Chapter 36: Recovery Window
Maybe they were captives, maybe they were being protected from a government that would turn them into laboratory animals. It was possible all Kyle had managed to do was change the who of where they ended up under the microscope, rather than escaping from it.
But even if they were captives, living in a sturdy dome with clear walls and soldiers all around, Kyle was still going to take advantage of some time to practice.
Her light spell was easy, becoming more and more second-nature the more she cast it. But seeing Grandpa’s face while Kara screamed had given her new urgency to get them some real privacy. She might not be able to do anything about the cameras that were probably hidden everywhere, but she could at least stop them from being overheard.
It took a few hours for Kara to recover enough to dare putting weight on her leg again, and still she limped and struggled. But when that time finally came, Kyle could put Fay down for a nap with confidence, knowing that someone else would be there to keep an eye on her, and give Kyle more time to practice.
Grandpa had provided them with almost everything, and so she had a printer to raid for paper and a decent amount of stationary tucked into a top drawer.
She set up the laptop, then spread several sheets of paper and started to sketch. She could’ve used the printout, but it didn’t look like anyone knew about that. It would be best to keep that information obscure.
There were several symbols just begging to be combined into a silence spell. There was no telling if she was balancing the equation properly just by drawing it—but the symbols felt right, and fully realized the spell formed a neat circle not all that dissimilar from the barrier against sound she was trying to produce. But just because it looked good didn’t mean it would work.
She focused intently on the spell, settled on the ground in the most comfortable position she could manage. It couldn’t be that much harder than making a little light, could it? The equation’s representation of the energy it would cost was barely any larger, assuming she read it right.
It looked good, and that was enough. The pressure was far too intense to waste days on balancing and double-checks.
But as she stared, humming through the verbal representation of the spell in sequence over and over, she found her tongue going gradually numb with pain. Instead of combining into a melody, the words kept coming apart. Her head began to pound, and eventually she slumped to the table, touching her horn to her spell.
It went up in a vibrant flash of flame, bright enough that she jerked back in horror. She raised a hoof to shield her eyes, backing away a few steps. Smoke rose in a plume from around the spell, which remained scoured into the table in an even ring. Well I made myself look like an idiot.
Kyle watched the door slam open right in front of her, knob digging into the wall completely silent.
Kara appeared there, eyes wide. Her mouth moved, panicked shouting probably. Kyle heard nothing.
“Oh.” She gestured, and her sister closed the distance, passing close enough to the single-meter radius she’d written into the spell. Her voice returned, like fading the volume back up on a radio. “If you’re trying not to get caught, you weren’t very subtle! Lighting things on fire like that. Did you really need to practice fire?”
Kyle blushed, ears flattening in embarrassment. But she couldn’t be shy for long. Probably she’d revealed more than she should have, at least assuming there were cameras she didn’t know about. “I wasn’t practicing with fire, that was just…”
She reached down, shoving several blank sheets of paper away from the center of the desk. Her little spell had burned right through everything, searing itself down into the wood. It glowed faintly blue, the same color her horn did when she was lifting things. Was that how she could tell it was active?
“What?” Kara asked. Then she noticed the table, and leaned down to stare. “Damn, Bro. Won’t be able to hide that one. You think Grandpa will be pissed about it?”
She rolled her eyes. “Kara, I just made a spell. It’s what Monday wanted, look.”
She pointed at the door with one leg until Kara turned to look, then levitated it all the way back and slammed it closed. As before there wasn’t a sound.
Kara’s mouth hung open for a few seconds. Finally she crossed to the exit, opening the door and shutting it again. Her mouth moved, but of course Kyle couldn’t hear. “You’re outside the spell now,” she said, exaggerating her words so it would be more obvious. “I can’t hear you out there!”
She half-expected her own words to echo, like an invisible bubble had been dropped down around her. But they hadn’t even done that.
Kara crossed back inside. “I think you woke up the baby with that door thing, bro. Probably shouldn’t have made so much noise.”
She swore under her breath, rising quickly. “I thought she was already up.” She spread her wings as she hurried down the hall, though of course she didn’t actually know how to use them. It just felt like she should be moving quicker if her wings got involved.
