As the Seventh Seal coalesced into ranks and they moved out from the Manufactorium, Aldric confided in Daveth.
“If all those metal monsters were active, we wouldn’t have survived.” He combed his beard with his fingertips. “Makes me worry about what we’ll find in the foundry... and in the mines.” He mused.
“Regret taking the job?” Daveth asked curiously.
Aldric sighed. “Yeah. No. I don’t know. Monsters and villains I can deal with. These metal things... our weapons aren’t gonna cut it.”
“What’s the plan? Go back and tell the Shapers we quit?” Daveth offered.
“Don’t tempt me.” Aldric began, and then added, “Remember, we’re here at their sufferance. We came here on their ship.”
“How do we get back?” Daveth asked, and Aldric shook his head.
“I’ll be fucked if I know. That gigantic ship of theirs has only been seen in Anglish waters a few times in four centuries.”
“How many is ‘a few’?” Daveth asked, and Aldric looked up at him solemnly.
“Less than ten times.”
“Great. I thought we might’ve gotten the short end of the stick before Aldric, but now I think we’ve been given the short and greasy end of the stick.”
“Don’t remind me.” Aldric replied, rolling his eyes. He unrolled a map as he rode, steering with his knees. “We’ve gotta go through this bit here- I think it’s a farm? and then we’re at their ‘Crucible’. After that, a short hop to their mines.” Aldric sighed and combed his beard with his fingers.
“What’s a ‘crucible’ anyways?” Daveth asked.
“A melting pot. A steelworker will put the metal in the pot, heat it up, melt the steel down, and then use it for whatever- weapons, construction materials, so on and so forth.” Morden piped up from behind Aldric and Daveth, startling them both.
“Welcome to the party, Morden.” Aldric greeted sourly. Morden nodded at this greeting.
“See the map?” He asked, and Aldric gave him a look, but passed it over.
“According to the scouts, the Manufactorium wasn’t just a place where weapons were made. There were tools and other equipment there. I judge this ‘crucible’ of theirs to likely be the same. A place where they turn ore into metal, dress stone for construction... he trailed off. “Like that.”
“You think that’s where they make all their glass?” Daveth asked, remembering those terrifyingly tall buildings of glass and steel that seemed poised to crumble at the slightest stiff breeze.
“Ooooh.” Aldric murmured appreciatively. “I like where this is going already. Spoils of war, spoils of war.” He chuckled.
“I think we’ve gotta be realistic about our looting, Cap.” Morden offered. “They brought us here, and I’m betting they’ll be the ones taking us back... so I have to wonder what they’ll let us take.”
Aldric and Daveth nodded, each compiling a list of things they’d like to bring back, if they could.
As they passed through the farmland, they came across Orelia, standing atop the twelve-foot steel machine, an exultant, triumphant expression on her baby face.
“I see you brought it down.” Aldric observed. “The runt riding it?” He asked, as she grinned down at him.
“Underneath it.” She replied smugly.
Aldric and Daveth traded looks and nods between them. “Good job, soldier.” They praised, and Daveth followed up with jerking his thumb behind him at the ranks of the Seventh Seal. “Now get in line and let’s get moving.”
He eyed the steel carcass- two spears pierced the ribcage high up in the back. Did she throw them? Climb up and stab it in the back? He passed an order back for someone to collect the ammunition- no doubt Moore and his gatlings would appreciate the boon.
*****
The Seventh Seal idled on the road to the Crucible for a while, watching the farmers at work.
“If one of those machines had come at me in the Manufactory, I would have deserted and demanded the Shapers return me home.” Daveth stated with flat finality.
“Hmm.” Aldric replied, and then nodded. “Me too.”
The metal arachnid with spindly, steel legs skittered across the ground, dragging a plow behind it, ripping furrows in the earth. As they watched its scything, articulated limbs stab in the ground, the Shaper riding it threw a lever and the machine pivoted, swinging the multi-bladed plow around as it prepared to dig up the earth again in the opposite direction.
It was massive, it was grotesque, it rumbled and chuffed smoke, and the way that it sped across the ground faster than a horse could walk was terrifying. The fact that it could plow eight furrows in the ground in one go while accomplishing this feat left them speechless.
“Just saying, but it doesn’t look like it’s a war machine.” Audra piped up.
“You want that thing chasing you while some giggling chucklefuck mows you down with arrows? Or maybe a crank-gun?” Daveth asked curiously.
“Nnnnnope.” She replied immediately.
“Good; me either.” He added, and then nudged his horse. “We’ve a few miles to put in before we even arrive at this ‘Crucible’. Daylight’s wasting.”
