001

Going Up

“Even a fool knows you can’t touch the stars, but it won’t keep the wise from trying.”

-Harry Anderson

~~~

It was oddly fitting that the most transformative era for all of Ikyu started with a moment of spontaneous stupidity from one man living in the middle of nowhere.

To the few who had heard of him, Gideon Vaughan did not seem the sort to engage in such acts. He was a reputable wizard situated just outside the sleepy mining town of Willow Hollow, servicing all who came to him for their various magical needs. Among the townsfolk, opinions of him were high, as he designed virtually every crystal device in use and his skills had saved more than a few lives from the inherent dangers of a mining operation. This respect extended to the larger world of arcane academia, given the trio of official degrees that hung proudly in his study, though very few from the outside world ever came to visit him. He was a practical and effective wizard, if a bit of a hermit.

However, those who actually knew him would not be taken in by this dignified image. They knew better. They knew that Gideon Vaughan had an imagination to rival the greatest of minstrels and an impulsive heart he rarely questioned.

The only reason he maintained a decent image was because his cabin was several miles away and the townsfolk assumed the sounds of things exploding in the distance came from the mines. Those who visited him rarely went around the back to the yard that was marred with craters, crystal shards, and magical experiments gone awry. Often there were two trails of smoke coming up from the wizard’s establishment: one from the fireplace, and one from whatever thing he’d set on fire in the back. This fire was only intentional roughly half of the time.

On this particular day, as the sun rose over the great Mount Cascade, there was only one thin trail of smoke rising from the cabin, and from the chimney at that. Ignoring the almost wartorn backyard, the wizard’s residence seemed idyllic. Constructed largely of solid logs fit into a three-story arrangement complete with large windows, an ornate double-door with numerous arcane symbols etched upon it, and a weathervane that sported two Magenta crystals. The crystals alternated which one was glowing at any given time, creating a continual pulsating beacon intended to let everyone passing by know that a wizard lived here, and that his services were available to any paying customer.

The wizard awoke with the sun, climbing out of his bed. As impressive as the cabin was, the bedroom was rather pedestrian. His bed was made of straw and most of his blankets had random patches and cuts in them. All the coverings were tossed aside without a second thought as he stepped into his fluffy red slippers. Two black dots had been painted on the front of their fluff, but they weren’t made to look like any particular animal. When working around his house, he never took the slippers off—though naturally when traveling he had to get on proper boots or else face the prospect of losing his “precious foot fluffers.”

He took the rest of his working outfit from his wardrobe. His red official wizard robes came first, which were very clean and well maintained. They still had the brass emblems he’d earned as a student, displayed proudly on the various cords dangling from his left sleeve. “Vaughan” was stitched onto the breast pocket in yellow thread that was trying its hardest to be gold. Most wizards had their full name printed on their robes, but not Vaughan. The fewer people who called him Gideon, the better.

His hat came next: the signature pointed hat of a wizard. His, naturally, was red, though the rim had the other colors of the rainbow weaved into it, indicating that he was skilled in using all seven crystal colors, not just the Red variety. Many wizards said the overabundance of colors on the rim was an eyesore, but to Vaughan, this hat was his most prized possession. He’d spent more Green mending it from self-inflicted fire damage than anything else he owned.

After closing the wardrobe, he patted down his pockets to make sure they were still filled with the crystals he needed, feeling a suitable amount. Satisfied that no one had robbed him in the middle of the night and that the crystals hadn’t spontaneously fused into an entity bent on violent revenge, he picked up the one thing no wizard could be seen without: their scepter.

Most wizard scepters were little more than sticks of wood that led to a central crystal of whatever Color the wizard in question specialized in. Vaughan’s put all of these toothpicks to shame. Its shaft was composed not of wood but of cast iron in a smooth, elongated shape. Numerous holes were bored into the shaft, each of which was filled with one of the seven Colors of crystal, giving the scepter a rainbow polka-dot appearance all the way up to its brilliant head which contained a seven-segmented sphere, with a slice for each Color.

At least, that’s what Vaughan saw when he looked at it. He performed a rather impressive set of mental gymnastics to ignore the fact that, due to uneven use, the various slices of the crystal ball were now different sizes. The Red slice was so small it rattled in the scepter’s iron grip.

He twirled the scepter into the air, catching it in his other hand with ease. I’ve still got it. He took a moment to examine his reflection in the tall mirror he had set to the side of the door, stroking his round, black beard. Not gray enough.

Whistling a half-remembered tune from his childhood, he left his bedroom and entered the main hall. When the house had been built the intention had been to line the walls with tapestries and art, but Vaughan had never gotten around to it and most of the walls he had left bare. He liked to tell himself that what was hung more than made up for the lack elsewhere. Of note were his arcane degrees; three of them, one each of Red Magic, Rounded Magic, and Civilian Arcane Applications. Next to these was a portrait of a beautiful woman in a purple wizard’s robe. However, most prized of all were his seven crystal vaults situated at the end of the hall. Each one was a hollow glass tube that went all the way from the floor to the ceiling with a brass base. Each base had a single hatch to allow access to the interior and a crank to the side. Within each of the vaults was powderized crystal of a pure Color that glittered spectacularly in the sunlight of the morning.

None of the vaults were full, meaning it was possible to see the metallic screw situated in the center of each vault. Vaughan started with the Red vault and turned the crank, prompting the screw to rotate and mix the powder up. This was a very important step that needed to be performed every day, for stationary crystal powder had a tendency to fuse into a single solid crystal. Many wizards despised the idea of large crystal vaults for this reason, but Vaughan couldn’t help but admire how spectacular a pillar of Red looked.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough Red to get the effect, as its level was low enough that he could look right over it. It was not the Color he had the least of—that honor went to Yellow, but since he rarely had any use for it, such a small amount was of no concern. Red, however, he used the most in virtually everything he did. He was going to have to order more soon.

He was fortunate: the Willow Hollow mines were rich in Colored crystals so he could get them relatively cheap. Others in his situation would need to ration or find a way to make a significant profit.

