Thaumatology 09 - Dragonfall

by Teasdale, Niall

  In an effort to suppress the urge to set fire to Malcolm’s underwear, Ceri tried pushing her mind back to Saturday night while Cheryl did her best to persuade the minister that everything was going to go fine. Michael had been waiting for them when they got home from work, as usual. Ceri had dressed up, not as usual, but Michael had still been a little moonstruck and in the mood to be a little submissive. Lily was always in the mood. And I’m more often in the mood to be dominant. Which was true, and she was more dominant when she did it. When was the last time she had actually wanted to play the sub?

  ‘…but when it comes down to it,’ Cheryl was saying, ‘the trial versions work, the mathematics for the enhanced version work, and we’ve done everything we possibly can to ensure that everything works in practice.’

  ‘Have some confidence,’ Ceri suggested, putting all the confidence she had into it. ‘Have we ever let you down?’

  Kennington, September 27th

  Ceri felt, rather than heard, Lily walking up behind her. It was late, or very early, and she had been standing up on the roof since coming back from Battersea. Lily had just returned from the Dragon. Lily’s arm slipped around Ceri’s waist, Ceri’s hand lowering to rest on Lily’s forearm, and the half-succubus joined in the upward look.

  ‘Star watching?’ Lily asked, her voice hushed because it seemed like that was appropriate.

  ‘Yes, pet,’ Ceri said, just as softly. She lifted her other arm, pointing skyward. ‘You see it? There, under Ursa Minor is Draco, and there’s a smudge there near the tail?’

  Lily squinted. It was a clear night without much light from the aurora, but there was enough atmospheric disturbance to make the stars twinkle. There did seem to be one “star” which was more of a line than a dot. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I see it. That’s the comet?’

  Ceri nodded. ‘It’s weird. It feels like… I just looked up earlier and I saw it, like my eyes were drawn to it. It feels like it’s trying to talk to me.’

  Lily smiled and tightened her arm around Ceri’s waist. ‘What’s it saying?’

  ‘I’m not really sure… No, wait, I think it’s coming through… Yes, it’s saying “take your gorgeous pet downstairs and have her do disgusting things to you.”’

