Chapter 103: Mutual Need

Andrew was pacing back and forth over the wood floor of his home's living room. The redhead had blue pants and a grey shirt that his shoulder-length hair touched, clothes that were quickly put on with no concern for their wrinkles as he rubbed his strong cheekbones with his right hand as he contemplated the mess he was in. It had been a day since he had gotten the missive informing him of the judgment on his and his brother's actions concerning Eli.

'Because what else could possibly be going on in the universe aside from what Eli ate and shat out for breakfast.' He thought bitterly.

Andrew stopped himself dead as he took a deep breath, scolding himself for letting that thing he would never call jealousy get ahead of him. The early morning sun was obstructed by the walls, but it still had some reflection through the windows on the left side of the house. After a few minutes, Jeff came back from his trip to the outhouse. His black hair was barely kempt as his ever-present scowl pulled on his slight chin. He was wearing the typical blue and white striped robes of the academy students which fluttered as he went to sit at the table directly in the right corner of the house.

"Still thinking on that?" Jeff asked as he leaned back in the chair.

"What?" Andrew asked with a bit lip and raised eyebrow as he approached the table "You mean the lack of toast on our breakfast plates this morning? Or perhaps the bite of cold we all woke up to this morning? No… Maybe it's the FUCKING death warrant three entire nations put on our heads."

Andrew finished with an unceremonious slump into his chair on the right of Jeff.

A simple grumble and nod was all Jeff said at first before putting a thoughtful hand to his mouth and leaning forward and speaking in a calm tone.

"It was a proclamation of judgment, the trial may yet-"

"Oh, spare me your endless optimism!" Andrew half yelled with an upward throw of his hands. He had some sweat running down his forehead and his ocean eyes were a bit wider than normal. "I thought I was the one whose head did all its thinking between women's legs. We both know damn well the trial is a formality at this point."

Jeff leaned back and nodded as he proceeded to stare at the wood ceiling. After a few more minutes of silent wrestling with their assured doom, Jeff finally spoke up again with a turn to his brother.

"Eli. He said he had certain… musings on what to do. Want to see if he has come up with anything?"

Andrew pulled back and contemplated for a moment before sighing and getting up. He felt the small tendril of spirit magic from his fire ape familiar as he nodded to Jeff.

"Fine. Let's see what he has to get us out of the mess he put us in."

"Hopefully it will involve blowing up the capital," Jeff mused as he got up, drawing a raised eyebrow from Andrew but nothing more.

They both quickly moved out the front door and onto the snowy grounds illuminated by the sun shining over a clear blue sky. Veronica's nautical-themed home was to their right but straight ahead was Ryan's more rugged and square home with big grey stone blocks, thick wooden beams, and grey roof tiles. Ever present and vigilant, the two guards who were now permanently stationed in front of Jeff and Andrews's house also had two companions in front of the cave-like entrance to Eli's illustrious prison.

On the way over, Gretton the fire ape landed on Andrews's left shoulder from atop Eli's house. Their relationship now mended after the familiar explained everything in detail, the two now moved like a duo of power. As they always should. Nodding to the two steel-clad men, they went through the front door and promptly closed it behind them. Looking around at the dark stone wall, Jeff called their hosts name.

"Eli! My brother and I need to talk with you."

"The same place as before," Eli called back from somewhere atop the stairs.

Jeff and Andrew started trudging up the staircase in front of them. Jeff came up first and immediately turned right, followed by Andrew. Eli was wearing a white shirt and brown pants while sitting at a desk with papers and books strewn about. The plain wood room had two small wooden chairs off on each side. Jeff pulled the one on the left as Andrew got the one on the right. As they moved to sit down in front of his desk, Andrew got the stinging feeling of being in Tansen's office again. The sun shined out of the window on the left and onto the papers as Eli stayed just behind the shaft of light, at least what light could peek through the stone beams slapped across it.

"Andrew and I are in a bad spot," Jeff said mildly.

"I heard something between the guards and the maid who brought me my breakfast. Some kind of international trial."

Andrew snorted as Gretton sat on his left shoulder and looked around the room.

"It's not a true trial when the outcome has already been determined, as I'm sure you well know," Eli got a small smile above his strong jaw and nodded, but said nothing before Andrew continued, "When these kinds of judgements take place, the evidence is already beyond dispute. Heads of countries don't take time out of their busy schedules to not have a show at the end. Our crime is influencing you away from your proper course of breeding. So, thank you, Captain Dickless, for that."

