Chapter 34: A city in ruins

As the stallion galloped down a slope with actual grass, quickly catching up to its herd, Rylan glanced over his shoulder, half-expecting the shark to come bursting out of the dome of fog. Instead, he saw its massive silhouette moving off to the right, circling the impossible bubble at the bottom of the cloudsea.

That’s why the kelpies ran here! They knew they’d be safe!

Which meant they probably hadn’t been called by the mysterious being sending tingles to Rylan...

He blinked. The tingles, which had been so frantic just a couple of seconds ago... were gone. Does that mean we’ve arrived?

Still clinging to Tamina, Rylan turned his attention back to the sights in front of them.

The slope they were riding down overlooked the ruins, providing an excellent view. While the dome of fog stretched out over the entire ancient city, it was clearly relatively thin at the top. The fog there was bright white, diffuse sunlight filtering through and illuminating the many collapsed, overgrown houses, and the somehow still intact city walls.

A number of larger structures in the city’s centre appeared to have survived as well, some of them with stone spires that rose to an impressive height, reaching halfway up to the top of the dome. Others had clearly collapsed, however, filling the streets between them with piles of rubble. Rylan couldn’t help but wonder what functions the tall towers used to fulfil...

The herd had been slowing down while he was preoccupied, but his reverie wasn’t broken until the stallion came to an abrupt halt and his forward momentum caused him to slide forward against Tamina.

Then it snorted, and turned its head to glance back at its riders.

Rylan cleared his throat as he retracted his arms and shuffled back a little, gaining some much-needed distance from her firm yet surprisingly soft behind. “I think that’s our cue.”

“Right,” Tamina replied, sounding just as awkward. “We should probably—”

The stallion bucked lightly, and they scrambled to get off. As Rylan hopped down, he was caught off-guard by how quickly he was pulled towards the ground, and ended up stumbling and falling to his knees in the thankfully soft grass.

Right, there’s no fog...

Only mildly embarrassed, Rylan got up and glanced over to Soren. The young noble had already dismounted the young mare and was enthusiastically hugging her, seemingly far more used to the transition back to the regular gravity outside the fog.

Rylan turned back to the stallion, and found it in another staring match with Tamina. This time, it was Tamina who bowed. He wasn’t sure how much the stallion truly understood, but from the way it had caught them mid-air, it definitely had intentionally saved them. Soren was right; they really are smart.

The imposing kelpie let out another snort, then turned and trotted off towards its grazing herd.

Soren came jogging over through the tall grass, excitement in his eyes. “Are you seeing this place? I bet it’s lain abandoned for centuries... And there’s no fog! How is that even possible?!”

“Well,” Rylan said, licking his lips. “I’m not sure, but... I think it might have something to do with whatever’s been leading us here.”

“Leading us... here?” Tamina repeated.

Rylan shrugged. “The tingles stopped. Actually, come to think of it... I think I saw this place in my vision, too. Not the city, but the dome, from the outside. There was this bright patch of fog, and the cloudphins feared it. That actually makes a lot of sense now; they’d die if they entered this place.”

“See?!” Soren cried, shooting Tamina a triumphant look as he pointed at Rylan.

“Fine, fine,” she said with a sigh. “I believe it was a vision, all right? Anyway, haven’t I been going along with all this for over a week now?”

“Just wanted to hear you say it,” Soren replied with a grin. “Now the question is... What exactly, has been calling you, and why?”

“I don’t know,” Rylan confessed. “I guess we better take a look around.”

Tamina drew her fingers through her long dark locks, untangling some knots. “Are you sure the tingles are gone? Exploring all that is going to take a while...”

“Oh cheer up,” Soren said. “This place is awesome! Imagine what we could learn; there might even be intact books here!”

Tamina raised a brow at him. “We stumble across a mysterious bubble of dry air beneath the cloudsea, and you’re excited about books?”

