ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT: Waves IV

 

138

******

 

Up. Go up.

Alden didn’t know for sure what was coming or if it would even reach him. He had no idea if now was the right time to abandon his horizontal evacuation in favor of a vertical one.

The only place he was sure would be safe was the interior of a flyer that was currently bound for South America. In the absence of that vehicle, and with his public school education having failed to prepare him to escape from oceanic anomalies caused by magical contaminants, he was going to have to go with Plan C. For “caveman.”

Big scary sound is getting louder. Hide from it.

He increased his speed and hustled back the way he’d just come from, jogging past a row of oddly gothic-looking townhouses. As he hurried across the next street, flashing pedestrian warning lights automatically switched on, bathing the crosswalk yellow.

One of the safest-looking buildings he’d seen since he left The Span was on the corner.

A stretch of concrete wall, painted white, led him to a door that had seemed appealingly sturdy when he passed it earlier. It was a tall, wide rectangle designed to look like a jigsaw puzzle made of colored pieces of metal. Some of them had slightly different elevations, giving the door a textured appearance.

Now that I want to get in, it looks too damn sturdy.

Alden had a couple of sketchy ideas about how he would break and enter, but he’d much rather it just be unlocked. If I can’t get this opened, I just break into one of the houses instead. That’s all there is to do.

The roaring still filled his ears. He couldn’t tell if it was growing anymore, but it was way too loud for his liking.

This can’t be good. Either some Avowed is using really heavy-duty magic, or the ocean is eating things oceans shouldn’t eat.

He thrust his hand toward the extra large puzzle piece that served as a knob. Nothing happened when he turned it in either direction.

Don’t panic. Just try—

“Hi there! Bienvenue!”

“Ack!” Alden took a step back and clutched Zeridee with both arms as a smiling cartoon seal animation suddenly appeared on the wall by the door.

It waved a flipper at him. “Welcome to Apogee Artist Spaces! You can use your studio 24/7. Just input your personal puzzle code to gain entry.”

What the heck does a talking seal have to do with anything?

“I don’t have a code,” Alden said quickly, staring the seal in the eyes. “But it’s an emergency. Could you open the door?”

The seal giggled and performed a swimming back flip. “Art is fun!”

Crap.

“You’re not equipped to respond, are you? I’m talking to pixels.”

It clapped its flippers. “You can rent our studios by the month! We even have boom rooms! Just call Kimmy T—”

Alden tuned it out and carefully adjusted his grip on Zeridee, trying to make sure he was holding her in a way that wouldn’t hurt.

She’s been stabbed. However you hold her is going to hurt. Just try to talk to her fast.

He let the preservation fall from the assistant for the first time since he’d lifted her.

Zeridee didn’t make a sound, but the sudden re-animation of her features turned the illusion of peaceful sleep into something more pained. Her eyes opened.

“You’re all right,” Alden said in Artonan, trying to enunciate. “I’m all right. I need to open a door. I think if I use my skill on the door for a second, it might open. Can I have this door?”

She stared at him with one eye. The other was pointing straight up. Blood from her head injury was trickling down toward her ear.

“Some of the doors in the residence are expensive,” she whispered. “Why do you want them?”

Alden swallowed. Stay calm. Act sane. Don’t freak her out.

“We’re not in the ambassador’s residence. I’m taking us both to a place that I think is safe. This is another door. You don’t mind me using my skill on it, do you?”

“Those men are sleeping.”

“I’m glad they are. May I have this door? Or even just the knob?”

“Why?”

More warm blood was slicking his hands.

Shit. I can’t do this to her. One more try. Then we re-preserve her.

“If I use my skill on this door, it might open. I hope it leads to a safe place. May I?”

“Yes.”

Great!

“Alden Ryeh-b’t, I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have allowed you—”

He slapped his hand to the puzzle knob, attempting to activate preservation on both Zeridee and the door simultaneously. Her words were cut off in an instant.

As for the door…

There was no way Alden could actually preserve it while it was attached to its frame. Maybe with a lot of mental gymnastics that he didn’t have time for, he could convince himself the building was an enemy trying to assault the door or something. But for now, he was just hoping that his intent to take the object into his keeping would be clear enough that the skill would still count it as his.

Tag, puzzle door. You’re under my care now even if you haven’t gotten the full preserve.

Beneath his feet, a subtle vibration ran through the pavement. That…had to be really bad.

Get inside. Get up high, he told himself as he frantically searched the door, looking for enchantments.

