While Bevel’s initial reaction had been quite mature, it wasn’t a surprise when I found her in her hammock curled into a ball shortly after Calbern had left.

I didn’t say anything, sitting just below her and reaching for her hand. Despite expecting it, I still rocked to the side when Bevel lurched up to tackle me.

“Hey, if you want to talk about it, know more… well, I’ll tell you what I can,” I said, squeezing back.

Despite my offer, she didn’t ask any difficult questions. Didn’t try to make sense of things.

Would’ve been easier if she had. Instead, she simply continued until the tears dried up. By that point Xelinda had taken us out into the open water.

“You good?” I asked, squeezing her hand.

She nodded.

“He’ll be back,” I said, more certain of that than I was the sun would rise the next day.

She nodded again.

“And we’ll have lots of great stories to tell him once he returns, won’t we?”

This time her nod was accompanied by a grin. There were still signs of her tears on her cheeks, though she stopped and blasted herself in the face with a gust of air strong enough I took a half-step back. When it stopped, any trace of her tears was gone.

We made our way onto deck, and Bevel immediately charged to the front where Inertia was standing. Soon they were working on whatever project had been interrupted by Calbern’s farewells.

“You’re right good with her,” Tamrie said, snagging my elbow. “Better by a Hold than me or my mum woulda done.”

“Was she close to the Knight?” Arizar asked, stepping up on Tamrie’s other side. “It seemed like a rather drastic reaction.”

“Not so drastic,” I said, offended on Bevel’s behalf. “And yes, they’ve grown close over the last half year.”

She frowned, tugging at her green bracelet.

“You gave the location of that fortress to Xelinda?” I asked, not feeling like gossiping about my adopted daughter. “We’re on our way to your father’s teleport point?”

“Yes. She said it should only take half an hour, once we get free of the fog,” Arizar replied, gaze shifting from Bevel to the transparent barrier that hung in the distance.

Our speed was slowed by the number of vessels crowding the water. Apparently what I had thought was busy when we’d arrived had actually been incredibly tame.

The water churned constantly with chop from the hundreds of other ships along our path. Most were staying within the barrier, though some few were leaving once they made it to the edge.

If Xelinda’s estimate was accurate, it’d take us longer just to get to the edge than it would to make the rest of the trip.

It wasn’t just the ocean that was full of ships.

Above, dozens of airships were being released from their hangers.

Arizar caught my gaze, and apparently felt the need to explain. “Father shuts down air travel during the Calming Run. Since it’s too dangerous for most to fly during the Howl, most don’t mind it too much. There’s always some merchant who complains though.”

“They’re smaller than I expected,” I said, inspecting them. Most were around the size of the Howling Defier, before its crash.

“They’re designed to fly along the manastreams that run over Terra Vista. Any bigger and they’d require significantly more enchantments,” Arizar replied. “Before the war, they were kept safe by the Council’s patrols.”

“A lot more risk to traveling the skies now, then.”

“More risk to travel of any kind,” Arizar replied, frowning. “It’s the most dangerous it’s been to cross Terra Vista in thousands of years.”

“That’s hardly a problem limited to Terra Vista,” I said, my gaze moving west, as though I could see the distant fallen Pillars.

“Father says it’s the worst Ro’an’s seen in ten thousand years. Hasn’t been this bad since the Void Herald invasion,” Arizar said, grabbing hold of the rail and looking out at the ships surrounding us.

“Never heard ‘bout Void Heralds,” Tamrie said as we moved to join Arizar.

“Me either. And that seems like the sort of thing I’d remember,” I agreed, frowning at a bunch of ships that seemed to have gotten jammed together a few hundred feet ahead.

As Xelinda shifted our course, Arizar looked up into the late morning sky, away from the sun. “Apparently they came from up there. I haven’t read about them. Too much to worry about other than such an ancient threat.”

“Well, now I have to do my own reading,” I said, shaking my head.

Arizar raised an eyebrow.

It wasn’t me who replied. Tamrie chuckled. “Can’t just dismiss a mysterious threat after getting such a misty warning. Don’t ya read at all?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Of course, I read. Yet this is reality, not fiction,” Arizar said, rolling her eyes.

“Sure enough,” Tamrie agreed. “Yet in the other bucket, we seem to stumble ‘cross secrets of the old and buried every time we turn a corner. One day, we’re gonna haul ashore a secret that should’ve been left in the abyss.”

I almost pointed out Conflict, but he’d been a rather moderate threat. More of a boon, really. Tamrie was right though. Who knew what we’d stumble across. It wasn’t like we were planning to slow down the exploration of Cape Aeternia. If anything, bringing more people in would make it worse.

Our conversation continued in a similar vein, Arizar adding several additional possible threats for us to research. Most of which she considered far more plausible than a sudden return of the Void Heralds.

Considering the lack of them showing up, I suspected she was at least partially right. Wouldn’t stop me from looking into it.

Eventually, we made it to the fog, and Xelinda was able to bring Celinda’s grace up to speed again. Just to our right, one of the massive defense ships we’d seen on our way in passed through the fog in the other direction.

Up close, it resembled a gantry as much as a ship, with an incredible number of rail guided lifts strung along its side.

Hauled behind the ship, on a full dozen smaller rafts that seemed to have been built for the purpose, was a twisted monster nearly half the size of the ship itself.

The monster was the size of a leviathan, yet there was an unsettling feeling of wrongness that emanated off it I’d never felt from one of the majestic creatures.

