Serpent Mage (57 page)

BOTH SARTAN AND PATRYN MAGIC IS BASED ON THE THEORY
of possibilities.
¹
A contest between the two can best be described as a lethal version of a children's game known as Knife, Paper, Stone.
²
In this game, each child provides himself with three objects: a small knife, a piece of paper, and a rock. These objects are hidden behind the back. Opponents face each other and, at a given signal, both grab an object and bring it forth in mock battle. The goal is to try to guess which weapon out of three possible weapons the opponent will use this round and be prepared to counter his attack.

The various outcomes are determined thus:

Knife cuts paper.
(Whoever produces the knife wins this round.)

Stone crushes knife.

Paper covers stone.

Knife, Paper, Stone is, of course, an extremely simplified version of a magical battle between Patryn and Sartan, each of whom would have at his or her disposal innumerable possibilities for attack and defense.

Ancient duels between the two were rarely fought “in hot blood” as was the fight between Samah and Haplo. Both races had their images to consider and a battle would take place only after a challenge had been issued and accepted. A Patryn was always ready to fight in public view. A Sartan might agree, but only if he or she felt that such a public display of prowess and courage would prove instructive to the mensch.

Public duels were held in arenas and provided absolutely marvelous shows, although the presence of a crowd rather hampered some of the more spectacular magical effects. It would never do, for example, to call down a lightning bolt on one's enemy and mistakenly electrocute half the audience. Thus these public battles rarely ended in death, but were similar to a chess tournament where one opponent attempts to place the other in checkmate.

Private contests were much more serious, fought on a more lethal scale, and almost always ended in death for either one or both opponents. They were held in secret places, known only to the two races, where destructive forces could be unleashed without endangering innocent bystanders. Sometimes the two fought alone, but more often family members and members of the Council attended to serve as witnesses. They were never permitted to intervene.

It should be noted here that the Sartan Council was always publicly opposed to these duels and would endeavor, until the last moment, to stop the fight.

Despite the limitless number of possibilities available, most wizards generally followed a set pattern, based on the dictates of logic. The first spells to be cast were usually either defensive or distractive in nature. They were easy, requiring little effort on the part of the spellcaster, and enabled him to study and feel out his opponent. Thus, a Sartan wizard
might attempt to distract his enemy by sending a million snakes into combat; the Patryn might counter by surrounding himself with a wall of fire.

Such distractions and defenses would give way to powerful offensive spells and equally powerful defenses. Opponents were required to see an attack coming and react to it within seconds, all the while guarding against attacks (such as lightning bolts) against which one could not defend oneself. The slightest miscalculation, the blinking of an eye, a momentary weakening, almost always proved fatal.
³

¹
See “Magic in the Sundered Realms, Excerpts from a Sartan's Musing,” in
Dragon Wing,
vol. 1 of
The Death Gate Cycle.

²
One theory holds that this game was played by mensch children desirous of emulating Sartan (or Patryn) heroes.

³
Excerpt from a treatise, untitled, discovered in the library of the Sartan on Chelestra.

(From a report given by Ramu, son of Samah, to the Sartan Council of Seven. This report was submitted sometime early during the session in which Alfred first reported to the council. The text, as well as other artifacts, was later found in Alfred's possession. How he came by them remains a mystery. The footnotes appear to be Alfred's and are consistently expressed in the tongue of the mensch
—
an interesting fact in itself)

Brother Sartan
of
the Council:

I beg to put before you, my brothers and sisters, a report on the state of our realm as it pertains to the seamoons it contains, known to us as the durnai. I humbly submit this report and beg your understanding should it fall short of your needs and expectations. May the runes grant us insight and wisdom in our governance of creation.
¹

I beg to set before you a summary of this realm's structure. I shall then endeavor with my limited and inadequate ability to compare its expected state with that currently found.
²

Our Realm of Water consists of a great sea surrounded by ice. In the midst of this sea moves the seasun, a great glowing sphere of phosphorescent light that illuminates and warms the waters about it. Its motion melts the ice around it and leaves the sea to freeze again behind it. Many creatures inhabit this sea—greatest among them being the durnai, upon which the mensch live.

