Chapter 1108 — Their Separate Sides

In a large, brightly lit laboratory, Kamarel floated high in midair, monitoring the operation of the apparatus before him.

At the center of the room's floor was fixed an alloy device — a thing of multiple rings and sleeves, shaped like a nozzle. From it rose a crystal conduit connected to the ceiling, while a great many runes and mithril transmission structures were inlaid across the floor around the device in orderly array. Along both side walls stood numerous control consoles and ancillary equipment.

Kamarel's gaze was fixed on that crystal conduit at the center of the floor, on the alloy "nozzle" at its base. A stream of blue-white magical flame poured quietly from the nozzle, forming a dead-straight beam of energy within the conduit. The crystal apparatus at the top hummed, releasing that pure and potent energy without cease into the high-energy circuits surrounding the laboratory, sustaining a balance both dangerous and precise.

A Net terminal nearby suddenly chimed. Kamarel glanced up at the mechanical clock on the wall, then descended to the communications console. As the device activated, a clear projection swiftly took shape above the projection crystal: an elf lady of beautiful and mature features, her golden hair piled high. "Good day, Master Kamarel."

"Good day, Grand Astromancer Velania," Kamarel gave a slight nod — which, visually, set the arcane cloud about his head bobbing up and down. "Your call is perfectly on time. How went the experiment? Did our newly designed procedure work?"

"Regrettably, no," the Grand Astromancer sighed from within the holographic projection. "Though we succeeded in creating a shielding field capable of isolating all magical effects, the dark chamber set at the field's center was still disturbed by natural magic. The images upon the projection panel came out blurred beyond reading."

The arcane radiance coursing over Kamarel's form paused for a moment. Then he let out a sigh that carried an echo: "Alas... that is truly bad news. Our experimental procedure was already theoretically flawless."

"It seems we underestimated just how 'everywhere' magic is in the natural world," Velania said. "No observation method we have attempted can exclude the interference of the primordial magic field — not entering the Shadow Realm, the Elemental Planes, or a demiplane, not delving deep underground or climbing high mountains, not even..."

"Not even experimenting in the Gloom Realm," Kamarel sighed. "We cannot exclude the interference of primordial magic in nature, so even though we have produced exceedingly pure arcane energy, we still cannot observe the theoretical interference fringes..."

A look of regret crossed Grand Astromancer Velania's face, and her gaze passed beyond Kamarel's figure to the massive crystal conduit at the center of the room — the arcane beam within it radiating a bright, constant glory, beautiful beyond measure. She could not help but widen her eyes. "You have already succeeded in building a new emission source?"

"I modified the Gondon-era magic focuser on the technical foundations of contemporary thaumaturgical theory. The arcane jet stream produced is roughly three percentage points purer than before, and considerably stronger," a note of exhilaration finally entered Kamarel's voice — though the good mood lasted only briefly. "But it is as I said: so long as the interference problem remains unsolved, no matter how pure an emission source we prepare, we still cannot prove the wave nature of magic..."

At this thoroughly exasperating topic, both great scholars fell silent at once.

To prove the wave nature of magic... Kamarel and Velania had been vexed by this problem for a very long time, Velania especially — the Grand Astromancer had devoted nearly half a century of effort to it.

What, after all, was magic? Why was it everywhere? Was it in essence a special substance, or a formless wave? These questions that struck at the very essence held a fatal attraction for the two great scholars, and a difficulty to match — and the hardest part was not theoretical deduction but final proof. In theory, Velania had completed her exposition of magic's wave nature more than forty years ago; in practice, she and Kamarel had to this day found no corresponding evidence.

The deadliest part was interference — the interference of the primordial magic field that was everywhere in nature. To prove that magic was a wave, the most direct method was to observe the "phenomena" it produced as a wave, such as interference fringes. Yet in a real experimental environment, any medium capable of displaying interference fringes would also display nature's "primordial magic noise" — noise as ubiquitous as the "background radiation" underlying the entire world, permeating even the Gloom Realm, the Shadow Realm, and all the elemental worlds. It surrounded the vision of every researcher like a thick fog, and even a veteran thaumaturge of the Gondon Empire and a Grand Astromancer of the elves could not find a clear "gap" in that fog.

"...If we could prove that magic is a wave, we could explain more than half the magical phenomena in this world," Velania said, the record crystals and auxiliary crystals floating beside her seeming somewhat dim. "And if we found a suitable means of observation, we would in effect have found a means to accurately measure and even control fundamental magic — to control magic at the level of its 'wave' essence. Think of it: how much could that overturn?"

"Yes, yes, I can imagine — we might even manufacture Deepblue Wells artificially, in mass production," Kamarel spread his hands. "But only if we find that means..."

As he spoke, he could not help but shake his head, muttering in a complicated tone: "In truth, we can already almost confirm that magic is a wave, can we not? Think of the indirect evidence, think of the deep 'foundations' on which the Sending spell rests, think of the Prismaturge. If magic were not a wave, none of it could be explained."

"But we still need to find more direct evidence, and more importantly — a means of observation, one that is quantifiable, controllable, repeatable, a practical tool," Velania shook her head. "Alas, let us set this long-term problem aside for now. I also wished to speak with you about some interesting regularities we have found while collating our solar observation records over this recent period..."

"Solar observation records from the southern regions of the continent?" The light about Kamarel's form brightened slightly at once. "Now that interests me."

...

Though most regions of the Loren Continent had grown warmer by the day, within the Holy Dragon Duchy at the continent's far north, about Dragonsreach Fortress standing atop the peaks, the land remained under ice and snow. The slanting daylight was spilling in from the west over the duchy's mountains, and that bright glory made the snowline on the peaks stand out ever more sharply: below the snowline the slopes and the gentler lands further down were touched with green, while above it the palace district remained white with snow.

Dragonblood Duke Bayangor sat in a study in the upper reaches of the castle, a warm fire burning quietly nearby. Head bowed, he was signing document after document concerning grain procurement and the adjustment of foreign exchange reserves. Beyond the window at his side, a patch of snow was blown by the wind from the eaves, drifting and fluttering past the window, drifting and fluttering over the towering stone walls, flying off toward the city below the mountain.