Fate/Defiance

Chapter 6 [Invention]

By theMadLad

Icarus' eyes moved quickly, cataloging the various items throughout the room into his head.

“Change sound module priority location: Front.” He spoke to the monitoring golem beside him. The golem’s speaker shifted to the sounds located at the front of the house instead of a default wide area. “Change sound module secondary location: Default.”

He had swapped the priority of noises that the golem would pick up, with noises coming from the front of the houses being louder than those heard from the rest of it.

The golem quickly shifted once more as Icarus left to gather materials from around the workshop. He continued to hear the faint noises radiating out from the golem that monitored his home. Eventually, he was even able to make out their voices.

“…Can’t believe everything that went down earlier.” One of the voices spoke.

“Yeah, honestly. To kill your own nephew like that, then go on some crazy rampage. What a psycho, he really sent everything upside down.” Another voice replied.

“Good thing they caught him. I heard that they are going to hold his trial at the Areopagus.”[1]

“Truly…? This is much more serious than I had imagined.”

“Indeed, why do you think Cecrops sent us to catch his son?” One of the men spoke with a conspiratory tone.

“Hmm…?” The other replied with suspicion.

“Stupid, isn’t it obvious! This is his chance to root out the rest of Metion’s descendants from Athens!” He chastised.

“Oh, truly? Cecrops desires the throne? With his character…I can see it.” He replied.

“Hahaha, does his character matter? Following him is an easy step to the top, we only have to stay put on our eggs. Daedalus already did half of the work for us after all!” The other spoke with a boisterous tone.

Icarus put a hand to his chin as he pondered the information he overheard. He was unsure about a large amount of it but was capable of using context clues along with his prior knowledge to decipher it.

These men seemed more educated than the Astynomia slaves, their words also spoke of someone named Cecrops who was likely a noble they worked under. He also remembered Daedalus telling him that his father was named Metion.

“…Shit, am I actually a prince…?” Icarus spoke in surprise. He knew he had ‘royal’ blood but didn’t imagine he also had a decent claim to the throne.

He thought for a moment before shaking his head, if things were normal then he might have fought for a chance at the throne—as usually kings are the only ones who live with a semblance of luxury during these times.

But, the existence of magic and gods threw any thoughts of such a life out the window. Why would he strive so hard only to end up living with the drama and stress of a king, when he could instead strive to alter the nature of the world with his mere words.

…Seriously, fuck having that kind of responsibility with these gods roaming about.

After all, what’s a king to a god?

He also found out information about Daedalus. Icarus felt relieved they didn’t kill him. He may have known he would originally be taken for trial, but that doesn’t change the fact that things may go differently.

But, due to this information, his beliefs about Fate being enforced began to grow stronger.

He took a deep breath to calm his nerves from the implications, “As long as I escape…there’s a chance.”

His hand darted to a long branch of wood at the corner of the workshop. He originally wanted just to make a way to escape, but now he was going to make sure that fate would have to fight with all its power to keep him in Athens.

The branch of wood was stiff but elastic, flexible yet sturdy. But more importantly, it had a strange presence—like a metaphysical weight.

Just the air around it felt strangely heavy, but not overbearingly so.

…It had a legend attached to it after all.

This branch was by no means a normal stick of wood, it was one awarded to Daedalus when he had managed to impress the Goddess of Wisdom enough for a boon.

It was a branch of the famous Olive Tree that determined Athen’s patron and name.

When the city was first founded, they had to decide on a patron god to represent it and after much debate, they narrowed it down to two.

The God of the Sea, Poseidon, and The Goddess of Wisdom, Athena.

In order to come to a final decision, the King of the Gods, Zeus, decided that it would be determined by a gift that they would offer to the city’s king and citizens. Whoever’s offering the city decided was best, would be chosen as its patron deity.

It was Poseidon who first presented his gift to the king, bringing out not a physical item but instead one that represented his domain—a blessing of water.

