Chapter One: The Faltering Connection | The Technomancer’s Codex Fantasy Series
Arch-Technomancer Baldric replaces the switch’s power supply. Image generated with AI.
“If the switch loses connection, the whole village will be cut off from the network.”
Technomancer’s Insight: Understanding Redundancy and Data Transmission
In the world of the Network Empire, redundancy keeps the leyline conduits — and the connections between realms — strong and stable.
In real-world networking, redundancy is critical to prevent single points of failure. Concepts like hot-swapping devices, physical layer transmission, and binary code are what keep our modern networks resilient — just as Lionar’s world depends on the strength of its leylines.
Read further as Lionar uncovers deeper layers of the Network!
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Chapter 1: The Faltering Connection
Lionar had read the sign at the village's entrance a hundred times before, but today, he lingered a little longer as he made his way home from the nearby town of Lanwick.
"By decree of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Hadrian Darius Drakonis of the Network Empire, and at the request of the Guild of Technomancy, this settlement shall henceforth be known as the Village of Byte. Recognized for its unique and orderly structure—rows of eight houses forming perfect blocks that are reminiscent of the eight bits that form a byte—this village shall be preserved for future generations as a testament to the foundations of digital order. This decree is issued in accordance with the Historical Preservation Mandate (§4.7 of the Imperial Codex) and the Archive of Foundational Settlements (Ref. No. 112-B)."
The words were carved into an aged brass plaque, its edges worn smooth by time and weather. At the bottom, the insignia of the Imperial Guild of Technomancy gleamed faintly, a reminder that even their small village was bound to the grand designs of the Network Empire.
Lionar traced the letters with his fingertips, brow furrowing. Why had a passing Technomancer cared so much about an old village’s layout? Why had the emperor himself agreed to etch its significance into law?
He had never questioned it before. Byte had always been Byte. But now, he found himself wondering—was there more to this place than just its name?
A gust of wind tugged at his cloak, rustling the dry grass at the base of the nearby Switch Tower. The stone structure hummed faintly, its etherial energy pulsing in a slow, steady rhythm. A stalwart component of the Network Empire, it connected their village to the greater leylines—allowing messages, records, and data to flow between regions, as well as distant lands.
"Without it," Lionar thought, "we’d be cut off."
"Lionar!"
He turned to see Lorekeeper Edwin, the elderly custodian of the village archives, beckoning him from the entrance of the archive building, which stood across the way from the Switch Tower. Beside him stood a boy Lionar didn’t recognize—a scrappy-looking youth with windblown hair and an impish grin. His clothes were well-worn but functional, patched at the elbows and weighed down with well-filled pockets.
"This here’s my nephew, Fin," Edwin said. "He’s stoppin’ by on his way to the capital."
"Capital, eh?" Lionar glanced at the boy. "Are you training as a Technomancer?"
Fin let out a sharp laugh. "Nah, mate. I ain’t got time for all that. I’m goin’ to the School of Hedge Practitioners—none of that complicated technomancy mumbo-jumbo for me."
Lionar frowned. "But aren't Hedge Practitioners also magic wielders?"
"We keep the magic practical for the common man, mate. Look, I know how to apply the magic without needing to wield any myself. That's the real trick, see? The Guild lot make it too complicated—real magic’s in knowing how things really work."
Edwin sighed. "Don’t mind the boy, Lionar. He’s got a sharp mind, but a reckless way about him."
Before Lionar could respond, a sudden flicker of energy pulsed through the air. The humming of the Switch Tower stuttered, its blue glow fading in and out.
Edwin’s face paled. "By the leylines…"
Fin’s cocky grin vanished. "That ain’t normal, is it?"
Lionar shook his head. "No. If the switch loses connection, the whole village will be cut off from the network."
Edwin’s voice wavered. "The warding prevents me from stepping inside. Do either of you know anything about switch stones?"
Fin scratched his head. "Can’t say I do, but I do know when somethin’s about to go real bad."
Lionar’s mind raced. "The Technomancer assigned to our village is away. But I remember him saying he ordered a new energy stone just in case the old one failed."
