The Last Red Year

TWENTY: Bone Chill

 The walls of Serifoss City scrape against the silent sky, white stone and icicles as big as stalactites looming high above them in contrast to the stretching blue. Despite the cold, the light of the sun is bright enough to burn. Kas wraps their cloak around themself, wishing they'd brought something warmer. They left Penncradle in a hurry. They weren't exactly thinking ahead.

"So we're here," Lilinore says, hopping down from their horse and tying it to a scraggly tree a decent ways away from the wall. "It's really big...and cold."

Kas nods in agreement, following suit with their own horse. "We should get going," they say, boots crunching against the densely packed snow as they make their way to the city gates. They're open, surprisingly--for some reason they'd expected much more security. A mecca of knowledge and culture with such massive walls should surely have more defense than an open, unguarded gate.

They step through the arching gate onto the streets of Serifoss City, taking in the matrix of mazing streets and towering buildings before them. Everything is tall, here, and the buildings are sculpted of some sort of sharp, reflective substance, not quite ice but not transparent enough to be glass. It isn't stone, or any kind of metal they recognize--it's crystalline, and as they brush their fingers across the wall of one of the sky-scraping buildings, they feel an energy humming from somewhere deep within. It must be some kind of magical substance, and it's clear to them that the architects of Serifoss City could've built circles around the constructors of the Magescourt. The magic of running water and the rain barrier seem like paltry trifles compared to the utopian metropolis before them now.

The city streets are oddly quiet--they look up to see a crowd of skeleton-monsters darting across a glass skywalk far above, and they realize why. In such a cold climate, it's easier to stay inside. They never really used the skywalks at the Magescourt--they were too terrified of being suspended over empty air, and much preferred the tunnels. They suppose if they're going to try to navigate here, they don't really have a choice.

"Where are we even going?" Lilinore asks, trailing close behind them. "How do we warn a whole city? Do you think anyone's even going to believe us?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." Kas finds a city map stuck to a post, surprisingly undamaged by the weather. Whoever made it must have used some sort of magical protection to keep the paper from tattering. They don't know much about Serifoss City aside from what Mauragan has told them, but they do remember that its crown jewel is the university. The entire city is built on academia--if they want to talk to someone, they're going to have to get through to the chancellor. Whose office just so happens to be in the center of the city, only accessible at the heart of a labyrinthine tangle of skywalks and hallways. They're pretty sure they can chart their way there if there are maps like this inside as well, but it's going to take them a while--especially given the fact that Serifoss is perhaps the least welcoming of all Seven Kingdoms to humans. It's not that they're outright banned--Mauragan says their grandparents even worked with humans when they lived here. It's just that perhaps the skeletons (and occasional dogs in search of bones) who inhabit Serifoss are perhaps the only monsters in the world with any sense whatsoever of self-preservation. Thus the citadel of ice they've built at the northernmost point of the entire continent, situated at the heart of a constant blizzard. Maybe that's why the gates remain unguarded--anyone who braves that kind of storm must have a good reason to be there.

Kas tracks their fingers along the outside wall of the nearest building, searching for an entrance. They get the feeling there aren't too many doors to the outside in the city--both for safety and to keep the heat where it belongs. They're already starting to shiver out here--the ride in was cold, but horses produce a lot of heat, and now that they're on foot, the freezing temperatures are unbearable. They're going to have to move fast--they know the mages probably aren't far behind, and evacuating this maze of a city is going to be a lot of trouble. They finally find an entrance only once they feel like their ears are going to freeze straight off of their skull--they push through, holding it open only long enough for Lilinore to follow them before they slam it shut against the cold. As soon as they're inside, they make a beeline for the nearest map.