Chapter 22: 21. Magic, mana and metal.

The next morning Paul found Ash in the workshop, her bike partly disassembled and tools neatly laid out around her. Her head rested on a cloth pad on top of a tool box while she, or her body at least, crouched down by the bike.

Paul whistled as he got a good look at the bike.

“Well isn’t she a beauty.”

“Oi!”

“What’s her engine from, a Triumph rocket 3?”

Paul crouched down by Ash, who was blushing furiously. She zipped up the front of her jumpsuit, but not before Paul realised she wasn’t wearing much more than a string bikini underneath.

“Umm, yeah... the engine is from a Triumph, the drive train and gears are a BMW though.”

“Custom frame I notice, are those Harley front forks?”

“That they were. Hydroglides, they’re scrap now.”

Paul sighed, nodding.

“Damn shame, so how do you want to do this? I can make parts for you; I certainly owe you that much. But with everything else going on, it’s going to take a while. There’s only so many hours in a day. If you want to order the parts, I can certainly give you space to work in.”

Ash sighed and shook her head.

“I cannae. I’ve not the money. It’s not just the forks; the headstock has cracked and two of the bolts have sheered off flush with the frame.”

Paul nodded, the headstock, where the front forks met the frame, took the brunt of the stresses in a front-end collision.

“Well, that’s buggered then. I mean, you could weld it, and it might hold… if you can get the broken bolts out. Personally I’d machine up a replacement though, and while getting the bolts out without wrecking the frame won’t be easy, it’s do-able. Wish I had a portable x-ray though, to check for cracking in the frame welds.”

Paul looked over to where the convertor stood silent.

“I wonder if Inari or Shoko could use magic to do that, sort of like looking for a continuity break in a wire. I’ll have to ask.”

Ash sat back on her heels, and lifted her head into her lap to stare at something closer. Paul watched with interest.

“Doesn’t it get confusing, doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Well looking at something from a different perspective to where your body is, or for that matter, watching your body from behind like you were.”

“You ever play video games? Where you watch your character running around on a screen?”

“Yeah. Oh! Huh, so life is in 3^rd person camera view for you, usually.”

“That it is! Although sometimes I put me head on my shoulders, and play 1^st person.”

Paul chuckled.

“Still, handy in some ways. I mean, you can submerge your body for however long you want, just so long as your head is above water.”

Ash shuddered, and closed her eyes.

“Oh, no… I don’t go in the water if I can help it. None of us dullahan do.”

Paul patted her shoulder.

“Sorry, didn’t know. Ok, changing the subject… any other damage? To the bike that is.”

Ash snorted what sounded suspiciously like a barely suppressed dirty snicker.

“Fuel tank’s dented, might be cracked but the self-sealing liner is holding for now. Gear case took a ding, not badly dented or cracked, but I want to check everything’s ok inside. Exhaust system’s dented, rear suspension is almost sure to be out of alignment. Radiator’s mashed where the front forks tried to merge with it, and it’s bled out.”

“Damn, that’ll be a sod to replace! I doubt Triumph parts are easy to come by out here, and there’s no way to just fix it, there’s not enough left!”

“Ah now, it’s paying for my pride I am. I had to be stubborn and look down me nose at rice burners. If I’d used parts from a Jap bike, like a Yamaha or Suzuki, it’d be different kettle of fish now.”

Paul nodded slowly.

“Not saying it was a bad choice. It’s a monster of an engine and I can see why you’d want it... but yeah, availability of parts probably should have been a bit more of a priority. Even the best bike is no good if it spends half it’s life in a garage waiting on parts to arrive.”

“It’s not wrong you are. Looks like I’ll be doing most of the work meself then.”

Paul glanced around at the industrial lathes and presses, and doubtfully back at Ash.

“You know how to handle heavy equipment like this?”

Ash flushed red, scowling at him

“And who do you think built her in the first place?”

Paul held up his hands.

“Whoa, I surrender. Peace. I was only asking out of safety concerns. You could’ve had someone else machining the parts for you… although I can see you know welding from the spatter burn scars across the back of your hand.”

Ash glanced down, and blinked.

