Chapter 4

Rust & Dust

Northern Wastes - 897, current day

The wasteland stretched out before them, a barren sea of cracked earth, with no sign of life save for the occasional scrap of rusted machinery or a distant plume of dust kicked up by the wind.

Matthias grunted as he hefted the cloth sack slung over his shoulder, the salvaged tech rattling inside.

Behind them, the fallen Verdant skyship loomed, crumbling and tarnished from years of exposure from the wasteland dust storms.

Their skimmer, hidden behind a jagged outcrop of rock, waited just beyond the ship's shadow. Sleek and battered, the vehicle was their best bet for crossing the wasteland—fast, sturdy, and built to withstand the rough terrain. It wasn’t much more than a motorised sled, but it had carried them through storms and worse.

Matthias reached it first, dumping the sack of salvaged tech into the carrier with a grunt, not saying a word as he swung himself into the driver’s seat. Maia didn’t even bother asking to drive. She knew the look on his face. He was sulking, and there was no reasoning with him when he got like this. Stubborn as a rusted bolt

She sighed, settling into her spot beside him, casting a sideways glance at her father. The big grump. He always acted like every decision was life or death. But this—this was just another haul, another day in the endless stretch of the wasteland. Why couldn’t he see that? Today wasn’t any different from any other day. They’d fought scuttlers a hundred times before. She’d have been fine.

She decided not to even mention the thing that she’d released from the containment pod on the fallen skyship. He was in too much of a mood to listen anyway. No, she’d keep that horror locked away for now. Just the memory of it sent a chill crawling down her spine.

The twisted smile, the way it moved…

She shuddered. Her father didn’t believe in demons, anyway. He’d probably brush it off, tell her she was overreacting. He always does.

No, she’d wait until they got back to Red Market. She’d talk to Lani. Lani understood these things better.

The skimmer roared to life, its engine barking and growling like an old, angry dog. The whole vehicle rattled and groaned as Matthias twisted the accelerator, kicking up dust and making tracks into the desolate expanse of the wasteland.

The landscape was as bleak as ever—vast stretches of nothingness, broken only by the occasional rusted remnants of a world long abandoned. Twisted metal, forgotten machines, and skeletal structures dotted the horizon like ghosts. It wasn’t much to look at, but it was all Maia had ever known in her sixteen years.

“What data did you find before those bugs got to you?” Matthias asked after a long stretch of silence.

Maia tensed, her fingers tightening around the edge of her frayed seat. She didn’t want to admit that she’d only found music tracks, that she hadn’t spent much time looking for the Fatebond archives like he’d wanted. She could already feel the shadow of his disappointment looming over her, his fixation on the Fatebonds always hanging in the air between them.

She shifted, staring out at the endless wasteland, trying to find the right words—or any words, really—that wouldn’t trigger another one of his lectures.

“I’ll check,” Maia muttered, leaning over her seat to rustle through the bag of tech. She pretended to search, buying time to think of an excuse and feigning the need to find her overlays—even though they were still obviously secured around her ear. But as her fingers brushed against one of the energy cores, she froze. Something wasn’t right.

Many of the cores were already drained.

What the hell?

“Ba, I think some of these are duds,” she grimaced, pulling one out to inspect. “These were fully charged earlier.”

“They’re fine,” Matthias said quickly, his tone sharp.

Maia frowned, holding up the core, its energy all but gone. “But they shouldn’t drain that fast. They should’ve at least—”

“I said they’re fine,” he cut in, his voice more forceful now. “Drop it and stop changing the subject. What did you find?”

“I found some audio tracks,” she mumbled, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. “Music archives.”

His silence was heavier than the engine’s growl. She could almost feel the disappointment radiating off him, but she pressed on. “Oh, oh. And… some Fatebond archives too, but they were encrypted so… I didn’t get a look at any of it. Just copied the files. Maybe someone in Cervantes will know how to crack them?”

“Maybe,” he replied, but didn’t sound too optimistic. She tentatively reached up to her archive and hit play on the next track in the cache she’d discovered at the lowest possible volume to be sure he couldn’t hear it, she could barely hear it over the skimmers engine. The music was what mattered to her. The Fatebonds—well, they were his obsession, not hers.

For a moment, the silence stretched out between them, tense and thick. Then, without warning, he spoke again, quieter this time, almost to himself. “The cores aren’t duds. They drained because of me.”

“What do you mean, because of you?” Maia blinked, turning to face him fully.

“My powers,” Matthias clenched the steering wheel tighter. “They don’t just surge… they drain too. Energy, life force, whatever’s nearby. Sometimes, I can’t control it. When I killed those scuttlers, I drained ‘em.”

