The next day, when the wizard came downstairs, the kid was still asleep on the couch. I figured it was easier to be quiet with four legs than with two, and turned back into a labrador while scaling myself back down to a reasonable size. The wizard seemed too tired to be impressed despite my nearly silent approach.

He went straight to the kitchen, and as I watched he prepared food for himself and the kid. Servants I had been seeing through the living room’s windows had been active in the back yard and must have been collecting things for breakfast, as there were eggs and bread waiting for him. I had figured the magicians of this world were like nobles, but I also couldn’t envision any nobility cooking their own meals. They had been brought all their meals when we were back in the castle, but this could be just a consequence of traveling.

After a short breakfast, we returned to the road. Today when I sat next to the kid he didn’t pet me. The conversation was sporadic, but eventually the kid got my attention and, while pointing at himself, started repeating the same thing.

~~~

It had been Master Cole’s idea to try and teach the Soulsteel their names before they arrived at the capital. They had been kept so busy since it had first arrived they hadn’t taken the time to do one of the literal first step to test the intelligence level of Living Metal. While they were sure it was smart enough to quickly pick up their names, establishing names also helped to make the soulsteel more personable.

When it turned from Tommen to Master Cole, Cole said his name to it. For a brief second, both were concerned when neither name got a response, but it was only taking a second to reply with its own. The Soulsteel had created itself a collar. Initially they were both flabbergasted as it always seemed reluctant to be treated like a pet, but when Tommen tried, and failed, to read the tag, they promptly forgot how out of character the move was.

“I don’t think I’ve seen most of these letters before. Have you Master Cole?”

“I know I haven’t. We won’t know if it is an actual alphabet until we run it through a translation spell.”

“It looks a bit like dwarven, but that’s just appearance. Should I write it down?”

“Yes, Tommen. And of the similar letters, they are all missing parts.”

Now that it knew their names, The Soulsteel would turn its head to them when their name was spoken.

“How do you think it’s pronounced?”

“I couldn’t guess. There is a spell for that, I’m sure.”

“How do you think it learned them?”

“What do you mean?”

“Who taught it these letters? I thought Living Metal wasn’t supposed to be smart when it first landed?”

“I have two theories, the less likely one is that it was imparted the knowledge with a spell of some kind. The second is that the soul wasn’t originally the Soulsteel’s.”

“That’s some kind of forbidden magic, right? Rebinding souls?”

“I am not sure if it’s the kind we’re familiar with. Soul implantation leaves marks, basically scars. It’s like fitting a human into a dwarf’s armor. It is possible, but it won’t fit right. And whenever you try to do even simple things the constraints would chafe the very soul.”

“But you still don’t think its soul is original to the Soulsteel?”

“I don’t, but implanted souls also don’t keep a recollection of their knowledge, so I can’t be sure.”

“You mean that they can learn the stuff they knew before more easily, right? Can the priest help us with that?”

“Father Daniel? Yes, he should be able to. But it depends on if the spells he has are able to translate from whatever language that is.”

“So the spells to read something out loud and to translate something are different?”

“Yes.”

“Why haven’t I learned them? They sound useful.”

“They are the purview of Divine magic. If you chose to become a Divine Mage, I think it’s generally taught in the third year.”

“Do I have to be a Divine Mage to learn them?”

“No. It’s not mandatory, you’d just have to go out of your way to learn them.”

“Okay. Does the name look more like a boy’s name or a girl’s?”

“It strikes me as masculine.”

That night, they were forced to camp out, as the stagecoach couldn’t make good enough time while still being so overburdened. The Soulsteel spent the night as a Fire Tortoise, the form was highly efficient at casting heat out to the sides, and the new tall chimney was lifting the smoke up and away from those sitting around it.

“It’s a shame we can’t cook on him too.”

“I suppose, but I bet he’d hate it.”

“Why do you think he hates it when we treat him the way he looks?”

“Well, think about it like if I started petting you.”

“But I'm not a dog.”

“Neither is he, really.”

“But he looks so cute. Even like this I don’t know how to resist.”

“The same way I’ve started resisting messing up your hair whenever you master a new spell.”

“Master Cole, that’s not what I meant.”

During the night, they did not keep watch, and Cole had also neglected to cast any wards upon the camp. Not that any of the wolves, or the bear, that stumbled across the camp wanted to stick around with the flaming hell turtle holding vigil.

~~~

Duke Drake and his Court Mage Archibald were standing on one of the Ducal Estate’s balconies. It overlooked a small courtyard, ringed by a low hedge, surrounded by bare fields. A few plows still tilled the earth, turning the fresh snow into the soil. In the courtyard, Natasha was slowly rowing in circles. Her initial tests had been trying to test its max speed, but having failed to find the limit with only one oar, she was now testing to see just how strong a bank the little vessel could take before inverting.

“So. How useful is it, really?”

