Leandor took Ceileigh to the riftstone and stood her in front of it.
"It's quite simple, master," he told her. "You need proximity to the stone, then just picture the rift. Think about being there, and you will be transported."
"How can I picture it when I've never been there?" she asked.
"Remember when the pawn legion first spoke to you?" he asked her. "You could feel them, right? In a way, you were connected to them and you knew where they were without realizing it. That was the Rift. Remember that feeling. Picture their voices and you will be picturing the Rift."
"Are you coming with me?" she asked him.
"I would prefer to stand guard near the stone, if you'll allow me," said Leandor. "If the stone were to be destroyed while you were inside, I would need to find another stone to bring you out of. Or if you exited before I found one, you would come out somewhere else and we would have to find each other. And this way enemies can't sneak up and ambush us as we both exit the Rift."
Ceileigh nodded, "Good thinking. Okay, here goes…"
She closed her eyes and thought back to when the legion had spoken to her. She'd seen…a dim, shadowy place the voices rushed through to reach her. She mentally followed the path backward, down a sort of tunnel, until it opened into the vague shape of a room. The tenuous walls seemed to shift constantly while murky figures came and went through them.
"I saw it!" Ceileigh exclaimed happily, opening her eyes. She was shocked when the view didn't change; she was already in the Rift. She turned around to see the riftstone rippling behind her. Being in the rift felt like a mixture of being underwater and floating on air. She suddenly realized she didn't seem to be breathing, which was disconcerting to say the least. A few wraithlike figures drifted toward her, becoming more solid the closer they got. She could see that they were pawns.
She knew she had to initiate the contract if she wanted a pawn to accompany her, but she didn't know the specifics and hadn't thought to ask Leandor about it. She decided to address the room in general.
"D-Do any of you have magic?" she began unsurely. "I'm looking for a mage and a sorcerer."
Immediately a batch of pawns left through the walls and a new set came in, wearing robes and bearing staffs. She continued. "I'm…on a quest I suppose, to regain my heart from Grigori. You'd be traveling with me to the capital for now."
The pawns just stared, bowing and raising their right hands whenever she came close. She walked among them, wondering who was best to choose. She felt a slight pull from each of them, a connection waiting to happen. When she stopped in front of one female mage and their eyes met, she gave a start. She felt information flow into her; they were flashes of the pawn's experiences and capabilities. Ceileigh saw the pawn battling wolves, a cyclops, then flying creatures. More images came through of fiery blades and ones that crackled with lightning. Then an image of the pawn healing the broken arm of - another Arisen? The connection broke as Ceileigh wondered about this new information.
"Will you accompany me?" she asked the pawn simply.
"It would be an honor, Arisen," said the mage, bowing again. "This pawn's name is Rita."
Ceileigh repeated the process with a few sorcerers before settling on a male named Alvin. They all faced the riftstone and she thought them back to Gransys.
"Master, you've returned!" Leandor said, stepping forward. "Shall we prepare to travel?"
"Yes, but first let me say the Rift is kind of creepy. Do you really feel at home there?" she asked him.
"Yes, master. In this world, we pawns feel most at ease near a riftstone," he answered.
"If you say so," Ceileigh shrugged. "This is Rita and this is Alvin, by the way," she said, gesturing to the new pawns. "They'll be coming with us to Gran Soren."
Ceileigh shrugged again when the pawns didn't greet each other or say anything at all. They went to the inn tent to clean up, put on their armor and gather their belongings. She, and now Leandor by association, had been getting free meals ever since the cyclops attack, but Ceileigh wondered how they would get by in the capital.
They met Mercedes and a moderate number of soldiers a short time later by the west gate. "Good, you are ready," she said. "I'd hoped to gather a larger force before leaving, but this will have to do. I cannot say what Moonsbit Pass may hold. You'll need your strength."
Ceileigh tried to forget about the way Mercedes had acted earlier. "What you see is what we have, so I hope it's enough," Ceileigh told her. "How long will it take to get there?"
"The better part of a day," said Mercedes. "It will be slow going with this plodding ox and such a heavy load."
They traveled in silence for a while other than occasional orders from Mercedes to her men, and pawns' random, inane comments. Why are they surprised that the sea is so close? They did pop out on the coast, after all, Ceileigh thought. And yes, we all know rocks hold ore. Finally Ceileigh asked Mercedes a question that had been on her mind. "Why do monsters dissolve when they die?"