Filing the need for more Red away into the back of his mind, Vaughan continued to stir the other colors: Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Magenta. He spent extra time on the Magenta powder, just to make sure it hadn’t started spontaneously fluorescing from a wraith or something similar passing through. The stuff was annoyingly sensitive. Entire royal vaults of Magenta had burned to nothing overnight, or so the legends went.

Vaughan completed his chore and slid through a little door to the left of the vaults that led to a small staircase. This part of his journey wasn’t strictly necessary, but he didn’t exactly have anywhere to be today. Or most any other day. He only left the cabin when he was called to do something on-location for Willow Hollow, and those jobs were becoming less and less frequent as time wore on.

With a shake of his head, Vaughan pushed the thought out of his mind as he entered the attic. The place was a mess: covered in dust, cobwebs, and various boxes, about half of which were empty while the rest were filled with random implements Vaughan had accumulated. Not even Vaughan knew what was in all the boxes: much of it was arcane devices he had collected over the years or raw materials for use in his work. Sometimes he came up here to find something to sell so he could afford a fancy new device. Just last month he had found an old crystal backlit hourglass and gotten rid of it to purchase one of the newest technological advancements: a telescope.

The telescope had arrived two days ago and he had loved every moment with it. It was currently laid next to the attic window: a small cylinder composed of brass with a smooth lens on either side. Most impressive, however, was that there were no magical components within the telescope, nor were any crystals required to use it. All he had to do was lift it to his eye and he could see much further away with impressive detail. Last night he had gotten lost looking at the patterns in the moon. All the pockmarks, grey splotches, and texture where the dark side met with the light had stirred his imagination.

He wanted to see that again. The sun had other ideas; taking away the detail of the night sky and replacing it with the plain, blue sky. There weren’t even any clouds to look at. Vaughan didn’t let this deter him. He placed the telescope to his eye and looked out.

“Augh!” He stepped back and shook his head repeatedly, placing a hand over his eye. He needed to be more careful: even without the telescope, looking directly at the sun was painful. He put the telescope to his other eye, starting with it pointed downward and slowly lifting it up.

He quickly passed the evergreen trees of the forested area outside, catching some smoke trails coming from Willow Hollow before stopping at Mount Cascade. He thought that maybe, just maybe, he could catch the light of the Eternal Flame burning at the summit, but he couldn’t be sure. That, too, was much better at night.

Instead of lowering the telescope and getting to the rest of his day, something in him wanted to look at Willow Hollow. It was impossible to see any of the buildings through the trees, but the trails of smoke from various fireplaces told him exactly where it was, at the base of Mount Cascade; a handful of buildings that he serviced.

So small that he couldn’t even see it.

Slowly, he lowered the telescope, looking out at the tiny patch of forest the smoke came from. That was it, for the last twenty years of his life that town was all he had serviced. Healing a scratch here, mending a pot there, taking over for a broken forge while a new one was made… simple, basic, ordinary things. The dabbles in his backyard didn’t go anywhere, either.

Aside from those degrees lining the walls in the main hall, did he have anything to show for his time here? Anything at all?

Even after racking his brain for a while, he couldn’t think of anything.

That hall of his was rather empty.

Right then and there, he vowed to change that. He’d put something new on the empty walls of that hall. Something no one had ever done before. Something...

“Oh, who am I kidding,” he grumbled to himself, suddenly feeling very old and leaning on his scepter for support. “I don’t have any ideas…”

Glancing out the window, he saw a black cat plodding up the path to the cabin. A small cart was attached to the cat, and in the cart was a bronze device the size and shape of an umbrella, taking up most of the cart’s storage space.

Vaughan knew exactly who the cat was. He also knew exactly what the device was. And it gave him what he was sure was the best idea he’d ever had.

Deciding that breakfast and the rest of his morning routine were unimportant, he ran down the stairs to the ground floor, arriving at the broom closet he used to store his larger crystals. He threw the broom aside and pulled out a drawer, taking out a single Orange rectangle-cut gem the size of his fist. He pressed his hand around the refractive, textureless object, careful not to let it slip out of his hands. Satisfied with his choice, he rushed through the rest of the cabin, including the entryway and its numerous couches designed to seat people waiting for him. Very rarely was more than one occupied, but he kept the rest around for the possibility of a mob of customers. He knew it was wishful thinking, but what harm could it do?

He rushed out the double doors into the sunlight, waving his hands. “Suro, over here!”

The cat lifted his head, revealing a pair of silver spectacles on his face. “Ah, Vaughan!” he raised his tail in a friendly gesture. “I’ve finally finished your order. I am afraid I was unable to test it, as it is calibrated to human weights…”

“None of that matters!” Vaughan declared, running down the rest of the path to Suro. He quickly undid the wrappings around the device and held it up, allowing his scepter to clatter to the ground. The new device was a solid brass umbrella with a spiral-patterned grip cut into the base that revealed the Magenta crystal inside. “I have an idea.”

“Vaughan, it’s a levitator. You designed the crystal core in it.” Suro tilted his head to the side, flicking his ears slightly. “Don’t tell me you want me to change it?”

“No, no, it should be fine as it is now.” Vaughan lifted the levitator above his head, making sure to point its tip directly upward. Satisfied with this, he pushed his will into the exposed Magenta, activating the crystal core inside. Within the levitator, out of sight, a series of crystals responded to Vaughan. He felt the umbrella tear at his arm, pulling upward with an impressive amount of force—but not enough to lift him.

With a tap of his foot, he pushed off the ground. He and the levitator drifted upward as though they weighed nothing more than a dandelion seed, taking a wide arc into the air before descending back onto the ground.

“Hmm, could be a little stronger,” Suro said. “It’s not exactly canceling out your weight. I could try to shave down some of the edges, refine it for you.”

“No, this will do nicely for my new idea.” Vaughan lifted up the levitator in one hand and held the Orange crystal he had grabbed earlier in the other. He activated the magic in the levitator, but remained perfectly still. Careful to maintain some focus on the levitator, he applied the rest of his mental influence on the Orange in his hand. Unlike the levitator, which needed no specific instruction from him, he had to be careful to order the Orange to release force in a distributed area so he didn’t break something.

Suro saw what Vaughan was doing. “Vaughan…”

Vaughan grinned. “Going up.”

“Vaughan, this is stupid…”

“Don’t worry, Suro. I’ve got it under control.”

