Chapter 23: Work Never Ends
Further experiments over the next few days centered around changing the leyline, making little changes to the shape based on pushing around the land. No matter how hard he tried, Thomas had trouble with the raw power needed to make it work, even with the leyline’s help. Before too long it turned into Wil moving earth around while Thomas provided potential shapes and tweaks while they watched.
It didn’t take long to make another pair of the spectacles for Bram, and he was there every day, eager to watch them work and make suggestions. Wil never hesitated to try out any of his suggestions. Thomas questioned it a few times, but never pushed too hard against Bram’s participation. It was just enough for Wil to notice, but not quite enough to be annoyed.
Unfortunately, shifting the earth around and changing the shape of the twin rivers of power on the Stevenson farm didn’t accomplish anything. Over the course of those few days, Wil became more confident about his ability to do it, but not how to make it matter.
No matter how they twisted or contorted the leyline, they couldn’t attach spells to it any more easily. They could bend and twist and pull, but at the very least it didn’t rip open, and it didn’t blow up the property. With that in mind, Wil couldn’t be too disappointed.
That kind of block had been expected, and as Wil and Thomas toyed with that, Bram went back and forth between observing their attempts and doing some of his own work in his cellar. With all of his customary care, he constructed a simple box with runic designs meant to fuel a simple spell. Thomas had laughed when he first saw it.
“Is that a music box?” he asked, delighted. “That was something my mother used to make when I was little, when she was learning how to enchant. But your wording is weird. Why do you have the runes for ‘void’ and ‘hungry’? That’s going to make it inefficient to power.”
Wil understood immediately. “It’s to try to coax the magic from the leyline into it, right?”
Bram nodded, wiggling in place with excitement. “It’s the first big idea I had! If it’s designed to take power in, maybe we can establish a line or something when one of us is the conduit. Make it stick to the box.”
“You mean one of us,” Thomas said. “That’s not an awful guess, for not knowing how magic feels. It has potential.” He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Not bad.”
Bram’s face contorted silently. Wil saw embarrassment and gratitude fight to see who’d win. He decided to push it over to gratitude by slapping Bram on the back. “Good going, as always. Let’s give it a try. Thomas, would you like to do the honors?”
Thomas looked up from the illusion box he turned over repeatedly in his hands. “Hm? Sure, I’ll give it a try. Still getting a feel for the unusual syntax used here. It’s not wrong, per se, but…”
At the two unimpressed looks, he cleared his throat and held the box up. A few seconds later a high pitched tone came from the box. It wasn’t actually music so much as a mockery of it through a few sounds it switched between, but it worked.
“This is about twice as difficult as it needs to be,” said Thomas. “The configuration you used is strong. If it’s going to work…Well, let’s find out.” He concentrated, and then the sounds cut out, but slowly. Thomas shook his head.
“Damn,” Bram sighed. “Maybe if I tweak it a little, it might work better.”
“Maybe,” Thomas said unconvincingly. “It’s a good thought, and shows imagination and understanding I didn’t expect.”
“Wait,” said Wil. “Do it again. Slowly.”
The three men huddled over the crude magical music box, and Thomas activated it once more. It played its tuneless song, and then tapered off into nothing. He shook his head again. “Nothing.”
“Not true,” said Wil. “One more time!”
This time, Thomas understood. “It’s not shutting off immediately. It’s lingering for a second, second and a half. It’s not much.”
“But it’s something, right?” Bram asked. “It’s more than we knew before. Do you two think this might be a direction worth pursuing?”
“We’re not ruling anything out yet,” Wil responded quickly, before Thomas could say anything. “It’s a possible direction to follow, and it’s the only one we’ve got so far. But I think we’re due for a break, don’t you?”
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They grabbed some sandwiches and sweet tea in the kitchen. The table was covered in notebooks, wood, tools, and some of Wil’s old books on enchanting. They didn’t clean up so much as stack the books on the empty fourth spot at the table, and ate in silence, each of them lost in their thoughts on how to proceed.
They were most of the way done and just finishing their drinks when Darlene came through the door, arms laden with a box filled with paper. “Hey everyone. Wil, I just saw your dad and he wanted me to give you these.” She set the box on the table and pushed his empty plate out of the way.
“Thanks Darlene, you shouldn’t have,” said Wil. “What are they?”
“Work slips,” she said with a growing smile. “You’ve been gone for four months. Bram’s taken care of dozens of slips since then,”
“Over a hundred,” Bram fake-coughed.
