“Tell me…do you know what a patch is?” Hannah Kim’s spirit had once asked.
Her question had come when Alex was in a corner of the Hells, within the burning maze of Cretalikon.
He’d frowned, answering her with a question, “Like on a piece of old clothing?”
“Something like that. I couldn’t remember if I wrote about that in my book…” She’d taken a deep breath. “In my old world, there’s something we use called ‘programs’. They’re a bit like spells, except they’re made by a central, um, company. Uh, place. Then users of these programs use them, but they can’t change them.”
“Okay…” Alex had said slowly. “But, what’s that got to do with the Mark?”
She’d considered the question, looking as though she was sorting through her thoughts. “Well, when a company puts out a program and they want to change it, they release something that’s called a ‘patch’. It’s new code—uh, a new piece of a spell that goes over top of the old spell and changes it.”
Alex could have been blown over by a stiff breeze at those words. “So you’re saying that somebody…changed the Mark? That it was different before?”
She’d nodded. “After Kelda heard about patches, she spent a long time examining her Mark: the very fibres of magic it was made of.”
“You can break it down?” Alex had asked. “Even archwizards haven’t been able to do that.”
“She had the Mark, she had my knowledge, and she had to build some very specialised equipment using materials you can’t even get in your world. But she built them and used the Mark to get good enough at using them to examine her Mark and mine.”
The conversation had taken place many months ago—though it felt like a lifetime—and here he was, about to learn what Kelda had discovered.
Alex ran his finger along the notebook’s spine as Hannah's words echoed in his mind. He read the title again:
Patch Reversal, notebook I.
Hannah had called the Mark of the Fool a “patch”.
“A fitting title,” Alex said out loud.
“What's it say?” Birger asked.
Alex glanced at the cabinet filled with dozens of books, many were a series of numbered notebooks entitled: Patch Reversal. Twenty-two volumes starting with number one and ending at twenty-two.
“These books appear to be notes on reversing the Mark. Honestly, it's going to take me a while to go through them all,” the young wizard admitted. “I'll have to read, study and examine every word carefully. As for the other books…looks like they're on alchemy, religion, and philosophy regarding the soul. They’re probably reference books she used to help with her research. I'll have to read all of them, and when I finish looking through all the material…”
He took a book from his satchel: a copy of Uldar’s notes “...I'll have to cross-reference Uldar’s notes with Kelda's to see if I can figure out where she went wrong. It could take a while.”
“Sounds like it,” Birger said.
“How long do you think it’ll take?” Bjorgrund asked. “The church is probably still tracking us…if we stay in one place too long…”
“I wouldn't worry about that too much, son.” Birger gave him a sad smile. “Kelda knew how to hide this place from the world for three centuries. And the only reason we were able to find it is because Alex has hers and Hannah's power. I wouldn’t think those fiends will ever be able to find us.”
Alex looked up sharply. “Actually, I'm not so sure about that, Birger.”
“What? Why do you have doubts? Think about it, it took us months to find this place!” The old giant’s tone was bordering on defensive. “Do you really think they're going to be able to just waltz in here right after us?”
“Probably not…but I'm not a hundred percent sure, either,” the young wizard said grimly. “Look, we don't know how they're tracking us. No matter where we went, or how fast we teleported, they found us all over the Empire. And they're getting better at it. I wish I knew what they were capable of and what their limits are, but I don’t. This place should make it a lot harder for them to find us, but the fact is, we just don't have enough information to be certain.”
“But even if they manage to find the sanctum, they’d need to teleport from room to room!” Birger pointed out. “They’d need your power.”
Alex shook his head. “I can think of two or three different ways to get from room to room without it, as long as you have someone capable of teleporting with you.”
“How?” the giant demanded.
Alex looked around the laboratory. “These rooms are part of the same structure, separated by some very thick walls. I can sense where the other rooms are because of the Traveller’s power, but if someone can pierce one of the entrance walls—through magic or divinity— they could get a clear line of sight to the next room, and just teleport there. That's basically how I do it.”
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“Well, what about the traps?” Birger asked, sounding frustrated.
“They aren't active right now,” Alex pointed out. “And I don’t know if they'd automatically turn on if somebody got in here. After all, you don't have the Mark or the Traveller’s power, but they didn't react to you because I’m here. I’m thinking it would make sense that the traps wouldn't be active when Kelda was home. Think about it: if her assistants had to travel from room to room to do different tasks, it’d be a big problem if the traps were constantly trying to kill them.”
Alex spread his hands. “The other problem is we don't know what the First and Third Apostle’s divinity actually makes them capable of. I’m sure they’d find some way to use their god’s power to move around in here.”
“And even if the traps were on, I think they’d only slow them down; they don’t seem like the type to let a few traps—or a few dead warriors—stop them,” Bjorgrund added.
A long moment of silence passed, then the old giant began cursing. “Shit, shit, shit! I'm so tired of them! Do you mean to tell me that we have to run away after so long trying to find this place? “
Alex shook his head. “No. It's actually the opposite.”
“What do you mean?” Birger looked puzzled.
