By Beth Bovard
Merily Pepperdyne became screamingly awake as the Appointment Guarantee Chronometer exploded in a shocking sound array of clangs, whistles, and trumpets on her bedside table. But her heart was not hammering in her chest out of fear or startle. Merily was excited because today would change everything. After today, The Incident would become a dim memory chased away by the light of her brilliant accomplishment.
She hurried and got ready for work, gathering her magical implements and shoving her tiny feet into her work boots. She look around her room, with its stacks of borrowed books and manuscripts, her desk a pile of notes and an assortment of used crockery, and her barely slept-in bed and knew that tomorrow she could clean up at long last. She threw her satchel strap over her head-full of carrot-orange braids and strode out of her room and into the hallway, joining the flow of gnomes scurrying towards the great laboratory.
“Where are you going?” hissed Ernic Totterspringer as they marched through the tunnels.
“What? I’m going to work, of course!” Merily’s turquoise eyes sparkled.
“To work? Is that such a good idea? I mean, today of all days…”
“The Grandwizard will surely want to incorporate my research into today’s agenda. The Project needs me!” Merily gripped her satchel strap tighter and marched on.
Ernic slapped a palm to his brown forehead and groaned as he trotted forward, tapping another gnome to whisper in his ear as they jogged, hurrying to stay ahead of Merily. The whispers spread quickly through the other laboratory workers as they all scrambled through the tunnel, their eyes darting furtively at Merily.
“Don’t mind that negative-gnome,” said Eriss Tamble. Merily’s best friend bumped her affectionately with the elbow of an arm holding a large pile of papers and a satchel.
“You can do this Merily, I just know you can! Come on, let’s hurry!” Eriss grinned at her friend and walked faster.
The dirt and rock-lined passageway emptied out into a giant cavern, where morning sun shone down through a massive lens in the middle of the ceiling. The laboratory walls had been chiseled smooth, allowing machinery to be installed along it’s rectangular edges. Power generators, steam-pressurized tanks, and a multitude of machines for stirring, shaking, pulling, electrifying, and up-ending created a cacophony that competed with shouting excited gnomes as they worked. In the middle of the room was the Project.
The Project stood on a metal pedestal, awaiting its final spell-work. Merily’s adoring gaze took in the shining silver skin, the smoky quartzite hooves, the proud head with onyx eyes, and the wondrous velvet saddle on its intricately spell-runed back. She sighed with pride and longing.
It had been six weeks since The Incident. Despite the setbacks, Merily knew she could prove her worth through research, study and practice, rendering all those other teensy-weensy, itty-bitty accidents completely forgivable. After today, her worthiness would be apparent to the Grandwizard and her fellow lab assistants. She would become the next Wizard Apprentice, and from there she would become the next expert on Magical Constructs. Then of course, the magical community would all know her name. In fact, the lab assistants here today might be looking up her essays and dissertations at the Eagleplume Repository of Magical Information; perhaps her theories and processes will even be taught in curriculum at the Invocatorium College!
She almost failed to stifle the squeak of a giggle that bubbled up with her thoughts. But first things first. Her thoughts contained and her victory assured, she marched up to the overseer as he studied the final checklist, her precious notes clutched in her damp fingers. She looked across the laboratory at Eriss, who grinned wide and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Mister Overseer, oh, Mister Bilbert, sir, please listen to me for a moment! I have a crucial addition to today’s spell that I researched over the past six weeks. Here, let me show you…” Mr. Bilbert looked down his nose at Merily, his cheeks pinkening as they puffed out, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything because the Grandwizard appeared.
Grandwizard Ficco Fusstopple climbed the small metal riser that set him two feet higher than all the other gnomes in the room. As if he didn’t want to take any chances on being shorter than anyone else, his sky blue and gold brocade hat came to a point, another foot above his brow. He wore his marigold yellow robes of office over his work tunic, and no one told him that the tip of his long white beard was caught in the golden links of his belt. A well-dressed human man that Merily had never seen before stepped back from the riser. She wondered how long he had been standing there. The Grandwizard raised his arms as he addressed the room, and all other talking hushed in reverence.
“Overseers, inspectors, and administrators, apprentices, assistants, and laborers, it is time to perform the final spell for our great Project. The Automatic Relocation Delivery and Conveyance Vehicle, also known as the ARDAC-5 will be complete today! Now it is time to take a deep breath and remember your training. We must vocalize the incantation as one voice, with perfect enunciation and tempo in order to properly bind the lesser air elemental life essence into our construct. Remember to watch me as I conduct the incantation, but keep your will focused on the ARDAC-5.”
