Chapter 33
Nikki didn’t know why Cameron had gathered them together. It wasn’t just Nikki but Lina as well, and they were all sitting in Cameron’s workroom.
Normally, a mage’s workroom had a lot of herbs, spell ingredients, cauldrons—the usual.
Cameron’s seemed more a hodgepodge of spell ingredients and machinery.
Anyone into steampunk would take one look at this room and explode into an orgasm of happiness.
Nikki had heard Cameron was an engineer by trade before discovering he was a mage.
Looking at this room, that was totally believable.
And Nikki was super glad they hadn’t been in this room on their initial investigation of mage workrooms—it would have sent them running for the hills.
The broken device Dimitri had brought back to Burkhard lay on Cameron’s table, looking very sad indeed. Nikki knew it all too well and stared at the machine in disgust, their skin crawling in memory of it being used on them. Cameron wouldn’t mind if Nikki took a sledgehammer to that thing, right?
Cameron gave them both a smile, expression warm and inviting. “Thanks for coming to talk to me. Something’s nagging at me, and I want a confirmation. Nikki, I suspect something like this machine was used on you?”
“Pretty regularly,” Nikki answered sourly. “I can destroy this later, right?”
“Absolutely. It’s not like we have any use for it. Explode it to your heart’s content.”
Oooh, explosions. Now there was a good idea. Nikki immediately started scheming.
“But the machine itself brings up a question.” Cameron’s attention bounced between them as he spoke, leaning over the table with arms braced on the stainless-steel surface.
“Lina, from what I’ve seen, the Jaeggi use very limited spell ingredients.
Nikki said the storerooms were never very large, something about the size of this room. Is that right?”
She dipped her head cautiously. “Yes, that’s right.”
“Now, see, I find that very, very curious. Look all around me, the variety of the spell ingredients I have. And I don’t even have a tenth of the common spell ingredients in here.
This is for my personal use. But you’re telling me your entire clan was satisfied with this amount of spell ingredients? ”
Nikki blinked, then looked around Cameron’s workroom with more care, evaluating.
It was true, there were only about three hundred bottles and packages of elements in here.
Lisette’s workroom had double the amount.
Put in that perspective, it was very strange.
As nomadic as the Jaeggi were, surely they couldn’t manage to do much with such a limited supply.
Lina’s eyes swept around the room once before coming back to Cameron. “It’s true, I’ve seen more elements here than I ever have before. More variety, too. I just assumed it was because the Burkhards are richer than my family. And you don’t have to move around, so you can stockpile things.”
“Is it just that, though? It can’t just be a matter of wealth. It’s not like we can buy spell ingredients. We have to harvest and grow them just like your family must need to. Magical stores aren’t a thing that exist right now.”
“Oh. I guess that’s true.” Lina looked around the room again, assessing. “But the way you do magic is totally different from us, too. I guess it makes sense.”
Cameron leaned in further. “Yes, that. Explain it to me better. How do the Jaeggi do magic?”
“It’s not like you do it. I’ve never seen someone combine so many spell ingredients and then just speak words and make things happen.
” Lina gestured toward herself with a wave of her hand.
“Every time Sora works on me, it takes me by surprise. I keep expecting him to pull out a device of some sort, but it never happens. Your workroom is the first one I’ve seen that looks more normal. ”
Cameron’s eyes narrowed on her face, the cogs spinning in his head. “So this looks normal to you? All of this machinery?”
“Well, yeah?”
Nikki corrected her slowly, “But this isn’t normal.
Cameron’s workroom doesn’t look like any other mage’s in Burkhard.
I never spent any time in a Jaeggi’s workroom—I wasn’t allowed in there—so I didn’t see the difference there.
But I get what you’re driving at, Cameron.
The Jaeggi do magic completely different.
They harvest magical energy through a machine like this, and then it’s stored in a battery, which is then plugged into different devices made for certain types of spell work.
Mainly the larger spells, the ones that take more than one element to use.
Like the big perimeter wards, things like that.
All of the elements harvested are kept in glass vials that can be plugged into those devices, and they channel both energy and elements in order to enact spells. ”
And it was something of a revelation to Nikki. The words had been floating around in their head for a while, the realization the Jaeggi stole their magical power. But for Nikki, for most of their life, the Jaeggi had been powerful. An enemy they couldn’t overcome.
