Chapter 170: Ameliafiti

They stayed at the lighthouse for a week.

That was how long it took for the wyrms to finish feasting on the remains of the Red Moon’s moonrain and leave the area with full stomachs. With the massive lighthouse crystal eaten—an act Amelia thought was especially inconsiderate of the titanic wyrm—their sandstone plateau remained unharassed by the desert nightlife. The djinn made no further appearances; perhaps they considered the destruction of the lighthouse satisfactory enough.

But that destruction had come a moment too late. The moonlight-powered pendulum had halted its momentum just before the roof collapsed. Constrained by its aetheric Writing, the pendulum’s diamond-shaped weight had pointed to one of the glowing crystals embedded in the mosaic map. Serena had had only a few seconds to memorise the location, but it was enough for a general direction and bearing; a hundred klicks at eight degrees. It would place them near the northern edge of the Salaban Bowl.

“It’s imprecise,” Serena said, tapping at one of their maps. “The location indicated overlaps slightly with an area of interest Intelligence provided. Once things settle down around us, we’ll continue our journey. With the moonrain behind us, we won’t need to push ourselves too much. Until then…” Serena met each of their gazes one by one. “I suggest we train.”

And train they did.

The first order of business was to mould the lighthouse ruins into a shelter that would not only house them and the skimmers during their stay, but also serve as an emergency shelter for future travellers. To this end, Hinako constructed more rooms than necessary while Amelia carved out a deep well. She had to go absurdly deep to find water, and expend no small amount of aether in reinforcing the well walls so they would last. 

The finished well reached over two hundred metres in depth before hitting the water table. They didn’t have enough rope to spare to set up a bucket, so instead Amelia carefully carved out a winding staircase that would lead any future aetherless adventurers to water.

“Now I think about it,” Amelia said, dusting her hands after the construction was complete. “Why is there a water table in the first place?” Seeing Hinako’s confused expression, she clarified, “The continent floats, and on average is four kilometres thick, right? Why does it hold water? Shouldn’t it all just fall out the bottom?”

Hinako had a strange expression. After a moment of hesitation, the demon asked, “Were you… never taught the water cycle?”

“I was!” Amelia protested. And she had; only the water cycle of her old world was absent of any magical elements. “I just… might have missed a few bits.”

“Well…” Hinako began. She looked awkward, as if it wasn’t her place to explain such simple knowledge to an adorable human saint. “The way it was explained to me was that as you go deeper, the pressure increases, not just from gravity pulling on the rock above, but also from the lumina pushing against the continent.” The demon motioned pressure by pressing her two palms together. “Together, the crystal-dense rock is forced into a watertight layer. I was instructed to think of the continent as a bowl, shaped by millennia of natural forces.”

“But it would leak from the sides, surely?” Amelia asked.

Hinako nodded. “It does. That’s where you get some of Cascadia’s most famous landmarks. The Ponan Falls, for one. I once visited it with my family. They built observation platforms that jut out from the continent so you can see it properly.” The demon shook her head as if in disbelief. “There’s a whole system of underground caves and lakes feeding the Falls. It surges out when it rains. It’s unbelievable. I saw it as a child, and I remember asking my parents if the continent would run out of water. That’s how much comes out. If I remember…” Hinako paused momentarily. “It’s more than two thousand cubic meters a second.”

Ponan Falls, Amelia thought, mentally adding it to the list of things to see in the future.

“Any water lost over the edges evaporates in the turbulence of the lumina,” Hinako explained. “Then it forms clouds, and they rain on land, returning the water. There’s more water now than ever, I was taught. The wilderness brought by the Long Discordancy holds it. I think they looked at tree rings to figure it out. I remember being told the difference was enough that the continent sat a few metres higher a thousand years ago. Were you… not taught this?”

