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Midnight extended her darkness sense ahead, probing the stone to anticipate where she would emerge. The altitude was immense, so much so that she sensed the looming presence of dragons above, their ancient energies thrumming like a distant heartbeat. Below the realm of the dragons, these expanses belonged to no natural beast. The witch seal maintained its influence, a ward against all creatures imbued with Rothar.
In the ice cavern, the symbols spanned over a hundred meters, encased underneath eternal ice. The unseen barrier was designed to thwart the adversaries of the witches that lived within the Albweiss, ensuring no breach or harm could come to the runes or the protective ice above. Magical attacks, such as fire spells, would be deflected and consumed by the seal long before they could endanger the runes. The ice itself stood as a shield against mundane threats, its thick layers discernible only to Midnight's expanding darkness, safeguarding the runes from falling rocks and other earthly dangers.
The seal had repelled the sprites, barring their descent to the cave floor. Throughout the battle and its aftermath, they had remained suspended meters above. Midnight comprehended the expansive nature of this witch magic. The seal emanated outward from the runes, extending beyond the ice cavern into the stone walls of the mountain face and from there permeating the surroundings of the Albweiss. As she moved through the rock, she sensed its influence extending several meters beyond the icebound contours, integrated into the fabric of the Albweiss like an ethereal fortress.
Because of this, no beast or humanoid could seek entrance into the Albweiss at such heights. The seal thwarted any attempt to break the stone by force. Even if one intended to shatter the rock with hand tools like pickaxes, the presence of Rothar would prevent any approach or incursion. The witch magic was absolute, ensuring that not anyone but nothing, like Midnight, could traverse its paths.
The witches’ barricade was not universally felt along the Snowtrail, likely due to the absence of immediate caves or tunnels at such altitudes. Here, the mountain's stone was said to lay meters thick, impenetrable and devoid of passageways. The mountain range extended endlessly, an expanse of unyielding rock and ice. The few tunnels that did exist, such as the crevice Midnight accessed at the northern mountain face when first entering from the Northlands plateau, required exhaustive climbing and searching to access. Any major entrance a traveller discovered now had likely already been found and sealed by the witches.
Witches possessed instincts far surpassing that of wizards. While wizards were born utterly helpless and non-self-reliant, witches had an innate understanding of nature. After encountering several witch’s familiars, Midnight believed that from a wizard, you receive foresight, strategy and even magic, but with a witch, you become more of a beast.
Despite laying claim to vast expanses of the mountains accessible to humanoid peoples, the Shaira witches did not govern the Snowtrail. Here, travellers climbed along the southern side of the mountain ranges, moving from west to east and vice versa. The extensive forests and swamps at the mountain's base did not permit safe passage, leaving humanoid peoples vulnerable to the toxic flora and beasts that inhabited these regions. Higher sections of the mountains were equally dangerous, as this was where the grand winged beasts roamed freely. With that, the Snowtrail was the average traveller’s only option for crossing the Northern Midlands from east to west. Since it was such a significant route, the path was regularly patrolled by adventurers or guild representatives.
Such patrols, however vigilant, offered no assurances of safety, passage, or even recognition along the Snowtrail. Often branching into multiple alternative routes, the trail was shaped by steep gradients, icy surfaces, and thick layers of snow. While the northern side of the mountains, where Midnight had initially entered from the Northlands desert, endured the relentless plateau storms and scorching heat that shaped its characteristic bleached, salt-encrusted appearance, the Midland side was buried beneath impenetrable sheets of ice and everlasting snow. The peaks rose so high that they pierced through the clouds, forming a natural barrier between the contrasting climate zones of the Northlands and Midlands.
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image [https://glasswizardchronicles.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-Glass-Wizard_Fantasy-Adventure-Magic-Webnovel-by-The-Duckman_Depressed-Wizard-Webstory_Albweiss-Mountains.png]
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To the east, the mountains ran all the way to the north-eastern coast of the Northlandic Ocean. Descending sharply just before reaching the ocean’s edge, the mountains gave rise to the Barnstream villages. Water cascading down from the heights carved deep furrows into the rock and gathered to form the Barnstream, which flowed seaward through multiple branching channels, its journey marked by the creation of diverse lakes along its path. These lakes served as lifelines for the sparse tribes of Bormen and Tairan descendants who had established settlements in these rugged lands.
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To the west, the mountain range extended unbroken towards Mortosta, the western sea, naturally dividing the continent into the Northlands and Midlands. Along the western base of the mountains, Mortosta's waters grew denser and darker, gradually blending into the expansive Sastomian Swamplands. These swamplands were a realm dominated by wild mudland flora, a stark contrast to the icy peaks and rocky cliffs that defined the surrounding landscape.
Midnight had traversed sections of the Snowtrail with Yves in the past. The path from the Albweiss Mountain Guild to the Barnstream Guild was familiar to her from those journeys. They had walked this route extensively six years ago, after spending nearly a year in the northeastern settlements.
Now, she would walk alone. As the darkness that was Midnight attempted to seeped through the outer face, she encountered an immediate and potent barrier. It was not the witch magic, but a force external to the mountain, beyond the reach of her darkness sense.
Intuitively, Midnight understood. While the darkness had thrived within the confines of the mountain, extending its territory far into the depths and heights of the Albweiss and granting her unhindered passage, the southern mountain face was claimed by the clearest of light. This display of radiance manifested in intricate prismatic patterns and beams that sprang from the myriad of reflections cast by the ice and snow that covered the mountainside. These luminous displays spanned the sky in an exhibition of natural energies that not a thousand wizards, with all their shards and light magic, could imitate.
Midnight knew that these energies belonged to uncharted domains. Emerging a few hundred meters below the realm of the dragons yet far above the Snowtrail, she found herself in a place where the boundaries between the physical and ethereal realms blurred. The mountain's essence seemed to bleed into the sky, where it met the Raja Siena — the circular seal roumored to encircle the world like a coat of spells, dividing earth from sky and separating lesser beings from dragons; though three exceptions remained: 𝑬𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒎, 𝑵𝒆𝒉𝒆𝒓, and 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒂𝒉𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒂𝒏, who roamed below.--
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