Chương 79: Chapter 76 – Magical Discharge

Alric stood across the road from the magery, currently in the shade, leaning against the wall. He let out a sigh and glanced toward the nearby carriage. At least this one was pulled by horses and not some massive lizard thing waiting to give him nightmares. The carriage itself was… ornate. Cloth hung from the windows on the outside, tassels and trim everywhere, as if someone had tried to upholster the entire vehicle. The paintwork was worse.

Broad panels of blinding blue clashed with streaks of violent orange and pink so bright they looked unnatural, the sort of colors a toddler might choose after discovering a fresh box of neon crayons. It was clearly meant to be seen from a distance, but the owner had taken that concept straight to the horizon. It was one of the most tasteless things Alric had ever seen, and in this world that was saying something. It also looked expensive, which suggested the owner had paid extra for the privilege.

His attention drifted to the guards flanking the doorway. They stood at ease and looked thoroughly bored. When Alric had first approached, they had politely informed him he would need to wait, not a request, he noted, until the noble inside had finished. Their uniforms matched the carriage. Exactly matched it. The same blinding blue, orange, and pink combination, which must have made them the laughing stock of any respectable gathering, or at least any gathering that valued eyesight.

As annoyed as he was, Alric had no desire to start trouble with the skittles brigade. Which brought him to where he was now, leaning against the wall for who knew how long. He pulled out one of the stones he had taken. This was considered one of the 'faulty' ones, except it wasn't. It rested cool in his palm, its glow faint compared to the stones still running in the brewery. He turned it slowly in his hand while his mind went back over the notes he had been keeping. He had tracked everything he could think of.

Usage cycles. Recharge intervals. Installation dates. None of it helped. There simply was no pattern. Some of the newest stones had failed first, while older ones continued to work without issue. Stones pulled from the same batch behaved completely differently. A few had weakened after only a handful of brewing cycles, while others kept burning steadily day after day. It made no sense. The problem refused to follow any kind of predictable logic, which irritated him far more than the failures themselves.

In an attempt to figure out the damage, he had taken this stone, one of the worst offenders, to the bath with a newer one. He had charged them both fully and dropped them into the water. They had both turned off at the same time. Which had only deepened his irritation, since experiments were supposed to be helpful. His notes had suggested the mounting position in the boiler might have something to do with it, but he couldn't be sure unless he tested every stone individually for a week.

The last remaining theory he had was heat stress. They ran the stones hard in the brewery. Day in and day out. Perhaps the stones were simply not meant to operate under such conditions, or perhaps they had a limited life cycle. The thought was deeply troubling because he had never factored the expensive things into their running costs. What Hal had said about the stones being less reliable in the afternoons made some sense though. His final theory was that the stone couldn't discharge its heat fast enough.

He held it up to his eye again. This felt like a chemical reaction. Without chemicals. A sigh escaped him. It might not be a chemical reaction, but it certainly acted like one. Put mana into it and it converted that mana into light and heat. A bit like burning fuel. Wait? Is this thing like a heat stick or does it burn the mana like fire? That did remind him, he had once wondered if he could turn these things into something like a steam train before giving up on the idea. He didn't know nearly enough about that.

Pressure boilers were, of course, very predictable and safe to use, right up until they were not. The doors of the magery finally opened. A noble stepped out, followed closely by attendants. Fine fabric draped his shoulders and rings flashed briefly in the sunlight as he adjusted his gloves. The garish carriage Alric had been studying rolled forward immediately, the driver already prepared. The noble did not spare Alric so much as a glance. The attendants did.

They looked him over with professional aire of disinterest before the carriage blocked his view. Once the noble had climbed inside and the driver flicked the reins, the carriage rolled away down the street. Only then did one of the guards give Alric a small nod toward the doorway. Alric pushed himself off the wall and headed inside. The magery still had the massive walls worth of shelves, but it looked like a few new displays had been added.

They immediately grabbed his interest and he had to force his attention to the clerk at the counter. It was also thankfully quiet. The place always gave him a library feel, albeit one dedicated to drawers and objects that would probably explode if handled incorrectly, or simply because they felt like it. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. A clerk stood behind the counter. Alric didn't recognize her.

The magery tended to rotate staff often enough that he rarely saw the same person twice. She looked slightly irritated, she carried a look Alric recognized immediately, the look of a woman getting unsolicited male attention. It was a look Alric knew well, after all you'd have to travel far to find someone who visited more bars than Alric. Considering the noble who had just left, that was not hard to guess who was responsible. About twenty-two, perhaps a year or two either side by Alric's reckoning.

Light brown hair had been pulled back into a practical knot at the back of her head, though a few strands had escaped and now framed her face. The magery's grey clerk robes fit well enough, though they did little to hide the rather impressive curves beneath them. Alric suspected that had been the noble's real reason for visiting. Specifically two reasons. Two big reasons. They were difficult not to notice. He, of course, would never comment on such a thing.

But he was not blind either, and judging by the irritation still lingering on her face, the noble had likely made the observation overtly and not for a short amount of time either. Aside from that, she was attractive in a simple, approachable way. The sort of face you might pass in the street without thinking twice about, but pleasant once you actually noticed it. When she looked up and saw him waiting, Alric raised his hand slightly.

"No rush," he said.

"I can give it a few minutes. It's not urgent." Her shoulders eased a little at that.

"Thank you," she said, exhaling quietly.

"Some people seem to think this place exists solely for them." Alric nodded.

