My mother saw dragons on her exodus, my grandmother saw the mechanists make their march to the Narrow North, I see the end of united ground and sky as I live and breathe on this pilgrimage. There was wisdom to be gained in what they saw, but I am at a loss of what to think and do. I feel unready, I feel stupid, not knowing the solution other than running. The passionate disorganization of pages, volumes; samples from reigns, campaigns and terminated projects in my backpack somehow felt like a bundle of security to my racing mind. I know I’m raving, I know I’m irrational, I could tell myself to stop but what good will words do to stop a raging fire?
Alu neither twisted nor turned in his slumber, and during my glimpses at him in our darkened room, I saw a smile almost constantly, weighed down at the edges of his lips by drunken anchorage. I wished for the same pleasant dream as I fell back to that embrace but memories clearly my own would always paint themselves behind my eyelids. A legend I thought of ever since that day I traveled with Alu to that tempest. Carvings in the stone that appeared far too delicate and drawn to be the erosion expected of the extreme weather. A worm as the artist would be the first thought if that pervasive tale up north hadn’t frozen itself into my mind ever since it came to light.
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“Hey, Omnym! Stop plotting and help erect the tower!” Even with furs covering his mouth and body, the smugness beneath the mask and on his frame couldn’t be more apparent.
“I have a name, boneless muck. Perhaps those furs are a little too tight on your head.” His idea of plotting was just me working alchemy and medicine in the hut with others, or just existing in general. “Here, let me help.” I tethered the snow to swirl around him and blow away the mask and chest piece he bound to his frame. Red as a berry, he stormed towards me, his height towering mine but his shivering self betraying the threatening intention. The girls still didn’t dare to laugh, able to feel the glare they started to give my back, I knew this was a fight I was starting alone.
“You’re pushing your luck, Kasteros.” Rygok was older than even my mother but claimed his youthful energy at every opportunity despite his ailing body telling of deadweight in any other tribe. “Make yourself useful and maybe you can get used to the sound of your own name.”
“No children to bear and no strength to offer, boneless.” I replied. “Any other clan on the ice would’ve used your meager flesh as bait.”
A fist flew and connected with my cheek, his strength bereft of presence on my skin. When he saw I didn’t budge, another fist came but I felt my tethers flare and connect to his body without the thought fully forming. The blotted blood in his frame came to my mind and my desire dashed him against the stones behind him. The thoughts finally came to stop my throw, dropping him to the snow.
“Morrigan.” A soft voice I knew too well came from behind. “Help him up.” As I attempted to move forward, Rygok’s remnant of vigor carried him to his feet with grunts and cracking joints. He didn’t even look behind, just hurried his pace until he caught up with the cart of meats for the festival.
“I’m not sorry, if that’s what you’re hoping to hear.” I folded my arms and turned towards my mother, hands stained with damp black powder.
She gave a curt laugh and nodded her head. “I know you’re not. You never are.” She smacked her dirty hands on my face, leaving black handprints on my cheeks. “But we need to pretend we are until you’re ready to leave. Don’t want you going out there unprepared.”
“I don’t want to leave soon…” At this time, I hardly knew any sky that wasn’t full of clouds and raining snow. “But I also get tired of hearing them say that old word.”
“Heh, I’ve been hearing since before you could even understand words.” A poke to the forehead, more black markings. “When I came back up here-”
“I know, I know.” I grabbed some snow off the ground and started wiping away at the dark muck. ”They didn’t even want to let you in until Elder Kaius yelled at them to do so.” A patrol saw that mom sealed herself in a mountain while she was bringing me to the world, right on top of a tear in the world. If grandma hadn’t been around to let her in, I could’ve been born into one of the tribes that split off from the exodus.
“There is another story I should tell you, of why Rygok and others like him wanted us gone.”
“There’s more?” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes…regrettably. But help me finish the work for today, Rygok can rope his dreck of warriors for his rickety tower.” I nodded my head and returned back to my station, grinding stones and mixing powders for quick remedies. The boys and girls around me kept quiet until my mother forced small talk all around - small subjects, small duration in the end.
A hut on the top of the village mounds was more than we deserved according to the elders and their egoless offspring. Grandmother Eilaun was a witch however, so that silenced the naysayers quickly. A read of the stars every night was worth more than five successful hunts. The frozen clay on the exterior shaped a cone with a glass covered hole to view the great above, the green fading to a baby blue and the walls warping to the winds. The door hinges cracked the clay with every swing of the door, with its residents carefully patching the wound when the distant sun left entirely.
Treks from the Southern Reach to the Narrow North brought hundreds of trees across the waist high snows, with our only remainder being used for comforting floors. Frozen clay floors would simply reduce the population given enough time. The metal and stone used in our mountainous homes were our only accessories - today’s batch of alchemy was burned in the arrangement of metal pots and half pipes in the center of the room, the residue producing a wax as it lit up the abode. Mother sat against the wall in an old arrangement of fur and wood that eclipsed the entire left side of the house. A seven string instrument hung above her head, to which she always gave a knowing smile coming home, no matter how many days had passed. The notes she would play for my father were dyed into the white fur with black residue from many days of alchemy and medicine. I stood by the metal fire pot and waited for her to begin her story, hearing the distant murmuring of grandmother upstairs, reaching her fingers to the sky and pushing aside the low hanging clouds to read the future for us all.
“My girl, my everything.” Mother started with a hollow laugh. “I am sorry to have brought you into the world on the most interesting day for our people. It’s followed you for much longer than I wished to allow.”
“How do you know it wasn’t just me wanting out more than you did? Ready to challenge the world?” I walked over to her and sat down as she felt the notes on the fur that stretched over the chair handles.
“Well…” She started with a weary sigh and smile. “It’d keep the tradition of Kasteros stubbornness. Every member and passing love with this blood has been a stubborn beast at the best of times.”
“Maybe it’ll stack over time.”
“Perhaps Morrigan won’t last six months until hers comes out!” Grandmother yelled from above.
“Mother!”
“Grandma!”
My mother and I belted our response at the same time, with the old witch laughing hysterically before slamming a trapdoor hatch to muffle the noise.
“Anyways, darling.” Mother resumed, wiping sweat off her brow, dampening the black hair that started to sprout white from underneath. “This is the one story I knew I’d have to tell, with no glee at all.”
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After I was born, and the sun had risen once more, the newly christened mother held her child as blood painted the child’s hair, sealing one eye for a moment, and decorating the mother’s legs, dripping to the snow below. Another half day was spent before she could catch up with the hunter’s route home. No sleds or warriors were left when she found the carved strip of white, so the trek continued as pain remained and vibrated from her stomach to her shins. Strapping me to her chest, she pushed through the last stretch of ice with punches and thrusts of the knees. No one was there to greet her at the toppled gate of the village, decimated by the winds from the night prior.
Pools of a black vapor forebodingly familiar marked the mountain slope above. Looking around, she could see the mobile monoliths in the distance. Could this look any worse? She thought aloud, finally taking notice of the condensed homes and packed supplies by her home. Grandmother and a few others stayed behind to hopefully find her. The reunion was cut short by the desperate gasps and scrapings of snow that came from the other side of the mountain. Elder Xera had emerged with the eyes of a giant that had seen a Colossi devour its slaves, taking no comfort in seeing others of his kind, collapsing into the cold ground before Grandma picked him up. He had found the others first along the way but could not catch up, hoping to find safety in his home instead. The words passing his lips were a jumbled mess, nonsensical and inconsistent in volume, passing from whispers to hysteric yelps.
Digging into the mountain for the ore we needed to build our contraptions, Xera had found a route already made during his shiftings of stone, breaking his foundation and plummeting him into depths where light suffocated. The red powder he brought bundles of during his travels burned little more than enough to see his feet as vague outlines in the dark. The fall must have elapsed ten minutes before he was able to shift a safe landing, and even so, his left hand was mangled from impact with an ice wall. An infection settled in between his fingers, blackening the pearl white skin, and what he said to his companions made them retreat from their intentions to give aid.
