Engineered Magic

37 AL: Grandmother

Will they die if I send them away? Grandmother asked herself. Will they die If I keep them with me? There was really no way she could know. She looked at the young people and made her choice.

“Go,” she said. “Don’t get too far ahead.” Alex dashed down the stairs followed closely by Ellen and Sarah. Todd stood his ground beside her. Grandmother knew he wouldn’t leave until she did herself. She cast enrage spells across the mass of bears in the training yard. The crowd growled in fury and turned almost as one to face them.

She cast two more enrage bolts into the group before spinning around and hurrying down the stairs. She heard Todd’s steps on the treads behind her. There was no opening to the floor on the next landing, so they were forced to continue down.

The stairs ended at the next level. The others were peeking around the edges of the doorway. The door opened up into a wide hall that traveled north-south. Grandmother stepped boldly out into the hall. This floor was deeper than the map the inscription supplied so she knew nothing about where this hall might lead. There was little doubt her lack of knowledge was part of Control’s plan.

She studied the light levels, felt the movement of air and listened to the echoes of sound. Those inputs along with her years of experience moving through the corridors told her the northern path was a dead end.

“That way,” she said pointing to the south with her staff. Alex took off instantly. Grandmother followed with everyone else close behind her. They were heading back under the square. Two stories might be enough space to not catch anyone in the field of her most powerful spell but she wasn’t certain. Instead of checking the side rooms and corridors for a good place to make a stand she continued to push the group forward.

“Take the left,” she yelled when she saw a major cross hall coming up. That would lead them east which was the direction of the green. Hopefully the bears would have no interest in going that way since they weren’t interested in the green at the training yards. Plus it would be away from the square.

“They are coming,” Todd said from behind them. The bears were slowed by the narrow doors and stairs. Grandmother caught sight of them spilling out into the hall as she turned the corner. Ellen picked the lagging Sarah up. Grandmother knew that she couldn’t keep this pace up much longer herself. She may not think of herself as old but she wasn’t young anymore either.

The hall opened on the left to reveal an attached sitting area set before floor to ceiling windows. The windows looked out into the green, which reassured Grandmother that they were out from below the square. Arrangements like this usually held entrances into the green but there was nothing.

“Keep going,” She told Alex. He slowed a little as he inspected this new area looking for threats. The corridor curved to the right, away from the green. Suddenly the right wall vanished to be replaced by a steel handrail over a short glass barrier. The handrail was high for an adult. Grandmother swerved close to the glass and looked down into the darkness. She couldn’t make out what was below.

The hallway turned into stairs that followed the curved left wall and dropped down to that darkness below. Ahead the wall straightened out for a section now oriented north-south instead of the west-east they were following. There was a landing about eight feet long ahead.

“Stop there,” Grandmother called to Alex. He was a little way ahead since Grandmother slowed to look down. Alex skidded to a halt to hold one or two stair treads past the landing. Grandmother reached out to touch him, tugging him back up to the landing proper. “Stay close,” she said to them all. “I can only protect you if you are close.”

Ellen stumbled to a stop against the inner wall in the center of the landing. She let Sarah slide out of her grasp to her feet. The young girl clung to her sister. Todd stopped a step or two up. Grandmother reached up to pull him down to the landing. “Close,” she said to him, making sure she caught his eye so he could see how serious she was. “Keep a careful watch below,” Grandmother told Alex. “I don’t like the look of it.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” the warrior responded.

“What now?” Ellen asked quietly.

“We wait,” Grandmother responded. “If they go another way, we will know soon and we can just wait it out. If they don’t…” She dropped her staff and flexed her hands. She could hear the bears moving in the corridors above. “This is a good choke point. We hold.”

The first bear emerged from the hall above. The curve allowed Grandmother to see it clearly without having to look around Todd. She fired a series of high tier ice-bolts at it, hoping its frozen body would help block the passage. Two more bears pushed past it and started down the stairs but it was the third bear that really frightened Grandmother. It stepped out from the corridor standing upright on its hind feet.

At least it isn’t armed, Grandmother thought to herself. She was out of options. She took a deep breath, rolled her fingers into a fist on both her right and left hands. She began to cast. This was the most complex spell she knew. It was at least tier five. It took her three months to successfully cast it the first time. The last two months of which she cast no other magic. Dedicating yourself to a single spell usually shortened the learning time.

The spell consisted of twelve symbols, six cast with each hand. The timing between the symbols on each hand had to be precise. As she began to cast a ring of deep purple light began to form around her. It started in the open space before her before circling to the left over the steps of the stair. It disappeared into the stone of the wall behind them to reemerge under the steps of the upward flight. The others on the landing pulled back away from the light in an automatic response to danger. When the end of the ring reached the beginning in front of her, she cast the last symbol with both hands and pushed the ring out away from her.

