Gra Gryning

[Cherico]

John Hamilton



"I need to talk to him."

Oxhorn shrugged, I went onto my carpet and flew back to the tree, to Compass. There was a line of people, I waited my turn and found a golem.

"Professor."

I felt a sense of worry, it had been years.

"Welcome back John."

I stared at the golem.

"You remember me?"

"I remember all of my students John, all of my memories are like fly's frozen in amber. I heard you got your revenge?"

"Yes."

I suddenly felt a little lost.

"Well then come down with my golem, I'm looking over a few things."

"You're not busy?"

"Im always busy but I finally cleaned up that purple dye mess, so I'm in a good mood. I'm in one of the upper levels, if you want to talk person to person."

An elevator opened and I followed a golem.

"Heard you joined our new airforce."

"Yes, was that all your work?"

"I wish, I had a lot of help with that from former students like yourself."

The door opened and I blinked, I saw a temple of some sort.

"Where am I?"

"An exact recreation of a place long lost."

I followed the golem into a large building and saw scrolls, servitors lovingly maintained them. I followed the golem through the twisting corridors of greek pillars until I got to the center where Merlin stood over a scroll.

"What is this place?"

"When do you think I became aware of earth?"

I shrugged.

"I don't know."

"52 BC, one of my probes discovered your solar system."

I heard the sound of snapping fingers and saw an image.

"Earth 50 BC, it discovered your world it explored a great many places scanning them, 90% of the information that probe took was of one place, a library in Egypt."

I shrugged, it didn't sound important.

"I had protocols, orders. If life was scanned scan as much as possible, if intelligent life was found find a library and get an exact scan. Then look for more. That little probe gathered so much information that its stealth systems completely crashed."

"Stealth systems?"

"Didn't know how advanced a life form would be or how hostile, the system failed around May 18th 44BC."

he sighed.

"It took around 300 years for that probe to come back to me, it took me another thousand or so years for me to wake up from my cryosleep and then it took so long for me to get to your world."

"But you're a master of magic."

"The Milkyway is big, really really big, and I am not a god."

I looked at him.

"What is my purpose in life?"

"I do not know."

"What is the meaning of life?"

"I don't have a clue, I don't know if life even has a meaning."

I frowned.

"Is there a god?"

"I honestly do not know, I hope so."

"What happens to us after we die?"

Merlin shrugged.

"I have no idea what happens."

I felt a sense of frustration.

"How much does a human soul weigh?"

"21 grams or .741 of an ounce if you use imperial this is average weight some people have larger souls then others."

I stared at him.

"You know the weight of the human soul but you don't know what happens to us after we die?"

"The human soul is a measurable variable. Heaven, hell, reincarnation I don't have the instruments to measure that."

I felt a sense of desperation.

"I remember when every thing was clear, when I had a purpose and now that I fullfilled it I don't know what I'm doing, who I am."

"I'm sorry John but I can not give you a purpose, thats something you have to create for yourself."

"This would be so much easier if my father was around."

"Maybe so."

He turned back to his scroll.

"Can't you just give me ansers?"

"Not without lying to you John, a part of being wise is recognizing that you're not infallible and that no one knows every thing, that we have strengths and weaknesses. Thats why I'm trying to get professors that know more about other subjects to teach here."

The bubbling frustration came to a head.

"Then lie to me."

Merlin tilted his head.

"No."

I froze.

"What?"

"No, John. This has been a habit of yours. You want the world to be a simple one, a story where you're the hero. Well other people have stories John, other people are important too. You're not the only student I have had John, you're not the only one with a burning ambition, or a desire for revenge or just feeling lost."

He paused.

"You came here looking for power, to get your revenge. I offered you more then that but you refused it."

"Congratulations about your victory in Denmark."

"You're changing the subject John. Every time you feel some discomfort that doesn't fit your view of the world or of yourself you try to avoid it, that's one of the reasons why you feel lost."

I felt a sense of akwardness, of realization.

"I, I think I wasted my time here, wasted my life, I spent so much of it on one man and now I don't know who I am anymore."

I sat down on a stone table.

"I know what that's like John."

"Really the great and wise Merlin, was once a failure?"

He looked at me with tired eyes.

"I am very very old John, I have failed numerous times, I have made numerous mistakes and I have a lot of regrets. I have felt just as lost at you do at this moment, and I pushed through it and in time so will you."

I looked down.

"Thank you."

I got up.

"I'm sorry for being a pest."

"John I have had many students, and some of them have been annoying, some of them have been proud and some of them arrogant. It is true you were a very challenging student but I'm still happy that you came here, problems and all."

A servitor came forward and I saw a book.

"What's this?"

"A gift, some thing to celebrate you finally growing up."

I stared at it.

"Margites, never heard of it."

"Its a little obscure true but the author wrote some good stuff in the past and I think you will like this."

"Who's Homer?"

Merlin sighed.

"History teacher, humanities, I have to hire some actual professors clearly."

I smiled.

"Thank you sir."

"You're welcome John I wish you luck."

I turned around and started walking away.

"Oh and John?"

I looked back at him.

"I forgive you for the purple dye prank."

I froze, a feeling of terror in my veins.

"Thank you sir."

"I trust it won't ever happen again?"

My mouth was dry.

"No sir it won't."

 

[Cherico]

John Hamilton


"You have been very quiet."

I flew the Purpose in the darkness.

"Oxhorn."

"Yes?"

I thought about the book that Merlin had given me. It was funny but part of it hit too close to home.

"Am I an idiot?"

"Yes."

I glared at my second in command.

"Aren't you supposed to soften the blow or try to put it in more polite terms?"

"Sir with all due respect the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. Since the lives of our men depend on you being smart enough to control this ramshackle device, it is vital for me to help you get your head out of your ass."

"So I am an idiot."

"If it helps you're becoming less of one as time passes but yes you have done extraordinarilystupid things."

I frowned.

"But you're not the worst officer we have had by a long shot, if you're an idiot at least you're a salvagable one. Why, in time we may just turn you into an man of average means and thinking."

I took the information in.

"Thank you for your honesty."

There was no use in punishing the messenger.

"So I need a slight favor."

"And that favor?"

"A stop by my home in Kentucky."

"And that's?"

"On the Ohio river you can't miss it."

I changed course and we flew along the river, Oxhorn had a lively happy look on his face and smiled as we got closer.

"We're here."

I took our ship downwards. My eyes opened in shock as I saw a giant building, and trees, lots and lots of trees, in nice neat rows. We landed inside one of the massive walls. Then the ground shook, I felt a sense of fear and terror as a giant contraption walked towards us.

Oxhorn smiled at the monstrosity got closer to us.

"What the hell is that?"

He shrugged.

"A giant mechanical spider."

He said it in a bored tone as if that made complete and utter sense.

"SCOTTY!

The giant machine lowered and Oxhorn's wife jumps off of it and into his arms, she nuzzled into his chest.

"So glad you're back home."

"Good to see you."

I looked around.

"This is big... Um, so who helped you build this?"

She smiled.

"No one, well that isn't correct Merlin helped me learn all the principles. I had to learn a lot about water treatment, agriculture, and he helped give me the seeds, oh and it took a lot ofarchitecture lessons too."

"Architecture?"

"Yes, can't have any stairs, I wanted to be able to maximize space and cut down on labor. You see there are over 5000 kinds of apples out there and I wanted to have the very best apple farm. Here on Lynn's farm we grow around 500 varieties, using a mixture of open air growingand green houses. Of course the whole thing is built on a leyline nexus, took me a while to scout it all out and find a nexus with river access but."

I stared at her as she went from topic to topic, my eyes glazed over as I tried desperately to stay awake, Oxhorn had a look of silent pride on his face.

"And that's how I was able to figure out how to get a constant stream of apples instead of having to wait for the right season."

"Sounds um....impressive?"

"Really, what part impressed you the most?"

I willed my brain to find an effective lie that would make me look at least somewhat educated.

"I have no idea what you said and don't understand any of those concepts."

I really hated my stupid brain.

"Its all just engineering, all spring Magi get a full course on it."

"I'm not a spring magi, I'm an autum one."

"Oh well then you took a class in hydrodynamics right?"

I shook my head.

"Architecture right?"

I grimaced.

"Well not medicine because that's just a bad idea for you lot but biology?"

My head went down.

"Compass requires all of its students to learn some kind of trade, Ok lets go over the basics, blacksmithing, glassmaking, pottery, tailoring."

"I um... kind of only learned the minimum and forgot quite a bit."

"You have to have learned some thing, Compass requires all graduates to be capable at least one non magical trade."

I smiled.

"I passed the bar exam."

Lynn stared at me.

"You went to the biggest largest school of magic."

"Yes."

"One that has knowlege about astronomy, chemistry, biology, and engineering that is far in advance of most schools on earth to learn law."

"Yes."

She stared at me.

"Why?"

"Because my murdered father was a lawyer and it was my way of honoring him."

Lynn stared at me and nodded.

"That's an acceptable reason."

I decided to take what small victories I could and smiled.

 

[Cherico]

John Hamilton


"Bringing some Hard cider into town. Want to come with?"

When asked wether you wanted to ride a giant mechanical spider or not the correct reply is always yes.

"I'm in."

I helped put the barrels of cider onto the giant behemoth of a machine and Oxhorn smiled as the machine roared to life.

"Missed this."

The machine jumped over the walls and started going down hill.

"Rambling around in a giant mechanical spider?"

"Yes."

I looked back at the castle.

"So it looks like your whole apple operation is a good one, why is it doing so badly?"

"Labor."

I stared at him.

"What?"

"The problem is getting people who are willing to work at a enchanted castle for relatively low wages."

"Can't you just buy some slaves I mean its legal here right?"

"No, slavery was made illegal about 1799, I get why you think that. We are next to Virginia and Tennessee where slavery is legal, but it isn't legal here."

"Why?"

"Officially some preacher named David Rice managed to convince the people of Kentucky of the evils of slavery and got us to collectively repent. The real reason is because of Big Tobacco."

"Tobacco?"

Oxhorn stopped the spider and brought out a bar of metal.

"Bend that with your hands."

I tried and failed.

"I don't see the point of this."

Oxhorn pulled out a small box and brought out a pipe, he put a substance inside.

"Light?"

I lit up the pipe and he took a small smoke, then he grabbed the bar with his hands and bent it easily. My eyes widened.

"Bullrush, made using tobaco and some blood from a bull, a single puff makes you 10 times stronger for a couple hours. There are other varieties crow's flight, eagle's vision, deer's speed. Tobacco is one of the best reagents out there and the amount of magical combinations you can have with it is astounding. We call the products made from this process alchemical tobbaco."

"Why haven't I heard of it?"

"Because the demand for alchemicals is that high. You see in the orient, China to be exact? They love the stuff, every year like clockwork they buy out our entire stock. Thing is there's a downside."

I looked at him.

"It's poisonous?"

"Um no, not that. First step of making tobbaco a useful reagent is to remove the toxic aspects. No the real downside is this, a reagent's usefulness in magic is based on its metaphysical value. Slave labor destroys that metaphysical value."

"Is there any way to prevent that?"

"No, or at least we haven't found a way to by pass that, we found out about that problem pretty early. In virginia and other tobacco states slavery is pretty entrenched. Here in Kentucky though, while there were a lot of slaves and plantations, you had small tobacco farms."

I leaned in.

"The untainted tobacco it could go for 3 times the price of slave tobbacco and these farmers started getting rich, other people jumped on the band wagon and soon you had an entire industry, but the best growing land for tobacco was in the hands of the plantation owners."

"So you made slavery illegal?"

"Aye, it completely ruined the plantation owners lively hoods, bankrupted the lot of 'em. With nothing to their name they didn't have a choice but to sell, and the alchemical market grew. These days its the single biggest export our state has."

"You send the tobbacco to Zone?"

"No we brought magi over to Kentucky and do all of it here, but since all the money is in alchemicals farms that do other things like mine are not able to afford the labor costs that Big tobacco can pay out. Not with the chinese buying out the states supply of alchemicals."

The spider started moving and I saw a small town in the distance.

"And so you had to join the army?"

"It's not as bad as it used to be, my younger brother moved in with his family and my children help out where they can."

I nodded my head.

"So I learned something new today, slave labor screws up reagents."

"And more, even if slavery was legal some thing about it... Well it makes you magi people, um sick. Every time I've seen a magi inherit a slave or go into the business they just get really sick and waste away and die. So you know, don't do that."

"Really?"

"Really, I don't know what it is about you magic folk but it's one of those things you just can't do."

I stared at the ground as we entered the town, the townsfolk didn't look at us with terror, no to my surprise they looked at us with bored resignation, a giant mechanical spider was in theirmidst some fear should be warranted.

At the very least I should have the right to laugh maniacally. An old man stepped forward.

"Brought the cider?"

Oxhorn nodded.

"Good, we need more hard stuff, got a lot of boys who will be getting off work soon enough."

"We're driving a giant mechanical spider."

The old man looked at me.

"So?"

"Giant mechanical spider."

