by Frank Morin
69
Some Problems Taste Worse Than Others
As Connor pushed open the door to the cavern-like work area where Ilse’s Revenge was being built, Hamish followed close behind and grumbled, “I don’t see why we have to stop here first. We need to get to Jean and warn everyone about the speakstones.”
They did have to deal with that, but they had a little time. The boosters that pushed the signal between New Schwinkendorf and Merkland couldn’t push signals all the way to Donleavy for the queen to eavesdrop.
“I want to double check something. I learned this morning that I can now sense strum and magnis.”
“Really?” Hamish’s worried frown changed to that inquisitive look he wore when exploring new mechanicals or new recipes.
“I don’t understand most of it yet, but they’re definitely related forces, and I want to see if I can feel what the Varvakins are doing.” Connor didn’t think revealing that he could manipulate those forces broke Water’s warning not to speak more of them. He still wasn’t sure why she would insist on that since she had already revealed herself to Verena and Nicklaus, but planned to tread cautiously until he understood better.
Hamish rushed past Connor to the observation deck overlooking the huge workspace. He gestured at the army of workers scurrying in and around and over the dozen enormous Juggernaut spheres. “Well, this is the perfect time to explore that. They’re almost finished, and if you can sense something about them, I’m sure the queen could too. Better to know now.”
Connor nodded agreement as he reached out to Fire and Water. He might be the only one who could see them, but it was still really cool to see them appear beside him, floating in the air.
Water said, “The facilities here are rudimentary, but it is remarkable they have progressed as far as they have, given how little they understand what they’re dealing with.”
Connor grasped their hands, easily combining both affinities. As soon as he did, he felt the rippling current of strum running through the circuits from the Varvakin generator and through the various Juggernaut shells. He also felt the waves of magnis binding mechanicals together and tugging subtly on his body.
“I feel something. Let’s get closer,” he told Hamish with a grin.
A long stair zigzagged down the length of the wall to the ground floor, but stairs were boring. Connor vaulted over the rail. Air appeared beside him as he also tapped quartzite, and currents whistled in to support him, and he sailed across the room on a stable, sure platform. He grinned anew at how reliably she now responded to his call.
Hamish jumped over the rail too, thrusters firing. It was so fun finally flying as equals. He really looked forward to flying with Verena soon too.
They crossed the great space and dropped to about thirty feet. Workers waved in casual greeting to Hamish, used to his flying suit, although more than a few looked startled to see Connor flying beside him. They accepted the change quickly, though. Working in that remarkable location helped people develop great mental flexibility.
As Connor hovered over the Juggernauts, he marveled at the feeling of all that energy coursing through the room. The wires glowed faintly to him, and he touched them with affinity senses. The energy flowing through those wires was more concentrated, more refined than the vast, raw power he’d sensed in the mindscape vision. The Varvakins had managed to corral a bit of that natural energy. It flowed like water and he could see how they applied it to activate mechanicals, engines, and other components. It was brilliant, but he sensed that if any of those circuits were broken, the strum would leak away in an instant. It was an obedient animal, but like the rampager caged in his heart, once released it might do terrible things.
Magnis was more subtle, but it called to Connor powerfully. He descended until he could touch one of the Juggernauts that was coupled to a second one as the scientists tested the linking mechanism. They used magnis to move great clamps to lock and unlock the huge mechanicals at the touch of a button. It was clever, but a mere baby step to what he could sense that magnis could really do.
Fyodor, the head Varvakin researcher, approached and shouted over the din, “What brings you here today, Builder? We’re not running any new tests, but just calibrating the systems before final assembly.”
Hamish shrugged. “As if I need a reason to come in and check on this miracle factory of yours.” The burly, bearded fellow laughed heartily but added, “Tests are going well except for one sphere. One of the circuits won’t close and we’re trying to isolate the leak.” He gestured toward the third juggernaut down the line.
Hamish glanced at Connor and said, “Let’s take a look.”
The two of them floated over. As Hamish tipped completely upside down to stick his head through the open top panel to chat with the researchers inside, Connor touched the outer shell and quested through the mechanical.
It was similar in a way to casting his senses through a living body before healing. In this case, the huge sphere of the Juggernaut was a dead thing of steel and stone, with a heart fashioned from one of Verena’s engines. That engine was dormant at the moment, the only power provided by the wires connecting the sphere back to the generator.
The strum current radiated through the juggernaut shell like an invisible bloodstream, and Connor could feel it pulsing all around. Except for one point. His attention was drawn to a connection near where wires coupled to the engine. That connection was loose and energy was draining out and dissipating into the steel nearby.
He tapped on the shell and said, “Check behind the engine.”
A moment later heard excited exclamations. Hamish pulled his head back out and asked, “How did you know it was there?”
“I can feel that some of the energy wasn’t moving properly,” Connor explained. He did not want everyone understanding he could manipulate strum, but did want to help.
Hamish’s face was turning red from hanging upside down so long, and he seemed to be enjoying it. “Can you feel anything else?”
“Yeah, and that worries me. If I can feel the energy powering these things, the queen probably can too.”
Hamish grimaced. “If she can feel it, can she change it?”
