Magic World (working title): Chapter 6

Hey everybody.

Well the only reason to talk about my eyes anymore is to count how many days I've had issues with them. So anyway, here's the chapter, have fun!

Comments and suggestions welcome!

Thanks for Reading!

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Chapter 6:

"I think I need to sit down," said Davin, a little weakly. He looked around, but only say the blackened charred remains of the explosion that he had just witnessed, which only made him feel more dazed and weak at the knees. He ended up sinking to the floor sitting Indian style with his elbows  on his knees, and his head in his hands.

He fell back on his meditation, an old wizarding standby. If you find you can't concentrate on a spell, fall back on your breathing, and order your thoughts.

He heard them talking around him as, in his head he sorted through his thoughts.

"Poor sod, can't handle the pressures..."

"You're not gonna puke are you sweetie...?"

"Hang on, maybe there's something on WebMD about how to treat shock..."

"Great, our Wizard turns out to have a weak stomach..."

"No. Wait." This last was Robert. Davin was a little surprised to hear this, he'd been unable to get any kind of read on Robert. "He's just processing. Filtering the information"

And this was true, though Davin didn't know how it was that Robert knew it. He was picking away at the events of his day, in his mind, going back over details, and looking for information from his mental archives, trying to make sense of what he had just seen, and what he had been through. It wasn't a bomb, this hadn't been a terrorist attack, it had been an assault. or theft, gone wrong. But that didn't feel right either. The response had been disproportional somehow. It reminded him of seeing mercenaries on TV. But who in Terre Haute could afford mercenaries? And who would actually use them?

And here was another mind twist: Newton's Battery was real. This opened the door to so many other possibilities... and there had been two of them. Until... But now it all made sense. The formulas started forming in his mind. He instinctively reached for this smartphone and opened MForm, his formula creation app, and started typing in variables. But then he had to stop and think for a moment. He had a large part of the picture. But he was missing some vital pieces.

He stood up, and found that the rest of them were still talking, while he hadn't noticed. Except for Robert none of them seemed to have noticed that he'd gotten up. Robert made the slightest nod, then turned back to the conversation, his expression remaining unreadable.

"...but we still don't know where to start," Rachele was saying.

"I still think it was that creepoid at the club. The way was harassing that poor girl Pearl..." Miranda held out her left hand and smacked it with her right, as if smacking someone in the face.

"But that makes no sense," said Bernard. "I've tangled with quite a few thugs, even driven a few of them around. These wankers were NOT street thugs. I'm thinking military training"

"And then there's Celia Fry," said Gary.

Rachele nodded. "The art house dealer. But I'm not sure how she fits into this."

"Well, I just found out she just posted on her twitter feed about a famous art piece called the Jewel of the Winter Queen, which floats in the air, almost like magic."

"Oh, that's GOT to be it!" said Miranda bouncing enthusiastically. 

"That's what I said!" Gary was quivering.

Rachele nodded. "That's a start. We know WHERE it is, now we just have to figure out WHAT it is."

"I think I can help with that now," said Davin and they all turned, noticing him for the first time. Miranda and Gary smiled, and Bernard looked at him with an eyebrow raised and a look of grudging respect.

"Are you feeling better?" asked Miranda as if trying to be careful of his delicate sensibilities. Davin sighed and smirked wryly at her.

"Okay." Rachele frowned at him as if eager to get back to work, and get the job done. "So? Tell us."

"So first of all, Newton's Battery is a Legend-"

"We know that part," said Rachele slightly impatiently. "W-"

"Meaning," Davin interrupted back, "...that most of the information we know about it comes only from those legends. But I've been able to extrapolate a bit more since seeing the video you showed me." He held up his smartphone and looked at it, trying to wrap his head around the idea, even now. Then he closed his eyes as he spoke again, trying to visualize what he was describing. "According to legend the Battery was a tool for storing vast amounts of energy, but could only be accessed by magic. So the energy could only be used for magical manipulations. But nobody seemed to know how it worked, or how floated, or why it was so cold. Everyone thought that the cold and floating were a feature, but I think now in fact they were a side effect."  He struggled for a moment to find his words. "Okay: So imagine a spring. when you push it in you get potential energy. You let it go you release the energy. Well I think this is similar. There's I'd have to do some research into the exact chemistry, but I think there's a chemical inside that when the energy is absorbed turns solid. Not only that, I think it bleeds away it's kinetic energy and heat energy so all you're left with is pure potential." He took a deep breath, eyes still closed, and went on. "The kinetic energy of molecules moving is directed downward, and has just enough force to overcome gravity, like a ball that, when thrown straight up in the air, hits it's zenith, then just hangs there, never coming down. The heat is just enough to keep the outside surface from developing a layer of ice a few feet thick, but not enough to negate the cold all together." Now he was coming to the point he wasn't going to like. "I think your friend's was a somewhat less efficient design though, because if the stories are true, if the real one had gone off like that.... Terre Haute would be a hole in the face of Indiana."

He opened his eyes. They were all looking at him again. He wished they wouldn't, and he glanced away.

"Right," said Rachele. "Crazy super bomb potential, in the hands of someone with his very own mercenary group. Great. Now we just need to figure out who has it, where they've got it, and how we can get it back."

"Well as a native of Terra Haute, some of the things you've said so far kind of ring a few bells, but  I might know more if I knew more about what was going on here," said Davin. "And while we're on the subject, like... who ARE you people? If you're not with the cops, how are you allowed to be here at the scene of a... a... whatever this is? Terrorist attack, or accident or crime? Murder? I mean I can help you, sure but I think it would help if I had a little... er... background?"

Rachele sighed deeply. "I've told you all you need to know, but if you can tell us-"

"No," said Robert simply. "I told you. We can trust him."

Rachele glared back at him for a moment, then nodded and gestured as if to say, 'all yours then.'

Robert turned to look at Davin, and suddenly his whole demeanor changed. "Well start with, you might know me better as Richard G Dean." And suddenly one of the most famous Self-Help gurus the world had known since Tony Robbins, stood in front of him. It was so obvious that Davin had a hard time believing that he hadn't seen it before.

Richard smiled, acknowledging the recognition, a stark contrast to the nearly oblivious personality he'd had before, Richard was vibrant, and alive and charismatic. He grinned as he spoke offhandedly. "Well then. As Robert's not exactly the best at telling stories, we'll have to get along without him for the moment, and talk about how I - we - got into this mess."

********************************** Chapter 7