Tales of the Dissolutionverse Box Set

by William C. Tracy

  Then she saw Origon, slowly sinking to the floor. She was too late. The orange haze was still around him, but the yellow one was gone, or very faint. Across the room, another yellow aura hovered near the hiss-tick machine by Ket. She had transferred it somehow; stolen the change he made to the Symphony. Origon would lose those notes of his song. No wonder he had buckled.

  Rilan pressed the rocker switch again. Anything Ket didn’t want her to do was a good thing. When the beep sounded once more, the rogue majus was buried in the dials and didn’t seem to hear it. Rilan patted at Vethis’ cheek, while keeping an eye on Origon. The Kirian was pale and gasping, but still conscious.

  “Wake up!” she hissed. Any ally would be an asset, even an arrogant fop like Vethis. He murmured something and his eyelids fluttered. Origon was on his knees, and Ket was still at the controls, doing something. Rilan made eye contact with her friend and made a motion toward him. He shook his head, very slightly, and gestured her back to the table. He wanted her to wake Vethis up too.

  Gently, Rilan pulled the tube back out of Vethis’ wrist. It wasn’t in deep, but the diameter narrowed to a point. It was probably injecting some concoction straight into his veins. She only just had it out, blotting the small wound, when Ket turned back, taking in the whole situation with one look.

  She tsked. “Really now, that’s rude of you. Do you know how long it took me to prep him? I only perfected the technique a ten-day ago, and I haven’t had the chance to complete the transfer.” The Festuour pushed out with both hands and something glowed between them, both giving off real orange light and ringed with the orange of the House of Power.

  Her second house. She had already demonstrated the House of Potential. Rilan had no idea what the majus was capable of. She began to time the beat of her own song, getting ready.

  As Ket pushed outward, the ring of orange expanded forward, leaving her fingers and moving toward Rilan. She guessed the majus was manipulating heat and changed notes to toughen her skin. Her eyes flicked to Vethis. She didn’t have time to change his melody too.

  Origon, from his knees, curved his fingers through an arc in the air, then slumped again. The wave of orange bowed away from her, toward the high ceiling of the cavern.

  Rilan felt an intense drying heat frizzle her hair and shivered involuntarily. Her change would not have stopped that. She quickly reversed what she had done, regaining that part of her song. She would need it.

  Ket snapped her long jaws together—a sign of irritation in Festuour—and began some other change in the Symphony of Power. Too late she realized what Rilan saw. Origon hadn’t just deflected the wave of heat, he had taken the change from her—a permanent investment on his part. Her friend had a hand on the floor, holding himself up. Oddly, Ket didn’t seem to notice. Rilan winced at his loss, even as the orange wave curved back down.

  Ket followed Rilan’s involuntary glance upward and the haze around her graduated from orange to a brilliant white in a split second. Rilan heard chords change, almost quicker than she could register. Origon’s eyes widened. The wave of heat washed over Ket and her fur crinkled, but there was no other effect. The brilliant white faded.

  The Festuour had switched Symphonies, mid-tune. To her third house.

  “I have few notes of that kind of song left to waste,” Ket said. “Either of you two can provide me with more.” She gestured beside Rilan. Vethis had his eyes open, and was pulling the mask from his face.

  “She has a machine that steals a majus’ song,” Vethis said, his voice hoarse, his clipped, affected accent barely showing through. “She stole those notes from me. And she stole something from that other Kirian.”

  “Is that even possible?” Rilan asked.

  Vethis glared up at her. “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.” His accent was already clearer.

  “Of course it is,” Ket put in. “I had experimented on Kiria with the energy transfer before I was…interrupted.” She looked annoyed.

  Origon regained his feet, shaking his head as if clearing it. He growled something, and his crest looked like he had been struck by lightning. Rilan helped Vethis sit up, gathering her song and planning how best to disable Ket. She only needed a moment to—

  “You must excuse me. I’m afraid I won’t be a very good host to three maji.” Ket walked, fast, to the only other blank section of wall. There was a medallion hanging on it, like the ones they had seen on the creatures outside. They must have been artifacts of the House of Potential— storing larger systems of changes to the Symphony.

  “My brother!” Origon rushed forward at the same time as Rilan. The room wasn’t big, but Ket moved faster. A bright aura erupted from her, brown and orange and white all together. The yellow aura around the hiss-tick machine flew to her and joined the mix. The medallion flashed in response, glowing incandescent. Just as Rilan got to the Festuour, gritting her teeth against the pain in her chest, the wall in front of her dissolved into nothingness and Ket scooted through.

  Rilan skidded to a stop as the wall re-solidified in front of her nose. She fell against the hard surface as Origon bumped into her from behind. She made a pained sound, one hand going to her ribs.

  “What was that?” he said over her shoulder. He reached out a long finger and scraped down the wall. It was hard as stone. There was no way they could burrow through in time.

  Rilan could only shake her head. “I have no idea. Solidified air and fire, made organic? Pure kinetic energy converted to solid matter? With four houses mixed together, the possibilities are endless. Ket must have heard almost the entire Grand Symphony underlying the universe, all at once. It’s enough to make anyone mad.” Ket was definitely not operating on the same tune as the rest of them.

