#technomage's apprentice

Soft footsteps padded against the dark wood flooring as Zoey made her way to the sorting room. When she opened the door she was greeted by the familiar line of crystal chests. She watched the items inside dance about as if they were having a party that they thought no one else could see. With her journal and pencil in hand the young technomage went through the chests and took inventory. It was a week prior when she noticed a few things missing like copper cables and redstone. This time she found a few diamonds missing as well as some glass. Coupled with Rythian’s distinct lack of mishaps and the sudden giant drops in power storage Zoey knew the young boy was up to something. Against normal procedure the woman decided not to confront the boy and let him sweat it out, hoping the guilt of keeping secrets from her would win out in the end.

Rythian’s secrecy and the disappearing items went on for another week as Zoey would ask him seemingly harmless questions at dinner time: if he knew where some of her books were, if he kept knocking out power cables accidentally and so on. The boy’s resolve was solid as he played it off: Zoey misplaced things often so maybe it was her who lost the books, maybe they were running out of lava and other excuses. The mentor was surprised by his knack for lying which could have been something admirable or very dangerous.

Finally, after Zoey had nearly had just about enough of Rythian’s sneaking around and lies the young boy approached his teacher after she had readjusted the positioning of their lava pumps to another underground lake. The woman had gone into her room to change her ash dusted clothes and when she opened her door to leave he was waiting in the hall with a goofy grin on his face. Puzzled, Zoey stood in her door frame, waiting for him to talk.

“Hey, Professor Zoey,” he said. “H-Hey, Rythian. What’s up?” She asked, rubbing a smudge of soot off the back of her hand. “I wanna show you something.” “Alright, sure. What is it?” “You’ll see,” he said, grabbing her forearm and leading her down the hall to a closet next to the tower they fed the power cables through. When he opened the door to the closet and turned on the lights surprise was plastered all over the technomage’s face. Between the neat rows of boxes nestled a teleporter that hummed with energy. The woman inspected the piece of machinery, seeing the cables out the back that fed into the wall separating the closet and the tower. A pressure plate was set against the teleporter for the user to step on and activate the item.

“Wow, Rythian, I’m impressed. This looks perfect. And you did this all by yourself, eh?” “Yup,” he answered, beaming with pride. “So this is what you’ve been hiding all this time…” “Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you and lied,” he said looking at the ground ashamedly for a moment, “But I wanted it to be a surprise. I wanted to show you I can do this stuff too, I just like magic better.” “Rythian,” Zoey said, kneeling down to eye level with the boy, “I never doubted you could do things with technology.” “Well, you never let me do anything complicated. I’m always making circuits and wires for you and just putting things in place.” “That’s because you need to know the basics by heart before you can hope to do more complicated things and not blow up half your home.” The young boy opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it- with her teaching him making basic components had become second nature, like breathing. After months of practice he was sure he could make a circuit in his sleep and an advanced one with little more concentration than that.

“This is good, though, Rythian. You did this all yourself and didn’t blow out a wall in the process. I think you can start doing more complicated stuff soon,” Zoey told the boy, getting back to her feet and looking over the teleporter again, ”That is after your punishment for taking things without permission and lying to me, of course.” Frankly the boy had seen that coming and had nothing to say in his defense. He had accomplished his mission and gotten his point across and he’d soon be doing more things. “Fine,” he said with only the slightest bit of attitude. Zoey looked back at him and raised an eyebrow as if she were challenging him to use that tone again. Rythian merely averted her gaze and stood next to her. “So, you want to see where it goes?” He asked his mentor, the delighted grin back on his features. “It goes somewhere?” “Well yeah, it’s a teleporter. Here, I’ll go first,” he said, stepping onto the pressure plate and disappearing in a flurry of sparkling lights. Zoey chuckled to herself and waited a few moments before following after the boy.

When she felt solid ground beneath herself the first thing the woman noticed was the smell. The air was musty and dank, like the inside of a cave or someone’s basement, but through her closed eyelids she felt the distinct presence of sunlight. When she opened her eyes she gasped and turned around in a circle to take everything in. Everywhere, as far as she could see, were giant mushrooms and their smaller brethren littering the oddly colored ground. Several dozen yards away she saw a roving herd of Mooshrooms picking at the ground and bathing in the murky pools. “Oh, Rythian,” she said, turning to her student, “This is amazing!” The young boy smiled, looking up at his mentor who placed a friendly hand on his shoulder as she looked around some more. “I’m glad you like it, Professor,” you boy said, looking around as well, “It’s a tough place to find.” “I’ve heard that before. How did you find it?” “I started talking to Lalna on the computer and his parents knew where to find it. They gave me the coordinates.” “Lalna and his parents, huh? I thought you didn’t like Lalna, Rythian.” The boy shrugged, kicking at the ground, “He’s okay, I guess. He knows a lot of stuff and he’s the one who gave me the idea to make the teleporter.” “I see. Well, we should go visit them again and say thank you.” “Sure… Oh, hey! Look! There’s a baby one!” Rythian said, pointing at the herd of Mooshrooms and then booking it. Zoey giggled delightedly, amused with her student’s short attention span. Upon spotting the baby cow she squealed with delight and hurried after her student.

