FIC: Old Tools
Dec. 27th, 2007 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalOh, wow, I actually wrote something with Tez & Maria. :) This was a scene that popped into my head yesterday. It illustrates one of the concepts I really wanted to bring forward with Tez and his world, the fact that the levels of magic in it tends to run in a cyclical pattern, waxing and waning with the rise and fall of technology (the fall usually being percipitated by something Tez does.)
Maria swung the pickaxe down, smashing into the ancient, grey, cracked stone wall. Once upon a time it had apparently been a single, solid slab, as impossible as that was, but over the years the outer surface had cracked and flaked, leaving it uneven and mottled, like skin sloughing off of a victim of disease. Bits of stone dust filled the air of the small cave, making her eyes fill with tears and forcing her to cough, despite the kerchief that covered her mouth.
She swung the pickaxe again and a large chunk of stone fell down. She swung a third time and it connected with something metal, striking with a ringing vibration that went up her aching arms. She drew back, letting the pickaxe dangle from her hand. In the weak light of the lantern Maria could see a rusted metal rod some two fingers thick imbedded in the stone.
“Are you all right, Maria?” Tez called down from the entrance hole, where he had been keeping watch.
“I’m fine,” she said, pulling the kerchief down around her neck. “What kind of stone did you use to make this wall anyway? There’s a metal rod stuck inside!”
“I told you before, it’s called ‘concrete’. A very ancient building material,” he said, coming down the wooden ladder into the cave. “It was poured, not laid, over the rebar for internal strength.”
“I’ll take your word for it. What are we going to do now? I can’t break through that.”
“You don’t have to,” Tez told her. “Now that the metal is exposed I can use this.” He opened his rucksack which was lying on the floor, pulling out the wooden box he’d taken such care to retrieve from the alchemist’s shop. Inside, padded with wool, was a large glass flask filled with an evil looking green fluid. “Pull your kerchief back up. You don’t want to breathe this.”
Maria did as he asked, watching as he poured the stuff over the bar. The metal began to smoke and burn, with an intensity that made her shield her eyes and turn her face away. Then she heard a loud crack as the stone expanded outward from the heat, great chunks falling away to reveal a large hole.
“Give it a moment to cool,” Tez said.
Maria tried to peer inside, but from out here she couldn’t see what was behind the wall. “What’s in there, Tez?”
“Tools for our fight, if they’re still functional,” he replied. “Can you fit through the hole?”
“I think so,” she said. Tez went through first, scrabbling through easily with his skinny frame and she handed him the lantern. Then Maria hunched her shoulders and followed, and he pulled her through and helped her stand up in the chamber beyond. Tez pressed a button and mage lights contained in long tubes of glass that hung from the ceiling came to life, illuminating the room. The floor and walls were of the same strange grey stone as the outer wall and the room was barely four paces long and wide. Tall cabinets made of metal, painted green, lined the back wall and the others had pieces of ancient paper glued to them, the ancient words faded into illegibility. “What is this place, Tez?”
“A tool shed, of a sort,” he replied. “For very specific tools. The fact that the RTG still had enough power for the lights gives me hope that the rest might be functional.”
“What kind of tools are we talking about, Tez?” she asked. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Though the room wasn’t particularly cold, it smelled old in a way that reminded her that Tez’s history was far more ancient than anything recorded by scholars.
Tez dusted off a square of glass that was attached to the door of one of the cabinets, then pressed his palm against it. The glass flared with light and spoke to him in a language she did not understand and he replied with an incantation in the same tongue, then took his hand away. She heard the sound of metal bolts pulling back and the cabinet door opened, revealing a curious looking set of knight’s armor.
“Tools of war,” he replied. He opened a small box sitting the bottom of the cabinet, pulling out a piece of clothing made of single piece of some black, silken fabric run through with silver threads in a checkerboard pattern. “Strip out of your clothes and put this on, Maria.”
“What? Tez, that won’t fit me!”
“The material will stretch, trust me.”
She shot him a disbelieving look but did as he asked, in moment standing naked in the middle of the room except for her underclothes.
“All your clothes, Maria,” he said impatiently. “The suit must be flush against your skin.”
She felt her face flush as she let her underclothes drop to the floor. Stepping into the suit was a matter of slipping her legs through the neck hole and pulling upwards. As Tez had said the material stretched, fitting her larger than average frame tightly, but with enough flexibility that she could move. It covered her entire body, from her toes to just beneath her chin and left precious little to the imagination.
“Now what?”
“Now, you step in here.” Tez pressed a button inside the cabinet and the armor turned around with a slight hum. What she though was a strange sort of backpack built into the torso turned out to be a door of all things, allowing her to step inside, ducking her down to slip it inside the helmet, while her toes went into the boots and her hands into the gloves. “Maria, I’m going to close the entry hatch behind you,” he said.
“How will I breathe?” she asked. “The helmet is completely solid!” Her horns were scraping against the inside of the helmet, making turning her head impossible and her only vision was through a narrow piece of glass in front of her, inducing a growing feeling of claustrophobia.
