Page 59 of Killian
“What about the power sources?” asked Moira. “Removing or substituting?”
“I think the human out there is the power source,” said Sorcha. “I think he’s using the linking properties of the artifacts, but using himself as a power source, so again, if he dies…”
“Yes, if Lonnie dies, we’re screwed. OK, back to redirecting, how does that work?”
Sorcha filled out her cheeks with air and then blew out. “I really wish we had someone more qualified than me.”
“Yup,” said Moira, “I understand the feeling. But look at me.” Sorcha looked at her. “You are good enough to do this. We believe you can, and we’re counting on you. This is for the tree.”
Sorcha nodded mutely.
“OK, so talk to me. Work me through it because I don’t understand. Tell me how redirecting would work.”
“A spell has a purpose. The rest of the spell lays out the groundwork for how it operates but there is a goal—a command—at the heart of each spell. That command has to be answered or shit goes very badly.”
“OK,” said Moira, feeling herself start to sweat. This was sounding worse with every passing second.
“But,” continued Sorcha, “no spell is perfect. A spell caster writes the spell based on how they want the spell to work. But no one can think of everything, so if you’re clever you can twist the spell to do something else that answers the command of the spell, but not the intent of the spell caster.”
Moira tried to reformat that answer into something that made sense.
“So, like if someone asks a genie to bring their love back from the dead and the genie just makes a zombie?” asked Moira. Sorcha looked puzzled. “A zombie is just a dead body with some animating force in it.”
“Ah. Yeah, kind of like that,” said Sorcha. “And eww.”
“Malicious compliance,” said Moira. “OK, if the command at the heart of this spell is to give a burst of electricity how do we answer that without setting off the explosives?”
“It isn’t. The command is to keep communicating with the other Shifter artifact. When the spell fails, it ignites the second spell. Maybe I’m looking at the wrong spell,” said Sorcha suddenly. “Maybe I don’t need to block this one. Maybe I need to block the other one. It’s smaller, less complicated and currently dormant. I might not need as much power to destroy it. Or even if I redirect it to discharge into something else, it wouldn’t be fatal. I need…”
“Tell me what you need,” said Moira.
“I need some papyrus,” said Sorcha. “I can’t do this in my head.”
“Cynog!” bellowed Moira. “We have a paper emergency.”
Cynog appeared at her elbow. “I have three different types, pencils, ink, quill, and glue.”
“How long do you need?” asked Moira.
“I don’t know. Five minutes maybe?” Sorcha snatched at thepaper and pencil in Cynog’s hand and began to scribble.
“OK,” said Moira, glancing across the valley. “Hopefully we’ve got that.”
Episode 26
Taking a Walk
Killian
Killian watched Lonnie and the warlocks come out of the temple. Once again, he felt distinctly underdressed. Behind him, the elves looked regal and resplendent in shiny silver armor, and Killian thought he looked like Indiana Jones had wandered onto the Lord of the Rings set.
Lonnie Brutus had one hand in the pocket of his overcoat, a pistol in his waistband, and walked with a swagger. He was a pompous skinhead Napoleon. The warlocks who walked behind him tried to emulate his attitude with varying degrees of success and Killian decided that however shabby he looked, at least he didn’t look like those cockfarts.
“Seems like you brought a lot of friends just to deliver a book,” said Lonnie when they got closer.
“They didn’t trust you to keep your word,” said Killian.
“What? You didn’t tell them what a trustworthy guy I am?” Lonnie flashed his metallic grin.
