The Hidden Masters of Marandur

Chapter Seventeen

It wasn’t until Mari left the room that she realized the inhabitants of the university probably knew that she had spent the night with Alain. Her pack had been left resting next to his in the room. She felt a surge of embarrassment, then defiance. Let them think what they will. I’m not going to explain or justify myself to anyone, not when I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m tired of people who think the worst of me.

As they walked toward Professor Wren’s office, she felt the silence more strongly than usual. Normally it felt right just to be with Alain, not necessarily saying anything. But now the lack of words weighed on her. “You know, Alain, I can’t operate a boiler all by myself.”

“I did not know that,” Alain said.

“Well, I could for a little while, but I need to sleep. I’m going to need help. I’m going to need to train people.” Mari looked around. “And the only people here are commons.”

“When you spoke with Mechanic Calu, you said you thought commons might be able to do Mechanic work,” Alain pointed out.

“You remember that? Yeah. Those Dark Mechanics we’ve encountered. Where do they come from, anyway? The Mechanics Guild is supposed to find everyone with Mechanic talents when they’re still kids.” She walked a few steps more, thinking. “Maybe there is a talent, but it’s not all there is. I mean, the Dark Mechanics don’t have the Mechanics Guild’s rules. They could build new stuff if they wanted to, but they don’t seem to have done so. Maybe they can do basic work but lack the talent to design new things.”

“Basic work?” Alain asked.

“Like turning wrenches and tightening screws. Reading gauges.” Mari glanced at Alain. “Commons use simple tools all the time, even though they don’t recognize them as tools. Levers, for example. They operate rifles. They work pump handles. I’ve always been told commons can’t go beyond that, but if there was ever a place to test that rule, it’s here.”

She felt a sardonic laugh coming and let it out, drawing a look from Alain in which both surprise and concern were apparent. He had a right to both, after last night. Please let it get better. If I have to deal with that kind of nightmare every night, I’ll go insane. “It’s all right. I was just thinking that I may be about to break one of the most important rules of my Guild. But what are they going to do to me besides what they are already trying to do? I can’t change the world without running a few risks.”

Alain actually managed to look skeptical. “A few risks?”

Mari laughed again, the sound feeling strange to her still. “You know, like trusting a Mage.”

“I understand,” Alain said. “I have also run risks against the teaching of my Guild. Why has my closeness to you not harmed my Mage powers? I was taught that being able to cause temporary changes to the world requires believing that the world I see is false and that other people are part of that illusion. Yet I feel more strongly every day that you are real, that you cannot be an illusion, and my powers have not diminished.”

Mari felt uncomfortable at that, at the idea that Alain’s feelings for her might have limited the powers he had sacrificed so much to attain. “Maybe that’s because you believe in this illusion of me that isn’t real,” she tried to joke. “I bet you really do believe that I’m the daughter of Jules.”

“I am certain that you are the… You told me not to call you by that name.”

“Sorry,” Mari said. “That wasn’t a deliberate trap. I guess I can say it, because I don’t really believe it, but if you say it, I would know you believed it. Because you think I’m this impossibly wonderful person who can do anything. I’ve heard you tell people that.”

“That is not an illusion,” Alain said, his voice perfectly serious.

“If I thought you really believed that, I’d run away right now,” Mari said, keeping her own voice just as serious. “That’s too much for anyone to live up to.”

“You are more than you think you are,” Alain said, “but perhaps that is what makes you more.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “It’s too early in the morning for me to think that through. Promise me that you won’t go around telling people here that I’m…her.”

“I promise,” Alain said. “Can I tell them that you can be difficult?”

He had made another joke. Mari smiled at Alain. “I think they’ll figure that out on their own soon enough.”

Mari faced Professor Wren, master of the university. It felt good to be wearing her Mechanics jacket again, good to be recognizable to everyone who saw her for what she could do.

That wasn’t all that felt good. Yesterday she had said it straight out. I want to change the world. What had made her decide to say that? Had it been experiencing the horror of Marandur, which was a product of the way the world was? Whatever the reason, Mari felt real relief at having accepted that goal, even though the goal was still a vague one. Except for overthrowing the Great Guilds. The only way to change the world was by doing that. So it seems I’m accepting the role of the daughter even if I can’t believe that I am really her.

