Science and Sorcery Box Set

by Ryan Tang

"Shut up Glide."

  "Yeah, that sounds great. Um, I'm sorry for asking."

  The Surgeon was a hero. She had to be respectful.

  "Why did you want to meet me?"

  The Surgeon pointed her thin blade right at Gallant's Paragon, which was still parked just outside the school. Now that everyone knew she'd beaten The Tooth Man, she didn't need to hide it. They were too scared to complain.

  "Get inside. I want to fight you."

  ____

  "What sort of fight?"

  Her Intuition nosed in.

  "I know your hand still hurts, but if it's a House battle, you'll need to use me."

  Gallant gulped. She knew. Last time her Intuition stepped forward, her hand had felt funny for a week. Now it felt like the bones had completely disappeared.

  The Surgeon laughed breezily.

  "Nothing too complicated. Not a Ransom battle or a House battle or anything like that. Just a fun sparring match between two ladies."

  Once again, she whirled her thin sword in a jaunty salute.

  "You might have heard that practice makes perfect, right?"

  Adrienne bounced excitedly in her bubble, and her Intuition purred.

  "I can't wait to watch."

  That'd be for the best. Gallant could control her machine just with her mind, but she didn't know what she'd do if she had to grab controls. She could ask Lonely to take a look at her hand, but Lonely was so busy these days.

  Gallant shook her head. She couldn't worry about something stupid like her hand right now. This was something she'd dreamed of for years - a fight against the Surgeon, one of the best pilots in the Constellation. When factoring in her average Familiar, she might have been the strongest when it came to pure skill with her Paragon. After all, the Singer's strength lay in his unique Familiar.

  The Surgeon charged, her narrow sword flashing forwards. The school of fish whirled dizzyingly around her. Unlike the other Lords, she didn't employ a designated Finisher. Every individual strike of her blade was meant to be a finishing blow.

  Gallant's mind danced. The tassels splayed around her. Twenty four of them sprouted at once, splayed in a perfect circle. The eyes pointed outward.

  "It'll work. It'll work this time."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yes."

  Every other time they'd tried using their Finisher, the Paragon had immediately dissolved into Vapor. But Adrienne spoke with such confidence that Gallant couldn't refuse her.

  "Vanity's Void!"

  The tassels went rigid, and the painted eyes stared forward. Gallant could almost see her Familiar's venom soaring through the air. It reminded her a little bit of the poisonous Eternium, but that was different. This was from Adrienne, and Adrienne would never hurt her.

  "More! More! More!"

  Adrienne flared back and forth.

  Gallant concentrated, putting as much energy she could into the jellyfish Paragon. The Eternium rippled and bubbled, transforming into water. The stormy metal blew Adrienne's poison faster and faster until every eye was like its own tornado.

  The Surgeon's machine was completely frozen.

  "We did it!"

  Her Intuition let out a cry of fright.

  "No you didn't! Idiot!"

  "Shoot!"

  Just before the eyes had paralyzed the Surgeon, the expert pilot had discreetly flung her sword, sending it just above their bulbous cockpit.

  "No problem! No problem!"

  The tassel responded immediately, curling around to block the blade. But as the eye winked away, the corner of the Surgeon's hand was freed. She could only move a few fingers, but it was all she needed. A knife emerged from her wrist. She gripped and flung it.

  Gallant moved yet another tassel, bringing the previous one back to its former position. But now another part of the Surgeon's machine was freed. This time, it was two of the fish. The tiny drones splayed out, deliberately flying in the paths of her eyes to cover them.

  Adrienne growled.

  "She's good."

  Now, the left thruster and arm were both accessible. The Surgeon wiggled them back and forth to ensure her mobility, then bolted for cover. The left side of her Paragon spat blue flames as she spun behind the Nursery. Now her whole machine was freed.

  Gallant crept around the school to refocus her gaze, but just that moment was enough. The entire school of fish met her, clogging up eye after eye. The Surgeon darted back around the Nursery, and soon the long sword was back in her hand.

