Ruinous Return

B2 – Chapter 10

Thane Mol stood in the large vault. Right to business then, he thought as he shut the large door behind him. As part of Lady Rivers' increased security measures, no one person was allowed in the vault alone at a single time, deep in the mountains where the Conclave of the fortress was hidden.

"Alright," he muttered in Shereldian as he flipped open his notebook. "We need tae pull five hundred Gold Eagles, ten thousand Silver Kestrels, 'an fifty thousand Copper Owls."

Antiquarian Menora nodded and set to opening each chest and began counting out coins onto a nearby table. Mol joined her, and the two set to their task with rigorous monotony. "Are separate piles okay?" she asked.

Mol nodded, "Aye." He eyed the Duskari woman as she deftly split up the various piles of currency. As Mol was the Steward, the woman's duties fell underneath his purview. As it stood, there were no inscribed items that required research, so she defaulted to working under his office. "Dun forget tae spin the dial," he muttered to her as he continued his own counting. On the wall, next to the treasure chests that contained the varying currencies were a series of dials with Arinol numerals, which, thankfully, were the basis of every other language's numeral system.

Menora stood up and clicked several of the wheels to display the new amounts of currency. She began divvying up the coins into smaller pouches, sealing them with twine that she then dipped in wax to create a seal. "What's all of this for?" she asked.

Mol finished tallying his piles, shut the lids, and began double and triple checking their count and his records. "Pay fer them mercenaries. Money fer the Bashinol convoy. 'An the supplies fer the new citizens." He finished his tallies and closed the small ledger, placing it on the counting table as he helped Menora pick up the bags. Mol saw Menora eyeing him with a critical look. "What?"

"I don't get it. Why did Lyn make you Steward?" She didn't sound upset, more curious than anything.

"I ran a business of repute. Gutterglug Brewing. Aye, those were the days." He chuckled, recalling the fond memories of late nights up drinking and brewing up new concoctions late into the night. "'Till that bitch forced me people out."

"Just managing a business? No offense intended, but don't you think that you're a little underqualified to be managing an empire's finances?"

Thane Mol looked at her and cracked a smile, "Wha' do ya think it costs to travel fer a week? Food, drink, all the supplies?"

"It couldn't be more than fifty Copper Owls. Ten for each day."

Mol laughed hard at that, so much that he had to wipe tears from his eyes. "Duskari 'aven't left yer Valley in a long time. A hundred Copper Owls fer a trip that long." He shook his head, "Tha's why she appointed me."

Minora nodded silently, "Can you teach me? About finances, currencies, and trade?"

"Eh, sure. Over a beer. I'll learn ye something."

Lyn stood up as the sun began to crest the trees and made her way back to her companions. "Wakey wakey!" she shouted in Arinol as she clapped her clawed hands together, the scales making a loud clattering noise.

Vael and Gael both jolted awake, hands reaching for weapons before they relaxed and shared a look. Thomas slowly sat up and yawned. "What time is it?"

"Late enough," Lyn replied. "The fey are already up and moving. I spoke with the Queen at daybreak. We're leaving."

Thomas jumped up at that and his eyes were filled with a passion Lyn hadn't seen in him in a long, long time. "To the Ruins of Elent!"

Lyn nodded. "Come on, stand on the edge of the lake." She walked into the water until she was a good distance from the shore. "En ethiel i thalion min nin / i beleg bregol en-ngurth / na garo nin rhaw / a adlethad ha na / i beleg nadhras sui ar Ghomar." She felt her body stretch again as the heat filled her body, and within moments she stood in her draconic form once more. She heard the various 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the pixies and faeries that were out and about. Going to the edge of the shore, she leaned her neck down as the trio of her companions scrambled up to nestle among the spines on her back. "Ready?" She asked in the rumbling, deep tone.

"Yup!" Thomas shouted, "You want to get high. As high as you can to get over the storm." He looked back to the twins, "And you're going to want to tie off."

Vael and Gael fished around in their packs and pulled out rope, tying themselves to the spines. Thomas did the same, and when Lyn got the thumbs-up from Thomas, she flexed her wings, leaped skyward, and flapped mightily as she ascended. The rush of wind past her face brought an indescribable joy, and she let out a roar as she climbed higher and higher.

Soon enough, the island of Feylin was a tiny dot below her, a pink pinprick in the ocean. Craning her head back, she checked on her passengers who all seemed to have tears streaming from the wind in their faces. Flapping in place to hover, she looked to the Northeast. "How far is it?" She asked.

