by C J Timms
Gale kept an eye on Ash and bit into the rose. The rich flavour of hot cocoa filled his mouth. He chewed, taking his timed and noted other couples trying out different parts of the garden. Two Komodo’s were chewing into a trellis that Gale was pretty sure was just decorative.
They wandered through the garden, trying different flavours. They came to rest underneath a tall tree, stuffed full of rose-chocolate.
‘I think I’m having a food baby,’ grumbled Ash her stomach showing a distinct bump. Gale nodded. He’d meant to ask her something, what was it? Oh yeah.
‘Ash…can you teach me to fight like you did down there?’
Ash rolled over on her stomach. ‘What can’t Blush teach you that?’
Gale shrugged. ‘Maybe, so far its mostly her kicking me into holes.’
Ash snorted. Then she tilted her hand from side to side. ‘Some, some is siren magic. Might be able to teach you but we’d need weeks not hours. Besides, that's not why I wanted to talk to you.’
‘What was it you need to tell me?’
Ashley pushed herself up to sitting, she looked around to make sure they were alone. ‘There are rumours in the Deep, there is something the Nine want, something Corrosyv needs, hidden in the University.’ She belched and patted her belly.
‘What are they after?’ Gale asked, his own belly gurgling.
Her eyes flicked down to the side. ‘A relic that can start the Worldflood. Corrosyv is waking, she's hungry for another world Gale.’ Her serious expression was marred by another belch.
‘Right, and you want to stop the flood, even though you’re from the Deep?’ Gale asked. ‘It certainly sounds like they’ve got a clearly visualised goal and have taken massive action.’ Gale touched the Tony Robbins book in his pocket.
‘You and your visualised goals Gale.’ Ash flicked him on the shoulder. ‘Honestly, I don’t know why you harp on about it.’
Gale paused and scratched his head. He pulled out the Aquaman toy and pulled the string. ‘Protecting our sea critters protects ourselves,’ it rattled.
‘Do you remember how many kids we had to fight to get this toy at our first clinic.’
Ash giggled. ‘Yah, I clobbered like ten kids to get it.’
Gale held the toy up in the air. ‘How many did we have to fight a year later?’
Ash paused. ‘Not many.’
‘Every time we came back to that clinic, it got easier and easier to get the toys you wanted…because fewer people were left. Why do I spend so much time on visualising? Because I spent most of the last ten years visualising surviving…and keeping you around with me.’
Gale stared down at the ground, Ash was silent. He traced a circle in the grass with his finger.
Ash’s hand rested on his. ‘Visualising huh?’
Gale nodded, still looking down. ‘Errr, anyway, what is it they’re trying to find, give me a name, a description anything really.’
Ash cleared her throat.
‘Nine waves born, to call the Flood,
On siren’s rock shall spill man’s blood,
The king tide comes, we batten down,
Nine gates open and the world shall drown.
That’s the only bit of legend we have to guide us. Corrosyv knows more and probably the Abyssals. But we know they’re looking for something in the University.’ Ashley paused. ‘They’re after something they call the King Tide Curse.’
‘And you want me to find it?’ Gale paused, he had enough on his plate already without a wild goose chase. Hell, he’d barely had money for coffee and chocolate. He looked at Ashley’s worried expression, felt the warmth of her hand on his. Something twisted in his stomach. This story was an awfully convenient way for someone from the Deep to get something out of the University. But Ash had saved his butt down in the tunnels. He’d be digesting in Beth’s stomach if it wasn’t for her.
What had she been doing down in the tunnels though?
‘It must tie back to your parents Gale, they disappeared right before the Deep tried to flood Volkstorm. That can't be a coincidence.’ Ash said, gripping his hand tighter.
That Professor had wanted him to stop the Worldflood. Could he trust Ash? Why was Ash helping him, and why wouldn’t she tell him who had sent her. But she’d saved him in the mines. The mines with their horrible coral graveyard and spires.
‘What was that place, at the heart of the Salt mine? Who were those people to be punished so?’
Ash shuddered, ‘The losers of an old war. Men from a race who made the wrong choice…all of them.’
‘An entire race condemned by one choice?’ Gale asked.
