Draith
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Chapter 145 - Off The Top
🕑 Added 2025-06-28 14:00:11 +0000 UTCWhile Nexxa flew off to save the world, or at least as much of it as she could reach within half a day's worth of Lightning Transit, I prepared for the next departure. The outpost was secured enough for the moment. If we were going to continue to ferry people east, there was a lot that needed to be done back in Cape Aeternia.
Collecting Bevel required first extracting her from the group of children she had gathered around her near the lower end of the mountain fortress's upper courtyard.
Which… I was hesitant to do, since she seemed to be giving them some sort of history lesson. At least, it’d seemed like a history lesson about Tetherfall when I'd first arrived. After a moment, I realized that was kinda true… if I stretched my definition of history as much as Bevel stretched her retelling. My amusement grew as I listened along with the crowd of enraptured children.
"And that's when I dropped a mountain on the evil man, saving my teacher and lady Vaserra," Bevel said, raising her arms and using her magic to produce a heavy rumbling that shook the air, earning wide eyes from her audience.
"Not quite how I remember it," I said, finally deciding to make my presence known.
My sudden words caused Bevel to leap several feet into the air. The gust, in turn, caused the nearby kids' hair to blast away, and one smaller girl to tilt all the way on her back. Which only further excited them as they all cheered for my apprentice.
"Uh hi, Perry," Bevel said as she settled down on the stone floor again. "How long were you standing there?"
"First got here when you fought off the wyvern that attacked Tetherfall. Was rather impressive how you rode it in formation beside Inertia," I replied, smiling at her. "Must've missed that while I was tied up back in the wyvern's lair."
She grinned sheepishly, looking at her feet as her cheeks burned red.
"Why don't you say goodbye to your new friends," I said, nodding my head towards them. "We're gonna be heading back on the next trip."
Bevel simply nodded, her cheeks still lit up like a jerry can as she turned back to the others. Only after the third time she'd assured them she'd see them once they came to her home did I pull her away.
"You know, you don't have to make things up," I said, reaching over to ruffle her hair. "You've got enough real achievements of your own that'd make for great stories."
"I didn't mean to lie…" Bevel trailed off, looking up at me.
Choosing not to respond, I simply nodded at her, waiting.
"Well, not really," Bevel corrected herself. "Just wanted to be more adventurous, like you."
"Escaping from a big bad mage isn't enough adventure for you?"
"That wasn't an adventure… that was just…" Bevel trailed off, waving her hands to the side. "It just happened. It was just life."
"When you're living them, that's all they are," I agreed, motioning her to follow me. "Least, that's how I see it."
Bevel nodded as she followed along, lost in her own thoughts.
The new setup for the refugees worked wonders when the Howling Defier arrived. It only took ten minutes to get everyone loaded, though their possessions took a little while longer. Unfortunately, Nexxa wasn't back from her explorations, so we didn't get to say goodbye.
On the other hand, it was a lot easier to visit the outpost. Even if I took Soaring Wolf, I could make a day trip out of it.
To my surprise, Tresla was still piloting the Defier. "Surprised you haven't handed it off," I said as I boarded.
"Been letting the others get some practice in, but I enjoy it," Tresla said her hood shifting in my direction as a flash of blue escaped from beneath. "Inertia's a bit upset though. There's a bit of a wobble if you descend too quickly, and she wants to fix it. Which is a challenge when we don’t have time for her to tear the Defier apart to do so. Wanted me to remind you this was supposed to be… what was the phrase you used… a ‘shakedown run’."
"We’ve definitely pulled that off,” I admitted while pulling the loading doors closed. “Still, while getting people transferred is important, but not more than keeping the Defier from crashing. I’ll take a look.”
Tresla looked around at the crowd of nervous refugees, tilting her head to the side. A crowd who looked considerably more nervous than they had a second ago.
"It'll be fine," I grumbled, annoyed at both myself and Tresla for bringing up the possibility. "But I'll double check the enchantments, just to be sure."
"That’d be for the best, I think," Tresla said, nodding at me even as the Defier roared to life and we started back towards Cape Aeternia.
It was far less pleasant than our trip outward had been. Refugees and their meager belongings were everywhere, crammed up against the walls, hanging off the support hangers and moving up and down the halls to the limited bathrooms. Several people were violently ill, not used to the sudden shifts in gravity, and not nearly enough bathroom to accommodate them. There'd been some thought put towards that, since there were nearly as many buckets as there were passengers.
Making my way over and through the sprawling passengers, I did exactly what I'd told Tresla I was going to, I checked the enchantments. Bevel was beside me, though I could tell she wasn't really paying attention to the work. Instead, she watched the refugees.
We'd made it through three quarters of the ship, having started at the front of the crescent on the left and working our way around, when she asked, "Where are they going to go?"
