The Infernal Misdirection Incident
It took Caprifexia a lot longer to reach the large mountainous Vela Plateau than she'd expected. The scale of Surtland was so utterly immense that what she had taken for normal, perhaps three or four or even five kilometre high peaks were actually twenty or thirty, and had she been a mortal, she would have found the air uncomfortably thin as she ascended upward, following a snowy glacier towards the plateau.
Now that she was closer, she could see that there were great ward-stones, each as much as a kilometre high, and emblazoned with sigils that poured yellow-gold light out into the air, forming an immense, shimmering, barely-there barrier. Despite its virtual transparency, however, Caprifexia could feel it, and as she approached, she sent out several scanning spells to prick and pick at the barrier.
It was… very powerful, and there was no immediate or obvious way that she might be able to unmake it. She supposed she could try to Planeswalk past it – jump to a nearby world, move a kilometre or so in a northward direction, and then hop back. She wasn't sure that it worked like that, but Planeswalking more or less maintained relative positions on Planes – although 'more or less' was a bit finicky. As she knew from Nirn, the appearance of the 'Sea of Calamity' as a result of her future self's heroic region destroying spell had messed up the 'corresponding' locations to Winterhold isle on other Planes.
So, unable to think of any other way through, she decided it was worth a shot, and she folded her wings and angled herself into a diagonal dive as her Spark rose within her heart and began to tear at the Real. Reality shattered as she 'fast-walked' to a nearby Plane, one she was sure was close – Kaladesh.
Cold blue sky vanished, and was replaced, from her perspective at least, a split second later by a burnt orange with gold and purple clouds glinting in the late evening. Massive cords of mana surged through the air around her, but what immediately drew her attention was the large, crystalline window of some kind of airship that had just appeared right in front of her, less than five meters away.
At the speed she was travelling at, which seemed to have travelled over from Kaldheim, there was no possibility of avoiding the ship or breaking in time. Which meant that she had no choice but to go through it.
Well, upon later reflection it occurred to her that she probably could had blinked past it, but at the time her first, and somewhat panicked response was to fold her wings fully against her back and conjure a shimmering, pointed, friction-less shield cone shield in front of her, converting herself, rather cleverly, into effectively a missile-shaped kinetic object.
Buoyed by her conjured wind, she had been travelling at perhaps a hundred and thirty or so kilometres per hour, which meant that when she crashed into the flimsily constructed glass she barely felt it, and she caught a few glimpses of surprised looking blue-villains before she ploughed through some kind of control mechanism, which she did feel, albeit distributed by the shield across her entire body, some kind of console, then a section of decking and metal hull before bursting through into clear air, travelling somewhat slower and surrounded by a gout of fire and bits of pieces of scrap metal.
She fell for a few more moments, before releasing her barely holding together shield and spreading her wings, catching herself andstabilising her altitude with a few wing-beats before turning her sinuous neck to back to see a rather large air-ship listing and beginning to slowly fall towards the city below.
She felt bad for a few moments, before noticing that through the glass she could see lots of blue-villains were running around and screaming in panic. A few of them even had zappy sticks, and levelled them at her. She swerved to avoid the blasts of lighting, and hurled back a response that struck some kind of glass reservoir filled with surging blue mana. It caused a satisfyingly large explosion, and the vessel tipped and began to fall precipitously from the sky, trailing iridescent smoke.
Satisfied by her bit of incidental heroism, she conjured another wind to propel herself forward, rising a bit further into the air and passing between several large, brassy towers, streaking over the city. There were lots of shouts and screams of alarm from below from other villains as they watched their villainous sky-ship tumble from the air, and she waited until she heard a great boom behind her before grinning a toothy and heroic dragon grin and Planeswalking back to Surltand.
To the exact point she had just left.
She yelped and flared her wings, rapidly breaking as the barrier she had been intending to bypass loomed ahead of her, beating hard and managing to arrest her momentum a few meters before it.
OK, so clearly distance between planes didn't transfer over in the way she had hypothesised.
"Dragonqueen!" came a faint voice from below, and she turned her head to see a tiny figure. Her vision telescoped, sharpening the creature and revealing the small figure of Tibbly, who must have had some kind of ability to teleport – something he rudely hadn't mentioned. He was standing at the edge of the barrier, a few dozen feet from the barrier, across which lay one of the wardstones that sat on a rocky ridge-line above the glacier she had been following up.
