Chapter 3: Mastering Madness

"I want to reassure you Ms Valliere, that you aren't in any trouble." Old Osmond said for about the third time since they had been called into his office. Initially Louise was going to find some secluded spot to have a heart to heart with her familiar and find out what was wrong with his head. But before they could've even hoped to begin, the two of them had been summoned to Old Osmond's office. Osmond was a very, very old man with a grey beard and a weathered, ancient look to his eyes. It was widely believed that he was over three hundred years old and the man had been in charge of the academy for as long as anyone could remember. Louise liked the old man, it was hard not to.

"Yes, we simply want to know exactly what happened and how Mr. Gramont ended up so badly injured from a simple duel." Professor Colbert added.

Louise wasn't particularly reassured by their statements. Partly because she knew that she and her familiar really were in trouble and partly because she knew they deserved to be. Mostly, though it was because she actually did know why Guiche was so horribly injured and they were making her dwell on it when she would just as soon forget.

Guiche was injured because not thirty minutes before her familiar had broken his leg with a hammer and kicked his face and gut repeatedly in preparation to violently murder him. She knew this for a fact because she had been forced to stand there and watch him do it. It wouldn't be something she would soon forget. In fact the whole event had been quite permanently burned into her memory.

She didn't know what was the worst part of it all. That sickening cracking sound Guiche's leg had made when the bone broke through the skin. The madness of her familiar's declaration that he was doing this for the sheer insane fun of it all. The sight of that clank's saw blades slowly drawing closer and closer to Guiche's arms. No that wasn't quite right she knew what the worst part of it was. The worst part was that while she had managed to get her familiar to back off she had no idea how she'd done that.

Her familiar in question was sitting just a little way behind her. Saito Heterodyne, or so he had introduced himself, looked like a rather normal, simple, young man. At the moment he was doing normal, simple things like drawing in a sketch book, or fiddling with the clank that followed him everywhere. But now Louise knew that this simple looking face was hiding the mind of an absolute sociopath.

He had been ready to kill Guiche, she was almost certain he had been about to kill her before he suddenly gave in to her demands. But he had had no reason to do that. She couldn't even compel him to help her get dressed in the morning, hell she couldn't even get him to admit he was her familiar. How on earth had she managed to get him to not kill her?

The fact that Louise couldn't answer that question set up some serious red flags in her mind. What if he did this again? What if someone else accidentally crossed him or he turned on the serving staff? What if he turned on her? What could she do to actually stop him if he did?

The sensible thing to do right now was to tell these two professors about all her fears. To try and convince them that Saito was dangerous and needed to restrained or even executed. If things got out of hand later it might not be as safe to talk to them again. Right now Saito was tired, distracted and the school was still sympathetic to Guiche's plight. Now would be the best time to try and get Osmond to put Saito away. But...

Saito had won his duel. A commoner, a man who didn't even believe magic was real the first time Louise spoke to him, had beaten a mage in a one on one fight. No one had ever heard of such a thing happening. And Saito had done it convincingly. His little clank had chewed through seven golems without taking a scratch. Saito himself had killed four more golems with nothing but a sword. He was strong, blindingly fast and exceptionally skilled at sword play. Louise didn't doubt that he had some kind of military training or experience. Combined with the power up the familiar ruins on his left hand had given him, Louise didn't doubt that Saito could very well beat a line class mage with ease and maybe even fight on par with a triangle class mage.

He was everything she had asked for in a familiar. Impressive, powerful and rather easy on the eyes she had to admit. At first she had thought that he was merely a craftsmen who would be a useful to impress guests or a servant to do chores and work around the house. Now it seemed she had a first class guardian to watch out for her.

He was still an enigma to her though. The fact that he clearly had fighting experience shifted her whole view of him. Now she suspected he was some kind of combat engineer, in charge of producing and leading these strange clanks into battle. And if he was a soldier could she really blame him for the violence he had used against Guiche?

The Valliere family maintained no illusions about battles being places to win glory and honor. Her father had told them the simple truth. Wars were all evil, they made men commit senseless acts of cruelty to one another in the name of survival. Moral men hesitated, died and put their friends in danger while doing it. Either soldiers convinced themselves that their enemies were evil and needed to be killed or they abandoned all conception of morality and fought on for money or the rush of killing. To make matters worse for Saito he seemed a little young to Louise to be fighting. If his homeland was embroiled in such conflict they were recruiting such young men into the army then the war itself must have been particularly savage. No doubt it all would've been traumatizing for Saito so of course he assumed that a fight with Guiche had to end in death. His would've been a world of death.

But he had stopped at her order even though he had no reason to. He must have stopped because of her, she didn't know why but that hardly mattered really. If she had stopped him once that it was logical to assume she could stop him again right? And if she could help him somehow, heal him of his aggression and refocus his creativity for constructive purposes didn't he have the ability to make the world a much better place? Didn't she at least owe him a chance at that?

In addition to that Louise had to admit that his clank was nothing short of a work of art and there was no reason why she should throw it and whatever else he could build away just because their maker was a little bit crazy. The blood of innumerable generals, heroes, and conquerors of the Valliere family that flowed through Louise veins turned ice cold at the thought of it all. Besides he was her familiar. He was her responsibility, not anyone else's.

While Louise had sat quietly mauling all of this over in her head Osmond and Colbert had been going over the events of that morning as they understood them. Louise hadn't been listening to them too caught up in her own internal debate. When she had finally made up her mind she caught the tail end of their preamble.

"And well before this goes any farther." Old Osmond said, "We would like to hear your side of the story."

"Well obviously it's all Guiche's fault." She declared as soon as Osmond had finished and before they could ask her anything.

"Ah." Colbert noted, "So he broke his own leg then?"

