by Domino Finn
I had the vague feeling of rising through the chimney on the wind.
Chapter 12
I jolted awake. A huge, body-spanning convulsion racked all my joints. Except I was never asleep. It was like I jerked free of a waking dream, a level of consciousness I could barely place anymore. The more I concentrated on remembering, the more I forgot.
My eyelids fluttered against intense brilliance. My lashes blinked dust away. I sat up and a sheet of ash flaked off me like dried mud. My skin was raw and pink underneath. My hands weren't burning anymore. I spent a good minute just staring at my palms and the perfect inky snowflake tattoo.
A sound like settling earth broke my focus. I turned to find Tyson's rock form intently eyeing me.
I huffed and shook ash from my hair. "You know, you could've warned me about the whole being-coated-in-lava thing."
The elemental shrugged. "I didn't wanna scare you."
"Fear's healthy," I countered. "It's what keeps us from doing stupid things like..."
I looked around. We were in a wide open scrubland of sand and olive grass. Hillsides hemmed us in from all directions. The sun blazed in the wide-open sky, hot but dry. A rolling breeze swept the browning grass, cool against my face. Tyson and I were alone as far as the eye could see.
"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Miami anymore."
The elemental arched an eyebrow. "Who's Toto?"
"The Wizard of Oz," I chided. "You could learn a lot from that movie, you know. It's clear you have courage. I just can't figure out if it's brains or heart you're lacking."
He grumbled but didn't press the issue. Not a movie buff, then. I didn't mind the silence. It gave me time to take in our new surroundings.
The Aether Steppe. The land above the earth, where jinns and elementals come from. Of course, the Aether's not just really high in the sky. It's not like any chump with a pilot license can make a pit stop here. Just as with the Nether below, spellcraft's required to make the journey.
I crawled to my feet and clapped my hands on my jeans, slowly working the cricks from my bones. That's when I noticed I was wearing a spotless white tank top. No burn marks anywhere. And no orange tee.
"Please tell me I don't need to go all Human Torch again to get out of here."
Tyson stared into the distance. His molten eyes were hard to read. Rivers of magma flowed between the crags of his rockskin, playing a rainbow of reds and yellows over his body. If he was an imposing figure in human form, he was doubly so now. Besides weighing the better side of a VW bug, his stone fingers sharpened to horny points.
"Tyson," I pried, "what aren't you telling me?"
Seeing the large beast squirm under my admonishment would've been amusing if I wasn't so afraid of his answer. "I haven't figured out how to get you out of here yet."
"Out of where?" I asked. "This field? The Aether? Can't we just hop back out of the fireplace like Santa? Eat some milk and cookies?"
He turned his head to shake it before thinking better of it. "Elementals are not free to leave the Aether on their own. If I had permission I could take you back. Otherwise it's beyond my power. And without a host..."
"You're trapped here so I'm trapped here," I summed up. My little elemental adventure was off to a rocky start, pun intended.
Tyson was quiet and brooding, telling me just enough to take the bait while hoping I didn't notice the hook in my cheek. I narrowed my eyes.
"You died twice," I said.
A bedrock eyebrow shifted up an inch.
"Since I came back from the dead," I explained. "I've seen you die twice. The first time was at City Hall. You were still a slave to the heartstone then. Still Connor's puppet. We mixed it up and I shoved you into the warm waters of Biscayne Bay until you dissolved."
Tyson's jaw ground together like a miniature earthquake. He was prideful and didn't like the thought of getting his ass kicked by a human.
"Second time was the next day. When you and Kita fought me and the Spaniard in the commissioner's yard."
The lava flowing under his skin darkened at the mention of Kita. Tyson was suddenly no longer proud and angry. I couldn't tell what he was.
"I was trying to unsummon you," I continued, "but that revenant attacked us and pile-drived you into the pond."
"I remember, shadow witch," he said morosely.
"That's twice you died," I repeated. "And both times, your magical energies reformed in the Aether and you were free to once again return to the Earthly Steppe. So why is it that now all of a sudden you're trapped here?"
