Aether Engineering

Chapter 65

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

It seemed logical, Myles thought, to learn a new sense in a fresh environment. After all, navigating somewhere familiar is simple, even blindfolded. Myles would have expected to be training somewhere unnaturally cluttered, maybe with treacherous footing. Considering Primrose was in charge, Myles half-expected wherever they went to be covered with pitfall traps. He could see himself mastering the art of feeling around himself with wind mana only to realize too late that he wasn’t paying attention to what was under his feet. Thankfully, that was not the case.

The building Primrose had led their group to looked from the outside to be a typical training hall. It was built recently, made from wood, not the weathered brick of the old academy. When Myles walked through the door, he found the interior to be even less interesting. Only two things stood out about the hall. The first being that it was completely empty, not the kind of empty with a broom or some other random thing shoved up against a wall—no, it was totally barren. Myles only noticed the second detail after he looked down (maybe the pitfalls were concealed). The floor was unnaturally flat and seemed to be a single enormous plate of rock.

Primrose, who had led the way into the hall, spun on her heels, seemingly freed from her early morning headache. With a rare smile on her face, she spread her arms. “So, what do you think?”

The group’s silence was eventually broken by a short yawn from Jane who quickly covered her mouth. Reah quietly laughed into her hand from the back of the group.

Primrose’s smile vanished into disappointment. “I suppose I should have expected this. Myles, what are the connections between your aether space and the outside world?”

Myles was caught off guard. “Um…we’ve discussed evocation and commutation. Evocation is the connection between your aether space and your immediate surroundings. Commutation connects your aether space to your body itself. There are also higher connections that exist in the mana space above the aether space.”

Primrose nodded. “That is correct, but those are not the only connections that exist. Putting the matter of higher connections to the side, there are six connections in the aether space, each requiring an arcaner to delve exponentially deeper into their aether space to gain access.” Primrose swept her hands out again. This time when she did so, the hall’s floor rippled, twisting itself into shapes that burst into the air before settling back down. “This hall was created with the very last connection. We call it actualization. Normally mana dissipates on its own, but arcaners who have reached the limit of human strength can stabilize it.”

Myles felt a great deal more overwhelmed. Now that he looked closer, he could see what he had missed before. The floor looked just like earth mana. It wasn’t any particular type of stone, instead, it took the form of the most generic sort of rock he could think of.

“Now,” Myles looked up to find Primrose grinning, “lets put some blindfolds on.”

Primrose didn’t actually bother to give them any blindfolds. It was a simple enough process to change the flow of their commuted armor so that it passed over their eyes, blocking light. Myles sometimes used this pattern when he was trying to sleep.

Evoking wind mana felt different than pure mana. It was less concentrated, and it had a tendency to spread out and wander. It also barely drained Myles’ new mana well. Even with a mere fraction of the mana he had in his pure well, Myles had no trouble maintaining a gradual evocation.

Being able to evoke wind mana, and being able to use it to sense your surroundings were two very different things though. When Myles evoked pure mana, he had never really tried to retain his focus on it. Now, Myles found himself overwhelmed juggling the task of paying attention to his evoked mana while constantly evoking more out of his aether space.

With a start, Myles realized that he had just been standing still. He took a step, trying to sense his surroundings, then he took another and walked straight into something slippery, pure mana.

“Uh.” Silas mumbled.

Myles scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Of course, he would immediately run into someone. Myles tried to focus on his wind mana again, but even knowing Silas was right next to him, he couldn’t sense him.

Myles felt a tap on his shoulder, not through his skin, but rather through the slight disturbance in his commuted armor. It was exactly the type of thing he was trying to sense with his wind mana.

Myles heard Dresden’s voice in his ear. “You’re spreading your wind mana too far. You’re not going to be able to feel the whole building at first. Just concentrate on the space a couple inches away from your body.”

