Valor and Violence

“Here we are. The Workshop.”

The attendant, David, had brought them to a smithy district and pointed out the building that stood over the lab. Sturdy folk with arms like tree trunks bustled about the building, hammering away at half formed tools and weapons. Same as you would find in any big city really, except for the mages blasting fire directly into the furnaces or manipulating solid stone like clay.

The workers went about their business as though nothing were out of the ordinary, but Calris marvelled at the ease and speed with which the mage artisans worked. He was beginning to see how such a perfect city could become a possibility with people like this running it. The attendant cleared his throat beside him, pulling Calris from his musings.

“The entrance is inside, at the back. Good luck,” he said with an encouraging smile as he turned to leave. Calris had noticed the man’s nerves grew considerably as they approached The Workshop, which was saying something considering the state he had been in when they set out.

“You scared of The Workshop, Dave?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow at the man.

“Not The Workshop, no. The person in it,” David replied, casting a furtive glance at the building. He looked as though he expected rabid dogs to swarm out at any moment. “She is… well, you’ll find out soon enough.”

David had been kind enough to tell them a little about this Jasmine on the way over. She terrified the college attendants; she was powerful, quick to anger, and had chased the last messenger clear out of the district by literally lighting a fire under him. Rumour was that the Adepts kept a ‘shit-list’ of people they provided to the High Mage on a weekly basis, and he selected couriers from this when he needed someone to fetch her. The way David carried on, Calris half expected her to be twelve feet tall and breathe fire.

Though that last bit was plausible.

“I’m sure we can handle her,” Calris replied as he and Ban made to enter The Workshop.

“Wait!” David called, reaching out and grasping Calris’ sleeve as the marine crossed the threshold. “We still have a deal, right? You won’t say anything to the High Mage?”

“I won’t, Dave,” Ban replied as Calris pulled his arm free. “But you should have cut a deal with Cal as well.”

David whimpered and scampered off, leaving both men laughing. When he was gone, they turned to survey the building’s interior. It was a single high-ceilinged room, a series of archways substituting for walls much like the mage’s college, yet somehow the heat inside was worse than out in the sun. Yet the workers seemed unfazed as they shuttled glowing ingots back and forth between a line of forges along one wall, and anvils laid out in neat rows throughout the room.

Calris spotted the entrance to the laboratory at the back and pushed through the crowd with Ban on his heels, soon finding himself at the head of a steep stairwell leading into the structure’s bowels. He could make out the dim glow of torches somewhere down in the dark, but it did little to dispel the shadows as he carefully descended.

“Cheery atmosphere,” he mumbled, Ban scoffing in reply.

He felt a sense of trepidation as he passed through the cramped tunnel. The space was oppressive; barely wide enough for the marines to walk side by side and pitch black beyond the feeble ring of light cast by the torches at the far end.

The heat was even worse here than in the building above, and by the time he reached the door, sweat was pouring from his brow, soaking through his bandages and trickling down his back into his butt crack. He fidgeted, trying to discretely adjust his undergarments without Ban noticing while he contemplated the door. Though he felt ashamed, he was nervous about disturbing the mage on the other side. Whether it was due to what David had told them, or the physical discomfort from the heat and stab wound, Calris dreaded knocking.

“Waiting for an invitation, mate?” Ban asked beside him.

“No.”

“Scared then?”

“No!”

“Then what are you waiting for? I can see you’ve finished adjusting your panties, so what’s the delay?”

Calris scowled and gave his friend the finger. Ban always saw right through him, whether it was adjusting his jocks to soak up errant sweat or putting off disturbing a notoriously grumpy mage.

You’re being bloody ridiculous, he told himself. He was a professional soldier, for gods’ sake! No little girl, mage or not, would intimidate Calris Telruson, the company’s premier fighter and scourge of the high seas! He thumped the door with his fist, trying to clamp down on the last of his nerves, but even so, he held his breath as the door groaned open.

Then burst out laughing when he saw the Apprentice standing in the doorway.