Eli burst out laughing at that with a full-bellied guffaw as he clutched his gut, making the two brothers raise their eyebrows at the sudden outburst. After a few seconds, Eli calmed down and wiped his eye.

"Sorry. Comedy is often a matter of context,"

They were still just as confused but Eli pushed on as he leaned forward and adopted a more serious demeanor before he began questioning the brothers.

"That seems a bit harsh, going after the president's sons based on hearsay and whispers," Eli said with his elbows resting on the desk.

"More likely it's because dad is the president that they're going after us," Jeff said with a tired sigh, "Personal intimidation and all that."

Eli nodded as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he leaned back.

"I heard the trial is a week from now, where will they hold it? The academy is the only place prestigious enough for such a high-class hanging."

The brothers shook their heads before Andrew answered.

"Nah, they're moving us all towards the Hub for the trial. It's probably taking a week because they need to get proper security to move you."

Eli got a look of mild surprise as he raised his two silver eyebrows and his purple eyes slightly widened. He then turned to the right to stare out the window. The turning of gears in his mind was practically visible as he strummed his fingers on the armrest and leaned back.

What was a note growing concern to the two brothers was the expanding smile on the quad mage's face as his mind continued working for several minutes. It started as a barely noticeable smirk but when some piece of Eli's puzzle fell into place, it quickly grew until it split his face with a full baring of his teeth, like a wolf. Though that comparison applied equally to his eyes as they seemed to light up.

"Ah…Now that's a neat trick." He finally declared with a turn to the two brothers.

Andrew felt a change in the room and the quad mage. Eli donned a wicked grin as the sunlight fell in front of him and, for perhaps the first time, Andrew felt an acute sense of danger emanating from him.

"Gentlemen, I will be honest with you. My patience with these games has reached its end and I am looking to expedite my removal from these lands. Something I'd hazard to say you desire as well. It appears we have reached a point of great mutual need; wouldn't you agree?" Eli said as he leaned back and reduced his smile to a light grin as he rested his hands on his stomach.

The two brothers looked between each other and exchanged looks. It was quicker than a spirit connection to decide who should take over and they both knew too little about Eli to say anything of substance. Jeff, being slightly closer to Eli during his early days, took the lead as he leaned back and tried to adopt a more casual demeanor.

"Indeed. And it appears you have a solution to our problems." Jeff said in a calm tone.

"I do. Though, it depends how…tolerant the current circumstance has made you for it." Eli replied, every word being carefully measured.

There was another round of looks between the two brothers. Tolerant was the word, desperate was the meaning. And Andrew was desperate. Dying as a valiant mage on the battlefield was an acceptable end. Being hanged in front of a crowd like a criminal was not befitting the station of a mage. Much less a scion. Jeff was seething with bloodlust even at his calmest moments now and there wasn't much he wouldn't tolerate in the name of his revenge.

Even so, they both had a good idea of where this was going.

"Eli…" Jeff hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath and going through with the plunge, "The rumors surrounding you. How true are they?"

Eli looked between the two men for a moment. Then he leaned forward and meshed his hands together as he rested them on the desk.

"I have never lusted after a child, nor have I ever visited any perversions on them."

Jeff seemed to steel himself for a blow before speaking while Andrew sat still in rapt attention.

"And the rest? With the orcs?"

"Quite true, I'm afraid." Eli said with a small nod and no hint of shame or regret, "Admittedly, I only did it after the trial. But I doubt there's much difference in your eyes. I have laid with one orc and there is another I will certainly be with in the future. That later one I will be getting with child, consequences to the mental wellbeing of those in charge be damned. Besides that, I aided the orcs in other endeavors, often to the detriment of this nation. Oh, I've certainly done my best to live up to the reputation that was thrust upon me."

There was not a single breath being taken nor a bit of movement by the brothers for several seconds that seemed to stretch into eternity.

"Is that your solution?" Andrew asked evenly when the power of speech finally returned to him as his stomach was doing flips, "Drown the Coalition in quad scion orcs?"

"Pff!," Eli huffed dismissively before getting a nasty grin, "Orc babies aren't formed and popped out in a day. No, my solution is far more permanent."

