I saw V close his eyes and felt the deep thrum of his power spreading out through the ground below. I had never asked him if he could sense my power the same way. I sent my own power out through the air and find the source of the moisture I had sensed earlier.
Earth and Air were great to use for mapping, or so our teachers said. I closed my eyes, and it was as if the room around us was covered in what the ancients might have called fairy fire. I couldn’t sense the walls, floors, or ceilings directly, but I could sense the absence of air in the materials that made up those items. I knew from speaking to him that Vlakas would see the reverse in his head: He would see the walls and other solid objects, but not the presence of air or water. Fire was the least useful for mapping.
Sending out my awareness I began mapping the building with my magic.
The building was much bigger than it appeared on the surface. Maybe it had been some kind of infrastructure headquarters? It had at least five floors below ground, and we had gone down four. The fifth must have access somewhere else. My powers helped me locate the water I had sensed earlier: a spring of some kind had broken through a wall about three hundred yards to the north. The air there was humid but didn’t taste of salt as it would if it were sea water.
I opened my eyes and realized V was still concentrating. I waited a few more minutes before touching his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked at me, a little dazed.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I just haven’t seen anything quite like this before,” he shook his head, bewildered.
“What did you find?” I asked.
“I can feel tunnels running under almost everything,” he said, sketching a rough square in the dust on the ground. “They had to have been part of the city sewer system. They connect to just about every building. They extend as far west as the mountain range we saw. They may even go further than that, but I kinda got lost following them,” he ended sheepishly.
Vlakas had to be more careful. I kept forgetting he was still so new to his powers. If he didn’t watch himself, he could get fascinated by the earth around him and forget about his body.
“You did good, V,” I said. “I found us some fresh water. We can fill up the water bottles and then see what we can do about food.”
We quickly repacked everything then headed out.
I led us through a maze of tunnels until we reached the tiny spring I’d found earlier. We each filled our canteens, then the plastic water jug.
We made our way through the sewer system. It wasn’t as gross as you would think. Unlike Alexandria, there weren’t a couple million people living in the city, so nothing nasty was being flushed down the pipes now. Some of them seemed blocked by rubble from a cave in. After a couple of hours of cautious movement, we moved toward the surface and Vlakas chose a building for us to shelter in overnight.
We decided we could do without additional food until we found some place more permanent to stay. I divided up some rations and we each drank deeply from our water bottles.
Water might be a problem if we were here too long, but for now we had an abundance. With the way our bodies burned energy when we used magic, food would be the most pressing need. We could stay below ground in safety, but we would need to go to the surface to get food. Plus, if we wanted to pass the Machi Thanatos, we’d have to find at least three of the beasts each and defeat them. We’d already decided we weren’t interested in killing other Mageia if we could avoid it.
Once we chose our camp for the night, I set up Air alarm tripwires at every door and intersection we passed. I wasn’t going to let us get caught by surprise if I could help it.
The silence underground was unnerving. I was used to living in a city with the hum of millions of people living around me. The quiet here was… disturbing.
Vlakas dropped a cup he had been putting away after mixing some instant meal mix, making me jump. The clatter sounded like a thunderclap in silence.
“Sorry,” he said, picking up the cup.
“S’okay,” I said. “It’s just so freakin’ quiet here. Every sound seems magnified a million times.”
He looked at me curiously. “You like all the noise of the city?” he asked.
I shrugged.
“It’s all I’ve known, for the most part,” I said. “Even the few times we went to the summer palace, we were still surrounded by hundreds of people.”
His face turned thoughtful.
“When we were kids, you used to play music, didn’t you?”
I blushed in the dark, grateful he probably couldn’t see.
“Yeah, I plunked around on a guitar, but I was never really good at it.”
“At court, I’ve heard Air Mageia who produced music using their power,” he said. “Can you do that?”
I cocked my head at him.
