A Gathering of Fools

by James Evans

  When they had finished, they left their packs on the floor at the foot of their bed and went back into the living room. Marrinek was already there, sorting through the crafting supplies they had acquired between them. He looked up as they came in and gestured to the bench.

  “Sit down for a moment while I sort through these things.” It took him a few minutes to arrange everything to his satisfaction then he pulled a chair over to the table and sat down facing the twins.

  “I said yesterday that using power to charm items or through a charmed item, would lengthen your lives and this is a fundamental truth of the world. It shapes everything - family, relationships, politics, economics, war, religion - everything. There are many people of talent whose lives are unnaturally long, but there are far, far more people without talent, or with a talent too weak to extend their lifespan. What do you think that means?”

  The twins were quiet for a moment, then both spoke at once. Marrinek held up a hand and they fell silent.

  “One at a time. Floost, you first.”

  “The talented are rich ‘cos they live a long time and get lots of stuff.”

  Marrinek plucked at his shirt and produced his purse, spilling his last coins on the table.

  “All I own is what you see before me. Am I rich? Darek, what do you think it means?”

  “If you’re talented everyone else has to do what you tell them. You can make them do what you want.”

  Marrinek snorted.

  “If only. You saw how those two thugs behaved when they grabbed you on the street? I had to use violence to make them leave you alone. No, talent doesn’t allow you to force people to do what you want.” He paused, then added, “well, it does, but it’s difficult and anti-social.” He shook his head. “Forget about that for now and we’ll come back to it in a few years.

  “The big difference between the long-lived talented and everyone else is that everyone we know and love, everyone we grow up with, everyone we meet on the street or in a shop or at a ball, everyone will die before us. Most of the powerful and talented people in this world spend their time accumulating wealth and hobbies and knowledge to counter the dreadful, terrible loneliness that comes from being the oldest person they know.”

  He paused again to let that sink in.

  “Let’s consider Duke Rhenveldt. He’s very strong but not yet very old, around a hundred and thirty, I believe. He has ruled Vensille for over a century and the city has grown around him, bending to his designs. He’s a clever man but like all talented people he has few children. For some reason, we just aren’t able to produce babies very often. And so instead of family he focusses on the city, building its strength as an independent state. He gathers around him advisors who are talented and strong enough to help him rule the city but not so strong that they can threaten him.

  “When he dies, it is likely that one of them will seize his throne unless he is killed beforehand by an interloper, someone of even greater talent who can wrest power from him and take control of the city. He knows this, as does the Emperor to the east and all the other kings and queens and princes and dukes and rulers. Anyone who governs must tread a fine line between finding the greatest talents to help them rule and doing what is necessary to maintain their position. Only those of moderate strength, or those with special abilities or sound political instincts, survive much longer than untalented people.”

  He paused and picked up an iron rod from the table.

  “The world of the powerful is very different to the one in which you have grown up so far. Talent can bring you power and wealth and give you influence amongst the powerful and wealthy but it won’t save you from a knife in the back. Stay loyal to your friends, and to each other.”

  He waited a moment for that to sink in before continuing.

  “Now, let us consider something more practical. There are two primary ways to use power. The first, and by far the most common, is to apply power through a specialised charm and thus to change the world.”

  He hefted the iron rod, then picked up the small fire charm.

  “This is charmed iron, housed in wood. It’s a tool, used to make flame.”

  He demonstrated, focussing his will so that a small flame appeared at the end of the tool.

  “You can use this to light candles or to light a fire. Or, if you exert yourself, you can use it to find your way in the dark.” He pushed, adding power to the charm until the flame grew until it burned white and was painful to look at. The flame when out and he laid the charm back on the table.

  “To use this tool you must be calm, focussed, patient. You will use it as a practice tool but be careful, since too much power can be dangerous. Now, close your eyes and breath slowly and deeply. Relax. I’m going to light the charm; raise your hand if you sense anything.”

  Marrinek waited, then lit the charm. Floost raised her hand and opened her eyes.

  “I felt it!” she said, exhilarated, “It was like a sucking feeling, as if the air was being pulled around.”

  “Good. Now close your eyes again and keep them closed. Raise your hand if you feel anything, lower it when the feeling goes away.” He lit the charm again, then dimmed it, then lit it. Floost’s hand rose and fell with the charm’s light but Darek didn’t move.

  “Darek, count slowly to ten, breathing in on the even numbers, out on the odd numbers.”

  Darek’s breathing slowed a little and Marrinek lit the charm again. This time Darek’s hand rose as well and he couldn’t help opening his eyes.

  “I felt it that time,” he grinned at Floost, who had also opened her eyes, then at Marrinek.

  “Very good. This is the first lesson; being able to sense those around you when they use power to achieve an effect. The closer you are to a practitioner or the more power they are using, the more likely you are to be able to sense their activity. Over time you will become more sensitive. Close your eyes again and we will practice.”

  For the next hour Marrinek drilled them, moving around the room, varying his distance from the twins and changing the brightness of the flame until they were able to sense his actions wherever he was and however little power he used.