"A good twenty miles!" Thomas yelled. "You'll see the storm soon!"

Lyn nodded and faced forward, flapping to adjust her angle before she began a glide. Within ten minutes at her top speed – which she estimated was around a hundred miles per hour – she saw an enormous storm on the horizon. It touched the sea and ascended into the sky. "I have to get higher!" she shouted as she looked back for a moment, "Hold on!"

The trio did so, and she flew higher. The air began to grow cold, and she felt fatigue set in as her mana seemed to drain faster the higher she went. What's causing that? She asked herself as she achieved enough elevation to coast over the storm under her. As she did so, she felt extremely faint and felt the shifting spell begin to slip as she ran out of mana to sustain it. "Hold on!" she shouted as her body began to shift into its humanoid shape.

Vael and Gael both let out a scream as they were suddenly falling. Damnit! I thought they'd end up where my back is! She angled her fall and pointed her head towards the two as they flailed in the air. Slamming into them as she clasped her clawed hands around their armor. "I got you!" she shouted as she activated the slow-falling cloak. "Where's Thomas?!" she shouted over the winds as they began to descend into the storm.

Vael pointed to her left, "There!" she yelled. Lyn looked where she was pointing and saw Thomas smoothly gliding above them.

Lyn angled her descent to the Northeast, praying that she had fallen from high enough to land on solid ground. She felt her mana continue to deplete as the amulet began to be drawn upon. She focused her attention on her feet and pointed them behind her, "Tiriad nin ah echor gwaew beleg." The mana drained from the amulet as a powerful gust of wind rocketed out from behind her, pushing her up and forward. The darkness and clouds slowly faded as she cleared the edge of the storm.

Thomas was above and in front of them, gently descending. Lyn stopped focusing on the spell as she slowed to his pace. "Hmm, that wasn't a problem before," he said as he looked back at the storm.

"What was that?" Vael asked. "I felt my mana drain as soon as we crossed over the storm."

"The spell that protects the Ruins of Elent," Thomas replied. "An eternal storm that saps mana. I only cleared it before because I didn't rely on mana, I had my wyvern to fly over it." He looked at Lyn as they descended to the green, grassy ground below. "I didn't know your transformation was a constant drain on your mana," he commented.

"Now you know," Lyn muttered as she planted her clawed feet on the dirt below. She let the twins go as they recovered their footing on the soft ground. She walked over to the edge of the cliff and glanced down. "We're at least a half mile up."

Gael came over next to her and peered over, "You couldn't land a ship down there either! Look," he said as he pointed. Lyn followed his finger and saw the remains of dozens of ships that had been smashed up on the rocks.

Lyn narrowed her sight and focused her vision. Those wrecks are new, she thought. And that's when she smelled it. There's smoke. "Everyone to the edge," she called back over her shoulder.

Thomas came over, "What is it?"

"That wreck," she said as she pointed at a battered hull – the front half of a caravel-style vessel. "Smoke is coming from it. Someone survived the journey."

Gael laid on the edge of the cliff and peered over, "I can't tell. But I don't have your Farsight Eyedrops."

"I see it," Vael said. "And some movement. There!" she grabbed Lyn's shoulder and pointed once more.

Lyn focused her vision and saw a flash of skin through a porthole. "There's survivors," she stated.

"We should leave them," Thomas said.

"Why?" Lyn asked.

"That ship is Valagonia's design. Cecily's people. Several of those wrecks appear to be relatively new, wouldn't you agree?"

Lyn nodded as she peered at other scraps of wood and shattered ships, "Yes, most of the wrecks seem pretty new. The waves would wash away any major sections."

"I know what she wants from here," Thomas stated. "She wants the secret that I learned." He swapped to English as Lyn's eyes met his. "A way to cheat death."

She replied in the same language, "Do you think she's sick? Dying?"

"Maybe," Thomas replied as he walked away from the ledge. "They're working for her, and she can't have what I've found and whatever else is hidden here. Come, the Ruins await."

Lyn nodded and stood up. Vael gave her a questioning look, "What did he say?" she asked in Arinol.

Lyn replied in the same language, "The person who sent those ships is the one who kicked out and killed non-Humans in Valagonia. She wants something from this island."

Gael stood up and brushed off his armor, "What are we waiting for?" he began to follow Thomas, and the ladies followed him towards the ruined buildings.

