Blue was back to her ‘usual’ self now that they had left the city. She leaned with her back and left hand against a wooden handrail, while her right hand manned the rudder of a sand skiff. Sand skiffs were vehicles that took advantage of the wind with their large sails. The particular skiff that Blue was manning differed in design from a skiff one might find anywhere else in Apolapha. A typical skiff would usually have two metal-plated hulls on which the craft would rest, as a hydrofoil might in the ocean. In the Great Basin, however, all the sand skiffs levitated with the power of enchanted magnets. The ancient peoples of the basin had been inspired by the rarely-seen floating islands above the Shimmering Sea, and had come to realise that a great magnetic presence emanated from beneath the desert.
While Blue unerringly steered them to their destination, Phee and Elwin were asleep in the cabin. It was early morning, and the sun had yet to rise over the horizon.
The skiff raced amongst the dark dunes of the shifting sea of sand. Blue let her unconscious mind control the steering, while her conscious mind scanned the pages of the books she had photographed in The Library of Laajvaar. She was looking for clues.
Thick, heavy rain pelted their vessel, rolling down the fabric of the sails in huge swathes.
They raced by the sandy peaks; tops grazed by the stormy winds. There was sparse vegetation, though soon, what remained would give way to a sandy wilderness.
Phee and Elwin had to wear goggles and turbans to protect themselves from the pervasive sand. Nevertheless, it still managed to get everywhere, even beneath their tightest clothing.
The three of them had purchased the skiff from a very surprised trader, along with a hefty quantity of supplies. Money was no issue; Phee carried a fat coin purse on her at all times. But, their plan was not to cross the desert as one might expect. Instead, they were looking for a certain creature native to this place.
As Blue had said the night before, it was a leviathan. Unlike a scaly, draconic leviathan that one might expect from a sea of water, the moisture-deprived Shimmering Sea was well known for its giant metal serpents. Despite their prevalence in the region, many things about their biology were unknown. Were they fleshy monsters with thick metal skin? Or were they made of some sort of living metal?
According to the texts, and verified by Phee’s accounts, the leviathans could grow as thick and tall as a skyscraper (though Elwin had no idea what that meant). Elwin simply presumed that they would be rather large.
Having heard from Rolynd that the next Labyrinth Trial was in this gigantic sandy wasteland, but that his instruments had failed to detect seismic activity, Blue was certain that the final Labyrinth Trial would be atop one of the floating islands. All the facts added up, and the simple challenge of reaching one of these islands was a good way to ensure that only those with great resolve would be able to unleash the final seal on ADAM’s Labyrinth.
The floating islands above the Shimmering Sea were something of a mystery. Local folklore detailed that when the world’s oceans were drained, the land was too stubborn to follow it. Of course, Blue dismissed that story as nonsense. There had to be some practical reason for the way that the islands were; The Creator had designed them as such.
According to stories recorded in several texts, the islands seemed to disappear and reappear at random, though none had ever seen an island actually in the act of moving. To Blue, it simply seemed likely that the islands would float away while no one was paying them any mind; formal research had yet to be conducted on the islands, for they seemed to serve little purpose and the leviathans were more than enough to dissuade any half-hearted sightseers.
Phee and the Bloodstones themselves had never been able to fly above the Shimmering Sea to take a closer look. As Lucina’s Angels had well experienced first-hand, flying above the Shimmering Sea led to unusual readings within any aircraft, being largely dependent on electricity. This disorientation was quickly followed by death via ingestion; the leviathans had an appetite for flying objects, it seemed, metal or not.
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According to the book that they had found in the Sarigold library, it seemed that the best way to reach the floating islands would be to ride a leviathan, given that they tended to eat anything that flew near them. Constructing a tower of some kind to reach the roving islands would also be too impractical, particularly with how time was of the essence.
First, they had to figure out which of the hundreds of floating islands they needed to reach. Then they had to figure out how to hitch a ride on the equivalent of a flying building.
“We’ll figure out the second part once we get there.” Blue had said. Elwin was just surprised by how unfazed Phee was by the whole situation.
They had been travelling throughout the night at a blistering pace.
Blue was the best-suited as the rudder-elf, possessing intrinsic navigation senses, the best eyesight (even among both Elwin and Phee, who were each super-human), and the ability to perfectly memorise their course.
Though Phee was certain that she could make do in a pinch, she was happy to let the tireless robotic do as she pleased.
Their skiff escaped the clutches of the storm above Sarigold, and the light of dawn could be seen colouring the sky. Gold, orange, white, aquamarine.
The wooden door creaked open on rusted hinges. Phee poked her head out, quickly followed by the rest of her body. She walked up to the deck behind the cabin, where Blue was.
“Good morning. Seen anything interesting, wise one?” the young Bloodstone asked.
“You will have to define ‘interesting’, hatchling,” Blue replied gently.
“Have you seen any floating islands? Ones that could house the trial that you think is up there?”
“I have seen islands. I do not know yet what determines if an island houses a trial. I am still in the process of gathering data.”
The sun began to peek over the horizon. In minutes, the air about them began to shimmer with the heat of the sun, various distortions giving rise to the image of boundless swathes of water, the desert’s ironic namesake.
The sun would only be visible for a half-hour at most before it was hidden away by the Intercessor once again. After that, it would take until midday before they felt the sun’s heat again.
“Do you have any hypotheses for what might indicate an island to be the one we are searching for?” Phee asked.
“Yes. Naturally. And I have my intuition as someone who has studied and revered The Creator’s order of this world maintained by ADAM.”
“I would love to hear your ideas, y’know, in case something terrible happens and we get split up or something.”
Blue took a moment to give Phee a look and a sigh. “Now, why would you invite misfortune in like that? But very well, I shall share. Because I am bored, NOT because anything bad is going to happen to us.”
Blue described the foremost ideas that she thought to be the most probable. It was no coincidence that the Shimmering Sea had both floating islands and giant metal wyrms. The wyrms’ behaviour was also no coincidence. They protected the islands to make encountering the Labyrinth Trial a greater challenge. Therefore, the floating island they were looking for most likely resided in an area with a high concentration or frequency of leviathan sightings. And, it was likely that something on the island, which likely moved around as the other islands did, was attracting the leviathans to act as guardians. It was therefore possible that the island itself was visibly different compared from the others.
“So, what do you think would keep those giant metal wyrms attracted?”
“It could be several things. Perhaps something on the island sustains them. An energy source of some kind. We do not know anything about their biology, but I find it hard to imagine that this desert has enough sustenance to-”
Blue was interrupted as a speaker she had placed on her wrist, and Phee’s own bracelet burst into sound.
“Lucina’s forces are amassing in full force! They’re trying to storm the southern gates! Are they insane?” a new voice exclaimed, that of a young man.
“The Aegis has fallen! Take cover and prepare for bombardment!” said another voice. Effie.
“Charlie? Effie?” Phee asked with concern. “Slow down, what do you mean?”
“I don’t know how but, the Aegis amplifier has been disabled, Lucina’s Angels are mounting a full-scale invasion as we speak!!” Effie replied.
The sound of engines roaring overhead and rumbling explosions came through the mic.
Phee’s heart fell to the pit of its stomach. “I-Impossible…” she stuttered.
“Effie, I require your assistance in the palace,” Rolynd said. “Sophia, follow the plan. Do whatever it takes.”
Effie and Sophia both replied in the affirmative, wasting no time with their words. They knew this would happen. They had prepared for it.