Syl and Bianca got the notification that the Circuit team would be entering the Gate at six PM on the morning of the day they were due to explore it. As a C-class Gate, he didn’t expect much out of it. It wouldn’t be his first Gate, after all—the interesting parts would come from evaluating what others were capable of doing in something approaching an actual fight and the near-certainty of enemy action.
His contact from his special unit had sent a few more updates, but they had been sparse. The informant must have been preparing for Sanguine’s movement. In the days leading up to an operation, security always tightened. Nobody wanted last-minute decisions leaking.
For his part, Syl just attended class as usual. He was no more on edge than he was usually. Since his passive state was already one in which he was very aware of his settings, he didn’t have to change much to be mentally prepared for combat.
There was a fairly significant difference in engineering, though.
Since the first class, Professor Lyle had given up on trying to reign Syl in, so he’d been looking forward to an hour and a half of uninterrupted time to tool around with one of his two projects. He’d put the disposable FCD on hold for the time being because he’d made a breakthrough in the free casting project, which he wanted to refine as much as possible.
It was the latter that ended up biting him in the ass. About fifteen minutes into class, a sharp knock at the door interrupted the lecture and also his focus, which was annoying when he was trying to hand-solder a part that required molecular precision.
“Enter,” Professor Lyle said, not moving from his spot at the front of the class. “For your own sake, I hope you have a good reason to be interfering with my class.”
The door swung open, and a tall woman with dyed-green hair and circular glasses walked in.
Syl clicked his tongue. Well, there goes my engineering time.
“Miss Viridian,” the professor said, surprised. “It’s not like you to come at this hour.”
“I’m looking for a Sylvester Auria,” Jennifer said. “He’s in this class.”
“Yes, I am,” Syl sighed, standing up. “Have I done anything wrong?”
“No,” Jennifer said. “But I see you’ve finished today’s assignment. Dynamic focus lens, huh? That takes me back.”
That was the main reason Syl had been allowed to just screw off and do his own thing. He read ahead on the material and finished the assignment before class began. If there was something he hadn’t prepared for, he would just take a few minutes in the beginning to fix it up.
Unfortunately, that also meant that he couldn’t argue that he needed to stay in class.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Your presence,” Jennifer said. “I’ll tell you the rest on the way.”
Syl took another look at the work-in-progress. He hadn’t been making much progress anyway, and enhancing connections with other engineers wouldn’t be a bad idea.
“Sure,” he said. “Lead the way.”
Jennifer wasn’t wearing the standard Graduate Reserve uniform, instead favoring a practical magic-dampening bodysuit and coat, the likes of which Syl was quite familiar with in the lab. He was unsurprised when she took him to a part of campus that he didn’t have authorization to visit, swiping her way through three separate ID-locked gates to get them into a graduate lab.
This lab was any engineer’s dream. It was significantly larger than anything the undergraduates got to play with, and with three separate floors to work on, it had more equipment than even Syl’s setup at Incarnate did. It was missing certain pieces of proprietary technology, of course, but it more than made up for that by having access to samples and machines that the prismatic families would only grant to certain institutions—ones like, for example, Auria’s national academies.
Jennifer’s particular workstation took up a space larger than the master bedroom in Syl’s apartment. It was striking how haphazardly placed everything that wasn’t essential was. Files were all over the place, practically burying a free-standing display screen and the desk it was on, writing utensils were scattered like she’d never bothered to pick up a pen after putting it down, and there were a few food wrappers that hadn’t been properly disposed of.
The equipment, though, was perfectly well-kept. Everything was in its right place, and that meant a lot when she had so much delicate machinery in this office.
One of the fabricators was running a process right now, which Syl looked at curiously.
“Side project,” Jennifer said when she caught Syl looking at it. “That’s not why I brought you here.”
“I’m sure it’s not,” Syl said. “You’re not worried about me being here? There’s no way in hell I have the needed authorization.”
Jennifer barked out a harsh, cold laugh. “Authorization? Do you even need this place?”
“What’re you talking about?” Syl asked.
She activated the display screen, creating a 3D holographic projection of a familiar arena above her desk. It depicted Syl and James during their duel, with Syl a few feet in the air with the A-class conjuration-type Pulse Wave spell forming around his left FCD.
“Waylan wanted me to review the footage of your fight because he saw a discrepancy that he couldn’t explain,” Jennifer said. “Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered, but you apparently tore Drew a new one badly enough that he doesn’t even talk to undergrads anymore, so I figured it was worth examining.”
Syl clicked his tongue. He could guess where this was going.
Jennifer made a complex set of gestures at the hologram, and the recording continued playing in slow motion.
Syl’s body blurred, and Jennifer paused it with another gesture.
“Are you familiar with the concept of FCD fatigue?” she asked Syl.
He looked back at her, faintly offended.
“Right. Of course you are. FCDs can’t activate the same spell patterns one after the other without some cooldown time because of residual magic, and yet here you are, activating Flash Step again.”
Syl sighed, guessing where this was going. “I have two FCDs. You can avoid the worst of FCD fatigue by using a second casting device.”
