The Vitalis Chronicles: White Shores (8 page)

Located in a valley a few miles to the northeast of Levanton, it rested in the midst of some of the higher peaks in the Northern Range. The Cave wouldn't have raised the suspicions of any passerby at first, or even necessarily at second glance. It looked more like the neglected offices of a mining operation than a Magess' prison, and the government's posted warnings had long since deteriorated. Sitting in a clearing about two hundred yards in diameter, the compound was made up of three buildings surrounded by a ten foot chain-link fence.

The two smaller buildings stood on either side of the path that ran up from the road in the valley below. One of the buildings was an old maintenance shed, the other a small power plant; neither was more than a story tall, though the brick power plant had a few sub levels. Large pipes and tubes jutted out of it on the northern and eastern sides, running into or along the ground to the main building in the complex.

This, the Cave itself, was also one story tall except for a section in the back just off the east wing that stood an extra half story high.

Ardin worked his way up the slope that led into the clearing, checking to the south for signs of the army. Satisfied, he moved to a gap next to one of the fence poles. The lengthening shadows of the mountains gave him a sense of comfort. He felt hidden. Lifting the chain link over his head he ducked in and started walking up the path, thoughtlessly glancing down the road one last time. It curved left about a mile down the slope, winding as it headed into the foothills. While it was the longer route to the Cave, armies on the march have an affinity for paved roads.

Ardin looked around. He'd never actually been in the Cave. The dark, flat-roofed building at the end of the path certainly had a cavernous feel to it. It looked as though it swallowed light. There was a sense of hopelessness hovering in the air. Its tall windows had been walled over from the inside. The double doors making up the main entrance stood loosely on their hinges at the top of a short set of stairs. It looked like a dark, slouched school-turned-madhouse. Or at least so he imagined.

That building, Ardin figured, was exactly where this general would go. He just hoped they didn't level the place first. He tried the handle on the door but it didn't budge. They were partially open already, just not enough to get through. Wrapping his fingers around the thick wood of one of the doors he put his weight into it and managed to pull it out a few more inches. Just enough to squeeze through.

Ardin Vitalis slipped into the darkness beyond the threshold. As his eyes adjusted he could make out that he was in some sort of entryway. There was a door to his left, one in front of him, and one to the right. The one in front looked like an office, dark letters stenciled on the high glass window. He turned to his left and walked towards a set of large glass sliding doors. The room beyond was dimly lit by small diodes in the walls. What they were connected to or indicating he couldn't make out.

Down both sides of the room were rows of tall benches covered in tipped over vials, small gas burners, and other scientific measuring tools. The far wall was shared by chalk boards and tall bookshelves full of thick leather bound volumes. The whole room seemed to be covered in a heavy coat of dust. He tried the doors but they were sealed.

He turned back to the door directly behind him. The shock of light pouring in from the outside to his right revealed that it was made from a thick metal. Bolts in the frame and door jutted out with a large wheel in the middle as if to seal it from the outside. The upper left corner looked like it had been punched out from the other side as it curled towards him. The door frame was cracked, and the wheel looked broken. It came off in his hands as he went to twist it. He dropped it to the side.

This would be where the man would go. This is where he would put an end to him. The thought raised his stomach towards his throat, and he shoved it back down. He could feel a prickling start behind his eyes and he shook it away. He couldn't think about his family now. He had to avenge them... that was all he could do.

Ardin gripped the door itself where it had twisted away from the frame and heaved on it. He was surprised as it swung easily open, almost smacking his face as it made its arc. The hallway beyond glowed a dim red from some hidden lights further on. He could make out cables and tubing twisting and winding back and forth along the floor. They ran between tall, slender, egg-shaped capsules that lined the walls all the way down.

He moved forward, not thinking to close the door as he walked wide-eyed down the corridor. There was a low hum in the room, the only sound he had heard in the place. Each metal capsule had a small window in it about six feet off the ground, just high enough that Ardin had to get up on his toes to peer in. It was hard to see, but he felt certain there were things floating inside the capsules. Large things. He shuddered involuntarily as he moved on down the rows of containers.

Where should he hide, he wondered? That rat bastard of a general would be here any minute. He needed to be ready for him. He stumbled once, chiding himself as he tried not to trip on the thick cables that crisscrossed the floor. They resembled lost vines in search of a host.

The red glow was cast by large lights on the square base of each capsule. Their housing faced the far side of the room. There were four lights on each, marked separately with different symbols. The red light's symbol looked like an “
X
” through a skull. He kept moving, not wanting to linger.

Progressing down the makeshift hallway he began to notice a bluish white light emanating from the left side of the room farther on. It seemed to trickle gently past the capsules and slowly die as it progressed into the hostile red darkness. He kept walking until a short path between the capsules opened up towards the source of the light. Another thick metal door stood only ten feet away.

That must be where he's going.

Its large window was bordered by yellow and black stripes, and had been broken out from the inside. Shards of glass lay strewn about the floor as if trying to flee down the hall and escape their square metal prison.

The light was surprisingly bright for how quickly it dimmed, Ardin thought, like it were shining into water. He squinted as he moved forward, the crunch of broken glass under his feet forcing him to walk more lightly. He grabbed the recessed handle of the door, sliding it into the wall on the right and disappearing silently like it had never been there.

He stepped into a large room whose ceiling was a good eight feet taller than that of the rest of the building. Large pipes and winding tubes ran along the sides of the room to a massive capsule at its center. The capsule’s curved face appeared to be made entirely out of a thick glass. It was lit well by a few diodes and fixtures, standing in stark contrast to the dark chamber.

