.^^ the College ^^

— Rune —

The new look worked on the Construct, making him look fiercer, almost demonic, as befitting a creature from Ulfavir.

As the council returned, after their second attempt at an underhanded deal, (one more and I would simply refuse to work with them,) I looked up. "Ah, back so soon? You know, that's the second crap deal you've tried to deal me, and if there's a third, my amusement with you and your politics ends, and I'll simply stop trying to be cordial." I warned them casually.

The speaker stepped forward. "That is entirely unnecessary, we assure you."

"I hope so. I'm starting to like it here somewhat better than my old abode." I answered dryly.

She grimaced, an attempt at a friendly smile. "Yes, well, the Council is prepared to accept your proposition, but we insist on the second of our four addendum's. We cannot have weapons of war being sold to our competitors."

"You mean that you want me to unbalance the tenuous power balance that you and the other countries have reached, correct? I will not do so. I will not start a full-on war, just because you're greedy for power." I shook my head.

She blinked. "Whoever was speaking of-"

"If I give weapons to your soldiers, who will they use them on? If you have the ability to overpower your nearby enemies, do you honestly think you won't do so? If the other countries felt threatened by this new power, they would flock together and attack, even if you're as supposedly innocent as you're trying to act. There is a balance to power, and adding something to one side without the other, upends everything. So my answer is a final and resounding NO." I frowned sternly, and crossed my arms.

"Now See here, child-"

"Enough! I won't sell advanced weaponry to civilians, but any militant or expeditionary force is welcome to commission something from me. I have not now, nor will I ever, choose a side to start a useless war with. So you may reconvene, and come back, at the earliest, tomorrow, with your return sally. Think it over well, please. Good day!" I smiled warmly, and turned back to the Construct, opening the panel I'd just installed, across his shoulder-blades.

They seemed grudgingly impressed with my rebuffing them so soundly, and they began trudging out, even before the speaker turned to go back to them, which made her growl softly.

I chuckled, and lifted one of the anti-gravity engines, struggling a bit with the weight, and settled it into the open slot. The machinery connected, and he hummed.

"That feels... very odd. Elven mechanics are fragile."

"Don't worry, the one I make will not be fragile. This is just a test run, alright?" I nodded, and set the other two at his hips, connecting them and powering them up, closing all the panels. "Alright, let's try floating, big guy." I stepped back.

He grumbled some more about weak mechanics, but they hummed loudly, and he was just barely off the ground. "That seems to be their limit, for floating... I can push harder, to fly?"

"No, not yet... I'll make some better ones first chance I get. For now, they're just secondary systems." I nodded.

"Hmm... understood." He set back down, the humming stopping, and then sat all the way down, crossing his legs with his back to the wall.

"Alright, hang tight, we've got some things to do today, I believe, so I'll be gone for a bit. Don't let anyone mess with you." I reinforced the command, and looked at Dashiva. "So! What were we doing?"

She blinked slowly. "You Just used Elven technology, some of the most advanced-" I snorted, unable to help myself, and earned myself a glare,"- technology in the world, and then said you'd improve it? How?"

"Nacho business, mostly. With a dash of nunya for spice." I smiled charmingly.

She snorted. "Whatever. Anyway, we've got to get you to the college and get you a Master, and Yeshiva has a class to attend."

"Class? I thought you said it was individual teaching?" I asked.

"It is, until you display magic that your Master doesn't have, or there's some other Master who's better at it than you. We're actually pretty open with who teaches who. Some of the elders have almost 20 students a day, so we call them Classes, though they're not formally recognized as such by the college. The college is just a forum for Master Mages, honestly, not a learning academy." She shrugged.

"Ahh, I see... yes, let's." I dusted off my hands, and gathered my basic weapons; my rifle, two pistols (one lightning, one highly-pressurized water,) and my carving knife, which I used to sculpt metal with. It was enchanted with a gently vibration that allowed it to cut through almost anything mundane.

On a second thought, I grabbed the thick staff of silver-infused wood, and a satchel full of small tinkering materials, in case I got bored and wanted to work on something.

We boarded a second flyer from the hangar, smaller and faster, with weapons systems built in, a set of harpoon cannons on either side. I hummed, interested, and Dashiva grinned. "Wishing you'd bartered for one of these? Make that construct of yours an even bigger war machine?"

"No, I never intended to make him a war machine. He doesn't actually have any weapons, besides his giant size." I shook my head.

"That giant cannon-fire it emitted?" She raised an eyebrow.

"A misuse of his Keyhole activator. The keyhole to his old ignition, so to speak. It fits the barrel of my rifle like a charm, so I changed the front of his chest, adding in prismatic crystals and Runes and such, to make my weapon-blasts more powerful. It's only an amplifier, totally inert on its own." I explained sparsely.

She nodded. "That makes sense, I suppose... well, we're here. Brace yourself." She grinned as the flyer halted suddenly, throwing Yeshiva around while we all watched, holding on properly, and then descended to the ground in front of the second of the two glass Spires, the slightly bigger one.

