Chapter 1.9

Ax

The wagon was as wide as a pickup truck, and about fifteen feet long. It had huge wooden wheels, something I was going to have to change at some point soon. Spoked wheels with iron rims would cut huge amounts of weight and drastically improve durability. It was time tested to the point that even a dumb welder like me knew it. In fact, I could spot a dozen places where I could improve it. But now wasn’t the time. We had to move.

So we loaded the wagon. We grabbed two empty crates from the granary, and used them to hold the clothing and miscellaneous things we’d salvaged. In order to save room, I discarded the wooden and stone tools. Latona didn’t think we’d get more than a drachma for the whole lot anyway. I kept the blades from the scythes, and the money was split amongst all of our belt pouches. The small pockets on my belt were loaded with copper ingots, even though only two were currently enchanted.

We got on the road, with only Xene and I riding in the back of the wagon. Alector acted as the driver, being the only one who actually knew how to rig the traces correctly and how to guide them. Among the clothes that Karson and his crew had found was enough wide brimmed felt hats to go around. I scoffed at the idea at first, until I put it on and realized how nice it was to have the sun off of my face and off of the back of my neck. I felt a bit ridiculous wearing it at first, but no one else seemed to mind, and I didn’t mind a little extra shade.

As we bumped slowly along, Xene began disassembling the gigantes armor. Every now and then, a piece of bone would go flying off the wagon, thrown over her shoulder as she worked. I focused my attention on the scythe blades.

There were five of them, each blade long and thin. Roughly three feet long each, they were used to mow down the wheat in the field, and held a decent edge to them. I could sense they were of the same quality of Erxandros’ knife, which had found a home on Latona’s belt. With a few motions, I balled up the metal of each blade into an orb, to make them easier to work. I pulled out the impurities and extra tin, tossing the impurities and setting the tin aside.

I noticed that reshaping them had lost some of the structural strength from the rudimentary work-hardening from when they had first been forged. I made a note to fix that once I’d shaped the metal. It was time to make some swords.

I took the first piece of bronze and extended it to two feet in length, then added another six inches for the handle. There was a good chunk of extra metal that I pulled off and set aside. I then shaped the blade and crossguard, and shaped the handle with a good sized pommel. I left the handle skinny enough that leather could be wrapped around it.

“Leave the pommel off,” said Xene.

“What?”

“Leave it off. I’ll tie the leather up over the end, and you can put the pommel on over the knot. It’ll keep the leather from untying and falling off.”

“Oh, okay. I can do that.”

I followed her instruction, removing the pommel but leaving an extra inch of handle where it had been. I then figured out how to harden the metal, and in the process, discovered a spell to structurally reinforce the whole thing. Magic was awesome. Now why didn’t I do this with the iron? Well, worked bronze is actually tougher and stronger than iron. It’s not until it has been worked into steel that bronze gets left behind.

Instead of casting the reinforcement spell, I passed the dull blade over to Xene, who was finishing up the bone removal on the last piece of armor. A pile of thin iron strips lay on the wagon next to her, and a pile of stinking leather to the other side. In front of her was the clay bowl she’d used to soak the leather before. She’d filled it with water from the well before we left, carrying it without complaint across the field while we loaded and reloaded the wagon. Some of it had sloshed out, but the bowl was tall and wide, so it still had plenty of water.

Using a knife, she cut one of the leather armor pieces into strips, and dropped it into the bowl.

“Heat this water, please, until I say stop.” She kept her hands in the bowl, moving the leather strips around. I stuck a finger into the bowl, using my magic to heat it. After a few minutes, she nodded for me to stop.

Then she pulled out the first strip and picked up the blade. I returned to my work, and by the time she finished the first, I was done with the second. We worked in tandem like that for some time, until the last blade was done. I put pommels on all of them as the leather dried, pressing the bronze as tight as I could over the knots. Then I sharpened the blades, and one after the next, I cast the reinforcement spell. I realized that this spell would also be a ward against banishment, since it wouldn’t release the metal from its grip in favor of a banishing. That was useful, and something to bear in mind.

Xene used one of the blades to create a mold for a sheath. Once she had the pieces, she began to punch small holes using a bone awl so that she could stitch the shape. I had a small bit of extra bronze, so I made a new awl for her, sharpened and hardened it, and then reinforced it. This extra mana from the mana batteries was tremendously helpful. I had to remember not to drain them, since we’d need to enchant four sets of bracers at the end of the day.