"Don't forget the ears!" Vinic shouted as his group of Valagonian infantry-turned-marauders continued their merciless slaughter. They had crossed The Rill and gone into Trisk for one reason; to kill any Ari they could find. They had split into several groups and had been pillaging in addition to collecting the ears for the bounty. We're not returning to her empty handed, Vinic thought as he stood up higher in his mount's stirrups. Spotting one of the long-eared hiding on a roof, he raised his palm.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Edro nin / thalvo vith / go ned egar anim / adh glaw." A sphere of blue static appeared in his palm before it condensed into a line of lightning that split the air before slamming into and frying the Ari. He let out a laugh as the corpse slid from the roof and crunched onto the ground with a sickly, wet noise. "Take that you fucking Ari!"

Wheeling his mount around, he spotted a human woman and an Ari man running out of the town proper. "Hyah!" he kicked his mount into action and chased the two down, taking aim at the Ari and repeating his lightning elementalism spell. Unexpectedly, the Ari turned as he was halfway through his incantation, and he heard them incanting their own spell. Mine is faster! Vinic thought as he chose to focus on his incantation instead of attempting to break line of sight or jump from his mount.

And he was right, the Ari wasn't fast enough as the lightning formed an orb in his palm before the long-ear had finished his incantation. It zapped forward and fried him, and he collapsed. The woman next to him screamed and collapsed on the ground next to the corpse, weeping. Vinic rode up, "It's just an Ari," he said in Triskol, having studied several languages as part of his knightly upbringing.

The woman looked up at him and screamed, "You murderer!"

"Is it really murder if you're putting down a beast? No, it's more like a hunt." Vinic raised his hand once more and the woman stared at him with pleading eyes streaming with tears. "And those who consort with beasts deserve the same punishment. Edro nin / thalvo vith / go ned egar anim / adh glaw." The sphere of lightning arced out and the woman died in an instant.

Looking back at the village proper, Vinic saw the tumult die down as his troops masquerading as brigands finished their grisly work. He dismounted, pulled his knife, and cut off the ears of the Ari, adding them to his hip pouch. That makes forty-eight just on my own, he thought as he re-mounted and rode back to the village center.

"Report!" he shouted in Shereldian as the troops in this smaller contingent came together.

One of his sergeants took a few minutes to go through the ranks and walked up to Vinic, "Sir, we count twenty Ari among the slain."

Vinic nodded, "Every man has at least two of the long-ears?"

"Affirmative."

"Then we return home!" We have already been in Trisk's territory for too long. A military reprisal is due any day now. "Let's go!"

Misty drained another mug of coffee as she stood atop the tower, looking out over Ghomar. She had been utilizing the inscribed pillar that enabled her to send her sight and sense of hearing anywhere on this world. She had been keeping track of Lyn, looking for a whisper, a trace, anything indicating that there was the old Lyn in there.

Reaching out once more, she poured mana into the pillar, and her vision dashed to the North, into the sea before it was stopped by a swirling storm. Damnit, she thought. They're at the ruins. Not only was the storm blocking her way – some ancient, Elenthian spell to protect their homeland – but she could not go over either. There was a reason why people did not use spells that enabled flight.

The further from the surface of the world one was, the more mana every spell would cost. Shifting was a nice way to get around that, but only the Shifter hero was truly capable of mana-less shifting spells. Misty took the carafe from the small stool she had brought up here and poured herself another cup. I can't send my divination sensor up high enough. The storm was the tallest thing on Ghomar, almost touching the atmosphere. Taller even than Shiverburn Summit. How the hell did Thomas get his wyvern over it in the first place? Or Lyn just now, for that matter?

She had been trying to figure out what Thomas went there for. And why he took Lyn along with him. He had to have been looking for something. He already found a way to be immortal. What else could he want?

She turned her gaze to the South and utilized her pillar once more to send her sight across the land. She spied on Trisha, Ben, and Brad who were all seemingly living their best lives. She felt a twinge of gratitude at the sight, knowing that this Lyn didn't kill the heroes to consume their cores, and did seem to keep true to her goal. She spent many hours exploring the Valley of the Volcano with the divination sensor, into and out of buildings, observing the daily going-ons. People arrived on boats that came up the rivers that were expanded into the Valley itself.

