Excerpt from Alexan’s Second Journal, Tour of the Glittering Halls.

There really isn’t much one can do about how much aether runs in their blood. A person’s capacity is really just a function of how large their body is. It is this more than anything else that holds back gnomes. It’s fortunate for me that Humans seem to have more than their size would suggest.

It is also what makes the rare Giant capable of using aether among the most powerful of casters.

Still, more important than capacity is skill in manipulating the roots and the branches, in learning how to form your mana. I’d like it if using one element made it easier to learn how to use another though. Unfortunately they all remain just different enough that it’s difficult to apply the lessons from one type of mana to another.

Chapter 15

“Can we escape into the water again?” Tal asked. He’d caught up with Nolsa and was now matching his stride to her bouncing gait.

“No,” Nolsa shook her head as she replied, “the pits I brought are drained now. I can’t repeat that.” Nolsa turned and took off sideways as she realized the path ahead was already burnt away.

This farming hub they’d fallen into was much like the bottom of the underglade that formed the Heart. As far Tal looked it was all long channels of water split up by raised platforms of wood that held soft plots of dirt and compost matter. Unfortunately, it also looked like a bit long maze.

“Faster!” Nolsa shouted, picking up speed with Tal just behind her. They pounded along, Tal’s shoes thudding on the wood and Nolsa’s hooves clopping loudly in comparison. They hit the end of the platform, reaching a burnt and broken bridge.

Nolsa launched off first, clearing the gap easily. Tal had been close on her hooves when he’d jumped, but couldn’t launch himself so fast or so far. She cleared the distance fine, Tal landed just on the edge of the platform. One foot hit a soft spot that gave way under his weight, causing him to pitch forward to his hands and knees. Easil had one arm out from the collar of Tal’s shirt, watching as much as he could while getting tossed around. He shouted as Tal stumbled.

The pause lasted only a moment as Tal was immediately back on his feet, but it still got him in trouble. A black band of mana snapped around Tal’s arm, thrown at him by one of their pursuers. Tal lurched as the extra weight threw him off balance, almost throwing him off his feet. He was just happy it hadn’t hit Nolsa. He was even happier it hadn’t hit his legs.

Tal followed where Nolsa had turned another corner, skirting around the burnt out husk of a building pushed up near the water. Although spotty, the building did provide a bit of cover against the two wardens who’d been present to begin the chase.

Fortunately, the ravaged nature of the underglade had worked in their favour. Platforms had rotted and sunk into the water, bridges had collapsed and fire had severed even more paths. What wasn’t working in Tal’s favour was that the rot had eliminated whatever usually caused the pools of the underglade to radiate their greenish-blue light. Spotty illumination from the fires and his enchantment of darksight allowed him to navigate.

But his vision was beginning to dim and his eyelids felt unnaturally heavy. Tal couldn’t maintain the spell for much longer without being burnt. With the weight of the spell on his arm and the loss of vision, it was only a matter of time until he tripped. It didn’t take much time at all.

Tal grunted as his foot hit a soft pit in the road and he pitched forwards. He got his arms down in time to avoid flattening a shouting Easil, but still hit hard.

“Tal?” Nolsa called, skidding to a stop. She quickly rebounded, crouching next to Tal as he climbed back to his feet.

“I lost the darksight, but I don’t think I could hold it much longer anyways,” Tal admitted.

“Hush, let me look at this.” Nolsa touched the thing on Tal’s arm.

While he couldn’t see in the dark anymore, the aftereffects of the enchantment allowed him to see the mana better than normally. Instead of just a dull black band, he could see the twist of vines that made up the base spell, with the root twisting around inside those vines. As Nolsa manipulated the dark mana, the vines disintegrated under her hand, followed shortly by the core of the spell. Without a sound, it broke and fell from his arm, dissipating before it hit the ground.

Having stopped made it easier to hear the shouting of their pursuers.

Nolsa rose up slightly to peek over the charred wall next to them. There was enough left of it to provide temporary cover from searching eyes, but not much else.

“That’s right,” Nolsa said, speaking more to herself than Tal. She put a hand into a pouch at her side and pulled out a pale wand of smooth wood. She placed it in Tal’s hand and he was surprised at how it was completely dry, until he recognized what it was. His char wand.

Tal gripped it tight in his hand and felt a soft warmth radiation from the wood.

He lifted his head as Nolsa started speaking, “I didn’t want to consider this, but there is a way to prevent them from chasing us.”

“What is it?” Easil asked from his spot in Tal’s shirt.

“We light fires,” Nolsa replied as she reached back into her pouch. She pulled out a second char wand and continued. “Everything around us is burnt, but it’s a careful scorching away of only what is corrupted. What is left is needed for the farm, but it’s all tinder dry.”

Easil nodded in understanding. “So if we light it on fire, everyone will have to help contain it.”

“I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Tal said with worry.

“And they don’t want to hurt you, but that won’t save your life,” Nolsa replied. She turned her head, scanning slowly around the area until she found what she was looking for. “There, that little side tunnel. It’s a bit of a maze, but the air comes in from that side. If we go there we will find our way to the outer trunk eventually.”

“How do you know?” Tal asked as he squinted. He could see where she was pointing, but the tunnel was still lost to him in the dark.

Nolsa looked back and smiled, her expression looking almost sad. “I lived here; it is where I was born and where I spent my early years.”

“Oh, right.”

“Now, let’s light some fires so you can see where you are going,” Nolsa said as she rose to her feet. “Start with this here, if you would Tal. When that’s done, follow and light anything else I point at.”

