“Does that answer your question, Midshipman Michalik?” Themis said with a smile, causing Drew to flashback to the first day of Advent talking to Aevis during the tutorial.
“Not particularly, but I imagine that is as much as I’m likely to get,” Drew said, and Themis nodded his head to confirm his guess.
“Very well, then please follow me, the Admiral is quite busy.”
Drew followed along as the man entered an elevator, and as soon as Drew had entered as well, the lift began moving. Drew could only tell because the auras around him shifted rapidly; there was no sense of motion from the machine itself. They stood in uncomfortable silence for some time, which Drew used to take the time to examine Themis’ aura, which was almost completely green. He hadn’t seen anyone that was so predominantly one color among any of the earth-3 inhabitants he’d seen.
Themis frowned as he watched Drew look at him, “You are an interesting specimen, Midshipman Michalik. It’s clear you already have some awareness of the mana spectrum, and some way to refrain from answering a sleep sync for several days. I’m beginning to understand why Admiral Ares was so insistent on you receiving your introduction before we left the range of the sleep sync.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine — Introduction
They had passed a few people in the short walk from the corridor. All of them had given Themis and him a respectful distance. They were all wearing a similar jumpsuit to the one he’d been given, but with rank insignia on the right upper arm instead of the shoulder epaulets he and Themis were wearing. Themis’ shoulder board held two diamonds and three diagonal lines, significantly more complex than his own single diagonal line. The only assumption he could make from that was that he was clearly a much higher rank than Drew.
“Are you a member of the Order of the Dragon?” Drew finally asked. Themis laughed involuntarily-it was the first time Drew had managed to break the man’s calm facade-and then shook his head.
“No, I am a member of the Order of the Scale,” the other man answered, glancing at the data pad in front of him. “Admiral Ares is the only assault mage in the fleet, aside from yourself, of course. However, it would be appreciated if you would please refrain from asking any questions. There are rules in place that prevent me from interacting too closely with a newly Advent’ed citizen. We’re pushing the limits of what is allowed by bringing you here so early as it is.”
That of course, raised more questions in Drew’s mind. Who made the rules that these obviously powerful people had to obey? How rare were assault mages anyway? He realized that they must be relatively rare if simply being one had earned him an officer’s commission and a knighthood.
Since Themis didn’t appear to have any intention of answering his questions, and there was nothing but the quickly passing auras behind the walls of the lift for him to look at, Drew spent the next two minutes pondering the answers to his internal questions. When the door to the lift finally opened, it was onto the bridge of the ship.
It appeared to be more the bridge of an expensive luxury yacht than a warship. Brilliantly glowing wood paneling, sleek displays, and plush seats all focused towards a single man sitting in a throne-like chair in the center of the room. Another thirty or forty people populated the bridge at various consoles, but Drew’s attention was caught by the man in the center chair.
It was impossible to guess his age, with a fit frame and young face that contrasted heavily with the shortcut, salt, and pepper hair that crowned his head. Most of the people on the bridge had epaulets as well, but the man in the captain’s chair was obviously the most ornate. As Themis lead him towards the man, he got a better view of them; each shoulder sported two dragons coiled intricately around each other.
As they got closer, Drew could see Ares’ aura, which was a turbulent red, with undertones of orange and yellow that made it look like a roaring fire. When they were within twenty feet, the man looked up from the three-dimensional star map he was examining. Seeing Themis and Drew, he quirked an eyebrow at the former, “You finally managed to sync him?”
With a salute, Themis confirmed his commander’s question, “Indeed, Sir. He finally responded to the sync.”
“Excellent!” Ares turned his entire attention to Drew, “Welcome to the Olympus, Drew Michalik!” His voice boomed and everyone on the bridge stopped what they were doing to glance towards the center of the room. Drew shuffled his feet slightly.
“Thank you, sir. Although I must admit I’m still not entirely sure why I have been…synced,” Drew responded, glancing around at all the people that continued to stare at him.
Ares stood up and gestured to another man, “Enyalios has the conn.” Another man who had been standing near Ares waited for the admiral to move and then took his seat. “Come, Drew, we have much to discuss, and little time.” Drew and Themis followed along behind Ares, who led them to a door that connected into a ready room. Ares took the main seat and gestured for Drew to sit at one across from him. Themis closed his eyes briefly and the room glowed with a green light, though he remained standing near the door instead of joining Drew and Ares.
“I apologize for this highly irregular meeting, but we have never seen an assault mage appear prior to the third generation after Advent. In fact, your split’s emergence on Earth-1 was so unexpected that we rerouted a number of assets to Earth to speed up the splitting process.” Ares paused for a moment, pulling up a hologram that displayed Earth in triplicate. “And I think you are proof that it was a more than worthy use of our resources.” He paused and steepled his fingers; Drew didn’t dare interrupt the man who seemed to exude confidence.
“I know you have many questions Drew. Unfortunately, I am unable to answer most of them. What few I can answer will relate to this,” he said, pointing to the globes. “As you know, Earth has been split three times; the first split was only seven Earth years ago. Normally we would wait longer between splits, usually between ten and thirty years. However, when Earth-1’s Drew registered as an assault mage, the Pantheons agreed for the first time in nearly thirteen centuries to dedicate a significant allotment of mana to facilitate a more rapid splitting.”
Glancing at Drew to make sure he was following, Ares continued, “Drew-1, that is the you that originated on Earth-1, was an amazing find. It’s uncommon for an assault mage to appear before the fourth generation after Advent. To have one in the first generation…well, as I said, you and your splits are in a unique position.” He zoomed in on the third Earth, and as he did so Drew realized that he was being shown the major ley lines of the planet. There were a few dozen major hubs, each corresponding to a city of some importance to pre-Advent Earth. However, the Washington DC node was considerably bigger than the others; while the others all seemed to be made up of smaller nodes around them, the DC node was fed by these other large nodes, and it was roughly half again the size of the next largest.
“What you are looking at are the ley lines on Earth-3. Each connection of lines creates a node. These smaller nodes,” Ares said, pointing to the various major city nodes, “are the secondary nexii. Your other two splits appeared near the Denver and Miami nodes. While that allows us some exciting opportunities, your appearance nearly on top of the primary nexus is a boon we could not have hoped for.”