by R N Skye
“It sounds as if you have thought this out and planned it already,” observed the Premier.
“Planning is everything, your Excellency; it saves time, money, and most important it saves lives,” responded Ari. “Why don’t we plan on meeting here again with your staff and anyone else you need to have on hand the same time day after tomorrow? In the meantime Roger and I will start implementing an intelligence strategy and Shane can go to work on the best way to make the devices we need for extraction and border security.”
Everyone stood as the premier stood. “It was a rocky and tense beginning but I am happy that we are in agreement and are allies. I will send in my secretary, Jacques and he will assist you in any way you require. I must go and report to the parliament and give them a progress report. Thank you and I hope that this conflict comes to a speedy conclusion.”
After the premier left the room Roger and Ari burst out laughing. “I thought he was going to kill him,” Roger said with a guffaw.
“I thought the premier was going to choke when Shane called him Pierre like he was a smelly sock. Sheesh Shane, you poured it on a little thick didn’t you?” Ari chuckled.
“Hey I just did what you told me to do; and it worked didn’t it?”
“That it did,” smiled Ari, “That it did. Ok back to business. Roger lets go get to work on the information gathering, I need to introduce you to a man I know who is excellent at this type of thing. He’s retired and as crotchety as they come, but unless I miss my guess he’s about up to his ears with married life and retirement has probably got his nerves worn down to the nub so he will welcome an excuse to get out of the house for a little while.”
As Ari and Roger were preparing to leave Shane handed Ari a metal plate. Here it’s a new portal device. Activate the screen and select instructions. There is a password to use it. The password is your full first name. You can change it and I suggest you do. Also stop by the house either tonight or tomorrow I have an idea on a communication device that will help us keep in touch. If it works I’ll start producing them in mass so that we can distribute them to at least all of the officers in the Luion Army. Which reminds me, Roger who do I talk to about getting in touch with those that we pulled off that island. I know at least half of them and could use some help from some people I trust.”
“Talk to Jacques when he shows up he can get them for you.”
That afternoon with Ava’s help and his mother’s direction Shane set up an office and a Lab on one of the large buildings next to Edward Monfer’s on Collet Avenue. He and Ave worked through the afternoon and the late evening with Shane showing her the workings of the portal maker by making one from her home in Lu Y Onton to an office that she took next to his. The next morning Shane met with Jacques by traveling with is portal device to Jacques office, where he met Professor Wetz, Alicia, John, Lance and the woman from the U of J group that Alicia introduced as magetech Desirae Lionay.
Shane ushered them through the portal to his office on Collet Avenue and had them meet in a large unfurnished conference room. Leaving them for a moment he poked his head into the lab where he found Ava working on what she called a first aid kit. Shane waited until he saw that she was at a stopping point and asked her to follow him so that he could make a few introductions.
When Ava saw the familiar faces it took several minutes before Shane could take control of the impromptu meeting and lay out his plans.
“Hi everyone, I’d like to thank you for joining us in the war effort to stop the advance of Infin into Luion. First things first, this building is sealed, I know many of you would love to go exploring but while the City of Yllyan is safe the next city over is not safe unless you are a Glyph Mage. Also since many of the things that we will be doing here are going to be kept secret until we can give them to those that they are intended for, you will be the only ones that can come here.
If you go down stairs to the lobby you will see that if you go out the front door it opens into a back room of a closed down magetech repair shop on parliament road in Lu Y Onton. That is where you will go to work every day. Hang your cloaks, overshoes and Umbrellas in the back room then touch the access glyphs and you will come through the entrance to this facility.
Now, what will we be working on? At the present you will be doing basic magetech drudgery. I know this doesn’t sound very appealing but it is necessary. You will be learning a lot of new glyph structure and glyph sentencing that you never saw or imagined in college. Learn from it; look at this as free graduate school in very advance magetech.
Now for the part of this job that I think that you will like. As we go on and I see that you are starting to understand the glyphs and can start to expand on the concepts that you have learned, I will test you for glyph mage talent. If you have it I will teach it to you but only on the condition that you prepare yourself for a bonding to the Laws of Wisdom that go with it.
I see the questions in your eyes. When you become a glyph mage you will find that depending on the range of your abilities you will have the potential to do great things. The Elios set up the Laws of Wisdom so that those that would learn their magic would be those with the mindset and desire to serve one another and those that don’t have magical ability. Their motto: Our purpose is to serve one another. If you can help, you should.
Professor Wetz, I would like you to be the lead in the production process. Ava or I will provide you with notes on the devices that are to be constructed. The notes will have the glyph structure and any construction notes as well as assembly notes. There will be some items that will require a Glyph Mage to assemble for reasons that you will know when we get to that point.
If any of you have a better or faster way to construct something or you feel that you are becoming fluent enough in glyph structure and want to try a new method let Professor Wetz know and he and I will review the suggestions. When we get to the point of manufacture and mass producing we will expand the processes at that time.