"He may as well have." Louise countered without missing a note. "Honestly it's amazing he hasn't done much worse to himself already if he's been behaving in such a stupid manner as this his whole life. First of all this whole duel was his idiotic idea in the first place.

"He was acting illogically from the beginning. Just because he finally got caught in his two timing ways, and Montemorency finally had the good sense to dump him, Mr. Gramont decided to make a complete fool of himself and take out his anger on a helpless maid. Can you believe that? For a noble, who are supposed to be veritable paragons of good manners and wisdom to have acted in such a petty and spiteful way to someone who had been trying to help him? It's little wonder the world is the shape it is if this the state of modern nobility."

"True enough." Saito agreed from behind her covering up her slight pause for breath and keeping either of the two adults from regaining the reigns of the conversation. "These are sad, sad days that we live in aren't they?"

"Indeed." Louise said shaking her head as if ashamed by it all, then she continued. "Then when my familiar had the decency and kindness to tell Guiche what a complete oaf he was acting like he then turned the one person actually helping him and challenged my familiar to a duel. An actual duel, can you believe that?"

"Um what was your familiar doing there when all this happened?" Professor Colbert asked inquisitively, "And what were you doing at that time?"

"She wasn't there when I was challenged," Saito supplied, "I had been helping the serving staff serve breakfast. Apparently there was some kind of ruckus last night and they were a bit short handed today."

"If I had been there I assure you I would've put a stop to this whole business before it could've started." Louise said, "Of course since I wasn't, my familiar had no choice by to defend his honor and accept the duel. Fortunately the maid that Guiche had all but assaulted came and found me.

"Once I found out what was going on I tried to stop it at once. But Guiche was still being a fool and insisted on fighting. I offered him every chance to end this peacefully and I told him what an idiot he would seem like if he fought a commoner. The only thing that would make him stop the whole business was if my familiar apologized and if I let Guiche taunt and insult me. I was even willing to bear through all of that if it meant keeping the peace but one can hardly expect a familiar to remain quiet when their master was being so rudely treated. So of course Saito had to fight at that point. And of course he won."

"Yes," Osmond intoned, "That he won the fight is very clear. What is also clear is that in the process of winning he had to break Guiche's leg, jaw and two ribs. He also declared before the fight that he would kill the child and seemed to have every intention of following through on that threat."

"Of course he seemed like he was going to kill Guiche," Louise responded in an even and calm tone implying that great logical thoughts were about to be said. "Nothing short of any of that would get Guiche to yield and give up. If Guiche had any sense at all he would've gracefully bowed out when his first golem was beaten by my familiar's clank. But of course he had to act like a complete dunce.

"No I take that back, if he was acting like a dunce then he would've given up the moment that Saito defeated a golem by himself. At that point any idiot could've realized that there was no way to win that fight. But no, Guiche had to act like a total nitwit and summon more and more golems and make it clearer and clearer to my familiar that he wasn't dealing with a rational individual. So of course he had to take drastic measures."

"Yes drastic measures," Osmond said once again, "Such as beating Guiche whenever he was about to speak, which may have had a detrimental effect on his ability to surrender."

That was true, Louise had to admit. Her familiar had very deliberately taken steps to keep Guiche from surrendering until he had a chance to kill him. Her mind raced for an explanation.

"Well he couldn't let Guiche speak, after all he was a commoner fighting a mage. So he had to take whatever steps were necessary to keep Guiche from casting a spell on him."

"How very cautious of him. Especially after he had already gone through the trouble of destroying Guiche's wand thus completely disarming him of all magic." Louise internally cursed as Osmond pressed on, she had forgotten about that.

"So a mage can't cast magic without a wand?" Saito asked sounding genuinely surprised. "So then is the wand itself the source of magic? Or is it enchanted to enhance and guide magic? Does it have to be specifically wand shaped or will any random stick or staff work? Does that mean there is a natural connection between magic and Si Vitea energy?"

Saito would've gone on in all likely hood but Colbert managed to calm him down with promises to answer his questions later. Osmond looked at Saito inquisitively, that a magic wand was needed to practice magic should've been common knowledge. Louise shook her head and answered Osmond's unasked question.

"Saito says he was summoned from rather far away." She explained leaving out that he claimed to come from another world entirely. "He knows almost nothing about magic."

"So Saito," Osmond said directly addressing her familiar for the first time. "You mean to tell me that everything you did, was all done to end the fight as quickly as possible?"

"It is as my mistress said." Saito said while smiling reassuringly. "I was only interested in ending the fight."

"Well then, works for me." Osmond said returning Saito's smile. "Thank you two for your time. Please enjoy the rest of the day."

As the two of them left, Colbert exchanged a worried look with Osmond.

"So that was the legendary familiar Gandalfr?" Osmond asked of no one in particular. "He seemed shorter than I would've thought."

"There is no doubt. I looked up the ruins on his hand myself." Colbert explained, "They perfectly match the ruins of founder Brimir's main fighting familiar, the Left Hand of God."

"He certainly seems dangerous enough to be a Gandalfr." Osmond admitted. Saito's fight with Guiche had been one of the most brutal the old man had ever witnessed. "I wonder how much of that is just the familiar himself and how much comes from those ruins?"

"It's hard to say. The only thing known about the last Gandalfr was that it could use any weapon and could fight a whole army of mages on its own."

"Your certain he has no magic of his own?"

"I am sure, I ran a detect magic spell on him when he first arrived here."

"Then where did he get that golem from? Why did that golem also listen to Ms. Valliere? And if he has no magic of his own how did he become a Gandalfr? What does that mean about our little zero success student?"

"You don't suppose that she could be a void mage do you?" Colbert asked in surprise. Osmond rolled his eyes. If the girl had a Gandalfr as a familiar then of course she was a void mage. It certainly explained a great deal about her failure of an education.

"Who can say?" The old man asked. "Anyway we should keep a close eye on those two from now on."

