A Gleaming Path

by Jeffrey Pawlak

  The villagers saw Ralu’s fatigue, as well as her outward defiance to it.

  What they did not see—but what Amanyra, her brothers, and Xogun could sense—was Ralu’s unthinkable anguish.

  Amanyra eventually shared a glance with both Ilios and Iras. There was guilt over their faces, just like what festered in Amanyra. Yet, there was also a newfound resolve, one that all three of them knew had to be fulfilled.

  We must grow stronger Amanyra thought.

  She knew that the same sentiment echoed in her brothers’ minds.

  2

  Nearly 700 years later

  The Tower Mountains rose high over Tordale’s surface, their imposing forms stretching as if to pierce the sky. Some of the tallest peaks were believed to reach even further, aiming for the heavens. Whether that myth was true or not, what was certain was that the mountains did pass through another realm in their ascent from the land below—the realm known as Skyscape, home to the mysterious and reclusive Aesur.

  Skyscape was a secluded domain concealed by the clouds which gathered beneath the tips of the tallest mountains. There was no path to it that could be traveled by foot. It was only discovered when a wandering tribe of Aesur of long ago found the natural phenomenon called Wind’s Way, where the winds from all directions gathered after their journey throughout the twisting maze of mountains, and joined into one tremendous gale that flowed skyward.

  When the Aesur who first came upon Wind’s Way leapt into its billowing flow, the plumage over their bodies allowed them to soar with the air current, climbing miles above Tordale and ascending far beyond where any other peoples had ventured. Wind’s Way eventually brought them to Skyscape, the realm hidden among the clouds that seemed untouched by any other living creatures. The Aesur saw it as a paradise that was bereft of war, pollution, and chaos. They knew that they wanted it to be their home for the rest of time.

  But they could not return to the surface world right away, as there was no passage downward aside from a deathly descent. Realizing that their only way back was Wind’s Way, some of the Aesur eventually learned over time to channel the magic dwelling within their beings and direct it into the very air about them. When they accomplished this, the Aesur found that they could control the movement and nature of the air, bending it to their needs. These Aesur became known as Airtamers, and they used their unprecedented ability to reverse the flow of Wind’s Way and return themselves to the continent floor.

  They sought out the rest of their kin and told them of Skyscape, soon gathering together every living Aesur and bringing them to Wind’s Way, where they left Tordale’s surface, never to call it home again.

  The Aesur did not leave Skyscape for hundreds of years, until a young, bold member of their race descended from their lofty utopia to meet with the races of the surface world and reestablish relations. She was not yet twenty-five years of age at the time, but there was no one, not even her father, the Highfeather, who could keep her from completing what she believed was a worthy, and beneficial cause to both the Aesur and Tordale’s other races.

  She more than accomplished the task, forming a strong bond with King Aurilion Hokara of the humans, and eventually became the sworn guardian of his children, Prince Tridian and Princess Raissa Hokara.

  The one called Dayneth was the first of the Aesur to return to Tordale’s surface since her people first left, and now, another member of her bloodline would soon leave Skyscape, as well.

  Elisstriss did not possess the same cold, penetrating gaze that Dayneth did; a more meek and gentle spirit rested within her eyes. Her features were soft for an Aesur, giving her a closer likeness to humans than was normal for her kind. Her snowy white hair fell far past her shoulders. Several of the long, wavy strands were tinted cerulean, like the ocean’s waves. Close-fitting, teal robes concealed most of her petite form that would have been dwarfed by Dayneth’s tall figure. Only Elisstriss’s arms and the bands of white plumage remained uncovered by her attire.

  But while her older sister was the more commanding of the Highfeather’s daughters at first glance, Elisstriss housed a power that Dayneth could never match.

  Elisstriss was an Airtamer, one of the greatest among the Aesur. It was because of that power that she felt it her duty to descend to the surface world—for her home among the clouds was now threatened by an unforeseen darkness.

