Chapter 49: Chapter 47: The Spine of the World

“Alright, Violet, you ready?” Chrys asked. The two of them were standing in front of an ornate gate in the market encampment, one that had a large sort of…distortion inside of it, a swirling, circular purple mass that hurt Chrys’s eyes if she looked at it too long.

“I’m ready.” Violet whispered.

“Let’s go, then.” Chrys said, bracing herself and stepping into the portal. The transition wasn’t nearly as bad as she had been expecting it to be – there was a bit of a lurch, but all in all, it was smoother than any teleportation magic she had experienced before.

…She had, apparently, experienced teleportation in the past. That probably shouldn’t have been surprising, considering how she had been a very important person in the past, but she had been under the impression that she didn’t get out much. Not for lack of trying, but because she had been forced to stay cooped up, likely for her own safety.

But she’d have to unpack that later. Right now, she had an entirely new part of the world to explore. She and Violet were in some sort of cave, which wasn’t terribly exciting, but she could rather easily make out the light that marked the mouth of the cave, which she was sure would contain something far more interesting than the stone around her. So, she turned around, waited for Violet to come out of the gate that had been built into the wall of the cave, then led her towards the surface.

The first thing she noticed upon her emergence was the cold. The cave had been cold, yes, but she had assumed that had just been…a cave thing, not necessarily indicative of the surrounding environment. But, if anything, it was colder outside of the cave, a deep, bone-chilling cold that made Chrys glad she was a kobold; the thin layer of fur, annoying though it could sometimes be, helped mute the cold just a little more than bare skin would have.

The second thing she noticed was the view. She could see for what seemed like forever, the whole world arrayed in all its splendor before her. An ocean of white and green, stretching farther than she had even thought possible. To her sides she could make out the jagged tips of mountains, taller than anything she had even seen before.

There was only one place this could be – the Spine of the World. She had read about it in the books Queenie had given her, a series of mountains so tall and imposing that they had singlehandedly prevented any serious attempt at colonizing the world beyond.

It wasn’t just that they were filled with treacherous terrain that made any sort of wagon travel impossible, wasn’t that they were so cold that it was said the snow on their peaks hadn’t melted in centuries, it was their inhabitants that made them so deadly.

They were home to some of the most developed monster populations in the entire world, and any large expedition invariably had to contend with some sort of incredibly lethal threat. Because of this, people just left the place well enough alone.

Which did make it an ideal place for the swarm to grow, but also a dangerous one. They would have plenty of new things to convert, but they would almost certainly run across something that was too much for them to handle. That probably wasn’t supposed to be an issue, since Amelia was supposed to be there with them, but that was no longer the case.

Chrys sighed. “We’re going back.” She said.

“What?” Violet shouted, then immediately clamped her hands over her mouth. “What?” She whispered. “Why?”

“This place is dangerous.” Chrys said. “I’m like…ninety percent sure it’s the Spine of the World, and the two of us are not equipped to deal with the stuff out here. We’re going to need a new plan of attack.”

“I…see.” Violet said. “I was confused, since you were so excited earlier, but I suppose that makes sense.”

“Yeah. Let’s go break the bad news.”

---

“You’re back already?” Lia asked, frowning. “Is everything alright?”

“We’re fine.” Chrys said. “I, uh, recognized the place, I think. I’m pretty sure it’s the Spine of the World. It lets you out in a cave really high up on a mountain, with a ton of other huge mountains around. It’s really cold and snowy, too.”

“Oh. That…could be a problem.” Rose said. “Did you encounter any monsters?”

“No. I turned around as soon as I realized where we were.”

“What is the Spine of the World?” Violet whispered. “I am afraid I don’t quite follow what’s happening.”

“It’s a series of tall mountains that are too dangerous for people to cross.” Lia explained. “There are a lot of monsters in and around the area, and most of them are actually pretty manageable, but the issue is that there are enough monsters that aren’t manageable to make being in there for any extended period of time suicidal.”

“Do…we need to worry about things coming through that portal?” Chrys asked. “It didn’t exactly seem well-guarded.”

Lia frowned. “I don’t know. I imagine Amelia wouldn’t make something with a flaw that glaring, but I have no way of knowing how it works.”

