Erick sat beside Poi and sipped his coffee, while he glanced out over the clan and the herd, through Ophiel. The clan and their herd was spread out over several kilometers, with cows grazing everywhere, or else drinking water in the small tributary nearby, which was the reason that the clan had stopped here for the night. There was no riverside near this stop, but there was a riverside at the next stop, 30 kilometers away. Once the clan got there they’d be [Grow]ing crops to refill the cold boxes.
Erick decided he wanted to help with that; not only to get some of his own favorite foods into his own cold boxes, but to introduce some variety into Clan Pale Cow, to see how they like chocolate, and vanilla, and other spices, as well as lemons and potatoes. Ah, yes! Potatoes. Much better than whiteroot. Whiteroot was just too stringy.
He asked Poi, “So why are you in here, and not out there doing some small job, like everyone else? I’m pretty sure we’re as safe as could possibly be.”
Poi paused, and then said, “I thought that I would help with cooking, with Nirzir. But after being rushed out of the kitchens last night when I tried to help… I decided to guard you, instead.”
“And I appreciate it.” Erick nodded. “But about Pale Cow. It’s the hypocrisy that’s getting to you, isn’t it?”
Poi froze a little, then thawed, and said, “Most people are hypocrites and some people are worse than others, but these people… It’s bad. Painful to be around, to tell the truth. Everyone is using magic all the time, but everyone lies about it and hides it from everyone else.”
Erick chuckled. “Yeah. It’s kinda weird, isn’t it? The kitchens are full of [Ward]s of all types, and everyone is using [Cleanse] on their yurts to keep them clean, or [Ferment] to make mead, or [Mend] when they tear something, and don’t forget the conjured Force when they have to fight something.” Erick guessed, “Maybe this cultural phenomenon stems from the general taboo regarding casting the magics in front of other people? But taken to an extreme? Maybe it’s not actually hypocrisy… maybe.”
Poi frowned a little. “Perhaps.”
“Well, whatever it is...” Erick said, “I’m not gonna let it stop me from defending myself properly. I’m going to make a yurt, and it’s gonna be pretty darn magical. Got any requests? You want your own room? I’m pretty sure I’m gonna have to give Nirzir her own room.”
“Don’t make it anything special, at all.” Poi said, “Make it normal sized, and exactly in the style of everyone else’s yurt. That means no separate rooms for anyone. Just one central room with the firepit in the center, and an opening at the top to let out the smoke. A [Prismatic Ward] inside the space is good enough defense.”
“… I guess that’s one way to go about it.” Erick considered his other necessary spellwork, and said, “Perhaps I can throw in some Mana Altering for Illusion when I make the [Spectral Cow] spell. Make them look as normal as possible?”
“That would also be for the best.”
Erick breathed deep, then stood up, saying, “Time to get to work!”
A great big thud shook the ground outside, as Ophiel deposited the raw material needed to make the yurt.
“At least we’re a good hundred meters from the rest of the caravan.” Poi said, “But I guess there was no way to get the eternal stonewood here other than to blip it in, was there.”
Erick smiled, said, “Everyone blips around inside their yurts, anyway, Poi. I’m just being more open about it.”
A large-sized boulder of the material in question rested on the ground, not twenty meters from the [Obscuring Redoubt]. Erick had scooped the boulder off of the small clan mountain he had made upon the plains and Shaped into a copy of his house in Spur. The boulder would serve well as a yurt, considering that eternal stonewood was stronger than stone, and about the same weight as oak.
People on the porches of the caravan were looking his way, though for the most part, all they could see was Erick and his new boulder. The [Obscuring Redoubt] was invisible to everyone not tagged to be able to see the spell.
Poi followed Erick out of the [Obscuring Redoubt], and Erick saw a few quiet surprises on the faces of the onlookers. To them, Poi’s appearance was like a man appearing out of nowhere; quite terrifying, actually. These people had some strange ideas about magic… Very strange, actually. Maybe one of them would be willing to talk to him about their culture? Later?
But anyway—
Erick asked, “Did you like sleeping in the Redoubt?”
“It was fine.” Poi said, “It will serve well when we move on from this land and are forced to hide to have any measure of true safety. But the Redoubt should only have one room, too. It’s both a boon and a liability to have everyone in the same space, but I feel that the boon outweighs the danger.”
“Hmm. Fair.”
Erick turned to the boulder, and considered how he would Shape it.
From what Erick had seen in videos on the internet now and again, the yurt of a grass traveler was not exactly like the yurts of the people back on Earth. Those Earth yurts were oftentimes grey because they were made with wool coverings, or other cloth-like wrappings. Some of the more expensive yurts on Earth were white canvas, with decorations on the outside, but mostly, decorations were reserved for the interior, in the forms of carpets and other fabrics.
The yurts of the grass travelers were similar to all the expensive, decorated and professional yurts that existed on Earth. But with one major difference, of course. Sometime in the distant past, someone on Veird had gotten the bright idea to make carts that could tow the yurts, and thus the ability for a yurt to be taken down, to be moved somewhere else, was no longer a concern. The yurts of the grass travelers became more solid constructions, with an odd yurt here and there actually having two stories; though those oddities were reserved for special buildings, like the hawkery.
Erick vaguely recalled that the people of Earth had mobile yurts, too, but for the richest of people and mostly in the ancient past of Mongolia, or places like that. But then again, Erick barely remembered if he had read that, or if he was conflating that idea with what he was seeing before him.
