Hunter Or Huntress

Tom had been a little anxious about going back to the workshop, fearing that dealing with Edita would sour the thus far rather good day. But after all he had gone through, she too seemed a bit different. She was still absolutely bubbling with questions. and her doe-eyed admiration of him was a little unsettling. As was the fact that she treated the drawings he had changed with near reverence. But Jacky hadn’t swung in to pry them apart or made any threatening noises and Edita had adopted a more respectful attitude. Like she was talking to a superior, he kinda liked that if he was being totally honest at least just a little bit.

Tom guessed it had all been a bit much on the first day. And thinking back he had done a rather shit job of saying no to her. He thanked his lucky stars that she was better behaved now, but deep down he knew Saph and Essy were probably the actual reason. Hell, he might not even have lucky stars here.

He could hear Jacky and Saph chatting in the corner, catching each other up on recent events while everyone else got down to work. while the rest of them got to work. Shiva had eventually come in from the forge to hear what all the commotion was about, and after a short rundown, she had left with Jacky. Tom guessed she wanted a little bit of one on one with her daughter after all that had happened. Quite understandable in his mind, and frankly he would have expected her to do it much sooner. Jacky had handed Sapphire the halberd along with instructions to ‘stand guard for me,’ which did seem to surprise Saph just a little. But, to her credit, she still did it.

He couldn’t help but feel much safer and happier down here. Even he and Shiva were definitely on the same team, and he couldn’t imagine a scenario where he would have to worry about Edita short of him making some very egregious error in her eyes. And thus far she had seemed rather loose when it came to rules. Thinking back, that was probably his answer as to why Joelina had chosen her for this job despite the rather extreme difference in personality.

They had gone over the designs for the water jacket and made some more changes, including a new tighter recoil spring to compensate for the lighter inner barrel. The second Tom approved them Edita had wanted to get started. He had managed to talk her into telling him a bit about what she knew of arcane machinery first though. It had been a rather enlightening tale, if a little depressing too. She knew how to make enchantments, and with Apuma or Linkosta providing the actual magic they should be able to replicate many enchantments that Edita was quite certain not even Linkosta knew about. Even if the two mages might need some more training on some of the finer points.

But her tales of magic shields and such apparently lay beyond them. It turned out what was needed for enchantments like that was beyond simple hand-carved commands. She had fished out a book detailing among other things how the central core at the capital worked. Before starting though, she gave the most half-hearted ‘don’t say this to anyone’ speech Tom had yet heard. He just nodded as did the rest of them as she opened the locked tome with a key produced from under her flowing metallic robes.

“See all these pages?” she went as she rapidly paged through page after page of solid text.

“Yeah?... I can’t read any of it. I’m sorry.”

“Looks like magical runes to me,” Tink interjected, clearly trying to be helpful. Edita nodded to the inventor.

“Precisely. Hundreds of lines of enchantments. This is all that we have found in just one finger responsible for suspending the energy inside the core. There are 24 fingers in total. 24!” she reiterated, looking around at them with wide eyes.

“Must be in a tiny script then,” Tink concluded, clearing his throat and huffing a bit. “What did they do, shrink down the one who scribed them in?”

“No no, you don’t understand. It is tiny. Some of what we have found is so small that you could write thousands of words just on a finger claw.”

“Miniaturized technology,” Tom replied with an appreciative nod. “Like our computer tech.”

“Precisely,” Edita went, pointing at him before returning to paging. “But if we try to scribe runes even several times that size, we can hardly get anything to flow through them. The enchantments are powerless.”

“The resistance Linkosta talked about a while back. The reason she wanted dragon’s blood for Jacky’s armor.”

“Dragon’s blood is alright… did you use some of the unicorn horn you have?” Edita asked cautiously, looking up from her book.

“Sure did.”

“Very good. That will make it much better. But yes, the resistance becomes far too high in such inscriptions if they are made normally. But with machines and precision, it can be done better and smaller. But the key is inscribing using pure essence. The stuff you found in the cylinders down below.”

“The gravity oil?” Tom asked. “Problem solved then, we have plenty of that.”