She popped her head through the door, flicking the light on. “Hey sweetie. Did you hear that all the way over here? I… really need to remember the walls don’t go up all the way.”
At least fire alarms hadn’t started drowning them with water, and Grandpa hadn’t sent soldiers stomping down the steps to find them. She reached down into the crib, holding Fay up against her chest. She squirmed and cried for a little longer, but at least she didn’t attack anything.
The clock against the wall said it was early evening, but without any sunlight, Kyle couldn’t really tell. Maybe it had been lying this whole time, to gradually distance them from the real world.
I should’ve asked Grandpa about when we’d get to see Mom and Dad again.
Fay wiggled out of her grip and stood on her own behind Kyle, all the sign she needed of what the baby wanted. It made sense—when she felt bloated and overfull, that usually meant Fay was hungry.
“So what were you trying to do?” Kara asked, settling into the open doorway. Her eyes briefly settled on what Fay was doing, and she looked away without too much embarrassment. “Something with noise?”
“Silence,” she answered, looking pointedly up. She wasn’t sure if there were cameras, or where their grandfather might be listening. But he still hadn’t confronted them yet. Maybe he wasn’t watching that closely, or just didn’t care. “No sound in or out. It looked like it worked pretty well, except… I need to figure out why it hit the table instead of something I would hold. I guess I need to do a little more reading.”
“Just don’t try to suck the magic out of something and make me hold it,” Kara said, smiling weakly. “I’m no longer excited about being a guinea pig.”
She chuckled. “I, uh… won’t try anything without asking Monday if it works.”
She typed up her next message for her “mentor” several hours later, when Fay had finally gone to sleep. She did her best to keep her message safe from anyone who might be listening, though she had her doubts that anything she did would be enough to keep someone as determined as her grandfather from breaching the message.
“I came up with a spell, and it works, it produced a bubble of silence on the table that’s still running even now. I had hoped for something that kept working as long as I concentrated, but I screwed up there.”
She went on to describe what had happened to Kara, though she left out anything to do with her grandfather or the things she suspected about him. Monday could probably do more with more information, but if Edgar did manage to read what she was sending, at least it wouldn’t turn him against them.
Hopefully.
That also meant she couldn’t include anything about Akiko, not until she was sure she could ask without being overheard. Maybe she could enchant an email the way she kept sound from leaving the desk?
“I’d love to learn more about the kind of magic that could turn us back,” she said near the end, the bravest she’d been so far. “I know you said it was advanced, but my sister is already getting sick of this. I can’t blame her.”
She read over the email a few more times to catch any errors she’d missed, made sure she was still connected to her VPN, then sent it off.
He’s going to know everything I said, she thought, closing everything out and returning to the desktop.
But Grandpa didn’t send in his goons the next morning, or visit himself. They didn’t even call.
Just as before, Monday hadn’t kept her waiting long for a reply. By the time she took care of Fay’s morning needs and made it to the computer, she found a message waiting in her disposable email address.
“Damn you’re fast at this, kid. I guess that shouldn’t be too surprising—if you had human limits you’d be human and one of the Orders would’ve found you. But you’ll never make a recruit, apprenticing for years before you learn anything useful. You don’t have time for that.
“What you’ve done fails to meet the requirements I set for you, though it’s close enough that I forgive the mistake. Crash course on some vocabulary. A spell is something that doesn’t have a physical focus. You cast it on someone, or you hold it with your concentration. When the energy runs out, it fades away. Usually because you stop feeding it.
“Enchantments are spells you’ve let go, casting them on objects and disconnecting. Most Willworkers take months of planning and careful engineering to make one, culminating with a permanent sacrifice of power that takes months more to recover. Ask yourself if you’re feeling drained and weak right now. See if your spells are coming harder, try the one you mastered already. If they are, then you’re like the rest of us.
“But given how easy that was, I’m guessing you’re different. Mythical creatures like yourself are known to have strange powers, apparently one of yours is to be a source of permanent spells. This may be a clue about what the alien did to you—or at least how she had enough power. The problem with the spell you wrote is that it’s missing a termination clause. It’s one of the few pages I sent you, read it again. Normally the mistake you made would’ve just left an apprentice unconscious and left no spell cast.
