Chapter Text
“I met Azem once.” Atlas rambled, and knew it was stupid, but how else were they supposed to pass the time? “She was amazing . Leapt through the air and created a sword before I could even blink.”
“That's not so impressive. Even the teacher can do that.”
He knit his hands behind his head and leaned back. “Facing a sea monster the size of a skyscraper! And she won !”
“Hmph.” The other boy stuck his hands out toward the barrier, again, and pushed his aether against it. Atlas saw the ripple and curl in the air, like the shimmer of sunset on water. To him , of course, it must have been a riot of color. Hades was like that- walking as much in the immaterial as the world everyone else saw, living something Atlas could only imagine. It even sounded incredibly cool. At least, as far as the others said. Hades didn't have much chance to talk to him. And he avoided the opportunities that sprung up. Too busy with his studies and the Amaurotine students who he'd known all his life.
That made being stuck together behind a safety barrier barely big enough to sit interesting. Hades was stubbornly refusing to talk- but Atlas could be stubborn, too. “You think you can break the ward? One that the Words of Halmarut put up?”
Hades turned to glare, lips pressed into a furious line behind his mask. “I won't just sit here waiting!” He pushed harder, even though Atlas could see how he swallowed back nausea at the way the ward bit. “I'm trying to tell if the caster built an alarm into the ward, or if it's a type I might be able to unlock.”
Atlas stood up and put his own hand next to Hades’- enough to feel the electric sizzle of the ward and the brush of Hades’ magick. He'd thought it would prickle. Hades was a sharp sort. But it felt like twining yarn, soft and supple and full of knots. “Something you learned with Teacher Iraeia in the advanced class?”
Hades huffed. “You're distracting me.” He batted at Atlas’ hand. “And you're interfering with my magic! Stop trying to help.” He turned back to the ward. “Not after you got us into this mess.”
Atlas pulled his hand away, stung. “ You were the one wandering away from the tour.”
Hades flushed, bright red against his fair face behind the mask. “I didn't ask for help. And I truly don't need your help.”
That stung. Atlas stepped back as far as he could and sat, gathering the edges of his robes before they got singed. “Fine. Use your fancy spells to break us out. I won't ask why you ran away in the first place.” Glad for the mask and the hood, that always seemed too confining after the wild lands. He was sick of it all: the rules, the schedules, the disapproval. The students who had all known each other since they were babies and didn't know what to make of a stranger .
He missed his parents. The way his mother would make silly jokes about the animal life, pretending to hold whole conversations with passing fauna. His father would hoist him up to the crook of his arm to help Atlas work on new spells, aether intertwining until the concept fell into place and they could watch something spring into being between his palms. Clips, a little knife, strong rope, hair ties, tent stakes. Useful things. Mother had squeaked and hoisted him into the air the first time he'd created a living thing. They had made up a ditty about the little plant-creature as long as Atlas had been able to hold the concept, and laughed even when it burst.
Decidedly underwhelming achievements, he'd been told. In all ways Amaurotine, he was lacking.
Hades, though. Hythlodaeus said he'd been making little creatures before he even had words to describe them. A soulseer, and a prodigy at creation magicks and spells, and a sharp wit for debate.
Breathing hard, Hades finally gave up. White hair fell limp above his mask, and his pale cheeks were nearly green. His hands curled into fists at his sides. “I would have been fine without you. I've been to Anyder. I know my way around.”
Atlas just blinked. “You walked straight past a phytofragrans and almost poisoned yourself.”
“The purple plant? It was halfway across the room!”
“It has hairs- spines- they can fly off and hit you. They paralyze you and make you ill, and then other creatures can finish you off. And what's left helps the soil for the phytofragrans .”
“...That's horrible . Why keep it around at all?”
Atlas looked through the ward's shifting facets at the tall vines, bound carefully to a trellis. They were safe inside the magick, just like the researchers would normally be safe from the phytofragrans when they shut the plant in here. “For medicine. Or to help control creatures without having to fight them.”
“So you shoved me in here instead of out the door?”
“I had to think fast, or we'd both be paralyzed out there.”
“How do you even know this? I only have your say-so that it's actually dangerous and you aren't just trying to get me in trouble!”
Atlas rubbed his hands together and lied. “I saw one once with my parents. They're guides. They make sure researchers and settlers reach where they need to go safely and teach them about the wilds.”
“So that's why you can barely create so much as a pillow.” Hades slumped to a seat, wrapping his hands around his knees. “You should be back with the littles, not dragging your feet through our class.”
Atlas looked away. If he was stuck with children half his age, then no one would talk to him. It was bad enough trying to make friends as an outsider. “They wanted me with Teacher Koteius.” He shrugged. “I'm taking extra lessons.” They weren't helping to catch up, but he wasn't about to say that. “What are your parents like?”
