Apparatus Of Change - Chapter 89 (Patreon)

Unnamed - Apparatus Of Change

Available Power : 17

Authority : 6

Bind Insect (1, Command)

Fortify Space (2, Domain)

Distant Vision (2, Perceive)

Collect Plant (3, Shape)

See Commands (5, Perceive)

Bind Crop (4, Command)

Nobility : 6

Congeal Glimmer (1, Command)

See Domain (1, Perceive)

Claim Construction (2, Domain)

Stone Pylon (2, Shape)

Drain Health (4, War)

-

Empathy : 4

Shift Water (1, Shape)

Imbue Mending (3, Civic)

Bind Willing Avian (1, Command)

Move Water (4, Shape)

Spirituality : 5

Shift Wood (1, Shape)

Small Promise (2, Domain)

Make Low Blade (2, War)

Congeal Mantra (1, Command)

Form Party (3, Civic)

Ingenuity : 5

Know Material (1, Perceive)

Form Wall (2, Shape)

Link Spellwork (3, Arcane)

Sever Command (4, War)

Collect Material (1, Shape)

Tenacity : 5

Nudge Material (1, Shape)

Bolster Nourishment (2, Civic)

Drain Endurance (2, War)

Pressure Trigger (2, War)

-

Animosity : -

Amalgamate Human (3, Command)

Trepidation : -

Follow Prey (2, Perceive)

Kalip and Yuea sit awkwardly in the room that I’ve taken to calling my office.

I am no longer a scholar in name or employ, but I like to think that even without the trappings of displayed academic achievements, racks of scrolls, and a few mysterious relics snuck away from dig sites or storage rooms, that I am still someone who values learning.  I don’t need to objects to know the objective; knowledge is useful no matter what life I’m in.  But it still feels like a golden nostalgia to have an office again.

Even if the room still bears signs of where I inexpertly smoothed wood down to seal up holes, or remove bloodstains.  For some reason, the merchant’s memories nudge me toward thinking that this is just how offices are sometimes, and I don’t believe her.  My past lives might have a skewed perspective.

Yuea sits awkwardly because she’s still getting used to her body, Kalip sits because he’s decided that if he’s required to sit at all by his exhaustion then he’ll do it on the edge of my desk.  I don’t think he’s used to not having near unlimited stamina.  I’ve got one watcher bee in here, but I’ve called for Oob to come by as soon as the beetle is done with his investigation on where a pair of the human children hid the dish of baked fruit they nefariously swiped from the dinner table.  Also a few more bees.  You can never have too many eyes, especially if they’re honeybees.

“How long has this been going on?”  Kalip asks, nudging one of the small resin creatures.  Its evenly spaced flat feet are settled on the desk’s surface, and I think he thought it was some new decoration until I had it turn to nod at him and he almost stabbed it.  I forgot that Kalip isn’t limited to a bow, and the man carries an alarming number of small blades on his person at any given time.  Yuea does too, but at least with her I can somewhat sense just how armed she is.

“Does it matter?  Look at the thing.  That’s not a fighter.”  Yuea is constantly shifting one of her legs around; not tapping or fidgeting, but trying to find a resting position and failing.  I hadn’t modified her legs too much, aside from a shifting of the composition a bit, but apparently it’s bothering her.  She almost tried clawing off her own skin earlier, and is purposefully not talking about it because she wants to force herself to adapt to her new body.  “Reconnoiter at best, but it’s small.  How fast can you move that?”

Not fast.  I admit.  Kalip starts to pet the glimmer creation, and I add a message by his hand.  They don’t feel anything.  Not that they don’t feel the petting, but they have no emotions.  They can follow minor instructions, but they don’t think very much.

“It’s… thinking?”  Kalip sounded displeased.  “I am not comfortable with this.”

You’re fine with the bees, they think.

“The bees are ador- the bees are alive, and act like cats, or really big bel, or living fluffmotes.”  Kalip pulls his hand back from the glimmer creation.  “This is just… you made something that can think, and you made it not feel.”

