“What…the Hell is this?” I breathed, staring out at the frankly insane sight laid out before me.

  It’d been over a week, now, since the expedition had left Elderwyck behind. Despite some prodding that I would call downright gentle, Meia hadn’t answered any of mine and the Captain’s questions about what had happened with the other Orcs. The woman shut down each and every one of them, first dismissively, and then with more aggression as time went on. By the time she outright decked Captain Wersk for asking about it, I’d had to put my foot down and tell everyone to drop it. I also had to put out a few fires among those who were more militarily inclined, as they wanted the half-Orc woman punished for the assault.

  The fact was, she was a civilian volunteer, and even though I didn’t support her actions, I had limited authority over her. Our manpower when it came to high-level Classers with the specialized skills like what she brought to the table was very low. In fact, you could count them on one hand, myself included. And considering what Maria had whispered in my ears, about her suspicions regarding Meia Itzelan…

  It was best for all of us to leave matters be.

  If she didn’t want to talk about it, then we just had to leave it be.

  For now.

  Nothing much had happened on the journey north, in that week. There had been a few more villages we’d stopped by on the way, and they’d been plenty grateful for the aid given. By our calculations, we’d even passed the point on the continent where you could find Hollow Hill. It was the largest, most northern-oriented city in the lands owned by Herztal and south of the Barren Forest after all. I wished we had been able to actually visit the place, but there was no accessible route to the city from the western coast of the continent. It was entirely landlocked from this direction.

  And as our flotilla drew ever closer to our destination…tensions started to mount among the crew. Everyone who had chosen to come on this mission knew what our ultimate objective really was. I had made no secret about how we were meant to either infiltrate our way into the heart of the Mad God’s sullied Gem City…

  Or fight our way inside.

  All to slay a god.

  This was, at the best of times, meant to be nearly a suicide mission, and everyone knew that. But what was the alternative?

  Condemn our friends, families, and very people to life under the Skyfall forever?

  No. We had to end this, and I was proud of every single person who had voluntarily chosen to come along.

  Our initial thoughts had been to creep up on one of the long deserted stretches of the Barren Forest, upon the western coast. There, we would make landfall and set up a beachhead for the operation to come. Then we would assess the situation and make ready for the march upon the city once known as ‘Smaragd’, where the creature that Fynneas had become waited. Both the historical record, and the whisperings of Anima in my ear told me that the city was within this half of the Forest. If not quite a ways in.

  There was so much that was unknown about the state of both the Barren Forest and especially about Smaragd itself. If they had been present, the Rangers of Rhoscara would have been able to tell us quite a bit more about the Forest itself. They were the ones who dealt most with the mad inhabitants of this stretch of land, being the southernmost major city of the Principality. But they were clear on the other side of the continent, far into the east.

  Along with whatever remained of Addersfield.

  They couldn’t have told us anything about Smaragd, though. As far as anyone, including Anima, was aware, nobody not of the Elves had set foot in that cursed place since Fynneas had returned from the War in Heaven as a mad dog.

  We would be on our own when it came to the assault, and our numbers were…small, for such a force. In the entire planning phase of this expedition, there was an air of grim understanding that we’d just have to make many things up as we went along.

  Only…

  I don’t think anyone could have possibly predicted this.

  There was a shield blocking off the coast. A shockingly familiar-looking ward shield stretching off across the entirety of the horizon that I could see, bearding the coast. Through its translucent violet surface, I could see the grim, grey pine trees of the Barren Forest that I had seen several different times before. It was so absolutely gigantic in scale that we’d been seeing…something for a while now on the approach, we just hadn’t known what it was. From a distance, it had appeared as nothing more than a slight glow, and we had initially taken it for nothing more than the lightning of the Skyfall itself. But as the hours had passed, and we approached the line of where the Barren Forest should start, we’d found this instead. And once we’d reached a point where the veritable no-mans land began…we’d stopped to gawk at it, just outside of the poisonous shallows, idling in a small bay.

  It was…quite a spectacle. As I watched, an inattentive, remarkably stupid sea bird barreled headfirst into the barrier. They were instantly vaporized, in a dread inducing flash of magenta lightning.

  Okay. So it was dangerous, too, and not just a barrier.

