Chapter 11 #2
“Yes. Some see only this problem, but our scientists are working on alternatives, and since the lagasar and the merging of the veils, travel to Earth for research has become easier. Before the lagasar, Earth science has given us the radio and recording cylinders among other things. Now there are many more possibilities. But some like to see the vanishing of magic as a big, scary thing for all bagua. They say we need magic and have to do everything we can to make sure the next generation has access to it still. They’re not quite where the Koa Esher are in their thinking, but much too close. ”
My attention was drawn to a round plaza with a statue in the center carved from black stone. The flagstones of the plaza were much lighter sandstone, which made the sight eye-catching. I craned my neck, and Inkiri changed our course until we were walking up the stairs to the plaza.
“For someone who wanted to convince me about how awesome whatever I can do with magic is, you don’t seem to care about it in all the other bagua mages,” I said.
Inkiri cocked his head. “Not so, sweet thing. My point was that if you have magic, it means it’s in you because it is a part of you and supposed to be there.
Of course I want you to be able to understand and use it as you choose.
I just think…how can you choose how to use it if you don’t understand what you can do?
You have to know that before you can choose.
“But I also think that even if we, as a people, no longer have magic, we still have our minds. Clinging to magic and ignoring the rest of what makes us the bagua we are isn’t worth what some propose.”
We stopped in front of the statue, which showed eight bagua of different sizes, their faces hidden under hoods, only their horns visible.
“What do they propose?”
Inkiri sighed. “Incentives for all those who have magic to have children. Some even go so far as to suggest that a mage’s duty to have a child should be more important than his right to have an abortion, should he want that.
It’s not the majority, and the Raiken wouldn’t stand for anything like that, but hearing even one person in one hundred talk like the Koa Esher can ruin even a nice day like today.
” He gestured at the statue. “Those are supposed to be the ghosts out on the moors, by the way.”
I pulled my wrist free and circled the statue. It was pretty, in a decidedly creepy way.
“Right. Ghosts are a much nicer topic than the cola ash people. The Koa Esher.”
Inkiri clicked. “Agreed. No ghosts have recently tried to take you or Vergis from us, so yes, much nicer. I’m pro-ghost. That’s something you can say, yes?”
I chuckled. “Yup. I’m pro-ghost too. The spookier the better.”
Ghosts really were a much nicer topic than the cola ash assholes, especially the grin on the face of that celadon bagu.
I’d not exchanged a word with him, but even at the private school, I’d encountered bullies.
That celadon cola ash dude was like all the bullies I’d ever met, only worse, so much worse.
“Tell me the story about these ghosts, then.” I firmly pushed the cola ash out of my mind. There was a marker with writing by the statue, made from the same slate-gray stone, and I knelt there and traced the engraved letters I couldn’t read with my finger.
“There isn’t one specific story. Esaka is a tourist destination, and a lot of the people and places here will have their own stories.
They’ll have been embellished for the tourists.
There’s a restaurant where the servers tell you a story on request. It’s famous for asking travelers who say they’ve seen ghosts to write down their stories, then framing the reports and putting them on the wall. ”
I stepped back so I could get a good look at the statue. “So this is where you come for the pictures. Or don’t you have photos?”
Inkiri nodded. “We do, and cameras are also something that comes from Earth. Nothing we build is digital, however. Not yet.” He smiled up at the statue. “This isn’t a selfie spot. We don’t have cameras for our pockets yet.”
I smiled, but the urge to reach for my now lost phone was bittersweet. The only memory of this moment would be in Inkiri’s and my mind. I held out my wrist for him to take.
“We’ll just have to come back, then.”
He clicked. “We’ll get you a new phone, Sadir. Vergis can help.”
But that meant returning to Earth, and I didn’t want to think about that just then. “Where to next?”
Inkiri looked around. “Let’s go that way.”
As we walked along that plaza and headed onwards to the wall, I really got into the mindset of staying on Aer permanently.
That first night in the wayhouse with Vergis, and then the morning faced with an outhouse and bathing in a river infested with effing blood worms had made me think of Aer as not somewhere I’d want to stay, but really, the more I learned about the place, the more I wanted to emigrate.
