Chapter 536 — A Dangerous Signal

The Month of Keen Cold.

The coldest month in Anseth had arrived.

The Giant Sun climbed into the sky with slow solemnity; across its vast disc, ringed by a halo of mist and cloud, drifted tawny bands that resembled the grain of wood, and the shifting of those colored streaks foretold a single thing: the greatest cold snap since winter's onset would soon be upon them.

The sun—the largest body in the heavens and the one most intimately bound up with human life—could be read by experienced farmers, who from the changing bands upon its disc could estimate the coming cold snap's date and severity; scholars, for their part, had built from those same changes a method for deducing the climate of the year to come. Observation of the Giant Sun had always been an essential part of daily life in this world.

In Saint Sunil, within the mages' district.

With a faint grinding of stone, the Sun-Chasing Platform atop the Astrology Tower opened its massive, ponderous skylight, and the magic-driven lift came to rest squarely above the passage at the platform's center. Morgan Hugo and his assistants stepped down from the lift and took their places for observing the sun-disc, ready to begin the customary work of observation.

"Open the filter plate—Filtration Mode III."

The aged royal mage gave his orders to an assistant at his side, and at the same time beckoned toward a bookshelf not far away; quill, parchment, and inkpot came flying at once and hung steady before him, while the assistant who had received the command ran to a control node nearby and began channeling magic into the rune pillars.

Seeing the somewhat reckless way his assistant moved, Morgan could not help calling out, "Careful! Those runes are worth a fortune!"

The assistant hastily moderated the flow of magic, and as one rune pillar after another around the Sun-Chasing Platform brightened, a thin film of radiance began to shimmer across the skylight used for observing the sun-disc.

A moment later the glow of magic condensed into a layer of light-crystal seemingly solid, filtering the sunlight beyond the skylight into a mode better suited to the naked eye. Morgan Hugo nodded slightly: the magical apparatus, built a hundred years ago, still served well to this day, and as the most senior astrologer-mage in the tower, the privilege of commanding it had always been his proudest possession.

The old mage took his stand beneath the filter plate condensed from magic radiance and, tilting back his head, studied the sun-disc beyond the skylight, watching the change in every colored band upon its surface, while quill and parchment floated at his side, writing swiftly without pause, setting down every figure and diagram for the record.

The other assistants had taken their observation posts as well, recording the data each was charged with, and a quiet, solemn air settled over the top of the Astrology Tower.

Yet the mood did not last long. A low, puzzled exclamation from one assistant broke the calm of the observation platform: "The red band at the base has shifted three degrees east?"

Morgan Hugo shot his assistant a glare at once: "What nonsense are you talking?"

"It's true! Master!" the assistant said quickly, and as he handed his own notes to his teacher he produced the record of the previous observation. "Look here—this is the last record. You confirmed it yourself."

Morgan Hugo took the few sheets the assistant handed him and ran his eyes swiftly over them. He froze for an instant, then read through them once more with greater care, and then raised his head again, staring unblinking at the Giant Sun in the sky.

"That can't be..." the old astrologer-mage murmured. He waved a hand and conjured the illusory spell used for calibrating coordinates, setting a broad array of reference marks around the image of the sun-disc upon the filter plate; but the calibrated result only deepened his shock. "No... impossible... a shift of this scale... never seen before..."

"Master, should we report this to Silver Keep?" the assistant asked cautiously. "This is a clear anomaly in the heavens."

"Report to Silver Keep at once!!"

...

In the Dark Mountains, at Astronomical Observation Station No. 2, the young mage charged with recording the changes of the sun-disc also set down his tablet in astonishment.

"Could a storm have broken out across the sun's surface?" the young mage muttered. He took another careful look at the figures and diagrams on his tablet, then raised his head and gazed at the image of the sun-disc through the great filtering lens in the station's roof, his face full of disbelief.

A companion nearby glanced over curiously: "Could the historical records be wrong?"

"No—every figure is observed and recorded twice," the young mage said as he rose and started toward the station door. "I'll go outside and take a look. You stay in here and keep recording!"

He stepped out of the station onto the platform attached to it. The cold north wind circled above the Dark Mountains, sweeping through the forests and ravines, and howled over the station built only a few months before, so that the young mage, fresh from the warm interior, could not suppress a shiver that ran through his whole body.

The young mage raised a shield to shut out the cold mountain wind, then took out a portable filter lens and studied the Giant Sun through it with great care.

These astronomical observation stations set among the Dark Mountains were a by-product of the "Nature of Magic" project under Kamael's direction, whose aim was to study the connection between the Giant Sun's cycle of activity and the shifts of magic in the natural world.

Kamael had long held that the magic of the natural world came from the Giant Sun above; but since the world itself was wrapped in a powerful environment of magic, observing changes of magic from outside within that "enveloping environment" was exceedingly difficult. To reduce interference as far as possible and sharpen the accuracy of observation, Kamael had overseen the building of a series of stations in the Dark Mountains.

Astronomical Observation Station No. 2 was one of them.

The stations served at once to measure shifts in magic and to watch the changes of the heavens, and because they stood high in the Dark Mountains, they could even keep watch on the Great Wall.

To be posted at such a station, the young mage must be among the finest of Kamael's many apprentices and assistants; yet at this moment the outstanding young man was sunk in profound shock.

The Giant Sun still hung quietly in the sky, giving light and warmth to the world as always; to ordinary eyes there was likely no change in it at all. But to this young man, the sun in the heavens had in this moment become utterly strange.

The young mage stared upward without blinking for a long while, and even with the protection of the filter lens his eyes soon began to ache sharply. He had to lower his head and work a spell to ease the throbbing, then began carefully checking the figures on the tablet in his hands.

Just then a strange, low sound reached the young mage's ears.

The sound seemed to come from very, very far away, like the din of a hurricane carrying thunder with it; it had traveled so far that by the time it reached his ears it was already blurred. The young man raised his head at that uncanny noise, and when he saw where it came from, his expression went blank.

His gaze passed over the ridge of the Dark Mountains, over the dark forest at the foot of the slopes on the far side, over the corrupted plains laid waste by the magic tide; and at the end of his sight, on the southern horizon, the whole of the Great Wall was blazing with a light many times brighter than before.

It was from that Great Wall that the low wind and thunder came.

"...Goddess of Magic..." the young mage breathed, then spun and ran for the station. "Notify Master Kamael! Notify the lord!!"

...