"If she is a void mage maybe we should adjust her curriculum a bit..." Colbert said thoughtfully.

"No!" Osmond said emphatically. "We don't know if she is a void mage and trying to teach her to be one could be disastrous beyond measure. Besides no one knows what any of the void spells were so there is nothing we can really teach her anyway. For now we act like nothing has changed is that clear?"

"Yes headmaster." Colbert said and made for the door, he still had much work to do that day. Osmond sighed as he left. Good; he hadn't questioned that last order. If the world was very lucky Ms. Valliere would never learn to control her powers and remain a failure of a mage. The last thing the world needed right now was the void magic waking up again.

Louise could hardly believe that they had gotten way from that unscathed. She was certain that they would be called back to receive actual punishment any moment now. But they weren't though and soon she made her way out of the main building and over to a set of benches set up under a tree. She took a seat at a table in shade, while her familiar sat opposite of her in the sun, and the clank that had followed them all day now nestled itself under the table and sat there comfortably.

"That went well." Saito said out of the blue.

"Yes we were very lucky that they believed us." Louise said sighing with relief that they were past that.

"Luck had little to do with it. You handled that expertly I would say."

"We will need good luck to keep it up though. If Guiche contradicts our story we could get into real trouble later."

"What Guiche says won't matter, they already knew everything that happened. They were just questioning us to see how we responded."

Louise considered this. Osmond did seem to have the perfect question to follow up on her. It was possible that he had heard about the fight and scried on them to see what had happened. But if that was the case why had they gotten away with it at all? Did they really just want to know how she would react to their questions?

"If I might offer a word of advice?" Saito said interrupting Louise's thoughts, "In the future it would be best to only lie as a last resort. Lies are easy to fact check and do more harm than good in the long run. If you need to deceive someone its best to tell them a half truth to satiate their curiosity while distracting them from the full truth. In this case it would've been better to say I got caught up in the moment to explain Guiche's injuries rather than saying I wanted to end the fight quickly. Not much of mistake really but we should always look for ways to do better."

The incongruity of that last statement struck Louise in full force. Yes she supposed she might need to get better at lying if she meant to keep Saito as a familiar. She could just imagine how that might go with her parents. 'Hello mother let me introduce you to my sociopath familiar Saito, he one nearly murdered one of my classmates in cold blood.' Yeah that would end brilliantly.

"I'll keep that in mind." She answered, "Thanks for the advice. So why were you going to kill Guiche?"

"I got caught up in the moment." Saito replied grinning, Louise glared at him in response. While they spoke one of the maids came up to them with tea and cakes for the afternoon. Louise graciously accepted the food since she had missed lunch now. She recognized the maid as Siesta the girl who had told her about the duel in the first place.

"There is some truth to that statement." Saito continued as he shoveled sugar into his tea. Four spoonfuls Louise noted, at least he had the courtesy to offer her some when he had finished. "Like it or not, I wasn't lying back there. Guiche would not be the first man I killed. In fact I think he would've been number sixty two unless my count is badly off. I am a violent man Louise, from a violent family and a violent country. Violence solves problems; after all you can't have conflict with just one person."

"You said you were going to kill him before the fight started." She pressed, he may have given into the excitement of the fight but that wasn't the only reason she bet.

"Well the boy was also an idiotic, incompetent, prideful mistvieh. He was acting like a child, taking his anger out on one of mine. And he thought that just because he was a noble we both should be glad to have received his reproof. Plus frankly I needed a way to blow off some steam. This whole world irritates me. The senseless classism, the obvious stagnation, the unsubstantiated pride and worst of all, people keep underestimating me! Add on to the fact that he was a bully who exploited your kindness for a cheap laugh and you can see how I saw no reason to hold back from just enjoying myself and mutilating a corpse for a few minutes. Also it was a great opportunity to try out the clank's self defense protocols."

Louise found she couldn't really argue with any of those points. She didn't think that any of them, or even the sum of them, were good enough to justify killing him. But if Saito did see them that way, it led to her next question.

"So why didn't you kill him?" She asked slightly dreading the answer.

"You asked me not to." Saito said with a shrug.

"I also asked you to help me get dressed today and you didn't do that."

"Because you don't need help getting dressed. Honestly of all the pointless, wasteful extravagance getting a servant to dress has to be the most useless. Though I see what you mean. But it is true if you hadn't spoken up I would've killed him. You made me stop and think. You were right I had made my point but beating him senseless and I realized I had nothing to gain from killing him and some benefit to get from leaving him alive. Or to simplify it for you. You gave an order worth following, so I did."

"And is that how our relationship is going to work?" Louise demanded to know. "You constantly second guessing every order I make to decide if it's worth your time to follow?"

"It's a better deal than most get." Saito countered. "Heterodynes bend knee to no one. And most people who try to make us give in end up very, very dead."

"Oh come on." Louise scoffed, "There's bravado and family pride but that is ridiculous. Surely you all follow your own nation's laws right? You said you were part of Austria or something. Everyone owes fealty to some king."

"I said it was all politically nebulous and for good reason. The last five or six kings who tried force our submission ended up very, very dead. Now whenever they swear in a new king he very pointedly notes that Mechanicsburgh is most certainly not part of their empire." Saito said beaming with pride.

Louise stared at him dumbfounded. He couldn't really be serious could he? He couldn't really be proud of the fact his family had committed regicide? Wait, how did one family manage to commit regicide in the first place?

"You know it occurs to me," Louise said, "That I really don't know anything about you."

"No you don't." Saito confirmed, "What would you like to know?"

Louise paused thinking this over for a bit. This really was the first time she had had to ask about someone's past. Everyone she had ever known she had either grown up with or had them explain themselves to her, in some cases weather she wanted them to or not. There was a lot to ask she realized, she decided to start with the most pressing in her mind.

