The Broken Academy 5: Bonds

by Jade Alters

  I slam my hands flat into the ground. From the stain of corruption that spread there, I draw a massive claymore, about my own height. Its jet-black blade glows with tiny veins of orange light. Weak as I still am, I take it in both hands to welcome Heren to our side of the battlefield. I bound for the edge of the chasm just as the final platform rises. For just a second, I get a glimpse down into the charm. I peek at the horrifying extent of the Lotus’ resources. Hundreds of feet down, a machine with drills, collection baskets and claw arms digs its way deeper and deeper into the crust of the planet. It searches for the source of the Tether’s energy.

  Cece’s talons scape across the floor between Heren and me. Her flaming wings snap open. The wave of heat and force rattles his platform, but not his nerve. Fire climbs Cece’s throat, but not faster than Heren lets down his two-handed cylinder for his bow gun. His sights narrow on her chest, at the base of her neck. The sting of steel bursts through my ribs when it hits me instead. I was just in time to shove her with the drive of my shoulder.

  “Bryant!” Cece roars. Serge and Lee’s eyes converge on us. Feet race. Wings flap. But no one will get here in time. Somehow, I know that already. Somehow, my feet dig in instead of fleeing. I can’t think. I just have to feel. Like she taught me.

  I charge and swing. My claymore slams into the side of Heren’s two-handed cylinder when he blocks me. I switch angles to strike the other side. Heren leans away from the tip of my corrupted blade. His bow gun rises for Cece again. It takes all of my strength to slash it from his grip. It plunges to the dark below just as Serge arrives at my back. Lee descends to join us. But Heren lifts his cylinder, and a handle snaps down. Now it reveals its true form and purpose. It resembles a bazooka, but the light swimming in its barrel tells me it’s more geared for magical opponents. It sears bright over all four of us.

  “Get behind me!” I scream with as much command as I can manage. I don’t have the strength to raise a shield to protect us. But I have something else I can use.

  I reverse my blade, tip to the ground. I stab it deep as it joins to my hands. I feel it all join together with the bonds of corruption from Hell. The blade. My hands. The ground. Blackness spreads from both my shoulders and sides. I become one with everything I touch. I become the mightiest wall I’ve ever made, between my friends and Heren.

  Heren’s bazooka fires. I feel warmth, heat, and a shockwave. I feel it all coming apart, fading away. Nothingness.

  Then, hope that they escaped and…peace.

  Cece,

  “BRYANT!” I screech over the high-pitched squeal of Heren’s weapon. Light bleeds through the splinters in the black wall before us. It bursts through, crumbling it all to pieces. The black shrapnel of corruption sprays over us. I reach for him. If I could just touch him… I can’t let go! He can’t be gone! A shard of dark matter hits my palm, so hot it scalds even my skin. But I close my fingers around it. I let it smoke in my fist. He’s here, in my hand. I won’t let him go.

  Then the noise stops. Heren’s weapon powers down as a beam of light concentrates from the pit behind him. It surges up into the ceiling, brighter than the sun. Then, all at once, it burns out. Cracks spread through the ceiling in its wake. The first huge hunk of steel slides out of place, triggering an absolute avalanche. The Point Arena facility begins to crumble from the inside.

  “Come on!” I hear Lee shout, somewhere. It certainly doesn’t sound like he’s right next to me, like I know he is. I feel him pulling my hand. But…how can I leave? How can any of us leave, when…

  Heren stands before us, his bazooka lowered, his flat face trained on us three survivors. He can only face us now because the wall between us was reduced to dust. Because where Bryant was standing, now there’s only a black stain with two footprint-shaped voids in the middle. I tighten my fist until I can almost hear the muscle of my hand sizzle. Until the shard in my grasp cuts into me.

  I meet Heren’s icy, numb eyes with my own of fire and hate and murder. Then I give into Lee’s tug, and flee the room. With what few survivors there are, we flee the building.

  The Tether’s gone, and it’s a long hike to San Francisco.