In the pit, the thieving den of light, laid a mass of serpentine heads, bearing eyes that glowed different colors in every face that looked upon him. A thousand smaller links emerged from behind their larger fathers. The glow from the beast’s appendages burned brighter than his powder ever could, with a mass of the children dashing across the dark, their red, blue and yellow sights blurring against the pit’s hunger until they reached his mangled hand and punctured all his extremity could offer. There, his wide eyes lingered on the still lights above pulsating teeth and lips, drinking in his terror and blood. The children were Vacuous-born, tinged by that moving darkness that plagued the greener lands and the walkers that claimed their snowbound homes. That detail alone highlighted the holes on Xera’s clothing and the writhing rivers of black underneath, prompting the others to stand even further back. Rambling further, he claims to have summoned enough stone to break the snake’s grasp from his arm. The old man then shifted and ran as fast as he could in the darkness, sealing his progress every few steps until he broke through the mountain and emerged under the white sun again. That manic use of his ground shaping was now evident on his body, looking as meak and rearranged as the Vacuous could be.
“The flesh is no longer safe. But what of the mind?” My grandmother asked with no expectancy for a real answer. Her curiosity was evident, her mind made. Mother tried to protest, even if that would be worthless. Taking hold of his mind, she took what she could from the scattered collection of thoughts. Later on, she would confirm that while Xera’s mind was irreversibly damaged, that was because of the blackness seeping in, not before, so what he saw was horribly real.
“You know we can’t take you with us.” My mother stated, Xera’s eyes were still hopeful for salvation but the affliction evident on his skin would guarantee death ordered by his elder brethren. “You can only hope to never hurt your loved ones, shall the worst come to pass.” Words passed between the remaining villagers, all agreeing that banishment was the only option here, as cruel as it was.
A grand shift was performed between six members, sending Xera off in the distance in what would appear as an avalanche eventually. Taking a head start, my mother took me along the path our brothers and sisters made, holding me close and distrustful of anyone besides her own mother.
A day’s march and the newest spot for home was already made, with mother relieved as they had run out of the meager rations already. Leader Audin spotted us first as we entered the gateless collection of homes, greeting everyone but the newest mother until my own cries begged for attention. His fingers curled in anticipation of shifting a mother off their newest mound, knowing the now forbidden land that she would have welcomed the child in. The blood in his veins seized and his arm struggled against an invisible force, vibrating violently in unity with his furiously changing expression. My mother glared at him with an intensity reserved for kin killers, for that’s what he would excuse in the name of fear. Her own hands remained clamped to my crimson stained body, the strands of her mind holding Audin hostage.
“A child close to the void is destined to destroy.” He managed through gritted teeth, his followers confused by the approach - destitute souls that they are. “Need I to remind you of what became of the Nachmir family?”
“You believe the tales of a simple fool…” My mother began. “That ran from his home as soon as he was able, abandoned us for coi-”
“Do not speak ill of dead kin, you bondless dreg.” He shouted with teeth grinding against each other.
“Your brother told the mechanists where we were!” My grandmother added. “Need we remind you of their pillage? What became of Ashoft, Sylma and the Norick families?”
“That could never be proven!” Audin shouted back, breaking some of the control on his arms my mother had on him but still restricted by the strands.
“And your tale can?” My mother retorted. “And you would kill a child and mother of the village to prove your illusive command?” You know they won’t take kindly to that for long. She spoke to his mind. A kin killer in any circumstance is looked down upon in a survivalist family, keeping any hands they can to build their future, no matter how distant.
“We have grander things to worry about.” My grandmother interjected, stepping in front of mother in an act of defiance, with the few followers they already had following the example.
“Our companions,” My mother said, sighing and leaning into the furs. “Had no reason to stand up for us when they did, they could have thought differently, could have been ready for exile by killing you. Tradition kept us safe for once, but as you know now…” She sighed again, apologetically. “They only tolerated it, they never accepted you or me. Gave the worst to you.”
“You were already seen as tainted or ill by everyone when you got there?” I responded in bewilderment. “Why would grandmother add on to that by telling them of the serpents that same day?”
“All burdens should be laid bare at once if you can help it.” Grandmother chimed in, sneaking into the room by floating downwards. Her gray hair curled from top to bottom, from strand to root, so much so that the outward bunches brushed up against every door frame. Her wrinkle ridden face had a weird way to force a smile on her at all times, even when in anger - a rare but terrifying combination. “And we were already a burdensome branch on their tree, but we pulled our weight every time. I was pregnant with your uncle-to-not-be when we fled the colossi and I pulled my sword fresh from its scabbard every time. When the journey was blindingly hopeless, we still saw a way out. Been that way ever since the exile - with me, with your mother and father, and with you.” There were no pictures of my mother and father, and she wouldn’t speak of him much but I knew that he was neither famous nor monstrous - with others claiming my father was human and cursed me with a short stature. Mother would keep on saying I’d grow later, but even outside of this dream, I knew that was not the case. Some witches held up that rumor, while others said it wasn’t ever possible to bring forth a child between giant and man. Whether that be true has never been important until a certain day and I knew for sure.
In a place that says to not trust the humans after what the mechanists tried, I once expected to never want to leave this place but the pursuit of knowledge always superseded that mantra in our numbers. They said the same mantra regardless when the pilgrimages began years prior, but in the confines of my own home, letting one’s own character speak before my own bias was the thing my mother and grandmother said on repeat.
“If we kept that information a secret for any amount of time, we would be seen as weighing down our brothers and sisters.” Grandmother continued. “We laid it all bare, thinking in the moment, without so much as a stray thought or two about the future.” It would be hard to fault that when one of you is covered in blood and just had to walk across mountains after giving birth. “If we couldn’t pass on those images so easily, we would have surely been dashed on the exposed stone below.”
In this dream, I couldn’t help but stir and pull myself away when my gnawing thoughts of the present came to fruition. The serpents in Xera’s visions - could they be the same from the eternal seas, lying so far beneath to be as elusive as the dragons above? Could their voices be potential counsel in this breaking world? No, don't be silly. You want to plunge to the bottom of the sea and ask them? Fool’s errand. Still going north regardless to warn my family what’s coming if it’s not already there, but what else? The spires, I could build a cage around me to protect myself from the elemental barrage. With enough mages, perhaps we can delay the end of days by creating that cage for a little while until another solution is found. If all remains, and half of that is willing to help, that might buy us a week until the strain is too much. Hard to measure how relentlessly strong the end of life might be.
My eyes opened to find Alu beside me, looking at me hopefully. A smile extends on his face as our eyes lock, obscured by the kiss I pull him in for. Our unity is interrupted by two ruckuses, one erupting from downstairs and another overshadowing it from outside. Opening the window on the far side, the Wardens greeted the noise maker from inside our tavern, accepting his praise before raising a poster to the sky. Pulling the curtain of the window in front, its transparency hid us enough while letting us see the outlines of everyone below. I couldn’t see the front but Alu feared exactly what I did in his thoughts. A quick read of the Warden’s mind confirmed that fear, they were looking for us, but they only had rough sketches of our appearance - what the mockery was working with before knowing where we were.
“We’ve got a small window to leave.” Alu tugged at my arm and pointed towards the tub room. “If we were to leap onto the pipework outside, that would lead us to the border of town. Less eyes on us.”
I nodded my head and followed him, quickly dressing ourselves and pulling hoods over our faces. No folk were having a morning bath, so Alu unlocked the window and slid down the iron piping, flakes of rust peeling and feeding the wet soil below. Meager fences divided the yards from the green expanse, able to cover Alu in our quick escape but leaving me in the open so my long strides tried to look natural even as they matched the pace of a rushing man. “With any luck, there will be an operator that can start the train and we can deal with whatever Wardens are on board.” I sent my thoughts to Alu, to which he reluctantly nodded. It wasn’t a perfect plan, especially now, but it was a start.
