Seed 16

June 22nd, 2032.

I scowled as I walked back and forth. Still bitter and wound up by the events of yesterday. I hadn't liked how it had ended at all. Hadn't liked the pain in Dinah’s eyes. Hadn't liked what I had seen from that spirit. I could still see those children burning alive. So I sat down on the couch, and started to draw using the coffee table for my glyph papers.

The images were etched into my mind. I could barely hold my hands steady as I began to draw a glyph array. It was a hieroglyphic language, made up of dashes and little circles. Glyphs could be combined into new words, into sentences, and sequences of coherent information. It made me think of kanji oddly enough, how they were made up of radicals with their own meanings. From a dictionary standpoint.

Frazo and engua, fire and water. I drew the array, and tapped it freely. Steam leaped from the circle. I felt my influence reach into the conjured steam. Steam, steam just like—

I felt nausea and dissipated the spell, leaning back into the couch with a bitter taste in my mouth. I could hear claws scrambling on the ground, and my lap was suddenly filled by the precocious demon child known as Arali.

He stretched like a cat, his long body letting his head nestle into my shoulder. I smiled despite myself, as his weight kept me present mentally.

“Stop being sad.” He bapped my face and I sighed and placed my chin on his weird snake-bird head.

“It's not that easy, little man.” I held him close, enjoying the contact. He was a soft boy. “I saw… things I don't think I can forget.”

“Well I’m here, you make good snacks and listen to my knowledge of sociopolitics.” He thrust his nose up and I simply patted his head with a faint grin.

“You’re a very clever political scholar, and I enjoy listening. Keeps me sharp on what's up.”

Arali grumbled. “I wish I knew more, we could have done more about Dinah. But written texts only give me so much.”

I nodded. “You did your best, and I still know way more than nothing at all. I know the political landscape a lot better now, even if a hundred and twenty taifa is hard to keep track of.”

Honestly, it was like keeping track of townships and counties. Tedious but not impossible.

“You only really need to deal with sixteen in Danab, and I've been to other taifa like Glabrous.” Glabrous was one of the closest taifa to Caudalann, operating on the northwestern shore of the Boiling Sea. They were a slightly smaller kingdom, covering twelve hundred square kilometers and holding about fifty-four thousand people.

They were a trading kingdom, acting as the intermediaries between Caudalann and the other taifa due to their large flying boat fleet and complex river system.

“I've been to Glabrous before, the leading tribula has carved their way into a mountain that's an entryway into the Depths.”

I let out an undignified squeak when I heard Althea’s voice. Who was on the left side of the couch, legs folded back as she watched me freak out.

“When did you get here?” I asked with a strangled cough.

“I came with you, remember, after what happened? I… didn't want to leave you alone.” Althea had a shy smile on her face, and I felt my chest tighten.

Oh.

Arali snootily turned his head. “Celia needs a hug, you better give it to her wolfwalker.”

I flushed. “Arali!”

The little bastard giggled. “It's true though, hugs are nice.”

Althea shook her head with a fond look. “Only if she wants me to, it has to be her choice.” The wolf witch just gave me an expectant look… and I knew I couldn't say no. Her hugs were warm, and made me feel safe…

“Fine. Give me a hug, but I'm not moving a muscle.” I was just not in the mood after walking in circles for an hour.

I knew I made a mistake when I saw the triumphant look in her eyes, and yelped like a dumbass when I was pulled by my hips. My skin was scorched by the warm hands of Althea as she carefully lifted me by the hips.

I was promptly placed on her lap. I felt embarrassed by how I wiggled over her firm thighs. Arali was climbing my shoulder, stretching his dumb feathered body and I sighed.

Althea wrapped her arms around my waist, and I became hyper-aware of her touch. I didn't… it felt like I was on fire, but a pleasant one, a rising heat spreading across my body. Arali leaped off my shoulder and back onto the couch, curling up where I had been sitting.

My friend rested her chin on the top of my head, and softly growled. My body rumbled with the weight of her sound, and I blushed hard.

“How are you feeling now?” Althea murmured into my neck and a pleasurable shiver ran down my spine. It felt good to be held close like this, to be shown naked affection with no hesitation.

“I-I-I…” I cleared my throat, rubbing my chin. “Didn't expect you to be so… affectionate.”

“Werewolves are very affectionate people, Celia. It's in our blood, to various levels between individuals. I haven't had any friends to love in years, but I know you're not comfortable with touch.” Her mumbles were surprisingly clear. “I only had my family… but I was always a disappointment with how I couldn't do magic the right way.”

