I woke up early to prepare for our trip to Absalom. After a few minutes of just watching Aurora sleep, I did a quick tour of the fort. For the most part, everyone was feeling a little better, though I’m sure they were all exhausted. A day’s rest, some healthy food and they’d be fine.
Of course, it’s hard to get a day’s rest when Lenn’s busy shouting. I could hear him clear from the other side of the fort. “I LIKE HOOKERS!” He sounded frustrated. I decided to go check it out before he started breaking walls.
I found Lenn in a common area. I froze upon spotting him. In his hand was the statue head we had recovered. “Lenn, why isn’t that head in the jar of oil?”
“IT DOESN’T WORK!” he growled, not answering me.
“Doesn’t work?” I sighed, knowing I needed to figure out what he was on about before I could get the dangerous object back safely in its oxygen blocking medium.
“I keep talking to it and it won’t talk back.”
“What.” Just because it was a head, he expected it to work like that damn shrunken head? That was it. I was going to make an adamantine leash and tether him to Geo. Then my inner troll took over. “Perhaps it’s protected by a code word. We’ll need to find a way to activate it.”
“Tell me how.”
“I’d have to research it, but we can try the most commonly used one. Hold it with one hand by the back of the head and look directly at it. Then repeat after me…” And so it was that at roughly five in the morning, I had Lenn acting out a scene from Hamlet. You know the one, but if you don’t it’s probably not going to be funny to you anyway.
After that didn’t work, Lenn got bored. “This is stupid,” he said, tossing the head over his shoulder. My heart leapt into my throat, but I managed to use simple magic to catch it before it hit the ground. I put it back in the jar, which I sealed and put in my pack. “Out of sight, out of mind” was especially true for Lenn.
We left right around dawn. I promised myself I would put the prophecy’s suggestion of our imminent demise from my head while we were gone. I would try to enjoy myself and show Aurora a good time.
It was around eight in the morning upon arrival. Aurora wondered if the trip had taken time, but understood quickly after I explained the concept of time zones. I was impressed. She seemed to get it faster than people back home. Hell, one of my best friends in high school probably still views time zones as some kind of dark witchcraft perpetrated by the sun god, Helios.
Never let it be said that Aurora isn’t intelligent. She’s well above average, probably in the top fifteen percent back home. But even in spite of her lesser Golarion education, there are some concepts she seems to get on an amazingly intuitive level. Languages, for instance. I have an IQ of over One-Ninety. I can fluently speak and read a half-dozen languages. But I’m amazed by the ease Aurora picks up languages. She has a natural gift and seems to learn them in half the time I do when she feels like it.
Upon arrival, we went down through my favorite shop district – partially to make a few purchases both for the trip and for the return to the fort and partially just to say hello to some old friends – before heading to the orphanage. I always loved to go see the kids. I feel like I have so much in common with them. In a way, I’m an orphan myself.
While there I used magic to restock their art supplies, letting the cleric who runs the orphanage attribute it to a miracle. Then I gave him one hundred and eight platinum coins to pay for education for the kids. I also told the kids a story and handed out all the toys I had been secretly collecting for them on my travels.
Before you ask, no, none of them are mine. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t have any kids yet. There’s only one woman I’ve ever slept with without some kind of birth control. I tried looking her up, but I found that she had died around five years ago. The investigator said he hadn’t heard anything about her having any kids. In her honor, I had already had Chadwick begin building a brand new orphanage large enough to take care of all of the kids the old building held and dozens more. I like to hope that an acolyte of Shelyn would find it a fitting tribute to the love I had for her. I like to think that wherever she is now, she’s smiling down on us.
After leaving the orphanage, we headed for the Voidstrife estate. There, I introduced Aurora to Chadwick, his wife Phoebe and their little one, Alistair, who I also met for the first time. He’s a cute kid, aside from his nose, which he inherited from his father. I was glad to discover that my other two adopted brothers had gone out of town on business, so I didn’t have to put up with them. I shuddered to think about the inappropriate things they would have said to Aurora.
I was startled to learn that Phoebe recognized Aurora. I had known Phoebe had family back in Taldor, but to think that she had been there during Aurora’s victory parade…either way, it was a fun fact to learn and I got to watch Aurora blush at all the attention.
Chadwick informed me that my old teacher, Nepulos, had passed away. He was more than just a teacher. He was a good friend. He was maybe a decade older than I and had the greatest kids. I hadn’t seen them in a year or so, but his son was probably twelve by now and their daughter fourteen. I kinda hope she’s given up on her declaration that she would marry me when she grew up. She was seven when she said it, so I have some faith that it was just one of those things that little girls do, but still. I may be dressed like Dresden, but I don’t need my own Molly.
Nepulos had apparently left me a copy of some advanced work he was doing with an out of town visitor. When Chadwick went to pick it up, however, it had been taken by someone else. And that’s why I was in town. I needed to meet with these people to get the documents. Unfortunately, it was the White Grotto that had them.
Let me explain something. Throughout history minstrels and bards have always had spies amongst their ranks. People love entertainers. They have access to places and people that other people just can’t get at.
