20

  Dreams ended, and Caru opened his eyes to a plain wooden room. Curtains shifted in the light breeze that wafted in from outside, and tall windows devoid of glass let pale purple light spill in. He couldn’t tell that time had passed other than a sense of waking up refreshed. The world outside was exactly as bright as it had been when he went to sleep. He rolled to one side, twisted and put his feet on the floor. After some time spent chatting with Kimke and sharing more sketches with Drend, the erman leader had brought them to their quarters.

  Caru hadn’t seen Mieta again before going to sleep, and he wondered after her. He trusted that she would be safe in this place, but there was such a change in her attitude when they had guessed over the risks Drend implied. She’d said she wanted to protect him and Kimke, that she no longer wanted to sit by and watch, but Caru didn’t know what to make of that. If anything, she had facilitated this whole endeavor, and they likely would have been recaptured in Garenesh without her assistance. Was she really supportive of Caru and Kimke’s decision to try and regain their wings, or would she feel abandoned once they had the ability to leave her behind?.

  Accepting a reality as an impostor human had seemed so easy only days earlier, but if there was even a chance to regain his wings, it was a goal worth pursuing. Death would be no deterrent; Drend had shown him there may be a chance, and Caru was willing to take that risk. He refused to live as something less than himself, especially knowing he could have been the person he was meant to be if only he hadn’t been afraid.

  Caru stood, feeling muscles stretch as he crossed the room to dress. The clothes Drend had lent them were soft and flowing, more so than any fashion he had ever felt comfortable wearing. The shirt’s neck hung halfway down his chest, and the sleeves were wide enough for five arms. The shirt still bore a large slit in the back for wings, but anyone looking would only see his scars. He felt a fool in the outfit, but he tightened the broad belt around his waist to support his otherwise loose pants. He kept the shoes he stole from the drunkard, having grown used to them. They were good shoes.

  He pushed the open window’s curtain aside and looked out over the city. It had appeared to be a simple village at a distance, but this would easily be large enough for a few thousand people. It certainly wasn’t a metropolis on the scale of Detrina or Garenesh, but it may compare to Kalis, that eye-wrenching town where Martel had killed the first of their pursuers.

  Martel. He shook his head.

  This town behaved much as any other he’d seen. Ermen flew over the rooftops, walked the streets, carried tools, shopped, ate meals, laughed. Flapping wings sparked a jealousy within Caru, but that only stoked his determination. He would fly with the ermen once more. He would feel aether raging within again.

  Knuckles rapped on his door, and Caru spun around. “Come in,” he said. No one pushed the door open. Caru grinned as he crossed the room; only two people in this land would understand those words. He pulled the door open to see Drend on the other side. The wise man’s feathers ruffled for a moment before he nodded to Caru and gestured to be followed.

  Questions swirled through Caru’s mind, but he didn’t have a pen or paper. Where? would be a hard concept to draw, anyway.

  Drend led him down several flights of stairs and through the grand antechamber, pushing the large front doors open to the dais at the top of the building’s entryway steps. Soldiers were arranged in lines to either side, each bowing their head slightly as Drend acknowledged them. Their wings all remained steady.

  At a distance, between the rows of soldiers, stood two more ermen. Neither bore the soldiers’ armor, but both looked resolute, looking directly ahead to Drend. They both knelt. Caru wondered if he was supposed to do the same, but no one in Drend’s circle gestured for him to do so as he looked about.

  Drend spoke a few words to the people laid out before them, and they all saluted by first touching the tips of the first two fingers of their right hands to heart and then forehead. Caru fidgeted as he listened to Drend speak. Though he trusted Drend, it was still unnerving to watch someone he couldn’t understand giving a speech to a group of soldiers.

  Drend finished his speech, and the two ermen in the middle rose. He gestured to them, then spoke as he gestured to Caru, and raised his hands. The crowd erupted into a cheer, and the formations broke as they started to intermingle with each other. Caru allowed himself to exhale and turned to Drend, ready to try to communicate something, though he wasn’t sure what.

  A figure suddenly descended from above in a rush. Belara. She landed lightly as she decelerated, her wings flapping twice before folding behind her. The young woman ran fingers through her hair as she adjusted her clothes, then she smiled and trotted to Caru. A soldier tensed at her approach, but Drend made a cutting gesture that put him at ease. Caru laughed softly as Belara met him. She pressed her hands to either side of his face and started patting his cheeks, chattering quickly in her language as her shifting wings belied her composure. He touched one of her arms to try and calm her, but she still spoke as though they were lifelong friends, and he was expected to understand every word.

