Chapter Eighty-three

Flying Leap

The next morning, I took the Earth Stone out of the staff and put it in a pouch on my person. I didn't want it seen, but I wanted to keep it as close as possible. I gave the staff back to Melima to put in her bag. I spent some time with the Stone, and felt like it was somehow affecting my health, but didn't feel much different.

We all made our way down to the tavern. There was no one else in the room, only Damon, wiping down the counter again. Ari'yasa caught his attention. "Is there anywhere private that we can talk?"

He glanced around the empty room. "I don't know how much more private you can get than this."

"Hey, you never know. One of the tables could be something else."

"Give me a moment, I'll get you some food." He walked to the back, where the sounds of scraping pans and clattering of utensils followed.

He came back a couple minutes later with five plates of food. "As part of your rooms, in the morning we do provide you with a little bit of breakfast. If you want something more, it will cost you a little bit extra."

I was amazed at the generosity of service provided for such a small fee. I was expecting to have to purchase breakfast in the morning.

He did a couple of things behind the bar, then came back to our table, pulling a chair from another table, sitting on it the wrong way, and leaning towards us. "So, what's your interest in the Ashari?"

"I'm Ari'yasa Galestrom, an air genasi druid. I've been chosen by the Air Ashari to fulfil an errand and need to make contact with the Water Ashari. We're looking for the way to get there."

"We know for a fact that this is where we need to be to meet the Water Ashari," Melima said, a bit of egg dropping out of her mouth.

"I'm Ashari and a druid, she's a princess. We're legitimate." Ari'yasa nudged Melima to get her letters out of her bag.

Damon lowered his head. "I'm charged with keeping track of all those who would go into the Water Ashari's city. Part of my job is to guard the entrance. So, prove to me in some way that you are who you say you are."

Melima passed over two of the letters Ari'yasa had acquired. "You see that seal? You can't fake that because there's a little nich in the shoe. I know that for a fact because that's my dad's seal, and I made that nich with my bare teeth. And if you doubt me, I will leave that same nich in your ear."

Damon backed away from her just a little bit, sliding the letter back to Melima. "I'm not going to touch that one."

Ari'yasa pulled down her shirt just low enough so that her locket was showing and coughed. I looked down at my plate and kept eating. Why were my friends being so weird? I was no expert at diplomacy, but this all seemed really out of the ordinary.

Eventually, Damon reluctantly looked at Ari'yasa. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

Ari'yasa blushed and pulled her shirt back up. Melima locked eyes with him. "Alright, Damion, how do you feel? Are we legit?"

"Enough that I'll grant you entrance. Just... be cautious of who you show things to." He looked over the documents for a moment longer. "I think I've seen enough."

He put the chair back at the table he'd taken it from, closed the front door and bolted it, then walked back behind the bar. I heard a latch open, then a hinged door. He turned about and started descending behind the bar. He came back a moment later, walking up what sounded like wooden planks.

A wooden door crashed shut, and he came back to our table, holding something. He looked around the room again. He put a tiny coin pouch on the table. Ari'yasa took it. "What is this?" Melima asked.

Ari'yasa took out a platinum coin. One side looked normal, but the other side had a symbol I'd seen in the other Ashari cities. "As long as you have one of these," Damon said, "you can get into the Ashari city. There's only one way to get in. Well, I guess technically there's two, but only a few people are privy to that."

"Is there only one way to get out?" Sephra asked. "Or how do we get out?"

"They'll show you how to get out. All you need to do—and there should be enough for each of you in there—you each have to have one in your possession, in order to get in—like I said to you last night—you must make a flying leap. You go outside, about a hundred feet down, there's what looks like a rickety old wall with a door. Go to the door holding the coin, open the door, and step off. Step through the door, and step off. You'll find your way from there."

He held up his finger. "No magic, just step off. If you use magic, you'll regret it."

Ari'yasa laughed. "Okay!"

Damon's face was dead serious. He wasn't pulling our leg. "Thank you for the warning," I said.

"How do we get these back to you?" Melima asked.

"Is this literally, like, a leap of faith?" Ari'yasa asked.

"In a way, yes."

Ari'yasa handed out the coins to everyone. As soon as Jörgen had his, he leapt up and bolted for the door, which was still locked. I put my hand to my face. "Jörgen, let's do this together."

"Is there anything else you need to know?" Damon asked. "Obviously, don't tell anyone that doesn't need to know."

"Do they know that we're coming?" Melima asked. "Is there a way you can let them know?"

"I have ways I can let them know you're coming, but I have a feeling from your party that you'll be joining them shortly."

"Yeah... Are they violent people?"

"Oh, no. Those who are allowed in they know are trustworthy enough."

"Do you think our documentation is sufficient?" Ari'yasa asked.

"I think it will suffice."

"Is there anything we can do for you while we're here?" Melima asked. "To make this place more enjoyable? Or do you need anything?"

"I can make you some flowers," Ari'yasa offered.

"We can give you a little more money," Melima said.

"Any of those would be nice, but not necessary. I take care of myself well enough."

"Has the area always been like this?" I asked. "I get a weird feeling off of it."

