Magical Ice Machine
Seiran watched as Kimi's face
popped back up, the goggles giving her face a comical look he'd come to
love over the years. Both of them had a few days of free time before they
would start on their next jobs and somehow Kimi had convinced him that
they should use this time to clear out their shed. It's funny how it was
"THEIR" shed but the mess inside was mostly hers. Not that he
would deny his wife of 43 years his help.
"Dear, come look." Kimi called and the sparkles that surrounded
her hair were evidence that she was excited.
"What did you find now, Kimi?" Seiran asked, interested against
his better judgement.
Kimi smiled at her husband and pointed at the ice-cream-maker that had
been gathering dust for over a decade. Today she'd come across at least
four projects that needed just that little bit of extra work to make them
shine. Things that she'd never completed because work got in the way. And
truth be told, she still had little time to devote to her own projects in
between jobs.
"I remember this one." Seiran said and whistled, "You were
making it as a gift for our anniversary."
"Well, we have a new one coming up." Kimi said, her mind already
working on how to finish those last little tweaks that would be
needed.
"You said we had to clean out the shed." Seiran reminded her.
"A little break won't hurt us." Kimi tried.
"I know your little breaks, let's clear out this section and we can
work on the ice-cream-maker tonight."
"I suppose you're right." Kimi sighed but vowed to herself to
get that particular machine running even if she'd have to forego sleep.
The both of them continued clearing the clutter of half-assembled
mechanical devices, spare parts and canisters of oil, lubricants and who
knew what else. Seiran had long since given up to try and sort what was in
the bottles and bins. Kimi would have to do that later. He did put similar
looking products together hoping he'd help her that way. Some of the apparatuses
they cleared were self-explicatory but others had him stumped as to what
Kimi had been going for.
"Kimi, look!" he called.
"What?" she asked and came over.
She looked down and saw a small fanning system that had been her first
project with their son, Sei. Fond memories surfaced
and she carefully took the fan from it's perilous perch atop some spare
wheels and a balancing toolkit and examined it.
"It looks to be intact. If you don't mind I'd like to put this in the
house."
"Go ahead. I wonder what Sei'll say when he comes for his next
visit." Seiran grinned.
"He'll probably try to get me to throw it away since it is so
simple." Kimi replied, "I wonder how it got here in the first
place."
"Sei probably put it here so you'd forget about it."
"It worked until now." she admitted.
"He was never that good at working with machines." Seiran added,
"I think that frustrated him when he was young."
"I don't know why. He's a good magician in his own right."
"I suspect he wanted to be at least decent in our elements since he
was our son."
"It would have worked if our gifts were more compatible." Kimi
mused.
"I think nobody ever expected us to work." Seiran smiled wistfully.
He'd been so young when he'd met Kimi, he hadn't even been considered an
adult yet at 20 years of age. Kimi had been 33 and already making a name
for herself in the order of the Spark. She'd been tasked to come to the
headquarters of the sect of the Indigo Crystal where he was apprenticing
to install an electrical lighting system that could be powered with the
magic the ice mages could supply themselves. Ice and electricity were
thought to be opposing magical elements so the job had been accepted
reluctantly and a young magician had been sent to deal with the problem.
Seiran remembered the commotion it had caused among the elders in the
Crystal HQ. As a young acolyte hoping to advance to the rank of monk in
the next year he'd been pretty ambitious to learn about the world. The
half-elf magician had drawn him with her love of her job and the
seriousness with which she tackled problems. Ice magicians were a logical
lot so Seiran felt right at home talking to Kimi. In turn Kimi hadn't
minded the attention and inquiries from the young ice acolyte. She'd
always liked to teach and explain. As time progressed they'd spent more
and more time together, working as Kimi installed the wires that would
feed the magical energy to the light fixtures and worked on the converter
to power them.
"I felt like a cradle robber." Kimi insisted.
"You were hardly adult yourself." Seiran reminded her.
Kimi kept quiet about the lectures she'd gotten as news about her
relationship with one so young as Seiran had reached her superiors. She'd
had to promise to leave the young boy alone until he'd been old enough to
venture out in the world. They'd kept in touch writing letters, Kimi using
her travels and work as an excuse to keep from meeting up. Kimi suspected
Seiran had understood why she'd put the breaks on their relationship, or
else he'd not have waited. He'd been quite the looker and she suspected
more than a handful of ice acolytes or monks had tried to gain his favour.
Still she'd been very worried during that time that Seiran's letters would
stop coming.
"I'm happy you waited for me." Seiran mirrored her thoughts.
"I was worried you'd find a young acolyte you liked more." Kimi
admitted.
"I worked so hard to get to you I barely knew who was with me in the
room."
