Wallace

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I sat in one of our conference rooms, the one I'd claimed as an office shortly after we'd first arrived, and considered the organized mess that covered this end of the table.

There were a few of the grey capsules pilfered from smoke detectors back in the city, each of which contained less than a microgram of the material necessary for time magic. Bolstering my limited supply with those torn from the hotel smoke detectors was an option, but one I was not keen to exercise. A conventional sprinkler system could put out any fire that grew large enough, but water damage was not that much better than fire damage. It was much better then to get warned well in advance while the fire was still in a state where I could tackle it with a heavy blanket or fire extinguisher.

Time magic had incredible potential, but I still needed a roof over my head. Besides, the smoke detectors would always be there if I decided to change my mind.

Next, I had small piles of metal grouped by type. Stacks of pennies piled next to scrap wire, and fistfuls of quarters lay scattered beside scrap steel and loose bolts. Aluminium cans from the kitchen had been recycled by Amity into small ingots, and nearby were small collections of silver, gold, and zinc.

We had only a few carats worth of diamond left after Felicity finished her work, but I'd committed them, along with most of our gemstones, from my inventory. Instead, I had only a couple of sapphires, pried from a silver ring I'd looted from someone's luggage, and some pearls cut from a stranded necklace.

Behind me, the balcony door stood open, and a cool breeze blew through the conference room, ruffling the pages of the communication book that sat at my elbow.

I ran my fingers over the text and felt the slight ridges where the metal dust collected to form words and diagrams. There was still no word from Simon, but that's not to say there was no news.

I gave Amity my body sensing bracelet shortly after returning, as aside from Regina, she spent the most time on lookout duty. She also didn't need to sleep, and her wrists were narrow enough to fit the bracelet, unlike Regina.

She and I had intended to build some eavesdropping equipment with parts salvaged from car radios. Still, despite the abundance of components and complete working sets, they were actually too complex to be of any use. A car radio tuner is only set up to watch a very narrow band, while Simon was undoubtedly using shortwave to stay connected over such a considerable distance. That's not to say the parts were useless. It was certainly easier than building a set from scratch, but not much easier.

Amity promised improvements, but for now, the best we could do was watch a broad spectrum for activity. We'd caught a few messages that way, but even with a makeshift antenna sticking up off the roof of the hotel, our reception was abysmal. We knew what we were hearing wasn't speech, but that was about as much as we could tell by ear. Thankfully Amity was able to watch the actual activity by plugging directly into the antenna.

Amity described the signal as 'peaky', with the signal jumping up and down at short intervals. It wasn't hard to guess what they were using, but aside from neither of us knowing morse code, our resolution was not good enough to differentiate the short dashes from the long.

At least, signal strength was easy to tell with the radio in Pelignos having a very different signature from the one carried by Simon's scouting party. Keeping track of these two signatures also made it very clear when a third party started squeaking.

That's when the bracelet came in. The third signal was by far the strongest, so we knew it had to be close, but we watched and waited all day to no avail.

It wasn't until nightfall when Amity had come up to the penthouse in a hurry, hammering on the door. I'd left a very frustrated little fey to sulk while Amity and I had watched from the roof as the outlines of a dozen seated figures made their way through the forests to the east of the hotel. If not for the amulet and the close eye Amity was kept on the radio, they'd have passed entirely unnoticed.

This is why I now sat at the conference table, trying to figure out non-lethal countermeasures for hostile spellcasters. They'd be back, and now there were eighteen instead of a much more manageable six. Prior to this set of reinforcements, the odds had been near one to one. Not a fight I wanted, but one I thought we could win. We had the advantage of a defensible position. While I had my doubts about the utility of brute strength in a battle involving this many casters, the fact remained that we had a significant physical edge over the opposition.

The reinforcements changed the dynamic significantly, and while I could still see a way to win, I couldn't see a way to do it without killing them.

If the opposition had been anyone else, I might not have cared. The fey that had come after Val, for example, I was perfectly happy to put those assholes in the ground. But Simon's toys weren't anything like those fey had been. More than that, they weren't in complete control of their actions.

Whether or not Simon was bullshitting when he said he didn't sleep with those whose loyalty was magically enhanced, he was still sending them into a fight that was all but guaranteed to get several of them killed.

