Olz Hap in the style of Egon Schiele, as interpreted by DALL-E in January 2025.

  Chapter 1: Primidi

  Mikla metropolitan area

  Year 5638 of the Confluence

  Countdown: 22

  “Magi of the Confluence, we find ourselves at war.” The High Magus paused meaningfully, gazing out over the Confluence Hall. She straightened her violet-striped dark blue robe, then inclined her head towards the Protectors’ circle at her left. “In concord with the Lord Protector, I hereby declare a state of emergency.”

  Stunned silence greeted her words. The Representatives of the Confluence Assembly knew that something was afoot, obviously, but most knew nothing of where it was going. There had not been a war for almost fifteen hundred years. This would change everything.

  For the past week, people had been losing energy. Many were listless and tired, and the problem was growing; while most still managed tolerably well, some citizens were now unable to perform their duties. Occasionally, but at an increasing rate, people would collapse from exhaustion.

  There was endless speculation as to what was going on, and of course the Protectors were hard at work trying to understand the phenomenon, but so far nobody knew for sure. If the Energy Blight, as some had started calling it, was truly a magical attack of some sort, it was an extremely threatening one. And it would probably grow worse.

  Dissemination fields transmitted the session in the Confluence Hall to anyone who wanted to follow it, which these days included almost everyone who could muster the energy to pay attention, and the news spread across the world.

  Although frightening, many found strength in knowing that there was someone behind this, some malevolent actor who could be resisted and perhaps counter-attacked. Putting a face and a name on this enemy would have further boosted morale but, alas, no such identity emerged.

  Of course, people looked to history for precedents. In the ancient era, before the world was united under the Magical Confluence, war had been a commonplace phenomenon, although generally non-magical in nature.

  Back then, only a few people had realized their magical potential and, tiresome as it might seem today, wars were usually fought over material resources and societal power. It was hard to relate to such a foreign and barbarian era, and it did not seem to hold any particular lessons for society after Unification or, more to the point, for the current state of war.

  Since Unification, all wars had been magical, and it had never been straightforward to identify the enemy.

  Most obviously relevant to the present crisis were the Demonic Wars, which were a series of engagements over a period of almost six decades where non-material beings would rip holes in space itself and, apparently at random, suck individuals out of existence.

  Records indicated that more than a hundred thousand people died in this way, but the Confluence fought back and eventually managed to banish the demons from this world and confine them to whatever hellhole dimension they originally emerged from. This happened in the year 4153 OFC, and since then no new attacks occurred.

  Were the demons back with a new line of attack? Some saw it as the most likely explanation, although the Energy Blight was obviously a very different phenomenon from demons ripping holes in the fabric of space.

  Previous enemies included the Glitter, which were tiny specks of luminous material that manifested in the air and attracted people to touch them. Those who did touch the Glitter were rewarded with what seemed like a boost to their intelligence and magical potential, but then invariably went insane over the next few weeks.

  It was never clear whether the Glitter were beings of some sort or weapons Conveyed to our world, but in any case, the war only lasted a few months before the Glitter stopped arriving. Only a few hundred people were harmed. This was back in 2901.

  Perhaps because it made them easier to think about, the Glitter were generally remembered as beings, although the official Diviner investigation appeared to indicate that there was some faceless entity or entities behind them. Whatever the truth was, the Glitter – as this enemy was always referred to – obviously had means of countering Divination magic, and not much was known about them or their motivations.

  Some believed that their arrival here was not maliciously intended, but that they were rather an alien species who wanted to visit us and were dismayed to discover they had such a negative impact on our mental health.

  Finally, two older magical wars were known to involve the same enemy, which manifested as contagious virus strains. Ordinary strains of harmful viruses had been wiped out by Evokers as far back as 53 OFC, but the strains of the Virus Wars in 612–13 and 891 had abundant magical protection and managed to infect several billion people before being eradicated.

  Of those infected, around 14% in the first war and 8% in the second died from their illness, making the Virus Wars the by far most lethal of any post-Confluence emergency. But this was a long time ago, and the world had never again experienced a virus harmful to humans that Evokers could not easily deal with.