Jeff leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees as he took in the quad mage's features with intense alacrity. After another moment, Jeff sighed and asked another question with a note of finality.

"What are you proposing, then? More importantly, what would it mean for us?"

"I will answer the latter as the how of the first is quite… involved. In the short term, almost guaranteed safety is what I can offer. In the long term?" Eli drew back into his chair and now seemed properly hesitant, only making the coming blow fiercer. "If we succeed we will have safety, of course… and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people, will die. Either in social upheaval or direct conflict. But things will get better.

For everyone.

Eventually.

If we fail, no one will be named Eli, Andrew, or Jeff after our generation. We will be unspeakable horrors of a past age where the world was almost plunged into darkness and terror. Our visage will haunt the children of ages to come as their parents tell them of us and the more superstitious will consider even the utterance of our names to be portents of misfortune."

Andrew and Jeff both paled at that and drew back without meaning to.

"And what craft or spell could merit such a reputation?" Andrew asked with a dry throat.

Eli puckered his lips and bobbed his head back and forth in thought for a second before he finally answered.

"It's more like the supplanting of magic than the use of it."

That only made their eyebrows rise as they struggled to understand the simple statement.

"Supplant magic?" Jeff asked incredulously, "With what exactly?"

"A power that takes time, energy, and a lot of work, but once it gets going," Eli did a light whistle before continuing, "The stars themselves will be ours. This power is from my people and it is called science. It employs the secret powers found in magicless items like steel, copper, and lightning. But it requires goods, time, and people. This path we will tread will take us far from here. It is considered organizational best practice not to give people more information than they need to know. So, I cannot divulge the location yet.

I will not give you any delusions of grandeur or grandiose praise from the mage world or the average citizenry. We will be working with Orcs, Keltons, and the Frojan. All that I have done will become common knowledge when we reveal our presence to the world. The human race will look at us in horror and fury for the betrayal of our kind. They will attack us with all their might and power to prevent what will, by their understanding of things, be the end of the world. I intend to be in a position to handle that attention when it comes but I cannot guarantee absolute safety for years or even decades when our conflict properly starts.

Now that I have laid my intentions bare, what say you, to my bargain?"

Andrew sat there speechless as he tried to process what his mind was telling him was gibberish until he finally found some words.

"Do you… this is going to get a lot of people killed, Eli. Are you really ok with that? Being such a horrid monster?"

Eli sat still for a moment before his face molded into an indifferent frown.

"Is it any more monstrous than ripping away someone's loved ones because it serves your political interests? I could justify my actions by saying millions more will be better off in the future. In just two or three generations the benefits of this change would be enough to justify all but the total elimination of the human populace.

But in the interests of transparency, that's not really the reason. The harsh truth is that I just don't care. I've been put in a position where I have to choose between those I consider my family and the well-being of the world. And honestly? Fuck this world, fuck the people running it, and may god damn every last person who spits on their 'lessers' to hell," He said with a shrug, quite unmoved at the tragedy of it all. That seemed to only excite Jeff.

"You have my support. If you will allow me revenge on the system and people who degraded and killed my Annie." Jeff declared with a flare of his nose and widening of his oceanic eyes even as he sat perfectly still.

Eli got a small smile and casually leaned back with a nod.

"I can promise you the congressman's head. As for the rest…" Eli strummed his fingers on the arm of his chair for a second before speaking again. "This is, to be blunt, going to be a campaign of cultural genocide. There are probably prettier ways of saying it, but that's the most honest description. I will kill whoever needs killing to make my vision for this world come to fruition. But if they yield, and I feel we are in a position where they won't present any problems in the future, I won't let you kill them. The fatty, though, I can promise. Perhaps you'll even do the deed yourself."

Jeff nodded with a cruel smile as he leaned back in his chair and turned to his brother.

Andrew felt sweat run down the back of his neck as the two men looked at him.

"What about you Andrew?" Eli asked innocently, "Gretton is a key piece I need and one more accomplice is always welcome."

All that gibberish about the science thing sounded like a drunk man's slurred thoughts spoken with a sober tongue. All things considered; the fire scion was inclined to think no good end could come of indulging this delusion. Feeling like he was trapped amongst lunatics, Andrew only sat there as he contemplated escaping this asylum.

