“Look at that!” a Mechanic behind him gasped, pointing. “We could do that! It would improve our portable far-talkers.”
“But what’s that?” another Mechanic asked, staring. “It’s… all right. I get it. But can we build that?”
“If we can’t yet, we’ll find a way,” Lukas said. He nodded to Mari. “This is huge. How many do you have?”
“Quite a few more,” Mari said. “Including medical, and armaments, and mass production.”
“Mass production?”
“Making things fast. Making a lot of things fast,” Mari added.
“The Guild wouldn’t like that,” Mechanic Ken said. “According to them, the Mechanic arts involve hand-crafted work for everything. No wonder the Guild would have kept that banned for centuries.” He peered at the text that Lukas held. “That paper doesn’t look ancient.”
“These are copies of the originals,” Mari said.
“Who gets to see these?” an eager voice cried.
“Everybody,” Mari said.
“She means it,” Alli said. “We’ve been looking over the texts on the Gray Lady.”
Lukas was frowning at the text he held. “Mari, this is amazing. In the long run, it will let us build some of the things we’ve only dreamed of. In the long run. But we may not have a long run. I don’t know where you’re planning to set up shop, but a few dozen Mechanics and Apprentices who have to build their basic tools before they can even start on these things won’t be able to get very far before the Guild locates us and destroys us.”
“The Mage Guild wants Master Mechanic Mari dead, too,” said Senior Mechanic Gina. “They’ll come after us as well, which I wouldn’t have worried about as much before what I read today.”
“We need tools and we need more workers,” Lukas summed up.
Mari took a deep breath, knowing that her next statements would have to be said just right. “We can get workers. We can get a lot of workers.” She pointed to the common sailors listening to the discussion. “Commons can do basic Mechanic work.”
Utter silence fell.
“I’ve proven it,” Mari said. “They can use our tools. They can operate a boiler. If given proper instruction and supervision. They can build things, if we show them what to build and how to do it.”
“Are you saying,” Lukas said slowly, “that the commons are Mechanics, too?”
“No,” Mari said. “We’re better at it all. The lie the Mechanics Guild has told all these years is that we’re the only ones who can do it. What we are, are the people who are best at it. When I was working with the commons, what to me was easy came harder to them. I don’t believe this was just because it was new to them. We Mechanics will remain the leaders, the teachers, the skilled practitioners of our arts. But we don’t have to keep them secret anymore.”
Calu nodded. “We can design, we can innovate, we can supervise, we can be engineers. The Guild has pretty much told us we have to dig every ditch because commons can’t use shovels. But the commons can. They can do basic production and operation tasks. Which frees us up to do, well, the stuff we like to do.”
“Commons mess up a lot,” someone commented.
“They mess up,” Captain Banda said, “when they’re treated poorly. When they’re treated with respect, they do a fine job. My sailors are skilled, reliable workers.”
“Let me be clear,” Mari said, acutely aware of the commons listening. “I’m not talking about the same deal the Guild has been running on Dematr, where the Mechanics are in charge of everything. The Mechanics should be in charge of Mechanic tasks. In charge of their workshops and manufacturing and design areas and the places that teach people how to be Mechanics or how to do jobs like operating boilers. But we shouldn’t be telling the commons what to do. I meant what I said earlier about freedom. The commons should rule themselves. We have to stop treating the commons as slaves to Mechanics. They are people, like us, and just as we deserve freedom and respect, so do they.”
A low rumble sounded among the Mechanics as they took that in. It didn’t sound like a happy rumble.
Alain stood up, attracting everyone’s attention. “I am a Mage,” he said. “The elders of my Guild taught me that everyone else was only a shadow. What happened to those others did not matter in any way. Mari showed me that others do matter. That Mechanics do matter, as do common people.”
Mechanic Alli stood up, too. “All of us have been unhappy with the way we’ve been treated by the Senior Mechanics. Right? They’ve ordered us around, and told us we can’t do things, and forced us to do things, and generally made our lives miserable because they wanted to control everything. You, and me, and every Mechanic haven’t been the rulers of Dematr. That’s what we were told, but it’s not true. It’s the Guild that has ruled this world. We’ve been the servants of the Guild. One step higher up the ladder than the commons, but still servants.”
“Everybody has to be free,” Mari said, giving her words more force and more volume. “Everybody. Mechanic. Mage. Common folk. Because it is going to take everybody to beat the Mechanics Guild and the Mage Guild. It is going to take everybody to change this world. We work together, and we all win. We try to keep things the same, and we all lose.”
She had chosen those words carefully, and could see the reaction they caused. Especially the last sentence. She didn’t have to underline that keeping things the same had been the primary governing rule for the Guild since its founding. And everyone here had bloodied themselves against the wall of inertia that rule had created.
“Do you really think,” Master Mechanic Lukas asked, “that you can get Mechanics, Mages, and commons to work together that way?”
“I already have,” Mari said.
Several moments of silence followed. Lukas looked at Mage Alain and Mage Asha, then around at the common sailors. He smiled slightly. “I’m looking forward to learning more about that, Master Mechanic Mari. All right. It’s your project. Does anyone disagree?” None of the Mechanics spoke up this time. “Now tell me where we’re going to get tools.”
Mari grinned. “We know where to get tools. A Guild Hall. We’re heading for one right now.”
“Edinton?” Mechanic Ken asked incredulously. “I won’t deny that Edinton has a lousy reputation and is probably riddled with dissent, but that doesn’t get you through the door, Mari.”
“The front entrances have been reinforced even more in the last year,” Senior Mechanic Gina said. “And additional guard procedures put into place. You would need an army to break through the front door.”
“Why do you seek ways to overcome the defenses at the front entrance?” Alain asked, drawing looks from all of the Mechanics. Only Mari knew that she had prepared him to ask that question after he had been the one to suggest to her not only attacking the Guild Hall but how to get in.
“Because that’s the way inside,” Master Mechanic Lukas said gruffly.
“But my training in military matters advises that when faced with strong defenses, it is better to go around them than to strike them head-on.”
Lukas paused before answering. “There is merit in that. In theory. If you want to break something you aim for a weak point instead of hammering where it is strongest. But there isn’t any way to go around the defenses at the front. The other entrances to the Guild Hall are heavily armored and routinely locked, barred, and alarmed. I doubt with the materials available to us we could even blow our way through them.”
“There are other ways to make openings where none exist,” Alain said.