Wallace

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

The sun was a little higher in the sky than I meant it to be by the time I made it to the street where I was to meet Valentine. I'd meant to get up early, take what would probably be my last bath in a while, grab my coat, and make myself scarce before the rest of the manor had really woken up. Unfortunately, I'd spent a bit more time in bed than I'd meant to, and was still a little drowsy. I was thankful then for the brisk early morning breeze and the light rain it carried.

It wasn't quite cool enough for my wool winter coat, but it was what I had so it's what I wore. If I'd just been out and about I might not have minded the rain too much, but if I was going to be travelling all day then it would be best not to do it wet. So I turned up the collar, but left the front open so it wouldn't get too toasty.

My gaze was drawn by a little purple hand waving at me from a ways down the street, and I joined Valentine in front of a small cafe. The tables were sheltered from the rain by a small white and tan striped awning, but Valentine was the only one of the patrons braving the weather.

She was wearing the same bulky flight suit as I'd last seen her in, and she was leaning forwards with her elbow on the table, her cheek resting in one hand. A small teacup sat empty on the table in front of her.

"You're late," she observed.

Her demeanour was more like a tough old sergeant than a noble lady, and she wore a generally unimpressed expression.

"Sorry," shrugged, as I took the seat across the table, "It took longer than I thought it would to get out of there without arousing suspicion."

"Round two took a while?" Valentine guessed, a small smirk creeping into her stern expression.

"I-" I stammered, and already I could feel my cheeks starting to burn, "That's not-"

"Fey have very sensitive noses," Valentine informed me, as the smirk started to creep into her eyes.

"I took a bath," I replied defensively.

"Very, sensitive noses," she reiterated, "And didn't I warn you that Temerity had certain plans for you?"

Dammit, now I was really blushing, "Actually, it seemed like what she really wanted was my political help. Everything else was just, uh..."

"Sweetener?"

I was rescued by the approach of the waiter, who bore yet more tea for Valentine and asked for our orders. I prompted Valentine to order first while I glanced over the menu I'd yet ignored. I asked for only a little bacon and sausage, as I still wasn't sure if the meat they ate was the same as what I had back home. Most of my order was fruit and pancakes. Still a risk, but I judged it to be less so than the meat. Besides, the potatoes and vegetables I'd had the night prior had at least been what I'd expected them to be. Truthfully, I was probably just being paranoid, but all the same, it wouldn't do me any good to be stumbling about the wilderness while suffering from food poisoning.

Grateful for the interruption, as it gave me a chance to collect myself, I waited until the man had retreated before asking about the concern I'd been ruminating over since I'd left the manor.

"Temerity mentioned that there are a few physiological differences with fey," I pointed out.

Needling me had brightened Valentine's expression considerably, but now it soured once again.

"Did she now?" Valentine grimaced.

"Look, as long as you're serious about your promise to teach me magic, I'll carry you on my back if that's what it takes," I promised her, "I mean, ideally you'd get a horse or something, but whatever. The point is, I'm good with our deal as-is. But you've got to tell me what's up with fey biology so I know what I'm getting myself into. Same goes for the pheromone stuff, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some explanation of how that works if we're going to be travelling together."

Valentine nodded slowly, "That's fair. But if I'm going to tell you about how our pheromones work, then in exchange I think it's only reasonable if you share how it is that humans are able to influence minds. Our pheromones are not something we speak about with non-fey, if I'm to share those secrets then I think it's only sensible to expect secrets in return."

I frowned, "Humans can't influence minds. I mean I guess we can threaten, bribe, whatever, just like anyone else. But it's not like we've got something like your pheromones. That I'll tell you for free."

"I'm serious Wallace," Valentine insisted, leaning low to the table and speaking in a near-whisper, "You tell me how humans do it, and I'll tell you what fey can do."

I furrowed my brows. Clearly, this Simon guy had done something to convince her of this. I just didn't have any idea what it might be.

"Valentine," I began, leaning in a little as well, "This isn't me trying to protect the secret by acting as if one doesn't exist. I can't do anything like what you seem to be imagining. That said, I'm guessing Simon has done some freaky shit and you'd like to know how."

Valentine nodded, and I continued, "What I can promise, is that I'll help you figure out how he's doing it. It's possible he's from a different world than me, maybe a really different world, but I bet we're working with a lot of the same information. If he's relying on something that came from Earth, then I should be able to get some idea of what he's doing."

"That's not terribly satisfactory," Valentine replied, "But it will have to do."

She opened her mouth to speak once again, but stopped and glanced to the side.

The waiter delivered our food, and after asking if there was anything else he could do for us, retreated back within the cafe.