The elemental released a long sigh. "Politics."
He turned and began hiking to a distant hill. I did a full three-sixty and couldn't tell east from west so I wondered how he knew where he was going. At this point I wouldn't put anything past him. I stood in place, clapping black dust off me, stubbornly refusing to follow. I crossed my arms and waited but Tyson never looked back. He didn't seem overly concerned about me at all. I waited till he was at the foot of the hill.
A shadow rolled over the valley. A sharp cry split the air above. A single enormous bird glided overhead. Its wingspan must've beat fifty feet, and every inch of its plumage rippled with flame. The bird—it could only be a phoenix—veered sharply and disappeared into a cloud system.
I checked Tyson again, halfway up a distant hill. I hurried to catch up.
He marched ahead forcefully, like an automaton. His large stride carried his mass forward with machine-like grace until he stopped at the hilltop and surveyed the ground below. He didn't turn to me when I stopped at his side, but he spoke.
"Before you understand my methods, you need to understand the Aether." He pointed at a dirt road below. A caravan was passing through. Two shaggy elephant beasts at the head and the foot of the line, each with a man riding atop. A string of four humanoids walked single file in between. All four were water elementals. Sloshing, rounded forms flowing blue and white. They marched mindlessly with their heads lowered.
"Prisoners," I said.
Tyson shook his head. "They're in service to the company of jinn. Water's hard to come by in the Aether without a wellspring, so water elementals are extremely valuable and rare. They'll fetch a great price from the lords in the city."
"But they're not chained up," I said. "I don't see magical bindings. Why don't they just run?"
"Politics, human. They're bound to service. Aether law is different from earthly law."
"Bullshit," I said. "Strength is the same no matter where you go. Those elementals can do some damage, can't they?"
"Those jinn aren't pushovers. But that misses the point. The two races share a harmonious relationship that's defined by much more than strength."
I frowned, recalling my encounters with Connor Hatch. Our conversations. He said the jinn were above material wealth. They treasured things that couldn't be held with physical hands. The intangible: Trust. Service. Duty. Information.
I watched the duty-bound elementals, serving in stubborn silence. "Doesn't look so harmonious to me."
Tyson took a long breath. "Your steppe refers to my kind as elementals, but in the Aether we're called aspects. We are resonances of energy. Nothing more."
"The Intrinsics," I said. "The building blocks of spellcraft and the rest of the world. The way I understand it, all beings from the Aether are magic incarnate."
"In some ways, maybe. But even the jinn cannot claim the purity that aspects personify. My form is molten earth. Without the jinn, I would be little more. They shape us into sentient beings. Shape us for their utility. It's no different than humans harnessing the power of spirits."
I blinked slowly as I took in the new information. "Elementals are the source of jinn magic," I whispered.
Tyson nodded.
Energy inherent. Molded. I suddenly understood what Tyson meant by harmonious. Jinns and elementals needed each other. Jinns for their power, elementals for their being.
"Does your kind have no autonomy in this world?" I asked.
Tyson watched the caravan disappear around a bend. "True autonomy means going inert. Dispersing our energies until we fade into oblivion. What we have is enough."
Now that no one was in sight, the elemental tromped down the hill.
"We go this way."
I followed without the melodrama this time. My cowboy boots slipped on loose rocks a couple times, but mostly the terrain was easy going. It reminded me of those seventies TV westerns. The whole thing made me wanna saddle up a horse, grab a six shooter, and rob a train. But this land was more exotic than my nostalgic imagination. The literal bird on fire showed that much. I would need to keep my eyes open in what was essentially an alien planet.
Sticking close to a walking volcano didn't hurt.
"So you're a rogue aspect," I reasoned. "Free of Connor's control now. That have something to do with why you can't leave the Aether?"
"Yes," he answered. "The only way for us to exit willingly is at the behest of a jinn master."
I noticed he used the word "willingly" and immediately thought of elemental summoning. That might've been an option with some planning on the Earthly Steppe but it was too late for that now.
