Metal Mage

by Eric Vall

  “I can try my best, sir,” I chuckled. “But before we begin, could I request some food for Defender Solana and myself? We rode straight here from Edhil, and after using our magic all night, we’re a bit hungry.”

  Aurora and Abrus gaped at me like I was a hydra and growing a second head, but the king actually threw back his head and laughed.

  “An honest man,” Temin said. “I like that.”

  Then, the king turned to the Lux Mage beside him. “Abrus, why don’t you fetch these fine heroes some sustenance.”

  Abrus’ two-toned eyes opened wide with surprise, but then his face quickly turned to stone, and he gave a stiff bow. “Of course, Your Majesty.” When King Temin turned back to me, Abrus lifted his head and shot me an angry glare.

  I winked at the grouchy old mage.

  Abrus spun on his heel, marched to the door, and wrenched it open. “You,” he barked out into the hallway. “Fetch food from the kitchens, the best you can find, and bring it back here. Quickly!”

  I felt sorry for whatever poor bastard had been standing outside the door at that moment.

  The Lux Mage composed himself and shut the door. Then, he turned back to the rest of us with a smile plastered across his face. “Food will arrive shortly.”

  Abrus’ gaze flicked back to me then, and he raised an eyebrow as if in challenge.

  Touché.

  Five minutes later, a red-faced and panting mage knocked on the door, and in his hands, he carried a tray full of fruit, cheeses, pastries, bread, and meats. There was also a pitcher of water and a flagon of wine balanced on the edges, and the young man almost spilled the contents when he glanced toward the king.

  “Here you are, Mage Abrus,” the mage gasped as he bowed his head.

  “Thank you, that will be all,” the Lux Mage replied as he took the tray and swiftly shut the door. He turned around, walked toward his desk, and set the food down on top of it.

  My stomach grumbled loudly at the smell of cooked meat, and I reached out to snag a link of sausage off the tray.

  Abrus glared at me out of the corner of his eye, but I only smirked as I popped the sausage into my mouth.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled as I chewed. Then, I turned to Aurora and the king and gestured to the decadent spread. “Dig in, guys, don’t let me eat all this alone.”

  Aurora just stood there wide-eyed, but King Temin actually smiled as he reached out and grabbed a pastry drizzled in honey.

  “I think I’m starting to like you, Mage Flynt,” the king chuckled.

  “I like you too, Temin,” I said around a mouthful of meat. “Too bad they didn’t bring any beer.”

  “Beer?” he laughed. “Now I most assuredly like you.” The king turned toward Abrus, but before he could ask for beer, I interrupted him.

  “I think I’m good for now, but we should definitely enjoy a pint or two later. Let me tell you about how I came to your land.”

  I started with a quick retelling of how Aurora and I met that fateful day in the woods. I described for the king the vicious, bloodthirsty drake, and how Aurora and I fought it valiantly and eventually slew the beast. I then gave King Temin a brief understanding of how little I knew of my powers and how Aurora brought me to Abrus, who agreed to teach me. I told the king this so that he could understand my motivations.

  “I never truly belonged anywhere, you see,” I said to Temin as I plucked a bright red strawberry from the tray, “so when Abrus agreed to educate me, I felt like it was a sign from the gods. I was ready to give everything I had to become the best Terra Mage the Order had ever seen. But, then Abrus tested me and my abilities, and we discovered something extraordinary.”

  While I had the king’s complete attention, I slowly reached into the pocket of my pants and extracted a spent brass casing that I had collected from the dirt of Edhil. It was a round from the rifle, so the casing was nearly as long as my index finger. The brass metal winked dully up at me from the center of my palm.

  “It was during a duel between Abrus and myself that we discovered that I could manipulate metal,” I explained to Temin and, as I did, I let a little power trickle out. My magic was still largely drained from our work rebuilding Edhil, not to mention fighting the hydra, but I had enough left to stage a little demonstration for the king. It burned a little as I summoned it, but it answered my call, nonetheless.

