Chapter 109: Of Another Land

Toren Daen

I leaned against a wall on the second floor of the Relictombs, tapping my fingers against my arm. The rhythmic pulses of heartbeats and flows of mana all around me brushed against my perception, teasing me with subtle knowledge of all those nearby.

Ever since my Sculpting, my sense of intent increased proportionally to my feel for mana. I'd been slowly getting a hold of the impressions people subconsciously left in the ambient mana ever since I started using my violin to project my emotions, but that was like grasping at smoke. I got flashes of insight into how people were feeling; or glimpses into their hidden desires. But that was faint and fleeting like the mist Karsien was so good at using.

In this zone, so populated with people and industry, that bare perception became a notable sensation that interweaved with my normal mana sense. But I wasn't skilled enough to trace individual emotions to whoever was feeling them. There were too many signatures; too much interfering noise. It was as if hundreds of different colors of paint were poured into a single tub, and then swirled around lightly. It was hard to tell where one shade started and another ended.

And good luck following that color to its source.

Aurora was resting, something she didn't have to do before the Sculpting. In my opinion, she had earned every bit of rest she could get.

The Shimmerken's Hoard bustled with laughter and singing in the distance, audible only due to my enhanced hearing. Light streamed from the windows, giving it a cheery glow.

I felt someone approach from the side, their suppressed presence unable to hide from my empowered senses. They walked up to my side, but I didn't turn to look at them.

"Any reason why you didn't want to meet inside that tavern?" Sevren Denoir asked.

I exhaled from my nose slightly as I turned to the highblood heir, scrutinizing him briefly. He was wearing his usual dark colors, with his teal cloak to top it off. With his pale skin and brilliant white hair, he created a stark contrast with the rest of his ensemble.

"That was where I met Darrin Ordin," I replied. "And the rest of the Unblooded party. It has good memories, but I don't think it's for me anymore."

Sevren nodded slowly. I didn't know if he truly understood my hesitances, but that didn't ultimately matter.

I myself was wearing loose, gray pants that gave my legs plenty of room to breathe. The material they were made of was soft and durable: a notable step up from my usual attire. A long-sleeved maroon tunic clung close to my chest, accentuating my toned physique. Out of habit and acquired taste, I was wearing a set of dark fingerless gloves that covered the rest of my tattoo. Over it all, I wore a dark overcoat that opened at the front. Oath was strapped snuggly at my waist.

The money I'd made from my accolades had been enough for a substantial wardrobe upgrade. The vendor who had sold me these garments had claimed they were rated for surviving ascents, and considering the price tag and other customers I saw milling about, I was inclined to believe him.

I pushed off the brick wall I'd been leaning against. "Well, I have a promise to keep," I said with a bit of a sigh. "You'll want to follow me," I added as I began to walk down the street.

Sevren easily kept pace with me. "And where exactly are we going?" he queried.

I felt my lips draw into a thin line. "You wanted to know of the Relictombs," I said solemnly. "So you're going to follow me on an ascent, from start to finish."

Sevren narrowed his eyes, but he didn't say any more as we began our trek toward the ascension platform. 

My eyes flicked to the nearby rooftops as we walked. Among the mishmash of mana and lifeforce signatures, I could just pick out a few along several different points on the rooftops above.

They hadn't been there a minute ago.

"So, did you know you've got…" I counted internally. "Half a dozen tails trailing you from the rooftops?" I asked.

Sevren gave me a look. "I usually have a couple on my back at all times, unless I purposely slip their watch. But there have been more since my last ascent," he said slowly. His brow furrowed. "And I only counted five."

I looked toward where I felt the sixth presence. They were the only spy that didn't exude a mana presence, but their slowly pulsing heartfire gave them away to me. At my obvious attention, their heart rate skipped a single beat.

I smiled. "I've got some special advantages in sensing others," I said, looking back at the road. "So, do you want to shake them?"

Sevren considered this for a moment before shaking his head. "No need. Once we're in the Relictombs, they won't be able to follow. And if we weren't being so obviously watched, I'd ask you more about your plans."

I exhaled. It was a calculated gamble going back into the Relictombs, but I'd made a promise. And as far as I was aware, I'd be able to reach my goal without any adverse effects.

"I'll say this. What happens will not be what you expect."

—

Oath flashed as it severed a wing from a lunging aether beast, the runes etched along the blade's spine pulsing in tune with the mana I imbued into the edge. I spun in tune with the cut, sending a forceful psychic push against the squawking birdlike creature's unbalanced back. 

It tumbled into a tailspin, spraying blood and screeching in terror as it plummeted off a nearby ledge, falling into the endless clouds below.

I flourished my saber, flicking the viscous red blood from the red-patterned metal. Sensing an attack coming, I thrust my other hand forward, converging mana from my core to a spherical point that shimmered like oil.

I threw a sound grenade forward, then clenched my fist. The bursting vibrations impacted the oncoming metallic feathers, sending them off course and disrupting their deadly flight toward me.

