Talia stood up on the eaves of wagon one while the trio of gnomish engineers installed her masterpiece on the edge of its roof under Torval’s watchful gaze. Deciding on the placement of the weapon had been a languid back and forth between Torval and Darkclaw. The final consensus had been that it was better situated in the front of the column, atop the command wagon. The beam had a long range, but placing it in the centre of the wagon train meant that its usefulness would be harshly restricted by its firing arc and the possibility of friendly fire. At the end of the day, the battlemaster had conceded that any threats they faced were more likely to hit them from the front than the back.

The tunnels behind them were most likely Crescian hunting grounds, after all.

Talia wasn’t sure what the right choice was, content with leaving such decisions to those with more experience and battle sense. She watched nervously as the triplet gnomes argued over the minutiae of the installation, discussing something about soundproofing.

The young arcanist wasn’t the only one who’d come to watch; the crew had been hard-pressed not to notice the odd happenings and had gathered around wagon one, mumbling amongst themselves and shooting curious glances at the ash lance. Some of the veterans recognized the weapon, probably the ex-legionnaires.

Torval stuck his head over the edge of the roof, beckoning to her.

“Why don’t you come on up? We’re almost done,” he said.

Talia glanced at the crowd, suddenly nervous, but grabbed hold of the ladder and climbed it anyway. She grabbed the delvemaster’s proffered hand and allowed herself to be pulled up onto the flat wagon top.

“They’re almost done. All that’s left is to test it. I figure it’s only fair that you do the honours,” Torval said.

Talia looked at the delvemaster like he’d gone mad.

“Are you crazy? That thing could bring the whole cave down on us if I’m not careful,” she whispered.

Torval scoffed and squeezed her shoulder.

“Well then, I suppose you’ll just have to be careful, won’t you? Besides, if it’s that dangerous, there’d be no point in using it. Not much of a weapon if it kills us along with it.”

Talia harrumphed, unconvinced. She’d been slightly exaggerating the lance’s power, to be sure, but firing the thing without a need seemed like an unnecessary risk.

Is it? You know Reggie always swears by proper testing. Sure you aren’t just afraid of it not working? It’d be a shame if all your hard work and braggadocio blew up in your face…

Talia frowned to herself before sighing and bobbing her head in acceptance. She was being unnecessarily cautious. Better to know of any problems before they relied on it in battle. Not testing it was stupid.

“Fine. You’re right. We need to test it,” she said, “but we’re doing it the right way. I’ll need Zaric or Osra up here to charge it and load it for me. We’ll start with the low power setting and ramp it up to maximum. I’ll fire at the far wall for a few seconds at a time.”

Torval nodded with a slight grin.

“Perfect. Why don’t you go introduce yourself to the triplets, if you haven’t already met? I’ll run down our mage-commandrum.”

Talia glanced skeptically over at the trio currently debating the placement of the tripod’s bolts. She’d seen them around the expedition on occasion, and supposedly they were under ‘her’ command for the duration of the delve, but the introduction had never really happened. Partly because their skills hadn’t become necessary yet, and mostly because Calisto had been distracted in her mentorship by all the other things that had popped up on their journey.

No time like the present, I guess.

Talia sauntered over, receiving a nod of greeting from the two burly beastkin that had lugged the lance out of wagon seven. The pair seemed keen on not intervening, which Talia could appreciate.

The gnomes weren’t intimidating, per se, just…eccentric.

“No, no, no, you moron if we drill in there, we’ll break into the upper layer of soundproofing for the cabin, you can’t just—”

“Better the soundproofing than risk cracking the structural beams with heavy bolts, you bumfuck. We’re better—”

“Off using brackets? You said that already you nitwit. Where are we going to anchor them? Can’t exactly have them wrap around the wagon, now can we?”

“That’s why I was saying—”

“We can’t just—”

“—if you idiots would just—”

Talia’s head whipped back and forth between the identical gnomes, threatening to give herself whiplash. Seeing as an opportunity to interject wasn’t presenting itself, and the argumentative trio appeared completely unaware of her presence, she took a page out of Calisto’s book and cleared her throat loudly.

“Ahem.”

“—move it forward half a metre—”

“No, no, no, that’ll make the swivel useless—”

“—the swivel won’t matter if—”

“AHEM.”

Finally, the trio caught sight of her, turning in eerie synchronicity to look up at her. The triplets one and all had sharp, triangular faces, with identical bulbous noses set between sharp cheekbones. The only differentiating factors between them were minimal. One carried a pair of tinker’s optics on his toolbelt, whereas another had gloves covered with articulated metal tooltips on the finger. The third had an array of gears, bolts and cogs threaded through his shaggy brown hair, almost like a dwarf’s clan beads.

If a glorious dwarven beard could, in any way, be compared to the veritable packrat’s nest of metal debris and greasy hair that was the gnome’s head.

“Ah, wouldja look at that, it’s Arcanist Vestal-Angrim. Finally decided to do your job?”

The optics-sporting gnome barely got out a sneer before his brother smacked him upside the head with his articulated gloves.

