00
Beer’s all ears
No lies
01
“How is the captain doing?” the Queen asked, taking a sip from a porcelain cup and putting it back on the table.
“Grumpy, Your Majesty, and very serious. But that’s like he always is,” Tora Halfrcour answered.
“And the trainees?”
“Diligent and studious. Also, a bit twitchy. Like they always are.”
“Always… I can’t believe we can talk like that about it. A couple of months passed – and it became ‘always’ already. It feels almost... unreal. Astounding.”
“We may say ‘always’, yet I believe that powers on the Mainland still consider it ‘a new and troubling development’. Especially, the Chancellor of the Federation. I remember him strongly objecting to the notion of our Kingdom getting an airship of our own.”
“I am the Queen here – and if I want to have something, I will. No matter how much that buffoon of a chancellor with his spiked hat objects to it!”
“What I fear, Your Majesty, is that while we were able to circumvent the treaty by placing that ship directly in your possession and not our country’s – it gave our enemies an obvious way of stopping whatever we’re about to do…”
“You mean?”
“You’ve made yourself a target, Your Majesty.”
“Oh, Tora…” the Queen lowered her head. Straightened up her skirt. Straightened it again. Made sure there’s not even the slightest wrinkle on the delicate fabric. Then looked the sorceress right in the eye. “Do you think I don’t understand?”
“I just want to make sure…”
“Thank you,” the Queen nodded. “I know what consequences might come of what we do. I accepted them when I agreed on your plan. Do you remember? Back when you’ve first met mister Schlieffen in that other Capital? Don’t even dare to think, even for the tiniest moment, that I’m just an old tired woman who has jumped on a chance to get some more excitement in her monotonous and uneventful life.”
“That thought never crossed my mind.”
“Oh, excuse me – it did crossed lots of minds, though. I am sure most of the people I had to ask favors from to make it happen, thought exactly that. ‘Queen’s getting old,’ they thought, ‘let’s give her what she wants and see how she fails at whatever stupidity she’s up to.’ So, my royal sorceress…”
“What, my Queen?”
“Now I have to make sure you understand: you can’t fail. Not in this. Not when I have to take such risks.”
“Be sure, Your Majesty,” Tora bowed her head and smiled. “I do understand. I really do.”
“So now, when that is settled…”
“It is time to pay a visit to the Mad King himself.”
“What do you want with him?”
“Oh, I should have some official reason… Like presenting him on behalf of our Kingdom with a list of some reasonably unreasonable demands. But what I really want – is to draw anyone who might’ve been following me all this time away from the Capital.”
“You’ve been followed? Why not tell...”
“Better to have the followers you know, Your Majesty. But now they are… getting in the way.”
“I see. But as you know you, as a mage, are prohibited from travelling without an escort…”
“...Of at least one Royal rider, I know. I think Rider Mylene will be happy to get a break from training with captain Emest and go for a little journey.”
“I could ask master Barfaur to send his daughter…”
“That won’t be necessary, Your Majesty. We have enough crossover characters as it is.”
The Queen just shook her head at that.
02
The Farcross inn was lit by a gas lamps – sight, Tora and Mylene had become almost unaccustomed to since they left the Capital. Their journey north was a rather uneventful one, almost monotonous – they passed towns and villages following the road, changed horses at the Riders’ stations or the inns they stayed the night in, looked around on their way, trying to find something interesting in the surrounding landscapes.
Time on the road passes differently than when you are staying in the same place. It can hardly be described as moving “faster” or “slower” than usual, and it definitely does not “fly past” you. It just feels different. Time, inherently tied to the movement and change, usually can’t be observed directly – only by its effects on other, more material things. The movement of the Sun and Moon, the flowing of the water and sand, the ticking of the clock. These are just some traps that humans invented to measure the immaterial thing called “time”. We caught it in the springs and gears and crucified it on the hands of every city clock. We drowned it in clepsydrae and filled our hourglasses with quicksands.
But when you’re travelling, things are different.
The whole world is moving past you – the whole world becomes the face of a clock: the mountains near the horizon are drifting slowly like an hour hand; the villages, spread on top on the hills, move by somewhat faster; and the trees by the roadside are running away from the travellers as hurriedly, as the second hand of the clock ticks away every second.
