Chapter 1 #2
A commotion drew my attention to the main dock, where a magnificent wing ship was preparing to depart.
Unlike the utilitarian vessels that dominated the harbor, this one was clearly built for both speed and luxury.
Its hull gleamed with shiny brass, and the canvas wings that gave the ship its name were arranged in an intricate pattern that reminded me of dragonfly wings, translucent and shimmering with stored energy coming up from under the hull.
“The Celeste,” Kora said, following my gaze. “On its way to Cormere this month, I hear.”
They were the lucky ones. Cormere was one of the closest realms to us, and I’d only been there once, but I could still remember the beauty of the shallow turquoise seas, the white sands and cities carved from rocky cliff-sides.
“Look at those engines,” I breathed, watching as the anchor crystals began to pulse, their light building from a gentle glow to a brilliant radiance.
The ship’s wings extended fully, catching the energy flowing from the crystals. The vessel rose gracefully from its moorings, hovering momentarily before surging upward with breathtaking speed.
“One day,” I said softly, watching as the Celeste aimed for the Gallery portal. “One day we’ll have a ship like that.”
Kora snorted. “Big dreams for someone who gets nauseated on a skiff.”
I elbowed her, but couldn’t help smiling.
The rickety skiffs we occasionally hired to cross the bay were a far cry from a vessel like the Celeste.
Those poorly maintained crafts barely stayed afloat, their ancient crystal engines sputtering and threatening to give out mid-journey.
The idea of piloting something that ran smooth and reliably was like a dream.
“We should head back,” Kora said, finishing the last of her pastry. “Your mom will be waiting for her medicine.”
Reality crashed back. “Right.” I tore my eyes away from the vanishing ship, now just a spark of light approaching the portal’s shimmering surface. “Let’s go.”
We were walking home when Kora grabbed my arm. “Someone’s following us.”
I felt it too. There were eyes on my back, and footsteps that matched ours too perfectly. We turned down a side street, and the follower turned with us.
“What should we do?” I asked quietly.
“Find out what they want.” Kora’s hands crackled with air magic, ready to attack. We stopped abruptly and turned. The woman who’d been following us stopped too. She was tall and broad-shouldered, with the weathered look of someone who’d spent too much time in harsh conditions.
“Juno Farren?”
“Who’s asking?”
“Someone with a job offer. My employer heard you’re one of the few scavengers brave enough to work the deep regions of the Gallery. He has a proposition for you. One that pays very well.”
“I’m not interested.”
“You will be when you hear what he’s offering. Six thousand sovereigns for a single retrieval.”
I almost laughed. Six thousand sovereigns was ridiculous. Life-changing money. The kind of sum that meant either the job was fake or it was suicidally dangerous.
“What’s the catch?”
“The artifact is in Nytheris. In a collapsed royal archive.”
My blood went cold. Nytheris. The first great civilization of realm-travelers. It had collapsed around thirty years ago in a catastrophe that killed millions and sent the survivors into hiding.
And now someone wanted me to scavenge its ruins.
“That’s impossible,” I said. “Nytheris is in the Deep Gallery. No one’s successfully navigated to it in years.”
“My employer has. Multiple times. He’s willing to pay a hefty price for the artifact. All you have to do is retrieve it.”
“What artifact?”
“A codex. Bring it back, and the six thousand sovereigns are yours.”
Six thousand sovereigns for a book. Enough to buy my mom’s tonics. Enough to secure my family’s future for years. It was too good to be true. Which meant it probably was.
“Who’s your employer?” I asked.
“Gideon Pike. He’s waiting to meet you, if you’re interested.”
I looked at Kora, who shook her head slightly. Don’t do it, her expression said. It’s too dangerous. But I thought about my mom struggling to breathe. The weight of responsibility that sat on my shoulders every single day of my life since she got sick.
“I’ll meet with him,” I said. “But I’m not promising anything.”
The woman smiled. “That’s all we ask.
We were maybe twenty feet from the market when I heard the shout.
“Marv Farren’s daughter! Stop her!”
Everything went cold as Assembly guards headed towards us through the crowded street. I didn’t stop to see what they wanted. I ran.
Kora swore and sprinted beside me, her hand already moving for her elemental magic. I felt the air pressure shift as she pulled power, preparing a gust that could knock someone back or create a distraction. A guard stepped directly into our path, his baton crackling with blue lightning. Air magic.