Hades barely turned his head, frowning. “What does it matter to you?”
“It doesn't, I guess. But it matters to you,” Atlas propped his chin on his hands.
Hades took a long time just glowering out through the wards. “My father started testing his newest creation. He went to Diacritica Geolis, this time. My mother is an archivist at Anamnesis Anyder. A good one. She reviews research crystals before they're archived…”
The memory struck Atlas suddenly- seeing through Hades’ eyes and his own at the same time in a jagged mixture. His mother was as sharp-featured as Hades himself, with long white hair. She had a habit of looking up over her spectacles with raised brows. I know you'll do great, Hades. Let me finish this, and then you can tell me… Hades’ disappointment when she looked back at the concept crystals sparked, sharp and piercing. But he firmed his resolve instead of arguing and dove into his studies, making and dissolving creations for her to admire whenever she looked up.
Other flickers of memory came on the tail of the first- of Anyder- of his father- of being trapped in the state of altered vision seeing only souls- Atlas remembered his lessons and stepped back into his own skin carefully, hoping that Hades hadn't noticed. “The teleport crystal- it connects the Anyder campuses…”
Hades had turned back to the ward. “It will recognize me. I know every step to get there.” He reached his fingers out. “Unless a wild boy with half a brain gets us both stuck in a plant containment ward!”
“I'll help.” Atlas rubbed at his jaw and looked out, already making a plan. “If we did disable the ward, could you make something to shield us from the spines? A spell, or a creation?”
“You're assuming that I can break the ward,” he snapped. “And that you can help.”
“Give me a moment.” Atlas pressed as close to the ward as he could stand. Then he stopped trying to shut himself off. Memories flooded in of the researchers who worked here. Tristus and Eugenia, and even Emmerololth with her grimacing black mask. He pushed and sorted until he found one that seemed close. Then Atlas reached and grabbed Hades’ hand, pulling him in alongside.
The boy was an embarrassment. Atlas had been in Amaurot for seasons and still struggled with the basics of courtesy: raised his voice too much, ran too often, laughed hard and long at things all of the others would consider stupid. Tall, thick, and dark, with heavy hands that fumbled and broke things and a disaster of curls. He had trouble keeping his mask affixed and hood up, and his shoes were always coming untied. And he picked fights. That was the worst- and so Hades kept his distance from Atlas.
But he still had to watch, just to see how he managed. Barely, it seemed. Atlas bungled the simplest creation concepts and seemed entirely at a loss with both crystals and spellwork. He would sit there with a frown, his aether a twisting bloom around him as he worked, long after the others had moved on. Then he'd look up with a grin and a laugh as if it didn't even matter. Obviously it did - or how else were they supposed to handle being stuck here? “You're assuming that I can break the ward,” Hades snapped. “And that you can help.”
Atlas’ ready-for-trouble smile didn't falter. He looked back out to the rest of the room, then raised his hands, dark skin already peppered with pink slivers of scar, and froze. Hades was reaching to try and shake him out of it when Atlas grabbed his hand and plunged him into disorientation.
He was someone else: taller, with long hands and auburn curls that rubbed against the side of his neck, brimming with excitement for a new discovery. He checked his gloves, and the delicate net of shielding magick draped over him, then raised his hand toward the ward and worked the keyspell-
Atlas let go and shuddered. Hades was back in his own skin again. “What was that ?”
“Oh good- I wasn't sure I could share,” he mumbled. Still trembling, Atlas pulled off his mask and rubbed sweat off his face. “Did you get it? The way the ward works? I'm not sure I understood…” Atlas clenched his hands and looked back out. Hades could only stare at the fierce resolution in his expression, the way his leonine eyes shone. Atlas looked ready to take on anything.
“...I did,” Hades finally replied. “It won't be easy, but I think I can manage the keyspell. It's similar to one Teacher Iraeia showed us. It just takes a lot of power,” he grumbled.
“Then I'll make the shield,” Atlas promised. Hades kept himself from laughing. “Show me the keyspell? I can lend you my aether.” Hades hesitated. “If you visit your mother drained and stumbling, she'll be suspicious. If I show up like that no one will worry. Let me help.”
“Someone ought to worry,” Hades grumbled. But he gathered the spell between his palms, focusing on the delicate parts of its structure. Atlas wrapped his hands around Hades’: warm, uncomfortably damp and still trembling. He poured aether out, a trickle compared to Hades’ own. But he effortlessly reinforced the weakest areas of spellwork and allowed Hades to twist the aether as he needed. Atlas flinched at the coarse handling a couple times, but never faltered.
Finally, it was done. Atlas cut his ties to the spell and pulled away. “On your mark, Hades. You drop the ward, and I'll shield us.”
