Bastion 2 - Chapter 11

I navigated Ko-nah through the most nutrient rich selections at lunch. He complained at nearly every selection and I wondered if he was actively trying to upset me. Maybe he thought there wassome secret I was withholding, and if he annoyed me enough, I would reveal it. He was going to be upset to discover there was no trick—other than Mae’s expert guidance, and I was already giving him that.

Munje Recycling II was a refresh from the end of last year, but Woong-ji promised we would soon launch into more advanced techniques soon. Techniques like filtering out the normally used munje from the dangerous-to-recycle infused zo munje. This would be critically helpful in not losing the recyclable munje any time we used infused zo.

We had yet to learn how to discern the different recyclable munje apart; it was all just used munje flowing back to the core. With her training, we’d easily be able to identify each munje from the other, whether or not it had been infused, and sometimes even what spell it was used for. This would help us to craft stronger spells with the recycled components.

Munje recycling was looked down on by other students—namely zo users—but this class showed me how powerful it would be in later years. I could keep Tuko running on half the necessary ma if I was continually recycling his waste. Now if only Woong-ji would teach me that trick she used in our big battle last year to call back the munje from the battlefield.

Finally, we made it to the class I was excited for: Ma Design and Repair I. We were made to wait outside until the final bell rang, then the door sprung open on a mechanical hinge. “Come in!” came a weathered but jovial voice as golden ma munje retreated from the door.

I turned the corner to see a massive, two story room, lined with long, metal work desks like I had back at the Rabid Rabbit. There was a small box of tools on each desk along with a scrap sheaf of parchment, and an uncomfortable looking metal stool. Hanging above the desks were huge machina contraptions for which I didn’t know any of the purposes.

The second floor of the room was lined with shelves upon shelves of raw materials, none of them under lock and key. No wonder the room always stayed shut, this was a treasure-trove!

The instructor was a willowy man, with a white beard braided down to his mid chest, and not a single hair to be spoken for on top of his head. His white brows were bushy with hints of black, and obscured golden eyes. He wore a black robe trimmed in silver and gold, with pins of machina gears down his front—like Woong-ji had.

“Take your seats, everyone,” he said with a gleam in his eye.

I eagerly made my way to the seat at the front center. Hana took the desk to my left, and Cho, my right. Yuri scooted in at the desk behind me, and Ko-nah chose a seat at the very back. I groaned. It wasn’t my problem if his ma munje didn’t improve. Tae-do wasn’t interested in it anyway.

But if it didn’t, Ko-nah might not pass…

I sighed and grabbed my bag, then headed to the back of the room next to Ko-nah. If I didn’t invest in his success, he wouldn’t come to trust me. And, I did truly want him to do well. I wanted to see him overcome his demons and be able to stand tall, proud of himself.

“You gonna babysit me?” Ko-nah remarked as he sat back on his stool. He crossed his arms and eyed me with annoyance.

“Tae-do might not be interested in learning my ma secrets, but you’ll need them to pass,” I said as I leaned back like him.

Ko-nah rolled his eyes. “Right. You can drop the act. I know you all hate me.”

“You don’t know anything about us,” I whispered angrily, and he flinched.

The instructor helped everyone to settle in, then took to his slightly raised podium at the front of the class and took a deep breath, smiling. He clapped his hands together and golden munje exploded through the room. The machines above us came alive with color, sound, and movement.

Some blared harsh noises like a cawing raycrow, but ten times louder. Other blinked in attractive blues, pinks, and green as numbers dashed across their surfaces. Some gyrated in circles on their suspended wire as they played a tune.

With another clap, the gold munje rushed back into the instructor and the class came alive with excited murmurs and whispers of bewilderment.

“Wow,” I whispered as I looked up to the bald man. He was definitely going to teach me something new.

“My name is Pa-ne,” the instructor said, beaming out at us.

“More like noi-ne, am I right?” Ko-nah whispered at me with a chuckle. I shot him a glare and he backed off with a downtrodden expression.

It was no wonder he was failing. Having little respect for the instructor was an easy way to write off their valuable information. Raising Ko-nah’s scores would be more difficult than I’d anticipated.

“This is Ma Design and Repair I, so we’re going to learn the basics of fixing, and augmenting machines,” Pa-ne said and my heart sank. The basics? That wasn’t going to be enough for me. Well, I’d just have to show him how adept I was, and try to get a private session for more advanced methods.

“Some of you may be thinking, I already know the basics,” Pa-ne said with a broad grin as he looked to me.

Tungpah.

The instructor’s face drooped, his brow furrowed. “You’re wrong. What you know is child’s play. In this room, you will learn the true methods of machina repair.”