We climbed out of the back, and walked towards the spire. It got bigger and bigger, as we approached. It was cunningly designed, with a concave entrance, so that by the time you walked up to it, your peripherals were filled, and all you could see, looking forward or up, was the Spire.

"Well, we know a narcissist built this." I snorted.

Dashiva grinned. "True. The Tyrant was definitely a Narcissist. How can you tell, though?"

"The view of the Spire dominates your vision, saying 'look at me, only at me'. Standard Attention-Recognition Seeking Narcissism." I shrugged.

The two guards at the front leveled outdated muskets at us, with bayonets attached. "Halt! Who enters the College?" One barked, while the other translated into elven.

"Dashiva and Yeshiva Drundomidon, and guest, Rune. Do we have to do this every time I show up?" Dashiva said in a bored tone.

"I'm afraid so, My Lady... and we must ask the guest to relinquish all weapons before entering the-"

"Suck my what?" I coughed.

"Weapons are not permitted for guests." He frowned, glaring at me.

"You may attempt to disarm me, but I don't take responsibility for your loss of limb or life." I stared back calmly, hands crossed across my chest in a non-threatening, but stern position.

"Rune, just hand over Your Weapons, don't make this difficult." Dashiva sighed.

"The answer is no. I don't trust you people with my weapons. You'll likely try them out, and shoot your foot off, misfire them, or sell them for beer money." I scoffed at the image it presented to me.

The muskets pointed at me. "This is Your Final warning." One warned.

"Oh thank the god's, your repetitiveness is becoming insufferably boring!" I smirked.

Dashiva cleared her throat. "Alright, well, I suppose you're not going to come in, today, and we'll leave you out here! I'll send the TinkerToy Mages out to meet you, there's only three. That seems like an acceptable compromise?" She asked, trying to defuse the situation.

I shrugged. "I don't really care where I go, but so long as they don't mess with my stuff, I'm good."

She nodded, and pushed the two muskets up into the air casually. "Good! Stay here, then." They stepped in, and I caught a view of odd sunshine from the interior, before the doors were slammed shut by the guards.

I snorted at their snootiness, and sat down against the wall, a dozen meters away, then began messing around with my satchel, carving the Runes that I'd learned to make the exact same effect as the bag of space that they had allowed me to examine.

It seemed relatively simple, and it didn't require me to cast any spells, so it went smoothly, and I now had a walled space, about two meters wide, and about a meter deep. My satchel was bigger than the original, leading me to believe there was a ratio at play. No oxygen populated the space, but as I kept it open, it began filling, and my hand moved easier through the space. I placed all my weapons inside out of the guards' vision, and nodded, re-approaching them.

"Oi! Didn't we say no guest entry with weapons?" One of the guards growled at me.

"You did. My weapons are now safely ensconced inside the transport vehicle, in a lock box. May I enter now, and catch up to my guides?" I raised an eyebrow.

They looked between each other, and then sighed. "Yeah, that works. Go on, but if you start any funny business, we won't hesitate to kick you out of the Spire, remember that!" They attempted to posture a last time.

"Yes and I'm terrified, shaking in my boots. Now move out of my way, you microcephalic sycophants." I waved a hand at them sassily, and stepped past them, into the Spire.

Unlike outside, where the sun was just now over the horizon fully, the interior was brightly light, making my eyes sting a bit, until I placed my sun-lenses on. In the new light, I could see a massive tree, with buildings wrapped around the base and amongst the roots, as well as three other castles, spaced equally apart.

The one at the North facing direction was the smallest, but teemed with people, as small as ants from this distance. The portal, a much, much larger version of the bag spell, had placed me at the end of the bridge, under an archway that faced the open air under the floating castle-Tree. To leave, I'd have to Step off the bridge, into open space.

The south-eastern and south-western castles were bigger, but with no people around them, none of the windows filled with the dancing light of the northern castle. The stone buildings around the tree were only mostly empty, with a few older people wandering out of them, across the bridge towards the northern castle.

I spotted Dashiva and Yeshiva, walking along the bridge next to a smaller, older human woman with pure white hair, (just a little silver around the ears,) and jogged up to meet them.

"Ah! And here he is! Rune, how'd you get past the guards? You didn't kill them, did you?" Dashiva asked warily.

"You think very little of me, don't you? No, I simply left my Weapons in the flyer, and walked through. This is very interesting, all of this... the combined carbon dioxide of all these mortals feeds the tree... it's not a Redwood, but at least it's properly sized. Does anyone mind if I climb it, later?" I grinned.

"As long as you don't get yourself or anyone else hurt, no one really cares what you do here! I am Renata, resident Master Tinkerer of the College! I probably won't be your Master, because of my age, -I'm not up to the adventures so much, not anymore,- but you may come to me with any questions or theories, and I'd be happy to brainstorm with you!" The older woman smiled, and patted my hands when I held them out to shake.

