Thanks for waiting. Hope you like the chapter!
Celaine harvested the essence stones from the demons while Dylan worked his blessings over Hump. The demons had torn up his calf pretty badly, though his battle robes had prevented any irreparable damage. Still hurt like hell though.
Hump lay there, arm over his eyes, trying to catch his breath and ignore the burning sensation in his leg in combination with essence exhaustion. Nisha cooed softly at his side, her scales still golden but he could feel her essence starting to calm down. She lay down next to Hump’s leg and fire built in her throat. She gave him a questioning look, and he could feel her desire to help.
“Go ahead,” Hump said. “Burn it off if you have to.”
Dylan chuckled as a gentle flame poured from Nisha’s jaws. It was warm against his leg. Immediately, the pain lessened. He felt his skin tighten, his muscles itched. Dylan withdrew his blessings and simply watched. It only took a minute or so before Nisha collapsed against Hump’s side, exhausted, her scales losing the last of their gold colouring.
“Incredible,” Dylan said.
“Is it better?” Hump asked. “She didn’t really burn it off did she?”
“No, you’re good. Not even a scar.”
Hump ran a hand down Nisha’s back. “Aren’t you such a good girl. Thank you, little one.” She turned to rest her head over his stomach, and the two of them lay there, exhausted.
They were all tired. The battle had drained them more than anyone wanted to admit. But time did not wait, and they were in an unfamiliar land. Celaine, Emilia, and Captain Hadbur went off to scout the local area, and only when they returned did they all begin to relax, even if not fully.
They we on a small patch of land at the edge of a lake. There were no trees here, but thick vegetation grew in all directions, the tallest being about half their height but still tall enough to hide some sort of creature.
Despite their escape, there was unease amongst the altari. They’d been engaged in a heated discussion earlier in their own language. Even without understanding, Hump could tell Prince Marcoff was causing issues. He wanted to return to his world—a sentiment that Hump understood, but that they had limited means to help.
The discussion came to a head when Hump and his party went over to join them. Better to deal with it now than to let discontent fester.
“Ah good,” Prince Marcoff said. “The humans have joined us. We were just discussing our need to get home.”
“Stop it, Marcoff,” Princess Urella said. “You’re an embarrassment. We survived.”
“We barely survived,” Marcoff snapped. “This will keep happening. How many times do you think we can survive a close call like today.”
“We’re only alive because of them.”
Marcoff scoffed. “They’re not even taking us home.” He turned to Hump with disdain. “Where are we going? The Path to Heaven?”
“Yes,” Hump said. “It’s the same place Loften was taking us, and we have business there.”
“Business that doesn’t concern us,” Marcoff said. “Why are we coming with you?”
“You’re free to try and make your way on your own,” Celaine chided. “Good luck getting home from here.”
“I am a prince,” Marcoff said. “My people need me. My father needs me.”
“If I could clap my hands and send you home, I would,” Hump said. “We’re not bringing you with us to make our own lives any easier. We’re simply stuck in a difficult situation. I’m doing my best to follow the path that Loften set us on. So far, we’re finding fragments that contain some sort of life. I’m going to take that as meaning we’re going the right way.”
The prince let out an annoyed grunt, like a snarl caught in the back of his throat. “And you expect us to just go along with you? Who are you to demand that? To force us to follow you?”
“You’re not being forced,” Hump said. “At least, not by us. You’re stranded, and we’re doing our best to keep you alive. We’re in the unfortunate situation where there is no good solution. We have our own destination, and I’m doing my best to navigate to get there. If the opportunity arises, we will drop you off somewhere safe along the way. I don’t know what more I can offer you.”
“You could bring us home,” Prince Marcoff said.
“We can’t allow our enemies to reach the Path to Heaven first,” Hump said. “I also don’t know how to bring you home. At least if you come with us, Loften might be able to show you the way if he finds us again.”
“Do you really how demanding you are all being?” Celaine asked. “The only reason you’re all alive now is because of us. We’re escorting you through fragments of worlds. This isn’t a matter of getting home, it’s a matter of survival. I suggest you keep your heads down, mouths shut and be grateful that we didn’t abandon you like your god.”
Marcoff was about to say something when Acalin clasped him by the shoulder. Interestingly, that seemed to shut the prince up.
