Hope

Irwyn ended up meeting Alice sooner than lunch. In the morning he had decided to finally don the uniform which had been provided to him upon arrival, then promptly forgotten in a closet… and apparently tailored if the fit was anything to judge by. Thereafter Elizabeth had suggested it would not be a bad idea to wander around the camp and show his face - she was still finishing up the last of her accumulated paperwork but assured him she would be much more free starting in the afternoon.

His run-in with the new entouragee happened at the same time as his discovery of the shooting range. Well ‘target practice range’ since it could be used for more than bullets, but most of the soldiers gathered there at the moment – maybe two dozen of them – were seemingly using those. Guns were not the most useful against undead but were still clearly in supply. With plentiful ammunition if the soldiers were allowed to shoot the targets mostly to pass the time.

Alice was very distinct in the crowd because she was the only mage present. And based on the cheering as she approached the mark, she was quite liked among the gathering. Irwyn watched from a bit away as Alice brought the large riffle up: It was an overly massive contraption, looking far too big for her build. Then she made a theatric of loading a single massive shell into the chamber. Afterward she brought it up to her face and fired after just a split second of aiming.

The sound of gunfire was muted, likely by the magic Irwyn felt around the range. Recoil - which Irwyn presumed would be significant from his limited understanding - did not seem to even shake Alice. What was more obvious was a large hole appearing right in the red mark of the target - a sheet of hoisted paper – or perhaps rather replacing said center. Then another gunshot sounded. Irwyn paused. Third and fourth followed.

Now Irwyn was no expert but he had assumed that loading a single bullet into the chamber meant the riffle would fire a single time. Fascinated he approached as the fifth to eight shots happened. The ninth was a lot louder since Irwyn had just passed the boundary muting sound, as were the thunderous cheers echoing her every shot, as he was assured of after the tenth.

Then they finally stopped, though the exclamations remained. Irwyn also finally noticed what the crowd had earlier obscured: Alice had not been shooting at just one target but rather at an arrangement of ten, each a bit further than the last but also at different heights and angles, likely each harder to hit than the last… and she had hit the center on each. That was, presumably, impressive. Irwyn knew next to nothing about firearms but everyone seemed to be losing their mind cheering and reliable precision was generally considered a hard-earned skill in anything.

Alice finished the event by raising her open palm overhead, then clasping it into a fist. Most of the soldiers followed the gesture, though that was not the point as she immediately showed. She angled her fist down, palm aligned to ground, then half opened it. Empty bullet shells quickly poured from the space they certainly would not have physically fit, clinking on the ground moments later - exactly ten of them.

Well, Alice was a Time mage so minor teleportation was only to be expected. The mundane men and women of arms did seem to appreciate it though so Irwyn did not put a voice to his lack of awe. She proceeded to receive a lineful of shoulder pats and good-natured handshakes as Irwyn hung around the back of the crowd. She seemed to enjoy the moment and accepted all the praise with a smile. It continued for almost a minute until he was noticed by her.

“Irwyn!” After her call out the soldiers finally began to notice him. One by one at first, then a whisper and a hush spread through until the jolly mood from moments ago suffocated under their weight. The former center of attention approached him, “What bring you down here?”

“Alice,” he greeted - pretending the tangible wariness from everyone but her did not bother him. Why was that reaction so immediate… and was it him in particular or any mage in general? “I noticed the commotion and wandered towards it. Impressive aim.”

“Thank you,” she smiled and it seemed the sudden tension was dispersing at a tangible rate. “I wouldn’t think you would take interest.”

“Well, I have not seen much of firearms actually firing in my life. Novelty begets curiosity,” he pointed towards the massive riffle she was still holding in one hand. “Especially something that size.”

“Anti-material, 12.8 millimeters - I just removed the scope,” she said, nodding, as if that explained or meant anything to Irwyn. “Not the biggest I ever used but nice.”

“Are you… well acquainted with firearms?” Irwyn was unsure what to say. “I am not. But I did notice that it fired more bullets than should be in it. Were you teleporting them in?”

“That, and helping the firing mechanism reset,” she nodded. “These are not built to actually shoot more than once every few seconds.”

“Usually takes two people to operate it,” someone from the crowd pointed out. The positive mood had been somewhat resurrected, if not to the prior height.

“Just shooting is fun as well,” Alice grinned. “But someone wanted me to show off. So I did. Didn’t think a mage could shoot straight, heh.”

“Is that… unusual?” Irwyn guessed.

