“Uh…no,” Calu said. “Mari told me how she feels about you.”
“Mari makes me happy. I want to be with her.” He looked directly at the Mechanic Calu. “I had forgotten how to feel that way, and then I met her.”
The Mechanic looked back, then grinned. “Either you’re the best liar the world of Dematr has ever known, or you’re sincere. She really believes in you. I’m going to be honest with you. That’s what decided me. Mari is no fool. If she trusts you that much, enough to give her heart to you, then I have to trust you, too. But don’t you ever let her get hurt.”
Alain was not sure what to say, so he spoke carefully. “Thank…you. I will not ever hurt her.”
“That’s a bit different. Mari told me that you’re trying to relearn a lot of things about people that your Guild tried to drive out of you, so as one guy to another, let me tell you that sooner or later you’re going to hurt her somehow, no matter how hard you try not to. Just do your best so she’ll forgive you when that happens. Let’s get back to her room before somebody spots us out here.” Calu gave Alain a curious look. “Why did you trust me?”
“I can tell when someone lies. You did not. You show strong feelings for Mari.”
“Oh, uh, not that kind of feelings,” Calu hastened to explain as they started up the stairs. “She’s sort of like a sister to me. Has Mari talked about another Mechanic named Alli?”
“Yes. Alli is the one who is very skilled in the making of Mechanic weapons.”
Calu laughed. “That’s Alli.”
“Did Mari tell you that she killed a dragon with a weapon that Mechanic Alli built?”
The Mechanic stopped walking for a moment, staring at Alain. “When did that happen?”
“About a week ago. It was a big Mechanic weapon, as long as Mari is tall, and with it Mari slew a very large dragon.”
“Did she really?” Calu shook his head. “I saw a dragon once, not too close, fortunately, and my fellow Mechanics told me to forget I’d ever seen it. But I couldn’t forget something like that.” His grin came back. “And something Alli built killed one of those? That’s my girl! It’s a good thing Mari had that weapon, I guess.”
“She knew she might need it,” Alain explained. “After the difficulty we had slaying a dragon in Dorcastle.”
“Dorcastle? Where she found the boiler? You killed a dragon there, too?”
“Yes. Mari…” Alain shook his head, unable to describe what Mari had done. “There was something on the thing you call a boiler, and Mari used rope to tie it, and the boiler became very loud and hot, and then destroyed everything around it.”
Calu stared at Alain. “She tied down the relief valve. That must have been what she did. Mari tied down the relief valve on a boiler. Oh, I cannot wait to tell Alli about that. You helped her?”
“I found rope,” Alain said. “But I cannot understand, cannot do, anything that Mari can do.”
“Huh. Interesting.”
Mari had a relieved smile on her face when they returned. “Satisfied, Calu?”
“Yeah.” Calu pointed an accusing finger at her. “Why didn’t you tell me that I’d won the bet?”
“What bet?” Mari asked, looking baffled.
“Several years ago, while we were studying steam, you and I got into an argument over which one of us would be the first to make a boiler explode. Remember?”
Mari looked embarrassed as she laughed. “Oh. That bet.”
“And now I hear that you made a boiler blow up in Dorcastle. Pay up!”
She made a helpless gesture. “Calu, I can’t remember what the stakes were.”
“Something about the loser running naked through the courtyard of the Guild Hall.”
“What? I didn’t—” Mari bit her lip. “That was the bet, wasn’t it? Calu, you’re not going to…?”
Calu sat down, making a magnanimous gesture. “Because of our friendship, and because Alli would whip my butt if she found out I’d tried to insist you do it, I will simply accept victory as my reward. I was not the first to blow up a boiler. Mari of Caer Lyn was!”
Mari bowed toward Calu. “I admit it.”
“I’m a better Mechanic than you are,” Calu continued.
“The blazes you are! I blew up that boiler on purpose, not by accident.” Mari looked over at Alain. “Do you have any idea what we’re talking about?”
“No,” Alain said. “But you are both clearly enjoying this. This is a friend thing, is it not?”
“It is,” Mari agreed.
Calu looked from her to Alain and smiled. “We always said Mari could fix anything. All right. Now I know what’s going on. What can I do, Mari?”
“Calu, keep your head down, stay quiet—”
“Let me clarify,” Calu interrupted. “What can I do for you?” He looked over at Alain. “For you and, uh…Sir Mage Alain?”
“You may call me just Alain, if a friend of Mari’s can be a friend to me also.”
Mari was looking into a corner. “Calu, I’m on my way to talk to a Master Mechanic who I trust. She was one of my professors at the Academy. I need to find out more about what’s happening to me and why, and get her advice on how to handle it. Maybe she can get this whole mess turned around and I can start working with the Guild again, instead of trying to avoid getting killed by it.”
“If the Senior Mechanics were willing to send you into Tiae, I wouldn’t hold my breath on some grand reconciliation happening. Are you going to take Alain in to see her, too?” Calu asked.
“Yes, because I want to see what she says about him and what he can do.”
Calu studied Alain again. “Are you willing to talk about that? How you do that stuff? Or is it a Guild secret for you?”
“It is a Guild secret, but my Guild no longer can demand I keep its secrets. My loyalty now is…” He paused, trying to think that through. Who or what did he owe allegiance to, now that his obedience to his Guild no longer bound him? None of his training had offered guidance on that. The only alternative he had ever heard of was the Dark Mages, and he would not follow their path. He would need to make a new road.
Alain’s eyes came up and focused on Mari. Of course. I will follow her. She will show me a good road to walk. “My loyalty is to my Lady Mari. To the right thing she seeks to bring about. What she asks, I will do.”
Mari’s face flushed even as she smiled at that, leaving Alain confused as to whether he had upset her or pleased her. But Mechanic Calu nodded. “I don’t need to give you any advice when it comes to that, do I?”
“I do not know, Mechanic Calu. But I will answer what you asked me. The Mage arts are based upon the understanding that nothing is real, that all we see is an illusion.”
Instead of appearing annoyed as Mari always did when he said that, the other Mechanic looked shocked. “Nothing is real?”
“Nothing is real,” Alain repeated.
Calu turned to Mari. “Nothing is real!”
She glared at them. “It’s bad enough when Alain keeps saying it. Why are you both saying it?”
“Mari,” Calu answered eagerly, “did you get the letters where I told you that I’d been allowed to take those advanced physics courses but hadn’t been allowed to pursue Master rating in them because of strict quotas? Yeah, I know it sounds weird that I’d be going for advanced physics when I had trouble with the simpler stuff, but something just clicked when I hit the high-end theories and models. And do you know what it all rests on? When you get down below the atomic level to the quantum level? It comes down to nothing is real.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mari said. “Mechanic physics says that?”
“At the fundamental level, yes.” Calu pointed to Alain. “He said everything is an illusion. That’s kind of what quantum theory says, that what we see and experience through our senses is just the way our brains organize things so it’ll make sense to us. Can you believe it? The theoretical foundations of the Mechanics and the Mages are the same! We must go in totally different directions from there, taking completely dissimilar approaches to how we deal with the universe.”