~~~

Near the edge of Willow Hollow, a lesser unicorn looked up at a street sign. “Wizard’s Cabin,” it said, which would have been a great help had one of the two nails affixing the sign to the post not broken; as it was the sign pointed directly at the ground. The unicorn was fairly certain the local wizard didn’t live underground.

The unicorn let out a sigh, which quickly became a whinny, a sound that most ungulate-kind were cursed with. While there existed people rather proud of the “noise of their heritage,” this particular unicorn found it nothing short of embarrassing. Perhaps it came from working in a realm that had so few unicorns, but she wasn’t the sort to psychoanalyze herself and couldn’t say one way or another. She just knew she disliked the noise.

Her hair was a soft blue that ran through her mane, coat, and tail that was done up with a silvery bow. As a lesser unicorn, her eyes were significantly larger than the “standard” unicorn’s would be and were forward-facing. Some well-meaning academics had told her this meant she was a predatory species, which made absolutely no sense and was just another piece in the pile of evidence that the academics had no idea what they were doing. She’d accumulated a rather large mental pile over the course of her life for that particular conclusion. It was amazing how easy it was to discredit the geniuses of the world.

Her horn sparkled a soft blue color as she activated her telekinetic ability, reaching into her homemade saddlebags and removing a letter. It was addressed to Wiz. G. Vaughan, Willow Hollow. Cabin outside the town limits.

Addresses should be more specific, she thought, putting the letter back in her saddlebags. She turned her telekinesis to the sign pointing at the ground, trying to uncover what its previous position was. There were only two options. Unfortunately, they pointed in exactly opposite directions.

“You know, that sign is public property.”

The unicorn reared up on her hind legs and whirled around, instinctually pumping as much energy into her horn as she could to make it shine like an aggressive star.

The person who had addressed her was wearing some kind of blackened glasses. Beyond that, the unicorn couldn’t see much, since her horn was effectively blinding her with its light.

“Miss? Care to dim the lights?”

“Uh… right.” The unicorn calmed herself down and stopped straining her horn, blinking a few times. As her eyes readjusted, the figure came into view. She was a humanoid with chalk-white skin, no nose, and pink plastic-like hair; a gari, one of the more common species in this part of the world.

She was also sitting at a little potion-selling stand that the unicorn hadn’t noticed before. The two locked eyes and stared at each other for several awkward moments.

The gari lifted a hand, revealing a pink plastic-covered forearm, and used her fingers to remove the dark glasses from her dual-tipped ears. “So... I’m Seskii.” She smiled warmly at the unicorn. “Local potion merchant!”

Potion merchant… The unicorn narrowed her eyes. “I’m Blue.”

“I can see that.”

“No, I mean, my name is Blue. My parents weren’t very creative.”

Seskii tilted her head to the side. “Perhaps. But sometimes a name close to one’s being has its benefits.”

“Finally, someone who just gets i—hey.” Blue shook her head, tossing her mane back and forth. “Don’t think you can distract me!”

Seskii frowned. “Distract you? From what?”

“The fact that you’re running a racket!” She pointed an aggressive hoof at the various multicolored potions Seskii had sitting on her stand, all marked with a symbol made of a line and a curve over a single dot. “Potion magic isn’t real!”

Seskii stared blankly at her.

“The average denizen of this distant town may not know better, but I do!” She placed her hoof aggressively on the countertop, glaring at her. “Magic is either crystalline or attributal, and unless these potions are a crystal-ridden health hazard or are spirited, there’s no way they’re anything more than fancy herbal brews that do nothing! Ha!” Taking a few steps back, Blue put on a smug grin. “Gotcha!”

Seskii scratched her head, continuing to look at Blue with befuddlement.

“…Blue to potion-selling charlatan? Hello? You in there?” Blue waved her hoof in front of Seskii’s face.

“Yes,” Seskii said, folding her hands together. “I just… wasn’t expecting the introduction to go this way.”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Right, so, let’s just forget about this and move on.” Seskii pointed off into the forest. “The footpath to Vaughan’s is that way.”

“Oh. Uh. Thanks?” Blue tilted her head. “Don’t think this gets you off the hook.”

“No, I’d imagine not…” Seskii’s expression became very contemplative.

