"Ah, I assumed that you'd do that. It's just…"
He regards me dubiously. "I would not recommend planting explosives. This is a wildlife reserve now."
Now would OL do a silly thing like that?

...Right, silly question.
"So no one's going to be digging?"
He bows his head slightly. "Please do not plant explosives." He closes his eyes and then turns his head towards me. "You have already-."
And even the good Doctor knows it's something he'd do.
"Just because it's sensible, that doesn't mean that I've done it."
"Thet, I know."
A lament shared by just about anyone who knows him, sometimes.
"I was actually wondering if you wanted to know if any of them were related to you."
"I was not eh chaste man. I would not be surprised if most of them were, to some degree."
In other words, he had
plenty of ladies itching for his magic wand. And given how full of Life force he is, I expect many of them walked away pregnant.
"Then I won't worry about it." I sigh. "I don't suppose you know how to fix my railgun rounds, do you?"
"No. I have been trying to learn Atlantean magic, but it is not my focus."
And I doubt Nommo wants to spend his time doing crafting for OL and the other Lanterns when he has more important stuff to stay on top of.
I don't miss my shots often, but going full automatic against people with exotic dodging techniques resulted in a grant total of three misses. One hit a rock and deformed, so that's two usable mage-slayer rounds left.
"I did a soil analysis. They were made from the same clay that Henry King Senior was repaired with."
I bet one thing we don't see after his fights is him going around reclaiming any spent ammunition he can recover. Not that a railgun would leave much in the way of intact rounds.
"I em not surprised, but it is good to have it confirmed. Do you know where it came from?"
"Right here. Do you think it was Ged?"
No, he made that pretty clear with his villainous dialogue. Interesting that they used the clay of Kor, though. I suppose it still retained much magical power in the soil.
"No. He said that they were reanimated by someone else."
"And you think he was being honest?"
Too much ego. He was practically gloating about getting to kill Nommo.
"He may not heff been, but he was honest about theh reanimation spell coming from elsewhere. I could feel the shape of it."
"Okay, good. Any clue where it came from or who the caster was?"
Given his age, he may well recognise certain magical traditions by feel...
"Thet I do not heff. I would know if it I saw it again."
"How are you at passing through unearthly realms?"
Oh? Worried about that glob of magic you yoinked to the Honden?
"It is my job."
"I caught one of the spells that the fire wizard hit me with, and I'm keeping it in the Honden. Are you going to be alright if I bring you there?"
...I suspect if anyone would be, it'd be
him.
"Yes." He nods. "Yes. As I said, it is my job. And I em quite good at it."
"Okay." I hold out my left hand. "Make your preparations, and then whenever you're-" He takes my hand immediately. "-ready-. Okay. Here we
are."
While i doubt the Ophidian would poke her head out for a pat from him, she might be paying close attention...
That's interesting. Dr. Balewa isn't… Orange, or obscured by a spell that's keeping him separate. Instead, most of him is faded into the background with glowing white lines which look… A little like an aboriginal Australian design.
He looks around for a moment in a mildly interested fashion, and then focuses on the spell.
I'm guessing that's his preparation. Grounding to protect him from the overpowering amount of Avarice, likely tied to his Enlightenment.
"Hmm."
"Does it mean anything to you?"
Oh, this would be fun to read on a light background theme...
"Why did you put it here? Wouldn't you usually feed its power to theh Ophidian?"
"It struck me that if I drew the power into my tattoos, he might have been able to set my soul on fire."… "Is that possible?
Given what happened when he ate the fire magic previously... Good plan.
"Ehhh... It would not be simple to convert theh spell, and he did not know your nature. I would heff guarded against it were it cast at me, but I do not think thet you needed to."
"I'll bare that in mind."
Certainly, OL is kind of winging it when it comes to magic stuff, even now. That patchwork soul of his makes for weird interactions, after all.
"It is interesting." White strands extend from him and coil around the spell "Unintelligent undead cannot cast spells. Even intelligent undead thet I heff met have been limited. Without a normal connection to the Earth's magic energies, it is not possible."
"I know that from personal experience. So… Something was using them as a reagent? Or… Focusing aid? Casting spells through them?"
Or the clay gave them the connection they needed, The fact it came from, presumably, their homeland probably reinforced the sympathetic connections.
"Just because I know thet it is true does not mean that it is true. Ged… Surprised me."
"Because he's undead and using magic?"
And a surprise after so many years is no doubt pleasant, if annoying.
"I suspect thet he menaged a partial transubstantiation. I em not certain thet he is truly dead."
"How much of a threat is he?"
That depends on how much earth he can control at a time...
"With cities as dense as they are now? He is far more dangerous then he was when he was eh man."
"Do you think that he knows that?"
"No. But I will not bet their lives on that belief."
...And if it's enough, Ged could topple a city with a well-placed earthquake.
It looks like whatever he's doing is… Teasing bits out of the spell, unbinding it, which… Well, he couldn't be able to match the signature anymore, but I assume that he learned enough that at his level of skill he can just remember it.
"What are you doing?"
Decompiling and reading the code, more or less. I wonder how well-commented it is?
"If I em correct, and the clay-clad bones we saw were vectors for the magic of another, then there should be something of the magic of the original wizard who formed them."
I smile. "And you didn't get that while we were fighting them?"
I'm not sure how good you think he is, but no-one's gonna be analysing magic while fighting for their lives.
"I was occupied. Or did you not wonder why you did not explode in theh first four seconds."
"I didn't, not after you spent the whole walk here doing your contemporaries down. But if that was you, thank you."
Credit where credit is due, certainly. I take it Nommo was blocking a lot of magic OL wasn't aware of, then.
"Theh brute force magics they use are harmful to certain people. Magicians ken be harmed, but would usually know how to shield themselves. You cannot, and you saw how they struck you through your wards and sigils."
"Alright. I apologise for my gibe."
A
lot of magic indeed. I can't imagine any of those nasty spells were popular back in the day, with so much potential for collateral damage.
"I do not say this for my ego. I say this because I do not want for you to die. You know that I do not like 'superhero' as eh concept. I appreciate that though you wish to alter society, you do so as a normal man might. It is an unusual display of restraint."
"It's because I want to see how things go. Fiddling around with complex systems can make all sorts of thing go wrong."
And in some cases, OL has been as subtle as a sledgehammer. And to be fair, some of those complex systems needed that.
He nods with a small smile, then dismisses his spell.
"I believe that I have a trace. Let us see what we find."
Excellent. Time to follow the thread through the labyrinth.