Reborn midst light and fire,
And with deep darkness dire.
-prophecy of the duskbringer
Present day, 4993 A.D. Sixth day of the first week of Fall...
Upon hearing a whistling noise as she entered her workplace Guppy had ducked on pure reflex, the preservation instincts developed from years of working for Friedrich as a technomancer apprentice kicking in.
A solid thunk in the doorway over her head elicited a sigh from her as she peered up to see what flying piece of murderous machinery had threatened her today.
A bolt lay embedded in the comparatively soft wood and Guppy grabbed a spanner and levered it free, no doubt Friedrich would be wanting it later..
While she and her boss managed the perpetual occupational risks with safety measures and equipment, most of which was designed by Guppy and made or ordered by Friedrich, one still needed a quick wit and reflexes to avoid the odd piece of shrapnel around here.
Perversely it made her job a secure one, because no one else would work under the dwarf, nor for that matter he have them. Guppy thought them fools.
Indeed Guppy had found that while not entirely safe, working for Friedrich was certainly fun. There was always an interesting project Friedrich had her working on and the dwarf was a good teacher despite his other flaws.
Guppy walked past the service counter and glanced over at her workbench on the right of the workshop. Once it had been littered with training pieces, random joints, bolts, rivets, and metal pieces of all shapes and sizes that the dwarf either had laying around or made himself for her to learn the basics of their trade.
Now her bench was clean and the old 'toys' packed away in her bottom most drawer, but Guppy had to spend many hours learning how they all fit and worked together, as well as the common ins and outs of the tools needed to persuade them to do so when she first started.
Two months after she began Guppy had finished with her first round of lessons and then been allowed to help with some of the simpler public orders of tools and parts, after helping one nervous delivery man she had quickly been assigned to deal with any deliveries or customers that came around.
She suspected this was more so because her boss disliked being bothered instead of any outstanding aptitude on her behalf, the dwarf delighting in no more annoying interruptions during his crafting marathons.
Guppy pocketed the bolt and took a deep fortifying breath. The sharp tang of oil and metal filled her nose, a comforting scent, a familiar one. She relaxed a bit, for all the hazards and craziness of her workplace it was a second home and it gave her a sense of safety.
A respectful sense of safety to be sure, Guppy definitely respected the gears that meshed and the hammers that pounded, the fires that burned and acid that dripped or etched. Respected, and loved, for all here was only a hazard to fools and poppycocks. She was neither.
Guppy could hear Friedrich cursing down in his basement workroom, he would be up in a bit, no doubt looking for the bolt, but as she was forbidden to venture down there Guppy had a few moments on her hands.
So to pass the time she sat down at her workbench and pulled open the second to bottomost drawer and rummaged around. It too contained mementos of Friedrich's lessons.
Not even a year past her lessons had experienced a sharp uptick in difficulty. Friedrich had started Guppy with a new set of practice puzzles, except these were far tinier and more complex than the other sets. Once she had a degree of competency Friedrich had given her strange projects, ones he carried down to his secret workshop once she had assembled and sealed each device.
The delicate little mechanisms Guppy put together and activated were made of strange alloys and metals, and when Guppy had asked in puzzlement why he did assemble them himself the dwarf had muttered something about the parts being too sensitive for him.
She did pick up some clues though. Friedrich ordered a great many odd bits and bobs, despite their creators warning him he wouldn't be able to use them personally. His design had been flawed, far too delicate they said, for his own measured ambient mana radiation.
Guppy didn't enquire too much, she owed Friedrich to great a debt to go carelessly prying into his personal affairs, he would tell her, or not. It did not matter to their relaxed relationship.
Guppy heard a clumping of boots on metal rungs, her master was coming up so she put away the puzzle she had been playfully fiddling with and rose.
Shortly into her apprenticeship Guppy had quickly found that life as an apprentice to Friedrich often resembled that of a nursemaid. The old codger she called boss would often skip meals, or even sometimes forget to eat for days on end, especially when he got particularly involved in his secret project.
And after coming across a moldering meal one too many times Guppy put her foot down and insisted on forced meal breaks.
Initially, Friedrich had been against it, not wanting to interrupt his 'creative processes' as he put it. But after an extended argument, Guppy convinced him by pointing out how he had an increased margin of error and number of accidents when he was sleepy and hungry.
As the dwarf had turned thoughtful Guppy had swiftly pressed her advantage, she appealed to Friedrich's pride as a craftsman to avoid such faults in his esteemed work. The argument had been a steamroll from there.
