Ojy had looked after her later that day. She checked her vitals, and deemed her fit enough for the next school day, before sending her off to bed. Orphelia had been awake, and bored, but Lia was emotionally in no state to indulge her friend. She simply climbed into bed, wrapped herself tightly in her sheets, and did her best to fall asleep. That was probably the reason why Lia stared at Orphelia's face as soon as she woke.
"So?" her friend asked, uncomfortably close, "what happened yesterday?"
Lia sighed and slowly got up to get some distance between herself and Orphelia's face. "After exposing I have life mana, I got berated by Ludwig, and blasted him with my mana, when he called you 'just a donar'."
"That ... was nice of you. Thank you." Orphelia smiled. "I don't think it will change much, though."
Lia sighed in answer. Orphelia was right. "Let me get a shower and a change of clothes. I didn't get a day off."
"Sure!" Orphelia hopped from the bed and allowed Lia to do her stuff. Stuff that took her slightly more than half an hour, but that also gave her some of her energy back.
She rejoined her friend freshly showered and got dressed in a new set of robes.
"Do you think that yesterday will spread as new rumors?" Orphelia asked on the way to their group's meeting place.
"By the Origin Mother, I hope not." Lia sighed. "But I fear it will ..."
They turned around the corner and saw Robert and Eclaire whispering with one another. When the two imperi noticed them, they fell silent and looked far too obviously away from them, while still trying to catch a glimpse.
Lia and Orphelia joined them without saying a word. While Lia kept looking at the silver tree in the center of the dome, she noticed that Robert kept looking at her. Although she suspected that he would break the silence finally, the one who did was Eclaire: "Okay," she whispered with gritted teeth, "We want to know. No, we need to know. What was that yesterday? Why did the medical impera take you, of all people, with her to that emergency?"
Sighing, Lia turned away from the tree and looked rudehair directly in the eyes. "She needed something that I could provide."
"But you shouldn't be able to! You don't have any life mana! You have fire, air, spirit and darkness! You don't have any life mana!" It was a fierce whisper, almost loud enough that other people could hear.
"That's what you should keep secret!" Lia whispered back as fiercely as she could.
"So you really have five elements?" Robert asked. His whisper a bit more moderate, but he sounded excited.
Lia sighed. She looked back at the tree. Sooner or later they would find out. So she shook her head.
Both imperi looked at her questioningly. It took them a while to figure the implications out. Partly at least.
"So you have more than five elements?" Robert got eerily excited. His voice rose a few octaves during the question and she was sure that he would've jumped had he had a little less self-restraint. As it were, he was on his toes and leaned in, waiting for the answer.
Lia didn't give one and looked at the tree again. Life on the farms had been easier. It was harder to survive, but it was ... simpler.
Robert took that as a confirmation. "How many do you have?"
"You may learn this at some point," she began her answer. She hesitated for a moment, looking at the tree, convincing herself that she was telling it the secret and not her classmates. "Showing more than five elements is confirmation of having ... all of them."
There was a sudden silence. It was almost as if the whole station had heard her words, and the activity around them had ceased completely. But when she looked, there was no evidence of it ever having ceased. People still walked or rushed through the floor, and out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed Ludwig's approach.
When she turned to her imperi class mates, they had forgotten to close their mouths. Even their eyes were wide open, as if the secret was trying to escape through them again.
Eclair caught herself first, gulped and whispered: "So that's why we have to keep this a secret."
"I see you have already exchanged some knowledge," Ludwig said as he joined them. "Good. That saves me some explaining. For the duration of our field trip, Lia's elements will be fire, air, life and darkness. An unusual but still plausible combination." He grimaced, looking at her, and Lia lowered her gaze. "This change will be only known to you and the necessary station personnel. It will also be reversed as soon as we board the Aptenodyte."
No one answered, which is probably why Ludwig asked for confirmation in a stern voice once more: "Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir!" They all answered with a varying degree of enthusiasm. Lia sighed again. She was sure that this was a bandaid and that things would spread through the academy sooner or later. And then her life would become even more complicated.
"Are you the students that will accompany us on today's maintenance tour?" Lia turned to a group of people that were clad in blue overalls and blue robes. There were four people that were presumably non-mages, then two donar and lastly two imperi.
Ludwig had also turned around. "You're a bit early," he told the group.
"Of course we are. Our trip is on a very tight schedule, and there are a few things we have to make clear first."
"Ah, yes." Ludwig cleared his throat. "Pleased to meet you. I am Ludwig from the crystal academy, and these are Eclaire Centauri, Robert Solace, Lia Eo and Orphelia Deimos."
"Suri Arietis," the man in front of the group introduced himself, then he pointed to the rest and quickly named each and every one of them. It was too fast for Lia to remember them all. "As for today's program: We'll lead the way through the maintenance and media canals that are build below the station's main dome and connecting corridors. You are not to set foot where we don't explicitly allow you to go. You will heed the word of me, my donars, and my non-mage employees. No matter what happens, or whether you are a donar, an imperi or a teacher at a prestigious academy. Do I make myself clear?"