‘Yes, that was their greatest weapon. Their unity. Their single-mindedness.’
Ash seemed to shut down as they both recalled that field of madness beneath the Salt.
He changed tack. ‘Ash what do you know about the Blughada, the Blood Knight?’ Gale asked.
Ash shuddered. ‘The nine waves are treacherous, they are the Lords of the Deep.’
Gale clenched his fist. Come on Gale, he thought, this was Ash, there was no way she was the Blood Knight. Once, when they were younger, he’d given her a wedgie. He started to relax his focus and look at her with the Vibe. Ash flicked him on the forehead disrupting his view of the Vibe.
‘That is not polite, a lady is allowed her secrets. Gale Knott. If I was going to bribe you to commit treason, I would do it with more than ten dollars worth of chocolate flowers.’
Gale chuckled, true he thought. This was Ash, what had he been thinking. Still….he had one suspicion that he had to confirm. A fear that had festered in the back of his mind for some time.
‘How long?’ He asked.
‘How long what?’ Ashely said.
‘How long since you were told to watch me? Was our whole friendship a setup?’
Ash pulled her hand away from his. She looked down and fidgeted with a rose, pulling off its petals.
‘I was given the offer to help because we were close…not before we met.’ Then she stood up and turned her back on him. ‘Look if you find anything let me know.’ Ashley hurled the Aquaman toy onto the ground and stormed away. The Aquaman broke into pieces. It’s tinny rattle played out one last time. ‘…Protecting ourselves…’
Gale - Silver and gold
And so did Atym, the first god, wrench life from the primordial abyss.
The journal of Grimace the Heretic.
‘Come on, you’ll miss it,’ said Titus.
Gale ran with a large crowd of students towards the grand coliseum. The mass of first years was huge, nearly two hundred of them. Not all two hundred that had started the year though.
Most of the students stayed well clear of Gale and the Lighthouse after the Cullen incident. They’d made their point, but they were short on allies. The cohort was already starting to be thinned. Alisdair had shattered a Baxtro student’s femur yesterday in training, they’d been sent home.
They were light on allies and heavy on enemies. Titus had managed to gather a small following telling stories of their time in the Salt mines. He’d become quite popular at the pub. To hear him tell it, they’d all fought a swarm of fathomless to save the mine. Their enemies weren’t gone though, just hiding like snakes in the grass.
Everyone had turned out for a Prime Challenge. It was even bigger than when he’d thrown down behind the bike sheds back at Mungaratta High. Gale climbed one of the statues to around the coliseum to get a view. He hauled up Titus and Swan after him. Yip murky stepped up to the top of the statue.
The duelling dome was a tiered stadium, rocky seating surrounded a circular fighting pit with a raised platform. Floating platforms spun across the room, rotating metal spheres orbited the arena. A giant statue of Zasterix striking Addison in half atop mount Valenheim loomed over the duelling field. In the middle of the arena, Sterling faced Adam.
‘Serious balls on that one’ Gale muttered.
‘I can’t wait to see Sterling crash and burn.’ Swan said.
&n
bsp; ‘A bold man earns respect Swan,’ Titus countered. ‘Sterlo’s probably alright. He’s got get up and go, ya know.’
‘What’s their Scripts?’ Gale asked.
Yip’s journals flicked open. ‘Sterling is still unaligned, only uses raw Script. That sword he’s got is interesting though, some sort of family heirloom. Adam’s a Celesta Firma bonded. Light and Sky magic.’
The position of Prime was a huge boost. It made it vastly easier to acquire a sponsor and entitled you to waived student fees for the year. It also however painted a huge target on your back. The University sought to promote ‘healthy’ competition and so any student could challenge for the position of Prime. If they were successful, the previous Prime would be expelled from the school, and the new candidate took their place. Multiple students could challenge you in a row. Addison famously fought ten students one after the other. It had only stopped when he made a brutal example of the tenth. Shock and awe tactics were needed. It was brutal but made sure the battles were memorable. A few orbs were floating around the stadium, transmitting images to elsewhere.
More then a few students were eyeing the two, weighing the risk of a secondary challenge, of sniping the position. Gale had considered the odds himself.
