He mocked a laugh. "You know, you’re right. It doesn't. I’m hoping she'll tell me one day. …Are we almost there?" Change the subject, Mend.
"Yes, we are," she answered "No sign of your friends. They must have gone back to town. But at least your making sense when you talk now."
Mend grumbled. "I guess I have to now, Chief Engineer."
"Good, because we’re here. I might need more than just a grunt man."
The carriage turned sharply before slowing to a stop. "Get out," she said and Mend followed her orders. He was all-in now, but he knew from experience patience was the key: it brought opportunity but, unfortunately, it also gave his kind of luck more room to play.
The building stood before them like a square chiseled out of massive rock made to look like that ordinary brick and mortar with no windows. Some of the mortar reflected against the gas lamps that hugged the road. Runic shield inside the mortar? Wonder what's inside. He smirked.
"What’s so damn funny," she said, stepping off the box seat.
"Uh, no one's around," he stumbled. "Shouldn't there be guards or something?"
She looked around. "Damn, Dale must have given the evac order. Follow me," she commanded before marching inside a darkened veranda that was recessed into the building’s entrance. Up underneath, about two Mend's height high, he could see three lamps that were out. No gas?
"Hurry, grunt," she ordered, opening one of the double doors for him.
Mend rushed in, saluting.
"Stop saluting." She marched passed him, walking down the almost pitch-black hallway. Mend followed, snapping into memory everything he saw. But there wasn’t much, really. The hall was too dark to see except for red glows spaced evenly on the ceiling. Mend recognized them to be gem lights. Store magic in them, and they'd glow for a while. But how were they not fading? "This isn’t good. This isn’t good," Sera repeated when a low muffled groan shook above them. She quickened her pace. "What do you know of the Beast's proximity field?"
"Eh, nothing useful, ma'am."
She stopped at the last red gem above them, evenly flickering on and off. Amazing. Then a blue light glowed beside her hand. "It's me, Sera. Is Dale in?"
"Sera, is that you,” came a reply from the wall. “Oh, thank the Almighty!” —Sera cleared her throat— “No, Dale’s downtown. We got a big problem. It won't stop moving and it's getting close to the Runic Shielding."
"Alright, let me in." And then a door slid open, revealing another red gem on the ceiling ahead of them. A closet? She turned over her shoulder, regarding him with sour face. You wanted me to come, lady. "You don't look like you know how to use magic. Do you?" Mend shrugged before extending his hand and casting a soft blue light in his palm. "Good. I see you spent some time around the Holy City, huh?"
“Uh, yea,” Mend had to admit. So what, doesn’t matter if she knows.
She stepped forward under the red light, faced him, crossed her arms and frowned. Taping her foot, she barked, "Well, hurry up. Get in here."
“In there?” Mend took a step closer to her
Her frown deepened. "Closer, Glen."
“What? How close—”
"Damn greenhorn grunt, you’re shy of girls?" She grabbed his arm with a powerful grip, yanking him inside like a sack of flour.
"How strong are you," he yelped, rubbing the tenderness of his forearm. “You almost tore my arm right out.”
"You’ll live,” she jeered as the small closet jerked suddenly. He felt himself rising. Ah, a lift! Really fancy Empire.
The lift rose to another darkly lit room. That smell! He pinched his nose with his palm-light hand, almost blinding himself before he released the spell. But blinding himself was better than having to smell…whatever that was. Like rotten eggs with a sweetness to it but strangely familiar —Ah, Roach’s cooking. Yea, that’s it.
An older man rushed up to them wearing a similar gray jumpsuit as Sera wore. With short stubs of white hair that hugged his entire head, the man was thick and stocky like he had fought bears his whole life and drank with them afterwards. "Chief Engineer," he said with relief. Mend snapped his face into memory. Mine. Mine. Mine. Maybe Landrie would pay for these bonuses? The man hesitated, glancing a wary look at Mend.
Mend smiled, waving with his free hand.
"This is Glen Tellerson," Sera said, letting annoyance escape in her voice. "Coolant specialist."