"Interesting question. Not too many people ask about it. Kind of some ancient lore that comes out of this area. Seems... probably close to a couple thousand years ago, there was a great calamity happened here. Seems some group of wizards or mages of some kind were trying to either get rid of somethin' or fight somethin'—we don't exactly know—but using the magics that they had and wiped out this entire area. This entire area used to be large, fertile lands where huge trees used to grow and large beasts roamed. But after that, nothing grew. It was marshy. Water seeped in from the lakes nearby and just devastated the landscape. And after that—or near that same timeframe—the mountain range way out to the south down here burst out of the ground. We don't know if it's the exact same time, but some kind of calamity happened and it permeated the ground with the magics that were caused by it."

"So, that's why the cliffs were glowing," Ari'yasa said.

"I would imagine the ground would be infused with some sort of ancient magic. And legend tell, this was the land, even further out, this town was on the edge of what I guess you people would call short folk—even shorter than the gnomes—where they used to be. But when the calamity happened it wiped them all out. Or nearly all of them."

"Hey," Sephra said with a nervous laugh, "are there any sedatives that you could offer me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm afraid of heights."

"My suggestion— close your eyes. Anything else?"

I glanced at Sephra, wearing her High Elven skin tone. "When you say no magic, can we have, like, no magic running when we jump off? Or just not to slow us down type of thing?"

"Don't do any magic."

"So, wait," Sephra said. "Does that include a magical ring I use?"

"If it's something on you and continually goes, you should be fine. Just don't cast any spells."

"So, I could walk down the cliff in my spider shoes?" Melima asked.

"I wouldn't recommend it. Anything else?"

"This might seem really strange," I said, "but where are we?"

Melima laughed. "That's a valid point!"

He went behind the bar and pulled out a case a couple hands long and pulled out a sketch of the area. I glanced at my friends, not recognizing what the map was depicting. "Grenmar," Ari'yasa mouthed to me.

There was a large black circle pushing against the western coastline. He pointed to a dot at the bottom of the circle. "That's where you are."

"Any chance that you have a pen and paper and that I could copy this map down really fast?" Sephra asked.

"No." He started rolling up the map. That didn't surprise me too much, he'd want to keep the location to the entrance a closely guarded secret.

"Do you have any knowledge of where the Fire Ashari are?"

"I do not."

"Okay, thank you."

Now that I knew for sure we were on Grenmar, another question came to mind. "Have you had any problems with orcs or goblins?"

"They don't cross the marsh. It's too dangerous."

I took a deep breath. "Be grateful for that."

"Yeah, I've heard rumors of them invading to the north."

I nodded my head. "Yeah."

"If you were in our shoes," Sephra said, "is there any information you would like to know?"

"No more than I've told you. No magic!"

"No magic," Sephra confirmed. "Just close your eyes and hope you don't die. Good to know. Let's do this!"

"Do we have to go one at a time?" I asked. "Or could we jump together?"

"I suppose if you wanted to jump together you could. Just no magic."

"K. So, Sephra, if you need, that's an option."

"Thank you for the information," Ari'yasa said. "Sorry for showing you my boobs."

"Well, safe journey." He unlocked the door and returned to his post behind the bar. Jörgen bolted out the door.

I shook my head. "Thank you very kindly."

"You're welcome. Strange lot you got there."

I laughed. "Yup."

Melima chased after Jörgen, barely catching him by the collar of his robes as he tried to jump off the cliff and pulling him back away from the door frame. But Sephra was dragging her feet as she walked to the door.

"Let go of me, woman!" Jörgen shouted. "What are you doing? Let go of me, I want to jump!"

"Guys, are we doing this or not?" Melima asked. "It's now or never!"

Sephra wanted us all to hold hands as we went down, me holding Melima, Ari'yasa holding me, and Sephra holding Ari'yasa. I wanted to go by myself though. Ari'yasa laughed, saying I'd have to give Sephra a nudge. "I'm not that mean!" I said.

"Actually, Tawariell, I might need you to do that," Sephra said.

Melima let go of Jörgen, who bolted for the door again, jumping off the cliff. Melima followed, jumping right after him. Ari'yasa grabbed Sephra's hand and stepped up to the door, but Sephra dug in her heels. I gave her a little nudge, and she went through the door with Ari'yasa.

I hung back a little, just to see what was going on before I jumped. Jörgen was just about to hit the water. As terrifying as it was, I'd anticipated that we wouldn't be able to tell what was going on until we jumped. I took a deep breath and jumped through the door, off the cliff.

The cool air rushing past me was exhilarating—like I was used to on my broom—but then I started going faster and faster. I was halfway down the cliff, and nothing was happening. I started to panic a little bit, using all my faculties to stare down the water like I would an opponent.

The water kept coming, faster and faster. I was about to hit the surface. Should I cast something? I was about to hit water after jumping off of a forty-five storey cliff!

A pocket opened up in the otherwise still water. Wait, why hadn't it been crashing against the cliffs? Wasn't this ocean? I was still careening towards the water. The surface was only an arm's length away...