Bog Standard Isekai

Martin’s insights into [Terrifying] were as valuable as Brin would expect from the Dean of the Mind Track, and by the end of the session, he started to get a feel for when he was pushing the Title and when he was drawing it back. Martin claimed that just recognizing when it was happening was the first step in learning to control it, and Brin had no reason to disagree.

They scheduled another meeting, but Brin was resolute in his determination to practice this as much as he could so that those meetings would be as infrequent as possible. Not that he really had any reason to dislike Martin, but the man unnerved him and he couldn't get over the fact that he never knew if anyone else was in the room.

Even though classes were over, he found both Sancha and Ares hanging around the back of the atrium towards the Tower’s back entrance.

“Both Sancha and I are avoiding our families. Entertain us,” said Ares.

Sancha shook her head. “He doth overstate the matter, yet… I should be well content to bide awhile with friends, rather than hie me home in haste.”

“Heh. Hide to home in haste. Nice,” said Ares, to which Sancha smirked in satisfaction.

“Actually, I was hoping to talk to Hogg about something,” said Brin.

“Yeah no worries then,” said Ares.

“Why don’t you two come with? You can see the city house, and stay for dinner,” said Brin. “We’ll send you home in the carriage afterwards.”

Ares looked uncertain. “Oh, uh…”

“We would not wish to be an imposition,” said Sancha.

“What imposition?” asked Brin. “The poor cook makes dinner every night whether I eat it or not. Everyone will be delighted.”

“I will ensure that I or Jeeves will drive the carriage, and not Bedelia, so that you will arrive back home safely, and not earlier or later than you wish,” said Tonin.

Brin was a little surprised, because Tonin didn’t usually join conversations with any of Brin’s classmates unless he was called on. He followed the direction that Tonin was purposefully not looking, towards where Sancha’s servant Sanpurana was hanging back.

“I would need bring my maid with me,” said Sancha.

“Naturally,” said Brin. “Me and Hogg are bachelors. Anything else wouldn’t be proper.”

“And 'tis somewhat strange.. yet the custom in my house is that the maid shall dine beside me at the chief table,” said Sancha.

“We’ll make it work,” said Brin.

“Then I suppose I accept!” said Sancha.

Ares blinked a couple times. “You sure? I’m not… I mean, I’m not like, you know… important.”

“You think I am?” asked Brin.

“Ha! I guess not. Alright, lead the way!” said Ares.

When they got to the back entrance, Bedelia was already there and waiting with the reins in her hands and a mischievous smile on her face. She dropped the reins and then made a show of counting by pointing at each of them in turn. “Oh dear! We won’t all fit.”

“Sanpurana may join me on the box,” said Tonin.

Sancha winced. “Nay… she–”

“Quite right. A servant’s place,” said Sanpurana, already taking Tonin’s hand to step up next to him on the driver’s seat.

“And I… I can run along behind!” said Bedelia.

“Four will fit in the cab,” said Brin.

“Alright then!” said Bedelia, and got down on her hands and knees so that they could use her as a stepping stool to get into the carriage.

“No. We’ve been over this. You’re not going to trick me into being mean to you in front of my friends,” said Brin.

“Ha! Worth a shot. Well, come on then.” Bedelia escorted Sancha into the carriage, but then with some last minute maneuvering, made it so that Sancha was next to Brin and squeezed herself in next to Ares.

The problem with hard light was that it was malleable to Hogg’s, and perhaps also Bedelia’s, intervention because Brin swore the carriage was suddenly smaller than normal. He was pressed tight up against Sancha, which he didn’t really mind that much, but poor Ares was immediately as terrified as Brin had ever seen him.

He kept his hands on his knees, his eyes straight forward. Bedelia pushed herself into Ares' shoulder every single time the carriage hit a bump on the road, and he swore he saw a little smirk when Sancha glared at her.

Conversation was brief and halting. When they neared, Brin said, “I apologize in advance for the state of the house. Like I said, it’s just us two bachelors living alone, and sometimes we don’t even notice how cluttered it gets.”