  Elisstriss could still see it as she stood miles away in an opposite corner of Skyscape. To most eyes, it would have appeared as a faint, red cloud lingering in the distance. It occasionally flickered with a violent light, no different than a storm cloud that slowly rolled across the horizon.

  But like the rest of her people, Elisstriss’s far-seeing sight allowed her to look deeper into the foreign energy, and behold its vile essence. The Aesur may not have understood where it originated, or how it came to be, but they knew what it was—a dark, malevolent magic that intended to creep throughout all of Skyscape until it had corrupted the entire realm.

  Before the Aesur were even aware of its presence, it engulfed the Spirit Shrine where the passage to Ralu and Xogun lay. When they confronted it, they were proven powerless to halt its advance. Even the mightiest Airtamers, whose magic granted them power to summon winds like that of a hurricane, could not stop the dark energy’s continued progress. Several Aesur perished in the endeavor, enduring a nightmarish demise as they were captured by the dark energy’s destructive touch.

  Elisstriss tried to block out those frightening memories. The Aesurs’ magic had failed to eliminate the evil presence from Skyscape, but it still offered them a possible way to protect their home.

  Elisstriss turned to the portal before her, a gaping hole in the clouds where a mighty gale emerged in its ascent along the mountains and into the skies. She peered through the portal, past the clouds that gathered near the peaks, past the mountainsides, and all the way down to the continent floor where the kingdom of Tordale lay, as if painted upon a canvas.

  She could only hope that the answer—the saving grace for the Aesur—lay somewhere beneath.

  Elisstriss looked back to the Aesur who were to accompany her, a group of twenty brave soldiers who intended to protect her with their lives during this mission. Each wore silvery mail over their chest and torso, leaving their slender, feathered limbs bare. Half of them wielded spears that were longer than the soldiers were tall, with rods forged out of a clear, crystalline substance, and topped by gleaming metal blades. The other half of the soldiers wielded unique weapons that the Aesur had invented themselves—steel blades crafted in the likeness of talons that fit over their hands and feet.

  The most renowned of the Aesurs’ warriors, a man named Ausmus, stood at the front of the regiment. He was armed with two pairs of the steel talons, and although he wore silvery armor like his fellow soldiers, his status was signified by a turquoise scarf that was bordered in white clouds. His short hair spiked upward, as if it was the crest of a great hunting bird.

  “We are ready to descend when you are, my Swiftness,” Ausmus announced. Despite addressing Elisstriss with the reverent title that was reserved only for the Highfeather’s wife or daughters, his voice carried a friendly, informal tone—confidence that he had earned after loyally serving Elissitrss and her family for most of his life.

  Elisstriss nodded wordlessly. She once again let her eyes drift to the portal and the land below.

  “There is no shame in fearing this task, my Swiftness,” Ausmus said. “I also harbor fears for the mission. Every soldier standing before you does.”

  “It is not fear for the mission that grips me,” Elisstriss replied. She tried to think of the word that more accurately described her thoughts. Regret? Disgust? Sorrow? She could not decide. “It’s terrible, Ausmus. This should be a momentous journey for us. We are the first Aesur aside from my sister in hundreds of years to leave Skyscape. This should be a celebration, yet we stand here only because we are on the verge of annihilation. I am not even able to look forward to a reunio
n with Dayneth, because she must be in grave danger, too.”

  “I’m sure your sister is all right,” Ausmus tried to assure. “She is as formidable as any Aesur who ever lived. I have no doubt that she continues to fight against the evil force that menaces Tordale, and I can promise you she will not let such a thing defeat her.”

  There was certainty and optimism in Ausmus’s words, yet Elisstriss struggled to adopt either. “I can only hope so. Dayneth left behind everything she knew so that she could establish unity between the Aesur and the surface world. I pray that she lives to see it.” Elisstriss paused, and another chilling thought made itself known in the back of her mind. “I just keep wondering what can possibly be down there. If its reach is so great that it can find us all the way up here in Skyscape, what horror has it been capable of down there?”