Even better, after the haunting horror of last night, had been waking in Alain’s arms and knowing she had the strength to keep going. Start small. Finish cleaning the pistol and reassemble it. It had been hard to pick up the weapon after that, its familiar feel in her hand become strange and menacing. Alli had talked about that, too, when she was teaching Mari to shoot, but Mari hadn’t really paid attention, hadn’t really understood. Shooting these is fun, Alli had said. Designing them is cool. But, really, Mari, they only have one purpose. They exist to kill things. You can’t ever forget that. And so Mari had holstered the pistol, knowing that she had used it only when no alternative existed, and knowing that she would use it again only for the same reason.

Then Alain had given her another gift with his suggestion. Now her mind seized upon the idea of fixing that old boiler, training commons in its use, creating instead of destroying. “Professor Wren, I’m going to take a look at the steam heating plant for these buildings.”

Wren blinked, her expression concerned. “We have not tampered with the Mechanic equipment, if that is your worry.”

“I want to see if I can fix it,” Mari stated. “Get it working for you before winter comes.”

“Do you think you can?” Wren’s face lit with amazement. “But we have little money and we understand the works of Mechanics are always very expensive. We cannot afford to pay.”

“You saved my life and the life of the Mage Alain. We’re benefiting from your hospitality now. Why don’t we call that even?” Mari’s eyes challenged the professor to debate further.

But Professor Wren slowly nodded. “You have a remarkable amount of self-possession for a woman your age, Lady Mechanic, if you don’t mind my saying so. Your…behavior is also not what we were told to expect should Mechanics ever come here again. Are all Mechanics like you?”

“No.” Mari let it stay at that for a moment, then realized she owed Wren more. “I’m different. Treat any other Mechanic, assuming you meet any more of them, with care until you learn their attitude.”

“I will remember that, Lady Mechanic. I will find some students to show you the way to the building where the heating system is located.”

The handful of students Wren quickly rounded up eyed Mari with unconcealed wonder and peppered her with questions. “You have seen the world?” “You are a Mechanic? An actual Mechanic?” “That man is a Mage?” “What is it like out there?” “Have you seen the sea?”

Mari answered patiently, while thinking how odd it was to deal with commons who had never been taught to treat a Mechanic with respectful silence. Partly that was a relief, because these commons didn’t have the barely hidden hostility with which Mari had become too familiar, but it was still disconcerting. The fact that the “students” ranged in age from several years younger than her eighteen-almost-nineteen years to decades older only made it feel stranger. She asked some questions back, learning that the students engaged in a lot more than learning things they would never get to apply. They tended the crops growing inside the wall, took care of the small but important herd of farm animals, stood sentry on the wall, and kept the wall standing when parts of it started to crumble.

It took some effort to access the building holding the steam plant. Time and the elements had swollen the wood of the door so that it had to be pried loose from the frame. The heating plant was set in a building surrounded by a cleared area, roughly centered between the main offices and living spaces of the university. She knew that was intended to provide a little safety if there was an accident in the heating plant, but even eyeballing it told her the offset was too small, that a boiler explosion would cause serious damage to the other buildings. Someone had sidestepped the safety requirements when they located this steam plant here, but that would be in keeping with what she had seen of Senior Mechanics so far. For all of their avowed devotion to following the rules, Senior Mechanics somehow always found justification for doing whatever they wanted.

Mari braced herself for what she might see inside the building, then strode in like she owned the place.

Although, as the only representative of the Mechanics Guild in the city of Marandur, she actually did own the place, Mari told herself.

The windows, heavily grimed by time and the elements, didn’t let in enough light. Mari flicked on her hand light, drawing exclamations of awe from the students, and began examining the equipment. To her surprise, the steam plant looked to be in decent shape under a coating of dust. “Do any of you know anything about this? Did it just stop working or did someone shut it down?”

The students exchanged baffled looks. “All we know is that it used to provide heat a long time ago, ma’am. We were told never to enter this building.”

Ma’am. They had her feeling like an ancient with at least, oh, thirty years of life behind her. “The proper title is Lady Mechanic. Or just Lady.” They mumbled quick apologies. “I’m going to need a lot of hands in here. People to get this dust wiped up and the windows cleaned so I have enough light to work by. Can you get me some more help?”

Before she could say another word they had all dashed off in different directions, their threadbare hand-me-down garments flapping behind them.

Sighing, Mari turned back to the steam plant and started inspecting it. To her pleasant surprise, the tool lockers were all still stocked. She had been wondering how she would cope if the big wrenches were missing. Even better, the tools had been carefully stored away, wrapped in oiled cloth. The boiler appeared to be intact, with no signs of corrosion, meaning all of the water had been drained from the system before it was abandoned. Everywhere, the plant showed signs of having been carefully shut down and prepared for a long-term period of hibernation. Who did that? Why would the Mechanics who presumably left this place in a big hurry have bothered? But somebody did it, and it’ll make my job a lot easier. If there had been water left in the boiler to corrode the insides for the last century I probably wouldn’t have been able to fix this thing at all.

