Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-One - Fast Travel

I entered the mage’s guild with wide-eyes and a smile so big my cheeks were hurting. The place was incredible, with floating banisters, lights that hovered a few centimeters from the ceiling and a large desk made of some sort of still-living tree taking up the middle of the room.

It felt like I had stepped into Hogwarts.

Amaryllis, the party pooper, didn’t even gawk. She just walked straight up to the front desk and nodded to the young man with a plain wizard’s cape behind it. “We’re here for an appointment with Magister Dupuis,” she said.

I spun around. There were big portraits above the entrance, each of a man or woman in elaborate robes and with complicated hats.

“Broccoli!” Amaryllis was waiting by the side of a spiral staircase, Awen by her side, and her talons on her hips. “If you want to walk all the way over to the Fort then you’re more than welcome to stay,” she said.

“Right! Coming.”

Up the stairs we went, and then down a short corridor and into a large wood-panelled room. The walls were covered in ticking clocks with the names of cities on plaques next to them, and a spot in the middle of the room was cleared of anything except a wooden dais.

A man was reading from a large tome off to one side, with a pointy-brimmed hat on his head held in place by a pretty red ribbon tied in a bow under his bearded chin.

He turned our way, intelligent eyes scanning over us before he smiled. “Ah, Miss Amaryllis! And these must be your friends. Hello!”

“Hello Magister,” Amaryllis said. “We’re here for our appointment.”

“I assumed as much,” the man said with a chuckle. “I doubt you’re here for my conversational abilities!”

“I wouldn’t mind talking,” I said.

The magister barked a laugh. “You’re too kind, then. Not too nervous about teleporting?”

I shook my head. “No way! I’m super excited. What’s it like? Will I vomit when we reach the other end? Or see eldritch monsters if I keep my eyes open when we move?”

He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I’ve got the Teleport skill, which means that this should all be quite smooth and easy. I do have some advice, if you’ll hear it.”

I nodded. “Of course, you’re the expert.”

His grin grew. “Nothing too complicated. Hold onto each other when we teleport, bend your knees just a bit, and keep your eyes closed.”

“Because if I don’t close them I’ll be catching glimpses of the unknowable horrors between time and space?” I asked.

“It’s more like the difference in lighting can hurt your eyesight. Plus Fort Sylphrot can be quite the windy place. You might also want to make sure all of your equipment is on tight, just in case.”

I was a bit disappointed, but I nodded all the same and made sure my hat was on nice and tight. “Will do,” I said. “Why do we need to bend our knees?”

“I tend to prefer teleporting in a handspan over the ground. Which means a bit of a drop on arrival. It can be jarring if you’re standing tall and straight. I once had an entire group of soldiers fall onto their backs on arriving. Terribly embarrassing.”

I gave him a thumbs-up. “I got it,” I said. “Is that all we need to do?”

“Well, there’s the delicate matter of payment....”

Amaryllis was quick to pull a page from her ring. In no time at all, a small pouch that clinked of gold was handed over to the wizard who stashed it away in a little vault.

The magister brought us over to the large dais off to the side, then he did something on a panel sticking out of its side that made the platform shift just a tiny bit. “This adjusts the level on which we stand. See, Dirt is actually round, so you need to stand at an angle where, upon arriving, you won’t fall flat on your face. Of course Fort Sylphrot isn’t terribly far, so it’s barely noticeable. Ahh, is that cat a familiar?”

I blinked and looked down to Orange who was winding her way around Awen’s ankles. “Oh, that’s Orange, she’s my spirit kitten,” I said.

“Might want to unsummon her then,” he said. “Or you can try holding onto her. Spirit animals tend to do as they please.”

I picked Orange up and hugged her close. She must have been in a good mood because she didn’t fight me off or anything. “I think we’re ready,” I said.

“Wonderful! Get closer now, yes that’s right. You’ll want to link arms, just like at a formal.” The magister directed us close together, Amaryllis on my right, Awen on my left, and then we all linked arms. It was a bit awkward, but not too bad. “Very well, now close your eyes....”

I shut my eyes as tight as I could.

And then a cold breeze was slipping past my legs and face a moment before I dropped no more than a couple of centimeters. The quiet tick-tocking of Magister Dupuis’ room was replaced by the murmur of a crowd, broken by the occasional whistle and the distant chug of airship engines.

“You can look around, we’ve arrived,” the Magister said.

I blinked a few times and took in the form of a huge wall and the top of a large mountain. We were just outside a city, standing on a white-brick courtyard next to a gatehouse. I hugged Orange close, but the kitty wiggled out of my grasp and climbed onto my shoulder.

Behind us was a gorgeous scene, mountain tops rising up to a cloudy sky, and beyond them a grassy flatland for as far as the eyes could see. In the other direction were more mountains, peaks and jagged sides rising up way above us to touch the sky.

“Welcome to Fort Sylphrot,” the Magister said. “I’m afraid this is where we part ways.” the wizard bowed. “Thank you for using the Mages Guild’s services this afternoon. I wish you ladies the finest of days.”

“Ah, thank you,” I said.

“Indeed, thank you, Magister Dupuis,” Amaryllis said.

Awen murmured her own thanks to the man a moment before he disappeared without so much as a ‘zorp.’

