Chapter 35

Hydrabridge

The Voidlands North of Maston

The minister of education drew back. “Why Are You Here, Reaper!?”

Kate watched as Reah backed up towards the exit of the tent. There was fear in her eyes. The look on her face reminded Kate that she was the same age as them. Her hands snapped up into defensive positions, and she allowed the evoked scythe in her hands to dissipate. Her eyes trailed towards the sword held in Rufus’ hand.

At that moment, the woman who had been looking over papers when they entered stepped forward, her spear gleamed silver in her hands.

Reah acted instantly, evoking a bubble of pure mana around the woman’s eyes, nose, and mouth. The woman faltered for a second, suddenly unable to see or breathe. The woman attempted to step back, but the bubble of mana followed her easily.

Kate felt a moment of confusion at that. Last month, she had managed to coat her body in mana and sneak up on a monster, but that hadn’t been done so smoothly. She had actually been slowly evoking wisps of mana around her body, allowing them to dissipate at the instant she moved forward, and at the same time evoking another thin layer of pure mana to replace it as she moved. She had only managed to accomplish even that because she had been moving very slowly. Reah must have had something allowing her to pull this off.

As casually impressive as it was, the woman wasn’t deterred for long. She brought one of her hands towards her face and tore through the mana. Kate knew she must have evoked some type of mana to destroy the bubble, but the motion was too fast to tell.

Reah’s back was against the tent’s exit, and she was half-turned. “What’s going on. I came here to watch them. I’m just doing my job!”

Kate opened her mouth to help Reah’s case, but the masked man had already put one arm up, stalling his subordinates. “My apologies. I forgot that our old aurora had loosened your leash.”

Reah’s expression went slack, and she looked down at the ground. “No harm done.”

“My name is Rufus Lance, Minister of Education.”

Kate looked at the man in astonishment as he held his hand out to her to shake. Lenas had been wrong. The mask wasn’t the intimidating part, it was the man underneath. She doubted she’d ever understand what the man was thinking, mask or not. One moment he was trying to kill someone, the next, he was making cordial introductions. The man’s pace was unsettling.

Kate shook his hand, but her eyes never left Reah who had moved to stand uneasily in a corner of the tent, hood pulled over her head.

Silas was the one to keep the meeting moving, shaking Rufus’ hand last, he was the first to make introductions. Before he could finish those introductions though, the minister had already turned around and walked back to Reah. Silas let his introductions trail off awkwardly.

“It has been quite a while since we last met. You must have grown at least a foot.” The minister leaned back and let off a laugh that seemed full of warmth.

“It’s…good to see you again too.” Reah ventured. “Wouldn’t mind telling an old friend why you tried to kill her would you?”

“Oh right!” Rufus snapped his fingers as if just remembering something. “That’s part of why I asked these fine students here today.” The masked minister gestured towards himself like Kate had seen parent’s summoning their kids. “Everyone gather around!”

Kate shared an uneasy glance with Myles and Silas, but all three of them huddled into the corner. The woman with the spear rolled her eyes, and the man with the strange looking mana gave a slight snort before returning to what they had been doing.

Kate was more than happy to let those two move away. You would never guess it by looking at her, but the woman was wounded. Kate could feel the pain. By her guess, it was a cut across the back, one that should have landed her in the hospital.

Kate silently thanked Reah for what felt like the thousandth time in the last two weeks. The exercises she had been showing her had helped to lessen the pain that she felt through her affliction. Reah had kept telling her to “follow the pain” and given her advice on how to do that.

Now, Kate could feel something above the membrane of her aether space. Kate thought of it as something of a slowly bending tree branch reaching out and into…something. Not even Reah seemed to know everything, and if Kate’s guess was right, Reah probably had at least one ‘tree branch’ of her own.

With everyone in the corner of the tent, Rufus finally put on a serious face—at least Kate assumed his face was serious. His voice was much more serious in any case.

“Right now, there are two major issues to deal with in the area.” Rufus held up two fingers before dropping one. “This camp is dealing with one of the issues. You don’t need to concern yourself with it.”

Silas frowned at that but didn’t say anything. Rufus was somewhat unpredictable. He was obviously being that way on purpose, but they had no idea how he might react to anything differing from whatever script he was writing.

Rufus rolled his shoulders. “The issue that you do need to concern yourself with is the appearance of a certain kind of unique tree root that has been discovered in several of the deepest tunnels under Hydrabridge.”

Kate noticed that Reah flinched when Rufus mentioned the tree roots and raised an eyebrow at her. Reah didn’t notice though. She was looking directly at Rufus’ dark wooden mask, seemingly trying to pierce through it with her eyes.

“That’s the reason you attacked me then?”

The minister nodded. “Honestly, it makes me very nervous for you to be anywhere near the mines or even the town walls.”

Reah took a breath. “I would be more than happy to stay away from those roots, but I’m guessing you’re sending these three into the mines.”

