Nero Walker, Book 4 Ch.74 (305)

On the 34th floor of the Tower of Magic in Hennings, the capital of Oglivarch, Calvin Sanderson rushed through the halls as quickly as he could… while trying and failing to maintain the requisite level of decorum for a mage that is. Although there weren’t exactly rules against running through the halls, it was commonly understood that mages needed to present themselves as unflappable and dignified. After all, proper time management skills along with unparalleled self control were the bedrock of what it meant to be a successful and powerful mage.

That being said, Calvin was running late. And regardless of the consequences of being seen as a poor representation of what it meant to be a mage, he felt compelled to hurry.

So, still in his combat robes, having just come from the training halls, Calvin made quite the spectacle of himself as he quick stepped through the halls, narrowly dodging groups of mages whose jaws dropped at the sight of him.

Turning a corner at speed, he shifted his weight to his left leg and spun, skillfully avoiding running into one of his department heads. Recognizing that he needed to apologize, while not being willing to stop, he offered a half-hearted bow while backstepping away from them.

“Apologies, Adept Codline. Urgent matters to attend to. Let me know if the report I sent you on the Itasca situation needs any revising,” he said quickly, obviously not intending to wait for a reply.

Putting the encounter out of his mind, he sighed in relief at seeing his destination within reach.

Pushing open the door and sliding inside, he swiftly shut it behind him while taking a moment to catch his breath before asking the room, “Did I miss it? Has it already started?”

The room itself was large and inviting, having been decorated by Sarah-yi. The quirky young woman had spent the last two years studying the science of furnishing and arrangement, so she knew what she was doing. The scrying window opened on the wall was surrounded by meticulously placed couches and chairs, each one providing their occupants a perfect place to watch the upcoming excitement.

12 people had already prepared their snacks and taken their seats, everyone of them having come prepared for the viewing party.

“You haven’t missed much. They just returned to the army’s forward operating base. The meeting with the local powers hasn’t started yet,” one of the mages occupying the central couch shouted to Calvin from across the room.

Slipping through the chairs and couches, Calvin took his seat next to his friend.

While reaching out to snatch a bucket of rice puffs from him, Calvin asked, “Hey Zeno, was I right? Did they hold a parade?”

From his left, Calvin heard Sarah-yi audibly, and quite unabashedly, snort in derision of his outlandish theories. “Of course not! They’re at an army encampment! There aren’t any roads for them to parade through. Calvin, you seriously need to stop making these poorly thought out predictions. Fate tracking is just not within your skillset. You should find a more appropriate subject for your private hobbies.”

Zeno, ever the supportive friend, leaned forward on the couch and glared at her. “There may not have been a parade, but Calvin was right about the reception. There were hundreds of people cheering, and if there had been a road, there no doubt would have been a parade.”

Nodding to himself with a self-satisfied smile, Calvin replied, “I thought so. My calculations clearly stated that the emotional threshold for a spontaneous celebratory event had been reached.”

Sarah-yi rolled her eyes at Calvin’s nonsense while harshly changing the subject, “Will you two be quiet, it’s starting.”

Across from them, the scry screen displaying Lord Walker and his entourage showed them entering into the local command hall. They could see the city’s temporary general, Commander Dahl, along with many other notable figures from the city. As expected, there was even a contingent from the local Tower of Magic waiting for their turn at Lord Walker.

Calvin murmured under his breath, “This is going to be great! I’ve been waiting to see how the Walker deals with real mages.”

Zeno replied in a whisper, “Do you think they’ll demand his memory engrams? Or will they just formally request his help with their research? There’s no chance they’ll just let him go.”

Having overheard them, the mage sitting behind them leaned forward and replied just as quietly, “I think Archmage Jennings has already intervened behind the scenes. Everything has already likely been decided. The local mages don’t have the authority to interfere. They have to realize that.”

