Arrival

by William Dickey

  ‘Isaac,’ Mai whispered in my ear trying to get my attention. I ignored her. If I spoke to Mai now, I’d look schizophrenic in front of Lilith.

  “You were out when it... And you never went back…. So…So… You didn’t see what happened,” I choked out.

  “Why, what happened?” Lilith asked.

  I turned to include the elder in the conversation and took a more formal tone. “Mill Valley has been destroyed. A contingent of beastmen from the Othal Confederation stormed through the fence and slaughtered everyone, including me.”

  Both Lilith and the elder’s jaws dropped. Mill Valley wasn’t that big but compared to this village it was enormous. Relations with Xebrya’s northern neighbors had always been strained. Small beastmen raiding parties frequently stole from small villages along the border, but it had been centuries since they’d gone so far as to exterminate a town with over a thousand people. Everyone understood this would mean war.

  “After I resurrected, I crossed the mountains to warn the rest of Xebrya of the beastmen threat. To that end, I’m heading to Crystalpeak,” I said.

  “Mill Valley has been destroyed,” Lilith said in a somber voice. “But how does any of this relate to the metal man that just attacked the village.” As expected, Lilith’s primary concern was her work. She was seeking the ruins of a magitechnologically advanced society and no doubt had connected the juggernaut to it.

  I was about to come clean and tell her of my unusual underground adventure when Mai interrupted me. ‘Isaac,’ Mai snapped, demanding my attention. ‘Don’t tell that woman about me or the underground base.’ I was about to ask her why when Mai cut in again. ‘Don’t speak it’ll just draw attention. You can’t tell her anything because there is something funny about her. No human mage could be that powerful.’

  I decided to play it safe and follow Mai’s advice, not because I felt Lilith was lying about who she was but because I was worried Lilith was exactly whom I thought she was: an overenthusiastic magical experimenter.

  She had spent months alone braving the wilderness in the faint hope of uncovering long lost magical artifacts. That level of determination wouldn’t be bound by many limits. I had the strong suspicion that if Lilith ever learned about my connection with Mai the memetic artificial intelligence, I would be easily relegated from friend to guinea pig. Thinking of Lilith’s figure, I wasn’t sure if that was necessarily a bad thing but best not to rock the boat.

  “I don’t really know anything about the metal giant,” I answered. “I was walking down the mountain when it suddenly popped up from the ground and made a beeline for here. I followed it and the rest is self-explanatory.”

  “Finally, progress,” said Lilith, her eyes closed and a brimming smile met her lips as if a great weight lifted from her shoulders. “The metal man alone is well worth all these months of effort but now you said the metal man came straight here. So I should be able to track it back…” Lilith beamed greedily. “Who knows how much more is back where it came from?”

  The elder cleared his throat. “We’re getting off topic here. Let’s put aside the metal man for the moment. You said the beastmen destroyed Mill Valley.”

  “Yes,” I confirmed.

  “If they have gone so far, I doubt they will stop there,” said the elder. “The village is no longer safe. Whether it is the beastmen or human bandits trying to take advantage from the chaos, we don’t have the necessary defenses.”

  “I’ll speak with the other villagers and recommend we move somewhere more secure,” the elder continued, swallowing deeply at his future prospects. “Isaac, you plan on getting word to the other settlements, correct?”

  “Yes, I’m going to Crystalpeak,” I answered. “From there word should be able to spread most easily. Of course, I’ll warn anyone I happen to pass by on the way.”

  “Good,” said the elder. “Well, you just had a perilous journey over the mountains. You must be exhausted. Perhaps you should stay here tonight, have a good meal…”

  “And sleep in an actual bed,” I chimed in.

  “Yes, a bed,” the elder agreed. “I think I can do that. You can leave in the morning. Does that sound good?”

  “Yes,” I said. I could use the rest. Crystalpeak was still around 80 miles away, so it would take another week to reach my destination. I really missed cars.

