Gravity

“All right,” Linnea said a little unsteadily, clearly terrified but determined to be the adult here. “They can’t get away with this right in front of the castle. Rescue will come quickly, sentries will spot them.”

Morenna glanced to the side, as if she could see through the ruined walls and foliage. “Our soldiers on the walls are already firing on the attackers.”

“Good,” Linnea said. “Good, then this is almost done. We only have to wait.”

“Maybe,” said Morenna. “Attacking the castle like this was… These people are either incredibly stupid or they came here to die, and they probably have more than the one mage. In the next minutes they’ll either try to flee or rush the plateau to spend their lives killing us. It’s a difficult climb, but achievable for life mages.”

“Who are they?” Uthien asked.

“I don’t know,” Morenna said. “Rahabin, in clan regalia I don’t recognize.”

“There are hundreds of tribes and the Rahabin aren’t monolithic,” Linnea said, still trying to block Uthien with her body. More arrows bounced off the surrounding ruins, but none of the archers had a clear shot at them here; even Morenna didn’t bother to deflect any. “Some of the outlying tribes are as warlike as any Miurdan, and there are still plenty of factions opposed to the Emperor. Morenna.”

At the concubine’s suddenly solemn tone, Morenna looked over at her.

“I don’t know the rules of shadow magic,” Linnea said. “Only what I have read, and much of what is written is obvious fancy. Is there any way you can get my son back into the castle?”

Morenna shook her head. “My magic is subject to the same rules as any other kind: I can’t affect anything heavier or larger than my own body. I may be older, but Uthien is unfortunately his father’s son.”

He was indeed both slightly taller than Morenna, and broader across the shoulders, despite his bookish disposition.

“All right,” Linnea said quietly. “Then… I understand you have no reason to stay and risk your own life, and I will ask no protection for myself. But if you can save your brother—”

“Oh, shut up,” Morenna said in disgust. “That is the most insulting thing you’ve said to me, and it had real competition. Obviously I’m not leaving either of you; you’re family. Yes, even you, Linnea. Maybe a more civilized person would take the opportunity to advance her own agenda, but I’m just a feral child from a tower, and I don’t consider you being an asshole sufficient reason to let you get murdered.”

Linnea opened her mouth, struggling to find a response to that, when she was spared the need by a small explosion; something hit the ancient stonework above their heads hard enough to spray fragments everywhere. She once again threw herself on top of Uthien.

“What was that?” Linnea shrieked.

“Huh.” Morenna bent and picked up the missile, a round stone bigger than her fist. “They’ve got slingers. You don’t often see that anymore.”

“Morenna!” Uthien said, struggling out from beneath Linnea again. “If they attack with mages—”

“They have nothing I can’t handle,” she said. “You two just stay down and let me work.”

“Listen!” he said urgently. “You helped Ophia unlock her fire magic, didn’t you?”

“I…Uthien, this isn’t the time for magical theory.”

“Mother, you said you’d read lore about frost mages that hinted there must be a solution to Ophia’s fevers, but you couldn’t find it. Right? And Morenna, you keep showing knowledge there’s no reason you should have and refusing to explain where you got it. You did help her—you know things about magic that most people don’t.”

“Uthien, seriously, this isn’t—” Morenna paused, turning to look back outward. “They’re not giving up. Life mages are coming up the sides. They’re taking fire, but some will make it up. I have to—”

“Do you know a way to improve my magic?” Uthien shouted, struggling fully out from behind Linnea.

“We can talk about this later!”

“If you know anything that will help me fight, tell me!”

“Uthien, do you know how much time and effort it takes to push through a magical block? Do you know how hard Ophia had to work? This isn’t—”

“Just tell me!” he shouted.

Morenna jerked back, shocked by her brother’s fury; it was so unlike his normally composed demeanor. His mother was even more stunned, staring at him with a hand covering her mouth.

“Fine,” Morenna sighed. “There’s no such thing as air magic, Uthien, you’re actually a gravity mage. Now stay down! If you’ll excuse me, I have to go save our lives.”

She vanished into the shadows and Linnea pulled him back down as arrows and sling stones continued to hammer their surroundings.

“Gravity?” Uthien whispered, staring ahead but seeing nothing. “Wait. Gravity?”

“Uthien, my son, you don’t need to worry about that,” Linnea said fiercely, clutching him close. “You have a brilliant mind; you don’t need powerful magic to succeed. The Empire needs scholars—armies and mages can’t keep a complex society running. Your future is assured, and I promise you it will be a bright one.”

He didn’t seem to even hear her, holding up both his hands and staring at his palms, ignoring both his mother and the missiles that continued to clatter around them.

“…gravity…”

* * *

The battle had already consumed the entire city block around the Lower Castle. Soldiers were firing arrows to pick off attackers from the castle battlements, and more had sallied forth to scale buildings and attack from below. The assaulting tribesmen grimly kept firing, knowing their fate and determined to sell their lives dearly. They were now just buying time for their mages to scale the plateau and corner their prey.

Mages had fully joined from both sides now. Life mages augmenting their bodies were bounding up the sides of the Lower Castle’s plateau, where they were met by a flickering shadow wielding a black sword. She seemed to know exactly where they would pop up, and none of their enhanced speed or strength saved them when they crested the edge only for Morenna to step out of a patch of darkness and stab them with the dispassionate precision of a surgeon.

Meanwhile, spells of fire and ice flashed back and forth as both castle defenders and attackers harried each other; at least one earth mage was pummeling the ramparts with rocks hurled as hard as catapult stones. Even a few unusually powerful light mages were firing beams of concentrated sunlight strong enough to burn through wood.

The tribal mages desperately harried the defenders on the battlements, the soldiers trying to attack them from below—and also Morenna, who vanished and flickered about amid the ruins, evading their spells as if it barely inconvenienced her.

She held absolute superiority, untouchable and unstoppable, until the unseen earth mage suddenly gave up harrying the archers.

Suddenly all the hurled chunks of stone were aimed right at Morenna, and not from a conveniently targetable source. They rose from the ground all around her; she was fighting amid ruins, an arena made of chunks of rock the perfect size for an earth mage to remotely pick up and hurl.

His accuracy wasn’t great—he probably didn’t have a clear line of sight at her. But she also didn’t have one at him; reaching out with her shadow senses revealed far too many mages on the surrounding roofs and in the buildings below them, and she could only sense shapes, not types of magic. There was no way of telling which one was doing it, and if she abandoned the ruins to start killing all those mages, the life mages still scaling the sides would close in on Uthien and Linnea.

Morenna snarled in frustration, constantly dodging through shadows now; she barely had time to intercept and dispatch enemies coming up over the sides. She outclassed every enemy here, but they’d finally found a strategy that had begun to overwhelm her.

Until suddenly, it didn’t.

All the stones currently flying toward her froze in midair—then floated up higher. Rather than hurling at Morenna, a dozen chunks of masonry rose to whirl in a steady circle around Uthien.

Uthien, who was now hovering high above the Lower Castle as if standing upon the air itself. He stared down at the chaos unfolding all around, and uttered one word.

“Gravity.”