"I take it Temerity covered the basics?" Valentine asked, after taking a bite of her omelette.

"Cartilage skeleton, not very strong, and prone to fainting at the slightest physical exertion. I take it she was exaggerating?"

"No," Valentine replied grimly, "She was not."

Valentine reached into the neck of the flight suit and withdrew an amulet. The chain was very solidly built, at least as jewellery went, with alternating links of silver and gold. Hanging from the chain was a diamond about as large as her thumb. Not very large as thumbs go, but really quite large as diamonds went. Stout as the chain was, it wouldn't be great if someone got hold of it and tried to shake her around, but at least the diamond wasn't coming loose any time soon.

"This gaudy thing isn't just for decoration, it holds an enchantment. Other fey might baulk at the thought of so much as a brisk walk, but I refuse to be limited by what the gods gave me. This diamond provides a significant source of both Body and Strengthen mana, which is used to greatly enhance my stamina," she explained, "You'll not need to carry me on your back, and in fact, you might find it difficult to keep up with me."

I smiled, "We'll see, I can go all day if I need to."

"Is that why you were so late this morning?" she teased, hiding her smirk behind her teacup.

"Aren't you supposed to be a noblewoman or something?"

"Or something," she agreed.

I waved a hand dismissively, "What about the chain, does the gold and silver mean anything or do anything?"

"The gold provides greater Protection mana," she provided, running the thick chain between her fingers, "It's not as much as the diamond provides, but few materials provide as much mana as gemstones do. The silver provides Mind mana. Together they are meant to shield the mind against intrusion."

"Does it work?"

Valentine spread her hands, "Not against Simon's trickery, whatever form it takes. But enchantments like this are common enough, they're intended to stop magical intrusion, and for that purpose, they are more than sufficient."

"So when you say that something 'provides mana'-" I began, but Valentine made a cutting gesture with one hand.

"Eat, there will be plenty of time to talk when we're on the road, if you continue to bombard me with questions then you'll never finish at this rate."

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

I let Valentine lead me out of the city, she was the one who actually knew the way after all, as I hadn't really been paying attention the first time I'd been through.

There were guards on both sides of the city's gates, armed with pikes, but they didn't see fit to bother us. Maybe they recognized Valentine, or maybe they didn't much care. Probably the latter, as the elves on duty, all of them women, seemed pretty relaxed.

Which I supposed was sensible. Guarding the gates must be pretty low-stress, at least once you got over your fear of heights.

There was a sort of landing just beyond the gates, and beyond that, a sheer drop to the valley floor below. To the right, a cliff face, and to the left, the long sloping road down the side of the mountain. It was just wide enough for two carts to pass, and while there was a railing fencing off the landing, it ended only a few hundred feet down the slope.

I'd probably be pretty relaxed too if I had to guard the place. Sure, you could sneak pretty close to the base of the mountain if you stuck to the forests, but at that point the guards would still have a good couple hours to prepare for your arrival as you made the climb.

"We won't have to walk," Valentine assured me, "The chain lift takes people to the valley before noon, we'll take one of the carriages down."

The chain lift she referred to looked like what I'd seen at small ski-slopes, only scaled up. At a ski-slope it would be a simple loop of cable or rope, anchored top and bottom, and run at a constant speed. A skier would grab on by hand, and the cable would pull them to the top. The only difference was they'd swapped out the cable for chains as thick as my wrist. I couldn't make out how it was anchored down in the valley, but up here the chains led up into a wooden hoarding built into the side of the city wall.

Just underneath the hoarding was a parking lot, there's probably some old-timey word for it, but I thought of it as a parking lot, with several carriages. They appeared to be purpose-built for use with the chain lift, with one axle set quite a bit lower than the other. Up here on the landing, it meant that the passenger compartment would be uncomfortably slanted, but it appeared to match the grade of the slope and looked like it would level out once the carriage was on its way down. There were no horses hitched to any of them, and instead, they had a metal linkage where the harnesses would usually attach.

There were a few elven men standing nearby. They kept an eye on a couple of mules while passing the time with a game of dice. Valentine got their attention, and they pulled the carriage Valentine had picked out into position near the chain.

I briefly wondered if I should be holding the door for her, but she didn't give me the chance. She flipped the latch, and took a seat inside on the high side, holding onto a grab bar inside to keep from slipping off.

Valentine had evidently picked this carriage out for a reason, as waiting inside were a pair of travel packs, and what looked like the 19th century version of a softshell rifle case. A little over six feet long and made of oiled leather, I guessed that it held the weapon I'd been promised. I moved one of the packs aside and took a seat across from her on the low side of the carriage.

