by H. L. Burke
The first chapter in this account involved the race between the Machinists' Guild and the Magicians’ Congress to mechanize the city’s swiftly growing industries. At the time, the accepted process was enchanting automatons, sometimes called golems, through a process similar to that used to make Jaspyr, giving life to clockwork beings. However, even if they were designed purely with a single task in mind, such as fitting carriage wheels on axles or sewing buttons onto shirts, the creatures tended to develop sentience, sometimes rebelling against their masters, other times losing the will to continue with the drudgery and refusing to activate after a time. Even without these problems, they were expensive and time consuming to create, making them cost prohibitive for most factory owners. It was cheaper to toss wages at workers than to hire magicians to craft mechanical men.
The engineers, however, could design machines that could perform simple tasks, but lacked an efficient means to power them. Steam had been tried, but after several boiler explosions, legislation had severely restricted its use. Apparently no one had suggested a solution such as Lotta’s generators.
Then came the Styles family, with an entire chapter devoted to them. No wonder Cordon kept this book on hand. The whole thing read as a loving ode to his family and their various accomplishments. They’d invented the Styles Device, finally marrying magic and machinery in a sustainable way … sustainable except for the huge amounts of Fey energy it consumed.
The Styles family hadn’t been behind the opening of the first major artificial rifts, but their invention had created a need the Magicians Corps had been swift to fill.
Finally, Auric tucked the book back on the shelf and headed up to their rooms.
When he opened the door to the parlor, Lotta leaped up from her chair, holding an empty tea cup as if ready to throw it at his head.
He held his hands out in front of him. “Just me, and not armed. I swear!”
Her shoulders relaxed. “You startled me.”
“You’ve been through a lot.” Auric shrugged it off. At least she hadn’t actually thrown it. “Where is everyone?”
“My uncle is napping in the bedroom, and your little sister and her tall husband went out. Said something about seeing more of the city than just the inside of this room. They left that fox thing in their quarters.” She pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Do you think I could get a look at the fox later? I’d like to see how it works. It’s a lot like that monkey, except not awful. Maybe if I knew more about it, I could figure out a way to disable it.”
“You’ll have to talk to Rill about that, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.” Auric shut the door behind him. “Jaspyr is kind of her baby.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t hurt it. I actually like it.”
Auric came to her side and glanced down at the table. She’d unpacked her schematics and laid them out beside the tea things. A pencil and protractor rested on top of them. He swept his gaze to the floor. Her satchel had toppled over next to her feet, and several items peeked out, including a worn, cloth-bound book. Gold lettering on the spine read Fundamentals of Nursing. “You’re interested in medicine as well as engineering?” He reached for the book. “Is there anything you don’t study?”
“Don’t touch that!” She stooped down and righted the satchel. Her hand strayed across the cover of the book before she tucked it into place and did up the clasps to close the bag. “I don’t really study medicine. The book was my mother’s. She was a nurse before she married my father. I don’t remember her very well, but the book smells like her, sort of.” Her eyes darkened, and silence crept over the room again. Auric’s heart went out to her. There was a definite soft center beneath the prickles.
“Can you tell me more about your project?” he asked.
“I have a hard time explaining it.” She dropped her eyes. Auric couldn’t help but notice how even her shoulders were with his. If anything they were a bit higher. He tried to stand up taller. Jericho had just been teasing, right? He wasn’t really shorter than her, was he? Still, their eyes seemed to be about level. No, he had to be at least as tall as she was. He leaned closer, trying to get their bodies lined up for comparison.
She flinched away. “What are you doing?”
He squared his shoulders. “Nothing—seriously, though. Try to explain it to me. I’m smart. You don’t get to be a magician if you can’t understand complex subject matter.”
Lotta sniffed. “Magic? Complex? All you do is memorize lines of doodles to sketch into your wax. I could create an automaton that could do that. Engineering is easily a hundred times more complicated.”
Auric’s face heated. First Jericho said he was a poor judge of character, now Lotta disparaged his profession. “Magic has been the backbone of the Republic for decades. It’s a time-proven practice. Engineering isn’t established enough to be a trade, let alone a science.”
“Because you magicians marginalize anything that doesn’t involve your showy spells.” Her eyes flashed in a way that entranced him even as her words infuriated him. “Engineering is work. Magic is cheating.”
“Well, that cheating certainly saved your neck today.” He crossed his arms. “You’re welcome for that, by the way.”
Her bottom lip went slack. She turned away, rubbing her eyes. “I’m being ungrateful, aren’t I? You did save me, and I’m being—difficult. I’m always difficult. To you, to Uncle Ezra, to Father—” She choked. “Why am I so good with machines and so bad with people?”
Auric touched her shoulder. “It’s all right. Honestly, I’m just having a bad day, but you must be, too. After all, someone tried to kill you—twice.” Warmth seeped through her shirt into his hand. A sudden urge to pull her against his chest surged through him, and he withdrew. “I’ll let you be.”
He started towards his bedroom door.
“Don’t go in there. My uncle, remember?” She cleared her throat. “The turbines spin when the water goes through them. There’s a magnet and it creates an electric field. Do you know what electricity is?”
