Aether Engineering

Chapter 62

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

The rest of the first week was a whirlwind of activity. Primrose had them start delving their aether space, creating their first channel with the goal of eventually opening up an aether well for wind mana. The process was slightly different than delving an aether well. For one thing, there was less grinding away at the edge of the aether involved and more just throwing waves of mana against one spot, creating a narrow passageway just under the surface of the aether membrane.

Myles continued his research into additional mana types. As he took a second look at the notes for lightning mana, he found one unique advantage that might be useful to him. The advantage was only mentioned briefly, and even the notes that Dresden recommended him had minimal studies on lightning mana. Nevertheless, it intrigued Myles. The characteristic for evoked lightning mana to manipulate and sometimes draw in certain kinds of metal was mentioned as an aside more than anything, but Myles couldn’t help but imagine him manipulating constructs remotely with lightning mana.

Perhaps the reason Myles had grown so attached to the idea of lightning mana had to do with how poorly his and Jane’s work had gone on building out the composite mana construct. They knew how they wanted it to work but finding a viable way to trigger the construct was a huge challenge. They had thrown about various ideas. Almost every type of weapon they knew of had been discussed to some degree, but problems remained.

The construct had to be triggered well in advance of activation, needed to be kept at a distance from the user’s own eardrums, and needed to have a size and shape allowing for the needed runes and mana capacity.

Combat training was as brutal as ever. Every morning, the group walked down to the training hall with aching muscles. They made some progress on learning the steps, but the ninth and tenth steps continued to give the entire group trouble. The ninth step simply demanded so much of the user’s body that it was exhausting to practice. The tenth step proved to be a challenge in reflexes and adaptation.

To make matters worse, Primrose was far from content having them practicing the counters solely on human opponents. She had found a way to simulate monsters too, cobbling together wooden dummies for use. Eventually, after one too many of these dummies broke, a common occurrence considering how often the dummies rammed home, Primrose gave up on them. That didn’t bode well for the dormmates though. The next day, they found the dummies replaced by statues of different monsters, each made up by evoked earth mana and directly manipulated by Primrose herself. At times, it felt as though Primrose had a little too much fun with her new creations.

Throughout the week, there remained a depressing cloud over the group. Terris’ death was still fresh in their mind, especially so when they discovered that Tullis and the other members of their platoon stayed in the same building.

It was out of respect that Myles and the other members of his platoon all cleared their schedules to attend Terris’ funeral at the end of the week.

When the ceremony came, it was an overcast evening. Sister Liza stepped out of the church, helping to carry the casket. Traditionally, it was the deceased closest family who would carry the casket out, but exceptions had to be made. Tullis was the only family who could make it. Their parents were both alive, but even if they had been able to make it in time, the journey was simply too dangerous. The last thing anyone wanted was for Tullis to lose the rest of his family in their attempt to cross the voidlands.

Myles was reminded of his mother’s funeral. Back then, Father Oswald had helped carry out the casket. Myles had been distraught at the time, his entire family gone. The community had come together then, providing them their support. It was only thanks to them that Myles had managed to move on.

Here, the turnout was fairly low. With their busy schedules, not that many students had gotten to know Terris. Still, those who had made a point of showing up.

The paladin Myles and Jane had followed was the one to perform the ceremony. He was technically the highest-ranking church official present in Maston, but it still felt off putting. The man did his duties well, so, there was little room to complain, but from someone who presumably had some connection to the murderer, the quality of the ceremony hadn’t felt like the biggest issue.

Jane held Myles back when the ceremony, whispering in his ear. “Let it go. No good will come from confronting him. We’re here to show support anyways.”

Myles took a deep, calming breath. He knew Jane was right. It was best not to get involved with the paladin. He was much deeper into the organization than they were. Primrose’s deduction that the man had led him and Jane to the meeting seemed to make a bit of sense as well. It was hard to imagine the paladin not using wind mana the entire time they had tailed him. The stories Myles had grown up with made paladins out to be exceptionally powerful arcaners. Of course, in the stories, those paladins were always highly honorable, saving children and fighting off evil. They didn’t seem to meld well with a man who may have intentionally led a pair of students into a shady group whose members murdered for seemingly no reason.

Reah was present at the funeral as well. It was the first time that Myles had seen her since the night she had told him and Jane what had happened. Throughout the ceremony, her face was a storm of emotion. Myles couldn’t help but detect more than a little anger in the mix.

Unable to go after the paladin and not sure what he could say to Tullis or his platoon, Myles walked over to Reah. He felt it odd that she had chosen to stand by herself. “How are you doing, Reah?”

“How do you think?” She snapped.

Myles was knocked off guard. He had never seen Reah react so strongly, so short-tempered.

“Sorry.” Reah backpedaled, looking towards the ground in instant regret. “I’ve just been feeling on edge lately. I don’t quite feel like myself.”