“And you're positive that you can cast that spell?”
“A shield? That's easy.”
Lacking other options, Hades resigned himself to trust in Atlas’ confidence. He pressed the keyspell into the ward and watched the scintillating barrier sink back into the floor.
Atlas was in front of Hades- a large round physical shield braced on his arm. The vines in the middle of the room twitched and started seeking. “Come on. The door on the far edge.”
“I'm following you,” Hades snapped. They both edged around the room, shuffling cautiously. At the first sound of spines against the shield Hades flinched. Atlas only chuckled. They reached the far door after two more volleys and what felt like an hour to Hades, but unmarked by the plant. Hades breathed a sigh of relief as they closed the door on the beastly flora.
Atlas let the shield dissolve and shook out his arm, grimacing. “I didn't mean to make it so heavy. ” Then he looked up, where voices drifted down the hallway. “I guess there's someone watching the teleportation crystal. Will they stop you?”
Hades grimaced and looked aside, not wanting to answer.
“You wait here, and I'll distract them long enough for you to make it through.”
“You're going to collect enough censure hours to not be able to leave for weeks!”
Atlas only shrugged. “I'd do that anyway.”
Hades grabbed his sleeve. “I didn't ask for you to help me.”
“We can't do everything alone. You don't have to.” He grinned. “That's what friends are for, Hades.”
Hades scoffed and crossed his arms. “...Fine.”
Atlas gave a massive grin. Then, still with his mask dangling around his neck, he turned toward the end of the hallway and walked off. As if he didn't have a care in the world! Hades watched the two researchers inside step out to meet him, and the incredulous exchange. He took his chance to slip behind them into the teleport room.
Hades cornered Atlas later as he was doing his censure detail and caring for the plants that lined the school's passageways. Instead of summoning water, Atlas hauled it from a nearby fountain, bare feet gripping the stone floor. Hades only watched as he hoisted the bucket and poured it carefully over the ferns.
Atlas was infuriatingly good at not letting things shake him. “Did you have a good time in Anamnesis?”
Hades flushed, then stepped close and pulled off his mask. “Thank you,” he said, softly. “For… dealing with the plant.”
Relieved, Atlas pulled his own mask off. “You did more work than I did. I hope your mother wasn't worried?”
Hades looked aside. “No. It was a nice visit.”
Atlas grinned and lowered his bucket, stepping away to refill it.
“One of the researchers was seriously injured by that plant,” Hades said softly.
“Really,” Atlas commented, turning his head away and letting the bucket thud against the lip of the fountain.
“But you already knew that,” Hades said slowly. “Just like you knew about the keyspell.” He crossed his arms. “And that shield isn't something we've been taught.”
Atlas walked past him with the bucket. “You like it? Azem used one, though hers was much better. I'm still trying to work out how I want my shield.”
“We're not supposed to make original concepts,” Hades snapped. “We're supposed to work off of approved concepts until we grasp the fundamentals.”
“You sound like the Teachers,” Atlas groaned.
Hades grabbed his arm and pulled until they were facing each other. “How can you be so bad at lessons and then make something like that without any concept or preparation!?”
“Hades? Why are you out here fighting with…” Another student turned the corner, rubbing at his chin. “Oh. Hello, Atlas.”
Hades gritted his teeth. “Hythlodaeus.”
“Hullo. We're just chatting about Hades’ visit to his mother,” Atlas offered, keeping his voice light.
Hythlodaeus smiled and pulled off his own mask, then settled to a seat on the edge of the planter. There was trouble in the way his pointed face crinkled into a grin “ Right . The surprise visit that Teacher Koteius had no idea about. The visit that happened to start at the same time as Atlas got lost .” Hythlodaeus ran his fingers through the end of his braid. “You couldn't get lost if you tried, Atlas.”
“I get lost all the time in the city,” Atlas grumbled, avoiding Hythlodaeus’ too-keen purple eyes.
“You go exploring in the city and tell the Teachers you got lost,” Hythlodaeus replied, eyes crinkling. “I saw you two wander off together. So what really happened?”
Hades lifted his chin, regal. “A pair of researchers left a dangerous specimen loose. Atlas kept me from getting hurt by it.” Atlas looked at him in shock. “What?”
“I expected Atlas got me trapped in a warded shelf ,” he said, his voice thick. “ Atlas almost got us killed by a plant. No, wait- Atlas nearly got us both banned from Anyder- ”
“Banned from Anyder?” Hythlodaeus said, concerned.
Atlas shrugged. “For the rest of the year. It's alright though. Gives me more time to practice.” Hades had blanched. Atlas set the bucket down to push at his shoulder. “It's the real sorcerers like you that need to get to the library and talk with the researchers. And you'll be able to visit Anamnesis more often.” Atlas hoisted the bucket again.
