Wallace

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Valentine was still dozing on the couch when I got back upstairs- Maybe I should rephrase that.

I returned to the spacious penthouse, so large that it occupied one whole wing of the luxury hotel. On the right was the dining area, with a table large enough to seat twelve. The floor to ceiling windows gave the diners a superb view, and I suspected that the nearby gas fireplace, suspended above the hardwood floor by the smooth metal chimney, was more for ambience than heat.

In the middle and a bit further back, was the kitchen with its hardwood cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and granite countertops. At the rear of the kitchen was one of the few walls in the very open-concept penthouse, and seemed to exist mostly to hang the cabinets off of.

And on the left was the living room, with its grand piano, and a U-shaped couch large enough to seat twenty, facing a home theatre that was stretching the definition of 'home'. And laying sprawled out on that couch, clad in very little, was a fey noblewoman.

Still standing just inside the door, I gazed about the room, wondering, not for the first time, how the hell I'd ended up here.

I shook my head and carried the two packs over to the kitchen where I set them down against one of the cabinets. While I'd been fetching the packs, I'd also tossed Valentine's flight suit over one shoulder. I figured she might need something from one of the pockets, so I brought it over and set it on the coffee table near her.

She was laying on her back, with one hand on her stomach, and one forearm over her eyes. Her tank top had ridden up a little to expose her midriff, and I felt a bit guilty as my gaze lingered over her.

I glanced at her face, expecting to find her with one eye open, a biting remark at the ready. But she slept on, her expression peaceful.

Gingerly, so as not to wake Valentine, I settled my weight on the couch. The bobby pins still lay on the floor where I'd dropped them, and I gathered them up and spread them out on the coffee table. I'd promised to restrain my experimentation if she wasn't around to guide me, so I stuck to the basics.

I found the box, 'One pound, bob pins' it declared, and I turned it over in my hands. Val had said an ounce was worth about an hour, and a pound about a day, but I didn't exactly feel like trying to count them all just to figure out how much one weighed. There it was, written on the underside among the small print. 'One pound box, approx. seven hundred and forty-two pins' it read, along with warnings about not sticking them in sockets or letting children play with them.

Seven hundred and forty a pound, so about fifty an ounce. If an ounce is an hour, then one pin is one point two minutes. One point two minutes is... So one pin should power a spell for about seventy seconds.

I'd rerun the numbers once I had some stationery, but it was a decent working figure for the moment. The experiment then would be simple. I'd try the same spell as before, and see how long I could hold it.

I broke one of the pins in half, and with barely a conscious thought, began the spell. I'd been keeping the mental and physical separate for my entire life, dealing with my own unique psychology. At the end of the day, magic wasn't much different.

I counted as high as thirty before the spell failed, and the pins I'd been holding hit the carpet.

I shrugged. It wasn't a bad second showing. Assuming the whole ounce to an hour thing was the average, I was a little less than halfway there.

I tried the same drill about a dozen more times but didn't see much of a difference. The count kept coming out to about thirty or so, and granted, I wasn't a metronome, but it gave the impression of consistency.

I glanced over at Val, who was still happily dozing on the couch. I had a couple more tests in mind but knew that most of them would be more than a little noisy, and I didn't want to wake the little princess.

The bedroom, or sleeping area, I suppose, was behind and above the kitchen. It was raised about six and a half feet above the rest of the penthouse, giving some modicum of privacy, and was accessed by a shallow staircase.

There was a king-sized bed with two nightstands, a couple of comfy chairs bracketing an end table, and two large wardrobes. I'd need to rearrange some of the furniture, but I was confident that I could fit a second bed up here.

That was a matter for later. For now, all I needed was the bedspread. I tucked Valentine in and turned down her torch until it was just above its lowest setting. I made sure it would be within reach if she woke up and closed the door gently behind me as I left the penthouse.

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I'd taken a basic inventory of the hotel once already, mostly just poking my head into each room to get a look around, but I'd yet to start scavenging.

