The divine messenger owl spoke.
“This is the message from my god. ‘I am the God of Knowledge, whose name is secret even to those who worship me. I am the one who can see the truth of things, the one who sees past, present, and future. Yet even I have limited ability to see the distant future, for not even the God of Knowledge is omniscient. You three are travelers from a time far beyond my ability to perceive, a future millennia yet to come. Your existence is vexing and intriguing in equal measure, for the ability to fight against the flow of time’s river should be impossible. Does your presence mean that the future is set in stone, or the reverse – that you may alter the future such that your original time never comes to pass as you remember it? To be frank, I have no idea, and that stirs up emotions I have never felt before.
“‘Yet I did not send my messenger merely to tell you of how peculiar I find you. Just as interesting as you are, so too are the star fragments, or rather the stars themselves. What could cause some of the stars to fall from the astral space to land on the world below? What strange power exists within those stars? I have thought long and hard, and while my curiosity about the power can be soothed by the research of the Archmage, it cannot be eliminated by such a limited thing. I at first limited knowledge of your existence as much as possible, but with time, other gods have come to see you, and the form of things begin to take shape in my mind.
“‘I have hypothesized based on two scenarios. In the event that your trip to the past from the future is part of what molds the future to the shape you know, I hypothesize that the Black Sun Starfall will be caused by gods warring – if not with each other, then with some stellar entity or entities. However… if that be the case, harm may well come to the gods. So, then, I shall act on the presumption that my actions will make a difference, and I shall do my best to prevent such a war – and thus prevent the downfall of civilization as it now exists. Should I be successful, I will destroy your future. For this, you have my sympathy. If my actions are futile, however, or even serve to bring about the state of affairs that I am trying to prevent… know that I hold no grudge against you for this.
“‘I will now share with you the precise location of the two remaining star shards. The first is on the mountain of the Thunder Isles, in the nest of one of the thunderbirds. Exercise caution, for the thunderbird in question has been affected by the shard. The second shard is inside Mount Firemouth, in the possession of what is now the King of the fire giants. He has also been affected by the shard, becoming a lava giant.
“‘I will also look into possible methods of returning you to your own time, though I cannot guarantee I will find success there, as time travel at all was believed impossible until your trip to this time.’
“This ends the message,” the owl finished.
“Mage-King Arcanius mentioned unrest among the gods,” Rai said. “Can you tell us about that? I assume it’s related to the potential god-war mentioned?”
“That is not knowledge you are authorized to know.”
“Very well.”
“I must admit,” Archmage Arcanius said, “I am very curious about you, Braveheart. Will you consent to being studied? I feel that you have many hidden potential abilities.”
“Yi-meep.”
“Ah, a pity. I would very much like to study you. Well. Now what will you do, children? You are welcome to stay and make use of resources here, such as my library or laboratories, or even my forge. But I would prefer if you would retrieve the shard first, so that I may study it.”
“Your facilities… you wouldn’t be capable of making qi medicine from a thunderbird heart, would you?” Rai asked.
“Of course I can. I am an expert at most things. Go ahead and put it on the floor.”
Rai retrieved the heart and placed the jars of blood next to it on the floor.”
“Excellent condition. Now shoo, and I’ll speak to you upon your return. Oh, and leave your drakes here; it will be far to dangerous for them on Thundermount.”
“As you say. Paxta, Skycloud… remain here until we return. We will be back by the end of tomorrow at the latest.”
Arcanius raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think they understand language that complex?”
“Of course not. But we have a translator.”
Braveheart started making meep noises at the drakes,
“…Astonishing. So you naturally have the ability to communicate with beasts? I wonder what other abilities you have…”
-x-
Back out in the storm, Rai and Isa traveled to the edge of the island before Rai cast Flight on both of them (meeting his requirement to cast a different spell in between by casting floating orbs of light, as it was starting to get even darker, despite the fact that it wasn’t evening yet. From that point on, they flew through open sky, heading for the largest of the islands, where the mountain was located. Rai estimated island had a diameter of maybe three miles, most of which was taken up by the mountain. Unfortunately, it was quite some distance away from the Tower island, and even taking the most direct route possible, they had to stop on a smaller island and refresh their Flight spells, which only lasted twelve minutes (long enough to travel slightly further than two and a half miles).
They reached the base of the mountain before needing to reapply the spells once more. They had no intention of risking conflict with any mountain denizens, so they flew straight up until they were directly below the thunderclouds, then circled the mountain looking for the nest. When they didn’t find it, they flew into the clouds directly, as the mountain still continued upward.
Thunder deafened as lightning flashed all around them. More than once they blinked out of way of crooked bolts passing from cloud to cloud. Mixed in with the thunder, they heard the cries of thunderbirds.
And then they were attacked.
The storm clouds were so dark and thick that there was no way they could have seen it coming, despite its massive size. The thunderbird swooped, threw its wings out to halt directly over them, and grasped at each of them with its talons, snaring them both by digging into their flesh. Then it bent over and bit Isa.
“Dragonfire!”