  Conspiracies

  Serge,

  The Broken Academy,

  I wish I knew what to say, what to do. Standing there just then, when we got back from the Point Arena mission, I felt like I didn’t know a damn thing. I didn’t know the extent of the weapons the Lotus had at their disposal. I didn’t know it was remotely possible Heren might still be alive. I certainly didn’t think Bryant would ever… Of all of us, he seemed immutable. Indestructible. But I saw it with my own eyes, the same as Cece and Lee. I saw him reduced to shards.

  At the end of a ten-hour hike, we were more numb than anything. Cece, Lee and I stood in a braindead triangle in the San Francisco Tether Adjustment Lounge. Tears beaded from all of our eyes as it dawned on us. He wasn’t here. He was gone, really gone. We left him. Well, all of us but Cece. Her fist finally unclenched around a black stone of corruption, just before she broke off from the group.

  “I’ll give the report,” Lee sniffled, and I wasn’t about to object. My face hit my pillow, and that covered the extent of my plans for the night.

  Despite the battle, despite the hike and the emotional exhaustion, I toss in a sleepless trance. It could have been any of us. It could have been me, or even Cece. Heren and the Lotus have weapons with all of our names on them. There’s no guaranteeing anyone’s survival. Not anymore. I wrestle with the chilling thought until a sharp sound splits the silence of my dark room. Three solid knocks at the door. I check my clock. It’s only two? I writhe. Then I realize, it’s only two.

  I slip out the side of my bed and creep to the door as it rattles with another set of knocks. It’s faint, but I feel the change in the Academy the second my feet touch the floor. Five Tethers is plenty to keep the Academy in the sky, but it is the tiniest bit tilted now. The section of the school above where the Point Arena Tether was extinguished has dipped down. I feel the slope with every step toward the door. I twist the knob soundlessly and crack the door just enough for an eye to peek through.

  “No more snacks before bed for you. Paranoid,” Darius prods. I sigh and let the door swing the rest of the way open.

  “You know I just got back from a mission, right?” I counter. Of all the people who could come knocking in the dead of night, I have to admit that Darius is one of my top picks.

  “I do. I also know that it’s keeping you up. And that your springs are all out of whack. Jeez, man, replace your mattress!” Darius grills me. It catches me so off-guard, that an involuntary chuckle actually jumps up from my throat.

  “What do you want, Darius?” I ask, shaking my head.

  “Well, I know you’re not sleeping, and I don’t blame you… I…I heard what happened to Bryant,” he says. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard that note in his voice before. It couldn’t be…empathy, could it?

  “Ye-yeah,” I’m barely able to spit out, “I…I didn’t think…”

  “Hey,” Darius raises both hands in surrender. “You don’t have to spill it all to me. If you don’t want to, I mean. I just…thought maybe, since you obviously weren’t sleeping, maybe you were up for another mission?”

  “What the hell are they sending us to do in the dead of night?” I groan. Darius shakes his head.

  “Not they. This isn’t a Council or Kyrie approved mission. This one’s just for us,” he tells me. “With the Tethers under fire now, it’s only a matter of time before we all get sent out. For who knows how long. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for some backstabbing here at home, doesn’t it?” I roll my eyes and let my shoulders slump over.

  “Not this again.”

  “Listen, you can’t expect every stakeout to have massive payouts. It’s about the long game!” Darius counters.

  “Well, you certainly made it seem like you expected big payouts last time,” I remind Darius, “And we spent all night watching Dorian read, nap and
go to the bathroom.”

  “Yes, yes,” Darius admits, slapping a hand to my shoulder. It forces me to stand a little straighter. “But the time before that, I saw Dorian and your daddy dearest discussing missing pieces of information. I mean, that screams betrayal.”

  “Unless they were talking about an assignment from the Council,” I bounce back at him.

  “Which we won’t know for sure unless we do some more late-night tracking… It’s almost like you don’t want to spend your last night under a safe roof stalking your estranged father!” Darius exclaims in such overblown disbelief, I have to laugh again. Then his face takes on a more grievous look. “Come on, Serge. You could do with a walk and you know it. Just put a trick on us and that’s all you have to do – walk.”