"So what the heck is this little 'clank' of yours anyway?" She asked tapping the machine under the table with her foot. "I've seen clockwork dolls before but never anything this big... Or one that can move so fluidly... or one that can respond to questions you ask it... or one that fights for that matter."

"And you probably won't ever see one that can." Saito explained. "A clank isn't a doll. Dolls can only perform movements that were built into their mechanisms. They can only physically do certain things and will always do them in exactly the same way until they break. But a clank is different. A clank contains a device called a logic engine that allows it recognize certain sights and sounds and react differently according to what it sees and hears. In other words it can analyze the world around it and adjust its behavior accordingly."

"You mean it can think on its own?" Louise exclaimed looking down at the machine under the table with a new sense of wonder. Even golems were merely extensions of their mage's will. While they could act on their own to an extent, they could only follow their last instructions and would break completely if left on their own for two long or if they traveled to far away from their mage.

"Sort of." Saito answered, "They can only move in the ways their parts allow them to and the engine itself has to be designed to recognize certain sights or sounds and respond to them in specific ways. The more possible responses you build into the engine the larger and more cumbersome it becomes. For instance if you threw fruit at C-1 he wouldn't react to it all, even if he was damaged by it because I never told him how to respond if someone throws fruit at him."

"That's still amazing. How does it work?"

"That's the tricky bit," Saito said sounding a bit exhausted. "No one really knows. Mechanically speaking the logic engine uses mirrors and wires to notice sights and sounds and based on them redirects power from the clanks engines to different limbs in different ways to perform its various functions. But no one knows how light hitting a mirror triggers the logic engine to change itself. Some researchers think that the mirrors resonate when struck by specific light frequencies. But no one has been able to get a mirror to behave that way outside of an engine. And to make matters worse logic engines don't function properly if you watch them while they work. Which just opens up a whole other can of worms."

"But obviously you know how they work, I mean you built one inside of C-1 right?"

"No I haven't a clue. I know it uses polished steel for mirrors, thin plates to detect sound and has twenty six major command functions which is rather impressive to a clank its size."

"So you built a solid steel killing machine controlled by a device even you don't understand?" Louise said sounding very frustrated by this. "How do you even build something if you don't know how it works!"

"Well obviously I'm a very strong spark." Saito said as if that answered everything. He then continued before Louise could ask the obvious. "And it's not a killing machine, C-1 is a carpenter. Watch."

When he finished speaking, Saito stood up and pulled a dead branch from the tree they were standing under. To Louise it looked more like a log really, about as thick as Saito's leg and as tall as he was. The wood was still a bit green, it must have broken off during one of the early spring storms. Saito passed it back from hand to hand a few times then nodded at it.

"C-1." He said to the machine under the table which immediately rose up at the sound of its name. "Scale model: house use only the provided materials. Begin."

Saito threw the branch to C-1 which deftly caught the branch in its claws and then began sawing into smaller sections with its buzz saws, then it cut the sections into straight boards and stripped the bark from the outside of them. In a flurry of sawdust it reduced the branch into a pile of neat inch a quarter thick boards. It then began lining the boards together with its pincers while a pair of tiny arms, that unfolded from the main body, pressed nails to the wood in front of its third arm. With a slight thump of air and steam the metal bar shot from the arm and drove the nails into the wood forcing the boards together. As it worked Louise whistled in appreciation.

"It's a very impressive machine." She complimented. "So smooth and precise in its movements, almost elegant I would say."

"It is some of my better work," Saito said all but beaming with pride, "Especially considering the abysmal state of the tools and materials I had to work with."

"I'm especially impressed it has been running so long. Most clockwork dolls wind down after just a few minutes."

"Those would be simple single spring systems and probably not particularly well designed. This clank has a ten spring continuous reversing engine in it reinforced with a steam boiler for on the move rewinding." Saito explained, Louise gave him a look and he toned back the techno-babble as he continued, "Basically it has ten springs inside that move the gears and whatnot. Five of them run down powering most of its machinery while five more are wound up by the energy it doesn't use. If any spring runs out a steam driven piston within it will rewind the spent spring. It can run for about twenty hours on its own or about twelve hours if it's working on a project."

By the time Saito had finished explaining, the clank had finished its work. It turned back to face them and handed Louise a scale model of a square shaped house. Louise was really impressed. The model had holes in it for square window and detailed carving on its roof of shingles and on one of its walls of a door. For a person to have made this, it would've take hours and the clank had done it in minutes.

"So if you built this little guy to help you build other things how come it's also so good a cutting the arms off of people?"

"Well obviously it has to able to defend itself." Saito said as if this was indeed self evident. "Part of its function will be to gather lumber for me which means going out into the woods. And it's dangerous out in the woods. There's bears out in the woods."

"You designed your clank to dismember people in order to protect itself from bears?"

"Technically I allowed C-1 to designate certain moving images as hostile trees so that if they approach or attempt to touch it, the clank will automatically begin harvesting them. Starting by removing their limbs."

"So you designed your clank to dismember anyone who touches it?" Louise asked inching slightly back from the machine.

"Well first of all you are apparently recorded in its memory as an administrator so you never have to worry about it hurting you. In fact this little bugger will follow any order you give it that it understands and will fight to protect you from harm. Second for this thing to recognize that it had been touched you would have to strike it hard enough to send vibrations running through it. Basically the only thing it can feel would be a hammer blow. And if someone is hitting one of my clanks with a hammer than they deserve to get made into a scale model of a house."

"And all of that is built into that logic engine thing you mentioned earlier, that you built even though you don't know how it works."

"Correct." Saito confirmed. "Do you have any other questions?"

"Just one right now." Louise said, "What's a 'spark'?"

