“It’s a pity we don’t have an umbral Aetherforged with us,” Miss Thornbrook said, “A Fifth or Sixth Trinity umbral aetherforged could slink in, keeping to the shadows and procure masks for us in minutes.”
“So how are we going to do it?” Eliza asked.
“Why don’t we just make them?” Finnegan suggested.
Miss Thornbrook locked her eyes on him, “Is that an area where you’re talented?”
He ducked his head under the intensity of her gaze, “I’d need to see them first.”
“I can describe them,” Dellen said without thinking.
“Curious,” Miss Thornbrook said, “Tell us, what do they look like?”
“You just can’t learn when to stay quiet, can you?” Gilgamesh said.
“Well,” he said, hesitating.
“Don’t be coy Lord Northcote,” Miss Thornbrook said, “Tell us more about The Order of the Red Truth.”
Dellen exhaled, “The masks are made of crosshatched steel that begin with high rounded foreheads that cover the wearer’s face from their hairlines down to their noses, open to allow for breathing and eating but with two fang-like protrusions that continue down to the side of the wearer’s mouth.”
“When did you have occasion to see a mask from The Order of the Red Truth?” Miss Thornbrook asked.
“I saw a man in dark crimson wearing a mask on the streets when we were walking from the auction house to the Thunderstrike Syndicate.” Dellen said, thinking of any lie that might even be slightly plausible.
Miss Thornbrook stared at him, her jawing working from side to side while she weighted him with her eyes. Finally she said, “How fortuitous that you have seen such a mask in person.” She sounded skeptical of his claims. “I will find a place where you and Finnegan can make a few such masks.”
Dellen felt torn, making the masks was one way of making their way onto the grounds, but just stealing a few masks would be faster. If he understood how the order operated, there would be unattended failed initiates wandering the grounds at night, if he could just convince Miss Thornbrook to jump over the side, or take him with her, they could find, maybe even rescue a member, take their mask and robes, and explore freely.
“Could we bribe one of them?”
He saw Eliza, Finnegan, and Miss Thornbrook blink rapidly as though they were trying to find a way to make his sentence fit into some sort of coherent thought.
“They can’t all be happy, right? As you described it, they go out of their way to deprive their members of personal connection. If we snuck in, surely we could find someone there who would be happy to be snuck out of their compound, and we could take their clothes and their mask. Wouldn’t that be faster than trying to make a mask without a model?”
Finnegan and Eliza alternated between looking at Dellen and at Miss Thornbrook.
“Did you meet anyone in there who would have wanted to escape?” Gilgamesh asked.
In fairness, Dellen had spoken to a tiny handful of members of the order, but he suspected that Ingraham would have been happy to meet with an unexpected rescue.
“You would have me jump over the wall, and essentially kidnap one of their members in the hope that they are open to… selling their mask?” Miss Thornbrook asked.
“Only if you think the unforged the order bought might need assistance. It might take Finnegan two,” he looked at Finnegan, “Three? Days to make masks.”
“Two or three,” Finnegan said, shoulders hunching as though the words made him uncomfortable.
“Two or three days,” Miss Thornbrook said.
“Even if we wait those days, are you going to walk through the gate and trust that no one would stop and ask who you were?”
“I suppose once I had one mask it would be easier to… appropriate others.”
“What about respecting rules and laws and things like that?” Eliza asked.
Miss Thornbrook frowned, “I prefer not to cause trouble on quite this scale.”
“What if I go over the wall?” Dellen asked, see if I can find a member of the order who would let me get them out in exchange for their mask. If they got out of the gates how many people from the order would be able to identify them? How many would even have seen their face?”
“You want to go over the wall on your own?” Miss Thornbrook said, echoed by Gilgamesh, Eliza, and Finnegan.
“No, but I’m worried for the rest of the unforged from the fleet.” Was he worried? Dellen wasn’t sure, he had not met most of the Aetheric Cultivators who had been taken captive, but somehow he felt like it was his responsibility to check on them. He had not checked on them, even once, when he had been held captive himself, but somehow this was different, he was free, he had personal agency, and he had told Thaddeus that he would help.
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“Are you worried, or are you trying to move your time loop forward?” Gilgamesh asked.
Dellen flicked his eyes toward his floating companion and back, it had to be more than that. He needed to avoid the guilt of knowing he could have helped and chose not to. He had avoided it in the last loop around, jumping onto the ship, being overwhelmed, and taken prisoner.
“I studied their compound from the air as we were landing,” Miss Thornbrook said, “It hasn’t changed much since I last visited the city. It’s surrounded by thirty-foot walls. If I got you to the top, could you make your way down, and just as importantly, could you make your way back up?”
“Is there any iron?”
Eliza and Finnegan gave him furrowed looks.
“Magnetism?” Miss Thornbrook asked.
“Magnetism,” Dellen confirmed.
“It’s a stone wall, not a lot of metal in it,” she hesitated, “But I could change that.”
They all looked at her with interest, especially Eliza.
“If I melted iron, nuggets, ingots, nails, anything small and convenient, and pushed them against the wall on the outside, you would have iron to pull against on the other side. Is that enough for you to work with?”
Dellen had only tried climbing against solid metal surfaces, “I don’t know,” he replied, “Can we test it?”
