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Prologue

25 Years ago.

Lord Roland gazed up at the strange device he was promised.

“So. The cumulation of your work, our last desperate attempt to stop what's coming, is this… It’s not... It’s not what I was expecting.”

“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover my Lord. That material up there is worth its weight in gold at least, and that’s ignoring the magical properties.”

The both of them stood on a platform overlooking an underground circular room, in the centre of which was a deep pool filled with shadowed water. Slightly above the waterline was suspended a thick ring of metal engraved with thousands of lines of curly spellwork. But that was not what the Lord was looking at, above the ring was an incongruous Cylinder hanging from a chain. About two meters tall and one wide the curious object appeared to be made from a brown, dirty, not quite metallic material, its surface pitted and textured, almost reptilian or bark like.

“I see. Well despite its slightly disappointing appearance you do have me convinced of this... plan Syllia, so please go ahead…. Begin.” He gestured. “Start whatever it is you… start.”

The mage nodded then stepped forward to grasp the handrail. “You heard the Lord, pull out the disablers and start lowering the Cylinder!”

Mages began rushing around the room adjusting intricate webworks of spellcraft inlayed on the floor and walls and pulling chains through pulleys. Gradually the lines holding the floating ring fell away and with them the metal caps and nails interrupting the script engraved around it, allowing the ring to float above the shadowy water under its own power.

Syllia crossed the platform, lord in tow, and entered the measurement chamber. In truth More of a long metal cage on stilts, it was filled with dials, mana conductors and harried looking mages all to observe if the somewhat desperate project could accomplish its ambitious goal.

She leaned through a ‘window’ of the cage and waved at a mage in a red robe “Are all dials normalised Artin?”

“Yes mage Syllia, there should be no residual measurements. If we only get a half-second of mana suppression we should easily detect it.”

Syllia squinted “A half-second? I’ll be disappointed if that's all we get out of this beasty. I bet we get a full minutes suppression at least.”

Artin chuckled. “I hope so too, my projections show that we will need a minimum of five seconds for the plague nuclei to die off.”

“Mine showed four and a half seconds but even if we only get one we should cripple it no problem.”

Artin nodded. “Of course, fingers crossed this works.” He then reached over and pulled a lever, the cylinder began to slowly descend.

“Reaction ring is starting up and beginning to spin!” A mage shouted from across the room, the murmured conversation of the mages grew more excited.

Syllia tapped a dial drawing the Lord's attention. “This measures the ambient mana over a ten-mile radius my Lord, and this smaller dial here measures the mana in this room. If we are successful we should first see the smaller dial dip to zero and then the larger. It shouldn't take much, magical plagues rely heavily on continuous self-propagation and expiration to remain stable, any interruption will be devastating.”

The Lord nodded looking anxious. “I truly hope so, we are drowning in infected refugees I suspect half the city has contracted this awful plague in one manner or another by this point. It’s chaos. If this project doesn't work Syllia…” He sighed. “The lords have taken steps to ensure your team can flee the city safely along with your families, no matter the results.”

Syllia’s hand gripped the dial “Not my family” She said softly but firmly. “I think they…. caught it. They’ve been trying to hide it from me but… there are signs.” She let her head drop. “They weren't careful, but it’s my fault. It’s my fault. I should have brought them here, to the campus, and made them stay.”

The lord blinked slowly. “I’m sorry.” He patted her awkwardly on the back, he was not accustomed to comforting others being a lord. “I should have asked.”

“Ha... It’s okay. Nothing has given me more motivation to get this to work, and with it, I will heal this city. I swear to the gods.” she gripped the dial once more before letting go and straightening up. “We’re here to finish this Lord Roland. Mages! Ignite the spell!”

Around the pool enchantment lines and spellwork started to glow gold, the curly scripture engraved on the floating ring bloomed to life and the ring sped up dramatically. The room filled with an unearthly hum.

Artin gripped the lever that controlled the Cylinders descent nervously, sweat rolled down his head.

Starting from the bottom a cerulean blue glow crept up the Cylinder as it passed through the spinning ring and dipped into the water, seemingly being emitted from every concave crack or crevice on its surface.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Artin jerked the control lever and the Cylinder stopped halfway through the ring. The blue continued to creep across its surface however and soon it was entirely covered. The blue was so strong it seemingly dimmed all other lights in the room to near nothing, lighting the room with eery cerulean light and deep dark shadows.

“It’s beautiful.” Said the Lord.

“It’s not working.” Said Syllia.

The lord frowned.

“The dial should have moved by now, the material is quite obviously reacting, why is there no field generation?” She tapped the smaller dial, her brows furrowed.

“Maybe there’s something wrong with the material? It wasn’t exactly acquired by your usual means due to its ah... rarity. Contaminated perhaps?”

“Impossible. Our analysis showed its pure, there’s nothing in there to deviate the reaction…or Maybe it’s the purity actually, it might just need more juice.”

“Oh, er, that’s not dangerous, is it? It won't go bang?”

Syllia grinned. “No my lord, the material is not explosive.”

She waved to get Artin’s attention.

“Did it work?” he said.

“No, nothing yet. Double the input It could be an issue of purity.”

The red-clothed mage didn't look happy but bent down to modify the enchantments connected to the pool. The golden enchantment lines flickered and the humming noise grew louder, the ring started to spin even faster picking up an erratic motion and the pool started to bubble.

“Hmm, the needles twitching a lot but that could just be enchantment bleed.” She said squinting.