“Do not apologize for a lowly estate. Humility is a virtue,” said Sancha.

“Hey, this is a nice break for me,” said Ares. “I have eight screaming little sisters at home.”

“Eight younger sisters? I knew that not!” said Sancha.

“One boy and then eight girls in a row? Is that even possible?” Brin asked.

“Oh, no I have four brothers, too. They don’t scream, though. They bite. Eight screaming sisters and four biting brothers. So I guarantee that it can’t be any worse than that.”

Just then, they arrived within sight of the dilapidated exterior of the city house. “That’s the place,” Brin said, nodding at it.

“Maybe it could be a little worse,” revised Ares.

“Want me to run ahead and make sure Hogg is wearing pants?” asked Bedelia.

Brin nodded. “I think you’d better.”

She bolted out the carriage door, which meant that Sancha had to wait for Tonin to help her down after helping Sanpurana. Both the lady and the maid clutched their skirts to keep them away from the dirt of the road, and all of them eyed the rotting boards of the building’s exterior with trepidation.

Brin felt a little bad for them. Sancha and Sanpurana were pale with dismay, and Ares was forcing an easy smile on his face but he kept glancing towards a side-street, maybe thinking about how that alley would be a good way to make an escape. But Brin wasn’t going to spoil Hogg’s fun, not when the old guy had put so much effort into it.

“I apologize again for whatever mess you see in there,” said Brin.

Bedelia poked her head out of the front door and mouthed the words “It’s bad.”

“Hey, maybe… maybe dinner at my place, yeah?” offered Ares.

Brin sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

He pushed Ares and Sancha from the back, moving them the last few steps towards the front doors. Tonin took one, and Brin took the other.

They swung the doors open into the golden glow of complete and utter opulence. A red carpet crossed black marble from the entryway through the middle of the room, ending at the grand fireplace, topped with crossed spears behind a golden shield. Gold and tan curtains the size of ship’s sails swung away from the center of a room, all of it pointing an arrow to the little reading nook where Hogg sat.

Hogg stood, bowing an exact quarter inch, and in a voice much more suave and cultured than his usual speaking voice, said, “Welcome.”

Ares, Sancha, and Sanpurana stepped through, stunned, eyes going in every direction. Brin let them process the shocking wealth around them for a few moments, grinning at the way that Hogg’s eyes were glittering in delight.

Then he sighed and said, “It’s even worse than I thought.”

That snapped Sancha out of her dreamlike wonder. “What?”

“Did you really have to leave all this clutter around everywhere?” Brin asked, gesturing at a single tea cup on the ottoman near Hogg’s reading chair.

“Ah, dear me, I do apologize for this awful detritus,” said Hogg. He picked up the tea cup and threw it over his shoulder. Bedelia dashed forward and caught it out of the air in her mouth like a dog, before bearing it away and out of sight. “I apologize for her. Shadow Elementals are so difficult to train. You understand.”

“And you haven’t even replaced the vase Bedelia broke! I’m sure that was the first thing their eyes went to when they stepped in here,” said Brin, pointing at the empty display block where the vase had once sat.

“Dear me, that had totally slipped my mind,” said Hogg, still over-the-top cultured.

“It’s unbalanced. It throws the entire room out of order,” said Brin.

“You’re quite right. You know what the word for this is? Acclimation. We’ve grown so used to it that we’ve completely forgotten how unlivable this room has become,” said Hogg.

“It’s barbaric, is what it is,” said Brin.

“Come, let us retire to a more civilized location,” said Hogg.

Sancha stared back and forth between them as they talked like a lost little lamb. Ares, on the other hand clenched his jaw, and the furrow of his brow grew deeper and deeper as he looked back and forth between Hogg and Brin, moving his whole head to stare intently at each of them in turn.

Ares raised his fist and punched Brin in the shoulder, and then burst out laughing. “Alright. You got me.”

