by C J Timms
The abscess popped, humour flying everywhere.
Swan shoved herself from her chair. ‘Well, nows as good a time as any.’ Swan threw Gale a set of gloves and boots carved with bright markings. ‘Let's go give it a crack.’
Gale - The hydroplanar
Layers nine within the deep.
Abyssals nine, a vigil keep.
Nine waves, to lead the flood.
Nine gates tied to siren’s blood.
Fragment of text retained in the journal of Grimace the Heretic
Gale hated the cold. Give him a tropical summer day anytime. Bitter cold winter winds blew off the ocean, chopping the waves apart. The waves crashed into the island-turtle without any protection. The university reefwall still down. Dark clouds gathered on the horizon. Gale pulled his coat around him tight.
‘Do you two wusses need a cuddle?’ Swan said. Swan grinned, she looked ridiculously warm in the team flannie Titus had given her. Her Locomotyr Script radiated heat off her as she assembled the machine they’d slaved over for the last two months. Swan manipulated tools in the air with her unbroken hand, her casted arm staying by her side.
Blush lay down on a bench rubbing her temples, sunglasses covering her eyes, slowly sipping a dirty chai. ‘The Deep has no room for cuddles.’ Blush said.
‘Are you hungover?’ Gale asked.
Blush shook her head, ‘Ladies don’t get hungover, I am indisposed.’
‘Late night out on the town, eh? With who?’ Gale asked.
‘Why, you jealous?’ Blush winked. Gale went red. They still hadn’t really discussed what had happened at the beach picnic. He’d needed Blush’s help for this test though, so here they were. He had, however, learnt a lot about waking someone up early without warning.
‘I hear you two got caught using a pager. Women do love a rebel Gale, but what did you expect?’ Blush said.
Swan dropped her equipment and cursed. A large energy sail billowed up into the air and escaped its ties. Swan jumped and grabbed it, hauling downwards. Finally, she cut the power and energy sail flickered into nothing. Gale held up a swear jar, and Swan flicked a coin into it without turning away from the machine. Swan’s focus remained on the device, meticulously testing the circuits.
‘Ah the dainty swan, just what I need for my headache,’ Blush muttered.
Gale let Swan work. She’d already shooed him away twice. Learn to delegate he thought, touching the cover of Lifting Great Weight in his pocket. ‘As the body recruits different muscle groups for different tasks, learn to use the different members of your team.’
‘They’ve had no luck finding the Blood Knight.’ Gale said to Blush.
Blush shook her head. ‘They’re still looking, I tried to sense the Vibe, but something cloaks them, a foul taste of iron in the water. Everything smells of blood in the harbour. A shark can sense a drop of blood in the ocean but fill the ocean with blood, and it all smells the same.’
‘There can’t be that many Deep users who could hide or remain hidden here in Ionhome. Blush you’re the closest thing we have to an expert on the Deep. You’ve gotta have some theories.’ Gale asked.
Blush closed her eyes and took another sip from her Chai. ‘There is much hidden in the Deep. I suspect they got through the reefwall when the fathomless attacked you earlier in the year Gale. Probably hiding out here in Ionhome since then. They aren’t supposed to be able to pass through the reefwall though...’
Gale nodded, then paused. How was Ash getting through the reefwall? She’d said it was something to do with going through the change. What did that even mean?
‘Blush, what do you know about sirens?’ Gale asked
Blush sat up from the bench and pulled her sunglasses off. ‘Sirens are adult mermaids. They have a power to entrance humans, male or female. If you ever run into one, don’t let it speak, it’ll bewitch you. Deep users attract sirens, they sap strength from you, enhanced by your adoration.’
A cold chill ran down Gale’s spine. Was Ash using that on him? He would know, wouldn’t he? He hadn’t done anything questionable, well…except for that. He could trust Ash, right? She’d always had his back.
‘On siren’s rock shall man's blood fall,’ he muttered. ‘What’s the difference between a mermaid and a siren then?’
‘Mermaids don’t have their full powers. It's only once they become a siren that they have their complete abilities.’ Blush leaned towards him. ‘Gale, you haven’t had contact with any sirens have you?’
