by Blooding, SM
The more time I spent studying, the more I wanted to explore.
The collegium was nestled in the middle of Sky City with large squares of grass and trees and bushes. It almost looked like land even though it wasn’t. The only real way to escape was to somehow disable the city, but no matter how I tried, I could not figure out how it floated. The only thing I knew was that it was filled with a constant hum.
Everything was metal, which was alien to me. We didn’t have a lot of metal to begin with, so I had no idea where it came from. The towers that seemed to rise into the heavens and touch the stars were made of this metal, as were the roads. The rare motor car I spied on the streets surrounding the collegium and the odd flying face scanning devices were also made of the metal.
However, I spent my time in three short buildings made of stone and clay, each with large, colored glass windows. The language department was the smallest of the three buildings, but the one I enjoyed the most. Not because of what they taught. Frankly, I knew more than they were teaching. As a wanderer of the world, I spoke nearly every language fluently, could read most of them, and there were only a few dialects I didn’t know.
There was a girl.
I knew it was a bad idea, but there was just something about her that made me feel…happy.
Her name was Keeley and she smelled like sunshine. She was shorter than me, and wore the green and gold of the House of Coins. Her long, unruly red hair was in a braid almost every day. She was quiet and didn’t push, but she was also my partner, the one I was meant to practice with. That meant she was one of the select few I was allowed to talk to.
Varik always lingered close by. Watching. Though as the months went by, he watched from further away. They were starting to trust me.
“I’m going to labs after classes,” Keeley said softly as we worked on our paper on the origins of Handish. “My brother, Josh, is playing with a new weapon.” She shook her head, giving me a derisive look. “He wants to show me. You should come.”
I glanced at Varik. “I don’t think I’ll be able to.”
She nodded. “Queen Nix has you on a very short leash.”
I didn’t say anything as I scribed our report to the piece of smooth parchment.
“Well, if she allows it, my brother and I spend a great deal of time in the laboratories.”
My pen scratched upon the surface in long flowing letters.
“I’m actually working on a project of my own that I could use a little help with. It’s—” She shook her head. “It’s complicated, but I have an idea on how to better fertilize fields.”
I let out a surprised huff of breath. “I doubt I’d be much help in that regard. I know nothing about fertilizer.”
Her green eyes widened in horror. “Oh, no. I know that.”
I chuckled silently.
She scrunched her nose and hunkered down next to me, her pen joining mine. “I need help with the machinery. You’re interested in motors. This would be an excellent time for you to see one.”
“Hmm,” I said, watching Varik in the corner of my eye. “I’ll ask.”
She hid her smile.
That night, Nix joined me for supper and I regaled her with the wonders of the advancement of weaponry, and a few of my ideas on the use of plasma.
She took a quiet moment and set down her fork. “I hear you and Keeley Fabius are becoming close.”
I narrowed my eyes and tipped my head at my goblet. “She is my partner in languages, and she has many interesting theories on inventions.”
Nix’s lips flattened.
“Actually, she has a problem with a motor.” I shook my head with a frown. “Something about fertilizer? I’m not quite sure. However, she has asked if I can join her and her brother in the laboratory after classes.”
Nix was quiet for a long moment, her hands still.
I poked a green floret and plopped it in my mouth.
“What is your intention with this girl?”
My expression opened as I kept my gaze lowered. “I am intrigued by your city and its people. I want only to become a part of it and to help if I can.”
She said nothing.
I raised my gaze and smiled, allowing a certain amount of excitement to bubble to my face. “I am eager to look at a motor. I’ve seen the designs, but I wish to put my hands upon one.”
A smile lit her lips and she reached over to take my hand. “Of course you may. On one condition.”
I was shocked. That seemed a little too easy. “What, my queen?”
Her dark eyes pierced mine in triumph. “Kiss me.”
My heart skipped, but I kept my smile even. “A kiss? Do you play, my queen?”
She dipped her head coquettishly. “Perhaps.”
I was confused and nervous at the same time. “Do you wish it now?”
She nodded. “I do.”
I didn’t know exactly what to do. I’d never kissed a girl before. No. I had, but never—I took in a deep breath and rose to my knees, moving to her side.
She looked up at me expectantly.
My hands didn’t know where to go, what to do.
“You appear nervous, young Primus.”
“I’ve ne—” I shook my head and brought my lips to her cheek.
She dodged my advance and laughed. “Have you never kissed a woman before?”
“Not like—” My face flushed with heat. “I don’t—”
She laughed again and rose to her knees. Her gaze captured mine, her hand rising to cup my cheek. “It’s quite simple. You see what you want,” her breath feathered along my lips, “and then you take it.”
My heart raced.
“Don’t you want me?”
I met her gaze. “No,” I whispered.
She ducked her head and peered at me through her lashes. “I want you.”
“I know.”
One corner of her mouth rose. “Do you want to work on that motor?”
Blood rushed through my ears as the scent of her perfume swept through my nose, my body awakening with the sound of her voice, her closeness.
Her gaze fell to my belt.