“Void touched,” Arizar said, shaking her head sadly. “Happens sometimes. Couple of them find their way up from the depths every year.”

“Didn’t you just say the Void Heralds weren’t a problem?”

“These aren’t…” Arizar trailed off. “I don’t think they’re… Even if they are related to the Void Heralds, they’re clearly not a problem.”

I didn’t say anything, instead choosing to inspect the void touched monster as we passed. Eagle Eyes revealed a number of tumors and other small growths and mutations, including tentacles in place of fins in several locations.

“Monsters of the abyss,” Arizar said, all of us staring as we left the massive defense ship and its disturbing cargo behind. It wasn’t long before it vanished from sight, the waves retreating below us as Celinda’s Grace raised into the air, cutting through the waves and the scarce number of smaller vessels at great speed.

After twenty minutes, the fortress came into sight, sitting atop a cliff, easily visible despite the distance.

As we drew closer, the utilitarian nature of the fortress came into clear focus. It wasn’t ugly, exactly, it just hadn’t had any beautification involved. Whoever had built it had put up the required walls, slapped on the minimum of enchantments, then went about their day.

At least, that had been my first impression. It wouldn’t last long after our arrival.

Considering the lack of living residents when we arrived, I suspected it didn’t really matter if it was ugly.

Simply getting inside took ten minutes as Arizar interacted with layer after layer of defenses, slowly escorting me deeper into the fortress.

She’d insisted on leaving the others behind.

Apparently she needed to key me into each of the defenses we were passing through. Doing so with the others would add even more time, and wouldn’t do them any good besides. Not until they could cast Recall themselves.

Arizar and I passed through twisting corridors, heading beneath the fortress. It was convoluted enough I would’ve easily gotten lost before my memory had been improved in Conflict’s trials. Our route soon took us deeper into the cliffside, far beneath the surface where the fortress sat.

I could only imagine that the building above was a distraction, since we’d likely moved out from under it by that point.

As we traveled, I couldn’t help but inspect the enchantments, commenting on them and asking Arizar about their designs.

Which got a smile out of her, as she started explaining. It was surprisingly engaging, and the next hour passed quickly.

When we were nearly at our destination, Arizar stopped, looking at me. “We’re nearly to the chamber. I…”

“Yes?”

She stared at me silently for several seconds, her eyes narrowed and hand fidgeting with the green bracelet on her wrist. Finally, she said, “Father had a point.”

“About the Void Heralds?”

“Not… well, those too, yes,” Arizar said, frowning.

“Okay, so what was the first point about?” I asked, chuckling. When she didn’t respond, I added, “I’m afraid I’m not privy to your discussions with your father, so unless you’re going to tell me, maybe we should continue.”

“Perhaps we should,” she said, accepting my out with a flash of a smile before turning back and keying me into the final barrier. Just inside was a surprisingly familiar sight. A stone archway of dark stone.

It was busted, but it was clearly a Waygate.

“Huh, didn’t realize they reached this far,” I said as I inspected it.

“You’re familiar with the gates?”

“Didn’t you know? That’s why we needed so many Worlds materials. We’re repairing ours,” I said, looking around the chamber. It reminded me more of the crystal chamber than most of the locations where we’d found the other Waygates.

“You’re repairing them?” Arizar asked, grabbing my arm, her sharp green eyes searching my face for something.

“Yeah, it’s the only reason we even came to Spellford,” I replied with no small amount of amusement. “You mind? I’d like to see where it connects to.”

After several long seconds, she released my arm.

Once free, I went over to the Waygate, squinting at the coordinates. “Well, not connected to ours, I don’t think.”

“How?” she asked, coming up next to me. “Father’s had Shapers trying to decipher the gate for decades.”

“I imagine it helped that we had several functional pairs to work with. And a lot of broken ones besides,” I said as I jotted down the coordinates. My brow furrowed as I read them off. “Looks like this is hooked up to some place to the southwest. Not too sure about where it’d be, but I think it’s close to the Howling Wastes.”

“That’s… quite a ways,” Arizar said, voice quiet, distracted.

“Farther than any of ours reach,” I said, closing up my pad.

She didn’t respond, seemingly lost in thought. So, I pulled out my grimoire to cast the marking part of Recall. The ‘weight’ was decently high in the chamber, though upon casting it, it revealed that the ‘weight’ would provide more benefit when using the spell from the direction of its paired Waygate.

Which had all sorts of interesting connotations. It also meant using Mount Aeternia as a Recall point was even more promising. Fronting peak had Waygates funneling towards it from every direction.

“You know, I can give your father the coordinates. He could send a team to investigate,” I suggested, which seemed to finally draw Arizar out of her daze.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, that’s…” Arizar shook her head, giving me a weak smile. “Before the war, father would’ve been glad to do so. I doubt we’ll have the freedom to send such expeditions for some time.”

“Unfortunate. Well, I’m done here. What say we return to the others. I’d like to get back. Got a lot I need to tell my sister.”

“Father mentioned you had a sister, though he said she was close to Althon City,” Arizar said, a tone of question in her voice as she lead the way back.

“Ah. Right, we never did mention the whole moving the beacons thing, did we?”

I walked right into her back, she’d stopped so suddenly.

“Yes. Yes, you managed to overlook this minor detail,” Arizar said, her eyes boring into me. “I wonder, just how much you’ve forgotten to mention.”

“Well, it’s been a busy six months, so probably a lot. Tell you what, I’ll try to fill you in best I can on the way back. Might as well start with Nexxa.”