Hegesandra joined us on the wagon, wielding a bone needle and thread to stitch as Xene made her cuts. Xene ruined one length of leather with a poor cut, but just set it aside to use for strips later. With Hegesandra’s help, the sheaths came along swiftly. By the time the stitching on the sheaths was finished, Xene was already cutting out the bracer patterns. She wouldn’t be able to lace them until the next day, or stitch the palm wrap, but I was able to get the iron strips attached.

I handed out the swords while the sheaths dried in the sun, with the instructions to carry them and get used to the weight. Specifically, I told Alector, Danae and Latona to lift the swords to shoulder height, to the front and to the side, every half minute or so. They wouldn’t be able to do the exercise for long, but as long as they kept at it as often as they could, they would naturally strengthen.

At the end of the day, we had barely made it to the stream. It was as good a place as any to camp, although we went without a fire. I used some of the iron to make eight camping mugs like hikers carried back home. I made the iron extremely thin, and coated it with the leftover tin, not unlike a tin can back home. It was a bit heavier and not quite as sturdy, but still more than good enough to use for drinking water or soup. So when we made a cold camp, I was able to heat a pot of water for stew, and everyone was able to grab a large mug’s worth.

“The ease with which you manipulate metal is disconcerting sometimes,” said Xene. “I’ve been watching you play with metal all day as if it were clay. Yet I hold the end result and know it to be solid. The blades we are carrying are stronger than any we had in the village, yet I saw you take the bronze from the scythes we cut the fields with. I heard the complaints of the harvesters when they had to take a turn with a scythe as to how dull they were. It is a marvel.”

“It is my talent,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve always had a thing for metal. It is literally bound into my very soul.”

“What do you mean?”

I summoned the brass knuckles, and they formed around my right hand. She gasped as they appeared, and four spikes protruded from my them. I left them out for a moment, then let them melt back into my flesh. I rarely noticed the extra weight in that arm anymore, not that I could do anything about it.

“Another marvel,” she breathed. “Watching you and your brother work is incredible. Yours is a vibrant, fiery magic.”

“And my brother’s?”

His is…” she shuddered for a moment. “Terrifying. I saw your fight with the gigantes that first night. You are a warrior, a brawler, underneath your magic. Lord Karsos… his magic is brutal and kind, at the same time. What do you call that?”

“Paradox,” I supplied.

“Yes, a paradox. Life and death. My mother had the Sight. Just a touch, enough to see ghosts and spirits. I inherited that from her. Not enough to be a hedge witch or anything, and I’m not bloodthirsty enough to follow Hekate. But in that fight, I Saw him rip the soul out of that gigante.”

“Our father always told us to stay out of fights. But he also said that if you have no choice, if you have to fight, fight to win and fight dirty.”

“Fight dirty? What does this mean?”

“Utter ruthlessness, no holding back, as fast and brutal as possible,” I explained. The culture gap struck again.

“I never knew my father. My mother, she died, and my uncle had no money, so he sold me to the slaver. He said he had no use for a girl child.”

“What an asshole,” I said. “If we run into him, let me know. I’ll stab him in the face for you.”

Xene laughed. “That’s sweet of you, but I don’t know what village I came from, what he looks like, or even if he is still alive. He was much older than my mother.”

“You don’t sound particularly angry about it.”

“I was bought by a nice family. For a slave, that is all you can ask for. I could buy my freedom, but why would I? Latona is my best friend, like my sister. I take care of her and she protects me and gives me what I need.”

“And what about all those slaves who live in horrible conditions? The ones that are abused, taken advantage of, and beaten?”

Xene’s face turned dark. “I don’t defend slavery. I only say that I have a life worth fighting for. If you try to slap shackles on me, don’t be surprised to wake with a knife in your throat.”

After dinner, I took the four sets of bracers that Xene and I had finished in the afternoon and wandered over to where Karsos was sitting. He was staring off towards the stream and didn’t seem to notice my approach. I cleared my throat, but he was still lost in thought. I dropped the pile of bracers in his lap, and he just about jumped out of his skin. I laughed.

“Asshole!” he said in English. “The fuck did you do that for?”

“Hey, space cadet, I kept trying to get your attention. What were you thinking about so hard, anyway?”

“Well, I’ve had almost nothing to do all day except think. The possibilities of what we can do is almost endless. I’ve got ideas about teleporting, various protection wards, and a really cool idea of how to expand space. I really need to get some paper.”

“You might have to invent it first,” I said dryly. “Did they even have paper?”

“Papyrus, not paper. I watched a few videos online about how to make it, so maybe I’ll start a paper mill some day. But for now, it’s going to have to be whatever is available.”