"I… don't know yet," I said, following her gaze. She was looking at a nearby family, a young mother or older sister who was looking after three younger children. An older heavyset man snored beside them.
One of the kids attempted to sneak free, and the young woman pulled them back with a quick tug, causing them to start with the waterworks. She quieted them before they could really get started, looking our direction with a sort of hollow look in her eyes.
It was clear they'd had a rougher time of it than most, with the bruises and torn clothing. One of the families who'd barely escaped, and hadn’t had the courage to come receive healing.
"May I heal it?" I asked, nodding towards her face. She stared at me blankly for a moment, before slowly nodding. I cast Restore Form, and she gasped. Then reached up to touch her cheek. After, she said something in a thick dialect I couldn't understand. What I did understand was the gesture towards a young boy sitting quietly next to her. A second later, I sent a wave of healing through him as well.
He quietly sobbed against her, which… wasn't a normal result of my healing. But after she pulled his clothes to the side, she let out a soft sigh, giving me a fragile smile and a nod.
I gave her a short nod in return before turning back to my work. Bevel had a point. There was only so much room in Tetherfall or Verdant Point. Besides, as I was thinking about it, I remembered Books cautioning us against dropping wildly different cultures on top of each other back when he’d been giving us lessons.
Still, I'd come up with something.
The flight continued, and I managed to track down the problem with the enchanting. One of the support struts was still bent. I wasn't sure if we'd just missed it after the initial move or if it'd been damaged since, but the repair was simple enough. Barely took five minutes to patch, and Tresla didn't even have to land.
Was a bit like working on cars that way. Sometimes it ten times longer to find the actual source of the problem than it did to fix it. Especially when the sensors sent you on a wild goose chase.
After completing my inspection, Bevel and I returned to the main area. Looking around the Defier, I was slightly regretting not setting up proper dividers between sections. Despite everyone mostly keeping their voices down, a constant murmur filled the air. Dividers would at least give people a bit more privacy. More places to hang things too, which I noticed were in short supply.
Still, the Defier wasn't that large. Inertia and I were already working on other designs that would have ten times the carrying capacity, and at least twenty times the space, though none would have more than a tenth of the Defier's speed. They wouldn't require a tier-3 granitas engine either, so that wasn't a horrible tradeoff. If we ended up keeping the distant outpost, I'd want one of those airships to be the ones making the run.
While airships were good, if Nexxa was moving in next door, there was another method of modern transit I wanted to start working on with Inertia. One I was pretty sure she'd have a natural affinity with.
Trains.
Afterall, a Forgeheart was a perfect fit when trying to get a steam engine rolling down the rails.
The last few hours of the trip were spent talking with Bevel about how I hoped to add trains to Cape Aeternia, specifically connecting to wherever Nexxa set up. And then explaining exactly what a train was. And then doing even more explaining why we might want something on the ground that had to follow rails.
“It might seem like starting with trains before an airship would've made more sense,” I said, my eyes fixed on the viewing orb Tresla was still parked behind. “After all, trains take a lot less magic, and were around a long time before we figured out flight.”
“That’s not what I asked,” Bevel said, shaking her head. “I asked why start with them now.”
“Well, now we’re getting to the point we can set up the infrastructure. And pretty soon, we’re going to have a lot of things we want to move. The mana we’ve been using for the portals isn’t infinite. Soon as the Howling season’s over, we’re going to be working off the stored mana. And trains are a lot more efficient, pound for pound, than moving goods via airship.”
And that was with all the design knowledge I'd brought from Earth alongside relatively easy access to lighter than air gasses and high-strength lightweight materials. Materials engineers on Earth would've drooled over. Honestly, building a workable airship on Ro'an had been comparatively easy. Sometimes, with the knockback of spells like Gust, it was harder to keep my feet on the ground than otherwise.
But trains had proven their value on Earth, not due to their adaptability, but for how useful they were between major trade hubs. Shortly before I'd come to Ro'an, I'd been half-watching a bunch of video essays on alternate transit systems while pulling wrenches. They'd mostly been on in the background, and I'd found them more amusing than anything at the time.
Still, with Memory Palace, I'd drawn forth more about trains and their place in the old world than I'd have thought existed.
Part of that knowledge had actually been incorporated into Fang. Poorly, at first, as we did our best to convert the pressure of the Forge Heart into motion. But every modification had improved it.
I could almost picture the giant serpent's skull at the front of a train. Damn thing was large enough for it.
A break in the clouds below drew me out of my conversation with Bevel. Even with Eagle Eyes, I could barely make out a group of frost wolves and their riders bounding along a ridge just south of the high road, hunting some sort of goat that was knocking loose rocks twice its size every time it landed.
Then we were gone, leaving the hunt behind us.
Was tempted to grab Soaring Wolf and visit Vaserra. If Bevel’s glider was still on board, I probably would've, but most of the gliders had been unloaded to free more lifting capacity for the Defier.
