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Chapter 675: Dire River Part 1
🕑 Added 2025-10-26 03:26:01 +0000 UTCStryg snapped his eyes open and sat up in bed. He was back in the cabin of the Dragon’s Hoard. Tauri was at his side, slapping his cheek lightly. “Oh, thank the gods, he’s awake.”
“Get him up!” Gale said.
“What’s going on?” he asked blearily. He felt disoriented as if dropping into another of his ancestor’s memories.
Gale drew her sword. “We’ve got a problem.”
Tauri helped Stryg out of bed as he regained his footing. After a few breaths, the vertigo slowly dissipated, though not entirely. “Everything is moving…”
“That’s not in your head,” Tauri lamented.
Stryg thought about her words and looked around the cabin. “...The ship?”
“Come with me.” She grabbed his hand and led him up to the deck.
Sure enough, Tauri had been right. It was pouring rain outside and the winds were howling in his ears. Stryg leaned over the rails and watched as massive waves crashed into the Dragon Hoard’s hull, threatening to tip the ship over. The Dire River was known for its massive size and rapid current, but Stryg had never seen waves this high.
“I’m not much of a sailor, but are these waves normal?” Stryg asked.
“Not even close,” Tauri shouted over the crashing waves.
“Where is Gale?”
“Over there!” Tauri pointed at the quarterdeck.
Stryg ran across the deck, faltering in his step as another set of waves crashed into the ship. Kegrog and Kithina were suddenly at his side.
“We’ve got you,” Kegrog helped him up.
“You’re awake?” Stryg asked, mildly surprised.
“Of course, we’re awake. How could we sleep through all of this? Did you just wake up?” Kithina noticed his disheveled appearance.
“Something like that,” Stryg replied.
“Are we really sailing into all that fog?” Kegrog pointed at the fog bank ahead of them.
“That isn’t fog. It’s frost-mist…” Stryg whispered.
It was a massive wall that covered the entire river. Stryg hadn’t noticed when he first got on deck. At the rate the ship was sailing down the river, they would hit the wall in a couple of minutes.
Stryg tossed his boots and ran to the quarterdeck. “Find Nora and bring her to the quarterdeck, quickly!” he called back without waiting for an answer. He leaped up the stairs, three at a time, and landed with a heavy thud.
The ship’s captain was at the helm, arguing with Freya and Gale. “We need to turn back, the ship won’t hold at this rate. This storm isn’t natural.”
“We’re fine. Stay on course,” Freya said. She appeared calm, despite the wind lashing at her face, throwing her golden hair into disarray.
“How long has the storm been going?” Gale asked.
“Only half an hour, but the further we sail downriver, the worse it’s become. The waves just keep growing larger. This is foul magic at work. I’m afraid the ship won’t hold,” the captain answered.
Freya patted the railing, “The hull’s enchanted, it’ll hold.”
“I’m not worried about the hull. At this rate, the ship will capsize.” As if to illustrate the captain’s point, another wave, larger than any before, crashed into the ship, splashing water all over the deck. Several dwarves were swept away and disappeared under the raging current.
Freya’s hands wrapped around the rails in a white-knuckle grip and Gale wasn’t far behind, as the water tried to throw them off.
“Man overboard!” a sailor screamed while several more rushed to get ropes.
“We need to turn back!” the captain demanded.
“He’s right, we need to get out of here,” Gale agreed.
Freya furrowed her brow, then noticed Stryg standing at the top of the stairs. The claws on his feet had dug into the wood to hold him steady.
“Don’t go ruining my ship!” Freya snapped, though her tone wasn’t sharp.
“My lord, are you alright?” Gale rushed to his side.
“I’m fine,” Stryg reassured her.
“It won’t be long until the ship hits that fog bank. We might not get a chance to leave once we do. We need to leave now!” the captain said.
“He’s right, we don’t even know what’s on the other side of that fog,” Gale said.
“I think I have an idea.” Stryg raised his index and middle fingers and pointed them at his eyes. He took a quick breath and tensed.
Stryg channeled White and cast a bright spell. Two pinpricks of lights formed at his fingertips and shone with the blaze of the sun. He winced, but forced his eyes open. The pupils grew wide, and the rings of his irises broke and expanded, covering the whites of his eyes entirely.
“Did he just blind himself?” Freya asked, taken aback.
“He’s fine… I think,” Gale replied.
Stryg’s world of color had disappeared in a flash and he was left in a world of darkness. Everything in his sight was black and outlined in silver strings of light, almost as if he was seeing schematics of what the world should be. The frost-mist had disappeared entirely and he saw what lay ahead.
“Pillars. No. They’re more jagged. Made of ice. They’re small icebergs,” Stryg described what he saw.
The captain muttered a curse under his breath. “How many, my lord?”