Brin joined in, and then Hogg did as well, his real, rough laugh, not the fake voice he’d put on.

Sancha gasped in shock, it finally dawning on her that they’d set her up. “Then all of that.. The false facade… is by design. But… but wherefore?”

“For this. For moments like this,” said Brin. “He loves screwing with people. Can’t get enough of it. He’s like Bedelia that way.”

“Guilty!” Hogg said, raising his hands. “So who are these two? Hostages? Captives? Accomplices?”

“Friends,” said Brin.

“All three, then. Well, come on. Might as well get some dinner in you, assuming the cook can scrounge something up.”

“Nay, I shouldn’t wish to impose,” Sancha said, still not completely recovered.

The head housekeeper, hearing the laughter, entered the room and immediately took pity on Sancha. “Don’t be afraid now, deary. He acts like a ghoul, but he’s… well, Master Brin is a kind man and he’ll make sure you come to no ill. You just come along with me, dear, and I’ll make sure you get along.”

“Perhaps you’d like to come with me,” Tonin said to Sanpurana. “You can help the kitchen make sure everything is to your lady’s taste.”

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“Yes, I’d like that,” said Sanpurana. She took Tonin’s arm, and together the two of them left the hall, but if they were heading towards the kitchens they must’ve been going the long way around. Somehow, Brin didn’t think Sanpurana would be dining with them after all.

The housekeeper took Sancha towards a different set of rooms, and Brin learned that the city house had a lady’s sitting room, where she could refresh her makeup and do whatever else a lady needed to do to prepare for supper.

That left Ares, Brin, and Hogg alone.

“Ok, ok, ok,” Ares said, his words rushing out and staccato in sudden excitement. “I never actually thought I’d get to meet you in person so I’m not going to waste it. First question: Shadow! How? Shadow should just be the absence of light, but you can move stuff around with it.”

It was a question that, if answered honestly, would reveal one of Hogg’s last secrets. But rather than seeming bothered, Hogg brightened up. “Great question! Physically, you’re right, shadow is just the absence of light, which is why I spent so long with an element that didn’t do much except help me hide during the darkest nights. You’re not going to really dig into this until your third year, but the answer is Authority. Instead of thinking about what my magic can do now, we start thinking about what metaphysical concepts my element is related to. Those concepts will empower my magic in small ways, but if I can gain the Skills that let me manipulate them, it creates a feedback loop where the outputs of my magic are the same things that empower it. For example, what emotion is Fire associated with?”

“Anger?” Ares guessed.

“No, anger is represented by Water. The way a raging river froths and roars, the way a flood tears up the ground, and the way that ice can be hard as stone and sharp as knives,” said Hogg.

“Joy, then?”

“Again, joy is in the domain of Water. The way it grows and swells like the oncoming tide. Think. What emotion do you feel when you’re staring at a campfire?” asked Hogg.

Ares tapped his chin. “It could be a lot of things.”

“Peace?” Brin guessed. “I tend to drift off into a sort of meditative state.”

“It was a trick question. There are no emotions that Fire really resonates with. All emotion is tied to Water. That’s why [Water Mages] spend so much time learning to resonate their magic with whatever they’re feeling at the moment. And make no mistake: it works. An angry [Water Mage] is much stronger than one at peace. Not just anger, either, but any strong emotion. I think that’s why Vincente is such a solid up-and-comer in the Water Circle. He’s not that strong at all just looking at his level and attributes. I think he’s just been really depressed since his daughter died.”

“Super sad. Sincerely. So what should I do for Air?” asked Ares.

“Focus on your breathing. They say that Ian of Avion can restore his entire Mana pool in three breaths,” said Hogg.

"You know Ian of Avion?"

"Well, I wouldn't say I know him..."

The conversation eventually followed them to dinner, where they met up with Sancha in the dining room. She'd changed her hair, putting it up with yet more sparkling gemstones decorating it throughout. The servants guided Ares to sit next to her with Brin opposite them and Hogg at the head of the table. At first he thought it might cause a problem because even though Hogg and Brin didn't care much about table manners, Sancha certainly would. But it seemed that someone had taught Ares the basics, because he knew how to unfold her napkin for her and how to cut her meat.

