by Taran, David
“What? How did that happen?” Sarena asked.
“The pendant!” Uckey interrupted. “It’s full of life magic, which is the natural counter to mana. No mage is able to perceive it - aside from elves - so wearing the pendant makes you invisible to Tyrus. It’s an innate ability that all elves have actually.”
Sarena reached up to the pendant at her neck and took it off to inspect it. She had forgotten about it in the heat of the battle.
The pendant itself was a glowing green gem in the shape of an oval. It was the size of the palm of her hand, and connected to a chain made of a strange black stone with faint blue lines in it. Her hand felt warm as the pendant’s glow pulsed slowly, almost like a heartbeat.
“It’s not going to bond itself to me like Tyrus is it? I’m not sure I could handle another one,” Sarena asked, only half joking as she placed it around her neck again.
“Of course not! I may not be an expert on life magic, but I assure you that only a mana mage could create a bond!” Uckey said.
“Then what does it do? Besides hide my aura that is,” she said.
“Well I’m sure given enough time I could understand the intricacies of it, but we have other things to focus on right now!” Uckey replied.
“In other words, you have no idea. What a surprise,” Tyrus said dryly.
“Before you two start your bantering again, would you mind explaining exactly how we got here?” Sarena said before Uckey could answer.
She could already feel a headache coming on from listening to the two of them.
“It was a Gateway. Apparently you can use them to travel instantly to another Gateway connected to it,” Tyrus said.
“I don’t remember stepping through any kind of gate,” Sarena said as she turned her head left and right. It was the first time she had actually looked around since arriving.
The area she had fought the treant in was a large room made entirely of wood. The size of it was staggering, being at least two hundred feet long and half as wide. Above them the ceiling was open to the sky, with the walls ending jaggedly all around. In some places it reached as high as forty feet above them, while others were low enough for Sarena to reach over. Trees as tall as mountains with trunks thick enough to house Garland Keep itself stretched into the sky, their branches extending in every direction far above them. There was no sunlight below the thick canopy, but tiny glowing lights floated along in the air everywhere she looked, creating a beautiful scene unlike anything she had ever seen before.
Incredible. How can a place like this exist? I can see why the elves didn’t want to give it up.
“The entire room is the Gateway. When we picked up the pendant it must have acted as the key, and sent us directly to Felaenahona,” Tyrus explained.
“What was the pendant doing there, Uckey? You said it should have been with the elven royal line. So why was it being used as a key in a Gateway?” She asked.
“How should I know! This isn’t my time either! Whatever reason they had for putting it there is beyond me!” Uckey yelled in aggravation.
Must be getting to him how little he seems to know now. I just hope this Felaenahona place is close enough to Stewrix that we can make it in time.
“So how do we get out of here? And how far to Stewrix is it?” Sarena asked.
“Well it’s about the same distance, so we haven’t lost any time. Stewrix is almost due west now. But as for getting out of here, that’s easier said than done. Take a look out the door and you’ll see why,” Uckey said.
Sarena stood up slowly, her joints creaking as she did so. I must have been out for a long time. I haven’t felt this sore since I first started learning the sword from Grandfather.
She walked to the single door that lead into the room. It was a large half-oval arc that rose up over twice Sarena’s height. The doors themselves were missing, obviously lost at some point in the past. When she came to the doorway she looked out at the city. Her heart sank at the sight.
The building they were in was situated at the top of a hill, giving an unobstructed view of the rest of the city. There were wood buildings similar to the Gateway they were in, only smaller and more complex, while just as many buildings were made of stone. She had been expecting there to be trees everywhere, and it was clear the city had been built with them in mind. Or rather, it had been built around them in the first place. But the trees weren’t there any more - aside from those monstrosities that covered the sky of course.
It’s not that the trees had died. Oh no, that would have been too simple. Instead those hundreds or thousands of trees had transformed, becoming the treants that now shambled along the streets of Felaenahona. Sarena lost track of their numbers as she drew her gaze across the city. They were all different sizes, but even the smallest that she could see matched the one she had destroyed, while the tallest looked to be over one hundred feet tall. She glanced back at the corpse of the twenty foot tall monster. Its body was split cleanly in two from the head all the way down to where its stomach should be.
Seven hells. It took everything I had just to kill that one, and it looks like it was the weakest of the bunch. How are we supposed to get out of this mess?
She turned and walked back to Uckey on unsteady legs.
“What are we going to do?” She asked while sitting down and wrapping her arms around her legs. At this point she wasn’t even sure it was worth trying. Every time they took a step forward it felt like the world shoved them back two more.
“There’s only one way out that I can think of. We’ll need to take the Skyway,” Uckey said.
Sarena raised her head and stared at the gnome with one eyebrow raised. Does he expect me to know what he’s talking about?
Uckey snorted, which Sarena assumed was an attempt at clearing his throat. “The Sky trees are what block out the sun above us. There are pathways within the trunks that lead to the higher branches. We can use them to travel to the edge of the city. The elves always maintain an outpost on the other side of the barrier used to hold the treants in, and should be willing to let us out,” he explained.
