Magic is Programming

Carlos felt groggy. It was hard to think. Maybe he should just go back to sleep. Yeah, that would be nice. He'd feel better when he was properly rested. Something seemed vaguely off, though. It was hard to pin down the specifics, but the niggling sense of wrongness in the back of his mind was being very persistent, and wouldn't let him relax back into sleep. After several frustrating minutes, Carlos sluggishly started trying to marshal his thoughts properly to figure out whatever was bothering him and not letting him sleep.

Ugh. He sighed. He'd fallen asleep in the first place just fine! If whatever idle thought this was had waited this long to come to mind, why couldn't it wait until he'd finished sleeping? He idly turned over on the hard surface he was sleeping on, while trying to dig up whatever the back of his mind was fixating on. He paused. Wait. A hard surface? He should be in a soft comfortable bed! He felt around with one of his hands. It felt like he was on a flat sheet of metal. ...And it was moving. The jostling was light, but he was definitely being jostled, like he was in a moving vehicle with imperfect damping.

Carlos's eyes shot open, and he sat bolt upright with a surge of adrenaline. It was so completely dark that he couldn't see anything at all. His mind cleared a bit, but he still felt the urge to sleep calling him seductively. Something seemed wrong about that too, though. He felt sleepy, but not actually tired. He closed his eyes and focused on that strange combination of feelings, refreshed energy together with sleepiness, and something prompted him to pay attention to his mana sense.

Right, he really should get used to incorporating that extra sense into his normal awareness all the time. ...And his introspector, he mentally corrected himself, as he realized his introspector had been trying to get his attention for a while now. There was a spell, or maybe an enchantment, pressing on his soul and trying to soothe him into sleep, and it was damnably difficult to focus on it. His reflex improver had joined in on the effort to make him aware of it, and prompted his debugger to push back against its influence on his soul, and that's what had prodded him awake.

Huh, if focusing on that spell was hard, why hadn't his reflex improver focused more on the discomfort of the hard surface to wake him up sooner? That was the factor that had worked best, really, and there was the missing blanket too. Physical discomfort was always easy to focus on. So easy that ignoring it to focus properly on getting something done was the actual difficult thing. Yeah, if he needed to wake up, drawing his attention to uncomfortable physical sensations was probably the most effective way to do it. So why hadn't his reflex improver done that instead of primarily boosting the signal about the hard-to-focus-on spell... that he really should get back to focusing on now.

Damn, he'd been just about to forget it and let the whole thing go, and give in to sleep again. Attention diversion was insidiously effective. No wonder Ressara had said it was a major hallmark feature of high end wards. No, no, focus on the spell. Or enchantment, he wasn't entirely sure. Nope, that's another tangent. Focus on the spell, don't let the attention diversion win. He was sleepy because that spell was trying to force him to sleep. It wasn't natural, and he needed to resist. He was being abducted, his captors were trying to make him stay asleep, and he needed to fight back somehow. That had to start with staying awake and staying cognizant of that spell.

Carlos yawned and shook his head. Doing anything about that spell... yes, the spell that was trying to make him sleep and trying to make him ignore it. He took a moment just to conciously focus his entire attention on the existence of that spell. Then he suppressed another yawn. That magically induced sleepiness was going to be a nuisance, he could tell. For counteracting the spell, he reminded himself again.

It would help if he could get someone to help him with it. Such as Amber, whose soul he could sense just a few feet to his right, with another copy of the same spell or enchantment attached to her. The surface of her soul around where the spell touched her was calm, but shifting ripples kept appearing everywhere else. Some ripples seemed random, but many charged straight at the spell's contact point as though intentionally trying to disrupt its enforced calmness. He thought he heard a faint sound of movement from her direction, too. She was clearly getting close to waking up on her own like Carlos had.

Well, speeding up Amber's awakening would be good, but they needed to be cautious and avoid alerting their captors. No response to Carlos's movements had come yet, but surely there was some level of monitoring in place. Best to stay quiet. He carefully reached out towards her soul to his right until he felt skin with his fingers, then groped around to find her shoulder and shook her gently. Her breath caught sharply, and she started to sit up but stopped when she felt Carlos's hand pressing her shoulder down. "Carlos?" Her voice was quiet, but in the dead silence surrounding them it almost seemed to echo.

"Shh!" Carlos hastily shushed her, and reached for their mental bond to explain telepathically. He floundered around in his mind for several seconds, confused. Their bond was gone, somehow? Presumably that was their captors' doing, but how would they have even known to do it?

"Uh." Amber slowly sat up and leaned closer to whisper in English. "I can't speak mentally. Can you?"

"No." Carlos whispered back, also in English. "Investigate that later. First, we need to deal with the sleep spell. Without alerting our captors."

"Sleep spell?" Amber paused, then shook herself. "Oh. This is bad."

