To Fly the Soaring Tides

Cira woke up some time later to the sound of someone knocking at the door of her lodging, “Open up, it’s me!” Is that Nanri…?

After letting out a yawn, Cira rolled over and crawled across the bed. It was like floating on a cloud and Cira was tempted to throw all her samples away and store the various components that would make up the bed into her ring, but that wouldn’t do. The stress of last night had worn away and she’d had time to think everything over again. ‘If the mountain appears too tall, simply take a few steps back’, or something like that, right Dad?

Knock! Knock! Knock!

A witch was rapping at her chamber door, “Come on, I have food!”

And thus, the sorcerer was roused from her cloud by the sweet promise of sustenance. That infallible witchcraft. She rolled off and made Aquon clean her Cerulean Robes before putting them back on, hopping over to the front door.

“I’m up already, quit it!” Cira opened her door to the bright and sunny Nanri, her silver hair reflecting the vibrant city lights from across the room and out the window. She held a platter of sandwiches. Cira gasped, “My, how thoughtful. These look delicious.”

“I thought you’d be hungry. When was the last time you ate?” Cira thought about it briefly before greedily grabbing for one. The witch slapped her hand away and laughed, “Let’s at least go inside first.”

Cira acquiesced and they sat out on her balcony, next to the moored skiff, “What’s the mayor doing with the kid? Oh, and the smuggler?”

“They’ve never caught someone sneaking into the nest before and he wasn’t a resident of Fount Salt, so that man will probably get shipped off straight to the top and locked away somewhere after a thorough interrogation. The mayor said he knew someone up at the port that could use a worker though, so he’s sending the kid there too.”

“Really?” Cira was suspicious, “I can’t imagine Earth Vein’s paying for that trip.”

“Mr. Mayor’s paying for it right out of his pocket. Pretty nice guy once you talk to him for a while, though I think he may be scared of you.”

Cira shrugged. That couldn’t be helped. Light had returned to the city, and they sat there eating the plentiful sandwiches for a time. One of them ate significantly more than the other, and she looked out over the cloud that loomed above the streets. Fortunately for her, the nymphs seemed content in that cloud so long as it wasn’t too far away.

This complicated her trip to Uru, but she couldn’t just shoo them away—Nina was liable to get upset. “What’s in these sandwiches, anyway? They’re exactly as delicious as they looked.” The cheese had to be imported, but the meat tasted fresh with a satisfying texture to it.

“They call it underworm.” She said, taking a bite and talking with her mouth full, “They have a whole farm of them on the other side of the island.”

“A worm?!” Cira’s eyes went wide, also taking a bite, “I never knew worms could taste so good.”

One solution to the famine could be to convince everyone to eat worms all the time and change the island’s chief industry to meet demand. They finished their meal and stepped out onto the boat. Nanri made the chain disappear with a clink and Cira took the wheel, “Show me the to the stairs, witch!”

“Aye aye, sorcerer!” Nanri exaggerated a salute and they both laughed, floating over the effulgent underground city toward its gates.

Taking a step or two back was a matter of perspective. An insurmountable peak looks quite manageable from the horizon. Who cared if half of Nymphus caught the plague trying to escape the stampede? That changed nothing. She’d cure them all. This just meant failure wasn’t an option. She was certain there’d be discoveries to make once she made it back to the clinic.

Regrettably, the floods were lowest on her priority list, because such a feat was to fight nature itself. She’d still give it her best shot, but if nature won that’s just life. Cira scratched Nina under the chin and giggled when the nymph turned her head up and leaned into it.

“There, you see it? Right next to the elevators.” Nanri pointed out a big opening in the rock face.

“Hard to miss. I’ll take us right in.” The two slowly descended until a broad staircase showed from beyond.

“Hey, aren’t we missing somebody?”

Cira dispassionately replied, “Lomp can fend for himself for a day, I’m sure of it. I’ll give him time to rest his weary heart.” Little did she know, her flagrant airborne departure would have the opposite effect.

