Architects of Ether

by Ryan Muree

  “Seriously?” Vaughn dropped his head back against the wall of the airship. “My parents are going to kill me.”

  Urla scoffed. “Imagine what happens when we all return.”

  “Will you go back to the RCA?” Emeryss asked all of them.

  None of them said yes.

  Adalai blinked slowly, drew up her knees to her chest, and rested her forehead against them.

  When the airship landed, they groggily stepped out into the light.

  It was mid-day at least, and Delour looked like it had been coming together. The green fields hadn’t grown back yet or the buildings completely repaired, but most of the debris had been cleaned up. The people seemed to be functioning well enough, too.

  The group all hugged and chatted about what they were doing next.

  She didn’t hear any of it. She didn’t want to. It didn’t matter.

  She headed for the transportation hub.

  “You leaving without saying goodbye?” Urla’s voice came stern behind her.

  Adalai turned. “Bye, Urla.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  She shrugged. “I’ll figure something out, I guess.”

  Urla reached up and hugged her tightly. “Even the best leaders make mistakes. We did the best we could with what we knew.”

  “They all hate me,” she said.

  “They’re still raw. It’s too new. I don’t think any of you have truly realized what we’ve uncovered.” Urla looked over her shoulder at the rest of the crew and then back to her. “You going to report to Orr what we learned?”

  Adalai shook her head. “No, I’ll let them handle that if they want to.”

  “Then, where are you going?”

  Nowhere. “Back where I was, I guess…”

  “Where’s that?”

  “Just Aurelis. Lower District.”

  Urla took a deep breath and patted her on the shoulder. “I’ll be out in Khendell, and now, happily retired if you need anything. You understand?”

  Adalai nodded, but already knew she wouldn’t seek her out or ask her to do anything more than what she’d already done for her.

  She made for the transportation hub again.

  “Ada,” Urla called to her one more time. “Sonora and I were moving to stop her before she shot that gun. I wouldn’t have let her kill you.”

  Adalai stopped without turning around, eyes burning with fresh tears. She lifted her chin, took a deep breath, and kept walking to the station.

  Clove inhaled clean Revelian air.

  It was weird.

  Revel was green. Bright green, blue, clear. It already felt fancier.

  Before, she hadn’t seen much of it from the cage in the cargo hold of the first ship.

  Jahree thanked his friend and waved him off before the others said their goodbyes.

  “He’s lending us his airship, so long as we don’t use it in aerial combat,” Jahree said to Clove.

  Sonora sneaked a hug around Jahree. “I can’t believe this is it.”

  “This isn’t it,” Vaughn said. “We just gotta let this all blow over, and then we can meet up, maybe vacation together.” He snickered. Even he thought that sounded stupid.

  “Once all this blows over?” Mack asked. “Seriously?”

  Clove put a hand on his arm. “It’s okay, Mack…”

  Vaughn shrugged. “Not really? I was just trying to help the conversation…”

  “Where are you going to go?” Jahree asked Sonora.

  She shrugged. “I need to go home and clean out Kayson’s things. Pack up some boxes of his, unpack others. I’ll meet with his family, maybe. I don’t know. We weren’t too involved with them, but I’m sure they’ve heard he’d passed in the battle.”

  “Take care of yourself,” Jahree said. “If you need anything, you know how to find me.”

  She hugged Urla, Vaughn, Grier, and Emeryss, and then looked to Clove.

  Clove tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  “Can I hug you goodbye?” Sonora asked.

  She glanced at Mack and then looked back at her before nodding. “I guess—”

  Sonora wrapped her in a big tight hug. “Be careful, okay. If anyone asks, you’re a Revelian from Delour or something…”

  “You can claim you’re Neerian.” Emeryss smiled. “I can’t promise you’ll get a much better response than saying you’re Ingini, but hopefully they won’t want to murder you.”

  Clove half-laughed.

  Sonora still hadn’t let go. “I’m so sorry, Clove, and I know that doesn’t make up for what happened…”

  “We were all trying to do the right thing. We all thought it would stop this mess,” Clove said. “But thank you.”

  “Saying sorry to you isn’t enough.” Sonora pulled back.

  “No, but running back in there, risking your lives… it helped.” She smiled. “I guess not all Revelians are horrible.”

  Sonora grinned and wiped her eyes again. “I guess that’s the point, right? Okay, okay. Enough crying and hugging. I’m leaving. You know where to find me. Love you all.” She waved at them and headed to the depot.

  Vaughn and Urla left shortly after without many words or hugs or tears shed. They were ready to get back home.

  And she was ready to find Cayn.

  She looked to Jahree and Mack.

  After Sufford, after the Goliath, she couldn’t leave Mack behind in Ingini. She couldn’t risk losing him in another Revel invasion. She couldn’t risk losing him to the mines.

  If she never found Cayn, they might be all they had left in the world that resembled family.

  She hadn’t changed her mind about committing to him, but she couldn’t bear the thought of him being left behind to suffer alone. Maybe it was her guilt over Lark, but she’d asked him to join her, to help her on this trip, and he’d agreed.

