Journey Into Nyx

by Jenna Helland

  “What is that?” Elspeth asked in disbelief.

  “I saw it beneath the waves,” Ajani said. “Did you not—”

  A female voice spoke behind them and startled them both: “How did you raise my ship?”

  They spun around to see a triton grinning at them. She had light blue fins and finlike hair, and she was standing with one foot up on a rock, like the confident conqueror of the world.

  “That’s the Monsoon?” Elspeth asked. “You brought Callaphe’s ship back …”

  “From the proverbial graveyard,” Ajani said. “Apparently, it hadn’t sailed off into Nyx.”

  “At least not the way they describe it in legends,” Callaphe said. “Well, this is an unusual predicament. What happens now, leonin?”

  Elspeth could hear the threat implied in her voice. She obviously didn’t like people toying with her property. Elspeth started to speak but decided to wait. Ajani was the one who cast the spell that offended the mariner, and Callaphe had addressed the question to him. Ajani took his time in answering.

  “Have you noticed the void in the night sky?” he asked

  “You mean the moat of oblivion?” Callaphe answered. “It’s hard to miss.”

  “Where do you stand in the conflict between the gods and the mortals?” Ajani asked.

  “It’s not my fight,” Callaphe answered. “There is no dust of Nyx on my fins or stars in my belly.”

  “My companion has been falsely blamed for the state of the world,” Ajani said. “She must set things right.”

  Callaphe looked at Elspeth with interest. “You do have a lovely spear.”

  Elspeth put her hand on the hilt protectively, and Callaphe grinned. “I don’t want your mongrel blade, but I know what it’s like to be blamed for everything. So what do you want from me and my ship?”

  “Can you take us to the edge of the world?” Elspeth said. “I need to get to Nyx.”

  “Somehow, I knew you were going to say that,” Callaphe said. “Well, you’re in luck. I was just heading out that way myself. The winds are favorable, and there’s no time to lose.”

  “Just like that?” Ajani asked.

  “I’m a kind soul,” Callaphe said. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

  “What do you want in return?” Ajani asked. “We won’t get on the water until we hear your demands.”

  “Aw, the cat doesn’t trust me,” Callaphe pouted. “Well, how’s this? When I deposit you at Kruphix’s Tree, you leave my ship and never put your paws on it again?”

  “Sounds fair,” Ajani said. Elspeth knew her friend well enough to hear the edge in his voice and know that he was holding something back.

  “Then, let’s go,” Callaphe said. She ran to the edge of Weeping Rock and dived gracefully into the crashing waves. For a moment, they thought the triton had vanished, but then a walkway of a branching coral-like material rose out of the ocean and arched from the Weeping Rock onto the Monsoon. Callaphe breached out of the water like a dolphin, flipped into the air, and alighted gracefully on the boards of the boat.

  “Step aboard,” she called. “It’s perfectly safe.”

  “Be vigilant,” Ajani whispered to Elspeth has they crossed over to the ship.

  Elspeth glanced back at her friend. “Why?”

  “What sort of triton needs a ship?” he asked.

  Elspeth gaped at him in surprise, and Ajani took her elbow to steady her. They stepped onto the rocking ship as Callaphe took her place by the steering oars.

  “The winds are favorable,” she repeated as Ajani and Elspeth sat on the dark honeycombed thwarts that spanned the hull. “We’ll find the end of the world before night falls.”

  “Hopefully before the gods see us coming,” Elspeth said.

  Callaphe steered the boat to face west, loosed the sail, and the Monsoon sprang forward like a beast in pursuit of its prey.

  The Monsoon sailed with unnatural speed for the horizon, and soon the Siren’s Shipyard vanished behind them. It was as if there was an invisible cord lashed to the prow and unseen hands dragged the ship toward an ultimate destination. There was a strong northerly wind, but it had no effect on their bearing as they barreled headlong into the blustery gales. At first Elspeth thought that Callaphe was mystically propelling the ship as it skimmed across the waves, but soon the triton left her station by the mast. She vaulted up onto the narrow gunwale and pranced lightly along it as easily as walking on a line drawn in the sand. The gusts ripped across the boat, but it didn’t faze the agile triton.

  Ajani shot Elspeth a knowing look. He addressed Callaphe. “You’re truly a master of your ship,” he said.