Just as we reached the end, where cobblestone roads met with dirt paths, an ear shattering collection of crashing noises came from above and then ahead. The ground before a grass mound broke open, its beacon of arrival showing for a mere moment before a flood erupted from nowhere and swirled like a storm. As we huddled back, the crackle of lightning strikes made itself known above our heads. We looked to the sky and saw that beacon of arrival once again. “What are the gods allowing?!” And before that screaming thought could be answered, Alu and I linked hands and built a cage around us. I doubted the integrity or my own eyes and mind as a clear day gave forth a flood from a crack where nothing exists. The torrential slam of water swallowed us whole immediately and crashed us into the houses nearby. Our hands nearly broke apart as our invisible blanket felt claustrophobic, suffocating. Glimpses of armor and splintering wood before reaching the surface, reaching out to one of the few stone structures taking longer to disassemble, I pulled us onto the roof of the tower, where a Warden gathered the same idea. Before they could act, Alu broke away and chucked his shoulder into their chest, sending them over the guardrail and back into the water.
Looking down below, Sarengound was finished. The spire from the sky was never ending, its own tempest of water degrading the tower quickly. Seeing the former roofs of houses, Alu clambered onto my back before I jumped to the pieces and dashed across the makeshift path. Some pieces sank immediately on impact, bringing out the cage once more as we desperately swam and tethered to the next piece. Down below I could see what remained of the train station, appearing as a gigantic coffin from a mighty vessel. Over the mounds, the first mountain of the Central Roughs came into view - a small haven for now. We floated to the middle of the incline, carving out a door before shutting it behind us, Alu providing a flame.
“Fuck!” Alu said before I could, but I soon joined him and repeated the word several times, with the stone’s echo giving twelve more utterances. “If that doesn’t close, even the North might be underwater eventually.” He pounded his fist against the cave walls before sighing. “And there’s no way we’re swimming there in time. Unless we want to boil this new ocean until it fades in vapor.” Part of me considered the idea before the idea of being scalded alive made itself acknowledged. I rested my hand against the far wall, where the mountain would end facing the train station. The pull of a serpent’s darkness made itself known, crawling on my flesh and then fleeting.
“Even if we wanted to try that, the Vacuous made a home in their submerged shade. They’ll be coming through there.” Alu turned up to me, wearing a strange look. “Yes?”
“What if we made a cage and went through that tear?” As soon as he said the words, he realized the taint of insanity attached but still looked at me earnestly.
“Have you gone mad? Or have you simply given up?” A rage painted his face, stepping up to me but keeping his hands to his sides.
“I know, I know…” He sighed, trying to exhale the hostile air in his lungs. “But you know my visions, we know these spires have to be coming from somewhere. Something cannot be made from nothing. We make a tether, we see what’s inside the void or the source of the spire, maybe we can understand what to do then.”
“We’ve walked through spires together, but we were still on our own ground. We won’t have a safe ground, if we go fully. We won’t know if there even is ground.”
“I think you might be wrong on that.” He responded, grabbing my arm gently and transferring his thoughts to mine. The dreams he had were spent reminiscing instead of dreading - remembering every little detail of our first encounter. The strange iconography on the pieces of architecture glimpsed in the tempest did not seem to fit with anything else that was nearby. With my own dream fresh in my mind, some of the grooving appeared serpentine which didn’t make sense with Sarengound or any other village along the Central Expanse. There was history I didn’t know, but what I did almost supported this suicidal suggestion.
I sent my strands to feel once again and corrected myself from before, the tear had no Vacuous coming through, it was simply a passage to the void that made some places in the North and South dangerous. The spires, the monsters and the tears to the void, were they similar but different? Why now does a spire erupt from the sky when it’s never been reported to do that before?
“And these visions.” Alu snapped me out of a train wreck of thoughts. “These Vacuous might be from somewhere and something happens to them. What I see and feel, it still feels like…me but changed, stripped, robbed. Like strands are ripped out and replaced with something else, the flow that you showed me was never there, even as I felt the grass crunch under my feet in my dreams.”
Every moment spent thinking was another mile of land submerged, and seeing no other option I concede. Carving through the other side of the mountain, our cage is built and a muffled light is produced through Alu’s flaming hand, the heat being held by the tethers he surrounded it with - pushing aside the darkness of these mounting depths. The resilient light at the front of the Sarengound train illuminates the festering fissure in the world. Doubts pile in my mind, not wanting the risky route with so much on the line, but I’ll lecture myself in due time if I don’t. If we’re lucky, we find the convenient conduit for the element - somehow tie this to Warden propaganda to make themselves seem even more essential and this was just a one-off fluke with lackeys, while the real “knights” have the solution in their pockets.
My tether is still in the mountain and feels strong, even under the tumultuous water. The cage around us maintained its impregnable state, even as the fracture of the light sucking abyss was below our floating feet. Alu held my hand tight and guided us down with such certainty, I wondered if he was still recoiling from all the booze last night. The darkness didn’t envelop as I expected - the cage pushed through the void like a thin curtain. I looked back and could still see our distorted sky until it was suddenly blotted out and I heard a familiar yell from my companion. Monsters, an endless nothing, a separation is what I expected to greet my darting eyes. Instead, all I saw was the barren ground rapidly approaching.
I yelled for Alu to hold on tight and sent my tether out to the closest form - a small collection of trees and swung like a failing pendulum. My back dragged across the ground before my feet slammed against a stump and threw it into the air, covering the both of us in uprooted dirt and critters.
He was the first to rise and look around in bewilderment. The same vulgarity in the cave was repeated in a question, all the essentials except one - what, where, why, when. “Even without the water, this doesn’t make any sense. This isn’t exactly where we would be if we were spit right back out.” He said aloud, nudging the stumps, even kicking one to confirm he wasn’t dreaming. I grasped at the grass underneath me, ripping it from its roots and could confirm the feeling of it in my hand - it was dry, it was warm under the present sun.
Carts of logs were moving on a road nearby. Seeing no other option, Alu and I trailed behind them and saw a partial vision of Sarengound - an amateurish wooden sign framing a collection of homes marked by burns and falling apart despite eager helping hands. The stone beacon in the center of town was a small memorial to fallen soldiers in the reclamation of neighboring kingdoms. Cobblestone roads were absent, mark-ridden and fruitless pavings of dirt greeted the lumber worker’s feet.
“I think your idea might have worked in a roundabout way.” I said, not sure of what to even comprehend at this moment. “Let’s move, no one should recognize us if this is what I think it is.” His posture claimed that he was completely unsure of my idea, but followed on regardless. Ten steps in, it was clear that none of the buildings were what they once were. The Pearl and Jade weren’t taverns and didn’t bear name plates of their own. A peer inside the holes that would eventually have windows revealed carpentry shops of different specializations. Everyone passing by seemed to have their own task assigned to fixing the town, sparing me a curious glance before doing their duty as someone that wants to live there. Alu knocked on the window frames for the would be Jade, the couple behind the suspended log emerged with a flimsy construction of thin metal teeth. “Say, I don’t recognize you.” Said the woman with ginger hair and a leather mask covering the lower half of her face. “If you’re looking for a home, you’d best be making your own on the east side. There might be some trees left if you’re lucky.”
“What’s the date if you don’t mind me asking.” Alu plainly said. “My companion and I got lost for a few days in the North.” The man of the couple looked at Alu curiously before stepping closer to the window.
“Well it’s the 3rd day of the week, on the second week of First Summer.” The man replied, staring at me while he was directing his voice to Alu. The First Summer would be the first month of warm weather after the First, Second and Third Blooming, preceding the Frosts, which would be two here and seven up north.
“How about the Mage Reclamation, the group of people that put out the fire? How far gone is that?” I lowered my head to meet the carpenter’s gaze, to which he flinched and stepped backwards into the log.
His wife smacked him in the back of the head and told him off for being rude, a hollow gesture according to her thoughts. “From what I heard, some of those caravans went back to the Eastern Shores two days ago.” Right there, I knew what I had feared was true, but a splendid glee came across my face.
