Paragons of Ether

by Ryan Muree

  Adalai dug into her pocket and clipped a device to Clove’s shirt. “Record it. It’ll go out on the Messengers. Ingini will see it, too, probably.”

  It was actually a brilliant idea.

  Cayn grabbed Nendrik, and Mack motioned up ahead. “Ready?” he asked her.

  Adalai was already gone, which meant Jahree was already pulling away.

  This was it.

  She clicked on the recording device and whispered, “My name is Clove Shawdor. I’m from Dimmur, Ingini, but I’ve been working with the REV in Aurelis to save people and end the war. I’ve jumped onto a fleet commander’s airship of the United Architects. Ingini are flying in right now to destroy Aurelis and take Revel, but I’m going to try to stop them.”

  Mack led them through the cargo hold to the nearest UA member. “We could use some help—”

  The man drew his gun on him. “Hands up! What are you doing here? Who are you?”

  Within seconds, five UA had them surrounded with ether-guns pointed at their heads.

  Clove raised her hands. “We’re here to talk to the fleet commander. We brought a hostage to him.”

  The UA shared inquisitive looks.

  One jutted his gun toward the front of the ship, and they fell in line behind him.

  The fleet commander was front and center. He was missing half of his leg and one eye. His rust-colored hair had been tied back in a ponytail not much neater than Clove’s. His black oversized jacket had all the fancy buttons and badges to denote he knew what he was talking about when it came to war.

  “Sir, we found stowaways,” the young UA cadet said.

  He finally looked in their direction, eying them up and down.

  “We’re not stowaways,” Clove said. “We were Blinked onto this ship by a Caster, so we could speak to you.”

  His jaw hung open as he darted to the navigation panels next to his pilot. “Bring it up. Let me see.”

  “There’s nothing, sir,” the copilot said.

  The commander turned to them.

  “They knew you’d shoot them out of the sky before we could even get the chance to speak with you. They’ve already left.” Clove placed a hand on her chest. “I’m Clove. I’m a shipper out of Ethrecity. This is Cayn and Mack. Mack’s brother, Lark, was assigned to the Goliath before it… crashed. Cayn has been enslaved in Revel for the last couple of months—”

  “Lift your wrists so we can see them,” his flunkies commanded.

  “We’re not Revelians—”

  “Lift them!”

  They did, and the commander peered down his nose at her. “Liar, eh? You’ve got two Casters?”

  Clove turned and found Mack’s scribbled pen marks on his wrist. “Mack!”

  His eyes widened. “Oh, no, sir. They’re just pen marks. It was a disguise…” He licked his finger and frantically rubbed out the symbols on his wrist before holding it up again. “See. Just pen.”

  The commander walked over to Nendrik. “Why are you all wasting my time? And who’s this?”

  “This is Lieutenant Lienne Nendrik. He’s basically the Chief Financial Officer of the RCA, and he’s our hostage. He’s cooperating.” She stood protectively in front of him. “We came here to beg you to stop the fleet from taking over Aurelis.”

  At first, there was silence, and then the commander’s laughter filled the airship. His crew shifted nervously away from him. “You must be out of your damn mind.”

  She had to choose her words carefully. This was their only shot, and with most of Revel watching along with them, and Ingini, too, probably, it was even more important that she get this right.

  “The country is weak,” she said, “but taking it over will solve nothing. This war can’t continue forever, but those in power will use any means to try to make it so. If you take over Revel, they’ll hate us even more than they already do. And those already starving will hate us, too.”

  “Their country is in a civil war,” he boomed. “They’re vulnerable—”

  “We don’t have to do this! Stadhold can help us. We can connect with them again, and Revel can, too, one day. It’ll be slow, but we can be separate nations and not be at war. It is possible to work together, and if we don’t, Ingini will have the same problem. People here in Revel will revolt. People in Ingini will revolt. Money, lives, time—all gone. It will never end.”