"Your point being?"

"Doesn't that impress you?"

"Boy what would impress me would be enough hard cider for all my customers."

I took a breath.

"Well I think it's impressive."

 

[Cherico]

John Hamilton


We flew back to New Orleans the next day, our ship was filled with barrel after barrel of hard cider.

"There is no way the brass will accept this."

Oxhorn shrugged.

"Im sure that Colonel Jackson can be persuaded to be reasonable."

I stared in Oxhorn.

"The same Jackson that has killed over a dozen men in duels? that Jackson?"

Oxhorn shrugged.

"They had a chance to apologize."

I sighed and grimaced as we landed in the airfield, we got out and I felt a sense of fear and terror.

"Supreme commander Jackson its good to see you."

My heart beat faster, as he walked past me to Oxhorn.

"You have the cider?"

"Yes sir?"

"How hard is it?"

"Good enough to prevent the dread curse known as sobriety sir."

"I will be the judge of that."

A barrel was brought out and I grimaced as he opened it and took a sip.

"Strong stuff."

"Is that a problem?"

"Not in the least, my boys will take this away, the money will be placed in a separate account."

The commander's eyes bored into mine.

"There are not enough pelicans, your ship will spend the rest of the year transporting goods toZone. Then if you make a stop off in Kentucky and pick up more of this cider for the troops... Well I can find it in my heart to overlook it."

He looked at me and my crew.

"You and your boys should rest, for now go out drink some whisky."

We saluted him and I stared at Oxhorn.

"You made a deal?"

"If I can serve my country and save my farm at the same time that would be a good thing right?"

"This seems like a misuse of government property."

"You and the rest of the crew will get a portion of the profits."

"I salute you for your dedication to our cause Oxhorn."

He smirked.

"Thought you would see it that way."

With that I made my way to the bar, I smiled as I saw Kalki play on her Sax. She looked up and smiled at me, a red headed woman sang next to her.

"She is handsome, she is pretty she is the belle of Belfast city."

I sat down across from Kalki's chair as the Irish woman sang about some girl. I saw some people dancing along to the song. Eventually, all too soon, it ended. Kalki took her seat.

"Missed you preacher man how are you doing?"

I sighed.

"It occurs to me that I have not been entirely honest with my intentions."

Kalki raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"I, well a part of me, likes you for less then honorable reasons."

"Honor can be highly overated. I'd rather win."

I coughed, and Kalki put her hand on top of mine, her fingers intertwined with mine.

"I missed you John."

"I missed you too."

Her hand squeezed mine.

"So, are we um, lovers now?"

"No, I know what it's like to live without a father, I wouldn't put that onto anyone. I'm afraid, if you want to get into my bed, that I'm going to need commitment, but I am willing to talk to you more."

"Take this slow?"

"As slow as a war will allow us to, if you want to back out now I will understand."

I smiled.

"I think I will stay right here."

"A smart man then."

She smiled and I felt just a little bit better, the future was uncertain, but for that one moment I was content.

 

[Cherico]

John Hamilton

Time passed, and the month of may came all too soon. My ship transported that mystery substance to zone, stopped in Kentucky, picked up hard cider

"Hey."

I looked up at the familiar voice.

"Hank?"

He sat down at the bar, tired, as Kalki played on.

"Captain Hank these days."

"The fort?"

He sighed.

"We got every one out of there and then charged the inner walls, I'm told the explosion covered the entire island. Took a couple months to get that kind of charge for it."

"And they promoted you?"

He shrugged.

"I heroically held my post for around half a year against the british and their savage allies, I'm now officially a hero."

He said the word hero with resignation.

"What happened to everyone else?"

"The civilians are in Ohio, everyone else was split off into different units spread around the country. Goodwitch asked for permission to go off hunting."

"Deer, Elk, Bear?"

"Techumsa, the leader of the savages. Her husband died during the siege, she took it badly."

I winced.

"So you didn't grant it right?"

"No I did, Glenda did a lot for us, all of us, before the siege and during it, I owed her that chance, so I wrote up a letter and let her go hunting, that was... God that was months ago."

"Is she still alive?"

Hank sighed.

"Don't know, I hope she is. Glenda's good people."

"Think she will pull it off?"

Hank laughed bitterly.

"No way, Glenda's good, one of the best but she's not that good, no one's that good. It doesn't matter that she was taught magic from the age of two, it doesn't matter how experienced she is, there are simply too many of them and it's far too deep in enemy lines."

"So what brings you here?"

"Well now that I'm officially some kind of defensive genus, General Jackson has tasked me with organising the defense of the city."

"And?"

"I told him I don't have a damned clue what I'm doing and I just got lucky, he told me I better get lucky again if I know what's good for me."

He took a drink of whisky.

"So with that done, I've studied every map I could of the area, the cities leyline's."

"And?"

"And all I did was try to organize the magi forces and get them to all work together to bring what ever horrible nasty idea they had to fruition."

"And?"

"It's like herding cats, every one had some devil idea, and all I'm doing is getting every one on the same page, don't know if any of it will help at all."

It was then that I noticed that Hank was thinner, he sighed.

"Are you doing well?"

"No these Quinine rations give me a painful migraine."

"Quinine?"

"Some substance made from the bark of some tree, apparently it helps prevent you from dying from malaria."

"Does it work?"

"Oh yes it definitely does, there hasn't been a single death from malaria since the general started making every one in the army have it, but it tastes horrrible and and it gives me these damned migraines and nightmares."

"That bad?"

"Ugh it could be worse, so you're an airman now?"

I shrugged.

"I got drafted into it."

"It works for you. I'm thankful the service exists, none of us would have gotten out of thatsiege alive without your help."

We stared at each other and Kalki sat next to me, I worried for a moment, what Hank would think. She was a good woman but she was also colored and as Kalki's hand went on top of mine I worried.

Hank looked at her.

"You courting this man?"

Kalki shrugged and Hank sighed.

"Good."

I blinked at the comment.

"Keep this airman's feet on the ground and head out of the clouds."

"I will try sir."

Hank nodded.

"Well I better get back to it, there's another damned meeting, more math and some more agonizing over the maps, and then I have to go sooth some hurt feelings."

"Hurt feelings?"

"Interservice rivalries, some Navy boys and army boys and air boys got in a fight now I have to go make sure they all get along."

He got up.

"So what's it like being a hero Hank?"

Hank sighed.

"Exhausting, but that's going to be over real soon, the british arn't going to attack this city not with Nappy at their heels, pretty soon I will become irrevelant again and can hopefully get another post in the middle of nowhere where it's nice and safe and nothing happens."

"You think?"

"Yeah I mean what are the chances of me having to deal with another siege?"

 

[Cherico]

John Hamilton


I walked next to Hank as he inspected maps, and looked up as magi worked on rune work.

"Good job folks, keep it up."

He wrote down some more notes.

"That quinine stuff tastes like garbage."

Hank shrugged.

"I know but rules are rules, if you go into the swamps you take a quinine ration. It isn't as horrible if you mix it with hard cider."

"So what are you writing?"

"Notes on who is doing the best work so I can give them proper credit."

"Not going to try to take credit for all of this?"

"Hell no John, I am not going to risk getting a promotion, My plan is to get all the defenses up, get the supplies lined up so it looks good and then make damned sure some other fool gets all the credit."

"So that's the plan?"

Hank chuckled.

"Plan? No I do not have a plan, what I have is a series of priorities. Every magi out there? They have a plan, an idea, the only thing I do is try to get them all organized so they don't get in each other's way."

He nodded.

"Good news every one! Plan C is now officially executed, everyone thank Tom for his idea, with Plan C enacted that means we can start working on plan D."

"Plan D?"

"There's a million plans so to get all the magi working together I put the best ideas on a list, once one is finished we can move on to the next one. I reward the best team with chocolate."

"Chocolate?"

"I called in a few favors when the old bird got back, he's not exactly happy that Glenda left but he appreciated me allowing her to do what she needed to do enough to give me a load of chocolate."

We walked back to the base and he stopped the small army of around a thousand magi.

"Good good, since everyone's finished with Plan C you all have leave, Rob here will give you a list of things you're allowed to brag about to the whores, or fast ladies or just in general."

Paperwork was passed out and the magi scattered.

"List?"

"Look in my experience you're always going to have at least one loud mouth who wants to talk about how great he is and nothing's going to stop him, so rather then have him brag and screw things up I'd rather give him some thing that puffs him up and doesn't foul everything up."

"Sounds cynical."

He shrugged.

"It is, but If we do have spys I'd rather have them walk the enemy through the most well defended trapped part of our defenses then actually hurt us."

"Doesn't sound fair."

Hank smirked.

"Life's unfair, and I'd much rather it be unfair in my favor, come on lets get you another quinine ration and some hard cider."

We walked inside his small office and had a drink.

"Paper sir."

A small boy put a newspaper on his desk.

"Thanks Joe."

He tossed a coin at the boy who smiled and left.

"Who's the boy?"

"An orphan who just got out of the accelerated Magi program, I have them help out the older magi."

He smiled.

"I also have them spread rumors."

"Really?"

"All of it lies of course, but children talk so best to have them talk about nonsense right?"

"Right, right."

We toasted drinks.

"To the first day of June."

The paper was opened revealing the headline.

"Tecumseh slain."

We stared at each other and read the paper further, Hank's hands shook as he read it, he then put down the paper.

"Well."

He paused.

"It appears that she pulled it off."

"They're not going to make a woman a general are they?"

Hank sighed.

"John never question if Madison is mad enough to do some thing."

He opened up the paper.

"General Goodwitch."

"They don't mention that she's a woman."

"No they don't, but its best to be polite, she does out rank us after all."

We continued to sit in silence.

"You think she will do a good job?"

Hank shrugged.

"Don't have a clue, but I doubt we will be hearing much more of her, the president will either put her somewhere far out of the way or give her an impossible task. He might be a man of his word but he's not going to let this get much more exposure then it's already gotten."

 

[Cherico]

John Hamilton


Boredom, extreme overwhelming boredom.

"Yancy?"

"Not seeing anything sir."

With Merlin back in compass they made more pelicans, the ships took over my old job of transporting whatever that substance was. Hank graciously got me a position standing guard over the air. We lingered high in the air and spent 8 hours a day looking for enemy ships approching New Orleans.

"Of course."

3 months, 3 months of nothing, It was boring infuriating work, I killed time by working on cannon balls.

"What you working on John?"

I looked up at Yancy.

"Another cannonball, just enchanting it with the nastiest runes and spells I can. When I'm finished put it with the others."

"Yes sir."

With all the free time in the world and nothing to do this became my hobby, try to create the nastiest explosion possible. After a couple days the entire ball would be covered in glowing runes and then put with the others.

"Glad it's september."

Yancy was just making small talk now about the slightly less horrible weather. We all shrugged.Yancy liked to talk a lot, there was some part of him that hated silence and he would just talk and talk and talk."

"Commander?"

I looked up at Oxhorn.

"Yes?"

"Message from the base."

I sighed and looked at the strange man in the mirror.

"We just got a message from one of our ravens, enemy ships. We need you to see if anything's there."

I nodded.

"All right."

"We're getting all the other gulls outfitted and waking up all the troops and sailors just in case but it never hurts to have a second pair of eyes on it."

We flew our ship out and I froze in terror as I saw the ships.

"Command, we have ships."

I counted them.

"Around 120 of them heading to shore."

The man nodded.

"Where are they going?"

I gave the coordinates.

"Permission to strike, sir?"

The man went away and came back.

"No, the word from command is to wait, let them drop off all of their troops and then strike their ships."

"But sir."

"This order comes from Supreme commander Jackson himself, wait for the other gulls to arrive, let them unload their troops and then strike and strike hard with every thing you have."

We got above them, and loaded the cannon with the special cannon balls, I watched with trepidation as the ships unloaded their men, in the spy glass I saw thousands of them walk out.

The other 20 gulls came out and joined me, we kept them informed about the progress.

"Tell us when they start bringing out cannons artillery."

We waited and then the men got off I saw a mixture of british and spanish forces.

"Cannons, I see cannons."

"Strike now."

We were still on a ley line, I summoned that energy and power.

"Careful, we cant afford to miss."

I stepped to the wheel and carefully manipulated time, and fate a ship exploded as our cannon hit dead center, months of boredom and hard work paying off.

"Another one."

I drew hard on the ley line, my hands went through the motions trying to guide fate.

"FIRE!"

Another ship gone, the other gulls were firing, we concentrated on the ships that were unloading cannons. I dragged hard on the lines again and moved my hands as my boys put another special into the cannon.

"FIRE!"

Another, ball another hit, I lost track of time of place there was only the ships below and the pull of magic.

"Another one."

"We're out of enchanted balls."

I looked up at Oxhorn.

"Then aim at the masts and use normal balls."

I continued to pull on magic for more mana, my very soul felt like it was burning, every part of me felt exausted and then every thing got darker and darker.

"Sir?"

There was a trick I learned at compass, I pulled on my health my own body for extra power, I coughed up some blood.