The yurts of modern day grass travelers were all mobile houses. They were all colorful things of love and dedication, with each one unique in their beauty and personality. For starters, only half of the fabrics that went into the construction of a yurt came from the [Grow]ing of cottonfruit, producing a stark white fabric that was the outside of the yurt. Onto that whiteness, the people of Clan Pale Cow had embroidered colorful thread made from their wool-producing cows. Every single white yurt had decorations of all kinds, mostly composed of flowers, or clouds, or cows, or geometric designs.
In the light of a new day, and after having a relaxing night, Erick was actually able to see the beauty in the yurts all around him. The people took a lot of care with their own appearances, too. Only the warriors of the tribe wore leathers and furs. Most people wore layers of plain white cloth, while their outermost layers had little flowers embroidered upon the hems, or vests with expansive geometric designs.
The carpets of every house, many of which were laid out on the front porches, were works of art. The leather flaps that served as doors each had designs upon them, and each house’s design was unique. Not a single thing in this land was mass produced. Everyone made their own stuff, or at least everyone added their own touches to their own stuff. As Erick looked out, he even saw people embroidering onto their yurts at this very moment, either to repair old designs, or to make new ones.
But, looking more clinically and with an eye toward information gathering, every yurt was constructed more or less the same.
The average construction was a circular room about ten meters across, with gently angled flat walls that went to a mansard-like roof, with a hole in the center of that roof that could be closed with the flipping of a cap. The materials that made a yurt were wooden supports, attached to varying rings of wood. The largest wooden ring was ten meters across, serving as the base of the structure, while the smallest was only a meter across, serving as the hole in the top. The white fabrics that surrounded every wooden frame were the same, and every house had the same layered system; from the inside to the outside, there was a layer of white fabric, the inner wooden frame, a layer of loose wool to act as an insulator, the outer wooden frame, and then two layers of outer fabric with both being waterproof.
The cart under every yurt was more or less the same, too.
They were seven meters in width, but eleven in length, with the yurt positioned directly in the middle so that there was a porch-like space in both the front and the back, with the front porch being where the cows would be hitched, and where the driver would sit. The two axles of the vehicle were located at meter two and meter eight.
The wheels might not be hard to understand, but the axles and their suspension systems were complicated, and there was no way the people here made those. Firstly, they looked forged. But also, they were layers of arced and braced-together metal, suspended on an undercarriage that was fully replaceable, and looked to be screwed on to the yurt’s bottom. They were not custom made for each vehicle. Clan Pale Cow either traded for those suspension systems, or they had workshops somewhere else for some other clan members to do some heavy forging, because there were no forges in this caravan.
Their suspensions were easy enough to understand, though, and even if Erick didn’t do the forging properly, he could temper the metal in other ways… But there was a lotta metal down there.
Erick didn’t have any metal.
He could make some wooden suspension, probably? Each yurt must have weighed at least three tons or more, and while eternal stonewood could easily support that much weight, eternal stonewood was not normal wood.
When Erick built the clan mountain for Red Ledger, there were a few things he had to keep in mind during the construction, like ensuring that the mountain was one continuous piece. When a mass of eternal stonewood was large enough, it was able to ‘heal’ itself through small damages, such as temperature stresses and the moving of people, but this healing was less in the way of automatic [Mend]s (which was a whole other problem), and more in the way of ‘ignoring through illusions’ all the damage being done to it.
The problem of [Mend] and eternal stonewood was that [Mend] worked on unliving things, but large masses of eternal stonewood were ‘alive’, and so, [Mend] should not work on a clan mountain. Erick supposed that this ‘alive’ functionality of the clan mountains blurred the lines well enough to allow [Mend] to function, but still, that blurring was odd, once one knew enough about what they were seeing.
Was Illusion magic some kind of a Schrodinger's Cat thing?
Interesting, if true.
But anyway. Eternal Stonewood used in small portions (like that which was the size of a yurt and cart) was very much deadwood, and so, any suspension he made for his yurt, that he made out of wood, would be subject to all the problems of wood that was practically unbendable.
And suspension systems needed to be bendable to work.
Erick quickly decided that he was not even going to try and make some ‘bendable’ wooden suspension systems. To try that was to ensure that he had a bad time. He simply needed to ask someone where they got their suspension systems, and he could go buy one. They probably came from several suppliers in Songli, right? And besides! This would be a good time to get to know some people. Perhaps they wouldn’t run away from him this time? One could only hope.
Erick glanced around, and locked on his target. The target was a neighbor, about a hundred and ten meters away, currently brushing down some cows, getting them happy and ready to pull his yurt. That man probably knew about the suspension systems for his yurt. Erick took a step—
Air springs.
He stopped.
… Air springs were rather rigid structures that—
No. Wait. Air springs needed rubber, and they were very much not rigid. Not going to work. And how did that work, anyway? They were like… Okay. So. The axle of the vehicle was on a floating arm that was offset from the axle, and that could move up and down, but between where the axle met the frame of the vehicle, there was a rubber balloon-like structure that could fill with air as needed. ‘As needed’ was determined by some computer sensors, usually, but it should be possible to use a [Conjure Force Elemental] and Elemental Ooze to make some sort of balloon-like substitute—
Nope. Erick decided against going that route.
He could probably do a lot with magic. He could make a vehicle that worked exactly as he wanted, which allowed for a perfectly smooth ride. But that would be rather showy, wouldn’t it? And showy magic would be rude. No need to be rude.