She banged a fist on the carriage wall, and there was a lurch as it started to move. I heard a metallic thunk thunk thunk as the linkage tried to find purchase on the moving chain, and then a ka-chunk as the carriage surged forwards.

I felt a strangling tightness in my stomach as my mind threw up the image of us hurtling down the miles-long slope with no way to stop until we either hurtled off the side or crashed into the trees at the bottom of the mountain.

"This is the brake," Valentine explained, indicating the lever by her hand, "If anything happens I'll throw this and we'll come to a stop."

"A very good sense of smell," I muttered, eyeing her suspiciously.

"You're not fond of heights," she observed.

"Not overly no."

I began to relax as the carriage levelled out and I heard the linkage clanking as it took the weight of the carriage. I wasn't very confident in sixteenth-century braking technology, but on the other hand, we weren't moving much faster than a jog. A horse would have drawn us faster, at least on level ground, so if Valentine were quick with the brake, we would probably be okay.

"So. You can smell fear," I said matter of factly, "What else can you do?"

"I suppose this is private enough," she agreed, "Is Temerity the one who first told you about the pheromones?"

"Eh, sorta. I ran into a fey leading a bunch of sprites when I first showed up," I began, "He was putting out some musky scent, drove me half-mad, and I'm guessing it's how he was able to get the sprites to fight to the last man while Temerity and her buddies cut them apart."

Valentine blinked, "What."

"What?" I asked, a confused expression on my face.

"You're saying that you were affected? You're sure?" she demanded.

"Yeah, should it not work on me?"

"The pheromones only work on sprites," Valentine insisted, "This has been tested extensively."

"Valentine, I was a pretty good distance away from the guy and it was all I could do to not lose my shit. It works on humans. Haven't you had Simon around to try it on?"

Valentine clasped her hands under her chin and spent a long moment gazing down at the floor.

Finally, she spoke, "By the time Simon happened along, we'd already come to the conclusion that it didn't work on anyone else. I bet no one bothered to try it on him, and the pheromones he's likely to catch a whiff of by happenstance are a great deal less potent than what's used on the battlefield."

"Can you do more stuff than just get people mad?"

"Anger, fear, and arousal," she listed, lifting her gaze to meet mine, "We can also calm the same emotions, and sense them in others through scent."

"The scent thing, I take it that works on anyone- any species I mean?"

Valentine nodded, "It's not the same scent for every species, but it's not hard to learn a new species. Some of us have also figured out a way to use the pheromones to make the sprites giddy, some combination of the pheromones to increase arousal and calm both fear and anger. I never bothered to learn though."

"Why not?"

She scowled, "It's just another tool to control the sprites, a way to reward them when they do what you want, just like the fear pheromones are used to punish them when they don't. And I refuse to treat another person like they're an animal to be trained."

"I'm sorry," I said honestly, "I didn't mean to needle you."

"You were just curious," she allowed, "I'm not mad at you."

"Last question about the pheromones then," I promised gently, "Is there a limit to how much you can use before you run out?"

"Not particularly, the fey you saw leading the sprites, they might run out if they were spreading pheromones for a couple hours. But as I mentioned, outside of a fight, no fey is going to use nearly that much. Though, I suppose," she continued, raising her eyebrows thoughtfully, "it does sometimes happen with young fey still going through puberty. They'll get startled, or something will set them off, and all their pheromones will be released at once. Very embarrassing, but that's about it."

"Alright. You held up your end, what's the deal with Simon?"

She smiled just a little, "I'm surprised you haven't asked about magic yet."

"Oh god, you have no idea. I have so many questions rattling around my head that I feel like I'm gonna explode," I pitched my voice up a little in a poor attempt to mimic hers, "'Oh yeah, this diamond is full of magic, it turns me into a marathon runner, no big deal. Anyway, want some more tea?' I mean seriously, it's driving me nuts. But once I start asking questions I'm not going to be able to stop myself."

"Well, I don't know the man's life story," she said, smiling, "but I've found out as much as I can since he came to my attention. His play for power is a relatively recent development, but since learning magic he's always been peripherally involved in politics."

"He's that strong with magic?" I asked.

"No, not at all," she said with a shake of the head, "Granted, his expertise with Body magic is considerable, but he seems incapable of using any other type of mana. The political involvement is more to do with having so many loyal spellcasters. Though in fairness, his inability with non-Body magic may all be an elaborate deception, but it would need to be one he planned since before he cast his first spell."

"The mind is part of the body, maybe that's how he does it then?" I suggested, "The mind control I mean."

