Lighting Distant Shores

by Nathan Thompson

  I thought to call forth Carnwennan’s shroud, but there was little purpose to being invisible in total darkness. Anything that was not hindered by an environment devoid of light probably wasn’t hindered by invisibility either. So I summoned Claimh Solais instead, and the sword of light revealed the stone floor before us, serving the purpose of a lantern within the murky Pathway. We couldn’t see any walls, which meant we could not determine whether we were still traveling through another one of Avalon’s long tunnels or already in the artificial realm the supercomputer had mentioned earlier.

  A dozen or so steps later, I had my answer. The floor changed from stone tiles to unworked rock, then packed dirt, then mud, finally ending in an abundance of tiny grains of sand. Then we were suddenly free of the inky blackness, and the floor beneath us was not dry ground at all, but liquid. A shallow pool of water, no deeper than a puddle formed in the rain, stretched out as far as the eye could see. The sky over our heads reminded me of a gloomy day on a beach, ruining the trip by constantly threatening to storm, just enough to make my parents wonder if the kids would take a lightning bolt if they went for a swim.

  The water was stagnant, though it looked mostly clean. That was frustrating, because with no landmarks, some kind of current or tide would have been the next best thing to figure out where we should go.

  “Um… Wes?” Val said hesitantly, kicking at the water with her boot. It made a faint ripple, and left a murky footprint at the bottom before the water flowed back, but that was it. “Are all of these Rites or whatever going to suck this much, or was it just the last two?”

  “Probably would have liked the ghosts and skeletons more,” Eadric grunted sarcastically, standing next to me as his eyes swept the inch-deep sea for landmarks. “She’s got a point though. There’s nothing out here. We’d have to pick a direction at random, but we could go a dozen miles before we even knew it was the wrong direction.”

  “Right,” I replied. “And then whatever else is out here could just wait until we’re tired to attack us. Speaking of what was out here, Virtus? Breyn? What force was behind the invasion of this place?”

  As best as I could gather, the mysterious, shadowy invader behind Avalon’s ancient invasion drew armies from many different worlds before bringing them through the Pathways. So far, it seemed to me that each of these rooms had fallen to a different force. Breyn and Virtus had been part of the forces defending and attacking Avalon back then, respectively. But they both shook their heads at me.

  “We didn’t have much contact with the force attacking Avalon’s ocean population,” Virtus answered me.

  “What do you mean, ‘ocean population?’” I asked. “That sounds like a different thing than what was going on in the Woadlands.”

  “You’re right,” Breyn said uncomfortably. The young Gaelguard sighed. “We were just sending a delegation to arrive in time for Avalon’s selection of a new Planetary Lord. The Atlanteans had sent their entire surviving civilization.”

  “Atlanteans?” I asked. “You called them Atlanteans?”

  “I did,” Breyn said, blinking. “Was there a reason I shouldn’t have?”

  I started to answer, before I stopped myself. Atlantis was a mythical city that supposedly sunk into the sea. There shouldn’t be a prehistoric equivalent on another planet.

  Then again, Avalon was supposed to be a mythical island somewhere off the coast of England. Even though people from Earth had been visiting the place for generations, everyone who heard about it would magically forget a few days later. But we still had legends and stories that continued to be passed down, despite that mythical loss of direct knowledge.

  Come to think of it, we had countless legends about many of the different monsters and humanoid races I had encountered on Avalon’s sister worlds, even if I didn’t count the dwarf, elf, and wizard standing next to me. Breena and everyone else should have been constantly explaining every sight and sound, every minute of the day. They did spend a lot of time teaching me, but I found I usually had a reference point for at least half of the amazing things I had encountered out here.

  “I just recognized the name,” I answered. “Which is weird, because I shouldn’t have been able to, but I’ll talk with Breena about that in a minute. Are Atlanteans inhabitants of a place called Atlantis? That sank into the sea at some point?”

  Breyn nodded again.

