“Merlins,” Marci said with a grin. “I’m talking about Merlins. An army of them. Abe no Seimei sealed the magic because he got overwhelmed by the worst parts of us, the murder and war spirits and so forth. But the world has come a long way in the last thousand years. Modern humanity is more educated, more enlightened, kinder, more civil, and less violent than it’s ever been. When our Mortal Spirits rise, I have no doubt there will still be monsters of fear and violence, but we’ve never been more prepared to combat them as a society than we are right now.”
Myron sighed. “I keep forgetting how young and optimistic you are.”
“So what?” she said. “Those are good things.”
He sneered. “Optimism won’t beat a god.”
“But the Spirit of Optimism might,” Shiro said thoughtfully. “Has humanity really advanced that much?”
“I think it has,” Marci said. “Universal literacy, modern medicine and agriculture, the spread of democracy, equality for women—these things bring a lot to the table. We’ve still got our problems, as Myron pointed out, but we’re trying to fight them. That’s why organizations like the UN exist: to foster peace and improve people’s lives. Even when we fail at that, I’d still rather be alive right now than at any other time in history. That has to count for something.”
“It does,” the shikigami said, tapping his chin. “How would you build an army of Merlins?”
“Why are you asking?” Marci asked coyly. “Have you decided to come over to my side?”
“There are no sides,” he said primly. “I care only for what is effective. In my master’s time, that was the seal, and even he admitted that was a defeat. If the situation has changed such that we no longer need such heavy-handed measures, I am delighted to switch course.Ifit’s true.”
“Oh, it’s true,” Myron said. “I just don’t know if it’s enough.” He glared at Marci. “Our enemies are gods. Even if we can stabilize the crack to prevent a full breakdown, they’ll still be here sooner than we like. How do you propose we handle that? It’s not like we can just recruit Merlins and have them ready.”
“Why not?” Marci asked, glancing at Shiro. “What would you say the chances are for your average mage to become a Merlin?”
The shikigami looked offended. “Such things cannot be measured in chance.”
“On a large enough scale,anythingcan be measured in chance,” she said. “Just give me your best guess.”
He sighed. “To be clear, I don’t believe Merlins can be accounted in this way, but if Ihadto give a number, I’d say that perhaps one in a million mages is skilled, disciplined, and lucky enough to find an appropriate Mortal Spirit, forge a bond, and make it all the way through the gate.”
“Fantastic,” Marci said, doing the math. “So if the current world population is nine billion people, and the chances of being born a mage are roughly one in ten, that gives us approximately nine hundred million mages alive right now. If we apply your one-in-a-million guess to that number, we get nine hundred potential Merlins.”
That actually didn’t sound like much for a global organization, but Shiro’s eyes went wide. “Ninehundred?”
“How many did you have before?”
“Never more than a few dozen,” he said, his voice awed. “Nine hundred Merlins would be incredible.”
Marci grinned. “What did I tell you? It’s a brand-new ballgame. I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but we are absolutely not out of this fight. I know we can make it, because no matter what Myron says, humanity’s not all fear and death and war, and neither are our spirits.”
Myron shook his head at that, but Shiro was staring at her with new eyes. “Now I understand why the Heart of the World let you in,” he said. “You are a champion of humanity indeed, Marci Novalli.”
“She’s going to get humanity killed,” Myron said angrily, glaring at her. “You’ve won over the shikigami, but I still say we should repair the seal.”
“Are you crazy?” Marci cried. “Even if you don’t care about the spirits or the magical animals or everything else we’ll be ruining, did you miss the part where blocking off the magic will destroy our afterlife?”
“Better than destroying our living life!” he shouted back. “At least fading into nothing would be peaceful. You’re talking about raising armies of Merlins so we can recruit gods to fight against other gods. Even if you can pull that off, which, for the record, I don’t think you can, the results will be catastrophic. Even if you win every conflict, can you conceive of the damage a fight between spirits of that size could do? How many innocent lives would be lost? It’s unthinkable. It’sirresponsible.”
“It’s still better than screwing over every magical entity on the planet,” she said, glaring at him. “Trading our eternity for a little more safety right now isnota good bargain.”
“It is if you like being alive,” Myron growled. “Safety and security are not to be scoffed at. Not everyone has your cozy relationship with death.”
“Why are you so convinced we can’t make this work? Of all mages, I didn’t expect defeatism from the great Sir Myron Rollins.”
“Because you haven’t had to deal with as many disasters as I have!” he yelled.
“Well, maybe that’s the problem,” Marci said. “You’ve had your face shoved into the gutter of humanity for so long, you’ve forgotten the great things we’re capable of.”
Myron looked away in disgust. “Why are you even trying to convince me, anyway?” he said bitterly. “You’re the Merlin. I’m only here on your charity. Pretending you care about my opinion is an insult to us both.”
“That’s not true,” she said, walking around the seal so that he had to face her. “This is a decision that affects everyone, especially you. You’re one of the greatest living mages who also happens to be tied to the only other Mortal Spirit in existence right now. She might not be chained to you anymore, but the link between mage and Mortal Spirit is forever. Until one of you dies, that makes you the closest thing to the next Merlin we’ve got.”
