Mari felt another one of those pangs of guilt. “People shouldn’t be suffering because of me.”
“That sort of sentiment is why you make a good leader and why people follow you. Unfortunately, Mari, there’s nothing you can do to help them at this time.” S’san made a face. “I heard that you had disappeared from Edinton. What made you decide to run?”
“I was ordered to Tiae,” Mari said, surprised that she could it so calmly. “On my own.”
“Tiae? Alone?” S’san shook her head angrily. “Smart girl. You wouldn’t fall for being sent into danger twice. But now the Guild is seeking you. At least they haven’t called out the assassins.”
“Assassins?” Mari asked.
“Yes. I know little about them, except that they exist.” S’san paused to think. “I can understand your fears, but from what I’ve been able to find out the Senior Mechanics aren’t trying to kill you now, Mari. At one time they wanted you to be killed by someone else, but now they want you alive. Safely in their custody, but alive, so that they can question you, find out what you’re doing, who your friends are, and what plots might be underway.”
“Plots?” Mari demanded.
“Oh, yes, Mari, they assume that you are out to overthrow them and seize control of the Guild.”
It took Mari a few moments to realize that she was staring at S’san, her mouth hanging open with shock. Mari managed to bring her jaw up again, but her voice was strident with disbelief. “I have never sought power. I have never—”
S’san was shaking her head again. “Mari, what matters isn’t what you think or are planning right now, it’s what the Guild’s leaders believe you are thinking and planning.”
“Yes,” Alain said. “Your professor speaks wisdom. The illusion your Guild leaders see is what guides their actions.”
“You have a fine mind, Sir Mage,” S’san approved. “That’s a very good way of putting it.”
“You know,” Mari said in steadily rising tones, “I was hoping that you two would get along, but I didn’t expect you to gang up on me!”
“Mari.” S’san had leaned forward, her old posture as an instructor. “I’m trying to help you identify the problem and come up with solutions. The first priority, as you have already concluded, is keeping yourself free and alive. But that, at best, maintains the current situation. What do we need for a solution?”
“A clear understanding of the problem,” Mari replied, feeling as if she were back at the academy.
“Exactly.”
“The Guild is lying,” Mari continued. “Lying about Mages. It’s also lying about or denying the existence of non-Mechanics who can do Mechanic work.”
“That’s true,” S’san agreed. “You ran into them at Dorcastle. You were doubtless placed under an interdict to say nothing about them. And, being you, you kept digging.”
“They tried to recruit me,” Mari reported. “In Pandin. They call themselves the Order.”
“Oh, yes, the Order. It’s been a good while since I heard that name spoken openly.” S’san cocked a questioning eyebrow at Mari. “And they failed, I assume.”
“They’re evil, Professor, using the Mechanic arts purely for personal gain.” Mari paused, a new thought coming to her.
S’san saw it. “Have you connected the dots, Mari? Did you consider the differences between the Order and the Senior Mechanics who run the Guild, and realize that at the current time the difference is purely one of scale? Oh, the Senior Mechanics claim they’re controlling technology and limiting it and charging as much as possible for it for the good of all, and many sincerely believe that to be so, but somehow ‘the good of all’ translates into wealth and power for them. They don’t want to risk losing that. I imagine that is very different from your Mage elders,” she said to Alain.
Alain shook his head. “An elder told me that most of the Mage elders seek only to preserve their own power, and will ignore or battle anything which threatens that power.”
“That shouldn’t surprise me,” S’san said. “Mage elders are as human as the rest of us, it seems. In any event, Mari, the Order is much smaller than the Guild. Its members live like rats in the woodwork, impossible to eradicate but constantly being hunted and slain.”
Alain nodded. “If they were strong enough, they would make their presence known openly, and your Guild could do nothing.”
“Exactly, but they’ll never reach that kind of strength.” S’san spent a moment looking closely at Alain. “Mari did choose someone with a mind as sharp as hers, though different it seems. But you’re as young as she is, surely.”
“I recently turned eighteen.”
“Impressive.” The professor settled back again. “I suppose you’ve come here looking for answers, Mari.”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “What is happening, Professor, and why have I been targeted by the Senior Mechanics?”
“It’s very simple, really, and yet also very complex. Mari, how do you keep a system totally stable and unvarying?”
“Totally stable and unvarying?” Mari shook her head. “You can’t. There’s wear and tear. You need to repair and replace. You can’t just maintain it in the same shape with the same components forever.”
“It’s like a living organism in that way,” S’san agreed. “What happens to a living organism that stops growing? It dies. The Mechanics Guild has been dedicating its efforts to keeping everything exactly the same. It wouldn’t allow change or growth. And so, for centuries, it has been slowly dying. You remember the ancient far-talker I once showed you? It was much lighter, smaller, and when it still worked it was far more capable that anything the Guild makes today. That is an example. The technology that lets us build such a device is crumbling, so the Guild is forced to use ever-cruder methods to try to achieve the same results. The tools to make the tools are failing. Keeping them working would require innovation, and as you are painfully aware, innovation is not permitted.”
