Some of the people are looking hungry. Others seem to have had stored a month’s supply of noodles at home, when rationing was introduced. A free day off base is enough to show me what I am missing and, theoretically, helping preserve. Even this suburb is full.

The tea does not require a rationing card. The cake does, but we wizards have unlimited rationing. The prices in this street cafe are higher than I remember. Much higher. Well, if you have to employ extra people to run the rationing system, it will drive up costs. I have been on the phone with my bank and rearranged my savings. Bonds have been sold and everything is in stocks now.

I must say this seems like going through the motions. What is money if you have the raw power of the multiverse running through your mind and body? I have a considerable amount of cash in wherever my inventory actually is. I would have said my mind or my soul, but that cannot be the whole answer, as you can loot a corpse to empty out its inventory. I’ve done so.

Is that the reason the armed forces do keep people busy? That people with leisure have time to question whether they are on a reasonable path? What are my alternatives? Run away right away? That would be foolish. I’d just trigger what I wanted to avoid. I have gained magical powers and my life is still out of control. Is that the natural state of the multiverse?

I am at least prepared for a total collapse of civilization. Now that I think about it, is magic turning me into somebody designed for postapolyptic survival? I am never going to freeze to death ecause I have no shelter. I can create it out of thin air. No ammo for hunting – no way. Well, I am a vegetarian. Something the government is now actually encouraging to ease the food situation.

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Or is this just the precursor to an actual alien invasion and we’ll run to the hills in a month’s time?

--

THE SEITENHUBER FACILITY

K : Uncle, I think we actually saw Rademacher’s wand in action. I’ve found a witness report mentioning it from a member of a training battle group Rademacher picked up. Rademacher gave it to the guy we met on TV.

E: Interesting. He wielded it well. Where is the witness?

K: Southern graveyard, lot number …

E: This is payback, isn’t it?

K: Seriously. She suffered some kind of mental breakdown. That’s why Rademacher left her behind in the protoastral space. The rest apparently fell in battle inside the space. She was recovered by a looting team, never became coherent and died thirteen days after the battle.

E: What from?

K: Radiation damage. Her dosimeter showed 10 Sievert.

E: That explains why she is dead now. It does not explain why Rademacher and his associate …

K: von Bülow.

E: That asshole. Anyway a category 3 should not have died sooner than a category 1.

K: We have no idea whether they got the same accumulated dosage. They were separated after all. I was still hunting for the dosimeters found at the site of Rademacher’s death to be returned from long term storage after their deaths has been ruled a battle death. The reports read them as „unreadable, display cracked“. Lazy louts. The could have read out the chips or checked the backup photographic film. Or alternatively they died from other wounds

E: You are doing well.

K: He was a good friend?

E: I knew him for over 50 years.

--

Going to the public pool has been a brilliant idea. Floating in heated bubbly water is bliss. It makes all worries go away. Only that I don’t float all that well anymore. Losing all that body mass must have some drawbacks. It is time to inhale deeply and enjoy a day off. Tomorrow I’ll confront river monsters.