Hinn Ch. 25-27

"Emily's call, but I have no problems with it, Mac."

"Given we have to decide now, OK, but if we ask you to leave, Mac, will you be OK doing that or are you going to keep your nose in the door?"

"I don't lie, Emily, ya know that. If I say I'm leavin' someplace at some time, I'm gone then."

"And would you come back on your own?"

"Only if invited, which'd be hard fer ya ta do with the cone up."

"Fair enough for me. Please add Mac to the list, Ray."

"Can do. Jessica, can I have a small piece of paper and a pen, please?"

She handed a sticky note and a pen to Ray, who wished in Hinn. He designed a one-hour duration 'cone of silence' that Emily could enable or disable by saying a key phrase which allowed secured communication only between Emily, Mac, Emily's CEO, her company President, and her Head of Security. Ray then scribbled the key phrase on the sticky note before folding it in half and handing it to Emily. Rethinking, he removed the one-time requirement.

"Say that phrase out loud, and you'll have an hour of the cone between the five of you, Emily. Repeat it after you activate it to deactivate it early. You'll be notified as soon as it's up and immediately before it's deactivated."

"Thank you, Ray. It amazes me that you can do that this quickly."

"It's literally magic, Emily. It looks easy, but what happens off-camera is a little complex. I'll be going a little more into it tomorrow."

"You were right! Parts of tomorrow's meeting are going to be fascinating! OK. I'll head off to check with the bosses tomorrow after the ten o'clock, so I have the bulk of the info."

"That should be fine, Emily."

"Some questions while I may?"

"Of course, Emily -- Annya, Jessica, everyone, jump in as you need to."

"What's the range on this magic?"

Ray replied, "For us, at least geosynchronous orbit, quite possibly much further. Angelics demonstrated an Interplanetary effect pre-humanity, but they're considered to be a higher order of threat than most mortals."

Tauriz expanded on that. "Tales were told that, in the far past, Hinn and Jann reached much greater ranges, but the Timm seemed to have no limit to their reach, as that was the focus of their embedded power. The records I can reach do not have details on either, however, just a bald claim."

"Is there a precision or duration limitation?"

"I know of techniques that have been active longer than humanity has existed," answered Tauriz. "The biggest limits are the focus, the strengths and/or weaknesses if you will, of the power used if any, the competition to the intended action if any, and the creativity and persistence of the shaper of the magic."

"So someone who has a destructive power trying to heal someone is at a disadvantage against someone with the same destructive power trying to harm the same person?"

"All else being equal, yes. There are tricks which greatly affect this -- for instance, in this case, the defender might attack the attacker's attempt to harm the target putting the effect back into the positive end of the defender's power optimization. Additionally, the ability to perceive jawhar, or connections, the nonphysical embodiment of magic, allows one to react as if in physical manners. Thus there are physical combat styles optimized for dealing with jawhar, as compared to physical foes."

"Oh, interesting. So it's as much a competition to frame the conflict to ones' benefit and ones' foe's detriment."

Ray added, "And don't forget the other side can adjust and attack as well. It's a pretty tactically dense space."

"How does a Professor of ancient metalworking come to use phrases like that?" Annya wanted to know. "'Tactically dense' is something I'd expect to hear from a strategist."

"Roleplaying games. I've been involved in them since they first became popular in the late 70s. I've learned a lot about tactics, some strategy, even a little logistics because of it. Similarly, I've found myself drawn to playing a computer hacker type in modern and near-future games, which has helped me learn a goodly bit about your business, so I had some scope I could bring into the games. It's an interesting interlocking set of professions all under the rubric of 'hacker,' isn't it?"

Annya and Emily chuckled, "Agreed!" they chorused.

"You mentioned humans don't have intrinsic power but utilize their life force. What does this look like, from a medical point of view?"

Tauriz explained, "It is possible for a human or a nonhuman mortal that exceeds their in-dwelling power to kill themselves whilst using jawhar. This death appears to be from exhaustion, malnutrition, or dehydration."

"A common fictional trope in such situations is that there's an extra 'kick' in death, causing such fatal actions to be particularly potent. Is that realistic?"

"Not so far as we are aware," said Ray. "It's more like running out of battery -- things just taper off to nothing."

"And this life-force, is it something that can be stolen from others?"

"Yes. There was a particular kind of mortal that specialized in such activities, called the Rimm," explained Tauriz. "Their encapsulated power was optimized to such actions. To the best of our knowledge, they were completely eradicated before the dawn of humanity, but their legend appears to have persisted into human myth. Perhaps not all were eradicated, perhaps surviving mortals shared tales of their accomplishments, it is not clear. It is something other mortals can do, including humans, but it is not their specialty, and in some cases, they are optimized away from being efficient in such activities."

