Summoned to a Shattered World

Birthright Chapter 37 - Herald of the Tempest

Propping my head up with my arm, I looked up at the sky. It was dark blue, far darker than any sky I'd seen on Earth, but it had a certain beauty to it. The colour put me more in mind of the sea, but of course there were no waves to be seen here. Beyond the strange waves of the shiny, metallic sand around me.

It was a while before I spotted any sign of the storm the ogres had been so worried about. A few wisps of dark clouds crested the horizon and I thought surely they must have been exaggerating after all. Minutes passed and these precursors were followed by the colossal stormfront behind them. It grew and grew until it stretched across the entire north-eastern horizon.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all... Still, it should be fine. The storm was approaching quite quickly, far faster than I would have expected, but there was nothing to worry about. I could teleport away at any time, there was no risk of getting caught up in it. Keeping that in mind, I decided that I may as well stay and watch. I'd never seen a storm of this magnitude, particularly not up close. It seemed like something actually worth seeing for a change, not like the rest of this place.

Regardless of my opinion, the storm drew closer and I could make out lightning bolts arcing into the ground. It was only when the storm was almost halfway to reaching me that I realised the bolts were only striking the large trapezoids buried beneath the sand. I suppose it made sense, they were the only raised structures and as they were magnetic, they must be made out of metal.

The lightning struck with exceptional rapidity, again and again. The different shapes it took, in the instant they appeared before vanishing, were entrancing. My only regret was that I was watching it during the day rather than at night where they would have stood out that much better. But it wasn't much of a regret, it was still a beautiful display.

I must have seen hundreds of them before I realised there was something odd about them. The electricity wasn't coming down from the clouds and striking the earth. It was the other way around; the bolts were coming out of the trapezoids. The edge of the storm was only a few dozen miles away at this point, but I didn't want to leave yet. I wanted to see more of it. What was the risk, anyway?

I left all my metal equipment on the ground and shuffled away from it and any of the buried magnets. If what I'd seen was any guide, I should be completely safe. There was probably still a little bit of risk I wasn't accounting for but... After everything that happened, I just couldn't see myself dying by being struck by lightning. It would be too ridiculous a fate.

The lightning seemed rather predictable and what else was there to worry about? A bit of wind or rain? The clouds were moving quickly but there was no sign of any tornadoes or anything. Curiously the sand beneath the storm didn't seem affected by wind; it continued to move in the same erratic patterns dictated by the trapezoids' magnetism. Was there no significant wind accompanying the storm? How was it moving so quickly then?

It didn't make much sense to me but as the dark clouds passed overhead, obscuring the sun, I didn't detect an appreciable change in windspeed. Despite the towering mass above with its continual stream of lightning bolts, conditions on the ground were peaceful. Beyond it getting darker, things hadn't really changed at all; there wasn't even any rain. Frankly, it was a little disappointing. I suppose some part of me had been expecting a greater element of risk; this wasn't too exciting.

My position did offer a better vantage to see the intricate, swirling motions of the clouds, but beyond that there seemed little point in having entered the storm. I was considering returning to Elmidath when I saw something emerge from the clouds. Wreathed in a shroud of blue light, it was hard to make out much detail. But whatever it was, it was huge. Though it was hard to be sure at a distance without much frame of reference, it looked easily several times my size.