Out of Place

CHAPTER ONE
The Departure

In Summersea, the capital of Emelan, Trisana Chandler turned her face to the winds. They were rushing around her, as though they didn't know that wind was not supposed to be scared or jittery. Only her copper-red hair was left unmoved as the winds swept around her in circles, twisting and weaving around each other while she tried to grab at the snatches each of them contained. Screams and voices were sounding in her ears and they were not very helpful, but the sights were. She watched the life sucked from a small boy from countries away, and tried her best to keep calm.

"It's as the messengers and Niko's vision said," she announced to the other people in the room. They had unsuccessfully been trying to scry using crystal and mirrors when the doors had burst open and the strong breezes had raced to Tris uninvited. "It appeared over Lairan's Great Lake, along the border of Irod and Namorn. It devours everything in its path, leaving nothing alive. I have never seen, or read of, anything like it. The buildings it passes over crumble like ruins, the plants shrivel and die like they've been burnt." She swallowed and took a breath through her long, pointed nose, "it kills animals and people and leaves them rotten, like they've been dead for a week or more in the heat of summer."

The redhead could feel her foster siblings poking in her mind, shifting through the images and sounds the winds had brought her. She willingly shared the sights, transferring everything to them in a moment, then set about placing the same images in the large scrying mirror so the other occupants of the room could look. The instruments in the Duke's Citadel weren't as large as those in Winding Circle, but those that needed to managed to make room around the mirror.

Image after image appeared on the shimmering glass surface, and their sights made the Duke and mages go pale. "Has anyone seen such a thing?" Duke Vedris asked gravely. He was a wise man, the brilliant ruler of Emelan, but not as learned in the way of magic as his companions. To his dismay, each head in the room shook. "Then how are we to proceed?" he asked in his most reasonable tone.

The gathering of some of Emelan's most influential mages was no coincidence. On every Watersday Tris, Briar, Daja, and Sandry, would gather for a family dinner. Some factors such as the location, what was served, and who else was invited, would vary. However, in the weeks since their return from Namorn, the Watersday dinners had become a ritual that as set in stone. Tonight they had dined at Sandry's home in her Uncle's Citadel, and had jovially passed the night in comfort with Niko, Dedicate Lark, Evvy, and Duke Vedris, until a foretelling of destruction had overwhelmed Niko and an urgent message had come from Winding Circle.

"Moonstream will undoubtedly have Dedicates scrying for to gauge how far it has spread," Niko replied. His long hair seemed to have become more grey than black in just an hour, although perhaps it was the creases at the corners of his eyes that made him look aged. "Briar, if you could get Rosethorn or Crane so we can find out the progress there," he nodded at the bronze-skinned young man, then turned back to the Duke, "once we discover where it has spread to, and how rapidly, we will be in a better position to advise you."

Briar moved to the balcony and walked through the doors that the winds had blown open just minutes before. He stretched a hand out to grasp a vine of ivy and began to send urgent words through the plants between the Citadel and Winding Circle. The green things were eager to help, as the whisper of wrongness had swept from the North to many of them, and soon he was settled into a conversation with both of his old teachers.

"In just five hours it has engulfed everything within seventy miles of the lake. The magical barrier around Namorn was raised and seemed to slow it, but less than ten minutes ago Winding Circle saw the barrier break, and a the scrying link has gone hush," Briar relayed quickly. Almost all of the people in the room made the gods circle on their chest, while Daja offered up a quick prayer to Trader Koma. "They're calculating, but the initial estimate is that the wasteland fog will reach here in three days at the least, six at the most," he added.

"We saw from Tris's winds that people can outrun it, only just, but on horseback they can succeed and we'll have refugees fleeing South. There will be riots and mobs,"Sandry pointed out. As a young noble woman, she was normally poised and composed, however a hint of alarm had now edged its way into her eyes. "The reactions will be a dozen times worse than any epidemic. Evacuation strategies need to be put into place now so we can retain a scrap of order and to ensure a better chance of survival when we're overrun with refugees," the girl said. She spoke thoughtfully, but with passion, and her words made sense. Regardless of how the destroyer fog was approached, measures needed to be taken to make sure the most southern points of their country were able to house masses of people.