A new voice cut through the rising tension.
"I'd say he'll be a bit late to the jump on that one, lad."
They turned to see a bearded man atop a sturdy horse, his cloak lined with deep blue and the embroidered runes of a seasoned Technomancer. A silver sigil gleamed at his chest, marking him not just as any Guild member, but as something more.
Lorekeeper Edwin’s eyes widened. "An Arch-Technomancer? From the Capital?"
The rider dismounted, his boots striking the earth with the weight of experience. "Baldric MacRae," he said, rolling his shoulders as though shaking off a long journey. "And it looks like I’ve arrived just in time."
Baldric’s cloak billowed as he traced an incantation of administrative passage, parting the protective wards around the Switch Tower. He strode forward into the tower’s core chamber, followed closely by Edwin, Lionar, and Fin.
The air smelled strangely neutral—a void of arcane charge, neither stagnant nor fresh. Along the chamber walls, copper conduits pulsed with thin threads of light, the lifeblood of the network, but their glow was uneven, flickering like a struggling flame.
At the chamber’s center stood the Village Switch Stone, a monolithic obelisk crafted of crystal, dark iron, and rune-etched copper. Embedded in its core, a glowing energy stone flickered erratically, its pulse weak and unstable. Beside it, cradled within a reinforced frame, lay a secondary energy stone, its glow even fainter—the village’s emergency reserve, draining fast.
Baldric stepped forward, placing a steadying hand on the stone’s surface. The unstable pulses calmed slightly at his touch, but only for a moment. His eyes darkened with understanding.
“Aye, just as I thought.” His voice was grave. “The primary energy stone is failing. It cannae keep a stable current.”
Lionar frowned. “But it was fine yesterday.”
“Well, that was yesterday, mate!” Fin chuckled, earning a sharp look from Edwin.
Baldric ignored them, turning to Lionar. “Tell me, lad—what is the function of this stone?”
Lionar hesitated, then answered slowly. “It powers the switch, which connects all devices in the village to the Imperial Network.”
"Exactly. And what happens if power flickers—drops and surges erratically?"
Lionar thought for a moment. "Data gets all scrambled. Signals don’t go through properly."
"Smart lad," Baldric admitted. "That’s called a brownout—it weakens the signal but doesn’t kill it outright. But if it keeps happenin’…"
"The switch's connection fails completely," Lionar finished, eyes widening.
“Aye. And what happens if that power is lost?”
“The network goes down. Everything stops working.”
“Right, ye are! And that’s why we have the backup stone.” Baldric gestured toward the second crystal in its frame. “This one acts like a safety net—it kicks in automatically if the primary fails, giving us time to replace it without losing connection.”
Lionar nodded in understanding. “But… it’s running low, too.”
“Now ye’re thinkin’ like a Technomancer,” Baldric said with approval. “If we dinnae act fast, the backup will deplete, and the village will be cut off entirely.”
Fin let out a low whistle. “So, we just swap the old one for a new one, yeah?”
“Aye. Hot swap—no downtime.” Baldric cracked his knuckles. “This switch is built for redundancy, which means we can replace the failing stone while the backup holds the line. But make no mistake—we’ve only got moments before the backup falters, too.”
Lionar swallowed. He’d seen Technomancers perform maintenance at the switch tower before, but he’d never been so close to the switch stone itself.
Baldric reached into his satchel and pulled out a fresh energy stone, its blue glow strong and steady.
“Alright, lad,” he said, nodding toward the control panel—an intricate interface of shifting runes and diagnostic glyphs. “First step is simple: Check the network’s pulse before we proceed.”
Lionar peered at the display. Floating before him was a string of glowing characters:
⚠ NETWORK WARNING: PACKET LOSS DETECTED
⚠ PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCE: UNSTABLE
⚠ BACKUP ENERGY LEVEL: CRITICAL
“It’s still up.”
“Aye, but barely.” Baldric motioned to the backup stone. “We’ve no time to waste. Prepare to swap.”
Lionar straightened. “What do I do?”
