Chapter 20: Chapter 20: The Crossing

The sea had been rough, to say the least. The northern waters, bounced side to side along the narrow sea by tides, winds, and currents, were notoriously horrible, but Illyxa hadn’t expected them to be this terrible. She was nauseous nearly from when they set out.

The only silver lining to it was that the others were turned a pleasant shade of green. Rather than their pinkish browns of varying shades. Everyone looked better green.

“You’ve just got to work on your balance,” Gragya said, doing stretches in the middle of their small cabin as the ship turned nearly vertical on a wave.

Illyxa glared at her as Gragya shifted her stance to be half on the wall with such ease it made Illyxa’s motion sickness worse.

“You’re not normal,” Illyxa groaned.

“The crew are managing it fine,” Gragya replied, shuffling down the wall and then half up a pillar as the ship crested the wave and began heading down again.

Illyxa's stomach decided to show similar acrobatics, while the rest of her did not, forcing her to struggle to hold it in.

---

The second morning, the seas calmed, the air having become unsettlingly still and cold. As well as strangely cold for the late summer. Crawling out of her hammock, Illyxa felt weak from lack of food the previous day. Knowing she’d throw up just thinking about food had been a major hindrance to staying nourished. Especially when all they had were dried rations that were unappetizing at the best of times.

Reaching the deck, she found the pirates seemed rather nervous. It took her a moment to realise it was due to passing icebergs.

“I know we’re pretty far north,” she muttered, hoping someone was listening, “but I don’t think there should be ice at this time of year.”

“Not usually, no,” an peg-legged Goblin said, walking past her, shaking his head. “Something’s mighty unnatural about this.”

She nodded, climbing onto some barrels to watch the others work as she slowly chewed on jerky and dried fruit. The beginnings of her strength were returning to her after a few minutes munching, and she decided it would be best to run through her morning meditations. She’d missed the moment of change that came with the sunrise, but it was better to do them late than never.

Trying to focus as the crew shouted and somehow caused the occasional explosion wasn’t the easiest, but she managed to feel her connection to the subtle noise of the universe return. She could feel the light tingle of the chaos at the very base of existence running through her. Creation and destruction happening everywhere, but at a scale too small to understand. Not simply for researchers and theorists of modern magical philosophy, but, at least as well as anyone could guess, by definition magic existed in a place minds could not understand.

What Illyxa did know was that she was good at influencing it, especially to tell that noise at the base of reality to turn entirely towards destruction.

Confidence returned (but still hungry) Illyxa opened her eyes to ask about the explosions she was hearing every so often. She’d expected to see that one of the pirates was a mage, but, no. They were throwing small jars or vases with flaming wicks at the nearby ice, and those were exploding when their fast burning wicks ran out.

“What are those?” Illyxa asked, marveling at a new way to cause explosions.

“Ground Dragon bone, from the Eastern Cities,” an Orc replied. “The Oni found out certain types of Dragons’ bones exploded when exposed to fire.”

“I have got to go out east when this job is done,” Illyxa replied, eyes sparkling as she watched the crew blow up another iceberg they’d deemed large enough to be a threat.

The Eastern Cities had long been on her ‘to do’ list, but they were just so out of the way. And there were so many Dragons in the mountains, constantly fighting minor squabbles with the Oni cities. She knew there would be magic out there she’d never seen, since everywhere had their specialties, but it had never quite seemed worth the expense of going all that way.

Still, she was the closest she’d ever been now. So maybe…

Before she could finish that thought, Fuan and Hyi wandered out onto the deck, the former looking full of indignant fury while the latter had an apologetic look in her eyes.

“Why aren’t we moving?” Fuan demanded, shouting it at no one in particular.

“There’s no wind, and this is right here is a sailing ship, mate,” an Orc replied.

“Don’t you have magic for that? Or… oars?”

“We have oars,” Captain Penteconter replied from his perch at the helm. “But we don’t want to start movin’ quickly betwixt these ice flows, mate-y.”

