Chapter Text

With the beginning of a new day comes the dawn. Pale pink tinged clouds showed themselves in the light grey of the sky. It was cold, but not yet winter in the ero, just a chill to accentuate the early hour. From the open bay window you could hear a plethora of semi-natural sounds; Birds calling others, the sound of water rushing and a mill wheel turning, and a steady sharp ticking of the old analog clock in the row center. Inside however would only bring you the occasional beep or squeak and the low snore of the huts only occupant.

An alarm sounded, breaking the peaceful hum of white noise. It was silenced with a groan from beneath a matted fur blanket that had been a prize once upon a time. The bundle of furs shifted around as the form beneath sat upright. Her head found its way into the cool air and she yawned the first fresh breath of the morning. Her short hair was an absolute sight, standing on end in several different directions and dark brown in stark contrast with the semi-dirty cream colored face and the white blanket.

She stretched and quickly pulled a coat from a nearby pile to replace the blanket she flung from her. She had fallen asleep in her pants and an undershirt, quite contradictory to how she normally found herself slumbering due to a rather long night of murdering bottles of wine. She stood and walked about her home, rifling through oddments on various surfaces until she found what she was after. She lifted a small box and smiled. Opening it revealed several small dried sticks of fair bark which she quickly popped into her mouth and began to chew. A grimace on her face betrayed the awful bitter flavor that the sticks possessed but it was more than a fair trade to prevent the headache that had formed from worsening as she went about her workday.

Her name was Aephelia and she had been in this form for nearly 25 years. She was a skilled hunter and scavenger as could be shown by the multitude of prizes that covered all of her tables. Endless piles of electronics and books were strewn about the counters and from the walls hung a wide array of bladed weapons and gleaming firearms. From these she quickly grabbed an immaculate broadsword that she slung across her back and two black and gold pistols that she holstered, one at each side. She grabbed a few spare mags and some dark boxes and threw them into her backpack before she quickly ran from her home.

Aephelia buttoned her black leather duster around her to keep out the chilly early morning wind. It was a fair price to pay to be the first person into the wastes. She had a quota to fill and much preferred to get that done as early as possible so that she could spend the remainder of her day doing the things she actually enjoyed. This is not to say that she did not enjoy being one of the best hunters in the colony, it had just began to feel tedious of late when they were all expected to bring back four slain animals per week. She had of course already hit her goal with still 3 days to spare but wanted to stay ahead and make sure that they could all be fed this coming winter.

“Somebody sure is an overachiever.” A voice called to her as she approached the gate. She looked up for the source and anger flushed her.

“I’m doing what I can to make sure we fare better this winter, Elmor.” She spat at the darkened form that sat atop the watch tower. “Don’t you think you should be doing the same, since you have the inane ability to wake up at dawn and climb walls to berate people that seem to actually have some skill?”

“Watch your mouth, child.” He said before sliding off of the platform and dropping the ten feet to the bare ground. He landed silently in thick padded boots. His arms remained behind his back as he turned.

Silver hair did little to show his true 40 years and lined his smooth face, hanging nearly to the belt about his waist that bore a dagger. A rifle, slung across his shoulder, parted the flowing mane. He was a hunter with much more experience than she, but he dared not berate her. In her years she had far proved herself his – And many others at that – superior.

“You haven’t filled your quota. You elites expect an initiate like myself to pick up your slack but continue to deny me a position among your ranks.” She said, simply. She had attempted dozens of times to move up the chain to a position she could see herself in but each time was denied by the council. Bitterness drove her to her successful hunts and pushed her to show them up at every turn, much to their continuing displeasure.

“You well know that I have matters other than the hunt to attend to. Training of my lessers…“ He paused, smiling at her “… tends to overshadow the need to go about my trivial duties. I leave this gruntwork to the common folk.”

She bit back the insult that salved her lips and snapped her collar up about her ears as she walked forward past him. His face contorted in rage at her motions and the obvious insult that she was presenting to him by ignoring his comments. He tensed and flung his arm forward toward her face.

