“I always thought that one day I’ll come back here in style,” Ruciella groaned.

“Oh, I thought Academy mages would always travel in style?”

“Hardly. I’m usually sitting in the back of a hay wagon pulled by a dumb ostrich.”

Ada chuckled. “And now you have! I can't imagine anything more glamorous than descending down on a Divine Cloud.”

“Well, I never expected to have to fight my own colleagues,” Ruciella stated as she observed Ada finish tying the rope around her former master’s hands.

Ada’s smile dropped away as she considered the ramifications for the young mage. She tried to sound comforting. “I believe your Master can convince his colleagues that this was all a serious misunderstanding. I didn’t kill any of them.”

Ruciella shook her head. “Unfortunately, it’s not all up to him. The Academy Board may listen to him on most occasions but this is a serious matter. Academy mages have not intentionally physically harmed each other since the Rift War.”

An awkward silence ensued as Ada dug in her brain for any words of wisdom or comfort. They did not come. Ruciella spoke. “I just hope none of them suffered permanent brain damage.”

“Well, your former teacher Grath probably had some brain damage from birth,” Ada joked.

There was no chuckle from the mage. Wow, this is really bad when Ruciella can’t even laugh. Ada continued, “Do you have any spells to check whether any of them have a serious head injury?”

Ruciella sighed. “Unfortunately, I don’t.”

Ada sighed. “We can only hope for the best.”

Ada waved her hand and the wall disappeared as it transformed back into a Cloud. Turning to the mage, she smiled and tried another joke. “On the bright side, if all works out, you did get your revenge. All the time in his class must have been absolute torture. He can suffer a mild concussion for that.”

This time, Ruciella managed a small smile. “You’re right. He’s always been an ostrich brain totally undeserving of the title of teacher much less master. Speaking of undeserving, I feel like giving that thug free rein of your Palace was definitely not the wisest choice.”

Ada blinked. “You really think he’s going to murder one of the kids don’t you?”

“Well, maybe he wasn’t as bad as I originally thought but he might still try something with one of the adults?”

“I don’t know if you’re talking about rape or murder but I don’t think he’ll try anything like that. From what I’ve observed, Sçæaisøh cares a lot about his own self-preservation and that will be in great jeopardy if he harms any of them. He’s shown himself to be smart enough to know that. Otherwise, why would he have contributed to our escape and helped formulate further plans?”

Ruciella shrugged. She still looked unconvinced but Ada wasn’t going to waste her time trying to change her mind. Ada ended it with the simple statement. “We’ll see them again soon enough and I’m sure they’ll be fine before then.”

They moved on to more practical matters. The mage examined Ada’s handiwork of knots. Upon half a minute of inspection, she shook her head. “This just won’t do. His hands are too large for that kind of knot. May I?”

Ada asked curiously. “Sure but how do you know how to tie knots? Do they teach you that at the Academy?”

“Well, I haven’t always been training to be a mage. Before I found out that I had magic potential, my parents were prepping me to be a sailor. To be more accurate, I should say I wanted to be a sailor.”

“Why a sailor?”

“There’s a few good reasons but the main one was to have a good excuse to not stay in my tiny town. Besides, I’ve always wanted to see the world. It took a while but I was patient and learned a few techniques over a year.”

“A modern day renaissance lady indeed. A few knots can make a ship go quite a few knots.”

“What?”

“Sorry, bad pun. You probably don’t even use the units knots here.”

“Must be a Divine unit of measurement. I’ve never heard of it.”

Ada sighed. “Well, once again my pun falls flat.”

“And here we are. I am done.”

Ada examined Ruciella’s handiwork. In all honesty, she couldn’t see much of a difference between previously and now. Of course, that just meant she wasn’t an expert here. She trusted Ruciella’s judgment. Nodding, she pointed towards Leanne who was standing next to the other four mages of the greeting party. “I’ll say dump Grath here with the others but I don’t know if we should just leave them here.”

Ruciella winced. “Do you mean for me to carry him? He must weigh as much as a grown boar.”

“Uh, no, I’ll do it.”

Ada grasped the man and trudged the two dozen paces to the other tied mages. To her, the large man felt as light as a feather. She was sure that she could carry him in one arm but decided against that just in case she accidentally dropped him. One concussion at a time.