  The Energy Blight was not in any way related to a virus or, as far as one could determine, to any physical manifestation at all, and Evokers appeared helpless in dealing with it.

  ---

  As they were about to depart, Olz Hap assessed her personal team. Agata Tong Namma, her Evoker, stood in the center of the group, looking ready for anything. Agata’s primary task was the healing and physical restoration of her team in general and of herself, the High Magus, in particular. Olz had always trusted her.

  Next to her was Takashi Satoh, Conjurer, who was responsible for shielding and was now busy maintaining the shimmering sphere around them. His group of Conjurers had been shielding her day and night for the past week, and he had insisted on joining her in person for today’s meeting with the Lord Protector.

  Before the Energy Blight arrived, shielding was not often seen as necessary, and she did not know her Conjuration team very well on a personal level. But they had held impeccable levels of professionalism over the past week, and Satoh was turning into a trusted advisor.

  Conjuration shielding did not protect against the Energy Blight, but one suspected some other attack might be forthcoming and nobody was taking any chances.

  Her Disseminator now went under the name Uliaz Grey, having recently declared themself gender fluid. Grey provided a secure line of communication to anyone Olz might want to get in touch with, as well as a means of impromptu broadcasting, if that should be necessary.

  So far it never had been, but you never knew. They had known each other for a long time and might reasonably be regarded as friends.

  Her team also included a Protector, whose abilities were indeed of fundamental importance in resisting the Energy Blight, even if the Protectors had so far failed to come up with highly effective countermagics. Nevertheless, her Shieldbearer, as the Protector on her team was entitled, employed magics that blunted the edges of the Blight’s energy draining effect, both for herself and for her team. This was highly welcome.

  Olz suspected that her Shieldbearer was loyal first of all to the Lord Protector, but that was based just on a general understanding of how the Protectors functioned, and she did not have any specific reason not to trust him.

  Olz Hap herself was an Invoker, which was useful in the present crisis since the field of Invocation included various enhancement magics that, among other things, allowed the caster to feel rested and energized.

  These days, most Invokers were requested to invest their magic in a collective effort, set up with the Conjoiners, to distribute enhancement magic countering the Energy Blight throughout society. This effort appeared to reduce the draining by a substantial amount, although nobody knew exactly what the situation would have been without it.

  At any rate, Olz was High Magus and did not personally participate in this Invoker-Conjoiner program; instead, she could direct her enhancement magics entirely as she wished.

  A High Magus from a different field of magic would probably have a dedicated Invoker in their team, but Olz preferred to do this job herself. She knew better than most that allowing an Invoker to enhance you gave that person a lot of influence on you, so it had better be someone you could trust.

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  That was the curse of Invocation: Invokers had all these marvelous magics that everybody loved being subject to, and which it indeed would seem selfish to keep to oneself, but people from other fields of magic were often reluctant to hand themselves over, as it were, to the Invokers’ blessings. The fact that only a few people had reserved themselves from the recent Invoker-Conjoiner program was an indication of how serious a threat the Energy Blight was.

  When the Office of the High Magus was first instigated, it had been decided that their personal team would include only Magi who performed practical functions for the High Magus.

  Olz’s team therefore did not include any Transmuters, who were usually employed in production and construction work. It also did not include any Conjoiners or Diviners, although of course the Office of the High Magus collaborated very closely with both of these fields of magic in order to run the government.

  On a governmental level, Divination was always a collective effort, and it seemed unnecessary for the High Magus to have a Diviner on her personal team. Olz thought having such a person around would actually have been very useful, obviously assuming it was someone she could trust, but she had not attempted to break with precedent and recruit one.

  The fact that the fields of Transmutation, Conjunction, and Divination lacked representation on the High Magus’ personal team had never been much of an issue. One thing was that Olz held regular meetings with the High Transmuter, the High Diviner, and the High Conjoiner where they could express their views and interests.

  The real reason the people in these fields of magic did not care very much about being represented on Olz’s team, however, was that the Office of the High Magus was largely a ceremonial function. Olz Hap was the official leader of the Confluence government, but the truth was that her portfolio was slim.

  The fields of magic largely governed themselves, and the role of the High Magus was just to facilitate cooperation and take care of representative functions. Or at least it had been so for the past fifteen centuries of peace.