“Best to treat it as if things can come through, then.” Rose said. “We should start disguising the cave exit, and we’ll fortify the area around the portal on our end as best we can.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to fortify both ends of the portal?” Lia asked.

“No.” Rose said. “Right now, our best defense is remaining unseen. We have little hope if we have to fight some of the more powerful inhabitants of the area, so we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves. Besides, even if things can’t come through, we don’t want some smart monster to start patrolling the exit in hopes of finding an easy meal.”

“I’ll defer to your judgement, then.” Lia said. “Violet, go find Lily, we need her to shift her priorities to fortifying the area around the portal. And make sure she knows that the ramshackle stuff that the camp’s perimeter is made of won’t cut it. It has to be as sturdy as we can make it without expending a crazy amount of resources.”

“At once.” Violet whispered, then floated off towards the biology building.

“Are we even capable of building something that’ll hold off something really threatening?” Chrys asked.

“Probably not, but we can at least make something that can give us a shot against some of the medium-grade threats in the Spine.” Lia said. “And it’s better than nothing.”

“It’ll give us some peace of mind, if nothing else.” Rose said. “And if whatever we’re fighting can’t fly, then our fortification might be able to slow it down long enough for us to get to the actual walls.”

“So…how are we going to explore the Spine?” Lia asked. “It seems…really risky to go out there ourselves, but I’m not sure what else we can do.”

“We hole up in here and send wave after wave of disposable things at it until we get a grasp of what we’re dealing with.” Rose said. “It’s a callous strategy, sure, but unless you’re willing to risk one of us sapient folks, it’s going to have to do.”

“What about this dungeon?” Chrys asked. “The outside, I mean. Where does it let out?”

“Dunno.” Lia said. “I never actually stepped outside, all I saw was cliffs and snow. For all I know, this dungeon is in the Spine too.”

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“It probably is.” Rose mused. “It’s where I would put something I didn’t want people finding. There’s nothing quite like leagues of unexplored, highly dangerous territory for a secret base.”

“Yeah, but why would Amelia make a portal to another place in the Spine if this dungeon already lets out there?” Chrys pointed out. “And wouldn’t it be super bad if something strong just wandered in through the dungeon’s front entrance while Lia was training? It would defeat the point, wouldn’t it?”

Rose shook her head. “That’s not an issue. Monsters don’t just…waltz into dungeons. They can sense where a dungeon entrance is, and they keep well clear. It’s an instinct thing; they know dungeon magic keeps monsters from leaving, and dungeon monsters are hostile even to everything that’s not from the dungeon, including other monsters. It’s effectively a death sentence, so wild monsters just…won’t go in, ever, not unless someone drags them into one.”

“Oh.” Chrys said. “My other point stands, though.”

“It’s possible that the portal takes us to somewhere safer than where this dungeon is.” Rose said. “We were never supposed to leave it the normal way, so it would make sense to hide it somewhere as far out of reach of normal people as possible.”

“My guess is that it’s that.” Lia said. “Amelia may not be able to easily judge how hard things should be for normal people, but I can’t imagine she’d make the same mistakes with the Spine. Even she had to have issues with some of the stuff in there when she was scouting locations, so she had to know we’d be hard-pressed to take them on…I think.”

“Actually, wait, if monsters can tell what’s a dungeon entrance, shouldn’t they be able to tell that our portal is one too, and steer clear?” Chrys asked. “That makes the whole defense thing a moot point, right?”

“You’re…probably right, actually.” Rose said thoughtfully. “This is, as far as I’m aware, a world first, so we can’t be sure, but I see no reason that monsters would see our portal into the dungeon as any different than a normal entrance, as those are effectively portals anyway. Still, that’s no reason not to disguise it or make barricades on our end; clever monsters might still see us going in and out and choose to wait in ambush, or this portal might bypass normal dungeon restrictions entirely.”

“We can test that out later.” Lia said. “Right now, we need a more concrete plan of action. I was thinking we could maybe…disguise the entrance like Rose was saying, then use burrowers to dig out some alternate entrances for us, just in case. Not a lot, just enough so we can have options on where we want to exit from if something is watching the main entrance.”