  “I, too, wonder the same,” Ausmus admitted. “But it’ll do us no good to dwell on that. All that will create is an unstoppable threat for us, and we must believe that we can eliminate it. There is only one way to learn the truth about the catastrophe.”

  This time, Elisstriss found herself in agreement with Ausmus’s logic. She turned, and her eyes washed over Ausmus and the collection of Aesur soldiers who stood before her. “Thank you all for your bravery. I am indebted to each and every one of you for volunteering to join me.”

  Ausmus and the soldiers were impassive to the praise. “It is our sworn duty to stand between the Highfeather’s offspring and danger,” Ausmus said. “If anything, we are indebted to you. This is no task for a beloved Swiftness, yet you have chosen to face it without any hesitation.”

  Elisstriss shook her head. She meant to dismiss his praise just as he had of hers. “I’ll do Skyscape no good if I stay here and watch that corruption slowly approach. My father can keep things under control here. Down on the surface world, I may actually be able to help our people.”

  Ausmus smiled admiringly. “You and your sister are truly one in the same, then. You think so far beyond yourself; you have all of Skyscape in your concern.”

  Once again, Elisstriss could not bring herself to relish in Ausmus’s adulation. She especially felt herself unworthy to be compared to her older sister. Dayneth descended to the surface world purely by her own ambition; Elisstriss’s descent had been forced by necessity.

  She turned back to Wind’s Way. “I do what must be done to protect our people.”

  Elisstriss said no more. She stepped closer to the gaping hole in the clouds, stopping just at the edge where Skyscape fell away to the earth. Elisstriss closed her eyes and brought her hands to her chest. She reached deep within herself, summoning the great power that rested in her being. When she felt it, touched it, she sent it spilling from her physical body and into the powerful air current that rose from beneath the clouds in front of her.

  Elisstriss melded her magic with the winds, her mind, body, and spirit working as one to shape them to her desired state. The mighty gales sank beneath the clouds, their flow reversing and racing back down along the sides of the Tower Mountains.

  She eventually opened her eyes. With her spell complete, Wind’s Way now allowed her and the Aesur soldiers a path to the surface of Tordale.

  “We go,” Elisstriss said.

  At her declaration, the soldiers began to leap into the portal. They bravely went first so that they would meet with any possible dangers before Elisstriss did, and so that she could maintain her tremendous spell while they fell to the continent floor. Once all of the soldiers, including Ausmus, had begun to make the descent, Elisstriss followed behind. She spread her arms and jumped through the opening in the clouds.

  The air current of Wind’s Way caught the feathery bands along the Aesurs’ bodies, carrying them from Skyscape to the surface of Tordale.

  3

  When night began to drape the ocean in its shadowy grip, and the sweeping winds relaxed into gentle breezes, most of the Balcryst’s crew ushered themselves below deck. The crews aboard the two warships that followed behind, the Waveskimmer and the Bluetreader, did likewise. Only a handful of men and women remained on the ships’ decks to handle the masts and to observe their course—all others joined together to eat dinner and relax for the remainder of the evening.

  The gathering within the Balcryst’s deep hull was decidedly the largest, filling almost every inch of the ship’s dining hall. Every seat was occupied, and there was hardly even room to stand with the number of soldiers and sailors who crowded the hall.

  They all wished to be in Raissa’s presence as she and the rest of her group sat down to exchange accounts with Tridian. After reuniting with the Prince of Tordale earlier in the afternoon, Alamor and his party abandoned the trading boat that they discovered on the Cabos River and climbed aboard the mighty Balcryst.

  Tridian shared his story first. The Prince of Tordale told Raissa and the others of his trek southward once he left Caldeya, which eventually brought him to the coastal city of Lansuu. It was hardly a grand entrance for him and the Tordalian soldiers, he noted, the frustration evident in his features as he spoke. He explained that the citizens of Lansuu provided a tepid welcome at best, with more of the people watching on with doubt than saluting him with cheers and cries of thanks for his effort. It turned out that many of Lansuu’s citizens harbored the same cynicism of their prince as their mayor, Gora Karalus, did.

