Part 1. Chapter 3.
As soon as Harry has crossed the threshold of the room, a light spot appears under his feet, and cheerful sparks run in all directions, illuminating the room covered in darkness. Without stopping, he passes to the middle of the small, perfectly round hall and stands waiting, giving Alrus, who has followed him, time to look around. In fact, there isn't much to see in the room, except for the single podium to the left of the door.
«Instead of my secret, I'll present another my project that isn't so dangerous to me, but it will be no less interesting,» answers Harry with a hand circling a room and stopping it on some strange construction.
«I called this room the Hall of Memories, and this is,» he goes to the podium, and having raised on it, puts a hand on something a little bit resembling a computer table. «I called this a magethinker.»
Alrus gets closer at the same time, turning to the magical vision and beginning to investigate the magethinker. In several minutes, he stands still in admiration.
In general, if to discard the monitor and the horizontal surface protruding a little bit forward, the magethinker looks more like a crystal lump from which the embedded artefacts, made of various materials of different value and colour, protrude in different directions.
What appeared before Alrus can't be explained in simple words, for only an artefactor, a professional in his field, can really appreciate what Harry had created. Alrus can do it, and therefore, continuing to examine the masterpiece, barely audible whispers:
«It's amazing, father, to combine into a single whole and moreover make it work ... um, the magethinker works, doesn't it?»
«Yes, it works great.»
«So what was I talking about? Here, not everyone can make to work at once so many artefacts, both simple and complex. You're a genius! I admit, you're right! After seeing this masterpiece, anyone will believe that this is precisely the secret that you hide.»
«Yeah, right!» Harry says cheerfully, his son's appraisal and recognition of his achievements are pleasant for him.
After examining the magethinker for a while, Alrus places his attention on the podium and the two chairs standing on it, for they aren't as simple as they might appear at first glance.
First of all, his attraction is drawn by the material from which they were made. The complex alloy of different types of tree species intricately intertwined with each other, creating an unusual colour pattern. The thin, barely discernible chains of runes twist all over the surface of the chairs and the podium, fitting into the pattern of the material, underlining and complementing it.
Waiting for his son to have a good look at his creation, Harry sits on the chair. With difficulty tearing him away from contemplating the artifactual wonder created by his father's genius, Alrus shifts his gaze to him and raises his left eyebrow in a mute question. His father understands him correctly; he waves his hand invitingly towards the second chair and waits until Alrus nestles seated to begin his narration.
«Let me tell you a story of a magethinker's creation from the beginning.»
After receiving a sign of agreement in the form of a nod, Harry thinks for a while bringing his thoughts into some order, and only after that does he begin to tell.
«One day, after you and I went to the movie and I listened to your dreams about the appearance of something like that with a magical component in the magical world, a picture passed through my mind of how I watch memories while sitting on a comfy couch. This vision inspired me to attempt the creation of something like this. Properly having thought over this the idea, first of all, I began to study the thoughtdropper and simultaneously began to seek any available information about it or anything related to it.
I knew from the beginning that the way of its creation was lost, but even these small data I could find helped me understand the method of work.
The magethinker's work is based on the use of mental magic. At the moment of contact between the mage's face and a thoughtdropper's surface, a separation of a thin mental body occurs, and with its help, the mage can see the memories in the thoughtdropper.
Why the thought dropper was created like this and not otherwise, I found out later during complex experiments. Eventually, I learned the following information: the environment in which memories are reproduced is dangerous for the physical body of a mage.
I conducted a series of experiments from which I found out that the physical body of a simple mouse, after being in this medium, begins immediately to destroy at the cellar level, and already on the third day, a death occurs.
In a magical mouse, after being in a thoughtdropper while viewing memories, its magical essence is first destroyed for a month, and only after that does it die.
From these and a number of other experiments, I had a theory as to why the magicians of the past, having created a thoughtdropper, left everything like this. My guess is that it was for one of two reasons: either they didn't do any more research after getting the results according to the principle- it works, let's leave it or because they couldn't find a way to solve the problem of not harming the physical body during a viewing.»