'Running out of here and to… where, exactly?' Andrew thought bitterly to himself.

After a long moment, the fire scion decided that being the living horror of a mad man's ravings was better than being a dead martyr.

"Fine. You're both half-mad. But my neck isn't meant for the gallows and you're the only handhold I have to pull myself out of this hole. Besides, I've gotten quite tired of the scenery here. A change of landscape would do me some good."

Eli nodded with a satisfied smile, giving a light twirl of his silver hair as he relaxed into his chair.

"Excellent. Now. Let us begin." He said with a happy note in his voice as he leaned over and pulled the curtain over the window down.

Andrew had experienced many things in his near twenty years of life. He had fought the ravenous beasts of the elves' clay and seen the wonders of the central continent at a young age. The wonders of the female form he had conquered long ago and was quite certain in his understanding of the world. All of that certainty blew apart as a cascade of mana poured out of Eli in a white cloud.

Mana was typically a light blue, but the fluttering and movements of those small silver specks as they came out of his skin and back into it in an arc immediately identified them to anyone with any amount of magical ability. When Eli took out a wooden plank the size of an arm and started sucking in that mana to use a plant spell to reshape it, Jeff finally sputtered out a word.

"U-Ultimate!"

"Yes, it's a nice little trick that's let me use wind tunnels to keep updated on current happenings." Eli said casually as the plank started shrinking and contorting "Gretton. Come here, I need to make sure I have precise measurements."

Andrew had a bitter moment as he looked to his familiar, thinking that this was another secret, another wound in their freshly recovered relationship. Fortunately, in Andrew's eyes anyway, Gretton was as shocked as the brothers. Its wine-red fur pulled with its open jaw and was nearly as wide as its green eyes. It was a long moment before it shook its head, leaving a small cloud of red mana behind from its forehead's orange stripes in the process before the fire ape leaped from Andrew's left shoulder and landed amongst the papers and books with a thump.

As Eli molded the board around the familiars back, he continued talking with the two brothers.

"I'm giving Gretton a mental roadmap to where my people are. Using air boosted crafts, he should get there in half a day or less. Far faster than any of us even if we could leave. There should be a few frojan there as well as a few others who can provide the muscle we need.

While he's working on mastering this craft, let's work on making two bags of holdings to move our goods without being detected."

"What goods?" Jeff asked numbly as he sat still like a deer paralyzed by fear.

"Crafts. We'll deliver them to a pre-selected destination later tomorrow tonight, which should be enough time for them to get there." Eli said idly as he worked the board onto Gretton's back. Eventually, it fit like a second skin and Eli was clearly having a spirit connection conversation with the fire ape. Andrew was trying to do the same with Jeff, but neither brother could think of anything to say. It was like being sucked into a dream where the object presented led you to where you were going and you numbly followed along, waiting for that moment where the morning light finally pulled you back to reality.

That moment never came.

It didn't come when Gretton zipped down the hallway like a bird nor did it come when Eli retrieved some spare bags from the kitchen, and he used that mana generation to fuel the inner expansion of the two wide leather sacks. All Andrews's ocean eyes could take in was the faint trickles of mana that leaked out of Eli's skin before forming into the wider cloud that hung around him as he worked behind the desk.

Eli spent a good half an hour going over various measurement techniques involving string with Gretton while the two brothers sat there with numb expressions. Eventually, their time together came to an end. The ultimate mage had some half-heard farewells spoken, but Andrew barely registered it even as the three walked out the door with the piece of wood armor and one of the bags tucked under Jeff's robes.

Walking past the two guards and through their front door, Andrew sprinted past the kitchen counter on the right towards one of the cabinets near the sink near the window. Pulling out a bottle, he quickly started drinking the lukewarm rum. Jeff was leaning back against the wall to the right of the door with his hands moving to his face after putting the bag on the table to the left. The only recovered member was Gretton, who tried on the booster again. As the fire ape zipped around the room, Andrew started up a spirit connection to Jeff.

'What are we going to do?' Andrew demanded.

Jeff took in a deep breath as he put his hands down and looked up at the ceiling. The wood wall he leaned on provided no comfort for him, though.

'We have no choice,' Jeff said with a hard tone.

'Ultimate orcs! That… do orcs take on their sire's mana generating abilities?' Andrew asked with wide eyes as he took another hard swig of the stinging liquor. Jeff bit his lip for a moment before moving to the counter with a determined look on his face.