She stared at him, processing the words. She had always known her father’s scrav-powers were dangerous, volatile even. He rarely used them if it could be avoided—and never anywhere normal people could see him. But she never realised just how much they resembled her own. A strange mix of unease and something close to pity settled in her chest. She wasn’t sure what to say.

“I didn’t know that,” she said finally, her voice softer. “Do you think… they’re like mine?”

“Possibly.”

“That’s why you don’t use them often.”

Matthias shrugged, his gaze still fixed stubbornly on the horizon, refusing to meet her eyes.

Maia studied him, the pieces slowly clicking into place. “You really think the Verdant scravs were like us?”

“The Archons created scravs by giving regular people Fatebonds—and infusing them with powers to fulfil it,” Matthias explained, his voice gruff. “The Verdant just copied that whole mechanism, using tech or some magic shit, I don’t know. But the Verdant had Fatebonds, and the powers to see ‘em through... just like us. I saw enough of ‘em in the war to know that much. Maybe there’s something in those old ruins that can help us figure out how to break the Fatebond.”

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“Why though? Why bother breaking it?” Maia pressed. “We could just fulfil them.”

Her father shot her a flat look, his eyes hard and weary. They’d been through this argument too many times. “The Archons are dead… they’re the reason this world is dying,” he grumbled, the bitterness thick in his voice. “I ain’t doing shit for them.”

Maia fell silent, biting back a retort. She’d heard him say it before, countless times. But that didn’t mean she had to agree. To Matthias, it was just a curse, a chain binding him to a dying world he had no faith in anymore. Maia wasn’t sure yet how she felt about her Fatebond. It would help if she knew what it was that she was supposed to do.

Matthias revved the skimmer’s engine again, pushing it harder across the barren expanse. The conversation was over.

They continued on in silence for a while. Maia was fine with that, she had a whole new batch of tracks to listen to. There was crackling jazzy beats, soft piano, upbeat head-bobbing electronic tracks. She leaned back in her seat, eyes closed, letting the music wash over her. The wind tangled in her hair, cooling her skin as the warmth of the sun soaked her face.

In the wastes, there was always heat, an unrelenting presence that settled over everything. Travelling at midday wasn’t ideal, but the skimmer was modified to absorb solar and store in an energy cell, so it never overheated, not even in the worst of it.

This was as peaceful as it got for Maia.

After a while, Maia cracked one eye open, glancing over at her father. He was reclining back in his seat, eyes fixed on the dirt path ahead. The track playing in her ear had shifted into something slower, a bluesy folk song, all instrumental. Sounds like pre-war blues. The kind of music her father liked, the kind with that melancholic edge.

[Playing: Losu tracks #431 - In the Beginning]

Smirking to herself, she pulled the overlay out of her ear and adjusted the volume just enough so the music could be heard over the sound of the skimmer’s engine. A quick glance at Matthias and she saw it—the faintest hint of a smirk tugging at his lips.

She couldn’t help the grin that spread across her own face. She’d caught him with this one.

Before the track had even finished, he was tapping his fingers against the controls, keeping time with the beat. Small, subtle movements, but enough for her to know she’d chosen right.

“You see those?” Matthias said conversationally, pointing toward the jagged silhouette of mountains in the distance.

“The mountains?”

“Pre-war, mountains couldn’t be moved. Couldn’t be broken, couldn’t be made… Those are called the Archon’s Last Stand.”

“Is that where they died?”

“Yup. That’s where the final battle went down—the Verdant and the Archons met their grisly end over there.”

“I didn’t know it happened this far out into the wastes.”

“This place didn’t used to be wasteland.”

“I know that,” Maia said, her tone a touch defensive. She turned her attention back to the horizon, her brow furrowing. Matthias rarely spoke about the war itself. He talked about his training constantly—he’d been drilling her like a soldier for as long as she could remember. But actual battles? That was something else. Something he kept tucked away.

“Did you see them?” She asked. “The Archons?”

“Yup,”

“What were they like?”

“Big,” he said finally, the simplicity of the answer almost making Maia roll her eyes.

“Lani told me that an Archon once—”

Matthias cut her off, his voice low and steady. “Lani wasn’t there.”

Maia blinked at his sudden sharpness. She looked over at him, expecting the usual sternness in his face, but instead, she found something else. Something harder to read.

“What happened to them, Ba?” she asked. “The Archons... I mean, I know they’re dead, but how? People say they were supposed to be gods.”