He nodded, swallowing an idiotic grin. “It’s like lightning or that shock you get when you touch a door handle.”
“That’s right but not right. What this device creates can be harnessed to power machinery, heat and light homes, even send messages, and with the underground river system, we have a near endless source of it. We can put a generator in every tunnel.” A smile crept over her face. “With that power, think of all the machines we could use. I mean clockwork is nice, but it winds down. Steam works, but you need to burn fuel, and people are irrationally afraid of boiler explosions considering what a statistical anomaly they are. Our entire railway system runs on steam, but does that soothe people’s fears? No, because of one or two incidents, people want to regulate and ban and obstruct—people are so stupid.” Her smile somehow morphed into a tightly clenched jaw.
“We’re not all so bad.” He sat down, gazing up at her in a mix of awe and amusement.
“No, you’re not.” She peered at him as if he were Jaspyr and she were preparing to take him apart to see how he worked. “I’m afraid of people. I know it doesn’t make sense, but when I have to talk to a stranger or even just be in the room with too many of them, I get anxious. I forget how to make sentences. I don’t with you, though. You don’t scare me.”
“I’m mostly harmless.” He chuckled. “Maybe seeing a man suspended from your ceiling takes away some of the intimidation.” The tension between his shoulders eased.
“Huh.” She picked up a pencil and scribbled something onto the schematic.
“I have an idea,” he said, eager to continue the conversation. “Next time you need to talk with someone and don’t want your nerves to get the better of you, pretend whoever it is has my face … or is hanging upside down by their ankles. Whichever works.”
“That’s a silly idea.” She grunted.
The clock on the mantel ticked loudly in the ensuing silence.
Finally, Auric leaned forward. “Lotta, do you
think you could get a generator set up to show people? You don’t seem to be getting anywhere telling people about your work, but maybe showing it would convince them. A demonstration.”
She rubbed her chin. “Maybe. Why do you care, though?”
Auric hesitated, considering lines about it being for the good of the Republic or just wanting her to succeed. Instead he went with the truth. “Because I made a choice that caused a problem and while I still think it was the right choice, I need to fix the problem—and your invention can do that.”
Chapter Fourteen
Auric smiled as he inspected the schematics. Lotta stooped over her notebook, sketching.
“These are the materials we’ll need.” She passed him a list. “My father’s shop had a lot of it, but much was destroyed when … when he died.” She sighed. “I have some funds left over from my inheritance. It should be enough to purchase everything.”
“Well, if we can get Cordon’s help, I’m sure he’ll put up some money,” he said. “This is beneficial to the factories he’s invested in. I’m sure he’ll be happy to bankroll it in return for a reasonable percentage of the profits.”
She twisted a lock of hair around her fingers. “You think so? Hmm. Would eighty percent be enough?”
Auric raised his eyebrows. “I was thinking more like twenty. Finances aren’t my expertise, but I’d expect the majority of the profits should belong to you as the inventor.”
She shrugged. “I’m not doing this for the money. As long as my expenses are covered, I’m fine.”
Auric wasn’t sure if he was more impressed or befuddled. “That’s incredibly selfless of you, but how will you live?”
“Room and board can be included in the expenses.” Lotta drew a deep breath. “You’re right, though. It might look like I don’t care if I give away so much. I hadn’t thought about that. Would you pick a respectable percentage?”
“You trust me with that?” He tilted his head.
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t?” She peered at him, her brown eyes earnest.
“No, except as I said, finances aren’t my expertise. I’ll do my best, though.” Simultaneously worried and flattered by this trust, he decided he’d have to get her a lawyer later for contract matters. Whether she was in it for the money or not, she deserved to benefit from the project.
A gentle knock sounded from the door.
“Come in!”
Cordon’s butler entered. “Master Spellsmith, you asked me to inform you when Master Styles returned? Well, he has returned.”
“Thank you.” Auric stood and took up the papers. He offered Lotta his hand. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me? You can explain this better than I can.”
She turned her gaze away from him, not rising or taking his hand. “No, you’d better … I’m not ready yet. Besides, he knows you. He’ll listen to you.”
Auric’s shoulders slouched. “All right. I’ll be right back.”
He followed the butler towards Cordon’s study. Lotta’s shyness could be a problem. Auric had an inkling of how her device worked, but not enough to convince a true skeptic. Cordon would take him at his word. Others, presumably, would need more persuasion. After their pleasant chats, Auric had thought he was breaking through her barriers. The last hour or so she’d been almost pleasant to him. Blast, he liked looking into her eyes when she smiled.
They approached a polished oak door with the Styles family crest engraved upon it: a stylus in the hand of a rampant lion.
“Master Spellsmith to see you, sir,” the butler announced.
Cordon looked up from a large wooden desk. “Thank you, Baxter.” He waved towards a leather-bound chair. “Auric, sit. How did your hearing go?”