Lia nodded, as did the rest of the students. Only Ludwig didn't seem pleased. Still, he finally acquiesced. "Very well. We accept."
"Good. Failure to do so may expose any one of you to space itself, and that isn't known to be merciful." He turned around and waved. "Now come. You'll get some blue robes, and then you'll have to suit up!"
***
Roughly an hour later, Lia was in a space suit and walked some kind of twisted way the maintenance crew called the Möbius strip. They were already in some kind of airlock, and the atmosphere was evacuated from the room with pumps - not with magic.
When they reentered the station below ground-level and upside down, Lia understood. Since the station had to generate its own gravity, it was easier to reuse the ground-level gravity than try to build an extra layer for these tunnels. Not to mention that the gravity on the station would probably be stronger everywhere these tunnels would run through. The thin tunnels very just wide enough to allow them to pass through, next to several pipes and thick cables.
"These are used to provide the station everywhere with water, electricity and warmth," Suri Arietis explained through the intercom that was built into their suits. "It would spell disaster for parts of the station, if any of these were to break."
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
"Is there a reason these could break?" Robert inquired.
"We're in an asteroid belt and the station's built onto an asteroid. It's structure is constantly assaulted by changing tidal forces. That can lead to cracks forming in the rock. The asteroid won't break because of that, but falling rocks may still damage the pipes or cables."
With that question out of the way, they walked through the rough hewn tunnels below the station. The pipes were mounted below the station floor and held with clasps in place. When they passed tunnel exits, Lia could see ... down at the stars below her. She had to remind herself that there was no gravity where the station's floor ended and that they were walking upside down. These were the only places where she could notice the strangeness of what they were doing.
While they seemed to walk the whole perimeter of the station, and a few tunnels back and forth, Robert kept asking questions she didn't pay attention to. Instead she wondered how her life would change, now that her secret was out. Would she receive some kind of special treatment? Would her classmates resent her even more? Maybe she could use that to clear up the misunderstanding of her relationship with Ludwig. That the secrecy was needed, and she still needed private lessons for her other colors. It was close to the truth of what had happened, after all.
"You'll find maintenance tunnels and shafts everywhere," cut impero Arietis's voice through her thoughts. "They're on every space station, on every space ships. You'll find them in larger buildings on moons and planets. I know of instances where people have been smuggled through these tunnels to escape angry mobs. But I also know that they can be used by pirates to get into places they're not supposed to be in. Which is why there's always heightened security around these." He gestured at the door to the air lock behind him.
"That concludes our tour. Has anyone of you still questions?"
Arietis nodded as no one spoke up, turned around and punched a code into an old-school number plate. Of course they couldn't use any form of palm recognition in a space suit. When the door to the air lock opened, Lia was glad that it was over. At first, moving around in the space suit had been novel, but now muscles in her leg protested that she didn't knew she had.
"I am looking forward to your reports on the maintenance of a space station, especially on what to do with unexpected fissures," Ludwig said, and Lia gulped. She looked to Orphelia and hoped that the other girl had paid attention. She could see her friend raise an eyebrow through the glass shield of the space suit. Lia put her palms together in a pleading gesture.
Orphelia let her stew far too long, before she nodded and moved her lips without using the intercom. That took a load off of her mind that she hoped wouldn't damage any pipe below the station, before she followed the rest of them over the Möbius strip and back into the main dome.
***
After an evening session compiling and comparing - or rather copying - notes, Lia quickly fell asleep. Her sleep was dreamless and when she awoke, her muscles felt sore. She couldn't remember when she'd last felt that way.
Fighting to get up and out of bed she got ready for their last day of the field trip. The last day she'd spend in normalcy. After that, things would undoubtedly change. A change she dreaded.
"Good morning," Orphelia greeted her from above. "Do you feel sore as well?" Lia nodded in answer. "How do you think the other three are feeling?"
"Even though I'd like to be an impera, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes today," she answered with a smile.
Orphelia snickered. "I know what you mean." Her friend then slowly climbed down to ground level, rubbing her legs. "I think all people working in maintenance know what they've done at the end of the day."
"That's so true," Lia answered with a sigh.
"I wonder how they're facilitating gravity on the station." Orphelia changed the topic. "It's a continuous effect. Do they have one of these strange beds for imperi, too?"
"That would be interesting. Then there would be a job where imperi are treated as donar as well." Lia grinned, imagining the scene in her head. "Maybe they're kissed awake at the end of their work day, like in those old fairy tales."
Orphelia laughed at that, then added: "They're often acting princess-y enough, as it is."
Lia smiled broadly at the comment, slipping a fresh robe over her head. "Please, don't ever change."
Orphelia tilted her head. "Why would I?"
"Because ..." she trailed off. It was another secret, one that would stay that way.
"I am still young, but I don't think I'll ever forget where I came from." Orphelia tapped her on the shoulder. "Let's go."