“Pfft, some gods,” Matthias scoffed, letting out a slow, tired breath. He shook his head, eyes narrowing as if he could still see it all playing out in front of him. “That’s what people like to say, isn’t it? Gods. Divine protectors, guardians of the world.” He let out a bitter chuckle. “But gods don’t bleed. And they sure as hell don’t die like that.”

Just then, Matthias swerved the skimmer sharply, the sudden motion sending Maia lurching sideways. She yelped, instinctively gripping the edge of her seat to steady herself.

“Whoa, what the hell, Ba?!” she shouted, her heart still pounding from the jolt.

Matthias chuckled, eyes glinting with mischief. “Just wait.”

Ahead of them, the land rose into an arcing ledge, curving over a small gorge. Maia’s eyes lit up as she realised what was coming.

“No way,” she gasped, practically bouncing in her seat. “We’re gonna jump it?” She could barely contain her excitement.

“No, of course not,” Matthias scoffed, shaking his head. “Skimmer’s a junker, but I’m not gonna smash her up with a jump.” He slowed the vehicle down as they approached the narrow valley, the hum of the engine quieting. Jumping out, he gestured for Maia to follow.

Curious, she leapt from the skimmer and trailed behind him to the edge of the rise. Her father stood there, grinning like he had a secret. “Take a look,” he nodded down into the valley.

Maia’s breath caught in her throat.

So. Much. Green.

“Plants!” She practically shrieked, leaping down the red rock incline without a second thought. Real plants, growing wild in the wasteland! She scrambled down toward the tiny muddy river running through the gorge, her hands grazing over prickly cacti and scraggly green bushes as she went. Her heart soared.

“How’d you know?!” she called back over her shoulder, breathless from excitement.

Matthias stood at the top of the ledge, hands on his hips, looking smug. “Spotted the green as we came around the rise. Thought it might be an algae pond, though, so didn’t wanna get your hopes up.”

Maia crouched beside the cacti, recognising some of the types from her books, but there were others she’d never seen before. Some had purple flowers, others yellow. She touched the petals, marvelling at their softness. They were beautiful.

A gnarled tree caught her eye. Its twisted grey branches reached up like skeletal fingers, large green berries hanging heavy from them. She rushed over, eyes wide. “Ooh, what’s this one?”

Matthias ambled down behind her. “Looks like an olive tree.”

“Really?” She tilted her head, inspecting the berries.

“Go ahead,” Matthias said, plucking a few olives from the branch and popping them into his mouth with a satisfied grunt.

Maia hastily copied him, grabbing a handful and biting into them—only to grimace as her teeth hit the hard stones inside. “Ow!” she muttered, rubbing her jaw, but the flavour... it was unlike anything she’d ever tasted before. Salty, fresh, bursting with life.

“Reckon I can take a cutting?” Maia asked, her eyes alight with excitement. Lani would absolutely love this. “Will it grow?”

Matthias shrugged. “I don’t know, worth a try, for sure. Lani’ll probably know if it’ll take or not.”

Maia inspected the tree carefully, her fingers running along the twisted branches before selecting the healthiest one. She pulled out one of her knives, slicing at an angle just below the node, exactly as Lani had taught her. The small branch came away cleanly, and she held it up with a satisfied grin.

“And?” she asked, glancing around at the other plants, her gaze drifting toward the nearby cacti.

“Small ones only,” Matthias said, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice as he watched her.

Delighted, Maia set to work, carefully choosing the most interesting specimens she could find. She dug up small clusters of spiny cacti, their purple and yellow flowers standing out against the dry, red rock of the valley. She wondered if the flowers would make a good hair dye. The purple and green she had in her hair now had barely lasted two washes. Maybe these might make a better one.

As she worked, her mind wandered to Lani. She could already picture the look on her face when they got back to Red Market, arms full of new plants to show off. Maia smiled to herself, knowing Lani would be thrilled with the haul.

As they packed the plants into the carrier, the sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows across the wasteland.

“We should probably camp here for the night,” Matthias said, scanning the horizon. “We’re not going to make it to Dry Cliffs by nightfall. Better off taking shelter here in case a storm rolls in.”

“”Looks pretty clear,” Maia noted looking at the clear blue horizon. An almost clear blue, strands of purple latticed the sky, but Maia was so used to the cracks in the sky that they didn’t phase her. She’d grown up with those purple lines, it was just normal to her. Not like Matthias, who knew what they represented.

“Never worth the risk, camping exposed,” Matthias said, then set to work building their camp for the night.

As he worked, Matthias glanced at the sky every so often, like he was waiting for it to fall apart completely. But Maia? She just sat back, leaned against the skimmer, and let her gaze drift. To her, those cracks were just part of the sky's design—a broken world, maybe, but still theirs.