Facets of the Nether

by William C. Tracy

  “What is to be the reason for such speed, Rilan?” Ori asked. His crest was spiky in anticipation. He was picking up on her nervousness, and he was right. Something was driving her to go faster, and it wasn’t just Inas, though that was important.

  She clenched her teeth, thinking, then veered into a side passage and stopped. She took his large hand, stroking her fingers down his until she could feel the points of his fingernails. She remembered the electric shiver of them running down her back last night. Their time together was keeping her sane. Chasing after a genocidal coalition who said they wanted peace, while trying to rescue an Aridori from them—the perpetrators of the last genocide, a thousand cycles ago—was enough to drive anyone bonkers.

  “The Life Coalition’s waiting, I know it,” she finally said. She could feel it in her bones, and even in the Symphony. “Otherwise they’d make their play and wouldn’t keep pulling back. I’ve got to find out what they want before they do…whatever it is. And we have to get Inas back.”

  “And you will be doing this how?” Ori asked. “How can I be helping you be at peace?”

  She frowned. That wasn’t what she thought he would ask. She didn’t need to be at peace. She needed to root out the Life Coalition and get the Aridori back. If he wanted to do more…

  “You have voids to study, or you could focus on your apprentice for once—see if you can drag him out of his room,”

  “I am having much to do,” Ori agreed, and his large purple eyes drilled into her. “But none of it is to be as important as you.” Now he was the one holding her hand. His fingers swallowed hers, massaging them. “Tell me.”

  Rilan felt her chin lift, though she knew Ori could read the signs of her lie before she even said anything. “Tell you what?” She ignored the tightness in her throat.

  His crest was spreading flat, curled at the tips in disappointment. “You have been drawing away from us,” he said, then abruptly looked up and behind her, waiting until someone passed by. Rilan forced herself not to look around, to show she wasn’t distracted.

  “We’ve been busy rooting out the Life Coalition,” she said, once he looked back. “And anyway, just last night we—”

  “Stop,” he said, and her eyes flicked away from his, unable to hold them any longer. They’d been together too long for secrets to stay secret, but still she resisted. She wasn’t ready.

  “Why is this search consuming you? Inas is not to be the reason, though he is important.”

  “But once we find him—”

  “No,” he broke in again, and Rilan pursed her lips. The obvious reply was to accuse him of interrupting her, keeping her from telling the truth.

  Another lie. They had fought beside each other, interdependent, taking each other’s every word as absolute truth. She knew what he would do next, as much as he knew what she would do.

  Then why couldn’t she tell him what scared her?

  Her mouth was dry, but Ori only stared back. His crest flicked up, then out, moving as he saw emotion, lies, and truth flit across her face. It was like looking in a mirror,

  “I can’t—” she began, tried again. “I can’t…”

  No, that was all there was.

  Ori, Brahm bless him, was nodding. “I am to be having trouble too, after the Life Coalition attacked the Nether—the one place we thought was impenetrable.”

  She clutched his thick, gnarled hands, brought them up to her face to kiss them. There was water on her cheeks. She hadn’t realized she was crying.

  “I had the power to direct a thousand maji,” she said, and it came out as a whisper. “I could change the direction of homeworlds, or so I thought. The others kept me in the dark, laughing behind my back.” She tried to stop, but couldn’t, not pressed against Ori in a side corridor on the sixteenth floor of the Spire.

  “Then they removed me, Ori. They took all that away as easily as if I was still an apprentice.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, but the words were pulled from her. “They removed me right after the Life Coalition destroyed my city and killed…”

  Killed my father. That strong, hardworking, stubborn, destitute man.

  Ori enfolded her in his sturdy arms. His leathery, musky scent comforted her. “And you are wanting to take all this out on them.” He leaned in closer, his lips on her ear. “Yet they do not matter. Can you not simply be satisfied with me for once?”

  Rilan pulled back to look at Ori and saw her surprise reflected in the heft of his crest. She’d not only hurt herself by folding inward. They’d promised to give their old arrangement another try. She was pulling away before they’d even had a chance.