Aephelia ducked his arm silently and in the same swift motion planted her fist firmly between the two bottom ribs on his right side, bowling him over and releasing his breath, along with many expletives. Without stopping to consider what she had just done, she fled through the opened gate into the stripped forest of dead fair trees. The squat trees with their bare branches tore at her sleeves and backpack as she ran, quickly and quietly putting distance between herself and the furious man.

After a few minutes she broke free into the clearing that separated the dead forest from the living grasslands. In the distance she could see the forest about a mile in the distance, its dark green foliage in stark contrast from the dead forest around the row. She stopped moving and adjusted her clothing, picking sticks from the loops in her gear. She frowned as she cursed herself for hitting him. She should have just dodged the blow and kept moving but after being spurned in front of the council the previous night she had attempted to drown herself in darkberry wine and it served only to feed her resentment at the fact that once again she had been shown the bias that plagued the elite. Women could not be able hunters. They were expected to clean, bake, and work the tech.

She however was not that kind of woman.

The dawn had begun to transition into a bright early morning glow. Birds and other things went about their diurnal errands and the forest came to life around her as she stalked silently through the undergrowth. Her hands were steady around her pistol as she listened to every rustle near her. Her hearing was extremely sharp and she could easily pick out the sound of a horn nearby. It shuffled through the brush searching for roots to dig out with the sharp tusk that protruded from between its lip and nose, eager to feast upon it.

Aephelia drew to a stop some ten meters downwind of it and pulled the hammer back. Her sights found a hollow in front of its shoulder at the base of its neck, Its heart would be pierced easily at this angle. Dark red spattered a nearby tree as it erupted and recoiled from the shot. It’s hard bristled pelt moistened instantly as it fell to the forest floor and lie still.

Her pistol smoked slightly as she watched, waiting for the ringing in her ears to subside from the report. The kill had been clean and painless for the wretched creature, and thankful for it. Though they were not as aggressive as their cousins, the slay beasts, an adult horn this size would still make short work of an average sized warrior of less skill.

“Goodness Aephelia. You are already at your quota. Your kills tend to be a bit larger than average at that and we only have so much room to store these in the chop house.” Elder Nala said, smiling at the young warrior. In her 65 years she had never seen somebody with such dedication and prowess as this one. “But our people will have no lack of meat this winter I feel, even with two less warriors.”

Nala’s face darkened as she thought about what she had said. A fortnight before a hunting party of two men, twins in fact, had gone missing without a trace. The council themselves had searched for the duo with no avail, unable to find the faintest trace of their activity. They had mentioned hunting over near the crater but neither of them would get close enough to the creatures that inhabited the crater itself. She had had to rule it a tragic accident and promised the wife of the eldest that they would not want for food or help as long as she sat in the home of the Elders.

The council thought her a fool for allowing them to continue on without pulling extra weight. Fewer men meant fewer hunters, and fewer hunters meant more work for them and a harder time preparing for the cold months to come. They often forgot Aephelia when speaking of the usefulness of women in their task, though she consistently outperformed them at every turn.

“Are you going to compete this year at the autumn glade?” The Elder asked Aephelia, motioning her to a nearby chair.

Aephelia sat and nodded, she remained silent however. The thought of the Blon twins had bothered her greatly since the news of their deaths found their way to her ears. She had hunted with them on several occasions and found that she rather liked their company. They had been two of the very few that recognized her abilities and they instantly placed her above themselves and happily followed her lead, learning all they could.

“I think that this year will be a good one. Most of the council are refusing entry because they feel themselves above our judgement” Nala pomped herself up as she finished that, adopting a snotty accent. “Little do they know that the ones that need judgement are them. If I had a side of bova for every time I wanted to disband them then we would certainly not want for their…. Services.”