It was supper time at their home, the woman and the young boy sitting down to their meal and chatting about their day. She dined on some steamed veggies and bread while he had a less vegetarian alternative of chicken with veggies as well. The boy recounted his adventure that day of accidentally knocking a wolf over the side of a mountain and quickly changing it to a chicken with his Philosopher’s Stone. He said he watched it gently glide down into a small pond where a bunch of squid seemed to be having some kind of party. They laughed together and made jokes about what the squid must have thought about the intruder. Just after they’d finished cleaning up their meal Zoey stopped the boy for a moment.

“Hey, Rythian,” she said, putting a hand-towel up to dry, “You’re gonna have to go to bed early tonight.”

“Aw, what? Why? Tomorrow’s Sunday, you should never have to get up early on Sunday,” he whined, just getting ready to leave the kitchen.

“We’re going on a field trip so we’ll have to leave early to get there at a decent hour.”

The woman peaked his curiosity and he turned to face her, a bit of excitement evident in his eyes since they hadn’t been away from their home for quite some time. “Where are we going?”

“A place that will hopefully make you appreciate science a bit more,” she answered, pinching his cheek when a grimace appeared, “It’ll do you some good so no pouting, mister.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rythian grumbled, prying his now tender flesh out of her grasp and heading to the library to read before going to bed.

The next morning they were up and about just after the sun, packing a few provisions and weapons in case they encountered any tree-dwelling monsters. It was late morning when they arrived at their destination, a huge compound. The largest building of them all was visible from a distance and the fence that enclosed the space was twice as tall as the technomage and the young apprentice combined.

As the young boy stood awestruck several feet from the gate while Zoey went to the security office, letting them know that the owners were expecting them. Within a few moments the large gates were pulled open by some mechanical force and the duo were allowed in.

“Zoey,” Rythian finally managed to say as he stared at the large expanse of buildings inside the gate, “What is this place?”

A smirk was on the woman’s lips as she stood at the boy’s side, laying a soft hand on his head. “This, my young student, is Livid Coffee Industries. This place holds the most advanced scientific and engineering processes around- perhaps even in the entire world.”

Rythian managed to nod, feeling that her statement needed some type of response but uneasiness started to pool in the boy’s stomach as he watched things zip around in pipes and on tracks and heard the clanking and high pitched whines of straining machines. He seemed rooted in place until Zoey grabbed his hand reassuringly and led him into a small building that seemed attached to the monstrous tower.

The duo sat for a few minutes as they were offered water while they waited, the teacher watching her apprentice diligently and trying to ease his nerves with chatter. It wasn’t long until they were approached by a couple that seemed several years older than Zoey. The technomage stood up immediately and urged Rythian to do the same.

“Mister and Misses LC, it’s great to see you again,” she said, shaking the man’s hand.

“Of course, Zoey, it’s been too long,” the man answered.

“Far, far too long, Zoey,” the woman said, offering a hug instead.

Zoey returned the gesture and placed a hand on her apprentice’s shoulder, smiling down at him. “This is my young protégé, Rythian.”

“So you’re Rythian? We’ve heard about you,” the woman mentioned, leaning down slightly and offering her hand.

The young boy was hesitant but quickly remembered his manners and shook the woman’s hand and then the man’s. Rythian looked up to his mentor, confusion in his eyes.

“These two own Livid Coffee Industries, Rythian. We go back quite a ways- I learned everything I know about technology from them,” Zoey told him.

“Yes, aside from our son Zoey is the quickest learner we’ve ever seen when it comes to all things science and engineering,” the man said.

“Ah, that’s right, I haven’t met the little Livid before,” Zoey said.

“Well after the tour we can see if we can find him. He’s about Rythian’s age,” said the woman who then turned to Rythian, “Would you like to meet our son, Rythian?”

The young boy nodded a bit, “S-Sure,” he answered with some uncertainty in his voice.