'It doesn't matter,' Jeff rebuffed with a swing of his head that moved his short black hair, rough from days of neglect.

Andrew sputtered for a moment, but Jeff gave him no quarter.

'We're already being blamed for his lack of sex. If this gets out, do you think they'll just let us walk away unscathed?'

'Yes!' Andrew refuted with growing disbelief that they were even having this conversation. 'If we are the ones who turn him in, they won't punish us.'

Jeff puckered his lips and shook his head.

'Tell me, what methods are there for detecting an ultimate mage?' Jeff asked calmly.

Andrew struggled with no sound or answer coming. They both knew Jeff was the more learned of the two, and if Jeff didn't know of any such method, there was no way Andrew would. Jeff had looked up the subject for a small stint and there were less than three books available on any subjects of anything to do with ultimate mages.

'That doesn't mean the Central Continent won't have a method. Damn it all, Jeff! We are talking about a flood of scion ultimate orcs. We would at least have the saving grace of them running out of mana before, but if they could put out their own clouds of mana… This is it! This is the end of everything! Of fucking humanity!'

Jeff pulled back with a shake of his head as he gave a tired sigh.

'All right, let's say we tell Tansen and…the fat piece of shit. Do you think they will believe us?'

Andrew took a deep breath as he started following Jeff's logic and his younger brother lead him down the twisted maze of possibilities.

'If they did believe us, what then? Eli has had days to prepare that house for every contingency and he has his wind tunnels gathering information all over the place. What, exactly, are we going to do if they poke the troll and he decides to flatten this whole town?'

Beads of sweat started falling down Andrews's face. Eli, by all accounts, hadn't used mana generation during the massacre. If he had… Andrew shuddered as Jeff continued talking.

'But, more likely than not, they won't. Things will keep going as they have been and when Eli escapes, and he will escape because there is no containing him, guess who will be blamed? Everyone thinks we're the best of friends. Do you think they will believe for a second that we didn't know? No, Eli told us that secret because he is desperate for help with whatever his plan is AND he knows there isn't a damn thing we could do if we did turn on him.'

'As opposed to the great plan of going off to slay magic itself?' Andrew shot back with a wave of his hand, 'Magic is… it's been around since… the sun. Life itself is subject to its dictates from the first to the last. To have a world without it is so beyond all sense and reality. We will be throwing away our futures for the stuff of bitter peasants' dreams.'

Jeff faltered at that as he looked down before he turned back up with fresh resolve.

'We are bound to him, more closely than any bond of love or blood. That plan for a new future involves magic being inconsequential, not destroyed. Whatever lays beyond his vision, one of those things involves the congressman laying in a pool of his own blood, which is enough for me. If there is even the slightest possibility that his ravings could lead to a society where Annie and I could have been together and I get my revenge along the way, I will throw myself into it, heart, blood, and soul.'

Andrew looked down and laid his head on the counter. After a few seconds, he signaled Gretton to go through with the plan. Grabbing the bag filled with string and measuring sticks and sticking his wooden armor piece in it, the fire ape bound out the back towards freedom. Jeff was confined inside the scion section but Andrew and his familiar were still free to roam. Something Andrew intended to use.

'Fine, let's see if Eli can guide us through these waters or sink us all.' Andrew declared as he tossed his empty bottle along the counter. Not waiting for any more words from Jeff, the red-headed scion left his house and went out into the cold late-day towards the town. While the roads were as packed as ever, Andrew had only one type of establishment in mind. The first inn he saw, he immediately went in.

Andrew was not so foolish that he would possibly let something slip in a drunken haze, but he intended to relieve himself of his stress by other means. Before he even sat down, he found himself being led up the stairs on the right side of the smoky room with a bar on the left. The two women were average barmaids who were typically found swooning at passing mage men and knew his appearance well. Lead into a room, he found his stress relief swiftly and without fuss.

Waking up in a soft bed surrounded by three women, the third being a chubbier woman on top of him, Andrew took in the morning ray of sunlight to his left. The older woman's brown hair was strewn over his body and rustled with his movement. She looked up with hooded brown eyes and seeing her now, he determined she may have been an older barmaid or the inn keeper's wife, though their passing dalliance was of no importance to Andrew.

