by John Bierce
None of their affinity senses were picking up anything from their pursuer.
They avoided the ash pits, using Talia’s affinity sense to keep track of them. It helped the others stay a little calmer, but Hugh could see the toll it was taking on her.
As they grew closer and closer to the city center, the buildings grew larger and larger, and the ruined bridges appeared more often. Graffiti became more and more common, until it was rare to see a wall without words gouged into them. Hugh did his best not to read any of it.
The crunching footsteps of Godrick and Artur in their stone armor were oddly comforting for Hugh. Artur hadn’t grown it to his full size, and kept it about the height of his son’s armor, but that was still massive.
Alustin and Artur began arguing about traveling through buildings, but both ultimately decided it was safer not to pen themselves in for whoever was following them.
Even Hugh’s spellbook picked up on the news, and hung quietly around his shoulder.
Hugh’s range of vision had grown close indeed when he had an idea. He waited until they reached the center of a huge courtyard, then gestured at everyone to stop.
He quickly reached out to the stone around them and crystallized a sound ward in it, so his voice wouldn’t carry past the group.
“We’re playing their game,” he said. “They know the dark and we don’t.”
“So what do you propose we do?” Alustin asked. “We don’t have the mana to light up the—”
Alustin slapped himself. Hard.
“I’m an idiot. I’ve still been acting as though we’re in a mana desert, but we’re not.”
Hugh smiled grimly. “Everyone use that anti-glare cantrip I showed you.”
“Ah don’t need it,” Artur said from inside his faceless armor. Everyone else, though, just nodded at Hugh.
He took a deep breath, looked behind them, and fired a starfire flare straight upwards.
It detonated in a great wash of light, briefly revealing the City of Sunset in all of its orange and pink glory. In that moment, the city looked as brilliant and as beautiful as any sunset.
And there, directly behind them, something screamed and fled.
Something a deeper orange than the city, with shadowy markings, and a hideous scar stretching from mouth to shoulder.
“It’s the bloody Mage-Eater,” Hugh said. “We’re in an extradimensional pocket in a ruined city, and we’re being stalked by a bloody tiger.”
It wasn’t funny, but Hugh couldn’t help but laugh anyway.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Exile Splinter
They dispensed with stealth after that. Hugh ignited a starfire beacon as bright as he could manage it, and they marched straight down the widest bridges and broadest courtyards they could find. The Mage-Eater was lethal, but its greatest ally was stealth. Any of them could probably take the Mage-Eater in a straight fight. Even Sabae likely had a decent chance in a straight fight against the big cat. And here, in the ruined city, the Mage-Eater was out of its element. Its black stripes were perfect for breaking up shadows in the jungle, but in the even geometries of Imperial Ithos, they made it stand out even more.
It would be dangerous to get complacent, however. In any other city, the orange of the creature’s fur would stand out, but here, it blended in somewhat with the stone of the city.
Still, the mood of the group improved significantly. They had a known, concrete enemy now, not some mysterious phantom hunting them through the dark.
It was starting to get cold enough that Hugh was wishing for some extra layers, but since there was no wind in the pocket dimension, a brisk walk was enough to keep warm.
They didn’t notice the city phasing again at first. What were a few extra bits of shadow in a city entirely filled with darkness?
It was only when Talia slipped and almost fell on a patch of darkness that they realized what was happening.
“Let’s try and climb a building,” Alustin said. “Try and get a better view of the city, so we can know which way to go.”
“Ah don’t think we have time,” Artur said. “It’s goin’ a lot faster this time.”
They all hunkered down again.
“Use that anti-glare cantrip of Hugh’s,” Alustin said. “Just in case the sun is up.”
Phasing back into the world happened far faster than phasing out, and this time Hugh’s disorientation wasn’t nearly so bad.
To Hugh’s surprise, it was still night when they returned to Anastis, and not even that late— maybe a little past midnight. The moon had risen, and though it was just a narrow crescent, it felt brighter than the full moon to them. The city that had seemed so ominous in the dark of the pocket dimension seemed more sad than anything else in the light.
