The Lesser One

by Zeppy Cheng

  At some point, after about twenty minutes, Dr. Winding puts the counter down. “Are you tired?”

  I nod. “Yes,” I lie. I have been keeping track of how much energy I have supposedly been outputting. While I can’t match up my usage to an exact scale, I know when I’ve created enough stuff that a normal conjurer would have to stop.

  “Good, good,” says Dr. Winding. “I’m going to have to analyze everything you have created. In the meantime,” he pulls a textbook from his desk, “read this. We’re on chapter four right now and I want you caught up by the end of the week.”

  I sigh. It’s a pretty thick book. At least I don’t have to pay for it, I think as I take the book from him and put it in my backpack.

  Dr. Winding looks out the window, seeming pensive. Then he returns his gaze to me. “And if you have any questions about conjuring, please ask me. My office is room three-two-oh-five. Office hours are from two to four every school day. I can make appointments outside office hours if you email me. My email is on the syllabus, which I’ve slipped into the textbook I gave you. Please go over that as well.”

  I press the textbook against my chest. This is going to be tough, but I’m no stranger to studying.

  “Oh,” says Dr. Winding. “If you’re up for it, do you think you’d be interested in joining the conjuration construction competition team?”

  I pause. “What is that?”

  “Basically, it’s like a bridge-building team at a technical university. The CCC is where conjurers compete to build various structural and technical objects.”

  “Tell me more.” I am genuinely interested in this competition. This sounds cool, exciting, like something I could get into.

  “Do you have time?” Dr. Winding looks at his watch.

  “I do.” My next class is in an hour — and technically this one is still going.

  “Sit,” says Dr. Winding. “The CCC is a competition where teams compete to build three different kinds of objects. One stress-tested structural mechanism, which usually takes the form of a bridge; one object to test engineering tolerances, such as a perfect gear; and one transmission box or other complicated moving-part mechanism. The materials used can be anything under the umbrella of conjuration. I’ve seen students build bridges out of rice, wool, and even flowers. It’s a test to see how well you can utilize your conjuration theme and make it match up to that of your team’s.”

  “I’m in,” I say. “How often do we meet?”

  “Great!” says Dr. Winding. “I know you’re in the shooting club, but we only meet once a week — our next meeting is tomorrow night, actually — for two hours to discuss and then everyone has their own personal work to do.” Dr. Winding begins stuffing papers into a folder. “You can go now. Remember, tomorrow we are having class with everyone.”

  I step out of the room and straight into the face of a reporter.

  “Markus Red!” says the woman, who is about my height. “Reporter for ABC New York. Do you have anything to say about your heroic saving of New York City?”

  Dr. Winding pushes past me. “I’m sorry, we don’t allow reporters in this building.”

  The reporter holds up a media pass. “Dr. Irr has allowed me through.”

  “I’ll have to talk to Tess about this.” Dr. Winding sighs and walks towards the elevator, past the reporter. He turns around and shrugs at me.

  I shrug back.

  The reporter pushes a microphone into my face. “Tell me what happened when you killed the balrog yesterday.”

  “I, um, I pointed the laser pointer thingy and the missile came down. Then I fell and was carried to the street by Esla’s wind.”

  The reporter looks a little bit disheartened. “So you don’t have any special powers?”

  “I’m an Anime spirit,” I say. “What kind of powers would I have?”

  “I heard that you can now conjure several different themes. Is this true?”

  “Yes, to a degree. I can conjure iron, steel, wood, copper, water, and common grass.”

  “That’s a lot!” says the reporter. “Anything else?”

  I shake my head.

  “Well, thank you!” She pulls a business card out of her pocket and hands it to me. “If you ever get more info, give it to us first!”

  The card reads Jennifer Rowley, assistant correspondent. Her number, email, and fax are on the card.

  I slide it in my pocket. “Thanks. I will.”

  I then push past her and head down the hall. The reporter follows me, taking the same elevator as I am. I get off before ground level, heading to my next class. I’ll be early, but I have nothing else to do for half an hour.

