Chapter 39: Hidden Rooms

Salamede POV

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By the ancestors, Eli is working with scions.

When I first met him I knew he was a crafter. Probably not from a wealthy family if he was living out by the docks, but still he was far better off than anyone else here by a long shot. As a mage, he would get to do great things in the future.

I hummed as I made my way back to the house, happy for his promising life. If he didn't screw it up. I still couldn't believe he gave a scion, a real-life scion, a look like that just for being rude to me. My heart fluttered at the memory but I suppressed it. Eli shouldn't have his future ruined due to one mistake, even if it was on my behalf.

I came in through the front door and saw Jayaga on the couch to the right. That useless lump had burned the craft Eli had made for me to light a fire. Maybe I wouldn't be so angry about it if I hadn't kept it in my room next to the money Eli paid me for cleaning his house, money that was now missing. It was looking like another long week at the docks cleaning fish.

The thought of staying in the house with my husband was unbearable so I got the mop and rags I would need to do a long day of cleaning. I opened the doors to Eli's home and started earning my pay. After a long time of cleaning the various corners and walls, I came up to the stone lisp to scrub off any mold and noticed something odd. The previously smooth stone wall now had a large piece of stone sticking out in a round shape.

'Eh probably some cheap stone repair, back to work' I told myself. But when I pushed against it to get myself off the floor it slid to the side and moved up while staying attached to what looked like a pole seamlessly worked into the stone allowing it to move. Looking behind where the cover had been was a hole that led to what looked like a room.

"Don't Salamede, just pretend you didn't see anything," I said to myself as I maneuvered into the hole, my horns just barely letting me through the passage.

"Mage business isn't for the likes of us, better to keep your snout out of trouble." I reminded myself as I shimmied through the cramped passage and into the room. It was lit with a single flame from a bark piece whose soft orange glow flickered against the smooth dirt walls.

To the left was an odd pole with a copper string basket on one end and fans on the other end being held up by two arches. To the right was what looked like an unfinished armor piece but the material was interwoven vines and it had a deer skull where the helmet should be. The center of the room had a table with an odd iron piece. It had two iron bars with a few pieces of iron half-circles on it.

I went to go look at the pieces but I knocked against the pole. As I moved away from the thing it actually spun slightly. I pushed against the fans harder and it moved faster and spun. After some faster movement, I noticed some odd sparks coming from the copper wire basket near the piece of copper wire sticking out of a stone column. It looked like what happens when you move across a carpet then touch someone else or a piece of metal. The sight was intriguing enough that I just stayed there for a while looking at it as I spun the pole.

Eventually, my trance was interrupted by a thumping sound upstairs followed by voices.

"I told 'em, we looked this place over good and thorough. He ain't hidin' nothin," A rough voice said above.

"Bah! you know... Wait. What's that sticking out of the stone by the dock?" An equally rough voice responded.

Shit! I left the hatch open. The thumps of footsteps overhead were now clear as the intruders made their way over. Even if I knew how to shut the door there wasn't enough time for me to move to close is so my eyes darted around the room trying to find some kind of weapon but the foot shuffling of someone coming through the hole stopped me.

Out came a rough man with a long scar across his forehead. His lack of hair made it even more pronounced. But his green eyes went wide as he looked around. His companion, a skinny man with short black hair and brown eyes also looked around until they both spotted me behind the odd pole.

"Whoo Weee, Looks like we haven't been snooping around for nothing. But you... you're just the maid. So I'm guessing you're not supposed to be here any more than we are," He said in a long drawl. The two of them had pretty good leather armor on with short swords on their right hips that they were now drawing.

I looked around and saw a sharp piece of iron laying on the table to my right. I ran over and picked it up and held it as a quick and dirty shiv. A laugh was all I got for my efforts.

"Yeah, you're no fighter. Boris. Let's make this quick and-" The bald man's head gave a loud crunch as a boulder slammed into the back of it. The other man had the wits to quickly dodge behind the pole obstructing his attacker... Eli!

"Well, well. It looks I have house guests. Typically I would offer a drink or food but those are for invited house guests." He said, coming out of the entrance. The words were light-hearted but the tone and look in his eyes said it was anything but cordial.

The man then dodged to his left side and got up to me. I tried to move out of the way but I was too slow as he grabbed ahold of my right hand before I could run.

Then he swung his sword up.

"All right. Now we-" He started, but a sharp cutting pain sprouted from my neck.

His panicked motion had been too quick and he stuck my neck with his sword instead of just pressing against it. I vaguely heard a heavy sound to my side as I clutched at my bleeding throat and my panicked vision blurred.

Then an odd sense of warmth sprouted from my neck.

I looked up to see the chain veil below the purple eyes of Eli now looking at me with worry.