When you are travelling, time becomes much more material, much more real – and the reality around you, the world itself loses its rigidity, turns into something softer, something that flows and flies away like the time itself usually does.
And what of the traveller themselves?
What about the speck of sand in an hourglass?
What about the drop of water in a clepsydra?
Who cares about those?
03
“Oh, what’s with this random bout of melancholy?” the Royal sorceress Tora Halfcour asked someone – someone, who, if one was to follow the direction of the sorceress’ gaze, was situated somewhere on the ceiling or even beyond it.
“Mmmm?” mumbled questioningly the Royal rider Mylene, seated across the the table from the sorceress. Her speech abilities were at the moment obstructed by the jug full of beer she was drinking from.
They had just finished their food and turned the whole attention to the product of the local brewery that was surprisingly good – well, “surprisingly” for the two picky ladies from the Capital used to high-class food and drinks. At least, that was the impression Tora tried to create – her best efforts were severely undermined by Mylene’s childish fascination with all things different from what she was used to.
“A-ah…” Mylene took the jug away from her mouth and looked at the sorceress with very pleased eyes. “Who would’ve thought – it’s better than in the Capital. Much better than in the Rider’s pub – that’s for sure.”
“Why are you so surprised?” Tora shrugged. “In the Capital we have two types of goods: very good but very scarce and very expensive, or very average but plentiful.”
“Very?”
“What?”
“‘Very plentiful’, lady Tora?”
“Those too.”
“Oh, not that I would know,” said Mylene, looking around the inn. Two rows of wooden tables each one with two narrow benches along the sides and a small counter on the far end, barely visible in the dim gaslight. Place was still quiet, but the Rider expected it to get full as time went on – and then it would inevitably get loud, possibly even with music?
“Please, don’t tell me you’re thinking of dancing, Mylene.”
“Why not, lady Tora? Couple more hours, some more beer and a good melody…”
“Ugh,” the sorceress tried to bury her face in the jug instead of saying anything. It didn’t work – the jug wasn’t big enough.
“I wonder, what kind of music they play in these parts?”
“The usual,” Tora shrugged again. “I take it, you didn’t travel much, did you? It’s strange for a Rider...”
“I’m a typical city child, lady sorceress. Never went anywhere growing up. Then mother enrolled me into the Academy after she saw me practicing with a Shining blade on the roof… Well, ‘practicing’ – trying to stab pigeons and cats. After the Academy – stationed down south with Cai, then back to the Capital… But I was on the Mainland once if that counts!”
“Mainland? How did you ended up going there?”
“Parents decided to visit my mother’s relatives, bought the tickets and took the airship. I was so scared of flying… and so excited when we actually started going up and I saw people and homes and everything getting tiny, like it all was just toys. It was so unreal…”
“And did you like it on the Mainland?”
“Oh,” now it was Mylene’s turn to shrug. “How to say it… It’s not much different, really. Not more different, than, say, the Capital and Farcross are. But they still remember my grandmother there… even after all this time.”
“She must have been some important person?”
“She wasn’t, really.”
“She must have done something important, then?”
“Oh, that she did,” Mylene smiled. “Burned down half the town she was living in. Beat a dozen or so men in a duel… Not all at the same time, of course. She was good with a sword, but not that good. That’s how she met my grandfather, by the way… And what caused the most outrage – she once kissed another girl at some society ball. Imagine the horror! So she took my would-be grandfather and fled here.”
“No mean feat back then.”
“Oh, it really wasn’t: just the two of them in a simple hot-air balloon, throwing away everything they could while trying to stay up above clouds and not crash into the Sea of Storms… It’s said my granny even thought of pushing my gramps out to relieve some weight – so I’m really happy she didn’t.”
“Looks like you have some proud lineage, Mylene. Some pedigree, I’d say even.”
“I’m not a girl!”
“...!?”
“I mean… I’m not a dog! I’m a simple girl – who can create a sword from thin air and knows how to use it, but still. Lady Tora, please, leave these lineages and pedigrees and all this stuff to the royalty and dogs and horses – there it’s important. I am who I am…”
“It would seem I’ve touched the sore spot…” the sorceress took a gulp of beer. “My apologies, Mylene. I am just absolutely amazed by your grandmother’s exploits.”
“Oh, yes! She was great!” grinned Mylene, her mood switching in an instant.
