The strange drug that the auction house gave Aerith was still drifting through her veins. Her mind is fuzzy. She was riding in the back of a luxurious carriage with Tim. Although she didn’t remember how she got here, or how she got dressed. All she could really remember was her embarrassment. Aerith tried to hide her red face in her scarf as Tim talked.

“So after posting some quests with the AG this weird old guy came in. He was some mage from some country across the ocean. Being old he used this spell a lot to help around the house. He called it Mage Hand. Basically, it allows you to manipulate things at a distance. Although it isn’t very strong, it has its uses. I copied the spell and put it into a ring. While I couldn’t improve the strength, I did manage to up the range.”

From the beverage tray, a wine goblet rose slowly and twisted as if pulled by invisible strings. With the spell, Tim turned it around a few times before placing it back into the try. “So that will be the part of the fun and games tonight. The other thing I wanted to show you is this little device here. It is derived from a spell some monk brought in. Turns out his monastery was famous for making strong beer and they used a spell to help with the fermentation process. I think it accelerates the growth of yeast. Although I’m not really sure. Either way, I messed with it a bit for use in our brewing process. This is the prototype. I think it should produce some interesting results.”

“But where are we going?”

“Oh, we are going to a fancy dinner, up in NW1 district. I sold a new magitech stove to the master chef at Belly God. He is enjoying it so much he sent a personal invitation to try their new rooftop dining experience.”

“But why the hurry?”

An evil gin spread across Tim’s face.

Baron Eiji Mori was a handsome middle-aged man with a thin mustache and discerning eyes. Dressed in his finest crimson jacket, he sat at one of the four luxurious rooftop tables at Belly God. At the other end of the polished table was Yukizie, who had a very unfortunate night.

While most nobility never left the upper plateau, barons, the lowest rank, were forced to dwell with the common people. They were the workhorses of the real noble households. Barons were granted power, authority and the carrot of rising to the higher plateau should they perform well. However, that almost never happened. And like most, Baron Mori’s family had been stuck at the same station for generations.

Having long since realized that ascending to viscount would not happen this generation, Eiji Mori decided to develop his power and wealth within the city. Rather than reach for the carrot of pleasing those higher than him he sought power over those at his own level. That is why he was considered a bit of a rebel amongst the nobles.

Baron Mori presided over several administrative areas of the city, including merchant taxation. The money he skimmed from the top lined his pockets and funded many personal ventures. But of course, there was a limit to the reasonable amount he could collect. That is why he had no problems meeting with the plump gangster Yukizie, especially if it would mean additional funds flowing into his coffers.

Turning a blind eye to illegal activities was a very profitable endeavor. The usual method was to accept payment, wait for the situation to get out of hand and then quash it. Thereby he could collect both revenue and prestige. Today Yukizie was planning on putting together a small unground deathmatch arena. He was going to put one of the aspiring young men in charge of it. And of course, when it grew too big and caused problems it would be raided by the Yoriki. The baron would get the credit and Yukizie would get rid of someone who was a little too ambitious.

The flow of dirty money helped fund Baron Mori’s private army. Excellent soldiers paid handsomely and equipped with the best weapons. Their uniforms of crimson and cream were a masterpiece. Loyal and diligent soldiers, of whom he always kept several close by. And two of which were now chasing after a couple who had dared laugh at him.

Yes, it was a pitiful night for Yukizie. He tripped and hit his chin on the table. Dropped nearly everything he tried to eat. He spilled wine on himself several times. Had a bad bought of gas. His chair then broke and he soiled his pants. But no matter how funny it may be to watch a prideful fat man lose control over his bowels, no one laughs at a guest of a baron.

Baron Mori erupted in foul rage when his private soldiers returned. The mocking couple had escaped. Although he loved his troops, he would need to serve up some remedial punishments. Remind them always, that failure is never to be accepted. Then with a sigh, Baron Mori looked up at his loyal personal guard, the one who always stayed by his side.

“Find out who they were.”

“Yes my Lord, it will be done.”

As machinations were playing out in the shadows, the Engineering guild was continuing to expand. Many new people were hired and the lineup of products continued to expand. Copper antennas sprang up on rooftops across the city. But not only did they draw mana from the air, they secretly functioned as repeaters for radio waves. With this step out of the way, Tim found himself drawing close to completing the first stage of work.

The second sublevel of the administration building was a massive two-story amphitheater-style room. The beautiful domed ceiling was lined with hidden lights that provided a pleasant ambiance. A gust of wind welcomed guests as they opened the large steel doors. Spell plates called Create Air continually fed a fresh and pleasant breeze through the room and created a pressurized space. The excess air blasted up though small trap vents and recirculated inside the building above.

A secure room, guarded against unauthorized visitors, spying or attack. Yet it was comfortably adorned with rows of large chairs set in a semicircle around the stage. There was room for over three hundred. But this early morning there were only about fifty present, the entirely of the guild. Hoban and Aerith were, of course, in the front row center. After mustering all the charisma he could Tim entered the stage and began the presentation.

