Arillia by Illuminati Architect

Chapter Eighteen, Calculations

After lunch on Saturday, the 17th of Befur, 23rd year of my father, King Peter III Angleland of Ioa, Princess Carnel departed the castle to give her lecture at the Royal Academy, accompanied by the Reltucs and escorted by Elizabeth and Rebecka. The King and Queen retired to their own pursuits, and I sent Polly to check on Amelia. Having the afternoon to myself, I sat in my room and was reading a spellbook when unfamiliar footsteps approached, followed by a knock at my chamber door.

“Who is it?”

“Royal Treasurer Farland. May I have a word with Your Highness?”

“One moment, please.” I glanced down at my causal clothes, and finding these suitable, I closed the spellbook, stood, put on my woolen coat with the Angleland emblem on it, then took my swordbelt from the wall and fashioned it around my waist. “Please enter.”

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

“I was just about to step out for sword practice, but none are awaiting me, so I have a few minutes. What brings you to seek my aid?”

“Did Your Highness sign for this invoice?” He approached and put the note from Jahead Jewelry on my table.

He’s being more forceful than you expected, Arillia.

I frowned momentarily at Greg’s comment, then pressed forward with my trap. “Yes, that’s my signature.”

“How could Your Highness authorize spending so much for a simple silver chain?”

“Shall I show the item to you?”

“Surely.”

“Then let us go ask the Queen, as I believe she is using it now. It shouldn’t hurt to look at the item in question, but for your safety, it would be better not to touch it.”

“What could be the danger in a small silver chain?”

“In the chain itself, there is no danger. It is the family artifact it contains that represents the hazard. Only the Fireblood tribe can handle the jewel with any degree of safety. But if the Queen has the time, there’s no reason you can’t glance at it. Just don’t stare directly into the depths of the jewel. That’s how I shattered the previous mounting and why I was so grateful that Mister Jahead would prioritize this difficult task while I was there to watch for the danger.”

“Why didn’t Your Highness tell me that this was for a magical item?”

“I just did. It was you who assumed that an adult princess of the realm was some sort of foolish child with no understanding of the value of things. What other details have you hidden from me under your mistaken assumptions?”

“I have been completely honest with the royal family.”

“Surely there must be something you’ve had second thoughts about. It would make you feel better to confide in me.”

“I shan’t intrude on any more time of Your Highness. We both have better things to do. Perhaps if you demonstrate sufficient skill with the blade, Sir Hoofblack will relent in his demands for more funds for the castle’s defenses.”

He bowed just enough to satisfy protocol then left.

I told you it wouldn’t work.

“Yes,” I whispered to Greg, “He does not respect my authority. What was your impression, Lord Sparot?”

The villain is clearly human and clearly lying. Are thou now certain of the rules of thine ability?

“Not quite yet. I told him I was heading off to sword practice so I’d best get My Highness down to the courtyard to avoid any suspensions.”

There, I found Amelia demonstrating to Oliver the proper way to hold a saber. As I stepped between them, they backed off to either side.

“May I cut in here for some sword practice?”

“As Your Highness demands, but I fear you won’t find Master Olmec much of a challenge.”

“Then, Miss Amadev, I shall take you both on.” I drew the Sword of Wraith.

“Oliver,” Amelia told her fiancee, “watch out for that blade. I’ve cut through stone with it so that flesh will offer as much resistance as butter.”

“Polly,” I turned to where she sat on the bench. “If I kill one or both of these young lovers, can you bring them back?”

She nodded but did not rise. Was she still treating Amelia’s lungs?

“L-lovers?” Oliver blushed.

“Enough joking,” Amelia responded, “What will Your Highness grant me once I am victorious?”

“I make no wagers when death is in my hand. Come at me, you two.”

Amelia lunged in first, and I used Sparot’s undead strength to strike her blade halfway along, leaving it ringing out of her hand. Oliver was slower to attack, so I had plenty of time to to swing around and do the same to him.

Amelia grabbed her right hand. “That is not the Sparot style.”

“He’s still stuck with the techniques he used in life and hence doesn’t take full advantage of his undead senses. As a wizard, I have more options than just running foes through with the sword. Polly, please see to these two.” I escorted them over to sit on either side of her, and she took each strained hand in one of her own.

“Sir Hoofblack!” I waved him over. “How goes the castle defenses?”

“Guildmaster Whipnail will visit on Tuesday to provide estimates on the work to be done.”

“I’ll see if Princess Carnel can assist with this.”

“Both princesses are master architects?”

“I have it on good authority that there is none more brilliant in all the world than Princess Carnel. Do you have time for some sword practice?”

“I will make the time. What has Your Highness in mind?”

“Just break my defense.” I drew the Sword of Wraith in my left hand and my wand in my right.

“Will Your Highness be casting spells at me?”

“Not today. I’m just checking my balance for sword and wand so that I can deal with the mundane and the mystical simultaneously.”

