by Blake Vanier
“That's it?” Korbin's shoulders drop.
“That's not bad, especially for a Human your age. It also means you probably absorbed an essence of a safe size, which is good.” Sosimo points the scanner at Ryder. “Alright, you're up. Good Aetheratin! Eighteen kilojoules, and your Aethersotto is ninety watts. Interesting combination. Your ratio of Aetheratin to Aethersotto is quite a bit higher than typical.”
“What does that mean?” Ryder asks.
“It means you’ll be better at sustaining Aether for a long time at a modest intensity.” Sosimo then moves to Thea. “Here it goes Thea… Whoa.”
“What? Am I okay?” Thea tries to look at the display.
“You’re okay, Aetheratin and Aethersotto ratio is really well balanced…”
“That’s good then, right?”
“Yeah, it’s just not common among wild entities or races, so you rarely see Humans with a ratio like this. The Drebin seekers are one group that has a ratio in this ball park. It’s part of what makes them so effective in combat.”
“So, what are my values then?” Thea asks.
“Twenty kilojoules for Aetheratin and two hundred and thirty watts for Aethersotto. It is a bit high, but not too concerning for your first essence.”
Thea beams.
“That doesn't make any sense!” Korbin says. “When me and Ryder absorbed our entities, there was a big explosion, but nothing happened for Thea!”
Sosimo shrugs. “Each Human reacts differently, so that isn't always a clear indication of an essence’s potential. The next time you two absorb an essence, it’ll probably be pretty tame. Something else to remember is that your Riner Ratio, which is a ratio defined by your Aetheratin and Aethersotto, is now set for life. As your skills develop, your Aetheratin and Aethersotto will increase proportionally to your individual Riner Ratio. So, Ryder, for example, you’ll always have a much higher relative Aetheratin than Aethersotto, no matter what essence you may absorb in the future.”
“You should measure Nero since he claims to be able to use Aether,” Korbin says.
“Is that alright, Nero?” Sosimo asks. Nero nods and Sosimo points the scanner at him. The scanner beeps with a red light on top. Nothing happens. Sosimo frowns trying again, but still, the scanner beeps with the red light.
Korbin tries to peek at the detector in Sosimo's hand. “So, is his Aether zero?”
“Easy, Korbin.” Sosimo puts the scanner back into the detector. “Well, we weren't expecting anything, since he apparently didn’t absorb an essence.”
“What was it, then?” Korbin looks at Nero with a sneer. “Lower than zero?”
Sosimo turns to Korbin sharply. “Korbin, enough.” He shies away. “I’ve noticed you can be a real jerk sometimes. It’s tiresome.” He takes a deep breath and pushes a few buttons on the detector. “Okay. Let's get on with what we came here to do.”
Iona looks at Sosimo carefully. Is it zero? What isn't he saying?
Sosimo lowers the detector so the children can see. The screen has black, evenly-spaced circles radiating from the center. They all have numbers on them. “These circles represent distance, so we know how far away a signal is. We change the numbers so we either get a larger or smaller view of the area.” He points to a pole sticking out of the ground. Metal arms sprouting from it give it the appearance of a cactus. “That’s one of the detectors in the array. It was used to hunt the Creature of Aza. They magnify the signal we’re trying to measure, which increases our search area to hundreds of meters.” He hits a button, and the whole screen turns green.
“That doesn’t look very helpful,” Ryder says.
“Hold on a second.” Sosimo frowns at the detector. He fiddles with a few buttons until the screen returns to normal, leaving a clump of green blobs at the center of the rings. “Okay, that’s better. The green signals at the center represent us. If we touch them, the scanner will estimate the Aether statistics of each one. It's not as accurate as the scan we just did, but it can be useful when you can’t get close. We don't want to track ourselves, so let's get rid of those.” He touches a few buttons and clears the screen of the green signals at the center.
“I just told the detector to ignore any Aether signatures within ten meters of us. This works because we each have a unique energy signature.”