“Good morning, and thank you all for coming. I know it’s early, but try to keep awake as this is something really revolutionary.”

The audience couldn’t help but lean forward as Tim held out a small copper card, about the size of a business card.

“This is a spell card. Now before I get into what it does, let me first go over why it’s so groundbreaking. For generations, there were only inscribed magical tools. They did one thing. A hot plate would continue to get hot as long as you supplied mana to it. It was up to you to regulate the tool manually. Yes, they are handy in a pinch but require constant attention. Plus they are powered by your own energy.”

“Our magitech tools flipped all that on its head. With spell plates and carefully calibrated systems, you can now set the temperature of the hot plate. With the mana siphons you don’t need to worry about wearing yourself out powering it. We use these controls in all of our products. But still, spell plates are limited in that they only do one thing. The only variation is intensity.”

“For example, this lighter is the simple create fire magitech device you all know. Turn the knob and a little flame comes out. Turn it more and you get a bigger flame. Super useful around the house or on trips. Every adventurer should have one. A really awesome product for only two silver.”

The crowd gave a warm applause. The magitech lighter was the bestseller, and with a variety of options for color and design a popular gift. But more importantly, it was a cheap gateway product to other more expensive and luxurious magictech devices.

Tim enjoyed the brief applause before returning to the first device. “But, I must stress again, it does one thing. It makes a flame. Only the intensity varies. But with these spell cards, we can expand our options and products. This card is special for this demonstration. It is also a create fire. To use it, I just slide it into the device, this time I’ll use a magitech battery.”

Tim slid the card like copper plate into the battery pack and with a thought a small ball of fire was produced in front of him. “But unlike the spell plate, I get to the choose the output. Without a need for a knob. “And like that the flame grew, waves of heat radiated off of it. Feeling a bit surprised Tim quickly canceled the effect.

“Spell cards are basically scrolls locked in metal, which will never burn up or get worn out. I don’t even need the battery to use it, I can feed it directly with my own mana if need be. I’ll get into that more a little bit later. But first, meeting halfway in the middle between spell plate magitech and spell cards are these spell chips. Tim held up a small flat metal square no bigger than a stamp. Spell chips produce simple ongoing effects. This one is flame blade. When socketed into the hilt of this sword… well, see for yourself.”

Tim held up the short sword and the blade glowed red, little flames licked along the edge. “Pretty cool hunh? But what if you had a different kind of sword? Like a wakizashi? Well, we just take the chip from one and place it into the custom hit of the other and… there it is. A flaming wakizashi. Or if we were up against a herd of sparking rocket squirrels we could change this out with an ice blade spell chip. And within seconds have a weapon best suited to the situation.”

“This is something that just isn’t possible with spell plates. Not only would it be difficult to swap them out, weapon and spell plate would need to be custom-designed to work together. But these spell chips are different. Like a real spell, they read information from the user and adjust to fit the intended use.”

“I plan on offering a wide selection of spell chips for use in personal protection. Both offensive and defensive. We will need the art team, which means you, Koko, to design some lovely amulets, rings, hilts and bow accessories capable of holding one or more chips. “

“With the spell plates, control is already built-in. Each adjustment of the device is strictly controlled, so you get the exact same results every time. Spell chips have limited control, often not even noticeable by the user. But what if I need a variety of results or something that can adapt to the situation? Well, raw unharnessed fire isn’t any good. So what happens when we combine a create fire spell card with a control fire spell card? It looks a little like this…”

With that Tim slides a new chip into the battery and beautiful candelabra made of flame appeared above the crowd. Shimmering golden arms reached out gracefully. Each one topped in a dazzling blue flame. Every mouth in the crowd gasped in unison as the light of an unbelievable sight rained down upon them. Then the flames spun and out wiggled a dragon that flew around the dome of the theater before landing on the stage.

The room darkened when Tim pulled the card out of the battery. He fumbled with it in his hands for a moment before showing it again. “The easiest way to think of it is this card contains the spells create fire and control fire. But the really interesting thing is that with this…”

The little fire dragon came back to life on the stage as Tim slotted the card back into the battery. He pointed at the dragon as if to demonstrate. In response, the dragon sucked in a huge breath and spat out a roaring ball of fire. It struck Tim’s chest in a blinding burst of flames that shocked the crowd to their feet. But amongst the embers, Tim stood there confidently. “Thanks to Aerith, this also contains the divine spell protection from fire.”

The fear in the room melted into a roar of applause. For the first time ever a divine spell had been invoked outside traditional casting or alchemy. No one there quite knew what it meant, or just how badly the world would be shaken by this development.

“So from this day forward we will be taking on civil engineering projects. Utilizing the amazing tools at our disposal we will redesign this city into a city of light!”