Book 3, Chapter 16

It was only when we got close to Eyrie Peak that I realized how much mana was coming off of the mountain, far more than was reasonable. It shot straight into the air, only to cascade back down and be absorbed into the stone. Somehow, this cycling method the brakvaw used was writ on a grand scale here, with the flow being so large I couldn’t even sense the whole thing all at once.

We passed through a curtain of mana as we approached the peak, my three escorts flying in formation around me and the curtain parting in response to the mana flowing through their bodies. It never even touched me, but I sensed the mana fall smoothly back into place after we slipped through.

They led me up to the top of the mountain, which was a caldera almost a mile wide and probably over a thousand feet deep. Strangely enough, it was filled with new growth trees, nothing more than a few years old, but all healthy and thriving. There was a wide lake in the middle with a trio of streams running out to the caldera’s southern edge, where they presumably passed underground. The whole setup didn’t feel natural to me, but it lined up well with the brakvaw method of constantly pushing their mana through patterns. I could easily imagine magic bringing up fresh water to replace what was lost to those streams.

Jutting out of the center of that lake was another tower, but this one was easily four times the height of the one I’d found out by Ghalin and ten times wider, giving it a somewhat squat appearance. Considering the sheer mass of my escort, it made sense to me that a tower sized for an adult brakvaw would be huge compared to the waypoints their young flew between and used as rest stops.

My escort flew me to the top of the tower, then took off and left me there alone. None of them spoke a single word to me, possibly because they couldn’t. Perhaps the mother bird I’d encountered had been an exception to the rule, a consummate traveler who’d learned other languages and begun teaching them to her children. If that was the case, I was incredibly lucky to have run into her family first and not some other brakvaw I wouldn’t be able to communicate with.

Hopefully this Grandfather guy would also be able to speak a human language. It didn’t necessarily have to be Enotian; I knew twenty or so other languages, but something besides bird-speak. I wasn’t expecting it to be a problem since he’d agreed to speak with me and, presumably, they’d told him I was human, but the silence of my escorts had me a bit worried.

I caught a flicker of mana from below in the darkness that was the tower interior, then an old man flew up on wings of magic to face me. He looked to be at least a hundred, all bent over and stooped, his face a mass of wrinkles and his eyes hazy and pale. He wore a simple gray robe, far too big for his size, and carried no other ornamentation.

He was also an illusion, probably projected from the real Grandfather far below me. “Hello, traveler,” he said kindly. “It’s been so many centuries since I’ve seen a human mage, I’m afraid I’ve grown rather rusty at your customs. Please do forgive me if I come across as rude.”

“Not at all,” I said. “To be truthful with you, I’m not all that interested in what passes for social graces among high society myself these days, so I suspect we’ll get along just fine.”

The old man laughed, and it even sounded like a human laugh, not a hint of bird-like cawing to it. The illusion was so authentic that if I hadn’t been able to feel the mana running through it, I wouldn’t have realized. Grandfather was a very powerful mage, or whatever his people called mana wielders of exceptional skill.

“How about a walk around the lake?” Grandfather offered. “It’ll be nice to get out and see what the world looks like on the other side of these walls. I’ve been so busy lately that this is honestly a nice excuse to take a break and talk to someone from the outside world.”

“That sounds like a fantastic idea,” I said. “Shall we?”

Together, we flew down to the shore, though it was really more going through the motions for Grandfather. I had no doubt he could see through his illusion, but I didn’t believe for a second that he needed the form he’d crafted to see beyond his tower. Eyrie Peak was a rather remote location, but if he couldn’t scry for at least fifty miles in any direction, I’d be surprised. If the brakvaw network of towers did everything I suspected it was capable of, he might be able to scry in a radius around any one of them, no matter how far away they were.

“Let’s start with some introductions,” Grandfather said after we landed on the ground. “I’m sure you’ve already been told, but among my people I am known as Grandfather.”

“I was,” I confirmed. “My name is Keiran.”

“Keiran,” Grandfather repeated. I didn’t hear any recognition in his voice, which wasn’t terribly surprising by now. Only those who were students of old history knew of my previous identity as a powerful archmage. It had been thousands of years since I’d been a part of the world stage, and the planet had undergone a cataclysmic event that had destroyed its mana core between my old life and my reincarnation.

“I have been told that you are an explorer, out to find your own way, much like our fledglings, and wished to learn more about the waypoints my people have built for generations.”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m looking for a place, but I don’t know where it is. All I know is that it’s very, very far away, and that it used to be called the Night Vale.”