  She turned around as Origon backed away. Vethis was shakily getting to his feet, one hand already preening his hair. “We can’t relax,” she said. “No telling when she’ll come back. We must keep watch.” Rilan frowned, looking around the cavern, trying to think of a way to get to the majus.

  “I think she was using up most of the notes she stole from me. Luckily, she was not taking all of them. She could be limited to only three houses now.” As he spoke, Origon stepped toward the medallion, eyeing it while one hand stroked his moustaches meditatively.

  “Or two,” Vethis added. “She might not have much left from the House of Healing after what she put into those horrible beasts.” His affected accent was back full force—something popular with the other aristocratic prats where he hailed from, some city far to the north of Rilan’s birth town.

  Rilan crossed to the apprentice. He shouldn’t even be out of the Nether before he tested. She wondered when she had started taking for granted that she was a majus. “Speaking of which, what, by Shiv’s labyrinthine guts, are you doing here?”

  Vethis flinched back, raising a velvet sleeve. He was still dressed in the clothes from their test, black-blue velvet coat, striped pants, and white cuffs. A deep blue collar—his secondary color—set off his dark hair.

  “I might ask you the same,” he returned, peering down his thin nose at her. “Shouldn’t you be doing some great deed with the rest of the maji, now you’re one of them? Too good for the rest of us—the second best—eh?”

  “Answer the question, apprentice,” Origon said from behind her. “How were you getting here ahead of us? What were you seeing of my brother? Are you knowing where Ket went?”

  “I can’t tell you much.” Vethis sniffed. “The other Kirian was already dead when I got here. That wretched pretend majus drained the life right out of him. It was a terrible experiment on her part. She said something about paying him back for interrupting her.” He closed his mouth, eyeing them. When Origon’s crest flared and he limped forward, Vethis backed up and began speaking again.

  “As to how I got here, the despicable creature invited me. First she wanted information. She picked the right person to come to, of course.” Rilan rolled her eyes and motioned for him to
continue. “The strange thing was, she wanted information on him.” Vethis pointed at Origon. “Of course, now I know she wanted him because of his brother. At the time, I thought she had some other purpose, so I was very willing to share what I knew of you two.” He grinned at her and she wondered how much of the Nether was talking about her and Origon. Then Vethis frowned. “But she wasn’t interested in what I had to offer. She started on about a new source of power for all maji, so I went with her. I had no clue the source would be me.” Origon turned away from Vethis, his wrinkled face twisting in a grimace.

  Of course her classmate jumped at that chance. Any whisper of power or influence and he was on it like a Kirian on a grub. He must have been an easy target for the rogue majus, especially after failing his test. Another thought struck her. Ket had been at their test. If Rilan had been the one to fail, would Ket have come after her instead? Of course she wouldn’t have taken the bait. That feeling of dread when she thought she might fail rose up within her. She hoped she wouldn’t have taken it.

  Origon grunted behind her and Rilan turned to him too quickly. The heaviness of this world made her rib feel like it was cracking all over again whenever she moved.

  “I cannot hear a large enough part of the melody.” He was fiddling with the medallion now, yellow and orange sparking between his fingers. “The music is to be too fast for me to catch, and there is too much of at least one other house in it.” He shifted, and almost fell as his leg gave out under him.

  “Oh for the sake of all that’s holy,” Vethis said. “Are you still that terrible with healing, Rilan? It’s in the name of our house, you know.”

  Rilan glared at him, even as he reached for her. If he touched anything but her ribs, he was drawing back a nub.

  But Vethis’ fingers were strangely gentle, white and the dark blue of his personal color extending from his hands to the outline of her ribcage. Rilan couldn’t quite make out what he did. The melody for encouraging pure healing was almost impossible for her to change, like trying to whistle a base drumbeat. Each majus had areas where they were more skilled.

  “There. That should feel better.” Vethis watched her until she gave a grudging nod, rotating an arm. It did feel better, but he wasn’t getting out of this that easy. He gave her a knowing half-smile and went to Origon, who received Vethis’ attentions with a grunt of thanks, still investigating the medallion.

  “Don’t thank me,” Vethis responded, straightening his hair again. “Healing you two means I have a better chance of getting out alive. That crazy bear is tough.”

  “And she may be coming back at any point,” Origon put in. “Do you know where she went? Why was she needing my stolen notes to create the door it if it was there previously?”

  Vethis shook his head. “I didn’t even know it was there. I’ve been on that table most of the last two days.” He pointed with a limp finger toward the table in the middle of the room. “I suspect you’re not going to let me make a portal back to the Nether and be done with this mess.” Rilan glared at him. Origon’s crest had gone all spiky again. “Didn’t think so.”

  “We cannot be letting this criminal loose again,” Origon said. “She has already killed several times.”

  “What is she doing in there?” Rilan smacked the wall with one palm where the doorway had been. It was hard, unyielding. Origon began to investigate each machine in turn.

  Vethis watched them both, arms crossed. “Is she even in there any longer? She could have made a portal to anywhere by now. As we should.”

  Rilan ignored him, grasping her braid and pulling it around front. She tapped the bell into her palm with a tiny jingle. Think.