“Holmes you said your last name was, didn’t you?”

Paul laughed.

“Got me. I grew up with the nickname Sherlock. I sort of fell into the habit of doing that observation and deduction thing to show off as a kid, and it kinda stuck. It’s also why I tend to write mystery novels, most of the time.”

Ash chuckled.

“And I’m going to be the one walking with a cane for a few days I think. Ash Watson, at your service.”

Paul frowned.

“Seriously now, how badly hurt were you? Looking at your bike, it must’ve been a bad wreck.”

Ash shrugged.

“I’m a mass of bruises from me ankle to me hip bone on one side, and me back’s a mess too. I’ve got a nice duck egg on the back of my head, and that’s not black eye liner I’m wearing, but dullahans are tough. We don’t break bones, not ours anyway, an’ you can’t kill us even with a sword through the heart. The road rash has healed already. But... but we do have a weak spot or two. We can be knocked out, or...or drowned. And I’m trusting you’ll keep that to yourself.”

“You have my word as Inari’s Herald and a gentleman. Anyway, if you need any assistance, you only need ask.”

“Got any oil and couple of hot boys to massage me?”

Paul laughed.

“No, just me. Oil we have though, you want regular 10w40 or the Extra Super 4T 20w40?”

Ash hooted with laughter, shaking her head.

“Away with you, I’ll be covered in it soon enough as it is! Although… it looks like you’ve got yourself a project too.”

“That I have, that’s the mana convertor I mentioned. I’m planning on building a better one, something less bodged together. Come to think of it, having someone who knows one end of a welding torch from the other would be helpful, if you don’t mind. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, and maybe we can get both done that bit quicker.”

“Mind? Why would I be doing that now? I’ve had to go around enough dead patches myself to know it’s getting worse out there. The magic is dying and we’re all going with it.”

Paul nodded slowly.

“Tallies with what I’ve figured out. Most of the Others seem to need mana to survive, or at least thrive… if it declines, so do they.”

“That’s true now! And if one of us strays into a dead patch, then we’d best turn right round and go back, or prey you have the strength and it’s not so far across you can’t make it. It’s a terrible way to go so it is, fading away like that.”

Paul shuddered at the thought.

“Yeah… the sooner I can get a solid design worked out and tested, and get them into production, the better.”

Ash looked at him curiously.

“You’re after putting those things everywhere are you?”

“Yeah, first stage is to build corridors linking up safe spots. Then to create more sanctuaries, and finally make the convertors as ubiquitous as cell phone towers just about.”

“Well, you don’t lack for ambition!”

Paul shrugged.

“Well, might as well dream big after all, small dreams have no power to inspire.”

Ash stared at her bike, and sighed.

“Right now, my dreams are to fix my bike and get on with discharging this geas, and go home.”

Paul leaned back on his heels.

“Been meaning to ask, what is this MacGuffin you’re supposed to be returning anyway?”

“MacGuffin?”

“Oh, writing term for a plot device that’s important to keep the story moving or motivate a character, but unimportant itself. Kind of like the Maltese falcon you know?”

Ash nodded.

“That I do, like the suitcase in Pulp Fiction. Although I didn’t know it was called that. Hang on and I’ll show you it now.”

Ash got up and crossed over to a workbench, pulling a set of saddle bags to her, from where they’d been out of Paul’s line of sight. She opened one and dug into it, pulling out a palm sized something wrapped in black silk. Paul stood up and walked over to her, then stopped, looking back at where her head still lay nestled on a pile of cloths.

“Uhhh….”

“Hey, pick me up please, and bring me over here.”

“Okayyy… That is still going to take a bit of getting used to.”

Ash chuckled, as Paul picked up her head and carried it over to where her body was holding the silk-wrapped object. Holding her head up one handed, he balanced her on his shoulder.

“Ok there?”

Ash’s breath tickled his ear as she spoke.

“That I am, thanks. Ok this is what the fuss is about then.”

