Young Flame

“Guests?” The orange-fire bird that left immediately after spotting us has returned. Their question is simple and stiff, but she flies by our side until Elder Yalun answers her.

“Yep,” the grand elder by my side says, only for the new áed to nod and fly ahead again. She’s likely a messenger bird. It isn’t surprising that there are those on guard around the Agglomerate, considering how close we are to the Titan Alps.

“Do you get guests often? Non-áed, I mean?”

“Oh, yeah. Every half century or so, there’s always one curious explorer that finds their way here.” She spins in the air and flies on the back of her wings so she can look up at Grímr and Leal without moving away from me. “By the way, you’re an ursu, right? One of our new neighbours.”

“New?” Leal mutters. “We’ve been there for over two hundred years.”

“Oh? Well, I only heard about you replacing the albanics to our east a bit over a century ago. But I need to ask about those markings of yours. What type of mage are you?”

Leal hesitates, so I speak for her. “She’s a water mage. That’s not going to be a problem, I hope?”

“Nah, nah. No issue. You’ll have a supervisor follow you around, but there aren’t any tribes here with kids at the moment, so restrictions are lax.”

Huh? That is far different from the treatment I’d been expecting. I’m not complaining, but after the wariness shown by the Logi tribe, I thought it would be more difficult to have her accepted.

Apparently my thoughts are clear to Yalun, as she giggles. “You know, water mages are the most common guests we have. They’re better at getting through the sands than other low-binding creatures.” She flips upright. “Don’t get me wrong though, we are only so welcoming because we have warriors we trust. Don’t expect most of those here to be welcoming if you let it be known what you are. Especially after the recent attacks.”

I have so many questions, but by the time I settle on one, Elder Yalun guides us to the ground a couple hundred metres before the first glass pillar. A single áed stands waiting with a glaive held by his side. His perfectly controlled form gives away no hints at the strength of his flames, but his relaxed yet disciplined stance reveals confidence in his strength.

We land on the ground and it becomes immediately apparent that it isn’t just sand below my feet. I kick a thin layer of the grains to reveal glass. A subtle glow reflects up from below, but I cannot see the end. Just how deep does the glass go?

Grímr’s massive talons impact the earth much harder than he needed to. With all the weight centred on his sharp clawed feet, I’m surprised the glass doesn’t shatter. Actually, as I look close, the glass isn’t even scratched from his talons.

“I welcome guests and-” his gaze penetrates my being, inspecting me from head to toe. “Unfamiliar kin to our Agglomerate.” His focus returns to the two non-áed. “I am Grand Elder Odqan. You are free to wander the outer shards and ask questions as you please, but do not expect all answers to be forthcoming. I will follow you around to monitor you, so do be careful of your actions while visiting.”

Another Grand Elder? Was he here to fight if we’d been hostile? Really, it’s an incredible difference in organisation than what I’m used to after all my time at war in the pact nations. Over there, they refuse to bring out their strongest until the last possible moment, but here, it seems our strongest and oldest are those quickest to battle.

“Great!” Yalun places her hand on my shoulder. “With that sorted, I’ll take this one with me.”

“What? But-” I turn to my friends, not wanting to leave them alone as soon as we got here.

“Don’t worry about them. They’ll be treated well with Odqan sticking by them,” she says before leaning in to whisper in a playful lilt. “Besides, ta~boo.”

“Yalun. You, want to be her guide?” Elder Odqan clearly finds her actions suspicious. “Why?”

“Oh, you know, I want to know who taught her,” she says as she pushes me past Odqan toward the Agglomerate.

“Sure…” her words don’t disperse his suspicions, but he doesn’t stop her.

I cast my sight back to Leal and Grímr, concerned to leave them alone. Leal can hardly keep her gaze away from the massive rising mountain of glass, but Grímr notices my worry.

“We’ll be fine, Solvei. You do your thing. We won’t be far.”

I don’t believe either side will start a fight unnecessarily, but most áed never see another sapient race in their lives, so it’s concerning what their reaction might be without me to stand as intermediary.

So, being led by the hand, we finally move into the Agglomerate. Odqan’s voice carries his explanations and warnings as he and my friends follow at a far calmer pace. The three eagle áed remain flying around the two of us as Yalun makes me jog with her.

She is incredibly impatient for someone who’s apparently lived for such a long time. I’m surprised she hasn’t encouraged me to switch back and fly again.

“You should stop transforming so quick,” she says as we close in on the start of the Agglomerate. “It would attract far too much attention if others find out your binding is greater than mine. How old are you, anyway? Solvei, right?”

“Maybe fourteen now?” I answer, unsure. “And yeah, Solvei.”

I should probably make proper introductions, but now that we’re heading into the Agglomerate, I can’t take my eyes off the many giant glass blades rising from the ground before us. Each spike rises only high enough to allow an overall dome shape to form around the mountain within. Only a dozen metres now, and we’ll be walking between two major glass pillars and be within the Agglomerate.

The solid ground beneath me is no longer hidden by a layer of sand. Soft clinks ring out from each step and echo off the long wall of glass.

The sheer difference between this and how the Agni tribes live is astonishing. If each pillar wasn’t so symmetrically placed and formed to such perfect heights to keep the convex shape of the dome, I’d think it a natural formation. With a place as massive as this, why do we continue to wander the wasteland? Why not do the same as all those eastern races and settle?

