by Clayton Wood
“The hell?” the Captain blurted out.
Kyle turned to the man, eyeing the pistol at his waist, and pushed a little more magic into his gravity shield.
“You're a damn Weaver?” the Captain exclaimed. Kyle hesitated, then nodded. “How did...” the Captain began, but he stopped himself, turning to his flabbergasted crew. “Quit gawking and get to the cannons!” he barked, grabbing one of the sailors by the collar and yanking him toward one of the unmanned cannons. “Tell the pilot to give me a hard starboard,” the Captain ordered, sending another sailor toward the bridge. “We run or we die!”
The Defiance slowly turned right, angling away from the warship, which also began turning right, trailing behind them. Its port cannon – at the front of the warship – fired, sending a cannonball upward and outward. Kyle backpedaled, watching as the huge iron ball arced in the air toward them.
“Brace!” the Captain yelled.
The sailors dropped to the deck, but the cannonball overshot the Defiance entirely, splashing in the ocean beyond. The Captain pointed toward the back of his ship.
“Get to the stern chaser!” he barked. “Slow them down!” He turned to Kyle then. “You lied to me,” he accused.
“He saved your men,” Ariana countered angrily. “You should be thanking him!”
“I was about to,” the Captain retorted, eyeing her suspiciously. “I suppose you're a Weaver as well?” Ariana paused, then nodded. The Captain sighed. “So your whole story was a fabrication.” Another nod.
“The warship is gaining on us fast, Cap'n,” a sailor warned, pointing to the rear of the ship. The Captain turned to look, then swore.
“We'll never outrun a Quadra-class warship without full sails!”
“We can help,” Kyle declared. “Ariana, if we could make a big enough flat gravity field, we could pull air into that sail,” he added, pointing to the one intact mast. Wind that passed through the gravity field would be shoved into the sail, making the ship retreat much more quickly. But Ariana shook her head.
“We have to take out that warship first,” she countered. The Captain snorted.
“That's a Quadra-class warship with a crew of two hundred armed men,” he retorted. “I don't care if you're a Weaver,” he added. “I guarantee you they have a Neutralizer just like I do.”
“A what?” Kyle asked.
“A Neutralizer,” the Captain repeated. He reached into his pocket, retrieving a silver amulet. In the center was a small white crystal. “It'll drain the magic out of you.”
“That's why you said magic wouldn't work around you,” Kyle realized. The gemstone looked like a Void crystal. The Captain smiled grimly.
“It takes a while to reset after each use,” he explained. “But one use is all it'll take.” He shook his head. “You won't stand a chance.”
Ariana wavered, glancing at Kyle. He knew what she was thinking; without magic, she would be useless. The Neutralizer would incapacitate her...but it might not work as well against him. When it came to making magic, no one could beat him.
“We’ll see about that,” Kyle replied, nodding at Ariana. “I’ll top you off,” he said, streaming magic to her shard. When he was done, he turned to the warship in the distance. “I’ll fly us to the ship,” he decided. “Stay close to me. If they use the Neutralizer, I’ll revive you.”
“Got it,” Ariana replied. Kyle turned to the Captain.
“I’ll be back,” he promised. The Captain snorted.
“No you won’t,” he countered. “But thank you.”
Kyle nodded back, then turned to Ariana.
“Get on my back,” he ordered. She complied, and he streamed magic to his gravity boots, rising above the deck of the Defiance. The Captain stared up at them.
“You’re both dead,” he grumbled. Ariana smirked.
“You’re right, I am,” she replied. “But so are they.”
* * *
Kyle streamed magic to his gravity boots, feeling Ariana’s arms tighten around his chest as he rose up into the air, Ariana on his back. The deck of the Defiance shrank below his boots, the open ocean rippling all around the ship.
“Ready?” Kyle asked. He felt Ariana give him a squeeze.
“Ready.”
He took a deep breath in, then flew toward the warship in the distance, taking a curved path toward the enemy ship. He felt a subtle vibration, and saw a gravity shield appear around them. He pushed more magic at his boots, picking up speed quickly, the ocean flying by a few dozen feet below. He aimed toward the back of the warship, scanning it carefully. Sailors swarmed to-and-fro across the huge deck, cannons flashing as they fired at the Defiance.