Getting out of bed, he quickly clothed himself and headed back towards his home. When he finished walking the main street and came through the main entrance to the academy, he immediately got a spiritual connection from Gretton. It told of him visiting a big ship with a balloon above it in the Rumble. It was hard to follow as the excited fire ape leaped over the scion section's wall and sprinted towards him. Landing on his right shoulder with little regard as to how much he had grown over the past weeks, Gretton finished up his exciting rendition of events with an explanation of the frojan being in a camp further southward… watched over by dwarves.

A headache was forming in the back of Andrews's head, pushing away the peace of last night's activity, as he tried to wrangle with the mess of interests following Eli around.

As he came through the black bars of the gate, Gretton mentally pushed him towards Eli's house. Walking over the snowy grounds, he came up to the cave-like entrance and through the door. Gretton quickly leaped off his shoulder and up the stairs, with Andrew following behind. When he looked to his right, he saw Eli working on several leather straps along small barrels of wood.

"Ah! Andrew. Good, good." Eli called good-naturedly. "Bad news I'm afraid. Cell wasn't able to make the crafts because the Frojan weren't allowed on the dwarf's lands and I'm not going to take the risk of having him leave. Some higher ups among the dwarf's throwing a fuss. It will mean more work on my end, but Jeff has been most helpful in that share of the work."

Jeff's head popped out briefly with a nod before turning back to whatever he was working on. Walking forward, Andrew walked through the door frame and saw a small table to the right, and on it sat an odd shape of wood. It was a long slab of wood with a soft, concave impression on the left and a thick nose-like end with a hole complete with a wide slab of wood bellow the ridge.

"A mockup of a special weapon from my people," Eli said proudly. He moved closer to it and put the concave part against his right shoulder then looked down the end of it. As he was pointing the nose end towards the wall using a pole at the bottom, Andrew noticed for the first time the bags under Eli's eyes. "We have a few more crafts tucked away under the kitchen stove. More importantly, we have an issue of getting them there."

Jeff stopped looking at the leg piece he was putting air enchantments in and turned to his brother. Andrew felt a bit of unease at the situation but held firm as Eli continued speaking.

"Gretton, is going to look over the roads leading from here to the hub to scout out a good ambush point. For my plan to work, we need to deliver the crafts to a troll's nest north of here."

Andrew grew quite annoyed with himself. He had been so busy focusing on… everything, that he forgot to ask about the whole plan of Eli's. Though he figured that would have been a wasted question since needlessly telling others was 'bad organizational practice'. He tried prying it out of Gretton, but there were a lot of images that made no sense to him, so he just consigned himself to ignorance.

That didn't mean; however, that he was ignorant of what request was coming.

"I guess I'm the only one who can leave our houses," Andrew grumbled.

The two gave respectful nods but remained silent. With a defeated sigh, Andrew nodded with a swish of his red hair. Time flowed quickly after that. Between bathing, meals, practice with the air boosters, and helping with the crafts, though he maintained some misgivings on the lack of dual elements in them aside from healing functions, the night quickly approached. Andrew was dressed in a dark grey shirt and black pants while Gretton had left some hours earlier. He spent some time among the bars and inn's still open before night came amongst the many wobbling drinkers whose coin kept the late hour establishments open, though the proper falling of night rendered even those places empty.

Walking along the left side of the river, the starlight was bright enough that Andrew wouldn't have to use the mana lamp Eli provided. When he got to the end of civilization marked by the sluice gate by the river, Andrew looked out over the river. The center was the brownish color of sewage and the smell did more than enough to prove it, but the edges near the gate were clear. Grateful for that small mercy, Andrew trudged along the side with a splash before coming out the other end.

This end of the river was intentionally left bereft of people so as not to attract the undead and Andrew took a moment as he looked behind to the thick iron bars that separated the wilds from his warm bed. A thought that particularly haunted him as icy breath escaped his lips and he stood in the few inches of snow. Outside the town, it was the cold of a true winter that greeted him as a soft wind ambled over the softly rolling plains.

Shaking his head, he pressed on, often dodging undead dogs and the occasional shambling human along the way. The air enchantments in the shin guards made the trip so easy that he began pondering on questions of legacy, whether he was okay going down in history as the epitome of evil, and, most curiously, letting another ultimate mage get away.