Her helpers returned with large numbers of others in tow. Mari had estimated that roughly five hundred survivors inhabited the university, and more than half of them seemed to be here, itching to help. Fortunately, she had plenty of experience directing apprentices. Breaking the students into teams, she soon had them working at various tasks, removing the grime of more than a hundred years of disuse from the steam plant and the building it rested in.

“You should eat.” She turned to see Alain standing near, a water flask in one hand and some food in the other. “It is past noon.”

“It is?” Mari blinked up at the sun. “I guess I got lost in my work.”

He sat next to her as she wolfed down the food. “The professors have been complaining that all of their students are gone,” Alain said. “Even those who are supposed to be working on preserving food for the winter or repairing the wall are in here. Only the wall sentries have remained on duty.”

“That’s not my fault.” She gave him a glance, wondering if Alain was just passing on the information or if he found it amusing. “What’ve you been doing?”

Alain shrugged, then gestured around. “Observing. I have walked around to see what I can see of the area inside these walls. I could find no evidence of what we seek. Also, I did some tests on my Mage skills, which is why I am resting again.”

“Tests?” Mari asked around a mouthful of food. “What kind of tests?”

“I was trying to see if I am losing specific spell abilities, or having spells lose power. I could not do this when I might be detected by other Mages, but within this city I am as safe from that as I can be, short of being far out at sea.”

She swallowed, feeling the food sticking in her throat at Alain’s words, and took a long drink to clear it. “I thought you told me that you weren’t getting weaker.”

“I did, but I wanted to see how strong my skills are now, and whether every skill I once had is still present,” Alain said. “Though I had to use my powers to the utmost yesterday, I have not been able to practice my skills to determine their limits since we met in the Northern Ramparts, and my attachment to you has grown since then.”

Mari stared down at her food. “I can’t imagine losing my ability to do my work. I’d feel terrible if your falling in love with me caused you to lose some of your abilities.”

“You did not make me fall in love with you, unless this is some power of yours over men which you have not told me of.”

“Not to my knowledge,” Mari replied with a grin. “I have no idea why you fell in love with me.”

“Your modesty is surely one of the reasons,” Alain said.

Mari snorted. “You did think I’d placed some spell on you, remember? Back in Ringhmon?”

“It seemed the only reasonable explanation,” Alain said. “How could this female Mechanic have wrought such changes in me? She must, I thought, have more power than any Mage. I was right.”

Mari felt her face warming again and laughed to cover up her embarrassment.

“I have not become weaker,” Alain continued. “In Ringhmon, you showed me how to find that place inside where strength may be found when none remains.”

“I…what?”

“You know of it,” Alain insisted. “You have used it. Back in Ringhmon to save me, later during the blizzard, and on the river yesterday, and other times. But more than this, being near you has not weakened me. I have never been stronger. A few months ago I could not have cast all of the spells I did yesterday. I would not have had the ability or the spell strength.”

“Being in love with me is making you stronger?” she asked, disbelieving. “That’s sort of every girl’s dream come true, but I didn’t expect it to actually happen with anyone.”

“I think, yes, you are making me stronger. I still know the world is false. What I believe to be real is you. Another person. That alone is supposed to cripple my ability to view everything as false.” Alain’s frown was obvious enough that anyone could have seen it. “I am thinking about this. About what it may mean. There is something false about the teachings of my Guild, something completely flawed. I must learn what it is. And then I must discover actual wisdom.”

Something really hit her then for the first time. “Any Mage would expect to lose their powers if they fell in love? You thought being in love with me would cause you to completely lose your Mage powers? You believed that would happen?”

“Yes. Why did you ask the same question three times?” Alain wondered.

“Because…it wasn’t the exact same question! You thought you’d lose all your powers, and you still kept caring for me?”

Alain nodded, that tiny smile appearing again. How she loved to see that smile. “Of course. What were my powers compared to you?”

“Alain, that’s…” Mari blinked rapidly, staring at the ground and rubbing at her eyes as she felt tears starting. “I never thought any guy would want to make that kind of sacrifice for me.”

“I have shown that I was willing to die with you. This is much less than that.”

