“I am Kurg.”

  Nicole held a plain, hexagonal coin with no markings other than a slight, hexagonal indentation at the center, on both sides. At first glance it appeared to be made of brass, though it glittered in a strange fashion, almost as if it were reflecting light that wasn’t there.

  She stood in a black void. She could see herself, but nothing else, though the surface her bare feet rested on felt like cool metal. For some unknown reason, she wore the thin, robe-like clothes of a patient in a hospital, with a plastic band around her wrist, which probably bore her name, though she was unable to read it, appearing to her as a strange mix-up of jumbled letters.

  She remembered the small object in her hand from her birthday party. It had been the first gift she received, coming via a mysterious envelope that arrived with the rest of the house’s mail, with the return address indicating it had come from someone named Maeldoon. The guests of her party had revealed this was the name of an eccentric wizard friend of her birth father and grandfather. She’d expected there to be a note along with the coin, but there had been nothing else in the envelope. When she asked about that, everyone at the party that knew the old wizard just laughed and insisted he probably forgot to put the letter in before he mailed it.

  She’d held the little plate for a long moment and lost herself in the intricate, fractal-like, repeating patterns of the enchantment, finding the permanent spell on the coin to be the most complex she’d ever sensed. She’d gingerly removed the gloves she habitually wore, to get an even more sensitive feel for the magic, which had been a mistake. Much to her chagrin, she’d accidentally duplicated the enchantment inside her own mind, which was the primary reason she always wore gloves.

  As a half-troll, Nicole had been born with a unique magical power, allowing her to easily copy the magic of others. As a newborn infant, she permanently copied her birth mother’s natural troll powers, followed by the anti-magic power of a dwarf nurse and then, finally, when she’d been handed off to her adopted mother, she permanently gained the power to cast spells through concentration or intense emotion. Her adopted mother had shielded her from being exposed to new magic for her entire childhood by taking her to a distant nation that spanned roughly a third of the galaxy, where magic was little more than rumor.

  However, by the time she turned eighteen, her power had matured, such that she normally only gained new magical powers temporarily. In the past year it had matured further, giving her an unprecedented sensitivity to magical emanations of all kinds, allowing her to copy spells simply by seeing them cast. It also gave her the ability to study enchantments in great detail. Touching magic objects gave her an even finer understanding of their magic.

  The spell on the coin was strange. Having duplicated it in her mind, she saw even greater detail in the magical patterns, which as far as she’d been able to work out, included the capacity to cast every fundamental spell that magic could produce, as boiled down to the bare minimum concept, with an incredible, life-like internal process controlling the final result. She’d become convinced the coin was capable of casting any spell that could be imagined, if only the triggering mechanism were known.

  Along with the duplication of the permanent spell on the coin, she also gained a terrible migraine, which had mostly ruined the party for her. After that, she put the little coin away, because just looking at it made her head ache worse. Then, with Inorath’s gift of the dragon egg, she’d completely forgotten it.

  As she stared down at the coin in her hand, the voice whispered, once again, “I am Kurg.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  Remembering the prior dream, she shook her head and muttered, “Here we go again.”

  “I am Kurg.” The voice repeated, softly.

  Taking the words to be an attempt at an introduction, she offered, “I am Nicole.”

  This time, the voice hesitated and spoke in a questioning fashion, “I am Kurg?”

  She pointed at herself, “Nicole.”

  The coin flew out of her hand and into the air under its own power, quite suddenly, and the voice spoke, “Kurg.”

  Nicole stared at it, in surprise, “You’re the coin?”

  “I am Kurg.”

  “Can you say anything other than that?”

  The voice responded with confidence, “I am Kurg.”

  “So, that would be a no.” She reasoned aloud, but then remembered the strange building from the previous dream, so she asked, “What was all that stuff you showed me before, with the hive-like building?”

  “I am Kurg.” The voice answered, which wasn’t enlightening.

  However, as she stared at the thing, it floated down to her feet and the invisible surface she was standing on, where it landed with a clatter. As it lay still on the invisible floor, she felt a powerful urge to touch it. For a moment, she resisted and considered the consequences, but in the end, decided to be adventurous. After all, it seemed to be trying to answer her question.

  She reached out and acted on the strange impulse, finding herself picking it up, placing a thumb on one side of the coin and a finger on the other. Next, she felt the urge to pull in opposite directions, even though the little coin was clearly a solid piece of metal, rather than some kind of sliding puzzle.

  However, she was shocked to see the coin pop apart, quite suddenly, revealing it really was a kind of puzzle made of smaller parts, with the edge pieces sliding away from the smaller, central hexagon, until it reached the edges of it! She sensed incredible magic filling the air. Since instinct told her she didn’t want to be anywhere nearby, she let go and took several cautious steps back.

  As she watched, the metal of the coin melted, seemingly without heat, then started to multiply in volume, rapidly flowing outward at high speed!

  Seeing she was about to be overcome by the movement of the metal and not wanting to be trapped in it, Nicole dashed away at a dead run, glancing back from time to time, until it stopped flowing. In the end, the molten metal solidified as a set of seven hexagonal plates in a roughly circular arrangement, with one in the center and six around the edges. Each plate was about seven yards across, from one flat side to its opposite.

  Just as she began to think the show was over, the surface of the plates rose upward, forming the familiar structure of the hive-like building she’d seen before.

  “I am Kurg.” The voice offered.

  “So, Kurg, you’re both a coin and a building?” Nicole reasoned.

  Strangely, she felt pleased, quite out of nowhere. The feeling reminded her of using telepathic magic to communicate, almost as if she had some form of empathic bond with Kurg, allowing her to feel what it did.

  While she walked the perimeter of the building, to get a good look at it from the outside, her eye was drawn to the distance, where other lonely structures had appeared. In particular, her eye was drawn to a tall tower of the same, brass-like metal, which resembled a lighthouse, including a powerful, rotating light, piercing the dark void to announce its presence.

  “What is that?” She asked.

  “I am Kurg!” This time, the voice was faint, as if it had been shouted from the distant lighthouse.

  She looked around at the other buildings that had sprung up, including a few more hive-like buildings and what could possibly have been a bit of city wall, which stood aloof.

  “What are all of these things?”

  The answer came from all directions, as if many voices answered, in unison, “I am Kurg.”

  Nicole puzzled aloud, asking, “All of these things are Kurg?”

  The answer was a cacophony of voices, but this time, they weren’t in sync. Some of them cried out in pain, while others whispered softly. Some spoke with confidence and others were timid.

  However, they all spoke the same words: “I am Kurg.” “I am Kurg!” “I am Kurg.” “I am Kurg!”

  The volume rose to the point of pain and Nicole found it difficult to concentrate as many conflicting emotions flooded her heart and mind, with the over-arching sensation being one of deep-seated longing, as though an ancient promise had been left unfulfilled for far too long.

  The torrent of sudden communication was overwhelming and painful, until Nicole cried out, “Stop! You’re hurting me!”