Chapter 226 – Through the Gate
A month after the portal was first opened in Seattle, I was preparing to make my first willing visit to Onerth. I’d only waited that long because I was a dutiful liege. The Elves of the Blood Oak had sworn themselves to me, and I had accepted their oaths. That meant I needed to see to their wellbeing.
Most settled on Pagan itself, with magic serving to create a pocket realm near the portal where they could rebuild their homes, without concerns about volcanic eruptions or tropical weather. At my direction, teachers had arrived from other parts of Risen Athelia to give them a primer on this world’s technology, while one Elen Faedan, an Enchanter had been hired by Athelian Arms to expand my students’ experience with Enchantment, and so that the elves could learn some of the different ways crafters in this world worked. He was especially interested to learn the art of gunsmithing, since that was a craft that was all but unheard of in the other world.
On my recommendation, Phantomline hired the alchemist Vaalyun Mordan. Alchemy was a science that could be scaled (and sold) more easily than the enchantments. While industrialized potion brewing was not common on Onerth, it was not unheard of, especially for common potions, like the basic health, mana, and stamina recovery potions, or the basic antidote and cure disease potions, the ones that cured poisons like basic snake venoms and diseases like the common cold. All of those were useful, and could be the difference between life and death to some people, but they weren’t the truly dangerous types of products.
Also at my recommendation, the Athelian Magitech Research Center hired the artificer Eirina Trara. Artificing was essentially the cousin of magitech. One focused primarily on magic backed by tech, while the other was tech backed by magic. I had high hopes that she would help bring a lot of new advancements to Risen Athelia, once she started collaborating with the other researchers.
I was not alone when I stepped through the Gateway, and returned to Onerth. My disciples were with me, as were the Magelords of the Athelian Spire. And the Elves of the Blood Oak sent Archmage Shalaevar Ilimys and High Death Speaker Ailmar Venrel to accompany me. Oh, and I had a hundred Death Knights from my army as bodyguards. Not because I needed them, but because monsters with even animal intelligence tended to understand that a hundred mounted knights in full armor were not easy prey.
The portal, all forty meters in height and thirty in width of it, was set at the center of what people were now calling Athelas Crater. The crater was a perfect circle, roughly six kilometers in diameter, which would have been where the city walls that defended Athelas, when it was a living city, would have stood. That is where I’d placed the outer markers of my runework for the ritual of returning, so I wasn’t entirely surprised by that. What was surprising, though, was that the crater was not a bowl, but rather shaped roughly like a bundt pan, with the crater falling from the outer edge in a parabolic line to almost a kilometer in depth, before rising to meet the central area, where we were standing.
That central area was a square, thirty meters on a side, where the foundations of Arela Castle, home of the kings and queens of Athelas-that-was, back when they were living, were laid. The foundations had old magic and old wards built into the stonework, and the explosion which had wiped the city from the map had not destroyed them, even though the magic was plenty powerful, as the rest of the crater showed. That was the difference between spellwork that intended destruction, and spellwork that merely removed all protections against destruction.
The portal occupied the western side of the central area, and its presence, along with the old foundation, helped reinforce and strengthen the area. There would be no worries about erosion or storms wearing away at the central area, even if left untouched by mortal hands. It was fixed in place, and impossible to alter without first dealing with the portal itself.
Of course, that did not mean that one could not add on to the slope, as the elves had done just that, using Earth magic to create stairs and platforms which allowed for the easy ascent of the central spire. At the foot of the spire, on the eastern side, I could see the stone buildings that the elves had been living in while the Archmage and her team worked on the ritual to create the portal. From here, they looked comfortable enough, compared to sleeping outdoors, but it was obviously a temporary settlement, without any of the touches a permanent residence would need, such as fields to grow food for the living. There was not even a wall around the perimeter, which struck me as odd, since I knew there ought to be monsters in the area.
Archmage Ilimys laughed when I asked about it. “Your Majesty, with all due respect, you do not understand how deeply your spell has affected these lands. Yes, the crater is saturated with Death mana. Only with extensive magic can you grow anything in this soil, and the living must have basic protections at all times, or they will sicken and die. However, the mana has your distinct ‘flavor’ to it, which affects how other monsters react.
“Mindless undead can be found around the outskirts, but they will not approach closer than one hundred meters to the crater’s edge, even when following living prey. And the more intelligent undead and any living monster refuse to get even that close. It is comparable to how a dragon’s lair causes monsters to stay way, until a decade or more after the creature has been slain.
“Of greater concern, if you were to make a permanent outpost on this side of the portal, is that you cannot find any edible food, neither plants nor game, within the entirety of Athelia-that-was. Every last lake and river in the area is similarly tainted by Death. Any living souls you place on this side of the portal will be reliant on trade or constant resupply, if they do not have the necessary magic to sustain themselves.”
