Magic is Programming

Chapter 23: Inspection

Carlos was the one Varlinden gave the teleport scroll to, and he'd kept it in his pack, but when the time came to use it he gave it to Amber. He could experiment with using scrolls himself later, with unimportant scrolls where any mistakes wouldn't matter. This was far too important to risk screwing it up through inexperience.

Since he wasn't occupied with using the scroll, Carlos took the opportunity to exercise his new mana sense. He could tell that Amber did something with her mana, right as she started incanting. Her mana connected to the scroll, but she wasn't providing the spell's power. No, the tidal wave of mana awakening from dormancy was definitely coming from the scroll itself.

Amber spoke the final word, and tiny structures inseparably embedded in the scroll's writing flared to life, impressing their purpose onto the mana that was pouring out, instructing it to form a complex lattice. Those structures burned out, spent, the paper of the scroll beginning to turn to ash and disintegrate, but they were no longer needed; the mana had already incorporated their instructions into its form.

The lattice of mana pulsed, and something from it reached out to Amber. Carlos sensed her respond, sending something down the tether that connected it to her, and the lattice moved. It wrapped itself around Amber, Carlos, and all of their belongings, like an invisible mesh net of thin threads. The lattice flared brightly, momentarily filling in the gaps between threads with solid panes of energy, then with a final pulse it vanished, and the dark cave around them was abruptly replaced with a well lit room.

Throughout the entire experience, the lattice that accomplished the teleportation had been perceptible only to Carlos's mana sensor. His eyes had seen only the crumbling of the scroll and the sudden change in their surroundings. He winced, blinked rapidly, and brought up his right hand to shelter his eyes a bit while they adjusted to the much brighter light they'd arrived in.

Carlos looked around, and saw they were in the center of a square room, about ten feet wide. The floor and walls were made of marble tiles, and a perfect circle of gold was inlaid in the floor, the edge perhaps a quarter inch thick and outlining an area that stopped just one foot short of each wall. Bright white light came from a spot in the center of the ceiling, and two doorways were on opposite sides of the room. There was no furniture.

The sound of hurried footsteps came from beyond one of the doors, and soon a young man wearing unadorned brown trousers and a red shirt entered the room, carrying a clipboard in front of him. "Ah! Pardon for any delay, Sirs. May I have your names, please?"

"I'm Carlos."

"Amber."

The man checked something off on his clipboard. "Ah, yes. You're expected. And half an hour early. Right this way, please." He turned and walked back out the door he'd come through, gesturing for them to follow him. He led Carlos and Amber to a smaller room, this one with chairs lining two of its walls. "Wait here, please. I will inform the Assessor of your arrival."

Carlos nodded and settled into a chair to wait as the man left. Amber sat next to him a moment later. They waited for several minutes, and Carlos couldn't stop fidgeting and shifting position.

Finally, Amber broke the silence. "Worried about something?"

Carlos sighed. "Having second thoughts about bringing Purple here. I know, I know, we don't have an easy and quick way back to that cave, but you know what happened the last time we brought him to a city."

"I understand you're nervous, but we're about to become nobles. Nobles with no power base, sure, but even the Enchanters Guild won't dare tempt the Crown's wrath by committing serious crimes against us."

Carlos chuckled dryly. "If politics here are anything like where I come from, that just means they'll be careful to not get caught."

Amber frowned in contemplation. "Maybe." She sighed. "I almost wish I'd spent some time studying nobility and politics instead of magic. I'm sure there's something we could do to scare them off more thoroughly."

"The main thing I know about politics is that I want nothing to do with it. I want to leave this city and any nobles here as soon as possible." Carlos leaned back, resting his head against the wall, and took a deep breath. "Maybe we should ask Assessor Varlinden for advice. Assuming we can trust him, at least."

"Any Crown servant of his rank should be trustworthy."

Carlos stared for a moment, then shook his head. "Where I grew up, that would be a naive statement. Maybe it's different here. I hope so."

They lapsed into silence, and waited another ten minutes before Varlinden showed up. He was wearing the same uniform as before, all black with dark orange decorative linework, standing tall in the doorway. "Carlos and Amber. I'm somewhat surprised you actually showed up, even with your oath. Come with me."

They hastily stood and grabbed their packs, and followed him down the hall. "So how is this going to work? What will happen?" Amber nudged Carlos with her elbow, and he respectfully added, "Assessor."

Varlinden didn't even glance back at him as he answered. "They will inspect your soul, then Amber's. If you truly do have a new original adamantium rank soul plan, then your new noble house will be registered, and there will be various formalities to go through."

"That... doesn't really clarify anything for me."

Varlinden simply continued walking, navigating through the hallways and passing by numerous doors. They encountered several other people on the way, who all stepped well out of their path and nodded deferentially. Finally, they went through a door and emerged into a large open area with a high ceiling. The walls held many stained glass windows depicting elaborately detailed scenes of what Carlos assumed must be important historical events, and in some cases portraits of people. Carlos was particularly interested in one that showed a single man battling a large army, with a devastating trail of death and destruction in his wake. The man seemed to glow in the window, with most of his surroundings muted and dim, the glass tinted dark.

