"Men, please remember where you are!" The Areva woman stood up from behind her desk and scowled at Henry and Jason. "This is not the first time you've done this either. I know you're focused on your work and getting ready for the mission, but impressions matter. As an adventuring company, Delvers, LLC rallies behind you two when meeting new people."
"She's right, you know." Jason shrugged at Henry.
"Yeah. I just want to get the Battlewagon done. I've been grumpy for days."
"We never agreed on that name."
"I'm the one making it actually work. I'm also the one who came up with the gold-repelling suspension idea. I'm the inventor, and I think it should be called the Battlewagon."
"If you name it that, I'm going to feel ridiculous, like I should be wearing a purple mask and changing my name to Donatello. Actually, we're arguing again in front of company. I also just realized we haven't taken our masks off even though we're in the garage." Jason sounded embarrassed.
Henry's eyes widened. "Oh fuck, we probably seem rude as hell. Quick, everyone take your masks off!"
As they took their masks off, Jason explained to Aodh, "We decided we should get used to wearing these things before we actually need to keep them on all the time. We'll make one later for you too."
After they had their masks off, Aodh looked around and felt his heart hammering in his chest. There were six people other than him in the garage. He knew that two of them, Henry and Mareen, were orb wielders, Bonded. However, after the others took their masks off, he heard two more chimes in his head and saw:
Bezzi-ibbi, Jaguar Clan
Hero Ring, Arm Morph, Quicksilver
First Rank
and
Jason James Booth, Terran, American
Dolos Orb, Modular Build, Generation Three
First Rank
Aodh couldn't believe what he was seeing. Most adventuring companies had one or two mages at most. Only the most powerful companies had so much as one Bonded warrior. Heroes were even rarer. Delvers, LLC has three Bonded and a Hero? Aodh blinked rapidly in shock, and Henry seemed to understand what he was thinking. He chuckled. "Bezzi-ibbi over there is the heir to his Clan too. This is probably a lot to take in."
Suddenly, the door on the other side of the building opened, and a woman walked in. "I was outside, but did I hear somebody say we have company? Is the newest addition to your merry band, that fire mage, finally here now? Is he cute?"
An Areva woman walked around the vehicle in the center of the garage, and Aodh got his first look at her. She was absently munching on a piece of fruit and wore jean shorts and a shirt with a picture of a yucka on it. Some of her long, light-brown hair was arranged on top of her head in a poof. The designs on her cheeks and her forehead, the gold necklace, her overall look--it was all familiar. Aodh recognized who she was, who she had to be. He was standing before Keeja, one of the five most powerful High Priestesses of Dolos on Ludus.
It was all a little too much. Aodh fainted.
* * *
When Aodh woke up, he was embarrassed, but everyone was very understanding. He was officially introduced to all the members of Delvers, LLC. Keeja wasn't there any more, a fact Aodh was grateful for.
The High Priestesses of Dolos were incredibly ancient and enigmatic. All of them were deeply entwined in myth and legend. Aodh wasn't sure what to believe. It was one thing to read old stories about Priestesses boiling oceans. It was a different matter entirely to meet a cowboy-booted demigod in person.
While Aodh was getting settled, Jason grumbled at Henry, "You know, she should really wear a mask like the rest of us."
Henry's reply was dry, "Okay, I'll tell you what, you try to make her. Not only that, if she was wearing a mask at first, do you think Tony's reaction would have been different after she took it off? I know we don't get it, but High Priestesses are kind of a big deal on this world."
"Well, if we'd spent our whole life hearing about them instead of just seeing her blow up a cloud one time, maybe we'd feel different."
"Maybe."
"Anyway, we should probably start working with Tony," said Jason.
"Okay, you got this? You're better at explaining things than I am."
Jason nodded. "Yeah, I just made that cut for you anyway. You won't need me for a while."
"Sounds good." Henry went back to working under the vehicle. All the other members of Delvers, LLC got back to what they were doing before too. The women were at their desks, Bezzi-ibbi was sharpening some sort of spikes, and Rark-han was decorating what looked like a new set of leather armor.