Excellent question. Connor reached back into the Juggernaut shell with his enhanced senses and again felt the rippling currents. He scanned the Juggernaut and noticed a circuit near the top of the sphere that controlled the activation of a mechanical. With a thought, he tugged on the strum current just enough for it to cross the closed connection. Energy instantly flowed into the mechanical and activated it.
With a clank, the octagonal panel in the outer shell next to Hamish whisked open and a blast of pedra’s spittle foam erupted into his face, covering him in an instant. As the foam sealed around him, it snuffed out his thrusters and he fell face first into the Juggernaut.
He would’ve landed on top of the researchers, but Connor caught him by the ankle and lifted them back out. Laughing, he tapped fire to melt away the thick covering of pedra’s spittle that had formed over Hamish’s face.
Hamish coughed and spat a couple of times. “This stuff tastes awful. I can’t believe we didn’t add better flavoring.”
Grinning, Connor set Hamish down on top of the Juggernaut. The workers inside were shouting at each other, trying to figure out how they had accidentally activated that mechanical. Fyodor rushed over to find out what happened, and apologized repeatedly to Hamish.
Connor said, “Relax, Fyodor, I triggered that mechanical. I needed to test a theory.”
“I can think of a better way to verify that foam tastes terrible,” Hamish said, purposefully missing the point.
“What theory?” Fyodor asked with a frown. “How did you activate that mechanical? My men say the circuit was closed.”
“I can feel strum, and I can manipulate it. That means the queen could too.”
Hamish grimaced. “Since we’re planning to use it to fight her, that’s not exactly good news.”
Fyodor threw his ha
nds into the air and exclaimed, “It’s a disaster! Our entire mission is to create a battle platform that can take the fight to the dread queen. If she can manipulate our mechanicals, we’re doomed.”
He was right. Connor glanced across the vast space and the scores of men and women toiling so hard to construct the Builder miracle attack mechanicals. They’d accomplished so much, but they were powering it using forces that the queen could control.
Could they use something else? He thought of the elemental powers he could draw upon. Other Petralists could wield those too, but when applied right, one could still surprise an enemy.
By shielding.
He grinned and interrupted Hamish and Fyodor, who were chattering with the other men inside the Juggernaut in rapid-fire Grandurian that he couldn’t keep up with. “Hold on. It might still work if we can find a way to shield it.”
They stopped arguing as the idea sank in. Hamish grinned. “Brilliant! That way we wouldn’t have to rip out all the Varvakin pieces. That would force us to go back to the design phase. It wouldn’t be done for months.”
By his expression, Connor could easily read that Hamish shared his fear. “And we don’t have months.”
Fyodor rubbed his hands through his thick, dark hair, heavy brows furrowing as he considered the problem before glancing back at Connor. “Do you have any suggestions?” He looked super frustrated, and Connor did not blame him. If he had just learned that his masterwork might be turned against him and used for evil he would’ve been desperate for ideas too.
Connor gestured toward the nearest Juggernaut. “You’re running strum through copper wiring. It looks like you’re encasing it in something.”
Fyodor nodded. “Otherwise the energy would dissipate. We started testing various insulators, and one of the best is a Tabnit material that they harvest from trees in the southern parts of their kingdom. They call it rubber.”
He moved to an open panel in the side of the Juggernaut and gestured at black-coated wires running along one of the support beams. He tapped it with a finger and said, “Can touch without danger, as long as the sheathing is not broken. Rubber is amazing, but supplies are limited. More is being shipped, but probably will not arrive in time.”
Hamish asked, “What’s the best alternate material?”
With his active affinities, Connor clearly saw strum flowing through the Juggernaut, although it seemed much dimmer in the sections coated by rubber. That confirmed his suspicions that if they insulated the wires well enough the queen probably wouldn’t even realize what energy they were using, or that she could mess with it.
Fyodor said, “One of the best is Sehrazad steel glass. It’s very strong, it seems to insulate well, and it can be formed into almost any shape. They shipped in an entire fabrication team that is very skilled at making custom pieces, including tiny tubes for the wires.” He gestured at another section inside the Juggernaut nearby where the wires were indeed encased in narrow tubes of clear steel-hardened glass. Those cases also seemed to help insulate against Connor’s affinities, but not enough. He could still sense and reach out to the flow of charges moving along the wires.
“It’s a good start, but we need more.”
Fyodor ran his hands through his thick hair and considered the challenge. “We could make the sheathing thicker, I suppose. Would that do it?”
“Maybe. How long would it take to put a small sample together so we could test it?”
“I’ll assign a team to work on it through the night,” Fyodor promised. “Rewiring all the Juggernauts will be difficult, but easier than redesigning the entire platform.”
“Better that than letting the queen take control of them,” Hamish agreed.
Connor doubted she’d ever consider using them. Builder powers were filthy to her and she’d focus on destroying them.
“We’ll come back in the morning to test it with you,” Connor promised.
70
Don’t Mope over Spilled Affinities
The next morning after breakfast, Connor and Hamish visited Nicklaus in the little cottage where he was still under observation. His governess looked relieved to see them, and ushered them inside. Nicklaus was flying around the small living room on one of the dining chairs. He had tied sofa cushions to it using what looked like curtains, and had attached a spatula, two large spoons, and a rolling pin to the sides.
