AETHER BEASTS

Chapter 166

Zirani's tracking technique was rather complex, but its main principle was simple enough. Using a drop of the former madame's blood and some of her aether she was able to create a sort of one-way link that would lead her to the source of the dream aether. There were parts of it I didn't really understand, but I was sure if I wasn't focused on other things I could have figured it out, though she wasn't entirely using just nature. She had formed a simple piece of circular bark which she had carved a simple array onto, and after dropping the blood onto it, and then feeding it aether, the link was formed.

"It's above us," Zirani said her eyes far away. "It's not moving, so I think I was right in assuming it's an object rather than a person."

"Do we just head up then?" I asked, taking the tracker from Zirani. The moment I touched it, I felt the link, similar to my bond with the girls but different, less solid and the only thing it granted me was the feeling of the location the object was in.

"I'll go subdue everyone and get the girls back here while you go deal with the object," Zirani said.

"Don't you think it best if you do that?" Sandra asked. "We're not exactly experts on dream aether."

"You've more mental protection than most," Zirani replied. "And with the lost queen, trust me no one is taking control of you."

"And the three?"

Zirani sighed. "I know you wanted to teach them a lesson, but I'll deal with them."

I thought about it then nodded, trusting that she could handle it. I remembered how she had been when interrogating the twin horn member in the tower and knew that the three arcanists were going to wish they had never been born after Zirani was done with them, that is if they were still alive after she was done. I'd leave it to her judgment, though personally, I didn't think they deserve death, just a lot of punishment.

As Sandra and I prepared ourselves, pulling aether from our cores. I formed my layered armor around myself while her cloak and tendrils wrapped her in their embrace and she rose from the ground. She could run, but in truth, her simple flight was faster especially since she could essentially latch her gravity to a point and then increase the pull to send her flying at rapid speeds. She currently had problems with turns and less linear terrain, but she was getting there, and this place was just a bunch of hallways and rooms.

"I should have recharged my solar core." I sighed, referring to the storage space for my solar energy. Solar core just sounded better than storage core. "This will have to do though."

Zirani hadn't prepared at all, not that she really needed to. With her skill and power, there was no one currently in this city that could match her, in fact, she could probably take on the city, which sounded ridiculous, but I'd fought her and seen her against that twin horn elder that had so easily beaten us. If we were fishes in the small lake that was the plains then she a shark, far from home.

"What about her?" Sandra pointed to the bedroom.

"She out cold," Zirani answered. "It'll be a few hours before she wakes. That shroud was influencing her for some time and the overload of memories and thoughts overwhelmed her."

I walked forward and raised my leg, kicking the door open with a bang. Zirani casually walked out and stretched her arms.

There was a gasp and as Sandra and I walked out, Zirani saw a man dressed in a suit, staring at her. She sneered as the man's eyes moved down her body, and with a bit of aether and the flick of her wrist, roots emerged from the ground and wrapped themself around the man who only managed a muffled scream before they pulled him down.

Zirani turned back to us. "Well, go on."

I turned and Sandra and I began down the opposite way. As we moved closer and closer to what I assumed was a stairwell to the next floor, the rooms on either side of the hallways lessened until there were none at all.

We stopped at a locked dood, but all it took was a solar beam to destroy the lock before I ran up the stairs three at a time, Sandra just flew up, and gave me a grin when I made it to the top.

"I'm really thankful I chose gravity." Sandra smiled.

I pushed down the small spike of envy and headed through the only door which connected the staircase to a wide circular room with a single door at its far end, opposite us. Two fountains spouted water in odd patterns and many different types of plant life were spread in small glass enclosures around the room. The main color was still red, but now with gold, not just gilded metal either, but solid gold, or so it seemed.

"This must be the owner's private area then," Sandra mused, staring at the golden statue of a naked woman who had her arms held out wide as if asking for a hug. Another was kneeling with her mouth open and hand in a gripping motion. There were a few dozen of them about half the size of a person, varying from those in simple poses to those in erotic acts, though there was only one man, the same man in all the statues that depicted a sexual scene. Tall and muscular with a broad chest, and definitely exaggerated lower area which I quickly moved my eyes away from. I did not need to see that.

We slowly made our way to the door and stood to either side.

"We end whoever's in there and then destroy the object," I said and Sandra nodded in appearance

I pulled solar aether to both my hand in preparation to roast the person who had essentially turned, who knew how many women, into sex slaves, into agreeable puppets. My anger grew and I gave more and more aether to my two techniques until all my solar aether had been spent.

Once they had reached a crescendo, I nodded to Sandra who kicked open the door.

The only thing I saw before I released my solar beams was a man similar to the one in statues, but older. He was leaning back in his chair behind an ornate desk, with a cup of a red liquid in his hands. He turned and his eyes widened fractionally as two large beams of destructive energy shot toward him.

