by Eric Vall
“Sir Torganet of Badeth,” the commander said with a salute. “I believe I have the honor of addressing Defender Flynt and Defender Solana?”
“That’s us,” I replied, pleased that our reputation had preceded us. Of course, how many other people in the region traveled on a loud iron steed like we did?
“I lead His Majesty’s Second Cavalry,” Sir Torganet explained. “By King Temin’s command, we are preparing to help defend our allies in Cedis.”
“I’m glad to see you and your men are taking this so seriously,” I replied.
“You are certainly welcome to stay and watch our maneuvers,” the commander said as he gestured to his soldiers. “I am trying to prepare my men for different kinds of battle, as warfare against a group of cunning bandits is very different from fighting one of the great beasts we may face.”
“We have a lot of work to do in preparation as well, Sir Torganet, but we’d be happy to watch for a while,” I responded with a smile.
How many times had I watched historical reenactments at the Renaissance Fair and wished I could see real knights on horseback, not accountants and website designers in dress up? I couldn’t pass this up.
Aurora and I parked Bobbie back at the top of the hill to get the best view of the skirmish. The knights moved themselves into position on opposite ends of the field and awaited Sir Torganet’s command. Then he threw a red banner, and the moment it struck the earth, the battle began. Even as far away as we were, we could feel the ground tremble from hoofbeats.
When the two sides met in the center of the field, this sound was replaced by the high clash of blade against shield and armor. They must have held back to keep from any fatal injuries, but not by much. The commander ordered changes in tactics from his position, and his men quickly rallied to obey without question.
When the dust had settled and the battle was over, I steered Bobbie down into the field to congratulate them. It was obvious that these were some of the king’s finest warriors.
“Any advice based on your battles in Cedis?” asked Sir Torganet.
“Much of Cedis is open pasture like this,” Aurora replied after a thought, “but you may find yourself in a village or town, where the bandits like to take cover and snipe from the rooftops.”
“Give me a moment, and I can help simulate that,” I said as I dropped to my haunches and placed my hands on the ground. I felt the familiar pulse and let my power run through the stone and dirt in a wave. Stacks of rock burst out all around the field, some as tall as three-story buildings, others only the size of poor hovels. It took a lot of my strength and willpower to turn the open land into a mock village, and I nearly fell backward from the strain of it.
“By the gods, this is perfect for training,” the commander said, impressed. “We’ll switch up weaponry and tactics for this type of battle.”
“When I get to my workshop, I’ll make your soldiers some blanks to use in their guns for practice,” I said, but I realized the commander would have no idea what a blank was. “That’s non-lethal ammunition.”
“I wouldn’t waste too much time on that, Defender Flynt,” Sir Torganet replied. “The men preferred their tried-and-true bows and blades to your rifles and pistols.”
“But that’s absurd,” Aurora scoffed. “Mason’s guns are far more powerful. Why did he bother to create them if you’re not going to use them?”
“I meant no offense,” the knight replied quickly. “They are indeed miraculous weapons, but from a practical point of view, my soldiers struggle to reload and maintain them. I’m sure that will change in time, but as you know, time is a luxury we do not have.”
It was hard not to feel a little offended as I thought how much time and effort I put into the arsenal I had created. I couldn’t argue with the concerns of this seasoned leader, so I decided to put on my big boy pants and not get into it.
“I appreciate your honesty,” I said. “Now, we must go and do our own preparations for the days ahead.”
Sir Torganet gave us a salute as I drove Bobbie out of the field and back onto the road. It wasn’t more than a mile down the road to the workshop.
When we finally arrived, I sighed as I stepped off the bike.
“I still think it’s ridiculous that they’re not using all the guns you created for them,” Aurora remarked as she shook her head. “They’re just stuck in their ways.”
“Maybe it’s for the best,” I replied after a thought. “Remember how the bandits stole back the guns I made for King Davit and used them against us?”