I let myself relax as I listened to my friend vent, sinking into her embrace. “I… don't hate being touched, I'm just not good at receiving it.” I whispered to her as I got comfortable. “My mama is good at keeping to most of my boundaries… others not so much.”

Some thought it was funny how I tensed and ‘spazzed out’ when I was touched unexpectedly. Or said it was just a little affection, and it wouldn't kill me to be normal. Or that I was being rude and disrespectful… or lying about it.

Althea looked at me. “Sorry, if I was a little pushy.”

A crooked smile was on my face. “You asked, and I did set myself up to get picked up. It's nice.” I lowered my arms, settling them on top of Althea’s own very buff ones.

The wolf hummed happily. “That’s good, been wanting to cuddle you for a while,” I felt oddly happy at the sentiment in her statement. “You’re very soft, and I love cuddling with my friends.”

I nodded. “It… helps a lot, thank you for this. And you said you've been to Glabrous?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Tell me about it—”

The door to the house flung open with a cry, Ultima charging through.

“Who wants to go to Glabrous!”

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The day was fading into false dusk studded with stars. Massive heavy clouds of aeroplankton dancing across the skies. It was a multicolored burning stream of light, like the entire firmament was covered in fire. Burning Skies was a good name for this special day. I was definitely mesmerized by all the colors of the light.

If it wasn't for the fact I was holding onto Althea as Ultima flew us towards the taifa of Glabrous. My arms were firmly gripping her stomach, and I could feel her abs. Holy shit you could grind meat on those…

“Celia?” Althea barked over the wind.

“I'm good.” My voice cracked painfully, as I looked down at the ground below, covered in rolling fields periodically dotted with trees, and river streams heading towards the ocean.

I could faintly see the outlines of jaario draped across sources of water, and surrounded by crop fields and pasture.

It was a sea of red and orange tentacle-grass, strange planimal organisms that evolved from arthropod-like creatures. They were whip-like creatures, like tube worms. Their beady eyes at the end of their stalks guided the mandibles hidden under flower-like sheathes.

They were edible but dangerous, able to chew through flesh with their jaws, and if uprooted could whip around rapidly in short bursts.

“Why exactly are we in Glabrous, Ultima?” Althea asked my mentor, holding on with her arms instead of gripping onto Ultima. My balance on flying things was bad.

“As you can see by the light show over our heads, today is Burning Skies and that means big huge swarms of aerial beasts stuffing themselves with cosmic energies.” Ultima explained with a flourish, Arali hanging onto her back. “I wanted to show you something amazing and incredible about magic, take your mind off things.”

My smile curdled, and I wordlessly clung tighter to Althea.

I had seen the last moments of children, murdered at the hands of monsters in ‘human’ form. I had seen someone remarkably like Dinah stand and fight to the last breath against the monstrous king who ruled this land.

I had looked up that even in a local library, and it was written that the Frazoiyo clan had been murdered by dark magic and evil witches about a century and a half ago.

There was only a sole survivor of the atrocity. The dragoness Aclima who was the grandmother of Dinah. She had rebuilt the clan herself, having half a dozen hatchlings who in turn married partners who joined her clan. Even so, the numbers of the clan had been winnowed by wars with other taifa, and an ongoing conflict with a feral species of plast.

On Earth, macroscopic life could be divided into animal, plant and fungus. In this realm, there were also plasts and rigid. Plasts are carbon-based entities that can produce and digest plastic compounds, complex polymers infused into their biology.

Rigids were… even more exotic, made of self-replicating patterns of inorganic entities, something like living machines. I had seen only a few before, which was basically a herd of grazing wheels who could move at one hundred miles per hour without tapping into their khi and could hit several hundred with it.

They tended to live in their own habitats, metallic and crystalline karsts which covered a tenth of Calafia. Pretty places, but also unsuitable for organic life.

“Are we going high up like before?” I asked, not wanting to voice the darker thoughts at the back of my mind.

Ultima turned back to face me, lips curling upwards into a fierce grin. “Yep, and we’re going up in style.”

She thrust her head up and sang a haunting cry, a shifting array of notes, of sharps and flats and majors and minors, infused with magic and soul. Althea let out a growl as the magic spread across the air.

And something answered back.

A cloud parted before the bulk of something enormous, and I choked at the sight.