Aldric snapped out of his daze and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s get a move on.”
*****
The first thing they noticed as they approached the Crucible was the noise. The Manufactorium had been almost deathly quiet; the Crucible was alive with noise. There was the pounding of metal on metal, the heavy thumps of things getting moved around, chains rattling, and the familiar sound of engines chugging in heavy industry.
Daveth eyed the massive enclosure, similar to the Manufactorium except for the presence of gates, from the back of his horse.
“Scouts?” He asked Aldric, who thumbed his chin and tugged on his beard.
“Reasonable, considering that we’ve no maps of the facility.” Aldric agreed. “How’s our mages?”
Daveth asked the question back, and the Ebon Hand came forward, along with the apprentice mages left over from the Radiant Sons.
“Magic’s real thin, boss.” Nicola reported, and Corwin nodded.
Aldric rolled his eyes. “Explain it to me like I’m five years old.” Nicola and Corwin exchanged baffled looks at this order.
“You mean... five years old?” Nicola asked tentatively.
“Fine, explain it to me as if I’m Daveth, then.” Aldric replied, laughing nastily. Daveth glared at him, and slipped a dagger from his pouch and began ostentatiously cleaning his fingernails with it.
“Usually there’s enough ambient magic around you to cast spells. Of course, it depends on what it is you want to do and how you want to do it, but-” She began, but Aldric waved his hand.
“Even Daveth understands that much. What do you mean it’s ‘thin’?”
“Ah. Basically, it will take forever to gather enough magic to cast a spell.” She paused, and glanced at Corwin, who shrugged and then wiggled his hand. “More or less.” he added.
“That’s some wiggle room right there.” Aldric observed.
“Well...” Corwin shrugged, “If you had a lifetime for me to teach you magical theory, you’d know that-” He stopped, and took a breath, and scrubbed his face with his hands.
“You know what? Let’s start over.” He suddenly offered with a cynical sort of cheerfulness. “You tell me what you want, and I will tell you whether or not we can do it.”
Daveth reached over to Aldric’s horse and plucked the man’s spyglass from his saddlebag.
“Hey, fuck you, Daveth-” Aldric began, but Daveth ostentatiously patted Aldric on the head.
“Fuck you too, little man. You’re really beginning to piss me off.” Daveth replied, eyeing the crucible with the spyglass. “I have an idea: Cast a spell that turns all the metal in the crucible soft and mushy.”
Nicola and Corwin exchanged glances again.
“What?”
Daveth pointed back towards the Manufactorium. “So far, all the stuff we’ve been fighting has been machines. Golems made out of metal. If you cast a spell that heats up the metal to the point where it’s soft and bendy, then whatever golems are in there will melt like candlewax. So far that’s the little fucker’s biggest advantage: using the Shaper’s tech against them. Against us.”
Aldric eyed Daveth critically, and then turned back towards the pair of mages.
“He does have himself a point.” Aldric offered. “From what I know of magic, I don’t think it’s possible, but he is right: their biggest advantage is that they’re using Shaper tech against us. We remove that advantage, and I think the playing field will tip itself in our favor real fuckin’ fast.”
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“You’re right, it’s impossible.” Nicola immediately replied, but Corwin interrupted her.
“It might be possible.” He offered.
Daveth eyed the man. “No bullshit?”
Corwin rubbed his chin. “I don’t know for sure. I’m willing to try. If it doesn’t work, we can do something else.”
“What do you mean, we can do something else?” Nicola exclaimed. “What he’s asking for is categorically impossible!”
Corwin gave her a nonplussed look. “Have you never had to cast in magically thin areas before?”
She gave him a frown, and folded her arms across her chest. “I have. We had to rely on crystals with stored power.”
“Useful in a fight, less useful when you’re stuck there for months.” Corwin explained. “How would you deal with that situation?” He asked the woman curiously.
“I... don’t know.” She admitted truculently.
“Well, that’s the first step. The next step is figuring out a way around ‘I don’t know’ and moving forward.” Corwin replied simply.
“What is the next step?” Nicola asked. Corwin shrugged. “Magic circles.”
“Oh come on! You really think that will work?” She argued hotly.
“We use a bunch of magical circles to draw in what little magical energy is around here. Then we quite separately set up a different magic circle to do what Commander Daveth suggested.”
“...” Nicola clearly wanted to object, but shut her mouth.
“How realistic is this plan?” Aldric asked skeptically.
“...It’s a reach. It could take days to gather the necessary energy to cast the spell, and casting the spell won’t be instant, either. It might take hours. I’ve never used this method on something as grand a scale as this.” He paused in thought for a bit, and then added, “Honestly Captain, it’s your call. I know how to do it because I’ve been in places like this before.”
