Danny sat in silence for a while, mulling over the ramifications of everything he had just experienced. He let out a long sigh, things were just piling on with no sign of stopping.
“What’s wrong?” Henrietta asked.
Danny looked at the woman. He had told her a lot, but this felt a little too big to share with anyone. His level of mana was already causing problems on an inter-realm level, what if people realised that this wasn’t the limit? Danny sighed again. It was all a bit too much for him to try and handle. He was beginning to feel hopeless again. He had finally felt like he at least had a plan, but now things were getting too complicated again.
Tamm was a rat with her own agenda. The zombies weren’t zombies and they, including himself, could grow stronger by consuming each other. Even now he felt the dull hunger that witnessing the conflict had awakened in him. He knew that all of these other cursed beings were feeling the same as him. Their link let all of them know how they were feeling. The realisation of growth had given further cause to their rabid hunger and desire for violence.
Danny was the only being that was anything close to rational and he felt the urge to hunt these other beings down, the others had no resistance to the urge. They had begun to charge through the tunnels toward each other, no thoughts other than brutality and consumption.
Danny sighed for a third time. “Nothing. It’s just been a tiring week.”
Retta looked concerned but didn’t comment. The two of them just sat in silence for a while longer, drinking their drinks. Eventually, Retta broke the silence. “What’s your plan?”
Danny thought about it for a moment. What could he do? What did he need to do? “Confront Tamm? Try to work out what she’s doing, or at least what she knows.”
“That sounds dangerous. I don’t know much about the woman. She came in a few years ago, offering to help Madley with running the prisons and city. Nobody knew anything about her, she came in from Estonia, with no significant history in the community. Her parents were average wizards at best, keeping to themselves. What we’ve seen since she’s been here is a different story though, she completely revolutionised the array systems, pulling together spellcraft that was a global first.”
“That doesn’t happen a lot?” Danny was curious to know more about the woman.
“No, magical engineering is tightly controlled. Grimlock’s Magical Engineering is the only allowed practice and whatever Tamm is doing clearly doesn’t stem from one of their schools of thought.”
“Did she get in trouble for it?”
“No. Madley protected her, and called her an innovator. She’s now technically registered as an approved magical engineer with the Consortium but none of her work is published, which is the required practice. So, nobody except her and Madley know what her spells are, or how they work.”
“Sounds like something the old man would be a fan of.”
“He certainly is, and aims to keep it that way.”
Danny paused to think. “So nobody really knows what kind of tricks she’d have up her sleeve?”
“Not a clue. Every other magical engineer has to publish any work or spells they have. Your average wizard can’t access them, of course. The Consortium keeps a close eye on everything though. Madley stretched his authority thin to stop them coming down on Tamm, but they’re constantly looking for a reason to snatch up whatever spellcraft she has.”
“Interesting. That reminds me, who are the people working for Madley? You’ve called them Madley’s Generals before.” Danny remembered to ask Retta.
The woman paused for a second, clearly deep in thought. “There’s three Generals, you’ve met two of them. Richard Smith, he’s Madley’s right-hand man. He handles almost all of the physical work for the old tyrant, cracking skulls and the like. He’s also in charge of a few teams that handle smaller operations like clean-ups and minor policing, like the security team you encountered at the academy. Then there’s Ester Tamm. I explained most of what I know about the woman, but she also runs the cyber security and information side of things for Aldous.”
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Retta paused again for a moment, a frown formed on her face. “Then there’s Harold Colt. I’ve never met him, not many people have.”
“Is he like Tamm, not much information?” Danny remembered Smith mentioning the man. “He’s the head warden or something? Smith mentioned he used body-reinforcing magic.”
“The opposite actually. Harold Colt has hundreds of stories written about him. He’s almost as old as Madley himself. He was a fabled rift delver, finding a grimoire that taught him a magic that let him reinforce his body with magic.” Retta visibly shuddered as she finished the sentence.
“Is there something wrong with body reinforcement magic?” it had sounded like Smith was keen to learn it from him.
“No, there’s nothing wrong with it at all. In fact, it’s highly sought after and even rarer. There was a massive commotion when it was revealed that Harold had found a complete grimoire.”
“Hang on, what’s a grimoire? I recognise the word.”
“It’s a textbook for magic.”
“He just found one of those? For a rare type of magic? How does that work?” Danny was puzzled.
“There’s a reason people are willing to risk it all to enter rifts, it’s uncommon, but rare finds like that happen and completely change people’s lives.”
“So if he found a complete textbook, how come people don’t know how to use body magic?”
“I believe I told you that Delvers rarely like to share what they find, even if the Consortium tells them to?”
“He just didn’t tell people? Kept the textbook to himself?”
“At first, yeah. He refused to share the grimoire. That’s where a lot of the stories come from and what made Harold Colt the figure he is today.”
“What happened?” Danny pressed the woman.
“I have to make it clear how desirable body-reinforcement magic is Danny. We wizards are weak physically, we can cast devastating spells, but we’re glass cannons at the end of the day. It’s even more important for people who delve into rifts, they have no idea what they’ll find and stories of fighting strange monsters are common. Delvers will kill for access to body-reinforcement spells, tools, or anything that will protect them. Imagine how they reacted when news of Harold obtaining a full grimoire of the stuff came out?”
“Pretty intensely?”
Retta scoffed. “That’s an understatement. When it became clear that he wasn’t going to share they tried bribery, offering treasures and money for access to the knowledge. Harold was apparently very stubborn though, he had no intention to share. So…”
“So?”
“They grouped up and tried to take the grimoire by force.” Retta went quiet, before taking a deep breath. “This was decades ago, 60s or 70s I think and we only have written accounts of what happened. Everyone knows the stories though. Harold is a giant of a man, bigger than you, seven foot at least. They say decades of delving had turned him into more a beast than a man, and the reinforcement magic had only compounded that. Hundreds of wizards came together, with official support from the Consortium. Everyone wanted access to the grimoire. There were big promises of sharing the knowledge with the entire wizarding world, so they recruited a lot of bodies for the cause.”
“I’m guessing it didn’t work out? Given that everyone isn’t using body reinforcement magic.”
Retta shook her head. “No. It’s referred to as the Selmanville Massacre in the history books. Hundreds of wizards died that day. Harold Colt killed them all, apparently. We don’t know much, only a few people survived and few of them were ever of sound mind again. Harold was recruited by Madley almost immediately after, so there are suspicions that Aldous helped him in the massacre, but it’s not like he’d ever admit to it.”
“How did he get away with it?”
“There was a massive outcry, but some of the Consortium's strongest wizards, and some of the strongest Delvers around had all been part of the group that died that day. Harold Colt disappeared into Madley’s prison, supposedly becoming its head warden. He’s rarely been seen since.”
“Sounds like a scary guy.” It sounded almost fantastical when he heard the story, but he remembered how Smith spoke about the man. It added some level of credibility to the story.
“He’s become a boogyman of the wizarding world. Most of the community was alive for the massacre, it’s only as the decades have passed and new wizards have filtered in that the stories became mystified. If Aldous Madley is the front-of-house big bad of our community, Harold Colt is the boogyman who hides in the collective memory of us wizards.”
“Cool, so I should avoid meeting him. It’s also good to know that body reinforcement magic is highly sought after. I guess I should keep that under wraps?”
Retta shrugged. “You were on the news, and all over the internet. I think everyone is a bit preoccupied by everything that’s going on to focus on you. Crazy things are being discovered all over the world. Though, you might want to watch your back when things start to calm down.”
Danny wondered if things were ever going to calm down.