It was a stretch of her abilities and taxed her almost to the complete and absolute limit of her athletic skills, but it was enough to avoid damage. She was able to sprint fast enough to avoid being swept up by the wind, and when she reached the end of the hallway, she scaled the wall. By planting one foot on the wall and then the other, she used her wind boosted speed to run up the wall and the force against her to anchor her in place.
The plan worked to keep her from slamming dangerously into the wall. Allowing her to avoid most of the worst effects of the wind. She was able to use her body to split and cut the wind, parting it and reducing some of the force against her. But the plan had not been without flaws. As soon as the wind dissipated, Abby fell to the ground from on higher, landing with a painful groan and a laugh.
Flipping herself over onto her belly Abby wasted no time picking herself up. She had a plan and didn’t want to waste a single moment before the wind started up again. She placed her hands on the ground and used her innate Engineer abilities to shift through the floor for materials. Thinking as she shifted the stone beneath her that she would build for herself a series of spikes to impale into the ground. Something that she could use to anchor herself and allow her the ability to ferry herself across the hall.
Though she found some trace minerals and metals, it was not enough to work with. The idea wouldn’t work. Abby smashed her fists into the ground in frustration that all she could see was the useless dust and sand that scattered at the blow. A quick idea hit her as she realized her mistake. With no time to waste, she used her abilities to rapidly gather the sand, gravel, and dirt to herself.
Abby knew what she needed to do. She had made a typical and common mistake, having tunnel vision when it came to a solution when the answer was obvious. More than just metal could be made into an anchor. Answer in hand, Abby manipulated and shaped the material hardening it until it was like the small pieces of stone and then further shaping that into a heavy ball.
With a grunt, Abby began to roll the ball across the floor. As soon as she felt even the slightest hint of a breeze, she would reshape the bottom of the ball into a flat cube and would grab hold of it, making sure to keep her body low to the ground. Though the anchor moved a bit, it was by inches rather than feet and meters
With a smile on her face and pleased with the victory, Abby finished the room almost a half-hour later, moving little by little between bouts of wind. As she passed from the testing room of the Wind into the testing room of the Fire, she couldn’t help but feel she was ready for anything.
Chapter 5: The Inferno Trial
The room for the trial of Fire was not what Abby had expected. In her mind, she had envisioned a place full of hot magma, dripping from the ceiling before dropping in clumps into red hot pools of the molten liquid. Instead, when she walked through the door, she found herself on a small half-moon shaped stone platform.
The platform was raised roughly half a foot above the rest of the room. The meaning for this was not evident to her. Abby scanned around looking for the exit but didn’t see it anywhere. Another puzzle to solve then.
With a tired sigh, Abby began to mentally prepare herself for whatever was to come her way. In her gut and by instinct, Abby knew nothing about finishing this trial would be easy. "And why would it be? Why should it be? Nothing worth gaining should come easy." She asked herself critically.
Not knowing what to do frustrated her, and not having an answer was a sensation she wasn’t used to. It freaked her out. The unease Abby felt was causing her to lose much of her professional demeanor as she scowled and impatiently scanned the room. Try as she might, Abby couldn't figure out where the exit was.
"Just breathe. You can do this. Let’s do this by the numbers," she told herself before diving into her tried and true problem-solving method. She took a second look, taking in the details. It was a squarish room filled with sand and covered by a thin layer of aged wheatgrass and alfalfa. Abby already hated it, though she was unsure if hay fever had ever been something she needed to worry about before. The persistent itching sensation made her suspicious of allergies, and the free-floating dust indicated the wheatgrass and alfalfa had been freshly laid down before she entered the room. The dungeon just reset this. Whatever the puzzle was of the Fire room, the grass would play a part in it.
From the center of the platform, movement started as a raised column of black obsidian emerged from the floor, holding three burning torches. Centered under those three torches, running parallel to the door, was a metal sign. Likely placed there so that none of the candidates would miss it. "See Abby? No need to panic," she scolded herself as she walked over and squatted down to read the sign.
Etched into its metal surface were the instructions on how to complete the trial for the room of Fire she was in and reach its exit. "A fire will soon begin to spread, escape through the hidden hatch before the fire consumes you, or find a way to contain the fire or extinguish it to search for the hatch at leisure. Abusing Engineer abilities to drop raw material directly onto the fire will result in failure. You may not smother the fire. Once the fire starts, you must leave the platform within 30 seconds or be dismissed. Upon leaving the platform, you will not be allowed to return; returning will result in automatic failure, and you will be returned to the starting room."
As soon as she finished reading the sign, a small flame dropped from the ceiling. A reminder to Abby that she was actively being watched and monitored by the Proctors. The fire landed in the far corner of the room on her left. The hay and grass slowly started to burn, burning slower then she had imagined it would, but still didn’t leave her with any time to waste.
Though Abby breathed much easier after seeing the smoke from the flame was burning grey rather than noxious black or green denoting poisonous fumes. Had she any aptitude with the school of the Fire, she could merely will the fire out of existence. Or carefully guide the fire to consume all of the hay in a controlled burn and reveal the exit by doing so. Unfortunately, neither option was available to her.