The dream, of course, would be to find a typewriter and an old-style mechanical calculator. I could write everything out long-hand if I needed to, but I would feel a lot more secure in my calculations if I had them done by machine. Now that wouldn't be a big deal for the time being, but if my big goal was to power the building with magic, then I needed to get those numbers right. If a single house circuit was a hundred and twenty volts at fifteen amps, then I could only imagine how much power the entire building had the potential to draw.

I found some of what I needed down by the front desk. The building was far too modern for typewriters or mechanical calculators, but I found some writing materials and several electronic pocket calculators. They were the cheap plastic sort with the little solar panel, but they still had battery power and would do for now.

I found myself trying not to make too much noise as I gathered up the papers and rifled through the drawers. It wasn't as if this was my first time in a hotel late at night. I'd paid my way through school by appearing on stuff like 'Real Life Superheroes', and other tv-documentary type stuff, so I'd travelled a fair bit. But the atmosphere here was different somehow. Like a mall after hours, or being in a school late at night.

The front desk creaked as I leaned against it, gazing out the hotel's large glass doors. I smothered the torch and let my eyes adjust to the darkness.

I'd been thinking of things in the context of post-apocalyptic survival, and to be honest, it kind of fit. A couple of people, scavenging supplies and squatting in an abandoned building, it was all very walking dead. But post-apocalyptic wasn't quite the correct characterization. From what Val and Temerity had alluded to, things hadn't exactly gone smoothly in Caniforma, Parabuteo, and Pelignos, right after the Calamity, but it wasn't as if society had regressed. It wasn't post-apocalyptic, it was medieval to early-modern. And when I viewed things in that context, what I had wasn't an abandoned hotel, it was a fortress.

I honestly wasn't sure what I'd do with a fortress, but it wouldn't be long before someone like Temerity noticed I'd joined the local fortress owner's club without filing the proper paperwork. When that time came, I needed to be ready.

I sighed and shoved off the desk.

I just want to learn magic. Yet somehow I keep finding new trouble for myself.

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The lobby up on the twelfth floor was as well-appointed as the one down by the front desk, if a little smaller. The carpet was still the usual hotel fare. It had a boring pattern and was not so much 'short pile' as it was a layer of cloth glued to the floor.

The penthouse's double doors, dark stained wood with polished brass fittings, waited at the end of the hall to my right. I didn't hear Valentine moving around in there though, so I elected to let her sleep. As tough and hard-headed as she might be, she'd taken more than her fair share of abuse and didn't need me shaking her awake to ask her more about magic.

On my left was the presidential suite. It lacked the penthouse's open-concept design. Instead, it was set up more for function and security than luxury, though it's not as if it lacked in that department either.

I guess I'll need to change the sign, the 'noble suite' maybe, if we go ahead with making a fortress of the place.

I grimaced. That raised yet more issues. Two people did not a fiefdom make. To hold onto this place, I'd probably need to accept that I'd be taking on the role of de facto ruler of the surrounding territory. And to do that, I'd need people. Probably a lot of people. Which wasn't an idea I was super fond of, because I don't like a lot of people.

I pushed open the door to the conference room one. One of the four arranged opposite the bank of elevators. The windows, facing both out onto the balcony and back into the lobby had blinds that could be drawn if the occupants needed privacy. The sturdy conference table and many whiteboards promised a decent place to work, and I began to rearrange things to better serve as my office.

Once I had the office chairs- fancy ergonomic models -out of the way, stuffed into one of the other conference rooms, I found an armchair that looked like it could bear my weight and brought it over from the presidential suite.

I sketched out a map of the hotel so I'd have an idea of what I had to work with. I had two problems. The first would be getting the hotel into proper shape. The second was that I didn't want to do any chores right now and just wanted to focus on learning magic. But sometimes, when you have two problems, you have a problem, and a solution. The hotel was full of stuff I could use for mana, and with magic, I'd hopefully be able to do all the work the hotel required on my own.

Two hundred and sixteen rooms, a penthouse, a presidential suite, a restaurant, a bar, a pool, plenty of space for storage, a parking tower with some newish cars, and plenty of open parklands. Now, where the hell do I start?

Food, water, shelter. I had all three, and in this case, shelter could be extended to mean defence as well. The question then, was how time-sensitive each was.

