Gra Gryning

Paul Kalinowski - The Prince of hell

If Poniatowski had listened to Kalinowski Poland would have remained free - Polish saying
Russians have a place in Poland, in our grave yards- Paul Kalinowski

After the first Partition a group of nationalistic Nobles looked for a way, any way to gain an edge over their enemies. Surrounded by three countries this small group of nobles were desperate. When rumors of a school of magic in the Americas arrived the decision was made. A group of children, 4th and 5th sons of nobility would be sent.

Paul Kalinowski was one of these students, he wasn't the oldest, the biggest or necessairly the smartest but he was the most motivated, the most filled with hate. He had lost a beloved relative during the 1st Partition who had died in the fighting and felt a sense of personal rage.

He worked with the other polish students, and used every connection he had to set the stage for a polish revival and his personal revenge. To this end he is credited with the now infamous Spice scandal to get seed money for his plans, he also used his connections to establish a polish embassy on Footman island, linking the nexus on the island with the Warsaw mage nexus. Kalinowski had a direct link to America and Compass.

His goal was to create an army of Magi, a cadre of over 70,000 that would bring Poland victory when war came to Poland once more. His efforts though were blunted by Polish nobles who were in Russian, Prussian and Austrian pockets.

So he took his money, invested wisely and went behind their backs, he took in serfs, orphans, Jews, and even women, and started up his own network of Magi. Together they called themselves the Midnight society, and in the shadows they cached weapons, bought ships, cannons and prepared for war.

In 1792, Kalinowski was 22 years old, he had spent time studying war, building his forces and brought out an armed force of 10,000 Magi who were willing to fight. They proved to be the single most destructive force in the war. Russia attacked Poland with 98,000 troops.

Only 48,000 of them would return home alive, Kalinowski's magi used hit and run attacks, they cut off the russian army from supplies, they burned their food, they fought in the dead of night, they used illusions to get them to attack each other. Their greatest moment was saving Warsaw from a russian siege.

If the king had kept his nerve it is possible that Poland would have remained free, but he feared Russia's raw numbers and surrendered. One of Russia's demands was that Paul Kalinowski's head would be delivered to the russians and their Magi forces disbanded and either killed or exiled. The king fearful of their influence agreed, but when his forces went to find Kalinowski he and all of his magi had vanished.

Convinced that Poland was now helpless the country was then partitioned for a second time and reduced to a rump state. In the darkness Kalowski and the Midnight society plotted eager for revenge.

In 1794 he got his wish, Tadeusz Kościuszko revolted against the king and the Midnight society rose to help him. It turns out that Kalinowski had lied about the number of magi he had trained and with his money and resources he had created a spy network, with Magi and normal soldiers working together the revolt lasted six years and proved to be one of the most bloody conflicts in Russian history.

Fearful of the new liberal Poland, Prussia and Austria joined in the conflict. Kalinowski was forced to flee to Warsaw, he was however prepared, he had spent years crafting a secret under city, crafting unparallelled magical defenses. The allied army was unable to breach Warsaw's defenses, and the city declared that they would fight on.

Outside of Warsaw Magic in poland was declared illegal, punishment would be death. Inside the city Kalinowski was able to convince the scared populace that magic was the only way Poland would survive, by government mandate everyone in the city was forced to learn magic.

When the Napoleonic wars came Warsaw was liberated and got their revenge on Russia, the country would lose 589,000 people in the war, with the wars end once again an alliance of countries drew together to contain the army of magi.

This time though Russia would be forced to contain them alone, neither Prussia nor Austria wanted to be tasked with the sheer expense of the siege, convinced that victory and vengence was close Russia took over the siege. It was 1814 and the siege would continue on to 1914.

Inside of the capital the republic of Poland was declared, the republic had only one trade partner, the United States, and what they could bring inside Poland was a trickle of goods, Kalionowski won the presidency. He improved Poland's defenses, institutied rationing, created Casinos to draw what little wealth he could from the United States.

From Warsaw he masterminded a guerilla war against Russia, a public relations war against Russia, and a war of spies against Russia. Future presidents of Poland would continue this shadow war. To this day Kalinowski remains a controversal figure.

In Poland he is a national hero, in Russia he is their great monster, and boogieman. Romanticised and demonized, the Prince of hell's influence still shapes the world to this day.

 

Ralph Essen


"Mr. Essen?"

I looked up at a man in a suit, he was thin, had dark skin and pale blond hair.

"Yes?"

"Professor Thomas Hearns, you can just call me Professor Hearns."

I got up.

"What can I do for you professor?"

He looked at me.

"It's going to take awhile before your ship is properly outfitted, and you need to get some housing."

I thought about it.

"Maybe I could borrow a dorm?"

"Those are for students, faculty and their families only, Mr. Essen."

I sighed.

"I have money for a hotel."

"We know but you're not local, I will show you around."

I followed him as we got lower into the tree.

"So what are you a Professor of?"

He smirked.

"Black history, we are a university on top of many other things."

I walked next to him into an elevator, when the door opened we continued to talk until we got to a subway station. We waited and he stared at a clock.

"So black history?"

He nodded.

"Yes."

"Um..."

The professor smiled at me.

"You're thinking of apologizing, aren't you?"

I grimaced, and he shrugged and stared at a poster for a boxing match.

"Tyson's fighting."

The professor nodded.

"I know, the black hope, I thought about going into boxing myself at one point."

"And?"

He shrugged.

"I had a black mother, education education education, I know it's a steotype but it has some basis in truth."

I looked down.

"Where do you think it all went wrong?"

He looked at me.

"You're going to have to be much more specific then that."

"Earth, the world."

The man shrugged.

"That's outside my field of study Mr. Essen."

Our car arrived and we went inside, the subway car was mostly empty, we rode on in silence. I looked at his hair.

"Slavery."

I blinked.

"What?"

"During the Antebellum Era in the South, any freed slave was forced to under go a procedure that would turn our hair blond, it's the same process used to fix-"

"Spinal injuries."

He looked at my book and nodded.

"Yes, that process permanently alters your genes, and those genes get passed on. It was a way to make it easy to see who was a slave and who was free."

"That's messed up."

The professor shrugged.

"In the modern era yes? But to a recently freed slave? Golden hair meant freedom, quite a few people gladly volunteered for the procedure, even in free states, especially after the fugative slave laws passed."

The subway car stopped and we walked out.

"So even after slavery's over it's still causing issues."

The professor nodded as we walked out.

"People at the time thought that 40 acres and a mule would fix it all, as if a plot of land and a donkey could fix the damage caused by over 200 years of slavery."

"Yeah in retrospect it does seem kind of naive."

The professor smirked.

"It had much less to do with being naive and much more to do with security and politics. The republicans had just beaten the Confederacy and their mexican allies, they needed to settle the Baha territory, and secure the Mississippi river basin. If you look where the 40 Acres came from it was in Louisiana and Baha, which then became republican strong holds."

He paused and frowned.

"There were plots outside those states but we ended up quickly losing any land we had outside of there. A plurality exchanged for two majority states, and we left in droves, the Jubilee generation going to the new promised land."

"Baha's nice."

He nodded.

"Absolutely beautiful, but for those of us outside the two states with our much reduced numbers we found outselves frozen out of most of the economy.
So we were forced to learn how to save our money, we went into money lending, which became banking, education became our salvation."

"And it didn't stop um...."

"Middle man minorities, the chinese in southeast asia, Parsis in india, and of course the jews, black america ended up fufilling that role in the south. The hated moneylender, the scheming hustler, I have a bit of rasict art from the 20s."

"Why?"

He looked up at the night sky.

"Because it's important to know your history, it's this piece of art of a black man kissing a stack of dollars."

I stared at him.

"I know, it's stupid."

I looked around and tensed up, the writing was in spanish, the professor went silent as we walked in silence, when the spanish changed to english, and I saw smiling black faces I let out a breath of air.

"You relaxed."

I cringed as he smiled.

"The media makes hispanics all look like criminals and rapists."

"And that isn't fair."

He shrugged.

"To be fair this new drug, the grieta epidemic is just destroying the community."

He chuckled.

"One time I was out late in the Barrio and I bump into this little old white lady, she looked at me in terror and then said."

He paused.

"Oh thank god it's a nigger."

We laughed awkwardly and the professor sighed.

"It's not all the outside honestly, I gave up boxing because all the other kids were saying I was acting white."

"You regret your decision?"

He shrugged.

"A part of me does, I liked boxing and I gave it up over such a stupid reason. I don't think I would have been a champion but I was good at it. I suppose there's a lesson in there somewhere."

We stopped at a massive castle.

"The Le pen hotel one of the best hotels in the city."

I cringed.

"Maybe something cheaper?"

The professor put a hand on my shoulder.

"All of it covered by the school."

"Thanks."

The professor looked me in the eye.

"Don't thank me for this son, this isn't free you signed a contract and you're going right into that nightmare world."

I sighed, the professor had a good point I followed him and let the professor do the talking. I was given a room with a window view and sat down, Compass even from a distance looked absolutely beautiful.

 

Louis Le pen

"How bad is it doc?"

I looked at the man's leg, speaking out loud.

"Wound on the leg in three places, leg was broken, were dealing with wet Gangrene, internal bleeding, and sepsis. Wer'e going to have to amputate his leg below the knee."

The screaming sailor started crying, his friends looked at me in panic.

"It's going to take about a month to regrow his leg."

The sailors sighed, and they put a piece of metal between his teeth.

"What are you doing?"

They stared at me.

"The bullet so he doesn't bite off his tongue."

"I have drugs to help him sleep."

They held him down while I grabbed a syringe. I plunged the needle into a vein and watched the sailor fall asleep. I cut open his pant leg and brought out a bonesaw, the patient slept as I cut off the leg, my hands flowed into the signs, and I sang in the high tongue.

Fresh water rose from a nearby barrel. I motioned for the water to flow into his leg, I drew the infection out of his veins, and then heated the water until it cauterized the wound. The wound was cleaned. I used a cleansing spell to removed any bacteria from my operating room. Then I went to a chest, and measured carefully.

I looked at him. 30 days, white and pink.

I put the pills into two bottles.

"The sailor?"

"Fred?"

I nodded.

"If you want his leg to grow back properly put a pink pill into normal water, wait until it glows red and then have him drink it, he also needs to swallow a white pill."

"Why?"

I looked at them.

"The pink potions allow a patient to regenerate but you can't get something from nothing, the white pills have the needed nutrition to help him survive the process. Using pink without white can do bad things like make all of his bones weaker, or make him sick or in extreme situations even death."

"Isn't this um magic."

I looked him in the eye.

"Even magic has rules and limitations, take sailing for example I assure you, your skill in that matter is infinitely better then mine."

The men visably puffed up.

"But even you have to respect the limitation of the ocean, weather and other issues. Magic is much the same way."

They nodded and brought out coins. I didn't charge too much but I did charge for my services, the men left and I started cleaning up. My home state
wasn't doing too well, before the revolution the state's economy revolved around agriculture and lumber.

The state was poor and was often bullied by Boston or Philly, who often charged large amounts of taxes. One of the reasons why Compass ended up here was because the state was too weak and poor to resist. So they did the next best thing and crafted the county of Zone as a form of protest.
It's amazing how things change in 4 years. The rest of the state may not love us but they did appreciate the money we brought into the economy. I looked at my new clock and smiled, I brought out my key and wound the clock. I walked out of my surgery room.

"Any other patients?"

The elderly man shook his head.

"No sir."

"Thank you Mr. Van Winkle."

He nodded and went back to doodling. Van Winkle swore that he had slept through the revolution after drinking an enchanted drink from some dwarves. Personally I think it was far more likely that he fled into the wilderness to escape his nagging wife, but I wasn't in a position to judge the man.

He may hate physical labor with a passion, but the man was a very good secretary and worth every cent I paid him.

"Ever thought about studying magic?"

The old man shook his head.

"I'm happy with my current job son."

"Very well. I think I'm finished for the day, we're closing up."

My secretary yawned and I walked out of the castle and looked up at the sky. Along the shore line I saw the beginning's of a community. With the graduation of the first class many of us decided to stay in Zone. If you wanted to learn more, talk to other magi and trade with them that's what you needed to be. Speaking of that I got into a boat and commanded the water to move, eventually I left my lands and got to a house that seemed to be growing out of a tree.

I smiled as I greeted the couple.

"Simon, Julia!"

I gave them a hug, it is true I lost touch with my fellow expatriots but they were good people.

"How is little George doing?"

Julia patted her belly.

"He isn't due for some time, need to buy something?"

"Starfish."

At first when we graduated pretty much all of us tried to do everything ourselves, this turned out to be a bad idea, and we learned to specialize. I concentrated on medical work and the Martins concentrated on growing and breeding reagents.

Reagents like starfish.

The price of starfish had skyrocketed in Zone, they were used in regeneration potions, in waterbreathing potions, and in a host of other substances. It was second only to Quartz in the reagent market. Julia frowned.

"I'm sorry Louis but were out."

"Surely you have some of them."

"Yes but they're oue breeding stock, if we sold them to you we wouldn't have starfish to sell in the future."

Dejected I thanked them for their time and went to the market.

"Starfish?"

Store after store said no. I sighed as the sky went dark, I sailed home and looked at my tiny stock of starfish, sure lizard could do the same thing but the regenration it provided wasn't as good and it took longer to make. I pulled out my mirror.

"Andrea."

"Louis."

I smiled at her.

"You're looking as beautiful as ever."

She blushed.

"Trying to seduce me?"

I smirked.

"Of course, is it working?"

"4 out of 10."

"My lady wounds me."

