best interest not to go out of their way to take advantage of their members.
Nym did not want to sign it, even though it was far less restrictive than any other contract he’d been offered. It didn’t even bind him to work for the Collective, and he couldn’t find a genuine reason to refuse it based on the contents alone, but he found the source highly suspect.
It didn’t take Lord Feldstal long to pen his own geas, which he slid over to Nym to review. It stated more or less exactly what Nym had asked for. He would become a member of the Collective and work to create a technique that allowed mages to artificially expand their soul wells so that they could cast third circle spells. In return for sharing his own techniques and his continued work on the project, he would be given a modest home in Ebalsan, a monthly stipend of ten crests, assigned a body guard not of his choice to ensure his safety until such a time as Lord Feldstal agreed that he was safe, and was otherwise free to do as he liked.
It was… extremely generous, and that made Nym even more wary about the whole thing. It was all too good to be true, even if he was giving up a measure of his freedom. There was even a clause that said he could still travel to another country as long as he notified the Collective and they agreed to it. It was a good deal. He knew he should take it, not in the least because he wasn’t getting out without agreeing to it.
“Ready?” Lord Feldstal asked him.
Nym nodded, trying not to let the dread roiling in his mind show on his face. “Let’s do it.”
Simultaneously, they scrawled signatures across their geases. Everything washed out for a second and all he could see was the rune sequences on the paper he’d signed glowing gold. Reality clamped down on his heart like a vice as the geas wrote itself onto his… wherever they went.
Nym gasped what felt like his first bit of air in forever and his eyes started working again. Lord Feldstal was sitting across from him, grimacing and rubbing at his chest. “Those never do get any easier,” he told Nym.
They both took a minute to recover from the strain of accepting a geas, then Lord Feldstal stood up. “Let’s get to work. I’ll escort you to the lab so that Master Healer Doliar can scan you. I’d like to go over the results with him, then while you get brought up to speed, I’ll make arrangements for your compensation. Do you have any preferences on your home?”
“I… don’t know? What are my options?”
“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’ll find something suitable for you.” Lord Feldstal hesitated for a second, then added, “A personal favor, if you don’t mind. I’ll find a home with an extra bedroom. Keep my daughter safe. She’s headstrong and thinks she’s invincible. I’m sure she won’t be too difficult a roommate.”
“I think she might have some questions about how I acquired the funds for a house, even just to rent one.”
“Tell her you’ve joined a government research team, but that the subject of the research is classified. It’s basically the truth anyway. Your geas won’t allow you to answer any specific questions, so if she gets as insistent as she normally does about knowing everything, you’re going to be in for an argument there.”
Nym sighed. That sounded depressingly accurate. Once Analia got interested in something, she didn’t just give up until her curiosity was satisfied. That was why he had an air golem spell floating around in his head. She’d probably obsessed over it for days to have completed it that quickly. “What happens if she finds out?”
“Nothing. You just can’t confirm anything. It’d be like asking the furniture questions. She can ask as many as she wants, but you physically will not be able to even acknowledge them.”
They arrived at a room while they were talking, one that was filled with specialty magical tools like nothing Nym had ever seen. He didn’t recognize even one in ten, but he did recognize their purpose. They were all divination tools, used in rituals to help strengthen them in some way.
“Right, here we are. Nym, this is Master Healer Doliar Kents. Doliar, this is the newest member of the Collective. I’m sure you’ll remember him.”
“Ah, yes! Of course,” Doliar said, clearly excited to meet Nym. “I do want to apologize for that rough start you got with us. When I showed the scans my colleague sent me to Under Commander Cremont, well… he was a bit over-zealous.”
“Doliar,” Lord Feldstal cut in, “let’s just get the scan started so we can go over the results.”
“Yes, yes, right away,” the healer agreed. “If you’ll just move over to this spot here. Perfect, now we’re going to do the first scan with an empty soul well.”
Nym allowed himself to be steered through the room and scanned several times by various devices. They did it with his soul well empty, with it full, while he actively channeled a spell, and with his matrix ‘flexed’ into the off state. Once they found out he was able to selectively flex certain node clusters, they redid all the scans a dozen different ways with those patterns.
“That should just about do it for tonight. I do have one request,” Doliar said. “Feel free to refuse this one, because it’s a little bit dangerous. I would like to see what happens if you have arcana in your soul well while some nodes are active and others are not. Will you get arcana poisoning? If so, will it be as fast as a normal mage who’s shifted their entire matrix? Or could this technique be used to draw in arcana and form healing spells to deal with it?”
“A little bit of arcana poisoning won’t kill me,” Nym said. “Should I draw it in first, and then shift the nodes, or the other way around?”
“Hmm… that is an excellent question. What do you think, sir?” Doliar looked over at Lord Feldstal.
“It would be ideal to get scans of both, but… let’s start with the nodes shifted and then arcana added, that way Nym can cut off the flow if he has a bad reaction rather than flooding himself with whatever’s already stored.”
“I’ll start with just a few nodes open, and open more every few seconds,” Nym said. “Ready?”
“One moment. And… go.”
Nym flexed a small cluster, forged a conduit, and fed arcana into his soul well. He’d always thought of it as a liquid. It felt like his soul well was a barrel and arcana was water pouring in. He knew he wasn’t alone in that visual. It had been described in similar terms by many other mages. When that arcana entered his soul well, he knew he was wrong.
Even though it was just a little bit, it instantly pushed against every open node he had and flowed out past it. It was more like a fine mist escaping. Arcana instantly spread through his body, causing Nym to cry out in pain. He cut the conduit and collapsed to the floor.