Mari shook her head. “No, you silly Mage. It’s much more. Dying from danger can be easy. It happens so fast, you know? But deciding to live every day of the rest of your life knowing you’ve given up something very important for someone else…that’s hard. I wouldn’t have asked you to do that, Alain. Not if I’d known. You realize that, don’t you?”

“I believe that I always did,” Alain replied. “Perhaps I was not aware of it before now, but somehow I knew.” He studied her, his eyes betraying some concern. “It is well that I did not tell you earlier. You might have denied any feelings for me in an attempt to…save me from myself.”

Mari couldn’t help a short laugh. “All right. But I’m going to feel very guilty if someday you do lose your powers because of me.” Mari brushed her hair back with one hand, realizing again just how much responsibility came along with her love for Alain.

“You should not feel guilty,” he insisted. “It is my choice. Perhaps someday I will see the effects my Guild warned of, though I have no reason to believe that will happen later if it has not happened already. For now, is there anything I can do to assist you?”

Mari watched Alain for a moment, thinking of the person he was inside. Who could have guessed a Mage could be like that? “Do you know anything about the operation, repair or maintenance of steam heating plants?”

Alain took the question absolutely seriously, of course. “No, I do not think so.” He looked toward the building holding the steam plant. “You keep calling it a plant. I expected to see something like a tree, but it looks to me more like one of the Mechanic boiler creatures you have also called it.”

Mari couldn’t help laughing again. “It’s not that kind of plant. I’m sorry. Mechanics give different meanings to some words. But you’re right, it is centered around a boiler like those on a locomotive or the one we blew up in Dorcastle.”

Alain’s alarm was uncharacteristically easy to spot. “You must take care, then.”

“Relax! I made Mechanic rank as a steam specialist. I know this stuff.” She smiled ruefully. “Though given your experiences with boilers I can see why you’re worried. Believe me, I’m being careful. Now, what can you do? The best thing, I think, is to get plenty of rest and in your spare time keep looking around. Oh, and check the histories they have here. Maybe they still have things that aren’t available any more to the outside world, something about history before what you know, or even something referencing those Mechanics Guild texts. If we find something like that we’ll have grounds for asking the masters about the manuscripts in a non-confrontational way.”

“All right,” Alain agreed. “Though I will enjoy the task of searching these histories, and it seems wrong to enjoy myself while you labor so hard.”

“My Mage, I am having the time of my life. Trust me.” She leaned in and kissed him. That felt so good that she kissed him again, longer this time.

“Ma’am?”

Mari jerked away from Alain, seeing that some of the students had approached while she was…distracted with Alain. Her face once more flaring with the heat of embarrassment, she barely managed to keep from snapping at the students as Alain stood up. “Yes? What?”

“We have finished the job you gave us, ma’am,” the oldest announced eagerly.

Mari winced. The student was at least twice her age. “Lady Mechanic!”

“Yes, Lady Mechanic,” the students all chorused, looking abashed.

“I’ll see you later, Alain. Now, do you guys want to learn how to use tools?” Her stomach tightened as she said it. Actually teaching Mechanic arts to commons was something she would have thought inconceivable a year ago. It still felt wrong. But with everything else she had learned since then, this might prove important as well.

They gathered around her eagerly. In their isolation, none of the students knew how revolutionary a thing Mari was about to do. Mari found herself hesitating, realizing that this truly was a point of no return.

She bent to pick up the largest of the wrenches, one that could be adjusted to fit different widths. “This is called a mankey wrench.”

“Why?” a student asked.

“That’s its name. Big wrenches are mankey wrenches.”

“But,” another student asked, “what does mankey mean?”

“It means it’s a big wrench,” Mari replied. “I don’t know where the name came from. I’ve never heard of anyone or anything called a mankey except these tools, and no Mechanic I’ve talked to has any idea why big wrenches are mankey wrenches, but the name is an ancient one so remember it.” She raised the heavy tool in both hands. “Mankey wrench. Who wants to learn how to use one?”

By the time dinner call sounded her students had acquired an impressive array of skinned knuckles, bruises, and abrasions from slipping and misapplied tools. But they were using the tools effectively enough if not perfectly. The cleaned-up steam plant lay gleaming under the last rays of the setting sun, its fittings checked and tightened. “Tomorrow we need to go over the delivery pipelines running from here to the buildings to make sure they don’t have loose fittings or holes. Which after all this time they certainly will. Then we check all the steam heating pipes in the buildings for the same thing. Then we come back here and check this set-up again.” She had just described the sort of drudgery that made apprentices groan, but the students were staring at her with wild-eyed enthusiasm. Amazing.