“That is the base ingredient. We tend to just call it essence in the form you have. More work is required though. And then the enchantments must be bound with what the ancients call an eldritch forge. Normal containment spells cannot contain the inscribing. They will rip apart and break immediately.”

“The stuff Linkota did after she painted the runes.”

“Yes. The enchantments are first etched, then inscribed, then bound. Often you seal them too to try and protect them from damage. You know, to prevent scratches and such.”

“Makes sense I guess. And a person can’t do that well enough, so you need a magic machine to make magic machines.”

“More or less, yes.”

“And you have some.”

“We do… just not out here. They are rather big, and the power draw is immense, we would need a core. And I know of only two left.” Edita apologized, looking truly sorry. “Even if we did, doing that amount of etching and inscribing would be near impossible to do by hand.”

“I bet,” Tom sighed. “Well then, I guess we can’t rely on that anyway then. We’ll have to go with what’s actually available. So those enchantments of yours… How could they affect, say, barrel life?”

“They could nearly eliminate wear if that is what you mean. But they must be powered.”

“Right… power.”

“Everything comes with a cost,” Edita apologized once more, like it was somehow her fault how the world worked.

“Not your fault, don’t feel bad about it. Oh right, that core of yours. It contains energy… Like a battery of sorts. What about that, can we make that? I guess not if there are only two left.”

“Indeed, I’m sorry. The enchantments that contain the energy are immensely complex. The ones used to capture it even more so. Those can be replicated rather primitively though if they don’t need to reach far and wide without becoming hopelessly inefficient.”

“So snatch it from the enemy then? Why not just do that?”

“Because they can cut off the flow of magic? That is part of the immense complexity of the cores. We do not understand how it was achieved but they can bypass such restrictions… Have you not tried using magic items before?”

“I mean… a pair of earrings once,” Tom admitted with a shrug. “They are quite expensive, okay? we only had like 4 magic items here before you showed up.”

Edita just stared at him then looked around at the others with a look of betrayal on her face. “You didn’t teach him what to do if someone tries to drain him? What if you had fought a witch or something?”

“I’m pretty sure he did at some point actually,” Tink added, rubbing his chin thoughtfully before Saph poked him rather hard in the side with the haft end of the halberd. Something which Edita did in fact seem to notice, turning her attention to the huntress.

“Why didn’t you teach him?”

“Because no one would ever try that? Everyone can just go ‘No, fuck you’ and turn off the flow. Why waste a complicated spell on it?”

“A lot of animals don’t know how to. What if they didn’t know what he was?” Edita countered, clearly appalled by this apparent lack of training.

“Dude is talking and running around with a magic fire stick. Pretty sure they wouldn’t mistake him for an animal, in fact he would seem more like a mage himself,” Saph replied, seeming less than pleased at the accusations as Tom just blinked a couple times trying to work out how he should feel about this. He was pretty sure he had been told by someone at some point that he could just turn off the flow of magic if he wanted. But if he was being totally honest here he couldn’t quite work out how. When he had the earrings on he had just started feeling sick.

“Uhm question?” he interrupted as Saph and Edita were having a little discussion about whether anyone born in the last thousand years would ever bother trying to magically drain an opponent in combat.

“Yes?” Saph questioned, turning to look at him, Edita’s head quickly snapping to look at him as well.

“How exactly would I do this? Sounds important.”

“Simple. You feel the flow of magic and shut it off just like when you are using your own magi…” Saph started before trailing off.

“I see a flaw in this plan.”

“He must learn this. If anyone finds out he cannot fight such an attack he could be doomed,” Edita interjected, seeming deathly serious.

“Never even heard of anyone getting killed like that,” Tink added in, scratching the back of his neck, seeming a little stumped as well. “Well, aside from people who managed to off themselves by accident when mucking about with magic that is.”

“I guess we put a magic gizmo on him and work out if he can cut the flow then?” Saph questioned, still sounding a little annoyed as she looked at Edita.

“Yes, right this instant. Wait here,” the artificer replied with a new and certainly surprising determination entering her voice. Like she was dealing with a serious matter. “Imagine what would happen if one of our enchantments failed and he couldn’t stop it from killing him! Oh by the gods!” she complained as she started going through boxes.

