by Rick Field
Liane didn't know what 'photographed' meant, but the 'take pictures' part was pretty self-explanatory. Despite herself, she looked straight up. The ceiling of the tavern shielded her from the skies, but for a moment she imagined staring up at the clear blue skies of Kiria.
The Pillar looked down after just a second or two. “And yet, we are protected,” she said. She grabbed her empty mug, and placed it prominently in front of her. “You are the cartographer, high up in the sky,” she told the foreign visitor. He looked as if he wanted to correct her words, but nodded stiffly instead.
“This is the island of Kiria,” she said, pointing to the mug. He nodded again. Placing her hands flat on the table, she whispered a few words. Runes spread in a circle around the mug. A spark of magic leaped at them, making them vanish. Slowly, the mug wavered, then vanished. “And now the island is behind the Barrier,” she said. “If you, as the sky-cartographer, were to make a map, would you include the island?”
He stared dumbly at where the mug had vanished. He shook his head, mutely. “You are yourself again, and attempt to breach the protection,” she said. “Try touching the mug. Approach slowly with your hand.”
He glanced at her, at the location where he knew the mug to be, and took on a resolute air. Slowly, he brought his outstretched hand closer. His face twitched when he felt the air change, as if electricity were running over his skin. When he touched the barrier, he yelped and drew back in a flash. “That stung!”
She looked smug. “You were not authorized,” she told him. “while I...” she reached in with just one hand, lifted the empty mug through the barrier, then placed it back, “as Pillar of Kiria, am authorized to cross the Barrier.” She removed her hands, let her pseudo-barrier fall before removing the runes.
He kept staring at the mug. “Can you tell me... exactly... where the island is?” he asked, hopefully, looking back at her. She looked at his map; it was totally different to the maps the Kirian cartographers drew. The scales were different, the method of drawing was different.
She took his book of maps, and starting turning and twisting it to get the perspective she was used to. Finally, she pointed. “This. This is where Kiria is located,” she said, pointing to a stretch of ocean.
He blinked. “You're the cause of the Bermuda Triangle,” he whispered, in shock, before his gaze turned accusing. “You are the cause of hundreds of disappearing boats and planes, and caused the death of thousands!”
“We wish to be left alone. The Great Barrier will attempt to deviate those that try to cross our borders or invade our territory. In most cases, storms will turn around vehicles, as will the atmospheric and magnetic anomalies. Those that persist are reprimanded. Those that have a death wish and persist after a reprimand, are accommodated.”
He spluttered. “But... but... you've killed thousands!”
“They killed themselves,” Liane answered calmly. “Nobody blames a cliff when people jump off it.”
“But... but...” he whispered, shocked.
She stood up. “If you have finished your meal, we should go and take a look at your vehicle. We shouldn't let it be as it is, people might find it and hurt themselves.”
He just nodded mutely, stood up, and followed her. As they walked down the main street, Liane turned to the foreigner.
“Perhaps you can tell me exactly where you left your vehicle?” she asked.
He shrugged. “It was going down when I ejected. I can give you a general direction, but I don't know where exactly it came down.”
She stopped, once more focusing a glare on him. “You did not bother to direct your vehicle to a safe landing spot?”
“Hey now, it was crashing! I didn't exactly have time, you know!” he defended himself.
Her hands found their way to her hips of their own accord. Despite the fact that he was taller and broader than her, he shrunk back at the malicious, angry aura he could suddenly feel coming off her. “Allow me to summarize. You operate a vehicle at speeds beyond your control, have it fail on you, and you do not bother to select a safe landing space? I hope for your sake, Sir, that you did not injure or kill anyone in your recklessness. Kiria does not take kindly to reckless use of vehicles.”
Shocked at her sudden anger, he tried to defend himself. “But it was an accident!”
“If you cannot control your vehicle during an accident, it means you were operating it beyond safe limits. A floater that fails falls to the ground. A cart that breaks merely rolls to a stop. Neither go faster than human walking speed, and can be safely controlled even during an accident.” She felt just the slightest bit guilty about her own floater, which was considerably faster. Still, there was a reason why she only used those speeds outside of populated areas.
“But... it's an airplane,” he said. “Flying is the safest way to travel at high speeds, dozens of engineers ensure that it is always in excellent condition, its designs are tested vigorously, and besides – it was your Great Barrier that caused the malfunction, so if anyone is responsible, it's you!”
“The cause of your vehicle's malfunction is of no consequence. Today, it was the Great Barrier. Tomorrow, it may be an act of the Gods, swatting you like a fly. It does not matter. If you cannot control its landing position at all times, it means you are operating it beyond safe limits,” Liane stated, then shrugged. “Besides, the Great Barrier has been there for over six hundred years. You may as well complain about a cliff or a mountain.”
