“It also works on the floor.” Another push and the people inside the wagon had the impression of walking on air.
“What a wonderful idea!” Solus said. “Elysia and Valeron are going to love looking at the aquatic fauna while we travel.”
“Actually, it’s a safety measure to check for enemies from below in case of an attack but that works too.” Lith nodded. “At the speed this thing moves, however, I doubt we are going to see much.”
“Just one question. How are they going to bring this titan out of Valeron?” Kamila asked.
“You’ll see.” Orion said with a huge grin on his face. “Feel free to join us for lunch. But first…”
He took out of his pocket several vials containing a dense yellow liquid. Two of them were bigger and white in color.
“This is the cure for Jiera’s plague. I know you guys are Awakened, but I don’t want to take unnecessary risks.” He opened the stopper and gulped one.
“Are you sure? This looks like milk.” Lith said while shaking the white-colored potion.
“Because part of it is milk.” Orion replied. “It should make it easier to administer to the babies. See you later.”
***
Kelia’s quarters, a few wagons away.
The members of the White Sword Corps and the Red Sun were all stationed inside a single car. Those like Lith’s and Orion’s were reserved for VIPs in order to avoid people spying on them and giving them privacy.
Orion was in possession of the only copy of the blueprints of both the mechanical and magical components of the Wayfinder in case it needed repairs. It was the reason he was entitled to private quarters since dimensional amulets didn’t work.
Lith, instead, was known to have many secrets that he was unwilling to share and Elysia needed extra security. The details of the day of the Black Sun were unclear to most people but no one doubted that those events would repeat themselves if a madman attacked the child.
Kelia and the others were not only considered regular passengers but since the wagons had been split evenly between the members of the expedition, the Empire needed to optimize the space in each car in order to bring as many people as possible.
“This is crap!” Kelia said, looking around.
Regular wagons were split into five compartments on either side. Four of them contained two sofas, each long enough to accommodate three people while leaving a narrow corridor between them.
With a click of a button, the sofas would turn into bunk beds, giving their occupants their own place where to sleep but little privacy or space. The fifth compartment was occupied by a bathroom with just a toilet and a sink that the passengers of the wagon had to share.
“This is actually nice.” Harun, a female soldier in her mid-twenties said. “Compared to my boot camp, this is a luxury resort. The mattress is soft, the space is Hushed against snoring, and the bathroom has tap water and a flush system.
“Imagine having an outhouse and having to deal with the smell of piss and shit the whole day.” She chuckled, the laugh highlighting her white teeth and kind voice.
“I guess you are right.” Those words conjured flashes from when Kelia still lived in the slums and everything reeked of piss and shit, Kelia included.
‘Damn, I’ve spent just a year inside the Red Emperor academy and I’m already turning into a spoiled brat.’ She shuddered at the memories of her life on the street. ‘Any clean and warm place is a palace.’
The compartments had been split by gender so that people could change comfortably and wear whatever they wanted during the journey. The members of the White Sword Corps wore a modified version of the Skinwalker armor, allowing them to switch between civilian clothes and combat gear at a moment’s notice.
While waiting for the departure, Kelia used Accumulation to pass the time. Her core was still bright green but the dull cyan was getting closer by the day.
‘After that, I only have to work my way up to the blue to discover what kind of bloodline abilities I possess.’ She thought with excitement.
‘If any.’ Dusk corrected her. ‘I know for certain that you carry the dormant bloodlines of Phoenixes and Griffons but there’s no telling if reaching the blue is going to be enough to awaken them. They might just stay dormant.’
‘What about Verhen?’ Her eyes twitched in annoyance.
‘He doesn’t count. He’s the first of his kind and no one knows why he succeeded in awakening his bloodlines. My hypothesis is that it’s related to his Abomination side.
‘The constant struggle for survival of his other life forces strengthened them over time. As for his sister, the Demon Requiem proved there’s resonance between members of the Demon race. By awakening himself Verhen is likely to have influenced the rest of his bloodline.’ The Red Sun replied.
‘What about Narchat, then?’
‘He’s but an imitation. My sister gave him a blood core to make up for the lack of the Abomination side. It’s possible that when he reached the blue, Night manipulated Narchat’s life force so that the two cores fused and the power they released created a new species.’ Dusk pondered.
‘Bottom line, I’m going to need your help. Correct?’ Kelia inwardly sighed in order to not lose her breathing rhythm.
‘Correct.’ With each breath, she channeled the extra energy that her mana core couldn’t assimilate into the red crystal hidden in her chest.
With every wave of mana she created, the strength of Kelia’s core and the world energy seeped inside Dusk’s core, eroding the seal that Baba Yaga had placed upon him.
He had understood the nature of the seal during the War of the Griffons, but it had been the Empress to come up with a solution.
The limiter was as strong as Dusk and that was apparently an unsurmountable wall. At least until one remembered that Horsemen weren’t meant to live alone. They were supposed to nurture and cherish the bond with their host.
To combine their strength with their host’s until they could choose freely to have each their own body or fuse together into something more just like Lith and Solus did. The seal that Baba Yaga had placed on Dusk’s crystal was indeed a punishment but also a training tool.
The only way he and Kelia had to break the seal was to learn how to become one and combine their strength. That way, Dusk’s strength would exceed Baba Yaga’s spell. Up until that moment, Kelia and the Red Sun had a long way to go.
Her core was weak and their ability to harmonize their essences was sloppy at best. By putting their all they could conjure a single bloodline ability for a couple of seconds like they had displayed in the High Council Room, but that was it.
‘Will you dump me if I don’t develop any bloodline ability of my own?’ The question was half loaded with fear of being abandoned and half with relief at the idea of being her own person again.
‘Depends. Do you want me to leave?’ Dusk replied.
