Magic is Hard, pt 1

Berk was freezing. 

He felt like he was floundering in a subzero frostland. Their dropship couldn’t get any closer to the polar axis and had to set them down. Their transport carrier wasn't insulated. Since they started on it, he felt like his bones became solid sticks of ice. He knew there was enough thermal gaberdine lining in his suit to prevent death, but that didn’t keep him from feeling like all the warmth that existed had vanished. He was cold, bitterly cold.

The colony got started over 50 years ago. He knew that this polar axis had been explored. They found Numaxiom, the magical essence from planet Anaphora’s core. It was the ingredient needed for the spell that allowed this colony to be birthed—to come into being. It was also the ingredient they needed for the spell of inversion.

Berk didn’t think anyone had been back since.

“Still cold?” Dannis laughed as he drove over the ice. “You should have picked up a cheapie medallion at the base gift shop.” He tapped his fist into his chest a couple of times. Dannis had shown Berk the medallion of warmth his wife invoked for him. It has been keeping him warm while Berk had become exasperated about the frigid cold. “You might not have felt warm, but you wouldn’t be feeling like an ice cube.”

“I just want this to be over with, to be there already. Once we get to the numaxiom, I can extract what you need, then you can invoke that spell and we can get out of here. I don’t want to be hypothermic anymore.”

“Amost there. According to this tracker, we don’t have much farther to go.”

“You know that isn’t accurate, right?”

“Yeah, I know it’s based on data that hasn’t been updated in 50 years. What is it with you Tellurians? Why is it that your caste in science always needs to be precise? Magic doesn’t work like that.” Berk could hear the crackling of the voice transmission as Dannis laughed uproariously, again. 

Dannis pointed at the tracker display on their console. “This will give us a good idea of where to start our search for the numaxiom.” The carrier bounced over the crest of an embankment. Dannis stopped, confirmed the latches on his helmet and got out.

“We here?” Berk called out to Dannis, who didn’t respond. The winds at this polar axis were howling, but that shouldn’t have mattered since they had comm units in their helmets. Sometimes Dannis could get too focused on something to act human and respond to a simple question. Casters of the supplicate caste tended to get like that.

Berk exhaled a long sigh, then unbuckled himself and got out of the carrier into the even colder environment of the polar axis. He hugged himself for warmth. He walked up to Dannis and tapped his helmet.

“Right there.” Dannis pointed. “Towards the bottom. That dull, bluish glow. It's almost like the ultraviolet is at war with the infrared. This is emanating an aura I can almost feel. I heard that numaxiom can seem incandescent to your soul.” 

Berk could barely make anything out at first. The longer he stared, the clearer it became. “Ok, yeah, I see it now. Is that the source?”

Yesterday, the brain trust for the colony issued a cataclysmic, terrifying alarm. This was the very reason he and Dannis came here. The colony’s ecosystem was failing. The atmospheric tantamount oscillator was not converting enough of the planet's atmosphere to oxygen.

They would need the numaxiom for to invoke the spell of inversion. It was only accessible at this polar axis. Berk was going there to extract what was needed then Dannis would be casting that spell.

If they couldn’t, the colony would have to be abandoned. 

“You’re the expert. You tell me.” Dannis pointed down. “Is that the numaxiom?” 

“Let’s find out. I’ll start setting up the thaumaturgic sensors. They’ll tell us if it's non-platitudinous.” 

“Huh?” Berk was picturing the look on Dannis’ face.

“If it has magic. If it’s not mundane.” Berk turned back and started towards the carrier. “You think this is the numaxiom. So do I. Like I said, let’s find out.”

Berk got a sensing unit from out of the carrier and planted it where they stood. Then, he withdrew another one.

“Get in,” he said to Dannis. “I’ll put this one off to our left. They need to be 100 meters apart. Afterwards, we’ll need to drive around to get the others placed.”

Berk had a hard time hiking in this suit. These were normally fitted, but they didn’t have time for that. He got the tallest suit they had and it was still too short for him. It just wasn’t easy to get any clearance. He had a hard time stepping up and over clumps of ice to get across to where the sensor needed to be placed. 

He almost wished they’d just have driven up here. Initially, it was his forlorn pride that made him keep hiking. When that atrocious sense started to fade, and then wholly abandon him, he was already more than halfway there. He just kept clumsily hiking.

When he finally managed to get the second one placed, he flipped up it’s transponder. An icon came up on the carrier’s display console. He knew Dannis saw it now. 

“Hey, do you want me to come get you?” The conditions of the environment made Dannis’ voice come out splotchy over their comm system.

“Yeah. I should have done that instead.” Berk had gotten angry at himself for not coming over in the carrier to begin with. 

Dannis then started up the carrier. He needed to come down the descent a bit, in order to get around an icicle obstruction. He turned the carrier to begin driving back up. 