While walking, Ada silently cursed in her head. She has a magical Cloud which can fly anywhere but she had no means of producing a means for ground transport. How hard would it be to create a car or train? Steam engines should work for a train. Her train of thought continued thinking about trains for a little while.

She finally noticed that she had already reached Leanne and the other mages and was probably zoning out for the last few seconds. Ruciella has dashed to one of the men and was checking the knots around his hands. After ensuring that his was tight, she moved on to the next one.

Meanwhile, Ada unceremoniously dropped Grath on the floor next to his least favorite loud-mouthed colleague. Leanne immediately dropped by his side and touched his neck checking for a pulse. She continued touching his head and then his heart. The whole examination was meticulous enough given the current circumstances. After nodding in satisfaction, she arose and turned to Ada. “He has a mild concussion but otherwise seems alright. I’ve already checked the other four. Master Grath appears to be in the worst state among them.”

“Well, he was the only one who struck his head against a solid wall,” Ada pointed out.

“All good here as well. Your knots are quite the sight. I didn’t have to fix any of them.”

“Thank you for the compliment. Three years handling the ostriches as a courier provided me with at least that basic skill.”

“Definitely much better than what your goddess here managed.”

Ada cleared her throat and ignored the insult. She was just glad that they were not going at each other’s throats again. “Ruciella and I were discussing what to do with them. What are your thoughts?”

Leanne pursed her lips for a moment. “I think it will be wise to keep them as hostages in case we have to negotiate for a safe passage. We should not leave them here but…”

Ada prodded her to continue. “But what?”

“But there’s not much else we can do. Can you trap them here with your cage? We have no pack animals and there’s no way for us to carry them. Unless you mean to take them with us to your palace or create another larger Cloud platform to carry them?”

Ada looked at her Cloud for a moment. An idea suddenly sparked in her mind. “Eureka! The Cloud floats on its own and can clearly carry our weight. How about make it a bit larger to accommodate these five people? I’ll make a box to fit their magical trinkets as well.”

“How would you move the Cloud?” Leanne wondered.

“I’ll create a rope and Ruciella can tie it to the Cloud. Or I can see if I can materialize a chain.”

Ruciella frowned. Ada quickly added. “I’ll be the one pulling it.”

Leanne stared at her. “So you are saying that you are willing to be an ostrich pulling a glorified wagon?”

There was a clear expression of shock on her Seer’s face. Ada was a little puzzled. “Yeah, is there anything wrong with that?”

Leanne explained. “To have a goddess stoop down to manual labor is unheard of.”

Hearing that explanation, Ada simply chuckled. “Well, I’ve done a lot that I’m sure other deities have never done. This definitely won’t be the last weird thing I’ll do.”

“But a goddess need to …” Leanne started to protest before Ruciella interrupted.

“Look, Leanne, I’m quite sure Ada knows what she’s doing. You yourself said that we shouldn’t leave them here. Besides, can you think of a better solution?”

Leanne shook her head weakly.

“Well, I guess that’s settled then. To a more practical problem, rope or chains?”

“Let’s try chains first so that I don’t have to waste time tying knots?”

...

...

...

...

“Well, there’s not much choice here. I wonder if it’s an automatic date or whether God played a role.”

The progress was agonizingly slow. Leanne and Ruciella looked at Ada waiting for her to do something. Ruciella spoke. “I don’t want to rush you but dawn is not too far away. It’ll be good if we reach Master Arbon’s chambers before he has to engage with anyone else.”

“Sorry, ladies. My power is taking a little while to charge up this time. Update and all.”

Ruciella shrugged while Leanne nodded. Ada turned back to the system display in her head.

“Finally!” Ada grumbled. That only took ten minutes.

“And the verdict is that the latest update hasn’t helped one bit in actual usability.”

...

length in meters

thickness in meters

linklength in meters

material is divine, gold, silver, steel, iron, copper, or custom

type is rope, twisted link, ladder link, rolo, foxtail or custom

variable types:

float, float, float, string, string>

...

“Well, some of these descriptions are different. Also, the custom option is definitely new. I’ll have to explore that later. A divine chain to pull a divine Cloud for now. Let’s just stick with the basics.”

