Changing the World: All-New Tales of Valdemar

:Well, you have to understand that magic and technology are fundamentally incompatible. The focus in Valdemar early on was to expand and improve magic . . . which is fine for small tasks, but it fails miserably at the big stuff. Easier to take a crew and pave a road than to magic the dirt to repel water. So, instead of learning physics and how to make things, the mages focused more and more on magic. It’s no accident that all of these books have just enough technology to string a sword together or mash up some armor. There is some effort in Selenay’s time to go the other way, but it’s a late start.:

That made some sense to Dave, but the publicist bit had him going.

“Okay, then what about the stories about the elves making the aluminum cars down in Daytona. That’s magic and technology.”

:Savannah, actually. They’re all friends of mine.:

“Okay . . . so now there are elves?”

:Sure, why not? Straight-up Darwin. Adapt or die, even for the fey. Some haul pizza, others carry messages, a few make racecars:. The Companion saw Dave’s incredulous expression. :Look, until twenty minutes ago you’d never had a conversation with a telepathic avatar horse with nifty silver hooves either, had you? So, why not elves in LA?:

Dave had the sense this was all getting way ahead of him.

“So, if that’s true . . . then what about the ones about the witch . . . the one who hunts ghosts and stuff?”

:Naw. That’s pure fiction.:

“Why does that have to be fiction when the rest of it isn’t?”

:I mean, come on. Ghosts and demons? Preposterous.:

Dave shook his head, glanced at his notebook. It gave him a moment to steady himself.

“That seems a bit arbitrary.”

:So’s life. Next question.:

“So, then just what happened to the Herald Mages?”

:Two factors came together. Magery was a distraction. It’s hard enough to be a good Herald. Heraldry is a full-time job by itself. Magecraft is a full-time job as well, one that doesn’t tolerate very many mistakes. Most of the Heralds who tried both were either not very good at either or had serious control problems. More than a couple blew themselves up, or lost control at the wrong moment. In your world it would be like having a nuke, incredibly powerful, but one that you were pretty sure the safety worked. Mostly sure.:

“What about Vanyel? Oh, I see. Never mind.”

:Magery was going away anyway . . . in Valdemar, at least. Vanyel was the hot mash after the rubdown, as we Companions say.:

He tossed his head at Dave’s obvious confusion.

:For a guy who writes about horses, you don’t know very much. The cherry on the sundae, then.:

“I write about horse racing. I’m an investigative reporter.”

The Companion looked at his POS car. :So, how’s that working out for you, then?:

“You were talking about Vanyel?”