Selene

“So this contraption can help us find daylight, you say?” Selene asked, looking at the piece of metal in her hand. It was connected to a long string of metal that was wrapped intricately around another piece of metal that was placed on top of a stack of leaves.

Selene looked at the smiling Jerome. Maybe she had overestimated the boy a little too much. She looked over at her teammates who just shrugged at her. Their only interest in this was to watch a show and have a laugh.

Nothing spent, nothing lost.

They had cleaned themselves up as best they could but it was still a chore to breathe properly without smelling the stench from their own bodies. Even with their mental energy, they couldn’t get all of the stuff off their clothes.

“Ahem,” she called Jerome’s attention. “Are you sure this can find daylight?”

“It’s the first step in finding daylight, yes,” he answered undisturbed. “We just have to prepare ourselves for a little pain … probably.”

“Oookaaaay. What has this got to do with me though?” she asked, pointing at herself, trying to exempt herself from whatever this … all of this was.

Her teammates laughed at that. They had never seen their team leader so uncertain about something. Even afraid. Jerome smiled at her. He moved his stinky hair out of his face and tied it behind him before walking up to her. He examined the piece of metal in her hand to make sure all was well. Once he was satisfied, he grabbed hold of the other end of the metal.

“You channel ice essence through that end, and I’ll channel fire essence through this end. Problem is, both energies have to be balanced,” he said.

“Balanced?” she asked, not getting the gist of it.

“Do you know how I’m capable of creating blue flames?” Jerome said, opening his other hand, palm up and a white-blue flame sprouted on his palm.

“Well, it’s white-blue now but do explain,” Selene said looking at the flame. She was a bit uncomfortable with her proximity to Jerome and hoped he didn’t get the wrong idea.

Jerome was busy looking at the flame on his hand as though seeing it for the first time. “Hmm,” he said. “It’s somehow … evolved. But how it did was a mystery I can wait to solve later. Fire is made by burning fuel in the air.” He closed his palm, putting out the flame. “No air, no fire. What I learned to do was burn the amount of fuel in relation to the quantity of air being consumed by the flame. Therefore reducing wastage. Do you understand?”

Selene nodded absently, not fully understanding but getting the gist of it. “So the same amount of heat and cold, is it?” she asked.

“Hmm,” Jerome answered, nodding. “Are you ready? We go on three. One… two… three.”

They poured their essence into the piece of metal at the same time, making sure to observe how much essence they were pouring in with their perception. Selene felt the hairs on her arm stand on end almost immediately.

“Lightning! Heavens, it’s lightning!” she screamed.

Her teammates quickly lost the smiles on their faces. Some of them even came forward to have a look at what was going on.

“I can’t see no lightning,” Bram said in that heavy accent of his as he bent over a little, looking intently at both their hands.

Nia pushed him out of the way wanting to get a look at what was going on too. She went a step further bringing her hand closer.

“Ooh!” she exclaimed. “I feel it!”

“Let me get a look,” someone else came forward and had to drag Nia away from them.

Jerome smiled at their antics. It reminded him of the family he used to have. They had a bond with each other that many others rarely have.

“This is nice,” he said, looking from person to person, committing their smiles and laughter to memory.

“Nice? They’re a troublesome lot,” Selene said, also smiling, “You don’t wanna get pranked by them. That’s when you know they’re not nice.”

Jerome chuckled at that. Two Sprouts were bickering with each other now, arguing about who could learn to wield the force of lightning better if the lightning was enough to absorb.

“Forget about absorbing it,” Jerome said. “The energy we’re producing is too little for that and that’s why you can’t see it as well,” Jerome said.

“Should we ramp it up then?” Selene said and pushed her core a little bit more.

“Oh no, wait!” Jerome yelled. “We don’t need too much. What we have is more than enough for now.”

Selene looked at him and nodded. She would have loved to see the lightning with her eyes. Maybe absorb a strand or two and show these pipsqueaks around her that she could create lightning. She almost humphed in her excitement. How dare they doubt her!

