I had to make that same decision, I realized.
It was Stell’s job to figure out what she wanted, and to stop changing her mind so much about it.
But it was my job to decide what I wanted to do. And that needed to be more important to me than anyone else’s needs, otherwise I’d spend the rest of my life regretting whatever choice I made.
Crown her, a voice whispered in my mind. And write accepting love on her arms.
My own heart repeated the message. I stepped forward and took Via’s hands in my own.
“I am going to keep risking loving you,” I told her. “All of you. On one condition: you turn around and do the same, when I screw up and hurt you, too.”
She bit her lip and nodded. Then she leaned into me, pressing her forehead against mine. We both took a moment to breathe, to wrestle our emotions under control, as the fire burned some distance behind us. Then Via put her arms around my waist and hugged me.
“Thank you,” she told me. “Whatever happens, and whatever you believe, you didn’t have to do any of this. I will never forget that. No matter what else happens.”
I didn’t argue back. I just put my own arms around the beautiful woman and accepted this side of her, and chose to trust that this part of her would win out against the part that kept panicking and drawing away from me.
And until her own inner battle was over, I would do my best to write love on the arms of the Steward of Avalon.
Chapter 20: Against the Depths
We spent the rest of our time running final checks on our gear. Via adjusted her new armor to fit better, tinkered with her bag, and began writing scripts and performing Shaping rituals over a host of various objects. She asked if I had a backup weapon, in case her whip didn’t work on something. Most of my magical equipment had already bonded to me, but I gave her a spare mace and short sword that I had been carrying in my storage compartment. For my part, I went over the items and books I had received. Most of the resources and schematics would just be things I would use either back at the Shelter or at the worlds I had liberated, such as new forges and other equipment. The books and records were worth another look. Especially when I realized that some of the records described events and battles that had occurred at the same locations my father had described to me in his last dream.
They also talked about projected bodies, and the role they had played in the previous Stellar War. The Starsown had played a role in that war as well, where certain representatives of their race had been used to project bodies out to the locations that the Stellar Council had designated for battle. The Council had forced the Starsown representatives to swear an oath of secrecy that had been even more binding than what I had extracted from Virtus, and was so restrictive that they would not even be able to record the event for their descendants. For whatever reason, the Council had tried to make knowledge of the last Stellar War die out. They had failed to extract a similar oath from the soldiers who had taken part in that war, and that was just as big a mystery to me. The information was pretty dense, though. I didn’t know how much of it was still relevant, and I didn’t really know where to begin, because each section I tried to start with just produced a dozen different questions.
So with not much else to do, I just skimmed through the records, until I came across a description of ancient monsters, and found a reference to the Flood.
The veterans of the last Stellar War hadn’t just chosen to share records of the war itself. The Earthborn and other warriors had chosen to log records of other battles as well. I had cursed myself for not finding this section sooner, because this information was priceless. I could be facing the creatures described here in any of the next worlds. Or they could be buried at the bottom of Avalon, like the other rare monstrosities I had already encountered. But by sheer luck, one of the first references had described the encounter of a dark mass of amorphous creatures and the strange black mist they emitted. The entities had proven almost impossible to fight, as they simply did not follow the rules of reality. They would cause those whom they encountered to either go mad, disappear, or both. And they were especially attracted to sources of knowledge. Any library, museum, school or other source of data encountered by the entity was targeted first, and would disappear without a trace whenever the entity itself left the location. Experts of any field were targeted with the same intensity.
The Flood reacted differently to Descended monsters it encountered, however. Those were either killed by the Flood’s poisoned mist, or altered in such a fashion that those it preyed on became the Flood’s prey as well, meaning they were somehow delivered to the Flood instead of being devoured by the altered monster. Said monsters would always have a layer of the Flood’s mist warding their bodies.
As best as the veterans could tell, the entity was a tiny portion of a larger one that was no longer present. I didn’t know how they came to that conclusion, but they clearly hung on to the hope that if the Flood had been beaten once before, they could beat it again. The Earthborn veterans had found partial success against the monster by using the Soulcurrent, but like my own experience with Cavus, it had only been enough to drive the monstrosity away. I made a note of that, as well as the fact that the Earthborn apparently had access to the Soulcurrent at that point of their history, and had possessed it long enough to make casual mentions of its use and assume that the reader would understand what it was whenever they mentioned it.
At any rate, the war against the entity had come to a turning point after the actions of one Earthborn combat medic during a battle with it. She had been a first responder to a teaching hospital that the entity had attacked, and had been forced to use the Soulcurrent to save the lives of two very young children who had been injured when they and their parents had tried to flee from the entity. Instead of attacking the entity, she had used the power strictly to treat the children’s injuries, spending a portion of herself to save their lives. She had been forced to confront the Flood organism shortly after, and the Flood itself had been unable to affect her. She had wound up destroying it utterly, by chasing it into a source of light magic, one that put out light on the same level as her Soulcurrent.