“They’ve spotted us,” Ariana warned. She was right; Kyle spotted a few sailors pointing up in their direction, gesticulating wildly. “They’ve got guns,” Ariana added. Muzzles flashed, the pop, pop of gunfire reaching Kyle’s ears moments later. He dodged to the side, aiming for the rear deck of the ship, where there was cover behind a two-story structure and no sailors. He took a sudden, deep descent toward it, decelerating rapidly, and landed on the deck, Ariana dropping down from his back.
“Shield yourself,” Ariana stated, her gravity shield vanishing. “I’m not sure what my crystal is going to do when they start attacking.”
“Got it,” Kyle replied. He wove quickly, a gravity shield appearing around him. “We need to overpower them as quickly as possible,” he added. “Before they can use that Neutralizer.”
“Right,” Ariana agreed.
“Stay close to me just in case they do use it,” Kyle stated. Ariana nodded.
“On my count,” she stated. “One, two...three!”
Ariana ran in front of Kyle, turning the corner around the two-story structure and sprinting toward the front of the ship. Kyle ran after her, increasing the magic stream to his shields. A sailor spotted them, shouting something Kyle couldn’t make out. More sailors ran toward them, rifles in hand.
And Ariana sprinted right at them.
She moved with unnatural speed, ignoring the volley of gunfire as the enemy sailors took aim and fired at them. She leaped at the closest sailor, grabbing him and tossing him to the side, right off the edge of the ship.
Another sailor shot at Ariana, almost point-blank, and gravity shields sprang to life around her, the bullet ricocheting off harmlessly. She rammed him, and he bounced off of her gravity shields, flying through the air and slamming into a mast.
“Get her!”
Another sailor shot at Ariana, and she ran up to him, grabbing his rifle and snapping it in two, then whipping the butt of the rifle across his temple. It collided with his skull in a spray of blood, and he fell to the ground, his limbs spasming, then going still.
Jesus!
Kyle heard bullets whiz by him, and swore again, ducking low and following behind Ariana. He wove magic, throwing it outward at a sailor; a flat gravity field appeared to one side of the man, sucking him into it. The sailor flew through the air, landing headfirst onto the deck. Kyle saw Ariana burst toward a group of nearby sailors, grabbing them one-by-one and flinging them over the edge of the boat.
Then Kyle saw blue light streaking from Ariana’s body – and his own – converging toward a man behind a line of sailors toward the middle of the ship. A man holding a large white sphere.
“Ariana!” Kyle warned. “The Neutralizer!”
Ariana pivoted, sprinting toward the line of sailors, a ball of fire appearing before her. Kyle ran out from behind cover, sprinting after her, pouring magic into his gravity shield. Ariana’s fireball shot outward at the line of sailors, and they dodged out of the way, leaving the man with the Neutralizer exposed. Ariana ran straight toward the man, blue light pulling from her.
And then she dropped to the deck like a rag doll, skidding across the wooden planks.
“Ariana!” Kyle cried, rushing toward her.
The sailors regrouped, rushing toward Ariana, aiming their rifles down at her motionless body. Kyle swore, weaving magic as he spr
inted across the deck, sending a gravity field outward at the soldiers. Two of them were flung to the side, slamming into a mast and falling to the deck. The others trained their rifles on him, the muzzles flashing as they fired. Kyle ducked reflexively, hearing the bullets whiz by. But still he ran, only twenty feet from Ariana now.
Rays of blue light flowed from him, converging on the Neutralizer.
Kyle felt his magic draining, his magic stream to his gravity shields faltering. One of the sailors fired their rifle, and Kyle felt his right shoulder jerk backward. He nearly lost his balance, stumbling toward Ariana, nearly losing his magic stream to his shield completely.
Pain lanced through his shoulder, blood seeping from a hole in his shirt there.
Kyle grit his teeth, running up to Ariana’s side. The sailors backpedaled, their rifles still trained on him. He knelt before her, pulling magic into his mind’s eye.
