3. The Search for Magiq: Cataclysm

[Saberlane]

To discuss the cataclysm and the ongoing Search for Magiq.

[Saberlane]

I spent the morning writing in the tower overlooking Flinter’s Glen in Neithernor.

I was keeping an eye on my watch (have to bring an analog watch as my digital one goes nuts in NN) because I wanted to meet up @Catherine in the office before she left for the day, so I started packing up.

I was leaving the tower via the City Hall Station door (the only way to access it as far as I know), and I always knock open the door and prop it open for a second to make sure no one’s on a tour or security’s doing a round. The coast was clear, so I went to grab my bag from the desk, when I heard the chair I used to prop the door open start to break.

It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to process. I scrambled over the chair and hit the floor on the other side as the chair basically exploded into splinters and the door slammed shut. I tried to knock back in for almost an hour, but couldn’t get it to work. My bag is still there with my notebook, my phone, my writing, my wallet… All trapped in Neithernor.

When I finally walked back to the office, I saw @Tinker’s post. Which she posted within ten minutes of the door slamming shut on me.

I’m worried that whatever happened to the nymph and the City Hall door are connected.

[Sellalellen]

That’s… not good. So did the nymph freak out because Neithernor was freaking out? Is that what’s happening here? And why would Neithernor freak out?

[Sellalellen]

Sorry. I should probably be more concerned about you and your work, but Flinterbrain says “how does this work? What made the thing do the thing?”

[Saberlane]

I completely understand. I can replace most of my stuff, I’m more concerned about the bigger implications.

@Tinker

Her puddle started shrinking and it like, sucked her back inside before I could do anything to help. And then it like…banged shut like a door??

Is the part that made my heart stop.

[Robert]

The doors out are being shut. Looks like whoever it is closed the loopholes.

[Tinker]

Okay that’s very spooky. I was worried that I’d done something wrong when I took the note, but now I’m worried on a whole new level! If you can’t knock back into Neithernor…and my courier got forcibly noped out…I’m not optimistic that we’re going to be able to contact anyone else again.

[Saberlane]

I encourage others to try, but I cast an encanterance an hour ago thinking the same thing you’re all thinking. No bell rang. No courier came.

We can’t have lost Neithernor. We can’t.
If it’s this wall, the cataclysm is the priority then. Right?

[Saberlane]

Sorry, I should be the calm voice of reason, but I’m freaking out.

[Revenir]

I feel like this was the last of the Neithercouriers. I mean we talked about this type of communication not lasting forever, so it’s expected but… it makes me really sad. They were strange but cute.

But…not only the Neithercouriers but Neithernor itself?

This is starting to scare me. Now, not only are we being walled out from the others, but if we’re even starting to lose magiq… It feels like the walls are shrinking. We’re running out of time. Let’s just hope this cataclysm spell works.

[Sellalellen]

I think at this point it’s weird to not want to freak out a bit

[Thorn]

Well, we have a direction, if it doesn’t work then I think we’re out of outside options. It looks like it’s all on us now, Mounties.

[Saberlane]

I’m adding the latest message from the Searchers here, just so we can continue the discussion.

@Tinker

We’re glad that despite what’s happening, we can still reach you, and you seem well. The couriers are taking longer to reach their destinations, and we were worried when we didn’t hear from you.

Apologies for our most recent delay, but after days of research we think we may have figured out a roundabout way for you to find “your door,” though it may be dangerous, and we won’t know just how dangerous until you try it.

We believe the dream Martin had was a clue from the Cagliostro that led us to a fraction of a spell that may help “illuminate the door.” We call it a “fraction” because the spell is incomplete, and it’s incomplete because it’s been proven impossible to perform fully. We’re colloquially calling it “the cataclysm.”

From what we’ve learned, centuries ago an unnamed seeker of magic attempted to subvert the currently understood laws by borrowing energy from objects with power, and earmarking them for a central, more powerful spell. Once the connection to the object was established, and its power lent, she would then try to use that collected core of energy to attempt to perform wrought magic, hoping that she could funnel the borrowed energy into a wrought spell and break it, while still honoring the initial mundane tether, and returning the borrowed magic to its source. In effect, the energy would for an instant be both borrowed and wrought, theoretically doubling the energy and creating what she hoped would be eternally sustainable magic.