For the next hour Sir Hoofblack found weak spots in my sword defense while I looked for a rhythm in my sword work that would allow space for casting. Amelia and Oliver stood nearby, and she commented to him about the tricks that Sir Hoofblack and I were using. Then I saw Carnel’s group returning.

I bowed to Sir Hoofblack, put away my sword and wand, and greeted my sister. “How was Your Highness received?”

Carnel held her hand to her throat.

“Let’s have Polly see to that.” I gestured for my sister to sit next to my lover.

Polly nodded, then held her hands to Carnel’s throat. She extended her power for five minutes, then collapsed into my arms.

Carnel croaked out, “What happened to her?”

“She’s just tired. Go see the Queen, who has remedies for a sore throat.”

Carnel nodded and set off with Elizabeth in tow. I scooped up Polly in my undead-boosted arms and followed them until I reached my room.

On Sunday, the 18th of Befur, I waited for Polly to wake up and then told her. “You need to rest today.”

“I just did as you bid me to.”

“You need to complain when I push you too far. Never forget that I do not and can not see the world as the gods do. My vision and wisdom must always be incomplete. The gods gave you the ability to understand the world in your own way, and if you are to be of any use to me, then you need to share your understanding with me, however small it may seem to you. Rest in my room today, and I will have Mary pamper you like a princess.”

We found several occasions that day to interrupt our studies of magic and religion for “booty calls”. And that evening, after she fell asleep in my arms, I again pondered the morality of using my unusual power to force her to be my lover. Surely, there wasn’t any other way to save her from her death-seeking path, and she seemed happy enough to remain at my side.

I turned away from her and whispered, “Greg, have I stepped over the line and become a wicked witch abusing the power you have granted me for evil, wanton ends rather than what is strictly needed to maintain the peace?”

The power I granted you?

“Yes, you are the hero summoned from another world to prevent the threat of the demon lord, while I am merely a loyal sister, daughter, and princess trying to protect those dear to me and those subjects under my responsibility. I shall not take shortcuts to satisfy your mission at my family’s or nation’s expense, but I am willing to trade my own life for the right cause.”

“Please don’t die, Your Highness.”

“Polly?” I rolled over and looked her in the eyes. “Are you still following me out of the strange compulsion?”

“No, my motivation is the love that has blossomed in my heart for Your Highness since that first night together. There isn’t a hint of hesitation remaining in my soul. I will do as you say because I love, trust, and believe in you.”

“Even if I commanded you to lie with a Bluetress man to breed more of your kind for Ioa?”

“If that is what Your Highness requires, then I shall grit my teeth and do so, but my love for you shall not waver or fade. Now, who is this Greg?”

“A hypothetical voice in my head that I debate various subjects with. Do you think me mad?”

“The world is a cold, cruel, crazy place, but in your arms, I have found a warmth and belonging I never glimpsed from my mother, three sisters, and two brothers.”

“And your father?”

“The church was my father. The priests and bishops who visited my mother, aunts, and two elder sisters were either blue-haired or bald. Bishop Patrick was rumored to be either my father or my uncle, and he sometimes attempted to treat me like a daughter. That was part of the reason I recoiled from his touch when it was my turn to lie with him.”

“You’re right. I shall not force you to breed for my kingdom’s need. Given the longevity of the Blessed Girls, you’re likely to far outlive me.”

“Pray do not condemn me to the cruel fate of being your lonely widow.”

Carnel also rested in her room that weekend. Then, at breakfast on Tuesday, 20th Befur, she told us how well her lecture had gone and pondered what subject she should cover the next Saturday. She then followed myself Sir Hoofblack, and Guildmaster Whipnail around the castle that morning with her measuring string to take notes on the size and composition of the castle’s construction. Around noon, we returned to Sir Hoofblack’s office.

“Now the magic begins!” I turned to Carnel, “Your Highness, here is how we calculate the stability of a wall.”

Carnel pulled out her notebook, slide rule, and a small wooden frame with three wires running in parallel inside it. Each wire was packed with wheels that had the digits marked along their edges. “This is my calculation device. So far, I’ve got it to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. I am still working on square roots. It works in scientific notation with the exponent on these wheels and the mantissa on these wheels.”

I don’t see any space for gears. How does she power that?

“Magic,” I whispered to Greg.

“Arillia?” Carnel looked up at me.

“Have the device divide by half the input, then loop around dividing by the average of what it had divided by and the result of the previous division until the two numbers match at the square root.”

“Loop?”

“Have the device take its output and average that into the input dials. Then, if it’s reached the conclusion, or just ten steps would do. It stops.”

“Oh! Yeah, that would work.”

“Or you could integrate the slide rule into your magical abacus and have the wheels read out the current setting of the slide rule. Halve the logarithm, then read the exponentiation to find the square root.”

We worked through the calculations for the materials and work Guildmaster Whipnail would need to complete the projects.

“Your Highnesses, what is the price for these calculation devices?” He asked.

