As her laughter faded, Dwayne came back to himself.

  Click.

  “Get up.”

  Wincing at the tytumber waves rippling across his vision, Dwayne obeyed and saw Bruce in her customary black waiting for him on the other side of the strange cabinet. Beside her, Sioned stood stone still, a food wrap in one hand, a cup in the other.

  “Good morning,” said Dwayne.

  Bruce’s nostrils flared. “Don’t try to commune with me, boy. Clay, do it.”

  Sioned closed with Dwayne, dropping his lunch within arm’s reach before shoving the cup of water into his hands and pulling out the purple pill.

  Dwayne sighed and took it. “Seems a bit much.”

  “Consider it a compliment.” Bruce waited for Dwayne to swallow before saying, “I’ve read your proposal. It’s …unconventional. Did you base it on a paper you read?”

  As if there was anyone else doing research like this. “I based it on how Resonance Theory relates magic to sound. As such, like sound, magic must travel through a medium. If I can manipulate that medium, I can create a Ri core by myself.”

  Bruce glared at him. “Am I really supposed to believe you came up with that without any assistance?”

  Dwayne glared back. “Believe what you want.”

  They glared at each other for a moment longer then Bruce sighed and pulled out a roll of papers. “Clay.”

  Silently, Sioned took the papers and handed them to Dwayne.

  A quick look at them showed tables and tables of numbers, spell names, and alchemical components, only a few of which - iron, hydrogen, oxygen - he recognized. “What’s this?”

  “Data,” answered Bruce. “The College had some room in the schedule so I had a team run some tests.”

  According to the tables, only three mediums had any effect on magic’s ability to travel through them.

  “What are these?” Dwayne sketched their symbols on some scrap paper and held it up.

  Bruce peered at them then sniffed. “You don’t recognize them?”

  Dwayne grit his teeth. “I only studied basic nQe components.”

  Bruce’s lips thinned. “And yet they made you…” Then her face was blank again. “If you must know, those symbols mean azade, tytumber, and anthropogenic.”

  Dwayne had to parse that last word. “Humans? You cast magic through humans?”

  “Yes. Fascinatingly,” Bruce’s tone became wistful, “it had highly varied affects. Table Four has the details.”

  According to Table Four, lay humans had nearly no effect on a spell’s passage, but a mage’s facing direction, her awareness of the spell being casted, even her relationship to the caster, all did. If only Bruce hadn’t shackled him in a basement, Dwayne would have loved to work with her, even repeat the experiments and take things like diet, weather, and location into account. If only.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “Azade speeds up magic and tytumber slows it down?” asked Dwayne while he checked the other tables for any indication of the range of the effect. There was none. “I’ll need more data; there’s only one row for tytumber. Let me run some experi-”

  “No.” Bruce stood up. “You’ll use that data and design a workable experiment today. We’ll make the necessary adjustments tomorrow.”

  Dwayne frowned. “Why so soon? Is something happening tomorrow?”

  “You don’t need to know.” Bruce was already walking away. “Clay, keep watch.”

  As soon as the dean was gone, Sioned asked, “Can you do it?”

  Dwayne shrugged. “We’ll see.”

  But even with Bruce’s threat hanging over him, his mind wandered. It had been several days now. Why hadn’t Magdala or Mei or even Rodion come to save him by now? What was happening out there?

  It took a great deal of effort to push those questions out of his mind and instead focus on the shoddy data Bruce had given him. At least, it was going to be easy to design something that wouldn’t work, thus denying Bruce a Ri core. He’d really hoped to make one for Magdala, as thanks for the Qe core she’d given him. He would have made it and given it to her and said…

  Well, that didn’t matter now.

  “Are you okay?”

  Dwayne looked up. “What?”

  Sioned’s eyes looked concerned behind her mask. “Do you need water?”

  “No, I’m fine.” Dwayne sniffed. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Sioned. “Just do what she says and you’ll be fine.”

  “No, I won’t.” Dwayne snatched up his notes and Bruce’s data. He needed the distraction. “I’ll be dead.”

  “But she needs you.”

  How naive. “Only until I’ve made a Ri core.”

  “And if she wants more?”

  “Once she has one, she can make more.” According to the tables, magic’s speed through air was too fast to measure, at least over fifty wirs, but its speed through tytumber was about three-tenths of a wir per second. “She won’t need me.”

  “Oh.”

  Ignoring Sioned, Dwayne kept going. Bruce’s data also lacked any details on the dimensions of the tytumber. His best guess was that they were using irregular tytumber chunks like the ones currently keeping his magic in check. Annoying, but they were the only ones available.

  “Hey, can you do me a favor?”

  Sioned tilted her head. “In exchange for what?”

  “A song?”

  Sioned snorted. “You can’t sing.”

  Dwayne smiled. “All mages can.”

  “Yeah, right.” Sioned stood up. “What’s the favor?”

  “Put your hand up against one of the tytumber crystals.”

  Sioned froze. “Are you… will this help you escape?”

  “No.” Aside from the fact that Sioned was lay and couldn’t block magic, there were still three other tytumber crystals. “I need to see how big they are.”

  Sioned searched his face. “You’re not trying to escape?”

  Dwayne shrugged. “I promise I’ll tell you when I’m trying.”

  “Ha ha,” Sioned went over to the tytumber closest to the stairs. “Do you want me to hold it or something?”

  By now, Dwayne had a good idea of how big her hands were. “Yes, please.”

  Sioned hesitated. “How does this help?”

  Dwayne held in a sigh. From her perspective, it was a fair question. “It’s like Bruce showed me a painting of a cake then handed me half a recipe and told me to finish it. I need more information.”

  Sioned stared at him.

  “What?”

  “You just…” She cleared her throat. “Nevermind.” She grabbed the tytumber crystal around its middle. “This good?”

  “Perfect.” Sioned could only hold one side of the crystal. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  As Sioned sat back down, Dwayne sketched out a few rough calculations. While he still had no idea if the effect was linear or if shape and orientation mattered, this was enough to define a set of probable conditions. He’d start there and created testable magical arrays.

  He’d just created the first of these when Sioned said, “I don’t need a song.”

  Dwayne looked up. “What?” Then he remembered. “Right. What do you want?”

  “Half your food.”

  Dwayne stared at her. “Uh…You can have that for free?”

  “No, you were early paying me a favor.” Sioned walked up to Dwayne. “Pay up.”

  Dwayne’s stomach growled. “Well, I should eat anyway.” He opened up the paper, tore the wrap into two halves, gave one to Sioned. “Last chance to hear me sing.”

  “No, thanks.” Sioned returned to her stool.

  Only once he’d eaten did Dwayne think to read what Rodion had written. His blood ran cold. “Uh, Sioned?”

  She swallowed. “What?”

  “How much time do I have left?”

  Sioned glanced at her side of the strange cabinet, her lips moving as she read. “Seventeen minutes?”

  “Oh, okay.” Mollified, Dwayne went back to work. “That’s enough time.”

  Sioned raised an eyebrow. “You’ve never asked before.”

  “Just trying to use my time wisely.” Dwayne started working on a second array. “Tell Bruce I need that data on the tytumber.”

  “Only if you use the bucket before you sleep.”