The brass cylinder was heavy in my hands. It was roughly the size of a modern flashlight, but it felt entirely different. The metal was smooth, untarnished by the harsh Aether-Miasma that rusted everything else in the Umbra.
I held it up in the pitch-black cellar. The glowing blue symbols etched into the brass provided just enough light to see the white clouds of my own freezing breath.
My heart was still racing from my accidental display of "magic" moments ago. I possessed Negative Flux. I was an anomaly. A Heretic. If the Inquisitors found me, I was dead. If the Aberrations in the dark found me, I was dead.
I needed an edge, and this Old World artifact was the only thing I had.
I wiped the grime off the cylinder with the sleeve of my oversized coat. The blue symbols weren't just random glowing lines. They were separated onto four rotating brass rings, much like a combination lock or a cryptex from a history museum.
I squinted at the symbols. The people of Erebos might think this was the holy language of the gods, but to a university bioscience student who had suffered through three semesters of advanced physics, it was unmistakably math.
The first ring showed a triangle next to a capital 'S'.
The second ring showed an equals sign.
The third ring showed a fraction: a 'Q' over a 'T'.
My jaw dropped slightly. I recognized it.
It was the classical thermodynamic equation for a change in entropy.
$$\Delta S = \frac{Q}{T}$$
Change in entropy equals the reversible heat transfer divided by temperature, I recited in my head, a hysterical laugh bubbling up in my throat. I was sitting in a Victorian slum on an alien planet, looking at an equation that was taught to 19th-century earth scientists.
But there was a fourth ring. The equation on the cylinder was slightly altered. It read:
$$\Delta S = \frac{Q}{T} + X$$
The fourth ring was the 'X'. The missing variable.
I frowned, my modern brain shifting into full academic gear. In the real world, the basic formula assumes a perfectly reversible process. But in the real universe, nothing is perfect. Energy is always lost to the environment. That lost energy, the chaos of the universe, is the foundation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The missing variable is the generated entropy of the universe, I realized. The chaos.
I looked at the fourth brass ring. It had several symbols carved into it. A circle, a square, a stylized flame, and a jagged, downward-pointing arrow that looked like a shattered glass pane.
Flame represents heat. Order. Positive Flux, I reasoned. The shattered arrow represents decay. Chaos. Negative Flux.
My fingers were trembling from the cold, but I forced them to grip the fourth ring. I twisted it until the jagged, downward arrow clicked into place next to the plus sign.
Click.
The entire cylinder vibrated. The glowing blue light turned a harsh, clinical white.
Suddenly, a sharp, mechanical needle shot out from the bottom of the cylinder and pierced the palm of my hand.
I hissed in pain, instinctively trying to pull away, but the cylinder locked onto my flesh. I watched in horror as my dark, violet blood was drawn up into a small glass vial on the side of the brass tube.
The artifact wasn't just checking the math. It was checking my biology.
The cylinder hummed, processing the Aether-rich blood. A moment later, a mechanical voice echoed in my mind. It didn't speak through my ears; it vibrated directly against my skull.
[BIOMETRIC SCAN COMPLETE.]
[FLUX POLARITY: 100% NEGATIVE. ABSOLUTE ENTROPY DETECTED.]
[HERESY PROTOCOL OVERRIDDEN. WELCOME, ARCHITECT.]
Hiss.
The needle retracted. The top of the brass cylinder twisted open, releasing a puff of pristine, odorless air that smelled faintly of sterile metal.
I rubbed my bleeding palm, staring at the open cylinder.
Inside, resting on a bed of black velvet, was a single object. It looked like a monocle—the kind wealthy Victorian gentlemen wore over one eye. But the rim was made of dark, matte metal, and the glass lens wasn't glass at all. It was a perfectly cut diamond that pulsed with a faint, living white light.
I reached in and picked it up. It was freezing cold to the touch, matching the endothermic nature of my own body.
According to Arthur's memories, high-ranking Inquisitors and Nobles sometimes wore "Aether-Lenses" to help them see the flow of magic. But this was different. This was Old World technology.
I hesitated for a second, then raised the monocle to my right eye.
The moment the metal rim touched my skin, it clamped down. Tiny, microscopic hooks painlessly gripped the skin around my eye socket, locking the lens in place.
I gasped. The pitch-black cellar was suddenly illuminated, but not by normal light.
Through my left eye, the room was still pitch dark. But through the monocle on my right eye, the world was laid bare.
I didn't just see the dirt walls and the frozen bucket. I saw the energy of the room. The freezing air was visualized as slow-moving, heavy blue particles. The stone walls emitted a faint, dull brown hum of thermal radiation.
But more importantly, I looked down at my own hands.
Through the lens, I could see my violet blood glowing underneath my skin. I could see the exact pathways where the Negative Flux flowed from my heart, down my arms, and to my fingertips. I didn't have to guess how to use my power anymore. The monocle was acting like a heads-up display, showing me the exact mathematical flow of my own biology.
This is a cheat code, I realized, a grin spreading across my face despite the freezing cold. With this, I can see exactly how much energy I'm using. I won't accidentally freeze the room again. I can control it.
I looked up toward the iron grate that led out to the alleyway.
My grin instantly vanished.
Through the dirt ceiling, the monocle picked up a massive, swirling signature of violent red energy. It was standing directly above my cellar.
It wasn't a human. Humans didn't emit that much chaotic heat.
Thump.
A heavy footstep shook the dirt above my head. Dust sprinkled down onto my shoulders.
It was the Aberration. The monstrous, hound-like beast I had seen in the alley earlier. It had followed my scent. It had followed the trace of my Negative Flux.
Thump. Thump. Scraaaaaape.
I heard the sound of massive claws digging into the wooden planks hiding my iron grate.
I was trapped in a tiny underground box with a monster, and I didn't know how to fight.