The witch put on a small frown for a moment before it bounced back, “I guess it’s just you and me today, then! This is going to be so much fun!”

“Nanri, we’re visiting a plague ward. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but maybe tone it down a bit. This will probably not be fun.”

Cira felt as though she’d just killed a Pegasus, watching the witch’s lips drop and curl down. Her voice was sullen, “Sorry…”

“Don’t look so sad. We’re going there to help, it’s a good thing.” Cira tried to shoot her a grin.

The two girls sailed over on their little boat and entered the stairwell. The passage was tall enough that they didn’t have to impede any startled passersby and the nymph cloud just flattened and spread out above them on the ceiling. With Spatial Sight she noticed most of the nymphs just floated along as they had been, ignoring the ceiling entirely.

This was another long staircase. I shouldn’t expect to get anywhere quickly down here, was it Chip that said that? I’d like to think I’ve been rather swift aside from yesterday’s hike. Travel was much easier with her new boat. If she’d had it before, she would have loaded up her priest robes and probably other things too. Boats made for great pockets.

Sadly, Cira would have to go without protection from the plague today. Meaning she’d need to take some precautions of the sorcerous nature. Prismagora appeared from a flash of light into her left hand. The mysterious bone artifact which could earn Cira a spot as the High Coven’s premier light witch—her favorite staff. She’d been asking a lot of Aquon lately and light resonated better with holy, so she decided to bring it out.

Its elegant prism reflected in Nanri’s eyes like stars and the sorcerer puffed out her chest proudly, “One beyond the sky, I, Cira, demand protection from harm unseen! Be it hidden demons or cursed clouds, nothing shall reach me!”

When holy magic got more complex or potent, it entailed pleading for strength from something incomprehensible. Nobody’s ever flown high enough to see what it is, but they could point the constellation out if you asked on a clear night.

Typically, the key to holy magic would be ‘pleading’ for power. However, the beauty of sorcery is in the interpretation. Magic manifests from the will, so instead of begging for power Cira demanded it to make specific requests.

Anything from viruses to curses would no longer harm her unless she first gazed upon them, for a limited time of course. She also couldn’t use her father’s spells to achieve such effects because her comprehension of the things she was protecting against paled in comparison to his—hence the ambiguous and open-ended nature of her incantation. She cast the same spell on Nanri and resigned to chip away at her mana throughout the day keeping the spells active. With no more elixirs she expected to be spent by the time night fell.

“Amazing. You’re like a priestess too! Only thing you’re missing is the veil.” Cira grimaced at the witch’s praise, “I’ve never heard a prayer like that though. Your dad must have been a pious man.”

Cira shrugged. A few more hours had passed, and they finally reached the end of the stairs. The opening to the next chamber was reinforced with an old archway and a dim orange glow could be seen from the other side. When it let out, they were far above another huge cavern. If people had some reason not to take the elevator, the stairs led to the top where one could encircle the entire chamber. Multiple staircases lined this upper ring and led down to the city proper.

The girls had no reason to take the footpath and shot out over the chasm. “It looks a lot like Uren at night.” Strings of lights dotted the pathways and ran over pathways. What appeared to be food stands and a busy marketplace took over most of the streets here. There were lots of people out walking around too. From above she could hear their shouts and laughter, arguing or chatting in the street.

Nanri turned out to be a far better tour guide than the one she had just ditched, “I’ve heard it used to be a nymph queen nest long ago, but they stripped it out and built a town here.” It was another huge, round, empty cave, so that checked out. She wondered how they stopped the water but maybe that happened over time.

Cira sat back and peered over the countless lights then smiled at her guide, “Tell me more.”

“Oh, um… Let me think,” her face scrunched up, “Hmm, I heard everybody that lives here is a miner. None of those Gandeux nobles like Nymphus.”