  As we all watched, the bullet casing melted into a brass puddle in my hand and then, with barely a thought, I refashioned it into the shape of an Illarian coin, complete with Temin’s likeness stamped across the front.

  The king leaned forward in abject curiosity as he watched the little display of my magic. The idea of me manipulating metal might have been foreign to Abrus and Aurora, but it seemed to be downright bewildering for Temin, who had no power of his own to speak of save for that of the political nature.

  It struck me then how tenuous Illaria’s creation had truly been and how much trust there had to exist between the king and the Order to keep this kingdom going.

  “How is this possible?” King Temin marveled as he reached out and plucked the cooled metal coin from my hand. He turned it over and back and inspected it carefully as if he couldn’t completely trust his eyes.

  “I could only surmise a blessing from the gods,” Mage Abrus cut in. The Lux Mage looked eager to say his two cents in front of the king. “He bears a Terra Mage’s mark but with the added alchemical symbol of iron superimposed on top. It is nothing I have ever seen, heard, or read about before. I believe he is the first of his kind, and I think perhaps the gods have arranged for him to be here at this most opportune time. I believed it was my sworn duty to take this man in and tutor him and thank the gods I did. If I hadn’t been here to guide this young novice, who knows what could have happened to him or to Edhil.”

  Abrus was laying it on a little thick now, but I didn’t want to risk overtly offending the elder mage.

  “I am greatly indebted to Mage Abrus and Defender Solana for their assistance,” I said carefully to the king. “Without their tutelage in the foundations of magic, I wouldn’t have been able to ascend as quickly as I did. They opened the door for me to create these.”

  I pulled the rifle over my shoulder slowly, so as not to alarm the kingsguard. Then I unloaded the remaining bullets, double checked that the chamber was empty, and held it out stock first toward the king.

  “This is called a rifle,” I explained. “It is a long-range weapon of great accuracy and power. It functions more or less the same way a bow and arrow would, but it’s easier, faster, and far more lethal.”

  “How does it work?” King Temin asked as he ran his ring clad fingers across the barrel. He toyed with the level and trigger and jumped when they clicked loudly beneath his touch.

  “Well, for a proper demonstration, we’d have to leave the Oculus and be sure there were no bystanders who could potentially get injured,” I replied with an apologetic smile.

  “Like an archery range?” the king questioned.

  “Very much so, sir,” I agreed with a nod. “In the meantime, however, I could give you a quick overview of how these weapons work before regaling you with our adventures in Edhil.”

  “Proceed then,” Temin instructed as his gaze flicked from the rifle back to me, “and we shall talk more about a full weapons demonstration at a later date.”

  “As you wish,” I said before I held out my hand toward the king. “If I may?”

  Temin slowly returned the rifle to my grasp, but his eyes remained locked on it.

  “It took me a few days to finalize these designs,” I explained as I turned the rifle over in my hands. “The gods granted me a vision of how they were meant to appear and how they should work, but I did not have the particular know-how to craft them by myself. In the end, I actually had to visit a watchmaker to understand the finer mechanics that operate these weapons.”

  “A watchmaker?” the king asked as he cocked an eyebrow in surprise. “Which one?”

  �
��Elias Sayer,” I replied with a smile. “Only the best would suffice when it came to matters of protecting the kingdom.”

  King Temin actually snorted in mirth. “And Old Sayer actually agreed to help you? That is even more shocking. That ancient tinkerer even tells me to wait sometimes if he’s so inclined.”

  “That sounds like him.” I laughed as I shook my head. “He did almost kick us out the door when we first arrived, but once I showed him what I could do, and what I was trying to create, his curiosity got the best of him.”

  “And that also sounds like Elias.” Temin chuckled. “So, what did he craft for you?”

  “Most of his work is on the inside,” I explained to the king, “which I am hesitant to uncover at the moment since I have not yet had a chance to look at it thoroughly. We had barely finished at Elias’s shop when we got the message from Edhil. I don’t want to break something in haste because I think Elias would have my ear as recompense.”

