Tundra

The air whipped by our ears, stealing our voices away. We were standing on boulders, and those boulders were standing on nothing. We had casts runes of repulsion on them, meaning that they avoided the ground, and were steered in the direction of our choosing– provided that we concentrated. We were going to pick up Aais and Eiron, provided that the two had found one another. Of course, we had received no message back from either of them.

‘What did you mean, you’re not my Apprentice?’ I asked Hackley, as we each surfed a flying rock.

‘Well, I’m not, am I?’ she replied. ‘I might be of your discipline, but you haven’t taught me anything. I object to being lumped in with you.’

‘Didn’t you say we were more similar than anyone else there?’ I prompted her.

‘I did,’ she said begrudgingly, ‘but now I’ve been cast out through no fault of my own. I would have liked to have had a hand in my own damnation, you know?’

I was silent for a moment, and then I said, ‘You’re a Blackmouth sorcerer. There’s still plenty of time for damnation.’

Hackley grinned. ‘That’s right.

‘Do you want to be my Apprentice?’ I asked her at length.

She shrugged. ‘Why not? I doubt any Master will instruct me now.’

‘Thankyou for that ringing endorsement,’ I said, to further grins. ‘You know, you never told me why you left Blackmouth.’

‘That’s right, I didn’t,’ Hackley replied cheerfully.

‘Well?’

‘Are you asking as my Master?’

‘Not yet.’

It was a spell we had seen before. The image flickered up in front of us, wavering like a mirage. It wore Firepeak robes, ashen and grey, with earthy browns mixed into their raiment. The figure was taller and more impressive than in real life, but he was still recognisable. He opened his mouth, and there was a slight delay before any speech came out.

‘I bring news,’ the geomancer said.

‘Should you be talking to us?’ I asked him, suspiciously. ‘We’re cast out.’

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘and I could get in a lot of trouble for talking to you, so listen closely: The shielding spells that have been used to isolate the school are potent, but not impenetrable. Obviously, sendings can get in and out, but I believe I can send small items out to you as well. Should you require library access, I can probably get books to you.’

‘I don’t know what to say,’ I responded, feeling mockery in my every word.

Hackley was more sincere. ‘Thankyou,’ she said with an Apprentice’s politeness. ‘That’s extraordinarily helpful.’

‘Why are you doing this?’ I demanded to know.

‘Because you were right,’ the geomancer confessed. ‘We can’t lock ourselves away from the world and expect it to leave us alone. What’s the point of having all the knowledge that we do if we don’t use it? Added to which,’ he went on to say, ‘if this druid does change the way the world fits together, it will completely invalidate all my research.’

There was the crucial motivation. ‘Ah.’

‘I spent months on those papers,’ my former colleague extrapolated.’ I’m not having them rendered out-dated because some primitive wants to fight other primitives.’

‘That’s not exactly what’s going on,’ I hinted, darkly.

‘I know,’ said the geomancer. ‘But, I thought you could use a friend. You’ve not been well-served by the nameless school in that regard, have you?’

‘Again,’ I drawled, ‘I don’t know what to say.’ I don’t know why I begrudged his help so, but something about the other mage just made me want to keep him at arm’s length.

‘Put together a list of books,’ he said, ‘and I’ll see what I can get you in the next couple of days.’

With a puff of smoke, the image vanished, and we were sailing over sapphires and emeralds again. Islands swept by, jewels in the studded bay, while clouds were torn into strips overhead. A vague whooshing emanated from the boulders we rode on, stuck to their rocketing surfaces with charms. As we flew, we both kept eyes out for anything below us that might be a sign of Eiron.

‘That was a little strange, wasn’t it?’ Hackley said at length.

‘It was,’ I agreed, ‘but he’s going to help us, so I’m not going to question it too much.’

She blinked once before focusing again at the atlas world beneath our feet. ‘Probably wise.’