Victor

  A week or so had gone by before I knew it. I woke up in the morning, ate a thick and hearty breakfast, did some calisthenics, and headed over to Flinty’s workshop - that had been my routine, and this day didn’t seem like it would be any different. At least, that is, until I saw Flinty crossing his arms and frowning with both Sylfaena and Nenewyn doing the same right beside him.

  “What’s going on, Flinty?”

  “Ach, we’ve hit a bit oo-va snag laddy.”

  I said, “What do you mean a snag?”

  “An impoortant compoonent is missing,” said Flinty, “Ah need raw manacite and tha’ shipment ain’t coom!”

  “Manacite,” I scratched my head, “What’s that?”

  Sylfaena said, “Crystals capable of holding a large amount of magical energy. The magical tools we intend to craft will require a steady stream of mana flowing nigh constantly since it behaves more like a wand than it does something more stable like a magic sword or belt. According to your own numbers, each cylinder sucks in flammable gas over two-thousand times per minute which means that the new arcane carburetor must needs have a ready supply of magical energy to draw upon in order to remain functional long enough to be effective.”

  That was a fair bit to take in but I reckoned I understood the idea, “So if a wand charge can be measured as a spoon of mana, we’re gonna need something that can hold a boatload of buttloads of the stuff.”

  Sylfaena nodded, “Aye, you have the right of it. Raw manacite typically has a great deal of magical energy in it already, but when refined it can hold even more. Whether it produces mana naturally or draws it from the environment isn’t actually known and is heavily debated…but I digress.”

  Flinty stamped his feet and began to pace, “Ach, there moost be somethin’ wrong at tha mine if there hasnae been nary a word from them and the delivery so late an’ all!”

  I stuck my thumb firmly to my sternum and said, “Nothin’ else for it. I’ll go check it out personally.”

  “Not alone,” said Sylfaena, “I’m coming with you. Tell Malcolm and my sister to prepare for a trek in the mountains while I find out exactly where this mine is located.”

  “Yes ma’am,” I said, saluting.

  Not like I was planning on going alone in the first place, good grief.

  ***

  You know something interesting about the Anvilgrund Mountains? They are cold. Very, very cold. The wind was howling creating a gnarly chill factor that could flash freeze a turkey in under five seconds. But thankfully I didn’t have to feel any of it because of Sylfaena’s magic; she had cast a group spell upon the five of us before Lady Nenewyn teleported us up the mountain. It was my first time teleporting and I couldn’t contain my excitement!

  “That was fun! Thanks, Lady Nenewyn!”

  I saw the slightest glint of smug joy in her expression, which of course she tried to hide by pressing her spectacles.

  The Princess said, “I knew you’d been dying to try it!”

  “Yeah and speakin’ of dyin’,” I said, turning to Sylfaena, “Seeing as how we’re not dying from exposure out here, I’m curious how your spell works exactly. Does it act upon the air, or upon our bodies?”

  “The latter,” Sylfaena said, “it increases a person’s tolerance for both heat and cold.”

  I scratched my chin, “I see so it must regulate your body temperature then. Is it an easy spell for you, relatively low grade as you say.”

  Sylfaena nodded, “Indeed. The variation which I used just now is Intermediate grade, the basic spell is Novice - I’m keenly curious to know how you inferred that.”

  “I’d guessed that the less a magic spell messed with the laws of physics, the easier it is to cast. The one that your sister casts on my wheels only changes one variable in the roll resistance equation, for example. I reckon the same must be true of biology as well as physics.”

  Sylfaena’s hand did an impression of a gun and she rested her chin upon her curled middle finger and her right eye sparkled. “I see - And you think that my Endure Weather spell is doing something similar? Tell me more.”

  “Well, er, I didn’t get very far in biology I’m afraid,” I admitted, “I was more interested in mechanical engineering in college. I guess the question is, are our body temperatures changing or are we each surrounded by a personal shield of air that’s always just the right temperature?”

  Sylfaena’s right eye gained a large spark for a moment and she said, “Only one way to find out. Illiana, hold still: for science!”

  She snapped her fingers I saw a brief poof of arcane power like an exploding lightbulb of confetti. Then she proceeded to touch the snowy ground, then she reached out and touched The Princess’ utili-corset, and then proceeded to palpate her skirt and blouse in a methodical, almost clinical way.

  “I see,” said Sylfaena, “Illiana’s outfit feels hot to the touch, which wouldn’t be possible if the spell were merely increasing her own body temperature to compensate for the cold. I think that the second theory is the correct one. Hmm, so it has been acting upon the air all along has it? Fascinating.” She began to shiver. “I, hehe, should probably cast it on myself again.”