The council and the people they viewed as beneath them often clashed on matters of governing. The council had no interest in anything but honing their skills and practicing their Aera. Most people had the ability but it took many years of practicing to even get the basics down. Even the most powerful of the council was unable to sustain a spell for long. In the ancient days the ability to harness the abilities based on vibrations and waves had been discovered. It is said that in those days it was much more potent and was boosted by technologies that were created for just that purpose. After centuries of warring leading to the final confrontation that had nearly rendered the inhabitants of Gais extinct, the ability had been partially lost. What was available now was taught by ancient tomes that were rendered nearly illegible and were spread throughout nearly 50 archaic languages.

“Their only services seem to be oppressing the people that they view to be weak.” Aephelia said idly, shuffling her boot against the ground. “Even though some of the people are much stronger than them in more than one way.”

“Nobody doubts your abilities my dear.” Nala confirmed. “Many of us feel like you would make an excellent addition to the council. Have you been studying your book on Aera?”

“I’ve honestly not opened it. I don’t need to rely on their trickery to be who I am.” She replied, scowling.

The old woman smiled. “You certainly don’t, but to get in it would certainly light a fire under their ass if you could manage to…” she paused.

“Actually light a fire under their ass?” Aephelia added.

The two women chuckled and chatted merrily for a few more brief moments before Aephelia bade her farewell and made for her own home. She had many hours until school was over and her plans could not begin until that point. She quickly heated up some of the food on the electric stove that stood hidden in a dark corner of her one room house and ate slowly, enjoying the bova stew as she cracked open the very dusty and very stained book.

The basics of Aera were simple enough to grasp. The user harnessed sound and the vibrations of air around them to redirect it as different types of energy. The easiest would be fire. Creating heat was as easy as making the air vibrate very quickly, and the concept was by far the easiest to grasp that only required the most minimal of focus. It however escaped her entirely as she willed a small patch of the air in the palm of her hand vibrate. After a few moments it was clear that the air hadn’t become warm in the slightest, and quite to the contrary, felt much cooler than it actually should have been on its own.

Aephelia slammed the book shut and washed out her now empty dish. Why was she having such a hard time with something that children had accidentally figured out before?

The council would reject her over and again until she showed some proficiency in her Aera. She needed to find a tutor but anybody that had any degree of skill was already on the council and therefore hated her for no apparent reason, other than the fact that she was in fact, a woman. She scowled and pulled the book back out. The page that she had poured over simply illustrated an open palm with a small orange ball of flame hovering in the air above the palm. Cryptic wave formations and vibration frequencies littered the page, as did illustrations of chemical bonds but she knew that this was unnecessary. All she needed to do was focus on a spot and will the air, the very atomic structure to move to her will. Her brow furrowed in anger and concentration as the air above her palm shimmered slightly but she could feel no heat. “It needs to move faster.” She thought to herself as she willed the speed to increase. The waves shimmered more with a faint glow as the air seemed to spin but still no heat graced her palm. Enraged she slammed her hand down on the table. As the waves compressed against the metal, sparks flared outward around her palm and smoke poured from beneath the tabletop. After a moment her surprise faded and she lifted her hand back to her face. Her palm was unscathed but a gasp caught in her throat as her eyes fell upon the surface. A perfect circle had been burned through the table, the edges glowing white with intense heat.

Had she done that much damage but still been unable to form a simple fire. What was wrong with her that it was that hard?

“Elder. I did… something…“ She paused as she ran into Elder Nala’s home, holding her hand before her like some sort of extremely confusing letter that one could never wrap ones head around. In front of her sat the elder and Elmor, both looking very uncomfortable at the intrusion.

“Aephelia. Did you intentionally attack an elite member of the council?” Nala asked her with a frown on her lined face.

“I did strike him in self-defense, yes.” She replied, smiling cordially at Elmor as he glared holes into her face. “But it was honestly more of a reflex. It wasn’t much to defend against to be perfectly honest.”

“You impudent…“ Elmor began before he was shushed by Nala.

