Corrin stared blankly at the top of the grass passing lazily below. His feet hung off the edge, still a good ten feet from the sea. The slow, rhythmic motion of the veldstrider as it moved through the grass was almost hypnotic.
“Ughhhhh.” He tilted his head back and let out a long groan. Only three weeks into their voyage across the sea and he was really starting to go stir crazy. His fascination with The Grass Sea had long since worn off as they drifted in the endless grass with nothing to do. With the caravan, he’d been able to run around, spar with Wyn, and go off into the wilderness to explore almost whenever he wanted, but the veldstriders were an entirely different story.
“Will you shut up?”
“We get it, you’re bored.”
Kei and Wyn’s voices grumbled back at him. They too were sitting on the edge of the saddle watching the sea roll by, though they seemed much more comfortable with the whole experience.
It was just so boring. Sometimes Siensa would stop to eat or rest, and sometimes they’d have to go around known hunting grounds, patches of grassward, or the large flat-top trees, but that being the extent of the daily excitement wasn’t enough for Corrin. Even the monster attacks had become mundane, few were dangerous enough to challenge him and Wyn. Not even the fizzy fruit they harvested from the occasional island was enough to save him.
Fine, I’ll go figure something out.
Corrin stood up and started walking around on the back of the enormous creature. It wasn’t big enough for him to run, and the saddle had a lip at the edges to prevent people from falling off, but its shell was still large enough to comfortably hold their small group. Even if they had twice as many it would’ve been fine.
As he paced, he started channeling his mana to help take his mind off of things, it wasn’t as effective as sitting, but it was still something. Of course, that let another bit of frustration slip past his guard–since escaping the dungeon, he hadn’t actually made that much progress in his abilities. It was getting easier to control, and the rate at which he could cycle it through his body, or move it to a point had gotten faster, but the gains were marginal at best.
The damn demon had made it seem like it was some great power, but other than making himself stronger and faster, Corrin had no idea what he was supposed to do with it. He knew there must be more to it, and he had a feeling that the trick lay in getting it out of his body. The fact it existed in the air meant it could exist outside him, but any attempt to do so just ended with his channels cramping and him landing on his face.
If he could find anyone else that could do the things he could do, maybe that would change, but as it was, he was stuck. The strongest mages and channelers from Precipice had been gone, and those that were left didn’t know much more than he did. He thought back on the spirit knight in the forest, with burning white flames, or even Sam the mage in Precipice, with his invisible force spell. He knew there was more to mana, if only he could understand how to harness it…
His thoughts were interrupted by a commotion at the front of the strider. A large bird, with gray and brown feathers had landed on the saddle. It had a small leather bag hanging from its neck, and seemed completely comfortable with the people around it. Ven got up from his seat and walked over to it. He seemed unfazed by the sudden arrival, though he did seem a tad curious.
“A message? Why thank you my feathered friend.” He held out a hand filled with some feed and the bird ate from it happily while he pulled a piece of paper from the pouch.
After pouring the feed from his hand into a bowl–seemingly prepared just for this purpose–Ven began to read the message. As he read, his expression grew a bit darker before finally settling on a look of annoyance, which was matched by the clicking of his tongue after finishing.
By the time he had finished, the three of them had gathered around, waiting anxiously for his response.
“We can get messages by hawk?” Wyn remarked, a bit surprised.
“Smarter birds are trained for deliveries to striders,” Ven explained. “These ones will fly in the miles surrounding a perch and ensure the message is received by bringing it straight to the strider.”
“What does it say?” Corrin asked.
Ven sighed. “It seems we will need to take a detour, an area ahead on our path has been declared as too dangerous.” There was a slight shaking in his tone that Corirn couldn’t place.
“A detour?” Kei spoke up, “How long of one?”
“At a guess, the total will be a week or two lost to recharting and getting around it. We’ll stop at the nearest town to resupply and rechart our route.”
“This area is more dangerous than the rootlurker?” Wyn raised an eyebrow.
“Aye,” Ven nodded. “Much more so.”
“Well? What’s up there?” Corrin prodded.
“A–” Ven paused, his fist clenching around the letter. “A colossus showed up in the area. Since its exact location is unknown, a hundred mile perimeter has been set up around its last known location.”
Corrin felt a chill. Even in Straetum they’d heard of the colossi: giant creatures which would occasionally spring up throughout the continent, wiping out entire towns and even cities on their own.
“Well… there’s no choice then,” Kei said. “We should be able to afford the delay, not that it would matter if we couldn’t. Corrin, why do you look so upset?”
Wyn smirked. “He just wants to see the colossus.”
“Just from a distance…” Corrin coughed.
“Idiot.”
“Hey I’m not pressing the issue am I?” Corrin protested.
“Be grateful.” Ven’s voice was quiet. “Going to see a colossus is to forfeit your life. If you see one and survive, you should consider yourself lucky.”
“The way you say that… have you seen one?”
