Corvis Eralith
The descent from the mountain's shoulder into the valley below felt like stepping into a memory.
The fresh mountain breeze howled around us, carrying the scent of pine and damp stone, but beneath it, something else lingered. Something old. Something waiting.
The ruins of Azellio came fully into view now that we were in the valley, green hills and greener trees decorating an amazing scenery that should have filled me with wonder.
Yet I could not shake the feeling of unease that coiled in my chest like a serpent.
"The mist is so thick here," Tessia lamented, caressing Hoofy's mane with a hand that trembled slightly. "Hoofy is having trouble too."
The peculiar geography of the valley, paired with the Elshire Forest's own strange nature, made the mist here pressing and oppressive, even for our elven senses.
Evening was approaching, the time of the fog drawing closer and closer, and with it, the visibility shrank to a few dozen meters. Even an Elenoi Highcolt struggled in this fog. But unlike the amber haze of the Colour Timberland, this mist was not sickly. It was not corrupted.
It felt... natural. As if it had been here long before we were born and would remain long after we were dust. Did that mean the Caduchicil was not conducting any experiments at the moment? Or had whatever darkness lurked in Azellio learned to hide its taint?
The ruins themselves were built with the same strange, old architecture I had glimpsed in the revived Colour Timberland. Stone and nature came together in a rudimentary yet charming style, far from the elegant structures of modern Elenoir, but reminiscent of them in philosophy.
Just like the modern ones, the elves of old had built with the forest, not against it. They had shaped stone to cradle trees, carved paths for roots to grow, left space for the wild to reclaim what it needed.
We passed in front of small, one-story structures with collapsed ceilings, trees growing from where floors had once been. Moss crawled up walls that had stood for millennia. Vines draped over doorways that had not been crossed in ages.
"Were these homes once?" I wondered aloud, my voice hushed. I grazed Avicenna's Vaultlamp and activated Inner Current, letting the Trucewater steady my nerves.
Avicenna, I called. I have reached Azellio.
'Bravo, Justiciar.' The Djinn's voice was warm, almost proud. 'To reach the cradle of your race must feel exciting to you. Overwhelming, even. Or perhaps not. You are the Justiciar, after all.'
I considered his words as we continued through the green hills, where ruins sprouted irregularly like secular trees that had witnessed history unfold.
It was fascinating. A bit chilling, too, to walk where the first of my people had walked. But I was the Justiciar. I had seen the river of time. I had died and returned more times than I could count. Awe was a luxury I could not afford.
Through the mist and the trees, I gazed at the two high, snowy peaks north and south of us. By comparing them to the map I kept in my storage ring, they were Mount Ellhatan to the south—from whose lower slopes we had descended—and Peak Firrod to the north.
On the face of this last mountain, I saw a tremendous waterfall cascading down toward the valley, cutting it in two. The source of the river I had glimpsed from above.
Was it the Cyricon River? One of the many tributaries of the Winetail? But then, why had no scout of the Treeful Phalanx, or even the humans during their invasions in the First and Second Wars, ever discovered Azellio if such a well-known river flowed through it?
The answer was riding Hoofy right in front of me.
Tessia. Or, more precisely, the Woods Wide Web. That was the key that everyone lacked. That was the key needed to enter Azellio.
The question now was: what magic had sealed the Holy City from the rest of Dicathen? I had to learn it. I had to replicate it. If it could keep a city hidden from the very children of the Forest for centuries, then I could use it to make the Elshire Forest an impregnable fortress.
Not even Circe Milview—the girl whose magic had breached Elenoir's defenses in the canon—would be able to pierce the heart of my homeland.
"It doesn't feel like the place of doom and despair I expected," Tessia murmured to herself, her brow furrowed. "What does the Forest want to tell us?"
"Perhaps the Forest wants us to visit this place," I guessed. "And the Woods Wide Web made it sound like an alarm to you, just so you would not be lazy."
"That is not fun, Corvis," Tessia pouted, but I saw the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips.
Was my theory plausible? Or was I being naive? Perhaps after ten years of expecting the worst, I wanted to believe that for once, things had betrayed my expectations in a positive way.
We continued through the lush, foggy hills of the valley, drawing closer to the Cyricon River. I spotted a building that looked like an ancient, rudimentary temple, now in ruins.
"That looks like one of the Verticil's buildings," Tessia said. "Only it is missing an Evercoloured Rowan."
In fact, there was another tree around which the ruins were built. It had a large canopy, a short and sturdy trunk, and serrated, oval-shaped leaves. And it bore fruit. Very, very familiar fruit.
"It is an apple tree!" I exclaimed, pointing like a child. "Did we once consider apple trees just as sacred as rowans?"
"That would mean you were always the most traditionalist of all," Tessia managed to joke, unable to repress her smile.