“I’m sure you two will get along well,” the man said, “Well, let’s get started, shall we? We can get done by lunch and eat together.”

“Sounds good,” said Zoey, following the couple and leading Rythian by the shoulder.

They started with the large building, the couple explaining that two adjacent buildings processed medicine and food and then would enter the large tower to be packaged and readied for shipping. Rythian was astounded by the intricate system of machines, pipes and carts that carried all the products to their destinations. There were also many people, more than he’d ever seen in once place at a time, all conducting maintenance on the slew of machines.

They headed to the southern area of the facility to the fields upon fields of farming of every type that could be thought of. Again many people milled about to make sure everything was working for the incredibly smooth process, the couple showing off all the automated farming they and their engineers had designed.

Rythian was surprised to find that the animals in the farms full of automated machinery seemed rather content, the young boy somehow expecting to find them all to be filthy and miserable instead of happily running about in wide open areas with good food and plenty of clean water.

The group moved onto the western side to a place with a large sign labeled “Rail Bros. Inc.” The couple explained that Livid Coffee helped fund a project to bring convenient, affordable transportation to the masses. They all watched as carts zoomed past in every which way on tracks and through the air from large ovens to chests and crafting tables and everything else.

Their last stop on the tour was where they got all the power for their productions. To the north of the compound they came upon many buildings made out of either basalt bricks or reinforced materials. Each building housed a different type of power source from BC solar panels to solar arrays to wind and water mills.

The young boy recognized a distinct lack of a few power sources he thought he’d find in such an advanced company. “Do you have nuclear power somewhere? And I don’t see any coal generators either,” he asked.

“Good questions. Those are both very good sources of energy and instead of all this I’m sure we could substitute a couple nuclear reactors but we believe in clean, sustainable energy,” the man answered.

“Yes, with the ability to store all the energy we get from the elements we would rather not have to take from the earth more than we have to. Otherwise we’d have to have people mining 24/7 for uranium and coal or make many, many quarries and use resources in the process,” the woman said, elaborating on her husband’s reasoning, “We think this is a more practical way to power our facility.”

“Oh, I see,” Rythian said, looking up at his teacher who was beaming down at him. “What?” he asked, confused by her smile.

“A good scientist asks questions, Rythian, well done.”

The boy looked away as his cheeks pinked from the praise by his teacher.

With the tour concluded the group went back to the first building to have lunch together. They were joined by a young boy who may have been a year or two older than Rythian. His blonde hair matched his mother’s and he had on a pair of goggles.

“It’s lunch time, Lalna, please take your goggles off,” the woman said, inspecting the boys hand to make sure they were clean.

“M’kay,” the boy said, pulling the goggles up onto his forehead and then looking over to Rythian, “Oh, hi!” he said, enthusiasm clearly in his voice.

“Why don’t you boys introduce yourselves?” Zoey said, interested to see Rythian interact with another kid.

“Hi! I’m Lalna! What’s your name?”

“I… I’m Rythian,” the dark-haired boy answered, a little off put by the boy’s friendliness.

“Hi, Rythian, nice to meet you! Do you want to play after lunch? I can show you my turtle!”

“T-Turtle?” The image of a shelled reptile came to mind.

“Yeah! I named him Doctor Duncan. He has a Ph.D. in engineering!”

The young apprentice’s brows furrowed in confusion but he nodded anyway- he wanted to see a turtle.

“Awesome! I think you’ll like him, he’s pretty cool.”

Lunch ended quickly for the boys when Lalna finished and dragged Rythian off into another room, leaving the adults to catch up. The blonde boy left Rythian in the middle of the small play room while he rummaged around in the chest and brought out a square contraption nearly as big as himself. He placed it on the floor and stepped away, looking at Rythian.

“This is Doctor Duncan,” he said with pride.

“This? I thought you said he was a turtle…”

“He is a turtle, a mining turtle. You’ve never seen a mining turtle before?”

“Not really. I was thinking of a little green thing with a shell that walked all slow and stuff.”

“Oh,” Lalna said with a chuckle, “Those kinds of turtles are pretty cool but I like this kind of turtle better. I made him myself and I can make him do all kinds of things.”

“You made him?”

“Yeah. My parents showed me how but I did all the work. Sometimes they help me program him too but I can make him do cool things all by myself.”

“What kinds of things?” Rythian asked.

“Oh, well, he can dig and chop down things. He can even build stuff. I like to make him dance though.”

Rythian laughed. “Dance? How do you make this thing dance?”