“Look, it's not all doom and gloom. Without the Traveller’s power, it would be a lot harder for a wizard to teleport here, even if that fae figures out where we are. The way the sanctum moves…doesn’t make it easy. Most wizards would need to have been here before to have the slightest hope of teleporting to it; though by using a divine interdiction, they might come up with a workaround—interdictions allow wizards who use divinity to change a rule of reality to a certain point…” He paused. “Though thankfully, even that’s got its limitations, otherwise the only interdiction they’d ever have to proclaim is; ‘everyone in this area who doesn't worship Uldar, die immediately!’ In any case, we’d be wise to assume they're eventually going to find a way to get in here, even if it takes them a while. Which is actually a good thing.”
“How is that a good thing?” Bjorgrund frowned, looking at Alex like he’d lost his mind.
“Well, I can't think of a better place to face them and finally put them down. If we can find a way to get the traps activated, they'll lose a lot of their people trying to get to us, and waste time and lives going from room to room. If we engage them here, it won't be us who’ll be on their back foot, it'll be them. And if I’m no longer blocked by the Mark’s limits, wouldn’t that be a nice surprise for them?” Alex smiled. “They won’t see me coming. I could fill these rooms with an entire army of summoned monsters and be ready for them in a place of our choosing.”
His fingers coiled around the aeld staff. Its blooms glowed brighter. “And if we strike down their leaders, then the rest of them won't have any place to run to. We'll grind them to paste right here.”
“That assumes we'll have time for you to reverse the Mark,” Birger said. “As well as knowing for sure that it works. Keep in mind, if your soul’s destroyed—and we survive—then Bjorgrund and I will die of hunger and thirst right here in this very sanctum, Alex.”
“And that's why I'm going to make you both an offer,” Alex said. “Birger, you’ve found your friend’s sanctum. Bjorgrund, both you and your father have helped me get here. As far as I'm concerned, the two of you have done enough. More than enough. If you want, I’ll teleport you to wherever you want to go, right now. The church is hunting me and if you want to leave, I completely understand.”
“No way.” Bjorgrund snarled, gripping his axe. “I want payback. That church nearly killed me and would have killed my father if they weren’t so busy trying to kill you and the rest of us. Because of them, we couldn't even go back home.” His rune flashed through his tunic. “I can’t let them just get away with that.”
“Well, I'm the last person that could tell you not to want revenge,” Alex said. “But Birger, what about you? Do you want to take your son and go?”
Birger shook his head. “I want them to suffer for what they did to Bjorgrund and the rest of you…and pay for hunting us for all these months like we were animals… People like them should be stopped. They should get a taste of their own medicine. And besides, Kelda would've wanted you to succeed. You're her legacy, and she'd be damn mad at me if I left you here to face our enemies by yourself.”
“Thanks for that… I'm glad you're still with me,” Alex said sincerely. “Then—this is what I’ll do, when I'm about to start the process with my Mark—I'll make a portal for the two of you to use if anything happens to me. You’ll need to be out of the room when I try to change the Mark, too. I don’t want you dying like Kelda’s assistants.”
“I appreciate that,” Birger said. “Now, then, what do we do?” the young wizard held up the notebook. “First of all, I've got to start looking through these notes. If the two of you could start looking around the laboratory; see if there's anything that looks like a control station for the sanctum. Someplace that Kelda would have used to activate or deactivate the traps. If you could find a map of this place, that’d be really helpful too.”
“We’ll get right on it,” Bjorgrund said. “You're going to want to take a look at my rune at some point, right?”
“Yes, but not yet,” the young wizard said. “I have a lot of reading to do first, thank the Traveller I learned how to speed read when I was in first year in university.”
“Alright, then,” Birger said. “We’re going to find this control thing…then I'll see if there’s laundry facilities or a kitchen or anything like it. We might be here a while, and things are going to get a bit uncomfortable if we can't cleanse ourselves, or eat. We’ll need to talk about how we're going to get food and drink in here, too. If this place had any food stores…they’d probably be dust and rot by now.”
“I don't know about that,” Alex said. “With the amount of magic in here, I wouldn't be surprised if the sanctum's store room could have dried goods in it that’s lasted all these years, especially if there aren’t any vermin around. I agree though, we’ll need that stuff. I’m sure we already smell kinda ripe.”
“Let's get started, then.” Bjorgrund stepped away, already looking around the laboratory. “If we don't know when or if the church’s gonna show up, we’d better hurry.”
“Agreed,” his father said, joining the younger giant.
“Good luck with the search, and before I get started with my reading, I have one more thing to do,” the young wizard felt a flare of excitement rising in his chest.
He closed his eyes, reaching across the distance to Generasi, touching Claygon’s mind. “Buddy? Are you there?”
There was a pause.
‘I am…here…father…’ Claygon’s thoughts reached back through the link. Alex could feel waves of relief and anxiety coming from him. ‘I am glad…to hear from you…how is the search going…are you safe?’
“Claygon, I need you to contact Toraka and Lucia,” Alex said, looking around the well-equipped lab. “We need to arrange to get some equipment and supplies for golem crafting.”
Excitement surged through their link. “You found somewhere safe…to make golems?”
Alex allowed a relieved smile to spread across his face, and loud, giddy laughter to escape his lips. ‘Oh we found more than that buddy. We found a hell of a lot more than that! Get Theresa and Selina: you’ll have some news to give them!
We found Kelda's sanctum buddy! We bloody found it!’