318 Science and Magic 3

One month from the Sealing of the Rift, ambient mana had dropped back to what it was before the Rift was blown open by Sirs Jared and Fate. It was at that point that the leaders of the nations finally began to admit publicly that declining mana wasn't just a temporary phenomenon and that previous easy use of magic might never, ever come back.

As for the whole issue about Spatial Rifts and the Spectres… that was still questionable whether such things even existed or happened, and would, of course, not be made known publicly regardless of whether it was real in the first place. No, people had real problems which needed real solutions, not some far-away fairy-tale legend about endless mana and the monsters guarding it. Only a few senile old geezers would believe such a story.

"Is there nothing we can do?" As mana became even more unthinkably expensive and half the medical equipment in the hospital was left unused due to sheer cost, Phoebe found herself on edge and gritting her very nice teeth.

"Short of unsealing the Rift and letting the Spectres overrun the world? Not really. It's the end of mana for this world." Remian shook his head.

"Are the Spectres really that bad? I mean, we beat them back before, right?"

"Phoebe, those Tier 8's that came through before were basically just stragglers. You have no idea what the main force of Spectres is truly like."

"Then, tell me!"

Remian paused. "They call them Star-Eaters. They're a space hazard rated at an even higher level of danger than the Mitigok. The Mitigok devour whole worlds, but the Star-Eaters… they will wipe out the very stars."

Phoebe stared at him blankly.

"Right now they are traversing deep space, making a journey of countless years, streaming along in numbers large enough to completely drown entire stars. That Spatial Rift might have been a portal that led to a planet once. That planet is now gone, and so the other end of the Rift is drifting in deep space, close to where the stream of Star-Eaters are passing through."

"Planet… gone?" Phoebe gaped. "Then where is all this mana coming from, if there's no world on the other side?"

"There is no world, but it's either inside the area the Star-Eaters are traveling through, or near enough that it gets some eddies of their passing."

Phoebe sat down numbly. "You're saying that… mana is…"

"Left behind by the Star-Eaters as they pass by? Yes. It is the exhaust fumes of travel fueled by dead worlds and devoured stars."

"Then… what about the mana that was here before Sirs Jared and Fate blew open the Rift?!"

"The ambient mana leaked through the Rift before all this started out. As for crystals… they were probably left behind by the Spectres that were killed by the Emperors and Great Dragons during the first time they fought and closed that Rift."

"But wait! Shouldn't that mean that if we killed Spectres, we could get mana crystals?!"

"Sure. Given enough time. How long do you think it takes?"

Phoebe shook her head. "Why don't you tell me?"

"Let's see. How long does it take for oil to form from the fossils of dead animals and plants?" Remian asked.

Phoebe's face fell. Then, "I thought you hated oil."

"I don't hate oil. Especially not the types we use for cooking." Remian refuted. "I just don't think it is necessary to burn oil for power and transportation. You have no idea how many worlds destroyed themselves by following a culture that consumes everything and basically burned their planets to death. The worlds that make it to Class-4 and onwards learn early on not to destroy themselves with fossil fuel burning."

"Do people really need power that bad? Enough to destroy their own worlds?" Phoebe had to ask.

"Think of oil as a weaker, liquid form of mana crystals. What do you think?"

Phoebe fell silent. "So… what do you plan to do?"

"Building the Craggy Falls Dam is the first major step. We're going to make plans for Craggy Heights; we'll be covering them with windmills. Also, I'm going to be using the Rocky Thorns' Windy Corridor for wind power. All of that together should be enough to supply the new Craggy Falls town for the time being."

"I heard Jim complaining that it was easier to use coal, like the trains do."

"It is. It definitely is." Remian sighed. "But do you notice the black smoke coming out of coal furnaces? I have a few tricks to reduce that, but in the end, burning coal is going to dirty our skies. I don't want to live in a world covered with black smoke!"

"But isn't Ashdale and Libertaria and everyone using coal?"

