Science and Sorcery Box Set

by Ryan Tang

  Intuition sighed.

  "Why don't you just ask him what he's doing? We don't have to ask him to stop, but the dust is weird."

  It shuddered. That didn't sound too bad, so Gallant called out after her brother.

  "Hey. What are you doing?"

  Lonely turned around abruptly.

  "Nothing."

  He tried to take his hand out of his pocket, but for some reason, it was stuck. It jerked awkwardly for a moment.

  She pointed.

  "It doesn't look like nothing."

  He shrugged and pulled out his hand. His fingers were wrapped tightly around a perfectly smooth gray sphere. The orb was a bit too big to fit perfectly inside his fingers.

  Gallant frowned. She'd never seen Eternium look so dull before.

  "Bringer gave it to me."

  "What is it?"

  "He said it's a Familiar - a special one that works best in House battles."

  Gallant shuddered involuntarily.

  Adrienne and her Intuition screamed together.

  "That's not a Familiar!"

  Lonely's eyes widened with concern. The sphere unstuck from his fingers and plopped to the floor.

  "I mean of course it's not a Familiar. He just said that to be poetic - it's a weapon that helps you win battles. Are you alright?"

  She let out a deep breath. The sphere was poisoning The Tooth Man's Eternium. She hastily stepped back, afraid that it'd suddenly jump toward her.

  "Yeah. I'm fine. I'm just."

  She swallowed her complaints. There was nothing wrong with the sphere. The toxic Eternium smelled and felt bad, but there were no rules in a House battle. If anything, poisoning The Tooth Man's Eternium was good. He deserved it.

  She shook her head.

  "Nothing. I was just surprised. I thought he only gave you the simulator and the Sinsworn."

  Lonely smiled guiltily.

  "The sphere dissolves Paragons. It can even destroy Castlecraft. It's why we can't lose a siege. I was worried you would think I was cheating."

  Gallant shrugged and looked away. Her big brother was being dumb. He thought she'd be upset if he used a strange weapon, but Gallant didn't believe in the Constellation's ideas about honor. She was upset because the poisoned Eternium felt bad. She couldn't think of anything that felt worse.

  She shook her head and reminded herself that The Tooth Man deserved it all. She moistened her lips and parroted the first line from one of Bringer's books.

  "There are no rules in a House battle."

  "Ask him how it works."

  Gallant didn't want to think about the sphere anymore, but her Intuition was insistent. She shrugged. It might be important.

  "How does it work?"

  "He said it's based on one of the Abandoned Six. Hatred. He says if I grab the orb and hate, it can destroy Eternium. If I load in a shard of someone's Eternium, it'll destroy all Eternium that's like it. Like I said, it's not really a Familiar, but it does balance the scales a little. It probably works because of something Bringer knows about Eternium."

  Gallant shuddered again. She didn't want to shudder. She wanted to support her brother. But the orb sounded evil.

  "Like a voodoo doll?"

  She read a story about a voodoo doll once when she was a girl. It took her a whole week before she could sleep soundly again.

  Lonely smiled.

  "Yeah. I guess."

  "Wait!"

  A terrifying thought suddenly struck her. She didn't need her Intuition to remind her what had happened in the voodoo doll story. An innocent girl had pricked her finger on a needle. All the wizard needed to control her was a drop of her blood.

  "What if Bringer took some of our Castlecraft? Then he could dissolve our home!"

  Lonely sighed.

  "I thought about that. As soon as I got home, I reinforced all the walls of Brightwalls, mixing in my thoughts with your own. With both our thoughts combined, it's a new signature. I tested it just to be safe. He did the same thing when he let me use the sphere at his house - it only destroyed the wall he asked for, not the whole thing. As for our Paragons, there's not much we can do, but the erosion takes a long time. If we notice it, I guess we'll just have to attack him. But I don't think he'll do that yet. For some reason, he thinks he needs us."

  Gallant smiled.

  Lonely thought of everything. He had the best plans. If the sphere was part of his plans, then she could tolerate it.

  "Do you want to take a try?"

  She shook her head very quickly.

  "No."

  Lonely smiled, but she thought he looked a little sad.