Water? Well, not exactly. I'd checked the water tower up on the roof, and found it to be enormous. Not to mention the swimming pool down on the first floor, and the second water tank, which fed the fire suppression system. So we had a ton in reserve, hell, enough for regular showers even, but no source of new water.

Food? We had a stockpile of that as well, but it wasn't quite as comprehensive as our water situation. There was our original pack with its rations, which would have had us covered for a couple weeks. Then there was the backpack full of granola bars and junk food from the gas station, and while I hadn't gone through and figured out exactly how long that might keep us going, I guessed it would be a while. Lastly, for the time being, there were all the dry goods stored in the hotel. More junk food, oats, flour, soup stock, that sort of thing. Junk food and ingredients really. All told, we had a hell of a lot of calories. The trouble was all the rest of what made up proper nutrition. I didn't know how it worked for the fey, but eventually, I was going to need some fruit and veg. Our rations included some, and there was some dried fruit in what we'd looted from the gas station, but that would only last so long. There were the freezer and fridge of course, but the contents of the refrigerator had mostly gone off, and the freezer's content was primarily meat. Another case of having a large stockpile, with no new supply. Refrigeration was an important point, though. Even if meat wasn't what I needed now, the sooner I got the temperature in the freezer under control, the better. Perhaps Val and I would be able to work out a spell to cool the surrounding environment. It would be a good stopgap until we got the building powered.

And that brought things to shelter and defence. Power would be nice, along with all the luxuries that came with it. I'd kill for a hot bath right about now- the tub in the penthouse was even big enough to fit me -but that was more of a want than a need. What we needed was a way to control access. Access up from the ground to the top of the block, and from the block into the hotel.

Blocking up the way into the hotel would mostly be a matter of moving heavy stuff to cover the windows and doors. There were a hell of a lot of windows though, and the doors were glass. Better then to work on the first layer of defence. The easiest and quickest thing would be to repair the manhole cover and figure out some lock for it. But damn, here was another reason I was gonna need more people.

It was one thing to devise a security system that relied on a person on the inside to let you in. That could be made foolproof to the point where the only way in would be social engineering, or the physical destruction of whatever was blocking the way. It was another matter entirely to set up a system that allowed a valid user from the outside to enter, without letting in just any idiot. Most decent locks can keep a skilled lockpicker out for a couple of minutes, while most common locks can't even manage that. And I needed something that would keep people at bay for as much as a week if Val and I took a trip to the city. I also really didn't want to crawl through that storm drain again.

I considered the pages scattered across the conference table. I needed a way to control temperature, a way to fix the manhole cover, and a way to move big heavy things. Maybe the addendum to that last one would be 'in a way I can finely control'. I'm crazy strong, but I've only got the two hands. Building fortifications or a ramp down from the block would be a lot easier if I had an extra pair of hands.

Fixing the manhole cover, I guess that would be Heal Metal? Though I could see the case for Transform or Control.

I found the note I'd taken on what Val had told me of mana types. The Metal mana could come from any old metal, and actually, it looked like Heal would be pretty straightforward. There were other materials, but copper would do the trick. It would be an interesting test to see if a pair of pennies would be enough to fix the cover.

I've got to find a little baking scale to measure this stuff, but if pennies provide Greater Metal and Healing mana, then I bet that'd be enough to fix it, even if it'll only last a minute or two.

Moving heavy stuff, I guess that'd just be some Movement mana from a bit of iron, and then either Plant, Earth, or Metal mana depending on what the heavy stuff was made of.

Temperature control, now that would be a trick. Strengthen and Weaken Fire, maybe? Control Fire? That'd be a question for Val, once she was awake.

There were just so many unknowns, could Fire stand in for heat as a concept, or did I need to do something more convoluted? Something like Control Water or Transform Metal, for example, used to move the thermal energy out of the air, and into a bunch of water or block of metal. For all I knew, either was possible.

My knees protested as I pushed myself to my feet. Following up a couple of days hiking with several runs up and down twelve flights of stairs had not been good for my joints. I was starting to think Val had the right idea, magic's cool, but laying around in bed all day held a certain appeal as well.