Upon the entity’s death, the objects and people devoured by it had returned to their former states, just like the Atlanteans on Avalon had. That was the best news, really. So far, every known instance of the Flood showed that those devoured by it could still be rescued. Which meant that Via’s world still might have a chance to grow into something other than the depopulated wasteland it had gradually become. Furthermore, the altered monsters would lose the power and protection of the mist, which usually led to them be killed easily.
At any rate, I now had a plan for confronting the Flood and the Nuckelavee, and for saving Via’s world. It was nice to feel hopeful and actually have evidence to back it up for a change.
I had finished reading the document about fifteen minutes before my retinue arrived on the caravel. Breena had tackled me and Via in rapid succession, uselessly admonishing us to ‘never do that again’. Then she gave me a weird, guilty look and asked everyone if she could have a moment alone with Via, then pulled her off to some other part of the island. I thought about pointing out again that they could just talk privately via the mindlink, but decided the less I said, the better things would be right now.
The rest of my team was more reserved in their greetings, except for Val, who punched me and then said she was glad I was okay. There was nothing for us to really do on the island, and no one had managed to come up with a more sane plan for us to talk about in the last couple of hours, so we just boarded the boat and waited for Via and Breena to finish talking.
For some reason, Breyn and the three Testifiers all took a moment each to pat me on the back and tell me ‘everything’s gonna work out’ and ‘you got this,’ while glancing in the direction Via and Breena where had gone off. The two women, or two parts of a woman, thankfully did not take longer than a minute or two, and our ship quickly set off for what may
very well have been my most dangerous Challenge yet.
Wes? Breena sent to me. I’m sorry about what happened. I promise I didn’t know. Thank you for everything.
You’re welcome, Breena, I told my friend. I’m sorry I snapped at you.
That was all that needed to be said for now. We spent the rest of the journey concentrating on the task at hand.
That changed after about an hour out at sea.
Our speed is picking up, Gabin sent to me. He didn’t sound happy about that, and I said as much.
In answer, he pointed to the water ahead of us, and I heard Via gasp sharply.
I looked, and saw what I thought was normal water.
“Look more closely,” he said audibly. Via nodded with a serious expression on her face, as the rest of the retinue gathered to take a look of their own.
I looked harder, and still didn’t see what he was talking about. The water was still blue, and the waves still rolled about. After about half a minute, though, I realized that there really was something off about the water, even though I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. I concentrated on the Ideal of Water itself, muttered one of its more basic spells, and then let out a gasp of my own.
“The tide,” I said suddenly. “We’re going against the tide. But you’re saying our speed’s increasing.”
“That’s right,” the captain nodded. He watched me as I glanced at the ship’s sails. We had held off on using magic for now, because there had been a decent wind going, but it still didn’t seem like it was enough to account for our increase in speed.
So something else was making our ship go faster to its destination.
Captain, I sent over the mindlink. Are all hands already on deck?
They have been for several minutes, he confirmed. The crew can detect no threat. The pull is magical in nature, but no sea beasts are within our vicinity, or the contact wards would have flashed in a warning pattern.
We are still heading toward Atlantis, correct? Via asked. If so, then I think I know what the cause is. I have enough practice recognizing it.
She pointed even further out into the water, where the waves didn’t seem as active. A few minutes later, our ship began moving even more swiftly, and the waves in the distance became even more still. It dawned on me, then.
Nuckelavee, I hissed mentally. Those are the waters the Nuckelavee makes.
I thought so, too, at first, Via answered me. But they are a little different, as those waters do not help ships move. I think this is something that your captain is the most familiar with.
Gabin nodded grimly.
The Flood is breaking the old Lord’s containment spell. These waters are pulling us directly to its lair in Atlantis. So that it might consume us.
Great, I said dryly. We’ll have to plan around that. Are we anywhere near Atlantis yet?
Not for another couple of hours, even at this speed, the captain said as he shook his head.
Then, we’ll look at it this way: the Flood is saving us time and fuel. Let’s have everyone stand down and get some rest. We can have a light watch to look out for any sudden changes. But for now, this means we won’t have to spend mana on wind or water magic yet.
My team and the crew both took to that rather optimistic suggestion far better than I dared to hope they would. That probably just showed how badly everyone needed a nap.
For my part, I found a place to sit down and just not think. The old chant about my hand started up again, and the closer we got to Atlantis, the louder it got. I tried everything I could to counter it, from breathing exercises to just plain going to my happy place, but nothing made it go away. So I gave up and just tried to ignore it.
I was already on the deck when the crew noticed the skies darkening ahead of us. I looked up to the sky and realized it was nowhere near sunset, and I had noticed no heavy clouds in the sky before this.
Please don’t step on my hand, the voice said in my mind, far louder than before.
