28. SPELL TESTING

  Greer flicked his hands, casting the same spell onto a different crossbow, and a sizzling burst of steam leaped from his hands, evaporating into the air.

  I sat on the wooden chair, grasping it tightly with both hands next to my legs as it kept my orientation facing the right way. A wave of vertigo threatened to overwhelm me every few minutes.

  Lissa had come to me earlier and given me a wad of leaves to chew on, which helped with the pain I felt. Her face bore the worried look some adult children get for their elderly parents when they've worked themselves too hard. She's also checked me for shrapnel of any kind and bandaged up a few areas on my legs and arms, otherwise, I was clear.

  “Shade, did you follow the spell?” I asked through my haze.

  “Yes, it’s drawing steam or moisture from somewhere and sending it somewhere else,” she said. “I followed the movement, the casting, but I couldn’t see exactly what happened. Then, there's an oily discharge that comes back and spits all over the user of the weapon.”

  “Could you repeat the spell after watching Greer cast it?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “Greer, what did you sense in the casting?” I said.

  “It’s a very weak spell,” Greer growled. “It felt as though it should have generated a geyser’s worth of steam and energy, which would transfer to the crossbow. However, the power I felt come from the spell itself, was quite small. Not proportionate to the rarity of the matter, which means that something is wrong with the spell, or the number of casters are very, very many.”

  “Anything else?”I asked.

  He paused trying to form the right words. “I sensed that the source for the steam that powered the crossbow was everywhere.”

  “Everywhere,” I repeated, nodding. “That is what I sensed as well.”

  “But Mage, what would this do to the crossbow?”

  “Look at it," I said, having already studied the first crossbow. "It increases its firing power of the weapon by installing a small reusable steam engine in the device—this is why they call them hybrid weapons. They are part machine and part magical device, which is ironic considering how Weer and Uof sought to outlaw and destroy the magic of the Way.”

  Greer nodded, looking thoughtful.

  “What about the mystery of the weak spell?” I asked.

  Shade spoke up first, “The mystery of the weak spell should indicate that the spell is common; it is known and being used by many mages at once.”

  “Yes, but there were only thirty or so mages in Uof’s warehouse, maybe a few more at most,” I said. “They were chained to the machines, which appeared to be forging weapons or tools. These mages wouldn’t be enough to dampen the power of a spell significantly—even fifty or a hundred mages wouldn't affect it too much."

  “Maybe there are more mages somewhere who know the spell,” Shade replied. “What if we only saw the first shift or a smaller part of the larger army of mageslaves?”

  “Possible,” I replied, almost whispering. I breathed carefully, trying to not breathe too deep for the pain it caused.

  “But how are they using this particular spell to create weapons?” Greer asked.

  “I think that is the question,” I replied, with a small smile.

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  Shade bit her lip.

  “If the spells are what power the motorized tools and weapons and moving bikes and machines,” she began, grasping something larger. “And if every hybrid weapon or tool Uof ever created, all over the world, uses that same spell, it would explain the weakness you sensed in casting the spell.”

  “Yes,” I nodded, swallowing gently. “If Weer embedded the spell into every one of his motorized weapons, then as we suspect, this spell gives these weapons a form of steam power. Every motorized weapon, tool, or steam cycle draws on this steam power spell. Even Uof’s very own mechanized body. However, the uniqueness of each weapon or tool’s design can’t overcome the over-reliance on a single spell. This would mean Uof’s own body is likely much weaker, and not truly as immortal as he thinks it is.”

  I watched Greer and Shade muse on this. What did this mean? What were the broader implications? I had been thinking on these questions for hours now. If the spells were embedded in each weapon or tool, every piece of hybrid machinery on the planet, of which there were thousands, Uof himself was in trouble.

  “Perhaps Uof does not actually realize how his own factory works,” Greer said, his eyes bouncing around the room. "Especially if Weer built it and Uof inherited it.”

  I nodded. “Good, that my was my theory too. What does the information tell us?”

  “What if we could embed the very same spell in other machines and weaken the spell even further?” Shade suggested. “Eventually their weapons would be nearly useless.”

  “That is an idea, Shade,” I replied. “Remember, it’s a curve, the weaker a spell gets the less another user will affect the weakness. Imagine the tens of thousands of hybrid weapons, tools, and machines that exist in the world today. It would take many thousands more to dampen the weakness much more.”

  But Shade wasn’t done working the problem.

  “What if we could create a counter spell of some kind?” she said, looking down at her hands, almost as if trying to create a spell then and there. “Some kind of spell that blocked the machine’s ability to work or blocked this particular spell from drawing on steam power.”

  “It could probably work locally, on one weapon at a time,” I said, nodding. “And that would help us combat them individually, face to face. That could give us a defensible method for one-on-one fighting. Shade, work on some ideas for such a counter spell.”

  She nodded and smiled a determined smile. She now had something to work on, instead of just thinking about the new threats we faced as of today.

  “We need to start collecting hybrid weapons and tools, stealing them wherever we can find them,” I told Greer and Shade. “Then we must destroy them—all of them—because we have a much bigger problem.”

  “What bigger problem?” Dirk asked, his voice surprising me. I hadn’t realized he’d been listening in from the other side of the room. He and Bend walked over and took chairs, Bend hobbling as he did so. Others stood at the periphery of the room, also listening in.

  “Think about the cumulative effect of this spell on our world,” I said, stopping to cough loudly before continuing. “We now know that this spell draws water to create a magical form of a steam-powered engine, sends it all somewhere else, and then discharges an oily substance that is no longer water. If this spell is embedded into each and every hybrid weapon and cycle or tool or machine in the world, including Uof’s own body, it has to draw its matter from somewhere to create the steam that powers these weapons."

  I paused. "It is my theory that The Motorized, for several decades at least, have drawn on the water in our atmosphere to create the steam power of every weapon, tool, machine, wagon, or cycle they’ve ever built. This spell draws water out of the atmosphere and into the steam engine on the weapon, then powers the weapon. The spell then sends the remaining water out, and elsewhere. We know that when matter dissipates after not being used for a spell, it goes into the Ether Dimension. That's where I believe the water goes, and the Ether Dimension kicks back an oily discharge."

  I let this settle into their minds, while I caught my breath.

  "Now remember, this happens every time anyone uses an hybrid tool or weapon or cycle. Every single time it's used, which is tens of thousands of times tens of thousands of tools and weapons. This would explain the rigorous and unending drought that plagues our entire world.”

  Silence fell over the room with a hush.

  “If this is true, it would explain much of the past several decades of suffering,” Dirk said softly.

  “Yes,” I met Dirk’s eyes. “In actuality, I now suspect that The Motorized are in fact, the very reason the world is a desert. And I have been to the corners of what is left of this world. It is dying.”

  Dirk took a moment to think on this, staring at me.

  “We need to share this with every citizen of Vale,” Dirk said. "With every last living person alive."

  I nodded and turned to the rest of the group.

  “Spread the word, everyone in Vale must know this,” I said. “We also need to get eyes on Uof. Where does he sleep, where does he go every day? This won’t be easy information to get. We also need to know whatever we can find out about this new ‘body’ of his.”

  “I know someone who might be able to help,” Bend said.