Steel and Stone

Steel and Stone

## Blurb

**POINT OF NO RETURN**

Alastair Stone, determined to harness enigmatic mage Trevor Harrison’s potent power source, takes a desperate chance—he travels to the dimension where it originates, hoping to convince Harrison to teach him its secrets.

He should have expected things wouldn’t go as planned.

Stranded without his power in an exotic, unfamiliar world rich in magic and ruled by tyrannical practitioners, Stone knows his only chance of getting his magic back is to find Harrison--a man who has good reasons for not wanting to be found.

But first, he has to stay alive long enough to do it.

## Plot

Unable to reconcile his issues with using black magic, and having had a brainstorm, Alastair Stone sets out to figure out and construct a ritual that will send him to wherever Harrison’s magic comes from. He assumes it is a place, and Harrison is there and, further, Harrison can help him safely channel the alien power.

He has a difficult conversation when he tells Verity what he plans to do. There is no guarantee of success or even survival in his attempt, and she is both afraid of losing him and unable to understand his compulsion to do it. Nevertheless, she insists she wants to witness the ritual, and he agrees. The transfer works, and Stone suddenly finds himself in an alien place, and immediately set on and magically beaten by three arrogant, well- (if strangely) dressed youths.

### Pause here a moment WARNING, Possible Spoilers Ahead

Stone discovers, to his horror, that he has no magic in this world. He is beaten semi-conscious, then vaguely aware of being transported somehow, and dumped on a cold, rainy deserted street. He rouses and tries to drag himself to shelter, but is suddenly paralyzed when mutant dog-like creatures arrive. They’re driven off by a stranger, and Stone passes out.

He wakes five days later in what appears to be a hospital from Fifties-era Earth. He’s still in rough shape, but not nearly as bad off as he thinks he should be. The nurses and doctors seem to range from wary to outright hostile toward him. He claims not to be ‘from here’, has no knowledge of how things work, has a strange and potentially dangerous name, and sports a tattoo with magical sigils.

Through careful questioning of a sympathetic nurse, Jena, Stone learns he is in Drendell, a ground city of non-magical people below the floating mage-inhabited city of Temolan. Society is sharply divided, with the ground-dwellers – the Dim – kept largely in squalor, educated barely enough to perform their jobs, and required to work to supply those from Temolan with goods and services. The mages – the Talented – run things. They’re considered cruel and lazy by the Dim, with good reason.

Stone is an aberration by either standard. His multi-syllabic name, tattoo and well-spoken demeanor would indicate he is Talented. But he claims to have no magic, no association with the mages of Temolan, and can’t read. Moreover, he claims to be looking for a man with a Talented-style, if unusual, name. The doctor, Byra, eventually tells him he has to leave, though she’s aware he’s destitute. She provides him with clothes and calls in a favor to arrange a job and a place to stay for him. She also advises him to keep his head down, his tattoo covered, and not draw attention, at least until he can learn how life works in Drendell.

Stone begins life in Drendell, living with and working for Faran and his wife Runa, at their butcher shop. He cleans up and makes deliveries on a rickety old bicycle. He gets room, board, and a few coins in return. He learns his area of the city quickly through memorization, and even locates a couple of bars where he can at least get the odd alcoholic cider. He also learns that the people are cowed past rebellion by the Talented, and make every effort never to be noticed by them. This is driven home in horrific fashion when Stone enters a crowded sandwich shop for lunch. Two Talented arrive, manufacture an insult by the counter clerk, and kill the man without compunction. No one does anything – including Stone.

Concerned that he’s made no progress in finding Harrison – if he’s even here – and worried the man might be one of the Talented, Stone visits the hospital to talk to the healer who saved his life, a Talented named Tanissa who doesn’t hold the same bigotry as her peers. She recognizes Harrison’s name. To the Talented, he’s a traitor and rebel, but largely considered a legend rather than a real person. She does tell him that rumors site the rebellion at a bar called the Fisherman’s Rest.

At the bar, Stone draws the attention of a dodgy man who wants to know who Stone is looking for. Realizing the man is a mage, and possibly part of the underground rebellion, Stone says he’s looking for his friend, Trevor. The man doesn’t seem to recognize the name, and he warns Stone to leave and not return. Feeling he’s being watched, Stone starts back to Faran’s shop. He arrives to find the place ablaze, and Runa lying dead in the street. Neighbors from across the street tell him two Talented had arrived and burned the shop, and that Faran never made it out. Their son runs up suddenly and tells Stone he needs to flee; the Talented were looking for him specifically when they went to Faran’s. The family ushers him through their shop and out the back.