It’s a little known fact that every “bardic college” in Golarion contains a group of spies. I know this because the leader of one such group told me so. He didn’t tell me out of the kindness of his heart. No, he wanted me to join the Hidden Grotto, the White Grotto’s secret spy network. When I said no, they drugged me and left me naked in the room of a nobleman’s live-in mistress, who was probably part of the network. I barely got away with my skin intact. I didn’t tell anyone other than Chadwick. No one would believe that’s why I was there, not with my reputation. It did get out that I refused to join the White Grotto, but that was portrayed as a musician not wanting to join a guild.
They didn’t come right out and say that it was the White Grotto who had Nepulos’ notes. They left me a note with a few notes from a song that the nobleman’s mistress had taught me while I was tying sheets together to climb down from her window. As I was leaving, she told me the name of a tavern. I didn’t know the reason and avoided it out of paranoia. That was where they wanted me to go there that evening. If not the tavern, then the square outside it was our destination but either way, we’d be in the right area.
That evening, Aurora and I made our way to the tavern. Outside, I spotted someone familiar, one of the lackeys of the highest ranked member of the Grotto’s spy network that I knew. I hated that slimy toad and had no reason to go ahead with the planned meeting. Instead, Aurora and I made our way straight to the man’s boss. Not that I was fond of him either, but at least I could skip the rest of long, drawn out process he had planned.
We went to the Hidden Grotto’s secret headquarters in the Ivy District, a place I wasn’t supposed to know existed, by the way. I had to show them that I wasn’t playing around and had picked up a few of their secrets as well. I bullied my way past the door guard and we made our way inside.
Marco, the man we had come to see, didn’t seem too surprised to see us. He acted like it, but I could tell it was all for show. He had one of his men show me the first page of the work he had confiscated. It was interesting, to be sure, a clockwork construct with spell casting capability. But that’s not what most piqued my interest. In a simple cipher on the page, there was another message to me. It read, “Nepulos also left you a magically encoded journal. We haven’t tried to break the enchantment for fear of it being destroyed in the process, but we think that whatever is within is what he got killed for.”
I’ll be honest. That piqued my interest. I already knew the answer, but I asked what their price was. Of course, I was right. They wanted me to join them. Marco couched it in terms as joining the guild for Aurora’s benefit, but I knew what he wanted. I sign the contract, I make the deal with the devil and I’m a spy.
I weighed both sides. Would what was in that journal be worth what they asked for? Would they only want what information I turned up on my own or would they require me to go into dangerous situations to get intelligence they specifically needed? The way he worded it, I was just supposed to keep an eye out for things they’d want to know, but I couldn’t really know if that would change.
As if my conscious thoughts weren’t bad enough, my subconscious decided to chime in as well. “Covert ops has its perks. You travel, make your own hours and expense most of your meals. The downside? Lots of people want you dead.” I only saw the image of Michael Westen out of the corner of my eye, but heard his voice clear as day.
Great. Okay, then. “And what do I get out of this? If it’s just the schematics, then the price is too high.”
“We’ll give you access to more than just that. As a member of the college, you’ll have access to a number of resources that will help you on your journey, including rare magical texts that even the Pathfinders don’t have.”
That certainly sweetened the pot. But was it enough? Without moving my head, I shot a glance to the imaginary super spy standing next to me. “Work around spies for a while, and you learn to be careful when it looks like you’re getting what you want. That’s when you tend to let your guard down – get careless.” So, a healthy level of paranoia was called for. But what should I do? “For a spy, getting someone to lie for you serves a number of purposes. It’s less about the lie itself, no matter how useful it is. It’s more about how it changes your relationship with your target. Once a guy lies for you, for better or for worse, your fates are tied together.”
Alright. I needed to define our relationship in a way where I had some power. Marco has influence both in the main and shadow organizations. I needed to make sure everyone knew that he was the one who came crawling to me. That way, if I needed an out, Chadwick would have something to work with to help protect me.
“Still not enough,” I said aloud.
“Then tell me what I have to add to sweeten the deal enough to make you accept.” I smiled at Marco’s statement. He was playing right into my hands.
And that’s how the portly recruiter for the White Grotto and its less known companion, the Hidden Grotto, ended up lighting a flaming bag of doggy-doo on the doorstep of the Pathfinder’s Grand Lodge on a busy street in front of any gods watching and a large number of eyewitnesses.
Of course, he had to get his own cheap shot in and made me audition to join. I told the man who brought me the documents that I would play a song for Aurora and if he wanted to count that as an audition, then that was fine. Obviously, I killed the audition, performing “Con Te Partiro”. I also managed to make Aurora blush, so big bonus there.
The designs were amazing. They were from a construct called a clockwork mage. Whomever the visitor was, he had destroyed one and was trying to figure out how to make them from the remains. Nepulos had already filled in a lot of the details, but they were unfinished. Whatever had gotten him killed had happened before he could finish.
It was the most complex construct I had ever seen. It used something called a “wand crystal” to emulate spell casting and if I was reading it correctly, it could do it at a nine CL output. I’ve talked about it before, but let’s go into greater detail.