“Is there a way to disable the guns when they’re in enemies’ hands?” asked Aurora.
No easy answers came to mind. I would have to think on that problem.
My current project needed my attention first. I concentrated, tapped into my power, and sent it out in a wave toward the rails I had laid out in my demonstration to the king. At my command, they lifted up one by one and flew back to where they belonged, on a path down into the mine. I had a lot of ore to collect and very little time to do it in.
When I was finished, Aurora tossed me a canteen of water and followed me into the workshop.
As I moved toward one of the tables to focus on the specifics for the railroad design, I heard the sound of multiple hooves on earth nearby. I looked at the workshop doorway and frowned.
We were about to have company.
So much for getting started.
Chapter 5
As I stood in the doorway of the workshop, a dozen horsemen in white robes galloped into the clearing led by Haragh himself on a massive brown stallion. The riders were mages, and as they dismounted, I could see red trim on some of their uniforms and brown trim on others. These were the Ignis and Terra Mages the half-ogre had promised to recruit.
They were a mixed crew of different genders, sizes, ages, and races, but all of them wore the same excited look. Haragh approached me first and wore a big smile on his green, wrinkled face.
“I can probably bring another dozen tomorrow,” he said with a low chuckle. “These were the ones who couldn’t wait. There’s also a couple Flumens, Aer, and Lux Mages who want to lend a hand if we need them. And a Tenebrae who is sorta on the fence about the whole project but would like to meet you to learn more. I’m not the most articulate about explaining this train project of yours.”
“Haragh, my friend,” I said with a smile as I clasped his arm, “you need to give yourself more credit. When I heard hoofbeats, I thought I was going to be delayed because I couldn’t imagine you’d recruit a team so quickly. I’d be interested in talking to the mages of different elements as soon as I figure out how to handle the ones I have so far.”
Haragh frowned slightly. “Is there a problem?”
“I’m just thinking of all the wasted time, with everyone going back and forth to the Oculus every day, an hour each way by horse,” I replied with a scratch on my chin.
“Exactly,” Haragh said with a nod. “It proves exactly why we need this train of yours. It’s just too bad the mine isn’t closer to where the mages live.”
“Well,” I said, and a smile slowly grew on my face as an idea formed. “We can’t move the mine, but we could move where the mages live.”
“What are you thinking, Mason?” Aurora asked with a furrowed brow. “Have everyone move in with us?”
I hadn’t even noticed my beautiful women had come out of the workroom until they spoke.
“That’d be cozy,” Cayla snickered.
“The Terra Mages created their homes in the Oculus,” I pointed out. “Why not do it here?”
Haragh, Aurora, and Cayla took this in as they looked around the meadow, which was little more than a clearing the original mining colony created.
“There’s not enough room for more than a dozen houses or so,” Haragh mused, “but there are plenty mages interested in joining the project. How are we going to squeeze them all in?”
“I have one idea,” I said with a grim smile, “but it might just kill me.
”
“Scratch that then, mate,” Haragh chuckled. “Seriously, what’s the problem?”
“When we were helping out the towns and villages that had been attacked by bandits and beasts, I used my power to create little buildings, walls, that kind of thing,” I explained. “Just doing that is exhausting though. I don’t have enough power to do what I have in mind. That’s the problem.”
“Power ain’t a problem,” the half-ogre said with a shrug. “Why don’t you just take all us Terra Mages and do a circuit of power?”
I looked at Haragh, bewildered. “What are you talking about?”
“Mason didn’t exactly have a formal introduction to his magecraft,” Aurora stepped in to explain. “He’s been pretty much figuring it out as he goes along.”
“Well, there’s something to be said for that, I suppose,” Haragh acknowledged with a laugh, and then he looked at me. “Think of it this way. All of us Terra Mages got an elemental connection to the earth, right? It sorta talks to us and does what we say if we got enough power. When we form a circuit, we pull all our power together and focus, and it’s like ten men pushing a rock instead of one.”