I gritted my teeth and ignored it. Gabin appeared next to me, speaking quietly, too low for anyone but me to hear.
“The seal is breaking even faster than we feared,” he told me. “If we fail here, this planet will not last through the week. I give the connected worlds a month before the Flood reaches them as well.”
“Then we can’t afford to fail,” I said back, still gritting my teeth. “We already knew that going in. This just makes the stakes more apparent. I’ll remain on deck, in case my power is needed. How much longer until we get there?”
We’re going even faster now, he confided privately. Two hours at the most. Less if the pull becomes any stronger.
Will the pull prevent you from controlling the ship? I asked.
It might if it gets much stronger. We’ll have to rely on the glyphs and your retinue’s magic to counter it, then.
I nodded in acceptance. That was far from ideal, because we would probably need our mana for the battle ahead. But there was nothing I could do about that fact except make sure my team got as much rest as possible.
Please don’t step on my hand, the voice repeated. I suppressed a growl at it. By now, though, I was pretty used to ignoring random voices in my head, so it was still something I could handle, even if it didn’t go away.
For now.
After another hour, the sky was dark enough to count as evening. I still couldn’t tell exactly what the darkness was. It wasn’t mist, it wasn’t storm clouds, and it wasn’t the night sky, because no stars sparkled behind it. It was just a dim patch of sky and earth, like something I couldn’t see was casting a shadow over everything in front of my ship.
When we finally saw what might be the cause of that shadow, Gabin swore in surprise.
“I do not believe this,” he hissed. “This should be impossible.”
Dark mountains rose all around us.
His surprise was completely justified. These rocks formed entire islands, bigger than the ones I had just visited. We should have seen them hours ago. Instead we were noticing them only now, when they were a few dozen miles away. And noticing them was the wrong word, because most of their collective mass was hidden by a swirling vortex of black shapes. Most were too small to make out, but every now and then, a maw the size of our sails would yawn open, or a tentacle as long as the ship itself would rear up and flex briefly, before collapsing back into the teeming swarm.
“I thought you said there were no landmasses around the location of your sunken city?” I asked my captain, as I messaged my retinue to come aboard the deck.
There were none at all, he said firmly. These islands were not here at that time, and according to your ally, they have not been here since.
That was true. Via had said that the Icons had detected the Nuckelavee emerging from this place, and it had all been bare ocean back then.
It was the Flood that wrecked our homes, a voice said in my mind. Judging by the crew’s reaction, they had heard it, too.
“Wait,” Gabin said suddenly. “There was no land above the waves around Atlantis… but there was land below…” he began to look even more worried. I had a hard time following him, though.”
“Can you be more specific?” I asked, trying not to sound too annoyed at him. Because it sounds like you’re just talking about the ocean floor right now.”
But Gabin shook his head.
“There are mountains below the waves. Many are far taller than even the famous mountains on other worlds. Whenever Atlantis would sink beneath the waves to escape danger, it would take haven in the valley between our largest undersea mountains. It is hard to tell,” he looked carefully at the monster-wrapped rocks looming all around us, “But the dark peaks we see now have risen exactly where the ancient maps marked the homes of the mountains below.”
“Okay,” I said, putting a palm over my forehead. “Were any of these mountains volcanic in nature, or is this just sheer magic happening right now?”
It was the Flood that wrecked our homes, a voice said on th
e wind, rolling from the mountain on our starboard front.
“That actually answered my question, so never mind,” I said next. Gabin was looking more and more horrified by the second. “It looks like these mountains were inhabited, and the Flood got to them. But I’m guessing no one lived there during your time, did they?”
“No one,” He replied, as he and his crew looked on numbly. “There were a few ruins, but we never learned who made them. We explored them yearly, but…” comprehension suddenly flashed across his face and froze his tongue.
“Are you sure the Flood came to you through the Pathway of another world?” I asked quietly.
“No,” the blue-green man swallowed. “Not anymore.”
It was the Flood that wrecked our homes, another voice from the mountain on our portside said.
Then another noise rode the winds into our mind. The shapes on our starboard mountain formed into a massive, yawning maw, and a low, echoing roar sounded in our heads. Black mist began to drift from every nearby peak, spilling toward our ship in thick trails that completely surrounded us.
But my team had already arrived on deck and taken up battle stations. Breena grew to her full height, activating her Dawn Fairy form as she took up position at the stern of the ship. As she blazed with orange and golden light, the mist halted its advance to her side of the ship. For my part, I walked to the prow and drew Claimh Solais. I commanded the sword of light to shine at full power. The misty tendrils ceased advancing at my end of the ship even sooner, recoiling completely and retreating back into the mountains they had come from. More words whispered across the winds into our minds, echoing in soft tones full of dread.
Lighting Distant Shores (Challenger's Call Book 4) Page 52