The sun was low in the sky, as my small group lounged in the campus greens. Unlike modern universities that always seemed to demolish the hills and create perfectly flat quads for their students, the architects of Aurelia had mostly left the natural landscape intact, though not without excessive gardening on the part of their army of landscapers.

In particular, we had laid out our little group by a tall Cyprus tree that had been meticulously pruned to resemble a vertical bush more so than a tree. A line of identical trees lined the walkway which ran between two grassy hills, one of many popular study spots on campus. Students, much like our group, had also set up shop around the hills and between the trees, laughing, conversing, studying and etc. as youth are want to do.

Two things set us apart though. The first was that there were almost no other groups anywhere near my little enclave. This wouldn’t be all that shocking save for the fact that we were sitting on a popular spot during a particularly busy time. The late afternoons were perfect at this time for outdoor studies. Warm breezes and high temps were tempered by the growing shadows and weak sun of the late day.

“Feel free to take that spot if you’re looking, it’s prime real-estate,” I said to a group that had just left the pathway to scout out a place to lounge. Of the four of my group, I was the only one standing at the moment, not including the small entourage of servants brought by Julian and Caterina.

“Oh thanks! That spot-“ their leader began to say before cutting himself off. At first, a good-natured smile had graced his face, though it quickly changed to panic. “Looks a little too…hilly yes, too hilly we’ll have to find a flatter position,” he continued. The spot I pointed to was only about ten feet from us. It was essentially a small plateau at the top of the hill.

“Getti, what’s real estate?” Tanit asked me as they walked away.

“It’s like a merchant’s word for land property, you know real, as in tangible and estate, like a place where you live and work the land,” I replied without thinking.

“I’m a merchant and I’ve never heard that phrase,” she replied accusatorially.

“Aren’t you kyrenie ocean-based merchants?”

“The house Maggonid has many different ventures, even ones that a lesser family like mine will have been privy to,” she shot back.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, maybe it’s a legal phrase or something,” I shot back before pivoting. “Anyways, wasn’t that weird? Isn’t it weird how much space we have?” I asked the group. There wasn’t a soul in sight on our little hillside while the rest of the areas looked like Miami Beach on a particularly busy day.

“Maybe it’s the weird gadgets you’ve brought with you?” Offered Catarina, from her comfortable position.

“I think it has much more to do with our half-crazed villainess and her two young attack dogs,” replied Julian from an equally comfortable spot.

“I didn’t think people would dare call a member of the imperial family as a dog,” replied Caterina.

“They wouldn’t, even for one of such questionable heritage,” shot back Julian. “It’s poor and lowly Tanit and the country bumpkin Gettorix who have been so ruthlessly brought under the folds of your poisonous wings. Or so the story goes.”

“Hmm, add in the fact that mad-dog Getti went berserk in training yesterday when he punched through his opponent’s mana shield with his bare fist and shattered the poor lad’s forearm-“ added Tanit.

“Accidentally broke his shield and forearm,” I said cutting her off. “He seemed really confident in his abilities, it was only after I apologized and carried him all the way to the infirmary that he told me that he only learned the spell last week.”

“Maybe our Villainess rehabilitation project hasn’t been working out all that well,” Julian with a smile. “You haven’t performed any more water torture?” I laughed for a second before it dawned that the latter sentiment might be serious. The three of us turned our gazes towards Cat.

“Obviously, I have left our fellow students alone save for my genuine attempts at apology.”

“Speaking of which, what happened with Clio?” I wondered.

“She took my donation and apology, though she also requested that we never see each other or at least keep our distance,” Cat replied.

“Seems a reasonable reaction,” mused Tanit.

“It was one of the much more tame interactions, many never even bothered to meet with me while most were overtly hostile when I made the same offers,” said Cat. “Now can you please show us why you’ve brought this menagerie of junk with you?”

The second thing that set us apart from the groups of students who were either socializing, and thus had refreshments and food, or those studying who then were surrounded by scrolls and books, was that arrayed around our group were various wonders which hadn’t graced the empire or it’s people yet…probably. I couldn’t find any references to the stuff anywhere so I supposed they were one of kind, at least within the empire.