Acalin gave Hump an apologetic smile. “We do appreciate all of your efforts to keep us safe. It’s just… we all want to get home.”
“I understand,” Hump said. “And I’ll do my best to help you get home. It simply cannot be my priority. The beings that we’re up against aren’t foes we can ignore. You’ve seen the power of Godfrey, and he is but one of many.”
“What can you do against such strength?” Acalin asked. “Strength that even the Maker fled from.”
“With any luck, we’ll find that answer where we’re going.”
“When do you think you’ll be ready to move again?” Captain Hadbur asked Hump.
“Probably tomorrow. If I push any further I’m going to suffer Essence Overuse, and it might leave us stranded in a fragment we’d rather not be in.”
“So we have a day to kill,” Hadbur said. “I’ll be nearby.”
The fragment was quiet, almost peaceful. The sun was warm and pleasant, but it moved across the sky far faster than back home. When night came, Hump had expected the same, but it seemed to linger twice as long. It suited him perfectly. He must have slept for twelve hours before morning came.
When he woke, Emilia sat on a patch of grass watching the others as she cleaned her blade. Bud still slept now that they had time to think again. He’d returned to his previous lethargic state, caught somewhere between irritation and depression. The situation with Kelisia was not weighing on him well.
Dylan and Karo fished at the edge of the lake, Nishari sitting beside them staring with such focused intensity that she didn’t even notice Hump approaching to see how they were doing.
Hump crouched at the edge of the lake and watched the strange life moving beneath its surface. The water was so still that it reflected the pale sky above like glass.
Dylan fished in an unorthodox way. He had a vine attached to the ground beside him and rising into the air overhead, thinning until it was no larger than a piece of string before dangling into the water. The vine itself was the hook.
A school of thin eel-like fish slipped past just below the surface, their long bodies twisting together in tight formations before vanishing into deeper water. Along the lakebed, flat armoured creatures crawled slowly over the stones, their segmented shells a pale red. Strange spiked worms drifted lazily through the shallows, their soft limbs waving in the current. Hump glimpsed a small, round creature with far too many eyes dart between the rocks.
“Those are some very strange fish,” Hump muttered.
“Oh yes,” Dylan said. “The weirdest one was as flat as a pancake and moved through the water by squeezing in on itself. It had one big eye on the front of its head.”
“That wasn’t a head,” Karo said.
Dylan shrugged. “Well it had one big eye.”
“Have you caught anything?” Hump asked.
“Those small, armoured things,” Dylan said. “But there’s not much to eat on them, so we put them back. Other than that we haven’t had much luck.”
“You spoken to Bud at all?” Hump asked.
“He was up for a bit,” Dylan said. “He didn’t want to join us though. I think the situation with Kelisia is weighing heavily on him again now that he’s got time to think.”
“I’m not sure what to do about it,” Hump said.
“You’re already doing well,” Dylan said. “All we can do is try to distract him and keep him focused when we need him. If he wants to talk, he knows we’re there for him.”
Hump nodded, considering his words, when he felt Nishari stir beside him.
Her head lifted suddenly. The dragonling stalked toward the lake’s edge, her eyes fixed on something beneath the surface.
“Nisha…” Hump said warningly.
She dove.
The splash was enormous, like a horse hitting the water.
“Nishari!” Hump called instinctively.
For a moment there was only rippling water.
Then Nishari burst to the surface with a long fish thrashing violently in her jaws.
Dylan suddenly went tense. “Nisha, out of the water,” he said sharply. “Out,” Dylan repeated, more urgently this time.
Hump reinforced the command through their bond, stricter than before.
Nishari scrambled away from the edge at once, clearly picking up on the tension in his voice. She paddled back to the shore, claws digging into the mud as she hauled herself onto dry land. The fish wriggled desperately until she gave it a final shake.
Dylan stared. Karo stared.
Karo laughed. “That’s ten times the size of anything we caught today.”
Nishari looked immensely pleased with herself as she began tearing into the fish with obvious enthusiasm.
Dylan’s eyes were back on the water. Hump tried to see what he was searching for but saw nothing.
“What was wrong?” Hump asked.
“I definitely saw something big down there,” Dylan said.
Celaine wandered over beside them. “How big?” she asked.
“As big as a person.”
Celaine raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t notice.”
“Well it was there,” Dylan insisted.
“I didn’t say it wasn’t.”