She stuck out her toungue and we laughed.

"So did you get more starfish?"

I sighed.

"Everyone's out again."

Andrea smiled warmly.

"Eventually there will be more."

"But my patients...."

"Will understand, don't beat yourself up my love, you're doing good things."

I sighed.

"How did I get so lucky as to get you?"

She smiled her eyes full of miscift.

"You went on a quest to earn my love and my hand."

"Oh right."

She giggled.

"I'm glad to talk to you, things here are getting worse."

I blinked.

"Worse?"

"Taxes have gone up, the estates general has been called, it's pretty bad right now."

"Oh."

"Father is worried about us."

"I'm sure Monsieur Chabot will be fine."

Andrea looked at me with concern.

"I, I think father is right, it's not safe here anymore."

"What happened?"

Andrea looked away.

"I, I don't want to talk about it, I'd much rather talk about magic, and trees and wonders then things like this."

I smiled and told her stories of my medical work, Andrea's face smile and I watched her worries vanish. I treasured these moments.

 

Ralph Essen


It was raining, I was at the lobby eating some eggs and toast, I preferred to keep things safe.

"What part are you at?"

I looked up from my book at the woman in question, her eyes were a golden yellow, her hair was pink, she had brown skin, and a figure that was stunning. I looked up calmly, the pub slub deduction if a pretty girl comes up to talk to you she has an ulterior motive.

"He's just doing medical stuff right now, it's pretty boring slice of life stuff."

She looked at me as if studying me.

"Wizard, spring Magi."

Her accent was polish, explained a couple things.

"Pink hair, yellow eyes, brown skin, your mother was a homunculus or your grandmother."

She frowned.

"Mother."

The silence was awkward, but I ignored it and continued to eating my oatmeal.

"How did you know?"

"Making a homunculus is illegal pretty much everywhere except Poland, but all homunculi have white skin albino, alabaster white, if it was made."
"She, He, not it. They're people, not things"

There was anger in her voice I repeated myself.

"Making a homunculus is illegal pretty much everywhere except Poland, but all homunculi have white skin.either alabaster white,like an albino, or they were made by a winter magi who knew what they were doing you get a normal white, but no one has ever been able to crack pigmentation so that means your father was human, don't know the ethnicity."

"Never met him."

I shrugged.

"Point made, pink hair though is not found in nature neither is purple, if you had blue or green hair it could just be the case that you had a nasty accident or one of your ancestors had one, but pink, purple, orange, colors not found in nature? That means homunculi. Also you're way too pretty, general rule of thumb if it looks too good to be true it is."

I paused.

"Your kind of looks? Magic, plastic surgery, an alchemical regiement, or you have a homunculi parent or relative, someone specced for beauty. Am I right?"

She frowned.

"I didn't ask to be born, I didn't ask to be a freak."

I stared at her making a point to maintain eye contact.

"What do you want?"

She frowned.

"I just wanted to talk about a book."

I didn't trust that.

"What do you really want to talk about?"

"Just a book."

She pulled up the sleeve of a business suit, I touched her arm scanning it, I touched her arm, scanning it. Ward. nasty one, used invisible ink.Goddamned.

"Really, a book."

I wrote a message on my napkin.

(You want that removed?)

"I like literature."

She sat down and nodded her head.

"But that's not all of it, is it?"

(Let me guess, pimp?)

She nodded, this was illegal, massively illegal Poland may have legal Homunculi but they had strict rules against sex slavery.

"Books are nice, they let a girl get away from it all, if you want I can keep you company."

"How much would this company cost?"

"50 dollars, I'm good company."

(This will hurt a lot, you understand?)

She nodded.

(It will take a couple hours, is the Pimp listening in?)

She nodded again.

"Maybe 3 hours? It's only couple thousand dollars Im worth your time trust me"

Her voice was sultry and I nodded back.

"Fine, I'm in."

We walked together to my room, I wrote down a message.

(Take off your shirt, and lay on your back.)

"I'm ready."

She laid down and started moaning, I went to my suitcase and brought out some markers. She had arrays on her upper thighs, both arms and her back, nasty stuff, stuff that could kill you. The arrays allowed the owner to torture, kill, and track the target. All of it was blatantly illegal, some of this stuff was a capital offence.

However it was also an amateur effort, and because the array was covert it was also more vulnerable. I drew arrays to the sides of the ones on her arms, the back of her legs and the one on her back.

(Bite the pillow.)

She winced and screamed in pain as I activated my runes, I didn't bother working against the magic itself instead I worked against the ink. She howled with pain as the ink was erased, I tried to manage some of the backlash but it wasn't possible.

She sat there crying and I went to the phone.

"Police, I have an incident to report."

The conversation was too long. I reinforced the door just in case and prepared for a fight, when the knock came and the officers arrived I sighed in relief, I opened the doors and two men in roman legionaries outfits walked in.

"Officer Sands, and Officer Rameriz."

They looked at the still crying girl.

"You took off the arrays?"

I nodded at officer Sands.

"Good work, we will take it from here."

I left as quickly as I could, this was something big and nasty, and I didn't want to deal with the Kielbasa Posse. When I got to the ground floor I heard
gunfire.

"Fuck."

I looked up, 2 armed men, guns were off the shelf AKs, now I knew I wasn't dealing with the Kielbasa Posse, I was dealing with the Russians. The patrons of the restaurant looked up and stared calmly at the men with the guns.

"Everyone do-"

Lighting, stone, and water rose almost as one, the men got off a few shots but in return they were obliterated, when the cops got down one of the men was still screaming.

"Sands! We have a live one."

He went to the russian on the ground.

"Tell us who your working for and we can save your life."

"Fuck...you."

Suddenly his mouth foamed and his eyes went blank, the officer brought out a radio.

"Dispatch? We have a problem."

I sighed, I had heard about those pills in the movies but I didn't think any one would actually use them, but given that his options were at best deportation to back to earth or being held by the angolans I understood.

"Ok everyone, building is on complete lockdown."

I sat down and brought out my book, this was going to take awhile.

 

Ralph Essen


"So what is this about?"

It was of course too much to ask that I be allowed to read in peace. Honestly I give this hotel 2 stars, sure the food was ok, and I got enough sleep but getting shot at automatically lowers your score.

"Russians."

The man in the cheap tan suit sighed.

"Should have known."

I looked at him.

"What?"

He sighed.

"What do you think happened to all the russian diplomats? All the spies, their entire foreign service after the exchange? They didn't just die, no they scattered like rats, and they became the russian mob. So what did they do this time?"

"Prostitution, sex slavery, blackmail they used magic, highly illegal shit."

The man looked at me.

"Damn, its like their just begging to be sent back home to earth."

He leaned back.

"There was a vote you know, to kick the ruskies out of the UN."

"And?"

"It passed, India just got their old seat on the security council, the diplomat publically burned the former diplomats chair."

"I thought Brazil wanted it?"

"India has more people, a larger economy, and there are what 20 thousand, maybe fewer surviving pakistanis to protest the decision, if that. They have bigger problems now, everyone on Earth has bigger problems."

"Any other news?"

"Tibet was pretty much untouched by the bombs and remote enough that they mostly survived intact, Merlin's moving their cities to around Neptune, the Sikhs petitioned Merlin for help moving their cities to another world, to start a homeland of their own."

"And India and China are ok with this?"

He sighed.

"Both of them have decided it's just easier to have a peaceful divorce, and anyways there's like what, 2 million tibetians? and 15 million Sikhs."

"What does Merlin get in exchange?"

The man sighed.

"Same deal he gave New Israel, professors and security guards, personal and to look after his school."

I stared forward, the old bird was preparing for the end.

"Wonder why he's doing that?"

"War shakes people up. The old bird probably took the exchange hard."

The man shrugged.

"Meh it's Merlin, old bird's invincible. It's bad now but 200 years from now he will be teaching our kids all about what fuck ups we were."

I felt a sense of guilt, he was dying. A world without Merlin, how would we deal with that? Far as anyone remembered he had always been alive, would always be here.

"Mr. Essen."

I looked up at a police officer with his armor.

"You gave your deposition, your part in our investigation is over."

I got up and left the dinning hall and went outside, when I did so I saw the woman from before, she had been covered up with a towel, she looked at me and nodded and went away in a police car.

"Her name's Marie."

I blinked and turned over and saw an officer with folded arms.

"She was from Krakow Poland, tourist, her mother was-"

"A homunculus."

"Yes, she said she came here looking for her biological father."

"And?"

"The officer took off his helmet and brought out a cigarette, his hands shook as he lit it.

"Apparently I'm a father."

His hair was a curly black, his face was lined with worry, and his head was shaved exposing black skin, he had thoughtful brown eyes that looked exhausted.

"I owe you one for getting my daughter out of that, that mess."

"You believe her?"

"She had a photo, it-"

The man took a breath.

"I was in college, went over there as an exchange student, we fell in love but then she ended things. If I had known..."

He took a breath.

"She could have told me, I would have been there for her."

"Married?"

The man shook his head.

"I went into the force and there just wasn't any time, if I had made different choices... I don't know."

He sat down and motioned for me to follow him, I did so. The officer stared ahead of him his eyes unfocused.

"So the men."

"Janitors at a Russian embassy, fled after the exchange. We're going after them, it's personal now, real personal."

He looked at me.

"Thanks for helping my girl out, she's had a rough couple months, she's going to need a lot of therapy after what happened. Not a lot of people would take that risk Essen, thank you."

I nodded.

"She did say you were rude."

"I spent 20 years in the Navy."

The officer laughed.

"Yeah that would do it, wouldn't it, you navy boys are rough round the edges but maybe that's what my girl needed thanks."

I looked at my watch.

"I have an appointment in Compass with the old bird."

The cop nodded.

"Officer Jacob Brown, thanks for everything."

With words exchanged I left. I waited for the ferry, which took too long and then waited at the school docks. The old bird greeted me, his breath heaving, he was wheezing.

"You ok?"

"Went... to Tibet....moved another town."

"Is that um...."

"Not... safe... .but...that's not really... my concern."

He looked at me, a servitor gave me a box.

"A writ of passage, can be used as a passport, don't abuse it."

I saluted him.

"Thanks."

With that done my eyes widened as I stared at my boat.

"It's different."

"Put in a lot of enchantments, this girl's made to travel through the lines, I wish you a good journey Mr. Essen."

I stood ramrod straight and saluted him again.

"Thank you Sir, it's been an honor."

"We...need....to...refuel it....also some one wants to talk...to you."

I walked next to the boat and sat on a box waiting for my chance to set sail into the future."

 

Louis Le pen



I made a point of travelling back to Compass. Working in the medical field proved to me that I needed to learn more. As the great tree's glow vanished with the rising sun I saw sailors eating at the makeshift docks as servitors loaded and unloaded goods from their ships.

The experienced ones had bored looks on their faces as the fuzzy tentacled servitors floated and moved things in silence, the inexperenced ones looked worried and scared. I calmly walked on the water back to the great tree, some of the younger ones got up startled, one brought out a sword, an older grizzled sailor sighed.

"Put that down boy."

"It's witchcraft and deviltry."

The old sailor looked at the young man like he was a fool.

"It's a school of magic, ever listen to a fairy tale boy? The old ones? With the kindly ones the actual fairies, well we broke bread with them, when you took that first bite that meant you were protected by the rites of hospitality. You use that sword and you put not only yourself at risk but the whole bloody crew."

The young sailor put his sword away as the other sailors glared at him.

"Plus this is the first decent meal we have had in weeks, don't ruin this for everyone."

The man looked at me sheepishly.

"Sorry."

I shrugged.

"No offense taken."

The older sailors continued their meals as I walked passed them, the younger ones looked at me nervously, I went into the tree, I saw a line off to the side.

"Showers? What's a bloody shower?"

A sailor looked at him.

"A chance to get cleaned, you get soap, a towel and you get to control the water as you scrub away the grime, don't worry we will get our chance soon."

I walked past sailors sitting down at tables, eating various breakfast meals. I noticed some sailors eating something I didn't recognize. Little rings covered in frosting and decorations.

"What's that?"

The sailor looked up at me and smiled with a dutch accent.

"A donut, a traditional dutch treat, the old bird heard of them but he couldn't get the recipe so he guessed."

He took a bite.

"Maybe we should give him the recipe then."

The sailors looked at me as one and glared, the dutchman frowned.

"Don't."

"But it isn't well um correct."

"There are exactly two recipes that we have all agreed that Merlin must never get, the actual recipe for Donuts and Ketchup."

I blinked as he brought out a red bottle.

"That's ketchup? It looks completely wrong."

"Tomato Ketchup."

Tomatoes, you used mushrooms in ketchup, or fish parts or- He poured some out for me and cut up a slice of sausage then offered me a bite. I chewed the ketchup covered sausage and looked at the dutchman.

"I understand."

"He has cookbooks, we know how to make it and the donuts in case someone ruins this for us, you're not going to ruin this for us, will you?"

I shook my head.

"No, sir."

The dutchman took another bite of his donut and smiled.

"Jelly filled, I love jelly filled."

I left them and took an elevator up to the library. I showed my Compass alumni ring to a servitor and walked into the huge expansive library. Merlin bought books, lots and lots of books, I saw servitors hard at work translating texts from all over the world and sat down.

I filled out a request form and went to the study, there were other people there, students, alumni, locals, tourists and people in the military. It was pretty easy to tell who was who with a glance. There had been talks and a new fort had been built recently with the help of magi near the river entrance on our side of the border with Maine.

I picked up a newspaper and smiled, the new constitution had passed, there were some concessions, a bill of rights had to be passed. I frowned when I saw that the attempt to ban slavery failed, as did the 3/5ths compromise, but I noted that a sunset clause had been put in.

