Aether Engineering

Chapter 50

Maston Academy

The Town of Maston in the Candis East District

Returning to Maston was a somewhat surreal experience. Part of that came from Myles’ state of mind. A state that could best be described as swimming through molasses. It was hard to think he was so exhausted.

Only part of the surreal feeling came from his mind being exhausted, the rest of it was a combination of the activity at the academy and the time of their arrival. They had left in the late afternoon the day before. Now, they were arriving in the early evening.

Students walked around the campus like normal. Though some of them had wounds, many of these seemed to be on their way to healing. In his exhausted state, it took Myles a second to understand why.

Myles had been gone for five full days. Everything had moved so quickly that Myles hadn’t been given a chance to think about the implications. Most of the students would have already returned, having completed their own missions.

Now, Myles felt out of place as he, Silas, and Kate headed to their dorm. They split up with Reah who made her way around the campus, heading to the infirmary where she could hopefully have her wound looked at by expert eyes. She had been given attention back at Hydrabridge, but they had lacked tools and the journey she had undergone hadn’t done her any favors.

There was no sign of Jane, Seth, or Mercy when they came back to the dorm. They had clearly already returned though because the twin of the aether construct spear Myles carried on his back was propped up in the common room.

Myles took the shortest path possible to his bed, throwing his gear down and not bothering to change out of his clothes. Myles was asleep before he even flopped onto the mattress.

…

Myles woke with a start, nearly headbutting Jane. Fortunately, Jane was swift to step out of the way. Myles took a breath and looked around. He was in his room, right where he had flopped down. It was morning, meaning that Myles had slept through the night.

“Good morning.” Jane gave him a smile that looked to be fighting hard to not widen further. Myles noticed a nasty bruise on her face, right below her right eye.

The bruise was what finished the process of waking Myles. It was like a bucket of ice-cold water had suddenly been thrown on him. It hadn’t just been Myles’ squad that had been sent out on a mission. Jane’s squad had as well.

“Are you alright?” Myles asked, looking around frantically.

“Things went well.” Jane waved aside the question. “More importantly, how are you doing? We got back a full day before you. We were worried that you…”

As Jane trailed off, Myles pushed himself to his feet, realizing with some embarrassment that he was still dressed in the uniform he had been travelling in. “We all made it out ok—actually Reah got hurt pretty badly.”

“Reah?”

Myles blanched, remembering that Jane hadn’t seen them since they had parted at the dorm. “Reah was there. She followed us—just like last time.”

“You guys managed to escape something that hurt her?”

Myles stumbled over his words; his brain was still scrambled from waking up so suddenly. He tried to explain what had happened, how they had been separated from Reah, how she had been injured during that time, how they had met the person who had done that, and how they had been with Paulo when they entered the city.

Myles’ best efforts only served to grow a strong look of confusion on Jane’s face. Just as he trailed off, finally acknowledging to himself that his rushed explanation would need to be totally reworked, a familiar face popped around his doorframe, it bore a mischievous look that Myles had only seen a handful of times before.

Silas walked into full view with a teasing grin. “Remind me to never have you tell a story. If you had been talking like that with Paulo, we’d have all been dead by now.”

A voice muttered something about how they could arrange for Silas’ death if he kept talking so loudly from the other side of the common room. Jane gave a short, uncontrolled burst of laughter as she heard Kate’s very surly, very tired mutter.

Myles couldn’t help but join in. It was good to be back and enjoying the others company. It was good to feel truly safe again.

They had been woken with enough time to spare to get cleaned up, something that Myles found himself especially grateful for. The opportunity to wash off was something that Myles hadn’t been afforded while he was away. The result was a rather vulgar scent wafting out from him that Myles had to expend some effort to be rid of.

Only a few minutes after the group had finished their preparations, a knock came from the door. Seth walked over to it, peering through the peephole before he opened it. Just a month ago, Myles knew that Seth would have opened the door without checking. Caution had begun to permeate the group. Each of them was feeling the effect of the missions they had been sent on.

To everyone’s surprise, it was Reah at the door. Myles was relieved to see that she looked well. It seemed that a bit of sleep and proper medical attention had done her wonders.

“Are you all ready to head down?”

It was the first time that Reah had ever walked with them to their morning session with Primrose, but Myles found that it felt natural. Reah may have been leagues ahead of them all in both ability and experience, but they still had a lot in common.

Primrose was already waiting for them when the group of seven walked into the room. It was a somber group that padded into her class. Not one of them had forgotten about her harsh criticism of their performance in last month’s exams.

“Just like last month, I think it will be prudent to discuss the things you did right as well as the mistakes you made throughout your mission.” Primrose cracked her neck idly. “Let’s start with squad 14, shall we?”