  Great.

  “Gods…” I heard a voice breathe to my left. Dragging my gaze away from the frightening spectacle before us, I saw that the owner was, as I suspected, Nyx. The onyx Sculpted woman was in full Eclipsed Dawn battle dress, all heavily enchanted leather armor with familiar silver etchings and clasps. She shook her bare head slowly, side to side, amber eyes wide and overwhelmed in the face of everything. “What is this?”

  “Hells if I know,” Bleddyn growled, from standing next to her. The leader of the Unchained resistance movement in the Principality had his arms crossed over his broad chest, and a frown so deep on his face it looked like a snarl. “This is new.”

  Over Nyx's shoulder, I could see the other Captains looked just as overwhelmed as Nyx was. Once we’d gotten close enough to confirm just what we were dealing with, the Captains had all convened upon the Astray, taking rowboats to join me here at my helm. Seeing the commotion, Bleddyn had forcefully inserted himself into the meeting, and I didn’t really have the heart to turn him away. The man was a leader as well, even if he technically wasn’t a leader of the expedition. It was just us up here for now, while my Polaris Reach officers kept the peace down on the deck.

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  Because this was going to be a problem, I could just tell.

  Gustave Wersk was a young man, looking to be perhaps a year or two younger than me with military close-cut black hair and baby-blue eyes. Normally, in his red and green Herztalian officer’s armor, I’d say he looked cut out to be on the surface of a propaganda poster. But now, with his mouth open wide and gaping in shock, he just looked a bit ridiculous.

  Commandant Marcel was clutching hard at the long, yellow sleeves of his own, more Gnollish armor as he stood with us. We may not be very acquainted, but even I could see the stress in every line of his vulpine body. It wasn’t often I saw a scowl as large as his upon the face of Gnoll, and strangely…it just brought out his resemblance to Renauld more.

  As for Bella…

  She was as startled and dismayed as any of us at the sight of the barrier. The pirate Captain had forgotten her fear of me and was leaning on the railing to my right as we all stared out at the massive wall of warding that dominated the skyline. Her knuckles were clenched so hard on the wood that I could see the surface distort slightly. Normally, I would have been pissed at that, especially because it was Bella.

  But I suppose I could let it slide.

  The raven-haired pirate slowly shook her head, never looking away from the horizon-dominating shield. “We’re boned,” She said grimly.

  I was quiet for a moment, not…necessarily disagreeing. I noticed my fellow Captains didn’t immediately jump to deny it either. I took a deep breath. “Maybe. We need to know more. Give me a moment,” I said, reaching up with one hand to close off my right ear. This was something I’d discovered that helped me focus on contacting someone I was starting to think of as a benefactor of sorts. I’d done this often enough over the last few weeks that the other Captains knew what I was doing.

  Let’s see if Anima, the imprisoned Great Spirit of Life, had any input on the situation.

  Instantly, I fell into my meditative state, focusing on the flow of Aether around me. With my Aetherial sense, I plucked at a vibrant emerald strand of invisible energy, trailing off below me and out of sight. Ever since we’d first gotten back into contact, I’d become aware of this following me around like a tether. It didn’t do anything and had no real properties other than an alert system.

  Thankfully, that part worked well.

  “Nathaniel?” I heard the comforting voice of Anima reach me, a slight note of both relief and confusion within it. Since I was the only person she could actually speak to, trapped as she apparently was in the core of Vereden, Anima was always glad to hear from me. I tried to accommodate that, if only to comfort her, but I was the leader of a world-saving expedition. I was typically a bit busy. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you again till the morrow. Is aught amiss? ”

  I grimaced. “You…could say that,” I broadcast to her in a reluctant tone. As quickly as I could, I filled in the Great Spirit to what, exactly, I could see dominating the already dire skyline.

  When I was finished, Anima was quiet for a moment, and she finally spoke, the only thing she said was, “Oh.”

  I furrowed my brow, my anxiety trying to spike before my Middle Lattice crushed it. “What do you mean ‘oh’? I was hoping you might have more input than that.”

  “I…do,” Anima said in a small tone. “I was just thought that…” She sighed over our connection. “I suspect it is the Smaragd war wards, Nathaniel. Just as Blutstein has Kyron’s, these are likely the ones Fynneas constructed when he still possessed a shred of sanity.”

