The Morningstar Brigade

Chapter 19

XIX

URIEL

Day Two. Eleven Days Remain.

Hillside Plain, Outside Morningstar Keep

"You heard Jonathan say that they were going to stop time right? That wasn't just me? I'm not still in some kind of crazy fever dream?" Uriel asked, lying back against a cool patch of grass.

Isaac shook his head as he paced back and forth. "Get words like 'normal' out of your brain; the world might end and we're assembling a magic machine to hop through worlds to save your dad. Just let the crazy happen."

Uriel let out a low whistle as he looked up at Morningstar Keep. From the hillside that he, Kat and Isaac had climbed to eat lunch after class, it seemed as though they stood at the center of the world. Even with the knowledge of the encroaching forces lurking on its boundaries, the splendor of the Brigade's bastion was awestriking. The sprawling fortress glaring down from above was a formidable sight. A massive grey stone structure encircling a towering mountain, Morningstar Keep's image, like its purpose, dwarfed all that surrounded it. Arranged in the same eight-pointed shape as Morningstar's celestial symbol, the Keep's mighty spires were the points of a titanic crown for the imposing stone peak. Various buildings and courtyards covered the grounds inside the unyielding walls, but the vast honeycomb network of hallways and chambers were hidden within the spine of the world. Below this imposing diadem lay the endless lands of Eden, an impossible mixture of chaotic creation thrown together in the world once-perfect that surrounded the rocky temple. To the north lay thick woods and overgrown jungle, these rich places blessed with soft soils and supple timbers. To the east lay thinning grasslands and shimmering dunes, where the oases of soft sand brushed up against the open pastures of gentle grass. To the south lay deep valleys of ore-rich stones and foreboding mountains filled with searing magma, these lands a vault of countless treasures and yet near-impassable hardships. And to the north was the blinding, all-consuming glare of ice and frozen tundra. The seven cities of Eden dotted these strange and beautiful sites, but each bowed to the guardian that lay at the center of them all: Morningstar Keep.

"It's beautiful," Uriel said, slowly taking in all of Eden's fractured splendor. "I'd read the text books, heard the stories, but... it really is beautiful."

"I still can't believe this is the first time you're ever seeing the Keep from the outside," Kat said with a chuckle, looking over at Uriel. "What were you doing when you first got here?"

Uriel scratched the side of his head. "I wasn't exactly conscious, but I think I was probably bleeding internally and eating through a tube," he said with a laugh.

"Oh. Right. Fun," Kat said, turning back to look at the view.

"Ow. I didn't know that thinking could actually hurt," Isaac said, sitting down next to Uriel and rubbing his head, as if his skull was now so filled with knowledge that it might burst. "Did you know thinking could hurt?" he whined, looking over at Kat.

"Don't be such a baby," Kat fired back, taking a sip of her drink. "You slept through most of the lecture anyways. Which, by the way, is a terrifying talent."

Uriel blinked in surprise and turned to Isaac. "You were sleeping? But, wait, you... you never even closed your eyes. I think we even had half a conversation." He frowned. "You said you liked my hair."

Isaac winked at Uriel and smiled. "That's how you know I wasn't actually awake. I would never say something like that, your hair is terrible."