Aaron's vision cleared as the debug overlay dissolved, leaving behind a throbbing headache and the crystal-clear knowledge of exactly what was wrong with Lara's spell. The corrupted targeting vector burned in his mind like an afterimage, a simple but devastating flaw that would keep freezing her until it was fixed.
Can't exactly tell them I read the spell's source code. He pulled out his Null Phone, pretending to squint at the dark screen while his mind raced. The device felt unnaturally warm against his palm, still humming with residual energy from his recent debugging session.
"Um." He deliberately fumbled the phone, letting it slip through his fingers before catching it awkwardly. The drizzle made the screen gleam, reflecting Marcus's increasingly impatient expression. "Sorry, just... thinking."
Marcus shifted his weight, boots scraping against wet concrete. "Look, if you don't have any ideas—"
"No, wait." Aaron scratched the back of his head, carefully crafting his expression into one of uncertain contemplation. "This might sound stupid, but... when exactly are you picturing your target?"
Lara blinked, frost still clinging to her eyelashes. "What do you mean?"
"Like, the timing." He gestured vaguely with his free hand, playing up the awkwardness. "Are you visualizing where you want the bolt to go while you're gathering the magic stuff? Or after?"
"During, of course." Lara's tone suggested this should have been obvious. "You have to maintain focus on both—"
"Maybe that's the problem?" Aaron interjected, then immediately hunched his shoulders as if surprised by his own boldness. "Sorry, just... in programming— I mean, in games and stuff, sometimes trying to do two things at once creates this feedback thing where..." He trailed off, watching their expressions glaze over at the mention of programming.
The drizzle intensified, fat droplets sliding down the back of his neck. He switched tactics. "What if you tried gathering all the power first, then picking your target? Like, um, loading the gun before aiming?"
Marcus's eyebrows drew together. "That's not how combat magic works. You need sustained focus to—"
"It's just a thought," Aaron interrupted, shrinking further into himself. He slipped his phone back into his pocket, its warmth fading. "Probably doesn't make any sense. I mean, what do I know about magic? I just debug... uh, debug computer stuff."
Lara's eyes narrowed, studying him with the kind of scrutiny that made his skin crawl. The targeting vector's corrupted code flashed through his memory again – a perfect inverse loop that kept reflecting the spell back on its caster. He fought the urge to explain the exact mathematical reason why separating the processes would work.
"That seems..." Lara started, her voice heavy with skepticism. She absently rubbed her arms, likely still feeling the lingering chill from her backfired spell. The fluorescent light from the building's entrance caught the remaining ice crystals on her sleeve, making them sparkle.
Please just try it, Aaron thought, maintaining his carefully crafted expression of mild embarrassment. Before I accidentally start explaining pointer references and recursive loops.
A moment stretched between them, filled only with the soft patter of rain and the distant hum of Seattle traffic. Finally, Lara's shoulders dropped slightly. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to try," she said, though her tone suggested she was only humoring him.
The drizzle intensified, each drop a cold pinprick against Aaron's skin as he watched Lara take a steadying breath. Her fingers flexed, frost already crystallizing in her palm – but this time, her jaw was set with determination rather than frustration.
"Remember," he said, keeping his voice carefully uncertain, "gather the power first, then picture where you want it to go. Like, uh, loading the program before hitting execute?"
Lara nodded, her eyes fixed on a heap of concrete and rebar about twenty feet away. The air around her hands grew misty, refracting the evening light into pale halos. Aaron's headache pulsed as fragments of debug code still flickered at the edges of his vision, but he forced himself to maintain his façade of casual interest.
The temperature plummeted. Frost crackled across the puddles at Lara's feet, spreading in delicate fractals. Marcus took an instinctive step back, but Aaron held his ground, watching the mana coalesce with an intensity that he masked behind a show of adjusting his dead smart watch.
Come on, he thought. Separate the gathering from the targeting. Basic input validation...
Lara's eyes narrowed. The frost stopped creeping up her arms, hanging suspended instead like a crystalline gauntlet around her hands. She exhaled slowly, squared her shoulders, and only then shifted her focus to the rubble pile.
The bolt launched with a sharp crack. A pristine spear of ice, no wider than Aaron's forearm, shot across the distance and impaled the concrete. Fractures spiderwebbed through the debris before the entire pile shattered with a sound like breaking glass.
For three heartbeats, no one moved.
"Holy shit," Lara whispered. Her eyes were wide, darting between her hands and the destroyed target. "That was... that was perfect."
Marcus let out a whoop and slapped Aaron's shoulder hard enough to make him stumble. "Man, that was brilliant! How did you know that would work?"
Aaron caught himself against the building's wall, letting his genuine wince from the impact play into his carefully constructed persona. "Lucky guess?" He shrugged, tugging at his faded conference t-shirt. "I mean, sometimes when my code won't compile, it helps to break the problem down into smaller..." He trailed off, scratching the back of his neck.
"A programmer's insight saves the day." Lara's voice carried a note of something more calculating than mere gratitude. She flexed her fingers, frost dissipating completely now. "I've been struggling with that for weeks, and you just... happened to guess the solution?"
"Trust me, I'm as surprised as you are." Aaron forced a self-deprecating laugh, even as he noted the way she studied him. Keep it vague. Stay forgettable. "Usually my advice just makes things worse. Ask anyone who's had to review my documentation."
Marcus was practically bouncing with excitement, his earlier wariness forgotten. "This changes everything! With your Frost Bolt working properly..." He grabbed Lara's shoulder, already launching into rapid-fire planning. "We could take on that nest of corrupted drones in the financial district. Maybe even push all the way to—"
Aaron watched Lara's attention drift from Marcus's enthusiastic strategizing back to him. There was a sharp intelligence behind her grateful smile, an analytical edge that made him wonder if he'd overcorrected with the bumbling tech worker act. She tilted her head slightly, and in that moment, he recognized the expression of someone debugging an unexpected output.