Metal mage 5, p.16
Metal Mage 5, page 16
Cayla called out to me from where she stood beside Bobbie. “What is it?” she asked curiously.
I turned to bring the dagger over to the women as I studied the metalwork, but when I flipped it over in my palm, I slowed to a stop.
Aurora came to my side. “Is that one of those blades like Onym carries?” she asked incredulously.
I nodded, and then I lifted the hilt toward the half-elf. “Look at the base,” I said. Then I tipped it so the sunlight would catch on the small etching I’d found in the silver.
Aurora squinted for a moment before her emerald eyes popped wide. “It’s a rune,” she murmured as she gently ran her finger over the strange shape.
At first glance it looked like nothing but an imperfection in the metal, but it actually had a distinct shape that resembled a letter K with a crooked spine. There were no other etchings anywhere in the metal, and I dragged my eyes all across the sheer blade once more, but I found nothing else on the surface.
“Do you think all of those have runes on them?” Shoshanne asked when she joined us.
I shrugged. “No idea,” I replied, “but that might explain why they’re so sought after. Rhys took a boot to the face for one, and I’m pretty sure an elf got jumped outside Rhoemir this morning for the same reason.”
I held the blade out to Aurora with a grin, and the half-elf’s eyes sparked.
“Really?” she asked eagerly.
“You know the protocol,” I chuckled.
Aurora practically glowed as she took the dagger in her hand. Then she turned it over to admire the sheen of the strange blade before she carefully slid it into the empty sheath on her waist.
Once it was in place, the half-elf looked up at us with a giant grin. “They’re going to hate this.”
“Yeah they are,” I sighed, and I rubbed the back of my neck as I considered the ambush we’d just stepped into. “We better head north, before anyone else decides to pay us a visit.”
“Oh!” Cayla said suddenly, and she flipped around to scan the ground of the jungle. “I got one, too … ”
I laughed at the calculating look in her blue eyes and decided to give the lethal woman a hand.
As my magic sifted through the surrounding trees, it pulled a glaive with an angry hook at the tip from the back of Cayla’s elf, as well as two of the stout daggers that had flown at us. The princess grinned proudly when they drifted into her outstretched hands, and she laid a kiss on my cheek as a thank you.
Only two shuriken returned from the trees, and as they filed themselves into the case Shoshanne held open, I was glad of it. With any luck, Onym’s brother would have to rip the third disk out of his own flesh, and I grinned as I recalled the deadly notch I’d added to each point.
The sidecar was just as we’d left it when I removed the boulder I’d built up around it, and once it was reattached to Bobbie, Cayla stowed her wares amongst our other things.
I saw Stan pop his head out of her bag as she did, and he immediately eyed the new glaive.
“What do you think?” Cayla asked him with a mischievous smile.
The little metal man crawled into her palm and raised his arm for a high five.
Cayla raised her finger in return. “Thanks,” she giggled, “I think so, too.” Then she stowed Stan in her breast pocket and settled herself on Bobbie.
Shoshanne chuckled as she wound her arms around the porcelain beauty’s waist.
Then Bobbie roared to life, and Aurora and I mounted up.
Cayla tilted her chin over my shoulder.
“So, what are you going to make for the elves of House Fehryn?” she asked.
My mind was already on its own tangent with thoughts of the rune and the translucent blade, but at the princess’ words, a grin instantly spread across my face.
“Oh, they’re not the only ones getting a new toy,” I assured her before I kicked Bobbie into gear.
Chapter 11
Rhys hadn’t been kidding about the trees. We drove north of House Fehryn for only a few minutes before the dense ferns parted and revealed a small glade dotted throughout with truly silver trees.
If I hadn’t walked right up to one and gave a limb a gentle tug, I honestly would have thought a metal mage had created them out of actual silver.
The bark of the trees, if I could call it that, even had a slightly metallic sheen that reflected the green of the world around them. The trunks were slender like aspen trees and branched out elegantly at the tops with tiny oval leaves as silver as the rest of them. They clustered in tight little groupings and bobbed gently with the limbs at the slightest breeze.