  “And don’t you forget it,” Callaphe said. She leaped down into the hull where Ajani and Elspeth sat. “What’s your name then, leonin?” she asked. “And how does a cat feel being on the water?”

  “I’ve never appreciated a plank of wood more in my entire life,” Ajani said. “I’m Ajani, and this is Elspeth.”

  “Elspeth, who has caused all the trouble with the gods,” Callaphe said. “Is it true what they say about you?”

  Elspeth scowled. “I guess that depends on who you’ve been talking to.”

  “People use my name in all sorts of stories,” Callaphe lamented. “Did you ever hear about the time that I snuck into Mt. Velus and stole Purphoros’s tears? Ha! Or hid behind Phenax and wrote down his secrets for a year? In the name of Cosi, who do they think I am?”

  Ajani’s ears twitched. “Cosi?”

  Something on the horizon caught Callaphe’s attention. To Elspeth, it just looked like a small puff of steam in the distance. But Callaphe looked like a tiger salivating over its prey.

  “Oooh,” she said. “We’ve arrived.”

  “Arrived where?” Elspeth asked, squinting at the strange white cloud hovering above an otherwise featureless sea. She wouldn’t have to wait long. At the ship’s incredible pace, they would be upon it in mere moments.

  “That is our crossroads,” Callaphe said. “I’d hold on to something if I were you.”

  “Hold on?” Ajani asked. “The waves are mild, there’s not a cloud in the sky …”

  “Ajani!” Elspeth said. “It’s a whirlpool!”

  As they closed in the spot became more visible, and it was no cloud at all. It was a geyser of water spraying into the air from a whirlpool swirling on the surface of the sea. Callaphe tucked herself near the wall, braced her feet on the planks, and grabbed the edge of the ship. Elspeth and Ajani hurriedly did the same just as they hit the whirlpool. The ship skittered around its circumference and then skipped like a stone flung across the surface of a pond. The prow positioned itself nose first over the heart of the whirlpool and plunged down. Elspeth lost her grip and slammed to her knees on the hull. She slid forward, crashed into the mast, and held on desperately while Callaphe whooped with delight.

  There was another precipitous drop, and Elspeth fell forward again as the ship righted itself. The ship leveled off and Elspeth pushed herself to her elbows. The boards of the hull, which had been normal seconds earlier, were now covered with a rough amber-colored skin. Elspeth felt disoriented by the shifting patterns of filtered light. She looked up, expecting the ship to be half submerged, with water pouring over the sides. But they raced down a translucent tunnel under the surface of the water. Shafts of diffuse sunlight dappled the ship, which was completely dry.

  “You didn’t expect that the gods would make the edge of the world easy to find, did you?” Callaphe said. Her voice had taken on a reverent quality, and she gazed at the ocean around them. The seawater rippled just out of reach and was held back by some mystical force.

  “What’s happened to the ship?” Elspeth asked. She was referring to the texture of the hull, but Callaphe ignored her question. The triton gazed in awe at the dark depths of the ocean beneath them. The dark forms of enormous sea monsters glided just beyond the edges of their underwater passageway.

  “Thassa’s oceans pulse with unfathomable life,” Callaphe
said. “I’ve never seen such creatures—the size, the breadth of their lives—it humbles me.”

  Callaphe ran her hand lovingly along the gunwale, which had transformed into a bony, scale-covered edge. The general shape of the boat was the same, but the planks were fused together and covered in a seamless skin. The curved planks on the walls of the boat had become bone white and resembled ribs. With a sudden shock of realization, Elspeth clutched Ajani’s arm and pointed. He nodded his understanding. This was no mere ship; this was a living creature. Elspeth could feel a heartbeat pulsing through her.

  On the left, a snakelike serpent rose up unexpectedly to attack a sharklike beast. The serpent coiled around its prey like a python while the shark bit and tore at its attacker. The two monsters spiraled down into the darkness in a haze of red blood. On the right, a school of golden fish darted past, and Elspeth was mesmerized by the fluid coordination of their movement, as if they shared one mind among the thousands of tiny bodies.

  “Callaphe, what is that ahead of us?” Ajani asked urgently.