Calvin unconsciously nodded without turning away from the scry screen. “You’re probably right, but don’t count them out just yet. They're not going to just let the Walker go without trying to figure out how he did it. Even the archmage can’t stop them from researching what happened. What would really be nice is if whoever is running the scrying array took a moment to set up a few more targets so that we could see the larger picture. I’d be interested in seeing how the local council of leadership is responding to what happened.”

Ignoring Calvin’s suggestion, Zeno asked, “But would it even be worth it for them to contradict the archmage? They can’t copy a unique’s ability, so why would they risk it?”

Disagreeable as ever, Sarah-yi spoke up loudly, her shrill voice carrying throughout the room. “Would you all shut up! Just watch!”

Wincing at her tone, Calvin lowered his voice even more while whispering his reply, “The question is whether or not the Walker’s unique ability was involved at all. Just because a person can’t see the ether like him, doesn’t mean that it is impossible to replicate his essence manipulations in another way.”

The mage who’d been listening in leaned over even closer, saying, “Remember when the evaluators tried to figure out how the Walker did what he does? They could follow what he did, but not how he did it. It’s reasonable to assume that the same restrictions will apply here with his evident portal manipulation.”

Zeno replied, “You’re also forgetting about the memory engram he provided during that assassination attempt he had. That memory has been studied over and over again, and nothing of substance has yet been discovered concerning his abilities. Just cause the memory recorded what he saw, doesn’t mean that anyone viewing it would be able to see what he did. You can only see as much as you’re able to see yourself when borrowing someone else's senses. A blind person will still only hear what a person’s memory recorded if they don’t have the capacity to interpret sight for themselves.”

Calvin frowned in disagreement. “I’ve always hated that analogy. A blind person who at one time could see would be able to interpret sight just as well as anyone else. Memory engrams record what a person experienced, limited only by their senses. And the memory engram you’re talking about was only a standard memory recording. More sophisticated systems should be able to interpret his ether sense even better.”

The unnamed mage behind them replied, “I doubt it. The evaluators have already proven that the way the Walker interacts with essence is fundamentally different than how we normally do it. He can ‘see’ the essence flows. We don’t have the technology to replicate that, or even record it… or at least not in a way that is at all relevant to our ability to interact with the ether. It would be like a color blind person watching a memory engram from someone who could see the full color spectrum. They simply wouldn’t register what they were looking at, and the system hasn’t been trained to record it.”

Zeno, sounding unconvinced, replied, “That’s just because we never needed memory recordings to be that precise. I’m sure with a little effort the technology could be adapted. In fact, the mages will likely insist on doing just that. We don’t need people to be able to understand what the Walker’s memories show, we only need the recording to be able to encode it. Interpretative systems could be built to understand what they were looking at. From there, replicating his abilities becomes a real possibility. I doubt that hasn’t occurred to them.”

Calvin replied quickly, “Whatever their reasoning, the mages will definitely try and enlist the Walker into their ranks. For a fundamentally free-spirited young man like him, this is going to be like the entire Tower of Magic declaring war on him! Do you think he’ll challenge them in the arena? Will the smiling killer return?”

From across the room, Sarah-yi screeched loudly enough to make everyone in the room wince, “Will you PLEASE be quiet! We’re trying to watch a scry here! Have some common decency and respect for those around you, will you!!”

—--

Nero didn’t miss the look of disappointment on Jennings’s face. Nor did he miss the subtle but profound changes occurring in the room’s ether.

While the room waited impatiently for him to explain, information bombarded his mind like he was being attacked by surrounding artillery fire. His senses, now fully unleashed, were alerting him to everything that he’d been ignoring… all at once. The resultant backlash of having his full mind suddenly entirely focused on his present was almost overwhelming. The numerous, and in hindsight obvious, details that he’d been missing suddenly became painfully and depressingly clear.

His ether senses immediately began warning him about the hope-stained, greed-filled essence fields of the mages across from him. Looking at them now, he felt like kicking himself for having missed it. While before he may have assumed they were part of the army, it was apparent to him now that they were instead mages from the local Tower of Magic, possibly related in some way to one of the Center Research enclaves throughout the city. Between their robes, their demeanor, and their intensely studious, for lack of a better word, ‘auras’, he could tell they hadn’t come here for a simple debrief.

