Bienskurr Mountains, Cruinog

  Elders Bystrika and Graylock were somewhat helpful in remembering what happened a thousand years earlier. Elder Bystrika remembered a meteor shower that had disturbed one of their Seers at the time. She warned that they would be the beginning of the end of the Earthborne. Elder Bystrika had been a child at that time, and time passed without anything happening. Seers weren't always completely accurate. Many people began to dismiss that Seer. She'd been old even then and died not long after.

  Many forgot about the warnings of the old Seer. It was around that time that the first of the Banshees began to be born to their race, but it was very rare and no one connected it with a meteor shower. Even when nearly a millennium went by and they could no longer live on the blood of animals, the Fallen began to appear due to the inherent dangers of feeding on humans. This prophecy was long lost to traces of time.

  The younger generation had been shocked to hear it. If no one had specifically asked, perhaps even Elder Bystrika wouldn't have remembered such a thing. Corven and the younger generations were slightly aghast. They didn't blame the Elder Bystrika, or even their ancestors for ignoring the lone voice of one Seer seeing a celestial phenomenon and claiming it to be an ominous sign.

  Darius and Britiana didn't argue with their conclusions. They didn't explain that the meteor shower wasn't a warning of the end, but possibly the cause of it. He was about to call everyone to rest, they'd have to awaken tonight to investigate the Dullahan and the fog, but a young man and his Dragon wife suddenly appeared.

  The Dragon woman ignored the Earthborne King and directly approached Britiana and Darius to tell them why they came.

  Corven clenched his jaw. "We aren't abandoning the banshee. We cannot find them," he said finally. Even though most of their kind saw the banshee as ominous, they were still their kind. Though they often lived far away from others for their own sanity. They didn't know whether they were killed by the Dullahan or had voluntarily hidden.

  Corven chose to believe the latter. Afterall, the Banshee could see death coming.

  Britiana scrunched her face after hearing about the banshees. "So, what you're saying is, once, a long time ago, one of your Seers saw a meteor shower and foretold doom and no one listened to her. After she died, women began to be born who could foresee death and they screamed it at you. And the solution was to shun them?" she finally couldn't hold back some judgement in her tone.

  She stood and fluffed her skirts. "It's time to rest," she told her people and flounced out of the cavern. Isa quickly caught up to her, helping her flounce out imposingly.

  Not bothering to even voice an opinion, Delancey followed. ZsaZsa also followed along. She didn't particularly feel comfortable with her paternal people here. Lazarus collected the things they brought out for the mages to rest on, and the rest of the Silvermoon delegation followed along.

  The young Graylock man was pulled along by his wife. Whatever the Silvermoon siblings had planned, they clearly had no intention of communicating with the Earthborne King at the moment.

  Corven actually flushed. These things were done long before he was born. He didn't know how to react to this situation. Did that girl child just judge him? Evanka sighed at his dilemma. She loved him, but it had been an uphill battle for nearly three centuries to get him to open his mind in some regards.

  A nearby hunter sputtered indignantly. "What is that girl implying? How dare she look down upon our King!" he said fiercely.

  Another hunter was thoughtful. "Did the Banshees know the Dullahan was coming? Is that why we can't find them? Did they hide? Why didn't they warn us?" he asked.

  Eve had stayed nearby quietly after the Elders had been sent for. She sneered at them. "Would you have listened? The Wailing Women wail a warning but no one listens. Why wail in vain?" she said, shaking her head. "If Raven's allegiance has changed, who can blame her?" she asked. She turned on her heel and went to where her cousin was overseeing the activation of the Bridge during the evacuation. Eve informed her of everything in their private telepathic link.

  Raven sighed. She'd wanted to bring the Banshees when they were preparing to go to their new home the Seers found. But there were too many dissenting voices. Even though she was a mage, she was still a woman, and her voice wasn't loud enough. Those who agreed with her weren't loud enough.

  Eve squeezed her shoulder and turned. She'd go to the Dragons and see what their plans were. She'd long lost faith in their King and kin. Raven understood her cousin and didn't stop her. The King was right. Her allegiance had changed long ago, it was why she lived in Silvermoon and rarely went back to New Bienskurr.

  Amadeus walked alongside Darius as they followed Lady Britiana to their new campsite. It was obviously within her perception range because she was walking with purpose. "My lord, is Lady Britiana angry?" he asked, a bit surprised. He'd never seen her angry.

  Darius nodded. "It's rare, but it happens," he agreed. Her aura at the moment was even colder than Thale. They climbed a rocky path up a mountain until they found a sizable ledge. Wallace and Spencer had already set up the guards' tent and another one for Darius.