  “He would take both,” Temin replied with a wide grin. “Give me the layman’s summary then, Mage Flynt. How do these confounded contraptions work? How did they slay a hydra?”

  “Well, as I said, it’s mostly a very sophisticated bow and arrow,” I repeated. I set the rifle down on Abrus’ desk and reached for the revolver in the bag at my hip. I really needed to make a holster for this thing.

  “It’s easier to illustrate on this smaller model weapon called a revolver,” I went on as I thumbed back the hammer so the cylinder could spin, opened the gate, and then pushed on the rod to eject each of the six bullets. The King, his guards, Aurora, and Abrus watched each bullet land on the desk, and then I held one out to the king.

  “What is that?” the king asked with a furrowed brow. “It is so small.”

  “This is the arrow,” I replied with a wide grin. “Yes, it looks very inconsequential, but trust me, this is one of the most lethal things you’ve ever seen.”

  “How so?” Temin questioned as he eyed the bullet warily. Around the room, the king’s guards shifted cautiously as well.

  “Its speed is its most defining quality,” I explained as I handed the king the revolver bullet. “Do you see the small rounded tip on the end? That is the projectile, the arrowhead if you will. Now, inside that brass casing, beneath the metal tip, is a small pocket of grayish powder. This powder is very volatile and creates a tiny explosion when exposed to flame or extreme pressure.”

  “Fascinating,” he whispered as his eyes opened wide.

  “When that powder is ignited by depressing this lever,” I added as I brought the king’s attention back to the revolver itself and pointed at the trigger and then the end of the muzzle, “the force ejects that small metal piece out of the barrel here, and shoots it at your target.”

  King Temin took a moment to absorb all this information. He switched off between rolling the bullet between his fingers and looking at the revolver I still held in my hand.

  “What is the accuracy of these round arrowheads?” he finally asked. “And precisely how lethal are they?”

  “They’re called bullets,” I corrected with a gentle smile. “And their accuracy is incredibly precise, once someone has had a little training. The rifle, the long weapon on the table there again, is more accurate over longer distances, but even this revolver in my hand could strike something fifty yards away if there were nothing to impede the path of the bullet. As for the mortality rate, like any weapon, it depends where the adversary is struck. Limb shots are not typically fatal unless too much blood is lost. Anything in the chest or head usually results in instant death. Like the hydra quickly discovered.”

  The king’s eyes actually gleamed as I brought up the grotesque, two-headed monster.

  “Yes, tell me about your battle,” the king said excitedly. “How exactly did you kill the hydra?”

  “Well,” I chuckled as I rubbed at the back of my neck, “at first we didn’t know it was a hydra. It only had the one head. I thought it might be a giant mutant species of drake. Aurora and I were quickly able to subdue it using our combined Terra and Ignis powers. But, when Aurora cut off its head, we very quickly realized what we were dealing with. From there, it was kind of instinct. Aurora distracted the monster, and then I aimed at the hydra’s heart and shot it twice.”

  “Only twice?” he muttered as he stroked at his trimmed beard. “The beast was truly dead after this?”

  “It was definitely dead after I put two more bullets in each of its skulls and two more in its chest,” I replied with a shrug.

  “Remarkable,” the king muttered with a shake of his head, and then his gaze went back to the rifle on the table. “I have a few more questions for you, Mage Flynt, if you do not mind.”

  “Of course not,” I replied. “Ask away.”

  “These weapons… what did you call them?” he asked.

  “Guns,” I responded. “That’s the general term, and the revolver and rifle are more specific like rapiers and falchions are to swords.”

  “So these guns,” Temin went on smoothly, “are magus abilities required to operate them?”

  “No, none at all,” I replied with a smile. “I can make them faster because of my powers, but your blacksmiths could also craft them as they would any other piece of metal if I showed them what to do.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Abrus frowning at me severely, but Temin spoke again and drew my attention back to him.