“It’s my best play at the moment. The noble in charge of Hydrabridge is not willing to allow us to investigate the situation.” Rufus’ voice turned hard. “To be blunt, I have no agents that I believe will be successful in sneaking into the mines using conventional methods, and I lack the authority to investigate without the noble’s cooperation.”

Kate was fed up with the two-way conversation. “Do you mind explaining things to us? What’s the big deal with these roots? Why can’t Reah go near them?”

The minister turned towards her. “You have been studying monsters for the past two months. How to kill them, how to track them. Tell me, where do monsters come from?”

Kat didn’t know what he was getting at, but it was safer to play along. “Nobody really knows. They just appear.”

Rufus sighed dramatically. “The first lesson of learning is to question everything. Monsters don’t just pop into being. They don’t just randomly attack people. Those are lies fed to keep the populace safe, comfortable, and helpless. If you want any hope of succeeding in your mission, you are going to need to be smarter.” Rufus leaned forward, and Kate’s eyes instinctively traveled the surface of his mask looking for some expression. She didn’t find one. “Let’s guess again.”

Kate racked her brain for any clues, and she was surprised to find a theory floating up to the surface, one she had dismissed months ago. It had first come to her when her instructor had talked about monster cores. He had mentioned that the runes used in aether constructs were originally derived from those found on monster cores. “Are monsters…created by someone?”

Rufus tilted his head. “That is one of the more disturbing theories, and I can think of one or two possible candidates if that were the case, but it is just one of many possibilities. To be honest, we don’t know the full truth about how monsters are created.”

Silas put his hands to his chin. “If we’re to question everything, how can we simply accept that as an answer?”

Rufus gave a small chuckle. “You shouldn’t. I am personally of the belief that someone out there knows this particular secret, but unfortunately as of now, I am fairly confident that nobody within our province has that information. We do however know where some of the more dangerous monsters are created.”

Reah looked to Rufus. “Would you allow me to tell this story?”

“I highly doubt anyone could be more qualified to tell it.”

Reah nodded. “Further to the north, right in the heart of our province, there is a dead zone. You will find no civilization there anymore. In the middle of this dead zone there are two structures of great significance that have stood for centuries. One of these is manmade, the former capital of the province. It rests in ruins now, the victim of a hydra that brought death and destruction throughout the continent. The second structure has been there even longer.”

Reah closed her eyes as if picturing something. Everyone remained silent. “There is a great depression in the earth, a hole deeper than any valley in the province, and miles wide. Rising from this depression and filling it completely, there is a great tree that blocks out the sun. Its branches burn with fire, shadow, and darkness. Within its branches, fleshy cocoons dangle, the starts of some of the most dangerous monsters you will ever encounter. The tree has such significance that it warps reality, infecting the minds and aether space of any who draw near. If irritated, it can release terrors on the world. One example being the hydra I spoke of.”

Kate looked into Reah’s eyes. “You’ve been there?”

Reah looked at her feet. “I lived within the trees influence for years, one of many…subjects in an experiment of sorts.”

Rufus took a deep breath that punctuated the silence. “We are afraid that the tree may have influence over our young reaper. She will not be allowed to follow you on your mission.”

Myles shook his head in annoyance. “Why do you keep calling her reaper?”

“That,” Rufus walked back towards the table filled with reports, “is a story for another day. What we need to discuss is your infiltration.”

Rufus picked up a piece of paper from the table and tossed it to Silas. “Tonight, there will be a group of twenty bright-eyed youths hoping to find work within the walls of Hydrabridge. It seems that my men conveniently miscounted though, allowing for three more spots.”

Silas looked up from the report he had started reading. “You want us to sneak into Hydrabridge as workers and investigate these roots. You realize we’ve already been seen by some of the guards, right?”

“To be specific, I want you to determine the level of threat these roots may pose to the mine’s productivity, and nudge things in the right direction for us if possible.”

Rufus moved further into the tent. “I had heard that you were caught by Lenas, a rather disappointing start really.” Rufus suddenly gave a dismissive motion. “What a conundrum. I wish you the best of luck.”

The man who had resumed his position leaning against the tent pole, suddenly snapped to attention. “You have been dismissed. Please exit the command tent.”

As Kate turned to walk away, she couldn’t help but get in one last spiteful whisper. “You could at least tell us how we were caught the first time.”

“Wind mana.” The woman with the spear spoke without looking up from the table despite Kate’s whisper being inaudible. “Those decently proficient with it can use evoked wind mana to sense things nearby them, usually a space somewhere around 100 yards in any direction.”

As they left the tent, some of the soldiers were kind enough to lead the group to some beds. Kate was brought to a different tent than the two boys. Before they separated though, she fed Myles’ spear with all the pure mana she could afford. She had no idea how they’d manage to sneak a spear into Hydrabridge, but she was determined to try.