I gritted my teeth, cursing my body as it reacted to her proximity.
She smiled triumphantly and inched closer. “All you have to do is take—” She placed both hands on my chest, her fingers moving in slight circles. “—what you want.”
I wanted to go to the laboratories, to see what they were working on, to see if there was something I could use to escape. I reached for her, cupping her head in my hand, my breath coming harshly.
“Do you want me?”
“No.” Yes.
Our breath mingled, her chest rising and falling, pressing into mine in an anticipation I felt as well. I took her lips with my own, using my hand to pull her closer, feeling her body press against mine.
She moaned and her lips moved, devouring me.
My body answered as if it had a will of its own. I groaned, needing, wanting to feel more of her. My other hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her toward me, feeling her warmth along my body.
She pulled out of the kiss with a chuckle and gasped for air, leaning back against my hand. She studied my face and obviously liked what she saw. Her smile grew and triumph filled her eyes.
I took in great gulping breaths, blinking, trying to figure out what had just happened. What had come over me? What had I done?
She tucked a finger under my chin and raised my face to meet her gaze. A single ebony eyebrow rose. “You may go to the laboratory.” She stood smoothly and headed toward the door. “Just so long as you remember you are mine. You will always belong to me.”
As the door closed, I should have felt victorious.
But instead I felt as though I’d just lost something.
CHAPTER 8
TO ESCAPE SKY CITY
Nix didn’t just accept the kiss as payment. She also doubled my class load, including three courses on using magicks.
I didn’t mind. I was eager to f
igure out how to use my “most powerful” abilities. There had to be some benefit to having the greatest Mark in history.
Somehow, I was going to find a way to use it against her.
As the weeks passed, she spent less and less time in my quarters, leaving me to my own devices. Granted, in order to keep up with the demanding schedule she’d set up for me, I spent nearly all of my free time on homework.
In magick studies, however, I wasn’t learning a lot I could actually use. I was still in theory, not practical application. A part of me wondered if she was holding back because she didn’t yet trust me. That was entirely possible. She liked to test people and I had absolutely no doubt that she was testing me.
When I was alone in my quarters, I turned the theory into practical application.
I found I could heat the temperature of my body to the point where rolls of steam poured off of me. It made me dehydrated, but if I drank plenty of water, I found I could keep my body at a high temperature for days and weeks on end.
The practical application for that, of course, was easy. When you live your life on an airship where it’s always cold no matter the season, having an internal radiator is a good thing. There were days when even the gold-ringed ice-eating slugs couldn’t keep the ice off the rigging. Frozen rigging could be disastrous.
That thought led to the next question. If I could do that, why couldn’t I heat an entire vessel?
Water was an easy thing to conduct heat through, and I practiced this often in the bath. The metal the city was built out of was also an excellent conductor though it had a lot of resistance, and bricks were good for storing heat.
Joshua and I had other ideas and concepts for what could be done with my “incredible gifts.” He’d developed a metal combining the source metal of the city with cadmium and copernicium. We were looking for something with less resistance. At one point, we’d attempted to add gold to the mixture since it was a softer metal, but we’d nearly blown up the laboratory.
The device we were working on was a pistol I could use to conduct my magickal energies through. I held our latest version in my hands, a pair of mirrored goggles covering my eyes. I looked over at the tall red-headed man. “Ready?”
He nodded once, snapping his goggles into place.
There was a commotion behind me. We were supposed to be alone in the laboratory when conducting our experiments, a ruling that had been set down after we’d nearly killed everyone in a two decametre radius. I turned to see Keeley and her friend Yvette.
I adjusted the setting to hide my blush. I don’t know what it was about Keeley, but whenever she was in the room, I felt happy. Warm, like I belonged. A part of me said it was just the fact that Nix had stripped away all my friends and family. I was used to being close to others. Here, I was isolated. I’d never been so alone in my entire life.
Yvette, however, didn’t belong, and to hear her complain, you’d think she’d find someone else a little more fashion forward and shallow to converse with, but no. She liked spending her time with us. She was taller than Keeley, but only because of those ridiculous heels she insisted on wearing. She wore the blue and silver of the House of Swords. She looked absurd with her frills and her frocks and those—I shook my head and turned away. Those hats. What was the point of a hat that covered so little space of your head? I had no idea. And why one needed a feather on one’s ludicrously small hat was simply beyond me.
Joshua handed both of the girls goggles.
I didn’t expect Yvette to get them over her head. Her brown hair was piled high with curls and pins and that silly hat, but she managed to do so without disturbing a single feather or bead.
Keeley wore her normal green and gold, her dress simple, her red hair in a long braid. She put her glasses on, nodding to whatever it was that Yvette was saying, and grabbed a stained apron.
“Are we ready, ladies?” I asked.
Yvette turned to me, one hand on her hip. “I don’t know how anyone can understand a single word you say.”
Yeah. She was one to speak. Her Handish was so garbled by her accent, I think Keeley was the only one who truly knew what she said.
I looked at Joshua. “I’m taking that as a yes.”