“Interesting…”

As they came closer to the ground Cira noticed a crowd gathering. Most of them wore jumpsuits or other such work attire, and a few had something strapped to their waists.

“Smugglers!” A man below cried out, “Stop them, quick!”

“Are they—are they stealing the nymphs?! But how?!” Another screamed.

Cira looked back and made her cloud puffier, but in this open space they seemed to want to stretch out. With no other option to dispel the confusion, she moved her Lamplight out of the cloud, so it hovered above the boat as they descended toward the street, and all the panicked faces. Just for kicks she made two more Lamplights and made them spin.

“No, it’s a witch! It has to be, look!” Cira peered over and saw people pointing at her, gasping with awe.

“It’s her! I knew it. The one from Nymphus!”

“She controls the nymphs!”

““Hurrah!”” The crowd shouted.

The sorcerer pursed her lips as they finally made it to the street and landed off to the side.

“It’s okay everyone, no smugglers here!” Nanri took charge of the situation with her usual demeanor, “Just us witches!”

Then a walking leather scrap of a man approached, “I don’t givva damn whatchu are! You turn them damn light off when ya’ in Uru. And the hell ya’ doin’ with all them nymphs ‘n that cloud?” He waddled up, a few heads shorter than most present with gray eyebrows long enough to spelunk with.

“Sorry, um, sir…” Cira started, “I didn’t think anyone would mind since it’s morning.”

“It’s what?!” He dramatically cupped a hand around his ear.

“Er, it’s morning…?”

He threw his arms to his hips, “Ain’t no such thing, got dangit! This is Uru!”

Cira threw her gaze to the space Lomp used to occupy, asking his ghost for guidance. No answer came. She nudged Nanri and whispered in her ear, “Do you know what this is about?”

“Ah, I didn’t think they took it so literally,” She clapped, “Uru of the endless night. I’ve heard some of the workers call it that downstairs.”

“At least one o’ ya’ll’s got some sense!” The old man spat, “You better turn them dang ol’ lights off or there’s gonna be trouble. I’ll have ya’ know my little brother’s the overseer! One word from me and you’re—” He made a motion with his thumb across his throat and an unnecessarily drawn-out slurping noise.

“That’s enough, I get it…” Cira shook her head, “I’ll fix it right now.”

Prismagora lit up to the ooh’s and ah’s of the surrounding city folk, then her Lamplights burst into hundreds more much smaller orbs that rose up and dispersed in no particular pattern. She’d turned the transient suns into a field of stars to light the endless night. All the people in the street stared up with wonder in their eyes except for one old man who couldn’t stop grumbling.

“Nngh. Fine then! Guess that’ll do… Damn witches. What about the nymphs, then?!”

“So, you’re Pappy’s older brother? I admit, I see the resemblance.” I didn’t think someone could get older than Pappy.

“What about my brother, now?!” He shouted.

“I’m here to do him a favor, more or less.”

But he wasn’t convinced, “Yeah, ain’t the first time I heard that. And just what would this favor be, hmm?”

The old man was impossible to deal with, so Cira broke down how she’d been investigating the plague and the conversation ended with her describing Pappy’s appearance to confirm her claims.

“—more wrinkles than there are islands and stars put together, so can you just show me to the plague ward?”

He crossed his arms, “Don’t wanna.”

Cira’s forehead came to rest firmly in her palm, and she sighed. From the air she could only see the city, which was more-or-less lively. It would make sense for the plague ward to be in a separate chamber but she didn’t see any tunnels that would lead there. She looked at her companion who was equally stumped.

“Fine then, we’ll do this my way.” She cleared her throat and shouted to the crowd, “First volunteer to guide us to the plague ward gets a holy blessing! Power? Fortune? The choice is in your hands!”

She regretted her decision instantly when the old man started shouting and a vein pulsed in his forehead. His face turned crimson, his mouth twitched. He clutched his chest before falling to his knees, eyes bulging.

The crowd went wild.