A squadron of angry-looking avian beasts glared at me from the dimly lit sky, squawking as they prepared another volley of metallic projectiles from their two pairs of wings. Each was as large as me, and their eyes gleamed with malicious intent.

Sevren was faster. Promise zipped forward with as much force as I'd ever thrown it, that strange wire trailing behind it. The Damascus-patterned dagger lurched midair, managing to wrap two of the flock twice over before they could even react. The Denoir heir pulled his wire to the side, throwing the two birds into their own flock from half a dozen meters away.

The zone we entered a little over a day ago was a sprawling mess of islands, each seeming to hover in the sky. An unbroken expanse of clouds covered the entirety of the void below, an almost tempting canvas of white mist that shrouded whatever was beneath.

And the beasts that attacked us were certainly stronger than most creatures I'd faced before in the tombs. Many had earthen or metallic defenses that resisted my attempts to cut or damage them, leaving me to switch tactics. My new go-to tactic was to damage a wing and let them fall.

As Sevren handled the monsters in the sky, I refocused on those around ground level. Strange worms that looked like they were plated entirely in earth burrowed through the islands, trying to catch us by surprise. I attuned myself to the heartfire pulses around me, however, letting my ears detect what was coming.

As a signature erupted from almost directly below me, I slammed a mindfire stamp into the soft grass beneath me. The spell, which was a combination of piston stamp and a telekinetic shove against the ground, allowed me to blur fifty feet into the air with ease. As I soared upward, I simultaneously used a telekinetic pull on the creature that was erupting from the ground.

My upward momentum, combined with the aether beast's own lunge, gave me the drive I needed to yank it entirely from the ground.

A twenty-foot-long worm made entirely of dirt lurched into the sky with a strange rumble. Rows upon rows of blocky teeth lined its maw, each primed with the strength to crush boulders.

I took the easy route. As I fell back down to the island Sevren Denoir and I fought on, I pushed on the aether beast's side, simultaneously shoving my mind against the ground as well.

With my secondary push, I had solid leverage to prevent myself from tumbling haphazardly. The plated worm, however, had no such luxuries. With a final explosive fireball sent against its sturdy armor, it arced into the clouds below.

I landed easily, huffing slightly. My ascending partner and I had very quickly learned to remove those worms from the islands as fast as possible. Their preferred tactic was to try and ambush us, and if that failed, to slowly chew away the rocks and earth around the island, eventually separating our slice of rock and letting it fall into the abyss below.

And their regeneration was absurd. For every bit of earth they ate, they healed. I felt something happening with their heartfire that I couldn't understand as they regenerated, but it was beyond my expertise.

Sevren dodged around a few metallic feathers as they neared him, then retaliated with a quick lash of Promise. The dagger wasn't as good at cutting through the four-winged birds' armored hides, but he only needed to disorient them.

I sent a flurry of fireballs at the crowded flock, forcing them to retreat with a squawk. As the jumble of birds realized they weren't going to win this fight, they screeched in anger, then began to fly to another island in tandem.

I watched them go with hard eyes. This zone had a strange ecosystem. The birds, for some reason I couldn't discern, couldn't stay flying for long. And when they landed, the worms tried to ambush them.

Sevren swept his gaze around our tiny island, keeping watch for anything that might ambush us. Then he spotted something, making him pause in his scan. He slowly walked toward a spot in the soft grass, pushing away the strands of green.

Then he stood, holding something that made me pause.

A pair of wired headphones, clearly made of cheap, flimsy plastic, rested in his hands.

After making sure the metallic birds weren't about to try a sneak attack, I shoved my hands in my pockets and walked up to the Denoir heir. "You look perplexed," I said, wondering what the white-haired striker was thinking.

"These look like earmuffs," he said, "But that doesn't make sense. This zone is temperate, so needing to protect from the cold doesn't add up." He held up the wire, which led to a 3.5-millimeter audio jack. "And this doesn't make sense either. Does it…" He narrowed his eyes. "Connect to something?"

Feeling a bit of an idea creeping up, I hummed. "Why don't you put them on?" I asked. "I'll give you an idea of how it works."

Sevren looked unsure for a moment, before complying. Frankly, he looked almost ridiculous with the cheap headphones contrasted against his Alacryan attire, but I suppressed the urge to snicker.

Taking the audio jack in my hand, I concentrated on my mana. I drew sound mana around my finger, allowing it to saturate the thin bit of brass between my fingertips, before bringing it to my mouth.

"Can you hear this?" I asked, allowing what I said to travel along the wire in distinct vibrations. Sevren blinked, looking at me. "I'll take that as a yes," I said, but before I could say more, he'd taken the headphones off.

I felt a slight surge of mana coming from Sevren, coalescing around his hands in a pale yellow glow. The mana soaked into the headphones in his hands, swirling and probing at every inch of the item.

"What are you doing?" I asked, intrigued. I'd never seen whatever spellform this was before.

