Endless Flight

by A. C. Cobble

  He walked back out into the hall and ducked his head into the other rooms.

  They were similar to the preserved one with the notable exception that they were not at all preserved. The contents of the rooms had crumbled into dust. In the fourth room, he heard someone come in behind him. He turned to see Corinne in the doorway.

  “Find anything?” she asked.

  “No,” he replied. “Dust and…just dust.”

  “Strange, isn’t it,” she said.

  “It is strange,” he agreed.

  “No, I mean, specifically it is strange there is nothing left in any of these rooms. Why was that one room preserved, and how come nothing is left in these?”

  “Maybe no one had time to cast a spell on these?” he guessed. “They could have left in a hurry or didn’t have that kind of skill. Over time, anything in here would disintegrate.”

  “Not the devices the mages created,” she challenged. “The lights and table not only stayed intact, they still work! That is craftsmanship. The preserved room had mage-wrought stuff inside. Even without the spell or whatever it was they did, that stuff could have survived. If these people left in a hurry, how come none of these rooms have anything remaining?”

  Ben looked around the room they were standing in. Ankle-deep piles of dust covered large portions or the floor where neither weather nor wind had blown through.

  “We never really looked in these rooms,” he admitted.

  Corinne strode in the door and kicked through one of the dust piles, covering her mouth as the ages-old debris floated into the air.

  Ben waded after her. Soon, the entire room was filled with a cloud of dust. They walked back out, coughing and grinning at each other.

  “Let’s do another,” she suggested.

  They stormed through two more rooms, kicking the dust around, coughing and laughing. Ben’s clothes were coated in pale grey dust, but after three weeks in the Wilds, he thought it might be an improvement. In the third room, Ben heard a clink when Corinne’s boot swept through a particularly deep pile.

  “Hold on,” he said. “What was that?”

  “What was what?” she said, breathing heavily with her hand over her mouth.

  Ben shuffled slowly through the area he thought he heard the sound and was rewarded when his foot touched on a small lump.

  He kneeled down and brushed the dust aside with his hand to reveal two wooden ovals. They were the size of his palm, hollow in the middle, and inscribed with runes.

  Corinne kneeled beside him and asked, “What is that?”

  “They look like wood,” he said, “but they sounded like metal, and, well, they’re still here.”

  Corinne reached a hand forward.

  Ben cautioned, “Should you—”

  He didn’t finish before her fingers closed around the objects.

  On closer examination, they learned nothing. They were smooth like polished wood and heavy like metal. They had a similar look to the disc Amelie carried and the one they found in the woods used for a ward. Maybe all magical devices looked like that, thought Ben.

  “Let’s show Towaal,” he suggested.

  “Sure,” answered Corinne. “But these are mine.”

  “Whatever,” agreed Ben. Not that he could complain. The mage-wrought longsword was strapped to his side.

  They cleaned out the other dust-filled rooms, finding nothing, and then went back upstairs where the rest of the party was huddled around the far-seeing table.

  Towaal took a look at the small objects but couldn’t identify their purpose. She rapped one against the table, listening to the metallic clink. She handed it back to Corinne with a shrug.

  “Let’s put it with everything else we need to research when we find time,” advised the mage. “They’re clearly mage-wrought, of course. There seems to be some sort of linking between them, but I don’t have time to look into that now.”

  Corinne nodded, obviously disappointed.

  “Let me look,” offered Amelie.

  Corinne handed over the two wooden ovals and Amelie knelt down, placing them on the floor, and peering close to examine them.

  Ben wasn’t sure what she could tell that Towaal couldn’t.

  Amelie traced her fingers over the objects and moved them closer then further apart on the floor. She frowned at them, presumably trying to exert some will on the intractable wood. Finally, she clinked one on the floor, just like Towaal did.

  Muttering quietly under her breath, she sat back on her haunches.

  Corinne stepped close, peering down at the artifacts.

  “Here,” said Amelie.

  She handed Corinne one of the ovals.

  “Go over to the far side of the room and rap it against the floor, just like I did.”

  Corinne took it and did as she was instructed. Walking back to Amelie, she asked, “Anything?”

  “I believe so,” replied Amelie. “These are indeed linked and I think they are transferring sound. I’m not sure how…”

  “Amelie!” exclaimed Towaal. She waved the initiate over. “Come look, I’ve found the valley.”

  Amelie stood and tried to hand back the wooden oval, but Corinne stopped her.

  “You keep that one and I’ll keep this one,” said the huntress. “If they are linked, maybe by keeping them separate, we can figure out how to use them.”

  Amelie nodded then moved to Towaal’s side.

  The Rift

  The next morning, they continued to examine the rift valley through the far-seeing device.

  Clustering around the table, the companions all watched as Towaal manipulated the display to scan across the valley. Unlike the rugged terrain leading up to it, the floor of the valley was smooth and steady. It was crowded with thick trees, and at the height they were observing from, they had little visibility into what might be moving in the area.

  Sweeping back and forth, a clear picture began to emerge. The valley formed a shallow bowl with a river running through the middle. There were no features Ben could see until they got to what would have been the center of the valley.