«I think both of those variants have a right to exist,» Alrus says thoughtfully.
Harry only nods in a sign of consent, and in order not to lose the train of thought, he continues.
«And since at that point in my life I had no useful ideas to solve this problem, I decided for some time to switch to the magebook's creation.»
The formed pause is disrupted by a loud Harry's exclamation.
«Twinkie!»
«What does Master Harry want?»
«Water to soak my throat, light wine, and food.»
When the wish is fulfilled, he pours himself some water, drinks it, and only after this continues.
«While I was engaged in the creation of the magobook I had an idea how to solve the problem of harmful influence on the physical body,» he smiles fervently. A funny spark flashes in his green eyes, and he winks at his son.
«This platform, as well as the armchairs themselves, allows to create and hold around us a static protective field that completely neutralises the harmful influence on the organism.»
After he becomes thoughtful, he drums on the armrest.
«That's it for the preamble; let's go on to a demonstration.»
After these words, Harry runs his hand across the horizontal surface, which immediately lights up, simultaneously explaining.
« It is a universal keyboard, based on the touch keyboard, but with much more capabilities. It contains all the alphabets of the leading languages in our world, as well as all the rune alphabets I know at the moment. In addition, it has a sensory mode for the magethinker. Such a solution makes the work much easier.»
A few touches of the fingertips and there the floor ceases to shine, and the walls of the room, as well as a ceiling made in the form of a small dome starting at a height of about two meters, begin to shimmer dimly, scattering the darkness that has appeared for a moment.
A few more strokes of the fingers, and around the podium appears a thin film of protection, looking through which one may have thought that the walls have disappeared, replaced by a haze of compressed, heated air that can be observed in the desert when the sun is at its zenith.
Ree enchantedly gazes at the haze and recollects himself only when the haze is replaced by a picture of memory.
«…a huge summer pavilion, the roof of which is supported by gentle columns located along its perimeter. A light, almost airy decoration consisting of light fabrics and flowers that show the delicateness of forged railings and doors located between the columns.
From dynamics invisible to the eye, enchanting soft music is flowing that didn't prevent people present in the hall from communicating.
«These are my memories from some movie I watched while studying the 3D effect. »
The movement of a finger and the playback stop; people freeze; music stops.
«You've seen everything that I made then, » says Harry, not taking his eyes off the pavilion with people freezing in different postures.
«I didn't understand, » with confusion in his voice, Alrus says.
«That's all I managed to achieve. As you see, it's impossible to get out of the protection field without causing physical harm to your health in order to see the memories near. And also because of the fact that during the magethinker's creation, somewhere in the calculations there was an error; that's why it was impossible to zoom in and enlarge the picture in order to see the desired thing near the platform. »
« It's not really convenient to look at the memories from a distance, right? But you've said it was, so it means now everything is ok? » somehow uncertainly Alrus asks.
«Yes, to both questions. But in the beginning, I tried to correct this defect with additional artefacts, but then I suffered a complete fiasco in this matter. I already decided to declare the project failed and to start dismantling it when you returned from the wanderings and presented me with books on various directions of magic development in OTHER worlds. »
When he looks at his son's face, which, with all its appearance, radiates complete incomprehension, he grins and says.
« Yes, yes, I quickly understood that the books you gave me were written in other worlds because many of the concepts are based on magical approaches unknown on Earth; that's why don't pretend you don't understand me. »
Though for some reasons you don't want or can't tell me how and where you managed to get them, I can handle this, » Harry says with irritation, pursing his lips.
«Actually, no! » he immediately exclaims and again becomes quiet for a moment, and then, with anger, mutters.
«To say the condition that was said at which I could know the details about the appearance of these books to you didn't suit me. I've told you that, and nothing has changed since then.»
I can't see what's wrong. Why does a threat come to my life from Harry's words?
