Rise of Shadows (35 page)

I left this level and moved one more layer deep into the station, and in that next layer I finally found what we were looking for: the people who staffed the station. Unlike every other pirate ship that we had seen, the forces here were not the usual rag-tag affair. These men were clean-cut and disciplined. They were even wearing some kind of uniform, but I did not see any marks on them to identify which group they might belong to. Every one of them had a blaster strapped to their side, but I did not see any signs of heavier armament, nor did any of them look like security forces.

As I drifted around this level, checking things out, I found several men checking maps as they walked, which allowed me to get a good look at how the station was laid out. On those maps, I found two key areas that I wanted to check out; both were on this level. I saw a third thing that concerned me, but I decided to deal with that later. First, I wanted to reach the command center of the station.

The command center was like the rest of the station: clean, well-lit, and under good repair. It did seem like men were working on most of the instruments, but it was a clean and orderly work environment, nothing like the jury-rigged nature of every other pirate operation we had seen. When I went to the station’s equivalent of engineering, I saw much the same: men and women hard at work in a clear, orderly fashion. The station reminded me more of a military base than a rogue pirate nation headquarters.

After surveying both central command and engineering, there was only one place left to check: the missing area. What I had seen on the map that concerned me was that the middle section of the station was missing. More than just the middle: judging by the map, over two-thirds of the station was missing. According to the map, just beyond the wall I was floating in front of was nothing.

I told myself that the map was just incomplete and there was nothing to fear on the other side of that wall, but I was not very convincing. I really must learn how to be more convincing in the future, but that would have to wait for another day. I mentally braced myself, and then slowly drifted through the wall.

I came out into a vast, open space; it appeared the map was right. The station did end here, but the area was far from empty. In the center, I could see another tear in reality, but this one was different from the last one we had seen, and it was different in a very frightening way. Surrounding the tear was some sort of high-energy field that caused bolts of purple and blue lightning to arc randomly around the tear and walls. Several passed harmlessly though me, but I had no doubt they would have been fatal had I not been in Night Form.

Surrounding the tear, floating in what I assume was low or zero gravity, were hundreds, if not thousands of cylinders. These cylinders were glowing as if they were filled with great power. Lighting arced almost constantly from the tear to each of the cylinders. The cylinders themselves appeared to be made up of a semi-translucent metal, and glowed a soft azure color not unlike the illuminescence potions that Shea had given me.

The tear itself was fearsome to behold. Inside the tear was pure darkness, but that darkness was not empty; it was filled with gruesome faces. Each of the faces was pushing forward, as if fighting to get out, and they seemed to be screaming in great pain. I should be completely invisible, yet the faces in the tear seemed to be looking right at me, and with a hunger that brought a chilling fear straight to my very core. There were too many faces to count, and they came and went without ever moving. They just seemed to be there, and then others were there, without any sign of the change. I could hear no audible sound, but I could sense them screaming in great agony. The faces themselves were grotesque, and any resemblance to what might have been a person was long gone.

I slowly became aware that I was drifting towards the tear. It was horrifying and yet somehow alluring. I was simultaneously repulsed by it and yet was being drawn into it. I could not seem to stop myself from heading for it, and yet something deep inside me was screaming out a warning.

“
Spectra, help!”
I called out over our telepathic network. “
I am being sucked in!”

“
Dusty, hold on! I’ll open a gate between you and the tear,”
she sent.

The darkness continued to pull me in, but suddenly there was a new light in the room, the calming azure glow of a gate.

“
Aim for the gate, Dusty,”
sent Spectra.

I did not need to aim, as Spectra had masterfully placed the gate perfectly in my path and close enough that I barely had time to register her words before I passed into the gate and came out on the bridge of the Dust Dragon.

Once everyone was sure I was okay, Master Shadow gathered his command staff and Darius to hear my report. After I had explained everything that I’d seen on the station, Spectra suggested we call Shea in for her expert opinion. I was not sure why we needed Shea, or what she would be an expert on, but did not mind her showing up. She always brought a certain light into the room when she came in. It was hard to describe, but everything seemed brighter and happier when she was around.

Once Shea was there Spectra said, “Flame, can you make an illusion of the tear and containers that Dusty saw for Shea to see?”

“Sure, it will just take a moment. Dusty, send me your memory of what it looks like,” requested Flame.

While Flame was casting, I explained to Shea what I had seen and where I saw it. It did not take Flame very long to get up an accurate three-dimensional image of the scene.

Upon seeing it, Shea gasped and said, “Master, how big would you say each of those containers is?”

“Maybe about as tall as I am?” I guessed.

“Impossible,” she said breathlessly.

“What is?” I asked.

“Sorry, Master, but that should not be possible!” she said, gesturing at the containers.

“Shea, what are they, and why would they be impossible?” asked Master Shadow.

“Master, those containers have pure illuminescence in them, but on an unimaginable scale. I have never heard of anyone even dreaming of such a storehouse!” she said.

“Shea, what would one do with these?” I asked.

“Master, they are containers of power. Any competent magus could tap them and use their energy directly instead of their own. Given the amount that we have here, it would make a small number of magi have effectively unlimited power reserves to call on,” she said. “Thankfully, most of the containers are empty, but if they were full then it could very well make an unbeatable force of magi who never tire.”

With that, Master Shadow stood, walked around the image studying it, and then asked, “How do we destroy this?”

Shea stared at the image a long time and then turned to Spectra and asked, “Master, am I right in assuming that these sorcerers are somehow farming the spirit realm to get this power?”

“Yes, that is my fear,” she said.

