Engineered Magic

Grandmother

“Have ya got any glass?” their newest visitor asked. It was just past midday on their fourth day in Chicago. Guards came around the last two mornings demanding they register with the steward. Grandmother pumped them for their spells and ‘bribed’ them to leave her party alone. They did not have many visitors today. Grandmother was considering heading out, when this visitor arrived.

The rat carcasses were long gone, used as bribes or stolen. In their place, Grandmother decorated the room with piles of raw materials; iron, steel, fiber, hides, claws. It made the room look like a cross between a stockroom and a dump. Grandmother was sitting on her stool in the center, cleaning her nails with her knife. She was pretty certain it was going to take a month for her nails to recover.

The visitor was trying very hard to look older than he actually was. Grandmother thought he was probably twenty, but he was making an effort to look like an old man. He walked slowly and moved awkwardly. Artistic streaks of dirt on his face gave the impression of wrinkles, while there was some light colored material mixed into his hair at the temples to make him appear to be going gray. His missing hand was real enough.

It was starting to feel like everyone was playing a role here in Chicago. Grandmother was so surprised at the visitor's request she didn’t respond quickly. She studied him like a particularly difficult plumbing leak while working out how she could get more information out of him, while sounding criminal.

“I don’t know why I ask,” he said despondently, “no one ever has any anymore. It is awful hard making ends meet without me hand. I’m pretty certain I could still run the furnace with’n the other one. Wealthy assholes liked Da’s wine glasses well enough, I figure they’d buy em from me just the same, if’n I could just get the raw material.”

This was way too much information for Chicago. People kept all their information close here. Grandmother considered that most of what this man just said was probably a lie. Very few people lose a hand to an animal and live. She saw injuries like his before, during the war. A blade backed by a force spell can take a limb clean off. The essential part of that description was clean. The shock is actually minimal. The bleeding could be stopped with a simple tourniquet or a tier one heal. There was a chance he could have gotten the wound from a walking bear, but then there was the glass connection.

“I may have a few broken bits around,” Grandmother finally said. “Did you still win in the arena when you lost that hand?” The visitor shifted, some of the awkwardness left his movements, but not all of it.

“No, but that stone bastard was happy enough with my hand,” he replied. Grandmother noticed the change in his pronunciation too.

“What do I call you?” Grandmother asked.

“Kai,” he replied.

“Well Kai, which coliseum did you challenge?”

“There is more than one?” Kai responded, obviously surprised at that news.

“Oh yes,” Grandmother responded. “I’ve seen a couple myself.”

“Well I was giving the northern one a go, out past Peking,” Kai responded. Grandmother wasn’t certain Peking was real. She never visited the square. Any rumors she heard of it could never be pinned down. Grandmother suspected this might be like saying out past fantasy land. This Kai was getting more and more interesting.

“I am interested in purchasing a set of wine glasses. Perhaps I could be persuaded to part with the little glass I have, if I was certain you could produce a product with it,” Grandmother offered.

“What?” Kai asked. “You want to see the furnace?”

“That sounds like an excellent start,” Grandmother responded. “Ellen, we are going on a road trip. Keep an eye on the place while we are gone,” she said to Companion, who was on ‘stand by the back wall and look threatening’ duty.

“What do you want us to do with visitors?” Companion fluted.

“Just keep them company until I get back. We won’t be long, will we?” Grandmother directed this last question to Kai.

“No, it’s close enough,” he responded, his eyes still on the selkie. It would appear he missed her companion earlier.

“Lead the way,” Grandmother commanded, rising from her stool. Kai turned to find Ellen waiting patiently behind him. She was on door watch under the camouflage spell. She canceled it at Grandmother’s call.

They went out into Chicago. Grandmother kept a careful watch, aware this whole thing could be nothing but a setup for an ambush. Todd slipped away from the door to their room and followed them, with his camouflage spell still in force.

Kai led them to a shared room. Kai greeted the woman on watch and went to a corner of the room where a leather throw was on the floor. He pulled back the worn leather to reveal a handful of personal possessions and a kind of round ceramic pot with a hole in the side of it.

“There it is,” Kai announced, with a wave at the pot. He picked up a thin metal rod out of his possessions. “And here’s the blowing tube,” he said, handing it to Grandmother. She turned the rod over in her hand. It was thicker on one end, with six distinct flat spots on it, five on one side and one opposite. There was an opening on the narrow end but the other end was solid. Even though Kai called it a blowing tube, it was clear you didn’t blow through it. It was magic.

Grandmother handed the rod to Ellen while she turned her attention to the furnace. She ran one finger over the top of it. It was ceramic and stood on short legs of iron. Grandmother could see some echo of a structure smelter in this article. She could believe this was a glass furnace.

“Show Ellen how to use it,” Grandmother ordered.