With nothing but his clothes and a few coins, Stone takes refuge in the shell of a building in the Barrens. Tired, hungry, heartsick and homesick, he can do nothing but hide until daylight. He dozes, and wakes to hear two Talented searching for him nearby. He’s forced to completely cover himself in an odorous bedroll to hide his aura until they leave. In the morning, he decides his only option is to talk to Tanissa again, and insist she help him. But at the hospital, Byra tells him that the Talented have taken Tanissa away. Though she uses the word ‘recalled’, Stone worries that Tanissa may have been arrested.

His last remaining contact being the Fisherman’s Rest, Stone heads back there that night. He asks for the man he spoke to the night before, by description, and is told to go to a place called Benbo’s, up the street. He’s intercepted by another man who tells him he knows who Stone is looking for, but they need to get someplace safe. The man leads him on a circuitous route through streets and alleys to a hidden doorway. Inside, Alastair is ambushed by two of the Talented.

Immobilized by magic, Alastair is transported to a teleporter facility and taken to a similar facility on Temolan. From there, he’s magically frog-marched to what was obviously a prison. He is ordered to strip and take an icy shower, and dress in prison togs. Any balking results in painful magical shocks. All he learns is that the Temolan Council wants to speak with him, and that the Fisherman’s Rest was also raided. Once in a cell, nothing happens for so long that Stone falls asleep.

The next day, Stone is interrogated, primarily about himself. Refusal, snark or lies result in punishment, such as suffocation. He answers completely truthfully, even to telling the interrogator he is from Palo Alto, confusing things deliberately. When asked about Harrison he obfuscates, though, earning more electrical shocks. So, he resumes the truth – that Harrison is a man he only met once, in a place called Las Vegas. Stone asks who Harrison is, here. The interrogator tells him the man is a traitor. Throughout, Stone’s only real lie is that he found out about the Fisherman’s Rest from an anonymous note, to protect Tanissa.

Several days go by, with interrogation in the morning, followed by menial labor in the afternoons. One day, no one takes him for interrogation. Instead, he’s taken to work in a kitchen. He overhears guards mentioning his name, and that he’s to be taken to the ‘Arena’. A fellow inmate seems terrified by the idea, and tells him no one comes back from there.

The next morning, Alastair is bound, hooded, and taken by some kind of vehicle to the Arena. Two others are with him, and they explain it’s an entertainment for the Talented similar, Stone realizes, to the gladiatorial contests of Ancient Rome. He’ll be made to fight until he dies, or is the last man standing.

Placed in a cage with a view into the Arena, Stone can only watch as other prisoners are forced to fight. Each has a Talented ‘sponsor’, who can magically prod or even control their combatants to get them to fight. Those killed are dragged away, while the victors are taken back to their cages to await another bout. One brutal bout is between men who seem feral. They’ve been given an experimental potion by their sponsors, alchemists Millia and Vestereth, a bonded pair of particularly amoral Talented. The winner of the match is entirely out of control, clawing and biting the dead opponent until he’s dragged away, to the delight of the crowd.

Finally, Stone is matched with a very large man named Karol. The announcer mocks Stone, telling the audience that he pretended he had ‘magic’, and had a name and tattoo that he ‘thought’ would make him one of them, making the crowd laugh and jeer at Stone. Alastair manages to land one decent blow on Karol, but is otherwise thrown around the arena until Karol gets him on the ground and begins strangling him. Oddly, Karol’s grip is loose, not cutting his wind. Karol whispers to him to play along and grab his armband. Stone does, and very quickly gets woozy and loses consciousness.

Stone wakes in a bed, in an upscale-looking home. A woman, Vynna, tells him he’s safe, to get cleaned up and dressed in clothes left for him, and she’ll take him to get something to eat. When he asks, she tells him Karol is fine, as well. Vynna returns and leads him past windows looking out over a verdant landscape to a sitting room, and a woman named Errin. She assures him that he is safe, as well, and his questions will be answered once he’s eaten. Impatient but starving, Alastair holds his questions and devours a meal. When finished, his first question for Errin is how he can trust that she’s not another Talented trying a new trick to get information. A voice behind him says he can set his mind at ease. Stone turns to see the voice belongs to Trevor Harrison.

Harrison tells him he’d only just learned Stone was in the dimension, and in trouble. He has urgent business, but assures Stone that Errin can answer most of his questions. Then he leaves. Alastair is a bit affronted, but Errin familiarly jokes that ‘you get used to him’.

Errin takes Stone for a walk, and welcomes him to New Argana. The place is lovely, with rolling hills, trees, and an attractive village. Pleasant people are out walking, and Errin explains there are both mages and non-mages living here in peace. There are odd-looking cars, much nicer than the crude vehicles in Dendrell, that run on magic. Errin, herself, is a mechanic working with Harrison to create the prototypes for those and other things. Nearby is an enormous black glass tower that reminds Stone of the Obsidian, but which Errin calls the Nexus.

