by Eric Vall
“This is Cayla, Princess of Cedis, and an Aer Mage we met while there,” Aurora continued the introductions. “Shoshanne, this is Terra Mage Haragh.”
“Defender Haragh, actually,” the half-ogre corrected her. “A number of us were made defenders of the realm in your absence. It was a show to demonstrate how the Order of Elementa was still dedicated to protecting Illaria, despite Abrus’s betrayal. I don’t think it was very effective. If anything, there is more distrust than ever among the non-magical people.”
“Speaking as a non-magical person, I can understand their fear,” Cayla said with a nod. “The power of the mages is beyond incredible, and all it takes is one bad example like Abrus Zorick to show us how vulnerable we are to it. The people need to see more good work by the Order to trust again.”
“If I hadn’t forced Abrus to show his colors in public, things would probably be a lot better for the Order,” I said with a frown.
“You have nothing to feel guilty about, Mason,” Aurora said as she shook her azure head. “The only person at fault is Abrus himself.” Then she turned to the ogre and frowned herself. “What does Wyresus mean to do about this situation?”
“If he has a plan,” Haragh grumbled, “he hasn’t shown it to the rest of us. I think the fool is just waiting for another attack so we can show everyone we’re actually the good guys.”
I hoped there was a better plan in the works, but there was only one to find out.
“Where is Wyresus now?” I asked the half-ogre mage.
“Doing research, as usual,” Haragh replied. “I’ll show you the way.”
Haragh led us through the halls of the vast library and down a spiral staircase lined with sputtering torches. It was a steep decline, and Cayla held the stair rail. Then I noticed the half-ogre steal a glance to her hand.
“Interesting,” he said with a puzzled frown.
“What is?” the princess asked. She met his eyes, and the contrast between them couldn’t be stronger. A petite princess from another land, and a seven foot tall green beast of a humanoid from… wherever the hell ogres came from.
“We don’t get many non-mages in the Oculus, let alone the Great Library,” Haragh replied gruffly. “You must find this all pretty strange.”
“Strange doesn’t bother me,” Cayla grinned and gave me a look, “though I’ll admit, this is my first conversation with a half-ogre. Are there many mages like you?”
“Naw, not many,” the massive Terra Mage said as he gave her a sly wink, “but if you’re into something strange, you came to the right person.”
I turned to look at Haragh, my face composed in my best hard stare. Haragh reacted at once and stopped on the staircase.
“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered, and it took all I had not to laugh at this monstrous being’s frightened face. “She’s your lady, Defender Flynt, ain’t she? By Warfang, I meant no disrespect. It was just a stupid joke.”
“Relax,” Cayla giggled. “He’s just pulling a stupid joke himself. If I’m not offended, why should he be?”
“You sure?” Haragh asked me nervously. “Most mages take themselves really seriously down here.”
“Well, I’m not one of them,” I laughed and gave Haragh a friendly punch to the arm. “It’s all good.”
By the time we reached the bottom of the stairs, Haragh had a big smile on his huge, wrinkled face.
The research room smelled of old paper and was lined with shelves stacked with scrolls and leather-bound books. Wyresus was among a dozen mages seated at a long wooden table up to their noses in stacks of paper. He looked up and blinked his pale blue eyes at our approach.
“Have we met?” he asked curiously as I came to a stop before him.
“Um, yeah, just last night at the banquet,” I replied, not sure if it was a joke or not.
“Of course, of course,” Wyresus nodded, “now I remember. You’re the Metal Mage. What can I do for you?”
I gestured for Shoshanne to step forward, which she nervously did.
“This is Shoshanne, who has the mark of an Aer Mage,” I said. “I have brought her to be trained.”
“Very good,” Wyresus beamed and gestured to the seat next to him. “No time like the present. Come join me, my fellow Aer Mage. I will see to your training personally.”
As Shoshanne cautiously took her assigned chair, Wyresus waved his hands at the shelves and summoned books. They flew across the room and stacked up in front of the curly-haired healer. She gave me a pained look.
