Chapter 4
Chapter Four
The relentless suns in the sky sent a shimmer that rolled across the earth.
Blistering heat assaulted Aela as she ran from her hewn home into the foreboding desert.
It was a race against the suns overhead and the tender ground beneath.
One she had made too many times to count, but if Fate was on her side, it would be her last run across the cracked plain.
Stretching as far as her eye could see was the great desert of Prente. While Aela had taken salt with her for her journey, she hoped she wouldn’t need it, as she aimed not to complete the crossing topside.
Deep fissures in the ground splintered the desert floor and offered coolness and shade from the oppressive perpetual daylight.
Yet they were known to widen unexpectedly, sending travelers into the unforgiving bite of the mines.
Aela deftly picked her way across the perilous ground.
The worst of the storm had since blown over, and she knew the wasteland crevices like the fine lines on her palms. As swirling wind kicked up clouds of sand and obscured her vision, determination and trust in herself set her course, and she did not falter.
As she reached her favored access point into the mines, she tugged her dust scarf down for a moment to gaze over her shoulder to The Spine. Prente had served its purpose, and it was time for her to take her chance among the stars. Aela then lowered herself into the mines.
She first ventured into the underground web after Renee’s death when she was a child.
The instinct to preserve her power had drawn her to the mines and the crystals buried there.
Even her fear of heights couldn’t supplant the curiosity and desperation that kept her coming back time after time.
It was a simple trick of her mind that she taught herself not to think of the distance between the desert surface and the floor of the mines as height, but depth.
Aela’s feet and hands were steady as she lowered herself deeper and deeper into the belly of the mines.
Her eyesight slowly adjusted to the diminishing light overhead, and soon pitch blackness enveloped her, like the arms of a lover.
True darkness wasn’t found here, though.
Not like the cosmic sky that she often soared through in her dreams. A faint glow emanated from crystal deposits embedded in the earthen walls, if one knew where to look.
Behind her was a large vein of selenite that provided adequate light as it responded to her celestial energy.
Apart from her dreams, the mines were the only other place Aela felt like she could be herself.
Prente’s wards prohibited her from using her elemental magic, but they couldn’t dim her light.
She released the damper she kept on her starlight, and soon her own glow flared in tandem with the natural stones.
She kept her light ensconced around herself just so she could see where to place her hands and feet for the climb down.
Where her light faded into the dimness of the mines, patches of darkness writhed as if alive. Aela shook off her trepidation.
There’s no one down here but me.
She had spent countless hours teaching herself everything she could about the treasures found beneath the desert.
Unlike the refined stones she recalled from her time as a youngling on Solara, the specimens she extracted were raw with untapped potential.
It had taken her many years of intense experimentation to deduce which crystal pairings worked well together, how to refine and infuse them into tonics and powders, and which varieties could be harnessed for more sinister or offensive purposes.
It was the latter she sought as she continued her climb down.
The muscles of her body were warm with exertion, and just as they trembled, Aela arrived at the hammock she had left rigged between the narrow rocky walls for extended stays.
She lowered herself into the hammock and took a momentary respite.
Situating her pack next to her, she rummaged through it, ensuring she had everything she needed for the next leg of her journey.
The final clang of her pickaxe into the hematite vein loosened the specimen into her awaiting palm.
“Finally,” Aela sighed as she slipped her pickaxe back into her belt.
The rigging securing her harness to the mine walls clinked as she wiped her brow.
She flared brighter to better examine the stone.
It would have to do. She didn’t want to waste time to make more of a refined powder, but if her plan worked, she wouldn’t need much of the crushed stone anyway.
Aela straightened her legs and pressed her back against the mine wall.
Using a crude mortar and pestle, she went to work breaking down the hematite.
Settled into the natural rhythm of her descent and armed with what she hoped not to use on her mission of survival, Aela plunged deeper than she had ever gone before. The archaic mining network that spanned the entire desert had to connect somehow, and she intended to find it.
As she suspected, when her feet touched solid ground, a narrow trail extended in either direction.
She craned her neck up and could barely make out the slight glow from the selenite vein high above.
Pressed closely between the rocky walls, the darkened valley seemed to smile as Aela walked through the heart of the mines toward the ancient city that gave the planet its name.
The scrape of her boots across the uneven path was offensively loud in the otherwise silent passage.
Every so often, Aela would pause, listening internally to an undefined force that guided her steps.
Her intuition felt so similar to her other magic—the kind that she tried to keep a lid on.
When she felt no impression that she should stop, she kept going.
Her desperation to find the traveling rings propelled her forward.
After an undetermined span of time passed, a sensation flitted in her gut, like she had swallowed humming flies.
Whenever her non-elemental magic had made itself known, it was always without her control.
This felt different, like it had been waiting for her to stop running from it.
It felt excited.
Sweat formed on Aela’s forehead, and before she could question herself, she attempted to channel her power. Deep within her being, Aela bypassed the crackling air and soothing water in search of the otherness that lived within her.
Here.
Aela turned to her left and pressed her hands onto the mine wall.
From the corner of her eye, inky tendrils of darkness slunk toward her and wound up her legs.
She kept herself dim and tried to ignore the growing darkness, focusing on what lay ahead.
Not knowing how she knew, only that she could sense it, she leaned her body into the mine wall, trusting and willing herself to pass through it to where she needed to go—just like she did in her dreams when she felt her dreamscape shift around her. Flicker.
All of Aela’s senses were heightened and muddied as her power distanced her from the cautionary divide between dreams and reality.
An arid heat blasted over her as a powerful gust of wind took her off her feet.
Reeling from the impact to the back of her head, Aela struggled to sit upright.
She braced herself on her hands and knees, peering through the gritty sand stinging her eyes.
The surrounding landscape was a wash of beige.
She reached for her scarf looped around her neck and retied it around her temples and face, shielding her eyes.
How was she in the thick of the dust storm?
It must be ravaging the entire planet if… no. No, no, no.
Her mind was swimming from hitting her head. She had been so sure. Cursing soundly under her breath, Aela felt along the warm ground in search of a fissure to take refuge in from the storm.
Kernels of sand pelted her exposed skin as she felt along blindly.
With each tentative reach of her fingers, Aela focused on her intention.
Each brush along the desert floor would bring her what she desired.
Her need coursed through her like a living flame, and she poured her will into it, stoking the flames higher.
Please. Please. Please.
The wind thinned, and Aela’s fingertips collided with something smooth.
She inched her way up and splayed her hands across the base of a column.
A rough sigh crawled out of her parched throat.
Feeling around the smooth surface, she yanked her scarf off her face and staggered into a structure.
Aela kneeled and dug around in her pack for her canteen.
The hot water on her face was a relief despite the temperature as she blinked her eyes into the stream.
After clearing her vision, she took in the sight of the crumbling temple she found herself in.
Creeping through the deserted building to the other side, she peered around the colonnade.
Her magic had worked. Outstretched before her was the ancient city of Prente.
Aela froze at the sounds of voices beyond the columns.
“How long are we supposed to wait?”
“Not much longer. Lord Kaitos said his errand wouldn’t take long.”
“It’s already been a whole cycle since—”
“Do you want to be chosen? To see the stars? To meet our Gods? Then quiet your ungrateful tongue. Whatever Lord Kaitos was sent here for, I couldn’t care less about. The stars are real, and they’ve come for us!”