She’s probably thinking about how I’m going to ruin her entire operation! She’s lucky I’m a messenger and can’t stay around long. Maybe I can get the wizard to warn everyone about the danger… I wonder why he hasn’t already? That should kind of be his job.

Blue turned around quickly, whipping her tail inches from Seskii’s face. She took off in a gallop to her destination—she was behind schedule. This may have been the last letter she had to deliver to Willow Hollow, but she didn’t live in Willow Hollow and would appreciate getting back to a messenger hub rather than spend her hard-earned cash to lodge at an inn.

Unicorns—of every variety—made excellent messengers. They had impressive stamina, naturally hardy hooves, a large carrying capacity, and a telekinetic attribute that gave them fine motor control without the need for additional equipment. It only took her a few minutes to gallop across the entire forest path to her destination, where she saw a cat with a cart talking to what was clearly a Red wizard.

Her first impression of him was that he looked stupid holding that brass mushroom-thing above his head.

Her second impression was that he was insane. The Orange chunk in his hand let off a brilliant glow of the appropriate color. The wizard promptly let out an excited yell and shot into the air, leaving a short trail of sparkles behind as he went higher and higher.

The cat put a paw over his spectacled eyes and sighed. “Oh, Vaughan…”

Blue squinted, barely making out the orange spark in the sky above them. “What… is he doing?”

“ ‘Going up,’ “ the cat said in a clearly mocking voice.

“Ah. …I don’t suppose you know how to ‘go up?’ ”

“No. And he doesn’t either.”

“Oh.” Does this wizard guy qualify as an academic? If he does, that’s another point in the pile. “Well. Do you have any idea when he’ll get back down?”

“No…”

“But I have a letter to deliver!”

“You could give it to me,” the cat offered.

“You know the messenger regulation, no replacements accepted unless the recipient is dead.”

A haunted look crossed over the cat’s face. “He… knows how to use Green, he should be fine if things go wrong.”

Suddenly Blue felt a lot less annoyed at the wizard blasting off and a lot more concerned. “…You can’t use Green if you lose consciousness.”

“Oh dear…”

~~~

Vaughan realized with some annoyance that this was taking greater focus than he’d intended. The levitator wasn’t the issue: the crystal core within was designed perfectly so it would always push on the circular top with an even distribution of the Orange push spell, keeping everything balanced so long as Vaughan pointed it upward. However, the Orange he had in his hand was not part of a core and had to be managed by his will. He had to tell it not only to push directly at the middle of the levitator but also to distribute the force over a wide area evenly. He had to do this constantly while his arm adjusted the levitator’s position.

It was a testament to his wizarding skill that he was able to do this at all.

The focus required kept him from enjoying his journey higher and higher into the sky. He didn’t dare look down, lest he lose visual contact with the levitator and have to re-align it.

Strong winds began to buffet him from the side in addition to the tremendous rush of air coming from above as he pushed higher and higher. A half-remembered factoid about flying arcane devices failing catastrophically popped into his head. Fortunately for me, I’m not trying to go anywhere other than up. So long as I can keep it straight…

An intense gust of wind twisted the levitator to the left, prompting him to shoot slightly to the side—but he kept his spell lined up with the levitator and redirected himself into a stable configuration. He allowed himself a cheesy grin—he was doing it, he was going up! To what, he didn’t know. He doubted he could make it to the moon, but maybe if he got high enough he would be able to see the globe of Ikyu.

But that would require looking down, which might mess up his focus.

He vowed not to look down until he wanted to go down. Which… well, he hadn’t exactly thought about getting back down, but the levitator by itself should allow him to drift lazily back to the ground below. That is what it was designed to do.

So he forged onward and upward, getting higher, higher, and higher still. The stiff pain in his arm became hard to ignore, letting him know that this was not a long-term mode of travel. Potentially why it wasn’t used as such in the world already.

He also noticed that he was developing a shortness of breath—like he was in the middle of a workout. Surely he was in better shape than this? The sore arm was understandable, but he’d been through a lot worse before starting to heave like this. It was also getting cold, but that was only of minor concern since he was fully wrapped up in his robes.

Still, though, he wasn’t ready to turn back yet. He wanted to get high enough that he could see Ikyu curve away. That would make all of this worth it. So he ignored the developing pain in his lungs and sailed upward.

He only admitted defeat when he started to feel dizzy. He stopped channeling power into his Orange crystal, allowing the levitator to take over. This immediately turned out to be a mistake—without realizing it, he had subconsciously been correcting for imbalances by putting more force on different areas of the levitator. Now, once more, it was pushing perfectly straight. Vaughan, however, was not pointing perfectly upward. The levitator suddenly twisted him into a spin so violent that he lost his grip on the device and it began to fall to the earth below.

Vaughan noted with some annoyance that while he could see clear across the mountain range, he could not discern Ikyu’s curvature.

Then he realized he was falling.

He quickly turned to his Orange chunk and held it to his chest, focusing on it. If he could only apply an even push spell to his body like he had been doing with the levitator, he could slow his own descent manually.

The only problem with this was that the levitator’s umbrella was a perfect circle of uniform density. Human bodies are strangely distributed lumps with muscle, bones, and organs in unusual places. His attempt at pushing on his own body twisted him into a roll and attempting to correct that sent him spinning in an entirely different direction.

Panic began to set in as nausea rose up within him. He was falling from higher up than any human had ever been, so far as he knew. Even if he managed to hit a lake, it wasn’t going to be survivable. Yes, he had a substantial amount of Green in his robes to restore any injuries, but he had to be aware to use that. He just needed to gain enough control to keep from passing out due to strain…

With a new plan, he attempted to look at the ground and find a good place to fall. The sight of the ground and the sky rolling back and forth in front of his eyes made him gag and he shut his eyes tight. He wasn’t going to be able to look, much less tell where he was going to land, unless he managed to reduce the speed of his spinning.

Focusing on the Orange he held, he tried a gentle application of force to his torso. This resulted in him spinning on a completely different axis not in line with his body at all, only making the problem worse.

Stay focused, stay aware… He stuffed one of his hands into his robes, gripping the Green hard enough that the sharp edges broke his skin: but that was pathetically easy for the crystals to restore. For a split second, he considered attempting to surround himself in a Green aura of restoration.

But that would do terrible things to his mental focus. Which he needed.

All he could do was calm himself down and try to alter his rotation again.

He didn’t like his odds but he wasn’t about to just give up and embrace his fate.

