“Right you are, just more work for me, the giant jerk. I really should have a big headband made up with that written on it, right? That way every time I look in the mirror to comb my hair, it will remind me of what I need to work on.” He winked, continuing to smile but there was an odd gleam in his eye as if he really thought that might not be a bad idea. Aiden watched Glowby float above Gavin’s head, flashing red before he understood. This wasn’t the way to fix things.
“No,” Aiden said suddenly. “No, that’s not what you should do, Gavin. Don’t beat yourself up. That will just make you hate yourself and everyone around you. What you do need to do is just realize that you’ve figured something out about yourself, and that you’re making progress.”
Gavin paused, watching Aiden carefully. “Is that from personal experience, Aiden?”
“Not me personally, but having Jessop for a close friend for years, I had to learn to deal with that,” Aiden said sadly,” Jessop…just can’t, so I had to help him see it. I remember before we became friends, he would sit in his bunk and hit himself in the head over and over for making a simple mistake. He’d beat himself bloody sometimes. After the staff asked me to watch out for him, I learned how to help him see that making a mistake was normal.” Aiden smiled, spreading his hands out. “You were just doing the same thing, but without the head punching. But it’s only a mistake, Gavin. One you see now, and can work on. There’s no need to beat yourself up.”
Gavin’s face seemed to fall a bit as he contemplated what Aiden had just said, but he was big enough to accept it. A fact that Aiden thought showed considerable strength. “Okay,” Gavin whispered, “But can we please get back to this whole dream thing before you all make me cry? There’s only so much my ego can take, you know.”
Chari reached over and hugged Gavin, leaving Aiden to stand there and pat Gavin’s arm awkwardly. Figures he gets the girl to hug him after I say all the smart stuff, he thought but smiled anyway. Finally, Chari stepped back.
“So how does all of what you just told us tie in with you touching the skimmer?” Chari asked.
“That is the odd part. When I did all of those things, in the dream world, when I touched things it wasn’t just touching them, it was like becoming part of them. Like I could tell things about them that I shouldn’t know.” Aiden stopped, looking around him at the room they were in. “But this was the first time I’ve ever had the opportunity to touch a glimmer steel construct in the real world, and I think the same thing started to happen.”
“What do you mean, Aiden?” Chari asked.
“I mean, well, I think I mean I could feel how it was made or things it could do. I don’t know, I didn’t really keep my hand on the rail long. It startled me.”
“Well, why not try now?” Gavin said, “The whole ship is made from it, Aiden. I know they call it glimmer steel, but the Ancients were able to make almost anything from it, even this soft, comfy chair.” Gavin patted the seat, sitting innocuously in the middle of the room. “Yet another thing we have never been able to figure out is how to make different forms of the stuff, but I’m not arguing. Come, sit and see what you can figure out. Just don’t...um…turn the ship off or something.”
Aiden nodded, walking forward and letting his body fold down into the chair. It was comfortable, moving under him and seeming to conform to his body. The arms were also padded, but when he let his bare hands touch the padding, he felt that same tingle he’d felt on the rail.
It was real! He jerked his hand up, and his friends all jumped as well.
“What happened?” Chari exclaimed, looking worried. “Are you okay, Aiden?”
Aiden nodded, slowly putting his hands back down on the chair. “It’s okay, I… just felt it starting. Sorry.”
He kept his hand there this time, closing his eyes under the watchful gaze of his friends.
This time, he wasn’t asleep or unconscious so he was better able to concentrate from the beginning as he felt the tingle slide into his hands. It did feel strange, but it didn’t hurt exactly. It was just…different.
As he sunk his mind into the ship around him, he felt a sense of age beyond anything he’d felt before. It was startling, and gave the thing a sense of depth that felt like he could fall into it forever. He could also feel a presence, much as he’d felt with his own creations, but whoever or whatever had made the skimmer was alien. Old itself, and older than the skimmer was by a long ways. Combined, it staggered his mind, making him feel off balance even as the ship itself began to assault his mind. Streams of information became a flood as every nuance of the skimmer began to inundate him, making him feel as if he was picking up every grain of sand on a beach. He wanted to understand, and could to a small extent, but it was too much. Too much.
Suddenly, he felt hands beginning to shake him, and he opened his eyes breaking the stream of information.
“Aiden, are you ok?” Chari asked, “You started breathing hard like you were running a race.”
Aiden blinked. “Yes…Yes, I think I’m ok. It’s just that there’s so much information. I need to focus on just a bit of it, rather than the whole thing.” He put his hands back down on the seat, feeling the tingling but not diving in yet, making sure he could control it. “Maybe just this room, and I’ll keep my eyes open and talk about what I am feeling?”
Gavin and Chari nodded, watching him closely as he settled back but didn’t close his eyes.
