#27

"Hey look at this." I hold up a book on runes and enchanting. "It's an Air based device to let people communicate over short distances like what the commander was using. It's pretty much the Windwhisper spell, only worse. The range is garbage, and there's a lot of delay, and it doesn't work on windy days. But, I can fix those issues if I adapt it to use radio waves."

"Rays? Huh?" Amelia cocks her head to the side. "That's an old word, what does it have to do with water?"

"Sorry, polyglot translated that as best it could. Think of it as a type of invisible light." I conjure a glass prism, and shine a white light into it. "There's more to light than just what we can see..." I give her a quick rundown of the electro-magnetic spectrum.

"Okaaaayyyy. I think I understand." She doesn't sound too sure about that. "But, how are you going to use that to communicate."

"Well, sound is just air waves, I just need to convert from one to the other, and back again." *Ding* A notification pops up as I do just that. "Thanks Temmie It's always nice to get recognition for one's hard work. Now I just need to enchant this spell into a hand-held device, and we'll have a phone." I thank the system for liking the new spell.

"To speak, right? That's clever." She smiles at understanding the word. And I retrieve some crafting supplies from my inventory.

"If I'm going to do this; I should do it right, and build towers to route the signals. Aside from the mana stones, I don't really have the best supplies for enchanting either, but I should be able to figure out a proof of concept." I start sorting out what I think I'll need.

"Sweetie, you're mumbling." Amelia walks up to look over my shoulder. "I thought you were just building a pair of 'phones'. What's all this stuff for?"

"Sorry, babe." I lean back to give her a peck on the cheek. "Why have two, when you can have twenty, or two-hundred, or two thousand, or more? And while the range is much better than what I saw in the book. What happens when the one you're trying to reach is too far away?" I create a simple cartoon of two people with waves propagating out from them. I move them so they don't overlap anymore, and put a tower with its own waves in between.

"With enough towers, you could talk to someone on the other side of the country." Her voice fills with awe.

"Exactly. Almost everyone had a phone back on Dirt." *Earth* just sounds too weird in this language. "I just need to get these two 'talking' to each other first, and then I can work out how to relay them along towers."

"What are you doing in here?" Apricot comes flying up, followed by Mittens. "You don't use a lot of magnet magic, and never mixed with air before. Ooh, enchantments too. Wait, your line's a bit crooked there, the magic is fizzling." She points out a flaw in the enchantment.

"Thanks, I almost missed that." I push the book towards her. "I'm remaking these but, ya know, not garbage."

"Play the animation again." Amelia prompts. "He wants to make it so you can use these phones to talk to anyone, anywhere."

"I've got to get the basic device working first..." I connect one last symbol. "That look right to you?" I ask apricot.

"Air to Magnet, and back again." She flies in close and pores over the enchantment. "Looks good. Did you just make that spell, I haven't seen it before?"

"Yeah, we had phones that used the same basic principals back on Dirt. So, when I saw the ones in the book, I had to give it a try. I'm just glad enchanting is easier than I thought it would be." I'm duplicating the original as I talk. "There, just need to set the designator, and we're good."

"Babe." Amelia lets out an exasperated sigh. "I read through some of those books too, and only someone able to perfectly remember all the rune symbols and combinations would think it's easy. Not to mention using Magical Sight to spot any conflicts or mistakes."

"So? We already know he's over-powered. What's one more thing?" Apricot says sagely.

"Wanna test it?" I hold one prototype up for Amelia and float the other across the room. "Just hold the button down and say something."

"Something." She deadpans. "Hey it works."

*Ding*

-You have learned the skill Enchanting; it is now level 1-

"Yes, it does. And, thanks again Temmie." The phone in her hand says after I use wind whisper to speak into the one across the room. "Try releasing the button."

"Testing, testing." I check both phones. "Good, prototype one works as expected. Now the fun part of getting them to talk to the tower. Getting the towers to talk to each other. Allowing the phones move between towers during a call. Working around interference so there can be more than two phones, Also adding a way to call which one you want. Making it so they don't connect automatically, but instead let you know who's trying to contact you. Adding a way to block devices you don't ever want to talk to." I pause. "Umm, Why did I think this would be fun, again?" I shake my head at the enormity of the project ahead of me.

"Don't forget designing a way to power them, since you're likely the only Magnet Mage in the region." Apricot adds, oh so helpfully.

"Ah, thanks. That actually shouldn't be too hard, thankfully the communication spell is very low power" I reach for another Enchanting book. "I can inscribe one of these collecting runes onto an iron magnet, since Air Mana won't be a problem. I should be able to squeeze it all into the phone itself. And if it's too big, I can just make it into a base station the users will have to place their phones in once every so often."

"The top of the line Runes all have that functionality; the Flame rune we got the other day says to leave it sitting in the sun when not in use." Amelia informs us. "So, get to it already. Just imagine how useful this will be once everyone has them."

"Don't forget to make a pixie sized version too." Apricot adds.

"Sure, I'll add in a movie player too, while I'm at it." I meant it sarcastically, but the look on her face means I'm gonna have to find a way to make it reality. "Don't get your hopes up too much. I can probably make a movie player, but combining it with a regular phone, let alone a pixie sized one is beyond me. For now, at least."