All spells require a certain amount of magical energy input into them to cast and most spells can be given more energy for greater effect. Most wizards don’t worry about the actual numbers, but my scientific background requires me to classify. I could go on and describe things in more complex scientific terms, but instead I’ve decided to couch things in gaming terms. I mean, I’m a wizard. If that doesn’t sound like it calls for game terms, you’re not from my world. So I call each of these discrete steps “Caster Levels” or “CL” for short. A simple bolt of force requires an input of one CL. Making that two bolts requires a two CL increase, for a total of three CL for a single spell.
The amount of energy required to get a greater effect is not static. For each discrete increase in power, you have an increase in input require that is roughly 110% of the last increase in power. So if one CL requires 1 unit of power input, two CLs has a power level of 2.1, three requires an input of 3.31, four is roughly 4.64 and so on.
Each spell matrix has a minimum input required to generate an effect as well as a maximum amount of extra power you can put in to overcharge it for greater effect. The force bolt described above can accept up to nine CL of input, yielding five force bolts. At that point, however, you’re slinging 13.58 units of magical energy. But the spell at that point is no more complex, it’s simply stronger.
More complex spells require a higher minimum power input to get off the ground. I’ve talked about more complex spells before, giving them a “spell level” that corresponds to their complexity rating. I often use the two terms interchangeably. Anyway, back on topic. A bolt of lightning 120 feet long has a complexity rating of three. As such, it takes a CL of 5 to cast. On the upside, it has a lot more power to throw into damaging a target, so it does a lot more damage than a simple force bolt. Indeed, though it’s more complex, it does damage perhaps more efficiently, dealing roughly the same amount of damage as five force bolts – which again took 9 CLs of power to get – making up for the drawbacks of complexity.
Wizards are the masters of efficiency in this regard. We cast complex spells with a lower CL input required than sorcerers, who don’t necessarily understand the spells and just brute force them into existence. Nevertheless, without modification to the spells through complex adjustments known as “Meta-magic”, the maximum output of a spell is the same for both.
With that primer in mind, wand crystals allow the construct to channel a nine CL output, but the constructs are limited on the complexity of the spells they can emulate. Where I could use that nine CL to burst out a spell with a complexity rating of five, the wand crystals can only emulate spells of up to complexity three. What’s more is that they can only store up to two spells of complexity one, two spells of complexity two and one of complexity three and all have to be from the same school of magic.
On the other hand, what they lack in variety, they make up for in staying power. I can only mentally prepare a few spells of complexity one before I have to sacrifice “slots” used for more complex spells. The wand crystal could cast complexity one spells it had programmed into it all day. More complex spells “overheat” the matrix and are more limited, but it’s still very powerful. Hell, its power output is equal to my own current level.
That said, my own power level has been going up at a rapid pace. Way back when we first met Lenn, Geo and Paulie, my reliable output was at one CL. Since then, it has gone up to nine. In ten years of study, I had only managed to achieve a starter level, but now my magical output was pretty amazing.
I’ve started to wonder if perhaps it’s because I’ve been stuck in so many life or death situations. Try to follow me here. Back in Absalom, when casting spells for practice, you try to improve slowly but surely. It’s like increasing the weight on your barbell by two pounds every couple months. You’ll see muscle growth, but it’s slow. Whereas now, I don’t have time to modulate the amount above my current known level I throw out. I just heave as much as I can and hope I don’t hurt myself. It’s more dangerous, sure, but it damn well seems to work faster.
I studied the schematics for several hours, doing work in my head that would have taken most people three chalkboards. I mapped energy pathways, gear placements and whatnot else, then began making my own adjustments for efficiency. As I worked, I realized that I could change it even further. I could make it more than a protector. I could make it into a second skin.
As I worked on the possibilities, I realized that I could turn myself into the steampunk version of a space marine. That meant I needed a gun. And that’s something I could make.
I used an illusion spell to show everyone what I was thinking, humming the Jimmy Neutron theme while doing it. Aurora seemed especially impressed.
Actually, I think Aurora had been enjoying herself all day. I kept catching her staring at me when she thought I wasn’t looking. It was most evident when we were at the orphanage. She was sitting there, with one of the little kids sitting in her lap, a wistful smile on her face and just watching me. I really wanted to sing “Eyes On Me” and declare my love for her then and there, but we had already talked about it and I knew that I didn’t have a shot. Plus, it would have been unfair to do so when the kids were watching.
While we played Settlers of Cataan, she just relaxed in a way I hadn’t seen before. She cut loose and laughed deeply as we played and joked through the afternoon. No one got why I laughed when Chadwick said he had “wood for sheep”, but that’s okay. I’m used to being misunderstood.
And when we sat there watching Marco light that bag of dog poop on fire and run away, she was crouched almost shoulder to shoulder with me, close enough that I heard her giggling – yes! Giggling! – as he lost his sandal and had to go back.