Unwilling to produce Inferior products, especially while working on his pet project, Friedrich finally caved and allowed Guppy to 'mother' him as he put it.
A bush head rose from the open hatchway, accompanied by an elevated pitch of grumbling discontent that would have peeled their wall paint had they actually applied.
"Good morning Master Friedrich," Guppy called out to the ascending dwarf, "Have you had breakfast yet? Or dinner?" She inquired, arching an eyebrow at her master.
Friedrich's ugly mug turned to her, his furrowed brows and rumbled clothes telling Guppy the likelyhood of a forthcoming 'yes' was slim to none.
"Dash it all Guppy, forget food, have you seen an orichalcum bolt lying around?" Friedrich asked, waving his arms around for emphasis.
Guppy shook her head in disgust, only her master would use a rare metal that was worth triple its weight in gold as a common bolt.
She held up the aspiring murder bolt in question and prepared to bargin.
"I'll give it back if you'll take a break and come eat some breakfast." She negotiated.
Guppy picked out Friedrich muttering some choice swear words before he grudgingly wiped his hands on his decidedly grubby trousers and walked over to their small eating table which held the only clean surface to be found in the workshop, something Guppy made sure stayed that way.
Grabbing one of the sandwich rolls that Guppy had retrieved from his cooler box Friedrich munched uninterestedly on it, occasionally drinking from a flask of pressed fruit juice, for while he enjoyed liquor the dwarf never drank on the job. Not once.
Once he finished the sandwich and had his mouth clear again Friedrich lapsed into his usual complaint as he picked a sliver of meat from between two teeth with a shard of copper.
"What kind of apprentice orders their master around girl? Any other master on this street would have you out on your ear in a heartbeat." He groused.
"The kind of apprentice who wants to see their master above ground, not permanently below it. Master." Guppy retorted, stressing the last bit with a sickeningly sweet grin.
"I was born there," muttered Friedrich as he averted his head to prevent Guppy seeing his embarrassed face.
They thus concluded one of their many short conversations that had reached an almost scripted level after 3 years of hurling insults and overdone adoration at each other.
A comfortable silence followed as they both stretched and then tidied up.
Guppy knew that Friedrich was terribly dishonest with his feelings, it had thrown her for a loop when she started working for him, but over time she had learnt to watch what he did instead of what he said. His actions spoke far louder to his kindness and caring than the cursed that spewed from his lips.
She knew he had been hurt badly in the past. Not that he had ever told her what had happened but someone had clearly betrayed him badly in the past. It showed in how he interacted with others, he pushed others away almost instinctively to prevent them from getting close enough to hurt him again.
Guppy felt lucky that he had let her in at all.
Yet despite his lack of social graces and the dwarf's general lack of concern over his own wellbeing Friedrich had been a second father to Guppy and taught her a great deal about the theory and application of technomancy, the physical science used by magitech crafters,
While Guppy was a dull and might not be able to use magitech tools without an expensive core, she was enlightened in the 'language of metals' as Friedrich put it, still able to ply an honest trade with her knowledge and skill.
He had even stepped in one night during the first year of her internship when the debt collectors had started to hound their family badly again.
After smacking them around with a few toys he carried to ensure he had their utmost attention Friedrich had quietly made a few promises to them of what he would do if they pissed him off too badly.
The terrified meat handers had left at practically a run when Friedrich had released them, pale and tripping over each other in their haste to be anywhere but at her doorstep. A different set of collectors still came, but after that night they were a far more polite duo then before.
Guppy let a quiet smile out as she checked that Friedrich had indeed eaten, rehydrated, and tidied himself up. she then handed over the Orichalcum bolt as promised.
"So old man, prompted you to slip into your old bad habits?" Guppy questioned.
Friedrich did not immediately answer her, instead he twirled the bolt between his fingers in silence. His brows grew deep furrows and a weight settled upon his shoulders. The dwarf seemed to age then, and Guppy noted his beard held more grey than she remembered.
Startled by the suddenly solemn air that she felt from her boss Guppy waited quietly for his reply. And it came, though in the form of another question when Friedrich finally spoke.
"Guppy, what is wrong with this world?" He asked.
The weight of the question settled on Guppy as she pondered it. It was too large a question, too big a thought for her to answer with her limited understanding, so instead she answered as she reflected upon her life's grievances.
