Angel Fever (Immortal Legacy #3) - Ella Summers Page 0,77
the Immortals’ great magic balance, there would be no war anywhere.”
It was an oversimplified version of reality—with a lot of hope sprinkled on top. I could have told Illias that, but I didn’t see a point. I preferred not to debate religion with a priest. No one would leave that conversation happy.
“We’ve gone off topic,” my father said in a tone that left no room for argument. “The demons’ curse disrupted the natural magic shift. After the curse, the shifts grew erratic, even violent. Every new shift spawns increasingly dangerous monsters and wilder weather.”
“Which leaves us here.” Damiel tapped his fingers on the tabletop. “On this sometimes-invisible ship.”
“How did you manage to make the ship invisible?” I asked my father.
“With a magic trick.”
“Very funny.”
But my father wasn’t laughing. His face was perfectly serious.
“The ship’s invisibility defense is an effect of the world’s dominant null magic,” he said. “I made some specific modifications to this ship. When null magic is dominant, the ship can channel the world’s natural powers to turn invisible.”
Invisibility. That was certainly a creative way to use null magic. He’d made the ship itself null, so that as far as anyone’s senses were concerned, it didn’t even exist.
“Are we invisible now?” I asked him.
“Yes. I turned on the invisibility mode as soon as we came on board.”
I heard the world rumble. Another magic shift. They really were coming faster and faster. If that wasn’t a sign of instability, I didn’t know what was.
I rolled Jiro’s die across the table. It landed on the side with four elemental symbols.
“Elemental magic is now dominant,” I reported.
“The ship knows. Look, it’s already reacting to the shift.” My father pointed out the window at the sky, which was growing thick with fluffy white clouds.
“What’s it doing?” I asked.
“Making us invisible in a different way.”
“Just how many ways have you designed this ship to become invisible?”
“Seven thus far. When a demon army is after you, it’s best to remain out of sight until you are ready to strike,” he said sensibly. “You know of how the ship uses null magic dominance to fade out. And you see now how elemental magic dominance allows it to create cloud cover. There’s also a Magitech device on board that channels Witch’s Cauldron to weave a shroud of invisibility. The ship can use fairy magic dominance to cast the Curse of the Unseen, Shifter’s Shadow to physically and mentally shift to nothingness, siren magic to compel people to not see it, and genie magic to wish itself unseen. All of this is powered by a magic dial that flips position depending on the world’s current magical dominance.”
“An ingenious design, Daddy.”
His head dipped in an aristocratic nod.
“You haven’t figured out a way to make the ship invisible when the other nine powers are dominant,” Damiel commented.
“You’re welcome to try your hand at it, Dragonsire,” replied my father. “But I doubt even your devious mind could find a way to harness the magic of Vampire’s Kiss to create invisibility.”
“I don’t know about that.” Damiel slowly stroked his chin. “I am very devious.”
“Let’s hope the magic hunters aren’t equally devious,” I said.
“When the magic-tracking is dominant, the hunters search for General Silverstar,” Illias said. “They’re only tracking him. They don’t even care about the rest of the rebellion. Just him.”
“They are after the Sapphire Tear,” I told my father.
“I know,” he replied. “After failing to capture me and my dagger, the demons hired the mercenary hunters to finish the job. But the hunters have thus far come up empty-handed.”
“Not entirely empty-handed,” said Illias. “The demons have already acquired eight out of the sixteen daggers.”
“I have one of the remaining daggers,” my father said.
“Idris Starfire has one as well. He is headed to this world,” I added, glancing at Damiel. “A…friend of ours has another. And we have possession of the other four.”
Which left one more immortal dagger unaccounted for.
“You two should leave now,” Illias told us. “So that the demons never get the complete set.”
“We only have one of the daggers here with us,” I said. “I hid the other three away two hundred years ago.”
“None of the daggers are truly hidden.” My father set the Sapphire Tear on the table. The blade was pulsing bright blue. “The demons can use the daggers they do have to find the ones that they don’t. We must destroy them.”
So he’d come to the same conclusion as we had. It was no wonder. He’d seen what the daggers had done to his soldiers.