The Mechanical Crown

Tumblers falling into place

"What are you looking for?"

"Let me try something."

All was quiet except for the shuffling of Tarn's feet. Fenris stayed still, not trusting his footing in the dark.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Concentrating."

"My apologies," Fenris said. The darkness began to press in upon him from all sides, as all sense of direction drifted away.

"You know, Fenris, it is not a weakness to have friends."

Taken aback, Fenris was unsure of what to say, so chose to say nothing at all.

"I never had friends until I left the machine rooms," Tarn continued. "The first friends I met were killed. I think, now, that perhaps they weren't the best kind of friends to have, though they didn't deserve to die. Then I met you. And Kirya. And Tranton. You are all my friends. Also Galisai, and Hatch and Stefan. Although Stefan is very grumpy."

"I have never been imprisoned as you were," Fenris said slowly, considering his words, "but I have rarely had time for friendship."

"That seems silly of you."

That sounded more like Tarn, and the boy's characteristic lack of social niceties brought an amused grin to Fenris' face in the dark. "I suppose it was, Tarn, yes. Friendships do not make difficult decisions any easier. They can cloud one's judgement, or be exploited by others."

"That doesn't matter," Tarn said. "Don't be afraid of it. I try to think of everyone as my friend. Even people I haven't met yet. Maybe even Kraisa, if I can meet her properly. That way it becomes easy again to make decisions, because you don't have to choose between one friend or hundreds of strangers."

"I'm not convinced that that makes entire sense," Fenris said, "but perhaps I will give it a try."

"Good. There," Tarn said, "can you see it?"

At first there was nothing beyond the total blackness, then Fenris' eyes detected a faint, cool glow emanating from the wall, split into a web of angular lines. It took him a moment to understand what he was seeing, then his brain gradually resolved the pattern and he realised that it was light from beyond the wall, shining through hair-thin cracks in the rock. "What is it?"

"I could feel more source-fed lights beyond the wall. I just turned them on."

"We should go back and get the others," Fenris said, having had enough of the encroaching tunnels. "They can help us to dig through."

"Let me try something first. Step back, please, Fenris."

Carefully doing as he was told, acutely aware of the uneven ground beneath his feet, Fenris squinted into the dark. He heard Tarn moving, then there was a thunderous crack and air rushed past him as the wall crumbled and was blown away from them into the tunnel beyond. Light flooded out and Fenris was forced to shield his eyes as they again had to adjust.

"How did you do that?"

"It was part of my training," Tarn said, breathing heavily "but I never managed to do much with it until now. I'm a lot stronger." He shook his hands and arms, as if trying to work feeling back into them after leaning awkwardly for too long. "It takes a lot out of me, though. The power has a limit; once it's used, I have to wait for it to replenish."

"It is truly remarkable, Tarn. How do you know what to do?"

"It's like I said before; I have more knowledge now, I just need to fit the pieces together. The power is building up inside of me again - some of it is growing by itself; the rest is being pulled directly from the ground around us."

"Can all of Aera's students do this?"

Tarn shook his head. "I don't think so. I think they relied more on her, in the same way she kept the city up and the discs flying. Lower levels definitely don't have these abilities; perhaps daemons and totems could do more?"

"We still have much to learn, even now."

Gesturing into the tunnel, Tarn led them on. The passageway opened out into a wider entrance, where crumbled and water-ruined remains of old tables and chairs carved directly into the rock could be identified. More lights flickered on, gradually revealing a chamber as big as the main habitation areas near the entrance. Instead of dwellings the space was occupied by large, complex contraptions: vehicles, ships, other designs that might have been weapons. The entire chamber was a store room, or perhaps a hangar, filled with advanced creations of crafted wood and metal. They bore many of the quirks of Avii craftsmanship yet were evidently of a different era. Unlike the cavern itself, the structures seemed to be in remarkably good condition.

As Fenris watched, the ships started to come to life, illuminating and activating mechanisms. Tarn's presence had awoken them from a long slumber.

"This could be useful," Tarn said, remarkably understating their discovery.

"It's not my place to say," Fenris said, putting his hand around Tarn's shoulders and beaming proudly.