Four days later Will was introduced to one of the loves of his life.
A glowing panel above William’s head shone through one Nurrim’s translucent mana construct sheets projecting the pattern onto a 2 inch by 8 inch by ½ inch strip of wood held in place with clamps. Will lightly grasped the mana scriber Nurrim had given him and carefully flowed mana from his hand down the mithril core of the pen as he inscribed the pattern into the wood. A shadow fell over him, but using years of experience in ignoring fellow students, Will focused and waited until he was finished before looking up into Nurrim’s smiling face.
“Good job inscribing the pattern Will. I’m impressed. Now would you like to see what it does?”
“Of course!” Will carefully unlatched the strip and handed it to Nurrim, before following him through the labs. “I am wondering, however, if it is not a complete pattern, but only part of a larger one.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I recognize the use of force and control glyphs in it; however, I noticed a couple of linking glyphs on the edges implying to me that it’s part of a spell, rather than a spell in itself. Also, to be honest, I still don’t understand what the mana it manipulates is supposed to do.”
“You’re right of course, but let’s put it together with the rest of the spell and I think it will become clear.” Nurrim ducked down as they entered what appeared to be an access shaft so small that even Blurs needed to crawl. The shaft ended in a panel which Nurrim slid aside before crawling into a space filled with beams and joists. Lying on his back, William saw two brass rails along the ceiling with strips of wood like the one he had just finished snapped into place between them. The now familiar connector glyphs linked each section of spell to the next in an elegant swirl of magic.
Nurrim snapped William’s spell strip into place causing the entire line of strips to light up in their sight as the pattern was completed and mana flowed through the circuit. William memorized the spell patterns he could see and then at Nurrim’s nudge, followed him to a slightly larger area with a trap door in the ceiling. Nurrim twisted a small brass wheel causing the locking bolts to disengage before sliding the door sideways. Then grasping a handhold, he hauled himself through the door before leaning back down and giving William some help getting out of the crawlspace.
William looked around at what appeared at first to be a smaller version of his uncle’s inscribing lab. A worktable with clamps and inscribing gear was along one wall while a small magical forge and wood carving station was on the opposite side. A study containing bookshelves with glass fronts took up the third corner. The ceiling was 20 inches, more than enough for a Blur, but cramped or impassable for most other races.
“Nice work area. Is this now mine?”
“Indeed, it is Will. But there’s more to see so follow me.”
Nurrim slid the trap door back into place and locked it after showing William how to open it from this side. Then exiting the room, he pointed to an obvious vault door on the right glowing with spatial magic.
“Any guesses?”
“Looks like a bag of holding I saw at college. Same principle?”
“Close. It’s what the larger races would call a backpack of shrinking with an external size of 24 inches wide by 18 inches high by 36 inches long and an effective internal size of 8’ wide by 6’ high by 12’ long. Unlike a bag of holding, it doesn’t extend into other dimensions making it much safer and allowing it to store dimensional anchors without conflict. Rather, anything that enters it is shrunk by a factor of 4. The room it is in is lead lined so it’s a good place to store people and things you don’t want the average divination spell to find. And if you need to escape from some catastrophe, there is a way to eject it at which point any larger friends of yours can just pick it up and carry it along for you.”
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Will felt a growing suspicion as to what was really going on and decided to dig for more information. “Why would a catastrophic event happen here Uncle? Actually, knowing your enemies, I could see that, but anything that would threaten you is beyond my ability to handle.”
“Ah, but that’s the point. You see if you need to use the ejection function, you aren’t going to be here.” Nurrim smiled and led the way up a set of stairs to the next level.
Reaching the top of the stairs, Will noticed a higher 3-foot ceiling as well as obvious living accommodations for both Blur and Hobbit sized individuals. A door on the left opened to a living room with a large window next to another door. Looking through the window, William saw a wall. The room contained both Blur and Hobbit sized furniture. To the right of the stairs Will saw a bathroom, again with both Blur and Hobbit sized facilities.
Will followed Nurrim along a short corridor into a kitchen with both hot and cold boxes as well as a window showing a distant wall. Ahead of him, an open door led into a room with a Blur sized swivel chair in the center facing some sort of wall panel. Both the chair and panel glowed with magic; the panel’s due to the obvious spell strips outlining it.
“Alright Uncle, I’ll bite. What’s really going on?”
“Just sit in the chair and give me a minute to bind it to you and I’ll explain.”
Nurrim was smiling in the way he often did when he was just bursting to boast about some neat thing he had come up with. Will walked over to the chair noticing a series of strips with linking glyphs coming up through the floor, no doubt, from the series of strips he had seen in the crawlspace. The arms of the chair had onyx strips where his hands would rest. Sitting down, William saw the chair come alive with magic while the panel in front of him suddenly turned transparent showing a workspace with open doors leading outside.
Looking out the window, he saw the large open sliding door that led outside and wished he could take a break and go there. Immediately he felt a small vibration and the door grew larger as the building he was in moved up to and out the door confirming his suspicions.
“Nice entrance. Glad I warned the staff to stay away from the front of the wagon.”
“Wait. Stop.” The movement stopped. William removed his hands from the onyx strips and turned toward Nurrim raising an eyebrow sardonically as he did so. “So, this isn’t just a residence for me. It’s a means of transportation. Correct?”
“It’s both a house and lab with 3 floors and a means of transportation.” Nurrim replied grinning. “I remember you telling me over the years how you wanted to be a gentleman adventurer, traveling the world and righting wrongs in style. Sort of like me, but without all the explosions and body parts.”
“So, I took a large gypsy wagon, remember most of the middle races are still 4 to 5 times your size, and outfitted it with a modern 3 floor Blur lab and residence. I got the idea from a fellow mage who invented a spell to move wagons along without horses. I just took his spell, broke it down and then rebuilt it better. That’s the spell strips you and I were working on. The ornamented outer walls hide the residence behind them.”
“How long will the wagon be able to move?”
“About 8 hours at a time. I’ll teach you the spell ritual which you’ll want to cast to refresh the mana wells for the wagon. I’ve also included basic navigation routines, so you don’t have to be here to drive all the time. You can tell the wagon to follow another wagon, follow a road or even follow a horse you hook up in front of it. This last will put less strain on the horse and hide the wagon’s true nature. It also has basic safety features to prevent it from going off cliffs or hitting trees, unless you want to that is.”
“The wagon is also a great test bed for our embedding of spell structures and a good cover for you as you travel the world and work on our plans. It means you won’t have to limit yourself to what you can carry as everything you need will be right here with you. I believe eventually the spell structure will become embedded in the structure of the wagon and naturally recharge from the surrounding mana. At that point you won’t have to use the ritual to keep it charged.”
Will explored the wagon including his upstairs bedroom and then got out and examined it from the outside. This is awesome! He played with the illusion spells that allowed the wagon to change its outward appearance. I never thought I would get to have a vehicle like this! And it’s all mine! Thank you Uncle! Now how can I improve it? A dozen possible improvements entered his mind and he lost himself for a few hours just dreaming and writing his thoughts down.
“William!”
Will poked his head out the door at the shout and looked down at Aunt Joan who was standing by the wagon with a smile, holding a piece of cake and an envelope.
“Come on down and join me for a snack. Your Uncle’s just finished making his plans and is dying to see how well you do in the real world.”
“Coming!” Will blurred down the steps and gave his aunt a kiss on the cheek. Taking his slice of cake, he followed her to see what Nurrim had in mind.
A week later, he was on the road to his first cover job in a wagon filled to the brim with Magi-Tech.