“All these Terra Mages know how to do this?” I asked thoughtfully.
“Sure, it’s one of the first things we gotta learn when we’re just baby Terra mages, playing in the mud,” the half-ogre chuckled. “One little mage can’t make a rock float when he first gets started, but form a circuit, and we can show him how it’s done.”
I had to admit that teamwork was never my strong suit, but more and more, it looked like I had to step it up.
“Well,” I said, “I guess it’s worth a try.”
“I still don’t understand how there’s enough space here for twenty mages to have places to stay in this little meadow,” Cayla remarked as she shook her head. “It sounds like you’re going to get twenty, maybe fifty more eventually? Think about everything else you’ll need space for on this railroad project. There’s just literally no room.”
“There’s a saying where I come from,” I said as my mind went to my neighborhood in the Chicago Loop. “‘If you can’t build out, build up.’ Come on, I’ll explain to everyone.”
As I spoke, I had the disconcerting feeling of subtle movement under my feet. When I looked down, I saw that Haragh had lifted the earth beneath my feet and created a small platform. I gave him a puzzled look.
“I don’t think you humans realize the advantage a foot or two gives you,” said the half-ogre, who even at my new elevation, was still a couple inches taller than me. “The mages need to hear from you, but, and trust me on this, I stand out more than you. Now, go on. Talk to them. Put them to task. They’re bustin’ to get started on something.”
The sun was on the horizon, and it occurred to me that I had known Haragh for less than a day. In that time, he’d shown me more than respect and his astonishing skill at using his Terra magery for crafting gems. He’d shown me real friendship. For some reason, it finally felt like I was putting down real roots in this world. Now that I could reach his back, I gave him a hearty clap on it before I turned to address the mages.
“My name is Mason Flynt,” I called out in my loudest voice, and the mages turned to me in unison. “I want to thank you for coming. Right now, the non-magical folk don’t trust us, but this project is going to show them that we care about Illaria and the rest of the region. I’m going to ask you to push yourself for the greater good of us all.”
I glanced down and saw Aurora looking up to me with loving, emerald eyes. It was just the confidence builder that I needed, so I straightened my back and stood a little taller.
“I’m going to ask a lot of you, and if you’re not up for it, let me know,” I continued, “and that includes taking a break when you need it. You need to push yourself to your limits for this, but don’t go killing yourself. I’ve got plenty more ideas for the future, and I’m gonna need you alive. Can I get a ‘Boo-Ya’?”
The assembled mages followed me right up until then. Instead of getting a “Boo-Ya,” I got confused stares and general muttering of “How can we get a buya for him?” and “Did he say ‘plowa’? Isn’t that a type of troll?”
I chuckled a little nervously and was about to tell them nevermind when a loud voice echoed behind me.
“Booyah!”
I turned my head and saw that it was Aurora, loud and enthusiastic. My half-elf grinned up at me as Cayla raised her voice, too.
“Booyah!” the princess shouted as she raised her fist into the air.
“Booyah!” echoed Haragh as if he too understood.
Evidently, this was enough for the crowd of mages to get it. This time, there was no hesitation before they all lifted their hands into the air and cried in unison.
“Booyah!”
“Awesome,” I said with a grin, charged up by the crowd. Then I clapped my hands together. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We need to create our first station right now, but we’re going to do a lot more than that. Let me show you a model of what we need to build to scale.”
I tapped into my power and pulled up a little hill of rock in the dirt. With some focus, I created a series of square boxes of stone around the hill, and then another on top of those, and another on top of those. At the top of the hill, I made a small plateau, topped by a square box.
“Mages, this will be your new home so we can work together,” I called to the crowd. “Ignis Mages, as the light is failing, I need you to keep everything bright enough to see. We are creating a new village out of this meadow.”
There was another “booyah!” from the assembled mages before they set to work. Aurora walked back into the workshop while Cayla inspected my model of the station.
