Sleeping dragons

In six months Wyce has learned almost nothing about the research compound that has become his prison. That there are mages amongst his captors can only mean that someone within the Magister\u27s Council endorses this facility, but while this fact disturbs him deeply as a student of magic himself, it leads him no closer to understanding. His reality has become a waking nightmare, and over time constant experimentation and abuse degrade even his natural curiosity. He fights an impending sense of complacency, internally outraged at his failure to act in his own interest, constantly reminded that because of his spell stutter - a magical disability - he is less of a threat to the soldiers that guard him than a well-educated child. When the woman in the cell next to his proposes an escape Wyce pledges his loyalty and assistance in spite of her refusal to share the details of her plan. Escaping seems to be the only thing that matters, but in the full course of time Wyce must realize that there are always other considerations. The chapters herein form the opening to a novel-in-progress that imagines a world where modern science forges magic instead of machines; where commercialism is rampant and apathy is a default state of being. The novel follows Wyce and Reina in their escape from the compound until their status as wanted criminals finally lands them in the hands of a young fortune hunter named Spades, whose decision not to hand the two over to authorities forces him into taking a stand on issues that he\u27s made a career out of avoiding. How to navigate the growing tide of modernity is a question that speaks to all of us, and the struggle of these three companions to do just that is a story for all of us