“Easy,” Lalna said, opening the front panel, “Here. Try typing in ‘d-a-n-c-e’.”

“Okay,” the younger boy said, walking up to the turtle and typing in the word.

Lalna pressed the panel back into place and stepped back a couple feet. Rythian did the same thing and watched the turtle come to life. It hopped up and down, turned and pivoted. The two boys laughed as it moved about the room and knocked some toys off a table.

The blonde boy showed how the turtle could build too, telling the machine to make a tower with his building blocks only for the boys to knock it over and build other things. Rythian ended up building another more intricate tower and told Lalna to watch as he used his Rending Gale to blow it over.

“Ah, man! Is that a Swiftwolf ring?” the blonde inquired, running over to look at it.

“Yeah it is. You know about magic?” Rythian said, feeling that all-too-familiar bit of uneasiness in his stomach.

“A little. I don’t get to do much since my parents only teach me about science. That’s really cool though. How did you get it?”

“My teacher and I made it.”

“Aw, I wish I had someone to teach me magic,” Lalna said, kicking over his building blocks, “Hey, do you think your teacher could teach me too?”

The dark-haired boy felt the sting of some unknown feeling as he thought of Zoey teaching Lalna about magic.

“I-I dunno. I don’t think… I don’t think so,” he stammered, unsure of what to say and why he suddenly felt like he wanted to run away.

“Hmm. Oh well. Maybe I can someone else to teach me,” he said, going back to building.

“Y-yeah. Maybe,” Rythian muttered, “I think it’s time for me to go back with Zoey,” he said, turning for the door.

“Aw, alright. Bye Rythian. You should come back again so we can play,” Lalna said, smiling at the other boy before going back to his toys.

Rythian left the room in a hurry, finding Zoey and the other two right where he had left them. He sat beside his teacher and quietly waited for a lull in the conversation to speak.

“Zoey,” he whispered to her, “Can we go now?”

The technomage was perplexed as to why her student suddenly wanted to leave but wrapped up her conversation with her former mentors and said her goodbyes. When they were out of earshot Zoey kneeled down to talk to Rythian, concerned for the boy,

“What happened? Why did you want to leave, Rythian?”

“I just didn’t want to be there anymore and I don’t really want to go back again.”

“Was all this too much? The machines and stuff?”

“No, not really. I mean, that was cool, how they’re using it all to help people and stuff but…” He averted his eyes, the nervous pit in his abdomen still very present, “Lalna...”

“Did you not get along with him?”

“No, it was alright. We had fun but he’s really good at science and he likes magic and wanted you to teach him about it…”

The woman was confused for a moment, wondering why that had made him feel like he needed to leave. The realization then dawned on her and a small smile spread across her lips.

“Oh Rythian, dear,” she clasped one hand on his shoulder and used the other to make him look at her, “I am your teacher, Rythian, and no one else’s. I don’t care how good he is at science- you’re my student and I am your teacher. That won’t change, ever.”

The young boy looked at his mentor’s reassuring smile and felt the weight start to lift away, “Promise?” he asked, hopeful.

“I promise,” she answered, giving him a hug.

It had begun a few days prior when she had noticed the boy’s sneezing. She had attributed it to allergies, thinking he might have been allergic to their newest companion, a wolf he’d named Ghost. The next day she knew something else was going on as he was normally a fairly early riser, not as early as Zoey but he never slept past noon like he had that day. When he didn’t show up for lunch she went to check on him, knocking on his door.

“Rythian? Can I come in?” She waited a moment and heard a muffled moan of reply. Opening the door she found him still in his bed, “Is everything alright?” she asked, approaching his bed.

“I don’t feel good,” he answered, rolling over to face her.

Her brows furrowed in concern when she saw he was lethargic and flushed, “Oh dear, you don’t look well either,” she said, sitting on the edge of his bed. “Let me feel your head,” she murmured, leaning down and touching her forehead to his. Zoey pulled away and shook her head. “You’ve got quite the fever, Rythian. You’re definitely sick.”

“Yeah, I could’ve told you that,” he said, “And couldn’t you have used your hand to check my temperature?” If his illness would have let him he would have been blushing furiously from his mentor’s closeness.

“Still sharp as ever, I see,” she responded, “And using my hand isn’t as accurate as judging the difference directly. You stay in bed and keep bundled up- we’ll sweat that fever out of you.” Zoey instructed as she got up, “Do you feel up to eating something?”

“I’m sure I can. I’d like some water or juice or something too.”