“Umm…” Amelia rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “Karligard education was… lacking. Need to fill in the gaps myself.” Seeing Hinako nod as if lacklustre human education was the norm, Amelia felt herself wrinkle her nose and sent a silent apology to the distant nation’s government for the undeserved loss of reputation.

With their home prepared, Serena began to put them through a busy week of what could only be described as hellfire. Not that it was all physical. There was a range of mental tasks and challenges that their demon captain was determined to put them through. One of those tasks was, to Amelia’s delight, mathematical in nature.

“Most of you would have gone through this during a training deployment,” Serena said, pacing up and down on the first night. “I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t graciously give you the opportunity to catch up. Now then, Officer Mori, let’s see your working-out…” Serena bent down, examining Mel’s scribbles. “By the Fell Gods, Officer. According to this, we’re currently in Marzanna’s circle. Try again.”

Mel’s shoulders slumped, but the demon recovered quickly, attacking the cartographical problem once more. Serena had them plotting courses through the desert. Amelia joined in, finding the process quite fun. It reminded her of the rote learning she had done in the earlier stages of her mathematical adventures. They had copies of what was called the Imperial Nautical Almanac, a sheet that predicted positions of the celestial bodies, along with a sextant possessing an artificial horizon, and a chronometer to determine longitude.

“You look like you’re enjoying yourself,” Mel muttered to Amelia.

“Mmm!” Amelia gave her a wink. “Maths is fun!”

“I’ve always considered it a necessary evil,” the demon responded sullenly.

“Hmm…” Amelia perused the Nautical Almanac. “I suppose they don’t put the moons on here, since they can’t be predicted accurately.” Still, they had detailed prediction tables for Cynthia, the Known World’s single natural moon. It was smaller and more distant than the moon of her old world, but still easily visible to the naked eye. It was named by the first human colonists and had persisted over thousands of years and become the accepted name internationally.

“Looking at this,” Finella said, picking up a copy of the Almanac. “This needs updating. Didn’t Federation astronomers find that new planet a couple of years back? What did they name it again?”

“Elyth, Officer Bright,” Serena said. “An icy realm, if I remember.”

“Elyth.” Finella nodded. “That was it. Mangs, my superior at the aetherscope, talked about it. They deduced its orbit from the wobble of the other planets. All mathematical. Isn’t that wild?” The Northerner turned to the struggling Mel and added, “If humans can figure out where to point a telescope millions of kilometres away, I think you should be able to plot a course through a desert, Officer Mori.”

“...Yes, Officer Bright,” came the deflated response.

It took a few attempts, and one or two subtle clutches of her horns, but Mel soon developed enough proficiency and understanding to satisfy Finella and Serena. 

Their training wasn’t all celestial tables and calculations; there was plenty of physical activity to keep their minds occupied and off the surrounding wyrms. They slept in the day and trained during the night. The inhospital environment came with benefits; the dense atmospheric aether made it easier for them to wield their aetheric talents.

Mel’s progress was particularly strong.

“It is a shame we cannot stay here for a month,” Serena said one night. “If we could, you would surely reach yellow, Officer Mori.”

“Ah…” Mel gasped. She’d just come to the end of a long aura training session. Her face and body were slick with sweat, and the product of her efforts was visible to all—a solid orange aura, stable and vibrant. “That is… a shame,” Mel said, her tone betraying her true feelings on whether she really wanted to stay in the desert for so long. 

Although, knowing the demon, she might. 

Finella was creeping into yellow, but the advancement into a new colour wasn’t enough for the demon captain, judging by the amount of tsks and tuts Serena made.

“Officer Bright,” Serena mused, circling the Northerner like a bird of prey. “I seem to remember an act of mercy on my behalf not too long ago, granted towards your person on the condition that you trained hard during your aetherscope deployment and returned with a much more satisfactory ability. Is this yellow all you have achieved? Surely you didn’t spend all your time drinking coffee and gossiping?”

