Kyla ran out of the Academia de Magica, and straight into the surrounding forest, tears streaming down her face. She weaved around the trees, moving in random directions, trying to lose herself and what she was feeling in amongst the dense growth. She wasn’t worried about not being able to eventually return, as the wards around it had accepted those who resided there now and not only could they find their way back through the magical barriers, they could also sense where it was. She just didn’t want to be there at the moment, but as far away as possible. The leaves of the lower branches brushed against her as she ran, her footing surprisingly sure given her lack of concentration on where she was going. She eventually stopped, scrambling up a nearby tree to to sit in its higher branches. Kyla sat there, sobbing quietly to herself as she let herself think over what had just happened.

Her and Cammine had been getting along quite well, and in her Kyla had found a solid friend. They were almost the same age and they had bonded quickly, Kyla spending most of her time with Cammine once she had come out of the Stasis Chamber. Cammine had felt somewhat out of place and out of her depth at that point, surrounded by mostly unfamiliar people and unable to use her magic at all, something that Kyla could relate to. They had spent a lot of time talking about themselves and the situation in which they were in, their likes and dislikes, and Cammine had even joined her on some of her training sessions with Shino once she had felt up to it, which had been after they had returned from Port Muir. Kyla had felt really happy for Cammine when Myne had proposed a method of stabilizing her magic so that she could use it again, as amongst everything else that would have helped boost Cammine’s confidence which she had really been struggling with.

The process had been successful, for both Cammine and the Lady Knight Ruby, but then there had been a side effect that Kyla hadn’t thought about, but that in hindsight she should have expected. She had seen Myne feeding on Velvet before, and she had observed the effect that doing so had had on them. When Kyla had seen the look of pleasure of both Alice and Cammine’s faces when Cammine had fed, she had felt a stab of pain in her heart, the tears flowing uncontrolled. Embarrassed and confused she had fled to where she found herself now, sitting with her legs hunched up to her as she reflected on the emotions raging through her. She liked Cammine she realized. Really liked her, and she was insanely jealous that Cammine had fed on Alice instead of her, sharing a moment together that she would have rather been part of. She blushed, burying her head in her hands, not that there was anyone out there to see her anyways.

As to what she would do now, she wasn’t sure. Compose herself at the least, but she wasn’t ready to head back quite yet. She felt too self conscious after how she had left. Kyla took a deep breath, and then was almost startled out of the tree by a massive CRACK that resounded around her, the air seeming to split apart nearby, darkness and mist seeping through. That wasn’t right. She gracefully dropped down out of the tree, and then cautiously made her way to the rift, the hairs on the back of her neck tingling. She looked intently at it. It just didn’t look right. The air itself shouldn’t just split open. The darkness and mists coming through were dissipating as soon as they had spilled out, but it gave the rift an eerie feel, like something that just didn’t belong. She reached out wearily to try and touch it, and as her hand got close something seemed to break off, and instinctively she caught it as it fell. Kyla found herself holding a solid shard the size of her fist, made of light, mist, and darkness, all swirling together. The patterns they made entranced her, and she brought it in to her body, holding it against her chest protectively. It felt strange yet familiar, the magic contained within making her own magic react and tingle. Then suddenly it cracked, its entirety flowing into her, causing her to gasp in surprise and fall to her knees, her mind fuzzy and vision clouded. Then just as quickly it all cleared, as if nothing had happened. She stood back up, a little confused, unsure as to what had just occurred, and reached out towards the tear in reality again, seeing if events would repeat themselves again. This time though her hand reached the rift, and then passed into it as it opened up wide enough to allow her passage through. She couldn’t place exactly why, but she felt drawn to walk into it, a compulsion. So she did so, the mist and darkness enveloping her as she stepped through.

As Kyla’s eyes adjusted she found herself surrounded by dense mists, unable to see more than a few meters ahead of herself. She had no idea where she was now, the rift that she had just walked through having disappeared as soon as she had emerged, leaving empty space behind. The place was eerily silent, the mists likely dampening any sounds. She was suddenly afraid, realising that she was by herself and that she was no longer in the vicinity of the Academia de Magica. The mists were confusing all of her senses, and she just wanted to get out of them as quickly as possible.