  “You…haven’t lost Dorian while we’ve been talking?” I ask.

  “You mean while you’ve been giving me more shit than a five-gallon bedpan?” Darius cracks. I snort at the expression. “No, I haven’t lost him yet. I can still hear him a few hallways over. Are you finally ready to do something with your life?”

  “Thank God I have you, to help me find myself,” I sigh. I give a quiet snap of one hand to conjure a small curtain for us. “There. We’re off the radar. Let’s track a Dragon.”

  Darius about-faces and begins down the carpeted halls of the dorms. We follow Dorian’s fresh trail around a few twists and turns, until his back comes dimly into our sights. The Academy’s low evening lights just barely show us the back of his light jacket. His long, dark hair obscures most of his face as he looms near a dorm room door. A shiver jostles me when I realize I know the room he’s lurking outside. Dorian holds himself up with one hand on the wall beside the door. His other hand twitches with some kind of urge. Whether he wants to knock, or punch a hole through the door, I can’t tell. All I know is, he’s outside the door to Cece’s room.

  “You think he’s here to see Stephanie, or Cece?” Darius whispers.

  “Either way, it’s good we’re here. I still don’t trust him,” I answer.

  “So what, he knocks and we knock him out?” Darius asks. I have to admire the fact that it’s a legitimate question. Despite all the bad blood between him and Cece, I hear in Darius’ tone that, if I really wanted to step in, he’d be there beside me. We’re both relieved when Dorian thinks better of whatever plan he had for that door. His hand slides down off the wall. He slumps off to one side and wanders down the hallway.

  Darius and I share a silent, signalling glance, before creeping after him. From the D Wing dorm halls, we follow Dorian through a wild maze of corridors. It’s apparent to me only when we track him to his destination that he was avoiding certain areas. High traffic zones. Classrooms and dorms being used to house sentries. Though it’s the dead of night, Dorian takes extra care not to be followed or seen. The twisting road ends abruptly at the doors to the Academy’s Grand Library. We wait five long seconds for Dorian to move away from the entrance before cracking it back open. We stack our heads against the slit of visibility to sweep the room inside with our eyes.

  The maw to the Forbidden Shelves is blocked off by a powerful shield, made by Sorceress Lily, Horace and Magister Reynold. Its purple sheen shimmers from one end of the book-enclosed walls to the other of the Library. It casts Dorian’s shadow all the way back to us behind him. But his isn’t the only shadow to stretch across the Grand Library’s floor this night. He’s joined by a host of familiar faces. Each one increases the alarm of the situation. Lucidous. Fey Rorelia. Horace. There’s also a man my age who I don’t recognize. He’s decorated with a bone-and-feather jacket I recognize as Ahwahneechee tradition. While Darius can hear them clearly, I have to put my ear to the door to listen once they start murmuring.

  “We all know what we’re looking for,” Dorian announces. Damn, I think to myself, It’s a confirmation, not a question. He’s not going to go over it. I see from the resounding nods that he won’t. Whatever the Kyrie leaders and this mysterious Shifter have come here to do, it’s long premeditated. But then, Lucidous says:

  “Roran,” to the Shifter I don’t know. Where have I heard that name before? I strain over it until Lucidous tells Roran, “It’ll be something in the collections we brought up from the Forbidden Shelves. So don’t bother with anything else.”

  “Understood,” Roran nods. With this, he and the Kyrie leaders draw close together. Horace takes to the center of the circle.

  “Then we’re ready?” he asks, but doesn’t wait for everyone to respond. He snaps with both his hands. Every last one of the people inside the Grand Library vanishes instantly. Darius and I wait, mouths agape, for anything further. For one of them to return. For a sound. For movement. But we can only bear to look into the foreboding nothingness for so long. One of them could be inches from us, and we’d never know.

  “I think it’s time to report this,” I admit at last.

  “Yes!” Darius allows himself a brief, triumphant fist in the air. Then he pretends to compose himself with a throat-clearing fist over his mouth. “Right. Let’s report to the Council,” he declares.