"Carlos and Amber, show respect to High Lady Telrar Elince. She is one of the few mages with the skill and power to perform a deep soul inspection, and she has deigned to offer her services for this ceremony today."

Carlos pulled his attention away from the windows at Varlinden's prompt, and turned to face the woman standing near the center of the large room. She had long luxurious brown hair and bright blue eyes, she had just a hint of a few wrinkles on her face, and she was wearing an elegant floor-length dark green dress. Three attendants stood behind her, wearing dark red uniforms with swords at their waists. Carlos awkwardly bowed, careful to not let the weight of his backpack unbalance him.

The lady eyed him up and down quickly. "Hmph. What, are you carrying everything you own with you? Hardly what I expected from a prospective noble."

"Er. Yes, my Lady." Carlos hoped he got the form of address for her right.

Varlinden stepped forward. "His background, and Amber's, is uncommonly common for a nobility candidate. Nonetheless, they are due at least basic courtesy, Lady Telrar."

Telrar glared at Varlinden for a moment. "Oh, very well, Assessor. Let's get this over with. Proceed."

Varlinden nodded, and gestured Carlos forward. "Set down your pack, and leave any magic items with it. Then step forward to the center of the floor."

Carlos complied, quietly tucking Purple into a side compartment of his pack. He looked down, and noticed a large eight pointed star drawn on the floor in lines of a silvery metal, inscribed inside an octagon. He walked to the center of the star, faced Lady Telrar, and stood there, waiting.

She didn't leave him waiting for long. She muttered something Carlos couldn't make out, and her mana reached out and connected to the metal diagram in the floor, and simultaneously to something small she was holding. She nodded sharply. "Your mana signature matches the sample provided. Carlos, I will now proceed with inspecting your soul."

Her mana surged, flooding the area all around Carlos, though he sensed dense focus points of it at each of the eight points of the star, as well as one below his feet, and one above his head. Suddenly all ten focal points of mana sprang towards him, and he felt them impact his soul simultaneously, bouncing off and setting his soul vibrating uncomfortably.

"Surface layer density compressed once. Total number of soul structures... Ten!" Lady Telrar sounded surprised, but quickly went back to chanting under her breath.

One of the focal points of her mana approached again, and this time settled onto the surface of Carlos's soul, and began sending waves of mana into one section of his soul. The waves bounced around a bit before returning to where they'd come from, like some kind of magic sonar for souls.

"Mana sensor. Standard mage structure. Initial density."

A second focal point of Telrar's mana settled onto Carlos's soul, next to the first, and probed the adjacent section with another set of sonar-like pings of mana.

"Mana manipulator. Standard mage structure. Initial density."

The third focal point came, continuing the encircling of his soul.

"Spells preparer. Standard mage structure. Initial density."

Lady Telrar paused several seconds after scanning the fourth section. "...Unknown structure. Density compressed once." Carlos mentally poked at his introspector, and it told him that was the comprehension aid.

"Unknown? Really?" Varlinden raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Its shape does not match any structure I have records of, and that includes inspection records of every noble house of the nation of Kalor."

"Intriguing."

Telrar turned back to Carlos after a moment, scanning a fifth section, this one containing the introspector. "Hmm. Structure highly similar, but not identical, to the fourth recorded structure of High House Revlok. May be an independent re-invention. Density compressed once."

"Revlok?" Varlinden frowned in concentration for a moment. "They are not mages, but Carlos clearly is. Curious."

Telrar's sixth focal point scanned Carlos's mana redistributor, and she blinked. "That's odd. Density compressed thrice. Structure bears noticeable similarity to structures designed to defeat suppression cuffs, but is also substantially different. Precise purpose is unclear."

Varlinden nodded, a contemplative look on his face.

"Ah, there's the other one. Spells database. Standard mage structure. Initial density."

Telrar moved on to the eighth section, completing the circle. She paused, but only briefly, before announcing her assessment of the spells linker. "Unknown structure. Initial density."

The ninth focal point came to inspect the bottom side of Carlos's soul. "Spells activator, with small variation. Advanced mage structure. Uncommon, but not a house secret."

The tenth and final focal point came to rest on top, where the reflex improver was, and Telrar paused fully ten seconds before speaking. "...Structure highly similar, but not identical, to the ninth recorded structure of Royal House Kalor. Possibly independent re-invention. Initial density."

"What?!" Varlinden actually lost his composure for a moment, but quickly suppressed his reaction and returned to a formal impassive expression. Carlos's heart was suddenly racing. He really hoped the king wouldn't taken offense at his accidental duplication of one of the royal soul structures.

Lady Telrar continued her inspection, unperturbed. All ten focal points of her mana resting on the surface of Carlos's soul began sending mana waves bouncing around his soul in concert. It was starting to give him a whole new kind of headache that he'd never experienced before, but it stopped after about fifteen seconds.

Telrar made her final pronouncement about Carlos's soul plan. "Thirty-nine synergy links. First stage. Adamantium rank, tier 8."

Wait, only 39 and adamantium? Why wasn't it 45 and orichalcum? And what the hell was that about 'first stage'? ...And would they be in trouble for accidentally recreating one of the Crown's soul structures?