"You said it! No take backs." She stamps her foot, getting a groan from Amelia, who's head she's currently standing on. "Sorry, but you heard him say it."

"Yes, I did. I also heard his voice dripping with sarcasm." Amelia grounds the ruffled pixie. "He'll make you a movie player and, given enough time, he'll even be able to shrink it down to fit in your hand. But, you have to realize this was his first enchantment." Amelia points to the phones sitting next to each other on the table. "As over-powered as he is, he still needs to get up to speed with something."

"I promise, Apricot. You will get your movie player, and more. I just need some time. Here, have some chocolate as an apology for not watching my words better."

"You'd better." She huffs before finally relenting with a sigh. "You can't just go getting a girl's hopes up like that. And, don't think you can just use chocolate to bribe your way out of trouble in the future."

"So? You don't want it?" I pull my hand back for a second, before giving her the candy. "Just kidding. Oh, don't look like that."

"..."

"How about I make brownies for desert. Not the Fae!" Seeing a look of horror on her face, I quickly correct the misunderstanding. "It's a type of chewy chocolate cake. They're just called brownies because chocolate is brown. And well, most people are shit at naming things."

"Hahahah. Gotcha!" She laughs so hard that she ends up falling from Amelia's head. "Oh, the look on your face. Don't ever mess with a pixie and her chocolate. Those 'chocolate' brownies better be good, too." She stresses the word. "Now get back to work! I expect you to have this phone thing figured out by tomorrow, so you can start working on the movie player. I'll even give you a couple weeks to shrink it down to pixie size."

"Oh, how magnanimous of you." I give her as courtly a bow as I can from my seat.

***

"Sorrel, Amelia, Apricot." Devlen greets us. "Come in. Please sit, make yourselves at home." He waves us to a couple chairs across from his desk in a large but cluttered office. "So sorry I missed you yesterday. I hear you're looking for advice on where to sell Mana Stones."

"Yeah, don't want to mess up anyone's business, or flood the market. Or, anything like that." I reply.

"Just how many can you make?" He looks a bit shocked after I mention flooding the market.

I drop a bag with dozens of large stones on his desk. "I made these yesterday. Would have done more, but I got caught up with some Enchanting after we went dancing. Speaking of." I pull a phone out of my pocket. "I need a good supplier for my enchanting needs, I already reached the limit of what I can do with what I have, and it's not nearly good enough for a finished product. And, I was wondering if the Guild would be interesting in helping me test run a batch of long range communication Runes that I'm calling phones."

"All those, in just one day? And, so large too." He can't seem to get past the bag of Stones, so I put them back in my inventory.

"I'm stocking up for the gala; I've got a spell to make Apricot human sized so we can all dance together, but it's a hog."

"Ahem, yes." He shakes his head to come back to reality. "First off, as one of the only Terramancers with Mana Control. I have to say thank you for not just 'flooding the market', as you say." He takes a breath. "The Guild would be happy to act as intermediary, our Enchanters would actually be your best bet for that and your new 'phones'."

He then guides us down a flight of stairs, and into a large room that's half workshop, half laboratory. Motioning for us to stay in the door way, he walks forward to stand next to a mousy haired woman of around forty years of age. Her straight hair is up in a ponytail with the odd wisp escaping around the band of an odd set of goggles. She's wearing what looks more than a little like leather armor, while hunched over a table inscribing some runes.

He's just standing there, so Apricot gets bored and flies forward. "It's going to collapse if you connect that, the errors in those two symbols will cause a feedback loop that will make it... Well, do that." She finishes as the Rune Stone starts smoking, causing the woman to slam a metal dome on it and mutter an Air spell. A loud 'whump!' explains why she took the precaution.

"Dammit Devlen! I told you before not to bother me when I'm working." She curses at the man while looking around for Apricot. "And who said that, how did you know it was going to explode?"

"Up here." Apricot giggles from a foot above the woman's head.

"A Fae." She looks on in wonder after being startled.

"Is it safe to approach now?" Amelia calls from the doorway. The explosion startled Mittens awake from his new favorite resting place, and she's trying to hold him back from exploring.

Devlen waves us in. "Del, this is Apricot, she's the companion of Amelia Rialta and Sorrel Rumex, a couple of new mages in town. Guys, this is Deluca Mecatti, the Guild's lead Enchanter." He introduces us.

"Nice to meet you." I nod since her hand is still holding some sort of magical tool.

"Ahh, sorry. Been trying to get this damned design to work, but it keeps exploding." She empties her hand before shaking ours. "First time at that part though, so I guess that's something." She shakes her head. "So, what can I do for you?"

"Young Sorrel here has taken up Enchanting, in addition to having a prodigious level of Mana Control." Devlen takes the lead. "He's got a new device that he wishes to test, and is hoping to make some deals to buy supplies and sell Mana Stones."

"Well, why didn't you say so?" She pulls off her goggles and her face lights up. "Show me what you've got."

