Facets of the Nether

by William C. Tracy

  Majus Caroom was already picking up fallen Coalitioners, slinging one over each of their massive shoulders. The guards helped, pairing up to lift other prone bodies. “Then this group should, hmm, make certain these ones are not found,” they said.

  “Good idea,” Majus Ayama answered. “I don’t want to split our group to investigate if anyone got away. Best to move from here quickly, and hope the sound didn’t alert anyone. There were doors around the last bend the guards said were empty.”

  After a minute of searching, Majus Hand Dancer signed, gesturing to a stone slab, propped open to reveal darkness.

  “Perfect. Put them in there,” Majus Ayama said. “I’ll make sure the ones still alive won’t wake up for a bit.” She touched each Coalitioner on the forehead, bestowing a ring of white and olive.

  They pressed faster now, and Rey attempted to remember how many cross-corridors they had passed. How big was this place? It had been a lightening at least, maybe two, and they had seen nothing like the army that attacked the Dome, and no maji. Just two small patrols that could have been guarding the outskirts of the base.

  “Oy, hows about bouncin’ back the way that group came from?” he suggested. “This tunnel just keeps goin’ and I think it curves a bit. Is it just a giant circle?”

  “Me, I have noticed this as well,” Majus Kheena said. “Perhaps the cross-corridors lead to the interior of this tiny homeworld and we are circling the exterior. This, it would explain why these corridors are mostly deserted.”

  “Which means there will be more Coalitioners that way,” Majus Ayama said. She stopped at another crossing and looked down the dark tunnel. “This place is a maze. We won’t stay lucky.”

  “Yer took care of that last group easy enough,” Rey said.

  “More encounters will, hmm, increase chances of this group’s failure,” Majus Caroom said.

  Majus Ayama thumped a fist against the rock wall. “I need to find my apprentice,” she said. “But if they overwhelm us…”

  A similar frustration boiled up in Rey. He wanted satisfaction for Nakan’s assault on the Effature. He’d been the one to finally open the portal here, and the Life Coalition was nowhere to be found.

  “Ori—what do you think? Keep on or call it off?” Majus Ayama waited a moment, then snapped her fingers in front of the Kirian’s lengthy nose. “Are you with us?”

  Majus Cyrysi shook his head, his crest flaring. “I am to be hearing familiar chords. Since we stopped, I am finding it in both the Symphonies of Power and Communication.”

  Hand Dancer signed.

  Majus Cyrysi’s hands rose, as if trying to cradle the air. “This music is reminding me of…the Drains.”

  “But the voids have, hmm, no melody in the Symphony,” Majus Caroom said, and Majus Cyrysi made a face, his crest falling.

  “I am knowing that, but it is familiar, still. Connected.”

  “Could it be linked to Nakan’s knife?” Majus Ayama asked. “Is it their armory? Can I hear it, Ori?”

  “I think you may,” the old Kirian answered. “There is to be a strange subset of false harmonics lurking in both Symphonies I hear.”

  Hand Dancer signed. She had been turning different directions, waving her hands, since Majus Cyrysi first spoke.

  Rey wondered how the Lobhl perceived the Symphony. The odd species did not hear well. The guards shuffled nervously at the maji’s discussion. They wouldn’t be able to understand without Majus I’Fon translating.

  “I’ve got it,” Majus Ayama said. “Oh, that is weird. I see why you say it’s like the voids. It almost like the silence after one, but…not. It’s different. I bet if we find it, we find how the Life Coalition created the voids, even if they’ve professed to change tactics. Perhaps it’s close to where they keep their prisoners.”

  Rey turned inward, listening to chords of the Symphony of Potential. The structure of the music was off, but he couldn’t place how. He hadn’t learned all the advanced theory a full majus would know. He turned to his mentor. “Do yer hear it?”

  “This disturbance, yes, I hear it,” Majus Kheena. “Listen to the reoccurring theme deep in the energy structures of the planetoid itself.”

