Engineered Magic

37 AL: Grandmother

Grandmother assured Ellen that like warriors and wizards, crafters could have any color of magic. “It is all the same magic,” Grandmother explained to the group.

She thought this sitting area was probably a safe rest. It was the only thing that could really explain the sofa’s reaction but she couldn’t be certain unless she found the protection crystal. A low tier safe rest would not protect you from an attacking creature that followed you in. It would divert anything aggressive that might accidentally wander through as long as it was occupied. Grandmother considered if she would be better off spending the night here or in the square.

She decided to head back to the square and drop all these young people off before they got too bonded to her. She rose to her feet and checked her knife. “We best get moving,” she said to the group.

Ellen rose to her feet and gathered Sarah with her. They set off down the halls in the direction of the square. Todd was in the lead with Alex bringing up the rear. Grandmother set a much slower pace. She used light spells to reignite every fourth light panel so that they could see their way. It was full night now, so the panels were naturally dark. Usually animal life was much more active in the halls at night but there was no sign of bears, badgers or rats.

They found the stairwell to the training yards and went up it to the square. The street lights were lit in the courtyard allowing them to make their way in the darkness without light spells. They headed to the public house. A section of the pavement in the center of the courtyard began to sparkle as the group neared it. Grandmother stopped near it and watched as the sparkles rose up to form a cloud above the pavement. Curious, she reached out and touched the cloud. The sparkles coalized into a large protection crystal hovering over the paving stones. It was at least four feet tall and two and half feet in diameter. The crystal flooded with dark violet color.

Control granted her the discovery. A pile of oxidized bronze coins with three bright copper coins appeared, along with a miniature integrated crystal. Grandmother moved her hand to claim the reward. Her hand was actually partly inside the crystal. There was no resistance to her movement. At this moment the protection crystal was all illusion. Grandmother was certain that by morning it would be as solid as the paving stones beneath their feet. She didn’t know how Control would accomplish it. It could be as easy as opening a trapdoor and putting the physical object in place as soon as their backs were turned. Or it could be the more complicated version Agatha suggested long ago, involving sprayed mists and magnetic fields to three dimensionally print the object in place.

The image of the object was enough to guarantee their safety for the night, as much as their safety was ever guaranteed. Grandmother could hear the scamper of small feet in the shadows as the last of the rats fled the area.

The door to the public house was closed and secured. Todd pounded on the door and negotiated its opening. The door opened to reveal a crowd of tired citizens packed tight in the common room.

“Is it over then?” The large woman in her late twenties who opened the door asked. The woman was probably the oldest person Grandmother had seen in the settlement.

“Yes,” Todd replied. He seemed about to say more but instead he looked at Grandmother. “Can I ask what your plans are, Grandmother?” he asked.

“I have business in the east,” Grandmother replied. “I’ll see about getting a room for the night and leave in the morning.”

“Do you have a room for Grandmother?” Todd asked the woman who answered the door.

“Yes, of course,” the innkeeper replied. She turned to look back at the crowded room behind her. “Can I interest you in a meal while we sort things out?”

“That sounds delightful,” Grandmother replied. The innkeeper turned and started ushering people out. She returned to escort Grandmother to the first table she cleared. Grandmother sat down to find Ellen taking the seat next to her. She looked questioningly at the young woman as she wondered why she was still here. Ellen misinterpreted the source of Grandmother's confusion.

“Todd and Alex went to report,” Ellen explained, “and Sarah wanted to check on her friends.” Grandmother nodded her understanding. The innkeeper returned with tankards of water and a loaf of bread. Grandmother nibbled on the bread as she watched a group of three warriors enter the public room and head up the stairs with their weapons drawn. It appeared they didn’t clear out the inn’s upper floors during the migration, which explained the crowd in the common room.

With the protection crystal in the courtyard the rooms above should now be clear. Grandmother knew how things could go unexpectedly wrong. She applauded the innkeeper for being thorough.

Dinner was pan fried badger with a fruit sauce. It was very good. Grandmother welcomed the hot food after days of travel rations.

Sarah came running up to Grandmother’s chair from the open door to the courtyard. The girl stood dancing at Grandmother’s side obviously trying to get the woman’s attention, Grandmother set down the bone she was chewing on and addressed the girl.

“Yes, child?” she said.

“Teddy is hurt,” the girl said. “Can you help him?”

“What color is Teddy’s magic?” Grandmother asked. When Sarah just shrugged her shoulders, Grandmother looked over at Ellen.”

“Teddy is young. He is the son of a crafter. I don’t think he has shown any color yet,” Ellen explained.

“If he is clear, I can help him,” Grandmother responded. “But if he is green like your sister, I won’t be able to.” Sarah grabbed Grandmother’s hand and began tugging her to the front door to the inn.

“He’s this way,” Sarah said. “I’ll take you.” Grandmother got up and allowed the girl to pull her across the room. Sarah led her across to the archery store. They went through the display area in the front to the back room. About a dozen bodies lay on the floor. An alarming number of them were very small. Adult caregivers were moving among the victims, cleaning and dressing wounds.

Sarah led her to a small boy in the back. Tears were streaming down his face as he twisted in pain.

“I’ve brought Grandmother,” Sarah said to the boy. “She’ll fix you.” Grandmother felt awful that she was eating dinner while this poor boy suffered. She quickly cast heal. The boy’s breathing evened out without him crying out in pain or pleasure. It was proof the boy didn’t have a color yet. Control allowed the healing of innocents without any repercussions.

Several of the caregivers looked alarmed. One of them went rushing out.

