Aether Engineering

Chapter 71

Highway to Nowhere

The Voidlands north of Hydrabridge

The night set around a fatigued group as they trudged along a road that was growing increasingly rugged and unfriendly with each passing step. There were no towns or villages for them to stay in here. The heart of the province was ironically lacking almost any civilization, so they trudged on, none of them wanting to sleep in the middle of the voidlands.

Their destination was a small village near the base of the scar that grew food for the small handful of military bases that ran across the mountain range. The village, Emanfall, had been experiencing raids from bandits for years, a consequence of its remote surrounds which made for a perfect hideaway for army deserters as they dodged the mandated death penalty that came with their actions.

That was all a full night and most of a day’s trek away though. The group ate as they moved, and Dresden pulled a pack of nuts from his own bag to share with the group. “These are Cessnog nuts. They have something in them that helps you stay alert.”

The nuts were passed around, and after a little while Myles felt his fatigue pushed back somewhat. As the night dragged on and got darker and darker, there was little chatter, but hands patted backs as the members of the group passed each other. Every time the group that was dragging rotated to the center of the formation, high-fives were exchanged, marking their progress. All of it helped alleviate the fear.

They were attacked about once every two hours, but thankfully none of these monsters posed too much of a threat. In one of the fights, Myles picked up a handful of bruises after being knocked from his feet and into the loose rock that seemed to cover everything. Some of the others suffered minor injuries from a pack of cinderwolves whose fireballs had lit up the night. Still, they were managing themselves well enough.

The attacks would have been far more dangerous without their newfound skill with wind mana. Even with it, fighting with low visibility was difficult and prevented anyone from growing comfortable. Myles would have liked to collect the monster cores, but there was simply no way they could without better visibility.

By the time dawn was near rising, they had grown used to constant monster calls. Roars, eerie clicks, and howls regularly cut through the landscape. Myles didn’t think he could be bothered by it anymore. He was wrong. “AGhighighihihi. AGhighihihi” The sound resounded across the ridge, echoing everywhere, a sound too human for a monster, but too inhuman to have ever come from a person’s throat. Myles felt a strong arm grab him from behind and tug him under the shadow of a ridge, practically tackling him.

Dresden did the same for the others, evoking light mana when they had all huddled together, using what was almost certainly a technique to make the whole group invisible. It suddenly felt like Myles was entirely alone, the only clue that the others were still here was the steady rhythm of fearful and confused breathing.

“AGhighighihihi. AGhighihihi” The laughter made Myles’ heart seize in his chest. There was a hysterical madness reigned in and controlled by a deep melancholy. “AGhighighihihi. AGhighihihi” From the top of the ridge, rocks fell, bouncing against those below, rolling through cracks. A dark green foot, barely visible in the thick night hooked the ridge above with clawed toes.

A dense pressure came over him—wind mana, not something imagined—but of the kind he had only felt when Primrose had demonstrated her skill. Myles felt that they would be noticed for sure, but he didn’t feel a single particle of wind mana bounce off his commuted armor. Another moment passed and then the green foot unlatched, and the pressure stopped. Dresden gave a strained cough, and Myles gave him his silent thanks.

Slowly, the laughter receded. Nobody moved until it was completely gone. Finally, Kate whispered, her voice hoarse. “What was that?”

Dresden stopped using his technique, and Myles’ friends appeared before his eyes. “That,” Dresden said his voice scratchy, “was a goblin, and there is precious little you should fear more.”

“That was no monster.” Seth said, his hands on his knees. “It was too human. The way it evoked wind mana, it had thought behind it! Discipline even.”

Dresden shook his head sadly. “It was human once, probably still has some in it too, but it doesn’t have any will left.” Dresden’s lower lip curled down in a half-snarl. “It’s just a husk, cursed to leap at its master’s command.”

Myles thoughts drifted to Reah. He knew she had become an arcaner earlier in life than she should have because she had spent her life exposed to the burning tree, and he guessed that had something to do with her higher connections. He didn’t think she’d been born with that like Kate had. From the sounds of it she hadn’t been the only one exposed like that. Myles had assumed that the rest had just been killed by monsters, but…

“AGhighighihihi.” It was distant, so distant now. Myles shivered.

