Aethertide (Chapter 14)
Olivia raised her voice above the wind. “How confident are you that the Magi are hiding something out here?”
“There’s no other reason to keep us away,” Raisa called back.
Olivia caught up to her companion a little, or perhaps Raisa slowed so that she could. “If they have more crystals out here, perhaps I can use one to get home,” Olivia said. “But what will you do?”
“I‘ll be fine. I’ll have to talk to the ape.”
“Perhaps feeding him wasn’t such a good idea. I think I’ve set him up for dire disappointment when he realises that we don’t have any more grass.” Olivia cleared her throat. “You could come with me, you know.”
Raisa turned back to regard Olivia with a pitying smile. “And what is there for me in the realm you’ve told me about? Nothing but roads and stone, trees kept in little squares of bare earth. I don’t know anyone there.” And she moved on, leaving Olivia to drop a little way behind.
Where an outcrop cut off their view ahead, Raisa disappeared. There was a faint flutter in Olivia’s chest as she looked down at the deadly drop, back to the snorting, curious ape, and then out across the mountainous vista where rich purples and blues were starting to smother another day. Ever since she had arrived in An’Mor she hadn’t really felt alone. Lost, certainly. Intrigued and fearful, regularly. But never alone until that moment.
“I just want to go home,” she said to no one in particular.
Raisa’s voice carried on the wind just as Olivia dared to take one hand from the cliff face to let the tear out from under her goggles. “We’re here.”
Olivia pushed on, catching up, and saw that the narrow path that they had been clinging to did in fact stop dead up ahead at a small outcrop where they could both stand a little easier. The Gorillizard took this moment to catch up to them and began searching Olivia’s hair for lice. She brushed him away absent-mindedly but Toby wasn’t so easily deterred and she had to give in to the preening.
Raisa turned on the spot, her jaw tight and a strange look in her eyes that Olivia couldn’t place. In the gathering twilight, the sunlight colours of Raisa’s hair seemed to fade with her mood.
“I thought there would be something here. I really did.”
“It’s alright. We can climb down and we’ll find another way,” Olivia offered.
“No. They’re up here. They have to be. We have to get you home.”
“Raisa.” Olivia put her hand on her friend’s arm. “It’s alright.”
When Raisa spoke, it was as if all the vital energy and confidence had been drained out of her. “No. I have to help you. I have to show everyone that the Magi can be beaten, that they don’t own us.”
Sensing something in the air, Tobias moved to preening an unresisting Raisa instead.
“You want to go home,” Olivia said.
Raisa nodded. Although her eyes glistened, no tears fell.
“Then we’d better not give up just yet, eh? We’ve both got homes to find.” Olivia said. “If you think there’s something up here then there is. We just have to find it.” She looked down from the outcrop, back along the path. And there it was. Above them. The faintest purple glow against the swiftly gathering night.
“We have to climb some more,” Olivia said. “Where’s a dirigible when you need one?”
Archmagi Styr thumbed through another of Olivia’s notebooks; diagrams and formulas flashed before his eyes and he hummed to himself.
“Fascinating,” he said. “One civilisation explains the aetheric arts by calling it science, another makes magic of it. Do you see why the crystals are so important, Aki? The lengths this Allander has gone to in order to match the effects of an aether crystal. It’s a wonder that she ever managed to cross the expanse at all.” When Aki gave no reply, Styr turned to his apprentice.
Aki moved with purpose, setting up the tripod that they had brought along with them and aligning a large aether crystal on top.
“Well, boy? Are you done?”
“Yes, Archmagi,” Aki said through gritted teeth.
Slapping his thighs as he stood, Styr rolled up his sleeves with a flourish only for them to slide back down. “Then we’ll begin the aether cascade. We’ll flood the area and ignite it from An’Mor. The resulting explosion should teach this Allander that dealing with aether is far too dangerous. And once more, the rule of the Magi will be secured. I’ll deal with you and your outbursts when we are done.”
Aki grunted. He could hold his tongue no longer. What was the point? If everything went to his own plan rather than the old man’s, he would never be chastised again. “Why not just leave the cascade open and destroy the whole world? That would make sure.”
Styr’s hand slapped the back of Aki’s bald head.
“Because,” the Archmagi began, “we are not in the business of genocide, Apprentice. We protect the borders of the Aethertide and that is all. The lives of a few natives will suffice to dissuade the locals. Now stop being a fool, if that’s possible, and let me do my work.”
Styr spread his arms before the focus tripod. Silhouetted against the purple glow, Styr
closed his eyes and began to whisper to himself. The wisps of aether that gathered inside the crystal finally broke their confines and began to spiral out into the lab. A faint hum filled the air that rose to a clatter as the aetheric crystal rattled in its housing.
With the Archmagi’s concentration elsewhere, Aki relocated the wrench that he’d used on the old pauper woman and weighed it in his hand.
“No more half measures,” he muttered, knowing that Styr’s head would be filled with aetheric static. “To hell with you, old man. To hell with the Council. Think they can send me away to some backwater world to slave away for a dried-up old sprout and forget about me? Not anymore. That Allander is my ticket. If she can control the Aethertide, then so can I.” Raising the wrench overhead with both hands, he stepped closer to his master. “Let this new order begin as the universe once did. With a bang.”