  “You can stay at my place,” the elder offered. “I’ll have a spare room made up for you.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  The old man turned to his other guest, Lilith. “In light of the news, Miss Kamikira, what are your plans? You’re from Crystalpeak so I suppose you will return there.”

  “Ehh,” Lilith hesitated. “I think I’ll stay around for a while. I mean… this discovery.” Lilith indicated the giant pair of legs that overshadowed us. “Progress doesn’t stop for any reason not even war. I will stay and study that metal giant. In fact, elder, it looks like all the fires are out so your people should be able to handle the rest of the cleanup. If it’s alright, I think I will get to work.”

  “We can take care of the rest,” said the elder. If anything, the elder was a bit relieved. The village was relatively secure so long as Lilith remained. “Well, Isaac I’ll show you to my home. You can sleep there tonight.”

  “If it’s okay, I want to take a look at the metal giant with Lilith,” I said. While I had many doubts about Lilith’s willingness to let go of ancient magical artifacts, I still harbored some hope to get my hands on a few of the juggernaut’s scraps. The raw materials alone were worth a fortune.

  “Okay,” said the elder. “She can show you to my place after you’re done. She’s also staying at my home.”

  The elder waved us goodbye and I went with Lilith to the juggernaut’s resting place. As Mai instructed, the robot’s lower body remained upright and motionless despite its technical ability to move. The upper body lay collapsed just behind, its arms placed spread eagle to either side.

  The eager Lilith stood in awe of the fallen juggernaut. “It’s such a shame,” she said stifling a few tears.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “I know people died, but if it wasn’t for you it could have been much worse.”

  Lilith laughed, a bit inappropriately. “No, it’s not that. It’s a shame that I had to slice it in half. I hope I didn’t do anything irreparable. This artifact could be the key to rediscovering countless secrets.”

  As always, Lilith’s focus was on her work. She started chanting in some unfamiliar tongue and the air around her filled with a purple aura. As she chanted, the purple light focused until only her eyes were lit up. Then the light shot out of her eyes like a pair of headlights, lighting up the giant’s feet.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  She turned to me instinctually. The bright violet light of her gaze forced me to turn away and use my hands to shield my eyes from the light.

  “Sorry,” she said quickly looking away. “I am analyzing the artifact’s structure. This spell lets me see how it looks on the inside and highlights any mana sources and conduits.”

  Lilith continued scanning the entire juggernaut. As she looked them over, she started describing aloud the juggernaut’s internal structure and various armaments. I wasn’t sure if she was speaking to me or just muttering to herself, but it was surprising how accurate she was. Many on her observations and analyses of the functions of various components matched Mai’s inside information.

  After her thorough scan was complete, Lilith started digging around on the inside. She carefully opened and removed what Mai said was a maintenance panel halfway up the juggernaut’s left leg. After a half an hour digging around, she came back out this time carrying one of the juggernaut’s soul gems. She then repeated the process with the other leg, completing the set.

  “These seem to power the thing,” she smiled, lugging back both the soul gems. I took a long look at them, summoning the interface’s description.

  †Cruiserweight Soul Gem†

&n
bsp; Durability: 117/8192

  Description: Ancient Traveler relic still possessed by a high-class anima. Anima has a twin located in another soul gem. Both must be used in tandem for proper results. If you don’t have the twin, it’s recommended that you empty the soul gem and replace the anima.

  “Interestingly, they were in the legs and not the main body. I wonder why the builders did that,” said Lilith.

  “Maybe they wanted to put the power source closer to where it is being used. It must take a lot of energy for something that big to move around.” I repeated Mai’s explanation as if it was my own.

  “Good thinking,” Lilith acknowledged. She looked up at the sky, at the sun just barely kissing the horizon. A wisp of cloud encircled it, making the sky a deeper shade of orange. “Let’s go, it’s getting late and there’s plenty I can do studying these power sources.”

  Lilith led me back to the elder’s place. It was a moderately sized family home. Its mish-mashed decor indicated it was once filled, but now that the elder’s wife had passed away and his children were all grown, it had plenty of room for a few guests. After a tasty meal, I turned in early; tomorrow would be busy.