Not having time to think of any better plans, Abby set into motion a plan based on passing observation. Hesitation was the enemy of success, and Abby refused to sit around wondering what to do and get caught in the trap. Rather than focusing on what she couldn’t do, Abby focused on what she could do, which was to contain the fire as it spread. She grabbed a torch in each hand, dumping the hot coals from one of the torches on to the ground of the platform before jumping off.
The idea Abby had in mind was simple, she would use the head of the extinguished torch as a makeshift shovel to quickly dig a series of fire breaks by dragging it behind him through the sand. Creating rivets and moving a fuel source for the fire away. With the other torch, Abby would use it to start a controlled burn to prematurely exhaust the fire’s fuel source and prevent its spread.
Abby could see the fire was spreading fasting now, knowing that her time was short. She sprinted directly down the middle of the room, trying to create a dividing rivet to keep the fire away from fuel. Though she tried to dig the torch head deep into the sand, there was only so far it would go. I’ll just have to hope its enough to do what I need it to. If she had more time, she’d be able to use her powers to completely wall off the fire, but without the use of a gauntlet, such quick casting was beyond her.
As Abby reached the far end of the room, having successfully dug one break in her wake, she turned around and repeated the step. This time Abby stopped the halfway mark before turning to her left and dragging the torch behind her, splitting this half of the room further into quarters. Uncomfortably, she noticed the flames from the fire were no longer just limited to the other side of the room but had almost completely consumed the other side of the room.
What had been a calm fire was now a roaring blaze. Smoke began to completely fill the room, displacing the air, and the heat of the place was increasingly unbearable. The temperature making her uncomfortable as beads of sweat began to trail down her face and irritate her eye
s.
Unpleasant or not, painful or not, Abby had no intention of failing here. She turned around and repeated her digging. She dragged the torch that was doubling as a shovel behind her, further splitting the quarter into an eighth and then a sixteenth. She was almost out of time.
Using the still-burning torch that she held in her other hand, Abby set the flaming tip down into the grass. Meaning as she did to intentionally start multiple fires in the smallest section she had created. Abby was hoping to cordon herself off by prematurely exhausting the fire’s fuel source. The fire she started blazed into life like an inferno, spurred on by her efforts, quickly spreading across the entire area, burning hot and as fast as the fire she was trying to flee from. It looked like her plan was going to work. "This is exactly what I needed, a win," she told herself. With a smile, she watched as the patch of grass and hay burnt.
In the midst of admiring her handiwork, a sense of confusion and disorientation hit her. Abby began to feel woozy, the edges of her conciseness starting blur to black due to the thick presence of smoke. "No!" She screamed in defiance as she dropped to the ground onto her knees. Refusing to quit, she reached down and grabbed her uniform, ripping off part of her undershirt, and covered her face with the sweat-soaked rag. If times were not so desperate, she would have cringed and vomited. But times were desperate, and Abby refused to lose.
Behind her, the fire was getting dangerously close. Close enough that she had to assure herself that the Proctors would save her if things went poorly. A fear that spiked as she saw the shallow breaks that she had dug slowed but did not stop the spread of the flames. Another concern hit her; even if this worked and she would survive, others might not think so. There was no telling that the proctors wouldn’t believe her to be in mortal danger and might evacuate her prematurely. She needed to do something more, show them some way that she would be ok.
An idea came to mind. "This will have to do. It has to be enough," she thought as she began to use her innate abilities to create for herself one last chance to pass the test. It would eat up the remainder of Abby’s time before the fire spread to where she was, but no other options existed.
She had done all she could think of. Placing her hands on the sand below her, Abby forced the sand into the shape of a v-shaped half wall. Forming a protective wall of thin and brittle fireproof sand. While in front of her in the clearing she had made for herself was almost ready. The fire she had started was beginning to die down, though the heat still radiated off the coals. She hoped the fire behind her had would die down soon without additional places to spread.
The last thing Abby did as she took cover behind the wall she had created from the sand was to dig a small hole in the sand with her hands. A hole big enough to put her mouth over to try and get some smoke free air and waited. A way to try and survive.
Minutes passed, and though she felt the heat from the room radiating and increase, Abby never felt the burning of flame on her skin. Eventually, the crackling of burning hay and grass died down. She took that as a sign, the threat had passed. Getting up, she saw that all of the grass had been consumed, and though the coals still burned red and smoked, the crisis had passed. Her efforts had been successful
Near where the fire had started, Abby could see an iron trap door. As she walked over to it, Abby could see the heat coming off the handle and knew she would need to wait for it to cool. Having nothing but time to wait until she could proceed, a horrible realization hit her. The truth was going to get out.
Whether or not she wanted it known didn’t matter. Abigail Ruthiare was a Silver-blood in name only. What sort of Silver-blood was unable to use even one of the elements? Abby had no elemental affinity, a status staple of the Engineers. If she had an element to wield, this room would have been quickly cleared. It was the only reason she had not yet gone through the doorway already. Rather than being forced to wait for the metal to cool down. Dejected, she hung her head in her hands and waited.