Stepping forward onto a large rock in view of the city, Poseidon struck his famed trident into the ground below, causing a spring of water to rise from it, gushing out from the impact and creating a lake of water.

It was a fine gift—one which would save the city from future trouble and grief; a steady source of water meant that the citizens would never have to fear a drought.

In excitement, they ran to the water with fever, only to discover a glaring issue.

…it was saltwater.

The citizens were obviously disappointed, a feeling compounded by the fact that it was a great gift that inadvertently became utterly useless.

Soon after, Athena stepped up with a subtle smirk and mysterious seed in hand. She then bent down, planting the seed in fertile soil as the city watched on in confusion.

Quickly a plant sprouted from the soil, before rapidly growing into an expansive olive tree.

The olive tree, while maybe not as grand as a constant water source to live with, was still immensely useful. It could provide not only oil and firewood but also food as well.

The citizens were satisfied and Athena was named the city's patron, with the name Athens used in reference to her.

…Of course, they also made sure to appease Poseidon with an extra temple just for him.

Icarus didn’t have an excess of materials on hand, so he made sure to be extra careful with his handling. He slowly carved the branch into a more streamlined shape, carefully shredding the bark before leaving it be and moving on.

He scurried back to the closet door and grabbed a few books before ordering a few of the free golems to follow him to a corner of the workshop where they began to repurpose various equipment.

Equipment that would be used to produce heat was disassembled and reassembled into different things as he held their instructions splayed out against the floor.

He grabbed spare planks of wood lying around the workshop before using some of the leftover fish bladder to create glue. Icarus then used the glue and planks to assemble a large rectangular box.

Throughout the whole process, he had made liberal use of magic, lightening the load of materials so his small body could carry it, hastening processes that would normally take a longer time, and even transmuting small nails to help nail down a hatch door on one side of the rectangular box.

Icarus felt sweat drip from his brow as he built—although tired, he still held a large smile hanging off his face. He loved to build and was happy to finally be able to do so freely.

While restricted under Daedalus, he made sure to use his hidden talents to refine the basics of craftsmanship to a sumptuous level.

He felt joy in his heart as he finished the box, carving a hole on one end before plugging a tube into it that connected to the equipment he just cobbled together.

He backed away to take a wider look at his invention with pride. Daedalus owned many types of equipment but this was one he lacked due to it usually being used for larger projects such as ships.

It was a steam box, a tool made to use steam in order to bend wood to a desired shape. Icarus might have been able to use magic to shape the olive tree wood, but not without consequence.

Items forged through shortcuts would lose out on not only overall quality, but also Mystery.

That sliver of power formed from creation through process and refinement instead of shortcuts and laziness made all the difference, especially with such high-quality materials.

He placed the already carved olive wood into the steam box before heating the tub of water that would steam into it.

The water tub was filled with seawater, as Icarus hoped it might have some kind of conceptual effects by piggybacking off of the legend of Athens' founding.

The steam would allow the wood to temporarily become more malleable and after coming out of the steam box, if he applied enough pressure he could bend it into a desired shape.

He left it there to steam and then proceeded to work on the mold that would be used to change its shape along with using magic to help make some clamps.

He wanted the wood to take the shape of an ‘(‘ with the length of it capable of withstanding the great pressure it would be under.

As he worked he could hear the attempts of the trespassers at breaking through the house’s bounded field. They were having difficulties with the first layer which made him relieved as this would likely leave him with more time to work.

He finished up the mold and moved back over to the steam box, slowly extracting the wood and placing it by the mold before clamping it down to replicate its shape.

He left it to dry before moving onto the next part of the build. For him to use the item he required a greater amount of strength, while he held the strength that no child his age should feasibly contain, it still wasn’t enough. Creatures and Men in this age are far more powerful than in the future, he needed to be able to increase his invention’s power so he had the capability to use it now, even as a child.

If he was incapable of doing it, then he would make something that could.

