WHERE. A safe hideyhole for the wizards to research magic WHEN. Afternoon of March 18, 2033 WHAT. After researching and studying and crafting for a very long time, Caleb and Essek have a breakthrough and complete The Spell. WARNINGS. Mentions of their losses, but nothing in depth. ART CREDIT.Here
The room that they were seated in was something like organized chaos. There were pens and pencils, the quality ink safely stored away with the dregs of their last good paper for when the time would inevitably come that they would have a spell to actually copy. There were papers and books, both open and closed with bookmarks keeping track of certain passages, strewn about, the most important and applicable within arm's reach. Two more or less emptied plates of food and glasses were, by comparison, very much out of reach, carefully done to keep from the danger area of elbows.
In some ways, it reminded Essek of what felt like another life, despite that it was only a scant number of years that many of his kind would claim to only be a blink in the grand scheme of their lifespans. Back when he and Caleb had shared a library and a laboratory, in the home that had been long since abandoned. They'd had countless conversations about the arcane theory there, conducted experiments together, and bickered about the proper categorization of books and components.
Now, they still did much the same, except it wasn't just noodling about with spells. Now, they were trying to sort out the thing that they had both left behind, way back when they had explored the Aeor of Exandria a second time around: time travel.
Right now, Essek was seated on the floor, cross-legged and staring at a series of equations with an intense set to his brow. It had been vexing, not being able to solve this dilemma quicker, even though he knew that the arcane required patience--especially in trying times like the ones that they lived in. There had been a time when Essek could hide himself away for days on end in a tower, with no one to come looking for him unless he had a meeting to attend at the Lucid Bastion. Now, though, he had a husband and they had children, regardless of age, to care for and responsibilities to the other Outlanders. This was no pet project, but it couldn't consume every waking moment.
But now, it felt as though they were so close--and Essek knew that Caleb had to feel it, too.
Essek's eyes somehow narrowed even further, head tipping to the side. Something like an alarm began to sound in his mind and he immediately groped for the nearest pencil at his side, making a few marks to amend one of the runes. It wasn't quite there, but…
"Caleb." Essek's gaze was still on the paper, though he made a summoning motion with the hand still holding a pencil between his fingers. "Look at this."
“Ah--” Caleb had been zoning out for a minute. After the eightieth try, all runes started to look the same, and his brain needed a hard reboot, it felt like. When they weren’t under a time crunch, he would have taken time to read a book or distract himself in other ways (with the elf across from him, usually), but things were--
Dire.
Caleb was tired of seeing his friends die. His friends be mind controlled. These people he had known long before they went in a war together, but war changed how one saw things. Now he had seen them all at their worst, and they were determined to do this. This thing that was a long-shot, but they were so equipped for.
It was just so tiring, at times. Especially when they were missing just one piece.
And Essek may have found it. Caleb rolled to his knees (which groaned in protest) and crawled over to look at the work being pointed out to him. “Wait.” He needed a minute to focus. Ran through the work in his head, trailed a finger over the runes and lines. “This?” Caleb took Essek’s pencil from him (he would apologize later) and scribbled a few things onto the precious parchment.
He was second-guessing it the moment it was written down, and his eyes started roaming over the runes again. The sacred geometry of time and space had to align perfectly for this.
It was telling just how engrossed in the spell and the teamwork that was going into this stretch of discovery that Essek didn't give his usual sigh or playful snipe when Caleb took the pencil from him. Instead, he just watched intently as Caleb added to the work, his handwriting mingling with Essek's and making connections that had taken months to string together. He was reminded of a day in Rosohna, many years ago as a Shadowhand, a goblin girl, and an Empire wizard had completed a spell that had first begun to be conceived during the Age of Arcanum; it was possibly the first time that Essek had truly felt the thrill of shared discovery.
This was different, of course. Though that spell had been undoubtedly important as it had returned a life lost to Veth Brenatto, this collaboration between husbands would hopefully provide the first steps necessary to bring about the end of a war. That was the hope, at least.
Essek let out a hum of contemplation, staring at the new marks for a moment before reaching over and snatching the pencil back from Caleb. He was seeing it now, the pieces that they had been missing. Erasing one stroke of pencil that he'd made previously, he adjusted it to account for the additions that Caleb had only just made. Paused. Released a breath.
"Is that it?" Essek murmured, as though any sound louder would break the moment and undo all of their hard work. "Did we just do it?"
Caleb was still holding his breath. He hadn’t done anything more than stare at the paper for three long minutes, unblinking.
When he finally let it out, it was with a slow easement, as if he didn’t want to spook the spell into somehow being wrong. It had been a long seven years. Longer, in some ways. They’d tried dozens of options, they’d crafted spells, they’d made attacks, they’d been at the front lines and had done things the stealthy way. They’d lost friends and family and seen so many people they loved fall prone to mind control.
He was tired and desperate. But also suddenly very sure of their task at hand. Caleb’s hand came up to scratch at his chin, the first full sign of life from him since he’d stopped writing.
A smile slowly bloomed on his face, as if he couldn’t quite believe it himself. “Ja. I think so.”
A feeling somewhere between simple shock and utter disbelief washed over Essek like a wave, even still as he looked up and saw Caleb's smiling face. So much time, so much sleep lost, so much frustration, all so they could end up here. Essek believed in the similar height of their abilities and power, as well as their combined intelligence being quite something to behold, but they had spent all of this time trying to make the impossible possible.
