The three of them approached the border of the Dome once again, though Kael kept the storm front further back for now, not wanting to broadcast their presence just yet - if at all.
Kael had explained to Gus and Shaela earlier about the plague in the town, as well as Lilith's reasoning for what she did. And though Gus wanted to leave immediately, wary of infection and glad to have a second token, Shaela insisted they stay to bury the bodies.
She argued that if any of them were to get infected, it would have already happened to her while she was busy looking for survivors, having dug through the rubble of several homes. That, and her facet made transporting the bodies and preparing graves far easier - and less risky. Although she struggled to "pick up" anything heavier than her, she was generally able to pocket the corpses with just a touch.
While they were there, Kael maintained heavy rainfall over the town, feeling especially wary over anyone whose "authority" encompassed a disease so virulent that it prompted a centurion to purge a town rather than risk treating it.
He meditated in the middle of the town while focusing on purification and cleansing, having received confirmation from Lilith that concepts related to one's authority could be incorporated into their use of their facets, and planning to make sure no traces of the disease remained for any of them to pick up.
Lilith had also implied that someone's authority could be contested, if your own had enough overlap with theirs. He recalled how he could sense Claude's lightning strikes coming before they happened, due to the way they felt in the rain. Was that a contest of authority? If so, he figured he might be able to stop them from happening, next time.
Thankfully, the rain also had the pleasant side effect of suppressing the smell of burnt flesh and disease, or even Shaela may have been more reluctant to linger.
Gus, meanwhile, began preparing the grave sites, sectioning off areas of the mud for Shaela. He cleared the borders of the eventual holes, outlining regions for Shaela to scoop with her facet. From there, she could easily extract and replace the dirt, burying the bodies at a sufficient depth to prevent any scavengers from desecrating the sites.
Despite their efficiency, with Kael using the rain to guide Shaela to any corpses he could detect, and Shaela's rapid digging, it grew dark before they finished, prompting them to camp nearby overnight, before completing their task the next day, and traveling to the border once again.
On their approach, the three of them decided to avoid dealing with any border guards, if they could help it.
Kael would muster enough clouds on the other side of the barrier to make the rain's progression seem natural, before he pressed any clouds up against it from their side.
He'd then attempt to tap into the same "dampening" concept he was half-certain he had used against Lilith. The hope was that the suppressive effect would reduce the barrier's efficacy enough for him to pass, especially if he concentrated it in a small, person-sized area, and attacked the barrier from both sides.
Gus and Shaela would simply use the centurion tokens to pass through, once Kael succeeded. If he failed, they'd simply wait for the guards to arrive and have them make way for an Aspect.
They hoped that it was Kael's conspicuous line of clouds that had attracted attention last time, rather than interference with the border, which they would be engaging in more heavily this time around.
Once in position, just shy of the border itself, and a bit off to the side of the road so they wouldn't be spotted as easily as last time, Kael closed his eyes in concentration, focusing on the feeling of the moisture in the air. Without his eyes distracting him, the difference in feeling between one side of the border and the other was more obvious.
It wasn't so much that his authority was weaker on one side than the other, but more that the air on the outside was slightly shifted out of phase, compared to the inside of the dome. Or, considering the barrier's purpose, perhaps it was the Dome that was out of line with the rest of the world.
With this difference in mind, it wasn't so difficult to pull the outside atmosphere's moisture into clouds, then keep pushing it together, raising the density of the congregations until rain could be squeezed out. At least, that's how Kael visualized his control.
With clouds prepared on both sides, Kael let loose, aiming swathes of rain from either side into the barrier just ahead of him, while focusing once again on that gloomy, draining feeling that others sometimes ascribed to rain. He knew the feeling, but never blamed the rain for it. Now, the sun, on the other hand - a truly oppressive beast. The heat during some of Aether's training camps...
