Cat With a Raygun

After Lesfo recovered from his astonishment he told Joe, “I'm going to introduce you to Administrator Leanne Trilko, she's in charge of the communications with other settlements, so she'll want to see what you've made and how it works.”

With that he accompanied Joe outside of the barracks and they took a wagon to the palace. Even with the commander vouching for him, Joe still had to produce his Guidebook to show his name, age, and race before he was allowed entry to the palace.

The palace itself was quite large, but not ostentatious. That denoted that it was more function than anything else. As the center of the government they would need such a large space to house all of their bureaucrats. The personal chambers of the actual royal family might be more richly appointed, but Joe had no intention of finding out for sure. All he knew for sure was that the tax burden was rather light, so he couldn't find anything to fault the government for.

As they went through the halls Lesfo led Joe to a tower on the eastern side of the castle. Even through the thick stone walls Joe could hear the caws of ravens near the top of the tower. Joe and Lesfo entered an office on the ground floor, however, after a quick knock from Lesfo.

“Leanne, I'm back with good news for you regarding the Rust's Edge situation,” Lesfo said.

Inside was a desk with a couple of chairs on the public side and a human woman in her thirties on the other side. She looked up at Lesfo and immediately her countenance shifted from neutral to annoyed.

“Commander, for your sake I hope you've found a way to get me back these last two weeks. It takes a long time to set up a raven station at settlement and your mysterious assurances that I need not bother may have convinced the Royal Council, but the longer we delay, the harder it will be as it's spring and the ravens will be mating soon. Having eggs hatch in Rust's Edge is essential to setting up a new colony.” The administrator finally seemed to notice Joe's presence next to the orc commander. “Who is this?”

“Leanne Trilko, I'd like to introduce you to Joe Pinkerton, of Rust's Edge. He has come with a solution to your communication needs without requiring ravens. Joe, this is Administrator Leanne Trilko, head of Settlement Communications.”

Leanne looked at Lesfo like he was crazy. “This is just a kid, what kind of solution could he provide?”

Joe spoke up, “If I might demonstrate what I've brought, I think you'll be very happy with the results.”

Leanne simply nodded and motioned for the both of them to sit. Joe set down the chest he'd been carrying around since he left Rust's Edge earlier in the day. From within he pulled out the first station and set it on the desk facing the administrator, being careful not to knock any of the piles of paper off. Then he pulled the second station out, closed the chest, and put the second station on top of it.

“These are called Arcane Written Communicator Stations. As you'll see, the one you have has several labels engraved on it. It says Rust's Edge, to denote that's who it is connected with, and each of the two sides has a label, 'Send' and 'Receive.' When I take the pen here on the Send side and write a message-” Joe did as he was narrating and wrote a message on his station. As he moved the pen the pen on the Receive side of the station on the desk copied his movements exactly.

Joe released the pen on his station and gestured to words now written on the sheet of paper on the desk in front of the administrator. “-and that message appears on the Receive side of the connected station.”

Joe took the paper he had written on out of his station and showed it to Leanne so she could verify that it was duplicated on her station. As he took it off the station a yellow glass bead lit at the top of his station. On Leanne's station a red glass bead started to slowly light up and turn off intermittently.

“What's that light, what's that mean?”

“When you remove the written message from the Send side it shows yellow to denote that receipt has not been confirmed on the other station yet. Yours has that red light to let you know a new message is waiting. When you take it off the Receive side both lights will deactivate.”

Leanne followed the direction and the lights performed as Joe said they would.

“So, not only does it send the message, it tells you when they've acknowledged it?”

Joe nodded in response.

Leanne just sat there with the piece of paper in her hand, her expression blank as she was clearly deep in thought. Finally after a minute she spoke. “Could you make more of these?”

Joe rubbed the back of his neck, slightly embarrassed, “I could, yes, but I have a lot on my plate right now. I don't know when I'd be able to get to it. We're still trying to build up Rust's Edge and there's a lot to do.”

“But you've already been away from there for so long, clearly they can get by without you for months at a time.”

Lesfo chuckled at Leanne's assumption.

“What's funny, commander?”

The orc's face broke out in a huge grin showing off his tusks and the rest of his teeth, “Joe here hasn't been away from Rust's Edge as long as you think he has. Joe, tell Administrator Trilko here when you were last in Rust's Edge.”