“Land ho!” the look out called down from the crow’s nest.

“Ah, good, good,” the Captain said, nodding to himself. “We might be movin’ slightly slowly, but we’re movin’ and land isn’t too far away. We should make it before sundown, don’t you worry.”

Fuan took in a deep breath, barely managing to contain his rage. “Delays. Endless delays. All while I’m facing a ticking countdown.”

“You’ve got decades,” Illyxa muttered, before turning her attention back over the edge of the ship. “I’m more concerned about why there’s ice in Tume up here in the north.”

“Tume?” Fuan asked.

“The Goblin name for this month,” Captain Penteconter replied. “We’re from the southern hemisphere, so the name fits the winter season there… but the girl’s right. You’d not see ice in these parts for a couple more months normally. And the air’s cold, but it’s not that cold.”

“Something’s in the water,” Illyxa said, with a small nod.

“Indeed,” the Captain said.

Illyxa walked out to the bow, looking down at the frigid waves. She found herself scanning for any signs of… well, anything. Probably sea serpents. Not true Dragons, but generally just smart enough to serve their draconic lords. One of the Draconic League’s schemes of playing at being Gods.

“So, there’s Sea Serpents?” Gragya said, showing up at Illyxa’s side.

“Yeah, some—you look awful,” Illyxa said, turning to give her cousin a once over.

“I didn’t get much sleep…”

Illyxa looked over her shoulder, spotting a rather pretty Goblin who seemed to have a similar level of bags under her eyes to Gragya. The sort of woman Illyxa had thought she’d been attracted to before she’d realised she was envious of them and actually uninterested in all matters sexual or romantic. And the sort Gragya was definitely interested in.

Illyxa was about to make a sarcastic barb about Gragya’s eternal appetite when something else caught her eye, however.

A Dwarf, of all things, had emerged from below deck. He looked to be a different ethnicity from most of the Dwarves Illyxa had met, and, combined with the way he dressed, she found herself guessing he was from the Eastern Cities. There were always populations of survivors from the cities in the Wastes that had chosen to move to the neutral kingdoms of Onis and Orcs instead of moving to Alliance lands, but she’d only really interacted with the latter bit.

“We’re out of dragon bone grenades, captain,” the man said, his accent in Orcish all but confirming Illyxa’s suspicions.

“There’s not much ice left,” Captain Penteconter replied.

“I can clear out a path if needed,” Illyxa called out. “Melting a little ice is ea—”

Before she could finish, a shrieking roar cut through the air. Spinning around, her stomach dropped as an icy white sea serpent rose from the frigid waters.

“BATTLESTATIONS!” the Captain bellowed.

Crew members rushed to various points along the side of the ship, opening fire with bows, crossbows, and those strange staffs that Illyxa was suspecting were stuffed with dragon bone with the explosive bangs bursting forth from them. The actual effects on the sea serpent were minimal, however. The icy sea monster was easily half again as long as the ship and was as thick as some of the largest trees Illyxa had ever seen. Arrows and bolts bounced off it harmlessly.

The serpent let out a blast of icy breath in reply, freezing a portion of the ship and forcing the crew to retreat.

“That’s not going to be easy to punch,” Gragya said.

“No, no it’s not,” Illyxa replied. “Let’s see how it likes some fire magic, though.”

With that, she let off a volley of fireballs.

Only to have her heart fall as they showed no real effect. Well, beyond annoying the serpent, and causing it to surge forward, releasing another blast of ice towards her position.

Illyxa had been in such shock at her technique failing that she’d only escaped the icy blast by way of Gragya pulling her to safety.

“It didn’t… it didn’t do anything,” Illyxa muttered, staring in disbelief. “Fire always does… something.”

“I’ve heard of such things,” Pin said, sheltering behind a barrel with a couple of Goblin pirates. “Beings so cold that fire can not harm them. It brings them closer to melting, but is incapable of actually getting them there.”