“You shouldn’t underestimate the value of knowledge,” Soren replied, shaking his head. “For example, we might find a book describing ancient trade routes. Perhaps even a map!”

Tamina stared at him blankly. “Well, when you put it that way... We’d better find ourselves a damn library.”

Rylan snorted. “I, for one, am excited about dry socks.”

“Fog yes,” Tamina agreed heartily, bumping her shoulder into his with a grin.

“Screw socks,” Soren said. “We’re standing on grass; I’m going barefoot!” Having said so, he promptly sat down and starting to take his shoes off.

With a sense of giddiness, Rylan followed suit, shrugging off the backpack and sitting down to pull at his boots.

Tamina looked on for a moment, seeming hesitant, then shook her head. “I’ll let you two frolic for a bit. I gotta take care of something.”

“Where are you going?” Rylan hollered at her back, but she just waved and kept walking, heading for a nearby patch of bushes.

He glanced at Soren, but his friend just shrugged. Then he jumped to his feet and performed a cartwheel. Laughing, Rylan leapt to his feet as well, and activated Jump.

Rylan had never used his second Skill outside of the fog before. He got a lot less height out of it like this, yet somehow it felt perhaps even more exhilarating, with how fast he was pulled back down to the grass.

A minute or so later, however, their play was interrupted by a familiar sensation, like a breeze of Quintessence, rolling in from the distance. Rylan snapped his head around, following its trail towards... the bushes. “Huh.”

Soren came to stand next to him, panting a little. “Way to go Tamina!” he whispered at Rylan in a conspiratorial tone. “And here I thought it was just nature’s call... What do you reckon, new Skill, or did she rank up Footwork?”

“Footwork,” Rylan replied after a moment. “She saved my butt with that Skill... I guess she really isn’t allowed to let us know, huh?”

“Seems like it.”

Rylan scrunched up his nose. “When she comes back... should we pretend not to know?”

Sorne cocked his head to the side. “That might actually be for the best. If she learns we can sense it from this distance, her Contract might force her to move farther away next time.” He turned to Rylan. “Wanna see if you can Jump over me while I do a cartwheel?”

Rylan grinned. “You’re on.”

It turned out, Rylan could, though timing it was difficult. It didn’t help when the foal they had rescued led a charge of young kelpies to frolic with them in the tall grass.

When Tamina returned a couple of minutes later, it was on bare feet, with her shoes in her hand.

She rolled her eyes at their grins, but the corners of her mouth lifted. “So,” she said as she reached them. “If you’re done frolicking... Shall we explore?”

The city walls may have stood the test of time, but its gates certainly hadn’t. The massive bronze-plated doors—inexplicably crafted from solid wood—looked like they’d been bashed open by some large, angry creature with sharp claws.

Rylan just hoped it had happened a long time ago.

There was a ditch full of plant life in front of the walls, which seemed like an odd design choice to Rylan. Perhaps there had been a bridge over it once, but if there had been, he didn’t spot any traces of collapsed stonework.

Odd. But I’m sure they had their reasons.

Various wildlife tracks converged into a path there, so they followed it where it descended into the ditch and soon enough were climbing up on the other side.

Rylan rubbed his eyes as he took the final couple of steps out. The air here was exceptionally dry, which perhaps explained why the smashed wood in front of them had yet to rot away.

“Hey, look!” Soren exclaimed, pointing up.

Blinking, Rylan followed his finger to the stonework above the gates. His heart skipped a beat, then, as carved there was a symbol he had seen only twice before in his life: once in a book, and once during his vision.

A hexagon, surrounding a flame.

“The mark of the Hermean Empire!” Soren continued excitedly. “This must be why it was in your vision: this place is a Hermean ruin! Forget centuries; this place is a thousand years old, at least!”

“Great,” Tamina deadpanned. “Does that tell us anything useful?”

“It tells us there could be really interesting things to be found here,” Soren replied. “The Hermeans were masters at bending mana and Quintessence to their will, their skill with Runeworks still miles ahead of ours. Actually, that might explain why it's so dry here...”