She really is building an empire, she thought. Stellas wasn't with them traveling, what's she up to? She ended the spell, and instead of using a free-form sensor, she reactivated the pillar and focused on a specific target. Her vision flew faster than before thanks to the designated person she sought, and soon enough she saw Stellas, hunched over a desk, writing in a book. Peering over her shoulder, Misty's eyes went wide. Stellas was making an Elenthir primer with a translation to Vharthonian and Triskol.

But it wasn't just a basic primer with some easy verses. It was letters, rules of grammar and spelling in Elenthir. That could only mean one thing. Lyn plans on teaching everyone Elenthir from the ground up.

Misty returned to her body and picked up the carafe, sitting on the stool and pouring the hot liquid into her mouth before tossing the object off the tower. She leaned forward and put her head in her hands. Why even have a mage school if Lyn plans on instituting a general education that includes Elenthir? There's no point. She groaned and scratched her head. What do I do?

Then, an epiphany. I got it! She immediately went to the ladder and slid down into her study. She placed her hands on the top of the desk and poured mana into the inscription. Her voice amplified throughout the mage school. "Attention, students. I will be relocating the school to the Valley of the Volcano. If you do not wish to continue at my school, you will have until the morning to pack up and depart. I sincerely hope you stay, as I believe you will be instrumental in my plans."

She sat back in her chair and let out a deep sigh. You want to teach them the basics? Then they'll need a place of higher education if they want to pursue it to mastery. She looked around the room that she had been in for years and years, rarely leaving except to go elsewhere in her academy. The room was covered in curios and nick-nacks from her prior adventures. Moving is going to suck, she thought.

The Ruins of Elent; the place where the Elenthians established their civilization. Lyn had never been to this location before, and she was just as awed as both Vael and Gael as they entered the city proper.

It was a dense, downtown sprawl like any major city back on Earth. The buildings were not metal and glass as the high rises of her home world, though. Instead, these massive buildings were made out of stone. And these were not worked blocks, but rather magically shaped stone. The architecture was reminiscent of ancient Greece, just like the destroyed Elenthian temple Lyn had visited so long ago.

"This is incredible," Vael said. "People used to live in these buildings? All the way that high up?"

Thomas nodded as he led them down the cracked stone boulevard that appeared to be the main thoroughfare, as there were smaller side streets that split off in perpendicular intersections. "The Elenthians were truly the masters of magic. They created the language of spells and had enough mana that even their weakest spell user was capable of storage external spells." He pointed down the road, "And their main facility, the place where their government and place for magical research, is down this way."

Lyn saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to look. A shadow seemingly moved of its own accord, dashing across one of the side streets before vanishing. "Thomas, are things living here?"

"Sheep and goats on the outskirts where there's vegetation. Other than that? No."

Lyn drew Cataclysm and ignited the blade. Vael and Gael saw her preparing for combat and drew their weapons and shields. "Something is out there," Lyn stated.

"Is it a shadow?" Thomas asked.

"Yes, it dashed across the-"

"Damnit," Thomas said as he turned around and joined the trio, "They were dormant when I was here on my own." He glanced at Lyn, "Your enormous mana reservoir must have roused them."

"What are they?" Vael asked as shadows began to move and form humanoid figures upon the walls and ground.

"I'll explain later. We need to run. Now." He grabbed Lyn's arm and started to tug her up the street.

"Gothron i gwanno / min enni / na rem in edin nin: / na nin togwath, athano hain thron, gwelu, throneth, a nîn rath; / na nin inath, cirad nin hoth; / na nin inedhil, athano nin thîr a cirad nin; / na nin rhaw, hathol han uin del." Lyn incanted her go-to combat spell, and as her body underwent internal spell changes in preparation for combat, she also invented a new mana charging spell. Thanks to the Spellblade core, she could simply think of the words with intent. Thand goth nín adh galad.

The length of surging, blue lava and the complex dance of elemental energies was replaced with a singular, white blade of pure light. The illumination spread through the area, and the shadows dashed across the stone towards her, only to be stopped by the bright aura. "They don't like the light," Lyn stated as she shook Thomas off.

The twins both repeated her combat spell and took up a defensive position in front of Lyn, "Do you think mana charged weapons will hurt them?" Gael asked.

"No, and that light won't last," he replied as he pointed at the edge of the radius of light. The flat shadows were seemingly eating away at the aura, and Lyn felt her mana deplete at a slightly faster rate than just fueling her ongoing spells would cost. "They are mana wraiths. A type of undead. Think of them like vampires, except instead of blood they feed on mana. We can't kill them. Nothing can. If we get to the main complex, then they'll be kept out."