He tried to step forward and loom over her. He found he couldn't, her eyes holding him in position by sheer force of will and personality. He was a Captain in the United States Air Force, however, and took a deep breath to steady himself. His helpless anger strengthened him. “So, your Barrier nearly kills me, and it is my fault!? Really? You couldn't conceive of a way to put me down gently? It's magic, for Christ's sake!”
“The Barrier was supposed to turn you around, and kill you as a last resort. The reason it didn't put you down gently is because it was not designed to put you down gently. It was designed to stop you from entering Kiria. You decided to ignore the magnetic and atmospheric warnings you were given, and were extremely lucky that you did not die. If your vehicle injured or killed anyone, returning home will be the least of your worries, a conviction for assault and battery or murder will be.”
“M-murder?” he stammered, staring at her, suddenly realizing in just how much trouble he was. “For an accident!?”
“For killing a person through operating a vehicle beyond safe speeds,” Liane replied, not at all intimidated. She pointed to a farmer driving a horse and cart, returning from the local market. “For example, that farmer is operating his cart at safe speeds. If something happens, he needs but use the brake to stop his vehicle. At walking pace, it will harm no-one should something happen. A floater operates at the same speeds. If it fails, it will drop to the ground from a height of a grown man's fist. Again, it will neither harm nor kill anyone. Your floater should have been operating at the same speeds and heights, and it would not have harmed anyone if it managed to get through the Great Barrier.”
He just stared at her, aghast, suddenly realizing that she had no concept of air travel or airplanes, and therefore couldn't understand that it needed a certain speed to take off. Which did, if he was totally honest, make it inherently dangerous. There was, after all, a good reason for the plethora of engineers and scientists working on making air travel safer all of the time.
“Now, let us go see the damage done by your 'airplane', and see if you walk away free, get a dozen lashes from the whip, or will spend the next four decades rowing punishment galleys,” the Noble said, as if she wasn't bothered at all by their previous conversation.
He swallowed, suddenly thinking about making a run for it. “I would recommend against trying to run from me. I still have the authority to terminate you the moment I believe you to be a threat to Kiria. Running from justice would certainly count.” His eyes met hers, for a moment wondering how she knew what he
was thinking. “No, I cannot read your mind. However, it seems you are very easy to read and I can deduce your thoughts from your body language.”
He stiffened up, before feeling fear grip his heart. He hoped his plane hadn't hurt anyone. Forget punishment and convictions – he wouldn't be able to live with himself if his plane's crash had hurt or killed anyone.
Steve nodded. “I hope nobody got hurt,” he just said. He didn't understand nor agree with the law, but he was in Kiria, and it was their laws he had to follow. Agreement or not.
Her stance softened. “We will see. We have extremely competent healers, and this area of Kiria has large open fields between the farm buildings. There is an extremely likely chance that you merely destroyed some crops.”
The pilot nodded, hoping her words were true. He tried for a smile, but was sure it came out as a grimace. “Can I still get that change in clothing, and a chance to wash up?”
She glanced at him, and nodded. “We will find a stream for you to bathe and I will conjure you some clothing, and a pack to hold your current equipment.”
“Thanks, Ma'am.”
The Pillar dipped her head, accepting his thanks silently.
Chapter Five
It had started to rain over half an hour ago, and Liane just kept ignoring it. She had a pretty good idea where the invad... where the foreigner's 'airplane' had touched the ground, and was determined to be there sooner, rather than later. From the corner of her eye, she watched Steve tug at the clothes he was wearing.
Her mind touched back to the strangeness of the clothes he had worn beforehand. None of her usual transformation spells had been successful. In the end, she had been forced to resort to a broad-spectrum transmutation spell, transmuting whatever fabric had made up his clothes into natural fibers that her standard spells knew how to handle.
She was quite sure that she would eventually have been able to figure out spells that could transform the alien fabric, but she didn't have the time to do so, and Steve's widening grin at her repeated failures got on her nerves. She saw him tug at the clothes again. Apparently, the unknown material had been a lot softer than the coarse clothing that Kirian Commoners wore, and now he was uncomfortable.
A large puddle had formed in the field in front of them, and her charge made to avoid it. Her lips formed muttered syllables of their own accord, and she watched with satisfaction as the water pulled back from her feet, as if afraid of her, before the entire puddle split neatly into two halves. Her steps met nothing but dry ground.
“How... how did you do that?” Steve asked, sounding as if he really should know better.
Liane's lips quirked into a small smile, remembering a fond childhood memory. “I once told myself that I would master the environment, that even puddles in the street would avoid me,” she explained. He stared at her, looking shocked and unable to formulate a response. “Of course,” she added when he made no comment, “I simply use magic.” It was logic incarnate, of course she used magic.
She loved teaching people, and so she was willing enough to answer his questions, but the differences between their backgrounds made it very difficult for him to understand the references she was making. She saw him frown, and look closer at her. “Is that why your robes are still dry, despite the rain?”