Chapter 13
We walked in silence for a while after that. Tyson because that was his way. Me because I was content to take in my surroundings. We followed the road but didn't walk directly on it. We merely kept it in sight and moved along the same path. That told me the journey was at least a little dangerous.
Tyson was right about the scarcity of water too. The sun beat down through mixed cloud cover in an azure sky. The land below was semi-arid. In fact, the further we walked, the more patchy the scrubland grew. The hills more desertlike. I was beginning to worry as the temperature peaked. (I may have lodged an idle complaint or two to the heavens.)
Tyson crested the next hill and nodded. "This way."
When I came up behind him, I was stunned. The vista that opened before us looked like the cover of a fantasy novel. The land descended steeply over a rocky ledge that jutted into a sea of fog. And that's exactly what it was. Not just a marine layer of mist hugging the water, but a dense swirl of atmosphere that washed against the land. The clouds ran to the horizon, breaking only when a giant whale breached the surface in the distance before crashing back into the mist.
Tyson descended into the ravine and scaled the edge. His molten eyes darted from one green plant hugging the cliff wall to another. He climbed below the surface of the fog as an updraft caught us like a gentle geyser. A column of fog gave way to open air.
I looked through the vertical tunnel in the fog and recoiled. Nearly crapped my pants, really. There was absolutely nothing below us but a sky diver's dream. Miles and miles of deep sky, with no land in sight. Only problem was, I wasn't wearing a parachute.
"What the hell?" I asked sharply.
Tyson silently took advantage of the temporary visibility gained from the updraft. He scaled deeper another step and plucked two shiny gourds from the tanglework of stems. Then he pulled himself up and out of the flooding fog and sat beside me twelve feet from the edge.
"These will tide you over," he said, dropping the fruit beside me.
I took them dutifully, partially in shock but ravenous all the same. I eyed the strange fruit. Looked kinda like a squash but smooth and plump. I reached for my bronze knife to slice it open. Patted my belt.
"My knife," I said.
Tyson gazed into the endless sea of fog. "Your material possessions have not traveled with you," he explained. "Objects cannot pass between the Earth and the Aether."
I frowned as I ran my eyes over my red boots, my skull belt buckle, the dog collar on my wrist. He caught my meaning.
"Your clothes are part of your persona. A visible reflection of yourself, not unlike how silvans and jinns wear clothes in your world."
That explained the brand-new tank top. It was officially part of my identity now.
"My spellcraft," I said, scrambling to find a patch of shadow in this world of sun. I hesitantly crawled to the edge of the cliff and fanned some fog away with my hand. I tweaked the darkness along the rock wall. It responded forcefully, slithering toward me and wiggling with a life of its own.
"Your spellcraft is of the shadow," explained the elemental. "Intangible by nature. You should find it potent here. Your necromancy, on the other hand, may be all but useless."
I sighed in relief and dissipated the construct. At least I wasn't completely naked. I could work with that. I returned to my seat and bit into the gourd. It crunched like an apple. Sweet juice filled my mouth. I finished it quickly.
"Eat the other," said Tyson. "I don't need it."
He stood to resume the hike. I ate on the way.
After I was sated, I again considered my host. He was blunt, quiet, and always pushing forward. This was a mission for him, I realized. I didn't say anything and let him lead the way.
We followed the fog's edge. Several times I saw more exotic creatures in the distance, although they were small and unimpressive in scale. A flight of wyverns chased each other and dipped into the sea. A field of balloons drifted along the current, sometimes taking flight above the surface and revealing jellyfish tentacles before succumbing once again to gravity and nestling back into the fog. We also passed over a network of holes in the rocks where worms the size of snakes weaved in and out like rodents.
"Aren't they afraid of digging out through the bottom of the world?" I asked offhandedly.
Tyson glanced at me sideways. "It's foreign to you, but this is my home. The Aether. We cling to the rock but we live in the sky."