Being fair to myself here, I did not set out to make a slave.  Also, its mind is… strange.  I think it might actually be my mind.  In a very literal sense, this thing is a limb of … my … own…

Yuea gives up on sitting and hops forward out of her chair, balancing on the tip of one foot like a dancer with a lifetime of control.  She holds the pose for a half a second before she starts to fall, and cracks the wood when she sweeps her other foot down.  “So are we going to talk about how all the things the dirt apparatus made looked like claws, then?”

“Ah.  Limbs.”  Kalip looks back down at the thing next to him, smooth body and planted limbs unmoving on my desk.  “That’s better, actually.  This is the closest we’ve been to you, in a sense.”

You have an odd way of looking at it.

Kalip doesn’t shrug, or tilt his head, or any physical sign of response.  We both know he’s changing somehow, but he still has a stoic control of himself most of the time.  “It’s not so odd.  How many have you made?  How many can you?”

“Is this actually how you want to spend the night?”  Yuea asks sharply.  “We’re here for two things, and you’re wasting time.”  She stalks over to a cabinet and starts rifling through the effects of the previous commander of this fort.  I don’t know why, we’ve already gone over this room for anything usable, and found little more than outdated maps and stacks of reports on vim production and disciplinary action for the soldiers.  Even out here, their military ran on paperwork.  “Let’s get to the things that matter.”  She says, cracking open a carved wooden box before frowning and tossing it on top of the cabinet.

By ‘things that matter’, Yuea means planning a war, and planning Kalip.  I’m not averse to either of those things, truly.  I’m even mostly focused here.  Though I am also focused on Dipan and Muelly, who are sitting silently and glaring at each other over some kind of game board they inexpertly carved into the surface of one of the meal tables with Shift Wood when they learned how to borrow that spell from me.  I had thought sitting in on their game would be a fun social distraction while I waited for Yuea and Kalip, but the two soldiers are nothing if not punctual, and the two players down below us are somehow more grim faced than the people planning a war.  I think Dipan might still have a grudge against demons in general, and takes it personally that he’s losing.

The day has stretched long, I have used my magics repeatedly to reinforce the Stone Pylon perimeter of the valley, to Congeal Mantra into the fort itself, to Bolster Nourishment of as much food as I can, to Bind Crop to branch out to a new supply of fresh produce, to do a dozen small chores.  My magic is flexible and wonderous, but there is always more to help with, and always work for the living hands of those living here.  But still, I help.

And now, I help in a way that I am also suited to.  I help by figuring out how we are going to end our enemies.

Very well.  I pull the majority of my focus back to here, as Oob and a few bees have arrived anyway.  There’s still other things going on, but nothing serious.  Sharpen and Vestment are sneaking out of their room, but I think they’re planning to explore the unused basements of the fort for things to sort, which is classical gob mischief.  Muelly has been glaring at the game board for a long time without moving a stone.  There is no crisis brewing.  I think I won’t miss much if I put the fullness of my mind here in this room for a while.  Kalip first, or the war?

“I resent being an item on a field list.”  Kalip huffs.

“Now that’s weird.”  Yuea levels a sharp green-hued finger at him.  “That, right there.  You resenting anything is fucking bizarre.  So let’s start with the other thing.  What’s your new friend add to the army, Sparkles?”

The other apparatus, for now, will be going by Lutra.  I write, and begin drawing a profile of them on one of the boards for reference.  Thin dark lines etching on the wood as I exercise as fine of a control as I can of Shift Wood. They are… they are damaged.  In their mind.  We cannot rely on them as a war asset.

“Piss and tar.”  Yuea frowns.  “Looks like you know a few things they can do, though?”  She watches as I add my known and suspected magics to the side of the profile.

Yes.  From what I understand of how my species works, each soul has a limited selection of magics.  Lutra has demonstrated Bind Fish and what I believe is Small Trade to me, and so I think it is reasonable to assume they possess Spirituality and Empathy as souls.  Here is the list of what else they might have, given what I know of my own souls.

“Most of empathy seems benign, except maybe ‘break armor’.  Passage trigger… like with the dropper plates?”  Kalip frowns.  “Okay.  They’ve got some options, at least.  What do you mean when you say they’re damaged?”