“Hold!” he barked.
Kora threw her hand forward, and a concentrated blast of wind slammed into him. He staggered back, arms windmilling, and crashed into a stack of crates. We took off while he was down.
“This way!” Kora grabbed my hand and hauled me left, toward the maze of narrow streets that made up the Tangle—a district so poorly planned that even the Assembly guards got lost in it regularly. Behind us, I could hear shouting, the clatter of boots on stone.
We ran until my lungs burned and my legs ached, taking random turns, doubling back, using every trick we’d learned over the years.
Finally, when I couldn’t hear pursuit anymore, we ducked into a recessed doorway and pressed ourselves into the shadows.
I bent over, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.
“What,” Kora panted, “the fuck was that about?”
I shook my head, still trying to process. “They knew who I was. They called me by name.”
“Your father’s name, specifically.”
The cold feeling in my gut turned to freezing. “We need to get home.”
“Juno—”
“Now.”
We didn’t talk on the way back. We moved fast, sticking to the side streets and back alleys, avoiding the main thoroughfares where Assembly guards might be watching.
Marv Farren’s daughter.
They’d been looking for me specifically.
Which meant they knew something. But what?
We’d been so careful with our scavenging runs, never taking too much from one place, never drawing attention.
And my father was even more careful with his side business, only dealing with trusted clients, never leaving a paper trail. So how had they found out?
Our shop sat at the end of a quiet street in the Craftsman Quarter, a modest two-story building with a workshop for the bottom level. Smoke rose from the forge chimney, which meant my father was working.
The front door was open. I stopped so suddenly that Kora crashed into me.
“Juno?”
The door was never open. Not unless someone was coming or going. And even then, my mom was fanatical about closing it to keep the street dust out of her lungs.
“Something’s wrong.” I approached slowly, every sense screaming that I was walking into danger.
The interior of the house was dim, lit only by the fading daylight through the windows. Nothing looked disturbed. The sitting room was neat, the kitchen beyond it clean and organized. But something felt off.
“Mom?”
No answer.
Kora moved past me, heading toward the workshop door. “Marv? Tessa?”
Still nothing.
We found my mom in her bedroom, sitting in her chair by the window. She looked up as we entered, and I saw the tear tracks on her face.
“Mom.” I crossed the room in three strides and dropped to my knees beside her chair. “What happened? Where’s—“
“They took him.” Her voice was hoarse from crying and the ever-present strain on her damaged lungs. “The Assembly guards. They came an hour ago.”
I staggered back, head on a swivel as if my father was about to pop out of nowhere and tell me she was only joking. But he wasn’t here, and the terror in her eyes was real.
“They had a warrant. Someone reported him for illegal distribution of anchor crystals.” She pressed a hand to her mouth, and her whole body shook with suppressed sobs. “They arrested him, Juno. They took him to the Dredge.”
The Dredge.
The Dredge was where people went and didn’t come back.
A prison suspended in the Gallery, designed specifically for those who violated the Assembly’s laws.
I’d heard stories, everyone had. About the darkness, the whispers that drove prisoners mad, the dampening fields that stripped elementals of their power.
My father was in the Dredge. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. Kora’s hand landed on my shoulder. When I looked at her, I saw my own fear reflected in her eyes.
“We’ll figure this out,” she said.
But we both knew the truth.
Once the Assembly took you to the Dredge, figuring it out wasn’t an option.
You were already gone.
I sat on the workshop floor for hours after my mom finally fell asleep, her breathing labored even with the tonic I’d forced down her throat. Nearly the last bottle. We had one left, and it would last maybe three more days if we rationed it carefully.
After that... I couldn’t finish the thought.
Click curled in my lap, his tail my father had fashioned for him wrapped around my wrist. The workshop still smelled like my father.
Like metal shavings and fire smoke. His tools hung on the walls in neat rows, organized by size and function.
A half-finished anchor sat on the main workbench, the crystal already set but the metalwork incomplete. He’d never finish it now.
My father took pride in everything he made.
His crystals were of the finest quality, salvaged from newly dead realms with enough power in them to crystallize.
It’s why the Assembly contracted him often, and why they kept him on a tight leash.
But they never paid him enough to make us comfortable. That was intentional, no doubt.
“We could break him out.”