Cearbhail:

This was not an easy chapter to write.

Oh... and enjoy. =^^=

[Erwin]

Man, this setup. In Farvaan we don't have towers where we lock up wizards and magic users. People have their own setups in their houses, and we do have institutions dedicated to studying magick, but what I was seeing here in this library was every subject, every theory, ever discussed and recorded. Hundreds upon hundreds of journals, theory books, history books, everything you could ever want to find littered these bookshelves. Tome of magickal discovery were everywhere, categorized in a way that actually made sense. I could look through the Abjuration shelves and find books on creating shields, creating circles, links to more destructive magicks, elemental magicks, evocational magick.

I reached up for a book about dragons, pulling it off the shelf. As much as I expected, the book covered the earliest reports of draconic history: their language. Researchers risked a trip to Shou, mostly Southern Shou, and acted as slaves for ten years to study draconic language and history. From what I was reading about their perceived, and if I may so myself… quite biased, interpretation of the draconic wars where the Golden and Crystal dragons fought against the Shadow Queen and her rulers of Shou. The mention of the Golden Dragons fighting for freeing slaves was barely mentioned, as if the fight wasn't about slavery. The talk of slavery was brought up later in the book when Northern Shou was founded through a bloody war. Steel and Copper dragons were the first to begin the war. And since metallic dragons felt a kinship with each other, Silver dragons joined in next, followed by Bronze and Iron. Interestingly enough, Purple dragons sided with the Northern Rebellion. The bloody war lasted a few generations, and honestly was still being fought today. Occasionally, you'll hear about a Southern Shou dragon flying up and taking a Northern Shou resident as a slave… and that begins a new border war. It's not so common these days, now that Northern Shou is as strong as it is… and since Southern Shou is at war with Illuska, who's becoming a credible threat these days. Northern and Southern Shou were currently gritting their teeth at each other while attending to more pressing matters: their wars with the other two human nations pushing on their borders. It was an unstable peace that was threatening to fall apart at any moment.

I shook my head, placing the book back on the shelf I got it from. "Your dragon book is wrong."

"We can discuss it later." Raven, the moon elf, said as she prepared her teleportation circle. She was finishing up her preparations, filling in the coordinates for where the portal was opening up to. The spell had to be precise; otherwise… we could end up in the ground or in a wall. My nation had similar spells, or rather, concepts of the spell recorded in scrolls of theory. We'd never practice this kind of magick. The journey is as just as important as the destination, and in our long life, we can spare a month long journey if it means learning about the world along the way. Besides that lifelong message, these spells had to be precise otherwise… you die. Or arrive with severed limbs. It makes an interesting theory to discuss, but a horrible one to practice. The fact that this moon elf has been setting up this circle in the first place means that she had no other option available to her. And that scares me.

"So, this should be right outside our castle. There's an open field. So, if we're wrong by even half a mile, we shouldn't pop in the middle of a wall. And it's pretty even and flat, so we don't end up buried in the dirt." Kara, our enthusiastic trap springer, nodded at Raven's chalk drawing. "And it's one way portal?"

Raven shook her head. "No… but this circle is set with an explosion rune laced with fire. Here." Raven pointed to a second circle surrounding the teleportation circle. "Once this circle is activated… and once we're done using the portal… as in… once I'm gone… this circle will go off, destroying our tower and everything in it. Everything will burn to the ground."

"We're not coming back?" I asked. I gestured to all the magical knowledge stored here. "This library is massive."

"I'd rather blow it all to the Outer Planes rather than let Damarans get their hands on what we learned." Raven glanced at Kara. "No offense."

"None taken." Kara replied. "I don't want our Templars getting their hands on this stuff either."

"Okay… this looks good. The Templars are probably 40 minutes away so… I'll need an extra 20 minutes to get us ready. Once the spell is ready, I'll have Faen come to get you all. He'll watch over me until the spell is ready."

Kara nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Raven."

"I should be thanking you." Raven replied, setting herself in the middle of the circle. "This will drain me of everything I have. You only get two teleportations. And even then… only 10 at a time. Lucky for us all… we only have 20 people."

"I can help." A woman said as she walked up. She had long silver hair and sharp purple eyes. She was wearing healer robes.

