Fairy Opera Chapter 5: Storm

 

Storm

“So tell me.” I sat against the boat’s side. “What happened to my sister? Who kidnapped her? And is she still alive?”

“I can’t tell you if she’s still alive.” Orion looked off into the distance. “But I can tell you who that man was. His name was Malgor.”

“Who is he?”

Orion grimaced. “He’s one of the God Emperor’s cardinals.”

“So the God Emperor sent him?”

“Probably to capture you. If they knew where you were they’d probably be using her as leverage. But until they can, they’ll probably only lightly torture her.”

“We have to save her then. Now.”

“Wait, wait. We need to take things slow.” Orion shook his head. “There’s only a small chance that they’re torturing her right now. The main thing is that, if you rush into this, you’re going to fall right into their trap. You need to train. You are a novice, though a technomage, and if you go straight to rescue your sister, you’re going to either be captured or killed.”

“I don’t care. We need to turn this ship straight towards where Ami is.”

“The thing is,” Orion shook his head, “We don’t even know where she is. She could be in a million different places. We’re going to need to figure that out before charging in recklessly.”

I gritted my teeth. “Why me? Why am I so special?”

“Because you’re the first magician to appear in two decades. It’s a momentous event.” Orion crossed his arms. “You need to trust that your sister is okay. Before you attempt to rescue her, you’re going to need to train as a magician.”

“So who’s going to train me?”

“I am.” Orion looked at Tae and Jak. “We’re in this together. The Empire has already identified you as collaborators. It’s either stay hidden with us or risk being caught by the peacekeepers.”

Jak and Tae looked at each other. The both nodded.

Jak lifted his chin. “I’m with my nephew. I’m going to be part of the rescue mission for my niece, even if it kills me.”

Tae tapped her chest with her fist. “I’m sticking with my friend.”

Orion smiled. “Good. The first thing we need to do is get to Amberpol.”

“But that’s several days away by sky ship.” Tae frowned. “How are we going to get there? We’ll run out of fuel for the sky engine. Unless you can generate an infinite amount of fuel.”

Orion shook his head. “That wouldn’t work. I’d need to eat an incredible amount of food to power that.”

“Food?” I tilted my head.

“Right. You don’t know this yet. Magic works on an energy in, energy out basis. The only way the human body is capable of gathering energy is through food. It takes about a loaf of bread’s worth of energy to cast a basic fireball spell. Do you know what a calorie is?”

“Never heard of it.” I frowned. “What does it have to do with food?”

“A calorie is a measure of energy. One food calorie can heat a liter of water up by one degree. A loaf of bread contains between seven hundred and a thousand calories. You’ve been feeling really hungry, haven’t you?”

“Come to think of it, yeah.” I rubbed my stomach. “That fish barely even registered. I’m still famished.”

“Right. You’ve cast some pretty powerful spells.” Orion looked at Tae. “Let’s begin our first lesson here.” Orion smiled at me. “Your sister will be fine. You need to learn how to be a magician so that you can save her yourself.”

I nodded. “Okay. Teach me.”

“The human body only has so much energy it can draw upon at once. Fat is a way for the body to store energy, but it takes time for that energy to be made accessible. Food breaks down in your stomach and is absorbed by your intestines, but that takes a while as well. Magicians ten to eat as much as they can an hour before a battle begins. That’s when the energy from that food will be most nutritionally available.” Orion pointed at me. “Rock. How many calories does an average person need a day?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea.”

“I know this one.” Jak stepped forward. “Two thousand.”

“Good. A magician fighting a prolonged battle needs between ten and fifteen thousand calories to replenish the energy they lost during it. That means that, to a magician, food is the most important supply asset. Now we’ll learn about how amounts of energy translate into actual spells.”

Orion snapped and a scroll appeared in his hand. “Null bravos. Set parameters nine. Burn medium. Fire.”

A small fireball shot from Orion’s palm and flew overhead. Orion crossed his arms. “How many calories did I just expend?”

“How hot was the fire?”

“Good question. It was about as hot as a wood fire.”

“One hundred calories?”

“Close. Seventy.” Orion took a small snack bar out of his pocket. “This snack bar contains two hundred calories. Can you do the math?”

“Yeah. That’s about three uses of that spell.”

“Correct.” Orion split the bar in half and handed me a piece. “Your first lesson is over. I’ll give you a while to digest the information.” He sat against the side of the ship and looked off at the horizon.

Jak turned to me. “You’re amazing at this, Rock. I’m just an ordinary blacksmith, so I don’t know much about the world, but I see something incredible in you.”

Tae slapped me on the back. “Yeah. You’re doing great. I know you’re worried about your sister, but I think everything is going to be okay.”

Ruby kicked her feet back and forth on my shoulder. “Yeah. You’re great at this.”

The skies darkened. A wave of clouds appeared over the horizon. I could smell the rain on the air. The shadows beneath the clouds set a line on the skyfloor.

