Private Tales Above the Mountains

[Talus]

The Spine

Talus stood quietly next to the portal stone where he had last seen Finn. It had been months...no, more than a year since he'd last seen her. A lot had happened in that time, more than he could have recounted in a single night.

He was a full Dreadlord now, given the rank of Third upon his graduation by the design of his now former Mentor; Fen. It was during that graduation that he had done something drastic, something that no one had ever done before. It had sent raucous waves through Anirian society even though he was simply a lowly third.

For a month his name had been on the tongue of many Nobles; Talus Morrid, the Dreadlord who Swore to the Anirian Guard.

It was a wonder that no one had tried to have him killed, but with the protections of Generals Ilyana and Brin he had somehow made it through. The two Commanders of the Guards North and Eastern armies respectively had almost instantly flocked to his side, pledging soldiers to watch his back and ensuring that he survived.

They had told him that his actions had been foolish, but each appreciated the move more than they could have said. Apparently it marked a significant shift in politics, one that no one had expected.

Talus had no idea about all that, but he was glad for his decision.

Shortly after the first month General Ilyana had requested he go on a mission. It had been straightforward enough, well except for one thing.

Apparently the damned artifact he was supposed to find was located in the Spine, and worse than that; on the highest peak in the entire mountain range. Thousands of meters in the air and almost impossible climb, Talus had been at a loss for how to actually get to the damned thing. Then he'd had an idea.

That was why he was now standing here, clutching the odd little device that the Dwarves had given him and Finn both.

It gave off a soft glow, and had ever since he'd turned it on. He only hoped that Finn still had hers.

 

[Finn]

It took Finn two days to notice that the talisman the dwarves had given her was going off. She'd stuffed it into a corner of the cabin of her airship. Her airship had a lot of improvements since she'd last seen Talus. A larger cabin with two small cots bolted down. Places along the sides of the deck for micro-gardens. She had sails, ropes, and gears. Pulley systems and even an anchor system. She'd made a rain-catch tank and better food storage areas for long voyages.

In theory, she could stay airborn for a month without having to touch down and re-supply, maybe even two.

Following the talisman, it took her a week to get to where it was guiding her. Back to portal on the lake. If she hadn't had good winds it would've taken her maybe a fortnight. But luckily for Talus, the winds were excellent. The shadow of her ship would soon dwarf the portal area.

 

[Talus]

Talus was half asleep when one of the children that he had paid to alert him of the Airships coming ran to him and nudged him awake.

"MISTER MISTER! IT'S HERE, YOU WEREN'T LYIN!"

The boy's voice was about the most grating thing that he had ever heard, but it was enough to jar him awake with a broad smile. There was no mistaking the airship for anything else. A vessel that could fly? Only one person had one of this.

"No. No I wasn't." Talus said as he pushed himself up off the ground and looked into the sky.

There to the east he saw the ship, a smile touching his face.

"Go get some sweetcakes." He told the boy, flipping him a silver as he began to walk into the large clearing nearby.

 

[Finn]

The aeronaunt's ship bumped down gently. Multiple sandbags were lowered with a pulley-system. The pilot didn't even wait for the anchor to go before she climbed over the sides, her booted-feet landing lightly on the grassy field. Sky-blue eyes zeroed in on Talus.

"Well, well, well. A year later and look who called. New uniform too, huh?"

Her hair was longer. And her pale skin seemed a bit tanner than when he'd seen her last. It was clear she was spending most time outside.

 

[Talus]

"Promotion." He motioned to the emblem on his coat.

The last time that he'd seen her Talus had still been an Apprentice. He wondered what had changed with her in all that time. Fingers brushed gently against the hilt of his sword, hand coming to a rest there as he approached her.

"How have you been, Finn?" He asked. "Find that city in the sky?"

The one that he hadn't even believed to be real.

 

[Finn]

"Ah," Finn's eyes lingered on the emblem. The girl peeled off her gloves and stuffed them in her back pocket. A girl wearing trousers - gasp! If Talus was planning any sort of trap or double-cross, she wouldn't pick up on it. After all, Talus, and some of the dwarves, were the only friends she had.

"Maybe I did and maybe I didn't," the inventor cracked a lazy grin.

Digging a hand in her front pocket, she pulled out the talisman, a medallion on a strap of leather. As she held the metal part, nothing happened. When her index finger let the leather drop, it began pulsing a steady glow again, getting brighter as she walked closer to Talus and wherever his medallion was.

"You called? I'm assuming it's not because you're ready to run away and join me in the skies?"

 

[Talus]

"It's not." Now more than ever he couldn't afford that, not after he'd made the decision that he had.

Lips thinned for a second, and he pondered telling Finn about it for a few seconds before internally he decided it was not the time. Perhaps when all of this was said and done.