04
“You know, on the Mainland they have those big steam-powered trains that go from city to city. People spend days inside the carts.”
“Locked inside a steel box with random strangers… Is it their form of punishment?”
“No, people actually pay for it.”
“Never understood the mainlanders…”
“Imagine: you are comfortably seated or even lying beside a window – and all the beautiful picturesque landscapes are passing by… all you have to do – relax and watch. I wish there was something like that on our island.”
“What? Horses and carriages are not enough for you?”
“Horses are more expensive, sadly… machinery made trips much cheaper.”
“Hm… interesting.”
“I wonder, though, how that machinery would behave if a dozen or two of mages would get near it? Of course, they could’ve just put all of them in the special cart in the tail end of the train…”
“...”
“...Which would be a terrible idea and should not be done under any circumstances.”
“No, it’s not that… I bet they on the Mainland would do exactly that if they could find enough mages – put them all in one cart and send them somewhere far-far away… But the reality is that there won’t be any problem, no matter how many mages you sat near an engine. Well, except if something will go horribly wrong – but I guess, that could happen even without the mages around.”
“It certainly could…” Mylene raised her jug and shook it. “Oh, almost empty. Wait, what you are saying is… But technology and magic certainly are at odds with one another?”
“That’s what scholars from the Mainland would like you to think. They’re wrong,” Tora slapped the table.
“Why then?”
“Oh. Think for a moment! Magic is forbidden, outlawed. And then this new fancy thing comes in – it makes a lot of people happy, it produces money, it gives power. Of course everyone will applaud and cheer. They’ll call it ‘science’, they’ll call it ‘technology’ – but to think that it may have something in common with that old semi-forgotten despicable nonsense? Magic? Not in the world! ‘It’s completely different!’ they will proclaim. ‘It doesn’t even work near mages!’ they will assure you. ‘We even won’t sell it to the Kingdom of mages!’ will say either more cautious or more knowledgeable types. ‘Let’s bomb them into the ground!’ will angrily bark more straightforward ones. And nobody, not even for the moment of a split-second will acknowledge the fact that if you look at it the right way, all their ‘technology’, all their precious ‘science’ is just a magic by other name!”
“...”
“Oh, that was a long one!” Tora took to her jug and relieved it of its contents in two big gulps. “Oi! More beer here! Mylene? Two more beers!”
“Thank you! But, lady Tora, how magic and technology could be the same? After all, you yourself had taught us…”
“Tried to teach you, you should say,” the beer from the sorceress’ newly filled jug spilled over the top and she was busy wiping it from the tabletop with the palm of her hand and then licking it off of her fingers.
“Yes, I wasn’t the best student,” Mylene ignored the fact that Tora nodded to that statement very agreeably. “But I still remember the basic principle: magic is the art of the impossible. What’s impossible about technology? Say, engine? It’s just a bunch of moving metal… stuff.”
“Exactly. Answer me this, Rider Mylene: what’s the probability of all that metal stuff gathering in one place at one time? And in exactly the right shape? And all those parts, big and tiny, moving in those precise ways? Is that possible by itself, Rider Mylene?”
“...”
“Drink some more, it helps…” and given that advice, the sorceress heed to it herself. “But that’s going down to the very details. Look at a larger scale: you told me about those trains on the Mainland. Marvels of modern technology, they are. Rivaled only by airships, aren’t they? But is this possible? Are humans supposed to be comfortably sitting at the window enjoying the view while simultaneously moving at high speeds? Or, worse help us all, while flying? Is. That. Possible?”
“...”
“Need more?”
“I’m drinking!”
“‘Well’, you might say, ‘but lady Tora, magic is inherently unstable, while science isn’t!’ To that I say – look at the number of explosions and accidents in heavily technological areas of the Mainland, and look at your amulet, or any other enchanted object, that works no matter what. Technology creates more stable things – that’s a fact, but it doesn’t mean magic can’t do it too. With magic it’s just harder to create anything realistically useful… not some Axe of Healing, or something.”
“Oh, that sure felt like I’m back at class.”
“My fault, Mylene. I’ve got all riled up – I always do when there’s talk about magic.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“You did? When?”
“We’ve been journeying for more than a week now, lady Tora. It’s not the first time we talk about such things.”
“It isn’t?”