“As long as you’re not going to blow us up again.” She handed Keeley a glass jar of the fertilizer they were both working on. “T’es prêt?” You ready?
Keeley nodded absently, studying the jar.
Yvette clicked her tongue. “Ouais.”
I let out a long breath, shook out my arms, raised the pistol, sighted down the short barrel and pulled the trigger.
Energy rushed out of my arm in long runs of burning heat. The pistol transferred it from my hand and…
Melted.
That hurt!
I took the metal scraper from the table and quickly rubbed the melted pistol from the palm of my hand, some of my skin going with it. With a thought, however, the skin grew back.
Yes. That was a side effect of my powers that we discovered when we nearly blew…me…up.
Yvette tsked and pulled her goggles from her eyes, setting them on her forehead. “That was disappointing.”
I sent her a quick glare, throwing my goggles on the table. “We’re making progress.”
“How?” Joshua demanded. “Wha’ever we did melted the bloody thin’.”
“Ah, yes,” I said with a cheeky grin, “but that’s a definite improvement over doing nothing.”
He growled something under his breath and pulled out the schematics for the pistol. “I tried tellin’ ye that addin’ the copernicium was a bad idea. But would ye listen? Noooo. An’ why no’?” His lips flattened and his freckled nose flared. “Because yer the great new Primus with all this fantastical power tha’ ye can’t ruddy use, but ye know more’n the rest o’ us do.”
“Joshua.” I tipped my head and looked at him with a playful grin. “The copernicium was the thing that triggered the reaction.”
“It’s too bloody unstable,” he argued, scribbling over his diagrams. “I told ye and told ye and—”
“Yes.” I rolled my eyes and stared at my notes. “However, we’re succeeding in outwitting its volatility.”
“Oh, yes, Master of the Elements, we’ve succeeded in not blowin’ ourselves up. Hooray for us.”
“Indeed.” Sometimes, the man’s sarcasm far outreached his mind’s capacity. “So if we just add—”
We spent the next hour working on the metal composition of our next test version while the girls occupied the far edge or our large table, and worked with something that looked like dirt but smelled much worse.
People filed in, reclaiming their benches and work areas. A group on the far end of the room was working on a floating disc. Who knew what they were going to do with that? The possibilities seemed endless. Another group was working on one of the two-winged flying machines. I wished, not for the first time, that I could fly one.
The large laboratory filled with a loud buzz as people collaborated and experimented and occasionally blew things up. I had no idea why the Heads of the Collegium were so upset with us when it was a weekly occurrence.
Finally, Yvette put her fingers to her temple, and let out a long sigh of frustration. “I’m done and famished.”
That was a language I understood. I kept my hands steady as I continued to work on soldering the rivers of wire between the trigger and the barrel.
Joshua picked up his head. “I’ve got it.”
Yvette held up her hands. “I do too. I think we should go to that lovely café by the Librarium. You know the one I’m talking about. The one with those lovely little sandwiches.”
“No.” He grimaced in her direction and then pointed his pen at me from where he was stooped over his drawings. “The solution.”
I set down my soldering iron, pushed it aside, and leaned in. “What?”
“A powder.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How is a powder going to help anything?”
“Ye don�
�t see?” He pushed himself up. “Yer pistol has no ruddy ammunition.”
“That’s what I’ve been tellin’ you boys for weeks now,” Keeley said to her microtoscope. When she wasn’t around her brother, her accent was nearly invisible, but when she spent any time at all with him, her words gained a slight lilt. “But what would a girl know about a silly gun?”
“No,” I said for the thousandth time. “I am the ammunition. I just need something to funnel it through.”
Joshua was vigorously shaking his head. “Listen, ye daft man. You,” he pointed his hand at me, “are the catalyst and tha’s the reason the copernicium worked. Well, kind of. It didn’t—”
“Ah-ha.” He rarely ever said I was right. “You admit it.”
His face twisted in a derisive frown as he shook his head, charging forward. “Only kind of. Withou’ a form of ammunition, though, this thin’ will never truly work because we’re lookin’ at it all wrong.”
I shook my head, trying to see where he was taking it, but failed.
“Sandwiches?” Yvette asked with a pained smile.
“You’re the catalyst,” Joshua repeated.
Keeley looked up from her notes. “As I’ve been tryin’ to tell ye all along now, you’re the powder. You’re lacking bullets.”
“Ah,” I said, pointing a finger at her. “But that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t need bullets. I just need it to work like my electrostatic array pistol or my plasma—”
“Holy words of Tarot,” Joshua exclaimed, stepping around the table to clap me on the back. “Those were yers?”
I pulled back to look him in the face. “You know about them?”
“Who do ye think the queens set to takin’ ‘em apart so we could study ‘em?”
My mouth opened, but it took a moment for words come out. “You took them apart?”
“Well, yeah. But if’n it makes ye feel any better, I put ‘em both back together.”
I stared at him aghast. They were my prize inventions.
“But,” he said, backing away quickly, “I think you’ll find that mine work much better.”
Color drained from my face. “Yours?”