“When I came to the Order to be trained, Abrus had me demonstrate my skills and then challenged me to a duel,” I told Wyresus with the hope that there might be a little action this first day of training.
“Well, that was Abrus, wasn’t it?” Wyresus gave a weary smile. “There are some standard instructional books every Aer Mage needs to memorize in order to practice his or her craft. Properties of different gases, how airflow affects weather, so on and so forth. It’d be highly irresponsible to ask a mage to use their power without understanding it first.”
I felt sorry for Shoshanne and the hours of study she had, but Wyresus’s logic on this at least made sense. The head of the Order turned back to his own book, so I cleared my throat to get his attention again.
“Did His Majesty also request that you send some mages to help with the situation in Cedis?” I asked.
“Ah, yes, he did. I forgot,” Wyresus replied thoughtfully. “I will order preparations for their week’s journey as soon as I finish one or two more things.”
Using Bobbie 2.0, we could travel from Illaria’s capital to Cedis’s capital in just a few days, but I recalled Cayla’s words that it would take a week to make the journey on horseback. There must be some way to speed up the journey.
“Mage Wyresus,” said Haragh with a sour note in his grumbly voice. “Metal Mage Flynt asked about plans to improve the Order’s reputation with the non-magical people of Illaria. Could you tell him what you have in mind?”
“I am deep in research, as you can see,” Wyresus replied, and he barely looked up from his book. “When I understand the nature of the threat we’re facing and have evaluated potential solutions, then I will share my findings.”
Frustration flashed in Aurora’s emerald eyes. “Not everything can be found in books!” the half-elf sniffed.
Wyresus blinked and chuckled as he returned to his book. “Please show yourself out.”
There seemed to be little point in continuing the conversation, but I didn’t want Shoshanne to feel abandoned.
“We’ll be back soon,” I said with a reassuring smile.
“Okay,” Shoshanne replied shyly before she returned to her studies.
Cayla, Aurora, and I followed Haragh out and up the stairs to the main library chambers. We looked from one to the other, discouraged.
“I’m sure he means well,” Cayla was the first to speak, “but that man is not the leader the Order needs right now. We need action now, not caution.”
“At least he agreed to send the mages to Cedis,” I said and frowned as I thought more about it. “That will take a week.”
“Probably longer with such a large group protecting supplies,” Cayla said, her brow lined with worry. “What if they face bandits along the way or another beast attack? They may never make it back to Eyton.”
“What can I do to help?” asked Haragh.
I turned to respond to him, but then something caught my eye. I frowned and leaned a little closer to the half-ogre.
“Actually, could you bend down a little?” I asked.
Awkwardly, Haragh bent down until his face was parallel to mine. I reached out and touched the clear gem that sparkled at his throat and held his cloak together.
“It’s not a channeling gem if that’s what you’re thinking,” said Aurora.
“I wish I could make one of those,” Haragh replied with a sigh.
“But you crafted this yourself? With your Terra powers?” I asked quickly.
Haragh nodded and said,
“I’ve always found I had a special connection to gems. It’s not unique like your metal magery. Any Terra Mage could do it with a lot of practice, but it just came easy and natural to me. Aside from helping out when I needed some money and making some pretty baubles for the ladies, there’s not much practical use to it that I’ve found.”
“That’s the final piece. I definitely could use your help,” I said with a grin. “We have an extra seat now if you have the time to come to my workshop. It’s in the foothills north of the city.”
“What do you mean ‘another seat,’ Defender Flynt?” Haragh replied suspiciously.
“Let me show you,” I chuckled as I led the group out of the library. When we emerged outside, the half-ogre stopped in his tracks and stared at Bobbie 2.0.
“I had heard rumors that the Metal Mage rode an iron steed,” Haragh muttered as he walked down the steps to investigate, “but I thought they were just stories. It’s incredible.”
Bobbie gunned her engine as if in response, and Haragh nearly jumped out of his skin.