“Be strong Kyla. Be strong.” she muttered as she tried to bottle the fear up within herself, slowly making her way forward. She wished she had sensing magic like Myne, or the warm glows of Velvet or Cammine. Actually she wished she had any measure of magic at all, beyond the paltry physical changes that fate had dealt her. She still cursed her awakening, and the changes that it had brought into her life, although she was very grateful that Velvet had rescued her from it all. She even had some friends now, and they accepted her for what she was, even if she didn’t. Shino had been teaching her how to fight, and even though she had found it very difficult to do, he had finally managed to get her to use a very small amount of reinforcement magic, though she found it very difficult to call forth and maintain. He had said that her lack of confidence in herself was probably creating a barrier to her use of it, and why he was probably right on that, she hadn’t taken it well and sulked for a while afterwards.

It didn’t take her long to find what was likely the wall of a structure, though it appeared very foreign in nature to her, black, smooth and glossy, with golden script on it in a tongue that she didn’t recognise. During her time at the guildman’s estate she had learnt to recognize a quite number of languages, and it looked most familiar to those from the old world, but not quite the same. Keeping it at the edge of her sight she slowly walked parallel to it. The building terminated at a corner, and not sure at all where she was actually heading she also turned to continue following it. Her ears twitched as she suddenly picked up the sounds of footfalls, and moving quickly she pressed herself against the wall of the building, her heart beating fast, wishing that she could become invisible. Her fear leapt up within her again. She wanted to be anywhere than here right now. As if responding to her plea, something welled up within her, and she fell backwards through the wall, the mists disappearing and being replaced by an inky blackness, before she felt flat on a metallic floor with a loud thud, the rift in the air that she had just come through disappearing before her eyes. With no idea what on earth was going on, her fears running rampart, she curled up into a ball, crying loudly as the tears flowed freely again.

Kyla actually felt a bit better when she eventually stopped crying, sitting up and composing herself. Self pity was going to get her nowhere, and how was she ever going to be able to face Cammine again if she couldn’t overcome at least a little fear. She needed to be strong, she told herself. With all the racket that she had been making, she was surprised that nothing had come to find her, but here she was, still alone and unscathed. With no mists here, and no sign of them at all, which was odd in of itself, she was able to have a look around and take stock of where she was. From what she could tell, she was on some form of platform outside of some rooms, stairs at either end going up and down. She walked over to the railing that ran the full length of the platform, and stared out in awe. She couldn’t see any sky at all, but instead just structures everywhere that she looked, some in much better condition than others, but none having fallen into ruin, all of them curving around in a giant sphere. It was almost as if she was inside a giant building the shape of a metal ball, with the core of it having been left empty. And with that analogy, she would be on one of the inner most layers. Lights twinkled in the darkness, some areas fully lit up, while other areas were cloaked in pitch blackness. It was certainly like nothing that she had ever seen. It was also dead quiet, and she was sure that her cries had probably echoed around the entirety of this place, and yet she couldn’t sense any movement at all. She stood there for a while, staring at the surrounds absent mindedly, while she considered what she was going to do now. She had no idea where she was, or how she had gotten here. Well, actually, she did know how she had gotten here – she had walked through a rift in the air, but not the how of how that had occurred. Settling her emotions down, her curiosity finally got the better of her, and she decided to have a look around. After all, she wasn’t getting anywhere just standing her.

The level on which she found herself was in relatively good condition, and at a glance seemed to consist of spacious living quarters. All of the rooms were identical in makeup, consisting of a few items of furniture that were fixed to the rooms themselves, some of them otherwise empty while others had a smattering of personal effects. She found books in the same foreign language that she had encountered on the building in the mist earlier, as well clothes made from a strange fabric, some of which she thought were kind of cute, and what she assumed was food, though it was sealed away in all manner of various packages. Some rooms were tidy, while others looked to have been left in a state of chaos, typical for humanity. No weapons, no artwork, and no people though. A few of the rooms in between appeared to be shared amenities. Travelling downwards, the next dozen or so levels were all the same, as if this place had been home to a large population. She kept to the inner layer where possible, so that she would have some sense of bearing and not wanting to get lost in the depth of the structure, so she didn’t actually know if each level was the same all the way through, but she wasn’t ready to find out at this stage. Twenty levels down however she was forced to travel deeper in to the structures from the inner layer, as both the stairs and platforms were gone from the next few layers, lying in a pile of rubble much further down. Something powerful had caused the damage here, as it didn’t look like natural wear and tear. If she was going to continue in this direction she’d have to find an alternate path.