A thundering rumble started and the carrier was then being chased by a rapidly growing chasm. An immense fissure anomaly had started.

Berk immediately turned and started to run up to the crest of this embankment. He was awkwardly moving as fast as he could in his poor fitting atmospheric suit. He didn’t want to be swallowed by the breach chasing him.

Not long after it started, he fell. It wasn’t as if he fell into the ice, it was as if the ice around him also fell. He didn’t fall far, he realized . He was still facing the crest. When looking up at it, the distance seemed to be as far, it was just steeper. He rolled over and started to get up.

The area where Dannis had seen the light was now the center of this anomaly. That area had fallen the furthest. He started to make his way down to the center, slowly, as he still needed to climb over icicles debris to get anywhere.

Their carrier wasn’t far from him, but it got covered in snow. It was hard to see. It had tumbled over backwards and is now on its side. Berk was trying to reach it. He was yelling for Dannis on their comm system. As he continued to plod through the icicle litter, he was hoping their caster would still be able to invoke that spell. That desire was tremendous.

He had always seen himself as the Tellurian he was—a factual, precise kind of person. It was like his caste aspired to be that. Dannis’ Supplicate caste seemed to be more open to feelings. Berk had taken classes on supplication back when he was an undergrad, so what they did wasn’t a mystery to him. 

When he reached the numaxiom, he knew he could then draw out what they needed. He was just hoping against hope for Dannis to then be there to invoke that spell.

“Dannis!”

“Stop yelling.”

“You didn’t respond. I’ve been calling out. I thought something might have happened to you.”

“Something did. The carrier fell.”

“Ha ha.”

“I’m ok. Just stuck. Can’t reach the buckles.”

“Stay still. I’m almost there. I’ll get you out.”

The front of the carrier was up and slightly inverted. One side was mostly in the ice and snow. He could get to his side of their carrier. He climbed up and got the door open. He could see Dannis. The ice seemed to have broken through his window. His legs were completely covered. From the torso on up, his right side was unencumbered. He could move that arm, but the left side was completely encased.

Berk reached their display console—it was still running. He was able to tap out a few things to get Dannis’ status. And it was just as bad as he feared. 

Dannis’ atmospheric suit was compromised. He didn’t know if it was a hole or a tear, but his air was leaking out. The atmosphere outside their suits wasn't poisonous, but it still wasn’t good. You wouldn’t die right away. It would take an hour, but you would end up just as dead.

If Dannis couldn’t cast, Berk would have to invoke the spell himself. If he could. Confidence was part of this, he remembered that from his textbooks on casting. He needed to just believe that he could. He needed to believe. 

Once he procured enough numaxiom, he would have what he needed. He had the words to be spoken. All of them—clear, explicit, unambiguous.

He wanted to be able to save the colony.

“Still warm?” Berk asked, trying to distract Dannis. 

“Huh? Oh, the medallion, yeah, I am.” The air loss in the suit would lead to more of this confusion aspect. Dannis was already starting to go. It wasn’t known how long their bodies could take this unknown amalgamation of atmosphere. They said maybe an hour.  

They were each given a spiritual auger with which they could teleport back to their base when the spell of inversion had been invoked. But even if he knew exactly where the numaxiom was, it would still take hours to get there and back. Dannis would be dead by then. This further established his fear—he had to cast the spell himself.

“I’ll have to get your wife to invoke one for me.” Berk struggled to keep his voice steady. He tried to stay humorous with Dannis. He didn’t want him to hear the apprehension that had consumed him. 

It wasn’t as if Berk never invoked a spell, but there was a reason a Supplicator was brought. Their rank had stronger ties to casting. This was what they did. No spell was ever perfectly cast. The Supplicators could feel how their spell was being accepted and could guide the intonations of their cast. Magic wasn't easy. If only this one time it was.

He wanted to be able to save the colony.

“Invoking warmth, these spells are strongest when you have a connection to the person it’s being cast for.” Dannis was now sounding more like that atmospheric discharge was getting bad. His grogginess was leading to the slurring of his words. He had to get Dannis out of here with the auger before the man died.

“We Tellurians may always want to be precise, but you Supplicators always want to teach.” So many of Berk’s instructors when he was an undergrad were Supplicators. It was always funny to him that it often worked out that way. Maybe they could feel the class and guide the intonations of their lectures. He didn’t know if any of that was true, but it was just funny.

“Besides, I will have that connection with her.” Berk reached behind Dannis to get to the auger. They had been placed on their back, at the base of their neck. He found it and pulled it free. 

“Huh?” The sounds of Dannis were getting worse. Berk needed to get him out of there.

“I will have saved the life of her husband.” He placed the auger next to Dannis. He held his arms out to guide the cast, then invoked the portal that sent Dannis back to their base.