CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE.

I felt oddly relaxed. Maybe the mounting pressure had just crossed a threshold of my ability to care or something. Possibly I'd cracked and would be having a full nervous breakdown later. For now, I was weightless and floating free of all—

*Flick*

"Rude," I muttered, rubbing my forehead and spinning away with the imparted momentum. Shani huffed with exasperation and shook her head.

"Ray. Why are you floating around my workspace like a depressing balloon?"

"Why depressing?" I asked, frowning as I flexed my will at the magic keeping me aloft and oriented myself so it looked like I was seated on the ceiling. She gave me a tired look and tugged pointedly at her shirt.

Oh yeah, victorian/goth style in midnight black.

"Point. And I don't know… first, it just never occurred to me that I could float around whenever I wanted to before now, and flying is fun. Second… I feel like despite everything, I'm getting better somehow. Like there's less weight on my shoulders."

"I see. And you've decided to express this lack of metaphorical weight by using your magic to become literally weightless. In my workshop."

I paused, rubbing my chin thoughtfully while sinking back down to the floor and sitting cross-legged.

"You know, it sounds less profound when you say it out loud like that. I'll have to work on my poetic expression."

Shani giggled and rolled her eyes, returning the slightly goofy grin that took over my face. It felt good to see her happy, and the fact that she didn’t seem angry with me after I explained everything was a huge relief.

Too bad she's so busy working on the ship lately… hmm…

"Maybe I can help you? If my 'depressing balloon' impression isn't enough for moral support." I offered.

Shani arched her eyebrows skeptically, looking pointedly around the dizzying array of tools and parts scattered all over the room.

"Ray, do you know anything about aetheric engineering?"

"Uh… I can still help. Maybe I could just lift stuff or hand you things."

The skeptical look remained firmly in place, now joined by a knowing smirk.

"Alright. Hand me the number twenty relief valve and the replacement thaumic capacitor please?"

The smile on my face quickly grew strained as I came to the realization she was aiming for.

Yep, I have absolutely no idea what those are.

"Ah."

A flick of her wrist sent a burst of energy through the air that quickly drew the requested parts to her hand, demonstrating a distinct lack of need for a 'go-fer' in her workspace. Seeing my somewhat dejected look, she laughed and set the parts down before walking over to me and flopping down into my lap. An expectant look was enough of a clue for me and with another small burst of magic we were floating towards the ceiling. Shani looked around primly and nodded.

“This is nice, I’m glad I thought of it.” She said with faux haughtiness.

“So magnanimous. I’m glad you approve.” I replied dryly. She swatted my arm playfully and snuggled into my chest, leaning her head on my shoulder as we floated quietly for a few minutes. The urge to speak eventually interrupted the peaceful moment, and I frowned in mild discomfort. Hesitant to push my luck, I still felt the need to make sure things were okay between us.

“So you’re really not mad?”

The brunette sighed and shook her head against my shoulder.

“No, Ray. I’m not so insecure that I can’t handle you so much as interacting with other women. I was only jealous before because of that creepy shaman and the little cult he’s running for you. He gives me a very unpleasant feeling and I’m certain there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to pull you in closer to them— including tossing every girl in the flotilla your way. It’s one thing to just have another woman around you, and something completely different to have direct, overt competition like that. Even if I do feel sorry for them and understand why they’re so desperate, that doesn’t mean I’m willing to turn this— us— into a harem just so they feel better.”

“I understand,” I said, nodding thoughtfully. “Thank you for trusting me.”

She snorted and leaned back incredulously.

"Ray, you've already shown me a lot of trust. Probably a little too much trust by most standards, given how long we've known each other."

I felt my cheeks heat up at the reminder of how I'd basically blurted out my life story after knowing Shani for all of a week, but she cut off my apology before it could begin by tapping my lips with a dainty finger.

"Shush. You're cute, so I'll forgive you. Besides, it gave me a better idea of what I was getting into, and I made my own decisions based on that. If you can trust me with your world-shaking, life-altering, paradigm-shifting secret past, then I can trust you with this."

She leaned in and kissed me so hard I almost forgot how to keep us floating, wrapping her arms over my shoulders and pulling herself in close. I kept my arms right around her waist, my heart trying to hammer out of my chest as the kiss intensified. She broke off with a quiet gasp, but we stayed close together with our foreheads touching, both of us struggling to get our breathing under control.

Wow.

Shani chuckled breathlessly.

"I'm not worried about some other girl. You are mine."