“Not good.” Tae gripped the bulkhead. “This ship won’t be able to stand against that storm.”

Orion grimaced. “I don’t have any spells prepared that will help. I didn’t plan for this.”

I looked between Tae and Orion. “So what now?”

“We hope to the gods that we live through this.”

“Can we hide on the skyfloor?” I looked down past the bow of the boat.

“If you want to die for certain, then yes.” Tae sniffed, rubbing her nose. “We’re just going to have to go through.”

We came ever closer to the clouds. The rain beneath them filled the air like a curtain. Thunder leaped between the cloud tops.

Then the storm was upon us. Rain poured onto the deck. The ship bucked. Orion held onto the controls, lashing himself to the wheel with a rope. Tae lay in between the console and the port side, gripping a small handle. Jak held on to a post with both hands.

The ship fell a hundred feet in a few seconds. I lifted into the air, and then slammed back down onto the wood. I stumbled, tripped over a piece of rope, and then fell off the edge of the ship.

Tae’s hand reached out for me. I grabbed it. The post that supported Tae cracked and she fell with me. We both tumbled through the air.

Ruby, flying down next to me, handed me a familiar scroll.

“Null canus! Set variable X and Y! Call for Physics package!” We twisted through the air. “Execute feather fall!” We slowed to a slight descent. Tae held my hand, her fingers gripping mine.

“Again. That’s the second time in as many days that we’ve fallen out of a skyship.”

We continued to fall for a short time, and then passed through the skyfloor canopy. We landed in between two gigantic trees. The ground was covered in mulch, and the rain only made it through the leaves in select places. It was like we had a roof to protect us from the storm.

A growl echoed from somewhere around us. Eyes appeared in the darkness.

Tae turned around. “Not good, not good.”

Several cat-like monsters stalked out from between the trees. They surrounded us, walking in circles, waiting for a time to strike.

Ruby handed me a scroll. “Here.”

I unrolled it. It was a fireball spell, but a little bit different. “Null bravos.” I spoke soft and quick. “Set parameters on repeat. Burn hot twice. Fire. Activation term: shoot.”

Ruby whispered to me. “For the next five minutes, whenever you say that word, you’ll activate the spell.”

Tae took a small knife out from her belt. “I’m not helpless here.”

I pointed my palm at one of the cats. “Shoot!” A ball of fire blazed forth from my hand and struck a cat on the nose. The cat roared, rearing its head back. I fired two more fireballs. The magic drained me a bit, but I had a lot left.

The burned cat growled and leaped at me. Tae knocked it aside with her elbow. She dug her dagger into the cat’s hide. The cat struggled, trying to break from Tae’s grasp.

Another cat came at us from behind. I shot several fireballs at it, not injuring it, but keeping it away. Two other cats circled us.

I began to feel tired and hungry. The hunger increased with each shot.

One of the cats leaped at me, dodging a fireball. The cat landed on top of me and started slashing at my chest with its claws. I caught both claws, one in each hand, and kept them away form me. The claws were close enough for me to see their patterning. The cat’s mouth salivated, dripping saliva onto my face.

“Hya!” Tae pushed the cat off of me and warded it away with her now-bloody dagger. I staggered to my feet.

“Let’s climb a tree!” Tae ran to the nearest trunk. I followed her. We started climbing. The cats jumped at us, but we managed to get just high enough to avoid them. We kept climbing. The sounds of the storm got closer. Tae and I stopped at a large overhanging branch.

The cats beneath us leaped, but could not reach our location. Tae leaned against the trunk. “My god. That was close.”

Ruby flew onto my shoulder. “I knew you could do it.”

“Is the skyfloor always this dangerous?”

“There’s a reason no one lives down here.” Tae pointed down. “And the reason is that.”

My hunger hit me with a sudden pang. My stomach growled. I felt fatigued, as if I had just run a long distance. I tried laying down on the branch, but couldn’t find a good posture.

Tae tapped her lap. “Here.”

I laid my head on her lap. “Sorry about this.”

“No. You have no reason to be sorry. You didn’t choose for this to happen, and I’m your friend. So I’ll go where you go.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” Tae looked down at the cats. “We can’t go anywhere until they’re gone.” She looked up. “I wonder how Orion and Jak are doing up there. I hope they haven’t left us for dead.”

Ruby took out a scroll. “Here. This is a distance communication spell.”

Tae chuckled. “You have a spell for everything, don’t you?”

“It’s a mage’s familiar’s job to always be prepared.”

I took the scroll and opened it. “Null canus. Double. Talk to Orion.”

All of a sudden I could hear a voice in my head. “Rock!” It was Orion. “You’re still alive!”

“Yeah. We’ve managed to get somewhere safe. But I don’t know how long that will last.”

“Then wait for us! We’ll get back to you!” Orion’s voice was strained.

“Thanks.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

I looked at Tae. “Seems we might be here for a while.”

 

6

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