  A dark wall loomed at the end of their water-bound tunnel, hard and impassable. If they hit it, they would be destroyed on impact. The triton leaped gracefully to the front of the ship.

  “Finally,” she whispered.

  The prow tilted upward abruptly, and the ship accelerated even more. They shot up through the surface like an arrow unleashed from a bow. As they vaulted into the open air, the ship transformed back to its normal state, but the planeswalkers were distracted by the unexpected sight on the horizon. Instead of the vast and empty ocean, the ship came to rest on a narrow strip of dark land at the edge of a vast and ruined city. Dripping husks of ornate buildings with elaborate facades and a complex of cobblestone streets stretched before them. The city’s horizon was unnatural, and the ruins arched upward as if the architecture were constructed on a convex surface that could not be shaped or altered to the builder’s whim.

  “This isn’t Kruphix’s temple?” Elspeth asked. There was no tree or waterfall in sight.

  “No, this is something else entirely,” Ajani said.

  “Welcome to Arixmethes!” Callaphe cried with joy as she sprung out of the ship and onto the rim of dry land. “The sunken ruins! At last I’ve found him.”

  “Him?” Elspeth asked as she started to climb out of the ship. But Ajani cautioned her to stay.

  “Look at the ground,” Ajani warned her. Beneath Callaphe’s feet, the black ground was soft and pliable, and it bowed slightly under her weight.

  “You’re not Callaphe, are you?” Ajani asked the triton.

  In the sea behind them, the waves had become turbulent. There was a rushing sound from deep beneath the waves.

  “Not even close,” the triton answered cheerfully.

  “Who are you?” Ajani asked.

  “You can call me Kiora,” she said. “I needed the Monsoon to find Arixmethes. I couldn’t have done it without you. Good luck getting to Nyx.”

  “But where is the edge of the world?” Elspeth asked.

  “Ask the ship,” Kiora said impatiently. Patterns of teal light played across her skin as her arms elongated and grew sawfish teeth. She sprang high into the air, twisted her body around midair, and swan dived into the depths just as the Eye of Thassa emerged from the water. Thassa had taken the form of a giant eye that was composed of vapor more than corporeal substance. Elspeth sensed that even though the pupil was fixed on the bubbling waves where Kiora had disappeared, Thassa was watching her, too. When the God of the Sea swung her gaze toward the Monsoon, Elspeth and Ajani reacted simultaneously. Quickly, Ajani bolstered Elspeth’s strength while Elspeth made the air around them dense and heavy, like a metaphysical shield of light.

  A flurry of razor-sharp translucent shards blasted out of the sea and rained down on them. Ribbons of water lashed the air around them like an unnatural typhoon. The wind threatened to sweep Elspeth off her feet. But with Ajani aiding her, she maintained the focus of her spell. The watery assaults splashed harmlessly back into the ocean waves. For a moment, there was an unexpected silence. Then, a woman’s voice whispered across the waves. The great eye blinked, the air around it folded in on itself, and Thassa was standing next to them in the ship before either planeswalker could think of reacting.

  She had taken the form of a female triton no taller than Elspeth. Crimson fins branched from her forehead and tentacles coiled down her shoulders and back. Nyx shone brilliantly in her eyes and the shadows of her body. Even her bident glittered with divine substance. But without the traces of stars, she could have been mistaken for a creature of the mortal realm. Thassa took her time considering them.

  “Why must you mortals aspire to godhood?” Thassa demanded. “You can never truly be like us.”

  “We do not aspire to godhood,” Ajani said.

  “Why do you travel with Elspeth the Betrayer?” Thassa asked him. “Are you a traitor as well?

  “Elspeth is not a betrayer,” Ajani said. “Of any god or mortal.”

  “Heliod disagrees,” Thassa said. “With Nylea, they’re determined to humble mortals into submission.”

  “And yet you are here, in your realm, and have not joined them,” Ajani pointed out.

  “I have spent most of the Silence hidden in the depths of my ocean,” Thassa said. “It was not me that Kruphix needed to punish. And now a humble satyr has cracked the foundations of Nyx.”

  “I will stop him,” Elspeth said

  Thassa scanned the horizon. She cared nothing for Elspeth’s promises. “That triton thief has been searching endlessly for the Monsoon. She’s pretended to be Callaphe. She’s pretended even to be me. She intends to steal Arixmethes.”