“Are you alright, lady sorceress?” asked Mylene with a bit of a suspicion in her voice.
“I’m a sorceress, Mylene. I’m never alright,” Tora looked back at her with empty eyes. “To me, this is our first conversation since we left the Capital, because the Author decided to make a timeskip… Which is understandable – it must have been a rather uneventful journey…”
“It certainly was,” Mylene still was suspicious.
“I wish I remembered it, I wish I knew…” the sorceress lowered her gaze from the rider and now was blankly staring into her jug. “I really wish I knew.”
“Not all the time, right?” Mylene turned away, so Tora couldn’t possibly see her eyes.
“Not all the time,” the sorceress echoed, shoving her jug away and laying her head on the table. “Not at all. The time.”
05
“Well, no point to cry in the beer,” Tora smiled. “If you say it was an uneventful journey, it sure must’ve been so.”
“Oh it was so-o monotonous,” said Mylene. “But can I be sure you remember nothing?”
“Mylene…”
“...”
“So, something did happen?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Rider Mylene…”
“Well, I thought it was alright if you don’t remember when we had to stay in that small village…”
“Small village?”
“Couple houses and an inn, nothing more, really rural area.”
“So, what had happened there?”
“Oh, nothing, really. As I’ve said, they had this really small run-down inn there – we even had trouble finding decent food.”
“What? They didn’t serve us the biggest deer in the Kingdom? Hard to believe.”
“I had to go door to door through the village to buy some! Can you imagine?”
“Was local population uncooperative? Hostile?”
“No, no, nothing like that, lady Tora! No need to go all official! They were the complete opposite of that. They were lovely, in fact. If I’d bought everything they offered, we’d be eating leftovers even now.”
“Don’t like eating leftovers…” the sorceress frowned. “So, if they were so lovely, what’s the problem then?”
“Oh… they not only didn’t have decent food at an inn, they… they had only one room. So…”
“We had to share, of course.”
“Yes! And I… I…”
“You... what? Come on, Rider, you can be open with me.”
“Oh, lady Tora… I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. But I… I pushed you out of the bed in my sleep. Please, excuse me…”
“You… what!?” the sorceress laughed.
“I can be very restless when I sleep,” said Mylene apologetically. “Tossing, turning – all over the bed.”
“Did I get hurt?”
“I don’t think you’ve even woke up, lady Tora! We found out only in the morning…”
“Oh, I didn’t wake up?” the sorceress raised her eyebrow. “It means I was asleep, right? Oh, that’s good. That’s really good. Thank you, Mylene.”
06
As time passed, there were more and more people in the room – and as jugs were passed around people were more and more loud and the room was getting more and more lively by the minute. At some point, nobody could really tell when, a group of musicians appeared and melodies began flowing around the tables, simple enough tunes of the kind that makes one’s legs move under the table and one’s fingers tap the rhythm on the jug they are holding.
“...!”
“Maybe not, Mylene?”
“Why not, lady Tora?”
“You still have enough beer… don’t drink it like that, you’ll drown yourself…”
“But now it’s empty!”
“Oh…”
Mylene jumped up on her feet, stuck out her tongue, laughed, turned away and strutted off to where the musicians played and people gathered.
There was the ring of men, all moving in unison as if they had a single mind, a single will, controlling their motions. Of course, there were nothing of that sort at play here, – Tora would’ve noticed and Mylene would’ve got a chance to show off her Shining rapier by now, – those men just knew the melody well and were honestly good at the dance.
Stomp-stomp! – stomped their legs, all at the same time.
Clap-clap-clap! – followed their hands.
They moved around, rotating the whole ring counterclockwise.
Stomp-stomp!
Clap-clap-clap!
Ring rotated.
Stomp-stomp!
Clap-clap-clap!
Another figure appeared in the centre of the ring. A bit unexpected for the dancers, some of them even stumbled for a fraction of second with their stomps and claps – for a moment Tora was scared that they might ran into each other and two visitors from the faraway Capital would be to blame for a possibly ensuing pile-up... But the men were just to good a dancers for such a miniscule change to get in their way – they continued:
Stomp-stomp!
Clap-clap-clap!
The figure in the centre of the ring was a stout heavily-built woman with a round face framed by shoulder-length burgundy hair... of course, it was Mylene. She smiled at the men around her, pointed at one of them with her finger and said something, something possibly challenging – judging by the looks on their faces...