  Olz nodded to Corto Pratt, her Conveyer, friend, and lover. Corto opened a portal – a shimmering flat oval that manifested at the far end of the shimmering sphere that surrounded and shielded the group, but without interacting in any noticeable way with that sphere.

  Olz noted that while they both shimmered, they did so in slightly different ways and, while she could not describe the difference, her Conveyor’s oval always seemed more esthetically pleasing to her. She supposed it was because of their relationship, or perhaps because the Evokers’ shield was associated with the present crisis.

  Satoh went through the portal first and immediately set up a new shield in order to protect the High Magus and her team from the moment they arrived. Take no chances during wartime, he kept insisting.

  They arrived at The Chalice, long regarded as the best restaurant in Mikla, and often used for informal high-end meetings. It was not the first time Olz found herself The Chalice’s arrivals area, but she had never seen it from the inside of a shield before.

  For this meeting with the Lord Protector, her people had booked the terrace, which was a garden area covered in a translucent material on all sides including the floor. It looked like a park floating next to a tower, but although you could perceive everything that happened on the ground 111 floors below, the people below could not see what was transpiring in the garden.

  From the meeting area you had a splendid view of the center of Mikla, including especially the Citadel but also the Old Town with its Confluence Hall and a number of other prominent buildings.

  The Lord Protector and his team, all dressed in their purple Protector’s robe, were seated on the western side of the meeting area, so Olz took the leader’s chair on the eastern side.

  “Greetings, Lord Protector.”

  “Greetings, High Magus.”

  “I hope you are doing well in these dark times.”

  “I manage well enough, thank you. I trust the same is true for you.” As an Invoker, Olz had the means to counteract the effects from the Energy Blight.

  “Indeed. But the Confluence is struggling. Our latest reports indicate a 26% drop in overall productivity. Cases of exhaustion have quadrupled over the past three days. I am not convinced we will manage well – or at all – for much longer.”

  “It is a serious situation. Rest assured that the Protectors are doing everything we can to understand the nature of this attack.”

  “We are certain that it is enemy action?”

  “What else could it be? As you yourself have declared, the Confluence finds itself at war.”

  “At your instigation. I understand the Diviners are still unable to identify the nature of the threat. Why are the Protectors so certain it must be an enemy attack?”

  “Simple reasoning. The Energy Blight is a phenomenon under ample magical protection. It therefore cannot reasonably be assumed to be a natural occurrence. A philosopher might argue that we cannot know at present whether this phenomenon is the product of hostile intentions, but given its negative and very serious consequences, we must assume that to be the case. Even if this is just somebody’s bumbling attempt at reaching out to us to say hello” – the Lord Protector was referring to an interpretation of the Glitter that had never gained much credence among Protectors – “we must nevertheless regard it as enemy action. This is not a time for philosophical doubt, High Magus.”

  “Your arguments are reasonable, Lord Protector. I would have preferred to know more about the nature of the threat before making declarations about it, but its serious nature indeed precludes such philosophical niceties.”

  “And the people need strong leadership during times of crisis. We must show that we are equal to the challenge confronting us.”

  “Well, are we? So far, it might seem that we have accomplished very little.”

  “Our investigations are proceeding as rapidly as possible.”

  “So, the Lord Protector’s advice is that we simply continue as we have? Despite the fact that the situation is growing more critical every day and we seem utterly unable to stop it.” She watched the Lord Protector carefully now. The conversation was already reaching its climax.

  “I know it must be frustrating that little seems to be happening, but I have full confidence in our ability to understand and counter this attack.”

  “Nevertheless, to inspire the people’s confidence, we must show strong leadership. I have decided to assume personal control over the investigation of the Energy Blight.”

  The surprise attack did not produce any effect on the Lord Protector’s face. There were no twitches or flushes, no widening or narrowing of eyes, no furrowing brow or dropping jaw. The Lord Protector considered her statement in silence for a few moments, looking as if she had suggested sandwiches for lunch. Then his lips tightened slightly before he smiled his most charming smile.

  “What purposes would such interference in our work serve, High Magus? You would only delay what you are seeking to expediate.”