  Serge,

  The Broken Academy, Administrative Wing

  Ever since the Truce Camp battle, the Academy’s Council has been working late nights, researching the Lotus and devising new strategies, so we expect them to be up and about in the Administrative Wing. What Darius and I couldn’t have anticipated was everyone else. We burst up the stairs to the Administrative Wing like the messengers of great betrayal, only to find the betrayers have beaten us here. Dorian, Fey Rorelia, Lucidous and Horace look at us with as much shock as we do them. Only Roran is mysteriously absent from this gathering of Kyrie leaders and the Council.

  “How did you know?” Magister Reynold asks us. Darius and I are left dumbfounded, arms draped loose at our sides.

  “Know…what?” I ask.

  “We were about to send out an alert to the Academy. The Tethers are under threat,” Dragonlord Thise says, grim, “All of them. They’re not under attack, so far as we know, right now. But the Lotus will strike soon, and hard. We need to deploy everyone who can fight.”

  “Isn’t that…why you’re here?” Chief Botan prompts.

  “I…ah…no,” I admit, but I’m not sure exactly where to go from here. Especially not with Horace’s judgmental stare weighing down on me like a sack of bricks.

  “We…heard something outside our room,” Darius tries. “We checked, and it was Dorian. We thought it was weird that he was in the dorm section, so we checked it out, and-”

  “However disturbing it is to hear you admit you’ve been following me, you couldn’t have,” Dorian’s voice cuts in like an onyx blade. “I’ve been here since curfew, deliberating strategy with my colleagues.”

  “We all have,” Lucidous attests.

  “Ah,” Horace realizes with a wide grin. How badly I want to throw something right at it. Maybe an illusory club, maybe something sharper. He has that look in his eye. The glint of a plan coming to fruition. “You must have had an eventful night tracking down my trick.”

  “You’re about to try and tell me the people I saw in the Library just now were a trick? Why?” I demand. Tether detail or no, I’m not about to let this slide. At least, not until Dorian turns to the Council and says, loud enough for us to hear:

  “I noticed Darius following me the other night. I didn’t want to say anything – it was harmless, and with everything else going on…” Dorian says. It only makes me boil more, how concerned he sounds, with the matters at hand. Like it really was all nothing after all.

  “He asked me to conjure a trick, a diversion to keep Darius from following him. It seems my wayward son was caught in Darius’ delusion,” Horace has the gall to say. Over my head. Like I’m not here, like I haven’t risked my life or lost a friend to keep this place in the sky!

  “Fuck you, Horace. I’m not your wayward anything,” I bite. Then, before any of the flabbergasted Councilmembers can tell me to calm down, I add, “I migh
t believe that, if it was just the Kyrie leaders I saw in the Library. But why include someone we don’t even know? Roran? He just an unnecessary part of your trick? You don’t do unnecessary.”

  “Serge,” Thise tries to calm me with a warm hand on my shoulder. “Despite what you may have seen, the fact remains that we are all under the same threat here.”

  “The Dragonlord is right,” Horace is quick to follow. “I’m sorry if my trick confused you. Maybe we should have been more forthcoming with our concerns. But now is not the time to focus on that. We need to disperse to the Tethers.”

  “So you have an empty nest to root around in, for whatever it is you’re looking for?” Darius jumps in before I can. For a moment, I’m reminded just how much reason he has to hate my family. Almost as much as I do. How they used him as a pawn to turn Cece over to the Kyrie, right in front of me. I’m about ready to start conjuring weapons, until Thise bellows:

  “Enough! I’m afraid I must forbid this conversation from continuing!” I don’t know that I’ve ever heard her yell quite like that. Her authority rings in my ears, too loud to contest with. Then some of the heatwaves recede within her. She swipes back a few loose strands of her hair and says, “Until the Lotus have been dealt with. Then we will revisit this. Are we all understood?” A slow nod overtakes us all, Academy and Kyrie alike. “Good Sorceress Lily, send out the alert. We need boots on the ground. Hours ago.”

  Tipping the Balance

  Rock,

  Yosemite Tether Teleporter