Midnight's Blossom

by Corinn Heathers

  Erika offered us a tired smile. “It's okay. I'm not going to say anything.”

  I was stunned. “W-what?”

  “I'm not going to report it, nor will I tell anyone, nor will I attempt to use this as leverage for my own benefit,” she explained. Then her expression became more stern. “I will, however, advise the two of you to be more… discreet, especially when on Academy grounds. You can be assured that anyone else in this school would be beside themselves with glee over the thought of using such information against the both of you.”

  “I understand,” I squeaked.

  “Got it,” Rose added.

  Erika sat down on her bed and dropped her satchel to the ground next to it. “I know it can be hard to rein in these kinds of feelings, but try to remember how precarious your position here is, Lily Alcyone. Lady Juno must have moved the heavens and hells with her bare hands to obtain your appointment to the Academy.”

  “She did,” I agreed, and I felt ashamed. I endangered my appointment to the Academy, and I didn't even realize just how close I'd come to having everything come crashing down. I knew Mother would never have blamed me, of course, but the last thing I wanted was to cause all of her effort to be for naught.

  “As for you, Merope, you need to understand that the Empire does not approve of such clandestine dalliances,” Erika continued, gesturing toward me as she addressed the Fiallan. “Young ladies who engage in casual relations with young lords are frowned upon here. What you almost did, and what I can see in your eyes, could very seriously hurt you here.”

  Rose made a disgusted noise. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “I agree, but you are here in Solaria now. Bear that in mind.” There was a rather long, awkward pause before Erika continued, this time in a much lower tone. “If ever your longing for each other becomes too much to bear, please… let me know. I would have no problem retiring to the research library to study for a few hours in the evening, on occasion.”

  *

  The next morning was clear and cold, the storm having passed in the night. I felt dull and leaden, for I hadn't slept well at all. After last night, I was plagued with anxieties and chaotic emotions that I couldn't reconcile. I couldn't escape the fact that I'd desperately wanted—no, needed to fall asleep cradled in her arms.

  Rose didn't look too much worse for wear, however, and I took some comfort in that. She spent the early morning fussing over me, which would have been annoying had it come from anyone else, for any other reason. My body may have been heavy and my mind muddled, but my heart felt lighter than it ever had before.

  We sat in companionable silence on the electric train departing the Academy, heading for the heart of the city of Naara. Contrary to what most foreigners assumed, the Imperial Academy of Magic was not located in the capitol, but instead sat upon the western coast, just outside the largest port city in the country.

  Rose and I kept a bit of distance between us on this conveyance, mindful of the presence of other students from the Academy who were also heading into the city. Like us, they were dressed in casual attire rather than the school's uniform.

  The trip took only about ten minutes, and I spent the ride gazing out the window at the countryside passing by as the train sped down the tracks. The grind of steel wheels on steel rails covered up the quiet hum of the motors that powered them.

  The Academy grounds themselves were self-sufficient, utilizing the easy aether drawn from the artificial ley lines for light and heat and the energy required for drift-platforms and other sundry magical devices. “Mundane” technology was largely absent from the school, and the students were kept isolated from outside communication networks. Ria's course and others like it were the only concessions granted to budding arcane engineers among the student body.

  Even in the Empire, however, magic was not omnipotent that the kingdom could simply ignore technological advances, both those developed by Solarian engineers and those imported from other nations. By the time the train arrived at the station in Naara, I could feel the difference in the energies of the land.

  The ley lines in Naara were natural tributaries of aether, harder to access and laid out in a random, haphazard manner that seemed to mock the needs of the humans who made this coastline their home. Gone was the carefully-designed network intended to yield up the land's power with remarkable ease. In its place were human-made networks of another sort entirely.

  I could sense the flow of the electricity that surged through Naara's power grid. The current that ran through the copper wires may have been a natural phenomenon, a part of the universe that existed separate from magic, but it was being generated with magic. I closed my eyes and with little trouble located all eighteen of the power generators within Naara's walls. They were similar in principle, if not scale, to the generator we'd constructed for Ria’s class.

  Like our generator, they used purified aetherium crystals, a materialized form of magic that steadily released mana over time. The similarities ended there, though. Rather than directly collecting a charge from the interaction of earth and wind mana, Naara's power plants leveraged fire mana from red aetherium to create steam. It was that steam that turned massive turbines and generated the electricity necessary to power the city's industry.

  Not all of the lines carried high-current operating voltages. Some, the smaller cables laid out beneath the heavy ones meant for energy transmission, carried low-power signals used for electronic communications. For thousands of years, only mages had ever been able to communicate with each other at great distances, but thanks to technological advances made in the past century, this was no longer so. Even non-mages could speak with and send messages to their friends and loved ones over the datanet.

  I peered out the train's window and caught a glimpse of one of Naara’s four wireless communications towers. It stood, partly anchored to a tall building, standing proudly above the downtown area. A multitude of specialized antenna panels jutted from the top. It was these devices that transmitted and received electromagnetic waves, allowing citizens to establish communication links and access network services from portable devices.

