Jack Campbell: The Hidden Masters of Marandur

She spent the next few hours supervising the students, making sure they watched the boiler and the fuel and the water, adjusting the flow of steam as necessary. There was an art to anticipating when to increase or lower the fuel supply, but some of the students were picking it up quickly.

When Mari staggered away from the steam plant, it was well after midnight. Leaving the building that housed the boiler, she heard a prolonged cheer go up. Staring across the open area outside the building, she saw apparently every inhabitant of the university applauding her.

Turning to flee the adulation, Mari saw Alain standing there, openly smiling as much as she had ever seen. “Get me out of here,” she pleaded.

“As you wish, my Lady Mechanic.” Alain waved off the crowd of well-wishers, taking her back toward their room. “How do you feel?”

“Totally worn out. Totally marvelous. I did it! I made it work! I taught all those commons how to do it! They can! I was right, Alain! They can do that kind of work!” She hugged him fiercely with one arm as they walked. “I’m so happy and excited! And you suggested it! Alain, if we were promised right now you’d get a night you’d never forget.”

“You did not have to tell me what I will be missing this night,” he responded, the tiny smile flickering on again to take any sting from the words.

“Sorry, but I can give you this.” Ignoring the fact that they were still outside, Mari stopped, turned Alain to face her and kissed him passionately, again and again. Somewhere she continued to hear cheering and hoped it was still for the steam heat and not for the show she was putting on, but she didn’t really care. Alain didn’t seem worried about it, either.

The masters of the University of Marandur stood behind the same table they had occupied the night Mari and Alain had arrived. Alain watched them, trying not to look too tired; Mari had kept him up half the night describing over and over again what she had done to get heat into the buildings once more. Alain had understood practically nothing Mari had said but had listened and nodded at what he hoped were the right places. He must have succeeded, since every once in a while Mari would stop her explanations long enough to kiss him for a while before jumping into another rapid and incomprehensible recitation of Mechanic work.

Overall, it had been a very enjoyable night, given that both he and Mari had as usual remained clothed the whole time, and the masters of the university had been diplomatic enough not to comment on Mari and Alain’s obvious state of sleep deprivation.

“Lady Master Mechanic,” Professor Wren said. “We owe you more than we can say. The most serious threat to our existence has been the cold of winter, and you have given us a way to fight that.”

“It was my pleasure,” Mari replied.

Another professor spoke. “Professor Wren says that you did not request payment for this service.”

“That’s correct.” Mari looked down the rank of professors. “Make no mistake, I gained some important knowledge by what I did. But I also wanted to do something because it was right, not because it would profit me.”

The masters shifted in their seats, gazing at each other and murmuring in voices too low for Mari or Alain to hear.

Finally Professor Wren addressed Mari again. “You told us that you wished to change the world, and that you sought manuscripts from your Guild’s old headquarters. Is that truly why you seek these manuscripts?”

“It is.” Mari looked in the direction of the nearest window, then gestured toward the ruins of the city beyond the university’s walls. “Things must change. The world is headed for a fate like that of Marandur, only multiplied countless times. I need the technology in those manuscripts if I am to have any chance of altering that.”

Wren looked at Alain. “And you, Sir Mage, do you agree with this goal of Lady Mechanic Mari?”

Alain nodded. “I agree with her. It is my goal as well, to do what is right.”

A male professor leaned forward, clasping his hands on the table before him. “To do what is right? We have weighty responsibilities, Sir Mage. Not everyone agrees on what is right. How do we know this Mechanic’s words are true? How do we know that she does not serve other ends than she proclaims?”

“What other proof can we ask for?” Professor Wren said, looking at her companions. “We have seen what this woman did freely, without any compulsion, without knowledge of any reward we might give her.”

Yet another professor spoke, his tone challenging. “I will accept that, but still I must know this answer. Do you act against the emperor, Lady Mechanic?”

“No,” Mari replied.

“But you defied the emperor’s ban to come here.”

Mari fixed the man with a cold look. “There’s a new Imperial capital down the river from here. The city’s name is Palandur. If nothing is done, then someday, someday not too far in the future, maybe only a few years, Palandur will suffer the same fate as Marandur. Cities in Tiae have already fallen prey to chaos and lawlessness. Some day soon, that rot will reach the Empire, and Landfall will crumble, and Palandur, and Severun, and Umburan, and there will be nothing but barbarism like that outside your walls from one end of Dematr to the other. I want to prevent that.”

His voice impassive, Alain added one more sentence. “Is such a goal contrary to the welfare of the emperor and the Empire?”

“And what of your Guild, Lady Mechanic?” asked a female professor. “How do they feel about this goal?”

Mari met the woman’s gaze. “Many Mechanics know that something must be done.”

“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.”