Anderson - Invisibility Reference

Momentarily forgotten in the wake of Renee's distraction, Thorne ducked behind the closest shipping container. Taking a deep breath to steel themself, they grasped the slide of their bolo tie, whispered a few words of Celtic, and vanished.

For Thorne, the whole world went dark. That was the fatal flaw of most invisibility cloaks. If the world couldn't see you, then you couldn't see it. A true one-way cloak was theoretically possible, but was well beyond Thorne's capabilities. Their expertise lay in enchantments, and a glamour charm that diverted all incoming light was simple, even if it needed a clever mage to find its uses.

Thamatology's Observer Effect hadn't been named on a whim. As a thaumaturge, Thorne possessed the innate ability to see the underlying flow of Elan Vital Energy through the world, a type of vision that didn't involve sight. Usually, this was a barely noticeable underglow beneath their normal vision. But with the glamour suppressing their optic senses, they could easily see the ghostly outlines of the room and its contents, a monochromatic mirage created by interactions with the background aspect radiation.

The invisibility charm bought them some time, but they still needed a way to keep the Peregrine unit from noticing their absence and raising an alarm.

***

Circumstances