“Don’t be rude, you git. Didn’t you hear what happened to Ikkel? I heard she’s learning on the job, and doing the best she can, isn’t that right, Wyrmslayer,” he said, a sparkle in his emerald eyes.

“Uh…” Talia eloquently responded.

The gearhead rolled his eyes at his brothers and stuck out a tiny hand.

“Ignore my younger brothers, Arcanist, they were dropped a few times too many when they were tikes. I’m Fred, and these are Ed and Ted. I keep these two morons in check.”

“Who’re you calling a moron, you dolt?”

“Yea! Just cause you were born a few minutes before us doesn’t mean you’re suddenly in charge!”

Talia decided to intervene before the squabbling could start anew.

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“Right, with names like that, I’m definitely going to confuse you, but it’s nice to meet the three of you. Torval wants me to test the lance before we leave tomorrow, so why don’t you get me up to speed on what the problem is, and we can get the ball rolling,” she said through gritted teeth and a wide smile.

Her ‘solution’ only prompted another slew of overlapping, nasally objections about how they should install a godsdamned tripod.

I’m starting to see why Torval pawned these guys off onto Calisto while I got up to speed. They’re enough on their own to drive anyone positively bonkers.

----------------------------------------

Whatever their flaws, once the triplets got to work, they got to work. It took them all of ten minutes to gather the necessary materials, get the muscle to shift the ash lance around, and then secure it in place.

Just like merchants, however, it seemed that no matter Talia’s solutions, one of the triplets was always left unsatisfied. It’d taken some grumbling, but at the end of the day, they’d settled on scooting the tripod back and securing it to the secondary support beams of the wagon, coating the bolts with a resinous glue to help preserve the sound seal and drilling slowly to avoid cracks.

Talia didn’t really care how they did it, as long as it eventually got done. Which, no matter their odd methods, they eventually did.

The young arcanist was bracing herself for another round of arguments when Torval and Zaric climbed up the ladder to join them.

“Wonderful,” the delvemaster called, “glad to see there wasn’t any trouble getting it set up.”

The gnomes fell silent, preening visibly and jostling each other. Talia repressed the urge to glare at them.

Oh, so now they behave.

She affected a proud smile.

“Yep. No issues here. Just waiting on some mana and particulate matter to test the thing,” Talia said, “We should probably clear the roof though. Just in case.”

She looked down at the gathered crowd.

“And maybe ask them to step back. Can’t be too careful…”

Torval didn’t even need to say a word. A nod was enough to get the trio of aggravating engineers off the roof along with their beastkin helpers, who seemed all too relieved to be dismissed.

Zaric walked over to the ash lance and set a palm on the mana funnel.

“Oof, that’s quite the reservoir you’ve got on this thing,” he grunted.

“You can tell how big it is from just a brief touch?” Talia asked, conscious that she couldn’t reveal too much in front of the gathered delvers.

“Aye, once you’ve filled up enough artefacts, you start to get a feel for it. This thing is a mana guzzler for sure.”

Talia shook her head.

“It shouldn’t be. It just has an oversized capacitor bank to pull from,” she said, “courtesy of Osra.”

Zaric hummed an acknowledgement.

“We’ll see about that. Anyway, this thing takes physical ammunition, doesn’t it? You mentioned particles, if I remember correctly.”

“Mhmm. I was thinking we’d just use the ash from the firepit—”

“Would stone dust work?” Zaric asked.

Talia paused and considered it.

“Shouldn’t pose a problem, but wouldn’t we just—”

Zaric winked at her and theatrically raised a hand towards the ceiling. There wasn’t any indication of his removal, but he must have been tearing stone from all across the cave, as within a few seconds he held a ball of particulate stone double the size of his head, hovering above his palm.

“Think this’ll do?” he asked, still filtering his mana into the lance.

Talia passed a hand through the orb of almost liquid sand.

“Can you make it a little finer?” she replied.

The mage didn’t even have to concentrate.

“Try now.”

The young woman ran her hand through it again.

“That’ll work. Stick it in the receptacle here,” she said, pointing at a small cone in the chassis that functioned as a funnel.

The sand floated over and slipped into the hole like it had a mind of its own. If she’d had the resources and the time, Talia would’ve added some glass to indicate the amount of ammunition it held. Unfortunately, glass seemed to be one of those things that actually required a workshop to fiddle with. Their small forge didn’t get hot enough to blow glass, and modifying it with a heat enchantment was logistically and realistically…tedious. If she’d been in the city, she might’ve circumvented the issue by adding a light, or some kind of visual indicator but in the Deep Under, that was a big nono.

Blank firing the thing won’t damage it, and I should be able to get a feel for how long I can use it. According to Reggie’s notes, it shouldn’t be too ammo hungry anyway.

“I’m about halfway done, feels like. Do you need this thing on full charge? Or is this enough for a test?” Zaric asked.

Talia raised an eyebrow at the mage-commandrum.

“If your emittance is that good, why do you insist on torturing Osra on every occasion?”

He affected an offended look.