“Two hours ago,” Joe answered.

Leanne stared in shock, “But that's-”

“Impossible?” Lesfo finished for her. “I've only met Joe a few times, but each time he proves that 'impossible' isn't really a thing. Do you remember those bandits last year? Or that magma lion a couple of weeks ago? Joe defeated them.”

“Wow,” Leanne said, “I can't believe you fought a magma lion and walked away without any issues.”

Joe gave a small laugh, “Well, that's not really true.” He stood up and put his right leg on the seat of the chair, then ended the Illusory Rendering. “See? I lost my foot after it spewed lava at me. What you saw a moment ago was just an illusion.”

Lesfo was incredulous. “I walked around with you in Rust's Edge when you brought me to visit, I escorted you here today. How do you walk around unaided and move normally?”

“Oh, I'm very aided as I walk. I use magic to support my weight when it would normally be taken up by my right foot. I defeated that elemental a day before I showed up to collect the bounty. I was practicing how to move. Having a decent Agility helps keep my balance, too.”

Lesfo spoke up, “You know, I never did ask. Just what is your class?”

“I'm a Mage.”

Both Lesfo and Leanne shared a stunned reaction at that revelation.

“Come now, Lesfo, how else do you think I have a spell that lets me teleport us across the continent?”

“I didn't really think about it. The Mages we have here don't have that spell, as far as I know.”

“Could I meet them sometime? I've been curious, and maybe we can learn spells from each other.”

“You can teach your spells?” Leanna asked.

“Well, not quite, but I can learn other spells due to a Mage ability I have. So that means they should be able to learn my spells.”

Leanne offered to take him to meet the Mages in residence in the palace, so Joe packed up his Communication Station and Lesfo said it was time for him to get back to his office. Joe offered to teleport him directly back to save time. Leanne just stared in astonishment as Lesfo walked directly into his office from her own.

The two Mages in Trenos had personal quarters in the same hall in the palace, which was right next to their joint office. Leanne escorted Joe there and introduced him to the pair. One was an orc woman named Ferelda and the other a forest gnome man named Thoomin.

“Administrator Trilka, how pleasant to see you again. Did you have documents you needed me to copy for you?” asked Ferelda.

“No, actually, I came to introduce you to this young man, Joe Pinkerton. Joe, this is Ferelda and Thoomin. Ferelda, Thoomin, Joe has something in common with you and believes he can help you as well.”

“Something in common?” questioned Thoomin. “Wait, are you a Mage, too? You don't seem like a Mage, but-- Whoa! That's a lot of magic you have on you.”

“Well, I have to get back to work, so I'll leave you here, Joe.”

“Thanks, Administrator. I'll send you a message when I get my communicator set up back home.”

After she left Ferelda and Thoomin took more time to examine the gear that Joe was wearing as well as the chest he was still carrying around.

“I've never seen anyone walk around with so much magic unless they were at war,” Ferelda observed.

“You aren't here to attack us, are you?” asked Thoomin.

“Certainly not, I didn't even know that I'd be meeting with you today, I just came by to deliver something to help with communicating with my town without needing ravens. Then when the administrator found out I was a Mage she offered to introduce me to you two.”

“Why do you have two active spells right now?” Ferelda asked.

“I lost my foot a couple of weeks ago killing a magma lion. I didn't want to draw attention to it, so I made an illusion to make it appear that it's still there, and I use Levitation to help me walk without a limp.”

“You can use two spells simultaneously while moving around and acting normally? How high is your Focus?”

“Uh, right now it's 29. Is it really that unusual? I know I'm barely 19, but I figured any Mage would want to train a lot to be able to handle combat situations.”

Ferelda and Thoomin exchanged a shocked look that Joe was getting used to today and Thoomin said, “Our spells aren't very suited for combat.”

“Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want to learn some of mine?”

Ferelda gently explained, “I know we're the first Mages you've met, but I'm sorry, it's just not possible to teach spells to others. You can only learn them from your Guidebook when you gain a level in your class.”

Joe manifested his Guidebook, shared his most basic information and allowed the two of them to see his Mage level of 13. “So, two spells at first level, then one spell each additional level, right? Well, I've learned two spells from my Profession. Look at this.”

Joe flipped the page to his spells, keeping the spell levels hidden, and allowed them to see the list of 47 spells he currently knew.