"Keeping the shielding cold isn't going to help us here," he said, leading them further into the room, a very dark room with those amazing red gems glowing on the ceiling without dimming out. But Mend could still make out the size and shape of the room. Rectangular. Fifteen Mend's heights wide and—
He bumped into the Chief Engineer. She turned and frowned disapprovingly. He smiled apologetically. Don't worry, lady, I'll soon be out of your hair.
"Pods buildings 22 and 24 are locked down. And we've removed all Beast related materials here, but it's still moving. Some of the support cables have snapped, but not all of them, so I know for certain it hasn't reached the wall yet," the man said, placing his hand on a handle on the wall.
"Where is everyone," she asked.
"Cowards ran," the man cursed. "Took the suits too. That's when I used your alarm."
"When we resolve this, I want you to write down everyone’s name who left," she said with a serene calmness. Oh, she's mad, Mend realized. There were two types of angry, Mend knew from his experience: the volcanic explosion, crack your face open type, and then the silent, ‘I’ll wait till I know how best to crack your face open’ type. Sera was definitely the latter.
The man glanced over to Mend and then back to her. "Should I open the shutter door?"
Sera didn’t answer right away, taking in a sharp breath instead. "We would have been dead already,” she said. “Yes, open it."
He pulled on the handle, and then he went to a wheel underneath it that resembled steering wheel of a ship. He struggled to turn it and as he did, the wall before them groaned as a horizontal line of light peeked through. It widened as the man continued working the wheel.
Mend held his breath, squinting through the sliver of brightness. After a moment or two, the horizontal doors opened to the floor and ceiling, making a loud clunk sound. But there wasn’t much too see, only a strange bluish sheet of glass with lines of a reflective runic layered in a crisscrossing pattern. The runic gave off its signature glow; it was absorbing magic and by the color —bright blue almost violet— it had to be a lot of magic. Mend also noticed the glass dancing in small ripples down from top to bottom. That’s liquid! That must be how they were keeping the runic cool. Amazing. Whatever liquid it was, it couldn’t be water. Water would boil before runic melted or shattered if it wasn’t pure enough, but the real question was what could be giving off that much magic?
Sera, with her arms folded about her chest, peered inside the window. "Yes, that looks bad. Hey, Glen. You should see this. Not many people get this kind of opportunity. Not without those foggy suits, anyway."
"Right there, Sera," the man said, pointing upwards through the window. "Cables three and four have come loose—"
That’s weird. Suddenly, Mend was aware of his heartbeat. Slow and steady, then a bit faster. He took a step forward up to the window, committing everything to memory. Everything inside rippled at the coolant flowed down the window glass, but he could still make out a huge rectangular room at least two-stories deep and one more story taller than from where they were looking in.
The walls were all lined with crisscrossing runic, glowing brightly and giving everything inside a soft blue-violet glow. Have you come to finish me off? Tubes —cables, the man called them— forty or fifty of them started their way down from a spherical object on the ceiling. Mend noticed a slight cramp coming in hands, flexing his muscles to form a fist. He tried massaging the tension away, noticing himself taking in more air —disgusting air. His chest rose higher and lower, a bit faster. Relax, Mend. There’s enough air here. Just breath through
your mouth. So what. Nothing special here. It's just a piece of a dead god. That's all. What are you afraid of? Do you really believe those stories of people going insane? Sera and that other guy don’t look insane. I knew he’d send you to me. I’ve prepared for it. Voices now? Mend gulped. You are not going crazy, Mend. How can you go crazy? You already talk to yourself! You’re already crazy!
He glanced a nervous look to Sera and the old man, talking some gibberish Mend didn’t understand. His heart jumped again, beating faster. This is stupid. Don’t be a ‘greenhorn.’ They’re fine. I’m fine. Everyone’s fine. Your mind’s playing tricks on you. Just some old memory of a conversation you forgot you memorized. Now look at the fragment and snap into memory. Mend followed the cables’ lengths down with his eyes. Then picked one, letting his eyes follow its tautness down. If you can't do this, you can't see the Beast itself.