  Drend spoke again, and Belara nodded before taking a step away and bowing to him.

  “Getting friendly with the natives?” Kimke asked.

  Caru turned to see her being led through the central building’s doors by another woman. He beamed at a voice he finally understood. Kimke was clothed in a feminine variation of his own clothing, her neckline descending to almost scandalous depths, and sleeves with loose cuffs whose backs nearly trailed at her knees.

  “If not for Drend, I think she might have tackled me.”

  Kimke laughed this time, but was nearly tackled herself as Belara was upon her before anyone could react. She spoke even more excitedly, wings now flapping openly as though she were going to take flight on the spot. She held her hands against Kimke’s cheeks, patting softly as she nodded and talked, paying to mind to Kimke’s expression.

  A woman climbed the stairs from the avenue below, smiling politely to the gathered retinue on the dais. She was tall and statuesque, her hair as dark as Mieta’s, flowing waist length between black wings. She was stoic and walked with the confidence of someone used to being seen. A few soft wrinkles marked the edges of her smile, and dusted the corners of her steel blue eyes. Soldiers in the group knelt and pressed their hands to their hearts as she crested the stairs. Belara flushed, quieted herself and turned away from Kimke. She bowed and opened her mouth to speak, but then she closed it with a clack of her teeth.

  The tall woman walked directly to Drend, pressed her hands lightly against his cheeks and peered into his eyes. With a certain longing, Caru realized. The couple’s wings flexed with a slight rigidity. They spoke quietly for a moment before Drend erupted into laughter. He scanned the group for a moment before his eyes landed on Caru and Kimke. “Larasine,” he said, gesturing to his companion. The kneeling soldiers stood again.

  Caru and Kimke gave their names in response, with Larasine nodding politely to each one.

  Drend’s warmth faded as he backed away from Larasine, turning his eyes to each of the nearest soldiers over several moments. He spoke again, voice booming to match his role. The soldiers snapped to attention, wings perfectly still and with their hands at their sides. Drend’s speech ended with a questioning tone, but then he added another declaration and pointed to the pillar of light several miles away. The soldiers tapped fingers to hearts and foreheads again before relaxing. Drend’s softness returned as he looked back to Caru and Kimke. Caru swallowed, not realizing he’d been holding his breath.

  The crowd then dispersed, returning to other tasks. Ermen again flew from everywhere, mostly those who had been perched along rooftops as Drend delivered his address. Through the throngs of people, the two who had stood alone before made their way up the stairs to stand with Drend and the others for a moment. Drend spoke quickly with them before pointing to the column of light and smiling. Those two smiled as well, their optimism evident.

  For the first time since his escape from Garenesh, he realized he was no longer fleeing from, but running toward. This time, he was in charge of his destiny instead of being forced into it.

  He smiled at the light in the distance and felt a returning sense of control.

  —

  Mieta heard the sounds of the crowd in the distance. She had woken early to see people making preparations for some event, but they had mostly left her alone. A few stopped to marvel at her, but none interfered or tried to speak with her.

  She had walked the perimeter of the central building as she reflected on the things she’d said yesterday. Of course she didn’t like that there was such a risk in going through with Drend’s plan, but she suspected Caru and Kimke understood the risks and were resolute in facing them. And, yes, she was worried in a selfish sense about what would happen to the relationship between the three of them if Caru and Kimke got their wings back, though her friendship with Kimke already seemed shattered.

  She was worried because she’d grown to think of them as friends since their escape from the capital. She remembered the words she’d said to Caru on that rooftop days ago now, “Let me do one brave thing,” and she wondered how she’d live up to that. Mieta wanted to aid them as best as she could, partially as a penance for not having done something to rescue Caru from his surgery, and partially because she wanted her life to have some sort of meaning. Martel’s sacrifice had awakened something in her. Maybe it was happenstance that she’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time when Caru had been taken, but maybe it had been fate, something to force her out of a dull, meaningless life path.

  It wasn’t only Martel’s death, but also the killing before that. Although she hadn’t seen as much as others in this world by far, seeing Martel kill the man outside of Kalis had been a shock. That was when it had become real to her on a personal level, to know that people were fighting for survival, and she’d felt guilty at that sense of wonder and adventure she’d first felt looking out the train windows as they’d fled from Garenesh. How naive she had been! It seemed like months had passed rather than days.