Sanpurana never made an appearance, apparently deciding to spend the evening following Tonin around. Brin wondered if that was alright, but Sancha didn't seem bothered, and they had Bedelia stay in the room just to keep up appearances.

The kitchen staff pulled out all the stops and sent course after course to the table. Brin had put a stop to them doing this when it was just him and Hogg alone because even though he enjoyed the variety, he hated seeing them waste so much food. But with company over, they'd apparently decided this was an exception.

Over the appetizers, the bread, and the soup courses, Sancha and Ares gradually overcame their initial whiplash and seemed to enjoy themselves. Hogg could be a gracious host when he really wanted to, and Brin was glad that was the version he was getting today.

Ares peppered Hogg with questions about magic, and Brin didn't think all of Hogg's answers were made up like his spiel about shadows. He talked like someone who'd been studying here at the Tower for decades, not like someone who'd only arrived in the Tower last year. It made sense. Hogg had [Split Mind], too, and he'd been an apt student of magic even before ever coming to the Tower.

The conversation thankfully moved on quickly from there, since Ares was desperate to grill Hogg for more knowledge of magic. Hogg didn't actually know all that much about lightning magic, but rather than be disappointed, Ares taught them all the word for <Lightning> in the Language, and described the feeling of using air magic to summon it. It wasn't as straightforward as summoning a fireball; he described it as a gathering and release.

"Hey, speaking of lightning, did Brin ever tell you that he thinks that we should start storing all our energy in the form of electricity?" Hogg asked.

"Really? Why?" asked Ares.

Brin couldn't exactly say that it was because that's how his last world was run. "I just... think it would work."

"You lose energy when you store it. You lose more when you pull it back out. But he insists that it's the energy transfer method of the future," said Hogg.

"It's fast. Push it through a wire and it can cross any distance near-instantly," said Brin.

"Assuming that demons don't get in the wires the way they do with your telephone idea," said Hogg. "In my mind, the best energy storage is the one that's absolutely shelf-stable with no degradation for millions of years. It's hard, black, and it's called coal."

"Why not gemstones?" asked Sancha, fingering one of her bracelets.

"Well sure! That's what we're using now. And as much as I'd love to transition to something less expensive, the powdered jewels are what's selling right now," said Hogg.

"As you say." Sancha looked down and fiddled with her dessert, crumbling the cake apart with her fork but not taking a bite.

Brin didn't know why she suddenly looked so downcast and shot Ares a questioning look.

Ares put a hand up to half-cover his mouth and said in a stage whisper, "She really wants to know more about your gemstone business, but she's too polite to say so!"

Sancha stood up straight and wide-eyed, waving at Ares to quiet, but the damage was done.

Hogg pushed his own plate away. "I don't mind taking you back there. I'll warn you it's a bit messy, though."

Brin clarified, "We're not messing with you this time. He keeps things fairly well-organized, but the other half of the house is an active factory floor."

Sancha smiled eagerly. "Prithee, regard it not. I did purposely don a gown I might bemire."

Her pristine emerald gown didn't look like something someone would want to bemire, but Brin didn't know much about women's clothing.

"Oh, and I should say, I don't mind bringing you two, but the other one should wait out here," said Hogg.

"'Tis no trouble. I know not whence Sanpurana has gone."

Brin felt like everyone knew, but he'd kept an Invisible Eye on her anyway, and it wasn't anything illicit. She was following Tonin around as he did his job, seeming very interested in the way a "real" [Valet] worked.

"We can have Bedelia keep an eye on you," said Hogg.

"Just the one?" asked Bedelia. She opened the lids of an eye wide with her fingers, like someone putting in a contact, but then reached for her eye with the other hand with clawed fingers, like she was going to gouge it out.

Brin grabbed her wrist before she could. "In this case, he means you're to stand next to her in order to ward away any rough treatment or unwelcome advances."

