0:055 on the 56th day of Winter

I stood outside the hospital in borrowed scrubs with Schrodinger tucked under one arm. A cold breeze sent a shiver through me. Perhaps it would snow. Once they decided that I was healed up enough they shuffled me out the door. I could understand why. As soon as I stepped out, somebody went into the room to set up two more beds. The life mages were running around frantically getting ready for a surge in patients from the wall. They were expecting casualties. Looking out at the people of Cinder I could see there was a growing unease. People hurried with eyes downcast or carried bags with them that held more than was comfortable or practical. They were also expecting the worst.

I thought back to the fight with the demons in the cave. With a little less luck, or even just one more kith, I wouldn't be standing here. I have been spending too much time on science and not enough on engineering. The next time I ran into demons I would be ready.

"So where do we go first?" I asked Schrodinger.

He seemed nervous about the city crowds. I reached over to scratch him behind his ears.

"We need supplies, and to get supplies we need money." I said. "To get money we need…"

I trailed off. I could make gold from air but it takes an enormous amount of magic to pull stuff up the periodic table like that. What if I started with a material closer to what I want? Lead is fairly cheap and in my weird kind of elemental math lead minus lithium equals gold. But I would need some money to buy scrap lead. So, I need to start from something totally worthless.

I looked around on the street for trash but couldn't see any that would serve my purpose. Then a gust of cold air hit me and I realized that the hospital furnace must be big enough to keep the whole building warm. After a bit of searching I found the hospital's ash pit. With some luck it was mostly full so I put down Schrodinger and scooped up a handful. Looking at it under the microscope it was mostly different types of oxides but there was a fair bit of carbon in there too. I compressed and rearranged it into a crystal structure, leaving some imperfections and aluminum oxide, and a measure later I had a small multi-faceted ruby in the palm of my hand. Thirty measures later my pockets were heavy with diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds of every shape and cut. I was pretty tired but it would be worth it.

I managed to pawn the gems for a heavy sack of aurum, argent, and aeris, the kingdoms’ gold, silver, and copper coins. The owner probably thought he was fleecing me but whatever, he was buying the hospital's trash. From there I visited a scrap yard and bought about eighty kilograms of scrap lead pieces, basically all the small pieces I could find that would fit in my cupped hands. It was very heavy, about my own weight, but was only a few liters in volume. Then, in a moment of inspiration, I also got about 30 kilograms of scrap iron. I also bought a hand cart to pull it around with. I got more than a few odd looks pulling a cart through town in hospital scrubs. I eventually made it to the workshop. It was completely empty for whatever reason.

My hands were dirty with lead residue so I took a minute with some tightly controlled death magic to clean them off. The first thing I pulled out of the cart was a package wrapped in corn husks. I had picked up this particular item from a street vender selling meat skewers. I tried one and decided to buy out his remaining stock. I placed the package on the work table and unwrapped it.

"Dig in buddy" I told Schrodinger as I took out two skewers for myself. I had run out of everything but dry rations two weeks ago and so I was starving for something with flavor. Life magic always makes me hungry too. As I chewed on some of the grilled meat I located the light marble. I reached into the structure and instead of just reconnecting the battery I added a little graphite resistance and adjusted it until I got the light level I wanted.

"So, now we have some raw materials and a substantial amount of money." I said. "We are also under a deadline. Literally. The demons are at the gate right now wanting to come in and exterminate us."

Schrodinger was happily taking bites off his skewer and paying no attention to me.

"I need to get my artificial core back." I said.

I balled my hands into fists a few times then got up and started pacing.

"And my notes." I said. "It wouldn't be so bad if the demons found them, they probably couldn't even read them. But if our side finds them they could put two and two together."

Schrodinger looked up at me.

"Ya, I know." I said. "I can make another core. But it took me days to make and then more time to clean the irradiated minerals from the lake. There's just no place in the city where I could do that again without hurting someone."

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He just licked his nose and stared at me, seemingly unconvinced.

"And then there's my research notes." I said. "They detail my experiences using magic and if any humans get a hold of that they will know there is a death mage in the city."

Finally he looked away. I stopped pacing and pulled a paper and a nub of charcoal from a drawer. I wrote the word 'plan' at the top of the page in bold script.

"Okay, I need to figure out a way to sneak into the mines, past the demons, retrieve a ball and a book, and make it back here." I said writing down each in a list on the page. "Simple."

