“But does your Guild approve of your mission?”
“No.” Mari spoke quietly, with only a trace of defiance. “But change is necessary if this world is have a future.”
The woman spoke again with careful deliberation. “You would…overthrow…your Guild?”
Mari took a deep breath, then nodded. “And the Mage Guild. It must be done.”
The masters of the university gazed at Mari with the expressions of people who had just seen a myth come to life before their eyes. Alain saw reaction to Mari’s words ripple down the ranks of the masters, then the professors returned to quiet but animated discussion among themselves.
Finally Professor Wren spoke in a clear voice. “We have decided. We have decided to trust in you. I must now confess that we have kept something from you. It was because of a promise made long ago. But your actions and your words have proven that you are the person we have been waiting for. Perhaps…perhaps the person all of Dematr has been waiting for. The manuscripts you sought from the Mechanics Guild Hall…we have them safe here.”
Alain felt Mari quiver and her hand tightened convulsively on his. “Intact? Readable?” she asked.
“Yes, though we have never read them, in keeping with that promise. Please follow me. There is something else we must show you first.” Wren led the way for Mari and Alain along some long passageways, the rest of the professors following silently. She finally stopped at a door which opened under protest, as if it had been sealed for a long time. The professor bowed Mari inside.
She stepped in, pulling Alain with her. He saw a room like the ones they had been assigned to sleep in, but this room bore numerous personal items, all heavily coated with dust. Mari was examining the objects with intense interest, then something caught her eye and she lunged past Alain. He turned to see a dust-covered Mechanics jacket hanging there.
Professor Wren cleared her throat apologetically as Mari stared at the jacket. “When the ban was put in place by the Emperor Palan, one Mechanic remained. He had been ordered by his Guild to ensure that the destruction of the Mechanics Guild Headquarters begun by the battle was complete, and to ensure that the manuscripts vaults were destroyed as well, before leaving the city with the last of those allowed to do so. He would not destroy the manuscripts as ordered. Instead he came to our ancestors after the city had been sealed, telling us what still lay there and begging the university’s help in rescuing it from destruction. Our ancestors agreed, and only after all of the documents had been taken from the vaults did the Mechanic set off some more explosions which finished leveling the Guild Hall. This knowledge of events has been passed down from that time, and none of us doubt its accuracy.”
Mari had found a sheet of paper, brown with age, sitting in the center of the desk. She read the words on it out loud. “To the Mechanic who comes here someday. Greetings. Do not think ill of me because I did not follow the Guild’s orders. The manuscripts we have saved are the Guild’s past and the future of our world. I could not see such knowledge destroyed. Use these texts wisely. If you should go to Midan, tell the family of Mechanic Dav that he died content, having done what he deemed best for all, Mechanic, common, and even the Mages, for we all share this world.” She closed her eyes, then looked at Alain. “Mechanic Dav of Midan. Don’t ever let me forget that name.”
“I will not,” Alain promised.
Mari looked at the masters of the university. “The future of our world.”
Professor Wren spoke again. “Yes. When you said that, it erased our final doubts, because you echoed the words of the man who saved those manuscripts long ago. It was Mechanic Dav of Midan who kept the steam plant running for many years after the ban. But when he grew old he said he had to stop it and prepare it to last until someone else could start it again. He is buried in a place of honor.” She gave a small, sad smile. “When we heard a Mechanic was at the gate, we feared you had finally come from his Guild to find out whether he had followed the last orders he had been given. Mechanic Dav had left instructions that we needed to be sure the next Mechanic who came was a good person before we let them know what he had done. He did not want his work to have been for nothing. He did not want his Guild to destroy what this world needed.”
“He was a very good Mechanic and a very good person,” Mari said, her voice tight. Alain saw tears welling in her eyes. She wiped her sleeve across them, then faced Wren. “I’m proud to wear the same type of jacket he did, and let me tell you there have been times in the last few months when this jacket brought me no pride at all. But now I know I share it with someone like him. Where are the manuscripts?”
“In our safest storage area. We will show them to you now.”
Alain followed Mari, seeing the tension rising in her as they went down stairways and through stout doors, at last stopping before a heavy entrance below ground level and sealed tightly. Professor Wren gave her the key, then stepped back. “This is yours. We hope what you find here will aid you in your task.”
The other professors left, but Wren paused, studying Mari as she put her weight on the key to turn it in the reluctant lock. Mari leaned into the door to push it open, revealing a room lined with shelves bearing rows of bound texts. “Lady Mechanic,” Wren began, “I am familiar with certain legends. Are you…?” She took a deep breath, then spoke again. “Are you truly a Mechanic? Or are you one who wears the seeming of a Mechanic but is much more? The…daughter of someone famous in history?”
Mari gave Alain a resigned look. “I am who I am, Professor. I’m just trying to do what I think is right.”
Wren nodded. “Those who study legends never expect to actually meet one. I do not know if you are that woman in truth, Lady Mechanic. But I hope that you are. A changed world could someday free those in the university as well as the common folk in the wider world.”
“I understand.” Mari waited, staring into the room, as Wren left to follow after the other professors.
Alain spoke quietly to her. “The masters of the university are right. This is yours. I will go elsewhere.”
“Thank you.” Mari shook her head, her expression disbelieving. “It’s hard to believe that I can look at the banned manuscripts from the vaults of the Guild. Nobody ever expects to see those. Nobody. But all of those texts are here.”
“I will keep watch.” He walked to the end of the hallway and sat down on the stairs, looking back once to see that she had gone inside.
When he thought it was about noon, Alain went to get food and drink, returning to find Mari engrossed in a text laid on the table before her. She did not even notice him until he had set the lunch in front of her. “Alain? Look at this, Alain.” Her voice was hushed. “It’s talking about something called coherent light. A lass-er, they call it. It’s astounding.” She stared at him. “This is so far beyond what the Mechanics Guild is using that I can barely grasp it. These manuscripts are filled with terms I can’t understand. I can’t even imagine how to build some of this stuff. We’ll need to build tools that build tools that will build something that can maybe make these things. If I could only show this stuff to Professor S’san.” Mari rubbed her forehead, looking dazed. “I’ll need to cull out what seems best, what can be done with what we’ve got now. The things we’ve lost, Alain…”
He sat down next to her. “These things you are seeing are powerful, then?”
“Very powerful. I think. Some of them, I’m just guessing what they can do. I mean, I’m not just talking weapons. I’m talking things that would in time change society, change the lives of everyone, every common as well as Mechanics and Mages. Transportation, healing arts, communication, everything.”