That news made Illyxa’s eye twitch, but, before she could reply, the great sea snake lunged forward once more, crashing onto the ship and beginning to drag itself aboard.

N’ratha and Fuan rushed ahead to meet it, though N’ratha’s steel proved to have little effect against the thick hide, the cold rendering her blade brittle. Fuan’s magical sword was more effective, but only just. The serpent let out a few hisses as he scratched it, but that was all he could manage.

Taking a deep breath, Illyxa knew she’d pushed her luck with what solar magic she’d shown off already. Only ever using little things when the others were distracted, and able to mistake it for particularly prodigious fire magic had just barely worked thus far. But… there was no hope for an easy out this time. She needed to use solar magic with Hyi right there. It was that or dive into icy waters and see if the sea serpent or the hypothermia killed her first.

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With no choice, she began a quiet chant, feeling out the magic around, filling it with the fury in her heart. Fury capable of taming the wild fire beyond fire of the sun.

“Everyone! Close your eyes!” Gragya shouted, while pulling on the shaded glasses she’d somehow kept in one piece. (Illyxa’s had broken ages ago, and she’d not summoned a new pair.)

There were ripples of confusion from the others, but there was no time to explain. The energy had built up and needed to be released.

“Kurogaalpwang!” she shouted, still finding Goblin invocations easier than Celestine.

The golden blast escaped from her hands, slamming into the face of the serpent, before exploding in a light as brilliant as the sun itself. Most of the crew had managed to close their eyes in time, and so few were witness to the blast, as beautiful as it may have been from a safer distance.

Illyxa felt the warmth on her face as she kept her eyes closed the few seconds it took the blast to dissipate. She was glad she dialed in the right strength and not blown them all up.

Opening her eyes, she smiled, seeing only half the serpent remained, a steaming stump of melting ice.

“And that is why you don’t mess with Illyxa the Inferno,” she said, flashing a tooth grin and striking a pose  to a stunned and slightly terrified audience.

“That… that was solar magic,” Hyi said, slowly.

“How in the world did a Goblin do solar magic!?” Fuan hissed. “Especially arcanely!”

“Uhhh…” Illyxa began, mind trying to hunt for a good explanation.

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It was so weird, to look down and see that her nose was brown right now. Her hair was unchanged, at least. Elven hair aligned with the colour of leaves, and leaves could be orange at the right time of year.

But her nose… and her hands. They looked so strange, not a pleasant and healthy shade of green.

“Small sacrifices,” she mumbled to herself, before turning her attention back to the Elven priestess whose hair she’d used to make the polymorph potion.

The woman was out cold, and would be for about a week longer without intervention. Illyxa had tested the knockout potion to be sure she’d have enough time to do the job. Though, it did mean she needed to hide the woman. Hide her and keep her safe.

That was why Illyxa had bought the horribly overpriced tent of safety in Mezora. It could camouflage perfectly in any environment and had a number of protective wards in case anything accidentally stumbled onto it.

Sure, there were still a few threats out there, but it was the best Illyxa could manage. Probably better than an Elven priestess of Nariph’m deserved, considering the sort of things the Alliance did in the name of their cult, but… Illyxa was not prepared for cold blooded murder. Battle was one thing. Even if she was picking the fight. But simply killing an unarmed pilgrim was not something she could bring herself to do.

So, she stripped the woman, needing her priestly garb, and then shoved her in the tent, with a promise to return. Then Illyxa gathered her supplies. Much of it was legitimate equipment of a priestess, but a few were matters specific to Illyxa’s mission. Supplies for every eventuality, as no one but deities and the priestly order of Nariph’m had entered the mausoleum in a millennia.

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It was only a day’s hike to reach the mausoleum. Reaching a ridge, she finally spotted it, the mind-bogglingly cyclopean dome of it glinting in the lowering sun with its gold leafed surface. The whole thing gave a good impression of the sun far to their west. Illyxa found it utterly obnoxious.

