Magic is Programming

Assessor Varlinden looked at Carlos and narrowed his eyes. "Identify? Not confirm?"

"Yes, Assessor. He said he is forbidden to reveal his house unless absolutely necessary."

"I see." Varlinden slowly swept his gaze from Carlos's face down to his feet, visually inspecting every inch of him. "Leave us. All of you." Varlinden didn't even glance aside.

Darmelkon, Tornay, and their minions quickly bowed and rushed to the exit, but Carlos grabbed Amber's hand before she could follow, and held on. She hesitated, looked back and forth between him and the imposing figure of the assessor, then shrugged and stayed.

Varlinden glanced briefly at Amber, but returned his gaze to Carlos and began slowly walking a circle around him. "I have personally met every member of every noble house in this kingdom. Yet I have never seen you before." He took another two slow steps. "What is your name?"

Carlos's heart was beating fast, and he thought he might be starting to sweat. "Carlos, Assessor."

The assessor nodded calmly. "No house name? Wise of you, to refrain from impersonating any specific house."

Carlos's thoughts were desperately racing, trying to think of something useful to say, but came up with nothing.

Varlinden's shoes clicked against the hard stone floor of the cave. "You might conceivably be from a neighboring nation. However, I know the names and have seen images of the faces of their nobles as well, even if I have not met them in person. There is no noble named Carlos, nor with your face."

Carlos focused on trying to keep his breathing calm and even, though his racing heart demanded deeper breaths as it thudded in his chest.

"What truly gives you away, however, is your soul shell; far too much of it is still unspent." Varlinden finished his circle, and stood in front of Carlos, facing him dispassionately, hands still clasped behind his back. "You might possibly have 5 or 6 soul structures, if your mother put great effort into increasing your shell. More likely it is fewer, perhaps 3. You do not have 9 or 10."

Carlos gulped. "I, um, never actually said that I'm noble."

"An irrelevant technicality. If true, that might earn you some small leniency, but no more." Assessor Varlinden leaned in a bit closer, casting a shadow from the bright orb of light that was following him around, seeming to loom over Carlos. "You convinced two men who should have known better, one of the foremost businessmen of the realm and an enchanter, to at least seriously consider that you might be a noble. How?"

"I..." Carlos instinctively leaned back and pulled his shoulders in, trying to shrink away from Varlinden's overbearing appraisal. "I cast a spell while wearing suppression cuffs."

Varlinden blinked, and stared. Then blinked again. He straightened, and spoke in a completely level, even, voice. "So your impersonation of a noble was pre planned, and you even dedicated a soul structure to it."

"What? No!" Carlos almost yelled his denial, and didn't even realize he was gripping Amber's hand so tightly his knuckles were turning white. "The soul structure I used has a completely unrelated purpose that coincidentally happened to be useful against the cuffs! I had no idea it would help against the cuffs until they were on me!"

"That seems unlikely."

"Please! Just give me a chance to prove it!"

"Hmph. And how do you propose to do that?"

Carlos closed his eyes, and took several deep breaths, trying to calm down. He noticed Amber wincing in pain from how tightly he was holding her hand, and hastily released it. "Assessor Varlinden, I will explain the actual purpose of that soul structure. And if you allow me the time, I will construct the remaining 7 soul structures in my plan, showing that any specifically anti-suppression soul structure would be superfluous for me."

Varlinden stared at Carlos some more, and narrowed his eyes. "So. You, a complete unknown, claim to have created an original adamantium rank soul plan; you claim this plan happens to include a soul structure that, though intended for another purpose, coincidentally also counters suppression cuffs; and you claim that you coincidentally happened to be caught and restrained with suppression cuffs in the brief time period where your plan is only partially built. Do you realize how incredibly improbable this is?"

Amber grabbed Carlos's hand with both of hers, and squeezed. "It's true! I- I swear it to the Crown on the integrity of my soul!"

The assessor turned slightly to face her. "And you are?"

She gulped. "My name is Amber, Assessor. I grew up in Erlen."

Varlinden scowled slightly. "Girl, that oath is no mere dramatic gesture. It will ruin your life if his absurd claims are not somehow true in full."

Amber glared at him. "I. Know."

"Very well, if you insist. How are you involved here? What is your stake in this matter?"

"I taught Carlos some of the knowledge he needed to make his soul plan, and he shared it with me. I'm going to use it myself, too."