“Well, are you spending hours in your day learning how to shoot?” she asked. "Combining magic with other martial disciplines is often underestimated."

“Fair point,” Irwyn shrugged. “Thought I feel like just practicing magic will bring me further.”

“That’s exactly the issue,” Alice shook her head. “You also have to have fun from time to time.”

“Magic is plenty of fun,” Irwyn pointed out.

“Nerd.”

“I am just…”

“Nerd.”

“You are being juve…”

“Nerd.”

“Really?” Irwyn inclined his head, resisting a sigh.

“Yes,” she nodded. “You should try shooting.”

“I… suppose?”

“Right, everyone?” she turned to the crowd of soldiers… who were looking on with a mix of bewilderment, dread and embarrassment. The mundane people were all at least nearing twenty as Irwyn had seen and many were much older… which made the youngest significantly elder to both Irwyn or Alice who were technically approaching their late teens... And the latter of them was certainly acting her age at the moment.

“Of course!” a few affirmed with distinct hesitation.

“I mean, why not,” Irwyn shrugged, interested enough to at least try.

“Alright, great. Let’s see, for a beginner…” she glanced around. Then a slightest wave of magic passed through the air and she was holding a small handgun. “Something easy. You have never shot before, right?”

“No,” Irwyn affirmed. He had always used magic if there was a desperate need for such force, even if he had to disguise and moderate it for most of his life until recently. Firearms were never too common in Ebon Respite, even in the underbelly.

“Alright, it’s simple,” she led him towards the mark painted to the ground. Irwyn assumed that no one stepped past it. “You align the sights with target, then pull the trigger,” she looked up at the distinct lack of undamaged targets, paused, then with a wave of magic replaced them from somewhere… Every second Irwyn was realizing what Elizabeth had meant when calling Time mages convenient to have around.

“I can certainly try,” Irwyn nodded, aiming at the target right in front of them, not even that far away. He braced for the recoil, because he knew at least that much, then fired. It was fascinating in its own right. The unexpectedly strong kick of the gun and slight flinch led to him missing, but that was only half of it. The rest was Irwyn finally taking notice of the more inner workings of the gun in his hand. He finally made the obvious connection of why there was fire in firearm. There was a spark, then a brief moment of burning in what he assumed was the bullet, then the projectile was in the air moving faster than he could perceive.

But his mind was fast enough to mostly distinguish between the first spark and the total ignition, for all they were rapid. And that got him an idea.

“Not a natural sharpshooter,” Alice noted with a hint of amusement.

“All magic, it appears,” Irwyn pointed at himself. “Though I bet I could beat you at gunplay if we could use magic.”

“When firing bullets from the gun, not just hitting the targets themselves with magic,” her eyes narrowed. Just as competitive as Irwyn remembered.

“Just guns and a bit of magic to help when shooting,” Irwyn nodded with a grin.

“Bring it,” she scoffed, a second identical pistol appearing in her hand. “Five rounds, one shot each.”

“Fine by me,” Irwyn kept smiling as he aimed at the target again. This time he did hit, even if only on the outer circle.

“Five,” Alice nodded.

“How is the outermost circle five?” Irwyn questioned. "The center is marked as ten."

“There are bigger ones that go all the way to one,” someone said from the side.

“My turn,” Alice walked up with a last suspicious glance, then rapidly took aim in a single fluid motion. It was almost mesmerizing in the trained smoothness, really, and obviously done as quickly as possible to avoid whatever Irwyn was blatantly intending to pull.

Except there was no gunshot. Alice frowned while Irwyn kept up a smile. She gave him a glare, then a different identical handgun replaced the first. which still did not fire. Neither did the third. When she attempted to check the bullets and then directly teleport them into the chamber Irwyn had to try a bit to not laugh. There was just something inherently hilarious about a prank like that working.

“You are messing with me, somehow,” she correctly concluded.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Irwyn immediately replied and winked.

“This is clearly against the rules you set,” she tried. “You are messing with my round.”

“I said ‘Just guns and bit of magic to help when shooting’,” Irwyn shrugged. “This would clearly fall under that. You are shooting after all, never said it would be restricted to our own rounds."

“So you are doing something,” she said but clearly did not know what.

His interference lay in the spark. First, there was a spark that ignited the inside of the shell which then propelled the actual projectile. But what if the ignition just… didn’t happen? Irwyn could feel even natural Flames when he tried to. And he could force them under his authority with just a bit of magical infusion. What he was essentially doing was immediately taking over the spark, then snuffing it out.