"Yuki…" Raven sighed. "If you can help pour energy into this circle, it might go a little faster. And I won't be as drained."

Yuki nodded. "Just tell me what I need to do."

"Link your hands with mine and meditate with me, matching breath and focus." Raven looked somewhat relieved. "I thought you'd be busy healing our wounded."

"Won't have any wounded for me to heal if we're all dead, will we?" Yuki replied.

"Point taken." Raven replied.

I turned my attention over to Kara. "So… have a plan of attack?"

Kara nodded. "Yeah…" She pulled out her dagger. "Attack." She smiled as she glanced at me. "You?"

I pointed over towards the mountain, which you barely see through the frosted windows in the tower. "There's a dragon living in that mountain. I'm going to call it."

Kara only shook her head. "You would. What happens if the dragon decides to attack us instead? If it crashes into the tower… we'll not only be stranded here, but… we'll also have Templars all around us. And… wait…" Kara's eyes flashed with ingenuity. "trolls…"

I quickly picked up what she was putting down. "If we get trolls involved…"

"The Templars won't stand a chance."

I nodded. "So, if you get the trolls to attack, I can call the dragon."

Kara shrugged. "Sounds fine." She gave me a somber nod. "Look… this might get… bad. I'm going to do what I can to get the trolls here… but… if I don't make it back in time… you know…"

"Leave without you?" I quickly understood what she was saying.

"Yes. Without hesitation." Kara exhaled sharply. "I have to check on the others now. Get ready to call your dragon. Got any other ideas?"

"I do." Sebastian, our kitsune summoner, walked up to us. "I could call for the Treants. They could march up to meet us. I hear there's a forest to the north, pine trees. With Erwin's help, his Druid magick and my kitsune abilities, I'm sure we could summon an army of treants."

I found myself almost laughing. "Trolls, dragons, and Treants?" That was one heck of an army. I shrugged as I placed my hand on Sebastian's shoulder. "Go for it. Any idea what Kurohana is up to?"

Sebastian nodded. "Poisoning caltrops. It's all she thinks she can do in this situation."

Well, she wasn't wrong. We do need traps set up. I'll have to have a chat with her about what everyone else is doing. "Well, I'm going after some trolls. Wish me luck."

Sebastian smiled at me, showing his sharp fangs. "You? Luck? You're the personification of luck." I wonder if some mages would help me with the troll solution.

…

[Kurohana]

It's so cold outside. The wind was picking up quickly. It was hard to see what was going on around us. From what I've been told, there were Paladins marching their way towards us. I wouldn't be able to see them even if they were right in front of me. The blizzard had picked up, making passing through this snow almost impossible. Just standing out here in the snow, I started out standing ankle deep in the snow. I was now half way through my shins deep in the snow. Would my caltrops even do anything if they weren't able to be stepped on? Maybe I could enchant them? Add a spell?

"Hey." Kara called from behind me.

My ears perked at hearing her voice. I glanced over my shoulder to her. "What's up?"

"The current plan is this: Erwin is going to call a dragon."

"Sounds like him." I purred a small laugh, thinking about how dragon obsessed my elven friend was.

"Our kitsune summoner is going to call for some treants to come to our aid."

I nodded. "I know. I discussed it with him while you were off talking to Raven." I showed my bag of caltrops to Kara. "I'm going to plant some caltrops into the snow. They're poisoned with a paralytic solution I gathered from the purple scorpions in my native desert. They work wonders on keeping people frozen in their feet." I smiled thickly at her. "Easy to ambush a bandit camp when they run right into their own trap."

Never heard of using scorpion poison as a paralytic solution but… I don't live in the desert. I support this idea. "Good thinking. As for me… I'm going to get some trolls to come attack us. Our Raven is going to set up a teleportation circle back to our base. It's set to explode once we leave, destroying the tower and the circles surrounding the compound."

Well, at least we have a way of leaving here. "After I get some trolls to follow me, I'm going to need a way to slow them from coming to me. Mind planting some of those caltrops on the southern pass for me?"

I nodded. "Sure thing. I really should get the western field covered though. There seems to be a small dip where the snow doesn't collect as much. If I put the caltrops there the Templars will fall down right on top of them."

