We hid behind some rather large bushes and peered to the once abandoned fort along the St. Louisan border. The southern border is defined by a fault line, canyons and cliffs running the entirety before flattening out in Mikoril’s desert. Rocks towered above the fort only to open behind it, making way for a small drawbridge over the deep chasm. Reddish dirt and stone filled the landscape, only dotted by a couple bushes and ground covers. The fort looked as though it had taken a seat after a long day of standing, slumped down and in rubble where rocks had slipped long ago.

I had been there once before when I actively served as a Lord. A tough battle was fought there and it returned vague memories of my small squad. The fort was abandoned back then as well, but it was the closest to our area of operations, and therefore we were forced to take hold of it, worrying every day if it would finish sliding into the canyon. This time it looked far less empty, and several soldiers and Lords could be seen doing busywork. Patrols marched atop the ramparts for the first time in decades, and our bushes barely provided adequate cover for us to slip in.

“We need to take out those patrols. We can’t afford a frontal assault, especially considering their superweapons.”

“I can turn invisible and I have a fireball scroll now. I can get a couple of them.”

“I’ll cover Rose and get the other guards,” Cole inserted.

“Sounds like a plan. Once I see an opening I’ll try to sneak inside. If you two can meet up then do so, but if not bug out. Kalbir, you should come with me. You’ll have the best chance of understanding their weapons with the research you’ve done before.”

“On it. I’ve already written twenty pages on theories I have. It could be new staff technology, a waterproof scroll, a gun, really really big swords, a new wa—”

“Kalbir thank you, but it’ll be better to just go see for ourselves.”

“But it’s so much more fun this way. Oh! I got another theory, hold on!” Kalbir began furiously scribbling in her notebook again.

“Okay, I’m gonna go… Cole come on,” Rose slowly backed away.

“Send a light when you’re finished with the front guards. I’ll find a way in when it’s clear.”

Cole nodded and turned invisible with Rose, both muttering the spell at the same time. A rock briefly became invisible before reappearing in the air, launching at Cole, who let out a short ‘ow quit it’ after Rose threw another. Kalbir looked at me, a nervous look on her face.

Moments later, a guard silently toppled off the ramparts, meeting a light thump in the brush below. A few more whacking sounds and I saw a magical ball of light rise above the battlements, extinguishing fast before it could be seen by anyone. I immediately rolled out from behind the bush and crouch-ran to the fortress’ wall, sticking close as I beckoned for Kalbir to follow. Her eyes lit up and she too scuttled over, a grin of adrenaline accenting her face as she slammed her back to the wall.

“I was here many years ago, I think I remember a hidden entrance around the corner.”

“Wait, you’re kidding me. Is this where the battle of Ackenrock took place?”

“Yeah, that big rock we saw behind the west tower, that was Ackenrock itself.”

“That’s the first story I ever read about you! This is so cool! You defeated like, half an army here!”

“I try to distance myself from those memories. They don’t sit well in my mind.”

“Oh. Totally, I get that. Still though, your skills are impressive.”

I said nothing as I tried to shake those memories from my head. My second in command, Lord Gerard, was the first dead from a surprise attack. The Canadians were the people we were at war with, and this fort was the only passage through the border, making it a key location to control. We fought back several onslaughts; their troops came one after another, as fast as each battalion could get there. For four days we fought endlessly, throwing bodies into the ravine when they piled up.

The horrors of seeing half a fort dead and hundreds of corpses kept those memories fresh when I least expected. I had lived, yes, but out of those who died, I never saw it fortunate that I was one of the few survivors. Instead, all I felt was an empty guilt, a sadness for the world. It was with that trauma I tried to distance San Diego from the war. I felt even more the failure when it was forced on my people.

“Kalbir, there’s a door here. Follow close.”

A small, iron door tucked itself into the wall, barely perceptible before coming within only a meter. Vines and other greenery obscured it even more. If not for my previous knowledge, I doubt I could have found it. Inside was a cobbled hallway, bending and twisting into the fort where the path was imperceptible. Several shelves lined the walls, filled with food and other supplies, waiting to serve the hungry soldiers doing whatever evil business they had.