She banked and descended towards the ridge-line, flaring her wings and transforming to land lightly in the snow next to him.
"What do you want?" she said.
"I could have teleported us," he said in an insolent voice.
Caprifexia huffed. "Well then why didn't you say so?"
"I tried to!" he said, his eyes flashing in impudent anger.
"Watch your tone, Tibbly," said Caprifexia.
"Tib- my name is not Tibbly!" he snarled. "My name is Tibalt!"
"Whatever," said Caprifexia, not interested in wasting energy correcting his feeble mort- well, immortal-but-not-as-good-as-a-dragon's mind.
Tibbly, realising his mistake, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He opened them a moment, and smiled.
"What matters is that we are both here now," he said. "I see that you have been trying to bypass the ward-line by Planeswalking? That will be insufficient, I'm afraid. The Frost Giants are a clever lot, and their enchantments are particularly comprehensive. As long as those ward-stones stand, I'm afraid we won't be getting in."
"Then why did you bring me here!?" said Caprifexia, her temper fraying.
Tibbly grinned widely, as if amused by her anger and frustration.
"Answer me!" snarled Caprifexia, spitting sparks and jabbing him in the chest.
"Of course, your highness," he said, gesturing to the ward-stone. "I said 'so long as the wardstone stands.' But, as luck would have it, I think you have a solution for that – don't you?"
Caprifexia frowned.
"Oh, you're quite the talk of our little community – especially after that stunt of yours on Kaladesh," he said. "Why do you hate Kaladesh so much, actually? Dovin Baan is having kittens, you know? It was delicious."
He leaned forward until their faces were level, his yellow eyes bored into her orange ones.
"That magic. The magic that made Mirael so fearsome, the power of the Eternities themselves, you wield it too, don't you?" he said, before twisting and gesturing to the towering wardstone. "You cut through that coliseum like paper; I bet you could fell that wardstone – no matter the efforts of the giants."
Caprifexia narrowed her eyes at him, and then flicked her burning gaze towards the wardstone. It looked to be around eighty meters across at the base. That, combined with any degradation that the shield offered itself would be too much for a Void-lance. Although… her mind ran a few quick calculations. An upwards, diagonal cut at around forty-five degrees might be able to undermine the integrity of the entire thing enough to topple it.
Of course, as she had discovered on Bretygart, using a Void Lance was incredibly dangerous, and risked worse-than-killing her. Although she had been injured, exhausted, and filled with existential dread about the future, and rushing through the spell forms. None of that was presently true: she was fresh, full of energy, filled with hope for the first time in months, and had all the time in the world. She could manage it, surely? Especially if it gave her a way to both save Nirn and avoid her death.
Caprifexia raised a hand, extending two fingers towards the wardstone as she reached past the skein of Kaldheim and grabbed a metaphysical fistful of unreality. Tibbly hastily moved out of the way, looking on with a hungry expression.
H̷e̸ ̷l̷i̴e̴s̶,̸ ̷t̷h̶e̶r̷e̷ ̷i̵s̸ ̴n̴o̷ ̴w̵a̶y̶ ̷o̴u̵t̷.̵.̸.̷
Binding sigils swirled into existence around her as the whispers, weak and pitiful in their attempts to sway her filled her ears. She easily pushed through them, slowly and methodically moving through the steps of the lance.
Õ̴͖n̶̙͝l̸̛̝y̶̦͑ ̷͈̌ẅ̸̙́e̶͍͂ ̷͖̅c̷͚͐ḁ̴̾n̵̪̚ ̶͓̀s̵̩̚a̸̰̓v̴̔ͅë̷́ͅ ̷͚̃y̶̝͊o̴̱̎ṷ̶̕.̵̳̒.̷̻̚.̵͚̽
Unlight swirled around her fingers as the power built. This time, however, she kept the power controlled, contained.
