Kaia the Argent Wing

I stood there in the abandoned house that I was using to stash my gear from when I was Silver and sighed. I needed to transform back, but… it was hard. Being Silver was an experience I was rapidly becoming addicted to.

Cynath's voice in my head startled me enough that I let go of my dread for a second. If you'd like, I can show you how to integrate this house with the storm structure. It would allow you to fortify it from intrusion by anyone randomly wandering by.

"How… how does that work?" I asked.

As I understand it, the storm structure can be bent slightly with certain runes if they are inscribed into appropriate materials. Once those wards are complete, you embed, bury, or otherwise fix them in place and chant a spell. If your level is high enough to provide the power to encompass the area, then it will take. The wards will block entry to anyone, monster or sentient, but they must be periodically maintained with mana. It is also very important to note that there are rituals that others could perform to pierce the protections.

Holy crap, the implications of what she was telling me! I had so many questions.

"If it stops everyone, how do I get through the barrier? Oh, and how far up and down does the barrier go?"

Answering your second question first, the barrier’s height is proportional to its width and length. An area of one by one in any unit would have a height of one also, with the centre of its height being in line with where the wards are placed.

My head spun as I attempted to parse what she was saying. “Okay, I think I get it.”

Now, as for why you would be able to enter, it is because you initiated the ritual. Once the barrier is up, there will be a space in your mind for it where you can control it. You will know when it is under attack, and you will be able to allow others through the barrier. There are many additional rituals that can be performed to alter the rules of the storm within the barrier’s bounds too.

“Okay," I agreed. "Show me how."

How, it turned out, was extremely easy. I had to scratch a specific rune into a monster part like a squirrel tooth and then imbed it into the wall of the house. I didn't bother protecting the whole property, and Cynath said I wasn't high enough level to do it anyway.

By the time I was done, I'd come to terms with the fact I would have to return to my regular body. Plus, I was now extremely hungry and there should, in theory, be food in the school now.

Standing in the bedroom where I'd initially pilfered the clothing, I took a deep breath and flipped my classes. Bracing for the inevitable hairy grossness, I was confused when it didn't come. What?

I had changed back into my Kai clothing… my Kaia… no wait, my Kai… argh. Whatever, I was clothed, so I couldn't immediately see what was up, but when I pulled my pant leg up, I found that all the dark hairs there were… softer. My arms didn't have any other than faint wispy ones. Oh, and my chest was completely clear. What the fuck? Was I like… de-aging? What was going on?

Would people notice? What should I do? Wait, my face!

My hands touched down gently on my cheeks and sure enough, they were smooth as silk. God, I did not know how to feel about this. I'd always hated my body hair, but to find it suddenly missing like this? It was unsettling, especially because I had no idea what was causing the changes.

With a sigh of bemused resignation, I decided to just head back to the school and hope that nobody noticed the changes. Leaving the bedroom, I turned onto the upstairs landing and made for the stairs, only to ram the outer portion of my hip into the corner of the bannister.

"Fuck!" I groaned, rubbing the spot. That was going to bruise.

I only took a moment to peek and make sure my hip was okay before I left and hopped the fence back into the school. The mattresses I threw over were gone, probably picked up by a guard patrol. I hoped they got to them before the rain did.

Nobody was around when I dashed across the fields, wind-whipped rain pelting me the whole way. By the time I got to the entrance to the workshop, I was soaking wet and wishing for a hot bath and some clean, dry clothing.

Charles was the first to see me enter, and strode over from where he was inspecting the goods that Silver brought in. “Where’ve you been, kid?”

“Um… doing stuff…” I replied lamely. I completely forgot to come up with a cover story.

He narrowed his eyes at me, and when I looked down at the ground, I swear he was going to call me out on it. Then he just shrugged and winked. “Well then, I hope that ‘stuff’ is satisfied.”

“Huh?” I blinked. Now I was just confused. What was he implying?

“Ayo, Kai!” April's voice sailed out over the workshop to save me from certain discovery. “That Silver chick came through! She delivered all my welding gear and more!”

“Ah, ah!” Charles said, placing a hand on my shoulder before I could leave.

Crap! Think of an excuse! I was… I was… designing something! Yeah, I was designing… I don’t know…

“We have food, kid. Go have some before you get to work or your shaking hands will slip,” the old man chided me, then raised a finger and pointed. “Over there in the corner. Help yourself.”

Oh. Oh! Hell yes!

