The Fae Artifactor

by Honor Raconteur

  “We’ve run every possible test on the system at the various stations, but none of the engines seem to have any issues,” Loman added, frustration evident in his voice and the way he flung his hand up. “But it must be here somewhere, as the short tests that we run work just fine. It’s only when we go past the reef, or any other real distance, that the pod stops dead. Or we end up in a side tube.”

  Sevana rocked back and forth on her heels, mind spinning madly as she looked the controls over carefully. “My Master is very fond of saying that complex systems fail in complex ways. Still, as integrated as all of this is, your engine itself isn’t complex. You’ve been running regular diagnostics and tests on this since the beginning, haven’t you? And the tubes are maintaining their air tight seals, you haven’t found any signs of leakage?” She didn’t need Loman’s weary nod to answer the question, that much was obvious. “I think it’s rather obvious, the problem isn’t in here.”

  “But it must be,” he protested heatedly, voice growing louder. “We’re not sustaining pressure—”

  She cut him off with a shake of the head. “You’re wrong. If the problem was here, someone would have spotted it already. And it’s very clear to me, it can’t be here anyway. Yours wasn’t the first station to fail, you just told me that. How can two stations, not directly connected to each other, fail at the same time?”

  Loman closed his mouth with a snap and stared at her, almost belligerent. “You know what’s happening?”

  “Not yet,” Sevana admitted cheerfully.

  Aran snorted and explained to the bristling engineer, “Don’t take her attitude to heart. She loves a good challenge. I think you just handed her one. Even though she says that, I know that expression. She’s got at least one or two ideas of what’s actually gone wrong.”

  Sevana grinned up at him. He did know her so well. “First step, let’s go check out the really troublesome tube.”

  Giving her an unamused look, Aran half-growled, “You want to walk outside and inspect the tubes while your senses are playing tricks on you.”

  Put like that, it did sound like a bad idea, didn’t it? “Who knows, maybe that will come in handy. If nothing else, I can use your eyes and ears. Come on, Aran, chop chop. There’s a puzzle to unravel and no time to waste.”

  Aran muttered something under his breath that did not sound at all flattering.

  Not waiting on him, Sevana tugged Loman into motion. “You’ll need to create an air bubble for me, and we can’t go far—I’m due back in this evening—but I’d like to at least start in on this. What’s the best way to inspect the tube line?”

  Loman, at least, seemed happy with her attitude to dive right in, and immediately drew her in the right direction. Aran followed, still grumbling, although he sounded more resigned now.

  Really, what did he expect her to do when she had such a lovely problem to sink her teeth into?

  Loman directed them to actually climb inside the tunnel and walk the interior first, which Sevana happily did. She inspected every ounce of the walls, taking her time with it, not interested in going at a quick pace. The walls were formed of hardened stone, utterly smooth to the touch, with practically mechanical precision. If ever Sevana needed proof that the Fae had infinitesimal control over the elements, this alone would do it. The walls were not coral, not as most of the buildings constructed in the city, but basalt. Theoretically, Sevana had known that most of the sea floor was made of basalt—the multitude of volcanoes made that inevitable—but seeing so much of the fine-grained volcanic rock in one place still bemused her. It was so incredibly, unapologetically black, as deep a color as sin itself. The only thing giving off any light were the florescent minerals someone had crushed and painted along the insides.

  She touched the walls several times with her bare hands, which felt strange in her state, as the walls tasted cool, damp and earthy, but touching them mixed sensation in with it. It wasn’t unlike biting into a dark pumpernickel bread and finding gravel inside. “I assume that the round shape of the tunnel is designed to give the bubble pods perfect pressure?”

  “Yes, Artifactor,” Loman confirmed easily over his shoulder. He paused to watch her, his eyes calculating and wondering. Whatever he thought of her, he chose to keep it to himself. “We crafted them specifically so that the tunnel dimensions would measure just an inch on all sides to give the pod clearance.”

  Aran let out a low whistle. “That’s not much at all. Why that close?”

  “The pressure,” Sevana explained absently over her shoulder. “In order to propel the pod forward, it requires a certain amount of pressure around the pod, and that’s best achieved by giving it a very slim margin of space on all sides. It’s really quite ingenious. It takes almost no magic to run this, and yet it’s swift, efficient, and perfectly safe to use. If I could somehow adapt this for human magicians to use, I’d make a bloody fortune.”

  “Focus, Sev,” Aran drawled. He put his hand next to hers on the wall, frowning at it. “I really don’t sense any seepage of water through the walls. What are you looking for?”

  “Something wrong.” When that got her a flat look from both men, Sevana shrugged. “What do you want me to say? The pressure gauges at the engine room report that the pressure inside the tubes is stable, as always. There’s no change there. If it’s not a problem of maintaining pressure, it had to be a problem here. There has to be something here that has been overlooked. I won’t know what it is until I see it.”

  Making a ‘let’s keep walking’ gesture with his hand, Aran walked on.

