by Eric Vall
Are you sure you don’t want these answers I have? Sera asked with a taunting lilt to her voice. My price won’t cause you any pain, you know that. Just a lot of delicious, overwhelmingly good pleasure. Why say no?
I growled and shut the Archon out of my thoughts as I climbed. I wasn’t going to fall for her tricks, not after last time when I caved and gave her a kiss. I couldn’t trust her information would be worth having, much less that I wouldn’t be drawn fully under her control in the process.
I spent the afternoon and evening doing some light gathering of supplies, which I mostly found in the Academy’s stores for monster response squad missions. There were a dozen little things I liked to keep stocked up in my travel pack, like rope, rags, road food, water skins, flint and steel, and a variety of other trinkets.
When I was done with the regular items, I visited Meridan and asked her for the potions she could spare. I knew it was getting more difficult to keep up with demand, since so many monster response squads were encountering powerful enemies and getting injured in the process. Meridan gave me a generous amount of healing supplies in the form of four elixirs which could be used for up to twelve medical doses. I thanked her and refrained from asking what they were made of, since I knew the answers would be disgusting if not downright horrific.
After that, I decided I was done with my necessary preparations. We had to get up early tomorrow morning, but the airship ride was so long, I would be able to get plenty of sleep during it even if I didn’t sleep well tonight.
In the end, I decided to grab an early dinner, and I found myself with Ashla in the cafeteria at nearly the same exact time. We grinned at each other through our positions in the line to get food, and it lightened my heart a little to think about telling her what Maelor said. It would be nice to get a second opinion, especially from somebody so even-keeled as Ashla. She loved fighting, and she didn’t worry about much, so I figured her perspective could be useful to me.
When we both had our food, we sat down together at our regular cafeteria table.
“Four-thirty dinnertime,” Ashla commented with a smile. “Very mature of us.”
“So mature, we ought to be elderly,” I laughed with a rueful expression. “Anyway, not to dampen the mood, but I asked Maelor about my childhood.”
“Did you now?” Ashla asked, and her eyes sparked with curiosity. “You don’t seem like you’re on the verge of a breakdown. Was it good news?”
“No news, actually,” I explained with a shrug. “I suppose it’s the same thing, as the saying goes. Basically, Maelor looked for years and never found any more information on my parents.”
Ashla whistled and stabbed at her potatoes.
“That’s rough,” the ice mage admitted with a grimace. “Though, I guess you get to make up your own stories about who they were. That’s kind of nice, I think.”
“I guess so,” I answered as I blinked in surprise. “I was trying to pin down this mixture of relief and disappointment, but you just summed it up in one go.”
“Glad it helped,” Ashla told me with a perplexed expression. “I don’t think I have any wise insights, though. You should go to Arwyn for that.”
“Arwyn is smart as hell,” I agreed, “but she doesn’t have a monopoly on wisdom. You’re a great researcher, an amazing mage, and a top-notch mercenary. All those years in the field have given you some cleverness I bet you don’t even realize you have.”
“If you say so,” Ashla replied with a slight smile. “I just never stick around long enough to master a thing. Bad patience.”
“Nothing wrong with spreading out your interests,” I assured her. “Anyway, tell me about how you made Bessie. I’ve been dying to know for ages, now.”
We turned to lighter topics, and Ashla grew animated as she told me about the engineering and magic involved in the creation of her axe. She read a bunch of blacksmithing journals dating back decades and centuries, which inspired her to use some of the more painstaking, long techniques for crafting the battleaxe.
I was more than a little impressed with Ashla’s knowledge, even though I did get lost a few times as she jumped around in the explanation.
At the end of our meal, we both were tired enough to finally be able to go to bed. Each of us had to cover our yawns as we finished off our food.
“I hope Sera doesn’t give me any dreams tonight,” I wished with a sigh.
“Maybe we should both sleep a little easier,” Ashla suggested. “How about I join you in your room?”
