Work With What You Have

Espa was the fastest to react, already rushing forward to lay her hands on her sister before Morenna had even stopped skidding.

Morenna twitched, then whirled to her feet, looking rapidly about. Her eyes fixed on the crumpled form of Blackwing, widened…

And then her entire face went coldly blank.

“Let me try,” Uthien called, zooming over to them for a moment. “Regroup, I’ll do what I can!” He zipped off toward the City Crusher, heading right into the smoke still hanging about its damaged arm joint.

“Uthien!” Ophia called after him.

“Uthien’s careful, he won’t over-commit if it’s too dangerous,” said Aldan. “Meanwhile, he’s right—we need a new plan.”

“I guess…I’ll…go back to trying to distract it,” Morenna said woodenly. “Since that’s all I’m good for now.”

“Wait, don’t run off,” Aldan said. “Sister, you’re still our best—”

“Nothing!” she exclaimed. “A disarmed shadow mage is good for nothing! My fists are about as useful against that thing as a scolding. What else do you think I have? What good will poisoning it do?”

“You have poison?” Rakkan asked.

“I have poison and a sharp tongue and that is all, because without—”

“Sister!” Vanerra shouted, jumping in front of Morenna and seizing both her hands. “Something terrible happened to you when you were disarmed once, right?”

“What?” Going a shade paler, Morenna tried to pull back, but Vanerra didn’t let go. “H-how could you—”

“Because you are panicking, and it’s not like you,” Vanerra insisted. “This looks to me like old trauma coming back up. Morenna, I don’t know what happened, but this situation is not that one. You are still faster and smarter than that machine.”

“She’s right,” said Aldan. “It only landed a hit on you because you committed to an attack, and you still won that contest of strength. Not without cost, but you’re the one who finally took that arm off. We still need you, Morenna, more than ever.”

Morenna inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as if struggling with something behind them. But when she opened them and exhaled, her face was resolute again.

“Right. You’re right. I’m…sorry you had to see that. I’ll need a weapon.”

Rakkan and Ophia instantly drew their swords, twirled them to catch them by the blades, and offered the handles to her.

“Thanks,” said Morenna, taking her brother’s rapier and her sister’s gladius. “I…look, these are normal steel. If black steel didn’t stand up to that machine…”

“We both fight with magic, sister,” said Ophia, tossing her hair. “I for one am not attached to it.”

“Yeah, feel free to wreck it,” Rakkan added with a grin. “Perfect excuse to make the old man buy me a new one.”

All of them whirled at the change in noises as the City Crusher began moving. Surprisingly, it was backing away from them now, and also reaching out with four of its remaining arms—all but the drill arm—to probe at the surrounding walls, floor, and ceiling, as well as any other machinery within its reach.

“Oh, what fresh devilment is this?” Ophia groaned.

“I think it’s retreating!” Uthien called, flying back out of the smoke to hover in front of them. “It’s taken damage that exposes its interior to attack—it must be designed to protect itself in such a situation.”

“Uthien!” Aldan exclaimed. “Are you all right? What happened? Did you find anything out?”

Uthien was covered in soot and his clothes were smeared with grease on one side, but he appeared uninjured. “I’m fine, brother, but the news is not good—aside from the fact we may have a reprieve if the Crusher is trying to disengage. It might get worse again once it figures out it can’t get away from us. But…well, look.”

He gestured and an object floated over to hover in front of them, slowly rotating; it took a few moments of study for them to recognize the squashed, twisted chunk of metal that had recently been a sphere of tungsten.

“Oh,” Rakkan said solemnly. “Sorry about your balls, man.”

Uthien smirked and held out one hand, with the remaining spheres rotating above it. “Don’t worry, I only need two. This is an unexpected problem, though: we’ve seen that tungsten and black steel are both harder than the exterior armor, but there must be additional strengthening enchantments on the inner gears to help them withstand the immense forces they must exert. That wasn’t mentioned in any of the literature, but it stands to reason. Unfortunately that means…”

“Oh, no,” Espa whispered. “We can’t damage it. Then…are we locked in a stalemate?”

“That doesn’t favor us,” Rakkan observed. “That thing doesn’t need to sleep or eat.”

“It does need fuel and maintenance,” said Uthien, “but we have no idea what condition it was in at the start of this, or how long it can go without. I…confess I’m stumped.”

One by one, they turned to look at Morenna.

She looked, wide-eyed, around at the group, then fixed on her oldest sibling.

“Aldan, I really hoped that strategic mind of yours has an idea.”

“It does,” he said, nodding. “We need to get Morenna a weapon that can take out those clockworks, and I know how to do that. It’ll take a while, though, and we’ll have to keep the Crusher off us in the meantime.”

“Then I’ll get back to distracting it while you work,” said Morenna, turning back toward the colossal machine and twirling both swords. It was still tracking slowly back and forth, poking and pawing at the cavern walls.

“Right there with you, sister,” Uthien promised.

“No!” Aldan said quickly. “Uthien, I’ll need you here. You and Ophia. The rest of you will be on interference duty—just keep it away from us. Leave it alone for now, but I’m afraid it’s going to go back on the offensive as soon as it gives up on retreating.”

“If that happens, I suggest we go for its treads,” said Rakkan, pointing. “I nominate that one: left side on the front. It looks way too heavy and broad to be able to move with even one of its feet broken.”

“Good thinking,” said Morenna. “Left side front tread it is.”

While Ophia and Uthien stepped closer to Aldan, the rest of them fanned out, forming a wide defensive posture around them with Morenna at the point.

“We need ice, sister,” said Aldan. “As much as you can conjure and maintain active control of. Uthien, at the feast you showed how you could bend metal into shapes with your magic; does it have to be something that small, or can you make a sword?”

“With metal it would have to be that small, but ice is…far softer and more brittle. A sword should be doable.” He was already channeling power through both hands as he spoke, into the chunk of ice Ophia had conjured and was levitating in front of them. It immediately began to compress, forming in the shape of a rapier. “Aldan, I’m taking it on faith that you know what you’re doing.”

“Yes, me too,” Ophia agreed. “Surely you aren’t planning to arm Morenna with a sword of ice.”

“No,” said Aldan, raising his own hands already glowing with power, “I want to give her a sword of magic. But enchantments need an object to be attached to, and they can only be applied to weapons as they’re being forged, so none of our swords will do. If the surrounding metal and stone is too tough for Uthien to form, then ice is what we have to work with.”

“My knowledge is theoretical,” said Uthien, “but I’m not aware of any enchantment that can do…what you’re suggesting.”

Aldan smiled grimly. “Morenna isn’t the only one who knows secrets of magic—between Mother and Vanerra’s tribe, I have some tricks up my sleeve that should surprise even Zaurgan. I was hoping not to reveal any cards this soon, but we have to survive to stay in the game. All right, I need you both to focus on keeping this in the shape of a sword while I work; applying as much light energy into ice as I need to will make it try to melt right into steam.”

“No pressure, then,” Ophia said lightly.

“On the contrary, sister,” said Uthien. “Nothing but pressure.”

A deep whir echoed through the cavern as the City Crusher fired up its drill.

“Looks like break time’s over,” Morenna called, and dashed forward.