Steamforged Sorcery - Chapter 17 (Patreon)

“This is a safe house for Hunters. Nobody will be stupid enough to bother us here tonight. We can get supplies and leave in the morning,” Cowl said. “There isn’t any food here, so we’ll have to make do with rations.”

Vanessa made a face as Angel pulled out his rations, but she followed suit a moment later. Once again, Cowl ate meticulously and with deliberate movements, never removing his mask entirely but instead lifting it just enough to fit the scraps of jerky beneath it.

“Is there a reason you don’t take your mask off?” Vanessa asked bluntly.

“Yes,” Cowl replied. He stuck another morsel under the mask. Vanessa sent a side eyed glance at Angel, but the Seeker just shrugged.

“You’ll get used to it,” Angel said. “Hunters are strange sorts. They do what they want and often tend to be eccentric. Fighting monsters for a living can do a lot to a person.”

“Like Seekers are much better,” Cowl said with a low laugh. “You spend even more time in the Barren than we do. I’ve met many a good Seeker that went insane after getting trapped in a catacomb.”

“Good Seekers don’t get trapped,” Angel replied curtly. “There’s always a way out. If more people opened their minds to the true possibilities of magic, they’d realize that.”

Angel finished off the rest of his food, ignoring the befuddled look that Vanessa was giving him. He pulled three empty cannisters out from his bag and set about filling them.

“How do you do that?” Vanessa asked.

“Do what?” Angel asked. “Fill the cannisters?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s a Tinkerer technique,” Angel said. “That’s what you’re going to school for, isn’t it?”

Vanessa nodded. “Yeah, it is. It’s the only thing my mom would let me do since it’s not dangerous like being a Seeker or a Hunter. I don’t know anything about it, but making magic sounds really interesting.”

“Well, you’ll probably learn it soon enough in school,” Angel said, shrugging. “It’s a pretty simple method. It’s just imprinting a pattern with the magic and then putting it within a container to hold it. The cannisters also act as a catalyst to activate the magic within them.”

“Why do you need a catalyst?” Vanessa asked. “Can’t you just make the pattern and then cast it normally?”

“That’s Old World magic,” Angel said. “Strong Old World magic at that. Aside from Old World and New World, magic comes in two main forms: passive and active. Passive magic is something that’s always functioning without needing some form of activation.”

Angel raised his mechanical arm and nodded at it. “My arm is an example of that. It runs without conscious thought from me. Passive magic tends to be weaker than active magic. Active Old World magic is a lost art. People used to be summon lightening from their hands and control the sea with their mind.”

“And that’s why it was eradicated, right?” Vanessa asked. “It was too dangerous.”

“You make it sound like we made a conscious decision to do it,” Angel said, laughing. “But it’s hardly eradicated – it’s just very rare. There are still a few artifacts that let you use active magic.”

“But your cannisters are New World magic, right?” Vanessa asked. “They don’t look like they’re passive, since the magic happens instantly.”

“Correct,” Angel said. “New World magic is more of a mixture. The cannisters are active. They basically act like a cage for the magic I put within them. The magic wants to return to its natural form, but it has to follow the pattern I make to do so. That pattern determines the type of effect the magic has.”

“So why do you need a cannister?”

“Pressure,” Angel replied, filling another cannister. “If I just release the spell into the air, it’ll fizzle out. However, steel blocks magical flow. Most metal does, actually. Magic runs alongside it, but it can’t penetrate on its own. The magical energy within the cannisters gets agitated as time goes by, which builds up power. When I then break the cannister, it rushes forth as a spell.”

“Wow. That’s actually kind of interesting,” Vanessa said, watching closely as Angel filled his final cannister. The Seeker smirked and placed them into the slots on his upper arm.

“You should see what Old World magic can do.”

“You’ve seen it?” Vanessa asked. “I’ve heard rumors of Magistrates using it, but mom never showed me any.”

“There are murals in a lot of the catacombs,” Angel replied. “And I’ve seen people use artifacts that had powerful Old World magic. It was… beautiful and terrifying at the same time.”

“And you want to bring more of it back,” Cowl said with a scoff. “Some things should stay gone.”

“Bold words for someone that uses just as much Old World magic as I do,” Angel said. “Those wings of yours aren’t anything of new make.”

“Touche.” Cowl let out a small laugh. He stood up and pushed the table to the side of the room. Then he grabbed one of the straw mattresses from the small closet and dragged it out in to the main room, setting it in front of the door. “I’m going to get some rest. We’ll be setting off tomorrow morning. Angel was right – the less time we spend in the cities, the better it is. I can’t say how long it’ll take our pursuers to find us.”

With that sobering thought, Cowl laid back on the mattress. He took his hat off and laid it over his face so that it covered the light.

“Does Cowl ever take that mask off?” Vanessa whispered to Angel.

“No clue. I haven’t known him much longer than you,” Angel whispered back. “And speaking of you – how are you doing? It’s not easy to flee from everything you’ve ever known in the middle of the night.”

Vanessa’s proud features faltered for a moment as a flash of fear and uncertainty slipped free. She shook her head and gave Angel a shrug with one shoulder. “What am I supposed to say to that? Of course I’m terrified. I don’t even want to think about what will happen if we get caught. I don’t even know if I want to become a Tinkerer – but anything is better than getting married to some disgusting old man who can’t see his pecker past his fat stomach.”