And now, he allowed it to sink in, a twin of a smile crossing his own lips to match Caleb's: they'd done it.
A laugh burst from Essek as it clicked further and he carefully, so very carefully, as though a sudden wind might blow through or a burst of flame might flash or simply the work would disappear into the Astral plane on its own, set the paper down amongst the others. He then reached out toward Caleb, hand gripping his arm as though needing the grounding.
"We did it," he murmured, this time not being posed as a question. Essek shook his head once, still grinning. "You are brilliant, Caleb Widogast."
Caleb dampened down the glow that started on his humanoid hand, out of pure adrenaline of this is happening. The phantom pains from the residuum that had once been embedded in his arms liked to flare up from time to time, as a reminder of what could have been. What might have helped keep his power at an even level during all of this. His mechanical arm didn’t have that issue, though it made itself known in other ways. Less set fire to the world ways.
Though theoretically, he was supposed to be able to do that with it as well. But Gilmore had urged him to only use it in an emergency, and that is what he planned to save it for.
With a clench of his fist, the glow was gone and he was starting to grin at Essek as realization set in. “We did it.” With a quick move, Caleb pushed himself into Essek and kissed him quickly. “You are brilliant, Essek Widogast. I could not have done it without you.”
"We make a formidable team," Essek replied, still grinning as his other arm moved to take advantage of Caleb's closeness to cup his face. He immediately stole another kiss from his husband, the surge of adrenaline and complex emotions leaving him unable to do much else.
Of course, the emotions were complex around this particular subject. There was, of course, the typical excitement about simply having a shared magical success, something that was far fewer between than earlier on in their relationship and magical partnership thanks to Interitus and their dampened magic. It always felt good to create with Caleb, but this was more than just figuring out how to charm the floors of the Xhorhaus so they were always heated so Essek wouldn't complain about cold feet; this was, quite potentially, world-saving magic. It felt on par with that moment in Cognouza, when the two of them used a dunamantic gem from Aeor to rest themselves and their friends, giving them an actual chance against Lucien.
Because, if this worked--and Essek was quite certain that it would, thanks to their shared cleverness with magical math and calculations--this could change everything. That was exciting, but was also knowledge that brought its own slew of complications for many, he was sure.
Breaking away from Caleb long enough to release a breath, Essek pressed their foreheads together as these thoughts percolated. He closed his eyes as he voiced, "This will be bittersweet to some, you know. That is perhaps an understatement."
Caleb let them have a moment to ponder things. To ruminate on their future, and their past. He flexed his metal fingers as if they were real, flesh, and they bent under his will as easily as his other hand moved. But it would never be quite the same, no matter how much magic he had.
They had done this. This would give them all another chance. Another opportunity.
Or they could monumentally fuck this up and everyone will be left out to dry.
He was hoping it was the former rather than the latter. But sometimes you never knew with how time travel and magic siphoning worked. So Caleb leaned on Essek, both literally and figuratively.
“Ja. Bittersweet, but hopefully something positive will come of this.” It had to, or all of this was for nothing. But they would not give up until there was nothing left. “I already feel a little uptick in magic, with the Temporal Concurrence on the horizon. Do you feel it too?”
His thoughts on Caleb's words, Essek reached for his husband's nearest hand--the metal one that he had just been flexing. Purple flesh and bone fingers encircled metallic, something that no longer even fazed Essek. Once, not too long ago, really, the idle touches had been met with a minor jolt of shock; though Essek's time needed to get used to the change had been nothing, he assumed, to Caleb's, there had still been an adjustment period. Now it was second nature, which showed just how much their lives had adjusted and changed over the years.
Essek let out a soft hum of assent. "Yes," he added, gaze lifting as though he could also see the magic in the air. He couldn't, of course, but the change as time had gone on had been undeniable. "It feels good, after being cut off from so much of it for so long." As someone who had relied on magic as a crutch in so many ways for over a century of life, being cut from so much of it was still a daily struggle. The gentle rise had, as Essek said, felt good, if not also dangerous.
"But, yes--hopefully something positive will come of this," Essek echoed, lifting Caleb's hand to press to his cheek. "It would be good for the kids to have a brighter future to look forward to."
Caleb could be pessimistic with the best of them, but this whole spell creation had emboldened him. He was feeling good about this, for the first time in as many years as they’d been working on it. “We will deliver it to all of them.”
That still remained to be seen, as a number of things could go wrong after the spell. But it was the one shot they had, and Caleb wasn’t about to give up. He nuzzled into Essek for a moment, let his nose bump the smooth purple skin, his own beard likely scratching the surface there in a way that was familiar to both of them. “Let us go tell everyone. Before I get distracted.” By his husband, no doubt, as Caleb’s hand was already finding purchase on Essek’s clothes, halfway to distracted.
He would not be the one with an iron will this time.
Essek snorted, clearly amused by Caleb's lack of an attempt to keep from becoming distracted. It was fair enough; the drow himself was buzzing in the aftermath of shared discovery, particularly shared discovery with the man he loved so thoroughly. Still, he couldn't help but tease, "You are a menace," before he leaned in and stole any rebuttal from Caleb, mouth on the other wizard's.
And though Essek's will in the situation could be described more as aluminum foil than iron, the knowledge of how many lives could potentially be changing for the better and that they might actually be gifting tangible hope to them all with this announcement kept him from getting too carried away. Well, after a few long moments, at the very least.
"Come on, young man." Essek pulled away with a smirk, hand on Caleb's chest. "Let us go give the world saving news, then you can have your way with me."