by Eric Vall
“What are these rails and tracks beneath?” asked Haragh after I had finished.
“That’s good, too.” I nodded, and then I sketched a series on the specifics of how the train met the track, set on crushed stone. I drew a track over a river on a bridge, and then several sketches from different angles on how rails fit into the tracks like a ball in a cup.
When the drawings were done and Haragh seemed satisfied, I looked up out of the window at the sun in the sky. If Cayla had been able to persuade the king to come for our demonstration, they would be here soon.
“Come on,” I said eagerly. “Let’s get ready for our guests.”
As soon as we stepped outside, I summoned up the power deep inside me. Then I used it to move the tracks that led down into the mine. The large metal rails lifted from the ground and then I stacked them together one on top of the other until they were nearly twenty feet high. I released my magic and felt the familiar dip of fatigue, but it was nearly indiscernible now. I had really built up my stamina since I came to this world. When the tracks were all set, I looked over them with a hint of pride and excitement. Now, all that was left to do was to attach the crystalline shield Haragh had created to the back of Bobbie 2.0’s sidecar as a windscreen.
We had just finished that side project when we heard the sound of trumpets echo through the forest followed by hoofbeats. The king’s royal guard bounded into the meadow, followed by King Temin himself, Cayla, and to my surprise, Mage Wyresus. Not surprisingly, the undersized head of the Order was in the rear. He could barely bring his horse to a trot.
“Mason, I love you like a son, but you know I can’t drop everything to come every time you call,” Temin said as he dismounted his steed. He spoke sternly but with affection. “The princess claimed she couldn’t tell me the details because that would spoil the fun. Did you tell her that?”
“Ah, princesses, eh? What’re ya gonna do with them, am I right?” I chuckled, and then I laughed even harder when Cayla shot me a withering look. “This is not a waste of your time, I promise. I’m sure I have the perfect solution for how to connect your cities and neighboring allies together for trade and mutual defense.”
“I sincerely hope to see something special,” Wyresus grumbled after he had managed to disentangle himself from his saddle and dropped to the ground. “My time in research is also very valuable.”
“We didn’t even know you were coming,” Aurora replied, her tone cool.
“His Royal Majesty insisted,” Wyresus sighed. “After all, I am his magical advisor.”
I would not let Wyresus spoil the occasion or my mood, so I pulled out the drawings and plans I had prepared.
“It’s called a train,” I declared with pride.
“It’s called a what?” King Temin’s face creased with a confused frown.
“A train,” I repeated for the king as he and the mage looked over all my sketches.
They weren’t overly detailed, just enough to convey the concept. The Stirling engine stoked by the power of an Ignis Mage. The locomotive car which housed the engine and pulled along the freight car. The wheels and double tracks.
“This seems,” the king said and paused as he took it all in, “like a lot of work.”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Temin, it will be,” I said frankly, “but think of the value of what you’ll be getting. We lay tracks down throughout Illaria and into the neighboring allied kingdoms, and in the end, we have a means of moving people and supplies around quickly and safely. It will change everything.”
“What do you think, Wyresus?” Temin asked as he turned to the head of the Order of Elementa.
“I am still processing it all, Your Majesty,” the reply came which was more or less what I had expected. Wyresus, I had learned, was a man who couldn’t be hurried to make up his mind.
“Let me show you the big picture,” I said. “Cayla, do you have the map?”
Cayla no longer pretended to be angry with me as she was clearly intrigued by the project. She handed me the map, and I unfurled it. It was just what I needed.
I pointed to the area where my workshop was located in the foothills north of the city. “The terminus station will be here where it all starts, and the first tracks we lay will come down here to Serin.”
“Where to next?” Temin asked as he joined me at the map.
“Well, we want to provide a link to Eyton, the capital of Cedis,” I said as I tapped that location to the south. “Of course, you know your kingdom better than I do. The exact path will depend on which towns you’d want on the trade route straight away. It’d probably be easiest if we pass through flat, solid terrain, but the Terra Mages on board can help change the landscape if needed.”
“You would need Terra Mages on this train of yours?” Wyresus asked with a raise of his eyebrow.
“Ignis Mages as well,” Aurora spoke up with a smile. “We’ll need several to keep the engines running as you see from the illustration..”
“I know a number of Ignis and Terra Mages who’d be interested in helping out,” Haragh added, a toothy grin on his green face.
“I’ve already agreed to sending some mages to Cedis,” Wyresus said with a frown. “You’d have me empty out the Order of Elementa on this project of yours.”
“The people need to see mages out of the Oculus, actually doing work on their behalf,” I explained. “You can’t just keep them locked away in the library doing research nobody outside the Order understands if you want non-magical people to trust mages again.”
Wyresus fell into a thoughtful silence, so I turned back to the king.
“After we have a rail system through Illaria and Cedis, we can look into some of the neighboring kingdoms like Nalnora,” I said as I allowed a smile to grow on my face.
“Ah, you’re on about the elves again,” Temin chuckled and shook his head. “They will not go for this, trust me.”
“Not now, but once they see the economic and military benefits that Illaria and Cedis are reaping, they’ll come around,” I pointed out. “Better trade relations will lead to better diplomacy.”