And now, now Nikki realized it was a sham. A lie. Their magic wasn’t theirs at all. Nikki was far more powerful than any one Jaeggi mage. And wasn’t that a heady thought?
Nikki certainly enjoyed it. Very much.
Lina eyed him sideways and dipped her head in a slow nod. “Right. That’s not normal here? I mean, I know the harvesting of magic from another person isn’t normal, but the devices aren’t?”
“No.” Cameron looked triumphant for some reason.
“No, not at all. We don’t need machinery to enact any spells.
But that explains so, so much of what I’ve seen.
Of the way the Jaeggi’s spells function.
Shit, I think I’ve figured this out. Lina, one more question.
You’ve got wards up around a city every time you’re in a new place, right? ”
“Sure. That’s a given.”
“And there’s a specific machine to do the wards with, I assume?”
“Only way to do it.” Lina glanced between the two of them uncertainly. “Uh, wards aren’t powered by machines for you either?”
“No.” Cameron pounded a fist against the table, excited.
Nikki felt like Cameron had just realized something major.
Damned if they knew what. Nikki had realized the differences before, of course.
But in context, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference?
The Jaeggi might be using machines, but it wasn’t like it changed the outcome any.
They could still use magic, so what difference did it make? ”
Cameron clearly didn’t see it that way. “Holy shit, there’s a way past that damn ward after all. Both of you, come with me, quick. We’ve got to talk to Alric.”
Nikki followed readily on Cameron’s heels, although they had to jog to manage it, as Cameron wasn’t walking but almost running up the halls. Cameron didn’t knock when he reached the king’s office, just burst straight through. “Alric! I’ve figured it out.”
Alric’s head came up and around, brows shooting up into his dark hair. He’d been in front of a map of Europe but abandoned it readily for Cameron. “Figured out what, Liebling?”
“The wards. The Jaeggi’s brand of magic.
I’ve got it.” Cameron strode straight to him, not stopping until he had a hand resting on Alric’s hip.
“The Jaeggi’s magical cores are broken, so it never made sense to me how they could manage any major spell work.
It’s not like their magical cores function properly, after all.
And them harvesting magic from other mages cemented that.
But it didn’t click until I saw the device.
I just spoke with Nikki and Lina, and they confirmed it for me: the Jaeggi use devices to do spells. ”
Alric’s head snapped around to stare at both of them. “Devices?”
Lina didn’t seem comfortable answering—she shrank back a little—but Nikki had no problem explaining. “The Jaeggi have a variety of devices that use stored magical energy and simple spell ingredients in order to use spells. Their wards are the same, created and maintained by machines.”
“A machine?” Alric repeated, baffled.
“Alric, as strange as that is, think.” Cameron practically vibrated, his words tripping over themselves.
“It’s a machine. A magical generator. That means there’s a single point of power, and if that’s the case, it gives us a clear target.
Take out the generator, the wards go down.
If we can slip even one person in, they can destroy it, and our problem disappears in a heartbeat. ”
Alric’s gaze went back to his mate, his eyes going wide. Breathlessly, he repeated, “A ward powered by a generator…my god. You’re right, it presents an easy target.” He framed Cameron’s face with both hands and kissed him. “God, I love your mind. How did I get a mate so brilliant?”
“Lots of karma, my sexy husband.” Cameron beamed at him. “I don’t know who we’re going to send in there, it has to be someone the wards already recognize as a ‘friend,’ after all—”
Nikki immediately lifted a hand in the air. “I’ll go.”
Both of them looked around in surprise.
“You’ll go?” Lina asked uncertainly. “But Nikki, they know you escaped. If you show back up, the clan will know you’re there as an enemy.”
“Yes, but the wards aren’t changed every time they move,” Nikki pointed out reasonably.
“The ward will reject anyone who’s not supposed to be in there, that’s how it’s set up.
They had to do a specific spell on Ravi just to get him inside when they took him captive.
It’s too complex to mess with easily. So I must be still registered as a friend to the ward.
I’ll have to sneak in; it’s not like I can waltz in there.
But I can explode the generator. Once it’s down, mages and dragons alike will be coming in on all sides, and I can retreat. ”
“Gunter,” Alric finally said, “will skin me alive if I send you in there.”