It was an enormous rounded creature, resembling nothing more than a gigantic organic blimp. Its skin was counter-shaded with a pale white underside and midnight blue on top, with a frontal end covered in a dozen membranous tentacles. Like a cross between a whale, a cuttlefish, a zeppelin, and a sailboat. With the big sails on its back steering it toward us.

It was twice the length of a blue whale, and likely weighed dozens of tons, floating using a combination of aerostatic and dynamic life along with potent magic to enhance both.

Ultima whistled, and the massive creature eagerly flew towards us, sails twisting and turning to catch air. “As I said, we're flying in style.”

My mentor really was a crazy bitch huh?

Guess I was just as crazy for following her anyways.

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Turns out that being nine kilometers in the air is a terrifying experience. I could see layers of aeroplankton going far higher. I recalled reading articles back on Earth about scientists finding microbes up to forty kilometers in the air.

Stolen novel; please report.

Touching the teflon skin of the blimp-whale told me enough about the creature’s adaptations to UV radiation. The high atmosphere was the playground of plasts and rigids, feeding off cosmic radiation, atmospheric electricity, and dust falling from space.

“There are so many! A tad unseasonable!” Althea laughed breathlessly, as pods of blimp-whales dove through the clouds of plankton that gave the sky its color. They had all changed color, to dark red and light pink.

It made sense to me, oxygen producers didn't go past about twenty kilometers due to lack of water. But most lingered at less than half of that where they could feed on clouds and atmospheric rivers. So the sky would regain its natural blue tint, after a certain point, necessitating a different form of countershading.

The Woven Realm’s knowledge of the ecosystem was way more extensive than one would expect, usually involving sending a magical creature that could fly up there and come back.

“I think biologists back home would kill to see this sight,” I said honestly, watching as the sky danced with colors. “I can see the shapes the swarms are taking to feed off of cosmic energy.”

They formed strange rows of patterns, some broken and some not, and sparks of energy flicked on and off as power poured into them. Wait are those…

“Rune threads,” Ultima confirmed with a smile in her voice. “Microscopic things don't have much in the way of magic, aside from being able to feed on it, or enhancing their physical abilities. But shrouds of these things can certainly work together to do more.”

I perked up in realization. “They can already feed on magic, that's a spell. They're using the rune threads to program it to more efficiently feed on cosmic magic!”

“Bingo,” Ultima confirmed. “Swarms like this stuff themselves with energy, and then can be harvested and transformed into crystals infused with magic.” She explained while pulling smaller globules into a bag.

“How?”

“Mix algae mush with titanium powder and slime gel, cook at a few hundred degrees for five hours. I think you humans call it a perovskite?”

So that confirmed them being red algae, both due to the color and the presence of a calcareous shell common among their lineage. Arali let out a hostile hiss, and I could see the blimp-whales flashing light at each other, something was wrong.

Althea’s ears twitched. “They’re afraid, there's something here… something dangerous to them.”

There was no warning besides a haunting whistle.

Our ride lurched as the air broke and shattered. My hands moved faster than my mind as I cast a shield of void, as the hyper-accelerated wind cut through the skies. It slammed against the shield with a sound like a bomb being muffled.

“Fuck. We have Howling Ires on the prowl.” She had her staff in hand as our ride continued to lurch.

“Howling Ires?” I asked as the hairs on the back of my neck rose, and my stomach lurched.

“Predatory atmospheric beasts, fast and powerful hunters that use the wind as weapons. Like your Earth sharks with mandibles, and able to dive bomb at incredible speeds to launch compressed air bombs that can cut buildings in half.” Ultima explained.

Oh fuck.

“We need to leave now.” Althea stood up, pulling me onto my feet while Ultima sat on her staff. Gesturing us to sit. “They hunt in packs and their attacks can tear a witch to ribbons.”

Althea whispered something to the whale as we got on, and it let out a call to its pod. It began to fly in formation with the other whales and we stepped off to head elsewhere.

The air was filled with noise and sound, my organs vibrating under the haunting call of whatever lurked around us.

“GET DOWN!”

I was rattled as we shot off like a bullet, as half a dozen shapes dove from above, the air cracking violently. My ears were ringing, and I could barely react as even more howling furies made their wrath known.

A blimp-whale screamed as plasticine flesh was parted cleanly, skin tearing apart at the seams. It twisted and lurched, and screamed as a half dozen beasts latched onto it like cookie-cutter sharks.