  Britiana stopped and crossed her arms and glanced at Isa expectantly before turning away to stare off into the distance. Isa immediately began setting up a tent for her. Delaney and ZsaZsa began setting up their own tents.

  "Setting up" really only involved taking them out of storage and setting them on the ground.

  "My lord! My lady," the Silver Dragon girl who came with her husband came up behind them.

  "Set up another tent," Darius instructed the guards, and addressed the couple. "We're going to rest before dark. We'll be talking about the Banshees then," he told them.

  Johan Graylock bowed to him. "Thank you, my lord," he said, adopting his wife's mannerisms for dealing with the Silvermoon siblings.

  Adora Silvermyst also bowed. "This has been a thorn in my husband's heart for as long as I've known him," she said.

  Darius nodded. "Rest. It should be quite late in Silubra," he said.

  The couple agreed.

  Seeing them following wasn't a surprise, but finding Eve also coming up was. She moved to ZsaZsa. "You all rest. I'll stay with my little cousin here," she said with a smile. ZsaZsa was a bit surprised, but didn't argue. She led the older woman into her tent. Though she never needed it before, she also had a bed of Emphyralian soil. After drawing the array, the little energy she'd regained was gone. She brought it out of storage and stripped down to her shift and lay down. "Forgive me for being a poor host, cousin Eve," she said.

  Eve shook her head. "Rest. For you to have the Dullahan is already a miracle. No need to keep pushing yourself for my sake," she said.

  "It's daytime, you should also rest. Lay down with me. The soil is good for you," she invited.

  Eve hesitated but she could feel the energy emitted by the rich dark earth. She removed her outer garments, hat and boots and lay down as well, and nearly groaned at the rush of energy. ZsaZsa laughed lightly at her expression before drifting off to sleep.

  Soon the entire camp was quiet as they waited for nightfall and the moon to rise.

  --

  There were only a thousand or so people left on Cruinog and it would take about a hundred or so trips to send everyone over. Not long after the Silvermoon delegation left, Raven taught Evanka how to activate the Bridge and left to rest herself. Some people protested when she intended to leave the ancestral hall, but she ignored them. When she found Eve resting with ZsaZsa, she just entered their tent and settled her own bed inside, and climbed in to rest.

  She greatly felt the difference between Cruinog and Emphyralis after steadily using magic for an hour. She wasn't near her limit by any means, but she could feel that she wasn't recovering nearly as fast as she should have been.

  Eve opened her eyes, glanced at her as she settled in then closed her eyes again.

  Even until the sun went down, the remaining Earthborne hadn't gone through the Bridge, but the Dragons and Noxies began to stir.

  After resting, Britiana was in better spirits. She bustled around organizing their "breakfast". Delia, Alistair, Aman, and Imre patrolled the area, looking for anything suspicious.

  Eve came out of ZsaZsa's tent, insisting that they both continue to rest, but Raven refused. She wasn't tired, but she made ZsaZsa rest awhile longer, but she found it nearly impossible, so she got up as well. Besides, she was famished.

  Johan and Adora joined them as well. Johan had been a teenager when he came to Emphyralis, so he was familiar with Cruinog, but he definitely felt a difference here. If it weren't for looking for his sister, he would have never wanted to come here.

  Britiana invited Adora to eat with them, while ZsaZsa shared some of her father's bloodwyne with Johan and Eve. Johan was surprised. "Elder Niklaus' bloodwyne is amazing! Much better than the Graylock recipe," he lamented. "He could make a fortune selling it," he said.

  ZsaZsa chuckled. "Does he need that little money? Besides, he got lucky and hunted a vraekharn," she said. Johan expressed his understanding. He still thought even with a vraekharn, his family's recipe wouldn't be this good.

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  Eve was drinking the bloodwyne with an unclear expression on her face. One sip of this contained more vital energy than any human she'd ever fed on. She faintly regretted staying behind in Cruinog, but soon shook off these thoughts.

  "What are your plans for the banshee?" she asked the two siblings.

  "We can only look for them," Britiana said. "Do you have a globe or a map of the world?" she asked.

  "Not with me. We can't make things appear out of thin air here," she said with a slightly wry smile.

  "I think there's a globe in the house," Raven said, and began to "look" through the house in her storage device. She produced the globe and set it on the table. She understood Britiana's intention when she asked. She also produced a crystal on a chain, and a needle. "Give me your hand," she said to Johan.