Myles nodded, already changing his approach. His wind mana still moved the same way when he evoked it, but Myles stopped trying to follow it out so far. He imagined a space around him, kind of like an extension of his commuted armor. When the wind mana left that space, he stopped paying attention to it completely.

The change was immediate and drastic. It wasn’t that Myles was better able to sense his wind mana impacting against the people around him. Instead, it was the realization that he didn’t have to let go of all his wind mana. Some of it never made it out of his range. Which meant that the mana that didn’t make it out of his range was hitting something inside it. In this case, it was being stopped by Dresden’s commuted armor.

Myles started moving forward again, this time more confidently. He quickly realized that Primrose was putting the actualized mana to good use. He could feel the rough shape of walls around him. Thankfully, the walls weren’t moving, so, Myles took his time navigating through them, relying completely on his wind mana.

After a few minutes, Myles had realized that he was in the middle of a maze. He had already run into a handful of dead ends. For all of that though, Myles had started to feel slightly more confident in relying on the feeling his wind mana brought him. Myles felt a surge of excitement as he found a gap in the walls that seemed to head towards the other side of the hall. Myles assumed that was where the end of the maze was. They hadn’t actually been given instructions to solve the maze, but Myles would be bothered if he didn’t find the solution.

Myles walked confidently down the new pathway. Not a moment later, he found himself stepping out into nothing. Myles groaned to himself. He only fell for a moment, and his commuted armor easily absorbed the impact of the fall, but Myles struggled to push his embarrassment down. He had considered Primrose throwing pitfall traps at them, but he still managed to fall in one.

As Myles started to pull himself out, a task made more difficult since he was being overly cautious to avoid a trapped rung—leaving a ladder imbedded in the side of the pit seemed suspiciously kind—Myles felt something land on his head.

Myles was confused for a moment by what his wind mana was telling him. That confusion quickly vanished when he heard Jane’s voice. “Hello uh…sorry for landing on you.”

Myles gave a small laugh. “I guess she got both of us.”

Jane pulled herself out of the pit. Myles followed. One of the rungs was, in fact rigged to make someone who tried to use it fall. Neither of them was tricked a second time.

“So,” Myles asked, “have you figured out a way to finish the maze.”

“No.” Jane whispered in frustration.

Myles had a hushed conversation with Jane. He found himself easily falling into a rhythm. They normally worked together on their aether engineering projects, but the efficiency they had built there translated well.

Between the two of them, they had covered quite a bit of ground. Primrose must have made the maze large enough to cover the entire hall. They both quickly agreed to work together to solve the thing.

The passageways were just wide enough that the two could walk through them side-by-side. Myles restricted his mana even further, evoking it only on his left, relying on Jane to cover their right side. They locked hands to keep from being separated and each followed their own wall. Their pace was much faster like this. Myles no longer had to meander around to find any potential passageways.

The pair made sure to evoke some wind mana downwards. They found a few more pitfalls, each of which they managed to skirt around. At one point, they did run face-first into a barrier they could have easily ducked under, but they adapted to that as well.

When they finally made their way out, Myles was sure they would be the first to finish the maze. Working together had dramatically increased their speed after all. Myles switched the pattern of his commuted armor again. A line of four students smiled smugly at him and Jane.

Mercy gave a kind-spirited giggle. “Took you two a while didn’t it.”

Myles frowned. He pulled his hand away from Jane’s quickly. “How did…”

Before he even finished Silas stepped forward, shaking his head. “We all just climbed over the walls.”

Myles took a deep breath. Why hadn’t he done that? It seemed so obvious in retrospect.

Primrose motioned with her hand, and the whole maze collapsed back down to the perfectly flat floor. “We’ll be practicing wind mana every day until your exam. Don’t forget to delve tonight either. You’ll want access to another mana type before then too.”

The group listened carefully, acknowledging everything that Primrose said, knowing it was almost time for lunch. Myles’ thoughts were already jumping forward though. He had a construct to finish designing.