A Fortress of Pebbles

Beyond the door was a desert – or what looked like one. The floor was covered in sand, and the mind pebbles in the walls and ceiling tricked your brain into thinking the hot sun was beating down on you from a clear blue sky. A warm breeze hit them as they entered.

Aissaba was pleased to see that both children were stunned into silence. Finally, they were acting normal.

“The Room of Sand is one of the main laboratories in the Hall of Maps,” explained Aissaba. “Luckily, we have it reserved for the next few minutes. Who would like to go first?”

She expected them to fight over it, or for both to raise a hand, frantically standing on tippy-toes, trying to get picked. Instead, a solemn game of paper rock scissors began. One-two-three: Scissors. One-two-three: Scissors again. One-two-three: Rocks.

Aissaba and Tassadu watched in awe as the two kids shot twelve times, each duplicating the other. Every single time.

Finally, Orion gave an exasperated groan and said, “Oh, just go!” Cassandra gave a silent squeal of delight in Aissaba’s direction.

“Map pebbles are like any other magic pebble,” said Aissaba, feeling the usual deja vu associated with this part of the tour. Tassadu’s eyes always got misty too. It was hard not to remember the time you were the one standing there with a handful of what seemed like normal brown stones. “If you look very closely at any pebble, you can tell if it’s been ‘flashed,’” said Aissaba. “Do you see the brownish glow coming from these?”

Both kids nodded eagerly. Yes, finally. She had them.

“That means the pebble is storing a spell.”

“Like software?” said Cassandra.

Aissaba almost faltered. Seriously: she doesn’t know what Pokemon is, but she casually gets software? “Yes, Cassandra,” said Aissaba. “Have you and Orion done much computer programming?”

Cassandra shrugged. Orion was looking directly into the sun overhead – seeming to have realized that it wasn’t real and couldn’t blind him.

“Well, as I was saying, a map pebble is like any other pebble – except that it’s been flashed with a map spell,” continued Aissaba. It was word-for-word the same speech that Aissaba had been given the day she’d fallen asleep in a hospital and woken up at the Fortress gates. “Map spells can change matter itself, and even create it out of nothing.”

She half-expected one of the kids to say something about thermodynamics, but thankfully neither did.

She went on: “In fact, all spells affect matter. It’s just that map spells are specialized for large alterations – from the scale of pebbles up to entire tectonic plates. They can even operate at the planetary scale.” Neither child batted an eye at the term “tectonic plates.” Aissaba herself remembered having no idea what these things meant when she’d been the one standing there, sweating beneath the hot sun. She’d been too afraid to ask. “But the pebbles you’re holding aren’t that strong. Each one is about enough for a small boulder or a fireball. In fact, Tassadu and I have pre-flashed them with various spells. Cassandra, are you ready to find out what they are?”

Again, Aissaba half-expected some kind of bizarre question, but Cassadra just nodded eagerly. Aissaba told her to pick her favorite pebble and to throw it as hard as she could across the desert.

When Cassandra chucked the pebble, it was as if the motion whipped the wind itself along with it. Suddenly, there was sand in the air, blotting out the sun. Aissaba felt her robes pulled in the direction of the throw. A second later, a tornado of sand was moving across the surface of the dunes. It exploded on the invisible wall opposite where they stood.

“My turn!” announced Orion, springing to his feet and throwing all of his pebbles at once.