  “It will allow the executive branch of government to coordinate our defenses, Lord Protector. This is why the office of the High Magus was created in the first place.” Olz was not exactly incorrect, but no previous High Magus had assumed personal control over such an investigation. Not even during times of war. “We have declared a state of emergency, which allows and indeed necessitates drastic measures.”

  “I must protest, High Magus. This is unprecedented.”

  “Nevertheless, the restructuring will proceed. We need to move forward against this threat. I will hold a press conference about the matter this afternoon.”

  ---

  The Protectors held a unique position within the Confluence. The organization went back to the first years after Unification, and as its name implied it was tasked with protecting the citizens of the Confluence from danger. Since its inception, the organization had essentially governed itself, which meant it also defined its own mandate. The Protectors protected the people against whatever the Protectors regarded as dangerous.

  They were not doing a very poor job of it. The Confluence had lasted 5638 years, and although there had been serious crises along the way, it stood stronger today than it ever had. Or at least it did so a week ago, before the arrival of the Energy Blight.

  The Protectors were unique in several ways. Most Protectors had affinity for the field of Abjuration, which predominantly involved magics counteracting other magics, but they never referred to themselves as Abjurers. Nor were there any Abjurers outside the Protectors.

  Furthermore, the Protectors also counted people from every other field of magic. Thus, you could never know whether a given Protector belonged to the field of Abjuration or to some other field such as Invocation or Divination.

  The Protectors never divulged information about their field of magic to outsiders, nor did they divulge any other personal information including their names, indeed assuming they even had names. Any Protector you might come across had a specific title you might use to address this person, while novices could, apparently, not be individually addressed at all. Novices were in any case kept apart from society in special Protector strongholds, and basically never talked to outsiders.

  ---

  The rest of the day was filled with frenetic activity. The news that the High Magus would take personal charge of the investigation into the Energy Blight, which only this morning had been declared an attack by unknown enemy forces, was greeted by much interest and, so it seemed to Olz, support.

  People were tired of being so tired all the time, and any sort of bold action by the government was widely applauded. At the press conference, Olz’s team had managed to summon the Excession Investigator, which was the title of the Protector leading the investigation into the Blight, and he claimed to look forward to cooperating with the High Magus in combating this enemy attack.

  Despite his protests, the Lord Protector had obviously decided to play along, probably because the prospect of a public dispute with the High Magus at a time when his organization had little to show for seemed unattractive. From tomorrow, the Excession Investigator and his team would be based in the Tower of the High Magus, just a floor down from Olz’s office.

  It was odd to realize that the response team to a global emergency involved just a few dozen people, but apparently what was needed here was not – at any rate, not yet – the kind of force that might be obtained from a large number of coordinated mages.

  Instead, what the present situation mandated was a team of specialists who could probe carefully into the Blight phenomenon without triggering the defenses and countermagics that one must assume were in place. A small and highly coordinated team of experts now working under the supervision of Olz.

  But there was a loose thread. Assuming personal control over the Blight investigation was something she had discussed only with her personal team – which did not in this case include her Shieldbearer. Yet the Lord Protector seemed entirely unsurprised.

  So, either he was using Invocation magics to enhance his control over facial expressions, or he already knew. Or he was some kind of superman.

  If he knew, this implied that one of her team was compromised or that the Protectors were spying on her via Divination magic. That would be treason.

  If it was enhancement, this implied that either the Lord Protector was himself an Invoker, or that someone else did the magic for him. But it was a very personal effect – many people would see the need for such enhancement as something of a weakness. Also, to be enhanced for purposes of subterfuge in a meeting with someone who was – technically – your superior was not quite in conformity with Invokers’ ethical guidelines.

  That did not mean it never happened, obviously, but to have someone do it to you seemed risky. That Invoker would really have dirt on you, and Olz could not imagine that the Lord Protector was the kind of person who would allow people to have dirt on him.

  The only rational answer was therefore that the Lord Protector was himself an Invoker. But it seemed strange to Olz that the Protectors would choose a leader who was neither an Abjurer nor a Diviner. Very strange. Maybe the Lord Protector had unique personal qualifications.