“I will handle her. Thank you for bringing this to my attention Elmor.” She said, effectively ending his conversation.

Elmor smiled as he stood and strode from the room without another word. Aephelia thought she heard him hesitate at the door but chose to ignore it.

“I know I acted rashly. He was trying to provoke me and he really did succeed.” Aephelia explained. Wishing that her face looked less grim.

“What did you do?”

“Well he tried to slap me so I dodged it and punched him in…”

“No, you came in here for another reason. Did you punch somebody else?” Nala asked, cutting her off and leaning back in her chair. Age seemed to fall over her being like a veil. She felt weary.

“Oh.. OH. I did Aera.” She said, smiling. “Kinda at least. I couldn’t make fire, but I managed to burn through a steel table a quarter inch thick.”

“That’s impossible without being able to actually make and focus the fire.” She said, raising her hand before her. Instantly a shimmer in the air turned into a bright cheery ball of flame. The older woman furrowed her brow and the ball shifted from a dim orange – yellow to a bright blue. It began to swirl until it elongated into a cone and began to burn upward with a slight roar until it came to a glowing white point. She stood and walked over to an iron kettle perhaps not as old as she and she pressed the tip of her Aera flame to the cold metal. Immediately it started to spark and burn as the metal was ripped away, seemingly running from the white hot flame point. After a brief moment she sighed and exhaled as the flame disappeared. The kettle remained smoldering and the iron shone bright as sunlight before fading down to a dark temper.

Nala slumped into her chair, exhausted. Aera had always worn her out, even in her prime. She was very subpar at her skills and wasted far too much energy on her usage, but she had never had a formal trainer and that showed.

“That was incredible. Mine looked like that but there was no flame at all.” Aephelia said, a smile touching her frown. I wish you could teach me that.

“You broke three of his ribs with that jab you know. Had to get a mender to correct them.” Nala said, ignoring her hints at teaching. “He wants you banished but even the council disagrees. You’re far too valuable as a warrior, even if they don’t want you in their order, they won’t be so stupid to let you go to another.”

“And do you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Not in the slightest. To be quite honest, I had to force myself to not laugh when he told me.” The older woman replied, smiling. “He should carry his own weight before he expects another to carry theirs.”

Aephelia nodded. “Well said.”

“Now. Go about your day child. I’m tired and would care greatly for a nap.” She said, dismissing Aephelia.

The rest of the day passed with little incident as Aephelia did some laundry and threw out the remainder of the wine bottles from the previous night. She would need to restock soon but until the next shipment they would have no dark berry wine, and Aephelia simply couldn’t stand the taste of cherry or grape. As fruits they were hard to obtain in their area, but they were sweet and light. As wine, however, they were often bitter and salty. When her home was completely clean she sat, content that it had returned to the clean catastrophe that she had grown accustomed to since finding herself alone. She reflected on how it had been before her father had been gored on a hunt.

He had been a fine hunter, preferring to face his prey with a blade in his hand. Guns had never gone well with his ability to move about the dry undergrowth with near ghostlike silence but his blade could strike before almost any animal knew what had hit them.

Aephelia smiled remembering their many lessons in the forest early before the hunt. He would dance about the trees and have her copy his movements until her feet remained beneath her. Many days she spent with mud caked in her hair, having tripped clumsily. The sparring sessions that they shared that often resulted in her lying flat on her back after being struck with a dulled blade across the chest. In the beginning she got more than she gave but as she progressed they began to share equal wounds until one day she finally caught what she had been seeking for so long.

“Aephelia. Keep your stance together or find yourself down again.” He would say to her. That particular day had been especially fierce for training. It was mid-summer and they were both short of breath and dripping with sweat. Aephelia had kept her distance from him, attempting to use his age against him and wear him out but she found herself barely able to stand straight, much less keep her feet planted perfectly. He had been favoring his left leg due to a particularly nasty injury that she had inflicted to the inside of his knee. It rewarded her a wearing on his own stance along with a series of welts across her side. Breathing was more difficult than she had intended for it to be but he was red in the face. She was caught off guard slightly when he made a feint to the left but with a feeling of euphoria she saw his knee buckle. He had overestimated his ability to move at her and without hesitating she struck like a trahn.