Sure, the spark was faster than conscious thought but much of magic already operated at that level. Irwyn hadn’t been completely sure it would work but he decided it was worth trying whether having every intention to subsume the spark as soon as it appeared would be enough. If it hadn’t been, all he would have lost would have been a small bet. Not like there was much of anything at stake.

The trickier part was making it not obvious. He couldn’t just flood the entire area with his mana, Alice would notice that right away… But he had long known how to displace magic away from his body. The issue with that was only that it became exponentially harder to control, as well as more costly and less powerful, based on the distance. But such a little spark? This close? It took just the barest imperceivable sliver of both mana and focus. At least as a baseline.

“I would be ruining my chances if I told you now, wouldn’t I?” Irwyn shrugged. “How long can one person spend on a round without firing before they lose it?”

“We haven’t agreed on that,” Alice said. “So there doesn’t need to be any timeout.”

“It would be mighty awkward if someone took a point lead and then just refused to shoot until the competition was called, wouldn’t it?” Irwyn argued back. “I think three minutes is generous.”

“From now,” Alice bit her lip. He thought she might refute that in which case she would either figure out how to stop him or they would glare at each other awkwardly for a while before calling it a draw.

“Can someone time it for us?” Irwyn spoke towards the crowd. It took a few seconds for someone with a wristwatch to walk up and nod. From there Alice tried to figure it out. Her first three minutes she seemed to be casting a lot of subtle spells at the gun, seemingly attempting to figure out what could possibly be wrong while repeatedly attempting to shoot the target.

“Time,” the soldier who had volunteered spoke. Irwyn did not hesitate for a moment as he walked up with his own firearm, then fired after a moment of aiming.

“Seven points,” Irwyn read and announced. “Your turn.”

“It’s the bullets,” she correctly concluded. “Everything else works just fine.”

“If you say so?” Irwyn inclined his head, not giving up anything.

Then Alice attempted to flood the entire chamber with her own mana. It was an obvious counter: Just stop whatever Irwyn was doing by brute force. So obvious, in fact, that Irwyn had expected it. And while she just flooded it, Irwyn had long been ready to add intentions.

Fundamentally, his spell was manifested at the exact spot of the spark when it appeared. Now that the chamber was enveloped with Alice’s magic, Irwyn had to get his mana into that spot… Which raised a curious question of how Irwyn’s displacement of spells worked. The spell was manifesting exactly in that spot, but what did that actually mean? Was there a metaphysical but space-obeying link between Irwyn and the place his spell appeared? Was it like teleportation? Or perhaps it traveled to a layer of reality he knew nothing about. The biggest question was: Would he need to displace just a bit of Alice’s mana or pierce through everything?

Pierce and bypass were obvious choices when uncertain. Then Irwyn decided on fortify and reinforce so that his magic could not easily be broken by Alice's spread force. And since he did have two options left he opted for diffuse and confuse, likely making it much harder for Alice to correctly determine where exactly his magic was happening. Of course, this all only took effect when Alice took the next shot - or at least tried to.

“Holy!” she exclaimed, flinching, then shot him a glare. “That is way too much magic.”

“Perhaps you want me to make this… easier?” Irwyn raised an eyebrow, taunting her. Six intention spells had a lot of mana in them even when Irwyn tried to trim the amount and scale down to a minimum. Without any intentions dedicated to hiding that Irwyn’s control was not so perfect as to not leak anything, especially since the spell was being manifested displaced, right next to her arm. So instead, he was rather deliberately letting it leak enough to confuse where exactly in the chamber it was happening.

“That is not what I said,” she immediately shot back, redoubling her efforts. She tried to fit intentions into the formerly raw mana in the chamber but she had not yet identified where it needed to be. What followed was a round of Alice repeatedly attempting and failing to block Irwyn’s spell.

“How do you burn this much magic without even sweating?” Alice glared at him as the time was called. Perspiration was certainly starting to surface on her face.

“It’s not actually that much,” Irwyn shook his head. “I am focused on one spot, you are not.”

“One spot,” she repeated, grinning. Oops. It seemed like Irwyn had gone a step too far with his taunts. He quickly fired his shot - completely missing - and returned to metaphorical baton to Alice within a few seconds.

The next round started with Alice attempting to identify where this one place was. She did so by passing a thin film of mana back and forth through the chamber length-wise, trying to fire repeatedly all the while. Inevitably, her intentionally weak bit of magic got disrupted by Irwyn’s much more powerful spell the closer she got to the right spot. But she had done it quickly enough that Irwyn had not come up with the idea of casting a fake spell to feign the spot until after a dozen rapid attempts when she already had what she needed.