"She's never going to learn if you explain it to her every time!" Hogg groused.

Seriously, Hogg was taking his constructs' personalities far enough that Brin was starting to worry about his mental health.

The factory was about as they claimed. Hogg ran a tight ship and didn’t allow any trip hazards or the like, but the fact of the matter was that these were men at work, and dust was an inescapable reality in this occupation. The workers tossed the large stones onto the drophammer and collected the ruby dust after its transmutation while the sound of the loud steam-powered machines overwhelmed any chance of conversation.

Despite that, Sancha was by far the most interested in the work, and stepped as close as she thought she could get away with, staring intently at the exact moment when the common stone became something accessible to her magic.

She bent down and ran one finger across the floor, covering the finger of her glove in red dust, and rubbed it between her finger and her thumb. It clumped up, leaving her white-gloved fingers clean, and giving her a small red bead.

That was interesting. Brin pointed at one of the large barrels of powdered ruby that the workers had already filled. It looked like they were moving a lot quicker than the last time he’d been here, and he noticed that two more of them had advanced from [Child] to full [Transmutationist].

Sancha nodded at the barrel, looking impressed, maybe thinking that he was pointing it out to her to show off. He mimicked reaching in and grabbing a handful. She gave him a questioning glance, but he nodded, approving.

She reached down and grabbed a handful of the dust, then closed her eyes to concentrate. She heaved a breath, then gasped and let most of the powder fall back down, but she kept a piece. She opened her palm to show them a perfect, dime-sized ruby.

Hogg pointed to his ears and then at the door, and they all understood. They walked to the workshop next door, where the sound of the machinery wasn’t quite so loud. Hogg and Brin didn’t have this problem normally, because sound magic could fix this, but he didn’t have a good cover story for how he could let his guests talk normally in here. Enchanted ear-plugs were already on his list of things he wanted to learn how to craft, if only so that the workers would be able to talk to each other.

The room they entered was the golem workshop, where Hogg’s better-paid and higher-skilled men worked on studying and reproducing the giant wargolem that lay prone in the center of the room.

“That’s a valuable Skill,” said Hogg.

She tried to offer him the ruby, but he waved it away. “It hath ne'er been so before this hour. Who else would have a mighty heap of ruby dust lying about?”

“We mostly do ruby, but I’ve had the boys experiment with a few other stones as well. Do you think it would work on anything?” Hogg asked.

“My mana is utterly spent, and 'twill be till the morrow ere I may attempt again,” said Sancha.

“What’s the Skill called? If it’s not a secret,” asked Brin. He knew it had something to do with gemstones from her old [Collector of Stones] Class, but he didn’t know many specifics.

“[Refine Gemstones], twice evolved. The base Skill of my base Class,” answered Sancha. “I may combine gemstones, but never before have I pursued it in this manner.”

Hogg nodded and tapped his [Materials Specialist] on the shoulder. “You still got that Elessendrite laying around?”

The [Materials Specialist] nodded and skipped over to fetch it from the other room. He returned with a gallon jug of a dark blue powder that Value Sense told him was eye-poppingly valuable. Hogg grabbed a spare beaker–there was always enough glassware in this workshop–and measured out a half cup and handed it to Sancha.

“It was a pain and a half to teach one of my [Transmutationists] to make this stuff, but we can’t find a use for it. Keep the bottle, just let me know what you do with it,” said Hogg.

Sancha bit her lip, looking consternated, but eventually she nodded and then dipped into a low curtsy. “I thank thee.”

Brin’s eyes went to the corner of the room where Hogg had set up something new. There was a table with a smaller, child-sized golem. Rather than the slate gray of the war golem, this was made mostly of a much darker metal. So dark he thought it might be blacksteel, but that couldn't be right. Blacksteel was useful in that it was extremely tough and easy to mass-produce, but it couldn't be enchanted. This one was simpler, too. It didn't even try to match the body shape of a person; instead, it was just balls connected by poles in a stick-figure shape.