After a few minutes of questions and answers Shane had the group follow Ava so that she could show them where to set up their work areas and to start making lists of the supplies that they would need.
When everyone had gone with Ava, Shane created a portal to the Valee Station, stepped through it and closed it behind him. He walked out onto the wide street that ran past the station. Further down he saw a plaza. Now that Ava had activated the infrastructure, a large fountain consisting of three large fish with long noses were squirting water from holes in the tops of their heads. Shane walked to the plaza and sat on a stone bench that faced the fountain. Activating his instructor he began to formulate what would be necessary to scan the city for dangers and to clean it up. When he was ready he visualized the glyphs and using mastery he enveloped the entire city in a halo of gold not unlike the golden cocoon that had enveloped him while he was shedding the lumen sickness.
The halo contracted as it covered the city as it finally shrunk to the size of a small warball Shane reviewed the contents. Within the circle of light were several small red pulsing spheres. When he queried the Instructor it warned him immediately of the dangers and that the devices were called Allyant seeds that would either implant the soul of the dead Allyant that had cast it or it would imprison the unfortunate person that held it long enough as a lumen source for the Allyant that had cast it.
Shane quickly sealed the spheres in a lumen hardened shield that he had learned about because of Ava’s prodding at his grandfather’s request. Then after spending considerable time with his instructor he pondered how to destroy them. In the end it turned out that the only way to destroy them was to contact a Lumen Mage. Not wanting to leave the dangerous orbs where they could harm anyone he asked his instructor to see if either Jahnon or Ahhan could be reached for assistance.
While he waited for the instructor to tell him how to get hold of his uncle or his grandfather he began to puzzle out a number of methods for protecting the boarder. He considered the shield that he had just constructed aroun
d the Allyant seeds. If the soldiers were wearing the draining armbands could he design a shield that would detect and repel any one wearing the device? He examined one of the Allyant seeds with his lumen site and saw that it was mostly pure lumen. The sphere was like a glyph, and like his welding glyph it contained his intent of joining metals. The Allyant sphere contained the intent of pulling in living lumen and to broadcast it to a defined point. He was positive that he could make a barrier that could detect the energy deflecting bands as well as the Allyant seed characteristics; the next question would be how to do it along three thousand milos of border.
“Hi there,” greeted Ahhan, startling Shane to the point that he almost fell off the bench.
“Hi uncle Ahhan, “Shane said with embarrassment at being startled. “Thanks for coming on such short notice. More importantly thanks for saving my life the other day, thank grandfather too please.”
“Not a problem, what are family for if we can’t save each other’s lives now and then,” he smiled a boyish smile. “Seriously I’m glad we got there when we did, that was pretty close.” Ahhan looked at the pile of shielded spheres. “Quite the pile of little nasty’s you got there, pal. What are you going to do with them?”
“That’s why I called you. My instructor doesn’t have anything other than contact a lumen mage and I’m not at that level.”
“Easy as falling off a log, want me to walk you through it?”
“That would be appreciated.”
“Ok have you looked at the spheres and seen the construction?”
“It reminded me of a glyph; the sphere was the structure and the lumen was the magical force behind the structure,”
“Right on the button, nephew and when you activate a glyph you infuse it with lumen, correct?”
“Yes.”
“That’s half the battle. The other half is to shield it like you have and pull the lumen out. Once the Allyant sphere has no lumen it fails and becomes the mess that can cause lumen sickness. If it comes into contact with live lumen it will grow; sucking the life out of everything it touches until the lumen is gone and then it starves. Since you already have it shielded when you pull the structure away it ceases to be a seed anymore and all that is left is the residue. It can’t get any lumen within a few seconds it will dissipate and be gone. So in review: To extinguish an Allyant seed, first shield it, then remove the lumen, then wait a second then double check. I do this by making the lumen shield a little bit flexible and then creating a ball of lumen above the shield - if you see the shield flex like something is trying to get at the lumen ball then the badness is still there if the shield stays round then it’s gone and you can clean up and go home. Ok you’ve done everything else, finish it off.”
Shane shrugged and then pulled the lumen from each of the spheres; one by one they popped out of existence. He waited a full minute and then he visualized the shield to be flexible and the formed a ball of lumen above the shield. To his surprise the shield grew slight bump as if something was trying to get out; but only for s few second. The bump slowly lowered and then was gone. Feeling like it was safe but wanting to make sure he made the shield a bit more flexible but still no sign of anything going after the lumen ball. “Looks like that’s got it,” he said to Ahhan, but when he turned to look, his Elios uncle was gone. The only sign of his being there was a line of glowing glyphs hanging in the air that read, “Good job – looks like the city is safe for people, let Soaris know.”
That night Ari sent a note through Ava that he wouldn’t be able to meet with Shane about the communication devices but that he had a few things to show him regarding weapons and shields that his Sicam training had revealed to him and they could discuss it after the next meeting with the Premier.
The next day Shane created and distributed scribes to each of his mages instructing them on how to use them. He then went to work on a communication device.