"Yes, my dear," Duke Vedris agreed, "but what of this fog? What action can be taken against it?" His words had been punctuated by the discontented crooning of a tiny dragon. The Duke reached a hand out to the creature who was perched on his wine goblet, and stroked under her neck until the crooning ceased. She, like everyone else in the room, obviously knew that nothing good would come from the strange fog.

The room was silent for a few moments as individuals kept to their own thoughts. Eventually, it was Tris who broke the spell, "it needs to be investigated first." Her voice was soft and very scared. "Crystals and mirrors have proven to be useless in looking beyond the… whatever it is, but my winds have passed through it and found me. If I ride closer to it I can see more images," she explained, trying to keep her voice from wavering.

"You want to ride closer to the thing?" Evvy remarked incredulously, "you're mad. You'll be swallowed up by it and spat out the other side all mouldy and rotten like everyone else." Until that point, they had largely forgotten that the younger girl was also in the room. She resisted the urge to clamp a hand over her mouth in apology. "It's true," she grumbled, standing her ground.

Tris sighed. She was getting to know Evvy and sometimes she thought the other girl's rashness was refreshing, but right now it was not appreciated. "It's not a matter of want, it's a matter of need. Regular scrying is failing and there's no time to be guessing about how to fix it. The sooner more details are known about this thing, the better. It can buy us more time to prepare," the weather witch reasoned. She looked to Evvy and peered at the younger girl through gold-rimmed spectacles, "I'm not in the habit of throwing myself into danger just because."

"Niko?" Duke Vedris asked.

The wizened mage studied the flickering wind images in the scrying mirror, taking note of every detail he could see. His students had been given their medallions in their early teenage years, they had earned them, and proven themselves worthy of their status many times over. Though he itched to keep Tris safe, he knew she was right.

"We need to know all that we can about the fog, as soon as we can. Hopefully Winding Circle's regular scrying instruments can breach the heart of the anomaly before Tris and I can get too close," Niko replied soundly.

"If you're going, I'm going," Briar added immediately.

"And me," Daja and Sandry both chorused at the same time.

"Someone has to remain behind to mind-speak," Tris pointed out, knowing already that she would be parting on bad terms with a certain noble.

Sandry's cornflower blue eyes glittered dangerously, don't you dare, she thought to her siblings.

The plants might have things to say to me, Briar replied, twiddling his fingers. He didn't relish the idea of going into danger, with memories of his time fighting against the Emperor's men far too vivid and fresh. Fighting a completely unknown magical enemy that stripped life from all it crossed wasn't the most appealing thought. However, he could be useful in uncovering details about this thing, very useful, and that couldn't be denied.

Daja's hand curled and the tips of her fingers brushed against her living-metal skin reassuringly as she met Sandry's gaze. I can't hope to be as much of an asset in Summersea as you'd be, the Trader thought reasonably.

No, Sandry snapped back, we're that much more powerful when it's all four of us together, and no one can expect me to just sit around here idle all day until you return! We can communicate back to Winding Circle with sister mirrors, which will be far more effective anyway, considering the distance involved. She squared her shoulders and planted her hands on her hips. I can't believe you would try to exclude me like that, she thought indignantly. "We're all going," she informed the others aloud.

"If that is your choice," the Duke replied steadily. He inclined his head towards his niece, who was such a ferocious creature when provoked. "Although I can't deny that you would be of great use to me here," he said.

Sandry blushed, "I know, Uncle. But the nature of our magics is that we are stronger together. We can't waltz so close to danger without the full power of the circle." She moved closer to him and patted his arm gently. She leaned in to kiss his cheek , "I know the plan is not to get so close to the fog, but we need to take all precaution, which means being our most powerful."

"You don't need to explain," Duke Vedris replied, "you have all proven yourselves extremely capable. However, I want no foolishness or improvisation until you know what you are dealing with." He looked at each of the mages in turn, studying them with imperious brown eyes. "And now, as we know time is of the essence, I believe you must plan your trip quickly." He moved away from Sandry to open the door and signal for the runners.

. . . .