“Trust me,” he said. He shut the hatch behind her and it sealed with a strange hiss. She heard her breathing begin to quicken as the armor rotated again and she faced out into the room. Tez gave her a smile that did nothing to reassure her as pressed a button on a small box he held in his hand. If she hadn’t been incased in the heavy armor she would have jumped up in surprise as it began to hum mysteriously, a female voice in an alien language reciting something in her ear as magical runes ran across the helmet’s glass in her field of vision.
“Can you hear me, Maria?” Tez asked. Despite the helmet she heard him easily, as if she was still just wearing the bodysuit. She could feel cool air blowing over her face, relieving her of the feeling that she was going to suffocate.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Try stepping forward,” he said.
“Even for me this suit is too heavy, Tez. I’ll fall over!”
“No you won’t. Trust me.”
“All right.” She took a tentative step down, out of the cabinet and onto the stone floor. Maria blinked in surprise. It hardly felt as if she was wearing anything, much less a suit of armor!
“See, you can walk normally. The servomotors are doing all the work for you,” Tez said.
“Good,” she said, “what’s a servomotor?”
He gave her an infuriating smile and replied, “A sufficiently advanced piece of magic. Even without the weapons that suit has inside it, you could fight an army with your bare hands in that thing.”
She rolled her eyes. “Marvelous. Now if we could only get it out of this room.”
“That’s easily solved. Just punch the wall where we came in.”
“You’re joking!”
“Try it and see.”
She hoped he could see the annoyed look she gave him as she stepped forward to the broken wall. Taking hold of the edge of the hole, she pulled backward. To her surprise the wall gave way as if it was made of thin plaster, the stone crumbling in her hand. She took hold of another piece of rebar and pulled again, tearing open the wall wide enough that she could easily walk through. “This is marvelous,” she said, flexing her suit’s gloves, looking at them in wonder. “But how are we to get it out of the hole? Fly?”
“Actually yes. Step directly beneath the hole and visualize the following words in the your mind, ‘Command, Flight Mode.’ The suit will do the rest.”
“This suit can fly?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And read my mind?”
“Surface thoughts only, but yes.”
“Is it alive?”
“It’s non-sentient, but clever in a very narrow range of possible actions.”
“Tez, I hope you know what I’m doing.” Maria stepped directly under the opening that they had taken three days to dog, and thought silently, Command, Flight Mode. The suit hummed to itself, then she heard the massive whine of something small and powerful beginning to spin up inside the suit’s hatch. Then suddenly she was rocketing upward, out the hole and into the air, the rolling plains they had spent two weeks traversing falling away, until she could see the foothills of the Broken Spine mountain range, a journey of months on foot, rising in the distance to her left.
In another minute, she could see the stars…
Maria swung the pickaxe down, smashing into the ancient, grey, cracked stone wall. Once upon a time it had apparently been a single, solid slab, as impossible as that was, but over the years the outer surface had cracked and flaked, leaving it uneven and mottled, like skin sloughing off of a victim of disease. Bits of stone dust filled the air of the small cave, making her eyes fill with tears and forcing her to cough, despite the kerchief that covered her mouth.
She swung the pickaxe again and a large chunk of stone fell down. She swung a third time and it connected with something metal, striking with a ringing vibration that went up her aching arms. She drew back, letting the pickaxe dangle from her hand. In the weak light of the lantern Maria could see a rusted metal rod some two fingers thick imbedded in the stone.
“Are you all right, Maria?” Tez called down from the entrance hole, where he had been keeping watch.
“I’m fine,” she said, pulling the kerchief down around her neck. “What kind of stone did you use to make this wall anyway? There’s a metal rod stuck inside!”
“I told you before, it’s called ‘concrete’. A very ancient building material,” he said, coming down the wooden ladder into the cave. “It was poured, not laid, over the rebar for internal strength.”
“I’ll take your word for it. What are we going to do now? I can’t break through that.”
“You don’t have to,” Tez told her. “Now that the metal is exposed I can use this.” He opened his rucksack which was lying on the floor, pulling out the wooden box he’d taken such care to retrieve from the alchemist’s shop. Inside, padded with wool, was a large glass flask filled with an evil looking green fluid. “Pull your kerchief back up. You don’t want to breathe this.”
Maria did as he asked, watching as he poured the stuff over the bar. The metal began to smoke and burn, with an intensity that made her shield her eyes and turn her face away. Then she heard a loud crack as the stone expanded outward from the heat, great chunks falling away to reveal a large hole.
“Give it a moment to cool,” Tez said.
Maria tried to peer inside, but from out here she couldn’t see what was behind the wall. “What’s in there, Tez?”
“Tools for our fight, if they’re still functional,” he replied. “Can you fit through the hole?”
“I think so,” she said. Tez went through first, scrabbling through easily with his skinny frame and she handed him the lantern. Then Maria hunched her shoulders and followed, and he pulled her through and helped her stand up in the chamber beyond. Tez pressed a button and mage lights contained in long tubes of glass that hung from the ceiling came to life, illuminating the room. The floor and walls were of the same strange grey stone as the outer wall and the room was barely four paces long and wide. Tall cabinets made of metal, painted green, lined the back wall and the others had pieces of ancient paper glued to them, the ancient words faded into illegibility. “What is this place, Tez?”