She shook her head emphatically, "No, Mind and Body magic are different. If Simon were using Mind magic on people then he would have been found out almost immediately. If the first thing we fey discovered upon landing here was Mind magic, then the second was how to defend against it," her expression was already less than pleased, but it soured further, "The sprites have been used as test subjects since the beginning, experimenting with how a mind might be invaded, broken, or defended. Elves, gnomes, goblins all come to Pelignos to learn from the best, and the amulets made by fey are thought to be the best when it comes to protecting against Mind magic."

"My first instinct would be to say that he really was playing the long game from the start," I granted her, "But that would make learning any other type of magic such a pain. He'd need a teacher that he knew would be absolutely loyal, and I don't know how he could possibly know such a thing. Probably a bunch of teachers actually, since I'm guessing everyone has their own specialties. He might be able to strongarm one person to keep quiet, but no way in hell he could keep more than one or two people under his thumb. Someone would talk, they'd either wriggle out of his grip or just say to hell with it and spill the beans."

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Valentine grimaced, "You say that, but it's exactly what it seems he's done."

"You've got to explain what that means. Because it's starting to sound like this guy might be the first person in history to actually pull off a big conspiracy without anyone leaking the truth, and if he can do that, I'm pretty sure he's actually a unicorn."

"It started with his first tutor, or at least, everything I've learned seems to suggest she was his first tutor," Valentine clarified, "At some point- and again, this is a little unclear since it wasn't until recently that anyone realized they should have been paying attention to what Simon was doing. At some point, she appears to have become completely smitten with Simon. He picked up more sorceresses as he went, quickly inspiring the same devotion, and taking control of their assets along the way. Houses, land, money, everything."

"All female?" I asked.

"Yes and no. He has this manor in the city where all his sorceresses live, and he's invited no sorcererers, or men of any kind in fact. The serving staff is female as well, but from what I've gathered I believe he's pulled the same trick with men, but only so as to get them out of the way."

I rubbed my temples, I could already feel a migraine coming on.

"So you're saying," I began, "That after arriving from another world, he's somehow managed to assemble a harem of women who are inexplicably interested in him, despite the fact that he really doesn't have anything to offer anyone?"

"That's about it," she agreed.

I sighed, "For fuck's sake."

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

Valentine's end of the carriage began to pitch up, and the light streaming into the carriage dimmed. A moment later I heard the linkage clank free of the chain, and felt the carriage rock as it was guided off to one side.

We'd barely come to a halt when Valentine slung one of the packs over her shoulder and leapt down.

I followed her out, and found that we stood within a large cave. The walls were too regular and the corners too square for it to be a natural formation, but beyond that, little work had been done to make the place look pretty.

We were near the back of the cave where the rest of the carriages were parked, with yet another team of elven men passing the time as they waited for the next carriage to make its way down.

The area was lit by a few sputtering oil lamps, but it seemed wasteful, as the daylight streaming in through the mouth of the cave was near to blinding. I suppose it said something about the elven perception of light, I don't know exactly what it said, but it said something.

A metal pillar had been embedded in the stone near the middle of the cave, almost a foot thick and running from floor to ceiling. It was set with several rollers, and was where the chain looped around to head back up the ramp to the city.

Valentine tilted her head towards the opening, and I followed her out into the late morning sun. The rain had since passed, so I threw my coat over the top of my pack.

"We still good for time?"

Valentine spread her hands, "Typically surveyors like to head out at first light, but you had to finish burning your bridges."

I winced, "Perhaps I was a little self-indulgent."

"We don't live forever Wallace, and we only get one chance to enjoy it," Valentine advised sagely, "If I was going to be mature about things, I wouldn't be running away from all my responsibilities with a man I'd only just met."

"Think she'll be mad?"

"Oh. She'll be fucking livid."

"Think she'll come after us?" I asked, peering back up at the city.

Valentine shook her head "I doubt it. By the time she realizes we've left the city, we'll have enough of a headstart that she won't have a chance."

"You say that, but I don't see any horses around here," I observed.

Forget the horses, there wasn't even a road. We were now well within the area susceptible to the tides, and it showed. The last few hundred feet of the ramp was poorly defined with no sharp edges, and it blended smoothly into the hills around. Even the grass underfoot looked fresh, as if I were the first person to ever tread on it, which didn't track with this being the sole way into a city of thousands.

Looking back, I saw how the cavern was able to persist, despite the tides and the mists conspiring to wipe the slate clean.

Two steel doors, each a few inches thick and set with leather seals, rested in tracks that ran across the mouth of the cave. When pulled closed they would seal the opening, with only a little gap for the chain. I still wasn't certain of the exact mechanics of how the tides and mists worked, but from the looks of things, the door would be flush with the stone around once closed. With nothing for the tide to sweep away, I supposed that the only risk would be if the mists dropped something on top of the doors.