I nodded and stared at the ocean of fog. "There must be a whole ecosystem in that mist."
"The drift," he corrected. "Like your oceans on Earth, the drift is beautiful but exceedingly dangerous."
"The drift, or what lives inside it?"
He smiled.
"I've always wanted to see what the belly of a whale looked like," I muttered.
"Bah," Tyson scoffed. "The whales are the gentle ones. Just keep it simple. Don't wander in the drift and you don't need to find out what's inside."
Sounded like good advice.
By the time we approached some huts on the horizon, I was all National Geographic-ed out. Civilization was a welcome sight, but I didn't have any illusions that we were safe.
"Where are we heading?"
"A common wayfaring point, frequented by traders and the like. Keep your head down and your eyes to yourself."
I snickered. "You obviously don't know me well."
The road we'd been avoiding skirted closer to the ravine now, squeezing us in. The small row of pinioned huts resembled a hunting outpost, the outskirts of civilization but lacking the structure. Three men huddled around a raised pyre. At first I figured it for a campfire for cooking but it was too large. It didn't take three people to grill a few burgers and it certainly wasn't cold enough to huddle around a fire. Then I noticed it wasn't lit, but the three jinns held up their palms as if they were being warmed.
Tyson frowned. His step stuttered as he considered crossing to the outer road. But he was determined to move on and we were already exposed so he pressed forward.
I followed carefully, not thrilled about getting up close and personal with jinnfolk. "How big a deal is it that I'm a human?" I whispered.
"None at all," he said. "As long as they don't realize."
"And will they?"
He turned to me. "Visitors in your world aren't always easy to spot. And when they are, they should be treated cautiously."
Great. So I was the monster here. I Am Legend. Richard Matheson would be proud. Will Smith, too. I frowned sternly as we approached the huddled men. They weren't warming their hands. They were weaving a working. Twitching their fingers and teasing a glow from the center of the smooth stones. A salamander rose from the earth, orange as fire and just as ethereal.
"Mark it," said one of the men.
Another pulled a golden needle from
a fold of his shirt. He spoke some words and pierced the lizard with it. Instead of thrashing, the action seemed to give the salamander definition. Form. The needle was absorbed into the thing's body.
They were trapping an elemental. It was like Tyson had said. Aspects were probably caught and traded like Pokémon here.
Their precise working accomplished, the men looked up from their fire. I dropped my head and marched forward, following Tyson's lead, hoping we could skirt their whole ceremony and be on our way.
"That's a big one!" a jinn exclaimed, eyes wide. He wasn't fearful, though. He was hungry.
"You do not lie, brother," said another. Calm. Careful.
Tyson picked up his pace and attempted to pass the men. They hurried into our path.
"You here to do business?" asked the calm one. The third still hadn't spoken.
Tyson halted in his tracks. I waited for him to answer but realized the three jinns were addressing me. That made sense. He was a second-class citizen here. A tool more than an equal. I cleared my throat.
"Just moving through," I said.
"You sure we can't talk trade?" asked the first jinn. He was a jittery fellow. Nervous and jumpy. "We could use a battle aspect these days. The damned skags are getting bolder every day."
"No thanks," I said. The calm one eyed me suspiciously. "Keep moving," I told Tyson, putting my hand on his shoulder and directing him. He sidestepped the men and headed past. They fell in step alongside us.
The third jinn finally spoke. His voice was high-pitched and hurried. "You can't protect what you don't claim," he said.
The nervous one chuckled and nodded. "He speaks truth. You can't protect what you don't claim."
Tyson continued walking. I tightened my fist and turned around, walking backward to keep between them.
"Leave them be," rasped an old woman at the doorway of the largest hut. Her leathery skin was wrinkled and worn. Her silver hair was brittle and patchy. For a jinn, that meant she was very, very old. "He is owned by another," she said.
The three jinns immediately backed away, reproached by their mother. I waited a tense moment, knowing for a fact she had power to be worried about. Not because she was big or loud, but because she didn't need to be.