I practically skipped over to the table, where some little bags of potato chips, salami, cheese, margarine, and bread were spread out and half used. Clearly the rest of the crew had been at it already. Taking a knife, I made myself a salami, cheese, and potato chip sandwich monstrosity. When I bit down, it was like the entire host of heaven had come down to roost in my mouth. Wait, that… didn’t make sense. Basically, it tasted really damned good and I had to pace myself or I’d get indigestion.

"So what are we building first?" I asked, wandering back over to where the action was happening.

"A forge!" April exclaimed gleefully. "Hey boss! Where are we putting it?"

"Out under the awning at the entrance, dear," said Charles. "Don't want to burn the building down."

Oh, right! That made sense. "What can I do to help?"

"We need some bellows if you want to make those," April said. "I'm going to have Kim and Dan here help me put the forge together."

Kim and Dan were the two who were already unloading everything but the bricks from the trolley. Kim stopped to give me a small wave, while Dan just nodded acknowledgement.

"What kind of forge are we making?" I asked while I moved over and pulled some tools from a rack. Ah, I'd need some wood and some sort of fabric too.

"Honestly to start with, just a box made of brick. We still need some charcoal too. I was thinking the plan would probably be to make a clay-graphite closed crucible, then see how we go," April said. "I'm not too keen on following any specific design because our needs are going to be weird. We'll just follow the general principles and adjust as needed."

"Smart," I nodded, and turned to my task.

When someone said make some bellows, there was a specific setup that came to mind. Traditionally a set of bellows were two flat pieces of wood with leather connecting them to make a funny bag type thing. Traditionally, people didn't know a whole lot about shit because contrary to what your average set of rose tinted glasses will tell you, the past was the worst.

So instead, I went looking for the metal desk fan from the admin reception desk, and a bike. Wait, why weren’t we biking everywhere? I needed a bike for Silver.

Reception was happy to let me have the fan, especially since it didn’t work now, and I found a bike with the front section partially melted. Looked like someone had used it to get to the school yesterday.

When I took them both back to the workshop, I got to work. First off, I cut the unnecessary parts off the bike and stored them. Sorry Mr Bike, your corpse is going to a good cause, I swear. Oh geez, don’t anthropomorphise the bike when you’re effectively dismembering it, Kaia. Uh… Kai.

Nope, nope, I had work to do! Go away, scary gender feelings! It was day two of the apocalypse and I really didn’t want to have to deal with that shit.

Uh, so now that I had just the seat, pedals, chain, and gears, I found some sections of wood 2x4 and cut them to size for a stand to keep the bike upright. I was instantly rewarded for eyeballing the measurements when I tested it and wobbled alarmingly. One of the legs was too long. With a long suffering sigh, I found the most feral looking wood file I could find and tore the leg down to size.

From there, I pilfered a length of steel rod stock that fit into the hollow rear axle of the bike, then used some sandpaper to roughen both the inside of the axle and the rod. When I was sure I had everything set up for some glue, I glued the rod into the axle and then the fan onto the end of the rod.

From there, it was a simple matter of making a rough housing for the whole apparatus using some dust collector piping I stole and some more wood. The whole contraption was far from pretty, but when I tested it, I was happy to see a nice steady stream of air. Well, until I realised I glued the damn fan backwards. I had to carefully heat the only partially set glue, then slide the fan off the rod, flip it, add more glue, and replace it the right way round this time.

“I’m done!” I called, bouncing over to where the rest of the crew was finishing with the forge.

Well, actually it was forges. There were two side by side, one small square one, and one long rectangle. All the bricks were fixed together with potting clay from the crafts workshop, which I thought was both amusing and concerning. Surely the clay wouldn’t hold up when it was at temperatures high enough to melt steel? Huh, or maybe it would? I had no idea. Either way, I was going to find out because they were building a fire inside each forge to fire the clay.

The forges had shared an air intake hole in the rear at the bottom, and I placed my bicycle bellows back there, fixed the tube in place with some more clay and began to pedal. The effect was both instant and dramatic. Flame belched everywhere, pouring out of every missed hole between the bricks.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” April exclaimed, waving her arms around. “Kai, stop! Let us get those holes patched!”

The fires were doused, then the holes were fixed, then we started again. It was all a pain in the ass, but it worked out. The fire only went where it was supposed to, and the clay was getting a nice burny. All we had to do was wait until it burned out. Oh, and find some damn charcoal. Actually, I wonder if there were like… animals mutated and fused with coal…? That might be worth investigating.

It was late by then though, so my first order of business was to visit the reopened cafeteria to get some dinner, then go and find my friends. All through the day, there’d been this undercurrent of worry for them. They were out scavenging and well… it was dangerous out there. Goddess, I hoped they were okay.