“Badly, but that’s not why I’m here.” Auric sat, scooting the chair so he could sit eye-to-eye with Cordon. He laid the papers out on the desktop. “I met someone at the offices today and …” He hesitated. And then tracked her down to her home where he’d foiled an attack on her life by a magical assassin? Best to stick to the relevant points. “Well, long story short, I think she has the answer to your factory problem.”
Cordon raised an eyebrow. “She knows how to reopen the rifts?”
“No, she knows how to power the factories without magic, with, well, engineering.” Auric nudged the papers towards his friend. “We spent the afternoon going over her plan, and it’s brilliant. It can use the water running beneath the city to generate electricity.”
Glancing at the schematics, Cordon frowned. “Electrical power is extremely volatile, too dangerous to use. It can start house fires and kill people with a touch. I’d never let such a force near my workers, Auric. You should know that. I care too deeply for their well-being to put them at such risk.”
“No, it’s not like that. This is safe.”
“According to some woman you met just today?” Cordon laughed. “She must be pretty. She’s pretty isn’t she?”
“That’s not the point.” Auric didn’t see how he could deny it. Cordon would meet her eventually and see for himself. Though considering Cordon’s charm, perhaps it was best to avoid that. Auric wasn’t ready for that level of competition yet.
“Auric, you’ve always been brilliant but a little gullible and a tad easily seduced by far-fetched, impractical ideas. Do you remember how carried away you used to get in theoretical magic class?”
“I had stellar grades in theoretical magic,” Auric protested. Unlike Cordon who had practically slept through the lectures, relying on Auric to write all his papers.
“Yes, but that’s because that school of magic is all about taking things to their extreme possibilities: dreaming, essentially.” Cordon pushed the schematics back towards Auric. “The real world is more cut and dried. Things either work, or they don’t. This—” he waved his hand over the papers. “—will never work.”
Auric resisted the urge to loosen his collar. “You’re wrong. Look, I’ve spent the last hour talking to Miss Tyckner, and pretty or not, she’s smart, extremely smart.”
“Then why are you here explaining it instead of her?” Cordon chuckled. “Let me guess: you don’t want me stealing her out from under you. There are better, and cheaper, ways to impress women than investing in their businesses. Take them out for dessert, tell them it’s as sweet as they are, and they’ll be eating out of your hand. Women love that sort of thing.”
“It’s not like that. I thought it would be better coming from a friend, is all.” Auric drew a deep breath, regretting the lie, even if it was to protect Lotta. Her timidity would be hard for someone as confident and outgoing as Cordon to understand. “Look, the rifts aren’t coming back, as much as I wish they could. This city needs to find alternate means to support its industry. The factories are empty now. We can test this process without endangering any of your workers. I told Lotta you might invest in it financially. She’s willing to offer you a generous percentage of the profits, but if you aren’t interested, she has the money to make the first generator on her own. All we need is access to one of your factories and the water tunnels nearest to it. We can install the generators and get it working on our own from there.”
Cordon dropped his eyes. “You shouldn’t involve yourself in this. With … with the court case, it will look bad.”
“I don’t see how. I’m not benefiting from this financially.” Auric frowned. “Besides, I don’t even have to be involved. It will be between you and Miss Tyckner. I’m just making the introduction.”
“Really, Auric, please, for the sake of yourself and the young woman, tell her to quit. It’s a fool’s dream, powering the factories this way. She’s better off abandoning such things early on, before it costs her time and money, and you, what little remains of your reputation.”
Auric shook his head. “If you spoke with her, you’d know she’ll never give this up. It means everything to her … and frankly, I think it means something to me as well. If you won’t involve yourself, I’ll help her seek out the factor
y owners. I’d rather work with you, of course, but I’m sure there are other business men who would be interested if you think it’s too much of a risk.”
Cordon winced. “Auric, please, for the sake of our friendship, give it up.”
Chest tightening, Auric stood. “This has nothing to do with our friendship, Cordon. Look, I’m sorry I wasted your time. We’ll go elsewhere for investors. It was wrong for me to try to leverage our history together.” He started towards the door.
“Wait!” Cordon sighed. “Look, you can use the factory. I’ll even get you a map of the tunnel systems in that area so you know the best place to plant your generators. Just give me a few days to get everything set up, all right?”
Auric let out a long breath. “Thank you, Cordon! You won’t regret this.”
“I just hope you don’t either.” Cordon frowned.
Chapter Fifteen
“Are you going to tell me what happened between you and Auric?” Rill asked as she and Jericho strolled hand and hand, window shopping and taking in the sights.
Jericho sighed. He should’ve known Rill would notice. “I lost my temper. He’s determined to trust Styles, no matter what I have to say about it.”
“Did you tell Auric how Styles treated you?” She arched a pale, delicate eyebrow.
“No.”
“Well, that doesn’t seem fair, then. Of course he still trusts Styles. You haven’t given him a reason not to, even though you have a perfectly good one.” She shook her head. “Really, Jerry, why don’t you want to tell him? He should know.”
Jericho shrugged. It was complicated. Showing weakness didn’t come naturally to him—he’d learned early in life that it just let people know where to hit you the hardest. Admitting that what Styles had said bothered him seemed like letting the rich dolt score a point.