Chapter 86 Hat

        "Thanks for all your help, Chenii-Imor." Roween meant it.
        The Elet didn't react, seemed uninterested.
        Conley touched her on the arm. "It's been nice knowing you, Chenii-Imor. Enjoy yourself in the western lands, and let us know how you get on."
        She appeared startled. "The comsphere! You should take it with you!" She opened her bag, dug around in it, hasty.
        Conley glanced to Roween; Roween shrugged.
        "Here it is, I knew I had it." She produced the rose-pink com-2, smiled, then sensed Roween's incomprehension. "There was an open appeal last week, I remembered it this morning but it slipped me again. Here, you should have this now." She offered the ball to her, trustingly.
        Roween took it, still muddled. "That's, er, yes... So, why exactly do we need this, Chenii-Imor?"
        She was surprised by the question, emptied all expression from her face. "I don't know why the appeal was made, Roween, I'm just complying. My sphere, take it to the library; that's where the rest will be."
        Then, Roween understood.

* * *


        "I thought you'd been there before?" Conley was impatient.
        "I have, Con, it's not far now, don't worry."
        She looked around. "Well I don't see any library. I know these buildings are big, but how many books did you say it contained?"
        Roween grinned. "It's right beneath us. They hollowed out a cavern inside the hill, put the library in it. Less risk of fire, no risk of flood or vermin, and they can expand it whenever the need arises. Bit dark, but there's lamps and stuff."
        "And there's only one entrance?"
        "There are several - four, I think - but we're going to the main gate; that's where the comspheres will be."
        "The comspheres..?"
        Roween smiled, knowingly. "I can feel them already, hundreds of them! This is all going to be so much easier than I'd earlier feared."

* * *


        Conley had never seen so many com-1s, com-2s and black-fac lookalikes together before. Roween had underestimated: there were maybe four or five thousand of them. "The Eletic philosophy is founded on the premise that communication is the key to freedom," she'd said, "so of course, people such as Medreph imported a few comspheres from Cala." A few? Hot! And what about the thousands more that haven't been handed in?
        Roween's face was twitching with concentration as she slowly descended the stairs. "I think I can manage it now, Con, the smell isn't quite so overpowering..." She kept her back to the wall, stared intently at the comspheres like they were the eggs of giant spiders, huge, deadly, ready to hatch.
        "I can move a few more away if you like," said Conley, stooping to scoop some up.
        "No, they're fine, leave them, the disturbance..." She took the last step, closed her eyes, edged into the space to her left. Conley followed.
        "When I can sense magic, will comspheres have the same effect on me?"
        Roween was bent over, panting, looked up. "This many? Yes, they'd better, or it'll all have been a waste of time..."

* * *


        The librarians had relocated the bound books from where Roween remembered them as being. The new room was smaller.
        "There's less of them now," she explained. "The Elets don't reseal a book once it's opened, there's no point. The writings left in here are the ones no-one has yet asked to read. Obscure research reports, things like that."
        Conley was looking at her, suspicious. "You don't seem to find them very strong-scented."
        Roween hesitated for a moment, like she was listening for something. She nodded. "They're not so bad at first, but they sort of get worse the longer you stay with them, happens quickly. There are still enough here to provoke your reflex capacity into being, but the presence of all those comspheres will make it much, much easier."
        "I wish you could help me shift them, or we had a barrow or something. There's so many..."
        "Carry them piled up in your arms, it doesn't matter if you drop a few. While you're walking, reach out with your mind, try to imagine what it's like to sense their magic, try to see them with your eyes closed. It'll come after a few hours, if you want it to, believe me."
        "Believe you?" Conley pulled a book from the shelf, random. "Ro, I believed you when you told me that trash about recording gestures. How do I know you're not snicking me up again?" She read the title.
        "You don't," answered Roween, coldly.
        Conley replaced the book, turned her head sideways to look at the spine of the next one. "I still don't understand why I need this built-in demagicking ability anyway. Why can't I just cast the spell that'll get rid of magic all at once, and be done with it?"
        Roween was suddenly red-faced, backed towards the door. "Con?" She was gulping for breath. "Sorry, the books, they've come on, starting to get to me," apologetic. She fumbled with the handle, almost fell into the corridor.
        Conley ignored her. "If I accept at an intellectual level that this true magic of yours is a reality, but I don't believe it deep down, then how does acquiring this conditioned reflex really change anything?"
        "When you get it, it's not all you get," said Roween, dizzy. Her eyes were half-closed, like she was enduring pain. "It wakes up the part of your brain that's meant to deal with magic, the bit that nature built to just know how magic really works, instinctive." She stumbled against the wall. "Con, I can't stay here, I'll snuff this all out..."
        Conley walked over, dutifully, no enthusiasm, helped Roween away from the room. "I'm still unconvinced," she stated.
        "It'll only take another day, then you'll have your proof. After all we've shared in getting here, Con, can't you humour me for just twenty-four more hours? Please?"

* * *


        "Well, I've barricaded the main entrance now. How are things going with you?"
        Conley wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "I've moved about a fifth of them, I think. I thought you said there were four ways into this place?"
        "There are, but I can seal us off from the rest of the complex by blocking a couple of stairwells. Do you sense anything yet?"
        She closed her eyes, bounced the comspheres in her arms like she was guessing their weight. "I'm not sure, maybe. Or it might only be that I'm thirsty."
        They both smiled. "Fine, fine, let's have a break. I'll get the canteen." She turned.
        "I fetched it already," nodding towards the chair beneath which it lay.
        Roween sighed, stage-whisper loud.
        "Well, we left it near the comspheres, and I was over there anyway..." Mock-protested.
        "Let's have something to drink..."

* * *


        Conley was sitting, her scarf tied so as cover her eyes.
        "Where is it?" asked Roween.
        Conley pointed.
        Roween walked behind her, held the comsphere out to her left.
        "Where is it?" she asked.
        Conley turned slightly, pointed. "Sneaky."
        Roween pocketed the com-1, undid the blindfold. "You get it right every time now."
        Conley combed back her hair with her fingers. "I know." She was shaking. "So I'm ready?"
        "It's late. I'm - we're both tired. We'll do it in the morning, when you're sharper. We ought to get some rest now."
        "I could sleep in the bound-book room..." Expectant.
        Roween shook her head. "With true magic, you can fulfil any desire, create any thing, world you're able to imagine. If you were to have a dream..."
        Conley gave in. The terrors that exist in the reality of dreams were something she remembered all too well.


Copyright © Richard A. Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk)
21st January 1999: isif86.htm