"It would be my utmost Pleasure, Miss Renata." I smiled kindly.

"Oh! Been a while since I was addressed as anything but Elder! Ha! Anyway, you have fun now, and do tell that idiot grandson of mine to visit more often, will you, Dashiva darling?" She nodded and waddled off, not waiting for an answer.

"Who's her grandson?" I asked.

"That was Renata Faequell, actually, the last living and free member of her family." She answered softly, looking grieved.

"But she's a human?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh, he's a third-generation Half-Elf... She's a bit touched with age, and doesn't remember the Coup's, that's all." She shook her head, and led us down the bridge the rest of the way.

"So the hate for Half-Elves is mostly from his rule, or simply racial-purity-bias?" I asked casually. She twitched, and deigned not to answer. "A bit of both, then." I shrugged.

Yeshiva glanced at me. "You don't seem to care about taboo topics, do you?"

"No." I grinned, and then looked up at the castle, shaped like a loose square, with an open gateway that led to a courtyard in the middle, where most of the people seemed to be. "So is this just a common area?" I asked.

"Hmm? Oh, they're either waiting to meet their master's or just relaxing with the other students before a day of hard work... or after a day of hard work, for some of them." She gestured at two young elves, passed out and snoring on top of their satchels.

"And the castles?" I looked up at the top, counting the floors.

"This one is the only one currently in use by the general populace, actually. This houses the gardens, the quarry, the aviary, the pool, and so on, all the earth, air, and water-type Magic's. Fire-type Magic's, like Mine and Yeshiva's, have to train down there, just in case of any accidents." She pointed down at the bottom of the little dimension, where a fourth castle, in ruins and smoldering with lava and brimstone, was placed.

"And the other two?" I asked.

"The south-east is where the Dwarven Mages used to work, but we only have about three, now, so they have their own workshops, outside. The southwest is locked down, and we've never really cared to see what's inside." She shrugged.

"Let me guess, it used to be the Tyrant's personal laboratory. And you kept it because it was pretty." I suggested dryly.

She grimaced. "You know, I lied, earlier. We kept the Faequell Family's Creations because they were beautiful, yes, but they're also basically indestructible, and that's worth more than their history or who built them, to us."

"Ahh... yes that makes sense. Utility is important, of course." I shrugged.

She laughed softly. "You're a sarcastic Little fucker, aren't you? Your master is going to have a rough time with you... speaking of!" She waved down two people, both women, who were currently arguing over a piece of broken Dwarven machinery.

"I'm telling you, we should key the gears in a clockwise position, and remove the blockage, then run them Counterclockwise!"

"And I'm saying that's stupid, and we should do the reverse!!!"

I picked it up while they squabbled, and casually opened it, flicking the latch to allow the two cogs to come apart. A bullet clattered out of it onto the stone, halting their argument, as I put it back together, and spun the top half counterclockwise, and the bottom clockwise. It began generating electricity, as was its purpose, and they grinned.

"I told you so!" They yelled in sync.

I waved a hand to clear my ears, and shivered. "They talk very loudly... And it's just a kinetic generator, for a small piece of Dwarven equipment. They get much bigger, with more stages." I explained.

"Oh we know, we just didn't know how to open it... was this how you did it?" One of them found the latch, and hummed when it popped open, shocking her hands loudly. Unaffected, she continued to examine it."Oh, I should've stopped it before I opened it... ah well." She closed it again, and twisted it, powering it up again. It sparked a bit, annoyed at the misusage, and then settled into a steady rhythm.

I picked up the spent bullet, and hummed. "Relatively new Tek... still gunpowder based, though." I shrugged, and tossed it to the second woman.

"Alright, well, Helen, Duma, meet Rune, a new TinkerToy Mage in the Capital! One of you is likely going to be his Master, soon enough! Oh, and he was living in that temple you wanted me to check out, so he has much better notes, but here are mine." Dashiva held out a small notebook.

I took it casually, and flipped through, humming. "You mistranslated the words for 'Steel' and 'Hide', and instead got 'Iron Skin', but otherwise it's a passable translation." I shrugged, handing it to one of the women.

Dashiva raised an eyebrow. "Well excuse me for not being fluent in a language lost for centuries."

I raised an eyebrow back, and spoke in the Ancient Dwarf Tongue. "You're terribly close-minded, you know that? You haven't stopped to think that you might not know as much as you think you know."

She flinched at the guttural language, but held her hands up in surrender. "Alright, Fine, maybe just not spoken by those of us who aren't from the Deep."

"Wait, you're really from the Temple? Did you find any Dwarven artifacts?!?" One squealed.

"Oh! And can you read Elder Romnidrian?!" The other piped up loudly.

"Yes, and yes." I sighed.

The two women looked between us, and grinned again. "Dibs!" They shouted in sync.

"I'll take my chances with the Senile one..." I muttered, massaging my sensitive, sound-abused ears.