Adia and her husband, Daimond, were infamous in his immediate and extended family. That they had both gotten away, one back to the central continent and the other through death in a weird hovel up north, was a wound on his family's name. Now here he was, helping the third such mage conspire with orcs.

Was there no end to the shame or madness?

These thoughts ambled through his mind as he followed the mental map Eli provided. Within a half-hour, the jutting slices of stone in a bark-covered field told him he arrived. He looked around the wide array of stones for a while, noticing odd flecks of firelight occasionally showing along the wide slabs of grey stone. After a few minutes, the hosts came out to greet him. The first was a large green frojan in a blue robe that showed a darker green rolling down his back. His amber eyes took Andrew in as a near dozen other of the frogmen came out, all wearing shirts and robes of various descriptions.

"' Ello. You must be the associate that fire monkey told us about." The bigger frojan intoned with what seemed to be a friendly demeanor. When an orc came up behind the muscular frogman, Andrews's instincts were telling him to run. Her bowl cut of black hair swayed with her movements in her leather armor and, Andrew noted, what was certainly enchanted wood vambraces and shoulder pads. She was a bit shorter than him but tales of horror from his earliest years were making his legs want to sprint all on their own.

"I come bearing gifts from our savior and great lord," Andrew said casually, determined not to let the situation unnerve him as he stepped forward.

"Huh," The orc said, her gold irises in those black eyes seemingly amused. The vertical cut along her left eye stretching. "I'd thought you'd be worried about getting shagged by an orc."

Determined not to be out-calmed, Andrew just scoffed and shook his head.

"Please, with Eli around there's no way you'd stop to get my pulp. Besides, I assume you're the one Eli has already claimed." Andrew said as he reached into his bag and started taking out the shoulder pads, odd long weapons, and guards for various bits. The Frojan started coming forward, looking at the bits of wood with a deep fascination.

"Oh? Claimed me, has he?" She asked curiously with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Andrew said as he pulled on one of the odd weapons that was stuck in the entrance of the bag, "He said there was one orc he fully intended to get with child in the future. I assume I'm speaking with future Mrs. Quad Scion Ultimate mage?"

Andrew noticed her eyes go a bit wide at that and he could have sworn that she seemed to get a darker shade of green, but between the dim starlight and the approaching frojan, he couldn't be sure.

"So, these are the vaunted crafts that will change the world," One of the older, blue frojan to the right said as he picked up one of the shoulder plates.

"Aye," The orc said with a step forward as she took one of the long weapons, "You have no idea how much. Let's go back to the fire and I'll show you what power Eli has kept hidden from the world."

"I kind of doubt that," Andrew said with a raised eyebrow, "I saw them being made and tested. They have plain fire, water, and stone enchantments but no plant, metal, or lightning enchantments on them. Though the backplates have a healing function."

The frogmen all looked a little disappointed at that, but the orc just huffed as she hefted the weapon over her shoulder.

"Did you try these out in a live combat situation?" She demanded with a smile that had a vague suggestion of smugness.

Andrew felt a prick of annoyance at her expression but kept it to himself as he composed his retort.

"No. But I know enough about crafts to say having something a bit more…exotic would help before they are all disabled. Unless you lot have a different system of crafting that would make them last a bit longer that I am unaware of."

"We don't," The orc said casually, "But Eli does. Come on! I want you all to see this is in the clear firelight so you can't blame a trick on the eyes." With that, she turned around and sauntered back into the camp. The frojan looked between each other for a moment before picking up the rest of the gear and moving towards the center of the camp.

As Andrew looked over the retreating, stooped backs of the frogmen moving between the slabs of sharp stone, he struggled on what to do. His inner fear of orcs, and to a lesser extent frojan, had been honed from a lifetime of stories and instructions but curiosity is a mistress more beguiling than others when she presents herself. After a few moments of standing in the snow and staring at the cloud of foggy breath coming out of his mouth, the redhead took the plunge.

Running forward, he moved between the grey stone with bits of frozen moss in their rough surfaces. A few more steps and he came onto the empty center. It was melted grass with blankets strewn around a large wooden bowl that was putting out a decent flame and bits of cloth canvas tied around some of the stones to make sure the magical firelight didn't leak out too much to attract passing scouts, though the occasional mangled corpse of the undead off to the side said it wasn't totally secure.