She stood up and looked out the door. The closest Sky tree she could see wasn’t that far, but there were still at least a dozen treants blocking the path to its base. Sarena knew she was even stronger now - her core had grown noticeably after she woke up - but at most she could handle two of them. Only one if it was much larger than the one she had killed already, and there were at least four of that size in the way.
“I guess we’re going to have to run for it then. Just be careful, Uckey. They may be slow to react, but they run faster than you’d expect,” Sarena said.
“Yeah, and they pack quite a punch too. That treant you fought sent Uckey flying halfway across the room by accident,” Tyrus added.
“It’s a good thing this body is so sturdy! You two are lucky that none of the creatures you came across in the Godwoods were able to stop Tyrus’ blade. I doubt you would have survived the encounter,” Uckey said.
Sarena turned to the treant’s corpse and started towards it.
“There’s no core,” Tyrus said. “Your stone sword must have shattered it.”
She kept walking until she stood next to where the sword was buried into the treant. The blade had held out even after she passed out, albeit with cracks all along the edge and large chunks missing.
Well at least now I know how to deal with something that Tyrus can’t cut.
“Let’s go then. No point wasting time here, it’s not like the treants are just going to leave,” she said as she turned back to Uckey.
They walked to the door and Sarena jumped onto his back. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she looked towards the path that would take them to the Sky tree.
Gods help me. How did my life come to this?
Chapter Fourteen
Sarena looked down the path they had to travel. It twisted back and forth like a snake, winding its way around the buildings of the city. Most of them were round instead of the normal squa
re shape she was used to seeing. None of them looked to be more than two stories tall, making it easy to keep track of all the treants meandering around the road.
The path itself was remarkably well preserved for having been abandoned for thousands of years. It was made of cobblestone – cracked all over from the treants no doubt – and covered with debris from the destroyed buildings around them, but aside from that it might as well have been new. There were no roots to tear up the stones since all of the plants that could have grown large enough to do so had mutated.
“So the plan is for Uckey to sprint through everything, and hope that they can’t fit into the Sky tree behind us,” Sarena said.
“How sad is it that this isn’t even the worst plan we’ve had to come up with?” Tyrus asked.
“Don’t remind me. Hurry it up Uckey, we’re wasting time here,” Sarena said.
Uckey trotted down the steep hill. He completely ignored the steps that lead up to the Gateway and instead opted for the straightest route. For some reason the treants tended to stay on the roads, so their way was clear up until they stepped onto the path itself. It wasn’t long before Uckey took his first step onto the cobblestones.
The city was eerily silent aside from the occasional rumble of a treant taking a step. There was no sound of any kind of wildlife, nor any birds singing. Even the air was perfectly still. Which is why every treant in sight stopped and turned to stare at them as Uckey’s hoof clicked on the cobblestone.
The world seemed to stand still around them for a heartbeat before dozens of treants began to charge. Sarena could feel the earth trembling beneath them even while mounted on Uckey.
“Run!” She screamed while lowering her body on his back.
“I already am!” He yelled back.
Seven hells! If they can hear so well, why didn’t any of them come when I was fighting that other one earlier? Is it because they couldn’t see us behind the walls?
The world blurred around them as Uckey shot forward, dodging around or jumping over any rubble that blocked their path. Sarena was forced to use her wind magic just to keep her balance as Uckey ran. Before she could even react they had already passed the first treant on the path. It didn’t have time to do more than reach its arm toward them as Uckey hopped to the right and danced past it.
Unfortunately the other treants in the way had more time to prepare themselves, and most of them were using it to run straight at them. Their massive legs pumped into the ground with staggering force, launching them forward faster than seemed possible. Uckey was still able to slip past the next three, all of which were only slightly larger than the one Sarena had defeated. But the one coming up ahead of them was one of the largest ones she had seen.
It towered over them so much that just one of its legs almost entirely filled up the path. With such a huge size advantage all it needed to do was lift its leg and then crush them as they ran under. And that’s exactly what it tried to do.
As the huge mass of bark and roots raised itself into the air, Sarena dropped her wind magic to pull up as much stone as she could.
“Keep going Uckey! I’ll stop its leg!” She called out while pouring all of her strength into the stone.
Uckey didn’t even slow as they passed under the shadow of the leg. It began its descent as soon as they were underneath it, making Sarena’s heart skip a beat at the sight.
All around them stone shot into the air, creating a passageway through the shadow just wide enough for them to fit. It continued to rise well over their heads until it met the leg on its way down, instantly shattering under the immense weight. Shards of stone and dust filled the passage, cutting into Sarena’s skin and making her cough.
She had never tried to control so much stone so quickly before, and the drain it caused was beyond even what she was expecting. By the time the stone collided with the leg she was already almost spent, but her efforts paid off. While it may have only slowed the treant for a moment, it was enough for them to reach the other end and escape just as the leg crashed to the ground.
“Faster Uckey,” she gasped. “I can’t do that again.”