As we crept down the hallway, the banging of a blacksmith filled the air. Its sound pierced my ears with every strike, bringing us close to the ground as we snuck towards the noise. A doorway later and we saw the blacksmith working, an enormous and highly advanced forge being their workspace. The forges I remembered were nowhere near the scale or complexity as this one; what kind of weapon needed a forge of this level? I tried to scan the tables and shelves around the room, all carrying various bits of weapons and armor, raw materials also included in the mix.

“I don’t see any ‘superweapons,’ but that forge is fancy,” I whispered to Kalbir on my side, hoping she had better perception.

“Maybe the forge itself is the superweapon. If their arms and armor are better…”

“I don’t think so, better crafted spears won’t escalate a war. Maybe we need to have a closer look around.”

I slivered into the room, dodging the smith’s gaze behind tables and bookcases, timing my steps with their hammer to move silently. Kalbir remained at the doorway though, and was adamantly trying to get my attention and pointing. I followed her arm to her finger, and then her finger to a specific shelf. Not seeing anything quite yet, I moved right to another table and across a wall and doorway. Continuing right, I scanned the smith and the forge, then another door and a table. Then another table and a shelf. Then the wall right behind me and another shelf and doorway until I had spun in a complete circle. I must have missed something. I restarted my scan in the opposite direction with a finger out to point, keeping a constant rate of motion as my eyes steadily followed my finger across the room. As my gaze shifted past Kalbir once again, I noticed something peculiar in my peripheral.

Whipping my eyes back, I spotted something horrible, absolutely monstrous… It was some mechanical abomination, runes carved into a runestone, caged by rods of spiked metal, fashioning a war beast that worked in unfathomable ways. Spears, swords, polearms, longbows, all manner of weaponry had been attached erratically, fashioning the beast into some twisted porcupine. Two trebuchets and a catapult laid in the back, their arms hooked down by some mechanical mechanism.

“What in Daddy’s name is that beast?!” I shouted in horror.

“Huh? What was that?” said the blacksmith, launching herself from her little stool and looking around suspiciously.

I stayed quiet behind the table, trying my best to dodge her gaze as she darted around, vaguely checking each room within her close proximity. After a few searches though, she settled back into her forge, simply stating, “Better cut down on the mead.”

Right before her hammer was brought down once more, I dove out of my cover and impaled her neck.

“Come on now, there’s no need to get violent!” the smith said before falling off the end of my blade.

I studied her work as Kalbir joined me, poking and prodding the forge while writing furiously in her notes. A few of those metal bars were in the works, one still glowing, never to be finished. On a table besides the stool was a blueprint of the weapon, detailing every step to create the beast.

“This is cool, can I ride it?” Kalbir poked around the beast, studying it closely.

“No, you’ll stab yourself,” I muttered, to which I was met with a loud ‘ow’ as Kalbir poked herself on a blade.

“Do these things swing around? Oh.” I looked over to see one of the swords spinning rapidly, a rune glowing closeby.

“Kalbir no! Stop touching it, it’ll take off your hand or something!”

“Mortemer, I’m not being reckless. I’m just doing some research…” with a large stick she found nearby, she thrust it into the mess of blades, all of which twisted and spun, chopping the stick to bits.

“Interesting…”

“We should destroy it and take their plans. These are too powerful to leave behind. Imagine the bloodshed it would bring to the war.”

“You still wanna tell the King about this? How do you know he won’t just take the plans and use them instead?”

“He is a dear old friend, I trust him with my life. He would agree that these automatons would be unnecessary violence in the war.”

“I hope you’re right. I don’t trust anyone in a position of power.”

“I’m a duke, you know.”

“Your castle got taken, not much of a duke now. And if you ever are again, I’ll trust you a smidgeon less.”

“Good to know. You must be learning from Rose.”