Every one born after 1850 would be born free, this frustrated me, the South gained extra votes for essentially free. 1850 was more then 50 years away. I took a breath and tried to steady my nerves, at least it would end, and I had heard people say that that horrid little institution would die a natural death in time.

I thought about it critically. I saw that Monsieur Hamilton's reforms had gone through and...

"Debt repayed?"

A golem sat across from me.

"Yes."

"Headmaster, I'm-"

"It's ok, this is a place of learning."

I looked at him.

"I thought the country was broke."

The golem shrugged.

"It is."

"But how?"

"Have you ever heard of Aluminium?"

I shook my head.

"It's not common on Earth you know, and what little you can find is difficult to process, but the galaxy is a very big place and there are places I visited where it was as plentiful as iron is on Earth."

I stared at him.

"You payed off the national debt?"

He nodded.

"I needed all the nations debts consolidated into one coherent whole, then I used up well pretty much my entire stock of Aluminium."

I looked at him.

"What do you get sir?"

Merlin looked up.

"A simplified tax structurer hard coded as an official treaty, 10 percent of the schools income to the federal government, 10 percent to the state, and the county of Zone is now officially also the city of Zone which means instead of Porstmouth and the other villages fighting over who I pay taxes to they now have to share it all."

I gulped.

"Anything else?"

"Water rights, an expansion of my land in the great bay, and the federal government is going to use something I developed."

He brought out a bill.

"Behold the new dollar."

It was green, he gave it to me and it felt odd.

"It feels weird."

"Because it's not made with paper, it's made with rags, now put it somewhere dark."

I did so and watched the bill glow a dull green.

"It glows in the dark."

The golem nodded and he brought out a candle.

"Burn it."

"Sir, it's money."

"Burn it."

I put the bill over the flame and blinked.

"Alchemical ingredients sourced from Compass, the bills are fireproof, and glow in the dark."

I stared at the bill.

"Incredible."

"I have a feeling that the new dollars will be much harder to counterfeit, don't you Louis?"

I smiled and nodded, the future seemed to be a little brighter and a little more secure.

 

Louis Le pen


Monsieur Burr, no Mr. Burr, I needed to think like an American.

"I have bad news."

The couple looked at me.

"What is it?"

Mr. Burr's voice was controlled, but I could sense his heart beating faster, sense the increase of sweat and sense his fear and panic. Some days it was harder to be a magi then others, being able sense a person's mood like this felt like an invasion of privacy. Most of the time I was able to keepthose senses in check, but that was always harder when it was someone I knew.

Without Mr. Burr's help I would not be a wealthy man. I owed him quite a bit and a part of me pitied the man. Behind that brave facade was pain, and fear.

"Cancer, stomach cancer to be exact."

Burr's eyes opened in horror for a moment before his control returned, his wife squeezed his hand.

"Please tell me you can fix this, cure this."

I took a breath.

"We caught it early, we are very lucky, we can cut out the cancer filled cells, give your wife a potion to help regenerate the lost tissue."

He sighed.

"Good."

"But that won't be the end of it."

Burr looked at me.

"What do you mean?"

His voice was cold.

"Cancer."

I grimaced.

"It's not like bacteria or a virus, with those I can fight them directly, cancer isn't like that."

"Why not?"

How to put this nicely.

"Viruses and bacteria are not a part of your body, they're little microscopic invaders."

Burr's other hand gripped his chair.

"I have seen those horrid things under a Merlin microscope, then I looked for them under the microscopes not built by him. I am well aware of what they are, why can't you just fight them?"

"Because Cancer is caused by your own cells turning against you. Like I said we got lucky, the amount of cancer in your wife's belly is about the size of a
small tumble, but it grows, corrupting more of your body until it kills you slowly and painfully."

I grit my teeth.

"Cancer can come back at any time and because this happened at a young age it will most likely happen again."

"There has to be a way to cure it forever."

I really wanted it to be otherwise.

"I'm sorry, but this is all we can do, cut out the cancer when we see it, regenerate the lost tissue and hope it doesn't come back."

I tried to think of a way to help.

"Maybe you should think about moving."

Theodosia looked upset.

"Our life is in New York."

I turned towards her.

"The only place in the world right now that has the people with the ability to see if your cancer has come back is here in Zone, the only place where people have the ability to effectively treat it is here in Zone. If you choose to live in New York, I don't know if anyone will be able to help you."

"We can convince someone to move or train or-"

I looked at the woman.

"And where would he get the equipment? Where would he get the reagents? The problem right now and the one we're all learning the hard way, is that we can't do everything on our own."

And wasn't that a pain to find out.

"Our numbers right now are too small, the reagent market is too limited, As an art, as a science, as an industry, as a community we're only 4 years old
Madame Burr."

The two of them looked at each other.

"Can you fix her?"

I nodded.

"Yes, do you want to get this taken care of right away?"

They stared at me.

"Right."

I walked them into the operating room and I washed my hands, and then cleansed them. I sighed at the limited amount of painkillers, my needles were pretty much all in strong disenfectants. I took out a clean one and looked over the math, double checking i.

"Madame Burr, please lie on the operating table. Mr. Burr please do not interfere."

He nodded.

"I understand."

I took my supplies out and put a needle against her arm. I pressed the plunger and waited for Theodosia to fall asleep. Then I lifted her shirt, I disinfected
her belly with a alchohol covered wipe and then summoned some water. I carefully cut her lower abdomen open. I searched for the bit of intestine that was damaged, then I carefully used my control over water to slowly cut way the cancer infected portion of her stomach. The little bit of white infection was placed on a metal tray.

Then I brought out a potion of regeneration. I made sure to direct the red liquid to the affected areas, then I put everything back in place. I put the skin back and used the red liquid to seal everything back up, there wouldn't be any scarring.

"Done."

Burr stared at me in awe.

"Done?"

"The cancer is on the tray, please make sure to keep having a mage check up on her, Cancer isn't a joke."

"But it was so easy for you."

"Because we caught it early Sir, if you had wasted time it would have been much, much worse."

The man looked at me and dipped his head.

"Thank you, she's everything to me, if there is anything I can do."

I looked at him.

"Starfish."

He blinked.

"What?"

"Starfish, everyone is running out of starfish, if you could spread word that we need more, that we're willing to pay that would help."

"Starfish."

"It's one of the most useful reagents out there, there simply isn't enough of it,. We need more quartz too if anyone is looking to make money."

Mr. Burr nodded.

"I know a few people, they could help."

I bowed.

"Then that is it, I wish you the best."

Burr nodded and smiled.

"Some day when I'm a senator I will remember what Zone did for me, what it can do for America. I won't forget you."

I decided that I liked the man, even if he was a bit on the quiet side.

 

Louis Le pen



"You wanted to visit me, yes?"

We were in a different room, something I had grown to call the star room.

"Um yes, I guess I just wanted to know more about your people, the phoenix."

He took in a deep breath, looking at glowing images, paintings in the air.

"I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Isn't the whole point of this school to preserve what's left of your people?"

Merlin closed his glowing golden eyes.

"My relationship with my people is, complicated. I love them, I hate them, I see both our glories and our mistakes."

He opened his eyes.

"This school this ship is a testament to our failure Louis, the last vestage of a people too arrogant and lazy to save themselves, it is a lesson learned too
late."

His voice was solemn.

"The future does not belong to us Louis, it belongs to humanity."

A set of claws were outside his wings, I noticed extra legs, no arms with five talons.

"Um."

"My arms are normally covered by my wings, the phoenix had 6 limbs not 4."

He was tapping on something.

"What are you working on?"

His eyes were unfocused.

"Your inheritance, I..."

He took a deep breath and I heard pain in his voice.

"I won't let what happened to us happen to humanity. I had a million years in this ship, I wasn't idle, but the work is unfinished."

He continued tapping.

"Ok can you talk at the same time?"

"Of course, with Compass I can handle over a million seperate lines of thought."

I took a breath.

"What did your people worship?"

Merlin froze.

"I am a very bad person to ask about spiritual matters Louis, if you have questions about god go ask a priest. Your god or gods have served you well, don't abandon them for a passing fancy."

"It would be easier for me to understand you if I did."

Merlin shook his head.

"Math."

I blinked.

"What?"

"The Phoenix, my people were monothesists, we believed in one god, and we believed that there was a grand calculation and that if we solved it we be able to be close to god. Our prayers were equations, our priests mathematicians, math was everything to us."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"When we discovered Algebra we had a 200 year war that killed over 30 million people over it."

I froze.

"Please do not assume that the Phoenix were wiser then you, that we knew everything. We didn't and I don't. I want the best for humanity, I know exactly how rare and precious life is from personal experience."

"So did your people believe in heaven?"

The headmaster's eyes were thoughtful.

"We believed in good and suffering, that if you brought more good into the world then suffering then the great equation would allow you to go into paradise, that if you brought more suffering then good then you would be punished."

Merlin looked up at the ceiling, the words vanished replaced of an image of a pink and green world, of the phoenix homeworld, the home to his lost race.

"Do you think that you will go into heaven?"

His voice sounded lost.

"I do not know, I have killed people during the revolution. Those people had families and loved ones, some people will misuse the skills I taught them, maybe I'm making everything worse, maybe it's arrogant to think that humanity needs my help. Maybe I'm making things worse, I don't know."

His voice was hollow and haunted.

"Or maybe I'm making the universe a better place, maybe I will succeed and humanity will find its proper place in the universe."

I looked at him.

"And what is our place?"

He looked at me.

"Dancing amongst the stars."

An image of the galaxy formed, we watched it for awhile, soothed by it.

"No one really knows what will happen when it's all over, some day though I too will be judged for my actions. Am I doing the right thing Louis? I do not know, but I am trying and I suppose thats all I can do."

I nodded.

"Thanks for talking to me Merlin."

The screens returned.

"Maybe I should print out a translation of our history some day."

Merlin chuckled.

"Nah, who would bother reading it?"

He continued tapping on those glowing portraits, working on some unfathomable plan and I smiled.

"Take care sir."

I walked away feeling somehow more secure, no one seemed to really know what was going on, all we could do was our best and for me that was good enough.

 

Louis Le pen


Andrea's face looked scared.

"Andrea what happened?"

She took a deep breath.

"There was an incident, a bad one."

Her face was dark and shadowed.

"What kind of incident?"

She took a deep breath.

"There was a protest, it ended badly."

I stared at the mirror, a part of me didn't think it was possible that anything would happen in my small boring hometown.

"How badly?"

"Father tried to calm things down but..."

She grimaced.

"The night watch commander though."

She grimaced.

"He ordered them to disperse, and then he fired into the crowd."

Her voice was empty.

"Some people died, men, women, a couple children, people are really angry here and I keep hearing from uncle that it's even worse in the capital."

I looked away from the mirror.

"The americans paid off the debt so things should be fine now right?"

Andrea shook her head.

"That helps us pay off our debts but things have gotten bad, the price of bread keeps going up and there are shortages, it's been getting worse and the queen's parties haven't been making the mood better."

Andrea looked at me.

"Father is worried, I, I think you should come back here and get me."

I blinked at her, surely it wasn't that bad.

"It's a little early isn't it?"

Andrea looked at me with emploring eyes.

"Louis, it isn't safe here, not anymore, the people are angry and desperate. The nightwatch is getting meaner and crueler, this town is a bomb ready to go
off."

She looked at me.

"Can I talk to your father about this?"

She closed her eyes and sighed and got up the mirror went dark. I heard a knock on a door and saw my former master in his night cloths, then I saw the ceiling, the image changed and I saw Monsieur Chabot.

"We're taking this into my office, sorry."

The mirror went dark and I watched as a candle was lit, the face of Monsieur Chabot look at me with tired eyes. I saw how bloodshot they were, the lines
of worry.

"Andrea told you about the incident?"

I nodded, and he looked up at the sky.

"The man who commanded that action is in custody and is going to trial."

I thought about it.

"That's good news right?"

"I need you to get here and pick up Andrea before that trial is over."

I stared at him, wondering just for a moment if it was just nerves or a real problem.

"Why?"

"Because I know for a fact that he will cleared when the trial is finished, and when that moment happens our town will riot and Andrea will not be safe."

I looked at him.

"Sir."

"Jacque is out of town, learning how to be a man of arms, He's safe, or as safe as I can make him. Andrea isn't safe."

"But she isn't 16 yet and-"

"Louis."

He took a breath.

"You're a good boy, no, no a good man, I trust you to do right by my girl. Please, just get her out of here, take her to America where it is safe."

I took a breath.

"The next ship to France is in three days."

"Then please get on that ship while you still can, and thank you Louis for everything."

He pressed the run and the mirror returned to normal. I looked out of my window and at the water.

"Mr. Winkle, cancel my apointments, I have things to settle."

For Andrea? I would do anything.

"What kind of things?"

"An issue in France."

I made a promise to steal her away and I firmly planned on keeping it, and if this wasn't a real problem then it would be nice to see her again.

 

Louis Le pen


I paced back and forth on the ship.

Initially I thought that Andrea was just feeling nervous, anxious, that she just needed me to comfort her. I thought that things would just blow over. There had been incidents before, protests gone wrong, mostly in other towns and they all blew over in the past.

Or at least I thought so, but Andrea thought that things were different this time, that the mood was more toxic. France had lost a lot of ships in the last war with the british, a good portion of our fleet had the misfortune of running into a hurricane, rebuilding a navy was expensive. There also conflicts and border skirmishes, and rumors of huge parties being held in the capital by the queen.

