“Wow! That’s a lot of people.”

Aprabat’s Hold was a big city. At least it was the biggest city I’ve seen, which admittedly wasn’t much coming from someone who rarely leaved Bridgestone, but I like to think that a sea of stone houses climbing up a mountain slope crown by an epic white castle at the top, would give anyone pause.

A sharp whistle broke me from my sightseen.

“Hey! Farm boy! You are holding the line!” said an irritated man in uniform.

Mua? Was this lift operator talking to me? That couldn’t be true! None of these elegant features could be ever confused for a farm boy.

“YES! The one with the chicken! Either get in, or move out of the way!”

“Oh, right!” I hugged Henriett’s cage closer to my chest and let the annoyed crowd squish me into the platform’s railing.

“Bumpkin…” muttered the man, pulling on a lever.

The platform shook, and to my absolute amazement it started slowly climbing the mountain’s slope. I knew count Aprabat was an extremely accomplished magus, famous from using his fire spirit to power all sort of wonderous contraptions along his city. Dad had told me as much. But one thing was knowing and another was witnessing.

There were at least six other lifts along the city, climbing up the rails to the citadel. There were also tens of smaller rail lines with something like mine-carts racing along, carrying all sorts of goods. And there where hundreds of brass pipes popping here and there, some leaking white vapor into the air. Between these clanking and those spankings, the whole place was a buzz with the cacophony of industry.

“How does anyone manage to sleep in this place?!” I shouted over the rhythmic clink-clank of the platform’s engine.

None in the hard-packed crowd was forthcoming.

Contrary to my native town, this city dwellers were apathetic at the best of times. Asking for directions had been such a hassle, I didn’t want to think how was I supposed to converse with the lot.

“How am I even supposed to hit on chicks if I can’t talk to them?” I grumbled, eliciting a burble from Henriett, “No darling, you don’t count. We both know ours was a onetime fling.”

“Ironbenders Street!” shouted the operator as the platform stopped, a mass of people vacating it only to be quickly replace.

By some point I was squashed between a sweaty laborer’s armpit and the unwashed continence of a vomit smelling drunk, and I couldn’t help but wonder; ‘The hell am I doing here?!’

*

“I don’t know what you did, but you really piss him off this time, Blaky.” Drake tossed some pants into my opened trunk, “I haven’t seen dad like this since you and Jake burned down the old cottage. But man, sending you strait away to the Academy?! With less than a month for the entry exam? He does realize you haven’t practiced your spirit-craft in ages!?”

“Is it that hard though? The test I mean.” I moved the pants out of the way and tried to compress a mass of clothing to make way for my fiddle.

“Oh no you don’t! The hellish torture device stays here!”

“Now that’s un called for! I’m not that bad! I just need more practice that’s all…”

“Blaky, I love you man, but every time you play that thing, it sounds like you are defiling kittens.” The git snatched the fiddle out of my trunk!

“Hey! Give it back!” I jumped up and down trying ineffectually to recover it from his lifted arms. Damn Drake and his six and a half feet of unfairness!

His eyes glowed silver and the metallic snake draped around his shoulders shuddered, then he took my fiddle and ‘dipped’ it inside the wall. Hand and instrument went three inches straight through the solid material. Moments later his empty hand came back out, leaving my room’s wall not the worse for wear.

“There we go. Now kittens around the world can rest safely,” the jerk said cheekily.

“That’s cheating! Pabulus, you stupid ass snake, don’t lend him power for that!”

The silver snake looked at me lazily, and I swear, it shrugged! Without shoulders!

“Stupid spirits and their stupid spirit-craft…” I muttered crossly.

“Oh, there, there! Don’t be like that!” the big oath draped a brotherly arm around my shoulders, “Awful violin skills notwithstanding, I am going to miss you, little brother.”

“Yeah, I’m gona miss you too…” I sight, incapable to stay mad with the moron.