“Good explanation, but your left FCD is visibly casting Pulse Wave,” Jennifer said. “The right is fatigued. Now, I was curious about this, so I checked all the instruments we had recording the fights. There aren’t many that are terribly specialized at the exact task I wanted them for, but the ambient flux detector is precise enough to check what happened.
“I looked at the FCD first, since I wanted to see if you had a way to overcome the fatigue, but since there wasn’t much there, I was about to call it a rest—then I looked at you.”
The recording continued playing. Jennifer froze it as Syl released Pulse Wave from behind James.
“Your body is registering as emitting zero point zero zero seven percent more flux after that sequence of spells completed,” Jennifer said. “I’d chalk that up to a minor fluctuation, except you just cast a ton of magic in a short period of time. That’s residual magic inside you.”
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
“Why do you think that is?” Syl asked.
“That was what I was hoping you could explain to me,” Jennifer said. “The only working theory I have is that you were free casting. If you want to disabuse me of that notion, feel free to.”
Syl raised an eyebrow. “Of all the possible explanations, you conclude that a first-year class 3 solved one of the fundamental conjectures of magic?”
“No, which is why I’m hoping you can tell me otherwise,” Jennifer said. “That’s the only explanation I have for this exact set of circumstances. I evaluated nine other possibilities. None of them work.”
“Equipment error?”
“Checked the calibration myself. It’s fine.”
She actually was a good engineer. Few would do their due diligence to verify something they were looking at on a whim. Syl could see why one of his Incarnate teams had decided to have her work with them.
He would have to look more into her. Good engineers were the worst kind of enemy to have.
“It’s not true free casting,” Syl said. “But yes, it’s magic cast from outside an FCD.”
Most of this conversation so far had been spent weighing his options with respect to what he was going to say. This, at least, was information that he was okay with spreading to another student. Her family was almost certainly going to hear about it soon, but the Viridians didn’t tend to be engineers. It was unlikely that they would be able to replicate his work for years at the minimum.
“Interesting,” Jennifer said, her eyes practically burning with curiosity behind her glasses. “Care to explain more?”
“If you don’t leak the details to everyone you know, yes,” Syl said. “I have no illusions about this not escaping to your family, but this is a capability I’d much rather not let our enemies know about, especially when they’re actively trying to attack our academies.”
“Done,” Jennifer said immediately. “You have it on my word as a magician.”
Syl knew just how little that meant, but the immediacy of her response helped. Her attention was so laser-focused on him that he doubted she was thinking about anything except the magic itself.
He explained the system to her in broad strokes, skimming over particular details.
“It’s still imprecise,” he finished. “You can even see it in the fight. I travel exactly six meters at a pre-determined angle. If the conditions were a bit different, the spell might have failed entirely.”
Jennifer shook her head. “It’s still genius. How did you even think of this?”
“We were talking about it last week, right?” Syl said. “You brought up your efforts on it, and it got me thinking on an old project of mine. Classes helped with inspiring this angle of attack.”
“Fuck,” the eighth-year said. “What am I doing here?”
“I was just about to ask you that,” Syl said. “You had something in your fab.”
“Oh, that? I mean, it’s promising, but it’s nothing compared to what you’ve accomplished here.”
“Don’t bother comparing,” Syl said. “I’ve almost certainly been doing this longer than you.”
“What? I’ve been doing this since the first year of high school.”
So it wasn’t even close, then. “You said that your project was promising. What is it?”
“Ah, that…” Jennifer’s eyes flicked over to the fabricator. “You must’ve noticed by now that I have pretty bad flux sensitivity.”
“I do,” Syl said. “It’s situationally useful, but that must be challenging as both an engineer and officer.”
“I’ve been trying to work on better mitigation than simple blocker glasses,” Jennifer said. “Find a way to make the useful cases more obvious and the hindrances less so. I got the idea from when I was working on… well, free casting. Hypersensitivity also stems from non-FCD flux manifestation, so the relevant groundwork was already there.”
“Very interesting,” Syl said. “Would you mind if I took a look?”
“If you allow me to examine your work more,” Jennifer said. “I’d say you’re a diamond in the rough, but I’m pretty sure you’re just a diamond.”
“You’re proposing a partnership, then?”
“Something like that. I’m sure you’ll benefit from it less than I will, so let me sweeten the deal. Access to this lab whenever I’m on or around campus contingent on us working together.”
This was going a lot better than Syl had expected. “One more condition. Silence on the projects. In writing, ideally. I have a lot of unfinished research that I’d much rather not see in any other hands.”
“I assumed that would be the case,” Jennifer said. “Deal. When can you start?”
“We have some time now,” Syl said. “Shall we?”
#
Syl ended up skipping Practical Magic, which wasn’t much of a loss. They were just going over fundamentals again today, and he had those down to a science. Quite literally. He texted Bianca to let her know he’d be late coming out of his academic obligations.
Jennifer was a damn good engineer. She was as competent as many of the professionals Syl had worked with, and she had more drive than most of them did. It helped that she was a bit worked up by someone like Syl doing something she couldn’t even dream of.