The girl was tiny, barely reaching Calris’ shoulder. She was an Emrinthian like Ferez, though fair by comparison, her light brown skin showing a dusting of freckles about her nose and cheeks. Her hair was flame red, though unlike her mentor’s, Jasmine’s still retained the vibrancy of youth as it cascaded past her shoulders in unruly curls. Her green eyes were clear, bright, and keenly intelligent, though if he were to consider all the things they weren’t, Calris would probably put ‘warm’ at the top of the list.

All in all, she was shockingly attractive, but Calris felt a distinct lack of empathy as she regarded him with a hard, analytical expression. He would have gone so far as to say her expression and beauty combined to make her downright intimidating.

If she weren’t so small.

“Who are you?” she asked. Despite her blunt tone, her accent still rang musically to Calris’ ears.

“Good afternoon, miss. Are you Jasmine? My name is Calris, and this is my friend Ban. High Mage Ahud sent us to fetch you,” he replied. Jasmine rolled her eyes so hard Calris worried they might get stuck.

“If it’s important enough for me to drop everything and come running, he can find me himself. I’m busy,” she replied, shutting the door in their faces.

That was rude.

Calris let out an exasperated sigh and knocked again. The door swung open much faster this time.

“Are you impaired or just plain annoying?” Jasmine demanded, planting her hands on her hips and quite obviously trying to puff herself up to look bigger. Calris was careful to ensure his own eye rolling was contained entirely within his mind, keeping his face as diplomatically blank as possible.

“Ferez said you might be reluctant, but that’s why he sent us. We’re the Calandorian marines who delivered his shipment from Marduk. Whatever was in the delivery was important enough for the Guild Master to organise a hit on your master and an assault in broad daylight on the escort. I’m… sorry to say, but they killed one of your college guards. The other would have died as well if Ban and I hadn’t been there,” Calris finished, dreading her reaction.

He hated telling people their friends and family had just died in battle. They always broke down crying and sobbing, and he was not emotionally equipped to handle it.

Here it comes…

“Was it Elgan or Asim?” Jasmine asked, her voice betraying no more emotion than if she were enquiring about the price of bread. Calris was unsuccessful in keeping a blank facade this time, his face contorting in confusion at her unexpected response.

“Sorry?”

“Who died? Elgan or Asim?”

“Uh… Elgan.”

“Good. I like Asim. He’s a good man.”

She turned and walked back into the room without another word, though this time she left the door open, at least. Calris shot Ban a look, only to see his expression mirrored.

“Miss, I may be new to The Six, but I would have expected this to be serious news.”

“It is,” she replied without looking back.

“Then might I suggest we leave so you can see your master?”

“I’m not leaving yet. My experiment is in a critical phase. I can’t just drop everything and walk away. If the old man made it to the city gates, then he is safe now, and I shan’t be long.”

Satisfied that she couldn’t see him with her back turned, Calris threw his head back and rolled his eyes as hard as he could at the ceiling. His patience, already worn thin, was threatening to snap completely.

“Listen here, Princess, one of your guardsmen just fucking died, and your master has demanded your presence. I feel this should become your priority.”

Whether it was his tone, choice of words, or both, this got a reaction. Jasmine spun, anger blazing in her emerald eyes.

“No, you listen here! Elgan’s care lies with the gods now. Talented as I am, not even I would be so presumptuous as to believe I could do anything for him. And whether I am at the tower now or in half an hour won’t change a single thing that has happened prior to or next. And don’t, ever, call me Princess.”

Val’Pyria’s tits. This woman is cold.

She had a point, though, callous as she was. Elgan was dead regardless, and he doubted there was anything an all-powerful High Mage could do with his fresh apprentice attending that he couldn’t do without her. And at least she wasn’t crying.

“Alright, but you’ll come when you’re finished here?”

“I don’t very well have a choice. The old man still controls the purse strings I need for my research. You can run along and tell him I will be there soon. Or get that seen too,” she said, gesturing to Calris’ side. He looked down and saw a trickle of blood running down his leg from underneath his jerkin. It had already reached the floor and started to pool. He scowled. The sweat pouring off his body must have softened the scab and, combined with all the walking, set his wound to weeping again.

“Bugger.”