Saito gave her a look. They say it is possible to give someone a look that instantly lets them know just how far the looker is away from their home. A look that is somehow made of pure homesickness. In that moment Saito gave Louise a look just like that. And Louise felt awful inside and she had no idea why.

"You've never heard of sparks?" He asked desperately.

"I've heard of small bits of fire that jump off of pieces of metal when the strike each other." Louise explained in a way that was almost but not quite insulting. "I've never heard of a person being called one. Or being a strong spark for that matter."

"How about Mad Boys? Evil Geniuses? Mad Scientists? Mad Alchemists? Thinkomancers?" Louse shook her head as he named each one. "So you people don't have sparks at all? No wonder your knowledge is so backwards. Next you'll be telling me that you people don't even know what science is."

Louise stared blankly at Saito. As her unsaid words sank into him he suddenly cried out and put his head in his hands. "Gott im Himmel that's depressing. I suddenly want to stop talking to you, stick my hand underground and scream myself deaf."

"I think that would be a bad idea." Louise offered trying to comfort him, "I'm guessing that science is what you all used instead of magic in your world?"

"Pretty much." Saito said leaning back in his chair. "Science is the idea that everything that happens was caused by something that happened before it. It asks the question why the world works the way it does and once you answer that question you can make the world behave in the way you want it to.

"For instance; here if you want to fly you cast a levitation spell and off you go. In my world we know that when things heat up their volume increases, lowering their density and causing them to rise above objects with higher density. So if we want to fly we inflate a balloon with air and then heat that air up. The hot air becomes less dense than the cold air around it and is pushed up into the sky. If you have a balloon big enough you can tie yourself to it and float away with it."

That all made sense to Louise. Magic basically did the same thing only instead of messing with causes and everything magic just directly controlled the four core elements. And Saito explanation of hot air also made sense since explained why smoke rose even though it was full of earth and should therefore fall to the ground seeking its natural place. She nodded for him to continue.

"People who investigate the world and how it works are called scientists, and the best scientists are sparks. Sparks have perfect memories, very logical, analytical minds, a natural talent at inferring unseen facts and thus are all really, really good researchers. But the most unique thing about sparks is that the more a spark focuses on a question or problem the more powerful their minds become. It's like a spark's mind gradually build momentum as it works. And when a spark really get going they enter the 'mad place.'

"A spark in full on madness can follow a dozen trains of thought simultaneously, think so quickly it seems like they are making insane leaps of logic. Their bodies move with inhuman precision and efficiency almost warping the laws of known movement and space to get things done far faster than should ever be possible. When a spark enters their madness there is nothing they can't build.

"I have no idea how a logic engine really works but while I was in my madness last night nothing would be simpler for me to build. Also while I was working I apparently realized something about you that was important enough to give you the right to control my machine as well. I can't even begin to understand what I was thinking at the time but the results are plain to see.

"Oh and one more thing. All sparks are insane. And the faster our mind start working the crazier we get." Louise sighed at that last statement. Of course he was insane. The smartest man she would ever meet, a man who's knowledge could change the world, and the very man who was her familiar and he was insane by his own admission.

"So what do you think your insane self saw in me that was worth following?" Louise said finally coming to the point of this conversation.

"Following? Nothing. I told you Heterodynes don't follow people." Saito said, shooting down Louise's first hope. "But I might be able to guess at a few things about you that might be worth working with."

"What does that mean?" Louise asked more than a little surprised.

"All in good time." Saito said dismissively, "But first I was wondering if you might be willing answer a question of mine?"

"Go ahead." She said.

"It might be a bit hard for you to answer." Saito warned.

"You answered my questions, it's only fair that I answer yours."

"Very well. So why do your classmates call you 'The Zero?'" Louise cringed at that question and Saito continued, "Was what you said back at the duel true?"

"Yes it was." Louise finally said after some time. The admission clearly pained her so Saito nodded gravely in sympathy. "My unofficial runic name stands for 'zero accuracy,' none of the spells I have ever tried to cast work how they are supposed to."

"You mean they don't work at all or they do something other than advertised?" Saito asked.

"I mean they all explode." Louise clarified but Saito only seemed slightly more confused."Here watch."

Louise stood up and moved over to a different table. She pulled out her wand and placed a small rock on the center of the table. In the back ground Siesta who had heard of Louise's spell craft quickly backed away and ducked behind a tree. Saito looked on intently at her.

"This is an earth spell that should turn this rock into brass." She explained and then chanted in a strange tongue. "Ausuz Kau Isaz Rhwaz..."

Saito didn't recognize the words though they sounded vaguely Scandinavian to him. Somehow he knew they mean 'Grant me Power to Control the Object,' probably that translation spell working for him again, though he wondered why it didn't change the sound of the words themselves. The whole thing sounded more like a prayer to Saito than a spell. But his musings were cut short when, with a flick of her wand, Louise finished her spell and the rock exploded.

The explosion itself was a lot of smoke, bright light and a loud noise. There was a shockwave strong enough to push Saito back into his chair but too weak to knock him over. Saito guessed it was as powerful as maybe ten pounds of black powder going off. Since it hadn't been contained or directed the blast had quickly dissipated, but it was still rather impressive. When the smoke cleared Louise was still standing unharmed if a bit dirtier.

"You see?" Louise lamented, "No matter what spell I try they all end up as nothing but a puff of useless smoke. It's little wonder everyone thinks-"

"That was Awesome!" Saito exclaimed interrupting Louise. She glared at him for mocking her, but he looked strangely sincere. Then he began bombarding her with questions. "You can cause explosions at will? How do they work? Why weren't you harmed by a blast going off so close? At the very least you should be deaf right now. Does the quality of the explosion change when you try to control different elements? Can you aim the explosions to occur at a distance? Can you make organic material explode like that? Could you make an explosion happen inside something else? What about inside of something you can't see? Do you think that your just using too much power or that your natural elemental affinity simply reacts violently in contact with other magic types?"

