Shadow086

The magic he brought with him will run out, and then what? Being magickless and trapped in a prison of his own making is a fitting end for him. It seems all's well that ends well. But I'm not ready to part with Jamie and his friends, so here's hoping to see more of their adventures in the future. A trip to the stars seems inevitable at this point, but perhaps the book of maps will reveal other cities of the Ancients to be discovered? As for Porvus, I don't think we have to worry about him for a while. His reaction to seeing a glimpse of Jamie's power makes me believe he'll think more than twice before doing anything to get their attention. Still, I wonder how much Thorvil already knew of the things Jamie discovered...

"Oh yeah? Why don't I just bring the shop here and you can clean it yourself!"

You made a very excellent point about Thorvil. I also suspect that his plan was to let Jamie and his group do the dirty work. Not that he is lazy, but he is a seer and might have seen that this job would be successfully done without loss of life to their team. It could be that, but there's also the fact that Jamie is an unknown. Thorvil and the other masters are too familiar and wouldn't have been to travel the forest right under Porvus and Lodda's noses. Plus, Lodda had spies monitoring Thorvil's actions. Not so for Jamie. To think that if Urvan had kept it in his pants, none of this would have happened.

Yes, but he also noticed that This suggests he's filling the cylinder with magickons. Where they come from, I don't know, so it's possible that Lodda has created a magickon generator. I'm not saying he doesn't have a generator, but what Jamie described sounds more like a battery to me.

I was under the impression that it was just storing them in that huge tank to use later, like a magickon battery.

I feel a trip to the nether is needed. Perhaps Jamie can create some kind of nether device that blocks the oracle's ability to see and learn their magick ties. While I hope they can stop Lodda and the ship in time, I have to admit that ending the story with Jamie and his crew in unknown space on the other side of the gateway is quite a cliffhanger. 😈 I do feel Jamie made a mistake in this endeavour, a mistake no one else caught.He should have looked for the oracle as well, and perhaps a way to disable it. I'm starting to feel that Porvus may be redeemable. Not enough to be counted among the good guys, and I don't care much for his views on non mages, but I have to wonder if he wasn't somewhat led astray by Lodda. Maybe he just respects their power, but I still get the sense that his world view may have changed somewhat.

Oh hello, Master Thorvil. Where's Lodda? Well, he wanted to see the stars, so I made sure he got a really close look at one of them. 😉

This is very interesting, you have to wonder how far the magickons have spread already. To other planet, surely, but perhaps to other star systems that Jamie could travel to? So many possibilities... We still don't know what Porvus's deal is, and maybe he's just faking it, but he doesn't seem as evil as he first appeared. He might even be fun to be around. Though I think it's all a ruse and he plans to betray Jamie, perhaps the coming battle will show him how ill-advised that would be, and he will abandon that idea. I almost missed Jamie instantly being able to understand the language of the ancients. Another effect of this new perspective? It seems that every time they have a discussion about this sort of impossible feat, Jamie manages to make it into a reality. So I think translocating to people will happen in very short order. This brings another possibility, and an interesting one. What about translocating people you know to places you've been? I know this sounds anticlimactic, but Jamie pondering this and suddenly translocating Lodda into the sun does have a certain appeal. And Porvus would drive himself mad trying to figure out how he did it, as well as live in constant fear of suffering the same fate.

Says the guy whose friend discovered the source and inner workings of magick in less than two weeks...

At this point I'm assuming the oracles are supercomputers tasked with maintaining the Ancients' infrastructure, and probably don't know what's going on beyond the fact that the warp gate is damaged and needs repairing.

Very informative! I'm also getting the sense that Porvus may not survive the final confrontation between Jamie and what seems to be Lodda/Skynet. In my view, Porvus wants to rule the world and lord over non-mages, while Lodda seeks to get revenge on the rest of humanity that trapped them there. Like that ever ends well... Now that it seems quite likely that Jamie will travel around the stars in the future, one must wonder if the source of magick is truly limited to his home planet, or if it's simply more concentrated there. I can't really envision a magickless Jamie embarking on such an adventure.

Quite so. Another thing to be wary of about this supposed truce is that we have to assume Thorvil is on his way with reinforcements, and it may then appear to them that Jamie has 'gone rogue' and joined Porvus. Not a good look.