“N-no, Captain,” Finella blurted. The demon swallowed, the expression on her face making it clear to all that drinking coffee and gossiping was precisely how Finella had spent most of her time. The answer seemed to annoy Serena, and Finella was then put through a series of gruelling duels that pushed the demon to her limits.

“Don’t waste your talent,” Serena instructed after Finella had taken a few encouraging sword pokes and collapsed onto the floor under the strain of the night temperatures. “If you do, then you waste my efforts. You wouldn’t want to waste my efforts, would you, Officer Bright?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, Captain,” came the gasping response.

“Good… good. Keep it up.”

Amelia thought her girlfriend might be going too hard on Finella, and eventually took Serena aside to inquire about it. The demon listened to her concerns, and then replied with a small smile, “I’m not putting any of them through anything they cannot handle. This is for Finella’s own good. If she doesn’t utilise her talents, Officer Mori will soon catch up to her. A squad of aether users works best when the hierarchy of rank matches aetheric ability. Fail to maintain that…” Serena gave a small shrug, “and we might see another Korvus situation come around.”

“Still…” Amelia shifted on her feet, keeping her voice low. “Feels like you’re… annoyed at her.”

“I’m not annoyed,” Serena said, blinking.

Amelia watched her girlfriend for a few seconds.

“You’re definitely annoyed,” she said. “Why?”

Serena pursed her lips before rolling her eyes. “I suppose remembering what she said when we arrived has frustrated me… slightly.”

“What do you—oh...” Amelia connected the dots. Under the punishing, relentless heat, Finella had started to strip to cool down when they’d first arrived at the lighthouse. At her conduct, which Serena considered unbecoming of an Imperial officer, she had criticised Finella only to have the comment thrown back at her with, ‘I would have thought that you, of all people, wouldn’t mind!’

“I forgave the boldness in the moment,” Serena said. “Considering the situation. But we had an agreement. Officer Bright and I had agreed that she was not to gossip or make any implication regarding me”—Serena gestured between them—“about us. She may not be highborn, but she is an Imperial Officer. She should know better than to gossip about such things, whether under the effects of Desert Madness or not. The subject isn’t the problem. I, ultimately, do not particularly care who knows what, but I do care about the manner in which it is revealed. So yes…” Serena’s crimson eyes deepened. “I am annoyed.”

“Want me to talk to her?”

“...I’ll do it,” Serena said. “I fear I’ve grown tired of this place in my own way, and have been taking it out on her.” The demon gave her a small smile. “I’ll clear the air, straighten our horns. Don’t worry, Lia.”

Amelia flashed her a thumbs-up, and watched Serena take Finella aside later that day. It was a wonderfully awkward moment, with Finella apologising, and then Serena apologising, and then both of them standing around not sure what to do. Eventually they both shuffled off, and within a few hours they were both back to normal. In their following training sessions, the amount of sword pokes had definitely dropped, while the compliments had increased.

So all in all, it had worked out.

Hinako wasn’t a stranger to progress in her own right. Unlike the refinement of aura, her aetheric advancement took the form of successfully maintaining the first third-circle subformations—the building blocks of third-circle spells. The rich atmosphere meant aetherflows could be pushed further and maintained for longer without any signs of aether exhaustion.

It was while watching Hinako train that Amelia began to suspect something.

“You always warm up with Igni formations,” she said. “Why?”

“It’s an old habit,” Hinako said. “Igni was the first formations that I learned, and I practised them until they became second nature. Igni is the demonic god of passion, so it helps get my blood and aether going before a duel.”

“But your goal is Salinas, right?”

“That’s right.” Hinako nodded. “It’s the best for a duelling career, and is wanted everywhere for construction work. Igni… is a Word for war.” The demon shook her head. “I might be an Officer, but I need to think what comes after as well.”

Amelia pondered the demon’s words before saying, “Serena has always said that choosing the wrong Word can waste years of effort. A communion is more than just hard work…” Amelia trailed off, looking Hinako up and down. “I have a feeling, an instinct that Igni suits you more than Salinas. For your First-Word, that is. Trust me”—Amelia flashed her a thumbs-up—“when it comes to mage Words, I know my stuff!”