Oh, right. Not enough resources.

My first step within the dome leaves me awed at its size and unnerved by the emptiness within. There are a few warriors standing at the edge of the dome — each with their own relic — but besides them, there isn’t anyone around. The warriors watch us pass with nothing more than idle curiosity, their attention more on the strange races following behind us.

“Where is everyone?” I thought this was supposed to be a city?

“Hmm? None of the tribes would settle this far on the outskirts. Not unless they have a newspawn child. There are more tribes here than usual at the moment, and while they like to find their own place within the Agglomerate, there are areas for gathering. The nearest one should be visible through a couple of glass shards.”

She points into the nearest wall, where there are small distorted lights in the distance. I expect us to follow the glass pillar around until we reach the congregation, but instead, we continue forward.

“Are we not going to the gathering area?”

“Nope. We’re going to my domain.” Yalun turns to the three birds still following close. “You three can leave now.”

The eagles share glances between themselves before two fly off, moving to the peaks of the massive glass shards. Only one remains, the bird with warmer yellow flames. They look like they want to protest, but a raised eye from the Grand Elder has them hesitate, before they join the other two above.

“They’re good at hiding it, but they’re just as curious as I am about you,” Elder Yalun says. “They should have returned to their posts as soon as we’d met with Odqan.”

She finally lets go of my arm and begins her transformation once more. “Now, come. Change quick while there’s nobody around. I’m taking you to my chambers and walking through the core will take far longer than simply flying.”

For some inexplicable reason, I get the feeling that being invited to enter a Grand Elder’s chambers is not particularly common.

Sighing, I do as she says. My falcon form is much smaller than her eagle one, but as much as I’m tempted to increase my size to match her, I’m unfamiliar with the eagle form, so I wouldn’t be able to hide my flames.

We weave through the glass towers and head closer to the main mountain of the Agglomerate. A light gust blows outward and upward, carrying a heat that grows more intense each second. The few lights I can see distorted through glass must be the gatherings Yalun mentioned, but few from this point on remain in cold enough air to be comfortable for Leal or Grímr.

My friends cannot join me from this point on.

I’m curious about where all this heat comes from. The major glowing core beneath the mountain is visible from anywhere, but what exactly is the source? Is there a magma vent beneath this mountain? But the Agni tribes live in a volcano and even that wasn’t all that hot. It is clear the core is far greater than that.

Yalun leads up along the mountainside now. The mostly flat glass floor from before has sloped upwards enough that I doubt anyone could climb with what little grip the glass provides. Thankfully, flying avoids that completely. We rise along the glass mountain, passing major protruding spikes until Yalun pulls me into a narrow opening.

We land within a spacious room in the peak of the mountain. Through the thick glass, the plateau around the Agglomerate is clear, if distorted. The chamber is rather bare. An incredibly soft looking bedroll is about the only thing that blocks the view through the surrounding glass, and even that is rolled up in a corner without taking up much space.

On one side of the room, a workbench is carved out of the wall with a bunch of intricate carving and inscribing tools I remember Uncle used to inlay patterns into our clothing. Unlike his, this is an immense array of glass-handled tools with hundreds of different metal powders and inks laying to the side.

It is hot in here. Too hot for my friends to come close. The room feels borderline white flame level heat.

“Welcome to my chambers. As Grand Elder overseeing the eagles and binding, I get the best room in the Agglomerate.” As soon as her form reverts, she swings her arms wide to the glistening chamber at the highest point of the glass mountain. “All the other Grand Elders prefer the unbearably hot chambers around the core, but there’s more to life than heat…”

Yeah, I nod. This view is amazing.

“…Like finally reaching the next stage of binding.”

Oh, right. Of course.

“My teacher told me that her teacher reached the threshold, but the damned woman’s frustrating method of education still comes to bite me centuries after she left us. But with you, we might actually achieve it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s me or you to breach the threshold, so long as I can finally see what happens. So, tell me how you did it.”

All her comments of centuries as if they are nothing make me wonder just how ancient the Grand Elders are. I knew many of my elders were old, but not centuries. Such a length of time is incomprehensible. I’m not even halfway through my second decade yet.

“Do you know of the Void Fog?” I ask.

“We’ve got records of it down in the archive. Never seen it myself.”

“Well, that’s what pushed my binding to what it is. The Void Fog changed me while it had me in its grasp.”

“Really? We’ve found áed we believe escaped from the Fog before, but they were always nothing more than mindless beasts.”

“Yeah,” I say. If you didn’t know what to do in the Void, then there’s little chance of keeping who you are. “I only survived because of advice a friend gave.”

“One of those two?” Yalun points down at the lights of one of the outer congregations.

Now that I’m looking, it’s easy to see where all the áed camps and groupings are. I have to say, there aren’t many. Considering the sheer size of the Agglomerate, we don’t inhabit much of it. How many tribes are here? And how many tribes are there overall?

“No,” I answer. “The one who told me experienced it himself. I don’t know anyone stronger.”

“What was the advice?”

“To focus the mind. Internalise what is your greatest desire and remove any other thoughts. But I would never recommend looking for the Void; the curse isn’t worth it.”

“Do you mind if I see? I want to look at exactly what those changes are?” a flare along her hand makes her intent clear.

“No, I’d really rather not.”

“If you’re worried about your capacity being found out, there’s no need to worry.” She smirks. “I already know.”