In addition to his ether senses, his eyes were busily taking everything else in as well. It wasn’t just the mages that were catching his attention, everyone else in the room suddenly became suspect to him too. The expressions on their faces, the fact that there were high-level army commanders in attendance with their suspiciously deferential subordinates, even the room itself should have been sufficient warning for him to have put up his guard from the moment he walked in here.

The building was too well built for a temporary enclosure, and likely had been specifically created for the safety of the people sitting across from him. There was no reason to put as much effort as they had into this building if they hadn’t had a good reason. Whoever these army people were, they were not the simple local commanders he’d thought they were.

All these little details wove together into one cohesive picture that his brain was hurrying to digest as quickly as possible.

Effortlessly, multiple threads of thought organized themselves into a singular direction of enhanced focus.

Perhaps it was due to his few hours of practice, or maybe because he’d sensed a threat, but none of the mental issues he’d been dealing with reared their heads. Instead, rather than making him scatterbrained or interfering with his thinking, for the first time since he’d noticed his increasing mental acuity, his mind was working together in a coordinated effort to serve him.

One thread dedicated itself to collecting and organizing his ether senses. Another took care of his more physical senses like sight, hearing, and smell. The various inputs were then being filtered through another thread which focused on interpreting them so that another could accurately begin making logical conclusions.

While all that was happening, almost as if his mind was trolling him, another thread imagined a room full of Nero’s ignoring each other. Each one was doing their own thing, playing with a deck of cards, reading a magazine, or just watching TV. There were even a few in the back playing a heated game of foosball while a few others watched and chatted away with each other. From the outside, it looked like a pretty slow and uninteresting party until the lights began flashing red, causing the Neros to drop what they were doing. Bursting in through the door came Nero Prime wearing a World War II army general’s dress greens, calling everyone to attention. In no time at all, couches were rearranged and command stations were set up. All the various Nero’s began seamlessly working together, serving their captain while he barked out orders. What had been a playroom had suddenly turned into a freaking command center.

The imagery and metaphors were clear, although somewhat surprising. That said, Nero was also 1000% sure it wasn’t a hallucination or a projected image of anything real or even all that interpretative. Instead, it was more like the smartass part of his personality had chosen to express itself in the only way it could while trying to be helpful. Even the fact that he ‘knew’ it had no bearing on reality seemed like an expression of his subconscious having decided to lend him a hand.

It had been a while since he’d had to think politically, and it was clear now that he’d let his guard down. Considering that everything he knew about politics came from his time debating agendas on the internet along with a few TED talks he’d watched while enjoying his favorite Raman, it was surprising to him how much he was able to figure out with only a few seconds of dedicated analysis.

The mages had come to find out about his ability to close portals. They likely weren’t sent by anyone outside the city, and were instead interested in advancing themselves through replicating what he’d done. He couldn’t be sure if they even knew about the Dwarves and Populators, but he was positive their agenda was their own… or at least local.

The army was here because they’d been made to look like fools. As these guys were the big wigs who’d been away from the front lines, the commanders who’d allowed House Walker to attempt to close the portals were likely being snubbed for embarrassing them. While here for a ‘debrief’, these guys were more interested in showing the city that they’d been an important factor in House Walker’s success.

But the most crucial delta that he’d missed was the matter of just how Jennings had chosen to word the report he’d offered them, and specifically the fact that he’d gone out of his way to link the portal closing with Nero’s unique ability to see and interact directly with the essence flows in the ether.

In less than a few seconds, Nero’s mind was making connections between multiple half-remembered comments he’d heard along with social and legal clues he’d previously dismissed as irrelevant and not worth paying attention to.

The crux of the matter was that as a unique, his abilities were by definition uncopyable. Therefore, if his ability to manipulate portals was an extension of that, then there would be no hope for its replication or study. But, if his ability simply allowed him to do something in a way that could be studied, and therefore codified, then it would be his duty as a citizen of Oglivarch to willfully submit his discovery for the greater good.