While her advice had been bold, her aetheric instincts reassured her that it was accurate. There was a much more natural feeling to Hinako’s aetherflows when she used Igni magic. Her talent and skill at Salinas earth formations were second only to Daichi, and she had used them successfully in her duels thus far, but Hinako’s nature—her ferocious and relentless fighting style—aligned more with the passion of Igni than the smooth and calculating style that earth magic encouraged.

“Try some third-circle Igni formations,” Amelia encouraged. She sat down by the demon and began pulling in atmospheric aether. “Follow me.” Amelia guided Hinako, and within an hour the demon mage was looking at her with wide eyes. She’d matched the stability of her earth magic already.

“Maybe it’s the Red Moon,” Hinako said quietly. “Making it easy. I should focus on Salinas anyway. It—”

“There’s no shame in Igni, Officer Aikawa” Serena said, stepping over.

“It’s…” Hinako swallowed. “It’s banned in duels. Too dangerous.”

Of all the branches of magic, Igni and his associated fire spells were the most restricted and regulated of all. Banned in duels due to how life-changing even minor burns could be, and banned throughout most parts of the Empire due to the risks of fire. Amelia couldn’t blame them, not after seeing what had happened during the Asamaywa Fire.

“The modern world has more places for Igni than you might suspect,” Serena said. “It is no longer only a Word of war. Noheim shipbuilders pay generously for Igni Speakers to maintain the great furnaces. The steel alloys used in modern constructions require precise heat and oxygen control only Speakers can maintain. Like Salinas, it is quickly becoming a Word of construction, not destruction.” Serena began counting off her fingers. “Forge operators, welders, joiners, annealers, temperers… There are many roles around. My sister, Nina Halen, told me she had to fight horn, tooth, and nail to get good Igni mages on her engineering team.”

“But, ah…” Hinako coughed into her hand. “With respect, Captain, I really am focused on duelling. It’s the family tradition.”

“No one said you must abandon Salinas as a communion target,” Serena said. “The first Word is often the most difficult. If Amelia is right about your predisposition towards Igni, then by communing the demonic god of hellfire first, you may acquire a communion with Salinas all the quicker going for it second than trying for it first. And…” Serena’s hand went to her chest, where her worn cross hung behind the desert clothes. “Do not think specialising in fire is in any way an embarrassment. Was it not the communion of hellfire that enabled our Empress to defeat the Avatar of the Malignant Darkness?”

“I understand,” Hinako said slowly. “I’ll give it some thought…”

It seemed the demon wasn’t yet convinced.

“It is your choice,” Serena said. “But you would be a fool, Officer Aikawa, not to take Amelia’s words seriously. She is the only one of us who has communed a mage word, and is therefore the local authority on the subject. It is her aetheric instincts that we are relying on to home in on our target, so pay attention when those instincts are sniffing around you.”

Amelia couldn’t help but grin.

“You make me sound like some kind of bloodhound,” she teased.

“I was thinking more of a puppy…” Serena muttered. Amelia’s girlfriend shook her head, as if catching herself speaking too openly and then strode away to point out something about Mel’s aura.

As the days ticked on, Hinako wasn’t the only one with thoughts of communion. Serena spent a few hours a day in a meditative pose, beginning her planned communion of Taruna. It was the Word recommended by Katalin, and as Serena said, given who Katalin was, it would be foolish not to explore that route fully first.

“I know they call Taruna Speakers Paladins,” Amelia said. “Is there any relation to Christdom paladins?”

From her seated pose, Serena answered while keeping her eyes closed. “No. Not beyond the backing principle of protection. Taruna’s Paladins follow the divine nature of the demonic god. Christdom’s paladins are something else entirely. Some are Speakers, but not all. It is not a Word that grants them their power, but holy energies that flow through Tamerlane. It is an unnatural enhancement of Ascemurella’s doing. Not that they see it that way. It is a twisted way to gain power, and not without consequences.”

