Lia’s comment hung in the air, and the only sound was that of the stream murmuring, as if shocked by her comment.
“What did you see?” Orphelia naturally wanted to know more. Lia took a deep breath and told her friend about the possible future. Of the attack on EDEN, on Ormo’s home. She even described the station that hung in the blackness of space, surrounded by imperial ships.
“We were still on board, and witnessed the fight.”
“So he thinks that we’re the reason that the empire’s attacking their home?” Orphelia turned away from her and looked at the pirate captain.
“General Horologii knew that you were with us. He came at us with full force and only then tried to negotiate for your return.” Ormo shook his head, while he opened his fist and closed it once more. “It won’t be happenstance that they’ll find us. They came at us with you two as goal in mind.”
“What will you do now?” Lia couldn’t help but feel a shiver run down her spine. “Especially since Amir is hunting for you?”
“I’ll do what every time mage does with the knowledge they’ve acquired by looking into the future. I try to change it.” Ormo grimaced. “Just knowing, and having you two witness it, will change something. But I am sure that’s not enough.”
“Then you’ll bring us home?” If they were the reason that the empire clamped down on them, then removing them from the picture would certainly help.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Ormo shook his head. “The Crystal Citadel wouldn’t allow us to get close, and even if they did, they wouldn’t allow the Lagrange to leave.” He smiled, while the look in his eyes exuded sadness. “We also still need your help.”
“But what are you going to do then?”
“I’m going to find out, how they found us.” He slowly rose from the pillow. “There’s no way that that was a coincidence. Which is why I think they’ve bugged you.” His green eyes seemed to glow while looking directly at Lia.
“They bugged me?” She followed the urge and patted her robe. “So they heard everything you said?”
“Not that type of bug.” He shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment. “They’ve probably put a hyperspace locator on you.”
“You mean … like a hyperspace beacon?” Orphelia almost stood.
“Yes, and no.” Ormo slowly walked around the table. “A hyperspace beacon is a pretty large device, the size of this room, if not larger.” He stopped behind Lia. “A hyperspace locator can be …” He patted the robe around her neck and retrieved something from it. “… the size of a button.”
“But when …?” Lia’s question trailed off and she remembered how Ludwig had straightened all of their robes. That was probably when he had put the locator on her. But why? Had he foreseen all of this? Or had he really seen all of this in a vision? A vision she had unwittingly forced on him in the medical bay.
Ormo walked back around the table and sat back on his pillow, the locator still in hand.
“That’s when …” Orphelia had come to the same realization as her.
“Bridge do captain. The only reachable hyper space beacon close to us is U1E.”
Ormo bit his lower lip, and took another deep breath. “Get us there and leave hyper space. If we keep our distance to it, we should be fine, and there’s a chance the empire won’t follow us there.”
“What’s at U1E?” Lia asked.
“A place that no sane captain visists. Ever. It’s known as Fornax’s Grave.”
The announcement alone sent shivers down her spine.
“Fornax’s Grave?” Orphelia leaned slightly closer to Lia.
“Fornax was the last emperor that tried to reach the eleventh element, to ascend to godhood.” Ormo took another deep breath and close his eyes. “It’s the place where he tried, and failed.” When neither Lia nor Orphelia answered, Ormo continued. “U1E is known as the Bermuda Sector, a place that’s avoided by everyone. Only a few Generals and we FAE know its true origins.”
“Why is it avoided?” Orphelia sounded alarmed.
“Because, something was left behind by that attempt.” Ormo slowly rose. “It’s best I show you.” He balled his fist around the locator, walked around the table and left the room. Lia and Orphelia looked at each other before following him.
The way to the bridge was pretty short, probably the privilege of being the captain of the vessel. When Lia entered the bridge, she immediately recognized it from the vision she had been in just prior. So they were still on the same ship. And the bridge was rather modern looking.
Ormo went past a crew member and handed her something. “Fit this locator into a probe. I want to leave it here.” The woman nodded, then got up and left the bridge at a brisk pace.
“You want to leave the locator at U1E?” Lia asked, unsure what to feel about it.
“If they’re really so moronic to come here, because they think we’re hiding here, rather than us having found the locator, then they deserve to deal with the consequences.” Ormo walked past her and sat in the center most chair. “ETA to arrival?”
“What consequences?” Lia slowly turned around to the captain once more.
“Thirty seconds.” The answer of one of the crew interrupted her.
“That’s how long until you know …” Ormo didn’t even turn to her, while he stared at the black HTVs in front. “You know what you have to do as soon as we’re back in normal space?”
“Yes, sir,” the crew answered, which sent shivers down Lia’s spine.
“We’ve reached the beacon. Returning to normal space,” someone announced, and a moment later the displays came back to life.
“We’re in luck to be so far away.” Ormo released a breath. “Zoom in on Fornax’s Grave. I want our guests to see the folly of old.”
It was as if they traveled at high speed toward an object in the distance. It looked like a large sphere made of rocks, that was illuminated by a yellow sun somewhere off to the right. The stones glittered in the sun’s light as they turned but stayed on an orbit around a shared center of gravity.