“First up, is this beauty,” I said as I held up a small wooden cylinder in my hand. “It’s called a fire piston, and soon every commoner and even many of the legionnaires not graced with fire magic affinities will enjoy its use.” On cue one of Julian’s servants that I had commandeered brought over a clay bowl with kindling in it. He also brought the necessary refined tinder. Back on earth, the fire piston was a genius little invention by the people of southeast Asia. It may have been the genesis of further piston technology that they used in metallurgy, but I digress.

I explained the necessary details to my companions, how and why it worked. It essentially crated fire using air pressure. Then I pulled the two pieces apart, revealing the cylinder to be hollow, while the other piece was a piston with a nest at one end. In the nest you would put the refined tinder. Then you would gently fit the two pieces back together, before slamming them back into place with a preferably large amount of force. After that, one need only dislodge the two piece and use the now smoldering tinder on the kindling. “Ahah, I give you mere mortals fire aplenty,” I finished with a flurry as the bowl ignited.

“Or you could just-“ Julian finished his sentence with a snap, as a small fire ignited on his fingertips. Cat, despite her inability to use any meaningful magic, nodded with an unimpressed look.

“Did You both forget how few commoners can reliably summon fire?” Tanit came to my defense. “This could be a fairly lucrative little device if we can corner the market for a little while,” she explained.

“Exactly, sure one man in a squad of legionaries may be able to use fire magic plenty, but what if he’s out of mana from an encounter? Will you fiddle with a flint and sparks? It’s not a grand improvement, but with new iterations it could replace most currently used fire-starters.” I explained. “More importantly it will get our nation’s craftsmen to better understand the greatness of pistons.”

“Ok, I’ll play the fool. Why are these pistons you speak of so great?” Offered Cat.

“I’m glad you asked,” I said with a smile. Then I held up a wooden and leathered rectangular cuboid with a narrow but long spout on one end and a handle on the other. “Technically, this is a type of piston,” I explained. Then I had Tanit hold a feather in each hand. I placed the spout close to the first feather and pulled hard on the handle, revealing that just like the fire-piston this too was hollow. In a flash, the feather was sucked up into the spout. Finally, I reversed the motion and blew the other feather out of her other palm.

“…again-“ Julian said before flourishing his own gentle wind blast that picked up the now displaced feather.

“I’ll concede that point, but it’s more so that this would work automatically. You’d have a few connected to a waterwheel which would then push air into a furnace all day long with a fairly regular flow,” I countered.

“Just as important, this can be used to pull and push water upwards.” I replaced inner piston with one possessing a caged ball on the top. Then I added a similar though oppositely formed cage inside the bottom spout.

“I call these things check-valves, they make it so the flow only goes one way,” I explained. Again, on cue, two servants brought a large bucket of water and placed it in front of me. Using the device, I was able to draw water in from the bottom and expel it from the top. While it did draw water, the check valves didn’t work perfectly and more than a little bit of water escaped the bottom and presumably, the air had entered at the top.

“Aside from irrigation and draining, it also becomes quite the fun toy,” I continued as I drew a second stream of water into the piston. That last part was greeted with confused looks, which transformed to stunned laughter when a small jet of water connected with Julian’s face.

“Sorry Jules and you’re not wrong about the shortcomings, but if we can get our best craftsmen and scholars to work on it maybe in like a century or so there will be machines and automatons the likes you wouldn’t believe,” I explained.

“Like from the stories from the old world?” Asked Julian with renewed interest while drying his face off with a towel. It seemed to materialize from one of the servants as soon as the water struck his face.

“I’m not entirely sure, my ideas usually use mundane methods, but it would be a shame not to experiment with magically powered machines,” I replied.

“Can’t we just make them now? Why wait for a century to pass?” Caterina asked.

“Well for starters, it’s not like I know exactly how these things work. Imagine you were trying to make something only after having seen it or read about it. At best you would be able to make a flawed version, at worst…” I trailed off imagining a steam engine exploding because it wasn’t built correctly.