Silence followed a metallic thud as his sword embedded itself a foot deep in the loamy soil. She had laughed with mirth and exclaimed to the forest with her back to him. She knew him to be down as she mocked. “Keep your stance together father, or find yourself down.” The silence however caused fear to course through her like electricity. She turned and stopped aghast to see her father lying flat on his back. Blood trickled down his cheek from the corner of his mouth. A mouth that had pulled itself into a tremendous smile. His eyes were alight with joy as he spoke the last words that she could remember.

“Well done, my daughter.”

A tear leaked from her eye and she quickly brushed it away. She had long since resigned her guilt at his death. That evening their party had been besieged by a common of slay beasts. Three had been slain and her father among them. The returning survivors had reassured her that he had gone down fighting to his last breath and presented her with the tusk of the one that had impaled him. He had ended its life with his sword but only from the vantage that he had hanging from its tusk could his sword find its eye and its way into the soft grey of its brain. The tusk had been cleaned but the grain still contained darkened red ochre and it had been lost that very night, abandoned in the forest in a haze. She wept over his body and found herself completely alone in the world as the fire burned before her, releasing his very essence into the world to which he had belonged. The faces were a blur and the words a dim static in her ears. She found herself alone in their home and for a great while was unable to understand what had happened. What had her world become with the greatest presence replaced by a void of silence. The nothingness echoed around her and she prayed for death so that she could once again know what true comfort felt like.

She must have fallen asleep amongst these thoughts, the memories that haunted her dreams. The faces became those that she had known, her mother’s face that she had never seen. Elmor scowled from the distance and the elder held her as she so many times had in that time. She slept deep until once again her alarm sounded, piercing the silence that existed only outside of her mind.

She rose and washed her face up somewhat in the cold water that flowed forth from her faucet. Today she would not hunt. Today she would go to the forest and practice her Aera until she could perform the art with ease and force the council to see that at last she was to be one of their rank. She packed enough food to last a few days and brought with her a pack full of necessities. It could take a while to do what she needed to do and she made sure to prepare herself for the unknown that she would face. She knew of a place. A sort of alter that had remained untouched since days long gone. That place had a certain feel about it and even the elites gave it a wide berth on their hunts. That is where she knew she could master what evaded her.

The paths were empty as she left into the darkness. Around her the forest crept with the sounds of nocturnal insects making their final rounds before the suns rose into the sky, illuminating the world that they perceive as being theirs. She sped through the scrub, dancing around light obstacles and perilous traps set by nature itself. She knew the forest better than most much as a person would know one’s own best friend, an intimate knowledge as she would know herself. The forest held few secrets from her and the ones that remained were rather not known.

After nearly an hour of running she broke through the vine laden shrubbery that surrounded a large moss covered structure. Weathered and aged it felt sinister before her, looming in the half light of dawn filtering through the canopy above it. A doorway like a portal of blackness was set in a small alcove in the dead center of a large archway. The stone walkway before had long since been accosted and broken through by invasive trees. Large piles of rusted metals were all that remained of what must have been massive doors that were meant to slide from exposed slots in the stone of the arch to cover the door.

She entered the front of the building quickly, stepping into its mossy dripping interior. Holes in the walls around her gave way to only blackness and after a brief moment she could no longer see anything. From her pack she produced a lantern with a nearly clear glass cover. A click emitted an electrical spark and the oil in the lantern ignited, casting a bright yellow light over the surrounding stone. She imagined that there likely had been wooden furniture but that centuries of neglect had wasted them away to only memories, much like the rest of the building she was in. After a few more feet it opened into a massive atrium, ceiling high above her carved into the stone of what felt like a mountain. Huge stone pillars supported its weight and piles of substances littered the floor. Some items were still halfway recognizable. Ancient vehicles of varying sorts surrounded her and further from the middle were still lockers and shelves with unrecognizable wasted shapes were all that remained of the items that had once been stored on them. Anything that age and climate had not claimed had been taken by the few that had been brave enough to face their fears and enter it.