"Another."

The other gull's concentrated fire on the remaining ships I didn't see a mass on any of them.

"The ships are disabled."

"Then keep firing!"

"The navy's here sir we."

"KEEP FIRING!"

I pushed myself harder trying to manipulate fate itself for another shot and passed out every thing went dark, and I felt the floor.

When I woke up I felt some thing cool on my forehead, my vision cleared.

"Awake, preacherman?"

I looked up.

"Kalki?"

She sat down next to me, I saw that I was in some kind of bed, I felt sicky, smelly and weak.

"Yeah."

"Good, its October by the way."

I got up and groaned.

"Where am I?"

"New Orleans."

"The battle?"

"Well we destroyed their ships before they could unload most of their artillery."

"Good."

"Then our ships used their cannons on their troops, killed quite a few of their men. Got to give the brits and the spanish some credit they didn't break, they marched away in good order."

"Yeah?"

"Right into the most horrible and nastiest magical defenses we have."

I winced.

"Don't know why they did that, killed even more of them, they lost what few cannon's they had in those swamps."

"Did we win?"

Kalki nodded.

"Fighting lasted about two weeks, they got to the very edge of the city but when they got to us they were a mess and didn't have any cannons left. Killed quite a few of them in the fighting."

"Good for you."

She smiled.

"I know. About the second week they broke, tried to run."

"Yes?"

"Right into out gravity traps, and a bunch of trees enchanted to explode at will. Finished them off in the swamps."

"Any survivors?"

"A couple of them managed to surrender we got one of their generals, some officers, I think around 500 of them survived, they're in some camp now."

"So we won?"

Kalki nodded.

"Yes, we won, I was told to tell you out of all the airships you got the most kills. Enough that they made up a new title for you."

"What?"

"Ace, from the playing cards, any one who sinks more then 5 enemy ships gets that title."

"Nice."

She nodded.

"It is."

She kissed me on the forehead.

"Get better soon John."

I smiled.

"I will try."

 

[Cherico]

General Isack brook


The loss of tecumsa hit me hard on a personal level. I considered him to be a personal friend. Meeting him was like meeting someone who was great, between the two of us I honestly considered him to be the better man. He had a skill for warfare, for statecraft, for negotation, and diplomacy. He deserved a chance to be the father of his own country.

That chance was stolen from him in the middle of the night, someone hid in the darkness killing his men. Killing his friends, guards and others and he went to investigate, that killed him. It wasn't a stand up fight, it was one angry witch in the dead of night. It angered the tribal alliance.

They didn't break with his death, not immediately. Instead they got angry and they attacked and attacked hard. There was no more restraint against civilians, not any more, we made progress in that mad frenzy of revenge, but it didn't last. In their zeal to attack, our allies attacked positions on terrain favorable to the enemy. They made mistakes and made bad ones, and our progress was pushed back into Michigan and then the news came it got worse.

120 ships, and over 20,000 men dead.

The battle of New Orleans was by any measure a failure.

Why did it happen? Bad intelligence. Our spies in New Orleans, and we had a large amount of them, told us about a path towards the city, one that lacked any defenses at all. If we could just get through that path we could strike the least defended part of the city and claim it.

With New Orleans in our hands we would have control of the mississippi river and would be able to prevent the americans from ever expanding west again. With their expansion checkedCanada, our west indian properties and our native allies would be safe. The balance of power in north america would be permanently tilted in our favor.

We asked the spanish for help in this venture and they produced matching forces to aid us. The problem was the airforce, communications and inteligence, our forces were caught during the landing. The biggest ships were destroyed first, then firepower was concentrated on the remaining ships.

Then the american navy came out and trapped what remaining ships we had in a vice. Every ship was sunk, with this done, their ships came forward and struck our forces on land. We were forced to leave behind what little artillery we had and march toward the city in an effort to take it as quickly as possible.

The path through the traps, the safe road, turned out to be a lie. Explosions, fire, lighting filled swamp water, illusions. I'm told it was an unnatural nightmare world. By the time our forces managed to get through that horrible path, half of our forces were dead.

Then the empty part of the city that was supposed to be undefended wasn't. Walls had beenerected and the enemy faced us. They understood the terrain, they had artillery, and they had magi, over 500 of them.

It's to our credit that our forces lasted 2 weeks, we barely had any supplies, didn't know the terrain and walked directly into a trap, and on top of that was malaria, honestly disease and malaria killed more of our troops then the damned enemy did, though the enemy killed more then their fair share.

It was a defeat, by itself it wouldn't have amounted to much, but after the Zone slaughter, the siege of Macinack and the death of Tecumseh, feelings in London were getting nervous, and our spanish allies were of the opinion that our original plan to slowly whittle them down and cripple their ability to make money with a blocade just wasn't working.

The americans seemed to come up with one nasty trick after another and time just seemed to make them more dangerous not less. After New Orleans the Spanish had leverage. They had a plan, an all out attack on the enemy's capital. This time Spain was determined not to take any chances, men were summoned from around the empire, ships were summoned from around the empire and not just naval ships merchant ships as well.

It was one of the most massive undertakings of the war, it was some thing unprecedented and they needed our help with logistics, with bases, with money but they made it work. The spanish called this vast undertaking operation pesadilla. With the end of 1813 I hoped and prayed that 1814 would be a better one and that operation pesadilla would be a success.

 

[Cherico]

John Hamilton


"New orders all pelicans and seagulls to zone, no exceptions."

The orders seemed odd to me but I followed them to the letter. When we got to Zone every pelican was loaded with strange barrels, every gull was also loaded with them. We were given some powder and cannon balls but were told not to fire unless we were told to, then we flew to a small town in Maryland named Bladenburg.

The Pelicans dropped off their wooden drums, going to zone then back to Bladenburg in a circle. It was around 2 weeks later that we were told to fly East and then I saw the ships.

So many ships heading towards us, towards Bladenburg.

"Commander, enemy ships."

"We know."

"I can't stop them all but."

"No one fires until the order is given, let them into the river."

I wanted to fire, to protect my country but I followed orders, then I noticed some thing the river was turning black.

"Everyone, attention! throw the barrels overboard into the river! don't question it just do it!"

We opened up the back of our airship and complied. Our barrels either missed or did nothing to the ships below us, that seemingly endless parade of ships. Suddenly the entire Potomac river was seemingly full of ships. I saw them unloading men, material. It was horrible, I felt weak, impotent in the face of this invasion.

"Is the entire fleet in?"

"Yes sir."

An entire fleet unloading an army of men.

"All Gulls to the mouth of the river the one that leads to the ocean, shoot any ship that tries to escape."

I begrudingly left that poor port city behind and went to the mouth of the bay.

"Good, Now."

Then the river caught on fire, even from the distance I heard the screams of the enemy. I saw naval vessels, our naval vessels, sally forth and block the entrance of the river. We followed our orders to the letter. Shooting at any ship that tried to escape.

We could all hear the screaming of the dead and dying men as they were burning alive, we could all smell the stench of cooked flesh, a part of me felt disgust and revulsion. This wasn't war any more, this was slaughter total and indiscriminate.

"Don't let any ship escape."

We followed our orders our stomachs sick as the river burned. Eventually as it got darker the screaming stopped, the fires died down and we saw the burnt wrecks of the ships below us. I stared at the devastation we had caused and felt sick.

"Attention all seagulls, you are to return to your posts, Pelicans you are to head to the capital."

I couldn't speak, maybe it was from the smoke, maybe it was from the sheer emotion of the event, but I didn't say anything. I just took my ship down to new orleans.

The enemy captured the city of Blandenburg without a fight. They were able to land troops, cannons and material there, enough for an army, one of the largest armies of the war, we destroyed their ships and in return this army was heading to our nation's capital.

Blandenburg didn't feel like a victory to me, to any of us. The entire crew flew home in hushed silence, maybe it was guilt, maybe it was the enormity of the event. When we finally got back home to New Orleans, none of us talked about it. None of us bragged about it, it just seemed some thing too terrible to talk about.

 

[Cherico]

James Madison



I kept my word.

Yes she was a woman, yes she was a witch, yes she had killed him using less then honorable methods but techumseh was dead and she had been raised by Merlin. It wouldn't do to upset him not when he had done so much to help make my victory possible.

Glenda Goodwitch, she wore glasses, her hair was a bright gold held in a tight bun, her face was in a frown, she looked severe and overly serious. I purposely kept my eyes away from her bossom. She looked younger then her years suggested. It was difficult to take her seriously.

General Glenda Goodwitch, I didn't give her an official command in the field. Instead I ordered her to see to the defense of the capital keep her out of battle where she could be hurt. When she got the order she simply asked me.

"What is vital? What are you willing to sacerfise, and how badly do you want to win?"

I considered the question absurd, I drew a circle around a map of the capital.

"Every thing in here is vital, the rest I don't care about, do what ever you need to do."

I gave her some magi to control, not the best of course it was a small contingent of around a thousand or so, of the deaf and dumb. People who had volunteered but were useless for actual fighting. After all how could you fight if you couldn't hear the enemy.

"What resources do I have for the defense of the city?"

I shrugged.

"If you need any thing ask your father, or take anything that isn't being used by someone else."

I waved her off.

Walls were erected around the capital, I didn't pay attention to it, there were complaints but I didn't listen to them, the city needed walls. Then I got messages of stone pillars being erectedaround the city but I ignored it, I had bigger concerns.

One of these bigger concerns was the buildup of the spanish navy their preparations to take our capital. There wasn't one spy who got the information back to us but a multitude. An operation that large was difficult to keep secret, some of our sources were working for independence movements. Some were whores, some were men looking for extra money, and some of it was just overheard talk.

Operational secrecy wasn't some thing the spanish were particularly good at, and they were convinced that a strike force of this size would be more then enough to win them victory, and they were right.

If they had caught us unawares, if we didn't know the location and date of the attack they would have been garanteed victory, magi or not, but we had been preparing.

Greek fire, made from this black oily substance over a period of months of a period close to a year stock piled incase of a major naval landing. We used up every single drop we had, we turned the potomic black with that sludge and then we set the river on fire.

The spanish fleet died, the british fleet died, but they had managed to successfully unload most of their men, equipment, and supplies. eighty thousand men from around the spanish empire, and five thousand british regulars.

All of them heading towards washington, towards the capital. I ordered a complete evacuation generals, materials, my own wife it was then that I found General Goodwitch standing on the walls of the city. I tried to order her to leave and she looked at me.

"I have been ordered to see to the defense of the city, I will defend it to the last."

"We will lose, there are too many men."

"Then we have a duty to hold off them off, to give our forces time to recover."

Her eyes were as cold as ice, and I felt a sense of shame that a woman had more courage then me. I decided to stay, I told George Clinton my vice president to rule as best he could, to keep up the faith and the cause.

I would die with the capital, with my city and with my republic, armed with the knowlege that I was doomed, that I would die, I felt a sense of calm. I had been a sickly boy and then a sickly man, but I would die a brave one and for what ever my faults I could rest easy knowing that we had made them pay dearly for their victory here.

Glenda stood there calmly, as the troops surrounded us, their numbers seemed endless. A deaf man around the age of 20 came up to us his hands moved and Glenda nodded, her hands also moved and the man left.

"What was that?"

"The army or at least the vast majority of it is past the pillars."

She pulled out a small box and opened it.

"What are you doing?"

She looked at me.

"Winning."

She pulled out a small silver bracelet, it glowed with red symbols at the center was a single red ruby, she put it on and studied the bracelet as the enemy got closer and closer.

I said nothing, accepting my fate.

"Good."

She snapped her fingers and fire rose up from the ground, pillars of flame all around me, I saw that small force of the deaf and dumb their hands moving as the flames rose and comsumed every thing in sight, by some miracle the fires stopped right at the walls of the city.

All I saw was fire it was as if the fires of hell had comsumed the earth.

"Fire, in order for fire to exist it needs three things, heat, fuel and air. So I had children bring dry brush, wood and other things into the circle inbetween the walls and the pillars, took me months but I filled that entire area with dry brush."

I stared at the wall of fire.

"Its called a firestorm its a fire so strong that it creates its own wind system it normally happens only with the largest brush fires and wildfires, it takes a lot of work to make one of those happen here, but I had time and plenty of it."

We watched as the fire continued to rage around the city, consuming everything in its path.Eventually, in time, they died down. My throat felt dry as I stared at the devastation, at the dead burnt bodies and mangled remnants of cannons.

Glenda looked almost bored by the devastation.

"My men."

I blinked.

"They deserve a new name, I think I will call them the silent legion."

I nodded at her, as my heart beat in my chest.

"Sounds fair."

"Mind if we grab some airships?"

"Why?"

She smiled.

"I think it would be nice to visit spain this time of year, after all they took the time to visit us it's only fair we return the favor."

I steadied my nerves.

"It seems entirely reasonable to me."

"Very well, when our forces return to the capital I will gather up some men and supplies, oh and does your wife want anything? The shopping in Madrid is limited but I do want to pick some thing up for Dolly."