Then, in one quick act, he shot his vision down, snapping everything he saw into memory. It’s huge, was his first thought, letting his eyes roam over the entire thing, capturing it all. And blue, deep blue like the ocean, and like the ocean the sleek uniform color had an indescribable deepness to it…. Well, not indescribable, Mend would describe it as looking into the ocean, and instead of seeing only a foot or so deep, he could peer deeper and deeper, seeing more of what was underneath, an entire world of water atmosphere until the darkness grew so thick, there was only blackness —and yet he sensed there was more to explore. That made as much sense as believing that thing was a god, he admitted to himself, yet he couldn’t pry his eyes away, thinking that if he stared long enough he could catch a glimpse of something deeper.
Mend shivered, but at least he had calmed down. It's just a ‘thing,’ he told himself. ‘Things’ are amazing and wonderful but not scary. The object was cylindrical with a gradual bulge in the middle. Small thin square sections laid scattered overlapping each other on the floor. On the ‘thing’ itself, small square openings were visible and inside a wavy blue light undulated to and fro. It was like they had cut out a piece of the ocean’s surface to see underneath. Not so bad, is it, Mend, he told himself, but then he noticed an emotion rising in him. It wasn’t fear or panic—
"It's homesick," Mend said, slowly. Damn it. Why did I just say that out loud?
Sera broke from her conversation and laughed. "Yea, Glennie. It is. They really should expose you greenhorns to it before giving you assignments. Beasts are amazing pieces of manufacturing. With magically energy, they can light up, fly, fight. And they call to one another. This one is homesick. Another piece is proud. Another gives off a child-like curiosity.” She caressed the window. "Almost like it's alive."
"Damn right, they’re alive," the man said, crossing his arms and nodding to himself. "Fragments of the Almighty’s body. Different aspects of the whole. Emotions, agency, will. Has to be."
Sera frowned and shook her head. "If you really believe that crap, don’t you think you’ll be going to that Dark Well for what we’re doing?”
The man tightened his crossed arms and spit. “I worship in my own way.”
“Uh huh. Right…. —Hey Glennie, notice the problem in there,” she asked, jetting her chin downward to direct Mend’s gaze.
Now that he was comfortable looking at it, he quickly found the problem. Some of the cables broke free and the entire thing leaned slightly toward their side of the room while the nearest end rose up slightly, giving slack to some of the cables. It really does want to go back.
“The cables broke free,” Mend said.
“Give the kid the crown to the kingdom,” the man replied.
“It’s logical,” Sera defended him. “I like logical thinking. Best place to start.” Good, I’m getting on her good side. OK, Mend, back to the mission.
“Hey lad,” the man spoke again. “Don’t tell me you think the fragment is just a complicated machine, do you?”
“Uh, well. I don’t, uh….” He glanced at Sera.
“Ah, Sera’s already given you her speech,” he said with a snort. “It’s not enough you have to blaspheme, you’re scaring the kids too.”
She rolled her eyes. “God’s wrath or not, these grunts know they work for me. But this doesn’t make sense. We know that any piece we break off the main Beast always feels a pull back. The pull gets stronger until some point where it either breaks free, or we just can’t physically move it anymore." She nodded forward. "This one, we couldn't move any further from downtown then here. For ten years. And why now? Why is the Beast's pull stronger?" I will defend myself, and I will not allow you to leave this island alive. Sera chewed her lower lip.
"The runic shielding looks fine,” the man said, scanning the inside walls. “Coolant flowing. A bit overheated where the fragment is lean closest, but nothing the coolant can’t handle."
"The Shielding at the Beast, downtown" Mend pipped up. OK, Mend, just ignore the creepy voice in your head and take this chance. "We should take a look at the big one, maybe? If everything is fine here, then maybe some runic overheated and popped apart over there, right?"
"Weren't you listening, greenhorn," Sera replied, chewing now on her middle finger nail instead of her lip. "Granger just said the shielding is fine on this end. If this runic shield is good here, the one downtown shouldn’t matter. Besides, the downtown building has enough man power to fix a simple problem like that, and I don’t really want to go all the way downtown either." Yes, you do! Come to me, and I will destroy you before you can harm me. On second thought….
Mend returned his gaze onto the object, the deep blueness rippling across it with undulating waves of blue hues. "So…what...what is it supposed to do? This piece?"