The seasun is powered primarily by energy coming through a rift
³
from the Realm of Fire. Until the Death Gates open
at Jran-kri,
⁴
this rift provides only sufficient energy to keep this realm alive. Only by achieving Jran-kri will the durnai be awakened and the ice melted permanently.

The seasun moves in a predestined cycle through the water. This cycle is nearly one thousand years long, thus accounting for the long sleep
⁵
of our people and our recent revival. Originally this motion was intended to act to circulate the waters of the great sea following Jran-kri. The durnai would circle the seasun, and the seasun would move about the water in a circular countermotion. The intention was to keep the waters circulating and to aid in the recycling of materials from other realms.

Though it is thought of as a sea, it is actually not composed of water. The Goodsea is made up of a clear oxygenated emulsion liquid. Mammals may breathe it directly without drowning.

The Goodsea is filled with a variety of small prokaryotes, eukaryotes, plankton, and similar species designed specifically to react chemically with waste products that were to have been rift-dumped into this location after the Jran-kri. Forms of kelp were also grown in vast fields, creating free-floating forests. All of these produce useful byproducts naturally which are then absorbed as fuel energy by the durnai.

The effect of these small creatures is to perform the first stage in a refining process of waste materials. The byproducts of these sea creatures, being of lighter density
than the sea, tend to float toward the nongravity
⁶
of the durnai. These byproducts are then absorbed as dumai food— the final process before exporting refined materials through another rift in the center of each durnai to the great refining mechanisms in the Realm of Sky.
⁷

There are other creatures of the water as well. The dolphins, intelligent and rather overcommunicative, never have to surface for air as in our previous world,
⁸
as they breathe the emulsion directly. Other water mammals such as whales, serpents, mermen, seals, sea lions, and manatees abound. Normal sea creatures such as fish, kraken, hippocampus (water steeds), sea horses, rays, and other common marine creatures have been adapted to this environment as well. Plankton in the emulsion absorb the carbon dioxide from the various creatures' exhalations and reprocesses it back to oxygen.

Biosphere (The Durnai)

In the Sundering, we created the durnai—biosphere creatures of titanic size—which were to float randomly in their hibernation sleep. These durnai are living beings, created by the Sartan at Jran-ai to be an integral part of their overall plan. During Jran-ai, the durnai would remain in hibernation, awaiting the increased luminance of the seasun to be brought about at Jran-kri.
⁹
Until Jran-kri, the durnai were to remain in this state of deep sleep, occasionally drifting back to be frozen in the ice, only to be thawed again eons later— still hibernating—as the seasun would complete its circuit through the ice.

The original plan was to have the mensch act as caretaker parasites working in a symbiotic arrangement inside the durnai. The mensch would cultivate the interior surfaces of the biospheres, which, in turn, would keep it healthy for its chemosynthesis.

Once awakened, the biospheres would interact with the emulsion sea to recycle biological and chemical waste products from the other worlds back into useful biosynthetics, gases, and chemicals. Drawing their energy from the phosphorescent sun in the realm, the durnai “mountain roots” would channel the chemicals from the sea to the underearth. These roots appeared to the inhabitants as craggy mountains thrusting up from the sea and into the cavern ceiling above. In fact, these “mountains” are more analogous to bones with marrow structures thrust into the sea. The roots would then pull the chemicals and waste products up into the durnai— not unlike the roots of a tree—and convert these into useful chemicals for their own life sustenance and, as a byproduct, chemicals and other substances that would be disposed of through the natural rift in the core of the biosphere. This rift, connected through netherspace to the Realm of Air, would then supply needed source materials to the great machine there.
¹⁰

The Shores/Outer Durnai Layer

Resembling craggy rock mountain walls thrusting down from the valley roof, the shores are analogous to bone structures pushing down from the biosphere's center. The shores both form pockets of atmosphere and penetrate the sea along great mountainous ranges.

