Chapter 54 - Midar.
Solum's square hadn't yet shaken off the dust and wreckage left by Lucia and Aren's fight. Amid the soldiers of the Twelfth Detachment and their flyers gathered around the ruined barracks,Dex and the admiral stood watching the others haul cracked stone and charred beams out from under the rubble.
Dex rubbed the back of his neck, brows drawn together, watching it all with a nervous grin.
"Yeah... that woman has absolutely no restraint..." he thought, resting his hands at his belt.
"These poor bastards are going to have to squeeze in with everyone else in the other barracks now... Tch... what a woman..." he muttered, lowering his head.
The sound of sharp gasps and a stir rising around him made Dex snap his head up toward the sky, where he saw a colossal white whale gliding past overhead before vanishing behind the clouds, and he froze in place, eyebrows lifted, mouth falling open.
"The fuck was that... Was that the Archon of Light?" he thought.
Suddenly, a body dropped out of the sky and slammed into the stone pavement beside Dex, throwing up a thick cloud of dust that swallowed him whole, while Dex himself remained standing straight, hands on his belt, without moving a single muscle.
The body turned out to be Lucia, who had just returned from the desert, where she'd left Aren behind.
Straightening up, she looked toward where the garrison soldiers were clearing the damaged barracks, while the dust cloud settling in front of her revealed Dex standing motionless, coated head to toe in dust and grime, his brows level, his stare blank, his lips pressed shut.
"Couldn't you have... landed a little farther off?..." Dex said, blowing dust out of his nose, staring straight ahead at the barracks while Lucia stood beside him, after which the Archon of War turned without a word and walked off toward the main building, fists clenched.
"Where's the guy?" Dex asked, turning his head toward Lucia's retreating back.
"Outside. When he gets back, send him to the healers, then to me," she answered with a low growl, passing Irvis, who watched her go without a word as a bead of sweat ran down his temple.
In the west, the sky hung heavy with deep crimson, and the low sun washed Solum's sandstone walls in a dull copper light, stretching long shadows across the fortress yard.
At the open gates, in that fading light, stood the garrison's soldiers, Irvis among them, arms crossed, his back against the wall.
Raising his head, he saw Aren limping toward them from dozens of meters away, barely able to stay on his feet. Irvis dropped his arms, then spoke to the two soldiers beside him without turning around.
"You two, go help him."
The soldiers exchanged a glance, hesitating, until Irvis turned his head toward them, looking at them both and pausing for a moment.
"Move!" he barked, eyes widening, head jerking.
The soldiers bolted at once and ran to Aren, who looked mildly surprised as the Heliosians reached him and immediately took his weight on their shoulders, helping him move forward.
Irvis sighed, watching them approach until all three stopped a couple of steps in front of him. Aren looked at the lieutenant, breathing slow but deep, while Irvis stood straight and still, watching the wounded foreigner.
"Take him to the infirmary," the lieutenant ordered, and the soldiers nodded and led Aren onward.
Aren held his gaze on Irvis a moment longer, while the lieutenant didn't turn back, looking straight ahead at the desert sinking into dusk.
Aren sat on a white cot in the infirmary, taking in the bright room, the yellow crystals, and the strange tubes through which yellow energy flowed smoothly.
He turned his head toward the metal stand, where sat the empty glass vial that had held the healing potion the local healer gave him earlier.
He glanced at his hands and stomach, seeing that the scrapes and cuts had fully healed, though it hadn't done anything for his exhaustion, then let his head fall back onto the soft pillow and stared at the white ceiling, sighing heavily and feeling a faint hum in his legs.
"What a day... amazing I'm even still alive... and I left my sword in that cave, too... damn it," he thought.
He remembered the Archon of Light's face, how, after touching him, his expression had turned serious moments later, though he never explained what he'd seen.
Aren closed his eyes and sighed again, and then the door to the room suddenly opened, making him flinch slightly as one of the soldiers walked in, carrying a stack of clothes.
"Get changed and come out. The Archon's waiting for you," the man said coldly, setting the stack of white clothes on the chair and closing the door behind him.
Aren stared at the closed door for a few moments, then slowly shifted to the edge of the cot, lowering his feet to the floor and standing up carefully.
He walked to the chair, picked up the top piece, and unfolded it, finding a white shirt with a high collar decorated in gold patterns and long sleeves whose cuffs carried the same design.
A couple of minutes later, Aren stepped into the corridor, where the same soldier was waiting, his eyes sliding over the uniform Aren now wore, standard issue for Helios cadets, while the black hair, beige skin, black eyes, and runic tattoos stood completely at odds with the familiar look of a soldier of the light.
