Space Magic
Ring space stations are where the good money is for gravity mages. While Arclight is a perpetually spinning ring with an artificial sun and a constant nine meters per second of gravity, someone always needs a little bit of space magic to fix their problem.
Take the Harbor Boys Syndicate. They started as a small time gang on the docks of Hecate 10. Now they are one of the largest organized crime groups in this sector of space. They are also currently the group that recently paid me to turn off the gravity in the Governor's bed room, which ended me up in my current predicament. The predicament: I am hiding under a table, which is sadly between two groups of heavily armed gristly looking folks. One is the local syndicate boss and fellow gonna, and the other I can only assume belong to the Governor. This was good work, it paid a lot, did not take much time, and no one really got hurt.
I hate yelling, and loud noises. Thankfully I can use gravity to quiet things in my studio, but out here I don't have time to prep those kind of spells. Instead, I start using magic I rarely touch on, but is technically related to my skills: material magic. I've drawn a bunch of circles and lines on the ground underneath me with my black marker, and I really hope I did this right. It has been so long. I push some energy into the circle, and the floor starts to dissolve! Just what I wanted! And then I'm falling towards the exterior of the ring, but thankfully, there is a room below me. That was the third floor after all.
I am running, whether or not they notice, I have no idea, but I do not care. As the saying goes, "Take the money and run!"
I slow down to a walk after a few blocks. No one is looking at me here. I catch my breath, and head to grab a train back home. Comfortable with the money in my account and another disaster escaped.
My studio is in Sector J, down a small alley the locals called the valley of the mages. There are sixteen of us that live in a variety of apartments in the dead end alley. All of the apartments are different, but each door has a large sign with our name and specialty. My sign says: "Hideo Saito, Gravity", and is on the second floor on the left side of the alley at the top of a small set of stairs. Underneath my studio is a small cafe where many mages stop in between jobs, and locals swing by to ask advice, or be friendly.
It is a nice little community, and I felt deeply at home and comfortable in it. I landed on this station once my apprenticeship ended on Bason 6 eight years ago, and I made friends over ale in this cafe the moment I walked in. My fellow mages are kind, and we share jobs and recommendations and look out for each other. The majority of my jobs involve simple but expensive work, where I correct the gravity inside of space ships, fix apartments in tall buildings with low gravity, or help fix a train's gravity engine. Rarely I would be hired by passing pilgrims looking for mages to help them terraform a new planet, or during lean times, I take jobs from less reputable folks to make ends meet. This is all to say, I keep busy.
A few weeks later, a knock on my door wakes me from some reading. "Who is it?" I yell into the air, and a computer responds with "Unknown Person". Ugh, privacy blocking, just what I need. A lack of identity means either someone rich or someone in a gang. I get up, and slowly open the door. "Hello?"
"Hideo! Great work on the job! I've got more work. Let me in and let us share a drink."
"Mikey." I sigh as I move aside and gesture him in. Mikey is my contact with the Harbor Boys. He's chubby, but I know he can knock a few heads together. As he has done to me in the past when I have lost a bit too much money gambling.
He goes straight to my fridge, grabs two beers, and meets me at my desk. Handing me the beer as we both sit down. "Hideo. I know you like to take time between jobs. But I have got a problem."
"I am still a bit rattled from seeing so many guns pointed at me Mikey. Can you use someone else?"
"This problem is slightly related to you, so I'd prefer to keep it with you."
"Man, I've kept low all month. I haven't done shit."
"Relax, we're square." A sip of beer, and the smile disappears from Mikey's face. "Look, there's another gang pushing on our territory. They brought a gravity mage, and they are messing up the docks. We need you to go repair the wards while we strengthen our forces there."
...
Gangs bring in a gravity mage who is causing turmoil across the station? Stumble onto some kind of conspiracy?
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