"You could make a nice living doing this in His Grace's harbour, Coppercurls," Briar remarked cheerfully. He watched Tris adjust the wind in the felucca's sails, "if you stuck to it there'd be no need for you to skip off to Lightsbridge next month." She responded to his suggestion with a not-so-nice gesture that Briar could hardly see in the dark.

He had initiated such nagging just days after their return from Namorn, having decided that he wasn't quite ready to have her disappear to Karang. The country didn't even share a boarder with Emelan, and Briar was weary of travel. He wanted to stick down some roots for a while, but he couldn't do that unless all of his sisters were close. If Tris actually followed through with her fool plan to leave, Briar would need to split his time between Summersea and the university in Karang. He would just have to, and what an inconvenience it would be!

"Go to sleep, Briar," she told him curtly.

His eyebrows shot up, "and leave you all alone while you witch wind for the sails? What kind of brother would that make me?" He twisted to look at Daja, Sandry, Evvy, and Niko, who were all huddled in bed rolls, fast asleep. Even the captain of the Blue Rook had gone to bed, muttering about things that were unnatural and dangerous, like sailing swiftly down the Uona River in the dead of night.

Tris, happy with her winds for now, ran her fingers down one of her lightning braids until she had a spark between her fingers. "A well rested one," she replied, feeding magic into the spark to make it bright enough to see Briar's face, "considerate too, since it means I wouldn't have you trying to convince me away from Lightsbridge while I'm trying to scry and witch the sails and fiddle with the river." With that, she turned away from him and settled down to properly receive the breezes that might give her glimpses of the wasteland fog.

Only once Tris was completely immersed in her scrying did Briar go to her and settle a shawl over her shoulders. The girl was so vexing, she had no care that she was just as likely to fall down with a case of the sniffles like everyone else. From her place around the girl's neck, Chime whistled the thanks that Tris neglected to give. Satisfied, Briar settled down with his back to the mast so he could watch over his sister, and the rest of the ship, as they continued to sail north.

. . . .

The sleepers started to stir as the sky gradually got lighter. Briar pushed a cup of wake-me-up tea into Niko's hands before allowing the older man relieve him of Tris-watching duties. After finishing the tea, Niko settled a hand on Tris's shoulder, following it up with a small nudge of magic. The girl had once been so mistrustful that she wouldn't have allowed their magics to join, but that had been many years before.

Of course, she responded to the request, and let their magics meet and merge until the useful things she had seen were transferred to him. There wasn't much that was unique- mostly they were images of the same death and destruction her winds had brought to her at the Citadel, though now there were also clusters of people escaping to the south. We're lucky we didn't take the road, Tris told him through their link, we would have had to intimidate our way through.

Niko nodded and gave her shoulder a soft squeeze before letting his hand drop. "Sandry is waking the Captain. Once he-"

"We can't possibly be this far up the river," the Captain's brisk voice barked the words out even as colour drained from his skin. He stared dumbfounded at the familiar surroundings, "we can't… I've been asleep for no more than five hours. We can't be here, almost in Gansar! We can't!" He rubbed his eyes disbelievingly, gasping at the sight of northern trees.

"Red there has been making us go fast, Cap'n," one of the sailors explained, giving his superior a firm pat on the back. "I for one have only ever gone so swift at sea, with the best of winds."

"And now she needs to sleep for a while," Niko announced in a light voice, "but she's had a good speak with the winds and currents, haven't you Tris? So they should be quite co-operative until she wakes." The whole crew had been told about the magic that would be worked, even before a price for the voyage had been discussed and Niko had no time to be pandering to the shock an old man.

Tris tried to pretend that the Captain's strange looks didn't affect her, but a blush crept into her cheeks unbidden. "Just for an hour or so, and you can wake me if I'm needed," she told Niko, drawing a shawl tighter around her. When had she got that shawl? I must have done it while I was working, she decided as she wiggled into the still-warm bedroll that Daja had used. Tris spared a thought for her friends, both on the ship and those like Lark who remained in Summersea, before sleep overcame her.

. . . .

What is it? Both Briar and Tris jolted out of sleep as feelings of panic suddenly sprouted from Sandry and Daja. Sandry was plucking a mirror from Niko's hands and wrapping it safely in its shroud of silk. Her hands shook slightly as Daja watched on, gripping her Trader staff.

