by C J Timms
He recoiled.
Deep Script hammered away from the Blood Knight, like a pulse pounding in his ears. In theVibe,he saw a fanged wraith that ate the light around it. In the peripheries of his vision, a red fin cut the surface of the dark shadows. He was still just small fry.
He held his breath, didn’t dare to move. The Blood Knight sniffed in his direction. Gale’s left shoulder started to burn, had he overused it working the salt blocks?
‘Bah. Rats.’ The Blood Knight said.
Gale breathed out.
Gaul and the Blood Knight walked away, discussing shipments. Gale waited a long time after they left. He rolled up his shirt and examined his shoulder, then saw his tattoo. In the dark, a faint red spark danced off the tattoo. He rubbed his eyes and checked again, and it had faded. Had it been a residual from theVibe?
He poked his tattoo and nothing happened. No burning, no red sparks. Gale slipped away down the tunnels, looking for a path back up.
Gale emerged into the flickering light of a cavern. Miners ran about whipped by the harsh words of an overseer. Gale slunk through the shadows making for the exit. He tripped over a floating book and fell on his face.
‘Gale, get over here.’ Waved an overseer from atop a stack of crates
‘Yip?’
Gale brushed the dust off his clothes and trudged over to Yip who sat atop the crates. Yip calmly directed miners into cracks in the mine. Yip held up a hand to halt him.
‘No Scrag, you want to use the pick at a forty-five-degree angle…Duncan…Duncan, I need you to bring the carts in closer for the drop-off, we’re losing minutes in efficiency.’ Yip said.
Duncan dropped his shovel at Yip’s voice and sprinted to bring the cart in closer. Gale stared gobsmacked. Yip turned to them while continuing to direct workers.
‘Gale.’ He nodded crisply. ‘How was your shift.’
Gale held out a hand and tilted it back and forth. ‘Ups and downs. You?’
‘Terrible, most of these lads haven’t even heard of a SWOT analysis. The inefficiencies I tell you.’ Yip shook his head and leapt down to join him. ‘Still, end of shift, I suppose.’
Yip lead him towards the exit, and Gale felt every miner’s eyes on Yip.
Giltynan was not waiting for them at midnight for shift change. It seemed the comfort of a warm bed limited the man’s vindictiveness. Gale waited on the platform with a broken mass of humanity. Yet even the fatigued eyes of the miners showed…something when they fell on Gale. A breath drawn slower, a spark of curiosity, a whisper to the man standing beside them. Yip loved the extra space.
‘Gale!’ Titus roared elbowing through the crowd. Titus put him in a headlock. ‘Beast slayer, man of men, man’o’war…manity…no wait too far, go back.’
Swan gave him a solid nod, ‘Good work, dickhead.’
Gale extricated himself from Titus’s headlock. He grinned but studied her reaction. What did she know? How were the Swan’s involved with Gaul and the Blood Knight? Would she betray them?
Then she whacked him in the nuts.
‘That's for leaving us to haul the salt blocks by ourselves.’
Gale bent over, tears in his eyes. Backstabbing didn’t seem like the sort of thing she’d do.
The travel back in the airship was a blur. Gale collapsed into his bed at the Lighthouse at one in the morning. God, how good was a bed at the end of a long day. Pillows, what genius invented these miracles.
Gale tried his communicator again but got no response from Ash. He’d have to sneak it into the Eureka room tomorrow to work on it. Was Ash alright? He needed to know.
Then there was Squall. He didn’t dare go back to the mines to ask questions. Not now that he knew Gaul was working with the Blood Knight. Those dog tags, bone coral, what did they mean? What was it Squall had said? ‘Dredge the depths…’
People were working with the Blood Knight, with the Deep. Giltynan wasn’t wrong. He was just targeting the wrong people. Who could Gale trust? With a groan, he abandoned his comfy bed and walked down the hallway.
He knocked on Yip’s door. Gale laid it out for him. Yip whistled low and started writing in his journal. Yip drew up a pros and cons list and stuck it to the wall. Finally, he nodded.
‘Leave it be.’
‘Its an illegal smuggling ring right under our noses and we’re meant to be the heroes Yip, I can’t just leave it.’