“You want to test using your Aether to hold on to slightly melted nails?” Miss Thornbrook asked, looking slightly amused.
“Yes,” Dellen said.
“Where? I’m not sure how you could do that while looking inconspicuous.”
“If only you had been somewhere that was designed to allow those with Electrical Aether to develop their skills,” Gilgamesh said.
Dellen knew he would not be welcomed back to the Thunderstrike Syndicate.
“Do you think you can reach your Aether through several feet of stone, and use the nails I melt into the wall to scale the wall?”
Dellen locked eyes with Miss Thornbrook. “I can do it,” he said with a confidence that he did not quite feel. He had navigated beneath Copperopolis before reaching First Trinity, he could climb a wall.
“Well then, follow me.”
Miss Thornbrook led them away from the Thunderstrike Syndicate toward the Order of the Red Truth. Dellen found that his feet dragged, and he had trouble keeping up.
“You don’t have to do this,” Eliza whispered to him.
Dellen smiled at her, “I know.”
“It sounds dangerous,” Finnegan said from his other side.
“And stupid,” Gilgamesh said from over his shoulder.
He was most worried that Gilgamesh was correct.
“Can you imagine what you would want, if it was one of the two of you, taken by this group, unforged, almost helpless against anyone you met outside Copperopolis, would you want me to climb over the wall then?”
“I’d want you to climb over,” Finnegan said, his voice low.
“So would I,” Eliza agreed, her tone reluctant.
Dellen had hoped that they would argue, then an errant thought distracted him, “Do you have enough iron on hand for this?” He said to Miss Thornbrook.
“I do not,” she said.
“Then where are we going?”
“There are day markets, and there are night markets. We’re going to pass by a night market on the way. I can hear it up ahead.”
Dellen tilted his head to the side, but the sounds of the market took another two blocks of buildings to become audible for him. They followed Miss Thornbrook through the now-dark streets of Ravenport, the sounds of the night market grew louder. The air was filled with a medley of voices, mingling laughter, and the aroma of spiced and seared meat.
They entered the night market, and Dellen's senses were immediately overwhelmed by the vibrant sights and lively energy. Stalls lined the streets, displaying an array of trinkets, textiles, and curiosities. Colorful lanterns illuminated the crowds, and the alleyways that fed into the open square, casting a warm glow on the cobblestone. Dellen could hear the sound of haggling, intermingled with the occasional musical notes from a street performer.
Miss Thornbrook led them through the crowd, her eyes scanning the various stalls for the desired pieces of iron. They passed by booths adorned with jewelry, and jars filled with curious metallic objects. She stopped and bought each of them two skewers of meat, “None of you have eaten in a while, it’s incredible how distracted one can become when hungry, even if you know better,” she said, before leading them on, while eating her own skewers. The flickering light of the stalls danced on their faces as they weaved through the maze of shoppers and curious onlookers.
Finally, Miss Thornbrook found a vendor with what she was looking for, a weathered old man with a collection of iron trinkets displayed on a worn wooden cart. The pieces ranged from iron jewelry, buttons, and belt buckles, to small figurines intricately crafted from the metal. Scores of buttons were gathered in her hands, “Can you test these?”
He looked at her in confusion, “Make sure they’re magnetic,” she said, rolling her eyes.
Dellen felt his cheeks become a touch warmer, “Ah, yes,” he held out his hand and used Electrical Aether to generate a weak magnetic field, and pulled the buttons from her to his. They stuck to his palm, pressing into him like smooth pebbles. “These should do nicely.”
“I’ll take all of them,” Miss Thornbrook said to the weathered vendor, taking the buttons back from Dellen and putting them in a small bag.
With their purchase secured, they left the night market, their footsteps echoing on the cobblestones as they made their way toward the Order of the Red Truth.
“It’s odd,” Dellen mused as they were walking, “You can melt or fuse the iron onto the wall, but I’m the one who can make the best use of it, are there many Aetherforged with more than one affinity?”
Gilgamesh made a choking noise over his shoulder.
“Some, maybe, though they are vanishingly uncommon, so much so that it is difficult to separate rumors and hearsay. I’ve heard about them being experimented on, but I have never met one myself.”
Dellen blanched, “Why?”
“The early Trinities are easy enough to climb, practice enough with your Aether, get access to the right materials, find a source of Aether and a guide, and you can forge yourself to Second Trinity. After that, it gets a harder very few make it to Third and fewer still to Fourth. Most people stop either due to lack of skill, lack of resources, or lack of will to continue. The only continued path to power is to keep forging higher, but if there were a way to move sideways, a way to give yourself another affinity, well, it would be world-changing. Imagine if instead of improving the strength of your Electrical Aether, you could also wield Pyro Aether, you wouldn’t need my help for this at all, or if you had Umbral Aether, you could just sneak in. With Terra Aether you might be able to sink the metal into the wall. Having access to a single Aether makes all of us specialists, but if you had two affinities, you would be a lot more versatile.”
Dellen had to assume that chasing a second affinity had been his goal, back before he had found himself in the Refinery. What he did not know was why he had wanted an affinity for Chronometric Aether. Versatility sounded like something that anyone would want. Perhaps it had been as simple as a personal quest for more power? He liked to think that maybe there had been more to it.
“Enough about matters that aren’t immediately important let’s discuss how we’re going to get you over that wall.”