The shadow sword Avram had gifted Konrad vanished, and he sprinted through the island. There was a press of elves at the entrance to the great domed arcanists' conservatory, and he pushed roughly through them.
Malan stood at the open door of the cage that held Issie, and he wore a sad frown. Issie was a small figure in the dark corner of the cell, her knees drawn up and her face hidden in her arms. Her body heaved gently as she sobbed. Her hair was brown, and she was skinnier than before and less athletic.
"Issie, what’s wrong?" Konrad asked.
Her round face was puffy and red, and when she looked up, she was shivering, pale, and sickly.
"What do you think?" she sobbed. "I told you what would happen. You did this."
So she had been cut off, just as Avram had said. Konrad felt the guilt swirling around in his stomach. He hadn’t wanted this, but what alternative was there? He had tried to help her, given her multiple opportunities to work together.
"I’m sorry," Konrad mumbled. It wasn't enough, but what more was there to say?
"We're going to let her go," Malan said, taking Konrad by the arm and gently leading him away from the cage.
"What about the idol? Did you get it back from her?"
"The idol is safe with us; you saw me present it to everyone."
"No, the real idol, the one that she stole."
"She stole a piece of gold, the real idol is the one you saw," Malan repeated.
"Gettit, dummy?" Harper added.
The elves departed, leaving Konrad and Issie alone; the cut-off champion just sitting against the back wall of the cell, rocking slowly.
"The island is going to move tomorrow; the elves have worked out the mechanism. They want to make it out into the ocean before the other archanists arrive," Konrad explained.
Issie didn't give any indication that she had heard him at all.
"We are going with them, then Odred says that they can help us to slip away before they arrive."
Konrad waited for any sign that the girl would acknowledge him, but she remained still, her face buried in her crossed arms.
"You can come with us if you like," Konrad offered.
"Get out, I never want to see you again," Issie whispered.
Konrad backed out and made his way back to his companions, who were still celebrating their successes. He returned in the morning, but the cell was empty.
-
"You’re sure they won’t be able to see us?" Briarstone said, casting a doubtful glance at Odred.
The arcanist elves were all crowded onto the main deck of Elena, prodding and pulling at everything while Briarstone moved among them slapping their hands away.
The elves had promised to make them invisible so that they could escape undetected as the flying citadels approached, but Konrad could understand Briarstone's concern; to him, Elena was as visible as she had always been.
"That’s how illusions work; how good would you be at sailing an invisible ship?" Odred snapped at Briarstone.
"I just thought it might be, you know, fuzzy," the old sailor replied, waving his hand vaguely at the mast.
"It’ll wear off, but you’ll have more than enough time to get away. We are all much better at magic now," Odred replied.
That was an understatement. The island citadel of Mir had been piloted through the seas overnight and now sat right under one of the magical ley-lines that flowed throughout the continents. Konrad didn’t really understand it fully, but the map in the Hedron chamber clearly showed the flow of magical energy curving around the continent.
The effect of the magic on the elven mages and Serena had been undeniable.
The whole citadel had been magically cleaned of the green sludge and mud and now glimmered more brightly than the shimmering sea around them. Serena had been wide eyed since they had arrived, and at one point she had stood near the ocean and lifted her arms, sending a thunderous wave out towards the continent just to test the limits of what she could do.
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Renau lifted his hand to shade his eyes and gazed back towards Parthanea. "I think I can see them."
Konrad could see them too, the flying citadels of the arcanists, come to confront the elf custodians of Mir.
"Are you sure you’re going to be okay?" Serena asked Malan.
The young elf tapped his temple. "We will be fine. Our power matches theirs at a ley-line, so they will have to come to an agreement with us. Thank you for your concern. Before you go, I have something for you."
Serena’s look of surprise quickly turned to a smile. "You don’t have to give me anything, really, just being here to experience this kind of power is amazing."
"My gift is more powerful than anything you have seen here," Malan continued, beckoning Serena to come closer.
"What is it?" Serena asked.
"Harpers true name."
The imp immediately screeched, flapping into the air and aiming straight for Malan, but the boy was too quick and whispered something to Serena before he could get there.
"Nice name," Serena said, laughing at the horrified look on Harper’s face.
"Piss off," Harper replied, settling down on Malan’s shoulder.
"I’ll be back one day; goodbye, Malan," Serena said, and she made her way onto the ship.
Malan seemed like he was going to say something to Konrad, but Harper leaned down and hissed something in his ear. The elf snapped at the imp, and for the first time, Konrad sensed that the young seer was angry at his fiendish companion.
Harper gave a final retort and took to the sky, flapping away on his small, tattered, leathery wings.
"What was that all about?" Konrad asked.