  “We will be finding the Life Coalition and Inas together,” Ori said. “With our other friends. You are not needing to be on the Council to have power. I was telling you this before you joined.”

  “You said it was a mistake,” she said. It wasn’t quite an accusation.

  “I did, and I am still believing it. Your fire cannot be restrained.”

  Rilan pushed him away, not hard, but with enough force to let him know she had herself back together. “You’re right.” She was strong. She would continue, no matter what. Her father would have wanted her to do that.

  She laughed, and the tightness inside loosened for the first time since the void appeared over her hometown of Dalhni. “Right as always.”

  “I will be requesting you repeat that the next time you disagree with—”

  His words were cut off by an ear-shattering ringing, like Brahm himself had thrown all the kitchen crystal down the stairs.

  “What by all the gods is that?” she shouted, one hand going to her ear, the other to her belt knife.

  Ori’s crest was going in all directions. “I do not know, but I am knowing that you are also correct. Too many strange things are happening, and I have voids to be studying.”

  As one, they started for the sky bridge.

  * * *

  Sam looked down the spiral stairs in the House of Communication, making sure he didn’t step wrong and end up tumbling down the steps. Enos tugged at his shirt. Majus Cyrysi and Majus Ayama were charging up toward them. The old Kirian stopped dead, one hand on the banister, a boot poised to take the next step, his crest spiky.

  “Ah. Sam. You are to be out of the apartment.” He was trying to hide his astonishment, not that Sam could blame him, but the crest gave him away.

  “Enos finally convinced me,” Sam said. “Along with that weird ringing.” And now the explaining and excuses would begin. Sam could feel the heat building in his face.

  “Then this is to be growth. Good,” Majus Cyrysi said. He fiddled with the sleeves of his robe a moment. “Speaking of that odd sound, now that it is thankfully to be gone, Rilan and I are needing to speak with you about your new abilities with the Symphony.”

  Sam bit back the apology on the tip of his tongue. Majus Cyrysi seemed…relieved. Well, if he didn’t want to talk about Sam’s self-imposed exile, then Sam wouldn’t either. He could practically feel Enos ready to jump in.

  “Ori and I gathered some of his research from a library in the Spire on the way here,” Majus Ayama said. “The harmonics in the Symphony from that cacophony are like a few of the ones he recorded when you changed notes for him.” She paused. “Good to see you out.”

  Majus Ayama was too much of a psychologist not to make some comment. He should really have a session with her again. They helped.

  “We also were collecting some of my recent research,” Majus Cyrysi said. “There is an aspect of the chime that triggers some memory, though I am not remembering from where. Something I have read. However, the sound was also giving me a novel idea how you may give us more clues to the Life Coalition’s location. Rilan and I were discussing the urgency.” The Kirian waved his claw-tipped fingers through the air, as if that would explain it. “By attuning your realization of the frequencies of matter around the areas where the portals were opened between the Nether and the places the Life Coalition were hiding, I am believin
g we may be able to—”

  Sam let the Symphony theory wash over his head. He was terrible at it, no matter how much the majus tried to teach him. If the Kirian wanted to ask him about the ethics of a rogue group of maji trying to overthrow the Assembly of Species, he could have come up with an answer. He vaguely remembered taking classes on law.

  I wanted to be a teacher, back on Earth, didn’t I?

  Instead, he heard deeper tones in the Symphony than Majus Cyrysi. And ‘deeper’ was not quite the right term—the majus had some five-syllable word for it Sam couldn’t remember. There were notes hidden under the principal themes of the Grand Symphony, like the ones he’d changed when they fought with the Coalitioners in the Bazaar and disrupted the Nether’s translation between his assailants. The notes were fundamental to the Symphony—something others couldn’t hear.

  “Does that mean the notes in common between the portals and the chime could be linked to Sam’s house?” Enos said, and Sam stared at her. She had understood all that?