  “You two ready to find Cayn?” she asked.

  If he was still alive, and Goddess, she hoped he was still alive out there somewhere.

  They waved Grier and Emeryss off, and Mack sighed. “All right. Let’s go get Cayn and bring him home.”

  They boarded Jahree’s friend’s airship.

  “Who gets to pilot?” she asked, ogling the controls of a Revel airship. It wasn’t too different from an Ingini craft, but the absence of a fuel-line did make things difficult.

  “Considering you can’t cast air ether, that leaves me,” Jahree said. He switched some dials on and flipped vents. “But you can watch, and you can scribe me some sigils to help me along the way.”

  She nodded. “Deal.”

  Jahree took a deep breath. “First stop, Halunder.”

  Chapter 41

  Delour — Revel

  Grier stood with Emeryss on the platform of the transport depot, holding onto her as closely as he could.

  She sighed against his chest. “Leaving you is so much harder than I thought it would be.”

  “I promise,” he whispered, “once I report to the Librarian, I’m going straight to Neeria.”

  They’d spent the previous night holding one another, talking about home, talking about plans.

  They were foolish to ever think their relationship was short-lived. He’d wanted to be with her for too long to just walk away now and go their separate ways forever. They’d been meant for each other, and nothing as stupid as the matches or his family would keep him from her again.

  He kissed her nose, her forehead, her cheeks.

  She giggled, and her chest and middle pressed against his.

  “I’m memorizing every piece of you,” he said.

  “As if you haven’t had enough.” She wrapped her arms around his waist again.

  “I haven’t.” His chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “It won’t be.”

  “Until you arrive at Stadhold, and you see your amazing matches.” She waggled her eyebrows at him.

  He scoffed. “You think those matches have anything on you? Hardly.”

  She rolled her eye
s. “They’re all gorgeous. Every Stadholden is annoyingly, gorgeously perfect—”

  He grunted. “If I meet my matches because my mother is insane, if I’m willing to even speak with them, the first thing I’m going to do is hand them a javelin and tell them to throw it at a target no bigger than their hand. If they miss, they’re out.”

  She laughed again, and he did, too.

  “Seriously, Emeryss.” He brought his lips to her forehead. “You are literally all I need. You. That’s it. I’m going back to find out what Stadhold did in all this, what their role is, I’m telling my mother off, and then I’m heading straight to Neeria. Straight to you. End of story.”

  She inhaled.

  “You don’t believe me,” he said.

  “It’s not that. It’s… It would be nice if that were the case, but when you have to face the Librarian and the other Commanders and your family, priorities shift. Their perspective might make more sense to you.”

  “That’s not going to happen.”

  “I’m just saying that it might. You don’t know what they’ll have to say, what you might have to give up—”

  “I already know what I’m giving up going there.”

  She smiled. “When we started this whole thing, I knew I’d only have you to myself for the length of the trip. I knew I’d have to let you go back to Stadhold, and probably for good. Your duties and responsibilities are important to you. The High Council is important to you.”

  “You’re important to me. And helping those Ingini made me realize that my country is important to me.”

  If Stadhold was responsible for any part of this war, like he’d already believed, then they’d betrayed him and everyone else. He served his country, not a single Librarian or a stuffy Commander. He had to do what was right for the people as a whole, and nothing—no one—could take his being a Keeper away from him without his permission.

  “I don’t want to be responsible for you losing everything,” she said.

  “And we discussed this before. I won’t be losing everything. I’ll go and talk, and I’ll come back to Neeria. We’ll swim, we’ll eat this crazy food you keep talking about, I’ll meet your parents—”

  She groaned. “Are you going to tell Stadhold about the grimoires?”

  He smiled at her avoidance of him meeting her parents. “Definitely. The grimoires, the Goliath, the battle, the CEOs. I have so much information now, I’ll have them pushed into a corner.”

  She took hold of his finger, the one with the sigil scribed into it, and kissed it gently. “And this?”

  He held his breath and shook his head. “I want to find the Sigilist and get some answers first.”

  “You sure you didn’t accidentally activate it or something in the battle? You were everywhere, taking down everything in our path. It was really incredible.”

  He smiled, his cheeks burning under his stubble. “Incredible, huh?”

  She giggled. “You knew that… Stop it.”

  “I didn’t activate the new sigil, no. That was just good old-fashioned training, I’m afraid.”

  The announcer called out the arrival of his transport.

  “Did you say goodbye to Adalai?” she asked.

  He remembered seeing her head toward the depot without a word. “No, she just kind of left. You think she hates us?”

  She shook her head. “I think she needs time to think. I think the whole ordeal shook up everything she thought she knew.”

  He exhaled with a groan. “I know a little too much about that, unfortunately.”

  “I wish she would have stuck around so we could have told her that.”

  The transport airship for Stadhold opened its doors, and the passengers filed out to make room for new ones.

  “Be careful, okay?” He nuzzled her hair again.

  She was a Caster now, and a damn good one, able to stave off RCA and Ingini. She could handle anything. But old habits of fearing her traversing the country-side alone still haunted him.