She dipped her head in response. Rain didn't bother her. Maybe it was time to offer some more explanations? Liane lifted her left hand, her right hand holding on to her ever-present staff. Her lips moved in silent speech patterns, the droplets of rain flowing together to form a ball that floated above her open palm. “The manipulation of water is easy, especially if it is rain. It's almost devoid of impurities, so it forms and deforms with hardly a thought,” she explained, the same way she used to explain magic like this to her Assistant.
He sighed, having understood only that she thought rain was clear of impurities. “What does that mean?” he asked, hoping he was able to hide his annoyance. She heard it anyway, and resisted the urge to sigh as well.
Why had she expected this foreign Commoner to understand? She took a few moments of silence to straighten out her thoughts. “Your lack of understanding of magic makes it difficult to explain,” Liane finally said. She motioned with her left hand, the ball of water following eagerly. “The rain is clear and pure. It isn't full of salt, like sea water, it doesn't have dirt in it, like mud. It has minor other elements in it, but it is easy to work with.”
“So if you mix water with other things, it becomes more difficult to control?” the pilot asked, trying to take his mind off the incessant rain and warming up to the subject of magic.
“Yes,” Liane answered. “And no.” She wasn't trying to go for the mystery angle, but his questions didn't leave her enough time to formulate her thoughts in a clear enough way for someone outside of Kiria to understand them.
“That's extremely helpful,” he grunted.
Liane was silent for some time. “Yes, it makes water more difficult to control if there are lots of other elements in it,” she finally elaborated. “The additional elements need to be taken into account when doing the manipulation. And no, it does not make it more difficult to control as most Nobles will simply perform a two-step spell; the first step will draw out the pure element before the second stage manipulates it. As the rain is reasonably pure, I can simply manipulate it immediately, and prevent it from soaking my clothes – or divert puddles of it away when I am trying to walk.”
He gaped at her again, making her feel rather good about herself. She felt proud of her abilities, and enjoyed it when people recognized that.
“Just what is magic? Can anyone learn it?” His next question may not have been the most polite, but it was one she had been expecting. Truth be told, it would be hard to explain, and she had been thinking about her answer for some time. The easiest solution would be to tell him he wouldn't understand, or simply refuse to answer.
That solution didn't fit right with her, she enjoyed explaining things and it felt too much like taking the coward's way out. “Magic is... complex,” she finally said, just as he started to get annoyed at her silence. “The official explanation is that Nobles, through a special talent that is still not fully understood, are able to gather the energy of the world within themselves, and use this energy to manipulate the world in turn.”
He nodded thoughtfully at her explanation. “So magic is a special talent? Not everyone has it?”
Secretly glad that he wasn't asking more about the nature of magic, she replied, “Only the Nobility has this talent, correct. It takes years of training and study to become more than merely competent with the talent, however.”
He fell silent, and she was glad for it. No matter how much she enjoyed teaching or explaining, it was extremely difficult to do so when the person she was explaining things to didn't have the same cultural references.
“How exactly does it work, though?” Steve's voice interrupted her thoughts.
“May I ask what exactly you are referring to?” Liane asked, subconsciously dropping to an ultra-polite level of Decorum.
“Magic,” the foreign pilot said. “How exactly does it work?”
“I believe I just explained that,” the Pillar said, her voice tightening just slightly in annoyance.
He held up his hands, picking up on the undercurrent easily, and once more reminding himself that she held the power of life and death over him. “You've explained the what, not the how,” he said.
She rubbed her eyes. “It is nearly impossible to explain how something works if you do not have the skills or tools required to understand it,” Liane answered. Without looking at him, she went on, “you are blind and ask me to explain the concept of painting. Without eyes, you do not know different colors, which means I can only give you a broad explanation.”
He looked slightly disappointed, but seemed to accept it nonetheless. “I think I see,” he finally said, after they had walked in silence for a few minutes. “Without this talent, explaining how magic works
is limited to 'the energy changes the world', just as you've explained earlier.”
She nodded. “Exactly.”
The conversation between them came to a halt once more, and they kept walking, through the rain. In the distance, through the thin veil of drizzling rain, jagged pieces of metal were becoming visible. A gust of wind hit Liane in the face, carrying smells that made her stomach churn and forced her to clench her free hand across her face.
“What is that horrible smell!?” she demanded, averting her face and drawing clean, fresh air.
“Jet fuel,” Steve explained calmly, as if unaffected by the smell. The explanation made no sense to the Kirian Noble, and Liane realized how hard it must be for the foreigner to understand her explanations. Obviously, his reply made perfect sense to him, and she was missing the references that were obvious to his culture. She promised herself she'd try even harder to answer his questions.
“In Kiria, fuel is something one burns, like wood,” she said. “What is a jet, and why does one burn it?”