The night turned to day, and among the broken landscape, they kept going, eating Cessnog nuts in liberal quantities to stay alert. The monsters attacked with a vengeance as if they knew the group was nearing their destination.

Mercy and Seth got in a vicious fight with what Kate identified as a Ratarna. It was a grotesque, bloated rat that seemed to peel out from the side of a cliff they passed underneath. The pair had fought well, but other rats, each equipped with sharp teeth had climbed from the Ratarna’s folds, threatening to overwhelm them with numbers. Jane had eventually been forced to step in and use three different batteries to stun the entire horde. The whole group had participated in the cleanup.

The small rats had cores too small to be worth harvesting, but the Ratarna itself had given a sizeable core of pure mana…that had been promptly spent refilling the batteries they had expended.

It was nearly evening on the second day when they reached Emanfall. The first thing they saw was a large plume of flame rising into the sky—too large to be normal. The exhausted group popped more Cessnog nuts in their mouths and ran.

There are so many of them. Those were Myles’ first thoughts. The flame was a bonfire which had been set up outside a graveyard to give a place for the grieving community to gather. Around it, men and women sobbed out names, and a child hollering endlessly.

A priest of Deprios went from person to person, offering what comfort he could, and making notes that Myles knew would eventually be carved in stone, promises to the dead, vows to uphold what they had held dear. Myles felt his own eyes grow wet as the scene brought memories of Father Oswald putting a sympathetic hand on his shoulder before he left for the catacombs to inscribe his vow into his mother’s tomb.

This wasn’t just the funeral of one person, it was at least a dozen, probably more. A long line of bodies were laid out on the ground, each carefully covered by a cloth. The work of the sister who bore watch over them no doubt.

Myles felt out of place, coming to Emanfall like this. On top of two of the bodies, blue strips of cloth were displayed respectfully. Beside him Myles heard Jane swallow hard.

An old woman who had been tending to the bonfire moved in their direction, motioning them to meet her away from the grieving. “Do you seek shelter?”

Dresden nodded to the woman, the rest of them struggling to do much of anything. “For now, we need rest, but not for long.”

The woman nodded, leading them down a path. Walking across the ground, Myles realized it was the first fertile soil they had seen in hours. They followed a thin strip of it down into a rock formation, a set of cliffs that kept opening until they found themselves in a basin of sorts. Through a crack in one of the cliffs, water poured out, running along the ground for a time before slipping back into the rock on the basin’s opposite side.

Along that waterway and throughout the basin, crops grew everywhere—not just in the fields—the supports for homes did double duty as trellises, allowing vines laden with fruit to wrap around them. On roofs, further gardens had been set up. The only paths to get around were the patches of stone that nothing could grow on.

The group wound their way around the village. The small barracks that the old women led them to was maybe a dozen paces from the entrance, but it took them nearly a minute to traverse the maze to get there.

The old woman smiled at them as they looked around in amazement. “It’s quite a place isn’t it. We grow everything we can. We end up eating plenty of it, but plenty more we trade to the soldiers who guard the scar.” The old woman’s voice grew hoarse as they passed a patch of greenery that had been turned to char. “Two nights ago, bandits came for us with torches and swords in hand. They cut and burned our people just the same as the plants.”

They soon came to the barracks themselves which stood eerily empty. The only building without foliage on its roof, since it had a watchtower instead. Dresden looked at their guide. “I have to ask…”

The old woman had tears in her eyes. “The two who lived here were like family to us all. They were outnumbered six to one, yet they didn’t hesitate. They gave their lives, and they stood until every bandit had fled.”

“If only we had come sooner.” Dresden lowered his head in a practiced motion, and Myles lowered his head as well though he couldn’t match Dresden’s form. He wasn’t sure that was a bad thing, but he admired the man’s strength regardless. Myles had been lost from the moment he had seen that smoke.

The old woman left them with mumbled words of forgiveness. “Living here, we know what we’re getting into. We still find worth in that.”

The woman’s words rang hollow and sad in Myles’ ears, but he could think of nothing to say. The group ventured into the barracks and found enough beds for all of them. Dresden dropped into one of the beds, and Myles followed suit. He nearly fell asleep on the spot, but he noticed one set of footsteps climbing the stairs. After a moment, Myles pulled himself to his feet and followed.