  The fish were just as fast as her tassels. Both of them had been pushed to the limits of Liquid State Eternium.

  "Calm down! Calm down!"

  "Right."

  Her Intuition's urgent reminder had saved her. If Gallant had tried pushing her speed even further, her whole machine would have dissolved into Vapor and vanished. She had to be patient. Once she cast their Finisher, it remained active throughout the fight. And the Surgeon's fish were her only defense. Her heart pumped with excitement.

  She could win.

  "Make more tassels."

  She sighed. Her Intuition had the right idea, but it'd be hard to create too many without dissolving her machine. She made one, two, then three more, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to stun the Surgeon. All she could do was slow her down.

  She slowly worked her way forward, reminding herself to be patient. The Surgeon's Paragon turned to meet her.

  She created a fourth tassel and armed it with a thin blade just like the Surgeon's. She wouldn't need a thick weapon to cut through her opponent's machine. The Surgeon barely wore any armor, and all she had without her fish was a single solitary sword.

  Gallant stabbed and stabbed, but the Surgeon effortlessly met her attacks. Gallant tried summoning another tassel, but her brain buzzed dangerously, so she stopped. Her Intuition could do it, but it wasn't worth the risk.

  She had to stay under control, even against such an exciting opponent.

  The Surgeon's defense had no holes. Her fish swam in and out, freeing up parts of Gallant's paralyzing gaze, but only when the Surgeon didn't need to move that body part. It was no good stunning the Surgeon's legs when she wasn't trying to run. The elegant woman's precision was divine, and the fish seemed to crop up in the most annoying places possible. Sometimes, she thought she'd broken through, but then a fish would jam itself between her blade and the Surgeon's throat at the last moment. Otherwise, the fish kept wedging themselves in the most awkward places - at the place where the tassel joined her body or against the crossguard of her thin sword. Sometimes, they'd whack the bubble-like body of Gallant's machine, knocking her slightly off balance and turning her careful jabs into misses.

  She was as good as the stories. She was even better. Sometimes, the Surgeon's fish even managed to block her blade and cover an eye at the same time. As their blades clashed and clashed, Gallant suddenly realized something truly incredible. When the Surgeon had thrown her sword and knife, she'd deliberately done so to guide Gallant into blocking with a specific tassel. She'd needed to free first her hand and then her fish and then her thrusters. Gallant's heart nearly burst with excitement. She was facing an opponent who truly considered every possibility.

  The three of them struggled as hard as they could, but the Surgeon's thin blade darted in and out, plunging back and forth into her Eternium. The liquid metal splashed and splashed. With each trade, Gallant's machine grew the tiniest bit weaker.

  "No!"

  "We need to win! We need to win!"

  They pushed as hard as they could, but there was nothing they could do.

  And then it was over.

  Two fish plunged from the top. The Surgeon's right arm stopped moving, but she never used it anyways.

  A small school of five swept her up from underneath. Before long, all the fish had surged toward Galant, blocking out her view from her cockpit. She couldn't even see. The Surgeon's Paragon was nearly rigid, but it didn't do her any good. The only thing that could move was her sword arm, but that w
as all she needed.

  The blade stopped an inch from her cockpit.

  Gallant let out a long breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Adrienne and her Intuition giggled.

  "That was fun."

  "Yeah!"

  It was the first fun they'd had since all the business of the House battles. The House battles were fights to the death, and before they'd beaten The Tooth Man, the Ransom battles would have meant their lives too.

  "And we stayed calm this time! We didn't dissolve our machine!"

  "Yeah!"

  They were getting stronger and stronger. The Surgeon climbed out of her cockpit. Gallant pushed out of her chair, but she was stuck. It took her a moment before she realized she was using her dead hand, the one her Intuition had transformed. It wasn't working.

  The voice in her head whimpered, but it wasn't its fault. It really wasn't.

  Gallant used her left instead, and opened up her cockpit.