Gale’s thoughts flashed to Ash. Ash was his oldest friend, and there was no way she was tricking him. Besides, she was the only one he trusted to help him with his Tempest. Even if she was able to get inside the reefwall somehow, he trusted her. Ash would never help the Blood Knight. Still, Blush had saved his life. She could be trusted, couldn’t she? She wouldn’t try to trap or hunt Ash if he told her?
‘No.’
Blush’s eyes bored into him.
‘It's ready,’ said Swan.
The Hydroplaner was an outfit. A vest covered in symbols connected to two gloves and boots via a series of cables. The gloves stretched up to the elbows and were black and blue. The right glove had a large disc strapped to the palms. He slipped on two boots, sturdy boots, the sort that got you through a 24-hour shift with comfy feet and healthy joints. He drew two gloves on his hand, pulling them up almost to the elbow. Gale had combined all the knowledge from the textbooks he’d borrowed over the year and his own studies into this. The Hydroplaner.
‘Looking good Gale.’ Blush gave him two thumbs up.
Swan snorted. ‘Windsurfers, hang gliders, jetskis, all of them useless compared to this. This is elegant. This is refined work, both strong and beautiful.’ Swan hit Gale on the chest.
‘The discs hold the sail, and the vest helps power the sail and the boots. The disc, call it the boom, will project an energy sail to haul you along. The boots will project a lightweight skimboard of Script. Now get down there and test it.’
‘If it works.’ Blush said
‘It’ll work,’ shot back Swan.
‘Maybe, maybe you’re both just a pair of pretty faces.’ Blush said and rubbed her temples, licking the last bit of her chair from the cup.
Swan walked him away from Blush, arm around his shoulder whispering. ‘Now remember, you gotta summon the sail and push it away from you at the same time. Push and pull simultaneously.’
‘Push and pull,’ Gale muttered.
‘You anchor the boom with one stream of Script pulling it back. At the same time, you gotta push on the sail. Push and pull.’ Swan repeated. Her eyes flicked back to Blush. ‘Do good and shut up your fan club over there.’
‘She ain’t my fan club.’ Gale shot back.
‘Why are you so awkward around her anyway, you got the hots for her?’ Swan winked. Gale blushed again, and Swan’s face cracked into a grin.
‘You do, you’re keen as aren’t you? Have you done something about it, you’ve tried haven’t you…’
Gale ran up to the cliff and dived off.
He fell towards the ocean. He tapped Deep Script and channelled it down his arms, through the gloves into the disc, the boom as Swan called it. The boom flipped into the air around the gloves. He pushed Deep Script out into a sail and into his boots making a skim board. He hit the waves and skimmed across the surface.
He planed across the water.
‘Beautiful and strong.’ Swan said from atop the cliff. She puffed her chest out and putting her hands on her hips.
She thought. There was still no answer. It was unlike Larc to keep quiet, and she hadn’t answered her since SplinterPoint.
‘See that Blush, a magnificent piece of work that.’ Swan said.
‘Yes very good my dainty swan, now let's have some fun with him.’ Blush grinned and put her hands down towards the water. Water reached up to sky around Gale, twisting water spouts like an old
pipework game. Gale really knew how to pick em, didn’t he.
‘Turn up the power.’ Blush said.
Swan nodded, let's see what this baby could do. It needed a test run. She remotely increased the flow of Script to turn up the power to the Hydroplaner. Gale wouldn’t mind.
He was a good sport about these things.
The waves surged around Gale. The Hydroplaner surged with energy.
‘Frak you Swan.’ He said.
Pancakes appeared in his pocket, and his Deep Script smoothed out. He skimmed across the surface of the waves, the energy sail pulling him along. Multiple columns of water came smashing down towards him. ‘Frak you Blush.’
If Ash ever teamed up with these two, his life would becomeinteresting.
Caught between two oncoming water columns, Gale had a bright idea. He dropped the energy sail and pulled the boom towards him. The boom flipped past the front of his body, and he struck it with a rope of Script and tried to push out a new sail in the opposite direction. This was a genius idea, and he’d call this one the slinger.