“The other issue is that there’s an opportunity cost to making these things. Without a supply network and dedicated craftsman able to work on it, we would just be creating another curious toy to be displayed at the palace.”

“So, these pistons would be like steppingstones for better inventions?” Asked Julian, seeming to understand the conversation better.

“Exactly. You really wouldn’t believe the amount of work that can be done with these things. But like I said, it’s more than enough if I can devise new irrigation methods that open up more arable land,” I replied. If I could be totally honest with them, I doubt that with even perfect blueprints in a century they would be able to mechanize or anything like that. Apart from not having the proper level of craftsmanship and science, they were institutionally unprepared for such things. As far as I could tell, Aurelia was basically a proto-feudal society, caught somewhere between the cutthroat clan politics of the classical world and the burgeoning landed dynasties beginning to entrench themselves on the periphery. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few centuries the empire had splintered apart.

“As much as I like these demonstrations, shall we move onto our ring business?” Inquired Tanit. We all nodded in agreement.

“Well, I took the ring to a typical jeweler on Market Bridge, though he couldn’t find a secondary enchantment. It’ll take a real specialist for this kind of job,” explained Caterina.

“Why a specialist and also why’s that a problem? You are the richest person we know,” I asked.

“As you all know, the main enchantment on it is one of good health and protection, but I haven’t explained that it’s actually an old-world artifact.”

“Meaning, few people, if any would be able to make hide nor hair of the complex enchantment circuits…” interjected Julian.

“My stepmother sits on the council of mages, meaning she has strong connections with or at least keeps an eye on most of the registered practitioners of value,” she explained. “Thus, I’ve been left with either finding someone outside of her faction or just going with a rogue mage; both present their own issues.

“What about taking it to a dwarf, maybe even a trip to the spine?” Offered Julian.

“No need to make a trip to the spine,” said Tanit. “There’s more than a few enclaves in the capital and even some young nobles at the academy.”

“Huh, I haven’t seen any yet, do you have contacts?” I asked. I really hadn’t crossed paths with any dwarves yet, or maybe I had and just assumed them to be short humans.

“Well, no. Dwarves are pretty insular, especially when approached by an elvish or rather that’s what my father always said,” she replied.

“The people of Kyrene don’t get along with the Arretians and they don’t get along with dwarves. Who do you get along with?” I asked jokingly.

“Well, my brother gets along quite well with the nagine and I don’t remember any great conflicts with you Lysians. We also make up most of the traders and diplomats to the barbarians outside the realm,” she explained in a rather serious tone. “Besides, it’s not that we don’t get along with the Arretians it’s just that they almost razed Kyrene and exterminated our race. We’ve had a much better relationship since then.”

“Ok ok, I get it. It was a stupid joke,” I replied, before looking up at the waning sun. “I’d rather not put a priceless artifact in the hands of a rogue mage, so a dwarf in the capital is our best bet.” The group seemed mollified by that and nodded in agreement.

“I hate to cut this short, but I have an appointment with Larissa tonight,” I said after standing up and smoothing out my robes. They bid me goodbye after I gave instructions for the servants to clean up my demonstrations.

In truth, I was running late. The sun was about to set, though I had promised to be armed and ready before then. Thus, the lounging students were treated with the sight of me running across the green towards the dorms.

It was a richly made carriage constructed with expensive dark mahogany. Half black and half white flags with a winged snake adorned the sides. A few equally richly dressed guards flanked the carriage as they traveled down the windy forested road. Inside, a man and a woman sat on one bench together in silence. Both were dressed in servant’s garbs. They watched over the woman who was laying down on the other bench. Her eyes were wide but stared off into nothingness as she muttered to herself feverishly. On one of her hands was an ornate ring, the other slowly and lovingly caressed the large jewel inlaid on top. Her once beautifully cared for silver hair was knotted. After a while, the female servant, Nerva instinctively reached a hand out to touch the woman’s forehead. The muttering woman slapped it away without looking.