“I have not heard of this place,” Grandfather said. “It might be even farther away than you think. My people have spread far and wide, a thousand miles or more, and none have returned with tales of a place by that name.”

“I was afraid you might say that,” I said. That didn’t necessarily mean the Night Vale was outside of the part of the world they’d explored. It could be that it was simply called a different name these days. It could also be that it had been completely destroyed and didn’t exist anymore. “How about an old kingdom known as Ralvost? It was destroyed several hundred years ago and, I believe, fractured into several smaller kingdoms. I do not know if those still exist.”

“This name is familiar to me, though it has been many generations since I last heard it spoken aloud.”

“Really?” That had been a long shot, asking about the kingdom whose archmage was responsible for breaking the world core. “I would be grateful if you could tell me what you know.”

“A long journey,” Grandfather said. “Perhaps not suitable to one so young. It would be irresponsible of me to send you to your death.”

“I am considered an adult by human standards,” I said, lying only slightly. In another year or so, my physical body would be fully mature, never mind that I was actually only eight years old right now.

“Is that so?” Grandfather asked, clearly skeptical.

“It is,” I insisted. “Not only that, but I am without a doubt the most powerful human on this entire island.”

“A bold claim. But can you prove it?”

“Easily. Did you have something specific in mind or would you just like a general display of magic?”

“I do have a thought or two, yes.”

“Name it,” I said.

“Ah… arrogant to agree so readily without even hearing the task.”

I shrugged. “There is very little that is outside my ability. I limit myself mostly to avoid wasting precious mana. That does remind me, though, that your people’s method of streaming mana through the shape of the spell and then calling it back into your cores is extremely interesting. You must lose very little mana that way.”

“It is a basic technique we learn as hatchlings,” Grandfather said. “I am surprised you do not already know this, if you are as powerful as you claim.”

“I confess, it’s not a technique I ever needed when I was learning magic. I grew to the heights of my power in a world with so much mana that it infused the very air. Running out was never a concern until I came here.”

“Is that so?” Grandfather said softly, more to himself than to me. “Your words do not match your age, Keiran.”

“That is because I am much older than I appear,” I said. “I would hazard a guess that I am in fact older than you, or if not, then very close to it.”

Grandfather barked out a laugh and said, “That would be unlikely. However old I appear in this human shape, believe me, it doesn’t even scratch the surface.”

“I could say the same.”

“Then I suppose we are a couple of old codgers doddering around, aren’t we? Very well, if you are so powerful as you claim, this should be a simple task. You have seen the mana rising up into the sky, of course. It flows ever upwards.”

“And then rains back down, forming a curtain that I’d bet surrounds this entire mountain.”

“You would be correct,” Grandfather said. “Your task will be to follow it all the way to the top and discover what lies up there.”

“How high does it go?” I asked.

“That will be for you to find out.”

“Alright,” I said, looking up. “And what would you like as proof that I made it to the top?”

“Oh, I think you’ll know if you get there.”

“Very mysterious of you. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Depending on how high I had to go, my elemental form spell might actually fail me. One of the things I’d discovered in my past life was that the higher a person went, the less air there was. Mountain climbers already knew this, but I doubted many people could say for sure that they’d reached a point where there was no air at all. If I had to go that high, then obviously my air elemental body would hit a hard wall where it could progress no farther.

Instead, I cast a simple flight spell and went straight up. As I did so, I gathered air around me and cast invocations to ignore the bitter cold flying so high brought me in contact with. The mana stream continued above me, up past a thin cloud layer, and as I broke through that, I got an unexpected surprise.

Floating up in the air above me was the missing tip of Eyrie Peak. “Preposterous,” I breathed out. “The mana costs alone…”

But it wasn’t, not for the brakvaw. They somehow reclaimed almost all the mana they used in their spells. Yes, it took an enormous amount of mana to hold a chunk of rock this big steady in the air, but after the initial investment, it would be trivial for their form of magic to keep it going indefinitely.

I flew up to the island and skimmed across the jagged underside to reach the top. It would be easy enough to claim a souvenir to satisfy Grandfather, and besides, there had to be a reason this island was floating here. I was dying to know what its purpose was.

As I crested the lip of the island, I froze in place. That was not what I’d expected to find, but I supposed it made sense, now that I knew.

The brakvaw buried their dead in the sky.