Aether Engineering

Chapter 42

Hydrabridge

The Voidlands North of Maston

Samuel split up the group almost immediately after giving them the basics of their job. He took Paulo with him, deeming him to be the most at risk to the dangers of the depths.

Hours after their work began, Myles found himself laying down on a ledge, mining below him with the strange pick that Silas had brought. At last, the tool began to make sense. The main mine shaft that made up the depths was filled with ore. The problem was that it was exceptionally difficult to get to most of it.

The challenges presented by mining the vast open area with minimal flat ground had been overcome through the design of a unique pickaxe. The idea behind it was to find a ledge of some sort nearby ore. From there, the uniquely designed pickaxe could be put to use.

The long wooden handle of the tool allowed for greater reach. The net underneath the head of the pickaxe was used to actually collect the ore. Without it, stone and ore would tumble down the mine shaft. Not only would the ore be lost, it also ran the risk of hitting other miners who were working below.

Organization and safety did not seem to be a priority in the depths. The miners were rewarded for taking risks to collect more ore. From what Myles had seen, the depths were where the ambitious chose to work. Myles and Silas had heard stories from the other miners of how particularly successful men were given permission to leave the city. Sometimes those men were even provided an escort to the place of their choosing.

Other murmurs they had heard over the course of the day made them especially cautious. Almost everyone in the depths had been born and raised in Hydrabridge. Silas had pointed out that Rolance had been more than happy to send outsiders into the depths. That begged the question of where the other outsiders were.

Myles had filled in the blanks. Between conversations being cut short whenever Myles and Silas drew near and the distinct lack of outsiders, it was easy to assume that those raised in Hydrabridge were banding together. The other workers Myles reasoned didn’t last long. Either through a lack of support or more…direct action.

Myles and Silas were determined to remain on their guard. This was an area that was very definitely not welcoming to anyone born outside of Hydrabridge. Not even soldiers were allowed inside the depths. In a way, it was something of a colony within Hydrabridge. They took turns with one of them doing the work of mining and the other keeping watch.

More than once, this strategy had proven beneficial. On three separate occasions throughout the day, stone had plummeted towards them from above. On each occasion, the pair had been able to clamber out of the way in time only to hear a half-hearted apology called down from above.

They both agreed that they needed to accomplish their mission as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that was made difficult by two factors. The first was that they were under constant watch. Wherever they moved, they would be followed. They found that there was always a team of miners almost directly above them.

The second problem was the monsters. The tunnels in the shaft were largely avoided. That was for good reason. Periodically, they would hear terrifying noises echoing out of them. They would need to be prepared before they ventured down one of the tunnels. They would also need to make their selection carefully. There was no need to risk their lives without reason.

A loud bell suddenly started tolling, Myles looked up and noticed the lights carried by all the miners begin to climb slowly out of the shaft. “Quitting time?”

Silas shrugged. “It would probably be best if went up to see for ourselves.”

The climb out of the depths was brutal, and it was made all the more so by how much climbing the two had already done that day. In the time spent mining the depths, ropes and handholds had been hammered into the stone. Even with those though, the climb out was exhausting.

The pair brought all the ore they had gathered in the last trip with them. Throughout the day, this ore had been given over to the more experienced miners who handed it over to the soldiers. By his estimation, Myles guessed that the miners were getting the credit for the ore that he and Silas mined, reaping whatever rewards the soldiers gave in turn.

Myles was happy to go along with things though. They weren’t here to earn rewards after all. They were here to find what they needed and get out.

“What kind of idiot do you take me for?”

As Myles pulled himself back into the mines proper, he heard Rolance’s voice echoing loudly. Samuel was standing across from him, all but physically blocking the officer from entering the camp that surrounded the depths.

Rolance gathered up his body. His face was the image of rage. “Who else would knock out one of my guards?”

Samuel remained unfazed. “Like I told you. It had nothing to do with us.”

Rolance snorted. “I have given you everything!” He held up three fingers, ticking them down. “We have trained you. We have given you a place to call your own. You have a way to leave if you want. How can you possibly still harbor such discontent?”