  It was the middle of the night. Despite the uneasiness of the day’s destructive events, somehow everyone got to sleep, everyone except one shadowy individual. When all was silent, Lilith carefully got out of bed, crept to the bedroom door, and barricaded it closed. Then in a whispered chant she cast a sound barrier over the inside edges of the room. She brought out the small black cube and set it on the ground in front of her.

  “Cube, open a channel back to command,” said Lilith.

  When the cube was ready, it emitted a ray of light that morphed into a heavily cloaked man.

  “Lancepesade Lilith Demogorgon of the 16th Reconnaissance Division,” said Lilith.

  “Lancepesade, you aren’t scheduled to report in for another three days,” said the man.

  “I know,” said Lilith. “But I have something important to report.” Lilith went on to describe the appearance of the giant metal artifact and its capabilities.

  “Congratulations Lancepesade. Your mission is a success. You said the artifact is over a hundred feet tall,” said the man.

  “Yes,” replied Lilith. “I can’t even estimate its potential value. The dual soul gems alone… I have never even heard-”

  “Thank you, Lancepesade,” the man cut her off. “We’ll send a full diagnostic team to recover and transport the artifact.”

  “What about where it came from?” Lilith asked.

  “The team will do a full scan of the area. With any luck there will be even more. But either way if the artifact you describe is half of what you indicate I’ll put in a request for a promotion,” said the man.

  “One other thing,” said Lilith. “Just after I took down the metal giant, an Earthman showed up. I mentioned him in an earlier report. He was the one remaining in Mill Valley when it was wiped out by the Northern savages.”

  As Lilith said this, the hooded man opened up a file, scanned its contents, and then nodded for Lilith to continue.

  “While I was running a scan on the iron man, I happened to take a look at him. There was something unusual attached to his left hand. His jacket concealed it, but it looked surprisingly similar to a soul gem. I didn’t think a soul gem could link to an organic being but… Anyway, I asked the Earthman about his connection to the automaton. He claimed there wasn’t one but he seemed to know more about it than he should. I think he’s hiding something.”

  The hooded man thought long and hard about this statement before delivering Lilith’s new orders, “Lancepesade, you are to follow this outsider, find out what he knows about the artifacts, and recover anything related to them he might be carrying.”

  “But he’s going to Crystalpeak and believes I come from there. I’m afraid my story won’t hold up once we reach the city,” said Lilith.

  “It’ll take a few days to reach the city,” said the hooded man. “Follow him for a while and get whatever information you can from him.”

  “And when we reach the city?” Lilith asked.

  “Kill him and retrieve any artifacts.”

  Chapter 18: Magic

  I woke the moment the sun peeked through the bedroom window. Apparently, a week underground made me a bit oversensitive to light. Even awake, I stayed in bed until I heard movement in the rest of the house. I didn’t stay because of a particular preference for this bed or because I wasn’t well rested, but because I didn’t want to unnecessarily burden the other occupants with an early wake up call.

  By the time I left the bedroom and entered the kitchen, the elder was already busy frying some eggs and the closest thing Tautellus had to potatoes.

  “Morning,” I said.

  “Good morning,” he replied. “You have a good night’s sleep?”

  “Best I’ve had in a long while. Best since…” I trailed off there. I meant to say the best since Mill Valley, but was trying to avoid such thoughts. Not saying it didn’t really help.

  As the elder finished preparing breakfast, Lilith left her room to join us and we all sat down and shared a meal. The food was delicious, another best since.

  “So Li’th,” I mumbled as I scarfed down the final bite. “Have a busy day, taking apart that artifact.”

  “Actually I wanted to talk to you about that,” Lilith replied. “I slept on it and on second thought I think that I should put my studies on hold for the moment. And if it’s alright with you, I think I will escort you back to Crystalpeak.”

  My eyebrows lifted in surprise. I’d thought Lilith was a hopeless obsessive. Maybe I’d been wrong about her.