Aldric rubbed his chin. “Okay. Get started right away.”
*****
The magic circles were drawn, and Corwin nodded after a thorough inspection of them. “I think our trial run should be a healing spell for Arcene.”
Aldric raised an eyebrow at this. “We’re not going to immediately try it out?”
Corwin shook his head. “If this works, then Arcene should be ready for combat. If it only works for that, then we’ve still healed her, and we can rethink our options. If it doesn’t work at all, then we know right away without agitating the enemy.”
Daveth nodded. “Makes sense.”
Corwin walked around with Nicola trailing after him like a baby bird. Daveth followed as well.
“So how did you end up learning something like this?” He asked, and Corwin let out a dry chuckle. “The Ebon Hand got pinned down in a forest in Hesperia. Apparently the Anglish never finished civilizing it, because we were attacked by barbarians.” He spat sarcastically.
“The magic was exceedingly thin, and like Nicola here, we had to rely on our magical tools, like crystals and the like, but eventually they ran out. They seemed to have almost limitless magic though.”
He shook his head, and gestured with his hands. “So frustrating. Can you imagine? There’s no magic to be had, and yet your enemies are launching magic at you? What kind of bullshit is that?” He asked rhetorically.
“We were forced to retreat again and again. We eventually came across a node of magic that helped us recharge our tools, and we went back in the fray. We got pushed out, back and forth we went until we came across one of their campsites- and that’s where I found the circles they were using. They just sucked up what little magical energy there was, and then when one of the barbarians ran dry, they went and scooped it up.”
He shook his head. “I want you to understand though that the magics we used were small. Fire arrows, ice bolts, quick heals. Tiny, one-shot spells. You’re asking for something much larger.”
He looked up at Daveth. “Theoretically, it’s possible. Theoretically, we can do it. Theoretically, we might be able to win. Don’t get me wrong; I want to try, but you’re banking on a whole lotta ‘ifs’, ‘maybes’, and ‘mights’. It could do nothing at all.” He paused. “That’s why I want to first try healing up our wounded. If something like this doesn’t work, I want our fighters, at least, to be ready at the front.”
He crouched down at the magic circle he was near and fiddled with one of the lines.
“Nicola, you have a needle?” He asked her, and she gaped at him, baffled.
“I might, but why?”
“Just checking something.” Corwin replied, and pulled out a carved wooden cup from his pack and filled it a bit with water as Nicola hunted down a needle from her sewing kit.
“Don’t you have one?” She asked, and he chuckled. “Of course I do. But I’d like to work with the Seventh Seal more. Show some cooperation. My mates are kinda pissed that Aldric took over the whole operation, but Aldric’s a good captain and Daveth’s... fucking scary. I hope we can sign on with the Seventh Seal when this is over. They’ve got a solid crew.”
“So, cooperation and schmoozing up to the mages in the Seventh Seal, hmm?” She asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
“Of course.” He replied simply, and held his hand out for the needle. Nicola passed it over after restraining the urge to stab him with it.
He dropped the needle in the water carefully, and brought it towards the magical circle he’d carved into the ground.
“Wish we had some quicksilver. Even powdered bone would make this more effective.” He complained. “We’re getting a trickle, now. It’s not much, but I’ll probably have to buy up a whole bunch of things from the tross to use in the magic circle as a medium.”
“I’ve only used quicksilver in my magic circles.” Nicola observed.
“I’ve used powdered bone, gem dust, pulverized jade, and even rust flakes from an old abandoned cannon. Grind it down, and it’s good for one quick spell.” He offered. “Too risky to use those things continuously.”
Nicola nodded. Tapping the earth for mana carried the risk of drawing up the magical corruption with it. Of course, you could draw a secondary circle to filter out the toxic element of magic, but that was twice the materials used for a single-use spell. Anything beyond that and you were begging your Patron to protect you from the inevitable consequences.
“So what’re you using this time?” She asked.
“Iron dust. I picked it up when we were using that one building in the Manufactorium for a base. Just put out a magnet and poof!” He waved his hands and a small pouch that bulged appreciatively appeared in his palm. She held out her hand and he passed it over and she peeked inside. It was mostly black, though she could see a faint shimmer here and there as if light was reflecting off something.
“I think there’s steel flakes in there, too.” She observed, and he poured out a little in his hand and stirred it around.
“So there is. Shouldn’t affect what we’re doing, though.”
*****
Under Daveth’s direction, the Seventh Seal set up a temporary camp in order to wait out the agglutination of magic. He himself paced back and forth impatiently while Audra trotted after him drawing a few chuckles from the soldiers.
