Engineered Magic

Todd

The blacksmith was a respected member of the crafting community. Every seller in the market made their way over to Grandmother’s stall. It was their biggest success so far. In the rush Todd lost sight of the blacksmith’s apprentice. He wanted to make sure the woman got her money. It would be proof to the others that they really intended to pay everyone.

It was nearly an hour later when Todd spotted her again. She was helping an extremely old woman walk to the market. When Todd first met Grandmother she was the oldest person he had ever seen. It wasn’t until he went to the eastern villages and met the starborn there that he realized Grandmother was in really good condition for her age. In the ten years since, the starborn in the villages got older and older, but Grandmother seemed to stay the same. Todd stopped thinking of Grandmother as old. Instead he thought of her as mature.

This woman looked even older than the residents of the eastern villages. Her hands were knotted and swollen with arthritis. Cataracts whitened her eyes to such a degree that Todd was uncertain she could see at all. She walked in a stoop; her balance was so faulty he was certain she could not have walked at all if the blacksmith's apprentice did not have a firm hold of her arm. As the old woman approached, everyone stepped away from their place in line, letting her step ahead of them.

When Sarah’s current interview was over, she looked up and caught sight of the old woman waiting. Sarah rose gracefully to her feet, not wanting to force the old woman to have to sit to converse with her. The blacksmith’s apprentice guided the old woman inside the circle. Sarah recast her spells and the view of them blurred.

Minutes later Sarah dismissed the spells. She raised her voice and called, “Grandmother, Mary says she knows a copy spell. Have you heard of it?”

“No,” Grandmother said, she rose to her feet and moved closer to Sarah and the old woman. She seemed to be studying the old woman closely. Todd wondered if she knew her. “What does it copy?”

“It copies anything written with a stylus from one piece of vellum to another,” the blacksmith's apprentice explained. “I thought of it when you talked about ‘enchantments’,” the apprentice stumbled slightly over the unfamiliar word. ”No one else in my family knows it, only Gran-mama.”

“Can you demonstrate it?” Grandmother asked Mary.

“No, not really,” the old woman said, holding up her crippled hands. “I can talk you through it.”

“Usually I don’t pay for a new spell that can’t be demonstrated. If you can’t cast it and I’ve never heard of it, how do I even know it is a spell? Let’s see what we can do in this case.” Grandmother said, as she thought about it. “What color is your magic?” she asked the old woman.

“Blue,” Mary replied, clearly uncertain where this question was leading.

Grandmother handed her staff to Companion, who as usual was standing guard on Sarah. She shook out her hands and began to cast.

Todd felt it in his bones. It was like the nanobots in his body wanted to move to do Grandmother’s bidding. They were torn as to which master they should follow Control or Grandmother. Ever since he reached tier four he was able to sense it when Grandmother cast the higher tier spells. This is why the blacksmith was right to fear the mad queen’s daughter and it had nothing to do with who her mother was. Grandmother was a tier six player, what Companion called a lesser god. The rest of them thought this description was a mistake in the translation of Companion’s language. When Grandmother cast, Todd wondered. At a minimum this feeling in his bones must be what caused Companion’s people to call tier six players gods.

Grandmother completed her cast. For a brief second Todd swore the lights dimmed. The old woman whimpered, as her fingers and back straightened. The cataracts faded from her eyes. She stumbled back, where she was caught by Sarah. It was a tier five heal. Todd suspected it might be capable of bringing the newly dead back to life.

“Alex, run over to the inn and see if you can get us some lunch,” Grandmother asked. Alex readily agreed, even though it was still far too early for the meal. They all knew how hungry a high tier heal could leave you.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Mary. You are still old. You are just a healthier version of yourself,” Grandmother explained. “It is like if you received all the geriatric care the Speedwell has to offer.”

“The Speedwell…” Mary said slowly. “Does it still exist?” She was looking down at her hands as she flexed her fingers.

“Of course,” Grandmother assured Mary, “along with the villages against the eastern ridge. Do you think you can demonstrate the spell?”

“Yes…” Mary replied.

“I think Mary can support herself for now,” Grandmother said to the apprentice. “If you step back, we can get your spells later.”

“Ok,” the apprentice agreed. “I will be near, Gran-mama,” she assured the old woman. Grandmother returned to her stool. Ellen was engaged in a detailed discussion with the tailor at the next stall. Alex was still off on his errand to pick up food. The line of people waiting their turn absorbed the blacksmith’s apprentice, pelting her with questions as they waited.

Todd noticed that Grandmother was frowning slightly, as she stared off into space. He moved over to her side. “What’s wrong?” he asked her quietly.

