Paragons of Ether

by Ryan Muree

  “But we can’t be so obvious.” He found a door and opened it. “And they can’t move them out in the open, just like REV can’t rescue them out in the open.”

  The room they’d entered was part of a control center. It had screens and monitors of water pathways, doors, and gates.

  They moved through another door at the opposite end of the room and into a tunnel system considerably darker than the previous. Darker meant easier to hide.

  “Keep following the darker passages,” she whispered.

  “If anyone catches us, we’re just on a tour.” Mack pulled open another door in an adjacent tunnel, and this room seemed to be more of a lab with water samples and water levels.

  Dark passageway after dark passageway, it appeared the tunnels between these rooms had been there longer. Their tiles and painted walls had been more faded, cracked in places, and musky. The modern aqueduct had definitely been an addition to these tunnels.

  And these old ones had been for Keepers and secret Casters? Grier would want to know about this.

  Mack opened door after door, deeper into the tunnel system.

  “Mack, we’re going to get lost. We don’t know how far we’ve come. We’re just wandering around looking for people or REV…”

  They’d made it into the worst parts of the aqueduct thus far. Damp, moldy stench, murky puddles of water, dead silence, and nearly pitch black save for the few lamps farther down the way.

  “Check that door, and I’ll check this one.” He opened it with a shove. “Just equipment or something.”

  She moved to open hers. Boxes, equipment, people with hopeful faces in dirty robes. She jumped and gasped.

  The people. She’d found the Ingini slaves in the tunnels.

  The tallest one in the front turned and aimed a gun at her head.

  Cayn.

  Cayn’s hand dropped along with the gun. Shock rippled through him. He heard the gun clatter, but he didn’t move to pick it up.

  Clove.

  “Clove?”

  She ran into him, arms wrapped around and squeezing him.

  Clove.

  Clove is here.

  Clove is right here.

  He embraced her, clutching her head and all her messy hair against his shoulder.

  “It’s you…” She pulled back, tears streaming down her face, and grabbed his shoulders. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I lost you in the crash. I looked for you and called for you, but I couldn’t see you and I was hurt and got captured—”

  “I’m okay.” He hugged her again. “You’re okay.”

  Mack opened the door, smiled, and leaned in for a quick side-hug around Clove. “I can’t believe it. We actually found you…”

  Cayn pushed Clove back enough so he could look at her. She was different, stronger but softer at the same time. “You’ve been looking for me this whole time?”

  She nodded. “Of course, I have.”

  “You were captured by the RCA and everything, and you still came back here to look for me?”

  “You think I wouldn’t?” She sniffled and laughed. “You still have to fix the hose in the wall at home.”

  He chuckled, his own tears threatening to fall.

  “I’m so sorry,” she continued. “We’d found out you were tortured and sold as a slave and your arm—”

  “I survived,” he said. He kept his arm around her, clutching her to his side. He couldn’t let her go. Not again.

  “As great as this is, I can’t help but think we can’t stick around and catch up,” Mack said.

  “You’re helping them?” she gestured to the Ingini slaves behind Cayn.

  “I wanted to get home, but when I heard these people were treated like I was, I had to do something until I could get a lead on you. That’s why I’m here. They’ve lost everything. They need us. My team intercepted these people before they were trafficked. We’re trying to get them out.”

  She looked at the people—young and old—and nodded to them. “We’re Ingini, too.” She gestured at Mack. “We’ll help get you out of here.” She turned back to her brother and patted him on the cheeks. “Don’t be sorry. I understand.”

  She did? “You do?”

  “We can’t stand by and do nothing anymore.” She inhaled sharply. “We have to try.”

  Mack crossed his arms. “But we need to keep moving, right? You have a schedule or something for how this works?”

  Cayn swallowed and nodded. “Yes. We have to move through the darker passages—”

  “We just came from there,” Clove said. “We can try to make our way back.”

  Chapter 25

  Lower Aurelis — Revel

  Grier, Kylah, and Dova moved through Aurelis’s lower streets.

  Dova was leading by darting around vendors, buildings, and carriages with her hands out sensing the children. “There’s something huge.”

  Aurelis was expansive and busy to begin with, but with the RCA Ethereal Series almost underway, it was even more packed as people came from all over Revel to watch the events. It was the perfect cover for moving children. More people meant General Orr could hide anything moving in and out of the city.

  “Shouldn’t we be more discreet?” Kylah called up to Dova.

  But they didn’t have the time to stalk around, and no one would recognize them. None of the RCA anyway.

  “They’re somewhere here,” Dova said moving down streets under bridges and buildings that stretched over alleys. “It’s like they’re here.” She was looking up, hoping to find some secret barrier hiding all the children in the sky. And then her face dropped, her eyes widened. “Oh no.”

  “What?” Grier turned and checked around for anyone listening in. “What is it?”

  “They’re underground.” Dova adjusted her glasses. “They’re in the tunnels.”

  “What tunnels?” Grier asked.

  “The aqueducts.” Her face had paled.

  “What? Is it dark or something down there?”