He would need to be quick. With cloud cover on the other side of the barrier, they couldn't see into most of the sky to check for any approaching griffins, in case his actions alerted them.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a quick process. The rain splashed against the wall from either side, failing to break through immediately. While he could feel the fabric of the barrier weakening slightly in the space ahead of him, the dampening appeared to be cumulative, stacking up gradually as he pelted it.
Maybe if I... Kael decided to try focusing on a single drop on the outside, maintaining the usual barrage in the background while he prepared a high-speed needle. He packed as much weight into it as he could, with the idea of wearing down any defenses, much like how rain and water could shatter rocks, given enough time and pressure.
Like a spring, he loaded the drop with as much force as he could, along with the conceptual weight of his Aspect, before finally letting it loose, unleashing the accumulated tension in the direction of the barrier.
The needle fell like a hammer, punching a tunnel through the nearby rain on its way down, then matching that effect when it reached the barrier.
For Gus and Shaela, the first notification of their success was the explosion of dirt just in front of their feet, from where the needle had landed - on their side of the border.
Kael felt the hole left behind in the barrier wall, and focused on expanding its edges with the surrounding rain until it grew large enough for him to step through. Gus and Shaela followed right behind him, not wanting to risk using the centurion tokens if they didn't have to, considering the way Shaela's had flared during her interaction with the border last time.
For as much as his authority felt the difference in the air between one side and the other, Kael was mildly disappointed to find standing outside the Dome was much the same as standing inside of it. The road continued to carve through the woods ahead of them, though in contrast to the road behind them, he could see some weeds encroaching along the edges here, and felt more wildlife near the road.
While Kael considered the differences in the environment, Gus and Shaela were of a more celebratory mind. While Shaela ran ahead, laughing and dancing through the rain, Gus came up and put his hand on Kael's shoulder, transitioning his pat into a half hug, along with a "Good work," as he watched Shaela twirl.
Unfortunately cutting their celebrations short, an eagle's cry pierced through the sound of the rain, followed by several more...
It seemed dissolving a section of the barrier - albeit temporarily, as Kael could already sense the gap closing behind them, now that it wasn't under concentrated fire - did warrant a response from the border guard. A much higher priority response, given the number of griffins he could feel approaching.
"We've got to move! There's at least four of them coming in from the north." Kael alerted his friends, in case the noise hadn't done so already.
"Can you stall them? We'll have to make some distance from the border; probably get back on the road. I don't know how far we could run through the foliage around here." Gus set a track at an angle from the barrier, midway between heading straight away from the border and moving parallel to it to get back to the road.
Kael grimaced. "I can try."
"Clip their wings, if you can. The longer we can stick to the road, the better." Shaela began, running alongside them toward the road. "We'll have to head back into the woods before they spot us, though. I don't fancy our chances in a direct fight." She rubbed a spot in the center of her forehead, remembering what the guard was able to do last time.
While Kael inconvenienced the griffin riders, intensifying the rain around them and preparing several needles to try and pierce their wings, the three of them reached the road, stepping onto it and turning west, away from the border behind them.
Gus and Shaela skidded to a halt in the mud, with Kael lagging slightly behind them. He took a moment to refocus on their surroundings, confused as to why they stopped running, as he hadn't felt anything in the rain that would cause this type of reaction.
Looking ahead of them, Kael saw what gave his friends pause. A cart rested in the middle of the road, with its back covered in canvas, and an old man sitting at its front, while the horse attached to the front by reins grazed on the nearby weeds.
Now that he saw it, he realized he could feel the shape of it in the rain, though he could have sworn there was nothing there a moment ago.
The old man turned his head toward them, as if just noticing them for the first time. He gave his beard a scratch. "Hoh, you three come out of the Dome? And without the guards' permission, looks like." He raised a brow while his eyes glanced in the precise direction of the squad of griffins, still approaching in the distance, well out of visual range.