Glowing water dripped down many of the buildings farther out from the wave that had already passed by, before they’d phased in fully. There was a clear gradient, however— the closer towards the center of the city, the less water there was to be found on the buildings.
“I’m going to get some scrying done,” Alustin said. “See how our Havathi friends are doing.”
While Alustin was doing that, Hugh took a deep breath of fresh jungle air, and enjoyed the sounds of frogs and birds, and of the water lapping at the city’s columns.
Then movement caught his eye in the distance.
The Mage-Eater.
She stood atop a bridge, watching their group. The tigress was motionless, except for her tail, which slashed back and forth angrily through the air.
Hugh doubted he could hit the creature with a starbolt at this range, so he just watched cautiously.
The cat snarled once, then turned away. It leapt over the edge of the bridge, plunging into the glowing water of Lake Nelu. Hugh caught one glimpse of her swimming away, and then she was gone.
He guessed she didn’t have any more interest in returning to the pocket dimension than he did. Only the Mage-Eater was smart enough to avoid it, whereas Hugh would be returning to it soon.
The city phased back even faster this time. Hugh didn’t know if that was a good or bad sign, but he was careful not to watch his spellbook or Alustin’s arm as they phased, which helped a lot.
“There’s good news and there’s bad news,” Alustin said. “The good news is—”
“Nope,” Talia interrupted. “Bad news first.”
Alustin gave her an odd look at that. “Really? The point of giving good news first is to soften the blow of the bad news, like putting a pillow under someone falling.”
Talia shrugged. “Yeah, that’s the way they always do it in books, too. I’m feeling more ornery than usual. Bad news first.”
Alustin shrugged at that. “The Havathi are closer than I’d hoped. They’ll be here by early to mid-afternoon at the latest.”
“And the good news?” Sabae asked.
“We’re maybe a fifteen-minute walk from the Exile Splinter,” Alustin said.
“Can we maybe get some sleep, then?” Talia asked.
“We’ll set up camp close to the Splinter,” Alustin said.
“How many days are we going to have to hold off the Havathi for until Kanderon gets here?” Sabae asked.
Alustin smiled at her. “Hours, I think you mean. Kanderon should be here by tomorrow night at the latest.”
Sabae stopped walking for a moment, then hurried to catch up. “There’s no way Kanderon can fly that fast. Nothing could travel all the way across the Skyreach Range that fast.”
“Thunderbringers can,” Alustin said.
Artur rolled his eyes at that. “And, what, there’ve been all a’ three people in history with large enough mana reservoirs and the necessary combination a’ gravity, force, and wind affinities ta’ fly fast enough ta’ be a Thunderbringer?”
“Why are they called Thunderbringers?” Hugh asked.
“They fly so fast it sounds like thunder, and they can actually shake houses and break windows by passing overhead,” Alustin said. “And there hav
e been at least seven that I know of. None living today, though.”
Hugh whistled at that.
“Kanderon doesn’t need to go that fast to get here on time, not by a long shot. She is one of the fastest fliers on the continent, however, and she can fly for days on end, even sleep on the wing. Not something a normal sphinx can do, but it should be obvious by now that she’s no normal sphinx,” Alustin said.
“The giant crystal wings don’t give it away?” Talia asked.
They were still arguing about Kanderon’s powers when they rounded a corner and saw the Exile Splinter for the first time.
Hugh’s first reaction was disappointment that it didn’t glow. Ancient enchanted superweapons should glow. The Exile Splinter just hung there in the dark of Imperial Ithos, resting in the middle of a great plaza in front of a truly immense palace. The Ithonian Emperor’s palace, Hugh would imagine.
His disappointment rapidly faded as they approached it, however.