Hope returned. How could I think Bastion would let me down? Every class had taught me something new, so far, why would this be different?

First, we learned about the tools on our desk. Most of them I was familiar with; needle-nose plyers, tweezers, wrenches, gear oil, and a wire brush. There were two tools I’d never worked with. One was called a reamer, used for punching precise holes, and the other was much cooler.

It was called a yeol-ip, loosely translating to thermal blade. It was a tool most students wouldn’t be able to use yet since it required dual-munje, en and ma, to function. I already had two bands, and could easily create the required munje to activate the tool. I wanted to see what the hot, en and ma powered blade looked like, but refrained from turning it on. Given the size of the opening at the top and the short length of the handle, it was likely not to be that impressive.

Pa-ne went on to describe the common methods taught in primary, or on the job, but that none of them were to the same level of superiority as the one he would teach—

In the next class.

He droned on and on for so long that the gong to release us rang out before he even got to the point. I withheld my grimace as I made my way to the front of the class. Since I was at the back, most of the students had left by the time I reached Pa-ne.

“Master, if I may?” I asked the instructor.

“Ah yes, Mr. Second Thoughts About Sitting in the Front! What can I do for you?”

I laughed off the joke nervously, and went on. “I wanted to let you know how excited I am for this class. I’ve been working on machina all my li—

“Yes of course you have, and I bet completely backwards!” He guffawed. “I’ll have you and the others on the right path in no time at all.”

I nodded and said with defeat, “Yes, Master.” I bowed and walked from the room, my spirit low once again.

“Well,” Mae chimed in, “if you have been doing it all wrong, that means you’ll have a lot to learn.”

I bobbed my head as I walked toward the dining hall. She was right, but I was still disappointed. I was hoping to have learned the secret to unlock Mae’s second device so we could get to analyzing my mother’s data. The faster we could manage that, the faster we’d have a cure.

“Jiyong,” Mae said gravely, and I stopped in my tracks. “Even if you were to fix the processing piece tonight, and it functioned perfectly, I might not be able to find a cure in time.”

Hana caught my eye at the end of the buffet line, and I moved to join her as I chewed my cheek. Mae was right again, and I couldn’t keep placing all this responsibility on her. She wasn’t a miracle worker, though as close to one as I’d ever met.

“I’ll do my best, but I wanted to—

‘Manage my expectations. I know, Mae. It’s good. I need to keep the reality of all the possibilities in mind.’

“How are you?” Hana asked as she put a kind hand on my arm.

I smiled past my distress. “Ma Repair and Design is not as impressive as I was hoping.”

“It was just the first class,” she said with a giggle that brightened my mood.

I nodded. “That’s true.”

“Now, what’s really wrong?” she asked as she let me cut in front of her.

“Thinking about my mother,” I said, revealing everything to her, and hopefully very little to everyone else within earshot.

She placed a warm hand on my back and sent a wave of tingling zo munje down my spine. A shiver crawled up to my neck and the tension in my shoulders released. She was getting good at that.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“It’s going to be okay,” she said, her voice flowing with kindness and comfort.

I let my mind wander from the problems at hand as I thought of Pa-ne’s words. If I’d been using ma wrong my whole life, why had Woong-ji allowed me to work on the bots at her shop? I mindlessly filled my tray with kimchi, hot vegetable soup, and fish dumplings. I played the thoughts over and over, trying to make sense of them, until Cho nudged me as he arrived at the table.

“Where’s Ko-nah?” he asked as he flopped down on the pillow next to me.

I blinked as I realized it was just the four of us at the table, then looked around the room. Both Ko-nah and Il-sung were sitting with Tae-do, Shin-soo, and another one of the goons. Il-sung looked to be in distress, keeping his hands on his food, and his bowl close to his mouth. His brow was furrowed, and he hardly looked up. It appeared that the goon I didn’t know had a hand on his shoulder, but it was hard to tell from my vantage.

Ko-nah was sitting next to Tae-do with his back to me. They were leaned in close together, obviously talking. I wondered if Ko-nah was delivering an accurate report of how today went, or if he was already spilling his guts about how we knew what he was doing? Maybe he’d gotten sick of all the hard work and decided to tell Tae-do whatever he knew about Mae?

The taste of hot soup and bile crept up the back of my throat as my stomach knotted with worry. I stopped, and took a deep breath. There was nothing to be done for it. Ko-nah was going to do whatever he was going to do. All I could control were my words and actions. Right now, the best course forward was to keep treating him with as much kindness as I could muster and pray to Mun-Jayu that would work.