What a strange effect Azellio was having on us. I was being the optimistic, playful twin, while Tessia was the edgy, moody one.
"Do you still feel a bad omen?" I asked.
"Yes." Tessia's smile faded. "It is ominous and looming over us right now. But I don't see anything."
"I just see green grass, trees, ruins, and the mountains in the background through the fog," I commented, turning and turning on Hoofy's back. "And Berna seems too docile to be feeling a threat."
Berna walked by our side as always. No sudden movements. No discomfort through our bond. Her green eyes were calm, her tail swaying lazily.
"But perhaps Coco could scout the area?" I suggested.
Tessia shook her head violently. "No one gets separated!" she ordered.
"...Yes, sorry." I exchanged a look with Soleil. She was trying, too, to understand what was wrong.
But if an Asura could not detect the danger, there could not possibly be that much of a threat. Unless whatever had made Azellio impossible to discover was also able to block Soleil's senses.
We continued exploring Azellio. I counted at least seven hills in the valley, each one dotted with ruins, each one shrouded in the ancient mist and covered in old trees.
"Corvis, look." Tessia pointed forward. "Is that a portal?"
Her words caught my attention like a hook. Standing tall at what was more or less the valley's center, hidden by many trees, was a familiar architectural style.
The top of it peeked through the leaves: an archway, pi times pi meters tall, constructed in that unmistakable Djinnic style. The runes covering it, the proportions, the strange silvery stone that seemed to drink the light. It was a portal.
One of the ancient gateways that connected the cities of Dicathen.
But Avicenna had told me the folk of calm currents never interacted with the elves.
Avicenna, I called immediately. I found a portal. One of those built by your people.
'In Azellio?' The Djinn's voice was puzzled, almost troubled. 'That is something I did not imagine you would say. It seems impossible to me that a fellow Djinn built it, however, for reasons I think there is no need to recall.'
Obviously not. The genocide of the Djinn had been thorough. Why would one of them risk discovery by building a portal in the homeland of a primitive race?
Tessia slowed Hoofy beneath the archway, and I looked up. The portal was identical to those in Zestier, Eidelholm, Asyphin, even Burim and Vildorial. The same Djinnic architectural style. The same impossible precision.
"Do you think we could reach Zestier from here?" Tessia asked. "If that were the case, Dad would be joyous. He always talks about how logistics are difficult in the Forest. A new city connected to a portal would bring a great deal to the Kingdom."
"You spend too much time studying under Dad," I joked.
"Says the one who has been studying city planning since he started pretending he knew how to read," Tessia shot back, and I felt my face flush.
"I never pretended to know how to read..."
"And Alwyn is the one backing this? The boy who sees you as the chosen of the Spring Lizard?" Tessia continued to tease.
And what if I told you I am the chosen of the Spring Lizard? I wanted to ask. But instead, we just laughed it off. Yes, perhaps the Forest had truly lured Tessia here just to show her Azellio. To show her the cradle of our race, where the elves had first built something resembling civilization.
There had been no real threats during the trip—if you did not count the slave traders backed by House Wykes that we had encountered on the road. The journey had been quiet. Almost peaceful.
But Fate—my creator, my employer, my patron—seemed to have other plans.
The mist of the Elshire Forest, already thick here in Azellio, began to swirl as if frightened of something. The fog churned and writhed, making the already difficult view impossible. If I were still human, with human eyes and human sight, I might as well have been blind.
Hoofy went wild. He neighed in alarm, rearing up, and before I could grab the reins, both Tessia and I were thrown from his back. He bolted, disappearing through the woods, panic consuming the poor animal.
"Hoofy!" Tessia cried out, her fists clenched at her sides.
Then my sister, now connected directly to the Forest, recoiled as if struck. The Woods Wide Web, that gift of the Elderwood Guardian, became an overcharged wire, electrocuting her from within. She doubled over, clutching her stomach, and began to vomit.
I was at her side in an instant. "Tessia! What do you feel? What do you hear?"
"It is a beast," she managed between heaves. "Like those in the Colour Timberland. It hides here. This is its lair."
"Coco, stay with Tessia," I ordered Soleil. The Asclepius did not argue. She flew from my shoulder to Tessia's, her golden eyes bright, her small body radiating warmth. If a fight started with Tessia in this condition, Soleil would be able to protect her. Not by fighting directly—that was forbidden—but by shielding her, by healing her, by keeping her alive.
"Berna." I moved to my Guardian Bear. "Where is this beast?"
Berna was growling. The same growl that meant Vritra. And she was scared. Not angry. Scared. Through the bond, I understood that this was the corruption that had transformed her into that Vritra-controlled monster when I first met her. This was the source. Nylith.
The last time I had fought her, she had escaped. This time, I would not let her run. I could not.