  “That’s common knowledge,” he said confidently. “Even among tribes of Woadfolk.”

  “Umm,” Petalbell interrupted him awkwardly. “No, it’s not. Not even among the older tribes of Woad elves and fairies. Only a few of them have ever heard of the place.”

  “The Testifiers have a few records,” Karim, my dark-skinned script mage said. “But the information is far from complete. There are only a handful of oral legends and a few artifacts that suggest the place may have existed. But if it did, it would have been by far the oldest developed settlement in the Sun-Jeweled Seas.” The wizard sounded confident, but closed his eyes, as if he was checking his own memory. “The second and third oldest ports existed for ten thousand years at the most, and are believed to have been overrun this last century in the war against the Malus Men.”

  “Really?” Breyn was incredulous. “It was an event that shook all of Avalon’s sister worlds! The Planetary Lord of Avalon had to intervene! He probably saved the entire world from disaster! It was thanks to him that any of the population survived at all!”

  “You have to remember how much time has passed since you and I walked the earth,” Virtus said somberly to the young man who had been slumbering for epochs. “Even in our time, the office of Planetary Lord had been vacant for centuries. Now, it is all but forgotten. We are lucky that any legends of the Atlantean’s fate exist at all. Especially since the Atlanteans themselves did not escape their final doom.”

  “What do you mean?” Breyn asked, sounding horrified.

  “I mean that, by all accounts, no more than a handful of Atlanteans escaped from Avalon into the Earthborn’s portal. It’s possible that they were wiped out to every man, woman, and child.”

  “But they were not fighters,” Breyn protested. “They weren’t like the other delegates. They were a large group, and they had put down roots here. They had been part of Avalon for centuries.”

  “The Avalonians were mostly citizens here as well,” the skeleton answered. “It didn’t make any difference for them, either. Their souls were torn from their bodies just as quickly.”

  “Alright, back on task, people,” I admonished gently. “We’ve gained back a lot of people and things that should have been lost for good. Let’s try and find out what we can save. Do either of you have any advice right now?”

  Virtus shook his head again, to my frustration.

  “This section of the attack was classified. I got in trouble just for asking about it. But as far as I could tell, our employer left this particular front to one of his great beasts. I didn’t know which one,” he added before I could ask. “But the fact that it could be trusted at all with a leadership position meant it was different than the rest.” The soldier turned his skull to the horizon of shallow water. “If it is still alive down here, that’s… going to be cause for concern. Any one of those giants would have been a match for Prodontis’ entire army of Keepers at their strongest state. We should use caution. Whatever claimed this place was ancient, powerful, and intelligent.”

  So it was like us, Teeth concluded inside of my mind.

  What do you mean? I asked irritably. He just described an ancient, slumbering monster with its own ambitions.

  Exactly, Teeth answered me. You need to stop forgetting that you are a dragon, and that you always have been. But even if you keep ignoring it, it will become more obvious soon, when you gain more power.

  Less ominous, unhelpful interruptions, I snarled at him. And more concise, clear explanations, given at times I can afford to pay attention.

  Okay, Teeth said indifferently. How about this, asshole? I can
smell something in the distance. Tell your people not to move.

  I flinched at that. My people sensed my apprehension through the mindlink and all froze with me.

  It saved us.

  Maybe half a mile out in the watery expanse, but far too close for my own comfort, a wave suddenly swelled up. It shouldn’t have, given how shallow the surrounding body of water appeared . But this wave was over ten feet high, and it rippled out in opposite directions, like the wake left behind a ship.

  Or from something swimming underneath.

  We stayed absolutely still as the wave washed out. The nearly-invisible source of the wave blurred across our vision for mere seconds before it finally disappeared, as if suddenly diving fathoms down into the watery depths.

  Of what should have been an inch-deep lake.

  Give it a thirty-second count before anybody moves or breathes, I insisted through the mindlink, eternally thankful that we had a method of silent communication. Actually, a minute. Make it a minute before anyone does anything.

