by Eric Vall
It was a simple, serviceable station, and we didn’t build anything else near it so there would be room for expansion if need be. At the base of the hill, we crafted the first residential structure, three rooms which we dug into the hill before we pulled up walls and let them curve together to form a dome. The granite was a light gray, almost white, that lent a simple elegance to the style. That would be the model for the rest of the buildings we lifted and cut into the hill.
Hours went by while we built our little village. Most buildings were simple one-story houses, but we crafted two-story houses where they fit well into the geography. We topped some with domes, others with terraces, and cut stone steps up and down the contours of the hill to connect them all together. At the top of the hill, we flattened the stone to create a plateau, and then a shelter supported by four columns so the view would be unimpeded.
As we shared the inspiration and elemental power between us, we also shared the physical exhaustion. I tasted salt from the sweat which ran down my face, and every muscle in my body screamed at me to stop. But I couldn’t, and I needed everyone on board, too.
“We’re almost done!” I called out, and I instantly felt the surge of energy increase as the Terra Mages steeled themselves for a final push.
I had saved my own home for last. Like the other structures, we first carved the rooms into the rock of the hill, as well as a tunnel down to a cellar for storage, and then pulled out walls to frame it. I wanted an open-air workroom at the center, so we built a series of rooms connected by a walkway around the atrium. And, of course, thinking of Aurora and Cayla, I made the bedroom nice and big.
It was after midnight when we released the energy back into the earth, and the Ignis Mages dispelled their ring of fire. By the dim light of the moon, I could see everyone’s face was sweaty and flushed, and all eyes were on what we had created. Though our little village was only a few hours old, it looked like it had always been there.
“It’s spectacular,” Cayla gasped as she came up to my side and took my hand. “It needs a name.”
“How about … Magehill Village?” I panted after I pondered it for a moment.
“I like it,” Aurora said as she joined us, her supplies in hand. “Now, let’s go home.”
I nodded but first turned to the crowd of mages. “Thank you, everyone. Find yourself a place to call your own and get some sleep. There’s even more work to do tomorrow.”
As the mages excitedly made their way to Magehill Village to claim a house, I saw Haragh on horseback.
“Where are you going?” I asked as I frowned. “We did a lot of work today. You should rest.”
“Nah, I’ll be fine,,” the half-ogre replied with a toothy grin. “I have a little more stamina than some of the human mages. I’m heading back to the Oculus now to recruit some more, but I’ll be back first thing in the morning with more mages and supplies.”
“Alright, well safe travels then.” I waved goodbye as Aurora and Cayla dragged me to our new house. The rooms were bare of any furnishings, but it already felt more comfortable than my childhood home or the apartment I had in Chicago for five years. Still, I couldn’t help but make some slight adjustments to the structure as we walked room by room and then out to the open-air courtyard.
“You need to stop, it’s perfect,” Aurora laughed when I paused to make the columns supporting the walkway a little more ornate.
“You think so?” I asked as I gave the courtyard a critical eye. “Nothing we need to add?”
“Yes,” said Cayla with a wink. “A bed with you in it.”
I chuckled and let the ladies lead me to the bedroom. With a push of my power, I brought up a box of stone the size of a king bed and softened the top. We had the blankets from our old room to throw on top, and then we threw ourselves on top of that. My two lovers snuggled up against my chest, and within minutes I felt the exhaustion of the day pull me under into the dark void of sleep.
Curtains. That was my first thought when I woke up. I needed curtains, and not just because the open window faced east and I blinked in the morning light.
It was the face of Haragh in the window that really convinced me.
“Jesus!” I hissed as my heart hammered in my chest.
“Good morning,” said the half-ogre cheerfully. “You want to put some clothes on and meet me out front?”
I scooted out of bed carefully so as not to wake up Aurora and Cayla. They looked so beautiful tangled up in the blankets, and I didn’t want to leave them, but I knew if Haragh was here, other mages might be up as well. I knew they were eager to get the train project underway, and I didn’t want to delay it any more than I had to.
Fast as I could, I pulled on my leather breeches and a tunic, and then I stepped out the front door. Haragh leaned against an oversized cart filled up with supplies and gave me a friendly clap on the back.
“Morning. What do you have there?” I asked as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and took a peek into the cart.
“Everything we need to keep this little village of yours running,” Haragh replied with a broad grin, “and a couple surprises, too.”
In addition to water, food, and other necessities, I immediately recognized a pair of forges from the blacksmith workshop back in Serin.
“I was just thinking we could use some forges,” I chuckled as I shook my head, impressed. “What made you think of it?”
“Ogder actually sought me out.” Haragh grinned as he referenced the palace blacksmith. “He had heard the rumors about the railroad project and wanted to help. When I told him what I understood about it, he was the one who pointed out that you will be needed laying out tracks and not back here refining ore. Believe it or not, he voluntarily donated these forges.”
“Amazing.” I shook my head gratefully as I recalled how resentful the blacksmith had been when I first came to Serin and took over his forges. “These will definitely make the whole process more efficient.”