That night, when I told her that I had arranged for her to sleep in the guest room next to me, she insisted that she be allowed to share my room. That didn’t bother me at all, so I showed her my room and told her we could have someone move another bed into the room. She then insisted that my bed was more than large enough for both of us. This was true. It’s bigger than a California King and could easily hold the two of us. Hell, it can hold me and four young ladies – don’t ask – so I know that it can fit the two of us with plenty of spare room. Nonetheless, it felt like she was sending me conflicting messages. Was she interested or wasn’t she? The fact that she changed into her slinkier nightgown wasn’t helping me decide. So I just hoped that she was planning to take the initiative and jump me.
I remembered one thing that I had been meaning to do and took momentary leave by telling Aurora I was off to look for a servant to bring in a basin for washing our faces. Then I went and found Chadwick. The two of us went to our workshop and I handed him my special magic wand. “Use this one me after I cast the third spell.”
First, I used a spell to make myself larger. Then I used a spell to increase my muscle mass. Finally, I cut my palm and used a spell to fabricate something, using my own blood in place of the requisite materials. The price paid, blood swirled and formed into an exquisitely crafted set of armor made just for my knight. Chadwick used the wand on me once and I used it several more times to cure the damage before the self-enhancements wore off.
“Kyle, is this adamantine?!” Chadwick asked.
I grinned. “Damn straight. Also, the padding is a material from back home. We call it memory-foam. After a few wearings, it will mold perfectly to the wearer. It will also wick away sweat and heat.” He seemed impressed. “You can copy the spells out of my spellbook, though you’ll need knowledge of a material’s construction to make it.”
I returned to my room and climbed into my ridiculously comfortable bed and realized just how much I had missed it. Don’t get me wrong, the beds at the Rusty Dragon are fine, but they’re not made of an alchemically-derived foam developed thanks to funds from a traveler used to better beds than found anywhere in the world. Sadly, Aurora was already in bed and asleep when I laid down. She was on the far side of the bed, her back to me. I sighed softly in disappointment and went to sleep.
The nightmares came as they always did now, but they were a lot less severe than normal. And, as had happened a lot lately, they disappeared in a lilac-scented haze and were replaced by a comfortable sleep.
I awoke maybe three hours later to an even stronger scent of lilacs and a soft warmth on my left side. I opened my eyes and realized that Aurora was pressed against me, her head on my bare chest and her hand on my stomach. My arm was around her, resting on her side. In truth, I had long dreamed about waking up with her like this, at least since nursing her through her near death from alcohol withdrawal. I think that might have been when I realized I had fallen for her.
But dammit these mixed signals were driving me crazy.
“Just wake her with a kiss and ravish her. She’s only sending mixed signals because she wants you as much as you want her but doesn’t know how to say it,” I heard a voice say.
I glanced over and saw her sitting there in the kind of lingerie you only see on supermodels in the really good underwear catalogs. And she had the body to match it. Anyone who looked at her would tell you that the woman sitting at my bedside was a nine or a ten. Yet, no matter how hot she was, she was one woman I’d never sleep with, because she was me.
Once again, Fleur de Lis is the name I gave the other me. When I was stuck in that form, I had practiced all the little moves that many women learn naturally to draw and hold gazes and the result was that Fleur was a sexpot. She always wears the most sensuous clothing, her hair is always just so and her hips sway in just the right way as she walks to hypnotize anyone that sees her pass.
I’m not saying that she could bed any man she chooses. I’m saying that she could bed anyone she chooses, male or female. But that’s not really important. What is important is what she represented to my mind. She’s the manifestation of my subconscious, my baser urges unfiltered by self-control or more than basic, primal morality. She’s the part of me that doesn’t care about the consequences, the part that lives in the moment and does whatever the hell it pleases.
Even before I started having these strange and probably psychotic visions of fictional people coming to talk to me, she had been there. Even before I got turned into a woman, she was a part of me. She’s simply just a part of me. At one point, we were indistinguishable. We truly were one person. But at some point, I disassociated and she became a separate entity within my mind. She started out as just a little voice in the back of my head. When I went back for the Chelish ambassador’s daughter, she had been there. She was there for every seduction as well as many non-sexual risks I took. Introducing bungee jumping to Absalom? All her. I never went along with the idea, but she had suggested it. Even slapping Ameiko’s ass had been her idea.
Don’t get me wrong, the decision to go along with her ideas is all on my conscious mind, but she was still a part of it. And now she had turned her attention towards Aurora. Not that I’m surprised. If there’s anything in the world I want more than everything else, more than even going home, it’s Aurora. I want her to love me like I love her. But I don’t think it’s to be.
“Don’t give me that. Can’t you see? It’s obvious that she wants you to make a move! Grab her ass! Tear off her clothes! Quit waffling, you moron!” I was suddenly taken back to the time I had yelled the very same thing at the TV while watching “Ah! My Goddess!!” Had I really turned into Keiichi Morisato? Was I that blind? Was I really missing just how much this girl with me loved me?
No, I told myself. She’s just trying to get in your head. She knows what you know and is using it to make you do what she wants. Ignore her.
