Four Horsemen: Chapter 34 Part 1 of 2

Chapter 34:

Mya walked over to the table Hedgewick was sitting at, leading the others.

They’d eaten earlier before getting a bath, then gathering up their gear and storing their mounts. The traders and merchants were slower to rise with the long night.

Petor and Valter wore light traveling clothes instead of their armor. Desari and Mya wore their light armor, passing off as pants, vests and in Mya’s case a coat.

“So, are you going to accept the mission?” Hedgewick asked as she got close enough.

“First we’re going to need some maps.” Mya said.

“Twenty gold,” Hedgewick pulled out a bundle of maps and books with a smile.

“I’ll take it,” Petor interrupted Mya before she could attempt to haggle and held out his hands.

“Come on, could’ve got him down a good three gold!” Mya crossed her arms.

“And lost ourselves a half hour,” Petor smiled to Hedgewick and took the bundle.

“I’ll deduct from your credit,” Hedgewick said.

“Thank you.”

“Within you’ll find maps to the city, some of the towers. The gates and what lays on the other side in the planes. Finally are several maps detailing the warrens beneath our feet and the dungeons within.”

“Kind of dungeons?” Valter asked.

“The kind that are heavy in mana and prone to creating their own kind of beasts to protect an area. It is one of the reasons that the Duke’s and the King’s guards are so well trained and strong for the area. Also why adventurers and fighters are thick within the city,” Hedgewick said.

“I have a specific requirement,” Desari said.

“I will endeavor to help as I can.” Hedgewick clasped his hands in his lap and crossed his legs.

“I am looking for an unaffiliated magi-tech engineer. Someone that deals with magical technology from all of the elemental disciplines.”

“Jaxus?” Hedgewick called.

The man made a few comments to his fellow traders, drank from his mug and walked over.

“Master trader, horsemen,” He bowed his head in greeting.

“Looking for someone that deals with magical technology but is unaffiliated and work with items from all elemental backgrounds,” Hedgewick said.

Jaxus tapped his chin. “You’d be looking for someone from the Elemental Glyphwardens. They are the generalist inscriptionists that deal with all kinds of inscriptions.”

“Do you know any that are interested in history?” Desari asked.

“Nima Moreidan. I’ve dealt with her in the past, if you have something historical she’ll give you a full inscription for anything related to the city, and little less for information about other places. Loves it, we deal with her if we’re looking to get anything inscribed.”

“Sounds like the kind of person we should talk to.”

Petor sifted through maps and pulled out one of the city. “Where is she located?”

“Here,” Jaxus tapped the map, Petor made a pencil mark. “She’s on the thirty fourth floor, room B. Tell them that you’re with the Limos Trading Company. That should get you in and up to her.”

“Well looks like we’ve got our first port of call,” Mya said. “Thanks!”

“I am going to meet with some of the Baron’s people, let me know how things progress. The contract is open, as long as we can give him the information on what is happening the contract will be cleared,” Hedgewick said.

“Understood,” Mya pinched the brim of her hat and tilted her head. “Happy hunting.”

Hedgewick showed his teeth. “And you as well, horsemen.”

***

The tower was easy to find.

The doors were opened, people leaving and entering past the guards. Within were racks of magical gear, inscribed in all kinds of styles. From water pumps to elemental testers and tools. Even several kinds of armor and weapons, but they were few and far in between.

Desari led the way up to a quiet desk.

“Can I help you?” The man looked up with a smile. His eyes passing over their gear.

“Hello, we’re from the Limos Trading Company, we’re here to see Nima Moreidan, floor thirty four?”

“Ah, if you go down that hall, there’s a desk there, tell them and they’ll help you out.” He smiled.

“Thank you.”

Desari followed him, the hallway going from showroom to utilitarian but clean. People passed guards, showing badges to the free flowing lifts that hurtled people to the floors above or dropped them to the ground floor.

Desari repeated the information to someone at the front desk.

“She has you listed as pre-approved.” She handed them copper passes. “Return these on your exit.”

She waved them over to the guards and lifts.

They showed their copper passes and then got into the lifts. Someone jumped on and put in their iron pass into a slot and a number lit up.

Desari put in her pass and thirty four lit up.

“Good way to ensure security,” Mya said.

“What is this thing?”

“Like a crane no?” Petor asked.

The inscriptionist snorted and rolled his head.

“What is it?” Petor asked.

“A crane, really? You’re calling a lift a crane, such a crude thing! A lift works on pulleys and counter weights, and mechanical counters that are matched to each floor. The weight drops, the lift goes up. The mechanical counter locks into place on the desired floor. You want to go down and the air inscriptions  activate on the weight, making it lighter. Its much more complicated than a crane!”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened on their floor.

“Come on,” Desari said, extracting them from the inscriptionist, they had better things than deal with a pissing contest this early in the morning.

They followed as the doors closed.

“Idiots.” The inscriptionist muttered.

“Love the people round here,” Mya said.

