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Sam, Dimitri, Sora, and Irany were also around the folding table. Luka wasn’t sure what Vasily was up to, but he was right outside the tent next to the Jeep, doing something. Well, this wasn’t really a conversation he could follow, so Luka chose not to haul him into it.
Truth told, a lot of this was probably going to go over Luka’s head, too, but he wanted to grasp as much of the situation as he could.
Evora cleared her throat to catch their attention and calmly started. “The problem is spell elements. Frankly, we don’t have the right ones, and even though we’ve been racking our brains, we can’t think of good substitutes.”
For some reason, Irany winced. “Sorry.”
Luka did not understand that. “Uh, someone explain to the rest of the class?”
Amaru put a possessive hand on his thigh as he turned a little in his seat and explained. “Here’s the issue. When Irany designed the system, he put in the necessary life supports, protections, etc. He also designed a fail-safe in case something went wrong. It was meant to do a giant reset on all of the platforms.”
This did and didn’t make sense. “I thought you said the life supports are independent?”
“They are. They’re not linked to each other. But they are linked to the power supply and to the fail-safe.”
“Ohhh.” This now made more sense. Of course they’d have to be linked to something powering them. It was like having a monitor, a CPU, a keyboard, and mouse. All independent, but still connected to the same power source. “Is it the fail-safe that keeps getting rebooted?”
“Bing bing! Look at my mate being all smart.” Amaru leaned in to kiss him, chaste but definitely not quick.
Luka liked it very much, thank you.
“Amaru, focus!” Irany whined.
Drawing back, Amaru glared at him. “You’re still on the extinction list with me, buddy. Don’t push it.”
Irany turned a shade paler and clamped his mouth shut.
Why did he have the distinct impression Amaru was the more powerful of the two? A tingle of pride went through him at the thought.
“Anyway.” Sam pointedly moved them along. “What’s happening is the lightning keeps hitting things, supercharging them, and tripping the fail-safe. It’s like smashing a giant reset button over and over again. Unfortunately, the fail-safe was insulated very well. We can’t get into it, and we can’t crack it. Turning off the system and releasing everyone isn’t an option because the controls were fried after being reset so many times.”
“Only thing to do now is to break the fail-safe. Do that, we can stop it from rebooting everything again and actually properly turn things off. Wake people up.” Evora looked stressed just saying the words. Thiago ran a hand up and down her back, soothing and supportive, and it looked like she leaned slightly into his touch.
“What we need are malignant elements. Something more powerful than what we have in storage.” Sam made a wry face. “Unfortunately, popping over to the local supermarket isn’t an option.”
“Sooner rather than later,” Sora tacked on with a perturbed frown. “It is very hard on the body to be jerked around like this. Do it enough times, and we are looking at multiple instances of heart failure.”
“Yikes.” Vasily winced. “By all means, let’s avoid that potential pitfall. Does that mean we have to go hunting for the right elements?”
“We do. I wanted to wait until the earth dragons arrived so I could show them where to dig the tunnel, but with Irany awake, he can do that.”
Evora said apologetically to the two Sousa mages, “I wish we had more than shadow of the eclipse or rushing wind from a hollow cave, but…”
Irany waved the apology off. “It is what it is. We just need to work with what we have or collect what we need. Such is the way of mages. Right now, we need to figure out what we need and where to get it.”
Amaru sat back, an interesting mix of exasperation and boredom on his face. “Caipora’s howl, iara’s song, and anhanga’s hair.”
Irany just about came out of his chair. “What? No! Are you insane?!?”
Luka would be defensive of his mage, but considering some of the antics Amaru had already pulled…
Evora had her Head Mage face on. The one that didn’t allow for any bullshit. “You said a caipora’s howl has a power level of four.”
“I did, yes.” Amaru’s expression had morphed into one of shit-eating glee.
Luka had every right to be alarmed. He didn’t trust that expression one iota.
“Iara’s song is also a four.”
“Correct again.”
“And anhanga’s hair is…what, exactly?”
“A three.”
“You said you needed rushing wind from a hollow cave earlier to combine the elements.”
“You really do have a good memory.” Amaru’s grin didn’t falter.
“That’s a level thirteen spell!” Irany spluttered, eyes wide in his face. “Are you insane?!”
Amaru leveled a look at his fellow mage with eyes that said ‘sit yo punk ass down.’ “Let’s review the basics of magic, shall we. In order to break a spell, one must use a counter spell of a higher power level. Your fail-safe is a…what, in power?”