Irrational fear comes over Ree, and his thoughts begin to dart back and forth like frightened rabbits, but he can't find and understand the reason for such a reaction. In the meantime, having vented his accumulated anger at his son, Harry calms down a little bit and continues more or less calmly:
«What I can't understand is, why simply not accept that the books given by you contain discoveries made in other worlds? When you gave them, didn't you assume that I would be able to understand it according to the information they contained? Explain to me why you take me for an idiot who cannot understand basic things. »
After a short pause that is filled with grutch and misunderstanding eliminating from Harry Alrus, with remorseful remarks in his voice, says.
«Yes, you're right, father. I'm sorry! It seems I became keen on secretness and had gone beyond the realm of acceptable. Indeed, the books I gave you were translated by me into English, and they belong to magicians who lived in five different worlds. »
« And why couldn't you admit this at the beginnin? »
Harry exclaims, but without waiting for an answer to his question, staring at his son fiercely for a while, he calms down, deciding that now isn't a good time to sort things out, and so when he speaks, it's like nothing had happened.
« As I immersed myself in the study of the books you gave me, I realised that my life wouldn't be enough to comprehend everything they contained. That's why I decided to create a complex composite artefact, the volume of which corresponds to several non-mages' servers, to merge all the information from the books, not only from those you brought to me but from all the books available to me, and, above all, all this I hoped to systematise by analogy with the scheme accepted by non-mages.
Another reason for making this decision was that I had a workpiece for this project, »Harry says, stroking the magethinker gently.
«For the realisation of the project, I needed to make many different changes to increase the power of the magethinker, as well as I needed to solve many other problems. And the most difficult was to create and embed a magoscanner. Such as it could scan not only simple magical books but also grimoires and dangerously aggressive books with increased magical protection. »
Harry has stopped in order to pour himself some wine. Having drunk it up, he continues.
«As a result, having overcome all the obstacles and difficulties that occurred during the mage thinker's creation, I was able to finally start the process of loading all the books I had
Every day I tried to allocate a few hours to upload information from books to magethinker and for the creation of different mage programmes for book sorting. Thankfully, the scanning of simple books is fast. It takes only a few minutes to work with one book, but grimoires and protected magical books take half an hour to two. »
Having soaked the throat, Harry continues a little bit pathetic:
«One day, while working with a mage thinker, I came across a book that somehow caught my attention. Having taken it in my hands, I did not notice how I immersed myself in the study of it. I was delighted because it was entirely devoted to the creation of animate artefacts, from the simplest to the most complex. »
There's a theatrical pause. Having looked at the father, who is assuming a dignified air, Alrus smiles subtly and decides to cheer him up.
«And what, did you manage to create an animated artefact? Don't keep me in suspense; tell me! »
«I managed, » for some reason, sadly says Harry. «Let me introduce you to the mage thinker named Sirius.»
«Sirius? Are you serious? »
« He himself chose such a name, and I couldn't do anything about it. At first, it was very painful, but gradually, addressing him by his name, I did not notice how the pain went. After fifteen years already, I'm grateful that he chose that name, because through him I was finally able to forgive myself for my godfather's death and let him go. »
They keep quiet for some time, allowing themselves to plunge into memories. Having noticed that he and his father are enveloped by gloom and sadness, Alrus has shaken his head, thus banishing a delusion, and deliberately loud asks a question:
«Did I understand you right that something went wrong during the creation of the Sirius's mage thinker? »
Taken out of his melancholy, Harry doesn't at once understand the meaning of the question. But when he does, he shakes his head sadly, and it's unclear whether he agrees with his son's suggestion or rejects it.
«The book contained clear instructions on how to prepare the artefact for the ritual as well as a description of the ritual itself.
Before animating the mage thinker, I performed several rituals to animate artefacts of different sizes and complexity. This provided me with data that helped me make calculations and adjustments to the original ritual due to the fact that the mage thinker was a complex artefact with a large mass. This was the first complex task.
The second most difficult task was to determine and calculate everything so that the mage thinker gained maximal abilities. It was also not an easy choice for me to choose abilities for him and their number. The third most difficult task was to calculate everything in such a way that the abilities I chose for the mage thinker wouldn't interfere with each other during operation. »
Interrupting his narration, Harry, having smiled warmly, gently strokes the magethinker and continues.