Tom did as he was told and waited. Insane as it sounded, he trusted the slightly nutty artificer not to want to kill him. He didn’t have to wait long before Edita returned with a small lacquered wooden box with a very extravagant set of decorations on it. She unceremoniously popped the lid off of it, setting it down gently and lifted out a small octagonal metal rod with inscriptions running down each side, little metal sliders also sitting in various positions along said sides. To Tom the inscriptions looked tiny enough to be a real fucking bitch to do by hand, but he guessed they were nothing compared to what she had been talking about earlier.

“This is a load. It can be used to, well… put a load on an enchantment,” Edita explained with a nervous chuckle, looking at him.

“But a person can use it too?” Saph questioned, tilting her head.

“Yes. You need that sometimes. One moment,” Edita went as she started fiddling with the sliders. “Right, minimum setting. Run it for long enough and it should start getting warm. Should take a while, it is designed to be very inefficient. And you can turn it off there or just drop it. Just please… on the table, not the floor,” she explained, almost pleadingly on the last bit, clutching her hands after putting it down on the table for him.

“Well then… I guess only one thing for it. This should be interesting,” Tom shrugged as he scanned the room to confirm Jacky had still not returned.

“I swear by all the gods if this puts you back in bed,” Saph let out, shaking her head as Tom picked up the small device.

“Oh relax, I’ve done this before. Worst that’s gonna happen is I can’t stop it and I have to put it down,” Tom replied sarcastically as he held the rod with just a bit of apprehension. ‘You better be right this time, knucklehead.’

he hesitated for a second holding his hand over the little slider, before manning up and moving it upwards one notch. The tiny runes started to glow a dim blue, almost like there was LED backlighting at play.

It certainly felt funny. It was hard to describe. It was almost not noticeable. Like the life getting drained out of you by discussing politics with family at Christmas or something.

“Okay, now try and feel the magic flow and cut it off,” Saph added in hopefully.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t feel much really.”

“How is that possible?” Saph questioned, looking to Edita.

“How should I know? He is not a dragonette. Not born with magic.”

“But he can still use it,” Saph protested.

“Evidently,” Edita responded, sounding a little disheartened as she looked at the rod. “We could try pulling more to help you feel it.”

“Or we could not,” Saph squeaked out, not sounding overly pleased with that particular idea.

“Worst that happens is I faint, right?” Tom questioned looking at the strange device.

“In theory,” Edita relented, though not sounding overly convinced. “Unless you hold onto it after fainting, at which point it will drain you until you die… it’s not a bad way to go really,” Edita replied very reluctantly. “We would pry it away from you before that happens. Obviously.”

“Yes, obviously,” Saph echoed as Tom turned to look at Tink and Junior. Tink was just giving him the thumbs up with a big smile on his face, Junior looking rather more worried.

“Well what are the chances of me being the victim of two different life threatening magic phenomena that can’t be explained in the same week, ey? Don’t tell Jacky,” Tom chuckled though not quite as calmly as he would have hoped. Still he felt fine… just a little funny. So he moved the slider with the numbers on it up a little, giving Edita time to stop him if it was the wrong one he had grabbed.

She didn’t and he felt the sensation grow stronger. Now there was no doubt as he felt his breathing quicken and fingers start to ache a little. He then proceeded to close his eyes in the hope some Jedi zen shit would help him close his chakras or whatever it was he needed to do here.

He honestly didn’t expect much success from that idea, but what he got as he settled down a little and tried to feel what was happening was best described as continuous shiver running down his spine. It was faint. Not much of note, only really enough to be annoying once he noticed it. So he did what he always did with shivers. He focused on it to make it go away, releasing that nice sensation all throughout his back that wasn’t ever really enough.

He got the exact same result here and opened his eyes to find the rod inert in his hands.

“Well that worked, I guess.”

“Baah, I wasn’t worried,” Tink loudly proclaimed, giving Tom a good slap on the back as the two women stood there staring at him then to each other, both pulling cautious smiles.

“Better safe than sorry, I guess?”

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Are they putting her to work right away?” Saph asked, looking out from the greeting platform over the green rolling hills and two small shimmering lakes surrounding the keep. Change was in the air, the small patches of trees starting to yellow and the grass was starting to fade a little too. The wind was starting to bite a bit more to the point Saph was wondering when winter clothes might be needed.