Shea looked at Master Shadow and said, “Then, Master, my suggestion would be to break them all open in front of the tear, and the power should be sucked back into where it came from. Though I guess you would need to stop whatever they are doing to farm the power first, of course.”

Master Shadow looked at Spectra and asked, “You are our expert in the spirit realm; do you think that would work?”

“Yes, Master, it should,” she said. “But it doesn't make sense.”

“What does not make sense?” asked Master Shadow.

“Master, we have been operating under the theory that all the tears were opened by the wizards to end the war with the sorcerers ten thousand years ago, but no wizard would ever open a tear like this,” she said. After a pause she said, “Only a sorcerer would.”

That comment caused much debate about where the tears came from and did not seem to get anywhere until Master Shadow gestured for the room to be quiet and said, “What is it, Shea?”

“Masters, forgive me, but I know how new you all are to this magic war, and I think you are missing something. Wizards and sorcerers are two sides of the same coin; one does not act without the other reacting. If the wizards here truly tried to put an end to magic by eliminating access to power, then the sorcerers would have done anything they could to create a new source of power that only they could use.”

“That makes sense, but that was ten thousand years ago. This could not have been there from that time,” said Darius.

“Perhaps the first group of sorcerers failed to get it open before they were eliminated. The tear might have been here all this time, and that might be what the sorcerers have been after out here. They wanted to build and secure this base until they had enough power to challenge the combined forces of wizards in both realms,” said Master Shadow.

“But then why would the old man send us here?” asked Flame.

“If we are right about him making a power play for the spot of grandmaster, then these … these magic batteries are just as much a threat to him as they are to us,” said Master Shadow.

“Master, then that would mean he might want to take control of them, not destroy them,” said Darius.

“Yes, but there you see the weakness of the side of darkness: well, of either side, really. The old man probably assumes we will take this power base as our own and is betting that he can take it from us much more easily than from them,” said Master Shadow. “It is likely that the possibility of us destroying this power station has not even occurred to him, but even if it did, it is surely preferable to him than his enemies having it to use against him.”

“So then, we need to shut down the operation, break the batteries, and close the tear, all of which needs to be done inside a highly-defended enemy fortress, which has many high-level sorcerers on call?” asked Phoenix.

“Yes, exactly,” said Master Shadow.

“Oh good, Master! I thought there for a moment this was going to be yet another impossible task!” he said with a big grin.

Master Shadow chuckled, but before he could say anything Darius said, “Master Phoenix, I do not think we will have to worry about them sending sorcerer support.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“The balance of power is too close,” said Master Shadow.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Master, when two forces are somewhat evenly matched and in a drawn-out cold war like we are, they have to be careful how they deploy their resources. For example, Grandmaster Vydor and his Master Wizards would be unwise to gather here and attack this station because it would leave Alpha Academy undefended. Similarly, the sorcerers would be wary of deploying their own forces here because it would draw in our full might and leave their positions of power open to attack by the wizards from the other realm,” said Darius.

“Precisely,” said Master Shadow. “In all likelihood they will only send what they believe to be just barely enough to secure this station. If we were at full-scale war, they might deploy everything to protect such an asset, but they need to build their forces up just as we do, so they are likely to be in favor of a continued stalemate, which means they have to risk losing this station.”

“I don’t doubt the experience that you two have in these matters, but that seems like a big pile of guesses based on how you think they will think,” said Flame.

“It is, but it is all tempered by many centuries of war teaching us what are reasonable guesses,” said Master Shadow with a smile.

After that, we talked a little while longer on the ramifications of what I had found on the station and wrapped things up for the night.

The next morning, we met again to start planning how we would attack the station. Once everyone gathered in the room Master Shadow said, “Okay, everyone, we have four days until the navy breaks up our peaceful section of space here. In that time we have to have everything in place so that we can take this station out of the fight.”

“Master, what is our plan?” asked Phoenix.

“That is what we are going to figure out right now. We know that we have three distinct tasks at hand. First, we must destroy the containers; second, we must close the tear; and finally, we need to disable the station. I think that order would be best, but I would not be opposed to hearing other opinions on that. Mainly, though, we need to work out how to achieve each of those steps,” said Master Shadow.

“Master, I agree we should start with the containers. Destroying them should be the easiest step, and even if we fail to take out the station, at least we will have set back their production timeline,” said Darius.

“Agreed, but how? That is a large number of containers deep within a secure fortress,” said Master Shadow.

Everyone started tossing around ideas about how to do that. The ideas were coming too fast for me to follow, and I began to zone out. My mind returned to the room with the tear, and I could see myself there drifting towards the tear. I wanted to stop myself, but I could feel it calling me, as if the tear itself was alive somehow. Mentally I drifted towards it, and I could not stop myself. I was falling into it again with a strange mix of fear and desire that I could not reconcile. I don’t know what would have happened if I fell in because just as I was about to pass through the tear, I felt Spectra’s hand on my shoulder and heard her say, “Dusty could do it.”

I snapped my head around to look at her and said, “Dusty could do what?”

“Destroy the canisters,” she said.

“How?” I asked.

“Over the next few days you sneak in and plant explosives on all the canisters, then once the bombs outside start to explode we remotely detonate the charges,” said Spectra.

“Interesting idea, Master Spectra, but there are far too many canisters for one person to handle,” said Darius.

“I could help him, and we only need to do the ones that are not empty. I think we could get enough charges in place in time to do the trick,” said Master Shadow.

They talked a little more about it and thanked Spectra for her great idea, but I said, “It won’t work.”

“Why not, Dusty?” asked Master Shadow.