“Places, places everyone!” ordered Mr. Bilbert, who then turned on Merily in a rush and said, “Merily Pepperdyne, I do not have time for any of your shenanigans today. Now, get out of the way!”
Her heart in her shoes, she tried not to cry while her hopes spun out of her grasp. She had been so sure that she could prove herself a capable and skilled researcher, thus earning a chance at apprenticeship. Stay out of the way? After weeks and weeks of research and testing in order to contribute something so important- something that was not an accident, she couldn’t just get out of the way. She knew the incantation well. At least she could help with that part.
A circle of containment runes was etched into the stone floor around the Project, and Merily stepped forward into the ring of determined gnomes who stood just outside its edge. Their chanting began slow but confident, and then rose in a crescendo, perfectly matching the Grandwizard’s lead, inviting and binding the animating force of the ARDAC-5. The morning sun shone down through the lens of the ceiling, intensifying the majestic gleam of the silver horse-shaped machine, creating a halo of perfect light that reflected in the eyes of the chanters as they channeled their satisfaction and delight into their latest work.
Merily chanted along with her coworkers, holding onto her focus with difficulty. She was sure that her day could not go any more awry than it already had, when she felt the tickle at the base of her skull. Oh no! she thought as chaos surged through her tiny body and joined the flow of magic into the ARDAC-5. No…no…no…no…NO!
Just then, the ARDAC-5 reared up on its dazzling hind legs and screamed its rage like a trapped lion, its onyx eyes ignited into fiery coals.
“What have you done to me?!” screamed the ARDAC-5 in the voice of a cyclone.
“I’m so sorry, O Great One!” squeaked the Grandwizard from between his hands on his bright red cheeks. “It was an accident of summoning, for we only wished to borrow the tiniest breeze for our construct!”
“I am a Prince of the Winds and you will release me at once!”
The Grandwizard fell to his knees, shaking. “My lord, I do not know how!”
“Of course you don’t, little wizard, since it wasn’t you that bound me!” ARDAC-5 turned with a whirring and clicking of his exquisite servos, fastening his burning gaze upon Merily.
“Merily Threebit Fizzbender Pepperdyne, nicknamed “Zapjinx” by those in this room, will you release me from service to you?”
Merily’s knees melted, her mouth went dry, and her thoughts ran away, scattered locusts in the brush fire of ARDAC-5’s glare. The shaking began in her legs and climbed up her body as if she were standing on a plate of live wires.
“Um… ah… yes, certainly, uh, sir, ahem, I mean, my lord.” Merily would have said anything to take that burning gaze from her.
“Excellent! You may begin, sorcerer.” The ARDAC-5 waited regally.
Did the ARDAC-5 mean now? Right now?
“Wait, what? It will take weeks of research to craft the proper spell to free you, sir, uh, my lord, maybe even months. I do not know how to do it any more than the Grandwizard.”
“Ridiculous! Sorcerers only need infuse their will with innate magic and thus the spell is done. As you have bound me here, simply release me.”
Merily’s jaw was still drooling onto her tunic when the Grandwizard spoke up from where he kowtowed. “My lord, Lab Assistant Merily suffered an accident six weeks ago and was suffused with Wild Magic. She has no control over the spontaneous magical eruptions that occur in her vicinity, which is why I told her not to be here today!”
Stern and accusing eyes drilled into her from every gnome face, adding an icy chill to her shaking and drooling. Fear rose in her as a monster even more immediately terrifying than the Prince of Air trapped in a mechanical construct, and she stood frozen under it, a rabbit in the lion’s gaze.
He thoughts raced while her body stood rigid in a trap of fear. The Incident will clearly haunt her for the rest of her life. How could she be a wizard when huge and horrible catastrophes keep happening? Likely she would have to go to work in the scullery. Only potato-peeling and soup-stirring for her now. She’d probably even mess up biscuits. Chef Emsy would smack her with a wooden spoon every time her wild magic went off and messed up a pie… Pie. Blueberry pie was Eriss’ favorite. At least Eriss would get to work in the lab- with the scary silver horse that is crazy angry right now and saying things like how Merily is his summoner…
The lab was in an uproar. ARDAC-5 was bellowing as he stomped around madly, breaking everything in his path. “Release me! Release me!”
