Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (25 page)

"Got that?"

"Well, I understand your
words... Does that count?"

"Yep. So, once you hold the
field over an object, you need to
keep
the sense of it there. Over time it
will work its way into the object. As soon as it's strong enough, you have a
copy. The longer you hold your focus, or the cleaner or deeper you do it, the
stronger that new field will be. After that, you can create new things, by
making up a good sense of what you want to happen, and doing the same thing.
Some people have a problem with that, because you
really
need to do it
without thinking in words or images much. Having clarity in that way is the
important part to all of this. That and time. Practice those things, and you'll
do fine."

It sounded easy, which was
probably a trick. Holding complex ideas, without thinking in words was going to
be very different than how he'd lived his whole life.

"No problem. I'll get back
with you in a few decades when I work that out?"

"Sure. That's the spirit.
Just know that it often takes six to ten hours to make the first copies, so,
you get me, sit on something soft when you try it?"

Then, laughing, she walked him
home.

For all that Sara and Sam Builder
had made it seem like it was the easiest thing in the world to simply do magic,
Dareg had to struggle all day to get the copies made as requested. The hard
part was holding the field steady all the time, and not let his mind fly away
every twenty seconds or so. After a while, it did get easier, but it was never
easy, really.

He'd started at first light, and
at about dark he did have one of each of the ten things that had been given to
him. More exactly, he had about ten of each of the last two, and one of each of
the others. Then, he stumbled out to get something to eat, starving. Except, he
realized he needed both water, and exercise, a lot worse than he did food at
the moment.

So trying to get back on track,
he changed his clothing to plain brown and soft leather like shoes, and padded
to the city wall and back. That was six miles, and took him about an hour to
get done. The light from the glowing river next to the path the whole way made
it easy, and safe enough to run, even in the dark. At the end of that, he came
around to end not too far away from Tam-Unit, who started to glow a bit, as he
approached. It wasn't bright, but it let him see her easily enough.

"Dareg! There you are. Would
you like some water? Or a mineral supplement drink? Let's do that one. You look
tired."

A large tumbler made of glass
pushed out of the solid seeming front, releasing only when it was firmly held
in his hand. He drank it, thinking it was water, but it had a too sweet flavor,
and a sting to it, that wasn't unpleasant when it hit his throat. As soon as he
finished and placed the glass back in the side of the magical device, Tam-Unit
smiled at him.

"Now, you need food.
Calories really. I'll make up a drink for you. High fat, high protein... I
don't have a recipe for that, but I think I can put it together. That's all
right with you? It might taste awful, but it will be good for you." She
looked hopeful, as if she really wanted to try something not on her specific
list.

"You can make up new
things?"

"Oh, sure. Why wouldn't I be
able to? So is that a yes?"

"It is. Let's have the
medicine then. I need to get inside and try more magic, and then sleep. This
whole day has been boring, you know that?"

"Really? That sounds
fascinating to me. Making magic like that. I can't do it. Being magic myself I
lack a certain permanence to cause things like that to happen. So if I need
anything, I'll just pass along a request to you?"

That sounded fair to him, so he
nodded, then held his hand out to get the large, pitcher sized drink that was
coming out of her front.

"There, now it should taste
a bit like mud, if I have it right? Drink it all now."

It was smooth, thick and cold,
but sweet in taste, and not at all like mud. Really, it was a bit like a fine
liquid dessert. That didn't mean he could get it all down, his stomach
stretching painfully well before that point.

"This is good! Too much of
it however. I should take this with me. It will keep?"

"For a few hours. Up to six?
After that things will separate and not be as good. It won't hurt you,
but..."

She sounded pleased and almost
shy. It was very adorable, he realized.

"I'll have it before then.
Well, wish me luck?"

"All of it."

Heading inside, holding what
seemed to be a ceramic container that was half filled with a dark sweet
beverage, one similar to coffee he thought, in flavor, Dare headed inside, and
took one of the small ceramic bowls that he'd been placing all the different
fields on. The glowing sigils were on the outside, so that they could be used
for soup or tea at need, and still be activated.

