They began to jog cautiously, not wanting to be taken by surprise, but everywhere they looked, only the dead stared back. It seemed the fighting had really happened at the end of the atrium, because the body count became obscene the further they traveled.
“I think I see her,” Boon said, pointing through the trees.
Baxter squinted as he jogged; the girl was right. There was a huge, three-story set of double doors standing open. Inside the room was a figure in black armor. She was in a fighting stance, but her left arm hung limply, and there was a small pool of blood on the ground where it was dripping from her fingertips.
Baxter picked up his speed, the others keeping pace.
As soon as they broke through the trees, they saw Sara getting hammered by multiple spells, thrown by unseen enemies. Fire and ice and force blasts slammed into her shield from all angles.
Baxter watched her go down on one knee, and could see her shield burning red from the abuse, then it winked out. Before he could even shout, a force blade slashed through the air, raking across her chest and throwing her onto her back. Her armor was split open, and blood ran from the gash in her torso.
Alister was standing next to her body, his stance low, but he was ultimately undefended, with Sara so out of it.
Baxter roared in his helmet, but before he could do anything, Boon flung herself forward with her own force spell, flying through the doors as another bolt of force sliced through the air toward Sara and Alister.
Chapter 47
Boon let the force spell die and powered a shield around Sara, Alister, and herself as she slid in close on her knees, her armor sending up sparks from the stone floor.
The force blast shattered against her shield, but she paid it no mind, instead opening her glove and pressing her bare hand into the open gash of Sara's armor, coating her digits in sticky, red blood. Boon poured Aether into the healing spell Silva provided, hoping she wasn’t too late, like she had been for the emperor.
The Aether flowed, filling the spellform and rushing into Sara. Boon choked a laugh of victory as her captain’s eyes opened, though they were still dazed from the impact. It would take her a few minutes to come out of her stupor.
Alister ‘merow’ed, and jumped onto Sara's chest, nuzzling her face. Somewhere along the way, Sara’s faceplate had been damaged and removed. Probably in that massive fight out in the atrium, Boon thought.
She turned just in time to see several spells slam into her shield. She had to feed it more Aether, but it held firm. She surveyed the room.
A throne was on a raised dais at the back of the one hundred and fifty-meter square space, perched in front of giant windows that looked down the spine of the dreadnought.
Standing in front of the throne was a figure Boon assumed must be the governor.
He wore white and gold armor that covered him completely, which was then covered by long, white robes that hung to the floor. He was more or less human-shaped, but he had a long, thick tail that whipped angrily back and forth as he stared down at Boon and the prone figure of Sara. His face and horns were encased in a helmet that featured a blank, white faceplate.
Though she couldn’t see his face, Alicia guessed his expression would be one of surprise. That thought made her smile cruelly.
Surrounding them in a semi-circle were ten Teifen, all of whom were obviously mages. They wore similar armor, though no robes, and their stance implied attack rather than pride, unlike their ruler.
Boon didn't hesitate. She lashed out with a force blade, catching the right arm and leg of the nearest mage, cutting them free with sprays of blue blood. The nine others all began to return the attack at once.
Two of the mages dropped from slugs to their necks as Baxter came over her comms. “We can snipe from the door, but try to keep them busy.”
In answer, Boon lashed out again, while her shield was battered to a burnt orange. She shot off a fireball at another mage, but it splashed against a hastily erected shield spell. Another round of spells slammed into her own shield, and she struggled to keep it up, almost losing it before she could focus enough Aether.
Another mage dropped to a rifle slug, but his demise caught a compatriot’s attention, and a few turned to deal with the snipers. Boon took the opportunity to send out another force blade, and caught one of the distracted mages in the shoulder, slicing his arm off.
The barrage on her shield continued, and she became overwhelmed.
Another fireball pushed the limit of the shield too far, and before she could reinforce it, her protection fell. She was immediately struck with a bolt of force to the chest, and staggered to her knees. She fired a bolt in return and caught the Mage in the face, crushing her white faceplate into her skull, dropping her to the floor, dead.
Another force bolt hit Boon just before her shield came back up, dazing her and making it too hard to concentrate and power the spellform. Silva gave a squeak of fear and anger from her spot in the hip pouch in reaction.
Boon could see the governor walking across the floor toward her and Sara, his gait slow and steady.
He stopped right in front of her, and raised a hand. “Die, human,” he growled, and shot a bolt of force right at her face.
But the bolt hit a shield—a shield that Boon didn't remember making.
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Sara standing behind her. She had a hand on her own armor, closing the ripped steel and composites with a mending spell. Then, reaching down, she opened Boon’s faceplate, and touched her finger to her cheek.
A warmth rushed through Alicia as Sara healed the broken bones and bruised muscles she didn't even realize she’d sustained.
“I forgot to keep it balanced,” Sara said with a smile just for Boon.
The governor slammed her shield again, but it would not budge. Sara checked the room and saw there were only two mages left.
Baxter and Gonders have done well.