"Yeah, she's sooo smart and insightful! She gave me a book called 'The Communist Manifesto!' I'll give it to you later."

Gasping and heavy breathing filled my ears as I turned back to see Cole enter, more heavy breaths coming from an invisible Rose beside them.

“We got the guards on the battlements, but we were overrun. They know you’re in here, we should get out immediately,” Cole stammered as Rose turned visible again.

“No. These machines must be destroyed. Did you see the other one?”

“Yes, but it's out in the yard. A garrison has formed around it and they intend to use it on US. We should go.”

“Huh-uh. They need to be destroyed. You three get rid of this one, I’ll take care of the other.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Alone? You’ll get killed!” Rose cried.

“And so will countless others if these get deployed. If I fall, get out of here.”

“I’m coming with you. I won’t let you die alone.” Cole removed their cloak, exposing their well crafted brigandine.

“Then get a few scrolls ready. We need to protect this entrance as well. Kalbir and Rose, figure out how to take these things down.”

The two nodded and I clutched my poleaxe, strutting outside with Cole right behind me. As Cole had warned, outside a handful of troops had gathered, all planted behind the metal beast. A person stepped forward, long billowing cloaks slapping its thick thighs. It clutched an elegant bastard sword, still in its sheath.

“Lord Mortemer. You’ve been interrupting our operations. I’m glad I finally get the pleasure to defeat you myself. My automaton will tear you apart!”

“I presume you are Lord Tarrish? These beasts are too dangerous. We will destroy them.”

“Go ahead and try.”

Lord Tarrish smirked as it drew its sword, giving it a flamboyant twirl before taking its stance. A sword against a poleaxe? This Lord Tarrish stood no chance. I did a similar twirl with my weapon and began to circle the Lord, waiting for it to make a move. It tested the waters with a small jab, letting me knock its sword away before thrusting myself, a move it easily dodged. Meanwhile Cole had begun reading spells, charging up with their standard protective scrolls first. As Lord Tarrish and I clashed again, a sea of water filled each of the soldiers to their waist, only taking space as pillars around each person. Lord Tarrish gave a foul expression as it tried to move, the water holding back its legs as it tried to advance.

I however, was not stopped by water, and so I moved in for a strike on the side, Cole preparing another spell next to me. Even in the water column, Lord Tarrish managed to fend off my axe, twisting it to its side and pinning the pole to the ground. It sprung towards me, rolling across my axe’s shaft in an attempt to disarm me. Making use of the water it was stuck in, I pulled my axe out and twisted it onto its head, Lord Tarrish barely blocking the axe just fingers before its face. It deflected my axe to the side and followed with a side swing, aiming at my calves. Thinking quickly I twisted my halberd to block, hooking in its sword with the axe head. I twirled the pole around, bringing its sword to the other side and trying to make it lose its footing. The Lord was quick though and withdrew its sword, bringing it back into a defense position.

As I thrusted, Cole finished another spell; a gust of wind knocked the others down into their water bubbles. They splashed and clamored for footing to stand back up, but couldn’t find it as the water pools floated up and began to spin rapidly, shoving the poor soldiers into a flowing frenzy, the water turning them every way. Before the same could happen to Lord Tarrish however, it slung out a scroll and read frantically, the mud shifting to cover its feet and keep it clinged to the ground. The water bubble moved up its body and it smugly held its breath, jeering as the water rose above and away from its body. The mud crept back into the ground, freeing its feet for another attack.

With all its soldiers gone, Lord Tarrish was now alone and looking between me and Cole. I moved in front to protect them as they read another spell, and Lord Tarrish moved again, trying to feint around me. I caught the trick however and swung my axe to the side, meaning to hit its stomach. It blocked with its sword and tried to hook it in, moving my halberd away from me. I struggled to free it as it locked in its sword with the crossguard, pulling my polearm away from me and sending me to the floor.

“Cole, watch out!” I yelled before I hit the ground.

Cole was already ahead of me though, and they blurted out a quick spell that blew Lord Tarrish away through the air and over the chasm, its screams filling the air as it plummeted behind a rock.