  Everyone groaned a little. Once she was finished doing that we got a good look at our surroundings. The five of us were standing on a long trail that winded down the mountain peak towards the gates of Daz Grund, which was almost all the way to the horizon at this point. Nenewyn couldn’t teleport us all the way there since she had no idea what the place looked like but she was able to save us a great deal of climbing since I’d lent her my binoculars to scout out a reasonably visible part of the trail.

  It took us a fair shake to reach the mines and when we did, there were already signs of trouble. There was a stone wall that ran partially up the hillside and a wooden gate that I would have called sturdy looking had it not been presently thrown off its hinges and split in half. There was blood on the ground outside of the gate, so naturally I moved closer to check it out. I saw several large pools of blood, plus several large and ugly footprints, and bloody dragmarks heading inside the mine courtyard. The tracks were like some sort of four-toed ungulate with nails or claws, but the stride suggested a two-footed creature rather than a four-legged animal. Whatever they were I estimated their height to be around ten feet tall at least.

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  “From what I can tell,” I said, “There was a battle here, no, more like a massacre. Several people were killed, guards I reckon judging by the fallen weaponry, then dragged inside by some kind of monster.” I looked around and found additional footprints, and something like marks left by knuckles. “One big one, rather than several small ones by the looks of things - there aren’t any return tracks so whatever did this is probably in the mine somewhere.”

  We held council for a short while and determined that we had a pretty good idea what we were dealing with. Of course we came up with a strategy, and wasted no time in venturing into what we knew was sure to be a dangerous situation. Inside the defensive walls was even more carnage; dead mules, dead half-eaten dwarves, broken carts, so much blood. I had to remind myself that this still wasn’t the worst scene of mayhem I’d ever witnessed - I was never going to forget that little village. The mining complex was multi layered with various scaffolds and hand-cranked lifts.

  There was only one mine entrance tall enough for what we reckoned we were about to face, and it was covered in blood and reeked of death itself. Mal and Nenewyn had made themselves invisible while I took point, with both princesses behind me. We didn’t have Charlean or any dwarf warriors with us so I was our spellcasters’ only line of defense - we needed to stick to the plan and not panic. Into the mine we ventured, the dank and dimly-lit corridor branched off several times and I faithfully followed the trail of blood until it opened up into a wide cavern. I think I understood why this particular entrance had been so high before, as the entire ceiling of the place was coated in a clear blue glowing crystal - was this like a gigantic geode of those magic crystal things? I didn’t have time to marvel though, because our prey was right before our eyes.

  There it stood, a fifteen foot tall tower of pure rippling muscle with a thick greenish-gray leathery hide with a knobby texture. It had feet like those of a hippopotamus, legs like a sauropod dinosaur and disproportionally long arms that brought to mind the biggest, most savage gorilla you ever saw in your life. Its head was even more monstrous with deep set yellow eyes, a protruding jaw filled with sharp jagged teeth and four prominent tusks. The monstrous creature roared and raised its massive fists.

  So, that’s a mountain troll. Man eating monstrosities created by a darklord in the service of the ice-devil; they hate sunlight, and hate fire even more. I drew out my magically enhanced bowie knife, didn’t even bother with the shield, as the troll charged directly at us. The princesses juked to the side while I rushed forward to meet the monstrosity head on. A colossal fist came crashing down but I rolled between its sinewy legs, and delivered a deep cut to its thigh. It turned to face me again, and suddenly four fiery explosions erupted behind it; Sylfaena had hit it with a barrage of fire bolts. Then one of Illiana’s arrows found purchase in its neck.

  I saw its eyes take on a red glow as it howled in a mixture of pain and anger. It spun around rapidly to face where he thought the attacks had come from, but they had both sprinted away in multiple directions - that was Mal’s work, he’d set up illusory doubles for both of them that mirrored their every move. It looked between them, confused and angry. Ha, don’t turn your back on me, bucko! I knew it wasn’t going to cause much damage, but I let two shots of .45 caliber fly straight into the back of the creature’s skull.

  It spun around on me again, but suddenly I wasn’t where he thought I was going to be. Nope. I was standing on his shoulders together with Nenewyn - that’s right, she’d been right beside me the whole time and had teleported me up there. The gunshot wounds were already beginning to mend, I saw; damn this thing had a thick skull if all I did was piss it off. Nenewyn tapped my blade and it began to vibrate and turn hot - a utility grade metal spell. She jumped off the troll’s shoulder just as it attempted to grab her, and floated gracefully to the cavern floor. I stabbed the troll’s neck with the white hot blade, black ichor spewed from the hissing wound. It howled in agony . More of Sylfaena’s bolts of fire struck it, Mal’s throwing knives, Nenewyn’s bolts of force, and Princess Illiana’s arrows struck where Sylfaena had blasted. I twisted the blade and applied more pressure - something snapped beneath my knife. The troll tumbled to the ground and I was only saved from crashing myself by Sylfaena and Nenewyn’s telekinesis.

