Hinn Ch. 57-59

Nodding, Emily agreed. "Seems it should work just fine. Later, we'll run through it in detail, but not now."

"Ray," asked Tomaz, "do you still want the chain of command to be yourself, Tauriz, then Ousha?"

"Um, yes. Why do you ask?"

"Since Emily's back, thought it'd be best repeating that for clarity," Tomaz offered.

"Consider that the baseline for now. We're very interested in warnings, advice, and opinions from each of you, of course, but that's the current decision chain unless and until we notify you otherwise."

"Thanks for the clarification, Tomaz, Ray," Emily nodded.

Chapter 58

With that, the meeting broke up into smaller conversations. Emily and Updike started asking Tauriz more detailed questions on magic, with Annya and Tomaz listening in. Ousha started to pick up the coffee and fruit leavings, and Ray joined in.

"Ray, you don't have to do that," Ousha said.

"It's fine, I'm all packed and ready, so there's nothing else urgent on my plate right now."

"You sure about that?" Ousha asked, sending Ray a reminder of the ring he'd constructed and the complex runescripts built into it, as well as an echo of Dhakira's description of those they might bring on board.

"Hrm! Perhaps you're right. There might be a couple things I should investigate. I wonder if Monica's awake yet, I've a couple more questions on runescript."

"She'd be on the second floor, Ray, if she's not in Jessica's office or catching breakfast."

Nodding, Ray stepped out and walked down the hall, greeting Harry as he carried a cup of coffee towards his desk at the front of the building.

"Harry, good morning -- we hadn't hired you on as the greeter, you know, it's OK to share out that duty or hire someone else for it."

"Oh, that's fine, you need someone to handle the door, and I'm rarely too busy with things -- more being ready than being active if you would."

"Would you like to be more active?" Ray asked.

"Only so active an old codger like me can be, Ray!" Harry chuckled. "I do believe I've got more'n a decade on you, after all."

"Well, you may have missed it, but there's a pretty unique health plan if something's bothering you. Just ask Tauriz or me when we get a minute, or some of the Skepsi medics if it's urgent."

"Ya think you can do something about arthritis and blown disks, Ray?"

"Sure," Ray answered, to Harry's amusement. "Sit down for a second -- this won't take long." Going along with the joke, Harry sat. "This'll likely feel weird, but it shouldn't hurt."

With a wish via Hinn, Ray had Tauriz find Harry's medical problems and fix them. Once she was done, including building in an ability for Harry to keep taking his current medicines without harm, Ray told him, "There you go, Harry. I'd suggest making an appointment with your doctor of choice to confirm, but I think you'll find yourself much better off than you had been."

"I'll be -- that does feel a lot better. Thanks, Ray -- but what'd you do?"

"Remember the NDA? Well, that covers what I just did -- it's effectively magic. It's almost as simple as wishing things would get better for you."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "If those icepicks hadn't left my back, I'd be jollying you on right about now, Ray, but they did. And my ankles aren't griping for the first time in decades. So -- thanks! Thanks a lot!"

"There were quite a few things fixed, so please do schedule a visit with your doctors. Make sure your meds are appropriate for how your body works now. I think you'll befuddle them pretty good, but after a lot of testing, you'll get taken off most if not all of it."

"Will do, Ray."

Nodding, Ray headed over to Jessica's office. Monica was at her desk, staring into her monitors as she sipped a fragrant cup of tea. "Good morning," he greeted her. "Do you have a little time to answer some more questions?"

"For you, Ray, of course. Nothing too urgent going on right now for me. What do you need?"

"I wonder -- how familiar with a phenomenon do you have to be to write runescripts to interact with it?"

"Um. It varies, of course. I could create generic effects, shielding, draining, amplifying, that kind of thing, and they'd try to work. Sometimes they might work great, other times terribly. With better understanding, the results typically get better in turn. Eventually, some runecrafters become able to create, destroy, or even transform one phenomenon into another. That's near the pinnacle of that kind of runescript, though, and isn't very likely to be effective with something you're coming at cold. Why? What were you thinking about?"

"Samum."

Monica blinked. "Um. I'm not sure what to say. I've never even seen samum, I don't think?"

