“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 h
as 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.”