“Who me? Torture? Perish the thought! I simply wish to see her succeed, and what better way to train than on the job?” Zaric said with a grin.

Talia rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but smile at the man’s theatrics.

“Always about the training with you…” she said, shaking her head, “Yea, half charge is more than enough. Ideally, I would’ve wanted less. I didn’t realize how quick you were.”

Zaric winked at her.

“Should’ve said so to begin with. They didn’t let me off the hook without a master mage for no reason, you know. Let alone give me apprentices to train,” he replied, removing his hand from the lance and giving it a shake, “And hey, I’m not quick, I’m thorough.”

Talia’s face screwed up in confusion at his joke, making him falter.

“You know? Thorough? Like with the… Oh forget it, you’re no fun,” he complained.

The young woman blinked blankly after him as he walked away while shaking his head.

What’s that supposed to mean? Thorough with whom?

Whatever the root of the odd humour, Talia put it aside as Torval approached her, looking over the final setup of the ash lance with a gleam in his eye.

“Well? All set? I believe I’ll take the opportunity to address our fellow delvers, since they’ve so kindly gathered around for us.”

Talia nodded nervously, examining the trigger enchantments on the twin handles with light trepidation.

“Sure, just give me the signal,” she said.

The delvemaster gave her a comforting smile and another pat on the shoulder.

“You’ll do just fine, I’m sure. And if it doesn’t work out…well, the battle wands alone will help greatly, even if we don’t meet anything en-route. Karzurkul isn’t exactly uninhabited, you know. It’s just been abandoned by us sapients,” he confided, “The beasts of the deep have had no qualms about moving into our ruins.”

He left her with that worrisome tidbit, moving over to the edge of the roof to address the curious crowd.

Wait… what does he mean ‘if it doesn’t work out’?! Tell that to my hands! I need those!

The very worst scenario is that the lance blew up on her. Which wouldn’t happen. Probably. She had taken a lot of liberties with the schema, changing things around in ways Reggie might not have approved of. There was a reason that most designs didn’t change. They didn’t have to. They worked, and that was it. If you changed one, even slightly, that meant a non-zero chance of boom.

Talia took a steadying breath.

If that happened, she’d probably be envying Arcanist Ikkel his warm stay in a guild sickbed, waiting for his eyebrows to regrow.

It’s just nerves, Tals. That’s all. You know you’re a good arcanist. You can do this. You did do this. You were months away from your certification exam and Reggie always said you would pass with flying colours. Deep breath and—

The silence had returned to the cavern. Talia realized that Torval’s impromptu speech was over and that the attention of the whole expedition was on her.

Ohhhh boy. This is why I prefer libraries and workshops. Less people. No audiences, and no pressure.

Gritting her teeth and taking a leap of faith in her own competence took more effort than she’d thought it would. She flicked a thumb over the dual activation runes. There was no outward sign that the lance was on. The silence and blindness arrays that she’d added along the barrel made sure of that.

If anything, that made it more eerie.

She could feel the chassis hum against her fingers, and the air around the barrel warped in dizzying patterns as the mithril plating inside heated up. It felt like fire incarnate lurked under her fingers, its power like inexorable blast of an active magma tube.

Another breath and she sighted the barrel up to the wall furthest from the camp, past the tiny, fast-moving river.

Her eyes flicked to the crowd when a target rippled into existence on the stone, in alternating lines of quartz and granite. Talia’s gaze landed on Zaric, who winked at her and pumped a fist. Osra stood beside him, her support was more muted, but the whisp of a smile crossed the girl’s face.

Just do it!

Before her nerves could get to her even more, Talia flicked both her fingers against the trigger. She only realized that she’d forgotten to rearrange the power settings when it was already too late.

Finally, the quiet mutterings of the gathered delvers were drowned out as a crackle and a buzz filled the air. The beam crossed the intervening space as if it didn’t exist. Hot particles of stone blinded the crew with their incandescence, meeting the quartz target with an angry hiss that made Talia think of some kind of a giant snake. If snakes were made of air-blasted magma.

When the chassis began to thrum, Talia moved her fingers off the rune triggers.

It took a while before the light-blind delvers could see, but when they witnessed what the ash lance had done, the silence became heavy.

A hole about the size of a hand had been melted into stone, running down in waxy rivulets. It pooled against the floor, still blazing hot and puffing up in gas and flames. The newly formed magma spread heat across the cavern in a suffocating wave.

Alright, maybe I went a little overboard with the intensifier runes.

Talia flicked her finger against the capacitors, only to realize that she’d used up almost half the artefact’s charge. She watched the runes dim, shocked.

I guess Zaric was right, this thing is a mana guzzler. Holy gods that was crazy.

There was definitely some fine tuning to do in the days ahead, but all in all, she hadn’t blown up, and the weapon had exceeded her expectations. Talia didn’t envy whoever ended up on the opposite side of this thing.

If anything, the delvers felt the same way, as once they’d recovered from their shock, they burst into amazed cheers.

Phew. I don’t know why I was so nervous. That went great!