  He scoffed and turned his shoulder away from them. “Get them off my ship. Throw them out the back for all I care.”

  Two UA reached for her.

  “I’m an Ingineer!” she announced.

  The men froze. The commander looked back over his shoulder at her.

  “Well, technically, a Scribe.”

  His lip curled. “That’s impossible. They died on the Goliath—”

  “I was trained by a Stadholden Scribe. We worked together, and the rest can, too.”

  “Prove it.” He wagged a finger at one of the other men, and soon there was a piece of wrinkly paper and a pencil shoved into her hand.

  She had to scribe right here? Maybe it was good for the people to see, though. Revelians and Ingini would see they could work together. “Nendrik, what kind of Caster are you?” she asked.

  He wilted in Cayn’s grip, squashed between him and Mack. “Matter,” he said.

  She could do this. She’d seen Emeryss use matter before, and that Vaughn guy, too.

  She closed her eyes, entered the ethereal plane, and reached for the ether that responded to her. “Enlarge size.”

  The whispers started softly, commanding to her strokes and angles. She worked furiously until they told her it was complete, and she fell back into the real world again.

  The commander was standing over her, inspecting her work.

  She passed it back to Nendrik—

  “Wait a minute. It could be a bomb or something,” the commander grumbled.

  “Sir,” one UA member said. “I-I can read most sigils. I studied them in training—”

  The fleet commander snapped his fingers at him and pointed at the paper.

  The squirrelly officer peered over Nendrik’s shoulder. “Big size?”

  “Enlarge size,” Nendrik corrected with an eye roll.

  The officer straightened. “It’s not a bomb, sir.”

  The fleet commander gestured for Nendrik to start.

  Nendrik held his palm against the paper and gently lifted it up as the ether came with it, soaking into his hand and arm. He held up his wrist, showed where the sigil had updated, and lifted the blank piece of paper. “Enlarge size.”

  The paper blossomed to ten times its size, its edges now spilling over onto the floor.

  The commander scoffed and laughed again. “Do you realize what you just handed me, girl?”

  “Then you know how desperate we are.”

  “Desperate? Stupid more like. I take orders from the CEOs, not you. Take them and put them in the back,” he ordered.

  She grabbed him by the arm, and two UA officers tried to pry her off of him. “Stadhold is fighting them right now! When has Stadhold ever fought?”

  The fleet commander turned his head toward her.

  “Can you fight against Keepers and the RCA?” she asked.

  “We have airships—”

  “And then you’ll have two enemies.”

  He waved them off again.

  “Wait!” Mack shouted.

  Cayn struggled with their restraints.

  Clove jerked herself free for a moment. “I’m recording all of this to their Messengers!” she shouted. “Every Revelian, every Ingini, every Stadholden, will see that you had the choice to make this right and you’re choosing death! You’re choosing their deaths! Their livelihoods for power! And not even your own. For someone else with power over you!”

  The fleet commander slowly turned, walked up to her, and ripped the recording device from her shirt. He dropped it to the ground and stomped on it.

  “They’ve already seen everything.” She lifted her chin, summoning t
he last bit of confidence she had left.” I don’t know about the rest of your crew, but we came from Dimmur.”

  Several heads of his airship crew turned slightly. Most of the pilots in the UA were from places like Dimmur.

  “We have nothing, and we’re tired of it. CEOs like Kimpert were using you, using all of us, to give them more power. And we barely scraped by. Why do you have to give your lives to earn a decent wage? Why are we okay with shacks stacked on top of each other? Why can’t we expect more from our leaders—”

  “Because they’re in power. What they say goes,” he boomed.

  “But why? You’re blindly following orders because they want to get richer, and you’re doing it for them! Is this what you thought of when you joined the UA? The Stadholdens are fighting because they’ve recently learned they’re being used by the Revel nobles, too. A team is moving in to eliminate Orr right now, as we speak, and just Orr. The king’s already been killed. Orr’s the last obstacle to fixing all of this.”