Samuel’s eyes turned dangerous all of a sudden. Before now, he had seemed to be even tempered, but for just a moment he looked at Rolance with nothing short of hatred. With his next breath, that died away. “This wasn’t us.”

“You are walking a thin line, Samuel.” Rolance waved his hand at the foreman. “I have worked hard to work with you. I have been patient, but I will not entertain any nonsense that risks the lives of the soldiers who risk their lives to keep your people safe!”

With those words, Rolance left. With him, seemingly all overseer presence left too.

As the miners settled in, Myles realized with a start that night had fallen outside. They were so deep underground that there was minimal difference.

Myles looked around hopefully for any sign of Kate, but just like every time they had surfaced before, Kate was nowhere to be found.

Without being given any kind of guidance, Myles and Silas found a set of sleeping bags to curl up in. Concerningly, neither of them could see any sign of Paulo.

Myles felt eyes on him as he laid in the dark. He remained as still as possible. The thought occurred to him that the miners near them may have been waiting for him and Silas to fall asleep, just waiting to pounce.

A few hours into the night, miners slowly began to get up. One by one, they silently crept out of the rough building that the pair had settled in. It took nearly half an hour for every occupant of the building excluding Myles and Silas to leave. As soon as they did, Myles pulled himself out of his sleeping bag. Silas rose beside him without a sound.

It didn’t take the pair long to discover the miners’ whereabouts. Looking down into the shaft, they could make out several lights as the miners clambered their way down to one of the tunnels.

Myles followed Silas’ lead down into the depths. Unlike the miners, Myles and Silas didn’t have the luxury of a light to work with. If they had tried to use one, the miners would realize they were being followed in an instant.

By the time they reached the entrance to the tunnel, all the miners were already out of sight.

Myles moved forward along the course stone wall, careful to stay out of view. A stray glance, even a flicker of motion, would put the men on guard. Silas slid along the wall behind him. Myles quietly thanked Primrose for her thorough training. The pure mana they constantly commuted around their bodies limited the friction against the stone, making for a mostly silent approach.

It was funny. Ever since walking into Hydrabridge, Myles had gone without commuted armor. Using it now gave a layer of security, something to ease his nerves that had been frayed from his time in Hydrabridge.

Myles pulled closer and closer until he could start to make out a gruff voice. “How can you even think of abandoning the plan now?” Myles heard a sudden rocky crash and envisioned the man kicking loose shale apart. No, not just any man. Myles recognized that voice. It was the foreman, Samuel, only now, he sounded much angrier and much more genuine.

A voice replied back with firmness, though nerves broke through. “The whole place is crawling with soldiers. We can’t win this fight right now!” Myles didn’t recognize it, but it sounded like it could belong to any one of the young men they had come across in the depths.

The foreman gave an annoyed sigh. “We already talked about this. I can’t contain the creature much longer! We need to use it now. The other soldiers, the ones camped outside town, have turned down every request made by the baron. They don’t care what happens here!”

Myles heard the same young man speak up again, this time with a raised voice. “You may have contained that monster, but you can’t control it. It’ll be us that suffers. How many of our people will it tear apart before it even attacks the overseers, how many before it kills the baron.”

Myles heard an angry roar, then a heavy groan and envisioned the large-muscled foreman delivering a heavy body blow. “We…have…no…choice.” Each grim word was punctuated by another groan, each more pained than the last.

There was some stirring in the other miners, but none of them stepped in. It seemed everyone there thought the same way as the foreman. They wanted to release this monster and lead it to kill the baron who oppressed them.

Myles listened carefully as the young man pulled himself back to his feet. A series of wheezing gasps let him know that the man’s pain wasn’t superficial. “I won’t let you do this…my little sister…,” the man’s words were cut with pain fueled grunts, “…I’ll tell baron…if I have to.”

Myles could hear the young man try to limp off, but the scuffling on the rough stone around him, and the sound of a loose board being kicked aside indicated that he had been blocked off.

Myles felt something brush past him and saw Silas stepping out around the corner with a fearsome expression on his face. Myles made a desperate grab to pull him back into hiding, but Silas must have predicted that because he used a small snake step to avoid the grab, sending Myles stumbling out into the open, carried by his momentum.