  Rey concentrated on the music playing underneath reality. The more he listened, the more he found little incongruities popping up, where the music would dip into another key for a second, then be back to normal the next. In other places, it was as if there was a different piece of music playing over the Symphony, but he could only hear single notes from it—not enough to get a sense of what it was.

  “One believes, hmm, it is stronger in this direction,” Majus Caroom said. They stumped to the next cross-corridor and turned left. Majus Cyrysi was right behind, and Hand Dancer behind both of them, waving her hands like she was trying to play three different harps at the same time.

 

  They were all hurrying now, no longer sneaking.

  “Shiv’s teeth!” Majus Ayama swore, and Rey nearly ran into her when she froze. “There’s a different theme in the Symphony of Healing. Movement—a lot of movement—coming from that direction.” She pointed to the left.

  Rey looked down the passageway snaking away, and took in a quick breath as he saw a flash of torchlight.

  “Us, we must have missed one,” Majus Kheena said. “Stand and fight, or follow the discrepancy?”

  “Away from the soldiers,” Majus I’Fon replied. Hir breathing was ragged, hir rubbery skin sweaty. “If we are fast enough, we can lose them.” Zie translated to the guard leader.

  “Leave it to us,” the guard said, and all six drew their weapons, standing their ground. “You must report what you’ve found to the Assembly.”

  Majus Ayama looked like she might argue, then gave the Lobath guard a little bow. “Go with Brahm.”

  Majus I’Fon translated and the guard saluted hir.

  The maji took off down the corridor at a run and soon heard a clash of steel and shouts from behind them. The sounds contrasted with the disturbance in the Symphony.

  Rey winced with the rest of them as a particularly discordant phrase interrupted the Grand Symphony. The disruption was growing, though he doubted it was because they drew closer. It battled against the organic frequencies, like someone was playing with the Grand Symphony in a way that wasn’t natural, tearing a hole through the melody.

  “Faster!” Majus Ayama urged. A light was growing behind them, and they could hear voices calling for them to stop.

  “The guards were not successful,” Majus I’Fon said, hir voice dropping in sadness.

  “Let us hope they were to be captured,” Majus Cyrysi answered.

  “You, help me aid Majus Caroom,” Majus Kheena told Rey. The Benish was stumping along, but falling behind. “Us, we will give their steps more energy.” His mentor crafted a change in the melody as they ran, and Rey marveled at the finesse. He tried to make a parallel change, a different melody but achieving the same result. It was like what the majus had done to the fleeing Coalitioners, but in reverse.

  They gave their chords to Majus Caroom, slowing as the Benish sped up. Rey pumped his arms, trying to run faster. The voices were getting louder, and this didn’t sound like ten. It sounded like an entire squad. A troop. A company. The guards would have had no chance, but they might have delayed the Coalitioners enough for the maji to escape.

  “This way!” That was Majus Cyrysi, his crest askew, as he turned a corner at speed, his robe rising to show off a glimpse of a spindly ankle. “The disturbance has a resonance in the Symphony in this direction.”

  The discord grew as Rey ran, gritti
ng his teeth and panting. How could any majus stand listening to this noise? If it was the armory, no wonder it was far away from everyone who lived here. He’d be nursing a migraine if they stayed here much longer.

  Majus I’Fon spun in place, running backwards, and flipped hir hands out, rings of blue cascading back the way they’d come, ice growing on the floor. There were answering yells behind them and the sound of falling. But there were regular footfalls too. That hadn’t stopped all of them.

  Another turn left, then one right. Majus Cyrysi pointed out each turn as they ran. The changes—corruptions—in the Symphony grew stronger. Rey wanted to cover his ears, but that wouldn’t help.

  “What is this racket?” he shouted. “Something from the Life Coalition?”

  “No idea, but it can’t be good,” Majus Ayama shouted back. He wondered what the soldiers behind them thought, at them shouting over silence.

  “It must be connected to how they are to be creating the Drains,” Majus Cyrysi yelled back. His crest looked like he’d been struck by lightning. “Perhaps there will be a weapon.”