Fleur rolled her eyes at me as I pulled the book out from under my pillow. I conjured a small light, large enough to read by but small enough not to bother Aurora. Sure enough, it looked like a book of fairy stories, just as Marco’s minion had said. But I could see the inconsistencies immediately. He was right, it was an enchanted tome. And I knew how to break the enchantment and find what was hidden.
It was actually quite simple. I just had to find the first inconsistency to figure out which of the predetermined passwords Nepulos had used, then speak the password. That took less than two minutes.
I can’t even begin to tell you just how awestruck I was by what was inside. I think the best way to describe the book is to call it a textbook, though that doesn’t even do it justice. It was filled with schematics, equations and element diagrams, describing materials I had never even heard of. Whoever had written this had access to technology and science perhaps hundreds of years beyond current earthling understanding.
And what was even more amazing is that whoever had owned this book had no idea what he had. He focused on the simplest of things. More complex concepts were completely devoid of the owner’s notes. I could be wrong, but I think the owner of this was some kind of graduate student, or at least the equivalent. He could understand the basics, but he didn’t have the background to understand anything more.
I, on the other hand, have a background in physics, chemistry, math and technology needed. I’ve mentioned that I was a freshman in college when I left Earth. I’ve also mentioned that I have a greater than one-ninety IQ. What I haven’t mentioned is that I had been studying college level curriculum online since middle school. I maintained a lazy image. I was always watching anime or cartoons, but at the same time, I was also always reading and expanding my mind. They say that people are actually quite horrible at multi-tasking, but I must be the exception, at least when it comes to video entertainment and studying. You don’t believe me? I have three peer reviewed papers in major scientific journals and was about to submit a patent for a new kind of computer chip that would probably be in every mobile device at this point if I hadn’t been taken to Golarion. Look the articles up. And if someone found my papers on the chip after I disappeared, you’re welcome.
The book described weapons, space suits(!), cybernetic implants and various and sundry gadgets. What’s more is that the math and other tech implied things that were far beyond what was actually inside. Hell, if I applied the principles within, I’m pretty sure I could create a functional warp drive. Yes, that’s what I said. Faster than light travel. The only problem is that nothing in the book described anything close to the type of power source I’d need to actually run the damn thing. At least, nothing I could use that would be small enough to fit on a ship. I’m sure that if I hooked it up to enough planetary based power plants, I could make it produce a large enough “bubble” to move a large vessel, but that wouldn’t do me any good. Not even anti-matter would provide what I needed. The problem would be power generation.
And the tech was merely the beginning. I had spent ten years studying not just the practical aspects of wizardry, but also its theory. I’m certain that with a little time, I could create a hybrid of magic and technology unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Hell, even while lying there, I had worked out a way to improve the batteries described within into magical ones that recharged once per day by drawing energy from the magical field that surrounds everything.
And I managed to do all that while Fleur sat there trying to convince me to put away the book and do something to or with the amazingly beautiful girl asleep next to me. But I used my skills to focus on what I was doing. I wouldn’t have even realized anything was going on if Fleur hadn’t suddenly stopped singing halfway through “Kiss the Girl”.
I looked up from the book and Fleur was standing right next to the bed, grinning like an idiot. That alarmed the hell out of me, so I set down the book. “What?” I sub-vocalized, a bit alarmed.
“Way to go, champ! I was afraid you didn’t have it in you!”
What was she talking about? And why did she suddenly remind me of Bob the skull? At that moment, I suddenly realized that my left hand was touching something warm and soft yet tantalizingly firm. I squeezed softly and Aurora let out a soft moan. I turned my head slowly and realized that my hand was firmly on Aurora’s beautiful backside. She wasn’t awake, thank God, but still.
In my defense, I panicked. I want you to remember that. Never forget that what happened next wasn’t planned. It was an accident. I swear it was an accident. Please, you have to believe me.
I yanked my hand away and up. It got snagged on Aurora’s nightgown, also yanking it up. Fleur cheered and Aurora stirred slightly. I sat there in shock just staring at Aurora’s now bare chest. Still asleep, Aurora’s arm wrapped further around me and she pulled herself closer to me, pressing her bare flesh into mine.
Still trying to get comfortable, Aurora kicked her left leg over me and now my thigh was directly in her crotch, separated only by the thin fabric of her underpants. My brain may be good at multi-tasking, but a million thoughts at once was far too many for even me. I just sat there, mouth agape, staring. I probably would have sat there, unable to react, until Aurora woke up if I hadn’t noticed something in the faint light of the magical illumination I had conjured earlier.
Aurora’s torso had a number of wicked scars on it. “Battle injuries?” I subvocalized. I craned my neck and looked at her back – not once did I stare and her almost naked behind – and found almost nothing. Every one of these injuries had hit her while in combat. At no point had she been running away. She had stood and faced her foes.
Without thinking, I reached out and touched the scar on the top of her left breast. Let me correct that. My fingers touched the scar. The palm of my hand touched something else. It wasn’t on purpose. It just kinda happened. It might not have even occurred to me that I was groping her had she not let out another soft moan and pressed herself harder against my thigh.