Gus recovered from his surprise first. "Err, yes... Sir. Are-"
He spoke right over Gus' hesitation. "That's good, that's good! Don't let nothin' stop ya from going where you want, haha!" He slapped his knee in delight.
Gus gave a polite smile, speaking a bit louder this time. "Right! Are you, headed out west, by chance? We could really use a ride, you see."
The old man looked amused, as if he was sharing a joke. "Oh I go everywhere, sonny." His head jerked down and back up in an exaggerated nod. "But I'll passengerize you three, sure thing!"
Gus gave a more genuine smile and a shallow bow. "Great! Thank you, sir. This means a lot to us." He then spoke through the corner of his smile as he motioned Kael and Shaela forward, "C'mon guys, this looks like the best chance we've got." He began jogging to the back of the cart.
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Still feeling the whole scenario was surreal - and unsure about the speed of such a rickety-looking cart - Kael followed along, willing to go along with Gus' lead for now. Shaela matched his expression as they clambered into the cart behind Gus, under the shelter of its fabric top.
As soon as they were all on board, the old man lashed the reins, getting them moving down the path.
He spoke without looking back. "Neat trick there, with the rain." Kael perked his head up in his seat.
The man continued, "Punching a hole right through." He guffawed. "Don't see that happen too often."
Still nervous about the griffins closing in, Kael replied a bit sharply. "Yeah, well, seems to have worked a little too well, given our company." He waved in the direction of the guards, though the old man couldn't see from his seat.
He nodded anyway, knowing what the boy meant. "Not much gets 'em so riled up as that. They've usually got it pretty easy around here, 'sides the refugees."
Shaela spoke up from her seat. "Refugees?"
"Yep, it'll be picking up these next few years, 'fore the Polemos rolls around. They'll be gettin' busy all 'round the Dome turning people away, making sure stragglers don't get through, like you three did." He shook his head in amusement. "Hehehe, cracked right through it. Been years since that's happened."
Making a note to ask about the 'Polemos' later, Kael wanted to hear more about the barrier for now. "Does the 'Dome' really go around Battle's whole territory? That's... huge, if it does. Can something that big really be maintained?"
"You'd be surprised. But you're right, it doesn't quite cover everything. In fact, it's mostly just the west and north that it blocks off. The other dragons don't really like Battle's folk runnin' through their lands. 'Too rowdy.' Heh, as if they're any better."
Kael continued, "Then what stops someone from coming out elsewhere? We only came this way because it was closest. Going anywhere else would've added weeks to our trip, if not months."
The old timer nodded. "Yeah, there ain't nothing stopping you except the lands themselves. No barrier's needed across the chasm down to the south." He waved his hand in that direction. "No one wants to go near there, let alone cross it. And then south o' that's the Bottomless Sea, called that on account of it never running out, despite draining right into the chasm."
He continued listing places around the edges of the Dome, while Kael continued peppering the pursuing griffins with forceful drops in the distance, though it didn't seem to hinder them much, if at all.
"And the barrier don't need to be up in the east. Anyone it'd stop wouldn't survive the mountains anyway. And the ones that could, would just smash right through... Then there's Adventure's lands down south... eugh." He shook his head, as if casting off something distasteful.
Shaela spoke up again, "There's a Dragon of Adventure? That sounds better than 'Battle,' doesn't it?"
The old man spat, "It's a mess is what it is. That damn dragon just slams realms together, no rhyme nor reason to it beyond tellin' his stories. One day you're walking through the whistlin' canyons, enjoyin' the ambiance, then BAM." His fist came down on the bench next to him. "A great flood of water comes pourin' in, cuz' he decided it'd make a better river instead. Get out of there and suddenly the sky's green and you're in the midst of a tide of undead beasts pouring through the countryside because he thought it'd be fun."