I turned the handle carefully, so as not to let it snap back when I closed the penthouse door behind me. Val was still asleep when I returned, and I found myself pondering whether or not it would be a good idea to wake her. With the notes I'd taken, I knew more or less what materials I'd need to try my new spell ideas, but I'd promised to consult with her before I tried anything. I wasn't going to be trying anything too risky, and it wasn't as if I answered to her, but her advice would be helpful. Besides, I had promised.

But there was always the risk that Val might respond poorly to being roused from her slumber. I might try to shake her awake, only to find a wild animal chomping on my arm. So I hatched a plan.

From the backpack, I fetched one of the big European style chocolate bars, and slowly unwrapped the dark purple wrapper. It smelled of mint, and I smirked as I brought it over to where Valentine slept and wafted it under her nose.

Her nose twitched, and she murmured softly as she shifted in the blankets.

I inched it a little closer to her nose. She squirmed a little more, and her murmur turned to a soft growl. Then she pounced, dark purple hair flying about, and the chocolate bar disappeared from my grasp.

She gnawed on it greedily, holding it with both of her little hands as it disappeared bite by bite. She didn't pause to speak, and I wasn't about to interrupt her intimate moment.

I took a seat in the corner of the couch opposite Val with my arms across the back of the sofa, and I felt more than a little voyeuristic while I waited for her to finish.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Gods, that was amazing, um-"

I grinned, "There's paper towels in the kitchen."

Val finished cleaning herself up and came over to lay down on the couch next to me. She rested her head on my thigh and shuffled around a little until she was comfortable.

"My, isn't the little princess feeling cuddly," I observed.

Valentine pulled away as if she'd been burned. She sat up, her hair still messy from sleep and her rendezvous with the chocolate bar, the set of her shoulders very rigid.

She turned her head until I could just see her in profile, "Sorry, I did not mean to impose."

"That wasn't a complaint," I said gently, "Come on, it's okay."

She laid back down and gazed up at me with some hesitancy. She chewed on her lip, and after a moment asked, "How exactly is courting done among humans?"

I sighed, Now there was one hell of a question.

I shrugged, "I don't really know. It's not so formal as it is for the fey- at least, I'm assuming it's formalized," I guessed, and Val nodded in reply, "I kinda just talk to people I like, and sometimes things work out?"

"Sounds something like the way the goblins court each other. It doesn't quite present the same opportunities for theatre and subterfuge as fey or elf courting though."

"What, like noble balls held at big fancy palaces?"

She turned her gaze away, to the piano that sat nearby, seeming to stare through it, "Gods know I've had enough of those."

I chuckled, "Back in high school," I began, "I can't remember what class it was, physical education I think? Normally that means basketball or whatever, but there was this one week where they taught us dance. Just boring traditional stuff, probably the sort of thing you'd see at a human ball. Back when those were in any way relevant," I shook my head, "I tried to get out of it. I can't imagine what they were thinking, but in the end, I had to do it. Man did I look silly, hunched over so I could put my hands in the right places."

She still had the piano fixed with a thousand-yard stare, but I saw her start to smile, "Did you find it difficult to locate a dancing partner?"

"Oh god, I-," I put my head in my hands, "Okay, So there's this fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast. The title kind of explains it, but the Beast is all hot for Beauty. Secretly he's also a handsome prince or something. I can't remember if he kidnaps Beauty, but at some point, she decides she's into him too. Also, I think there's dancing."

"Quite the storyteller," she observed, "I feel as if I'm there at this very moment."

"It's not that important," I insisted, "The point is, there was this one girl in my class who was really into Disney stuff. Disney meaning fairy tales."

"So you had an eager dance partner," Val guessed.

"Did I ever," I grimaced, "For all of two days."

She turned back to me, a wry smile on her face, "A magical two days, I'm sure."

"She certainly seemed to think so," I agreed, "She acted as if I'd only need to learn how much fun dancing was and the brutish beast would become the handsome prince."

"Had you ever danced before? I can only imagine how many times you stepped on her feet," she giggled.

