Woodside Part 4

Once Mary helped the orphans settle into their new rooms, she approached Cassius in the small kitchen upstairs. It was very bare bones, lacking in the necessary space and tools to reasonably feed more than a handful of people. Empty hooks and cabinets containing nothing more than five sets of dishes suggested there had been more cooking utensils at one point.

The drawers had more than enough space for the amount of people in the orphanage, but were similarly empty.

Fiivon removed their extra cooking equipment, courtesy of a steambot ran restaurant in Jesperville, from his magical storage and moved it into the kitchen.

Cassius was boiling water with a large quantity of vegetables in it using a magical flame. A vent dangled above the wood-burning stove, others were positioned at set intervals on each wall of the rectangular room.

“When Vivian gets back I am going to investigate the barn.”

Cassius looked over at Mary while stirring the pot. “Take this.” He handed her two cards. “Vivian aided me in creating them. Now that she has overtaken all of the magical locks in this building, it will allow you to enter and exit through the main entrances as you so desire and any other door with a magical lock her magic has influenced.”

She looked over the cards. They appeared to be very basic poker cards with a solid red back. One of the cards was the nine of spades, the other was the ace of hearts. When inspected closely, the ink traced itself along the card’s markings with a faint glimmer.

He handed her another two cards, the king of diamonds and the two of hearts. “Give these to Fiivon on your way out.” He said while smiling mischievously.

Mary took the cards and handed them to Fiivon who was carrying a bread knife and cutting board into the kitchen as she left.

“What are these for miss.” He looked at Cassius. “They won’t explode, will they?”

“They are keys to get in and out of the orphanage.”

Fiivon set down the cutting board and knife then took the cards from Mary. “Thanks.”

“Thank you for all your help Fiivon.” Mary waved then walked downstairs.

Vivian shut the front door with a click, still surrounded by the same magenta hue.

“I will be investigating the barn. Watch over everyone while I am gone.” Mary finished checking her firearms and stood up.

“I’m not a babysitter.” Vivian said with a haughty attitude.

“I am asking you to be a bodyguard, not a babysitter.” Mary sighed. “I do not expect anything to happen, but we are behind enemy lines.”

“I’ve lived ‘behind enemy lines’ for the past couple of decades and I’ve been fine. It’s not that dangerous.” Vivian grumbled as she walked towards the stairs.

“I will make it up to you tonight.” Mary whispered as Vivian walked past her.

A blush spread across Vivian’s face and her pace quickened.

Something is going to happen. I need to make sure I am ready when it does.

Mary walked to the rear exit and pressed the ace of hearts up against it, opening the door with a click.

The dirt path in front of her was surprisingly well worn and direct, leading to the barn entrance in a straight line. A corn-like plant was growing on one side of the path while a wheat-like plant grew on the other, obscuring most of the path from onlookers. Cracks spread throughout the soil. Many of the corn and wheat like crops had begun to wither. It was clear to Mary how little experience the farm’s caretakers had.

Mary picked off a grain from each plant and tested them using her device.

The corn-like plant had traces of another unknown element and the readout showed that it had more nutrients in it than corn does despite having an nearly identical appearance.

The readout for the wheat-like crop would have been identical to wheat if it weren’t for the moderate amount of capsaicin present.

Mary then tested the soil. The lack of key nutrients confirmed her suspicion that the farm’s caretaker hadn’t been rotating the crops.

I will need to see if Woodside’s farmer was one of the people the orphanage directors got rid of.

She continued walking towards the barn. Eventually the crops yielded to a large open space where the barn stood. One of the barn doors had fallen off its hinges a long time ago. The remaining barn door refused to close, remaining in a perpetual half open state. There were no bugs in the area, nor had there been any out in the fields.

They must be using some sort of magic pest control.

If it weren’t for the relatively new, well maintained support beams and pillars, the entire barn would have been in a state of complete disrepair. Broken planks dangled from the rafters and upper floor. The stairs leading to the second floor lay on the ground; the second floor itself looked as though it could collapse at any moment. What little farming equipment remained was rusty and covered in dust.

A wooden door and its frame jutted out from the right wall. Mary decided to ignore it for the time being to see if someone would be foolish enough to try jumping out at her.

Cow and pig-like skeletons dotted the floor on the far side of the barn. The skeleton of a single dog-like animal rested in front of the others near the barn’s center.

She looked out one of the windows. There was a rectangular plot of dirt with the occasional patch of grass or weeds growing in it where the farmhouse used to be.

With nothing else to check, she headed towards the door. It didn’t have a lock.

Mary tried to break a chip off of the door but she soon realized it would be impossible to do quietly. The wood was fresher than even the support beams, or at least it appeared to be.