“Just a minor setback, he will come to his senses,” Caterina said finally turning to her two servants. “We-we must formulate a new plan, expose the truth to him.”

“Of course, milady,” replied the man immediately.

“What did you have in mind, milady?” asked the woman.

“We’ve been far too direct. Perhaps her family will be an easier target…” suggested Caterina thoughtfully.

“Milady, maybe we shouldn’t-“ the woman began to say, but suddenly the carriage shook before stopping. Shouts rang from outside. Steel clashed against steel. An arrow pierced the carriage walls before stopping halfway through.

“Redates, Nerva, check on the commotion would you?” Caterina said, disinterested.

The two nodded before exiting the carriage and locking the door behind them. Minutes seemed to pass as the fighting continued. Bursts of magic rocked the carriage, fire and lightning flares were visible from the small windows. Then nothing happened for a few moments before the carriage door was ripped off its hinges. A man in black armor yanked her from the seat and tossed her onto the frosted ground. Before turning his back.

“Take anything of value, burn the rest boys,” he called to the rest of the attackers.

Caterina scrambled to her feet and looked around. The bodies of her guards were strewn around in various conditions, some stabbed, others burnt from the fire and lightning. Nerva was incapacitated. She lay on her stomach, hands tied behind her back. The only sign of life was her ragged breaths behind the gag. Redates lay dying, a sword through his chest while a group of mangled attackers were strewn about him. She took a step towards him, but he gave her a slight shake of the head. Instead, he lifted a shaky arm and pointed towards the forest asking her to run.

She took a quaking step back, then another. Summoning the strength, she turned and began to sprint into the forest. Before she could take more than three steps a rough hand grabbed her cloak and tossed her back towards the now burning carriage.

“Quite the pretty toy we’ve got, eh Vaskal?” said her newest captor as he dragged her back to a standing position. His gaunt face was pulled into a predatory smile. He licked his lips while eyeballing Caterina.

“She’s not a toy, just kill the girl already, Mithras” replied the brute who had pulled her from the carriage. Vaskal looked at her with disinterest on his face. His square jaw and blue eyes set in a scowl.

“She’ll die eventually but not before some fun,” her captor retorted. “What’s this now?” he said after grabbing her hand.

“No!” She screeched. Caterina tried to pull it away from his grip but couldn’t. In desperation, she latched onto his wrist with her mouth, breaking the skin and drawing blood. She finally freed her hand only to receive a cuff to the temple. She fell to the ground once more, this time her vision murky from blood and the blow. She couldn’t stop what came next, as the man stooped over her and ripped her jewelry off. First, was her priceless necklace. Then her circlet and armbands were pulled off.

Finally, he was pulling at her ring. She tried to flex her fingers, but he just forced them open, almost to the point of hyperextension. As the ring popped off, her mind felt a snapping sound like a cut cord. The last thing she saw before passing out was the faces of her two lead captors staring down at her.

I woke with a start and sat up from my slumped position on the carriage bench. That was the first time I had dreamt of the novel since coming here. Having actually met many of the characters, the dream or rather nightmare had become all too vivid. We were currently on our way to Harborside for what Larissa coined as her Darling Brother’s First Outing. The journey itself shouldn’t have taken more than an hour or so as the crow flies, but since we waited until the evening traffic rush, we were stuck inside for close to four hours. I was all nerves and questions during the first few minutes. Though after an hour or so I had exhausted myself and promptly fell asleep to the slow rumbling of the wheels over the cobblestones.

During the beginning of our ride, I gleaned enough information about this little foray of ours to get a picture of the situation. In the past few weeks, there’d been a spike in the number of pets, strays, and even kids gone missing near the dock slums. It wasn’t anything too out of the ordinary, and the main response was to station a few more vigiles around the area, though nothing came of it initially. Imagine their surprise then when a frightened child covered in bite marks attacked one of these newly placed guards whilst screaming about giant rats in the underground drainage system. Apparently, since our last conversation, Larissa had been on the lookout for this type of work, which led to our current situation.