"Just the once," I replied evenly, "Broke every bone in her foot."

"Wallace!" Val exclaimed.

"I didn't mean to, of course," I insisted, "But, you know, I'm kinda heavy. Man, was she ever pissed. She was on track for a soccer scholarship, and I ruined any chance of that happening."

"Scholarship?"

"A prize that pays for university," I clarified.

"Oh dear, what did you do? Did your family have to compensate hers?"

"Hell no," I said dismissively, "They were loaded, my family didn't even have the money to send me to university. Her dad threatened to sue, my dad told him to fuck off, and I didn't have to spend any more time dancing. So it all worked out in the end."

"The girl was okay?"

"Nah, I think she still walks with a limp."

Val giggled as she thumped me on the chest with one tiny fist, "You're the worst!"

"Eh, she's rich. She'll be fine."

"What exactly was the point of this story?" she smirked, "Warning me never to ask you for a dance?"

"No- well, kinda -but it just sounded like you're not a fan of dancing either. I was just trying to help you look on the bright side."

"The bright side being that I never accidentally crippled anyone?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah," I agreed cheerfully, "That."

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"We could widen the shaft," Val offered.

She'd struggled into her flight suit and had taken the stairs down under her own power, though we'd stopped several times to give her a break. We stood now by the god awful access shaft to the god awful storm drain that was our only god awful way down to ground level.

"It's concrete."

"It's concrete now," she insisted, "This is just what's occurred to me so far, but Transform Earth, or Weaken Earth should be sufficient. Moderate Earth mana from Steel, and Greater Transform or Weaken mana from Zinc or Lead. Moving bobby pins around hardly scratches the surface of what is possible, Wally. I don't think you really realize how much power is at your fingertips."

"Do I need to worry that some asshat with a pocket full of quarters is going to come along and start taking the place apart?"

"They'd need some awfully large pockets. Magic would allow us to work much more quickly than if we, or rather, you, had to attack it with a pick. But it still takes time. Assuming we had enough mana," Val glanced up at the hotel, "Which we likely do," she admitted, "It would take most of a day to widen the shaft by a foot or so."

"Let's hold off on that for now. We've still got to figure out how we're getting up and down from here. For all we know, we might want to block this up once we've got a ramp or the like built. For now, let's just fix the cover."

"As you like," Val replied lightly.

I paused. Glanced at her, then at the broken halves laying on the ground, and then back to her, "So, uh, how exactly?"

She arched an eyebrow, "You have all the copper you could need. What, do you desire me to hold your hand? Just cast the spell already."

I knelt and pushed the two halves together, "Bossy little girl," I muttered.

She booted me lightly in the side, "Lazy lumbering oaf."

"I'm not the one who's been sleeping all day," I retorted.

She raised one hand and flicked her wrist at the sky, "Day?"

"Whatever, you know what I mean."

I turned my attention back to the manhole cover, and without any other guidance forthcoming, I mostly just imagined the cover wasn't broken, and willed it to be.

There was a soft clink, and I stared blankly at the cover for a moment until I registered what had happened.

"Wow. I was expecting that to be a lot more difficult."

Val rolled her eyes, "It's not that complicated Wally."

I picked up the manhole cover and pushed myself to my feet. I gripped it tightly in both hands and torqued on it to test the repair.

Val patted me on the arm, "You're very strong," she patronized, "Now would you put the damned thing back?"

I dropped the cover over the hole and nudged it into place with my foot.

"I'm not showing off," I insisted, "It's just- Why don't people use magic for everything all the time?"

Val gave me a wry look and gestured for me to follow as she headed over to a nearby bench. The planks creaked as I sat down beside her, and she leaned against me.

"For one," she began, after taking a moment to gather her thoughts, "Those two coins you used to fix the iron plate you broke, would have been about as much money as a common person might see in a week. To be fair, the common folk in Parabuteo are a little better off. Though that means they'd only be spending half a day's wages on the same spell."

I took the roll of pennies out of my pocket, the paper torn at one end.

"And all the cheap ways of doing magic are secret," I realized.

