Aether Engineering

Chapter 36

Hydrabridge

The Voidlands North of Maston

Despite how tired he was, Myles had a hard time sleeping. It wasn’t the accommodations. They were pleasant enough. The problem was their mission.

Myles had never been one to lie. Sure, he had told the occasion small fib when he was younger, but those were few and far between. His father had raised him to have integrity, and when he had died in the war, that integrity had benefitted him more than anything. The community had helped him, raised him up.

Myles had left the community he had grown up in though, and it was starting to become clearer and clearer just how different his new reality really was. He was risking his life on a regular basis to fulfill his dream. Last night, he had fought a hawk that had been able to control a storm, when evening came, he would be sneaking into a heavily guarded mine to investigate whether it was filled with horrible monsters.

Myles rolled over and gripped the spear that lay beside him. It was the culmination of his effort up to this point. It was the first construct he had made that he was completely proud of, and it had already saved his life once.

Myles didn’t pour any mana into it. Their entire squad had already poured their mana into refilling it.

This was what Myles was meant to do. He was meant to create tools that could help others. He wasn’t meant to fight monsters or assume a false identity. He was in a situation where one was dependent on the other, but that didn’t mean he would do more than what was needed to open the path to his dream. There was no use dying.

Myles rolled back over and finally managed to fall asleep. He dreamed about home, Verith. Father Oswald talked to him about the latest article on aether engineering, the older men at the job shop showed him their tricks.

When Silas shook him awake, the bruises from the fight the previous night, and the muscle aches from walking for a full day and night came back to him. Myles pulled himself up in spite of the pain. It was time to head into Hydrabridge.

It felt odd waking up in the evening, but all things considered, Myles supposed sneaking into a walled town was probably best done at night.

When they had made their way out of the camp, receiving salutes from the soldiers charged with watching the perimeter, the group remained quiet until they were about two-hundred yards out. None of them knew the details of how sensing with wind mana worked, or how common of an ability it was.

Only when they had reached well past the supposed threshold did Silas start talking. “Did you notice anything strange when we were talking with the minister?”

That felt like a loaded question. The entire encounter had been strange. The mask had stood out to Myles, but that was obvious.

“The woman,” Kate said, “she was injured pretty badly. Had a nasty cut on her back.”

“Are you sure?”

Kate shot him a venomous look.

Silas rubbed his head awkwardly. “Sorry.”

Myles kept pace with the others. “I’m guessing you noticed something, Silas.”

“I don’t know if I would say I noticed something in the meeting, but I did find it odd that Rufus was so surprised when Reah showed up. Primrose said that he had specifically asked for us after all.”

Myles thought about that. It did seem suspicious now that he thought about it. Myles’ working theory was that the minister of education was a nice title for someone with responsibilities similar to a spymaster. The vagueness surrounding the role in all the books Silas had looked at and their current mission pointed to that. It seemed unlikely that he didn’t keep tabs on the academy. Joshua Maston had told them that there were quite a few significant figures there after all. Myles frowned maybe Joshua was one of the agents Rufus had mentioned. He had been to Hydrabridge recently after all.

It wasn’t their squad’s job to worry about those kinds of things though. Silas had a bad habit of looking into things too deeply.

Myles decided to change the subject, refocus the group. “Are we planning on trying to sneak the spear in?”

Silas grinned. “I came up with an idea for that.” He reached behind his pack and grabbed a tool that looked something like an oversized pickaxe. The pick itself was the normal size, but the wooden shaft was longer, and there was what looked to be a net attached on top of the pick. “I asked around the camp a bit and managed to find this. I guess it had something to do with whatever they were investigating.” Silas pulled on something on the side of the shaft, and it opened up, revealing a hollowed-out space inside. Silas’ spear was already in there, and it looked like there was enough room for at least two more.

Myles gave a broad grin. “You are a born smuggler.”

Silas laughed. “I’m practically Grishwald the traveler.”

Awkward silence followed.

“There’s no way you haven’t heard the story of Grishwald! They told it all the time at school. He was a legend. Travelled half the continent, spreading the word of the church. The noble smuggler, Grishwald the traveler.”