The fog has reached Karang- Lightsbridge. Daja's steady voice spoke in their minds, they held it back for a while, but the western side just fell. She gravely bowed her head and appealed to Trader Koma and Bookkeeper Oti that the dead might have peace in the afterlife. Lightsbridge was Winding Circle's rival, and its fall meant the temple's defences might be just as useless.

"Then we need to give Winding Circle more time to prepare," Tris said aloud, her voice husky from sleep. She pushed herself up from the ground and righted her clothes once she was standing. "Evvy and Briar, can you watch out for obstacles below? If I don't have to concentrate on that so much I can make us go even faster," she explained.

Soon each of the mages had a purpose. Briar and Evvy worked together to identify hazards under the water, while Daja coaxed the few other vessels they came across out of the way. Sandry, for her part, strengthened the sails and ropes and made it her job to confer with the Captain in a soft, gentle tone. In that manner the mages passed into Lairan, and made it to the country's Illari Basin just before suset.

. . . .

Towards the end of the journey to the fog they talked about their plan so much that it made Daja's head hurt. She hadn't spent much time with Briar's student in the past few months, but now she knew the girl enough to be sure that Briar had managed to find someone who was just as stubborn as the rest of their family.

The two of them, Evvy and Briar, argued about Evvy's involvement for far too long. Only Niko's firm voice halted the argument. "We might need what the rocks can tell her, Briar," the great mage said, pointing out the reason Evvy had come in the first place.

Things went quickly after that. They disembarked at the northern tip of the basin, leaving the Blue Rook and its crew to wait. "Be ready for a quick exit," Sandry reminded the sailors before stepping off the small jetty. She spun a thorough ward around the mages with her magic, and once she was satisfied with the circle of protection, gestured for Daja to add her own. Soon all of the mages held hands and settled into a familiar breathing pattern. Meditation would make it easier for all of them to reach across the distance to the fog.

In moments Briar raced through the ground, twisting and tumbling through roots and feeling the anxiety of every green thing his magic touched. Something like winter is coming and it will feast on us, they tried to tell him, go back. He ignored the plants and pressed on. In less than a minute his magical self had reached the fog thing and the land under it, but he could feel no green things living there. Even the black skeletal remains of flora felt like they had never been alive, had never been touched by Mila or the Green Man. Briar had never come across anything like it.

The stones chattered to Evvy, vibrating of their own accord because something was coming and it was going to change them. Usually some stones liked to be changed while others did not, but never before had she heard such a unanimous clamour. We feel tired the moaning stones told her, we are going to turn to dust. As she spread her power out even farther, Evvy discovered that indeed some stones already had. She delved deeper into the fog to find stones that had already met with it.

Sandry let her magical self settle over everything like a net. She scraped clues towards her like she carded wool, with a pliant wrist and an unbendable will. The buildings looked impossibly aged, like ruins she had once seen with her parents. She continued on until she found what it was that she sought. The young woman was no healer, but she had attended anatomy lessons just as other Winding Circle students did. She threaded her way through the network of nerves and blood vessels within the fallen corpses. Breathing went first, she thought, and the hearts exploded.

Before the decay set in, Daja added distastefully. She crawled over every scrap of metal she could find, inspecting it, and had found herself sliding over putrefying flesh. Most of the metal here looks like it's fine, but every bit of it feels weak, like it was overheated in the forging. The longer it's been exposed to the fog, the more volatile the metal is. Jewellery, belt buckles, knives, hinges and nails, the weakness didn't discriminate.

Tris let the others inspect things on and in the ground. Her magic took her elsewhere, firstly diving and skimming through fresh water that now felt like stagnant hot springs. The water has turned acidic and everything in it is dead, she declared, and vaulted up into the multi-coloured fog. It was unlike any fog she had ever seen or summoned, pressing around her and violently squeezing like a fist. Colours shifted around her, different pastel hues of pink, yellow, purple, orange- the whirling colours and squeezing feeling were making her dizzy. I don't understand, it doesn't feel natural, but I can't feel any magic in it, she thought.

