Phoenix shook awake for the second time since entering the Earth—maybe longer? And yes, it was the Earth . . . and they had met some kind of . . . Watcher.
She recognized Solis and gave a hesitant, twitchy smile. “Sorry. Let me guess—acting strange again?”
Before he could respond, a heavy hand clasped her shoulder and turned her about. “Control yourself around the other Watchers, lest you incur harsher consequences next time. The fires of emotion conflict with something deeper. Your friend seems to hold the key, but what if he is not around? It could go very poorly for you.”
“Will we not always be together?” Solis asked, worry in his tone. “In a group?”
The deer man eyed him sidelong. “In theory. I am barred from saying too much about the workings of the Earth and its Strata. Each will be different. Some having one Watcher, others having many and Taiyoths on top of that. But there are others who may emerge from their shadowy vantages.” He let a small silence fill in the explanation. “What you just imbibed are minerals spoken very often of in the Earth—one of the big attractors, you could say. There is much mining that happens in most Strata, as those Above are exceedingly covetous of these materials. Some Strata even began as mines, or so the stories go. I speak of minerals like Adium, Benicitrate, Corpium, Mannium, Stropylite. You will learn more about them as you go, and those which you have tasted and bonded to now will affect your mineral reaction system in the future—what you react well and poorly to, and which of course you can use.”
Solis caught very little of that, aside from that these “minerals” would play a large role in the rest of their climb—and the fact that one’s specific affinity to certain minerals was not necessarily innate. The whole process seemed . . . forced . . . so far. “So we each took to a different one, I assume?”
“Oh, yes. I’ll leave you to experiment with them along the way, although . . . I will do you one favor.” The deer man turned to the pillar on which Telsan had but moments before been sitting, and scraped off more flakes of the stone. He used his fingernails somehow, then produced a small pouch to store the shavings. He handed it to the birdman with an admonition to keep it on his person at all times. He then repeated this process for Phoenix and Solis using their respective pillars. Phoenix had very little in the way of pockets on her apparel, but she located an empty one and stashed away the greyish-bluish substance. It felt very much like a transaction of an illegal substance, only there was no apparent profit or gain in it for the Watcher.
“And what is your name?” Solis asked, candid as ever.
“Ituman Rex Divis.”
Phoenix gave no reaction, but the thought struck her that his name was pointless if they would not—in all likelihood—remember it. “And . . . we get to progress now?” she asked hesitantly.
A disconcerting chuckle escaped Ituman’s throat. “Yes, indeed. I’m afraid you do. But it is not as simple as you might be imagining, dear adventurers. You may consider this your introduction if you wish.”
“That’s . . . all there is?” Telsan asked, rolling one shoulder and wing. “You’re not going to teach us any more, or at least kick Solis again?”
“Solis . . .” The Watcher turned his unnerving cervid gaze on the Lightwing boy. “Yes, that is his name. I recall hearing it now. No, there will be no more kicking if you all behave and go your way. I tire easily of visitors. Once per year is bad enough. But you may ask questions freely.”
“Freely.” Solis glared suspiciously up at the tall Watcher, receiving only a small shrug in return. “So . . . What are these minerals you speak of?” He shook his own bag of greyish powder like an accusation.
“Minerals are inorganic solid substances that form all throughout the Earth, usually quite hard, with unique crystalline structure.”
“Okay . . . and?” Solis waved a prompting hand. Phoenix could practically see hear the bell in the back of his mind warning that he was pushing it. A bell which he certainly ignored.
There was a nearly indiscernible flash in the Watcher’s eyes, but he did not respond to Solis’ tone. “There are minerals, and there are Minerals. Yours, my dear boy, is called Cannesite.” Turning to Phoenix and Telsan in turn, he said, “Adium, Benicitrate. Adium is one you’ll hear of a lot later on. It’s like a . . . well, it amplifies Kinship abilities. Cannesite is a primary strengthening mineral. Benicitrate can have a few properties—it’s quite versatile, in fact. The first thing you’ll notice is sensory enhancement.”
Adium . . . Phoenix mused. So it enhances my Flameborn abilities.
Telsan gulped, though he could have just been clearing his throat. “How long will that take?”
“A few weeks for starters. A few months to learn it.”
Telsan nodded in appreciation. “We’ll use these well, then. Thank you, Watcher.”
No response other than a slight dip of Ituman’s head. Solis tried asking a few more questions, but he only grew more and more impatient, until Phoenix and Telsan excused their group and dragged Solis off.