“But you were thinking it.”
“I was not!”
“Your eyes aren’t perfect, Celaine!” Dylan said with played exaggeration.
Celaine rolled her eyes and looked to Hump. “Help.”
***
There was no dramatic opening of the next rift. Once breakfast was finished and everyone had gathered their gear, Hump led the group towards the thread he’d identified the previous day. There was no brute-forcing it this time. The rift was already open, and all Hump needed to do was stabilise it with his staff before they stepped through.
The fragment on the other side was familiar.
Empty stone stretched in every direction. No vegetation, no water, just endless slabs of dark rock broken by shallow ridges and shallow valleys. They had crossed several places like it already. Dead fragments, or perhaps worlds that had never fully formed. As they moved toward the next rift, however, Hump realised they were following a single thread. This hadn’t been the destination, but one stop along the way. The thread he’d been following stretched deeper into the abyss.
For the first time, he felt a little more confident that they were on the right path. Now it was a matter of proving himself right.
Navigating the abyss was still more instinct than knowledge. Each time they jumped between fragments, Hump’s understanding grew a little clearer. The threads were not paths in the traditional sense. They were more like resonances—lines of shared intent linking fragments together. If he focused on the destination strongly enough, certain threads began to answer him.
He’d been following one such path for a while now. When he envisioned Alveron, and searched for that familiar feeling of home, certain threads lit up in his mind. While they were aiming for the Path to Heaven, Hump’s theory was that one of these would lead them to the Gateway Network Loften spoke of. Once there, navigating in general should become easier.
***
A world of clouds.
Hump saw land far beneath them and his stomach dropped. Yet somehow, the cloud held them up. Nisha jumped through it, springing off the surface in delight, much to the rest of their dismay. He got her to stop, but there wasn’t much need. The cloud held.
“How are we standing?” Celaine asked.
Hump tapped a foot against the cloud, feeling for essence. He shrugged. “Magic.”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“A wizard never tells.”
“He definitely doesn’t know,” Emilia said.
“This world is richer in essence than any we have been to so far,” Dylan said, breathing deeply. “I’m willing to bet it has something to do with that. It’s invigorating, honestly. I wouldn’t mind stopping here for a while.”
Hump picked a direction and they were moving again. It was farther to the next rift this time, and he wasn’t sure what they’d do if their cloud coverage ended. Worse still, if they needed to get to the ground. He could slow the descent of a few of them, but they numbered thirteen people. That might be pushing it.
A flicker of coloured light darted through the air nearby.
Hump turned just in time to see a small shape streak past them—a ribbon of blue light no larger than a bird. It curved through the air in a tight loop before slowing, hovering a short distance away.
Another followed. Then a third appeared nearby. Soon, there were dozens.
Hump and the others readied their weapons, but the little creatures didn’t seem aggressive. They drifted around them like living essence. Some looked like tiny streaks of wind twisting through the air. Others resembled small clouds with glowing cores that pulsed softly with colour. A few appeared almost like miniature lightning bolts that crackled quietly as they floated.
“They look like elemental spirits,” Dylan said. “I’ve never seen so many in such a small space.”
Nishari crouched low, tail twitching as she eyed one that floated near her nose. The little spirit bobbed up and down in response, flashing briefly gold.
Then it darted forward and tapped her snout.
Nishari sneezed in surprise.
More of the spirits gathered now, swirling around them in curious circles. A larger spirit appeared, its glow pulsing gently. When it reached Hump’s staff it circled it, his focus lighting up to match its pale blue light.
“What in the world is going on?” Bud asked.
“I think they’re trying to communicate,” Dylan said, holding out a hand and letting the spirits land on it. “Maybe Shimmer can help.”
Dylan summoned his Spirit Fox, the little creature appearing on his shoulder, its body made of essence. It tilted its head at the spirits.
“They seem to recognise us,” Dylan said.
The spirits bobbed around in front of the fox spirit in spiralling circles.
“Shimmer wants to follow them. I can’t tell why, but I can feel his enthusiasm.”
Hump frowned. “Maybe people have been to this fragment before. They might recognise humans or altari.”
“Why do we care?” Prince Marcoff asked.
“If people have been here before, perhaps they left something behind,” Hump said. “The thread has led us here. This might be part of the Gateway Network we’re looking for.”