The strange trees didn’t grow nearly as high as the canopy of the jungle, but they stretched well enough that their limbs could be seen above the ferns as we approached.
I’d brought Bobbie to a stop beneath the largest of them, and as I dragged my finger along the strange and slender trunk, it felt as smooth as silk. There were little grooves as thin as a splinter on the surface, and they created barely visible and delicate rings around the metallic trunk. A few silver leaves flecked the ground, and I bent down to study the similarly miniscule veins sprawled across them. They were stout but pliable to the touch, and they weighed no more than a penny.
As I walked amongst the sparse trunks, I found silver trees of varying age. Even young ones sprouted in patches of sunlight with tiny silver leaves that had barely begun to unfurl from their buds. It was like I’d walked into a ritzy gallery in the middle of the jungle, but the metallic trees clearly swayed and were as alive as any plant we’d come across.
“Incredible,” I muttered as a low-lying branch bowed gently in my grip.
The ground was covered in a soft, pale green grass, but the grass ended abruptly where the trees ended so the jungle immediately took over from where I assumed the tips of the roots ended. It looked like every wild thing that grew over every other inch of Nalnora halted at the edge of the glade of silver trees. Even the stubborn moss was nowhere to be found.
The whole place seemed to make us all quiet and slow, and we walked through the grass without saying much of anything to each other for a while. I couldn’t shake the feeling of déjà vu for some reason, but the air and the quiet look of the place was otherworldly and familiar all at the same time.
It was almost comforting.
“I wonder why Rhys sent us here,” Cayla mused as she trailed a porcelain finger along a silver limb. “It feels kind of … ”
The princess trailed off, and Shoshanne came to a stop as she admired the look of it all.
“Sacred,” the Aer Mage offered.
Cayla smiled softly. “Yeah. Sacred,” she agreed. “You’d think the elves wouldn’t want to disturb it with our presence.”
Aurora furrowed her brow. “Nothing’s ever as it seems in Nalnora,” the half-elf muttered, but even she didn’t sound that concerned.
I didn’t mention the strange déjà vu I felt, but I had a strong sense we were safe here, and I turned back to Bobbie with an oddly focused mind.
Without any rock in sight to build a workshop, I decided to set up shop in the center of the glade and began to shuffle the contents of the sidecar around to get to the metal at the bottom.
The women continued to explore and admire the peculiar trees while I began to inspect my stock, and I realized Thrungrig had put some serious effort in on my behalf.
The sidecar seemed bottomless as I pulled lump after lump of metal out, and as I dug deeper, my magic started to vibrate through every fiber of my fingertips. At first it was light as usual, but it grew quickly until it was like a hunger that pulsed through my veins, and by the time I’d finished unpacking the entire stock, there was a wolfish grin on my face.
I was so lost in the feel of the various types of metal that flashed through my veins I didn’t hear Aurora walk up behind me, so when she spoke, I jolted violently and whipped around in a panic.
The half-elf’s eyebrows raised in amusement. “You alright?” she chuckled.
I rubbed my neck sheepishly. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I was kinda wrapped up in the metal. What’s up?”
The emerald eyes studied me carefully for a moment before Aurora finally responded. “You really missed it, huh?”
“I guess,” I said with a shrug. “It felt good working on those shuriken the other night, but all this metal just feels so … ” I trailed off and turned back to the trove of metals that littered the ground. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so completely overwhelmed with my magic. I shook my head to myself as I thought back further and began to wonder if I ever had. Then I turned to Aurora. “You ever feel like that? About your Ignis Magic, I mean?”
Aurora propped her hands on her slender waist and tilted her head to the side a little. “How do you mean?”
I frowned and scratched at my beard as I tried to put these sensations into words. “Just overwhelmed? Maybe it’s different with fire … but all this metal feels so … vibrant all of a sudden. Like I can feel every individual alloy and the way they balance each other out in each material, but then I can also feel the way they bind and--”
I glanced over to the half-elf, but her brows were deeply furrowed.