His rant continued, "And the people that come out of there are the worst sort: so called 'heroes' and 'cultivators' going on about 'hidden realms,' and villains to defeat - not that those villains are ever dragon-shaped, nosiree - and their 'fair maidens' and 'jade beauties.' Think the world revolves around them, because when they were down there, it did. The dragon warped the world in their favor... Not worth the trip, let me tell ya."
Shaela blinked, repeatedly. Gus had zoned out for just a moment partway through, and when he tuned back in, felt he must've dozed off for minutes to have lost the thread so thoroughly.
Meanwhile, Kael noticed they were somehow now outpacing the griffins. Wait, no. They're slowing down? "They gave up?" He spoke aloud in his surprise.
Up front, the old man rubbed his nose with a haughty smirk on his face, having recovered his good cheer. "Not surprised. That'd be because this old man's a regular. They know there's no point in stopping me."
"Why's that?" Gus asked.
His chest puffed out. "I go where I please. Been doin' it for decades. Ain't no one can tell me not to go someplace. Soon as they saw my insignia they prob'ly turned right around." Now that he mentioned it, they had noticed a blue loop de loop painted across the top of the wagon's cover. Was he some kind of noble, then?
Before they knew it, the woods had ended, giving way to rolling hills, and the beginnings of farmland in the distance. With their pursuers gone, and the wilderness finally clearing up, the three of them fully relaxed.
Kael allowed the rain to dissipate above them, not having noticed any issue keeping pace despite the surprising speed of the cart. Now that he thought about it, the ride was also suspiciously smooth for how little cushion there seemed to be between them and the road. He attributed it to the man's facet, and decided he wanted to continue the conversation from up front, climbing onto the bench next to their driver after receiving permission.
"So it sounds like you've been all over the world?"
He nodded. "Mhmm. Just about everywhere. There's always something new to see."
"Have you been to the top of the Peak then? Where Battle watches over the continent."
"'Watches over.' Not sure I'd use those words, but yes. For as jealous as that dragon is, he's not the only one to have enjoyed those sights. Even the centurions meet only halfway to the top, but there've been a few who've gotten up there. He usually kills 'em afterward, but it's happened."
Kael re-evaluated the old man's strength, but pressed on with his questions.
"Then do the mountains in the east really go on forever?"
The man's head tilted back and forth. "Mmm, they go on for quite a ways, but nothin' goes on forever, not even those mountains. They do get harder 'n harder to pass through as you get further east, though. Goblins infest the mountains like termites, tunneling out entire cities in the rock. Can hardly take a step without trippin' over one of 'em, and until you learn the signs, it's hard to know if you're already neck deep in one of their kingdoms. In the meantime, giant bats and wyverns trade off rulership of the skies each night n' day."
Kael tried to picture it, getting hung up on one detail. "But don't bats use sound to hunt? It's why they like tunnels. How could they hear from way up in the sky?"
"Yer right, smart lad. Calling them bats might be a bit off-base, though they do use sound to hunt. They call 'em banshees over there, on account of their constant screeches at night, loud enough that avalanches ain't too rare either."
"Huh."
"And the goblins are some of the best engineers you'll find. Have to be, to survive out there. Hide their tunnels well, keep them sturdy enough to last through the shakes..."
The old man played with his beard as he continued. "If you head out that way, the best way through is trade. Cooperation. Offer them something, and you can buy your way straight through most of the mountains without having to deal with the cliffs, and sky terrors, and avalanches."
Kael nodded along, vowing to remember the advice. He decided to ask about other places while he had access to the knowledgeable old timer, as they came up on more farms in the distance.
"What about the inside of the Spire? Ever seen that?"
"Been there. It's overrated. Run by a rude furball. I prefer dogs, personally."
That seemed like a non-sequitur to Kael, but he accepted the opinion easily enough.
"What about the other continent, to the northwest. Boreas, it's called?"
"Yep, nice place. Violent though."
Kael tilted his head. "Even compared to the Dome?"