There's sulphur and... I can't name the rest, Niko replied next to her. Disliking the sensation of being compressed, he launched himself out of the fog and looked at it from above. Try blowing it apart from inside, he suggested as he layered different spells on the fog to make its nature appear. None of the symbols worked, but he knew the exact moment that Tris made her attempt. He could see a space in the fog shift for just a moment, but it was quickly covered again and the feeling of Tris muffled and grew weak.

Sandry felt it too and yanked hard on the connection to her sister. The girl didn't come out with the first tug, or the second, but for the third both Daja and Briar added their strength and Tris sprung free. It didn't like that, Tris's magical voice hummed ominously. Her magical self quivered, unsettled by how she had been squeezed and pummelled. Even with Sandry next to her she still felt like she was slowly being crushed by something heavy.

Niko's authoritative voice shot through all of their magics, back to your bodies, immediately!

But we haven't found anything useful yet, Evvy protested. The older mage pushed an image into her mind and silenced her. The view from above showed the fog was getting thicker and spreading faster than it had before. Suddenly she felt that getting away from the fog was just as urgent as Niko's voice had intoned.

. . . .

"We can't have been out for that long," Briar stated grimly once he had returned to his body. He rolled his shoulders to loosen them and rubbed dust from his eyes as Daja and Sandry brought down the wards around them. Once the red and white rings of magic were gone he gasped at how close the fog had come.

"We weren't," Niko snapped as they hurried towards the felucca.

Briar stepped aside to supervise the others as they climbed down the ladder one by one, too slowly, he thought to himself. He watched the sailors help Sandry, and then Evvy, climb down into the boat.

"Two hundred yards," Sandry gasped, pointing at the fog that was coming towards them far too quickly. "We can't outrun it," she exclaimed. I promised Uncle I'd be home to help him, she thought, not even realising her siblings had heard it too. She scrambled to the other side of the felucca to make room for the others.

Now that everyone else was aboard, Briar didn't even bother with the ladder. He crouched down and held on to the edge of the wooden jetty, then swung himself down. "Then let's not try to outrun it," he said, using the same tone he would use for declining a dinner invitation. "The fog only kills things it can touch. Coppercurls, can your wind trick you do when there are too many stairs, enough to raise us above where the fog reaches?" Never before had he been so thankful of his penchant at finding escape routes.

Tris didn't reply, instead she waved off a concerned Chime and sat herself down on boat's deck. The girl quickly calculated how much power she would need. All of it, and then some, she decided. Delving around in the fog had already drained her power and she had only ever used her wind trick on three people at once. The mage undid both tidal braids the whole way, knowing that she needed to grip all of that power now because there would be no time to mess with undoing braids later. She felt the steady and ancient power of the tides rush into her bones and fill her magical core.

Next, Tris undid a heat braid and sent it down into the water with a touch of tide energy so it would spin. If she hadn't blocked out everything else around her she would have heard her siblings shouting warnings for the others to hold on as the felucca began to twist. She had underestimated how much wind she would need to lift the boat into the air. Blunt, nail-bitten fingers worked three wind braids apart, gradually winding them around the ship's hull to create a disk of wind. She encouraged them to spin faster and faster, blocking out the worried cries of the sailors and Chime's shrieking. Now, Tris! Her siblings hissed through their magical bond.

Biting her lip, Tris drew magic from her largest braid, the one that was volatile but held the most power. She slammed the earth force away from her, which gave the Blue Rook the boost it needed to rise up from the water, up into the sky, and up, up, up above the fog. Find me somewhere to put us down, she told her siblings, feeding more of her power into the winds to keep the spinning disk strong enough to cradle the felucca.

Suddenly light boomed around them. It was pure, white, blinding. It burned Tris's eyes and heated her skin like the sun. In an instant the light disappeared and there was nothing left but black.

A/N: Thanks for reading the entire first chapter. I can make no promises of when I'll update because I'm trying to get a handle on the balance of quality, quantity, and speedine ss. I hope you're enjoying it so far are looking forward to the second chapter (wherein the Circle find out they're not in Kansas any more).

Drop me a review or PM to let me know what your thoughts are. I especially love constructive criticism, but any feedback is appreciated.