There was a saying that had emerged sometime around World War III. The bar of impossibility becomes the floor once the first person reaches it. Seeing that Syl had done something she had never even dreamed of pushed Jennifer to make connections she wouldn’t have thought of because she’d assumed that what she knew was possible was all there was.
They didn’t finish anything by the time the Circuit team was called to enter the Gate, but they’d made solid progress on Jennifer’s project and discussed ideas for more. Since she was part of the oversight council for the team alongside Uriel and Waylan, the two of them made their way to the rendezvous point together.
The method of transportation was rather unspectacular, but Syl recognized how much magic had gone into the bus they would be using. Early magicians had understood that it was more efficient to enhance existing vehicles with existing supply chains than create new ones from the ground up, so the bulk of ground transportation looked like it had in the early 2010s. With teleportation and similar long-distance travel spells an exclusive trait of artifact magic, a bus was the most reasonable way to move large numbers of people across ground.
Bianca waved the two of them over as they joined the group of Circuit team members milling around. Her eyes narrowed as they got closer, though, flicking from one to the other.
“Syl,” she said, the hint of a warning in her voice. “Is this why you weren’t at Practical today?”
“Yes,” Syl replied.
“Already?” Bianca asked. “At least pick someone your own age.”
“I believe you may be under the wrong impression, Miss Ashwood,” Bianca said. “Please. If I was romantically or even particularly socially interested in your… friend here, I would die of shame.”
“That’s rude,” Syl said.
“I thought you preferred honesty. I called Sylvester out of his class to discuss certain aspects of his engineering with him.”
Bianca’s fingers twitched ever so slightly at that sentence—not a tell that someone else would notice, but Syl had been around her for a long time. “Is that so?”
She looked at Syl, discreetly signing. Does she know?
Just about the last project. “That’s how it went,” Syl said.
“Then I apologize for my misunderstanding,” Bianca said pleasantly. Continue as is, question.
Syl nodded, answering both her words and her fingers. “It’s fine. We’re leaving soon, aren’t we?”
“We are. Debrief will be on-site,” Jennifer said. She surveyed the gathered students. “Not everyone chose to come. This should be enough, though.”
#
“For those of you unfamiliar with the verbiage,” Uriel said to the assembled team on a beach fifteen minutes from the academy, “This is Gate 74FA-C16, short for 74 AFI First Academy C-class gate sixteen. Preliminary readings have determined a likely hostile count of around a hundred C-class and one to three B-class creatures.”
Uriel, Waylan, Jennifer, and six other members of the Graduate Reserve stood at attention with their backs to the sea. Four of them made up the oversight committee for the Circuit team, while the other five had come along as security. This was ostensibly to ensure nobody did anything stupid, but Syl knew they’d been informed about Sanguine’s threat to the student body.
“The manifestation is approximately one hundred meters off the coast, so we will be entering via Jennifer Viridian’s creation and fortification-type magic,” Uriel continued. “For those of you who have not entered a Gate before, the collapse of the Gate will be triggered by the killing of its anchor being or ‘boss,’ whichever name you prefer. Staying within a collapsing gate will result in you being vomited out the entrance, which I assure you is a thoroughly uncomfortable experience.
“One additional note—if you use a high-class spell, ensure your target dies. Gates are adaptable, and creatures that survive high-class magic will gradually become capable of using that magic. Finally, on your way to the entrance, we will be pushing a brief software package to all of your FCDs in order to form a communication and early warning network. It is not invasive and will not track you. Jennifer, if you would.”
The engineer didn’t wait for questions before using her specialized FCD to create translucent platforms above the water out to the swirling mass of dark energy hovering over the ocean.
Some of the other students were so entranced by the sight of the Gate that they must have not been listening, but Syl had grown used to seeing it. It was still fascinating, of course, but exposure weaned the dazzling wonder away and replaced it with a grim anticipation.
He joined Bianca as the team started filing into the portal. The Reserve minus Jennifer took the front, prepared for any potential strange activity on the other side. Syl and Bianca were somewhere in the middle of the pack, Lyon and Lia ahead of them.
Entering a Gate was always strange. There was an instant of gut-churning movement, the sensation of falling, and then they were somewhere else. Syl wished that Auria had better materials to study Gates with, because their magic was still near totally unexplained.
He found his footing inside a dark, wet cavern illuminated by something bioluminescent in the thin layer of water coating the rocky floor. Water dripped down from stalactites, lighting up briefly as it did.
This would be a bad place to fight a Cascadian, Syl thought as he continued forward past the entrance, giving room for the next person to enter. The nation to the north did love its water.
The next person never came.
The second he and Bianca stepped into the cavern, a harsh keening noise rang through the cavern, the sound of nails on chalkboard magnified a thousandfold.
Flux tore through the air, and the sound ceased abruptly.
Syl turned to see a spell he was passingly familiar with blanketing the entire Gate, solid green magical patterns flashing bright.
Sabotage-type wide-range master-class spell, True Seal.
They were trapped.