“I knew a Mary,” Grandmother said, “a long time ago, in a suburb of Chicago. I couldn’t tell you if this is the same Mary or not. She seems so old.” One of Grandmother’s sisters was also named Mary, but she knew without question that the woman in Londontown was not her sister. Todd thought the woman was incredibly old, but he didn’t want to depress Grandmother by saying so. “She is the first member of the landing generation I have seen in the structure since…. Well before I met you. It should make me feel old, instead it makes me afraid.”

“Afraid?” Todd questioned.

“Of what I have become. I wonder if Control is done with me yet, or if there is more to come,” she observed. Todd didn’t know what to say to that. Luckily for him, Alex came strolling back, carrying several packages of food and drink.

Sarah dismissed her cloaking spells and escorted Mary over to Grandmother. She handed one slip of vellum to Grandmother and a second one to Ellen. “Mary will demonstrate her blacksmithing skills tonight at her son’s shop,” Sarah told Ellen, before she returned to her circle to interview the next crafter.

Grandmother juggled the slip of vellum, her staff and her food around until somehow Mary was sitting on Grandmother’s stool eating a sandwich. Todd was holding Grandmother's staff along with his own spear. Grandmother was inspecting the slip of paper and humming under her breath. She asked Mary if she wanted coins or scrap for her payment.

Mary consulted with the apprentice who ran across the walkway to consult with the blacksmith. When the apprentice returned, Mary’s sandwich was replaced by another and a tankard of Grappler juice was added. “Scrap,” she reported, “as much copper as you can get, with the rest in bronze and steel.” Grandmother confirmed with Mary that she wanted scrap before she started making selections on the payment pillar.

“Alright, all set,” Grandmother said. She turned to look back at Mary. “Here is your bonus for the new spell.” Grandmother pulled a coin out of her pocket. It flashed green. The coin was constructed out of oxidized bronze. It was worth thirty six of the silver coins Alex was flashing earlier while juggling. The silver was worth thirty six iron. That meant a green, the common name for the oxidized bronze coin, was worth 1296 iron. Todd might have thought Grandmother was being generous with someone of her own generation, but he saw her make the same payout for every new spell they discovered. She didn’t allow the ‘winner’ to trade up the bonus to more value by receiving scrap instead.

She set the coin on the top of the payment pillar in a showy move she hoped would catch everyone’s attention. Mary and the blacksmith‘s apprentice stared at the coin in shock. The coin appeared to dissolve into a shower of sparks. Mary handed the tankard to her granddaughter and swept the contents of the trade pillar into her inventory.

Mary finished her second sandwich and juice, before heading back to her apartment. There was an uptick in people taking them up on their offer and it was already a busy day. They worked as a team to process them. Alex and Todd took turns verifying both warrior and wizard skills in the training yard, while Ellen verified the demonstration of crafting and utility spells. Word got around to the children of the square that they could get coins for changing the temperature of the water. Ellen took groups of twenty at a time into the public sanitary facilities. She talked Companion into coming with her in order to keep the children on their best behavior.

There was still a line when the market closed. They took down everyone’s name and promised to process them the next day. They split into three sets of pairs and went out to witness the higher level crafters’ skills in their shops. Sarah teamed with Companion, Ellen with Alex and Todd paired with Grandmother.

Grandmother and Todd finished first. Ellen and Sarah were both much better crafters than the rest of them. They split the most complex demonstrations between them. Todd and Grandmother were strolling in front of the shop fronts.

“Where did you get that story about the mad queen’s daughter?” Grandmother asked suddenly.

“Ellen told me it the night before we first left the structure,” Todd responded. “I think she knew from the beginning. She told me her father knew you.”

“Hmm…” Grandmother responded as she fell into thought. Todd noticed the old woman still did not admit she was Irene. Grandmother came to a stop outside of a shuttered shop, in a corner of the courtyard. Todd stopped beside her, comfortable in her silences. He amused himself by inspecting the front of the closed shop. The windows were opaque, giving no hint of what lay inside. If the glass or the transom once held a sign nothing of it remained. It seemed strange that such a busy, affluent square would have an empty shop.

“I wonder why this shop is empty,” Todd mused.

“It’s mine,” Grandmother answered. “I bought it a long time ago. I was waiting here because I wanted to show it to Sarah.”

“You bought it?” Todd questioned. “I was unaware they could be purchased. I thought they were rented.”

“At tier four you can buy them,” Grandmother explained. “You can’t buy one someone else is renting, but if you find an empty one there is an offered purchase price. It is rather costly and I have never figured out how to sell it to someone else. There is a method to rent it out. If Sarah isn’t interested I think I will try putting it up for rent. There seemed to be a lot of crafters in the market that didn’t have storefronts.”