“Thank you.” I grabbed Alu and dragged him out of the town, a hundred and one questions mumbling out of his mouth with no coherent finish. A quick union of our lips silenced his ramblings before I let out my revelation. “I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but we’ve just gone back in time!” A befuddled look crossed his face, begging for clarity. “I don’t know how you knew this, but we’ve bought ourselves a miracle!”
“But Morrigan,” He grabbed onto the collar of my cloak. “How far back are we? How are we going to get back to where we were? Your family, our problems aren’t gone if we move back. They’ll still happen while we’re not there.”
“Our plan was fucked in one way, you know that.” I responded, pointing to the horizon where the Narrow North would lay. “The tracks for the train didn’t reach all the way to the North, we would have to walk for at least two disaster-filled weeks to reach my family.” The worst plan of all time was being rewritten in my mind, made by a giant who is cheating to get what she wants. “We’re going to steal from the human who invented the tracks, brought in the age of the train and give ourselves a homebound advantage when we get back…however we do so.” I hesitated at the end of my statement but my glee went uninterrupted. My thief in eternal arms reach, the architect of my heist to be did not share my enthusiasm, darting his eyes back and forth. “Well to answer your first question since you never had a history class at thieving school, we’d have to be at least thirty five years back if the Reclamation only happened recently. We are about six months out from Jeremiah’s reign, and are one more summer away from Sarengound being the first Warden sanctuary, so those bastards aren’t here yet fully. There will probably be a few of their Mechanist fathers here though.”
“But the person that invented the tracks, they weren’t a Mechanist?” Alu responded, putting his hand to his chin. “They’d already lay claim to the idea and stop construction in the North, claim dominance or something.”
“No, but that’s what they want us to believe - that the steam train and its bones are a Warden invention. The inventor - Rose Perrikohn isn’t a foreigner, she lived in Gurvan and moved up north to sell off her idea, basing it first off of a homemade experiment for tending her crops.”
“And you know that, how?” He raised an eyebrow at me, knowing better not to doubt me but I appreciated his rebuttals anyways.
“Looting all the journals from whatever Warden outpost and desecrated castle helps. Now whether that cute origin story is true or not is up to the whims of shiny propaganda. She’s our best lead right now.”
“So you want to travel south to Gurvan on a maybe?” He responds with a small smile.
“Most definitely.”
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Part of me wondered what people would make of my flames since the Wardens weren’t here to slander my existence yet. Still, the both of us agreed to keep my powers a secret, she even held her head low as we traveled through streets both familiar and foreign. We knew the paths but all stone was still dirt, and most dirt was unpaved and taken by grass. It became evident quickly that the villages and the kingdoms connecting them had very little displaying that sense of unity, with every man made marker being the only indication of territory.
My companion and I thankfully knew our way around, pointing out to each other stretches of trees that hadn’t been there in the present, marveling at the routes no longer made dismal by the flooding of the shores. A cart of ore spilled over when being pulled through the still soft ground, blocking the path of a band of merchants. In exchange for some food, Morrigan offered to move the stones right back into the long wooden vehicle that squealed in protest. In our thoughts, she debated offering, but after reading theirs and seeming more fascinated than mortified, she made quick work, slicing off edges of the boulders to stack them more easily. Some lumpy bread and uncooked rooster was our reward, searing the bird between an alcove of trees once they left our view. For the rest of the walk upon the river, we took more bites upon the unappealing bread, discarding the bits that were deemed too unsavory for our weary stomachs and light purses. Can’t spare a night to be sick outdoors.
“I-is that supposed to be Gurvan?” I stammered aloud, taking in the mountains surrounding the hamlet. The collection of broken sheds and half built homes I knew was supplanted by a castle that rivaled the Sarengound tower in the present day.
“Certainly got hit by an ugly curse in our time.” Morrigan replied, cupping her hands in front of her eyes. A blue glow formed from her fingertips, casting her eyesight’s range to the castle’s doorstep. Giving me a glimpse of the image, a complication soon arose - a band of the Wardens were already on the kingdom’s grounds. “So that might be one detail they took liberty with.”
“They came for her, not the other way around.” This complicates things.
“Some of these kingdoms had the peasants offer their inventions, their ideas, for a bigger share of land. Wardens might be trying to recruit the kingdom, taking credit for anything that comes out of it today. ” Without another word, she starts running along the path to the kingdom’s grounds - no gate, no semblance of a fence, not even any guards - humble and isolated were the best words to come to mind for the place I once saw as a shantytown on dry land.
The group of Wardens wasn’t the spit shine clean image that they would hold up twenty years from now, only their leader was wearing the silver armor, missing its engravings alluding to the strength of humanity without dragons but praying for their return. The other members wore leather slacks and a cape bearing the symbol - an outstretched hand with tethers connecting to smaller hands grasping a circle. Those hands in a hateful grip would be more accurate.
The castle ahead didn’t shine, almost pretending to be a structure of nature with its rough stone and patches of moss that dripped a colored water over the windows. The Wardens pushed through the wooden doors, the voice of an older man escaped into the outdoors for a moment before the click of the knob came again. Most of the townsfolk, save for the smiths and alchemists, were within the castle walls for the presentation. Looking towards the top of the structure, a vantage point would be favorable to being questioned in a crowd once we followed the acquired invention. The castle imitated a church, being divided by a bell. Nodding to each other, Morrigan placed her hands together while I stepped on her palms. With a mighty heave, she threw me into the air. The feeling of confidence faded for a moment, wondering how I’d get down, how I’d fail to use the talisman again if need be. The stone floor met my feet before I could consider the loudness of my scream, turning around and giving Morrigan a wave. She flashed her mischievous grin, perhaps seeing my posture as I landed. “Can you still hear me up there?” Her voice came as soon as I stopped shaking.
I smiled at her. “Yeah, but why wouldn’t I? We’ve been farther apart.” She just gave a dismissive wave before walking to the back, out of sight. “Where are you going?” She didn’t answer but soon arrived after pulling out small holds from the castle’s exterior where even fewer eyes were to witness her much slower ascent. Planting a small tether to every pillar surrounding the bell, she lowered us down into the hole below. She stopped our descent before we’d pop out of the ceiling of Gurvan’s grand hall. The man’s voice was in full clarity, praising the inventions of his people, even when their ideas were less than fool proof. “You can make something as idiot proof as you’d like, the world will just give you a bigger idiot.” Morrigan said, giggling as I tried to suppress my own outward laughter.
Sending another tether outwards, the Wardens were at the king’s side, offering no words themselves but keeping notes on every offering. Finally when Rose entered the stage, she explained in vague terms about her invention but brought forth elaborate illustrations on what the machine tracks will provide. “She doesn’t trust anyone.” Morrigan stated, having a look of concern on her face. “Thinks they’ll poach on her idea, doesn’t want to be here.”
“Does she have the complete plans with her though?” I responded. “If she doesn’t give them here then that’s our only way to repurpose the idea.”
“But then what about the people here? They’ll contest the idea of giants inventing it.” Morrigan wondered before the Wardens claimed greatness on the idea and that they would use it well for their network to be. A loud disapproval came from the audience, calling the group defilers of a crying land, imposing their will after the dragons died.
“And how will we fight the dragon’s enemies if we don’t hear new ideas?” Rose spoke out against the crowd, to another wave of anger. “You all sit and wait as those dark creatures emerge from their holes!” A man from the crowd held up the blade from a gardening scythe and charged at Rose for her allegiance with Mechanist and Warden. Before he could spill her blood, one of the mechanists brought out a bolter and struck him in between the eyes with an iron bolt. The cries for blood spread across the entire hall as the crowd left its zone and reserved their hands for the mechanist’s throat. The king demanded order and while some of his guard held to his side, others defied him, crossing blades with sympathizing brothers. In the confusion, the mechanists ensnared Rose with a metal cable jutting from one of their hands and ran away with her through the vine curtained window.
