Chương 68: [Blackstone Pylons]

The college was quiet. Diane had been in the chemistry lab since nine. The crucible sat in the centre of the bench, a small ceramic bowl with a measured amount of grey-red powder inside it. Iron oxide and aluminium, mixed carefully that morning. The sand bucket was on the floor to her left. Window open. Carl, an ex-student turned lab assistant, was at the back bench, further than his usual spot, goggles on, gloves in his lap.

Diane checked the magnesium ribbon one more time, made sure it was seated properly, then stepped back to her own position.

"Ready?"

"Yeah," Carl said. She lit the end of the ribbon and stepped back. The ribbon burned toward the crucible, bright and fast. Reached the powder. Nothing. She watched it for a full minute. The ribbon burned out. The powder sat there, undisturbed, the same grey-red it had been since she'd mixed it. No heat haze above the crucible, no light, nothing.

"Not even warm," she said, pressing two fingers briefly to the side of the crucible. She pulled her goggles up and wrote in her notebook. Date, time, result. A line under it. Third test, different mixture this time, same outcome as the others. Carl had come forward from the back bench and was looking at the crucible.

"Ratio?"

"We checked it three times. The ratio's fine, the materials are fine. Something else is causing this." He nodded slowly. He'd stopped suggesting the obvious explanations after the second test. Diane moved to the whiteboard. On the left, her combustion results. On the right, the solar output numbers she'd been logging since the third week. Every panel in town producing more than it should, the numbers climbing steadily since arrival. She'd checked the equipment, had Carl check it after her.

The readings were accurate. Two columns. One dead, one climbing. Carl drifted to the window, the afternoon sun coming full through the glass. Around the lab the equipment they'd dragged from storage sat in various states of use. Bunsen burners with nowhere to connect them. The centrifuge ticking steadily on the solar feed from the roof.

"You know what this reminds me of," Diane said. Carl turned.

"Blackstone Pylons." Carl rolled his eyes. Here we go.

"Don't give me that look. Think about it. The arrays work by making the environment hostile to warp energy. The warp still exists, the pylons just stop it from reaching through into realspace." She nodded at the crucible.

"That's what this looks like. The materials are fine, the ratio is fine. The environment just won't let the reaction through." Carl considered it for a moment.

"I mean. Yeah, okay. But you don't need to tie everything back to Warhammer."

"Is this because I called you a basic bitch for liking Ultramarines."

"If people from school could see you right now—" She was already back at the board.

"The point is the reaction failed. Same as all of them. Light a match, fine. Anything that tries to force out a significant burst of energy—" she wrote it and underlined it, "—nothing. Same process a car engine runs on, four hundred times a minute." She drew a line across to the solar column.

"And yet." Carl came to look.

"Still going up."

"Still going up." She stared at the two columns.

"These two things are connected. I just don't know how yet." The door opened and Gary leaned in, hard hat pushed back, dust on his jacket.

"Any progress?" This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Controlled combustion is dead," Diane said.

"Everything passive is still running fine." Gary looked at the crucible, then the board.

"That might explain something on my end actually. I've had a mechanical issue I couldn't account for. Kept assuming it was a fault." He looked at her.

"Sounds like it isn't."

"Probably not."

"Good to know." He pulled the door shut. Carl was already at the bench with the codex open when she turned from the board.

"The passive bit," she said.

"Where he talks about it sitting in the environment without anyone directing it." Carl found the section.

"Ambient mana exists throughout the environment in a passive state. It doesn't act on anything directly without intent to direct it. It simply exists, present in the air, the ground, all living things." He paused.

"He compares it to air pressure. You don't feel it until something interacts with it." Diane was at the whiteboard, marker uncapped.

"Read the air pressure comparison again." Carl read it again. She still didn't write anything. He waited.

"The output increase started from day one," she said.

"Not gradually. Immediately. And the combustion tests, every one of them, same thing. Not degradation. Just different from the moment we arrived." She tapped the crucible without looking at it.

"So whatever is doing this was already here, already affecting everything."

"So why is the centrifuge running," Carl said.

