The ever dying, dark red sun was just beginning to rise above the horizon. Milla and Garder waited at the quiet western gate of the city, as the carriage's old sunlamp was malfunctioning and causing a delay in their departure. Rivia's bodyguard was working quickly to fix it and ensure that it would remain active—if it failed during the lengthy journey to the portal, everyone onboard would succumb to the haze within seconds.
"That must be our team." Milla pointed towards a pair of figures coming down the stone street. "Odd… one of them is a child."
The two appeared from the fog and looked over the twins. The man who was clearly the alchemagist was tall, slender, and dressed in a red robe. The large collar around his neck and his black glass goggles hid his lower face and eyes. It was a typical appearance for one in his specialization.
The child was a vast opposite. Her appearance was that of a small Asian girl with short, black hair and somewhat chubby cheeks. She had on a patterned shirt that was one size too large for her, and under it was a pair of blue, airy pants. She looked up, sniffled, and wiped her nose with a finger.
"Um… You're our animalect?" Garder asked.
"That's me," she replied with a tepid smile.
"Rivia didn't mention your age… You're, like, a kid?"
"Garder…" Milla whispered in his mind.
"I'm the only one in this City, so you don't have a choice, Mister."
"Mister? H-how old are you, anyway? What's your name?"
"You know, Mister, you should really introduce yourself before asking someone their name."
"Yeah? Well, look, I wasn't really expecting to take care of a child on this expedition, so I'd appreciate a little respect."
"Why should I respect you? Rivia said you were only a five-lifer."
"What do you mean only, you little brat?"
"I'm an eleven—idiot."
"Ugh…" Garder moaned and took a step back. "Wonderful… I can see that this is going to be a splendid little adventure."
"Garder, relax, would you?" Milla sighed. "Hi, you two. My name this time around is Milla Nolland. And this is my brother, Garder."
"Yes… we know who you are," the alchemagist replied in a deep, almost sickly voice. "Rivia explained everything. Personally, I have no qualms with acting against the Guard, and they do not frighten me. My name is Jeryn Klowsk. The first half of this life's youth was spent in the coldest parts of Siberia, and the isolation affected me… and I apologize if I come off as a little strange, as I haven't quite shrugged it off yet."
"No stranger than this one, I'd bet," Garder said, eyeing the child.
"Also, you might be interested to know that I'm a thirty. My true age is three thousand, one hundred, twenty-six. Yes, I ran the math."
"Thirty lives? Tch…"
"Impressive," Milla said. "I look forward to working with someone so experienced."
"Same goes for me. Thank you, Milla."
"That makes you the youngest… Our little baby," the child joked and chuckled at Garder.
"The hell's wrong with you? Did you spend all of your lives as a nine-year-old girl or something?"
"Garder!" Milla snapped. "This isn't the way to start a relationship. Grow up. Sheesh, you're way too fixated on that number of lives thing."
"Fine. Whatever… But she made it into a thing."
"My name's Lechi Dachel," the girl introduced herself. "I've been an animalect since my sixth life, retrained every time, saw… the art nearly die off. I hope that I can be of assistance to you."
"Nice to meet you, Lechi," Milla said kindly. "You do seem very childlike, I must admit. I'm curious about your past lives."
"Since you're nice to me, I'll tell you: I've become an old lady all eleven times. And no, I've never been born a boy, either."
"That explains your behavior, then. I'm sure all of your husbands just adored you," Garder laughed lightly. "Can you actually talk to animals?"
"Well, I'm talking to a stupid, ugly monkey right now, aren't I?"
Milla barely reacted in time to block Garder's attempted move at Lechi, who was now sticking her tongue out at him. Garder struggled to get past Milla's grip, but she held on tightly until he finally calmed down again.
"Honestly, Garder…" Milla groaned. "You still have way too much hotshot, tough guy blood in you. It's no wonder you've died in two Earth motorcycle accidents in a row."
"What? That has nothing to do with it. I don't like children—especially nasty, spiteful children like this one."
"You've never had one, have you?"
"Nope. And I'm hoping to keep that record going."
The small sun on the carriage came to life—but as soon as the operator smiled at his work, it flickered and died again.
"Sorry, sorry…" he sighed. "I swear I'll get it, don't you worry. Just a small wiring glitch, that's all. It's an old one. Needs a feed oscillator."
"Well, we might as well use this time to get to know each other a bit…" Milla suggested. "What are your alignments?"
"Fire," Jeryn replied. "But I'm proficient in all alignments, able to do level three techniques on each. Assuming my body allows the exclusives."