Neraph’m wasn’t even dead. He was just in a healing coma. There was no need for all this nonsense. He’d probably wake up again in another thousand years and then what were they going to do with the place? Sell tours to chumps to see where the sun god used to sleep?

Actually, thinking about it as she followed the road down towards the entrance, that was just the sort of nonsense Alliance folks would probably lap up.

Weirdos, the lot of them.

Still, she was getting close enough to the entrance she had to start actually acting the part of a pilgrim. She began to quietly chant the prayers of a visiting priestess under her breath, fiddling with prayer beads as she did so. A small cluster of priests and priestess were gathered at the entrance, a guide apparently waiting for one or two more pilgrims to lead through (or the sun to dip lower and force their hand).

Illyxa put on the best impression she could of being rigidly devout as they waited for one more group member to begin the tour. All the better to keep anyone from trying to talk to her. What did a Goblin have to say to a bunch of Elven clerics?

Thankfully another pilgrim came down the path a few minutes later and they began their procession, aiming to arrive at the central chamber as the sun began to set, when magic was strongest.

It was a long and spiralling hallway into the mausoleum, the ceilings low and the torches sparse. Whether that was due to ventilation limitations or to give the whole thing a mysterious and reverential feeling, Illyxa wasn’t sure. She did her best to keep the sacrilegious thoughts to a minimum, though. It was possibly risky around a high ranking priest.

She did quietly note the lack of good cubby holes to hide away in, though. It was going to be a bit before she could split off from the group.

Long enough she found herself led into the great chamber itself. With Neraph’m laying there, surrounded by a small sea of runes and candles, all meant to guide prayer energy in towards him. The whole mausoleum did that, pulling from his worshippers across the world, while doing its best to keep any of his energy leaking out, if anyone tried to make a requesting prayer from him.

The rest of the tour group began to circle around the slumbering deity, dropping into what seemed to be translike prostrations before their god.

Illyxa found herself taking a moment to process it all as well. She’d never actually been in the presence of a deity before. Even a sleeping one. As near as she could guess, a bit thrown off by her polymorphed height, the sleeping god was about the size of a troll or an oni, but there was somehow… more to his presence. Like that was only a small fraction of his actual size, but he was somehow further away, to seem a more manageable size. All while being in the middle of a circle she could walk around.

And walk around it she did, until she found a point between some pillars where she could disappear into the shadows. The mausoleum was covered in magical wars, preventing any dragons from entering, and anything less than a dragon was assumed to not be a threat to the slumbering deity. But that didn’t mean they wouldn’t do a headcount, at the very least to make sure no one got lost.

Which meant it was time to pull out what would have been the most costly part of the mission, if she hadn’t convinced a small faction of Automen to lend it to her in exchange for sharing whatever notes she gathered within the mausoleum. It looked to simply be a small box, covered in gears, until she turned a specific crank and it began unfurling.

A tiny amount of magic fed through countless layers of gears, magnifying the magic through mundane means, until the box had unfurled into a vaguely passable duplicate of Illyxa’s current form, at least under the baggy layers of a spare set of priestess’ robes. Nothing that would pass muster in the light of day, but the tour group would not leave the mausoleum until well after dusk, with the length of their pilgrimage. Some basic animating force caused the clockwork construct to turn, and begin to follow the rest of the group, as Illyxa gave an appreciative nod. It was a true marvel of craftsmanship. And probably worth more to her backers than she was.

It was also a testament to the importance of her mission. She stayed in the shadows, waiting for the group to leave, before hurrying forward to the edge of the circle of runes. Most of the symbols here were secrets, known only to the priests of the sleeping god. She had found a few in her research, and she knew her backers had found more, but they all lacked the full collection of the logograms.