They cannot stop apologizing, or panicking.  They often believe they are either trapped, or perhaps suffering in death.  But they have lucid moments, and they are not cruel.  I do not think they have an understanding of their magics the same way I do; they used Bind Fish and then let the spell operate without influence, which has led to their rather fearsome murderous eels out of simple river creatures.

“Wait, you mean you could have made murder bees?”  Yuea interrupts.

“Have you… commander, have you looked at the fucking bees lately?”  Kalip asks slowly.  “The brats putting flowers in their fur doesn’t change them being big enough that their stingers are as long as my arm.”

Yuea snorts.  “They’re not killers though.”  She dismisses him.

I don’t think you understand what they’d do if they thought you were threatened.  I write along the base of the shelf she’s standing by.

“Hrmph.  Well.  What else?”

That’s it.  That’s all I’ve seen from them at least.  That and probably one of the spells for water control.  I don’t know if there’s a reason for it, I don’t think they fully trust me yet, and I’ve held off on asking.

Kalip winces.  “Security.”  He says simply, voicing concern.

I’m watching them.  And the lake is ringed with Fortify Space.  My biggest concern was that they would Small Trade for control of Yuea, but Lutra refrained from doing anything even when we were at our most vulnerable, so either they cannot, or they extended a-

“You fucking what?”  Yuea snaps.

The point is, we cannot rely on Lutra to help. I concluded to both of them. But we still have a problem.

“Right.”  Kalip rose and moved to where I’d been trying to put together a rough map of the Green.  Rough because, as far as anyone could tell me, mapping the Green in detail was one of the best ways to annoy it into action.  “Is this map up to date?”  He said it with the kind of satisfied glee that a child on festival night would talk about a new book or trinket.

Yes.  I drew some circles on points that merited notice. Rough approximations of where the other apparatus are located, and any spots I’ve seen movement.  Though there’s at least one more out there.  I still can’t see to the edge of the Green.  I highlighted the territory of the dirt apparatus.  This area is concealed somehow.  Looking from the outside doesn’t work, though I think my bees could see well enough from inside.  It’s an effect like Fortify Space, but more limited, and I don’t think the apparatus is very smart.

Yuea nods, and I have to remind myself that she is actually a military mind.  “Dropping a camouflage on the entire place just makes it suspicious.  It should have used puddles, like it did when it drove you off.  Small dots it can fill with troops and traps.”  She hums.  “Do you think you can take that from it?  I’d rather you have that than another thing that makes dirt beasts.”

My creations are not dirt.

“Didn’t ask.  Don’t care.”

“What about,” Kalip interrupts diplomatically, “this mark here?”

Direction I’ve seen silkspinners moving.  I don’t know where it’s hiding the birds, but its own territory is Fortify Space laced.  That stops my magic but doesn’t stop anyone from looking in, though.

“So that one just gave up on us?  You stole three pylons from it, and killed a small army.”  Yuea shakes her head.  “I wouldn’t give up on us.”

“It’s only been a few days.”  Kalip reminds her.  “It could be solidifying its base before turning this way again.  Taking out easier targets.”

“What happens if you drain an apparatus?”  Yuea asks suddenly.

I wouldn’t know, I can’t reach it.

“Hm.”  She and Kalip go back to staring at the map.  I don’t really know what they’re looking for, but they ask small questions about terrain and positioning, and I do my best with Distant Vision to answer.  “Good approach here.”  Yuea mutters, tapping at a spot I’ve filled for her.  “But…”

Kalip nods and answers in a similar low tone.  “Open ground.  If any of them can see like she can…”

I could Fortify Space to stop anyone seeing you.  I add, but my own soldier’s memories catch up shortly after the two of them shake their heads in unison.

“Seeing nothing is just as suspicious as seeing something.”  Yuea explains after I’ve already gotten it.  “If we could kill the camouflager first, that might be something.  But that one’s a low priority.”

Is it?  It’s wiped out everything living around it, as far as I can tell.  And it won’t stop expanding.