«He's a clever boy; he completely restored order in the books uploaded for him, correctly sorted them, and himself developed a system of search and references to all mentions in different topics.
Now I only need to set the task, and all the calculations will be performed both for the ritual and for the artefact creation. Once, » Harry smiles brightly, «I gave him the task of calculating a potion according to the given parameters, just for fun. »
«And how did it go? » Alrus asks with genuine interest, leaning forward.
«Excellent! He gave me three variants of the recipe, though with a vague dosage from start to finish that I needed to determine in practice. Still, it saved a lot of time. As a result, based on them, I was able to create the portion I needed without asking you at that time.»
«How interesting! Сan we talk about this later? And I still don't understand what is wrong with Sirius. »
« Under the book's author's assumption, the bigger the artefact, the bigger the possibilities it has. I performed calculations and figured out that besides making different computer functions, he could also have hearing, sight, and the ability to speak. »
«But...?! » hurries Alrus his father, when he's realised that Harry doesn't really want to continue.
«What- but? As you've probably already understood, I had no success. Or rather, things got down except Sirius can't speak, hear, and talk. »
« Come to think of it, » Harry, for some reason, lowers his voice at these words, « I think he has a dual personality. When he's working on the tasks he's given, he's an adult who has his own opinions and can offer interesting ideas. Also, he was able to fix a bug that occurred in the creation of the mage thinker, and now the memories can be turned out to make it easier to watch.
But when there's nothing demanding the performance of any tasks, then he becomes different, and I have the impression that I'm speaking with a child of tender years. »
« No more than five years, yes? »
«Yes, how did you know? »
«I'll tell you later, » Alrus brushes off his father. «Let me think. »
After a long silence, when Harry's patience is about to run out, Alrus emerges from his thoughts and, noticing his father's state, asks.
«Father, asks Sirius, can he hear and see what people say in memories? »
«I'll answer you. Yes, he can hear, see, speak, and look. » With these words, Harry launches the picture from his memory that froze in front of them.
The music starts playing again, and people move and talk. A few finger movements, a quick rewind and then a couple consisting of a man and a woman, who are at a reasonable distance away from Harry and Alrus , sharply approach them just steps from the protective barrier so that they can be viewed properly and one can hear what they're saying:
« John, stop making me angry, or the director will get angry. According to the scenario, I should smile easily, » a girl says spitefully, and it's unclear to whom she's angrier—to John or to the director.
« Yes, you're right, the director will be angry when he sees an animal grin instead of a smile, » the man pokes fun at the girl, to which she growls, but then she sharply melts and asks almost pitifully.
« Please, John, stop bugging me! You know, if something goes wrong, I'll have to pay a penalty, and I don't have any money. Why, do you think, did I sign up to act in this crowd?»
«Forgive me, Sara, I'm just kind of bored .…»
The movement of a finger and everything stops, people freeze in various poses, and the music and the hum of voices accompanying it fall silent.
« Kind of like this. »
« So you're telling me that in addition to being able to work with memories by zooming in on them now, Sirius can also lip-read and reproduce what he's read?»
« Everything is right. »
« Oh! Then helping Sirius might be a lot easier. »
« What exactly would be easier? »
« Wait, you see it yourself if this works. Ask Sirius to choose an image with which he associates himself and show it to you. »
After listening to his son, Harry turns to the mage thinker and begins to quickly tape a text.
Ree watches from the sidelines as lines appear on the screen and, with detachment, wonders why all magical things stop, causing him rejection. Before him is an animate artefact, and he feels nothing except interest.
Not having come to any conclusions, Ree continues to observe how Harry corresponds with Sirius. Driven by curiosity, he comes to grips and begins to read the correspondence. From this, he understands that Sirius truly is like a child who is afraid to make mistakes in choosing his image. And if that happens, Harry will stop loving him because of that. In response, Harry assures Sirius that he will accept any of his images and won't stop loving him, as well as try to calm him down, saying that Sirius can change his image at any time to the one that is closer to him. And now Sirius should choose some images.