The soldier's brows drew together slightly as his gaze swept from Aren's boots up to his face, after which he drew in a deep breath, let it out, turned away from Aren, and started walking, Aren following behind him.
Reaching a tall, heavy set of doors decorated with gold designs, the soldier slowly opened them, stepping aside to let Aren through.
The Archon of War's study greeted him with the dim golden light of countless photocyte crystals set into the high stone walls beside battle standards dulled by time and crossed blades. Along the walls rose the armor of former Archons of War, frozen in a deep hush.
At the far end of the study, right by the window, stood a massive desk of dark wood, where Lucia sat, moving a magical pen across a silver sheet and leaving behind thin glowing lines of letters.
She raised her eyes without lifting her face, then lowered them again, continuing to write, while the door closed behind him.
Aren stood by the door while the silence in the study stretched on.
"Are you going to stand there much longer, or will you eventually figure out you should come closer?" Lucia said, still writing.
Aren pressed his lips together slightly and took a few steps forward, closing the distance to the Archon.
"In the morning, you'll leave for Midar, where the Archon of Light will meet you. Until then, you'll sit in the infirmary and not show your face outside it. Do you understand me?" she said, her amber-yellow eyes lifting to Aren, glowing with menace.
Aren nodded silently, and Lucia held his gaze a moment longer before straightening and leaning back in her chair, setting the magic pen aside.
She tilted her head slightly to one side, running her eyes over him from head to toe, then fixed her gaze on his eyes.
"I imagine even an idiot like you can tell I don't like you. You came here convinced your queen's word carries any weight here... broke our order... and now you're standing in front of me wearing our uniform... and I'm the one who has to clean up all this mess."
She scoffed, a loud smirk twisting her mouth, and turned her head aside.
"Unbelievable..." she added.
Aren lowered his face slightly, hands clenching at his belt.
"I want... to apologize... I didn't mean to cause you this trouble..." he answered.
Lucia kept looking away, tapping a finger on the armrest of her chair, then glanced at Aren, still holding her head tilted to one side.
"You didn't mean to, but you did it anyway. I don't need your damn apologies," she said, rising from her chair and stepping right up to Aren.
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She stood a couple centimeters taller than him, close enough that her breath washed over his forehead.
"I don't care what noble purpose you came here for, or that the Queen of Waldruhm herself vouched for you. You killed a beast-god, which means you're strong enough to cause even bigger problems, and trust me, I won't allow that. If I so much as hear that you, pup, are plotting something against Helios or anyone who lives here... mark my words... I'll break every limb in your body and feed you to the vultures alive... Do... you... understand me?..."
Aren raised his eyes, meeting hers.
"Can I ask you something in return?"
Lucia's right eye twitched, and her right hand curled into a fist.
"Ask."
"Was it really just a test?... Or were you actually going to execute me?"
The Archon's eyes narrowed, then she let out a short breath, closing her eyes and stepping aside, turning toward the desk.
She braced both hands against the wooden desktop and gave a short laugh, dropping her head, then turning it toward her right shoulder.
"Do you really think you'd be standing here if I'd meant to kill you from the start?"
Aren's brows drew together, his face dropping slightly, though he kept his eyes on the Archon's back.
"Trust me, pup..." she began, straightening and slowly turning back to Aren.
"If you think you're strong enough, then know this... ending your foolish little life would take me less than a heartbeat," she finished, an overwhelming aura starting to pour off her, and Aren felt his skin prickle into gooseflesh, his breath growing heavier.
Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door.
"NOT NOW," Lucia said, raising her voice.
The door opened anyway, and a man Aren had never seen before stepped into the study.
"Not now, not now — with you it's always 'not now'! And this happens to be very important!" Dex said, walking further in, eyes on the silver sheets in his hands, before he looked up and spotted Aren.
"Oh... good, you're alive," he added, shifting the sheets into one hand and holding the other out to Aren for a handshake.
"I'm Dex. The local smarty guy. And you?..."
"Nobody. And he's just leaving," Lucia cut in sharply, glancing at Aren.
Aren's eyes moved between the two of them, then he shook Dex's hand; Dex simply smiled in return.
Stepping out of the study, Aren found the same soldier waiting by the door, who led him back to the infirmary.
Dawn washed Solum in thick copper-gold light, rising over the jagged edge of the eastern dunes and burning the night's blue out of the sky in short, ragged strokes of flame.
The sandstone of the fortress walls, cooled overnight, warmed again under the first rays, while the still-dim photocyte lanterns along the corridors faded out one by one, giving way to the light of day.
