Touch of Fate

Chapter 11: Grim Tidings

The Archmage was startled out of his trance by a sudden surge of energy. His senses had been fully expanded, allowing him to track the flow and ebb of mana across the planet. While he was searching for a certain unique fluctuation, an explosion of power took place on the central continent. The magnitude of this explosion seemed so great that he would not be surprised if the continent had ceased to exist. Such an event required immediate investigation.

He swiftly exited his meditation chamber and headed up to his observatory. As the Archmage of Cadun, City of Spells, he had access to the best equipment available in this world.

As he passed through the large double doors of the observatory, a small winged creature humanoid greeted him. It resembled a frail young boy the size of a housecat, with a pair of bat-like wings.

"Good morning Master, can this one assist you in any way?" The creature bowed in a servile manner.

The Archmage glanced down at the homunculus, one of his earlier creations that he had kept around primarily for sentimental reasons. It took him a few moments, but he was able to recall his creation's name "Not for now, Yan. I have something I need to investigate in the observatory."

He paused for a second, considering a number of possibilities. "On second thought, there is something you can do for me. Go find Ophalia and Minzu, tell them to get the Probability Lens activated. I will join them shortly."

The homunculus bowed deeply. "As you wish, Master." Before flying through a small opening in the wall that led to a series of tunnels which honeycombed the tower.

The Archmage continued into the observatory, and sat behind the control console. He activated the crystals which fed mana into a complex lattice of silvery metal which was suspended in mid-air. As the lattice began to spin and hum with energy, he placed a hand on the control sphere and mentally directed the machine.

Recalling the sensations he had experiences during his trance, he was able to narrow down the location of the disturbance to a remote region of the Almiran frontier. As far as he was aware, there was nothing of interest in that area.

The place in question was near the edge of The Forest of Shadows, which dominated much of the northeastern portion of the continent. After a few seconds of scanning, he was unable to locate anything unusual.

He activated one of the observatory's life-sensing filters. This one was primarily geared towards locating complex lifeforms. He immediately noticed a large predatory animal which seemed to be chasing a humanoid creature through the woods. As he watch the humanoid joined another group of humanoids. The predator and the humanoids clashed, resulting in the predator being driven away. Curious, he was just about to focus the image on the group when an urgent telepathic message stole his attention.

[Master! You need to come quick!] The panicked mental voice of his apprentice Ophalia sounded in his head. [There is something strange going on with the Probability Lens]

[I'll be there soon.] He responded.

One portion of his mind immediately started the calculations necessary for teleportation to the lab containing the lens. Ordinarily it would require no effort at all, but the layers of protection he had added around the tower meant that he had to expend a bit of energy to do so.

Another part of his mind considered what he had seen with the Observatory. [There was nothing present that warranted the usage of such an amazing amount of power. There were a few humans in the area, but only one of them was higher than Tier One. It seems unlikely that the amount of mana consumed by that action would have anything to do with the humans. Probably, this surge was meant to affect some change instantaneously to the world at large, and the location itself didn't matter.]

While still lost in thought, his mind completed the teleportation, bringing him to the laboratory. There he saw a panicked looking Ophalia wrestling with the controls for the Probability Lens. The young elf was trying her best to shut the machine down with no apparent success. The air hummed with a veritable sea of energy as the lens itself vibrated with an increasingly high-pitched whine.

Minzu, a black-haired rat beastman, ran up. "Master! We don't know what's going on. As soon as we started the Lens, it began to run out of control. We can't get it to shut off!"

The Archmage looked up at his prized creation. The Probability Lens was in truth a massive spherical crystal he had painstakingly grown over several years. At each stage of development he had shaped and engraved the crystal, ensuring the optimal level of quality and mana capacity.

Fundamentally, the Probability Lens functioned as a massive mana battery, 4m in diameter, which focused and channeled ambient mana into the control circle. The circle was an incredibly intricate 10m wide diagram carved into the stone floor of the tower before being filled with magically charged mithril. When activated and supplied with sufficient power, enough to level a small city if used for destructive purposes, the Archmage was able to calculate possible futures.

Since he didn't have access to the rare oracular powers that certain bloodlines carried, he had to rely on this blunt force method in order to track potentially dangerous threats.

He could tell from a single glance, that due to some error, the Lens was taking in far too much mana. If he didn't know any better, he would say that some new factor had exponentially increased the difficulty of calculating futures, and the machine was attempting to compensate.

Knowing he had to act fast, or else risk an explosion that would level much of the surrounding area once the containment spells were overwhelmed, he immediately ordered his apprentices to leave.

As soon as they were clear, he opened a spatial rift below the Lens. With a thought he disconnected the many coupling attached to the giant crystal. Bereft of control the whining in the air grew a level louder. Concentrating his will, he forced the spatial rift to swallow the Lens before mentally pulling it shut.

He sighed in the now silent laboratory. Although he had averted disaster, several years of painstaking effort had been destroyed in an instant. More importantly, he lost one of his most important sources of information at a crucial juncture.

The two apprentices re-entered the laboratory now that it was safe. Ophalia simply stared at the devastated landscape, seemingly unable to comprehend the magnitude of what just happened.

Minzu on the other hand, immediately began muttering to himself. "Was this an equipment malfunction? We didn't do anything different, and the rest of the apparatus appears normal. No, the crystal was specifically formed to function in a particular manner. It would only overload in that manner if the fundamental principles underlying its creation changed in some way, but how is that possible?"

The Archmage was not surprised that Minzu arrived at the correct conclusion so quickly, despite its absurdity. Ophalia was a bright young mage, but she had won a position as his apprentice largely due to being a distant cousin of his. The Archmage wasn't one to forget his origins, so he made an effort to assist his fellow moon elves when he had the chance.

Minzu on the other hand earned his position entirely through his own genius. He had repeatedly impressed the Archmage with intuitive leaps of logic that signified an instinctive understanding of the universe.

"It is possible." The Archmage answered dryly. "I had been tracking a massive mana surge in the central continent just before this. Judging from the way the Probability Lens behaved, we can now make some assumptions about the origin and purpose of the surge."

His two apprentices turned and faced him with serious and attentive gazes.

"It seems that a divine entity at the level of the creator deities, or perhaps stronger, has changed some fundamental aspect of our reality. My guess is that it has introduced an element that directly influences the path of future events. Such an element would, in theory, would create the possibility for a near infinite number of possible futures. Calculating them would have proven impossible for the Lens, causing its overload."

"A god stronger than the creators?! That's insane. Everything we know about the creators suggests that they are at the top of the divine hierarchy." Ophalia exclaimed.

"That's true, but evidence suggests otherwise. The energy I detected was of a level that only a high deity could wield. More importantly, there was absolutely no side effects or mana fluctuations after this surge."

The apprentices gasps at the implications.

The Archmage nodded. "That amount of power, wielded that precisely, with no visible effects on the world? This could only be the work of a being or force beyond our imagination. We can only hope that its intentions are benevolent."

With that, he turned and left his apprentices standing in the ruined laboratory, speechless. There was much to do and little time to accomplish it. The Archmage found himself smiling. For the first time in centuries, he felt the excitement of bearing witness to the unknown.

For good or ill, the world was in for some interesting times.