  The young man held out his hand. Raven pricked his finger and dripped a drop of blood on the crystal and held it over the globe. She began to chant a spell. Soon the crystal glowed a blood red and began to sway in the air. The globe began to spin. Soon, the crystal hit a certain point on the globe.

  Eve looked at the spot. "That's the moors near the Eerie Sea," she said. "That separates the mainland from the Isle of Eyre," she explained to the foreign Dragons. She tapped the mountains a fair distance from the coast. "This is where we are," she explained.

  "How long will it take to get there?" Darius asked.

  "By Dragon flight? Several hours," Raven answered.

  Darius frowned. "We don't have time to go tonight unless we split up, but we're already missing two people," he said.

  "I'll go alone with Johan," Adora said. "When we arrive there, I can use the blood resonance spell to find her," she explained. She wasn't a mage but she had taken many magic classes in Silvermoon Academy. She could be considered nearly third tier. The blood resonance scrying spell Raven used was only a second tier spell.

  "Take Delia with you. Stay above any fog," Britiana said.

  Adora sighed with relief. She was worried they wouldn't agree. And to send a guard with them was also unexpectant.

  "Thank you, my lady."

  Delia bowed to Britiana and Darius. The trio prepared to set off. The Dragons transformed and Johan climbed on his wife's back with practiced ease. They jumped off the mountain ledge and soon were lost in the darkness of the night.

  "We'll have to compile a list of the known banshees and find their relatives," Britiana said.

  Raven agreed. "I'll take care of it. I'll go back to New Bienskurr," she said. Though she was worried about the planet, he felt quite distant from it. She felt she could better help her people by bringing the banshees home where they belong.

  "Let's wait until we hear back from Delia. The banshees could be together," Darius suggested.

  Both Raven and Eve were a bit surprised. "Banshees are very solitary. When they meet their kin, they see their deaths," Eve explained.

  Britiana thought about it. "They all disappeared at the same time. Darius is right. Let's see if they're all together or not," she said.

  Raven agreed. They should know something by the end of the night.

  Britiana looked at Delaney. "Do you want to go back to Emphyralis?" she asked. Though they were curious about what was happening on Cruinog and decided to stay, that didn't mean they would keep Delaney indefinitely if she didn't want to be here.

  Delaney thought about it. By now, the bridges in Thale should have been built. "I'll go back," she agreed. "I'll go back to terranthea and do some research on the Wild Hunt. I'll also see if anything is written about it in the Book of Heck," she explained. She wanted to help, and as Britiana said, a legend that could reverberate through several realms hinted at something powerful.

  Both Britiana and Raven were surprised at the suggestion, and then understood it. "That's a good idea," Britiana said.

  Raven smiled. "Thank you," she said.

  Delaney shook her head. "I want to help, and this is the only way I figure I can," she said.

  "See if your legends might have anything to do with meteor showers, or metaphors for them," Darius suggested.

  Delaney nodded. She bid them farewell and stepped into the shadows, where she'd be safe if the fog suddenly rolled in.

  Britiana looked at ZsaZsa. "Now it's your turn. Time to see what we're dealing with," she declared. ZsaZsa nodded firmly. She also wanted to see what had attacked her.

  --

  Silvermoon, Emphyralis

  Chrystianna was informed as soon as Spencer Ironstryke and Wallace Moonlight returned from New Bienskurr alone with orders from Darius to find a technomage and a LandHealer. She met with the two guards and learned everything that had happened since they went to Cruinog. It caused her usually serene face to frown coldly.

  However, they didn't know the details around why Darius sent for a Technomage and a LandHealer. They knew the state of the earth there, but not the technology. Chrystiana understood that she wouldn't get more information from them.

  The next morning she received a Drake from Thale. It informed her that the Bridges were ready and asking for her help interrogating the captured Nyxie. She sighed. She chose her retinue and then carried with her the people Ysandar had carefully chosen. She'd do her part to start gearing up to break the Siege.

  Soon she made her way to Thale with a small retinue of guards. When she arrived, she couldn't see hints of the other completed Bridges, but she knew they would be there. She made her way to Icestorme Hall. Morganna greeted her and led her to the Generals.

  They bowed and greeted her. "Your Grace, Grand Duchess."

  Chrystianna smiled slightly. "I hear you're having a hard time getting information from the Nyxie," she said.

  Ulrik Icebridge sighed. "The Truthcallers have done all they can. The only other thing we can think of is telepathic intrusion," he said.

  Pierce nodded. "It might still end up damaged, but at least we'll be assured to get some information first," he said.

  Chrystianna sighed. "This would be easier if Bastian is still here," she said. Her twin brother was much better at getting into people's minds than she was.