  Dova started heading for another street. “He’s moving them through the old Seeker Society passageways. It’s part of the aqueduct system. We need to get to an entrance. There are several all over the city.”

  Seeker Society?

  She knew exactly where they were headed.

  She knew exactly what these passageways had been.

  “How do you know all this?” he called to her back as they hurried. “How long have they been moving these children like this?”

  She reached a set of double doors and opened them up, revealing a stairway that delved deep under the city. “He hasn’t, that I know of.”

  “But you know these tunnels?” he asked.

  She urged them in. “They belong to locator Casters.”

  “Casters? As in plural? There’s more than one of you?” he asked, descending the stairs.

  “Not now, but there used to be several, yes.”

  The stairway was dark, but there was a single light at the bottom.

  “What is with all of this being underground?” Kylah whispered a half-beat behind Grier. “All those cities, this city…”

  “Where else would you hide your lies?” Grier asked, scowling at Dova.

  Dova bit her lip as she passed him on the stairs and took the lead again at the bottom when they’d reached a stone tunnel. “Well, you’re in for some truths, then.”

  “Let me guess,” Grier said, “you know your way around this place, too?”

  “All locator Casters do.”

  “And what does that have to do with these kids we’ve been rescuing?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “These tunnels were made for secret meetings, not for trafficking children. Avrist must have told Orr about some of them because it’s conveniently sneaky and confusing.”

  “And why in the world would locator Casters need secret meetings?”

  Dova led them around corner after corner, seeming to read tiny hash marks cut from the corners of the tunnels. They looked as if someone had taken a
knife and sliced sideways. Some were at sharper angles, some straight across, some in groupings of two or three. Symbols he’d seen on the letters and the maps in Avrist’s office were on the walls, too.

  “Be ready. We might run into some RCA,” Kylah whispered, shield-arm up.

  Grier was ready. He’d been ready for the RCA, and now he was ready for Dova’s answers. “Why do the locator Casters have a secret society?”

  Dova tilted her head back and forth. “It’s a long story.”

  “Enlighten me.”

  They turned another corner and into a long passageway.

  “Locator Casters are some of the most powerful Casters in the world, able to sense raw ether here in this world. There weren’t many of them.”

  Their footfalls slightly echoed in the cavernous space.

  “So,” she continued, “they grouped up, learned from each other, and quickly realized that ether was malleable. That it wasn’t as certain as air or fire or matter. It could change, evolve.” She leaned in. “It didn’t even require grimoires.”

  Grier did a double-take. “What?”

  She inhaled sharply. “The skill has been lost, but yes, a few ancient tribes were able to cast without grimoires or fancy rituals. The first Scribes were just holy people doing rituals and writing sigils on paper for people to use.” Dova opened a door that led to another tunnel and ushered them in.

  “Tribes formed, and Revel was a wasteland of war and strife,” she continued. “So, the locator Casters soon realized that Scribes were actually the most powerful of all. They could unlock everything there was to learn with ether because they weren’t just sensing it or feeling it or using it. They were actually traveling to another realm, another world, another plane. They were able to shape ether into whatever they wanted and put it on the page for others to use. And if you’re the most powerful, then you’re the most dangerous.”

  Grier swallowed. Emeryss.

  They stepped around two corners of tunnels and entered into an older, muskier section of the system. Breaking apart, the walls and floors were uneven as if paved by hand and not ether. Pieces were crumbling, destroying ancient paintings.

  “This is where locator Casters held the first meetings,” Dova said.

  “What happened?” Kylah whispered, her face paling as they went. “What happened with the Scribes?”

  Dova gestured them on. “So, at the time, tribes of Casters were crying out for a leader to organize them, and the first king, a locator Caster, was chosen. But he didn’t like the idea that just anyone could come up and take it from him. Especially these tribes experimenting with the ethereal plane without needing paper and rituals. And even more so, he was threatened by Scribes. If they ever discovered how powerful they truly were, he risked losing everything, including the very recent order and peace they’d finally achieved. So, he gathered up the Scribes after employing the other locator Casters to find them.”

  “And he killed them?” Grier asked.

  Dova shook her head. “No. He told the locator Casters to find all the Scribes. If he killed them, no one would trust him or respect him as a leader. Fighting would start again. Instead, he had the locator Casters train them to make grimoires for Casters. By fabricating a middle step they’d already been familiar with, then everything could stay peaceful, controlled.”

  “The grimoires…” Kylah breathed.

  Grier’s hair on the back of his neck stood on end. The grimoires were an invention of an old king wanting to keep peace, but also wanting to keep himself in power.

  “And the library?” he asked.

  Dova moved into another tunnel. “The king had to be sure they never learned their real power, and the easiest way to do that was to keep them all in one place.” She motioned for them to join her down another hall. Her voice had dropped to a whisper.

  “But what about the Keepers?” Kylah asked.

  Keep-ers. Grier’s heart sank. He’d known all along. He’d been right the whole time.