~~~

“I see him again,” Blue said, pointing at the sky with a hoof. The orange spark had returned, but instead of going in a straight line, it traced out a wild corkscrew pattern. “He’s lost control.”

Suro let out a strained hiss. “Vaughan, why did you have to be such a fool!?”

“You said he has Green, right?” Blue asked.

“He always has a large amount in his robes. Why?”

“If I can get to him, I can restore him.”

“You know how to use Green!?”

“Um…” Blue bit her lower lip. “Sort of. Can you?”

“I’m a jeweler, I lay and cut the crystals. I don’t use them.”

“Then I’m his only shot.” You’re terrible at this, Blue, what are you thinking? Blue ignored her inner monologue and returned her gaze to the sky, watching the spiraling orange trail. It was difficult to tell where he was going since his direction changed every few seconds, but she was certain he was going to land in the forest at this point. She didn’t have the luxury of getting a more precise destination: he was close enough to see, which meant he was going to land soon.

She took off in a gallop, leaving Suro in her dust. The canopies of the evergreen trees soon obscured her clear sight of Vaughan’s descent, but she caught enough glimpses to allow for quick course correction. She was fortunate to be an experienced messenger. Otherwise, the uneven terrain of the forest would have tripped her up several times and doomed poor Vaughan to a lonely fall.

As it was, she wasn’t sure she was going to make it to him. The Orange sparkles were getting larger and brighter in the sky. He was going to hit. She hoped he managed to send himself at an oblong angle so he wouldn't disintegrate on impact, leaving something for her to work with.

You won’t be able to help even in the best-case scenario.

Blue ground her teeth hard enough to make them ache, continuing her gallop over roots, rocks, and panicked animals who weren’t fast enough to get out of the way. She was a one-woman stampede, and her target was getting close enough that she could make out the shape of a human—and start to hear the panicked yelling.

Just before he hit the trees, Vaughan managed to twist himself to the side, turning downward momentum into sideways, impacting the treetops with enough force to snap dozens of branches and fell one of the thinner trees. It wasn’t the best possible result, for he was brought to a jarring stop by the trunk of a large diamond oak, the tree’s white bark refusing to give way to his speed.

Blue knew all of this the moment she saw a bunch of panicked birds fly out of the massive white tree’s leaves.

Move, move, move! Blue pushed herself through the rest of the forest to the easily distinguishable diamond oak. She found Vaughan at the base of the tree, unmoving, with most of his limbs bent at odd angles. Somehow, he still had his hat on, which would have been hilarious had he clearly not been mangled by the landing.

Blue ran to him, but before she could ruffle through his robes and find the Green he held, something brown and furry dropped from the tree. Blue thought it was a small bear at first, but she quickly realized it was just a human in a thick coat made of bear fur, with shoes and mitts made out of bear paws and claws. The not-bear was a girl—definitely a child—with muddied skin that had clearly never seen a proper bath, and a bone tied in her hair.

The girl bared her teeth and growled at Blue.

“Look, kid, out of the way, he’s dying!”

The girl’s aggression vanished instantly. She stared at Blue’s mouth with wonder like she’d just said the most amazing thing ever. She raised one of her bear-claw mitts to Blue’s face.

“I’ll just…” Blue cautiously sidestepped around the girl in a semicircular arc, placing herself closer to the wreck that was Vaughan. “Go over here…” Every time she spoke, the girl’s eyes widened even further, like she thought Blue was some kind of prophet.

“I need to get the Green from him, let me do that, okay?”

The girl showed no sign of understanding, but every sign of being awestruck.

Blue forced herself to turn away from the girl and examine Vaughan. It didn’t look good; in fact, it made her want to puke. But she pushed the bile down and noted that one of his hands was thrust inside of his robe, holding onto something with a death grip. She levitated his hand out, finding a few sizeable Green crystals in there With her telekinesis she tore them from his fingers and focused on Vaughan, slowly rotating the Green crystals in front of her eyes.

Remember, Blue. Remember. Just like you practiced. Will restoration on him.

The Green crystals flashed brightly, surrounding Vaughan’s hand in a brilliant aura, removing all the cuts in it that had been inflicted by clutching the sharp crystals.

No, no, not just the hand! Everything! She strained herself as much as she could, trying to extend the reach of the magic. One of the bones in his arm jerked back into place, more scrapes and bruises were removed…

The headache was too much. With a whimper, Blue dropped the crystals unceremoniously onto the ground and took several steps back from Vaughan. “I’m… I’m sorry, I… I’m a terrible wizard…”

The not-bear girl walked up to the Green crystals, picking them up in her mitts. She angrily pointed them at Vaughan, but nothing happened.