"Do you know how to ride?" Valentine asked wryly.

"No," I admitted, "I don't even know where you'd find a horse large enough for me."

"Quite," she observed, "And I don't ride anymore, so I have no need of one either. Come, we may talk on the way."

I adjusted the pack on my shoulder and matched her pace. I wasn't about to argue with her, having a horse for her might up our pace a little, but in the grand scheme of things, it likely would make little difference. Besides, if the landscape down here in the valley had as chaotic a potential as it seemed, then for all I knew the horse may end up being more a liability than an asset. But I wasn't certain we'd make it that far, if Temerity was really on the ball...

"My only concern is that Temerity seems really fond of horses, being a knight and all," I pointed out, "And I don't fancy a fight, especially if she brings friends."

"Temerity's not going to start a fight," Valentine assured me, "She'll be mad, and if she gets the chance she'll try to strongarm you back under her influence. But she'll not turn to violence. And in any case, she'll have a hell of a time getting horses down from the city," she gestured back over her shoulder at the ramp, "The slope is so steep and so long that it's tricky to take horses down it in the best of times, try to rush and like as not she'd just injure her horse."

"Hmm, fair enough," I mused.

We left the clearing at the base of the ramp, and ventured into the thick evergreen forest that spread across the foothills at the base of the mountain. Again there was the feeling that I was the first person to take this path. There was little underbrush, just the odd bush or fern, with most of the ground covered by fallen pine needles, turned brown with age. The pine needles were so thick on the ground that I may as well have been walking through snow, with each step kicking up little puffs, leaving clear tracks behind the two of us.

There was an all-encompassing sense of calm, and for a brief moment, I thought that Valentine might be the cause. But was only the musty scent of the pine needles underfoot, and the verdant smell of fresh vegetation carried through the forest on a gentle breeze.

No, it didn't take any tricky manipulation, after all, this was how I'd usually relax when things were getting to me. I'd go for a walk, and not come back until I'd found calm once again. Since moving to the city I hadn't the chance to take a walk anywhere that wasn't a carefully landscaped park, but all the same, the forest felt very familiar.

I grabbed the soft leather case from where it hung behind me, and swung it around in front so I could take a peek inside. The clasps were bits of polished horn, pushed through loops of cord, like the sort of thing you might see on the front of a trendy knit sweater. I undid them, and reached in gingerly.

"Wow," I breathed, as I withdrew the weapon.

It was a poleaxe. The haft was six feet long, stained a very dark brown, and a little more than two inches thick. The head was steel, with a broad but narrow axe blade on one side, with a small hammerhead opposite, and topping it off was a nine inch spike. The langets, reinforcing straps that held the head on, ran nearly two feet down the haft, and had been recessed so as to be flush with the wood. The other end of the haft was also capped in steel, with a blunt pyramidal protrusion that would enhance the effect of striking with the butt of the weapon.

I'd been doing historical European martial arts for a good long time, and while I wasn't the most experienced with the poleaxe, it was my absolute favourite. I'd placed in tournaments with the rapier, won tournaments with the greatsword, and just generally found it funny to fight with a smallsword, but it was the poleaxe that I enjoyed the most. The trouble with the poleaxe is that it's hard to practise with. It's easy to make a sword safe, even a great sword. As long as it's blunt and you've got enough padding you've little to worry about. You'll end up with some bruises, sure, but on the whole, you'd be safe.

The poleaxe, on the other hand, was specifically designed to fight fully armoured knights. So while a blunted sword might be safe to use no matter how much force you put behind it, if you hit someone with a poleaxe and really meant it, it wouldn't matter how well padded they were, you'd lay them out flat.

"That box of old tools covered the cost of this thing?" I asked incredulously.

"The broker I did business with was particularly interested in the bracelet you had," she related, "Cryptic bastard didn't tell me what sort of mana it contained, but it was interesting enough that he was willing to give me the axe on trade for it and the tools."

"My fitness tracker had magic in it?" I frowned.

"Everything has mana within it. The more exotic the material, the rarer the sorts of mana," she explained, "I'm glad you're happy with the weapon, but there is something I want to make clear."

She unzipped the front of her flight suit, drawing the zipper down to mid-chest, and pulled one lapel aside. She'd modified the flight suit, using scraps of something synthetic to create a pair of improvised holsters, each of which held a large double-barrel wheellock pistol.

"I don't want you to get the wrong idea, or to take offence, but I want to make sure that we both know where we stand." she said slowly, "If you touch me, I will shoot you."