I picked up one of the capsules, considering it carefully, before turning to regard the open book.

I'd been waffling over what exactly to use the capsules on, but I could think of few better uses than this.

I was reaching across the table to grab a pearl when I yelped. My hand slammed down on the surface of the conference table, and I shoved myself backwards, away from the thing that had grabbed me under the table.

My shock turned to exasperation when I spotted Val giggling like an idiot under the table.

"How the hell did you get in here?" I demanded.

"The door" she laughed, "You were so lost in thought that I don't think you would have noticed if the room were on fire."

"I'm certain you could have got my attention some other way."

Val bit her lip, "You look a little stressed. I thought I might help you relax."

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I held the capsule between thumb and forefinger, "I'm trying to do Time magic over here."

Val crawled across the floor and knelt before me with her hands on my thighs, "Take a break."

"Val, I'm trying to work here. I'd prefer not to make a mess."

Her violet eyes remained locked on mine as she licked her lips, "I'll clean up."

I took a deep breath, "Okay, let's just simmer down a bit here," I bent down to pick Val up and lifted her into my lap, "Working. I'm working right now. I'm gonna focus on work."

She settled in with her arms around my neck and leaned against my chest.

Val smirked, "Really? You look more like you need a cold shower."

I wiped my brow with a sleeve, "You need to live in a cold shower," I retorted, my voice coming out a little husky.

She rolled her eyes, "Fine. Working on anything interesting? What's this nonsense you're using the Time mana for?"

I took another deep breath. Sometimes I wondered why Val even had the arousal pheromones. She clearly didn't need them to get me going.

"I'm tired of waiting for Simon to send us a message, so I'm going to use Sense Time to see what's coming."

Val put a finger to her lip, "Hmmm..."

"What is it?"

"I'm just wondering, could you use Time mana to duplicate someone?"

"Wouldn't that be Body mana if it were even possible?"

"No, I mean you could set up a loop. Time mana sends someone back an hour. That way you'd have two- or ideally three -of the same person for an hour. The loop would even resolve itself naturally, as two of the three travel back to appear as duplicates in the past."

"I can't imagine how much mana that would cost, but the mass of the person would probably figure in. At least a pound of material for every pound of the subject, if not more."

"But that mana could come from Movement mana," Val added excitedly, "And Movement is far easier to come by than Time."

"Movement? Yeah, I guess the spell would be Move Time. Or Time Movement? Whichever, yeah, I see how you could address that with a big pile of iron. I wonder how far back you could send someone. Does sending someone back always have the same mana cost, or is it dependent on the distance in time?"

Val frowned in disappointment, "Mmm, it would be expensive to test."

"What is it you've got in mind, anyway? And why do you need three copies of a person instead of just two?"

Val shrugged, "The usual sort of thing I've got in mind, and I suppose two would work."

I raised my eyebrows and shook my head, "Seriously? You want to disrupt the flow of time so you can have a threesome? I don't even know what I'd do with two of you. One is more than enough trouble."

"Gods no, Wally," she protested, "Please, I'm a nymphomaniac, not a fool. We'd obviously copy you."

Val wore a big grin, and her eyes were alight with mirth as I stared at her in silence.

"You do this just to torment me, don't you?"

Val raised an eyebrow, "You don't think I'd be delighted with three of you to keep me happy? Every morning I wake up, I feel lucky just to have one of you," she said frankly.

I smiled, "That's really sweet, in an extremely horny sort of way."

Val kissed me on the cheek, "I try. Now, why don't you tell me what else you've got here," she asked, tilting her head towards the table, "It hardly seems like Sense Time is the only thing you're working on. You mentioned neutralizing fey pheromones. Have you got a way to do that yet?"

"Sort of," I hedged, "Weaken Body could disable your pheromone glands, or at least make their potency so low as to be useless. I might even be able to do the self-replicating enchantment trick I wanted to try back in the city. There's also Protect Body, which I'd use on the sprites. Again, that might also be a candidate for a self-replicating enchantment. It depends on what mana types are present in each of you. For fey, I'd want mercury, and for sprites, it'd be iron."

"You think sprite blood may also contain iron?"

