To Fly the Soaring Tides

His jaw fell open in shock, but before he got a chance to speak, the winding array of glyphs Cira had conjured around the room started to spin, slowly contracting into the center. They struggled the closer to each other they got, like something was holding them back. Just when I thought they were going to stop, I heard a crack.

Behind me and all around it was like glass shattered and shards of light fell like rain before dissipating.

“Wh-what the hell was that?” I shouted after realizing there wasn’t any shrapnel coming. All her runes met in the center and fizzled away.

“She-she did it!” I was startled by a voice a few balconies over. The woman frantically crawled through a door, as did the others when they noticed, leaving us alone with the glaring creator’s younger self.

“We are now free to leave.” Cira turned and opened the door behind us. She walked through it as the man shouted at her, demanding she help and calling her an enemy of the coalition if she walked out that door. I didn’t know what to do, but he looked really upset, so I meekly turned around and followed Cira, gently closing the door behind me.

“You sure that’s okay? What if he comes after us?” We walked through a well-lit hall with a light gray stone floor and painted walls. It didn’t seem overly fancy given how important the place seemed, and it was just a long, empty hallway.

“You know it’s harder to recover mana when you worry.” I had no choice but to shut up after that one. We walked for just a few minutes until we found a staircase on either side of us and Cira automatically turned right.

This led us to another hallway, but this time there were windows. We both paused to look over the burning city. It was even larger than the capital of Porta Bora. Flashes of magic appeared and dwindled in the streets, while pained cries echoed above the rooftops.

“Huh… Where do you think that first explosion came from?” We were looking in the general direction we felt the blast from, but there was so much disaster before our eyes it was impossible to tell.

“Well… Why do people blow things up?” My question made her put a hand to her chin in thought. “If it’s just a regular invasion, it doesn’t matter where, but I only really felt the one big one. Where I come from, people blow stuff up to get to something important, like treasure, but I guess some people like to explode things or places because they’re important.”

“I see… so, we could either be looking for the tallest building or a place with no building at all. Maybe a large pile of rubble… Alternatively, a hidden treasury. Lots of options here…” She didn’t look like she was any closer to the truth, so we kept moving.

“It boils down to the fact that they want something. It could even be an empty island covered in soot for all we know. Could be gold under this city.” I threw my hands out in defeat. I probably hadn’t helped much.

“Let’s get out here.” Cira put on foot up on the window and I grabbed onto her in shock.

“You can’t be serious!”

“I am,” She brushed me off, “The streets will turn into a lengthy battle over a great distance, and we won’t know where anything is.” She jumped out the window onto a rooftop nearly ten feet away and rolled into a landing. Cira stood up and brushed herself off, “Just boost yourself with a little wind.”

She held her arm out over the ledge, ready to pull me in if I landed short.

Dammit, screw it! What’s the worst that could happen in some guy’s memory?

“Hahhhh!!!” I leapt forward with all my might and a wimpy gust, looking straight down at a pile of corpses. My mind froze and I felt Cira pulling me in, then coarse stone ground against my face as I slid to a stop.

“Fool. You almost died.” Cira was on her ass looking at me like the biggest idiot, and I felt like one too.

“What would happen if we died here?”

She smirked, holding up two fingers, “One of two things might happen. Either we wake up safe and sound, or our souls disperse. I would rather not find out the hard way.”

That made my heart leap out of my chest. With my luck, it was probably a certain death sentence. As a burning pain set in I wondered if I would wake up with my face horribly mangled from this clay roof.

Cira held up her palm and a thin stream of golden light flowed over to me. I felt the pain start to dissipate, but it seemed like it would take a few minutes. Without further words, she got up and began walking again. “I say we cut them off. If whoever started this is on the island at all, they’ll be leaving soon. I imagine they will be meeting with Queen Heritos, so we have to think of where they will escape from.”

Even I felt bad for the all-powerful mage. That lady seemed like his wife and she somehow plotted to unleash monsters on the city. Her intentions were so far beyond me I dared not speculate on such ancient events.

“I see…” We reached a short wall separating us from the edge and Cira hopped on up and straight across to the next roof. I struggled to do the same, and she had to pull me in again. Just less painfully. “I want to say they will have a hidden landing spot, but if their vessel is too large, they’ll have no choice but to use the main docks. With all this carnage, I doubt they care about staying hidden anymore.”

“Right. We should at least check there then. Assuming that mage is able to break out soon, the conspirators’ goal must be to leave as quickly as possible.”

We were mostly following the coast across each rooftop, and Cira took us across rows when it seemed convenient to inch a little closer. There were distant screams surrounding us the whole way, but now the sounds of battle clashed just below us. We peered over the edge at the shoreside road where a handful of bloodied residents stood against five or six of those horrific creatures we encountered. Half of the monsters were preoccupied with eating their fallen friends as they shuddered and watched.

A spell fizzled out in one man’s hand, and the others had either swords, or just plain knives. They didn’t look like guards of any kind, more like a family facing death.

“Should… we help them?” I asked.

“To what end?” Cira’s voice was cold, but her eyes didn’t seem to enjoy what they saw, “Those people died over a thousand years ago. Neither you or I can change that.”

One of the monsters lunged into the middle seemingly to pick off one of the young. I watched a kitchen knife slide right off its skull while a sword only bounced away. Soon another joined in to pull the man and woman to the ground. I tried to look away, but their desperate, fading cries put me in a trance until Cira pulled me along.

“Focus. We’re almost there.” My feet were heavy and my hands trembled. One more roof and we cut over the street. After that, we were overlooking the entire harbor. There was… a lot of blood. And nothing seemed to be moving.

Then the roof shook. I felt a wave of mana then a voice echoed over the city.

“Remaining people of Heritos,” It was the young creator’s voice, but he didn’t sound in any sort of panic. He sounded outright cold. “This is the High Chancellor of the Ionath Coalition speaking. It is my great pleasure to inform you that Heritos is among the islands chosen for removal from the Coalition.”

“He—he lied to us!” I was outraged. He wasn’t betrayed at all!

“Fool.” Cira gave me a look, “I can’t pinpoint it, but that voice isn’t coming from behind us. Something isn’t right about it either. Can’t you tell?”

Now that she mentioned it, the voice definitely lacked that quality of gravitas that his tone commanded. He seemed completely apathetic as he droned out his announcement. Apparently I was exactly as stupid as everyone in the city.

“Wait, this place is called Heritos too?”

“Indeed.” Cira mulled it over, “It appears she made him out to be the traitor, on a genocidal scale—”

The bleak decree continued for any left alive to hear it, “People of Heritos. Please patiently await the end. I promise it will come soon.”