“The slide rule is a purely mundane device, and Princess Carnel can write down how to construct and operate that. Most of the function of the magical abacus is in tiny spells she casts along the way. Any wizard can be taught how to operate it, and those with an aptitude for magical crafting can be taught how to make one. Carnel, why don’t you make the construction of your two calculation devices the subject of your next lecture this Saturday at the academy? Then leave it as an exercise to them to build a self-contained and self-powered version of your device.”

On Wednesday, 21st Befur, Sage Retuc brought the written questions from Carnel’s previous lecture, and I had Alice write down Carnel’s responses with a few corrections from me.

After reading one of the questions, Carnel looked up at me. “Arillia, if the electron is so tiny, why does it fill up most of the atom? Where is the electron located that it can keep others of its kind from dropping into its orbital?”

“Is the knot where the string first starts to bend, or just the tiny spot it crosses over itself?”

“That’s a silly answer.”

“It’s the best answer I can give you now. And just like the knot, the electron has an innate handiness in the direction it crosses over itself. Hence spin.”

“What happens if the knot crosses over the other way?”

“Then the spin and charge are reversed, and you get a positron. A more precise answer is that the electron is a big fluffy wave packet that zips around at such high speed that Lorentz contraction makes it appear point-like. We’ll cover all of these subjects some other time.”

That afternoon, we built a giant simplified version of Carnel’s slide rule to use for a demonstration in her next lecture.

On Thursday, 22nd Befur, Mother presented to Carnel the copies of Uncle Gustav’s files she had made from the Jewel of Koching. While Mother kept the jewel with the viper-tongued elf carefully hidden away next to her breast, Carnel pulled out her magical abacus to check the numbers against the reports that had been previously forwarded to us. I suggested that Carnel show Mother how to use her device and leave it with her so that Carnel could focus on building the next version. I refrained from laying out a roadmap to a full magical computer, as we could take that one step at a time.

On Friday, 23rd Befur, Carnel rehearsed her next day’s lecture on the subject of calculations with logarithm and exponentiation while Alice manipulated the giant slide rule to match Carnel’s examples.

On Saturday, 24th Befur, after Carnel departed with Elizabeth and the Reltucs to her next lecture I met with Mother to discuss my next data collection mission and she handed me the necklace with the Jewel of Koching in it.

“Arillia, you can detect magics all the time while you’re wearing Lord Sparot at your side, so why does Koching only work when I invoke and project my senses through the jewel at the cost of my own mana?”

“Mother, hopefully Carnel will become a great researcher who writes about these topics. Part of the reason I’ve sent her to lecture at the academy is to attract assistants to her side. These will then form a bubble to protect her from the concerns and politics of this world so that she can spend her time exploring the many worlds of magic. For now my best understanding is that Sparot is under a personal mutual oath with the wielder of his sword while Koching has a more general one-sided oath towards our bloodline. I could join him in that, but it would cost me an eye. Our spells have also advanced greatly in the centuries between their two bindings. I can’t risk rebinding Koching with my modern incarnation (even if he would agree to it) for I do not fully understand his current binding and hence would likely lose his soul if I tried. This would also remove Koching’s role as the librarian of the jewel and hence cost us everything beyond a simple spirit binding. But speaking of that bloodline, who did you intend to suggest to be my husband?”

“Peter Matthews Fletcher.”

“The prince of Excelsior? That’s an astoundingly good catch, economically, diplomatically, and militarily. Yes, he’s a vain, egotistical tool, but a tool I might just be able to use. Who on their side expressed interest in the match?”

“His mother, but I wouldn’t want you to be miserable.”

“Mother, I would be delighted to have the resources of Excelsior at my disposal. Will Prince Fletcher be attending Carnel’s birthday party next month?”

“Yes, he will be there.”

“And after avoiding my birthday? I’ll put on my best hapless Arillia act and see if I can get his ego to blind him to what he already knows about my true nature. If we find out that he’s just being pushed my way by his parents rather than any interest of his own then we can both keep looking for a better pawn for me to be the queen of. But if it is Carnel he is interested in he may have to wait a very long time.”

I returned to my room to prepare with Rebecka for the monthly “full moon” de jour and de facto council meetings.

“I’ve spoken with Sharon, and she says she wants to visit this council of yours.”

“Fine, we’ll ride our horses to the meeting.” I returned to my closet and selected a pair of riding outfits for us. At the very least it would provide an excuse to wear my sword.

At the mayor’s residence Rebecka said she had things to do, so I entered alone and presided over the city council meeting in place of my uncle, who was traveling that week with his wife. I had the jewel necklace on display and used this to record the content of all documents brought up for the council’s approval.

Later I found Rebecka seated at the table of rogues, next to her horse.

“Lady Rebecka, should your horse make a mess in my uncle’s house then you will be the one to mop it up.”

Sharon snorted at this, then seemed to pay close attention to the reports of all the rogues, occasionally whispering into Rebecka’s ear.