"Corvis, do not you dare leave me behind," Tessia said, forcing herself upright despite the pain.
"You are not in condition to fight," I said. "Find Hoo—"
"You are not sidelining me!" Tessia shouted, her voice raw. "The Woods Wide Web called me, Corvis. Not you. You are here to help me, not the contrary. I am not repeating the Colour Timberland again!"
"Where is the beast, then?" I asked. "Berna cannot locate it."
"I—" Tessia's head snapped to the side, her eyes widening. Whatever the Forest was telling her, it was close. "It is there, Corvis!"
"Berna, help me!"
Together, Berna and I shaped the earth. She slammed her paw; I stomped my foot. A wall of stone erupted from the undergrowth, piercing the wall of fog, rising between us and whatever was coming.
Tessia was by my side, Soleil on her right shoulder, dampening the nausea that wracked her. "It is... it is that. The source, Corvi—"
Her voice was cut off by a roar. A sound that should not exist, part wolf howl, part moose bellow, part serpent hiss. It shattered our stone wall, the debris flying past us like shrapnel. Sound magic. My Manasonar registered it without me even activating the technique.
Through the woods, a nightmare emerged.
Deep crimson-black fur, so dark it drank the fading light. Bone antlers sprouting from a canine head, their tips sharp as spears. Many red eyes, too many, stared at us from above a maw filled with teeth that curved like sickles.
Two pointed ears, sickeningly reminiscent of elven ones, twitched atop its skull. Its right forelimb ended in a clawed, hand-like appendage, and it rested atop the Djinnic archway.
The portal activated.
From the brilliant light stepped a figure in a cloak. Purple eyes. Long hair that fell in two waves by the sides of her head. The Caduchicil's signature mask on her face.
Nylith.
"Your Highnesses," she greeted. In her hands, she held an anvil-shaped object: a Tempus Warp. She could use it to command the portal. Was this portal built by Alacryans, then? If so, we had to destroy it. From here, entire armies could flood Dicathen.
"I see Cradletown, the birthplace of our race, has welcomed you well," Nylith continued, her voice dripping with false reverence. "And I see you have caught the attention of my Chimera."
"That blasphemous creature; what is it?!" Tessia's hands shook with rage.
"A masterpiece!" Nylith spread her arms wide, as if presenting a gift. "The living proof that elvenkind is worthy of the Vritra's genius! House Eralith is meant for this! The Fall Vulture will take Elenoir under its great scaled wing. Imagine, Your Highnesses! Dozens, hundreds of these Chimeras descending on Sapin, reclaiming what belongs to us elves! Giving House Eralith back what it rightfully owns—the Ashber Woods!"
She paused, and her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "And why stop there? Just as humans have stolen the Ashber Woods from us and turned them into barren fields, we will expand the Elshire Forest. With the gifts of the Fall Vulture, trees will be able to cover all of Dicathen. Elvenkind will be the undoubted rulers of the continent."
"This decay has to be stopped," Tessia said, and her voice was ice. "The Forest cannot tolerate this. She hates you and everything you stand for."
The trees around us shook. The Chimera howled.
The creature launched itself at us—whether Nylith ordered it or not, I could not tell.
Its massive body tore through the undergrowth, its hisses reverberating with sound magic that made my ears bleed. I grabbed Tessia, using Ars Ariamorph to propel us away from the impact zone. The Chimera crashed into the ground where we had been standing, uprooting everything in its path.
"Berna!" I shouted. No need to explain. Our bond did all the work.
Guardian Bear and Chimera clashed like titans. Berna's jaws ignited, flames coating her fangs and claws as she met the monster head-on.
"Corvis, what is your plan?" Tessia asked.
"Nylith," I said, scanning the chaos for the masked woman. But I did not see her. Had she run away again? That coward!
"Corvis, brace!" Tessia shouted.
The Chimera's tail whipped toward us. Tessia drove her wand-sword into the ground, and the roots of the Elshire Forest answered her call, rising to meet the attack. I reacted instantly, using REmould to shift my body into Finn Warend, unlocking Massbinding. The ochre runes blazed on the backs of my hands as I summoned a stone barrier with Ars Terramorph, then made it harder, heavier, stronger.
The tail slammed into the wall. Slowed by the roots, blocked by the stone, it shuddered to a halt.
"Corvis?" Tessia stared at me, at my dwarven face, at the runes glowing on my hands.
"I will explain later," I said with Finn's voice.
I took her hand, and when Massbinding's effects faded, we jumped. The tail passed beneath us, destroying everything in its path.
Through the fog—now mixed with dust, falling leaves, uprooted moss, and a hundred other debris—we heard Berna's roar. The ground trembled. The Chimera's tail disappeared into the gloom.
"Should we help Berna?" Tessia asked. "Chase down that woman?"