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Grinning from ear to ear, I took a deep breath of thin, cold air and turned back to the walls of the fort. They were tall, made of shaped stones that were the same colour as all the mountains around us. “So, this is Fort Sylphrot?” I asked.

“It is,” Amaryllis said. She looked caught between being glad she was back home and a strange form of melancholy, so I pulled her into a sidelong hug. “Get off me,” she said. “The guards are looking our way.” She might have been complaining, but she wasn’t doing anything to push me off.

“It’ll be okay,” I said. “Awen and I are with you!”

“Aw, we are,” Awen said.

Amaryllis huffed and began stomping her way over to the gate.

There weren’t all that many guards there, nor were there any carts or anything leading up to the gates. I guessed that being halfway up a mountain in the middle of a range kind of made carrying stuff overland complicated.

We moved over to the gate where the guards saluted us. “Greetings,” one of them said. I hadn’t seen that many harpies since coming to Dirt. Sure, I’d spent a lot of time with Amaryllis, but that was about it. The guards were some of the first boy harpies I saw.

The one that had spoken looked a bit older than the rest, with a few of his feathers looking a bit dull and worn along his arms and head. He wore a thickly padded gambeson, but no metal armour. I supposed that it made sense that harpies in general would want to avoid heavier armour if they were able to fly.

“Hello,” Amaryllis said. “Can we enter or will there be trouble?” Amaryllis asked.

“Uh,” the guard said. “We’ll need to see your passes,” he said. “Just as a matter of security.”

Amaryllis huffed and pulled a page from her ring. A moment later--after using the wall as a table--she had a little booklet in hand which she passed to the guard. I noticed that the pages all had tabs on them, probably to make it easier for someone with talons to sift through it.

The guard stood taller and his head feathers puffed out a bit. “Miss Albatross, ah, forgive me, ma’am. I didn’t recognize you.”

Amaryllis waved the comment off. “I’ve been away for a bit. We’re heading straight to my estates, all three of us. Is that well?”

“Of course ma’am,” the guard said as he gave her back the booklet. “Welcome home.”

Amaryllis huffed and walked past the guards, so it fell onto me to thank them for all of their hard work, at least until Amaryllis started tugging at my collar.

We paused just beyond the gate, Amaryllis turning to face me with her talons on both of my shoulders. “Okay. Let’s get this over with right away. We’re going to walk over to my family’s estates. Between here and there, please try to get all of your gawking and country bumpkin-ing done within one fell swoop. I’ll grudgingly play the tour guide for you.”

“You have tour guides?” I asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Fort Sylphrot is second only to the capital in terms of importance. More so, if you take into account its strategic value.”

I nodded, then, finally, took some time to look around.

The entire city felt a little small, with a footprint that was much tighter than Port Royal. But unlike the chaotically organic Port Royal, Fort Slyphrot was built vertically. Hardly any of the buildings I could see were shorter than four stories, with some reaching six or seven. There were stairwells all over, and large balconies overlooking the tight streets below.

The vast majority of the people moving about were harpy, but there was the occasional human and even the rare grenoil milling in the crowd. A crowd that was surprisingly colourful. Most of the people walking by had clothes in dull colours, browns and greys, but their plumage made up for it. From bright, canary yellow, to peacock-like feathers atop the head of groups of young men.

I couldn’t pin the kinds of birds most of the harpy were like, though some were rather obvious. Wide-eyed owl-harpy salesmen were hawking food with loud hoots and a few dark-feathered crow harpy were preaching from a street corner.

The food stalls were filling the air with the scent of freshly cooked meats and breads, which was nice because the stench of bird poop would have been overwhelming otherwise.

Above us, younger harpies were skipping from roof to roof with cheerful whistles, completely ignoring the no doubt lethal fall below them.

“This place is so alive!” I cheered.

Amaryllis trilled, her chest puffing out with pride. “Of course it is. The Nesting Kingdom is one of, if not the, greatest kingdom on all of Dirt.”

I decided not to poke at her patriotic bubble, not when she seemed so happy. “Are you going to show us around? What kind of food do they have here? Oh, are there any special armours and weapons for sale? What about the airships? Your family is big on those.... Can we do some window shopping? Is it called window shopping when you’re shopping for an entire ship?”

Amaryllis scoffed. “I’m certain we can squeeze some time for all of that later. Come on, there are a few things I’d like to show you.”

“What sort of things?” I asked.

Instead of answering me, Amaryllis turned to Awen who was being quiet and demure while also taking in everything around her. “Have you ever been to a proper bath house, Awen?”

“I have,” Awen said with a nod. “They are quite popular in Mattergrove, and Greenshade has a few for the noble ladies. Um. It’s a place to trade gossip, mostly. We always took a bath at home before and after.”

Amaryllis snorted. “Well, I’ll show you a proper bath house later. You too, Broccoli.”

“I’m pretty clean,” I pointed out.

“You wore the same underthings for far, far too long. You might be clean, but that doesn’t mean you’re clean.”

I blinked at that. “Uh.”

“Oh, nevermind. Come. We’ll stop by my house first. If the world is kind to us we’ll manage to avoid meeting anyone from my family until later.”

***