"I don't know!" She yelled to quiet Saito down, "The point is the spell doesn't do what it's supposed to."

"So?" Saito dismissed. "If we ignored every unexpected outcome knowledge would never progress at all. What do your professors tell you about it?"

"Mostly they just get frustrated with me till they finally just stop asking for me to try and cast any spells at all." Louise said, in truth she was grateful for that since it meant she had much less of chance to mess up in front of her classmates.

"You mean they've never tried to figure out just how your magic works? Or if there is any way for you to control your explosions?" Louise shook her head and Saito looked at her disbelievingly. "You mean they've had in their midst a mystery that could change the whole world's understanding of magic and they just ignore it? What kind of professors are they anyway?"

"They've tried to help me but nothing works. No matter what I do or what spell I try they all just blow up and fail. And how is the fact that my spells explode supposed to change the world's understanding of magic?"

"Think scientifically. If the circumstances are properly assembled the desired event will occur. Now it seems to me that you need three things for a spell to work. A working wand, to say the right words and to channel the appropriate kind of magic in a sufficient amount."

"How do you know that? Your world doesn't even have magic!"

"Oh please I told you scientists figure out how things work, sparks are the best scientists and I am a very strong spark. Osmond said spells can't be cast without a wand so you need them. When you cast you spoke in that strange language of yours. The fact that that language isn't the common tongue means there is power in the words and even casually saying them could cast a spell. So clearly the words are important. And you said that the spell you tried was an earth spell so presumably it's called that because it uses earth magic so there probably is fire, wind and water magic as well. Have I missed anything?"

"No you haven't, those are the essential ingredients to most spells. Though there are also spells that require specific ingredients or reagents to work. You also need to have access to a major element around you to draw power from. A bit of stone for earth magic, heat or intense light for fire, humidity for water and air for wind at the very least."

"From the fact that Guiche introduced himself as 'the bronze' and could only send golems at me to fight I'll also guess that all mages have a natural affinity for certain elements?" Louise nodded affirmatively. "And I'll guess that most mages can only use certain elements at first and take more intensive training to master others?"

"That's correct. Mages who can control one element are called dot class mages. Line class for two elements. Triangle for three elements, which can either be three different elements or adding a previous element again to strengthen the effect of the spell. Square class can control four elements and are the most powerful mages in the world."

"So for a spell to fail you either said the words wrong, had a bad wand, didn't have access to a necessary reagent, didn't have an example of the appropriate element to work the spell or you channeled the wrong kind of magic. Now if you had a problem with any of those first four you would've been able to easily correct the problem and wouldn't be known as 'The Zero' so you're clearly channeling the wrong kind of magic for that spell."

"But that happens with every type of spell I cast! Earth, water, fire or air it doesn't matter they all just explode!"

"So clearly you have an affinity for some fifth element then." Saito concluded looking rather smug with himself. Louise was struck dumb. It seemed so simple. How had it never occurred to her before? But it was impossible. There were only four types of magic! Unless... She gulped heavily.

"Are you suggesting that I'm a void mage?" Louise would never have even dared to hope for that kind of power. The only previously known void mage had been Founder Brimir who was practically a god.

"I don't know," Saito said with a shrug. "Does void magic usually blow things up?"

"I would think not. Void magic would be a holy power." Louise said the very idea seeming more and more ridiculous to her. "I can't possibly be a void mage. It's a lost element, it's impossible for anyone to use it."

"Then you might have some sixth unknown or new elemental affinity." Saito guessed, then he sipped his tea and continued. "It doesn't really matter since it all means the same thing for you in the end."

"What do you mean?" Louise asked unsure if she would like the answer.

"I mean if even you have a hard time believing that your magic is part of some hitherto unknown element even though you've lived your whole life struggling with it then no one else will either. No matter how hard you work, even if you manage to invent a whole new school of magical though with no help at all, in their eyes you will always be a failure and a screw up. All because your spells aren't proper magic, no matter how powerful they are, no one will ever recognize it. To be seen as a normal you will have to spend years mastering an unknown element and then even longer learning to use it in conjunction with another element. You will have to become a line mage just to be seen as a beginner. And even then you will be the girl who had to spend years learning what others mastered in a few weeks."

"In other words..." Louise concluded forcing herself to say the words she spent every quiet moment with herself dreading. "That this year of ridicule and abuse I've endured is never going to end no matter what I do? That can't be right surely if I could just get my magic to do something useful..."

"Explosions are hugely useful." Saito contended. "Anyone who can't see that is an idiot. Anyone with a single ounce of creativity could think of a dozen ways to attain the same effects of a desired spell only using explosions. In my world the question of 'how do you change rock into brass using nothing but a large blast?' would be relished as a welcome challenge. Here no one would see the point they would just ask 'why not just use a regular alchemy spell?' And that's the biggest problem right there. Your world is stagnant.

"The evidence is everywhere you look. Your nations have reached a level of sophistication that solves most of their pressing problems so they have stopped progressing. In my world an academy is a place where great minds gather to conduct ground breaking experiments and advance all the knowledge in the world. Student are expected to teach themselves the basics and pay to come to universities to play some small part in those greater works. Gleaning knowledge from geniuses around them and perhaps gaining some small incites of their own that one day will form the basis of their own research. But here there is no research, no experimentation nothing new. You haven't come here to discover, but merely to learn. Your professors aren't pressing the bounds of known magic, just passing on what is already known, what is already seen as good enough to the next generation. Here they only work to preserve.

"Who was the last person you know of who came up with a whole new spell? I bet you it was years ago and people consider it a quaint curiosity. No one else wants to learn it. No one is lining up to see it or find out how they discovered it. Because everyone knows that the magic they have is good enough so there's no need to make something new.