“But they can’t possibly believe such a system can continue,” Mari insisted.
“My dear child, that system has continued for century upon century. How do you convince them that it’s going to fail when they can argue that it has yet to fail? It would be like arguing that the sun is not going to rise tomorrow. The sun always rises.”
“The Mechanics Guild must have been different once,” Mari said. “How did we ever get the technology we have? At one time, and for a long time, the Guild must have encouraged trying new things.”
S’san made a frustrated gesture with one hand, as if she were trying to grab an answer out the air. “That’s so, but I have never seen any trace or evidence of that period. All record of it has vanished from the minds and the documentation of Mechanics and commons alike.” She glanced at Alain. “Do the Mages know anything of such a time?”
“No,” Alain said. “I have never heard or read in Mage Guild records any account of a time different from now. As I have told Mari, though, the history we share begins with a strange abruptness, the first cities springing to life as if from nothing. I do not know the meaning of this.”
“You’re also not the first to make note of it, Mage, though I am pleased that you have seen and thought about the issue.” S’san sighed, looking weary. “I never found the answer, and I now suspect no answer is to be found through any available means. My hope for you, Mari, was that you would gain approval or authority to pry open the vaults in the Mechanics Guild headquarters and use the forbidden technical texts in there to jumpstart the Guild.”
Mari had to take a moment to understand that statement. “Open the vaults? How would I ever have the power to open the vaults?”
“If you worked your way up, achieved a high-enough standing and accumulated enough allies—both of which were well within your abilities—then you could have achieved such power.” Professor S’san made an angry gesture this time, her hand slashing through the air. “You weren’t given the opportunity. I was quite upset with you at first, Mari, believing that you
had gone tearing off in the wrong direction and burned every bridge out of sheer stubbornness and impulsiveness, but I practice what I preach when it comes to thinking. I looked into everything as best I could, and it became obvious that the Senior Mechanics had also seen your potential, seen it well enough to decide them to eliminate you before you threatened their hold on the Guild, before you threatened to cause the change they now fear more than destruction.”
S’san let out a long, sad sigh. “You were trapped, Mari. I am astounded that you managed to escape with your life. And I am guilty of not anticipating that you would face such perils.”
“You were obviously worried about me,” Mari said quietly, opening her coat to show the pistol she wore.
“You’ve still got it? Good.” S’san shook her head. “I wasn’t worried enough.” Her eyes rested on Alain. “And this is a further complication. Mari, things are very bad with the Guild right now, but fixing the situation is not impossible. You do need to stay out of sight while your friends work on it. However, I don’t know of any way the Guild will ever accept the idea of your companioning with a Mage.”
Mari felt a flare of anger. “He’s not just my companion! I love him! And he loves me!”
“Love?” S’san looked away. “Mari, I don’t doubt your sincerity, and he may use the word, but what does a Mage know of love?”
Alain answered before Mari could. “It means she is my world. It means nothing is more important. It means I will die before I let her be harmed.”
S’san gave Alain one of those demanding looks Mari remembered so well from her classes. “Do you love her enough to leave her, if that is in her best interests?”
“Professor—!” Mari began.
“Let him answer, Mari.”
“My own feelings are not as important as her safety,” Alain said. “That is why I left her at Dorcastle even though I wanted to be with her. To try to protect her.”
Mari turned a triumphant look on S’san. “See, Professor? He knows what it means.”
“Yes, he does,” S’san murmured in a thoughtful voice. “What have you done, Mari? Well, would you leave him?”
“No.”
“The Guild—”
“To blazes with the Guild! I will not leave the man I love to try to make nice with a bunch of Senior Mechanics who have already tried to have me killed!”
S’san looked at Alain again. “How do your Guild leaders feel about all of this, Sir Mage? Mari said you had been threatened with death?”
“That is not quite accurate,” Alain replied dispassionately. “The elders of the Mage Guild do not make threats. Another Mage could easily tell whether the threat was one they intended to follow through on, or simply an attempt to intimidate. The decision must have been made that I am a danger to the Guild, and since then they have tried to kill me more than once. The last attempt involved a Roc.”
“It’s a giant bird that Mages can create,” Mari explained. “Big enough for a person to ride. I know it’s impossible, but I saw it. It tried to kill both of us.”
“A giant bird.” S’san nodded. “I’ve seen a few, Mari. One of those things Mechanics aren’t supposed to admit to seeing. They’re lovely, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, when they’re not trying to kill you. Professor, what was the end game here? You just wanted me to fix the Guild?”
“That’s enough, isn’t it? As the Mechanic Guild’s abilities decline so does its strength, and with that goes the stability of the world. You must have heard about some of the things going on, the commons increasingly restive. Do you want all of Dematr to end up like Tiae? That’s what happens when the Guild leaves commons to their own choices.”
“Are those the only alternatives?” Mari demanded. “Things as they are or else anarchy? Have you ever walked among the commons as if you were one of them, Professor? They’re very unhappy. They hate their overlords, and that means us. Many of the commons I’ve met seem to be decent people, better than the Mechanics Guild leaders, anyway. And the flat-out denial of truth by our Guild is indefensible.”