He was pulled hard to the right. It was working, the slinger worked. He was a genius.
Then his shoulder dislocated.
Pain tore into his arm. His grip slipped, and the Hydroplaner zigzagged crazily through the sky. With him attached.
‘FRAK!’ Gale yelled and fell from the towering columns of water, the sail disappeared, and he crashed into the depths.
Gale floated beneath the island-turtle, his Script drained, barely enough residual to keep him awake. He used the last of it to help pop his shoulder back in. He’d nearly made the turn. He could pull off the slinger next time. His skin felt burned, using the Hydroplaner had required more of his Script then he’d thought.
Pancakes floated beside him, spinning in slow circles, no bigger than his palm, reduced in size from so much Script use. Pancakes occasionally quirked his head at Gale.
The water was silent, still beneath the waves. Inside Ionhome's reefwall, there should be no danger of fathomless attack. In the far distance, he caught a glimmer of the reefwall. Somehow the Blood Knight was getting through the reefwall, but thankfully nothing else had recently. Given the island-turtle floated within Ionhome’s harbour, in theory, it didn't need its own reefwall. Gale felt a moment of guilt. They should have protected the beacon.
The dim light above framed the outline of Kulu, the island-turtle. Kulu’s under-shell was battle-scarred, old and cracked. Down the centre a giant claw had raked out chunks, exposing the leathery belly. Kulu’s neck had the remnants of a massive bite mark. Etched into the underside of his shell was the number two in roman numerals.
Some people still carried statues of the great turtle, believing he brought luck and prosperity. Kulu however, hadn’t spoken for twenty years. The legend was that Addison and Zoroaster had held a grand party to celebrate their graduation. In the festivities, in the waste and indulgence, Kulu had woken. He’d bit out and sunk Addison’s party boat ‘Intervention’. Since then, Kulu had been dormant. He used to share his wisdom with scholars past and carried the University from port to port. Since that night he had remained in one place, silent.
Gale drifted slowly toward the head of Kulu. Kulu’s head was aged but not feeble, there were minor scars across his face but none so impressive as the neck wound. Pancakes darted away from him to swim around the turtle's face. Dwarfed by the island-turtle Pancakes head-butted the face, trying to rouse it.
One of the turtle’s great eyes cracked open, and a yellow sphere the size of a house with a black slit stared out at them. The conjunctiva were red and raw.
No, surely not. What if the turtle was just…
Gale thought, tracking the turtle’s massive jaw. The eye noted them before it closed fully again. Gale swam for the surface. He made a mental note to check the ship logs for The Intervention when he got back. It was a long shot, but it would make sense.
First, though, he had a bone to pick with Swan.
Swan rushed him into the common room. She nearly dislocated his arm as she hauled the Hydroplaner off him. She held it up, beaming. ‘See Gale, sturdy as, not a scratch on it. A perfect test run.’
Gale rubbed his shoulder and gave her a long stare.
‘I’ll build in a failsafe so the Hydroplaner can be stopped remotely to prevent injury. Just a precaution.’ Swan said, eyes alight.
Gale threw himself into one of their bean bags in the common room. ‘Oh by the way guys, I signed us up for a clinical trial starting tomorrow, they’re testing a new vitality elixir. We’ll get a nice bit of coin for it.’
‘Hah,’ yelled Swan, ‘I’m the most vital of the lot of you.’
Sterling’s phone went off. He dragged it out of his pocket and rolled over to look at it. ‘Jean says she we owe her for that lunch Friday?’
‘Does she want to see all of us…or just you?’ Gale asked.
‘All of us,’ Sterling blushed. ‘Any of you know somewhere we can take an international sports star and her gluten-intolerant team members on a budget?’
‘I know just the place,’ Swan said, tucking away the Hydroplaner. ‘I’m showing you boys the Infinity Bazaar.’
Gale - Infinity Bazaar
There were nine virtues to make man worth saving.
Integrity, Ascension, Leadership, Justice, Acceptance, Perfection, The Greater Good, Passion and Change.
I personally think my good looks were reason enough to save me.
The jury seemed not to agree.