After long and difficult persuasion, a drawn representative of felids appears in front of them. To which Harry only says, "Hmm, and to the questioningly raised eyebrow of his son, he asks with amazement.
«Didn't you recognise? »
«No. »
«Sirius took the image of Simba from your favourite cartoon, 'The Lion King'. »
«I hardly remember this cartoon, » says Alrus, averting his eyes.
« This is very strange! How can you forget it? » a short pause, and then a question.
«Ah, it doesn't matter; you won't tell me anyway. What to do next? »
«Next, » gladly repeats Alrus, enjoying that they have gone from the topic unpleasant for him, « asks Sirius to try to hear us using this image similar to how he hears conversations in memories. »
Having waited for some time Alrus after his father stops taping and looking at the painted lion asks:
«Sirius, can you hear me? »
The tension that seized the men after the question is asked can be felt. Maybe for this reason or maybe for some other, but the moment that has separated the question from the answer feels like an eternity. But then it's over, and they can see the nod of the drawn lion cub.
Harry immediately turns around, wiping away tears; Ree smiles brightly; and only Alrus immediately makes a new proposal.
«And now, Urs, similar to how you were able to hear me try to say something and look at us. »
«To say wwwwhaat? » a squeaky, terrified , quavering and barely audible voice is heard.
« No matter what, the most important thing is that you can speak. Tell us, why are you so scared? »
«I dooon't knnnow. I'm always very scared. »
«Is there any way we can help you? »
«No. We can't be helped. » a lion cub has disappeared, and the voice heard is absolutely non-emotional and some kind of mechanical.
«I made calculations and found out that the animation of artefacts exceeding the definite level of complexity would lead to such a result as we have. I can switch off a fear of my emotional part for some time so that you can talk with it. »
There's a long pause. Harry, off the hinges, opens and closes his mouth, trying to say something. Alrus becomes lost in thought while trying to remember something. It's unknown for how long it would continue, but a cub lion again appears in front of them, and it looks not so frightened and shivering. Alrus immediately startles and, in a businesslike manner, addresses him.
«We already found out that you can hear us and talk to us; now we should know if you can see us. »
«I can. It turns out that this is very simple. Why wasn't I able to do this before? » answers Sirius in a normal voice.
«Because I wasn't able to explain this in plain, simple language as Alrus did, » responds already calmed Harry.
«And not only like this, besides this fear and dual personality stops Urs from this, » Alrus disagrees with his father.
Harry nods, agreeing, but having seen how Sirius has felt down, he decides to change the subject.
«Why did you call Sirius Urs? »
«I just shortened his name; I took the last syllable of his name and placed the letter "r" which is in his full name, between two letters.
Once I saw what form he took, it immediately appeared in my head: Urs. If you, Sirius, don't like such shortening, tell me, and I won't call you by this name.
«Urrrss, » a lion cub literally purrs his name listening to its sounding and then renders a verdict. «I like it, you can call me like this. »
«That's great! » Alrus smiles. « I have an idea, » and he pulls a box out of the air like a circus magician. « But I can't guarantee that it'll work for sure and solve Urs' problem with dual personalities. But we can try. What if it could work! »
At Alrus's action, Ree looks with amazement before information appears in his head. Everything is simple—the pocket dimension—and there is no other additional information about this pocket. Think of it as you will!
«I'll start from afar. The archemage who wrote the book on the creation of animated artefacts was more of a scientist than a politician; that's why he was framed to free up his position. As a result of this, he was banished from the Magical Academy, and his scientific works were declared heresy and strictly prohibited.
Some of his books were hidden by his students, some by his colleagues in artefactorics. So, in the library of one of the artefactors I found a book on animating artifacts. With the owner's permission, I made a copy of it, and when I had time, I slowly translated it.
Having familiarised myself with this book, I was looking for his other works all the time I was in that world. But I was lucky, just before my departure from that world. Quite by accident, I was able to find the tower in which he lived after his exile. This book was discovered in hiding.» He pats the box resting on his lap.