“You should destroy the enchantment as soon as possible. Use something sharp to sever the circle and unbalance the equation. There will be a flash as the power is dissolved—or a very large explosion, with a larger spell. That’s my way of telling you not to make this mistake again. Enchantments place a drain on the natural flow of magic in an area. They can be traced, and too many in one place can make magical creatures sick.
“Make something new, and don’t write any more spells without a termination clause. Even if you can do it doesn’t mean you should. Also don’t tell anyone you can do it, seriously. The ability to make permanent weak enchantments makes you the most valuable creature in North America on its own, assuming you have no other abilities. It seems obvious that you do.
“Sorry to hear about your sister. I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’m going to give you some hard truth here. That baby is going to keep making things worse until she makes it impossible to survive around her. The best plan is a stasis enchantment—freeze her in time for as many years as it takes for you to get your shit together. That’s a lot of magic to master before you get to that level, though. The more she does, the more eyes will fall on you.
“I know you’re not on the western seaboard anymore, that you’ve gone north. I don’t know how far, yet. But the more magic you cast, the easier to find you become. Think carefully, choose subtlety over flashiness.
“I don’t know what you sister is—I looked, but couldn’t find anything matching her description. There is one creature I think might make for a good match, but you won’t like it. The closest summary I can give you would be ‘soul jar’. A container Willworkers give to useful mortal servants, friends, and lovers. They’re beings of animated crystal, completely reliant on their magic to survive. This kinda-sorta means she’s dead, a little bit. But also immortal, so good for her?
“Might still be a way to reverse it, I don’t know. Everything you do should be impossible, so if anyone can do it it’s you or the baby. All the more reason to study.
“Give me another useful spell, this time one that won’t take the magical output of a city to power if you please. I’m not doing this to buy time while I transcribe more advanced spellcasting components at all, shut up. This is how all school-by-mail magic works.
“-Monday.”
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This screamed trap and scam to me.
He's totally buying time. She surpassed his expectations as a newcomer to magic so he's stalling while he puts together a fast track plan. Calling it now.
so from this we learn that while the sorce aspect of magic is the same the the actual spell themselfs might diffrer from ponys to humans or just that kyle has a massive magic reserve now. either way it seems that the limit on human magic is messing with things but not being able to do so perminently whereas pony magic seems to be able to cross that line probebrly because it is from naturaly magic creatures. there is the case of kara turning to crystal when magic is drained which is that is an effect that is a constent to equestira then tirek going through the empire must have been terrable but from what you have written it seems your going that way of the crystal ponies going into a stasis when magic is taken from them so if kara looses all her magic she might just become a statue for a while untill she recovers. sorry for the long comment your story is intresting
This reminded me of Key & Peele.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-2ZxldMO-M
I'm sure Monday means well but I don't trust him
I don't think magic runes are in Unicode. Yet.
Meanwhile, Monday is likely terrified by the fact that they're effectively teaching a minor god and scrambling to adapt a curriculum made for humans. And I can only imagine what dear old Grandpa thinks of the Cone of Silence...
Well, we know now that either 1. Akiko isn't Monday, or 2. Monday is just as untrustworthy as I feared initially.
Also, more sure than before about the whole "this isn't Equestrian magic" bit, even though Kara appeared to react in the manner expected. After all, most non-crystal ponies weren't much better off from Tirek, and I doubt he could take ALL of it.
10332120
He was making a joke, so, doubt it.
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Honestly at this point I think Monday’s a good man man. He’s had every opportunity to do something evil - the contract, the teaching, hell he even admitted he’s tracking them - and he hasn’t acted on it. There’s also the fact that that last paragraph in his message is a joke. He’s not using a no-nonsense tone, he’s acting like an actual teacher, the good kind.
I mean sure, it could all be an elaborate ruse, but frankly that crosses into the paranoid territory. It’s only paranoia if they’re not out to get you, and he’s not out to get them.