Paul watched as Ash unwrapped what appeared to be a large broach, or maybe a necklace or medallion. It was a circular lens shape, about the size of his palm. A large polished central stone was held in a crescent-moon like rim of silver metal, thicker at the base than the top. At least, Paul assumed the edge with only a thread of silver and a small loop, was the top. The base had a sort of cylindrical protrusion from the edge, like it was meant to screw onto something else.

“May I?”

“Sure.”

Paul carefully handed Ash’s head to her as she passed him the object. Paul held it up to the light, and frowned. The polished crystal disc wasn’t, as he had first thought blue, but was in fact clear with a blue rod of some other crystal running through it. It was only the refractive properties of the clear crystal that made it seem blue, as all light was focused though the inclusion.

Paul held the thing up and peered at the base. The silver was decorated with stylised waves, or maybe clouds, apart from a penny sized area at the thickest part of the crescent which formed a small medallion. Paul rubbed his thumb over first one side than the other. There was a decoration there too, worn down enough to be almost invisible.

Ash who had been watching him examine the thing spoke up.

“My folks call it the moon dog pendent.”

“I can see why, but that’s not a dog. It’s a fox.”

“Oh? What makes you think that?”

Paul looked up smiling.

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“Because the symbols on the other side are Inari’s personal seal. I’ve seen them at least once a day in her shrine.”

“The devil you say now! Well, then that would mean I was supposed to bring it here?!”

Paul nodded.

“Not only that, I think I know why. Those crystals look like the same sort I use in the mana convertor. Screw this thing onto a staff, and every time you took a step, the force would be transmitted up the staff, into the blue crystal, which I’m pretty sure is tourmaline, turning it into electricity, which the clear crystal would convert to mana. This thing is basically a mini version of a mana generator.”

Paul frowned down at the thing.

“But, why remove it? Are there any legends or stories associated with it?”

“There is that, it’s supposed to be part of a powerful weapon. One that was broken apart for safe keeping.”

“Oh? How many parts?”

“This, there was a staff and one other part. It’s heart.”

Paul frowned.

“So... a mana convertor, and something else. Hmm...”

Paul blinked, and with a sudden feeling of knowing what the answer was, Paul looked around. He’d left what he was looking for somewhere round here after he came back from the mine. He carefully put the crystal pendent down and walked over to where the staff Inari had given him was still leaning by the door.

Paul examined both end caps, twisting them. He was rewarded with a feeling of fractional movement from one. With the judicious application of lubricating oil and bit of effort, the cap unscrewed, revealing a hidden inner iron core to the staff.

“Ha! I knew it felt a bit heavier than it should! Now let’s see if I’m right.”

The crystal top screwed perfectly onto the staff.

“Well, now isn’t that just perfect.”

Paul shook his head at Ash’s tone.

“Two out of three, but it would make sense the bits would make their way back here.”

Paul unscrewed the top, and slid the inner iron core out from the staff, examining it.

“Hmm... Damascus steel, not a bit of rust, despite it’s age.”

“Steel? Are you sure now? Cold iron is death to magic, steel is worse.”

Paul nodded.

“Yeah, I thought that too. But that bang the other day was because I machined up a compression chamber from a billet of steel I found here. It was on a different rack, over there.”

Ash glanced over in the direction Paul was pointing, taking in the much older looking wooden set of shelves.

Paul leaned back against the work bench, tapping the steel rod in his hands thoughtfully.

“I’m beginning to suspect the iron and steel produced here, is a bit different from normal. Ordinarily iron when it interacts with mana soaks it up, like a sponge. That’s why it wrecks magic, which is mana shaped into an organised structure. It’s like shorting a huge capacitor across a circuit, it just sucks all the power out of it, but because iron doesn’t let go of the mana worth a damn, it just dissipates as heat, so the iron acts like a bloody great short-circuit to ground. This iron however, is different. It absorbs the mana, but instead of it dissipating it sinks in and basically acts like a mana battery.”

“It does? But... why?”

Paul shrugged.

“Don’t know, but I could guess. I remember reading somewhere that the very best Japanese folded steel was formed of layers only a few atoms thick, and bridging those layers were nano-scale crystals, which stop cracks spreading and inhibit rust formation apparently. If I had to guess, that might have something to do with it. There’s a chance that the iron ore from the mine here contains fragments of the crystals used in the convertor, which end up as nano-crystals in the steel. Also the whole atom-thick layers thing sounds a lot like the sort of structures you find in super-capacitors too.”