“No,” Kai said. “If I do that you won’t need me.” I should have seen that one coming, Grandmother thought. It was the role she was playing.

“A tier three heal, cast once a day for twelve days will regrow a limb,” Grandmother commented. “What color is your magic, Kai?”

“Is that true?” Kai demanded, his remaining hand going to the stub of his arm.

“You have my word on it,” Grandmother assured him. “It is an incredibly painful process. If the pain doesn’t stop you, the itching in between will drive you insane.”

“Without glass I can’t demonstrate all of it. I sold the more common tools; the file, shears and tongs,” he mumbled.

“You admitted you thought you could run it with one hand. You did some experiment to draw that conclusion. Demonstrate it to Ellen,” Grandmother countered.

Kai squatted down next to the furnace. Grandmother stepped out of the way of Ellen’s view. She made eye contact with Todd behind his camouflage and nodded to the hall door. She cast blur and muffle, keeping an eye on the woman on watch.

Kai showed Ellen how to turn the furnace on and off. The glow of heat that poured out of the pot was the final proof that this was a tool. He went over the blowing tube, admitting that two of them worked better. His monologue on how to use the furnace was almost as wordy as his introduction to Grandmother. He could not demonstrate most of what he said, but his details were convincing.

“That’s it,” Kai said, pushing himself up to his feet. Somewhere along the way Ellen pulled a notebook out of her pocket and was taking notes on what the glass crafter said. She wrote a few more things down before indicating to Grandmother that she was satisfied.

“Six,” Ellen said aloud, “twelve undemonstrated.”

“You never answered my question, Kai,” Grandmother said. “What color is your magic?” Kai scrubbed his feet against the floor. You could see the defeat on his features. Everything had gone wrong for this man for a long time. She wondered why he showed Ellen the tool, when he so obviously thought the healing would not work on him.

“Yellow,” he said finally. It was a rare color, outside of Home Square.

“I plan to leave Chicago this afternoon,” Grandmother announced. Kai's shoulders drooped just a bit more. “In order to keep my part of the bargain, you need to come with us. Is there anything you need to do before we go?”

“Go?” Kai stuttered. “No, I am free now. Just let me pack up.” He dug through his pile one handed and pulled out a battered leather bag. The bag was large with a wide long handle. It was once a quality piece of work, but was now so worn Grandmother wondered how it was holding itself together.

Ellen twitched at the sight of the thing. Grandmother wondered if it was her need to learn the pattern or her desire to repair it. Probably both, Grandmother concluded. Kai threw his belongings into the bag except for the furnace and the blowing tube. He tucked the tube into the belt of his pants. He rolled the furnace into the leather throw. The bag was slung across his back, with the long handle crossing his chest. He carefully picked the wrapped furnace up with his one hand to cradle it like a baby.

Grandmother wasn’t certain there was a knife in the sheath on Kai belt. She supposed it didn’t matter since it would be impossible for him to draw the weapon without dropping the furnace. She didn’t see that happening anytime soon.

They returned back to their rooms to find Companion standing in the open at the door, running one flipper hand across the edge of his ax while fixing his liquid eyes on a very young child who was clinging to the next doorway down the hall.

“Any visitors in our absence?” Grandmother asked.

“No,” the selkie fluted. “The youngling there is just curious about me. I should have brought a toy to lose.”

“Companion, you're a genius. I need to listen to you more often. The tailor at Seagrass made these little human rag dolls. I bet he can make a selkie version,” Grandmother replied. “I really should have gotten some.”

“I might be able to put something together with the odds and ends in my pack,” Ellen offered.

“Nothing too complex,” Grandmother observed. “I do want to leave today. See if you can repair Kai’s bag enough we can trust it to hold his furnace. I don’t want him hampered with a load.”

“He’s coming with us then?” Alex asked, from where he stood against the back wall on ‘look threatening’ duty.

“Yes,” Grandmother announced. “Kai here is a glass crafter. I have promised him a tier three heal once a day for twelve days. He is a yellow, so Ellen and Companion can take turns.” She turned to Kai. “Let’s go in the back room and I will get you your scrap.”

Kai

Kai followed the old woman into a back room. A prize altar was set against the inner wall. Kai was surprised to see it. As far as he knew there was only one altar in all of Chicago, and it was under constant guard. She accessed the altar. After the materialization light show, thirty one pieces of glass scrap lay on the surface.

“That is all I have,” the old woman told him. “It is a rare resource in this area.” It was more glass scrap than Kai had seen in one place before. A single unit of scrap could produce a half dozen tumblers, mugs or wine glasses. His father hypothesized that larger amounts would be needed to make the pieces of glass armor that the arena dangled in front of them, but only rarely paid out. The royals of Peking did buy the wine glasses, but they held no respect for them. His own desire to rise in the estimation of his mother sent him into the pit in the hope of winning the secret of armor. Instead he lost his hand and was driven from the martial society. His dad slipped him the duffle with the old furnace and smattering of tools, along with the advice to go to Chicago as he passed through the southern gate.