Kara laughed. "Good thinking. The layout of this place sure seems lucky."

The layout of this mountain was weird enough. The tower seemed to be situated on an elevated hill, one where the Templars would be forced to climb up parts of the mountain to reach the tower itself. Defending it, in theory, should be pretty easy. The main problem was that there was a long stretch of field that seemed to connect to another collection of mountains a mile away. This area in the mountain was flat, round, and surrounded by mountaintops all around it. It was like a small flat surface that was covered with snow and ice. It seemed weird that such a thing could exist in such a rocky terrain. My caltrops were being placed around the mountainous area where the Templars would be forced to climb up. It didn't help that the tower wasn't really high up in relation to the flat area… in fact was only one of two layers of rock up to the tower entrance.

The incoming blizzard was picking up speed now. I could barely see in front of me. I had to keep going. Kara was already on her way off to the Dwarven Pass we came from. I wonder what she planned to do to even get the trolls to follow her here. I shouldn't focus on her right now. I should focus on placing my caltrops.

I pulled out a small bottle of scorpion poison, securely keeping it in my gloved hands as I popped the top. The wind of the blizzard blasted around me, almost knocking me to the ground, but I managed to keep my butt pressed up against the mountainside as I readied my small collection of caltrops. I still had 12 more that I had to get covered in poison. That should be pretty simple, I think.

The wind started to die down a bit, and I took this opportunity to splash my paralytic poison over my bag of caltrops. I managed to soak the caltrops in the poison. I then closed my bag of caltrops, giving them a hard swing. I must have swung too hard because the bag slipped from my hand. The bag landed on the flat snow field spreading out into the unknown. The blizzard was still too strong for me to see through it. The Templars could be right in front of me and I would never even see them. I know I couldn't see my bag of caltrops. That's not good.

I now had to leave my safe perch where I could see the tower and go wandering down to the killing field, as my clan would call it, to collect my caltrops. And with the snow building up… it would probably be up to my knees by now.

I held my breath as I made my decision to jump from the safety of my perch. Goodbye tower… I might never see you again. I fell for a few seconds before crashing into the deep snow of the flat field. The snow was far deeper than I could have guessed. It wasn't up to my knees. I was past my waist. The Templars were going to have a hard time reaching this tower with all this snow. What a weird time to come attack the tower. Surely they had a reason to come now of all times.

"Okay, Sebastian." I heard Erwin's voice above me. I couldn't see him, or the tower anymore, but I could just barely make out his voice above the howling of the wind. Good thing I could still see the rising portion of the mountain, even if it was barely visible. Maybe I should leave a trail for me to follow?

"Let's warm up our magick so that we can call some treants to our position." Erwin was shouting over the roaring of the blizzard.

"Okay, I'm ready if you are."

I heard the kitsune howl really loudly, followed quickly by Erwin. They seemed to be matching their howls' pitches, morphing it to one sharp piercing howl that echoed through the wind.

I took off my katana, unstrapping it from my belt, and shoved it safely into the thick snow. There, now I have some kind of visual clue as to where to return to. Now, I just have to focus on what I'm doing. My bag of caltrops is somewhere in this mess of a storm.

I did a quick scan of my environment, and even through the thick blinding snowfall, I could see a small hole where my bag probably fell through. It wasn't too far from me. I laughed as I dove for the snow mound, laughing as it collapsed underneath me, covering me completely.

Snow.

I've never seen it before. Never played in it. Only sand. And sand is coarse, rough, and irritating. And it gets everywhere. But not like snow. This snow is soft… and smooth. It has a soft silky feeling in my fur, chilling me to my core, perhaps, but… it still feels like water dancing in my fur. I could almost forget about anything else and just… lay in this snow.

I could have never imagined this place could have existed before today. In fact…

I sat up, resting my hands on my legs.

I closed my eyes, pulling my hood down, letting the harsh cold air and snow blow through my fur. The wind was brutally cold, the snow felt like small razors slamming against my ears.

I almost let out a small laugh. This… I never could have imagined I could be in a place like this.

