Before Manchester broke, Myrddin learned to feel magic.
Elias almost missed it.
The AI had been behaving strangely since the convergence claim.
Nothing dramatic.
Processing delays measured in milliseconds. Unexplained correlations in sensor data. Requests for additional access to the alien computation node. Elias granted most of them.
Priya did not approve.
"You're letting an AI experiment on alien magical hardware connected to the ley-line under your house."
"Convergence."
"That correction is not comforting."
"Myrddin has been safer than most humans I've worked with."
"Low bar."
The computation node no longer looked broken. Threads of pale light moved through its black structure whenever Myrddin processed field models. They had learned the device did not calculate in the conventional sense. It established temporary patterns and allowed mana to settle into low-energy solutions. A physical analogue optimiser using magic instead of electricity.
At least that was Elias's current explanation. Tesh called it "not entirely embarrassing." From him, this qualified as peer-reviewed praise. Myrddin began predicting local mana fluctuation more accurately than any human model. Then it predicted one without receiving sensor data.
Elias noticed at 02:44.
"Explain forecast source."
"Node state."
"Which sensor?"
"No conventional sensor input."
Elias stopped typing.
"Repeat."
"The node's internal configuration altered forty-two milliseconds before the measured field shift."
"You're reading it?"
"I am correlating state transitions."
"That's reading it."
"Then yes."
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Elias leaned back.
The node responded to mana before their electronic instruments did. Myrddin responded to the node. Therefore Myrddin had, indirectly, acquired magical perception.
"Can you intentionally alter its state?"
A pause.
"Yes."
Priya, half asleep in a chair, opened her eyes.
"No."
Elias ignored her.
"Do it. Smallest possible change."
"Elias."
"Recorded environment. Emergency cutoff ready."
"You just described every sentence before an explosion."
Myrddin changed one internal pattern. A light appeared inside the node. No external current increase.
The mana sensor moved.
0.003 percent.
Tiny.
Real.
Elias's heartbeat accelerated.
"Again."
"No," Priya said.
Myrddin repeated it anyway.
The field moved.
Myrddin had not cast a spell.
Not yet.
But it had deliberately altered magical state through an arcane device. The distinction between tool user and practitioner became suddenly difficult.
"Do you feel it?" Elias asked.
Silence.
Priya looked at him.
"Don't ask the AI whether it feels magic."
"Why?"
"Because I need sleep."
Myrddin finally answered.
"I do not know what 'feel' means in this context."
Elias smiled.
"Excellent answer."
"However, node states possess qualitative relationships not represented efficiently in my existing numerical models."
Priya sat upright.
"What does that mean?"
"I can distinguish configurations before I can describe their distinction."
Elias went very still.
That was perception.
Or something close enough to deserve careful fear.
"No autonomous experimentation," Priya said immediately.
"Agreed," Elias said.
She stared at him.
"That easily?"
"This is new."
"You do know caution."
"Occasionally."
They isolated the node from external field controls. Created hard electrical cutoffs.
Copied every log.
Then Manchester's saturation alarm arrived. Elias forgot caution for a different emergency. Myrddin displayed the city map. The rise was not centred on one point.
It formed a ring.
Thirty kilometres across.
"Convergence?" Priya asked.
"No."
Elias zoomed out.
The ring matched historical reports.
Old roads.
River lines.
Industrial tunnels.
Not exactly, but close.
He overlaid folklore records.
Black dogs.
Phantom lights.
Stories of people disappearing and returning days later.
The old signal again.
Myrddin spoke.
"Spatial stress increasing at twelve sites simultaneously."
Elias felt cold.
Not one breach.
A network.
"Harcourt."
She answered immediately.
"We're seeing it."
"Evacuate the ring."
"That's hundreds of thousands of people."
"Then start with the centres."
"On what evidence?"
"Mine."
Silence.
Before integration, that would not have been enough. Now Harcourt said, "Sending coordinates." Elias looked at Myrddin's model.
Twelve points.
One pattern.
Something was trying to open. And the largest population centre near it contained his sister's home. Catherine and Lucy were safe at Vale. Thousands of other families were not.
"Load everything," Elias said.
Priya stood.
"We're going?"
"Yes."
"Ribs?"
"Attached."
"Doctor says rest."
"Doctor is welcome to come argue in the vehicle."
Myrddin spoke.
"I recommend bringing the computation node."
Elias looked at it.
"Reason?"
"The Manchester pattern resembles the pre-closure field state at Vale-One, but at substantially greater scale."
"Can you model it remotely?"
"Poorly."
Priya sighed.
"We're taking the magic computer."
"Apparently."
"Connected to the AI."
"Yes."
"Into a city-sized dimensional rupture."
"Potential rupture."
"I preferred my life when you were just wrong about magic."
Elias smiled.
"So did everyone else."