by Eric Vall
“You’re right,” I agreed, “but it’s still hard.”
She nodded quietly behind me, and her hair brushed my neck as she did. It left a tingling, ghostly sensation behind that made my heart clench in my chest.
I landed the pyrewyrm near the new ramp site, and Nia and I both hopped off my monster’s back.
“It’s getting there,” Ashla called to us as she gestured at the cleared earth that she had begun to build up with ice.
The rim of the volcano was around two-hundred feet up from the crater base, if I was guessing correctly, and it looked like an impossible task to actually build up to the top. However, I imagined hordes of climbing and flying monsters swarming from the permanent rift, and I decided it was far more important for us to finish this rather than just go home.
“Should I start in on it as well?” Nia asked Ashla as she examined the ramp.
“Not yet,” Ashla replied as she added another dozen feet of crystalline ice to the top. “I want you to save your strength for the final part. It needs to not be slippery.”
“Alright,” Nia responded with reluctance. “Just don’t tire yourself out completely, okay?”
“Of course,” the ice mage answered with a smile.
Erin and Varleth wandered over from the ruins, and I saw much more snow was cleared there than before.
“We’re done writing everything down,” Erin declared as they neared us. “We found a few more stones, so I think there was some kind of larger structure there before. I wish we could see it as it was originally built.”
“That’s too bad,” Ashla sighed longingly as she gestured around another ice spell. “I would’ve loved to look at their construction.”
“It was probably built there at the same time the ciphers were hidden,” I suggested. “It’s no wonder they’re not still standing.”
“Especially in this kind of weather,” Erin added with a shiver.
“Come on,” I told Varleth and Erin, “we’re going to go do some lumber work.”
Varleth groaned, but Erin nodded determinedly. I had a feeling the orange-haired mimic really just wanted to fly on my pyrewyrm again.
We hopped on my pyrewyrm and took off, and I brought the three of us back to the shelter Nia built earlier.
“Wow,” Erin exclaimed, “she’s good at this, huh?”
“Nia is good at everything,” Varleth pointed out with a shrug.
“She kind of is,” I agreed. “Alright, I’m going to cut down some of those trees with my axe goblins. It’s up to you guys to carry the wood inside and stack it.”
“Oh, sure,” Erin answered.
“Manual labor, fun,” Varleth commented dryly.
“I’ll be doing most of the work, no need to worry,” I told the gypsy as I waved him away.
“What he means to say,” Varleth whispered loudly to Erin, “is that his monsters will be doing most of the work.”
“I didn’t hear that,” I declared as I walked over to the trees, “but if I did, I would remind whoever said it of the simple fact that without me, the monsters would eat your handsome face.”
My pyrewyrm trilled and swung its featureless head over to Varleth.
The banisher narrowed his eyes and glared right back.
“You’re nothing more than an overgrown lizard,” Varleth insulted my monster. “I could take you out in a heartbeat.”
My pyrewyrm mantled its shadowy wings and shrieked at him with a volume I was certain was a little painful.
“Forget it,” I commanded my monster as I rolled my eyes. “You two are ridiculous.”
“Proud of it, too,” Varleth declared. “Alright, hurry up, I want to get this wood in the shelter before my hands freeze off.”
I snorted and shook my head before I snagged my axe goblins from the lower end of my bandolier. Their crystals were small, about the size of my pinky, and they looked a little like thin crystals of rock salt. I threw out three of them in flashes of light and commanded them to get to work.
The axe goblins had green, sickly skin contrasted by their beady red eyes. They weren’t much to look at, since they were rather thin and small with nothing more than a little sinewy, ropy muscle. They had small, razor-sharp teeth I suspected were never used in actual fighting, since the metal-like bone that protruded from the ends of their arms was their main weapon. Those axe-like blades replaced their hands entirely, and it made them fairly strong enemies for their low grade, even though they were slow.