Myles grimaced. Even knowing they had done well; it was hard to not feel a little nervous.

“For the most part you did well. You learned from last month’s mission. The preparations you made in both gathering intel about the political situation of your destination as well as crafting an aether construct to bolster your combat strength show that you put stock behind my criticisms.”

Myles nodded, sharing a proud look with Silas and Kate.

“The preparations you made helped you overcome a powerful foe on your way to your destination.” Primrose held up a finger. “You doubtless would not have survived the encounter without the preparations you made, or the fruits of your combat training earned through painstaking devotion in this class.”

Myles found himself nodding. The spear he had made with Jane had allowed them to ground the stormbird. Even then though, he couldn’t argue that the use of snake stepping in particular was essential to that victory. As it was with them avoiding the beast’s attacks, they had walked out of the fight with little more than a collection of painful bruises. If they had made just one more mistake, an imperfect snake step could have resulted in a major injury or worse.

“Kate’s foresight to gather knowledge on monster’s that commonly appear in aether storms in advance helped her to be more effective in the situation.” Primrose gave a faint click of her tongue. “However, that effectiveness could have been applied to the entire group if that knowledge had been shared prior to the attack.”

Kate hung her head, probably realizing that Primrose was right. Myles gave her a sympathetic smile. Kate may have been the one who had been called out for making the mistake, but he and Silas were equally guilty of not sharing knowledge. Now that he was thinking about it, if Myles had given Kate instructions on how to make the runes needed for the construct he had planned to use, they wouldn’t have been forced to create the water construct so quickly. The odds of it failing would have been lower and they could have been in position to knock the enaira off the wall as soon as it had started climbing.

Primrose continued, giving them a look of satisfaction that Myles had only ever seen on rare occasions. Usually when they had executed one of the steps she taught in a way that bordered on reaching her standards. “Due to extenuating circumstances, your specific actions while completing your main objective cannot be properly evaluated, but you did accomplish that goal. You also helped to prevent an adjacent incident, providing additional value.”

Myles gave himself a mental high-five. Primrose rarely gave out anything even remotely resembling praise. Her simple admission that they had completed their task and more besides felt good, better than it would have coming from almost anyone else.

“If you had to say, what is the biggest thing you earned over the course of the mission?”

Silas stepped forward bravely, fulfilling his role as the squad’s de facto voice. “Its important to consider what motivates your allies. If you don’t, you may find that they disagree with you at the most important of times.”

Primrose gave an amused grin. “I think that Mr. Habe would be proud of that sentiment. What about you Kate?”

Kate was caught momentarily off guard. Even after recovering, she didn’t rush into an answer, instead contemplating her response. “We lack two important tools. We were put into a serious disadvantage because we lacked offensive options, and we couldn’t avoid detection from more accomplished arcaners.”

Primrose nodded along. “I think that’s a fair analysis. We will be working to remedy both of those shortcomings this month. How about you Myles?”

Myles had started thinking about his answer as soon as Primrose had asked the initial question, so, he had a response ready. “We have to commit whole-heartedly to everything we do. If we don’t, even something we deem to be less important may cause our deaths or the deaths of others.”

Myles felt Primrose give him an inquisitive look before silently nodding to herself. “In your current situation, I think that may have been the best thing you could have learned.”

From there, the discussion turned to the other squad’s performance. This lasted a good deal longer with Primrose going into depth looking at each of their actions and mistakes. For the most part, Primrose’s comments were positive. The group had been sent to help find a more peaceful approach to ending a violent workers strike. In some ways, their situation had been similar to the one Myles, Silas, and Kate had dealt with.

They had also made good use of the aether construct against a variety of monsters they had run into. Most interestingly, Myles learned where the large bruise he had noticed on Jane’s face came from. Apparently, she had been trying to assist one of the workers, dropping her commuted armor to blend in. When she had offered help, she had been attacked.

In the end, the affair had been resolved through force. There had been deaths, but the groups involvement had allowed for those to be dramatically reduced. The workers had been a loyal group, wholly unwilling to discuss anything with soldiers. Jane, Seth, and especially Mercy used their youth and lack of blue bands to their advantage, more easily loosening tongues. Unable to get the workers to back down, they had given the soldiers sent to quell the riots crucial information.

With the information in hand, the soldier’s had brought the situation under control with minimal casualties.

Myles could tell though that those casualties weighed heavy on the minds of his friends. The bitter tone that crept into Jane’s voice was especially concerning. Jane had always been kind. It must have been a hard decision to give up on showing that kindness.

For her part, Primrose asserted they had taken the right course. “You will often find that people will stubbornly hold firm to their beliefs. Often, it is impossible to do that which feels like the right thing. It is a harsh lesson to learn that you may need to weigh what is right with what needs to be done.”