Sosimo pushes a button on the detector, and the distance indicators constrict. New circles with higher numbers appear from the edges. Just past the two-hundred-meter circle, there is a faint green dot. “We may be in luck. Let’s go get it.” Sosimo begins to hike up the side of the mountain through the loose, rocky terrain.
The children struggle to keep up with his long powerful strides. He relentlessly leads them higher. Finally, Sosimo stops, and the children, huffing and puffing, clamber up next to him. Nero takes a few more minutes to catch up.
“Alright, I think we’re close enough to track it directly,” Sosimo says without a hint of exertion. “I only want Iona and Nero to come with me.”
I don't want one! Iona’s nerves cinch tight about her stomach. The same uneasy feeling she had back at their hideout with the canisters comes back.
Korbin and Thea protest in unison.
Sosimo holds up his hand. “Wild entities can be skittish; they can pick up thoughts and desires of other creatures. If we all go up there and we aren't mindful of our thoughts, it may spook.”
“But I thought entities were just misty things,” Thea says.
“They still react to their surroundings. If there’s a threat, they'll try to move away, some faster than others. Some will even dissipate into the environment, only to take shape again several days later. It’s for the best if we do this alone. We'll be quick.” Sosimo looks back at the detector.
“Come on,” Ryder says, signaling with his arm. “Let's find a place to rest.” He walks off in the opposite direction, reluctantly followed by Thea and Korbin.
Iona and Nero gather around Sosimo. He shows them the screen. There is one faint green dot at the outer edge. “This dot is the gal we’re looking for. Move slowly and try not to get too excited.” Sosimo leads them toward the glowing dot.
Iona swallows. I really don’t want one.
After a short hike, Nero taps Sosimo on the shoulder and points. “Is that it?”
Sosimo looks up, squinting. “Wow, good eyes,” he says after a moment
Iona follows Nero's arm. Where? I’m usually the one to see stuff first.
Sosimo pulls the two children behind a tree. “Okay, so who wants it?”
Iona shakes her head. “I don't want it.”
“Okay, next one is yours.” He turns to Nero. “That means you’re up. Move slowly. Try to stay calm. Breathe deeply. We'll follow you a short while longer, but then you’re on your own.”
Nero leads the way, moving quietly, as if the entity can hear him. Just when Iona sees a strange shimmer in the air, floating aimlessly, Sosimo pulls her to the side. They watch Nero approach the entity, reaching for it.
Suddenly, there is a flare of light from the center of the shimmer. The entity takes a more substantial appearance. It dives at Nero and he yelps, falling and covering his head with his arms.
“Woo,” Iona gasps, grabbing Sosimo’s arm.
The entity spirals about Nero’s body, looping around his torso and between his arms in a chaotic blur. Nero slowly opens his eyes and jumps to his feet. He dances around in circles, shaking his arms and trying to brush the entity away. His hands pass right through the blur as it continues to coil about his body. Finally, the entity detaches itself from Nero and hovers above his head in a morphing blob of mist and light before it zooms off into the distance. Nero turns to Sosimo, his face white as chalk. He does not move.
Sosimo runs up to Nero in a few quick bounds, leaving Iona behind. He grabs Nero’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“I think so. What happened?”
Sosimo lets out a breath. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. Entities will move away a bit
if someone tries to touch them. If they get really scared, they’ll disappear. Either way, they’re slow. But that one…” Sosimo shakes his head. “I don’t know what happened.”
Nero looks up at Sosimo with a long face. “Is there something wrong with me? Is that why I can't absorb entities?”
Sosimo shrugs. “You look fine to me. Maybe your body is different, and you can't absorb Aether. That would explain why the detector couldn't get a reading on you… Or maybe you aren't Human.”
Not Human? Iona’s chest begins to tighten.
“What does that mean?” Nero says with a sense of horror.
“It’s not the end of the world. You are who you are. That's what matters. Your actions in life define you, not your label.”
“Well maybe I’m a natural,” Nero says. He wipes his nose. “How about that?”
“What's a natural?” Iona asks.