“Will King Davit agree to all this?” Temin asked as he turned to Cayla.
“I will write my father straightaway,” the dark-haired princess said with a smile. “After Mason saved us from the Bandit Boss, however, I am confident the king will agree to anything he suggests. My father trusts Mason completely.”
“As do I,” Temin said, “but I’m a practical man, and I don’t see why this wouldn’t be better as a metal caravan, pulled by horses, and traveling along the roads we already have.”
“I don’t want to push the small traders, cattle drivers, merchants, and just regular traveling citizens off the road with our train,” I explained. “It’s faster and safer to have dedicated train tracks.”
“But how quickly can they be laid out?” the king replied.
“Time for a demonstration.” I grinned, and I felt all eyes on me. With a strong pulse of my energy, I lifted the tracks that had been stacked one after the other across the meadow until they disappeared into the trees. When I released the magic, my strength took a nosedive, but I widened my stance and gritted my teeth until the world righted beneath me again.
Then I took a quick breath and turned to my audience with a slightly strained smile. “Those tracks go about a quarter of a mile. It took me about two minutes to lay them out. So that’s…”
“One-eighth mile in roughly one minute,” Wyresus replied as he scratched his chin. “Sixty miles in an eight hour day, a little over four hundred in a week.”
“Bravo, Mage Wyresus,” I agreed. “Let’s assume trouble along the way and a slow down. Four weeks, a month, to cover Illaria and most of Cedis. Roughly, anyway.”
“Extraordinary,” Wyresus muttered as if he could not help but be impressed.
“Of course, since there may be other unexpected trouble, the mages and soldiers aboard the train will also need to be able to see outside,” I continued eagerly
. “So, there will need to be windows. Can I now direct your attention to my famous metal steed?”
I pointed to where Bobbie 2.0 was parked, her back to us.
“You’ve given her a little glass shield,” Cayla noted.
“So many of your inventions are ingenious,” sniffed Wyresus, “but I hate to tell you, we’ve already invented glass.”
“It’s not glass,” I said as I unstrapped my rifle from my back. Then I took careful aim at the windshield and fired. The gunshot echoed through the meadow.
“I am still not used to that noise,” King Temin cringed as he shook his head.
“Please follow me,” I requested as I lowered the rifle, and the group allowed me to lead them to Bobbie.
There was no mark on my motorcycle or the windshield which sparkled in the sunlight.
“Where is the bullet?” the king asked with a frown. “Did you miss?”
“Here it is,” Haragh chuckled gruffly as he picked up some metal debris from the grass. “Or what’s left of it.”
“I’ve seen your bullets tear holes in a basilisk,” Temin muttered as he stared. “How did this one not break the glass?”
“I told you,” I said, unable to suppress my grin any longer, “it’s not glass. It’s a shield made of pure sapphire, one of the hardest materials there is, courtesy of Defender Haragh.”
“Ain’t sapphire supposed to be blue?” one of the king’s guards blurted out.
“Only because of the presence of beautiful imperfections,” Haragh replied, happy to talk about his creation. “In its pure state, it’s completely clear. Give me a little more time, and I’ll make windows you can see through, but that nobody can break.”
King Temin began to laugh and clapped me on the back. “Let’s do it. Mage Wyresus, do we have the support of the Order?”
“Very well,” said Wyresus as regarded the sapphire shield. “The Metal Mage’s project will have as many Ignis and Terra Mages as it requires.”
“Fuckin’ A!” I cried out with a wide grin.
The king, the head of the Order of Elementa, the princess, and the Ignis Mage all looked at me at my outburst.
“We’ve grown accustomed to not understanding you a lot of the time, Mason,” Temin chuckled at last. “I take that to be one of your people’s expressions for… being enthusiastic?”
“Let’s just say I’m ready to go!” I replied with a laugh of my own.
“Actually, it’s we who must go,” the king said before he gestured for his guard to bring his horse. “You have a lot of work to do right here in your workshop.”
“That’s true,” I replied as I nodded and rubbed the back of my neck. “Sorry, I was just caught up in the moment.”
“Well done on your demonstration,” Temin said and gave a wave as he followed his guards out of the clearing. “I expect regular updates on your progress.”
I let out a huge sigh of relief that the demonstration had gone so well. It was another of those moments when I just had to take it all in. I was the sole Metal Mage in existence, Defender of Illaria. About to be the inventor of the railroad.
Life was fucking good.
“Haragh,” I said as I snapped out of it, “besides the windows on the train, I’ll need bigger sapphire shields on the front of the motorcycle.”
“I should return to the Oculus first,” the half-ogre said with a shake of his head. “I know Wyresus is gonna sit on his ass when he should be getting the Ignis and Terra Mages we need organized.”
“We should go as well,” Aurora said. “I want to go to the library and make sure Shoshanne is all right.”
I agreed. We hadn’t left her alone for this long since we’d begun the journey, and she knew no one else. I could afford to take an hour break before I dived head first into this new project.
“I should stay and write my letter to my father,” Cayla said and started to walk back to the workshop.
“Just admit it,” Haragh called after her. “You don’t want to make Mason jealous when he sees you snuggled behind me!”