Besides, he could probably just use [Control Machine] on whatever suspension systems everyone else was using in order to create a mostly smooth ride. He had made [Control Machine] back when he made chocolate but he barely used it, except for when he made the phonograph. Oh! Now there was a nice bit of non-magical technology that might be good to show off around here. Maybe they’d like the mechanical nature of it? Record players weren’t magical at all, after all.
Last night, more than a few people got out their instruments to try and get a small music group happening, but then Ophiel joined in—
Ah.
Erick had made a lot of missteps last night. Oh well. He could be more circumspect about his magic. Erick headed toward the man brushing down the cows, with Poi following close behind.
It didn’t take long to get near enough to the target and his house.
The man’s wife, who was on their porch breastfeeding their baby, saw Erick coming their way. She said something to the man down on the ground, and the man whipped around to see Erick.
The man froze like someone had cast [Stop] upon him. And then he blinked, and animated again, only to look left and right, trying to guess if Erick was walking at him, or toward someone nearby. The wife helpfully clued her husband in that Erick was walking exactly this way.
“You parked us here for this reason, Zan,” the wife whispered/hissed.
The man turned, glared lightly at his wife, whispering, “Yes, Solia. This is what I wanted.” Then Zan turned back toward Erick. He was all gentle smiles.
Erick had yet to get within 50 meters of the man, and already he was thinking this was a mistake. But Erick pressed on!
Ten meters away, Zan called out, “How does the sun greet you, Archmage Flatt?”
It was a bit of an archaic, polite greeting, but Erick had caught on enough here and there to respond, “With as much warmth and light as I hope it does you, Herder Zan.”
Zan flinched at the saying of his name.
Erick added, “And you as well, Herder Solia.”
Solia flinched half a foot into the air, her baby coming undone from her breast and giving a tiny cry. Without missing a moment, Solia gave an excuse that the baby must have messed himself and then she retreated into her yurt, escaping from the gaze of the archmage.
Zan ignored the disturbance behind him, asking, “Uh. How can this one help you?”
Erick ignored the drama, and said, “I’d like to know where you got the suspensions for your yurt. Everyone seems to have the same ones, and you’re the closest, and yours looks the newest, so I thought I’d ask you, first.”
Zan paused, his eyes going wide. “Uh. Leader Niyazo gets them for us. Usually as wedding gifts for the founding of a new yurt. That’s where we got ours a year ago. Uh. I’m not sure how you would get four of them?”
Erick nodded, saying, “Thank you for the directions.” Erick already knew where Niyazo’s yurt was, so he turned that way, and gave a farewell to Zan, “Blessings to you and your new family.”
Zan piped up, “Uh! Can I— Can I have a moment of your time?”
Erick turned to the man. “Certainly.”
Zan instantly said, “Thank you for helping to find my mother’s killer. The face stealer had her face for the past three months, but I knew she was wrong. She was always such a wonderful mo—” Sudden tears streamed down his face, and his voice cracked, but he kept talking through the lump that settled in his throat, “She was a wonderful mother, and person. She’d do anything for you, and you’d do anything for her in return. She was never a burden. She was always a boon. But then she just changed. Overnight. At first, we didn’t think anything of it because people change, sometimes. But it was bad and— We caught her looking at our child and—” He stopped crying, as his face turned hard. He said, “And then Songli tracked a face stealer through to our shared home. They found the thing posing as my mother…” He looked up to Erick. “Thank you. Who knows what the monster would have done if you weren’t here.” He rapidly added, “I couldn’t say anything last night. But now… Thank you.”
Erick had not expected that. For a moment, he felt as if any push at all would topple him to the ground, for the man’s pure conviction and relief was almost a palpable force upon the air. Erick eventually found some words, and said, “I’m sorry that happened to your mother. She sounds like a wonderful woman.”
Zan blinked out another tear. “She was. Thank you.” He paused, then added, “Uh. Good day to you, Archmage Flatt.”
Erick nodded, then resumed his walk toward Niyazo’s yurt, keeping his face as expressionless as he could, and his breathing even.
Two minutes later, Erick was walking by a different yurt, with different people brushing down different cows, when an interruption appeared.
A young girl who had been eyeing his walk all this while, stepped away from her cow, calling out, “Archmage Flatt!”
Erick stopped and turned to the girl. She had to be 14, perhaps. “Yes? Can I help you?”
Like a triumphant merchant, the girl said, “Yes you can! I want—”
The girl’s mother, who was also brushing down the cows, rapidly interceded, stepping between the girl and Erick, saying, “Please pay her no mind, esteemed Archmage. She is a precocious child who knows not with whom she speaks.”
Erick experienced a whiplash of emotions, as he read the face of the concerned woman in front of him, and came to the conclusion that the woman thought that he was going to harm her daughter. Erick was almost offended—
But the girl was apparently offended, too, and on Erick’s behalf, no less. She shouted, “He’s not gonna hurt me, Ma! You shouldn’t listen to those storytellers so much!”
Erick said, “I assure you, madam, that I would never hurt a child unless they were secretly a dragon, or a Shade, or a Hunter in disguise. And only if they were out to harm me, or others, first. I believe my track record is rather solid when it comes to these facts.”
The girl looked less sure of herself as Erick added caveat after caveat. The woman’s eyes simply went wide.