I didn't want to believe it, didn't want to believe that my mother could be in danger, that my Andrea could be in danger, that the Chabots would be in danger, but Andrea kept me informed and she showed me the mood of our small town and it was ugly.

I took a breath. It was raining, I didn't mind the rain, being surrounded by my element, by my power was soothing, it was reassuring and if I didn't want to get wet then it wouldn't affect me. I looked at the captain, he looked back at me with a look of apprehension.

I had used my magic to get the ship to France faster, volunteered my time to help any sailors with medical issues but I wasn't entirely trusted. I found that the crew was uneasy around me, I ignored that and brought out a small sack of gold coins.

"I'm going to land. I need you to remain outside the docks, if there's trouble this is the payment to go a little bit out of your way to another safer location."

The Captan took the bag brought out a coin and bit it and nodded.

"Aye boy, consider it done."

I blinked.

"I expected more um..."

He looked at me.

"You told us that you were worried about a riot, I'd rather not risk my ship, my men or my life going somewhere dangerous, if I can avoid danger and get paid for it at the same time? I'm not going to say no."

I could not fault that logic, I snapped my fingers and my trusty magic carpet leapt off my back, and landed unfurled at my feet. I stepped on it and rose
into the air. I brought out my mirror.

"Andrea?"

Her paniced face looked at mine.

"He was declared innocent, father is trying to get everyone out of town. I-"

"Head towards the window near the roof, I'm flying in."

She took a breath.

"Thank you."

I poured in mana, willing my faithful carpet to go faster. I heard yelling screaming and sped towards the largest house in my small hometown, there I saw a mob of men and women marching forward, they did not see me, whether it was because of the rain or the fact that people rarely looked up was immaterial,, what mattered was that I was unseen.

I smiled when I got to the window, Andrea, my mother and the Chabots were waiting for me, Master Chabot looked at me.

"How many people can that carpet hold?"

"Two at a time sir."

The man took a breath.

"I'm going to lock and bar the doors, get the women to safety."

I nodded.

"Yes sir."

He put his hand on my shoulder.

"Keep my wife and daughter safe."

He took out a sword and opened the door lock.

"Mother?"

She looked at me.

"Save Andrea first?"

Andrea shook as she got on my carpet I held her close to me as we sped off, she she started crying in the rain.

"It's all gone so wrong."

I patted her on the back and then landed on the ship, I looked at her beautifully drenched in the rain.

"I'm going back."

I left her on the ship and flew towards the town, the mob was getting closer to the house I looked at the two remaining women.

"Save your mother."

I blinked, Mrs. Chabot had never struck me as a brave woman but she looked at me defiantly.

"This is an order Louis, save your mother."

My mother nodded and got on my carpet we flew back to the ship, my mother held me tight.

"Thank Jesus you came back in time."

"I'm glad I'm here too."

"Thank Mother Mary we sent you to that school."

We landed on the ship and I looked at her.

"I need to go back."

She nodded and Andrea looked at me.

"Please save my mother."

I nodded and sped up, willing my power into my carpet, when I got to the house I saw the mob banging on the gates outside the house, I looked at Mrs.
Chabot.

"We need to leave now."

She got on my carpet without argument and was silent as we sped towards the ship, with her off I looked at the women.

"I am going back for Monsieur Chabot."

"Louis it's too dangerous."

I looked at my mother.

"I am a wizard mother, a proud graduate of Compass academy of magic, I studied under Merlin himself, this is my duty."

I stepped hard on my carpet and flew back to my hometown. I saw damage, I saw looting and I saw battles between the enraged mob and the guard, and
under the sheer weight of numbers the guard was losing, when I got to the Chabot's estate I saw the mob again.

Mr. Chabot's face was defiant as they dragged him to the nearest tree. I saw the rope being tossed over a branch, I rushed foward, my hands moving as quickly as possible and I guided a lance of ice at the branch that was going to be used to hang Mr. Chabot. As I sped forward I sighed in relief as the branch was demolished by my attack. The crowd froze and my hands moved once again.

I wasn't content to use my normal elemental range not when someone's life was at stake. I pulled hard, using every ounce of mana in my bracelets, draining the quarts of all their power. The rain formed into hard rocks of ice, of snow and I sent a swirling maelstrom around Mr. Chabot. I watched as the mob was forcibly removed as they stood there in shock as the vortex of swirling ice protected their victim.
I landed on the ground.

"Louis, I told you to get to safety."

"Get on the carpet sir."

"But."

"That was not a request, your daughter deserves to have her father there at her wedding."

He looked at me and chuckled, my hands continued moving and I stared at the mob, they looked at me and my power.

"Leave."

They scattered and the two of us rose up into the air and flew towards the ship. Mr. Chabots hands shook, but he didn't scream or show any visible signs of fear.

"Thank you Louis."

We landed on the ship and the captain looked at me.

"That everyone witch boy?"

I nodded, he looked at the sailors.

"Well I don't know about you lot but I'd rather not go into a rioting city."

The men nodded and we set sail. Mr. Chabot looked at the city as we left.

"I think you need a butler."

I blinked.

"What?"

"You're a man of standing now, with a castle yes? You need someone to oversee your other servants and keep your household in order. I have some experience with servants already."

I looked at him.

"Why?"

"France is not safe, and I think fate has an ironic sense of humor, as your fortunes have grown ours have dwindled. Now the master is the servant and the servant is the master. That's storybooks ends, yes?"

I looked at him.

"I accept your offer Mr. Chabot you will always be welcome in my home."

He gave me a hug.

"Thank you for saving my family."

I turned towards Andrea, she hugged me tightly.

"You made a promise."

I looked at her and smiled.

"Of course."

I grabbed her in a bridal carry stepped on my carpet and laughed.

"OH HA HA HA HA."

She giggled in my arms as I laughed like a madman, when we landed back on the ship and I let her go. She smiled at me, grabbed the collar of my shirt and kissed me hard.

"I missed you Louis."

"I'm not letting you go Andrea."

She smirked.

"Wouldn't have it any other way my mighty wizard."

We held each other and hugged in the rain.

 

Captan Evans 1810


It had been over 30 years since the colonials left the empire.

Since then the french lost their minds, and we have been dealing with that bloody mess, that isn't to say the empire hasn't shown her lost children her displeasure, with tarrifs, arming of native tribes, messing about with their ability to trade with neutral nations, that sort of thing. Actions that have made the lives of merchant men like myself much more difficult.

"Don't like this."

Captan Wake, of the british army, currently missing an arm.

"You want that arm back or not?"

He frowned, but kept his eyes forward as we got closer to shore, in the distance I saw the glowing tree.

"Witchcraft."

Well yes it is witchcraft, it's a school of bloody wizards that's kind of a given bloody git.

"Your point being?"

His eyes were haunted.

"Fought a few of them in Spain, that vanguard of his lost a lot of good people to them, I lost my arm in that fight."

"Which fight?"

He looked across the water.

"The one where he sent his bodyguard in."

"Which one, Nappy has a lot of them."

"Him."

My eyes widened.

"Lightning Jacque?"

He rubbed the nub where his right arm used to be.

"The same, he charged right into us with that horrid sword of his. We shot him over and over again but nothing we did seemed to work. I got lucky, tossed him over a cliff, thought that killed him."

"And?"

"Next week he was back right as rain, chopped off my arm, slaughtered my men with that horrid little sword of his."

"Justice."

He nodded.

"Aye saw the demon blade myself, felt the lightning run through me. I was one of the lucky ones."

He continued to stare forward.

"He's still out there you know alive, Nappy's little monster."

The glow of the great tree came into view, I looked at the wounded soldiers.

"OK fellows you know the rules, if you have any weapons on your person get rid of them now, there's a british consulate on the mainland. They have magi
lined up to pay what ails you, then march your way north, british ships will ferry you back home."

Back into the war was left unsaid, I didn't like this but this was part of the price of doing business, we would go to Zone with wounded, then leave with far more profitable goods and return home a little richer or at least that was the plan.

"AHOY!"

We looked up and saw a man in a white and blue outfit, he held a staff that glowed at the end.

"Name of ship?"

The soldiers looked frighented.

"The Corgie, we're a merchant ship."

The man stood on a flying carpet that slowly landed on the deck of the ship, his skin was a pinkish white and he had green hair.

"Just need to see you manifest."

I brought out the paperwork and he looked it over.

"They know the rules?"

"Any military personal are to disarm before going into Zone for healing, no attacking locals or foreigners even those we are currently fighting against, and follow local laws."

The man looked at my manifest.

"Everything seems to be fine, are you purchasing from Zone or the Academy."

"Academy."

The man sighed.

"Right, there is a line for Academy, there will be an opening in dock A15 in 130 PM."

He handed over some paper work.

"Please put a black checkmark in what you're looking for and write how much you want to buy, prices are listed in the paperwork."

He looked at the crew.

"Thank you for your patience and welcome to the city of Zone New Hampshire."

He rose into the air and the captan looked at him as he left.

"Dangerous."

I shrugged.

"He's just doing his job, honestly as bureaucrats go I have dealt with much worse and."

The captan motioned with his missing arm.

"The americans, they're dangerous, that city, that school, it's a threat."

I sighed.

"Nothing the navy can't handle."

The man was silent.

"What?"

The caption looked at me with wary eyes.

"Just thinking."

We sailed up the river and then waited for our turn. My men's bellies grumbled but they held firm, avoiding hard tack until we arrived, when we got to the docks. My men were hungry, the injured soldiers faces lit up in panic as monsters with tentancles and arms floated towards us.

And promptly gave us all menus, I looked through mine.

"Steak, medium rare, potato's au gratin, and some salad."

Other sailors likewise ordered things on the menu, the soldiers froze in place.

"You know if you order something you will be covered by the laws of hospitality."

The soldiers quickly ordered meals and we all sat down on the trip. Honestly this part of the journey was the best, one of my men brought payment and the strange monsters brought us a load of tea, sugar, and vanilla. I relaxed and enjoyed my steak. The captain ate his own meal, staring at it.

"Is it safe?"

I took a bite.

"Look, one of the benefits of coming here isn't just the magical goods, manufactored goods, or even the spices its the free food for the crew. We have all had a long journey lets just enjoy the meal."

As we ate dessert menus were brought out my sailors of course ordered their favorites or tried out new things. The soldiers having overcome some of their fear decided to finally start eating, the captain stared at me.

"And this happens every time?"

I shrugged.

"We prefer to eat on the boat, others prefer to eat inside, its one of the fringe benefits of coming here rather then sailing off to India."

I stared at his plate.

"You really should eat that."

"Or what?"

I took another bite of steak.

"Or you won't get dessert."

 

Ralph Essen

"Where are we headed?"

"Kore."

My ship's chief frowned.

"The Japanese homeworld."

I nodded as a portal opened. We vanished through it.

"Yes."

"Why are we here?"

I looked at the map, it would take us awhile.

"When I was in the war I knew a guy, he was older then me, dangerous but he knew his shit, one of the most dangerous Jarheads I ever knew."

"Oh, so who is he?"

"LaRusso, funny thing after the war he moved to Okinawa, from what I heard he's a handyman over there, just fixes stuff up for a living. One of the most badass magi I ever knew just becoming a handyman."

We sailed forward.

"What's he like?"

I thought about it.

"Odd, but a good man, you have a problem with the Japanese Lee?"

His face was thoughtful.

"The ones who fought in the second world war yes, everyone else no. Though looking back on it, with the exchange and the Rapture it's petty and stupid compared to that."

I nodded.

"Yeah the exchange changed a lot of things."

The water rippled a little bit and we looked at the horizon.

"So what's it like in China these days?"

Lee leaned against the ships walls.

"Chaotic, we're still dealing with a massive refugee crisis, and the Rapture, and changing our entire economy, educational system and pretty much everything else to deal with all the changes."

"So it's a rough time?"

"Times of great change are by definition rough, in the long run we are better off but in the long run were all dead."

And wasn't that the truth.

"So I saw you have a copy of that book, the one from the hotel founder."

"Yeah, I skipped through a lot of it, especially after he got out of school."

"It's not for everyone."

I shrugged.

"I learned some stuff from it but I didn't get the answers I was looking for or I just got a small chunk of the puzzle."

"What puzzle?"

"Why, why did the exchange happen? Why did the world end, that's the question. I bought a whole bunch of books looking for why but I haven't found them."

"Maybe you're looking too hard? Maybe the communists were simply crazy?"

"I doubt it's that."

Lee raised an eyebrow.

"Why? Crazy is a perfectly reasonable reason why bad things happen. Why did the woman kill her babies? She's crazy, why did Mao murder millions? He's nuts, Why do bad things happen, well the whole universe is insane."

"If the universe is insane then what's the point of being sane?"

Lee smiled.

"To be contrary of course, sometimes one's lines get crossed and one must stand up for themselves. That the universe is a crazy bully doesn't mean we shouldn't stand up for ourselves right?"

"I see your point, but I think it's more then that."

"Maybe so, can't exactly say I'm exactly all there either Essen, I mean I decided to leave my very comfortable job to go with you."

"So we're both crazy then?"

Lee shrugged.

"Probably."
​

 

Ralph Essen


We landed in Okinawa and we started seaching for Larusso.

"Rattle Kai?"

I turned around and looked at Lee. He held out a pamphlet.

"What is this about?"

I felt confused.

"It's a picture of a rattlesnake."

"So?"

I activated a translation spell, my confusion only got more pronounced.

"This is odd."

"What's odd, strike first, strike hard, no mercy."

"So?"

I shook my head.

"Whoever's running this school doesn't understand the philosophy behind that school of magic."