Eriss and several other gnomes cowered against the wall, clinging to each other and sobbing. ARDAC wrenched a motor from its housing on a machine and hurled it at the terrified gnomes, scraping Eriss and smashing into the wall beside her. Eriss’ scream penetrated Merily’s fear, digging through the layers of self-pity and humiliation and plucking out her best friend’s most recent words, “You can do this Merily, I just know you can!”
Merily saw her friend’s bleeding arm and hurtled herself forward without thinking, yelling “Stop, ARDAC!” and waving her hands in the air.
To her amazement, ARDAC did stop. He swung around, his fiery eyes turned to blue as he faced her. He stood still as a statue and said, “As you command, Master.”
Merily’s mouth hardened into a thin line. She yanked up her tunic’s sleeves and pointed a tiny finger at the offending construct.
“I’ve got some commands for you ARDAC. Here is the first one: you must never do anything that could cause harm to a gnome of this village.”
ARDAC snorted. “As you command, Master.”
“The second one is: you must wait patiently for me to release you, and never demand it again.”
ARDAC’s eyes flashed. “As you command, Master.”
“And the third one is: you must tell me everything you know about how I might release you!”
ARDAC hummed softly, his eyes dimming. His deep voice eased from cyclone to west wind. “As you command, Master. May I suggest you consult an experienced sorcerer as a first step?”
“Brass buttons! Where would I find one of those?”
“I believe I could help with that,” said the well-dressed human man as he stepped away from the Grandwizard. He was a lamp post of a man, tall and thin, with a mass of curly black hair on his head, and a tiny goatee that stood out starkly on his pale face. His eyes were blue ice, so startling that you could see them glittering from across a room. With a practiced bow and a little flourish of his long black coat, the man introduced himself. “I am Rustav Gunderwold. I am a sorcerer, and an acquaintance of Grandwizard Fusstopple. I came to visit him when I heard about the Incident. I thought I could be of assistance.” His smile seemed genuine, if a little unnerving in his cheerless features.
Merily narrowed her eyes. “How can you assist, exactly?”
“By training you as the sorcerer you are, or rather, have become.”
Her dreams were falling out of her like marbles through a hole in her pocket. “But I wanted to become a wizard.”
“My dear, you can certainly study wizardly spells and arcane knowledge all you like. You’ll just need to learn how the magic will come from you, instead of from the ether.”
Merily bit her lip, trying to reconcile the idea.
“Why don’t you come with me to Port Kehl? You can enter my academy there and learn how to manage your wild magic. You can also learn how to undo the ARDAC’s prison and set your unwilling Lord of Air free.”
Eriss ran up to Merily, her face awash with worry, her bloody scrape forgotten. “Merily, you have to do it! You have to go with Mr. Gunderwold and learn how to control your wild magic.” She grabbed Merily’s hands and squeezed. “After today, you can never come back to the lab, but if you go to Port Kehl, you can become an apprentice and learn wonderful things! We’ll all be jealous of your huge adventure, but you have to do this.” Merily looked hard into Eriss’ eyes, looking for the disgust, disappointment, and judgement that she expected to see there. But all she saw was love and hope. Had she been looking so hard for the acceptance of her peers that she overlooked this acceptance in her friend? Merily had spent weeks of sleepless research looking for a way to get back to “normal” when Eriss had been right here showing her that the new “normal” is just as good as the old, all along.
A fat tear slid down Merily’s large nose as she turned to the tall human. “I would be most pleased to study at your academy, Mr. Gunderwold. I’ll just need a little time to say goodbye to my friends and family and pack my things.”
Mr. Gunderwold nodded, smiling. “Of course, Miss Pepperdyne. Please take all the time you need.” His thoughtful gaze shifted to the ARDAC-V, who waited, still and silent amongst the lab debris.
“If I may be so bold as to offer advice at this time, it might be prudent for the ARDAC-V to accompany you to Port Kehl. Not only will he have helpful insights into your learning, but also, I believe he would serve as a mighty fine conveyance, don’t you think?”
Was that humor twinkling in those ice blue eyes? Merily couldn’t be sure, but she grinned despite herself. “That sounds like a great idea,” she said. She turned to the beautiful and terrifying construct she had helped create. “ARDAC, meet me at the front gate in two hours, ready to travel to the human city of Port Kehl.”
ARDAC bowed his head ever so slightly. “As you command, Master.”