“Consequences?” Amelia tilted her head. “Such as?”

“They can… lose themselves in battle. They can enter a flow state, brought about by blood and violence. From what I’ve read, Christdom’s paladins report angelic visions of their gods, guiding them to fulfil their destructive task with no emotion or pain. It is because of these supposed sightings that the phenomenon has earned its moniker: theophanic rage.” Serena paused, and then frowned. “I wonder if it’s similar to losing control of a Word. There are similarities…” Amelia’s girlfriend trailed off, no doubt thinking back to when she lost control of Narean.

“Well, I doubt we’ll bump into any of Christdom’s paladins any time soon,” Serena mused. “They’re not exactly wandering around the Empire.” The demon opened her eyes and asked, “How’s your training?”

“Mmm!” Amelia hummed. “It’s going well.” She took a breath, looked down, and with a loud snap, vanished into the Shimmer. “See?” she said, raising her voice so Serena could hear it clearly. “I don’t crack the floor anymore!” She tapped the unbroken sandstone with her foot. She still produced a loud crack that sent a ripple through the Shimmer, like a struck bell announcing her arrival, but she was getting better at it.

With a short moment of focus, she exited the Shimmer, reappearing where she’d stood.

Serena eyed her for a moment before smiling.

“What?” Amelia asked.

“I was just thinking that you were inspirational,” Serena said. “No matter the extent of one’s talents, or how powerful they are. There are always more capabilities to explore, to refine.”

“Yeah,” Amelia nodded, grinning. “Never stop learning!”

“Never stop learning,” Serena echoed. “That should be a Sangoist tenet.”

“It’s an Amelia tenet,” Amelia declared, throwing her girlfriend a wink.

“Starting a religion, now?” Serena raised an eyebrow. “What next, your own empire?”

“Ooo, that’s an idea…” Amelia trailed off, waiting for the moment when Serena’s eyes widened ever so slightly before laughing. “I’m not being serious, obviously.”

“I wonder…” came the response.

The final days passed. With every night, the temperatures dropped closer to something resembling a livable environment. The skimmers adapted to their aetheric training and would no longer react badly to Amelia’s third-circle magic. It was a small change that would massively increase their mobile firepower. If the worst came to the worst, she could still do something drastic like jumping upwards and Speaking.

Once the last wyrm had left, vanishing deep within the red dunes, their movements slow and slothlike, Serena waited one more day before ordering them to leave. She said she would have wanted to wait longer, but they weren’t the only ones looking for the shard and couldn’t dally any longer.

They prepared the Skimmers, ensuring their harnesses weren’t too tight or rubbing. They refreshed their water, checked their rations, and finished their final preparations.

“Wait!” Amelia shouted quickly. She hopped off Barq and dipped into the shelter.

There, carving the lettering into the wall, she wrote:

Lia was here!

Built this shelter with people she loved!

Look after it!

847 A.V

“Perfect,” she muttered to herself, dusting her hands off. It wasn’t graffiti. It was… Ameliafiti! The perfect addition to any shelter or home Empire-wide! She turned and jumped back on Barq, earning herself an annoyed meep that Amelia chose to view as more affectionate than anything else.

“We’ll ride for six hours,” Serena announced, grabbing Naji’s reins. “We’ll take it easy and rest every hour. Keep your senses sharp. The wyrms should be sleeping now, digesting their crystal, but they aren’t the only threat out there. Now, let’s ride!”

They set off, leaving behind the shelter.

It didn’t take long for Serena’s concerns to be validated.

A few hours in, Finella called out quietly, “You’re seeing it, too, Captain?”

“Yes,” came Serena’s low answer.

Amelia stretched her senses behind the group.

They were being followed.