‘Can’t you? The worlds full of assholes Gale and just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
Now I didn’t trust Swan to begin with, so that doesn’t change. A healthy dose of scepticism wouldn’t hurt you either. No one will believe you without proof. They said they were moving the goods tonight and who do you trust enough to bank on tonight. Giltynan oversees the mines, do you think he’s in on it? What about Helios, debt makes for all sort of poor choices, and this university must be deep in the red. Herlov? Arancina?
Sounds like a smuggling ring for illicit goods, Volkstorm’s become a centre for all sorts of smugglers since the flood twenty years ago. The question is…is it your problem and are you going to get paid to deal with it?’
‘Well, I mean I don’t always need to get paid if I’m doing some good,’ Gale said. His mother’s letter flashed through his mind.
‘Then consider this, if you snitch and don’t catch them all, what happens next time you get sent back to the Salt mines?’
Gale hesitated. ‘You’re right…its not my problem.’ Someone else could catch the Blood Knight. He had exams to pass.
Grace/Spur- The Titans
The world of Lego expanded before Grace. A truly magnificent exhibition put on at the Rocks in Sydney. Brick by brick, a team had painstakingly built a world of rich colour and fantasy. Soaring spinnerets where knights bowed to princesses. Flying hovercars with pistol-wielding heroes. Pirates on the high seas. It was a magical world, indeed.
A child ran into a Lego castle and toppled it into the pirate setting. They threw bits of ships into the hovercar display.
‘Oh Jeremy, you are so creative, look at him go.’ Said a nearby woman. ‘Now be gentle hunny-buns.’
Grace’s hand twitched, her tail swishing back and forth. What a little monster. Discipline, that was what some kids needed. Some parents too. She moved further away from the unfolding destruction.
She pushed the pram at a steady pace through the Lego exhibition. Grace fidgeted with her dress, smoothing it out. She looked damn good. Not only that, but she was also organised. She double-checked Jason was occupied in his pram, and Paw Patrol set up on repeat. So many hours of episodes and she knew them all back to front.
She rechecked her phone. Late. Not a good sign when they were late, it meant that they thought a lot of themselves or were disorganised.
Dates could be ruined so very early in the piece.
‘Are you by any chance, Grace?’
Grace turned around and found a six-foot, blonde-haired surfer type. His white shirt unbuttoned to show chest hair, broad aviator sunglasses, and the arms of a lumberjack.
Alright, late could be forgiven once.
Jason started crying in the pram, and Grace reached in to pick him up. The man’s face blanched. ‘Oh,…a baby.’
Grace rubbed her temples. She’d gotten up at 4 am to prep, to get ready, to sort out Jason. Looking this good took frakking work, and this man was focused on the baby.
Jason vomited all over her date. Grace was, all things considered, not displeased. Her date blustered out an excuse and legged it.
Grace picked up Jason and dabbed at his mouth and clothes with a wet-wipe. He gurgled happily at her.
‘You’re lucky you’re so cute.’
Grace sighed. What she needed was a man, not a boy. At least she’d gotten to see the Lego exhibit. Not a total wasted morning.
She popped Jason back in the pram. She had to meet Spur back in Ionhome. Fitting in dates around work was such a joy.
Spur sat underneath a fountain with a
statue of Emperor Charlemagne. Spur rested his head back in the shade from the statue and took a long drag from his coffee. He nodded at Grace. ‘You’re late.’
‘I’m 15 minutes early.’ Grace said.
‘15 minutes early is late in fracturesmithing.’ Spur pulled out his textbook. ‘Re-read the fifth chapter.’
Grace rolled her eyes and turned off Jason’s Paw Patrol video. She started rigging up his indestructible capsule.
‘Date go well?’ Spur asked. Grace said nothing focusing on the straps.
‘Kevin says hi.’ Spur added nudging her with his elbow.
‘Oh…good.’ She said.
‘He’s a good lad, still single.’ Spur nodded.
‘I know, I’m the one who made him single.’
‘He’s gotten better with age. Like a fine wine.’
‘He a drag uncle, the man bleeds dullness. I’m not going on a date with him.’
‘Ah.’ Said Spur, swatting away a buzzing insect. A dragonfly? Odd to see one in Ionhome.