There was a better than fifty percent chance, in his opinion, of the door being some kind of Wrightmade magical artwork. The alternative was it being regular tech.

If it was magical artwork, there should be some enchanted components involved.

He didn’t see anything at first, and he almost jumped right to his backup plan—trying to use his skill on just the doorknob over and over to see if he could interrupt an imagined electric locking mechanism. But then his own heavy breathing and the feel of his bloody, sweaty palm slipping against the knob made him reconsider.

Enchantments might be there. You might just be in the wrong headspace to see them. You need to take a little bit of time and look harder.

The sensitivity part of the “defogging package” he’d chosen to enhance The Bearer of All Burdens with during his last affixation wasn’t one he’d had all that much opportunity to train. He was a pro at seeing enchantments on NesiCards when he was calm and focused, but that didn’t mean he could take it for granted that he was picking up on everything there was to see about this door.

Give it just sixty seconds. Sixty seconds of focus.

The ground was still vibrating.

Ignore it.

Alden tried to make his next breath slow and steady. He pressed his hand to the knob harder.

Okay. You’ve been entrusted to me. All of you. What does all of you include? What are you besides just a door?

He asserted his skill as much as he could while he stared at the entrance, not trying to use any particular feature of his bound authority, just aligning himself with his affixation a little more. He was only capable of giving the process a measly fraction of his attention; it was nothing compared to the effort he’d dedicated to aligning himself the other night, when he’d spent ages contemplating his targeting ability and making peace with himself so that he could find the mug of soup Haoyu had hidden.

But to his surprise and relief, even a little effort made a difference here.

A new aspect of the door suddenly came into view.

The knob beneath Alden’s hand gleamed with a network of magic, similar to the enchantments he saw when he looked at temper spheres or the chips on entrusted NesiCards. And he could now feel that piece of the enchantment under his palm, like a patch of warmth.

Defogging package is really being awesome tonight.

Taking another breath, determined not to lose his head or shift his attention, he examined the rest of the door.

Smaller knots of enchantment shone on several of the puzzle pieces—the ones that were elevated or recessed compared to the others. All of them had hair-thin magical connections to the door’s knob.

The giggling seal said to input my code for entry. Those pieces must all be buttons people press to open this thing.

He thought trying to pull the enchantment from a single piece would be a bad move. It might do nothing at all.

Pulling the whole thing and de-magicking the door entirely seemed like the surest option. He was a little worried about the strain on his skill, though.

Enchantments were harder than objects, and with Zeridee preserved, it would be a double run on top of that.

I don’t think it’ll be nearly enough to wear me out, but…

Fast. Just do it fast.

Take enchantment. Turn doorknob. Done.

“Please work,” he murmured.

He made a pinching motion against the doorknob, like he was trying to pluck a cobweb from it, and activated his preservation again, this time with the intention of bearing only the enchantment and giving up his claim to the rest of the door.

But all of the enchantment. I want to hold the whole enchantment.

The network of light pulled free of the door and wrapped itself around his hand and a few inches of forearm. He could feel it there, under the sleeve of the sweatshirt.

And he gasped as he realized it was taking way more effort to hold than temper sphere enchantment.

“Shit!”

Alden grabbed the freshly de-magicked knob, turned, and yanked. The door swung open.

In too much of a rush to be grateful, he stepped through and dropped his hold on the stolen enchantment the second his feet were over the threshold.

Heart pounding, hand still on the knob, he looked at what he’d done. He could feel the warmth of the restored enchantment beneath his palm again, and he could see it on the puzzle piece buttons…some of them anyway. They seemed dimmer, and most of threads connecting the different pieces to the knob were missing.

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Pretty sure I’ve broken it.

He let go, pushed the door shut, and took a step back. A couple of seconds later, the door clicked as if it was locking itself. Then it clicked again.

And a few more times.

“Yeah. That’s definitely broken.”

He hoped the cool door wasn’t someone’s magnum opus.

Something to feel sorry about on another, better day. One when he would also have time to appreciate the fact that he had just confirmed he could use his skill to bust magical locks.

******

It took Alden a few seconds to get his bearings, but it probably wouldn’t have taken even that long if he wasn’t so stressed. The building seemed to have a simple layout. The lights were on as well as the heating. It was toasty warm, bright, and quiet.

The roaring was undetectable, but he doubted it had just stopped at the exact moment the door shut. The walls must have been thick enough to block the sound.