‘Demonology?’ Courtney asked.
Rochester made a dismissive hand-wave gesture. ‘It all comes down to the same thing when you examine the metaphysics. Spirit magic assumes the existence of atavistic entities representing natural phenomena or moral standpoints. In some cases, it refers to what we would call gods. Necromancy deals with the spirits of the dead, generally in the belief that death frees one from the constraints of time and allows ghosts to predict the future or reveal the past. Demonology posits the existence of extradimensional or immaterial entities which are not necessarily evil but have powers which a summoner can exploit. There are some badly documented cases of necromancy producing results on Earth. Results as in the summoning of some form of ghost, not of any predictions made. A review of such cases posits that there was limited evidence to suggest that powerful magicians might be able to transcend death in some way.’
‘The Harbingers were far more advanced than us as far as sorcery went,’ Melissa said. ‘Maybe they found a systematic way to do that.’
‘That is not without foundation. I found two pieces of rather speculative, untested metaphysics research from the first century after the formalisation of the subject. One suggests that it is possible, at least in theory, for a conscious pattern of thoughts to exist within the quintessential field. It is suggested that such “tulpa” entities could arise spontaneously through quantum fluctuations or be formed by the transition of a sentient mind into the Q-field. Another paper suggests a mechanism by which a proposed tulpa could possess a material host. It utilises a metaphysical hypothesis on the nature of conscious minds which has never been proven, and also never disproven. That said, the suggested observable results of such a possession are a good match for what Lambert and Kyle experienced.’
‘What’s a tulpa?’ Courtney asked.
‘It’s a concept from theosophy,’ Lambert said, ‘common in mysticism and paranormal research prior to the formalisation of metaphysics. The original concept is… Think of it as an imaginary friend, sentient and independent of the person it originated from. An entity of pure thought.’
Courtney frowned. ‘So, we’re saying that our perpetrator could be an entity of pure thought, normally living in the Q-field but able to assume a physical form by using sorcery to possess a material host.’
‘An adequate summary of what we have,’ Rochester replied. ‘It would seem likely that the Harbingers perfected the transfer from physical body to immaterial Q-field pattern and that one of them was, for whatever reason, trapped within the artefact.’
‘I think the reason is obvious,’ Nava said. ‘It’s a sadistic monster. It’s unreasonable to suggest that the Harbingers were perfect. Their society probably produced serial killers just as this one does. How do we kill it?’
‘The tulpa paper suggested that such entities would be especially vulnerable to surges of quintessence. Attacks with raw magical energy would harm them more than other forms of attack. However, their existence within the Q-field means they need to be attacked from within the Q-field. Or by some means of projecting an attack into the Q-field. Even your Magic Burst spell operates by directing quintessence into this dimension. It would have no effect on the Harbinger which exists outside our reality.’
‘Lambert,’ Mitsuko said, ‘have you found anything which might help us?’
Lambert sighed. ‘The concise answer is no, though I’d like to review what I have in the light of those papers Rochester found. The engineering involved in the creation of the intact components is far beyond our capabilities, but not entirely beyond our understanding. I believe that careful examination will advance some areas of magical engineering by decades, even centuries. The device was able to gather a substantial amount of quintessence from its surroundings despite being substantially smaller than our aggregator technology, for example. I believe that part of the device was concerned with the generation of a force barrier. It shows some similarities to the force screen generators used by the military or in some illusory art installations.’
‘There’s a suggestion in one paper I found,’ Rochester said, ‘that it should be possible to create a… standing wave in the Q-field. The proposal is that it would create a solid barrier against sorcery, but my reading is that a tulpa would be unable to cross it. Combined with a more physical barrier and formed as a sphere, I suspect that it would make an effective container for a tulpa. Perhaps the differences you’re seeing are related to generating such a dual barrier.’
Lambert actually smiled. ‘There’s a reason you’re always answering my questions in theory classes. Please send me the references to those papers and I’ll check over my findings on the components.’
‘It would be my honour.’
‘But,’ Nava said, ‘that’s still a method of containing the thing and that’s proven to be an insufficient method of dealing with it.’ She looked across at Lambert. ‘You’re not going to argue that it should be kept alive for study, are you?’
‘I can understand why someone would argue the case,’ Lambert said, ‘but I want it destroyed. Frankly, I doubt it would be cooperative if we did capture it.’
‘Right. So how do we get me into the Q-field?’
‘What?!’ It was not just Mitsuko who responded with some degree of horror. Everyone let out some form of exclamation, except Rochester who had already come to the same conclusion as Nava.
‘The only way we have of attacking the Harbinger is for someone to meet it on its own ground,’ Rochester said. ‘Nava is the only logical candidate.’
‘What about targeting it from this world?’ Kyle asked.
‘Targeting is the issue,’ Nava replied. ‘I can only run one improvised spell at a time. We may be able to work out how to see it.’
‘That would be relatively easy,’ Rochester said. ‘A variation on the usual spell