When the cold started to hit properly they would need to stay moving when outside, which was good for working spirits but still sucked. In the distance the glinting black form of Yldril slowly grew larger as she crested a hill heading towards them slowly and steadily.

Behind them, inside the shelter of the greeting hall, Archeon was being loaded for his trip to the capital. Dakota was overseeing as Vulzan and his crew labored. Saph and Ray had lent a hand earlier, but they were mostly done by now so they had excused themselves to go watch Yldril’s arrival.

“Fengi will go easy on her I am sure,” Ray replied a little forlornly. “Is she as mean as the other said?”

“Downright evil,” Saph sighed, shaking her head a bit. “And Fengi is dead set on trying to fix that.”

“Do you think she can?”

“I have no idea. What I do know is she will try her damndest. I hope that damn dragon doesn’t make her anymore depressed… It’s gonna suck next time Tiguan swings by too.”

“He’s not gonna like her is he?”

“No, I don’t think so… she’s a real piece of work,” Saph sighed, trying not to sound too depressed at the notion.

“Where is she staying? Just down in the grass next to Galaxer?” Ray asked cautiously.

“Yup. Just in the grass and outside every night. Fengi wants her to have nothing so she can make her earn it slowly. Make a lesson out of it. I think she’s trying to do what Tom did with Jarix. Biggest difference being that Jarix isn’t an evil murderous arsehole, she is.”

“What about winter?”

“She’ll be fine, dragons hibernate all winter anyway. Might just get her some cover if she comes around enough to earn it.”

“Are the winters bad here? It normally feels warm, but it’s starting to get quite chilly,” Ray asked carefully, rubbing her shoulders a bit.

“We’re pretty southern. Usually isn’t that bad, but we do get snow most years.”

“I hate the snow,” Ray responded, sounding quite unhappy. Saph could guess why easily enough. If the cold was rough on folk with a roof over their head, she didn’t want to think about what it did to people living on the streets.

“Well here you’ll have a warm bed, even if it gets a bit chilly outside. Woodstocks are more than plenty too, our dear Rachuck makes sure of that.”

“He’s very nice isn’t he? He cares so much.”

“I guess so, I think Dakota put it best. ‘Don’t tell him a horror story or he’ll try to prepare for it and then you’ll be working all night,’ ” Saph chuckled, letting a cautious smile creep onto her face.

Ray chuckled lowly as well, still looking out over the changing landscape. It was still quite beautiful, and the sun was shining. That was likely to become a rarer and rarer sight moving forward though. She would miss bathing in the sun to relax. This year had been so damn busy they hadn’t really gotten away with much relaxation.

They weren’t exactly lazy normally, but one needed breaks every now and again. She let her mind drift back to the time at the lake, the movie nights, the little festival and the various feasts they had held. It had been a good year in its own insane way. Maybe winter would be cozy if a little boring just like the old days.

‘Who am I kidding. It will be crazy all winter long.’

“Who did she say that to?” Ray questioned, Saph taking a second to remember what she had said.

“Oh… me. She told me that back when I came here. Gotta say, she was certainly right. She still grumbles about giving Herron the same advice. Little did she know he would take that one a bit too much to heart.”

“Oh come on, he’s not that bad… He’s just a bit sleepy.”

“At all hours of the day” Saph replied, finding it her turn to chuckle a bit. “You wanna go say hi to our first unwilling member?”

“Not really, no…”

“Me neither,” Saph echoed reluctantly. “But Fengi needs friends right now. Gotta go give her a hand.”

“Don’t get hurt, she sounded real mean. Oh, maybe have her bring some water. Rachuck wants the emergency barrels changed before winter.”

“I think that can wait till it starts getting a bit colder, we want it fresh for winter don’t we,” Saph replied with a reassuring smile before letting her wings fold out, starting to feel out the cold air. “See you in a bit, and don’t let old Rachuck work you to the bone.”

“Oh no, don’t worry, I’ll be busy with the floors and the dishes.”

Saph stood there watching Ray, letting her wings feel out the wind for a second longer as she sighed, still smiling. “Well, no taking everyone’s chores either, gods know least of all Herron’s.”