  At the back of the building was a small training ground for soldiers, now empty as they were at whatever event was taking place at the front. She’d heard Drend’s voice and the roar of the crowd several times, but still no one had returned to this area at the rear. They seemed fine with leaving Mieta to her own devices.

  She stood between two blocks that had arrows sticking out at various angles. When she looked across the way, she saw a mix of longbows and shortbows behind a line drawn in the dirt some hundred feet away. Not a spectacular length, but they likely also had larger archery training grounds outside the city.

  The yard was split at around the two-thirds mark by a long rope held up by several iron supports with rings at the top. Along that side, several worn dirt areas were separated by strips of grass, and those areas were marked with long streaks and skidding footprints. Weapon racks each held iron and steel weapons, and barrels stood along the way with wooden facsimiles. Mieta crossed beneath the rope and then neared the weaponry on the far side.

  Swords, maces, daggers, and axes were mostly familiar weaponry. There was an odd scoop thing she didn’t recognize, but beyond that was a row of spears.

  Could she have helped Martel in some way if she had known how to fight? She reached forward and took one of the spears into her hand, feeling the smooth grain of the wood before pulling it away. It was lighter than she’d expected. She spun it slowly, trying to imagine how to properly wield it. In the few instances she’d seen, Martel had seemed to do it easily, but she knew there was more to it. Stance, footing, knowing when to strike with the head or when to deflect. Mieta stood straight, held the spear at around hip height, and then made a tentative jab with it. The spear she held was light, but it was still enough that she knew she could throw her balance off if she stepped wrong.

  A few erman soldiers returned to the yard, and Mieta fought a moment of embarrassment that tempted her to put the spear away and leave without saying anything. But no, she’d said she would work to protect instead of standing idly by watching, and she meant to follow through. Instead, she reset her stance and jabbed again.

  One soldier left the yard and returned a moment later with a tall, raven-haired woman. They landed lightly at Mieta’s side before the soldier nodded and left to join his compatriots. The woman instead said, “Mieta?” Mieta nodded, and the woman touched her own chest and said, “Larasine.”

  Mieta nodded and brought the spear away as she stood straight. Larasine instead shook her head and stood behind Mieta, then reached around and adjusted her grip on the spear. It did feel like an improvement. Larasine picked up a spear of her own, and then she fell into a stance. Mieta tried to copy it, but Larasine frowned and adjusted the angles of Mieta’s knees and elbows. When she was satisfied, she returned to her own spear and showed Mieta some basic steps. No attacks, Mieta noted, only a few exercises to focus on stance and balance.

  Long minutes passed before Caru and Kimke arrived, and Caru looked relieved. “We were worried where you’d escaped to,” he said.

  Mieta tried to speak without breaking her motions, but it was difficult. Still, she tried. “I said I wasn’t going to stand by and watch anymore.” Step forward, upper sweep, rear step, reset stance. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a chance to get wings, but I mean to do something.”

  Larasine spoke, and Mieta froze. The older woman stepped forward, adjusted one of Mieta’s knees, and then backed away. She motioned for Mieta to continue. Step forward, upper sweep, rear step, reset stance.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Kimke said.

  Mieta closed her eyes as she followed through another sweep. “Yes, I do,” she said.

  “I’m sorry I lashed out at you like that,” Kimke continued. “I was shocked. I… I still am. It still hurts, and I know I’m not in a good state of mind, but I’m sorry for the things I said.”

  “It is my fault,” Mieta said. “If I could have protected you, if I could have protected him, if I could have done anything other than watch and cower in fear, then he’d still be alive, and he’d be protecting us, and we’d be on our way to Dresk.” Her stance faltered, and Larasine stepped forward. “But I didn’t. I watched and now he’s gone, and we’re here, and I—“

  She cut off as Larasine rammed the butt of her spear into Mieta’s stomach. Mieta dropped her spear with a clatter and staggered away in shock as she doubled over. The end of the spear snapped up and hit her on the chin, sending her reeling as sparkles filled her dimming vision. She dropped to one knee.

  Caru rushed to her side, shouting something angry at Larasine, but Larasine ignored him. She knelt before Mieta, pressed a hand to Mieta’s face, and then her wings spread wide. Mieta gasped as a lance of aether filled her body, but then her vision cleared, and the pain faded.