Off of the main chamber could be found a number of rooms. Many of them still had rusty metallic doors and on occasion a complete window could be found, darkened with decay. These rooms were all shaped in different ways and were filled with curious instruments and bare metal beds, the mattresses rotten away. Aephelia knew where she was headed. She had been to the room many times since that day and had spent the most of her time in it. At the end of the hall on the right side of the main chamber was a metal door that had been untouched by rust. It shone like a polished blade in contrast to the darkened stone around it. In the center of the door was a wheel with pegs extending from it. This she turned with ease as it clicked quietly. The door swang outward until it entered into a perfectly shaped recess in the wall to her left. The inside of the room was illuminated by a single hole in the ceiling through which sunlight found its path to the center of a series of large rings, one inside of the other. In total there were twelve, each slightly larger with varying differences in size between them. Some as much as a foot, some nearly touching.

The pattern seemed random to her though she had spent a fair amount of time studying them trying to find an answer to their mystery. Around the outside of the room were large stairlike stone structures that she assumed must be for seating. They must have been meant for observation of something that happened in the middle of the room. In the middle of the circles. She knew now what it was for. It was a testing area, an area where they would see the skills of those training in Aera in the ancient times. Patterns of wave structure and oscillations covered the walls around the room. Ancient runes and shapes told stories of formulas for different creations and manipulations. This is where she would spend her next few hours, her next few days, until she was satisfied she had learned enough.

Aephelia set her bag on a stair seat near the entrance and next to it she sat her weapons on her blazer. The room was chilly in early morning shade and the lack of sleeves on her knit shirt did her no favors. Nevertheless she stepped into the center marked with a strange rune. She sat, crossing her legs in front of her and rested her arms atop her knees, bringing her hands together until her fingers nearly touched. This is where the powerful showed those that observed their skills. This is where she would hone hers. She closed her eyes and began to focus on the exact center point between her palms. In that space she willed the waves to move quicker and quicker. After a moment she heard static and a high pitched whine came from before her, heralding the wave disruption. She held it at this point at length, changing the speed of the waves in her palms until finally she began to feel the temperature change ever so slightly. When it stopped increasing she would slow the waves until her hands cooled as if cold water from the ceiling had dripped into them.

After a few hours she gasped. The final heating had been mildly uncomfortable against her palms and the cold that she had resorted to had begun to make them numb in between the heatings. She allowed the waves to fade with a final crackle and sighed. Sweat covered her brow and had soaked the shirt between her arms and beneath her breasts. She stood and walked back across the room to where her supplies sat. Thinking about the different manipulations, she sat and snacked on dried meat that she washed down with some weak apple wine. She had managed to produce heat but much more than that would be required to produce a flame. On the contrary she was much closer to making ice than fire. The thought amused her and she had to suppress a giggle that resounded against the silence enveloping her. She remembered all of the days she had sat in the center of the circle where she had spent the past few hours.

Many of them she had sat there blankly trying to understand what was happening. Often the ground was peppered in tears or on occasion even her own blood as she sought an answer for the pain. Eventually as it faded she had simply spent time reflecting on her own feelings as she sat there, warmed by the noon suns. Today she felt different, she felt elated. She quickly washed down the remainder of the meat and tossed in a few dried fruits, not paying attention to what they were, even by taste. She was eager to get back to it. She wiped the sweat from her eyes and returned to her seat.