"Yes. And two of the most powerful verbs, Control and Create, are entirely unknown."

"Here I thought it wasn't a big deal that most mana sources are a secret since the best are public. But all it means is that magic runs on money."

Val nodded, "You'll find more elves working magic than just about anyone else, though a great many mana-poor novices bolster their numbers."

"Hmm, is that so," I mused.

"Thinking deep thoughts?"

"Well, we want more people here, right?"

Val leaned away from me slightly, "We do?" she frowned.

I gestured at the nearest edge of the dislocated city block, "We're sitting on top of a thirty-foot wall, made of steel-reinforced concrete," I said simply.

She furrowed her brows, then I saw the realization hit her, and she sighed. Val slumped back against me and was just barely able to circle my waist with her arms.

Her voice was muffled with her face pressed against my chest, "I thought this was too good to be true," she murmured.

I slipped a comforting arm around her shoulders, "We've got some time," I said gently, "It's not a problem yet. But once this becomes a problem, we'll have a tough time fixing it."

"I don't want anyone else here," she lamented.

"No?" I frowned, "I mean, I understand-"

"No, you don't," she said firmly, "You don't have to be afraid of anything. Even when I can use my necklace, I'm still... small. Before, I had the protection of being a fey noble, and the penalty for laying a hand upon a fey noble is death. But now, what happens if some servant or guard we hire, or whoever it is you think we should invite to join us, decides they like the look of me?"

"Jesus Christ, Val," I breathed.

"This is a real concern, just because you're a-"

"Hey, hey, it's okay. You don't need to justify yourself to me," I promised, "How do you want to deal with this?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know who's safe to trust?"

"No, I mean in general. The broader problem. We accidentally ended up with a castle, how do you want to handle this?"

She chuckled softly, "Accidentally ended up with a castle," she repeated, "You want to give it up?"

"Not particularly, but maybe? I do kinda like it just being the two of us, but this is a hell of an opportunity to walk away from. But I can work with either. Besides, I'm still trying to do the whole bodyguard thing, so you're the boss."

Val was silent for a while, and I gazed up at the stars as she took the time to think.

It wasn't long before a glittering blue gem caught my eye. Not The Father, as Val called it, this was far smaller. Not quite the size of the moon as it was visible from Earth, I could see faint white swirls on its surface, and little patches of green and yellow.

I fought the urge to leap to my feet and start going into unnecessary detail about how fantastic it was that there was a habitable world so very near. Now wasn't the time. Besides, I appreciated having Val so close, her slight weight pressed against me, near enough that I could hear her soft breathing and feel her silky hair brush against my arm.

"If I asked for your guidance, you'd tell me that it made the most sense to stay," she said eventually.

"I would?"

It wasn't that she was wrong, but I hadn't really the time to think over the alternatives yet.

"You'd tell me that we'd not have to risk interacting with anyone else if we decided to leave, but we'd take on a great many other risks. Foremost among those, would be trying to find somewhere else that was safe to stay," she explained, "While if we stay, and we're careful about who we allow to join us, we'll be safer here than anywhere else," she looked up at me and shrugged, "I was trying to think things through the way you might."

I nodded, "That's probably how I'd figure it too."

"You seemed interested when I mentioned all those mana-poor novices. I take it you want to hire from among them?"

"Yeah, I bet none of them are full-time spellcasters, and we can make that work for us. We need staff of all kinds, and a way to pay them. All the money we need is in the building, and it'd be a bitch to get it back to the city to pay people. Far easier then, to get some would-be spellcasters who are happy to spend the money, so to speak, right here."

"Starting up our own little mage's guild in the process," Val realized.

"Pretty much. We still need to figure out who to invite and who not to, but it's a start."

"Once I'm feeling better, maybe the next Long Night, we'll see, we can head back to Parabuteo."

"Will that be safe?"

"For me? It should be as safe as anywhere else. The servant who came after us with those mercenaries will be a problem, but the rest of them will likely be preoccupied trying to find me hiding in Caniforma. If the servant makes another run at us, I'd rather meet him out in the wilds and deal with him there. The less he can share about our new home, the better. Once we get to the city, I'll just have to keep clear of any fey who are there by happenstance. You might have to watch your ass for Temerity though," she added with a smirk.