There were more miners than Myles had guessed, at least a hundred of them, and they had all turned toward him and Silas. The miners’ gazes passed across their unfamiliar grim faces, taking not of the shimmer from the pure mana they commuted around themselves.

Myles could see the hostility form in the miners as they all clearly came to the same conclusion.

“You should not have come here.” Samuel spoke. His eyes glittered, reflecting that same dangerous look he had given Rolance earlier.

At his words, the miners ran at them.

The fight didn’t dissolve into the beating that Myles had expected. Instead, Myles found himself able to move between the miners, throwing their attacks off by frequently snake stepping. When a miner was lucky enough to land a blow, it was absorbed by his commuted armor. On the other hand, whenever Myles landed a blow, it would drop the miner he hit.

There was no space to use the spear Myles carried on his back, recovered from inside the long hilt of Silas’ pick. Myles was alright not using the spear. He had no interest in killing someone.

Despite all his training, Myles quickly found himself overwhelmed. He had a hard time understanding what Silas was thinking. They couldn’t win the fight, yet Silas was making his way into the crowd instead of retreating.

Myles did his best to follow. Three miners mobbed him as soon as he made the first step. Myles flowed into the second step of the core arcaner’s way of the fist, sweeping the legs of all three miners. He then snake stepped forward and to the right, sending two more men who were trying to catch him crashing clumsily into the ground. The same movement took Myles out of the pack and right up against the tunnel wall.

Myles continued his movement, running up and bouncing off of the wall, moving into a flying kick that sent a large miner to the ground. Realizing that there was no time to avoid the miners that followed after, Myles dropped into the iron turtle, absorbing multiple blows.

Myles could feel his pure mana stop the attackers in their tracks. Each of them drew up confused by the sensation of their fists coming to a sudden stop. That gave Myles the opening he needed to move past them.

Myles finally got a picture of Silas’ plan. As he saw him out of the corner of his eye. Silas was helping the young man that Samuel had been beating to rise to his feet. That was not to be though. Samuel was there, and a swing from the pickaxe he had grabbed forced Silas to let go and back up.

Myles was shocked to see a rock wall pop into existence to block Silas’ counter. Training, Myles realized, Rolance had said he had given the miners training. Myles realized with horror that Rolance had meant training in the aether space.

Samuel was an arcaner. Myles rushed to Silas’ side with renewed vigor. For their part, the miners grew more passive, none of them were eager to take on Myles. They had begun connecting his abilities to those of the soldiers.

That worked out to Myles’ favor. He was able to reach Silas who was still fighting against Samuel.

As it happened, Samuel was on the backfoot. While Rolance had clearly taught him some aspects of being an arcaner, Myles guessed he had foregone a full education, instead picking and choosing the tools he gave him.

In particular, Samuel only seemed to be capable of evoking what Myles assumed to be earth mana. In a one-on-one fight, Samuel would have lost swiftly to Silas who was far better trained. Unfortunately for Myles and Silas though, Samuel was not the only one who had been trained to evoke earth mana.

About fifteen of the miners who had been standing in the back of the crowd, closest to Samuel raised their hands. Fifteen walls of earth mana closed in around Myles and Silas. Myles looked for a way out of the encirclement.

Finding no easy solution, Myles finally drew the spear from his back. “Back off!”

The threat was less effective than Myles had hoped. The walls remained in place. Thin walls of earth mana were little barrier to a metal spear though. Myles tore through one of the walls, emerging with a sweep of his spear that caused miners who had begun to encroach on them to back off.

Myles noted with annoyance that Silas was picking up the young man again. Why he would do that, Myles had no idea. They were already in the middle of an impossible situation. They had maybe knocked out fifteen of the miners. The rest were still in perfect condition for a fight. Myles’ mana was already starting to run low.

The miners weren’t willing to approach yet. The spear that Myles held made sure of that. The only feasible way for Myles to fight his way out of the situation was to activate his spear. He wasn’t willing to do that though. These were humans, not monsters. If he sent a fireball hurtling into this crowd, it would cause untold carnage.

Myles slowly raised his hands in a gesture of peace. “Can we talk this out?”