‘What’d you want to meet me for anyway?’ Grace asked.
Spur nodded to a nearby platform, where a crowd had gathered.
‘Guard duty.’ Spur said, chewing the words like a piece of gristle before spitting them out.
Striding out onto the platform was Jacqui Tangerinous. Say what you wanted about Tangerinous, the woman looked ten years younger than her actual age. She looked fitter than Grace. She’d just bounced back from pregnancy. She also wasted no time launching into speeches.
‘We once travelled the oceans hunting and trading. Once the creatures of the Deep that slipped through into our realm were few. Then more cracks came, more fractures. More fathomless came to the oceans of Ionrealm. Merchants stopped traveling the oceans and trade faltered.’
The crowd hissed and booed. They were a mix of merchants and a surprising number of fracturesmiths. Tangerinous held up a hand.
‘My Titans are approaching completion.’ Tangerinous said. ‘They are floating fortresses. They will crack wide the trade routes to Volkstorm, and help their people rebuild. We will bring in the fruits of the north and the rich spoils of the west.
I am going to re-open the world to the people…and, of course to business.’ Tangerinous said with a cheery wink.
‘My crew are all busy preparing. Now they’ve all read their ‘Primer for fracturesmiths’ of course.’ Tangerinous held up a copy of Spur’s textbook, it showed Spur giving the world a thumbs up. Spur took a satisfied sip of his coffee. ‘It’s good to read the classics sometimes, see how they did things in the old days.’
Spur spat out his coffee.
‘Ahhh yes ladies and gentleman, my crew are now drilling based on my new textbook, “The Tangerinous comprehensive guide to fracturesmithing.” Something you might want to buy your kid for their birthday, get them into a hero’s line of work. Comprehensive is the word ay? It updates several topics that I felt were out of date. No longer needed you might say.’
A man in fracturesmith uniform held a garish orange book with a beaming picture of Tangerinous on it giving two thumbs up. Grace gulped and turned to Spur. He was perfectly still.
‘No…longer…needed.’ Spur said, clenching his jaw. His hand darted down to his war hammer. Jason, sensing the distraction, vomited onto Spurs shoes.
‘Argghhh…mother frakker.’
‘Language uncle.’
Spur hopped on one foot shaking the other off. Tangerinous descended from the stage, shaking hands and signing textbooks. Yet she was definitely cutting a line through the crowd towards them.
‘Spur you old son of a gun. Good to see you at my book launch, would you like an autograph.’ Tangerinous winked.
‘New content.’ Spur sputtered. ‘What could you possibly think I had missed?’
Tangerinous smiled. ‘Have a read of chapter twelve, balancing family and a career. Really not covered in some of the older work. Also, some promising theories on the Myriagonal fixation.’
Spur sniffed. ‘That’s a myth and you know it. You just want to believe that…he…pulled it off.’ Spur’s temple twitched, and he shook his head. ‘What was I saying…’
Tangerinous rested a hand on Spur’s shoulder. ‘Ah yes memory is often early to go once the grey hairs set in I’m afraid.’
Spur slapped her hand away and kept cleaning his shoes. Tangerinous turned to Grace. She considered her, the baby held in Grace’s arms and the fracturesmith logo on her shirt. Tangerinous nodded.
‘I don’t expect you to trade your family life for your career. I prefer you to have both. It gives you razor-sharp focus.’ Tangerinous said. ‘It tells me that if you claimed overtime, I better pay it because you have a family to get home to.’
‘Oh yeah, pull the other one. I’ve heard that one before.’ Grace said. She’d heard the spiel so many times. Take one for the team, they’d say. Don’t you know you’re saving the world, they’d tell her. Just play the game.
‘Why shouldn’t I claim overtime, my babysitter certainly is.’ Tangerinous waved her off. ‘We also cover maternity leave.’
‘Paid maternity leave?’ Grace said, eyes widening.
‘Yes, I suppose you just went through unpaid maternity leave?’ Tangerinous said, taking Jason off her hands for a moment. Grace got a bunch of wet wipes out and handed them to Spur, still wiping chuck off his feet.
‘How was the time off?’ Tangerinous asked, scrunching up her nose at Jason and blowing raspberries on his tummy.