“She doesn’t like being called ‘it,’” Cayla said with a laugh.
“My apologies, milady.” The half-ogre grinned until he saw the sidecar. Then he turned to me with a frown. “Surely, you don’t think I’ll fit in that.”
“It’s roomier than it looks,” I said with a nod. “The weight needs to be evenly distributed. With all the supplies, you probably weigh as much as the ladies and me put together.”
Bobbie still groaned as Haragh got into the sidecar, and I jumped on her between Aurora and Cayla, but my calculations of weight balance seemed to be correct. We rode slowly out of the Oculus, up to the palace courtyard where I brought her to a halt. I turned to Cayla.
“What do you need?” the long-legged princess asked.
“Can you borrow a map of the region from the king’s library?” I asked. “It should show Illaria, Cedis, and all the neighboring kingdoms.”
“Done,” Cayla said simply. “What else?”
“I need to put together a demonstration for the king,” I replied. “Will you find him and get him to come out to the workshop in about three hours? That should be enough time for Haragh, Aurora, and I to finish what I have in mind.”
“Can you give me a clue as to what it is?” Cayla asked, bewildered, as she stepped off Bobbie. “I’d like to let him know what to expect.”
“I don’t want to spoil the fun,” I said with a big grin.
“If ‘vague’ and ‘frustrating’ is fun,” Cayla complained, but I could see by the light in her blues eyes that she was intrigued. “Okay, we’ll meet you at the workshop in three hours. This better be worth all the mystery, Mason.”
“It will be, I promise!” I laughed as Bobbie revved up her engine.
We drove out of town and into the foothills. With our slow, cautious speed, it was nearly midday when we reached the clearing in the hills where I had built my workshop. Everything was actually as I had left it, including the tracks that led to the mine.
“What did you think of the ride?” I asked Haragh.
The half-ogre’s black hair had come loose from its braid and hung over his eyes. With a grumble, he pulled it back.
“Bit windy,” he said as he wove his hair back into place.
“That’s where you come in, my friend,” I said as a big smile crept across my face.
“Don’t leave us in suspense any longer,” Aurora said the moment Bobbie shut her engine off and we were able to talk. “What’s your idea to speed up transportation and protect the men, mages, and emergency supplies?”
“You’re looking at all the pieces of the puzzle here,” I said with my cocky grin. “Tracks. Bobbie’s original Stirling engine. Haragh’s synthetic gemstone. Put ‘em together and what do you have?”
Haragh and Aurora looked at one another, baffled.
“What?” Aurora asked.
“It’s called,” I said and paused for dramatic effect, “a train.”
Chapter 4
My mind was on the big picture, but I had to slow down and explain what we needed to create for our demonstration. I began with Haragh.
“How long would it take you to create a sapphire like the one you have around your neck but curved and flat, like this?” I asked and gestured to the dirt. With a small burst of my power, I formed a piece of rock into the size and shape I needed. The length of my forearm, a quarter of an inch thick, and bowed like the crescent moon.
“Not long, given the materials,” the half-ogre replied as he shrugged.
“Great, then follow me.” I grinned and led Aurora and him into the mine.
The Ignis Mage reached out her slim, pale hands and ignited the torches as we delved deeper. I looked up to Haragh’s rough green face and saw that he was deep in concentration. I knew how he felt as we entered into the realm of his element. The stone spoke to him as it spoke to me, but, as he said, he had a special connection to gemstones.
“Interesting,” Haragh mused as we walked.
“Interesting good or interesting bad?” Aurora asked.
The Terra Mage held out his hand, and glittering powder seeped out from the walls and tunnels all around him like fog. More and more whirled and danced in the air as it followed his command. In a few minutes, the dust had come together and formed a ball in the air the size of a grapefruit.
“Interesting bad for me,” Haragh grunted. “If I had known about this mine, I would have a much nicer stone around my neck. Interesting good for you that I didn’t. This should be enough for your demonstration.”
“How much more is there in the mine?” I asked.