Erick added, “Now why did you call out to me, young lady?”
Emboldened, the girl hopped around her mother and declared, “I want some pretty night lights! Can you do it?”
The mother looked both scandalized and deeply embarrassed. She wanted to run away, but she did not.
Erick simply gave a tiny smile, and asked the girl, “In what colors, and in what designs?”
At that, the mother’s grip on her brush failed. The hairy instrument tumbled to the ground, and the woman left it there, as she turned, and walked away from the situation. The girl’s older brothers had stopped brushing their cows to watch whatever was happening with their sister, but at Erick’s question their casual interest turned into incredible, unspoken jealousy.
The girl didn’t notice that. All she did was exclaim, “Bright orange and white and yellow! Like fire! Something to see with at night! Something to drive away the dark!”
“How about I make one for each of you kids?” Erick asked the boys behind the girl, “Would you like that?”
The boys’ jealousy evaporated like mist under the sun.
One of them said, almost sadly, asked, “Can you do blue, like the ocean? I ain’t never seen the ocean.”
The second boy, desiring to hurt his sister, said, “I want fire, but bigger than Cor’s!”
The young girl, Cor, turned to her brother and promptly started cursing at him like a sailor.
The mother looked their way, briefly, then turned away, muttering about how she can’t save them from themselves all the time. The boy who had asked for the water globe seemed to mirror these sentiments.
Erick, meanwhile, had already had an Ophiel shape some eternal stonewood into tiny pellets, and then had him attach the requested lightwards to those pellets. He did not make the boy’s fire larger than the girl’s, both were ten centimeter wide spheres, but he did make two that were slightly different from each other. One was more for reading, with better ambient light, but the other was flashier, with tiny sparkles in the fire. Erick was happier with the water orb lightward, though, for it looked to him like a world made of water, but when gazed at from outer space. Whorls of clouds hung in the sky, forming miniature storms and air currents, while the waves of the water’s surface reflected whatever light was around, sparkling like a proper ocean. The boy would need very good eyesight to see all of what Erick had packed into that tiny, ten centimeter blue sphere, though.
With a flicker, and before the girl’s tirade got going and the boy was forced to give a response, Ophiel came to Erick’s side in a step of light, floating there with the three stones in his lightgrip. The wardlights for those stones floated above them, one sparking, one glowing, and one oceanic.
The girl stopped talking. The fire boy’s clenched fists relaxed as his eyes went wide. The ocean boy smiled a little as he gazed upon the blue sphere.
Erick had Ophiel extend the ocean wardlight to the ocean boy, saying, “Here you go. It’ll last for a while, but not forever.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The boy tried to grab the sphere, itself, but his hands passed through it, and his entire persona went from happy, to crushed in an instant, thinking that a trick had been played on him. The brother and sister saw this happen, too, and were instantly angry at Erick. Erick almost laughed at that; At least they could come together against a common enemy. But he did not. Their anger was genuine, even if it was misplaced by mistake.
Before they could get mad, Erick said, “Grab the stone under the light. The [Ward] is attached to the stone, so that you might set it somewhere and have it float where you set it.”
The kids paused their anger.
“Oh.” The boy grabbed the stone, and the lightward came away from Ophiel’s grip. “Heh.” The boy wiggled the stone around, and the lightward wiggled around with it, but Erick had made this one special, and the water actually broke from the surface of the sphere, like an ocean exploding into the sky. “Woah,” went the kid, as he stilled the rock, and the ocean settled down. He looked to Erick, saying, “Thank you, Archmag—”
“Which one is for me!” said the fire boy.
The fire girl said, “I want that one!”
“You want the ugly one?!” Fire boy said, “Fine by me! I want the pretty one!”
Oh thank god. It worked out like Erick hoped it would.
He handed the prizes to their respective kids, saying, “There’s no inherent magic to any of them, besides being lightwards. Don’t expect them to save your life, or anything. Low magic, like these items, doesn’t work like that. Low magic works exactly as you want it to work, and these are just lights. That is all.”
The girl looked disappointed for a moment, but inside their yurt, their mother was deeply relieved.
Fire boy said, “Duh! I knew that!”
The girl didn’t care about her brother’s words. She only had eyes for her wardlight, except when she looked up and rapidly said, “You’re alright.” And then she went back to staring at her prize. She wiggled it back and forth, and the light broke apart and came back together almost like the ocean sphere had, but the effect was much less pronounced.
Erick walked on, leaving the kids to their new toys.
The other yurts of the caravan were spread a fair bit apart from each other, but they were all close enough for the more inquisitive people to notice that Erick was walking through ‘town’, talking to whoever approached. And there were a lot of inquisitive people; someone always had eyes on the horizon and ears open, searching for signs of monsters.
There were none more inquisitive than those of the hawking yurts, which were easy to tell apart from all the other yurts due to their two story structure, and their wooden walls, instead of walls made of canvas. The hawking yurt of this main branch of Clan Pale Cow was raised even higher than the norm, with a raised platform above the second floor, so that people could stand on top and keep eyes out with [Ultrasight] and other abilities. All the real grass traveler clans used hawks to send official messages around to each other, as well as patrol for monsters from the sky. In that way, the hawkery was as much a mailroom, as it was a radar station.
And since Erick was walking past the hawkery to get to Niyazo’s yurt, they very much knew he was passing by.