"She likes silver."

Glenda nodded.

"Excellent, well I'm off to go finish off the stragglers, can't have them off causing problems."

I continued to stand there as she left, watching the burnt remains and ashes of the world outside the cities walls.

 

[Cherico]

Ferdinand the 7th of Spain



It was a simple plan, use overwhelming force, put down the americans and stop the flow of magic to the rebellions in the americas. We sent one third of Spain's ships. Not our navy, our ships period. Naval vessals, merchant ships, what ever we could gather, and in one battle they were completely destroyed.

That loss hurt but our troops had managed to get onto land, if we had captured the capital we could have won, the gamble could have paid off. The result was a second defeat, a second slaughter.

After the news came back to us we saw purple clouds in the sky, from the heavens we heard drums. A box landed in front of my palace the americans were here. General Goodwitch, the woman who had slaughtered my men were here to talk terms.

A space was opened and she slowly floated down to earth on a carpet.

"Your highness our demands."

I looked at the paperwork, at the maps, everything north of the Rio Grande river, the americans would hold both coasts. In return spain would be paid a sum of money.

"This is madness."

"Your navy is destroyed, your empire is rebelling enmass, the french still hold the northern stretch of Spain's motherland. Your country is massively in debt and much of your productive capabilities have been destroyed. The only way your empire can continue to exist is if you accept the money and use it to build a new navy."

She paused.

"If you end the conflict with us and act quickly you might be able to salvage a part of your navy."

"And if I don't?"

"You don't have the power to project power onto our country any more, our airships and navy will continue destroying what is left of your merchant shipping and what is left of your navy until there is nothing left."

She paused.

"While that is happening my forces will destroy Madrid's defenses, with your city taken we will invite Napoleon over and then we will negotiate with him."

"You wouldn't."

Her eyes were cold.

"We have negotiated with Napoleon in the past, we can do so again, so your choice is this, give up a mostly empty portion of your empire to save what little remains or lose everything."

I didn't have a choice at that moment, I knew that.

"When can I expect payment?"

"Half now, half when we are sure that you have complied with our demands."

I looked at the offered payment.

"This is about what you gave Napoleon, for the lousiana purchase."

"Exactly what we gave him."

I closed my eyes.

"I will gather my ministers and we will surrender."

There was no grand ceremony, no music, no celebrations. Instead there was a treaty, and a signature. They left the money in aluminum ingots. I suppose I could have turned around, used that to build a navy and get revenge, but the witch had a point.

My empire was in shambles, my country was partially occupied and we were near bankrupcy again. The american adventure was my idea, I had arrogantly thought that the might of Spain would easily crush the upstart nation. I had been warned against this course of action.

I had ignored those warning and this was the price.

It was a painful meeting, that meeting with the witch, but the war was over now. If the english wanted to continue the war they could do so, too many spanish ships had been destroyed, too many of us had died and it was all my fault.

 

[Cherico]

General Isack brook


The Baldenburg slaughter, the DC nightmare.

The spanish had gambled and lost. On April 1st 1814 they surrendered, they admitted defeat and sold the americans land all the way to california. If the goal of the war, if our policy in the americas had a point, it was to limit the growth of american power.

To contain them, and keep them from being a threat to canada. This had proved to be an utter failure. The Zone massacre, the New Orlean's rout, the disaster of Baldenburg, and the destruction in washington were horrible pieces of news. The surrender of Spain, that was the last straw.

This war over the impressment of a few sailors simply wasn't worth it. It was clear that we needed a large alliance to defeat the american's and our allies on the continent were in firm agreement that it wasn't going to happen.

Napoleon came first.

We came to terms with Madison, we agreed to stop impressing american sailors, some things about trade, and that the border between canada and america would be at the 49th parallel. Our native allies, who had fought so hard for us, were left twisting in the wind.

We demanded reparations, a way to assuage the blow caused by the war. To our surprise the americans agreed to pay it, on the condition that it would be in goods instead of currency.

Our diplomats agreed to those terms.

We also had a final demand, Merlin would no longer be allowed to fight in america's wars. This demand was also met, with the provision that exceptions would be made if the survival of the human race was at stake.

We agreed to those terms as well.

In May 25th the war of 1812 ended, our leaders pointed to the reparations and tried to say it was a british victory, no one really believed it. The mood was glum and sad and we concentrated our full attention on defeating Napoleon once and for all.

It took us till 1815 to finally do it.

We expected the americans to dither, to stall with their reparation payments. To our pleasant surprise that didn't happen and if anything they overpayed us.

I still have no idea what we are going to do with all that purple dye.

 

[Cherico]

Lighting Jaque Chabot

1768-1815


Jaque Cabot or lightning Jaque was the best known member of Napoleon's bodyguards and agents. Jaque, according to french legends, sold his little sister to a wizard in exchange for great power and his magic sword Justice. This interpretation is greatly unfair to Jaque. The wizard in question was a family friend and was very wealthy.

His sister Andrea loved her new wizard husband dearly and would give him seven children. Far from cutting his sister out of his life he wrote letters to her till the day he died. Lightning Jaque, after almost losing his family to a revolt, became rather conservative but he also blamed the old regime for the near disaster.

Being a young boy at the time he decided to focus on his military career. While young Jaque wasn't particularly gifted as an officer, he was a great warrior and with his abilities and magic sword was a terror on the battlefield. Time after time he proved his worth, helping to turn difficult battles into victories and eventually becoming the most dangerous swordsman in France.

His gift in combat was noticed by napoleon and he was inducted into his personal guard. As Napoleon's bodyguard Jaque and his sword became infamous to the enemy, with his sword killing officers, nobles and any one who declared themselves an enemy of france.

Attempts to kill him on the battlefield routinely failed, assassination plots using poison failed and attempts to kill his master were likewise foiled, with Jaque blocking an assassins bullet in 1810 with his own body and then beheading the assassin with his sword.

He became infamous for rushing into battle alone, or outnumbered, and coming out victorious. Second only to napoleon himself lightning Jaque was feared. He loyally served Napoleon for his entire life, dying with his master in 1815 in the battle of waterloo.

Upon seeing his dead body the duke of wellington ordered his artillery to fire upon it to make sure he was dead. Then he claimed Chabot's sword justice for himself. Someway though, due to bad luck, he lost the sword and it somehow made its way to Jaque's son, who would also go into the military and fight for france.

Today Lightning jaque is a celebrated hero inside of France and a villain outside of it. His magic sword justice remains in the hands of the Cabot family, somehow always managing to return to their hands despite being lost several times.

 

[Cherico]

James Madison


The war was over, and we had won.

We had gone into the war without much of a plan, thinking that our militias would be more then enough. We almost lost everything because of that, we went into the war thinking we didn't need a national bank and then had to be bailed out by the same old bird I insulted to get to my current position.

That could not be allowed to happen a second time.

So new legislation was drawn up and financial support was given to the army, to the navy and the new airforce. We could not afford a repeat of the mistakes of the past.

"He's waiting for you."

I got out of my office and headed towards the back of the white house, I took a brief moment to look outside the walls of the city to see the devastation and destruction that surrounded us and then left.

Dolly was back, congress was back, our country had expanded all the way to the west coast, we had defeated three empires single handedly. For someone who had always been rather sickly it was hard to think of myself as a military genius, which was fortunate because I wasn't one.

The doors were opened and I looked at the giant glowing bird who had saved our country.

"Its good to see you james."

"Good to see you too Merlin."

The silence was an akward one.

"So it's over."

My words came out suddenly.

"If you're talking about the war you are correct but in my experience nothing ever really ends."

I nodded at his statement.

"They're calling me the napoleon of the west."

Merlin tilted your head.

"I hope you realize that isn't a compliment."

"I know but I will take it as such, and I want to apologize for my statements on the campaign trail."

"That I'm a horrible devil?"

"If you are, you have proven yourself to be our devil, sorry. You have done much for us all of us. I recognize the mess I got this country into and I thank you for saving us."

"I had quite a bit of help."

"I know, the 13th amendment passed by the way, all magi have the right to vote, hold office, and can not be legally discriminated against or enslaved."

"Good, I am thankful you kept your end of the bargain."

The two of us stood there.

"So what will you do with Greenland."

Merlin shrugged.

"I talked to Mordecai Noah."

"The former consul?"

"And current writer, he's quite well connected. This war showed me that I need dedicated teaching staff and what few I have are not enough. The jewish people have a lot of educated professionals and professors. I have a land without a people, they are a people without a land."

"And in exchange for sending professors you would give them their own country?"

"At heart I'm a teacher, not a leader of men, Mordecai has talked to jews around europe for me and they agreed to my terms, Im partially here to get your approval."

I nodded.

"Congress was worried about Greenland and what you would do with it, if you wanted to start your own country."

"And?"

"And with my current popularity it would be easy to get recognition for the new state of Israel. I will ask Mordecai to be our first ambassador to the new country."

I looked over at the sky it was cold and overcast. June gloom my wife called it.

"You're right this isn't over, this isn't an ending, it's a new beginning for the country for us."

I stepped next to merlin.

"I'm told George Washington rode you into battle."

"This is true."

"Can I..."

Merlin sighed.

"Come on, get on my back."

"Really?"

"We just defeated 3 countries, almost doubled the size of the nation and created the first jewish nation in over a thousand years, I think that earns you a piggy back ride."

I got on top of him and felt the breeze in my hair. I smiled at the ground before me. The country I had helped build would live on long after I was gone. My place in history was secured.

Life was good.

 

[Cherico]

John Hamilton


I looked at the entrance to the orphanage, I knocked on the door and one of the waifs let me in.

"Don't be nervous."

Kalki held my hand as we moved forward into the building. We opened another door and I saw my mother reading by a fire.

"John."

I nodded, she looked at Kalki with confusion.

"So is she."

"Yes. Kalki, this is my mother Elizabeth Hamilton. Mom, this is my wife Kalki Hamilton."

The room was silent.

"She's um colored."

"Yes she's indian."

Mom tilted her head.

"Which tribe, the good ones or the."

"Indian indian."

She nodded.

"Oh...well Kalki I'm sorry I didn't meet you sooner."

She got up and smiled at her.

"The orphanage is a bit of a mess right now, mind taking a seat?"

We did so and she went over to fix us some coffee.

"So are you going to stay in the airforce?"

"No, my first sergeant, well his home town is in need of a good lawyer, and I passed the Bar for Kentucky."

"Good and your wife?"

"War's over, so I think I will become a mother for a bit."

Two cups of coffee were put on the table and my mother smiled.

"Good, John I'm really happy that things are going well for you."

"You're not upset that Kalki's not white?"

Mom looked over at Kalki and glared at her, her eyes narrowing.

"Kalki?"

My wife stiffened.

"Keep this lumox from doing anything stupid."

My wife smiled.

"Of course Mrs. Hamilton."

My mother took a sip of coffee.

"Well that takes care of all my objections", she pushed a cup close to each of us.

"Its been too long John. You really should visit more often, and don't use the fact that you live in Kentucky as an excuse I know about that flying carpet and I deserve to see my grandchildren."

"Yes mother."

"And now that you're a married man, stop doing crazy things."

"Yes mother."

She smiled.

"It's good to see you back home, I really did miss you. Even if you cause me more worry than all my other children combined."

I smiled.

"I missed you too."

In the end I discovered that home was less a place and more a feeling, a set of friendships, a sense of things. Wherever I went with Kalki felt like home and that was good enough for me.

 

[Cherico]

The golden age of magic 1815- 1914


With the end of the napoleonic wars, life in Europe and the world had changed. The countries that had embraced magic had either punched far above their weight or had won significantly. Those that had ignored it, or decided to wait and see, often either regretted their choices or were forced to rely on the few adventurous souls who had gone to the Americas and returned. Those who had banned it though either fell behind or paid a price, the ottoman empire being the biggest example.

The ottomans responded to the now proven existence of magic by officially closing the country. The new leadership wanted nothing to do with the outside world and were willing to enforce this new isolationist policy by force. The Sultan stirred up religious animosities to enforce their anti magic ban. But religious zeal is not a genie that can be bottled up easily and a mob's purposeful destruction of the french embassy, and the slaughter of all inside it, would bring Napoleon into conflict with him.

The Ottoman empire itself was saved by the ever growing coalition of forces against their new enemy but they still lost all their territory in the balkans during the liberation of greece. The independent nations created by Napoleon after the liberation would continue to exist after his fall.

Rather then learn from this experience the ottoman empire doubled down, banning all learning, technology and trade from the outside world. This incensed the British, who had spent blood and treasure trying to save them, but in the name of the balance of power they continued to support them.

As for the winners, the united states fought against three empires and exited the war owners of two coasts. The Jewish people had a new home land after centuries of exile. The European empires swallowed their pride and sent their students to Compass to learn the mystic arts.

They brought the art of magic home. For the most part magic was limited to the elite, with the job of magi becoming one of the trades that noble spares would go into. There were of course exceptions.