  They turned a last corner, and Rey almost plowed into Majus Caroom, halted in front of a stone slab embedded into the wall.

  came Majus Hand Dancer’s frantic signing.

  With an echoing growl, Majus Caroom plunged their hands into the rock wall, spikes of green paving the way for their fingers. Sounds of tearing wood clashed with the shriek of metal and rock. The door broke into sections, falling away.

  They piled through the opening, and Rey spun to see the Lobhl and Majus Cyrysi exchange words and signs before thrusting their hands out.

  A wall of yellow and orange burst out from them, shimmering in the door like a webspinner’s nest reflecting morning dew.

  The voices behind them crescendoed and several dark cowls smashed into the solid wall of air. There was confusion, and yells and curses as their pursuers fell in a tangle of limbs. Several more stabbed at the seemingly empty doorway with pikes and swords, and Rey fell back. But the maji’s shield held—for now.

  “What in the name of all the gods—?”

  Rey turned at the exclamation. Majus Caroom and Kheena were gawking.

  The room was filled with flickering silver shards, which vanished and reappeared like snow crystals. They were the size of both of Rey’s hands held together and hung in the air, all at different heights, as if they had never finished falling to the floor.

  It was also a dead end.

  “What is this?” he yelled. The music was like being in the middle of ten noisy orchestras, all playing different pieces.

  “If I had to guess—” Majus Ayama began.

  “Drain seeds,” Majus Cyrysi called from the doorway. His head was half turned toward them, while his body faced the angry mob of Coalition soldiers blocking the only exit. “This is the method they were to be using to create the Drains. This is what we saw shot from the cannon at the Assembly.”

  “Why have those ones not, hmm, continued making the voids?” Majus Caroom rumbled, like trees creaking in a storm. “The Life Coalition has plenty of ability.”

  “Maybe they are waiting for a certain time, or event,” Majus I’Fon called. Zie had hir long fingers in hir earholes.

  “Look, here,” Majus Kheena had one hand to a chart on the wall. There was a list of voids and dates, with lines connecting them interspersed with detailed coordinates.

  “The void at the Assembly, it was the culmination of all others they created. Two on each homeworld. This, it is why they stopped. Them, they would have had to work again from the beginning, but the Assembly knows of their methods.”

  “Now that Sam moved their void,” Majus Ayama added. “So these are extras, stored far away from the rest of the Life Coalition.”

  Hand Dancer signed. A pike stabbed at the empty air above her head, but bounced off the wall of color.

  “They also kidnapped my apprentice, and are probably torturing her,” Majus Ayama grumbled. “Which is why we need to find her.”

  “An’ we may not get the chance, if we don’t get out of here,” Rey said. “Anyone else notice there’s no other exit?”

  “I believe it is the time to make a portal from here,” Majus I’Fon announced, and held hir hands up, rings of blue running down hir arms.

  “Not yet!” Majus Ayama called, but Majus I’Fon stumbled back from a pop of color.

  “It won’t open!” zie cried. The nearest seeds wobbled in their trajectories, drifting first closer to the Lobath and then away. Majus I’Fon shook hir head and took a hasty step back.

  “Those crystals are, hmmm, interfering with the Symphony,” Caroom rumbled. They twisted with a creak as a sword pinged off the doorway. “This group needs, hmmm, more options.”

  Rey looked to Majus Cyrysi and Majus Hand Dancer, both sagging under the continued abuse from the crowd of soldiers, and to the room full of glistening objects. There was an empty rack against one wall, and he pointed. “I’ll bet my granddame this is where Nakan got that knife from.” The others looked at him, and he ducked his head. “Just think. It makes no sense he’d attack when the Life Coalition is suin’ for peace. So mebbe they’re not all walkin’ the same path.” That made a lot more sense considering the talk he’d had with the leaders.

  “Then you, you wish to explain this situation to those outside the door?” Majus Kheena asked. Rey hadn’t heard his mentor snark so before.