The nature of the rooms on this level changed as she went deeper into the structure, becoming smaller and more tightly packed together, before the whole area suddenly opened up, and she found herself standing at the edge of a large four level chamber, bright signs decorating all of the rooms here. Kyla instantly recognised it as a shopping district. Sure it was foreign in nature, but it still held that commercial vibe. Except in this case it was still void of any people, like everything that she had passed thus far. It had also suffered some of the damage that she had seen on the inner layer, an entire row of rooms on the opposite side, one level down, nothing more than gaping holes, flashing red lights having been put beside all access points to that area, to warn of the danger she assumed. Oddly, the damage seemed somewhat localized, with no collateral damage to the surrounding rooms. Curious, Kyla tried the door to the first shop that she came to, but unlike all of the living quarters which had had unlocked doors, the door to the shop was securely locked. A red message flashed up on the door as she tried the handle, as if warning her away and giving her a fright, and it was the same for the next couple of shops as well. Shrugging to herself, she continued on, looking for a way down to the lower levels. She would have expected it to be laid out lot more uniform, but this place was beginning to feel like a maze away from the edges.

Kyla had only managed to make it down a couple more levels when she was given a huge fright, jumping back as a strange metallic spider crawled out from between two rooms, its red eyes glowing as it hissed at her. Steeling herself and doing as she had been taught by Shino, she concentrated her magic around her body, reinforcing herself. There was only one, so she was sure she could take it on, whatever it was. As it advanced quickly towards her she replied in kind, quickly closing the gap before connecting with a swift kick, the spider’s limbs flying off as its body bounced along the platform with loud clangs. Her leg stung a bit, It had been a lot more solid than she had expected. Her victory was short lived however, a dozen more pairs of eyes lighting up from between the surrounding rooms as the spiders body stopped against a far wall, the cacophony of hisses filling the air as they crawled out to face her. She swore to herself, she wasn’t skilled enough to take on this many. Kyla turned around and bolted, and seeing more spiders emerge from in front of her as well, she took the first turn she could, sprinting down the corridor, the sound of the spiders skittering behind her clear and haunting in her ears. She couldn’t seem to shake them as she ran, the sound of them always directly behind her, and in more than one occasion a new spider appeared ahead of her. One she ran straight through, the impact of her reinforced body shattering it as they collided, which she hadn’t expected at all, but for the rest of them she turned and went down a new corridor before she ran into them. She was completely lost now, disorientated from having made so many sudden turns, and beginning to tire. Turning another corner, she could see a brighter light at the end of the corridor. Figuring she must be near the inner layer again, she sped up, racing towards the exit. Surely out there she might have a better chance at losing them. Unfortunately it was only after she had raced out into the light that she remember that she had only gone down two layers, and she had needed to go down five. There was nothing under her feet as she exited, the platforms long gone as she had earlier observed, her speed taking her well past any point of safety even if there had been one. The spiders had been herding her to here. Kyla swore. This was going to hurt. Summoned as much of her magic as she could, she poured it all into reinforcing herself as she fell, her eyes closed tightly shut. She felt herself bounce once, being thrown unto a spin as she impacted what was probably a railing, and then landed with a solid thud shortly later, her movement ceasing.

Opening her eyes she quickly got up. That hadn’t hurt anywhere near as much as she thought it would have, though she had left a noticeable impact crater in the floor. She glanced around, trying to see if any spiders were in the vicinity, but it appeared that they had not followed her, which she was grateful for. Taking a proper look at her surroundings, she guessed that she was probably now on the lower most level of the sphere, given that the area around her was flat and she couldn’t see any further way down. In front of her was a large structure, easily a dozen times the size of any of the other rooms she had looked at, standing by itself in the centre of the floor. Constructed from the same metallic material as the rest of the place, its windows were high and barred, illuminated by a soft green glow in contrast to the more white light that she had seen thus far. Script adorned the door along with images of familiar beasts of the land, and massive amounts of cables ran in and out of it, reminding her of the Stasis Chamber room. Thinking about it, the entire place seemed to do so, this ‘Technology’ that Lyrissa had mentioned. Somehow, that realisation made it less scary to her, and a little less foreign. She was still weary of encountering any more spiders, but as the building in front of her was just begging to be explored she couldn’t help but comply, walking up to it and pushing open its door.

The interior of the building was strange, even for this place. Its entirety was filled what appeared to be metal statues of all manner of creatures, bathed in a soft green light. Walking up to the closest one, fashioned in the shape of a bear, she discovered that they weren’t a solid sculpting, but rather made up of many tiny intricate plates, similar to Myne or Ruby’s armour, with small gems dotted all over their bodies at key joints and large gems for eyes. They were awe inspiring and beautiful, and cool to the touch as Kyla ran her hand along it. She stepped back, and then walked around the interior of the building, looking at all of the animals there. She was secretly relieved that there were no spiders here, as she would have worried that it might have come to life and attacked her, but of most other animals that she could identify were present, as well as many that she could not. While she hadn’t see many of them in person, she had seen their images in her guildmasters books while she had been there, so she could even identify some of the sea creatures and the like. One thing that she did notice was missing was dragons, but given their special nature she wasn’t surprised.