The possessive note in her voice did some awesome things for me, and I was more than a little disappointed when she leaned back out of reach again. Casually tucking some loose hair behind her ear in a very distracting way, she spoke in a too-nonchalant tone.

"So, what does she look like?"

Uh-oh.

"Uh, Lyr'Rael is… blond?" I stuttered out, my brain trying frantically to get working again after that kiss. Shani's eyes narrowed dangerously, and I'd swear the temperature of the room increased just a little bit.

"She's pretty, isn't she?"

"Uh, I mean, yes but that's not—"

"Break my heart and you are fried."

I cleared my throat and chuckled nervously.

"I would never—"

She kissed me again, and I forgot what I was going to say.

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It took two days to get all the ships retrofitted with the new core parts. Two days, during which we didn't so much as hear a single monster in the ever-present fog. The dead stillness of it all reminded me unpleasantly of the lead-up to the attack that had crippled the caravan to begin with, and I wasn't the only one to draw up that connection.

The crew were tense and on edge; pushing frantically to complete the repairs while we all quietly watched the resonance on the bridge's imager grow stronger. A doomsday clock was ticking down, but none of us could actually see where it ended. We just knew it was coming.

So when the Duchess finally fired up (literally shooting a twelve-meter column of flame from the main smokestack) the crew let out a ragged cheer. The rest of the caravan soon followed, and soon the wail of steam-whistles announced we were back on the move.

Nervously, I stood at the forward observation deck, periodically summoning the [Baleful Star] to make sure we weren't heading into an ambush again. The glyph had morphed with repeated use— the villager's soul merging more fully with it and shifting from a burning outline of my [Cosmos] rune into a cross between a sunburst and the eye of Sauron.

I was definitely a fan, although I couldn't look at the spell without seeing the soul lingering in it. It was clearly my most effective attack spell so I couldn't afford not to use it but… reaching out to the spell flooded me with a sense of malicious glee and wanton sadism. It wanted to inflict suffering for the sake of suffering. The spell joyfully searched the murky swamp and actively hoped it would find something just to make it burn.

Part of me wondered if the emotional aspect of the spell had come from the stray soul, or my own mindset when I created it. I didn't like to think I was the kind of person who'd pull the wings off flies just to watch them squirm, but when I thought of Dezzahn… was there anything that was too far?

My fist clenched around the vial of his essence in my pocket. It was almost an obsession at this point— my hands constantly darting to my pockets just to check. I couldn't let it out of arm's reach. Just the knowledge of what it was and what it meant…

I will find you Dezzahn. And I will kill you.

Sighing in frustration, I let the spell dissipate, having found absolutely nothing for the umpteenth time. At the rate I was going, it wouldn't be long until I felt the scraped-raw sensation of mana burn again, and I could at least try to keep my word to the doctor.

"Baines? A word." Teadran's voice came from the open hatch of the observation deck, surprising me. Wordlessly, I nodded and stepped into the corridor after him.

"The pulse is getting stronger." He stated grimly as we walked. "We've fought some nasty beasts in the years I've been captain, and we certainly won't shy away from a fight. But once something gets to a certain level we have an entirely different policy— run."

I followed him into his cabin, and he pulled out a topographic map of the area before spreading it out over his desk.

"The problem being that we have nowhere to run to." He said, jabbing his finger down at the map. "Here is where we are. It's a relatively narrow corridor of passable land through the swamp. To the west and south is one of the Telm rivers, and crossing here would be all but impossible. To the southeast is where we came from, and to the east directly is Champion's Folly. We're skirting it as best we can, but the pit is damned huge and we'll be forced closer before we can cut back to the north. In another two days straight north at our current pace, we'll be in Terland."

The captain drew a line across the map with his finger, showing the projected route of the caravan.

"Once we cross that border, I don't care if the gods themselves are after us. Nothing gets past the Terland border guard. We cross this ridgeline—" he gestured at a spot in question, "—and we're safe, do you understand?"

I nodded unsurely.

"Yeah, I get it, but I'm not sure why you're telling me this now?"

Teadran sighed heavily, rubbing at his temples with one hand.

"We'll give it everything we've got, but a man has to be prepared for the worst. Even with the new parts we aren’t running at full strength, and despite the power we can bring to bear… There are some things you can’t beat with cannons and spellfire."

He paused, the silence in the room growing heavy before he continued.

"If I give the order for general evacuation, I want you to take Esshani and fly across the border with every ounce of speed you can wring from your body."

Immediately, I shook my head.

"She'll never agree to that. She won't abandon this ship while there's still people on it."