I put the axe away and spread my hands, "It's okay," I said gently, "I understand."

"You do?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

"I know what I look like, Valentine," I shrugged, "It's not like I want people to feel unsafe around me."

She nodded slowly, and re-zipped the front of her suit while I closed the clasps.

The pistols were a bit of a surprise, but more that she had them, rather than their existence in the first place. Full plate armour and gunpowder had been contemporaries on earth, so it didn't surprise me that a society that could turn out armour like Temerity wore, also had firearms.

Being threatened with the pistols though, that was a little startling. But upon consideration, it actually put me at ease. It was as she'd said, now I knew where we stood. If Valentine had a problem, I now knew I could count on her to tell me what it was, even if the problem was me. And while I wasn't super keen on the fact that she seemed a little wary around me, it was an understandable sentiment and one that told me I'd ultimately made the right choice by siding with Valentine.

With her, the power dynamic was more or less balanced. I needed her to teach me magic and navigate, and she needed me to help her deal with whatever the wilds would throw at us. And if it came down to a fight, while either of us could give the other a lot of trouble, neither of us could really 'win'. So if she turned on me, I was strong and tough enough to get loose, even if she did shoot me. If I turned on her, well she had guns and magic to fight me off while she got away.

In short, it was a much better state of affairs than I had with Temerity. Even if I could take her in a fight, and I wasn't even sure of that, she was still top dog in the city. Whether I was sleeping with her or not, just staying in Parabuteo would place me within her power. And after hearing her speech yesterday, I'd realized that having silk sheets and amazon on-tap was not worth giving up my independence.

"We'll need to push hard to make it," Valentine began, changing the subject "But there's a pass several miles north. It's going to be our first chance to get to the other side of the mountains, and I'd like to make it through before we stop to sleep tonight."

"I take it that my dawdling is what's going to make things tight?"

"It's not the end of the world, we have the whole Long Night to travel through as well, but this is all the daylight we're going to get and I'd like to make the most of it."

"Twelve hours of daylight and thirty-six of night," I recited, "how are we breaking things up?"

"Well we keep pushing hard till nightfall," she said, and indeed she'd been setting a good pace so far despite her short stature, "And stop for our first rest a little after dark. We'll eat dinner, sleep, should take a little less than eight hours. Then we carry on, it will be dark without The Father, but I can light our way. Typically survey teams I travel with will try to aim for another ten hours, but if you can keep up with me I'd like to go for twelve. Then we have another rest break to eat and sleep, before making the final push."

"At which point, we'll either have made it, or we'll drown."

"We will make it," she assured me, "Even with us leaving a little late, we've several hours of margin."

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

"You said earlier that he can only use Body magic, what exactly does that mean?"

We hadn't bothered to stop for lunch, instead eating as we walked so as not to waste more time. We were actually moving more quickly than I might have expected, travelling through a dense pine forest. But with the underbrush nice and light, and without too many roots to trip on, our path was actually fairly clear.

"Can he only heal people, or use magic only on himself?" I continued, "Whose body does 'Body magic' refer to?"

"It's the body as a concept," Valentine clarified, "So his, or someone else's, it doesn't matter."

"What can he do to a body then? Does he just get some Body mana from a, what is your necklace, diamond? So he gets some Body mana from a diamond, waves his hand, and then reality rearranges itself however he likes. As long as what he likes involves screwing with someone's body?"

"No," Valentine replied with a shake of her head, "Well, not quite. If you want to do it properly, magic always requires two types of mana. One noun, which refers to what you wish your magic to act upon, and a verb, which describes what you wish to do," she reached into her collar and came out with the amulet, "So my amulet, I want it to make me stronger and increase my stamina. So it uses Body mana and Strengthen mana. There are limits though, the more substantial the change the more substantial the source of mana needs to be."

"And diamonds have a lot of mana in them?" I guessed.

"Yes, any gemstone does, in fact."

"Simon then, the only noun he can use is Body?" I asked, and Valentine nodded in agreement.

"What about the verbs, any limits there? Or do you know?"

"What you describe is exactly the problem, when it comes to Simon I'm certain of nothing. But to the best of my knowledge, he can use any of the verbs. He's particularly fond of Strengthen and Transform, however."

"Can Transform be used offensively?" I asked, wincing at the thought of the sort of body-horror that Simon might be able to inflict upon people.

"Yes, though that's not what he uses it for. Instead he uses the Strengthen-Transform combination to enhance his physical characteristics for short periods. I believe he has some permanent enchantments on his body already, his physique is suspiciously impressive, but the magic pushes it yet further and makes him capable of great feats of strength."

"Does it turn his hair yellow?" I sighed.