I sent her half a grin. “Maybe it’s different with fire,” I said again.
“Maybe … ” the half-elf said slowly. “Then again, maybe you’re just getting more in tune with your magic. Being a mage is a lot more than waving a hand and influencing an element. You grow in your power for the rest of your life, and you learn more and more as you master the various aspects of your element.”
I nodded as I considered this. “So … it’s not all bending elements to your will?”
The half-elf laughed out loud at this. “Of course not,” she assured me. “It’s not bending anything to your will. It’s joining with it.”
I cocked a brow, and Aurora slapped her hand to her forehead. “Gods, Mason. Have you just been bossing your elements around this whole time?”
I had a feeling I knew what answer she was looking for, but I could only smile awkwardly. “Well … ”
“Oookay,” she said with a sigh before she shook from her head to her toes. When she lifted her emerald eyes to me again, I could tell she tried so hard not to look too patronizing. “Let’s take a few steps back then, shall we?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “I think we’re a little beyond the basics at this point.”
“Clearly not,” she chuckled. “Now, for starters, you probably know all of this, you just haven’t been paying attention to it in the right way. Close your eyes.”
I cocked a brow, but when the half-elf only narrowed her own, I did as I was told.
Aurora let out a slight huff. “Okay,” she began. “So, let’s use the metal for this. Send your magic out around you and focus on only one of the metals.”
I furrowed my brow and tried to focus, but I honestly couldn’t. My mind immediately began to file through every piece of metal like a spider’s legs, and I was overwhelmed with miniscule imbalances and dimensions and variances between every little--
“You’re doing it wrong,” the half-elf sighed, and my train of thought derailed as my eyes flew open.
“What?” I asked hazily. Then every piece of metal dropped to the ground, and I realized I’d accidentally levitated the entire stock. “Shit. Sorry.”
Aurora rolled her eyes. “Stop doing that, you’re just bossing again.”
“I am not,” I shot back. “I’m … reading. Or measuring. Maybe I’m filing, I don’t fucking know, but I didn’t mean to do whatever that was.”
“I’m not saying you meant to, but you did. So, close your eyes and focus,” she ordered. “Listen to what I say, don’t dive headfirst. Focus on one single lump of metal. That’s all I want you to do.”
I sighed and cracked my neck before I closed my eyes once more. This time I did my best to do as Aurora told me, and I was surprised at how difficult it was. With some intense effort though, I finally managed to hone in on a single lump of steel and keep my focus trained to it. It felt like trying to cross my eyes for too long, but I gritted my teeth.
“Alright,” I muttered after a moment. “I’ve got it.”
“Good,” Aurora replied. “Now, don’t try to move it or change it, just let it fill you up. Don’t read it, just feel it.”
“What do you mean just fee--”
The half-elf shushed me loudly, and I resisted the urge to open my eyes.
“Don’t read anything about the metal,” Aurora said again, and her voice was low and steady as it lulled me deeper into my power. “Let it take over you for a minute. Let it vibrate through your veins, but whatever you do, don’t react. It’s like slipping into water.”
I realized how tense my shoulders were as she spoke, and I took a deep breath as I did my best to relax into it. It was nearly impossible not to react to the sensation. The feel of the metal twinged all through my limbs in a pleasurable sort of pain, and I wanted to mold it and move it so badly I realized I practically couldn’t resist the temptation.
I was instantly irritated at the thought, and I ground my teeth as I forced myself to reign it in. I breathed more deeply instead, and I let the metal pulse through my veins as I ignored every reflex and inclination that warred within me.
Aurora didn’t speak for a long while, but I’d begun to lose track of everything around me anyway. I forgot where I was and even forgot I was standing. I just let my mind go blank like some monk on a mountaintop, and the steel slid through my mind and body like I’d opened a free-flowing tap.