07 Aug 2017
Wild Magic
By Beth Bovard
Merily Pepperdyne became screamingly awake as the Appointment Guarantee Chronometer exploded in a shocking sound array of clangs, whistles, and trumpets on her bedside table. But her heart was not hammering in her chest out of fear or startle. Merily was excited because today would change everything. After today, The Incident would become a dim memory chased away by the light of her brilliant accomplishment.
She hurried and got ready for work, gathering her magical implements and shoving her tiny feet into her work boots. She look around her room, with its stacks of borrowed books and manuscripts, her desk a pile of notes and an assortment of used crockery, and her barely slept-in bed and knew that tomorrow she could clean up at long last. She threw her satchel strap over her head-full of carrot-orange braids and strode out of her room and into the hallway, joining the flow of gnomes scurrying towards the great laboratory.
“Where are you going?” hissed Ernic Totterspringer as they marched through the tunnels.
“What? I’m going to work, of course!” Merily’s turquoise eyes sparkled.
“To work? Is that such a good idea? I mean, today of all days…”
“The Grandwizard will surely want to incorporate my research into today’s agenda. The Project needs me!” Merily gripped her satchel strap tighter and marched on.
Ernic slapped a palm to his brown forehead and groaned as he trotted forward, tapping another gnome to whisper in his ear as they jogged, hurrying to stay ahead of Merily. The whispers spread quickly through the other laboratory workers as they all scrambled through the tunnel, their eyes darting furtively at Merily.
“Don’t mind that negative-gnome,” said Eriss Tamble. Merily’s best friend bumped her affectionately with the elbow of an arm holding a large pile of papers and a satchel.
“You can do this Merily, I just know you can! Come on, let’s hurry!” Eriss grinned at her friend and walked faster.
The dirt and rock-lined passageway emptied out into a giant cavern, where morning sun shone down through a massive lens in the middle of the ceiling. The laboratory walls had been chiseled smooth, allowing machinery to be installed along it’s rectangular edges. Power generators, steam-pressurized tanks, and a multitude of machines for stirring, shaking, pulling, electrifying, and up-ending created a cacophony that competed with shouting excited gnomes as they worked. In the middle of the room was the Project.
The Project stood on a metal pedestal, awaiting its final spell-work. Merily’s adoring gaze took in the shining silver skin, the smoky quartzite hooves, the proud head with onyx eyes, and the wondrous velvet saddle on its intricately spell-runed back. She sighed with pride and longing.
It had been six weeks since The Incident. Despite the setbacks, Merily knew she could prove her worth through research, study and practice, rendering all those other teensy-weensy, itty-bitty accidents completely forgivable. After today, her worthiness would be apparent to the Grandwizard and her fellow lab assistants. She would become the next Wizard Apprentice, and from there she would become the next expert on Magical Constructs. Then of course, the magical community would all know her name. In fact, the lab assistants here today might be looking up her essays and dissertations at the Eagleplume Repository of Magical Information; perhaps her theories and processes will even be taught in curriculum at the Invocatorium College!
She almost failed to stifle the squeak of a giggle that bubbled up with her thoughts. But first things first. Her thoughts contained and her victory assured, she marched up to the overseer as he studied the final checklist, her precious notes clutched in her damp fingers. She looked across the laboratory at Eriss, who grinned wide and gave her a thumbs-up.
“Mister Overseer, oh, Mister Bilbert, sir, please listen to me for a moment! I have a crucial addition to today’s spell that I researched over the past six weeks. Here, let me show you…” Mr. Bilbert looked down his nose at Merily, his cheeks pinkening as they puffed out, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything because the Grandwizard appeared.
Grandwizard Ficco Fusstopple climbed the small metal riser that set him two feet higher than all the other gnomes in the room. As if he didn’t want to take any chances on being shorter than anyone else, his sky blue and gold brocade hat came to a point, another foot above his brow. He wore his marigold yellow robes of office over his work tunic, and no one told him that the tip of his long white beard was caught in the golden links of his belt. A well-dressed human man that Merily had never seen before stepped back from the riser. She wondered how long he had been standing there. The Grandwizard raised his arms as he addressed the room, and all other talking hushed in reverence.
“Overseers, inspectors, and administrators, apprentices, assistants, and laborers, it is time to perform the final spell for our great Project. The Automatic Relocation Delivery and Conveyance Vehicle, also known as the ARDAC-5 will be complete today! Now it is time to take a deep breath and remember your training. We must vocalize the incantation as one voice, with perfect enunciation and tempo in order to properly bind the lesser air elemental life essence into our construct. Remember to watch me as I conduct the incantation, but keep your will focused on the ARDAC-5.”