“The back end of the bullet, is it?” Alice smiled, turning to Irwyn. “Almost have you now.”

She then proceeded to attempt the very same thing height-wise near the spot she had found earlier. Attempting to determine whether it was the dead center or closer to the top or bottom, presumably. But as she started pulling the trigger again, Irwyn noticed something she had clearly missed. The gun fired to Alice’s and everyone’s great surprise - and didn’t hit the target. She flinched, actual recoil affecting her for the first time. Based on her expression, the mistake stung more than the kick.

“You forgot to aim after you assured me of your incoming victory,” Irwyn added insult to injury, breaking the startled silence. He was not obligated to prevent her shot if it was clearly going to miss.

“That is low!” Alice accused.

“My turn,” Irwyn did not rise to it, quickly firing the next shot. “Another five, up to you.”

“It’s the Aspects damned primer, isn’t it?” Alice half asked half stated after a moment of staring at the gun in her hand, then slapped her forehead. “Or at least the gunpowder. It’s so obvious. How did I not think of this?”

“I am not sure whether I should laugh or be worried,” Irwyn spoke. “If only I knew what a ‘primer’ was. And the presumed seconder.”

“Of course, the Flame mage would mess with the fire,” Alice refocused, Irwyn failing to distract her. She spent a few more seconds thinking, then took aim, reflooded the chamber with her mana and pulled the trigger.

The gun went off. Irwyn paused. His spell had worked, he was sure of it. Alice had done nothing else as far as he could perceive and yet his spell suddenly had no effect. It was not overpowered, nor broken. Just… bypassed, somehow.

“What did you do?”

“I would be ruining my chances if I told you now, wouldn’t I?” Alice grinned. “Full ten points. Doesn’t look good for you, does it?”

“There is only one round left anyway,” Irwyn pointed out. “With me at 17, any hit just guarantees I win.”

“If, you can hit.”

“Sure,” Irwyn nodded, taking aim the best he could, definitely at least a bit competitive. Then he paused, a thought striking him. He fumbled with the gun for a few moments before he found the button which allowed him to detach the magazine. Sure enough, there was only one bullet there, a visibly deformed piece of metal that undoubtedly would cause subpar accuracy.

“You messed with the clip,” Irwyn calmly noted. Fair enough, two could play that game as the saying went. No use complaining about his own medicine, as one idiom said. There wasn’t even a Waylan around to defile them.

“It’s a magazine, Irwyn,” Alice corrected.

“May I have a different one?” He called towards the crowd and one was quickly provided. He immediately enveloped the entire magazine in Light magic, reinforcing it the best he could against teleportation… then he also discarded the top three bullets before reloading, making sure the ammunition remained guarded as he loaded it back in.

When he tried shooting nothing happened. Irwyn frowned and tried several more times. He proceeded to pull the magazine out again, but the bullets were still there. Confused he tried again, futilely.

“I cannot watch this,” someone blurted out. “You need to pull the top of the gun after loading a new magazine and disengage the safety.”

“Safety?” Irwyn paused.

“Small lever on the top right side, above the handle.”

“He would have lost,” Alice muttered with a glare.

“Well, it would be way too anticlimactic,” their timekeeper pointed out. “Ten seconds left.”

Irwyn scrambled to follow the instructions as the last moments were counted down. He was down to three before he thought he had accomplished getting the gun ready to fire. Two before he raised it. Without much time to fire at all, Irwyn just pulled the trigger. Almost condescendingly Alice did not even try to disrupt it with her own spell.

“Miss,” instead she just smiled and stepped up.

“Don’t celebrate too soon,” Irwyn said, thinking quickly. Not everything was yet lost. He was still ahead as long as Alice did not get to fire again. So, he expanded his spell. From just the back of the bullet to cover the entire chamber. As soon as his subconscious perceived that spark it would extinguish all fires there. It would hog exponentially more mana but Irwyn was confident he could keep it up for the three minutes with ease thanks to his extensive reserves, no matter what Alice tried.

Alice pulled the trigger, birthing the spark, only for it to be extinguished in the same instant. It worked just as well as the first time. Except, Irwyn realized, there was a reason Alice still covered the entire inside of the chamber with her mana. Because there was an anomaly. It just wasn’t at the bullet where Irwyn expected it but rather almost right by the other end. The bullet loaded in the chamber indeed never fired.