The Journal of Grimace the Heretic
An itch is maddening to ignore. It screamed at you like a newborn infant, demanding attention. Every scratch just reinforced the pattern, making things worse.
‘This was a stupid idea,’ Swan said, gripping the rail of the airship tight.
‘Let’s not focus on the mistakes of the past Swan.’ Gale said. ‘I think you look magnificent.’
‘Yeah Swan, your beard is even better than mine.’ Titus said, his throat-beard now a lumberjacks winter growth.
Swan pulled at the hair on her chin that would have made a Melbourne hipster proud. ‘The reef-cursed thing itches.’
Swan, like the rest of them, now sported hair from her chin down to her mid-chest. The vitality elixir had had a few side effects. It certainly hadn’t done anything to heal her forearm fracture though. Swan shook the cast on her hand with annoyance. The nurse had told her that it was in position, and they couldn’t speed up the healing. Something about the Splinterpoint Gate affected the recovery.
‘It's an easy way to earn money,’ Swan mimicked Gale. ‘These things never actually have side effects.’
All of them had grown bushy beards from the vitality elixir which seemed to have done frak all otherwise. Of course it had to happen on the day they were meeting Jean the Lioness. Pro-athlete, part-time model Jean the Lioness. She bet Jean would somehow manage to pull off a beard.
‘Come on, Swan, cheer up. You said the Infinity Bazaar would be great fun.’ Gale said.
Swan’s Slagblade materialised pointing at Gale. ‘Less talking from you.’
Swan attempted to trim her beard with the Slagblade only for it grow back seconds later. She sighed.
‘Yeah Swan, I bet that Gabriel loves a bit of hair on a woman.’ Titus said. She knocked him on the head with the flat of the slagblade. Yip chuckled.
‘Oh yeah laugh it up…Zultan’ Swan said.
The cold winter air swirled around Ionhome’s harbour beneath their airship. She hadn’t been to the Infinity Bazaar since she was a child. She’d run off and gotten lost. It was her brother who found her and brought her back to dad. Her brother had always looked out for her. A self-righteous prick at times, though.
Thinking of her family, her hand drifted down to her pocket. She patted the letter from her father, still not sure how to respond. She’d have to bring it up with the others later. She wanted to enjoy today, though.
Titus was enjoying things, hugging two massive eski’s under his armpits. ‘For pies’ he’d said. They weren’t supposed to bring unregulated salted foods on campus. Swan had asked him if conflicted with his code of honour.
‘Laws don’t apply to pies. I’m sure the University knows that.’ He’d said.
Sterling scrubbed at his soot-stained short sword and dagger. The filthy rag black but the weapons unchanged. Nothing had managed to lift the discolouration from it, not polish, spells nor magical solvent. If he was going to find a remover, the Bazaar was the place to do it.
Still, some mistakes just couldn’t be scrubbed clean. Swan scratched her beard.
Reef’s word, it was hard to ignore an itch.
A single glowing green butterfly landed on the railing, blown by the wind. Swan banished the Slagblade and leaned over the rail. They had arrived.
The Infinity Bazaar was built into the ground within a great dome. They left the airship and pushed through the throng towards the Bazaar. The entrance was a circular staircase into the ground that descended into the earth. Butterflies and moths with phosphorescent wings coated the walls of the shaft, giving it a bright glow.
A circular staircase led them into a massive underground cavern. Overhead an artificial sky depicted Zasterix slaying Addison atop mount Axis. The surrounding reefs and atolls framed the peak of a mountain erupting from the sea, lava boiling off the edges. The bodies of Addison’s mage cadre were scattered through the water. Between them, hands outstretched, was the woman they both loved, a woman who’d torn the world apart.
Moths, dragonflies and other glowing insects flitted through the cavern. They filled the air with a green glow where they settled on the walls, the roof and the stalls. The cavern was alive with movement, the shops drifted through the cavern-like balloons on nearly invisible strands of Script. An elevator lead up the main hub from the food court. Floating platforms shot off in different directions to reach the shops as they careened through the Bazaar. Cloud wreathed shops from Celesta Firma, shops of flame and smoke from Locomotyr, hide and canvas stores from Wyldhome.