Mage Mullam and Mage Roska leaned on the table, facing the blackboard again, as they had done many times in the previous week. Mage Mullan, despite the cooled room, was already pespiring visibly.
“This is impossible.” Roska said.
“It’s been done.” Mullam replied. Roska Groaned loudly.
“Okay let’s start from scratch again.” She said, “Mage Mullam, What is a Spell Dampener?”
Mullam laughed. “What is this, elementary school?”
“I mean I like to remind myself of the basics when I’m working on a hard problem.” Roska said. “Just humor me.”
“Well, a Spell Dampener is a meta-spell.” Mullam replied.
“How does it work?” Roska asked
“It creates a two sided membrane that sucks in concentrated energy from one side and diffuses it over the other side.” Mullam replied.
“And why is this so difficult to get around?” Roska asked.
“Because every spell concentrates energy at least once during its execution.” Mullam said.
“Spell concentrates, triggers dampeners that sucks in that concentrated energy and disperses it, etc.” Roska said.
“So in order to get around that we would have to invent a spell that doesn’t concentrate energy?” Mullam asked.
“How would you even do that?” Roska laughed. “The entire point of Magic is to collect ambient energy from nature and use it to do things!”
They sat in silence for a while, then Mullam’s heartbeat began to pound audibly.
“A wave?” Roska asked.
“Yeah…” Mullam said. “But I’ve run out of wave spells.”
“Oof,” Roska said. “You know I’m working on a way to know who’s waving to you even if you don't have a wave spell to respond with. So if it doesn’t go through, you know who to wave back to.”
“And how’s that going?” Mullam asked. She was about to answer when the door burst open and Binko burst in with a speed spell.
“Mullam you idiot!” she screamed. “Always have a wave spell on you! Pirun has been attacked again!”
--
Three hours Earlier, Lakan, Hark, and Lara had infiltrated Pirun by hiding under different wheeled wagons containing goods that Lakan’s contact sold to different traders in the city, Those Wagons had since gone to different parts of the city to deliver their goods and the three Mages had then found their way to the meeting point, a small and unremarkable street called redtooth, There was an inn there with a characteristic wood carving there.
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Lakan had gotten there first, he ordered a drink from the bar in the hotel and took a seat nearby, the others joined him shortly. They spoke in hushed tones.
“So we need to find a reasonably high spot to insert the spell, But we can’t get noticed, so I suggest the bottom of some of those floating houses.” Hark said.
“No we can’t do that.” Lakan said. “Pirun isn’t like Aku’anda, these floating houses belong to nobility, They’re well monitored”
“I’ve seen some tall buildings around.” Lara said. “We can’t use those?”
“We’ll have to check who owns what, we can’t —”
They were interrupted by a loud bang. The entire inn shuddered and trembled, Lakan’s drink popped off the table and dropped on the ground, spilling its contents.
“What the hell is that?” Hark exclaimed in his loudest whisper. Lakan ventured a reply but was immediately cut off by another loud bang. The mages looked at each other and dashed out of the inn without paying, the bartender didn’t notice this because everyone was already in panic.
The mages dashed into the street and made for the rooftops to try to find what was happening. Every few seconds there was another loud bang, so loud it drowned out the noises of the people who were screaming and shouting and starting to run around.
Lakan soon found it.
“It’s from the city center!” He shouted. The three mages then sped off towards the source of the sound.
Halfway through there was a loud explosion with multiple shock waves, blowing back the mages. Lakan Lost his footing and tumbled down onto an empty street.
He stood up and tried to find his footing, then he noticed his skin was getting warmer. The speedster spell wrapped around his body was slightly hotter than it was just a few seconds prior.
“Hark found his way to Lakan and jumped down onto the street beside him.
“The spells are keeping more energy.” Hark said, confirming Hark’s fears. “Someone has destroyed the Dampener.”
Lakan’s eyes widened.
“Oh no…” he said, realization washing over him. “Oh no!”
As if on cue, a massive wind washed over them, knocking Hark, who didn’t have a strengthening spell activated, over.” A few moments later Lara joined them as he scrambled to get up.
“Guys The spell dampener has been destroyed! Some mages are invading the city!”
“Fuck!” Lakan swore. “Where are they from?”
“I’m not sure, I haven’t seen them.” Lara said. “But they’re already starting to cast powerful spells.”
“Dammit they’re going to destroy the whole city!” Lakan exclaimed. “Do you guys have any powerful spells on hand?”
“Of course not,” Hark said. “We’re sitting ducks here.”
off into the distance, a giant fireball exploded. The shockwave blew past, knocking off windows from a nearby house.
“This street is abandoned.” Hark noted. “We can stay here and try to contact home…”
“We absolutely CANNOT stay here.” Lakan shot back as another blast forced them to duck, “With a spell dampener down, anything goes.”
As if on cue another blast somewhere sent a shockwave down the street they were on, cracking some buildings.
“We need to move fast!” Hark shouted. “The gates!”
“No!” Lakan protested. “They are probably stationed there. Let’s run for an unremarkable part of the wall and scale it there.”
They picked a direction and sped towards it with great speed. More than twice as fast as Captain Rodo had, because there was no dampener sucking up part of the spell.