  “Should we be destroying her equipment?” Origon asked from halfway across the room.

  “We don’t even know what it does,” Rilan told him, watching his progress over one shoulder. “It could all be to vent chemicals to the outside, for what we know.”

  Vethis pointed at the hiss-tick machine. “That one steals the song from a majus. Or were you not paying attention again? I wonder how you even passed your test.”

  Origon shrugged and went for the machine, but Rilan waved him away. “And what happens if we beat it to pieces? Have you ever heard of any machine like that? It could suck the rest of our songs away if it malfunctions. We should be figuring out how to get to Ket.”

  “But what if the design is getting out?” Origon asked. “Imagine if more people could be arbitrarily stealing one’s house and song.”

  Rilan almost missed the gleam in Vethis’ eye. She stared him down, daring him to move toward the machine. “Maybe it is better to destroy it.” She started to turn away from where Ket had disappeared.

  At that moment the wall in front of her dissolved.

  Ket snarled, flinging something glowing white, orange and brown at her. It was another medallion. It stuck to her chest, and a searing pain coursed through her. She stumbled back, gasping, hearing Origon yell something. All her senses were going black.

  Then there was an intense white light. As Rilan fell back into the table, she saw her hand glowing. Was she changing the Symphony without knowing it? What was happening?

  Origon was beside her as her eyes cleared and she saw the little bell in her hand, now devoid of any aura.

  It will ward off disease. Thank you, Majus Meyta. Whatever the majus had thrown at her had some element of the House of Healing holding it together, and not a pleasant one.

  For once, Ket looked surprised. “You should be dead,” she complained, as she closed the distance between them.

  “You’re not actually very good, are you?” Rilan said, backpedaling. “Fast, yes, and you have lots of power. I would too if I stole it from others.” She got back to her feet, Origon beside her. “Are you even a majus? I’ve never heard of you.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Vethis bolt for the secret room, getting away from the fight. Coward.

  Ket looked uncertain for only a moment, then her long face twisted up. “I’ll be the most powerful majus ever,” she said. She started some change, orange and yellow flaring around her arms, but Origon stepped in front of Rilan, hands moving. The air rippled as a curve of compressed air came into being, like the tent when they camped.

  Ket’s changes beat against the shield, making it wobble. “You must be pleased. Your kind is so smug, controlling the Assembly and all the species. Just because someone is a majus, they’re automatically at the top of their field.” She flung a hand out, orange and brown ringing it, and it passed completely through Origon’s shield. Rilan gasped, something burning in her chest, but only for a moment. Origon had both hands out, his head cocked like he was trying to get a note just right. His crest came to a point in concentration, then relaxed. The heat left her.

  “The maji are to be providing for all species,” he said. “If some are renowned for their jobs as well, it is because they worked hard to get there.” He was brewing another change as he spoke, yellow and orange roiling around his hands. Yet he still kept the shield in place. It would take more concentration, but if he let it fall, he would not be able to make another one for a while. Rilan fell into her own Symphony, listening to all the music of life in the room. Ket’s music was off, tempo jerking and stopping. Accessing that many houses was not good for her body. Rilan tried to find a way to incapacitate her.

  “I worked hard,” the Festuour said. “I should have been at the top of my field. Why should only maji study the Grand Symphony? It’s a beautiful thing. Did you know there are ways to hear the notes mechanically? It’s only science. But you maji don’t quantify it—you don’t study it. You worship it.”

  A glow surrounded Ket suddenly, appearing all at once. It was a large change to the Symphony, and made quickly. Rilan finally understood. Everything Ket did was a permanent change to the Symphony. She wasn’t trying to regain any notes, so of course her changes were more powerful—she didn’t have to be careful to make reversible changes, the way other maji did. And why
not? Everything she was using was stolen. If she ran out, she could just steal more.

  All this passed through Rilan’s mind in a fraction of a second, while she watched Origon’s hands rise slowly, starting to glow. He was making a change in both the House of Communication and Power, maybe another change to the air, maybe something else to defend against what was coming. Rilan began her own change, using her song to heighten her reactions. If she could get around Origon’s shield in time to touch the Festuour, she could start destroying muscle and tissue. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was quick. Entropy always was.

  Though her senses processed faster, the Symphony was unchanged. It still played at its own pace, and she struggled to gather together all the phrases she would change to affect her opponent. She watched Ket’s aura, orange and brown, spear toward her and too late to stop it, felt her contact with the Symphony falter. Her opponent was using the Houses of Power and Potential in combination to sap Rilan’s connection with the Symphony. This must be what Origon felt before.

  Indeed, his yellow and orange construction was flickering too. Rilan saw bits of her own white and olive floating away from her, crossing the room to that terrible hiss-tick machine. She poured more concentration into her change but the notes slipped away, like the music was in another room, and then in another building. Her enhanced senses were slipping away too, the change stolen from her. The very notes making her song were leaving.

  Rilan’s knees buckled, and she saw Origon slump.

  Then there was a hollow sound, like a melon being slapped, and Ket’s blue eyes rolled back in their sockets. The suction stopped and Rilan stood, weakly.