Jack Campbell - The Hidden Masters of Marandur

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 .”

“Why would your Guild have suppressed things which would have allowed it to exercise more power?”

“I’m not sure.” Mari frowned down at the text in front of her. “But you’re right. I said we’ve lost this. That’s not true. It was deliberately kept away from everyone, deliberately suppressed. I think these things would’ve made it too hard for the Mechanics Guild to claim mastery and control if this sort of technology had been available.” She laughed briefly and harshly. “Or maybe they were just afraid, those old Guild leaders and the Guild leaders now, afraid to take any risk, so they suppressed things right and left just in case.”

Alain nodded. “To keep things from changing.”

“Yeah.” Mari abruptly slammed her palm onto the table, making the text in front of her jump. “But where did it all come from? This stuff couldn’t have been dreamed up by a Guild Hall or a city or even the Empire. It’s got to be the end product of a huge number of scientific and technological advances. Where and when did that happen?”

“Some say there is another continent to the west,” Alain reminded her.

“I know all about that legend. But with all this? And we’ve never heard from them? Maybe if they didn’t want to hear from us and kept a tight quarantine—but surely over all the centuries of our history someone would’ve seen something.” She leaned back, the explosive frustration of a moment before gone. “I’ll keep looking, but I’m not finding anything but technical and scientific texts. No histories that might explain where the science and technology came from. It’s enough to make me seriously consider that thing you keep bringing up about us all coming from the stars. That would at least help explain this where nothing else does.”

“Could learning the answer to that help you understand what is here?” Alain pointed to the texts piled around her. “Could it provide some insight into these things you are having trouble understanding?”

“It’s possible. I have no idea.” Mari stared around at the stacks of documents. “If only I could take all of this with us. But that’s impossible. There are some things I need, texts that describe weapons and other equipment or devices better than those the Mechanics Guild allows and yet within our capability to build. I’ll choose what can fit in my pack and—”

“Our packs,” Alain corrected.

She laughed again, but this time happily. “Oh, yeah. Not only do I go into the forbidden city of Marandur, not only do I read forbidden texts, not only do I teach forbidden Mechanic arts to the commons here, but I’m also going to hand some of the most secret Mechanic texts to a Mage! I’m running out of truly epic crimes to commit.”