  Mieta stood and picked up her spear, again falling into that simple routine. Step forward, upper sweep, rear step, reset stance. “I have to do this,” she said. “I’m not going to just watch anymore.”

  Caru and Kimke seemed at a loss for words. Mieta ignored them and tried to focus.. Still, they stayed and watched Mieta and Larasine practice until Drend came for them, and then the three left together.

  —

  Time passed.

  Hidden away from the sky, it was impossible to say how much time, but Caru’s anticipation stretched to the point of anxiety. He wanted to dive into the column of light now, but he suspected that he would need to wait for Drend to lead them to it, and perhaps there was more to it than just leaping in. He assumed there was a timing issue, although there was no night and day here, no twilight, no dawn. How did they even measure time? The language barrier was a severe detriment.

  Being in Drend’s village was pleasant, but it also gave him time to dwell on Martel. He saw the way Kimke sometimes dabbed at her eyes, but she held her composure when around other people. He still felt that deep ache as well, a lingering pain that he didn’t want to led fade from his heart. The Sentinel had been a natural leader and had possessed a vast knowledge of the world and how to survive in it. He’d worked with a calm patience, but he’d known how to take action when the time came. Caru felt weak and indecisive in comparison.

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  Though he had newfound determination, he still felt like his moves were being orchestrated, that he was constantly being shoved down the only path available. Even now, Drend held Caru’s reins, might possibly be leading him to his death. The alien environment pressed a silence upon Caru, and the general lack of conversation left him little to do but mourn. Each time Kimke wiped her eyes, Caru felt the quiet rush of sorrow within himself. Even so, his sadness was becoming drowned by impatience. Whatever was to come, he wanted it to be soon.

  He slept several more times over the unmeasurable expanse of time, and he wondered how many days had passed. Caru spent the bulk of his time with Kimke and Drend, while Mieta seemed only to leave the spear in the training yard in order to eat or sleep. Whenever Caru tried to speak to her, she would answer in monosyllables and claim exhaustion. Her newfound determination was concerning, but he had no idea what to do about it.

  Shortly after watching Mieta in the training yard the first time, Drend had given Caru a stone the size of his hand. Limestone. With a proper kiln, it could be made into a ceramic, but Caru had rarely used that in his sculptures. With some of his tools from his home, he knew he could reshape it into a simple form, but it was difficult to show that to Drend. Exchanging notes in Drend’s chamber during their first meeting, Caru had drawn a chisel over a questionable rendition of a stone, and then a hammer above it. He had then acted out holding something above the stone and then swinging an invisible hammer onto it. Drend had apparently realized what he’d meant; now Caru had a hammer and a serviceable chisel. Not ideal, but he could make it work.

  He could tell there was an area prone to fracture even without aether. It was limestone, so it was brittle in general, but Caru came up with an idea that would keep most of the work away from the fracture seam. After an hour or so of aiming for what he thought he was capable of, Caru held the small sculpture up, now in the form of a seashell. He wasn’t sure if he had all the details right, since he spent most of his time in Edaria and Serana, but he’d seen enough diagrams of them to get the idea.

  It looked and felt clumsy when he was done, but Drend smiled greatly when Caru returned the stone. Drend held the stone high as he examined it, marveling at the radial grooves. Larasine arrived some time later, and Drend immediately shoved the small piece into her hands. The tall woman eyed the work approvingly, traced her fingers along the lines, and seemed to pay special attention to the way the shell folded along itself like a fan. After a moment, Larasine stood before Caru, bowed twice and softly batted her hands against his cheeks. Caru flushed, but he accepted her praise as graciously as he could manage.

  —

  Time passed.

  Caru found himself walking to the training yard several times each day to check on Mieta, but she was difficult to speak to in her current state. She apparently only wanted to learn how to fight, and she wanted to learn as quickly as possible. Each time he saw her, it seemed that Larasine had added more to her regimen, but still she pressed on, often until she was out of breath and soaked in sweat.

  Caru wanted to talk to her, but his attempts often broke her concentration, which led to Larasine knocking her down before healing her. It looked painful, but Mieta rebounded each time with increased focus. Once, he saw Mieta react in time to deflect Larasine’s attack. Larasine nodded approvingly before whipping the butt of her spear into Mieta’s jaw again.

  After what had to have been several days, based on how many times Caru had slept, more ermen suddenly arrived. The people of Drend’s village stopped what they were doing and went to watch the newcomers enter, the same as they’d done when Caru and the others had first come here. Drend sent some of his attendants to greet the new party, and he then met with them directly on the dais of his central building.