In the inner courtyard, the garrison was already stirring, soldiers clearing the last of the rubble from the barracks that Lucia and Aren's fight had brought down the day before, while the pens rang with the hoarse cries of griffins and the low rustle of sun hunters unfurling their wings.
Somewhere farther off, at the flatland paddock, a desert whirlwing scratched its claws impatiently at the scorching sand, waiting for its morning feed.
The wind, still cool with night, carried fine sand-dust across the square, settling on the polished armor at the gates, while the regimental standards, each emblazoned with a golden sun, stirred lazily above the walls, catching the first warm currents of the rising day.
Aren stepped out onto the square, led by one of the soldiers, while Lucia and the admiral waited ahead.
Stopping in front of them, Aren shifted his gaze between the Archon and the admiral until Olen, Artus, and Irvis approached from the side.
"You sent for us?" Irvis asked, giving Lucia a slight bow.
"Yes. I have a special task for you... or rather, a task for your cadets," she answered.
Olen and Artus exchanged a glance, while Irvis raised one eyebrow.
"You'll take Aren and go with him to Midar as his escort," Lucia continued.
Both cadets raised their eyebrows and stared wide-eyed, exchanging another glance and struggling for words.
"B-but Archon, we only just got he—" Artus began, before Irvis cut him off.
"Understood, Archon. It'll be done," he said, lowering his head.
Lucia stood at an angle, looking at Irvis, then turned and walked toward the main building.
"Good. Carry on," she said over her shoulder.
The admiral held his gaze on the lieutenant a moment, then looked at the cadets, and finally at Aren, letting his eyes linger on him longer than the rest, turning to follow Lucia as he did, and then he too headed for the main building.
A few seconds later, Aren glanced at the lieutenant, who lifted his head and looked back at him, while behind them Olen burst out.
"DAMN IT! Why us?!"
Irvis turned, looking at the cadets, who, catching his glare, snapped to attention at once and dropped their faces.
Then the lieutenant walked up to Aren, hands behind his back, looking him in the eye, and gave a brief smile.
"I never did thank you... for saving Anna back there... so... thank you," he said, then turned to the cadets.
"Hey, you two! How much longer am I supposed to wait for you to bring your flyers?!"
Olen and Artus spun around at once and strode quickly toward the pens, while Aren stood in silence, gripping his left wrist with his right hand.
Later, the training grounds of Midar University spread out in a broad ring of packed golden sand, framed by Gothic towers whose sharp spires pierced the cloudless sky.
Stained-glass windows set with photocyte crystals cast colored light onto the stone stands ringing the field, while a warm wind carried fine dust across the ground, settling on polished armor and the feathers of the companions.
Beyond the low fence running along the eastern edge of the grounds, the canyons began, and through the morning haze above them, the glow of the Radiant Forest barely showed.
The students stood in neat rows, shoulders squared and chins lifted, their eyes sliding past each other's heads, never settling on the grounds or on one another.
Many kept their hands resting at their belts or crossed carelessly over their chests, while their feet planted wide and firm, pressed into the sand with a confidence that admitted no doubt.
Behind the students, obedient and magnificent, their companions stood frozen in place.
A heavy, squat creature with bronze plates running down its spine and a pair of curved horns smoldering with a dull amber fire stood behind one of the young men. Beside it, a lithe serpent with blue-black scales that caught a metallic sheen coiled around its mistress's shoulders, lazily swaying the bony spike at the tip of its tail. A little farther off, perched on a rest, a large bird of prey with plumage the color of tarnished silver spread its fan-shaped tail from time to time, then folded its golden talons back in.
At the edge of the line, in the shadow of a folded wing, lay Gray's four-eyed lion, familiar to Eveline, encased in engraved golden armor.
Beside Ilau towered a squat boar as tall as a good-sized cart, its gray hide covered in bony growths. A ridge of dull-yellow spines ran along its back, and a pair of disproportionately small leathery wings jutted from its back.
In the middle of the formation, between the tall figures of her classmates, stood Eveline with little Rexy on her shoulder.
The fluffy little creature clung with its paws to the lapel of her jacket, its transparent wings raised, its big blue ears turning warily this way and that. Eveline herself kept her back straight, fighting the urge to slouch under the stares that kept lingering on her pale skin and on her companion's fragile little form.
The lesson was opened by a man with round glasses and hair pulled back tightly into a ponytail, who introduced himself as Magister Voren.
He raised a slender rod topped with a yellow photocyte crystal and spoke in an even, expressionless voice.
"Today we begin with the first block. Synchronization," Magister Voren said, sweeping his eyes over the rows of students.