The americans allowed pretty much every one to use magic, countries like Poland and Israel were forced by conflict with either man or nature to teach magic to the masses. Others like greece slowly built up a cadre of magi for both defense and future plans of conquest and revenge.

The golden age of magic would prove to be peaceful and prosperous for Europe. Conflicts tended to either be mercifully short, or outside what was considered to be properly European. Yields of crops went up, populations exploded and were sent to settle their empires or move to the new world. For most of europe it was considered a golden age of prosperity and progress, and some thought it would never end.

 

[Cherico]

The Hatfield Mccoy feud
1881-1891


In order to understand the Hatfield-Mccoy feud one must understand the rivalry that exists between the two states where they dwelled, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Kentucky ended slavery before the war 1812 and the state was rich in magic, being crisscrossed with small leylines and nexus.

Tennessee didn't have any leylines at all and remained a staunch supporter of slavery up to the american civil war. The two states, which once had similar cultures, quickly diverged.

Kentucky became proud of their magic and the wealth it brought to their state, the state'sculture became one deeply invested in the mystic arts. Nearby, Tennessee found itself left behind economically and grew to resent their northern neighbor. The state became a hot bed of anti magical sentiment, which their northern neighbor resented in return.

Tennessee and Kentucky both started out with an anti-intellectual streak but with their southern neighbors insulting their way of life the people of Kentucky decided to use their vast wealth to build schools, libraries and colleges and started to praise education, seemingly as a way to spite their southern neighbor.

Tennessee responded by becoming even more anti-intellectual and religious and referred to their northern neighbors as godless heathens. Offended the people of Kentucky, who had before been indifferent to slavery, slowly became a hot bed of abolitionism. The rivalry grew stronger and more toxic and when the civil war came the two states fought on opposite sides.

Enter the Mccoy family who fought for the union and the Hatfield family who fought for the confederacy. Tennessee militia's used terrorism, targeting civilians, burning down schools and using guerrila tactics. Kentucky responded with harsh reprisals.

When the war ended the hatred between the two states was, if anything, even stronger, with attacks continuing long after the war ended. One of these attacks was orchestrated by Devil Anse Hatfield and killed Randal Mccoy's crippled younger brother.

Devil Anse was never charged for this crime and after the war became a wealthy timber merchant in northern Tennessee. Randal Mccoy owned and operated a grainery in southern Kentucky using the power of one of the southernmost nexus's to grind grain and corn.

During the war the two families had fought, after the war insults, lawsuits, and fights would break out on regular occasions. It looked like the feud would end when Devil Anse's son got into a relationship with Roseanna Mccoy. The two were wed and, when she moved into the Hatfield estate, some of the dairy cows started producing sour milk.

Roseanna was blamed for this and in 1881 a very drunk group of Hatfields took Roseanna and tied her to a stake and burned her alive. Roseanna was not a witch and didn't know how to use magic, she was also 6 months pregnant.

The participants were given a trial and an all Hatfield jury acquited them, this enraged the Mccoy's and, when news of the trial got into the papers, the state of Kentucky. The Mccoy's snuck into Tennessee and killed the 4 men who had killed Roseanna. This caused revenge killings and counter revenge killings and the war between the two families spread, bringing in other families from Kentucky and Tennessee.

The feud continued to spiral out of control until one day Hera Mccoy's husband was killed. She had begged her husband to stay out of the fighting and he had agreed, staying out of the conflict. After a hard summer he had decided to take the children to buy some icecream.

Three Hatfield men saw the Mccoy family and opened fire, killing both her husband and her children, and then ran back to the Teenessee border, escaping justice. For Hera this was the last and final straw, while Roseanna and most of the participants didn't know magic, Hera did and in fact came from a long line of Magi.

She went north and retrieved the family's mechanical spider, an heirloom from the first witch in her family, and headed south to the city of Clarksville, Tennessee and then proceeded to enact her revenge. The Hatfield family was having a party inside the small town and Hera used this oportunity to kill as many Hatfields as possible.

In her rampage, which would soon be known as the Clarksville massacre, she managed to successfully kill Devil Anse Hatfield, several members of the Hatfield family and destroyed much of the city, leaving it in ruins. This prompted more rage and the united state's army was forced to intervene to stop the feud.

The leaders of both sides were put into prison for their actions and the Army would patrol the state's borders for the next decade, making sure that the feud would not restart.

Today the feud is mostly in the past but the rivalry between the two states remains strong and vicious. As for Hera, her spider is on display in a Kentucky museum and after a life time of prison, she was buried in a Louisville grave.

Her gravestone is inscribed with the words, "I regret nothing," As per her last request.
​

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen


"Jupiter is beautiful this time of year."

We had left Kore and had finally ended up on the swedish home world of Icoste.

"Yeah it is Lee."

He looked around.

"Lots of snow."

I shrugged.

"We're in the northern reaches of Icoste, the rest of the world isn't like this, well not all of it."

"And we're here?"

"Because there's a large cluster of leyline's here, and because its relatively close to the inhabited part of the swedish homeworld."

Because, even with 120 million extra people, it's not enough to populate an entire planet.

"How did the old bird do this?"

"Ritualistically sacrifice a supergiant blue star."

Lee stared at me.

"What?"

"The process takes around a thousand years, the process has been tried on other star systems but blue supergiants have a mystic resonance that other stars simply do not have. Of course in order to do this you basically have to create a dyson swarm of absolutely insane size, dominate all the leylines within the solar system."

"Insane."

"It's the same principle you see in a lot of ritual magic just applied to a much larger scale. Even with that sacrirfice you need to program each seedling, get the resonance with the body you want to terraform."

"And you know this because?"

"Merlin gave me a pamplet. Anyway where do you think the extra mass comes for to make these new worlds earth sized? Or where the energy came from to build their atmosphere or create the artificial sun you see in the sky?"

"How long will they last?"

"According to calculations, we have around 12 billion years before the power that keeps our new worlds terraformed runs out. Which means it will outlive the sun."

"Good to know."

We stared at the horizon.

"Watched some thing, a cartoon."

"Yeah?"

"Had bugs bunny, in it there was a feud of some kind and they asked him if he was a harefield or."

"A McCoy, let me guess it started with a witch telling her husband not to fight in the feud."

"Yes and it ended with Bug's cornered and the witch destroying the town with a big mechanical spider."

I sighed.

"Based on a real story."

Lee blinked.

"What."

"A town in Tennessse was destroyed by a giant mechanical spider."

He stared at me.

"What?"

"Hatfield-Mccoy feud, keep in mind it was a really small town. Around 300 people lived there,max."

"A giant mechanical spider destroyed an entire town."

"It wasn't that big about the size of a small bus and it was a really small town."

Lee's mouth opened.

"That doesn't make it suddenly better, oh high a giant mechanical spider destroyed a town but hey it was a really small town so it doesn't matter. Why haven't I heard about this before?"

"It wasn't that big of a deal."

"A giant mechanical spider destroying an entire town is a pretty big deal Ralph."

"How many chinese cities were destroyed by Japan during world war two, or were destroyed during the civil war?"

"That's different."

"How?"

"They were not destroyed by a giant mechanical spiders."

"The end result is the same."

"Giant mechanical spider."

I sighed.

"Well we at least put the person responsible for it in jail."

"And obviously you destroyed the spider."

I cringed.

"You did destroy the spider right?"

I took a breath.

"Its, kind of, sort of, on display in a Louisville Museum."

Lee's jaw dropped.

"So it wouldn't happen again, right? I mean the man who did that."

"Woman actually."

"Woman who did that has to be thought of as a complete monster, right?"

"Um no, Louisville named their major league baseball team the spiders in honor of her, and I think they named a small city after her, called Heraville."

"Why?"

"It"s Kentucky."

"Thats not an explanation of why you would name a town after someone who destroyed an entire city."

"Small town."

"With a mechanical spider, how did you people end up being the leaders of the free world?"

I blinked.

"I honestly have no idea."

Lee sighed.

"That makes two of us."

 

[Cherico]

David Levi
1815 AD

1745 years, if you're counting masada, that is when we lost Israel, we would never regain it. The last known Jewish kingdom, the Kazar's, was destroyed in 850 AD. For over 900 years the jewish people have not had a homeland of our own. They have not had a nation of our own.

This year on March 7th that long painful period of time would finally come to an end.

"It's too cold here boy."

My aged father complained again.

"We will adapt, this is our home now."

We had been offered a deal, a few of the jewish people would teach at the american's academy of magic. Bringing our knowledge and wisdom to the american people, and in exchange for this sacred trust we would receive a homeland of our own, a country of our own.

There was of course an agreement of a commercial and military alliance, I smiled as we got to land. The docks were seemingly carved out of the nearby stone, it was dark and cold. Our ship landed and we joined the crowd of fellow jews.

We got off the ship, men and women in purple uniforms looked around carefully keeping order. A man looked at us, his fingers moved and then he spoke oddly in our native language.

"Welcome to the city of Nuuk, papers please?"

My father handed over the paper work.

"Rabbi Levi, you will join the others in the great hall."

"Others?"

"The deal has already been hammered out, and the agreement made, the united states recognizes your existance and we have an official alliance."

My father smiled, using the same diplomatic tone he used with polite goyum.

"It is good to have friends."

The soldier nodded and we walked past him.

"Hate this place already."

"He's just trying to help."

We heard gunfire and my father went to the ground, I looked around and saw some men in purple uniforms training men how to shoot. From their outfits I saw that they were hasidic jews.

"Again."

They loaded their weapons and I helped my father to his feet.

"Scared?"

He shrugged.

"Terrified."

He sighed as he looked at the jewish soldiers who were bundled up.

"Countries have to have their own armies father."

"I know that boy, it's just a lot to get used to."

We entered the big building and a bored jew in a yamuka looked up at us.

"Rabi Levi."

He shrugged and pulled out some papers.

"Useful skills?"

"I am one of the foremost experts of the torah in my village."

The man sighed.

"I said useful skills."

"The word of god is always useful."

"I'm going to put down no."

My father clenched his hands.

"I can also read, write, do arithmetic, large sums and."

"We already have people who can do that, do you know how to blacksmith? Raise cattle? Raise crops."

"I used to have a garden, I grew berries."

"Farmer then, we can use farmers."

The man motioned for us to sit and we did so.

"This is a map of Israel."

"This is hardly a map of Israel, Israel is."

"Located in the middle east and is controlled by the turks, before that it was controlled by the arabs, before that by the crusaders, then the arabs, then the greeks, then the romans and then us. To the north there are turks, to the south arabs, to the east arabs. We are not getting old Israel back old man, and calling this place New Isreal is going to sound silly if we still have this land a hundred years from now."

"So you call it Israel."

"Precisely, Now New Israel has 836,330 square miles of land, Old Israel had maybe 20,000 square miles so were already 840,000 square miles ahead."

"How much of that is useless tundra."

The man smiled.

"Practically all of it."

"And we accepted this why?"

The man continued to smile.

"With all due respect Rabbi when someone offers you free land, you do not question it you take the free land. Now it's true that Isreal is a fixer up."

My father looked around at the office cynically.

"Its a frozen wasteland, not a fixer upper."

"Yes but its our frozen wasteland sir, we even have our own flag."

He brought out a small flag and my dad studied it.

"White and blue with a blue star of David?"

"Yes, the star of david represents the jewish people, the white represents snow, and the blue represents us because its too damned cold."

My father frowned.

"You're not filling me with confidence."

The man shrugged.

"I know but a country is a country right? So here's the map."

"What are the lines?"

The man nodded.

"Leylines, now normally the vast majority of this land is useless but we can use magic."

"Devilry."

"Magic, to make the area habitable, this big line right here that cuts through the entire country? Thats 162 miles long 4 miles wide, that right there is where we plan to try to grow most of our food."

"So your going to use devilry and witchcraft to turn this frozen line of frozen wasteland into something useable."

The man shrugged.

"Yes."

I sighed.

"Come on father stop pestering the man, and sign the papers."

My father grumbled and I smiled at the new country, our country.

 

[Cherico]

Where did it all go wrong?

Hanz Weber 1970


With the end of the second world war, with the expulsion of europe's jews, the genocide of the gypsies and the eastern european holocaust. With the weight of our collective crimes against western civilization, the german people were left with the question of where it all went so horribly wrong.

Most german historians talk about the interwar period, of mass inflation, of a destabilized economy and the chaos that led to the rise of the nazis but I would argue that it goes back further, to the liberal revolution of 1848. German nationalists wanted a king to unify germany.

At first they went to the prussians and the king there refused, saying that he would not accept a crown from the gutter. The new king of Bavaria, Maximilian the 2nd, however had no such qualms and took the crown. This angered Prussia who declared war on the new kingdom of Germany. They lost and a liberal germany with a liberal constitution took the world stage, without prussia or austria.

The capital of Munich became the cultural and educational center of germany, and Germany thrived under Maximilian's leadership. When he died his son, Ludwig, took the throne. Ludwig lacked the quiet natural genius of his father, but was easily restrained by germany's strong parliament. Still, he became a patron of the arts and created germany's greatest school of magic through his own efforts and generous funding from the americas.