Glancing over at the army, he could tell they currently couldn’t care less about the mage’s goal, but weren’t willing to involve themselves in the matter. That said, he could ‘feel’ their essence fields cheering at the idea that he’d be taken down a peg. More than a few of them were clearly looking forward to him being shoved into a lab and studied like a science experiment for the foreseeable future.

Nero could also feel the fear and confusion rolling off the Wacko’s behind him. They were still standing by the wall, quietly observing everything that was happening. He could feel the pressure pressing down on him, the threat of letting them down and shattering the immortal image of awesomeness that they perceived him to have.

Even Cathleen and Angelton were broadcasting their concern over what he’d just said. They were obviously very worried that he’d just talked himself into a corner.

He could ‘feel’ the information pouring into his mind before being funneled into thought threads and instantly being interpreted. While he’d never taken Aderoll or anything like it, this was exactly what he’d expected something like that to feel like.

The pressure of everyone’s attention felt like a weight pressing down on him, squeezing his essence field and suffocating him.

“Everyone needs to just calm the fuck down!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, causing everyone in the room to visibly wince before leaning back in their seats to retreat from his presence. Considering that nobody had said anything for the last few seconds, they were all looking at him in confusion and fear at his outburst.

Nero’s tone was likely less intimidating than what he’d just done with his essence field. His presence had mercilessly gripped the room, forcing the essence flows to stop transmitting their information through the ether and causing the room to become very, very still. Although nothing had visibly or physically changed, everyone could no doubt sense the atmosphere being affected. Even Jennings had visibly reacted to what Nero had done by perking up in his seat, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

Whatever Nero was doing wasn’t like seizing the essence in the way he’d been taught in his combat classes. He wasn’t controlling it, instead it was more like he’d somehow pressed his metaphysical hand down on the essence and forced it to stop flowing. It shouldn’t have been possible, and doing so violated everything he’d been taught about how essence actually worked. Nevertheless, he’d done it.

Sighing in relief at no longer being assaulted by impressions of what everyone was feeling and thinking, Nero took a moment to collect himself. For just a moment, it felt like the world had returned to almost what he considered normal, his sense of magic having been sufficiently dulled.

Meanwhile, Jennings not so quietly muttered to himself, “Well, that’s a very interesting development…” before looking around at the room with an expression of curiosity on his face.

Before Nero could even think of saying anything, he felt his control of the room’s essence being ripped away from him. Considering that he hadn’t technically been holding onto the essence, it was more surprising than anything else. Normally having his control forcibly removed would cause a spike of mental pain, but instead he felt nothing other than the sense that he wouldn’t be able to cast anything even if he wanted to.

While Nero probed the ether, confirming that he couldn’t take hold of any essence, he felt Jennings begin to carve a spell into the ether. Turning his head, he noted that Jennings was casting a simple spell, using his own center to create the spellform. While it was not one Nero immediately recognized, a simple glance told him that it had something to do with water… or maybe humidity?

Yet, despite Jennings finishing the spell, Nero’s affect over the ether remained firm. The essence did not flow, and the spell remained inactive. Without the infusion of essence, it remained incomplete, and nothing but unrealized potential.

“Nero, my boy! How are you doing this?” Jennings asked with a wide grin, his tone completely devoid of anything other than joyful curiosity.

The mages on the other side of the table were awestruck, sitting there with their mouths open as if they were watching a chessmaster losing a game of checkers to a toddler. Even though Nero couldn’t interpret anything from their essence fields, he could tell by their pale and bloodless faces that they were terrified.

Losing his concentration, Nero felt his control of whatever he was doing to the ether slip. Almost immediately, the surrounding essence flew into Jennings’ spell, completing it and activating the spellform. Above his hand, a small cloud began to form in the shape of a three-masted sailing ship. It was obviously a pointless spell, no doubt one created for the amusement of children, and likely cast by Jennings only to check the ether rather than for any practical purpose.