Then there was a bright light, and the sound of a boom followed by crashing. My ears rang, and I stumbled back as I tried to blink the spots away from my vision. It took a minute, but soon my vision was mostly clear and I was able to see the remains of the room, because my beams hadn't just torn through the man, but the entire room. The walls were cracked relieving other rooms which had also taken damaged. Large swathes of the room had been blackened, in fact, most were almost completely blackened. Rubble lay everywhere, and the tracker was no longer picking anything up, which meant whatever the object had been, it was now destroyed.

I stared down at my hands, remembering how Zirani had told me just powerful solar aether was. She hadn't been kidding. This was the first time I used that much, and it really hadn't been a lot, yet, I couldn't think of any arcanists near my level who could possibly survive such an attack.

I suddenly remembered that Sandra had been in the room, and a moment of panic overwhelmed me before I focused on our bond. I made my way back to the circular room and found her attached to the ceiling, having flown backward the moment I had released my attacks.

"You could have wanted me," She said mentally.

"I didn't know it would that effective," I replied with an apologetic look. "I think we should go, that no doubt drew attention and not just from people inside the bundling. My ears are still ringing and I'm at the third level so it must have been loud.

She nodded and together we quickly made our way back to the room. I immediately noticed the two dozen unconscious, half-naked women, laying about. Zirani had been very busy. We had only been gone for around fifteen minutes.

"Should we help her?" Sandra asked, and I was about to reply when large roots sprung from holes I hadn't noticed in the room and deposited five more women.

"I think she's fine on her own," I said as I made my way to the tree. "I'm going to start transporting them, ok, you want to stay here or go first?'

"I'll stay and guard them," Sandra replied.

I lifted two of the women onto my shoulder and pressed a hand to the tree. My bond with Zinrai allied me to instantly know the location of her spatial tree, and with a thought and some aether, we were gone.

I appeared in a wide room lit by sunlight orbs that floated near the ceiling. The floor was a comfortable and soft verdant moss and I quickly placed the two down, before teleporting back. The distance wasnt too far so it didn't take too much aether, and soon I was transporting women as quickly as they came. Eventually, Zirani appeared and after confirming there were no more left, she helped ferry the last of the ladies.

"I'm going to head back just to double-check," Zirani said and was gone before anyone could object, not that I would have.

In the end, she found two more that had been hidden after the loud bang had gone off. She had dispersed her roots and techniques and then proceeded to weaken the foundation of the building. The patrons had all run, and Zirnai saw no reason to let the building remain standing.

"What about the three?" Sandra asked.

Zirani smiled darkly. "I didn't kill them, but trust me, they got what they deserved. I don't think they'll be harassing any women ever again."

That smile and the few mental images she sent over made me shiver slightly, but also feel content. They had received punishment, and in the process, we had saved several dozen lives. Speaking of lives, I moved my gaze across the dozens of half-naked women. "What are we going to do with them?"

Zirani shrugged. "We find out the general story of how they ended up in the brothel and then we wait for the expedition to arrive. If some of them have families and friends then we could release them, but we have no clue if there are other similar brothels. I don't regret what we did, but this is going to complicate things."

"We have time," I replied. "The expedition will be here in what, a few days? That means a few days to sort this out, and cmon, you're not scared."

She snorted. "Of course, I'm not, but I was under the assumption you wanted to relax."

"You're not wrong, but I also have to admit to myself that when I'm fighting and planning I'm in my element," I said. "And now that I'm aware that there might be similar places in the city, how could I relax?"

"You can't help everyone Aiden."

I smiled. "I know I can't, and trust me I have no desire to become such a person. I'm no hero. I suppose you could say I'm doing this for selfish reasons and for selfless reasons."

Zirani started at me for a long moment before she sighed. "I understand, as long as you don't get it in your head that everyone and every bad thing is your responsibility to fix."

I scoffed. "Hell no. You don't have to worry about that. If the expedition arrived tomorrow and we had to leave tomorrow, and I knew there was another brothel, and I had to pick, I would leave. I'm not some sort of self-righteous hero Zirani, even if I seem it sometimes. It's like my aunt taught me, you cant heal everything. She also taught me that there's no harm in helping if you can, and even if it is for selfish reasons, it's still help. My goal is simple, I want to grow in strength, and I want to reach the top of the mountain. There is also the simple fact that the stronger I get the easier it will be for me to cause change and help"

I glanced at Sandra. "With some allies if possible or at least have them close."

Sandra smiled and blushed. "I love you too."

A loud cough sounded. "Ermm, I hope I'm not interrupting, but where am I?"

The three of us turned to see not Natalia in sitting position, rubbing her head, and staring at the three of us with wide eyes, mostly just Zirani.