Engineered Magic

Todd

Todd stumbled to a stop, nearly falling. His lungs burned and his muscles shook in fatigue. A glance down confirmed that the red of his brigandine was transformed into white. They were at the edge of the structure's area of effect.

Grandmother reached out and caught his shoulder, giving him some support as he swayed on his feet. With her help he staggered back down the path a step of two until red started to leach into his clothing. He felt better. Grandmother was running behind him so that he could set the pace. She stood patiently, a little before the edge as Todd gulped air. Since she wasn’t wearing any integrated cloth, she appeared no different than usual. She seemed completely unaffected but then she was farther back.

“That sucked,” Todd said when he finally got his breathing under control.

“Yeah,” Grandmother responded. “We need to remember that.” They were over three-quarters of the way up from the valley floor. The structure's area of influence was slowly expanding. Several years ago they calculated the rate of its advance, and figured it would take twenty years before it reached the ridge. “Do you want to rest for a while?” She asked.

“No,” Todd said. “We are nearly to the top. I can rest in the cart.” They started back up the trail, this time at a pained walk. Todd led the way, with Grandmother following a few steps behind. As soon as Todd stepped forward it got harder. Bone deep fatigue pressed down on him. He regretted not taking Grandmother’s offer of a rest. He pressed on, committed to his course.

Something moved in the woods. Todd started to turn to the source when he heard a low threatening growl. Something large and dark brown charged out at him from the trees. He visualized how he should bring his spear around and impale the animal as it approached, but his tired muscles refused to respond. Adrenaline flooded his system as he realized he wasn’t going to get the weapon in place in time.

Todd was knocked back, pain shrieking through his side. He tried to bring his spear down on the animal. He fell as his footing faltered. Suddenly Grandmother was there. With a swing of her staff she batted the animal aside. As it rolled with a natural athleticism, she spun the staff around faster than Todd could follow. The end jabbed down with unerring accuracy onto the head of the beast. Its skull caved inward, as the earthen staff, which Grandmother recently admitted she carried through the structure for over forty years, shattered.

His vision seemed strangely dark. He reached down to the spreading numbness on his side. The white of his depowered integrated cloth was turning red again. His shocked, fractured thoughts had trouble grasping it was red with his blood.

Grandmother

“Dark,” Grandmother said, as she dropped the fragments of her staff. Her hand automatically cast a reinforce spell on the broomstick before the hit, but of course it didn’t do anything outside the structure. She turned back to inspect the damage to Todd. He was passed out, blood flowing freely from his side. The white almost plastic that his integrated armor turned into beyond the structure was shredded. Grandmother had absolutely no idea how the animal managed to do so much damage in the seconds it was on him. It was some kind of predator she didn’t recognize. Bigger than a structure badger it reminded her of an earthen cougar. Really it looked more like a cougar than the animal in the structure that carried the name. She thought it must have raked Todd with the claws on its hind feet. She was pretty certain if she tried to take him back to the Speedwell he would be dead before they reached its medical facilities.

The way he was bleeding he would be dead before they reached the top of the ridge. She thought about doing some quick first aid, binding the wound closed to limit blood loss, then decided she was just wasting time. She picked the warrior up, pack and all. She held him in front of her. She was trying to keep the wound up, so most of his spilled blood would get caught on his body or clothing. Holding him tight, she ran.

Traveling downhill at high speed she reached the edge of the structure's area of influence in minutes. She cast a series of tier one heals on him as she ran. When she felt his body twist in pain, she knew she was far enough in. She set the warrior back onto the ground and using both hands cast a tier five heal. He shuddered again, almost coming back to consciousness, before he dropped back into a near coma.

Grandmother checked his heartbeat. It was strong and steady. A quick check of his flesh exposed through rents in his armor showed no sign of damage. His brigandine was definitely ruined. The metal scales that formed the layer of armor under the red cloth cover were dropping out like the leaves of a tree in the fall. The cover, at least, was only red from magic. All the blood that soaked the garment returned to Todd’s body with the heal. A quick glance back up the trail from where they were, showed a dangerous amount still stained the ground behind them, beyond the reach of the structure's nanobots.

After a moment's thought, Grandmother picked Todd up and finished the run down to the entrance. She tapped out a quick clean spell before setting Todd down against one of the side walls. She took his pack off of him, so he would rest more comfortably. She took her own off and set it down onto the floor next to the warrior.

Her back was to the south wall. To her right was the broken wall that led to the meadow with its stream. To her left were the three openings that gave access to the structure. In front of her a large paved area, open to the sky, was dotted with broken columns. Clumps of debris were littered around, that once might have been stone benches or statues. The center of the area hosted a pool or pond. Its cracked bottom was dry. The space was artistically decorated with vines that grew up from the cracked pavement or over the broken walls.

As she waited for Todd to return to consciousness, she went over and over what happened in her head. They should not have headed up the trail after a multiple day run. The nanobots masked the effects of fatigue as much as they removed them. When they stepped out of the structure's area of influence they stopped those efforts, leaving Todd weak and tired. Todd moaned then jerked. He came up off the floor with a knife in his hand.

“We are at the entrance to the structure,” Grandmother told him. “I carried you back so I could use heal.” Todd’s hand went to his side, where a shower of scales cascaded down to ping off the stone tiles. Grandmother thought Control was being a little melodramatic now. She left scales half way down the path and across the valley. There was no way there was really that many in real brigandine armor.

“Ellen’s going to kill me,” Todd commented.