She looked around at her teammates with a smile on her face. Her excitement was becoming evident but she quickly caught herself and schooled her features. It would be improper for her to act like her dickheaded teammates. That was enough fun for the long night.

~~~

Jerome was elated as he examined the magnetized piece of metal in his hand. What he just did was from some articles he had read in his previous life. Simply put, the Seebeck effect is a phenomenon in which temperature differences between two ends of a conductor can create electrical charges. The electrical charge being created was what was used to magnetize this piece of metal. And now he had the last component he needed to make his compass. He could just imagine what science would be capable of achieving in a world like this.

Jerome had been absorbing a special ore in the earth using Suzie when the Itakars came around. He had wondered at some point when he was crafting his new wings how the quantity of the liquid steel had increased. But after flying into this area, Suzie had reacted to something and led him here.

It made him wonder if there was a mine under Blade’s Edge Canyon that he had unknowingly absorbed during his slumber. Now there was a large quantity of liquid steel flowing inside his body.

Jerome smiled. He sliced off some parts of the magnetized metal and stuck the remaining thin strip into a piece of wood. He had made a small container out of metal and filled it with water. He dropped the magnetized strip of metal that was stuck in the piece of wood into the container and watched it point in a certain direction.

“We go that way,” he said pointing right.

“But your metal is pointing—” Ajax was saying.

“That’s North,” Jerome cut him off, pointing North, “My metal will always point North, but the sun rises in the East.” He pointed East again.

“Okay everyone, let’s move out,” Selene announced and everyone started packing up camp.

They had had enough time to rest because Jerome had insisted they stayed there so he could mine more of the special ore he was absorbing from the earth. After cross checking that they left nothing behind, they started their long walk due East.

Jerome scanned his core as they trekked and noticed a metallic blue glow to it. He smiled to himself at that. Just being here in Terra Praeta was enough to speed up the growth of his core at twice the rate it was growing before.

“And what’s making you happy?” Ajax asked with a frown.

Jerome looked at him. “Never mind. You don’t have to worry about me,” he said with a smile. He was going to be creating a lot of things from now on and he was looking forward to it.

Ajax scowled at Jerome, pointing his index and middle finger at his own eyes in a ‘V’ shape and pointing them at Jerome—a gesture that said, ‘I’m watching you.’

“You really wanna have a taste of those white-blue flames don’t you, mate,” Trudhorn said to him.

“Ajax. Yer’ the man,” Bram said, patting Ajax on the shoulder. “I believe ye can take him down,” he whispered in Ajax’s ear. “Go for it.”

Ajax glared at Bram and pushed him aside. “Why don’t you go try it yourself,” he muttered.

“What? I was just being a good friend, mate,” Bram said with pretend hurt. “Don’t ye want encouragement?”

“Encourage him to his wheelchair,” someone said and everyone burst out laughing.

~~~

Hedon

“And you’re sure about this?” he asked.

“Absolutely. His long hair was what gave him away. Not many boys in Farryn have such long hair,” the scout responded.

Hedon nodded and asked, “And what were they talking about?”

“The distance was too great for hearing, Young Lord,” the scout said.

“So they were just heading in a direction…all of them,” Hedon said absently.

“Yes, Young Lord,” the scout said again.

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It may be that they had found a way out of this damned place. Looking around at the thick forest of trees that surrounded them and the lightless sky, he couldn’t figure out how they did it. But if that was the case, he’d be a fool not to follow them.

“Let’s follow behind them. I want to know where they’re headed,” Hedon said. “Maybe they’ve found a way out of the night.”

A hopeful expression appeared on the faces of the Sprouts around him. If the Itakars had found a way out of this hell hole, they had better do the prudent thing and follow them from behind.

“Let’s pack up and leave immediately,” Hedon said and the team of Sprouts moved into action. They pulled down their tents and put out their campfire getting ready to leave.

“Weapons,” Murray whispered into his ear. Hedon looked around and saw everyone dropping whatever they were doing and materializing their weapons in hand. The Sprout was an annoying overprotective brat most of the time but he had his uses. Something must have spooked him.

Arkesha moved closer to him as he stood where he was. His teammates placed themselves strategically around him and Murray, his first protector, was in front of them all looking into the distance. Everywhere was dark so he couldn’t make out anything in the darkness ahead of them.

“What is it, Murray,” he asked his tall, muscular protector.

“Wolves… a pack of them,” Murray said.

“Can we beat them in battle,” Hedon asked. He hated seeking the opinion of others like this but Murray was older and more experienced than he was. And his father made the Sprout his first protector, which technically made him the leader of their group.

“No, we can’t. There are at least seven of them—wait… fuck!”

“What is it?!” Hedon asked as he felt something was about to go wrong.

An unholy growl split the air around them, causing his bones to shiver. He almost lost his stamina at that.

“It’s one of the teams from our world. The Shifters!”

“The impure!” Hedon spat.

“Don’t incite them, Hedon, we don’t want their wrath upon us!” Arkesha hissed.

More growls sounded around them, causing them to tighten their ranks. The growls felt like they shook the air and in turn his muscles and bones, causing his heart to beat faster in fear. He would remember this feeling for the rest of his life. But it dawned on him that it was a scare tactic.