"Focus. It tries to make you ignore it, too. Don't let it." Suiting actions to words, Carlos focused his attention on his own sleep spell again. It was hard to keep his focus from slipping off of it, but its overwhelming central importance to him right now helped a lot, along with his introspector detecting its pressure on his soul, his reflex improver guiding his attention to what was important, and his debugger partially counteracting it. Experimentally, he tried focusing on Amber's sleep spell instead. His introspector and debugger couldn't help with that, but his reflex improver still did, and he quickly found that it was actually much easier. The spell's attention diversion effect was focused on its victim.

"Ah. Try focusing on mine instead."

Amber yawned audibly, and shivered a little. "Brr. Right. Have to stay awake." She took a deep breath. "Ok. We've got this. Stay focused. We have our tools, just have to figure out a solution." Her whisper was so quiet Carlos almost couldn't hear it. She put her own hand firmly on Carlos's shoulder, and whispered a little louder. "If I fall asleep, wake me back up. I'll do the same for you. Now, let's do this."

Carlos nodded decisively. "Yes. Together."

Ressara frantically rushed down the stairs, stepping two at a time, and stormed down the hallways to Carlos's and Amber's suite. She arrived a little out of breath and had to take a moment to recover.

The guard on duty outside their door at the moment was Ordens, who calmly regarded Ressara with a raised eyebrow. "The message should have said after dinner. Or did you skip reading most of it in your haste?"

"That's not-" Ressara paused and took a quick but deep breath. "Carlos and Amber have been abducted!"

Ordens cocked her head and frowned. "What do you mean? I can sense them in their beds, still sleeping after their late night yesterday."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"That's not them! It's a pair of fakes, decoys."

Ordens hesitated, glancing towards the suite behind her for a moment. "Why do you think that?"

"I can sense souls. Specifically souls. And those things in their beds are not souls." Ressara stood tall, glaring defiantly at the royal guard who could crush her instantly whenever she chose to.

Ordens stared at her for just a moment, then jerked into motion and slammed the door open, marching angrily inside. "Sir! Magical impersonation check, now!" She stomped over to the door of Amber's room and opened it, not waiting for Lorvan's startled response. Ressara followed her in as she whipped off the light blanket from the bed, revealing something that looked very much like Amber sleeping. It even breathed in and out in the slow pattern of sleep, but it did not react to the commotion. Ordens shook the fake Amber's shoulder, and its head shook with it, its neck rigid rather than bending loosely as a real person's neck would.

"Confirmed, Amber's been replaced with a decoy!" Ordens shouted over her shoulder. Almost at the same instant, a loud bang came from Carlos's door being violently flung open, followed by rapid heavy footsteps. Ordens hurried back into the suite's common room, almost dragging Ressara with her, and Lorvan emerged back out of Carlos's room moving even faster.

Lorvan nodded at Ordens. "Carlos too." He shifted his gaze to Ressara, narrowed his eyes briefly, and barked out a question. "You noticed this with your highly specialized soul structures, right? Can you help us find them?"

"Let me see." Ressara turned around and studied the area around Amber's bed. After a couple seconds, she let out a small sigh of relief. "It was recent enough that I can still sense Amber's aura trail. Faintly, but it's there. It goes... directly downwards? Yes, through the bed, through the floor, and into the room below." She shook her head. "I'll need to physically follow it to get much farther than that. It's too faint to sense at a distance or through barriers."

"Ok." Lorvan stepped up beside the bed, crouched down, and placed his right hand on the floor. Mana flared from his gauntlet, and suddenly there was a two-foot wide hole in the floor. He peered through it, then stood and jumped into the room below. "It's safe. Come and continue."

Ressara carefully lowered herself through the hole, hanging from her hands for a moment before dropping down the last few feet. She sorted through what she could sense in the new room while she was climbing down, before she even let go of the floor above, and spoke the moment she straightened after landing. "Through the door. I also recognize some other aura traces here. They're from a group of six that checked in a few days ago. They had attention diverting wards for their level and on some of their equipment. I don't know any details about the equipment, but they're almost at Haftel's level, and they had big packs that were loaded full. They refused to talk with me."

Lorvan called up towards the hole. "Ordens, you got all of that? Go and notify Haftel and his party, question the innkeeper, and inform Mayor Stelras. Discuss with them, then come find me. I'll stay with Ressara and follow this trail."

"Yes, sir!" Rapidly fading footsteps sounded from above.

Lorvan forcefully opened the door into the lower suite's common room, and impatiently gestured with his head for Ressara to follow. She hurried after him, then chewed her lip for a moment as she looked around. She raised her right arm and pointed to the center of the room. "Amber's aura trail goes there. Carlos's comes from the other room and joins hers. Then... their trails end. They didn't die here. I don't see the strong burst of traces that death leaves behind. Wouldn't be much point to that anyway. It's more like they just stopped leaving any traces. That group I mentioned went out the door, though."