Ash blinked.

“For a writer, you know a lot of science.”

Paul grinned, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Nah, not really. Just enough to bluff my way and make what I’m writing sound convincing. But if I’m right, that explains why an ancient mana generator would be attached to an insulated iron core. Because the core acts as a bloody big battery. The crystal doohicky here produces a bit of mana with every step or knock, and that trickle charges the battery. Kind of like those ‘perpetual’ watches actually. It converts kinetic energy into electricity, which then makes mana.”

“So it’s a power source which trickle charges a storage cell… but what’s it for?”

Paul shrugged.

“Heck if I know. We have the pendent and the staff. I would guess the heart is the actual weapon, since this is just the power source. Still… this could be very useful. I was trying to build a portable mana power source for Inari, and here we are. Needs refurbishing though, I think the wooden case was once lined with silk maybe? The brass screws have corroded where they were in contact with the iron, bi-metal effect it’s called. Hmm, if the screws go all the way though, then the bronze would be ‘live’. I guess that would be where you’d hold it to tap into the power.”

Ash shook her head, using her hand to swivel it.

“It’s beyond me mate, it’s sophisticated engineering for something that old.”

“That’s Japan for you. Look up online sometime why Japanese buildings are built the way they are to withstand earthquakes. Oh! Huh, I just thought… earthquakes are the natural source for mana, it’s generated in the fault lines. So it figures Japan would be good at this, the place is a natural mana hotspot so of course they’d develop ‘tech’ to use it! But, as they used more power than was stored in natural hematite deposits, the ‘tech’ would stop working, until only a few ‘wellsprings’ of mana remained, like here. But as they messed about with the ground water it buggered up the natural conductive pathways and eventually those began drying up too.”

Paul stared down at the staff, and shook his head.

“So, anyone with the ability to make mana would have an advantage. You know, I think maybe this thing is already complete! It has three parts, the top, the inner core and the insulating sheath. Perhaps the steel core is the ‘heart’ bit.”

Ash frowned.

“But, hows that a weapon?”

“Think about it. If you’re the only one who can sling spells in a world largely without magic….”

“Oh! Yeah... I see what you mean now, so I do!”

Paul nodded.

“I’m going to go find Inari and show her this, with your permission. It might jog her memory. Although it might not… but then, if you’re few thousand years old, you’re bound to forget stuff. Either way, she’ll probably be able to tell me more about it.”

Ash nodded.

“I’ll be working on me bike, since maybe the geas is discharged.”

Paul nodded.

“Ok, I’ll be back to give you hand in a bit. Since I think I’ve just been given the solution to some of the design problems I had, I can spare some time to help you.”

Ash grinned.

“You just want to get your hands on me beautiful girl here.”

“Welll… yup! Guilty as charged!”

Paul was still mulling over design ideas as he headed up to the main Shrine, intending to see if Inari had any better notion. He was passing the shuttered main hall, when he heard loud music, and three familiar voices chanting.

“Seiya sessesse seiya!
Seiya sessesse seiya!
Soiya sossosso soiya!
Soiya sososo soiya!”

Puzzled, Paul opened one of shutters fractionally. Inside, Shoko-san, Jiao-tan and Aimi-chan seemed to be practising some sort of martial arts, to the sound of metal or heavy rock music. Paul watched for a few minutes, trying to work out what they were doing. They seemed to be mixing martial arts and dance, and singing along to what sounded like a mix of j-pop and metal.

Paul shrugged and let the shutter down gently. If they were happy, he wasn’t going to interfere. Also, anything that burned off a bit of Shoko’s boundless energy was probably a good thing.

Spotting Inari sitting in front of the shrine he called out to her.

“Hey there, Inari-sama!”

“Paul-san! How are you this morning?”

“Oh, the usual. Can I ask a favour?”

“If it’s within my power to grant it, yes.”

