Chapter 361 - The Moonshadow Trading Company Short Stories: 7 - The Desolate Lands (IV) (2/2)
Allyra's hand rose to cover her mouth in shock.
Gods above, the night really had been…
***
The wind tore through Rassa's clothes. Anyone else would have frozen stiff or been blow away by now, but he was not so easily moved. Still, as Iah struggled in the cave behind him with Sel, she could not help but think he may have gone insane.
They'd been traversing the cold and increasingly dark terrain for well over a month, and had found little of consequence. It had it's own strange sense of beauty, all that white, and the life that they found to feed on was more abundant than it appeared, and hardy to survive such extreme weather.
Still, even if there were no humans here and nobody to threaten them, it didn't seem to meet whatever requirements Rassa had been looking for.
”Rassa!” Iah called over the howling wind.
A snow storm was well and truly blowing in. Rassa turned back and stepped into the cave, the wind dying down almost immediately even if it was still howling.
”Looks like it'll last a few hours at least,” Rassa stated, looking into the darkness of the cave.
Iah sighed, taking the maps she had started drawing out of the shadows she'd stored them in and placing them on the ground between them.
”We've scoured over most of the southern part here,” said Iah, ”At least what's south of those twin peaks in the north”.
After all, they weren't entirely sure how far north they could go at this stage.
Rassa looked at the map for a moment before pointing towards the West, ”We'll go here next”.
”Are you sure that's wise, Sel said that it appeared to be ice fields in that direction, we're not sure how thick it is and it's even more inhospitable than this place,” said Iah.
They'd split up for a week or so before to see how far the land went before returning. Iah had gone East, Sel to the West, and Rassa to the North.
”All the more reason to go that way first, what you described seemed like an endless mountain range. We'll explore what we expect to be the shorter direction first,” Rassa reasoned.
Iah conceded to his reasoning. Even if she struggled to see Rassa's vision for this place, she still felt somewhat of a thrill to be exploring somewhere new. To be the first to step here after so long, maybe ever considering the lack of evidence they'd found here.
”We'll just have to wait out-”
A rumble from above that turned to thunder. Snow trickled in front of the entrance.
”Avalanche!” Rassa shouted over the roar above them and the shaking of the cave. Then, before they could react further, the thick snow thoroughly covered the entrance of the cave, casting them all into darkness.
As the shaking began to subside, Iah could not help her head dropping in disappointment. Great. Now they had to suffocate.
”We can get through that, right?” asked Iah.
”Probably,” Rassa sighed.
”Probably?” asked Iah, rolling up the map.
Rassa shrugged as he turned to her, ”Least we're in the cave and not buried beneath it”.
Iah opened her mouth to respond, but closed in silent admittance that that was in fact better.
”Where is the light coming from?” asked Sel.
Iah frowned, ”What li-”
But now that he'd asked, Iah realised that she wasn't relying completely on her sharp vision to see. There was a light. So dull that they hadn't noticed it before. She turned to find the source, looking into the depths of the cave where, in a tiny crack in the floor, light seemed to seep out from below. She wondered over to it, kneeling down to glance at it.
”Why would light be coming from inside a mountain?” asked Iah.
Iah's claws extended, swiping at the rock beneath so that she could find the source faster.
”Wait, Iah-”
Too late, the crack abruptly widened, and Iah felt the ground disappear beneath her before she plunged down.
Gasping, she barely had time to orient herself before Rassa's shadows caught her. And not a moment too soon either. There, before her nose, reaching so high up that it appeared like a mountain itself, was a giant, glowing Evanine Crystal.
Iah had never seen anything like it before, and it entranced her in an instant like she was under an Allure.
She heard flapping, and called out her own wings to aid in her descent to the ground far below, catching sight of several more glowing Evanine Crystals. Their light was not overwhelmingly bright. More like the light of a full-moon, or perhaps slightly brighter, but no where near that of a sun.
”This is it,” said Rassa with a grin as Iah and Sel landed beside him among the huge Crystals, ”Sun Stones”.
”Sun…”
Iah looked at where Rassa was tracing his fingers, finding runes burnt into one of the Crystals.
A circle around a crescent moon, and another circle with several lines branching out from it on the outside, all connected by a rune that seemed to weave around and between them.
”Protection from the sun and eternal moonlight within,” Iah interpreted.
Rassa grinned, ”Not just the sun. It's original purpose was that, but this rune here”. Rassa pointed to the circle with lines branching off, ”This rune grew to mean more than just the sun. It grew to mean outside”.
Iah's eyes widened as she looked around at the other enormous crystals, ”You mean, these Charms…”
”If we surround our new home with these charms, we'll be able to create an internal environment that is unaffected by what happens outside of the barrier,” said Rassa, ”Just like the Covens of old that were hundreds if not thousands strong”.
”How…how did you know these were here?” asked Iah, ”Did they tell you?”
Rassa shook his head, placing his hand on the huge charm, ”I took a gamble. If I wanted to find Evanine Crystals like this, let alone Charms, I'd have to go some place that had been untouched for thousands of years”.
Rassa turned to Iah and Sel, ”I wanted to find a mine so that we could be self-sustaining, and if my senses are telling me anything it's that we've most certainly found it”.
Iah paused, then looked down at the ground beneath her. Beneath her feet, for hundreds if not thousands of metres, were veins upon veins of Evanine Crystals.
She looked back up at Rassa, who was grinning. Iah sighed, ”I won't deny that this is our new home, but you better damn well hope I don't have to live in a snow storm for eternity”.
Rassa chuckled, ”Not eternity, no. Look, I'll even let you pick the spot”.
Iah smiled at that.