The Exile Splinter was a jagged, crooked, and asymmetrical spike of blue crystal, three times the height of Godrick or Artur, hovering point down above the ground. Obscenely complex spellforms covered its surface and could be made out within its crystal structure.
And deep within the Splinter, at its highest point near the top, was a great beating heart of shadow.
Hugh tried reaching out to it with his crystal affinity sense, but it felt as though it were an inordinate distance away. The pattern of the crystal was irregular and twisted in a way that a crystal shouldn’t be, as though the spellforms visible in the outer layers of the weapon were replicated at a level too small to see with the eyes.
“Look at what it’s hovering over,” Sabae said.
Hugh looked down to see what looked like a pair of massive bronze doors set flush in the ground, as though there was a great cellar below the plaza. Only, there would be nothing but sodden lakebed and sunken stone foundations down below, so…
“Ithos’ labyrinth,” Alustin said. “Sealed off by the Exile Splinter and used as its power source.”
“Why is there a heart in the Splinter?” Hugh asked.
“I have no idea,” Alustin said. “Kanderon has told me absolutely nothing about how she and the other Skyhold founders made the Exile Splinter. I don’t think that’s an actual heart, though— it looks like some sort of construct.”
“Why didn’t the Ithonians just destroy it?” Talia asked.
“Give it a try,” Alustin said.
“Fine, I will,” Talia said, turning towards the Exile Splinter.
Then she just stood there, staring at it blankly.
“Talia?” Hugh asked.
“What?”
“Weren’t you going to try and destroy the Splinter?” Hugh asked.
“Was I?” Talia said. She seemed genuinely perplexed at that.
“Defense mechanism,” Alustin said. “It can erase the memory of Imperial Ithos’ location from the entire world, after all, so erasing someone’s memory of planning to attack or damage it is nothing. And even if it was managed by accident, according to Kanderon it’d take a great power to even scratch it.”
“So why do we need to defend it?” Sabae asked.
“Because while it can’t easily be destroyed, it can be stolen,” Alustin said. “At least, it can be moved once the pocket dimension collapses entirely, which won’t be long now. Given that we’re in it now with knowledge of the Exile Splinter, and the Havathi are going to be looking for it, I doubt it will even last out the next day.”
“So why didn’t the Ithonians cause the Exile Splinter to decay?” Talia asked.
Alustin held up his hands. “I presume because they were in the city when the Exile Splinter struck, but I honestly don’t know, Talia. There’s only so much Kanderon has told me about it, and I’m sure there’s a lot she’s held back. So, for now, can we please just set up camp? We need to all get some sleep, and then we’re going to need to set up defenses.”
Talia must have been as tired as Hugh felt, because she didn’t even argue.
When Hugh woke in the palace room they’d claimed and fortified, it was already midmorning. Or, at least, it would be midmorning if they were outside of the pocket dimension. Talia greeted him with a cup of… truly unique tasting tea. Hugh didn’t necessarily hate it, but it certainly wouldn’t be his first choice to drink.
Most of the others, Hugh noticed, wouldn’t touch the stuff.
Alustin was missing when he woke up, but he burst into the room with a huge smile on his face halfway through breakfast.
Then he frowned.
“What are yeh so worked up about?” Artur asked.
Alustin sighed. “Usually when I have a grand announcement I have an attractive assistant or a mysterious but dashing ally to kiss in excitement. Becoming a teacher has really put a crimp in my style in some ways.”
Artur rolled his eyes. “Just tell us yer news.”
“Ah, right! There’s no Cold Mind incursion in the pocket dimension. Our world isn’t going to die horribly to sustain the illusory afterlife of some dead civilization for a few short years!”
“Well, that’s just anti-climactic,” Talia said.
Alustin gave her an incredulous look. “How is the world not dying anti-climactic?”
Talia started to answer, but Alustin just cut her off.