The trip was a nightmare. What Kai found at the end was nothing like the free society that appeared in his grandparents stories. It was all just a different kind of oppression as layers of strongmen demanded their piece of the action. With his missing hand, the thieves and the guards wanted nothing to do with him. He spent most of his time working as a watchman in shared rooms and gathering tubers in the green to the north. He worked his way through most of the coins in his inventory and was forced to start selling tools from the glass crafting set to make ends meet.

Kai didn’t know where this old woman’s party was headed. Frankly he didn’t really care as long as it was away from here.

Kai stepped forward to pick up one of the chunks of glass. He turned it over in his hand. He set the chunk down next to his furnace. Ellen took his bag as soon as he set the furnace down. She disappeared into the other back room. When he turned back to the altar to put the rest of the scrap into his inventory he found six physical green coins stacked beside the scrap.

It was an insane amount of wealth. He forced himself to pick up the coins and hand them to the old woman. He didn’t understand what the old woman wanted to buy. For that much money it might be his soul.

“I am not selling,” he said. The old woman didn’t accept them.

“They're not mine,” she said clearly. “There is honor among thieves. I will not have mine fall into question. A bonus for each new spell demonstrated, I promised it in every settlement I visited this year. Put it in your inventory or leave it on the floor. None of mine will touch it.” She said this with such perfect certitude that Kai wondered how many of her underlings she killed to obtain that level of obedience. A shiver ran through him at the thought that he was willingly joining her party. His stump ached.

He sat the coins back on the altar. Honor went both ways. If she thought he earned it, he had. He swept it all into his inventory, both the coins and the glass.

“Take a seat,” the old woman said. “I’ll get you something to eat, it will be a long run later.” She turned and stepped through the open doorway, but Kai could still hear her clearly. “Companion, when he is settled, cast a tier three heal on him. Wait until he is sitting. I don't want him falling over and hitting his head.” A high squeaking reply came. “Sarah, do you have a spare water flask with you?”

“Sure,” another woman’s voice responded. “Here, let me take the food.” A woman in green stepped through the doorway. Kai slid down against the wall and was sitting with his back to the corner. He wondered if he should stand, when the woman gracefully folded her legs to sit beside him.

“I’m Sarah,” she introduced herself. She looked very similar to Ellen. So much so that Kai could easily mistake one for the other. He assumed they must be sisters. “Grandmother is awful at introductions, except for when she is trying to scare the crap out of someone.”

“Kai,” he responded. She handed him a water flask and set down a bundle of food wrapped in a square of integrated violet cloth.

“Where are you from, Kai,” Sarah asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Were you born here in Chicago?” she queried.

“No, I was born in the north,” Kai responded. “In Peking.” The stout gray warrior with the huge ax and white beard came trotting into the room. Sarah looked up at the half-man half beast. “Companion is going to cast the first heal on you. It's going to hurt like hell. Afterwards you need to eat and drink as much as you can. What tier are you?”

“Two,” Kai admitted.

“I’ll go get you more food. Grandmother likes to run between settlements. It is her new thing. Honestly it is grueling on me and I am a tier three. It is really going to suck for you. As a side benefit it does great things for your stamina,” Sarah observed.

A strange two fingered hand clamped down on his shoulder. A high song rang out and pain shot through him. It colored his world, shooting up not just from the stump of his hand, but from the long scar on his leg and the three missing toes on his foot. He could just hear the high fluting voice of the beastman through the veil of pain.

“I think you're right. He looks like he had an injury on his leg too. I would have thought the heal that sealed his stump would have sorted anything less out. It’s a long trip to Ellensburg, you better hit him again.” This comment was in Sarah’s kind voice. Just when his pained mind worked out what ‘hit him again’ meant he heard that pretty little song. He blacked out after that.

When he came too, he was still in the corner of the room. His furnace was still on the floor beside him, the chuck of glass with it. The water flask he was holding before he passed out was sitting next to a pile of food that was on the violet cloth, now spread out on a too clean floor. He wondered why he didn’t notice how clean the room was before. It was abnormally clean. On the floor around him were a bunch of odd shaped gathering bags. Some still clearly contained something, while most were empty. Kai picked up the flask and took a long drink from it.

A warrior in blue touched leathers came into the back room carrying a pile of steel scrap. He dropped it all on the altar, along with a bunch of other stuff that was already there.

“Back with us are you?” The warrior asked. “Eat up. We are packing up the last of it now. Ellen’s done with your bag, she is working on the finishing touches of her selkie toys. You know they aren’t half bad considering they are the first she ever made.” The warrior went out into the other room, leaving the pile of scrap unattended on the altar. Kai wondered if it was a test of some kind.