D̴͈͔͂a̴̗͛͊̉ú̵͖͖̔͊g̶̻̈͘h̸̟̫͙́̾̄t̵̖̋́e̷͇̒ŕ̴͈̻͠͠,̶̞͓̊ ̴͉̅̑̐h̴͖̪̅ẹ̵͖̎ ̶̛̦̭̈́͊ị̴̃͛š̴͕̬͉̚ ̶̠̼̍u̷̲̿̑́s̵̳̏͜ḭ̷̯̀n̶̳͚͛̎̓ģ̵̬̬͑̒̕ ̵̫̙̋̓y̸̱̫̪͑̽͒ǫ̶̲͊͘ų̸̰̈́͂!̵̲͙̋̄͆ ̸̘̭͕̌Ḑ̵̻͙͌o̵͎͌͆ ̷̻̖͔̿̌̔ņ̵͓͝o̴̢͌t̶̡̤̮̎͊͝ ̸̹̖̐ţ̵̗̄r̵̙̂u̸̱̇̔̀s̸̨̱͎̆t̴̥̓̕͝ ̸̫̭̉t̸̻̀͌ẖ̷̞̇̑e̸̢͍͖̓̀ ̸̰͕̍̐h̷̨̝͍̓o̴͖͋̂̂r̵̤͍͉̈́̀͋n̵̡̺͂́͝ȩ̵̛̳̪̅d̷͓̳̀͝ ̷̫͖̣͠l̶̘͒i̸̟̺̅͜a̵͇͆̐͗ŗ̶̩̤̀-̵̡͕̄
The lance scythed forth through space, smashing a hole in the barrier and digging deep into the massive wardstone. Azure lightning exploded from the tear, arcing through the air as the unbound energy discharged into the ground.
H̷̯̎̿e̴̛̫̟͝ ̵͕͉̉̌́w̷̱̼͕̒́́į̷̘́̊l̶͍͕̎͌̔l̸̦̍͜ͅ ̸̲̰̓b̶̩̚e̸͇̘̥̚͠ẗ̶͓̺́͘r̷͉͍̯̎̓͌â̸̼͕ͅy̶̟̓͘ ̸͔̤͘͜y̴̡̨͂̄̓ó̵̡̝͐̃u̴͉̇̚!̴̳̈́́ ̸̹͂̄͝H̵̛̝̥̏̓e̷͉̟̣͘ ̸̮̈a̸̰̖͊͛͗ḻ̷̀r̷̗͉̾͐ẻ̵̗̄̈́à̵͕̬̘́̽d̸̦͑̀̚y̵̨̟͍͝͝ ̶̖̋h̵̠̜̜͆̋͌a̸͍͇͗͘š̴͕͔͆!̵̝̪͉̆ ̸͍̺͙̀K̴͈̜̅͌i̸͕͚̩̔l̴͍̇ľ̵̺͉͇̚ ̵̯̃͝ḣ̷͈̦͉i̷͚̿̆m̶̢̲͑̒ ̷͎͚̋̀͑k̵͔͙͛̀̿į̵̟̱̀̈́l̸͎̭̥̎ļ̴̢͚̀̐̀ ̸̰͖̋̅́h̴̛̳͎̉̚ȉ̵̝m̸̖̽͋̔ ̸̪̀̍́ḳ̶̔͑͠i̷̪̺̒̽̏l̴̡̗͈̊l̴̞̳͑̇ ̸̳̥̟̆̃̓h̶̰̀ĩ̵͎̝͜m̵̹͍͆ͅ-̶̱͂̅̐
Sweat beaded on Caprifexia's forehead as she maintained the beam, cutting down and across, more and more and more until the lance finished cutting, and she released the spell.
Caprifexia put her hands on her knees and panted. It hadn't been as bad as the last time she had used it, back on Bretygard, when she'd been injured and worried about dying. But, even now outside of combat and when she actually had hope of finding a solution to the problem of her quasi-mortality, it hadn't been easy.
"That's it?" said Tibbly after a few moments. "That's it!?"
"Give it… give it a minute," said Caprifexia, wiping her forehead.
A crack appeared at the top of the diagonal cut, small at first, but beginning to grow as with a great, grinding sound the immense stone pillar began to buckle under its own massive weight.
Then it began to fall, slowly and ponderously sideways as the crack reached the other side of the massive stone construction, then faster, teetering and twisted slightly, before like the world's largest tree it began to collapse toward the glacier.