It was thought that this period of liberal monarchy and prosperity would go on forever and itis still remembered as a golden age of german history. Sadly Ludwig died on 1886 without an heir. This prompted a succession crisis, one the prussians offered to solve.

They did and Wilhelm the 1st took power, the capital was moved from its former location to Berlin and, slowly, liberties that the german people had taken for granted were eliminated, to aid the transition of course. When he died it was hoped his more liberal son would restore the rights the german people had lost. Instead multiple Kaisers would die until Wilhelm the 2nd reached the throne.

Under Wilhelm II Germany saw a rise of militarism, nationalism and a further reduction of the rights of the german people. Before Wilhelm II there had been a generation of relative peace in europe. Conflicts happened in the colonies, or in the balkans or on the fringes of Europe. There was peace. But in his quest for glory Wilhelm II alienated people and upset the balance of power in europe.

His actions would lead to the destruction of world war One which lead to the charnel house of the second world war. If you're looking for where it all went wrong, the direct cause of germany's fall, one must look at the disaster caused by Prussia's entrance into germany.

Before that happened Germany had been a stronghold of liberalism, of thought, of art. After that mistake, and it was a mistake, prussian militarism infected a peaceful germany like a plague. We had invited a cancerous tumor into a healthy body and it would metastasize under the nazis.

As painful as the second world war was, as the division was, I can't help but notice that germany, freed from the spector of prussian influence, has once again become a liberal democracy, has once again become a nation of art and commerce. There is talk of unification in some far off date, but is it a good idea?

Will it make us stronger or will the spectre of prussia once again lead us into destruction and chaos?

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


Work, it came down to work.

As the first members of our family to come to Israel we needed to find work.

"Do you know what we do?"

The man was dressed in a purple long coat his face covered with a mask.

"I don't know, I just saw some thing that said now hiring."

The man sighed.

"Name's Victor Silverman, graduate of compass academy of magic."

He pulled out a map and I stared at it.

"A map of the ley lines in greenland?"

"Yes, do you know what Ley lines are?"

I shrugged.

"Great."

"Ley lines are rivers of magic, places where the barriers between us and the higher realms are weaker. There are three kinds of Ley lines, Grand lines, Medium lines and short lines. Grand lines are big enough to circumnavigate the entire globe, there are 36 grand lines and, lucky us,one runs right through our country."

He sighed.

"The grand line is 4 miles wide by the way. Medium lines can be anywhere from 50 to 400 miles long and tend to be 2 to 1 miles wide, finally short lines tend to be 5 to 40 miles long and can be a mile to half a mile wide."

He paused.

"How big is our country?"

"Over 800 square miles?"

"Good you listened, less then four miles of that is arable land or land where you can grow food."

"That's a bad thing?"

"A very bad thing, but you see these lines? If we use magic we can make the land on the lines grow food. Now the good news for us. Israel is actually pretty magically rich those lines cover almost 5% of our country so that brings us up to roughly 40,000 square miles of arable land."

He paused.

"That's a little bit smaller then Cuba, a little bigger then iceland, that's a whole lot better then 4 square miles isn't it?"

I nodded.

"Yes sir."

He got up and yawned and motioned for me to follow him, I did so and walked into a basement. I saw glowing pillars.

"Your job, is to dig holes, where we tell you to dig them, then you are to put these pillars into the holes. These pillars allow us to control the heat and fertility of the land."

"So how long until we're finished?"

The man laughed bitterly.

"Not during our lifetime, you see this might take well over a hundred years, and that's being generous."

"If it's going to take so long then why do it?"

"Because it beats starving to death, oh and if you have a problem with magic? Get over it because right now it's pretty much that or."

"Starving to death."

The man smiled.

"Got it in one."

"Well hopefully we will be able to grow enough food this spring to feed every one."

The man sighed.

"Define spring."

Those words gave me a vague sinking feeling.

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


Father carefully watered a plant.

"I go from a rabbi, and a respected man of letters, to this?"

I looked at my father.

"Because our house was destroyed in a riot?"

My father frowned, there was a knock on the door and I opened it.

"You ready?"

I nodded.

"Yes Mr. Yankel."

My father frowned at my boss.

"Off to do some more witchcraft boy?"

My boss narrowed his eyes and then his face became controlled.

"You know, your son has worked for us for about three months now."

Yankel started to smile, it wasn't a happy smile or a nice one.

"Yes despite my concerns."

"He's a good boy, never once complained, never once gave me any trouble. I genuinely like him."

Mr. Yankel put his palm upward and I saw fire sprout from his finger tips, my father blinked.

"So because I like your son, I'm going to tell you how Israel is actually run. You see the war that gave us this land ended last year. Jews from around europe were invited to come to negotiate."

My dad nodded.

"About what government they would create here, about what our deal would be with the americans, and all they did was argue and bicker. People like me, magi, we were there and were doing things while they talked, productive things."

He paused.

"These so called wise men got other people into their meaningless bickering which meant that jobs, important jobs, were not being done. This went on for three months. That's when we ran out of food."

My boss loomed over my father.

"And these wise men continued to bicker as our people starved to death. The greatest oportunity the jewish people have had in over a hundred years was going to be squandered by these idiots, but then we realized something, all of us magi realized some thing, we had all the guns."

My father's face fell.

"I think you know what happened but I will tell you anyways. We went to the great hall with our guns and weapons and declared that we were in charge. 20 people died that day, then we did what those so called wise men were too proud to do. We called for help, the starvation stopped the next week."

"What you did wasn't right."

"You mean preventing our people from dying of starvation? You see those bickering old men? After all their arguing, all their complaining, they still did not have a plan. But we did, so we took control. We made the negotiations that were needed to ensure that we would have someone to trade with. We sent people out to fish. We created a bureaucracy that would do it's job. We created order."

"Out of violence."

"Do you have a plan old man? A plan to keep our people fed? A plan to create a workable system of justice? To create and manage an economy? To turn this Icy hell hole into some thing worthy of our people? Because we do."

My father looked away.

"Whatever problem you have with magic, get over it now. We have exactly one tool, exactly one, to tame this land and make it liveable. The only reason we have it at all is because we made a deal for it one that was more then fair, and if you can't get over it? Then either leave or shut up, the rest of us have work to do."

He looked at me.

"We are leaving David, your shift starts now."

I shrugged and left my father behind.

"He's a um good man when you get to know him."

"This isn't a democracy."

I blinked.

"This country, maybe it will be a republic in the future but right now we need a plan right now we need order. Your father is known in the community David and he has spent 3 months complaining, constantly complaining. He's disrupting other people's work with his nonsense."

"So."

"So this was his first warning, if he keeps it up he will be fired and given a much worse job."

"Really?"

"Our policy is if you have to complain then complain, but do your damned work. If you don't we will give you something to complain about."

"It's a transition sir, in the old country."

"This isn't the old country, this is our country. Whoever he was before doesn't matter, what matters is the here and now, remember that."

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


"No."

The government official's response was short. My dad frowned.

"You won't build a new temple."

The official nodded.

"Correction, we will not use our very limited government funds and resources to build a new temple. Those resources will be spent on greenhouses, on roads, on public housing and onmaking sure that the ever growing number of refugees is fed, housed, educated and put to work creating a new nation."

He paused.

"If you wish to build a synagogue on your own time with your own money, we will not stop you."

"So a jewish nation will not help us build a jewish temple."

The official frowned.

"You do realize that this is the capital, right?"

"Which is why it needs a temple."

"No it means that, as bad as things are here, in the rest of Israel things are much much worse. Summer is going to end, and end soon, and that means that things are only going to get worse. Because that is almost 6 months of darkness and cold, and we will get more refugees to feed and take care of."

"Then a place to pray for God's aid will only help."

"Go ahead. We are not stopping you, but if you want our help it's not happening, food and shelter takes priority."

"So you're not going to help at all?"

"No."

The official wrote down more information.

"How do you sleep at night?"

"On a stone block, with a blanket over it, underground with a bunch of other government employees."

My father frowned.

"This is not a joking matter."

"You asked a question, you got an answer."

"Our request is important."

"Is it more important than making sure that our people are fed? Is it more important then making sure that the people who came here without proper winter clothing don't freeze to death? Is it more important than making sure they have shelter?"

My father frowned.

"This isn't over."

"I gathered as much. See you tomorrow same time?"

My father stormed off and the clerk looked at me.

"Long day David?"

I shrugged.

"Dug a lot of holes today, feel like resting."

"Feel free to rest around here."

"He means well."

The worker shrugged.

"You keep saying that but he's just getting in the way of important work. Speaking of which,congratulations, heard your crew just finished installing the pillars around nukk."

"It's not a big deal."

"It is, those pillars will let us control the temperature around the city, speaking of which that also means they need work crews to go further down the line."

"Sounds like hard work."

"It is, but you're a good kid, and government policy is that people who work to clear land get land."

I though about it, I got along with my coworkers and my manager was a good man.

"I'm in."

"Good, see you monday.

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


I went into the office late at night, I had lost a scarf and needed to retrieve it. I saw the faint blue light of the magic lights that were used here and crept closer.

"We went over your grandfather's work."

I heard a young voice, a little younger then mine.

"He was a genius."

"That he was, quite possibly the greatest magi of his generation. What happened to him?"

"Murdered by the british and their pet savages, along with my parents."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

My superior, Victor, was talking to some one.

"It was the world's loss."

His accent was off, the younger boy, as if yiddish was a second language.

"Normally I would call you out for your arrogance, but you are completely correct. This changes everything for us. It has to be done at night?"

"Sunlight messes with complex magical rituals."

"This isn't complex. If what you're saying is true you build a totem, put it in a hole and it's good to go."

"The process itself is not complex, the magic that powers it is. Each totem will require multiple magi to work on it."

"We gathered, we have tested it out. The results speak for themselves but the danger."

There was a pause.

"I have given you the keys to the kingdom, I have acted in good faith and handed over my grandfather's life's work. I was told that you would not waste it or destroy it over petty concerns. Was Merlin wrong?"

"Some of this is controversial, you have to admit."

"Will you keep your side of the bargain?"

"We will, we can't afford to let this vanish into the night. The darkness will come soon and with it over 6 months of darkness."

"You see the potential."

"Over a mile of arable land a day, mind if I do some calculations?"

"Go ahead."

"God."

I could hear audible smugness.

"This...this changes everything."

"I gathered as much."

"6 years, we could complete the terraformation process in less then 6 years."

"And all that land at a comfortable 68 degrees."

"We use Celsius here, so its 20 degrees, but this is still massive. but we both know the dangers."

"Melting permafrost, mudslides, avalanche's, teams will have to be quick and losses might happen but what was your former time table?"

"80 to a 100 years."

"I think a little risk is worth it? So the deal?"

"You would have to convert to Judaism."

"My grandfather's work is worth a mass."

"Very well, you will be given a land grant in a nexus point, space with to work in, asilum and full citizenship but we need you to be present on one of the teams."

"Very well, I can lend some of my talents to this task."

"It's good working with you Mr. Frankenstine, what should we call you?"

"Victor, after my grandfather."

"Two Victors. Feh I will just go by Vick, welcome to the team."

I stepped back and a boy walked out, he had snow white hair, pale skin and purple eyes. His hair was long and white, he looked handsome. He looked at me with haughty eyes and huffed and walked away. My palms became sweaty and my heart beat a little faster.

I got my scarf and left, this wasn't the first time this had happened, that these unnatural feelings had infected me. I would splash some cold water on my face, read some more of the torah and pray to god and hopefully they would go away or I could find the strength to put them aside again.

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


We were given some time off to be with our families, I had been told by others about the first year, about the dark winter that had claimed the island, about the hunger, the starvation and the coup in Nuuk.

My father thought it was an excuse, a power grab by people with ill intentions, but I worked with people who had been here before the coup. I had heard their stories and I did notice that though the government of our new country was cold, and at times rude, it ran relatively well.

The food was more limited than back home in austria, Potatoes, fish, the occasional bit of bread, and some thing called Miso soup, but no one went hungry. Conditions could get crowded at times but I didn't see anyone who was homeless. The glowing blue Lamp posts might have been eerie but they made sure that the city had light and was relatively warm.

That, however, might be my own personal pride speaking. I had helped dig the holes and helped put them into the ground.

"HOW CAN YOU BAN COWS?!"

A government official was surrounded by rather angry people.

"Cows are an inefficient use of our very limited resources."

I decided to stay away from the crowd.

"Can't you people just magic up food?"

The official frowned.

"No. that is not how food works, magic can help make the land more fertile, it can help you grow more food and grow the food faster but it can't actually create food out of nothing. It doesn't work like that."

"But our meat."

"It takes 11 killo's of feed grain to get 1 kilo of meat from a cow, winter is here do you really want to waste our very limited grain stores on beef?"

There were frowns but the crowd went away the government worker looked at me.

"You work on the dig crews?"

I nodded.

"Get over to the main office, there's a project."