And with that Saph let herself drop off the platform, wings catching as she silently glided down towards where Tom was busy planning out their next bunker while Kulinger had a second group of people planning out where their new warehouse would go. All in all the whole place was bustling with activity both inside and out. Even the techies were out lending a hand with construction planning.

Saph had a hard time believing they would get it all done in time for winter, but with the workers assigned to Hylsdal and Grevi helping out, they might just manage it, depending of course on how soon said construction crew could move their asses over here.

‘There’s gonna be a lot of hard work this autumn isn’t there… fucking hell we better get paid good.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

It had been a while since Tom had last seen the black dragon, and that encounter had left her with freshly broken bones, the tip of her tail snapped off, and blood leaking from reopened wounds everywhere.

‘... I want healing like that,’ Tom concluded to himself as the dragon limping her way past them. It was several kilometers to her little camp. It was only a short hop on the wing, but it was still quite the walk. And she was evidently still in far from good shape. She wasn’t dripping blood or anything, but she was definitely limping quite badly. Enough to make Tom wonder if some bones hadn’t quite set right. Or perhaps she was just sore after walking for several miles while not quite healed.

As she came by she didn’t seem to pay him or anyone else any mind whatsoever. Work came to a halt as people stopped to stare, most of them hatefully. Yet she simply carried on as if they didn’t exist. No prancing, no cowering or looking worriedly around trying to guess who was gonna throw something at her first. She just carried on like a wounded robot.

‘I guess Fengi has been working her magic then,’ Tom just noted for himself solemnly. It made sense. Yldril wouldn’t really be up for walking several kilometers while wounded to a place she hated for its mere existence and which hated her just as much in return.

Everyone wanted a good look at the dragon. Some hadn’t seen her since the battle, and the mood had grown very grim to say the least. Tom didn’t know how to feel about it all. There could be no doubt she was guilty of some truly heinous crimes, yet here she was, a slave for eternity. Fengi walked out front, doing her best to stare down most of the keep. She wasn’t stupid, she knew half the keep didn’t want Yldril anywhere near here and the other half would quite happily see her worked to death in short order, at least before the whole Kalestine mess which made it all rather complicated.

Tom couldn’t decide what he wanted. What he knew though was that Fengi wasn’t letting either happen. ‘Damn girl is even more naive than me,’ he caught himself chuckling quietly as everyone else remained somber. There was the odd spitting in the dragon's direction, but mostly just staring and hateful glances before people started to get back to their jobs, turning their back on the dragon.

Tom had a feeling that if anyone had some rotten tomatoes, Yldril would have gotten a face full, but as it was he just stood there and stared.

“Well, at least she’ll be useful,” Raulf the gruff old farmer let out from next to him, leaning on his shovel like a pro and looking after the dragon as she carried on toward the base of the keep. “Are they letting her sleep that close to us? Really?”

“I don’t know, maybe they just want to unload the camp supplies. I see they made her carry most of it.”

“Well it was her camp, wasn’t it?” Raulf replied with a chuckle, standing up straight and hefting his spade. “Think she’s in shape to dig yet?”

“At least give her a bit to rest after that walk. Maybe we just set out the markers today and get to work on the wood we have. Plenty of work to do before we start digging anyway.”

“Fair enough,” Raulf concurred. “Think we can convince the white one to help haul some logs until the tax collector there is ready to pull her weight?”

“I guess we can try. I think we might want to try and have a meeting with dear Kalestine first though. I have a feeling she’s not in a great mood.”

“You’re making it rather hard to get to work, you know that right?” Raulf jested as Tom sighed deeply. “I guess so… I was just gonna send Kulinger and cross my fingers.”

“Brilliant plan, I’ll fetch him right away. Should have thought of that.”

“Wait, no.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Soo how is she doing?” Saph asked once she managed to spot a rather distraught-looking Fengi wandering away from everyone else. She probably wanted some peace and quiet, but Saph wasn’t sure that was smart right now.

Fengi was a little startled before turning to look at Saph with a forced upon looking smile. “Oh you know. Everyone hates her and she hates them, both convinced they are in the right.”

“She thinks she’s in the right?” Saph questioned, trying not to sound disrespectful and failing at least a little bit.