  The reporter nods at me as the elevator doors close. It hasn’t happened often, but dealing with the press is beginning to grate on me.

  I look forward to my first Advanced Conjuration seminar class, and I’m walking fast when I arrive. Two girls are chatting in the circle of chairs in front of the desk. One of them waves at me. The other smiles.

  The one on the right, a redhead with a pointed nose, stands up. “So you’re Markus. My name is Garnet. I have an electrum spirit. If you don’t know what that is, it’s an alloy of silver and gold with a little bit of copper.” In a flash, she forms a small coin made of the material. It looks kind of like bronze. She flips it at me. I catch it — my new reflexes help. “You can keep it.”

  I don’t tell her I could make a dozen of them in less than a minute. Well, not exactly. The coins I’d make would be a lot cruder than hers. At least for a while. I examine the coin closely. It has a picture of Kermit on one side and the Cookie Monster on the other. I shrug and pocket it.

  “Don’t sell it.” Garnet grins lopsidedly. She sits back down next to the other girl.

  She smiles. “My name is May. Nice to meet you.”

  “Are either of you in CCC?” I ask.

  Garnet points to May. “May is.” Garnet pauses. “My element wouldn’t work well as a construction component. May here, though, can make anything out of pine wood.”

  May nods, but pauses. “There are two more in CCC,” she finally says. “The other two members of this class.”

  “Brandon, who uses bone,” says Garnet, “and Alexia, who uses antimony.”

  “Antimony?” I say.

  “It’s a metal,” says Garnet. “Used in a lot of alloys. Not worth much.”

  “About fifty cents per ounce,” says a male voice from behind me. I turn to face a very flamboyantly dressed guy with hair dyed half bright red and half deep blue. He is even wearing platform shoes. He extends his hand and I shake it. “Alexia. You must be Markus.”

  After the initial shock of his appearance, I can tell he is a friendly guy simply by his facial expression and tone of voice.

  Another student, Alexia’s exact opposite, follows him in. This student wears a black suit with a red tie and has close-cropped hair.

  “Brandon!” says Garnet. “How’s it going?”

  It is clear that Brandon and Garnet are friends. Brandon heads over and sits next to her, then turns to me. “I heard you got up and close with a balrog.” He seems disappointed. “I would have loved to see his bones.”

  “You and your bone fetish.” Garnet elbows him.

  “What?” says Brandon. “My spirit is Bone. Of course I like bones.”

  “So,” I say, “can you conjure any kind of bone you want? Or is it limited to a certain species?”

  “The bone I create does not match the DNA of any known species. So I don’t know the answer to that. This is pretty common in the bone-conjuring world.” He furrows his brow. “I heard you were a multi-theme. Can you create bone?”

  “Stop it.” Garnet elbows him again.

  Alexia laughs and sits down in one of the two empty seats. I take my seat on the other end.

  Just as I do, Dr. Winding enters, carrying a stack of papers. “Ah. It seems we’re all here.” He sits at his desk. “Markus is exempt from this because he hasn’t had the time, but have you brought
your finished assignment?”

  The four students besides me nod in unison.

  “Very well. Let’s start with Alexia.” Dr. Winding arranges the papers on his desk. “Let’s see. You were tasked with creating an axle assembly with a tolerance of less than half a millimeter.”

  Alexia rummages through his backpack and pulls out a small set of wheels attached to an axle, all made of antimony. “Antimony is pretty hard to work with in its pure form on an industrial scale,” he tells me, “but because I’m working with the conjurer’s boon, I can create things like this.”

  I have read enough of my textbook to know what that means. It means, simply, that objects that would take an inefficient amount of time to make through additive or subtractive processes are easy for conjurers because of how Anima matter forms into material.

  Dr. Winding takes the axle assembly and places it on the desk. “Next, Garnet, you were tasked with creating a ten-inch by eleven-inch bas-relief of whatever subject you wished.”

  Garnet takes a heavy panel made of pure electrum and shows it to the class. The picture is, of course, the Cookie Monster.

  “Very good,” says Dr. Winding. “The detail work is precise, as per directions.”

  It seems the assignment was supposed to develop accuracy in conjured objects.

  “Next, Brandon, you were to replicate a human hip and femur interlock.”

  Brandon goes to the back of the room and picks up several large bones that he most likely placed there before class. It is, as far as I can tell, a perfect representation of a human femur. It is a little macabre and makes me feel uncomfortable.

  “Good, good.” Dr. Winding turns to May. “And you were to make a series of interlocking wood pieces.”

  May pulls out a rather small puzzle box and hands it to Dr. Winding.

  He examines it and places it on his desk beside the others. “Good. Now that we have turned in our assignments, let’s discuss high-accuracy conjuration techniques…”

  After the day’s classes, I head to the room where the CCC team is located. The door, hidden away behind a maze of halls, is worn down and filled with pockmarks. I knock.

  “Come in,” says Alexia through the door.

  I enter. The CCC room is tiny and cluttered. There is barely enough room for four people with all the equipment everywhere.

  “Hey!” Alexia points at me with a wrench. “I knew you would come.”

  Brandon gives me a small smile. “We’ve been working on what to do with your conjuration themes.”

  May taps an unfinished construction that resembles a big toothpick bridge. It is made out of pine wood fastened with antimony bolts. At some structural points, the whiteness of bone shines in the room’s bright lighting.

  “So, let’s get this straight,” says Alexia. “You can create iron, steel, wood, copper, grass, and water. Can you mix and match to create hybrid materials?”

  “I think so,” I say.

  Alexia brushes a bunch of tools off a machine that resembles a drill but isn’t quite built like one. “This is the stress tester. We’re going to have to test all the materials you create so we can know exactly what to use your conjured matter for. Of course, Brandon and I will be doing the actual calculations. You’re just a high schooler, after all.”

  Brandon kneels beside the bridge. “We’re mainly focusing on the bridge portion right now. I think, with an iron-steel conjurer, we’re going to be a lot more competitive.”

  “Don’t most schools have an iron-steel conjurer?”

  “About half do,” he says. “But that doesn’t matter in a contest. The bridges are tested according to what materials they are made from. Different sets of materials will receive different score modifiers. It’s just that there’s a lot more documented research on the structural properties of iron and steel.”

  “Okay,” I say. “I think I can try making some alloys.”

  “Right.” Brandon stands up, touching the bridge with one hand. “We probably won’t be using your wood, grass, or water conjurations — wood because we already have enough from May’s spirit. However, we can probably form some pretty nice alloys out of iron, steel, and copper.” He pauses. “Should I give you a run-down of how this competition works?”

  “Sure.”

  “Well, the main point of this competition is that we conjure all of our entries on-site, under a time limit. I think Dr. Winding has told you about the three categories. The basic principles they are testing are structural stability, precision, and complexity. Thus the three categories.” Brandon sits down on an upturned box. “Each team can have five conjurers that work on a project, but the competition is balanced so that smaller groups can also participate.” He chews his lip. “You’re a special case. Usually the regulations require that a conjurer be at undergraduate level or higher. They make exceptions, but only on the recommendation of a professor.” He turns to Alexia. “Did I explain it right?”

  “Yeah.” Alexia turns to me. “Now let’s start forming some alloys to test. First off, there aren’t very many good alloys of copper and iron or steel. But I know that you could probably make something special that no one has ever had the chance to make.”

  I think for a moment. “Do you think I can create Rearden metal?”

  “Er.” Alexia turns to Brandon.

  Brandon shrugs.

  “I take it neither of you have heard of Ayn Rand,” says May. “Rearden metal is a fictional alloy of iron and copper that is super strong.” She shakes her head. “While we can call whatever alloy you create Rearden metal, it won’t have those properties, as the metal is entirely fictional.”

  “Aw,” I say.

  May lifts an eyebrow. “But I’m surprised that you’ve read Atlas Shrugged. That’s a tough book for anyone to read, let alone a high schooler.”

  I do my best to smile. “Thanks.” Then I turn to Alexia. “Can I try making a few bars of alloy?”

  Alexia nods. He hands me a small metal rod. “Make it in this form. This is a rod specifically cut for stress testing.”

  I make a work surface on an oil-stained desk by pushing away the junk, then hold my hand over the desk. Red cracks flow along my hand.

  Alexia whistles. “Wow. I’ve never seen Rawley Rivers so pronounced before. And that’s a nice Spirit Ring.”

  Looking at myself, I see something I hadn’t noticed before. A red ring, covered in arcane symbols, is floating around my waist. Since I am not using much power, it is just barely visible, but I know it can get very, very big if I use enough.

  Through my spirit, and from Dr. Winding’s explanations as well as reading the textbook, I have an innate understanding of the mechanical and chemical properties of what I summon. My mind, playing on autopilot, finds three different kinds of iron-copper alloy that would be better than straight steel. I don’t know if these alloys have been discovered; all three of them utilize very specific crystal structures that I believe would be extraordinarily hard to create through a normal forging process.

  All three test cylinders plunk onto the desk.

  Alexia picks up the first one and holds it to the light. “Wow, that’s a nice color.” He then sets it up in the testing machine. Two arms, one on top and one on the bottom, hold the bar in place. He flips the machine on, turning a dial slowly. At first, he seems calm. Then his brows furrow. Then he glances at me several times.

  I can’t see the bar deforming or bending in any way. Is this normal? I don’t know.

  Several minutes pass in silence.

  Finally, the bar begins to get thinner in its center. The thin part stretches like playdough until it finally snaps with a loud pop.

  Alexia drops his top half onto the machine in a dramatic collapse. “That was amazing. Your alloy is stronger than anything I’ve ever seen or heard about.” He pauses. “How much of it can you make?”

  “About two thousand calories worth,” I lie.

  Alexia whistles. “With this, we can totally win.” But then he seems to think o
f something that makes him frown.

  Brandon sighs. “If only there was no diversity rule.”

  “Diversity rule?” I ask.

  Brandon shakes his head. “With the four of us, only twenty-five percent of all of our submissions can be made by one person.”

  “This is to prevent the ace in the hole problem,” says May.

  Alexia picks up the second bar. “Some conjurers are vastly more valuable than others. I think it’s a fair rule.” He grins, placing the second bar in the machine. “Are you ready to start building?”

  I am. I am ready to win this competition — though I do feel a bit guilty about lying all the time.

  Oh, well, I think. I’ll get used to it.

  14 A True Adventurer

  Construction at the CCC lab goes as I expect for the two hours I’m there. When I leave, it’s with an assignment to practice conjuring the same piece of alloy at least ten times a day to improve my accuracy. Because I ask, Alexia names my new alloy Rearden metal.

  Life goal achieved!

  Alexia also mentions that he would like to do further research on the Rearden metal alloys — up to and including a master’s thesis. Alexia is a graduate student, after all. I agree and leave him with a small amount of each of the three alloys I produced. I spend the rest of the day practicing my bow work, being studied by Dr. Barrimore, and working on my conjuring accuracy.

  That night I have another dream featuring my army of devils.

  Jirgrar approaches me in the same fashion as before, wearing a suit, surrounded by video-gamey houses. He bows before me. “I and my fellow arch-devils have devised a plan to serve you better. If you would allow a number of us into society to make the world a better place for you, we would be willing to do anything to further your glory and renown.”

  “Er, what kind of things are we talking about?”

  “As you are aligned with the side of good, we cannot take any actions that would smear your honor. However, there are many things that we can do to earn you fame, wealth, and success that will not cause you any moral pain.”

  “I’ll think about it.” I honestly feel afraid of letting a bunch of devils out into the real world — I do trust Jirgrar’s statement, but I don’t know what the effects really would be.