This one was much harder than the
rest had been, since his idea, while simple, was a new one. He got the real
problem however after trying for a bit. He didn't have anything to check with
to make certain he wasn't drifting around in his thoughts. After a few hours he
realized that he was just making a hash of the whole thing and that it wasn't
going to work. Not that night.

"Tomorrow, then." Not
sleeping wasn't going to make him better at doing it. Really, it made sense to
him, having tried now, that he should pick one of the simpler magical fields
and try to do it from memory to practice, before attempting to be the world's
best builder in a single day.

He showered before climbing into
bed, figuring that it would be harder to get one in the morning, and slept long
enough that he was afraid he was going to be late. Regardless, he jumped up,
and checked the time as soon as he could, then smiled when he realized that it
was only six in the morning. That had probably given him seven hours of sleep
or so.

Dreading it, even though his legs
didn't hurt yet, he went for another run, moving a bit faster this time, and
managed to clean up by eight. Then he moved to Sam Builder's palace at a trot,
and set up his jump craft. This time he made it a little larger, and added in
some sleeping rooms, if not very many. It wasn't the vast size that the Saturn
trip had needed, but he was going to take food and water with him. That meant a
trip to the ocean to get that, and coming back with an extra layer of black
craft, filled with material that should keep ten people for about a year if
they were careful.

Then he decorated the whole
thing, wanting to make a good impression. He started with a shining black, then
added glowing copper designs on the outside, stretching the thing upward and
giving it a pointed top, like a spire. Then he climbed out, noticing he had an
audience that he hadn't really expected.

Sara and Sam Builder where there,
along with Lyone, and Brice. Next to them was Tor however, and Alphonse Cordes.
The heir to the Noram throne. From the pack he had, a plain thing that seemed
to be made of leather, but was clearly magical, he was planning to go with
them.

"Morning! I... This is more
than I expected. Are you going to Harmony?" He looked at the prince,
knowing it wasn't the case.

"Emissary to the stars. That
sounds like a good title, doesn't it? Father sent me. Well, it was me going, or
him doing it. He isn't wrong, really. How often do we treat with three new
civilizations at once?"

Dareg smiled then, and shrugged.

"I see, so he doesn't want
to test the unknown child? I can see it. Come on then, I promised to be at the
port in Harmony by nine. Load up, if you're going." He waved at them,
getting them to go inside.

It was big enough for people to
stand in, or to have chairs in the main space. There was a low table with his
new magical copies on it, the bowls looking a bit ridiculous now that he knew
people were going to be looking at them. Each was just big enough to hold in a
single hand, which seemed tiny when both Sam and Tor moved directly to them,
picking them up, and activating them one at a time.

That meant that as he rose, going
straight up about two thousand feet, and heading west ten miles or so, that no
one sat or made a chair. Instead they played with the funny shaped things that
he'd made. Sara took one of the bowls, made a toothbrush and held the ivory
handled thing up between two fingers.

"Not bad. The field seems
strong enough. Why bowls? Not that they aren't pretty. You could probably just
decorate things like this with glowing patterns and sell them with no more
magic than that."

Tor just kept looking at them
all, but Sam guessed the real reason for the containers.

"It was what you could get
from the Tam-Unit?"

He looked straight forward, and
nodded, hoping it wasn't too silly sounding.

"That one. I tried a real
build, but messed it up. I worked out some ideas for practice though. Just
using one of those fields and doing it from memory for a bit. Or changing up
over several of them first, then trying a novel thing?" It felt weak and
silly, saying that like he knew what he was doing.

Tor didn't speak, but Sam did,
sounding pleased.

"This is good. Really good,
for your first day. You should make certain to work on things like this every
day from now on. Let Sara or me know when you want to try your first real build
though, so we can sit with you and make certain you don't die. It can take a
few days or longer, to do it right. You'll need water and possibly food. Broth
and things like that. Great start however."