“Places, places everyone!” ordered Mr. Bilbert, who then turned on Merily in a rush and said, “Merily Pepperdyne, I do not have time for any of your shenanigans today. Now, get out of the way!”
Her heart in her shoes, she tried not to cry while her hopes spun out of her grasp. She had been so sure that she could prove herself a capable and skilled researcher, thus earning a chance at apprenticeship. Stay out of the way? After weeks and weeks of research and testing in order to contribute something so important- something that was not an accident, she couldn’t just get out of the way. She knew the incantation well. At least she could help with that part.
A circle of containment runes was etched into the stone floor around the Project, and Merily stepped forward into the ring of determined gnomes who stood just outside its edge. Their chanting began slow but confident, and then rose in a crescendo, perfectly matching the Grandwizard’s lead, inviting and binding the animating force of the ARDAC-5. The morning sun shone down through the lens of the ceiling, intensifying the majestic gleam of the silver horse-shaped machine, creating a halo of perfect light that reflected in the eyes of the chanters as they channeled their satisfaction and delight into their latest work.
Merily chanted along with her coworkers, holding onto her focus with difficulty. She was sure that her day could not go any more awry than it already had, when she felt the tickle at the base of her skull. Oh no! she thought as chaos surged through her tiny body and joined the flow of magic into the ARDAC-5. No…no…no…no…NO!
Just then, the ARDAC-5 reared up on its dazzling hind legs and screamed its rage like a trapped lion, its onyx eyes ignited into fiery coals.
“What have you done to me?!” screamed the ARDAC-5 in the voice of a cyclone.
“I’m so sorry, O Great One!” squeaked the Grandwizard from between his hands on his bright red cheeks. “It was an accident of summoning, for we only wished to borrow the tiniest breeze for our construct!”
“I am a Prince of the Winds and you will release me at once!”
The Grandwizard fell to his knees, shaking. “My lord, I do not know how!”
“Of course you don’t, little wizard, since it wasn’t you that bound me!” ARDAC-5 turned with a whirring and clicking of his exquisite servos, fastening his burning gaze upon Merily.
“Merily Threebit Fizzbender Pepperdyne, nicknamed “Zapjinx” by those in this room, will you release me from service to you?”
Merily’s knees melted, her mouth went dry, and her thoughts ran away, scattered locusts in the brush fire of ARDAC-5’s glare. The shaking began in her legs and climbed up her body as if she were standing on a plate of live wires.
“Um… ah… yes, certainly, uh, sir, ahem, I mean, my lord.” Merily would have said anything to take that burning gaze from her.
“Excellent! You may begin, sorcerer.” The ARDAC-5 waited regally.
Did the ARDAC-5 mean now? Right now?
“Wait, what? It will take weeks of research to craft the proper spell to free you, sir, uh, my lord, maybe even months. I do not know how to do it any more than the Grandwizard.”
“Ridiculous! Sorcerers only need infuse their will with innate magic and thus the spell is done. As you have bound me here, simply release me.”
Merily’s jaw was still drooling onto her tunic when the Grandwizard spoke up from where he kowtowed. “My lord, Lab Assistant Merily suffered an accident six weeks ago and was suffused with Wild Magic. She has no control over the spontaneous magical eruptions that occur in her vicinity, which is why I told her not to be here today!”
Stern and accusing eyes drilled into her from every gnome face, adding an icy chill to her shaking and drooling. Fear rose in her as a monster even more immediately terrifying than the Prince of Air trapped in a mechanical construct, and she stood frozen under it, a rabbit in the lion’s gaze.
He thoughts raced while her body stood rigid in a trap of fear. The Incident will clearly haunt her for the rest of her life. How could she be a wizard when huge and horrible catastrophes keep happening? Likely she would have to go to work in the scullery. Only potato-peeling and soup-stirring for her now. She’d probably even mess up biscuits. Chef Emsy would smack her with a wooden spoon every time her wild magic went off and messed up a pie… Pie. Blueberry pie was Eriss’ favorite. At least Eriss would get to work in the lab- with the scary silver horse that is crazy angry right now and saying things like how Merily is his summoner…
The lab was in an uproar. ARDAC-5 was bellowing as he stomped around madly, breaking everything in his path. “Release me! Release me!”
