Chương 24: Chapter 23 - The Briefing

There were nine people in the tent. In the chairs closest to the small table in the center were the four torrmen of the North United States territory. Emily Olsen and Olivia Oliversen had chosen to sit off to the side. Northrop was sitting closer to the wall of the tent on the other side. He was lounging back in his chair. Olivia, who was sitting across from him, noticed that he was watching the proceedings with a half-amused smile that never reached his eyes. Big Jacky stood beside him.

Darius was pacing near the table with a pile of crinkled papers in his hand. He was talking fast, trying to move through the most important information as quickly as possible.

"We've received confirmation—Miss Oliversen's math checks out. The safest assumption is that the magic can only support the scaffold for a maximum of seventy-two hours from the time the land was displaced." Darius dropped the pile of papers onto the table.

"Meaning we have roughly forty-seven hours left to save them." Each torrman reacted in their own understated way. Ashworth grunted, Reynell rubbed her forehead, Thorburn closed his eyes, and Uhler removed his glasses so he could clean them.

"Mr. Noctis," Darius said. Noctis said, "I have collected all the sealed files that are related to dimensional magic. Interpreters are working to change the ones in French and Latin to English, but it will take some time. The ones in English are available, but at the moment, only the torrmen are allowed to read them. They are, however, permitted to answer questions asked by anyone in this tent."

"What if I ask them to read the file aloud?" Olivia asked. Northrop let out a short bark of laughter, but Jacky raised a hand to point at Olivia.

"Yes," he said.

"That would work." Darius closed his eyes and grit his teeth. Forty-seven hours, he reminded himself.

"Olsen?" Darius said. Olsen stood up.

"I've collected all the findings of the research team. There wasn't much. Two members have been put on standby, the rest have been dismissed. The other teams have been given a limited briefing. They understand what's expected of them. We've also set up special lines of communication with experts in various fields of study. If you need an answer to a question, we should be able to get it to you in under ten minutes."

"Thank you." Olsen sat down. Darius tucked one hand in his pocket.

"We have two goals that we'll be working toward. The first is to retrieve the mansion and the grounds by bringing them back in sync with this dimension—""Is that even possible?" Thorburn asked.

"We aren't sure," Darius admitted. Ashworth spoke up: "Klara and I have been looking over Olivia's notes along with her and Mr. Northrop. There's something tying the house to this dimension, otherwise it wouldn't be able to return to this spot. We have to figure out what it is and see if we can follow it. If we can, then we might be able to shift the place back from out here. Theoretically."

"Why can't we ask Mr. Northrop what that something is?" Thorburn asked.

"He claims he doesn't remember," Darius said.

"Excuse me," Northrop called out in a patently offended voice, "I object to your use of the word 'claims'!"

"Noted. Our second goal is to communicate with the six people in the mansion."

"What kind of communication are we talking about?" Uhler asked.

"Any kind. And it doesn't have to be two-way. If we can send them a message, that would be enough."

"I'm sorry," Ashworth said, leaning forward in his chair.

"I'm not seeing it. How would being able to send them a message help?" Northrop said, "The spell was always meant to be undone from the inside." There was no theatrics in his voice that time; it was low and serious. Olivia had noticed before, but it always struck her how different Northrop sounded when he was talking about his magic.

"I don't understand," Reynell said. She tried to look at Northrop but her eyes faltered. She settled for looking at the legs of his chair.

"You expected someone to be trapped in there, and you wanted to give them a way out?"

"No, I expected that I would be trapped in there and wanted to give myself a way out."

"Mr. Northrop," Ashworth laced his hands together and rested them on his lap, "suppose you tell us what, exactly, this spell was intended for. I think that most of us were under the impression that it was a way for you to get rid of evidence." Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. When the corpse grinned, only Big Jacky could stand to look at him.

"Close, Mr. Ashworth, but not quite." Northrop leaned back in his chair.

"You see, I had already amassed a large collection of dormant dead—""Dormant dead?" Ashworth said.

"Is that what you called them?"

"Yes," Northrop said, "or the waiting soldiers. As I was saying—I had a large collection of them that I was using to divine the finer points of my experiments, and I had to store them somewhere. Not wanting to store the majority of them actually in my home—whenever the spells fail, the smell is rather unbearable—I stored them in crypts on the grounds. After two or three crypts, I thought, why the hell not?

It was almost guaranteed that the Torr would eventually come after me, so why not use them to stall the Torr while I made my escape?"

"How could you escape if you were outside of the dimension?" Thorburn asked.

"Ah, yes." Northrop shifted in his seat. A clump crumbled off his coat.

"If the undead soldiers were going to be an effective distraction, I needed them to rise quickly, so I set them up with a trigger spell, but any trigger that you can set off quickly can also be set off easily. I knew there was a chance someone might set it off by accident, so I rigged the spell. If I set it off on purpose, the dimensional shift would never happen. If it was set off on accident, then the shift would occur.

I would take care of the undead, take some notes regarding my experiments, then shift everything back with no one being the wiser."