Lee looked at me.

"Kind of like kung fu."

"Hmm maybe, there are schools of magic that use the rattlesnake as their symbol but their philosophy is fundamentally against starting a fight. It's a defensive style, not an offensive one. I expected don't tread on me, or something like that but this..."

I shook my head.

"I don't think we're dealing with a legit school, at most I think were dealing with someone who took a couple lessons, used some symbols they didn't understand and decided to set up shop back home."

"Kind of like how some americans will take a kung fu class in China and proclaim themselves to be a great master."

I cringed just a little.

"Yeah... it's... it's pretty much exactly like that."

I looked up at the street signs.

"So where are we?"

"Nago, Larusso lives somewhere around here."

"HEY!"

I looked up, a boy looked at me, he wore a T-shirt with the rattlesnake symbol, I noticed a book of shadows.

"What you doing here?"

I looked at the boy.

"Trying to find someone, and find a restaurant. Know any good ones?"

I paused.

"Preferably ones that are not Jollybee."

"I think you should leave yankee and take the China man with you."

"Well if you can show me to a restaurant I will."

Energy crackled around his hands.

"That wasn't a request."

I looked around, good nice soft ground, Lee stood his ground and I let my hands go loose, feeling the earth.

"I'm not looking for trouble."

"Well you have."

"CHOSEN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

He froze and sighed.

"Showing this Yankee to stick to the tourist parts of town."

The other boy ran up out of breath.

"There's a match coming up soon, I don't want you get yourself and our school disqualified because you had to have it out with a couple foreigners."

"Like with Miyagi?"

Sato frowned.

"That's different, Miyagi got into my business."

"You mean Yukie."

Sato closed his hands, I decided to interviene.

"I'm just looking for a place to eat."

Sato turned around.

"My mother works at a restaurant nearby, if Chosen can back off I'd love to show you the way there."

The other boy shrugged and walked away and we followed Sato.

"So um Rattle Kai."

The Sato boy smiled.

"Best magic school in town, I won the all island champion 3 times in a row and it's going to be 4 soon."

I walked next to him.

"Rattle kai, um never heard of the school."

The boy shrugged.

"It's a japanese style."

I nodded, that sounded wron,g human beings didn't have an genetic connection to magic, you needed someone else to give you a jump start. All known magical schools traced their linage back to Compass. Every now and then someone would claim that their system of magic predated Compass but so far all of those claims have been debunked. It could be that I just misheard it."

"So you're a mage?"

"Yeah."

"What season?"

He looked at me in confusion.

"What?"

I frowned.

"What season do you draw power from? Winter? Spring, Summer Autumn."

"What are you talking about?"

I stopped walking and moved my hands, a dirt wall rose from the ground.

"I'm a spring Magi."

I looked at him.

"Not bad, it's too bad you won't be able to do that for the rest of the day but-"

I frowned and motioned with my hands, the wall went up and down up and down acording to my will, I altered its shape at various times and the boy stared at me.

"Um how did you do that without a book of shadows?"

I frowned.

"So you don't use a season?"

"No."

"That's what a season lets you do."

"Yeah that's cool."

He opened the door for us.

"Hey mom I brought customers."

We were seated in a corner and given menus, my translation spell was still going so I understood things. I looked around and took in the restaurant. I saw trophies, medals, newspaper clippings and a photo of Sato with a girl.

"Why do you look worried?"

"Qliphoth."

"Um."

"Or Vanecian, the style of magic the kid uses."

"Why do you have a problem with it?"

I took a breath.

"You know how magic has four seasons?"

Lee stared at me.

"Yeah?"

"Magi like to compare seasons to a fruit, the seasons are the meat of the fruit, but let's say you just wanted to eat the skin, that would be a Qliphoth style. Because you're not directly connected to a season you don't get as much power, and because there's less to it it's easier to pick up, and because it needs foci it's easier for governments to control it, it's upside is that it doesn't have our weaknesses."

"Weakness?"

"We magi are bound by contracts, our word. It physically hurts us to break it, at some level we think in contracts and one of those contracts is the social one."

"So it's an evil art?"

I frowned.

"No, but since magi who use that style aren't bound by those same built in rules it has a reputation for being the style of bullies, bad men and worse. In Japan the style was used during the second world war, with one unit being-"

"Unit 731."

Lee interupted me.

"Yeah, which is why the style has a bad rap, normal magic punishes you if you go too far, a Qliphoth art doesn't. We don't know if this rattle Kai is associated with them but chances are they were involved in the second world war."

Lee's mood got darker as he stared at the trophies.

"So what do you want to eat?"

We looked up at the tired and smiling waitress.

"Chicken bowls."

"Two chicken bowls coming up."

 

John Hamilton


I was 12 years old when my father was murdered.

12 years old when I saw my father's dead body. In that moment, in that instant, more then anything I wanted revenge. I wanted the man who murdered my father to pay for his crimes, but he ran away, he escaped, fled the country like a coward.

But I would not be denied my justice, my revenge.

My mother was against it, she had lost Philip and then my father. She didn't want to lose me too, but I didn't care. I left behind polite society, I left behind my parent and went to the one place that would give me power, the one place that would give me my revenge.

For 3 years I trained under Merlin himself, for 3 years I spent every waking moment studying, training, preparing myself for my revenge, then I searched for him.

For the man who murdered my father, I searched through his old homes until I found a bit of his hair. Armed with the power of autumn, armed with a piece of his hair I forged an enchanted compass. I took my old white and yellow uniform and dyed it black. I went aboard a schooner and helped their ship move faster, all the while searching for him.

For the cowardly criminal who ended my father's life, to bring the man who wronged the Hamilton family to justice. This is the cause I lived for, I finally found him in south america. I looked at the house, it was built well, a rich man's house.

I was weighed down, with weapons, with armor, and a black casket with a cross on it. Lots of things are heavy though and I will not let a little weight get between me and my goal.

I walked past the walls to the door, a butler opened the door. I saw a gun at his side.

"I'm here for Aaron Burr."

The butler looked at me, as the glowing signals and symbols on my clothing and frowned.

"I assume you're John Church Hamilton, son of the late Alexander?"

I frowned at him.

"Yeah I am."

We stared at each other the tension was thick.

"He's expecting you."

"Yeah I bet he is."

The butler sighed.

"He told me not to interfere, that this is a private matter, a personal one."

I shrugged.

"It doesn't get more personal then this does it?"

The butler opened the door.

"He's in his study."

I walked past the butler, past paintings of Aaron Burr during happier days, with him and his wife. I walked with the butler to the study and then the butler left, the two of us were alone.

"I knew sooner or later you would come for me."

I gave him a sad smile.

"What can I say, I don't let anything stop me."

The former vice president chuckled sadly.

"Just like your dad, should have known."

He looked at me with defeated eyes.

"So anything you want to talk about before we get to business as it were?"

I frowned.

"The duel, I want to know about the duel."

He looked at me, for a brief moment I saw panic and then regret.

"Well that nonsense, you know neither of us were in the right when that happened, sometimes... sometimes two men they have a conflict and they have to settle it. I'm not proud of what I did that day John. I'm not proud of hurting you're father."

"I know your not proud of it, but as his son, I kind of deserve to know why it happened."

"That isn't important John."

"It is to me."

He collapsed.

"You know everyone I love, ever one I care about, they all die and leave me in the end, my wife, my daughter, my friends, in some ways death would be a mercy right now."

He looked so old, so defeated, and tired.

"You're changing the subject old man."

He nodded.

"That I am, he stabbed me in the back, I thought we were friends and then he campaigns for Jefferson? For my rival, for a man he hated? I was angry, I was just so incredibly angry, and he refused to apologize for any of it. Because that was the man he was, defiant to the end, so we met there on that dueling ground."

He sighed.

"Your father had on his glasses, he raised his weapon, and... then I punched him in the face."

Aaron Burr chuckled.

"that could have gotten so much worse, but I got a letter from the old bird that explained things, talked about how he felt about Philip dying, about his death wish. So two adult men fought, and I kept punching him."

"I was angry John, angry that my friend chose me to be his executioner chose to die on the same spot his son died. When the fight was over, we finally talked about things. Maybe that's what we needed to do, have an old fashioned fist fight."

He sighed.

"Things were better after that, we were slowly getting along better slowly forgiving each other and then he was assassinated"

"Reynolds."

"Yeah, he tried to pimp out his wife to your father and then extort him, the old bird though had some kind of vision and warned your dad ahead of time, and your dad having very little tact exposed the attempt. Ruined the man's life and he came back for revenge. Which spawned your little trip to Compass and your trip to south america."

"The man needed killing."

"That maybe so, so is that out of the way?"

I nodded, and opened the casket, Burr looked at the body with unfathomable sadness.

"I miss her so much."

Theodosia burr, daughter of Aaron and Theodosia burr, died at sea, it took a lot of hard work to find her body, a lot of hard work to bring it back here, to her father. Aaron Burr cried, he got up and hugged me.

"Thank you."

I let him cry, let him get it out of his system, I knew what it was like to grieve, to loose someone you lost. He slowly regained control of himself.

"I'm a man of my word, I have connections as of today you are Lieutenant John Church Hamilton of the US army."

He handed me the paperwork.

"It's not much of a command but it is a command."

"Thank you for telling me about my father even if it wasn't nice, I like hearing about him."

The old man smiled.

"You're welcome back here any time John."

We shook hands, I would have loved to have stayed longer but I had a command to start and a new life to lead. Vengeance while sweet unfortunately does not pay the bills but the army for all of its faults would.

 

John Hamilton


It's a misnomer that magic lasts forever.

Its all based on mana, how much you put into it determines how long those enchantments last, unless of course you have some way to put in more, or make it so it aborbs ambiant magic.

Take a flying broom, all you need to make one of those is a bird feather, a knife and a broom. It's uncomfortable as hell to actually ride, and lasts around 3-5 years at most, a smart person who wants to fly gets a carpet made, those things take longer to make but they last 30 years at minimum and can be recharged.

That's what I use by the way, a carpet. I suppose I could ride a horse, I know my mother would prefer it, but there are costs to a horse, stabling, feed, and a bunch of other factors, and you can't just fly over trees, over hills, all things being equal I think I will stick to my carpet thank you very much.

I had letters of introduction, and my paperwork sealed. I was now a commissioned officer in the US army. My older brother said it was a mistake to let people buy commissions, that it led to bad officers and would bite us hard if war ever did came.

My brother was an idealist, I lived in the real world thank you very much. I looked below me, I had been traveling for a couple days, traveling west, looking for my new post in the west. It was a pity there wasn't any postings for me in the east, but one had to make due.

"Huh."

I checked the ma,p Mackinac island, I was finally here. As I got closer to the island I noticed massive stone walls, not just one set of walls, lots of walls, and barracks also made out of stone, men in purple uniforms looked at me as I landed outside the walls.

"John Hamilton, I was sent by Aaron Burr."

The doors opened and a bored guard looked at me, I stared at his uniform.

"Papers?"

I handed them over and he looked at them.

"Hmm ok, come on follow me."

I followed him and looked at his uniform, I had been away from my homeland for awhile but I didn't think they would change the uniforms, the boots at least looked decent.

"I have been gone for a long time, why are the uniforms not blue?"

He turned around and looked at me.

"The old bird."

I stared at him.

"Yes?"

"Well some students went into the dye area, for the Compass uniforms. Apparently they broke something and now it only makes purple dye, which Compass doesn't use, got the old bird real mad that did. So he mailed DC and offered free purple dye if they wanted it. Well, faced with the decision of whether to pay for dye or getting it free Congress choose free."

He waved his hands.

"And of course the people who make our uniforms are allowed to use the excess as they see fit, in exchange for a discount. That's why all of our uniforms are purple, Navy has the same issue."

We walked up to an office and a man looked up, I handed him my papers and saluted him. He shrugged at me.

"Sir I'm ready to-"

"No need to be respectful Hamilton, we're of equal rank both of us are lieutenants."

I looked at him.

"Where's the commander?"

"You're looking at him, Lt Porter Hanks."

"They have a leutenant in charge of a fort?"

He shrugged.

"No one of higher rank wanted to be here, so I'm in charge. Huh, your papers said you graduated from Compass with honors, you a mage?"

"Is there a problem with that?"

He smiled.

"Thank providence, another mage."

I looked at him confusion, most people tended to take that the wrong way, the magic business as it were.

"Really?"

"Look, I don't know what it's like back east, but here in the west we deal with indian attacks at least once a week and sometimes they're better armed then we are. The capital gives us the cheapest rations they can, our pay is lousy, our guns are second rate and the only thing that comes here on time is the coffee."

"Coffee?"

He shrugged.

"The old bird insists that no fighting man should go without a cup of coffee, he also sends glass bottles to flavor it as we see fit, personally I like hazelnut but I recommend trying them all, which you will because between the stark raving terror of yet another raid you get to deal with boredom."

He grabbed a bottle and poured some whiskey into two cups, then he brought out another smaller bottle.

"Personally I like the fact that you can use the syrups in your whiskey, it manages to make this rotgut somewhat edible."

I took the offered cup.

"As for your sorcery, it's quite the opposite, officers like myself like to collect magic folk like you."

"Truely."

"Oh yes, I have 4 spring magi, and one winter one, I've been trying to collect a summer one and a autumn, one you know complete the set but I haven't been able to manage a proper trade."

"You trade soldiers?"

"Yes, it's not uncommon, what you do is when you get a magi in the ranks you do your best to hold onto him. If you don't you will surely lose him to another officer."

"Really?"