Tor moved to sit next to him,
just in time for the jump that placed them right over Harmony. A bit away
however, so they wouldn't accidentally hit someone. So far that had never
happened. There just weren't that many people coming and going, but it could
become a problem eventually, so coming in from a way off was a good plan.

"We need to set up entry and
exit points for orbits. I hate to lose the time on my jumps, but if we don't
there will be problems eventually. Or..." He paused, then started moving
toward the Moon.

Tor looked at him, from his right
hand side. The man loomed a lot, being so big.

"Those Tam-Computers that
you had Taman make for fleet?"

"Exactly. We can make
certain we know where everyone is going and coming in that way, preventing
accidents. Some of them. Eventually people will make mistakes, but everything
we do to stop that will be helpful. Really, while we're here we need to get
some communications units for the people that we're visiting. So they can just
talk to us when they need? Or is that a bad idea?"

Lyone cleared her throat very
gently.

"If it's allowed, that would
be a nice gesture. Perhaps if we could show some of the other magics as well?
These you have here would be interesting enough, for display purposes."

That way they wouldn't have to
denude the magic shop at the same time.

"Sure. I can make more, so
that won't be a problem. It's, well they look funny, don't they?"

Brice laughed, "not really.
Plus they can be put to useful work too, holding liquids or small things, which
is better than just riding in a pocket all the time. Living in space the idea
of things having more than one use is kind of how we live. No one there will
think it odd anyway. Just practical."

That got nods from Lyone and
oddly enough Sara. The Ancient blonde smiled at him, and made a chair for
herself, then one for everyone else, so they wouldn't feel required to stand.

She spoke calmly, as if feeling a
tiny bit bored.

"When we get back later
we'll run over some drills, doing copies, meditating and things like that to
help you get your first build going."

Everyone else acted like it
wasn't a big deal, but that was probably just the truth for these folk. Tor
certainly wasn't going to pick him up and dance around over a few magical
copies of other's works. He taught people how to do things like that every day,
so it wasn't going to be special or novel to him. Sam and Sara were both builders
as well, and had been for a long time. Years, if not decades.

Hence the boredom at what he'd
done.

The point however was that he had
the basic ability to do that kind of thing, and could make magic happen. So he
should, eventually be able to manipulate time, in order to fight the
Adversaries. Wanting to be praised for basic things that half the room could do
already didn't seem right to him. Not when he stopped to think about it.

The others chatted as they came
in to land at the port, which took the same fifteen to twenty minutes that it
always did, because it
had
to be done slowly. As soon as they had the
airlock tube in place, Tor stood up, waving toward the center of Harmony.

"I'll get the communication
devices, and a few other things. Twenty minutes?" Then, not waiting for
anyone to say yes, or give a reason why they couldn't wait, he rose into the
air about six inches, and started to float away at a speed that was a lot
better than a jog would have allowed.

After ten minutes of sitting,
wondering if he needed to go out into the port proper, Lenn walked in, carrying
a large soft bag with many straps on it. It seemed to be filled with stuff, and
not all of it looked like clothing.

Lyone glanced at it and shook her
head. She did smile however.

"Every bit of magic you
could collect?"

The silver eyed, and haired,
muscular fellow nodded. He didn't seem ashamed of himself.

"As to my orders. I don't
have a jump ship, but I
do
have one of the new computers." He
looked at the mechanical people, as if he expected them to scream about the
theft, but no one mentioned that. "That was a bit of rule bending,
but..."

Dareg thought about that one for
a moment, and then nodded.

"It makes sense. Not only to
have one, but it will be connected to the network, so it can be another way of
communicating. That can't hurt anything."

The man looked at him, and put
the heavy, not all that huge, bag on the floor.

"Well, at least I have the
Captain with me! It isn't like I have a choice. I have orders, so it has to
happen. I don't suppose you have an extra jump craft available? I have no way
to trade for it."