“Ok, so I … yes, it’s just so much information and I don’t understand most of what it was trying to tell me,” Aiden began, keeping his eyes open and trying to focus just on the room around him. “But if I just… focus. Yes, I can push most of it off and keep it fuzzy. It’s working. Like the door to this room, I can just focus on it and feel what it does. Do you know it actually recognizes you, Gavin? That’s strange… I’ve actually got flashes of… oh…” Aiden glanced at Chari, blushing furiously before he successfully pushed those images away.
“Let’s not go there,” he continued, “but yes, I can almost feel that it knows every time you’ve ever been in this room. Even that is just so overwhelming, but limited at the same time so I’m not going to bother with that. Pushing it away. Ok, that’s strange. This room? It’s not a sitting room. I have images of people sitting here, and nothing is in front of them except floating panels like on the bridge, but the walls have disappeared. And…and something else, like it’s some sort of weapon? It feels like firing some huge crossbow bolt, but that’s not exactly correct either. I think I could activate it thought, but I’m not going to. It wants to be activated as it hasn’t been in a long time. Ok, ow, I think I’m starting to get a bit of a headache.”
Aiden finally pulled his hand away and started blinking. “Ok, whew. That was intense. I can’t keep it up. Even just this room is so old and there’s so much. I think I better rest.”
Gavin patted his shoulder, helping him up from the seat. “It’s ok, Aiden. So this room is some sort of weapon?” He looked around, baffled. “I don’t see how, and the walls were missing you say? Are you sure, Aiden?”
“We said we’d believe him, Gavin,” Chari said.
“It’s okay, I… really now that I’m looking at it I don’t see it either, but it was the images I saw,” Aiden said. “I don’t have any way to know if they’re real, though. This is all new. I’ve read in some of the books that Professor Reivus has that sometimes those that work with Glimmer Steel can tell little things about the work, and who made it but I’ve never heard anything like what I just saw. Maybe it’s because it’s so old?”
Chari spoke then, shaking her head. “I don’t think so, Aiden. You’ve got to know that there have been engineers all over the skimmers. They’d have figured some of that out, don’t you think?”
Gavin was nodding, deep in thought, “She’s right. They would have and I’ve never heard anything like what you’ve just described. There’s something special about this, Aiden.”
It was about then that Aiden heard the captain’s voic
e sound out in the room right behind them. It scared him so badly he fell out of the chair, rolling quickly and expecting to see the old man standing there, having heard everything. His friends weren’t startled, though, and were just listening until Gavin realized he was on the floor and reached down to help him up.
“Oh, I am sorry, Aiden. I didn’t even think about warning you. The bridge lets the captain talk to all rooms in the Skywitch. More ancient magic, I guess. It seems we’re almost at the races! My father will expect us up on deck. Come on, we can try to figure all of this more out later.”
Gavin clapped him on the shoulder before leading them out and up to the main deck, looking out over a sight of staggering proportion. For almost as far as they could see, there were huge herds of tarfins, boats, and what almost looked like a floating city, tied together with walkways and even a few floating buildings.
They’d made it to the races, and Aiden could only stare in awe.
Chapter 13
He had heard about the festival that lasted for several weeks, but had never been able to attend, and therefore he was completely unprepared for the reality of it. Even from several hundred meters above, it was magnitudes more than he could have ever conceived.
Kilometers. Just endless kilometers of walkways connecting every kind of ship or floating contraption conceivable, as well as docks thrusting out in a chaotic spider web. Ships from every Duchy he had ever heard about were participating in the trading, sale, barter, or any of a hundred different services that might in some small way connect to the massive herds of tarfin that stretched across the gleaming sea.
From their distinct vantage point, Aiden could see massive double-hulled Orchoran trade ships mixed in with Satem Galleys, swift Riften cutters, and even a few Cerandian Baroques. Most of the ships were dwarfed by the huge milking docks that cradled the tarfin in huge nets while workers scrambled over their wet hides. There were even a few other skimmers, though they looked like the same ones that patrolled over the city, so most likely belonged to Terek. There was no rhyme or reason to the brightly colored chaos before him but it all looked fantastic.
Chari grabbed his arm and started pointing out areas of interest to him as the Skywitch began to settle towards one area of the massive floating network. “Look there, Aiden! Those flags over the area we’re headed for? That shows you those docks are run by House Wilthorn. Remember the boy you saved? That’s his house. They are huge in the tarfin markets, and even better they almost exclusively employ the clans in their work on the ocean.”
“The Clans?” Aiden asked, “You mean the sea clans? I heard they steal anything and everything.”
“Yes, the sea clans,” Gavin chimed in. “They say they’re hard to control, but that’s what Father likes about them. If they give their word on something, they’ll do it to the best of their ability, even if it’s not quite what you had in mind! He says it spices things up and gives him a break from dealing with the lords. And yes, they’ve been known to steal anything not bolted down but that’s part of what they call the game.”