Jason pulled up a couple crude chairs and offered one to Aodh. They both sat down. He also handed over a couple dozen strips of parchment and a small, sharp knife. "Here you go, Tony. While I explain all of this to you, please start preparing each of those strips for Blood Fire."
Aodh was incredibly confused, but he nicked his knuckle and did as he was asked while listening. Jason suddenly held up a finger, telling Aodh to wait, and dashed off to a box before returning. He was carrying a bronze cylinder with closed ends, and Aodh couldn't see a seam anywhere on it. It looked kind of like a giant pill made of metal.
Jason set the cylinder down and began explaining, "As you probably know, gunpowder is dangerous on Ludus."
"Yes, I heard back on Earth it's not, though. At least not like here."
"Correct. The effects can be dangerous on our home world, but the substance itself is fairly stable while stored unless introduced to heat. However, on Ludus, gunpowder randomly ignites. Creating it, storing it, and using it as anything more than a curiosity is so dangerous here that most places outlaw it entirely, and even criminals usually don't weaponize it."
Aodh nodded. All of this was familiar to him.
"When Henry and I first got to Mirana, we were captured by organized criminals. We still don't really know who they were."
Aodh's eyes widened. This sounded similar to a story he'd heard earlier.
"Anyway, we barely escaped because the building exploded and caught on fire. We found out later it was because the group that captured us was making gunpowder. We can only guess what they were planning to do with it. I'm not sure what they were doing to prevent it from exploding, but it was working. They must have had a lot stocked up when something happened to set it all off.
"When Henry and I heard about this, we were curious. Most people on Ludus assume gunpowder itself is dangerous since it will usually burn or explode within a few days of being made even if it's capped off or sealed in something. However, we've noticed that physics on Ludus are the same as on Earth, and chemicals behave the same way too.
"We hypothesized it wasn't the gunpowder that was different but Ludus itself. And the thing that makes Ludus most different is the Dhu. Henry had a theory that fire Dhu or air Dhu or some other Dhu were setting off the gunpowder.
"We began testing with small amounts of gunpowder we bought through our contacts and stored it different ways. It turns out that Henry was right. If we store gunpowder in a vacuum or in a way that no air reaches it from outside the powder won't ignite. If left on an open plate or in a container where air can touch it in any way, it can go off. In fact, we stored some in two containers, one container inside an airtight container. When the airtight container was opened, the second container almost immediately ignited.
"We don't know which Dhu are causing this or how it's happening. Henry can sense enough to work on the vehicle behind us, but he's stumped with gunpowder. The good news is that we figured out a way to weaponize it safely."
Aodh was starting to get a bad feeling about where the conversation was going.
Jason held up the thick tube in his hand and turned it on its side. Then he produced a knife, and after the edge seemed to shimmer, he cut through the tube lengthwise like it wasn't even there. Aodh's jaw dropped. He doubted Jason understood how unnerving that casual display of power was. He'd never heard of anyone doing anything even remotely like it with magic. He couldn'
t even tell what kind of magic Jason had used.
Jason held up one side of the pipe, showing Aodh the internals. "This is what we came up with. You can see how there is a central chamber that gets filled with gunpowder. Then there are chambers with nothing in them, vacuum between the wall of the inner chamber, and the thick outer wall of the rest of the bomb. Do you know what 'vacuum' means?"
Aodh shook his head. Most of the conversation was going over his head.
"Vacuum means nothing is there, not even air. We pump it out, and then Henry fixes the wall of the bronze. This is just to make the bomb even safer, less likely to randomly explode. These things are actually really easy for him to make since he can mold them with magic. We've been testing this design for a while now. We made three full prototypes with powder inside and put them out at the edge of the Jaguar Clan land. They've been stable for almost two weeks now, and at three weeks, I think we'll have proof the design works.
"Anyway, we obviously can't use a fuse or anything like that for ignition, or air could get to the gunpowder and we'd probably just kill ourselves. What we needed was a trigger we could put in the inner chamber itself, one that was sealed.
