He Who Fights with Monsters 11 (He Who Fights with Monsters, #11)

by Shirtaloon

“Where did you get this model?” Boris asked. “What?” Clive asked distractedly. “Oh, I threw it together while I was figuring out astral geography. Or trying to, anyway.” Boris stood up straight from where he’d been leaning over to examine the lower sections of the diagram. He turned to Clive and looked at him from under raised eyebrows. “You just threw it together?” “Yeah,” Clive said and turned to look at Boris. “Is there something wrong with it?” “Weren’t you trained on the astral magic of this world? You know there’s been an active effort to keep the astral magic theory here stunted, right? To keep the link between worlds hidden?” “I didn’t know that, but it makes sense. Astral magic hadn’t made any real advancements in centuries until around fifteen years ago. Which turned out to be when the Cult of the Builder started actively using it here. That’s when they started getting sloppy.” “But in that environment, you got to the point of being able to do this,” Boris said, gesturing at the diagram. “That’s hardly a feat,” Clive said. “I’ve had access to outside astral magic for years now.” “How many years?” Boris asked. “Well, I’ve had access to my mentor’s notes going back almost twenty years. He spent his life piecing together fragments of astral magic from off-world sources, although it was all very patchy. I always wondered how Landemere Vane always seemed to be ahead of me, but it turns out he was a Builder cultist the whole time. Given what he must have had access to,...