She quickly and viciously lashed at the last two Teifen mages with force and fire spells, until their shields were overwhelmed and they were burned down with the relentless attacks.
The governor, sensing that the mage in front of him was not the same battle-worn person that had broken through his doors only minutes before, decided that perhaps diplomacy was the better option.
“Stop. This has gone quite far enough. You dare come here and attack me?” he boomed, standing as tall as he could.
“Oh, shut up, you worthless piece of shit,” Sara growled, and snatched him up in a shield bubble.
The governor immediately lashed the bubble with force, trying to break free. Sara began shrinking the bubble, causing the governor to become almost hysterical with panic.
“How are you doing this? Stop! This doesn’t need to happen. We can make a deal,” he pleaded, as the space in the bubble became cramped.
“Have you told your emperor about us? About humanity, and our return?” Sara asked, stopping the shrinking as if she were considering his words.
“He knows there are humans again, but not where you are,” he blurted, his voice full of relief that the shield had stopped shrinking.
“Why wouldn't you tell him where we are?”
He didn't say anything at first, so Sara resumed the shrinking. Then he nearly choked, he was trying to tell her so fast. “I was in a position to take the throne from him; with the victory over the Elif, I was already in favor with the other governors. If I could have just added you to my victories, my ascension would have been assured.”
“So the Teifen emperor has no clue where we are?” she pressed, needing to be clear.
“No. You were to be my victory. But we don't have to do this! I can keep you hidden from his fleets,” he pleaded.
“No,” Sara said coldly.
“No?” he asked. “I can make you rich.”
“No. You need to be put down; your cruelty has no limits.” She turned away, and the governor began banging on the shield and yelling curses at her back, but Sara
was looking down at Boon, paying him no mind. “We are War Mages. That means we need to do what is best, not always what is right. Do you understand? We have a duty to protect our people, and if killing is the way we have to do that, then so be it.”
The governor pounded harder on the shield, his voice becoming frantic, “You can’t do this. You shouldn’t even be here,” he screamed.
Sara turned around slowly at that last statement, and shot daggers of hate at the uncomfortably compressed ruler. “Why is that? Is it because your people tried to hunt us to extinction thirty thousand years ago? Is it because you turned our allies against us, and forced them to make a bio weapon that sloughed the meat from our bones?” She stepped forward until her face was right in front of his, trapped behind her shield. “Or should we not be here because you mistakenly thought us weak?”
The governor stared into her eyes and recoiled in fear at what he saw swimming in their depths. “You have no idea, do you? We didn’t force anyone to turn against you. We didn’t have to,” he said quietly.
Sara frowned. “Lies. That’s all you have left, isn’t it? Just the lies you tell yourself so you don’t have to be the monster in your own story.”
He actually laughed at that. “No lies, War Mage.” He took an uncomfortable breath, and stared her down. “The true monster stares at you from the mirror.”
The shield collapsed to the size of a basketball, with a crunching finality. After a moment of quiet reflection, she let the shield bubble fade. The sound of splattering as the liquefied governor fell to the floor filled the now silent room.
Then Sara fell to her knees in exhaustion.
Chapter 48
Baxter was by Sara's side as soon as she hit the ground. “We need to get her out of here. She’s spent. Gonders, call the Raven and have them wait for us. I can carry her…”
Sara put a hand to his faceplate. “I’m okay. It’ll just take me a few minutes to get my strength back. It’s good that healing Boon and mending my armor brought me a little back toward center, because we can’t leave ‘til we make sure this ship is destroyed and Earth is safe,” she said with a tired smile.
“Okay, then we need to get to the reactor room, or maybe the armory. We need something large enough to destroy this thing,” Baxter said, trying to come up with a workable solution.
“That won’t work. There are far too many enemies between here and any one of those places,” Gonders reminded him, punching holes in his half-baked plans.
“I have an idea. It’s going to be a little rough for me and Boon, so I’m going to be counting on you two to get us out of here,” Sara said, looking to Baxter and Gonders. She took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet.
“Okay, but how are we leaving, if we’re not going to meet the Raven?” Baxter asked.
Sara smiled and cracked her neck. “The same way I got in.” She pointed at the ceiling.
“Oh, god. Nothing is easy with you, is it?” Baxter asked, hanging his head.
Sara slapped him on the back. “Better get used to it, life-bonded guard of mine.”
She led them out the double doors, and down the long atrium, until they came to the far end, to a hall that was closed off with blast doors. “This is where I came in. They closed it off to keep the ship from decompressing, but there is a hole that leads right outside on the other side of these doors. We’ll set the trap, then blow the door, and it will blast us clear before our nasty little surprise can take us with it.”
“We’d better hurry. I’m sure there are more guards somewhere on this ship,” Boon said.
“Right. Here’s the plan. Gonders, I need you to put us in a shield bubble, so we can survive out there; I lost my faceplate in the fight, so no airtight suit for me, and Alister and Silva don't even have suits.” Alister jumped onto her shoulder and gave a ‘Merow’ to the assembled mages. “Silva, where are you?”