***

3:149 on the 56th day of Winter

When Arin and I were practicing different types of light magic the hardest spell to fake was darkness. As far as I could tell, when she casts the spell, she is either making an object emit light that cancels out its reflected light, or makes it simply absorb all light in the visible range. The effect is to turn an object utterly black. So black that it loses all visible texture and shape, making it very difficult to tell what it is. She cast it on herself and curled into a ball and from my perspective she just looked like an endless pit cut into the floor. I had replicated the effect by printing vertically aligned nanotubes of graphene on the surface of a rock. But now I needed to sneak past demons. So, I bought a high quality travel cloak and was back in my room at Aegis manor going through it inch by inch applying the nanotube coating. Once finished it would cloak me in darkness just like the spell. It was the middle of the night now and my light marble was getting dimmer and dimmer.

I was making a mental list of what I had to buy when the markets opened for the day. I could make a lot of things with my printer but anything that takes craftsmanship is probably beyond my skill. I should probably commission well fitting armor, at least a decent breastplate. A helmet to protect my head and hold the electronics for infrared vision. Leather holsters for two laser rods. I also need a more convenient way of carrying the artificial core when I retrieve it. I will likely have a bunch of odds and ends to carry around as well so maybe a sturdy backpack. So first stop armor, second stop leather worker.

My train of thought was interrupted by a knock at my door. I put down the cloak, got up and opened it to reveal my father in his normal morning robes. He was carrying a ceramic carafe and two cups.

"Hello." I said. "Please come in."

It was only polite. He stepped in and set the cups on the work desk. After he poured the tea, father surveyed the room. I was suddenly thankful that I had stowed the mountain of gold in a chest at the foot of the bed. He saw the cloak and bent to pick it up. He ran the cloak through his fingers looking at both the modified and unmodified parts.

"This is extraordinary." he said, though his inflection was oddly flat.

"Thank you father." I said.

The silence stretched out as he put down the cloak and turned to consider me.

"You were gone for thirty five days." he said. "Your absence was noted by the other mage families in Cinder. We of course couldn't tell them what you told Mistila about leaving. It was a clumsy lie, easily checked against the logs of the caravan guild."

He sat on the edge of the desk and crossed his arms. I forced my face to stay blank. He was fishing for a reaction.

"We ended up not telling them anything." he said with a shrug. "I think some assumed that you were dead in a gutter somewhere. Others probably thought you were a service dodger."

He let out a long sigh.

"I am angry son, but more importantly I am confused." he said with a deadly calm. "I do not understand your actions so it is difficult for me to know how I can best help you. Help me to understand you. Explain to me where you have been and why you left."

The weight of his questions dropped like a hammer. He had never been violent with us as kids but he was extremely strict. Stepping out of line would always incur severe punishment normally in the form of grueling chores or practice. He was a military leader and he treated his family like soldiers under his command.

"I won't be able to give you a satisfactory answer." I said. I looked down at the cups of tea growing cold on the table.

"All I can say is that I spent most of that time practicing with my new abilities." I said. gesturing at the cloak on the floor.

"Practicing." He said. He shook his head from side to side. "You are so much like your mother."

He sounded disappointed and that turned all my fear into rage.

"I am nothing like her." I said through gritted teeth. "She was a brave fool who thought she could kill a leviathan."

I clenched my fists. His confused look only enraged me more.

"Son, your mother could, no she did kill a leviathan." he said. "You were there that day. Did you not see?"

"I saw everything," I said.

It was a drake made of ice crystals summoned in some grand ritual gone wrong. I was only ten at the time so I didn't understand the magic involved at all but I had been so insistent to see it that she had brought me along. The large room was filled with mages of every kind all standing around a house sized black sphere in the center of the room. They chanted and meditated for a while to get ready and then there was a count down and everyone spoke different incantations all at once. Then the black sphere cracked open and there was the drake.

Mom fought it off for a bit with her water magic but it was hopeless. I saw the moment her magic failed her. It has replayed in my nightmares thousands of times since then. How could he not understand? "It killed her. Its attack ripped her in half right in front of me!" I said.

I was yelling now.

"She fought a hopeless battle and died! The end!"

My father was silent but his expression made him look decades older. Eventually I calmed down. The anger bled out, leaving behind only exhaustion.

"Son, I'm sorry you went through that." he said. "But never speak of your mother that way again. It is important that you remember that she dealt the mortal blow that day. Do not betray her memory by forgetting it."

He was stern.

"It doesn't matter." I said. "She's not around to care if we remember her glory or not."

He stood from the stool and crossed the room. For the first time I was genuinely worried he would strike me. Instead he pointed straight at my chest. "But you are." he said with accusation. "You're here because of her sacrifice."

Then he lost steam and his shoulders sagged.

"Don't take that for granted." he said.

He left without shutting the door.