I jerked back my hand and took a few deep breaths. I then slowly pulled myself away just enough to allow me to use some light magical telekinesis to pull down her nightgown once more. Her stomach was still bared, but that would have to do. I pulled the covers up over us, extinguished the magical light, and just lied there, staring at her beautiful face, breathing in the soft scent of her hair and listening to the soft, contented sound of her breathing.
Fleur sang “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” before disappearing.
We lay like that for maybe half an hour before Aurora stirred. I saw her eyes open. She laid there for several moments, trying to assess the situation. “Sleep well?” I asked softly.
All of her muscles tensed. It felt like it was all she could do not to catapult herself out of the bed. “I- I must have gotten cold in the night,” she stammered.
Oh. So that’s what it was. She wasn’t horny. She was cold. “Well, we have several hours til dawn. No reason to get up yet. If you think you’ll still get cold, feel free to fall back asleep here.” I did the best I could to hide my disappointment, but I’m not sure I was entirely successful.
She just nodded and laid her head back on my chest, this time moving closer so her full head and not just her cheek was on me. It didn’t take her long to fall back into a deep slumber.
I laid there for another hour, reading one of the other books the Hidden Grotto had provided – an omnibus of Thassilonian legends – before getting out of bed. I didn’t want to. Of course I didn’t. The woman I loved was in my arms. I didn’t want to get up at all. But I had to. It was either a long cold shower or more fondling and I already felt guilty as hell. Also, those legends were really creepy. I was simultaneously turned on and mildly terrified, which was really confusing my body.
Yes, I said shower. Of course we had magically powered indoor plumbing.
After my shower – which did absolutely nothing to help, I might add – I headed downstairs. I found Chadwick having breakfast. “Did the other book have anything interesting?” Chadwick asked after I greeted them, using our old signals to confirm that the room was shielded against scrying.
I nodded. “I need you to deliver a message to Marco for me.”
One of his eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
“It was a Technic League textbook, as far as I can tell. Tell Marco that it’s imperative that they not learn that we know anything about tech. My name is especially not to be mentioned. If they find out we got ahold of that book, there could be war. And if they understand even half of the tech inside the book, if there is war, we’ll lose. It won’t even be close.”
“Surely it can’t be that bad,” Chadwick said.
“It’s even worse,” I said. “I’m working on figuring things out even now. We need to get agents into the Technic League as soon as possible to assess the threat. Don’t give me that look. If I’m going to do this spy thing, I’m going to do it right,” I answered his gaping look.
While Chadwick went to make the arrangements, I began working on bringing together everything that had been running through my head since I had first cracked open the book. In my mind’s eye, I could see formulas and schematics fill the air around me. With swipes of my hands, I moved things, ordering my mind through this mental projection.
Fleur appeared and began helping me. “Let’s get down to business to defeat the Huns!” she sang out. As we worked, I joined her. It took us nearly four songs in our Disney medley before something began to take shape.
It was humanoid in form and glinted in the sunlight streaming in through my giant window despite being nothing more than a figment of my imagination. It had a faceplate made of green plastic and metallic plates in a number of key spots, though much of it was made of a mesh supported by a sturdier frame. It almost looked like…
“Silver Crow,” Fleur finished the thought that was forming. It was fitting. I had created this in my mind and Silver Crow was in effect a mental model. But it was also pure coincidence. I had simply taken the base design of the Clockwork Mage and altered it into something more futuristic, replacing all of its metal parts with pure mithral and covering up the clockwork with a mithral/carbon nanotube mesh.
But the pure metal glint just wasn’t me. “A little help?” I asked Fleur. She nodded and manifested a rebreather and spray painted the whole thing for me. What was left was black with a number of visible circuit patterns in a royal purple. She then pulled out the green faceplate and replaced it with one of a purple-tinged clear material.
We both looked it over when she was done. After a moment, she said what we were thinking. “It’s missing something.” I had to agree with the part of myself she represented. Something was missing. But what? As I considered, she suggested something. “Try putting it on.”
I concentrated for a moment and imagined myself in the suit. The inside was missing a Heads-Up Display. It also lacked an operating system I could work with. “When in doubt, ask yourself What Would Tony Do?” Tony Stark had given his suit an AI. I considered what I’d learned and I’m fairly certain I could create something like a quantum computer small enough to implant in the suit. From there, I’m pretty sure I could create my own AI.
I imagined the implantation of an AI core. A HUD began booting up. Words scrolled across my visor. “I saw you in Heaven and heard of your glory. You saved our world from the fallen angels. I saw messiah standing, Standing before me with no words. Nothing but ‘hope’. When we lost dread, a Demon was laughing. But now you are showing us wonder. Giving your love. With awe, down on my knees again. I’ve got to know you’re the one. The only one reveals the world…”
I grinned. That was what I needed. More than just an AI for the suit, but a true AI assistant. And I already knew that this one would suit me. “Then this is what we’ll create,” I said. “Juiz, provide me with some music. I feel like singing.”
A woman’s voice responded. “Understood. Noblesse Oblige. I look forward to your continued services as a savior.”
Chadwick returned perhaps a half hour later. “So, you still planning on showing me your new masterwork spell? Or was that it last night?”