“Sure thing. I’ll be back in a bit and  I’ll get you some more tissues.”

Two days had passed since then and while the boy’s fever was gone he still wasn’t quite back to his usual self, spending most of his time in bed sleeping. Zoey in turn kept busy making sure he had everything he needed like the stew she had just finished and was bringing to him. With a few slices of bread and glass of milk she brought the meal to the boy, finding him sitting up in bed with a pile of snotty tissues in the wastebasket next to his bed.

“Alright, I got stew and some bread for you Rythian.”

“M’kay,” he said, pushing the sleeves of his night shirt up, “I’m feeling a bit better. I think I’ll be able to start helping out again tomorrow.”

“There’s no rush, Rythian. Don’t push yourself too hard, you’ll just end up staying sick. Rest and good nutrition is the best way to kick a cold,” she told him, setting the tray of food on his lap.

“Alright, if you say so,” he said, ripping off a bite of bread and chewing it before taking a drink of milk.

The woman moved to the door and opened it to leave. “If you need anything let me know, I’ll be back in a bit to take your dishes.”

“Okay… Hey Zoey?” he called to her.

“Yeah, Rythian?” she said, looking back to him, wondering if he'd thought of something he wanted.

“Thanks… For taking care of me.”

With arms full she walked down the hallway, shaking her head and letting out a sigh. She wouldn’t let him see it but her pale lips were pulled into an amused grin. It had been a while since his actions actually made her angry and she had learned that his enthusiasm could not be curbed no matter how hard she tried. Now she had learned to take a deep breath, count to ten and get to work cleaning up whatever mess had been made.

The latest mishap occurred after a geared up outing in which the young boy had brought back the few grams of gunpowder she’d asked him collect as well as nearly two dozen Enderpearls she was sure he hunted just for fun. After he returned and they ate dinner she trusted him to hook up their new rotary macerator. With the new Swiftwolf’s Rending Gale they’d made him the boy tried to do a fly-by placement to make the task a bit more “exciting”. Unaccustomed to the speed the ring gave him in flight the boy missed the intended glass fiber cables and hit the tin ones instead that were outputting twice what the rotary macerator ran on. Their brand new macerator shorted out and exploded rather marvelously in their basement, blowing a good sized hole in the floor above and alerting the woman a few rooms away. Luckily the area was properly grounded and kept anyone from getting electrocuted but the pipe system she had taken quite a long time figuring out was toast, what remained of it all in her arms as she went to repair and gather more materials for whatever components were irreversibly damaged.

She hadn’t seen him since before the incident occurred; quite sure the boy was in hiding until she had most of the repairs finished. Sure enough, just like clockwork, as she was putting in the last distribution pipe for the EMC generator she heard the familiar sound of the flying ring being activated and the young boy came flying into the room. The boy tried to put on an innocent and eager face as he flitted about the room.

“Wow, Professor Zoey, that’s sure a big mess. Is there anything I can do to help?” he asked, tiptoeing across the mess of pipes along the wall with the aid of his ring.

The older woman sent a look at the boy that visibly made him shrink, guilt clearly seen in his eyes as she went back to her task. “Not now, Rythian, but next time you can make sure you won’t wire our brand new, thirty-two EU per tick rotary macerator to an MFSU without an MV and LV transformer,” she answered matter-of-factly.

His remorse became more evident after her accurate retelling of his mistake but quickly he became more frustrated than anything, pointing at the twisted heap of metal that he’d been charged with. “It’s not my fault that thing can’t handle more power. It’s supposed to be more advanced than the regular macerator, isn’t it? Why is it still stuck on thirty-two?”

“Because not everyone is fortunate enough to pump out nearly a million and a half EU per hour with just one geo. generator, Rythian. Just because you messed up doesn’t mean it’s the technology’s fault.”

“Technology is stupid,” he rebutted, “It’s too complicated and boring. Magic is so much better and so much fun. I don’t see why I have to learn about stupid science and engineering and techno-“

“Like it or not, Rythian, the world we live in is built upon magic and science alike. Neither of these things are going away so it’s best to know as much about them as possible,” Zoey interrupted sternly, activating her own flying ring to pluck the young boy off the rafters. She planted the both of them back down on what was left of the solid ground of their basement and kneeled down to look him in the eye, “When you know enough of both you can make them work in perfect harmony. Blindly following a single path never did anyone any good, Rythian. Trust me; you will be glad that I have taught you these things one day.”

The boy looked away from his teacher, a blush rising on his cheeks as well as a pout forming on his lips, “Doubt it,” he mumbled.