She and Alain ate alone, Alain doing all of the talking as he described the histories he had read so far. “I have found nothing yet which tells more than the histories I have already seen. On the other matter, I have learned nothing else.”

They went back to his room together, Mari’s mind so full of steam plant mechanisms and operating requirements that she forgot to ask Alain if it was all right to stay with him again. But he didn’t raise the issue. It wasn’t until she was lying down beside him that the memory of her offer the night before suddenly popped back into her head. What if Alain…?

But as his arms came around her, Alain’s hands came to rest one between her shoulder and one in the small of her back. Both halted their movement, not roaming around or seeking a way inside her clothing. “Alain?” Mari murmured.

“Yes?”

“You are so special. Thanks.”

Exhausted from her day, Mari fell asleep quickly, barely having time to worry that the dreams of the night before might return.

She woke up in the middle of the night, something dark inside her fading dreams retreating as Mari fixed her eyes on Alain lying beside her, sleeping peacefully. Her heart was pounding and her breathing rapid, but they began to slow as Mari calmed herself. Somewhere outside, beyond the walls of the university, barbarians roamed the dead city of Marandur, but as Mari snuggled next to Alain she realized that she had never felt so safe.

If she dreamed again that night, she could not recall it the next day.

That next day proved less tedious than she had feared. The enthusiasm of the students was infectious. Before long, Mari was actually feeling like an eighteen-year-old herself again, pumping her fist at the sky as each section of piping checked out good or was repaired and patched where necessary. She noticed Alain watching her occasionally, his face impassive but his eyes smiling in a way she could recognize now. He looked younger again, too.

At the end of a busy and incredibly exhausting week, she stood watching as the fires were lit beneath the boiler. It felt odd to know some of the wood in the fuel bunkers had come from abandoned buildings on the university grounds that were being slowly cannibalized, but if the buildings were coming down anyway from disrepair or old damage they might as well serve a useful purpose. The rest of the wood had been harvested from buildings outside the university and from small trees growing in the ruins of the city. There were wells on the grounds, so water wouldn’t be a problem.

Alain stood back, watching with what she could have sworn was a proud expression. Her pack of student leaders, the ones she had chosen as the work progressed because they showed the best aptitude, were gathered close around as she explained the operation of the boiler. “The most important rule is to never let the pressure get too high. If it gets too low, buildings will get a little cold. But if the pressure gets too high, the boiler will explode, people will die, and this plant won’t be working again no matter what you do.”

“You mean, it will look like out there?” one of the students asked, pointing toward the ruined city.

“Yeah. Pretty much. Trust me. I purposely over-pressured a boiler smaller than this and it blew apart a really large building.” The students watched her with wide eyes, but none asked why she had blown up a boiler. It was a bit disconcerting to realize that like Alain, these students just seemed to accept that Mari would sometimes blow up stuff.

Mari went over the safety rules again and again, thanking fate that her students could all read the Mechanic warning postings on the walls. The pressure built steadily, the relief valves started hissing at the right points in the process, and Mari took her students over to crank open the valves to feed steam to the still-occupied buildings where classes were held and everyone lived and worked. The steam hissed out and she waited for shouts of pain or alarm as major leaks announced themselves. But the checks of the pipes had done their job, and to her own surprise Mari heard nothing but whoops of excitement. There would be plenty of smaller leaks to patch, but this was a low-pressure system so that wouldn’t be hard. Wearisome, but not hard.

She spent the next few hours supervising the students, making sure they watched the boiler and the fuel and the water, adjusting the flow of steam as necessary. There was an art to anticipating when to increase or lower the fuel supply, but some of the students were picking it up quickly.

When Mari staggered away from the steam plant, it was well after midnight. Leaving the building that housed the boiler, she heard a prolonged cheer go up. Staring across the open area outside the building, she saw apparently every inhabitant of the university applauding her.

Turning to flee the adulation, Mari saw Alain standing there, openly smiling as much as she had ever seen. “Get me out of here,” she pleaded.

“As you wish, my Lady Mechanic.” Alain waved off the crowd of well-wishers, taking her back toward their room. “How do you feel?”

“Totally worn out. Totally marvelous. I did it! I made it work! I taught all those commons how to do it! They can! I was right, Alain! They can do that kind of work!” She hugged him fiercely with one arm as they walked. “I’m so happy and excited! And you suggested it! Alain, if we were promised right now you’d get a night you’d never forget.”