Lyn turned, "Come on then," she said as she began a light jog towards the enormous structure. Vael and Gael both took up the jogging pace. Thomas was not able to keep pace, and Lyn paused, hefted him on her shoulder, and picked up the pace knowing that the twins could keep up.

The building loomed in front of them. Easily twenty stories tall with even taller spires that pointed up into the sky. The road ended in a broad set of stairs that led upward to the main entrance. Glancing back, she saw the shadows chasing them had gathered into a larger mass, pushing forth and eating away at the light shed by Cataclysm.

As she bounded up the steps, Thomas tapped her back, "When you get to the top, jump over the chalk."

Scanning the ground, she saw the yellow, powdery line and ensured she cleared it. The doors to the building were closed, and a complicated inscription was drawn on them with black paint. Lyn set Thomas down and turned as the twins joined her. The shadows were being held at bay, but she could feel her mana slowly depleting as the light continued to be eaten. "What now?"

Thomas knelt and put his hands on the chalk line, "The inscription is a ward against the undead. This should protect us. Just let me…" he closed his eyes, and his hands glowed with a bright white light before it faded. "Shit."

"What?" Vael asked.

"The inscription must have been marred." He reached into his hip pouch and pulled out a chunk of yellow chalk. He crawled along the length of the inscription, making small marks here and there. "Got it!" He put his hand down once more and the white light flared up. The mana wraiths screeched and moved away as the yellow chalk illuminated, floated up into the air, and seemingly created a phantasmal wall around the front entrance.

Lyn let the mana surging into Cataclysm fade. "How long will this hold them?"

"Indefinitely," Thomas replied as he stood up and brushed off his knees. "But you have so much mana available that I think they'll keep coming from all over the island."

"You said they were undead?" Lyn asked.

"Yeah…why?"

Lyn smiled. "I have an idea." She raised her palm towards the barrier and placed her hand against it. She gently pushed it through until a single bit of her hand-claw was on the other side. "Edro nin / Iann restadhrim / na thir / a aphado i narnath nín / carutha le aen / a delio nin nîn / nan si / buitha nin."

A shockwave of black light surged from her hand and emanated through the entire city. The mana wraiths stilled and the shadows ceased to surge. Their forms separated from the horizontal surfaces they were hugging, and they floated above the ground, silent figures staring at Lyn.

Thomas looked at Lyn and raised an eyebrow, "Elias' hero core, right?"

Lyn nodded, "The Revenant core gave me the death external spell, and all of the subtypes." She grinned, "Including undeath."

"You can control them?" Gael asked as he released his internal spell and put his gear away.

"I'm not dominating them," Lyn replied. "I simply told them that if they stilled, and served me, I would feed them. I used mana and the undeath subtype to ensure they could understand me." She gestured to the floating forms, "They are waiting for their food."

"What now?" Vael asked.

Lyn smirked, "Now I get rid of them. Thanna edain gelaidh / ennas thinna nedui / nuin anechiathron hon." An extradimensional storage space appeared next to her hand outside of the barrier. One of the types that would collapse in on itself once she closed the space. "Alright, in you all go," she stated towards the shadowed forms, pouring raw mana into the storage space which surged from her as a stream of lava. The mana wraiths surged into the space, and when they had all moved inside, she released the spell. The storage space collapsed, and the mana wraiths were trapped forever in an inaccessible pocket dimension.

"Hmm. I never thought of trying to control them. I figured they would absorb the mana of any spell used against them," Thomas said.

"I told you; I didn't use a spell on them. I just used a spell to make an announcement. I promised them mana."

Gael smiled, "Tricking them into a place where there is no escape."

"I gave them mana," Lyn said as she kicked the yellow chalked inscription. The barrier faded. "I kept my word to them. I just neglected to mention they would be trapped forever."

Thomas turned to the large set of doors and placed his palms on them. "This inscription can only be passed by me and those with me. You'll have exactly three seconds to cross the threshold and enter the building." He took a deep breath, "On my mark."

Lyn and the twins stood right behind him. Thomas channeled his mana into the inscription, and the black paint illuminated with a white glow. "Now!" he shouted as he pushed the stone doors open.

The four dashed through, and the doors slammed shut behind them.