Eriss and several other gnomes cowered against the wall, clinging to each other and sobbing. ARDAC wrenched a motor from its housing on a machine and hurled it at the terrified gnomes, scraping Eriss and smashing into the wall beside her. Eriss’ scream penetrated Merily’s fear, digging through the layers of self-pity and humiliation and plucking out her best friend’s most recent words, “You can do this Merily, I just know you can!”
Merily saw her friend’s bleeding arm and hurtled herself forward without thinking, yelling “Stop, ARDAC!” and waving her hands in the air.
To her amazement, ARDAC did stop. He swung around, his fiery eyes turned to blue as he faced her. He stood still as a statue and said, “As you command, Master.”
Merily’s mouth hardened into a thin line. She yanked up her tunic’s sleeves and pointed a tiny finger at the offending construct.
“I’ve got some commands for you ARDAC. Here is the first one: you must never do anything that could cause harm to a gnome of this village.”
ARDAC snorted. “As you command, Master.”
“The second one is: you must wait patiently for me to release you, and never demand it again.”
ARDAC’s eyes flashed. “As you command, Master.”
“And the third one is: you must tell me everything you know about how I might release you!”
ARDAC hummed softly, his eyes dimming. His deep voice eased from cyclone to west wind. “As you command, Master. May I suggest you consult an experienced sorcerer as a first step?”
“Brass buttons! Where would I find one of those?”
“I believe I could help with that,” said the well-dressed human man as he stepped away from the Grandwizard. He was a lamp post of a man, tall and thin, with a mass of curly black hair on his head, and a tiny goatee that stood out starkly on his pale face. His eyes were blue ice, so startling that you could see them glittering from across a room. With a practiced bow and a little flourish of his long black coat, the man introduced himself. “I am Rustav Gunderwold. I am a sorcerer, and an acquaintance of Grandwizard Fusstopple. I came to visit him when I heard about the Incident. I thought I could be of assistance.” His smile seemed genuine, if a little unnerving in his cheerless features.
Merily narrowed her eyes. “How can you assist, exactly?”
“By training you as the sorcerer you are, or rather, have become.”
Her dreams were falling out of her like marbles through a hole in her pocket. “But I wanted to become a wizard.”
“My dear, you can certainly study wizardly spells and arcane knowledge all you like. You’ll just need to learn how the magic will come from you, instead of from the ether.”
Merily bit her lip, trying to reconcile the idea.
“Why don’t you come with me to Port Kehl? You can enter my academy there and learn how to manage your wild magic. You can also learn how to undo the ARDAC’s prison and set your unwilling Lord of Air free.”
Eriss ran up to Merily, her face awash with worry, her bloody scrape forgotten. “Merily, you have to do it! You have to go with Mr. Gunderwold and learn how to control your wild magic.” She grabbed Merily’s hands and squeezed. “After today, you can never come back to the lab, but if you go to Port Kehl, you can become an apprentice and learn wonderful things! We’ll all be jealous of your huge adventure, but you have to do this.” Merily looked hard into Eriss’ eyes, looking for the disgust, disappointment, and judgement that she expected to see there. But all she saw was love and hope. Had she been looking so hard for the acceptance of her peers that she overlooked this acceptance in her friend? Merily had spent weeks of sleepless research looking for a way to get back to “normal” when Eriss had been right here showing her that the new “normal” is just as good as the old, all along.
A fat tear slid down Merily’s large nose as she turned to the tall human. “I would be most pleased to study at your academy, Mr. Gunderwold. I’ll just need a little time to say goodbye to my friends and family and pack my things.”
Mr. Gunderwold nodded, smiling. “Of course, Miss Pepperdyne. Please take all the time you need.” His thoughtful gaze shifted to the ARDAC-V, who waited, still and silent amongst the lab debris.
“If I may be so bold as to offer advice at this time, it might be prudent for the ARDAC-V to accompany you to Port Kehl. Not only will he have helpful insights into your learning, but also, I believe he would serve as a mighty fine conveyance, don’t you think?”
Was that humor twinkling in those ice blue eyes? Merily couldn’t be sure, but she grinned despite herself. “That sounds like a great idea,” she said. She turned to the beautiful and terrifying construct she had helped create. “ARDAC, meet me at the front gate in two hours, ready to travel to the human city of Port Kehl.”
ARDAC bowed his head ever so slightly. “As you command, Master.”
by Beth in Fiction Tags: d&d, dungeons and dragons, fantasy, gnome, short story, tinker gnome