"I know. If it comes down to it, I'll handle things with her. All I need from you is your word that— if the time comes— you'll get her out. Do you understand?"

—you will run away—

I flinched back involuntarily as the memory of my most recent nightmare echoed in my mind.

"I won't leave. I won't run." I blurted out defensively, the need to deny even the idea of running away again completely overwhelmed me.

"Damn it, boy!" Teadran slammed a fist onto his desk. "This isn't about you. This is—"

A screeching alarm interrupted him, the lights across the ship switching to a strobing blood-red. Without another word, the captain sprinted out of the room and I followed quickly after, shaking off the confrontation as best I could while we ran to the bridge. I took a single look at the chaos occurring inside before resolving to just stay out of the way, but my eyes were drawn inevitably to the resonance imager.

The pulse of energy approaching us was gone. In its place was a coruscating pillar of power that warped the surface of the table with every movement, and it was still getting bigger.

Is it him? Is he here?

I clutched at the vial in my pocket, but there was no response. Suddenly, I had to see with my own eyes. I had to know what was coming. So I left for the observation deck as fast as I could, sprinting past frantic crewmen running to their stations as calls sounded from the speakers throughout the ship. When I got to the observation deck, I saw something that confused me at first.

The fog was moving.

Slowly at first, but picking up speed with every second, it was flowing away to the east. In moments it was a rushing torrent of wind and mist that swept across the caravan in a howling gale. It wasn't long at all before— for the first time since we'd left Delmoth— the ever-present fog had completely vanished, revealing the dreary swamp all around us all the way to the horizon. But I still couldn't see the creature causing all this.

Growling in frustration, I poured mana into my [Flight] spell and pushed myself up into the air as high as I dared. Following the streams of mist with my eyes, I got my first look at Champion's Folly… and the pit to the Deep Hollows it was built around.

The city's ruins weren't particularly impressive— a few centuries of swamp overgrowth and decay meant there was very little actually left other than the vague outline of structures. But the pit… that was something else.

A perfectly circular hole in the ground, it was nearly three kilometers across and stretched impossibly deep. The sides of the pit were ragged and pockmarked with caves that I could barely make out through the rushing mists being pulled down into the depths.

Once the pit had swallowed all the fog in the area, everything seemed to freeze, as if the world was taking a deep, bracing breath. Then the pit erupted with cataclysmic force.

The blast sent me tumbling through the air, spinning head-over-heels while I fought to stabilize myself. When I finally managed to get back upright, it looked like a volcano had erupted from where the pit had previously been visible. The city ruins had been utterly flattened, and the whole area had been cast under the shadow of a titanic eruption cloud that spun violently in place like the world's biggest tornado— the details only visible because of the sheer scale. The top of the cloud spread unnaturally fast, and soon it was like we'd traded the previous layer of fog for a truly horrific thunderstorm.

"What the hell is this!?" I shouted to no one in particular, struggling to wrap my head around the enormity of the events happening. Cutting the magic keeping me aloft, I dived back down to the caravan and swept across, checking for damage or anyone who'd been thrown clear by the blast. I didn't see anything concerning, but the observation deck I'd launched from was now crowded with people as I pulled in close. Frantic waving caught my attention, and I saw that Nezzick had somehow made his way aboard the Duchess.

"Great One!" He shouted. "We must flee! That is—"

A colossal scream, like an eagle's cry but magnified thousands of times, shook the air around us. The volume of it blurred my vision and set my ears ringing painfully. When it ended, my eyes shot back to the pillar of clouds rising from the pit.

A pair of shapes slowly spread from the heart of the vortex, my brain refusing to accept the sight for what it was until they fully extended. Wings— enormous, stretching fully the width of the pit below. Grey feathers trailed streamers of mist like cobwebs caught in the wind, dragging the pillar apart to reveal a coiled, serpentine body. It was legless, covered in jade-green scales that seemed to glow with inner light. A feathered crest fanned out from behind a lizard-like head and an open mouth with far too many teeth. It would have actually been beautiful, except for one final detail.

[Blight] poured from the creature's ruined eyes like twin waterfalls of black pus.

It's infested.

It wasn't Dezzahn himself, but as a familiar blanket of pressure stamped itself on all of us like a lead blanket, I couldn't help but wonder if it even mattered.

"Telm… An'Kaa…" I heard the old shaman whimper from the deck once my ears stopped ringing. "King… of all Rivers…"

Like the words were a magnet, I felt the enormous monster's attention hit us with burning intensity, and I felt every half-formed plan I’d made go up in smoke.