“Y-you can’t do anything,” Blue stammered. “H—“

The girl removed one of her mitts, revealing a surprisingly clean hand. She gripped the Green crystal in direct contact with her skin and pointed it once again at Vaughan. The crystal lit up with a brilliant verdant light that quickly enveloped Vaughan entirely. Bones snapped back into place, cuts were mended, and even the tears in his robes were sewn back together.

Blue stared at the girl in shock. What she was sure was a feral child had just demonstrated near master-level control over a crystal. Nobody had that much natural talent.

The girl turned to Blue and smiled, gesturing at the now-breathing—but unconscious—Vaughan.

“Who… who are you?”

The girl was less awestruck by the words this time but still stared at Blue with wide eyes. There was no understanding in her gaze.

Blue bit her lip and thought about how to handle this. Slowly, she tapped her chest with her hoof. “Blue.” She pointed at the unconscious wizard. “Vaughan.” Then she pointed at the girl and tilted her head to the side, hopefully getting across the intent of a question.

The girl stared at Blue’s hoof for a few moments, but her eyes eventually lit up in recognition. She pointed at herself with her mitt-less hand, staring at her own finger like it was a terrible monster hiding in the darkness. She opened her mouth, letting out a scratchy breath. After closing it, she massaged her throat a bit before trying again, the look of uncertain fear never leaving her face. “J… J… Jeh…” She furrowed her brow, fear turning to anger. “Jeh…”

“Jeh?” Blue tilted her head to the side. “You’re Jeh?”

“Jeh… Jeh!” Jeh jumped up on one foot and struck a pose, the folds of her bearskin flapping in the rush of activity. “Jeh!” She did a cartwheel, continuing to repeat her name over and over and over again. “Jeh, Jeh, Jeh! WOOHOO! Jeh!”

It was at this point that Suro scrambled into the area, multiple burrs sticking to his fur and a branch stuck in one of his ears. “Is.. wh… I…” With a desperate gasp, he flopped to the ground, unable to do anything but breathe for a while.

“Vaughan’s fine,” Blue said, gesturing at the unconscious wizard. “But… I only showed the kid what to do. She did it.”

“The… kid?”

Jeh poked her face right in front of Suro’s and tapped him on the nose with one of her bear claws.

Suro let out a panicked yowl and scratched Jeh across the face with his claws, cleaving away a significant portion of her face. However, there was no blood—and Jeh didn’t even flinch. If her smile was anything to go by, she found the cat’s attack to be amusing.

Blue watched in stunned silence as the bloodless gashes in Jeh’s face healed themselves in a couple of seconds. “I… you’re not human, are you?”

Jeh turned to Blue with a dumb smile on her face.

“Right, you don’t understand me.” Blue furrowed her brow.

“She looks human to me,” Suro said, hiding from Jeh behind Blue’s legs. “Just… wild.”

“Humans don’t have attributal magic,” Blue said. “She just regenerated.”

“I’d rather not upset her by declaring inhumanity.”

“She can’t understand us.”

“Oh. Right.”

Jeh grabbed Suro by the tail, prompting him to let out another yowl. He twisted out of her grip and landed on Blue’s back.

“Hey!” Blue said.

“Where else was I supposed to go!?” Suro asked.

Blue bucked forward, launching Suro off of her. “You don’t just ride a unicorn without permission!”

Suro quickly scampered up into the branches of the diamond oak, distancing himself from Jeh. He took a moment to adjust his glasses. “Well, I’d like to apologize for my actions. A—“ His apology was interrupted by Jeh jumping into the tree. “Stay away from me!”

“Jeh!” Blue called. Upon hearing her name, Jeh stopped instantly to stare at Blue. Blue stamped her hoof on the ground. Jeh correctly interpreted this as an instruction to come. She jumped out of the tree and landed right at Blue’s feet without any attempt to brace her fall. Something had to have broken in that uncontrolled fall, but she seemed not to notice or care.

“You… are something else.” Blue shook her head. “I have so many things I’d like to ask you, but, well, you wouldn’t be able to answer, and I always hated charades*.”

*Note: denizens of Ikyu would not call the game ‘charades,’ for their history of societal development was rather different. There was no French Aristocracy to make riddles in their history. Instead, it was a mysterious game said to be passed down by the Great Crystalline Ones themselves. Specifically, the Purple One, who was known for her riddles and puzzles.

Jeh continued to stare dumbly but happily at Blue.

“Egh…” Vaughan grumbled.

“Look who’s coming to,” Blue said, trotting over to the wizard.

“Ah… I’m alive…” With a grunt, he sat up, using one of his hands to steady himself. “I take it I have you to thank for my continued existence?”

“Partially,” Blue said, glancing at Jeh. “But before we get into that…” she slapped Vaughan across the face. “You’re a wizard! You’re supposed to be smarter than that!”

“Wh…”

“You wanted to go up? Fine, fine, but there were a million other things you could have done! One: a wrist strap to make sure the levitator didn’t fly out of your grip. Two: make a casing for your other crystal so it doesn’t fly out. Three: realize that levitators aren’t designed for flight! Come on, the first thing you learn is that arcane devices are not to be used outside their intended purpose, the things are calibrated for specific uses! And, and… oh! Four: if you insisted on using it to fly you could at least add some distribution to its weight! But really, you needed an entire redesign. It should be much larger than you f—“

Vaughan broke out into laughter.

“I-I’m serious!” Blue stammered. “That was stupid!”