Something finally clicked in Myles’ head. “You mean Gerrick the wanderer! We had stories of him in Verith.”

Kate just looked on.

Silas stared at Kate. “Nothing? Not even an inaccurate version of the story?”

Myles ignored the jab. It wasn’t the first time they had found differences in common things like childhood fables. It was Myles’ private opinion that the priest who had taught Silas had a poor memory for names.

Kate grimaced. “I never went to school in our church. My mother insisted on a hands-on approach. She wanted me to be a surgeon, a healer just like her.”

Myles frowned. “I’m guessing that didn’t go well with your affliction.”

Kate nodded morosely. “I tried to learn at first but being around the clinic was too much. All the injured…I ran away more days than not.”

Silas put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Kate elbowed him in the side. “If you’re so sorry, mind moving away from me? You’re covered in bruises you know. They hurt.”

“I noticed.” Silas grumbled, but he still backed away.

The group needed to sneak around to the east side of Hydrabridge where they were to meet up with a caravan returning from Verith. The group had borrowed a few sets of clothing for the mission. They hadn’t thought to pack anything but their uniforms but wearing those would have been like announcing their identities. The group was also lacking any bands around their arms.

This made Myles distinctly uncomfortable. It was strange not wearing a band around his arm. He had worn a yellow band for most of his life. It was just another layer to their deception. They didn’t want anyone to know they were arcaners. Of course, by law, the three of them had to wear either blue bands signifying that they were arcaners associated with the military or the white bands that were unique to Maston academy.

It was just one more thing that could potentially land them in hot water. They may have been on a mission, but Myles somehow doubted how willing Rufus would be to admit that he had ordered them to sneak in. Myles wasn’t sure what the punishment for that was, but it wouldn’t matter, the punishment for an arcaner not wearing a band in public was death. It was deemed too expensive to keep arcaners locked away.

Myles wasn’t eager to die, and neither were his squad mates. They kept well away from the walls, hiding as best they could by moving through patches of tall grass. It took a tense few minutes, but none of the soldiers who walked along the walls rose an alarm.

Eventually, the caravan came into sight, right on time. Something was off though. The report Rufus had given them had said there would be ten wagons, all stocked with supplies. Myles only saw six though. It also looked like there were far fewer people in the caravan than they had expected.

“Just our luck,” Kate whispered, “the caravan must have run across monsters.”

Silas cursed. “This will make it harder to slide into the background. With less new workers, we’ll just stand out that much more.”

The group abandoned their stealth and walked right into the midst of the caravan. The guards were loyal to Rufus, so, they didn’t make a fuss as the group wandered in, taking places among the few workers remaining. Five Myles counted feeling sick. There were supposed to have been seventeen new workers with the caravan, now there were only five.

The guards may have known about the plan, but the workers were just people. When they found three new members among them, they were immediately suspicious.

It was an old man who approached them first. His face was scarred, but his body was strong. He was clearly no stranger to hard work, and Myles could immediately tell this man was respected among this group.

“Here to join the rest of us in Hydrabridge?” The old man asked.

Silas nodded amiably. “We heard there was work that needed doing here. Metal to be mined for the Verith engineers.”

The old man scoffed. “Welcome to the group. The names Paulo. You don’t have to hide why you’re here. You’re the same as us right. Desperate enough to risk our lives to start over.”

One of the men behind Paulo groaned. “Must be more desperate than us. Crossed the voidlands without an escort by the looks of it. Can’t believe they made it alive.”

Silas put up a hand. “Not desperate. Eager. My sister was killed by monsters about a year ago. The soldiers weren’t recruiting anywhere near me, so, I figure this is the best way to keep that from happening to anyone else.”

“You’re a fool, boy.” Paulo shook his grizzled head. “This is no place to find some weird feeling of honor. You take the first trip back to your hometown.”

Myles leaned over to Silas. “What are you doing? We’re trying to blend in. Your story’s going to make us stick out.”

Silas moved along, leading the small pack of desperate workers like he was the eager boy he had said he was. “We don’t really have a chance to blend in. I’m just trying to make sure we stand out in the right ways.”