“He will be fine,” Grandmother said to Sarah. “Let me see if I can help anyone else.” She moved over to the next injured child and cast heal. She healed eight of the children when Todd appeared. Three of them screamed in agony when the healing spell hit which meant they were either red or blue. Her healing failed on two of the children, a clear indication that their magic was some other color than red, blue or violet. Luckily no one moaned in pleasure, the tell tale of addiction.

The last two patients in the room were adults. Grandmother did not approach them, waiting for whoever the caregiver went to fetch to show up. She was surprised it was Todd.

“It’s alright,” he told the caregivers. “Harry sent me. Grandmother won’t hurt the children.” The caregivers started arguing with him, telling how three of their charges cried out in pain. Todd explained that meant they weren’t turned into slaves, which caused a new panic over the five children who didn’t cry out.

“Grandmother,” Todd said politely to her.

“Any color wizard can heal a child who is still clear,” she said back to him, skipping the greeting. “There are no side effects. It is the one mercy Control grants us.”

“And the two you didn’t heal?” Todd asked.

“They must be greens or yellows,” Grandmother responded. “Probably green from what Ellen said. I can’t help them.”

“I understand,” Todd responded. “Joe is a green,” he told Grandmother, indicating the injured man. “But Celia is a red. Can you help her?”

“Sure,” she replied. She moved over to the woman’s side and took her hand. One of the first children she healed was clinging to the woman, begging her not to die.

“Celia?” Grandmother said to the injured woman. The woman’s eyes turned from her child to Grandmother. “I am going to heal you but I am not a red wizard, so it is going to hurt.”

“Hurt?” Celia whispered.

“Yes,” Grandmother responded, “more than the original injury.”

Celia looked at her child and nodded. Grandmother cast heal before the woman could think about it. Celia stiffened and clamped her jaws together to keep from crying out and frightening her child. The pain passed and she breathed easily. She lifted the arm that was laying useless at her side and used it to hug her child. Although healed, Celia would still be weak. The heal spell tried to retrieve any freshly spilled blood. It didn’t instantly replace any that was lost. The injured person's body had to do that work. They would need liquids and a good meal.

“Can you help Joe?” she asked.

“No, I’m sorry,” Grandmother told Celia. “His magic is too far from my own. He would need a blue wizard to heal him.” Grandmother went to join Todd where he stood against a wall.

“Joe owns the shop,” Todd said to her. “A cete of badgers broke into here and attacked the children. He got most of them with the bow. The last one got too close and he beat it to death.”

“Is there anyone else I can help?” Grandmother asked.

“Several of the warriors have minor injuries. I don’t think they will want to risk healing,” Todd told her.

“Ok,” she conceded. The caregivers were moving the healed children out of the room. They were still giving Irene side looks. They seemed relieved at the willingness of the children to leave. Grandmother cast a tier two muffle spell that would keep everyone else in the room from hearing her next words.

“I can teach Alex how to cast heal,” Grandmother said to Todd. Some part of her was alarmed at her offer. It wasn’t that the healing spells were super secret, though knowledge of them was limited. The main problem was that she might be creating a monster and setting it loose on the world. “As a blue he could heal the crafter and the two children.”

“Let's step outside,” Todd said. Grandmother followed the warrior out of the shop. Todd led her away from the lights to a planter. He sat down on the edge of the planter. Grandmother settled in next to him and recast her muffle spell.

“Alex is a warrior, not a wizard,” Todd stated.

“It is all the same magic,” Grandmother explained. “To learn a spell you just have to repeat an exact set of actions a certain number of times. It is relatively easy to accidentally accomplish this while doing weapons training. Learning a weapons spell first does not limit you to being a warrior. I know lots of wizard spells and warrior spells. I even know a few of the crafting spells that I have picked up along the way.”

“But what about gathering the mana from the air and circulating it in your core?” Todd asked.

“What?” Grandmother said. She thought back to her first visit to the training yards. She remembered the young potentials rubbing their stomachs in the magic area. Had they been trying to gather mana? “I don’t know what you are talking about. I think someone has been misleading you.”

Todd was silent as he thought things over. He wanted to talk to Harry, who was the leader of the warriors and also his uncle but at the same time he didn’t. The fewer people who knew about this the better.

“I can teach you heal too, if you want,” Grandmother offered. “Although the only person here you could safely heal is me. Even the most basic healing spell is tier one but it is one of the few tier one spells with no prerequisite.”

“Can you teach me to throw a fireball?” Todd asked.

“Sure,” Grandmother responded. “That is a tier zero spell, it just takes time.”

“Wait here,” Todd said as he stood up. “I will go get Alex.” He headed off into the darkness. It wasn’t long before he reappeared trailing Alex behind him.

“What do you need my help with?” Alex asked when he arrived.

“You explain it to him,” Todd said.

“The bow maker was injured badly in the migration,” Grandmother explained. “He and two of the children have green magic so I can’t heal them.”

“That’s bad news,” Alex said. “Joe is the last of our Craftsmen.”

“I can teach you how to cast heal. As a blue you could heal him,” Grandmother offered.

“I am a warrior,” Alex said with a frown.

“It is all the same magic,” Grandmother repeated. She was starting to think those words were her motto. “You will need to be careful and never heal another blue.”

“I’m not a wizard, you can’t be both,” Alex said. It was a repeat of his earlier thought. Grandmother needed to prove it to him. She left her staff in the public house. She pulled her knife and cast ice sword. Ice coated the surface and the knife grew to the length of a sword. It was a tier two warrior spell.

“Anyone can do both,” Grandmother countered.

Alex took a step back. Grandmother canceled the spell and the ice vanished. She inspected the blade and returned it to its sheath. “If you don’t want to learn it, I understand,” Grandmother said. “I don’t know anyone else well enough to trust with the knowledge.”

“Did you tell Harry?” Alex asked Todd.

“No,” Todd replied. “Only we know.”