The flap to the hawking yurt flew open and a man rushed outside. He was a heavily muscular man, more so than normal, and as he put his hands on the railing of his yurt he locked eyes on Erick, making sure that he was seeing who he was seeing. He called out, “Ho! Archmage Flatt! Spare a moment, please!”
Erick turned his walk toward the hawking yurt, asking, “Can I help you?”
The man excitedly said, “None of my hawks have seen any monsters all last night or even today! Did you kill them all?”
Erick stopped before the man, looking up to say, “Yes, I did.” And then, to circumvent the man’s next question, he added, “I couldn’t sleep so I took care of the problem that was making me unable to sleep. I am charged with defense of Pale Cow while I am here, after all.”
“Ha!” The hawker laughed, then he turned to see a woman come out of the yurt behind him. “Did you hear that! I was right, Uli! You owe me a dinner!”
The man seemed boisterous, while the woman, Uli, was not. She was older and stern of face, and rather thin, but when she spoke, it was with kindness. “Then that merely means that you only owe me three dinners, for you always base your guesses on the weakest of evidence.” Uli turned from her coworker, to look at Erick. “Thank you for killing the Abyss Drinkers. We never notice those until after they’ve grabbed a cow or three, and then retreated so far down that we can’t give proper chase. Nasty things.” She glanced around, looking at other yurts in the near distance. “I suppose it’s time to get some cows to harness. Let’s get to it, Heizel.” Uli hopped off of the side of the yurt then gave a tiny bow to Erick, before she headed off toward the herd.
“Right!” Heizel followed the woman, landing with a great thud upon the ground, but he turned back after a moment and called to Erick, “It was nice to meet you! I feel we owe you many dinners, so come on by sometime! My hawks always hunt up some nice lizards!” And then he turned back and raced after Uli, who had already gone rather far ahead.
Three seconds later, the cry of a large bird chattered out of the second floor of the hawkery, and then the door at the top flapped open, and a beautiful golden brown bird chased after his people, following Uli and Heizel, crying about being left behind. Other birds inside the yurt called out as well, seeming to complain about the complainer.
Erick smiled a little, wondering if he was anthropomorphising the hawks, or not. He guessed he was, but that much was fine. He continued walking toward Clan Leader Niyazo’s yurt. Ophiel, sitting on Erick’s shoulder, just watched the other birds, without doing much except to give a tiny mimic of the golden hawk’s whining cry. Erick patted him on the head, and he pressed into Erick’s hand.
He walked on.
Koori was outside of her yurt, along with several cows, and several people brushing down those cows. Each animal had canvas bags of grain attached to their faces. Koori’s cow turned toward Erick, swinging his horns around, which earned him a stern grab upon the horns from Koori’s solid hand, stilling the cow’s movement. She let him go when he didn’t fight her.
Koori glanced Erick’s way, but turned back to her cow, while calling to him, “My husband is with my daughter Iylea at the cheese yurt. I believe your daughter is there, too. I think they are both learning to milk the cows and make the cheese. But if that is not what you were after, can I help you with something?”
Her words had hard edges, but Erick was surprised to see that she was much less antagonistic than she was yesterday. Or even last night. Something had changed. She, like many others, had seen Erick walk her way, and she had seen him interact with the other clansmen, so maybe she approved? Or maybe she approved of the systematic killing of monsters? Whatever the case, it was a nice change.
Erick readily said, “I am making myself a yurt and a vehicle, and I want to know where to get a set of the large suspensions that everyone else has.”
Koori’s brushing paused. Then she continued, and half turned toward Erick. “You aren’t going to magic up a solution? I saw how easily you gave magic to those kids.”
“There will be magic involved, but I want to keep that to a minimum in consideration of your traditions, thus, the need for mundane suspension.” Erick wanted to make these people as comfortable as possible, for now, because when the dragons showed, no one was going to be happy with him. “I admit that it was a bit rude of me to give those kids those wardlights, but they’re just lights; nothing more than something pretty to look upon.”
“The Lure of Darkness is always just ‘something pretty to look upon’ until it is more than that. Until it corrupts and shreds, and leaves nothing but death and damnation in its wake.” Koori said, “These dragons you are after are supreme examples of this.”
“I completely agree.” Erick said, “But to call every knife a sword and then be scared of every sword is to make it rather difficult to cut a steak.”
Koori’s cow mooed at the mention of steak.
Koori, however, just kept on brushing as she let out a good-natured laugh, then said, “With enough care and cooking, even the toughest steak can be cut with a finger.”
“But then you’d have to use a napkin to clean your fingers. And why make the mess if you don’t have to? And besides: who has time to cook a perfect steak every time?” Erick added, “I can keep up with whatever analogy you wish to pursue, or we can drop the one-upmanship here.”
“We’d all be better off if there were no magic at all.”
Erick found himself speaking a lot harder than he likely meant to, as he said, “In some ways, you are correct, but in others ways, you are not.”
Koori stopped brushing her cow and turned fully toward him. “I understand you come from a world without magic.”
“Aye. This much is public knowledge; yes.”
“And it is true, that you plan on opening [Gate]s to other worlds?”
“That is the far-off plan.”
Koori frowned in thought. She tried to understand him, “Are you trying to get back home?”
“Getting back to Earth is never going to happen, and mostly because I have no idea where Earth is in comparison to Veird. Even if I did find the way back, though, I wouldn’t want to bring the Script to Earth, for magic is way too destructive.”