“This is it,” Desari knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” A woman yelled.

“Limos Trading Company, Jaxus sent us here.”

“One sec!” The tone turned lighter and excited.

There was a noise of ruffling papers, then something fell. “Dammit.” Something thumped onto a table and then footsteps reached the door.

A woman with curly hair pulled back into a ponytail, runed glasses on the bridge of her nose, special extra lenses raised straight up.

She was wearing coveralls with an apron ontop, tools stuffed into it.

“You don’t look like Jaxus or his people. What do you want before I call the guards?” Her expression soured.

“We hear that your interested in the history of Aetheria. Interested in inscriptions of all elements,” Desari said.

“Yeah, and?”

“Well, you know that Aetheria was a flying city right?”

Nima looked at them, searching for something.

“What makes you think that?” Nima asked carefully.

“The entire city is built as a mana harvester. The mana coming through the holes into the elemental realms, drawing in that power into the material realm, then balancing them out with one another to harvest that power and then in turn utilize it. The walls are all made to draw in ambient mana as well, taking it deeper within.”

“Then there are the different parts of a whole, Aetheria was created it wasn’t naturally formed,” Mya said.

Nima checked the corridor.

“I guess you best come in.”

She opened the door and walked into her office.

There were shelves filled with books, covered in shimmering runes against one wall, a large thin window between them. The other walls were covered in shelves, holding different pieces of equipment in various stages of assembly, as well as materials.

Tables were dotted around, some covered in papers, others in projects being assembled. Movable boards that had become permanent were covered in inscriptions, pieces of scrawled information and one had a map of the city pinned to it, under several drawings and scrawlings.

“I guess you figured out the truth more than most.” Nima nodded.

“Aetheria was a city that flew through the skies, then something happened before it crashed here into the ground,” Desari said.

“Yes, something. What happens when anything becomes strong enough?” Nima asked dryly.

Desari shrugged, not sure where this thread was going.

“The gods start to pay attention. Anything strong enough is able to change things here in the material plane. Aetheria became a hub of people to learn about the elemental planes. Aetheria tamed the connection to the planes so that the city might traverse them and the material plane. That it might fly. They moved between the planes and then moved between worlds. Something that the gods take pride in doing as they connect their celestial realms to other worlds, allowing passage between all.”

“So the gods crashed Aetheria?” Mya asked.

“Correct, though it was more of a fight than the gods were expecting. The Aetherians were mainly interested in magic, interested in being left alone. Though they had to deal with enraged or greedy elemental lords. The gods have always looked down on the elemental lords. They learned that the stories were not understated. Different armies of the faithful were destroyed. Then Aetheria started summoning the gods or hunting them across the lands.” Nima chuckled. “They hunted the ones that dared to hunt them. Other gods from other worlds they’d visited turned over power to make sure they were defeated. Though the damage was done. The gods of this world were brought low and most of the pantheons and the mana they had hoarded was depleted.”

“That’s why the gods here are less developed,” Petor said.

“Correct.”

“So, what does this have to do with the weakening barriers between the planes?” Mya asked.

“It means that Aetheria was able to manipulate those divisions. It means that the openings to the other planes is not natural.” Desari closed her mouth, secrets where best held. “An increase in elemental mana can weaken the barrier between planes, has it been increasing?”

“I have some of the latest readings. We have to accommodate for them when we’re working on different inscriptions,” Nima wandered through the workshop, pulling out a set of sheets with numbers on them.

“The ones in white are the air element density. The Red is for fire, the blue for water and green for earth.”

Desari took the pages and looked at them.

“And what would be your reason for giving us this information?”

Nima stilled. “Well, the history of Aetheria, there is still so much that is unknown. How did the island fly? How did they open up gates to the elemental planes?”

“You don’t think that this is natural,” Mya said.

“No, I think that the island is waking up,” Nima rubbed her hands into one another.

“And your nervous?” Petor asked.

“Well it could mean that we regain its ability to fly and open up gates, but it could also mean that its waking up without control. The elements are already opening up holes to the other planes. Their weak beasts right now, but they could be stronger with large enough openings.”

Desari flipped through the pages, organizing them by date and noting down the different numbers. Taken as singular pieces of information they showed a growing increase at random periods. Together it showed that the density of the air element increased and then the other elements increased over the next day to meet that density.

Its not random. Someone’s behind it. Desari casually slid the papers back together, leaving them disorganized and putting them back on the shelf with the papers, nearly falling out onto the floor.

“I can help you. Though I have a condition,” Nima said.

Desari read the condition before it needed to be spoken, it was written in the woman’s features. She waited, such a thing needed to be given words, not just motions.

“I want you to give me any information you learn about Aetheria.”

“Why?” Valter asked.

Nima shifted under his gaze.

“Because she thinks that the source of this is whatever controlled Aetheria before it turned into a grounded island,” Desari said.

Nima’s head snapped over.

“She’s not just interested in the history of Aetheria, she’s interested in how it operates.”