  “Good. Now we’ll try something slightly different. Over time practitioners become so used to sensing flows of power that it becomes instinctive but our needs, yours and mine, are best served I think by teaching this skill now.”

  He gave them each one of the oak staves and picked up one of his own, holding it in his left hand with the fire charm in his right.

  “I want you to balance the stave on the palm of your hand and count backwards from one hundred.”

  Marrinek shifted his grip on his stave so that it was balancing on his palm then he lit the fire charm.

  “You can see the charm; can you sense the flow of power?”

  The twins shook their heads, staves wavering as they concentrated on keeping them upright.

  “Then let’s keep going.”

  After another hour, their arms tired from balancing the staves and their concentration dwindling to nothing, Marrinek ended the lesson. Neither of the twins had been able to detect the flow of power in the charm while they were balancing and counting and the delight of their earlier successes had given way to despondency. Marrinek, however, was pleased with their progress.

  “We will repeat this exercise tomorrow morning. And as many times after that until you master it.”

  “But why,” asked Floost, “what’s the point?”

  “The point?” said Marrinek, “Well, there are two points. Firstly, and most importantly, you will learn this skill because I have decided that now is the time for you to learn it. Secondly, do you not think it might be useful to know if people around you are using power?” He looked from one twin to the other.

  “Talent attracts enemies, some of whom will be dangerous and may be prepared to use power to attack you. Knowing what they are doing can be useful.”

  He stood up and stretched his back, leaning from side to side and run
ning his hands over his head.

  “Enough for now. Darek, find a servant and ask them to bring us food for our evening meal. Floost, tidy everything away please.”

  Once they had eaten and the room was tidy Marrinek sat down at the table and picked up the lead. He beckoned the twins to join him at the table.

  “If you want to use your power to affect the world around you it is almost always necessary to use a charm of some sort.”

  He removed the second of the five charm tools, Quill, from its place in the storage roll.

  “Take this tool, for example. You can make it from wood and iron and power, you don’t need anything else, but it’s much easier and quicker if you already have another tool, like this one.”

  He pointed at the third tool in the roll.

  “If you have a discrete piece of material, like that rod of iron, or an oak stave, or a piece of lead, you can transform it with power if you have enough time and strength and skill and if you know what it is you are trying to achieve.”

  Darek raised his hand.

  “Is that how the walls were made, with really large versions of tools like these?”

  Marrinek was surprised.

  “Good question, but no. Stone is different. Stone you can work relatively quickly, if you have the knack, and there’s something about the material that helps. Once you get started the stone becomes its own tool allowing you to use one piece of stone to work the next, and the next and so on. It’s still slow but it allows the mason to bond together huge pieces of rock and harden them into the shapes of the walls around the city.”

  He paused and looked at Bone Dancer, leaning against the wall.

  “Bone Dancer has copper netting coiled around its length, from the far end where the plates are all the way down to the butt. Now, sit quiet, don’t interrupt me, and focus on what I’m doing. You can ask questions when I’m done.”

  The twins sat, transfixed, as Marrinek picked up the rough lump of lead and switched to Blunt, the largest of the five tools. He paused, briefly, wondering if he would be able to focus enough power without triggering the nausea he’d felt earlier in the day. Then he shook his head, pushing away the fear.

  Holding the tool against the surface of the lead he focussed power, and then even more, until finally, after several minutes’ effort, the lead began to change shape, slowly shifting from an amorphous lump into a short rod. When he was happy with the shape, Marrinek laid down the tool and picked up the lead, feeling its surface with his fingers.

  Then he picked up one of the oak staves and used Chisel first to cut it in half and then to slice away surplus material until he was left with a cylindrical wand of wood about six inches long and an inch across. Then he drew Chisel along the length of the wand, opening a long channel in the core of the wood. He dropped the lead into the wood and closed the opening, working gently on the wood to cause it to flow softly around the lead until the surface of the stave was whole and smooth.

  He put down the tool and picked up the heavy stave.

  “So,” he said, rubbing his eyes and stretching his neck, “what did you notice?”

  Floost was bouncing in her seat.

  “I could see the power, so much of it, but the lead just seemed to absorb it.” Marrinek nodded.

  “But the wood was different, as if it was being guided by the power rather than just absorbing it,” added Darek. Marrinek nodded again.

  “Good. Yes. Lead, like all the heavy metals, can store power, gathering it like a pool in a dammed stream, then release it quickly when you need it. That’s very useful for certain applications but it makes working the lead very difficult because most of the power you push into it is simply absorbed. The heavier metals are even slower to work but they hold more power and release it faster.” He turned the stave, feeling the difference the lead had made to the balance.

  “We use a copper net to gather power, harvesting it from the atmosphere and pushing it into the lead which acts as a reservoir. The stored power can then be drawn back out to achieve some useful effect, such as lighting a room or generating heat,” he said, hefting the stave, “this isn’t useful yet, it’s just a teaching aid, but maybe later we’ll do something else with it.”