Koori blinked a few times, unsure if she heard what she had heard. Then she moved on, saying, “We get our drive systems from Clan Metal Rider, who gets the raw materials from a city that no longer exists in Alaralti, east of the Wanzhi River. That city was destroyed by Terror Peaks, and their entire population spelled to death by magics that should not exist. It is my understanding that this destroyed city was where you found Amasar.” She said, “Clan Metal Rider should still have a few suspensions available, but if they do not, then there are other clans that operate in the metal forging trade. Heizel or Uli at the hawkery should know the location of Metal Rider and all the rest. If they fail you, Speaker Yorila would know.”
Erick nodded, saying, “Thank you. Then I go in search of Metal Rider.”
“When you get your yurt up and running, I want to call upon you for a discussion of your words. To know why you think I would not enjoy a world without magic, and why you would not want to inflict magic upon your own world, if it is so great.”
Her words were calm, but she was unsettled, and highly interested in talking. It might be nice to know what she thinks of the Script, and how it could be made better, for new planets meant new manaminers each possibly working a different Script. Obviously, such planning was getting way ahead of himself, but it would be good to look to the future before they got there.
Erick simply said, “Sure. Whenever you wish to talk, I will be available.”
Koori said, “We will be leaving at noon. Do you think you will be ready by then? If you are not, you can ride with our yurt.”
“Thank you for your offer. We might have to take you up on that offer if I can’t find suspension systems for purchase.”
Koori nodded, then went back to brushing her cow. Behind her, other clansmen were done with their brushing. One was already strapping a leather and cushioned-canvas harness around the neck of their own cow. That cow mooed a bit at the weight of the harness, but it was a joyful sound, accompanied with a small up and down happy jerk of the head. The cow was happy to work.
Erick turned around and walked back toward the hawkery.
But Heizel and Uli were still out and about, getting their cows.
Erick went with the other option. He still hadn’t had that private talk with Speaker Yorila, so maybe now was the time.
- - - -
Yorila and her accompanying apprentices, all three of them, were stationed in the same yurt about a kilometer away from everyone else, on the very edge of the caravan’s mobile borders. It didn’t take long for Erick and Poi to get there, but Yorila and two of her apprentices were out, gathering some cows for her yurt.
Yorila’s remaining apprentice was a short, skinny man, with a malformed left arm, who came out of the yurt to stand on the edge of the porch and tell Erick this much, and then to say, “She’ll be back soon.”
Erick listened to the man and was polite with his facial features. He even said, “Thank you, Boril,” in a polite tone, but internally, Erick was completely flabbergasted to see a person with a physical deformity.
He had seen a lot of those on Earth, and he had helped a lot of people to cope with their situations, but on Veird? Rarer than a crystal slime! Magic could fix almost all physical problems, after all. A dozen questions flooded Erick’s mind. He answered those questions himself, almost just a fast, by turning on [Soul Sight], then [True Sight], then [Soul Sight] again.
Boril’s twisted arm conformed to his twisted soul; there were no illusions here.
Apart from the soul damage, which was obviously abnormal, the way the arm grew alongside the soul was normal. The body naturally healed according to what the soul laid down. Erick wasn’t exactly sure how this worked, but that was how it worked, generally.
But! Healing Magic did not work off of the blueprint of the soul. Rats’ soul was all sorts of fucked up, but a weekly treatment of [Greater Treat Wounds] and [Regeneration] healed his body back to normal. If he didn’t get those treatments then his eyesight went bad, first, and then came arthritis in the hands and feet, and then a whole host of other ailments came along, each one increasingly worse than the last. If Rats went untreated for a month, he would die. This was the major reason that Rats became a Healer in the first place.
And so, if Healing Magic worked for Rats, it should work for Boril’s arm, too.
Okay. So. Erick did not need to be involved with this, either, but he had to, so he asked, “Does Healing Magic not work on your arm?”
“Aye; it does not. I’d cut it off, but—” With good nature, Boril shook his withered arm, saying, “I’m attached to it.”
Erick laughed a little, since the man was obviously making a joke, but Erick was uncomfortable in playing along. So he moved on as fast as he could, saying, “Anyway. I came here to locate another clan, to find some suspensions for a yurt I am making. Can you give me the location of Clan Metal Rider? Or anyone else that sells suspension systems for yurts.”
Boril nodded, then looked away, his eyes clouding over as he stared off into the distance. Three seconds later, he came back, and pointed with his bad arm, to the east. “That way. One and a third [Teleport]s. But if you just need a suspension system, everyone around here has at least one replacement rig. We got two spares if you want to pay us back later. Don’t know where you’d get the other two, though. Or the axle, or the brakes. We don’t got none a that.”
Erick had already noticed the replacement parts in everyone’s yurts, but it was nice to hear someone actually offer those extra parts. “Thank you for the offer. I might take you up on that if I can’t get something from Metal Rider, but I’m going to try them first.”
Boril asked, “Do you need some plans for your own yurt?”
Erick grinned. “Already got those, too, but thanks for the offer. Could you tell Yorila that I was here? I still haven’t had that talk with her.”
“Certainly, archmage. Do you want me to let Clan Metal Rider know that you’re coming?”
“You can call me Erick, and no, you don’t have to tell them. Not unless you think notice would be needed? I plan on showing up and buying what they have available. Would that be a problem?”
Boril said, “Messaging ahead isn’t really needed. They’re merchants; not orthodox. You can [Teleport] in and purchase what you want, long as you don’t pop into the middle of the clan. Walk in, politely. Should be fine.”