“Oh, absolutely,” Vaughan admitted, standing up to his full height and adjusting his hat, making Blue realize that as a lesser unicorn she was much shorter than he was. The fact that she was only slightly shorter than Jeh made Jeh extremely short, even for a child of her age.

Blue pushed the thoughts of her inadequate height away. “And you’re just… okay with almost having died due to your own stupidity?”

Vaughan shrugged. “I won’t be doing it that way again, if that’s what you're wondering. But, remembering it now, it really was spectacular up there…”

Suro groaned from up in the tree. “Oh no, you’ve gotten it in your head to go back…” He put a paw over his face. “Why are you like this, Vaughan?”

“Because I have nothing to show for my time here in Willow Hollow.”

Blue raised an eyebrow. “How exactly is going up going to give you something to show for it?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll go to the moon, bring some of it back down to Ikyu.”

“…You’re serious.”

Vaughan shrugged. “I don’t really know if it’s possible until I try, do I?”

“You just tried!” Blue shouted, waving a hoof angrily at him. Jeh mimicked the motion from behind her. “Come on! Think!”

Vaughan stroked his beard. “I’m sorry…”

“Finally…”

“...I don’t think I caught your name or why you were here.”

Blue’s left eye twitched involuntarily. “…I’m Blue. A messenger.” She levitated the letter out of her saddlebags and shoved it at him. “And this is for you.”

“Ah, yes…” Vaughan unrolled the message with his hands and read over it. As he progressed down the page, he stroked his beard with more and more intensity.

Jeh started to mimic the motion, disappointment quickly reaching her when she discovered she had no beard.

“Well well well…” Vaughan said, rolling the letter up. “This certainly is interesting. I believe the only correct response…” He turned to Blue with a wry smile. “Is to invite you to have breakfast with me.”

Blue blinked a few times. “Excuse me, what?”

“Breakfast. Of course, Suro and the fake bear are invited as well, as I believe this will be pertinent to them.”

“I’m a messenger, I ran here since the dark hours of morning. I need to get back to a messenger hou—“

“You may stay in my guest room at no charge. It’s the least I can do for the unicorn who saved my life.”

“I…” This would probably be more comfortable than the prison-like cots of the messenger house. And she was hungry. Even if he was an idiot, that didn’t mean she couldn’t accept his hospitality. “Fine, we can have breakfast.”

“Then come, let us return to my cabin.” With a spring in his step, he walked into the forest.

Suro sighed. “Vaughan, you have no idea where you are, do you?”

“Not at all.”

“Cabin’s this way.” Suro gestured with his tail.

“Very good, Suro.”