  I was being paranoid. But something about the sight of an almost-invisible creature creating waves like that had shaken me.

  It was the scent, Teeth informed me. What you smelled. That’s why you’re scared right now.

  I just yelled at you about being more helpful, I replied. Can you work on being more helpful? I don’t smell anything at all out here but humidity and my own armor.

  You smelled it, alright, Teeth replied. You just don’t realize it yet. It’s a scent you don’t have a frame of reference for. I recognized it pretty well, though.

  Stop being so goddamn thirsty and tell me what is going on, I replied angrily, still trying not to freak out.

  You smelled the scent of a greater predator, dumbass, Teeth retorted. Of one of the great beasts. Specifically? You smelled a giant goddamn dragon.

  The silence stretched past my one-minute mark.

  Wes? Breena asked. Are you okay? Can we move now?

  No, I answered. Sorry. Give me a second.

  Before you go off again, Teeth said snidely, happy to be the expert right now. You’re okay. It didn’t notice you because it didn’t need to. You’re too small and it’s probably too full. It just wanted to splash in the water with the tip of its tail. And yes, that was just the tip that made those waves. We probably would have drowned if it had really emerged.

  How can we drown in an inch of water? I demanded. And didn’t I kill a dragon before?

  A distant cousin, but yeah, Teeth answered. And you devoured enough of it for our senses to improve. It’s why we can smell better right now. And why your genetic memory has awakened enough to know a bit of fear when you face a dragon greater than you.

  I’m not afraid, I insisted stubbornly. And you haven’t answered my questions about drowning out here.

  Um, Wes? Val sent to me. There’s something wrong with the ground under us.

  I turned to look at her. She was staring into the water under her boots, and her already dark pupils were jet-black from the use of Shadow magic.

  It’s not really mud, she replied, using her magic to search out the secrets hidden in the dark. It’s solid at first, but if I really put weight on my feet… wait, can I put weight on my feet? And can we talk normally again?

  “Yeah,” I said out loud. Staying in the mindlink was preferable, but every now and then using it too much would cause a really bad headache. “Go for it. We can move now.”

  Everyone else in my group let out a breath I hadn’t realized they’d been holding. Val shifted her weight, frowned as if she was trying to push her foot down, and began to sink in front of us.

  “Don’t freak out,” she said to me as she pulled her foot back out. “I have to really work at it to do it. And most of you are much heavier than me and in armor, but you’re not sinking at all. So it can’t happen accidentally. This is weird.”

  “She’s right,” Breena spoke up, flying around and muttering some kind of divination spell. She shook her head at the spell’s results. “Three of you are putting way more pressure than she was a second ago, even though you’re not even trying. But the ground, if it counts as ground, is reacting more to being pushed instead of being pressured. If that makes sense.”

  “It doesn’t,” Karim said, narrowing his eyes as light shined from them, his own divination magic at work. “Weight is weight. A massive beast should still press down harder on the floor than a tiny mouse, even if it isn’t trying to at all.”

  “Are you calling me a mouse?” Val asked, cocking an eyebrow at him.

  She was probably feeling as much tension as I did, and was trying to relieve some of it.

  “Hold on,” I said. “Let me try something.”

  Is that thing still nearby? I asked Teeth.

  Not as far as I can tell, the new guy replied. I started to push my foot down, then asked him a second question.

  How are you smelling anything through water anyway?

  Dumbass, FNG replied. You think this is normal water?

  I ignored him, and with a little bit of pressure, pushed my boot through the semisolid mass under my feet, letting my leg sink down halfway up to my shin.

  It was a gradual thing, so I kept my balance through the process. When I tried to raise my leg again, instead of pulling straight back up, I moved it to side to side. A small tide of water rippled upward, creating its own mini wave. Within the uplifted water was a noticeable swirl of a darker color, and it had come from the false ground I had pushed up.