"Good, good. You must be very talented. I'm a vector, and Garder's a watairre. We're both knights and cleared for level two."
"Iron here," Lechi piped. "But I'm not great at alchemagi, so don't expect much from me."
"That's a relief," Garder snickered with crossed arms.
Lechi growled, then lifted her index finger and twirled it. A small, metal pick formed in the air in front of her, which she flung at Garder. He caught it with a folded palm just before it struck his knee.
"Nice try," he grumbled and snapped the pick in half, evaporating it.
Jeryn sighed and raised three fingers to his lips. He muttered the correct words in his mind, and then aimed his hand at a desolate hill just outside of the City bubble. A fireball formed above it that moments later slammed into the top of the hill, where it erupted into a pillar of flame. Even with little oxygen to feed off of, it burned intensely for a few seconds.
"Wow. You're really good!" Lechi said with a smile.
"I've seen better…" Garder whispered to a now agitated Milla.
"Got it! It's working again, you four—we can get a move on now," the bodyguard announced and wiped his face.
"You're sure this time, right? I don't want to dissolve out there."
"It's working, it's working. I've fixed suns hundreds of times."
"Guess we should get a move on, then. Ladies first," Jeryn said to Lechi and Milla after opening the carriage door for them.
The two slipped in and sat side by side. Garder made sure the door was securely locked before settling in himself. It was a long ride to the Stonehenge portal—about five hours at maximum speed. Most of the landscape on the way there was flat, but there were a few deep, wide fissures that had to be crossed by bridge.
Everyone hesitated for a moment as the carriage left the City's protective canopy. Fortunately, the tiny sun on the transport was in full working condition and formed a small sphere around the vehicle. Garder adjusted his space and shrunk into the corner as far as he could go, where he tried to keep his eyes off Lechi as much as possible.
Once N was out of view, Jeryn took out a heavy tome from his pack for some reading. Garder brought out his sketchbook and scratched in it, but making anything look decent was difficult with the rugged, bumpy dirt road below. After an hour, Milla took out her own and two graphite sticks.
"Lechi, do you know how to play games with just paper and a pencil?" she asked.
"Using alchemagi? Never done it before."
"It's a popular activity in City E. At least, that's where I learned about it. Here, we just make some marks, and then we can move them all over the page with a little iron alchemagi."
"Really? I never thought about doing that."
"Here, watch."
Milla drew a crude chessboard and a few pieces. With her index finger, she recited a basic movement incantation, which let her glide the pieces about the page without touching it.
"Wow, that's really neat."
"It's just moving the little particles across the paper. You can pretty much do anything you want."
"You're pretty cool, Milla. Let me try."
Lechi scribbled a few lines, concentrated, and then twirled her finger about to make the graphite dance across the parchment. Garder watched, then laughed quietly before using his own alchemagi to hijack Lechi's lines, which he used to quickly form a small, insulting caricature of her.
"Hey! You jerk!"
Garder didn't feel like wasting any more time trying to anger her, so he quickly released his grip and returned the drawing to its former state.
"You'll have to forgive him…" Milla murmured to Lechi. "He's always been like that. Probably in every life."
"Heard that you guys were wild transfers?" Jeryn suddenly asked.
"Y-yes, why?"
"Surrogate here," Lechi added.
"No reason. I was just curious—just something I ask people."
"And no one minds?" Garder asked passively.
"Typically, no. Personally, I don't know where I came from this time in Aurra. I'm not sure where I was born, and my records have gaps."
"You're kidding! That's like, really rare, isn't it?" Lechi asked.
"Yes. I was considered a threat once others found out."
"I've heard stories like that," Garder replied, slightly interested. "So, you didn't pop out in your assigned City? How did the Guard treat you?"
"I'd rather not say. But whenever I go on assignments, I tell my peers—just so they know ahead of time."
"Aw…" Lechi fell back into her seat. "That's okay, I guess… but I did want to know. I mean, they had no idea where you came from… and that's just, I don't know, weird to think about."
"My Earth birthplaces are no mystery. I've spent half of my lifetimes in Eastern Europe or Russia—one of those during the Cold War."
"Ah, that must've hardened you," Garder replied.
"Yes, I suppose you could say that."
"Milla spent her first life as a Roman slave, but worked her way up until she was the Aurrian queen three lives ago."
She shot Garder a look, but quickly turned stoic again. She was used to her brother telling others about her lives, and she often accepted it since she could tell that he was proud of her—even though he'd never admit it.
"Queen… Queen…" Jeryn concentrated. "You must've been Queen Seriph, right? Ruled from 1765 to 1798. You helped stop the Z Uprising. You've just moved up a notch in my book, Milla. Impressive."