Lia nodded and followed her to their usual meeting point. This time, they were first. That told them, how bad it had to be for the others. Ludwig was the one that arrived first at the meeting point. Robert and Eclaire came a few long minutes after that.
"Sir van Ragd?" Eclaire asked, "Is there a way to heal sore muscles with magic?"
"There is." He had a grim smile on the lips. "But we don't waste rare magic on these frivolous things. You'll get better by yourselves."
"Ugh. This. Is. Torture."
"We grow with the burdens we manage to overcome, Miss Centauri. I am sure you can easily overcome a few sore muscles." With that he turned away, hiding a grimace from her. "Let's go. We're late."
They moved from the central dome to another dome, located in the middle of the ones they had visited already, like the geometric center of an equilateral triangle.
When they were let into the life support dome, they were greeted by an impera with green hair, pale skin, and black rouge. If Lia had to find a term for her looks, she would be a goth hippie. Or a hip gothic? She shook her head.
"Welcome to the life support station," the woman said in a voice that was flatter than her family's fields. "My name is Anita Borealis." Lia was curious as to whether their theory was correct, so she got on her toes and tried to look past Ludwig and the impera. There were more trees in the dome, then the obligatory beds closer to the center and a large black table at the middle that was partly hidden by a black mist wafting off of it.
"We're from the Crystal Academy," Ludwig began, but Miss Borealis raised a hand. "I know. Frankly, I am not interested in your names. We won't see each other again after today."
Ludwig's look was priceless. Their instructor didn't know how to react to that brazen statement.
"Anyways, let's start the tour," the impera said and led them away from the center of the dome to the outer rim. Lia tried to find out more about the table, but it was soon lost behind a wall of trees.
"As much as magic is helping us in certain aspects, it's unable to split carbon dioxide back into carbon and oxygen. That's what the trees and these machines are for," the impera explained and pointed at large grey boxes that had a lot of wiring and pipes going into them. "We're recycling everything. The waste products of your body are collected, and the water is extracted. The trees get a bit of fertilizer, the water is subjected to electrolysis to create oxygen and hydrogen,the hydrogen is used with your carbon dioxide to produce water and methane ..."
Lia trailed off as the impera rattled on about the complex systems that were intertwined with the power generator just to keep the crew and visitors of the station alive. All of that because the trees just weren't enough to provide everyone with enough oxygen. They were also reliant on constant shipments of more water, although once every few months was enough, since the system was very sophisticated.
"Of course I could create oxygen with magic as well," the Impera suddenly said, "it's reserved for absolute emergencies. I can use light and dark donars to create matter from magic, which are usually only a few liters before the donars are exhausted. Certainly not enough to keep the whole station running, but rather a stop gap measure to buy the maintenance team time to get the backup system up and running before the main system is repaired."
"So, all these great accomplishments," Lia said, her voice barely above a whisper, "are not due to magic, but simple engineering?"
"I wouldn't call it simple," the impera answered flatly, "but you're right. Magic has been used to easily construct these things, and to optimize processes, but at least life support needed in-depth knowledge on physics, chemistry and other sciences."
"Which is why those are part of your curriculum at the academy after you have mastered the basics of magic." Ludwig looked at her, as if he wanted her to keep her mouth shut.
"Then how is gravity generated? Is that also engineering?"
"No," the impera actually turned toward the forest. "At least on the Crystal Citadel and here on Foresteri, it's magic."
"How does it work?" Lia's question got another look from Ludwig, though this time it seemed friendly, almost ... approving.
"I can't tell you the specifics," the impera said, and walked toward the trees, "but I can show you."
They wove through the trees and closed in on the table. The black mist fell from the table to the floor, and even the metallic lines seemed to be black. A shiver ran over Lia's spine as she was reminded of her dreams with the gate. She almost expected a snake to slither in the darkness upon the table, but there was nothing.
"Gravity is one of the few magics that imperi managed to automate," Anita Borealis whispered. "Donar can pour their darkness magic into this table, which is a larger and more complicated version of the training discs at the academy, and the station gets gravity everywhere the metallic lines reach."
"Then it's possible for donar to cast magic without imperi?" Lia gasped at the realization.
"Yes and no," the impera answered. "Stable effects can only be achieved with large scale installations such as this. So as a donar you'd always have to have a space station or a space ship on you, if you want to be a mobile caster. In most cases it's just not practical."
Lia sighed. Of course it wasn't easy to have simple, portable instructions for the mana she was carrying around. She looked back at the table and the black mist wafting off of it. "One more question," she finally said, staring at the darkness in front of her. "Where is the black mist coming from?"
"We suspect it's a by-product of this method of casting magic. We need roughly ten percent more mana creating gravity this way than with an imperi doing the work. But an imperi can't keep up with the strain for more than an hour, and since we don't have that many gravity or darkness mages, and the mist is harmless, we're doing it like this."
"Isn't that putting extra strain on the donar?" she asked.
"It is. But providing mana is less strainful to donar, than weaving an effect out of it is for imperi."
Lia looked at Orphelia for confirmation, but her friend simply shrugged. She had to ask her in private about this.