He got to work, heading to another area of the workshop and forging a few small wheels out of some decent materials Daedalus had laying around before taking them back over where he was originally working.

He then took some of the olive tree branch’s leftover bark that he had shaved earlier and separated them into thin strips before twisting them together into a firm cordage.

With the string complete, he next moved on to making the components he intended to add. Icarus wanted this invention to be highly customizable as he didn’t want to waste such valuable materials on something that wouldn’t need to be replaced if done right.

He took apart one of the telescopes that Daedalus had hanging on the wall before repurposing it into a scope, along with a small rod that had a small piece of cork at the end.

Icarus sighed with relief as he finally had the various pieces and parts ready for assembly, he was already starting to feel the signals of fatigue crawling up his arms and body.

It was also at this point that the security golem alerted him that the first layer of the bounded field had been breached.

“…Finally!” A voice silently cheered in relief.

“About damned time, and here I thought you were making a fool of yourself.” A second voice replied.

“Shut your trap, you obviously don’t know your own blindness. While I may not compare to Daedalus, I am still Cecrops’ personal magian! Not something his boy who hasn’t even dropped his little balls can compare to!” The prior voice yelled back in indignation.[2]

“You two, quiet! You both are eating my ears off, focus! Who knows what else lies ahead, and if I have to hear you mouth off one more time I will report you to our lord! Understand?” A third voice rebuked, angered at the dalliance of the two others.

The pair quieted as Icarus listened on in faint amusement, but he was mostly relieved he still had time left as they had just entered the second and last layer of the bounded field.

The layer that would probably go on to inspire Daedalus to later create the Labyrinth, it would take them some time to get through…if they ever did.

Icarus walked over to the steam box, taking out the newly shaped wood and laying it on the table in front of him along with the various parts ready to be assembled.

He took a small pair of chisels along with a rottenstone to help further refine the wood to his desired form, adding small holes to lower the weight along with sand down a small protruding part at the base.[3]

After hollowing various areas need for adding the necessary parts he began to attach the various parts and accessories to it with excitement, he could almost feel a metaphysical weight build as he added more.

Eventually, he finished it.

He backed away from the table as he gazed down at his latest invention with pride. It was perfect for compensating for his current lack of skill and strength—a device from 3,000 years in the future, originally invented halfway through the 20th century AD.

…The Compound Bow.

As he walked through and grasped it in his hand, gasping as he felt his senses start to overload from the sheer weight of mystery and power it was stirring in the air.

His hand was held in the bow’s riser, with his eyes staring at the bow from one end to the other. The riser contained the grip that he had made from leftover leather, along with the scope and arrow rest. It also held a small cork-capped rod that protruded towards the bowstring in order to absorb the vibrations created when he would release the string after a draw.

The limbs held various pulleys called cams that connected into a whole system of linked cams throughout the bow to help further improve the draw weight. They were attached with the bark cords before finishing off at the limbs with a bowstring connected between the two ends.

He laughed as he finished, full of glee at finally creating his own personal project that he could take pride in, even the increasing confusion and slow growing dread heard from his home invaders’ panics were drowned by his laughter.

Icarus grinned maliciously as he looked up at some of his father’s spare storage bags with euphoria, “…With the way they are crying up there, I suppose I might have enough time for one more invention.“

[1] Areopagus

The earliest aristocratic council of ancient Athens. The name was taken from the Areopagus (“Ares’ Hill”), a low hill northwest of the Acropolis, which was its meeting place.

It has many legends attributed to it with the most famous being the case when Halirrhothius, Posiedon’s son, raped Alcippe, Ares's daughter by Aglaulus, Ares killed him. Ares was then tried for this in a court made up of his fellow gods.

The trial was held on a hill adjacent to the Acropolis of Athens, known as the Areopagus. Ares was acquitted.

[2] Magian

An early terminology for Magician or Mage, was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge.

[3] Rottenstone

A form of decomposed limestone used by ancient artisans in metalsmithing and woodworking to polish or sand down objects.