"You okay?" He asked.

I got up off the floor and turned to look around. The man who struck me was lying on the floor with a rock replacing his front face and bits of teeth and blood-spattered flesh about the ruined head. After a minute of just taking it all in, I started getting the shakes.

"Holy shit, I almost died, "Was all I could repeat to my self. Eli was content to just pat my shoulder sympathetically for a few minutes before I calmed down. Eventually, I got it together and promptly stood up.

"All right. Before we talk could we do it somewhere with fewer corpses?" I asked him in my rough audible voice.

Thankfully he nodded in agreement.

We made our way out of the workshop and out into the water.

"Help a lady up?" I asked through the newly formed spirit connection which he thankfully did not refuse.

We had this odd shimmying act where he would push me up to get my foot back onto the hole's entrance and then again when he pushed me to get onto the lisp. I had to take a moment to scold myself for enjoying his hands on me as he helped me up. When I put out my hand to help him up he just used a wind spell to do a big jump and landed precariously on the ledge.

Eli then sat down on the edge and I joined him as we both sat there in silence.

"So, how did all that start?" Eli asked patiently.

"I, uh, was cleaning the stone ledge when I pressed against the hatch entrance. After a few minutes... inspecting the place, they came in behind me and well, you know the rest." I said respectfully.

"What do you know about magic?" He eventually asked me after a good minute.

" There are 4 elements: fire, wind, earth, and water. Casters cast spells. There are special ones who can use two elements and get a unique third element. Plants, lightning, and healing are the only ones I'm familiar with. Scions get bigger spells and a familiar companion. Crafters are the ones who make items. That's about it really." I replied honestly.

"True but the caveat is that casters and scions can make items as well. They are the ones who provide the spell constructs we need to make the magical items work. Also metal is the other dual element." He said.

"Oh, so what can crafters do that the others can't? Do they get any special elements?" I asked, eager to hear more about magical life straight from a mage instead of the market gossip mongers that I usually relied on.

"Nothing, the crafters have no other special abilities or any elements." He said ruefully.

"You're not a crafter though. I know those rocks were from a spell since they came out of your hand and you didn't use a craft to heal me," I replied carefully.

"Yes, it appears I was mistaken for a crafter." He said indifferently.

"How did that happen?" I asked extremely mystified as I tried to work my way through all of these concepts I barely had any understanding of.

"I've not had the time to figure it out. Besides, it's probably for the best" He said indifferently.

"But, but Eli. You...you're.Ugh!" I got up and put my hands on my hips.

"Eli, you have this amazing ability. You need to share it with the world." I said, trying my best to balance the firmness of a loving mother with the righteous proclamation of a judge.

"I will. Once I get some things set up, a new home going to the top of that list now, I'll be in a much better position to do good. More good than any single mage could ever do." He said, surprisingly not getting too defensive at getting scolded by someone so totally his social inferior.

"A lot of people say that. ' I will tomorrow', 'I just need a quick break to get back in it', 'It's not the right time'. Day after day talking about all the good they'll do tomorrow, and then they die. Run over by a cart, taken by some mugger, or laying on their death beds from old age muttering about all the good they'll do some other time." I said, perhaps more severely than warranted. My husband Jayaga fed me all of those same excuses over these past few months and I couldn't stand the thought of Eli falling down that same hole.

Eli just looked at me blankly for a minute, his purple eyes not giving away any hint of what he was thinking. Finally, he got up.

"How about we talk more about what you saw down there and then maybe you can decide on whether I'm putting off helping people." He said. I nodded in agreement.

Of course, I waited outside until he had 'dealt' with the bodies. After a few minutes, he called.

"All right, come in." He called

"This generates electricity, or lightning if that's easier for you, and with this, I was hoping to use as a fuel for a lightning spell to overload an item and hopefully make more mana. That didn't work, unfortunately." He said as we looked over the odd device.

"Why would you need more mana? Isn't it already in the air?" I asked, looking at the sparks again as the pole turned.

"Yeah but the stuff I'm doing takes a lot of it. It takes so much mana that it's starting to affect the surrounding crafts' ability to function. This is the main problem for now." He said to my right as he helped me spin the fans.

That's why I've been hearing complaints from some of the wealthier nobles staying here.

"How does the plant armor help with the mana issue?" I asked as I looked over the tightly woven strands.

"It doesn't. That's another project for killing bandits." He said.

"Eli, don't you think your time would be better spent... I don't know helping the sick or making fields bloom." I asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"No, they're out there. Breathing my air. And if I make anything to better the situation here they will benefit, even if it's only indirectly I can't stand the thought." He said. I noticed his hand was gripping the pole frame now. A piece of the puzzle fell into place as I comprehend a part of his reluctance to open up to the world. I felt like I understood him more, even if I wasn't totally satisfied with the answer.