Malan gave Konrad the faraway look he had become used to. "Harper prefers not to meddle, but I wanted to share something with you. Do you know that I cannot see you in the fates? There is a Konrad sized hole, so I can guess where you should be, but I cannot see where you will be. I hope that makes sense."
"Not really," Konrad replied truthfully.
"This Konrad-shaped hole sits on a single thread of fate, a very small one, smaller even than the one that delivered you here and saved the island. This in itself is not very strange; there are lots of threads, but this one is untouched; no one seems to have seen it; no one is playing with it, tangling it, or wearing it out through plucking, molding, and pulling. This one is clean and clear."
"Why has no one touched it?" Konrad asked.
"Perhaps because there’s no one on it, but there is a hole where someone should be."
Briarstone yelled from the deck of the ship, and Konrad bade a hurried farewell to Malan and jumped on board as the flying citadel of Volos moved over the ocean towards them.
The waves were undisturbed by its passing, and seabirds squawked loudly and circled high on the air currents created by this strange new land mass that had appeared in their feeding grounds.
Elena slipped away from the quayside as the shadow of Volos fell across the glimmering city of Mir. Konrad and his companions gathered on the deck of the ship, gazing up in silent wonder as they passed beneath the underbelly of the citadel. Great gouges scarred the rock, as if it had been clawed out by some ancient titan, and chains of bright light flickered across the surface, whispers of the incredible magic that powered its flight.
The group gave a collective sigh of relief as they passed out undetected into the wide ocean. For better or worse, they had done all they could for the elven arcanists of Mir, and now they sailed on to the Lost Coast.
-
The night sky was cloudless, and the blanket of stars in the sky were reflected dully on the still ocean. The harbor of the fishing village they had stopped at was so small that Elena had to weigh anchor further out and the small rowboat that would take Serena and Pääbo to the shore was lowered into the water below with a splash.
Pääbo shook Konrad's hand warmly, his honest face beaming with pleasure. "That was quite an adventure, Konrad; who would have thought that we would have seen each other again, and in a mythical city no less. I wonder if I’ll wake up tomorrow in Humpbert in my little forge and this will all have been a dream."
"I know what you mean," Konrad replied. He often felt as though his previous life in Fallow Vale had been lived entirely by someone else.
Pääbo looked around carefully, and seeing no one within earshot, he lowered his voice. "Listen, I wasn’t really honest with you back when we first met. I didn’t know you from a bent nail after all. You asked me about Cloda, and I see that ring you’re wearing there."
Konrad had not forgotten about the ring; it had been on his finger since he fled to the north with Rolo, turned around so that the white stone faced inwards. It represented one of the promises he had made and was determined to honor.
"Do you know something about cloda?" Konrad asked.
"All I know is that we don’t talk about it, but if you want to know any more, then you’ll have to go east a ways, right up past the mountains, to the dwarven city of Burly. When you get there, you’ll need to find a dwarf called Stendhal. She is the keeper of the dwarven histories. It might be a job to get to see her, but if you just show them that ring and tell them Pääbo sent you, you should be okay."
"Can you tell me anything, about Cloda or Elu?"
The dwarf gave Konrad an apologetic look. "There are rules about the histories; I can’t tell you any more. Just go and find Stendhal."
"Thanks, Pääbo. Good luck."
The dwarf climbed down the ladder, and Serena stepped forward and gave Konrad a warm hug. "I’m going to miss traveling with you. We’ve had some grand adventures, but I somehow feel that yours are just beginning."
"You could come with me?" Konrad suggested.
"I have my own adventures now, my own quests to finish."
"Is that why you need Pääbo?"
Over the last week, Konrad had seen Serena and Pääbo talking late into the night, studying some of the small notebooks Serena carried with her.
The witch placed her hands on her hips. "You are persistent, but as I have told you—"
"It’s the secret of witches," Konrad said, imitating her stance.
Serena failed to keep her stern expression, and her eyes danced with amusement.
"I have a gift for you that might help with the secret of witches," Konrad continued, pulling the remainder of the Linium spool from his pack and placing it in Serena’s hand. "Malan gave me this, but I think it was meant for you. Whatever you are planning with Pääbo, I think you’ll need it."
A tear welled up in the witch's eye, and she clasped the spool of the precious metal, giving Konrad another hug. "Thank you," she whispered stepping back and smoothing her dress before waving farewell to Renau and Briarstone and climbing down the ladder after Pääbo.
Fallow Vale had by far been the hardest goodbye Konrad had endured during his adventures, but this was a close second. Serena had been a wonderful companion, full of compassion tempered with an iron resolve that had helped him through the hardest parts of his journey as a champion.
Now it was Konrad, Spirit, Reanu and Briarstone who journeyed on to Portia on the Last Coast. When they arrived, it would be Konrad and Spirit who would be leaving. The mysteries that lay in the east called to him.