Chapter 8-236: A Fateful Moment at the Gate

This time we actually came right into their harbor visibly, riding over the rough surface of the sea. The wave action was considerable weakened by Wards over the harbor and a design that shunted most of the wave action clockwise, to be spent sending endless volumes over the edge of the sea to be recycled.

The sentries noticed us a bit late, and there wasn’t much they could do to stop us regardless. The chain across the entry area we simply rode right over, pulling right into the harbor, and we rode a Ward-ramp up to the island proper as we headed for the gates to the Road.

Alarms and horns were going off, but they really couldn’t compete with our speed and the surprise of our arrival. We rode right on by startled soldiers and workers towards the gates, and I just waved my hand at the closed doors to force them to unbind and open themselves in a creaking of wood and iron hinges.

The soldiers on guard were scrambling for their bows and things, gaping at us as we headed out past them, stopping right on the edge of the continent, where the void and the road began.

“<Wait! Wait, please!>”

An older woman was trying to hurry after us, silver hair striping a long black mane, her olive skin a bit pale from the lack of sunlight, even here on the rim of their world. She didn’t look like she had much hope of stopping us, but when Sleipner hove to, her dark eyes brightened, and she ran after us as urgently as she could.

When she got up close to us, she had to pause to catch her breath, but it didn’t hide the severe, eager light in her eyes.

“<Who are you? Where did you come from?>” She was looking over Sleipner in astonishment, her eyes going wide when the unicorn’s spirit turned to look at her calmly, and she realized that the curved spiral horn jutting out from the front of the cycle was exactly that.

“You should learn to speak Human.” She blinked as she heard words she understood perfectly without use of magic, despite never having heard them before.

I eyed her blue-green Aura, unsurprising for a world like this, and considered my options as I pulled out a Holo-crystal with a Permanent Illusion programmed into it. I held it out to her. “It will play when you put magic into it. A Cantrip will be small, higher Valences will make it larger. It will teach you the genetic language of Humans.”

She stared at me, the crystal in my hand whose magic was obvious to her eyes, and considered for only a moment before stepping forwards to take it.

I gently clasped her fingers, and drew her forward. She only resisted a moment as I brought the back of her hand up to my lips, and kissed it gently. Silver magic sparkled and swirled, and I let her go.

“We will be speaking,” I winked at her, and the Teleport went off, turning us into a silver streak of light that blurred and shot off down the long sparkling road into infinity.

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“Elder Gihassa! What did they say?! What did they give you?” a sharp voice demanded. Elder Compignio, the stuck-up lazy slob constantly bemoaning his exile at the outpost, and far too pragmatic to dare come down and speak to the alien visitors on their magical machine, was huffing towards her. Several soldiers were trailing after him, not bothering to hide the relief behind their expressions.

Gihassa looked at the silver crescent on the back of her hand, the bright lights of the stars there, and the knowledge and lore that had flowed out of them as clearly and purely as if she had spent thousands of hours researching it all.

Knowledge of the history of a world called Terra, and lore of the Planes and gods far beyond anything that could possibly have existed on this world.

And The Map!

She stared out at this road of airless death, stretching out for fifteen hundred kilometers; she could tell the distance precisely, and see where it met the South Pole of the planet.

She could see the valley high in the ice at the bottom of the world, which contained the whole continent of Hyperborea.

She could see the full extent of her world, its edges and size, with an accuracy that shook her to her bones. A route around the world, a route around the land, and then a route into, over, and across the land...

She could see cities and places that were nothing but legends and stories, coming from so far away, laid bare with searing accuracy.

She could see the unbelievably vast, vaster world beyond, her homeworld possibly a mere chunk carven from it sometime in the ancient past, sitting there in a void contained within a small valley of that world.

She could see cities that held more people than possibly every single kingdom and village on this entire world together.

She could see the black clouds of the Shroudzones, dotted here and there about that world.

She could see that black cloud at the center of her own was gone now, the ominous harbinger of the grey Haze that had rolled across the entire world... and had done so on that unreachable world beyond, as well.

She... she could see that she was very, very small...

She could also see a door there in her mind, glowing golden, a link to the woman who had given her this Blessing, and the power and knowledge that was sitting on the other side of it.

A furious golden goodwill of terrifying strength and resolve. Not even touching it, she could feel that mind was so far above her own she could scarcely imagine it. It was like touching the mind of a goddess...