"No," she frowned, "Does the colour have some significance among humans?"

"It's, complicated. Complicated and not important. If he can use all the verbs, then what actually are they?"

She counted off on her fingers, "Communicate, Control, Create, Heal, Movement, Protect, Sense, Strengthen, Transform, and Weaken. Weaken is what's typically used in offensive Body magic, and Communicate is hardly used at all. Any combination of noun and verb, is possible, but not all need to make sense."

"Can you use more than one of each? I take it that you need at least one of each, but could I use two nouns and a verb, or a noun and two verbs?"

She nodded, "There's no true limit, at least as far as I know. Perhaps someone has found one and isn't telling, but there are practical limits. However much mana one might be able to gather, ultimately it comes down to the mind of the caster. A spell, in all its complexities, must be held in the mind as it is cast. Creating a blast of fire, however large it might be, is simple. With sufficient mana, even a novice might melt a city wall. Heating a piece of metal to a specific temperature, that's more complex, even if it requires a great deal less mana. Setting a trap, now that's one of the most complex uses of a spell, as it requires the caster to hold in their mind the conditions necessary to activate the trap. Typically it also requires including a second spell, Sense Body or some such, which adds yet more complexity."

Cyclomatic complexity. Or at least that's what it would be if it were code. I just know there's a magic professor out there somewhere who's torturing his students by making them write sorting algorithms from scratch.

I hmmmed, much as I had been doing since we left the city. Someone had put a mystery in my role playing game, and I was savvy enough to know that I'd need to solve it early if I wanted the best ending.

"I don't expect you to figure out Simon's tricks immediately," she assured me, "I've been mulling it over for the better part of a year and still have yet to make sense of it."

"The way I see it, there's three possibilities."

"You've narrowed it down that far?" Valentine asked, eyebrows raised.

"Okay, three categories then," I revised, "The first, and least satisfying category, would be that he's just not human. He and I both call ourselves humans, we both think we're human, we both even look human. Eh, more or less," I added, looking down at my hands, "But we're not actually the same species and he's got some x-factor that's neither magic nor pheromone."

"It's certainly possible," Valentine grimaced.

"Yeah, but for now, not worth considering. Possible, as you say, but it's not a problem we're going to be able to reason our way through with the information we have now, so we can disregard it for the time being. The other two categories rely on our assumptions being wrong."

"Our?"

"Cooperative problem solving," I insisted, "It's important not to assign blame. Point is, our assumptions are that Simon can only use the Body noun, and that only the Mind noun can be used for mind control."

"You don't think that's the case? Forgive me Wallace, but this is only your second day here, and your experience with magic is sorely lacking," Valentine insisted, and I suppose that was fair enough.

"Temerity alluded to something, and I just want to make sure it's correct. The first chance anyone has to try magic is when they show up here," I said, gesturing broadly, "right? No one had access to magic back in their own worlds?"

"Yes," she allowed.

"And the first people showed up how long ago?"

"Perhaps there were a few people here and there eeking out a living long before, but the cities arrived just under ten years ago."

I couldn't help but chuckle. And if I'm being honest, the chuckle was just a little bit evil.

Valentine looked up at me with a wry expression on her face, "Mind letting me in on the joke?"

"I'm sorry, I'm just so used to- and this is fiction, just to be clear -magic being something on the decline. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, plenty of less popular fantasy, magic is something that was powerful in the before-times, and is now only a shadow of what it once was. Getting into magic at the ground floor, now that's got some possibilities."

"Possibilities that Simon would also have recognized?"

"Yeah, and not to discount the work elves and fey or whatever have been doing with magic, but follow my train of thought here. There's, what, around two hundred thousand people in Parabuteo? Doesn't need to be exact, just within an order of magnitude. Sorry, a multiple of ten," I clarified.

She nodded slowly, "I suppose."

"And the other two cities, they're about the same size? We're counting sprites here, I'm guessing there's a lot of them."

"Yes, if you count the sprites, two hundred thousand is close enough."

"So six hundred thousand people. And right off the bat, we can exclude ninety-nine percent of them."

She furrowed her brows, "We can?"

"Everyone who isn't wealthy enough to be able to sit around all day. Everyone who's too busy working for a living to dedicate any real time to magic. That's not to say they won't be interested in magic, or that they won't learn what they can-"

"But by no means will they be at the forefront of magical research," Valentine finished.

"Exactly. So, between all three cities, we have six thousand people who are in any position to actually do any real magic. Now you'd know better than I would, what proportion of the top one percent would actually be spending much time on magic?"

"Perhaps one in ten. I think I see where you're leading me, but six hundred people, that's still a fair number," she argued.