"I've made a long range communicator based.. very loosely off of this design." I hand her the book I was reading yesterday, and pull out my phone again and look down at it. "Damn, no signal. This is why I need better components. Mind if I open that window?" I retrieve a tower and float it up onto the roof of the building when she nods.

*Ding**Ding**Ding* The phone immediately starts to ring.

"Is that..?"

"Yeah, I recorded System-chan saying 'answer the phone' for me. Calling these phones, by the way." I smile. "It's your Mom, again."

Amelia rolls her eyes, but takes the phone from me and taps on the connect button.

"AMELIA? ARE YOU THERE? IS IT WORKING NOW?" Kaitlyn's voice roars out of the device.

"Mom! Quit shouting!" Amelia hisses back. "Sorrel already explained this; you only need to speak normally."

"Sorry, dear." Her mother sounds a bit abashed. "I just tried it and the call didn't go through, I thought it might have broken or something."

"We're in the Guild building now, Sorrel just had to put up another of those relay towers. We're in a meeting and I've got to go, so I'm ending the call now, bye Mom. I love you." She disconnects as quickly as possible. And mouths "sorry" to us.

"Sorry, everyone." I call to the room. "Looks like I found another feature it needs. Soundproof bubble for privacy and to not startle a room full of enchanters." I look around for any impending explosions.

"Don't worry about them." Deluca waves away my consideration. "You say it's based off of this clunker, there was no delay, though. Just what is the range on those things?"

"Right now? Not very far." I project a map of the city. "Her parents are here, with a tower on the roof of their warehouse. There's another tower at their home, here. And, I had to place two more, here and here. Plus, my last relay tower on the roof of the Guild just now." The map shows five dots in a crooked line with overlapping circles radiating out from them.

"You call that 'not very far'?" Her mouth hangs wide open. "How did you get from this garbage to that?" She slams the book closed. "I could sense the air Mana being used, but it didn't go anywhere."

"Del, I know you rarely leave the lab, but even you must have heard of our new ArchMage." Devlen shakes his head.

I rub the back of my head in embarrassment. "That design was mostly inspiration, and if I wasn't using such limited resources." I remove the back cover of the phone to show her what I had to work with. "I theorize that a well built relay on the highest tower of the castle should cover most of the city."

I adjust the map to show one large circle coming from the Castle, before adding six more in a hexagonal grid near it's perimeter. "I would prefer to use a pattern like this, in order to insure the best coverage though. Of course this is all theory, and may require many more towers. Depending on the strength of the final product."

"..."

"I think you broke her." Apricot titters. "Might as well tell her the rest while she's still in shock."

I nod and continue. "The true range is as far as you want to run towers, but what's the point if you can only have two devices? So..." I retrieve four more phones from my inventory. "I made it work with as many as you want. Only had enough supplies for six though, I had to use most of it building the relays. Just press the green button followed by the number of the phone you want to connect to, and red dismisses the call." I flip them over to show the numbered backsides, this batch is all in order, but I'll just use random numbers in the future.

"How long have you been enchanting for?" Deluca finally finds her voice.

"Yesterday!" Apricot shouts. "The over-powered lunker started yesterday afternoon." She starts cackling.

"Be nice apricot, or no movie player." Amelia warns. Causing the pixie to clamp her hands over her mouth in a comical manner.

"Magical Sight helps a lot with finding errors, and I don't need any tools to craft the devices." Without using my hands I pull one apart, and put it right back together. Test dialing another phone proves that it still works.

"They show the number of who's calling?" The Enchanter asks.

"Yeah, I still need to add a lot more features, but I was able to get that one sorted before bed last night."

"You want to add more? This is already amazing." Deluca exclaims. "You've got three types of magic in one device, doing countless things. No one makes Runes like this, they're just meant to reproduce simple spells, producing a single result. And half the time can't even manage that." She scowls down at her desk.

"But there are all those conditional statements in the runescript?" I say confused. "All you have to do is chain them together to get the results you want."

"You've just got a unique way of looking at the world, babe." Amelia puts her arm around me.

"Fresh eyes." Deluca says quietly. "He had no idea we thought something like this was impossible. So, he just went ahead and made it."

"So, can you help me out?" I ask. "I can't afford many Mana Stones, not until after the gala at least. But, I need supplies to make something for a certain pixie."

"The gala!" Devlen nearly shouts. "Sorry." He says sheepishly. "But, you need to present this to The Crown."

"It's so... incomplete though." I grimace. "And, I still need to design the movie player for Apricot."

"Quit being a perfectionist." Amelia squeezes me. "You said last night that it had all the basic functions working. And, you even added the number display."

"I only did that to as a lead into working on the player. And, basic means basic." I sigh exasperatedly. "Would you have been happy with the wagon of it was only a plank on wheels?"

"You're being an idiot Sorrel." Apricot lands on my shoulder. "I know this was just a way to pass the evening for you, but your phones will change the world." She says more seriously than I've ever heard her. "Beside, you can just take turns between the phones and the player." She grins. "I'll even give you an extra week."

"Oh fine." I sigh. "Devlen, I hate to ask. But, could you arrange something through Master Long?" He nods and runs off.