Speaking of their slow speed, I had the perfect thing to deal with it. Before I asked my axe goblins to get to work, I threw out three speed slugs to augment their work pace. The slugs slithered into place, and the goblins sped away to the task.
“Aw,” Erin cooed, “look at them go.”
“You think everything is cute, don’t you?” I marveled with an impressed shake of my head.
“She’s a menace,” Varleth agreed. “Those goblins are just uncanny at best. I swear I get nightmares every time you bring them out.”
“Sorry,” I apologized, but I didn’t quite reach sincerity with it.
Varleth grumbled and wandered off to the shelter. Though the earth construction was odd, Nia had made a smart decision by leaving a thin entryway that one short man could walk through without bending down. Varleth ducked a little as he peered in, and his expression grew impressed.
The crack of falling trees and breaking branches filled the air as my axe goblins spun through the forest with their weapons bared. They could do the work of twenty men in just as much time, and soon the grouping of trees was half-leveled. Twigs and spruce needles littered the ground, and I picked through the debris to count the number of trees that were downed.
“Nineteen,” I mumbled to myself. “Okay, that should be enough.”
“Isn’t that a little overkill?” Erin asked as she gazed at the forest’s destruction. “I mean, it doesn’t take much heat to warm up one nearly air-tight shelter.
“Maybe it’s too much,” I answered as I gestured toward the shelter, “but I want them to be able to build a wood door or some fortifications quickly if they need to. I imagine some wooden stakes at an angle in the ground could hold back a horde of charging monsters pretty well.”
“Huh,” Erin said as she weighed my explanation. “Yeah, that definitely makes sense.”
I started my axe goblins on cutting branches and stripping twigs. They made speedy progress, and debris flew as they worked with speed-slug enhanced skills. The ground was piled with discarded wood, and slivers of bark layered up until they colored the snow brown.
“Alright,” I called to Varleth, “time to start carrying pieces inside.”
The gypsy stopped pacing and heaved a breath of relief before he jogged up to join us. Despite his dry commentary from before, I knew he was eager to get to work.
“Where should we start?” Erin asked as she cracked her knuckles in preparation.
I directed my teammates toward the finished lumber, and they worked together as they heaved it onto their shoulders. I watched them carry it carefully into the Nia-constructed building, and I was satisfied with their ability to do the job without getting hurt.
Another half hour flew by like that, and soon we had all nineteen trees chopped up and stacked inside the shelter neatly. Their wood was still green and wet from lying in the snow, but they would begin to dry quickly in the winter weather, and I figured they would be ready for the soldiers soon enough.
I raised my eyebrows at the stack of lumber that nearly reached the ceiling of the earth shelter. I decided it was plenty, so I went back outside and dismissed my axe goblins and speed slugs.
“That was a pretty impressive pile,” Varleth commented as he dusted bits of bark off his hands. “This was a good idea, Gryff.”
“Thanks for going along with me,” I told the two of them honestly. “I think all that’s left is the ramp. I wanted to clear the path a little so the soldiers could get to the permanent rift with ease, but I think it wo
uld be futile.”
“Yeah,” Varleth agreed. “That would just get covered up by fresh snow before too long. Cinder Mountain blows new flurries over here with some regularity, I’m sure.”
“Phew,” Erin sighed. “It takes so much effort to melt through this snow. I think a horse and plow could do it faster, anyway.”
“Maybe the soldier platoons can ask the governor of this city to do it,” I wondered. “I’m sure there’s some way to get that snow shoveled or packed down, at least.
“Probably,” Varleth agreed. “Though, we shouldn’t be the ones to ask. There’s no telling what kind of anti-mage sentiment the local government might have.”
“True,” I sighed. “Alright, let’s check out that bridge.”
The three of us loaded on my pyrewyrm again, and I got the distinct sense of growing displeasure through my bond with my monster. It didn’t like ferrying around people without being able to rip bodies up. I could understand its impatience even though I didn’t share the bloodthirst, and I gave it a comforting pat on one ebony-colored flank.