"I don't know exactly," she replied. "Just that they are not like us. Not…made from the same fabric, you could say. They find their way into our world, but when they die their bodies can no longer hold together here."
"And do all the large ones have red marks on their foreheads?"
"What red marks? Perhaps you took too many blows to the head," Mercedes sneered. Ceileigh raised her eyebrows again and somehow held her tongue. So much for civil conversation! she thought, stalking ahead to the cart.
They soon came to a waycastle which blocked a wide, very tall bridge. There was a riftstone here too, to the left of the gate, and a few tents for the soldiers who stood guard. The ravine below the bridge ended in a waterfall far to the left and opened to the ocean on the right. Mercedes commanded the guards to open the gate, revealing the rocky upward slope of Moonsbit Pass.
She raised her voice to the group. "We make for the capital, men! Like as not the cart will draw beasts along the way. But fear not! We walk with the Arisen, slayer of hydras!"
How does she find the perfect balance of sarcasm and sincerity? Ceileigh seethed. She didn't think anyone else noticed Mercedes' subtly mocking undertone.
They passed over the bridge without incident, but wolves converged on them as they rounded the first curve. Five were immediately visible and over a dozen more poured out behind them from crevices in the canyon walls.
"Protect the cargo at all costs!" Mercedes cried.
"Wolves hunt in packs!" shouted Alvin.
Does he think I'm an idiot?! Ceileigh shook her head derisively as they ran to meet the wolves. They easily dispatched a few who stopped to howl, but the rest proved trickier as they nimbly lunged then jumped out of reach. It was very hard to land blows on them, whereas they opened wounds every time they struck.
"They have the advantage!" Rita shouted desperately.
"Calm down and just watch for an opening," Ceileigh all but snarled. Her patience was already wearing thin with these two.
She watched the wolves' pattern - lunge, rip, leap away, repeat. The opening was brief. "Strike when they're right on you!" she instructed her pawns. "Don't try to dodge, just grab ahold and plunge in your blade!"
"Wolves are weak to fire!" Rita declared dramatically, enchanting the party's weapons with flame.
Her tone made Ceileigh chuckle. She was in a better mood anyway now that the enemy was falling left and right. She found she was enjoying herself, whirling down the canyon in a rhythm as she met wolf after wolf and took them out. Alvin's lightning shot down from the sky, frying a wolf up ahead. She felt her cuts and bruises healing every so often thanks to Rita. Leandor changed positions around her, fending off wolves that tried to edge in from the sides.
Ceileigh felt exhilarated by success and working with a team. It reminded her of fishing with a crew back home, everyone doing their part to get the job done. Only now she was the one in charge and more was at stake than a good haul. I could get used to this, she thought cockily, right before something plowed into her back.
She staggered forward and felt the thing tighten on her shoulder blades, digging in with razor sharp claws and pulling her backward again. Wings flapped on either side of her head and she was lifted a few inches off the ground before Rita felled the creature with some well-aimed fireballs. Ceileigh landed on her rear with her attacker flapping clumsily on the ground behind her. It shrieked like a woman dying. Either dying or - Ceileigh blushed as she jumped up to face her enemy. This new creature had the body of a large brown bird but the pale face and bosom of a woman.
"'Tis a harpy, master," Leandor said, running to her side. They drove their blades into it simultaneously and it shrieked again. Ceileigh could barely meet Leandor's eyes and bit her cheek to keep from laughing. She turned away quickly and saw more harpies winging their way toward them from scraggly trees growing near the top of the rocky canyon walls.
"Harpies will snatch you and fly!" Alvin shouted.
"No shit!" Ceileigh laughed, looking at him incredulously.
She quickly readied her bow and was pleased when she struck down her chosen target on the second try. Rita took out another one with more fireballs while Leandor skewered one that dove on him. He pushed it from his sword with his boot and took out the next enemy with an overhead arc as it sped by above him. Impressive! Ceileigh smiled appreciatively. The last one swooped past them all to hit Alvin in the chest, knocking him onto his back. The sorcerer grimaced as he held the creature away from his face, then put a hand to its chest and blasted it with a beam of holy light. The harpy's body jolted as the light seemed to detonate inside it, leaving it limp.
"Ha! That was awesome!" Ceileigh said, running over to help him up.
"Perhaps you do possess more than just dumb luck," Mercedes said grudgingly, walking up from behind them. "We're halfway through the pass, let's see how well you hold up for the rest of the journey."