I walked over to the office and entered the large stone building that served as our headquarters, it was made out of stone, as were all the major buildings in Israel. I was told this was done for cost reasons. Having an earth magi raise up stone walls was faster and cheaper than trying to import wood from elsewhere.

"Attention."

A man with a short cropped beard got on stage, he wore a purple suit, with glowing letters of some writing system I didn't know on it.

"Gentlemen."

His voice was rough and scratchy.

"I am Izaak Blass, current leader of our fine country. Some call me a tyrant and this is true. I think we all would have preferred a different outcome but when reason fails all that is left is force."

He looked at me with tired eyes.

"I know you are all tired, some of you are scared and the food is plain.!The start of any new nation is never easy. Some of you have questioned why we would build our homeland here of all places. The long of the short of it is this. This was all that was offered to us."

He looked around.

"The other plots of land around the world have been claimed by greater and stronger powers. We lack the numbers, the resources and the weapons to claim our own land by force. So we jumped on this opportunity and it is a once in a millenium opportunity."

The man cracked his neck.

"Some say this land, this new Israel is a curse. I say that's wrong, when esther asked the king for mercy for our people we were given the right to fight back and we won. For most of our history we have never been given that chance, here In new Israel, in this tundra, we have an enemy."

He rose his hands.

"It is the ice, it is the cold, the land itself hates us. It is our enemy but we have been given the tools to fight back, the chance to win. We have a plan, a new one, that will allow us to use the lines of power that crisscross the earth and harness their power to claim what is rightfully ours. Not in a hundred years, not in a life time. In 6 years."

His hands moved over the crowd.

"This work is dangerous, some of you may die but you do this not for selfish reasons, not for coin but for the jewish people. If you wish you can leave, there are other, safer, jobs out there but if you want to defeat the enemy and win our people land from that icy hell then step forward and claim your place in history."

All of us stepped forward, there were no exceptions.

"Good, tomorrow the long night starts, tomorrow the hardest work of your lives begins. Tomorrow we create a legend."

 

[Cherico]

The Qliphoth Arts

By John Kreese 1875


The Qliphothic arts or Vanician magic is the predecessor style of magic created by the phenix people before they created the modern elemental system of magic that is taught at compass and at other schools of magic throughout the world. The Qliphothic arts, while not taught at compass, could be found hidden in various textbooks hidden in compass's massive library.

These books were discovered and the Qliphothic arts spread across the world, in some cases faster then seasonal magic. Qliphotic arts had the advantage of being quicker and easier to learn then seasonal magic, it didn't come with the mental disavantages that seasonal magic had and its benefits were more obvious.

A practitioner of seasonal magic is fundamentally limited in a sense, restrained by their magic. They feel a compulsion to keep their word, they feel a compulsion to follow society's social contract. Their moral compass becomes fixed and those who stray too far can become sick, weaken and, in extreme cases, die.

A practitioner of the Qliphotic arts retains their moral flexibility and thus their humanity. This, however, comes with a price. The Qliphotic arts require the use of foci, they lack the flexibility and power of their successor arts. So why study them?

Studying the standard seasonal path takes time. Because of it's complexity, because of it's flexibility, it is more difficult to learn and master. It can take years to become a decent magi. Qliphothic arts though can be learned in a couple months. Spells, though more limited, do not have to worry about the downfall and pain of paradox. And each path offers chances at self improvement.

In making the decision to study the Qlipothic arts, you have decided to master an ancient art older than what is taught at even the oldest magic schools, an art that predates humanity itself.

The first step requires a small amount of mana, unlike the seasonal arts you do not have to wait for a full moon, a equinox, a solstic or some other heavenly convergence. You do not need another magi to open the way for you. You don't even need a direct teacher.

All you need is a source of active mana, knowlege of the runic language, and the courage of your own purpose. This source of mana can not come from leylines unfortunately, you need processed mana. Potions, charged mana crystals and enchanted items are all potential sources of power. Further on in my book, I will teach you how to use them to unlock your power.

This first step will require you to make a bracelet, a ring or tattoo yourself. You will internalize two spells of choice from the first circle of magic and one of the second circle. The first circle spells will always be with you, the second circle one can only be used once a day, and you will not be able to cast them without a foci.

Many people decide to stop here, deciding that having a couple paltry tricks of power is enough for them. I hope you, reader, are stronger then that. Once armed with this first step you must meditate or use rituals to achieve the next level.

The next step in your path is to adopt an archtype as the ancient phenix of old did. The three archtypes use different foci and come with different advantages and disavantages, but first I will talk about the advantages that all practitioners of the old ways enjoy.

The first one is this, when you adopt the power of any archtype you are immediately improved in body and mind. You become smarter, wiser, stronger, faster and tougher. It is true this improvement is, by a massive margin, just a standard deviation. but this improvement is instant and life long. As your power grows so to will your potential, though it will be in one aspect of your potential instead of every thing all at once.

You will also heal faster and more completely when you sleep. A master of the old way gains a slight healing factor and though limbs and eyes can not be regenerated he can recover from injuries much faster. He also gains an aura of protection which, while weak, does get stronger with time. Finally all three archtypes are able to use alchemy, though on a weaker and more limited level then an elemental artist. Still, even if you can not make as many or have the variety of potions an elementalist has, you can still make them.

Now we get into the archtypes.

The first one is the scholar, this gives you the most amount of spells and the most variety of all the Qlipothic arts. It lacks some of the advantages of the other archtypes but if you're looking to maximize your mystic potential in the old way, this is it.

This archtype requires a book of shadows, a book of any size on your person that is inscribed with your spells. It recharges as you sleep. If you lose it, you will only be able to use your first circle spells until you create a new book of shadows. For all its limitations, it is the most popular of the three major archtypes.

The second one is the trickster.

This archtype can not cast as many spells, or cast them as often. But the trickster archtype improves you in other ways. You become better at linguistics, you gain a natural ability for stealth, you gain the natural ability to pick locks, to disguise yourself and to wield knives and other melee weapons.

It's foci are items that are used in gambling. Dice, cards, things like that. If your foci is lost any other form of gambling foci will work just as well. As with the scholar 1st circle spells can be cast without a foci.

The last archtype is the warrior.

The warrior has by far the least amount of spells out of all the archtypes, the least amount of varity, and it's foci is obvious.

The phenix warriors considered archery the skill of choice for their warriors and it is for this reason that those that follow this path are known as mystic archers. So why follow this path?

Because, for those who want to strengthen their mind and body, it offers the most and quickest advancement. Because, even if the vast majority of their magic are not proper spells, the ability to have your arrows shoot through armor, follow your enemy and even explode is still a worthy skill. A warrior also gains an innate ability to use their bow, to use melee weapons and skill in combat. Their aura also gains the most strength, a mystic archer is not to be underestimated.

There exists a final archtype.

One that has been purposely lost in time.This knowlege has been forbidden, all knowledge of how to obtain this archtype has been purposely destroyed by merlin. This destruction, not only his people's heritage but humanity's inheritance, is one of the factors that caused me to leave Compass. My pleas to give this knowlege were all rejected and I was even told that if I somehow found a path to this archtype that he would personally kill me and destroy my work.

What scraps of information I got about this path were all obviously biased, all talking about mortal corruption of the mind and damnation in the most primal sense. With lack of any way to find out more I have sadly given up on this last path to power instead I will teach you about the first three.


--------

1884


Dear Mr. Kreese

Your book on alternate magical study has caught my attention. It is always sad when people discard old ways in favor of new ones based on nothing more then superstition or personal biases.

I have heard that your attempts to create a school of magic based on the old ways in your native america have failed. I, like you, also respect tradition. I also fought for it and, like you, I was also ousted from power by unreasonable people.

But I think we can help each other. Japan is in need of a magical tradition of our own and if the american people decide to callously abandon this offered gift then we, the japanese people, will gladly partake of it's teachings and it's advantages.

Please write to me if you wish to take me up on the offer.

Fukuchi Gen'ichiro

---

Dear Fukuchi Gen'ichiro

I will gladly bring my knowlege, my research to the people of japan. I am honored that someone finally sees the value of my life's work and I will work tirelessly to teach the japanese people every thing I know. That said I do know that some previous instructors from the western world have acted shamefully. They have acted with great amounts of bigotry towards their students. I assure you that I will not act like that and will show proper respect to all of my students, the people of japan and it's culture

I will gather my things shortly and will meet you as soon as possible

John Kreese

----------------

The golden age of magic.


While seasonal magic remained the domain of the nobility and those wealthy enough to go to america and come back in Europe, other forms of magic did exist. Forms that required less dedicated study and resources.

The Qlipothic arts, vanicant magic, low magic coming in three basic forms and based on archtypes rather then seasons. This magic was less powerful, less varied but was more accessible.

The first order of the low arts, the path of the scholar, gained other names. Shadow mage, bookers, pseudo mage, faker. Reliant on a book of shadows this form of magic was used by the working class magi on the margins of society. These magi would create potions, minor magical artifacts and use their magic for their fellow working class citizens.

These magi existed on the margins of polite society, tolerated but looked down upon as pretenders, which often gave these magi a bit of an inferiority complex. This form of magic was really only embraced by the japanese empire, who liked the idea of a quick and dirty style of magic that was more controlable then elemental magic.

The second order, the trickster archtype also known as the gypsy magi, huckster, charlatan and other less then flattering names, was rare outside of europe and wasembraced by the romani people. Due to the lack of resources it required, and ease of use, it came to define romani culture.

The russian empire, normally against magic, decided that it was ok for already damned souls to practice magic, and invited the Romani people into the empire to act as their resident magic caste.

A few Romani did abuse their new abilities, a few did go into thieving or held communities hostage but for the most part most of them tinkered, used magic for entertainment, delivered mail or created potions. With this new source of wealth the amount of crime committed by romani fell but the reporting of it went up. Many were asked to leave their former routes and homes and accepted russia's offer.

Their actions as mercenary war bands would help russia keep the ottoman empire's assaults back and they would eventally become a useful part of the empire. As this happened their numbers went up through natural growth and the move of other romani bands into the russian empire. This way of life would come to a tragic end years later.

Outside of europe in north america hucksters would ply their trade on river boats, the japanese yakuza would embrace the new art but it would remain relatively obscure.

Finally the last archtype, the warrior, had the least amount of magical power. Mystic archery found its use amongst gameskeepers, hunters and archery clubs, with a few finding use in the military.

In the americas a new path was found to replace the bow with the revolver creating the gunslinger style. In Europe they would figure out how to evolve the path using bolt action rifles, creating the mystic sniper. The two styles would gain far more fame and prominence in litterature than existed in real life.

The warrior archtype was in truth the most obscure. The low arts enjoyed some amount of if not acceptance then tolerance from european society. This, however, would come to a firm end after World War Two, with the arts becoming shunned as evil and despicable

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


I took a nap after the speech, my work place was a little warmer then my stone house, and dad was holding some kind of meeting, a political one that I just didn't want any part of.

I had a good job, I was doing important work and I just wasn't interested in messing it up. Young guys like me who could dig? We were everywhere. Dad didn't understand how important this job was to me and I didn't understand why he was so interested in politics, Why he wanted to push things. Life was hard here, I understood that, but things were also better in some ways.

"Why are you here it's late?"

I wiped the sleep out of my eyes, I was in one of the higher rooms that rarely got used.

"New developments, time tables been pushed up."

"How?"

"Made a deal with the Yankees."

"We have been making a lot of those."

I heard a sigh.

"I know Vick, but Denmark was able to get Russia to sanction our economy and that spread. Officially the United states is, as of now, our only trading partner."

"Damn."

"I know. The americans want basing rights for their Navy, Army and Airforce. One hundred year leases on several ports."

"You can't be serious."

"I'm dead serious. We don't have any money, we barely have any resources to trade and despite all of our efforts we're limping along when it comes to food. And there is exactly one country willing to play ball with us."

"The british won't like this. Can't we at least try to be neutral?"

"That isn't in the cards Vick, when we took this deal from the american's it meant cozying up with them. That means that America's enemies are our enemies for the foreseeable future."

"I hope you got some thing out of this at least zack."

"You better believe it, the old bird has a prototype he wants to test out. It changes everything."

I heard a pause.

"Wow....and this is possible?"

"It is, the americans are also lending us some of their old pelicans."

"The airships?"

"The same, we need to claim all the leylines in our country for this to work."

"How long?"

"Don't know. Our original plans were all based around the idea that we would be forced to lug everything by land. If we hurry, we can enact this upgraded plan much sooner then we thought."

"Then what?"

"Then we build, and bring up our number's. Right now the Danes are afraid of the americans, right now their navy is sunk and destroyed, but that fear will fade with time, and their navy will be rebuilt. When that happens we have to be ready and prepared."

"Please tell me you're not considering?"

"I am, it's the quickest and fastest way to increase our numbers and you know it, but I want to see if this works first, if the boy's boasts about his grandfathers work has merit."

"We did tests."

"And if this all works out, he will be given free reign to continue his grandfather's work, somewhere out of sight. That said we need someone reliable to keep him alive."