“Flaming Wave!”
It released them, flapping away from them as it extinguished the flames. Several seconds later, a lightning bolt from the clouds and a thunderbolt from the unseen bird zapped toward Rai. He blinked out of phase with reality, avoiding the first, but the second struck him directly. He was undamaged by the actual lightning, but the accompanying deafening sonic crack rattled his insides and made him cough up blood.
Rai and Isa turned in the direction of the thunderbolt and imbued their next spells with star energy – Rai a Flaming Bolt and Isa another Dragonfire. They were rewarded with an agonized screech, and then there was nothing more from the bird. When half a minute passed with no further attacks, they accepted that the bird had fled and continued their flight upward.
They broke through the top of the clouds. Above the dark gray, the skies were calm, and Isa took the opportunity to heal both herself and Rai. The mountain peak was only a short distance off, but there was no sign of a nest this high up, meaning it was probably within the storm clouds.
A truly enormous thunderbird erupted from the clouds, shooting up above the trio. Instead of being the color of storm clouds and surrounded by blue lightning, its feathers seemed to be made of flickering blue lightning themselves, and it was constantly discharging violet sparks.
That thing has to be almost sixty feet long! Wingspan of a hundred and fifty feet… holy shit! Rai thought in surprise. Is this the star-altered thunderbird?
“Isa! This is it! We need to kill this thing, and then Braveheart can lead us to the shard!”
The bird let out a cry and spread its wings wide. Thunderbolts shot out from both wings, one toward each of them. Rai spun out of the way. Isa was struck and immediately entered Berserk Mode in response.
“Star-enhanced: Fireball!”
“Star-enhanced: Dragonfire!”
Lightning flared out from the thunderbird, shredding the flames – and leaving the magical avian completely unharmed.
Stolen story; please report.
“Oh. That’s not good,” Rai said worriedly.
“Guess we’ll get up close and personal!” Isa roared. “Paralyzing Roar!”
The bird sent another two thunderbolts in response, striking them both.
Then lightning shot up from the clouds below, narrowly missing them.
Rai shot forward, weaving around the bird’s beak strike, and slashed its neck. He felt an incredible amount of resistance, not just from the feathers, but from some sort of barrier around its flesh, reducing the amount of damage he inflicted.
“Take this! Corrosive Injection!”
Isa shot across the hundred-foot distance and slammed her claws into the other side of its neck, barely penetrating, and injected the magical blood-acid. It shrieked, then bit her before flapping to move itself back far enough to rake at both of them with its talons, but scale and forcefield stopped the attack – though they were knocked back a bit. The acid continued to wreak havoc in its veins, and it retreated a further couple dozen feet.
Hyperdimensional Strike! Rai thought, slashing. The bird folded its wings and twisted in an instant, and the distant slash cut only feathers.
“Paralyzing Roar!” Isa cast again, her voice tearing through the skies. This time, the bird’s body locked up and it plummeted down into the clouds.
“After it!” she cried, shooting straight down.
“Guide me to it!” Rai told Braveheart, who was still comfortably inside his cloak, then followed Isa.
Back into the storm they went. It didn’t take long before they nearly ran into the bird, which way lying on the mountainside. They landed on top of its head and proceeded to line up killing blows. Despite the massive size of the creature, with it unable to move, they were able to deal great damage to its brain. Uncertain whether it was truly dead (since it was paralyzed), they did it again for good measure.
No other thunderbirds attacked as they followed Braveheart’s directions to the nest, which had a single horse-sized chick in it in addition to the slightly smaller than fist-sized star shard. The thunderclouds didn’t cover the nest, which allowed them to see what they were doing, to they grabbed the shard and left quickly after healing up again.
Around half an hour and several Flight spells later, they were back at the Tower.
“We’re back,” Isa announced.
“Well, that was quick,” Arcanius said, teleporting over to them. “Did you have any trouble?”
“Not really,” Rai answered. “We would have had a lot more difficulty fighting the thing’s guardian if Isa hadn’t managed to paralyze it.”
“I see.”
“We are both out of spells higher than second circle, though,” Isa said.
“Actually, I have one fifth circle spell slot,” Rai said, “but other than that, yeah.”
“Guess that means no more fighting for you today, eh? You all should rest up. But first…”
Rai took out the specially-sealed jar with the fragment and handed it over.
“Thank you,” the Archmage said. “Make yourselves at home; I’ve got more beds and things on the second floor.”
“Thanks, we will,” Isa said. “Where did the messenger go?”
“Back home to the celestial planes. He’ll be back again in a week or two. The three of you – and your drakes – are free to stay as long as you like. I have one of the best mana-gathering arrays in the world here, so you can get some really good meditation in. I don’t normally allow visitors access, but considering your connection to the God of Knowledge… well, just appreciate it. Oh, and once I’m done looking at the new fragment, you can set up filtering arrays in the same location.”
After eating supper – Arcanius had a magical device that conjured literal feasts – they used the teleportation circle to travel to the second floor, where they found a pair of rooms to spend the night in. They slept well, and the next morning they returned to the first floor to find Arcanius already involved in experimenting with the two shards.