“What’s that?” Brin asked.

Hogg shrugged and walked over to the table. "Another prototype. I thought I might have an easier time working out the kinks on a smaller, simpler version rather than starting with a giant war golem. Turns out that smaller is harder when it comes to golems. More material means you have more space to work with." He flicked the ball foot of the golem dismissively. "I have to fill in a lot of gaps with shadow magic to get this thing to move at all."

“But it does move?” asked Ares. It was clear he was finding it very hard to tear his eyes away from the giant war golem, but he at least moved his body in the right direction.

“Well, sure. Want to see? It’s still a bit finicky, so Bedelia, grab its legs,” said Hogg.

Bedelia did so, and Hogg raised his hand over the golem. He summoned a film of black hard light over his hand, and then let it pool and drip down, landing on the golems chest. The thing immediately started to buck and tremble, and then went still again.

“Oh, shoot. Hold on. I know what’s wrong,” said Hogg. He drew out a silver etching pen, and started to scribe down symbols onto the black metal of the golem’s torso, so faint they were nearly invisible.

He worked for a few minutes, attempted to bring it to life again, and again it didn’t do more than shake. Brin offered to take them all somewhere else, but Ares and Sancha insisted they were perfectly happy watching the man work, so Brin stood and waited.

"So Hogg, while you’re working on that. I have a bit of an ethical dilemma for you. Since you're in charge of ethics in the Tower and all," Brin said.

"I'm basically the best at ethics," Hogg said with a nod, still looking at his work.

"So let's say that someone at the school accidentally reveals to me that she has Mind magic. Now she's afraid that she'll be killed as soon as she leaves the Tower because no one likes a Mind [Mage], so she offers to swear an Oath of fealty to me in exchange for my protection," said Brin.

"Accept the Oath," said Hogg.

"I don't want to." Brin had prepared for Hogg to push back against that, but it was Sancha who said, "But whyever not?"

"He acts tough, but he can be a goody-two-shoes about stuff like this," said Hogg.

"I don't want to compel an Oath. It's not what the gods... I mean, it's not what Oaths are for," said Brin.

"Then what are they for?" asked Sancha.

Hogg answered. "If you're a [Pharmacist] you might swear that you'll never use your drugs to harm. A [Knight] might swear to only raise his sword in service of his lord, a [Druid] could swear to never eat meat, or a group of criminals might swear never to betray one another. If it aligns well with your Class, the System might merge your Oath with a Title or Achievement for some added benefits," said Hogg.

"That's a materialistic way of putting it. I think the main thing is that in those scenarios, the Oath is voluntary or mutual, not something you accept with a sword at your throat," said Brin.

"I suppose you won't just kill her either," said Hogg.

"I should probably consider other options, first," said Brin.

"Right, rights. Ethics and all of that. Then what you have to do, is you have to close the loop," said Hogg.

Brin blinked twice. "What do you mean?"

"She's afraid you're going to kill her because of what you know. In reality, someone really is going to kill her because she's a danger to herself and others. So you need to find out everyone she's already told, and swear them all to secrecy. No need for an Oath, just a paper contract should be fine. Then once she can look you in the eye without reading her own death in her Fate–"

"Could you at least pretend you don't know exactly who I'm talking about?"

"--you'll be able to sit down for a nice chat and figure things out. [Weavers] don't generally need to swear Oaths, anyway. People like to think their fortune tellers are unattached. As long as she can stop being an idiot about her Mind powers, she’ll be fine," said Hogg.

"That's actually... really good advice."

Hogg spread his hands wide. "Like I said, I'm the best at this."

He put his etching tool down and thumped the golem hard in the chest, pushing a large ball of blackness into it. The golem shook again, but this time, it sat up.

The golem turned its body to face Hogg, no expression on the solid metal ball it had for a head.

A hollow, ghostly sound rang out, and Brin recognized it instantly as Hogg’s sound magic. “Master. Why have you created me?”