Inside the capsule was the suspended figure of a woman, floating silently in clear fluid, apparently asleep. Her arms appeared bound behind her back while her wild silver hair fanned out lazily from her head in almost every direction. A tube from the floor of the container ran up to a mask that was bound around the lower part of her face, covering her nose and mouth. Her clothing, slowly reduced to rags over decades of dissolution, floated loosely around her body revealing smooth, pale white skin beneath. Despite the silver-white hair, she didn't appear very old to Ardin.

He approached the capsule silently, enraptured. Little lights on the fixtures holding the capsule in place flickered on and off as if a subconscious afterthought. The warm humming had been left behind. The silence was only broken intermittently by the hissing of some small valve releasing pressure in the darkness.

He closed on the cage, his heart drumming so loudly in his ears he was certain it would wake the woman behind the glass. She must be alive if they were coming for her, he thought. She was enchanting; if no other power made itself manifest, her intoxicating presence would have been enough for Ardin to have thought of her as a witch. But she was far more lovely than the witches his brother had ever told him about in story.

Above the glass, bolted into the arms that held the capsule from the ceiling, was a plate with writing etched into it. Some was small, generic military information and serial numbers. In large print between the lines of almost illegible dribble it read “
CHARSI
” and below in slightly smaller letters “
CONDEMNED: MAGE.
” His eyes drifted back down to her figure, floating peacefully in the water. Was she drugged?

He reached out, unable to pull his hand back and unwilling to do so in any case. The glass was slanted away from him, as if the whole capsule had rocked backwards some time before. He could almost see himself in the glass as his fingers gently brushed the surface.

Her eyes opened.

G
ENERAL TROY SILVERS
stepped into the clearing at the Cave, the crack battalion of his division standing at attention in the valley behind him. He knew he didn't need them, not for this at least, though they had been useful in containing the villagers from Levanton. A gentle white mist wandered with a sense of curiosity through the wild grasses that roamed freely around the clearing.

Silvers grit his teeth mindlessly as he stared up the path towards the dark ramshackle building. It had been a long time since he'd crossed paths with the Magess. He wasn't looking forward to it. Partially because he didn't know what to expect; partially because he did.

She'd been imprisoned here a long time now. Perhaps not by her reckoning but certainly by the humans who had contained her here a generation before. Their neglect in maintaining the place was rearing its costly head.

“Sir.” The gaunt colonel appeared at his elbow. “Are you certain you do not want an escort into the building, sir?”

“I'll be fine, Colonel.”

“Not even your own weapon, sir?”

Silvers didn't respond. His cold gaze rested on the complex ahead, bathed in the shadow of the mountain. Weapons weren't any good here.

An attached squad of engineers had cut the gates off the old fence for him, but had been remanded to the battalion. This was something he would do himself. Afterward he would have to let Brutus' demolition squad in to blow the place to bits, assuming there was anything left. It was necessary to satiate the battalion's hopes for explosions and quell the fears of the people, if for no other reason.

There would be a high demand for certainty of the Witch's demise in the City.

He would give them that.

“How did she manage it sir?” The colonel's question disrupted his thoughts like waking from a dream.

“What?”

“If she's still here, I mean. How did she do what she did to the Peninsula?”

“Who knows,” he said absentmindedly. “This place has fallen into disrepair to say the least. Whatever happened she must have found a way to break through the seals.”

“She's had enough time to,” the gaunt old man agreed.

“Bring three companies up in fifteen minutes and secure the perimeter,” Silvers turned to his subordinate. “No one in or out. Set two companies as a rearguard at the mouth of the valley to ensure no one comes up and interrupts us. And for God's sake, keep Brutus' dogs out of here until I'm ready for them. I don't share their zeal for repulsion devices. For all we know the ones in the compound simply malfunctioned.”

“Sir.” The colonel turned briskly and walked away.

Metaphysical Atmosphere Repulsion Devices, or
MARD
if you didn't want to choke on the name, were made to repel the source of the Magi's power. In their most basic form,
MARD
were simple containers built to house an alloy comprised of two rare but natural ores. When the two were mixed in the proper ratios they repelled what was called the Metaphysical Atmosphere, something most humans were blissfully unaware of but from which the Magi drew most of their strength.

If one ran an electrical current through the ores, the effect could be amplified. If the Atmosphere was repulsed in a Mage's presence he would immediately go limp. Their bodies were but physical shells for an otherwise metaphysical existence.

The real danger was in the Mage's ability to grow in power as he or she learned to manipulate the Atmosphere and convert it to matter, affecting the world around them. Most people referred to it simply as magic, and it may as well have been, but Silvers had seen enough to know that there was a method behind the madness. He had seen its power first hand at the Raising of the Cliffs among other things.

The entire western coastline had been covered in cliffs. They were made by the Magi in a desperate attempt to ward off an invasion of their own making known best as the Great Defense.

Thankfully, as the treachery of the Magi was revealed during the Continental War that was to follow,
MARD
was discovered by a professor of chemistry in Liscentia, to the south, that most considered insane. Perhaps the majority held him in esteem. But those who knew about his tendencies to cut himself and drink his own blood considered him insane.

Through the clouds of his madness he had managed to concoct a Repulsion Device which he proceeded to demonstrate on one of the few Magi left behind during the War. He had performed the unthinkable when he walked nonchalantly up to the helpless Mage in front of an Inter-City Council and surreptitiously slit his throat with a small knife.

They had become increasingly elaborate devices, to the point that one could use the casing of mortars or the shrapnel in bombs to introduce
MARD
just before the rest of the device ripped a Mage's weakened body to shreds.

Many cruel contraptions had been conceived and used, but such was war. Treason, to the scale of the Magi's especially, deserved little mercy.

These devices, however, were incredibly expensive to make and increasingly rare since the Purge. For the past twenty years they had become almost entirely unnecessary and widely forgotten by the current generation.