“Stars above, Mari, what are you thinking?” S’san asked. “I wanted you to strengthen the Guild because the Guild is what holds this world together.”
“The Guild holds the world in chains!” Mari erupted. “We’ve been talking about how trying to keep technology under control is slowly killing the Guild by causing its technology to crumble. Can’t you see the same is true of the wider world? Yes, the Kingdom of Tiae fell apart in a series of civil wars and remains in chaos. But that was because the Guild’s system failed there and the system doesn’t know how to fix it, so Tiae just keeps falling farther into barbarism every year. How long before the same problems start causing the Confederation to crumble, and then the Alliance and someday the Empire? The Guild has tried to keep the entire world the same, unchanging, and the world is choking to death!” She stopped, startled by her own words. “I guess I am a traitor to the Guild now.”
S’san’s voice was troubled. “The Mechanics Guild has done many things I don’t approve of, but this world is the devil we know. Anything else could easily be far worse.”
“Mari, may I speak of the storm to come?” Alain asked.
“Uh…sure,” Mari said, not certain what he meant.
“The storm moves toward us swiftly,” Alain told S’san. “You speak as if the available possibilities include the Mechanics Guild remaining in power. This is not so. Within a few years, order will begin to collapse everywhere. The Mage Guild and the Mechanics Guild will be destroyed along with everything else, unable to stand against the fury of forces pent-up for too long.”
S’san looked at Alain, startled. “You are predicting the end of the world?”
“The end of the world as it is known,” Alain said, his unemotional tone of voice contrasting oddly with the dire nature of his words. “The destruction of almost all that exists, and the death of many, many of those who now live. I have seen this, as have other Mages.”
Mari managed not to reveal her surprise. She and Alain had discussed the troubled state of the world, and he had described the looming danger as a storm before, but why had he never mentioned having foreseen this storm of devastation? And why had he asked her permission to bring it up now as if it was something she already knew about? But that was something to ask about later. “Professor,” Mari said, “if you believe this is the best possible world, then why did you want to change things? Because you did. You had no idea exactly what would happen, but you encouraged me to think in ways that would lead to a change in the way things are. There’s no telling what releasing that banned technology would do to this world. Why did you hope for that if you think change is wrong?”
S’san sat without speaking for a long time, before finally shaking her head. “I always said you were a great student, Mari. Now you’ve caught your teacher in an error. I did try to have it both ways, didn’t I?” After another long pause, Professor S’san shrugged. “Not that it matters anymore. The vaults of the Mechanic Guild won’t be accessible to you now, Mari. Without that lever to accomplish change, I don’t know what one person can do.”
Alain spoke into the silence that followed. “One person can lead many others.”
“Ah, yes,” S’san said. “Mari already has a Mage. That’s something the world has never seen, a Mage and a Mechanic working together. I’m sure that’s something that your Guild never claimed to have predicted,” she told Alain with a sardonic smile.
“It was in the prophecy,” Alain said. “That one would unite Mages, Mechanics, and commons in one cause.”
“The prophecy?” S’san asked. “Which one?”
Alain looked at her, apparently asking permission again, but Mari shook her head. “Nothing that matters to us,” she insisted.
S’san leaned forward again. “Why don’t you trust me with that information? I may still be able to help you.”
Mari sighed, letting her aggravation show. “Oh, it’s that daughter of Jules n
onsense that the commons believe in. Just because I killed a dragon—”
“It was your second dragon,” Alain pointed out.
“And you don’t have to keep telling everyone that! Just because I killed a dragon to save Alain and happened to save all these commons, too, and then I gave them some medical supplies and talked to Alain and acted like a human being instead of a Mechanic, those commons thought I was—that I was her!”
S’san gazed at Mari intently, then at Alain. “The commons believe in that prophecy, but I was always told it had never actually been made. Yet this Mage just spoke of it as if it were real.”
“Nothing is real,” Alain said. “But the prophecy was made.”
“Alain!” Mari said, her voice sharper than she intended.
“Mages, Mechanics, and commons in one cause,” S’san mused. “Do you already have allies among the commons, Mari?”
“No!”
“She has a general,” Alain said, “sworn to her service.”
“Stop helping, Alain!” Mari said as she glared at him. Why was he doing this?
“So.” S’san had brought one hand up to her chin as she thought. “Mari, there has long been a tremendous irony in that the two Great Guilds, while hating each other, have effectively worked together to the same end: to keep the world stable. Both have used the commons to achieve that goal, dividing the commons against themselves. Whenever any powerful number of commons has tried to rise against the Great Guilds, another powerful group of commons has been found to oppose them and do the bidding of the Great Guilds in exchange for some temporary advantage. If your idea is to form an army of commons—”
“What?! I never said anything about—”
“It won’t work.” S’san shook her head, eyes still intent. “Not without something that would allow that army to prevail against everything that the Great Guilds and the commons who ally with them could throw against it. If you had been able to access that banned technology in the Guild vaults, get the tools that technology must offer, it might have held the advantage you needed. But without that, your army can’t win.”