“The information is there for those that are willing to look for it.” Desari said simply, waving at the inscriptions and diagrams around the room.

“Makes sense now you say that,” Valter nodded.

“You think that this is tied to the system that controlled Aetheria,” Desari said.

“Most would laugh me out for saying such a thing.”

“Why?” Mya asked.

“Aetheria has been inhabited in its current state for hundreds of years. There are all kinds of ideas and theories about it. Though no one has been able to find a way to control the city. We inhabit it withinout really knowing what we are living upon.”

“Anyone that has a grasp of mathematical equations can figure out where the center of Aetheria is, there the focus should be located,” Desari said.

“And there is nothing there. Its been excavated several times, the stone stripped back, only to regrow back into its old forms,” Nima said. She looked at them all, judging them, weighing them. “I don’t think that there was just one central location. If there ever was. I think that there were several systems that gathered and operated separately from one another.”

Mya’s eyes latched onto the map of the city, darting from one location to another. Then to diagrams around the room.

Thankfully she was behind Nima, who hadn’t seen a thing.

“Well we are in the early stages of gathering information. Thank you for the background on Aetheria.”

“I’m not sure if it is actual fact but it is all that I have at this point. I will pay good for any information that you gather even if it is just telling me what you find.” Nima held herself just back from pleading.

“Well we have much to do,” Desari cleared her throat.

Petor moved for the map but Mya snapped it up.

They exited the room.

“On the shield, the third joining rune is out of place,” Valter pointed to a piece being worked on, on a nearby table.

“Oh, thanks.” Nima looked at the piece as they filed out of the door.

“Anything you learn,” Nima said from her door and closed it.

Mya practically ran for the elevator stabbing the call button.

It rose several minutes later, card inserted they dropped to the first floor, then handed back their cards.

“Thank you.” The woman said, taking them and putting them away.

“Nima’s been having a lot of visitors the last few days now,” the woman said to one of her coworkers.

“This way,” Mya barely stopped herself from breaking out into a run as they moved through the streets to the nearest tavern.

“Four ales!” Mya called to the waitress and took over an alcove in the corner.

“Its what we said when we arrived!”  She let out a laugh. “No wonder the city is all weirdly organized. Hardly going to make sense like it is!”

“Mya?” Petor asked.

“Oh, umm, well this place was made by thousands right? Well it would makes sense that you wouldn’t want your flying ship to be all controlled from one place right? Gah its like a ship! People think its about just the damn wheel, but the oars, the sails, how their trimmed, pulled in or let fully out, the angles. EACH of these things works as part of the whole.” She turned back a smile on her face, her eyes shining, unfocused. “People see a ship, they don’t see the crew! And this hunk of rock, well she needed a crew.”

She cackled. “Like a group ritual. All the parts all the pieces working together, separate but linked. And you put your wheel in the place where to can see everything, the best place to see everything going on. Then you put it over the rudder so you can guide it.”

The waitress returned with four beers.

“Twenty eight coppers.”

Mya dropped the coins into her hand and took an ale, then held out a silver. “Could you end a bet for me?”

“Sure,” She put her hand on her hip, looking at them warily.

“Can you climb the inside of the airtower?”

She scoffed and turned back to Mya, sharing a smile as if they were both in on something. “Course not, things solid growing stone. Be here long after we’re all toes up fertilizing the soil. Can take the bridges of the elevators to get to the dungeons at the top, though.”

Mya laughed and flicker her the coin. “Thanks lass.”

“Let me know if you need any more bets solved,” She grinned and put the coin away in her bra.

“Will do!” Mya called to her as she headed for the bar.

Mya took out the city map and a gulp of ale. “That hits the right spot.”

She tapped right on the middle of the map. “You put the command area right here.”

“That’s the same place Nima pointed to.” Desari said.

“Not down in the ground,” She tapped the map, then pointed up with her thumb. “Up in the tower.”

“She just said that the tower is solid,” Petor tilted his head in the direction of the bar.

“I don’t think that it is,” Mya said. “I think that there are several systems as Nima said.” She pointed to the dungeon locations. “That they work together and feed into a central command location. If we can get to the middle of the dungeons we can trace where the power is going out or what it’s connected to.”

“You think the dungeons are part of the system?” Valter rubbed his bear with the back of his hand, clearing the remaining beer.

“Dungeons are created at locations where there is more mana and beasts  are there defending it. There are two kinds, natural and incarnating. Natural is beasts from the area claim it and the closer to the dungeon’s core the stronger they are. They are strengthened with mana and defend their homes.”

“Incarnate are when the source of mana creates beasts that seek to defend the location. With time they recover and create more creatures to fight those that would try to close with it,” Valter said, Mya taking the break to take several gulps.

Desari took a mouthful of the ale.

Mya gasped. “The dungeons here are incarnating, you can raid them as much as you want and there are creatures being made all the time, aligned with the elements of mana source. You got more on the dungeons?”