They appear in midair, visible out of a few thirtieth-floor apartments.
One starts to fall. The other catches her by the arm, flings out - wing-shapes of light - and slows her, spiraling down until they're at street level.
They appear in midair, visible out of a few thirtieth-floor apartments.
One starts to fall. The other catches her by the arm, flings out - wing-shapes of light - and slows her, spiraling down until they're at street level.
"Yes, but just one. I don't think any Shadows have moved there - they don't die of not breathing but they don't like it at all, and wouldn't be able to fly."
"Hmmm." Frown. "Would we get anywhere by announcing to humans that we're paying outrageously well for elementals and they can bring them to us at a fixed location -"
"Maybe after we hit the other places with a high concentration - has the added benefit that people who are worried theirs might be stolen might be tempted to sell rather than lose it all -"
"Yeah. There's some risk people won't sell to you without a mage on hand to take possession so I'd have to hang out there any time you were open for business."
"It doesn't play well with previously stolen elementals rumoring my existence all over the place, honestly."
"Right. Hmm. There have got to be more humans like you - maybe ones who aren't mages, it might be easier to notice if you're not benefitting -"
"If you just need a human for this my parents are okay - I mean, they weren't going to crusade about elementals but they wouldn't go out of their way to be awful to them if I explained what I was doing, which I have - but you need an actual mage who can be like yes observe I have magic and can totally control that elemental you want to sell me for Ridiculous Amounts Of Salt."
"I will."
They find an island with a cave in it on Maurabel's home planet. They set up there for the longish haul. They steal a private collection and another school collection, with an Adamant acting as Maurabel's bodyguard. A couple of soldiers are casualties in the second school raid, dead before any Shines can get to them. They get a lot of elementals free and Penumbra starts taking them to Amenta, one at a time.
Anitam understands more about elementals and has a place set up for them on a mountain lake with food and people to confirm that they are not being ordered.
The mountain lake is nice and fewer of these fuck off to the rainforest from it. Maurabel is not making them do stuff.
Yup.
Satellite photography, radar supervising airspace, birdwatchers, seismic sensors, the personnel of a geothermal energy plant, weather metrics, and beachgoers notice, uh... stuff.
That sure is stuff.
Does Maurabel know or do any of the elementals know if this is the same way elementals started existing back in her world.
...also the rate is much higher than it must be in her world if there are only hundreds in her world and they live forever, does anyone have guesses about that.
"Uh, we'd be less good at noticing them, there's that - we don't have history that far back and elementals aren't all that sociable, they'll have small groups but don't form civilizations, so they wouldn't know if they were first -"
" - if we assume that on Amenta they're born in bursts like Amentans it could maybe not represent a higher rate."