Engineered Magic

48 years After Landing: Todd

They arrived early on market day. Todd and Grandmother visited a couple days earlier under cloaking spells to verify the travel time and confirm the day. The party waited in the tight confines of the transportation room until Grandmother stepped out last. They exited out of the transportation room under a camouflage spell. Where the hallway opened up to the square courtyard, Sarah dropped the spell.

They crossed the courtyard to the market area. Todd was unusually nervous. This wasn’t any square. This was Londontown. He was born here, but when his magic came up red and not blue he didn’t have any other choice but to leave. It was luck that Ellen’s father was putting together an expedition south at around the same time.

Silence descended on the square as everyone in the market stared at them, or rather at Companion. Companion handled this attention with casual ease. This was not the first human square they visited, and Companion wasn’t human. He was a member of another player race. Alex, who was the best at understanding Companion’s language of any of them, started calling Companion a selkie. Alex explained it was from an Earth myth. Todd was going to look it up the next time they were back at the Speedwell.

Grandmother picked a spot. She was carrying a contraption of wooden rods and leather in her hand. She set about unfolding this into a portable stool. She put the stool near the payment pillar that was in the front left corner of her chosen market stall. She sat. She glanced at Sarah, who was busy with her own setup.

“Go ahead,” Grandmother told Alex.

“We are Grandmother’s party,” Alex announced to the market, in a loud clear voice. “Today and today only we are paying for spells. We will give six iron for any spell. If you can demonstrate the spell, we will pay double. If it is a spell we don’t know, there is a bonus. Come forth and claim your coins.”

Todd waited for the tide of questions that always came. What creature is that? What kind of spells? How do we know you will pay us? Where do you come from?

“Who is this Grandmother?” a heavy man wearing blacksmith’s leathers questioned, with a trace of anger in his words. He was setting up at a stall across the way from them. Todd was surprised that this question came up first. Usually Companion’s presence overpowered all other considerations. Alex took a deep breath in preparation for his reply. Alex called Grandmother the Keeper of the Eastern Tower, the Ruler of the Southern Marches and the Wielder of the Earthen Quarterstaff in previous squares. Todd thought Grandmother secretly liked that last one. He suspected Alex would probably go with Friend of the Selkies this time, since Companion’s presence wasn’t explained yet. All of these titles were just words to impress the square’s citizens and hold back trouble. Although all of them were technically true, they didn’t really carry any weight.

Todd found his hand on Alex’s upper arm, silencing the man. “I’ll take this one,” he said to his teammate. Alex nodded his acceptance and took a half step back.

Todd stepped forward to face the questioning man and all those in the market behind him. He tapped the end of his spear on the courtyard stone. The sound echoed strangely through the space. “We serve Irene, the mad queen’s youngest daughter. You will show respect to her and all those she chooses as companions.”

Grandmother tilted her head, surprised at Todd’s words. She did not contradict him. This was Londontown, the oldest of the human squares. They were arrogant. They considered themselves the seat of civilization. Perhaps the threat of force was not uncalled for here.

The blacksmith’s gaze flew to Grandmother. His eyes widened. He was older. Although Grandmother admitted she hadn’t been to Londontown for a while, this man was old enough to have seen her on her last visit. Besides, the mad queen ruled here for over twenty years. Her atrocities were not so easily forgotten. The blacksmith bowed.

Todd was shocked down to his toes. Companion said something in his high fluting tones which Todd translated roughly as, “Finally someone who knows how to treat the Elder.”

Alex sang back a response in the same language, but in much lower octave. He said, “The person knew the Elder's mother. That is where his fear comes from.” Or at least that was Todd’s rough guess.

“Her mother?” Companion fluted back. “You have not told that tale.”

“I will need a few beers for that one,” Alex replied.

“Tonight then,” Companion agreed. Grandmother shot them both hushing looks, before turning to the blacksmith.

“Do you wish to sell me a spell?” Grandmother asked.

“I wish I knew one to sell to you, my lady,” the blacksmith responded.

“You wear a blacksmith’s apron,” Grandmother responded. “Surely you know the spell to sharpen a blade?”

“You will pay for a crafter’s skill?” The blacksmith asked.

“Of course,” Grandmother responded. Somehow she injected a thread of pure joy into her voice. “Crafter’s spells, warrior’s spells, wizard spells, utility spells; I will give six iron coins to anyone who can tell me how to make the water in the sink warmer. Twelve coins if they demonstrate it to one of my companions. And enchantments!” Grandmother said, suddenly raising her voice, “I’ll pay double for them.”

“What is an enchantment?” the blacksmith asked.

“It is a way to add properties to an item with the application of symbols. Darien owned an invisibility cloak. I would love to know how that was done!” Grandmother replied. The blacksmith shifted on his feet and looked around at everyone watching in the market. He had become the representative of the people of Londontown. The coin Grandmother was offering would make their lives all much easier. In a human society such an influx of coins would cause nothing but inflation, but this was the structure. The coins could always be used to purchase items from the vendor, or pay rent on the rooms. The vendor only sold the bare necessities so there would be some inflation especially in the amount paid for raw materials, but at the same time there would be an influx of tools and higher tier products. It was the promise of a more comfortable life.

Grandmother announced this plan to Todd while they were installing a squat toilet for Companion’s use on the Speedwell. She admitted to him that she got a rather large reward for claiming the protection crystal in the southern gallery. The sofa there was upholstered with a tapestry of stones that contained dozens of stone sculpting spells. That tapestry inspired her to tour the human region and record as many spells as possible.