“Well… it’s more along the lines of seeing if you know about something. I came down to the workshop earlier and got talking to Ash, who was inspecting the damage to her bike, and anyway...”

Paul briefly recounted what had happened and what he had speculated about, concluding..

“...so I was wondering if you can recall anything at all about this thing?”

Paul placed the parts of the staff before her, and sat down on the steps next to Inari as she picked them up, examining them one by one.

“It’s… odd, Paul-sama. I can see that the personal seal is mine, marking this as belonging to myself, and not the shrine in general. It feels…. familiar, in my hands. Yet, I don’t recall a single thing about it.”

Paul tilted his head, and looked at her thoughtfully.

“Try reassembling it.”

“How? I don’t know what it’s supposed to look like.”

“Then close your eyes, and think about something else. I have a hunch.”

Inari looked at him curiously, but she shrugged with one pale, slender shoulder, and closed her eyes, long dark lashes brushing her cheeks. Her slim fingers were hesitant at first, but quickly she gained confidence as she slid the inner core into the sheath, tightening the screws that held it in place, and screwing on the top. She ran a thumb nail around the seam, and stopped, made a minute adjustment screwing the top on a bit tighter and then opened her eyes.

Paul held out a hand.

“May I see?”

Inari passed him the staff, careful not to handle it by any of the bronze bands. Paul used a thumb nail to trace the seam between staff and pendent, and found an infinitesimally small pair of grooves that lined up.

“Well, you might not remember it consciously, but your subconscious does. There’s a tiny set of grooves here that you lined up perfectly. I would guess marking the optimal tightness.”

Inari nodded, her face a study in confusion.

“Yes… it felt, right. Like I knew they were there and what they were for… without knowing how I knew. I know I forget things… but this feels different. Almost as if I deliberately sealed away my memories.”

“Or they were sealed away by someone else.”

The look of shock that lit up Inari’s face told Paul he’d hit the bullseye. Inari slowly nodded, her eyes still wide.

“I... I think you’re right! It feels like someone did this to me. But who, who would have the power?”

“Good question. This would be way back when you were at the height of your power, more or less. Someone sealed away all knowledge of this staff, and of the tech to generate mana artificially. So it would have to be someone who could defeat a first rank goddess, and erase all knowledge of the staff and it’s technology from your mind. Know of anyone who could do that?”

Inari nodded slowly.

“A couple. Amaterasu, goddess of the Sun and queen of the Gods. Susanoo, god of storms and her little brother, perhaps. They’d have the power to best me, maybe, but I’ve never heard of either of them being able to do something like you propose. And that still doesn’t answer as to why would they, even if they could?”

“Means, motivation and opportunity. Those are the three things one looks for in solving crimes. Did the person have a way to do it, did they have a reason to do it, and finally, did they have the chance to do it. Amaterasu might have had the ability to ‘neuralyze’ you, but did she have a reason and an opportunity?”

“Neuralyze?”

“A fictional thing, a gizmo, that erases memories and inserts false ones to fill in the gaps. Comes from a film.”

“You think someone did that to me? But why? I haven’t even heard of anything like this neuro-thing.”

“I suppose if someone could erase memories, it would rather defeat the object of the exercise if people knew about it.”

Inari thought, and with slowly dawning horror realised that there were some events that could only make sense if memories could be erased with no trace. Like the times Susanoo ‘grew tired’ of the women he’d cheat on his wife with. He’d act as if he’d never heard or seen of them before, and they him, except a few times when they hadn’t. Then Susanoo had acted perplexed, as if he had no idea what they were talking about.

Inari slowly nodded.

“I...I think you might be right. I was made to forget this thing, and everything about it. I can guess who as well. Amaterasu. But not why she would do it.”

Paul nodded.

“Well, that’s annoying. We might not ever get an answer to it, unless Amaterasu still exists, and maybe not even then. Still, I think I’ve got an idea how this thing works, and what it’s for. If I’m right, I can build another one too.”

“You can?”

“Well, yes, if we can get the crystals. For now though, I’ll refurbish this one, run a few tests, and if all goes well, we’ll have your mana battery for when you visit Toyko in November.”

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