  ____

  The Surgeon was famed for her beauty. Her long hair trailed down past her waist. She wore a sleeveless dress that clung elegantly to her tall and thin frame. The dress depicted coral – a sort of half-rock and half-plant that had once been common on Old Earth. A school of tiny fish, just like her Familiar, darted between the brightly colored branches. Her arms were thin but strong, and her famed hands were as flawless as they looked in the pictures. Her hands glowed like an angel's as they played the vial hanging around her neck. Her tiny Familiar danced back and forth in the thimble of water. No one had ever risen so far with such a small Familiar.

  Even her big brother admired the Surgeon. He was constantly trying to emulate her tactics, but even a weak Familiar provided access to Liquid State Eternium. The Surgeon and her brother both made very few mistakes, but the Surgeon could survive her missteps.

  Gallant felt a surge of pride. The Surgeon looked a little tired even though she'd won. Gallant stumbled a little as she stepped forward to meet her idol. The fight had taken a lot out of her. She felt a little light-headed.

  Adrienne chirped from her bubble.

  "We know we can win. If all three of us fight together."

  Gallant nodded.

  "Definitely. We took it easy on her."

  Her Intuition didn't say anything. She wished Adrienne wouldn't have said that. Her Intuition felt bad and didn't want to think about taking over again. But Gallant couldn't talk to Adrienne without her Intuition also knowing, so she stayed quiet.

  But still. It was a strange thing, knowing that she could have defeated the Surgeon. She still didn't know that her Intuition's power was, but she knew it was strong. It'd saved her from the poisoned Eternium, and it was enough to bring the whole room to its knees within seconds.

  She wondered would happen if she tried her hardest. Would her whole body become like her floppy hand? It didn't hurt, but it felt really weird. And it'd become kind of useless.

  "So, this is the prodigy that people can't stop talking about. The girl who won nine thousand Paragons before she even became a woman."

  "It was Lonely."

  Her response was immediate. It'd been his plan that'd succeeded. His plan, his Sinsworn, and his toxic orb.

  She shuddered.

  The Surgeon made an annoyed noise.

  "Well, I mean. I know that's what it technically is. But come on. Everyone knows it was you."

  "It wasn't."

  "Really?"

  "No."

  Adrienne scoffed.

  "What did she expect you to say? Why ask again?"

  Her Intuition shrugged.

  "Just tell her you did everything. It's what she wants to hear."

  Her Intuition was right. The Surgeon grinned and pressed harder.

  "Come on now. You expect me to believe that The Tooth Man would lose to Lonely? He'd been beating the hell out of him for the last few years."

  That was sort of the Surgeon's fault, now that Gallant thought of it, but the tall woman wouldn't understand. Her brother had first earned The Tooth Man's enmity after they'd watched him lose to the Surgeon. The dumb brute had been in a very sour mode, and he'd looked for someone to blame. The Tooth Man said that Lonely had laughed at him even though her brother did no such thing.

  "House battles are different."

  "Yes. That's what they say, don't they. Did you have fun?"

  "Yes!"

  "Yes, it's very fun when you don't have anything at risk. That's why the Ransom battles were the best, and the House battles are the worst."

  Gallant didn't know what to say. If it weren't for the House battles, The Tooth Man would have killed her brother.

  The Surgeon shrugged her lanky and elegant shoulders.

  "So far, I haven't noticed it though. The House battles have been alright, at least so far. It's the same idiots challenging me and losing."

  She smirked.

  "Most of them are men, of course. But here's the weird thing. A lot of them have started banding together. Have you noticed that?"

  "Yes. A lot of the Lords who fight my brother form alliances as well."

  The Surgeon nodded.

  "Yes, yes. With their lives at stake, people are liable to do anything. And I was thinking. The men are starting to stick together. We girls should do the same, shouldn't we?"

  She stretched out an elegant hand.

  "I've collected the most interesting women I can find, and I think you would be the crowning jewel. The girl who won nine thousand Sinsworn before she became an adult!"

  "It wasn't me. It was Lonely."

  The Surgeon smiled sardonically.

  "Yes, yes, I heard you the first time. So, what do you say?"