Sosimo moves his jaw forward, making the toothpick in his mouth stick straight up. He stares at Nero for a moment, then turns to Iona. “A natural is a Human born with Aether. They are incredibly rare, so it’s unlikely. And besides, you should’ve still responded to the Aether detector.” Sosimo pats Nero on the back. “I'm sorry I don't have the answers for you, but hopefully we’ll figure something out in Kiats. Let's meet up with the others. We’ll see if we can find another entity and let Iona try.”
When Sosimo, Iona, and Nero reach the others, Korbin jumps up quickly, rushing over. “So, what happened? Did Iona get an entity?”
Iona opens her mouth but Sosimo speaks first. “Unfortunately, no. It eluded us before we were able to get close. We'll have to keep looking.”
Korbin looks at Nero's hanging head. “I bet Nero scared it away.”
Sosimo's eyes fall hard on Korbin. “Korbin, you are trying my patience.” Korbin shrinks away as Sosimo looks at him for a long moment. Sosimo finally flips up the screen on the detector and begins scanning for another entity.
They search the mountain for several more hours and to Iona's relief, they are unsuccessful. Eventually, Sosimo calls it a day and drives them back to the valley, where they pass through the camp. They take an old dirt road leading to the large mountain and lake. To the children’s delight, the mountainside is perforated with a number of natural waterslides and waterfalls. They all feed into the cool, crystal clear lake. The laughter of the children is so full, even Nero’s poor mood evaporates and he joins in on the fun.
After a few rides down the water slides, Iona wanders over to Sosimo. He is sitting on a large boulder, looking at the Aether detector. A long-sleeved shirt still covers his arms.
“Hey, can I ask you a question?” she asks.
Sosimo looks up from the detector. “Sure.”
“What happened when you scanned Nero? There’s something you weren’t telling us.”
“You don’t let anything slip by,” Sosimo says. “Sit down. I’ll try to explain.” Iona scrambles up the warm rock next to Sosimo. “If I were to scan any living thing on this planet, I would get a reading. It might be zero, but nonetheless, I would get a reading.”
“So, what did the scan say?”
“That’s the weird thing. I couldn’t scan him at all. It’s like he wasn’t even there.”
“What does that mean? Could he really not be Human?”
Sosimo pushes a few more buttons on the detector. He shakes his head and sighs. “I can’t say. This detector could be broken.”
“What were you trying to do?”
“Do you remember when I was first showing you the detector and the screen turned completely green?”
“Yeah, was that normal?”
“Well, a little bit of weak background noise is expected. Aether can come from any number of places, but this was very energetic―a four on the Boltz scale. Do you know what the Boltz scale is?”
Iona shakes her head.
“It’s used to quantify Aether. It combines someone’s Aetheratin and Aethersotto into a single value that can be used to effectively compare Aether abilities, regardless of Riner Ratio. It is also logarithmically based, which means a two on the Boltz scale is ten times higher than a one, and a three is ten times higher than a two. A small difference in the Boltz value can be pretty significant. I’m a 3.3 on the Boltz scale, and the other children are less than a one. A four as a background value is very odd. I was hoping that it would show up again, but I’m not having any luck. I’ll get a spike occasionally, but that's it. It’s probably just a weird glitch.” Sosimo moves the detector to the side and sighs. “This has been a strange day.”
A car coming down the dirt road catches their attention. It parks next to Gracie and Gorton, Kas, and their children hop out. Taris and Centara head directly for the lake while their parents walk toward Sosimo and Iona. More cars begin to trickle down the road to the lake as well.
“It looks like there was a bit of an incident with the Drebin,” Kas says. “I need to head back soon to play Mayor.”
“Was there an attack?” Sosimo asks.
“There was,” Gorton says. “They attacked the Gate and completely destroyed it. They went right through town and turned up the road toward Stone’s Peak before our army could intercept.”
“How did we stop them?”