“A tool shed, of a sort,” he replied. “For very specific tools. The fact that the RTG still had enough power for the lights gives me hope that the rest might be functional.”
“What kind of tools are we talking about, Tez?” she asked. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Though the room wasn’t particularly cold, it smelled old in a way that reminded her that Tez’s history was far more ancient than anything recorded by scholars.
Tez dusted off a square of glass that was attached to the door of one of the cabinets, then pressed his palm against it. The glass flared with light and spoke to him in a language she did not understand and he replied with an incantation in the same tongue, then took his hand away. She heard the sound of metal bolts pulling back and the cabinet door opened, revealing a curious looking set of knight’s armor.
“Tools of war,” he replied. He opened a small box sitting the bottom of the cabinet, pulling out a piece of clothing made of single piece of some black, silken fabric run through with silver threads in a checkerboard pattern. “Strip out of your clothes and put this on, Maria.”
“What? Tez, that won’t fit me!”
“The material will stretch, trust me.”
She shot him a disbelieving look but did as he asked, in moment standing naked in the middle of the room except for her underclothes.
“All your clothes, Maria,” he said impatiently. “The suit must be flush against your skin.”
She felt her face flush as she let her underclothes drop to the floor. Stepping into the suit was a matter of slipping her legs through the neck hole and pulling upwards. As Tez had said the material stretched, fitting her larger than average frame tightly, but with enough flexibility that she could move. It covered her entire body, from her toes to just beneath her chin and left precious little to the imagination.
“Now what?”
“Now, you step in here.” Tez pressed a button inside the cabinet and the armor turned around with a slight hum. What she though was a strange sort of backpack built into the torso turned out to be a door of all things, allowing her to step inside, ducking her down to slip it inside the helmet, while her toes went into the boots and her hands into the gloves. “Maria, I’m going to close the entry hatch behind you,” he said.
“How will I breathe?” she asked. “The helmet is completely solid!” Her horns were scraping against the inside of the helmet, making turning her head impossible and her only vision was through a narrow piece of glass in front of her, inducing a growing feeling of claustrophobia.
“Trust me,” he said. He shut the hatch behind her and it sealed with a strange hiss. She heard her breathing begin to quicken as the armor rotated again and she faced out into the room. Tez gave her a smile that did nothing to reassure her as pressed a button on a small box he held in his hand. If she hadn’t been incased in the heavy armor she would have jumped up in surprise as it began to hum mysteriously, a female voice in an alien language reciting something in her ear as magical runes ran across the helmet’s glass in her field of vision.
“Can you hear me, Maria?” Tez asked. Despite the helmet she heard him easily, as if she was still just wearing the bodysuit. She could feel cool air blowing over her face, relieving her of the feeling that she was going to suffocate.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Try stepping forward,” he said.
“Even for me this suit is too heavy, Tez. I’ll fall over!”
“No you won’t. Trust me.”
“All right.” She took a tentative step down, out of the cabinet and onto the stone floor. Maria blinked in surprise. It hardly felt as if she was wearing anything, much less a suit of armor!
“See, you can walk normally. The servomotors are doing all the work for you,” Tez said.
“Good,” she said, “what’s a servomotor?”
He gave her an infuriating smile and replied, “A sufficiently advanced piece of magic. Even without the weapons that suit has inside it, you could fight an army with your bare hands in that thing.”
She rolled her eyes. “Marvelous. Now if we could only get it out of this room.”
“That’s easily solved. Just punch the wall where we came in.”
“You’re joking!”
“Try it and see.”
She hoped he could see the annoyed look she gave him as she stepped forward to the broken wall. Taking hold of the edge of the hole, she pulled backward. To her surprise the wall gave way as if it was made of thin plaster, the stone crumbling in her hand. She took hold of another piece of rebar and pulled again, tearing open the wall wide enough that she could easily walk through. “This is marvelous,” she said, flexing her suit’s gloves, looking at them in wonder. “But how are we to get it out of the hole? Fly?”
“Actually yes. Step directly beneath the hole and visualize the following words in the your mind, ‘Command, Flight Mode.’ The suit will do the rest.”
“This suit can fly?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And read my mind?”
“Surface thoughts only, but yes.”
“Is it alive?”
“It’s non-sentient, but clever in a very narrow range of possible actions.”
“Tez, I hope you know what I’m doing.” Maria stepped directly under the opening that they had taken three days to dog, and thought silently, Command, Flight Mode. The suit hummed to itself, then she heard the massive whine of something small and powerful beginning to spin up inside the suit’s hatch. Then suddenly she was rocketing upward, out the hole and into the air, the rolling plains they had spent two weeks traversing falling away, until she could see the foothills of the Broken Spine mountain range, a journey of months on foot, rising in the distance to her left.
In another minute, she could see the stars…
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-28 07:51 am (UTC)And did Tez perhaps forget to tell her how to control or turn off Flight Mode? Oops.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-28 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-31 02:06 pm (UTC)