Getting back to the ground the next day was actually really fun. State of Grace lasted five minutes, though stretching it out over five people (and a bear) was tough. Still, Callie helped me offset some of the strain through the bond, and we all plummeted through the air in a big spread out circle, whooping in enjoyment of the wind in our faces. We touched down in the forest near the base of the mountain pretty easily.

Callie, Abel, Nat, Jessie, Randall and I. We'd brought along our healer just in case, but the rest of the group was picked specifically because I thought they could handle themselves (or in Nat's case because she knew the guy we were looking for). I wasn't entirely thrilled leaving my best friend up there alone, but it helped that either Bethy or Gabriel would be there to help at all times.

"Wow." Said Callie as we all caught our breaths. "That was bracing. We should definitely try the sky diving thing again sometime."

I snickered. "I'm betting we're going to do it another five times at least here. I'm more worried about getting back up. The way down is quick and painless. I could do without the agonizing trip to the top of damned mountain, I'm not looking forward to a repeat."

She gave me an angelic smile. "That's weird. It seemed pretty comfy to me." I noticed Nat glare at her and stifled a snicker of my own. Callie had been hanging off my back, so she hadn't gotten slammed into the mountainside a few dozen times on a rope. When she followed my gaze and noticed she gave an apologetic shrug. "I'm just messing with him, no offense meant."

Nat shrugged. "So what's our heading? You had Benny add it to that magic map right?" We'd used the map to establish a baseline for the calculations Benny had been doing, and it had auto updated as it was supposed to do. The far reaches of it weren't really filled in, but we did have a basic idea of the scale we were working with and a direction to go. I slipped the map out, unrolling it to check our current location.

"Looks like we're heading northwest, at least based on where he probably landed. Templeton saw him around the time he hit his own slide. Benny's calculations say he probably landed about five hundred miles that way." I pointed. "It looks like more west than north though, we've already traveled a decent distance into the interior. We're not like, halfway or anything but he didn't land even close to the center anyway."

We'd considered bringing the wolves with us, using them as transportation, but given they were only G-rank it seemed like kind of a risk. Jessie had been working with them using her new and improved lifeweaver ability to try to get them stronger, but she couldn't just poof them to F-rank. Her ability was more about healing than enhancement, so the speed of improvement wasn't enough for our purposes.

Sadly, that left us all running the distance between ourselves and the spot where Renaldi and his people probably touched down. Not that it was tough, we all had enough Might to make good time, but running in the woods, even with Perception to notice obstacles, Focus to process them, and Might to avoid them, was annoying as hell. It was anything but a straight line, and the trees grew thicker the further in we got.

We kept up our pace for a few hours before we drew to a stop in the approximate area that had been marked out. "Alright." I said as I looked around. "Keep your eyes peeled for any sign of passage. Benny didn't have the data to give us a solid location, so we're going to need to search nearby manually." I had my Eye of Revelation up, using it to search for any signs anyone had been here.

"So what are the chances we actually FIND them here?" Asked Nat skeptically. "I mean, no way they just sat around for days doing nothing. If they didn't get picked up by a kingdom like we did, they might have just gone out searching for lightblooms."

"Assuming they know what those even are." I agreed. "But either way, that's actually best case for us. Tracking them out of the core and into a kingdom would be nightmarish. Luckily, I don't think it's likely. They may have met up with someone, but it doesn't make sense to drag them out of the core just to meet up with some politicians and send them back in. More likely they had some sort of mobile force out with enough power to strong arm them, either that or they really are free agents out here."

She nodded. "I could see that. I take it you're planning to look around for a while and then wish for some kind of tracking device if you can't find them?"

"Pretty much." I said distractedly. "But between my Perception and my Eye of Revelation I suspect I'll be able to find SOME trace of their passing. The approximate area Benny gave us wasn't small, but it's not more than a few miles wide. I wouldn't want to waste the wishes."

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With that in mind, we spread out to look for clues. My Eye was damned useful for work like this, but it didn't turn out to be necessary. Within an hour I got a scan ring call from Callie, with directions to where she was. When I arrived, I found her standing in front of a pretty large stone tower. It wasn't big enough to poke out of the trees, which were pretty damned tall here, but it was sizable.

"So." She said in amusement. "What are the chances that they DIDN'T go into the spooky magic tower?"

I snorted. "I don't know. If we'd landed near one of these and didn't have any idea what was going on, what do you think we would have done?"