“You did not have to tell me what I will be missing this night,” he responded, the tiny smile flickering on again to take any sting from the words.

“Sorry, but I can give you this.” Ignoring the fact that they were still outside, Mari stopped, turned Alain to face her and kissed him passionately, again and again. Somewhere she continued to hear cheering and hoped it was still for the steam heat and not for the show she was putting on, but she didn’t really care. Alain didn’t seem worried about it, either.

The masters of the University of Marandur stood behind the same table they had occupied the night Mari and Alain had arrived. Alain watched them, trying not to look too tired; Mari had kept him up half the night describing over and over again what she had done to get heat into the buildings once more. Alain had understood practically nothing Mari had said but had listened and nodded at what he hoped were the right places. He must have succeeded, since every once in a while Mari would stop her explanations long enough to kiss him for a while before jumping into another rapid and incomprehensible recitation of Mechanic work.

Overall, it had been a very enjoyable night, given that both he and Mari had as usual remained clothed the whole time, and the masters of the university had been diplomatic enough not to comment on Mari and Alain’s obvious state of sleep deprivation.

“Lady Master Mechanic,” Professor Wren said. “We owe you more than we can say. The most serious threat to our existence has been the cold of winter, and you have given us a way to fight that.”

“It was my pleasure,” Mari replied.

Another professor spoke. “Professor Wren says that you did not request payment for this service.”

“That’s correct.” Mari looked down the rank of professors. “Make no mistake, I gained some important knowledge by what I did. But I also wanted to do something because it was right, not because it would profit me.”

The masters shifted in their seats, gazing at each other and murmuring in voices too low for Mari or Alain to hear.

Finally Professor Wren addressed Mari again. “You told us that you wished to change the world, and that you sought manuscripts from your Guild’s old headquarters. Is that truly why you seek these manuscripts?”

“It is.” Mari looked in the direction of the nearest window, then gestured toward the ruins of the city beyond the university’s walls. “Things must change. The world is headed for a fate like that of Marandur, only multiplied countless times. I need the technology in those manuscripts if I am to have any chance of altering that.”

Wren looked at Alain. “And you, Sir Mage, do you agree with this goal of Lady Mechanic Mari?”

Alain nodded. “I agree with her. It is my goal as well, to do what is right.”

A male professor leaned forward, clasping his hands on the table before him. “To do what is right? We have weighty responsibilities, Sir Mage. Not everyone agrees on what is right. How do we know this Mechanic’s words are true? How do we know that she does not serve other ends than she proclaims?”

“What other proof can we ask for?” Professor Wren said, looking at her companions. “We have seen what this woman did freely, without any compulsion, without knowledge of any reward we might give her.”

Yet another professor spoke, his tone challenging. “I will accept that, but still I must know this answer. Do you act against the emperor, Lady Mechanic?”

“No,” Mari replied.

“But you defied the emperor’s ban to come here.”

Mari fixed the man with a cold look. “There’s a new Imperial capital down the river from here. The city’s name is Palandur. If nothing is done, then someday, someday not too far in the future, maybe only a few years, Palandur will suffer the same fate as Marandur. Cities in Tiae have already fallen prey to chaos and lawlessness. Some day soon, that rot will reach the Empire, and Landfall will crumble, and Palandur, and Severun, and Umburan, and there will be nothing but barbarism like that outside your walls from one end of Dematr to the other. I want to prevent that.”

His voice impassive, Alain added one more sentence. “Is such a goal contrary to the welfare of the emperor and the Empire?”

“And what of your Guild, Lady Mechanic?” asked a female professor. “How do they feel about this goal?”

Mari met the woman’s gaze. “Many Mechanics know that something must be done.”

“But does your Guild approve of your mission?”

“No.” Mari spoke quietly, with only a trace of defiance. “But change is necessary if this world is have a future.”

The woman spoke again with careful deliberation. “You would…overthrow…your Guild?”

Mari took a deep breath, then nodded. “And the Mage Guild. It must be done.”

The masters of the university gazed at Mari with the expressions of people who had just seen a myth come to life before their eyes. Alain saw reaction to Mari’s words ripple down the ranks of the masters, then the professors returned to quiet but animated discussion among themselves.

Finally Professor Wren spoke in a clear voice. “We have decided. We have decided to trust in you. I must now confess that we have kept something from you. It was because of a promise made long ago. But your actions and your words have proven that you are the person we have been waiting for. Perhaps…perhaps the person all of Dematr has been waiting for. The manuscripts you sought from the Mechanics Guild Hall…we have them safe here.”