It still launched off with an impressive display of power and speed, and I rolled my eyes as Erin yelled out her joy into the wind. Of course, my monster was still treating the mimic better than it treated me.
When we got to the volcano crater, Ashla and Nia were hard at work. Surprisingly, they were also nearing the completion of their project.
We dismounted the pyrewyrm and walked over to meet them. Already, I could see the signs of drained mana on their faces, but it didn’t look too bad. Ashla was sweating despite the cold, and Nia held herself ramrod straight like she was fighting the very concept of being tired.
“Ten minutes,” the ashen-haired mage declared. “I think we’ll be done in that amount of time.”
They had about ten feet to go, and I marveled at the skill and power these two women possessed. The ramp was steep, but not too steep to be impassable, and it stretched incredibly far into the crater of the volcano. Most of it was a glittering wedge of ice, though the topmost portion was a mixture of frosted earth packed tight to the icy core material.
“This is incredible,” I told the two mages as I marveled at their handiwork.
“Incredible is nice,” Nia agreed as she frowned at the structure, “but I hope it’s functional more than anything,”
“Should be hard to mess up a ramp,” Erin put in as she stared at the ramp with an impressed, wide-eyed expression.
“I planned for the correct grade and calculated the angle needed,” Ashla mused. “It should be functional.”
“I trust the master builder, here,” Varleth spoke. “The thing looks solid.”
Nia grunted in effort as she raised the final layer of earth and rock into place. The spell in her hands hummed with power until it cut out abruptly. She dusted her hands off and panted as she stared at the new earth layer.
The new layer fit perfectly, and the bridge was smooth and level. It reached the right height, so the whole thing looked completely done.
“Who wants to test it?” I asked as I gestured to my team.
My question was met with silence as my friends looked askance and pretended not to notice.
“Not one?” I repeated hopefully.
“It’s so much climbing,” Erin told me softly as her eyes widened. “Please don’t make us do it.”
“Fine, fine,” I allowed. “I’ll run the ramp, you can all relax here. I suppose you deserve a break.”
I popped a speed slug crystal from my bandolier and smashed it between my hands before I applied it to the back of my neck. Instantly, my body began to thrum with an explosive energy that begged to be used.
I took off sprinting up the ramp, and it felt great to run on earth instead of snow for once. My legs flew up the angled side of the ramp, and before I knew it, I teetered precariously at the top of the volcano rim.
I turned to survey my path, and I noted it wasn’t hard to climb, nor was the ramp itself damaged from my headlong sprint. It seemed the partly-frozen earth was hard enough to withstand quite a bit of punishment, and my respect for Ashla and Nia’s work rose another notch.
The curious faces of my friends peered at me from the ground below, though I’d come so far, their features were nearly indistinct at this distance.
I pushed off from the craggy rock of the volcano rim and sprinted my way back down the ramp. My legs blurred with speed, and the ground disappeared beneath me as I ran even faster than before.
It had been a long time since I last used speed slugs outside of combat, and I had to admit, it felt pretty great.
“Well?” Nia asked as I stopped with a spray of snow.
“It’s perfect,” I announced before I peeled the slug off the back of my neck and recalled it to its crystal. “Seriously, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Great,” Ashla breathed with relief. “I’m so ready to get back to Svellfrer’s Rest where I can go inside and be warm for once.”
“I agree,” I told them with a grin. “Alright, let’s go back.”
Of course, it took two trips on my pyrewyrm to reach Svellfrer’s Rest, and even then, we had a short hike ahead of us. I was unwilling to land my nightmarish monster directly next to the town, since I was more than certain it would incite a panic, a mob, and possibly an all-out attack on our group. People here didn’t like mages, and I wasn’t ready to exacerbate the issue by practically throwing my magic in their faces.
When we were all grounded and ready to hike back, I led the team toward Svellfrer’s Rest with more confidence in my heart than before. It felt good to scout the last permanent rift so fully, and now we could leave it knowing Nia, Varleth, and the soldiers would have adequate resources at their disposal if anything happened.