That’s not to say he doesn’t have an additional motive of course. Just because he’s actually wanting to help doesn’t mean he doesn’t also want “samples”. But I don’t think it’ll be the “give me or I won’t help” kind of deal. Rather a “I helped you, can I please do some experimenting” kind of deal.
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I understand that but keep in mind he's a random person our former human found on reddit so I think I have a right to be sus
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Yep Monday probably couldn't do what she did. It also had all the subtlety of a nuclear weapon release.
Well, there's no doubt Kyle is 100% alicorn with all the magic to boot. If I were her, I'd probably lay off the magic. Too many "apprentice" mistakes and she'll certainly find a way to transmogrify the entire facility and everyone in it into a huge, smoking crater.
At this point, you'll either get a noncommittal soon, or an outright lie.
Guess Kyle is Monday's prized magic horse instead of a human student.
For someone like Kyle, I suppose that should help her self-esteem just a little bit. Gotta get it where you can. Still, Grandpa's magic generator theory is looking increasingly plausible at this point.
Nope, 100% alive.
"Nope, just casting a tracking spell and emailing some homies about the impossible magic horse princess I'm teaching."
No doubt Monday is alerting the higher echelons about Kyle. Might even be gathering a team to raid the facility when they find it. We might have ourselves a wizard war soon.
Moday is a kid too, isn't he? Ponyfeathers but he's going to make himself a target too...
So long as Kyle doesn't immediately leave to disrupt the spell after finishing with her computer it might yet still be possible to disconnect her apparent knowledge from the connection it represents.
So she made a do()while() loop without a while()? Classic. Best be careful not invoking undefined behavior...
Edgar didn't come because he's either detained with their parents or is still observing with Akiko where she's bouncing up and down about the enchantment.
Keep going! ;)
I am reminded of a line from the Malazan books: Power Attracts Power.
Just by being as powerful as he is, he is going to get unwarranted attention. And even as influential as evil Grandpa is, he may not like the kind of attention Kyle brings down on them. But... time will tell.
So...are Twilight and Cadance going to find Flurry soon...or what?
I'm willing to bet that Akiko and Monday are the same person.
....Sombra? What exactly did you do to the Crystal Empire?
I have to admit, even though I am still a bit suspicious of Monday, I kinda like the tone he uses. Like, firm, but a bit light at the same time.
I trust Monday more than gramps, but there's more than enough unknowns to turn everything upside down.
I doubt Monday is Akiko, seems too obvious. I would be more willing to believe that they, at the very least, know each other; and are likely opposing schools/factions/whatever.
Twilight and Cadance showing up here is going to be a blast.
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No, this is a suspiciously specific denial joke.
Here's hoping the next chapter takes a look at Equestria.
i am really wondering just who this Monday is?
well kind of.
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For all we know, it could be Edgar.
Horned ponies making magical explosions, always a classic.
Useful sounding additional advice from Monday.
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The graphic novel uses the Squid in NYC. The movie uses massive explosions, made to mimic Dr. Manhattan's energy, in a number of cities, so he could be blamed for it. Her comment was far closer to the graphic novel then the movie, but was still a combination of both. It feels more like the comment is based on pop-culture osmosis then seeing the movie (which lacked any sort of fake aliens).
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Ra is great, yea. I haven’t read it in a while, so thanks for reminding me of it. :)
Monday is cute.
... Wouldn't a more apt term be "golem"?
That's a bit of a misinterpretation of VPN, Kyle's data will be encrypted too so any communications from the laptop will not be readable unless you have access to the server he's connecting to.
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Golem is a very particular magical servant, with a very defined lore. Given magic exists here, but the world is otherwise, to all appearances, identical to ours, a golem in the magical community would likely refer to an autonomously animated magical servant, essentially, like the original story, a magic robot.
You wouldn't call an uploaded human a robot after all, so you don't call the magical version of the same a golem.
Haha, that's cute. It turns out Monday has some humanity after all, and pretty casual internet ettiquite.
Haa, called it! Privacy spell!
Ah, sticking to the same rules as Anemoia here, hm?
Ha.
Your