  The fleet commander hesitated.

  “Nendrik, what will happen if Orr is taken out?” she asked.

  Nendrik cleared his throat. “There are advisors already willing to work with Ingini, but the king and General Orr would stop any discourse about it. With them gone, we’d be willing to work with your country. To put it selfishly, we value your tech greatly. It’d be a benefit to all Revelians. We’re losing from this separation, too.”

  Clove nodded. “I’m not saying that we all become best friends and hug. I’m saying give Revel a chance to fix itself, be better than them, and we can say that we came out on top. They’ll practically have to trade and open themselves up to us if we save their people from themselves. And then we can fix things. We can fix a lot of things. Our loved ones won’t have to die in the ether mines. Our friends won’t have to fight just to eat.”

  The fleet commander rubbed his jaw.

  “Just wait. That’s all I’m asking. Get to Aurelis, and you’ll see the Stadholdens fighting against the RCA. You’ll know I’m not lying.”

  His crew was eying him. None of them wanted to be there. None of them wanted to do this.

  “I will blow all this shit up if you’re lying,” he grumbled.

  It was the best she could hope for.

  Chapter 35

  Aurelis Outer Ring — Revel

  Grier and their small Stadholden army crested the last hill to Aurelis.

  He rolled out his sore shoulders and cramping hands, his fresh sigils aching from the movement.

  Not the best idea to add four more sigils to his body the day before a battle, but it would give him the best edge.

  The other Keepers who’d gotten additional sigils from Yggrav had spent the trip adjusting their frame of mind to their new possibilities. Most of them had additional weapons added. Some added Caster sigils like he had. And they were a stronger unit because of it.

  A lone bird cawed overhead. It was a good sign the RCA hadn’t deployed their aircrews yet. They were either too distracted to notice or didn’t think they were a threat. And both were fine by him. They were there as the distraction and the hope. They’d thin the RCA down, give Adalai and Emeryss the chance to get inside the palace to stop Orr, and show Revelians they were there to help them.

  Grier?

  He spun his head to find the direction Emeryss’s voice had come from. It wasn’t like Sonora’s messages that felt present wherever he looked or turned. Emeryss’s felt more local, more directional.

  We’re nearly there. We’ll be dropping into the palace shortly.

  “We’re nearly in position, too.” He kept pace with the others. The transport had gotten them most of the way to Aurelis, but the rest of the distance would be crossed on foot for the safety of the airships.

  When this is all over…

  Her tone was too serious. It tugged at his heart, and he couldn’t bear it. He wouldn’t consider the possibility of losing her. “When all this is over, remind me to tell you about a dream I had the other night.”

  She half-laughed, and he smiled. He loved that sound.

  A dream?

  He shrugged even though she couldn’t see it. “Let’s just say, I found one way for me to get over my fear of heights.”

  What? Did you and I—

  He chuckled. “Yeah, but it was in the ethereal realm. I first saw it because I’d gotten additional sigils put on me. I thought I was having a fever dream with you in it because, trust me, I’ve had much worse dreams. But then, I felt like I was changing things in it… like it wasn’t a dream.”

  Um, Grier… I don’t think it was.

  A couple of commanders and their troops took the lead toward the city. He nodded to them as they passed and joined in the advance.

  “Not a dream?” he asked her.

  I was trying to reach you, and when you didn’t answer, I went into the ethereal realm and found you. The Goddess said it was another world… It was real… I thought it was my imagination at first, but if you were getting sigils, then we—

  A wide smile spread across his face. “You were, uh, quite demanding…”

  Silence.

  He laughed and laughed. He was laughing so hard, other Keepers were staring. “I think I need a do-over in this world just to be sure—”

  Alarms rang out from Aurelis.

  His fellow soldiers picked up speed.

  This was it.

  “Emeryss, we’re nearly there. They’ve sounded the alarms. When all this is over, I’ll be waiting for you in Neeria, okay? Meet me in Neeria. I love you.”