“It’ll have to just be sleep,” I told her with a knowing smile. “Braden is already there.”
“Suits me just fine,” Ashla agreed with a grin. “I’m even tired enough to fall asleep here, if we didn’t move.”
“We better move, then,” I agreed.
We cleaned up our trays and headed back to my room in companionable silence. Sure enough, Braden was on his bed reading when I opened the door, and he waved at us both before he returned to his book.
All three of us had missions tomorrow, and it felt kind of nice to see Braden included directly in the fight against the Archons. I was concerned a little about whether he’d be all right, but I had confidence in his fighting abilities, so I decided not to worry too much.
“Goodnight, Braden,” Ashla told the big summoner as she climbed into bed next to me.
“‘Night, Ashla,” Braden replied with an absent smile that betrayed his nerves.
“Don’t worry too much, okay?” I requested my friend seriously. “Just remember how well you did in the Magicae Nito. You’re badass, and don’t convince yourself otherwise.”
“Thanks,” Braden replied with a surprised laugh. “I’ll try not to worry.”
I nodded with satisfaction and finished getting ready for bed before I got into bed next to Ashla. Braden dimmed his gas lamp so his reading wouldn’t disturb us, and I closed my eyes as Ashla’s warm body molded against mine.
In a few minutes, I was asleep.
Sera sent me tantalizing images of her body in my dreams. Bits and pieces of generous curves, alabaster skin, and seductive eyes haunted me as I tried to draw myself from the dream. I woke up a few times, but Ashla’s steady presence beside me was a reassurance that I could withstand Sera’s taunts.
I refused to be bothered by it anymore, and the next time I woke up, it was time for the mission.
Braden had set an alarm using some kind of complex clock device next to his bed, and it trilled faintly to wake us all up.
Ashla stretched awake next to me, and Braden sat up in his bed to fumble with the device. Eventually, it stopped making noise, and Braden turned to me with wide eyes, as if he realized for the first time exactly how important his mission was.
“We’re really doing this,” he said out loud as he blinked with surprise.
“Feel like I could sleep another day,” Ashla yawned.
“It’s time to go,” I told her with a serious nod.
I got up to get ready, and Ashla followed me with quick, efficient movements as she got dressed for the day.
Braden stood slowly and went through his travel pack with careful, nervous movements.
“Can we actually stop Phi?” the big summoner asked me as his brows knitted together in worry.
“I know we can,” I told him as I strapped on my bandolier. “Get ready, because this is it.”
Chapter 10
“Fun trip,” Varleth commented as he walked up the ramp onto the airship behind me. “I always wanted to spend the last warm days of the year in a frozen tundra.”
“At least we have Nia with us,” I responded. “She can use her fire magic to keep us a little warmer than usual, hopefully.”
“I’ve got fire magic, too,” Erin inserted proudly as she waved a screwdriver at me. “Stole it from Gawain in the clinic. I think he was really disappointed he didn’t get a kiss.”
That put a smile on my face, and Varleth chuckled at the thought of Gawain’s rejection, too.
�
�I can’t believe he was still holding out hope,” Varleth said with a pleased expression. “Poor guy.”
Ashla, Nia, and Varleth milled around the airship with me as we loaded our heavy bags and tucked them away so they wouldn’t roll around during the turbulence. Nia and Ashla sat on either side of me while Varleth took his usual seat on the far side of the row, and we strapped in as we prepared for takeoff.
Erin checked on the state of the ship’s mechanical parts before she disappeared into the cockpit to finalize things. After a few moments, there was a jolt and a mechanical whir as the airship began to rise into the air.
As the airship took off, I ran through my checklist of things we would need to buy once we reached Svellfrer’s Rest. Despite the city’s position on the far, northerly end of Mistral’s border, it was of a fairly good size, and I had no doubt we would be able to find lodgings and merchants to suit all our needs. Svellfrer’s Rest was far too cold to be a tourist destination, but it had well-established trade with towns and cities to the south of it, so it had almost all the amenities we were used to in Varle Enclave.