“Well that fucking complicates things. Pull us up!” With a grunt, the tether starts reeling us up to the bell. Brushing against the metal lip, I look to the path we came in on - a horse drawn carriage is leaving rapidly. Before I could say anything, Morrigan wrapped her arm around me and held me to her side. With a leap backwards, she sent out a tether and stuck to the bell. Swinging us around the castle, we took flight. A concerning crack and the striking of the bell came from behind. “Now land us safely!” She bellowed in my head, and as I turned to her in confusion, she flashed that grin again. “I don’t have a talisman, you moron!” I scream to the world as we pass over the peak and start falling. “You don’t need it!” She shouted back, holding her free hand forward. “I know you can, just remember what I taught you about tethers.” A small squeeze and I held my hand out forwards as well, pushing out the tethers and feeling them still. “Good, now grab the cart.” I do as she says and we both grab onto the back of the carriage - our forms accelerate at the speed in which we would fall from the clouds. Feet first, our combined weight rams the vehicle over the horses, splattering them and rolling the passengers six times over. A rough landing afterwards as our backs grazed the grass and fresh viscera.
“Not what I thought our plan was.” Brushing off the blood on my grab, Morrigan was already ahead of me and breaking open the door on the carriage. A bolt screamed out of its bolter and bounced off of the skin on her neck, a yell of panic was cut off as she pulled the mechanists out. The other door opened, and out came the Warden and Rose. I summoned a wall of flame and jumped in front of the pair, the Warden pulled out a shortsword and swung for me. Feeling the tethers beg for use, I wrapped them around his throat after missing with a punch. Behind him, I gave a pull and threw his form off the ground and into the wreckage. Their weight pulled at my body, feeling a warning of pain course through my arms and spine. The shortsword fell out of his hand, and I wielded it to Rose who yelled threats but had no means to hurt me.
“Just surrender your plans, and you can walk away.” She nodded, tears pushing away the dirt and muck already on her face. The full plans rested on her abdomen, secured tightly under her corset. Morrigan snatched the documents from her, and looked them over with narrowed eyes. The pile of twenty pieces of parchment was elaborate to an almost unbelievable degree, like it was a decade long thesis. My weak grip on the shortsword was noticed as she summoned it to her own hand and separated Rose’s head from her body with a quick slash, blood pooling on the grass below.
“W-w-what was that for?” Was all I could stammer out as Morrigan kept her eyes on the documentation. I repeated my question, tugging her robe several times before she even looked at me. “Why did you do that? We could have let her go!”
“And let this whole plan burn if she lets others know of our trespass?” She replied coldly, a deadness in her eyes. “There can be nothing allowed to contradict the new truth we put forth.”
“So the mechanists…they’re-”
“Dead.” She doused my flames before they could spread and walked towards the Warden knocked out by the carriage. “And him?” His stirring answered her question, readying her blade.
“Wait!” I threw out my tethers and stopped her arm. The force required made my wrist near dislocation. The Warden awoke fully and held up his arms, crying mercy. “What is your name?!” Morrigan looked back to me with an angry glare before horror overtook her features. “What is your name?!”
“Samual Ergarok.”
We locked eyes for a moment before Morrigan punched Ergarok across the face, sending him to slumber once more. “Was that mockery somehow right?” I said as Morrigan weakly held the blade over the Warden’s head. Noises of anger and exasperation left her mouth before angrily slashing at the ground.
“Wait, no…” Panting after her evisceration of soil. “That can’t be, if we really did all of that, why don’t the giants have the tracks into the North already?”
“Did we change our minds?” Was the only thing I could respond with.
“That doesn’t account for how we didn’t know at the Proving Whole. We didn’t understand anything that it was talking about.”
“B-b-but…” I threw my hands in the air in exasperation. “This is all way too specific! Look at this guy!” I pull at his coat and rip off the most meager commendations and medals. “This guy doesn’t look like a fucking captain, but what if he was meant to be?”
“Well I still plan on sending these plans to the North, clearly something stopped us and we’re going to be prepared for it this time.” She pulled the sword back for another swing.
“Stop!” I catch the blade in my burning hand and melt the steel instantly. “That doesn’t account for everyth-”
“Oh do you want to play engineer to an oddity we just fucking discovered today, Alu?” She towered over me, her eyes cutting my soul but her arms staying still. “I know that doesn’t take count of everything: how we don’t know why we don’t remember, how that mockery could tell us the past that didn’t occur…” Water started to leak from those dark pools in her face. “But my mother, my family are in danger and I might be able to do something about it. I love you but you won’t stop me from trying.”
My burning hand fell to my side while my other reached for her face, grazing her cheek with my fingers. “I love you too, and I won’t. Just…don’t let me lose you.”
She enveloped her fingers around mine, holding my hand there while a small smile formed underneath it. “What I don’t know is horrifying, but what I do know is love, and it’s what I want to do with you when this is all over.” She dropped my melted sword and embraced me for a hug. “We didn’t exactly have a clean path back, but when have we?”
“Never.” I chuckled. “And why do we do anything now?”
“Cause it's the only choice we have.”
----------------------------------------
The carriage burned before nightfall, all evidence tucked inside. I pulled the ash into the river nearby, its darkened hue being what remained of Rose, Warden Samuel and the Mechanists he shared arms with. Alu’s flames made liquid of the Mechanist's bolters and gauntlets, marveling at their craftsmanship for a moment but having no desire to wear their work. “The casting for the Warden’s getup perhaps?” He asked aloud as we made our way up sites familiar from our trek downwards. “Except without the bolters weirdly enough.”
“That Captain was unprepared for your use of tether magic, so this was before they introduced the idea to the masses, taking credit away from the reclusive academies.” A part of me wondered if we should try to defend the academies from the Warden’s acquisition but history on that was even hazier than the introduction of the train. I’d only be delaying the inevitable in that case, the Wardens were not a small force, even at this time, as if they all shipped in from a land unseen that rivaled our green mass.
“So they ditch the bolters and make themselves tether masters first and foremost, discredit their former partners as well in their own inventions.” Alu responded before a gurgle in his stomach made his face red.
“The Wardens are one and absolute, the mechanists either died or were forced into their ranks.” I felt my own stomach sink as I placed my hand upon it.
“Perhaps they shipped all their contributions South, I somehow like that idea more than a Colossus walking on our land and picking up someone’s house for their Hole architecture.” Exaggerating a shiver, the cheerful smile was interrupted again by a demanding stomach. We had passed Sarengound hours ago, betting our chances on the nearest river town but there was nothing in sight by the time dark had approached. The Vacuous will be here soon but our jovial selves said there wouldn’t be nearly as many. The tetherboxes on settlements wouldn’t be there to protect us when we sleep however.
“How tired do you feel?” I locked my arm with his, walking side by side and hurrying his pace to mine. Popping a flame from his close hand, I saw across the miles and finally found a small hamlet.
“I’m fine.” He replied. “Wide awake actually. If we need to take turns on watch once we settle, I can go first. ” “Ok.” Absorbing details on the village, I saw a collection of stalls having rags thrown over the produce for tomorrow’s sale. An older woman wrapped a worn rope around the vegetables and retired to her tilted home, displacing mud on the protruding corner as she added to the weight. “Found our next meal, still working on a place to sleep.” Giving a small acknowledging grunt, he started to look past me as his eyes scanned back and forth across the darkness that might attack at any time. We were so unaccustomed to treading in the dark if given the choice. If we’d arrived even earlier, there would still be trees for them to hide behind. We’d broken apart when the village finally came into view, the dirt nestling between our toes as we kept heads low, swiping whatever food we could from the loose tarps and unkept window sills. At the end of the village was a boat house, shoddily propped over a man made entrance to the water. Pushing him though the open window on the second floor, he opened the door within and pointed to the most comfortable spot he could find. I laid my head upon piles of stringy hay and tried my best to sleep but not to dream, knowing my own thoughts would ruin the former.
The stars looked different under this younger sky. Cracks and holes in the roof let them shine proudly through, and the few lights in my village view just couldn’t compare. Still the flame in my hand banished light as much as dark, dispelling the blackness nearby and muting the lamps, stars and alike. While the flame stayed absolute in my hand, refusing to bounce and flicker like a normal fire would in its surroundings - I wondered about Gina’s words again, how strained they were in between her pleas for mercy. There are more like me out there. That’s what I wanted, what I needed to believe. But would any of them even know me? I hardly know me, I don’t know who made me - my life before I was thirteen. Is that how it always was or did I forget my life before I was twelve just a month ago? Is it getting worse, am I just going crazy?