I considered that for a moment, as I looked out over the crater. Even without taking into account the necessities for mortals, the width and depth of the crater meant that colonizing this area would be problematic. Whenever it stormed, the crater would flood. You would have to set up extensive magical protections to force the water back uphill, which was doable, but also introduced a structural weakness into the city, since one simply needed to disable those protections in order to strike a heavy blow against the people living there. Even with undead living there, that was a problem.
That was not the only issue with the area’s defenses, however. Even if a wall was erected at the crater’s edge, the people behind it would have a great deal of difficulty in supporting those on the wall, since they would need to climb up, to the base of the wall, and then get up on the wall itself. Worse still, if the wall ever fell, or was taken, even in part, then an enemy would be able to fire spells and arrows down into the crater with impunity, and a counteroffensive to drive them back would be all but impossible.
Magic offered possible solutions to the issue, of course. Four of them, to be precise. Each solution would not be simple, or cheap, to pull off. However, between myself, and my people, including the elves, I had knowledge and power in abundance, which meant that implementation was merely a factor of cost in time and resources.
The first option was to fill in the crater with Earth magic. Doable, but expensive in many ways, especially if you wanted the earth to be permanent, and not conjured. It would likely mean reshaping the landscape for kilometers around to make up the difference.
Next, there was the option to fill in the crater with Water magic, and create a floating city on top of the water. This was possible, but it would take a great deal of water, and we would need to reroute the nearest river in order to ensure that the water didn’t grow stagnant and cause more problems than just being tainted by Death mana. A better solution than filling in the crater with Earth magic, for sure.
The third possibility was to build. Filling the crater with buildings of stone, so that, from the outside, it looked as though this was flat land, but many floors existed underground, with each level braced and reinforced to take the load of everything above it. This would be the most structurally sound choice, and the one with fewest magical hurdles to overcome, but what would be put in those underground levels? And how would you move people and goods between the levels?
The fourth option was the most difficult to achieve and maintain, but it would be the most spectacular, and would ensure that anyone that visited would be struck with awe. We could create a flying city, like the one described at the different seals back on Earth. Build something that was a testament to just how much more advanced Risen Athelia was than anyone back here on Onerth.
Of course, there were TONS of problems with that one, even after you solved the none-too-small issue of making something the size and mass of a city, with all the people it could fit, fly, and keep flying. Getting people to and from the ground could be handled, if the city was stationary. If it was going to move around, that meant you’d need to set up shuttles to move people and goods to and from the ground. Defensively, there were questions about how easily you could defend the underside of the city, and shooting back would be problematic. There was also the question of how quickly it would be able to move, how to control that movement, and how hard it would be for someone to hijack control.
That… was actually a lot more problems than I initially considered for that one. Flying city would be nice, but we’ll call that one a stretch goal. Instead, I considered the third option, the built-up city. With some quick math, if the depth of the crater was a thousand meters, the structural space between floors was roughly two meters, to ensure that there was plenty of strength holding everything up, and I had floors of roughly six meters in height, that would allow for a maximum of a hundred and twenty-five floors at the deepest parts of the crater.
That was the maximum. However, that would give me room for cisterns to hold fresh water, and Earth’s hydroponics technology would allow me to move the fields for agriculture into the city’s belly, ensuring that the city could wait out almost any siege. Not only that, they could use gardens to grow alchemical ingredients, and turn some levels into arms factories, armories, emergency bunkers, and more. From the first stone to the last, the city would be made into a fortress that beggared belief. Necessary precautions to ensure that the city could not easily be taken by other forces.
“Mistress, that is amazing!” Tabia said, considering everything I’d told the group of my plans. “You would be making the whole area into an unbeatable citadel!”
“Not unbeatable,” I corrected, not unkindly. “That is the kind of hubris that causes catastrophe. Always assume that someone, somewhere, will figure out how to make things go wrong with your plans. If everything happens as you expect, then the preparation is not wasted, but ready in case a similar issue arises in the future. And if someone does show up, you ae ready to deal with most things the universe throws at you.”
“Your Majesty,” High Magus Iseult Ermina Wynifreed ro Athelas said to me carefully, as the former Crown-Princess of Athelas-that-was looked upon the shattered remains of what had once been her home, “things would proceed faster, on this side of the gateway, if there was trade to be had. While the resources of Onerth could be used by those on Earth, trade between the surviving peoples of this world and Risen Athelia would make it possible that the rest of this continent, at least, may one day fall under your banner as your subjects. Plus, any survivors who have made it this far are likely led by those with power and skill, both of which are good to have in depth.”
“Perhaps a scouting mission to Vacete, and this Deathwatch Kingdom, is in order, then?”