“Good,” Tamina said with a relieved sigh.

Soren glanced at her bemusedly. “Good?”

“Consider the alternate explanations for an inexplicable bubble of air at the bottom of the cloudsea, then come back to me.”

 “Yeah, let’s hope it’s some kind of Runework,” Rylan agreed. “I’d much rather not be in the lair of a fogging Diamond-Grade Malequint.”

“It could still be a spirit,” Soren argued. “That wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Though on the other hand, some say that the downfall of the Hermeans was that they delved too deeply into the secrets of Quintessence, and angered the spirits...”

Tamina froze in her tracks. “You’re making that up, right? Please tell me you’re making that up...”

Soren shot her an amused, pitying look.

“Oh come on...”

Rylan masked his laughter with a cough. “Well, either way, we’re on the right track.”

“Exactly!” Soren said chipperly. “Let’s get going, and keep our eyes open for that symbol!”

Tamina took a deep breath, then held up a hand. “Hold on,” she said, more seriously. “I know we’re all feeling very relieved right now, but once again, we’re not here to sight-see. I need you both on your guard; even if there’s no fog, there are still plenty of dangerous creatures that might’ve entered this place.”

She gestured at the massive claw marks on the wooden doors.

Soren’s face fell a little, but he nodded.

Rylan took out his long filleting knife and flipped it once, to catch it loosely by the blade.

“Good,” she said. “I’ll take point, so please watch my back. Let’s go.”

It was hard to tell whether the streets had once been paved or not, under the blanket of soft vegetation and earth covering it. It did all seem awfully level to Rylan as they followed the wildlife tracks deeper into the city.

While most of the buildings had collapsed into piles of rubble, there still was the occasional husk standing upright. Rylan couldn’t help but notice that many of those derelict houses actually had wood lining the upper windows, some even with intact glass still.

Perhaps there had been wood at the bottom windows as well, but if there had been, the vegetation must have caused it to rot away somehow.

Actually, it was rather interesting that there was so much green here, while the air was so dry... Did that mean that whatever was keeping the fog out could only remove water from the air, and not the ground?

The broken gates had also been lying on a solid stone foundation, perhaps that’s what had saved them. But where had these people gotten all their wood? The only forest Rylan had spotted so far was a kelp forest.

For the third time in about as many minutes—or so it felt—Tamina held up a hand, causing them all to stop. She held still for a moment, head cocked, then crouched down to more closely study some tracks or something.

“Don’t you think you’re being a little paranoid?” Soren whispered.

She let out a quiet huff, and shot back a glare. “Tell that to my left arm.”

“Not to be that guy, but I sincerely doubt any cloudsharks are going to jump out at us here...”

Rylan shot him an admonishing look, to which Soren rolled his eyes.

“Well don’t let it give you a false sense of security,” Tamina replied tersely. “There are ramtusk tracks all over this place, and these droppings here”—she pointed at some dark-green clumps Rylan hadn’t noticed yet—“are fresh. Still think I’m being paranoid?”

Soren brightened up, turning to Rylan. “Rylan, you know how to prepare boar?”

Rylan blinked. “Ehm, I think so? That’s something Chef Zelim would only ever do himself, but I’ve seen him do it plenty of times...”

“Either way,” Tamina spoke through gritted teeth, “we’ll have to be quiet, and make sure we notice them before they notice us, all right? I’d much rather not be subject to a ramtusk stampede; those suckers pack a punch.”

“That’s because their bones contain deepmetal,” Soren whispered at Rylan as they continued moving. “Especially the bulbs at the ends of their tusks! Those things are heavy. And if there’s a Malequint among them, it can channel its mana to those bulbs to make them even heavier!”

Don’t get rammed by the ramtusks, got it.

They cautiously continued for a few more minutes, until Tamina once again held up a hand. This time, however, she pointed at something in the distance. “Look!”

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^