Our mission to the north is the priority and to the east of the river will be the sight of the fires thirty five years from now. Are there elders? Were mom and dad here before I was born? As pressing as the questions are, and how much they pile up, I look over to my best friend in this world and know that I can’t just run off when her quest is not yet done. The splashes in the river were the only sound I could hear for a while until I looked upon her for a moment, her white skin always glowing against the dark. Her breathing was unfocused, the kind you make when you’re trying to force yourself to sleep. I stood from my slouched position by the door and sat next to her on the disentangled hay, placing my hand on her cheek. She sighed heavily and closed her hands into fists. Turning over, I placed her head onto my chest. Slept a little easier I suppose, but I found myself counting her breaths for far too long. When half the night was gone, I slept in the boat and let the river soothe me as Morrigan pushed us down the river. Without words, our restless thoughts wouldn’t permit us to stay.
When my eyes finally opened, the first thing I saw was the curtain of clouds before it started to rain without relent. Morrigan giggled as my eyes blinked and twitched at the drops hitting my face. “Got plenty of beauty sleep, Lulu.” I sat up, seeing the rain slowly matte her hair down, the light of the white sun muting itself behind her dark locks. The hamlet was a speck so distant, I couldn’t tell it from the tree stumps half as far. Letting go of the oars, Morrigan instructed me to use them with tethers. Looks screaming Are you crazy? stopped registering ages ago, but now she responded with the look of an expecting teacher, ready to bloody knuckles before acknowledging a sign of surrender. The giant crossed her arms and hunched over, shadow eclipsing my form - pressuring me just short of saying “Well? I’m waiting, Lulu.”
Spreading my palms, I watch the strands clumsily turn and wiggle in the air before reaching their destination. One hand’s worth of tethers surround the oar handles, slowly pushing them back for a stroke. “Remember that your own body’s movements can help with the task. Not needed if you have grand control over your tethers, but most do it anyway, even at the cost of their muscle.” Closing my fingers, the pull was apparent but minor, the curling and uncurling however made the stroking much faster. She clapped and adorned that smile that stretched from ear to ear - sinister to most, beautiful to me.
We approached an elevation I recognized as Merchant’s Rest, or at least that’s what I called it in my thieving days with Gina. This story was one of the first I told Morrigan after our journey to the tempest spire as a way of getting her to know me, to trust me. In this time, before the ice spire of the west flooded the lands, it would be where this river ended, severed by the hill. Morrigan pointed out the location, smiling as she regaled my own tale back at me. Standing from the boat, she instructed me to use my tethers to make legs for the boat to traverse the mound. As we both stood and moved like dancers, our fingers laid straight at our sides - acting as flexible hooks in the soil. Over the peak of the slope, another river was in sight, connected once more to the undisturbed Western Seas. That storm of eternal ice wouldn’t occur for another twenty-seven years, changing the landscape forever. On the calmest of days, merchants would challenge the hands of fate and rest upon the top to the detriment of their livestock carrying their boons. It wasn’t uncommon for me to try to fleece coins from the starry eyed by lighting a fire by the hooves when distractions were available. There were some family business caravans that would pass through and use the man made extension that connected two rivers as a fun slide to silence the kids for a small while.
“We’re on the last big trek now.” I said as we lowered the boat into the next river. “Is there anything we need to discuss?”
Her cheerful demeanor vanished, that cold, calculating look I dreaded compared to her bubbly and upbeat knowledge fervor. “The only part to worry about now is thinking where my tribe is now in the Narrow North.”
“So the only part is worrying where their small presence could be in a gigantic white wasteland?”
“Not a small presence.” She quickly corrected me. “At this time, most of the tribes should be under the same banner, we’re not too removed from the Exodus.”
“So…how big are we talking? A hundred?”
“A thousand and a half. Splinters happened before they reached the border.” She started with a sigh. “They all ended up in the area though.”
“Your people are divided?” I replied, perplexed at wanting to split up after escaping Colossi. “I would think you’d want to be united and strong.”
“Differences kill the most resilient of bonds, even family.” Her tone was apathetic.
“What?”
“As long as we are allowed to be different, there will always be conflict.” Her eyes were blank, remembering a conflict as bloody but presenting it as mundane. “As long as a free mind remains, war will be a constant. Or perhaps when easy is too boring, blood will be intoxicating.”
I hated that I couldn’t argue with that, even if I wanted to play as the optimist. “What about your mother? What if you end up seeing her?” That cold look cracked upon my question, curving the ends of her lips, letting out small giggles before laughing earnestly - she was already considering the possibility but was pushed off the edge by my inquiry.
“We’ll solve that problem when we get there.”
“Am I asking too many hard questions this early in the day?” I poked her in the cheek with one of my strands.
“If you start asking me about the meaning of life, if we’re bound by fate, how any of what we’re doing now is working or anything related…” She took a dramatic breath. “Then yes, I might need a nap first.”
Another day passed, with the legs of our craft sprouting once more when our path turned towards the ocean, breaking off into a dozen veins that would merge with time and erosion. As we marched our way, suspended in the sky towards our next route, Morrigan demanded to put ourselves down. Upon looking at the ground with a critical eye, it became apparent why: the river we knew to be there was nowhere to be seen - its holds being dry to an extreme degree, cracked squares with streams of black speck between.
“I’d find a long way around if I were you.” A soot-covered woman appeared beside us, wearing a backpack and holding hands with a faceless man - his features blocked by a green veil, failing to obscure a metal mask with only a nose and eye holes. At least two dozen other travelers passed by, exchanging brief looks, a few casting their gaze elsewhere in their own iron disguises.
“May I inquire why?” Morrigan asked, standing over the nearby pair. The man stepped away but his partner was unphased by her stature.
“The Boiling River is up ahead, and I take it you’re looking to join your sistren.” The tilt of Morrigan’s head in confusion prompted the traveler further. “The fire left by Jeremiah’s last stand still burns, but one of those holes of chaos is constantly spewing water - never letting that damned river run dry. We just escaped from there. Even if you don’t go there by boat, the ground upchucks steam that will fry you. One of our friends had the ground collapse, boiled his leg and melted his foot off.”
“Any recommended routes?” I added, feeling the dryness of the soil imitate stone.
“Follow our footsteps, there’s only a few holes to worry about.” She briefly acknowledged me before turning back to Morrigan. “I feel sorry for you. You get left behind after your little war down south?”
“I broke out of their hold afterwards. Fools kept prisoners of war instead of punishing their beaten foes.” The lie satisfied the traveler, continuing forward with her partner. As the party became blurry on the horizon, Morrigan and I looked at each other, as if waiting for permission to answer the most pressing question we both had. “If there’s a spire here, then why didn’t I see it on my travels downward? That Scar of Fire isn’t that far away from a tavern I know. I walked over that damn burn myself, there was no river on top of it!”
“What if…” My tongue betrayed my careful mind, immediately begging my teeth to stop the tongue and a tether to sever the thought. She heard my words though and cast her shadow mercilessly on my reluctance.
“What if?” She spoke innocently, without malice but as my silence prolonged at the reminder of what Gina told me, her tone withered. “Alu, what are you thinking?”
Pushing off cemented sweat under her destitute gaze, I sighed. “Morrigan, what happens to one’s tethers when they die?” The light blue irises in her black eyes widened.
“Why would you wonder that? Where is this thought crossing?”
The confession of what happened before our slumber in the tavern did not come flowing - a staggered account being choked by a blank face accepting my fears. “Do you see my concerns? Do you not think it’s possible that they would do this?”
“Actually the complete opposite.” She stated, cupping her hand over her eye and looking forward. “But if that’s the case, then why aren’t they plugging up all the holes that are in our time?”
