***
Morgoth in the early morning is pretty; in the same way as the British moors. A thick low-lying mist hugs the ground, broken by the odd spindly tree or moss-covered rock. It's barren, cold, and eerily peaceful.
It reminds me of home.
Well, I guess that's not true, I don't really think of England as home anymore. The City of Doors is where I belong now. The only things I miss are plumbing and electricity, and I have heard rumors of plumbing coming to the Academy soon. It's about bloody time the fractured realm caught up with that bit of infrastructure. You would think having to import all your water would make you care more about plumbing; but I guess they never really had enough to make it worth the effort.
Mom, I really hope the Academy's current management scuffle doesn't delay me getting working toilets. I just want to be able to take a shit without smelling all the other turds that were laid before.
I'm watching the ship while everyone else gets some sleep. There isn't really that much to do at the moment, just keep the thing pointed east. There's no rudder, instead a number of sticks control the various axises. I was told by Lillian, in no uncertain terms, that I was only meant to touch the yaw stick, and I was to wake her up before touching any of the others. Which I'm totally cool with; I don't fancy being blamed for killing us all.
To keep busy, I'm spending my time practicing my shotty reload. Not gonna lie, I'm falling in love with this thing; everything about it feels solid and powerful. Pretty fun to reload as well – break it open, jerk the gun backwards to get rid of the old shells. Then place two fingers at the edge of the chambers to push in fresh shells from my domain.
I don't have to worry about missing because the shells fill the chambers as they expand outwards, sliding along the scale difference between my domain and this realm. I wonder if that was what Mom was doing when we hugged?
A quiet hum of approval flutters along the edge of my perception. I guess I'm on the right track.
I'm pretty sure we both caught each other's undercurrent of worry riding along each other's feeling dumps.
We chatted a little longer until the others woke up. Rikky being the last and the laziest. All that dude does is lounge around and consume our supplies. Drinks too, I don't know where he's keeping all the bottles I know Daisy didn't pack any.
Different colours swirl around in Rikky's eye crystals. They got me curious, "What do you see with those things?"
He grins at me, flashing black teeth, "Aether, and the mana in it. Your mana core is something to behold, by the way."
Ewww?
Honestly I'm not sure how I feel about that? Kinda like someone with x-ray glasses telling me I have a real nice spleen. It definitely feels gross, but like how gross?
"Don't talk about my mana core. What led you to getting magic eye crystals?"
"Better than nothing, had a bit of a run with some bad dudes, I had to get creative with some spell work to escape. Turns out shooting beams from your eyes is really bad for your eyes."
"Who would of thought."
"So yeah," he gives his eye crystals a little tap, "I made these bad boys and been rocking them ever since. Bit of an improvement to be honest, my old eyes weren't great."
"Sorry I never got back to you about the ambush, things got kinda wild in the last two weeks."
"Yeah I heard, don't worry about it. This whole thing has the stink of the Infinite Archives all over it anyway."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. They are after you for whatever reason, and then your girl gets kidnapped and now you are out here looking for her. Away from the Academy and no working safe room coin. They definitely had a hand in this situation, even if it was just to give it a nudge."
"You expecting them to come for me?"
"That's why I'm out here, hoping they show up. Maybe even get one alive. Is your core stripping mana of its colour?"
"Yeah. It tends to do that."
"Really weird to look at. You are like a walking dead spot."
"Thanks? I guess."
"Are you having trouble with sorceries?"
"You have no idea, I have little control over my mana output and it's hard for me to keep the colour long enough to construct the spell."
"I might have some spells to help you along, some things I've run across when dealing with the Infinite Archives. Might be your sort of thing."
"I'm listening."
I spent a good chunk of the day working with Rikky on a new colourless spell, he says it's called Null Elemental Blast, excellent for unraveling spells made out of multiple colors. Creatures too.
***
We arrive at the rift crossing over to the Realm of Shadows early in the evening, and as we thought it's guarded up to the wazoo.
We are parked up against a nearby cliff edge, safety tucked away from view. We need to be stationary so I can start opening micro-rifts to power the absurd enchantment we are gonna try and pull off.
The invisible barrier enchantment was a little more of a pain than we thought, not really any of our wheelhouses. Where's Sophia when you need her?
[On the other end of us.]
'Good point.'
So I give her a moment, twiddling my thumbs, finding some good spots to fold open some micro-rifts for a mana source.
'Wait? We can just send spells to each other?'
[The plans to them, yes. You still have to learn how to cast it.]
'Damn, I was hoping for some bullshit hack way of just knowing how to do some cool shit without having to learn it. Why can't you just give me shit like some sort of video game, Gestalt?'
[We give you dream video games, what more do you want from us? Also wouldn't that be unsatisfying?]
'Fuck no, it would be awesome. Getting a whole bunch of cool shit I could just do.'
[Well that's not how this world works, so get studying.]
I unfold the spell file in my brain and get studying. My girl, as always, is the fucking best. Honestly, it's not as complicated as I feared; a pretty standard barrier with a focus on light and scale. It needs a shit ton of mana but all neutral, so I'm good to go.
I find some good spots where we are parked up and fold open some rifts. It takes me a few hours to get the spell matrix stable, but come dark the Zero Gravitas was hidden in a bubble that bends light.
Opening the rifts and constructing the spell has taken it out of me. I slump down in a safe corner out of the way, and hope for the best.
Lillian glides us towards the Realm of Shadows rift on silent sails. It's late, and between the dark and the spell we slip through the rift without alerting any of the guarding vessels.
It's also dark on the other side of the rift. But I guess it being the Realm of Shadows and all, that's always the case.
It's late and I'm completely drained, both physically and mentally. I drift off to sleep listening to the other talk about how to begin searching for Sophia.
***
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