Ven laughed once. “I saw its leg, crushing my village underfoot like a child stepping on an anthill. It smashed through wood and stone as if they were no more than dry leaves. Whether it was luck, fate, or the spirits that saved my family that day, I do not know. Even twenty years later, I can still remember the sounds of its rampage behind us as we ran through the woods.”
As he spoke, he got a faraway look in his eyes, like he wasn’t quite with them. It wasn’t the first time Corrin had seen that look, but it was as unsettling as always.
“Twenty years…” Kei gasped. “You couldn’t mean the Colossus of the South could you?”
Ven nodded. “Aye. It was a long time ago, and I was young. That is perhaps the only memory I have left of Aleris.”
“What’s The Colossus of the South?” Corrin asked. He’d never heard of it.
“The Colossus of the South appeared in the kingdom of Aleris twenty years ago.” Kei answered, her voice serious. “Only a month later, the entire kingdom lay in ruin. I’ve heard people say fire rained from the sky, and people burned in the streets of the capital as they tried to escape, I couldn’t say how much of that is fiction though. What I do know is that since then, three massive expeditions have been sent to kill it–coalitions from multiple kingdoms including Edria, with scores of spirit knights, hundreds of mages, and tens of thousands of soldiers. Each one ended in disaster. The whole area is an abandoned wasteland now.”
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“Aleris is south of Edria right?” Wyn asked. “I guess that explains the name, but aren’t people worried about it roaming up?”
“They were. Extremely so,” Kei nodded. “We were still fighting the war at the time, so most of our armies weren’t stationed at home. When I was younger, we used to have practice once a month for evacuation in case it was spotted moving. Now they do them once a year, but there’s less concern with the war being over. My brother said they think they could kill it, but it’s too costly to justify attacking it when it seems content to stay where it is. The last three expeditions were sent when people still thought it would roam.”
Wyn chuckled darkly. “It’s hard to believe something like that really exists…”
“Certain as the world itself,” Ven spoke up. “Consider yourself lucky if you never have to see one for yourself.”
“Are all colossi like that?” Corrin asked.
“No, they’re not,” Kei said, shaking her head. “Most are much, much weaker. Every year an expedition will be sent out to hunt some colossus with a few spirit knights and mages. I don’t know why that one in particular is so much stronger than the rest. Furthermore, colossi usually only show up in wild, untamed parts of the world. I’ve heard it said they just grow from smaller monsters and spirit beasts in areas away from humans before wandering to where we are, but no one is really sure.”
Corrin was about to ask more about the colossus, but he realized something belatedly, “Wait did you say we were stopping at a town? There are towns out here?”
He looked to Kei and Wyn for help, but quickly looked away when he realized their faces were etched with disappointment.
Ven raised an eyebrow, some life returning to his gaze. “Of course. Did you think we had enough food to sustain a two month voyage on the back of this strider?”
Corrin fell onto his back from his seated position, looking up at the sky. “I… I figured we’d fish or something?”
Kei and Wyn snickered off to the side. “You really don’t listen much huh?” she asked.
“Yeah yeah laugh it up,” he grumbled.
Kei deigned to save him from further embarrassment though, asking another question to move on. “When can we expect to reach the town?”
Ven had taken off his bandana, letting his hair spill out in front of his face. He took a moment to put it back on, pulling his hair back and taking a deep breath. “We’ll arrive in Estin tomorrow evening. It’s a moderately-sized town, but it may be crowded if many striders have been forced to deviate their paths to it. We’ll likely need to stay a day or two while I get things sorted.”
After another brief discussion, most of the details seemed to be sorted out. Corrin left most of it to Wyn and Kei. They’d handle it better than he would anyways. As he sat at the edge of the saddle once again, his thoughts eventually turned back to training.
Breathe in, channel mana, breathe out. Rinse and repeat. He wasn’t sure how helpful it was, but he did it anyway. Though they were complete guesses, he thought it seemed that his running, which burned through his mana quickly, and his channeling exercises, which increased the pressure, flow rate, and control within his body, seemed to accomplish different things.
If mana itself was similar to a muscle, then he thought channeling was more like a skill. Using mana and stressing his channels with exercise was like running or jumping to build up stamina and strength–it increased the amount of mana he could hold, and also let him recover it faster in the long term. When he used too much at once, or used it for a long period of time, he’d begin to feel a sort of strain in his mind and body, which he figured was kind of like being sore after a hard day's work.
On the other hand, channeling it improved his ability to use the mana itself. It was more like learning how to climb, or throw a dagger. As he channeled he grew more comfortable with how to move it around, and it responded faster and faster. When he’d been in the dungeon, dragging the mass of mana throughout his body was like pushing a boulder uphill. Once Azoth had given him a “channeling technique”, it had grown faster and easier to use, even if it was less powerful. He figured this was due to the restriction of its flow through the channels in his body. Then again, taking in extra mana strained his channels as well, so maybe climbing was the right analogy. Either way, he’d gotten stronger, and his control had gotten better as well, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something.