  “I’ve been working with Majus Ayama and Majus Cyrysi while you were…”

  “Hiding,” Sam offered. He should feel more, saying that. He should have been sad, or panicky, or even guilty. There was a void in him, like the inside of a Drain. The voice that spoke to him had taken memories when it disappeared. Ever since, Sam had seen his surroundings as if through a lens of water. Everything was slightly closer to him than he thought it was.

  “Er, yes,” Enos said, giving him an apologetic look. “In any case, portals have intrigued me since Majus Ayama and I are working on creating one to reach Inas. Every majus can create them. Why? And you hear different frequencies than those of the other six houses.” She leaned against the banister.

  “Exactly what I am to be saying,” Majus Cyrysi said. He looked back to Sam, his crest rising in anticipation. “Now you are out of the apartment, we can be going to some of the chambers in the Spire which have newer aural equipment. If you can be transcribing the tones you hear, we can correlate their frequencies with the exit points of the portals.”

  “Maybe they are all connected,” Majus Ayama offered. “Could the sound be another attack by the Life Coalition? Though it only rattled my teeth.”

  “Ineffectual if it was,” Enos said. “Are they building a new kind of Drain?”

  “Not a Drain,” Majus Cyrysi said. “The chime was part of the Grand Symphony. A Drain is to be an absence of it.”

  “I don’t believe in coincidences, not after the last few months,” Majus Ayama said.

  “Neither do I,” Sam agreed. He was starting to feel like he had before the attack at the Dome. He pushed his shoulders back.

  Enos was right to push me out of the apartment.

  He would make his own choices. He wouldn’t be held down by a phantom he wasn’t even sure was real. It would be good to see Majus Caroom and Majus Hand Dancer again. The only one missing out of their group was Inas.

  And that thought sent his mood spiraling away. Had he really hidden in his room rather than looking for one of two people who truly understood him? He reached for Enos’ hand, and she looked up, concerned when he touched her.

  “Let’s get downstairs, and then I promise I’ll help you find the Life Coalition,” he said. The knuckles on his other hand were white where they gripped the banister.

  Majus Ayama nodded, but Majus Cyrysi looked down the spiral staircase as if he had forgotten they were standing on it. “Yes, yes. You two may be assisting me. I believe Rilan has some other preparation.”

  “How is the portal coming?” asked Enos as they trudged down the stairs.

  “Slow,” Majus Ayama answered. “I’m at a loss for where to get more information. You’ve been very helpful, but at this point I’m not sure you’ll be able to contribute anything concrete.”

  Sam traded a look with Enos. Perhaps they could help.

  “About that,” Enos said, and both maji perked up. “Sam and I discovered something.”

  Majus Ayama stopped again and looked up the stairs to them. “What is this? Information about the Life Coalition? Did you connect with Inas?” Majus Ayama’s whisper was like a blade of air. Her braid hung over one shoulder of her padded jacket, and her belt knife clinked against the banister as she leaned in.

  “Enos had a seizure when she came to visit me,” Sam said, then darted a look to his friend, and up and down the stairs. They were alone, and safe to talk. She was frowning, but it wasn’t the ‘we’ll speak later’ frown, just the one that said she was concerned. Then she wasn’t planning to keep this from her mentor.

  “What happened? Are you well?” White and olive spiraled up Majus Ayama’s arm, but Enos waved her off.

  “I am well. I think it was an effect of the experiments we have performed.” Her eyes lit up. “I felt him—I could sense Inas!”

  They spent the next few minutes filling the maji in on what happened. Sam saw the uncertainty in Majus Ayama’s face as they spoke of the connection between two Aridori.

  She still isn’t comfortable with Enos.

  But the majus didn’t let her emotions interfere. Sam wished he had her control.

  “Can you give me specific markers?” the majus asked. “Sights? Sounds? Tastes?”

  “I…I think so,” Enos said. She groped in the air with both hands. “There are textures, and a few sounds. How do I…?”

  “Transfer them? Best to have someone from the House of Communication,” Majus Ayama rolled her eyes toward Majus Cyrysi.