"For example take these walls, my spring magi are here to officially oversea construction on the fort, but if that construction ever ends they will go away. That means all the useful things they currently do for the fort will stop."

"Useful things?"

"Mosquito wars, air conditioning, a hundred useful things all of them gone in and instant. Speaking of which your season?"

"Autumn."

He sighed.

"Oh well it's not as useful as winter or spring but they will find some use for you."

"Any advice?"

"Yes, they will saddle you with a sergeant, if you have any brains in your head you will listen to him, well that's it then best get you a uniform of some sort."

I had the sinking feeling that perhaps I had made a mistake.

 

John Hamilton


Hanks, or Hank as I had taken to calling him showed me around.

"So this is the first wall."

I looked up at the gate.

"Alright."

"And then after that you have the others."

I passed wall after wall.

"Isn't this excessive?"

Hank shrugged.

"Probably, but if construction stops that gives my higher ups an excuse to-"

"You mentioned that."

"Right."

We passed another wall.

"Do you really need that many walls? Can't you build store houses, or barracks or?"

"They're apparently really easy to built, and um I was bored, really really really bored, seriously bored. Watching walls go up is pretty much the only entertainment we get around here."

I froze and stared at a mural, carved into the stone wall. It was a picture of a group of men from the navy and army working together to hang a man.

"What is that?"

Hank shrugged.

"Oh that, that is a story, so my spring magi he was courting this girl and when he came back well she told him that she had been with someone else. He was angry as the devil about it but he appreciated her honesty. They ended their engagement and he decided to find out if this cad went after anybody else's woman."

Hank yawned as we walked through another gate and I saw the stone mural again.

"So he found out that the cad was going after military wives, army, navy, militia when the men left he tried to seduce their women, some of these were officiers' wives, high ranking officiers' wives, so he snuck into the fellows house seized his letters and gathered up all the cuckholded men, they got together and hanged him. Naturally there was a trial and a sympathatic judge gave them all a slap on the wrist. Matter should have been over right?"

I nodded.

"Not to my man, no he wanted people to know what would happen so anywhere he goes he immortalizes the story of the cad and the concequences of messing with a fighting man's woman while they're away."

"What was the cad's name?"

"Jody, well anyways my man's actions ended up getting him traded from officer to officer. When he got to me I decided to punish him by making him take on seven apprentices rather then trading him on again."

"Did it work?"

"Oh yes, I increased the number of magi from 1 to 8, I did some horse trading and was able to get a winter magi to work with us."

We walked through the last gate and into the chow hall. I stared at a gorgeous woman drinking a cup of coffee, then I noticed her purple uniform.

"Why is a woman in uniform?"

Hank frowned.

"Warrent officer Goodwitch is quite clearly a man."

"She has massive tits."

"Oh no those are not tits those are quite clearly tumors, it's quite unfortunant that he has them but I am told their benign growths and not cancerous."

"She's wearing make up and earings."

"So he's a little infemninate some men are like that."

"She just kissed a man."

He shrugged.

"It's a shame that some men feel compelled to turn to homosexuality here, but considering how remote our post is I am willing to forgive any buggery that happens in my fort. We can't spare any men."

"That is quite clearly a woman Mr. Hanks and women have no place in our armed forces."

Hank put a hand on my shoulder and smiled.

"Do you know how many medical personal I have?"

"No."

"None. The only person here who knows anything about medicine is warrent officer Goodwitch. I have paid a physician in Detroit a princely sum to produce papers assuring everyone that Officer Goodwitch is in fact a man. I had to trade away four of my newly trained spring magi to gain her services for my fort and my men. You will not cast any unfounded asperations that might result in my men not having medical care, is that undersood?"

I sighed, the logic was compelling.

"Yes sir, what is officer Goodwitches first name?"

"Glenda."

I walked up to him.

"Mommy."

I stared at Hank as a little girl sat next to her mother. The man she kissed sat on the other side of the small girl.

"Mommy?"

I frowned at Hank.

"Sometimes men get pregnant Mr. Hamilton, perfectly natural I assure you."

 

John Hamilton

I tried to deal with the day's nonsense by going to bed early. When I arose I put on my new purple uniform. I used a spell to create a mirror. Satisfied that I looked decent enough I went into the mess hall. Lt. Hanks stood in front of a row of glass bottles with metallic pumps.

"You lot know the rules three pumps per meal, don't care which ones you use but only three, you got that? We want enough for everyone and we only get a damned care package from the old bird so often so don't waste it. Also WAIT YOUR DAMNED TURN! When it comes to coffee rank does not matter everyone waits their turn ,GOT IT!?"

I walked up and grabbed a cup and some coffee from the chef and blinked at the pleasant smell.

"Hnn."

I waiting my turn in line and decided to talk to the man in front of me.

"So officer Goodwitch."

The young man saluted.

"Yes?"

"What can you tell me about her."

"Him."

I stared at the boy.

"Her."

"Sir with all due respect officer Goodwitch has a doctor's note that clearly tells everyone that he is a man."

"Are we really going to do this son?"

He looked at me.

"I got an arrow to the knee, they were forced to amputate it, Glenda grew it back for me. The only reason I'm not a cripple right now is because of him."

Great....

"Very well, can you tell me anything about him?"

The boy nodded.

"Officer Goodwitch was a member of the first class of Compass, I think she was about 2 years old then, he was raised by the old bird himself, he's a really great guy. Him and his husband."

"So you're saying Goodwitch is married to another man, what kind of place would allow two men to get married son?"

The boy shrugged.

"Boston sir, they're a little bit odd over there, something in the water I suppose."

Having been to Boston I didn't have a response to that.

"So the coffee?"

"Oh that, sent by the old bird himself. We get extra Syrup because of Goodwitch, personally my favorite is the banana flavoring, but others prefer other syrups, vanilla and chocolate being the most popular."

"And the pump rule?"

"If we didn't have it we would run out, three cups with one pump each, one cup with three pumps mix and match, it's the highlight of the day."

He smiled and put three pumps of a yellow liquid into his coffee. I looked at the mutlitude of glass bottles. Hank looked at me.

"Only three pumps a meal."

"To a fellow officer?"

"We have to set a good example for the men."

"And the bottles in your office?"

"My private selection bought with my pay, there's a selection of mail order catalogues if you're interested. I recommend Zoners, they don't just sell magic they also sell other things, and they offer a 10% discount for military personal."

"I thought you said the mail rarely comes?"

"I did, absolutely terrible, which is why I make of point of hoarding what is mine, and making sure that the public goods are properly rationed."

I sighed.

"Your advice?"

"Vanila and chocolate."

I put in a splash of vanilla.

"Remember to stir it around with a spoon."

"I will."

I went over the mess hall and looked at the chef. I was promptly given some gruel and some hardened bread, I looked around at the others who were also eating the watery stew. I took a seat and sat down, my attempts to eat the bread with my teeth proved to be a failure.

Lt Hanks sat down across from me.

"Dip the bread into the gruel, it softens it up a bit."

He gave me a smile and I did so, I ate the now edible bread and frowned.

"This is terrible."

"I know."

"Dont officers get better food then this?"

Hanks shrugged.

"In some places yes, we do get some discressionary budgetary items for food but I decided to spend that on soap."

"You spend your food money on soap?"

"Yes, you see I managed to get my earth magi to magic us up a bath house, roman style if a bit warmer for men coming back from long marches and it simply would not do to not have them have some soap to get clean with."

"Very charitable of you."

"Truely the other reason is that dirt is just swimming in germs, horrible vile things Lt Hamilton."

I sighed.

"People keep saying that germ theory isn't true Hanks."

"I have looked through one of those new fangled microscopes and I assure you they are very real Lt Hamilton, very real and very evil."

"That doesn't disprove misasma theory."

"Oh god, please don't tell me you're a damned anglophile."

I frowned.

"My father fought in the revolution, I just think that more study needs to be done Mr. Hanks."

"You go ahead and do your studies, I will have my men wash my hands and take a bath because at the very least it makes this fort a less smelly one."

I shook my head.

"So my assignment."

"Oh that, the quartermaster has some orders from command."

"Already?"

"No they're old orders, the man you're replacing is quite dead, and it was decided that whoever replaced him would take up the sword as it were."

I took a sip of coffee and sighed.

"Only good part of the meal."

Hank smiled.

"I know right, everyone should have a little sweetness in their life."

He happly sipped his coffee and I looked around at the other bored troops in the dinning hall.

 

John Hamilton

Orders, my orders were simple, grab some men, go to the mainland, talk to the settlers and try to deal with the raids. I looked at a man who had the look of being perpetually disheveled and stank of whiskey.

"Seargent Oxhorn."

He was on the shorter side, overweight and reminded me somehow of the walruses I saw in the zoo in Compass.

"Lt Hamilton, we heading out soon?"

The man shrugged.

"When you're ready."

"How many men do we have?"

"The fort has 60 fighting men, our expeditionary force has 20, including you sir."

"Our weapons?"

"Official or unofficial?"

"Official."

"1795 springfield rifles, when we got them they were half rusted pieces of trash, our magi fixed them up so they're not half rusted anymore. We also have working bayonettes, we don't use them."

"Why not, they have been issued to you."

"We haven't gotten a shipment of gunpowder in months sir, we haven't gotten any communication with Detroit for at least two months, the only thing that comes on time are care packages from the old bird, mail, and our pay."

"Why haven't we recieved gunpowder?"

Oxhorn sighed.

"We have had 30 years of raids and they have only gotten worse, our position is pretty safe so Hanks ordered us to save the gunpowder for the cannons and rely on the stuff Glenda and her boy's cook up for us."

"And you're ok with this?"

The man brought a wand out of his pocket and my eyes opened as an icicle flew out and slammed into the wall.

"The 1795 springfield musket has a maximum range of 300 yards, it's really only effective at 50 to 75 yards. Don't get me wrong it's a fine weapon, it has better range and accuracy then the british brown bess rifles we run up against in the field. But they have the disadvantage of being loud, of being heavy and you need to reload after a single shot."

He pointed the wand and I saw icicle after icicle slam into the wall.

"These are ice drinker wands, they have a effective range of 50 yards, a maximum range of a 150 yards. They can shoot out 108 Ice bolts before they need to be reloaded, and you can reload them by simply putting the tip into a body of water, which seem to be damned near everywhere. They weigh less then half a pound. The enemy uses cover, surprise attacks, ambushes. The terrain is heavely forrested, and the enemy knows it better then we do."

"It's regulation that you bring your assigned weapons, but since this our first patrol together I will allow this Seargent Oxhorn."

"Thank you sir."

With that I was introduced to the motley crew, I stared at them and they stared back.

"I am 1st LT John Hamilton, today we are to go out on a patrol, if any of you wish to use your proper issued weapons instead of these wands of yours raise your hands and I will requisition some gunpowder for your use."

Not a single hand was raised.

"If you wish to use these haphazard jury rigged wands instead of your proper guns raise your hands."

Every single hand went up.

"Recharge your weapons in the water."

I shook my head and hooked my rifle in place.

"Very well any questions?"

A hand went up.

"What school did you go to sir?"

I stared at the man.

"Compass academy of magic."

I steadied my stand and glared at my men defiantly, I was surprised by a collective sigh of relief.

"At least this one won't be useless like the last one."

"I expect all of my men to respect the chain of command."

They shrugged, the lack of discipline disturbed me but I decided to focus on the task at hand."

"Yes sir."

Another raised hand.

"Sir? Um are you a winter mage?"

The men had looks of hope on their faces.

"No."

"Spring?"

The looks of hope on their faces were diminished but still there.

"No."

"Summer?"

They were grimacing.

"I am a autumn mage."

And the look of disappointment was right back.

"Still more useful then the last one."

I was going to have words with Hank after this patrol about the lack of discipline.

 

John Hamilton


The men, as I discovered had a tendency to talk.

"So Yekcha you're an injun, right?"

"Cherokee, but yes."

"And we're fighting Injuns."

"Your poing being Yancy?"

"Well aren't you fighting your own kind?"

The man's voice was exasperated.

"Under the Jefferson treaty the five civilized tribes were annexed by the United States, in exchange we were given full citizenships and all rights and privileges that pertain to such. Including landownership. We're american now."

"So you're the good injuns."

"If it keeps you from shooting me in the back Yancy yes I am one of the good injuns, though I prefer to think of my self as a member of the smart ones instead."

"Why?"

"All Tecumseh is going to do is get his people killed, if you want to keep your land you don't fight on the battlefield, you fight in the ballot box and in court."

"So you think we're going to win?"

"The americans have numbers, superior technology, and when their medicine men ask for fire people have a tendeny to be burned alive."

"Everyone says the brits are backing them."

"For how long? They have their eyes on us, on Europe, on India, on Africa, and on Asia, America just has their attention on the west, there's focus there."

"Guess you have a point Yekcha, maybe you can pray to your native gods for help."

I heard an influx of breath.

"You know I'm christian right? I mean I wear a cross it shouldn't be that hard to figure out."

"I'm sorry."

I closed my eyes and raised my hand.

"Five men coming towards us."

I shouldered my rifle and moved my hands, I used a translation spell just in case.

"This is Lt. Hamilton of the US army please idenitfy yourselves."

They were not within our field of vision but I could sense their displacement in the wind, I used my powers to amplify my voice.

Arrows flew out the brush, I moved my hands and pushed the arrows away.

I then brought my gun up and aimed.

"If you do not surrender we will be forced to shoot."

More arrows, they missed. I aimed and hit one of the men, I ripped open a cartridge to reload the wepon and watched as a hail of ice rushed past me, I stared at my men.

"Enemy down."

We walked towards the underbrush and saw the dead bodies of the warriors, I brought out my shovel.

