Of course, I had heard of the Grenfell-Maxwell Marathon. I tried my best to ignore the relentless ads, but they were well, relentless. Go to the theater? “In the news, the Grenfell-Maxwell Marathon promises to be the greatest event in history, bringing. . .” Read the paper? “Cash prizes will be provided to anyone who finishes. . .” Watch television? “Now a word from our sponsor, Mr. Grenfell and his wonderful race around the world! Have you ever dreamed of. . .” Go to a play?276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnlfetAUbom
PRINCE:276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHyILW9fdce
“A glooming peace this morning with it brings;276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUKq2JE4RKo
“The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNQCspg87IQ
“Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSCwp0uCH9w
“Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCrlFxZxcKL
“For never was a story of more woe276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhsW5rYkBBs
“Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9UO48QTP9P
CAPULET:276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHGmsKzN096
"May they be pardon’d first, and forgiven;276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXklpj5K8TC
“For how could their eyes have seen;276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0PxXFf8HV7
“That every last of their wishes could be granted anon;276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1gGbhsfntt
“If they but won the Grenfell-Maxwell Marathon.”
Luckily for the actors, Romeo et. al was hardly Shakespeare's best work; frankly, it's his worst. I was only even there to mock the people going to the most mainstream Shakespearean play and still not being capable of understanding the words.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMsaqNcof60
As if I could understand that nonsense without help.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAtFHONLADm
If it had been Hamlet, though, the theater and the actors within would not be standing today.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7zRxQvOMzS
Over the course of several months, I had unwillingly learned everything about the stupid marathon, but only one point interested me, the promise of a wish. I am a skeptic at heart, so I waited for proof to surface, and surprisingly, it did. Wishes were granted to a trio of randomly chosen volunteers. I watched the televised wish-granting hundreds of times, and through that research and some divination, I discovered that the wishes were truly granted to truly random people. Grenfell was legit. Well, as legit as a stranger claiming to have magical abilities could be.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ2hlpnpaKs
It took a few days for me to fully decide on it, but in the end, I found myself in the Bonneville Salt Flats. If I couldn’t learn about magic at home, then Grenfell’s wish, or he himself, would have to suffice.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZxXo9k0TEj
I signed in one hour before the race and was left to find my own starting position. There wasn’t a strict grid for starting positions, you only had to be behind the starting line, so I tried to find a good shady place for Zippy before the race started. There was obviously little in the way of shade in the salt flats, but I quickly noticed a plane towering over the cars dotted around it. I made my way towards it and let Zippy rest in the shadow of the plane’s wing.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpRhyqdvhxK
Half an hour of meditation passed and ended when a woman spoke to me about where my teammate was, “He’s right here,” I said, patting my horse for emphasis.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbjDFEgWv2e
The woman sighed, “Any mode of transportation is allowed, but animals cannot count as teammates. You need a human partner.”276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGxafQWhPp9
“What? I read the rules, and it only said that I needed a teammate, not a human teammate.”276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQ8V8upxHB
She sighed again, considering how often she did it, she was either an expert or a hobbyist, “It was implied. Heavily implied. If you can’t find a partner in-”276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiR4XU2GP0d
I cut her off, I already knew what she was going to say, “Just sign me to be partnered with the next person without a team, and please, do it quickly, I have to make sure my horse is ready to run.” It didn’t matter how much dead weight my partner was, I would be more than capable of carrying them on my back.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOHi9IKIzHf
The woman left with a final showcase of her favored action, and I started brushing Zippy. Less than a minute passed before a stranger interrupted me, “I’m Nerio, your new teammate.” I responded in turn and held out my hand.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhwB6GuFrBA
“France?” He responded and extended his arm. I tried to initiate the handshake, but he had brought out the wrong arm. I had extended my right, and he his left.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVeuS1hD6EQ
Really? He’s going to do this stupid power move to make me change my hand when he’s the one who sent out the wrong one?276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnelFVQ8DLY
I looked at our mismatched arms, then at him. I needed to make it as obvious as possible that I knew what game he wanted to play and that I was not going to play it, so after a moment I looked at his right arm. All I could see was the empty sleeve of his jacket. We shook left hands.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9dYpZgefU
“Actually, I’m from Australia. The French name is just a. . . thing,” I said, desperately trying to alleviate the tension I had made without admitting my mistake with an apology, “You?”276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz2ZxzOJyYF
“Greece,” He was certainly good at moving on.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3OfZMZp0de