“Thank you for your help.”
Boril nodded, then returned to his yurt.
Erick and Poi walked back to the wooden boulder.
Erick could have done this entire thing as easily as covertly [Duplicate]ing someone else’s suspensions. Or, he could have Imaged for the shape of the metal, and tracked down the seller on his own, or at least their warehouse. Or he could have made the parts himself, and smoothed out whatever problems arose through judicious use of [Control Machine]. But none of that would have allowed him to get to know the people he’d be living with and defending when the dragons came around.
And so, having taken a few small steps to becoming a guest of the community, and more importantly, feeling that he had actually been successful in that endeavor, Erick had an Ophiel throw an Imaging up in the air far to the east; that plan to search for suspensions came in useful, anyway. Soon, the map populated with thousands of markers. Erick found many, many clans, but also what had to be Clan Metal Rider, with their stockpiles of finished goods.
A series of lightsteps swept Erick and Poi toward their destination, along with a fair bit of the monster cores Erick had gathered from last night’s monster cleansing. How much could the struts cost, anyway? A few dozen gold? Better to be prepared, just in case.
Clan Metal Rider had yurts made of steel and iron, and no cows at all. They even had a Teleport Square set up near the side of the encampment; it was just white pillars of stone marking out a square plot of bare ground, but other people were already using that zone to blip in and out, and that made the whole transition to the clan easy as pie. And since Erick kept Ophiel out of sight, they had no idea who Erick was, so this was great! Erick quickly found the suspension vendor at her forging yurt.
And then he discovered the price of a set of suspensions, and that was less fun.
It was a full grand core for a yurt suspension kit.
Erick balked at the price, like any person would, and then he directed the conversation to easier waters, trying to talk shop with the vendor, to find out how they moved their own vehicles around without any cows.
“Ha!” The vendor laughed. “Cows are for eating! Not for moving a yurt! You just need to get you [Control Machine], my fellow. It might take a few tendays to work it right, and the mana cost to keep it working right is rather high, but I’m sure you can manage. If my idiot nephew can make the spell, then I’m sure you can, too.”
The nephew in question, who was currently holding a hammer and banging away at some glowing red steel in the back of the barn, scowled, saying, “Hammering is better’n magery, ya old milker.”
Erick went back to the subject of the cost, “I can work on that spell, I suppose, but I’m still stuck on the cost. A whole grand core?”
The vendor didn’t laugh anymore. She stared Erick down. “That’s the price. You don’t deserve to be a grass traveler if you can’t take down a grand core monster. What you gonna do if an abyss drinker takes your cart? You gonna let that beastie keep it? No! But… I reckon you ain’t a grass traveler, are you?” The woman frowned a little, then asked, “You from Songli?”
“You’re right; I’m not a grass traveler. But I got friends in a clan and I want my own ride.”
The woman nodded. “Fair enough. Still a grand core price. The price of admission, or the price of a rite of passage. Don’t matter to Clan Metal Rider; those are the prices set by Ooloraptoor, and we abide by the Politeness of it all. But! If you can’t get the glow together right now, we’re here at this riverside all week. We’ll be here when you’re ready to pay.”
“No need.” Erick had an Ophiel blip a core directly into his open hands. It was a pale green thing the size of an orcol’s head. “Came from an abyss drinker, just last night.”
The woman startled at the display of magic but she recovered fast enough, her mouth opening in a wide, happy smile. “I suppose you earned the right, then, best as anyone else. You need transport? That costs extra, but normal prices; ten gold per 100 kilometers. We’ll get a whole system to you quick as you want.”
“No need for that. I got [Teleporting Platform].”
With a genuine grin, the woman said, “Well ain’t you fancy.”
Business proceeded rapidly from there.
Soon enough, Erick reappeared at his boulder of eternal stonewood with his axles and suspensions and braking system all piecemeal, sitting around him, just waiting to be put together.
And so, Erick put the pieces together.
The base was a rectangle seven meters across and twelve meters from front to back, with the wheels placed at meter 2 and 9. The yurt was a little larger than most since he wanted Teressa to be comfortable, but the shape was perfectly normal, if a little taller than all the others. Anyone looking at his yurt would think it a normal construction, with the walls even patterned to look like taut canvas, but the walls were actually thick eternal stonewood; thick enough to withstand most damaging spellwork. A dragon would still make quick work of it, though. The point of the structure was just to provide defense against normal [Fireball]s, and such, and this yurt could definitely do that. It even had windows and doors, though Erick took pains to make them look like normal canvas while they were shut.
The front had a nice porch, with a place for an outdoor fire. Erick would entertain guests there, if he got any, and he was pretty sure he would have some, soon enough. Perhaps even some draconic representatives, too.
He had no cows, though, and no plans to get any.
Instead, he had magic.
With his Ophiel surrounding him, and standing on the front of his new yurt, Erick harmonized the sounds of simple life in [Conjure Force Elemental], alongside [Mysticalshape]’s ability to make Reality appear in reality, and [Husbandry]’s ability to connect with an animal.
Erick had never used [Husbandry] before, but it was the standard spell to include in [Spectral Steed], and so Erick included it. [Mysticalshape] was non-standard in this sort of spellwork, but as soon as Erick heard the spells all together, he knew that Illusions would work well in this spell, and for multiple reasons. First, he could make the summon look like a real animal. But also, he felt he could conjure the summons with barding and harnesses, already attached. He could probably make the spell modular, too, and capable of working alongside multiples of the same spellwork.
