Ascension: Thørn 10 (The Myriad book 1)

Quint and I stepped into the open, revealing a courtyard. Soldiers lay sprawled across the street, a few of them getting to their feet. A large stone spike was protruding from the ground.

Just across the courtyard, a massive, crooked tower stretched from the ground, like a stone spike being driven into the sky. A spinning brass orb was mounted on the tip, like it had been stuck on the needlelike point.

The few soldiers that were standing flinched away from me, aiming crossbows in my direction.

A dark haired woman strode over to us. “At ease,” she called, and the crossbows were lowered. They were kept at the ready, though.

“Eira! I’m guessing things didn’t go as planned?” Quint asked.

The woman shook her head. “She doesn’t want to be here,” Eira explained. “We had to put her in the Deadlock.”

“She’ll calm down,” he assured her.

“I don’t know, she seemed pretty angry.”

“Well, I’ve got to bring Mr. Feltrix to see Solar,” Quint said.

Eira regarded me with new interest. “You’re sure this time?” she asked.

“I’m sure.”

I was dying to know what Quint and Eira were thinking, but I knew I couldn’t breach Quint’s mental defenses, and I doubted I could get through Eira’s either. The soldiers, though….I could sense their thoughts from here.

None of them provided any insight into Quint and Eira’s cryptic discussion. They did, however, tell me what had happened on the battlefield. I peered into the mind of a soldier named Manfred.

A girl with short, white hair, alabaster skin, and a blindfold stepped out of a holding cart.

Without warning, Manfred and his companions were tossed through the air by an unseen force. The world spun around him, colors and shapes blurring together, until he landed hard on his side.

When he opened his eyes again, the girl had removed her blindfold, revealing silver eyes filled with rage. She faced off against Eira, who had electricity flickering up and down her form like a human thunderhead. A stone spear leapt from the ground, almost stabbing Eira. At the same time, the girl was struck by a bolt of lightning.

Manfred and the rest of the soldiers moved towards the girl, seeking to aid their commander, but suddenly his armor wasn’t as loose as it had been a second ago. It was shrinking, first immobilizing him, then becoming uncomfortably tight, constricting enough to suffocate Manfred.

He couldn’t inhale. His chest was too tight. He couldn’t breath. Darkness began flickering on the edges of his vision. He was dimly aware that the girl had sunk through the ground, before he lost consciousness.

I withdrew from the memory, and noticed Quint scrutinizing me. “What were you doing?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I replied, just a little too quickly. Quint’s expression changed slightly. He knew it was a lie.

At first, it looked like he was going to reprimand me, but all he said was “Come on.” He lead me toward the tower.

“What happened here?” I whispered as we passed a few moaning soldiers including Manfred.

“You weren’t our only recruit today,” he said. “There was a girl, a geomancer named Alsari the Stoneshaper. And you know what happened when she got out of the carriage better than I do.” He gave me a meaningful look that told me he knew exactly what I’d been doing.

We passed through a wooden door at the base of the tower. Considering the structure it lead into, it was plain. It was little more than a slab of wood with a metal ring set into it.

Quint opened the door, stepping into a dark hallway and turned to me. “Are you coming?” he asked. I followed him into the tower.

Quint lead me down a hallway lined with torches and took a left turn. I followed him through the twisting corridors, endeavoring to keep track of the labyrinthine passages, but I soon lost track and gave up.

“Where are we going?” I asked. It felt like we’d been wandering the halls for hours. How Quint navigated them was a mystery.

“The Head Office,” said Quint. “There’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

“Who?” I’d just gotten here. Who wanted to talk to me?

“The head of the Academy, Regent Kyra Solar,” Quint replied.

We rounded a bend, revealing a door set into the wall. “Why does she want to see me?” I asked.

“She’s the one who ordered me to bring you here,” he said.

I reached for the door, but hesitated. I turned to Quint, but he was gone. A sharp click sounded from the door, but I hadn’t touched it. It drifted open, and a sever voice drifted from the room on the other side. “Don’t just stand there, Feltrix,” it said. “Come in.”

The room was large and circular, and it looked more like a library than anything. Books were crammed into shelves lining the walls, some stacked flat on the tops of others when the shelves were filled. The shelves must have been custom made for the curved walls of this room. Several pillars of books rose from the floor, teetering precariously. Dominating the room was a desk, covered in swirling carvings, climbing across the legs. Someone stood with their back turned to me, hunched over something on the desk.

Quint took his time, didn’t he? The person turned to me. She had pale, blond hair and a stern expression. She wore an azure cloak with a white hourglass emblem sewn onto the shoulder. It took me a moment to realize that I wasn’t hearing the her thoughts, she was using them to talk to me.

My mouth fell open. Oh, come on, Kyra said. You can hear people’s thoughts. You can hear people’s thoughts. I’m using the same type magic to talk to you. Is it that big a stretch?

“How….How did you know?” I asked aloud.

Think about it, because we have more important things talk about, she replied.

“Can we just talk out loud?” I said.

“Don’t get used to it,” she said. I opened my mouth, but Solar silenced me with a glance. “You have lots of questions. I’ll answer some of them, but don’t get your hopes up. But first, we need to discuss the multiverse.”