Sevren's eyes flashed with that same pale yellow color. For a split second, he seemed to reach some sort of epiphany. "These aren't earmuffs," he said excitedly. "Like you showed, they're supposed to transmit sound, but–" He paused. "Not by vibration," he said slowly, seeming more and more confused. "Or mana? How is that possible?" Then his eyes snapped to me. "Does this use aether?"

He looked to me for an explanation, seeming utterly focused on my next response. I exhaled, processing what I'd seen. "No, they don't use aether," I said after a moment. "And how do you know they don't use vibration? That's exactly what I used to demonstrate the sound transmission."

The Denoir heir hesitated, his hands clenching tightly around the headphones. "One of my regalias helps me decipher the intended workings of items and artifacts," he said slowly. "It isn't perfect, but with enough outside hints, I can use it to piece together the mechanisms behind certain items and gadgets. It's how I figured out why simulets worked. They create a sort of mana tether between each other that keeps people connected for the brief instant someone enters a portal, and I learned how to reapply those principles elsewhere."

I thought of Sevren's tracking device. Somehow, the little metal plate he'd given me–inscribed with his own contact information–had created a sort of aetheric link between me and his tracking compass, allowing him to follow me through the Tombs. And he'd figured that out with this regalia?

"Hold on," I said, confused. "I know you can't manipulate aether. So how did you manage to make an aetheric tether between two objects? "

The white-haired striker grimaced. "I didn't," he said, sounding irritated. "But by luck, I found an aether beast that did have a way to create those tethers. I just repurposed them from their bodies, using what was already there." He shook his head. "But that doesn't matter. I'm lacking information here. The material used for the cord is too flimsy for continuous transfer of vibrations, and there are literally dozens of better substances for mana conductivity. So how does this transmit sound if not for mana or vibration?"

I exhaled through my nose. It's not like Aurora left me much to hide when it comes to the Relictombs, I thought, a bit annoyed. The way Sevren looked at me told me he was well aware I knew the secrets to that little item.

"Through electricity," I eventually said. "The copper wire inside transmits pulses that are interpreted by a little transducer in the ears, which then vibrates to create the sound programmed into it. That's a very, very heavily simplified explanation, but that's how it works."

Sevren looked back at the device in his hands. His hands lit up with a familiar pale yellow glow, and he raised a brow in surprise. "You're right," he said, his regalia presumably feeding information back to him. "There's some sort of magnet in here," he said, mumbling slightly. "And a coil that looks like it might oscillate when…"

He blinked, then looked up at me. "Your bond said this place was a reflection of your mind," he said with a bit of wonder in his voice. "This is what she meant, wasn't it?"

I sat down against a nearby rock, my instincts to hide information and conceal my secrets warring with the desire to be honest. Aurora had made a promise to Sevren, one I intended to keep. Furthermore, the man had saved my life several times.

And if Sevren wanted to get me hauled off by the Sovereigns to the depths of Taegrin Caelum, all he needed to do was whisper into the right highborn ears. What he'd seen in the undead zone, combined with his status in society, was more than enough to have me condemned.

But beyond all of those logical reasons, the Denoir heir and I were kindred spirits. His drive to make a better world for his sister resonated deeply with me, drawing on my old memories of Norgan. And I'd seen the hate he held for the Vritra in his eyes.

"There are lands beyond the ones you know," I decided to say. "Places with cultures and knowledge separate from anything you'd see in Dicathen or Alacrya." I looked into the air. Dusk was encroaching its long purple fingers across the sky, heralding the long-coming night. "Lands where mana and aether are nearly unknown. Where humans rule themselves, deciding their own laws and future."

Sevren's eyes flashed. "A land where buildings of steel and glass kiss the sky," he said quietly. "Of skyscrapers and elevators . Of vanilla Coke."

I simply smiled. A quiet silence stretched between us. No crickets chirped in the growing dark of nightfall. The only sound that greeted my ears were the waiting heartbeats of the lurking metallic aether beasts and Sevren's own fast but steady heartfire.

"It must be wonderful," the Denoir heir said. "Humans ruling themselves? Without the boot of the Vritra over their every move?" He clasped his hands over his knees, an almost wistful look on his disheveled features.

I felt my smile fall. "Humans are the same anywhere you'd find them," I said, feeling a bit somber. On any continent, or any world. I thought of the inequalities of Earth. There were good people in both places, but outside of literal magic, I saw more things align than contrast between the two worlds. "You might be surprised at the similarities you'd see."

Sevren looked at me with a piercing teal gaze, his clasped knuckles white from how hard he was clenching them. "And you visited this land?" he asked. "That's how you have such strange knowledge?"

"I suppose that's a way you could put it," I said. "There are a few others like me. But even among them, I'm very different," I said with a sardonic smirk.

Sevren slowly sat down, probably sensing that I wasn't going to say much more on the topic.

"The next zone we reach," I said after a moment. "That's where you'll find the answers you've been looking for for so long." I looked up from my hands, hoping to convey my sincerity with my own orange eyes to the teal-cloaked mage. "And I'll find some answers for myself as well."