“Creating matter out of nothing more than a blood sacrifice and magical energy? That was cool and all, but it wasn’t my work. That was simply application of old Thassilonian magic. My spell is all me.”
“Then let’s see this spell.”
“TO THE WORKSHOP! AVANTI!”
In the workshop, I cast the spell for him. It wasn’t flashy. A door simply appeared before us. We opened it and he helped me carry Aurora’s new armor inside. Inside was a clean, futuristic workshop. The walls were lined with robot bays. We set the armor on a workbench and robots sprung to life, nine of them.
Chadwick jumped. “What the hell are those?”
“We are geth, Chadwick-Creator,” one of the robots said.
“Kyle?!”
“Relax. They’re here to help us craft things. They’re skilled assistants in all types of crafting. I’m sure I can even use them to help create technological devices.”
“That is well within our parameters, Kyle-Creator.”
I beamed at my adopted brother. “Shall we get to work?”
He still looked dubious, but we got to work. With the help of Chadwick and the geth, we got eleven days worth of work done in a single day.
When we finished, I had a servant move the armor to the spare room next to mine. I also had someone find out where Aurora was for me. She was in the bath, so I had time alone with my thoughts. Not a good place to be. I couldn’t let her see me worrying.
I used a spell to alert me when she was returning. When she was almost there, I began singing the more uplifting section of Let It Go. She didn’t need to know that the whole point of the song was that the singer was lying to herself. It just sounded good. Then I sang a couple other songs and took her hand to dance with her. It was a lot of fun.
Afterwards, I showed her the new armor. She was amazed by it, which made me incredibly happy. Almost as happy as I was that she would be much safer in the new armor, which would not only protect her more but also allow her to be incredibly comfortable, even sleeping in it if necessary.
As I helped her into her adamantine plate, I was thinking about her scars. I wished I could make her even better armor, perhaps reactive armor or force fields or something. As I considered the options, Aurora spoke. “Kyle, you don’t have to go back to Varisia.”
That startled me. Did she not want me around her? Had I made her mad? Not that I could blame her. I did what I could to keep my tone neutral. “Oh?”
“I mean, it’s not that I want to get rid of you. It’s just that since we’ve come here, you’ve been so relaxed and at peace. It’s like night and day. It hurts me to see you so scared all the time. And it would only be until we took care of whatever is going on, then I could come get you.”
So she was worried about me. I felt relieved. “I’m afraid that it would be no good,” I said as I continued to work. “I would be a wreck worried about what might be happening with you all with no wizard to both overcomplicate and solve problems that require semi-phenomenal, nearly-cosmic power.”
“We could get another spell caster if it would make you feel better.”
I began to laugh inside as the image of a grinning Salarian appeared in my mind’s eye. I managed to keep from laughing aloud, keeping it down to a smirk. “Sorry. Has to be me. Someone else might get it wrong.”
“But you seem so happy here.”
To some degree it was true. But mostly, it was just a front. So I just nodded. “A vacation has done me good. But I have to continue this journey. If I leave this unfinished, if I allow someone else to complete this task, then I feel that I might never move forward. Perhaps it’s unfair that I have to involve myself. So what? This world isn’t a fair place. I’ve known that since I was ten, when I discovered just how much people even on my own world were suffering from poverty and disease. All I could do then was send part of my allowance to charities that were trying to help. I did the same thing with the orphanage here once I had the ability to do so. So what?
“It’s not enough. The world still isn’t nice, it still isn’t fair. People who don’t deserve it suffer and die every single day. So what? So somebody ought to do something about it. For the first time in my life, I have one such problem in front of me and the power to put my foot down. The power to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘This ends here. You will hurt these people no more. Not on my watch.’ I know it’s not like I’m solving all the world’s problems. People who don’t deserve it will continue to suffer and die. But if I can do this much, if I can make the world a bit better place by stopping whomever this foe is, I have to do it. I can’t allow it to continue, no matter the cost to myself. So I must press on, whether it’s stubborn pride, altruism or fear of never growing beyond what I am today. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me. After all, I have to be close in case you get cold again.” I did my best to keep from grinning as I said the last part.
“I wish I had your certainty. I don’t think I could do something like that. I’m just doing my duty. As a knight, it is my job to protect the common folk. It’s a fine duty, but I envy your conviction.”
I did my best not to scream in frustration. I was getting tired of her not seeing what an amazing person she was. “Alright. That’s it. You and I are going on a side trip, oh Hero of Taldor.”
She tried to protest, but I would have none of it.
I took Aurora to a house in a poorer part of town. Chadwick had told me about this family. The father had lost his leg working as a mercenary. His two sons – ages fourteen and sixteen – worked outside the home to support the family, since the father could no longer find work. His daughter – age nineteen – kept the house during the day and worked in the evenings at a tavern. His wife had died some time back from one of those many illnesses we had long ago turned into a non-issue back home. Or maybe she had gotten a splinter and died of infection. It’s hard to recall the specifics, since so many people die of so many ridiculous things around here.
