Atomic Mage

by Garrett Carter

  Mina softened slowly, returning the embrace with a short kiss to Sabine's lips that did all sorts of good things to Cade's libido.

  "All is forgiven Sabine, I was just worried for you," Mina said as she rubbed her muzzle against the shorter woman's hair.

  "I appreciate it Mina, my Dresk," Sabine replied as she tightened her arms around the panther woman.

  Her affection though well-meaning showed off her new impressive strength as what used to be a tight hug caused Mina to yelp as her ribs ground together.

  "Ease up a little Sabine, you are much stronger and more durable than you used to be," Cade said with a chuckle as Sabine quickly released Mina from her bear hug.

  "Now I really can't wait for that bitch to be before me," Sabine said with not a little vehemence.

  "My proposition from earlier would help you get there quicker my little snake, are you two ready to have your minds blown?" He asked, excitement coursing through him as he waited for the floor.

  "We are ready to have them blown," Mina said as she looked over to Sabine for confirmation.

  Her vigorous nod was all he needed to begin his spiel.

  "So I have been thinking how would you two like to fly our way to the slaver camp. I have a way of lifting our home and getting us there in less than an hour. It would also make our trip to Opect maybe a few days instead of a few weeks, barring any crazy storms... hmm or maybe not." He finished with another faraway look as he contemplated just surrounding the whole house in a shield.

  "Hello, my Cade! You were telling us how you were going to revolutionize travel by flying giant buildings around." Mina said with a grin as her mate showed a new side of himself.

  "How will we fly this giant building as Mina called it?" Sabine asked as Cade's attention was drawn back to his wives.

  "I can show you better than I can tell you. If you beautiful ladies will follow me for a demonstration." He said in his best salesman voice as he made his way out the front door to wait for his wives on the porch.

  As Mina and Sabine stood to the side of the door, expectant looks written across their faces, Cade couldn't help the grin that threatened to split his face in two as he created a shield platform at the edge of the porch just out of their view.

  His grin devolved into a stomach-splitting laugh as they both lurched forward to catch him as he stepped off the porch onto the platform.

  He almost fell off the platform in his mirth before he took a second to shift its attachment point to his feet as he moved the platform smoothly forward a few feet before turning around to look at his mate's dumbstruck faces.

  "And that is how we are going to travel from now on, in style," he said with a wide sweep of his arms.

  Cades grin turned smug as he brought himself back to the edge of the porch and almost broke his neck as he barely released his feet from the platform in time to only stumble instead of face-planting in front of his chuckling mates.

  "As amusing as it was to watch you almost kissing the ground we walk upon my Cade, I fail to see how that little...." as Mina trailed off he finished her statement for her.

  "I have been calling it a platform."

  "Platform? Well, I fail to see how that little platform will carry our house anywhere." Mina finished.

  His grin was back in full force as he drew power from their house's mithril power supply and created a platform that would fit underneath their floating home a few meters in front of them.

  "That is how it will work. Just give me a few minutes to get it set up and we will be on our way. Those slaving assholes won't know what hit them." He said as his grin spread from ear to ear.

  "Very well my Cade as long as it doesn't drop us out of the sky unexpectedly I wouldn't mind soaring to our destination. Come Sabine let us retire to the armory and get prepared for our battle."

  Mina walked back into the house after placing a kiss on Cade's cheek quickly followed by Sabine as she gave him a quick peck on the other.

  Cade for his part gave them both a firm smack on their asses as they passed him.

  He smirked at Mina's purr and Sabine's cute squeak before he moved the large platform underneath their boathouse.

  A small tidal wave of water splashed over the porch as the displaced water settled.

  Cade attached the platform to the bottom of the house and tied it to the house power supply.

  Visions of their house flying through the clouds drifted through his mind as he tried his first test lift of a few feet.

  His pride in his achievement was short-lived as he smelled smoke coming from the house.

  Setting the house down in a rush he was almost knocked off his feet by the rush of water that came over the porch.

  A mental sweep through the house was all he needed to find the source of the smoky smell.

  A groan escaped his lips as he found the house's power source had scorched the inside of their kitchen cabinet as it heated up under the strain of keeping the house aloft.