They wanted them afraid.

That only made him more angry. “What the fuck is even all this?” he said, pushing his way out of the enclosure. “We’re Alvrics. And we don’t cower in fear at enemies.”

“Caution, Hedon,” Murray said, holding him back. “This landscape gives them the advantage in a fight. And I sensed more than just wolves among them. You’ve also just insulted them, so I can guess what they’ll do to you if they ever caught you.”

Hedon grumbled, annoyed at the facts laid before him. He couldn’t refute it. He’d read that Shifters packed more weight and muscles than the average Sacred artist, making them stronger and faster.

“What do we do then?”

“Get back in line. We wait for them to reveal their intentions. But we don’t strike first.”

Hedon scowled at the Sprout, incensed at the orders. He was the Alvric heir for heaven’s sake! But he did as he was told, unwilling to put himself at risk.

Someone came from the tree line toward them, unharmed. It was a girl from what he could see and she was dressed like the Shifters — patchwork leather armor that barely covered the important bits. He could sense her cycling as fast as she could in preparation for a mishap. She didn’t trust them.

And she was looking straight at him.

Her black eyes were filled with hatred. Her beautiful lips drawn into a thin line. Hedon had to admit she was very beautiful. Her glorious bust stood gallantly on her chest, full and almost busting out of their covering. He could almost feel himself sinking his hands into their tender flesh. She walked with a stiffness that did nothing to hide the sway of her wide hips and the swish of her long black hair as it scraped against the leather of her patchwork armor. If they had met in some other circumstance, he’d do all he could to woo her. She stopped ten paces away from them.

“Leave this place at once,” she said with unconcealed hatred and sauntered back into the woods.

“We’re leaving,” Murray said to the forest. “Everyone, make haste.”

His teammates began packing up again, this time with more urgency than before.

~~~

Tara

Watching from the shadows as the Alvrics made haste to leave, she felt a foreign feeling of power for the first time ever. The feeling was strange and filled her with euphoria. Coupled with the fact that she was the one to deliver the information to them. She didn’t delude herself into thinking she was powerful enough on her own to face Hedon Alvric — even though her anger toward him had only grown after coming face to face with him.

This caused her to be even more determined to take revenge for what he did to her family.

“He will pay for what he did,” she said, sensing Sheela a couple of steps behind her.

“He will, Tara… he will. But…” Sheela said, walking up to her. She looked at Tara, confused.

“How is it that I can speak now?” Tara completed for her, searching her eyes. She looked back at the Alvrics who were already leaving. “Seeing him… did something to me… I can’t explain it. I only know that the shock and fear made me cry out loud for the first time in three summers.”

Sheela wrapped her in a big hug. She needed that hug. And soon she began sobbing again. Sheela just held her silently as she sobbed.

“By the way,” Tara asked after she calmed down. “How are we getting out of here?”

The Shifters were already moving into the clearing and setting up their tents. Thankfully, they came with tents instead of foraging for wood for sheds. Terra Praeta was an unknown land, with unknown dangers, so they couldn’t risk it. They had already fought beings Sheela called ‘Children’. Imagine that. She’d raised children and those creatures were nothing like them.

“We overheard the Alvrics planning to follow another team. Perhaps Hedon thinks they found a way out of the night.” Tara raised her head to stare into Sheela’s golden orbs of eyes, her expression saying, ‘Shouldn’t we be following behind them too?’. Sheela shrugged. “We have better senses and have already tracked down an opening that would lead us out without much danger… and without drawing attention to ourselves.”

“Oh,” Tara said. This just frustrated her more, because she was always last to get information. She felt like a blind woman around the Shifters. They were able to scent the air and know things just from a single sniff. “If only I had a Shifter’s core.”

Sheela held her tighter. She was only a few fingers width taller than her, so Tara didn’t have to look up to meet her eyes. “Why was I chosen for this expedition, Sheela? I don’t believe it was because I am the only one most hungry for growth. I’ve seen the look in the eyes of the other Sprouts. They didn’t like it one bit.”

Sheela sighed. “Now that she can talk again, she won’t stop talking,” she murmured but smiled.

Tara smirked at her. They were still hugging each other. And Sheela squeezed her against herself even more, as if she would disappear any moment.

“I must say I’ve grown very attached to you,” Sheela said, sighing again. “I suppose it’ll be bad to keep this from you. But my mother received a guest from… I don’t really know where she lives. But the Divine Mother visited and—”

“Divine Mother?” Tara interrupted.

“Yes. And she instructed us to let you go with me to Terra Praeta.” Seeing the look on her face, Sheela must have noticed that she didn’t know who this ‘Divine Mother’ was.

“The Divine Mother is… There is a group of people called the Diviners. They’re like a nomadic cult that moves around Vorthe…”

~~~

Jerome and the Itakars walked many miles East stopping to rest from time to time. They sent scouts ahead of them and one of the scouts returned with news of a missing partner. The whole team took off to find out what happened.