  This sort of technology functioned just fine in the absence of magic, and did so in many other nations that were not so blessed with an abundance of aether in the land. All sorts of people, be they human or fey, were fiercely determined to survive and thrive. The necessities of survival bore fruits of innovation.

  “What are you gawking at?”

  I blinked and turned to see Rose regarding me, a bemused smile on her face. I gestured toward the tower.

  “Oh, the comm tower? We have those all over Fialla. Even the little towns have at least one in range.”

  “We only have them in the major cities,” I murmured. “A lot of the more rural areas have only wired comm service, if any at all. The oldest settlements still rely on magic for communication with the outside world.”

  “You've never been outside of Solaria, have you?”

  I shook my head. “No, never.”

  Rose's worrisome grin returned. “Would you like to see my home? I can take you there when the term ends, if you'd like.”

  “I would, but… House Alcyone will be expecting me to return home during the break.”

  “I didn't mean for the whole break,” she amended, somewhat hastily. I suspected she actually did mean it, but having met with unexpected resistance, decided to negotiate. “Maybe for a week or two, a vacation just for us. By the way you talk about your mom, I don't think she'd stop you.”

  “She wouldn't, if it was entirely up to her.”

  “How the hell not? Besides, you're an adult. It should only be up to you.”

  I shrugged but said nothing.

  “Maybe there's a way to sell it that'll appear to work in their favor.” Rose's brow furrowed and she seemed to be lost in thought. I was not at all certain I wanted to know what sort of mischief she was plotting.

  The tram jolted to a stop with a screech of steel against steel. Passenge
rs began to stand, doffing their bags and purses, before filing out the open doors and onto the street. Rose got to her feet and took my hand, nearly dragging me out of the tram car.

  “Come on, Lily! Let's go!”

  Chapter 7

  Union of Spirit

  “Where are we going?” I called out over the sounds of the busy city.

  “I don't know!” Rose answered with a cheerful grin. “Let's just go!”

  I rolled my eyes and planted my feet against the stone, yanking back on the Fiallan as hard as I could. Even though she could have easily dragged me along, Rose halted in mid-stride and turned back to face me.

  “Sorry, I get a little carried away sometimes.” Her grin seemed to only widen. “You're a lot stronger than I thought you'd be.”

  “Yes, I know. I get that a lot.” I looked up at her and shook my head in exasperation. “You don't know where anything in Naara is, do you?”

  “Nope,” was the immediate reply.

  “I do. Follow me.”

  “Where are we going?”

  I chuckled at the echoed question. “There's a small café near the waterfront that has nice view of the breakers smashing against the rocks. It's also… rather private, and not a common gathering place for students. Which I think the both of us would appreciate.”

  “I thought you weren't from here, either. How do you know where everything is?”

  I rolled my eyes again. “My family wished for me to stay out of sight and out of mind, so I spent much of my childhood on the network, learning as much as I could about…” I trailed off and gestured toward the glimmering waters of Naara Bay.

  “About?”

  “About the Academy, about the Empire itself,” I finished. “My wean-lessons only barely scratched the surface. Since no one but Mother really cared what happened to me, and everyone else pretended I didn't exist more often than not, I was afforded an uncommon degree of freedom.”

  “Don't highborn mages usually sequester their children from outside distractions such as games or stories? And you're telling me you were left alone with access to the datanet? Or whatever it is the Empire didn't censor, anyway?”

  I snorted. “Like I said, they don't care. No one in House Alcyone ever had any expectations for me, except Mother.” I let a superior sort of look twist my features and I made a flicking, dismissive gesture. “They all assumed I was wasting my brain away on serials and games, songs and stories, but Mother knew better. I sought all the knowledge of her homeland I could absorb.”

  Rose looked grim, and I knew she understood. “You were trying to stack the deck in your favor.”

  “Yes.”

  I reached into my satchel and drew out a black rectangle. This brought a curious look to Rose's face. I held one of the buttons along the side of the device to power it on. “You're staring like you've never seen a multicom before.”

  “I just didn't expect you to have one. Aren't they forbidden at the Academy?”

  “That's why I leave it turned off when I'm there,” I replied. I waited a moment while the device finished booting into the operating system, holding a fingertip against the unlock pad on the front. It had already connected to the comm network. Rose watched with interest as I navigated through the device's interface.

  “I had no idea you were so handy with technology,” she said, obviously impressed. “Never would have guessed.”

  “Solarians like to boast about the infinite strength of our magic and how our great nation is not so weak we must rely on gadgets and automata, but the reality is somewhat more complex than that.” I tapped against the multicom's screen and smiled as a message from my mother was brought to the foreground. “Also, Mother was insistent that I learn how to use technology like multicoms and computers.”

  “Your mom is something else,” Rose said after a moment's silence.

  “Mother is… different, than most people. Different than most of House Alcyone. You've been at the Academy long enough to have heard the rumors, I'm sure, but they aren't true. Mother was not taken against her will, and I was wanted.”

  “That must have been an… interesting romance,” Rose said evasively.

