Aiden frowned, his anger starting to fade at his friend’s distress. “Don’t play that with me,” Aiden pleaded. “You’re not the one that almost died in a fire.”
In answer, Glowby finished sinking to the floor and floated sulkily under the bed and out of sight.
Watching where Glowby had disappeared, Aiden sighed softly and sat down on the edge of the bed opposite the one his friend was hiding under. After a minute or so with Glowby staying hidden, Aiden’s thoughts began to turn towards everything that had been happening to him recently. Since he had made the plate, it seemed like events were just slamming into him one after the other. It was exhausting and hectic, not to mention terrifying. The plate, the dream where he had re-activated the breeder stone, the next morning being thrashed by a huge freaking giantess, the fire, and then being kidnapped? It was so much all within just a few days.
Was he really angry at Glowby, or was it something else? Maybe his brain was reacting to all of the excitement and demanding a moment to think it through? He let out a breath and nodded. Now was a good a time as any.
His thoughts began to churn through his recent experiences. What had happened in the workroom in the Hall of Stones? Sure, the nobles had made a bet and then cajoled him into going along with their plans but when he really thought about it, their reasoning hadn’t been what had driven him to do it. No, that had almost all been him.
But why? Was it him wanting to kill himself or run away? He toyed with that thought for a few moments and realized he hadn’t been miserable or unhappy enough to do something like that. Seriously, if he had been that angry at the world and wanting to end it all, the school was right on the cliffs overlooking the powerful Terek River. The river itself then spilled into the Bay of Westrun and if he’d really wanted to do away with himself, they would never have found his body. No, he knew that wasn’t the reason.
Running away wasn’t really of interest to him, either. Orphans weren’t slaves, they were wards and those that contracted with the Duchy to care for them were held to fair standards. Yes, they were required to work to uphold whatever household, or in his case school that took them in, but woe to the lord or lady that abused them. At least in this duchy it meant they weren’t watched too closely, and leaving was always an option.
No, if anything, it had felt more along the lines of his taking advantage of an opportunity. He had thought it through and knew he hadn’t really known what was going to happen. It had been an unknown, and that was what had excited him about it. On the one side, boring safety, and the other a vast hidden something that was an exciting mystery. So, he’d made the decision. It hadn’t been depression at all, but the anticipation that had spurred him on.
And now, here he was yelling at the best friend he’d known his whole life for his own decision and demanding that he make it safe again. Jerk.
Aiden sighed, the sound permeating the quiet of wherever he was. What about the arena, and being thrashed by some madly-oversized giantess? Well, that wasn’t Glowby’s fault at all. That was all on Markam and Gavin. Impatient, young lords not thinking of poor lowly him. He grimaced, remembering the flash of pain and then tumbling through the air. There was a brief feeling of colliding with something soft, warm, and interesting before he’d blacked out. Suddenly blushing, he realized that Chari had told him he’d been knocked into her by Oya Dihya, and that interesting softness must have been her. Ugh. Couldn’t he have gone unconscious at least a few moments later? His face twisted briefly, adding another checklist to why he was irate with Gavin and Markam.
The fire, though, there had been so much going on with that. Fire was not anything anyone wanted in such a closely-packed town, and it was everyone’s responsibility to fight it when it appeared but he was the one that had charged into that burning chaotic mess after Glowby. Yes, Glowby had led him in, but could he fault him if it saved a life? Well, yes. He wouldn’t have gone in if it hadn’t been for Glowby. Suddenly, the warm brown eyes of the young boy appeared in front of him, holding a frightened garkit in his hands.
Could he really be angry at having saved a life? No. No, not really and as he thought about it, that fire had been set to lure him out of the school. So if he hadn’t saved the boy, it would have been his fault. Well, maybe not fault, but he’d have been tied to it and as he explored these thoughts, he was much happier that he’d saved the boy than not.
That still left the mystery of why anyone in their right mind would set a fire to lure him out…
Unless they knew about the plate.
Somehow, someone had told someone else, and now they wanted him? Enough to kill people over without a thought? Aiden groaned and closed his eyes for a second, reliving that confusing fight in the alley. He wasn’t sure what made him more alarmed; that someone wanted to kidnap him and sell him to someone, or that Ashrak had actually risked his own neck to save him.
That man that Ashrak had fought was no simple thug or bully boy. He had been a trained, ruthless killer. Though he wasn’t that experienced with fighting by any means, he’d seen how Oya Dihya had moved and though the man wasn’t her caliber, who was? He had moved with ruthless elegance and would have won if it hadn’t been for the garkit clawing his face. He wished like mad his friend could talk, now more than ever. How had he done that with the kit? Somehow, he’d used the animal. Something Glowby had never done before, but there it was. Maybe Glowby wasn’t imaginary. If that was the case, what was he?
He looked over to where Glowby had retreated and frowned. What was he? That thought sat in his head for a long time like a stone; cold and a little frightening but then, slowly, other memories began to intrude. The times when Glowby had comforted him after a skinned knee or when he’d lost something and Glowby had shown him where it was flashed before his minds-eye. All of his life. Finally, he let those memories push that stone of fear away and he felt better for it.