Sleet had given me a report on the city and the area, along with a copy of the relevant translation from the ciphers. There wasn’t much to be gleaned from the translation, but I did agree the permanent rift location probably fit Svellfrer’s Rest the most accurately.
One of Svellfrer’s Rest’s major exports was ice, which was chopped into blocks by laborers and shipped downriver on boats or in airships for further destinations. Wealthy people and upscale restaurants could use the ice to keep food cold even past late spring and starting up again in early fall. It was a concept that was beyond me, but I didn’t have much experience with the needs of wealthy households.
Svellfrer’s Rest also had a booming business in fish. There were several species which swam north during their most mature stages, and fishermen in Svellfrer’s Rest could provide some of the biggest, healthiest salmon and trout around. I was a little excited to try their cuisine, though I knew we wouldn’t actually have much time to eat at restaurants when we got there. Road food wasn’t the worst, though I was a little disappointed to eat it so much in such a short period of time.
“What’s with the name of this place?” Ashla asked. “Svellfrer’s Rest? Why is there even a city this far north?”
“It’s an old legend,” Nia explained. “The explorer from hundreds of years ago, Nolin Svellfrer, was certain the north was full of riches and beautiful landscape that would earn him a lifetime of glory and fame.”
“Seems pretty standard for explorers,” Varleth added.
“Not too out of the ordinary,” Nia agreed before she continued her explanation. “He and his expedition went further north than any other explorers had ever claimed to go. He originally meant to go an even greater distance, but when they saw the mountain range in front of them, his teammates threatened to mutiny on him. Svellfrer finally agreed they would stop there and build a small encampment while the weather was nice, and that place became Svellfrer’s Rest.”
“How did it become a city, though?” I asked with confusion.
“Lies, mostly,” Nia answered. “Svellfrer and his expedition advertised it as a land rich with beauty and natural resources. More than a few people moved up there for one reason or another, and the city grew quickly. It’s true there was some gold to be had in the nearby mountain range, but it ran out quickly.”
“And people just kept coming?” Varleth wondered.
“I guess some people do like it cold,” Nia answered with a bemused shake of her head. “I suppose the ice, fur hunting, and the fish keep the city nearly as rich as it would have been if the gold didn’t run out.”
“I think it also appeals to those who love untamed land,” I guessed as I considered the mystery of the city.
“Could be,” Ashla agreed.
The airship ride was long, but luckily, I packed more than a few things to do. I busied myself by talking to my teammates or reading the history book of odd monster behavior I’d picked up earlier. As I suspected, it was a riveting read which chronicled everything from swimming goblins to odd cases of monsters communicating with each other. Of course, nothing within the book even came close to the odd monster behavior we saw recently, and there was no mention of anything close to an Archon like Phi or Sera.
Erin came back into the main cabin of the airship at times to take her mind off the drudgery of flying such a long distance, and we all worked hard to give her exciting conversations to wake her up.
Ashla had purchased a folding board game called Checks, and we played several rounds as we tried to outsmart each other within the narrow rules of the game. Varleth and Erin both won twice, while Ashla and I only had single wins to our names. Since we were all new to the game and nobody had much strategy, the outcome seemed to rely mostly on luck.
After many hours of reading, playing, napping, and talking with my teammates, we finally arrived in Svellfrer’s Rest. I could already feel the cold seep through the airship walls, and I’d noticed the temperature dropping steadily over the hours as we flew north.
The ship landed, and we all unhooked our harnesses before we stood and paced in anticipation around the airship door. It felt great to be able to walk after so many hours of mostly sitting, but I had a feeling we would regret our freedom pretty quickly.
“Ready, guys?” Erin asked as she approached the ramp button.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Varleth muttered.
“Go ahead,” I told the pilot with a wave of my hand.
When Erin dropped the ramp, a blast of frigid air hit us immediately, and Nia started shivering beside me.