  In that area, on a hill that was clear of vegetation, stood an ancient stone structure.

  From above, it looked to be the same level as a four-story building and was formed in a perfect circle. It stood balanced on its side, like an open gateway. Around it, they could see a few dark shapes moving.

  “Demons,” observed Rhys.

  Towaal nodded. “I’m not sure we would have survived going in there.”

  Suddenly, there was a flicker of light near the rift and a new shape emerged near the stones. Other black shapes rapidly converged on it but their view was too far away to see exactly what was happening. Moments later, the shapes scattered.

  “What was that?” asked Corinne.

  “I’m not sure,” murmured Towaal. “Recruiting a newly arrived demon into the swarm?”

  “Well,” said Rhys, “one thing is clear. We just witnessed a demon arrive through that thing. We might be the only people alive who have seen that. The suspicion about the Rift existing and being a source of demons is confirmed. The question is, what can we do about it?”

  It was all very strange. The same creatures that tried to rend his flesh and consume his life-blood every time he saw them looked rather peaceful. Of course, they were a four-day walk from where these demons were and none of them could sense Ben’s party. Still, he started to grow uncomfortable looking down at the monsters.

  Towaal left the view hovering over the Rift structure for several minutes but they did not see anything new.

  Next, she moved over to the river that flowed through the valley and traced its source. Then she scanned along the rim of the ridges, which formed the bowl. She was moving quickly now, barely pausing before moving onto the next scene.

  “What are you thinking?” asked Rhys quietly.

  “This valley appears to be consistent with what we know about volcanoes,” she answered. “Clearly, it is not active, but we ma
y be able to delve deep and uncover the original source of the geological structure.”

  “And then?” asked Rhys.

  “Then we try to open it up and destroy the Rift,” she replied.

  By midday, Towaal had viewed whatever she needed to on the far-seeing device. She was ready to start delving the ground for sources of heat.

  She moved up top with Amelie and the others followed. They had nothing better to do than wait. Ben shivered in the cold, but he had no interest in sitting in the chamber below by himself.

  “This will be difficult due to the distance,” explained Towaal to Amelie. “Generally, you want to be as close as possible to what you are delving. Proximity improves your sense.”

  “And what are we sensing?” asked Amelie.

  “Heat,” replied Towaal. “It is challenging to extend outside of yourself even a short distance. This far away, it will be very difficult. At best, we will be able to detect basic sensations like heat or light. For our purposes, I hope to find an extreme source of heat. This far away it could be impossible but I am hoping the magma is so hot I can overcome the distance barrier.”

  Towaal and Amelie both settled down on the rock of the butte, looking north toward the Rift valley. Ben and the others wandered around, looking over the edge and generally wasting time.

  The mage and initiate had gone silent, focused leagues away.

  As Ben watched, Amelie’s eyes flicked open and she glanced sideways at Towaal. He smiled at her. She caught his look in the corner of her eye then frowned and closed her eyes again, clearly not sensing anything that she was supposed to be.

  For a bell, Ben paced nervously, waiting on Towaal to say something. She just sat quietly, though.

  Corinne began walking next to Ben and whispered, “Do you think she’s really doing anything?”

  He shrugged. “I hope so. After seeing the demons around the Rift, I don’t want to try to go in there.”

  Corinne nodded. “I don’t have any experience with mages. She seems very, uh, domineering. Is that the right word?”

  Ben snorted. “Yeah, I think that’s right. And if you think she’s bad, you should meet Mistress Eldred.”

  Finally, Towaal’s eyes snapped open and she stood. She stretched to work out the kinks from sitting on the hard rock.

  “Well?” asked Rhys impatiently. He was a man of action and sitting and watching Towaal ‘sense’ was quickly fraying his nerves.

  Towaal answered brusquely, “I located a source of enormous heat and I believe it will be sufficient for our purposes. We are lucky, it’s already near the surface. I believe in a few decades, there would have been a natural rupture.”

  “Decades?” asked Corrine

  “That is a short period in geological terms,” explained Towaal.

  “Will you be able to do it from this far away?” inquired Amelie.

  Towaal pursed her lips then shrugged. “It will be difficult, but anything in this world is possible if you have the will to do it.”

  “How—” asked Amelie.

  “Beneath the ground,” said Towaal, “there are plates that cover this world. The plates are floating on hot, liquid rock. They shift and move over the course of tens of thousands of years. We need to move one of these plates a little quicker than that. When it shifts, I hope to open a rupture beneath the Rift.”

  “Wait, do what?” asked Corinne.

  Towaal looked at her stoically. “I’m going to try and make a bunch of extremely hot liquid come bursting up beneath the Rift.”

  “Oh,” responded Corinne.

  “But first, I must rest,” said Towaal. “We need to create a small nudge and speed up something that was going to happen in a few years anyway, but still, I’m not sure I will be able to do this. I want to be as prepared as I can be.” She started toward the hole going down into the butte then turned to Amelie. “I will need the disc you are carrying. The repository of power.”

  Amelie nodded and followed Towaal down into the mountain.

