Mage Among Superheroes

Regular Sendings to Sir Kalman usually had little to say as a response. I wasn’t deeply included in everything the Order was up to, and it wasn’t as if a couple sentences every week would be sufficient for that to happen anyway. The point was simply that we stay in contact, because finding another way to contact me was quite difficult. He would have to find a strong enough mage who knew me or have some other sort of connection, and we weren’t necessarily able to trust random people at this current point. Though I’d heard he was working on expanding the pool of allies, he never gave any details. There was no telling if Sendings would be intercepted. And obviously we had reason to believe they could be.

When I did get a more significant response, it was always important to pay attention. Not that I could easily disregard a spell speaking directly into my head. “Need to talk in person. Three days from now at this time, bring me to you.”

Something important enough that he needed to be here to talk about it? Hopefully, it was just sensitive information and not an emergency. If it had been, three days might have been a bit much. I sent another message to confirm I’d heard him- and got a reply properly. The chances of a Sending getting lost in transit to and from my old world were not too bad.

Three days wasn’t far out, but there were some things necessary before then. Things like informing the Brigade I would be busy during that time, and of course scheduling something with Extra. A previously cleared individual wasn’t difficult to get approval for, and my mercenary work gave me some leeway. And there was no indication he would be staying for a long time, so that also made things easier.

-----

“Alright Midnight,” I said. “Even split.” I could cast Gate alone. The default cost wouldn’t even be pushing my limits. But there was no reason to be lax with such a potentially dangerous action. I never wanted to find out exactly what happened if a portal closed while someone was going through. The tests with a stick had painted a clear enough picture.

The Gate was a more than comfortable size. In fact, you could fit a few people side by side with the full casting, since movement was relatively easy between our two locations. I would have to look into restricting the size and how that functioned with stability, duration, and the like.

Sir Kalman was waiting- he kind of had to be, given the duration. He stepped through almost immediately. “It will be just me, today,” he said. I nodded, and let the portal fade behind him.

The first thing I did after that was cast a spell on him. “Nondetection. Just in case.”

“Much appreciated,” the dwarf said. “Though I would hope not to need it. Today, I am mostly here for a delivery.”

“A delivery?” I raised my eyebrow. “That’s unexpected.”

He nodded, and I could see the sizable rucksack at his side. “If we could go somewhere private. And secure.”

“How secure?” I asked. “Something dangerous?”

“I hope not,” he said.

“We should contact the Brigade,” Midnight suggested. “They should have something?”

I probably wasn’t supposed to directly contact an executive for everything. But also, I figured it would eventually get to and bug Calculator so I might as well start with him. “What is it, Mage?” he answered almost immediately.

“I have a thing that needs a secure location to be brought out,” I said.

“For how long?” he asked.

“Uh… how long?” I asked Sir Kalman.

“I might suggest a few days to check it for danger,” he said. “Preferably away from anything important.”

“Long enough to investigate something,” I said to Calculator. “A few days. Preferably isolated from anything sensitive.”

“Understood,” Calculator said. “I’ll send you a location.”

How efficient. I hoped he got some sleep sometimes. “Thank you.”

-----

Not half an hour later, our ride pulled up outside an inconspicuous building. I sensed some tech power related security, though I couldn’t quite pick out where or what. The door clicked open as we approached, and almost immediately we went down some stairs into a basement. Third door on the left was a room equipped with some variety of investigative devices, from simple magnifying glasses to some sort of scanner in the corner.

“So what is this thing?” I asked.

“A book,” Sir Kalman said. “From Zenfer Cloudfound himself. I think it unlikely he would be willing to obviously expose you to danger, even if he is not a friend, but his status still remains in question.” He pulled out the tome, placing it on the table in the center of the room. “I suggest caution in your approach.”

I hadn’t been practicing Arcane Sight in particular, but it had been folded into Advanced Divination magic with the various Locate spells, so I should at least be decently proficient with it. It didn’t last long enough for me to be comfortable adding it to my list of combat abilities, but perhaps now that it was less expensive it would be wise to test it out in sparring to see if it provided useful insights, or just extraneous information.

Here, where proper magic was likely to be involved instead of superpowers, it should be more accurate and useful.

The immediate results I got indicated abjurative magic to project the tome itself. That wasn’t much surprise, as it looked to be in good shape instead of yellowed and worn. I walked around, not seeing anything else immediately. But what I wanted most were things that would react to specific mana signatures. That would either reveal hidden notes like in Master Uvithar’s book, or be an excellent way to create a trap that only reacted to me.

“Have you read it?” I asked Sir Kalman.

“I browsed through it,” he admitted. “Had to check it out myself. Unfortunately, it appeared to be tailored towards mages in particular. Talks about meditative techniques and mana growth, among other things.”

“Is that not useful for a paladin?”

“Even before meeting you, I’d learned some traditional training methods that helped expand my mana pool. Much like our friend Ceira in nature, as a paladin I have my own proper methods. I should note that it mentions a technique much like that mana crystal method you spoke about… and that it was dangerous.”

“Well, I’m aware of that,” I admitted. “But so far I’ve found the risks acceptable for the sake of expanding my mana pool.”