Vaughan, Suro, and Blue began the return journey to Vaughan’s cabin. Jeh hesitated a moment, glancing back at the diamond oak, before scrambling after them.

~~~

Breakfast was oatmeal.

It wasn’t bad oatmeal by any means, but it was still just oatmeal. Far from what food Blue expected a wizard would have available.

She wished she could be like Jeh, who was eating the creamy substance like it was pure candy, but Blue supposed that came from not having tasted oatmeal before. Poor kid, how long had she been living in those woods alone?

Suro ate his oatmeal politely, making use of a little bronze ring affixed to his paw to hold a spoon. Vaughan was making no attempt to be polite and was only slightly cleaner than Jeh was in the course of eating. His face was not one of enjoyment, but of a rush to get done with the meal.

Blue simply levitated her spoon into the bowl and took another bite, a little weirded out by the situation around her. There they were: a cat, a wizard, a unicorn, and whatever Jeh was. All Blue could say for certain about Jeh was “not actually a bear.” Beyond that, there was nothing. Suro seemed reasonable enough, but he had a bit of arrogant dignity to him that Blue found off-putting.

Vaughan, of course, was at the center of her thoughts. Largely because he kept staring at her with a mysterious wry smile, but saying nothing.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Blue asked.

“That letter was about you,” Vaughan said.

“I managed to deduce that much,” Blue said, flicking her ears back. “I’d like to know what exactly it was about.”

“Oh, I know,” Vaughan said.

“Vaughan…” Suro sighed. “Go easy on the girl, she did go through extreme lengths to save you.”

“That is also a fact I am aware of.”

Blue glanced at Suro. “Is he always like this?”

The cat nodded with embarrassment. “Pretty much, yes.”

“How joyous.” She glanced back at Vaughan and shoveled another bite of oatmeal forcefully into her mouth.

Slowly, Vaughan removed the letter from his robes. “Do you know who this is from, Blue?”

“No idea. I was paid to deliver it to you by some gnome servant.”

“This is from a very particular wizard. Richard Xerxes.”

Blue folded her ears back. Uh-oh.

“And you know what he said?”

“I don’t have to listen to this.” Blue took several steps back from the table. “I’m going to be going n—“

“He said you were an absolute genius held back by the curriculum at the Academy.”

Blue stared at Vaughan in disbelief. “The student mincemeat machine called me a genius!?”

“Oh yes, he had quite a few other good things to say about you. Clever, insightful, full of heart. There’s just the minor issues of, oh, let’s see here… ‘the attention span of an above-average mosquito, a deep seething hatred of the arrogance inherent in academia, and a personality akin to a hurricane of paint with no pleasant colors in it.’ “

“…That sounds more like him.”

“And, lastly, there was the problem with your complete lack of natural skill in using crystalline magic.” Vaughan looked over the letter at Blue, raising his eyebrows. “Despite this, he says that he regretted dismissing you from the Academy. Seeing you run around as a messenger, relying only on your physical nature as a unicorn, was too much for him. He decided it was no place for such a promising mind. So, he thought long and hard about a wizard with the proper credentials who would take such an unconventional apprentice on.”

Blue blinked. “You can’t be serious.”

Vaughan rolled the letter up and threw it to her. She caught it in her telekinesis and all but tore it open, reading over the lines within. Everything Vaughan had relayed was correct, though he had left off a lot of Xerxes’ colorful words and random anecdotes. “What in the… he hated me!”

Vaughan waved a hand dismissively. “He hated me too. The man lives on the philosophy of making student life a living nightmare being the only way to teach anything. I disagree, but it is who he is.”

“…It says here you weren’t supposed to let me read this.”

Vaughan broke out into a grin. “Revenge for all the times he made me clean the student restrooms with nothing more than a hairbrush.”

“Wait…” Blue rolled the letter up, fixing Vaughan with an uncertain gaze. “Are… are you not going to listen to his recommendation?”

Vaughan chuckled. “Depends. Do you want to be an apprentice under an idiot who almost got himself killed the day you met him?”

Blue was no fool. She knew an opportunity like this would not come again. A chance to learn magic without the absurd regulations, classes, and arrogant professors with tests that didn’t make any sense was almost unheard of. Any “apprentices” generally had a trajectory toward getting a full degree.

To be taken in as a rejected student?

She wasn’t even sure if it had been done before.

“Okay, fine,” Blue said, returning to the table and laying her front hooves on top of it. “I’ll take it.”

“Good. Welcome to the team.”

“Team?”

Vaughan gestured to the sides at Suro and Jeh. “Why, the team I’ve gathered together for a specific purpose.”

Blue grimaced. “You don’t mean…”

“Ladies and gentlecat, we have a mission: to go up!” Vaughan jumped out of his chair so quickly he knocked it over. He pointed directly at the ceiling. “We will go beyond the sky!”

“You mean space?” Blue asked.

“Huh?”

“Space. The area beyond the sky where the stars sit? That’s called space.”

“When did that term get invented? I thought we called them the heavens!”

Blue shrugged. “Beats me.”

“…Fine then, we’re going to space. And then… beyond that!”

“Great Eights…” Blue shook her head. “You really are insane.”

“But I can make you a wizard, and that’s all you need, right?” Vaughan grinned mischievously.

“Annoyingly, yes,” Blue deadpanned.

“Then the deal is sealed!” He clapped his hands together. “Let’s brainstorm some ideas!”

“Woo!” Jeh cheered.

“That’s the spirit!” Vaughan raised his spoon into the air, a motion which Jeh mimed with gusto.

Suro rolled his eyes. “I’ve helped you with your crazy ideas this long, Vaughan, I’m not about to stop now.” He raised his spoon into the air as well.

Everyone turned expectantly to Blue.

With a drawn-out sigh, Blue levitated her spoon up into the air. “And thus the moron ritual is complete.”

“Moron!” Jeh said, clapping her mitts together.

Blue rammed her hoof into her face. “Eeeeeeegh…”

“I think you’re rubbing off on her,” Vaughan suggested.

“You can shut it.”

“Hmm… no, I don’t think I will.”

And thus the Wizard Space Program was founded, though none of its members had even considered the fact that they needed a name, much less tried to come up with one.

Nevertheless, that day, history’s course was irrevocably altered.

~~~

SCIENCE SEGMENT

Wizard Space Program is many things. It’s a grand fantasy epic about a rich world with nuanced history, magic, and lore. It’s a tale about a group of distinct, colorful characters with complicated pasts and motivations. It’s an amusing anecdote with a lot of banter in a somewhat absurd and whimsical setting.

But, perhaps more than all that, it’s an excuse for me to put my Physics degree to use. While there is extensive magic in the world, the poor individuals in the Wizard Space Program are going to have to deal with cold hard science in their quest to go as high as they possibly can. Limited by outdated science, incomplete understanding of magic, and no clue what their real goal actually is, they are going to realize that even with the ability to “cheat” that outer space is a cold, unforgiving place with many unpleasant tricks up its sleeves.

Since often the characters won’t fully understand what they are doing, there are going to be segments at the end like this one to explain some things. Currently, they’re just uncovering secrets like differences in air pressure, but, eventually, they’ll have to contend with orbits, radiation, and all manner of other things.

For this entry, a simple discussion on torque will suffice. Torque is how we measure a force that causes a rotation, which can be caused by any force applied a distance away from an object’s center of mass. The equation in question is torque = distance * force. When Vaughan was “going up”, he was doing his absolute best to fly in a straight line. However, any amount of force not in that straight line would produce a large torque since it was being applied a far distance from his center of mass. He was able to correct for this intuitively with his Orange crystal, but once he stopped, the torque took over and sent him into a spin.

The levitator, being a solid object carefully designed to be symmetrical and uniform, was easy to push in one direction. As mentioned in the story, human bodies are anything but, and as they move and change shape, the center of mass moves as well, making it essentially impossible to avoid producing a torque. Hence, Vaughan’s problems.

A final note: if anyone reading this finds any errors in the science, do not hesitate to inform me. If possible, I will edit the chapter to reflect a greater understanding. Also, don’t be afraid to ask questions in the comments regularly and often! You may find that the characters will ask the same questions you did in a week or two; be the question about the hard science or the mysteries of the world they inhabit. This is not an interactive story, but I fully intend to delve into ideas and questions the audience pushes sooner than others.

So what are we waiting for? Let’s go to space!

-GM, master of the Wizard Space Program.