She meticulously brushed her hair back, a glimmering white veil materializing along the back of her head that wrapped around her shoulders. It was a familiar sensation that put her at ease.
Now, with him actually gone, she set herself to exploring the area around the base which she could only describe as ramshackle. In the short time she'd been there, Zula had never figured out where he retired to during the night. He always seemed to simply vanish without a trace, and it made her wonder if he ever slept at all.
She walked around the enormous base of the tree that shot up above the clouds. Without his presence, the fierce winds that typically blew through the area had completely died down. The silence surrounding her had grown quite eerie, causing a slight pep in her step. She peered around a corner, the frozen wood feeling unusually warm beneath her fingers. Nothing but a frozen forest in all directions. She walked, then sprinted, then ran around the trunk, searching for any sort of aberration that stood out among the ancient bark.
“Where in D’mona’s infernal moon does that bastard sleep?” Her sharp tone cut a swath through the air. “It's not like he just melts into the snow… Right?”
Zula had completely circled the tree three times before she considered giving up to search elsewhere. Needing a moment to plan, she tried to lean against the tree only to find herself falling through some sort of illusory wall, and landing on her back. Looking back at the wall she just passed through, she could see the outside through a hazy lens of frost. She pressed her fingers gently against it—the feeling of slick wet ice comforted her. The priestess peered back over her shoulder and let out a small gasp. There was a grand glacial chamber, far bigger than even the enormous tree outside could conceal. She had found what she was looking for.
The walls were made of a flawless, translucent ice that rose tremendously high to meet a staggering distant ceiling. Visible beyond the walls was a sight almost impossible to describe.
In the frigid domain just past the secret chamber’s windowed walls, faceless ice titans silently roamed a vast land suffocated with snow. Frozen waves blanketed a far-reaching plain that stretched distances beyond comprehension. Dozens of otherworldly spheres dotted the sky like moons, with hundreds more breaching the infinitude of the firmament—their sloughing exteriors melting and dripping like rain onto the planet’s surface. Amid the horizon, frozen cliffs and mountains far larger than those she was familiar with filled the backdrop. The room itself seemed to float high above the ground, jagged cliff edges sitting right below the windows.
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By the Mad Mother, was this what his home realm was truly like?
Zulema suddenly felt a lot safer standing in the enclosed area. She wondered if she could survive out there in what she guessed were subzero temperatures. Would she want to? She shook off the irrelevant thoughts and searched around the room, finally returning to her original goal. The first thing she noticed was the glaring throne in the middle of the room and like most everything else associated with Derleth, it was carved intricately from ice in a very regal fashion. It was large enough that she would definitely find it difficult to climb into it. She shook her head disapprovingly and continued looking around, locking her gaze on a pair of looming bookcases sitting hidden behind the throne. Deciding to investigate the sort of literature read by a god, she walked over and cracked open one of the books. The runes that filled the pages were completely unfamiliar to her, yet the moment she scanned them, something had driven itself into her mind that sent her slightly reeling, leaving her lightheaded. She set the tome down, and before she could decide between taking the gamble of trying to decipher a second one, a deep voice bellowed from behind her.
“It is a relief to see you’ve finally begun to make yourself comfortable enough to invade someone’s private quarters.”
Zulema instantly recognized the voice as Derleth’s, yet she was unable to detect him. She rushed back to where she entered from, hesitantly stepping through the only icy window that showed the recognizable trees of home. Just outside, Derleth was standing right across from her— with a strange, black metallic slab nestled in his grasp.
“Who could possibly be comfortable in a remote hideaway tucked somewhere in the freezing mountains?” She crossed her arms defiantly, head peering back over her shoulder. “I can’t even begin to comprehend what I witnessed in there. Do all you… celestials have a deluxe apartment in the sky? There’s an entire world outside in there. How is that even possible? No. No magic I know of could even reach whatever level of power it takes to create a room like that. I’ve still got so many questions, but let’s start with the obvious one: What is that?” She pointed to the object he had brought back with him.
“It is a very powerful satellite relic that had been orbiting your planet for tens of thousands of years.”
“Wha—What does it do? How’d it get up there?”
“Placed there by an ancient race of beings from another planet to observe your planet’s progress. I have taken it to study its findings in hopes of helping us in our endeavor.”
“And they won’t mind that you took it?”
“A pointless query, Orphan of Macha. They have been extinct for a thousand years now.”
“Must you call me that?”
“Only until you discover a title worthy of your new self.”
“I don’t need a new self,” she grumbled.