‘Eyes open Yip,’ Gale whispered.
Yip nodded, and his journals scattered outwards. The stationary floated in a rotating circle around Yip like orbiting satellites for the worlds smallest, most detail-oriented planet. Yip fixed a gramophone horn to his ears much like an old fashioned hearing aid. Gale bit back a laugh. A book careened through the air and clipped Swan’s ear.
‘Yip, do you have to?’ Swan said
‘Anyone interrupts me during the fight they’re a dead man.’ Yip said training the hearing aids on Adam. ‘Besides you don’t mind that Gale has his hydrolens.’
‘What’s a hydrolens?’ Swan asked.
‘Nothing important,’ Gale said. That was meant to be between Yip and him. He never used the hydrolens for anything improper, but he had a feeling Swan wouldn’t love it. Girls were funny like that. Ash was funny like that, Ash still hadn’t responded to his messages. Since he’d accused her of being a malevolent villain from Hell.
Girls were funny like that.
‘Swan, you know Sterling, does he have a chance?’ Gale asked.
Swan furrowed her brow, ‘He’s a knobhead, but he’s not half bad. He’s a noble who’s been trained since birth, and he placed in the top ten in the entrance exam. My dad paid him to help me through the entrance exam, and my dad’s a pretty savvy investor. Adam though…’ She whistled appreciatively.
Gale remembered the pile of bone golem fragments from the entrance exam. What they had seen of Adam was nothing short of terrifying.
‘50 to 1, get your bet in on Sterling, make your fortune today.’ Bella called from the crowd. She and Hotaru moved around in Solvent uniforms running a betting ring.
‘Fifty gold on Sterlo.’ Titus said. Swan rolled her eyes.
‘What I love an underdog, and if he wins, that's my rent for the month.’ Titus said. ‘I’ve got a gut feeling Swan.’
‘You sure that ain't the pre-nap pie you had an hour ago?’ Swan asked.
Professor Herlov stepped into the duelling arena. Herlov was a hulking giant of a man with a thick bushy beard of Danish stock sporting a black and white referees shirt. With a mad grin, Herlov held two hands up to the crowd. The crowd stilled, like an early morning ocean, just waiting for a change in the breeze to whip it to a frenzy.
Herlov raised his hands to the crowd, and they quieted. ‘Sterling Secondus, you challenge Adam for the position of Prime?’
‘I do.’
Adam unbuttoned his golden open palm badge and handed it to Professor Herlov in the arena.
A blue glow surrounded Herlov’s hands. Herlov gestured outwards, and a blue semi-translucent dome separated the battlefield from the students. Unlike the entrance exam, any wounds sustained here wound be permanent, the barrier was to protect the crowd, not the combatants. He pulled one of the hand axes he wore strapped to his back and flipped it in his hand. He looked from Sterling to Adam, who both nodded.
‘I expect perfection and remember…victory at any cost’.
‘Victory at any cost!’ They both roared back.
Herlov tossed the axe into the air, then came whirring down to strike the field.
Sterling rushed Adam, sweeping a golden blade forward. Sterling’s blade was old, covered with clan sigils and markings. Adam raised his own golden sword, unmarred, one perfect metal, to block. Sterling skidded to the left like he was on the ice.
Sterling ducked out to Adams flank and lashed out. Adam blocked it without turning to face Sterling without taking a step. Then Adam shoved Sterling backwards. Sterling skidded back across the battleground, rolling with the blow. Adam hadn’t even had to shift his feet.
Sterling gritted his teeth and circled Adam, his feet lighting up with raw Script. Sterling launched a barrage of rapid strikes. Sterling was hyper-aggressive, coming after Adam from multiple angles, from the air, from the ground, enhancing his speed with his Script, blows strengthened by magic.
Even though their swords were gold, they took no dents or marks.
Swan whistled. ‘Strike me dead, there’s no way.’
‘What?’ Gale asked.
‘Sterling is using magic to enhance his strikes and speed.’
‘Yeah so?’
‘Adam hasn’t used his magic yet.’