  Dova stopped and looked at them. “I used to think we were doing the right thing. That these secrets were for their protection, but… after learning what I have about Orr and Avrist…” She shook her head. “People think that bad people need a reason to do bad things. Sometimes they don’t need a reason. Sometimes they’re just bad. Sometimes it’s as simple as wanting more of what they already have. The king wanted that, and he used Stadholdens to do it.”

  Kylah’s jaw dropped. “What does that mean, Dova?”

  “We’re jailers,” Grier said. It’d come out as defeated as he felt. “We were created and trained to keep Scribes from ever finding out. The library is a prison.”

  Dova thinned her lips into a fine line. “Of course, after the Ingini separation and the war, Revel kings had a very good excuse to keep it going. We all believed it.”

  Kylah looked at Grier. “But do you believe this? Do you believe any of this? That we’re just thugs to make sure people don’t get out? That we’re just pawns used by Revel?”

  Grier had already suspected it. “None of our commanders know the truth?”

  Footsteps echoed nearby.

  “This way. I think the children are near here.” Dova opened another door and waved them on quietly.

  Grier asked her again if the Stadholden commanders knew the truth.

  “None of them know. None of the Librarians have known either,” she said.

  Kylah shook her head repeatedly. “No, no, no. So, what does that mean? Does that mean that Scribes can cast? That anyone can be any kind of Caster? There’s no purpose to grimoires?”

  Her voice carried the same panic in it that Grier had had weeks to sort through and get over himself. There was no way he could keep this from everyone now. Not now that he knew Emeryss wasn’t the only one. Truth was the only way through this.

  Dova went to a door, opened it, and gasped.

  The room was filled with people wearing dirty rags and shocked faces. They were huddled in the dark, while a man with an ether-gun, Mack, and Clove stared back at them.

  “Grier?” Clove blurted. “What are you doing here?”

  Island of Amme

  Emeryss wiped her eyes and glanced at her mother. She was standing there, now, wringing her own hands. Was she stunned? Hurt? Ready to punch Shenna in the face?

  “What matters most to you?” Shenna asked.

  “The people in my life,” Emeryss breathed.

  Her heart ached to see Grier again.

  “Our home,” she continued. “Their homes. My country. My people. All of it. And you’re saying I’m not enough.”

  Shenna took a moment before responding. “Not enough to rebuild a world and its connecting planes? Yes, that’s correct. But are you strong enough to help stop a tyrant and some ignorant people from killing each other? Definitely.” Shenna moved near her mother, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. “Anything is possible because we are the gods of this world, pillars of power, paragons of ether and its rules. And the people need to know.”

  Her mother’s bottom lip quivered. “You have to tell them the truth, Emmy. You have to show them what you can do, what Neerians can do.”

  Anything was possible. Grimoires weren’t necessary. All this fighting. All these wars. All this hate for differences between them. And the whole time they just needed to open their eyes and realize that anything was possible? And now, she was the one to do that? She was the one who had to convince them?

  How would she ever manage to do that?

  “We’ve wasted so much time, hating and fighting each other.” Emeryss sniffled.

  “And your mother is right,” Shenna said. “Tell them. Show them. If your people saw what was possible—”

  “Then they might understand and help. But I could fail, and I could be tortured—”

  “But you’re not alone, right?”

  Her mother sniffled loudly.

  “I have to find the others,” Emeryss said.

  Shenna smiled and nodded. “You’l
l be happy to know they’re coming back together.”

  Emeryss shook her head. “What do you mean?”

  “Ether didn’t bring you all here, because it’s not the end of the world. But it is bringing you all together there.” Shenna pinched the air and a thin sheet glistened again. Grier, Clove, Mack were together in…

  “That’s Aurelis,” Emeryss said. “It looks underground.”

  The picture changed and showed Jahree, Urla, and Vaughn in Zephyr suits outside of an arena.

  “What’s that? What’s going on?”

  “Your friends are about to compete in the tournament.”

  “The RCA Ethereal Series,” Emeryss whispered.

  Adalai had mentioned how important it was to her, but she wasn’t there with them. They were going in to compete alone and just the three of them. How were they even invited? Why was the tournament still going on in the first place?

  She wanted to be with Grier, but he looked to be in a secret place, unharmed and surrounded by others who could help him. The Zephyrs looked like they were about to step into the maw of a beast in full view of an audience.

  An audience.

  “I have to help them, and I can show the people.”

  Shenna smiled and urged her mother to join them. “I can get your mother back to Neeria, and you to this arena place.”

  “How?” Emeryss asked.

  “I can walk between the folds of the worlds. How else do you think I get around so quickly to help carry the dying?” Shenna created a thin veil showing the cliffside of Emeryss’s home.

  Emeryss looked at her mother. “Thank you for coming with me.”

  Her mother shot glances between them. Was she unsure she could trust Shenna? Was she angry?

  “I don’t hate you,” she said. “I wanted you to be strong like me. Strong like your father.”

  “Mom, there are other things to be. I am strong, but I’m also much more than that.”

  It took several moments before her mother nodded. “The weak shrivel and die. The weak are lost to the tides. The weak—”

  “I’m not weak.”

  “I know that, but…” Her mother’s voice cracked. She was… She was trying not to cry. “Be careful.”