Illyxa quickly scribbled down as much as she could, realising that the messages repeated numerous times across the magical circles. Unlike most Goblins, she was known for her calligraphy and felt confident she’d accurately recorded all there was to gather here. Then she moved on, examining the exit spiral in the freedom of solitude, until she found a branching route. Following it, she eventually made her way up to a locked door. The lock was non-magical, however. So as not to disturb the rest of the mausoleum’s enchantments.

Which meant a few minutes with an Automen supplied kit and she was through. Into a library containing the hidden secrets of Solar Magic. Prayers and rituals hidden from the world until they would no longer drain on the life force of their god. Of course, no deities listened to the prayers of Goblins or Automen, so they would have to get rather more creative to make use of the writings.

There were far too many books for Illyxa to study, and she knew she couldn’t possibly steal any. Thankfully, she was a student of magic, with experience researching and cramming for examinations. She knew enough Elven and Celestine to figure out the titles of the tomes, and with that, she could work out which ones were the foundations. Then it was a matter of flipping through those, scratching down any actual spells she found, or other things that looked important. There would be gaps in what she gathered, without a doubt, but she was ready to spend the rest of her days cracking the code and coming to a full understanding of solar magic.

To sate her curiosity, she also moved on to a few of the more advanced works, piecing together what she could to put in her journal.

It was hours of frantic work, always ready in case a priest came in to check on the library. Well, readied, but not sure what she’d actually do. Fighting her way out of the mausoleum seemed a tall order, even of her.

Worse still, for her stress, there were windows within the library. Small vantage points that looked down upon the great chambre of the mausoleum. She constantly caught glimpses of the sleeping god below, and couldn’t ignore the presence he carried. It felt almost as if he was as close now as when she’d been down in the lower room.

When she finally felt she’d risked as much time as she dared, she then slipped out, locking the door again, and moving carefully back into the hallways. Her entire body was shaking with nerves (and a little hunger), but she did her best to keep it under control. All while she found herself growing more and more annoyed at the spiralling route the exit corridor followed, just as needlessly winding as the entrance.

Once, a priest passed her heading the other direction. She’d barely managed to avoid detection, using a sticky glove to wedge herself in the corner where the wall met the ceiling, in the darkest areas between two torches. The man’s heavy footsteps had been the only thing that had saved her, giving her time to hide before he’d rounded the spiral into view.

At last, the exit was before her. She pressed to the wall, her heart in her throat as she tried to check for any guards. A single priest stood watch. A sleep spell would have dealt with him, but, again, she was sure even that would be detected by the wards of the mausoleum.

Magic was not the only way to put a man to sleep, however. She pulled out a small case, containing a knockout powder. Another expensive luxury she’d been forced to use. She blew it towards the priest.

He yawned, stretching for a moment. Illyxa was about to try a second spray when the priest then tipped over, sprawling on the ground and starting to snore.

She then ran, slipping into the forest and not stopping until her feet ached and exhaustion left her barely able to stand. She found her clockwork doppelganger sitting beside the tent, looking far less convincing in the light of early afternoon. It also wasn’t alone. Three camouflaged Automen were also waiting.

“You have acquired the information?” one asked in an emotionless voice.

“The essentials of several tomes, compressed by my unique shorthand,” Illyxa said, struggling to maintain dignity between her hunger and exhaustion.

“Wonderful,” another Automan said, with a nod. “Knowledge is ours. And that means power. Power to preserve neutrality.”

The third Automan also nodded. “You must be nourished, though. Have cheese and bread.”

It proceeded to pull a small bowl of cheese and a roll of bread out of its torso. Of course, the magical furnace that drove an Automan’s clockwork heart was hot, and so the cheese was utterly melted. Illyxa was, however, too tired to care. Melty cheese was kind of nice.

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“I pieced it together from here and there,” she lied, after a moment’s hesitation, hunting for a good explanation and finding none.

“You pieced together solar magic from ‘here and there’?” Pin and Fuan both asked.

Fuan’s voice was harsh and accusative, while Pin’s was full of wonder and awe.

“Yeah,” Illyxa added, hoping that somehow made her seem more convincing.

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