  They were a small group of ermen made up of a handful of soldiers, three people dressed in casual attire, and an old man who seemed to be held in the same respect as Drend. The old man stooped slightly as he approached Drend, the grayness of his age spreading through his hair and wings and over his weathered face. He was most likely another village elder, and this one more experienced than Drend. Caru wondered how many villages like this one were down here, beneath Edaria. The man spoke with a soft, rasping voice as Drend leaned in closely. Drend replied with a voice filled with the confidence and certainty of his relative youth. When Drend finished, the old man chuckled. He looked over Drend’s shoulder to study Caru before turning his attention to Kimke. Drend stepped to one side and motioned for the two of them to join him.

  After a brief exchange of names—the old man’s being Jorin—Drend’s people led the procession to a large meeting hall on the edge of the village that faced the Pillar—as Caru had capitalized it in his mind earlier in the week. The meeting hall had wooden walls and ceiling with a rough stone floor. Caru sat with Kimke as everyone evidently prepared for a banquet of sorts, candles roaring to life through aether flows and trays of food floating to tables before the attendant ermen.

  Mieta entered with Larasine some time later. They chatted quietly, but they held their distance. Belara arrived, moving through the room and talking with different groups of people for moments at a time. She approached and attempted to speak with Caru and Kimke several times, but never for long before flitting away to someone else.

  “How long do you think we’ve been down here?” Kimke asked after several minutes had passed.

  “A few days, certainly. Maybe four?” Caru shrugged. “It’s hard to say with no sky.”

  Kimke nodded. “That’s about as long as I thought. I was unconscious for part of it, but that sounds about right.”

  “Why do you ask?”

  With plates of food steaming on the tables, ermen walked from seat to seat, lighting the final candles in the room. The people beneath Edaria were a little primitive in certain aspects, but not by much. They apparently hadn’t developed steam engines yet—and probably would have little use for them anyway, as most transportation developments arose from the humans’ inability to fly—but Caru thought they would understand the concepts easily enough if shown. Candles may be a basic technology, but their similarity to modern candles in the outside world was uncanny.

  “Don’t you think it strange, this group arriving here now and this town apparently expecting them?”

  “It’s a bit odd, but perhaps Drend sent for them,” Caru admitted.

  Kimke nodded. “Time is strange down here, but I think they go through the same cycles we do.”

  Of course. “Void Moon?”

  “I think so. It interrupts our aether for one night, but I think the Pillar here wouldn’t die out completely. They may not have a day and night cycle, but I’d be willing to bet they still have calendars.”

  “Do you think it’ll be enough to restore us?”

  “I think the Pillar is much stronger than we’ve imagined. It keeps this world lit all the time and sits in what has to be the center point of the Eternal Tempest, probably causing it as well.” She tapped a finger against her lip, eyes focusing on distant thoughts. “In fact, with the way it’s hitting and supporting Edaria’s underside, I have to wonder if it's played some role in erman development throughout the years. Cirellias showers us with aether, but we never knew about this.”

  “With Edaria gone,” Caru said, “this column would probably drive straight to the moon.”

  Kimke nodded again. “And we’ve sat all these years directly between the two forces. Could it restore us? Of course we don’t have much to go on, but it certainly seems powerful enough to. We still don’t know if that’s what it does, though. All we have to go on is a pair of stick figures, but I don’t know of another way to find out. We’ll have more opportunities if we wait, but I’m ready to find out.”

  “You’re sure?”

  Kimke waited a long moment before speaking. “You know, I try to break away when I feel that falling sensation in my chest. I try to find some corner to hide in until it washes over me. And when it does, it’s like a tide going out. It’s like standing on a shore and letting the waves hit you. That part hurts, but then I know I’m alive. But when the tide goes back out, it drags the shore with it. Every time it goes back out, it takes more of him with it. How much more is there to take?” She paused. “I think about when I ran into the storm a few days ago. I… I know I shouldn’t have, if only because some part of me knew and other parts hoped that you and Mieta would come save me. I don’t know what drew us to this place, I don’t know what this place is, and I don’t know what that Pillar is. But. But if I’d ran into the storm and died, that would have been fine, too.”

  “I’m glad you made it,” Caru said. “I don’t know what this means either, but we would have been lost without you.”