Seiran remembered those 3 years as nothing more than studying, eating and
sleeping. He'd not wasted a minute of time to get to his goal. He'd been
the youngest monk to be allowed outside at 23. And he was certain his
superiors knew very well what drove him to be so diligent. He'd wasted no
time after he'd been allowed out into the world ad had gotten a job near
where Kimi had said she'd be stationed in her last letter.
"I hope you were at least surprised when you saw me." Seiran
added.
"How could I not? I'd not expected you to join me for 2 more years.
And you hadn't told me in your letters."
Kimi started to sort through the last part of the shed and thought about
those wonderful years when they'd just gotten married. They had been free
to go where they wanted and as long as they fulfilled enough jobs in the
vicinity of where they were, they didn't get in trouble with either of
their sects. Cross-sect marriages were nothing new, though they weren't
common they also weren't as rare as they'd been in the past. And they had
made it work. Even after Sei had been born. Kimi had been surprised by the
amount of help she'd received from both Seiran and her order. The first 2
years the burden had been mostly on her, but that had to with
breastfeeding and Sei's temperament more than with reluctance on Seiran's
part. He'd taken up more work so she could care for their son. And then
later they'd switched their schedules or, when it wasn't possible, had let
the nurseries at either order take care of Sei until he was old enough to
join them on their missions.
Lost in her memories, Kimi worked quietly along Seiran until most of the
machines and supplies were outside, cluttering the yard. In contrast the
shed was empty and ready to be filled again.
"I'll make sure to keep it organised." Kimi said.
"Promises, promises." Seiran grinned, but he understood how easy
it was to go from one project to another.
"We could install shelving for your tools and supplies. And a
workbench." he said, "That might help."
"Do we have time for that?" Kimi asked.
"Sei is coming, he can help out." Seiran reminded her.
"He's on leave, shouldn't he be resting?"
"He lets the wind do all the work. I'm certain he won't mind a bit of
physical exercise."
Seiran smiled. He knew their son would help out. And putting up some
shelves wasn't exactly hard labour. Sei had always been an obedient child,
maybe a bit too serious and eager to please. Seiran had been crushed when
he saw the small boy try to imitate his workings with ice or Kimi's
tinkering with machines. Maybe that was why Seiran had sought out other
magicians during his travels with his son, giving him a wide education on
what was out in the world. He'd been so proud when a wind magician he was
friends with had pointed out that Sei had an uncanny knack to know what
the weather was going to be like or which sea-route would take them home
fastest. Ruri, the wind magician, had claimed it
was because his son could talk to the wind. She'd offered to take the boy
on as a student once he was old enough.
And now he was old enough to be an experienced monk in his own right.
Seiran could hardly believe how fast the time had flown. They tried to
meet up as often as they could, but that wasn't easy considering their
jobs carried them all across the globe.
At that time two monstrous creatures appeared above their house. Kimi
dropped the machine she was holding as Seiran got up and readied his wand
to let loose a flurry of snow and ice to blast the creatures out of the
sky. But just before he could act a voice sounded in his mind that
promised they meant no harm and asked permission to land.
Rallying to get some of the machinery out of the way, Kimi and Seiran
cleared a landing patch. First the dark blue, smaller dragon landed and
moved out of the way to make room for the rainbow-winged purple one. From
that last one, their son Sei dismounted. He laughed when he saw their
faces and gave them a bear hug that had his companion, Asagi, looking
awkwardly. She'd never seen him give such a display of affection.
"Sei." Kimi finally breathed, "What are these?"
"Dragons, mother." he said, "Let me introduce you."
Sei introduced his bond Meranlath first before turning to the
frizzy-haired woman, grabbing her hand and introducing her as his
intended, Asagi and her dark blue dragon Lauw. By the time their story had
been told, night had fallen and both dragons and khleurians were famished.
Seiran defrosted additional meat to feed the unexpected guests and Kimi
harvested some extra vegetables out of their greenhouse for supper. The
fare was simple but nutritious and all present talked more during the
meal. Speaking of the wonders of the worlds they'd seen.
Seiran saw the sparkle in Kimi's eyes and felt the familiar pull in his
own heart to go explore.
"You want to go and see the waterfall?" He asked.
"I want to see how it works." she admitted.
"I think it's magic." Sei told her.
"All magic follows rules. I can't wait to try and figure it
out."
"We could go for a visit after we organise the shed." Seiran
told her.
Sei groaned at the prospect before Seiran told him: "We just need to
put up some shelving and move the things back in."
"I can help too." Asagi offered.
"We'll finish that tomorrow and then we can be on our way." Kimi
smiled and got up to clear the table.
"I'll go ready your room." Seiran said and left the two younger
people by themselves to talk.