"'S a different kind of violence. Battle appreciates the ritual of it. Warriors clashing, fighting for their ideals, earning glory through combat of all sorts. And he doesn't let it get out of hand, or there'd be no one left to fight. Hah!" He stroked his beard as he continued. "Conquest does things differently... they play for keeps over there. Makes for a rough land. His empire's been expanding across the land for years, but his appetite is never sated. Though the Dragon of Games keeps things in check, most of the time."
"The Aspect of Games, huh? Not as bad as the Aspect of Adventure, then?"
"No, though that might be because Conquest is such an issue over there. And Boreas certainly has some pretty sights, but I'd keep yer distance from Conquest. Aspects... don't have a good time around him."
Kael nodded along, taking it for granted that the man knew he was an Aspect, since he was aware of how they broke through the barrier. He perked up, recalling a story his mother would tell him.
"Oh! They say the sky is painted at the north pole. That all sorts of colors dance across the sky. Is that actually true? Is it really amazing as they say?"
For some reason, the old man's smile weakened at that. "Pretty from a distance, aye."
"But not up close?"
"There is no getting close." His look darkened further, and he scratched at his beard. "No gettin' close to that one..."
He continued. "You get too close, and you'll think you see somethin' more beneath the lights." His look lightened, and he raised his hand as if cupping something in the distance.
"While yer eyes are near blinded by the endless snow and ice, naturally drawn to the sky's colors, you'll take easy notice of anything stickin' out of the white. Over the horizon, pillars! Cathedrals' peaks and spires, glinting in the light - too uniform to be natural. Looks almost like stone wrought by men's hands..."
He started tugging at his beard again. "'A city?' You'll think. 'Could there be people all the way up here, eking out a living? Thriving, even? What are they like, to have constructed wonders like these?'" Kael was fully absorbed in the story, and even Shaela and Gus had quieted down from their own conversation.
"But no..." His look grew solemn. "No... You keep going, the cold digs deeper into your bones with every step you take. 'S never quite enough to stop you, but it sticks to you. Reminds you where you are, tellin' you where yer not meant to be. You get close enough to make out more detail, you start to see signs that things ain't... quite... right."
His tugs became more violent. "How the spires curve just a tad, almost bent at the waist, 's if they're whispering secrets to each other. The colors above keep shifting, in that ceaseless motion, while you tell your eyes to stop playing tricks on you. Y'can make out more detail in the spires by now, and you notice: there's no gaps in the stone, no mortar; no glass in the windows - it ain't cathedrals, it's the walls themselves that glint like scales in the light."
Spit flew as he continued. "'N the windows are sizes too big - could stack two, three men and not reach end to end - yawning there like great, gaping maws. You look fer doors, to take shelter from the cold, only to finally notice that there are none. No way in 'cept to climb through. No way out except back through the endless white. The sky above dances faster and faster to a tune only you ain't privy to. Nothing is still but the white beneath your feet, but there's no way to be sure of that, neither - yer footprints are already gone behind you, wiped away if they were ever there at all. And the noise..." He paused to breathe. "Why, there's no noise at all." His hands finally stopped.
The trio waited for their hearts to slow, taking a moment to calm themselves, before Kael hesitantly spoke up. "And then what happened?"
The old man blinked, coming fully back to himself. "I left. No civilization there - no civilized folk. No 'wonders' but death." He spat. "You hear me, boy?"
He turned to Kael fully for the first time this trip, jabbing his finger in the boy's direction. "Nothing there for you - not for any mortal man. If'n you get the fool notion in your head to go up there and have a look for yourself, you see those colors peaking over the horizon, you appreciate them there, then you turn back. You understand?" His eyes pinned Kael in place, demanding a single answer.
"Yessir. I understand..."
"Good..." He nodded to himself, satisfied with Kael's answer. The world seemed to release its breath. "Good... Lots of lovely sights 'round this world. Plenty o' places to see..."
The trip continued, though none of them thought to ask where they were going.