We galloped in the dark night, transcending place and time. The horses scampered, wind harshly swirling around us. We were racing time, moving through magical portals that were crafted underneath the steeds' hooves. The scenery around us was a complete blur of landscapes for a couple of seconds, and it was when the horses stopped that everything returned to normal.
I felt lightheaded due to our ride, the feeling very similar to each time I passed through a magical portal. It was the same dizziness and weird feeling bubbling in my stomach.
I looked around me, my eyes taking in the details of the sleeping port where everything started one and a half month ago. We were standing on a farther altiplano, overlooking the sleeping brine. My winter clothes had disappeared, leaving me in the outfit I originally wore when I left the palace.
The second key was finally in my possession, and it was now time to seek the slumbering aquatic ring.
I could see clouded mountains lying before us from where we were standing . We all stood there for a second, silence making us dumb.
My vision feasted on the far extending ocean. Cloaked in the starlight's brume, the place did indeed look like a long-lost Brigadoon. Unfortunately, it wasn't. All that life was far from being so, yet we still interlaced our fingers firmly in the delicate threads of hope. Maybe it was the only thing that prevented our souls from dying, from losing fate.
Luthian's horse turned suddenly, making him stand in front of us. He had a look on his face that I couldn't discern. He pointed one finger, making us drag our gazes towards the mountains that stood proudly ahead of us.
"These are the Silverstorms Mountains, the legal limits between Rimelia and Arelesia. It is where you will start from.''
For a moment, his words made me lapse.
"Wait, are you not coming?''
"I fear not, my journey ends here.'' I stared at him, a million questions popping up in my head. I knew his peregrination with us would be temporary, but had it to be such a short one?
"Why so?''
"I am banned from setting foot outside my native lands. Cantelot is the heart of all Ardoria, unity of the five continents. Rimelia is the head, the land of wisdom and sagacity. My kind is known for being astute with a sharp knowledge, and it is the main reason why we were cursed.
"We are prisoners inside those two continents since longer than one's mind can recall. Banning us was one of the first things the demons did once they started to rule. If I ever dare to place one foot outside my limits, the malediction will kill me alive,'' he explained.
My mind didn't care about all the details; it just knew that he wasn't coming with us anymore.
"I have duties as a First Lieutenant of the White Troopers that I cannot keep on hold. I will take my leave now, Your Excellency,'' he said as he turned, slowly trotting towards the coast. He was about to reach midway when he stopped and turned to face me.
''My offer remains available, do not waste it on nothing worth it, Majesty.'' And, with that, he charged towards the enormous sea, his horse galloping freely on the rippling surface.
His black, billowing cloak was the last thing I saw before he disappeared behind the horizon, the whicker of his horse drowned by the sound of the wobbling waves.
And, ever so simply, he left.
''Let's go, time is ticking fast.'' Carter's voice snapped me back immediately, breaking my trail of thoughts.
I clutched my mare's mane tightly as it started trotting. I could feel magic leisurely engulfing us and, slowly, the paths started forming under. It was a matter of seconds before we drifted in space, bewitchery thrusting us towards the chain of mountains.
*****
Dark clouds shrouded the sky, obscuring the alp. We walked inside the woods, our only source of light was the corona springing from our magical wad. It took me no second thought to understand from where this concatenation of humps earned its name.
Silver downpour sharply drenched on us, wetting us from head to toe.
I pulled on my hood, trying to shield my face from the trenching rain that kept falling. The horses trotted on the muddy soil, their fastness pokily diminishing. Even their glowing hue ceased, and soon they would vanish and leave us on foot. The more we trotted farther away from the frozen continent, the more the magic of the goddess would diminish.
I breathed in the smell of the petrichor while my mind was wondering. Now that Luthian left, he was not a suspect in being the traitor anymore. Actually, he never was. None of my companions were, in the first place. Even as I knew about that cursed warning, I still could not wrap my mind around the fact that it would be one of them. One of my friends.