  Lily giggled. ‘I think I like this comet.’

  ~~~

  ‘What was Brenin like?’ Ceri asked. She was supposed to be concentrating on dimensional transition equations, but the question had been roaming around her head since the night before.

  ‘Wouldn’t you be better off asking Brenhines that?’ Ed asked in return. ‘She was his wife.’

  ‘Maybe, but I haven’t heard from her in ages, and you’re here.’ Reaching up, she marked out a set of symbols in the air, more to prove she was still attending her studies than to make the notation.

  Ed sighed. ‘He was… loyal, generous, something of a practical joker, and a skilled leader. Brenhines was the great theoretician. Brenin was a great practitioner and understood magic very well, but his real talent lay in leadership and administration. He ran the city and rejoiced in his wife’s discoveries, and in her enjoyment of the discoveries of our students.’ His lips twitched. ‘He was quite the lover as well. He loved his wife, don’t get me wrong, but… Actually both of them enjoyed bringing home lovers, but he was just a little worse than she was.’

  Ceri laughed. ‘I’m not sure I want to know that.’

  ‘If they hadn’t, you would probably not exist.’

  ‘True.’ She rubbed out a section of the equation she was working on and replaced it with some new symbology. ‘Why am I learning how to create trans-dimensional gateways anyway?’

  ‘You aren’t. Well, you are, but it’s an exercise in multi-dimensional field equations. I find people learn more easily with a practical basis behind their theory.’

  ‘I guess.’ Her eyes scanned the series of sigils and mathematical notations. ‘How’s that?’

  ‘That will produce a successful wormhole between two ‘branes,’ Ed said smoothly. ‘And if you happen to be a single photon it should work exceptionally well. Any transition through it would collapse it.’

  Ceri frowned. ‘Well… uh… Ah! I need to increase the stability which should also broaden it to a viable capacity…’ Her hands went to work scribbling sigils in the air.

  Ed stood back with a smile on his face, and a hint of sadness in his eyes.

  Soho, September 29th

  The Jade Dragon was on a raucous, lascivious high. True full moon was going to happen at around four in the morning and the city’s werewolves were already bouncing around like children. Since Anita had had a night out the previous weekend, Michael was doing the same this week. He was sat at the bar with a broad grin on his face as he watched his mate and his not-quite-mate-but-definitely-more-than-a-friend dodging through the tables and the horny werewolves sat at them.

  Normally on nights like this, Ceri enjoyed the attention. Lily was enjoying herself, that was obvious through the link they shared. Ceri, for some reason, was finding it annoying. It was nothing she could put her finger on, just… She shook her head and strutted back to the bar, hips swinging, head held high.

  ‘You are looking very regal tonight, Ceridwyn,’ Carter said, his voice ebullient. He was enjoying the evening too.

  ‘I’m feeling regal. Oh, did Cheryl mention next Friday to you?’

  Carter looked upward for a second, trying to remember. ‘Ah, yes, the tests at the power station.’

  Ceri nodded. ‘I may be a little late getting here if it overruns.’

  ‘I believe we’ll manage until you do.’

  ‘Tests?’ Michael asked.

  ‘They’re going to have all the control systems and the rest of the heavy engineering completed. Cheryl and I will be there to observe the systems testing. Friday, and then all the next week.’

  Michael nodded at her. ‘And then the week after you’re in Germany?’

  ‘Just on the Monday. Place the post, initiate the line, and come home to plaudits and adoration.’ Plaudits and adoration, that was worth smiling about.

  ‘You’ve got plenty of adoration anyway,’ Lily said, coming up behind her.

  Ceri smiled. ‘Thank you, pet.’ She turned, spotted empty glasses and started away toward the table with a slight sigh. Her back was straight and her hips swinging as she went, however.

  She did not notice the slight frown on Carter’s face as she went.

  Holloway, October 4th

  ‘Everything a go for tomorrow?’ Ceri asked as Cheryl walked through from her office into Ceri’s.

  ‘It is. They’ve got a few last things to… I don’t know, bolt down or solder in. Torpen is not the most forthcoming of individuals.’

  ‘Misogynist arsehole?’ Ceri suggested.

  Cheryl laughed. ‘I did get the impression he was not comfortable with intelligent women, but I think it’s more to do with the magic.’

  ‘He looked old enough to still hold some prejudice,’ Ceri conceded. ‘What are you up to today?’

  ‘Running numbers. I wanted to examine what would happen to the containment if the external thaumic level rises.’

  Ceri frowned. She had never considered that factor. She felt certain that there would be no problem, but she should have considered it. Still, that was why Cheryl was the boss, and why they made a good team. ‘Good idea. I’ve been going over this circular tunnel concept. You know, I think we might be able to build something which would outperform the American system.’

  ‘Ironic, considering that it was their idea.’

  ‘Well, they’ve already got a big toy to play with,’ Ceri replied, grinning.

  ‘The phrase is boys and their toys, dear, not girls.’

  Ceri pouted.

  Battersea, October 5th

  Ceri was bored. She had decided to wear her “interview dress” for the test sequence. It was short and showed off what cleavage she had pretty well, and combining it with some of her highest heels had produced some amusement as the larg
ely male workforce tripped over themselves and tried not to look like they were looking. However, that had got old fairly quickly and she was left with the nagging thought that she was utterly wasted watching men who were perfectly capable of doing this job themselves do their job perfectly well. She was stuck, however, because the politics of the situation demanded it.

  There was, Ceri thought, far too much politics about the entire project. There was some junior minister bustling around getting in peoples’ ways because the Ministry felt that everything had to be supervised. Ceri felt a pang of sympathy for Torpen over that since he had to deal with the little twerp far more than she did. Only a pang; the supervisor was taking out his annoyance on anyone who came within range. More politics, this time of the office variety. He had, at one point, rounded on Cheryl when she asked a perfectly reasonable question. Then he had bit back on his anger hard when he had caught sight of Ceri standing behind her. The Ministry pillock and Torpen both seemed kind of, well, scared of Ceri. She had been wearing a sour expression for most of the day, maybe that was it.

  For something to do, she walked down to the floor where the containment system had now been finished, aside from the central pylon. Men were working on the construction of the central transducer, but she could examine the structures around it.

  It looked like some form of modern art. Eighty gleaming columns of Cheryl’s transducer boxes surrounded another thirty-three. Each column had one hundred and sixteen carefully angled units sticking out from a central steel pole. The boxes themselves were silver-iron alloy. It had been known for some time that an alloy of silver and iron, with a few other minor constituents, could block magic by converting it into electric current. It had been the fae who had let the material slip out into public use; they referred to it as “cold iron,” a term which had been argued over among mythologists for years before the Shattering had made the material useful once again. Silver-iron was commonly used to screen large sources of thaumic energy, and for harming fae, but Cheryl had come up with the idea of using it to actually generate power. It was a brilliantly simple idea and it was the heart of the generator. Which would be no use without the ley line. Well, yes. It was Ceri’s sub-membrane tunnel idea which was the core of this generator and there was no point in denying that.

  A wolf-whistle cut off her thoughts as she examined one of the transducer poles. She turned sharply on her heel and her eyes lifted to glare at a man on a high-lift. His leering grin turned to a sudden need to be looking anywhere but at Ceri and she turned back to the pole with a smile on her face. Yes, they were scared of her. Which they should be.

