Armand’s First Letter. Amelia’s First Letter. Cathy’s First Letter.

3 April 1025, L’École du Sorciers

My dearest cousin Armand,

I have indeed given you a new cousin, a boy; we have named him George Alexander Archer, after my father and Maximilian’s. You might think we should have put Max’s father’s name first, but Octavian’s wife is expecting their first child and if he is a boy they intend to name him Alexander. As is only reasonable, Octie being the heir to Achin Court. Georgie is a lovely little lump of pudding, but we have hopes of him beginning to develop a personality in the next few weeks.

Unsurprisingly, Dr. Tillotson’s first efforts to send an object across the Abyss have failed. We are not certain yet as to the reason, but Dr. Tillotson expects that we simply haven’t yet used a sufficient degree of magical effort, as you put it. To date he has sent small objects the length of a room; it is only reasonable that a longer distance would require more oomph, as he puts it. 

Further, it is reasonable to start with too little and work one’s way up. That is our current line of research. But how much oomph will we need? Does it simply depend on the distance? Or on the distance and the size of the object? Does crossing the Abyss add its own toll to the total? Is crossing the Abyss possible at all?

In most of the failures the object has simply remained in its spot, uncaring of the magical effort being expended upon it. In two case—the two cases in which the starting node provided the most oomph—the object has vanished from Dr. Tillotson’s workshop but failed to appear at our end…leaving the open question, where did it go?

He has therefore acquired a delicacy about performing such experiments in a crowded city like Yorke or Toulouse. He has gone to Nexinghamshire, therefore, to Achin Court, in fact, where wizards are not unknown, and is pursuing his endeavors in the wilds of the North Cumbrian countryside. With Octie’s aid, I might add. They are attempting to measure the degree of oomph required to transport a red brick (weight approximately five pounds) various distances, and have thus far managed to send it about three miles. Octie has laid in a supply of bricks, but so far they haven’t lost any.

Yes, I know a brick weighs more than a simple letter, dear Armand. But consider packages! And consider whether it might be easier to send letters in bundles rather than one by one! This is one of our chief questions: does it take more or less magic to send five one-pound objects individually than it does to send one five-pound object? And does that change as the weight increases or decreases?

Yes, that’s a lot of math, dear Armand, but you started it. 

Dr. Tillotson expects that there is a minimum amount of magic required to send anything anywhere, so that sending a pair of small objects together is less costly than sending them separately; and that the cost for the total weight will eventually increase in what he calls a “non-linear fashion”. In short, there will be a “sweet spot”, as he puts it; we have only to find it.

Of course, another point to consider is how much magic the formed portion of our nodes can supply without detriment to the surrounding area. My view is that this will be the limiting factor for the size of the objects we can send and the distance we can send them, and Max and I are considering investing our funds in a company that can manufacture extremely lightweight paper.

So, that is where we are. Dr. Tillotson is pursuing our research. Max and I are much taken up with George this week, not to forget our little Jane, to the exclusion of most other things; and I must note that Doctors Laguerre and Guisman have been most understanding. Were you within reach we would have asked you and and Amelie to stand for George at his christening, but as it is the good doctors have claimed that role.

Oh, it is heartwarming to know that one is truly home!

Your grateful and increasingly matronly (but no longer increasing) cousin,

Amelia

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