Bam, bam bam!
The sailors fired, and Ariana’s body jerked once, then again, holes appearing in her chest.
No!
Kyle wove frantically, creating another gravity shield around himself and Ariana, then let go of his own shield. He scooped her up into his arms, backing away from the sailors.
Bam!
Kyle felt something slam into his upper chest, and he lurched backward, the breath knocked out of him. He stumbled, barely keeping his balance, and stared down, seeing a bullet lying on the ground at his feet. It must have penetrated his gravity shield...slowing just enough not to kill him.
Jesus!
“Shoot them!” he heard the man with the Neutralizer cry. No more magic was flowing into it; it was expended its power...for now. The soldiers advanced, their muzzles firing in rapid succession. Kyle felt a stinging sensation in his thigh, then saw Ariana’s head jerk to the side, a hole appearing in her left temple.
“Stop it!” Kyle shouted, backing away. Another gunshot echoed through the air, and he saw blood spray from his left shoulder. He stumbled, falling onto his back on the deck, Ariana landing on top of him. The sailors strode toward him, more quickly now, reloading their weapons.
“Kill those fucking Weavers!”
Kyle grit his teeth, pain shooting through both shoulders, his chest burning.
Bam!
Ariana’s head jerked again, another hole appearing in her skull.
“Stop it!” Kyle yelled, clutching Ariana to his chest, covering her head with his hands. More shots fired, and he felt a sharp pain in his left hand, then his knee. “God damn it!” he swore, feeling anger rise up within his breast.
Still the sailors advanced, reloading quickly. One of them fired, Ariana’s body jerking again as another bullet struck her in the back. Kyle clenched his jaw so hard his teeth nearly cracked.
“I said STOP!”
He tore magic from his skull, a thick cord of power appearing in his mind’s eye. His head exploded in pain, his vision blackening. He screamed, wrapping the cords into a massive, pulsing knot, and threw it outward, thrusting a torrent of magic at it.
An enormous dome of blinding blue light appeared all around him, covering nearly half of the width of the warship. The sailors flew backward instantly, the air sucking outward in all directions, blasting everyone on board the ship. All sound stopped as the air was sucked out of the dome.
And then the dome vanished.
Air sucked back into the void instantly, a shockwave slamming into the ship. The mast in front of Kyle exploded, the deck all around him rippling like the surface of the ocean. Then the deck shattered, pieces of wood flying upward all around him. A muffled boom struck his ears, and even through his gravity shield the sound was deafening. Sailors flew high into the air, bodies flinging dozens of feet upward and outward, falling toward the ocean beyond the ship. The ships cannons blew clean off the ship, a few of them exploding in a rain of shrapnel.
And then, in a matter of seconds, it was over.
Kyle’s vision slowly cleared, and he looked around him, his jaw dropping.
The ship was decimated.
He and Ariana were laying on a small island of intact deck, a crater four stories deep and over fifty feet wide surrounding them. The warship’s main mast had blown right off, the two-story structure at the back of the ship in ruins. Not a single sailor remained on deck.
Not alive, anyway.
Kyle laid there, his ears ringing, staring at the devastation. Then he lowered his gaze to Ariana, at her bullet-riddled body. He streamed magic to her forehead, seeing her limbs jerk as he did so, her eyes fluttering open. As he watched, her wounds began to close, hunks of metal pushing out of her skull and landing on the deck with a clink.
She blinked, then pushed herself off of him, rising to her feet. She turned in a slow circle, her mouth forming a perfect “O.”
“Did I do that, she asked, “...or did you do that?”
“I did that,” Kyle replied. She turned to him, staring at him in disbelief.
“How?” she pressed. Kyle smiled grimly, putting pressure on the shallow wound on his right shoulder.
“They pissed me off.”
Ariana stared at him for a moment longer, then gazed at the ruins of the warship, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Holy shit, Kyle.”
“Yeah,” he muttered, pushing himself to his feet. Ariana turned to him again.
“Remind me not to get you mad.”
“Don’t get me mad,” he stated.