“Yes, she somehow does,” Fengi admitted. “In her own stupid, selfish way.”

Saph walked up and placed a reassuring hand on Fengi’s shoulder giving her a little shake. “Hey, you got this. If anyone might rub off on her it’s you. Heavens know you can be infectiously happy sometimes.”

“Not right now I’m not… And if I mess up, she will hurt someone. Probably out of spite more than anything else. I can’t let her do anything. She’s gonna hate me for it. Well more than she already does.”

“Normally I would say some trust is in order to prove you mean well, but…”

“She’s not trustworthy at all. Doesn’t even try to hide it,” Fengi carried on, sounding defeated, ears hanging limp by the side of her head as she looked down, kicking the ground a little. “She’s a fucking arsehole.”

“She’ll crack eventually. Sounds like she might have been at least decent at some point… even if it was a few centuries ago. If nothing else, she might behave just to get a tarp over her head.”

“That was the plan, wasn’t it?” Fengi sighed nervously as she looked up at the keep, the blue sky silhouetting nicely behind the tall stone structure sitting perched atop the outcropping. “I just hope people at least leave her alone in the night.”

“Might wanna tell Rachuck and the guards to keep an eye on her… How’s Unkai doing by the way?”

“Oh he’s over there,” Fengi replied, gesturing over her shoulder at the diminutive dude who was currently talking with Rachuck about something next to the wood-drying hut.

“I mean how are the two of you doing?” Saph reiterated gingerly, hoping there was at least some good news on that front for the young huntress.

Fengi turned to look at Saph, clearly trying very hard to not look sad, which only made her look more tragic. “He told me why he was so scared of me… What do you even say to that?” Fengi pleaded, eyes starting to turn wet.

“Oh come here,” Saph went, hoping a hug would at least help as she embraced Fengi, stroking the back of her head. “It’s gonna be fine I’m sure. He just needs to get used to it, you know? Like when we went swimming. Remember that?”

“Mhmhhm,” Fengi nodded, burying her face against Saph’s chest.

“It was scary, we had all been taught to fear the water, right? What can be in it, the cold, drowning, all that? Right from when we were little.”

“Yeah?” Fengi sniffled, not letting go.

“Well, he has to go swimming now. He is scared, he’s been told to be scared all the way since he was little. Maybe he’s like Dakota, but the little bugger loves you. I mean come on, he would be over the hills hiding if he didn’t.”

“But he’s scared of me. I can’t even whisper in his ear without him going stiff as a plank. Talking around the fire at night, he just sits there with fear in his eyes.”

“Well even with that medal he got, he’s never been the bravest, now has he? Keep trying. He’ll grow used to it. He’ll learn to trust you just like Yldril will. I have to say I don’t envy you right now. Even with a dragon at your beck and call.”

“Please don’t say it like that. Makes me sound like some evil witch from the stories when we were little.”

“Well, remember what one evil witch could do in those stories. Now imagine what you can manage. You could turn out a damn hero one day, you know that, right?”

“I guess so,” Fengi had to concede, even if it didn’t seem to cheer her up overly much. She didn’t even move a muscle from where Saph was holding her tight, still stroking the back of her head. “She might have got her ass beat by Glira, but she is incredibly strong. If I can somehow bring her around, she could make everything so much quicker without making every day a living hell.”

“And hey, it would only be the what… fourth, fifth, sixth? miracle to happen here this year?” Saph tried jokingly, giving Fengi a bit more of a squeeze and holding her close. “Odds are on your side there’s a couple left before winter.”

Fengi did let out a chuckle at that before sighing and looking up, though still not letting go. “Thanks, Saph.”

“Don’t mention it. Now I think I better go have some stern words about not giving our not-so-nice black dragon further reason to hate our guts. Think you’ll be okay in the meantime?”

Fengi just nodded, sighing a bit as she let go. “I’ll be fine.”

“You know what you could do? Go find Ray, it’s been a bit, she might have some ideas too. She won’t admit it, but she’s actually sorta smart.”

“You know what… I might just do that,” Fengi replied with a cautious smile as Saph gave her a last rub on the back, wearing a big smile.

“Catch you later then. I won’t be long, I promise.”

__________________________________________________________________________________