  Not surprisingly, Tridian spoke bitterly of Gora, whose unpleasant disposition did not seem to change after the summit at Tordale Castle, where Gora had been so critical of Tridian’s rule.

  They encountered opposition beyond the citizens and politicians, as well. Tridian explained that the admiral of the naval station in the city was very unreceptive of his plan to sail across the ocean in search of answers for the mysterious cases of destruction across Tordale. The admiral was yet another high ranking official who doubted Tridian’s capabilities. He was defiant to the bitter end, Tridian described, only relenting once the Prince was forced to enact his royal authority to have his wishes met.

  Tridian and his troops sailed over the ocean for several days aboard the Balcryst, Waveskimmer, and Bluetreader without making any significant discoveries—at least, anything other than shipwrecks and islands that were torn apart. They only came upon another intact ship when they found Raissa, Alamor, and the others aboard their small craft.

  Once Tridian was finished, Tiroku began to recount the many events that had happened since the prince’s departure. He started with the attack on Caldeya, telling of the sudden invasion that saw Baldaron and his dark force’s capture the capital city. He next described their flight across the Plains of Oston to Geldiar, where they formulated plans to combat their enemy.

  But before the Champion of Light could elaborate on any part of their quest for the Radia, Raissa expressed her desire to relay her experiences to Tridian and the soldiers. She spoke of the ambush on her way to Tirth, her escape back to Caldeya, and then of Alamor’s gallant rescue from the Strife Wing inside the Temple of All.

  There was something to Raissa’s account that captured every soldier and sailor who crammed into the dining hall. As Alamor glanced about, he saw nothing but wonder in their eyes, a mixture of awe and fascination with the challenges that the Princess of Tordale had overcome.

  Out of all the warriors in the room, not one of them could command attention like Raissa did, Alamor realized.

  Tiroku seemed to detect her alluring presence, as well. He allowed Raissa to speak of their journey since leaving Geldiar. She was clearly unaware of her charisma at work. She recounted their entire quest through Sleekleaf Forest: the Strife Wings’ attack on the road forest, being saved by the Bachus, their trek through the maze of underground tunnels, when they were chased by the pack of Narogas, their night spent in the Bachu Caverns, when they explored the Jade Keep, and lastly, her and Alamor’s journey to the Hallowed Plane, where he proved his might to Ilios and Iras and obtained Xogun’s Radia, the Radia of Gallantry.

  The only one who did n
ot appear awestruck was Tridian. When all of the stories were finished, he squared up in his seat. His eyes wandered. It was obvious that he required a few moments to take in all of what was said, but he eventually expressed that one detail, in particular, concerned him greatly.

  “So, Caldeya is under enemy control now,” Tridian breathed.

  “Regrettably,” Tiroku confirmed.

  Tridian averted his eyes from the Champion of Light, his face lined with frustration. “Maybe I never should have left in the first place. I could have been there to help protect the city and the castle.”

  “Do not blame yourself for what happened, your Highness,” Dayneth interjected, drawing his gaze. “You know better than anyone that I was unsure of your mission, but you were completing what seemed like the most noble course of action at that time. As well, it is unlikely that you or the troops here would have been enough to alter the outcome of that attack; Caldeya would have fallen whether you were there, or not.”

  “Trust us, your Highness,” Tiroku broke in. “You should consider yourself lucky that you were not in Caldeya that night. I consider it a blessing that you were out here on the ocean, where you were far from harm.”

  Their words did not appear to placate Tridian. “I still would rather have been there to defend the city, and all of those people, instead of sailing half a continent away on a wild chase looking for an unknown culprit.”

  Raissa placed a hand on his arm. “This ‘wild chase’ was your way of protecting the kingdom and proving to the people that you were dedicated to it,” she said. “You can’t have any regrets about that.”

  Tridian’s demeanor instantly softened. He smiled at his sister. “That is much easier for you to say when you can help the kingdom with a secret magical ability.”