New Argana is in the Wastes, a zone of wild magic created by a war in the distant past. Six cities had existed then, on the ground, though even then the Talented and non-magical were segregated. The leaders of the cities were contentious, eventually escalating their animosity to war. Much of the cities were destroyed, and the Wastes were created, as were the Travelers – strange, reclusive nomads altered by the resident magic.

Eventually the Talented figured out how to build new cities and lift them into the sky, above the Dim and any hazards on the ground. There are five, since one of the original six, Argana, couldn’t maintain altitude and crashed, killing most of its remaining population. New Argana was raised in honor of the old city. The Nexus concentrates magic from the local ley lines to power the new settlement, as well as ward and hide it.

As far as Stone’s rescue, Karol’s armband had been treated with an alchemical compound that simulates death when absorbed through the skin. Once Stone was ‘dead’, his body was dragged from the Arena for incineration, but Karol and other undercover allies diverted it and brought him to New Argana.

Stone meets with Harrison that evening. Harrison confirms both that he can travel dimensions at will, and that he’s ‘difficult’ to kill, which allowed him to escape the Evil. He also reveals he’s not entirely of Earth. Stone explains his burnout issue, and having gone black, and asks for Harrison’s help. Harrison is reluctant and is doubtful Stone will adhere to his strictures as an apprentice is required to. Though even Stone wonders if they won’t end up trying to kill each other, they reach an agreement.

The next day, Harrison promptly hands Stone off to Kira, who sets him to lugging rocks to build a wall. She tells him a bit about herself (see Calanar Series), but refuses to get into Harrison’s personal details; he is intensely private. Later, Stone is given a suite and meets his new personal assistant, Anzo, which is a mechano-magical construct – a robot. He also is introduced to the healing machine, which heals the muscular breakdown from his labors, though Kira tells him it can’t heal actual injuries.

Alastair is reunited with Karol, who has been working under cover in the cities for some time, looking for prospects to bring back to New Argana, which is a refuge for mage and non-magical alike. Karol then runs Stone through a kind of circuit training in the Nexus’ gym. Harrison is nowhere to be found, while Stone goes through his intense physical training, day after day. When he realizes thirty days have elapsed, he’s finally had enough and decides to find and confront Harrison.

Rather inebriated, Stone storms into Harrison’s ‘workroom’, which turns out to be a hangar-sized area where Harrison is working on an airship. The man’s distracted attention gets Stone boiling, and when his questioning prompts Harrison to conclude that Alastair doesn’t have the will to continue, he erupts, blowing Harrison across the room with magic. Harrison says they can begin lessons now; Stone had to hone his body and will in order to support the magic, and had to acclimate to Calanar’s energy.

Stone is unable to sleep, so he goes to the gym to burn off some energy. There, he sees what he thinks are echoes, or ghost’s of people working out in the gym. He mentions it to Harrison in the morning, and is surprised to learn Harrison sees them, too. They are actual people – on Earth. Why Stone can see them is a mystery, but they’re there because the Nexus and the Obsidian are occupying the same space in the two dimensions. Harrison built the Nexus within a well of power that literally allows him to step from one dimension to another. Properly attuned, Stone could do it, too.

They begin Alastair’s instruction, and he’s soon lobbing and levitating objects, and slinging fireballs. He’s delighted that there’s little fatigue involved. Harrison says he may lose some potency back on Earth, but not to a significant extent. Later, Alastair realizes the rest is just practice, and he can do that on his own. Homesick, he goes looking for Harrison, but finds Errin instead. He helps her to magically charge a component of the airship, then Harrison arrives to tell Errin they have to get to Drendell – a Talented woman that New Argana has been courting is ready to defect. Stone insists on going along to lend his power, and to get a little of his own back from the cruel Talented.

The group, including Karol and Kira, and a kind of battle-bot, teleport to Drendell where an Underground construct-fighting event is being held. The woman is supposed to meet them there. Stone is fascinated by the constructs, as well as the mages and non-magical working together in teams. He spots someone suspicious, though, but before he can get to Harrison, a bomb goes off and the Talented raid the Underground. Karol is killed, and Harrison injured and seized by the Talented.

Errin and Stone flee, fighting off the Talented, who seem to know far too much, and taking with them an injured Traveler from the Wastes, Jeritha, whose directions help them escape. Errin expects Harrison to free himself and arrive back at New Argana ahead of them. He doesn’t, though, and while Jeritha is being healed, Kira contacts their informant, Olystriar of the Temolan High Council. Harrison has been incapacitated by a magic-dampening device, and is being tortured for information by Millia and Vestereth. Worse, the Drendell portal has been destroyed.

