Within the Apple Ch9C

*****

Xander was having a hard time not bursting out in laughter.

The look on Miss Militia’s face told the story as far as he was concerned. This Armsmaster fellow clearly had issues when it came to dealing with people. Miss Militia’s attempts at deflecting him from inadvertently giving offense were blatant and not at all hidden.

Probably had to be, otherwise Armsmaster would miss the attempts entirely, Xander thought with amusement.

At a glance, the armor he wore was… competent, if limited by the definitions of most comic book and superhero worlds, Xander decided. There were distinct magical resonances built into his armor, but the power levels were quite low… almost improbably low, Xander thought, but he would worry about that more later.

“Don’t believe in Magic, huh?” He asked with a smile.

“I am an Engineer and a Scientist,” Armsmaster responded.

“So am I,” Xander responded easily. “Clarke’s Law.”

“Doesn’t apply,” Armsmaster responded instantly. “Clarke wasn’t positing that magic existed, he was establishing the opposite to be true. Magic is merely technology that the observer hasn’t yet decoded.”

“I disagree,” Xander said. “Clarke was positing that at a certain level of technology, if magic existed, there would be no difference between the two. Technology aspires to standing on equal terms with Magic, even if it’s merely the idea of magic. Gehm’s Corollary.”

Xander smirked as Armsmaster’s jaw tightened.

“Magic exists in the margins of science,” Armsmaster stated. “As we shrink those margins, what once was magic is revealed to be mere applications of science.”

“I rather have more respect for applications of science than that,” Xander countered. “There’s nothing mere about applied science. To a degree, you’re not wrong though. Magic is applied art, technology is applied science, and there is a great degree of overlap between the two. The venn diagram is not, however, a perfect circle.”

While Armsmaster was thinking on that, Xander casually picked up his little cellular relay and held it up for inspection.

“I built this using something called the Protean Charm,” Xander said easily. “It is an application of what is known as the Familiarity or Contagion principle of magic. Expressed simply, like affects like. Science also has this concept, you would know it as Entanglement.”

Armsmaster froze, mouth partway open to speak only to snap shut with a clacking of teeth as he stared at the device in Xander’s hand.

The silence stretched out for a time, and Miss Militia stared back and forth between them in some confusion. The conversation had not entirely been over her head, but she knew that she had missed at least a couple key concepts she certainly needed to fully comprehend what had transpired.

For the moment, though, she was focused on one in particular. Namely whatever it was that had Armsmaster staring in what she believed was near open shock.

“You built your communications system using entangled quanta?” He blurted, leaning unconsciously forward.

“Not… precisely,” Xander countered with a shake of his head. “Entangled quanta are too limiting. Magic doesn’t require following the physical laws of the universe that way, what I did was entangle multiple macro-inscriptions by creating a conceptual link between them. No need to try and fumble around with quarks and the like.”

Armsmaster slumped, clearly in thought, and unhappy about it by the look on his face.

“That’s… impossible, even for a Tinker,” He murmured.

“Possibly,” Xander shrugged with a grin, “but not for a Wizard.”

*****