Raistlin Upadesa in the style of Mikhail Vrubel, as interpreted by DALL-E in January 2025.

  Raistlin told Genry he was feeling better today, and they met down at the Citadel. As always, Genry was friendly and had many novel and unconvincing ideas about the Citadel.

  Being a Transmuter, he was skilled in mixing various ingredients into delicious dishes, and today he had brought lunch for both of them. Raistlin did not have to pretend to be very happy about this.

  When the scan arrived, he followed it like he had done yesterday. He observed the obfuscation engrams carefully.

  Most likely, he could succeed with a direct attack, Divining it while hiding behind obfuscations. In fact, the easiest and most elegant way of doing this would be to embed the Divination of the scan’s obfuscation magics directly into his primary Divination of the scan.

  That would be a thing of beauty. Primary and secondary Divinations combined into a single energy flow, all of which would be hidden by his three layers of obfuscation.

  The only risk was that whatever detection engrams were hidden inside the obfuscations would be stronger than his own obfuscations and thus able to see what he was doing. Was it arrogant to consider this possibility unlikely?

  A more indirect approach would be to identify the topmost level of detection engrams. That level would be unprotected.

  A detection engram – an eye – may observe a specific area, but it cannot observe itself. For that, a second eye is required, which also cannot observe itself.

  If he observes the magical space over time, he might be able to figure out which of them is unprotected. Then he could just unravel everything from the top down.

  When the scan identified one Sally Schexnayder thinking about how to sneak into a Protector stronghold and find out what they were up to – she was a Transmuter and considered making a tunnel for herself in under the stronghold and then hide in walls and ceilings – it sent off a report.

  Raistlin observed carefully. One of the obfuscation blobs stirred slightly. That must be the detection engram watching this magical space.

  But was one of the other blobs watching this one? He watched the reverberations from the first blob. There was a slight echo in one of the others, but not in the third. Reverberations from the echo also did not produce a secondary echo in the third blob.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Raistlin targeted the blob that had given off an echo vibration. To do so he had to organize a second energy flow while maintaining the first – the original detection-obfuscation that was his current platform for observation.

  This was not very difficult for him, as he was accustomed to running half a dozen magical flows at the same time. Divining this second blob, he found that it was indeed a surveillance engram focused on the first blob.

  Raistlin targeted this surveillance engram with cancellation magic, but of a temporary kind and, as always, embedded in several layers of obfuscation. It was like stunning it instead of killing it, while hiding the fact that it had been stunned from any observer.

  It seemed like nothing had happened. No alarm report was generated – at least none that Raistlin could perceive.

  He repeated the detection project with the first blob as the target, finding he had been correct in identifying this one as a detection engram surveilling the magical space surrounding the scan. Cancellation took care of it in the same way as with the previous one.

  Then he targeted the remaining blob. It was a surveillance engram watching for Divination focused on scans as a concept. This engram would be set off if someone tries to Divine whether there are scans, how scans function, and so forth. Raistlin did not apply any cancellation magic to this one as it was harmless to him.

  He had battled the scan and won. Tomorrow, should he so want, he would be able to combine the two cancellation stuns into the primary energy flow observing the scan. As he then establishes his presence in the magical space surrounding the scan, he will already be its master.

  ---

  The chamber of memories offers Raistlin a grand tour of everything that has ever made him afraid. He is not afraid of any of it anymore. At the end of the tour, he faces an open door and goes in.

  Raistlin sees a woman lying on a bed in what looks like a hospital room. However, the woman is tied to the bed. Something covers most of her face, but he can see that it is Ykka. She appears to be the same age as when she was arrested.

  Raistlin takes a slow, deep breath. He exhales and breathes in again.

  He becomes aware of two people standing next to Ykka’s bed. They wear Protector robes. One says to the other, “So she is still resisting our efforts?”

  “I am afraid so, sir” the other responds. “It appears she has the ability to hide from our Divination. Perhaps even to cancel it.”

  “That is worrying. It is of utmost importance that we root out this nest of renegades. When people with such capabilities go insane, as surely they must sooner or later, they will wreak havoc on their community.”

  “Yes, sir. We also have other lines of investigation seeking to identify the members of her group.”

  “Of course. Nevertheless, see that you find a way to overcome this woman’s resistance. It would be a blow to morale for our efforts to be thwarted by a mere renegade such as this.”

  “We shall redouble our efforts, sir. Soon she will succumb to our probes.”

  Before the scene fades, Raistlin notices that the room is suffused with magic. There is a strong Conveyance shield and even stronger cancellation shields. The air is thick with surveillance magic.

  Uliaz Grey, Disseminator, in the style of Mikhail Vrubel, as interpreted by DALL-E in January 2025.