  “How does someone steal a city?” Elspeth asked.

  “It’s not just a city, isn’t that right?” Ajani said. “It’s what’s it’s built on.”

  “I just felt her touch the sea floor,” Thassa said. “As she rises up, she gathers the strength of my currents. I must stop her before she plunders my realm. I have little time, but I will tell you this: I don’t believe you are to blame, Elspeth. Heliod is arrogant and intends to make himself lord of the pantheon. That is why he is so offended by the Satyr-God. He believes the usurper has taken his personal throne.”

  Thassa touched the mast, and the ship began to roll beneath them. Once again, the boards became like skin, the planks like bones, and black-slanted eyes blinked open on the prow of the ship.

  “Your blade is the only thing that can destroy Xenagos and restore the true nature of the world,” Thassa said. “I will remove the obstacles on the rest of your journey to Nyx.”

  “I will set things right,” Elspeth promised.

  “Finding the way into Nyx isn’t the end of your journey,” Thassa said. “Once inside, you will find a shrine to the gods. You must choose one of us and ask for an ordeal. If you pass the ordeal, the god will open the gates of Nyx and grant you one request within his or her domain.”

  “Can I request help in killing Xenagos?” Elspeth asked.

  “A god cannot kill another god, but I can make it as easy for you as possible,” Thassa said. “Choose my altar, and your ordeal will be as kind as a summer breeze. Xenagos has protected himself by creating a void that lies just beyond the gates. Ask me for a bridge of aether so you can cross over to him.”

  “What’s the void?” Ajani asked.

  “It’s a gulf of nothingness around him,” Thassa said. “You’ve seen it in the night sky. Without my help, I fear you’ll never get close enough to kill him.”

  Kiora emerged in the waves behind Thassa. She was perched on the back of a gargantuan sea serpent with a hornlike spire. The serpent undulated like a black snake but concealed its true size beneath the waves. The water churned with white froth as masses of writhing tentacles rose from the depths. Kiora had recruited monsters from the floor of Thassa’s ocean, and inky eyes that had never seen sunlight now gazed upon the surface world. Her legion included creatures native to this world bu
t also others that hailed from oceans under far-flung skies.

  “She steals my children,” Thassa said. Her fathomless eyes gleamed with fury.

  Beside the ship, a squidlike creature larger than a whale burst up through the surface. Rings of choppy waves rippled in all directions, and the Monsoon jostled against the shore. The creature’s leathery black skin was covered with mossy barnacles. Rows of yellow eyes blinked from the scalloped edges of its tentacles, which emerged one after another from the waves. It had a gaping maw with boulderlike teeth, and eyeballs lined the bumpy surface of its forked tongue. The monster was large enough to devour their ship with one bite.

  “That is not my child,” Thassa said.

  Elspeth felt the ship pitch and roil beneath them, and the ruins of Arixmethes began to rumble back down into the sea. The ruins disappeared under an upwelling of water, leaving an unobstructed ocean in its wake. Elspeth marveled that an entire city could be swallowed by the ocean in mere seconds. No wonder Callaphe had such a hard time finding it. But there was no sign of the waterfall or Kruphix’s Tree. As if she’d read her mind, Thassa pointed to the horizon.

  “My sea will carry you to Kruphix,” Thassa told Elspeth.

  “Thank you,” Elspeth said.

  “Choose my altar,” Thassa warned her again. “Or your journey will fail.”

  Whispering to her waves, Thassa ordered the sea to reach for Nyx. In response to her command, the water hastened for the sky. A monstrous wave carried the Monsoon hundreds of feet in the air. From the summit of the wave, they saw Thassa transform back into the Great Eye, which transfixed its hostile gaze upon her enemy, Kiora. Just before their vessel cascaded down the other side, a titanic kraken breached out of the water in the distance, answering the call to battle. He was the one they called Arixmethes, and he carried the ruins of the lost city affixed to the length of his spine.

  “You’ll never claim Arixmethes!” Thassa’s warned Kiora, who laughed at the God of the Sea. The last thing Elspeth saw was the two tritons locked in combat, surrounded by a legion of ancient sea monsters and furious, unbound waves.