No matter what, Glowby was his friend and he always stood by his friends.
“Okay Glowby, I apologize. I’m sorry.” Aiden sat up and then peeked under the bed next to him. “I’ll follow you where you want to take me.”
After a few seconds, the barest curve of his friend peeked out from under the bed frame. He was still blue and made Aiden sad that he’d hurt his friend.
“Come on, I am sorry I yelled at you. I…I don’t know everything that is going on, and I hope I figure out how you saved me with that garkit, but no matter what I know you’re my friend.”
Aiden sat and waited, watching as Glowby eased out from under the bed and floated up towards his face. The blue was slowly fading, but only truly disappeared when Aiden pushed his forehead up against Glowby and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Glowby rested against Aiden’s forehead as well, flickering a few times in response before easing back and headed for the door again. Aiden nodded and then stood to follow his best friend from the room.
***
Glowby led Aiden out through the gates of the school, and towards where the fire had been. It was odd, walking through a city that he knew was normally bustling, loud, and full of life but here was barren and deserted. It made him feel like a stranger that didn’t belong and he didn’t like that feeling at all.
As he walked along the street, one of the oddest things he noticed was that where he knew plants and trees belonged, there looked to be only the faintest of shadows. He approached one and just stared at it. There was something there, but it was almost too faint to see so he slowly put his hand out to test it. Surprised, he realized he could feel something but only as a subtle tingling. Aiden glanced over at Glowby who hovered a few feet away but didn’t seem to be rushing him along, so he continued his exploration.
Flashes and impressions flickered through his head like the feeling of bark, the thick solidness of the tree itself, and even the feel of resting under its shade. He almost felt like it was his own imagination dredging things up, but it wasn’t quite that. It had too alien of a quality to it so he pushed his mind outwards, trying
to make sense of it all. As he did so, the deep contours of its bark began to rise under his skin, each thick flake wanting to be pried off and dropped to the ground. Even the concept of color began to intrude despite his eyes being closed.
Suddenly, Aiden saw light flashing from behind his closed eyes and opened them, watching Glowby as he flickered brightly close to his face. He stepped back in surprise, his eyes blinded for a moment but as they cleared he gasped.
The tree that had barely been there at all was now much more substantial. Though he could still see through it, there was no doubt that it was more solid than it had been before. He reached out his hand again, and actually felt the bark as real and scratchy under his fingers, but there was also an underlying something else. He could feel its distress. Somehow, he could tell that the tree was dying. He pulled his hand away quickly and stepped back, trying to understand what was going on.
How had he felt that? He wasn’t even sure what a dying tree felt like, nor had ever encountered a feeling like that from any plant, even when it had been withering. Whatever he had just done hadn’t been good for the tree at all. He stayed away from it, watching in relief as it began to fade slowly back to the barely there transparency it had exhibited before. After several minutes, he gently waved his hand towards it and could no longer feel solidity nor distress. Letting his hand fall to his sides, he glanced at Glowby with a sigh of relief and a hint of annoyance. He could tell that Glowby didn’t have any answers for him, but Aiden felt sure he’d experienced something important. Another mystery.
Glowby began to drift off once again so Aiden followed, his past anger fully replaced by curiosity. They didn’t have far to go until Aiden recognized the street that had contained the burnt mansion. Squarely in the middle of the cobblestones, there was a huge mass of refuse and debris blocking a fair amount of roadway and it was clear that the whole mansion had been taken by the fire. Some of the other homes around it had also been damaged, but it looked like they had all been saved. Most of them had large swaths of green area, gardens, and trees around them that they had suffered little more than an occasional burn.
However, what captures his attention the most was the sprawling, strangely beautiful collection of glimmer steel thrusting out of the debris in the middle of the road.
Aiden walked up to it and pushed. He hadn’t a clue what would happen. His imagination going wild with thoughts of it flying off above the city or spinning away down the street into other houses, but none of that happened. It just sat there, unimpressed with his efforts.
“Well…crud,” he said, his voice sounding both louder and softer in that oppressive silence. What do I do now, Glowby?” Glowby floated over to him, settling near his shoulder but otherwise not being very helpful. Aiden frowned and again thought about how nice it would be if Glowby had a helpful, explainy speaking voice. For a few moments, his mind wandered, imagining how his voice would sound. Probably something dramatic and deep, like a blacksmith he knew or maybe even Chari’s? He could totally live with that. She had a very nice voice. Wait, was Glowby a boy or a girl?
Aiden shook his head, not wanting to even bother trying to figure that out. How many times had Glowby seen him naked in the baths? Ugh… just stop it, he thought and forced his mind away from that subject. Glowby had also begun to glow a bit reddish-pink, obviously uncomfortable with the line of Aiden’s thoughts.