While Shane was inventing Ava began having them mass produce healing wraps from a huge pile of soft cotton cloth strips that they had procured through Laura from the textile mage. When the first pile of several hundred was complete Ava imbued them all at once then she had them randomly pull several and she reviewed the glyphs and the lumen. Thanks to the enchantment storage in the scribes they were all identical and all correct. After a few more piles were done Ava took a moment to explain the glyphs. Alicia and Desirae seemed to have a knack for understanding the healing process so when she explained that the wraps could not only be used for contusions, abrasions, and lacerations, but for fractures, strains, and sprains, as well as internal injuries and concussions, they nodded in understanding and asked if there was a way they could make one that would disinfect and stop bleeding. Ava decided to make those features available in the next round of production. By the time she was finished teaching the entire group understood the why and how of healing glyphs.
Shane met with Roger, Ari and the Premier the next morning he showed them the prototypes of the communication devices that he had designed. He had used something similar to the bonding that an instructor used to identify the communicator to the user. “You simply press the glyph on the outside with your thumb them state your name. The device then magically records who you are and what makes you, you. Then you hold it to your earlobe and it will attach painlessly and looks like a common earring.” After Roger and Ari had activated theirs Shane stood back and said, “Call Ari.”
Ari smiled, “I hear a chime sound. What do I do?”
“You can either say ‘answer’, ‘who’; and then say ‘answer’ if you want, or you can say ‘take message’. If you say ‘take messages’ you will be reminded every hour that you have unheard messages until you check them; you check them by saying check messages and then you get your messages in the order that they were received. To remove a message, say ‘Clear Message’. There’s a lot more I could do with that if I had the time.”
“Ari said, “Answer.”
“Hi Ari, bye Ari, end call,” Shane said in a single breath. “Sorry I forgot to tell you that to end your conversation say, ‘end call’. Unless you can figure out any other or better features then I’ll have the team start making them as fast as they can.
“I would suggest that if you can, create a way to speak with multiple people at the same time,” suggested Roger. “That would be very helpful.”
Shane took out his notebook and jotted down the suggestion.
After Ari and Roger finished testing their communicators Shane informed them that he had almost figured a way to stop most of physical attacks and all magical from crossing the border and that his team would be working on manufacturing as many of the communicators as possible as soon as he could add the ability that Roger suggested. In two or three days we should have a couple of thousand that can be distributed.
Lastly Shane said, “I’ve built in some safe guards into everything that I’m providing your forces Premier J’gond, if for some reason they fall into the hands of the enemy or even someone’s that shouldn’t have them on the allies side of the war then I can disable the devices from anywhere on Eliom.” He left off that he was putting options of a deadlier nature as well.
After the meeting Ari handed Shane a small dagger covered in glyphs.
“What does this do,” he asked?
“It shields you from lumen and energy thieves like the Allyant and those armbands that the army is using now. Just wear it, you don’t have any training in knife fighting so let it shield you long enough for you to get gone. I would have put it on a medallion or something similar but I didn’t have anything like that.”
“Get with Jacques I bet he has access to about anything you might need like that. Thanks for the knife.”
“I’m working on a physical shield but those glyphs are pretty complicated and I’ve been busy spying on Allion and updating my old viewer artifacts; it’s amazing what I can look in on using the stuff the Elios have already in place. I’ll let you know when I have the shield glyphs figured out. One m
ore thing, when you get around to it can you query the Arc about repairing some of the original infrastructure that’s fallen apart?”
“Yeah I’ll add it to the list,” Shane said. “Thanks again for the knife. Drop in day after tomorrow and you should have some communicators to start handing out. I’ll have one so you can find me if you need to. Ava can show you how to use them if I’m not around”
As Shane started to walk away he turned back and said you need to get with Soaris as soon as possible to start coordinating the withdrawal of refugees.
Leopold Wetz was exhausted; he had been up hours. As he finished the building the communication button with Shane’s final modifications he sat at the cluttered workbench and closed his eyes for a moment. He awoke with a jolt as Shane gently shook his shoulder. “Shane I didn’t hear you come in,” he said tiredly. “I just finished running through the communication button production steps I think I can have the team start cranking them out tomorrow. As soon as you or Ava can activate it we can give it a test.”
“I appreciate you working late on that. The word is that Allion’s army is soon to be marching to Cliffs Port and we want to send in a rescue team for refugees as soon as possible and these will make a huge difference in coordination those efforts. Professor we couldn’t have done this much if you hadn’t have been here. Your knowledge of manufacturing techniques has been invaluable. How is your team holding up?”
“Oh we’re doing ok, everyone is a little bit tired, the novelty of the glyph knowledge is pulling most through. I can’t deny that I’ve learned more than I ever imagined doing the assignments that you have given us.”
“Can you stay awake for a little while longer? I want to show you something.”
The professor’s interest was kindled. “Absolutely,” he straightened and stood. “Where are we off to?”