“That’s fair, but we have to be careful if we do that.” Rose said. “Each new entrance we make increases the chance of an outsider stumbling upon our portal, but if it’s only two or three then we should…probably be fine. It’s hard to formulate a plan without knowing what exactly is out there, but as long as we’re cautious it’ll be fine. I think.”

“What’s going on?” Mia asked, walking back into the lobby of the building with Gwinn and Sif. “Is everything alright?”

“It appears that the portal Amelia made leads to the Spine of the World.” Rose said. “We were having an impromptu conference on how we want to approach this, since it’s probably going to be too risky to send any of us that have souls to explore.”

“Please, send me.” Sif volunteered. “I watched Amelia’s preparations, and I’ve gleaned small bits of information on the Spine from them. I may not have the full picture, but I am better prepared than most to brave its dangers.”

Rose glanced over to Lia. I’m not sure about this. She said telepathically. I’m worried about her loyalty. If she just…abandons us and makes for civilization, it could be bad.

Seeing their silence as an opportunity to further her case, Sif continued. “I’m also the most expendable of anyone here. Your family is, of course, out of the question, and I have been with our group for the shortest period of time.”

Definitely trying to escape. Rose said. People almost never call themselves expendable. We can’t let her out unsupervised.

“Well…what do you think?” Sif asked. “It’s a good idea, right?”

“I…think I’ll leave it up to Rose’s discretion.” Lia said. “She’s got the most experience in this sort of thing.”

Rose nodded. “I’m not sure it’s as good an idea as you’re thinking.” She said. “Better prepared or not, the Spine is still ridiculously dangerous, and calling yourself most expendable is…well, even if it was true, that’s only relatively speaking. Sapient life in general isn’t expendable, and when there’s only around ten of us, that’s even more true. I believe we would be better served making non-sapient members of the swarm and scouting out the area before we commit to sending a person out there.”

“Very well.” Sif said. “I assume I am to continue my current assignment, then?”

“Before you do, could you please write down everything you know about the Spine?” Rose asked. “I’m sure there’s something to write on in the dorms.”

“What should I do with it when I’m done?” Sif asked. “Will you still be out here?”

“Probably, but if we’re not, just leave it on a table in the lobby and we’ll pick it up later.”

“I’ll get to that now, then.” Sif said, walking into the building.

After she was out of earshot, Rose turned to face Lia’s parents. “Keep a close eye on her.” She said. “I don’t trust her, no one’s willing to sacrifice themselves for people they barely know.”

“Would you sacrifice yourself for the swarm?” Mia asked. “Because I know I would, even back when I had just been enlightened. I think you might be underestimating the mental conditioning given to us.”

Rose paused. “I…suppose you’re right, I’m just a bit more wary of someone who was…well, a person before conversion.”

“Are you implying you’re wary of Gwinn, or my children?” Mia pressed. “They were people before conversion.”

“No, they’re different.” Rose said. “They’re…family, Sif was someone who was fighting us before.”

I…think they might be right. Lia said. I mean…isn’t it entirely possible that Amelia co-opted the Urge to make her conditioning and then made it stronger? She’s done stuff like that before, with…well, human-monster hybrids, and I’m not sure an ordinary person would be able to so easily shrug off her work.

Rose sighed. “Perhaps you all are right, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.” She said. “Besides, it’s not like we’re under any sort of immediate time constraint, we can afford to take it slowly.”

“Well, if we are doing it this way, I kind of want to roll the dice a couple of times and get some random monsters made.” Lia said. “If we’re lucky, we get something really good like mom, and if we’re not…well, we’re not significantly worse off than we are now.”

“Very well.” Rose said. “Want me to help you gather ingredients?”

“Please.” Lia said. “The rest of you as well, if there’s anything you think would be helpful for a scout, bring it to me. I’m going to get some stuff from the Dimension of Discounts, and then we’ll make the cocoons here. Sound good?”

Everyone else nodded, and left to go grab whatever objects they could think of. For her part, Lia opened the Dimension of Discounts, the window, not the full dimension, and began to sift through her options.