“It’s gotten new tricks, but it’s still using things we can cut through by kicking them hard enough.  And I can kick really hard now.”  Yuea folds her bare arms, inhuman muscles visibly twisting in a way she’s not used to.  “What we need is… do all of you work like you do?”

You’ll need to be more specific.

“She means in terms of focus.  You get distracted.  Is that possible for any dream rock?”  Kalip asks.

I believe so.  But if they’re less… people… than I am, it might be otherwise.

“Okay.  Don’t assume, but we can test.  How far can you send these idiots?”  Yuea raps her knuckles on the resin surface of my glimmer construct.

My masterpieces, you mean.  She doesn’t react, and I drop anything but professionalism from my reply.  I’ve gotten so comfortable writing like this, who wouldn’t want to embellish a little?  Eight hundred lengths, the same as for my bees.  Each reinforcing of a soul brings more reach, but it is uneven.

“Eight hundred.  That’s to about here, right?  Not even close to enough.”  She raps a knuckle on the board and sends the whole thing tilting back before Kalip snaps a hand up to grab it.  He doesn’t say anything, and she pretends she meant to do that.  “Hm.”

What…

“She’s thinking of a simple distraction flank.”  Kalip fills me in rapidly.  “These guys don’t really think, so they’re actually expendable.  The Empire doctrine… no, let’s skip that.  The point is, you can move them into position to draw attention, while an actual force moves through and hits the target that’s committed its forces to a false front.”

I understand the principle, but what force?

“Us, obviously.”  Yuea snorts.  “I’m up to full, Kalip will be too in a few days.  Send some bees if it makes you feel better.  You can outfit us, and we can move fast.  The only problem is the flank.”

Part of me wants to protest.  Wants to say that they can’t risk themselves that way, or that it’s too dangerous, or that we can find another way.  Maybe sit back and wait until my magic outranges the enemy.

But that’s foolish.  They can risk themselves.  They will anyway.  Holding them back is a punishment, especially when it means that the thing that grows just like I do will be expanding and sharpening and becoming more of a threat as every day goes by.

“I hate to say she’s right, but you might have to hold off on what I asked for.”  Kalip says.  “Strength, speed, and reflex is what I’d like to be rebuilt for.  Everything else we can sort out later.”

“What…” Yuea starts to ask.

The scratching of wood cuts over her.  We can make a flank happen.  I write.  Not just through Link Spellwork either.  That spell is too unreliable; it takes far more than it should at seemingly random times.  No.  There’s an easy answer.  My bees turn to look at them, at the map, small faces and eyes I peer through making a small moment of contact.  Here.  I mark a spot on the map.

“There.”  Yuea frowns.  Mouths some quick math to herself.  “That’s, what, six hundred lengths, by your bizarre measuring?   Well within your range.”  She hisses a breath through her teeth.  “You want us to put you there.”

If you’re risking it all, shouldn’t I?

“No.”  Kalip says.  “For a lot of reasons.”

But if we don’t, our days are very limited.  I remind them.  We can go deeper into the Green, but we know there’s more threats there.  We can slip out, head back to the cities and villages, but we know for certain there are more threats there too.  This place… this place isn’t much.  But it is our home.  And perhaps it is worth a risk to make here safe.

They stare at the map, before Kalip reaches out and taps the spot.  Nods.  “Okay.”  He says.  “Not like I could fight you on it anyway.”

“Okay.”  Yuea says too.  “But if you die, I’ll be angry.”

A given.

“Before the commander gets upset about that,” Kalip cuts in, “let’s make the rest of the night productive.  Put me back together, do what you need to do, and let me start recovering.  Because nothing is patient enough to lose an army and sit back doing nothing for a whole tenday unless it has a plan brewing.  So let’s stop wasting time.”

As you wish it.  I’m still apprehensive about using Amalgamate Human at all, but… it hasn’t killed Yuea yet.  And Kalip is asking in a much more informed way than she was.  But first, let us find you a bed we don’t care about having to burn later.  And get out of my office.

“Tar and dust, this is gonna be awful, isn’t it?”  Kalip asks dryly.

Yuea delivers a friendly punch to Kalip’s shoulder that I think cracks a bone.  “You’re talking too much.”  She says.  “And also yes.”