“You good?” Cole asked as they helped me up.

“Yeah, I thought it was gonna get you for a second.”

“I never let anyone get close to me. Maybe that’s why my relationships don’t work out,” they laughed nervously to the point I couldn’t tell if they were serious or not.

I opened my mouth to respond, but was stopped as the sound of swinging blades filled the air. I spun just in time to dodge a spinning sword, turning to face the automaton. The catapult and trebuchet were released, and the swords spun even faster, closing in on us.

⧫

Kalbir and Rose stared at the mechanical structure. Kalbir scribbled notes furiously, poking and prodding everything now that Mortemer wasn’t there to stop her. Rose just looked confused, rubbing her forehead as she lazily stared at it.

“You know, I’ve seen visions of the future and this ain’t it. It looks like a really shit car that someone glued swords to. It’s like a macaroni necklace your kid makes you and you really want to throw it away, but you have to wear it to work otherwise they’ll be sad.”

“What’s a car?”

“Honey, that's a lot to go into. It’s probably best you don’t know, then I’d have to go into climate change and shitty city planning. Hopefully that future doesn’t happen.”

“Climate change?”

“Oh that’s even more. Fuck the oil companies and neo-libs who ‘promise they won’t stop fracking!’ Like that’s supposed to be good.”

“Rose, this is going over my head and usually nothing does. I absorb everything.”

“Mum, I hope you didn’t have a traumatic childhood.”

“MOVING ON, you know how to stop this thing?”

“If you don't, why would you think I do? You’re supposed to be the smart one.”

“Hmmm… The metal is very strong, it can’t be melted or bent. The swords are on there really tight, and the magic is keeping the whole thing protected. I honestly don’t have any leads for its weakness.”

“Let me… um… hit it?”

Rose whacked it a couple times, yelping away as one of the swords moved slightly.

“That didn’t work. I’m out of ideas.”

“Let me do some math… so if strut A is three meters and strut d intersects at one point four, then carry the one… Its weakest structural point is on brace E at one point thirty six meters! I did it! Yeah! Woo!”

“Kalbir, the hell does that mean? Your smart jargon is above me.”

“Hit it there.”

Kalbir pointed to the specific spot and Rose hit it. Rather than break though, it only made a slight dent.

“Oh. That’s only a weakness for that brace, not the whole thing.”

“Yeah, and I don’t think we’ll always get the time to math it out. Wish Cole was here, they’d know some cool magic.”

“You’re right. Actually, the weakness probably is that rune stone in the middle. The spells commanded from it run the entire thing.”

“So we hit that then?”

“No, that could be dangerous. If the runes are casting spells, you’ll be injured from the energy explosion. What we need to do is find the spell frequency and draw a rune that will cancel out its energy, just like sound. I think I have a journeyman-level magica actuator in my bag, hold on.”

Kalbir rustled through her bag, throwing various bits and baubles out behind her until she removed a wooden square, filled with metal poles stretching across.

“We need to activate it first, otherwise I can’t read its magica frequency.”

“Activate it? Are you nuts?”

“Probably. You’ll have to do it, I can’t read.”

“Well I can teach you that, let’s start with the alphabet. A, B, C—”

“No Rose, spell reading.”

“I literally can barely read runes though.”

“Cole gave you a translation tome, right?”

“No. Only a little kid would need one of those.”

“Rose?”

“...”

“I can see you hiding it in your cloak.”

“Fine, okay. I have one. And it’s perfectly normal for beginners to use one.”

“Are you going to activate it?”

“Huh? You still wanna do that? I thought you changed your mind, you know, since this thing is gonna kill us?!”

“We need to find the frequency.”

Rose and Kalbir exchanged stares for a second before Rose finally sighed and gave in, peering into the machine to translate the runes.

“Um, firteli hagi pekasti?”