  I grit my teeth in frustration. “Why didn’t you tell me that Smaragd had its own war wards?!” I ran a hand through my hair in frustration, something I noticed didn’t exactly fill my fellow Captains with hope. “That’s very pertinent information, Anima!”

  “Because they were destroyed, Nathaniel!” Anime said sharply. “They should no longer exist! The fact they are operational once more is…is…it’s an impossible feat! I…” She sighed once more. “You’re…going to need some background on this one, Nathaniel. Settle in, if you want any hope of unraveling this knot.”

  In the real world, I sighed out loud and did my best to smile at the others. Judging by the look on their faces, it was really more of a grimace. “Excuse me one moment,” I said, stepping away from them and approaching the opposite railing.

  It didn’t really do anything, but it at least gave me a feeling of privacy and control.

  “All right,” I said, already exhausted with the situation. “Hit me.”

  Anima didn’t waste a second. “Long ago, when the usurpers conquered their network of planets, they built and established their ‘Gem Cities’. These were their centers of control from which they dominated the sapient races. Not just upon Vereden, either. Though we Great Spirits of Vereden have no contact with them, the Concord isn’t just a phenomenon on our planet. It extends to the other worlds, across the vast distances, and we had…very occasional contact with their Concordian residents when the Portal network still functioned. Through them, we knew that these Gem Cities were built upon the other worlds, as well. One for each race, from which that people was ruled. But here on Vereden, there were four. Blutstein, for the Humans. Turchese, for the Dwarves. Agathe, for the Gnomes-”

  I choked on my own spit for a moment, hearing that word. I heard Gustave take a step toward me in concern, but I just waved him off. “That’s who the Lost were?!”

  “Yes, yes, keep up, Nathaniel,” Anima replied impatiently. “I need not fear the Taboo of the Sea Beast from the center of Vereden. Besides, the creature never ventured into the Concord in the first place. Now, if I can continue?”

  “…please, do.”

  God. Gnomes.

  I couldn’t help but wish they were still around. That must have been wild.

  “And finally, Smaragd, for the Elves. These were the usurpers' centers of control on Vereden. But Smaragd was the central Gem City. You could, if you wanted, consider it the capital of the capitals. Fynneas was first among equals, among the ‘gods’ of Vereden. For those offworld, business was primarily conducted there. Though there were other Portals around the planet, it was there that the main, central one was located. And we, the Great Spirits, knew that.”

  The level of vicious satisfaction within her voice was a…tad out of character for the Great Spirit of Life, but I tried not to hold it against her.

  This was literally millennia-old hatred she was airing.

  “When we struck against them, we struck against Smaragd the hardest. You see, Fynneas had seen the great wards that Kyron had constructed for his city, and demanded the same for his seat of power. Kyron obliged and provided war wards of a strength surpassing that of Blutstein's own. Where Blutsteins' wards covered only the city, Smaragd’s had the capacity to cover thousands of miles. The entire western half of the Barren forest, to be precise.”

  I sighed slowly. I see. That had to be what this was.

  I kept quiet, though, because Anima didn’t seem to be finished.

  “But they were destroyed,” Anima said, deep frustration in her voice. “Our agents in that time infiltrated the city and demolished the central ward stone. Oh, Nathaniel, you cannot comprehend the Breakage Effect that was triggered by such a thing. Your Break Stone incident from the previous year was nothing in comparison. It took the usurpers years to fight off the seas of monsters that spawned.”

  The sigh of ancient, remembered satisfaction she loosed them honestly made me a bit uncomfortable.

  Then, she sobered up, and I could hear the frown in her voice. “But to see them restored at all is a mystery of which I have no answer. How was this accomplished at all? Who could possibly have the skill or power to do so?”

  I had no answer for her

  And unluckily…

  I didn’t get the chance to consider the matter any further.

  From above me, I heard a sudden cry from the expedition member in the crow’s nest. Something that caused my heart to sink in my chest.

  “SAILS!” They bellowed with all their might, causing all conversation and work on the Astray to immediately cease. “SAILS ON THE HORIZON!”

  “DWARVEN!”