Her eyes fell to the device in her hand. She could sense perfectly how to use it... just send in raw magical energy, and the Illusion bound to it would replay faithfully.

She caressed the silver Blessing that had brought with it such knowledge, The Map, and knew she had just established a connection with a whole other world, one vastly larger and more powerful than her own, and truly didn’t know what to think of it.

“It seems she left us a way for all human beings to speak the same language,” she finally responded, ignoring the hand that he held out serenely. “There is no threat of invading armies at this time. Come and gather the soldiers. It is time for us all to learn how to speak to any human being, and be understood.”

Totally ignoring the desire on his face, with a composure and focus she had not possessed before, she turned back towards the gateway.

This outpost was going to be taking on a completely different meaning shortly enough. Even if the Road itself vanished, there was still a line connecting them to the greater Earth, and outsiders could arrive here... other humans, perhaps tied to them by common ancestors from long ago, who knew?

And she, she was the conduit of knowledge that could change everything! She was connected, if not to a goddess, to someone who was scarcely less than that, in her own estimation.

Suddenly aware that she could become very, very important to what was coming, she did not look away as she headed back, and the captain of the guards there, an ambitious man who had angered the wrong nobleman and been sent to end his career on this posting to nowhere and nothing, saw her face, realized there was a great opportunity here, and hastily began to shout orders to gather the garrison.

If Elder’s Compignio’s face was twisting in unabashed greed and desire for the opportunity he’d missed, and wondering how he could take it for himself, he would have been surprised to know that she could read him now with great clarity, and was considering what to do about him...

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Master Fred and I materialized back at the Valley of the Node, Sleipner rolling off the Node onto the stone beyond.

I had half-expected the shoggoth to have come out here and be roving around, but ignorance, fear, or simple habit had kept them inside the ancient tunnels and caverns they had roamed for so long.

Well enough. They were Karma sources for Tens who knew what they were doing, perhaps. Briggs and Sama definitely wanted to clear out a mountain or two of them.

-Where to?- Master Fred /asked calmly, as if the past two days’ several thousands of miles of driving had been nothing.

I could Teleport us back to the ocean shore, Waterjump us to any beach along the route we’d taken down here, and Teleport us again back to wherever I’d left a Seal.

Teleport was nominally a Valence V for arcanists like Wizards and Sorceresses. However, Binders were Dimensional specialists, and had all sorts of magical shortcuts for Dimensional magic. One of the awesome things about having side Classes was occasionally being able to exploit those differences in Valences and knowledge to learn a better variety of spell, if you had the proper Theurgies.

To Binders, Teleport was a Valence IV, not a V. That meant it could be Reached, doubling its range, and incidentally made getting rep counts for it MUCH easier.

I’d already got enough rep counts to reduce the cost of Reach Spell to zero for IV Valences. I had a Lived-Line, and I had Seals placed here and there, even if they weren’t Energized.

The 10 mile/Caster Level doubled, doubled, and doubled to 80 miles per Level. That was definitely enough with my Caster Level to cross most of a continent with a single Spell, and if someone also Energized the receiving point and the sending point, I could Teleport from the tip of South America all the way back to Detroit.

When Binder hit Nine, I would access Greater Teleport, and could Teleport anywhere on the planet, even crossing water as long as I had a Lived-Line going there, as it had no range restriction, only accuracy limits.

But going back was not the plan. We had places to go, and things to do. The whole far side of the Mountains of Madness had to be put onto The Map, and a Lived-Line crossing Antarctica was too useful not to put into place.

Also, I could collect a bunch of ooze parts for future use, which a large number of Alchemists were taking eager notes on. Tossing bottles of oozes onto an enemy could be a very useful battle tactic. Who expected to be killed by slimes?

I pointed at the far side of the valley, where the Mountains of Madness that we hadn’t covered yet extended off into the distance. Sleipner obligingly turned and motored silently off that way, eager to see more of the world, and the Trailfinding I was keeping up on him making sure he constantly knew the terrain and best path to take.

We’d be zigging and zagging between the mountains again, passing over the dimensional divide the mountains had come from, setting down Seals just outside those limits, and generally doing the exploring job while we were here, setting things up for all those who would come after us.

We took off for the mountains, and many eager eyes were following us as the Map began to grow into new magic-bound lands once again.