Grace gritted her teeth. ‘Longer than I’d wanted.’ She wouldn’t have had to take so much time off if she hadn’t been ratted, if she hadn’t been reported. She’d never caught the one who did it but if she did…well occam’s razor had so many uses.
Tangerinous handed Jason back. ‘If you ever want a tour of one of the Titans, just let me know. Oh, and here, take a copy of my textbook for the little champion. He looks like a winner to me.’
Grace took it.
Gale - A date to remember
Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name but he whom heaven, earth and sea obey by eternal laws.
King Canute in Huntingdon’s account.
The courtyard of the Membranous Cathedral was made for pacing. Nice open space, minimal people cluttering it at this hour, no one to hear you mutter to yourself. Gale paused from pacing and shook his head, he’d get it right this time. He’d planned out the perfect compliment.
The compliment was sincere, showed his appreciation but also wasn’t too corny. Ash had saved his life after all.
He ran through the compliment again, whispering it to himself. ‘Your heart is big, but your fighting impressed me more.’
‘Your heart is big, but your fighting impressed me more.’
‘Your heart is big….’
‘Surprise!’ Ash leapt onto this back, and they tumbled to the ground. Ash gave a whoop and rolled to sitting. Gale spat out dirt while Ash brushed out her hair. She always looked so good, how did she do that? He slapped the dust off his shirt and sat up.
‘What were you mumbling about?’ Ash asked.
Come on, man, compliment her, he thought. You have a visualised goal, you’ve planned it, now follow through. His mouth dry, his palms sweaty, he took a deep breath. ‘Your big butt impressed me.’
Frak.
Ash looked at him in stunned silence. Then she burst out laughing. ‘Come on hot stuff lets get you some caffeine and chocolate.’
Ash dragged him towards one of the protected parklands in the city. They stopped by a barista serving coffee in bean-brew plant mugs. Ash handed him a large mug of coffee, he mumbled his thanks and rubbed at his eyes.
‘Didn’t sleep well? Worried about little old me?’ Ash said.
‘Blush had me up at 4am doing ocean swims. Then unarmed combat.’ Gale rubbed the ache in his shoulders.
‘Blush, huh?’ Ash said quirking an eyebrow. ‘Who’s that.’
‘One of the tutors,
the one who knows some Deep magic.’ Gale said sipping at the coffee. He really wasn’t awake yet.
‘Oh…’ said Ash turning away to study a glowing tree. ‘Bet she hasn’t saved your butt from a fathomless though.’
‘Well, she was the one who pulled me out of the fathomless swarm at the start of the year. Must have been hundreds of them. She fought em off like it was nothing.’
‘Oh, right.’ Ash said and walked ahead of him. Gale took another long pull of the coffee. That was the stuff. He could feel his mind firing now.
Wait, had he said something wrong.
He ran to catch up to Ash. Ash jerked her head into the entrance to the parklands. Above them, a canopy of flowers bloomed in real-time. Flowers the size of a man expanded from a bud to a full flower in minutes. Then the petals fell from the sky as it faded back to a seed.
‘Beautiful, isn’t it.’ Ash said. ‘It's more beautiful for the short time it has.’
Ashley pulled him into a rose garden. ‘This is my favourite part.’ They paid an attendant ten dollars at the entrance and entered a garden filled with blooming roses.
‘Here you pick me one, and I’ll pick you one.’ Ash said. She passed him an ugly looking black rose and Gale picked out a red rose from a nearby bush.
‘Ooooh I love it,’ She said, bringing the red rose to her mouth to sniff it. Then she bit into it.
Gale looked on in horror as Ash chewed with vigour, ‘mmm crunchy…it's light and fluffy.’ Gale wondered if this was a mermaid thing and tried not to say anything to embarrass her.
‘Now you try yours.’
Gale looked down at the black rose with trepidation.
‘Do you not like it,’ Ash said with a hint of panic in her voice. Was she having him on? Tentatively, he brought the flower up to his mouth and took a bite. It tasted like…he spat it out.
‘Liquorice, blargh.’
Ashley started giggling to herself. ‘Sorry couldn’t resist, I know you hate liquorice.’ She offered him hers. ‘Try mine, its chocolate flavoured.’