I was giving too much of blind trust, but I couldn't change it. I tried to distance myself from them, tried to build a protective wall between us, but it was hard, especially since we were together at all times.
Out of a sudden, I felt a presence around us. I hastily looked around, fishing my knife from under my sleeve. But before I could discern from where the presence came, it disappeared. I wasn't mistaken. A magical presence harrowed the sensitivity of my aura, yet it vanished as fast as it came.
Nothing reappeared for a good few minutes, the only hearable sound was the noise created by the crying skies. I was about to return my knife into its sheath when I heard a growling sound.
We all stopped.
The earth slowly shook, and one tree tumbled directly in front of me, missing me by inches and heartbeats. My horse jumped back, making me almost fall. The ground kept shaking until the mountains separated from each other. Cracks appeared and, as by hunger, swallowed everything that fell into its bottomless pit.
The mass underneath the hooves of my mare disintegrated, rocks slipping in the void. My horse ran by instinct, not obeying my orders anymore. The steed kept jerking around in a panic until we couldn't move. There was no more land to stand on.
Before the earth we were standing on could decay, the horse jumped. The impact strong enough to make everything topple underneath us.
We harshly landed on our opposite ridge, the collision making me partially slid. I adjusted my sitting and worryingly looked at the others. Mayra and Carter were still on the same mountain, while Leon and I were much farther away.
And it was now that I understood what was happening. It wasn't an earthquake—the mountains had actually moved until they were standing.
I was nonmoving on the head of a walking giant made of dirt and rocks.
The giants grumbled, and the one I was standing on started moving left and right, trying to shoo me away. I screamed as my horse stumbled in all directions, trees falling everywhere. The continuous back and forth made me nauseant, my stomach crying. And heaven knew how much grateful I was that my guts were indeed void.
The light of my horse suddenly flittered, and with a sharp whicker, it vanished, erupting in a mist of grey dust. I ungracefully fell, my head harshly hitting the ground with a groan. I was smirched with dirt and soil, my clothes sticking to me like a second skin.
The giant kept moving and I lurched, dangerously falling down. Rocks and hanging branches hit me as I was tossed around, marring me with scratches and scars. Blood and dirt covered me, mud sticking to my clothes.
I hopelessly grabbed the root of a thrown tree, my hands closing around it for dear life. I was dangling above hundred feet of emptiness, my legs swinging in the voided air. I was hyperventilating, blood furiously pounding in my ears, drowning everything else around me.
The giant's rocky hand grabbed me so tightly that I felt that my bones were cracking. The gutter between the rocks that served as its mouth opened, releasing waves of a raspy sound. It growled at me and mud sullied my face, leaves and dirt sticking in my hair that served as a bird's nest.
Disgusting.
The hand holding me abruptly shook, and before I could see it coming, I was thrown away.
My back harshly collided with a sharp, rocky wall. I heard something crack, and I feared that it was my vertebral column that just gave away.
I fell into the pit, the hard rocks and droplets of water bumping me. It felt like an endless trip down there, and the space was getting narrower every passing second.
My magic was my only escape route, or else, I would end buried beneath masses of rocks and dirt. I tried reaching for my magic, but it felt impossible. The continuous dashes and bumps made me unsteady, and the speed I was falling with nauseated me all the more. Inside my consciousness, I searched for that safe sanctuary of magic. For those reflections. But it was hard, because, all I could visualize was unsettled darkness. And agony.
I forced magic abruptly into my palms, knowing that it was dangerous to summon it so recklessly. I kept crusading until I felt the familiar electrifying spark running in my arteries and veins.
I hurriedly called upon my air elemental, and soon enough, waves of stirring zephyrs twirled underneath my feet.
The wind prostrated my chute and gently lifted me upward. Fighting the current was not as easy as it sounded, especially with a sleep-lacking body.
I broke the spell when I settled foot on the firm ground, or as settled a moving giant could be. Mayra's ancient words rung around me like an echo, louder than the thundering sky and violent rain. And I wondered how much she was condemning those creatures.