Stomp-stomp!
Clap-clap-clap!
Music went fasted. Violine and flute and strings – all upped the tempo and the dancers followed, some doing jumps instead of steps just to keep up.
Stomp-stomp!
Clap-clap-clap!
Faster!
Stomp-stomp!
Clap-clap!
Faster!
Stomp!
Clap!
Faster!!!
...It was less of a dance now and more of an endurance test. They were just running in circle, trying not to hit one another, trying to catch on to the music. If a melody had flown through the room before, akin to a wide lazy river on a hot summer day – now it rumbled and tumbled and pushed everything away like a flood, like a mountain river in a spring that knows no bounds and conquers any obstacle.
And again Tora wondered if there was something that actually controlled the dancers against their will – but this time this “something” was deafeningly obvious. Music. It swept people, it held their hand, it pushed and it pulled and it didn’t let the dancers fall no matter how tired they were. It commanded them when to stomp and when to clap. When to jump and when to swing. It filled their bodies with energy, lit up their eyes and forced their smiles.
Music was in control of everyone.
Everyone.
Except the woman in the circle’s centre.
She wasn’t controlled by the music, she wasn’t captivated by the melody, overfilled with sounds and notes, wasn’t swayed away by the rhythm.
She was just having fun.
And dancing
with the music itself
as her partner and equal.
Not an eldritch aberration, not a translucent apparition of magical light – she was just a girl who shone with happiness, whose eyes was set ablaze not by any magical source, but by her own joy. Mylene’s feet barely touched the floor, she was twisting and turning on the spot, hair flapping around, hands raised up...
Music tried to catch her.
She jumped up, jumped high, and landed, with a loud laugh.
Music tried it again.
“Faster!” Mylene shouted.
And then
music stopped.
There was no epic final accord, not even a long drawn-out fadeaway – it just ended when musicians got tired and couldn’t play it any more.
Just like that.
There were laughs from the dancers – couple slaps on the shoulder for a dance well done, some fistbumps for the same reason and not much words. Music had left them all exhausted and empty – but feeling good.
Mylene was grinning from ear to ear when she returned to their table.
“Did you watch me, lady Tora?” she asked taking her seat. “Can I get another beer?”
07
They spent some more time at the table – mostly, talking about absolutely unimportant things like current prices or politics of the Mainland, or if the airships could carry other airships, or what would happen if you would be unfortunate enough to meet yourself on a street. Time flew by, beer flown in and Mylene’s head weighted to one side as it was too heavy for her neck to hold upright.
“My head is so-o...” she begun. “So-o-o heavy, lally... no, laddie... no, lad... no... yes! Lady! Lady Tora!”
“Oh, enough with this ‘lady’ nonsense… I’m a mage, not some ‘proper lady’. Just drop the title and forget where you did.”
“B-but…”
“Do I look like a lady to you?” Tora stood up from the bench she was sitting on and posed upright, her arms to the sides. “Look!”
Mylene leaned forward, almost lying on a table to get a better view of the sorceress, dressed in black – tight-fitted bodice with a plume of black and red feathers on her left shoulder, and a very short layered skirt with frills and a narrow train falling down from her waist to the floor.
“You look…” Mylene gulped. “Adequate.”
“And you look drunk!” declared Tora placing hands on her hips. “And how are you even able to pronounce that word? And could you at least try not to look directly at my legs all the time? Eyes up here!”
“Told you... My head’s so heavy…”
“Pffft! You know what? Dearest of authors,” the sorceress looked up at the ceiling. “For crying out loud, can I not be a fanservice character… in the stories where I’m supposed to be a main character at the very least?”
No.
You can not.
“I see…” she lowered her eyes, despondent.
“I see too…!” Mylene grinned.
“Oh, you drunken disgrace,” Tora stepped around the table and took the Rider by the elbow. “Come on, now, time to sleep. It’ll be best if we leave early tomorrow.”
“B-but!” Mylene struggled limply. “I still can drink more! You too!”
“I’ve drunk just enough to fall asleep. And you’ve clearly drunk enough – full stop. Come, Rider, that’s an order!”
“Aye… Aye-aye, ma’am!”
“...!”
“...Aye-aye... Tora!”