  Kimke laughed. “Nice of you to say, but you two would have figured it out. So look, here’s what I’m saying. If I’d died in the storm, I would have been fine with that. But I don’t know how long I can go on losing him. It’s only been a few days, but I feel that part of him being dragged out of me. If I go down there and it ends up killing me… Fine. You know? It’s fine. If you want, you can stay behind and watch what happens when I go in. If I come back restored, I promise I’ll wait with you until next time. I’ll teach you everything I learned going in, and you can prepare.

  Caru hesitated. Another month, but he could be certain. Only a few weeks. He could learn what he could from Kimke and try to learn more of Drend’s language. In a few weeks, he would be prepared. “I’m tempted,” he said, “but I don’t think I could live with myself if I let you face this alone.” He laughed. “I also don’t know that I could stand watching you fly around for a month while I’m stuck on the ground. We don’t know what it is in there, but I want to go as much as you do. I don’t know if it’s worth the risk, but I know I don’t want you going in alone. We’re in this together. Always have been.”

  “Thank you,” Kimke whispered.

  Caru looked up to see Belara striding across the room to the two of them. Belara smiled and motioned for them to stand, her yellow wings twitching slightly. She led them to the banquet proper, and had them take seats near the end of the longest table. Jorin sat at the head with Drend and Larasine seated together at his right, and Mieta sitting next to Larasine. Kimke and Caru sat opposite them as other retainers and then villagers entered and took their seats. The food was wonderful; some meats and vegetables Caru knew, but others were as alien as he expected. He wanted to know what everything was, but he thought better of trying to discover the sources. Some mysteries were better left unknown in strange lands.

  Caru ate quietly as those around him shared conversations in their unusual language. As he finished his meal, he wondered how long before Rythellas rose in the east.

  —

  Several hours passed once the banquet ended, giving him time to rest and take a nap in the meeting hall. He had gotten used to the bed in his quarters at Drend’s tower, but the cot in the hall was as comfortable as his own bed after memories of sleeping on rooftops and basic makeshift camps.

  Caru met with Kimke shortly after waking, and they were led to a large group of villagers. The crowd of ermen watched as they approached. When the three of them came to the crowd, it parted before them, leading them to the center of the group, where five other ermen waited.

  After Drend’s speech days earlier, Caru expected more fanfare, but the mood now was more muted. It was still pleasant, but there was something… A pall, a cautious air.

  Caru’s group nodded to the five already waiting, and they nodded back before giving their salute. Two fingers, heart, head. Caru copied the gesture, followed by Kimke, and that raised everyone’s mood significantly. The other five smiled weakly, and then they, and the larger surrounding group, began to walk.

  The trek to the Pillar took about an hour. Caru wondered at first if they were walking instead of flying out of respect for the outsiders, but they didn’t seem inconvenienced or surprised. They looked as though they had walked this path many times before, and he suspected this quiet march was part of their tradition.

  He still didn’t know what this thing was. What he knew was that he had had his wings removed, then beaten for two weeks, slaughtered more men than he wanted to think about while ina Soulless rage, chased by the Seranian military, watched a man he could have called his best friend die, then passed through a Portal into a familiar world beneath his home that he never knew existed. He didn’t know what this thing was, but it was here, and he knew there was either an answer or death waiting within. By now, he would be satisfied knowing what it was all for.

  They neared the Pillar, and the crowd parted to let him and the others approach further. The Pillar itself had carved out a large pit in the earth, a crater so vast that Caru couldn’t get a clear view of its scale before it was lost in the haze of the Pillar’s corona. The edge of the Pillar itself appeared as a solid boundary at the base of the pit, surrounded by a broad, level ledge at the base of a slope several hundred feet down.

  The descent to the pit’s base was steep, but Caru thought he could make the journey with a little patience and determination.

  His hair rose and fell with the rift’s currents. High above, chunks of stone drifted through the air, sporadically colliding with each other, some pieces breaking away and some pieces fusing together to make more boulders. He imagined he could feel Rythellas, bright and glowing, carving a path across a night sky as millions of ermen across the planet were left powerless.

  The Pillar roared as Caru stood on a rocky lip leading down into the deep pit. The gushing light was probably more than a mile across and covered the breadth of his vision when he looked up into it. It was terrifying, but he needed to know.

  To his right were the two ermen also standing on the pit’s rim, those being the ones between the lines of soldiers during Drend’s speech. To the other side stood the three ermen who had arrived with Jorin. They all looked nervous, but none backed away. A dark part of Caru’s mind asked what they all knew that he and Kimke couldn’t.

