by Matthew Peed
“Aye! We can—no, we will rebuild!” another captain shouted.
More and more captains stood and shouted their agreement. They pounded the table. The sound carried over the silent night to the other airships, quiet at first but growing as the airships nearest the Raiu joined in. Soon, the pounding and cheering could be heard from kilometers around.
Suddenly, the airship rocked as something pushed against it. The captains ran outside to the deck to see Izora floating in the air with a giant gear behind her. Mana radiated off her, making some wonder if she was truly a gnome.
“I have heard you, my people! We will survive! We will rebuild! Follow me! Follow Lord Regan! I swear to you now, I will do everything in my power to protect you and your families! I swear it!” Princess Izora called out, her voice reaching every part of the fleet.
The captains who were closest to her were able to see her eyes were glowing, and there appeared to be an aura of mana around her. Their voices had awoken her. Their voices had stoked the desire to protect her people into a raging bonfire.
People fell to their knees in reverence. Others bowed their heads in shame. But most stood proudly on the decks of the ships, their faces turned to their princess with tears running down their cheeks. Rarely are a people ever so united. The captains all saluted the princess, feeling proud, feeling ready for the challenges ahead.
“Princess, no . . . Queen Izora! You have my fealty anew!” Captain Shido shouted.
“Queen Izora!”
“My Queen!”
“Queen Izora!”
Cheers for Queen Izora echoed throughout the night even louder than the first calls. The hunters returned as soon as they heard their princess had awakened. Everyone celebrated in their moment of grief. Hope was not lost.
Izora looked over her people. She needed to protect them. Tapping into the reservoir that was Lord Regan’s mana ocean, she felt her link with him was as thick as a tree trunk. She homed in on his core in the town, clapped her hands, and started to pull them apart with mana jumping between her palms. She focused and portals opened in front of every airship. Izora pulled her hand back, and the portals moved back over the airships. When they were all through, she closed her fist and they all closed except one, which she dropped herself into before closing it as well.
Chapter 33
Yo’ei Meng
Clouds . . . that was all I ever saw. No matter how far I traveled the land, there was little change. Never-ending clouds that intermingled with forests of bamboo. It was beautiful, but I wanted to see something . . . new. Something different.
I stood on the cliff overlooking the ocean of clouds. A few air practitioners had been below the clouds. The ones who managed to return told stories of horrible monsters, things that could tear a man apart in a matter of minutes. I dreamed night and day of being the first to see what was beyond this prison of a land we were stuck on.
While I was whistling the Song of Desa, the founder of my clan, I noticed something was happening to the never-changing cloud ocean. The clouds were erupting upward as explosions of dirt burst through them. It wasn’t long before the ground under my feet shook as well. Not taking any chances, I backed well away from the edge. No sooner was I a few meters away than the entire face of the cliff fell.
The clouds rolled and twisted, turning black. Lightning arced through the sky, and the shaking only got worse. Worried about the village, I turned and ran back home, whispering to myself that it wasn’t because I was scared. The shaking wasn’t as bad inside the forest, but the place I could once walk with my eyes closed was now filled with deadly traps as bamboo splinters, torn apart by the winds, stabbed into the ground.
Managing to make it back to the village with only one near-death experience, I found everyone panicking. Only the elders appeared to be a calm in the storm. It was the first time I really appreciated the experience that came with age that the elderly had. Being barely an adult, I must have looked ridiculous with fear masking my face.
“Everyone, calm down! Come to the center of the village. To the Alrain Tree, everyone!” Elder Georl called. He was the most vocal of the elders, after all.
We rushed to the tree, where I helped those who needed it, as the ground was shaking so bad it was almost impossible to walk. After a few close calls with collapsing buildings, everyone was gathered at the tree. It was the strangest thing—as soon as we crossed under the giant tree’s shade, the shaking almost entirely vanished.
“Is everyone here?” Elder Georl called as he went around checking with everyone.
“Meng! Thank Alrain you’re alright!” I heard from behind me. I spun and saw my mother standing with my little brother. I heaved a sigh of relief and rushed to hug them.
“I’m fine. What do you think is happening?” I asked.
Murmurs and crying came from all around. People were understandably frightened. My mother only shook her head in answer. Suddenly, everyone grew quiet. I looked around and saw Elder Dencin. He was being helped over to a spot directly under the tree, where he sat, and soon everyone else followed.
“My family, my friends, join me in prayer to Alrain,” Elder Dencin said, bowing his head.
I quickly did the same and felt the wind calm around us. Then it felt like it was being sucked into the elder. I couldn’t resist and looked up at him. I nearly fell over—he was looking straight at me! But his eyes looked strange, as if the night sky was packed into them. I knew I would get lost if I continued to stare but couldn’t turn myself way from him.
“A great change is coming to the world. Ancient powers revived. A world torn apart. A great hunger is rising under the world. A soul of metal is the key. A soul of the world is the engine. A soul of flesh is the lock.”
Everyone kept their heads bowed. For me, still looking, everything had taken a gray tint. I didn’t understand how they couldn’t hear this, but no one was reacting. I still couldn’t pull my eyes away. Finally, the elder closed his eyes, and whatever power was holding me snapped from existence. I suddenly realized I hadn’t been breathing and sucked in a breath.
“Meng, it’s alright. The tree will protect us,” mother said with concern in her eyes.
I glanced at her and instantly understood that she really hadn’t heard the elder. I nodded and she patted my shoulder, then turned to my brother. As everyone calmed, I made my way over to Elder Dencin.
“Elder, may I speak to you?” I asked, bowing when I was in front of him.
“Ah, a Yo’ei boy. What can I do for you?”
“About what you just said. What did you mean?” I asked cautiously.
“What I just said . . . So . . . it has happened again. Keep what you heard to yourself, boy. It was meant for only your ears.” The elder waved me closer. “I have an aspect of mana that is only seen once every thousand years in other races but is always in my family. Time. The sad thing about this aspect is that we cannot control it as the others do.”
“I understand. What does this mean for me, then?” I asked, nervous at this revelation.
“For now, we need to repair the village. We can worry about it after that. Time is a river. You can never stop it. Even dammed, it will just change its course until it has cut through the ground.”
I nodded at his words, feeling a bit less nervous.
“The clouds! They’ve . . . gone,” I heard from the edge of the tree’s shade. I ran over to where the man stood, and sure enough, the clouds that once extended for as far as the eye could see were gone. Several hundred meters down, land stretched now. I didn’t know what it looked like before, but now it was a jagged, ripped-apart landscape where only the trees held any semblance of flatness.
“What is happening?” I muttered to myself at the sight.
Afterword
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The Dungeon Robotics World
Book 1: Establish
Book 2: Expansion
Book 3: Escalation
Book 4: Cascade
Book 5: Cataclysm
Book 6: Conflict
Book 7: Collapse
Revenge of the Sorcerer King
Book 1: Resurrection