The light flashed away from them bringing with it a wave of destruction. The animation for the spell was only in the horizontal plane but its effects were spherical. Grandmother thought of the spell as pure magic but it was actually a member of the force spell tree. As the sphere of its effect raced way from them, the glass balusters on the stairs shattered and flew outward into the darkness below. Every bear in sight, including the bear on its hind legs stumbled backwards and collapsed. Several of the bodies slid off the steps.

A rustling sound rose up from below. Alex leaned over and looked down. “Spiders inbound,” he announced with an unnatural calm. Grandmother looked over the edge and saw that what she assumed was poor lighting was actually the dark color of the animals’ bodies. It was a massive nest. Luckily they were named spiders because of the silk they produced and not for their agility. They couldn’t climb walls. They would have to come up the stairs.

She cast a flurry of tier zero light spells, throwing them onto the ceiling above where they would reignite the light panels that were fading with the arrival of night.

With the increase in light Grandmother could see that farther along the wall beside the stair followed another large 90 degree curve back around to the west. It continued to drop one and a half or maybe two stories to the floor below. She could just see the animals starting to climb. There would be no retreat.

“Two minute cooldown,” she called out. The spiders seemed to be really riled up. Grandmother thought the center of her spell must have already touched the nest under the landing. At sixty seconds another bear emerged from the upper passage. It was moving forward at a good pace but at least it was down on all fours. Another emerged behind it and another. They really caught the scent now.

Grandmother shook out her hands, took a deep breath and cast.

The lead spider reached Alex before the next cast. He dealt with it efficiently with a frost blade slash from his sword. The bear that reached Todd on the fourth cast was harder. Todd managed to push it back far enough that the next cast injured it. Todd finished it off.

“Careful,” Grandmother said aloud. “This spell will kill you.” Todd just nodded as he braced himself for the next bear.

Grandmother lost count of the casts. The two warriors held their ground as Ellen picked up Grandmother's discarded staff and used it to push the carcasses off the edge. Grandmother was starting to think they were going to make it when the bear that reached Todd before the next cast walked upright on its hind feet.

The animal's changed posture threw Todd off for a vital second. It slashed out with a long upper arm and caught him across the abdomen. He cried out in pain. He infused his spear with fire and drove it in the bear’s neck. The bear fell backward into the light of the ring. Grandmother cast. Todd fell to his knees. His hands clamped over the injury. Blood streamed through his fingers.

Grandmother grabbed his left shoulder. With her right hand she cast a completely different spell. Since it came from a different spell tree the two minute cooldown on force didn’t apply. She finished the cast by bringing her hand forward and touching Todd’s neck.

Todd screamed again, louder than he did for the original injury. Grandmother released him before taking a half step back. The blood on Todd’s hands sank back into his body through his skin. He moved his shaking hands, revealing a ragged slash in his armor and unmarred skin underneath.

Grandmother shot off lightning into the first bear to emerge, hoping that the stun would slow it enough that Todd would have a chance to gather himself before it arrived.

A fountain of bright white light spilled up from darkness below. It pierced through the landing under Grandmother’s feet and encased her in a column of light. The column continued up into the ceiling high above. Every ache and pain in her body doubled in intensity and then faded away. The light vanished.

Todd retrieved his spear from the bear’s throat. He ran a shaky hand over his face and set himself for the next bear. Ellen was staring at Grandmother with wide eyes, Sarah hiding behind her. Alex killed two spiders and braced for more. Grandmother took a breath and began another cast.

This time the ring was so dark of a purple it was virtually black. It was hard to call it light. The ends met and she cast. The wave of destruction reached farther this time. It traveled all the way down the stairs and blanketed the floor of the chamber below. The sound of dying beasts was overwhelming. The only thing worse was the silence that followed.

Alex was breathing heavily. He moved stiffly. Grandmother thought he might be injured. It couldn’t be too bad, since he fought to the end. Todd finally stopped shaking. He held his spear at the ready. Grandmother reached out to Ellen and took her staff back. She leaned against it. She was exhausted.

“Let's go back up to that sitting area we passed,” Grandmother said aloud. “I need to rest for a bit.” It took some time to work their way up the stairs past the bear carcasses. When Grandmother touched the first bear, coins appeared everywhere. There were the dark coins of low value, the bright coins of high value and even the oxidized bronze coins of extreme value. It offered her an insane payout, not even counting the images of meat, hide, claws, silk that lay along each animal. She didn’t even try to look at it all. Instead she made the sweeping gesture for ‘gather it all’. She didn’t know if this would grant her all the items in the room, or all of them for the entire migration. She really didn’t care since she didn’t know what she would do with it anyway.

The dead bears continued an impressively long way up the corridor. None of them held any additional goods, indicating she gathered all the rewards from down here at least. Grandmother knew she should get a measure of the distance so she would know how far she needed to get from people before she used that spell again but she was just too tired.