  As he removed the scorched material and the smokey smell from the kitchen with a thought he sent the ash from the charred surface along with the smoke out the door on the breeze he conjured.

  His arms crossed over his chest as he thought through the problem for a few seconds and had a eureka moment as he figured out how to fix the heating issue and the problem he had missed of how they were going to get fresh water without the river under them.

  Running out of the kitchen he stopped on the porch once more and pulled power from the house supply as he expanded his senses downward.

  His anxiety grew by the minute as he feared not being able to find another deposit of mithril so far from the massive deposit he had discovered in his first days here.

  His relief was palpable as he found ten deposits that were sand grains in comparison to the gigantic one he planned on making his empire on, but should hopefully suffice for what he had planned.

  As he felt the deposits rise through the earth around him, Cade split his focus and pulled a few of the trees up from the banks around him and used them to complete the framing, walls, and sloped roof of the second story of his home.

  Mina and Sabine ran out to see what the commotion was to be waved away by Cade as he fought to maintain his focus and keep all of his projects in motion.

  Finishing the upper floor project he blew out a breath, glad to have only one part of his mind actively engaged again.

  "Sorry ladies, I didn't think to warn you of the renovations. We now have a second floor, and as soon as I get the plumbing up and running hot and cold water tanks." He said to his dumbstruck mates as his mithril deposits came into view.

  His face grew confused at the google-eyed looks on their faces until he turned to look at the objects holding their attention.

  The ten deposits all together amounted to a quarter of the side of their soon-to-be flying home.

  "Ah, my mithril has arrived, if you two beauties will give me a moment I will get us on our way."

  "Is that the deposit you were talking about my Cade?" Mina asked pointing to the largest deposit that hovered in front of them.

  A laugh escaped him as his mind failed to find a way to describe how much smaller these chunks of metal were than the mountain he intended to use to create their mining empire.

  Trying and failing to summon up an apt comparison, he got to work creating their water tanks before he replied.

  "No my pretty kitty these deposits while large are so insignificant in comparison to the one we will be making our fortune on I'm not sure I could make a comparison that you would understand. I myself am still blown away by the amount of mithril it contains and I have seen it for myself in a way."

  Finishing his explanation in a light tone he hoped his dismissal didn't insult Mina or Sabine's intelligence but he truly was unable to make a comparison that made sense.

  If they were next to a mountain he might be able to make an example by setting a small rock next to it, but on the river where they were, he feared the idea would fall fla
t.

  Shaking his head he offered his mates a wane smile promising himself he would find a way to explain better next time, he focused on the task at hand as he molded the largest deposit into six sheets that would protect his home and provide his hot water.

  He fused the largest sheets of the metal to the roof and foundation adding another foot of material to the bottom and top of their home.

  The additions were a foot thick with deep but thin valleys in them to provide an extra heat sink the water that flowed through them might not be able to handle.

  As he finished fusing the roof and foundation pieces to the existing wooden structure and did the same for the far thinner wall covers.

  Finishing his plumbing was an easy task, the pumps already built and the piping just needing to be connected to the storage tanks now.

  Thinking about the septic tank he shivered in revulsion, he felt sorry for anyone below them when they emptied it.

  The shining house was a little gaudy for his tastes but it would protect them and get them where they needed to go.

  He quickly threw the idea of painting their floating home at his mates and was glad they felt the same.

  "Glad that's done. Now let's get this show on the road."

  As Cade finished his declaration he wished he had a bottle of wine to smash on their homes reflective wall.

  Shrugging to himself he started the pumps cycling water through his heat sinks and created his house-sized platform and attached it to the new mithril foundation.

  Crossing his fingers, he tied the whole of the foundation to the platform spell and lifted their home.

  A whoop of joy left him when the heat he had feared would boil the water left on the foundation was only steaming the water slowly away.

  Feeling the rate of material the platform was using Cade estimated it would last a very very long time before he had to add new metal.

  He cautiously knelt and placed his hand on the mirrored surface of the foundation, a hair-trigger on his healing.

  The surface was hot, stingily so but all he was left with was redness on his palm as he quickly removed his hand.