  She pulled him down by the neck to kiss him, softly at first and then more hungrily. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes. “Why does it feel like I’m saying goodbye forever?”

  He held back his own tears. “Anyone who gets in my way will get bludgeoned to death by my shield. People will have to literally kill me to keep me from getting back to you.”

  She kissed him again, the taste of m’ralli fruit and ether always a part of her. “And when you get to Neeria, I want to hear everything.”

  “I’ll write you,” he said.

  “You will? But you can’t send Messengers.”

  “I know, so it’ll be slow, but I will.”

  The transport announcer called for all passengers to board one last time.

  “Emeryss.” He took her chin in his hands, his chest aching. “I love you. I love you more than anything.”

  She smiled brightly. “I love you more than everything.”

  “Be careful. Warn your parents I’m coming. Wait for me.”

  She nodded, and he pulled away for the airship. The distance between them grew cold and empty.

  “I love you,” he said.

  “I love you, too.”

  He handed the ticket to the transport greeter and entered the dark airship.

  It was hard enough leaving her behind, trusting she’d get all the way back to Neeria safely, but he had to report to Stadhold as quickly as possible or risk more battles and needless deaths.

  He’d deal with his mother and father, he’d handle their rush on the matches, and he’d face the Librarian.

  He looked down at the sigil on his finger.

  Things were different now. He was different, and he wasn’t about to let his country and his people be lied to anymore. Finding the truth about Stadhold, about Keepers, about the power dynamics and all the lies—that was all that mattered. Truth, honesty, honor would be the only way through this.

  And then, he’d get to be with Emeryss as long as she’d have him.

  Emeryss stepped off the transport and stretched into the light.

  Five days on a rickety airship with several stops was the most she could take.

  There was a cool chill bringing the scent of salted fish and seagrass from the waves.

  Home. Her eyes watered.

  She’d waited years for this.

  She’d not even been able to tell her mother she was coming. Every time she’d tried to write a letter since leaving Ingini, it ended up sounding like a child apologizing for running away. She’d scrapped the whole thing and started over every time.

  Too late, now. I’m here.

  The sheered cliffs were just as pale as she’d remembered, and when she reached the sand dune passage through the cliffs, she took off her boots and walked barefoot the rest of the way in.

  Soft, powdery, warm in the mid-day sun.

  It was an hour-long hike from the transportation depot, and her feet and toes were already feeling raw from rubbing in the sand without the callouses she used to have. But it would all be worth it when she saw her family again.

  And soon, Grier would join her. He was probably already back in Stadhold and fighting with his mother.

  She wouldn’t warn Mother and Father about him coming. She didn’t want to answer too many questions that would lead to what had happened. She wouldn’t be able to hide it forever, but the longer the better… The safer they’d be.

  Here on the other side of the world, a million hours from war and nightmares like Marana and Sufford, her people enjoyed simple living. They didn’t need to hear all the terrors of the world when it wasn’t knocking at their door, yet.

  Two stone statues of the Goddess of Death greeted her at the edge of Neeria.

  Their placard read:

  Come and be fed.

  Ask and be sheltered.

  Listen and be learned.

  From a blessed life to a blessed night.

  She kissed her thumb and pressed it against the swirling goddess symbol next to the placa
rd. She pulled out a piece of her Ingini jumper she’d saved and placed it at the foot of the goddess statue. “I’m home, Lady Evergreen.”

  Walking on through the cliffs and dunes, she’d finally arrived at the highest peak of Neeria. It was her favorite spot. She could see the whole town below her from there, including Endov’s Port where the enormous sandstone statue of their Goddess welcomed to take them across the sea to the otherworld.

  Below, the ocean was bright blue with hints of green, the most beautiful color in the world. The homes with clay roofs and stucco walls were white with rich brown, green, or purple, standing sturdy and well-kept. The storm season had been good to them this year.

  The fields of seagrass just offshore were thick and full.

  Neerians milled about drying fish, winding nets, cooking at communal pots, while children raced around the paths, learned to swim in the shallows, and helped their families with chores.

  Home.

  “Hey, you. This is my spot!” A voice called out just behind her.

  Emeryss turned and found a small girl, or boy maybe, who came no higher than her chest with short, dark, wavy hair and golden eyes. The child was barefoot, dirty from the knees down with well-kept clothes. Signs the child had been playing in the dunes.

  “Delnessa?”

  Her younger sister stopped and put her hands on her hips for a second. “Emmy?”

  Emeryss smiled and opened her arms.

  Delnessa ran and jumped up and around her, nearly toppling her over. The baby of the family, she should have been about twelve now.

  “You’re so big!” Emeryss said, clutching her baby sister close. “You were just up to my waist! What happened to you?”

  Delnessa dropped to her feet, but still kept her arms around her. “It’s Del, now. Just Del. Mom won’t call me that, but Dad does. So, no more Nessa, okay?”

  “Got it.”

  “And I grew! You’ve been gone forever. You look grown up. Dad said I might get as big as Big Brother Kernie because the crops have been good this year and last year and the year before that.”