Alain felt Mari quiver and her hand tightened convulsively on his. “Intact? Readable?” she asked.

“Yes, though we have never read them, in keeping with that promise. Please follow me. There is something else we must show you first.” Wren led the way for Mari and Alain along some long passageways, the rest of the professors following silently. She finally stopped at a door which opened under protest, as if it had been sealed for a long time. The professor bowed Mari inside.

She stepped in, pulling Alain with her. He saw a room like the ones they had been assigned to sleep in, but this room bore numerous personal items, all heavily coated with dust. Mari was examining the objects with intense interest, then something caught her eye and she lunged past Alain. He turned to see a dust-covered Mechanics jacket hanging there.

Professor Wren cleared her throat apologetically as Mari stared at the jacket. “When the ban was put in place by the Emperor Palan, one Mechanic remained. He had been ordered by his Guild to ensure that the destruction of the Mechanics Guild Headquarters begun by the battle was complete, and to ensure that the manuscripts vaults were destroyed as well, before leaving the city with the last of those allowed to do so. He would not destroy the manuscripts as ordered. Instead he came to our ancestors after the city had been sealed, telling us what still lay there and begging the university’s help in rescuing it from destruction. Our ancestors agreed, and only after all of the documents had been taken from the vaults did the Mechanic set off some more explosions which finished leveling the Guild Hall. This knowledge of events has been passed down from that time, and none of us doubt its accuracy.”

Mari had found a sheet of paper, brown with age, sitting in the center of the desk. She read the words on it out loud. “To the Mechanic who comes here someday. Greetings. Do not think ill of me because I did not follow the Guild’s orders. The manuscripts we have saved are the Guild’s past and the future of our world. I could not see such knowledge destroyed. Use these texts wisely. If you should go to Midan, tell the family of Mechanic Dav that he died content, having done what he deemed best for all, Mechanic, common, and even the Mages, for we all share this world.” She closed her eyes, then looked at Alain. “Mechanic Dav of Midan. Don’t ever let me forget that name.”

“I will not,” Alain promised.

Mari looked at the masters of the university. “The future of our world.”

Professor Wren spoke again. “Yes. When you said that, it erased our final doubts, because you echoed the words of the man who saved those manuscripts long ago. It was Mechanic Dav of Midan who kept the steam plant running for many years after the ban. But when he grew old he said he had to stop it and prepare it to last until someone else could start it again. He is buried in a place of honor.” She gave a small, sad smile. “When we heard a Mechanic was at the gate, we feared you had finally come from his Guild to find out whether he had followed the last orders he had been given. Mechanic Dav had left instructions that we needed to be sure the next Mechanic who came was a good person before we let them know what he had done. He did not want his work to have been for nothing. He did not want his Guild to destroy what this world needed.”

“He was a very good Mechanic and a very good person,” Mari said, her voice tight. Alain saw tears welling in her eyes. She wiped her sleeve across them, then faced Wren. “I’m proud to wear the same type of jacket he did, and let me tell you there have been times in the last few months when this jacket brought me no pride at all. But now I know I share it with someone like him. Where are the manuscripts?”

“In our safest storage area. We will show them to you now.”

Alain followed Mari, seeing the tension rising in her as they went down stairways and through stout doors, at last stopping before a heavy entrance below ground level and sealed tightly. Professor Wren gave her the key, then stepped back. “This is yours. We hope what you find here will aid you in your task.”

The other professors left, but Wren paused, studying Mari as she put her weight on the key to turn it in the reluctant lock. Mari leaned into the door to push it open, revealing a room lined with shelves bearing rows of bound texts. “Lady Mechanic,” Wren began, “I am familiar with certain legends. Are you…?” She took a deep breath, then spoke again. “Are you truly a Mechanic? Or are you one who wears the seeming of a Mechanic but is much more? The…daughter of someone famous in history?”

Mari gave Alain a resigned look. “I am who I am, Professor. I’m just trying to do what I think is right.”

Wren nodded. “Those who study legends never expect to actually meet one. I do not know if you are that woman in truth, Lady Mechanic. But I hope that you are. A changed world could someday free those in the university as well as the common folk in the wider world.”

“I understand.” Mari waited, staring into the room, as Wren left to follow after the other professors.

Alain spoke quietly to her. “The masters of the university are right. This is yours. I will go elsewhere.”