He smiled and gave me a pat on the back.

“Now, where were we? You wanted to know about the exams, right?”

“Yeap. Any chance you have the answers tucked away somewhere?”

“Is not that kind of test, Blaky,” Drake chuckled, “It changes every year, but it’s usually some variant on the Georgian exercises.”

“The ones dad used to torture us every day with?!” I groaned.

“Just the ones,” he grimaced, “only, you don’t know which ones of the forty-eight they are going to ask you to perform, and you got to get them flawlessly in one go.”

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“Ahg!” I screamed into my hands “I’ll have to memorize them all!”

“And you’ll have to do it while you travel there, because If I don’t miss my mark, you are getting tested just the day after arriving to the city.”

“I so don’t want to do this…”

“Hey, cheer up! if somebody can pull it off is you, little brother. Besides, even if those noble students are a bunch of jerks, I am sure there must be one or two good enough for you to make friends with... and four or five cute enough for you to share sheets with…” he said with a coy look, “and if everything fails, you still have Jake there to help out when you get into trouble. What I mean is, you won’t be alone Blaky...”

I perked up at those words.

“You think dad would let me bring a chicken?”

Drake laughed.

*

“Tilted Square!” Announced the operator, eliciting a new crowd rotation.

“Oh sorry!” a kid bumped with me on his way out.

“Don’t worry about it.” I smiled gently, moved by the apology.

I had been bumped and worse in the last quarter hour and this boy had been the only person who had given a damn. I guess that seeing someone here who wasn’t a self-center jerk lighten my heart a little… Wait, no, that wasn’t right… My chest was lighter all right, but because the purse on my jacket’s inside pocket was gone!

“That brat!” I caught a glimpse of the kid racing down a corner, the platform already moving up the mountain, “Oh no you won’t!”

I pulled my trunk and a squawking Henriett into the operator’s booth, and then concentrated, calling forth the nearby light spirits, weaving them together through complex hand motions. I was done in seconds.

“You again!? What’s the big Idea…?!” the voice of a pissed off operator died down as a glob of light coalesced over my open palm, baring the crude facsimile of the count’s seal. I dismissed the spell before he could examine it closely.

“Undercover magus corps!” I posed with fain authority, “Take my luggage and this holy chicken to the castle! The city will be doomed if you don’t!”

On that cryptic note I jumped off the moving platform towards a nearby roof, leaving behind astonished passengers and a patriotic operator saluting my way. I almost slide off some loose tiles but righted myself in a half crouch.

The purse that kid had stolen had all my savings and the focus stone father had given me for my summoning ritual. This last one was important because focus stones where not only extremely hard to come by, but instrumental in forming spirit contracts. In other words, I was screwed if I didn’t get it back.

I took a deep breath and concentrated.

Magus without a contracted spirit could still work with the shapeless spirits present everywhere. That meant, I wasn’t completely useless; I could perform some minor spirit-craft, like the forty-eight Georgeann Exercises or the glowing illusion I used back with the lift operator. This were all less than mere party tricks for a full magus, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers and all that.

I called upon air and light, weaving them around index and thumb in the first shape of spirit-craft all would be magus were told. When I peeked through the hole between my fingers the world came alive with sparkling motes of all colors. With “true-sight” on, I could now make out the boundless spirits on the air.

The thing about spirits is that they like to gather around places where their particular brand of power is stronger; For example, the fire and air spirits on the updraft over there, or the water spirits chilling in that nearby trough. Now, focus stones are special because they emit pretty much all power types at once, so spirits of all kinds flock to them.

“There you are!” my true-sight revealed a swirling mass of color in the street below.

I gave chase sliding off the other side of the roof to a public set of stairs. There were many such stairs along the city. They acted as alleyways of sorts, connecting the spiraling streets with one another. I found my thief sitting on a stone step, inspecting the contents of my purse.

“Give that back, you little scoundrel!”