“Good morning, children. Since I assume you’ll be staying at least a few days before heading off to get the last shard, I’ve decided to help you out a little. Please write down the spells you are capable of casting in those charts, putting a star in any box for which you have a spell available to learn but have yet to learn one.”
He gestured at a table where two sheets of paper lay. Both had a simple chart with empty boxes in two rows of five columns, one row at the top of the paper and the other on the bottom half, each column labeled with an ordinal number from zeroth to ninth (followed by the word “circle”). Rai and Isa picked up the fountain pens next to the papers and filled them out with their available spells.
Spells Known (Rai)
Zeroth Circle
First Circle
Second Circle
Third Circle
Fourth Circle
Tricks
Force Armor
Read Minds
Elemental Burst
Celestial Hellfire
Mage Sight
Elemental Palm
Elemental Ray
Elemental Bolt
Dimension Hop
Floating Lights
Elemental Fan
Dancing Sparks
Flight
Befuddle
Telekinesis
Illusion (Lesser)
Invisibility
Illusion (Greater)
*
Repair
Ward (Alarm)
Unlock
*
Whisper
Discern Flow
*
Transcribe
Comfort Zone
Fifth Circle
Sixth Circle
Seventh Circle
Eighth Circle
Ninth Circle
Elemental Wave
*
Spells Known (Isa)
Zeroth Circle
First Circle
Second Circle
Third Circle
Fourth Circle
Tricks
Enhance Scales
Firesmoke Burst
Hurling Toss
Dragonfire
Mage Sight
Corrosive Claw
Armor of Blood
Injurious Fury
Drain
Floating Lights
Caustic Blood
Sizzling Blood
Blood Elixir
*
Telekinesis
Healing Blood
Quake Stomp
*
Cacophony
Guided Blow
*
Mage Sign
Staring Contest
Vanity Scales
Fifth Circle
Sixth Circle
Seventh Circle
Eighth Circle
Ninth Circle
Corrosive Injection
Paralyzing Roar
Once they finished, Arcanius checked what they had written.
“Hm… Isa, girl, it seems your main focus is on your blood, yes? And you are also a strength-based fighter. Then I have some suggestions. Giant Size and Blood Venom for your second and third circle spells. The former triples your height (and other dimensions), increases your strength, and so on. It’ll be useful in fighting the fire giants.
“The latter,” the old mage continued, “causes your blood to spray out an hit your attackers, poisoning them whenever they hurt you. Assuming they don’t resist the poison, they will have their bodily constitution eaten away at for half a minute. Now, as for your fourth circle spell. Why don’t you go for another magic-charged roar? Something to terrify nearby opponents. Terrifying Roar, let’s call it. There. Three spells for you to try to coax out of your magical blood. See if you can successfully do it.”
He turned to Rai. “You have a slightly larger pool of available spells than Isa, but also more unfilled slots. I have three recommendations; fill the second circle spot with whatever you want. First, burn the spell path for Dispel into your soul. It will allow you to cancel or suppress magical effects, objects, and spells. It’s a third circle spell. The more circles your mana heart has, the more effective it will be, but the more powerful the magical effect, the more difficult a time you’ll have countering it. Second, Sensory Link is a fourth circle spell that allows you to share sight, hearing, and sense of smell with your familiar up to a thousand feet away for ten minutes – or, with that ring, twelve minutes – at a time.”
He coughed. “Excuse me. Lastly, for your fifth circle spell: Teleportation. Obviously. It’s the single most useful fifth circle spell in existence. You need to be familiar with the destination or have a detailed picture of it, and it won’t work if the destination has been too altered from your image/mental image, such as, say, by the passage of thousands of years, but the range is two hundred miles per circle in your mana heart (plus two hundred from your ring), and you can bring along up to one extra person or creature per circle (plus one from your ring). So, you plus six others up to twelve hundred miles at the moment. Braveheart is brought along automatically and doesn’t count against your limit. Anyway, if your soul allows for it, you’re an idiot if you don’t take it.”
He coughed again. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have some experimentation to do.”
“So… are we staying here?” Isa asked.
“If we wait until the end of summer, we should be directly over Mount Firemouth,” Rai answered. “That’s a couple months, but they won’t be wasted months – not only can I do research using his library – oh my goodness I’m about to pass out from excitement just thinking about it – but we can work on our qi cores and mana hearts.”
“Sounds good to me. We haven’t had much opportunity to do that since the start of spring, really, and we’ve got qi medicine from the dragon, the frost wolf alpha, and in a bit, we’ll also have some from the thunderbird. With a filter setup, we’ll be able to absorb more star energy, too. Yeah, taking a couple months to work on improving ourselves, especially since we’ve been doing a fair amount of fighting, will really be good for our progress.”
“Yi-meep!”
“Yes, you, too, Braveheart,” Rai said affectionately. “You, too. Maybe you’ll be able to reach third realm before we go to the volcano.”
“Meep!”
And so their productive wait began.