  “Then my last question to you, Mage Flynt,” the king said as a wide and eager smile spread across his face, “is if you could take a pause in your magus studies to craft my army some of these weapons. These beast attacks have plagued Illaria for months now. I believe it is time we found the culprit and put a swift end to their reign of terror.”

  Surprise jolted down my spine. The king was asking me for a personal favor?

  Before I could open my mouth to respond, Temin added, “Of course, your time and labor will be compensated handsomely.”

  As he said this, my eyes were drawn to the gold of his crown and the riches of his clothes.

  “I agree to your request,” I answered with a grin. “As long as I can continue experimenting with more weapon designs and have permission to accompany Defender Solana if and when there are any more beast attacks.”

  King Temin seemed surprised by my requests, but he finally nodded.

  “That is acceptable, as long as production runs smoothly,” the king agreed. “I want my men armed as soon as possible.”

  “I understand,” I said with a nod.

  “Then, we have ourselves a deal, Mage Flynt,” the king intoned and then held out his hand for me to shake.

  As I grasped his hand, a feeling of excitement welled up inside of my chest. I couldn’t help but glance at Aurora, and another wave of pleasure hit my stomach when I saw the half-elf grinning back at me.

  Here I was, in a fantastical world with enough power in my veins to surprise even the king and the head of a magical Order.

  I had a sexy, powerful half-elf maiden at my side.

  And now, I also had the king’s blessing to keep kicking ass.

  Chapter 12

  It had been a week since our victory in Edhil and my meeting with King Temin, and in that time, I had made a lot of progress.

  I had very quickly come to the conclusion that I needed my own workshop. The blacksmith in the Oculus had a decent quantity of various metals, but he had his own work that needed attending to, and I had commandeered his space for long enough.

  Temin had also offered me the use of the castle’s blacksmith, but I didn’t want anyone hovering over my shoulder as I crafted these weapons.

  I needed my own space, my own tools, and my own rules.

  So, I traveled into the foothills that the Oculus’s blacksmith said were incredibly rich with metallic ore, and I used my unique power as a magical metal detector.

  It took the better part of an afternoon since the foothills were large and my magic wasn’t quite fine-tuned yet, but
eventually, I happened upon a small clearing that led into a cave about a thirty-minute horse ride from the castle. My magic had squirmed beneath my skin as I entered the clearing, but when I walked through the entrance of the cave, it hummed in my chest like a tuning fork.

  “This is the place,” I had declared to Aurora with a wide grin.

  The next morning, we set to work.

  Initially, I only wanted the workshop to be a single room about twenty-five by ten feet. Then I’d fallen asleep there the first night, and Aurora had insisted that I use my power to create a bedroom at the rear and kitchen at the side so that we could live there with some creature comforts. The floor of our new home was a light gray granite, the plain walls I created from darker slate, and the windows and the doorway were open frames to let a little airflow in when I was working. When I left at night, if I did, I sealed the openings over with stone to keep my work safe and the cold night air out.

  On the inside of the building, I had several stone tables, scattered with various tools and scrap pieces of metal that the king had provided me attached to the walls around the room. Since I made stone stools on the spot if and when I needed them, there was no other furniture in the workshop save a small forge I had constructed along the back wall. The only item I couldn’t make myself was the accordion style bellows that the Oculus’s blacksmith had gifted me, but I really only needed to use it if Aurora wasn’t around, and the beautiful woman was by my side all day.

  And all night.

  “It seems things are truly coming together,” Aurora said as she leaned in the archway that separated our kitchen from the workshop. The king had servants delivering us food every day, and she had just set our basket of provisions on the kitchen table. She had her arms crossed casually beneath her ample chest, and a gentle smile pulled at her luscious lips. Her white robe was as pristine and short as ever, and my fingers itched to push the hem up past her waist.

  Again.

  For the third time this morning.

  “It’s a work in progress,” I replied with a grin. I dragged my eyes up from the blue-haired maiden’s pale and lithe thighs. “Unlike the masterpiece I see before me.”