"Tradition is what will keep you down. Tradition is a comfort to people and those who have made it a central part of their lives will not allow it to change quickly. Tradition says there are only four elements of magic so if you claim you know a fifth or sixth no one will believe you. Believing you means that their tradition was wrong and if it's wrong about one thing it could be wrong about others. Admitting your right means reevaluating everything they believe and no one wants to do that. So no one will believe you. And you will never be a true mage in their eyes."

"My mother was the last person I know of to invent a new magic." Louise said when Saito finally paused. "You are right that no one is interested in learning her techniques but she is respected by others. In fact she's a hero."

"Exactly." Saito said as if Louise had just made his point for him. "To get respect your mother had to do impossible things to the point that she became a hero for it. That is what you have to do. Graduating from this academy, showing up your rivals, succeeding at a few simple spells, those things won't earn anyone's respect. If you want to be remembered as a great mage you have to do something so great that people have to recognize you and deal with your magic respectfully.

"Personally I wouldn't go into the whole hero business. There's little profit to be made in it, little hope of retiring, horrible health coverage, and terrible hours. Plus if you make one mistake or morally ambiguous decision then your reputation is ruined forever and you'll probably end up getting killed trying to save some snot nosed, brat from something really stupid, that's their own fault in the first place, and they won't even remember you in a year or two. I suggest that we start our own kingdom."

"I am not rebelling against Tristain!" Louise all but shouted while glaring at Saito.

"I didn't say take over a kingdom. Any random twit can overthrow a country, what we need to do is build a completely new one. Nothing could be simpler really. First we build an unbeatable army from various mercenary and bandit groups. Then we join up with a nation involved in a losing war or go raiding in a country you don't like. Basically we just spend a few years proving that our army is unbeatable. Then we pick a largely uninhabited region with plenty of natural resources and good defenses and build a castle there. Our army will have amassed a large group of camp followers like armies naturally do, so then we just hire those camp followers to become farmers, miners, workers, merchants and everything else we need to become self sustaining.

"When word gets out that we're paying high wages for simple work and that our unbeatable army has created a region of peace and stability in these troubled times, we'll begin to attract a steady influx of civilian immigrants. We keep taxes low, crack down hard on local crime and act as a neutral ground between various neighboring kingdoms and we can promote numerous local businesses making us into an economic powerhouse. Eventually it will be much more profitable for the surrounding nations to recognize us as new a kingdom to begin peaceful trade. And just like that we have a new kingdom. Play our cards right and we can pass that kingdom on to our descendents and now we're in the history books. Louise and Saito who brought a whole new nation into the world and changed it forever."

As Saito rambled out his vision, Louise was deep in thought. Not about nation building but how strange it was that Saito just assumed that creating a whole new kingdom was not only possible but rather easy. Saito never ceased to astound her. Just when she thought she had him figured out he went and did or said something even more ludicrous. She almost believed him. She almost believed that this crazy young familiar of hers really could create a whole new country out of nothing. But whether it was possible or not didn't actually matter. The question that mattered was, 'is it worth trying?' Could she really justify breaking off from her homeland to go on a mad quest to disrupt the world's balance of power just for the sake of satisfying her pride? Of being known as a great mage?

Louise was still mauling over that question when Saito finished. He looked at her expectantly. No doubt preparing to rebuff the objections he was sure she would raise to the whole endeavor. She decided to stall and throw him a curve ball or two.

"Why do you care about proving that my magic is worth people's attention?" She asked, "What do you hope to gain out of this nation building?"

"The same thing you do." Saito replied nonplussed. "I will make our new kingdom into a land of industry and progress. Our academies will answer life's mysteries and our factories will flood the world with inexpensive, high quality goods. The rest of the world will adapt and adopt my version of science or it will fall so far behind that our children can subjugate it all at their will. I will end this world stagnation one way or another."

"Why work with me?" Louise asked, "You don't obey me and you don't need a useless mage to help your plans along."

"I didn't need to fight Guiche with my powers and my clank either but I still did." Saito countered. "I don't need to do any of this. I can just leave and spend the rest of my life as a wandering shoe salesmen. But I want to do this with you. You have endure things that would shatter most normal people and you mastered them, made them into a source of strength. You are a natural leader and your girlish charms makes your bravery inspiring and while your followers will naturally want to protect you. That makes you the perfect carrot to compliment my stick when it comes to inspiring our men. Plus you also offer several unique advantages. Helping you master your magic will not only make you into a force to be reckoned with it will also give us an edge over any other mages. Your status as a noble gives this whole operation a sense of legitimacy that the common soldiers will appreciate. Your family connections will make it easier to get out nation recognized. And it means that all our reforms will ultimately be coming from an establish member of the 'old guard'. Allowing us to subvert the norm without really breaking tradition."

"I don't see why we have to go to the extremes of nation building. Surely there is another way?"

"Of course there are other ways. There's no such thing as an either or situation. We could become wandering heroes. Or wandering mercenaries. We could build an invincible army and then conquer the world in the name of your homeland. We could just pick cities to start blowing up at random and become scourges on this world the likes of which will never be seen again. We could become merchants make a fortune and then use it to reinvigorate a failing city and rebuild it in our image. We could start a new religion. We could start a revival for an old religion. We can really do anything so long as it's difficult and gives a chance to succeed so often and so well that no one could ever write off our accomplishments as a lucky fluke. That way they have to admit that there really is something real to your magic and my science.

"But let me ask you this. Everything you have suffered in your whole life is because a systemic flaw in society itself. The world around you is so convinced that your magic can't be real that it would rather treat you like a failure and beat you up everyday rather than admit that its traditions might be wrong. Do you think you are the only one this has happened to? Have there been other zeros in this world suffering just like you have? What if some of them don't have your strength of character? What if this world has driven people to their death rather than give them a chance to succeed on their own terms? Doesn't that thought infuriate you? Doesn't that make you want to make a better world for them? A world that would welcome people like you and help them to succeed in any way they can?"