I never saw the wind blast coming, and I was thrown off the staff to fall to the ground below.

“CELIA!”

The last I saw as I passed out was Ultima blasting magic as she fought off the haunting shapes hunting us.

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Everything hurts.

I groaned at my first conscious thought. Rubbing my head as I wondered how I was still alive. I had fallen from the sky, from god knows how high. But rather than being a pile of red scattered across the unforgiving ground, I was a bruised girl on a log.

“Log?” I glanced down to find I indeed was sitting on a log, one of the dozens laid out across a red field. Rhodophytes?

The log was stony, more like a grooved shell than bark, and I turned—

And found a beak larger than my head poking at my face.

A scream was strangled in my throat, as I was pushed back by the three-fingered talons of a griffin. And not the dog-sized griffins that were used like four-legged turkeys, but a real true griffin.

It was massive, five meters long from beak to tail feathers, and utterly majestic. A rectangular avian head and neck covered in iridescent black feathers. With a ring of white feathers, and piercing blue-gray eyes stared back at me. The griffin slinked forward, using its folded glossy black wings as legs. Which was what gave it such a feline profile. Its body was black with a glorious dappling of violet-blue and gold. Its long feathery tail ended in a display of copper-brown and white stripes.

I stared at it between its nostrils, trying not to panic. Oh, that characteristic head shape… like a caenagnathid, a quadrupedal oviraptor.

The griffin let out guttural roars, like a lion and yet not, like an eagle but not. Bouncing off the trees with booming echoes. Its eyes were terrifying, narrowed to slits as it circled around me, a predatory gleam that pulled at my fight-or-flight instincts.

And then to my surprise, that deadly gaze relaxed moment by moment, and the griffin sat down on its haunches. Head tilted wildly, feathers ruffling with the motion.

“Umm. Hi?” I waved at the very odd creature, and that seemed to excite her, it had to be her. Males have crests. “Where… were you the one who saved me?”

I should be dead… but I wasn't, and this griffin was here not trying to kill me.

To my shock, she nodded, understanding my gesture. How intelligent could animals get in this world?

The griffin bounced, gravity barely having a grasp on her. Griffins were beasts of the air and sky, so it made sense to me. She hopped over and pulled me by my cloak, holding her head up high. ‘I did good, didn't I?’ was screaming from her body language.

“Did you catch me?” She nodded again, and shifted her wings in a circular motion, spinning out a cushion of air. I smiled carefully at the friendly being. “Griffins are beings of Air, but that's not an element I have yet.”

I had a good feeling learning the Elements was key to better understand magic, I already had four. Completing the traditional tetrad was important, I just knew it.

“Celia!” I yelped when my golm-speaker rang with Althea’s voice overlaid over a roaring wind and haunting whistles. “Are you there? Are you okay? We— you daft bastards can go fuck yourselves!”

I paled. “Oh. They're being targeted by dive-bombing monsters capable of slicing buildings in half.”

I need to do something.

I held my amulet tightly and stared down the griffin. “Can you take me to my friends? They're in grave danger and I have to help them!” My voice was bordering on hysterics, body vibrating, and heart pulsing in my ears.

Not again… I can't do this again.

The griffin stared at me, almost in disapproval and it was like a lightbulb lit up in my head. I took a deep shaky breath, in and out, out and in, letting the cool air invigorate and soothe my shot nerves. My shaking ceased, but it took another minute, and I felt tired but no longer so… foggy headed.

“Can you help me now?” I can't believe I was talking to a wild animal like this, but the Woven Realm was a strange place.

She pointed her beak towards the edge of the island, leading down thousands of meters. The magical creature stood up on her hind limbs, unfolding her glorious wings, which were eight meters from wingtip to wingtip. From my estimate at least, I tended to just compare things to my own height.

She brought down her wings in a downstroke, and a windstorm spread outwards. I was nearly tossed on my ass, but managed to keep my footing. But she didn't stop, shaping the winds with her feathers, throwing around dirt and dust until it—

Oh.

“This is becoming a pattern.” I said, backing away to view the image written into the dirt. It was a circle as usual, but with a squat upward parabola linked to its north pole.

A glyph, it had to be.

I pressed my left palm, and summoned a twisting mass of fire. I took a deep breath, feeding the flame further, and shaping those threads of fine khi. Until it became a solid pen of fire, and I branded the new glyph into my right palm’s bracer.

“Hot, hot, hot!” I let out a squeak, and pushed out the heat with my control. Oops.

