Chapter 15: The Crow's Gift
POV: Adam/Pavel
The package arrived with the dawn, carried by the white-streaked crow that had become as familiar as an old friend. But this time, the bird carried more than just a message—a small bundle wrapped in oiled cloth dangled from its talons like a gift from the gods.
Adam was checking his gear for the hundredth time when the crow landed beside him, clicking softly in what had become their established communication protocol. The bundle dropped at his feet with a metallic clink that made his heart skip.
"What has Kaz sent me now?"
The wrapping fell away to reveal something that shouldn't have existed in this world: a small medallion of dark metal, no larger than a coin, inscribed with symbols that hurt to look at directly. The craftsmanship was impossibly precise, as if someone had carved the piece at a molecular level.
A note was wrapped around the chain:
For the sun. Emergency use only. Ten minutes duration, thirty centimeter range.
From someone counting on chaos.
- K
"A nullification charm. Kaz somehow created a portable anti-magic device."
Adam lifted the medallion carefully, feeling the weight of it in his palm. The metal was warm to the touch and seemed to pulse with its own inner rhythm, like a heartbeat made of absence.
[EXTERNAL ARTIFACT DETECTED]
[ANALYSIS: NULL-FIELD GENERATOR]
[RANGE: 30 CENTIMETERS]
[DURATION: 10 MINUTES (SINGLE USE)]
[WARNING: UNKNOWN MANUFACTURING ORIGIN]
[PARADOX DETECTED: TECHNOLOGY SHOULD NOT EXIST IN CURRENT TIMELINE]
The system's warnings sent ice through Adam's veins. If the technology shouldn't exist, how had Kaz created it? And what did that mean for the stability of the world they were all living in?
"Pavel?" Mal's voice cut through his contemplation. "What's that?"
"Dancing bears love moonlight!" Adam said, quickly slipping the chain over his head and tucking the medallion beneath his shirt.
"Right. More mysterious gifts from your crow friend." Mal studied the bird, which had settled nearby to preen its feathers. "I swear that thing understands every word we say."
"If you only knew."
"David, I need a favor," Adam said an hour later, having tracked down the Fabrikator in his workshop.
David looked up from a complicated array of metal components, his hands still glowing faintly with Fabrikator power. "Pavel! How's the speech situation?"
"Magnificent cheese sculptures are plotting world domination!"
"Right. Well, what can I do for you?"
Adam pulled out the medallion, watching David's expression shift from curiosity to fascination to complete bewilderment.
"Where did you get this?" David breathed, reaching for the artifact with reverent hands.
"Rainbow fish are learning to tap dance!"
"May I?" David gestured toward his examination tools.
Adam nodded, and David began his analysis with the methodical precision of a master craftsman. He held the medallion up to the light, traced the inscribed symbols, even attempted to probe its structure with small applications of his power.
That's when things got interesting.
David's Fabrikator abilities, which should have been able to read the molecular structure of any metal, simply stopped working when they touched the medallion. His power scattered like water hitting oil, finding no purchase whatsoever.
"It's nullifying his examination attempts. The charm is actively resisting analysis."
"This is impossible," David muttered, setting the medallion down and staring at it like it had personally insulted him. "The metallurgy doesn't make sense. The alloy composition is unlike anything I've ever seen, and the way it's forged..." He shook his head. "Pavel, this thing shouldn't exist."
"Crystallized moonbeams make terrible fashion accessories!"
"Exactly. It's like someone took the concept of 'anti-metal' and somehow made it real." David picked up the medallion again, this time with a pair of tongs. "The symbols aren't just decorative, either. They're functional—channels for whatever force this thing generates."
"Functional symbols. Kaz didn't just make a nullification device, he engineered it."
"Where did you say you got this?" David asked again.
"Seventeen purple elephants are planning a coup!"
"Right. Well, whoever made it knows more about metallurgy than I do. And that's saying something." David handed the medallion back with obvious reluctance. "Be careful with it, Pavel. I don't know what it does exactly, but it's clearly designed to affect Grisha abilities."
As Adam tucked the medallion away, he caught sight of David's expression—a mixture of professional envy and genuine concern.
"He knows it's dangerous. He can sense that it's not from this world."
[EXTERNAL PARADOX ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[ARTIFACT ORIGIN: MULTIVERSAL INTERSECTION]
[IMPLICATION: TIMELINE BREACH DETECTED]
[CALCULATING COMPENSATION...]
[ERROR: COMPENSATION MATRIX OVERLOAD]
[BLUE SCREEN PROTOCOL INITIATED]
The world around Adam suddenly pixelated, reality fracturing into geometric patterns that made his eyes water. For a moment, he could see the underlying code of existence—lines of text scrolling past in languages that had never been spoken by human tongues.
Then everything snapped back to normal with an almost audible pop.
[SYSTEM RESTART COMPLETE]
[WARNING: INSTABILITY INCREASING]
[RANDOM STAT FLUCTUATIONS DETECTED]
[HIDDEN COUNTER ACTIVATED: 3/5]
[RECOMMENDATION: AVOID FURTHER PARADOX TRIGGERS]
"Three out of five. Three system glitches. What happens when it reaches five?"
Adam stared at the notifications, his heart racing. The system was becoming increasingly unstable, and Kaz's gift had apparently pushed it closer to some kind of critical failure state.
But the medallion remained warm against his chest, a tangible reminder that he wasn't entirely alone in this world. Somewhere in Ketterdam, a teenage crime lord was playing a game whose rules extended far beyond the boundaries of any single reality.
"Tomorrow. Tomorrow we enter the Fold, and I'll find out if Kaz's gift is worth the risk it represents."
The crow cawed once from its perch nearby, then spread its wings and disappeared into the afternoon sky.
Time was running out.
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