Waving away the spell, Jennings repeated the question, “You have to tell me how you did that? You stopped the essence from functioning while not taking control of it. I couldn’t feel your presence anywhere, but I also somehow could tell it was there! I’m not sure I’ve ever felt anything like that before!”

Nero felt the return of everyone’s essence fields like an air conditioner dropping from a second floor window onto his head. The spike of information directly into his mind caused him to clutch his head with both hands in pain.

“Just… give me a second,” he replied before quickly regaining control of his senses.

Unfortunately, the absolute control of his mind was gone, leaving behind the normally scattered thought streams which were now once again doing their own things. He could feel his mind struggling to return to its organized state while being constantly distracted by multiple thoughts, each of which was as pointless as they were stupid.

Part of his mind began analyzing what just happened by picturing his essence field as a blanket smothering everyone. Another began workshopping the possible combat applications of this new discovery if and when he figured out how to replicate it. Meanwhile, another part of his mind couldn’t help but wonder whether or not he could use this technique to stop souls from slipping through the planes, allowing him to stave off death indefinitely.

Audibly growling with effort, Nero forcibly pulled his mind back into order. Without making the conscious decision to do so, he began to imagine the room of Nero’s being corralled back into their places at their workstations by Nero Prime’s vicious insults and slaps. For just a moment, he even imagined Nero Prime spraying the recalcitrant Nero’s down with a water pistol like they misbehaving cats scratching the furniture. And while it was nothing more than a visual image he was holding onto as a mental anchor, it did successfully allow him to channel his mental energy into a singular direction.

Although he managed to regain full control of his mind, Nero felt like his current ability to focus was nowhere near the level of concentration he’d been able to reach only a few seconds ago. Yet, the distracting thoughts were successfully reigned in, and he felt like his mind was now eagerly waiting for him to give it something to do.

Setting that feeling of anticipation aside for the moment, Nero turned to look at Jennings and replied quietly, “I have absolutely no clue what just happened. So, don’t ask. We’ll talk about it later.”

Before Jennings could respond, Nero turned to address the mages with an expression of what he hoped was dignified rage on his face. His tone was sharp as a knife as he said, “As for you mages of the Tower, I don’t appreciate you attempting to put words in my mouth. Like the respected archmage at my side told you, what I did with the portals isn’t something you would be able to understand. Honestly, if you think you’d be able to succeed where he’d failed, then I suggest you consider spending a few sessions at your local Center with a mind healer getting your path straightened back out. Recognizing and accepting your limits is equally as important as having the drive to overcome them. Now, I formally request that we don’t hear another question from your section of the table. You’ve received your report from the archmage, and now you should allow the army to ask their questions. It would be best for everyone involved if you would remain quiet while those in charge of your defense finish their debrief so we can all return to our homes. The men and women behind me of House Walker have earned their rest, and I will allow neither your disingenuous questions, nor your insulting political maneuverings to interfere with them receiving their duly earned reward.”

Having heard himself just speaking like a caricature of an eighteenth century nobleman crossed with a congressman from upstate New Hampshire, it took a great deal of effort for Nero not to lose control of his expression and laugh at himself.

While he did manage to remain composed, his mind immediately began questioning what in the hell just happened.

‘Why did I just sound like that? Did I unlock my noble-speech talent tree or something? Was my trying to sound formal… making me sound formal? And did I just really use the word ‘duly’?’ he thought in quiet panic before mentally shouting at himself, ‘Keep it together man! Do what you do and just roll with it!’

*Chapter 305 - Fear brings focus.

*Spoiler - Chemically, a lot happens when we encounter danger.  The cocktail of stuff which is released upon recognition of a threat causes our minds to focus, our reaction times to speed up, even our digestion to slow down.  The idea of the way Nero's body interacts with his mind and soul is interesting to me as a tool to explore this concept.  Like, in order to recognize danger, a person's brain has to interpret it before the body can respond.  But once it does, the mind is then in turn affected by the body.  That's kind of cool to think about from the perspective of them being separate things in this story.  It's also a hint as to why Nero can be so carefree when he's lacking a body or mind and is instead just a soul.