Kyla eventually stopped in front of a large snow wolf, its shoulders as high as she stood. She felt entranced by it, the creature’s form emanating power and speed. She found it absolutely beautiful, and she absently ran her fingers along its smooth form as she stared at it, daydreaming about what it would be like to have a creature such as it as a familiar.

‘Wake me up then Child,’ a voice said into her mind, causing her to jump back startled. She looked around, trying to see who had spoken, but she quickly ascertained that she was still here alone.

Looking back at the snow wolf, she could sense that something was pulling at her magic. Weary, she touched it, and getting no response, she then closed her eyes and placed her forehead against it, concentrating her thoughts on it.

‘Wake me Child, and I am yours,’ the voice in her mind repeated. Kyla wasn’t surprised this time. Somewhere inside of her she wanted the day dream to be real, so she quite happily entertained the idea. She was alone here, and she was enamoured with this creature.

‘How?’ she asked.

‘With your magic.’ The reply was quick, but not overly helpful.

Kyla sighed. With her weak pathetic magic would she even be able to? There was no harm in trying however, after all, her magic had been performing better than she had been expecting while she had been here. Concentrating, she pooled her magic within her, and then started to channel it into the creature through their shared point of contact. It turned out to be a lot easier than she had thought, and she could feel it entering the creature, flowing within it, filling its core as a bond formed between them. And then, very quickly, the flow stopped, even though she felt like she hadn’t used much of her magic. The snow wolf now felt warm to her touch, and she stepped back from it as its eye lit up, glowing a soft mauve. It stretched, and then bowed its head before her.

‘I am SN-013, at your service, Mistress Kyla,’ the snow wolf said.

Kyla couldn't help herself, jumping in shock. It was talking to her. Sort of. And it was alive!

“You know my name?” she asked out loud.

‘It’s imprinted in your magic.’

She didn’t know that that was a thing, but it made sense. Magic was a part of you after all.

“Do you have another name? S N 0 1 3 is kinda... clunky,” she then asked.

‘You can call me whatever you’d like.’

Kyla gave it some thought. What do you call a large, metallic looking snow wolf? She briefly considered Snowy, but it didn’t really fit. Not for a creature that was probably designed for war.

“How about Fang?” she finally said.

‘Fang it is then,’ replied Fang. He sounded happy.

She looked Fang up and down again, and then walked around it as it watched her movement. It really was beautiful, and that it was hers now hadn’t quite sunk in fully. After all, who would just leave creatures such as this just lying around? She didn’t feel like she was stealing it either, since Fang had invited her to claim it. Him. She’d rather refer to Fang as a him she decided.

‘I’m happy with either,’ Fang intoned, obviously aware of her thoughts when they related to him. ‘We’ve been sitting here dormant for a very long time. It’s nice to finally have a purpose.’

‘What are you?’ she thought.

‘In the simplest terms, a self aware machine of war,’ Fang answered.

She’d thought as much, though it seemed like a pity that such beautiful creations had been made just to destroy and get destroyed.

‘We weren’t all designed for fighting. I am though. You have made a good choice.’

It would take some getting used to having someone who could reply to your thoughts.

‘What is this place?’ she asked of Fang.

‘This is the Ark of the Odinsphere. Beyond that I can’t tell you much. We were never made aware of where it was located.’

It certainly wasn’t something that she had heard of before. It’s inside was massive, so it’s outside would be similar, and not something that would be easily missed, so she gathered that it must be isolated away from people of the kingdom. She sat down, leaning against Fang. Everything felt surreal. Not quite real. She didn’t know what Fang could do, but apparently now she had some sort of Familiar, and she actually felt quite chuffed about that. She didn’t feel quite so useless in the group any more. She was also who knows where, and she still didn’t understand how she got here, nor how she was going to leave either. Everything then hit her in a rush, as she remembered the event that had triggered her journey, and tears ran down her cheeks anew. What was she going to say when she got back anyways?

mogust

And that concludes Chapter 9. Kyla certainly got a long section, and it appears like it won't be the last either. She has gone from a supporting character to a much more important one.

She has also only barely scratched the surface of the Odinsphere. There is a lot more to it than anyone knows I think.

This section, as well as Lyrissa's Stasis Chamber was the reason that I flagged the story with a Sci-fi tag as well as the fantasy one. Given the history of the world it isn't really out of place, and was one of the things that I had planned having happen right from the early days of the novel.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment :)