Lore of Eternal Shadow: The Fugitive King

Chapter Sixteen

Alva flew through the aether and arrived, touching the soil of Galgaroth proper once more. The wind blew his long, white, and partially illusionary hair around his tired and worry-molded face. He had just teleported five-hundred miles across the ocean from the Dread Isle. The island was the entry point into Galgaroth from Caligo's prison; all forces headed to the main continent had to go through the island foothold.

His boots felt the crunch of sand beneath his feet. He stood on the mouth of the River Mor as it faced the Ocean of Dan to the south. Before him was the walled harbor city of Hathlos. Cobblestone streets and harbor-side warehouses lined the waterfront around him. The walls that contained them would not stand up to Caligo's might. The attack on Hathlos was scheduled to begin in two weeks. Alva crossed his arms behind his back as he inspected the city with interest, hidden from the view of its inhabitants. They had no idea their doom was just a pair of weeks away.

"Lord Alva," said a cool, smooth voice. She was one of Argon's Zey^Rey, dressed in dark garb for scouting. "We did not expect you here so soon... or without an army."

Alva ignored the Dark Zey^Rey. He cast a calculation and a spell wrapped his body. His armor disappeared and replacing it was a dark tunic and trousers. A large hooded cloak fell over him like a breath of shadow. He put his hood up and said, "I have a personal matter to attend to. I will be traveling incognito for the time being... alone."

"Surely reconnaissance is best left to lesser Zey^Rey, Lord Alva," the Zey^Rey put in.

"No," said Alva, "I must do this myself. This mission is far too important to be left to lowly underlings." He turned to leave, "I will return in a few months."

"Does Our King know about this?" asked the Dark Zey^Rey.

Alva turned to the Zey^Rey. He bored a look of exhaustion and hate into her. "If you are so concerned," Alva said with fake politeness, "you can speak to him yourself. I'm certain he'll be so overjoyed that you went to him to confirm something so obvious that he'll kill your whole family! Doesn't that sound nice?"

"No... Lord Alva... that is... I..."

"Then shut up about our meeting and don't ask stupid questions again." Already Alva calculated a conjuring. His hematite black horse appeared out of a flash of purple light. The creature Alva whipped up whinnied loudly as Alva took off through the city, riding north from the coast into the land of Galgaroth...

***

Runa was the first to jump into the portal and it looked like she'd be the first to jump out. She arrived but was soon trampled by her companions who all piled on top of the poor girl. The portal closed at that, already half collapsed when the last figure was deposited. "Ow," she moaned, muffled under the weight of her friends, allies, and brother. She stood up and brushed herself off, prompting everyone else to do the same.

"This is the Zey^Rey Dimension?" asked Runa.

"I guess," said her brother. They stood side-by-side and took in the view.

The landscape surrounding them was like Galgaroth or the Varian League but somehow... nicer. The fields surrounding the hill they had plopped themselves onto were grassy and appeared relatively normal if not a little too healthy and treeless.

The sky, however, was breathtaking. A sun beamed warm light onto the ground as it sank to the west but instead of blue sky, an entire galaxy of swirling stars drew out directly above them. The galaxy twirled like a dancer caught in mid-motion and it stretched up to the northwest. There was what looked like a great cloud to the south, farther into the sky and stranger than anything they'd ever seen before. It was red, bright in places, and looked to be behind the sun, stuck somewhere in the great aether beyond the world they stood on. It hung behind the sun and was not obscured by the glare of the closer object. In fact, none of their eyes hurt in the least as they gazed upon the sun. Lauren speculated the cloud to be trillions of miles away. Only Salgan and Runa knew right away what a trillion was.