She gazed at the massive crater surrounding them, at the shattered masts. At the dismembered remains of sailors strewn across the deck, and in the shattered rooms exposed in the crater below.
“I won’t,” she replied.
Chapter 18
Sabin sighed inwardly as he broke away from his Chosen's mind, feeling a familiar bitterness come over him. It always amazed him how powerful negative memories were, how they maintained their hold over him. Two thousand years, and the shame he felt was no less vivid, no less painful. Long after his good memories had faded, the bad ones lived on.
It was no wonder that he had been shaped by them, these singular, tragic moments in his past. They, more than anything else, had made him who he was today.
He paused, then reached out to the Chosen again, searching for yet another memory. He found it easily, having visited it innumerable times...whenever he wavered in his resolve, or found himself doubting the importance of his grand plan.
The most painful memories were often the most valuable.
* * *
Sabin folds his arms over his chest, staring at the polished surface of Grand Runic Nespo's desk. Nespo, a tall, muscular man with jet-black hair, is a man he'd only spoken to in private a handful of times. The last time was to congratulate Sabin on his appointment as Elder Runic. At fifty, Nespo is one of the youngest Grand Runics in recent history. He looks considerably younger, with a rugged handsomeness that could be winsome or intimidating depending on his mood. Right now, it is the former.
“I understand your concerns,” Nespo states at last, leaning back in his chair. “Really, I do.”
“Do you?” Sabin counters, looking up from the table. He tries to keep his voice calm. “Four hundred thousand natives, Nespo. Working those mines sixteen hours a day, every day. Have you seen the working conditions there?”
“I have.”
“They're starving!” Sabin exclaims. “Living in their own filth, dying of easily preventable infections.”
“There is no modernized sewer system...” Nespo began.
“They're slaves, Nespo!” Sabin interrupts. “They're worse than slaves. They're...” He pauses, unable to think of the right word. “They're shit. Expendable. Worthless.” He shakes his head. “We're the Empire, Nero. We stand for freedom, justice...the sanctity of human life.” Sabin pauses, remembering the other mines he'd visited, after he'd recovered from the first. He'd spent a week exposing himself to the realities of those mines, and the concentration camps. Systematic enslavement and torture, all in the name of th
e glorious Empire.
It had been the single worst experience of his life.
“Sabin...”
“How can we dare to take other countries to task for their human rights violations when we commit crimes far worse than they?”
“Sabin, please,” Nespo insists. “Give me a chance to explain.” Sabin bites his tongue, then nods. Nespo sighs, leaning back in his chair and steepling his hands.
“The conditions at the mines are deplorable,” he agrees. “I cannot condone them personally. But the mines are not ours, and the miners are not under our jurisdiction.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Orjanian mines are owned by private companies,” Nespo explains. Companies created and maintained in Orja, by citizens of Verhan, not the Empire.”
“What?” Sabin asks, taken aback. “Every soldier I saw was wearing Imperial armor. Speaking Imperial Standard.”
“All employees of the mining companies,” Nespo continues, “...are required to forfeit their citizenship to the Empire as a term of employment. Therefore we have no jurisdiction over them, and they are not bound by our laws.”
“That's ludicrous!”
“It is the law,” Nespo counters calmly. “The mining companies therefore are subject to the laws of Verhan.”
“Verhan has no government,” Sabin protests. “It was wiped out by the plague.” Nespo shrugs.
“And that,” he replies, “...is why everything they are doing – no matter how unseemly it is to you or I – is perfectly legal.”
“It can't be,” Sabin retorts. “Verhan and the entire eastern seaboard are colonies of the Empire,” he exclaims. “They're not a foreign power at all.”
“They were our colonies,” Nespo counters. “The Council – and my predecessor – voted to revoke colonial status.”
“So that we could keep our hands clean,” Sabin deduces. “...while our diamond industry benefits from rock-bottom trade prices with Orja.” He shakes his head at Nespo, dumbstruck. Nespo merely nods.
“That was the strategy, yes.”
“And you're okay with that?” Sabin asks incredulously. Nespo shrugs.