Ray clarified, "By eradicated, we mean that one type of mortal effectively committed genocide on another. One particular type, known as Jinn, repeatedly did this throughout history and are the reason behind the lack of Hinn and most other mortal types today. There are exceptions -- Tauriz being one of them.

"To many of the nonhuman mortals, Tauriz wouldn't count as Hinn, as she was defeated by Jinn and turned into something called genie. Genie are enslaved mortals, often focused in certain areas of endeavor. By far, the most common type of genie are those focused on sex and personal servitude, but others exist as well. Tauriz, being Hinn, was poorly suited to being focused on sex by her encapsulated essence. Instead, she was made into a living, enslaved weapon.

"Still others were enslaved for physical labor, from eternally cleaning an area to crafting items on command. There were other types as well, but those were the three most common by far."

"So that's the background of the genie theme," mused Annya.

"Tauriz, are you still enslaved?" asked Emily.

"Yes, Emily. However, I am enslaved by powers we cannot counter currently, and Ray is looking for ways to break those powers."

"How can you know that?"

"All Hinn have an intrinsic link. With much practice, Hinn can lie to each other, but it requires skills and focus that Ray has not had the time to learn yet. He is, in many ways, an open book to me, and I have no doubts as to his intent."

"Are you an open book to him, then?"

"Effectively, yes. Unlike Ray, I am aware of the relevant techniques to adjust my link to the Hinn, but I have no reason to do so. And so, I do not."

Ray took a moment and wished to learn Tauriz' technique in how to adjust his link to the Hinn, then wished again so that both Ray and Tauriz were consciously aware of how open they currently were with each other. Tauriz smiled at him without commenting other than to snuggle closer in Hinn.

Amber, Monica, and Annya shivered as Ray made the first of these wishes.

"Do you know how many mortal kinds are active today?" Annya wanted to know.

"Well, time for a little truly ancient history," Ray enthused, dry-washing his hands vigorously in front of himself. "Pangaea is what the geologists call ancient Earth's continents back when they were all touching. The Hinn and several other mortal types were alive and active at that point in history. Shortly before the supercontinent began to split apart, one of the mortal types learned how to enslave others and create genie.

"This lead to massive warfare on a scale that hasn't happened since. World War 3 might equal it if enough nukes go off, it might not. There were several outcomes from this incredible violence. First, Pangaea started to break up. Mac has somehow managed to get a paper with calculations on the forces involved in preprint in the last couple of days.

"Second, after the worst of the fighting occurred and people finally realized just how incredibly dangerous it was to everyone, most of the survivors got together and somehow imposed limitations on themselves and their progeny. Mortals, and perhaps even the non-mortals, are unable to locate others beyond their line-of-sight without a prior connection. One reason I'm able to give Emily the cone of silence she can use with her superiors so effortlessly is because she's here. Were she to call me, it would be much more difficult. Were some third party to call from elsewhere, I'd pretty much be unable to help. That's one of the most significant limitations of magic, as far as Tauriz and I practice it.

"Third, it affected most life besides just the mortals fighting it. Modern scientists call the recorded results of this conflict the Permian extinction, where more than 90% of sea life and around 70% of life on the supercontinent died. It was the single greatest culling in the history of life on this planet."

Emily asked, "What of the evidence that many of the life forms found were exhausted when they died, starving? Or that their biomes were altered and gone?"

Tauriz answered, "First, remember -- one of the types of mortals active at that time could and did steal life force, leaving exhaustion and starvation behind. They, like all the others involved, left little on the table and fought about as hard as can be. In many ways, we are lucky to be here now, as the forces used could have sterilized the planet completely instead of partially. The other thing to realize is that much of the power expenditures that missed their targets or were countered still grounded out somewhere. These blows led to massive die-offs in the ocean, which in turn poisoned and fouled huge swaths of the ocean for many years. The land was a little better because the combatants realized they couldn't afford to devastate it totally because they still needed somewhere to live once the fighting finished. The oceanic effects weren't as immediately evident to the combatants."

"How long did the battle last?"

"No one is certain. At that point, there were three living oracles. Oracles are exceedingly rare, having three alive at any one time has only happened a handful of times in the history of the planet. No one has ever found four alive at the same time. These three were not allies, but due to their abilities, they each foresaw the probable outcomes. They were the ones who lead the way to limit the detection of others, and such is the respect granted to an oracle that even those factions which had no Oracle associated with them listened to the arguments and eventually agreed."

"What's an oracle? Like the prophets and fortune-tellers?" asked Jessica.

"Yes. They have some strange relationship with time as a power source. They are exceedingly rare and generally become astronomically powerful very quickly once their powers come to fruition."

"Do oracles have the same limitations in finding mortals?"

"No one is certain, but there have been a lot of coincidental meetings between oracles and those that go on to shape and alter the world."