Winds of Magic Chapter 9!

 

Chapter 9

Alice showed Rei and I to the auxiliary clubhouse. It was filled with devices from at least three generations of technology, from a near vintage Rolliup casting device to a state-of-the-art aether counter. The room had a cluttered feel, and was dominated by a full-size curling ring which took up more than half of the floor space. I was greeted by five auxiliary team members.

“This is Gump, Traxton, Seymore, Robert, and Kenny,” said Alice. “They’re the rest of the auxiliary team.”

One of the members, who I was pretty sure was Gump, approached me. “Glad you’re here,” he said. “I heard how you one-shotted Jerrod.”

“None of us liked him,” said another member, who I remembered to be Seymore. “He was a jerk.”

“Yeah, I picked that up,” I said.

“You’re going to be on the Curling team?” said Kenny, to Rei.

“Hopefully,” said Rei. “If I manage to do good on the auditions.”

“We’re also holding auditions for the auxiliary core,” said Kenny. “But I guess York here doesn’t need to go now.” He paused. “So. Can you show me what you know?”

Alice nodded, approaching me. “Yes. We want to know if you’re actually going to benefit the auxiliary corps.”

“I barely even know how to play,” I said. “I was expecting to learn on the job from my seniors.”

“Hah,” said Alice. She pushed a laptop computer from one side of a desk towards me. “Do some Siege code and create a pillar from scratch. Then we’ll see what you can do.”

“Let me look at your extruder first,” I said. I walked over to the material extruder that was used to create the pillars for the game. It was an older model, but high quality. I then took out my tablet and researched the specs and operating conditions, searching for quirks that I would have to deal with.

“Good,” said Alice. “At least you know how to work with machines.”

I walked to the laptop. The Siege Code IDE was already up and running. I began coding.

Since I had a healthy knowledge of materials science, I was able to create a poly-bonded material that would stand up to extreme temperatures very well. To be honest, it was a textbook magic extrusion, and I wanted to use it to see if the members recognized it. It was a little test on my part that wouldn’t put the secrecy of my job on the line. It took ten minutes to finish the code and then I sent it to the extruder.

The extruder produced a piece of yellowish metal at the rate of about a foot a minute. The blocks in curling, I had read, could be made out of any solid material and could be enchanted with nearly any spell. The one extruding at the moment had no enchantments, but I did not expect it to need them.

The pillar was about three meters tall when it finished extruding. Alice used gravity magic to bring it down to the ring. She placed the pillar in the ring’s center and motioned to Rei.

“While we’re at it, we may as well see your powers.”

Rei nodded, approaching the operation board that hung over the field’s north end. She typed a few commands into her casting device and threw a ball of negative-pressure air at the pillar. She could do this by cooling the air so quickly that it imploded in on itself using Charle’s Law, which stated that volume and temperature in a gas are proportional. The pillar dented but did not break.

“That was powerful,” said Alice, appearing a bit impressed. She turned to me. “What did you make this pillar out of?”

“Type five electro-symbiotic brass-steel alloy,” I said.

“Ah, right, I recognize that one. One of Philor’s ten solid-state magus templates.”

I was, to be honest, impressed. “So you know your stuff,” I said.

Alice tilted her head. “I’m the vice president of a collegiate level curling team,” she said. She sighed. “Well, it’s nice to finally have a captain who knows what they’re doing.”

“Jerrod didn’t?”

“He got his position through seniority and threats. He never really cared about the game.”

I frowned. “Well then. I hope I can make you a powerful auxiliary team.”

Rei looked over the metal pillar. “What did you call this?” she said. “Philor’s … um, Sugar Cube?”

“Sorry, solid state magus template,” said Alice. “It’s a magically-stable material that resonates with two different aetheric frequencies specifically relating to Earth magic.”

“Ah, like granitic magic.”

“Exactly,” said Alice. She looked impressed. “Have you studied granitic magic?”

“A little,” said Alice. “I study all kinds of magic, even though I can only perform temperature manipulation and ice plasty.”

“Plasty” in this context meant that she could control it at will, including calling it from the void.

Alice pursed her lips. “Okay. I’ll put in a good word for you at the auditions. But, trust me, you’ll get your chance to prove your mettle.”

Rei bowed. “Thank you.” She looked at me. “Well, I have a class to get to,” she said. “I assume you want to spend a bit more time working with these people.” She paused. “Jade also said that she wanted to meet us tonight for dinner. Be at the cafeteria by seven.”

“Will do,” I said. I turned back to Alice. “So, what have you been using for the curling templates so far?”

“Type five analytically enhanced coral with a mica substrate,” said Alice.

“Explain,” I said.