After several laps he abruptly stopped and Audra ran into him and bounced off.
“What’re you doing?” He eyed the elven scout.
“Right back at you.” She replied smartly.
“I’m waiting. I hate waiting.” He complained.
“No you don’t.” Audra rebutted, climbing to her feet. “You’ve been patient before.”
He frowned down at her. “Name one.” He challenged, folding his thick arms across his chest.
“Nauders. You were patient throughout the whole of it.” She replied back.
He shook his head. “That was different. There were always things that needed to be done. Right now the enemy is right in front of me and I can’t do anything but wait.”
“We could circle around to Moore’s spot and offload the ammunition.” Audra offered, and his eyebrows rose up at that. “Tempting, but that’s one hell of a backtrack.” He replied.
“True. That’s why we’ve got horses.” Audra argued.
He gave her a confused look. “Weren’t you riding a deer at one point?”
She blinked. How long ago was that? Back before.... back before Jonan’s bad death. How long ago was that? Strange how quick it was to lose track of time. What month was it? What season?
Nauders had been bitterly cold, but Nauders was cold all year round, not just during the winter months. Plus all the time they’d spent in Metzcal, which was a broiling oven. Was it spring? Summer? Here in the Shaper’s land, the weather seemed strangely stable and unchanging. It was exactly the same weather every single day.
“That was a long time ago, Daveth.” She reminded him.
“That’s ‘Commander’ to you.” He muttered. She laughed prankishly at that. Hadn’t they spent time together on that great boat of the Shapers? They were relatively alone; there wasn’t any need for rank or formality now.
“If you like, we could bring back one of the guns back. You’re big enough to carry it around.” She offered, and then mimed holding a gun in her tiny hands. “Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!”
Daveth gave her a baffled look.
“....no.” He stated simply.
“Why not?” She asked, and kicked at a small rock i n the road with the tip of her boot. “You’d be able to use it without problems.”
He shook his head. “I don’t... he shrugged. “I know how useful guns and cannon are. They’re damned useful. I just... I can’t see myself using one.” He finished and then shrugged uncomfortably.
Audra laughed up at him. “All you have to say is “I’m a big strong guy, I like smashing things with my big strong hands.” She offered, and he gave her a sour look, and then resumed his pacing.
*****
Daveth came around to the spot where Corwin worked alongside Nicola.
“Any changes?” He asked, knowing full well that nothing had.
“Actually, yes.” Corwin replied. “There’s apparently a big node of magic in the volcano. I’m setting up another spell circle to tap into it. Once that’s done, we should be able to go ahead and heal Arcene and maybe melt the entire Crucible to slag.”
“You’re shitting me.” Daveth disputed. Nicola shook her head. “I’ve sensed it too.”
“Hmm.” Daveth crouched down next to where Corwin sat, and Audra immediately climbed up on his shoulders. Daveth rolled his eyes and ignored her. She’d get bored with teasing him eventually, he was sure of it. Besides, he thought of it as an exercise to keep from losing his temper.
“Anything else you can tell me about that volcano?” Daveth asked. “There’s supposed to be a network of mineshafts we need to clear out. I’m already not looking forward to it.”
Corwin thumbed his chin for a moment.
“I know a little about volcanoes in general.”
Daveth moved his hand in a cranking gesture to speed up the mages’ explanation.
“Lava, obviously. Liquid rock. That’s going to be a thing. There might be things living in there that are resistant to heat. Ah. Poisonous gasses. It’ll be deadly to breathe in there for too long.”
“Any way to fix that? Some magic, some spell?” daveth asked.
“Good question. I’ll think about it and get back to you. Right now though, our first priority is Arcene. We’re all set up and ready to go on this end.”
“Already?” Daveth asked, baffled.
“Been working while we talk. Not hard to do.” Corwin replied, and climbed to his feet. Daveth rose to his feet with him.
“...you seem to have an elf stuck to you sir.” Corwin observed.
Daveth rolled his eyes at the mage. “Probably.” He reached back and grabbed Audra and plucked her off his shoulders by grabbing a fistful of her vest and pulling her forward.
She wriggled and kicked in his grasp; he simply held her out at arm’s length while he rubbed his neck and shoulders ostentatiously.
“Doesn’t seem to be the venomous kind. I think I’ll let it go.” He explained to Corwin who nodded thoughtfully.
“Catch and release? Not a bad choice, I think.” The mage replied with a smirk. Daveth chuckled and let Audra drop. She bounced back to her feet, flipping her ponytail out of her face.
“Yeah, not a bad choice at all. I’ll let the healers know to bring Arcene. It’s about time we got this traveling circus back on the road.”