"Thank you," Milla said with a small smile. "I assure you though, my Earth lives have been less impressive."
"Jeryn, why tell us such a thing about yourself again?" Garder asked.
"It's just something I tell comrades, er, friends. I read their reactions, and I get a good idea of their entire personalities and what they'll be like."
"You really are a bit of a strange one," Garder said with a yawn. Milla shot him another look, but Jeryn didn't seem a bit offended.
"Yes, I get that sometimes."
"Hey!" Lechi noticed something out of the window. "Look, look! It's an animal farm! A big one!"
"Yeah? So? Never seen one before?" Garder wondered.
"Well, of course I've seen them, but I just like watching the animals come out. I do talk to them."
Garder and Milla looked out of the window. Past a few rolling hills, two artificial suns lit a flat plain about two miles long. Animals big and small, belonging to the land and air, were appearing within it to exist only briefly before returning to Earth. Few ever remained past a couple of days. The farm, specifically designed to attract animal transfers, was constantly busy with a montage of mammals and insects alike.
"It's depressing, really…" Milla sighed. "Animals existed before humans. Aurra existed before animals. We engineered the bigger suns before recorded history. So, it's only obvious that Aurra wasn't always like this—it was survivable once."
"Only a theory," Jeryn replied, looking up from his book. "For all we know, it's always been like this. Even the best recollection from ancients has failed to prove who made the first suns for certain."
Everyone went quiet as the small transport crossed one of the long, sturdy metal bridges that offered passage over one of Aurra's deep chasms. Once on the other side, Milla spoke up again.
"So… I suppose we're going to have to go to London and borrow some money at the bank. I don't know a lot about Northern Africa, so I'm not sure of the best way to get to C's portal in the middle of the Sahara."
"We'll fly to Algiers and rent a charter plane," Jeryn explained.
"Can you fly?"
"One of the reasons Rivia chose me. I had a license in my past life."
"But how would we get a plane if that's no good to you now?"
"I wouldn't worry about that, Milla. We have money, and we can do things people on Earth cannot. Even with its physical shift, I should remain quite adept in alchemagi. I'm sure I'll work out something with that alone."
"I think Jeryn should be this group's leader," Lechi suggested.
"Yes, he certainly knows what he's doing," Milla replied.
"Fine," Garder muttered. "Better than taking orders from a kid."
"Very well, then," Jeryn said and went back to his book.
The carriage eventually stopped at a large, metal dome surrounded by a sun bubble just a bit larger than the structure it covered. In the distance, the lights of City D were just barely recognizable. Worn lettering on the top of the dome read, "Stonehenge Portal — No Trespassing. Access Permission Given Only By Aurrian Guard."
Rivia's bodyguard pulled into a parking space and hopped out from the front. He opened the side door and allowed everyone to stretch for a few minutes before explaining the procedure.
"Who among you has done this before?" he asked.
"I have a few times," Jeryn replied. "But never at this portal."
"It's a tourist place on the other side, so don't hang around out there for too long or security guys could be a problem. It'll be…" he checked his watch, "very early morning when you arrive there."
He fumbled about in his pockets before pulling out an old brass key for the front door. He opened it and flicked the lights on before the rest of the group followed him in. The portal hadn't been used for a while, and several layers of dust had collected on the metal floors and walls.
The bodyguard made sure that the door behind them was securely shut and locked before proceeding to the next room, where the large interdimensional portal device resided.
"Let's see." He went up to the operator's booth. "It takes five at a time, and then needs to recharge for a few minutes. You may experience some brief discomfort. If symptoms persist, it is recommended that you…"
"Never mind all of that," Garder interrupted. "Just open it already."
"Okay, okay. Ah, here…"
He pulled out four small jeweled medals with pointed ends and handed them to each of the travelers, who pocketed the devices securely.
"These are your keys. To get back, stand in the place where you arrived and hold the key out. After a few seconds, the return process will start automatically. Of course, it'll only work if the portal is still running. I'll put on an auto-cycle, so that it'll run for ten minutes at midnight every night. Don't forget, or coming back will be a little difficult."
The bodyguard activated the machine's systems, lowering a set of rings down to the central stage. The inner ring began moving first, the next one following soon after. A ball of energy started to form in the middle as the system of halos twirled faster and faster.
"Remember that you guys are going back to Earth in Aurrian bodies. You may want to change your looks and general behavior."
"Yeah, we got it," Garder replied. "I was good at being an Earthen."
"Wait—hear that?" Jeryn questioned.
"Hear what? Only thing I hear is the portal firing up."