Ashla whooped and ran down the ramp first as she went out into the snow without waiting for us.
“She’s nuts,” Varleth muttered in a low voice.
“Maybe being an ice mage gives her immunity to the cold,” I suggested.
“I have ice magic,” Nia protested, “but you’re not going to see me running out there.”
The ashen-haired mage lifted her hands and twisted her fingers into a spell. A glowing, warm orb of orange flame formed above her palm, and waves of warm air billowed from it.
“Man, that feels good,” Erin sighed, and she worked over a similar spell until her own palm was lit abruptly with a yellow ball of fire of her own.
“Gawain’s fire magic runs hotter than mine,” Nia commented, “though it won’t radiate quite so well without the accompanying wind magic.”
“Oh well,” Erin said mournfully. “At least my arms aren’t cold.”
We filed down the ramp after Ashla and looked around, and I had to admit, the scenery was breathtaking. The massive, white tundra stretched out with blinding, glittering light as the setting sun reflected off the surface of the field. Spruce, pine, and fir trees were clumped across the landscape near the mountains, and the wind swirled dusty snow across the white land. The sun itself was a fiery streak across the horizon, and pink clouds dotted the sky in the opposite direction.
“This is incredible,” Nia breathed. “I’m not usually one to lose my composure over a view, but … “
“I know,” I agreed. “This is really something else.”
“Yep, lovely, great,” Varleth interjected as he wrapped his arms tightly around himself. “Now, can we start walking to the city where it’s warm?”
“Sure,” I agreed reasonably, “it’s better to get there before it’s dark. Alright, let’s move out.”
The city itself looked unreal at this distance. Gray stone walls pointed at the sky in an echo of the snowy mountains behind them. Glittering panes of window glass shimmered in the light of the setting sun, and the sprawl of the city rose from the snow like an early spring flower. It looked like something that should never have been built, yet there it was, a large city tucked between the tundra and the mountains.
I could barely see the glint of water far to the west, and I knew that must be the river Svellfrer’s Rest utilized to engage in comme
rce with the rest of Mistral. I couldn’t imagine being a fisherman in such an icy, unforgiving landscape where one fall into the water would likely mean a frozen death. Still, I couldn’t blame them if the beauty was worth the risk to them.
The snow was deep enough to reach over my knees, and it made walking to the city extremely hard. Erin hadn’t landed the airship very far away from the city, but the journey took at least twice as long as I expected it to. Every step was a struggle to climb up out of the snow before falling back down.
Eventually, we gave up walking normally and took turns at the head of a single-file line. That way, we could place our boots in the footsteps of the person in front of us, and only one person had to put in the effort to break through the snow.
I tried to do the brunt of the work along with Varleth, but Nia, Ashla, and Erin all insisted on doing equal shares at the head of the line. Nia and Erin used their fire powers to melt the snow a little, but it turned into wet slush that wasn’t much more traversable, so they switched back to old fashioned walking. Ashla seemed to genuinely enjoy her time enveloped in the frigid environment, and the rest of us were baffled by her ability to never get cold.
When we got to the edge of Svellfrer’s Rest, the snow sloped down to just a couple feet, and then it disappeared entirely as we entered the plowed section of town. Gray gravel covered large portions of the streets, and there were high-curbed sidewalks constructed tall to keep pedestrians out of the melting snow.
The buildings themselves were mostly stone, and I certainly understood why after I soaked my shoes and pants through with snowmelt. Despite the abundant forests in the mountains, a house built from wood here wouldn’t stay dry enough to keep from rotting.
“Can you imagine having to shovel this much snow?” Varleth huffed in disbelief. “What a nightmare.”
“I guess they’re used to it,” I answered as I scuffed through the damp streets. “Horse-drawn plows would speed it up, I bet.”
“We’ve still got a little time left in the day,” Nia proposed, “so we should look for some of the winter gear we need for our search.”