Gale’s eyes widened and sunk into the Vibe. Script pumped through Sterling’s body, his limbs reinforced by it and red hot magic rolled off his feet and his blade. Every collision of his blade on Adam’s sent a wave of energy rippling across the battlefield. Adam had no magic moving through him, he was beating Sterling with pure skill. He was scaring off any competition.
Adam was putting on a show.
Sterling jumped backwards, and the fight paused. Adam rested his sword in front of him, point to the ground in two hands. Sterling’s sword hung to the ground, his arms covered with cuts. Adam didn't have a hair out of place.
Taking a ragged breath, Sterling set his jaw and spat to the side. Then he placed one hand on his golden blade, and the runes on it lit up. The tapestry of family history glowed and melted. The markings slithering down the bland and onto his hand.
‘Price in Gold,’ Sterling said.
Sterling’s gold blade lit up, and the tip evaporated into a fine mist. Sterling surged forward. Almost as if he had teleported between the two points. Sterling brought his family blade crashing down.
Adam’s blade met it, Sterling shoved downwards, and Adam took a step back.
Gale saw something golden flicker through Adam’s Script, fleeting. Sterling’s attacks doubled in speed, and Adam began moving to dodge blows. Adam’s body lit up with magic. Even so, for the first time this year, Adam was under pressure.
Sterling’s new speed and strength was at a cost though. Gale could see Sterling’s blade burning up as he moved. The fine gold mist burned off the edge of the weapon, like smoke from a candle flame as it burned down a wick.
‘Come on Sterlo, get up you good thing,’ Titus said, gripping his ticket stub.
Sterling’s blade was more than half gone. His fighting style was adapting, but the lack of reach of the weapon was starting to tell. Adam smiled. Sterlings face tightened in resolve, and then he flickered into being behind Adam. Sterling brought his blade down for a finishing blow. The sword arced down, and a golden light erupted. Sterling was hurled backwards ass over teakettle. Sterling cartwheeled through the air with limbs flailing, the sword flying from his hand, the last remnant of the golden blade burning up in the air. Sterling flew into the blue barrier with a crack and slid down to the ground.
Adam strolled forward. He stood over Sterling and placed his blade at Sterlings throat. ‘You are good…come back when you are perfect.’ Adam walked away.
‘Did you get it?’ Yip asked.
Gale nod
ded and removed the hydrolens from his eye.
‘Sterling Secondus huddled in the corner of the Beach Hotel in Ionhome. He nursed an orange cocktail with a jaunty umbrella poking out. Hunched over, he poked at a bowl of waffle fries without eating. A packed suitcase, worn and tattered, sat ready for travel. Sterling spun the cocktail umbrella in the liquid, held it up to the air and then flicked it away.
Gale’s hand snagged it from the air and speared it into Sterling’s bowl of waffle fries. ‘Keep it, you never know when you’ll have a rainy day.’
Gale slid into the booth opposite Sterling and pulled the waffle fries across the table, taking a bite.
‘Come to gloat Gale?’ Sterling asked. His eyes didn’t leave his cocktail. The bright orange drink flickered and tiny sad face emojis cascaded around inside it. Gale had made mood cocktails before, horridly expensive, they created illusions based on the drinkers mood.
‘A terrible risk the Prime challenge’. Gale said and tucked into the waffle fries. Reef’s break, they were terrific. No salt here of course but deep frying things was hard to muck up.
‘Most houses kick you out if you fail. Makes one wonder why you, a man of a noble house, would risk it? Now Swan, she just says its coz you’re a son of a bitch. You ditched her in the entrance exam after being paid by her dad to team up with her.
Me though, I’ve heard all kinds of stuff about Swan’s dad when I worked in the Iron Church. They say he’s a dick, they say he’s ruthless, they even say he’s a total mercenary.
They don’t say he’s a bad investor.’
Sterling shrugged his shoulders.
Gale pushed on, ‘They might say he’s cunning like a rat, but cunning nonetheless. So if Jacobian Swan thinks you’ve got the right stuff, if you’re worth bribing in his book, then you must have some honour. You must have some sort of code.’
Gale paused, watching the sad emojis dance in Sterling’s drink.
‘So I come back to my original question. What would make you do this, why have you been acting like a mongrel?’