He smiled, imagined a happy cow, and—
And realized that he could add in other spellwork, too. The components for [Control Machine] were [Control Item] and [Alter Friction]. Oohh yes. This was good.
He had Ophiel harmonize the tune together, and knew it to work well. [Alter Friction] could even be used to increase friction between the summoned animals and the ground, while it decreased friction on all the moving parts of the yurt’s undercarriage.
Ah. Yes. This would work out well.
A cow, or a set of cows, able to control the machine they were attached to. This would be useful in so many different scenarios! Most of those scenarios involved being incognito and driving around animal-powered vehicles, but that was fine.
Erick cast.
A splash of white light resolved into a beautiful, shaggy white cow, directly in front of the yurt. It had gleaming white horns and a white leather harness that yoked the animal between a pair of wooden beams that extended out from the yurt. The wooden beams hadn’t been there until Erick had cast the spell.
The cow lifted its head and glanced backward with its big, black eyes, and mooed upon seeing Erick; it was a happy note. Its tail swished back and forth as it —or rather, he— pawed the ground, seemingly ready to go.
Cute!
A blue box appeared.
Imaginary Work Animal, instant, close range, 1500 mana.
Summon a happy imaginary animal that gains and grants you fine control over a suitable machine of your choosing. The summon will listen to your commands and carry out simple instructions, but is not capable of much more than a normal animal of the summoned type. Multiple summons fitted toward the same goal will seamlessly join together, if possible. Lasts 1 hour under heavy workload. Lasts up to 24 hours with an easy workload.
Casting this spell again on any configuration of creatures summoned from this spell renews the duration.
Erick cast the spell again, and a second shaggy white cow joined the first. The white wooden beams that attached to both sides of the original cow became a single, large, central wooden beam, and the cows adjusted themselves to stand on both sides of that beam, their yokes automatically adjusting to the new configuration.
Erick giggled a bit, then said, “Steady walk forward, if you could.”
The cows walked forward and the yurt easily followed, as though the cows were pulling almost no weight at all. Erick steadied himself a bit as the yurt moved underneath him, but it was not that difficult to remain upright. The suspensions, and the spells controlling them, worked perfectly! As the yurt bumbled along, Erick felt as though they were on a paved road, instead of on a grassy plain.
“Pause,” Erick said.
The cows slowed down, and then stopped, swishing their tails and looking around. One stomped their foot and sniffled out, looking very much like a real cow.
Poi, who stood behind Erick, spoke up, “It’s nice. Could use some color, though.”
Erick chuckled, then said, “It is very white, isn’t it!” And it was; Erick had used the white eternal stonewood to make the whole thing, and the cows were white, too. The only color present was on the metal parts, in the undercarriage; those were grey. He said, “I’ll let everyone else color up the place. You got any decorations you want to put up? Go ahead.”
Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye, which had been rather sedately watching Erick this whole time, seemed to perk up at Erick’s offer. He leapt off of Erick’s shoulder and went to the wooden door to the yurt, then bounced around a bit.
Erick wasn’t quite sure what he was saying, since Yggdrasil wasn’t using his words, exactly, but Erick guessed, “Put a tree on the front door? You?”
Yggdrasil’s eye bounced around happily, and waited.
Erick cast a lightward over the door. A tree took hold of the surface; a stylized version of Yggdrasil, showing off his roots and his branches and his crown of rainbow light. It was a pretty good image, in Erick’s opinion.
Yggdrasil seemed to approve, too, as he nodded and then retook his place on Erick’s shoulder.
And that was it; that was all the work Erick had for the day. Done in just a few hours of walking around.
Now, Erick and his people had a mobile home, and the way to move that home, and soon, the caravan would start moving again. People would likely come over to visit, and Erick would need to go out and get some actual furniture and such, since this was life for right now.
And that was great, actually. Just the open plains and the cows, and talking with other clans, and eventually with dragons. This was much better than pursuing the Arcology lead, or asking around for the Red dragon.
Now where was everyone else…
Erick glanced out with Ophiel.
Ah. There’s Nirzir.
The young woman was finishing up with the cooking yurt. Cleaning, it seemed. And by hand, too. Jane was also done with her duties at the cheese yurt; she exited that yurt alongside Niyazo and his daughter Iylea. There was a story there, for sure, because wasn’t Jane supposed to be with the cowherds? Yes, she was. Teressa was still at the teaching yurt, but while the kids wanted her to stay, she told them she could not; she needed to ride with her boss while they were underway. She had already been gone for too long. While she was attempting to leave, the teacher in that yurt told Teressa to come back anytime.
Erick smiled at that.
Clan Pale Cow seemed like good people. Sure, Erick had upset their life, and they were adjusting, but they were a lot more welcoming today than they had been yesterday. It just takes time, sometimes. Also, sometimes it takes the murder of every single major threat within a hundred kilometers, but that was fine, too. Most people were basically good, anyway, but stress had a habit of turning people rotten in unexpected ways.
Ah. Now that was a nice thought.
Erick hadn’t had a thought like that in a long time. Eh. He was probably under too much stress, himself. A nice cow ride across open plains sounded really good, actually— Oh! This was a road trip! Heh. Erick smiled at that little revelation. Road trips were fun. Sometimes.