But she found it to be impossible, and every time the spell was attempted, there was a brief but cataclysmic eruption of energy as the borrowed magic almost broke but instead rebounded, often snapping back to its sources and destroying them in the process. It’s believed that in her final attempt, the rebound destroyed her.

The eruption caused by this spell might be enough to push through the edges of your door. But there are two concerns.

One, given that you are within a near-impenetrable fort of magimystic energy, we don’t know if the eruption will dissipate through the unseen walls, or rebound against them, essentially crushing you in a tsunami of magimystic energy.

Two, the laws of magic as we know them continue to crumble as the last of magic fades from this world. What was once possible may not be for long. In essence, we don’t know how much longer this spell, or any other proven spell, will work the way it once did.

We are working on alternate methods to reach you should the couriers fail in the future, but we must be honest… we are running out of options, and the ways that may still be possible could be even more dangerous than the cataclysm and have longer-lasting effects. But trust me, no matter what, I won’t give up. If you’ve been hidden this well, it’s not without reason, and we will discover that reason.

As for your friends, they are not here in the sanctuary, but we can tell you that the ones you call Port and Alison did begin their search for magiq recently, and fates willing, should already be on their way to us as I write you. We don’t know the whereabouts of Aether, however.

The Cataclysm (Incomplete, unproven, and deemed impossible)

Though mundane magic usually borrows energy from the aether, for this spell, you must find 18 individual objects that you reasonably believe to hold true magimystic potential. Those objects and their inherent power will be “earmarked” for the cataclysm and tethered to the space you choose to perform the final portion of the spell (your forum would seem to make the most sense. As long as you all are present when the spell is cast, we have found that a “virtual” location often works without severe consequence in place of a physical one.)

Keep in mind that the objects should be bound to the “center point” slowly, no more than one a day, or else you risk overwhelming the spell and having to begin again.

Present the eighteen objects one at a time and share the story of their magimystic potential (this is customarily done verbally, but in writing should work.)

After each of the object’s stories is told, cast the following recitation:

Token, you are bound
Your power now promised
Vowed token unbound
When need of you has ended
You are claimed for a time
And tethered by my telling
Onward to the source
Until you are released

The spell usually fails at the point that all objects are tethered to the center, because no common wrought spell will naturally draw from the energy you’ve bound. It will instead search for untethered magic. Instead, the practitioner developed a recitation to break the magic bound in this spell specifically.

When all eighteen objects are bound, recite the following while visualizing a small, but fundamental change in the gathered energy:

See what I see in you
Become that which you cannot
Power bound and promised
Be broken and remade

We think spreading the 18 objects among individuals will help with the rebounding effect. But we’re not sure. It’s definitely a risk. But we don’t know what else to try that may be strong enough to break through the wall.

[Saberlane]

@Saberlane

But trust me, no matter what, I won’t give up. If you’ve been hidden this well, it’s not without reason, and we will discover that reason.

Another instance where whoever is responding from the sanctuary changes from “we” to “I”.

[Thorn]

I’m just about to pass out, but before I do let me secure my tinfoil hat for a second to bring up a theory that just snapped into my mind:

You guys remember the protection we put on the forums? What if it’s working too well, and if it is, then what if we get yet more feedback than we’re already likely to get from trying to disrupt it?

[Revenir]

Ok, this is a super weird question but like…do you think we know this person? Or they know us? They did say they were once a Mountaineer. Or…maybe they’re just exceptionally nice and our correspondences were enough to make them determined to help us. I dunno, it’s too bad we’re cut off from contacting them. It’d be nice to know more about who they are.

[Rimor]

This again makes me think that it’s a fallen Mounty from our past

[Revenir]

You mean from the 1990s? It’s possible, we don’t really know what happened to them years after the Storm hit.

I dunno if it’d be one of us though. Unless by fallen you mean they quit. There is only one Mountaineer who…fell…during our time here…

[Saberlane]

The thought that it could be a '94… That someone else survived the Storm.

[Tinker]

@Saberlane

As for your friends, they are not here in the sanctuary, but we can tell you that the ones you call Port and Alison did begin their search for magiq recently, and fates willing, should already be on their way to us as I write you. We don’t know the whereabouts of Aether, however.

So…it sounds like Port and Alison are on their way to the Searchers/the sanctuary/something…but where did Aether go???