I let out a long sigh, "She's gonna be pissed."

"It'll be fine. She'll find some way to make your life difficult, both of our lives maybe, but if it came to it, we could go to her for help if we have any trouble with other fey."

"So Temerity is one thing, but there are other issues we're going to need to deal with if we're gonna do this. Namely, a water source. The tower will run out eventually, especially if it's not just the two of us. There's food as well, that's actually the next spell I wanted to try. If we can get refrigeration going, then we could just import what we need for the time being."

"I still wish we could do this on our own," Valentine grumbled, "It's not that I'd be embarrassed to be seen with you, I just, it's private. Does that make sense?"

"It's perfectly fine Valentine," I promised, "I'm the same way."

Valentine let go of me to stretch her arms skyward, wincing a little as she did. She shuffled around until she was kneeling on the bench beside me, which brought us to almost eye level, and she put her arm around my neck.

"Paramour is perhaps the wrong term," she mused, "But the two of us are..." she trailed off.

"Together," I said simply.

She leaned in and kissed me lightly on the cheek, "I like the sound of that."

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"Explain to me again, what it is you want to do?" Valentine asked.

We'd returned to the hotel restaurant to have lunch- at least I think it was lunch, the constant darkness was playing havoc with my sense of time -stew once again. After which, we'd taken a seat at the bar. Or rather, I'd taken a seat at the bar. Valentine had found a bottle of red wine and had taken a seat on the bar, sitting beside me, lazily swinging her legs while she drank from the bottle.

I spread my hands, "I'll begin at the beginning, feel free to jump in if you've got questions. We've got no Control or Create mana, and don't even know where to get any."

Val nodded and took another swig.

"But we need to bring the temperature inside the freezer and fridge down. Ideally whatever we come up with would be permanent, but the freezer is insulated well enough that a stopgap would be enough for now."

"To keep the food that's in there from going off?" she interjected.

I nodded, "So, I cast a spell. Movement, Transform, Air, Water."

She spread her arms, the neck of the wine bottle still gripped in one fist, "And this is where I require an explanation."

"Okay, Air and Water are there because that's what we're messing with," I began, "What we want is to take the heat out of the air, and put it in the water."

"How can such a thing be possible?" she demanded, "It doesn't even make sense as a statement. You act as if heat is something that can be picked up and moved somewhere else. As if you were moving it from one box to another. It's not that simple. The air is as warm as it is, and the water is as cold as it is. You may as well say that you want to cast a spell that will take the red from an apple and use it to colour your hair. It makes no sense."

"But you know that heat transfer is possible generally," I pointed out, "A block of ice will eventually melt, and the inside of a forge, with all those hot coals and red hot metal, is quite toasty."

She tilted her head from side to side, "True, I suppose. But in both cases, the level of warmth between the two is different and is drawing to an even level. Unless you have some ice to hand, I do not see how you might cool the inside of the freezer."

How do I even begin to explain how a fridge works? I mostly don't even know, something about a state change in the refrigerant?

"You remember those guys I told you about? Newton, Einstein?" I prompted.

She shrugged, "I suppose."

"They were physicists, and in the field of physics, there are several different types of energy. Kinetic, electrical, potential, chemical, and importantly for us, thermal energy. If something is hot, it's because it has a lot of thermal energy. So when two things are at different temperatures, yeah, they'll naturally reach equilibrium as the energy spreads out. But if you're clever," I insisted, "You can create a machine that will move that thermal energy around in ways that it wouldn't naturally."

"As you like," she replied begrudgingly, "I'll have to take your word for it."

"The idea, and I have no idea if this makes sense, is for Transform to 'transform' the amount of thermal energy, and for Movement to get that energy from the air to the water. If we had some Control mana, I'd use that instead, but I think Transform and Movement can stand in. At least for what I'd like to do here."

"Wally, I don't know that any of what you've said makes sense," she paused, gave the bottle of wine a look, and then took another draw from the bottle before continuing.