  “So,” Lilith continued.

  “Ahh, sure, I could use someone familiar with the territory,” I stammered. “I guess my mission is too important to trust to me alone?”

  “Not really, I just thought that the work could benefit from a trip back. I could pick up some better tools and ask for additional help from the Academy. Frankly, this artifact is too big for me to handle alone,” Lilith answered. I laughed internally at that, it was very Lilith. She didn’t care about some war, only her work.

  “Okay, let’s go?” I asked. I knew I would sleep much better with a powerful mage on the road.

  “Let’s go,” Lilith agreed. “But first, I have to make a quick stop.”

  We thanked the elder for the food, gathered our belongings and set off. It was a long road to Crystalpeak.

  It wasn’t the best weather for traveling. It was raining, and I’m not talking about a light drizzle that was refreshing on a warm summer day, I’m talking about the big heavy drips that seemed to soak through even the thickest of coverings all the way to the skin. It’s strange, how just above freezing can be worse than the depths of winter, but if it was any colder, the rain would have been snow and consequently wouldn’t have had such an easy time getting through my heavy cloak.

  Before leaving the village, we made a quick stop at the juggernaut’s remains. Lilith wanted to hide the giant artifact before someone else started messing with it.

  “You want to bury it,” I exclaimed. “Come on, even if we got the help of all the villagers, it’d take days to cover something that large. The legs alone extend fifty feet up. We’d have to make a mountain…”

  “It won’t take long, just watch,” Lilith declared as she rolled up her sleeves and motioned me to step back.

  I started to feel energy in the air, almost like electric static gradually building up, making my hairs stand on end. Then it started to pull back and with it, the energy brought all the rain for a hundred yards around and focused it all into the ground immediately around the juggernaut. The ground liquefied almost instantly, allowing the metal components to sink. Once the juggernaut was gone, I felt a surge of heat emanating from the muddied ground soon followed by a geyser of steam. The mass evaporation stripped the ground of all the moisture, turning the entire area into a giant brick.

  “That was am
azing,” I said. It was easily 50 times more powerful than any use of magic I’d seen since I’d arrived in this world. Until then, I saw magic as some impractical poppycock that couldn’t compete with the technology of my world. I was wrong.

  “Thanks,” she replied with a smile that could brighten even that stormy morning.

  “Think you can teach me magic,” I blurted out. Jealousy over that display of power made it extremely enticing.

  “What?” said Lilith.

  ‘Yes, what?’ Mai agreed.

  “Can you teach me magic?” I repeated, this time more clearly. “I saw what you could do and I want to learn.”

  “Magic takes years to master,” Lilith began. “I don’t have the time…”

  ‘Isaac… what do you think you are doing?’ Mai questioned. ‘You can’t trust her.’

  “No, I don’t mean… you don’t need to teach me everything. Just a bit now while we’re on the road. Just to pass the time. Once we get to Crystalpeak, I’ll find a way to learn properly. Maybe, I’ll even go to the Academy,” I clarified.

  “Well,” Lilith said. “I could teach you some of the basics, but can you even do magic?”

  ‘I know you are crushing on miss super mage, but you can’t trust her, she’s hiding something,’ Mai insisted.

  “What do you mean?” I said to both women simultaneously.

  “In order to perform magic, you must have 2 things, magical energy, called mana, and the capability to manipulate that energy, magic strength. The more mana a person has the more frequently a person can use magic and the greater the magical strength, the more powerful and sophisticated the magic a person can perform. Like your muscles, you can only increase magical strength and mana capacity through training so only those born with enough magical strength and mana to learn the simplest spells are capable of ever becoming mages. That’s why there are so few human mages, they simply aren’t often blessed with the gift for it,” Lilith explained.

  ‘It doesn’t make any sense for a human mage to be as powerful as she seems to be,’ said Mai, all while Lilith was talking. ‘Lilith is hiding something, I don’t know what it is but you can’t trust her. I know you don’t trust me yet either, so at the very least keep your guard up and keep her from knowing about me.’