Gavin paused and watched with the rest of them as a small school of cutter fish arched up into the air with young children of both human or Arakuul clutching onto their horns, laughing loudly before they fell back into the depths of the sea. Glowby bounced excitedly, almost like a small child before racing down and spinning amongst them, following them like a flag. The cutter fish were beautiful, glinting in the sun in every gem-like color you could imagine as their mottled hides shed water in sprays of gold and silver. The Arakuul were almost of a look but in humanoid form. Their fish-like skin smooth, just like the cutter fish but graced with an even larger variety of colors. The humans with them were perhaps the least interesting that way, but that wasn’t to say they didn’t have their own charm. All three species had various tattoos, piercings, or other eccentric decorations gracing their various hides.
“But why would your father, or anyone, be okay with people who steal?” Aiden asked, confused.
Gavin shrugged, waving down at some of the people below. “It’s hard to explain, but the clans all believe that everything that is around them, belongs to them but only to the point of what they need. However, they also believe it is their duty to provide for everyone else around them as well if they are in need, even those not of their clans. So, it becomes this huge, weird circle thing. It drives most of the nobles batty, but some figured it out and manage to stay friends with the clans. My father is one of them, and so are the Wilthorn’s.”
Aiden just frowned, trying to piece it all together even as he stared down at the mass of humanity below. “So… they can take whatever they want from whoever they want if they need it? But if I needed something, they would need to provide it to me? No questions asked?”
Gavin nodded, smiling. “More or less. It means they aren’t the best traders but great workers. They travel in large family groups, working and living off of the ocean. They don’t need much. Basically, if they show up and ask for something, and you don’t need it, just give it to them. You’ll have friends for life because it says your part of the game. And only family plays the game. Everyone else is…prey of a sort.”
Aiden just shook his head. He didn’t really get it. It sounded like an excuse to just mooch off of other people to him, but he decided to reserve his thoughts on the subject and think about it later. Didn’t he do the same thing with Jessop? Just helping each other at need?
As they settled towards the surface of the ocean, Aiden could see a small crowd gathering to meet them near a large dock raised out of the water farther than most others. The height made it easier to cross over from the Skywitch and despite eying it nervously they all made it across in one piece. They had been expected, and there were a few guards in the red-gold of Terek as well as the white and blue of Wilthorn. Paramount was a large Arakuul decorated with many tattoos and scars who was making a beeline for the grinning duke. It was hard to tell age with them, but this one had more wrinkles than normal around its large black eyes.
“Welcome, brother Valeran,” The Arakuul said, speaking in its hollow sounding voice, taking a large wooden mug from one of his compatriots before passing it to the duke. “You are earlier than expected? Not that it takes long to get anywhere in the Skywitch, but it is rare when you are allowed to come on time, eh? Were the lords of your city all sleeping in, then? I’m afraid neither Dame Wilthorn nor her grandson is in attendance as of yet. I believe they are expected in a day or so.”
Valeran dipped the mug back, taking a long draw before coming up for air. His eyes were watering and he quickly bent over, putting one hand on his knee while he coughed and held the mug back towards the Arakuul. The intricately decorated fish man just chuckled softly, taking the mug with one of his four hands while smacking his friend on the back with two more.
“Gods, Trelakor,” The duke spat, coughing again even as he eyed the elder Arakuul. “I swear, one of these days I’m going to catch you dipping into that barrel of tar you keep just for me.”
Trelakor laughed a loud ringing sound before clapping the duke one last time before taking a long swig from the mug himself. “Come now, Valeran. You just need to drink more Seulosa, rather than that soft wine from your land estates. Grapes, bah! That is not what real drinks are made from! There is a reason we milk the tarfins at this time of year after they’ve had their fill of red weed. It makes the best Seulosa. In fact, you should force your lords to drink some. It may make them easier to deal with. Spicy! “
Aiden was surprised when he the large man took the mug back with a grin, taking another long drink. He didn’t cough nearly as much but his eyes still watered a bit as he turned and walked with Trelakor towards one of the railings. It overlooked a huge, open area and he could see a number of racers making practice runs with their teams of cutter fish, whooping and hollering at each other as much as those on the docks around them.
“You’re just trying to sell me more barrels but I would dearly love to replace the dri
nks that are served to the Council of Lord at least once, just to see their faces!” Leaning against the railing, the bearded noble peered out at the racers. “So, who’s favored? Anyone from your clan, this year?”
Trelakor shook his head, leaning with his back to the railing. “No, unfortunately, we are not favored this year. We have many good sons and daughters of Dawad, but no racers that will grow fat off of this year’s winnings, I think.”
Valeran shrugged, “that just means they’ll be angry and mean for next year, eh? Speaking of scions,” he said, beckoning Gavin and his friends forward. “You remember my third boy, yes? He’s brought some friends along to enjoy the festival. I thought it would do them some good to get out of the school and enjoy the races.”
Aiden could feel Trelakor’s eyes move over them, weighing them each in turn. The Arakuul was both welcoming and intimidating at the same time with his cold, black stare and tattooed mottled skin. After a few moments of this, Trelakor’s wide mouth turned up, showing just a hint of his sharp teeth before nodding to them and offering the mug he was holding to Gavin. “Welcome, and in turn receive our welcome, young lords and ladies.”
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 15
