Chapter 8: The Lion and the Librarian.
"¡Before she what?! Oh crap" Darren moved out of instinct behind the steps of the old man, helping him to move people out of the way to arrive sooner to their destination.
The use of the expression "blowing up" was stimulating enough to set his body in motion, despite not knowing what was happening.
When a guard notice them getting ahead of the row immediately arrive with the intention to stop them.
"My apologies Sir, the truth is, this young lady came with this." Said Elias handing his cane to Darren to search among the many bags and pockets in his tunic hurriedly while catching his breath.
"Here, I'm sure this will convince you to let us pass without questions." Said handing a letter to the guard with the royal seal impress on it while hitting Darren with his elbow.
Darren decided to follow his example and leave the questions about how he knew Darren would have one and how he get his for later.
The guard pick Darren's letter and observe the seal with caution before walking towards the only iron among them.
The bronze and the iron exchanged a few words, then the iron look at the before turning his gaze towards them. By then, Darren and Elias have already walked to the side of the girl in the wheelchair.
The iron walked towards them extracting a scroll from inside his armor.
"Names" Said with a strong an authoritarian voice wen he arrived in front of them.
"Elias Moonlight"
"Darren Lockwood"
"Rita Evengard" Said the girl in the chair, with an obviously annoyed voice while giving the iron a hostile stare.
The iron looked at his list while listening their names, he then look at each of them with a cold glance before talking to the rest of the guards.
"Let them pass"
Everyone answered with a "yes sir" instantly while opening a path for them. There was a small fuss among the rest of visitants, but it was quickly suppressed for the wards while the trio of individuals advanced trough the hallway connecting the outer walls with the first inner section of the city.
The girl advanced pushing the wheels in her chair with her hands. Darren finds it to be an inventive but limited way of transportation, although he still couldn't quite figure out the purpose of all the pipes and gears.
The more prominent pipes faced outwards from the recliner, with a closed curve so the escape valves would face backwards from the chair.
The rest followed intricate patterns around the wheels, like a spider web covering them among inactive gears connecting valves, pipes and springs.
All of that give the chair a look that seemed unnatural for a chair, despite having a padded recliner that looked comfortable enough.
"That was unnecessary" Said Rita without looking at them while pushing her chair by her own.
"That's what you say, but i preferred to avoid give explanations about people hurt and collapsed walls"
"I wasn't about to use violence"
"Well forgive this old man for listening to the voice of experience instead of betting on your temperament" Rita didn't answer to that last comment from Elias, opting instead for simple push her chair with an angry face.
"What are you doing in the capital to begin with. I thought you where too busy with you own inventions" Asked Elias giving the girl a stare from the side.
"The same thing as you for the look of it. If the queen call us both it means she is planning something. Only Draco knows in what kind of trouble she want to involve us this time"
"What happened to your letter?"
"I leave it in my other arm" Said giving little taps with her left hand to the armor in her right arm, producing an echo that revealed it was hollow inside.
-What kind of prosthesis is that?- Darren thought while staring to her metal arm. It's movements where so fluid and precise that the thought of it being a prosthesis never cross his mind.
Whit it, she could move every finger independently and it didn't seem to need a lever or adjustment for any of it's fluid and fine movements.
It's appearance was rough and flat, but it's function was extremely sophisticated. Such invention have to be the product of magic.
The inside of the capital was colorful and lively. Numerous merchants where building their tents at the side of the road while the people walked from side to side in a pattern chaotic yet organized at the same time.
The crowd moved around in a constant motion like a current, but nonetheless, they seemed to avoid Rita while she walked pushing her chair as to not to get in her way. Some give from time to time curious glances at her, but would avoid to stare and distance their eyes soon after.
Darren in the other hand, was the exact opposite. His eyes where fixated in Rita, ignoring everything else as he stared the patterns in her chair.
In occasions, he would stare from several minutes to her arm, trying to grasp the subtle and precise movements and the mechanism behind them.
"Stop that" Rita said in a noticeable angry and hostile voice, giving Darren a cold stare.
"Excuse me?"
"Stop staring at me, you are grossing me out" Rita said increasing the hostility of her voice, this alone was enough to put Darren on edge, as he remembered very well the initial reaction of Elias.
"I-i-i-i ¡I'm sorry!" Darren said in a high pitch, forcing himself to look ahead while walking in an awkwardly stiff way, with all his limbs perfectly straight like a walking doll.
This however didn't last, as Darren would let his eyes fell in Rita naturally as they walked, thing that would drain bit by bit her patience.
"¡What the fuck is your problem?! do you have some sick fetish, you fucking degenerate? I have something in my face? explain yourself before i turn you inside out, believe me, it is not pleasant."