“On second thought, I don’t need to know, and I’ll just chalk it up to you reading too many ridiculous novels. We’ve still got an ancient magical weapon to defend from a ruthless expansionist empire, recall? And the phasing events are happening closer and closer together. They’re almost hourly now. We’ve got maybe six hours until the Havathi arrive, if we’re lucky. Probably sooner. We need to set up defenses, and we need to hope that we can hold out long enough for Kanderon to get here— and that she gets here before the Havathi are able to summon reinforcements of their own.”
“Yeh’re absolutely sure about the Cold Minds?” Artur asked.
Alustin nodded. “If there were an incursion, there would be signs my equipment could read in the aether. Moreover, if the Cold Minds were intruding, Ithos’ labyrinth would have closed itself off. The labyrinths exist as much to stop the Cold Minds from migrating as they do to stop universes from going aether-critical.”
“Well then,” Sabae said, “since that’s all settled, let’s get to work.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Playing Defense
When the first of the Havathi boats hit the outer edges of their defenses, Sabae couldn’t help but laugh. It was more to release frustration than out of actual amusement. She’d felt entirely useless during the construction of their defenses, her only duty watching others’ backs in case the Mage-Eater had slipped back into the pocket dimension at some point.
That wasn’t going to be changing just yet, unfortunately. Setting an ambush was, frankly, boring from the other side.
The six remaining Havathi boats all sped straight out into the lake at top speed, propelled by far more water mages than the Despondent Toad had been. On top of that, the aether density in the area was steadily climbing, as more and more leaked out of the pocket dimension.
They hadn’t, Sabae was sure, expected to encounter icebergs in a tropical lake.
Admittedly, they weren’t very large icebergs, the largest only about half the size of the ships. Godrick had used Hailstrike to grow dozens and dozens of them in the canals whenever the city was phased into Lake Nelu. He likely could have grown them even larger with Hugh’s help, but Hugh had been needed on his own projects.
Every time the city phased back in, the icebergs had been sent hurtling and crashing around the lake, and they were surprisingly hard to spot in the ever-present mists.
The leading Havathi boat didn’t hit the iceberg directly, nor hard enough to smash itself to bits, but several mages and soldiers on the decks were sent tumbling into the water, and the ship was quite obviously not going to stay afloat much longer.
From her position atop
a particularly tall Ithonian palace, Sabae enjoyed watching the chaos, at least until the city phased back into the pocket dimension.
Over the next two hours, the Havathi lost a quarter of their force without ever coming into contact with the party from Skyhold. Several mages and at least one Swordsman drowned as they abandoned their ships for the city— the canals were lethally dangerous with all the ice trapped in them. Much of it had already been forced out to the shores of Lake Nelu, but enough remained that it made the waves produced by the phasing events deadly to ships.
The city itself wasn’t much better for the Havathi.
Talia and Godrick, working in concert, had hidden bones in pockets Godrick had grown inside the cobblestones. Alustin, using his farseeing affinity, let Talia know which ones the Havathi were passing near. The Havathi eventually learned the trick of it, and scouted their way with stone mages to avoid the bonefire traps, but not before Talia had killed quite a few of them with explosions from below.
Alustin’s paper traps weren’t as deadly, but they were far, far more common. The Havathi healers were kept busy taking care of countless burns and cuts from exploding paper glyphs.
It was Hugh, though, who really proved his worth.
Sabae had seen Hugh use his wards in battle before, but he’d always been rushed while completing them. They’d been spur of the moment acts of desperation.
These wards, though…
These wards were terrifying.
Like all their defenses, Hugh had started in at the Exile Splinter, leaving some of his most impressive work there. By necessity, the wards grew hastier and less terrifying the farther out they went, as Hugh had needed to construct them larger and more expansive.
Sabae had thought that Hugh’s wards would just be a series of expanding concentric rings, but the city’s design hadn’t allowed for that, nor, apparently, was that actually optimal ward construction technique. An enemy wardbreaker only had to break circle wards in one spot to pass. Hugh had still used concentric circle wards around the Exile Splinter, but nowhere else.