“Thank you.” Mari shook her head, her expression disbelieving. “It’s hard to believe that I can look at the banned manuscripts from the vaults of the Guild. Nobody ever expects to see those. Nobody. But all of those texts are here.”

“I will keep watch.” He walked to the end of the hallway and sat down on the stairs, looking back once to see that she had gone inside.

When he thought it was about noon, Alain went to get food and drink, returning to find Mari engrossed in a text laid on the table before her. She did not even notice him until he had set the lunch in front of her. “Alain? Look at this, Alain.” Her voice was hushed. “It’s talking about something called coherent light. A lass-er, they call it. It’s astounding.” She stared at him. “This is so far beyond what the Mechanics Guild is using that I can barely grasp it. These manuscripts are filled with terms I can’t understand. I can’t even imagine how to build some of this stuff. We’ll need to build tools that build tools that will build something that can maybe make these things. If I could only show this stuff to Professor S’san.” Mari rubbed her forehead, looking dazed. “I’ll need to cull out what seems best, what can be done with what we’ve got now. The things we’ve lost, Alain…”

He sat down next to her. “These things you are seeing are powerful, then?”

“Very powerful. I think. Some of them, I’m just guessing what they can do. I mean, I’m not just talking weapons. I’m talking things that would in time change society, change the lives of everyone, every common as well as Mechanics and Mages. Transportation, healing arts, communication, everything.”

“Why would your Guild have suppressed things which would have allowed it to exercise more power?”

“I’m not sure.” Mari frowned down at the text in front of her. “But you’re right. I said we’ve lost this. That’s not true. It was deliberately kept away from everyone, deliberately suppressed. I think these things would’ve made it too hard for the Mechanics Guild to claim mastery and control if this sort of technology had been available.” She laughed briefly and harshly. “Or maybe they were just afraid, those old Guild leaders and the Guild leaders now, afraid to take any risk, so they suppressed things right and left just in case.”

Alain nodded. “To keep things from changing.”

“Yeah.” Mari abruptly slammed her palm onto the table, making the text in front of her jump. “But where did it all come from? This stuff couldn’t have been dreamed up by a Guild Hall or a city or even the Empire. It’s got to be the end product of a huge number of scientific and technological advances. Where and when did that happen?”

“Some say there is another continent to the west,” Alain reminded her.

“I know all about that legend. But with all this? And we’ve never heard from them? Maybe if they didn’t want to hear from us and kept a tight quarantine—but surely over all the centuries of our history someone would’ve seen something.” She leaned back, the explosive frustration of a moment before gone. “I’ll keep looking, but I’m not finding anything but technical and scientific texts. No histories that might explain where the science and technology came from. It’s enough to make me seriously consider that thing you keep bringing up about us all coming from the stars. That would at least help explain this where nothing else does.”

“Could learning the answer to that help you understand what is here?” Alain pointed to the texts piled around her. “Could it provide some insight into these things you are having trouble understanding?”

“It’s possible. I have no idea.” Mari stared around at the stacks of documents. “If only I could take all of this with us. But that’s impossible. There are some things I need, texts that describe weapons and other equipment or devices better than those the Mechanics Guild allows and yet within our capability to build. I’ll choose what can fit in my pack and—”

“Our packs,” Alain corrected.

She laughed again, but this time happily. “Oh, yeah. Not only do I go into the forbidden city of Marandur, not only do I read forbidden texts, not only do I teach forbidden Mechanic arts to the commons here, but I’m also going to hand some of the most secret Mechanic texts to a Mage! I’m running out of truly epic crimes to commit.”

“I am certain that you will think of some new ones.”

“That’s right. It’s good to know that you have such confidence in me.” Mari smiled wearily. “Thanks for the food. I need to get back to work.”

“I will be back with dinner.”

Mari did not answer. She was already absorbed in the text in front of her. Alain watched her for a moment, wondering what secrets she would find, just what weapons and other devices might be hidden in those old texts. The possibility of change seemed to be filling the air around them, but he felt the tug of urgency again. “Mari?”

She looked up, blinking at him as if having to refocus on the world around her. “What?”

“Are these the tools your elder spoke of?”

“My elder? Oh. You mean Professor S’san.” Mari grimaced, thinking. “Yes. I think so. But Alain, I can’t just walk out of here, wave a magic wand, and have these, uh, tools appear for use. It will take time and resources and trained Mechanics and lots of other things.”

“How much time?” Alain asked.

“I don’t know. I truly don’t.” She looked down at the open book before her. “All we can do is hope it won’t be longer than we have before that chaos storm hits.”