"Well, that's something Tauriz or I can help with, Monica. I'd like to leave you a small flow of samum for you to examine. Don't try to alter it, not without Tauriz or I handy, but it'll let you try to understand it better. Does that sound reasonable to you?"

"I guess. Can you show me an example?"

Ray concentrated, forming a small loop of jawhar that he locked in place an inch above her desk, just below one of her monitors. Adjusting it to have no internal resistance to samum, he injected a small pulse and let it spin endlessly. "How's that?"

"Wow. Um, OK. Let me see," she muttered before focusing in on the immaterial power looping around and around. After a long moment, "I think I can sense it, Ray. It's awful fast, like watching a plane propeller. Is there some way to slow it down a little?"

"Hrmm. Let me see," he replied before diving into Hinn looking for a solution. Once again, many different options appeared for his choice. He found a technique where he could inject a pair of pulses that were very carefully measured to be almost but not the same, one moving clockwise through the loop, the other counterclockwise. The net effect was for the two pulses to interfere with each other, seemingly creating a charge that spun at a fraction of the speed. "That better?"

"Oh, much -- interesting! Yes, I think I can work with this. I'm not sure how long it'll take me, mind you."

"That's fine, it's not urgent, but I think it might be useful if we found ways to let you and your sister tap into other sources for your techniques. Would you prefer me to leave that loop there? Or is there something you'd prefer me to put it in?"

"Do you think it'd harm anyone if they ran into it?"

"If they managed to break the jawhar wrapping the samum, it probably would do some damage, but that would take a deliberate action from a practitioner, I think. My understanding is that that's pretty much the definition of a practitioner versus one who doesn't have magic -- the ability to work with jawhar."

"Well, for magic derived from the self, yes, but for ones based on others, like most divine magics or supposedly even diabolic forms of magic, that's not necessarily true. In that case it's more the ability to tap into the other's abilities, not into one's own soul. That supposedly has little to do with what you call jawhar."

"Diabolic magics? Demons and devils granting humans power?"

"Yep. That can be quite nasty, and often has hidden costs that the practitioner isn't aware of until it's too late, but also tends to be quite potent."

"Ick."

"Yeah, they don't tend to live long or happy lives."

"Would something like spirits of the land, or of families or institutions like the Romans and Greeks believed in, be along the lines of divine or diabolic sources of magic?"

"It'd be hard to say. Most of the texts and tales we have of those times don't seem to have the effects we'd expect them to have. Some few still work, but it's at least as common for them to work either better or worse than the documents say, and it's not clear which techniques will work for a given practitioner."

"Interesting. Do you think there'll be people there Friday who've studied this more?"

"Almost certainly. I think you'll have at least as enlightening a time as you give!"

"Heh. Yeah, it's probably not very often that something like Hinn show up out of the shadows, I'd think."

"Well, there've been plenty of strange happenings over time. We've had tentacle-monster invasions, death squirrels, and orcs show up in the last five years alone."

"Wow. And how'd you manage to keep from everyone coming to know it?"

"The tentacle monsters we tracked back to their lands, destroyed their ability to reach us and left. The death squirrels were harder to counter. They're almost impossible to distinguish from a regular squirrel unless it's trying to gnaw your throat open. We ended up finding a way to track them down, and we THINK we wiped them out. Some of the more ornery masters send troublesome youngsters out to see if they can find any remaining ones occasionally, and no one has recently. The orcs we've got trade with now. They have some interesting plants and other materials. They don't like electronics, but are quite fond of our materials science -- ceramics and aramid fibers, primarily for weaponry and armors."

"And who can tell if that herbal tea is something extraordinary or just an unusually weird mix, hrmm?"

"We've had to be careful of some of that, yes -- one practitioner almost got arrested at the Canadian border, the guards thought they were trying to move marijuana. It got cleared up fairly quickly, but they're a lot more cautious about hauling bundles of mysterious plants around now."

"Interesting. Do you think some of the orcs might be there?"

"Probably -- one or two of their traders usually are invited to these things."

"Good to know. I'll have to see what we can scrounge up that might be of interest. Ceramic rescue knives, perhaps?"