Even with three people working, they weren’t pulling in much. When the girl, a pretty blonde, answered the door, I was struck by how malnourished she looked. At that moment, I swore to myself that we wouldn’t leave this place without rectifying their situation. I wasn’t sure how I would accomplish it yet, but I knew I had a few options that might work. I just needed to learn more of their situation.
In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn’t change much. Thousands, perhaps millions, would still go hungry this night. What difference could I make? I’d bet that I could make great change over time, but doing this would bet but a drop in the ocean. It wouldn’t make a difference.
I’m drawn to recall the story of the Star Thrower. You’ve probably heard the motivational speaker version of it. Yeah, on the beach full of millions of starfish dying, picking one up and throwing it back into the ocean wouldn’t make any difference to the endless beach. But for that one starfish, it would make a world of difference.
And that would be enough. For today at least, it would be enough. I would change the world one day, but today I would change the stars for one family.
The beautiful young woman led us to her father. I was moved when he struggled to his feet – well, foot, since he was missing a leg – and saluted Aurora when he realized who she was. As he told Aurora his story, I watched her face. For this, I was rewarded with spotting the very moment when she began to realize that she too had thrown starfish back in the ocean, in her own way. She doesn’t like to think of herself as a hero, but today she was forced to see that, at least to some degree, she very much was.
The blonde girl returned from the kitchen with some stools and a couple tankards of watery mead. She then asked for my help in the kitchen. She said she needed help reaching something. Now, she was short, perhaps an inch or so taller than Aurora, but I didn’t really buy it. It didn’t take much to see what she really wanted.
Well, I guess, if I’m being honest, I suspect she was trying to trap a wealthy husband. But that wasn’t going to happen. I had taken my dose of bachelor’s snuff that morning. And I guess it’s unfair to assume that she was a gold digger. It’s entirely possible that she’s a fan of my music and really wanted to show her appreciation. Or maybe it’s considered an honor by the young women of Absalom to have sex with me for some reason I’m not aware of. Or maybe she was just horny and thinks I’m hot.
Regardless of the reason, once we were in the kitchen, she pointed out something on a top shelf that she claimed to really need. When I turned around, her dress was on the floor. Normally, I would have at least shown the prudence of finding a better location. But today wasn’t normal. My veins burned with lust after accidentally seeing and mostly accidentally touching Aurora’s naked flesh.
I pulled a blanket from my magic bag, used my bracers to turn my clothing into a couple almost nonexistent strips of cloth and took her right there on the dirt floor. Twice in twenty minutes. I was actually a bit surprised, I usually last longer than that. Then again, my mind’s eye replaced the young woman with whom I was lying with an image of Aurora. No amount of thinking of baseball or something else boring would have helped. My partner seemed to enjoy herself as much as I enjoyed myself.
Once we were done, we put our clothes back on and returned to where Aurora and the disabled veteran were talking. Aurora looked annoyed with me for some reason. I’m tempted to believe that she’s jealous, but that’s probably wishful thinking. I really wish it wasn’t, but we had a discussion about us and she said she wasn’t interested in a relationship, so I’ll have to assume that’s still the case until she says otherwise.
My brain was firing on all cylinders for the first time since that morning’s incident. The solution to the family’s situation was obvious. I pulled out a piece of paper and jotted down a quick note and handed it to the man. “Take this to the temple of Abadar. There’s a cleric there who will regenerate your missing leg. Don’t worry about payment. I have an account with them that should have enough funds in it to cover it.”
The man blinked. “My lord, I don’t know what to say. This is a generous gift.”
I held up a finger. I wasn’t done yet. I pulled out another scrap of paper and wrote another note. “After you’ve taken care of that, go see this man. Tell him I sent you. He runs a small mercenary group that works as guards for warehouses and local merchants. Someone with your experience will have little trouble getting hired with him.”
Tears filled the man’s eyes. “Milord! I can’t accept all of these generous gifts,” he said.
Aurora stepped in. “I wouldn’t argue with him. He’s not known for taking no for an answer when he gets like this. Besides, it’ll make both of us happy to help you get back on your feet.” She smiled. “I can make it an order, if you need me to do so.”
The man shook his head. “That won’t be necessary, Lieutenant. I will accept your aid gladly. Thank you. Both of you.”
I then pulled out a small pouch of coins. Yeah, I know, I carry a lot of pouches of coins. I have a lot of pockets and this way, if I get pickpocketed, I won’t lose everything. I glanced within and it held maybe fifty coins, maybe a two-thirds gold to one-third silver split. I handed it to the blond girl. “There should be enough here to feed the four of you for at least a few weeks. No, don’t even think of refusing. I insist.” I turned to her father. “Just do a good job. That’s all I ask.”
After we left, I asked Aurora if she was upset, since she seemed to be. She denied it, but I could tell she wasn’t being completely honest. I’m guessing that being face-to-face with poverty wasn’t sitting well with her. I mean, the other option was that she was jealous and I want that far too much to believe I’m not just seeing what I want to see.
We stopped back by the mansion to say goodbye to Chadwick, Phoebe and Alistair, then we returned to Fort Rannick. In hindsight, part of me really wishes we had just stayed in Absalom.
0 Comments