I grew up in the sands of the Turami Sand Sea. Endless deserts with a few small oases and rivers where the main populated towns existed. Every day was hot, scorching. You wore little clothing, and being naked wasn't seen as a societal crime, but a challenge. If you could survive being in the harsh sun, good for you. The darker your skin tone, the tougher you were in Turami. Catfolk like me were different. We often kept our fur short, shaved our manes, and kept to the oases. Growing up in the sands was hard. The days were hot and unforgiving some days. And yet…

Here I sit… in a deep snow mound. Frozen water falling down all around me. The complete opposite of what I grew up in. Imagine going to a place where things are a direct opposite of what you're used to living in. It's like a dream. My fur doesn't seem to hate this place either. It's keeping me warm enough that I'm not dying right now. But I can tell that I wouldn't be running around naked here.

The forest we were traveling through was another good example of a place I haven't seen before. I didn't get much time to explore or relax. I was sure to make time for that next time I visit the forest. I needed to get out of the desert and see what else exists that I haven't seen before. I wonder what we'll encounter next.

I turned my attention back to the snow. I could see the hole where my bag fell through. I reached in, grabbing my bag of caltrops. I looked up, seeing my katana not too far away. I stood up, brushing the snow off my coat, and hopped my way back to my katana. I secured my katana and rushed back up the mountainside, happily seeing the beginnings of the tower forming through the thick snowfall. Time for me to start placing my caltrops.

…

[Kara]

This blizzard was something else. I've lived in Damara my entire life and these kinds of blizzards were rare. And even then, they weren't this high up in the mountains. This was a weird storm we're having. It didn't help that the clouds were only growing darker and darker. Pretty soon, it would be too dark to see where I was going. And if I set off a torch, I would be a glowing target for a sniper to hit. It was a good thing I was already reaching my destination: the Dwarven Pass's northern entrances. And just like I feared… they were frozen over. Good thing I brought backup.

I looked back at the young Tiefling that followed behind me. "So, Blade?"

The Tiefling nodded. "Yup, that's my name." He was a young slender Tiefling. His horns were still forming on top of his head. He had a light red skin tone and soft purple eyes. "So… what's the plan?"

I pointed to the frozen entrance to the troll infested ruins. "Get this doorway passable. And then… we draw out the possibly hundreds of trolls. And then… we run for the tower. Are you able to defend yourself like you promised?"

Blade nodded, sticking out his hand. "Of course. I'm a Soul Sword." With a snap of his wrist, a ghostly sword formed in his hands. "This sword can cut through snow and ice with some ease. We need to be careful though." He pointed back towards the tower. "We might be in the thick of winter… but this lake isn't fully frozen over. It's barely even frozen right now. The Dwarves kept this lake warm with steam pipes."

"Wait… we're on top of a lake right now?" I almost couldn't believe it.

Blade shook his head. "Not right here we're not. I'd say the shoreline is just over there." He pointed right over his shoulder. "During spring, it's actually kind of warm up here. Ever since the occupation, it's been harder and harder to come and secure this dwarven structure. They abandoned it when the Templars went to war with us. And we can't… we just couldn't keep the maintenance upheld under all this threat of the dragon and the Templars attacking. So… the pipes stopped fueling steam to keep the lake warm. And so… it's frozen… but just barely. If we're not careful, we might end up falling through the ice. All this heavy snow isn't helping."

Well, I didn't know that before. When I passed through last time, this lake was frozen over. I wonder how long this place has been like this. And if the lake wasn't fully frozen… something else had to be keeping it warmed up. Maybe the Dwarven city underneath it was keeping it just warm enough to stay partially melted.

"Well, we'll be careful. But right now, we need this doorway unfrozen. Think you can handle that?" I looked back at Blade.

Blade smirked. "Of course I can." He brought his ghostly sword to the frozen door. He pressed his sword against the ice, and I watched as he slowly started carving through the ice as it began to chip away. Small parts of the ice were melting where it touched the sword. The sword must feel pretty warm to melt the ice in this blizzard. "This will take a few minutes."

"I don't know how many minutes we have left, if I'm being honest." I muttered to myself.

Blade nodded. "Yeah… I know."

I pulled out a vial of acid and poured it carefully on the ice, hoping it would do something. Jeez… if only I was a sorcerer like Megumin… I could just melt this ice with a Produce Flame spell or something.

"Do you know any flame spells?" I asked Blade, giving his a sideways glance.