The quartzite blocks acting as thrusters worked well enough, and he had even set up a softly glowing shield dome around himself. Connor exchanged a surprised look with Hamish and stepped into the room, wondering at the boy’s creativity.
Hamish shouted, “Hey, Nicklaus! What are you doing?”“
The boy rotated and spotted them. Grinning, he swooped over and settled into a hover. He released the window shielding, waved, and said proudly, “What do you think of my Swift?”
Connor laughed, recognizing the boy’s attempts to recreate Verena’s deadly flying craft. He’d done a remarkable job with the materials at hand. Where had he gotten the quartzite?
“Very impressive,” Hamish said, activating his own thrusters and rising to hover around the makeshift flyer. He spent a moment inspecting it seriously and discussing with Nicklaus the best ways to attach more thrusters to the cushions for improved somersaults.
“It doesn’t have real weapons,” Nicklaus pointed out with a disappointed sigh. “I could go get some. I know where Verena keeps her spares, but Christin won’t let me.”
Connor was surprised Nicklaus had obeyed that order. They’d found some pretty advanced weaponry concealed beneath Nicklaus’ bed more than once. As if reading his thoughts, Christin shook her head and said, “No equipping weapons to living room furniture, or I will arrange a holiday for you back in Edderitz.”
Nicklaus groaned and made his little craft roll a complete backward somersault. “You’re so mean!”
“I am not mean. I simply won’t allow you to wreck this beautiful cottage Lady Jean has allowed us to stay in,” she responded calmly.
Connor silently wished her luck in enforcing her orders. Hamish and Nicklaus settled back to the floor, and Nicklaus jumped out. “When are we going to build me a suit like yours, Hamish? We could fly together. I bet I could fly faster. I’m smaller and I don’t eat nearly as much.”
Connor chuckled, and Hamish patted his trim stomach with a mock look of outrage. “I eat to fuel my work.”
“If your work is trying to get fat,” Nicklaus said with a laugh. He scooted away before Hamish could grab him, and said, “Hey, Connor, I heard you ascended. Can you read my mind? Can you make me taller? Can you change Christin’s hair to blonde? She thinks her boyfriend would ask her to marry him if she was blonde.”
Christin blushed deeply, looking shocked. “How did you . . . ?”
Connor laughed again. He enjoyed the boy’s energy and felt relieved that Nicklaus seemed to have recovered so well. “I don’t think I’ll try changing anything today. It’s better if you grow at a normal rate.”
“That’s slow,” Nicklaus muttered.
“Since my ascension, I can feel affinities better. I’d like to see if I can feel yours,” Connor said. He made a point of not suggesting he hoped he could fix them. He wasn’t sure if that was possible.
Nicklaus plopped onto a padded chair in the living room and regarded Connor with that too-mature look of his. “Connor, I broke them. Why does no one else want to accept that? Bad things happen sometimes. I’m still the best Builder my age, right Hamish?”
“Absolutely,” Hamish agreed with a smile. Connor doubted there were any other Builders Nicklaus’ age, but that didn’t matter.
He said, “I’d like to check anyway. I know you broke them, but maybe by understanding what happened to you we can better understand how affinities work for everyone and avoid anyone else breaking theirs.”
“That’s a good idea,” Nicklaus said. “And then you can tell me about Water. She said she talks with you and that you’re helping them. What do elementals nee
d help with, Connor? She seems nice. I bet she’s pretty. Is she as big as a river?”
Connor sat on the carpeted floor near Nicklaus’ chair. Water had told him not to speak about them to others, but she’d already spoken with Nicklaus, and Hamish and Christin both knew that, so he decided to risk it. “I do speak with her and the other elements. They’re teaching me things.”
“Me too!” Nicklaus interrupted, bolting off the chair and literally flying across the room, using a piece of quartzite as a makeshift thruster. He landed on a high shelf next to the chimney and pointed at an odd-looking device full of tubes and large globes of glass. “She taught me how to purify water. I think we can help a lot of people. It’s sad that sometimes people don’t have clean water to drink. Usually in the palace we get clean water, but not everyone has the same privilege, do they?”
Hamish lifted into the air to inspect the device more closely, but Connor waved Nicklaus back down. He was interested in learning about that device, but didn’t want to get sidetracked. “Do you hear the others?”
“Not usually. Just Water. She’s nice, like a governess who encourages you to try new things.” He glanced pointedly at Christin, who crossed her arms and raised one eyebrow, as if challenging him to say more. Wisely he turned back to Connor and added, “Mostly her voice is very soft, like she’s far away. Sometimes the words are clearer. She’s teaching me how to build new things.”
“Why?” Connor asked.
“Because we need them, I think,” Nicklaus said with a shrug.
“And she started speaking with you around the same time she spoke with Verena, right?” Hamish asked.
Nicklaus nodded. “I want to ask Verena about that. Maybe we can work together. Water’s been teaching me how to build a higher-level mechanical. I thought I was building a replacement for Kristin’s Defense, but it didn’t work like that when I tested it.”