Louise nodded. She would've killed for a place like that to run to growing up. She was always going on about making the world a better place. Maybe it was time to try some drastic measures. She couldn't justify making a whole new kingdom for herself, but she could justify kicking ass and taking names if it meant making a place for people like her to be safe.

"Alright, alright. We'll create a whole new nation." Louise agreed. She felt like some great tension had broken when she said that. As if the world was a much simpler place now and the work was already half done. Saito relaxed as well, smiling at her as if he had always known she would agree. "But there are a few things to clear up first. If you want to take advantage of my nobility that will mean making me into royalty. And that will mean problems for you, Mr. I Bend Knee to No One Heterodyne."

"I think Queen Louise Franciose Valliere the 0th has a certain respectable ring to it." Saito said, "But yes even then I won't bow to you. I am no one servant. But I will be your partner."

"Royalty doesn't usually do partners." Louise playfully countered.

"Royalty should learn to listen to a good deal when they hear one. And this is the best deal a Heterodyne has ever offered anyone. So listen up. I propose we form an alliance between ourselves and all of our descendents. Your enemy will be my enemy, your goals will be my goals, whenever you are in need I will come and help you in any way I can. And Vice Versa. We work together, we fight together, we live or die together. No orders, only advice. You want to lead? Then start walking, so long as it's towards something I'll come with you to make sure you don't die along the way.

"When we have our kingdom you will have your palace, your courts and your nobles to fawn on you and your princes and princesses. I will have a skull fortress up on a mountain somewhere with eyes that weep lava flows and dramatically time lightning going off every now and then. There will be no law but my own madness with in it, but that madness won't trouble your country side. And if another nation should cross us we will both come out and rain vengeance upon them."

"Sounds reasonable." Louise admitted, it wasn't like she could really force him to give anything up, nonetheless there was one small issue. "But I want to add one thing."

"Oh? What?"

"My friends are your friends and vice versa. We don't go around picking fights with each other's allies or servants."

"Alright, sounds simple enough." Saito granted with a shrug.

"And so you know," Louise continued speaking in a very quickly now. "Despite how it may seem I actually have a whole lot of friends here at this academy and around the world. So before you go about killing anyone, or even attacking them you will simply have to run it by me first to make sure they are not one of my many, many friends."

Saito stared blankly at the pink haired girl as if trying to wrap his head around what she had just said. "Did you just try and run a legal circle around me? I'm not sure whether to be impressed or furious."

"I just want to make sure we're not going to do anything that will overly inconvenience each other. Like getting one of us thrown in jail and awaiting execution."

"Urrrg." Saito groaned. "The lengths I go through to get a partner on my side who might be able to blow up people's heads just by pointing at them. You had better appreciate this. Fine no random killings and whenever possible we will consult with one another about who to off. But know this, I am not going to compromise my ability to protect myself or you, or my ability to respond to changing situations, just to keep the body count low. And there are some people who just need to die. This is not a peaceful path that we walk."

"Peaceful or not, I will not have innocent blood on my hands even by association." Louise said emphatically.

"Very well. Then from this day on, we share enemies, goals and friends. If ever we or any of our descendents are in need the other will come to our aid. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Louise said, she picked up a knife from the table and fiddled with it in her hand. "Shall we swear by blood?"

Saito nodded. They each took a simple knife and made a cut across their palms just deep enough to let the blood flow. Then they clasped their cut hands together so the blood intermingled. Louise winced slightly since it stung. Saito laughed softly at that. Louise rolled her eyes and spoke.

"I swear by the pentagon of elemental magic, by the void and the heavens that I will always stand alongside my familiar and all who come after him. His enemies are my enemies, his friends my treasured allies, his goals are my goals now and forever."

"I swear by science," Saito said after her, "By all I know or will learn, by fate and causality, by heaven or hell that I will never abandon my young mistress and will always come to her aid. Her enemies will die by my hands, her friends I will protect and her goals I will see completed; now and forever."

Around them the sun slowly sank in the west, as they had spent the whole day speaking and debating. The long shadows ran towards them and shifted as the trees that cast them danced in the wind. The world bore witness to their oath and on that quiet spring evening it seemed to shudder. The power of science and the void stood united, the world would soon begin to turn.

Author's note: Thank you all for enduring that absurdly long dialog chapter with me. This was the hardest chapter I written yet, I just couldnt seem to get much momentum going with it. But now its done. Still not sure if it was to early to have this conversation or if I should've given Saito another day to feel out the world but I think he is more than capable of infering everything he said just through what he's seen. I don't know. What do you all think?

Thanks by the way for the reviews, favorites and follows, its always good to come home to an email inbox full of notices from the site.

Adnin: stop reading my mind and spoiling the story for the rest of us.

David: I don't think I'm going to add any new characters to the FoZ just put a new spin on old ones.

Sinuhe: That's a brilliant idea and I'm going to steal it thank you.

Now about the Louise and Saito. So I've seen in other FoZ fanfics I've read that people tend to gravitate to two ends with these two. Either they remove Saito from the story so Louise can shine on her own. Or the make Saito into a total badass that dominates the action. Both of these I feel are ways to avoid Louise's biggest character flaw: Her abusive nature towards Saito. Its funny in the anime, but really twisted if you think about it two much. Obviously Saito Heterodyne isn't going to take that kind of crap and Louise knows it now. But I don't want Saito to overshadow Louise either. What I hope to do is gradually build a story where the two feed into each other. This isn't going to be a Science vs Magic story, though a lot of that will happen and I have two words for you people: Battle Clanks, this is a story of what happens when two forms of knowledge cooporate to change the world.

Also I am now taking all bets on what the staff of destruction will be. Till next time thanks for reading.