Well, apart from the communal bathing, which would always be weird to me, but I could make my peace with that.
On Aer, there were no homes whose inhabitants had just vanished. This place held no dark memories of the day of the apocalypse. I’d go bathing naked with all of Esaka watching for the rest of my life if that was what it took to leave my memories behind and become the best trophy mate ever.
I was putting together a neat little fantasy of us settling down here, mostly of me doing nothing and Inkiri feeding me vinné with lots and lots of dissent jelly on top. I’d wear all the pretty clothes for him when I wasn’t bathing naked. It would be the best.
My fantasy was rudely interrupted when we found the city wall and Vergis.
The wall was about as tall as two bagua, made from a light gray stone, and covered in vegetation that reminded me of wakame seaweed, except it was a whitish gray.
A secondary wall on the city side created a walkway between it and the main wall, and after that second wall, a lot of greenery had been planted, almost like the bagua of Esaka didn’t want to live too close to the haunted moors.
Set at regular intervals, stairs led up to the wall path.
It looked peaceful if you ignored Vergis, who was busy slaughtering a bunch of bunny-sized animals in what even I knew had to be a magic circle carved into the flagstones.
The animals looked like the fluffy ligua I’d seen in the wall painting. I blanched.
There was another bagu with Vergis. That one had a cage on wheels with him, and the fluffy white ligua in it were super not happy about being there. They made little snuffling noises, and their pale golden eyes were wide in terror. They had the cutest ears, almost like marmots or guinea pigs.
Vergis brought his knife down, and out of reflex, I covered my mouth with my hands at the sight of the blood and froze, careful not to make a sound.
At Inkiri’s clicking, Vergis looked up.
“Hello, Vergis,” Inkiri said. “Fellisse told us Hove hired you.”
“Yup. Wall maintenance.” Vergis stood and took a step toward the cage. He was wearing his gun strapped to his thigh, the sleeves of his hoodie rolled up to his elbows. He wasn’t bloody all over, but I saw blood glistening on his fingertips, and his knife was slick with it. “Nothing very exciting.”
He reached toward the cage, which had a hatch at the top. The terrified little ligua inside panicked. They probably knew what that meant.
I took a deep breath. “Wait, can I help? Can you use me instead of them?”
He looked over at me and rolled his eyes. “You mean you want to hold them when I sacrifice them instead of letting me end them quickly, princess?”
I sucked on my bottom lip. The sight of this was making me queasy, and I was glad I hadn’t seen Vergis do a lot of magic before if this was what it took.
“Can’t you, I don’t know, do what you did back at the Stone? You didn’t have to use your knife then.” My plans for becoming a trophy mate were about to be derailed, I could feel it in my bones. But I couldn’t just stand by while this was happening.
Inkiri clicked. “You said that magic hurt you, Sadir.”
Vergis opened the hatch and pulled one of the fluffy ligua out.
“Right. We got lucky there. We should figure out what exactly you are before I start using you to strengthen an entire city wall.” He walked back to the circle with the ligua.
The white fluffball squirmed in his hand, but he wasn’t letting go.
There wasn’t the slightest bit of hesitation when he brought his knife down.
The bagu in charge of the cart gave me and Inkiri a curious look, but kept quiet.
“One more, then you get to watch some actual magic,” Vergis said.
Before the actual magic happened, we got to watch another ligua struggle uselessly against Vergis’s iron hold.
Objectively, this wasn’t worse than any other type of butchering.
The religious commune back on Earth had butchered livestock.
They’d cut the heads off chickens. It hadn’t been my thing.
At all. The screams, the panic, the blood…
I put my arm around Inkiri’s waist. Maybe all the ghosts on the moors were the ghosts of however many small and not-so-small creatures had been sacrificed to make the magic of these walls. Inkiri clicked at me, putting a warm hand on my side.
“Okay, here we go,” Vergis said, then he added something in Lugarra and motioned for the cage warden to take a step back.
I forced myself to look at what Vergis was doing.
There were seven little corpses at evenly spaced points around the circle’s circumference.
The circle itself was filthy with gore now, but underneath that, it looked pretty well maintained, the lines of it neatly carved into the stone.
Inside the circle, the carvings resembled the script I’d seen all over town.