  “I'm sure it was.”

  “Did you ever know your…” She trailed off and frowned. “Father?”

  “My other parent,” I corrected. “They don't view gender the same way humans do, as far as I've been able to tell. It's difficult to find information regarding them that isn’t obvious propaganda.”

  “I see.”

  I didn't want to get into this conversation in public. I was plainly fey-touched, and if I were heard to be speaking positively of the miinari, I would find myself drawing far more attention than I wanted to deal with. It wouldn't be good if a bored IPSB officer happened to overhear us.

  “The air smells salty,” Rose noted, picking up on my reluctance to continue.

  “We're very close to the ocean. Come on, the café isn't far. Just follow this path up the stairs and onto the second-level street. It overhangs the edge of the cliff.” I pointed toward the west and north, and Rose's gaze followed.

  She gawked at the old structure. “How is that building even standing?”

  “Earth magic roots it to the cliff face. It's a very old, living enchantment that adapts to the changing conditions of the land.” I started to make my way up the stairs with Rose following close. “If erosion from the waves changes the cliff, the foundation will adapt. The building won't fail due to natural causes.”

  “What about… artillery fire, explosions?”

  “The magic is attuned to the slow rhythms of the earth,” I explained. “It can't adapt quickly enough to weather that sort of rapid destruction. There are different types of earth magic that can fortify structures against attack, though.”

  Rose took two steps at a time easily, as if it were nothing to her, and quickly passed me on the path. She reached down to grasp my hand and pulled me up over the last few steps with her customary ease.

  A few moments later the two of us were inside the cliff-side establishment. As I'd predicted, it was rather slow this time of day. There was a scattering of patrons inside the main taproom, most of them at the bar. Judging by their utilitarian jumpsuits, smudged with grease here and there, and smelling strongly of sweat, I suspected they were dockworkers.

  None of the men turned to look at us as a waitress took us to the outdoor dining area. It was empty, as I'd hoped, and we were shown to a table near the railing, overlooking the sea sixty meters below.

  “What'll you have, ladies?”

  “Coffee for the both of us.”

  “Anything to eat?”

  I glanced at Rose and then back at the waitress. “Give us a bit to decide, if you don't mind.”

  “Sure. I'll be back with your drinks.” She jerked a thumb at a small silver bell at the center of the table. “When you're ready to order just ring the bell and I'll be here.”

  “Thanks.” I waited for the serving girl to depart before turning back to Rose. “We've got the whole day before we have to be back at the Academy. I don't think brunch and a trip to a swordsmith's shop will take all day. What else do you want to do?”

  “I don't know, you think you could show me around town? Give me the grand tour?” Rose smiled and I felt heat return to my cheeks again.

  “Well, Naara is not small… and neither of us can conjure a conveyance, but we could spend some time at the municipal gardens.” The thought of being surrounded by flowers filled me with a deep-rooted comfort. The gardens reminded me of Mother, who loved flowers so much she gave birth to their namesake. And here I was with a girl named Rose. The thought elicited a small gale of laughter.

  “What're you laughing at?”

  “N-nothing. It's silly.”

  “Come on, tell me!”

  I shook my head, trying to sublimate the expression of mirth.

  “Do I have something on my face?” Rose demanded.

  “No, it's just…”

  Sh
e fixed me with an exasperated look.

  “I was just thinking about… the gardens, Mother's flowers, and our names.” I pointed to myself and back to her. More giggles escaped my lips. “Flower girls.”

  Rose blinked and stared at me for an uncomfortably long period of time.

  “W-what?”

  “Seven Holy Stars.” She groaned loudly and rolled her eyes. “Lily, that was awful. Just absolutely awful. The worst.”

  “I told you it was silly,” I reminded her.

  “It's not silly, it's awful. Do you hear me? A-w-f-u-l.”

  We both started to laugh.

  *

  Our brunch was eaten largely in silence, for the roar of the breaking waves below was actually too loud to have any sort of conversation. The food was quite good, though Rose seemed to be disappointed in how mild the seasoning was.

  “Fiallan food is very spicy?” I inquired as we walked along the upper level. I'd checked my multicom and found a swordsmith's shop that was relatively nearby, close enough that we didn't need to summon a conveyance or return to the tram station.

  “Compared to what we just ate? Not even in the same class. Not even in the same galaxy.” Rose's lips twitched in feigned disgust. “Solarian food is so bland. Never enough heat, never enough savory bite, and it's like you've never heard of pickles!”

  “That's sort of true,” I told her. “We've been a culture so steeped in magic that we never needed to use fermentation as a method of preservation.”

  “You don't use it to make beer, either,” Rose complained. “All I can see is wine. Wine, wine and more wine. Even those dockworkers were drinking wine. What kind of fucked-up country doesn't even have beer?”

  “This one. There are some taverns where you can get imported beers, but they tend only to be popular with foreigners.” I gave Rose a severe look out of the corner of my eyes. “Also, it doesn't even matter since, according to Imperial law, we're both too young to drink.”