  Once we were certain that the monster was dead we set about looking in the mine for survivors; sure enough we found a small band of dwarves who were hiding in a passage too small for the troll to use. Princess Illiana healed them up, and we returned to Daz Grund to report on what had happened. Incidentally, we also made sure to pick up Flinty’s shipment.

  ***

  Many more days passed. It was now fall, I think, or close enough to it. With the exception of that little detour gathering crystals I'd mainly stayed with ol' Flinty to help him with the Cadillac. We actually took the whole thing apart; don't worry, metal mages are really good at putting metal parts back together for obvious reasons. We spent many sleepless nights configuring and experimenting - and of course Flinty made all of the special magical tools we would need for the conversion. With the help of three of our own wizards and his own whom he kept on staff, we were able to get everything sorted out. Once we were done with the engine they didn’t need my help anymore so I worked on other projects - such as getting my duster partially armored up and learning the basics of dwarven beercraft.

  The day had finally come for an inspection, and then a test drive - which of course I was going to take Flinty on. The greasy old fellow walked about with his checklist in hand and was ticking off things while explaining to The Princess and Mal (who had mostly just been enjoying the town) what was done to the car. Since we already went over what had been done to the engine, I'll skip to the extras he threw in for free. Nenewyn and Sylfaena had, crucially, helped out with some of those. I’d actually gotten to know those two a fair bit over the course of our work; Sylfaena’s at least as smart as Sakamoto if not more, and Lady Nenewyn is a next level genius!

  "Yer brakes are now enchanted with earth magic to slowly regenerate o'er time. Kinetic magic's been applied to them shocks'n suspension - should allow ye to do stunts as ye call 'em without causin' much damage to the chassis or to yerself. I added improved paint fulla protection magic tha' nae only prevents scratches, it also kin deflect minor incomin' spells - no stronger than advanced grade. The lubrication system's nae much changed, but I did confirm that either nature or earth magic can be used to clean the oil as though ye'd gotten a new load." He smiled, arms akimbo, "I kin say with nary a doubt, and with nae e'en a bit of hubris, that this is my masterpiece. Aye, best work I've ever done an' tha's a fact, laddy."

  I bowed, "Thank you, sir. She looks even greater than before. So how about that test drive?"

  Flinty put his goggles on and grinned. "Ye dinnae have tae ask me twice!"

  I started up the Cadillac - it worked. "Purrs like a kitten,”

  Then I revved up the engine. "Roars like a tiger!"

  The princess jumped in the front seat and the engineer got in the back. As we usually did when we were in town we drove slowly and we were all feeling eager, full of so much anticipation. Then we got outside and we went off! The acceleration was just the same as I'd remembered it. Flinty was amazed at how fast we were going; I pulled off some drift turns down in the plains, and then we tried using a little hill as a ramp. We landed safely as usual - I guess we didn't really need to use the princess' wind magic anymore so that would save her some juice for other purposes. After we were certain that the car wasn't gonna blow up in a glorious display of arcane fury, we went back to town where the others awaited us.

  “Now,” said Flinty, “Let me show ye tha fruits of yer labors oop in the mountains - yer new poower source!”

  This was exciting, as I wasn’t actually present for this part of the process; that had been more Sylfaena and Nenewyn’s department. Flinty opened my former fuel tank. I saw that instead of a gas cap there was now a chamber with a blue crystal cylinder set into it. The dwarf unhitched two latches, pulled the cylinder out, and presented it to me. It hummed a little and glowed with a pale light. The refined version of the manacite we gathered from that mine, buckets of magical energy just sitting in the palm of my hand.

  I said, "So how many miles can I go before I need to replace it?”

  "I cannae say fer certain, but, it isnae like it’l disintegrate or anything. Yer frien's here kin charge it oop with their own mana, or ye can wait aroond for the ambient mana to joost trickle in. All the same, I left ye with four moor of 'em in case ye cannae afford to sit aroond and charge it oop. Ach almost forgoot - yer fuel gauge thingy is now fully converted to measure the amoont of mana left in the crystal. Well, I'm satisfied with me work - I wanted tae thank ye all fer givin' me this ooportunity!"

  We all gave Flinty our thanks and, after grabbing a bite, we sped away back to Caer Caradon!