The trail of dead bears ended and there was no sign of any live ones. When Control decided a migration was over, it was over. They reached the section of corridor that was widened. Todd walked to the far end of it. He stood watching the westward leading hall. Alex stopped where the hall first widened. He turned and stood watch on their back trail.

Grandmother threw a couple light spells into the ceiling and sunk down on a corner of the sofa. It was metal framed with a dingy tan cover. Sarah ran over to the windows and looked out into the darkness of the green beyond, while Ellen perched herself on the edge of an equally dingy side chair where she could keep both Sarah and Grandmother in her sight. They sat in silence for maybe five minutes, before Ellen spoke.

“How are you doing that?” Ellen asked.

Grandmother was leaning back into the surprising softness of the sofa. Her eyes were closed. She opened them with a start, realizing she was dangerously close to falling asleep. She looked over at the young woman. “Doing what?” she asked her.

“Umm, that,” Ellen said, pointing to the sofa. Grandmother stifled a groan as she realized that color must be leaching into the fabric. She looked down expecting to see a spreading wave of violet. She was surprised to find the fabric was turning into a rich tapestry of green. Vines and leaves were spreading across the surface with an occasional violet flower. The flowers contained four inner petals, a ring made of a single petal like a trumpet flower and then six outer petals. It was the coding of a spell. She didn’t know what it would do, since she didn’t have six fingers to cast it with.

“It is just happy to see me,” Grandmother said.

“It?” Ellen asked.

“The sofa. This facility was dormant for a very long time before we arrived. Parts of it are still waking up,” Grandmother explained. She noticed that the steel along the top edge was turning brown. It looked as if a layer of polished wood was building up over the metal. Somehow she knew that even when she stood up and walked away this transformation was not going to fade.

“Are you a red wizard?” Sarah asked suddenly.

“Hush,” Ellen said to the girl.

“I saw her heal Todd,” Sarah said stubbornly. “Is Todd your slave now?”

Grandmother saw Alex stiffen up at this news. He must have missed that particular event during the fighting.

“No,” Grandmother answered Sarah. “I am not a red wizard and Todd is not my slave.”

“Only a red wizard can heal a red warrior,” the girl countered, she was obviously reciting a lesson she was drilled in.

“A red wizard can heal a red warrior,” Grandmother said, agreeing with the girl. “They can also be healed by a violet wizard.” She reached out and tapped the purple flower in the new tapestry cover on the sofa. “That is what I am,” she explained, “a violet wizard.”

“That’s not a real thing,” Sarah countered.

“Alex,” Grandmother said, turning her head to look at him. “Can you come over here for a moment.” Alex was still holding the long sword. He shifted his grip on the weapon and lowered it. With one last look down the hall, he limped over to the end of the sofa.

Grandmother rose to her feet and grasped his upper arm. Her other hand was casting a heal spell even as she lifted off the sofa. She brought her hand around and pressed it into his chest finishing the cast. Alex grunted in pain and stumbled as his wounded leg gave out beneath him. Grandmother grabbed his other arm with her casting hand to help steady him.

“You’re all right,” Grandmother told him. She let go of him and sank back down onto the sofa. Alex shifted his weight. There was no pain. He wanted to pull his pants off and inspect the wound but he decided that wasn’t what a warrior would do.

“Thank you,” he said, as he returned to his self appointed post.

“A violet mage can also heal a blue warrior,” Grandmother explained to Sarah. “Only when a violet mage heals a red or blue warrior the warriors don’t experience the pleasure that leads to enslavement. Instead they feel pain.”

“Pain?” Ellen asked.

“Ask them,” Grandmother responded, with a wave at the two warriors. Ellen looked at Alex.

“Yeah, it hurt,” he responded.

“I thought I was dying,” Todd said. He was looking a lot more relaxed now. He must have thought he was enslaved too. This conversation was helping all of them adjust.

“How do you become a violet wizard?” Ellen asked. Grandmother thought about that for years. She had very little evidence to go on. Almost every human ended up either red or blue, whether they were a warrior or a wizard. She saw only a handful of others over the years. Enough to come up with a theory but no proof.

“The color of a wizard’s magic is related to the first spells they learn,” Grandmother explained.

“Like fire for red and ice for blue?” Ellen asked, drawing from her own experiences.

“Yes,” Grandmother responded, “Violet is lightning, yellow is sonics and force makes a green wizard.”

“Green isn’t just for crafters?” Ellen asked.

Looking at the young woman dressed in hunter’s greens, Grandmother experienced an epiphany. Ellen was a green wizard. Grandmother wondered how she missed it. Ellen's innocent question revealed an institutional belief that Grandmother was completely unaware of. She thought about all the crafters she had seen working in squares across the human sector. How many of them were green wizards?