“Quite. The Aetheris college is not far. I am sure anyone outside will be kind enough to give you directions,” she said, dismissing the marines with an imperious wave of the hand.

Ban turned to leave with a satisfied grunt, but Calris didn’t move. Though he really should get the seeping wound in his side seen to, the fact she had attempted to dismiss them with a wave incensed him.

“We’ll stay, miss,” he said, jaw set.

Jasmine fixed him with an irritated glare but provided no argument.

“Very well,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “You can come in and wait, if you must. Or wait out there. I don’t really care, just stay quiet and out of my way.”

Calris entered as Jasmine returned to her work, casting a curious eye across the tables, contraptions, and general mess of the laboratory. If he were to describe it using a single word, it would be… chaotic. Various instruments were scattered throughout the room, filling every available space on the many benches and even spilling onto the floor in some places. The only relatively empty space surrounded a large glass tank in the centre of the room and the metal cylinder on a stool next to it. The tank and its contents, two different coloured metals floating in a viscous fluid, seemed to be the focus of the young mage’s attention.

“Bloody Pit, this is bad as your side of the cabin, Cal,” Ban remarked from somewhere amongst the clutter.

“Stones and glass houses, mate,” Calris replied as he bent to inspect what appeared to be a large metal keg, complete with a tap. “What’s this for then? Thirsty work down here?”

Jasmine spared him the briefest of disgusted glances.

“It’s used to purify and separate metal ores through the application of extreme heat and the principles of density gradients within heterogeneous substances. Combined with particle bond theories, of course,” she replied, probably expecting her big words to confuse the simple soldiers. Joke was on her, though, Calris understood every word.

Or, some of them, anyway.

“So… similar to how oil and water form two different layers, but if you had to melt them first.”

Jasmine paused her tinkering to turn and glare, clearly disappointed her attempt to humble them had failed.

“Not just a pretty face, Princess,” Calris quipped with a wry smile and a wink.

“I told you not to call me that… Ape.”

Calris’ return scowl lost a lot of impact on account of Ban snort laughing off in the corner.

“Good one, Jaz, I’ll have to let the squad know we’re changing his nickname,” he said, walking over and slapping Calris on the back. “And not even a pretty face, I’d say. It’s a basic principle of smelting. Most soldiers and blacksmiths are familiar with it.”

“True. I’m still pretty, though,” Calris said, nodding. “But back to the original point; metalworking in a glass tank is odd but not exactly magical. Why couldn’t this wait?” he asked, gesturing to the large tank the apprentice was tinkering with.

“Because I have finally acquired… this,” she replied, tapping the top of the metal cylinder sitting on the stool. Calris strolled over and picked it up. It looked to be made of iron, though a fine lattice of the same brassy metal as the assassin’s necklace swirled chaotically across its surface. He once again found himself, not hearing, but sensing a faint thrum, as though there were a ringing just on the cusp of what his ears could discern.

“What is it?” he asked as Jasmine hissed and snatched it out of his hands.

“It’s a Resonance Ore Storage Cylinder. Very rare and very expensive.”

“Alright, next question; what does it do?”

“I thought I told you to stay quiet and out of my way?” she said, carefully placing the cylinder back down.

“You did.”

Jasmine raised her eyebrows expectantly, but when Calris refused to move she sighed, as though losing patience with a particularly exasperating child.

“It stores Talent, the energy that powers our magic. For most of us, our natural reserves are sufficient for day-to-day activities, but when we need more, we can use these. The iron is laced with Resonance Ore in a way that traps Talent, allowing a mage to siphon it out when they choose. I will use it to achieve temperatures exceeding my regular abilities in an attempt to fuse these two different metals. The resulting alloy has never been created before, and I believe it will be most valuable.”

“Fancy ore absorbs magic, and you can pull it out when you need it?”

“Essentially.”

“Does the magic evaporate or something if you don’t use it soon enough?”

“No. This is the purpose of the lattice; any Talent that leaks is reabsorbed by another branch of the ore. They are quite ingenious,” she said, regarding it with the softest expression Calris had seen so far. Evidently, this chunk of metal was more important than Elgan.

“Remind me again why this couldn’t wait?”

Jasmine’s warm expression vanished in an instant.