  Sam’s mentor had his crest fluffed, enough for the Nether to translate that the new ability also disconcerted him. Sam gripped Enos’ hand.

  She needs support just as much as I do. She’s lost her brother, and has a secret people would literally kill her over. I’ve been terrible to her.

  “I’ll be there with you,” he said, and Enos gave him a small smile.

  “We’ll get the details when we get down,” Majus Ayama said, her eyes still locked on Enos. “Or Ori will.”

  They continued down the stairs, but Enos kept her hand in his.

  “You don’t mind that I told them?” he whispered.

  “Anything to help Inas,” she answered.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Impossible Portals

  - Yes, portals are strange. When you learn to open them—and you will learn—you’ll find your friends can too. It’s shared by all six houses of the maji, and no one knows why, so don’t ask me. There are a lot of theories floating around, but I’ve never read one that convinced me of some secret part of the Symphony everyone has been missing. I think it’s just a part of the music that doesn’t depend on which house you can hear.

  Part of a lecture by Rilan Ayama, then head of House of Healing, speaking to apprentice maji

  Enos fiddled as she sat in the uncomfortable chair, a notepad in her lap. It had been a busy two days since she’d gotten Sam to leave his room. Most of it involved first working with Majus Cyrysi to dig out and transfer the nuggets of sensation she’d experienced through Inas, and then with Majus Ayama to add to the composition the majus was creating to get her brother back from the Life Coalition. The whorls of music her mentor composed were faster than she could process—more complex than she’d ever heard. The usual structure for creating a portal was a child banging on instruments in comparison.

  During those days, Sam had been good to his word, staying with her, even when he had to use his watch as a focus. Ever since the Life Coalition attacked the Assembly, his anxiety had bloomed. Enos thought over what he’d said of the voice in the Drain. It was almost like her connection with Inas, but so much more invasive. She and her brother co-existed and required each other. What Sam described was a violation.

  Enos looked over to him, sitting on her right. His hands were clenched tight, knuckles white. They both needed Inas back. The time while her brother had been captured—her other instance, the other path she could have trod in life—was like missing a piece of her soul. She’d never been away from him for s
o long.

  Majus Cyrysi was wandering the spare chamber, situated on the sixteenth floor of the Spire of the Maji. A few high windows illuminated the space, but by the dust, it hadn’t been used in some time. His feet made trails of footprints on the tiled floor, his robe sweeping circles around him and his crest flaring and swooping as if he were thinking deep thoughts. He didn’t wait well, and Majus Ayama had called this meeting of everyone working with them to find the Life Coalition, after she had a breakthrough in the last few lightenings. A small fire of hope kindled in Enos’ chest that the sensations from Inas had helped.

  She’d felt him trapped in a box. Why was he there? Was it meant to make him reach out to her? Had the Life Coalition broken Inas and was now trying to capture her? She realized she was grinding her teeth and forced her jaw to relax.

  Nara Reyhorer was the only other one in the room. Rey had surprised them all by ambling in soon after they arrived, and plopping down next to her and Sam. She hadn’t seen the Sureri often since Inas had been captured. He’d been close to Inas, and Enos wondered what might have happened between them had Sam not arrived. But Rey hadn’t shared in their fight with the Life Coalition. He was watching the Kirian pace, and she wondered why Majus Ayama had called him in.

  Sam reached over and squeezed her hand, and Enos tensed. She hadn’t been expecting the gesture, but he must have seen the worry on her face. Her control was slipping. There were only a few who knew of her true species. Her familiarity with the maji made her complacent. She grasped for the mask she’d shown Majus Ayama when she first became her apprentice.

  “It’ll be fine,” Sam said. “Majus Ayama has a plan.”

  Enos sighed. Sometimes Sam assumed she thought the same way he did. She wondered, again, what it would be like if he had a connection to her as Inas did. The last month had brought them closer, and she felt she had an unfair advantage over Inas in their relationship. How many long talks would Sam need with Inas, once they found him, before they were all truly together again? Instead, the Life Coalition was baiting her with her other instance’s suffering.