“Our air support was able to slow them down enough that our army caught up with them. There wasn’t much else to do at that point but fight. From what we heard, it wasn’t pretty; eight Borukins were killed. There were two Seekers in the group. Unfortunately, before the army could finish them off, they both escaped into the mountains with some survivors, heading for the border. The army set off after them, but the Drebin were too quick in the poor terrain. The military is now ensuring that they don’t double back.”
“Two seekers,” Sosimo says. “I think we’re lucky we only lost eight. But the Drebin must have known they didn’t have a chance. What would motivate them to push so deep into our mountains?”
“They’re still assessing, but maybe there’s something up here,” Gorton says. “Which means King Ramas is going to want the mountains searched thoroughly, and the people in charge will most likely be staying in Kas’s town, and in these cabins. We should prepare to receive them.”
“Looks like you have a lot of work to do.” Sosimo looks out at the children playing in the water, then at Iona. “I bet it’d be best to stay here for a couple of days to let things settle. The road to Kiats is going to be crowded.”
Gorton slaps Sosimo on the back. “That’s good, because I could use more help.”
14
Kiats
Iona
Gracie completes a gentle right turn and the canyon disappears. An expanse of green, sprawling farmland unfurls before them. The road bobs along the large rolling hills covered in crops at different stages of growth. Every fifty kilometers or so, towns interrupt the fields.
Several hours pass by and the rolling hills settle into a gentle slope running all the way to a deep blue ocean. Lines of white capped waves stretch across the horizon and roll into the shore.
A dense blanket of leafy trees abruptly overruns the farmland, where the afternoon light ignites red stone buildings poking through the canopy. The city dips down and back up with the beaches and cliffs of the varying coastline. Only at the heart of the city do the stone buildings become the distinguishing feature.
Thea throws her hand over her mouth. “Oh, wow.”
“Neat,” Iona says.
“My Kiats,” Sosimo says. “It’s hard to be gone for so long. I’ll take the long way to show you the best of it.”
Once Gracie pierces the thick layer of trees, the number of buildings and homes surprise the children. The Borukins they see walking about are dressed slightly more formally than those in Jasmeer. Almost all of them have long black hair and ivory tattoos. As they approach the coast, the buildings increase in size, and the stonework becomes more elaborate. The stone structures push the trees back, and the sky opens.
“Oooo, can we swim in that?�
�� Thea asks, pointing to a large stone fountain with water spraying from the top and to the sides.
“That’s not for swimming. It was a donation to the city of Kiats from one of the greatest stoneworkers of all times, Tyra Wintello. It’s hundreds of years old. This is the fountain that is replicated in the Human city Praun, which I mentioned before.” Sosimo points to the other side of the road where the building facades are made of intricately carved stone and red granite pillars support the roof. “If you look carefully, you’ll be able to see Stone's Coliseum, where the Games are held.”
The buildings part and a portion of Stone's Coliseum peeks through. It sits like a gargantuan stone bowl on a flat table. Enormous granite pillars, as tall as some of the surrounding buildings, support the edges.
“Woo. Where’d they get all that stone?” Iona asks.
“Anterra is bigger than you can imagine. It’s just a matter of finding and digging it up. The Coliseum is actually three separate stadiums that have different arrangements for the events. Its size is quite daunting, even for someone who was raised here. Now look, here.” He points to the other side where there is a long field of grass; individual statues stand around the perimeter. “That’s the Lawn of Royals. It has a statue of every Queen or King of Boruk since our emancipation from the Creators.”
Sosimo turns Gracie along the cliff-line that drops off to the ocean in levels like steps made for a giant of unimaginable size. Rectangular pools of turquoise water are framed in stone and spill through falls to pools below. Walkways and benches line the edges of the cliffs at each level, and small bridges span channels of gently flowing water. Between the pools, large flat areas of stone are filled with Borukins in lines. They all follow the motions of a master. Back on the main level, monuments and museums meld perfectly with the landscape as countless Borukins stroll the paths between.
“Can we swim in those?” Thea asks.
“People are only allowed to swim in the lower area, by the ocean.”
“Aw, that totally stinks. Those look fun.”