“It wouldn’t work with just a regular devotee.” I mimicked her action and saw the line of light jutting from the ground where the spire might lay, underground. “They’re not as in tune with their tethers, and giants have more…”
“Fuck!” She stomped on the ground. “That makes too much sense now, why they sent their Mechanist friends to attack us. They didn’t see us as just a threat to their influence, we were a damn solution to them!”
“Good thing they failed then.” She gave a quick laugh before stating they did more than just fail, sending me an image of their frozen machinery that survived less than a day’s trek in the frozen wasteland.
“What happened to Gina, then?” The giant started to move forward, feeling the footprints of the displaced with her own toes, sending a shining blue tether across the grounds. The blue would shine as night fell and the ground became unrecognizable in the darkness. “Didn’t want me to get involved?” She turned back with a joking grin, but it was hard not to imagine Gina being carried away in a bucket instead of a casket if Morrigan had her way.
“I…uh…” I scratched the back of my head, looked towards the ground, my dominant hand wavering into view. “Got a little carried away…burned her neck, took everything she had. That sack of coin I had for us wasn’t just on the tavern floor.”
“With that heft of coin, I knew that much. No drunken fool would misplace such a weight on their hip.” She raised her eyebrows at me in a mocking gesture. “You didn’t mention her death.”
“She could be dead for all I know.” I replied in a low tone, she extended a tether and yanked me closer to her, extending an arm around my body and squeezing. “I’m used to having my life threatened, it’s been that way for as long as I can remember.” The oldest memory being thirteen now. “But the thought of you with me, almost dying a monstrous death…I lost my restraint.”
“I know.” She simply replied, when I looked up to her, she flashed her teeth. “Lulu, you’ve always been protective when I’m around. Never hear of you threatening anyone when I’m not around.”
“How would you know that? You can’t read my mind.”
“Taira, Mick, and Darrus would tell me what you did while I was away on my errands, how lost you looked when you’d wake up from a hangover or do your own recon with them.”
“Oh.” The fire in my hands could never compare to the red burn of embarrassment.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The skeleton of that tavern stood about as well as a human whose favorite hobby was roof jumping. The few giants working on the establishment either faced difficulties creating the foundation or decided to congratulate themselves with their supply before the OPEN sign was on the forthcoming walls. The Scar of Fire stretched even longer in this time period, the pulsating glow far more evident - fading orange and erupting strings of fire, clumps of magma that melted the blackened ground that stretched twenty strides across either side. The mark did this with a consistency like breathing, calm intakes followed by a pause and a ragged compensation. Summoning my eyeglass trick, the Boiling River was an oddity that my curiosity damned for existing - acknowledge the wonder but fuck the opportunity.
The air was thick with moisture from a spire deep in the ground east of us, an island laid between malformed sand that shined a hundred colors from a thousand meltings and reformations. The tumultuous bends and whips of scalding water threatened all sides, a destroyed settlement rested as far from the water as possible, lying in the center of the horrid river. The burned remains of what those haggard folk escaped from - and from mere glimpses, men or iron and ash with no name given made them prisoners of a most sickening employ. Flesh stripped and loved ones lost far before the escape was made.
The moisture in the air suddenly felt cold as we crossed the Scar, seeing the tops of the Stone Barrier in our purview. Alu kept averting his gaze to the Scar, never being this far north, stating that the stories don’t do the landmark justice, convinced it’ll burrow into the ground evermore and tear the world in two eventually. Such a statement would be heresy if said in Sarengound Square and otherwise.
“After my time, but it makes me wonder why everyone would worship something so obviously able to wipe us out in an instant.” I simply replied that worship is the easiest way to prevent that annihilation. “Jeremiah’s dragon was also something special?” As far as special can be for gods, whatever that means in our simple words. “I heard some say they think that dragon is still around, but forsaken us.” Well then they’re a lazy guardian, but perhaps he or she is the one holding up our sun.
With no one around to persecute, I commanded Alu to lead the way by fire. The pelting of snow and howling winds obscured the Great Barrier for moments at a time. I knew my way through but he extended his free hand the entire time. The endless white was taller than Alu himself but parted and melted, routing water between his toes, expelling steam to the air that refroze to a mist as it was carried by the screaming winds. Our path making endeavor was cut short by a scare, a ghastly face poking out from the icey prison before us. As Alu’s flame banished the snowbound cage, a metal man blocked the way - the remains of a Mechanist. Alu’s extending flame evaporated the ice holding its legs in place, the metal behemoth of my height slipping on the black stone and crashing loudly against the ground. The pilot was altered in so many ways that gender, age and origin was impossible to identify - fake eyes, smithed skin, featureless in so many areas beneath the neck.
“None of the Wardens look like these guys, yet they have stuff that would rival them.” Alu stated, grasping my shoulder after I let go to inspect the body.
“I’m willing to bet the next five barrels of wine that they weren’t competing, just copying and then killing the inventors.” Surely the Wardens must have known how these metal imitations of giants would fare in these unrelenting snowscapes - the militia might not, but the same people that sent mockeries thirty-five years from now would. “But if you live in metal, how can you not know the cold is your weakness?” In our time, these mechanical walkers with claws and tool oriented appendages would be buried under so much snow and ice that uncovering them would be the same as eviscerating their forms. Their strange selves gave me so little to work with, wanting desperately to find a curse mark, an explanation but normalcy would be my crutch in an investigation.
Sending tethers to the top of a Barrier spike and wrapping the other end around our waists, the vertical climb wasn’t made any less tiring with magic. The alternative was climbing the mountain with my shaping, but that relied on Alu not slipping and having to bear being thrown up from rock hard platform to ice covered landing. Momentary ease aside, the snow in the air slapped our bodies the further we ascended. Alu shivered and gasped so often, I feared he might somehow slip out of my construct like it was mere rope. The flame in his hand grew to the size of his head when we reached the top, throwing and caressing the unruly element like a loved one. Before either of us could make a joke about how he’d adjust living here one day, I heard the chorus of shouting that only a caravan of giants would make in this snowy expanse.
Volunteering to stay in contact from a distance, my companion tapped into my thoughts as I slid down the Barrier and launched myself into a glide towards a caravan. Despite his lips not moving, I knew the cold was still impeding his words, disrupting the speed of his thoughts as the cold hoarded his attention. The repeated question of what to do if someone I knew would recognize me and how that would affect our present came out in a stammered speech, but it mattered not what we thought - too much was already beyond our hands.
“Halt! What is your name?” My presence was noticed as I landed on the trail behind the caravan. A giant dressed from head to toe in blue tattoo and nothing else greeted me with a spear in one hand and her strands swirling in the other, reaching through the distance between us. I had hoped the thought cage veil I had built for years would sustain against this older attempt at the thought read.
I laid my arms by my side, opening my hands to the back - a sign of surrender, or dismissal of ill will. “My name is Leanu, I come from the Southern Reach, hoping to unite our great minds for a greater cause.”
“Cursed, this one is!” The tattooed warrior responded, feeling her strands reach closer to me. “You speak words of Wardens the enslavers of the humans! Cooperators with the metal and soulless creeds!”
“Put down your weapon, you zealot.” Another voice spoke, emerging from behind the tattooed one, a giant I recognized from the stories that my grandmother had told me. A giantess hung by his hip, more than a child but far from an adult - my mother, younger than myself at this very moment. I wanted to doubt, but the sharing of all our memories ensured we knew everything in the past and the present of our families. Would she remember me at this moment? Even as I present a false self? “Leanu, what is this cause you’re presenting?”
I stepped forward to halve the distance, the warrior still having their weapon raised. With the wind and snow obscuring our view of each other every few minutes, I extended my hand forward - palm towards the sky. Marikus agreed and let our strands connect to one another. I transferred my memory of the schematics into his mind, slowly nodding his head as each image was presented. Marikus walked towards me with my mother in tow, and I desperately wanted him to cease but did not know what to say or do without jeopardizing my intention.