Baldric’s grin widened. “Watch carefully, lad. This is the art of redundancy.”
With measured precision, he reached for the failing stone.
Click. Twist. Release.
The stone disengaged from the core, its glow vanishing in an instant. The backup stone flared briefly, struggling to hold the load.
Baldric moved without hesitation. He placed the fresh stone into the slot—
Click. Twist. Seal.
For a breath, nothing happened. Then—
A surge of stabilizing energy coursed through the switch stone. The erratic pulses smoothed into a steady rhythm. The conduits along the walls brightened, their light flowing once more like healthy leyline currents.
Lionar checked the display.
⚠ PACKET LOSS: RESOLVED
✅ PRIMARY ENERGY SOURCE: STABLE
✅ BACKUP ENERGY: STANDING BY
Baldric clapped Lionar on the shoulder. “There ye have it. High availability in action.”
Lionar let out a breath, a slow smile forming. “So… that’s a hot swap.”
“Aye,” Baldric said. “A lesson every Technomancer must learn: The network must never go dark.”
"Sounds simple enough," Fin chuckled.
"It is and it isn't," Baldric replied. To fix the network, ye must understand how it speaks. That’s the first thing every Technomancer learns—the language of bits and bytes."
Baldric tapped a glowing sequence of numbers floating across the panel. "Tell me, lad—how do ye think data travels across the leyline?"
Lionar’s brow furrowed. "Through pulses of energy?"
"Aye, but what kind of pulses?"
Lionar hesitated. Fin, however, snapped his fingers. "It’s just like the old signal lanterns at the harbor watchtower! Light on, light off. They send messages over long distances with blinks of light."
Baldric nodded. "The Hedge Practitioner’s not wrong! That’s exactly how binary works."
He pointed at the flickering digits on the panel.
"Everything ye see here is made up of just two states: Off and On."
Lionar’s eyes widened. "That’s why it’s called binary. Because there are only two options!"
Baldric nodded. "Aye. We use 0s and 1s to represent those states. Every bit of data—every spell, every record, every message—is made up of these simple building blocks."
"But how do you turn a bunch of 0s and 1s into something useful?" Fin asked.
Baldric held up both hands, fingers splaying out. "Let’s keep it simple. One bit is a single 0 or 1—not much ye can do with that, aye? But put together eight of them, and ye get a byte."
"A byte," Lionar repeated. "Like the name of our village."
Baldric winked. "Now ye’re catchin’ on. One byte can hold a single letter or symbol. Stack enough bytes together, and ye can write whole books—entire grimoires!"
Fin scratched his head. "So, the whole network runs on a fancy game of ‘off and on’?"
Baldric chuckled. "Aye. But with enough bits, ye can build anything. That’s how Technomancers craft programs, store knowledge, and even protect the leyline against those who’d misuse it."
Lionar exhaled, absorbing the weight of it all. Baldric clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"No need to break ye’re brain with overthinking, Lad! Just let the information flow through.”
As they left the Switch Tower, the late afternoon air felt cooler, crisper—as if the whole village had exhaled in relief. Lionar and Baldric took their leave of Edwin and Fin after wishing Fin a safe journey to the capital.
Lionar guided Baldric toward the inn, his mind racing with questions.
"Master Baldric… why did a Technomancer from the capital think our village was special?"
Baldric stroked his beard, his eyes twinkling. "Ye ever looked at yer village from the perspective of a binary number system?"
Lionar shook his head.
"Then ye’re in for a treat, lad. Look at the first row of houses and tell me what you see, knowing what you do now of bits and bytes."
Lionar looked at the first row of eight houses. The windows of the first house were dark, the next 3 were warmly lit with candle light, then the next 2 were dark and the last 2 lit.
"Imagine the houses without light as 0s and the houses with light as 1s. Each house is a bit. You have 8 bits in a row. That's one byte. Together, they create a byte of data. You see a row of houses. I see the binary code as follows:
0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1
which, if you convert it into a decimal number, would be: 115."
As they walked into the village, Lionar had no idea that his life had just changed forever.
Continue the Journey
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