"Ah-huh." He nodded his head. "I'm not going to use it though. Other than my Soul Sword… I have wild magic problems. It could explode, creating an even bigger problem for both of us."

After a minute, we had the doorway defrosted… somewhat. The door was still frozen shut to the Dwarven Pass… but at least there wasn't ice covering it.

I reached for the door handle, trying to turn it so we could open the door. It wouldn't budge. "Okay… that didn't work." I looked at Blade. "Any ideas?"

"Just one." Blade said, preparing his sword for a thrust. He screamed as he slashed as the locking mechanism, cutting right through it with his sword. With a few more slashes, he carved through the doorway, creating a lot of long scratches in the metalwork. "My potion making friend made this for me." Blade said with a small blush on his face. "I kind of wanted to hold onto this… but if this is what saves us… Silver would want it to be used like this. We better step back."

I did as he said, running away with him as he tossed the bottled red liquid at the doorway. There was a loud explosion, one with enough concussive force to pick me off my feet and throw me across the frozen lake. I covered my face as I slammed into the icy lake. The blast of the force continued to throw me as I slid across the snow-covered ice. I was quickly becoming buried by the snow. Blade was somewhere in the mess of snow.

I quickly threw myself out of the snow as I could.

"Woo!" Blade screamed, throwing his hands up. "Thank you, Silver. You're the best! Were…" Blade glanced down, dropping his hands. "Hey… um…" He turned to look at me.

Whatever he was going to say was interrupted by the howling of the trolls as they reacted to the explosion.

"We need to run!" I screamed as I stood up, grabbing Blade's hand and pulling him up with me.

As we started to run, I heard a loud roar in the mountain to the west. I couldn't see the mountain to our left… but I could imagine what was going on. That roar… that was a dragon. And now… the dragon's awake.

I glanced back behind me, seeing giant white/gray furry figures appearing through the blasted doorway. The trolls looked hungry, and they could easily see me through the light snow falling down around us.

"Blade… we need to run faster!" Blade and I turned as quickly as we could, pushing our legs as fast as they could go, me still pulling Blade with me as we charged into the thick snow field, pushing our way towards the tower. There were sounds of trolls coming after us… but as they raced after us… I learned of a new problem. Blade's earlier assessment of the icy lake was true. The ice wasn't as thick as I wanted it to be, and that explosion we caused, plus the weight of the trolls racing after us… started causing cracks and breaks in the icy shell we were standing on.

It happened behind us. Trolls crashing onto the lake was causing the ice to shatter, and with the force that these trolls were throwing themselves towards us, the cracks and tears were spreading to us at an alarming rate. I could feel the ice underneath me begin to shift. My boots felt soggy. Shit… not a good sign.

"Keep going." I said through labored breaths as I tugged Blade with me. The snow was getting to our knees now and running was becoming harder. And with the ice being slippery, every step was a battle to stay up on my feet. Overheard, I could hear wings flapping in the sky above us. With the howling the trolls were doing, the dragon was now falling down on top of them. I watched as the dragon snaked its head down, biting down on one of the trolls, ripping the troll's body in half as it pulled its head up.

"Must go faster… must go faster." I turned heel and pulled Blade with me as we raced for the tower. In the distance, I could see the thick blizzard for what it was… a bubble… surrounding the icy lake. We weren't fully covered in the blizzard… but as I looked at it now, I could see that the blizzard was being artificially created around the Mage Tower. I wonder if the storm was a defensive spell put in place around the tower to blind the Templars when they approach the tower. Or… if the Templars were doing it to keep the mages from being able to snipe them with combat magick. Either way… I better keep myself in a straight line otherwise we won't be finding the tower. We'll probably be finding the Templars. And our own deaths.

Cearbhail:

I feel burnt out, but... I'm just tired. I got some kind of ear/sinus infection that pretty much wiped me out after having a few teeth drilled into, and immediately after I had my second COVID shot... which wiped me out for a week. After all that, I'm finally back to writing, and I just feel like I haven't taken any time to rest. My friends keep me busy, still playing D&D every week or so. I've helped wipe three houses clean of demonic things going on, helped a friend learn a new magick sigil for healing... I think I'm getting tired. I might stop for a while. Get some actual rest.