I nodded in reply, "I don't know what metal would cause a creature's blood to be clear, but there's a reason iron is the most common transport medium. It's the most effective. It's no guarantee that's how sprite biology works, but if there is iron in their blood, then they'd have all the materials needed for the enchantment. Their own body for Body mana, and iron for Protection mana. The enchantment would pass like a virus from sprite to sprite, protecting them against pheromones. Maybe that's all we need to do. Maybe it's not. But either way, it'd be a big step."

"Perhaps, but I don't see where you expect to find mercury in the fey. We've already established my blood is iron-based like yours. It just happens the exact chemistry is different, leading to the difference in colouring."

I picked up a pearl and a small nail, "Well, there's an easy way to find out. May I?"

Val closed her eyes, spread her arms wide, and smiled, "I don't see why you feel the need to ask permission."

I cast the spell without comment and found the mercury I expected.

"How much fish is in the fey diet?"

Val opened her eyes and lowered her arms. Her brows furrowed in confusion.

"A fair amount. It's the rare fey city that is not on the sea. What do fish have to do with pheromones or mercury?"

"Mercury levels in fish are pretty high. That's not something unique to heavily industrialized human worlds either. They absorb it from the surrounding water where it collects in their muscles, and when they get eaten by a bigger fish, that fish ends up with all that mercury."

"So the mercury provides the Weaken mana for your Weaken Body spell. Alright, let's do it," she said earnestly.

"Well, hold on. I'm not even sure it's going to work. And even if Weaken Body can shut off your pheromones, the self-replicating thing is just an idea. It might not even be possible."

Val balled her hands into fists and stared up at the ceiling, "Gods, Wally," she growled, "I'm right here, just try it. And before you say no," she added, sticking a finger in my face, "Let's think about the alternative. Say you capture one of Simon's girls. Are you going to practice your experimental enchantments on an unwilling prisoner who you've got shackled in the basement, or someone extremely willing who only wishes you'd keep them shackled in the basement?"

"Christ Val, okay. But I'm not doing it now. I've still got to finish working out the logic. But once I've got it settled, I'll let you know. Though capturing one of Simon's girls might be a good idea. I already don't want to hurt any of them. If we make sure the enchantment works, we could send one of them back carrying the virus. Though I'd want to have Amora ready to swoop in before order in the city breaks down too much."

"Just how exactly do you plan to subdue nearly a score of his spellcasters without hurting any of them?"

I slumped slightly in my chair, "That's kinda the problem," I gestured at the cluttered table, "That's most of what I've been working on up here."

Val patted my cheek, "Well, if you're not going to let me help you destress, then why don't we see if all this bother is really necessary?" She nodded at the book, "Cast your spell, let's see what Simon has to say."

"Promise not to crawl under the table while I'm distracted?"

"Fine," she said with an exaggerated pout.

Now it was my turn to pat her cheek, "Aww, life is hard for the little noblewoman, isn't it?"

Val brushed away my hand, "Shut up and cast your spell!" she giggled.

With the spell somewhat familiar to me by this point, I found it easy to form my thoughts into the necessary structure, and as Val's giggles subsided, I focused my will and let the mana flow.

The substantial distance between Simon and I actually simplified things, as it greatly limited how much our agency could disrupt the possible futures, at least with respect to the communication book. The question I wanted to be answered was straightforward. What was the next message I'd receive if I remained radio-silent?

An unfamiliar hand scrawled across the page, likely Simon was dictating to one of his toys. A sprite, perhaps? Their handwriting was messy, though that made sense if she'd only learned how to write recently, as was likely the case for any sprites Simon rescued.

Simon to Wallace: Dear Lord Wallace,

I regret it has become clear we cannot share these three cities. But I feel responsible for the girls I've brought under my sway, and I do not want to see them hurt, just as I'm sure you do not want to see your own subjects hurt. So I offer you the following terms: Both sides agree not to use lethal force against the other, and when a loser has been made clear, they will be exiled from the three cities. The exiled party will be permitted to take any number of subjects with them, along with any supplies they require. But I warn you, if I win, upon your exile, any subjects that remain behind will be expected to swear fealty to me.

Regards,

Lord Simon