"A great many things." Guppy softly spoke.
"Yes, indeed there is." sighed Friedrich.
A pregnant silence fell between them for a moment before Friedrich lifted his head once more.
"And yet, I believe the many faceted ill's we each face are all symptoms of the growing pains a civilization experiences as it explores just what it means to exist. Take for example what happened to your mother. Magitech itself is a great boon to civilization and society, it brings us warmth, light, shelter, safety and comfort.
Just an example, should the magitech knowledge and skills our nation possesses be tasked towards food production, it could replace the need for much of our currently used manual labor systems, which would then bring to question the need for the slave labor of the orcs that our current civilization is so dependant on… But Magitech has a fundamental weakness, what it is Guppy?"
Guppy thought of all she had learned of Magitech systems, while she could think of many shortcomings she kept thinking of her mother's situation.
"Mana. We have a limited supply of usable energy." she finally stated.
"Yes, Exactly!" exclaimed Friedrich, his excitement and gestures growing as he continued to extrapolate and pace around the workshop.
"In order to operate all the magitech items that are demanded by civilization we require vast quantities of stored energy. At first we could hunt magical beasts, their cores were energy-rich and could even be recharged, a good example of this is the city cores that power the defensive shield and beast repulsion emitters in all major cities."
Friedrich slowed his pacing and folded his arms. "But in the end, these beasts were finite in number, and as our predation upon their herds and lands grew their numbers greatly diminished. The few beasts these days are inferior and limited when compared to the mighty titans of old and the domesticated breeding programs have all proven to be failures.
So the great minds of magitech invented a magic tool that allowed people to create magic crystals, opening up a whole new supply to feed the ever growing demand. Yet despite their best efforts and intentions this magic was not perfect, as you well know.
The side effects were and are ignored by those in power, for their nations can no longer thrive without their most crucial supply of energy."
Friedrich paused his tirade, letting out a sigh at the folly of short sighted fools. He shook his head and focused once more on Guppy.
"However what they are finding now is that this rich energy source is also dwindling. A thousand years ago there was no record of dulls existing. The first tested dull was 954 years ago, and since then they have remained present but rare. Or so the general public is told.
Census data tells us a very different story. In my generation, there were 1.1% of the population tested as dulls. In the latest tests that came out, your generation Guppy, there were 5.9% of the population tested as dulls. The growth over the last 10 generations has been exponential.
People don't talk about it as it is still seen by society as a deformity, a shameful and defective individual in their eyes. However, I estimate that in just four to six more generations, magic as we know it will be pushed to the brink of extinction."
Friedrich stopped, his arms outstretched as he delivered that bombshell on his young apprentice.
Guppy stared slack-jawed at Friedrich as she tried to process the enormity of the reality presented to her by her mentor. She knew how others spoke of her, she even knew a few others that were dulls, not that they would ever publicly admit it. But she had never known how such a thing could impact entire civilizations.
Fridrich grinned, throwing off the sombre attitude he had been emitting. His smile and buzzing energy he now gave off broke the tension, and Guppy breathed again as she shook off a minor panic attack.
"Now what if I told you that there was another way, a way to produce a virtually unlimited energy source that could be changed into whatever form of mana we require? This magitech technology would be so revolutionary that it would force civilization to change on a fundamental level."
Friedrich paused again, a pained look emerged, overtaking his triumphant one and twisting his already ugly features into a scornful visage.
"I theorized this idea some forty years ago." he intoned.
"At the time I was the youngest dwarf to ever graduate from the famous Dwarven Deepstone University. I researched this idea fanatically, pouring over ancient tomes without heed for food or rest. Finally, in triumphant naivety I presented my thesis and plan to the highest elders of the Dwarven race. And I was rejected."
Guppy saw Friedrich ball his fists, looking down as he spoke through clenched teeth.
"'Too dangerous' they said, 'too un-dwarvish they cried, 'an end to the guidance and traditions of our forefathers' they condemned. And when I showed them my source material it was the last straw on the Boola's back. They flew into a rage at the books I cited."
"For in my youthful exuberance, I browsed old and forbidden tomes of dwarvish knowledge. To them, steeped in tradition as they were, I was a heretic. So I was named Stone-cursed, exiled from the dwarven kingdom, and forbidden from association with any dwarf for the rest of my life."
"A dwarf greets another by clasping arms, I no longer do so."