He picked up what looked like a travel bar and took a tentative bite of it. He really hated the vendor purchased food. It was one thing he did not miss from Peking. As he chewed the bite his taste buds joyfully recognized that this was not vendor food. His second bite was much larger than the first. His mouth was so overfull, he was forced to gulp water to wash it down.

The warrior was back, tossing more scrap on the pile. This time it looked like iron. He didn’t even glance at Kai before he headed out the door. When came back a bundle of skins was in his hands. He dropped the skins on the floor, before calling out the door, “You need to put this all back in your inventory, I am running out of room.”

“Just put it all in yours,” came the old woman’s voice. “I’ll get it back from you later.”

The warrior rolled his eyes at Kai. “She’ll forget you know. I’ll be stuck with all this stuff for months.” He flicked the scrap into his inventory and waited for the altar to digest it all. “I’m Alex, by the way,” the warrior said.

“Kai,” Kai responded around a mouthful of food.

They exited out of Chicago through the gallery entrance. The old woman walked along at such a slow pace, Kai thought they were staying the night. She looked at everything; the debris piles, the stone and glass walls, the guards standing vigil at the open door to the ruined sanitation facilities. She ran her hands over the side glass wall that was across from a section of stone wall that was strangely cracked. She looked at the cracks in the stone, tracing them with one finger.

A big brute of a man rose from his seat behind a tiny little table near the far exit and made a move in the direction of the old woman. Suddenly the larger warrior in crisp new leathers was there. The shaft of his spear blocking the clerk’s path.

“No need to bother Grandmother,” He said in a pleasant tenor. “We will be on our way shortly.” The clerk grasped the spear obviously intending to toss it out of his way. Although his muscles bulged, the spear did not move. Reassessing the warrior, Kai noticed for the first time how dark the red touches on the leather were. The clerk seemed to notice as well. He raised his open hands and took a step back.

“No insult was intended,” the man replied, “I was just trying to keep the lady from harming herself on the debris.” Kai looked over to find the old woman literally poking at a pile of debris. She paused to look at the clerk, like he was another chunk of broken cement. She looked at his desk and then his chair. She walked all the way around the chair.

“Alex,” she called. “Check out this chair. It is a little small, but I don’t think I have seen this configuration before.” Suddenly Alex was there, between the old woman and the clerk while the red warrior was on the other side of the group giving the evil eye to a set of guards at the exit to the hall.

Finally they reached the other end of the gallery. The group strolled out in a lazy manner that gave lie to the detailed instruction Kai was given before they started out. He kept his position, behind Grandmother and in front of the beastman.

They turned a corner, blocking the direct view of the guards on their group. A series of masking spells were cast on him. “Let's pick it up,” Grandmother commented. Alex in the lead, upped his pace. Sarah and Grandmother matched his increase perfectly, keeping the spacing between them exactly the same. Realizing he was falling behind, Kai put more effort into his steps. Somehow the beastman behind him, with his short legs and large flipper like feet, matched this increase in speed without effort.

The space between Kai and Grandmother was increasing again. They weren’t done speeding up yet. He was stretching his legs and stepping as fast as could. He still was in danger of falling behind. He broke into a run.

His bag bounced on his back. It felt too light to him. He was afraid he was going to drop it or already had. He put his hand on the strap where it crossed his chest, to reassure himself it was still there.

Ellen apologized when she returned it to him. She told him she tried her best, but it was too heavily damaged to completely restore. The bag looked new to him. “Sarah enchanted it to reduce the weight,” Ellen explained when Kai started to dig through the pack looking for what was missing. “She was working fast so I don’t think it will last more than a week or so.” Even after he added the furnace, blow tube and glass, it was lighter than before Ellen took it from him. As they continued to speed up, Kai was more than grateful for the reduced load.

The gap widened again. No matter how hard he tried he could not catch back up again. A trace of panic ran through him.

“Bring it down two notches,” Grandmother called.

The leaders slowed, Kai was able to close the gap back up. Once in place he could back off just a little from his top speed. It was such a relief Kai felt like he caught his second wind. Unfortunately it was way too early for a second wind. Now that Grandmother found his speed, the group settled down into a long hard run.

“Hold up,” Grandmother called. Kai lost track of time long ago. The agony in his weak leg was inching up his spine. The group came to a smooth stop, all except Kai who was saved by the beastman from running into the back of the old woman. Kai was breathing so heavily he couldn’t thank the beast man. He leaned over bracing his stump and forearm against his legs trying to get more air into his lungs. He was unable to stop himself from puking, but it was just dry heaves. Even though he ate a huge meal right before they left Chicago, his nanobots burned all those calories long ago, healing his old wounds and keeping him moving. He fell to his knees as bone deep fatigue sunk its teeth into him. He was asleep before his body hit the floor.