  Behind, Jorin’s raspy voice now boomed over the fount’s roar. The wizened erman spoke with wings spread, aether amplifying his words. If the Void Moon really was in the sky, the amplification must be rapidly draining the old man’s energy. If not for the Pillar, Jorin would have been unable to draw aether at all. The words were meaningless in his own ears, but Caru saw the way the native ermen nodded their heads in accordance with the speech, and he trusted Jorin was as intelligent as he was inspiring.

  “We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?” Caru whispered.

  “There’s no other choice,” Kimke said.

  “I think Mieta is still hoping we find a different way.”

  Kimke sniffed. “If you want to wait for another way, go ahead. I’m trying the way before me now.”

  “You don’t think we should try to find out more about this process?”

  Kimke turned to him. “No, I don’t. We have this option, and I trust Drend.” She flexed her shoulders, as though testing invisible wings. “We’ve already lost one of us anyway.” Her lip trembled, but she regained her stoic composure. “If I’m lost, then what of it? He risked his life—gave his life—so we could have this chance, and I mean to take Martel up on his offer, one way or another.” She took a small step forward and kicked a pebble into this pit. It bounced down a precarious path, coming to rest against a boulder halfway down.

  Caru turned as Jorin’s words grew louder. The old man raised a fist, and the ermen on all sides raised theirs in response, cheering. They looked to Caru and Kimke, and most of them were smiling. Jorin’s wings closed at his back once again, and then the sage wilted before dropping to one knee to collect his strength after the exertion. An aide knelt at his side, wrapping an arm around his back and helping him to his feet.

  The aether flow may have been very well cut off, even with the Pillar right before them.

  Mieta stepped forward and joined Caru and Kimke, where she looked over the lip into the chasm before closing her eyes and taking a step back. She looked at Caru and frowned, but she said nothing.

  “It’ll be fine,” Caru whispered. He raised a hand to place it on her shoulder, but she shook her head and backed away.

  “I’ll see to it,” Mieta said. “I’m going, too.”

  “Why would you go in there?” Caru asked.

  “I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out. This isn’t about restoring wings, or they wouldn’t be here,” she said and gestured to the other ermen preparing for their descent. “Whatever is down there is something I need.” Her expression had grown harder these past few days. Every time Larasine had cracked her with the spear, it only seemed to have made her more determined.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he said.

  “I don’t care,” Mieta said, eyes flashing. “Whatever we find in there, I’ll try to protect you, if I can. Whatever happens, I’m not going to stand by and watch again.”

  “Caru,” Kimke said. “It’s fine. We’ll… We’ll be fine.”

  Caru sighed and turned to Kimke, then looked at the group nearby. “Looks like they’re ready for us,” he said.

  Kimke nodded. “We’d better not disappoint.”

  Drend walked up behind them and rested a hand on each of their shoulders. He said something quietly in his own language. Despite not understanding the words, hearing peaceful intonations from the man had a certain calming effect. If Drend would offer blessings now, Caru could find it in himself not to panic. Drend gestured to the column before backing away.

  Deep breath.

  With Kimke and Mieta, Caru took the first step down the slope of the pit, looking up to see that the other pairs of ermen were doing the same. Rocks tumbled away beneath his feet, rolling down into the crater as though attracted to the energy of the center. One foot in front of the other. Deep breaths. The Pillar loomed before him, filling his vision as he neared. Was this thing responsible for erman evolution? Reverence washed over him. There was so much power, and he was at its heart.

  Kimke moved forward on her own, eyes wide and mouth open. He felt himself speaking, but he couldn’t hear over the aether’s roar, wasn’t even aware of what he was saying. He stood at the base, the pit evening into a level ledge surrounding the Pillar. Though it seemed formless at a distance, here it stood with a smooth, tangible surface. Rocks sailed high overhead, colliding and fracturing, spiraling in all directions only to find new momentum again and continue their neverending journeys.

  The three stood together at the bottom, close enough to see that the Pillar boundary was defined, solid. To their sides, the other ermen paused for a moment and then simply stepped across the boundary and into the light.

  Caru held his breath for a moment, wondering if there really was some other way. But, no, he had come this far and was within feet of a possibility. He looked to Kimke and nodded, then turned to do the same with Mieta. Their resolve was set, and this was where they had arrived.

  As one, they stepped forward and passed through the Pillar boundary.

  His world shattered.