  ~~~

  ‘They’re bringing up the test generators now,’ Cheryl said as Ceri walked into the control room. The plan was to use a bank of diesel generators to put power through the various conversion systems, thus testing them under load. Not the load they would get when the system went live by any means, but the engineers claimed it would sufficiently test the system.

  About time. ‘Good. I was starting to think I really would be late getting to the Dragon tonight.’

  Cheryl shrugged. ‘They’re only bringing up one generator. Minimal load to check the system, but Torpen says they’ll spend hours analysing the data after that.’ She almost winced at the black look Ceri developed. ‘It’s necessary.’

  ‘My head is aware of this. I’m not sure it’s necessary for us to be here.’

  Cheryl looked at her with a shrewd expression. ‘Technically it’s not. Politically it is. Unfortunately, we have to play the politics as well as do the science. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but if you want to progress up the ladder you’ll need to learn it.’

  ‘Maybe I’ll be happy leaving that to people with more talent for it. I’m not sure I want that much attention.’

  Her boss gave a small shrug. ‘Too late, you’ve already got it.’

  Kennington, October 6th

  Ceri sat on the stone altar in the dungeon and watched Lily hanging on the Saint Andrew’s cross. The dungeon had been her mother’s summoning room, laid out for summoning spirits. The circle carved into the floor was, therefore, not a demonic circle, but Lily had still enjoyed the idea of being chained to a cross over a summoning circle.

  Right now Lily was chained by her ankles and wrists facing the cross. Cords tied to two of the rings on the cross were pulling her breasts up by the rings on her nipples. Not enough to be painful, unless she moved, and Ceri had spent the last hour making sure it was hard to keep still. There was a vibrator inside her now, buzzing away and causing sudden twitches which pulled and produced little moaning yelps.

  It had started off with pole practice, which usually happened on a Friday, but had been postponed due to boring generator testing. Ceri had said she needed the stress relief and Lily had not objected. Lily did not object to anything Ceri did to her. As a good pet should. The half-succubus had winced and yelped and cried out as Ceri applied first a soft leather whip, then a paddle, then a hard, studded tawse. But she had not objected once. She had mewled and moaned, and then screamed in orgasm as Ceri had applied vibrators and dildos. But she had not objected because Lily was a good pet. Maybe I should get her a collar to wear all the time. With a leash.