  “Majus Caroom wanted options. This is a place where they might be weak, eyah?” Rey opened his hands.

  “I don’t care what they think,” Majus Ayama said, her voice ringing oddly off the hanging shards. “Every Coalitioner can go burn for all I care. I want my apprentice back, and I want to get out of here.”

  Majus Caroom stepped toward the two holding the door and landed a huge hand on their shoulders, the green of Strength flowing into them. Majus Cyrysi straightened, and the Benish stepped back. “Then what does this group, hmmm, do with this knowledge? How does this group leave? Is it possible to, hmmm, bargain with the Life Coalition for the return of Rilan’s apprentice?”

  “Still want to talk to them?” Majus Ayama asked Rey.

  He grimaced. She didn’t need to rub it in.

  “Whatever it is we are deciding, I feel it will need to be soon.” Majus Cyrysi’s voice was strained.

  “Can we throw a seed at them?” Majus I’Fon asked.

  “Do not be touching them,” Majus Cyrysi called. “We are not knowing what they will do.”

  Majus Caroom grunted, and extended one thick finger with a creak like a branch swaying in the wind. Where they pointed, behind the glimmering shards, was the metallic outline of a cannon. It was the one the Life Coalition had used to create the void at the Assembly.

  “Well, we know these things’ll create one of them voids, somehow,” Rey added. The Kirian stared at him, and Rey waved a hand. “Fine, fine, I’ll nay say anything more.”

  “No, I think you may be on to a solution,” Majus Cyrysi said. His voice and crest were rising with excitement. He stepped away from the wall of air just as a soldier—a beefy Methiemum—threw his shoulder against it. Rey thought the mass of orange and yellow bent inward.

  “You can’t be serious, Ori,” Majus Ayama called back.

  “What else are we to be doing? We cannot leave through a portal. These soldiers will be tearing us apart before we have a moment to explain. And, we are having a member of each of the six houses here,” the Kirian said, his crest wild. “This is how they were represented when they fired the one in the Assembly.”

  Majus Hand Dancer signed. The flip of their fingers denoted incredulity.

&
nbsp; “A Drain may be destroying the other seeds contained here, and give us the leverage we are needing to escape. If it does not, we can be holding the seeds hostage, and threaten to set the rest off if they are not returning Enos and giving us Nakan.” Majus Cyrysi was shouting over the yells of the soldiers and the discord in the Symphony. The disturbances were getting more frequent, and Rey waggled a finger in his ear.

  “What about Enos?” Majus Ayama crossed her arms.

  “We’ll have a better chance of rescuing her than we do now,” Majus I’Fon said.

  “Before this group attempts anything, hmmm, hasty, perhaps these ones should determine why the fluctuation, hmm, in the Symphony occurs.” Majus Caroom rumbled. “It will affect changes.”

  An aura of blue grew around Majus I’Fon again and the Lobath squatted close to a sliver, hir head-tentacles dangling. “There is a path connecting these pieces to the tremors in the Symphony,” zie called over hir shoulder. “It is nearly complete—only a few notes missing. I believe we may be in danger of a void occurring here, even if we do nothing.”

  Majus Hand Dancer’s signing was frenetic.

  “Unknown, but I’m starting to agree with Ori,” Majus Ayama said. “Enos is in as much danger as we are. The Life Coalition has never been honorable—ask anyone in Dalhni.” She turned to Majus Cyrysi. “This is a chance to cripple them, if we survive. Ori, what do you think? Drains grow slowly, don’t they?”

  Hand Dancer signed.

  “My integrity won’t mean much if I’m dead,” Majus I’Fon snapped.

  Majus Cyrysi waved a hand. “We can be connecting the last part of the music between the discord and the Drain seeds here. The soldiers will be backing away at the sight—” He winced at the screech of metal on metal. They were attempting to dig through the wall. “And in the confusion we attempt to rescue Enos, and take Nakan, if possible.” He looked around at the others. “Panen? Caroom? Kheena?”