"How'd you like to find another city in the clouds?" He asked. "It's not floating, but it's high enough that I can't think of another way to get there."

Quickly Talus knelt, pulling his pack off of his bag and rummaging around for a moment before he produced an ancient looking parchment carefully rolled up. "Could be a fun little adventure."

He suggested with a smile.

 

[Finn]

"Another high city, hm?" Finn stepped forward and held out her hand for the scroll. "What's the catch? And why do you need to find this city? I hope it's not expand Vel Anir territory on people not ready for it."

Finn liked to stay out of politics - liked to stay HIGH ABOVE them. But that didn't mean she was blind. She heard stories too. Fingers motioned for the scroll, palm up. Other hand remained on her hip as she eyed her friend.

 

[Talus]

Talus offered Finn the map, unfurling the scroll to reveal a depiction of a massive complex city. It seemed to be rooted inside of a mountain, crawling out only in brief branches and tunnels. "I think it's on the north side of the spine."

He told her honestly.

"I'm not expanding territory, or conquering anyone...I'm pretty sure there's no one left to conquer actually." All the books in the archives had hinted that the city had been abandoned thousands of years ago. "There's an artifact, something called a Didact."

He frowned, then decided Finn deserved the entire truth. "The Generals that ordered me to come here said it can read someones magic."

 

[Finn]

The girl leaned in closer and took out a pair of round, glass spectacles and looped the ends behind her ears. She'd run into a scientist on her travels that placed with glass to create these things for vision correction. Finn had, apparently, been something called near-sighted. Which of course meant she should've been wearing these all along and not necessarily for reading.

"As long as it's not another demon possessed artifact." Her tone was light but her face was serious. She knew Talus, of all people, would understand.

"And read magic. You mean like tell you what kind of magic they can do? Or more like if they have magic at all?"

 

[Talus]

"Both? Maybe?" He said quietly.

For a brief second he considered just how honest he should be with her. State secrets were not a joke back in Vel Anir, he could be executed for letting them slip...but Finn was his friend.

His only friend that he truly knew would never try to kill him.

"Things have changed back home Finn." He told her. "I...I did something drastic. A lot of people want me dead now. Most of them nobles."

Swearing to the Guard had been dangerous, probably too dangerous. "This could help me, the people on my side."

The Guard wanted to use the artifact not to identify children, not to do the same thing as the Dreadlords, but instead to help fight them. At least get a better sense of what they would have to face if it ever came to it.

 

[Finn]

Steady blues searched his face as a light breeze picked up wild strands of dirty blonde. Arms crossed as she silently considered his words.

"What did you do and how will it help you?"

It was clear Finn wanted more information before agreeing to this. Even though she was glad to see her friend again.

 

[Talus]

He frowned for a brief moment, and then relented. "Back home, when you...graduate the magic academy they force you to swear to one of the Ruling Houses."

Explaining Anirian Politics wasn't exactly easy.

"It's a mechanism, gives us a patron but also makes sure that none of us have too much individuality. It also means that those with power...stay in power." He sighed. "I didn't swear to a House, I swore to Vel Anir's army."

He realized quickly that it probably didn't make much of a difference to Finn, and thus he quickly explained. "The Army is separate from all the Houses, it answers to them all, and thus technically doesn't answer to any of them. They're a neutral force among the Great Houses, the only thing that can equal them at all."

Mostly because nearly every Anirian citizen served at one point or another.

"Things are tense, and I'm the only mage with the Guard. If we get this item, it will at least help me survive the others who may come after me." The threats in the dark.

 

[Finn]

"You're loyal till the end," she observed quietly. She knew Talus didn't think he had a choice to leave. But he really did. or at least, he had. She could see why he wouldn't want to now. If it was such a bold thing that he'd done, she could see now why the guard would want to keep him all the more.

"Okay," she breathed.

"So, you're not going to use it to find those with magic, like kids, and do anything to them?" Again, she wasn't trying to hurt his feelings. She just had to know up front what his intentions were.

 

[Talus]

"No." Talus said, his lips thinning at the thought. He was not one of the fanatical ones, not one of those in Vel Anir to continue living as they did.

He did not even want the rank of Archon.

The young Dreadlord wanted change. He did not know what that change would look like, or even what it could be, but he wanted it. He'd never enjoyed the business of hunting children, had never liked his time at the Academy.

It was part of the reason why he'd sworn to the Guard.

"It's more about identifying Dreadlords and others." He told her. "So I can know how to beat them."

If it came to that.

 

[Finn]

"Okay," she breathed, the intense and scrutinizing expression on her face slowly lightening. He was her friend and she trusted his word. That's what friends did.

She turned and began back toward her airship, casing him a glance over her shoulder.