  She had stopped twitching now. She was just hanging there in the cuffs, head rolled forward on her neck. It was time to get her down and heal up the red marks on her back and thighs. They would show with her in her work dress and that would not be good. Not yet anyway. Give it time for people to accept. Just a bit of time.

  Battersea, October 10th

  Ceri and Cheryl looked up at the finalised construct of the central column and then down to the concrete base in which was fixed the taller than usual post. It was dark grey granite, flecked with white and pink, carved into a hexagonal column over six feet in height. On each face, and on the currently invisible top, were carefully carved sigils which Ceri was about to go over very carefully.

  ‘It’s really kind of pretty,’ Cheryl said.

  ‘That’s what I thought when I saw the first one.’

  Cheryl gave a little sigh. ‘Oh well. I guess you’d better get to checking the symbols.’

  Ceri took out her tablet and powered it up. ‘This is going to take ages. And I’ll need a stepladder.’

  ‘Somehow, I think they have a stepladder around here somewhere. I’ll see to it.’

  Nodding, Ceri stepped forward and started comparing the first rune against the design she had on her tablet. A second or two later she told herself that not thanking Cheryl was just because she was intent on her work.

  ~~~

  Ceri climbed down the ladder and grinned wearily at Cheryl. ‘Definitely good enough for magic,’ she said. ‘Should I go ahead and lock it in?’

  ‘Might as well.’ Cheryl took a step back, giving Ceri room. She had seen the Groningen post primed and new more or less what to expect, but this one was a little different and with magic you never knew.

  Ceri summoned up her power, a process which seemed to get easier and easier, and formed the mental image of an additional set of sigils above the post. She funnelled energy out from herself and in through the symbols. For a second or two they became visible, hanging in the air, and the runes carved into the post shone which a pale light. The post shifted slightly, pulling downward into the slot which had been cut for it. The twitch was no more than the thickness of one of Cheryl’s manicured nails, but it was quite obvious. The runes faded to darkness, or vanished into the air they had come from. Ceri nodded.

  ‘I’m glad the others have a less complicated initiation,’ she said. ‘It saves me dragging myself across half of Europe when the Army can get one of their enchanters to do it.’

  Cheryl gave a nod. ‘On Monday, however, you’ll be flying out to place the last one.’

  ‘Sunday night,’ Ceri corrected. ‘They want to get us out as far as they can before dawn so we can have as much time as we need to walk into the city.’

  ‘A nice walk in the country,’ Cheryl said
, her voice brimming with sarcasm. ‘I’m sure Lily is looking forward to that as much as you are.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Ceri said, ‘because the last time we walked into a place like that was a barrel of laughs.’

  Fifteen-hundred feet above Reims, France, October 15th

  The military transport airship was considerably less comfortable than the last one they had been on. Instead of a huge, luxurious bedroom, Ceri and Lily sat on canvas seats in the hold, which was large enough to hold a couple of armoured transport vehicles, though all it had in it was a pallet with the ley line post on it and their baggage. Ceri’s staff, almost six feet of solid wood topped with a bluish, crystal sphere, lay beside the granite rod. There was a survival pack which Ceri would be lugging, and a harness which would let Lily carry the post more easily, slung across her back. There was also a compact assault rifle which Lily had been checked out on. It came with several magazines loaded with anti-fae rounds; hollow-points with silver-iron flakes in the nose. Neither of them had even known such things existed.

  They had left from City Airport just before dawn. It was a little later than planned, but it would still give them plenty of time. Neither of them had had much sleep, however, and despite their fatigue they were not finding it easy to sleep on the flight.

  ‘This could be more dangerous than the walk into Hamburg,’ Lily said. She was speaking at normal volume, but it was doubtful the soldiers sitting across the cabin could hear her; the noise from the turbofan engines was too loud.

  Ceri nodded, but her voice was confident when she spoke. ‘Nothing we can’t handle. The reports say even the fae stay away from the city environs. Between the two of us, there’s nothing much we can’t scare off or take out.’

  ‘Are you really the same girl I had to force to go to the interview with Cheryl?’