Ironically enough, Cira’s father had chosen her next destination. She descended back to Lazulei and reoriented Breeze Haven according to his instructions. Gnashing her teeth the whole way, Cira couldn’t stop thinking about the letter she received from dear old Dad.

  Until I get some answers, this is the last thing I’m going to do for you. Your stupid compass can wait.

  She felt like a little girl again, sulking in rebellion among the dewy flowers of the garden. Cira had to listen to her father, and always did, but somehow this felt different. It was like the option to listen or not was stolen from her. She already intended to return to the Boreal, but to be told that’s where her destiny awaited as if it was someone else’s great machinations was irritating beyond belief. Any sense of volition Cira thought she had earned thus far blew away on the wind like laundry left out to dry on a stormy day.

  As much as it pained her to immediately follow her father’s direction, she didn’t want to return to the Boreal yet. And even more infuriatingly, her sorcerous curiosity was burning to see what may await her.

  “Dammit, Dad! Fine!” Cira resigned herself. She leaned over the fence and watched the sky approach from the foremost point of Breeze Haven’s garden as it travelled through the clouds. “This better be good.”

  Her investigatory vacation was cut short, so Cira found no reason not to lounge in the garden for a couple days straight and stuff her face. Accomplishing nothing and catching up on sleep. It was a comfortable, cloudy daze, but all good things came to an end. Breeze Haven alerted her of an incoming obstacle directly in their path and upon pulling out her spyglass, “That has to be it, right?”

  Nina popped over and sat on the spyglass as she pulled it from her face. Her only response was a shrug.

  “Well, I’m no sailor but I think I know my way around the helm spire.” For fine-tuning, Breeze Haven could be set to a specific direction through an artifact similar to a sextant. Like Prismagora, it could still see the stars on a cloudy day. She could also pull a lift rope down from the ceiling to ascend at will, or follow the pulley to where it met the forward throttle’s mechanism and lock them in place to ensure an accurate rate of ascension. “I know this is it. Are you sure you don’t want to wait on the ship?”

  Nina became airborne as Cira put the spyglass back in her pocket and then landed on her shoulder.

  Alright then. “Guess we better go take a look.”

  Cira could see out, but from the other side it would look like she was emerging from a cloud. Today she was unsure what to expect, so went with an all-purpose set of robes that she made years ago from scrap materials rather than her father’s leftover garments.

  Made of hardened leather she treated herself and steelworm silk in the flexible spots like joints. The set was tight fitting and designed to be used in physical combat if need be. While it was enchanted to allow her better affinity to the aether itself, she was able to levy the silk into giving her greater earthen authority.

  General aether had many benefits including increased efficiency and mana induction or reduced mental backlash. If she really needed to get into it, Conduit was waiting to be pulled out of a ring on her left pinky to multiply her base control tenfold.

  Cira realized recently that she was able to store her orichalcum staff in the same way as the pendant from old Io. That meant it could be called upon at any time from her soul, as could Prismagora. At least two Pillars of the Sage and numerous more of the supposed Saint could be summoned at a moment’s notice. If her father decided to throw her into another trial, or if whatever he wanted to show her was overtaken or destroyed, she would be ready to react.

  This included multiple layers of barrier that protected from different phases of space, the primary elements, as well as a few more difficult to deal with auxiliary elements. Next, she did her best to emulate a thin sheet of void outside of it all just to see how it went, hoping to turn something like it into a barrier in the future.

  There were countless caves through which to enter this porous egg of an island, and no matter which Cira cast her vision through, they consistently branched off into even more countless paths. Without pulling a drastic move, she was going to have to suck it up and explore the old-fashioned way.

  “Then we will begin on the surface and work our way down.” Cira looked to Nina who offered only a wink. In seconds, she had landed at the top and counted over forty different holes she could jump down. Worst case, she could travel through solid earth, but for now it was best to find the one through which the most mana was flowing.

  Nina’s face turned as serious as it could, and a pitch-black sorcerer’s hat manifested on her head.

  “That’s right, Nina.” Cira let Prismagora enter her hands because it was best attuned to obtuse sorceries. Without the courage to wield Atlas again quite yet, this was her best bet for wide-range spatial feats. “Let’s wrap this job up neatly and move on with our journey.”

  Crawling the tunnels with her mind was too slow no matter how she cut it. To perform proper large-scale perception magic, Cira needed a very specific set of conditions. She would not know such fine details as how the earth broke up into tunnels large enough to fly a boat through or too small for a mouse to escape, but she could see a general portrayal of what she desired over the entire area if she attuned her sorcery just right.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Prismagora flashed a black and white light reminiscent of the extremes of anything that could fill any given space, strobing at lightspeed or not at all depending on what Cira had determined to be potential energy and the observer’s effect.

  Now she saw the whole island. It really was shaped like an egg, but she may as well have been looking at a paper cutout at this scale.

  Life. Where is it?

  There was at least depth, and now Cira could tell that there were indeed many sprinklings of life mana throughout this island. It didn’t feel quite human, but almost identical.

  There were even leftover traces through the tunnel she jumped down, and somewhere close to the bottom, there was a mass so dense she almost thought it was a single creature. However, it appeared to be some kind of underground community in a large, open chamber of the island’s interior.