He breathed out, letting the excess mana leave his body as he lay down and relaxed. There was still mana left within him–in fact he couldn’t get all the mana out of his body without using it directly–but it was at a much lower level. He’d noticed if he tried to hold too much mana for too long without either burning it or releasing it, he started to feel a bit uncomfortable. It didn't hurt, and he assumed that Azoth knew what he was doing, so it was probably natural, he just needed to let his channels rest from time to time.
The endless expanse of the sky as it passed overhead, almost imperceptibly slow, but it didn't bother him as much anymore–his mind was busy thinking about the colossus. He really wanted to see it. As he lay there though, the motion of the veldstrider soon lulled him into closing his eyes, and he drifted off for a nap.
***
The time passed faster than the sky, and before he even knew it, it was the evening of the next day. The sun had gone beyond the horizon, and though the heavens were still painted with traces of purple and red, the sea had grown dark.
He was sitting with Wyn and Kei by the suntrap playing cards. Nights on The Grass Sea dropped to uncomfortably cool temperatures, especially with fall in full swing, so the brass contraption was especially necessary to keep the top of the strider warm.
Ven was the only one sitting away from the suntrap. He was up at the front of the saddle as always, tapping gently against Siensa’s shell as he peered calmly into the growing dim. Though he was outside the pocket of warmth, Ven seemed content with only a blanket resting loosely on his shoulders, and Corrin knew he was wearing a plain, sleeveless vest below it. Their captain didn’t seem too bothered by the chill.
Corrin refocused and looked over the top of his card, watching the tense faces of Kei and Wyn as they tried to figure out what they should do next. He only had one card left in his hand, and all he needed was for the turn to get back to him. Wyn was up next, and he played a double six from his hand, leaving two more cards. Kei had been winning all night, but it seemed she was finally having a bad game, and still had five cards left.
Corrin raised his card up, ready to declare his victory as soon as she made her move. He glanced at the mostly-empty box of chocolate pieces he had set aside. They were the only ones left from the gifts they’d been given at the party in Precipice, and they’d been using them to gamble.
Kei grinned, and then played her entire hand onto the pile. “Five card run, easiest victory of my life.”
“Oh come on!” Corrin groaned.
“Again?” Wyn tossed his cards into the middle. “How do you keep doing that?”
“It’s all skill.”
“It’s a luck-based game!” Corrin and Wyn shouted at the same time.
“Yeah yeah, you lost again, now hand it over,” Kei smirked.
The two of them grimaced and reluctantly passed their remaining chocolate pieces to her. She made a big deal of eating one from each box, and they could only watch in horror.
“Relax, I’m gonna share.” Her cold mask broke and she smiled, handing a piece to each of them as they laughed and got ready for another game.
“I am sorry to interrupt,” Ven’s voice called out quietly, “but Estin is just up ahead.”
Though he saw nothing when he first stood up, eventually Corrin was able to spot the town coming into view. Rising out of the dark sea was a large island, surrounded by a tightly packed collection of stone spires, taller than any he’d seen on the sea before. The spires wrapped around the island like a huge wall, and glowed with the light of civilization, a circle of light against the dark backdrop of the night.
They drew closer and closer, until he was able to make out more detail. The town was flickering with activity. Dozens of veldstriders were coming and going from its port, and countless more encircled the town which was clearly not meant to handle so many. The motion of people could be seen moving across every inch of the spires. There was even a large wooden boat sitting atop the grass next to the town. It was wide and flat, without any sails like he had expected to see on such a large ship.
He heard a sharp inhalation and looked to see Kei with wide eyes, looking at the same sight. “Is that a land skiff?” she whispered.
“That boat?” Corrin asked.
Kei let out a single chuckle. “That boat, is worth an absurd fortune. Many noble families, even merchant families like mine, would bankrupt themselves twice over before being able to afford one. I don’t really get it, but apparently some sort of enchantment or artifact lets it glide over land, hovering a few feet over the ground. Even in the capital, I’ve only seen them a few times. So what the hell is one doing all the way out here?”
“I’ve been working on this sea for almost fifteen years now,” Ven said. “I’ve only seen a land skiff one time before. There’s another group that gets to use them besides the richest noble families. They get utilized in high-priority military operations by spirit knights.”
Corrin froze. He couldn’t breathe. The feeling that overtook him in that moment was stronger than he’d felt at the appearance of the rootlurker. It was stronger than the fear he’d felt as the leviathan stared at him in the crevice. It wasn’t fear though, it was something deeper. It was a burning need, like he was stranded in a desert dying of thirst, and an oasis lay just ahead.
Corrin’s head turned slowly to look at Wyn. His friend was trembling, hand shaking as his eyes flickered purple, then gray again.
Corrin’s mouth was dry, but he managed to force sound from his throat. “Wait, that means…”
“Aye,” Ven nodded. “A spirit knight is here. The colossus hunt has come to Estin.”