“Over a hundred slips, but now that you’re back and have been back for a week, people are requesting your help once more.” She leaned against his chair for support, supremely amused.
“Are you serious?” Thomas asked, half standing to get a better look at the haphazard stack of yellow papers. “We’ve got nine and a half weeks to go, and they want you to run errands for townies?”
“It is my job,” said Wil. “And I’ve been neglecting it. I guess that’s what we’re doing after lunch. Bram, I hate to ask, but…”
“Say no more,” said Bram, puffing up to his full sitting height. “I’m always happy to help. Besides, people got used to seeing me instead of you. I can probably knock half of these out without you.”
“I don’t mean to be rude,” said Thomas, wetting his lips. “But if half of these can be done without you, should they really be tasks for the resident wizard? If some random guy can do them, couldn’t anyone?”
It took Wil a few seconds to register what Thomas had said, and a few more to get over the surprise anger. Darlene recovered first. “Bram isn’t some random guy,” she said coldly. “He’s put in a lot of hard work and study to be able to solve those problems.”
“No, he’s right,” Bram said, eyes locked on the table. “A lot of them aren’t too bad, and could be done by anyone. I think people just want to feel special and like their problem matters and needs special care.”
“Regardless,” said Wil, “I would love your help. The sooner we can get these over with, the sooner we can get back to working on the main project. If you get done before me, then maybe spend some more time on the hunger runes and see if there’s any way to tweak the meaning with the right configuration.”
“Right,” said Bram, standing up. He grabbed half the papers and tucked them under his arm. “I’ll check these out and grab whatever potions might be needed from the cellar. See you in a couple hours?” He smiled at Wil and Darlene and left without looking at Thomas.
Darlene didn’t let it rest. “I know you’re a real wizard and all, but you don’t have to be an ass.”
“An ass? What? I said I didn’t mean to be rude! Someone had to ask the question.” Thomas adjusted his collar. Wil had never seen him on his back foot before. He seemed uncomfortable and nervous. “It has nothing to do with doubting your friend, and more to do with the fact that he’s not…”
“Not what?” Darlene pressed. “A wizard? Do you think that we’re not capable of doing anything? Don’t answer that. I’ve got some more errands to run.” She kissed Wil on the forehead and left the two wizards alone.
“It’s not like that,” Thomas said after she left. He must’ve known how weak it sounded, because he added, “I’m not prejudiced against the non-magical. I just know how different our lives really are, what we’re capable of. And if the people of Harper Valley are asking for that much non-magical help from you, then maybe they don’t need it that badly. Maybe they should ask less.”
Wil stood up as well, unsure whether he was more irritated or disappointed. They were all things he’d thought in the past, in his guiltier moments. “You might be right, but after so much time away, I’m grateful to be home. And I’m grateful to serve my community too.”
Thomas softened. “And that is a good thing. Not trying to act like it isn’t. But…”
“But we’ve got work to do and a time limit,” Wil finished for him, nodding. “Yes, that’s also true. But I think we’ll be fine. You can stay here if you want and continue to get some work done, or maybe go home and take a break. I, however, am going to try to get as many of these slips done as I can before taking a look at Bram’s idea.”
He grabbed the half-full box of work slips and walked out of his best friend’s house. Darlene had the car and the Thunderhawk would be impossible to drive while carrying all of them. Even if he could, it went fast enough that they’d go flying without a sticking spell. A long walk would probably do him some good anyway. He was halfway down the lane when he heard his name being called.
“Wil! Wait!” Thomas ran up to him, slightly winded after a short sprint. “I’ll come with you.”
Wil raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Selfishness,” said Thomas. “The faster we get the work done, the faster we go back to focusing on trying to make the world a better place.”
“That’s the thing, Tom.” Wil held the box up and jiggled it. “We are making the world a better place. For these people. The only difference is scale. No one should be too big to help out their community. You don’t have to help if you don’t want to. If you come along, I don’t want to hear any complaints, understand?”
Thomas grimaced, but nodded. “Alright, I can do that. What’s our first stop, then?”
Wil reached into the box and fished out a slip. “Our first job is helping Mrs. Bartleby with her mouse problem.”
“You’re joking.”
Wil eyed him.
Thomas held his hands. “Okay, okay. Helping Mrs. Bartleby with her mouse problem. Lead the way.”