As the last sound left her mouth the runestone lit up, casting the magical words across the walls. The swords began to spin, picking up speed as Rose stared in horror. Kalbir wore a much different expression, however, as she beamed wide with her magic gizmo thing.

“It’s working!”

“Yeah and we’re about to die! Figure it out quick!”

Rose slowly backed up as the swords reached full speed and the catapult armed itself. Even the dual trebuchets stretched back, storing energy to shoot at Rose.

“Kalbir, it has a catapult.”

“Actually that’s a trebuch— oh it has both. Just a moment!” Kalbir returned to staring at her fork thing while she scribbled down in her journal, drawing various shapes to visualize their frequency.

“I’m going to start running away now!”

“Okay!”

“Kalbir, this is crazy!”

The machine let out, launching its projectiles and sending several knives through the air at Rose. She screamed as she ran into a hallway, the automaton following her in.

“Rose, please keep it in the room, I can’t measure its frequencies from out there.”

“Kalbir I’m going to die!”

“Yep. Just a couple more seconds.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“There, we need to carve this shape into the stone! There are some smithing tools and ink here, we can do it with these!”

“AAAAAAAGH”

“Rose?”

Kalbir looked to see Rose cowering in a corner, the metal beast struggling to get to her with its size.

“Oh.”

Kalbir grabbed an etching iron and dove through the metal frame onto the runestone. Several swords redirected to attack her but were stopped by the metal bars, Kalbir flinching on each clang. She worked hard to carve in the shape; two circles side by side, connected by two lines that shot up and met with a curve. As the last segment was drawn, the shape glowed and the machine stopped, the swords skipping on the walls as they slowed down.

“Kalbir. That was terrifying. I just lost a couple years I think.”

“Nevermind that, I stopped it! Now we can deal with the other one.”

“Kalbir, why does it look like a dick?”

“Huh?”

“The rune you carved, it’s shaped like a dick.”

“Oh. Oh no.”

Rose laughed, “Okay, we should get outside and help Mortemer and Cole. Hopefully they’re faring well with the other one.”

⧫

We were not faring well. The machine had chased us both down and had us on the constant run. My strikes and Cole’s spells had no effect as they bounced off. Cole’s last resort was to simply hover in the air and watch me run away, something I wholly supported until they sported a bag of popcorn and laughed as they threw bits at me.

“Cole, cast a fireball or something!”

“It’ll just bounce off. Wish I could float you too.”

“Can you at least stop throwing popcorn at me?” I asked as I dove to the side again.

“Nope. Might as well make this entertaining.”

The other soldiers that were in the air had all run away, nobody being able to control the beast. Cole said the runes had a passcode spell, and with nobody knowing it, aside from Lord Tarrish I presumed, the machine ran rampant.

“Mortemer! We found its weakness!” Kalbir yelled as she and Rose ran out of the smithery.

“What do I need to do?”

“Draw a dick on it!” Rose laughed.

“What?”

“Rose is right! You have to draw a penis on the runestone!”

“I’m a good artist, I’ve got this!” Cole descended and fell onto the machine, crawling in to the runestone as it tried to stab them. They spent several minutes carving out the shape, bringing us all to wonder what was taking so long.

“Cole hurry up!”

“Never rush an artist! There, it is complete!” They jumped off but nothing happened and it kept going, rampaging towards Kalbir and Rose.

Rose ran away but Kalbir stood her ground, dodging the swords then diving onto the runestone.

“Cole, this penis has way too much detail to work! How did you even carve out such a realistic looking one anyways?”

“It’s simply the whims of the brush, and as an artist I guide them.”

Kalbir said nothing as she carved in the correct shape, the machine immediately dying down as she hopped off.

“Good work, you still have the plans?” I asked.

“Yeah, I also added a note on how to disable them. Hopefully we never run into one again though.”

“Wooo! Kalbir, that was badass!” Rose gave Kalbir a hug and she looked quite bashful.

“Where’d all the soldiers go?”

“They ran away, it seems these automatons aren’t as in control as they thought. We should go see the King though, this is important. He needs to know about these.”