Friedrich rolled up his sleeves and revealed a runic glyph engraved into his forearms. Guppy had caught partial glimpses of them while they had worked together, but she had never seen the whole thing before. They looked horribly painful, the scarring of the glyph showing that whoever had engraved them, had not been gentle.
Guppy shuddered as she imagined someone carving into his flesh with a red hot knife, branding her mentor for life.
Friedrich continued in a far softer tone as he watched her reaction, yet his quiet voice still easily heard by Guppy.
"I was marked so all dwarves I meet could tell what I was, what they said I was. Nothing but a heretical traitor to dwarven kind."
They both sat silently. Guppy processing these revelations, and Friedrich dwelling on his own sorrowful recollections of a time long past.
....
While both Guppy and Friedrich were lost in silent contemplation, a small black creature sauntered into the room, behaving for all the world as if it owned it. It arrived before them, before devouring a few meaty scraps that had fallen from Friedrich's sandwich. Satisfied with it's pickings it began to clean its front paws with its tongue.
The animal was far smaller than a suk but similarly had four limbs on which it walked, a slender black tail and a small head with pointed ears. Finishing with its paws it began to lick its already glossy black fur before stopping and solemnly looking at the pair with its golden eyes.
"A Mako!" Friedrich exclaimed in delight.
"Today we are truly blessed, even the god's messenger has come to watch us! Guppy today we make history! After 40 years of wandering, planning, and building, I am ready! Today we unveil a new rich source of energy for the benefit of all civilization! No more will civilization have to oppress the poor and weak to survive! No more will we enslave an entire race out of fear of what may be! Today we bring a new dawn to this world."
Guppy felt her heart speed up in excitement as she listened to the energised dwarf.
'so this is what the old bas.. I mean dwarf was doing. Fudgeknucles he's awesome.'
Her thoughts raced and teamed with the possibilities and import of their goal as she quickly pulled on her leather gear. While finely made the protective clothes were unenchanted, a measure to prevent any possible disruption magical resonance could cause with the extremely sensitive and delicate parts she had been piecing together for Friedrich.
Guppy raced down the stairs to the basement, feeling an extra thrill at entering a zone Friedrich had previously never allowed her access to.
Freezing in awe she saw it. Gleaming metal lit by the large crystal source igniters that connected to it in a symmetrical fashion, all twelve varieties of mana Guppy noted.
The thing was an excessively large sphere, the basement having been dug down not one or two but three entire levels in order to accommodate it like an egg in its nest.
The staircase she was on wound its way in a spiral as it descended before stopping at a platform near the bottom. There an array of shiny brass levers and buttons sat patiently waiting for them.
"Keep moving lass, and close your mouth, I don't pay you to catch flies now do I"
Friedrich chuckled at her awestruck posture and prodded Guppy to wake her up. Having succeeded they both descended to the control platform.
Once they reached it Guppy took her time to further examine it while Fridrich bustled over the control panel.
The Machine sat quietly, its many metallic hues spoke not only of its brass construction, but also orichalcum and even, 12 divines! was that adamantite she saw suspended on a crane?!
Guppy narrowed her eyes at Friedrich's back.
'If I knew how stinking rich he was I would have pushed for a higher salary' she mentally complained.
Friedrich feeling her stare, guessed its meaning and coughed awkwardly.
"All my savings and earnings for 40 years went straight into this project Guppy, it is indeed my life's work" Friedrich said as he walked over and lovingly caressed the surface of The Machine.
"I call her TiLuNaPoHwSeChNoLuThPrZa."
Guppy tripped and grabbed the railing. "Boss that's an awful name."
She swiftly cut off the possibility of a soon to be world famous magitech machine being named so horrendously.
Guppy looked at the twelve elemental crystals and made a mental connection.
"Boss, did you just use the first two letters of each of the twelve divines names and smash them together?"
Friedrich flinched, which was all the answer Guppy needed.
"Yeah, that name is definitely rejected."
Friedrich made a sour face at her rejection. "Well what do you suggest then madam?".
'Oh boy' Guppy thought
'he only calls me madam when he's quite annoyed, he must have spent a long time thinking that name up.'
Guppy put aside Friedrich's obvious displeasure and thought for a bit. After a minute she looked up and opened her mouth.
"what about that mythical white dragon from the old Dlorian folk song, Arkkarnissius?"
Friedrich thought about Guppy's proposition,
"True, it does roll off the tongue a tad bit easier, we'll go with that name then Guppy, now while I paint its new name on would you kindly get up there and insert the adamantite focusing array."
