Part 24
“But really, when you consider the biggest collection fields and Gate portals that’ve ever been cast, or even the biggest amount of energy that’s ever been cast at once in any way by anyone, including all of our gods and the Triax’s together in their training, that’s still just a drop in an ocean compared to the output and area of the sun. I strongly suspect that there are theoretical limits to what we can do that way that we’re not yet aware of, and I’d be surprised if we can use more that a tiny portion’s of the sun’s output in any way.”
“All right, let’s do it.” Fire stated decisively as she resumed her true form.
“Let’s do it Linked.” Povon insisted. “Let’s do it all Linked. No mortal of Kellaran has even attempted to Translocate as far as we’re jumping now, or even a tiny fraction of that distance. The other experiments you’re attempting are almost beyond comprehension. We should all be checking every step of every part of it and be absolutely sure of it before we cast.”
“Agreed.” Mark nodded. “Let’s start out as far from the sun as Kellaran is and see how big a collection field we can cast first. Then we’ll try it closer to the sun until we know how much intensity and area we can transmute.”
They all assumed their true forms and Linked fairly deeply, then cast Void Protection with all the latest improvements, including adaptations Povon had made of the new Xervian methods.
Povon was given control of the Translocation due to her skill and experience. When everything was ready, she initiated the jump.
They emerged in what seemed like black emptiness, despite the millions of stars all around and the blazing sun, which was dimmed to viewability by the visual protections in the Void Protection.
They all just floated there and absorbed the view for a moment.
“You know, we get so caught up in what we’re doing that sometimes we don’t pay any attention the incredibleness of it.” Six commented. “I’ve only gone to the void to test voidcraft and void-proofing, and to take part in the exercises. I just kind of thought of the void as just night, only all around you. It seems like it, even with the sun in sight. I just did what I was doing and didn’t pay attention to it. And Kellaran was always there, looking huge even when we were farthest from it.
“But this is really… powerful. This is so far away from anything, in the absolute middle of nowhere. It’s really kind of scary.”
void without having a void craft along. This would make me crazy after a while, I think. It would make anyone catastrophically agoraphobic eventually. Not to mention that if our spells failed we’d be dead
get started.” Talia prompted. “And by the way, what will we do with the energy you’re collecting with your huge collection fields? It’ll be too much to hold
should also consider that if we succeed in englobing the sun with a dense collection field, we’ll cut Kellaran off from the Source.” Alilia cautioned. “No sorcerers could cast, and wizard’s power would soon start to diminish as well, as ‘the heat of the stone’ is
the wombs of The Volunteers, inside the time-bubble.” Mark pointed out. “It probably wouldn’t affect them any to be cut off from warlocks’ power, but I
Kellaran. If we can cast them around half of it, we should be able to make a pretty good judgment of whether we could do
from Kellaran, but that seems a waste, and I worry that we’ll attract attention. We have enough visitors from the void already, and a
that for a second first; and try
to wizards’ power, which is easy now that we figured
astronomers’ spell that we can use to analyze what we’re casting.” Povon
start with me first.” Val volunteered. “I’ll start
cast an invisible energy on the opposite side of them from the sun,
spell in the path of the energy she was casting, and cast another copy of the Spectrum
“That’s it. You’re casting the Source, well enough that a unicorn would be sustained by it and could utilize it. You’re losing about a third in the three stages of transmutation; from Source to raw wizards’ power as would radiate from wizard’s rock, from raw wizards’
heat.” Val nodded with her eyes closed. “I don’t know what’s happening to the
was doing again, then announced; “All right, you’ve got the efficiency loss down to just less than a
that way without a lot of work.” Val stated. “And I don’t think
field, and I’ll expand the area of my Source-shine spell to match