"Then we will follow them. Guide me, and make haste." Lorvan was out in the hall barely after he finished speaking, and Ressara ran to catch up. Lorvan frowned at her, then turned his back to her and crouched. "On second thought, climb on. This will go faster if I carry you."

Ressara stared at him like a deer struck by headlights.

Lorvan looked over his shoulder. "Well? Hurry up!"

"Y-yes sir." Ressara jerked into motion and climbed onto Lorvan's back. "T-towards the inn's entrance."

Lorvan nodded, leaned forward, and ran.

Ordens sprinted through the hallways and down the stairs. She didn't need to ask the innkeeper to pass on a message, or for where her quarry was. Sconter was out somewhere, beyond her equipment's detection range, but she could sense the locations of the others. Noralt was on the ground floor, enjoying herself in the inn's common room, but Haftel and Esmorana were in the first floor's main long term suite at the very end of the building. She reached the door and slammed it open in less than a minute.

The instant she opened the door, she froze, her eyes crossing as she looked at the dagger right in front of her nose. She hopped back one foot at the same time as Haftel returned the dagger to its sheath. He gave her a small nod of recognition. "Ordens. I take it something urgent came up?"

She pressed her lips together for a moment. "First, have you made a decision about how to repay what you owe?"

Haftel drew himself up, and Esmorana stood up from the chair she'd been sitting in. "We have. We will work for our new lords in any capacity we are suited for."

"Good. You can start by helping rescue them. They've been abducted during the night. Lorvan is following their aura trail. We need to alert the mayor, and interrogate the innkeeper about the perpetrators."

Haftel blinked, then whirled into action. "Esmorana, inform the mayor. Emergency haste. I'll go with Ordens and collect the rest."

Esmorana shook herself, then lifted into the air as fierce winds began inside the room. "Right. On it!" Several loud clacks sounded from the large window on the other side of the room, and it opened, the right hand pane of glass and its frame sliding left. She flew out through it and rapidly receded into the distance, her dress and long hair fluttering behind her in the wind. As though an afterthought, the open window slammed closed behind her.

Ordens watched the speed of Esmorana's flight for a moment, then sharply turned and ran back to the stairs. Haftel kept pace with her, and they soon reached the bar on the ground floor. Haftel flung a dagger ahead of them before they even got off the stairs, and it slammed point first into the bullseye of a tiny target on the wall behind the bar. The barkeeper jerked in startlement, glanced at the target with its new centerpiece decoration, then closed the tap on the keg of ale, slammed the half-filled mug onto the counter beside it, and rushed over. "What's wrong?"

Haftel waved a dagger hilt-outward towards Ordens and the barkeeper looked at her expectantly. "A group of six checked in a few days ago, took suite 219. Tell me everything you know about them."

The barkeeper shifted uncomfortably and looked at Haftel. The lanky dagger wielder idly tossed a dagger up, grabbed it by the tip, and suddenly flicked it forward. It hit the same target as the first dagger, also in the bullseye, so close the two daggers were touching. The barkeeper glanced at the target, heard the faint ringing of the second dagger vibrating from the impact while in contact with the first dagger, and blanched.

He leaned forward and whispered. "I don't know much. They checked in three days ago, didn't give any names. They paid extra to be quiet about 'em. I'm trusting you that it's not worth keeping that money, Haftel. As far as I know, they stayed in their suite from check-in all the way until they checked out last night. They left a few hours before dawn. They were carrying some kind of large container, I think. Big enough they had two people carrying it down the stairs and out the door. Must have assembled it in their rooms, I guess."

Haftel tossed a third dagger into the same target's bullseye, somehow hitting between the first two and pushing them to either side while still sticking in the wood. "Where did they go?"

The barkeeper shook his head frantically. "I don't know. I swear! They turned right after going out the door, but that's as far as I watched them. I-I had no idea what they were up to! Still don't, even. A-and if they ever come back, I'll slam the door on them!"

Haftel gazed steadily at the terrified barkeeper for a few more seconds, then nodded. "Remember that. Those six are bad news." He yanked on nothing, and the three daggers flew out of the tiny wooden target and back to his hands. He tucked all three back into their sheathes in an instant, then turned and walked toward the door, beckoning Noralt as he went. The muscular woman had been watching the whole exchange, and quickly put down her drink and joined him. He paused at the door and looked over his shoulder at Ordens, who caught up a little belatedly.

Ordens frowned at Haftel as they left the inn. "How certain are you that he told all he knows?"

"Very. I've known him for decades, and he knows I don't throw daggers like that without a reason." Haftel turned to face Ordens and frowned back at her. "And if you want my help, I'd appreciate if you trust my expertise. I may not have your funding, or whatever fancy soul plan you were taught, but I earned my reputation in Dramos with hard work and skill." He paused a second to make sure his point was received, then turned away again and gestured around them. "Now, I assume you can lead us to Lorvan?"

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