The brat startled at my righteous fury… for about half a second, then he ran off.

Note to self; snick in closer before making demands.

“Hey! Get back!” I chased after once more.

The kid made it to another street, crossed it and jumped off the railing to the street below. I made it there close behind, taken aback by the suicidal move; there were like fifteen feet between both levels! Then I saw the little bastard sliding down a sunblind to land safely at the pavement.

“So long, sucker!” he made a rude gesture my way, the son of a…!

“I’ll give you something to suck on!” all right, that came out wrong.

I shook my head and jumped right after, but my heavier frame went straight through the sunblind! I fell until splashing on a wellspring, scaring the crap out of some older woman making her laundry.

“Wah!” I gasped as I emerged from the frigid waters. I saw then the stunned soaking woman and the clothes in the floor “sorry about the mess ma’am, but this bird has to fly!”

Turning a corner there was a small square built over a stone terrace.

“Clever brat.” I muttered.

The square was a playground for a bunch of children! Not dissuaded, I begun the casting of true-sight once more.

“Wha ch’a doing?” a small girl togged on my pant sleeve, her nose overflowing with snot.

“Magic.” I mutter distractedly.

“You look dumb. Are you dumb?”

“What…!?”

“‘cuz my uncle Tom is dumb. Do you know my uncle Tom? He can’t use the toilet alone because he does a mess, like you.”

“Hold up kid, what are you talking about…!?”

“You pee all over yourself, dumb dumb! But don’t worry, I’ll take you to your home so your mama can clean you up…”

“Found Him!” I threw a wet handkerchief to her face, then I ran off screaming, “Keep your nose clean to know pee from water! And don’t talk weird crap to strangers!”

When I reached him, the thieving brat was in the middle of balancing his way across a pipe that went from the square edge to the terrace of a nearby building, passing over a railway.

“Stop right there, criminal scum! Nobody but me breaks the law on my watch!” As I spoke, I moved my hands in preparation for another show of spirit-craft.

The kid almost stumbled off the pipe.

“You again!? Give it up already! I robed you fair and square!”

“Fair and square my ass! Give back my purse!”

“Come and take it, sucker!” and on those words he jumped!

He landed expertly in a wagon of a passing mine-cart’s line.

Expecting something like this after his last stunt, I immediately jumped after. I was falling short of the last cart when my spirit-craft “sky glass” took effect. The air solidified under my feet for the fraction of a second and I jumped once more, now easily latching to the side of the last wagon.

“Ah!” the child screamed as the whole cart line wobbled at my landing, “Get off you maniac! You are gonna kill us both!”

“You’ll never scape, kid!” I cackled, high with adrenaline as I righted myself on the unstable cart fill with charcoal, “I am unstoppable! I’ll hunt you down relentlessly until you give back what you stole!!! Mua ha ha ha!!!”

I might had gotten carried away there for a second… Well, more than a second actually, for I continued with my craze cackling as I crawled forward in the cart formation, but can you blame me? This was freaking fun!

“…ha ha ha Auch! Auch! Hey! Stop that!”

“Back off, you crazy bastard!”

The kid was throwing coals at me! Rude! I caught one in mid-air and pocketed it… What? It might come in handy.

Finally, I reached his wagon.

“Mua ha ha ha! There is nowhere else to ra-!” Can you believe this! The kid kicked my face mid monolog! Who does that!?

“Get!” *stamp* ”Off!”

“Urgh!” I flinched away, clutching a hand to my bleeding lip.

This sudden movement and its timing proved too much for the cart line; The whole formation derailed as it attempted a steep turn and the both of us fell.

I embraced the horror-stricken kid in the air and guard him with my body. Fortunately for us, some safeguard in the contraption tide it to the railway, preventing the heavy iron carts to fell down on us. Unfortunately for me, the momentum flung me back first against a wall.

I slide down to the pavement and fell unconscious as the chunks of coal rained down the street.