Free Isle of Wysteria: The Monolith Crumbles by Aaron Lee Yeager Page B

that you here possess.”
    “If it is resistant to seawater, then cannot we create dykes to protect our islands from erosion?” Representative Malitrin of Maliao inquired.
    “An astute suggestion, senator,” Queen Forsythia praised, “but I am afraid just this one block took nearly a month to craft by our Stonemaster here.”
    Odger gave one final powerful swat to the stone and put himself off balance, falling to the floor.
    Queen Forsythia held up her staff and the doors at the far end opened, allowing Mina to enter.
    “This is my friend, Mina Duvare,” The Queen explained. “She and I have been working on a way to crack the skin of the monolith for some time. Mina, if you would.”
    Mina shook her hands and readied herself. “This takes a lot out of me, so I hope I get it right the first time.”
    Every eye was upon her as she stood there, meditating.
    Mina’s lavender eyes sprung open. In her right hand, she gathered together a sphere of sound. In her left, she gathered a sphere of cold and ice. With great effort, she brought the two closer and closer together. They resisted, like matched poles on a magnet, but she forced them closer anyway. Sweat formed on her brow. Her muscles trembled. Her feet dug into the wood of the floor to keep herself from falling over. The two spheres deformed, fighting against one another, nearly squashing into discs in her grip, until she broke through their resistance, and the two merged.
    A tornado of blue dust leapt from her hands, striking the block of Kartonite. The stone eroded away, from one end to the other, as if it were nothing more than a sand sculpture caught in the wind. In the space of a heartbeat it was completely gone, reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash.
    Half the delegates rose to their feet. King Turino’s monocle fell to the floor and cracked.
    “What was that?” they asked in a dozen languages.
    A slight grin crossed Queen Forsythia’s face.
    Mina took a second to catch her breath. “That was a synthesis. Two different kinds of magic working together at the same time, producing a third effect. In this case, I am simultaneously crystallizing ice in the pores of the stone and vibrating them with sympathetic sound waves. The vibrating ice crystals trigger the breaking point of each individual grain, causing the stone particles to break away from their neighbors and slough off.”
    Everyone’s joy turned to horror as they realized what she had just done.
    “Blasphemy!” Minister Nauru called out.
    “How dare you bring such sacrilege into my presence?” King Quarren of Baakuu shouted.
    King Turino took particular offense. “Teaching our sonic magic to an outsider is strictly forbidden. Who was your master, Mesdan, that we may bring him to justice?”
    Mina wiped the sweat from her brow. “My sonic coach was Marquis de Stint, of the Umor Guild. I doubt he’d care much to appear before your tribunal.”
    “A pirate?” President Kaln of Sutor scoffed, tugging at the boutonniere in his finely tailored suit. “You would bring such scum here before us?”
    Queen Forsythia held up her regal hand. “Ladies, gentlemen, please. Consider for a moment, if the god Jabint or the goddess Celina truly objected to Mrs. Duvare using their magic, they could remove it from her on a whim, could they not?”
    The soundness of her logic took the edge off of their outrage. Reluctantly, they took their seats again to hear her out.
    Queen Forsythia stood up and addressed them earnestly. She knew in her heart that the next few moments would be the key to everything. “Individually, not a single one of our islands has the magic to defeat the Stonemasters in their monolith. But by working together, by combining our magics in synthesis, we can save all of Aetria.”
    The room became as silent as the grave. You could have heard a feather drop to a table. Suspicious glances were exchanged about. Fear and reluctance, mixed with desperation and unease. A stew of panic was