"That's exactly why I'm determined not to! There are better ways, better sources of power."

"Such as?"

"Such as water." Remian barked a laugh. "Did you know? Water is made out of some pretty flammable stuff. We just need to zap it with electricity to divide the hydrogen from the oxygen. Deepsilver is helping Jim out with that, but they're still having trouble storing the hydrogen after it's electrolyzed. Their best success so far is the high pressure tank made out of Misty Steel. Jim thinks they'll do better with the rarer Aqua Silver or Deep Blue Platinum."

"What about using Flaming Bronze? We have that at Kara-Goth."

"Hydrogen is best stored cold. Using Fiery Copper or Flaming Bronze will likely set it on fire or explode." Remian considered. "Until we can produce graphene, maybe alloying Misty Steel with Tungsten or Titanium would do the trick. Might we do better using fiber base? Plastics? We have no shortage of cellulose."

"What are those?" Phoebe blinked.

"Uh…" Remian grimaced. "They're metals and alloys. Cellulose is… stuff plants all have."

"You mean, wood?"

"Um… about half of wood is cellulose, yes. But wood contains other stuff too."

"Well, if it's wood, you could ask Kor'ag-dras for help. He is the Wood Emperor, after all. The only reason we swear on Kor'ag-dras and the grass instead of the trees is because of that silly bet he made with Zor'khan-dras and lost."

Remian considered it. "That's true. Magic is rapidly dying out in a world without mana, but it doesn't mean I can't use it to cheat while we still have it. Considering how many Priests and Magi we have around the place, it only makes sense…"

"Wait. What do you mean 'while we still have it'?"

"Magic isn't going to last much longer." Remian pointed out. "Mana is fading very quickly. This world is using up even the ambient mana far more quickly than I expected. Without crystals, all the nations are putting mages to work, and we're all using up the mana in the air at a frantic pace. Try casting a spell from a scroll next month. I'd bet it would only be half as strong as it would have been before the Spectre War. Another month later, it could be half that again. Six months from now, it might not even work."

Phoebe froze. A flash of panic swept across her eyes. Lower levels of mana was one thing. Having no magic at all was a whole different story.

"Now you get it." Remian said, seeing that look on her face. "So you see why I'm trying to find non-magical ways to do stuff?"

"What… what can we do?" Phoebe shivered.

"First step is to maintain our current standards of living." Remian cleared his throat. "Without using magic. In Conglomerate terms, we need to stabilize a technological foundation at early Class-3. That means at least having steam engines and electricity. There are other ways, but this seems to be the easiest given our current circumstances."

"How long would that take?" Phoebe asked.

Remian shrugged. "Depends on how much we can use magic to cheat our way through."

***

If using magic was a cheat, they really, really cheated.

Two hundred priests, three hundred scroll-casting Adventurers, nine dragons and a yawning Tor'na-dras herself helped build the dam. After wood magic and earth magic set up the basic shape, cement and stones were poured in, quickly shaped and hardened by more spells, building up permanent walls an entire meter thick. Turbines and sluice gates, control systems… all of it was set in within a week.

The main structure of the dam was completed before the town itself was ready. For the sake of the new town plan, they had to get everyone out and lay ground foundations, setting down main pipes, drainage, sewage systems, and underground power lines using all the wiring that Fal'Herim could offer. Water pumps and a treatment plant sprouted up downriver from Craggy Falls. A railway station was set up at the western edge with tracks leading out to Kara-Goth, Silver Mining Town, the Speckled Highlands (which were part-way to Three Pines) and the Blood Lands (Tim's Nightshade Farm).

They were almost done with the groundwork when the time came for Phoebe to test Remian's mana-fading calculations. As the calendar marked one month from the time Remian made his predictions, Phoebe Scroll-casted a fireball straight up into the sky, startling and offending a passing duck.

As she watched it rise, her face and heart fell.

The fireball was only one-third as strong as it would have been back in those days. Remian predicted half, but mana was depleting faster than even he had predicted.