“Are you sure?” Tal asked.

“Worried about the fire going out of control?” asked Nolsa. “They’ve already scoured it low, there isn’t too much to burn. But they will have to react as much of what is left is of the most importance. Burning these platforms is unlikely to cost any lives, just time.”

Tal nodded and turned. Breathing deep, he gathered aether from where it naturally gathered in his belly and pushed it to begin circulating. Pushing some of it through the wand, the unguided fire mana scattered like budding roots wherever Tal aimed the wand. It took very little effort to ignite the tinder-dry wall they’d been using for cover.

“Let’s go!” Nolsa almost shouted, standing and starting to run. Tal followed in her wake watching for her signals.

With a gesture of her hand, Tal would lift his wand and push more fire, indiscriminately scattering flames around the area. The flames he threw around weren’t exceptionally hot or widespread, but the precise burning away of the rot had left the remaining wood tinder-dry. At Nolsa’s commands, Tal spread the fire. Nolsa picked further targets to burn, throwing tighter streams of flame than he could have managed.

Barely any time passed before the shouting behind them turned from purpose to anger and then into fear and alarm.

They continued their run, moving quickly through the long underglade. The area was still dark, but the flame had given him enough light to follow Nolsa as she ran. More than a few times his feet found small roots and pits along the wooden platform, but he was able to stumble through as he ran.

The end of the chamber was coming up, and he could finally see the outline of the tunnel Nolsa had pointed at. But that wasn’t all there was to see, a warden stood before the exit with his armor reflecting the flickering light of the fires and his curved sword at the ready. The infused dark wood drank the light unlike the armour he wore.

Tal didn’t have many options he could use. His mastery of dark mana was limited. While he could throw bullets, create shadows to block normal vision, or enhance his body by altering weight, he was no fighter. With fire mana he was even worse. He could scatter flame with the char wand, but nothing truly dangerous. If Tal had a talent, it was aether transference.

But Easil was bouncing around in Tal’s shirt such that he would never be able to concentrate on any proper casting.

“There’s someone ahead!” Tal shouted out.

“I see him,” Nolsa replied.

The path to the exit took them around several corners, the scoured platforms and walkways cutting off at random times leaving only water in front of them.

There was no way to surprise the Erlkin. He was waiting when they finally reached the exit.

“Nolsa?” he asked, surprise on his face.

“Feed me some mana,” Easil whispered from where he was hanging from the collar of Tal’s shirt. Tal raised his left hand to grab Easil by the chest. He didn’t like holding his gnomish father like this. It reminded him all too much of how small Easil actually was. Tal steadied his breath and circulated aether to Easil.

“Doosa,” Nolsa acknowledged. “I don’t suppose you will let us through?”

“The Grand Elder commanded us to watch for an attempt by the chosen to escape,” Doosa said as his expression shifted from surprise to disappointment. “I am sad to see you helping him.”

“Sad?” Nolsa shook her head as she talked. “Darisen is quite concerned that a chosen might actually survive seeing the sealing pedestal more than once.”

“What are you insinuating?”

“Erlkin live around five hundred years at most, yet we have been sealed in this barrier for over seven hundred.” Nolsa raised her char wand as she spoke to the warden. Her left hand snuck into a pouch hanging at her left hip and out of the warden’s sight. “And Darisen was in his prime when the barrier was raised. What is our Grand Elder doing that’s unusual compared to the rest of us who are living the normal lifespan?”

His sword dipped slightly, but remained at the ready. His head shifted slightly as he looked at Tal. Doosa shook his head and raised his sword. “Perhaps, but I have my du-.”

Nolsa launched a great ball of orange fire from her wand. Doosa slashed with his sword, streaks of darkness extending out from the blade and slashing at the fire. The ball split where he’d struck it, strands of darkness pulling it aside to splash against the wall. Doosa started to approach, only for Nolsa to hit him with her next trick.

Tal’s teacher pulled her hand from the pouch, drawing out another wand and waving at the pool of water along her left. As if gathered up by a great hand, a wave rose up and splashed onto the platform, slamming into Doosa and causing him to stumble.

The warden pushed through the blast of water, barely keeping his footing through the impact.

Tal felt his Aether drain away as Easil finished his own casting. Just as the wave of water fell away and the Erlkin was stumbling, Easil’s wall of wind hit him from the other side. Overbalanced, Doosa almost stumbled into the water. Easil continued to pull from Tal, dragging more and more Aether to continue the gust of wind on the faltering Erlkin. Doosa threw out his left hand, grabbing onto a root hanging from the wall to steady himself.

Nolsa didn’t let that happen, a lash of darkness whipped out and wrapped around the root. The dark tendril squeezed tight, crushing and then slicing through the wood. It gave way and Doosa shouted as he finally went into the water.

“Tal help me!” Nolsa called back. “I need your support!”

He took a couple steps forward and released Easil, moving his hand to Nolsa’s back. She drained aether faster than Easil had.

Doosa had just started trying to climb back up. Instead the water swirled about the warden, gathering him up as he shouted in surprise. Nolsa waved her wand and pushed Doosa away from the platform and further away into the water.

“That’s enough,” Nolsa said after the push. She looked over her shoulder to Tal. “Let’s go, more wardens will be along soon.”

Tal looked back once as they moved into the dark corridor. Flames burned and Erlkin ran about, fighting the rising blaze with smoke collecting above their heads.

“Do you know where we are going?” Tal shouted to Nolsa.

She looked back, a smile on her lips despite the desperate circumstances. “We are going exploring!”

End Chapter