“He went missing around here,” the scout said.

“Darryn is smart, Tega,” Trudhorn said. “He will survive. Trust him.”

Tega nodded, choosing to believe in his partner.

“Perhaps he chanced upon an exciting adventure!” Ajax exclaimed from up in the trees.

“Not now, Ajax,” Selene retorted, searching the grounds with the others for clues.

“Oh, but I am serious. There’s an adventure awaiting us!” Ajax exclaimed again and laughed.

Now everyone was beginning to get pissed. Selene would have loved to go up there and give her brother a good beating but she knew he was only trying to be hopeful.

“It’s incredible!” Jerome exclaimed. And everyone turned to him. He had climbed up the same tree at some point and was looking into the distance.

Everyone rushed up the tree to get a glimpse of what they were seeing and the sight took their breaths away. A tower far in the distance could be seen reaching up to the heavens. But a kind of heat haze clouded their vision, preventing them from seeing clearly. More important was the sky above the tower and beyond.

“Daylight!” Someone screamed. “It’s daylight!”

Joyous laughter filled the air as the team embraced themselves bouncing on the soles of their feet.

“It is incredible. The books mentioned something like this, yes?” Bram asked excitedly. “Ajax, ye read the books, yes?”

Ajax frowned and glared at Bram. “Selene read the books!”

Jerome looked from one friend to the other amazed. There were books written about this place and they didn’t bother reading them? They had access to knowledge about this place and just passed it to someone else. Jerome frowned but said nothing. It wasn’t his place to tell them what they should have done.

“The tower wouldn’t explore itself. We should move,” he said and got ready to jump down from the tree but nobody moved.

Everyone looked at him. And then at Selene. Jerome felt awkward for a bit but quickly schooled his features.

“Oh, my bad. Sorry,” he said. He wasn’t their leader.

Selene’s gaze was fixed on the tower, unblinking. Jerome could see recognition in her gaze, and hesitation. He wanted to ask about it but decided to wait since no one else was asking.

“It's called the Tower of Solon,” she said at last. “There wasn’t much information about it but it’s supposed to be a place filled with horrors and abomination.

“The records state that every treasure that could be found in it has been wiped clean,” she said and looked at them. They quickly lost interest after that. “It also stated that when you come across the Tower of Solon, you can’t avoid it.

“To move on, you have to conquer it.” she looked each and every one of them in the eyes.

“So we’re stuck in a loop. Quite possibly an illusion,” Jerome said.

“Until we conquer it,” Selene said to complete his words.

Everyone grumbled. This was a thankless job, a waste of time and resources… energy too.

“Can’t we just skirt around it?” Nia asked.

“It’ll always be in front of us no matter what direction we take,” Selene said, shaking her head. “The books said that the path to the Tower of Solon is a path well traveled.”

“I’m guessing that means a lot of people travel the path to this tower,” Bram said with a frown and Nia gave him a pointed look as if to say, ‘Duh’.

Bram’s statement was obvious but there was definitely more to that statement: a path well traveled.

“We still gotta find Darryn though,” Jerome said, reminding everyone of the reason they came this way in the first place.

They all jumped down and started towards the tower and Jerome got to work creating three more compasses with the thin strips of metal he cut out of the first one.

Ajax watched him work. Jerome held his hand out in front of him and a chunk of metal appeared out of thin air. It took the shape of a rounded square with a depression to hold water.

“That’s awfully weird,” Ajax said, slowing down to match his pace.

“Is it now?” Jerome smiled at him.

The older Sprout grumbled.

“I’m seventeen, you know?” Jerome said. “Not sixteen.”

“Makes no difference,” Ajax said with a frown, though his eyes were smiling. He extracted his sword from his storage ring and said, “My sword can cut through anything. Living steel or no.”

Jerome smiled. Ajax probably wanted to apologize for not caring about leaving him to face the giant Child.

“Just so you know, I’m fair in everything. So, I’ll give you the chance to hit first,” Ajax said.

And there we have it.

“Apology accepted,” Jerome said with a smile, and the older Sprout grumbled, walking away.