...

...

float thickness=0.5

float linklength=0.1

string material=divine

string type=rope

>

...

...

Ada groaned. “And the usability is now even worse. I thought a systemhelper is supposed to help me not have to deal with syntax issues?”

“Just some divine power shenanigans here,” Ada said. She hoped the explanation -- or rather, the lack of explanation – would assuage the fears of the two girls who were staring at her in some concern. Don’t worry, you two. I know it’s taking a little longer than anticipated but I got this handled. She focused on the tool in her mind and mentally typed out the commands.

float thickness=0.5

float linklength=0.1

string material=”steel”

string type=”rope”

>

...

otherwise default constructor utilized>

...

...

thank you and goodbye>

...

A golden shimmering chain ten meters in length appeared on the ground in front of her as she felt a part of her Cloud in the sky disappear. She might be Divine but clearly patience wasn’t a virtue that she magically gained. She felt rather flustered. “And this is why I write scripts instead of going through this morass every time!”

Leanne looked concerned. “Is everything fine? That took a little longer than …”

“Than how long it normally takes me? Yeah, that wasn’t expected at all. Probably should have stuck with running my rope script.”

I also just realized that there wasn’t any transformation of the two gold coins left in my pocket or the clothes Leanne and I are wearing. I'll need to confirm this but it's probably because there wasn’t enough material in my immediate vicinity to transform them into the Divine chain.

Ruciella picked up part of the chain closest to her and examined it for a moment as she felt it in her hands. She whistled in astonishment. “Here you are able to create this marvel and you’re asking me to tie the prisoners with ropes by hand?”

Ada wasn’t sure how to take that combo of an insult and a compliment from the mage. She simply stated her thoughts. “Well, hemp ropes are both strong and doesn’t attract unwanted attention. Anything made of Divine material would do that.”

“True. I guess with this situation it doesn’t really matter. You can always transform everything into some mundane materials if you want to hide it from any of my other colleagues. With your Divine eyesight and hearing, you’ll probably notice them way before they can see you.”

Ada smiled. “My Divine senses are pretty good. Alright, we’ve spent enough time standing around. Let’s get them sorted out.”

In quick order, Ada transformed the existing Cloud object into another Cloud object of greater size. She told herself that one day very soon from now she would figure out how to actually modify the attributes of existing objects. There was so much more capability for her to unlock and discover.

After the Cloud was enlarged, the three took the chain and wrapped it twice around the floating platform. Ada was the only one strong enough to carry all four men and the one woman to rest on the platform. To ensure that the five bodies couldn’t roll off the platform, she created a few more ropes and the two mortals secured the ropes around their feet and the Cloud itself.

Ada exclaimed. “Finally! I think we’re all set.”

She took the end of the chain close to her and gave it a solid tug towards her. She didn’t mean to put that much strength into it but the Cloud even with the five mortals felt light as a feather. One of the men who was sitting in awkward position tilted over. He still appeared half-conscious but the jostle might have affected whatever nightmare he was in. He shuddered and muttered something in the local tongue. She asked Leanne. “What’s he saying? Is he praying for his life?”

Ada really didn’t enjoy the role that she was given as an evil villain if that was the case. Leanne corrected her assumption. “No, he is quoting a line from the story of The Hero vs the Demon where a farmer, in the last moments before death, pondered on his life while lamenting that he had the ill luck to have met the Demon, a destroyer of worlds, before the hero did.”

“All of us have to ponder on our life at some point. Like right now I’m pondering on why I have been reduced to a pack animal. Ruciella, if you want to arrive in style, feel free to hop on to the platform pulled by yours truly.”

Leanne giggled but surprisingly Ruciella kept quiet. The girl kept walking as if she had not heard Ada. Ada knew the mage did for she heard the girl whisper. “And if I’m jailed or expelled, I’ll have to ponder on mine as well.”

That definitely killed Ada’s mood and she fell into silence. Leanne followed suit. Ada grabbed the chain and started walking slowly letting her movement pull the Divine Cloud wagon along. Leanne walked beside her while Ruciella walked in front leading the way. Except for the howl of the wind and the chirps of morning songbirds starting to wake up, the only sounds were the crunching of their feet on the gravel path.