"I-i-i-i-it's N-n-n-n-Nothing. It's just, Well, I." Darren looked at Elias with the hope of find some tactical support. Unfortunately for him, the later was at the edge of bursting in laughter. Apparently the whole situation was funny for the old man. Darren couldn't share his enthusiasm as he was legitimately terrified at the prospect of having his body turned inside out.
"If you have something to say, my advise is to say it boy. Worst case scenario, she will turn you inside out anyways." Elias said with a dry laugh. At hearing that Darren concluded that the old man has a very dark sense of humor. But he was right, nonetheless.
Rita in the other hand, was tapping with her fingers in the arm rest of her chair, emitting a terrifying metallic jingle.
"You have two minutes, I'm listening" Rita said with a cold stare, indicating she was serious. Dangerously so.
"A-a-a-a-a-Alright, the thing is, well... I" The sudden end of the metallic jingle managed to brings Darren back to his senses. Who immediately started to spit word after word at a desperate speed with the intention match the two minutes given.
"I was looking at your chair, I recognize the part of the design. The gears and spring are from the impulse by tension or the interconnected impulse of Varium from the manual of clockwork by Victor Varium. However the pipes looks like they come from the theory of the power by combustion of Chariot. Problem is, in the examples and blue prints available, the power by combustion needs a gas chamber and the fuel container, things that are not present in your chair. Besides this is the first time i see both concepts fuse in the same machine, that makes me thing this a new advancement of engineering. The absence of strings, key and combustion chamber makes me think the idea was to use Mana as a power source for a mechanical construction. I haven't read anything similar to that idea before and if that is the case, this could be something that could change forever the use of practical magic."
"Wait a second, you have read "study of practical engineering and interconnected impulse" by Victor Varium and "Theory of power by combustion" by hans chariot?"
"Yes. In fact i have a whole shelf dedicated to engineering in my personal library and i build my own pocket watch of what i learn of it. However, i was also looking at your arm. For the marks in the right armrest of your chair I can see you paint it to give it a darker shade, similar to iron. I assume the actual material is copper, same as your chair. Which makes me think you wanted to hide the correlation between this two. This also reminds me of the theory of conductivity of Farron, is there a relation between the conductivity of an element and it's affinity to Mana? If that's the case, there's the possibility that the use of Mana as a fuel isn't the only application of such a discovery. Which reminds me, different to your chair, your arm has no mechanism, how does that work? are you controlling it using the flow of Mana with the help of conductivity? if that is possible, you could even have your legs back. But I'm certain you would already thought that, so there most be something missing in the equation. All of this is new for me, which is strange, since i have read and memorized everything that can be read about engineering, mechanics, magic, practical magic, charms and spells, history, religion, social science, elemental physics, and many other things i don't even know how to catalog. Since when have you been experimenting? have you thought about writing your discoveries? If you did, I'm certain it would be a huge succeed among the fanatics of engineering, mechanics and practical magic. Is strange that you haven't publish anything, with so many students of magic publishing crap all the time i can't imagine why someone would want to keep such discoveries secret, besides i was trying to figure out which where some of the applications of some of the parts in your chair, but I'm not good at talking so i didn't knew hos to ask and now I can't stop talking because i feel like if I stop talking you will turn my body inside out and even if I'm not particularly pretentious I do hold my body with enough care to not want to alter it in such a drastic way. Besides, to be honest, you scare me. Everything seems to indicate you are a mage and i have read enough about magic to know that the prospect of having my body turned inside out isn't as crazy as it sounds and, even if I don't know for experience how unpleasant it might be I'm fairly certain i don't want to find out. I'm not a fan of masochism, besides, Elias said before you could blow us all up and from what I have seen is easy to make you angry and i wan't to avoid angry you at all cost because I do hold my physical integrity in a high esteem and well"
"¡¡ENOUGH!!" Rita ended up screaming, feeling suffocated by the speed of Darren's (driven by panic) words.
Darren shut up immediately and stand in complete silence after that, not even daring to breath. From all of what Darren spit, she could deduce some things.
He appeared to have, in all honesty, a fairly impressive amount of knowledge about a whole lot of subjects. She didn't expected to find someone who have studied as much as her about engineer and mechanics. But this man was ridiculous.
She finds it difficult to believe someone could learn so much about so many things as him, but from everything mentioned till now, it didn't look like a bluff.
She looked at Elias who returned her an accomplice stare with a devious smile. The kind of smile he have wen something he have seen coming happened before his eyes. That always succeeded to make Rita angry.
"Elias, where the fuck did you find this freak?"
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