17th Vorhexen 2512
Evening
"That…" Teclis shakes his head. "Is not it."
Kaleina is doing something magical, but because the manipulation of the winds of magic isn't visible until they're formed into a spell unless you're a magician yourself I'm not seeing anything.
I sigh. "Look, we
knew it wasn't stabilisation or reduction.
You told me that."
"And I would
doubt that your ring could manage something in that regard that High Magic could not, but if your ring is a device wrought by the Old Ones then it isn't impossible. I do not expect to solve the problem of millennia in a single day. Kaleina, were you able to learn anything of note from the Dark Elves?"
"That I was mistaken when I thought that I could have no
new way to hate them."
On the opposite side of the room, Aranei shifts awkwardly.
"All of those I examined were physically healthy. I could detect no sign of the Lantern's orange light, but also could detect neither any significant dhar residues nor the taint of Slaanesh."
"I altered their minds and souls. The structures I build are made of the same stuff as what is there anyway. Changing how parts of their brains are wired doesn't change the chemical composition of their brain matter."
Kaleina rolls her eyes. "You really don't understand anything about magic, do you?"
"It's true that I can't use magic." I smile at her, and
generate six inverted 'A' constructs in the air around her. "But I get by."
I spot Kaleina's pupils dilate as she recognises the rune and see her fingers move as she attempts an unbinding, but as they're not actually runes nothing happens. After she has enough time to realise that, I
pull them back into the ring.
"Kaleina, Lantern, that does not help us."
Teclis sounds a little irritated, and… Yes. That looked like I was effectively waving live grenades at her. I shouldn't have done that.
I nod, then bow my head slightly towards her. "Loremaster Kaleina, I apologise. That was a needless escalation on my part. Though I should point out that those weren't
actually Runes of Immolation, since I can't channel the winds of magic at all."
Teclis raises his eyebrows very slightly, then turns to Kaleina and raises them a little more.
"Your apology is acceptable."
Teclis closes his eyes for a moment, then looks at me. I shrug.
"It's not total magic and it's not throughput. Could it be..? Highs and lows?"
"In what sense?"
"How much the strength of the winds changes over the early part of the pregnancy? I still don't know enough about what elf genes do to understand how genetic expression works in your species, but I know that human wombs will spontaneously abort foetuses which somehow register as non-viable. And that the mechanism can sometimes go wrong. I don't… Have good data on what happens with human mutant foetuses, but none have been born around here since I arrived."
"There are no mutant elves, so there is nothing to which we could compare whatever information you gained."
"
No mutant elves?"
"I am not counting the Curse of Aenarion, as that is more akin to a spell bound to Aenarion's line."
"No, I mean… Elves have fought beastmen before, and they habitually rape any women they come into contact with and don't immediately kill. I assume there have been a
few elf women who've given birth to beastmen."
Teclis bows his head slightly. "You are most likely right, but the lives of such unfortunates are not well recorded."
"No records at all?"
Kaleina shifts uncomfortably in her chair. "Ulthuan is clear of such creatures, as unlike the humans we do not bear such monstrosities by chance and they have no skill at sailing. The savages of Athel Loren may have better records, having as they do more contact with them. Or you could ask your witch."
She doesn't look at Aranei as she says it, but Aranei draws herself up.
"We do not have beastherds in Naggaroth either, nor do we birth them. What a
revolting idea."
How to put this..?
"Aranei, Naggaroth has a sizeable Slaanesh-worshipping religion."
"The Cult of Pleasure is a minor group that only exists at all as a favour from Witch King Malekith to his mother. And they do things that are actually
pleasurable. They don't
mate with
beastmen."
And then she looks uncertain.
"I… No. Where would they even
get them? And summoning and binding daemons would be easier… No."
"But they don't have any mutations either, despite performing daemon magic?"
"I can't imagine them failing to smother mutant children in their cribs and then burn the remains if such creatures were born, but I have heard no accounts of such things."
"But…" I turn to Teclis and Kaleina. "There's definitely a link to dhar build-ups and mutations in humans?"
He nods. "Yes, that is easily provable."
"So why not in elves? It's not because of qhaysh use, because the Dark Elves certainly aren't using that. It can't be because of exposure to the winds of magic, because while Naggaroth doesn't have a Great Vortex they
are close enough to the north pole that they have significantly elevated levels when compared to the rest of the world."
Kaleina straightens slightly. "You think that our wombs destroy mutated foetuses early in pregnancy. So early that we are not aware that we have fallen pregnant."
"It might be more than that. They might be blocking fertilisation in some way, so that conception can't happen."
Teclis nods slowly. "Elven bodies are generally better at handling magic than humans. Humans who use dhar in quantities common amongst Dark Elf sorceresses would be visibly altered even if they were able to avoid outright mutation."
"Could it be..? Flux? Not… Whether the flow of the winds is high or low in absolute terms, but in how much it shifts? And… I suppose for father
and mother?"
Teclis's gaze grows distant.
"I can't call to mind any investigation into that. Any… Elf woman who was shielded from the winds of magic would be experiencing a far lower level of exposure than she had for the rest.. of her life. Elevated… Would be no better. If her womb were responding to that and preventing conception as an anti-mutation measure…" He shakes his head. "It fits the observable phenomena, but I can't say that it's true."
Kaleina frowns, but in curiosity rather than frustration. "How would your ring impact that?"
"
If elf bodies have a record of historical exposure to the winds of magic, there's a good chance that the ring would reset them just.. because I didn't know that it was supposed to be there. If I'm resetting it to zero and then absorbing enough magic to
keep it there, then their body wouldn't think anything was wrong."
"Will the elf women in Altdorf miscarry now that you are away?"
"I don't know. I'm checking back twice a week-. I'll increase that just in case. Is this something we can investigate?"
Teclis nods. "I believe that we can. If only to eliminate the possibility. If this works, all elf-kind will be in your debt."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We could have a long way to go before we can prove it. Though I suppose that this gives you another reason to work on the global network; if we can stabilise-."
"Stabilise the flow of magic worldwide then we won't need special measures." He smiles faintly. "It seems likely that we will be spending a good deal of time together."