Of course, Sera chose that moment to interrupt my thoughts.
Two platoons and two silly mages against my sister, the demigoddess, Sera crooned. I like your optimism, Gryff, but this is just sad.
I ignored her in the hopes that she would take the hint and be quiet.
You should really stop leaving your friends to die and start taking responsibility for this situation, Sera continued. I know one way you could stop Phi, for instance. Accept my power, and you’ll never have to worry about your friends again.
Shut up, I told the Archon with irritation.
Aw, you don’t like hearing the hard truth? she asked in a mocking voice. I’m sorry I don’t line up on the right side of your predetermined notions of good and evil, but somebody has to actually make things happen around here.
I was making things happen right now. She didn’t know what she was talking about.
Who cares if you’re nice, careful, and brave, Gryff? Sera snapped. Do you think a little badge of morality from Headmaster Sleet is going to keep this world from falling to Phi’s hands? No, it’s not. You can be as nice as you want to be, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m right.
“Gryff?” Nia asked as she interrupted my thoughts, and she frowned as I snapped to attention. “Lost in thought?”
“Lost in an argument,” I said honestly. “Don’t worry about it, though. Sera’s just being annoying, as per usual.”
Varleth’s eyes flickered over to me, and a frown deepened on his face.
“Do you think it’s time for you to start staying in Varle permanently?” he asked. “We don’t want Sera getting free, and careful observation at the Academy could prevent that.”
I would be a prisoner at my own school, is what Varleth really meant to say. Could I really sit there twiddling my thumbs while my friends fought against Phi? No, if anything, that would put me further in Sera’s grip, and I would start to seriously consider her words.
“I’ll be fine,” I told my teammates. “There’s still time before her influence and power increases, and everybody in Varle has their hands full with the growing monster threat. If anything, I’m safest with you guys. You’ll actually notice if there’s anything weird going on with me, and I’m not sure
an assigned guard at the Academy could do the same.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Ashla agreed.
“I’m not sure this is the right move,” Varleth told me with concern, “but I’ll trust your decision, for now.”
We reached the edge of Svellfrer’s Rest and headed in the direction of our chosen inn, The Winter Hart. Erin and Ashla headed upstairs to pack their belongings while I explained to Grigor that Nia and Varleth would be the only ones staying from now on. Surprisingly, he suggested we rent out only one room, and he offered to put a decent mattress up there for Varleth to sleep on while Nia took the bed.
“It’s only fair I show you a little hospitality,” Grigor explained as he patted me on the shoulder with one wrinkled hand, “since the rest of this city did you wrong, that is.”
“I don’t know how to thank you enough,” I told him honestly. “This will help stretch our limited budget a little easier.”
“I know you Academy mages,” Grigor replied. “If I’m right, you five young folks are doing work that might just save this city, and I can’t exactly turn your pockets loose for that.”
I thanked him again and went upstairs to pack my things. In just a few scant minutes, I had everything together, and I went downstairs to meet my teammates in the bar room.
“Here’s the rest of the money,” I told Nia and Varleth as I handed over the funds Sleet gave us.
Ashla and Erin had a few leftover coins as well, and they passed them over to Nia.
“Don’t get too cold,” Erin told Nia forlornly.
“I’m gonna miss you guys,” Ashla told both of them before her tone turned joking. “Make sure to get into some good bickering fights while we’re not here so you get it out of your systems.”
“We don’t argue that much,” Nia answered in protest.
“Well, we kind of do,” Varleth argued.
I snorted and shook my head at the two of them.
“Sounds like you two will be fine on your own,” I told Nia and Varleth with a smile. “Alright, let’s get going. We’ve got two soldier platoons to inform.”
I led my diminished team out the door and into the cold outside. I was sorry to leave Svellfrer’s Rest without another good meal, but I wouldn’t miss the frigid temperatures or some of the icy people. It was odd how unlike other cities this one was, despite it still being part of Mistral.