“If you like those, I have some other things I picked up to help to make the project go more quickly,” the half-ogre chuckled before he turned in the direction of the stables by the depot.
Then he let out a whistle, and a group of ten or so Ignis and Terra Mages emerged and headed our way.
“They weren’t here last night,” I said as my eyebrows raised toward my hairline.
“No, they’re brand new recruits, fresh this morning,” Haragh said as he gestured for them to come to us.
It was only when they got a little closer that I could see one of them didn’t have brown or red trim on his white robes but blue instead. He was an old man with a long gray beard and walked with the aid of a staff.
“Who is the Flumen Mage?” I asked Haragh.
“Quidnu is his name,” Haragh said in a low tone. “I know you said we just needed Terra and Ignis Mages for now, but he really wanted to come, and I didn’t have the heart to say no.”
“You big softie,” I chuckled. “Actually, I do have a job for him now that I think about it.”
I greeted the group of mages, thanked them for volunteering, and promised to get them started right away. Then I turned to Quidnu.
“We’re going to be here at Magehill Village for some time to come,” I explained to the old mage. “It’s going to be hard, long hours, with a lot of heat and dust. We’re going to need to have our own water supply, so we’re not always going back and forth to Serin.”
“I’ll see to it,” Quidnu replied, a sparkle in his eyes.
Minute by minute, the village on the hill began to wake up. Mages emerged from their new houses and joined us, including Cayla and Aurora from my own household. All were eager to get started.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I addressed the group. “Terra Mages, we need to build a structure by the mine to house our new forges, and then we’ll start on mining operations so we can get all the material we need to build the train and tracks. Terra Mages will do the excavation while Ignis Mages provide the light.”
“What can I do to help?” Cayla asked as she came up and set a hand on my arm.
“There are a couple large farms between here and the capital,” I said and smiled down at the beautiful princess. “Could you take a horse and see about having them deliver us produce daily?”
“You got it. I’ve been dealing with farmers all my life,” Cayla added thoughtfully. “Maybe they’d be interested in setting up a marketplace here as well?”
“Great idea,” I said as I imagined a huge, bustling marketplace here in Magehill. Right now, it’d be enough to have a functioning mining colony, but it’d be cool to have it be a real village in more than just name. Another idea I’d have to tuck in the back of my mind while I concentrated on my current tasks.
As Cayla headed off to the stables, I signaled for the mages to follow me to the mine.
The voices of twenty mages as they excitedly chattered about the project echoed behind me as I led them down. Aurora lit the first torches with a push of her powers, and then the other Ignis Mages followed suit. With a wave of her hand, the half-elf then created a cloud of floating orange flames like fireflies.
“Come on, Ignis Mages,” Aurora called out. “Let’s really light this up!”
Thousands of small balls of flame, blue, yellow, orange, red, and even some green, materialized all around, so the mining tunnel suddenly felt like a rainbow.
I turned to Aurora with a grin.
“Beautiful, but what we really need is a pure white light so we can tell the difference between different kinds of rock and ore,” I explained apologetically. “Is that possible?”
“Possible, but harder than you might think,” Aurora replied as, with a look of concentration, the balls of fire around us began to fade to white. “White is actually all colors and the hottest part of a flame.”
The other Ignis Mages also shifted the colors of their balls of fire, and I did feel the temperature of the mine rise a few degrees. I also saw for the first time the colors of the mine I had only seen before by flickering torchlight and the usual blue glow of Aurora’s superflame. It was actually stunning, a mosaic of stripes and spots of gray, silver, black, gray, red, blue, and orange, almost as pretty as the Ignis Mages’ multicolored fireballs.
“Let me walk you through the process,” I said to the Terra Mages as I put my hand to the wall next to me. “Beginning with what we’re looking for.”
I let my power seep out of me and listened to the song of the metals within the mine. In a moment, a metal called back to me, a few inches from my fingertips. With a push of my Terra powers, I had the earth and rock part for me, and I pulled a chunk of metal the size of an orange into my hands. Then I held it up for the group.
“This is called iron ore,” I said as I handed it to the first mage to my left. “It’s not as shiny as it will be after it’s refined, but it definitely looks different than other rock. Pass it around. Feel its weight. There are other metals to be found down here, and we need to collect them all because they all have their own uses. But iron ore is the most common metal you’ll find down here, and we need a lot of it.”
The Terra Mages were looking from one to another, and I could hear the mutter of their conversation but not the actual words. Haragh, who had to bend his head to fit in the tunnel at his size, was the one to voice their thoughts.
“You’re the only Metal Mage,” the half-ogre pointed out with a frown. “We can’t find metal and pull it out of the mine like you can. What do we do? Just dig until we find something?”
“That’s pretty much how mining works, I’m afraid,” I said with an apologetic shrug. “Dig, reinforce the tunnel, and repeat. But with your powers, you Terra Mages can tunnel much easier, faster, and more efficiently. I mean, you’re basically human, or ogre, filters. When you come across a material that you can’t lift or move, then that’s some kind of metal ore that needs to be collected. It could be shinier or a different color than this, platinum, copper, gold, silver, but we’ll use it all.”