As we spoke I was studying the tome. “Could you put it in that scanner in the corner?” I asked. “I think I heard something about it determining the total power contained in something. Which is a decent enough threat level observation.”

Sir Kalman nodded, happily picking up the book. I followed behind him to fiddle with the machine- though having it perform a basic test was simple enough. Beams of light passed over the tome.

“Ah, internal power not verified,” I said, reading the results. “Could you open it somewhere down the middle?”

I also took another look with Arcane Sight as the scanners were working- it was a bit painful, as I got more feedback about what they were doing. Clearly my spell wasn’t prepared for so much… active investigation.

After the scans finished, they gave a total level of power and a threat level. Low- but not none. It could be dangerous if all the mana inside exploded out.

With the tome laying open, I was able to observe it once more. Oddly enough, I felt a familiar spell. Nondetection, which should have made it difficult to pick out with my magical senses. Then again, I hadn’t noticed immediately. This was a more permanent enchantment woven into the tome, not something that would require constant upkeep. Perhaps that made it weaker? It might only protect against longer distance effects.

I explained what I knew to the others.

“That might be a problem,” Midnight said. “What if it fooled the scanners and there’s more power hidden within? Why would it even be hidden, anyway?”

“That one’s easy enough,” Sir Kalman said. “Sensitive contents.”

I nodded. “It could be for exactly that. Or it could be hiding danger.” I frowned. “It’s difficult to tell, because it might be so complex that I can’t see through it, or it might really be as it appears.”

I pondered for a while, and then came to a conclusion. It was at that point I began divesting myself of magical protections.

“What are you doing?” Midnight asked, sensing the change first.

“I want to have none of my magic on me. Except Nondetection, to hide my aura. Then it shouldn’t matter if it’s looking for me. And I’m not exactly defenseless. The Power Brigade outfit will still help.”

“What about my own magic, then?” Sir Kalman asked. “I could do something.”

“I think that would be fine,” I said. “Since he would know you were delivering it. Ultimately, this could be paranoia, but Midnight, I want you paying close attention to make sure nothing sneaks its way into me for later.”

“Aye,” Sir Kalman said. “Zenfer would have to know that the Order of the Lion wouldn’t stand by and let him deliver an obvious danger to a friend. So I would expect this to be fine. But we should still be cautious.” He reached out for me, and I could feel abjurative magic stretch between the two of us.

“Is this… Shield Other?”

“Of course. And don’t worry… I’m sure I can take more injuries than you, if it comes to that.”

“What does that spell do?” Midnight asked.

“It splits wounds between the two parties,” Sir Kalman explained. “Unfortunately, secondary protections won’t apply to me.”

“Right. Well, we can come here for days speculating,” I said. “But ultimately, we have to try at some point and I think it’s safe. Do keep an eye out, Midnight. And both of you should probably stand back.”

I reached out for the tome and… picked it up. I didn’t feel anything with my passive senses. Which was… kind of expected. But better to be safe. “I’m going to scan through it,” I said. “Open each page. Just in case.”

My eyes passed over everything. Enough, I thought, to trigger any spells hidden within the pages. Not that I had deep experience with such things, but trapped tomes were no small concern for mages, and so I’d at least heard about the possible options. Explosions and paralyzing magic, for the most part, though perhaps there could be more foul options.

“I don’t sense anything,” I admitted. “So it’s most likely safe. I think we should keep it here for a few days, though. Just to make sure there isn’t something timed.” I left it on the table. “We can also scan it again later.” I turned to Sir Kalman. “So, you didn’t say much on the ride over. Was there anything else?”

“Not that merited its own trip. But now that I’m here, I might as well say it. We’ve been monitoring those who were taken to another world. And we’ve spotted a few spooks. No good opportunities to try to bring anyone in, however. As for the people’s development… we’ve advised them to try not to stand out. If they look as if they haven’t discovered the alternative growth methods, they should hopefully be left alone. But about that… having experienced it for myself for a while now, I think we need more paladins in the Order with these opportunities. My most trusted would be preferred.”

“There’s a problem with that. New Bay wouldn’t be happy with me just bringing a bunch of people through to enhance their powers, I think.”

“Ah, but you don’t need to. You just need to come to us… and send us to one of the planes within our own world. That should be sufficient, shouldn’t it?”

I frowned, “I suppose so. That would be how everyone else discovered it, I would imagine.”

Midnight also had a suggestion. “We could also send them to Celmoth and back. It’s not like Extra had jurisdiction regarding what we do in other worlds with the permission of the natives.” They would take action if we were using New Bay as a base to cause trouble in other worlds, but if everything was with permission…

“Yeah, we could potentially do that,” I said.

“Sooner would be better,” Sir Kalman said. “Perhaps even on a return trip with me?”

“... I’ll use Sending,” Midnight said. “You helped a bunch of our people, so I’m sure it wouldn’t be too big of a deal. Especially since you wouldn’t be staying.”

I really wanted to read the tome properly, as the few bits I’d picked up were much like Sir Kalman said. And mana was always something I was concerned about. If I could improve my numbers or at least my safety it would be great. But also waiting to make sure the book wasn’t going to randomly try to eat my soul or something seemed good.