"You tell me!" I shouted back. "What does the Forest say? Where is she? She cannot have escaped through the portal."
Tessia shook her head violently, looking left and right. Soleil shook herself, showering my sister with ember-like plumes that immediately calmed her, dampening the nausea that had been wracking her body.
"That Chimera is the biggest threat," Tessia said.
"And Nylith? Where is she?"
"I do not know."
Would this cat-and-mouse game continue forever? I whined in my head, the frustration burning. Finn Warend could not use water magic, could not create Trucewater to fuel Inner Current. I was vulnerable to my own thoughts, my own doubts, my own fears.
"Let us help Berna."
My Guardian Bear was fighting like a war machine against another war machine. The Chimera turned its head a full circle like an owl, and hissed at us. Its mouth opened, and acid sprayed from its jaws.
Berna's paw closed into a fist and slammed into the side of the Chimera's lupine head.
Tessia cast a Galeshot at the acid, dispersing it into a hundred small drops that sizzled on the ground below.
"Pin the creature down!" I shouted.
Tessia nodded. She stabbed the Chimera with her grassword, and the Forest answered. Every root, every vine, every blade of grass that had survived the battle rose up, grabbing at the monster's limbs, holding it in place.
Berna bit down on the Chimera's neck, her flaming jaws sinking deep into its corrupted flesh.
I used Massbinding. I touched the Chimera's side, ignoring the pain of its irritating hide, and the gears on my hands turned. They demanded mana in huge quantities—more than I had ever given them—but I did not relent. The Chimera screeched, but it could not free itself. Whenever it tried to apply force to its bindings, I lowered that force with Massbinding and REmould.
"Corvis, behind you!" Tessia shouted. A Galeshot flew past my head.
I turned. Nylith emerged from the gloom, a scythe in her hands. The blade was shaped like a crescent, and the wood of its handle was black. Wrong. Wrong in a way that made my skin crawl. Leaves that touched it decayed on contact.
I withdrew my wand-cane and parried. Wood clashed against wood, and I felt the wrongness of her weapon seep into my own.
"If you kill the Chimera, it would be a problem for me, Your Highness," Nylith said, moving the scythe in a fluid arc. "Nice trick, by the way. A dwarf?"
The Chimera howled. The sound made my head explode with pain.
"Berna, finish the monster!" I ordered.
Behind me, I heard a crash. Nylith tensed.
She reached under her cloak and retrieved a vial containing dark red liquid. I recognized it; it was the same drug that Draneeve had used on the students of Xyrus Academy in the canon. Was that terrorist backing the Caduchicil too?
I retrieved my crossbow—Finn's crossbow—from my storage ring and shot at the vial. But Nylith's repulsive wind shot from her body, deflecting the bolt. She threw the vial.
And Berna sneezed.
Wind magic erupted from my Guardian Bear, a powerful gust that caught the vial and sent it flying in the opposite direction.
Without needing to communicate, I launched myself at Nylith as Tessia cast a Galeshot at the vial. My wand-cane clashed against Nylith's scythe, and I used Massbinding to make it heavier, stronger. But without water and wind magic, I was not as effective as I wanted to be.
My wand-cane was designed for those elements and Finn Warend could not use them.
The Galeshot found its mark. The vial shattered, and the liquid inside dispersed. Maddened by the substance, the Chimera threw itself toward it. Berna grabbed its leg, her gravity magic doing the rest.
"How annoying, Prince," Nylith cursed. "I have spent too much time on this to let you ruin it further. But I respect you and the Princess. King Alduin sent the Grephins to eliminate me and my peers. You face me directly."
Repulsive wind currents howled from Nylith with the force of a hurricane. I was launched away, crashing against a ruin of Azellio, my head spinning wildly.
Tessia—who had been keeping the Chimera constricted, easy prey for Berna—was now in direct combat with Nylith.
"Soleil, help Tessia," I tried to shout, but my breath was cut short.
I looked up. Nylith raised her scythe.
"Soleil!" I shouted, forcing myself to stand, one arm extended toward them.
But where was Soleil? Where was the robin?
The gears of Massbinding turned. I needed to stop Nylith. I needed to touch her. But then a wave of Insight crashed against my mind. Avicenna's Lifework. I did not need to touch her. I needed to make her unable to move.
I used REmould to engrave an S on Massbinding. Sandand. Freedom.
It worked.
I cried out as the gears on the backs of my hands spun with incredible speed. My fingers twisted in unnatural positions, bones grinding, muscles tearing. But it worked.
Nylith was forced to the ground and Tessia ran.
And as consciousness abandoned me, the river calling me, the last thing I saw was someone falling from the sky, accompanied by a flourish of roses.
Alea had come.
A/N:
Thanks for reading!