Chapter Six
Sapphire got home somewhat after eleven P.M.. Alabaster had taken her out for a nice dinner, and afterwards they went to see the revival of Trollight Express at the downtown theater. She blushed a bit at the... more personal activity they engaged in later. She was sure the blond, glasses-wearing man as smart as she was going to propose as soon as he worked up the courage. For her part, she was working up the courage to say 'yes'.
They had discussed the comet, and possible courses of action, but none were very promising. With his father's permission he pledged himself and his family's resources to helping in any way they could. Since the Trollington family was very rich and owned many diverse companies, this could make a major difference in the outcome of the comet strike.
But still, they hadn't come up with a solution.
She researched the last known strike, an asteroid that hit and formed the Great Lake. It had been huge, and changed the climate of the entire world. The comet wasn't nearly as big, nor had as much mass, but would be a disaster without doubt.
Since the event was still a couple of months away, the place where the comet would hit was only the most probable, not a certainty. Land or water would make a difference.
She continued to think about it while getting ready for bed, going over the resources she knew of, the teachers and scientists she had met, anything and everything that could potentially help.
She fell asleep, still thinking.
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Amethyst was brushing up on a chapter in her textbook on dealing with the Gremlin Nation. Her natural ability as an arbiter between her friends when they had a fight had easily transferred to the far larger field of diplomatic relations. In the exercises they ran at school she consistently scored the highest of anyone in class.
This looming disaster would likely be the most important exercise in diplomacy anyone would ever have. She felt sure the government had contacted the Gremlin Nation and Ogre Nation and told them, even though there was no word of anything like that on the news.
But what of the other races? Trolls had the first and most advanced civilization in the world. The gremlins were second, but ogres and orcs and goblins were slow to adopt anything new, and the pixies pretty much ignored most manufactured things.
No, saving the world was up to the trolls.
The Troll Nation government's Disaster Division had already begun discussions, but as far as she knew no course of action had been agreed on. The time to decide what to do had to be taken, but it was running out.
She wished she was out of class and part of a diplomatic team sent to help the other races understand and prepare. But on the other hand, she was an Ancient. Protecting everyone was a higher priority, but right now she wasn't needed.
She had to trust her friends to find a solution, and then take her part in it.
Sighing in defeat, the pink-haired troll girl settled in for a fitful night's sleep.
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Ruby was frustrated. She lay in bed, thinking of every effect of every spell bead she had ever heard of, trying to find a way to stop the comet.
Without success.
She simply didn't know enough to be useful in finding a solution. It made her feel stupid, and she wasn't stupid. All right, admittedly she didn't understand the science, but she did understand the situation and the danger. There had to be something that could be done!
She got out of bed and padded over to the window, looking up at the stars.
That comet was huge, some five miles across. No spell bead ever made, even with the Magic of the Five, could affect it in any real way. All the power they could muster together wouldn't be anything like enough. The idea of using magic was a dead end, and that was all she knew enough about to say with any certainty.
She turned back to her bed, and stopped.
Wait a minute... what about a bigger spell bead? That was theoretically possible. It was even possible to calculate the amount of materials needed to affect something that size. Sapphire could write a program to do just that. It didn't matter how big the bead was, anyone with enough basic magic could activate it. The bigger the bead, the wider the effect.
The redhead grinned to herself. Now we're getting somewhere!
Okay... so, let's assume we have a spell to use (never mind what right now), and a bead big enough to affect the comet. How do we get it there?
She hadn't paid much attention in the past, but knew that rockets existed that could take materials weighing tons into space, and she knew there was a space station up there. A rocket could take the bead to the comet! Yes!
So, let's put it together: decide on a spell to use, then make a bead big enough to be effective and put it on a rocket and send it there! Problem solved!
Excited, she ran over and grabbed her phone, sitting on the bed. She had hit one number when a problem occurred to her. She snapped it closed.
Yeah, they could get the bead to the comet, but how would they activate it from here? While studying with Obsidian she had learned that a bead could only be activated by a troll who was either holding it or close enough for her personal magic to work. Being Ancients their magic had a much longer range for that purpose, but not over thousands of miles. She doubted even using the Sacred Altar would help.
she flopped back on the bed. Darn it! She was so close!
The red-eyed troll girl lay there for some time, trying to think of a way around this new problem, but couldn't. Finally she gave up for the night and got back into bed, slowly dozing off.
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Onyx lay on her bed at home, trying to relax. The problem of the comet and what to do about it was taking up more and more of her time. and said time was getting short.
Her passion for history had grown over the last several years, and she felt strongly that a solution could be found in the past. But what? What events could suggest how to stop a comet from destroying the world? And if that wasn't possible, some way of preserving civilization and as many lives as possible?
It would take a lot of trolls working together, that much she was sure of. There weren't many times in recorded history where so many trolls had done so. In fact, she could think of only one- when an army was gathered. And that hadn't happened in a couple of hundred years.
Trolls did not fight trolls. That shameful event was very far in the past, thank goodness, and (despite isolated incidents) peace reigned between the races so there was no standing military as such. A militia could be raised if events warranted, but that was as far as it went.
Deciding to get a good night's sleep to clear her head, Onyx rolled over on her right side and closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind and doze. For several minutes she moved, rolled, and adjusted. but couldn't get comfortable. Something was nagging at her, telling her a solution was at hand.
Annoyed she sat up, turning on the light on the nightstand. Looking around her room, her eyes finally settled on her notes for the book about the Ancients. Going over to them, she started leafing through, looking for... she didn't know what.
Finally putting them down she looked over where she had the Ancient's diaries (or journals) stored to use as research for her book. It would be a lot of work, going through them for whatever it was tickling her memory, but she'd never forgive herself if the solution was there and she hadn't looked because of the trouble it took.
By now she was fairly familiar with the Ancient's exploits, and knew without question they had never tackled a comet.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes.
Was there a... parallel problem they had solved? What we've got is a falling rock (okay, ice cube) that was going to smash everything.
'Rock falling, rock falling...' she thought, leaning back in the chair.
She gasped, leaning forward to the boxes of journals. Pulling over Spinel's box, she rifled through them until she found one marked 1411 - 1460. Putting it on the desk she flipped through until she found the entry she wanted.
Fourteen fifty-seven... steady rains for weeks was causing mudslides and rockslides above a cluster of villages at the foot of the mountains to the south. Lives had been lost. Not long after they got there, they discovered a huge boulder was slowly working loose. When it dropped (and it was matter of when, not if) it would destroy a lot of homes.
When it broke loose and started rolling, they used the Magic of the Five to create a large portal and let the boulder roll into it. It came out past the villages and dropped into a canyon where it formed a dam creating a lake behind it.
Onyx put down the brittle, browned book. That was it! That was what they needed! She picked up the phone, then put it down again. They were meeting tomorrow, anyway, so why disturb everyone?
She went into the kitchen for a snack, and think about the idea. She would tell them tomorrow. She smiled. Their Ancients were still helping them.
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Topaz slept soundly the entire night, relaxed and unconcerned.