"Well men we killed them we bury them."

My seargent looked at me.

"Any others?"

"No, I don't sense any others."

I cast a force spell and my vison changed as I looked into the forest with new eyes.

"Don't see their body heat either."

I put my shovel into the earth.

"Come on people, they might be the enemy but we're all still civilized men."

They reluctantly decided to help me dig, our patrol continued and I noticed it getting darker. I held up my hand.

"We set up camp, over there."

We undid our bed rolls and started building up our tents, Oxhorn brought out a pocket watch and then brought a mirror to me.

"Sergeant?"

I was hitting in a tent peg.

"Why aren''t you helping?"

"LT Hanks wants to speak to you."

"Sergeant, I am-"

"Hey friend how are you doing?"

I frowned at the image of Hanks.

"What is this about?"

"Look since you're going to be out there anyways I thought well why not have my new friend get this mirror over to Detroit so we can figure out why we haven't gotten resupply or any communication with the mainland."

"I was not informed that you had a magic mirror."

"Yeah I know, I was able to find some iron ore on the island and other reagents and my boys built this thing. Now I know Detroit has a lot of mirrors but one more set isn't going to hurt."

He burped.

"Are you eating?"

"Yes, the old bird sent us all care packages. I got a couple jars of jam, mine is made out of something called dragon fruit."

"Dragon fruit."

"Its also called Pitaya, but Dragon fruit is just a much better name."

He spread some onto his porrage.

"So if you could do me that favor, that would be great."

"Fine since I'm heading to Detroit any ways."

"That's great, well everyone at the fort wishes you luck, oh and if you and your men use the ladies of the evening there? Um have officer Goodwitch take a look at you when you get back. The working girls over there are just swimming in disease."

"I will keep that in mind."

"Wish you luck."

The communication ended and I looked at my troops.

"I'm taking first watch."

They shrugged and started cooking some salted beef and hard tack, maybe we together they would create a stew that was at least edible.

 

Ralph Essen

I put down the book, Sato's mother's search through a phonebook gave us Larusso's place. We walked over there to the edge of town. I saw a small house, crystals were growing in jars. I saw an older man with snow white hair, tied back. I saw a purple crystal around his neck with the symbol of Pi on it.

"Larusso?"

"Essen."

His eyes were not open.

"Um what are you doing?"

"Communing with the seasons."

He looked up and opened his eyes, they briefly glowed blue and then settled into a dark brown.

"You started sailing because you were lost, do you still sail aimlessly?"

He closed his eyes.

"No, you have a cause."

"I need your help."

"I am needed here."

"Why?"

"There is someone who needs my guidence here Essen."

"My task is important Larusso."

"The great spirit gives a person what they need, not what they want, this is the first principle of the Waashat faith."

Lee looked at him in confusion as Larusso closes his eyes and started breathing, the crystals glowed.

"Waashat?"

"A syncretic faith discovered by the profit Smohalla, it is also called the dreamer faith, we call ourselves dreamers."

"Never heard of it."

Lee looked confused.

"Sit down."

We did so.

"Do you wish to hear the principles of my faith?"

"Um sure."

"Smohalla was a young boy of the wanapan tribe. When he was young he traveled North America, he studied at Compass under Merlin. He wandered the great lakes, he studied the religious books of the long lost phoenix people, he learned from medicine men, and brimstone preachers. He traveled long and far and in Death valley he had a vision."

He paused.

"The great spirit talked to him and told him that the great spirit gives people what they need, the phoenix people were a people of the spirit. They however did not pay attention to their minds so the great spirit gave them a faith based on numbers. However they neglected the principle of the body and were destroyed, Only Merlin survived, sent by the great spirit to come here."

The crystals dimmed.

"The white man the west were people of the mind, of science, of rationality of thought, they were weak in the principle of the body, of making action follow word and thought. Prophets were brought to them to motivate them to act according to principles, but they neglected the spirit. Finally the natives of North America were strong in the principle of the body, the great spirit gave them spiritual strength but they neglected their minds."

The crystals glowed brighter.

"Mind, Body, Spirit, each in harmony. The phoenix, the indian, the white man all lacked something the other had. All were brought together to make the people whole, the world whole. The principle of the body, the principle of action, the principle of the mind, the principle of thought, the priniciple of spirit of wisdom."

"I'm trying to find out why the world ended."

"The great spirit decided that our childhood is over, children must leave the family home and venture out and create homes of their own. That the spirit was so rough with us is a sign that maybe we were putting it off too long. In time the great Earth mother will be healed, green and verdant."

"So she hates us?"

"No, this was tough love, sometimes mothers have to be harsh to make their children strong enough to face the universe, she sheltered us for a time but that time is over."

"I still need help, I need a winter magi."

"You want a complete year?"

I nodded.

"There is someone else who will help you, my aid is needed here."

"Miyagi?"

"Correct, he is going to settle his issues with Sato in a magic match."

"Um Rattlekai."

"I know, it is a false art that is not in balance, it is a thing created out of war, fear, and pain. The students are not bad, their shaman is corrupt and is not in balance."

"So what started this mess?"

Larusso smiled.

"What else? A woman, neither of them will get her of course, too much time fighting each other instead of actually bothering to win her love. Both of them will learn and grow from the experience."

"So I can't convince you to help?"

"No, my days as a brave are over, it is time for me to walk aside and help usher in the future."

I sighed, I hated it when Larusso got spiritual.

"Thank you for your time sir."

 

Ralph Essen

We walked back to the boat.

"So is Larusso even, you know um indian at all?"

"On his mother's side. His mother was navaho."

He nodded.

"So did his father meet her on the rez or?"

"We don't have reservations that's a canadian thing."

Lee stared at me.

"Really?"

I grit my teeth.

"Yeah, america had a LAD policy towards it's native population."

"LAD?"

"Leave, Assimilate, or Die, it goes back to the war of 1812. Tribes had the choice of leaving American territory, swearing an oath and becoming citizens or war. It was honestly a pretty brutal and shameful part of american history."

Lee nodded.

"Not proud of it?"

"Not really, its still controversial to this day, Canada says our policy resulted in the death of a whole lot of innocent people which is true, and some people say Canada's policies ended up creating a cycle poverty and political disenfranchisement that lasts to this day."

"And they're doing better in Aamerica?"

"President Ely Samuel Parker replaced president Lincoln after he was assasinated, and president Jacob Little Bear beat Woodrow Wilson and undid pretty much all of his racist policies, ended up dying of a heart attack."

"Really?"

"The man was in his 80s and deep fried everything, which is a shame because Coolidge was pretty much useless, but getting beyond that Larusso is pretty into the whole dreamer religion, which is this bizare mixture of christianity, native faith and some of the phoenix religion."

"Is that common, the old phoenix religon?"

"No, the faith is basically one page long. There is one god, if you cause more suffering then good you go to hell for awhile, if you cause more good then bad then you go to heaven for awhile, you're reborn randomly after that and get to try again. There is one god and you can reach him through math. The rest of their holy books are math textbooks, lots and lots of text books. It is literally one of the most boring and dull religions of all time. No one practices it straight up, at most some people borrow elements of it."

"Oh."

We got on the boat.

"So we can't get a winter Magi?"

"Um no, I know a guy in the swedish navy, maybe they can let us borrow him for a bit."

"Think they would?"

"Don't know, it's worth a shot, and even if it's impossible I have a few books to read."

"What a waste of time."

"Don't know about that, I got to meet my old commander and saw how he was doing. We had a good lunch and we got to visit another world. It was fun."

"It didn't get us any closer to our goal."

"I know, but life's like that sometimes."

We got to the docks and looked at Jupiter in the sky.

"Miss the moon."

"Yeah I think we all do."

We got into our boat and set sale to the swedish homeworld, hopefully a trip of adventure daring do, and if not hopefully a chance to eat at a place that wasn't Jolly bee.

 

John Hamilton



I miss the boots I had at Compass.

Thick rubbersoled boots that lasted, and were comfortable and didn't let in small rocks that just irratated you the entire walk, but alas I had the boots I had. We finally got to town, and I use that word in the loosest sense, 5 buildings and 20 people do not make a town as far as I'm concerned but it was the frontier and allowances had to be made.

I walked into town and saw a sign that said "Wizard for hire."

I sighed and walked in. A man looked back at me, he looked bored.

"Hello, what can I do for you?"

"We're looking to see everyone's ok and-"

"If any of the tribes are causing trouble, should have known, you are a purp after all."

"Purp?"

"Yeah we have been taking to call anyone from the army that because you know, you all wear purple. We don't hate you or anything it's just a common nick name."

"Fine then, so any trouble?"

"Not lately, things have been quiet as of late, too quiet."

He looked at me.

"Fellow Magi?"

I smiled.

"How did you know?"

"The Compass patch on your uniform, don't know why they're all black, be nice if you could know what someone was just with a glance."

"Autumn."

He smiled.

"So am I, though you really should have gone into the navy, they love autumn magi over there."

"Really?"

"Control over the wind? An autumn mage can make a ship at least 3 times faster, pretty much any blockade runner has to use one."

"Then why are you here?"

"Family, there was a raid, a bad one so everyone got together, pulled lots and I was sent to Compass, it's actually very common here on the frontier."

"So what do you do?"

"Air milking mostly, take the nitrogine out of the air and use it to make fertilizers, explosives for mining, and... hmm I have to show you it."

He motioned and I followed him to a glass metal and wooden table, he took a breath and pulled out bottles of milk, of some kind of flavoring.

"What's your favorite kind of ice cream?"

"Never had it before."

"Vanilla it is then."

I recognized the bottles from the fort. He poured in the milk and then the flavoring and then some substance that covered the table with mist, he used a metal spoon and soon I looked at ice cream.

"New Hampshire style Ice-cream."

He put it in a wooden bowl, I took a bite.

"It's good."

"I know, most popular thing I sell here, honestly without the ice cream I couldn't possibly make it here."

"You use the power of magic, a power from beyond our sun, from a long dead civilization to make ice cream."

He smiled.

"I know, Merlin taught me how to do that himself."

In my opinion magic should be dignified, the art should have pathos, be respected and respectable, lowering outselves to making ice cream.

"Oh right he does that, always the pragmatist."

The other magi frowned.

"You're sounding a lot like the stick in the muds over in Salem."

I sighed, I did not need enemies.

"I'm not, everyone has to make a living, just wondering how much it would be to get all of my men a bowl of ice cream."

I had money from my family I could afford this.

"Oh that... just bring them in."

Hated this lowering the art like this, demeaning it.

"Gents."

I stared at my men.

"I have decided to buy each of you a small bowl of iced cream, just one each small."

The men smiled and went inside, I turned over a couple glowbacks and the magi stared at my money, he brought out a candle and snapped his fingers the candle was lit and he put my bills into the fire.

"My money is good."

"I'm not questioning your honor, there are a lot of men of questionable intent on the frontier who try to take advantage of men of honor."

The bills didn't burn.

"Good, ok everyone enjoy your ice-cream."

Did the man have to be so joyfull about it? I watched as he happly made my men ice-cream, I took a bite of my bowl and was forced to admit that it was excellent

 

John Hamilton


I groaned with pain and opened my eyes. My vision was blurred as I staggered. I didn't know where I was, I looked up and saw a white woman. By white I didn't mean normal white, I mean a pale ghostly paper white. Her hair was also white, her eyes though were a warm purple. She was beautiful but in a way that was off, as if there was something wrong about her.

"Oh you're alive, I will go get my father."

She left the room, I looked around and waited. Everything kind of hurt, I felt weak, I struggled to get up, a man with ghostly white skin walked in, his hair was cropped short, and he was tall, and seemingly made out of muscle.

"The girl's father?"

"Her husband, or brother."

I felt a sense of disgust.

"It's more complicated then that. My name is Adam Frankenstein, welcome to the Frankenstein estate."

"The name?"

"Our father came from Germany, it's thanks to him that you're alive."

I suddenly remembered how this happened.

"My men?"

"They're in one of the rooms of the house, Sergeant Oxhorn told me to tell you that he told you so."

I got up and followed the ghostly white man.

"So you're um."

"Artificial, as is my sister, our father always wanted children but he was well infertile and then his wife died of some disease. I think that broke him in a way, he did everything to keep her safe but it was all for naught."

"How did she die?"

"A waterborn pathogen, like the one that almost killed you, your men are by the way perfectly fine."

I walked with him and saw Sergeant Oxhorn talking to a man of middling years, the man looked up at me. I looked down and saw boots, Compass boots.

"And who are you?"

"Doctor Victor Frankenstein."

His accent was german.

"I was talking to private Oxhorn about your little bout of stupidity."

I frowned.

"Miasma theory clearly states that the water I was drinking from was perfectly safe."

"Miasma theory is wrong, it gets people killed, it killed the woman I loved, it almost killed you and it's resulted in the death of thousands of people. It's wrong."

"So your a proponant of Germ theory then?"

The doctor sighed as if he was talking to a particularly stupid child.

"I have a microscope, and a stool sample, I can literally right now show you the disease that almost killed you."

"It could have been something else, perhaps a morning chill or-"

The doctor got up.

"Adam, get the sample, I'm grabbing the microscope."

I was suddenly alone with Sergeant Oxhorn, he gave me a look that was all too smug, and I remembered the conversation.

"Lets get some water."

Our cantenes were out and there was a river.

"Right, recharge wands boys."

I was feeling just a little bit miffed. After the ice cream we got some water and I put my cup inside to get a drink.

"All right boil the water."

They brought out a pot and put the water in, red runes glowed and I felt insulted using magic, a power beyond the stars to boil water.