  "Well, ladies there we go, all ready to go and wipe out a slave camp."

  Mina for her part was smiling from ear to ear at her mate's accomplishment.

  Sabine was bouncing in place perplexing Cade for a second till he realized the motion was similar to someone excitedly bouncing on their feet.

  Her actions confirmed his assumption as she squealed and launched herself at him, almost taking them both over the railing into the water.

  "Isn't our mate the best Mina, I can't wait to see the faces of those...asshoes?" Sabine said proudly as she looked up at her mate, her eyes searching his for confirmation on her choice of words.

  "Assholes my little snake, assholes is the word you are looking for. Though asshoes isn't a bad way to describe them either."

  Cade's battle with his laughter ended after he corrected Sabine, laughing hard at her description of the asshoes they were going to wipe out shortly.

  "Yes assholes, I can't wait to see their faces before we kill them all." Sabine finished, her change from sweet to bloodthirsty looking cute to him, even though he knew she meant every word.

  "There is one more thing I need to check but we can take care of that on the way there," Cade said before he placed a kiss on Sabine's brow to let her know he wanted to be released.

  Sabine smiled up at him as she set him on the porch.

  "Damn that little woman was strong." He thought to himself.

  "What do you need to check my Cade, I thought you said we were ready to go?" Mina asked as she walked over to get a peck of her own, but on her lips.

  "We need to make sure the hot and cold water still works is all, now everyone inside it might get a little windy out here," he answered as he motioned towards the door and followed his mates inside.

  Walking over to his man shack he began their ascent, aiming their house toward where he knew the camp was.

  As they cleared the trees he began to accelerate the house to what he hoped was highway speed. Seeing nothing in their way he stepped away from the windows that were beginning to rattle from the air buffeting them.

  Throwing up a curved shield to send the air around the front of their home took less than a second.

  Smiling as the windows ceased their rattling he made his way to the bathroom.

  As he passed the anchor hole he made a quick adjustment, changing the anchor into a cover for the hole that they could fish or swim out of in an emergency.

  Walking into the bathroom he was slightly disappointed to find his mates fully clothed and testing the water temperature of the shower and tub.

  "You look like Candice when you told her she couldn't have a dog and a cat," Mina said after she noticed him walk in as she held her hand under the showerhead.

  "You are right Mina, he looks like he might even pout," Sabine said after a short giggle as she looked back over her shoulder her hand testing out the water for the tub.

  "Har har, we will be over the camp in around ten minutes I have a plan I want to talk with you both about," Cade said as he turned back towards the kitchen to keep his mates from seeing the small smile their teasing had caused.

  Sitting down at the table he smiled as his mates sat down and looked at him expectantly.

  "I am going to try and paralyze all the slavers in the camp so we can take them out at our leisure and free the slaves in safety."

  "I am fine with this my Cade but what about Rista, her mind should still work just fine if she isn't dead right," Mina asked with an arched brow as she waited for his response.

  "If I can paralyze them from a distance and get her attention focused on me I'm sure I can find a few things that will keep her from concentrating long enough to fight back."

  He finished his plan by pulling the mithril spikes out of the armory to float in the middle of their table.

  "If she can keep focused long enough to fight back I will be very surprised. Drake gave up after a few moments after I used these babies." He said as he set them vibrating, their sharp points digging into the surface of the table.

  "That sounds like a wonderful plan my Cade but Sabine gets to remove that bitches head as she was promised," Mina said in agreement, looking over to Sabine for confirmation.

  Sabine answered with a nod, her face speaking volumes on how ready she was to fulfill her role.

  Smiling at his bloodthirsty mate, Cade tapped into the house's power supply and expanded his senses forward, after a few moments he felt the edge of the camp.

  The scrambling of the slavers at their sudden arrival reminding him of ants after their nest was kicked.

  "Well, ladies we are here."

  Payback is a bitch

  Cade stopped their home at the edge of the camp, a few feet above the treeline.

  A savage grin grew on his face as he quickly expanded his power gripping the people in the camp by twos and threes.

  As he felt the small node of metal on the back of his skull heat up as he completed his part of their plan.