«It so happened that I had a little time, so I skimmed through the book, left it in the stasis box, and put it in the dimension pocket, having decided to study it later, but it happened that I completely forgot about it. And only a today reminder about the book on the animation of artefacts helped me remember it. »
Having made a little pause in order to gather his thoughts and having rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, Alrus continues:
«This book, » and he again pats the box, «contains the last scientific work of that disgraced archemage.
According to my assumptions, disgraced and having lost all of his students at once and also having obtained the ban to take new pupils, he had to remember about his work on the animation of the artefacts. I suppose he decided to reduce his loneliness with the help of animated artefacts.
After a series of experiments, he faced the problem of the low intelligence of artefacts. After this, he proposed a theory that he himself began to prove. The essence of his theory was that if an animated artefact turns into an animal, he would be able to independently move around him. Thus, its constant presence near a human would allow the primitive to develop and eventually become smarter.
Finally, he conducted two successful experiments with animals. With one animal a little bit larger than a rat and the second one like a dog. According to the results of observation, it turned out that the development and maturation of the artefact's personality directly depend on the development of the animal used for it.
«Yes, yes, yes! » screams a cub jumping on the spot, «I want to be a lion and run everywhere! »
«Calm down, Urs! It's not all rosy. There're a number of conditions that are obligatory. »
«What conditions? »
«The first one. The animal must be a magical one, and there are no magical lions. The second one. At the start of the work, it must be alive. The third one. Its volume and the artefact's volume must completely be the same. »
«I didn't understand the last condition, » with meowlike notes, sustains Urs.
« How can I put it to you in a simpler way? The artefact's volume should completely fill the animal's skin, as it did when it was alive. »
«Do I understand you right, Alrus? »Harry interjects, « If we take, for example, a manticore, would we havehave to add a volume to the Urs's receptacle to completely fill the manticore's skin? »
«That's right, father, but in this case there are positive aspects. »
«Like what? »
«Urs can be added to as many additional functions as he can have. »
«Yes, yes, yees, I can have hands! » Urs begins to squeal and immediately becomes sad. «I just don't like manticore. »
«Don't worry, Sirius, »Harry addresses him, «You can choose the animal yourself. »
«We'll deal with this later. Father, I didn't understand completely. What hands should be added? »
To this Harry is a little embarrassed.
«You know, son, » he starts his explanations from afar, «By the time I began the ritual of Sirius animation, I was got by another idea.
As soon as I performed a ritual of animation and affirmed that Sirius completely corresponded to my needs, I immediately loaded him down with calculations in order to start turning my new idea into reality.
When I started to create in reality everything we calculated with Sirius and to the following trials, I couldn't devote much time to it, and Sirius got bored. That's why I hold an Internet for him. »
«And what hands did he find for himself? It's even scary to imagine this! »
« It's not all that bad, believe me. On the Internet, Urs found science fiction that describes the creation and capabilities of AI. In these books, artificial intelligence has different types of drones and robots under control, with the help of which it can independently perform certain actions.
Having read the books about the AI, Sirius got passionate about an idea to get helpers for him, part of which would replace his hands.
«What can I say? This is a great ideaIf I remember correctly, there're a lot of different types and sizes of drones and robots. »
«Yes, » confirms Urs.
«Well, we'll talk about it later. Father, I and Urs make the plans, but you still don't say anything, and don't say out loud your choice. Will you take part in this project?»
«I thought you forgot about me or you don't need me in this business, » huffed grumbles Harry, then he smiles and adds, «Of course I'm with you. I won't miss a project like this. »
« That's what I thought, » says his son, and addresses Urs.
«This book isn't translated, so you'll have to translate it yourself. But I'll load all the materials that will help you in this work as well as my remaining drafts of the translation of the artefact animation book. »
«I'll translate. » Sirius answers seriously and nods in addition to his words.
«That's good! » Alrus says, opening the box and taking a book out of it, then hands it to his father with the words:
«Here, take this, father. »
Harry, meanwhile, carries out the corresponding manipulations. A flat box has emerged from the vertical part of the artefact, into which Harry places the book he has opened on the first page.
Ree watches with interest how the three of them plunge into the process of discussing assumptions and searching of variants.