“You know, if you want to talk, I’m more than willing to listen. Just let me know. I’m sure Kate and Silas would both be happy to help out as well, Jane too.”

Reah nodded. Myles noticed dark patches under her eyes. At a glance, she still wore her bandage too. It looked to be bleeding through somewhat. Myles suddenly thought back to what Sister Liza had said. She had talked about how Reah was always patrolling around the town, killing monsters that got too close.

“You’re not pushing yourself too hard, are you?”

Reah gave him a weird look. “What are you worried about me or something?”

“Well…yes”

Reah shook her head, seeming momentarily confused. “You don’t need to worry about me.” She gave a bright smile before she remembered where she was. “I’ve dealt with far worse than this.”

When Myles returned to the dorm, he borrowed Rufus’ book from Silas again. He wanted to check for more entries on organization members. He found them, and he was surprised by just how many he found. There were dozens of entries for criminals associated with the organization. In fact, almost half the book was filled with these. Myles still couldn’t see how he had missed so much.

Most of the organization members were weaker than the Ivory Force, but two entries at the very front of the book made Myles raise his eyebrows in alarm.

Identity: Unknown (Enforcer No. 3 of the organization) most commonly referred to simply as three

Individual Threat Level: (at least) 6

Abilities:

Enforcer no. 3 of the organization should be considered to be one of if not the greatest threat to the province. Records exist of small nations being overcome by this individual’s manipulative efforts. Little is known about the abilities of Enforcer 3, but that is largely irrelevant due to the scale of power estimated by authorities in the Perralin empire. At a rating of at least 6, this individual has gone beyond the normal human limits of strength that can be acquired by an arcaner.

History and Crimes:

Any list of crimes that could be drafted would likely be woefully insufficient. As a single digit enforcer of the organization, three is active on an international scale. Much of the pain caused by the organization throughout the world can and should be attributed to three’s orders. In regard to the Rord province, three has only recently been suspected of involvement. These suspicions largely come from a small number of attacks perpetrated by strange monsters bearing the number three somewhere on their body. As of yet, these attacks seem to have no cohesive purpose. No concrete evidence exists that three is moving against the province.

Conclusion:

If three were to mount an attack on the province, the entire provincial army should be mobilized. In such an eventuality, ambassadors will be sent to the nearby provinces as well as the Perralin empire for aid in the conflict. Victory would not be assured without aid. By a traditional rule of thumb, those who have reached a level of power beyond the limits of humanity can usually be matched with a large force of powerful arcaners. This is one of the reasons why the province maintains a large standing army.

Identity: Laurence (Enforcer No. 7 of the organization)

Individual Threat Level: (at least) 6

Abilities:

Laurence is a comparably well-known quantity when compared to other single digit enforcers. Laurence has staggeringly powerful attacks rooted in fire mana. Attacks made have been known to cover miles of terrain, creating ashen plains in an instant. It is also thought that Laurence lived for several centuries, implying that he has found some means of extending his life, a wholly foreign concept to traditional knowledge of aether space usage.

History and Crimes:

To describe Laurence as a criminal would perhaps be an injustice. To many, the man is known to be a defender of humanity. He is one of only a handful of individuals who have been known to engage monsters on the scale of dragons or hydras, steering such beasts away from the most populated of areas. While Laurence has been known to burn down large areas of foliage, in most cases, reports have indicated that these areas were infested with disease-ridden plants. After burning down such areas, plants inexplicably seem to regrow, eventually flourishing more than ever before. Some speculate this is some supernatural quality of Laurence’s fire mana. For all Laurence’s qualities, he is part of the organization and as such bears some degree of responsibility for many of the large-scale disasters caused by the group. It should be noted that surveillance reveals that many run-of-the-mill members of the organization view Laurence’s orders with disdain, believing that his ideals and views have had little success in their implementation.

Conclusion:

It is unlikely that Laurence will mount an attack on the province. Certainly, he has not made any such attack before. That said, there are rumors that Laurence may have originally been born in the area near the Rord province. The rumors come from Laurence occasionally openly wandering around the province’s voidlands or at times attending public events. Due to the ‘curse’ of the organization, this has not caused mass panic. That said, if you see Laurence within the province avoid confrontation or offensive comments at all costs. In the unexpected event of an attack on the province, standard protocol for a large-scale attack should be followed.

Myles found that he was less alarmed than he thought he might be. From the sound of it, the two single digit enforcers operated on a worldwide scale. The odds of them becoming involved in Rord was about as high as a dragon suddenly attacking. It wasn’t impossible, but it seemed unlikely. Besides, Myles had no trouble putting them out of his mind. After all, in a morbid way, if they did attack, there wasn’t much Myles could do to change anything.

The thought of a man of almost mythical power just walking around the province was certainly an interesting thought. Myles got the sudden desire to meet the man if he got a chance.