“That little dingey couldn’t hold much more than a single person. Just a second man would make it scrape along the ground.”

“And that had nothing to do with the balance, right?”

“Yes. If it was a bigger boat, in combination with the impressive efficiency of this new pendulum, we're still not quite outperforming a covered wagon.”

“Is there a reason you couldn’t use your new prototype to power one?”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“It needs constant rotational input. The mana it produces is also not easy to store.”

“How many mages would it take to float a Galleass?”

“Twenty mages, and a full complement of oarsmen, even with Enchanted Oars.”

“Could it catch wind with sails, then?”

“It could. The balance would prevent the sail from pulling it over. But it would still have a max speed before it gets overwhelmed and flips, and would require even more mages the faster it got going.”

“What about spells for propulsion?”

“It would exhaust the mages when they need to be focusing on keeping the ship aloft. And twenty mages is already too many to commit to one vessel.”

“So what did you want to talk to me about? I know you can’t want more money.”

“The money is fine. But I think that Soulsteel must have more ideas wherever this pendulum came from.”

“You’re really worried I’ll send it off to the Drake Guard?”

“Only a little. I like to think I know you better than that.”

“Yes. It will be in your care here at the capital. Keep it out of trouble.”

“Is Daniel going to be here when they arrive?”

“Yes, but why?”

“The Soulsteel came with a name.”

“In Wernst or some other language?”

“Cole sent the name to me just after sunset.”

“He’s sure sending a lot of magical letters. He’s gonna exhaust himself. But let’s see.”

“He’ll be fine. He keeps his letters short.”

“Oh, it’s a long name. And I don’t recognise the letters.”

“A few of the letters are reminiscent of the dwarven alphabet, but they’re certainly not the same.”

“What’s the chance it's a dead language?”

“That is the first thing I’ll be asking Father Daniel.”

“I’ll show him this, and he’ll have an answer for you tomorrow.”

~~~

The Church Library was massive. And the books Daniel was looking for hadn’t been needed for a long time. Most books would get transcribed about once a century, more if nobles were buying copies, but by injecting a small amount of order mana into a manabead in the binding of a book, they would last a long time as they were simply sitting on shelves.

The standard translation spells had been unable to divine the word’s meaning. This was not too strange in itself, the spells he had tried were for translating from dwarven dialects. The books he was searching through now had a layer of dust thick enough to obscure their titles completely. Lesser Cleanse was the only spell weak and accurate enough to not damage the books, but the spell required him to cast it on each of them individually.

“Remin? Have you found anything new?”

“Yes Father Daniel, I did find something that referenced a powerful translation spell.”

“Well I'm having no luck over here. Let’s take an early lunch break, and you can tell me about the reference.”

“Yes Father. It’s a story you’ve given a sermon on before.”

“Oh, which one?”

“The Conclave of Gormtra.”

“Oh, yes. Of course. The last time I brought it up must have been about ten years ago now? Do you really remember it?”

“It was a good sermon, Father Daniel. It struck me how overreliance on magic caused the mages to start speaking complete nonsense when they ran out of mana.”

“I remember it more clearly now. Does the text itself name the spell?”

“No Father, but surely knowing who made it and when will help us find it?”

“It might, but we don’t have much time. They're expected to arrive an hour after noon.”

“I thought we just needed to find out if it was old dwarven or not?”

“There is always the chance it’s a whole different language. They suspected it might be a dead one.”

“Okay Father Daniel.”

Despite spending the rest of the time before he had to get ready to leave, they could not find the spell, or any others that would help them. Father Daniel couldn’t be late, as he had to inform both Duke Drake and Mage Archibald of his lack of findings, and his recommendations for what to do about it. He didn’t bring Remin with him to the Ducal Estate, as Remin had other responsibilities, especially now that his ordination was approaching.

“Good morning Duke Drake, Mage Archibald. I have come to make my report.”

“I can always trust you to be punctual. Did you find what language it is?”

“No, Nor its pronunciation. At this point it might be better to ask a diviner to work with me on adapting an existing spell.”

“Would the Kingdom of Ridgewern have more complete records?”

“The only references to a spell that could translate even dead languages was from the story of Gormtra. Spells from so long ago are unlikely to have survived, especially not with their full functionality.”

“Any Artifices that would be useful here?”

“Not that I could think of, or I could find while searching for a more powerful translation spell.”

“Cole wanted to know if you could teach it a translation spell, and if that fails just teach it Wernst.”

“Both of those are a large time investment. Is it already capable of reproducing spells?”

“It hasn’t reproduced any, but it has made its own attack out of light mana.”

“Then I will do my best. How much longer will they take to arrive?”

“The stagecoach is still about fifteen minutes out. You two are to greet them in the foyer, and bring them to meet me in the Great Hall.”

“Oh, Did you finally get him to stop calling it the Drake Hall, Archibald?”

“It was a hard sell, and I had to promise not to make fun of the Drake Guard anymore.”