Planning the Impossible

There was nothing else Joss could think of for a plan other than the impossible.

He wanted to carve a protection rune around the mountain's crater and get Harbinger to detonate his bomb inside of it. To try to make some giant rune in the surrounding area would be too chaotic and just the smallest movement would null the whole thing....

"Carving it into the stone however, could work." The silver haired male explained to Jyriah, Ajax, and Vincent as they sat around him for his presentation.

"Yeah, that would work - but how would we even pull that off? They would spot us instantly. If you actually want to carve a rune into the cusp of that hole quickly, I will have to be rather large," Vincent replied thoughtfully. Joss had earned his respect, and he had listened intently.

"I can draw a rune that can make you invisible," Joss replied easily.

"How about the sound? I have every confidence they will hear rock being carved into, even if I am high up," Vincent pointed out.

"I have a plan for that. With Veltar's help, I am positive together we can come up with a dye that is flammable when dried. A lot of the vats in the tunnels are explosive because of their contents. With enough grass, we could make a deep green. Then, it would look like trees spouting up or something. Only a hawk would be able to tell." Joss answered again with ease. He truly had been staying up for two days now just thinking about his plan.

To Jyriah's chagrin, Joss had even woken up from a deep slumber with the final touches to his plan, which is why he had pulled the most important souls to make everything work so 'late'.

"Okay, and then we let it all just light on fire and that doesn't draw any reaction?" Vincent refuted again and crossed his arms.

"If we do it during the day, it won't be as obvious. It's smokeless. It turns into vapor, and it burns fast. Once it burns the runes into the ground, they will stay in place. The substance is really sticky, so if we carve deep trenches into the earth, it could possibly stay there as a ward of protection for hundreds of years..." Joss calculated out loud.

"This is insane. Even if everything went off without a hitch, how is a rune going to work if you can't cross-pattern in the center?" The Dragon King grumbled.

"Haha - that's the trouble with everyone who knows of magic. You all follow the rules. I experimented since I didn't know all the rules. If you turn a sigil inside out, it still works- but its the opposite effect. A snow rune turned inside out makes fire. I just turned the shield inside out."

"That sounds like a really stupid idea. If it's reversed, that means it doesn't shield anything at all," the grumpy royal pointed out and darted his eyes.

"Ah, but the opposite of a shield isn't lack of protection - it's containment. It would force all the energy into one location rather than let it spread outward. If I put an amplification sigil in the design, it will dim the power instead of making it stronger. It would essentially be a trap to suck in all that weapon's power and nullify it." The silver haired male was so proud of himself, and it showed in his grin as his orange eyes met Vincent's purple ones.

"Are you sure this will work?" The King asked as though it were his last question.

"I'm 98% sure it will work. So far, there seems to be a set principal to magic. One rule follows the other no matter what. It's like math, but with shapes instead of numbers," Joss explained as though it were just /that/ easy to comprehend.

"...Wait... aren't numbers just shapes? Isn't everything just shapes?" Jyriah questioned out loud with genuine reflection and wonder.

"I mean...yeah? Are you eating those mushrooms again?" Ajax prodded and looked to Jyriah with suspicion.

"Nooooooo," the coal-fired male replied and ran his eyes away from the gaze of everyone.

"Wow." Ajax stated and shook his head.

"I'm kidding, c'mon-" Jyriah laughed and looked at Ajax's expression of agitation.

"Anyway - when are we doing this?" Vincent spoke with a strong, demanding tone.

"Tomorrow - when the sun is cresting over the mountain. We're going to use it as cover so that when the soldiers look up, their eyes will water and they'll be unable to see. So maybe we should prepare until then," Joss explained and then looked around the room for the reactions of the others.

"Alright. I'll go start doing that right now - by getting some fucking sleep." Jyriah complained.

"Seriously?" Joss sighed.

"Really. We need to sleep - including you. Come on," his mate restated and took his partner's hand and tugged at it. "You need it more than anyone. If I have to drag you to our pod I will." Jyriah threatened with actual bite in his tone.

"Alright, fine. You're right," Joss gave in with a sigh.

"I actually agree with you for once, Jyr. Goodnight...morning...whatever..." Ajax added and waved the others off. "Wake me up when it's time, and be sure to not disturb Lara. She's been doing so much lately that she hasn't been sleeping either."

"Okay, but we need to get up soon to start making the green goo, it's important we have enough. Otherwise, the shift of a rock or disturbance of dirt can ruin the entire spell, and we'll all die." Joss insisted, but as though it didn't matter, Jyriah was already pulling him into the tunnels.