  "That's probably for the best. Thinking all this bad stuff makes my stomach hurt."

  Her big brother clapped his hands together.

  "Well, let's prepare for when The Tooth Man comes back."

  The first thing Lonely did was let Bringer know that The Tooth Man had accepted his challenge. According to Lonely, Bringer had promised to step in if needed. However, her brother made it clear he wanted to take the fight himself. He said it was his chance to prove himself. After all, The Tooth Man didn't have the same experience with House battles. She and Lonely had been practicing very hard.

  Next, they prepared their Castlecraft for a siege, spacing out their Sinsworn to cover as much ground as possible. Gallant knew from personal experience how hard it was to control them in the middle of the battle. It was best to put them in the right places beforehand.

  As they moved the drones around Brightwalls, spacing them inside the Castlecraft's outer walls, Lonely shook his head and marveled.

  "Man. Brightwalls is already perfect for defending a siege."

  "What do you mean?"

  He proudly clasped her on the shoulder and turned her to the walls.

  "Look. The Sinsworn can just poke their guns out. There isn't much risk to themselves. If anything, we should give each of them a spare rifle."

  He demonstrated with the closest machine. It easily crossed the permeable layer, exposing nothing else. It could shoot without getting shot at.

  "See? It's all thanks to your mastery of Eternium."

  Gallant's heart felt like it was going to explode with pride. "Mastery of Eternium." She loved the sound of that. And her big brother had a point. Not a lot of people had a Castlecraft like Brightwalls. Actually, none of the stupid kids in her class had a Castlecraft to begin with. They were sitting at the Nursery, and she was fighting a House battle.

  A new idea suddenly struck her. Once again, she'd thought of this one all on her own, without the help of her Intuition. Her Intuition knew stuff, but it didn't help all that much with plans like Lonely said his did. It seemed more useful than her classmates' though. Most of them seemed like they didn't have an Intuition.

  "Man. For an Intuition, you're not very good at coming up with ideas."

  "Hmph."

  Adrienne giggled.

  She put her hand on the two Sinsworn closest to her, and they immediately turned stark white before dissolving into a pair of puddles. Rich pink veins seeped through the liquid Eternium, and then the block reformed into a bulbous cockpit with a shifting half-head with twenty-four flowing tassels. The machine was identical to her own, save for the spinning Sinsworn core inside.

  "I'm going to transform that one into yours. We're going to confuse the hell out of this guy!"

  Lonely was very impressed.

  "You've been thinking."

  "I'm going to beat you at plans too!"

  Maybe if she got better at plans, her big brother wouldn't have to use things like the poisoned orb. She could see him fingering it in his pocket, closing his eyes and clenching his teeth. She didn't think it was cheating. Gallant just didn't like it when Eternium felt bad, and it sounded like using it made Lonely feel bad too.

  "Alright. Let's take turns sleeping."

  Midnight ambushes were common in House battles, and The Tooth Man could punch through a Castlecraft.

  Lonely pointed firmly
at her room.

  "You go first. I'll wake you if anything happens."

  Gallant nodded. Normally she'd talk back, but this was the real battle. Her Intuition and Adrienne agreed.

  Lonely woke her up first thing in the morning. He didn't look tired at all. To her immense relief, he didn't look scared.

  Gallant felt very scared.

  The Tooth Man was screaming outside at the top of his lungs, flanked by a thousand strong Sinsworn and followed by an army of watchers and sycophants.

  ____

  The Tooth Man cackled and cackled.

  There were so many of them.

  "A House battle! They said they wanted a House battle! Did they know who I was?"

  The Sinsworn came in all different shapes and colors. The Tooth Man was the victor of countless Ransom battles. The haphazard swarm trailed behind him in a loose wall-like formation.

  And it wasn't just Sinsworn that flew behind him. There were pilots too. Gallant recognized some of the machines that followed him. They were all from lesser Houses. She saw Scry True and Drowsy, and after a bit of a search, she saw Forever's machine too.

  "Don't worry! I'm not using these people as allies. I don't need people like you do! I don't want to split my spoils! I just brought them here to watch! They wanted to see you lose the first-ever House battle anyone can remember! I can't believe you were dumb enough to challenge me!"