“Huh, I thought that name was Italian,” I said as I glanced to the sky. Judging from the position of the Sun it was 11:58, “We’ve got two minutes left, get on.”276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlfHLf87a5o
“I was going to say the same thing,” He pointed to a motorcycle behind him.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvrFRuZZeH9
Could you even steer a motorcycle with one arm?276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjeMJx3mu2N
I laughed, perhaps more than I should have, and pointed out the obvious flaws with his vehicle. It could only last as long as he had gas, and he had brought no extra gas.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ48GCL9X0iD
He marched back to his vehicle and said, “If you said that about any other bike, I’d agree with you, but mine is different. Your horse on the other hand. . . It may not need gas, but a horse just cannot compete with a machine, no matter how good the rider is.”276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9tmPWpZosQ
I am going to love every second of proving you wrong, no matter how right you should be.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡraAePkyxvW
I mounted my horse to hide the smile I was certain had appeared. Despite being a minute away from destroying his worldview, I couldn’t wait to begin, “If you said that about any other horse, I’d agree with you, but we are different.”276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpDp35pFjoQ
A shadow covered drifted over me and my horse. Looking up, I saw a grey shape floating in the sky. I had heard that someone was going to use a zeppelin in the race, but I thought it was hyperbole. From where I was, it looked tiny, but the vessel was still a quarter-mile long and just silently floating as if it could just ignore gravity.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIqKNl4PdcH
Truly the closest they ever got to true magic.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWSLydbybhc
A voice filled the canyon and brought my admiration to an end. The race had started. The ground came alive as hundreds of thousands of cars screamed to action and fought for dominance. I could barely see beyond my horse due to the dust kicked up by millions of tires. I urged my horse on, and as expected I quickly fell behind the other vehicles, but it was only temporary. I wiped a drop of sweat from my brow, placed it upon my horse’s back, and placed both my hands above it.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvzdjiGOvvA
Arcana Fourteen: Enhancement, speed and endurance.
Aided by my magic, Zippy launched through the dust cloud and past the sea of vehicles spread out before me. A moment later I broke through the ocean of dust and saw the open world before me; however, I couldn’t appreciate the scenery as both ground and sky became a blur. I had already traveled ten miles, and Zippy was beginning to tire. I placed the index and middle fingers of both my hands on either side of my horse.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOr8syt4dEn
Arcana Thirteen: Revitalization.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFNpqIMPJwt
The horse's breathing calmed, and he resumed his speed. I looked at the people behind me, hoping to catch a glimpse of my teammate trailing behind.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ67zkpUkJYt
I won’t see him, probably because he is losing ground right this second. I can’t go too far ahead though, I still need to pick him up when he realizes my horse is leagues above whatever assembly-line trash he’s riding.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ30QR7klA6Q
Despite my negative thoughts towards his vehicle’s ability to compete, I saw him just fine. Not only had he broken ahead of the pack, but he had also caught up to me to the point that I could see his empty sleeve flapping in the wind, a triumphant standard declaring his victory over all those behind him, and his desire to add me to the long list. Seeing that he was clearly no relative of mine, he shouldn’t have any magic within him. That meant that his speed was purely mechanical.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQ30ENKUIfQ
I drew a circle on my palm and faced it into the wind.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDaRqgz0Kly
Arcana Three: Communication.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Afozx3U5U
The wind told me that I was going ninety-four miles per hour, yet he was still gaining on me.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGAkBvqTlP9
Nothing should be able to compete with the arcane except the arcane. Yet. . .276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSFv3ToTM4
To say that this stranger being able to effortlessly keep up with the world’s greatest magician hurt my pride would be completely ignoring just how much it pissed me off. I pushed my horse a little harder (and used the thirteenth arcana again just to be sure). The wind said I was topping one-hundred thirty miles per hour, well beyond what any ordinary motorcycle could go even temporarily. This speed was unsustainable, but I only needed to keep it up until I reached the edge of the salt flats; I only needed to keep it up until I proved him inferior. I glanced behind myself to see his shrinking form, except it was growing.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHqNvPtKhIa
Just how powerful is his damn motorcycle?276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZa8ygA4qEJ
The current record for a two-wheeled vehicle is barely any faster than what we’re going, and that bike could hardly be called a motorcycle. It had a smooth shell built around it. A vehicle that can cut through the air like that at that speed without such a shell is impossible even less so one that can be driven with one arm. The easy explanation is magic, but I’m the only one on the planet. At least, the only one of consequence. So, who is he that has that impossible machine that can rival the very forces of. . . whatever forces drive magic?276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbO0H0hJDG
He is Nerio Pinkerton, and this race is how he regained his humanity.276Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV2V6fRph09