"How do we kill these things?!" she bawled, glomming Carter's wrist securely as she dangled above the void. The later was also in a risky position as the rock he was holding onto was his only support. Leon was having his own little fight with the giant that thought shaking him like a piñata would be fun.
My father's image appeared in my mind for the apothegmatic moment, his distant soul reaching for mine. I welcomed his powers in haste, needing his advice more than anything.
'These mountains are soulless; their death will slay the earth nourishing both Rimelia and Arelesia. To stop them, you have to control them.
'You are queen, sovereign of every land and ocean in this world. Eziar blessed you with his essence, and it is up to you to use it wisely.'
His voice disappeared after that, leaving me with only one option to save us. I eyed the moving mountains before I called upon my earthen elemental.
Sorry, big boys. Play time was over.
Green fire erupted from my hands, roaring with vigor and puissance. The candent flames caterwauled around me with such force that it made my bones shake. I was nourishing my powers from every single snippet of a being around me, growing more powerful by each second.
''Thou will obey my words, for that I am your queen,'' the words started rolling by themselves, but I didn't try to stop, '' in my hands lay the powers to control what is far from being seen. Crack and churn, to your idle state you shall immediately return.''
Green light spurted all the way around us, making the giants stop dead in their tracks.
All of them eyed me before they started moving, lining one behind another.
The hand of the giant Mayra and Carter were dangling from seized both of them, before placing them slowly again on the top of its head. The one I was standing on moved, raising its hand until it was on the level I was standing on—possibly, the shoulder.
With mild reluctance, I eyed the outstretched hand in front of me. Residing my fate to the five, great gods, I jumped, landing on the enormous palm. The titan stepped forward; its footsteps resonating with excessively loud thumps, making mud and pooling water streak and splash below its nadirs.
It placed me next to them and Leon shortly followed. The giants slowly knelt, returning to their primitive position. Magical grout appeared between the cracks before everything jointed together, the fallen trees straightening by themselves.
It looked like nothing happened at all.
"What the hell was that?'' lamented Mayra, obviously shaken. Her face was somewhat pale with her blond hair sticking to her skin.
"I believe those titans were guardians, the protector of the two continents,'' said Leon.
"If they were protectors, then why did they attack us?''
For the first time, Carter was a mite unsure of his own answer. ''I've heard of such creatures before, they are dressed by Eziar himself. In the old ages, anyone who aimed to cross this chain of mountains ever came out alive to tell us what happened.
" Recently, when troupers had no choice but to cross these mountains during attacks, nothing happened. For a while, we believed whatever guarded these lads had disappeared. Looks like we were quite wrong," he explained as we started walking. Slowly, the rain started to cease, leaving the forest bathed in silver driblets.
We walked for a bit more, mud sticking to our boots, silver water still weighting our clothes. And as we did, I remembered a question I was willing to ask ever since I learnt about the nobles of Ardoria.
"As the second crown to Arelesia, what is the ranking of your family among the court and tribunal?''
The arelesian lord shot a discreet, quick glance to the shadow who merely shook his head before he returned his attention to me.
"The Cardelyon house has been given the position of the third chair in the court by King Aragon himself.''
"That's impressive," I stated, willing to ask another question. But that never happened. Because all words were cut short as we all heard the sound of possibly a cracked branch.
But we knew it wasn't.
~*~
*The second crown: the name given to a noble family working for the Armedes house as continental representative. Carter had first told Celestia of his position as heir to the second crown, since his father hols the position until this day, back when they were still as the norm. for reference, see the academy~part I.
*****Personal Message*****
The journey has finally started in Arelesia, but this treck is still in its earlier stages. A lot awaits. What do you think about the curse Luthian talked about? Is it real? What will happen from now on?
If you enjoyed this installation, please click the vote button. It would mean so much.
Next chapter will be up on Saturday, 19. Until then, have a great day.