“Maybe the material is different from what you thought, it wasn’t made in a lab like your tests.” Said the Lord stroking his chin.

“No, not possible, the sample we took from it is indistinguishable from the mote we synthesised. The Cylinder is just a version on a much larger scale. Is it getting warmer in here or is it just me?”

“Now that you mention it, maybe?”

She gritted her teeth. “Nevermind. Artin, double the input!”

Artin grunted and shrugged. “I will, but this is the most we built the enchantment for, we’re maxed out now.” He said leaning over a knot of magical lines. “Here we go.”

The humming took on a deeper tone and the rings erratic motion became alarmingly noticeable.

Syllia tutted after a moment and glared, muttering at the jittering needle. “Still not enough, this is quite strange and it is definitely getting warmer in here which should be impossible since supposed to be all internal.” She sighed heavily. “Very well, Artin! Shut it down. We can modify the enchantment for increased power and try again tonight, In the meantime, I’m going to cut out another sample from the Cylinder. Perhaps the ring had an unpredictable effect on it.”

Lord Roland patted her shoulder. “I’m sure you will get there Syllia.”

Syllia gave him a glum look in return. “It’s rare an enchantment works the first time, but it would have been nice to get lucky for once with these stakes. I doubt news of a failed first attempt will impress the others Lords all that much.”

“Oh don’t concern yourself with them, they are desperate enough to cling to any hope you give, set back or not.”

“One can only hope.” She turned and scowled at the spinning ring and now faintly steaming pool. “Artin turn that dam thing off already, this heat is insufferable.”

“...I...I can’t seem to shut it down.”

“What?”

“I’m pulling the key enchantments but it’s still working!”

“Then smash it, break the important scripts so it stops.”

“I’ve already done so, it should’ve collapsed already, it's like... it’s like its going through the broken parts despite being broken.”

Syllia grasped the windows rim and frowned at Artin. “That’s impossible.” She gestured at the other mages in the room. “You lot, strip everything down. We can rebuild later.” Mages turned and began picking apart the room.

“Is everything ok Syllia?.” said the Lord

“I’m not sure, this doesn’t make much sense, perhaps Artin is screwing up… it really is getting hot in here…” she wiped her brow.

“Yes this heat is quite unpleasant.” said the lord adjusting his collar. “Perhaps open a window?”

Syllia rolled her eyes and waved at the windowless underground walls and unbuttoning the top of her grey mage robe.

“Ah right.”

“...Status Artin?”

“Everything’s been pulled or dumped that can be pulled or dumped head mage Syllia. Yet there is mana running wild everywhere, I’m not sure what's happening but I recommend we evacuate. There’s a chance it could be dangerous!” Artin had to raise his voice by the end of this as the hum was growing ever louder.

Syllia glanced at the small dial and noted that the needle had not only failed to go down in any way it was instead starting to rise. She gritted her teeth. “Very well. EVERYONE OUT!”

The Lord jumped at her raised voice.

She turned and strode for the door, paused to look back at the lord. “Come my Lord. Hopefully, this is only a minor issue and it will burn itself ou-”

Half of the ring spinning around the cylinder broke off, it sliced through the observation cage like butter a few feet in front of Syllia and embedded itself in the metal entrance doors and wall, the latent enchantment fizzled and sparking fusing the half ring into the doors, welding them shut.

“-out…..Shit.”

No one spoke for a second then every other mage in the room ran for the door and started hammering on it, yelling and jumping at the still occasionally sparking half ring.

Artin climbed up into the observation cage and put his hands on his hips staring at the broad knife-like cut dividing the cage. “Well. That’s not good.”

In the background, the humming had taken on a frenetic edge as the half of the ring left over span faster and faster and more and more crazily.

“Idiot mages blow the door!” The Lord yelled.

The mages hammering stopped and made space for one, who held his hands up toward the entrance. He paused, strained, and a few sparks jumped from his fingertips. “I-I can’t, n-nothing is happening!” The other mages started arguing and after finding they couldn't cast either they began shouting at each other. One pulled another's robe back and then a fist flew, two fell off the platform fists flying.

Syllia looked at the arguing mages with pursed lips, then she looked from the pool now violently billowing with steam as the Cylinder descended down into it, up to the ceiling which had started to slowly liquify, long thin strands of goop were lowering down like syrupy stalagmites.

“I...I don’t know what this is, but it isn’t the heat, Syllia. No stone liquifies like this.” Said Artin who was also looking up.

Then the screaming started. A mage on the lower floor was holding up his arms, the skin lumpy as though something was moving beneath it. He stopped screaming, collapsed to the ground and started violently spasming and foaming at the mouth.

The other mages froze in horror then all of them including the lord ran to door yelling and shouting.

The walls had started to shift, at first semi liquifying they began very slowly rolling around the room. gradually forming eddies, Syllia could feel the whole observation cage shift under her feet as it too began to be dragged along by the moving floor, everything in the room was moving around the pool.

Syllia glanced to her side, Artin was lying on the ground, shaking.

Syllia held up her arms and hands to her eyes, her skin bubbled as though ‘things’ were trying to get out or ‘something’ was trying to grow.

“Oh, so that's wh-”

She collapsed.

✢❈✧❈✢

A day later the facilities relief team managed to cut their way into the room. They were somewhat hampered by the walls having flowed over the door. The circular room was now a sloping cone, spiralling to a point in the centre. Mangled corpses and equipment were embedded throughout the solidified flow including the other half of the enchanted ring.

There was no ‘Cylinder’ to be found.

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