"Sure, however," I hedged, "there remain two questions. How many of them are actually any good, and how well organized are they. I'm not saying it's definitely the case that Simon figured out something no one else did, but I think it's fair to say that magic as a field of study is still at the point where someone clever or lucky enough could discover something truly unique."

"I see your point," she reluctantly agreed.

"The final option is that Simon has successfully tricked the rest of society into believing he can only use the one type of magic, when really he can use Mind magic, along with all the others."

"Is there not a fourth option?"

I frowned, "I don't think so, what do you mean?"

"The impression I get from Simon is that just as the elves were more advanced than my people when they arrived, humans are yet more advanced than the elves. Could he not have some device that makes possible what we see him doing?" she inquired.

"Eh, I really don't think so. I struggle to imagine anything on Earth that could be used as a mind-control device. There's drugs that can make people dopey and suggestible," I admitted, "but it would be a dead giveaway, and it doesn't last. And how would he even synthesize it? Unless he somehow showed up with a multi-year supply. Maybe his version of Earth is another century ahead of mine, but then he's got to find some way to maintain and power his magic mind control remote with local resources. I just don't see it. It's possible, but I think weird future tech is so unlikely that it can be lumped in with the rest of the x-factor category."

"Which one is it then?" she asked simply.

"They're all possible, but the second option, that he's figured out some way to use Body magic in a new way, is most likely," I decided.

"That's quite a jump, from it being possible for someone to come up with something new, to deciding Simon definitely did," Valentine observed.

"Alright, so a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there was this guy called Ockham. I think he was a priest, whatever, doesn't matter," I said dismissively, "Anyway, he came up with something really smart. So smart, that other smart people wrote it down, and it's been used by smart people ever since to come to smart people conclusions. It's a logical tool, 'the solution that makes the fewest assumptions is the most likely answer to a problem'," I recited.

"Are you about to start making sense?" she asked sternly.

"Hey-" I started defensively, but I caught the smirk she was trying to hide.

"I see you're going somewhere," she said charitably, "finish your thought."

I took an exaggerated bow, "Thank you, your grace."

She rolled her eyes, and I continued unabated.

"We know two things about Simon. He's human, and he can use magic. We also have two assumptions, he can only use Body magic, and he is somehow influencing the minds of those close to him in a way that goes beyond simple coercion," I reiterated, "Category one, the x-factor solution, is not a great answer because then we've got to add to that list. We've got to come up with some other set of fantastic powers he might have, without any evidence to suggest it, and make who knows how many more assumptions along the way to describe how it might work."

"So, if I understand what you're saying, it's possible, but very unlikely. I think I see the sense in your argument. It's a unique way you have of thinking, learned from this Ockham fellow, no doubt?"

"Actually I read a Harry Potter fan fiction one time," I answered flippantly, "Category three, where Simon is lying about only being able to use Body magic is a better answer, but still not the best. Aside from assuming he's been able to keep the secret, we've also got to assume that his hidden talent with Mind magic is so great that he can overwhelm the defences of those who should be the best equipped to protect themselves. Which is to say, nobles and other spellcasters. Including, presumably, his first magic teacher."

Valentine put a finger to her lips, "And if he'd failed, even once, he would have been done for."

"You said Simon liked sorceresses, have any ever gone missing? Like they might if Simon screwed up and killed them to keep them quiet?" I suggested.

"It's a good thought, one I explored actually. Few fey have died or gone missing since those first chaotic weeks, few enough that I've been able to account for all of them. I haven't done the same for any of the other races though, and he's also known to be fond of elves," she added wryly, "But even if he only made a mistake one in ten times, one in fifty times even, it would be astounding. Mental defences come in layers. First, a protective enchantment to prevent intrusion in the first place. Second, a strengthening enchantment to make the mind better able to fight off an intruder if they do get through. Finally, whether or not the attacker succeeds, there is a ward that will trip upon detection of foreign Mind magic. In the most extreme scenario, where Simon is able to instantly and completely dominate another's mind, the ward would warn half the city."

"That leaves category two. Simon has simply figured out how to use Body magic to achieve the effects that we see."

Valentine arched a delicate eyebrow, "We see?"

"Cooperative problem solving," I declared, fist in the air, "That way he bypasses all those defences you just talked about, and is able to work his mojo without arousing suspicion from most people. After all, how could the guy who can't use Mind magic be mind-controlling people? It requires the fewest assumptions, just the one, and I think it's our best shot at the moment."

"A convincing argument," she agreed, "The question is, what exactly is it that he's doing with his Body magic?"

I threw up my hands, "Not a clue."