“Because I need to return it before its owner realises it is missing. So shut up and get out of my way.”

Calris scoffed but decided discretion was the better part of valour and backed away. Jasmine’s gaze followed him with a pinched expression, shooing him when he didn’t move far away enough. When Calris was finally leaning against one of the few bare patches of wall, his arms crossed and trying to look nonplussed, she turned back to the tank.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, bringing her hands together in front of her. Her brows furrowed in concentration as a small ball of flame appeared in her hands, flaring into chaotic life before she pressed in on it, coaxing and shaping until it was smooth as glass. Calris squinted at it, trying to discern the swirl of colours across the surface of the orb, but the dancing patterns of light made him dizzy and forced him to look away. Turning his head brought relief for his eyes, but unfortunately not the rest of his body as the temperature in the room exploded.

“Telrus’ sweaty ball sack it’s hot,” Ban said beside him, fanning his face with his hands in a vain attempt to cool down. “Even the bloody fire mage is sweating.”

Sure enough, when Calris glanced over, he could see sweat beading on Jasmine’s face as she manoeuvred the flame underneath the tank, the orb suspended just a few inches above her outstretched palms. The different metals in the tank melted almost immediately, but though they swirled around each other in the tank, they refused to blend.

Jasmine grimaced, holding the orb steady with one hand while she flung the other out to grasp the top of the cylinder. When her hand met the metal, the orb flared, and the temperature spiked even higher. The activity in the tank grew frenzied, but the metals remained stubbornly separate, and Jasmine roared in frustration as she poured even more power into the ball.

Calris felt like he was on the verge of passing out and, beside him, Ban slid to the ground with a groan. He called out to Jasmine to stop, but the mage, engrossed in her work, paid him no heed as the molten liquid in the tank coalesced into a powerful vortex. Calris staggered forward, desperate to stop her before she cooked them alive, the mage laughing hysterically as the metals finally began to meld in the tempest.

But it was no use. Calris fell to his knees, overcome with the heat, resigning himself to the fact this was how he would die when a tiny crack appeared in the tank’s surface. Jasmine noticed too late, screaming “no!” at the top of her lungs as the glass ruptured outwards, molten liquid spraying across the room.

“Eh’fleghn kavar!” Jasmine screamed as she dropped her hands, the orb vanishing and plunging the room into darkness.

Calris stayed where he was, seated on his haunches in a daze, as Ban crawled across the floor to rest next to him.

“Did she just say-”

“Yep.”

“Well… That’s not very ladylike.”

They sat mute in the dark, listening to the laboured breathing of the mage as their eyes slowly adjusted.

“I think we almost died just now, Cal.”

“Yep.”

“I also think I understand why Dave was so shit scared of her now.”

“… Yep.”

“What now?”

Calris contemplated that for a few long moments. In his head, there were two voices arguing. The sensible voice said that he should cut his losses, get to the healers, and then get as far away from this psychotic mage as possible.

Unfortunately, the louder voice convinced him he’d be admitting defeat if he left now. He clambered to his feet and stumbled over to Jasmine with as much grace as his tenderised, heat addled brain could manage, taking a second to compose himself before speaking.

“I assume the tank wasn’t supposed to explode like that? Such a tragedy, please accept my condolences. All of them, even. Now, if you please, let’s get back to Ferez.”

“I will leave when I am ready, Ape. For now, I need to clean up this mess and repair the tank for my next attempt.” Jasmine let out a sigh. “Maybe if I reinforce it with a rigid crystalline lattice?” She trailed off, mumbling to herself as she glared at the cooling metals.

“Are you insane?” Calris shouted, startling her from her reverie. “You almost killed us! We are going, now, and you are coming with us… Princess.”

Jasmine stiffened and Ban cringed, but Calris was beyond caring. Today had been shitty enough already, and this spoilt brat was making it much, much worse. He stepped towards the young woman and reached for her arm, but stopped when she raised a hand.

Glancing down, he saw her other hand was still on the cylinder. He almost managed to articulate the word “fuck” before Jasmine snapped her fingers.

Calris was vaguely aware of a roar, a flash, a thud. And then darkness.