“Naga,” Jéne E. called. “Find the Magus. I’ll assemble the guards. And you,” Jéne E. pointed at the machinist, “start going through your designs and diagrams and come up with the airships’ weaknesses. Report to me in ten minutes.”
The Captain disappeared out the door in mere seconds, followed by Naga who made use of the communication device that Jéne E. had passed to him. The machinist did what he did best, burying himself in his work in solitude.
Up above, a booming voice began to fill the sky, a voice of command and confidence directed at the lone building below. It said:
“Captain of The Tavern. This is a hold-up. Surrender the planeswalking engine and no one gets hurt.”
Naga was up on the second-floor observation deck, bathing in the coloured lights of the planeswalk inhibitor field. He lifted the communication device in his hand to his mouth and said, “Genie, did you hear that?”
A reply came swiftly: “I heard. Over my dead body they’re getting the engine.”
“What about the patrons?” Naga asked, raising his voice to speak over the noise of the crowd surrounding him.
“Have you found the Magus?” Jéne E. said back.
“Not yet.”
“Okay, I’ll handle this my way.”
Inside the command cabin of The Tavern Jéne E. was giving orders to the staff members, most of them armed with an array of unnameable gadgets, some with magical weapons, all with conviction. That done, Jéne E. ordered them to take up their posts, leaving him alone in the cabin. He went up to the loudhailer’s microphone and sighed. This was going to be difficult.
A toggle was pulled and Jéne E. spoke into the microphone, “This is Captain Jéne E. Ilk of The Tavern, Edenglade Enterprise. We wish for an amicable solution to this confrontation. What can we offer you aside from the planeswalking engine?”
The voice from the airships spoke back, “Captain Genie, you have nothing of interest to us except the engine. You are to disassemble it and place it outside of The Tavern in half an hour, or we will take it by force. We cannot guarantee the safety of you patrons.”
“That’s impossible,” Jéne E. said as calmly as he could. “The Tavern was built around the engine. The Tavern is the engine.”
“In that case, Captain, prepared to be boarded. We will be sending down a team to dismantle the building.”
Jéne E. lowered his head in resignation, not knowing how to mount an escape from this dastardly predicament. His eyes were shut tight and his breathing was faster than normal. Thousands of thoughts went through his brain in a matter of seconds as he search valiantly for an answer.
Finally he reactivated the microphone and said into it, “Damn.”
Then he left the room, closing the door softly.
But there was one man who wasn’t going to give in to Fate. The Magus appeared beside one of The Tavern’s chimneys before he decided to climb it. From this high vantage point he had an unimpeded view of the sky militia and the terrain within which The Tavern had placed itself inside. Mountains in the far distance, a river and lake nearer to the building, and plains and trees within close proximity. He could use some of these elements, use them to fight against the militia. Particularly useful was his command over water and its incarnations.
At the same time, Hafiz Naga had journeyed out of The Tavern with a group of patrons that decided to get away from the danger. He took one look back and realised where the Magus was. His hand lifted his communicator to his lips and he reported this back to Jéne E. but this elicited no response.
“Genie? Genie, where are you?” After listening to the ensuing silence for long enough, Naga spoke firmly, “Genie, don’t do anything stupid. And I suggest you call off the Magus. Genie, listen to me!”
As this one-sided conversation transpired, a small airship lowered itself towards The Tavern, carrying the engineering crew that would rip apart the building to get to its heart. The Magus eyed the approaching dirigible with contempt but took no apparent action to defend the building. After all, what could one man do against an army? The Magus was no God, and he was aware of his shortcomings.
But he had one advantage against the enemy. He knew someone had a secret.
>Continued in part 3
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