She could make out tones of brown, some of blue, and there was even a bit of green, as if plants on the rocks had been frozen in time. It took her a moment to realize that what she saw was a planet that had been blasted apart. But instead of drifting away, the pieces had stayed in close proximity, as if tied together by some unseen force.
Then, she noticed something hidden inside the rocks, and the shiver she had felt before spread to her whole body. An unseen cold ravaged her, as she stared at the black mist half hidden in the depth of the former planet.
“Is that …?” she asked and made a step backwards, as if she could escape from what she saw. The black mist reminded her of her nightmares. The ones where she stood at the gates and saw Orphelia overwhelmed by something hiding in the dark.
“That’s Fornax’s Grave,” Ormo confirmed.
Lia’s gaze was fixed on the object, and she had a hard time to tear it away. Thankfully, the ship turned, and the exploded planet migrated through several panes, before it was behind them. Only when it started to shrink, she managed to turn to her friend.
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Orphelia seemed to feel the same as her, as she was rubbing her arms furiously. Lia was worried that she would scratch her arms again, as she had done in the beginning at the Crystal Academy. That had probably been a sign of her awakening as an impera.
Lia grabbed Orphelia’s hand and squeezed it, while turning back to Ormo. “What happened here?”
“The only thing we know is, that Fornax tried to ascend. According to legend, he had gathered several dozen donar, all in the possession of time mana, and used them to conduct the ascension ritual. To have them generate higher order mana, that he would then try to control …” Ormo stared at the vastness of space before them, not even turning his head. “We have no idea what went wrong. The planet broke apart at the attempt. And the mana … stayed behind. Altered. Everyone on that planet died. Maybe they were pulled into where the core of the planet had been. Maybe they simply suffocated, because we can’t even detect an atmosphere there anymore. The thing is … it was a total disaster.”
Lia stepped closer to Orphelia and hugged her friend. They both needed it, she was sure of that.
“Launch the locator toward Fornax’s Grave as soon as possible, and then get enough distance from it that we can reenter hyperspace.” Ormo slowly rose and walked past them. “Come, I think you have earned yourself something nice. How about some ice-cold drinks?”
Lia looked at the now small speck that had caused her goodebumps. “What was that?” she heard herself ask, and noticed, that Orphelia had asked the same question.
Ormo stopped in the door and turned to them. “That’s the reason why this is called the Bermuda Sector. Whatever’s left there is sucking in mana. From everywhere. Even from Donar that are less than a lightyear away. The closer you are, the worse it gets. Some imperi hear whispers and cries of pain. Get to close, and it is almost impossible to leave.” He took a deep breath. “Only non-mages can get closer, but even they feel as if the life is sucked out of them, if they get too close.” Then he made the first step off the bridge. “Now come. Even if you don’t want something … I need a stiff drink!”
***
The goosebumps refused to vanish, even after they had left the bridge, and they couldn’t see it anymore. Orphelia was even rubbing her arms all the way through the corridors of the ship and even when they arrived at some kind of bar or cafeteria in the ship.
Omor walked behind the bar, and gestured at them to take the stools in front of it. Orphelia sat down and closed her eyes tightly, her hands holding her head, as if she got an headache.
“The drain has been that bad, hasn’t it?” Ormo asked and pulled several bottles out from the shelf behind him. “How about an alcohol-free mizaquaris-orange cocktail?” He tried to smile and began mixing. “I heard it helps to replenish some of your mana reserves.”
Neither Lia nor Orphelia answered him. Orphelia was shaken a lot worse than her, and even his expression was grim.
“As I said on the bridge,” he continued, as if he couldn’t bear the silence, “it affects almost everyone. I don’t want to know how bad it must have been for Lilian, the former queen …”
“The queen was here?” Lia asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Yes. Every ruler is shown this place to deter them from trying the same shit.” He sighed and filled some ice cubes into three glasses – two tall ones and a whiskey glass. “I don’t even know, if Amir has seen it yet.”
“Would that even change anything?” Lia kept staring at the glass, as if it could answer a lot of her questions. But the ice cubes only danced slightly as Ormo poured the mixed drink into it.
“Probably not.” He pushed the two glasses to them. “Drink. It will help. And we’re also flying away from it. Sublight travel takes a bit of time, but the symptoms are slowly getting better.”
Lia rubbed over her arms. She still felt the unnatural cold, but her goosebumps had vanished. Maybe she even had gotten used to it – in contrast to Orphelia.
“The big question is still, how we keep Amir from executing his plan.” Ormo poured himself a drink in the whiskey glass, using a different bottle. The liquid looked as if it could be whiskey as well, and when he downed it in a single gulp, she was almost sure, it was.
“Which is why you want to keep looking into the future until you find a clue.” Lia took the cool glass between her hands. It was a comfortable cold, unlike the one that still clung to her skin.
“That’s basically it.”
“But how can you find a clue, if you are outside of his system? If you keep your distance from the empire and the king, your perspective will never be close enough to him to get a clue, right?”
Omor looked at her as if she had slapped him. Then he poured himself another drink.