“Do we live here, at the top?” the black-haired princess asked as she pointed to the block at the top of the plateau.
“No,” I chuckled. “That’s for defense. I don’t want to have to climb up every time I come home. We can claim one of the houses on the base of the mountain, and I’ll make a huge man cave underneath.”
“What is a ‘man cave’?” Cayla asked innocently.
I was about to explain the concept when Aurora suddenly came out of the workshop with bags around her arms, neck, and back. She staggered towards us, looking a little irritated.
“Since this meadow is about to become a mountain, I’d recommend grabbing anything you care about from inside,” Aurora grumbled as she threw one of the bags at me. “You might never see them again.”
The half-elf was right. Cayla and I looked at one another and then dashed into the workshop. We hadn’t spent the night there in quite a while, but there was plenty of personal items, plans, and tools to gather up. As I grabbed up what I could, Stan jumped off the desk and scampered up my arm onto my shoulder.
“Don’t give me that look, buddy,” I laughed as he turned to me, his little arms crossed. “I wasn’t going to leave you behind.”
When we had packed up all of our meager possessions, I gave my workshop one last look. I knew it wasn’t much, but it had been my first sort of home in this new world, one that I made alone with my own hands. Even though we were moving onto bigger and better things, I was still going to miss this simple shop.
After my moment of nostalgia, we took what we had to the edge of the meadow, where the mages had also gathered. Then I knelt down, hands to the ground, and the other Terra mages did the same.
When we were all kneeling, I paused to take in the moment. Nearly everyone but me wore the traditional white robe with brown hem uniform, but now that we were this close and about to join our power together, I could really see them as individuals. A middle-aged man with a kind face, his salt-and-pepper hair tied back in braids. A pretty girl in her early twenties with long, lank dirty blonde hair that nearly touched the ground as she knelt. A young man with a baby face and hazel eyes that sparkled with excitement. All of them and others, ready to lose themselves to tap into a greater power.
As for myself, I
was excited for what I hoped we could do together, but there was definitely a part of me that rebelled against the idea that I was about to be merely a part of the whole. On Earth, I had been a loner by nature, probably in part because I was never meant for the life I lived. But even in this new world that I loved, I liked to strike my own path and make my own rules. I knew I had to resist this stubborn urge to pull back from the group because they looked to me to guide them through this process, and no one else could do it but me.
I took a deep breath and released it. I was ready.
Together, we touched our elemental power, and I felt a huge zap of static as our combined magic filled the air.
At first, it was the familiar feeling that pulsated in my veins, but then I felt as my power merged with the other Terra Mages. It was as if I were part of an electric circuit, a conduit that accepted and released even greater energy than I possessed. It was both frightening and exhilarating to be a part of. Beneath my fingers, I could feel the earth tremble and shake, and it groaned like a living thing as it began to swell and rise at the center of the meadow.
The ground grew steadily outward while it rose higher and higher. Ten feet, then twenty, thirty. We could feel the weight and sheer size of it in our group mind as if it were a part of us. The hive mind thing was really a trip and took some getting used to, but when the radius of our hill nearly touched the entrance to the mine, we pulled back and let it settle.
Finally, I looked up at what we had created, fifty feet of rock and earth under the night sky.
“Ignis Mages, we need your light!” I shouted.
Aurora and her fellow Ignis Mages raised their hands as one. An instant later, a fiery ring materialized around the hill and steadily grew until it cast a flickering glow across the entire meadow. They held it while we began the next phase of construction.
Now we started with the station itself. A platform six feet off the ground, big enough for fifty people, one hundred feet long, made of solid rock. Behind it, we pushed up the depot itself, linked to the platform by a set of stone steps. Connecting to the platform, we crafted a massive warehouse, just a simple one-room structure to hold goods as they were brought on or off the train. Much like my workshop, we left open doorways in the depot and the warehouse and open windows in the depot. I would have to get some wood for the doors later on.