"Know just the person. David I Levi, 15 years old."

"A year older then Frankenstine, so a peer and....Levi I reconize that name, is his father Aberham Levi?"

I heard a sighing sound.

"Yes."

"You do realize that his father is a direct pain in my tuckas?"

"He's a man of god Zack, show some respect."

There was a pause.

"Respect is earned, and I would like to remind you how those men of god almost got us all killed."

"His son's a good kid, one of my hardest workers. I trust him."

"Ugh, he can be trusted?"

"Yeah, David's a good kid."

"All right, we will give him an official promotion, make him an assistant, give him a bigger land grant and some more money."

"Isn't our money worthless?"

"We sent out some spring magi and found a silver deposit it's not a rich vein but it allows our currency to have some worth."

"How rich?"

"The mine's mostly zinc, iron and some lead but there is just enough silver to improve things a little bit."

"That takes magi we don't have."

"Heh good news on that front, the americans are allowing us to use their accelerated training programs, fully capable compass magi within three months."

"How many?"

"300 students each month, about a fourth of the program's capability. I've also convinced some parents to send their kids there, so some progress on that front."

"Good oh and...there are rumors going on that there's going to be a protest."

"So?"

"So that looks bad."

"If they want to protest, they can protest, as long as they're not harming any one, destroying anything or getting in the way of our biggest project, it's not a problem."

"You're sure about that, Zack?"

"Let me tell you the complaints, it's too cold, it's too dark, the rations are boring, the hours are too long, there isn't enough stuff to buy, pay for this, pay for that.It's going to be a long list of demands, using money we don't have."

"It could still be trouble."

"Vick, I'm not killing innocent people because they want to complain."

"That's a surprise, didn't we."

"We did that out of desperation, because we didn't have a choice. You think I liked massacring those people? I didn't."

"You regret it?"

"Of course, maybe there was a better way, maybe I was too stupid to think of it, but now I'm responsible and if I'm responsible then I want to make sure that I give our children something worth having."

"I'm sorry. I."

"It's ok Vick, we all have our feelings about what happened. well, goodbye, I have a country to run."

"Get some sleep for me Zack."

"Wish I could, Vick, wish I could."

The conversation ended and I stared at the ceiling. That boy, I would be around him. How could I deal with that? With those feelings, those horrible sinful feelings?

I didn't know.

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


I walked through the dark city streets with my manager.

"You're getting a promotion."

I faked surprise.

"Oh. um, thanks."

My boss sighed.

"It's not going to be an easy job. Officially you're going to be an assistant."

"And?"

"Unofficially the person you're assisting is smart, capable. But his personality leaves much to be desired. Your job is to make sure that your fellow workers do not strangle him, that he doesn't cause any unnecessary drama that gets him killed."

"That bad?"

My manager sighed again.

"Worse, he's a smuck. A smart smuck, but a smuck all the same. We need him alive for the sake of our country but we don't trust him around people. You understand, yes?"

"I do, sir."

"Good, you will be paid 1 sheckle a day. Not promissory notes, actual silver."

I grimaced.

"That bad?"

He looked at me.

"Worse."

We stood in front of a simple stone house and my manager knocked on the door. The beautiful boy from earlier opened it. I worked hard to avoid staring at him.

"Ugh, so this is him?"

"David's a good jewish boy."

"I suppose I have to work with what I'm given. Come inside."

My manager frowned.

"I, um, have some things to do."

The boy rolled his eyes and I walked inside.

"Take off your shoes."

I froze.

"What?"

"I will not have you dragging dirt into this hovel."

"Hovel."

"I refuse to call this place a home. Castle Frankenstine, that was a home before the damned savages ruined everything."

I took off my boots and noticed that the place was much nicer than the apartment I lived in. Nicer than the apartment my manager lived in.

"I had to build this derelic building on short notice. Hopefully, as soon as we finish our work, I can get land on a proper nexus so I can build some thing worthy of my family name."

"I wish you luck with that, sir."

He tossed his long flowing white hair with frustration.

"David."

I stopped.

"Do you have any idea how many Davids there are in this blasted country? To the right of me is a David, to the left of me there is a David. No I will not call you David. I demand that you change your name."

"What?"

"Your name, change it."

I frowned.

"You do realise you're the second Victor in our organization right?"

The boy frowned.

"Very well, you may call me Frank. It's a plebeian name but it will have to do. now you change your name."

I felt a little off balance, the beauty before me contrasted with his demanding nature.

"I guess I can go by my middle name?"

"And that would be?"

"Igor?"

Another sigh of exasperation.

"It will have to do, I am doctor Victor Frankenstine, of the Frankenstine lignage."

"You're a doctor? What school did you graduate?"

"None. Well Compass, of course, but my grandfather had a PHD. He was killed ,therefore the title of doctor was passed down to my father who was also killed, therefore I am now Doctor Victor Frankenstine by right of blood."

I stared at him.

"I don't think that's how it works."

"Piss posh, I say it is so therefore it is."

He stepped on the wall and then walked towards the ceiling I followed him on the ground.

"There is nothing good here, I asked for some coffee and the government insists that it go to common folk first."

"Really?"

"Leaders eat last. Madness, just madness. Magi here willingly go without bread so that the ungrateful masses can have some more. What's the point of being in charge if there are no perks?"

"I don't know sir."

"Precisely, and why are you staring at me?"

I froze, I tried to think of something to say. The obvious was that he was walking on the ceiling. I opened my mouth.

"You're beautiful."

My eyes widened in horror as my mouth betrayed me. I felt a sense of fear and terror. Did I betray my dirty disgusting hidden nature? My young boss rolled his eyes.

"Of course I'm beautiful. I was designed to be beautiful."

He preened.

"That you think so proves that you are not the complete lunkhead I took you for."

"Thank you, sir."

He jumped off the ceiling and onto the floor in front of me.

"Ugh even if you are not a fool I wish you were not so short. And you make it worse with your slouching, it makes you look like a hunchback."

"I'm a foot taller then you."

"What did you say?"

"I can't hear you from there sir, please speak up."

"Wish granted, plebeian. If there is one thing I enjoy in this blasted place, it is the sound of my glorious voice."

"I gathered that sir."

I felt a sense of dread for the future and tried to think about the money I would be making instead.

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


Cold, and dark. Our team moved slowly to the airship, carrying a large totem behind us on a sled. We moved the totem into it and then took positions around it. The chairs were uncomfortable and made out of wood. Our team was made out of 5 people.

Myself, Frank, Zev, Schlomo, and Mendal. Frank and I were the youngest members of the team at 15 and 14 respectively, Zev and Schlomo were older in their 20s, Mendal was the oldest of the five of us. He was big, strong and had slightly greying hair.

Frank got up.

"Well, as an actual magi, I am of course in charge of this expedition. I trust that all of you will follow my advice and."

Mendal opened a letter.

"Excuse me, your leader is talking."

Mendal put on some glasses.

"Dear Mendal, due to the danger of this venture you are in charge of your team. Victor Frankenstine will no doubt try to claim that he is in charge of the team. Due to his lack of relevant experience, and temperament, this is not the case.

Failing this, he will no doubt try to claim position as second in command. This is also not the case. In fact the only person on his team that he is allowed to give commands to, is David Levi, and any commands given by any one else will countermand those commands.

It is likely that young Victor will try to claim at some point that he has been promoted and is now in charge of your team. If I haven't told your entire team about this in person then he is lying. If he does try this stunt, please dock his pay.

From your Superior, Big Vick."

Mendal passed the letter around the team. They looked at the letter and nodded, Frank, I had to think of him as Frank, made a slight choking sound, his face turned red and he sputtered. A sick part of my mind noted that he was actually cute when he was angry.

"Kid, this job is bigger then you, it is bigger then me. All of us need to put aside our personal bullshit and concentrate on the task at hand, understood?"

Frank took in a breath and sighed.

"Understood Mr. Mendal."

"Its just Mendal, all we need to do is dig a hole, put the big stone things into the hole activate the big stone things and then run like hell. Then dig another hole and repeat. Understood people?"

We all nodded, a bell rang and the doors opened. We put on our heavy winter clothing and went out into the biting cold. Mendal looked at a map. He was still wearing his glasses, it was then I noticed the sickly glowing green dots on them.

"This is the first spot."

We brought out our shovels and started to dig. I expected Frank to start whining about how difficult the work was or how he was above it. To my surprise he dug without complaint. Then we dragged one of the stone pillars off of the ship.

"I can make this easier, use the snow to get it into the hole."

All of us stared at Frank. None of us expected him to actually be useful, we stepped aside and he moved his hands. The snow carried the totem to the hole, it rose up and we heard a ploping sound as it went into the hole. With that done, Frank started to do something with the totem. It started to glow.

"Boy?"

"This is the first one in the line, it won't cause any problems, the other ones will."

We turned around and watched as the pelican rose into the air, having unloaded our other pillars near where we needed to put them. There were yet other men, other teams, in the airship.

"Come on boys let's start walking."

We moved in silence.

"Light."

Frank grumbled and pulled out a small rod. Blue light glowed and we huddled close to Frank, close to the light, as we marched in the darkness. A part of me was worried that I was too close to him. I made a point of looking away from him, trying to ignore his face.

Soon we found another pillar, we brought out our shovels and dug another hole. Frank helped put it into the hole and then looked at us.

"We need to get moving now."

We walked forward briskly and then the sky was lit up in bright blue light. I couldn't help myself, I looked behind at the endless expanse of blue.

"Leyline storm."

We turned to stare at Frank.

"Normally it doesn't happen but, when a line has been purified, when you use this kind of power, it can happen. I only saw it in compass."

"If we had been in there?"

Zev was the one who spoke.

"We would all be dead, you don't want to be in there, not until the land has had a chance to settle down."

"Stop lollygagging, we have work to do."

We nodded and walked in silence, with a new respect for the invisible lines of power that dominated our lives.

 

[Cherico]

David Levi


We continued to move through the darkness in silence until Mendel raised his hand.

"We camp for the night. Magi, raise shelter out of the ice."

"Ok I can get something fancy and."

"Basic shelter, make an igloo."

"And you know about those how?"

"I was given a primer boy, I can read."

He grumbled and two igloos were raised, I had never seen a building made out of ice.

"Smaller one is mine."

Mendel shrugged and I walked towards the bigger igloo.

"What are you doing Igor?"

I froze.

"What?"

"You're going to sleep with me."

I felt a sense of confusion, dread, and arousal.

"I, um, is that a good idea, sir?"

He put his hands on his waist.

"You belong to me, therefor you will sleep with me like a good pet."

The tone of his voice was arrogant, and a part of me felt insulted. the arousal, though, refused to go away.

"Um, if that's what you want I guess it's all right."

I went into the smaller igloo with Frank and crept up to the far side of it.

"What are you doing?"

"It's cold."

"I know it's cold, thats why we are going to cuddle together."

I grimaced.

"Is that a good idea?"

"It's cold, we need body heat."

"Um...yeah. Makes complete sense to me."

"Of course it does. I'm a genius, every thing I say makes sense."

I crept closer to him and he put his arms around me, I smiled as the top of his head went just below my chin. I could smell his hair, it smelled earthy like fresh grass. Then he started snoring, I put my arms around him and held him close.

It wasn't right, I knew that. These feelings I mean, but I felt at peace. I went to sleep instantly. When I woke up I felt refreshed, a quick meal was made out of some potatoes and the chunks made to create miso soup. Someone had brought a pot that cooked by itself with magic. We all had a small bowl and went back to work.

This process repeated itself, get up, dig, put object in hole, walk away dig, sleep and do it again. It was cold, we were tired and irritable, but we kept walking, kept digging.

"End of the line."

We froze as we watched the leyline storm behind us.

"What?"

Mendal's word cut through the eternal night.

"End of the line."

He sat down and brought out a mirror.

"It's done."

He continued talking and then nodded.

"Pick up will be in a day. Igloos."

Frank frowned but 2 igloos were created. Armed with free time I went into the igloo with him.

"Boring."

"This is important, isn't it?"

Frank shrugged.

"Of course it's important, it's probally the most important thing either of us will ever work on in our entire lives. But that doesn't mean its not boring."

"We get the sabath off though?"

"Do you remember having a break?"

I stopped.

"No?"

"Officially the rabbis give this whole mission sanction, because its god's work. Well the ones who play nice with the government at least. Others say it's bad and your people argue a lot."

I shrugged.

"We're good at it."

"Why?"

"Because people are always trying to take our stuff, cheat us and make our lives difficult. And for most of our history, if we tried fighting back they would kill us and potentially our families too. So our words were our only weapons. If you couldn't argue, and argue well, it could mean your death."

Frank sighed.

"Well that explains why you would move to a frozen wasteland doesn't it?"

I shrugged, there was no use denying it.

"Heard more people were moving here."

I nodded.

"Yes."

"Good, more people working on this means we can get this nonsense finished as quickly as possible."

"I thought you said this was important."

"Just because something is important and vital doesn't mean its not nonsense Igor."