  Let’s see… what’s the fastest way I can get there? Despite the fact that she only searched for life, water stood out as well. This revealed a spring almost dead-center of the island just below the surface, and it fell through a direct chasm to the sky below. Hardly a few streams caught enough water to travel more than a single level through this tall island, and there was only one which retained water within a lake.

  Just adjacent to the chasm, it appeared the city was built upon this lake, near the bottom of the island.

  “Nina… you were within Aquon for a while, weren’t you? Why don’t you sit tight in there for a while.”

  The nymph seemed to know what she meant, and returned to the cerulean gem that appeared before them both. With it hovering ahead, Cira quickly melded through the walls until she reached a chasm so dark only a single spot of light poked through directly below.

  The spring chasm, she called it.

  “Hang on, Nina.”

  Cira turned into water and began her rapid decent, becoming one with the waterfall as the gem of Aquon trailed close behind.

  On second thought… there were so many instances of life I neglected to count them, but… That’s a lot. Why would Dad send me to some underground city? I didn’t sense any particularly great sources of mana, but there is something peculiar about this all—

  Cira’s thoughts were cut off as a waterfall glanced across a near-flat spillway that protruded into some kind of residential district.

  Becoming herself again with a blue gem on one shoulder and a sorcerous nymph on the other, Cira looked across the slate on which she found herself bathing in the mist of broken waterfalls. To either side there was something that looked like pedestrian pathways, so Cira chose the one with the fewest people—to her left. Approaching, she couldn’t help but inspect the people though.

  Why… do they all have horns? A variety of colors, but mostly black, just like I remember…

  This was deeply troubling to Cira, but it seemed they were all terrified and ran away at the sight of her too, especially given the unconscious waves of mana she gave off trudging away from the waterfall.

  What the hell is this place?

  She couldn’t help but cast her vision anywhere it would reach and couldn’t find a single citizen without horns. Some were short like the man from Ventra, but they came in all shapes and sizes.

  Just what does this mean?!

  She was beginning to grow frantic and found herself looking upon a large city square beneath an imposing building that she could even see above the skyline with her eyes.

  “There.” Cira knew she had to reach the tallest building. That’s where the answers were. Disappearing in a swath of black lightning, the crackling stunned everyone present in the square. People screamed when they met her eyes, praying to the sky and stumbling out of the area. A particularly shrill cry to her side drew her attention and Cira locked eyes with a boy who couldn’t be older than ten, horns curled toward her.

  No… Why are there children here?

  Staring into her cold, green eyes, the kid started bawling and collapsed in place like a hopeless possum. When she averted her gaze, Cira realized she had thrown this city into absolute pandemonium.

  Storefronts closed their doors and shutters slammed shut. Bells rang in the distance and Cira only had one thought while frightened cries of innocent townsfolk echoed.

  This really is… just a city. Why would I terrorize them so thoughtlessly?

  Children wailed in the streets, dragged away by frantic strangers out of breath and weeping. They pleaded for their loved ones and prayed to some god of yore she couldn’t catch the name of.

  The wind was taken right out of her sails and she could only look around in shameful silence as the town square emptied. Trails of fear and grief sounded in the distance, and Cira heard something else approaching.

  All of a sudden there were at least a hundred more demons in heavy armor, wielding swords, spears, bows, or staves, all pointed at her. They filled up each street and alleyway she could have taken to escape while ushering powerless citizens away from her reach. Each one of them had twisted or branching horns protruding from their heads, and they all looked at Cira like she was some kind of monster.

  Wait… I can explain.

  Cira had once again acted too hastily and found herself in trouble—no, causing trouble—within the blink of an eye. Nina was already looking at her when she turned, pointedly blinking with a blank expression on her face.

  “What…” Cira’s breath caught in her chest, “Just what is this place—”

  The air pressurizing quickly silenced her, and she felt a sinister mana coagulating near the gates to the tall building she aimed for.

  Something’s coming… how did I not see this before?!

  It was strong. The mana was only gaining and she could barely see the space distorting thus far. Whatever this creature was, it meant business.

  “Is it you?” A woman’s world-weary voice shook the cavern, and a blanket of silence fell in response, Cira included. “Who wishes to disturb my hard-earned peace?”

  Cira watched her walk straight out of the aether. She had hair white like the moonlight pierced by thick black horns with a single twist that pointed forward like spears, and the look in her eyes could have killed a lesser sorcerer.

  Cira could already tell, the average witch couldn’t hold a candle to this woman. Her mana ruptured over the city and people were noticeably brought to their knees. Children too preoccupied with running were brought back to tears.

  “Who are you…?” Cira narrowed her gaze, staring down this powerful horned woman.

  “You dare invade my home and demand answers from me?” That sinister power thrummed in the air, and for the first time Cira watched it form.

  A light pale blue to the point of almost being mistaken for white flowed from her back and rose to the ceiling like a peacock’s plumage. If Cira didn’t know any better, she would think it was casting a barrier over the entire city, while all within shimmered beneath its influence—retreating citizens and soldiers alike.

  No… this is definitely a barrier. I am a threat supposedly equivalent to a dragon which has suddenly appeared in the center of town. Can I blame the heaviest hitter for appearing to defend against me?

  But that pale light… It’s another curse. I’m positive.

  “Dad…” Cira swore under her breath, “Just why did you send me here?”