I… carefully repeated the same action with my left hand, without almost burning myself. I sapped the heat, pouring it into the air until the last of the fire magic was spent.

I tapped the new glyphs and air twisted around me, caressing my face. I could feel the wind right back, like a friend greeting me.

Before I could blink, I was tackled by my griffin friend and tossed on her back as she vaulted a hundred feet in a single bound.

“Holy—”

I let out a squeal as the griffin shot up like a rocket, wings, and magic shaping the winds.

She screamed in delight while I screamed in terror.

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I could hear the whistling of the howling ires and the characteristic shockwave of magic twisting reality. Griffin (didn't feel like coming up with a name), was cutting through the air at incredible speed.

We had passed a cloud twenty times her body length in under a second. A poor estimate frankly, but it was better than nothing. We could cross the Isles in hours.

But we had something more important to do.

I cast a barrier around myself and breathed as Ultima told me to do.

I could see the battle now, so I had to strategize and had to think about how to fight the enemy standing before me. Metaphorically. The enemy had no legs.

Four opponents, each capable of dive bombing at borderline supersonic speeds and cutting long-range bomb attacks.

“Think of them like they're living World War Two bombers,” I muttered aloud. “They fire off air bombs, using their dives to provide greater accuracy. They declined with the rise of precision-guided munitions and anti-air defenses. Rockets…”

Void was the crown, which could shape and direct the other elements.

I clapped my hands, and void and fire wildly blended together in my mind’s eye. Wisps of pale spirit, and knots of copper and crimson fire warped and folded over one another. Help me, be the channel I need.

I breathed, and the fire around my hands grew larger, as I felt the energy and compressed it. Each breath I took, the fire grew larger and hotter and I let it build and charge.

I could see Ultima lasting out with a blast of light, cutting apart another howling ire. It detonated violently as its gaseous insides were blown out. But there were always more, their bulging eyes frenzied.

“Go high, I've got this.” I muttered to the griffin I was riding who obeyed and took off over a hundred feet in mere heartbeats.

Two flames met in the middle, twisting together into a single Gordian knot of energies, held tight by pale void.

Hold, fuse, compress, and throw.

Right as I heard the haunting diving whistle. I struck, and a missile of blinding fire burst forward.

It swung in a violent but directed arc, right at the instant another howling ire attacked Ultima from behind. The creature practically disintegrated into burning masses of jelly.

My instincts screamed and I pressed down on air and void with a smirk, and I formed a flat plane of air and froze it solid inside a barrier. A second howling ire shattered its body on the barrier and fell away into the clouds.

Griffin sped forward until we were head-to-head with Ultima, Arali, and Althea.

“Hello there!” I greeted the surprised trio with a cheeky grin. I formed a second void-flame, and tossed a spear of sun into a third monster’s face. “I think it's high time we get out of here right?”

Griffin let out a cry and tossed me onto the staff, Althea catching me with a surprised yelp.

Ultima just smiled. “Glad to see you still kicking, please don't scare me like that again.”

“I'll do my best but again, we've got to go.” I pointed to Griffin too, since I wanted her to be safe too.

Ultima shook her head. “I think I've made you a bit crazy.”

I snorted as we raced away from the battle, shadowed by the griffin. “Sorry but mama said I was always a crazy baby.”

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I watched the griffin who had followed us home breath deeply, curling up in a feline fashion. She had taught me about the glyph of Saru, of Air. She had fought to help me protect my friends and family— my mentor and her kid.

She had followed us all the way back to Caudalann. Then curled up in the hollow of a tree inside Ultima’s protection where we wouldn't see her. I don't know how I knew she had followed us, but she was here.

I shook my head with a smile. “If you're going to stick around, I think I'll give you a name. How does Reyna sound?”

The griffin cracked an eye open and lolled her head in a lazy nod. I giggled, Reyna, it is.

Most griffins in Calafia were turkey griffins, a small primitive species that was rather stupid and rather tasty. Often preyed upon by other griffins, though less so as griffins had become scarce over the centuries. She was alone, after the witches of Calafia had thrown them away because of the Chantry.

I came to a decision.

“I have to talk with Dinah about what we saw.” There was more going on here, hidden and buried and censored.

And Dinah was a lot of things, but she wasn't a monster. And I don't know how safe she was… if that girl was her grandmother how much danger was she in?

I had to do something.

I just had to figure out what that something was.