“Avalanche!” Alu shouted in my mind. A quick barrage of snow, ice and distended stone from where the pyromancer once stood. Marikus and I extended our hands - shielding from the snow with one hand and casting aside the stone with the other. “Let it fall around you, I’ll find you.” Alu spoke, and I relented, letting myself get struck by a black rock, drawing blood from my right eye and corner of my mouth. As the veil of white obscured everything once more, I manipulated my way underneath the snow - casting a shield around my body as I dove to bedrock, forty feet below in this pitfall. The rumbling of the snowfall continued for several minutes, swimming my way farther from the caravan.
After a time, I felt water crash into my face from above, a hand extended with his strand reaching out. We intertwined, and pulled myself free from the cold ground. “Don’t worry, no one was caught in the avalanche.” He simply stated, lighting a flame in front of my breasts.
“Was that avalanche your idea?” The piles of snow obscured my view of their trek, standing taller than myself.
“You were panicking like nothing else.” A scratch at the back of his head, reluctant to spill at first. “Still projecting to me, very loudly. I…improvised. Controlled flames beneath.”
“You did more than that.” That small push made a much bigger fall than he predicted.
“I suppose my strands came into play even more, I tried directing the fall. Really hurt my arms.” He replied with a laugh.
“Not a great idea.” I ruffled his hair as I started to move. “But it fits into our other adventures just fine.” He flashed me a smile and that warmth was almost enough to help me ignore the sickening uncertainty in my mind. What if the zealots don’t allow for these plans to go through, no matter how beneficial they are? That thought left a rumbling in my stomach that stretched to my throat.
“Well, time for step two.” Alu began. “Getting ourselves back home.”
“Right.”
A week of travel had passed with no tear in sight, even as night fell and the minor legions of Vacuous accompanied the roads and forests. I guess going back to Sarengound was our only choice. We thought to launch ourselves to the sky and try to break through over the tops of the Barrier, but all we accomplished was confirming Alu’s fear of heights and that slingshotting off of snow capped mountains was difficult and prone to more avalanches.
“Never thought you’d see a younger version of your own mother, huh?” Alu bumped my arm, seeing me stare off into the distance. “And your grandfather as well, from what I can guess.”
“Yes.” My words failed to convey my thoughts, with Alu wrapping himself around my arm, trying to coax out more. “I wonder if we would ever find your own grandparents around here.” He only responded with a shrug. “Feels like that could be something to look into.”
Again, a shrug. “We wouldn’t know where to start, besides…” His grip loosened. “What would I even say to them?”
“You don’t care for your own family.” I knew this for a while, but thought he might jump at the chance for closure of some kind with his memory fading every day.
“As far as I know, they didn’t raise me - they don’t know me. It’d be nice to know, but…” His gaze settled on his feet as he solemnly marched. “Maybe it’d be nice not to.”
Too many questions. I thought to myself. “I know you despise what you have and what you can do.” I intertwined my fingers with his, even as he tried to march ahead with his short strides. “But if not for that oddity inside you, we may have never met.”
“You mean I might have been dead far before now.” I pulled him into me with an aggressive tug, making him fall back and hit his head on my stomach.
“And I’d be dead ten times over if I wasn’t the kleptomaniacal fool I am now.” I retorted, squeezing him. “You could be the best petty thief around and be crafty with a sword, but your companions couldn’t survive with the same glory you can.”
A hollow chuckle passed his lips. “Point made, Morrigan.” I suspected his thoughts lay with ideas of him being gifted in a way he hated, comparing himself to me like he often did in our early days of training. I was seen as cursed for how I was born, but I’d call it a gift in its own right because ambition starts with wanting something more from where you start.
The blackened sky contrasted with the white moon in these parts, making the great above look so different from the Narrow North and Southern Reach. The purple from below and pale teal of the north painted the nights as so much brighter than the main province. Our blackened above was disrupted furthermore by the singular stroke of a spire’s tail - the shuffling of chainmail and metal boots entered my ears. I grabbed my confused companion by the hand and crouched as we approached a grassy mound a day’s trek from Sarengound. Lying on the ground, a group of Wardens strapped a human to a steel stake, their face and body wrapped in a tarp.
Before I could judge what to do, the trio of armored soldiers raised their hands to the slowly expanding tempest before them. The bound body suddenly started to move, thrashing as a muffled scream filled the air. As I stood and prepared to rip stone from the ground and launch it, the body had turned to dust - the spire had dissipated. The ground was broken from beneath them as I pulled my arm back and shaped the dirt around them. One of the trio jumped away from the sinkhole, with Alu entering my purview, dashing to the right while my plan started. Slinging from the metal pole, Alu extended his burning hands and slammed into the escapee, pressing his flaming thumbs into the eyeholes of his helmet. Wrapping the body in a tether, Alu gasped as he heaved the knight onto the other two, cursing as their legs were entrenched in the shaping mud. The pyromancer was about to melt them for good while they made proclamations of dragon butchery. I seized his hands before turning my attention to the men, robbing them of their weapons and bits of armor through rough shifting, banging their bones and scraping skin with jabs of stone.
“What was their name? Were they a prisoner?” I curled my hand and let the mud rise to their necks.
“Witch.” One of them spoke. “Serving the world the best way they can, after they defy the Warden’s Guidance.”
“Silence, Carver!” The other one barked, struggling in the mud but managing to poke the other. “We will happily die for the Guidance, but know that your time here just got shorter!”
“They don’t speak like the Sarengound Wardens usually do.” Alu thought to me. “Did you catch their look before attacking? They’re wearing red bits instead of the usual blue.”
“What is your purpose? You don’t serve with the other Wardens? Special killers?” When the loud one started belting out another uncreative threat, I wrapped my threads around their head and forced them to bite their mouth shut. “Never mind, I’ll just take a look and see.”
The memories of the Staying Blade, as they called themselves, gave me all the answers I never wanted. They came from a Warden outpost south of the Academic Recluse, they used their witch convicts to seal the smaller spires with the meager amount of threads in their bodies. This was their solution for now, and it’s definitely why they sent the Mechanists up north, in hope that they would bring back prisoner giants, sending their own constructions of golems to support them, use their lesser thread magic to preserve the machines - but when the resistance and environment proved too much, the Wardens pulled out.
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Alu snarked as I shared the projection with him. With my permission, he sent a small flame between the living pair - prompting panic before I buried them whole in the mud and sealed the top with stone.
“Think I’m starting to rub off on you a little too much, Lulu.” I said, noting his relentlessness against the Wardens. He eyed the blades I confiscated for him, looking dedicated to using it.
“Well, knowing all we do now about the Wardens, I’d say it’s justified.” His former shortsword and dagger was replaced by two thin longswords that rested on his back.
“They’ll get in our way until our mission is done.” Looking to the sky, the tear we came through was barely visible but still pulsing slowly against the black - a lighter shade in the background. I motioned him to move, to which he started into a sprint - high on something.
“That’s fine with me, no mercy.”
Summoning pillars from the ground and simply grabbing onto the edge of the tear with our tethers turned out to be the only solution we could find. Our tethers only stretched so far, we needed time to prepare the cage so that we stayed together. Getting as high as one could in the sky before someone woke up and noticed the odd formation was imperative, and as I reached as far as my tether would until it hit something solid, Alu started building the cage. The void between our time and this blurred whatever I could see until the sky of later came into my mind’s eye. As we entered the swirling ocean of black, gray, blue and purple, I felt a force push us down a ways and my tether loosened for a moment before Alu and I desperately reconnected, the cage losing strength but remaining.
Ascending, a torrent of water hit our faces before we escaped the void. Breaching the surface, I sent another line and pulled us out of the suction, with Alu sending out his own to pull us up the shore. Looking around, this was not the place we came through, the flood that sunk Sarengound was nowhere in view. Even looking behind, the town itself was a hollow imitation of what we knew - looking to be nothing more than a meager resting place between infinitely more interesting layabouts - a bare improvement on the version so many years ago. The valley between mountains wasn’t what surrounded us, we merely emerged from a lake that was not here before.
Running to the top of the nearest mound, far in the distance, a great fire was burning.