She resumed the wave fluctuations within her hands until she could change them faster and faster. After a few hours she could quickly Form the static that meant the waves were being forced to do her bidding. On occasion a crackle of electricity would pulse from her palm to the manipulation as it formed a rather hot sphere. After a second when she was unable to push it further she would change the speed, slowing it rapidly until it cooled. After another hour of that she noticed her first inkling of real progress. On one of the cooling cycles she felt something that made her heart soar. Onto her leg had fallen a drop of ice cold water. She opened her eyes and stared in awe at the glowing blue sphere between her hands. Its surface glistened and beneath, the disruptions glowed and spun slowly. She focused and as if by strain of will alone the sphere began to expand until it was roughly the shape of an orange in her hands. Her breath caught as it touched her palms and her focus left her. The disruption ceased and she was left with the sphere. She clutched it as it chilled her hands to numbness. Water began running down her palms from the contact with her warm flesh. She was dizzy and felt exhausted but stared at her hands. Panic began to set in as she realized that her vision had faded to a darkened blur but it passed as the reflection of moonlight came back to her from the glistening ball.

Her eyes had been closed for so long that darkness had long set in while she honed her control over the waves. She stared at the pale ball that she held with joy. It was nearly perfectly clear and she could see with a slight distortion her palms beneath it. It was not the fire that she had originally wanted but without doubt it was progress. She stared at it for a long while until finally sleep overtook her.

She awoke suddenly in the morning as something cold and wet splashed over her face. Sitting up she looked around with horror but was met with only the stone walls that had surrounded her the night before. Behind her came a soft pattering trickle and her sleep bogged brain finally started to put it together. It was raining. A slight trickle had found its way through the hole in the ceiling and had begun to pool on the floor beneath. She despised it for it would mean that she could not sit in the middle of the circles while she continued her practice but this could not be avoided. With any luck it would quit raining before the day was out and she could resume it in comfort. Quickly she ate from her rations a grain bar and some more of the fruit. She ate another apple as they would not keep as long as the dried goods and she wanted to enjoy it while it was fresh.

When she had finished, she returned to the floor, sitting on the edge of the first ring. She assumed her pose with her hands facing together and fingers touching. She closed her eyes and found that quickly she could focus the cold until once again a layer of ice began to form on the waves created between her palms. She quickly shifted to heat and the ice began to steam and melt. The blueish glow changed to orange as heat began to radiate. Sweat soaked through her after a few minutes and she realized she was still hitting the ceiling on her heat. Frustrated she resigned herself to cold and freezing a sphere before she switched back to heat. If she could just melt the ice faster and faster at least her heat would be increasing and she could train with a medium. For another few hours she listened to the patter of the rain mix with the patter of water dripping from the sphere. Each time the sphere became thin she would quickly switch to cold and refreeze it. A dozen cycles. A dozen dozen cycles. She lost count as each time the sphere disappeared a little faster until she was becoming unable to keep up the freezing and light began to show through thin spots in the ice.

Finally she decided that it was time again to try. She sped the waves up as fast as she could go and water began to gush from the sphere at an alarming rate. After a few seconds the bright yellow light was veiled by a nearly invisible paper thin sheet of ice. Instantaneously the ice vaporized and she realized the error of what she had done. Bright white fire burst forth explosively from between her hands, blistering her flesh and blinding her. In the same instant the world went completely dark. All her brain could process was the steady trickling of water from the rain.

Light blazed in her eyes. She opened them only to close them against the noontime sun spilling its light directly on her from the ceiling hole. She could see, and that was a very good thing. The next thing she noticed was the excruciating pain in her hands. She looked down through the sun haze and saw that her flesh was raw and many of the blisters were seeping. She assessed the damage to be simply flash burns and though painful, did not penetrate very deep, likely doing no real damage. The fire had been so intense and instantaneous that it had only singed the first few layers of skin. She quickly got up and walking to her pack on the step seats removed some ointment. She applied it liberally, wincing and finally breathing a sigh of relief. She was dazed from the sleep but felt energized. Had she slept long? Had it been afternoon when she had passed out and had she slept for over a day?