"Yeah, I think they're inside too." She chuckled. "Think this one of those wizard towers?" She asked, eyes scanning the length of the building. I could see runes carved into the stone, but they looked much less...ancient, than stuff on the temples.

"Probably." I said with a shrug. "My issue isn't whether they went in though, it's whether they're still there. Even if they did go inside, they could have cleaned the place out and bailed by now. Hard to say though, since we've never actually gone into one of these things. I think our best bet is to use a wish from Nat to get one of those compasses. It'll tell us not only if they're in there, but WHERE in there they are once we enter."

I'd been hoping to keep our wishes in case of an emergency, but I wasn't too broken up about using one or two if I had to. Callie seemed to be on the same page, or so I felt over the bond. She didn't have time to respond because Nat showed up the very next moment. I did love Perception sometimes, letting me pick up things like shoes on leaves when I was listening for them.

Focus normally precluded that kind of incidental spillover from stats, but given where we were I was keeping my ears peeled as well as my eyes. Turning to see my cousin, I waved her over even as Randall and Jessie emerged from the woods, with Abel showing up about a minute later. "Hey, we think they might have gone into the tower but aren't sure they're still there even if they did." Slipping out a bag of chits, I tossed it to her. "I wish for a method of tracking Miles Renaldi. Preferably an active one like a compass."

She weighed the bag with her hand then nodded. I watched the gathering electricity flow over her skin and blaze in her eyes, the distinctive purple lightning that only we could use or even see. It gathered in a blinding flash in the hand opposite the bag, and when it faded, a small golden compass was sitting in her empty palm. She tossed it over to me and I caught it easily.

Holding it up, I got a direction, it WAS pointed at the tower, but that could have been a coincidence, so I did a single lap of the outside of the building, and sure enough the compass continued to point right at the place. "Looks like we found them." I told my friends."Plus we get to explore this place. I can't wait to see if there are any spellbooks!" I paused. "We're sure all the conduits are in temples, right?"

Callie shrugged. "Based on what you and Annalise puzzled out I'd wager the places were built as some sort of amplifier or focus. Or at least used to map out the ritual. This place doesn't look as old either. Probably just some random wizard's evil lair."

I shrugged. "Works for me. Give me a minute to call this in to Anna-Marie just in case she has some kind of information about this place." I retreated off to one side to spin up my scan ring, and the princess answered pretty promptly.

"Solomon?" She said worriedly. "I haven't heard from any of you in a while. No one's hurt are they? You called with all those questions and then just vanished."

"Nothing is wrong." I assured her. "We had a big meeting that took ages then went to sleep for a while. We just got finished with a trip. We ran into what we think is one of those wizard towers you mentioned, but we wanted to run the details by you in case it was something else."

She looked relieved. "Of course. I'm happy to help. Show me the location?" I held up my ring, showing the screen towards the building as I walked another slow circuit around it, letting her take in all the stones and the runes and all that. She consulted with her team of experts and their books, and within probably twenty minutes was back with an answer.

It was a wizard tower, though not one that she'd heard of. We weren't lucky enough to learn the wizard's name or favorite breakfast food or anything that would help us traverse it safely. I thanked her and hung up, and then we all gathered at the entrance. The door inside was big, with a crossbar holding it shut. It was large enough for Randall to enter easily, which was nice, but I wasn't sure I liked that the wizard needed a door that size.

After Callie did her trap seeking thing and I gave the place a once over with Eye of Revelation, we pushed the bar off the door (how it had gotten back on if Renaldi's team was still inside was another question I didn't want the answer to) and then made our way inside...and froze.

The other side of the door was dirt. Like actual earth you'd find outside. We stepped onto a huge chunk of rock and the door slammed behind us, a thump answering the question I hadn't wanted answered. I wasn't worried, we could break the door, it wasn't enchanted that I could see and it was only F-rank wood.

That wasn't the part that stunned us though. Past the rock we were on there was just...empty sky. Purple and orange and yellow clouds, like a permanent sunset, with black ones floating mixed in sparking with white blue lightning. The lightning struck out at the staircases that ran between our rock and other similar rocks with doors on them, grounding harmlessly about twenty feet out from the steps.

"Ok." Said Callie in a hushed tone. "I have to admit. This is pretty cool." I nodded along as we stared out into the endless expanse. Wizard's tower indeed. This place was amazing. I just hoped it wasn't as dangerous as it was fascinating. Sadly my luck never seemed to work that way.