Todd asked her how she would get people to tell her their most closely guarded secrets. “Pay them, of course,” Grandmother responded, as she tightened a pipe joint. She would pay for every spell, regardless of if she knew it and regardless of if the person in front of them in line just told it. If she only paid the first person to tell her, people would not be as willing to come forward later in the day. “We will pay more if they can demonstrate the spell,” Grandmother said excitedly. “It will favor crafters. Crafters tend to know dozens of spells, but warriors and wizards usually only know a few. We will pay for the utility spells too,” Grandmother said suddenly, “that should help even it out. Even the children will get some coins. When we go back in a couple years, they will be more likely to show us the new spells they have learned.”

“Won’t we just end up paying people again for the same set of spells if we go back?” Todd asked. The amount of money involved here was mind boggling. Even if Grandmother only offered a single coin per spell, the total would be in the tens of thousands. Todd got the feeling she was talking about more than one coin.

“Maybe,” Grandmother responded, “but how else will we encourage people to learn more? I will have to think of a method that encourages people to tell us of the new spells they learned, not the old ones. Maybe on the second pass we won’t pay for all spells? That would be unfair to the children though. We could limit it by tier maybe… Anyway, there is plenty of time to figure out the second pass rules. For this go around I will have Sarah take notes.” Todd wondered when this exercise changed from their group learning new spells, to encouraging others to do the same. Perhaps encouraging others was always Grandmother's goal.

“I know the spell to sharpen a blade,” the blacksmith announced, breaking Todd out of his memories.

“Come forward and speak to my scribe,” Grandmother said, gesturing to Sarah who was sitting on the floor slightly behind her. Sarah was inside in a ring of silence she drew on the courtyard floor with her stylus. It wasn’t really an enchantment. The sound inside the circle was being muted by a simple muffle spell. Sarah would cast an additional blur spell when she did the interview. “Inside the circle your words will be muffled and your movements blurred.”

The blacksmith looked at his own apprentice, a young woman that was probably his daughter. He said a few quick words to her, before stepping out of his stall and crossing the walkway. He knelt down to talk to Sarah. Sarah cast blur and the two figures became vague.

“You should sell us your spells next,” Todd said to the blacksmith’s apprentice.

“I learned them all from my father,” the apprentice responded.

“It doesn’t matter if we have heard it before,” Todd stressed. “We pay each person once for each spell. We don’t want to make winners out of those who push the line.”

“What about the new spell bonus?” the apprentice asked.

“Well yes, if you really know something unique I suppose speediness is to your advantage. Grandmother prizes honesty above all else, so I will tell you this is our eighth square. New spells are very rare,” Todd replied to the woman.

“Eight squares?” the apprentice echoed. “How do I know you won’t just lie and claim you have heard my spell before, even if it is new?”

“We have a list. If we say we have heard of the spell, we can show it to you on the list,” Todd replied. That seemed to make the woman grow lost in thought. She turned to her own tasks of setting up the blacksmith’s stall.

“Today and today only we are paying for spells. We will give six iron for any spell. If you can demonstrate the spell, we will pay double. If it is a spell we don't know, there is a bonus. Come forth and claim your coins,” Alex called out their offer again. He reached into an actual coin purse tied to his belt, and pulled out a handful of physical coins. He juggled them around, one silver flashed among the iron coins. It was actually made of polished steel, but everyone called them silvers. The flashing coin insinuated a silver bonus for a new spell, although Alex never actually promised that.

The blacksmith stepped out of the ‘circle of silence’. He was holding two sheets of vellum Sarah wrote notes on. Ellen intercepted the blacksmith and took one of the sheets from him.

“Do you want to demonstrate these spells now or make an appointment for after the market?” Ellen asked the man after inspecting the sheet. Ellen made the offer to demonstrate later to anyone who professed to know spells that used large tools that were difficult to move. These people were usually tier two or three crafters and owned workshops of their own.

“This evening at my shop will work best for me,” he responded. Ellen got the details of his shop’s location and the best time to meet up. She made the note on the back of his sheet of paper.

“Take the other sheet to Grandmother and she will pay you the first half,” Ellen instructed. The blacksmith turned and hesitantly approached Grandmother. He held the sheet out far ahead of himself, so he could stay as far back as he could from her.

“My lady,” he said cautiously.

“I prefer Grandmother,” the mad queen’s youngest daughter, Irene responded. Grandmother took the sheet and examined the contents. “Sarah has noted that you know the art of metal smelting. Do you want your payment in coins or scrap?”

“Scrap?” the blacksmith asked. Todd could sense the man’s caution. “What is the rate of exchange?”

“Since you have the skill to smelt iron, steel, copper and bronze, I will give you scrap at the following exchanges; Two coins per iron, five coins per steel, seven coins per bronze and fifteen coins per copper.” These numbers were half the value the vendor in their Home Square offered for scrap that morning. No one sold scrap to the vendors; the price was always too low. Buying it from the vendor cost two or three times more. This was an incredible deal. Grandmother wanted the crafters to have access to the raw material in order to encourage their development.

“I will take half in steel and half in bronze,” the blacksmith said instantly. Grandmother nodded. She reached out and touched the payment pillar. With a couple quick flicks of her wrist she set up the transfer. She waved for the blacksmith to make his claim. He swept the scrap and a couple extra coins into his inventory.

“If you think of any other spell you know before your demonstration appointment, we can record and pay you for them then,” Grandmother said.

“Thank you,” the blacksmith said. He seemed uncertain what else to say.

“Good market day to you,” Grandmother said with a smile. The blacksmith returned to his stall. A leatherworker at the next stall leaned over to speak quietly to him. Whatever the blacksmith said must have met the leatherworker's approval, as he stepped out of his own stall and headed in the direction of Sarah.