The ferret stuck her head out of Boon’s hip pouch, and chittered before crawling around Boon’s torso and up onto her shoulder.
“Hello, darling. Do you remember those four spells Alant taught us?” Sara asked her. Silva chittered and rolled her eyes. “Okay, you don't have to be such a jerk about it. The fourth one, the one me and Alister did—not the binding one, the other one… you know which one I mean?”
Silva chittered again, and Sara took that for a ‘yes’.
“Okay, I need you to give that to Boon and cast it right here,” she said, pointing to a spot in the air between them. “I’m going to make a shield to contain it, then start powering the spell. I need you to keep the spell right here as we move away.”
“Got it,” Boon said, and cleared her mind, preparing to cast.
“Baxter, I need you to blow the doors once we get the spell going,” she said, then leaned in and kissed his faceplate where his mouth would be. “It’s so good to see you again. I thought I might have lost you.”
“Not a chance. I knew you would come,” he said, gently squeezing her arm.
With a smile she looked back at Boon. “Ready?”
Boon nodded, and Sara formed a shield bubble slightly larger than a human head. She nodded back to Alicia, and the girl began powering the odd spellform that Silva gave her. She gasped at the result.
A tear opened up in the space between them, instantly spewing forth a dark blue substance that filled the shield bubble, attacking the sides with incredible ferocity, and turning the shield orange, then red.
Sara grunted and powered her second spell. It was a modified force spell, designed to press in on the shield bubble. The air warped around the shield just as it failed; instead of the blue substance spilling out, it was trapped in the sphere of force. The two powers fought one another, the blue substance pressing out and the force pressing in.
Sweat had sprung to Sara's forehead, and she was squinting with concentration.
“What is that?” Gonders asked, leaning in to take a closer look.
“Aether,” Sara said simply.
“As in pure Aether?” Gonders asked in wonder.
Pure Aether would not stay stable for long. It wanted to be absorbed by space-time. Usually if a mage were to concentrate their own Aether on a spot, it would evaporate almost as quickly as they could channel it.
“How are you making so much?” she asked Boon.
“I’m not. I’m just holding open a hole in reality and letting it come through. This isn’t taking much power—for me,” she qualified, jabbing her chin at Sara, who was obviously struggling. “We need to go now. How about that shield, babe?”
Gonders nodded and, a second later, a large bubble formed around them. Baxter had everyone lay against the back of the shield, facing the door.
“When I blast the door, we are going to be sucked out. This will keep us from being slammed into the shield. Are you ready?” he asked Gonders, who gave him a nod. “Okay. Here we go.”
At first, nothing happened… then a red line appeared, in a circle slightly larger than the shield bubble, at the center of the blast door. The glow grew in intensity until it was nearly white. In a sudden rush, the door failed where Baxter had super-heated the metal, and the center circle was sucked out. The rushing air pulled them toward the door at an incredible rate, then out into the giant hole Sara had ripped into the ship on her way in. Baxter used a force spell to push them up and out of the hole as momentum carried them away from the ship.
Sara was sweating and shaking with the effort, pouring more and more Aether into the force spell that was holding back the building pressure of Aether pouring into their reality. By the buzzing in her head, and the muted sounds of the others’ voices, Sara knew she was pushing herself over the line to madness, but she could see that they were not far enough away from the dreadnought, and the longer she waited and maintained the spell, the larger the blast would be.
“Push,” she mumbled.
Baxter leaned in. “What?”
“Push,” she said again, unable to say more as she fought against the ti
de of power she was holding at bay.
Boon got it. “We need to move away faster. The blast will get us, too, if we don't put more distance between us and the ship,” she told him, while forming a second spell and powering it. She began pushing the shield, and they gently accelerated.
“More,” Sara grunted.
Boon pushed harder, accelerating them up to a full g, but it wasn't enough. After more prompting from Sara, she really let loose. She didn't want to hurt anybody, but she figured around three gs of acceleration should do it.
They were smashed to the edge of the bubble as it rocketed away from the dreadnought.
Sara was at her limit. She had fed more Aether into that spell than she’d known she had. She could feel the last dregs of her well drying up, but she wanted to wait as long as she could.
After a few more seconds, she couldn't take anymore. She screamed before blacking out completely.
The force spell ended, letting loose a torrent of Aether in an explosion of a blue substance that passed through anything it touched, expanding outward in an ever-growing sphere. It passed through the metal and composite of the ship. Through the bodies of tens of thousands of Teifen, both living and dead.
It spread out into space, reaching as far as it could for kilometers in all directions. Everything it touched was saturated with pure Aether, and as Aether likes to do, it fell through the fabric of reality, back to its own plane. As it did, it took with it everything in that cloud, leaving only pristinely empty space behind.
Chapter 49
Sara awoke warm and comfortable, a thick blanket pulled up to her chin, and Alister curled up beside her. It took her nearly a full minute to realize she was in her bed on the Raven. The lights were dimmed, making the transition from sleep to wakefulness a pleasant one. She felt more rested than she could remember since first stepping on the ship.
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