"Why are the fridges on."

"Why is everything electrical still working." She put the marker down.

"Unless the selection isn't arbitrary." Carl leaned forward.

"What do you mean?"

"What's the difference between a combustion engine and a solar panel. Not the fuel, not the output. The process." Carl thought about it.

"One burns something. One just collects." Diane turned around. Carl blinked.

"What?"

"Say that again."

"One burns something. One collects."

"One creates a reaction," Diane said slowly.

"A rapid, forced release of energy. The other just—" she opened her hand, "—sits there. Receives. Doesn't fight anything." She turned back to the whiteboard and this time she wrote.

"Passive collection versus active combustion. The mana isn't suppressing energy. It's suppressing forced reactions." She underlined it.

"Anything that tries to force a rapid energy release conflicts with it. Combustion engines. Chemical reactions. Anything that tries to make energy happen rather than receive it." Carl was quiet for a moment.

"What about my lighter." Diane stopped writing. Carl pulled it out and sparked it. Small flame, steady in the still air.

"That's combustion."

"Put it out." He did.

"A car engine fires four hundred times a minute under load. Your lighter produces a trivial amount of energy for a fraction of a second." She added a note beside the underline. Threshold dependent.

"The mana isn't blocking combustion entirely. It's blocking large scale forced energy release. Your lighter sits so far below that threshold it doesn't register." Carl looked at the lighter.

"So I can keep smoking."

"I wish you wouldn't. That's not the problem I'm solving today." She drew a line across to the solar column.

"The panels aren't just getting sunlight. Passive collection in an environment saturated with ambient mana — the panels can't tell the difference between a photon and whatever mana is. Passive is passive. It just receives." She looked at Carl.

"They're collecting both."

"That's why the output went up the moment we arrived," Carl said.

"And why it keeps climbing."

"Exactly. More mana moving through the environment as more people use magic, more the panels absorb." She picked up the codex notes and read the air pressure line to herself. Carl turned the lighter over in his hand.

"Those five use magic every day though. Nothing conflicts with that."

"Because magic isn't chemical," Diane said, still looking at the board.

"It works with whatever is in the environment rather than against it." She uncapped her marker.

"Which means a magic based power source wouldn't have the same problem." She wrote it in the corner of the board and left it there.

"So we're never getting the cars back as they are," Carl said.

"No," Diane said.

"But that—" she tapped the corner of the board, "—might be worth a conversation with someone who knows more about how magic works here." She wrote it out properly, not the shorthand she used when she was thinking fast but the full version. Dated. Organised. The kind of entry someone else could follow without her there to explain it. Ambient mana interaction with energy systems — initial findings. Passive energy collection (solar): Unimpeded. Output increase consistent with ambient mana saturation.

Panels collecting mana alongside solar radiation. Passive reception does not conflict with environmental mana. Output will likely continue to increase proportionally with mana activity in town. Active combustion (large scale): Suppressed. Forced rapid energy release above a certain threshold conflicts with ambient mana. Not degradation — immediate and consistent from arrival. Threshold dependent. Low scale combustion (open flame, lighter) unaffected.

High scale sustained combustion (engines, generators, controlled chemical reactions) non-functional. Conclusion: The environment is not hostile to energy. It is hostile to forced large scale energy release. Anything that receives passively functions normally or better. Anything that tries to force significant energy output does not. Further work needed: Establish threshold parameters. Determine whether mana output increase has a ceiling. Investigate whether other passive systems show similar gain.

Follow up on magic based power sources. She capped the pen and closed the notebook. The lab had settled into the late afternoon, the centrifuge ticking steadily, the light through the south window sitting lower than it had been an hour ago. She picked up her mug. Cold. She put it back down. The chime sounded. Short, clean, there and gone. Diane looked up. Carl's eyes had already moved to his UI, the instinct everyone in town had developed without meaning to. They looked at each other.

"Did you just get—" Carl started.

"Yes," Diane said. Diane picked up her notebook, opened it to a fresh page, and wrote the date at the top. Carl pulled his stool closer.