"There's an airship above us."
"Crap, have we been followed?"
"It sounds like Aurrian Guard airship engines."
"The Guard? Is it backup, maybe?" Milla wondered.
"Not a chance. They're here to kill us."
"What?!" Garder shouted.
"We aren't supposed to be on this assignment given the knowledge we possess concerning City C. Someone found out about our group. Rivia has probably been captured or is on the run."
"Damn it, I don't believe this—we haven't even done anything yet. Everyone, cover the door! Lechi, get back!"
"Garder, Jeryn, are you sure?" she asked.
"You'd better hide, Lechi," Milla replied as she took out her sword.
Garder unhooked the long sword at his side, and Jeryn prepared to use his alchemagi. The three stood in defensive stances as Lechi sought cover behind their escort. For another minute, there was only stillness amongst the portal's reverberations.
Then the heavy doors at the end of the hall burst open with such intensity that the window glass of each shattered. Bursts of alchemagi of all elements hit each other immediately inside the hall, and smoke quickly filled the area. Garder, Milla and Jeryn leapt back and separated.
"This is the Aurrian Guard! Cease using alchemagi and come out at once—you are all under arrest!"
"Great," Garder mumbled. "Us against the Guard."
"Doesn't matter who it is," Jeryn replied. "Don't hold back."
A flurry of heavy iron homing arrows flew through the thick smoke, each locking onto someone and turning as soon as they entered the room. Jeryn summoned up a quick spell and shot his arms forward.
A wall of protective fire sprung up, encircling everyone in the room. The fire was contained, but so hot that the iron was rendered molten upon passing through, destroying the tracking devices inside. The arrows fell to the floor a few feet further in. Jeryn dropped the wall and shot back with a fireball, which was put out by a pillar of water coming from the Guard.
Four soldiers piled in and took aim with their bows. Before they fired, Garder hit the floor with his palm. A wave of ice spread out from each finger, then sprung up and sent the soldiers flying back into the hall.
"They're good," Garder noted. "Just keep them away until the portal is warmed up, and then we'll get out of here."
The block of ice was broken a moment later by a strong blow from an iron ball. The ball rolled into the room, where it exploded into ricocheting shrap-spheres. The dozen or so spheres missed everyone the first time, but then bounced off of the walls for another go at it.
Milla summoned vector lines and carefully guided each one into the deadly orbs, cutting them in half with elegant precision. She then guided the lines to form a mandala shape covering the door.
"Come another step forward, and I can promise you'll risk getting yourselves cut to pieces!" she called out.
There was no response from inside the hall. Another minute passed with everyone still on guard. Then, the smoke cleared. Two alchemagists stood side by side, their faces covered in Guard uniform. One of them raised a hand, concentrated for a moment, and then instantly overpowered Milla's control. The bright blue vector lines scattered and tore backwards, nicking Jeryn's right arm in the process.
The atom-thin streams bolted through the room, damaging several pieces of machinery—but missing the portal rings themselves.
"They hit the stabilizers!" their escort called out. "The machine can't control the energy levels anymore! The whole thing could explode!"
"How's the portal?" Garder shouted back.
"It's just about ready. Get through it as soon as you can!"
The two alchemagists each brought three fingers up to their heads to prepare for a strong assault. Lechi was the first to react, summoning several of her metal picks and sending them across the room. Surprised to see the needles coming, the alchemagists barely had time to dodge them, and each took several hits on various pressure points, stunning them momentarily.
"It's done! Get out of here!"
The portal had ripped open a shivering globe of white. Stonehenge was on the other side as a waving, translucent silhouette. Jeryn created another wall of fire to cover the door before jumping in first, with the twins quickly following.
As the soldiers of the Guard worked to extinguish the flames, Lechi pulled on the bodyguard's arm before going in.
"Forget about me," he said.
"No way! It takes five—there's no reason for you not to come!"
"Look, the explosion from this thing will probably kill me, and I'm fine with that. I don't want to go to Earth and maybe vanish forever."
"Don't be such a coward! Come on!"
"But—"
Lechi summoned up some additional strength and practically kicked the bodyguard through the portal before hopping through it herself.
Just before the white globe shrunk back into nothing, the group got a look at the compound, which was shaking violently and about to blow up from the inside out. They watched as the Guard struggled to get out before it did so, and then the portal closed completely.
The twins, Jeryn, Lechi and Rivia's bodyguard then found themselves standing in the middle of Stonehenge, the quietness of the early morning instantly replacing the shouts and bursts from the other side. They were on Earth again, and didn't even have to be reborn to make the trip.