"Military-grade body armor is usually very appreciated, but weapons are often either very quickly picked up or ignored. I can ask and see what more I can learn while you're up north if you'd like?"

"I'd appreciate that if you could. Mostly I'm just anxious to learn how much you can interact with that samum."

"I'd rather not leave it out in the open like that. Can you put it in something I could carry?"

"Sure. How about a small steel disk, say four inches across? The guts won't be steel, mind you -- it'll be a crystalline material that's quite durable, and much more durable while samum flows within it. It'd weigh a little less than a pound?"

"Sounds interesting. Sure, let's give that a try!"

Ray concentrated briefly, creating a hollow inch-thick steel disk, filling it with the same crystalline material he'd used as the core of his new ring. Moving the jawhar through the steel, he stretched it to best fit inside the crystal before locking it into position. "OK, there ya go, Monica. Can you still kinda-sorta feel it?"

"I think so, Ray. Some other time, I'd like to know more about that crystal, too."

"Sure -- make a note to remind me later. With everything on my plate right now, I'd forget my head if it weren't firmly attached!"

Chuckling, Monica made it obvious that she did while Ray was watching.

"I hope you can get something to work with samum -- it'd be fascinating to see if we can do something that no Hinn ever tried before."

"It could make a huge, huge difference for practitioners you'd be willing to trust with this if it does."

"Well, you and your sister are certainly on that list at the very least. We'll see where we can go from here."

"Great! I'll be sure to bounce ideas off her when you get back, and we'll see!"

Smiling at her energy, Ray nodded and took his leave, heading out into the hall. As the door closed behind him, he decided to check in on the Boch folks. Entering the other suite, he found James sitting at his desk, working away filling out some forms.

"Good morning, James."

"And a fine morning it is. I hope yours is going well, Ray?"

"Quite, thanks. How's things for you and your coworkers?"

"The beds are comfy, the food tasty, and the work is interesting -- I think we're doing pretty good, overall."

"Excellent, glad to hear it. I was passing by and just thought I'd check in."

"Well, thank you for the thought. I hear you're off on an adventure this afternoon?"

"Yes, I've been invited to meet someone important to the Jann. Hopefully, it'll be a pleasant meeting."

"And if it isn't, you've got Skepsi on call. Smart, but also ballsy. Not many people we'd get hired by would be willing to put it out on the line like that."

"Well, I wouldn't know about that, but I've never asked people to do something I wasn't willing to back when I was running digs, and I don't see a need to start doing it now."

"It's a bit of a double-edged sword, isn't it?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, either you're brave and successful, or foolish and a failure, right?"

Chuckling, Ray nodded. "Yep, there's a bit of that in there."

"I'll just hope you're brave this time, then," James smiled.

"Appreciate your consideration, and I'll get out of your hair. I would like to leave a note with you for El and Betty, though. Wu Emily returned with her coworker, Updike. Ousha's working it, but I'd feel better closing the loop as well -- they've got pallets of gear out at the airport, and will need help getting them back here safely, as well as possibly getting some furniture or other goods to set up rooms on the second floor."

"I believe Ousha's already been in touch with those two, but I'll be sure to mention it when next I see them."

"Thanks, James. Have a good day."

"And you too -- plus, have a brave day!"

Left to his own devices yet again, Ray decided to bite the bullet and handle one of the annoying tasks of modern life -- email. Since Tauriz had healed his vision several days ago, he'd gotten more comfortable using his phone. Heading back to the old shop floor, Ray poked through his messages.

Spam, spam, fundraising spam, his sister-in-law. Ray took the time to reply, letting her know that he'd moved and was starting another job, but was still in the same town but much faster paced than academia.

The next one stopped him dead in his tracks—the al-Bakr Cultural Institute's Chief of International Relations, a Dr. Y. Jamshidi, was going to be visiting the University and would like to set up a meeting at Ray's convenience. Several days and times were offered, starting at the end of the following week. Instantly he was aware of a large number of future versions of himself paying close attention to what was going on -- yet another twist in the Oracles' abilities.