“And then what do we do to it?” asked the Terra Mage who had passed on the iron ore I handed him. He was young, probably a teenager, with red hair and freckles.
The hunk of iron ore had made its way through the crowd and was back in my hands. I dropped it into the mining cart beside me with a clunk.
“You fill up a cart and send it up to the surface,” I said simply as I gave the cart a slight push on the tracks I had replaced since the demonstration with Temin.
“And then what?” asked a slightly chubby, brunette Ignis Mage.
“That’s where you guys come in,” I replied as I gave her a wink, which earned me a blush. “Come on, follow me.”
I led the group back up to the surface as quickly as I could, though I paused for just a moment from time to time to check out the cool colors and designs in the tunnel. Usually, I had to blink when I came out of the mine into the sunlight, but now that the mine was no longer anything other than a well-lit series of rooms, there was no reaction at all.
With a flex of my power, I lifted one of the forges out of the cart to the ground. When I turned to pick up the other one, I saw that Haragh had it in his hands, and he set it down next to the first. It was hard not to be impressed.
“So, you can craft gemstones and are super strong,” I laughed. “How are you not married?”
“Have you ever met a she-ogre?” Haragh asked quite seriously.
“Um, no,” I said with a smile. “Can’t say I have. You’re the first even half-ogre I’ve ever met.”
“You would understand if you did.” Haragh sighed. “Male ogres outnumber female ogres ten to one, which is why my father had to choose a human female. We half-ogres are even lower on the list. I’ll probably die a virgin.”
“Aw, dude, too much info,” I groaned. “We will make you the cover guy on People Magazine’s Sexiest Ogre issue. But for now, sorry, we have to get back to the mission at hand.”
“No problem,” the half-ogre shrugged, though I could see him puzzle over the reference to “People Magazine.”
“Okay, this is where we refine the ore and smelt it,” I called out to the group of mages as I dropped the ore into the forge. “If you’re not sure what the metal is or what to do with it, set it aside. Assuming it’s iron ore, put it in here, and the Ignis Mages will turn up the heat and smelt it down. Aurora, could you show us how it’s done?”
“Gladly,” Aurora replied, and she clearly enjoyed the use of her powers as much as I did. She let blue flame dance around her fingers before she let loose a blast into the forge. After a few seconds, I signaled for her to stop.
“Now, that is pure metal.” I smiled as I used my powers to lift the molten metal up. It was just a small glob, but enough for me to flex and turn the metal into a sword blade, then a helmet, then a goblet, and finally a pure thin sheet of iron.
“We need everyone back in the mine, except for two Terra and one Ignis Mage,” Aurora called to the group as she put her hands on her hips. “Ignis Mages, we need white light. Terra Mages, dig and bring up what metal you find.”
Oh Gods, how hot was Aurora when she was bossy like that? I had half forgotten. I stared at her, and a bulge grew in my leather breeches before I collected myself. Now wasn’t the time. But maybe tonight …
As most of the mages headed back into the mine, I turned to the ones remaining. Haragh had remained behind together with another Terra Mage, a tall, skinny man about my age with lank brown hair. Other than Aurora, the Ignis Mages were represented by a middle-aged woman with gray hair tied back in a bun.
“This building we’re going to make now is going to be our factory for collecting, refining, and molding everything we need,” I said to the other four. “We’ll need a room for the unrefined iron ore when they bring it up from the mine, a basic structure to house the forges, and a room, a big one, for the finished product to be stacked up. You ready?”
Haragh and
the brown-haired Terra Mage nodded, and as one, we knelt down and touched the ground below us. Just like last night, I felt our powers merge together and become one with the stone. It was incredibly strange after working and relying on my powers alone. Then walls of granite rumbled up before us and created the factory I had described. We arched domes over two of the rooms but left the forging room open to the sky to let smoke escape.
When we were done, we heard the familiar squeak of the mine cart on the tracks as two mages emerged with it in tow. They had already filled up their first load of iron ore.
I glanced at the sun above my head and estimated that little over an hour had passed. The Terra Mages were much faster than I hoped. Awesome.
“Perfect timing.” I grinned as I directed them to the room we created for them. “Dump it here, and I’ll show you the process.”
Then I used a strong pulse of my power to lift the ore into the air and carry it to the forges.
“Ladies,” I said as I turned to the Ignis Mages. “Let’s get these forges fired up.”
Aurora and the gray-haired Ignis Mage nodded and sent forth blue flames from their hands into the forges. As we watched, the ore melted, released its impurities, and became a liquid I could mold with my mind.
To warm up, I made something familiar with the liquid steel: a track. It was longer and thicker than the ones I made for the mine cart to ride on but with the traditional I-beam shape. I kept in mind the images of the tracks they used to, and for all I knew still made, at my old company in Chicago. There was a standard size and weight. Seventy-eight feet per track, a ton and a half in total weight. It definitely was a bit of a strain when I lifted the finished track and set it aside.