“At least a hundred times more, I’d wager,” the ogre-man replied. “If you want this done before the king gets here for his demonstration, I will require some heat.”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Aurora smirked as she drew a flaming blue circle in the air.
A few minutes later, we were out of the mine and back in the sunlight.
“All right,” I said as I turned to the half-ogre and half-elf. “Haragh, do you need Aurora’s help to even get started?”
“Naw,” Haragh replied as he eyed his floating ball of crystals. “I gotta take some time to compress and shape them before I need the heat to melt and fuse the structure. But I don’t mind an audience.”
“Go on,” I said to Aurora. “I need some time to write up some plans in the workshop.”
“Are you saying I distract you, Mason Flynt?” the sultry half-elf said, hands on her hips and a sexy look in her eyes.
“Gods help me, you know you do,” I chuckled as I pulled her to me and kissed her deeply.
Haragh roared with laughter. “I see how it is! Come on, Defender Solana. Leave the genius to his craft.”
Aurora snickered too as she pushed away and went to follow the half-ogre with an extra sway to her walk. I shook my head to clear it and entered my workroom.
Quill and ink at my side, I began my first sketch on a roll of parchment. I didn’t want to bog myself down in details, but I needed to convey a real idea of what I had to propose. I never took any art classes, but back in junior high and high school, I was a real doodler. Of course, the drawings I made when I was bored on my notepads and textbooks were of a world I imagined of kings and wizards, dragons and large-breasted elves. Now that I was in that very world, I had to recall the other world, my other life, which once seemed so real, but now felt so far away.
I stole a glance out the window and saw Aurora and Haragh. The half-ogre Terra Mage had molded his pulsating cloud of shimmering crystals into the same shape I had created in stone. He held it in his massive arms, his eyes closed as he communed with the element in his power.
Looking down at my parchment, I found that I had drawn a sapphire sword on it while I watched. Damn, that would be cool.
“Fuck,” I groaned, crumpled up the sheet, and threw it to the side. How could I focus with the magic going on right outside my window?
Suddenly, I felt a tug
on my quill. I turned and discovered that little Stan had crawled up to the table and had it in hand. I let him guide me back to the parchment, and then he released his grip and took a seat. His featureless head tilted up to mine expectantly.
Maybe like Haragh, I didn’t mind an audience either.
I thought of the lobby at my steel company, filled with photographs of the history of nineteenth, twentieth century, and twenty-first century metalwork: smelting plants, skyscrapers under construction, automobile assembly lines, and the locomotive. There was one great image of a train as it arrived in a station to the applause of awaiting passengers that always struck me. Stroke by stroke, I copied it from memory with my pen while Stan watched.
I didn’t stop until the little metal man stood up, walked from one end of the parchment to the other, looked up at me, and then, very dramatically, fell backward as if in a state of shock. It was a fairly melodramatic bit of acting, but it made me laugh.
I allowed myself a short break to look out the window and watched as Aurora superheated the compact crystalline cloud the half-ogre held together with his power. I could feel the waves of energy from all the way across the meadow until finally, Haragh held up his hand.
“Enough,” he shouted, and Aurora let the flame disappear.
“Good job!” I called to them through the open window. “I’m ready for you both in here!”
“You don’t want me to give it a little polish?” Haragh asked. “I can make it crystal clear as glass!”
“There’s time enough for that later!” I shook my head. “Right now, I need you guys here!”
When the two meta-humans, one half-elf and one half-ogre, entered the workroom, I silently gestured to the illustration on the table. Without a word, Aurora and Haragh studied it, their eyes open wide.
“Okay,” I said after I gave them a moment to absorb it, “now I need you to ask me questions about how it works.”
“What powers this behemoth?” Aurora asked, not afraid to challenge me.
“Good question.” I grinned and set to work on another illustration. My quill flew across the parchment as I sketched an image of a beautiful Ignis Mage with long braided hair and large breasts as she sent a spark into a huge Stirling engine like I had first built for Bobbie.