"I noticed." Alric's attention wandered. Deciding to give her a moment, he moved over to one of the new displays. A box lined with excessive white cloth held what he assumed to be seven wands. The cloth was arranged with great care, as if the wands might become offended if they were not properly cushioned. He stepped closer. They were far more intricate than he had expected. Most of the wand shafts were made from polished wood, though a few appeared to be metal.

Each one held a crystal set into its tip, the stones cut into clean geometric shapes that caught the light from the windows. Alric leaned slightly closer, studying the construction rather than the object as a whole. The crystals were not simply glued or slotted into place. Each one sat inside a carefully shaped metal housing, a metal he noted was different from the metals that made up the wand. Thin bands wrapped around the stone, holding it securely, while narrow grooves had been engraved into the metal itself.

The channels ran down the length of the wand, disappearing into the handle. He traced one of the patterns with his eyes. Stabilizing rings reinforced the crystal mount, and the metal frame appeared to cradle the stone rather than simply clamp it in place. The crystal itself was clearly the core of the device, but it was obvious that the surrounding structure mattered just as much. Nothing about the design looked decorative. Every part of it appeared to serve a purpose.

Which, of course, only made Alric more curious.

"Interested in purchasing one?" the clerk asked as she approached the display. Alric straightened slightly and shook his head.

"Not exactly," he said.

"I was wondering how they work." That seemed to relax her a little. Curious customers were usually easier to deal with than demanding ones.

"The crystals are magic stones," she explained, stepping closer to the case.

"Most of them come from monsters. Different creatures produce stones with different affinities." Alric glanced back toward the wand he had been studying.

"You feed mana into the stone and the stone releases its effect," she continued.

"Fire, wind, force, light. Whatever the stone naturally shapes the mana into."

"So the spell is already inside the stone?" Alric asked.

"Not quite," she said, tilting her head slightly.

"A mage normally studies how to shape mana into a spell. That takes time and practice. The stone already has that structure, although spell structure isn't quite right, its more an effect. The wand just gives you a way to push mana through it." He nodded slowly but then a thought occurred to him. That explained the construction. The crystal wasn't simply the power source. It was the mechanism.

"Uh… you can cast a spell without… uh… a spell? Like, I don't know, move a lot of water around?" Alric asked, not very innocently.

"And then uh.. slap it down like a snake on a warehouse?" She raised a hand to her mouth and giggled, and Alric had to look away from the consequences of that decision. The consequences in this case jiggled in time with the giggles.

"I mean, you could," she said, smiling, "but you'd need an obscene amount of mana. You'd need two archmages to force mana into that much water and then move it around. Maybe three if you didn't want it to be dangerous."

"I see," Alric said feeling a bit awkward after everything that happened with the well.

"So what is the advantage with these, other than not needing to study a spell?"

"It makes casting much faster," she said.

"But each wand only performs one type of effect. The structure of the stone determines what it does." Alric continued studying the metal frame around the crystal while she spoke, following the engraved channels again with his eyes.

"When you say effect, do you mean like… lightning?" he asked. She made a thoughtful expression and tilted her head.

"A lightning wand would be closer to a national treasure. This one makes light. This one can make fire, but it takes a lot of mana."

"Do people ever use heating stones in these?" he asked, holding up the stone for her to see. She smiled faintly.

"Nobles sometimes buy heating stones for bath water or travel tubs," she said.

"It would be pretty useless unless you were worried your opponent's toes are cold."

"Has anyone made any effort to control these?" Alric asked hopefully still holding the stone up. The stone for its part failed to look impressive.

"Hmm.. not that I know of. I only know people use them for water. I think I heard of an eccentric noble who made an oven with them, but that's all I know" she explained with a sad smile. Alric gave a small nod and returned his attention to the crystal mount.

"What happens if too much mana goes into the stone?" he asked. The clerk looked at the wand he was studying.

"That's why the crystal sits in that metal," she said.

"The housing stabilizes the flow and directs the discharge. Without it, the stone can't handle the energy properly." Her finger tapped lightly against the metal frame surrounding the crystal.

"The metal channels guide the mana through the stone and out again. If the discharge isn't controlled, the stone takes the damage instead."

"Damage?" Alric asked.

"Backlash," she said simply.

"Cracks in the crystal structure. Burnout. The stone can release its effect everywhere if you overpower it hard enough. It still could, but you'd need to push a lot of mana into it." Alric's attention sharpened immediately. In the brewery, the heating stones sat bare in their sockets, surrounded only by the copper brackets that held them in place. Mana flowed into them constantly, cycle after cycle, with nothing directing how that energy left the stone. They had assumed the failures were due to mana exhaustion.

But if the discharge was uncontrolled… The stones weren't running out of power. They were damaging themselves. Alric straightened suddenly. The solution appeared in his mind with uncomfortable clarity. A proper housing. Metal channels to guide the energy flow. A structure that forced the heat to leave the stone in a controlled direction instead of tearing through the crystal and leaking sideways. The simplicity of it was almost insulting. He was treating a campfire like a Bunsen burner.

He turned toward the door before the thought had even finished forming.

"Thank you," he said quickly, already halfway across the room. The clerk blinked, clearly confused by the abrupt change.

"You're welcome?" Alric barely remembered to nod before stepping outside. The street air hit him as he moved quickly away from the magery, his mind already redrawing the brewery boilers piece by piece. Adamantite housings. Directed heat transfer. Controlled discharge. The answer now seemed painfully obvious. Which irritated him almost as much as the original problem. The stones had never been running out of power. They had simply been breaking themselves.

They seemed to be leaking mana when they couldn't dissipate heat. He needed to speak to Stromni.