Chapter 6: The Invoking
Abby dropped down through the hatch of the trap door and fell into darkness. A feeling of weightlessness enveloped her right before she landed in a pool of frigid water with a loud splash. A claustrophobic sensation overtook her as her body struggled from the shock of the cold to her system as she desperately attempted to swim to the surface. A panicked and frantic swim as she clawed her way through the water, swimming towards the dim light shining down from the trap door overhead.
But no matter how far she swam, she remained wholly submerged in the dark water. The force of an undertow continually pulling against her as she thrashed and tried to break to the surface. Her lungs were on fire, desperate for air, and her muscles grew weary.
Every warning bell was going off in her head, a warning that her life was in danger. Even as a tiny part of her brain tried to rationalize the situation, focusing on remaining calm, pointing out that the Proctors would intervene if they deemed it necessary. "Necessary, like now?" She thought in a panicked fear of drowning as the pain intensified. "What are they waiting for? I can’t die like this." Abby gave it one last effort to escape, spending the last of her energy in a determined bid to reach the surface, survive and continue the trial.
It worked, and whatever force had been powering, the undertow released her. As soon as she broke the surface of the water, she found herself magically transported back into the main reception area, looking up at the Proctors. Landing just inches above the white circle, she had been guided to enter before. She fell all of a few inches through the air to land ingloriously to the ground.
Abby was completely soaked from head to toe and looking utterly unbecoming. Water leaked out onto the floor from her waterlogged uniform. The picture she presented was anything other than the prosed and consummate professional she tried to appear to be. She could not remember a time when she had felt more frustrated and angry.
Flooded by emotions, Abby tried to get control of them, knowing that if the Proctors had summoned her back her, she had likely failed the test. She would never get to be an Engineer. She’d be shuffled out to the front to serve with the Scouts or sent to the capital to be married off to some noble or another. In a rare break in protocol, Abby lost her bearing and with it her attention to decorum.
"I was ok, I was close. You didn’t need to spirit me out. I wasn’t going to die. The danger had passed. I was going to complete all the tests. Why did you pull me out?" Abby asked, her voice rife with despair, partially cracking, and desperate. She had never wanted anything more than to be an Engineer, and yet here she was, a failure. A failure miserably waiting for them to explain why they had disqualified her.
"Child of Micah, you forget your place. None of us are so far removed from youth that we have forgotten what it is like to be wrapped up in the pursuit of our passions, but none the less, contain yourself, or be removed from this chamber." Bellowed the voice of the Head Proctor, his voice while empathic was still full of finality and authority.
"Apologies, Proctors, and thank you for overlooking my transgression," Abby responded, coming to her senses as she curtseyed to each of the proctors in apology. Asking forgiveness, even as she tried to adjust her uniform to appear more reasonable and hide the torn part of her shirt. The shirt she had used as a face mask to protect herself from the ill effects of the smoke.
Throughout the chamber, Abby could hear ill-meaning murmurs coming from the assembly. Though obscured by the dark, Abby felt more than saw equally ill-meaning looks and open hostility aimed towards her. Inwardly, Abby was crushed. Worried that even though she had done her best, and tried as she could to portray the very image of Imperial stoicism, that it wasn’t enough. She knew, based on their reactions towards her, the result of the test did not bode well."
"You were pulled out, you young fool, because you would have died otherwise. Don’t you know your limits? Your name can only get you so far." Responded a Proctor on her right, one that had not yet spoken. A flurry of agreements followed, most sharing the same assessme
nt, only for the dissenting opinions to equally yell back.
The Head Proctor raised his hand to silence the entire assembly before stepping off the raised stand on which he presided and walked over to Abby, and while the raised hand didn’t silence the chamber, his next actions did. The Proctor removed the cloak he wore around his body, though the mask and cowl remained and draped it over Abby’s shoulders. "Cover yourself, Child of Micah. As a Silver-blood, you must never let them see you weak." He whispered so low that Abby barely heard it and she was confident no one else had. The encouraging words raising her spirits.
Clamors of objections and hisses of disagreement flooded the room, and the Head Proctor was forced to raise his hand again to give the command to silence them. However, despite the command being given, the arguments continued and for many intensified. A vocal minority of those gathered called for the immediate expulsion of the girl from the Academy, and as for her future, many called for her forcible conscription into the scouts. Calls were even heard that her noble grandfather, the Headmaster Porthos, must be removed from his position.
The few voices that spoke up on her behalf were steadily being drowned out and silenced as they gave up defending her. All the while, the hand of the Head Proctor remained raised in the command of silence and order, a command that continued to be ignored. Abby could see the man’s jaw wavering, tightening in anger as he decided to retake control of the situation and quell the dissension among the assembly.
White light shone from the palm of his glowing metallic-looking hand. A sign of the innate magical ability that awoke with time in most Silver-bloods who became Engineers. Whoever the Head Protector was, Abby knew he was an Engineer, not a mage, nor a scout or noble. The metallic tinge of his flesh showing he had merged the gauntlet of the Engineers. A feat only possible the Silver-Bloods.
Arcane Engineer Page 3
