Magic is Programming

While Carlos pondered over the mysteries he'd suddenly been presented, Lady Telrar shooed him out of the ritual area, called Amber forward, and began repeating her inspection. Carlos shook his head and mentally put those mysteries aside for later. He could think about them anytime, but he likely wouldn't get another chance for a long time to observe this inspection process from the outside.

There was remarkably little to see with mundane senses. The only noises Carlos heard were Telrar's statements announcing the same structures as his own, and quieter speech in between that he couldn't make out but was presumably some kind of incantation. His eyes only saw Amber and Telrar standing in place, seemingly doing nothing. No, wait, there was also a faint glow from the metal diagram in the floor, and the light flared just a little brighter each time Telrar began scanning the next soul structure.

To his new mana sensor, however, Lady Telrar seemed an endless wellspring of mana. In his own inspection, being in the center focus of what she was doing had obscured all but the innermost layer of it. Now, from outside, he could sense her mana flooding into the diagram, and being projected into the scanning focal points from the eight points of the octagonal star. Smaller threads of mana came from each point of the star and coalesced into the final two focal points in the center, one above and one below.

Those ten focal points emitted powerful waves of mana many times denser than anything Carlos could produce, but when those waves bounced back and emerged from Amber's soul, they went right past the emitters without interacting with them. Instead, curved panes of mana shaped like miniature satellite dishes captured the returning waves behind the emitters, and did something far too complex for him to decipher. He guessed that was probably the analysis that told her what each soul structure's shape was.

It came as no surprise to anyone that all ten of Amber's soul structures matched Carlos's, though they were arranged in a different order. The four she'd had before meeting Carlos had once-compressed density, and the new ones were all still at initial density. Lady Telrar's announcement at the end of the inspection was almost just a formality. "Forty synergy links. First stage. Adamantium rank, tier 8."

Carlos nodded for a moment, but then did a small double take. "Wait, forty? I had only thirty nine."

Telrar glanced at him with a slight smirk. "It seems your genius is a little sloppy. You've apparently missed activating one of your potential links."

"Activating potential links?"

"It's not my job to educate you on the finer points of soul plan setup. Though if you're willing to share the secrets of those unknown structures of yours, I might be open to a trade..." She smiled.

Before Carlos could do more than begin to shake his head, Assessor Varlinden stepped in. "Attempting to swindle a new noble before he is even formally acknowledged reflects poorly on your House, Lady Telrar. Your task here is done. You may meet them again to negotiate a deal on your own time if you wish."

"Of course, Assessor." Telrar nodded politely to Varlinden, then turned and walked briskly away, her armed escorts falling into formation around her.

Varlinden waited for her to exit the room before speaking again. "Carlos and Amber, it is my understanding that your soul plan was primarily created by Carlos. Is this correct?"

Carlos exchanged a look with Amber, and they nodded together. "Yes, Assessor."

"Then I pronounce you Carlos Founder, and Amber Carlos, of High House Carlos. I will formally register your new house with the Crown. Ordinarily, there would soon be a public ceremony announcing your new house and showing you to the nation's established nobility. However, ordinarily new nobles come from influential families and have powerful backing to get them started. Without that, you would likely find yourselves quickly forced into submission to a more powerful house."

Carlos nodded grimly. "So what's happening instead?"

"Come with me." Varlinden began leading them through the large building's maze of hallways again. "While a poor and powerless individual becoming a noble is rare, it has happened before, and we have protocols for it. You will be given a period of time to establish your domain and build your power under Crown protection. Do not allow that protection to make you complacent, however. The Crown's patience is limited, and you will eventually be required to stand on your own power whether you are ready or not."

"Reasonable. What's that about a domain, and what are we supposed to build our power with, though?"

"Those questions conveniently have related answers." They arrived at a door with a small plaque on it showing Varlinden's name, and mana in the door did something when Varlinden turned the handle to open it. Varlinden closed the door behind them, marched over to the desk in the small room, and got out a map from one of the desk's drawers.

"Each noble house holds a region where they are responsible for governance, development, and protection of the area from normal dangers." Varlinden spread out the map over his desk. Carlos wasn't sure how its scale compared to various countries back on Earth, but it had lots of markers for cities, roads, rivers, mountains, forests, and more. He found the map's legend and noted one of the icons was for dungeons.

Varlinden continued. "Now, you could ask for a grant of Crown lands to be your domain. However-" He touched his mana to a spot on the map, and shaded areas appeared in many different colors, blanketing most of the map. "As you can see, there are few areas of substantial size still administered directly by the Crown. You would be limited by the area you chose, you would be surrounded by potential rival houses, and you would be looked down on for taking the easy option."

Carlos noticed a large word labeling an unshaded region on one side of the map, and it seemed familiar. 'Wilds'. He frowned. Where had he heard that before? After a moment, the memory came to mind. "The hard option being the, how did you put it, untamed Wilds?"

