China, the one they thought was proof of aliens or secret space technology or some combination of the two. Is that what we’re talking here?”
“Also not exactly. You’re not looking with your full senses, Miss Wilde.” He reached for my hand and covered it again with his, drawing me to my feet. He stood as well, turning me to face the table.
Where his fingers touched me, electricity arced out, making my heart race and stalling the breath in my lungs. I blinked, and my sight snarled up as well, everything around me becoming shooting beams of light instead of table, floor, and walls. I braced myself against the table, dizzy from the glare. “Um, you could simply have explained with your word, words.”
“This is far more effective,” he murmured, and he dropped his hands over my shoulders and down the length of my arms. Everything on my body that had the capacity to tingle lined up for tingling duty. He lifted my hands, and the surface of the table seemed to lift as well, the image moving off the static map to a three-dimensional whirl of spinning pixels.
“Whoa.”
“See and explore, Miss Wilde. This time, with all your senses.”
As he spoke the words next to my ear, I could feel the sudden pressure in my forehead, the whirring blink of my third eye awakening. It wasn’t a change in view so much as a richness of perspective, and I drew in a startled gasp as the scene before me filled in with robust colors and sharply defined lines. What I saw wasn’t an island so much as a platform with no defined base, a swirl of colors that could represent land or sea or air or maybe a bed of flame, but definitely something distinctly unsolid, dissolving and recreating itself anew.
Above that shifting base, however, was a city.
I’d read enough about the Platonic description of Atlantis to know I wasn’t the first person ever to see this vista. The city was built as a series of concentric circles leading to a central tower, and it was surrounded by rich farmlands, vineyards, and fields, the perfect utopian center. “That’s how it looks today? Or how it looked before all hell broke loose?”
“That would be before. Today the island is shrouded with what literature tells us is ‘impenetrable seas and currents.’ I can’t pierce the mist surrounding it, but it exists. It merely has been broken and rebroken, no stone remaining untouched.”
“You can’t…” I tried to bend my mind around the idea of something Armaeus couldn’t do. I’d seen him rebuild streets in a blink, blast power around the world with a thought. What truly lay under all that mist, I wondered, that was strong enough to hold even the Magician at bay?
Armaeus took his hands away, and the screen faded, but he didn’t move from his position, rendering me effectively trapped between his body and the table. I focused on the empty space where the image had been.
“So what’s the point in me going there, if the place has been blasted to bits?”
“Because though all has been broken, nothing has been removed, to our knowledge.” His words tumbled soft and warm across my neck. “Atlantis is forbidden to us.”
And suddenly, I got it. “You guys can’t go there, can you? You need a non-Council member to do it.” I broke free of the cage of his arms, turning to face him. “And you do want to go there. You’ve been sitting around waiting for someone to send, and that someone is me.”
He said nothing.
A new realization struck. “ Are there truly weapons that can help me get those children back? Or are you simply manipulating me to get more trinkets for your collection?”
Armaeus regarded me with no emotion. “The weapons you seek should be within the central tower of Atlantis. In addition to assisting you, they will also prove instrumental in the larger war on magic. As I said, they were forged when the power that swept the world was far greater than it is today.”
“Uh-huh.” I crossed my arms and leaned against the table.
“Also not exactly. You’re not looking with your full senses, Miss Wilde.” He reached for my hand and covered it again with his, drawing me to my feet. He stood as well, turning me to face the table.
Where his fingers touched me, electricity arced out, making my heart race and stalling the breath in my lungs. I blinked, and my sight snarled up as well, everything around me becoming shooting beams of light instead of table, floor, and walls. I braced myself against the table, dizzy from the glare. “Um, you could simply have explained with your word, words.”
“This is far more effective,” he murmured, and he dropped his hands over my shoulders and down the length of my arms. Everything on my body that had the capacity to tingle lined up for tingling duty. He lifted my hands, and the surface of the table seemed to lift as well, the image moving off the static map to a three-dimensional whirl of spinning pixels.
“Whoa.”
“See and explore, Miss Wilde. This time, with all your senses.”
As he spoke the words next to my ear, I could feel the sudden pressure in my forehead, the whirring blink of my third eye awakening. It wasn’t a change in view so much as a richness of perspective, and I drew in a startled gasp as the scene before me filled in with robust colors and sharply defined lines. What I saw wasn’t an island so much as a platform with no defined base, a swirl of colors that could represent land or sea or air or maybe a bed of flame, but definitely something distinctly unsolid, dissolving and recreating itself anew.
Above that shifting base, however, was a city.
I’d read enough about the Platonic description of Atlantis to know I wasn’t the first person ever to see this vista. The city was built as a series of concentric circles leading to a central tower, and it was surrounded by rich farmlands, vineyards, and fields, the perfect utopian center. “That’s how it looks today? Or how it looked before all hell broke loose?”
“That would be before. Today the island is shrouded with what literature tells us is ‘impenetrable seas and currents.’ I can’t pierce the mist surrounding it, but it exists. It merely has been broken and rebroken, no stone remaining untouched.”
“You can’t…” I tried to bend my mind around the idea of something Armaeus couldn’t do. I’d seen him rebuild streets in a blink, blast power around the world with a thought. What truly lay under all that mist, I wondered, that was strong enough to hold even the Magician at bay?
Armaeus took his hands away, and the screen faded, but he didn’t move from his position, rendering me effectively trapped between his body and the table. I focused on the empty space where the image had been.
“So what’s the point in me going there, if the place has been blasted to bits?”
“Because though all has been broken, nothing has been removed, to our knowledge.” His words tumbled soft and warm across my neck. “Atlantis is forbidden to us.”
And suddenly, I got it. “You guys can’t go there, can you? You need a non-Council member to do it.” I broke free of the cage of his arms, turning to face him. “And you do want to go there. You’ve been sitting around waiting for someone to send, and that someone is me.”
He said nothing.
A new realization struck. “ Are there truly weapons that can help me get those children back? Or are you simply manipulating me to get more trinkets for your collection?”
Armaeus regarded me with no emotion. “The weapons you seek should be within the central tower of Atlantis. In addition to assisting you, they will also prove instrumental in the larger war on magic. As I said, they were forged when the power that swept the world was far greater than it is today.”
“Uh-huh.” I crossed my arms and leaned against the table.
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