These mountains curve down from the nongravity to form shores where the sea surges along in undulating waves. Here the transfer action presses the chemicals and other gathered materials into the bone channels, where it is conducted into the foundations of the durnai.

Most importantly, the crystalline formations at the base of the mountains act as gatherers of light energy from the phosphorescent sun in the realm, thus supplying the needed photosynthetic energy for the process of life in the durnai.

The Valleys (Warrens) I Outer Durnai Layer

Above the sea surface—meaning away from the water and toward the center of the durnai—and between the towering mountain walls curving away from the shores lay the valleys, or warrens. These warrens were intended as the primary habitat for most of the mensch in this realm. Here, atmospheric and ecological balances are maintained partially by the plants that live here and partially by the biosphere itself. The warrens act as a dynamic biological shock absorber that allows the biosphere to correct for minor changes in the sea surrounding it.

Atmosphere and temperature are partially maintained by the biosphere itself. The sphere naturally generates internal heat, which partially offsets the cool of the water outside. The biosphere also helps maintain the atmosphere. Both of these effects, however, rapidly decrease as the sphere drifts back into the ice.

The mountains to each side rise to a roof so far distant as to allow natural weather to occur. This is generated partially by the drifting rotation of the sphere through the water and its action against different currents in the sea that surrounds it. Rain is the most normal result, although snow is a common problem as a biosphere nears the ice.

The atmospheric pressure keeps the bottomless sea at bay. Many warrens are connected by fjords of towering mountains plunging into the eternal sea.

All warrens are lit by light coming up from the sea or by light produced by the mensch themselves.

Underneath I Inner Durnai Layer
Chemicals and other substances which are carried into the creature from the bone-mountains enter the core of the sphere
to be processed by the various organs there. These processes utilize the photosynthetic processes along with chemosyn-thesis to produce its own life-giving energy. As byproducts, natural gas, nitrogen, carbon compounds, and certain biological organisms are produced. These useful byproducts are then moved by the biosphere to the rift at the sphere's center for expulsion.

The Rift

At the center of the creature is the rift, where all byproduct materials are sent. This rift is a netherspace conduit that takes these materials to Arianus for use by the great machine in manufacturing materials and devices for the use of all realms. This one-way conduit normally would transmit vast quantities of raw gases and chemicals to the machine.

The rift generates a nongravity field, pushing all mass objects away from the center of the durnai. (See diagram on page x.)

Having now awakened, we Sartan confront many issues. The chief among these issues remains the questions of why the Jran-kri was never reached. Second is a question that remained unanswered in our own time before the sleep: What of the dragons?

With the failure of the plan to attain Jran-kri, the durnai have remained in a dormant or hibernation state as they were when they were created. They perform their functions autonomical-ly but do little more. They do not move of their own volition, as was originally planned, nor do they synthesize abundant gaseous and solid materials for the machine in the Realm of Air as they were designed to do. Without increased output
from the seasun, the durnai will remain dormant, occasionally
falling into the ice (deep hibernation) and being thawed out in the cycle of the seasun. In the current hibernation state, the amount of chemicals being, produced and transmitted isnegligible.

The origin of the dragons remains as much a mystery to us as do their purposes. For now, it is only certain that they are our most powerful enemy—and that they have somehow changed the Goodsea.

Due to some interference of the dragons, the emulsion of the Goodsea now acts as a damper on probability. It localizes reality as part of its own process of regeneration and, thus, prevents any magic—which requires alternate probabilities— from working. Runes of the Sartan fade and seem to disappear under the effects of the sea. This is because the runes themselves extend into the realms of probability. When the probabilities are localized by the sea into a single reality, then the runes cannot exist and they fade away, losing both presence and power.

Within our walls we are safe. Beyond we are helpless. I move that the Council consider these findings at once.

Most humbly and gratefully submitted.
Ramu