Cayla giggled, “Okay, you got me!”
“You know I’m joking,” Haragh said as we boarded Bobbie 2.0. “The princess ain’t my type. I like em at least seven feet tall and green.”
“Well, that is a relief,” I laughed as Bobbie’s engine roared to life. I was quickly finding that I liked the half-ogre. He wasn’t pretentious, wasn’t overwhelmed with me being “The Metal Mage,” and he was funny to boot. With us staring down the barrel of another long project, I was glad to have made another friend.
In no time, we were at the Great Library at the Oculus. Haragh took leave of us in the main corridor while Aurora and I headed down to the research rooms.
“I will see you soon as I’ve recruited the mages we need,” the half-ogre mage said with a wave. True to his word, before we turned to the corner, I saw him stop to speak with a young man in a white robe trimmed in red. I knew from Aurora that was the uniform of the Ignis Mages.
As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about with Shoshanne. We found her in the research room in the library, much the way we had left her, buried in a book. She looked up at us and smiled when we came in.
“How are you getting on?” Aurora asked the copper-haired Aer Mage.
“It was hard going at first,” Shoshanne admitted sheepishly. “I have so much to learn, and the basic textbooks are so dry. But then I thought of Pallax, who is the god of wisdom as well as charity, and how important it is for me to learn and do good with this power of mine. His Order taught me so much about healing, but they were rituals and remedies that worked without anyone understanding why they did. Just the couple of hours I’ve spent studying has taught me so much that I can use to make people well.”
“Like what for example?” I asked.
“Well, here’s a simple one,” the healer said after a thought. “Imagine you were choking. All I have to is slightly adjust the air pressure inside you…”
A gentle breeze tossed Shoshanne’s curly hair as she touched the power within her. Suddenly, my lungs swelled up within me, and I nearly gagged in a coughing fit. The mages at study looked up from their books with angry faces, and the three of us hurried out of the research room.
“I’m so sorry!” Shoshanne said the moment we closed the door behind us. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I replied with a final wheeze. “You know, you could become quite a deadly mage with this power.”
“Oh no,” Shoshanne frowned and shook her head. “I am forbidden by the Order of Pallax to harm anyone. I only want to use what I learn to help people.”
“You may find that oath hard to keep in the real world,” Aurora said sympathetically. “Remember the chicken farmer we helped in Cedis? The only way to help him was to hurt the bandits who stole from him.”
I remembered particularly the fat bandit who had crept up behind me and was only inches away when Cayla took him out. Even though I agreed with Aurora, I didn’t want to gang up on Shoshanne. She was so caught between different worlds and would have to find her own path.
“Let’s go,” I interrupted the discussion. “I have a huge project I need to get started on as soon as possible.”
“I-I think I should stay here and study,” Shoshanne stammered and took a step back. “Unless there’s something you need me for?”
“Actually, yes,” I said and then immediately corrected myself. My mind was focused on the details of locomotion, but I had also been concerned about how to store the produce we needed to deliver to Cedis. “See if you come across a way to prevent spoilage on fresh goods. We’re going to make a machine that will speed up travel and trade, but I don’t want anything going to waste. If you find something that you think will work in your studies, will you let me know?”
“Of course I will,” Shoshanne smiled, happy to be helpful. “I will make it my mission.”
“Don’t overdo it,” Aurora warned her seriously. “Your body and mind need rest too.”
We talked as we made our way out of the library to where Bobbie was parked at the foot of the stairs.
“I hope she really is enjoying the research,” I said thoughtfully, “and not offended that we justified killing those bandits.”
“I had to study hard when I first came to the Order,” Aurora replied before she gave me a teasing wink. “Not all of us are natural self-starters like the Metal Mage.”
I chuckled with a feeling of pride as we got on Bobbie and launched ourselves through the stone streets of the Oculus. The truth was that all my years on Earth has basically been a long study session. I had picked up enough knowledge there to help me in all I created in this new world I found myself in, from guns to motorcycles, and automatons to trains. If I didn’t have that in my background, I’d be at square one like Shoshanne.
I was lost in this thought as we sped through the forest on the way back to the workshop. Aurora suddenly turned to me, alarm on her face.
“There is a battle raging a few meters away, over the next hill,” she hissed.
I tensed. Another beast attack? A bandit raid like we saw in Cedis? As we neared the top of the hill, I could hear the sounds as well. War cries. The clash of steel on steel. Adrenaline pumped within me, and I prepared my power so I could be ready for whatever we faced.
There was a wide-open field, one we had passed many times before. At this time, however, it was filled with the king’s soldiers, some on foot, others on horseback, as they fought one another. I knew immediately that it was a practice skirmish even before their commander called out and ordered them to stop.
“Not bad, not bad!” he shouted from his steed as he rode through their ranks. “Flank guard, you need to tighten up your formation! Nicely done to the vanguard! And rearguard, you’re right but too slow! Let’s get ready to go again!”
The commander caught sight of us as we rolled down the hill and galloped over to greet us. He was covered in plate mail armor but wore no helmet so I could see he was older, scarred from battle, and his short-cropped hair was flecked with gray.