  “Liquid,” Petalbell said suddenly. “We’re standing on more liquid,” she blinked in realization. “It’s a trap spell.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, gripping my weapon. Breaker’s second form had dimmed its light once we had entered this place, and I contemplated swapping it out for a weapon with longer reach. “Did we trigger it?”

  But the fairy shook her head.

  “It’s not meant to ‘catch,’ it’s meant to ‘keep'. To keep something far beneath us from escaping.”

  Avalon? I asked, and as usual, the planet didn’t answer. Would have been cheating, I guess.

  “It’s most likely one of the containment measures Avalon triggered to keep invaders trapped down here,” I decided, remembering how Virtus’ cohort and Prodontis’ people all had been unable to leave after conquering one of these locations. “Which means the real secrets are beneath all of this, not on top,” I said, sweeping out a hand. “We’ll have to look around until we can find a way to safely descend.”

  Everyone nodded, and we settled for trying to pick a direction at random. But then Weylin’s elven eyes narrowed, and he carefully drew his bow.

  “Look,” he said, pointing with a weapon he’d only get to use now, before the water ruined his bowstring. “Something’s coming up again.”

  A second wave rolled out, from a farther distance away than the first had been. It wasn’t anywhere near as high, and by the time it reached us, it resembled the gentle tide of a calm day at the beach.

  Except for the body in it.

  A naked, scale-covered corpse washed up to our feet. Its face reminded me of my own dragon form, human-like but with much larger jaws.

  Shit, Teeth cursed in my mind. Kill it, quick.

  For some reason, I hesitated.

  Why? I asked.

  Just do it!

  Reptilian eyes suddenly opened, and the jaw on the dragon-man moved.

  “Earthborn?” It asked, sounded vaguely surprised. Then it suddenly hissed.

  An arrow snapped into its mouth, turning the hiss into a gurgle. Then, finally acting on Teeth’s directions, I slammed Claimh Solais into the monster’s eye, twisting the weapon around and waiting until the monster finished thrashing before I pulled it back out.

  Damn it, Teeth snarled. Too late. He saw us.

  Who did? I demanded. And what was the big deal?

  In my defense, Teeth had always been pretty impulsive. He usually told me to kill, eat, or kiss something three times a day, though th
at last one was usually just Stell, and ‘kissing’ was an understatement. It happened often enough that I usually didn’t even bother making a note of it. So it was understandable that I didn’t immediately act on his directions in this instance either.

  Bullshit, Teeth thought at me angrily. You didn’t act in time because you’re still afraid. Trying to hide your frightened ass from the larger predator.

  I was not! I shouted at him, angry that he had made that accusation twice. I started to ask him what the thing was, but then I swore and reminded myself that I knew Blood magic.

  I reached down to the brain-dead creature and cast the spell called Know thy Scent.

  Now that I had reached the Practitioner level, I was able to gain a more detailed history from what I examined with this spell. It had yielded vague information back when I used it on the Chaos Wound, but now I would be able to get most of the creature’s history, including major details like its age and method of birth.

  The first thing I learned was that the monster had been alive for hundreds, if not thousands, of seconds.

  No older than that. It was several minutes old at the very most. An hour ago, it hadn’t even been born yet.

  It wouldn’t have lived very long to begin with. In fact, its body was going to decompose in a few minutes anyway, at a rate that would have made mayflies feel old. Despite having arms, legs, and other humanoid features, it wasn’t that complicated of an organism.

  Oddly enough, though, the oldest feature on the monster was its skin.

  Its other body parts had been grown from scratch. However, its scales were cast-off material from some other, larger organism. Those had been the first part that was created to form the monster, and their creator had done so by tearing them off its own body and shaping them into the thing’s current form. The rest had been grown directly from the blood of some other creature and Water magic.

  It’s a Scaleling, dumbass, Teeth snapped at me. And I could have told you that.

  Yeah, but I hate you, so I didn’t bother to ask, I snapped back, then caught myself.

  Teeth and I fought like unwilling roommates all the time, but it usually wasn’t as bad as this. Something had us both really high-strung.