"If we were still on earth, this would be easy to do using a detonator with a radio signal or something like that. However, we can't use electricity, and Henry doesn't have time to come up with something using magic tech. Plus, if we used magic tech, we'd be blowing up magic stones, and that would be expensive.
"We didn't know what to do until we did some research and Uluula found out about Blood Fire. That's where you come in!"
Aodh still didn't really understand what Jason was talking about. "Excuse me, Mr. Jason, what exactly does all of this mean?"
Jason's eyes lit up, his excitement obvious. "We are going to put the strips of parchment you marked for Blood Fire inside of bombs like this one so you can ignite them at will. You are going to be our demolitions man. Your job will be to blow things up!"
* * *
Jason had taken a strong liking to their newest member, Aodh. Jason had no problem pronouncing "Aodh," but he knew it'd probably be easier for most other members of Delvers to use "Tony," the nickname Henry had given him. He had to restrain a chuckle when he saw the young man's confused expression turn to alarm.
Even though he'd been warned of Aodh's Fideli-like appearance, it was still all Jason could do not to openly study the boy. He thought it was fascinating but probably tragic for Aodh that he wasn't even half Fideli by blood but still had so many Fideli physical traits.
For one, the boys' dark blue eyes had such tightly constricted pupils they were just dots. Jason knew his eyes would glow in the dark too, like a cat's. Once in a while, when Aodh wasn't paying attention, his second membrane would nictate over his eyes too. It was a bit unsettling to Jason, who'd never see anything like it before. The kid's ears were pointed, almost like an Areva person's, and small, sharp canines flashed when he spoke. They weren't quite fangs, but Jason wouldn't have wanted to be bitten by someone with Fideli teeth.
Aodh's white forelock in his dark hair and his pale skin were also common Fideli traits. Jason thought it was amazing how none of these physical differences by themselves would have been that noteworthy, but all together they made Aodh significantly stand out. Jason had gotten a note from George a couple days earlier letting him know the boy was very sensitive about his Fideli appearance.
Aodh had been ostracized when he was younger and was still something of an outcast amongst his peers in the farming community. In the note, George had told Jason to thank Henry for not reacting to the physical differences at all when he'd met Aodh. George wanted to thank him, but Jason knew that was just how Henry was. His friend sort of mistrusted everyone equally and didn't really care much about physical differences.
It was one of Henry's personality traits that Jason found most admirable even though Henry saw himself as huge jerk. Truth be told, Henry could be abrasive and act uncaring, but Jason knew he had an all but unshakable core of fairness and decency. Jason had personally witnessed Henry help people in public that others wouldn't have even looked at. He was a complicated person.
Before Aodh had gotten to the Delvers Garage, Jason and Henry had made sure nobody would react to his appearance in a way that would hurt his feelings. Jason, and to some extent Henry, both identified with the boy, and they wanted to give him an opportunity they'd never had.
Tony would be able to build self-confidence through the absolute best way possible: blowing stuff up.
Battlewagon
Aodh stood at the rear of the Delvers, LLC Battlewagon. It had been officially christened "Battlewagon" the previous day when Uluula and Mareen admitted they liked the name and Jason got overruled.
Aodh wasn't sure if he was more excited or nervous. He watched the countryside pass by as the Battlewagon soundlessly traveled down the hard-packed trade road. He had to admit the vehicle itself was amazing. Henry had figured out a way to use his earth magic to program the vehicle how to behave when it was powered.
Delvers, LLC didn't have many magic stones left, but the Battlewagon consumed power efficiently. Henry told the group they had barely enough magic stones to get to Yanbei Cavern and back. Hopefully they'd be successful in the dungeon and fuel would no longer be a problem on the return trip.
Aodh didn't understand much of it, but he did grasp that the Battlewagon worked with gold. When he was designing it, Henry had decided that since there was so much gold on Ludus and so much of it existed deep in the earth, the Battlewagon would function on gold "runners." The way Henry spoke of building it, it sounded more like training something how to behave than anything else. The best Aodh could understand, the gold bottom of the Battlewagon pushed on the gold in the ground, and this force kept the vehicle hovering about two feet above the terrain.