Gently poking his Hinn, he informed them of the proposed event, his future-selves' interest, and the context -- the group that had sent him Tauriz' sheathe wanted to meet. All three were curious, and Ousha pinged El to see what Boch knew of the Institute and Dr. Jamshidi, requesting what relevant information might be available. El promised to have what information they could share available by the time Ray returned from up North but had not personally heard of the Institute before.

Replying to the email, Ray suggested a meeting time the following Thursday in the afternoon, and offered his office as a potential meeting location, giving the new building's address. Before he could send the email, Ousha suggested instead that Ray offer to meet them at his office at the University to reduce the additional information these people might gain.

Feeling almost all of his future selves agreeing, he let the ladies know that many past and future versions appeared to agree with Ousha's position. He pinged Dean McKennitt, requesting the use of the adjacent office and the small break room connecting them for the day of the meeting. Ray followed up with a private message to Tomaz and Erin, cc'ing Ousha, letting them know of the upcoming meeting and the strangeness it involved. He then requested they have a team ready for action there if need be, hopefully in the other office & break room. Worst case, there were other rooms nearby they could use, officially or otherwise.

Erin replied quickly. They had no problem with the concept but requesting the details as they become available. Ray promised to keep them in the loop as information came in, including anything that Boch managed to find. Not being quite sure how to explain it, he did warn her that some strong signs and portents indicated this might be a lot more than just a simple meeting -- he didn't have anything specific he could explain, unfortunately.

After a few minutes, as Ray continued to prune back the spam, Tomaz replied and asked how confident Ray was that there would be a problem. Calling him back, Ray told Tomaz, "I don't know. I have a lot of indications that it's important, and that it's critical that the meeting doesn't happen here, but beyond that, I have no details yet. Sorry."

"Better some warning than none," was Tomaz' only comment.

Opening another email, this one from the University History department secretary, he found his class schedule for next semester. Ray felt torn. He greatly enjoyed teaching, but already the pace of his new life was making it obvious that he wouldn't be able to meet his obligations to the University. Dhakira suggested that Ray would eventually handle many of the current tasks internally, not requiring his primary consciousness' time. This would free him up significantly, allowing him time to spend teaching, or whatever other activities he preferred to chase.

"I can't imagine that being a smooth process," Ray commented.

"We -- Tauriz, Ousha and myselves -- believe you are underrating your capability. However, there are alternatives. We believe you are well within your rights with the University for a sabbatical. This will give you time to both settle your life and altered cognition, while still maintaining your social and professional contacts."

"In the absolute worst case, Ray," Tauriz interjected, "we believe you are capable of great things even without the backing of the University. Nor do we believe it would be any form of challenge for you to do so. However, if you prefer, we could take things slowly with a sabbatical and decide then."

"I'm not going to rush this, it's the wrong time to be worrying about this -- we have much more urgent tasks, but it took me by surprise when I saw the schedule just now."

"Understandably. There is plenty of time," Tauriz replied, "and Dean Smoot is a fan of your work. He will work with you when you decide what you wish to do."

"Thanks, ladies. Please, help me remember to address this early next week, OK?"

"I shall make a note for you, Ray," Ousha promised. "But, we're about ready to start loading up the vehicles."

"Oh, good, I can stop waiting here and instead wait in the car!" Ray chuckled.

Chapter 59

The convoy of rental vans left the building and pulled up onto the main highway, driving north to the airport. Just a few minutes later, they took the appropriate exit, heading to the charter terminal gate. The guard at the gate passed the vans through into a private parking area after a brief discussion. Several top-end sedans and a stretch limo, all shiny black with heavily tinted windows, waited for passengers. As the group started unloading, another security guard walked up. Kendis intercepted the woman and provided the expected documentation for the group as the rest of his team smoothly packed a trio of large carts with several metal-latched plastic cubic-meter crates. They loaded eight heavy duffle bags on top, and everyone picked up their personal, from naval-style ditty bags to modern wheeled luggage.

The guard escorted the group over to the security shed. At Ray's unspoken request, Tauriz ensured that all the information the guards and systems expected was recorded, ensuring the guards remained ignorant of just how much firepower they let pass.