When we reached Mount Aeternia, Tresla brought us down directly over the peak, settling us in place with surprising accuracy. She didn't so much as scuff against the edge. I suspected she'd moved the air deflection enchantments to maximum, which was confirmed as once we were locked in place around the peak, the enchantments were lowered and the ship shook slightly from the perpetual high winds.
The door exited directly into the protected part of the peak, and I remained on board with Tresla as we waited for the refugees to disembark. Tamrie was outside, waiting with a group of Tethered and a couple of the not-dwarven elves. Both had beards that stretched down to their knees, and neither was as tall as Tamrie while being nearly as wide.
There was some grumbling as people started making their way down the stairs, though most seemed relieved to be off of the Defier.
The Tethered quickly started offloading any extra belongings, each of which had been tagged kinda like at an airport, though the tags were a lot more durable.
The family with the young woman and boy I’d healed earlier passed by. The last of the passengers aboard. The man who'd been snoring was ranting at the young woman in the same thick dialect I couldn't quite make it out. When they reached Tamrie, I heard her ask something about warlords, sanctuary and safe conditions. Several of the Tethered had stopped, watching.
The young woman straightened, glancing towards the man.
I was making my way down with Bevel and noticed Xelinda with her hand on her hilt just to the side of the ramp as we exited.
Before I could nod to her, the man started shouting something. As if she'd been waiting for it, Xelinda stepped forward, yelling, "You'd better step off. If the girl wants sanctuary, she'll get it."
To my surprise, he turned on her roaring back in broken Elinder I could understand, "My wife ain't need no sanctuary from her husband! I won her, fair as fair can be!"
Despite his words, the young woman had stepped back, shielding her children from the man. Her gaze darted in my direction, and she took another step away, towards me.
As this played out, I stepped forward, glad I still had Spark loaded. This batch of refugees had me on the verge of shocking them more than once, and keeping Lightning Bolt non-lethal was a lot trickier.
"Sure as anything, the rites of conquest don't apply here," Tamrie stated, her voice cold and firm. "You'll be able to schedule visits, sure enough, if she chooses to allow."
While I was still processing the situation, the man turned towards his apparent wife, pointing at her. "You. Tell them that you don't need no sanctuary."
"No closer," Xelinda said calmly, her blade clearing the scabbard, causing the man to halt.
Was kinda regretting that I didn't have Create Ice prepared. A nice solid wall between the man and his wife would make me feel much better. One between Tamrie and him would be nice too.
One of the stubby elves that I decided I’d simply call dwarves, at least in the privacy of my own head, stepped forward. "You were told this was gonna happen, Oldrin. We were all told about the new rules, when the Storm God visited."
"She didn't say nothing about splitting up families that want to be together," the man, apparently Oldrin said, his face red as he pointed a fat finger at the dwarf.
"And that's the thing, isn't it," the dwarf said, drawing out his words, diverting Oldrin's attention as the other dwarf quietly ushered the young woman and her children away. "They're not splitting up folks who're wanting to stick together. Assuming that's true on both ends."
"Tell them, woman," Oldrin said, turning towards where his wife had been standing a minute earlier. "Tell them we want…" he blinked a couple times as he stared at the blank rooftop. He looked about for a second, before his face started getting even redder. "You bring them back. They're mine."
"They're not," the dwarf said, shaking his head sadly. "Never were, if they'd leave you so easy."
The big man grabbed the dwarf, his hand closing on his skull. "You better-"
Whatever the dwarf had better, was never revealed, because Xelinda's blade had been revealed instead. It now rested against Oldrin's neck. "Go ahead, give me an excuse to free those kids from you forever," Xelinda said, her tone almost bored.
It was surprising to realize Oldrin's face could indeed get redder. He seemed to get a hold of himself, letting out a long breathe.
Then he lunged for Xelinda, his hand still holding the poor dwarf’s face.
She didn't hesitate and a second later Oldrin's head was disconnected, catching just enough air to do a complete three-hundred and sixty spin before coming to smack down on the body that had yet to drop, as it shook from the Spark I’d unleashed at the same time she’s struck.
Oldrin’s decapitated head managed to blink a couple times even as the body slumped, making wheezing noises as he gasped, attempting to spit out some final words.
Only later did it occur to me that I could've healed him. Despite having literally lost his head, I could've still saved the man's life.
Instead, I'd stood in stunned silence. First, I looked over at Tamrie, who was already making notes in her journal. Then to the stocky elf, who was frowning down at the dead man.
Finally, my gaze landed on Xelinda, who flicked her blade then uttered a swift word that caused one of those vinelike enchantments of her father’s to glow, cleansing her sword.
It was only as she sheathed her blade, nodding in my direction, that I unfroze. Before I could speak, Bevel beat me to it. She'd been there at my side the whole time.
"That was so fraying awesome!"