"Perhaps it's the wine," she admitted, "If your understanding of this thermal energy is correct, then I don't see why Air, Water, and Control couldn't be used in the manner you describe. Whether or not Transform and Movement can replace Control, is an entirely different question."

"Well, that's why I'll try some experiments before I go and do it to the freezer. Have you still got that roll of quarters?"

"Those are the large zinc coins?" she asked, already unzipping a pocket on her arm, "I think they're in here."

She handed over what was, indeed, a roll of quarters, and then offered the bottle of wine.

"You might find it easier to test your theory if you only have three mana types in play," she suggested, "And it would be best if this were done outside."

I took the bottle and put the coins in my pocket.

"A fair point," I agreed.

I scooped up Val in one arm and set her down next to me. She fixed me with an exaggerated scowl, and I grinned at her and patted her head.

Val swiped at my arm, "No pats, no pats!"

I chuckled, and she yowled and swiped at my arm as I tried to go in for another head pat. She followed me through the kitchen, working very hard to be angry but not quite managing it. I tucked the bottle under my arm, and filled two glasses with water from the sink.

I pushed open the back door and knelt to set both the glasses and the bottle on the concrete.

I tapped one of the bobby pins out of the box and into my palm, and unwrapped the end of the roll to take out a single quarter. With those in hand, I picked up one of the glasses and shuffled back a bit on my knees.

A glass of water, a bobby pin, and a quarter. Man. Magic is weird.

The quarters were zinc, mostly, and would do for Transform mana. Movement would come from a bobby pin, and the Water was self-explanatory. As for what I wanted to do, I visualized the bottle- no, the liquid inside -being absent of thermal energy. The water inside the glass would be hot, but not boiling, maybe fifty or sixty degrees?

I glanced back over my shoulder. Val was standing there with her arms crossed, glowering at me and trying not to smirk.

I turned my attention back to the glass and the bottle. I focused my thoughts on what was and what will be, and let the magic flow from the objects I held, through me, and into the objects on the ground before me.

I threw my arms up in front of my face as both the bottle and glass exploded. I felt the water and wine splatter across my chest as I fell back, and I huddled on the ground with my eyes squeezed shut.

"Gods, oh gods Wally," she cried.

I felt her hands on my shoulders. Moving very carefully, I gingerly felt at my eyelids. They were wet with something, but it didn't hurt, and I couldn't feel that anything had got in my eyes. I opened them slowly, revealing Val's wide eyes and worried face.

I tried to maintain a certain level of composure, but my voice came out tight, and I found it hard to keep my breath from gasping out, "I think I'm okay, just a little messy."

Val's legs wobbled, and she sat down heavily on the concrete in front of me. Her shoulders slumped, and she had her arms out behind her to support herself.

"Gods Wallace," she breathed, voice quavering, "If you hadn't been so lucky-"

"Whoa, it's okay," I said soothingly, which was a bit of a trick since my heart was still hammering in my chest.

"It's not okay!" she squeaked, "You were a split second from being made blind."

I wiped at my face with the sleeve of my shirt, and it came away stained dark red with wine.

"Val, we couldn't have known. What we just got was a wake-up call, magic is dangerous. I don't think either of us will forget that any time soon."

She shook her head, "I could have known. Movement covers all of telekinesis, including making things explode. I should have realized that if your spell didn't work, you might find yourself kneeling in front of a bomb."

I pushed myself to my feet and brushed the glittering grains from my shirt and pants. Unfortunately, that just got wine all over my hands, and trying to wipe it off on my pants only made it worse.

I began to get my voice and breathing under control, "Chalk this one up as a learning experience, Val. No sense in beating yourself up over it."

I offered her a wine-stained hand and hauled her to her feet.

Glancing over, it wasn't hard to see where the bottle and glass had been. There were two piles of glass, left where the explosion had driven the base of the bottle and glass into the concrete. Curiously though, the burst of red wine seemed to be centred on the remains of the water glass, rather than the greenish powder left by the wine bottle.

Val inspected her hand, then gazed up at me, "Come on inside, Wally. I'll help you get cleaned up."