Perhaps, but I've heard legends that the Ancients had a group they could call upon to take care of such situations with their machine magicks. 😇

It's starting to sound more and more like a Death Star to me, except in ring form. Perhaps the ancients had intended to destroy the planet along with the mages, but the machine broke down before it could do so?

The enemy of your enemy is not your friend, Jamie. While Porvus might have been truthful in his desire for a parley and a truce, that truce will last until the exact moment Lodda is defeated or killed, and then he'll stab you in the back a millisecond later. It seems the final confrontation is at hand, and hopefully the lens will pull through and find the answers they seek before then. I'm not sure what to make of these new twists and turns, but my theory is that this new magick allows them to use the magickons to travel in thought and then transport themselves. Given enough time, this may even let them explore and translocate themselves anywhere in the world. Quite a powerful ability! I wonder what Porvus is going to do about his new ghost troubles. If only there was someone he could contact for that...

I read that more as Rusty telling his dad that he only kept playing basketball to make Roy proud, but since Roy never told Rusty or showed signs that he was proud of him, Rusty is going to pursue his own passion instead and make Roy acknowledge his success. Personally, I think Roy needs to shove it with his "You're messing up your life if you don't do exactly as I tell you because I know best" attitude.

So this is the beginning of the end. I wonder if Porvus has figured out what's going on by now. Surely he's aware that his supplies are no longer being delivered, and probably suspects Jamie is behind it, but maybe he doesn't know the full extent of Jamie's disruption. And if he does, well, he looks the type to shy away from a direct confrontation and sending machines to do his bidding instead. I look forward to seeing what Thorvil and the Council of Mages is planning to do about this situation, now that Jamie has launched the assault for them.

I keep imagining them going back to the shop after this is all over, then a few moments later Thorvil arrives and he's like "So, Jamie, did anything interesting happen while I was away?" 😇

I think Roy will also find that Rusty no longer cares about him or what he thinks. Roy is in no position to lecture anyone about commitment, I'm so glad Rusty is finally breaking free of him.

I keep thinking the opposite, that Jamie should try to find a way to move whatever it is farther away from the planet and trap Lodda there without enough magick to translocate back to the surface.

You mean Rusty placed him into that special "no one is good enough for him and I don't know why" friend-with-benefit zone, right? Because Rusty pretty much admitted to himself that he doesn't want anyone else but Matty. Not in so many words, but the way he thinks about having to approve Matty's potential boyfriend screams of jealousy. All it takes is three words, but someone has to be the first to say them. As for XPress, all I'll say is enjoy it while you can, Matty, this is the calm before the storm.

Love that Connor found his horses so quickly. Animals are much smarter than we give them credit for sometimes. Yes. Yes. Definitely a red herring. There's an awful lot of them, all pointing in the same direction. This should be interesting. At this point I'm going to need a lot of convincing that Connor is not a werewolf. 😄

I hope so, but after the discussion some chapters ago, they may be more of the 'shoot first, ask questions later' sort. At least he has Thorvil to vouch for him.

Even without that, I don't think he'll be able to hide defeating the evil triumvirate for very long. That alone could do it, a sixteen year old kid beating three of the most powerful dark mages armed with machine magicks of the ancients, it's enough to raise alarm bells.

I'm pretty sure they mentioned Prince Sedwick was sixteen when they first met him. I'm almost pulling my hair out trying to figure out what magick actually is in scientific terms. From my limited understanding it feels like some kind of EMP mixed with radio transmission. I guess that's why the ancients had interstellar travel and teleportation while I'm stuck here reading words on a computer screen. 😄 At last the Prince has been restored! I have a feeling Jamie's seemingly innocent question about size was a bit of a test, which Sedwick passed with flying colours. And now Jamie can focus on the task at hand. I'm glad Jamie is finally showing caution in handling his new understanding of magick. This knowledge puts him at risk if it becomes widely known, as I'm fairly certain that many mages would be of the opinion that a mage who can take away others' knacks must not be allowed to roam free. Ignoring the fact that he's the intrepid hero of our tale, in terms of what he can do and the knowledge he possesses, Jamie is a monster, and I worry that the leaders of the mage community decide to see him as a threat.