Off to the left, the orc had large shields of water around her wooden shoulder pads. While the interweaving of stone in the water was a nice touch, the frojan didn't look impressed as the bigger green one stood off on the right with his arms crossed.

"All right, what am I looking at?" He asked in that deep base typical of his kind as Andrew walked forward. The fire scion, so used to being the center of attention, now only drew a few sideways glances as he came between the older blue and a younger red frojan a few feet from the duo.

"The wonder of our age." The orc said, her horizontal cut along her nose ridge that scrunched with her excited smile, something that only emphasized her sharp chin.

The array of amber and dark green eyes of the frogmen looked at her skeptically.

She huffed in irritation before speaking again.

"Hit me with a mist spell or any spell that would disrupt the enchantment." She declared proudly.

A moment of hesitation swept through the group, but Andrew was too tired to wait for them to decide. He quickly sucked in mana and sent out a ball of heated air that was like a summer's breeze. It hit her water shield and when it didn't immediately fail, the frojan and Andrew looked impressed.

"So, he managed to work in enough mana batteries to keep it from failing on the first hit?" One of the frojan asked, sounding impressed.

"No!," The orc pouted with pursed lips. "Ugh! Let me show you how to handle this,"

She pulled her long weapon down from her left shoulder and used her left arm to hold up the long side of the barrel, several inches away from the flat slab of wood below the barrel. Pointing it downward, a stream of cracks followed the water blades that came out about once every half second.

"Hit me with a mist spell!" She declared.

This time three balls of mist shot out from the crowd and hit the weapon. To Andrews's expectations, it stopped working for a second. Then he felt, not for the first time these past few days, that his eyes must be lying to him. The water blades started pouring out far faster than they had been and along the sides, a trickle of water was shooting out both sides.

"That's the enchantments for discharging the excess mana." She explained giddily.

The air was still for a moment before another yellowish frojan spoke up.

"How did he make such a large mana battery for the enchantment?"

"He didn't, from what little he told me," She said smugly as the whip-like sound of water blades shooting off died down to the regular pace. "You could hit it with as many spells as you want, and it will keep on working no problems."

There were some raised eyebrows at that. They may have all been different species, but Andrew and the frojan were bound by their mutual interest to test such an absurd claim. Gula raised both her shoulder pad shields and continued firing into the ground while sending off a hot spray of molten stone from the board below the barrel.

After a minute of being bombarded with blasts of mist and balls of faint heat, the shields only grew thicker and more pronounced while the weapon now had three streams of water coming off both its sides. Eli would have been proud as a craftsman, for whatever miracle he worked on them held true and not once did the weapons or shields stop working. Mystified and enthralled with these wonders, the frojan turned their frenzied looks on the orc and Andrew.

"H-How?!"

"Do you have any idea what this means?"

"Why didn't you tell us?!"

"We needed to get moving, and I would have never gotten you lot moving if I showed you back at the camp."

The cacophony continued until Andrew yelled over the noise.

"Which of his elements did he use to do this?" He demanded with bared teeth and a rising unease in his gut.

The orc only shrugged as her water shields gradually shrunk back to a proper shield size.

"Doesn't have anything to do with the elements. Whatever it was he used, he said anyone with magical ability can use it to make these crafts."

With their interest now fully aroused, the frogmen proceeded to mob the poor woman for any scrap of knowledge about how they worked. Andrew, however, hung back and tried not to throw up. Looking at the pile of crafts and weapons, Andrew could only think of one word now.

Obsolete.

He was a scion, but who needed scions anymore? With magical crafts only major weakness removed, even the most lacking caster could make enough weapons to easily overwhelm a scion. In the subtle woodwork of Eli's crafts, he saw the end of his status among the best of society. There would be no more prestigious ceremonies, plays for his favor, or careful consideration for the power brought to the battlefield by employing a scion.

In the ashes of those images of refinement, grace, and nobility, rose throngs of barely trained peasants. Who would expend the resources to make or gain the employment of a scion when you could shove these into the hands of dirty, smelly, unkempt laborers to mob the scion whose spells would not disable them. Andrew felt bile rise in his throat as he turned around and left the ecstatic frojan to tinker and wonder over their grand prizes in the firelight. His only consolation being that he would at least be near the head of this change, and thus might retain some of his high status.

A bitter thought that kept him going as he headed back to the town.