Varlinden nodded. "Exactly. You would begin with a frontier town at the edge of the kingdom, and your domain would be that town and whatever portion of the Wilds you manage to tame. It will be hard and dangerous work, clearing out the monsters and pools of stagnant mana, but the only limit is your capability, it would fuel your soul development, and you would win respect for expanding Kalor's borders. And it seems you have a powerful advantage for it in that dungeon core I sense in your pack."

Carlos blinked. "Oh. Ah, is it that obvious?"

"In its current state, not actively drawing in mana, it depends on how closely someone looks. Lady Telrar might have noticed, if she bothered to examine your pack. I recognized its mana signature from when I assessed it in that cave." Varlinden held up a hand reassuringly. "However you got it to move is your house secret, and I won't pry. Your ability to do so certainly answers why I was asked to assess it, though. I suggest that you declare it a Treasure of your house."

"What would that entail, exactly?"

"I would take a small sample of mana from it for the Crown's records. If anyone steals it from you after that, even another noble house, you can ask the Crown to retrieve it for you."

"Yes please!" Amber blurted out.

Carlos nodded. "That sounds great! Any down sides?"

"Its existence and nature, and your possession of it, will be matters of public record, alongside the founding and rank of your house. Even the founding of your house will not be announced until you are more ready to stand on your own, however."

Carlos looked at Amber, and she firmly nodded. He nodded back, and got Purple out of his pack. "Assessor Varlinden, as Founder and head of High House Carlos, I declare that this dungeon core, which I named 'Purple', is a Treasure of my house."

Varlinden nodded. "I acknowledge and accept your declaration, High Lord Carlos. Please place your Treasure on my desk, and I will handle the paperwork when we've settled the other decisions we have to make." Carlos complied, and Varlinden continued. "So, for your domain: Crown lands, or Wilds?"

"What do you think, Amber? I'm leaning towards Wilds."

"Definitely Wilds," Amber agreed. She leaned forward and started scanning along the border, her eyes flicking from one town to another. "But which town to start with? Hmm..."

Carlos briefly glanced at the map, but figured he lacked the context knowledge to make a detailed inspection useful. "Hmm. Clearing out monsters and such is good, and developing our souls will make it harder to personally threaten us, but to really make a new region prosper we will need to give people a reason to settle there."

Varlinden nodded. "It's good that you are aware of that. Simply the potential harvest of the area's resources with the reduced danger after you tame it will bring some people, but if you have something else in mind to add to that, it may help. What are you thinking of?"

"A magic school. I have certain unique insights into magic that I could teach."

"If you are referring to your soul plan, I must caution you that teaching it to others would be adopting them into your house, and you would be held responsible for their actions."

"What about just teaching part of it? Maybe enough for platinum rank? And I have other insights too."

"That would be permissible, but any student who adds a ninth structure of their own to the eight learned from your house secrets would found a branch house under yours that you would also be responsible for."

"Hmm." Carlos shrugged. Realistically, he'd need to establish a reputation and learn more about magic himself before he could make a school actually work anyway. "Well, for now let's just pick a town with a good road so people can get to it easily. Amber, any ideas?"

"Well, yes, but it's..." She blushed slightly. "Kind of silly."

"Hey, all I've got is rolling dice to choose at random. Even a silly reason for choosing somewhere is better than no reason."

Amber took a deep breath. "Ok. So, supposedly Archmage Sandaras did some of his early adventuring in the Wilds near Dramos."

"And you'd like to follow his example."

Amber nodded sheepishly. "Yeah."

"Works for me." Carlos turned back to Varlinden. "We'll start with Dramos."

"Very well. Return here tomorrow at noon, and I will have your noble sigils and the Crown grant for Dramos ready for you. In the mean time, here's a small stipend to cover room and board for the night." Varlinden presented ten silver coins to Carlos, who quickly pocketed them.

"Ten silver seems a lot for one night."

"Prices in Kalor City are much higher than in Erlen. Now, let me take that mana sample from Purple, and then if you'll excuse me I have other matters to attend to."

Soon, Carlos and Amber were settling into a small room at a nearby hotel. The building was made of stone, there was a window with shutters in the outer wall, and the mattresses of the two beds were very comfortable, but it was smaller than the room he'd stayed a night in Erlen, despite being meant for two people.

"Hard to believe this cost eight silver for one night." Carlos grumbled.

"Hey, if we live up to what we're supposed to do, eight silver will be pocket change for us soon enough."

"Right. Taming the Wilds." Carlos shook his head. "I don't know if I'm ready for that, really. I need to learn a lot more spells, and how to make new spells of my own. How much can you teach me?"

Amber sighed. "Not enough. I know a lot about what's possible, but finding good information about how was a lot harder. I only know four spells, all of them minor. I tried to find more, but no one would sell for prices I could afford. The academy would presumably teach me a lot more, but..." She shrugged helplessly.

"Any chance the Crown would sponsor us to the academy?"

"I doubt it. We're supposed to be out taming the Wilds, not spending years in a cushy school."

"Hmm." Carlos frowned. "We need to figure out what we missed with our soul plan, too." He settled onto his bed and turned his attention inward to his introspector. Whatever the issue was, he really wished the introspector would have proactively brought it to his attention. Maybe he could change it so it would.

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