Aiden finally went over and sat down on a bench, contemplating why Glowby had brought him here. Whatever he’d done with the tree obviously hadn’t been what Glowby wanted him to do as they were still here. He stared at the mass of wood and glimmer steel sitting in the middle of the street, biting his lip. What did he need to do? Ugh! It had to be right there. His mind whirled with thoughts while his eyes stared unblinkingly at the mass in the street.
Wait…sitting in the middle of the street… Of course! His eyes lit as he bounced up off of the bench. It was sitting right there in front of him, ready to expose him to anyone that cared to walk by, and the whole town would likely walk by! Surely there’d be questions, and everyone had clearly seen him being the last one out of the house. Whoever owned that house, probably knew there shouldn’t have been a huge mass of glimmer steel sitting in their attic so it wouldn’t be long before the engineers would be out to inspect it.
Approaching the nearest section he ran his hands across its smooth coolness. Aiden marveled at it for a long moment. Though formed in such a messy fashion, it was still beautiful. Glimmer Steel created today was very rough, blockish, and unrefined. It never looked finished, and could barely do more than become plates or rough, uncomplicated forms. Strangely, even the ancient glimmer steel artifacts didn’t appear so organic. They were far more elegant, holding curves and complicated forms, but even they looked somehow contrived though in a fantastic way.
As he studied the construct, he could feel himself within it almost like how his pillow smelled like him. Aiden sighed, and as his hands glided across its surface, he began to feel the same tingling he’d felt when he’d placed his hand on the trunk of the tree. He still wasn’t sure what had happened there, but it had given him more information so perhaps it would do the same thing for this? It was worth a shot.
Almost immediately after he’d made the decision to try, the impressions of its existence began to flood into his mind. Not just its physical self, but the moment it had come into being and how his thoughts had driven it through to his world.
His mind caught on that concept. Driven through. What did that mean? He wasn’t sure at first, but he was sure through felt right. Maybe he had created it here and then pushed it into his own world?
He thought back on all of those classes that he’d assisted Professor Reivus in giving. He’d not been there to learn, but even so, he had been doing it for several years and it was impossible not to pick up information. Professor Reivus had even encouraged him to read some of the books that usually lay around in his study like discarded tiles. In the books, they described the process of creating Glimmer Steel as highly technical and complicated. One had to hold the mathematical numbers in their heads that detailed every proportion of what you were going to create, and hold it clearly while you pushed the information into the glimmer stones. That is the process that created Glimmer Steel. It sounded simple, but doing anything even as complicated as a triangle was impossible for most people. The math was just…too much. The actual process of the glimmer steel coming into the world was done by the glimmer stones.
However, that’s not what he’d done at all. He’d formed an idea of what he wanted in his head and then made it happen. The whole process of the glimmer stones had been removed entirely which gave him a new perspective on the process that the books never once mentioned. Instead of focusing on the stones, he’d done something else.
The words ‘pushed through the stone’ kept rolling and rolling around in his head. When he’d created that mass above his head, he hadn’t had much time to contemplate it but as he touched it now, he was almost reliving its creation. He hadn’t pushed through a stone, he’d made an image…no, more than that, he’d created something with purpose and intent in his head and then pulled it from somewhere to the real world. For some reason, that felt right. But would that help him now? Could he use that somehow?
Aiden shook his head. He wished he could talk to Professor Reivus about this, but knew that was a mistake. He might as well just go jump into the tar pits. He wished he could trust that before the professor told anyone, he might forget about their conversation but knew that was a mistake. He didn’t really want to die so he shook that notion out of his head.
He looked up, watching as Glowby just hovered there. He wasn’t bopping about like his usual self, but just being as still as possible. Whatever was going on, he felt close to an answer of some sort and wondered if Glowby was somehow helping him through it? Wait, pulling something through meant there was a flow. Maybe it could also go in the other direction?
He could at least try.
> Aiden closed his eyes, focusing on the memory that was so easy to relive while touching the piece he had created. It was, and yet wasn’t like a memory as he tried to find the bits he needed. Moving his mind over it like his hand was caressing the steel itself he finally found what he thought he needed and began to pull.
There was a strange pain deep inside his head that began to pulse. Much as it had felt when Glowby had pulled him to this strange dream realm earlier, the effort felt like trying to drag a tree on a rope against the current of a large river. It was working, but was not easy and he knew he couldn’t give up. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, or whatever it was supposed to be called in this strange other-place, but eventually, he felt the huge mass begin to slide towards him.
When he’d initially created it, he hadn’t had time to feel its passage because he was in fear of his life but now he found he could study it. The resistance to being pulled back through to this reality was fierce, but as time passed he knew he was gathering more and more of it back to this side of reality. It took a long time, but suddenly all resistance disappeared and caused him to fall backward onto the cobblestones.
He’d never seen something so beautiful in his entire life. It glowed like burnished gold, with a reality so strong it almost blinded him like it was super-real; more real than anything in the world he came from. He knew then that when glimmer steel was created, it was cutting itself in half and becoming less than it was.
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 11