I lost track of where the sensation came from after a while, and eventually, everything was the same. The air I breathed and the beat of my heart in my chest all melded together, and there was no metal there. Only me.
My eyes shot open, and my mind swirled dizzily as I realized how shallow my breathing had gotten. “Woah,” I mumbled as I rubbed my throbbing temples. My eyelids were heavy and sore, and they fell shut again against my will. “What was that?”
I heard Aurora chuckle lightly, and then her hand slid softly along my arm, and I opened my eyes. For some reason, I’d half expected to see Nemris when I looked over, but emerald eyes sparkled up at me instead.
“Exactly,” Aurora said with a smile. “You’re not really controlling your elements. You are your elements. They’re the same as you.”
I blinked. It sounded like something a martial arts sensei would say, or maybe a goddess, but it also felt incredibly true all at once, and a grin twitched at the corner of my mouth as I considered this.
“Holy shit,” I finally said, and I looked at the metal on the ground beside me. Then I looked at the ground itself. “Hoooly shit.”
I was a dual mage, but I suddenly realized I might have completely missed so much about the reality of that up to this point.
The half-elf chuckled at the look on my face. “Yes. So, stop bossing your elements around, and just be with them. You have no idea what you’re really capable of yet if you can’t do that.”
My mind rattled as I tried to grasp everything I’d just experienced, and I turned to admire my half-elf with a whole new level of appreciation. “Damn … “ I finally said. “How did you figure all of that out? I mean, for your Ignis magic. How long have you known that?”
Aurora rolled her eyes. “I figured it out by studying my ass off when I got to the Order,” she said as she crossed her arms. “I guess it was probably around my second year that I really caught on.”
“Huh.” I thought this over. “So … what you’re saying is, I’m still technically ahead of the game.”
The half-elf’s eyes flashed with irritation as she threw her arms up. “Okay, see?” she said in a huff. “This is why I let you fumble and figure it out yourself. I say anything and that ego of yours just--”
Whatever she was going to say got tangled with my tongue, but she didn’t seem to mind. At least, she didn’t say anything else when I stopped kissing her. The half-elf just rolled her eyes at my broad grin, blushed, and walked off with a goofy smirk on her face.
“I love you,” I called after her as I eyed the stubborn sway of her hips.
Aurora grumbled to the silver trees, and I was pretty sure the words resembled something like, “I love you, too.”
I chuckled to myself and turned back to the hoard of metal at my feet, and a curious feeling came over me as I really took it all in. I felt kind of like a dragon with its treasure, but as soon as I hit that realization, I knew it wasn’t true. I didn’t own the metal.
Still, I didn’t reign in the grin on my face. Shit was getting too good.
So, I let myself bask for another minute or so in how epic my life had gotten since coming to this realm before I finally put my concentration in the right direction again.
I needed to pull an armory out of thin air, and even though I had a vague idea of what I needed, I didn’t have a clue about how to do it.
“Cool,” I muttered under my breath, and I rubbed my palms together as I settled myself on the grass.
Back on earth, I’d need fiberglass to make what I had in mind, and this thought hadn’t stopped occurring to me at intervals since I’d looked at the young elf’s arrows. I’d briefly considered using the wooden bows that the elves of House Fehryn owned already, but I knew they wouldn’t be accurate enough with the sort of mechanisms I wanted. I could always scrap the idea all together, of course, but I couldn’t bring myself to abandon it. It was exactly what they needed, and something told me I’d hit the nail on the head with my idea.
If I only had something sturdy enough, but ever so slightly flexible. I eyed the metal strewn in front of me, but for once the wealth of metal at my fingertips just didn’t fit the bill.
I sighed in frustration as I ran into the same wall once again. Then I glanced over to study a silver trunk beside me, and as the thought of Nemris’s starry eyes drifted through my mind again, Aurora’s words drifted with them.
I didn’t have the metal at my fingertips, I reminded myself. Apparently, if I focused properly, the metal was actually a part of my fingertips.