“I should warn you to be cautious, explorers,” Ituman called after them. “Not all life here is fungus and flora.”
And geology . . . what about that? Phoenix wondered, finding the comment curious. Perhaps that didn’t count because it wasn’t life. And yet, the way Ituman was talking, it almost sounded like in some cases it was. Or . . . hostile humans and monsters.
They lost themselves in the truncated stone forest, and as soon as Solis thought to turn and look back . . . Ituman was gone. That, or they’d turned beyond the sight line. The Lightwing boy started to speak up, but just then Phoenix pointed forward, indicating a fork in the way. The cavern wall split, veering in two directions. The transition seemed both smooth and sharp at the same time, and Phoenix somehow couldn’t make out whether it was a T-like wall or a forked angle. A vague, ambient noise helped to distort the feeling of self and space, though there seemed no particular source for the white noise.
Phoenix said nothing as she led the way toward the far wall, stopping some five feet from it. The face was close to sheer, rough but not jagged, grey and overgrown with moss. It was not all that different from the floor of the field out back of the touched Watcher’s apparent home. And good riddance . . . She still had gooseflesh on her arms from the encounter.
“So . . . why did he suddenly break his own wall?” Solis asked.
His friends looked at him with those slightly widened eyes of exasperation, as if to say, Really, Solis? Now?
He shrugged. “Just seems strange if he lives there.”
“Then maybe he doesn’t?” Phoenix shrugged back, then looked both ways at the intersection. It was much closer to a perfect T than she’d realized. The faint noise came equally from either side, plus a small scratching from the left now that she listened close. Bats? Squirrels?
“Hey, you doing okay, Phoenix?” Solis asked. She jerked her head in annoyance, pointing narrowed eyes his way. So maybe she was a little jumpy. But then, maybe also . . . the shock of Watcher Ituman’s treatment of them? She couldn’t say what it was.
Mumbling a noncommittal answer, she reached up and kneaded her neck with one hand. Louder, she said, “I’m doing fine. Just . . .”
“Here.” Solis moved to her side and shifted her shoulders such that he could knead them for her, rubbing and pressing the muscles between her shoulder blades as his sister Floris used to do. Occasionally, Phoenix had gotten the same massages. She tensed instantly, then slowly relaxed, fighting his fingers only instinctively.
“Okay, that does . . . feel good.”
A minute later, she shrugged him off, and he stepped back with a questioning gesture. She tilted her head from side to side and rolled her shoulders. “Guess so. Yeah. You must’ve learned that from your little sis, huh?”
He shrugged.
“We’re going to be all right, Sol. We’ll see them all again. Floris and your parents and—” She cut off, letting the sentence hang there for a moment before trusty Telsan took it up.
“They’re all waiting for us, guys. But first, we’ve got a trip. Up, then down. Just gotta get to the top.”Yeah, that simple. Phoenix glanced at Solis to see the same thought reflected back. The Watcher seemed to disagree.
Characters
- Solis Lightwing (SOLE-iss)—The main character, a white-winged boy of unceasing curiosity who longs to see inside the forbidden Earth.
- Telsan (TELL-suhn)—Solis’ best friend, a young man of the Bird Tribe.
- Phoenix—Longtime friend of Solis and Telsan, a Flameborn girl of sixteen years.
- The Harbinger—An unnamed entity of a race of protectors serving the Lords Above. A particular Harbinger took an interest in Solis and calls himself a “benefactor”.
Terms
- Megeth (Meh-GETH)—Hometown of Solis and his fellow Tapiq people.
- Tapiq (tuh-PEEK)—The tribe of winged men who dwell in Ameros and the surrounding islands. As with most tribes, they have adopted some from other tribes and races as their own, while others are visitors.
- Ornis—Also called the Bird Tribe, though this isn’t entirely accurate, as there are multiple; most simply live farther north.
- Earth—The gigantic continent that looms above the sky. Forbidden to all save those whom the Magnates choose each year.
- Magnate—One of the three living souls of the Tapiq tribe who have ascended to the Earth and returned, bearing supposedly infinite knowledge that they choose to keep hidden.
- Watcher—One with the inborn ability to control the invisible wards that protect Megeth and other sky villages.
- Kinship—The intangible, inexplicable bond between certain children and an element or other force of nature that follows them all through life. Kinships can be neither changed nor banished, but they can be quite useful.