"First exercise — visual contact without touch. Move your companions ten paces away and hold eye contact without breaking it for a single moment."
The students began stepping away from their companions one by one, and the grounds filled with the rustle of wings, the scrape of claws on sand, and the low murmur of near-silent commands.
Gray's lion stayed obediently in place, never once taking its four golden eyes off its master, while the serpent stretched out to its full length, swaying its head in time with its mistress's slow steps.
Eveline stepped back to the required distance and looked at Rexy.
He went still, fixing his wide blue eyes on her and pausing his blinking for a moment, thin threads of light running along the tips of his ears. None of the companions around her held their gaze that long, but none of the students noticed it.
"Second exercise. Synchronized flight around the perimeter of the grounds, no verbal commands," the magister announced, sweeping his rod toward the sky.
One by one, the companions launched into the air, guided by nothing but their bond with their masters: Gray's lion shoved off the ground heavily, throwing up sand with its powerful paws, the silvery bird banked sharply over the stands, and Ilau's boar hopped awkwardly in place, never managing to leave the ground, which left Ilau scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.
Rexy fluttered up off Eveline's shoulder, tracing a short arc of blue sparks through the air, and obediently followed the curve of the invisible line Eveline held in her mind, matching every turn she set exactly.
Magister Voren let his gaze rest briefly on the small creature circling the grounds far more confidently than many companions three times its size, but he said nothing, lowering his eyes back to his rod.
"Now we move on to..." the magister began, but the shadows of two tall flyers, Artus's and Olen's, swept swiftly over everyone.
Everyone looked up in surprise, breaking off from their exercises. Eveline shielded her eyes with her forearm against the sun striking her face and made out two Heliosians on the flyers, and behind one of the riders, a strange, unfamiliar figure flickered into view for a moment.
Meanwhile Aren, settled behind Artus, stared straight ahead with wide eyes, mouth slightly open, the wind whipping through his hair.
"Wow...," Aren said aloud, seeing the architecture of Midar, capital of the Helios Republic, spread before him for the first time.
Midar unfolded beneath them, a colossal sea of white stone and gold.
Countless spires, sharp and towering, reached for the sky, casting long morning shadows over the tiled roofs of the crowded districts below, while the domes of the towers, forged from darkened turquoise and rimmed in solid gold, caught the low sun and scattered shimmering glints across the rooftops.
Between the tallest spires stretched weightless bridges of white stone, linking the towers at a dizzying height, and in the distance, beyond the sea of rooftops, the city faded into haze, where the outlines of the farthest districts dissolved from view.
Straight ahead, where the spires parted to reveal an inner courtyard crowned with a garden, rose the Temple of the Sun, its central nave cut through by a stained-glass window a good fifty meters tall, blazing through the morning light with every color at once.
Artus's sun hunter banked wide around one of the spires, while Olen's whirlwing hung back slightly, matching his companion's speed. Aren gripped the front of the saddle with both hands, feeling the wind slam into his face and the ground below race past at a frightening speed, and with every beat of wings the Temple of the Sun grew closer and larger.
Meanwhile, Aurelius stepped out onto the main square in front of the temple, watching the descending flyers with a smile.
Landing before him, the flyers threw up a cloud of dust with their wings and folded them at once behind their backs, while Artus, Olen, and Aren dropped to the ground and stepped forward.
The cadets bowed at once, saying, "Good morning, Great Archon!" while Aren hesitated a moment before echoing the bow after them.
The Archon gave a short laugh, then stepped closer.
"Good morning, Artus, Olen, and... Aren, wasn't it?"
Aren straightened and nodded silently, while the nearby residents stared in surprise at the stranger personally greeted by the Archon of Light.
"Welcome to Midar. I hope Lucia took proper care of you?" Aurelius asked.
Aren's brows drew together as he twisted into an awkward smile, rubbing the back of his neck, while Aurelius raised his eyebrows and sighed, resting his hands at his belt.
"Right... I shouldn't have expected anything else..." he added.
Then Aurelius stepped aside and gestured toward the temple.
"Please, come inside. We have a great deal to discuss."
Aren smiled, then started forward, while Olen and Artus stayed standing at attention, exchanging a glance.
The Archon walked alongside Aren, then paused for a second, turning back to the cadets.
"Ah, right, you two can go wait in the main hall. I'll call for you shortly," he said.
Artus and Olen looked mildly surprised and bowed again.
"As you say, Great Archon!" they answered together.
The Archon nodded and walked on with Aren, looking him over as they went.
"I see our uniform suits you rather well."
Aren gave a slightly awkward laugh, while the people around them kept staring, wide-eyed.