  Rhys sighed. “One more day on this rock.”

  Ben nodded.

  “Draw your sword,” said Rhys, sliding out his own weapon and backing up to clear space. “Let’s see what you can do with a mage-wrought blade.”

  That evening, Towaal reclined in the corner of the room and thumbed through the notebook she had taken off the writing table in the bedchamber. Earlier, she’d glanced at the books she’d collected by the chair. She left those for later and perused the notebook.

  Puffing on his pipe and fiddling with the crystal decanter they’d found, Rhys asked her, “Find anything interesting?”

  “Maybe,” she replied. “I believe we were right. This room and the rooms below were created for the purpose of observing activity around the Rift. It could have been this Purple we heard about or someone else. The writing in here describes observations about the Rift. From what I gather, this log was started shortly after the Rift was created and continues for years, if not longer. It is short notes describing the Rift, but there are no dates and few points of reference. It seems to have been for personal use.”

  Rhys set the decanter down and meandered closer to look over her shoulder.

  “What did they observe?” he asked.

  “This section here,” said Towaal, touching the page, “discusses demons staying clustered in the Rift valley. The author speaks about how they expected the demons to disperse once the food sources vanished—animals presumably—but they didn’t. It speculates that the demons are getting sustenance from another source, possibly the Rift itself.”

  “How would that work?” asked Rhys.

  “I’m not sure,” admitted Towaal. “From what we saw in the far-seeing table, the Rift is by far the largest magical device I have ever heard of. Who knows what energies it bleeds off and what affect that might have on those near it. I’m not sure how something so large could remain powered for so long. There is a lot we don’t know, but according to this writing, we are fortunate to not have tried entering the valley. The writer describes swarms of demons living within it.”

  Rhys frowned and puffed harder on his pipe. He wandered off, letting Towaal get back to reading the notebook.

  ***

  It started slowly. Towaal sat quietly again in the same place, looking north. The early morning sun kissed the peaks of the mountains in the distance and spread across the forest floor below.

  The bitter cold of the night before faded with the coming of the sun, though the air still carried a painful chill. Ben kept his hands tucked within his cloak as they watched. What they watched for, he wasn’t sure.

  The repository, the wooden disc, was resting in Towaal’s lap and she had one hand placed on it. Nothing happened visibly, but at one point, Amelie’s eyes widened, and her breath caught. Ben assumed Towaal was starting to exert her will.

  Below in the mountain, the far-seeing table was set on the Rift, but so far, there was nothing to see. They were milling about up top, waiting on Towaal. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead and froze in the cold air. She paid it no mind.

  As Ben watched her, a smile played across her lips. He thought he heard something—a grating crack and boom from far off in the distance. It was muffled though, like something underground.

  Rhys strode to the side of the butte, looking north. Minutes passed and nothing happened.

  Finally, Towaal opened her eyes and declared, “I’ve done what I can.”

  Casually, she tossed the repository over the side of the butte. It had crumbled into pieces. “It’s useless now.”

  Ben blinked and looked at the vista in front of them. He’d expected something more dramatic. As far as he could tell, nothing changed.

  “Did you, ah, do anything?” he asked.

  “Watch,” said Towaal, pointing north.

  Ben looked but saw nothing.

  “Was that magic?” asked Corrine. “I thought it would be more exciting, like the lightning.”

  Towaal shrugged. “Sorry to disap
point. Sometimes exertion of will is obvious, sometimes it is subtle.”

  Another faint crack echoed across the open air.

  “Something is happening,” said Corinne. She stepped on top of a knee high rock and shaded her eyes to get a better look.

  Suddenly, another boom shook the air and seconds later, the ground. Corinne stumbled off her rock. Ben caught her arm. She looked at him, frightened.

  “There,” shouted Amelie, pointing. A thin plume of smoke was rising into the sky.

  Another boom and the butte shook again. Small rocks tumbled down the sides and the entire rock formation shuddered, causing them all to stumble.

  “Is it safe up here?” worried Ben.

  “It’s safer than climbing down right now,” asserted Rhys.

  “Let’s go look at the far-seeing table,” suggested Towaal. “From there, we can see what is happening.”

  They all agreed. The smoke was rising into towering black plume. It had already tripled in size from just a minute before. Ben eyed it nervously as they all clustered around and climbed down into the hole.

  Loud cracks and bangs filled the air as they descended into the butte. Stomach-turning shudders shook the structure. Ben tried to ignore them and moved into the dark of the rock.

  In the chamber, the far-seeing table was lit up with a vision of the area surrounding the Rift. At first glance, nothing appeared to have changed. Then Ben saw a shadow in one corner of the table and pointed it out.

  Towaal shifted the view and a third of a league away from the Rift, they found smoke pouring out of the trees. They watched as more and more smoke billowed up from an unseen source. Then a tree burst into flame and they all gasped. Ben involuntarily took a step backward. Tree after tree ignited like lantern wicks.

  Now in addition to the smoke, steam from the snow-covered ground wafted into the air. Their view was obscured until a gust of wind whipped away the steam and smoke. They saw an orange red glow creeping across the ground.