Guppy saluted and thought 'crisis averted'.
She ran up the stairs, then latched onto a series of bars located on the underside of the crane, swinging herself from one to another until she reached the zenith and let go, dropping a short distance onto Arkkarnissius.
Arriving at the open top hatch she guided the crane and lowered the adamantite dodecahedron into the belly of the beast. That done she slipped through the hatch herself.
Inside she was met with a technomancer's paradise, surrounded by highly advanced and intricate magitech devices on all sides. The multitude of contraptions glimmered in the faint light coming through the hatch. Once her eyes adjusted Guppy quickly found the central node and carefully inserted, then secured the focusing array.
"Clever old boy" Guppy muttered.
Who else but her crazy master would use adamantite, a near legendary metal which reflected magic, to build a focusing array instead of an antimagic armor.
"If people ever find out what we used to build this thing I reckon the army will be kicking down our door to tear it apart for scrap" She murmured.
Guppy realised that she knew what to do, several of the puzzles Friedrich had previously given her and made her repetitively solve giving her the experience she needed.
She carefully hooked in the 12 igniter cables around the core, making sure they were sealed and secured tightly, then opened the primary output valve. This done she retreated the way she came and quickly exited Arkkarnissius. Following that she closed the access hatch and swiveled the clamping wheel to secure the entrance shaft.
"All done Master" Guppy reported.
"Come over to the control station Guppy. I have set up a tier six mana shield array here for our protection." Friedrich called.
Guppy made her way back down to the control platform and arrived to see Friedrich positively vibrating with excitement as he muttered incessantly to himself.
When he saw that Guppy had arrived he flipped a lever and a transparent blue membrane shimmered and hummed into existence around the platform.
Guppy stood to the left and a little behind Friedrich as the Dwarf started an elaborate startup sequence, running through the checks on the igniters and pressure testing. Once everything checked out he stopped, hovering his finger over the large red button labeled IGNITE.
"Master?" Guppy asked quietly.
"It's nothing Guppy." replied Friedrich as he firmly depressed the button.
For a second nothing happened, then slowly the mana circuitry on Arkkarnissius lit up, the twelve colors bathing the chamber in their multi hued glow.
"what does it use as fuel Master?" Guppy enquired.
Friedrich puffed out his chest as he proudly explained
"Well I started out with iron but that was far too heavy, just sucked the igniter energy dry before the reaction could get started properly. I tried a bunch of different metals before finding that gases work best, you know the stuff they fill those giant blimps up with? It works wonders as fuel, just a little ignition and boom, it fuses right up and releases all the primordial mana you would ever need.
Of course, my test rigs overloaded themselves, the power output was far too much for them to handle. They shorted right out and the lack of regulation made the reaction unstable. But this beauty can take it. I know she can."
Guppy coughed.
"Master, according to legend Arkkarnissius was a male"
Friedrich snorted, "Don't bother me with trivialities now girl, I have science to perform!"
Arkkarnissius hummed as it fully lit up, the very air visibly oscillating.
"IGNITERS ARE ENGAGED!" Friedrich shouted, trying to make himself heard over the increasingly loud thrumming Arkkarnissius was emitting.
"ANY SECOND NOW SHE'S GOING TO LIGHT UP LIKE SELENA HERSELF."
And then it did, an intensely bright light assaulted Guppy's eyes, blinding her before she pulled down her welding goggles.
Blinking to regain her vision Guppy cast her eyes to the output readings. One thousand, two thousand, three and a half thousand mega mana's.
"Merciful Chrolia" Guppy implored, her voice silent, the thrumming now completely drowning out her words.
"That's enough power output in one second to run the needs of the entire empire for a week! He did it. F-Fudgeknukles the old geezer really did it."
Guppy grasped Friedrich's shoulder and squeezed it. This was the dawn of a new age, the world would never, could never be the same after today. She felt an overwhelming pride in her master gush over her.
Even the usually stoic dwarf could not hold back his emotions, it looked like he was trying to create a river over there, so great were the tears streaming down his cheeks.
Guppy could not hear a word he spoke, but she understood him nonetheless as he mouthed over and over "It works. It works. It works"
Guppy looked back at the control panel, and in the very corner saw a lovely little, perfectly innocent, and quite obviously forgotten orichalcum bolt.
"There's no way," she said as a tremor warped the air and everything went white.