  The Generals were silent at this. "He did what he thought was right. Shutting down the offworld Gates is for the good of all Emphyralis," Declan assured her.

  Chrystianna smiled slightly. "Of course, but sometimes I just miss his annoying face," she complained playfully. "All right, I'll do my best. Lead me to the Nyxie," she said.

  Marius took the lead, taking her into the Icestorme Hall's dungeons. He led her to a cell with a chained Nyxie with its murky black tail shallowly submerged in a pool to keep it alive.

  It hissed when it saw them. "You won’t get me to talk, stupid Dragons. Never talk," it said and cackled.

  Chrystianna narrowed her eyes. "I don't need you to talk," she said. She reached out with her mental power and drilled into the Nyxie's mind. Tapping memories was not an easy task. "Who do you take orders from?" she demanded. Memories flitted by, but they were too scattered.

  "Never tell. Never tell!" the Nyxie screamed wildly and flapped its tail wildly as it resisted.

  "Who is it?"

  More memories flickered by.

  The Nyxie screamed, a sound that caused some of the stones in the room to crack, and Ulrik to wince and put a magic barrier over his ears.

  Soon the Nyxie began to flop around and foam at the mouth.

  Chrystianna frowned and suddenly stumbled back. Blood started coming from her nose just as she cut off contact.

  "Your Grace!" the men were startled. She held up a hand to stop them from approaching. A handkerchief appeared in her hand and she wiped her nose. "There was a fourth tier ward on its memories concerning who was giving it orders," she said. "But there is indeed someone giving orders," she added with a cold smile. When she forcefully broke through the ward, she managed to confirm that much before the Nyxie died.

  The men were quite shocked. "A fourth-tier Mage?" Zane mused out loud.

  Marius pursed his lips and sneered. "A fourth-tier Mage left Icestorme shortly before the attack," he said.

  Fourth-tier Mages weren't rare, but they weren't common enough to hit one when randomly throwing a rock. Even if they weren't part of official Mage organizations, they would usually hold other important positions.

  Just like the Crowley sisters and Delaney. Even though they were unfamiliar with Emphyralis, they were still being courted by the various continents because they were fourth-tier mages with potential to become fifth-tier in less than two hundred years.

  Chrystianna shook her head. "Don't jump to conclusions. I didn't see a face. I can't even be sure of the gender. I just know a fourth-tier Mage set the ward," she said.

  Marius nodded. "I understand, Your Grace," he said. He knew he couldn't let his personal feelings interfere with his judgment.

  "Do you have something against the Mage you mentioned?" Chrystianna asked.

  Marius flattened his lips. "Kyleon Pugoks," he said.

  Zane raised a brow. "isn't that the current Second Mage? You suspect him?" he asked.

  Marius shook his head. "He always bothers Mom. Even before Dad died, but after he died, he became even more overbearing," he said.

  Chrystianna thought about this. Terrance Stormbringer died during a particularly bad attack on the coastal regions. Was that a coincidence? She shook her head. "You'll know once you investigate him," she said. "I'll leave it to you. I'll return to Silvermoon with the Crowleys," she said. She then handed Ysandar a pendant. "A thousand troops in a pocket dimension," she told him.

  Ysandar accepted the pendant reverently and bowed.

  Pocket dimensions were high level magical artifacts, but they allowed independent environments that functioned like small worlds. Similar to dimensional storage devices they could be anysize, but to support life took a mind boggling amount of magic, energy, and time to craft. The number of these dimensions were only a few thousand known. They were usually in the hands of large or wealthy families or high ranking people.

  The one Chrystianna had wasn't complex. It was basically just a white space with a breathable environment. The guards inside carried their own supplies to survive until they were called out. There was room to live and train. These thousand troops were elite among the Silvermoon Knight Corps.

  After leaving the Generals, she returned to have lunch with Morganna and the Crowleys before leaving with four cats and her guards. Right now, the knowledge that the Crowleys could transform into cats wasn't widely known. She was also, strangely enough, followed by Mason and Maddox.

  After playing with Phryne's gaming device, Maddox expressed an interest in seeing Terranthea. Morganna thickened her face enough to ask the Crowleys for this favor. She jumped at the chance to send Maddox away with a reasonable excuse. Mason went along to supervise his younger brother. The Crowley family didn't have a reason to refuse. They found the child quite endearing.

  On the surface it wasn't strange for the two boys who'd been trapped on Thale all their lives to want to see Silvermoon. With a few guards following along, no one even paid much attention to this. Chrystianna didn't mind being a cover and she found the child nearly vibrating with excitement quite amusing.

  --