"I see." Varlinden stalked a slow circle around Amber, inspecting her as he had Carlos a short time earlier. He did not speak, leaving his slow footsteps and the slow trickle of water as the only sounds in the cave, until he stood in front of them again. "Carlos. Do you swear likewise?"

Carlos hesitated briefly, but answered after only a moment. "Yes. I swear to the Crown on the integrity of my soul." He didn't really know what that meant, not precisely anyway, but he really was telling the truth so it shouldn't matter.

Assessor Varlinden raised his right hand in front of himself, palm up, holding a small metal cube. Thin lines of blue light lit up on its sides. The edges of the lines looked slightly uneven or fuzzy. Carlos squinted a little, and thought there might be some very tiny writing in the light, but it was much too small to read at any distance.

Varlinden solemnly intoned a formal speech. "Carlos and Amber, of the town of Erlen, know that what we say now is being recorded, as undeniable proof to the Crown. Carlos, you are suspected of feigning high nobility, by a method that can only be prepared in advance, with planning. Amber, you are suspected of aiding Carlos in his attempt to feign high nobility. You have jointly given explanations that I would ordinarily dismiss out of hand, as too implausible to be worth serious consideration.

"While the punishment for these acts is severe, in time you would be able to recover and continue your lives and careers. Instead, in exchange for serious consideration of your claims despite their lack of credibility, you both have chosen to invoke a far worse punishment if your claims are ultimately found to be false.

"You claim that together you have devised a new adamantium rank soul plan, and that you are in the process of building it. If your claim is genuine, then it would mean the two of you are founding a new high noble house together. This would be a matter of import to the Crown. The Crown would bear the cost to definitively verify your soul rank, and you would gain certain rights, but also responsibilities. You will be required to claim a domain for yourselves, most likely carving it out of the untamed Wilds, and govern and develop that domain.

"On the other hand, if you swore falsely, if you do not come for the verification or if your soul rank is found to be less than you claimed or copied from an existing noble house, then you will be captured; your soul structures will be broken; the mana layers around your soul will be siphoned off; and any remains of your soul shell will be stripped. Your soul development will be permanently and unrecoverably crippled, your first death will be your final death, and any children you might have will be born with thin and weak soul shells. This is the penalty for lying that you invoke by swearing on the integrity of your souls.

"Now, with all of that made unmistakably clear: Carlos, do you stand by your oath?"

Carlos nodded firmly. "Yes."

"Amber, do you stand by your oath?"

"Yes."

"Then each of you, place your hand on the cube and allow it to sample your mana and your blood."

Carlos went first, putting his right hand on the metal cube Varlinden was holding. After a few seconds, he faintly felt a small tugging sensation on his soul, and a much more easily felt needle pricking his skin. He checked, and found his current mana had dropped by 1. He took his hand away, and Amber followed suit.

The lines of light on the metal cube pulsed once, then faded, and Varlinden closed his hand and lowered it. "I will allow you 5 days to finish building your soul structures. That should be more than enough time. Come to the Crown Court in Kalor City at noon in 5 days. We will be ready to test you, or to dispatch someone to hunt you down."

Carlos glanced at Amber. "Uh, we don't have transportation fast enough for that prepared."

Varlinden calmly nodded. "That is not a problem." He held out a tightly rolled scroll. "This teleportation scroll will take you to the Crown Court's receiving room. Any other issues that would prevent your arrival in 5 days?"

"Oh. No, I don't think so. Thank you. Um, Assessor." Carlos took the scroll and bowed.

"Then I will ensure the Lord Merchant and Enchanter do not interfere, and leave you to your work." Varlinden turned and walked out of the cave, his orb of light following him.

Carlos shared a look with Amber, let out a deep sigh of profound relief, and all but collapsed into his seat. Amber shakily sat down a moment later.

Carlos took a deep breath. And another. And several more. His racing heart was gradually slowing down. "Well, I guess we'd better get to it."

Over the next few days, Carlos and Amber took turns building soul structures. Whichever of them was not busy with a soul structure would talk with Purple, trying to think of ways to improve their little cave entrance's defenses, and getting some sunlight while standing watch to ensure they'd have at least a little more warning than they'd had with Tornay and Darmelkon.