  She sniffled. He could hear it clear as day. I love you, too.

  He felt the connection snap, and it stung. Fear and worry of never seeing her face again nearly tore him apart. He had to channel it. He had to use it.

  Gage and Commander Isolde shouted orders to their Keepers.

  Kylah and Garrison came up on either side of him.

  “Ready?” Kylah asked.

  More than ready.

  RCA broke through the streets and into the fields beyond Aurelis, charging straight for the Keepers.

  Grier willed his shield into existence as the first fireball flew into a troop on his right. It was deflected, and they pushed their advance.

  Kylah crouched and jumped forward with great height and speed, colliding into several RCA with her shield.

  Garrison materialized his heavy lance, his favorite weapon, and enlarged it, knocking and spearing through several at a time.

  The RCA hadn’t expected them to have similar abilities, and it sent some of them scrambling back after watching someone being pummeled by a Blinking Keeper with a mace. Several more ran when three RCA were shot in the head by a single arrow from a Bursting Keeper with a longbow.

  Two RCA broke away from the pack for Grier.

  Energy Casters.

  He couldn’t let them get close.

  He thumbed the sigils on his forearm and willed his chain dart to life.

  Whipping it out in their direction, he used his shoulders and chest to manipulate the direction of the barbed dart. It was too fast, too chaotic, for them to keep track of. He twisted his shoulders again, and the chain lashed out and around, crushing the rib cage of one RCA with the barbed end.

  The other Burst at him, and he felt the cold-hot sting at his neck. The Caster was encircling him, trying to electrocute him, but so long as Grier kept his chain dart whirling around him protectively, the Caster would not get an opportunity.

  Three other RCA advanced toward him, hands raised. Four at once?

  He pressed his index finger to the sigil on his thumb, the new wound still aching slightly.

  Back!

  A shockwave rippled out from around him, crackling the air and throwing all of the RCA within fifty feet out and away. Their bodies slammed into the ground, broken and bleeding.

  He pressed forward.

  The line of RCA ahead of them was thick, blocking the entrances to Aurelis.

  That was fine.


  They were the target, not the city.

  Two RCA in the form of bears jumped onto Garrison’s back, and he roared as their claws dug through his armor easily.

  Grier charged, shield out, and used Burst to give him a stronger push. He collided with them, and the two RCA were knocked from Garrison and trampled into the ground.

  Kylah cracked a whip at them, lacerating their exposed mouths and necks.

  Grier grabbed his brother’s arm to help him up, and Garrison laughed. “Goddess, I love this shit.”

  “You sure you okay? You want me to heal you?” Grier asked.

  “That was one of the sigils you picked?”

  He nodded.

  “Fuck that. Let’s just kill more.”

  A Caster ran at him with abnormally large arms. Matter Caster?

  Grier materialized his swordstaff and dodged the Caster’s punches with a few swings of his own, slicing into the back of his ankles and the inside of his arms whenever they were exposed.

  He Burst across the field, slicing the man’s throat, and the next one, and the next, in a straight line.

  He stopped to catch his breath, and a rumble echoed across the field.

  Two Keeper troops on the left were thrown by an explosion of fire and rock from the sky.

  Still no aircrews, but there was another rumbled and an explosion.

  And another.

  The ground trembled around him.

  The Keepers were still advancing, but it wasn’t without loss. Wherever the explosions were hitting, it was taking out several of them at a time.

  Grier scanned the battleground for the Caster responsible.

  A small woman was poised on top of a rock in the field. Every time she brought her fist down in front of her, flaming rock and fire fell from the sky and into the Keepers.

  He rushed for her, slicing through Caster after Caster to reach her before she could get another one off.

  His shield cracked with each collision and block of ether. He let it dissolve away and reformed a new one.

  Another explosion.

  He was nearly to her.

  Someone shouted from his direction, an RCA member writhing in pain, but it was enough to turn her head toward him.