“Dozens, no, hundreds,” Stryg corrected himself as he glanced around the horizon. “They’re spread all across the river for as far downriver as I can see. Lunae didn’t want any ship following her army.”
“That’s it, we’re turning around!” the captain said and began to turn the wheel.
“No, wait,” Freya said.
“Are you mad? Turn us around, captain!” Gale said.
“Aye, aye, m’lady!” the captain nodded.
Freya bit her lip and stared at the floor, her brow furrowed. Finally, she looked up at Stryg. “This is your quest. It’s your call.”
Stryg saw the determination and realized she was serious. She was trusting him, putting all their lives at risk for his sake. Freya had left Stryg and Clypeus on Widow’s Crag once. Now Stryg realized she wasn’t about to do so again, even if it meant crashing the ship into a million splinters.
“We move forward,” Stryg said.
Freya grinned. “I knew I liked you. Captain, you heard Lord Veres, keep us on course.”
“But we’ll crash!” The captain looked at her as if she were crazy.
“That was an order, captain.” Freya cocked an eyebrow.
“I won’t do it,” he replied adamantly.
“Is that so?” Orange mana flowed into Freya’s hand and with a flick of her wrist, she sent the captain stumbling backwards with a faint blast of flames. “Get this mutinous dwarf into the brig!” she ordered a pair of soldiers, before turning and manning the wheel herself.
Stryg walked over to Freya’s side and gave her a nod. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“Always.” Freya winked.
“You’re both insane! Do you even know how to steer this thing?” Gale groaned.
“I’m Freya of the House of Goldelm, of course, I know how to steer my own ship!”
Nora and Kithina clambered up the stairs. Their clothes and hair were soaked, but they seemed relatively unscathed. “Stryg, Kitty told me you needed us. What’s wrong with your eyes?” asked Nora.
“They do that sometimes, it’s weird, I know,” Kithina said.
“Perfect timing. Nora, you and Gale are the only blue mages on board besides me. I need you both to direct the incoming waves away from us, the best you can. Kithina, I need your help with the frost-mist. Don’t let the mist hit the sails, otherwise, they’ll freeze up. Throw all the yellow magic at it you can, just keep our sails steady,” Stryg said.
“I can try,” Kithina looked up at the sails and began to channel Yellow.
“We can’t stop all these waves, Stryg, they’re massive,” Nora frowned.
“You don’t have to stop them, just weaken them enough so that we don’t capsize,” Stryg said.
“What do you think?” Nora sent Gale a questioning look.
Gale sighed deeply. “Fine. But just know that your safety is my number one priority, Stryg. This river is several leagues wide and you can’t swim. Your blue mana will only last so far in these stormy waters. If this ship crashes, I will do all in my power to get you to shore. The others will be on their own, understood?”
“Understood. Now please stop telling people I can’t swim.”
“Aye, aye, my lord.” Gale waved him off and turned towards her task, Nora at her side.
“Stryg, we’re about to hit the fog. Now would be a great time to tell me your plan,” Freya said, the slightest quaver betraying her nerves.
“Hold on. This is going to feel strange for both of us.” Stryg channeled Purple and placed his hand on her scalp. Violet tendrils of energy extended from his fingers and sank into her skull.
Freya tensed and swayed on her feet. “What is this…?”
“I’m connecting our sense of sight. You’re seeing what I see,” Stryg replied.
“What the fuck? Are you colorblind?”
“Just focus on the icebergs.”
Freya’s golden eyes widened at the sight ahead of her. “I can see them… Holy shit, they’re everywhere.”
“Can you guide us through?”
Freya wiped the rain from her face. “If I don’t, we’re fucked.”
“Not the answer I was hoping to hear.”
The wall of mist struck the ship and slapped them with a wave of freezing cold. The rain froze in mid-air and fell down in barrages of hail. Their soaking clothes and hair quickly froze, sending shivers down the crew’s bodies.
“If you got any mystical Ebon Lord powers that could help, now would be the time to show off,” Freya said through chattering teeth.
There wasn’t any Ebon Lord spell he knew that could magically get them out of this storm, but perhaps there was something in his father’s blood that could help. He was the Navigator, god of the Azure Realm. Stryg had witnessed Nora command the winds and waters. He had even seen her call down lightning on occasion when she joined Melantha and him for training. If Holo could do it, then maybe he could too.
Stryg called upon the roiling energy beating within his second heart. It filled him with a cold sensation, liquid ice flowing through his veins. He imagined what it would be like to part the winds and command the waves to fall back. But the storm continued and grew worse the further they sailed into the magical mist. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on a feeling, anything that might help.
“Ah, I can’t see shit!” Freya screamed.
“Sorry!” Stryg snapped his eyes open.
This wasn’t going to work. He needed a different plan. The first iceberg was coming up on their right.
“Freya…”
“I’m on it!” She turned the wheel as fast as she could.