"Those undead—the zombies," Reynell looked up at Jacky, "are they still viable?"

"It is unfortunately likely," Big Jacky said.

"But how could the bodies last that long?" Ashworth asked.

"Ah," Northrop said, "well, you wouldn't know, but there are few preserving agents better than natural magic. If you want a body to last for a few centuries, all you have to do is slap a few enchantments around it. The better your spellwork, the more perfect the preservation." Thorburn leaned his head toward Cosmo Uhler and said under his breath, "Why wouldn't you know that?" The witch murmured back, "Because there's no reason to preserve a body unless you intend to use it."

And, of course, using a dead body, as a magician, was one of the great crimes. Thorburn's eyes drifted back to Northrop—the man who'd used not one or two, but hundreds of them. Ashworth said, "Your own preservation seems to have been slightly flawed, my friend."

"Yes." Northrop looked down and flexed his rotting hand.

"My real death came rather unexpectedly. I wasn't able to prepare for it as I had my fake one."

"You called them soldiers," Olivia said. Everyone turned to look at her. She didn't notice. Her eyes were fixed on Northrop.

"Is that why you were experimenting with the zombies?" she said. Northrop tilted his head as he looked at her. Darius answered for him: "He was trying to create a more powerful and perfect soldier. First was preservation and autonomy. Then came the enhancements."

"Autonomy?" Reynell said. Ashworth let his head fall back as he laughed.

"Of course. The retained magic. Your specialty." Ashworth bounced an index finger in Northrop's direction.

"You're as brilliant as they say."

"Mr. Ashworth," Big Jacky said, "I'm uncomfortable with you praising his corruption."

"I prefer to think that I'm praising his mind. The corruption I could do without." When Ashworth glanced around, he saw that Darius and Thorburn were also frowning at him. He cleared his throat and apologized.

"The plan is to break into two teams," Darius said.

"Reynell and Ashworth will focus on bringing the mansion back in sync with this dimension. Uhler, Thorburn, and Oliversen will focus on trying to find any possible way of contacting them. However, before we can do anything, we need unanimous approval from all four torrmen since our work will require disturbing the dimensions." Darius gazed at the papers he'd dropped on the table. He let his fingers rest on the top page. Usually the documents he had on top would've been sent to him by Iset.

He gathered information from dozens of sources, but hers always seemed to be the most valuable. He wondered what she would've sent him about this case.

"They're six innocent people," Darius said.

"They've done nothing wrong. Do we have permission to save them?" A breeze rattled the walls of the tent. They flexed against the stakes holding them down. The lamp light exaggerated the lines of Darius's face, making him look sterner than ever.

"I say yes," Ashworth said. He turned his head.

"Reynell?" Reynell glanced at Jacky before answering.

"I say yes."

"Thorburn?" Ashworth said.

"I would rather hear what Cosmo has to say." Everyone looked at Cosmo Uhler. He nudged his glasses even though they were already at the top of his nose and stared at the table in front of him as he spoke.

"I want to confirm a few things. When the land shifted, were any doors opened to another dimension?"

"No," Northrop said.

"They're between dimensions."

"There's no dimensional weakness in this area?"

"None that we know of," Darius said. Uhler looked up.

"Mr. Noctis, do you intend to stay with us through this whole ordeal?"

"I will go nowhere else," Big Jacky said. Uhler looked down. For a while, he sat motionless. Then he nodded.

"On that condition, I agree."

"Wai—but—" Reynell started to say. Big Jacky spoke over her.

"Thorburn?"

"I say yes."

"Then we should get started now. Gather what you need. If you need anything that is not here, tell Olsen or Vasil. If you want access to Northrop, consider working in this tent. I know it's getting crowded, but we can bring in another table if necessary." The small crowd broke. Darius began collecting his papers. Olivia pulled Big Jacky aside to have a quiet word with him. Uhler and Ashworth both went to talk to Olsen. Reynell stood up.

Her eyes scanned the tent, looking for where she was supposed to go or what she was supposed to do. They landed on the only torrman who had remained seated: Father Thorburn. She walked over and sat in the chair beside him.

"May I ask you something?" Thorburn tried to not look surprised. The polite request seemed at odds with Klara's usual blunt tone.

"Of course," he assured her. She could ask him whatever she wanted. She usually did.

"Do you know why Mr. Uhler wanted Mr. Noctis to stay nearby?" Ah. Big Jacky wasn't a magician. Klara knew that. Thorburn stroked his beard as he considered how to answer, "Well, I think it's mostly for assurance. I think he feels…safer…with Jacky around."

"Safer?" Klara's tall forehead wrinkled when she scowled.

"He's a big reader, our Cosmo. You can learn a lot if you read the right books, but it puts ideas into your head."

"What kind of ideas?"

"You took the vow when you became a torrman, didn't you, Klara?" She nodded.

"That vow was an odd one, wasn't it? Thinking about it too much could make a man curious."

"Are you being obscure on purpose, Father?" Thorburn looked at her from the side of his eye. It was sparkling and the lines around it had all crinkled up.

"As obscure as I can be without speaking Latin."