“That armor lasted longer than anything I have ever seen,” Grandmother said, ignoring for the moment the loss of her staff. “I think her love for her father was the only thing holding it together. Order a new one from her that should appeal to the crafter in her.” The armor was one of the last things Ellen’s father crafted before his death. When Grandmother first met the girl she’d been trying to sell it in the market to provide income for herself and her young sister.

“My spear?” Todd asked, as he returned his knife to his belt.

“I left it on the trail,” Grandmother responded with a nod to the distant trees. “I didn’t want to take the time to pick it up.” Todd collapsed back down into a sitting position, as he continued to look at the rips in his armor.

“That was stupid,” he said finally.

“It’s the stupid things that get you in the end,” Grandmother responded. “I haven’t thought of anything outside the structure as a threat in decades, but the truth is a wild animal can kill you anywhere. They killed people back on Earth. I am horrified that I let the three of you walk out alone the first time. I can’t think about what might have happened. I would like to blame Control, but we were clearly beyond its reach. I think it was just dumb luck.” They sat in silence for a few moments, as each of them reflected on the incident.

“How did you do that?” Todd said finally. Grandmother was hoping he didn’t have any clear memories of what transpired. It appeared she would not be that lucky. “You moved so fast and hit it so hard your staff shattered.” Grandmother flexed her hand. She pulled the slivers of resin and carbon fiber out of it soon after setting Todd down. There was already no trace of the wounds due to her unnatural accelerated healing.

She was afraid, terrified really. Her heart should be racing and her hands shaking. They weren’t. She held them as still as a rock, which of course only added to her terror, because it wasn’t right. It wasn’t human.

“Since tier six, my nanobots continue to be active past the border. I can’t do any magic because that is the structure’s interface, but the improvements to stamina, agility and strength remain,” Grandmother admitted.

“What about accelerated healing?” Todd asked.

“That too,” Grandmother answered.

“You never said anything,” Todd commented after a long pause.

Grandmother opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. She struggled with her thoughts. Her flexing hands echoed the struggle in her head. She felt she owed Todd some kind of answer.

“It terrifies me,” she said finally.

“I think that means you are still you,” Todd told her. He was aware of her fear that Control was turning her into something else.

“I can only hope,” Grandmother responded.

“Should we try it again,” Todd asked with a wave to the distant trees through the broken wall.

“No,” Grandmother replied. “I don’t want to make the same mistake again. I have a theory that even though a heal looks near instantaneous, it is actually several days until it is real. The nanobots step in to take the place of missing tissue and blood and just hold everything in place while your body mends. That’s why I brought you back down here to the courtyard, so that the nanobots in your body could call for help if necessary.”

“What do you suggest?” Todd queried.

“Let’s go find the closest water source. I want you to drink as much of it as you can. You lost a lot of blood and need to replace it. Drinking water from a source and not your flask will allow Control to feed you more nanobots too. We’ll find a room to secure for the night. We can try again tomorrow or the next day, but let's take it slow and turn around at the first sign of any change in the injury,” Grandmother advised.

“I hate to ask it,” Todd said, “but can you get my spear.” Grandmother considered that one for a while. She didn’t really want to leave Todd alone. At the same time she didn’t want to go into the structure armed only with knives. There shouldn’t be anything this close to the entrance they couldn’t kill with magic and a knife but Grandmother didn’t trust Control not to take advantage.

“Stay alert,” Grandmother said, getting to her feet. “Eat something high in iron. If I don’t come back, don’t come looking for me for at least a day.”

“Maybe…” Todd said, as he realized he was sending Grandmother off alone. Before he could express his change of heart she was gone, running faster than he had seen her do before.

Grandmother pushed herself as hard as she could up the hill. She wanted to get back to Todd, before Control took advantage of that situation. The animal lay dead on the track, splinters of her staff embedded in its skull. Todd’s spear, now a flat gray color, lay on the ground right beside where he fell. It was another indication that Control wasn’t involved. If someone dropped a weapon in a fight in the structure, the weapon would be heavily damaged, never seen again or would roll off into the bushes where something even bigger waited.

Grandmother picked up Todd’s spear. She considered the dead animal for a moment before pulling the remnants of her walking staff out of its head. She tossed the carcass over her shoulder, before heading back.

Todd was where she left him, chewing on a stick of dried meat, and drinking from his water flask. He changed into the red cloth armor he carried as a spare while she was gone. He sprang to his feet at her approach and took the spear from her. Back within the structure’s influence it looked like wood and bronze. Grandmother could see some of the tension flow out of him.

“Is that what attacked us?” Todd asked with a nod at the animal.

“Yeah,” Grandmother said, flipping the animal onto the ground. “It reminds me of an earthen cougar, but cougars didn’t have spots like that. See the tail? Almost nothing has a tail here, but cats on Earth did.” Todd remembered Grandmother saying something similar when they found the earthen squirrel.

“It’s long but thin. Its teeth aren’t that large and I don’t see any horns. How did it do so much damage?” Todd asked. Grandmother picked up one of its paws and spread the claws.

“Retractable claws,” she commented. She pulled her knife and quickly gutted the animal. She was careful not to damage the hide. She was thinking about trying to tan it. The speckled coat was really very beautiful. There weren't very good facilities for tanning close to the entrance so she may have to toss it eventually, but she saw no reason to rush the decision. “Predators usually don’t taste very good, but fresh meat will help you heal faster than that dried stuff.”

Grandmother looked over her map and picked out the closest water source to the entrance. She warned Todd that she hadn’t been there in a long time, so it may not still be in the same place. Water sources tended to move around an area in a set of related spawn points. If the one they were heading to was no longer there, hopefully a new one would be close.

They headed into the structure through the central opening.