Luckily it was only a few minutes after my sleep ended that we arrived. Having left a little before sunset, it was now far closer to midnight, if not past it. Larissa directed us our driver towards a group of yellow cloaked guardsmen by the docks. Their bright colors made them easy to spot, which in hindsight was probably by design. Behind them, ships both small and truly massive could be seen tied in the harbor, some dark, others alight with lanterns and movement as they were either loaded or unloaded.

“Run along youngins, there’s an ongoing investigation happening here,” replied one of the men in a deep voice as we approached. Upon further inspection, his greying beard and the markings on his thorax armor showed him to be an officer of some sort. Thorax armor was pretty cheap, though not ineffective. The wraps of cloth and leather could easily stop a blow from a mundane human’s weapon. We most definitely looked like young civilians, we both had large cloaks draped about our bodies, covering the cavalry armor we had taken to wearing.

“No need, we’re here on official business,” replied Larissa as she stepped into the group. She removed the front clasps of the cloak exposing her well-kept and expensive armor before handing the man a sealed scroll. He began to read over it, though she didn’t wait for him to finish before continuing, “I was promised a fire specialist for the fight.”

“That would be me, uhm…mistress,” Replied a shorter man with the classic pointy ears of the elvish. He had been obscured by the much larger and taller guardsmen in the group, though stepped up once he was mentioned. Other than some orange and red accents to his attire, probably denoting his abilities, he wore identical uniforms to the guards.

“I am Larissa Batvi, ma’am or miss will do though. This is my partner for the extermination, Gettorix Batvi, he will be addressed as lord or sir,” she replied. “I presume you have enough fire to clear out the nests?”

“You two are the lead exterminators? I don’t sense a lick of mana around you, how will you be taking point?” interjected the lead guard once he had finished reading the documents.

“Again, I will be addressed as ma’am or miss and clearly your senses have dulled, hand me your sword decurion,” replied Larissa in an imperious tone. The man seemed taken aback by the order and didn’t move to comply. Thus, in quick succession, she blocked his arm and unsheathed his gladius herself before stepping back. The motion put the other guardsmen on edge who all placed their hands onto swords ready to draw, while the mage backed up a few steps.

Then I watched incredulously as my sister easily curled the thick steel sword into a circle before handing it back to the older man. To be clear, I wasn’t surprised by her strength, but rather the audacity of destroying the man’s weapon. He accepted it with a gaping mouth, though didn’t say anything. “You can stay topside as our lookout since you no longer have a weapon. The rest of you will be guarding our mage, leave the main killing the two of us, is that clear? I don't want any mana wasted lest the nests be larger than expected.” After a moment of inaction, she once again asked if it was clear, this time her tone hardened even more.

“Yes ma’am,” the guards said in unison while bringing their fists to the chest as a form of salute.

While I had grown used to the way Larissa could change her personality depending on the situation, I had yet to see her commander-persona. As an instructor, she was always one part sadist one part patient and doting sister, while among friends and students she was sociable and easygoing. Here though, her tone lost all its emotion and more resembled the few times I saw our father addressing the men back in the Roose.

Larissa began to disrobe, leaving only her armor on while I followed suit. She nonchalantly handed both our long cloaks to the lead guard before leaning in and whispering a faint apology about the sword that only the three of us could hear before handing him a few gold, presumably for repairs.

Afterward, we were soon led down below the docks to where dirty water dribbled out from a large arched opening in the rocks. The descent hand been hard going and was fairly exposed to prying eyes from ships and dock workers. “So, nobody noticed rat-men pulling dogs and children down into this thing?” I asked.

“There are other openings across the city that are being monitored, the child who alerted us to the incident led us to an intake area farther up the hill, but it was decided that we would do a full search of the system from one side to the other,” replied the sword-less decurion.

“Mage, I will expect you and your group to remain 60 paces behind us, you will stay back at each of the intersections unless told to approach,” commanded Larissa.

He nodded and replied with a “Yes ma’am.”

With that, Larissa activated a floating light orb before the two of us ventured into the dark alone.