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237 - What Color is the Void

“I don’t like it,” Eli said flatly.

“Neither do I,” Iris admitted, staring down at the scrap of paper given to her by Dala.

Beside them in the crow’s nest stood Victoria. It had become a relatively easy and private meeting place for the trio, as Eli always had a reason to be there and it was easy for Iris and Victoria to reach quickly and discretely. The only limitation was Hedley, though it was easy enough to time their meetings when he was off shift and most likely to be resting.

Iris had explained the matron witch’s attack on her soul and the supposed lesson it was meant to teach her, as well as her recommendation of a woman in Fale Nalore who could allegedly help Iris finally rid herself of the nightmare. Now she proposed the idea of sneaking into the city to find this woman, even as the pirate crew of the Gaping Maw secured their control over the tower-tree at which the ship was docked.

“You’ll stand out,” Victoria acknowledged, “but I don’t think anyone’s first thought would be pirate.”

It the was the second day docked in Fale Nalore. No one had questioned the party’s decision to stay behind on the ship — in fact, it seemed to have been expected that they stay behind due to their lower level. Only Victoria, the only member of the party to have reached Champion rank, was at any risk of expectations to participate in the raiding party, but most didn’t even know when she was present, so now none seemed to notice her absence. The last orders to be relayed back to the ship were that no members of the crew were to go beyond the lowest floor of the conquered tower, beyond which was apparently a sprawling ground level city hidden beneath the swamp’s canopy.

Along with those orders came the information that the soldiers and adventurers of the city had organized a thorough blockade around the base of the tower and weren’t allowing anyone in or out. Iris argued this would ultimately help her if she decided to enter the city, as it would decrease any suspicion that she might be a pirate once she was past the blockade.

After several moments of thought, Eli spoke again, “how would you get down?”

Iris shrugged, “that’s the easy part, I’ll just jump overboard.”

“That won’t work,” he said quickly, “they’ll be watching the ship closely for fliers or slow-fallers attempting to evade the blockade.”

Iris frowned while she tried to think of a better idea.

“I want Vic to go with you in case anything goes wrong,” he continued, “so whatever plan you cook up needs to accommodate her.”

“And before you say it,” Victoria interjected, “no, I can’t just float down. They’d see me just as clearly even in my spectral form.”

“What if you flew down inside the tree trunk,” Iris suggested, “then underground for a while before popping up in the city somewhere?”

Victoria shook her head, “anyone who can see auras — or even has particularly good aura senses — would spot me immediately.”

Iris sighed and froze for a while, then snapped her fingers and pointed at Victoria with a smile, “I know what to do!”

______

A short while later, Autumn was casually strolling along the main deck and occasionally stopping to inspect the few planter barrels that had survived the ship’s many troubles. Each was overgrown with a mess of green, leafy stalks that crowded together in the confined space. She had been harvesting the dense, bulbous roots from these stalks for weeks to supplement her ingredient stores, and it wasn’t unusual to see her perusing the barrels during downtime.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

While checking the barrels on the quarterdeck at the very back of the ship, she discretely glanced over her shoulders to ensure no one was watching her. The barrels were secured with ropes and vines to the railing, beyond which was open sky. Though the keel of the ship had stopped just short of the very edge of the docking trench, the curvature of the ship’s hull left the stern hanging over only air.

After pretending to peruse while she loosened knots, Autumn stood up on her toes to reach up over the rim of the barrel and stuff her arm down into the soil to fish around for roots worth plucking, but a miscalculation of balance brought her — and the barrel — tumbling onto the deck. Though her weight alone wasn't enough to snap the vines and ropes that still had it, a quick yank of the barrel towards her chest as she fell did the trick. Plant stalks, bulbous roots and chunks of dirt scattered across deck, many spewing between the posts of the railing and tumbling through the air. In the disarray, Autumn pulled the bottomless bag from her belt and slipped it between the posts to join the falling debris.

To any distant observers, the bag would look like nothing more than a particularly large clump of dirt or plant matter. It was a long, windy fall before the bag finally punched through the canopy and bounced off branches and twigs. It briefly hung in a nook between two branches, but a clump of falling roots soon slapped into it and knocked it loose, dropping it down where it came to to a rest atop mossy flagstone pavers embedded in the soft ground.

Inside the void, Abby was floating ominously amidst the perpetually floating debris of the bag’s many items. She was holding up a single tentacle as if to say “hold on.”

It had taken Victoria a moment of stunned staring — and several moments of discrete side-eyeing — to finally get over Abby’s true visage. Now she stood on the invisible floor, darting her gaze uncomfortably around the infinite void. Littletooth was biting at her robes around her ankle, tugging on them with quiet growls in a doomed attempt to get her attention.

“I don’t understand,” she said simply.

“Me either,” Iris replied through a half chewed bite of a sandwich she had found floating around, “which part?”

“The color,” Victoria replied absently, visibly entranced by the void even as she activated her auravision and her eyes glazed over with grey mucus, “it should be black, right? If there’s nothing out there?”

Iris stepped up beside her and joined her gaze into the void, “isn’t it?”

Victoria’s eyes returned to normal, “it’s— it’s just nothing. It’s like my eyes are substituting black because they don’t know what else to put there.”

Iris shrugged, “looks black to me. It is the void, though, so ‘just nothing’ would make sense.”

Victoria squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head as if shaking out unwanted thoughts, “I don’t like it here. Even the sky has an aura if you look at it long enough, but this place is truly empty in a way I’ve never imagined.”

“It’s kind of comforting once you get used to it. I’ve started spending more time in here recently. The world outside gets so overwhelming sometimes, so many noises, feelings, voices— it’s nice to get a break from it all. You know?”

She gave Iris a critical look, “I’ll take too much over nothing at all, thanks.”

Iris shrugged again, and Abby grumbled a few overlapping roars. The pair turned to face the otherworldly monster to see she had lowered her cautionary tentacle. That was the signal that it was time to go.

______

An old flagstone path butted up against bulging black soil. The cracks between pavers were filled with moss, and the roots of nearby trees traveling beneath them created occasional bulging humps. Over many years the pavers had shifted and settled, and even along the flat stretches were dips and rises that threatened to trip an inattentive traveler. Atop one of these old pavers was a purple drawstring sack, out of which poked Iris’s head.

She glanced around the isolated path that wound through the trees. The air was humid but comfortable, and frequent rays of sunlight passed through the canopy to light the path. Late flowers were blooming along the edges of the path and grey-brown hanging moss draped down over the pathway from the branches overhead, below which butterflies fluttered and occasional dragonflies zipped past.

Iris climbed the rest of the way out of the bag but stopped in a crouch, leaning to reach an arm back into the void. A moment later she withdrew her arm, pulling Victoria far enough out of the void to place her other hand on the ground and finish climbing out on her own. After Victoria withdrew her feet, Littletooth’s head poked up out of the void.

“Nope,” Iris said quickly, pressing down on the wyvern’s head to push him bag into the bag before cinching it shut tight.

As Iris stood she held the bag to her waist, where the drawstrings promptly secured themselves to her belt. Conjuring Dala’s note from a brief tear in her palm, she read it aloud for Victoria.

“Clariel Fogborn. Beneath the red-brick temple near the roots of the eldest tree.”

“The northern most tower-tree looked to be the largest from the sky,” Victoria said, “maybe it’s the oldest.”

Iris looked up, frowning as she struggled to locate the sun through the leaves, “I really need a compass.”