“So you ready to do this?” I asked. “I’d like to get some sleep sometime tonight.”

“Yeah, about that… You should be able to use the health ring to eliminate fatigue, if you concentrate. I tried it earlier, and I feel like I slept all night. Still mentally fatigued, but physically I’m all set.”

“Yeah, I’m not screwing with sleep. I like it too much,” I said.

“You do you,” said Karson with a shrug. “Let’s get weaving. Start it off?”

I began the fire conversion spell, and like before, he intertwined his magic around mine, adding to it, shaping it, and pushing it into the bracers. Except he had changed something. The spells were different, I just couldn’t quite grasp what he was doing.

“Okay, what did you add?” I asked.

Karsos smiled. “I figured out a ward against acid spells like mine, and against death magic, so people can’t get their souls yanked on. I’m going to add those to ours. Also, there is a physical switch on these ones, so I removed the intent control. The mana feeds back to our batteries, too, as long as we’re in range. If we’re out of range, it’ll just fill up its own mana pool and reinforce the core spell. If the pool is too full, it’ll just overflow and radiate into the air around the wearer.”

I saw all the bits and pieces he rambled on about, and once he explained them I fully understood what they were doing. I could probably even weave them if I tried a few times. But I couldn’t even begin to guess how he’d come up with all of this. If he ever got his hands on someone who knew what they were doing, his spellcasting would be totally next level.

We completed all four sets of bracers, and updated the spells on ours, before I headed off to bed. Karson settled down by the fire in a meditative pose, several bits of copper in one hand. I wrapped myself in my traveling cloak. The garment was really an oversized rectangle of cloth, pinned at one shoulder with extra fabric that I could pull over my head as a hood. I found a convenient tree and dozed off as soon as my head found a spot to lean.

I was wakened by Danae the next morning as dawn broke.

“My lord, we have breakfast cooking. Were we to do spear drill this morning?”

She seemed eager to learn, having not participated the day before. Danae had marched with a sword in hand all day yesterday, the same sword that was sheathed at her waist now. She’d switched to a thicker belt to help handle the weight better.

Then Karson walked over as I stood up. I looked up at him, then did a double-take.

“Did you… are you taller?” He had always been about two inches taller than me, right at six feet tall, but now it looked like he was even taller. His height and his curly golden hair really made him look right at home here. I was always shorter and stockier, with dark curls instead of golden blonde, but this was getting ridiculous.

“Just an inch,” he said with a smirk. “I’m planning on removing it tonight. I’ve been playing with my body magic. I want to be able to get us to the strength of the gigantes, and as fast as those little shit cynos as soon as possible. Also, I have an idea on how we can start getting more metals for you. If we can push enchantments into objects, why can’t we do the same with your conjuring?”

The idea was brilliant. I hadn’t played with conjuring beyond the initial attempt with copper. But the mana batteries changed that. I had gone from a relatively small mana pool for the entire day, to a steady stream of mana that let me work essentially as long as I wanted. Manipulating metal, at least the softer metals, seemed to do fine just with that stream, without draining the batteries much at all. So I knew what I was doing today. I would be conjuring different metals while Karson watched, so that he could understand the process. After spear practice, we hit the trail again. It was less than an hour before we reached the road.

I was walking today, with Hegesandra and Xene staying on the wagon with Alector the driver again today. Lacedaemon liked to take point ahead of the wagon, spear on his shoulder and sword strapped to his waist. Latona and Danae walked together behind the wagon, and Karson and I took up the rear, a dozen or so paces back. I didn’t mind the view. Danae was cute, but Latona was gorgeous. Her dark brown hair was braided down her back, and the shorter chiton she now wore only accentuated her figure.

At one point, Latona stretched, pulling the fabric up to just under her rear. I think I might have drooled at the sight. She turned and looked over a shoulder at me, blushing slightly before turning back to her conversation with Danae. Unreal.

“I think she might like you,” said Karson.

“But wasn’t she just about to marry Polybius?” I objected.

Karson gave a shrug. “She’s eighteen or nineteen years old. Hormones are still raging, and Polybius was an arranged marriage.”

“I thought she picked him,” I said.

“Out of a small pool of candidates, where she was probably given an even smaller list of acceptable candidates. And her father could have ignored her choice if he disagreed.”

“Fair point,” I said.

“Also, these are hard times and life is fleeting. She’s probably looking for something positive to help balance out the huge negatives lately.”

“Aren’t we supposed to be conjuring?” I said, eager to move on from the subject.

That got me a laugh. Sometimes topic changes are necessary.