  They walked and walked, mostly in silence. Sevana had every sense, magical and otherwise, trained on the walls around her. She didn’t expect to see something that the men would miss, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but focus. The puzzle of this problem had drawn her attention very strongly. Sevana never could resist a good challenge; she loved to sharpen her mind against such problems, but even she could admit that part of this was ego. Unda engineers had been struggling with this issue for the past twenty years. It would be quite the feat if she could succeed where they had failed.

  As much as she focused on the tunnel, however, it did not escape her notice that Aran paid strict attention to her. At the first sign of fatigue or distress, she had no doubt that he’d scoop her up and cart her back to Ursilla. Part of her bristled at being treated like some delicate piece of fluff, but the practical part of her pointed out that he had every right to be concerned. Cramming a transformation that should take at least ten years into a six-week period was bad enough, but her body had already proven resistant. He had cause to be concerned.

  Despite her senses playing havoc with her, Sevana didn’t feel under the weather. Not like yesterday, when her body shuddered so badly it felt like it was breaking apart. Anything was better than that. It felt good, actually, to be able to walk out and stretch her legs a little, to have her mind sharply in focus instead of curled up in animalistic pain like the day before. Hopefully she wouldn’t be reduced to that again. Her only problem at the moment was something else entirely. Because every color smelled like food to her, she felt strangely full, as if she’d been indulging herself by snacking all day. Her stomach, however, complained, as it knew very well that she hadn’t been eating, only smelling and tasting. It was an odd dichotomy of sensations.

  They walked all the way to the reefs—or so Loman claimed, Sevana couldn’t begin to tell through the thick stone walls—and then a little further. Sevana stared at the spot where their pods always got stuck and couldn’t discern a bit of difference between one patch of wall and the next. Nor did she really expect to with her bare eyes. If it was obvious, someone would have spotted it before her.

  “She’ll want to come back tomorrow with proper measuring tools, with any blueprints you have of the tunnels, and then run some short tests,” Aran informed Loman factually.

  With those very words on the tip of her tongue, Sevana paused, blinking up at him. Did he really know her that
well? Apparently so. “Yes, what he said. Also, Loman, when we get back I want to examine the pod from this tunnel. It’s normally the same pod that runs back and forth, correct?”

  “Yes, that’s correct.” Loman’s dark eyes narrowed suspiciously. “You think you know what’s happening.”

  “Hmm, I have a hunch, I will say that. Recent events on my last case have cast a suspicion at me, shall we say.” Turning on her heels, she gestured for them to go back. “Nothing I can say without proper measurements and some diagnostics, though. I don’t suppose you have wands down here? Measuring tapes? Anything along those lines?”

  They talked tools—which was educational in its own right—on the way back, Loman becoming more agreeable with every step as she outlined her plan of what she wanted to test next. At this point, the man’s pride didn’t care if it got battered about, as long as they finally solved the problem. Sevana knew that feeling well.

  Sevana, Loman, and Aran made it back to the tube’s entrance, only to be curtailed in their examination of the pod by Ursilla. The elderly Unda stood just outside the tube with her arms crossed over her chest, one finger tapping out an impatient staccato on her arm. Her expression looked exactly like a mother who’d told the children not to go out and play, only to find that they’d done so anyway—and were covered in mud, to boot.

  Sevana, not at all deterred by that expression, gave her an airy wave. “Hello. Waiting on me, I take it.”

  “Yes.” Ursilla gave her an elaborate once over. “Not that you’re late, but I dropped by to examine you and see how you fared, only to find that you’d gone out. To work, no less. Because, of course, it makes sense to work when one was doubled over in pain and experiencing high fevers the day before.”

  The woman’s tone was so incredibly peeved that Sevana couldn’t contain her snicker. “I feel much better today. Although my senses are a little screwy and muscles are still aching a mite.”

  “By that she means that everything is either switched around or connected to each other,” Aran translated. He, too, seemed a little exasperated with Sevana and in perfect sympathy with Ursilla in that moment. “She’s tasting colors, touching scents, and probably something else that she hasn’t bothered to mention.”

  With a casual shrug, Sevana decided to tweak their noses even further and denied brightly, “It really is only those two. Although I think it would be amazing if my sight and hearing somehow got mixed up together. Wouldn’t that be amazing? I’m not sure how it would work, though.”

  Ursilla noted to Aran, “She’s baiting us.”

  “She does that. She has a very terrible sense of humor sometimes. Ursilla, this synesthesia, you mentioned it only as a possibility. How long did it last, the previous times you changed someone?”

  “A few days.” Ursilla shifted her stance to something more relaxed. She likely felt calmer after finally finding her quarry safe and, for the most part, alright. “I can’t be specific, as each person is different, and Sellion’s magic is directly tied into her senses. It will probably take longer to adjust them because of that.”

  Sevana didn’t mind the changed-up senses. In fact, it was rather unique and educational—as long as she didn’t lose them entirely. That would put her in a bind, make her even more dependent on another’s help, and she loathed that idea with every fiber of her being.

  Loman had been hovering nearby during this exchange, and he asked uncertainly, “Are you unable to work any further today, Artifactor?”

  “It appears so.” Sevana turned to speak with him directly. “Loman, you’ve got those blueprints of the tunnels and the engine on hand, don’t you?”