They devise a plan to fly the small airship through the Wastes to Dendrell, with Jeritha’s guidance. Kira is forced to stay back to monitor the situation, so Stone, Errin and Jeritha go. Jeritha is able to influence the flying *wyvora* as well as the mutant wolves to keep them safe. Once in Dendrell, they hide in a safe house, waiting for information on how to get up to Temolan. When they meet their contact, he informs them that Harrison is being held in a magic-dampening field and pumped full of experimental alchemical mixtures at the behest of a Council member who leads a faction of morally bereft ‘researchers’. They’ve become very interested in Harrison’s resilience.

The trio receives credentials and disguises to enter Temolan, with Stone and Jeritha as Talented, and Errin their Dim servant. They have no trouble getting through the teleport checkpoints, but find their contact in the city is missing, and they’re ambushed by Talented. After a short firefight, the trio escape, but now they have no place to hide long enough to find Harrison, who will be transported to a new location in the city that night. Stone remembers Tanissa, the healer from Drendell. He contacts her, and she meets them in a closed bakery where they can hide for the day.

At the bakery, Stone fills Tanissa in on events, including explaining that yes, he does have magic; it’d been on the fritz. Tanissa doesn’t want to be involved in their espionage, but she wants out of Temolan. Impressed with Alastair’s attitude toward Errin – a Dim – she decides to help them, especially since Harrison is likely to need healing.

Tanissa guides them to the address where Harrison is supposed to be, and between Errin’s gadgets and Jeritha’s magic, they get through the wards and illusions. Breaking into the room, they find it’s an auditorium-like space, with the risers holding Council members, and Harrison strung up on display in a transparent box. He’s bloody and seems unconscious; tubes have been attached to his body to pump him full of the alchemical mixes Millia and Vestereth, also present, administer. Chanandra, the head of the cabal, orders the guards to stop them, while Stone engages in a mock battle with Olystriar, enough to let him feign injury and get out of the fight. Errin takes out some of the Talented with mechano-magical gadgets.

Even Tanissa gets in on the fight, but then Errin is injured. Suddenly, Stone realizes Harrison is awake, and he looks insane. He breaks his restraints, as well as the cubicle, and kills the fleeing Chanandra before passing out. Millia escapes, injured, but Stone takes care of Vestereth. Olystriar gets the group to a portal, Stone carrying Harrison, and they escape to the edge of Drendell. Tanissa tries to heal Harrison, but he’s already self-healing. His mind, though… Once conscious, he seems not to know who they are, and an insane, insanely powerful Harrison is bad news. Stone gets through to him, though. Unfortunately, he passes out again.

Racing to the Wastes in an old truck, the group is chased by Talented in speedy fliers. Errin, Stone and Jeritha work to fend them off, with Harrison pitching in when he awakens again. They make it to the Wastes, but Jeritha warns a deadly manastorm is coming. There isn’t time to find the airship, so they continue on in the truck, toward where Jeritha says her people can shelter them. But the *wyvora* attack, disabling the truck. As Jeritha tells them the wyvora are being directed somehow, Talented appear in ambush, and using war-level magic. They’re controlling the *wyvora*.

The battle rages, but Stone is suddenly grabbed by a *wyvora*, lifted high, and dropped – directly onto a crystal spike, impaling him through the chest. Dying, Stone feels the magic around him, and a bright silver light, then nothing.

Stone wakes, healed, in New Argana. Tanissa tells him he should have died, but he fought hard not to. While he was out, Harrison had managed to shelter the group from the storm, then teleport the group back by turns, after they’d found the airship destroyed. Mystified as to why he’s alive, Stone checks himself out. He has only a small scar to show from a spike that should have destroyed his heart and lungs. Even stranger, he now has a visible silver band in him aura – narrow, but very noticeable now, unlike the trace Mme. Huan had seen after Burning Man.

Later, he meets with Harrison, who is looking like his old self. Harrison tells him the Temolan High Council is in disarray, with Chanandra, Vestereth and several other high-ranking members dead, and Millia disappeared. Olystriar managed to avoid suspicion, and is till their inside man.

Stone says he’s ready to go home, but would like to come back. Harrison tells him the flow of time is an issue, since it’s different than Earth’s – in Stone’s favor, actually, since Calanar moves faster. He then shows him the nexus point of the Nexus building, from which it’s possible for Harrison to move from plane to plane instantaneously, without time loss or gain. But Stone would need to stay; learning would take time. About over it with Calanar for now, and missing home, Stone declines on a raincheck.

When Stone visits Verity – after only three days, Earth time – he tells her he’s done with other planes for now. She notes the change in his physique, and he tells her it’s a long story he’ll tell her some time.