“Can you buy an apartment?” Todd asked.

“I don’t know,” Grandmother said after a moment's thought. “I don’t think I ever tried. There is a small restroom at the back of the shop. I’ve stayed here before if I didn’t want anyone to notice I was in the square.”

Todd decided he would see if he could buy an apartment in their Home Square. He was living in the apartment he rented before meeting Grandmother. He’d thrown a large chunk of his prize money from the last migration onto the rent before leaving the square with Grandmother for the first time. He was pleasantly surprised it was still his when they returned. He kept throwing money at the rent each time they were leaving the square for an extended trip. He was uncertain at this point how far ahead he was paid up for.

“Sorry that took so long,” Ellen said as she and Alex came walking up. “We owe the leatherworker a new spell reward.”

“Oh?” Grandmother said, turning her full attention to Ellen. “How did that happen?”

“He told Sarah he knew how to make thin leather. His description was stretch and scrape and apply a certain chemical. It sounded more like how you actually make leather. Anyway somewhere in his description he said twice to the right and once to the left. Sarah thought that was enough of a symbol reference to check it,” Ellen explained. “You have always said to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and he was insistent that it was magic.”

“So it is magic?” Todd asked.

“Oh yeah,” Alex replied from behind Ellen. “He turned a raw skin into a finished sheet of vellum in about five minutes.”

“Vellum?” Grandmother said, startled.

“Yeah,” Ellen replied. She pulled out a rolled up sheet of vellum that was tucked through her belt. She unrolled it to show them the quality as she continued to explain. “He kept calling it thin leather. He said he didn’t get much call for it. He learned the trick from his uncle when he was a boy. I think there are actually three or four spells in the process. The chemical he is slathering on seems to be some kind of whitener, not a tanning agent.”

Grandmother took the rolled sheet and studied it. Looking over her shoulder, Todd saw that it was large. He thought you could cut it into at least six of the octagonal sheets the vendors sold, maybe more.

“What did he start with?” Grandmother asked.

“A prize rat skin I pulled from my inventory,” Ellen responded.

“How many spells did you pay him for?” Grandmother queried.

“Three,” Ellen answered. “I credited twelve coins for the second two and six for the first. He took the payment in squirrel skins.”

“How does he normally cure leather?” Grandmother asked.

“The same method as all of us use. He didn’t seem to think it was possible to break down the steps for this thin leather and just apply one or two of them. That is why I'm not certain if it is three or four spells, he has them so intertwined,” Ellen looked thoughtful for a moment. “There might be a lesson there in how to roll spells together to make them faster.” Grandmother rolled the vellum up and handed it back to Ellen. “I told him to come find us in the market area tomorrow, that you will want to talk to him. I implied we might be interested in buying vellum from him.”

“Perfect,” Grandmother said with a smile. “Although I think it might be Sarah who will buy the vellum. I think with a source of vellum, and Mary’s copy spell she should be set for starting a bookstore.”

“A bookstore?” Todd asked. This was the first he heard of this idea.

“Yes,” Grandmother said, turning to look at Todd. “I have been trying to convince Sarah to open a shop that sells spells and books on magic.”

“How could you sell a spell?” Todd asked.

“The grand staircase statues do a fair job of describing cast magic with the inscriptions on the iron ribbons. Add in a description of what the spell does, and the start and end symbols and I think an experienced wizard could do it. Really it wouldn’t take more than a single sheet of vellum,” Grandmother observed. “Sarah could make a standard tier zero casting book that describes the start symbol, the most common end symbol and how to read the ribbon. After people purchase that book, they could come back to buy individual spells. If the original book came with blank pages at the back, the copy spell would make it easy to add them to the book.”

“I can see how you could do something similar for crafting skills,” Ellen responded. “Each book could be a different craft, or specialize on a specific crafting tool.”

“I suggested she sell crafting tools along with the spell books,” Grandmother offered.

“What about warrior spells?” Alex asked.

“Those too,” Grandmother responded. “I think the ribbon would still work, you just need a different book introduction on how to read them.”

“What about healing spells?” Todd asked. The healing spells caused an addiction side effect that was so extreme it was almost enslavement. The mad queen maintained her hold on power through the use of it.

“I am still a little undecided on that one. Lately I have been leaning towards yes, although each page must have the color warnings on it. Maybe we should stress self-healing, along with warnings about the pain levels,” Grandmother observed. “Even before Companion joined us we were able to manage healing well enough with our mix of magic colors. If we don’t tell people the safe way to use heal, they will just keep repeating the same mistake.”