“We chose coral because, semantically, it stands between life-derived and rock-derived foundations and confuses the other player’s calculations. We developed the exact formula in-house. The mica is to prevent fracture-wedging.”

“Fracture-wedging?” I said. “I apologize. I do not know much about curling.”

“It’s okay. Fracture-wedging is a technique where the attacker creates a small fracture and enlarges it with magical wedges.”

“Sounds like a good tactic,” I said.

“Which is why we developed countermeasures,” said Alice. “But it hasn’t really been working like we thought it would.”

“I have a suggestion,” I said. “How about adding a bit of gold to it? That would stop the growth of magic tendrils and prevent them from getting a solid grip on the wedge.”

“How so?” asked Alice.

“Gold has a peculiar effect when it is touched by fracture magic. Because of its high ductile strength, normal casting devices can’t account for it in their programming. Thus the gold will bend but not break, which will throw off the enemy’s attack.”

“Hm,” said Alice. “We can try that. But where are we going to find enough gold for six pillars?”

“I have connections,” I said. “I could provide perhaps two or three ounces. That should be enough to cover six three meter tall and half meter diameter pillars.”

“You’re already showing your value,” said Alice. She motioned towards the five club members. “Get working! We need to program the extrusion machine to work with the new params!”

The five club members scrambled. Alice motioned towards the door. “Take a walk with me,” she said.

I nodded, following her outside, into the hall, and then out into the open air. We strolled through the fountain garden.

“You appear to have skills that wouldn’t normally be under the belt of a freshman, even one who got into Rockwell.”

“There’s not much I can say,” I said.

“I researched your battle with the cultists at the abandoned mansion this summer,” said Alice. “Before I knew you were going to beat Jerrod, of course. To be truthful, I’ve had my eye on you ever since I saw your exploit on the news.”

“So that’s why you didn’t argue when I became captain so suddenly?”

“That’s part of it,” said Alice. She walked ahead of me and twirled to face me. “I wanted to know if you really were Regius Alnum.”

I stopped. “What?” I said.

“You heard me,” said Alice. “Regius Alnum.”

“How—” I said.

“You may know me better as Mulberry,” said Alice. “Nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Wait, you’re a CEO?” I said.

“No, of course not,” said Alice. “My company isn’t nearly large enough to have a CEO.”

“But I do work for you?” I said.

“Yup,” said Alice. “And I have some information for you. There’s a group called Forthier’s Club on campus who I need someone to look into.”

“I’ve already heard of them,” I said. “They were embezzling money from the student council.”

“Ah, so I don’t have to explain,” said Alice.

“I still don’t know who they are or what the club is for. It’s listed as an arts club, but I doubt they have anything to do with art.”

“Indeed,” said Alice. “They’re connected to the cultists you beat. They’re partakers of that awakening nonsense.”

“Awakening?” I said.

“Oh, you made me make a tongue slip,” said Alice, still nonchalant. She winked. “You’ll have to suffice to know that I’m working on it and so are a number of people.”

“How do you find time to work with your, ah, company and still be the VP of the curling auxiliary corps?” I said.

“How can you go to school and be Regius Alnum?” said Alice.

“Good point,” I said.

“Well then,” said Alice. “You have a dinner appointment to get to.”

I nodded. “I’ll be back tomorrow. When do you guys start the auditions?”

“Tomorrow at eight am,” said Alice. “And we start working at six in the morning every day, plus optional afternoon sessions.” She curtsied and then turned away. I watched her go.

I went to the cafeteria where Alice and Jade were waiting for me.

“Sit,” said Rei.

I sat.

“Jade has a favor to ask of us,” said Rei. She looked at Jade. “Do you want me to explain for you?”

“Yes,” said Jade. She looked towards Rei.

“Do you remember Jade’s original motivation to find the two cultists?” said Rei.

“Right, her friend Tally?” I said.

“Exactly,” said Rei. “Jade has found out a possible location of the device Tally was imprisoned in. It’s an object called a sepulcheria.”

“So, why did they trap Tally?”

“The awakening of Almog requires the blood of a maiden,” said Rei.

“Ew,” I said. “That’s a horrible fate.”

“The ceremony was stopped,” said Rei, “But they couldn’t find the sepulcheria Tally was trapped in. Jade fears that they teleported the object to a safe location before they were apprehended.”

“Okay,” I said.

“I’ll cut to the chase. The club known as Forthier’s Club has possession of it,” said Rei.

“Them again,” I said. “Why them?”

“We believe they may be a front for occult activities,” said a voice, approaching us. It was Illya. “I do apologize for eavesdropping. I just happened to hear you mentioning Forthier’s Club and I wanted to share what I’ve recently learned.”

“Sit,” said Rei.

Illya sat and put her food down. “All right. It goes like this.”