“Do? Not sure,” Sera answered. “Magic seemed to concentrate in its center. Doesn’t fly or light up much. No projectiles either. Now don't bother me, I'm thinking." She closed her eyes and tapped her finger rhythmically against her lips. Mend recognized it right away; that tapping was a technique he learned to organize his memories. Yup, no doubt in his mind, she was a memorizer like him. He sighed; he couldn’t hide his face from her now. Come on Almighty, make this even harder on me.
"What's the matter, lad," Granger said. "Feeling the hangover already?" He laughed. "How did I know? You smell of that Dreamy Sailor crap. How much you pay for that? A week's wage?"
"Too much," Mend reply, rubbing his forehead.
"I swear to the moon and stars, they must only stock that stuff for you new suckers—"
"Damn it," Sera cursed, opening her eyes. "Yes, I'm going downtown. Granger, if too many of those cables pop, just drop the whole thing in the pit. Hopefully, that'll keep it from going anywhere."
"And if that doesn't work," he asked before pressing his lips into a tight frown.
"Pray to the Almighty that his corpse won't kill too many people." She then started her way back to the lift. Yes! Now just follow— "Not you, Glennie" she said with her back still against him. "I don’t need you, anymore." No, no, no. I have to go. "Stay here. Help out Granger where you can."
"Please," Mend persisted. "Let me come. I can use the experience. I want to see it." She turned over her should and frowned at him. "Give me a chance to impress you."
Her frown deepened. "Next time, Glennie." And back down the lift she went, and with her, his first good opportunity. Of course, it couldn’t be that easy, strolling up to the Beast with one of the most powerful woman in the Empire. Now, he was stuck with this bum.
"Don't worry, lad," Granger said, slapping him hard on the back. "You'll get another chance."
"Have you seen it?”
"Oh sure, once a month I go in and do my rounds." A month? You’re no help, either. Mend looked back through the window, gazing at the object. Much of its awe was gone now, he admitted to himself. Just another piece of junk. But if he listened he could still feel that homesick feeling. Or maybe that was just him this time? How could he be homesick for home he didn’t remember? He definitely wasn’t homesick for Roach’s place. Right? "I think I need a vac
ation."
Granger laughed. "You just got here!"
"Yea, I know," Mend added as he watched Granger struggle to turn the wheel door locking thing. "So, how far is it to downtown from here, anyway?"
"Not...far," he said through clenched teeth. "Blasted thing! Move." Granger leaned his entire weight against the wheel. "Fine. Stay open. You’re not thinking of sneaking off, are you, lad?" Granger walked off to the other side of the floor to ceiling window and into the darkness of the room.
"It's not like I have anywhere else to be," Mend grumbled. OK, Mend. How are you getting out of this one? Fake sickness? Throw up? Break your own leg— Something smacked his chest and clinked to the floor. A key?
"Take that key to that green blinking light on the other side of the window and just push the key in only," Granger said. "When I tell you, turn it. Not. One. Second. Before. OK, lad?"
"OK, lad," Mend mouthed.
“What was that that?”
“Yes, fine. I see it.” He picked up the key and found the blinking green light on the opposite end of the window. "Now I'm doing menial work, Roach? You going to pay me for this?" He reached it, quickly finding the keyhole before sliding in the key. "Ready," he shouted. "...you dumb old man," he then whispered.
“Great, now on the count of three, turn it.” Mend shrugged. “One, two. Three.” Mend turned the key…and nothing happened. “Good job, lad.”
Good job for turning a key? Empire must be lowering its standards. “Alright, what’s next?”
Thud.
"I said, what’s next," Mend repeated, but there was only silence. He sighed, walking passed the window into the darkness of the other side. His eyes couldn't adjust fast enough when he tripped over something. Granger lay on the floor, shivering like he was cold. "Granger," Mend called, trying to hold him steady. "What wrong? What happened?"
Mend felt his weight shift behind him when a series of pops echoed from the next room. A muted crash thumped as a odd pushing force rushed up through Mend’s body, knocking him down on his back. Granger grabbed his hand.
Call of the Chosen- Broken Kingdoms Page 16