AETHER BEASTS

The mayor's office looked far less like an office and more like a lounge. It was a wide-open room lit by a large orb of light at its center that was clearly arcane in origin. To the right was a mini library full of bookshelves and other bits and pieces, and to the left was a fully stocked bar with a variety of drinks most of which I assumed were alcoholic, but the main piece of the room was at the center where the mayor sat.

On a large comfy chair sat the largest man I had ever seen. He must have been at least seven feet with a mane of wild brown hair, scruffy beard, kind eyes, and a wide mouth that split into a grin at the sight of us.

He stood and spread his arms out in welcome. I'd heard of the term, tree trunk-like arms, but the mayor took it to a whole other level. His biceps were bulging with muscles and instead of being dressed in a fancy suit, he had on a white shirt that looked like it would rip open at any second and a pair of cargo shorts with a greenish blotch pattern.

"Porter, you've returned and with the three!" His voice was booming but held no sternness, just joy, and relief. "Come in and take a seat, friends. I'm glad you've decided to take me up on my offer, you have done so, correct?'

Porter nodded. "They have."

"Excellent," Jericho shouted and sat back down before gesturing to the bar. "Porter get our guests something to drink, bring out the brandy."

"Oh, we don't—"

My words were cut off as the mayor began to speak over me. "So you've heard that my dear little Hope has gone missing?"

I glanced over at Sandra who had a bemused expression on her face while Misty looked downright shocked. I was a bit surprised myself. Porter had said the mayor wasn't as formal, but I hadn't expected this. He was treating us like we were old friends rather than mercenaries, not that I minded. I wasn't really one for formalities either.

"We did," I replied. "And we are willing to track her down and rescue her."

"That's good to hear," he said in a much softer tone. "I've failed her for most of her life, and only recently have we grown close. I'd hate to lose her now. You understand, she is the only family I have."

That hit close to home and I felt a wave of sadness wash over me as I shot the mayor a sympathetic look. I couldn't imagine my aunt being in a similar position. I didn't want to imagine it. It must have been difficult for being both a mayor and a father and being unable to do anything yourself because of your responsibilities, although if I were in his position I wasn't sure that I would make the same choice as my aunt meant a lot to me. In fact, it would be the same for Sandra and Misty.

Porter came back just then with four glasses full of a dark amber liquid, brandy. I wasn't a fan of alcohol but I guess I could make an exception. It did smell rather nice and must have tasted good as Sandra took a small sip then a large gulp before wincing with a smile.

"That's good," She exclaimed with a sigh.

"I didn't know you were into drinking?" Misty asked with a small sip. She scrunched up her face cutely before placing her glass down on the small table between us and the mayor.

Sandra shrugged. "I'm not, not really at least, but I'm not going to pass up on a good brandy. This stuff is expensive."

I took a sip and came to the conclusion that it wasn't that bad. I focused back on the mayor who had just finished downing his own drink.

"I want to thank the three of you," The mayor said sincerely. "This means a lot and anything you need to help you accomplish this, if it's in my power, I shall grant. Porter go prepare the tracker, is there anything else you might need?"

I opened my mouth, but before I could speak, Misty spouted off a long list of things too fast for me to catch most of them, but Porter jotted them all down in a notepad he'd pulled from somewhere before leaving the room at a brisk pace.

"Good," Jericho said. "Now my daughter is around your age."

He pointed to me. "She's small for age and has bright strawberry blonde hair, you can't miss it. Please, just bring her back to me. Those bastards at the stone revenants"

He growled and a shadow passed over his features. "They've refused to help. So now I must take things into my own hands."

"We'll do our best," Misty said softly. "Is there anything else we should know?"

The mayor shook his head. "No, that's about it."

We stood and he followed, shaking each of our hands in a very firm grip. Unsurprising since he was at the third level and his two cores blazed brightly. His size was not the only dangerous thing about him, and I imagined that if he wasn't mayor he would have gone down there himself. A man with many responsibilities. I could relate in a way.

We left the room and found Porter waiting in the receptionist area with a ring and paper ticket in one hand and a necklace in the other. "This is a storage ring with everything you asked for and a premium ticket to get to the lower city with the mayor's seal and this necklace is the tracker. Simply put it on, and you will get a general feeling of the direction she is in, and you will know if she's alive."

I took the ring and ticket while Misty took the necklace and placed it on her neck. She frowned and then nodded, turning towards the door. "It's working, well we'll be off then."

Porter bowed low. "Thank you for this. Hope has always been kind to me."

I smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll do our best, and trust me, our best has never failed, for the most part."

It took only a few minutes to retrace our steps back to the square and thanks to the ticket we were able to bypass the line completely. The stone revenant, a masked woman, led us inside the building, through a side door, and down a long winding staircase that lasted for a good ten minutes before we finally came to some sort of lift contraption similar to the one we'd used in the first treehouse in the aether tower.

"Just hold on," the woman said. "It gets a bit bumpy. We only use this life for those with premium tickets and so the enchantments can get rusty."

"Or they're just bad enchantments," Zirnai said mentally, and I held back a chuckle.

"How long will it ta—"

Sandra's question was cut off as the life shot down at a far faster speed than expected. I stumbled into Misty who caught me, and Sandra cursed as she quickly grabbed onto one of the railings.

The stone revenant was completely still, one arm on a railing and the other next to a set of levers which I assumed controlled the lift.

I leaned back onto the railing and settled in for the bumpy ride.

It took over ten minutes to reach our destination and by the time we left the lift, Sandra looked like she was about to vomit. I wasn't feeling well either, but I shook it off after a minute as did Sandra. We followed our guide down a long tunnel and up another set of winding stairs before we came to an open area with a large door at one end and two stone revenants guarding it.

Unlike our guide, these wore only half masks and wore scale mail amour that looked to be made of some type of stone I was unfamiliar with. It had a faint sheen to it, and for a moment I thought it was a gemlike material, but it looked too dull. Both held a long spear in one hand with an odd four edge design at the tip and on the other was a large rock gauntlet with symbols carved into it that gave off faint hints of aether. Both were at the higher end of their first cores and at the hydro stage in density and while I knew we could take them, it was still a surprise as up until now we'd only ever seen weaker end guards. These two definitely looked like they could hold their own.

Our guide nodded once and one of the guards tapped his spear on the ground and knocked once on the door with their gauntlet, a small burst of aether passing from his gauntlet into the earth in what must have been a signal as a moment later the door began to lift up, revealing the lower city behind it, in all its glory.

"Woah."