  He laughed and laughed, and the other machines from behind joined him. Her brother's traitorous allies jeered and jeered.

  "You're going to die, you Ignorant freak!"

  "Who did you think you were challenging The Tooth Man?"

  Their mocking comments made Gallant's blood boil. Besides her, Lonely's lips were curled back in a furious snarl. His fingers were stark white against the plain gray orb, and the heat was so strong that Gallant could feel it. Part of her wanted to cry, but the other part wished they had two spheres. The strange fake Familiar made Eternium cry, but it'd make The Tooth Man cry too.

  The Tooth Man shrieked at the top of his lungs.

  "Come out! Come out! Come out and die!"

  Gallant placed her hand on the wall. As soon as she allowed it, Brightwall's outer layer would temporarily become permeable, allowing their House's Sinsworn to poke their weapons outside. It was time to put her Mastery of Eternium to good use.

  "Big Bro! Are you ready?"

  Lonely suddenly laughed.

  "Gallant! Look at the Sinsworn! Look at them! Oh my god! He's such an idiot!"

  When she saw it, Gallant burst into raucous laughter. She couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed it earlier.

  The Tooth Man couldn't control his Sinsworn. He wasn't even using the basic tactic of having them march forward in a simple path. Instead, he'd used ropes to present his massive force. He was controlling at most ten at a time. Each machine dragged a long line of ninety-nine behind them.

  Making ten machines move in a straight line was the most the absolute idiot could do.

  "This is a different battle. One where we have the advantage."

  She smiled again.

  Maybe if they won like this, Lonely wouldn't have to poison Eternium.

  "Let's get him."

  The Tooth Man continued raging.

  "Come out! Why aren't you coming out! I need to show you your place!"

  Forever's peevish squeal cut past The Tooth Man's roar.

  "In a House battle, you're allowed to destroy their Castlecraft! Just use your Finisher!"

  The Tooth Man probably had forgotten, but he'd never admit it.

  "I knew that! I knew that! Don't tell me stuff I already know!"

  She squeaked out an apology that The Tooth Man couldn't hear. He brought his fists together as the stark white teeth flickered in and out.

  "Prepare to die! Thousand Teeth: Punch Supreme!"

  The burly machine's limbs rippled as Liquid State Eternium muscles burst into existence.

  The Tooth Man's machine whirled forwards, the same unstoppably sharp white dervish that had devastated her big brother so many times before. But it was different this time. This wasn't a Ransom battle. This was a House battle – the real war – and it finally mattered that her big brother was so much smarter than The Tooth Man.

  "Now! First volley!"

  She tapped the wall. The Sinsworn armed with sniper rifles and rocket launchers emerged. The shots rained down on The Tooth Man's approaching machine. Lonely had told Gallant to keep most of their army in reserve. Only a few Sinsworn fired. For now, the goal was simply to slow his approach.

  The blasts screamed and screamed, deflecting off of The Tooth Man's spinning white form. The Sinsworn fired again and again.

  The Tooth Man cackled and cackled.

  "Guns? Guns? I don't need any cowardly weapons! My fists will destroy you both!"

  Ranged weapons were useless in a single battle between two machines with the lightning speed and strength of Liquid State Eternium. Normally, your enemy would be on you before you could inflict significant damage. But they were invaluable in a clash between armies. A swarm of bullets could do what a single shot couldn't. Gallant had found that out herself during her training. Now it was The Tooth Man's turn, only this wasn't training.

  She winced as the machine came closer and closer. It was still trailing Eternium dust. Did The Tooth Man know that his machine was poisoned?

  Her Intuition frowned.

  "He should be worried about his Familiar too. It's stuck in its tank. It's swimming in the poison."

  Gallant shuddered, but Adrienne's seething anger shut off her doubt.

  "I don't care. They're partners. The shark should die too."

  When it came to controlling his Sinsworn, The Tooth Man struggled even more than Gallant had. Not even a single drone - not even one of the ones towing his army - had joined The Tooth Man on his mad charge.