Hades stepped forward and started watering the plants instead, a gentle shower of aether that turned to rain over the leaves. “You didn't have to do that. I didn't ask for your help.”
Hythlodaeus chuckled. “You don't ask for anyone's help, even when you should.” He looked back at Atlas, purple eyes shining. “I want to hear everything. ”
“There's not much to tell. Hades and I got stuck in a shelf, then he unlocked the wards and we got out.”
Hades glared, yellow eyes sharp. “You're keeping secrets. How did you figure out the keyspell, Atlas? That was magick I've never seen before.”
Atlas hesitated, pulling on the edges of his sleeves. “Sometimes, I can see memories,” he mumbled, avoiding either of their stares.
“Atlas?” Hythlodaeus grabbed his hand.
The whole story spilled out- one he hadn't told anyone. “There was a… an aetheric something near the research station my parents and I were staying at. I don't really understand- but after that, I started seeing memories. People nearby. Places where people feel strongly. It leaves a mark, and I can feel it, and I get pulled in without being able to stop it.” Hythlodaeus made a sympathetic noise, and Atlas turned a quirk of a smile his way. “I came here to see if the Words of Emmerololth could help- they couldn't- so I'm going to learn how to use it.”
“That's how you knew about the plant,” Hades accused. “And the keyspell, and the teleportation crystal.”
“Right.” Atlas dissolved the bucket as Hades finished with the ferns. “As for the shield- we didn't have many concept crystals out in the wilds. I'd never used one before coming here. I always worked with my parents, or made my own concepts.”
“Like what?” Hythlodaeus leaned forward.
Atlas smiled suddenly. “What do you want? If you help, I can make you…” he paused. “Something to defend yourself?”
Hythlodaeus jumped to his feet and held out his hands. “So long as I stay far away from any danger, I won't need it- but I want to see.” Atlas let the dregs of his aether pool between his palms, knitting between the soft tide of Hythlodaeus’ own. Slowly, he built the concept, not cutting corners like he had with the shield. Wood and horn limbs with a snap, metal reinforcing the tips and the center, soft padding on the grip. And a handful of arrows, lavender feathers and sharp tips meant to strike and slow rather than kill. The bow and arrows burst into being in his hands. “See? You can stay far from danger.”
Hythlodaeus looked at Atlas with delight. “I'll have to get you to make a concept crystal of this and submit it, so that I can learn too!”
Hades nudged Atlas, hands extended. He grinned and rested his hands around Hades’ pale fingers. For him, Atlas worked on a sword. Hades fought him as they went- pushing the concept in ways Atlas didn't expect. He let himself work with the changes, the aether eddying and the concept growing between them. Larger, heavier, with a cross-guard meant to trap attacks. It was nothing like Azem's sword, but it fit Hades. The greatsword shimmered between his hands. He looked thoughtfully at it, brows knitted and his hair a pale veil across his eyes. “What do you use to defend yourself,” he murmured.
Atlas focused, pushing at his magick for his personal favorite. It faltered, then failed: too weak to be sustained. Then the warm wrap of the others’ magic filled his hands. The concept grew, fed by the prickly bind of Hades’ aether and the gentle lapping of Hythlodaeus’ until it solidified.
“A spear,” Hythlodaeus commented. “And a shield, you mentioned?”
“Azem said that's what her predecessor used,” Atlas admitted, embarrassed. “It's good for throwing, and for holding off something attacking you.” He half tossed it, then gave a flourish with the bladed tip. And nearly dropped it the way his fingers trembled. He quickly let it disappear.
“You should really rest,” Hythlodaeus said, frowning. He let his own bow and arrows dissolve. “Come on- I'll get you something to eat.” He lifted his mask back into place, then did Atlas’ as well, with a twist to make sure it didn't fall off. “Are you coming, Hades?”
“No,” he snapped. “The floor is covered in water. Someone could trip.”
Hythlodaeus hummed to himself and nodded, leading Atlas away before he could say thanks.
The next day a different teacher came to collect Atlas, pulling him to a distant part of the building and a smaller group of students. Atlas was paired with a student who was creating flowers, each slightly different in color and shape. The teacher set him to recreate the concept crystal for each flower. Soon she and Atlas were sharing advice, their magic supporting each other. And when he made a flower by himself, she cheered and hugged him.
The move was permanent, Atlas found out after lessons were finished. Another student in his class had complained to one of the administrators. They agreed that he would be better off here.
Atlas worked hard the next few days, refining the concepts and struggling to make it fit inside the crystals. When he finally had them done, he made sure to send them to Hades and Hythlodaeus as thanks.