It struck like the fist of a so-called God, and Caprifexia summoned a golden shield around herself as a massive wave of ice-dust exploded in all directions, washing over her even hundreds of meters above the scene of carnage. The sound was deafening, although she could, faintly, hear Tibbly's immense, cackling laughter from beside her.
Caprifexia wasn't sure what to make of him. On one hand, he was reasonably nice, and far more polite than most people she met – actually addressing her by her proper title of Dragonqueen. But, on the other… there was something off about him. She couldn't quite put a claw on it, he just 'rubbed her the wrong way' as Einar might say.
Still, as Einar was always saying, 'you couldn't judge a book by its cover.' Which made sense, you needed to at least read the blurb first. She was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. That was the heroic thing to do, after all.
The ice began to slowly clear, revealing the shattered remains of the wardstone strewn down the length of the glacier, and the translucent barrier now with a massive, gaping hole in it.
"You actually did it!" he cackled. "You mad, crazed little dragon! You actually did it!"
"I do not care for your tone of address," said Caprifexia.
"Do you know how long I have been trying to get through this ward-line?" he said, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Centuries! Centuries! Oh, I could kiss you!"
Caprifexia wrinkled her nose. Mortals were disgusting.
"Finally, finally that blade will be mine!" he said, baring his teeth. "And then, this Plane."
Caprifexia frowned. "Hold on – what about- what about the information you promised?" she said. "The Seers?"
Tibbly snorted in amusement, turning back to her and giving her a withering look. "You stupid girl – how would a bunch of giants from a backwater like this know anything about paradoxes involving Planeswalkers? Haha!"
The world seemed to fall away from her as Caprifexia felt the glimmer of hope that had been stirring in her heart flicker and die. She put a hand to her chest, and a keening sound rose from her throat unbidden. She was going to die. She was going to die.
"Oh, oh, that hurts you, doesn't it?" snarled Tibbly wickedly. "Oh, but you are a stupid, arrogant reptile, aren't you? You dragons, you think you're better than the rest of us – and that is what makes you so easy to manipulate. But your emotions, your pain, it is delicious!"
She was going to die. She was going to die. Because she had to go back, she had to save Einar, to save Serana and J'zargo and Lomeria. Nirn had become her home, they were her family, more than her mother or father or brothers and sisters had ever been.
Despite telling her off and making fun of her, they cared for her: Chandra who leant on her and called her 'best bud;' J'zargo who called her 'little dragon' and tried to comfort her when she was mildly perturbed by dreams; Einar who had helped her make the transition from villain to hero; Serana who was prepared to remain an abomination so she didn't have to face her long life alone; Lomeria who… well, did whatever Lomeria did. They were, all of them, precious to her.
"Oh, oh, is the baby dragon sad?" said Tibbly, making crying gestures beside his eyes. "Does she want her mummy? Is she going to cry?"
Tears flowed down Caprifexia's cheeks as she doubled over, weeping into the snow.
"You know, even I am surprised how easy you were to fool," he said. "I had a whole elaborate story and fabricated evidence. But I didn't even need it, all I had to do was dangle some hope in front of you and you jumped like a dog."
Her hands slowly balled into fists, and the anguish began to give way to burning draconic rage. She raised her face towards the hateful, laughing, villainous devil.
Tibbly. He had done this to her. He had used her, played with her desperate desire to avoid the terrible choice that Sorbet had told her she would have to make. He was- he had, inconceivably, tricked her. Like- like the not-friendly Lich had.
A deep, rumbling growl started in her throat. Well, she had made that mistake before, but this time she would make sure that he didn't manage to carry out whatever his diabolical plan was. Because she was a hero, and heroes learnt from her mistakes – no matter how miniscule.
The mistake had not been killing the Lich before it could hurt innocents.
She would not make that mistake twice.
A.N.
If you like my writing here, you might also like my fantasy novel, Shattered Moon, that is being updated weekly, or my episodic space-fantasy/horror/doctor-who-esque series, Mishka the Great and Powerful.
I also have a website-where-you-give-artists-money-that-begins-with-P where I post my original stuff two weeks early for supporters!
Also one of my readers posted some amazing fanart they had commissioned over on Sufficient Velocity of Caprifexia being friendly to an undead frozen fruit enthusiast.