She munched on some of the raw meat and drank some of the cool water from her bladder. Apprehension crept inside of her. The fire had hurt badly but she had made it for sure. She held out a hand and looked at it skeptically for a brief second before deciding. She focused and furrowed her brow, willing the waves to move. Nearly instantly a crackle of electricity burst forth to the wave sphere and the white fire flashed into existence. It blazed brightly and hot, making her close her eyes again as she willed herself to draw back the power. She felt the heat recede until it was a comfortable warming radiance. She opened her eyes and joy filled her as she set them on the happily dancing ball of yellow flame floating above her palm. She had done it. She had made the fire that she so long sought.

`Alternating between heat and cold was becoming nearly natural though she had a significantly harder time controlling the former. There were four basic forms that the waves can take. Heat, cold, sight, and sound. From there they can take different forms but always a combination of those four. Sound was by far the easiest. Humanity had long since mastered that with language. The Aera of sound was a part of everyday life and takes very little to manipulate. Sight was along the same means. Our minds perceive everything around us based on the Aera of sight and with a little practice that can be manipulated as well. Heat and cold are the hardest of the basics to master but it was with a smile that Aephelia sat there and smiled at the little fire that she could finally make. She alternated between changing its color, making it bigger, smaller, and even forming intricate shapes with it. After nearly an hour of playing with it she was unable to form it and decided that her energy had taken enough of a beating. She ate the slim remainder of her foodstuffs.

She shouldered her pack, happy that it had lightened significantly. She was fatigued and had a much longer walk than her run from the other day. She sealed the door to the observation room and travelled the silent hallways back to the main chamber. Water still dripped from the ceiling from the rainstorm and here and there puddles formed amidst the rust. She walked into the hallway and her breath caught at the sight of a shadow. The shadow of a large man standing just on the other side of the entrance. From the silhouette she could tell that he was heavily muscled and had a large rifle – Or small cannon maybe – slung across his back. She slipped quickly into one of the offices along the hall and took to a corner behind a metal cabinet. She had a mostly unobstructed view through the rust holes and could see him motioning to others.

“Load them up. I’m not staying here any longer than I have to.” He spoke, motioning to his right where a dull roar could be heard. “Make sure you get the plates too. They’re ceramic so they should be fine.”

Leaning forward for a closer view rewarded her with a glimpse of a silver-blue scar running perpendicular to the rifle that he carried across his back. It was a large .50 cal with an imposing scope on it. Rifle scopes were rare enough to respect somebody who could hold on to one and respect is certainly one thing that this man seemed to have no lack of. “Sir” and “Yes Captain” were all among the answers that he was given as he barked orders at the men. She could presume there were at least 5 with him by the variances in their voices but never saw them. The roar was accompanied by the occasional thump and thud as scavenged equipment was loaded into what she guessed to be a vehicle of some sort.

“Think there’s anything good in there Captain?” A second voice said, just beyond the threshold.

Aephelia stiffened and shrunk behind the rusty pile before her. She quietly drew her pistol into her hand and pulled the hammer back.

“Rust and bones, Clon. Nothing in there for us today.” The man said. It was gentle but extremely stern at the same time. Footsteps receded and the man turned to look into the doorway.

His eyes were shadowed but she could easily assume that he was sweeping in every detail in one calculated sweep. His face was gaunt, framed by white peppered hair and beard. The beard extended nearly to his chest but the hair atop his head was cropped short. He wore a leather vest over a simple black shirt and his pants only served the significance of protecting his legs from the four holsters around them. Aephelias eyes widened at the armaments he carried. So much firepower for one person to carry. Before she could continue on he smiled and looked directly at the cabinet she hid behind.

“Rust and bones.” He said again before turning. “Fire them up. We’re heading to Tren to speak to their Council. It looks like somebody missed a meeting. Lock and load boys.”

He walked out of view and a slam echoed through the halls, followed by a roar that faded quickly off into the distance. Aephelias heart beat wildly in her chest. Tren. They were going home.