“You’re far sharper than you look.” He grabbed the glass, but didn’t drink immediately. “I guess, there’s more that I need to tell you.”
Orphelia stopped rubbing her arms, and looked up at Omor.
“I told you before, that we were privateers. Basically sanctioned pirates. Sanctioned by the queen herself.” With that, he took his second drink. “She contacted us and told us about her brother’s ambitions.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what she’s thinking, or why she wanted us to interfere with your return to the Crystal Academy, but it was apparently part of her plan to change something …”
“Wait.” Lia tried to wrap her head around the things Ormo was telling them. “Wait, wait wait.” Nothing of that really made sense. “The queen wanted you to kidnap us?”
“She’s the source of all information regarding her brother,” Ormo admitted and shrugged. “At first, we couldn’t believe it either, and tried to keep our heads down. But then, she abdicated the throne, forced to by the rest of the family and upper echelon of the empire. He suddenly had mastery over every element. He was an impero that could control every element before, but now he also had the mana of every element to use as he pleases. Not even the queen has mana pools for all elements.”
“So, she suspected foul play,” Orphelia concluded.
“She did.” Ormo nodded and looked at the bottle, but refrained from pouring himself another shot. “She suspected foul play since the first time she saw the vision of him taking power. And since she had no idea, how he was cheating, she couldn’t do anything to stop him.”
“So she came to you,” Lia tried to make her own conclusions.
“No, not yet. She sat her staff to investigate Amir. They found out that he was investigating the eleventh element. That he hacked into the computer system somehow, and she suspected that he was already using magic, he shouldn’t have been able to.”
“You can hack computers with magic?” The surprise made Lia glad that she hadn’t had a sip of her drink yet. Or maybe it made Ormo glad.
“But of course. Metal mages can influence half-metals as well.” He shook his head. “The important point is, that it came down to a hacking battle, but Amir was very careful. There wasn’t even much on his personal tablet. Just a sort-of todo list: ‘Become omni-elemental as both imperi and donar’, ‘become king’, ‘conduct the ritual’, and ‘impose a mana-tax’.”
“A ritual?” Orphelia perked up.
“I guess you heard already, that several donar can create the mana of a higher order. There is a ritual involved in that. As is in getting to the eleventh element.”
“But why would he impose the mana-tax after the ritual?” Lia creased her brows slightly. That didn’t make sense.
“The queen’s guess is, that it is more of an after thought on how to achieve his goal. It was indented differently.”
“So, no one has any idea on how he wants to achieve his goal.”
Ormo once again gripped the bottle, but still refrained from pouring another glass. “No. But I guess, he’s trying to implement it right now.” A wry smile formed on his lips. “Start HTV and show the latest HNN-News.”
Light flickered behind them, and Lia turned around, the drink in her hands. She took the first sip, as the HTV came alive, showing the same news lady she had seen in the station. Apparently you could see the Hyperspace News Network anywhere.
“The pirates make the main news again,” the woman said, and a picture of Orphelia and her was shown next to her.
Lia sipped her drink. So, Amir was already using them to sow more distrust against the pirates.
“They kidnapped two students from the Crystal Academy, as they were on their way back to the Crystal Citadel. Their annual field trip came to a bad end, when Ormo Andromedae, one of the pirate’s heads, kidnapped them. They managed to snatch only two donar, but since both of them were registered with four elements, one of them with the dangerous mind mana, it stands to reason that their intentions are nefarious.”
Lia gripped the glass harder. A paper cup would’ve been crushed between her fingers, but the glass held. So Ludwig had really switched her elements back.
“It comes after several attacks on merchant vessels, costing the public thousands of Star Crystals. Our new king, Amir Saggitarius, has promised to tighten security, and to bring the two donar back to their families.”
The picture faded and was replaced with the rendering of a virus. “In other news, a team of mages and scientists have discovered a new virus that seems to have originated on Lysithea. According to the team, it attacks the mana circuits in a body, which may result in the loss of mana pools for donar. Imperi may lose access to some elements temporarily, but since the virus can use the victims mana to propagate, donar are at a high risk to lose their pools permanently. A vaccine is in the works and will first be distributed on the central trade hubs of the empire, first and foremost the Crystal Citadel.”
The picture of the virus vanished during her speech, and was replaced by one of the Crystal Academy, before vanishing as well.
“Amir Saggitarius has announced a change in the empire’s tax code. According to a spokesperson of the empire, people may retain more Star Crystals of what they earn, but might have to part with more immaterial goods. The list of those goods is currently unfinished and therefore still classified. The question as to why this change is planned has also not been answered by the spokesperson or the king. The new tax code might be implemented at the beginning of the next cycle at the earliest.”
“He has made his move,” Omor commented. “Maybe he has people researching a way to store mana and hopes that they’ll find a way in a cycle’s time.”
“Watch HNN for the newest reports on what happens in the empire.” The woman faded and was replaced with the network’s logo.
“Then you have thirty weeks to stop him.” Lia sipped from her drink and turned back around to look at Ormo. “How will you get around the time magic’s limitation?”
A half-grin formed on his lips. “I guess it is time that I introduce you to the rest of the FAE’s court of four.”