Daily writing prompts from June 9th, 2008 to December 31st, 2022
Thursday April 30th, 2020
The exercise: Write about: the code breaker. May arrives tomorrow. Despite April feeling like the longest month ever, its ending still manages to come as a surprise.
April hasn't seemed that long, but then I've not been at home in lockdown for it, so maybe that's the difference?
The code breaker Ethel walked back down the tunnel, now paying careful attention to the length of it, the cleanliness of it, and anything at all that seemed out of place. The precepts of ritual magic were straightforward enough, but they were demandingly exact as welll; when he talked about it with his colleagues he liked to draw an analogy with engineering, saying that the parts of a successful ritual were machined so precisely that they would fit together as though they'd never been separate. The tunnel was, as far as he could tell, entirely spotless, and that was indeed suspicious. He should have noticed it sooner, but then the Inspectral had taken nearly ten minutes and a prompt from the young kid, Collins, to get there, so perhaps he shouldn't be too hard on himself. Ethel smiled for a moment, thinking about the younger policemen. Adams was ambitious and let it get in the way of her common sense sometimes, but Collins had an eagerness about him that appealed to Ethel. It reminded him of his younger days, as a trainee Ritual Examiner and code breaker. He slowed down slightly, starting to find faint outlines of patterns on the wall; white paint on white paint. Ritual magic and codes had a lot in common as they both conveyed information in ways intended to be concealed from the average person. Knowing the techniques of one helped with the other. Ethelred knew he was more practical than theoretical but he still read the journals and papers, trying to keep up as cryptography embraced mathematical tools created for completely different problems and produced codes that were mind-blowingly difficult to break. And in turn he took those techniques and methods and translated into the old forms and rhythms of magic and discovered new rituals and improvements on old rituals, and some of them he wrote down and then locked away, hoping that no-one else would have reason to investigate in that direction. He stopped, he was close to the start of the tunnel now and the white paint started here. He squinted at the wall and then decided that there probably wasn't time to take all the precautions he'd usually use. He centred himself, his feet planted firmly on the floor shoulder-width apart and braced slightly. Then his hands described specific shapes in the air and he felt a flutter like wings at his shoulder and the white paint on the wall fluoreseced into bright purple letters. He waited several seconds, listening intently for alarms both physical and paraphysical, but nothing happened. They were in a hurry he reminded himself. They knew we'd come, so they've cut corners as well. The trick is matching our corners, now. And breaking the code of course. As Ethel read the letters he felt a sense of relief: this was a standard invocation. He moved slowly back up the tunnel, his hands in his pockets feeling through his paraphernalia to get the tiny crystals that would stall this spell if it was invoked, and then he halted. The letters on the wall had changed their pattern; it was subtle but this was just like the code-breaking days where a small change usually meant you'd made a mistake initially. He went back and checked, and then back and checked again. The third time he forced himself to move slower still, thinking harder about the ritual magic here and not about the lack of time or the Inspectral alone against two Radiant Priests -- whatever Harold thought of Adams and Collins they were still children in these matters. And -- there! There was the problem. Ethel sighed and started sorting through his pockets again. The code was broken and he was unhappy. The Radiant Priests had first tried to send them down the wrong tunnel, and now had written a subtle, nasty trap into their spells. What else were they up to?
Enjoyed this visit from Ethel's perspective, particularly seeing his thoughts on the others in the group. And those they are pursuing. I think I like him even more now :)
2 comments:
April hasn't seemed that long, but then I've not been at home in lockdown for it, so maybe that's the difference?
The code breaker
Ethel walked back down the tunnel, now paying careful attention to the length of it, the cleanliness of it, and anything at all that seemed out of place. The precepts of ritual magic were straightforward enough, but they were demandingly exact as welll; when he talked about it with his colleagues he liked to draw an analogy with engineering, saying that the parts of a successful ritual were machined so precisely that they would fit together as though they'd never been separate.
The tunnel was, as far as he could tell, entirely spotless, and that was indeed suspicious. He should have noticed it sooner, but then the Inspectral had taken nearly ten minutes and a prompt from the young kid, Collins, to get there, so perhaps he shouldn't be too hard on himself. Ethel smiled for a moment, thinking about the younger policemen. Adams was ambitious and let it get in the way of her common sense sometimes, but Collins had an eagerness about him that appealed to Ethel. It reminded him of his younger days, as a trainee Ritual Examiner and code breaker.
He slowed down slightly, starting to find faint outlines of patterns on the wall; white paint on white paint. Ritual magic and codes had a lot in common as they both conveyed information in ways intended to be concealed from the average person. Knowing the techniques of one helped with the other. Ethelred knew he was more practical than theoretical but he still read the journals and papers, trying to keep up as cryptography embraced mathematical tools created for completely different problems and produced codes that were mind-blowingly difficult to break. And in turn he took those techniques and methods and translated into the old forms and rhythms of magic and discovered new rituals and improvements on old rituals, and some of them he wrote down and then locked away, hoping that no-one else would have reason to investigate in that direction.
He stopped, he was close to the start of the tunnel now and the white paint started here. He squinted at the wall and then decided that there probably wasn't time to take all the precautions he'd usually use. He centred himself, his feet planted firmly on the floor shoulder-width apart and braced slightly. Then his hands described specific shapes in the air and he felt a flutter like wings at his shoulder and the white paint on the wall fluoreseced into bright purple letters.
He waited several seconds, listening intently for alarms both physical and paraphysical, but nothing happened.
They were in a hurry he reminded himself. They knew we'd come, so they've cut corners as well. The trick is matching our corners, now.
And breaking the code of course. As Ethel read the letters he felt a sense of relief: this was a standard invocation. He moved slowly back up the tunnel, his hands in his pockets feeling through his paraphernalia to get the tiny crystals that would stall this spell if it was invoked, and then he halted. The letters on the wall had changed their pattern; it was subtle but this was just like the code-breaking days where a small change usually meant you'd made a mistake initially. He went back and checked, and then back and checked again. The third time he forced himself to move slower still, thinking harder about the ritual magic here and not about the lack of time or the Inspectral alone against two Radiant Priests -- whatever Harold thought of Adams and Collins they were still children in these matters. And -- there! There was the problem.
Ethel sighed and started sorting through his pockets again. The code was broken and he was unhappy. The Radiant Priests had first tried to send them down the wrong tunnel, and now had written a subtle, nasty trap into their spells. What else were they up to?
Greg - yes, I suspect so.
Enjoyed this visit from Ethel's perspective, particularly seeing his thoughts on the others in the group. And those they are pursuing. I think I like him even more now :)
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