"That water is perfectly safe."

Sergaent Oxhorn stared at me.

"It is standard operating procedure to boil all water."

"According to miasma theory that water is perfectly safe."

"The orders come from General Dearborn, all water is to be boiled before drinking."

I remembered a feeling of exasperation.

"It's river water, clear river water."

"And we're going to boil it."

I frowned at him.

"This is nonsense."

"Do you know how our last leutnant died? He drank from a river without boiling his water, got sick and died before we could get medical help, don't make the same mistake he did."

"I will prove that this water is perfectly safe."

I remembered drinking from my cup, then I remembered getting sick that night, then I didn't remember anything. Sergeant Oxhorn leaned against his chair.

"So much for miasma theory."

I glared at the man, the doctor came back and put my eye on the microscope lense. I saw a wriggling thing.

"That's a germ, that's the germ that almost killed you. I have all ready shown this to all of your men."

"It could be a trick of the light."

I got up and looked at the doctor who seemed almost prepared to strangle me.

"If you admit that miasma theory was wrong I will wave the entirety of your bill."

I paid the man thanked him and marched away, Sergeant Oxhorn rolled his eyes and shook his head at me. I didn't look him in the eye or talked to him at all until we finally got to Detroit

 

America and the Romantic era
William Blake


The romantic era, a time period spanning roughly from 1800 to 1850, it was period of time that was a reaction against the enlightenment, and the excesses of the french revolution. In Europe this meant a new respect for the medieval history, folk art and ways and the importance of emotion as a way to express the soul.

America however did not have a medieval history to fall back on, and when the romantic era came american writers, artists, and poets were forced to look for their own inspiration. In the end the two competing poles of the american romantic tradition proved to be the frontier and the fallen phoenix empire.

To the american romantics, the frontier was a place of rugged simplicity, an exotic place populated by noble savages. In New Hampshire romantic writers, poets, artists and students of every stripe were able to marvel at the last creation of a dead race.

They were able to see distant start system and planets, they saw the wonders of the ocean, zoos with creatures of Earth and some from the lost phoenix home world. It was a place of wonder, America had been gifted with the history, knowledge, and knowhow of a dead race and had been declared their heirs. To the romantics the phoenix were grand but in some ways a cautionary tale.

They were a smart cultured people who were ultimately doomed by their lack of ambition and red tape. The noble savage was a race ultimately doomed in this romantic outlook by their inability to move with the time, to accept progress.

Confronted by the remnants of a glorious dead civilization and the frontier the romantic movement created the cultural identity of americans as a people in the middle trying to balance the two extremes. This period led to an explosion of writing, and the development of arts in the americas, but it was not without its problems.

This new identity didn't leave room for compromise with america's tribes, since they were doomed anyway the best way to perserve them would be to conquer them and make them into fellow americans. Those that could not adapt were either killed or driven off into Canada or Mexico.

There would be no treaties, there would be no peace, the land would be united by force. However tribes that surrendered and took an oath of citizenship were allowed to keep some of their lands, and gained the rights of americans, including the right to free speech, religion, and gained access to America's growing educational system.

To those that surrendered they were able to use the cultural myth of the middle people to carve out a place for themselves and maintain some of their traditions, and even culturally influece their conquerors. One of the most famous of these was the Seminol writer Osceola. His writings blended native american myth, reality, and a study of the natural world and human nature.

His books would go on to found the magical realism genre, sadly he would die at the age of 35 from Malaria, but his works would go on to inspire other writers, like Egar Allen Poe, and L Frank Baum

 

John Hamilton

Detroit city limits.

The conversation I had with Hank in some ways disturbed me, just like my near death experience. I didn't talk to the Sergeant or the men, instead mullling it over, but now feelings of guilt and shame finally got to me. I stopped myself and my men and looked at them.

I took in a breath and puffed myself up.

"After a long period of deliberation I have decided that I owe all of you an apology."

The men froze and stared at me.

"I thank all of you for saving my life, and getting me medical attention,. I should have trusted that General Dearborn's command was made in good faith."

Oxhorn smirked.

"So are you willing to admit that germs are real?"

I grit my teeth, I hated admitting I was wrong about anything. A part of me fought down the feeling of shame and revulsion.

"Yes, in retrospect germ theory is real, I tried to be fair to the other side, after all the greatest doctors and physicians of England all insist that germ theory is complete bunk and that Miasma theory is how disease is spread."

I sighed.

"The american people proved the british wrong at Valley Forge, we proved them wrong at Lexington, at Concord, and we have proven them wrong again. I apologize in not having more faith in my fellow americans and I apologize to each and every single one of you."

The men looked at me and smiled, Oxhorn nodded.

"Well we might just make a proper officer of you yet sir."

I nodded and we walked into the city, and I used that term loosely. Detroit was small, it was dirty and I was left unimpressed by it. It lacked the life of New York, the education of Boston, and the mystic majesty of Zone. It was a dirty cold little town with little, if anything in the way of actual culture.

Our uniforms were clean as the 20 of us marched through town, our purple uniforms got the occasional glance but were otherwise ignored. We walked to the fort and we stopped.

"Lt. Hamilton."

A man in a guard shake got up, I noticed that he had black skin, and a branded R on his neck. He looked at me and my papers. I stared at the brand in horror.

"Why are you here?"

The man looked up from the paper work.

"Excuse me?"

"You have a runaway brand on your neck why are you here? The army should have returned you to your former master."

The man smirked.

"Oh that, I ran away as a child once and then when my master died I was freed. I loved my country so I decided to go to Compass and get an education and of course serve my beloved country."

It was then I noticed the Compass patch on his purple uniform, I also noticed that he was clearly lying about being freed.

"Maybe we should check that story, it is illegal for slaves to join the army."

He continued to smile smugly at me.

"The Captain of this fort has already investigated the matter quite closely."

I frowned and looked away. The doors were opened.

"Oh and please go to the communication room and give a debriefing, have to keep an eye on the savages after all."

I clenched my hands and tried to ignore the smug confidence of the guard, the men split off from me to collect their pay and enjoy some leave and I wandered around looking for the communication room. I was led to a stone building, and I opened the door. It was then that I saw mirrors.

Lots and lots of mirrors, in the center of them I saw an image of a glowing owl.

"So you're certain that your people don't need more purple dye?"

A bored man, with thinning hair leaned back in his chair.

"The Detroit office has enough uniforms Merlin."

"If you could store some dye over at your fort..."

The man took off his glass.

"No, no no, I heard what happened to that fort in Virginia, we are not making that same mistake."

Merlin's voice was a little desperate.

"Look if for some reason you sold the dye, no one would ever have to know."

"Not happening. One, all of the tailors around here already have too much purple dye, two, Congress has clearly stated that the purple dye belongs to them and they're not giving it up."

"They're also not storing it somewhere else, that incident flooded entire floors of my school with purple dye. It took months to turn those machines off."

"You have my sympathy sir."

"You don't get it, I have over a cubic mile of purple dye, that has to go, that's over a billion galleons of purple dye."

"And that isn't my problem sir, the army has enough uniforms, the navy has enough uniforms and in the civlian market there's so much purple that people are sick of it. Speaking of which why don't you simply export the bloody stuff."

"Between the british blockade and the french continental system there basically isn't a possibility of exporting nearly enough dye to regain access to those floors."

"Well are the machines fixed at least?"

"I got them to stop spewing out purple, but they're busted and I can't fix them."

"Why not?"

"Because they're over a million years old, from now on all they will make is purple dye, I'm absolutely furious about it."

"Well your country thanks you for your generosity sir."

"Thanks for your time officer."

The mirror went blank, and the man moved his chair.

"Oh...who are you?"

"Lt Hamilton."

The man nodded.

"I have come to tell you that fort Mackinac has not recieved gunpowder in ages."

The man sighed.

"Great, just great, look I'm going to be honest with you Congress is a mess and none of us are getting enough of anything, except uniforms, we're doing fine on that front."

I frowned as a screeching sound came from my mirror.

"Um."

"Go ahead."

I pulled out my mirror and looked at Frank.

"Um friend, kind of have a problem here."

"I'm talking to the communications officer, this better be important."

Frank stared at me.

"Are we at war because it would be very nice to know that?"

I looked at the officer he shrugged.

"No we're not at war."

Frank grimaced.

"Then can someone please inform the british of that fact? Because right now they're shooting cannons at us."

"Frank if this is a joke it's-"

I heard the rumble of distant cannons.

"Oh."

"Yeah, kind of have a problem here, if you could get some reinforcements that would be really nice, because this fort only has 60 people in it."

The communications officer rushed to another mirror and I looked at Frank.

"So this just started?"

"Yes, they have been shelling me with cannon fire all afternoon, it's really quite rude of them."

He sighed.

"And they just broke through my wall."

"That's bad."

"Yes it is, now they just have to get through the other 17."

He shook his head and slammed his hand against something, then the mirror shook, I heard a massive explosion.

"WHAT WAS THAT?"

"Oh that, the outermost wall um is explosive."

I stared at him in horror.

"You purposely made a wall explosive?"

"Well it's more built to explode if I decided to make it explode, more then just being a bomb ready to go off."

"Why would you make a wall explosive?"

"Because I was bored John, really really really bored, there is nothing to do here and anyways that should have frightened them off and-"

I heard more explosions.

"Oh no turns out that I have not frightened the british off ,I have just made them intensely angry at me."

The communications officer came back he looked worried.

"Right um so bad news for you and your friend, um it turns out Madison and Congress declared war on the British Empire and they um kind of forgot to tell us about it."

We were both silent as the horror of the situation sunk in.

"Lieutenant Hanks, you're under orders to hold fort Mackinac at all costs."

"I barely have any gunpowder at all!"

"I know... we salute you for your sacrifice. I'm sorry."

He turned and looked at me.

"Lieutenant Hamilton, you're under orders to go east with the rest of us."

"Why, if the british are attacking we are needed to defend the state."

The communications officer sighed.

"The governor of the state assures us that the militia are more then enough to repeal any attack from the british and that our services are not needed."

I stared at the man.

"Yeah it sounds just as stupid to me."

I looked at the mirrors and had a sinking feeling that I put aside, my country needed me and I would serve as best I could.

 

John Hamilton

December 25th 1812

As christmases have gone, this one was one of the worst.

Spain has declared war on us,Demnark has declared war on us andMichigan is completely lost. Our attempts to invade Canada have all failed horribly, the battlelines have however become stable, the complete route is over and in the west with our battlelines becoming a stable front in Ohio.

I haven't written anything down in way too long, haven't had the chance, it's all been moments of drudgery interspaced with absolute chaos. There isn't enough gunpowder, there isn't enough, food, there isn't enough money and there are not enough of us.

I was one of the lucky ones, I survived, my men have survived and we have somehow managed to survive the ambushes, and the worst of the british army.

"You there?"

I brought out my mirror as I wallowed in the tent.

"Yes, how are things going on your end?"

"Not particularly good but not that bad either, with the civilians that we were able to grab we have around 300 people now. I've ordered Glenda and Mack to train everyone how to use magic."

"Really?"

"Well in between having them doing all the things that need doing."

"How are you guys doing on supplies?"

"Well actually better then before the war started, the old bird has been sending us giant logs full of what we need, ironically we have more food and supplies now then before the war started, and the Limeys basically gave up trying to take the fort after the 4th wall. How are you doing?"

"Michigan is completely lost, Maine's been taken, Spain and Denmark have joined the war and our east coast is being blockaded, So over all it's been a terrible year, by the way any idea why we're fighting against Spain of all people? I mean we used to get along just fine, we bought Florida from them not that long ago so it's not a territorial dispute, and Denmark why are we even fighting Denmark?"

Hank sighed.

"Spain and England are allies and they're currently working together to fight Napoleon and kick him out of Spain proper. They also kind of blame us for the whole Vanguard situation, and all of the rebels in their colonies who learned how to fight in Compass."

"Denmark?"

"If they win Denmark gets Florida."

I felt a sense of desperation.

"So they have more men, more ships, more money, how the hell are we going to win?"

Hank lifted a cup.

"By surviving."

I stared at the mirror.

"Excuse me?"

"Spain's dealing with revolutions that are happening throughout its empire on top of being occupied by France, the british are dealing with a massive continental war that they consider a war of national survivial and Denmark's only in the war because they think it will be easy."

He paused.

"We are a sideshow of a much more important conflict."

"You think you're going to um?"

"Make it? I don't know, we're cut off from everyone else and other then the occasional air raid and spy work the only thing we're doing for the cause is tying up a couple of thousand troops. Wish me luck I guess and merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas Hank."

I shivered in my cold tent and stared up at it.

"Hamilton."

I got up and left the tent I stood up ramrod strait and saluted the Captain, I didn't know who he was but he was a captan and was to be saluted anyways.

"As ease."

I relaxed my posture.

"You an autumn mage?"

I nodded.

"Well sorry about this then."

He handed me a letter I opened it and stared.

"You want me away from the front? But you need me here!"

"All autumn magi are to go to the city of Zone, no exceptions."

"But sir."

The man looked at me with tired eyes.

"Bring your men with you."

"But-"

He looked at me.

"You're going to talk about how your powers can help us right?"

I nodded my head.

"Well guess what? What we need are magi who can heal people which you can't do, build instant walls which you can't do and set people on fire which you can do but not for long because you will run out of power. If we were in the Navy you would have a point and all naval autumns get to stay right where they are, but you you're needed elsewhere."

"For what?"

"I don't Lieutenant and I'm too tired and cold to care, take your men and get to Zone, hopefully whatever their cooking up over there will save us all."