“It’s a different bullet,” Irwyn realized all too late, as he glanced and the target and the new little hole in the center. Another ten for a total of 20.

“All it takes to ignite the primer is a knock of force - that is what the trigger is really for,” Alice nodded. “That is easy enough to do manually with Time magic. Then I just have to put a portal in front of the actual bullet I am triggering ten meters away from here and connect it to the nuzzle. You cannot mess with the bullet if you don’t know where it is. At least not without just putting up a barrier.”

“Well, you win,” Irwyn admitted, much to Alice’s pleasure.

“What were you actually doing?” Alice asked after basking in it for a moment. “I know kind of what but not the how.”

“I was taking over the spark as it formed, turning it magical with an infusion of mana, then - since it was my magic at that point - forcing it to extinguish without igniting anything else,” Irwyn obliged. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure I would be fast enough for it. But magic is faster than thought in this case.”

“I didn’t know Flame mages could actually just take over mundane flame.”

“Very convenient for snuffing out candles,” Irwyn nodded. “And dousing large fires if it comes up. Not much else.”

“Well, we are just taking up space now. We can leave the range,” Alice looked around. The mundane soldiers were clearly still listening to their conversation and cheering with some excitement over their little competition but were… separated. As if they didn’t dare to join in on their conversation. Even their former timekeeper had quickly vanished back into the small crowd as if attempting to avoid being singled out again in any way.

“Fair enough,” Irwyn nodded, following her away. They passed the sound muffling and then stepped a bit further towards one of the nearby buildings. There was not much open space in the camp to begin with and people were still lingering around in the late morning though that was solved well enough by Irwyn’s penetralia. Not transparent for the time being.

“Were you actually looking for me earlier?” Alice asked right away.

“Not really, why would I be?” Irwyn shook his head.

“Well, I apparently have a meeting with the big Lady at lunch and Trecha refused to tell me anything,” she shrugged. “I figured this might be why.”

“No, I was really just wearing in the uniform since I now know have it,” Irwyn shook his head. “I think Elizabeth just wants to tell you herself. Probably wants to frame things in a specific way.”

“Yes, she is quite meticulous,” she nodded. “What rank even is that?”

“What rank?” Irwyn frowned.

“The insignia on your uniform,” she rolled her eyes and pointed at it. It was, in fact, a mark of rank. Placed in the same spot where most wore the marking of privates, sergeants or even lieutenants - Irwyn had taken the time to learn which was which - but the one on him was unfamiliar. That had not quite clicked in the morning when putting the uniform on.

“I do not know,” Irwyn shrugged. “I just wore what was in my closet.”

“Unbelievable,” she shook her head. “I am not well familiar with the Duchy of Black’s ranks but I have not seen anyone else with that one. Nor when I looked up those in the main command structure.”

“Probably something to do with Elizabeth,” Irwyn could only shrug. “I think I am not technically employed by the army but by House Blackburg directly.”

“And the commendations?”

“The what?”

“Under the rank, you have two little white stripes,” she said and Irwyn confirmed they were indeed there. Thin strings sewn into cloth. “What do those mean?”

“That is a very good question,” Irwyn paused. “Probably… something to do with Abonisle? I did contribute to saving it and we were with the military for that. Not much else it could be.”

“How are you not curious about this?”

“Well, I am now,” he admitted. “I have not exactly spent my life thinking about the military. Very close to the opposite, actually. It will take some adjustment.”

Alice opened her mouth to say more but Irwyn stopped her. He looked to the side where someone was prodding his bubble of privacy. Not subtly, thought that was clearly not the point. The repeated but non-aggressive stabs were obviously meant to just gather his attention. Dismissing the bubble Irwyn found that it was the night watch Sergeant, ... . that is where their name would have been in his thoughts if Irwyn had remembered it.

“Anything the matter, Sergeant?” Irwyn suddenly realized the military custom of calling people by rank rather than name was actually quite convenient. Perhaps he was predisposed for the army life after all.

“Her Ladyship had called for you with some urgency,” the man seemed slightly pale, Irwyn realized. Fearful. “She has some… guests. That is all I know for certain.”

“I will head there right away then,” Irwyn nodded, bid Alice a quick goodbye, then half jogged back to Elizabeth’s building. Before he was out of earshot, he caught the Sergeant telling Alice her lunch meeting might be delayed if ‘things’ dragged out. Irwyn wondered whether the slight unease he felt in his stomach was indicative of what was to come.