  Lonely thundered.

  "Now! Full volley!"

  This time, all the rifles emerged from the walls. The Tooth Man let out a cry of surprise as the shots arced towards him, streaking out from every imaginable angle. The coat of white cracked and then broke, but The Tooth Man's shark was freakishly strong. Before even a single shot could pierce his machine, the white emerged again.

  The Tooth Man roared.

  "Guns! Guns are for cowards! You'll never beat me with a coward's weapon!"

  His machine's charge had stopped in place, but the gray and blue Paragon was still almost entirely unscratched. Lonely cursed and turned to Gallant.

  "Take the decoy."

  The key to defeating The Tooth Man was Familiar nullification. The Surgeon had spent an hour dancing around him, spearing him with her thin blade and singing a song about how he was losing to a woman. Gallant would have to do the same.

  The Tooth Man charged up again, streaking towards a gun that was sticking out of the bridge.

  "Get over here, you coward! Thousand Teeth: Punch Supreme!"

  There was a tremendous crash as the teeth formed again. His machine slammed into the wall of their Castlecraft so hard that the entire structure shook. But Gallant had Mastery of Eternium. Unlike the twins' two-faced Castlecraft, Brightwalls held.

  The Tooth Man brought his fist back.

  "Shit! I'm going to launch!"

  Lonely shook his head.

  "Get the decoy! I have a plan!"

  Her big brother always had the best plans. This was a battle of wits. A head-on fight played to The Tooth Man's strengths, and it'd be even worse if she got too excited.

  Gallant closed her eyes. The Eternium core of the decoy Sinsworn sang back to her as the lookalike launched. It took time and focus, but she could almost imagine herself inside the cockpit.

  Next to her, Lonely took control of the other Sinsworn. He could command all one hundred and two of them along with his own machine. He couldn't move them precisely, but he could still split his willpower just enough to give basic instructions.

  "He's so much smarter than The Too
th Man!"

  Gallant smiled. Even her Intuition was impressed.

  "We need to win this for him."

  Her brother gunned down The Tooth Man's stationary Sinsworn army. The shark-headed machine leaped from wall to wall, furiously trying to punch the rifles that stuck out of their Castlecraft. Whenever The Tooth Man got too close, the gun barrel would sneak back into the wall with a playful splash. It was almost like a game of whack-a-mole.

  "Come out! Come out and fight!"

  Her brother laughed.

  "Idiot! You idiot! You left your Sinsworn totally vulnerable! What the hell are you doing? Can you imagine doing that in the Conquest?"

  The Tooth Man roared and charged after a different set of guns.

  The crowd began to jeer. The idiots made fun of her brother instead of The Tooth Man, the doofus who was losing hundreds of Sinsworn.

  "Coward! Coward! Come out and fight him!"

  "Is this how a freak fights?"

  "Is this what the Ignorants are going to do?"

  For a moment, Gallant thought about attacking the taunting crowd instead, but she had to do her job. It was a flank, just like what Lonely used to beat her. The decoy machine flew faster and faster.

  Lonely continued jeering as more and more of The Tooth Man's Sinsworn burned.

  "They won't come out and fight on Old Earth! What the hell are you doing? You're just letting your Sinsworn die? You don't deserve the Sinsworn!"

  Her brother burned one of the ropes, and suddenly a whole mass of them was engulfed in flames.

  "Ropes? Ropes? You brought them here with ropes? You're supposed to move them with your mind! How do you even plan on doing anything in the Conquest?"

  The Tooth Man was soon jerking back and forth, spinning wildly between defending his stationary army and attacking Brightwalls.

  "No! No! My property! My prizes!"

  "Are you just going to let your Sinsworn die? Do you have any idea what you're doing? Why do you have so many if you don't know how to use them? You're losing a hundred to a thousand!"

  It was the same as before. Lonely's jabs about the Conquest got to The Tooth Man. His machine moved slower. The prideful white teeth faded in and out. Gallant continued flying on her wide arc, passing by behind his long row of immobile machines. As much as she wanted to destroy some for herself, it wasn't worth the risk. She had to arrive just as his pride hit its lowest point.