To turn, the Battlewagon had runners on the underside that pushed different directions and were operated with levers in the driver's compartment. Simple turns weren't too difficult but complicated maneuvers seemed really tricky to do. Aodh was just glad the vehicle worked, and he was impressed it moved so fast. They were traveling at about the speed of a galloping zebra, and the ride was fairly smooth.
Jason was driving, and Henry manned the "turret," the round object on top of the Battlewagon with two tubes. Aodh had gotten a demonstration of Henry's "rifle" a few days before while Henry himself made adjustments to its aiming device.
It was obvious that the tubes on the turret were larger versions of Henry's lethal tube weapons. The whole vehicle was covered in bronze plating for protection too. It was impressive.
As the trees, hanging vines, and large mushrooms at the edge of the trade road flashed by, Aodh avoided thinking of other things, namely all the dangerous objects and people only an arm's length away. He also definitely didn't dwell on the bronze cylinders hanging from his baldric. "Grenades," Henry called them.
Aodh could feel a Blood Marker in every tube hanging off his body. He could also feel a connection to every other larger device stored at the front of the vehicle. In fact, Rark-han was sitting on a crate with some of the nastier weapons packed inside. Aodh shuddered. He liked being valuable to such a powerful adventuring company, but he still wasn't comfortable with the sheer power of what he could unleash using Delvers, LLC inventions. The fact he could detonate all the bombs on the Battlewagon any time he chose made him feel a little queasy.
He gripped his heavy, wooden staff, breathing slowly and evenly. Henry told him he'd eventually get used to the responsibility, and Aodh believed him. He also knew the bombs' design had been tested now for over three weeks without fail, an unprecedented feat for dealing with gunpowder on Ludus.
Before they'd left Mirana, he asked Jason why they weren't testing the bombs even longer, and the answer was simple. Jason had merely replied, "We're out of money. We had to borrow quite a bit from the Jaguar Clan too.
"If we could, we'd spend another year on R&D and make the team even stronger, but we have s
everal time limits. At this point, any action we take will be dangerous, so we had to try choosing the most rational course of action based on effort versus reward and just hope for the best."
Jason's reasoning made sense to Aodh, but he still took cold comfort that if all the bombs exploded, at least everyone would die with him.
The Battlewagon made excellent time. After a while, Aodh began to get bored. He also felt embarrassed by all the stares they were getting from other travelers on the road. Henry was drumming metal fingers on the side of his turret and making music noises while Jason sang a song called "Bad Moon Rising" in English. Keeja was sleeping on top of their packs, or at least pretending to. She gave herself away by mouthing the words to the song.
Most of team was used to Henry randomly starting a drum beat and instigating Jason to sing songs none of them had heard before. Henry had started it a week ago with "Eye of the Tiger." Luckily, Jason had a pretty good singing voice, and Henry kept his mouth shut, so Aodh didn't mind. Some of the songs were pretty catchy too, like "We Will Rock You." Jason and Henry taught him how to stomp and clap to that one, so he looked forward to participating when it came up.
Mareen and Uluula were softly talking, probably practicing their English. Aodh got lucky on that account. The whole team was learning English so they all could communicate in a language other than Luda. Bezzi-ibbi in particular picked it up really fast. The boy was sitting across from Aodh in the back of the Battlewagon with Rark-han next to him. The wolf man shadowed Bezzi-ibbi everywhere he went.
Bezzi-ibbi's eyes met his, and Aodh swallowed. Despite the other boy actually being younger, Aodh felt immature and awkward around him. Aodh was just a farm boy, but Bezzi-ibbi was a merchant prince, a Mo'hali Clan heir who'd received a Hero ring directly from Dolos himself and was either crazy enough or brave enough to actually use it.
Suddenly, Bezzi-ibbi asked in English, "Do you not like me?" Aodh was amazed at Bezzi-ibbi's talent for languages. The boy was almost completely fluent in English in less than a month's study, and Bezzi-ibbi knew at least five other languages as well.
Delvers LLC: Welcome to Ludus Page 34
