Draith
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Chapter 10 - Final Refrain
🕑 Added 2025-02-23 19:43:29 +0000 UTCThe remainder of our trip was spent in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts as we drew closer to the single span of stone arching over the Infinite Rift.
At first, the bridge looked tiny, a thin strand of stone compared to the rift's breadth. But as we drew closer, it became obvious that the bridge was a mega-structure in its own right.
There was an entire city built around the edge, where we would spend the night, before being loaded in our crates in the morning. We passed through most of the city in minutes. Unlike Earth, traffic on the Rim Road was highly controlled. I could see the crowded streets of the city as we went though, catching glimpses of the varied folk within.
It was too fast to be certain, but I thought I might've caught a glimpse of a cadre of dwarves stumbling down one of the streets in our direction.
I was suddenly regretting staying so close to the family estate. While the mana density was higher than even this close to the rift, there was so much I hadn't seen. And I wouldn't get a chance to see it again for decades. I could only hope we could see some of it during our single night in the city. And that the Frigid Peaks would offer us more.
The hotel had a service that went to a restaurant that looked out over the Infinite Rift which Nexxa insisted we had to try when she heard of it.
When we pulled up in the carriage, I was amused to see that we would be ridding rickety little cages down to the actual restaurant from the parking area. The cages had been grown together, and a closer inspection revealed it would take serious effort to damage them. But the aesthetic made me nervous anyway as we swung out over the side of the Rift.
“Perry, you don’t have to squeeze the bars so tight!” Nexxa called from within her own cage.
“I’m not squeezing anything,” I denied, unable to get my hands to release the bars. “Also, I hate you! I hate you with every fiber of my being!”
“I was unaware you had a fear of heights, master Perth,” Calbern said from his cage above us.
“Not a fear of heights. Just the Rift!” I yelled back as my cage swung to the side, leaving me staring into the emptiness stretching away below us.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Nexxa chose that moment to swing her cage up next to mine, bumping into me.
“Don’t they have rules against smashing the cages together?” I asked, my voice higher than I would’ve preferred.
“Not if you pay the deposit!” Nexxa chuckled gleefully as she shifted the cage once more.
“You know, not all of us can fly,” I said, letting out a grunt of amusement as I shifted the cage enough for her to swing past without hitting me.
Nexxa swung back, cackling wildly as sparks flew from her cage. Before she could build up enough momentum for another attempt, the cages reached the landing platform.
I stumbled out, grasping at the railing and trying not to look over the edge. I failed. Even after descending hundreds of feet, there was still no sign of the bottom. And some maniac had built a restaurant inside it.
And then another one convinced me going there was a good idea.
Forcefully, I dragged my gaze up to the bridge that spanned the Rift. It felt even bigger from underneath.
With a shove against my shoulder, Nexxa moved to go inside. After the ride down, the meal was reasonably normal, though they did that usual tourist thing where everything was named after the theme.
The Infinite Stack was really just a fancy sandwich, though the meat was all high essence. That didn’t stand out much, considering everything on the menu was similar. It wasn’t a restaurant for the common folk, that was certain.
As if to prove the point, during our dinner, a troupe came in to take a place on a raised platform at the back of the room. By itself, that already would’ve felt pretty high class to me, but I’d never been too fancy back on Earth.
That they stepped onto stage with drawn blades made me realize this was something different than I’d expected. Each of the performers drew back their hoods to reveal silver hair, thin horns along the crown of their heads and long pointed ears.
The elves of Terra Vista had deigned to visit our restaurant.
“In accordance with the Life Song, we greet the people of Aranor, subjects of Arcadia,” a taller elf with dark marks along his cheeks said, undoing the cords binding the blade he carried. It was a long thin blade, nearly as tall as he was, with numerous notches along its length. “A bond long shared, debts long owed, shall finally be paid.”
“Oh wow,” Nexxa said, leaning forward across our meal.
“What?” I asked, glancing between the elves, her and Calbern.