She called on the wind with the last dredges of her strength, using it to cling to Uckey’s back. Just that alone was taking most of her concentration. Her vision blurred slightly as she looked forward. There were still over half a dozen treants in their way, but none of them were anywhere near the size of the one they had just passed.
The treants may be fast in a straight line, but when it came to turning they may as well still be trees. As long as they could dodge one attack – which so far had never deviated from an outstretched arm, aside from the giant they just passed – they would be in the clear.
Uckey was able to easily avoid the clumsy swings of the treants as he ran, closing in on the Sky tree rapidly. When there was just one mid-sized treant left in the way Sarena heard Tyrus cry out a warning.
“The giant one is back! We need to move faster or we’re not going to make it!” He yelled.
“I’m going as fast as I can already!” Uckey replied.
Sarena stared forward at the Sky tree. It would only take another ten breathes of time for them to reach it, and the treant in front of it was already moving towards them. Uckey pranced around the usual swing, but Sarena risked a glance back as he did so.
Her breath caught in her throat as a dozen of the roots from the giant treant’s left arm rushed through the air straight at them. Each one of the roots was as thick around as Uckey was tall, and they all ended in a sharp point. If even one of them touched them they would have no chance of survival, and there was no way they would reach the Sky tree in time.
Her mind was in a panic as she called on as much wind as she could, feeling it rush to every corner of her body. It felt like she would burst if she called anymore, so she did the only thing she could think of. She placed the palm of her hand on Uckey’s back, and willed the power in her to fill him instead. Nothing happened at first, but after a moment Sarena felt a warmth in her chest, and like a dam had burst she felt the power inside of her rapidly gush out of her hand into Uckey.
A searing pain blossomed in her left shoulder as they darted forward. Only a few heartbeats had passed, but it felt like an eternity to her. A roaring sound filled her ears as the wind rushed by. Sarena could feel the ground buckle as the roots crashed into the earth right behind them.
Relief flooded through her as she saw them enter the small doorway of the Sky tree. It was barely large enough for them to fit through on Uckey’s back, and it lead straight into a large stairwell to their left.
Finally we’re safe.
“Just keep going,” she mumbled while struggling to hold her eyes open. At some point she had lost a hold of her power – probably because she had none left – and had fallen forward against Uckey’s neck. “I...just need to rest for a while. Don’t stop for me.”
Once again she felt the world fade away around her.
Am I ever going to sleep normally again?
*****
Tyrus knew Sarena was still right next to him, passed out as usual. But she had never taken the pendant off, which left him woefully unable to check on her core. She had used far more power than she should have, and he wasn’t entirely sure what had happened at the end.
“Uckey, what just happened? Is Sarena alright?” He asked while inspecting their surroundings. The inside of the Sky tree was fairly bland. Just a staircase that wound around the tree until it reached the branches far above them. The Sky tree itself thrummed with power, but aside from giving him a mild headache it didn’t seem to do anything else.
“I think so, but we won’t know for sure until she wakes up,” Uckey said.
Tyrus waited a few moments before speaking up. “This...How is using her power like this going to affect her? It can’t be normal to lose consciousness every time she does anything.”
Uckey sighed. “No. It isn’t normal at all. It’s a miracle she hasn’t shattered her core already; most lik
ely your bond has something to do with that. Straining herself like this would take weeks, if not months, to recover from for anyone else. The strength she has gained in the past two days surpasses what most would achieve in as many decades.”
At this rate it doesn’t even matter if we reach the book in time. She’s going to kill herself before we get there.
“What about that burst of speed you had? I thought I could feel her wind magic in you for a moment, but that can’t be right,” he asked.
“I think she enchanted me!” Uckey said. “That usually takes much more training to manage! I wonder how she did it.”
Didn’t he say that only mana mages could enchant things?
“What do you mean? I thought her wind magic was internal only? And aren’t mana mages the only ones that can enchant things?” He asked.
“Technically yes, but internal magic can be used to temporarily enchant something. It’s mostly used to enchant your weapon, but it’s not easy to do. Usually only Masters are capable of it,” Uckey answered. “It takes quite a bit of power, and once you run out the enchantment dissipates. Enchanting a living creature is even more difficult than that. I’ve never heard of someone below the rank of Archmage that could do it.”
“What are all these ranks about? You’ve mentioned them a couple times, but never explained them,” Tyrus asked as they trotted up the stairs. He wished he could see at times like these. There were regularly spaced openings in the walls that would give a fantastic view of the city.
“They are shavren rankings for mages. Most shavren have very specific magic and are useless for anything else,” Uckey explained.
“Right, like the brewer we met back in Tovern,” Tyrus interjected.
“Yes, exactly! Shavren with that kind of magic aren’t really considered mages. Only those that have true magic are granted a rank. The lowest, and most common, is a battlemage, followed by Master Mages, then Archmage, and finally Highmage. There’s usually only one Highmage and a handful of Archmages at a time, but with just their power they are stronger than all the battlemages and Master mages combined,” Uckey said.
