Cut Off

Although Liah and I didn’t speak about our confrontation, our relationship over the next several days definitely improved. At least, we weren’t constantly at each other’s throats. It seemed like she kept her word. So far as I could tell, she hadn’t visited Rubia once since. I had realized, perhaps too late, that with nobody regularly visiting her, this meant I had basically ensured Rubia was in solitary confinement. I went out of my way to visit her on occasion. She spent most of those visits ignoring me, doing exercises in the tiny cell. Seriously, were all Aijalon fitness nuts?

On one of those days, after a brief “visit” with Rubia, I emerged from the jail cell and went to find Shemman. It was time for me to do my daily meditations as part of my mage training, but Granny was spending less and less time tutoring me directly. She said I was getting to the level that I needed to develop my own disciplines. So I had gotten in the habit of doing my meditations near Shemman when he practiced his kata.

“Are you certain?” he had asked the first time. “Will not my presence interfere with your magic?”

“It’s fine,” I had said. “I need to practice controlling my magic even when there’s an Aijalon nearby. I never know when I’ll get attacked by another fiancée of yours.”

“Oh, I assure you, I have no more women betrothed to me,” he shot back. “One was more than enough.” We had shared a laugh, and since then, I did my meditations with him.

Well, actually, the reason I gave him was only part of the truth. The main reason I wanted to practice with him was because I wanted to spend more time with Shemman. Even though we didn’t talk much during our respective trainings, the simple proximity to him made me happy.

The thought made my face flush. Shemman, apparently noticing my face, asked “Rakel? Do you feel unwell?”

“Oh, no, I’m fine,” I hastily said. “Just a little warm.”

He tilted his head. “But the temperature in this magical realm remains constant…”

“Speaking of temperature,” I said, hastily trying to get off the topic, “what’s it like in your homeland?”

“Warm and dry. It hardly rains and almost never snows.” His face took on a wistful look. Too late, I remembered he probably would never be able to go home now that he was branded a traitor to his people.

Still, I said “I’d like to visit someday.” When he looked surprised, I quickly added “well, if we can avoid all the assassins who want to kill me for being a mage.”

Shemman smiled. “Yes. Perhaps when we are free of this place, I shall take you on a trip to the Aijalon homeland.”

“Why stop there?” I was getting excited. “We can travel the world.”

He laughed. “I hear there are places where men walk upside down, or where humans serve as beasts of burden to horses.”

“We’ll find them all!” I pumped my arm.

“Yes. A place where we can live together in peace. Where the Empire need not oppress your people or mine. A free land!”

“Yes. A free land…”

We both fell silent. We both knew that the Empire covered the entire known world. Nobody knew of a place that was safe for a mage and an Aijalon to live together.

Uh, wait. Live together? I glanced slyly at Shemman. “You’re suggesting we live in some faraway land? Together? You and me? My, my.”

His face went a bit red and he turned away. “A bit warm today, is it not?”

“I’m sure.”

He hastily launched himself back into his kata, and I closed my eyes and returned myself to my meditations.

I was so used to filling myself with the Expanse that I could let my mind wander while meditating. Leaving the Pocket. It sounded nice. This place was safe, but so limiting. I felt like I was in prison here. Leaving…

With my mind filled with these thoughts, it felt like my magical senses touched the boundaries of the magic that built the Pocket, like I was trying to expand my mind beyond them. When they did, I felt something off. I had felt this before, but it was more pronounced now. Or maybe my senses had attuned enough that I could feel it more clearly.

The magic that made up the Pocket was like a complex weaving that made a fine set of clothes. But now, meditating, I felt like I could detect a weakness in the weaving. I had handled this part of the weaving before. This was the part of the complex spell that governed creating portals out of here to the real world. My eyes still closed, I frowned, probing with my magical senses further. It felt like a worn piece of cloth that was about to tear.

I had to find out what this weakness in the magic would do. I could ask Granny. No, she barely knew anything more about the Pocket than I did. She had frequently talked about how she didn’t understand the Pocket and she was just doing her best. I needed information from the source. That meant I needed…

I ran the distance across the Pocket to the library. Bekah jumped when I burst into the room. “Sheesh, Rakel, can you be a bit quieter? I’m trying to—”

“Do you have records of the people who made the Pocket? Translated?” I asked, panting a little.

Bekah looked surprised and a bit disappointed. “Parts of them. Remember when I told you I had a little surprise? I was going to tell you when I finished translating them all. I figured you and Granny would be happy to learn more about the Pocket.”

“Do they say anything about the Pocket breaking down?”

A slight frown crossed her face. “Actually, yeah, a bit. I didn’t really get that part, and it didn’t seem to match what we’d seen so far, so I held off on translating that part.”

I briefly described what I had felt. “I don’t know what it means,” I finished, “but please. Bekah, I need you to look into this. You’re the only chance we have.”

My sister nodded. “Got it. You can count on me, sis!” She made a shooing motion with her hand. “Now get out of here. I’ve got to focus.”

By skipping dinner, Bekah had the results before bedtime that night. “It’s true,” she told me in an out-of-the-way hallway, voice low. “The Pocket was a flawed prototype. If nobody is inside, then it can last forever. But if people are in it…”

“It’ll collapse?” I guessed.

“No. The records were totally clear on that. The magic that sustains this miniature world will last for hundreds of thousands of years, and no amount of people inside will make a difference.” She raised her finger to continue the lecture. “Instead, a lot of people inside will wear away at the connection to the real world. Basically, it’ll get harder and harder to get to and from reality. Eventually, this place will be totally cut off.”

I took a deep breath. “Ok. How long do we have?”

Bekah gave a half-hearted shrug. “Not sure. How hard was it to open the portal when you and dad left?”

“Pretty hard.”

“Then we don’t have much time.” She looked at me. “Sis. What are we going to do?”

I looked back at her expectant face. She was absolutely, 100% sure I could fix this. But I was just a novice mage! I had accepted that I would have to take responsibility for these people, but I didn’t want to do that so soon.

But…if I didn’t do something, who would?

Bekah was still looking expectantly at me. “Get Liah. I’m going to get Shemman and Jepha. Meet back here in half an hour.”

“What are you going to have us all do?”

“We’re going to come up with a plan.”