  “They’re actually held in Archives over in the library,” he corrected.

  “Get those out and send them to my guest house,” she requested/ordered. “I’ll want to study those, assuming that I can think after my treatment today. I feel like there’s something very obvious that we’re all missing, although I can’t quite put my finger on what.”

  “I’ll do so,” he promised faithfully. “Good luck?”

  Growling, she headed for Ursilla. “I’ll need it. See you when I can think again.”

  “We’ll be waiting.”

  Ursilla led the way back down the street, informing Sevana and Aran as they walked, “I’m glad to see that you’ve adjusted as well as you have. We’ll do another treatment but this time lower, on the back of the neck. It’s vital that we start to alter the nervous system.”

  The walk to the guest house was less pleasant than before, as uneasy anticipation stewed in her gut at the idea of another treatment. She grimly set her jaw, already marshalling her determination to get her through the rest of the day.

  They almost bumped into Khan as they entered the guest house. Her young host was coming out with a stack of laundry in his hands, mostly the bedsheets from her bed, by the look of it. He paused and gave her a nod of the head, the best he could do with his hands full. “Artifactor. I changed the sheets. You have a cold lunch of shrimp salad waiting for you on the table, and crab stuffed baguettes for snacks. Is there anything else that I can bring you?”

  “More ice,” she requested instantly. With the treatment coming up, she just knew she’d be experiencing hot flashes and probably fevers as well.

  “Understood. I’ll be back shortly.” Khan gave her another duck of the head before hurrying off in a ground-eating stride.

  They went in, and this time Sevana didn’t need to do as much to give Aran the room to work with. She gathered up her hair and tied it in a loose knot at the top of her head, exposing her neck to him, then lowered the collar enough that he could reach the skin without putting blood on the cloth. His finger was once again gentle and precise as he drew the emblem on her bare skin. Sevana knew that to be the general area where a great many nerve endings gathered, so expected the application of blood there to be less than pleasant.

  Great dark magic, did she ever underestimate that.

  Her entire back felt on fire, muscles knotting and contracting at the conflicting signals it received, and for some reason she underwent a severe attack of vertigo. So severe that it almost emptied her stomach more than once. Sevana was glad that she hadn’t actually eaten lunch before this treatment, as it certainly would have come up by now. Arandur moved her to the bed to help with the vertigo, and Ursilla lingered for a time to keep an eye on her, but there wasn’t much to be done until her body absorbed it. Eventually the elderly Unda left with promises to check in again later.

  It was just as well that she’d requested more ice from Khan, as she ended up curled on the bed, ice packs pressed against her back to keep her body from becoming one huge blister. Aran, thankfully, knew better than to hover and found ways to be nearby without being intrusive about it. Just as well, as Sevana’s crankiness rose every minute and if he tried smothering her, she’d have ripped his head off. Being helpless and in pain was not her forte.

  With her body spasming, she didn’t have the brainpower to work on the transportation problem. Pity, that. Sevana could have used the distraction; it truly was an interesting problem. Why would something hundreds of years old, and well-maintained, suddenly fail? Fail in multiple areas, no less.

  Unfortunately, that was as far as she could think. Anything more complex than that went spiraling out into the void.

  “Sevana?” Aran sank next to her on the mattress, where she lay curled up on her bed. “Tashjian sent a response back. Want me to read it to you?”

  She did not have the power of concentration available to make words out on paper right now. “Please.”

  “Alright.” The crinkle of paper, of a wax seal being snapped open, then Aran cleared his throat before starting, “Sweetling, I just got your note. I have to say, while I did see this coming, I’m not truly happy to hear it. Are you sure this is the right course? We’ve not exhausted the human experts, there might be a way yet to remove the Fae blood in you and leave you fully human.”

  Aran tried to read this neutral
ly but she could hear the strain, the hint of upset in his voice as he conveyed her master’s words to her. Aran did not at all agree with that.

  “I want you to stop and really think about it before you go any further,” Master’s letter continued. “Sarsen’s been dispatched to Big to help shut your business down, as you asked. He’s agreed to help Morgan fulfill any outstanding contracts, and I don’t have to tell you that you owe him quite the favor for that, do I? Take your time, think about matters. Don’t worry about things here, we have it handled.”

  Sevana let out a gusty sigh, her eyes slipping closed for a moment. She’d more or less predicted half of that letter.

  The paper rustled again as Aran set it aside. He adjusted the cold packs along her back, fingers gentle as he worked. “Should we stop?”

  “No point,” Sevana responded wearily. “He doesn’t know it, but I contacted every person that I thought would know something while I was still lying in bed recovering. No one knew anything helpful. A few people requested that I keep them updated, as they wanted to know how I turned out. There’s no human experts that can help.” Heaving a gusty sigh, she stared blindly at the multi-colored wall in front of her. “He’s just worried, always has been.”

  “He’s not the only one.”

  Sevana was tempted to turn her head so she could see Aran’s expression. The next twinge of pain shooting along her spine discouraged the idea of moving. “Can’t blame me for that, Aran. This situation is too strange and I was thrown into it without any chance to prepare.”