"What're you waiting for already? C'mon and let's go," a smile cracked in his direction as she pulled herself in and over the side. "I'll need you to pull up the anchors." She got to work on the navigation. Setting the sails for the direction they wanted to go.

"I wonder. If we find the device, if it'll work on me?"

 

[Talus]

Talus went through the motions of doing what Finn told him, mostly because he'd half forgotten how her ship actually worked. "It's possible."

He said in answer.

"I'm not a scholar by any means, I can barely read." That was something he had never actually admitted to anyone before. Finn was the only person who wouldn't try to hold it against him, the only one who wouldn't use it against him. "And I haven't told anyone about your...abilities."

Talus hadn't told anyone about her at all. "But, even anti-magic is magic. Just a different form."

He knew that much.

 

[Finn]

"I guess if we're lucky, we'll find out." With a heave of the lines, the balloon-ship began rising into the air. Finn looked over the side at a little-boy yelling and waving something. Some sort of food in his hands.

Sweetcakes?

Throat gently cleared. The inventor looked at Talus. "I never thought you would." That's how much she trusted him. Before. When they'd parted ways. "Tell anyone about me - what I can do."

 

[Talus]

He smiled.

Often times Talus had questioned if he had any morals remaining. If there was any part of him that even wanted to fight for what little good was left in Vel Anir. What Finn told him made him think that he was at least still good.

A part of him. No matter how small it may be.

"I've done some terrible things, Finn." He said quietly, watching the little boy run towards the slowly rising air ship. "Things that would mark me as little more than a butcher."

His fingers tightened on the railing. "I tell myself that I was made to do them, that I had to do them in order to survive."

He sighed quietly.

"But I don't ever want to be in that position again. I don't want anyone else to be in that position." That was why he had joined the Guard. That was why he hadn't joined one of the Houses. He wanted to change the system, break it if he could.

This was just the only opportunity he could see to do it.

 

[Finn]

"Well," she said quietly. "I hope you're able to find the strength to not do them again." The balloon climbed hire, its shadow on the earth becoming smaller and smaller. She knew what Talus was telling her was weighty indeed.

The little inventor could only hope that he acted the way around her - around everyone. Or could start doing that if he hadn't before. She still remembered when she first found him - nearly dead, bloodied, and broken on that snowy mountain.

She'd always wondered if she'd made a mistake and saved a monster.

But only within the first few hours that she'd found him.

 

[Talus]

He stared quietly for a moment at the countryside.

Oddly enough, the last year had not been filled with atrocities or butcheries. He had somehow managed to avoid that sort of work while under his Mentor. Most of his missions had been about gathering information, seeing the world.

It had been an...odd education. "How have you been?"

Talus asked, deciding it was better to change the subject.

"I see you've upgraded your...ship." He still wasn't entirely sure that was the right name for it.

 

[Finn]

She beamed. A smile lighting up a slightly tanner face. "You noticed." A deep inhale of the fresh, crisp, cold air of the spine as they rose higher still.

"Been great. Traveling the skies. Went back to that orc village we were at for a bit. We traded some skills and ideas. Almost convinced me to stay long-term. But the skies were calling."

She cleared her throat.

"Made the cabin a bit bigger. There's a bunk in there now. Figured it'd be good in case a...friend traveled with me again."

 

[Talus]

He flashed a smile to her. "Well that'll come in handy now."

From what he could tell of the map they would have to travel far into the north and much higher than they had before. A part of him wondered if this marvelous contraption would even be able to climb that high.

If it wasn't, he was sure that Finn could think of something to make it.

"Find your floating city?" He asked, genuinely curious if she had actually been able to achieve that dream already.

 

[Finn]

"Not yet," locking the wheel in place, she stepped around to look over the prow of the ship. They were making good speed and altitude. Should be okay. She was more concerned with how far they were going up. Air tended to get thinner and colder the higher they went. She hoped this city he was trying to find was still breathable.

The next few days went without incident. They fell into a routine. Eating, chatting, sleeping, checking the charts, checking the lookout points, and repeat. The weather was looking good until the third day. A thick mist of clouds settled in until she could barely see a foot in front of her face.

Finn held the wheel in a white-knuckled grip as she called out to Talus.

"I don't like this."

 

[Talus]

The last three days had been the most relaxing he'd had in as long as Talus could remember.

For once, no one was trying to kill him, no one was trying to hurt him, and nobody was looking for him to give orders. All he did was spend time with his friend. There was a serenity to that he couldn't quite describe. Plus, there was no guilt from not doing his mission.

It was on the third day that trouble hit. "Just a storm?"

He asked quietly, frowning for a moment at the thick mist.

It was hard for him to know the weather here. He had only been to the Spine once before, and during that time they had nearly died more than once. Hopefully this time it wouldn't be the same.