She removed a pinch of black crystal shards from their container and threw them at the door. They turned into flakes of wood upon making contact with the door.

Mary peaked through a hole on the wall.

The door was connected to a triangular slope outside of the barn. Directly across from it was one of the three mounds which formed a triangle around the city.

Mary returned to the orphanage.

———————————————————————————————————————

The sun began to set. Thanks to magic, one day was all it took to improve the living conditions of the orphans and the orphanage.

Mary, Vivian, and Cassius sat in a circle on the floor.

Mary removed three black crystals from her pocket and handed it to Vivian. “I need you to put magical energy into these until I tell you to stop.”

“Are you insane!” Cassius yelled.

“There is a magically locked door in the barn that could only lead underground. I believe The consulate has a bunker behind there with six members of staff. I intend to plant them there to prevent them from doing anything.”

“F*** yeah! Blow them up and anything else nearby with them.”

“Vivian this is extremely dangerous and we currently have no method of responsibly or carefully testing the correct quantity of magic to avoid killing ourselves in whatever fashion the crystal deems necessary.”

Mary walked over to the smaller room, picked up the safe and brought it over to the others, setting it on the ground with a heavy thud, door side up. “This should work if you can transfer magic into the crystal through the safe.”

Cassius and Vivian stared at Mary.

“With my knowledge of how toughening items up with magic seems to work, the safe should be able to withstand more force than what the crystal will provide when strengthened using magic.” Mary looked at Vivian. As an added safety measure, how far away would you be able to transfer magic into it?”

“Stop being so scared, I’ve got this. Just toss one of them in there and I’ll handle it.”

“Since neither of you seems willing to listen to reason, I will retreat upstairs and create a barrier separating the children and I from your madness.” Cassisus ran upstairs.

Mary waited then backed up and threw a crystal into the safe.

Vivian touched the safe with her staff, surrounding it in a pink light and shutting the door. “Now that he’s gone…” She walked her fingers up Mary’s side.

“Not yet.” Mary grabbed Vivian’s hand.

“It’ll explode on its own anyway, why don’t we have some fun while waiting.”

“You need to be able to fill three of these with enough magic that a magic door coming into contact with them will set them off.”

“Finnne.” Vivian rolled her eyes and huffed as a pink beam connected her staff to the safe. A shield of magenta light separated them from the safe.

Mary set a stopwatch on her device.

It took thirty-four seconds for the crystal to explode with a loud, but still muted pop. The safe bounced off the ground, snapping the wooden floorboards beneath it when it fell. Vivian opened the safe with magic, revealing a large chunk of dirty steel.

*Tick… … Tick … Tick … … … Tick … … Tick… … … Tick … … … Tick Tick*

Mary checked her device. Then froze as she became lost in thought.

“Mary!” Lena paused. “Mary!”

Vivian looked annoyed then tried to poke Mary in the face with her staff, only for it to be reflexively batted away.

The ticking stopped.

“Sorry.” Mary checked her machine. At the rate the radioactivity is dying down, that alone has the potential to be lethal without treatment. Mary looked at another crystal in her hand before tossing it into the safe. And closing the door. “Do it again just to be safe.”

Vivian fired her staff at the safe as Mary started her device’s stopwatch.

After thirty-four seconds, the crystal exploded again, further damaging the floorboards when the safe bounced.

Panicked noises came from upstairs.

Mary handed Vivian three more crystals. “Fill these with magic for thirty-two seconds. I need to calm them down.” Mary rushed upstairs.

“What about…” Vivian looked at the crystals. “Whatever, I’m sure she’ll keep her end of the bargain.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Mary stopped when she heard Vivian breathing inside the large room.

She can consider this part of her reward.

Mary pushed the door open.

She waited to walk in until Vivian started to get audibly antsy.

Vivian pounced on Mary and wrapped her arms around her, as best as she could, the moment Mary walked in. With her head buried in Mary’s chest and one hand grabbing her staff.

Mary freed one of her hands and patted Vivian’s head.

Vivian looked Mary in the eyes with a smile on her face. “I won’t let you escape.” Vivian glowed pink and she squeezed Mary harder.

Mary gave Vivian a harsh, stern glare while looking down on her. “Vivian, the crystals.”

“Oh, right.” The pink glow disappeared and she released her grip on Mary.

Mary tossed her coat on top of a billiards table next to her sleeping bag in the corner of the room. “You were not touching the crystals and I did not see the magic get absorbed so it is okay but you need to be more careful.” Mary leaned in closer to Vivian and picked her up.

Vivian blushed. “No fair.” She clung to Mary as she got carried to bed.