Then I did the only thing I could think to do and gave him a light hug, squashing the urge to tear flesh as I rubbed against his exposed neck.

"So what magic is this?" I asked as I disengaged the hug.

"Oh, this isn't magic. Tell me, is a ball rolling down a hill magic? Does starting a fire with flint make you a mage? No. This is just a more advanced application of these everyday occurrences." He said proudly as he rubbed the copper basket.

"Oh, so what do you call that?" I asked as I took in his words and tried to connect rolling balls to lightning.

"Science, but this piece is what you would call technology. That is the application of science to achieve some end." He said looking over it fondly.

"Does this technology also run on magic or is it solely through the 'science' as you call it," I asked.

"No it-" He stopped as he started looking off into the distance. He then turned and looked around the shop. His gaze lingered over the workbench as he rubbed his chin.

"Hmm, now there's a thought. Usually, it does not." he finished. There was a long uncomfortable moment that stretched between us before I worked up the courage to the real question.

"What do we do now?" I asked, unable to keep the nervousness from being broadcasted to him through the spirit connection. But he seemed oddly nonchalant about my presence now.

"Nothing, come to think of it. In hindsight, it seems I had been quite rash when we first met. If you had told anyone about how I had healed your leg they would have known about my true status as a caster. So as far as I'm concerned you knew enough to make trouble for me since the day we met." He said

"Oh, how would they have known that?" I asked.

"Magic crafts require a mana construct only casters and scions can provide. There's no way I could afford to waste any dual-element construct on a simple bark piece and as far I understand almost all of the healing mages are out on the coast pumping out healing potions. Unless I was the one making the construct, I couldn't have made such a craft." He finished.

"Ah, well let's keep it our not so little secret, but you have to promise to try and push for something, not just a bunch of future plans based on some time that might never come," I said. As I hugged him my urge to squeeze harder almost ruining the moment. This time he returned the gesture with a grimace.

"All right, just don't be impatient." He replied in my ear. Afterward, we made our way out of the cave and towards the house's exit.

"In fact, there might be a more immediate good deed you could perform tomorrow if you're up for it," I asked hopefully.

"Oh, so all that talk of working for today was just buttering me up? " He asked with a pouty lip.

"No, I'm just helping you realize it sooner. I have a plant seed I need your help with, tomorrow of course. This grand adventure spanning two rooms has left me way too tired for anything else today." I said.

"Have a good one" He called as I went through the door.

I nodded and walked back home, careful to hide the bloodstain on my dress. Upon my arrival, I saw my husband sleeping on the couch in a stupor. Frankly, after the day I had, I just didn't care what he did today. I got my dinner and went to bed, my sleep slightly perturbed by the image of a blade sticking out of my neck.

The next day I was up with the early morning mist knocking on Eli's door holding a clay pot with soil and a special seed in my pocket. He opened up and looked out over the morning traffic before letting me in.

"So what's this dire task that requires an omni elemental mage?" He asked teasingly.

I took out a gnarled brown nut from my pocket.

"This is an Exter nut. It's a special plant from my homeland and I bought this seed from one of the traders who come through carrying goods from our icy home in the central continent. Could you make it grow?" I finished, my voice carrying tremendous hope in the last part,

"I can try, we just need to watch the soil to help it grow." He said

We spent a good hour filling and changing out the dried and depleted soil with fresh dirt from the riverbank in the houses' dock area. Eli was doing magic during this, apparently, and he said having rich soil helped mitigate the mana costs some. After a while, we were rewarded with a small green leaf that was just barely peeking out over the soil.

"What's so special about this particular plant?" Eli asked.

"It's not just the plant, part of this is also a shell from a magical snail. On the icy shores of my homeland, the snail will wrap around these plants and it will take the surrounding mana into the hollow of its shell. Then somehow by rubbing up against the plant, it causes the shell to glow in a multi-colored display to draw in unsuspecting fish or mates." I said wistfully.

"Sounds cool, when do you think we will get to see it?" Eli asked.

"Never probably. Getting the shells requires a huge amount of paperwork as they are considered a special item of cultural significance to the humans near their home as well. Personally I think it's just a tax or extortion racket by another name." I huffed unhappily.

"Even if it's never completed, we can at least finish this part of it at some point. I think some people are still keeping tabs on me and if you came out with this the wrong eyes might see. Maybe once it's fully grown we can just sneak it out late at night or something." Eli said.

"Thanks," I said as I hugged him. There was so much I still wanted to say and questions to ask as I left the house and wished him a good day but I felt those could wait until a more opportune time.