  He picked up a fire charm and focussed power, pushing it into the charm’s small reservoir.

  “Can you see the power flowing now?”

  The twins nodded.

  “It’s flowing from you into the charm. The copper and the lead are glowing,” said Darek.

  “It’s beautiful,” added Floost, her eyes wide, “as if the fire charm was alive.”

  “Which it is not, of course, and a good thing too, since that would be very distressing,” said Marrinek, “I will teach you to handle charms and to work metal, wood and stone but not today.”

  He pulled the two battered books from their resting place in the pack.

  “These are student texts, useful starting points for anyone of talent. They are dull and worthy and long but they contain much information that you will need. Jensen is a textbook on the uses of power with a number of practical exercises and examples. Read the first few chapters and we will talk about them tomorrow. Discussions is a more general text on society and the impact of power.”

  He turned the book over, flicking through its pages.

  “It’s basically an instruction manual on how to survive amongst other talented people. This world is superficially similar to the normal world, the one you’ve lived in so far, but those similarities hide real and dangerous differences. Understanding those differences and learning to exploit them are key to survival. Pay close attention to the contents of this book.”

  He set the books down on the desk.

  “If I am not here to teach you and you have no other chores, you are to study these books until you know their contents intimately. Once you have understood all that they contain we will progress to more advanced texts.”

  Floost and Darek looked somewhat sceptical, not to say downright rebellious.

  “Can’t you just tell us what’s in them? I don’t see why we have to read them ourselves…” said Darek, staring at the books with a degree of distaste.

  Marrinek stretched his neck muscles and wondered if he might have been a bit hasty in apprenticing the twins. It was more than fifteen years since he had last had an apprentice and that had ended badly for all concerned. The twins, lacking the formal schooling or environmental background from which talented children usually benefited, were likely to prove difficult students. He sighed and resigned himself to a long effort.

  “You read them because studying is an important part of learning. Later, you’ll need to absorb information or discover it yourself and this practice will help. And the faster you master this material the sooner you can move on to more interesting lessons.”

  The twins sat in sullen silence for a few moments, staring at the books. Then Floost looked up.

  “You said there were two ways to use power. You’ve told us about charms. What’s the other way?”

  “Ah, yes. Charms are common. Once you learn to recognise them you’ll be able to spot them when they’re used or even when they’re inactive, if they’re connected to a power reservoir. What you’ll find is that they’re everywhere. Most people know that charms exist and some have a rough idea about how they work. Almost nobody knows about the second way, which we call Flow.”

  Marrinek paused for so long that Floost thought he had forgotten they were there. She was about to ask another question when he looked up again.

  “Flow is far more difficult to use and vastly more dangerous and versatile. It takes many forms and can do many, many different things. Most talented people lack the strength to make use of Flow and even amongst those who have the strength, many can’t master the fine control required to affect the world around them. Whether or not you two are able to use Flow remains to be seen but we will get to that later, once you have mastered the basics.”

  Marrinek picked up one of the o
ak staves.

  “For now, though, if you’d rather watch me work…”

  The twins’ faces brightened and they leant forward, the books forgotten.

  “Right. Same as before, no interruptions.” He took out Quill again and focussed his will through it into the oak. After a moment, the wood fell neatly into two pieces and Marrinek was left holding a four-inch-long stub of wood. Switching to the third tool, Twig, he formed a channel lengthways through the wood, three inches long with three holes to the surface and a wider chamber at the bottom. He worked quickly, now that he had a feel for the tools again, anxious to complete the work before the nausea returned, and settled a small lead reservoir into the chamber.

  He picked up one of the iron rods and rolled it in his hands, getting a feel for the metal.

  “Iron can be worked directly, if you have the strength. Nobody really knows why this is true of iron and not, say, lead, but there it is.”

  Again he focussed and the metal smoothly changed shape, flowing gently and dividing in two so that Marrinek was left holding a narrow three-inch stub of grey iron. He picked up the oak and slotted the two parts together. Happy with the fit, he held up the item and displayed it to the twins.

  “What do you think it is for?”

  Both twins shook their heads.

  “Is it a key?” asked Floost.

  “No. Darek?”

  “A fire charm, like the one you showed us earlier? Or maybe a knife, except it’s blunt, of course.”

  “Trick question, I’m afraid. At the moment it’s just shaped wood and metal. But ‘knife’ was a good guess. Watch closely.”

  He slid the iron out of the wood and picked up Needle, delving deeply into the structure of the iron, causing the atoms at the end of the rod to ripple and shift before forming a precise pattern within the metal, just like the pattern he had made in Bone Dancer.

  “Stand clear,” he muttered, pointing the rod of iron across the room and pressing his hand to the patterned end, hoping that this work wouldn’t trigger the nausea. He pushed power into the iron, more and more, until suddenly it caught. There was a loud bang which made the twins jump and cover their ears. Across the room, a fist-sized dent three inches deep had appeared in the wattle and daub wall.