A few small creatures, possibly some kind of squirrel or rabbit, explored up to the first turn in the tunnel, but turned around after just taking a look at the darkness further in. They had a tense few minutes when a bear wandered in on the third day, sniffing curiously. Undeterred by the darkness, it prowled on, and fell into the first pit trap. It growled in surprise and pain, but determinedly climbed back out, limping on its front right paw and punctured and bleeding in several places. The dart trap that came next gave it several more wounds and hamstrung its left hind leg. It turned to retreat, but found the open pit barring its way. It tried to leap the pit, but couldn't jump far enough with its lamed limbs. Its chest crashed into the pit's edge, and it fell backwards into the pit to its death. Purple happily reported that he gained some mana from it, a little more than enough to repay the cost of resetting both traps.

Carlos went down his list of planned soul structures, checking each one off in order, and took some time to familiarize himself with them while Amber took her turn.

The spells database made barely any noticeable difference, but that was to be expected when he only knew one spell and the keywords it comprised. His soul felt a bit cleaner, like some clutter that had been randomly scattered was now gathered and organized, but the real benefit of it would only come up in the long term, with a greatly increased maximum limit on how many different spells he could learn.

The spells linker was a little more interesting in the short term, and he had to think a bit about what to do to properly use it so it would be finalized. In the end, he found an alternate version of the light spell in Amber's book, and rather than learning it as its own separate spell, he adjusted the spell he already knew, making it have two options for the one word that was different between the spells. Now, he could make either a spherical glow or a narrow directed beam like a flashlight.

When he finished the mana sensor, he just sat and stared for half an hour at the new vista unveiled around him. It was similar to the sensations Purple had shown him through their mental link a few days ago. There were currents of an intangible and invisible substance flowing all around him, in the air and even through the ground, but now they were visible to him. Dimly visible, with nowhere near the clarity he knew Purple could perceive, but they were there.

Carlos closed his eyes, because he didn't need anything but his soul to see mana, and studied what he could sense. By far the most obvious thing was the convergence of mana flowing into Purple from all directions, which the dungeon core was drinking in rapidly. He looked where he knew their concealment ward was, and thought he could vaguely make something out, but it was tricky; every time he started getting confident about it, something would change, or he'd find he was examining a different spot than he thought. Maybe that was part of the ward's effect, to throw off things that could perceive mana. He shrugged and turned his attention to where Amber was, and easily spotted the dim glow of her mana. She was a source of mana, however weak, and that fact now stood out clearly from the background to his new sense.

Carlos cast the light spell just to see what he could sense as it took effect. He felt a tiny packet of mana form from what he supplied to the spell, and then the connection to his mana pool broke. The packet seemed to be swirling, and gradually shrank, its power turning into light. He tried to get a closer look at the conversion into light, but it was too indistinct and blurry to make out any details.

When he finished the mana manipulator, he cast the light spell a few times, trying to see if anything was different. He felt the soul structure settle into permanence, so it definitely did get involved in spellcasting as he expected, but the light seemed the same intensity as before, and lasted for the same duration. Then he tried the flashlight beam variant, and thought it seemed a bit more focused, but he wasn't sure.

To use the spells preparer, Carlos first had to ask Amber how to prepare a spell instead of casting it immediately. Fortunately, this turned out to be simple. He just had to replace spell cast; at the end of the incantation with spell prepare = light;, and then he could use it quickly - but only once per incantation - with spell activate = light;.

The final two soul structures didn't do much of anything on their own, instead providing qualitative improvements to other actions. Carlos realized as he began making them that he might never know how much or how little they actually helped, and decided on the spur of the moment that this was a problem to be fixed. They would normally be always active and giving their benefits, but he would be able to intentionally deactivate them temporarily whenever he chose, so that he would be able to compare his performance with and without them.

Carlos and Amber both breathed sighs of intense relief when he successfully completed his 10th and final soul structure, finally dispelling the last seeds of doubt in their minds about whether his plan would work. Despite their caution about intruders, and a number of breaks, they finished with one day to spare before Varlinden's deadline. They waited out the final day uneventfully.

Carlos finished cramming the tent into his pack, put it on his back, and walked over to where Amber was standing by Purple. "Ready to face the Crown Court?"

Amber nodded. "I'm ready."

[Ready.]

Carlos picked up Purple and put him in his pocket, then got out the teleport scroll. "Well then, it's time."

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