The next morning dawned cold and wet, and the damp had invaded Elijah’s room. Some of that was mitigated by climate control enchantments – common in many inn rooms he’d visited over the years – but they were clearly unequal to the task. Extending his senses, he could feel their sputtering supply of ethera, and he idly wondered whether that was the result of poor craftmanship or just the enchantments wearing out over time. Either way, as he pushed himself upright, he was cold and uncomfortable. So, he wasted no time getting dressed and leaving his room behind. Thankfully, despite the ongoing darkness of the early hour, the kitchen was already up and running. Elijah once again sat at the bar, and this time, a much younger girl served him a breakfast of rye flatbread, Havarti cheese, and slices of cured lamb. Completing the meal was a hardboiled egg and a cup of dark tea. The meal wasn’t the best he’d ever eaten, but it definitely went a long way toward preparing him for the coming day. He did wish he could have substituted coffee for the tea, but he didn’t want to offend the proprietor by pulling out his French press. So, he drank the stuff and pretended to enjoy it. After paying his fee – for the room as well as the meal – he bought a few pounds of the cured lamb, then set off through Hafnarfjörður. By that point, the sun had begun to rise, and dawn cast the city in a very different light than the night before. A low fog hugged the streets, but without the rain or darkness of the night before, the colorful buildings seemed even more vibrant. It was the sort of place Elijah would have loved before the world’s transformation. There was a part of him that would have liked to set up in such a town, maybe work as a fisherman or in some other solid but simple job. But that was just a fantasy, and one he knew would never make him happy. Maybe it would occupy his mind for a little while, but eventually, his wanderlust would take over. If life in the grove couldn’t keep him tethered, then an Icelandic fishing village – no matter how cozy or quaint – had no chance of doing so. Still, the stroll through the city was pleasant enough to awaken that desire for a simpler life, even if he knew it would never make him happy. Soon enough, he left the city behind. Going north instead of east toward the Conclave spires definitely got him a couple of curious looks, but Elijah ignored them. He knew precisely how dangerous it could be for a lone traveler to traverse the wilderness, so their concern was well-founded. There was no way for them to know that he had nothing to fear. After a few miles, he saw the first evaporation pool. It was fenced in and guarded by a handful of sentries, but even from afar, Elijah could feel the dense ethera wafting from the nearby volcanic vent. In addition, he saw a canal that had been dug to the nearby sea. He was no engineer, but even he could appreciate the system of levies and dikes that regulated the flow. It was an ingenious system, the result of which allowed the workers to flood the evaporation pool, then cut off the flow to let the increased heat do its job. Once it did, they could gather the salt that was left behind. Elijah watched it for a while, wondering if he could implement a similar system in the grove. He already had a few of the ingredients, like tidepools lined with basalt and plenty of salt water, and he suspected that a few ash lotuses could accomplish something similar to the volcanic vent. Yet, he also suspected that it would take quite a lot of time and effort to put something like that in place. He’d need to talk it over with Nerthus once he returned to the grove. For now, though, he only spent about an hour in observation before moving on to his destination, which was the cave leading to the Hollow Depths. The government of Hafnarfjörður had established a small outpost meant to regulate the traffic through the cave. Few would venture below, but there was always the chance that something would find its way to the surface. The result was that the guards in place were lax, bored, and with high enough levels to at least slow a powerful creature down. Elijah chose to bypass them entirely by shifting into the Shape of Scourge and relying on Guise of the Unseen to conceal his passage. They never even knew he was there. Cloaked in stealth, he trotted along for a few miles until the cave walls closed in on him. That was one thing he regretted about the scourgedrake form. It was powerful and deadly, but its increased size meant that it couldn’t move quite as freely as its predecessors. It wasn’t something he could change, though, so he shifted back into his human form and continued on. Along the way, he noticed quite a few interesting creatures. Some almost resembled aquatic predators – like octopi – though instead of swimming, they clung to the walls and relied on ambush and stealth for their hunting methods. None bothered Elijah, though. Not only could they sense his relative power, but his nature attunement did a lot of heavy lifting to ease the weight of his passage on the local environment. Sometimes, he took that for granted, but he’d heard enough stories about the nightmares of the Hollow Depths that he appreciated that aspect of his attunement. Miles passed by without issue, though he did encounter the site of a battle. There were no bones or rotting corpses left, but Elijah could sense the conflict in the air. More importantly, the stench of blood was almost overbearing. Or at least that was how he interpreted it until he suddenly realized that it wasn’t actually a smell. It was the atmospheric attunement. The smell was just how his mind made sense of it. Only when he looked closer did he recognize what was really going on. A few moments later, he sensed a shallow grave containing two corpses. A dwarf and a gnome, which suggested they’d been part of Sadie’s party. The message was clear. They’d fought a powerful foe, losing a couple of members of their force. That something was strong enough to do that while Sadie was around was something of an eye-opener. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Though it did beg the question of what had happened to the creature in question. There were no bones. No clumps of fur or scales. Just an ominous feeling that Elijah couldn’t shake. To call it eerie would have been an understatement, and after he’d discovered what had happened, he moved on fairly quickly. As he continued to traverse the series of tunnels and caves, Elijah periodically wavered between claustrophobia and wonder. The first, because the path was often quite narrow. It wasn’t to the point where he was forced to adopt the much-smaller Shape of the Master just to pass through, but it definitely wasn’t comfortable. At times, he was reminded of his time beneath Chimera Island, and more than once, he found himself jumping at one sound or another, half expecting to see a skittering horde of flesh spiders bearing down on him. That never happened, but such was the horror of his experiences that it never really left his mind. But there were also plenty of moments where he was overcome with awe. Many of the chambers he encountered featured a variety of biomes, ranging from deserts to forests and everything in between. Elijah flew over the truly difficult terrain, though he did take some time to go on foot. That allowed him to better connect with the environment. After all, just because it might not look exactly the wilderness with which he was familiar didn’t mean it wasn’t just as natural. Along the way, Elijah encountered a wide variety of animals and flora, most of which was entirely alien. But in a good way. Days passed, and he even deployed the tent Atticus had recovered for him. The mechanism that enabled its use was strikingly simple, and to the point where Elijah felt a little embarrassed that he hadn’t figured it out after killing the gnomish golemancer. Just a strand of ethera injected into the proper spot, and it automatically unfolded and erected itself. The same means took it down. However, in Elijah’s defense, it emitted no signature at all when the tent was already deployed, which explained why he hadn’t felt it. Unfortunately, it was a bound item, and one that would not grow to its full potential until it had been bound for quite some time. So, instead of the spacious, apartment-sized interior he’d seen when the thing had been the property of the gnome, it now was closer in size to a compact car. Still, it featured climate control and had simple but effective enchantments to prevent surprise visits from the local wildlife. That last bit wasn’t such a huge selling point for Elijah, largely because he usually had nothing to fear from local beasts. However, the climate control was more than welcome. After all, the atmosphere in some of those cave biomes was as cold and damp as the region surrounding Hafnarfjörður. Protection against those elements – and the comfort that followed – was worth far more than Elijah wanted to admit. He liked sleeping outdoors. It allowed him to connect with nature in a wholly unique way. However, he was too used to civilization to completely ignore the simple comfort of climate control. A little more than a week into his journey, he rose from within his comfortable blankets and muttered to himself, “I’m definitely getting soft.” After awkwardly donning his armor, he brushed his teeth and collapsed the tent. It featured a significantly advanced spatial enchantment – marking it as a creation from another world – so it folded into a tiny bundle. He packed it away into his Arcane Loop, then continued his journey. For the next couple of days, it was more of the same until, at last, he reached his first destination. According to the directions he’d received, he’d arrived at the closest illythiri outpost, which was called Nathûn. The outpost was little more than a fortress and a small settlement whose sole purpose was to support that stronghold. Maybe a thousand people, all told, and that estimate might’ve been generous. However, as Elijah strode toward the gate, he couldn’t help but be impressed by what he saw. The walls were made of black stone that reminded him of obsidian, though without the glassy sheen. Instead, it was rough, almost like granite, but far darker in hue. Highlighting that was crystal trim, often forming glyphs that he recognized as enchantments. The gates were made of white wood, probably harvested from some similarly colored trees he’d encountered in a nearby forest. As expected, the guards were dark elves, their skin color ranging from deep purple to almost completely black. Predominantly, they featured white hair, often arranged in elaborate braids held together by elegant jewelry, but there were a few whose hair skewed closer to slate grey. Upon Elijah’s approach, the guards snapped to attention. They didn’t level their spears in his direction, but he knew they weren’t far off from taking that measure. He stopped ten feet from the gate and introduced himself, adding that he’d come at Sadie’s behest. The guards had clearly expected someone to come soon, though they also seemed very disappointed that it was only him. He assured them that more were on their way. As usual when he met guards, he also saw a few twitches of anxiety. They hid them well beneath their disciplined demeanor, but Elijah didn’t miss the signs of intense anxiety. After all, he’d come to expect that kind of thing from people who possessed identification abilities. He didn’t know what their skill told them about him, but it was enough to put their hackles up. After they were joined by their boss – probably a head guard – Elijah was allowed to enter. Inside the walls was more of the same. The black stone was ubiquitous, though Elijah wasn’t certain if that was due to availability or preference. However, in addition to the crystal enchantments, Elijah saw that most of the buildings featured subtly glowing patterns. Purple, green, and yellow were the most prominent colors used, but they were by no means the limit. In some ways, it felt like he’d stepped into a neon-soaked science fiction movie, though that impression was contrasted by the elves themselves. Not that it really mattered that much. He didn’t intend to stick around long. He wanted to get to Sadie and deal with the problem at hand. He didn’t have time to tour the alien settlement. Though he did find it interesting enough that he could have spent a few days just studying those designs. He suppressed that desire and moved on to their version of a teleportation hub. Upon reaching it, he saw that instead of what he’d expected – a similar design to the Conclave spires – it was built around a single stone pillar that looked a lot like carved bone. But as curious as that was, Elijah was more interested in the white-clad attendants. Or more importantly, the discomfort he felt the second they came into view. They were all female and, like most elves, quite striking. And for a while, Elijah had no idea why, when he looked at them, the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. That feeling only grew stronger as they approached. His instincts screamed at him to shift into the Shape of Thorn, activate Domain of Vines, and turn the entire structure to rubble. And when he looked at that engraved stone pillar, the feeling became even more urgent. It didn’t fade until he looked away. Get full chapters from 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭⟡𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵 That was when he realized he was trembling, his fists clenched tight, and his Mantle of Authority fully extended. Some of the nearby elves had collapsed, though the white-clad women – priestesses, he suspected – remained upright. Their expressions were aghast, but they hadn’t reacted. Elijah forced his mantle to retract, made a hasty apology, then asked for a map. After what he’d felt, he had no intention of using their teleportation system. The mere thought of doing so sent a spike of anger through his mind. No – he’d have to go the long way if he was going to continue his journey to Eldrathûn.