Free Collision: The Alliance Series Book Three by Emma L. Adams Page B

two of them were present at the base. We clipped on the spare earpieces we’d brought, so everyone would be able to understand one another without complications. Before, we’d have had to rely on communicator-translators onscreen. I couldn’t help being impressed by Ada’s brother’s ideas–pity he was such an asshole.
    The room designated for the meeting overlooked the cliff’s edge. The plain furniture was made of some stone, the same coppery colour as the mountain. A working ceiling light flickered above. So this world had electricity.
    “How does that work?” Raj asked Avar, spotting it, too.
    “We use solar energy here,” he explained. “We decided that in the interests of noninterference, we’d make this base self-sustaining.”
    Mathran said, “We are glad of that decision now. The world outside is hostile.”
    Avar shifted, revealing the bandage on his leg was faintly stained with blood. In fact, Mathran himself bore several scratches on his face. Had something attacked them? Maybe that was why the others had left the base.
    “What even lives down there?” asked Ada, peering out the window.
    “There wasn’t anything about the wildlife in the files,” said Raj. Thinking about it, we hadn’t seen a living creature yet aside from the people at the base.
    “It’s a little complicated,” said Avar.
    “The first thing you need to understand about my world is the gods,” said Mathran. “They shape our lives here, more than anything else. My people migrated to this world a thousand years ago, and found it hostile. The gods protected us. Aktha, Veyak, and Xanet. I am a summoner–magic-wielder, you call it–and I am linked to Aktha. Each of us is attuned to one of the gods.”
    Three kinds of magic-wielder? This was a new one.
    “Everyone on this world?” I asked. “Your people live in the jungle, right?”
    “Some do,” he said. “My birth city is much further north than here, on the plains, at the present time.”
    “At the present time?” Odd thing to say. The memory of the earthquake came to mind, for some reason.
    “Yes. Our continent shifts and reforms itself at the whims of our deities.”
    Huh? I blinked, glancing at the others out of the corner of my eye–Raj and Iriel exchanged surprised glances, while Ada’s eyes widened.
    “Really?” asked Iriel. Of the others, she looked the least shocked.
    Avar nodded. “We have seen it happen,” he said. “The mountains are a constant, perhaps because this part of the world is tethered to the Passages, but the rest of the continent changes, drastically, every twenty days.”
    “Damn,” said Raj.
    That pretty much summed it up. There might be a million worlds in the Multiverse, but most followed the same natural laws, even the ones with high levels of magic. Magic was a law in itself. Of course, there were countless uninhabited worlds or ones inaccessible to anyone in the Alliance due to hostile conditions–but ever-shifting continents were a new one on me.
    “So, what’s going on with the magic level?” I asked. “Our supervisor told us a disturbance was traced to this world.”
    “Yes…” said Mathran, trailing off as if hesitant. “We would never have reported this to the Alliance if there wasn’t something fundamentally wrong–the fact is, the last continent shift is late. Five days late. It’s never happened before.”
    “And the magic levels?” I asked. “The Balance is being affected throughout the Multiverse.”
    “The Balance?” said Mathran, brow furrowed in confusion.
    Does he not know what the Balance is? Impossible. Avar appeared confused, too.
    “ The Balance,” said Raj. “Of magic? The way magic on each world is always at the same level? This world is third level, right?”
    Mathran’s expression remained confused. Maybe there wasn’t a Vey-Xanethan translation.
    “Third level,” I said, “is what we call worlds where it’s possible to channel a high amount of magic.” But there hadn’t been