  The Surgeon was making an interesting offer, but Gallant wasn't sure she could ally with anybody. It might not even be legal.

  "Lonely is the Heir, not me. What he says goes."

  She laughed.

  "Come on now, you don't think you'll be under Lonely forever, do you?"

  Gallant didn't see why not. Her big brother's plans were the best. And he always knew what to do. He'd been acting weird lately, but he'd always do the right thing at the end. She knew he would.

  "I do think so."

  She laughed again.

  "Well then, that wasn't what I was expecting. But loyalty is a good thing, isn't it? I'd intended to stick with extraordinary women, but if I must throw a man in there, I suppose I will."

  She handed out a golden invitation, twirling it in between her long and elegant fingers.

  "Please send him my regards as well. I will be throwing a party on my Castlecraft in three days. If he's interested in an alliance, let me know, and we can discuss the terms there."

  Her Intuition and Adrienne were practically bursting with excitement.

  "Perfect! Perfect! An alliance with the Surgeon!"

  "Lonely will love this!"

  "He was complaining about alliances earlier today, and now you got one!"

  But Gallant was worried. The Surgeon had wanted her, not her big brother. She'd doubted his strength just because he didn't have a Familiar. She hadn't said so out loud, but Gallant could tell. The Surgeon was Gallant's hero, and the fight had been so much fun, but even the Surgeon thought like everyone else from the Constellation. And the Constellation was stupid.

  CHAPTER 12: LONELY, PART 2

  Worthless.

  Lonely snorted deleted the application. The anger surged, and the sphere pressed against his pocket.

  He took a look at the next application.

  Worthless.

  He deleted it as well. .

  He'd told Gallant that he didn't have any alliances, but that wasn't true. He had countless offers, but they were all from worthless beggars who wanted his strength in uneven trades. After he'd beaten the crap out of his former allies, they'd offered an alliance too. He'd refused, of course, but he'd felt merciful enough to avoid claiming their lives. Bringer wouldn't have approved. Despite his kind words at the Hall, Lonely's mentor knew that Forever was worthl
ess trash. He'd only praised her to spark excitement about House battles. But Lonely pitied his victims. He'd been in their place once before.

  He took a look at the next card. His lip curled with disdain. Each of them began with some sort of inane compliment. Some asked him how he acclimated himself to the blood of the House battles. Others asked about how to command multiple Sinsworn.

  As it was always with the Lords, the small talk soon led to actual requests.

  This invitation had come with a picture, though Lonely had no idea why a man this weak would attach a photograph. The Noble was a reedy man wearing a burgundy dress shirt. He must have been nervous when taking the photo, because Lonely could see the sweat trickling through the handsome cloth. Lonely set the picture aside and chuckled.

  No wonder Bringer disdained the Constellation. How was this man one of the freest and greatest?

  He scrolled past the opening question, some claptrap about how to take care of a younger sibling. This old man didn't look like he'd get a younger sibling anytime soon. His parents were probably dead.

  The plea was a bit more compelling than the others, but not by much.

  "Ok. How about this? You promise not to attack me for the next two years. In exchange, I'll deliver 3 Sinsworn a month to your Castlecraft. That's 72 Sinsworn! 72 Sinsworn without having to lift a finger!"

  But of course, the kicker at the end made all his promises worthless.

  "If you accept this non-aggression pact, I will also consider it an offer of alliance. After all, in times like these, we must go beyond non-aggression to active friendship!"

  Active friendship. This man had 30 Sinsworn and a feeble Familiar. Why would anyone want to be friends with him? It wasn't like this man had been in a rush to help Lonely when he was tired and friendless.

  He switched to the next card, which had a picture as well, a broad-shouldered woman with a massive war hammer slung over her back. Lonely frowned.

  To his surprise, this was someone he recognized. Pure Force was ranked in the top 25. Her Familiar was a hammerhead shark – smaller than The Tooth Man's great white had been – but powerful all the same. Her piloting skills were excellent as well. She used a hammer modeled after her Familiar, and her brutal blows had won her battle after battle.