“I believe we are about to witness a performance by the legendary Bladesingers of Terra Vista,” Calbern said, a note of reverence in his voice.
True to his word, the elves on stage started moving. At first, it looked almost like sparring. Yet every motion of their swords drew out whispering notes, like
Then the elves began to sing.
It was beautiful, but I wasn’t able to follow along. Whatever language they were singing hadn’t been part of Perth’s education.
A hushed comment from a lady in a frilly green dress at one of the nearby tables revealed the elves were singing about the calm before the storm.
As if on cue, the elves changed the tempo of their song. In place of the soft whispers, the sword clanged against each other, as they raised their voices into registers that reminded me a bit of what I thought an opera singer might sound like.
The music was much more heavy metal though.
Their performance had stepped up a notch as well. They weren’t just throwing their blades into each other, but were dancing off each other, flipping into the air, thrusting outward.
It was the most intricate dance of blades I’d ever seen.
And then one of those blades flicked out.
It was little more than a flash of light, yet it flew true, sliding into the chest of the lady who’d whispered the subject of the song so excitedly, a blue barrier around the table going up half a second too late.
“Get down,” Nexxa shouted, flipping the table before I’d fully understood what was happening. My eyes remained fixed on the red blossoming from the woman’s chest.
“The first notes have been played. May all of Ro’an echo with the transcendant beauty of true music!” the elf with the dark marks cried out, his blade flashing against an erected mana barrier, causing it to crumble. “For the Grand Choir!”
Another elf stepped forward as Nexxa shot a crackling bolt of electricity towards them. I was barely able to make out the afterimage of the elf somehow deflecting the bolt even as he sang.
It wasn’t my focus though. While Calbern picked up a chair and used it to block the blade of another elf, I scurried over to the woman. She was bleeding, badly. One of her companions had pulled the blade out, before charging at one of the elves with it. I cursed the fact that the only healing magic I had at my disposal required nearly half an hour of channeling to cast.
Still, I could apply pressure while casting it, so that’s what I did.
Even as Nexxa threw up a barrier of crackling lightning, I kept my hands pressed to the woman’s chest, praying that my spell would do something. There was nothing. Still, as I was looking at the blood, my eyes fell on a nearby bottle. Sealed with resin, it had a neat little label partially obscured by blood. It was readable enough for me to realize it was a healing elixir.
Perth’s family had sold healing elixirs but they were considered inferior to even the weakest spells. Only good enough for a mortal. I’d assumed I’d unlock my first slot before I’d need one. A failure of foresight. Taking the elixir in a shaking hand, I brought it over the woman’s wound.
Holding my breath, I unstoppered the vial, trying to steady my hand.
Then I started pouring it on the wound, holding the flesh together with my other hand. It wasn’t perfect, the flesh growing back uneven, and in clumps. But it should keep her alive long enough to-
My thoughts were scattered as an explosion ripped through the room.
When I recovered, I found myself against the wall, alongside the woman whose life I’d been attempting to save. To my relief, her chest continued to rise, and the bleeding seemed to have abated.
Her health confirmed, I took in the room. The once elegant decorations had been shredded, and the elves were gone. There were several bodies, though I was relieved to see neither Calbern or Nexxa were among them.
“Well, that was bracing,” Calbern said, somehow having emerged completely unscathed, not so much as a single drop of blood on him. He dropped the remains of the chair he’d been wielding as he moved towards me, nodding as he took his place beside me.
“One word for it,” Nexxa grumbled, wiping at her face with a crumpled table cloth. Unlike Calbern, she was covered head to toe in blood and ash. “I heard elves could be unpredictable, but the hell was that? Are they trying to start a war?”
“It seems that was exactly their intent,” Calbern said, reaching down to retrieve the blade that had been thrown at the woman from the woman’s fallen companion. “This is no ordinary sword. See the words?”
It was pretty easy to read them. After all, they’d clearly been meant as a message.
“May the people of the hundred kingdoms rejoice, for soon they shall meet their gods. The Final Refrain has begun.”
