The Third Portal: Chapter Fifty-Two

The day after Dusk and Dawn were up and moving, Kene’s grandmother finally awoke, which I knew because I found her perched like a gargoyle at the end of our bed that morning. 

I jerked awake the instant I saw her, conjuring Pinpoint Boneshards, and only managed to teleport them away at the last second before striking her. She stared at me, cocking her head curiously to the side. 

“What marvelous eyeballs you have!”

“All the better to see you with, grandmother,” I said, causing her to start to cackle. That woke up Kene, and we went to go make breakfast, the witch hopping around from one foot to the other. 

“Tomatoes aren’t real, you know,” she told us, even as she ate the eggs scrambled with cheese, hominy, and tomatoes that we handed her. 

“Of course,” Kene said, humoring her. 

“One tomato, two tomatoes, four tomatoes, eight,” she rambled. “Ten to-ma-toes, hopping in a secret garden. Better watch out, or they’ll eat your toes. You think there are eleven, but there’s ten!” 

Meadow, who was sipping tea on the couch, gave her an odd look, then turned to look into the distance contemplatively. After what felt like a quarter of a minute, she looked over at us. 

“Have either of you made bottled air before? It’s not a difficult potion to make – only first gate in complexity. But you’ll be up high enough that warming potions and bottled air will be needed.”

“I made one when I was getting my alchemy certification, but I haven’t since then,” Kene said. 

“I have not,” I confirmed. 

“You have breath aster and diaphanous dandelions, so you should have all the components on hand. Here, I’ll show you.” 

We spent a few more days in the village as Meadow ran me through making the potions, 

With the witch awake and our preparations complete, Kene and I healed, and our familiars all hale and hearty, I opened the portal back to Port Ruby. Kene ran around for a bit, delivering potions, while I caught up with Ed and Liz, and then Kene and I went to track down Ivy. 

We found him sparing in the courtyard against the woman with the manticore tail. 

She unleashed spines from the tip of her tail, trying to keep him at range, while he crunched them out of the air with claw attacks. The moment he closed in, she summoned her blade and went for a blow to his head, but he flared a movement technique and ducked around the strike, lashing out with a punch that she used her tail to intercept. 

Despite the fact that Ivy had frankly absurd levels of power, he was keeping his veiling artifact on, and limiting himself to the levels that I’d consider normal for early fourth gate, while the assistant guildmaster seemed to have a certain deadly power imbued in her blade that let her hit harder than she should.

When their spar eventually ran down, Ivy pulled a towel out and wiped at his face, smiling at us. 

“Hey guys. What’s up?” 

“We’re climbing to the top of the highest mountain,” I said. “My familiar needs to get to the top for a breakthrough to third gate, according to her. We’d love to have you along, if you’re interested.” 

“Maybe. How will we get there?” 

Dusk chimed up, explaining that Elio was going to pick us up tomorrow and transport us to the mountain’s base, where he’d made his cave, so she could pick up her growth item. From there, we would hike. Given her very existence, we wouldn’t have to worry about setting up camp each night, only about major threats on the way up, like slaughter spirits. 

“Also, I plan to cheat. Maliciously. This isn’t the Beastgate Trial Trail, I don’t need to hold back on using movement spells,” I added. “I’m going to teleport us over any annoying obstacles I can.”

“And we’ve made plenty of potions of warmth and bottled air. They’re all made at a high enough mana density that it should essentially remove the need for acclimation, letting us go fast and hard,” Kene finished. 

“And what’s at the top?” Ivy asked after listening to us. 

“No idea,” I said. “But the top of the mountain is higher up than even most professional fliers can move. And Dawn felt it in the winds – it’s got to be something.” 

Ivy considered for a moment, tapping his chin, and his eyes went distant, flicking around as if he was considering a hundred possibilities at once, before he finally nodded. 

“Alright, I’m in. If nothing else, it should be good to work with someone else who might be representing Mossford at the Elysian Mastery Tournament.”

I wasn’t technically representing Mossford, but I got his point, so I nodded my agreement. Ivy agreed to meet up with us the following morning, then returned to his spar with the member of Phantom Hand. 

Kene, Meadow, and I spent the evening running over our supplies, making sure all our potions were sealed and shelf stable, checking on our food supplies, and our cold weather gear. 

Honestly, in comparison to what I’d gone through in Edgar’s trial, I wasn’t too worried – potions should take care of the thin air, an Arcanist wouldn’t be taking control of the beasts to attack us, and Dusk was able to come with me. Maybe it was arrogant, but I wasn’t expecting this hike to go too poorly. 

The following morning, Ivy was there bright and early. Not long after, Elio arrived, pausing when he saw Ivy. The two stared one another down, and then unleashed auras around them. I’d seen a similar thing happen when the mantle tarragon had pushed against Araceli’s. 

Unlike that one, this was utterly one sided, with Ivy’s aura crumpling like wet tissue paper beneath the solid steel of a true Occultist, even one without a title. And yet, Elio’s crushing pressure was fine tuned, measured, and exacting. It didn’t strike Ivy so much as brush over him. Dawn sent me curious feelings, and I did my best to explain, though I didn’t really know what was going on. 

“Illustrious pyre,” Ivy said, bowing at the waist to the old dragon

“Bright spark,” Elio responded, inclining his head in a far shallower sign of respect. “How have you found the Crystalheart?” 

“Its power has integrated seamlessly with my own. I thank you for your assistance.” 

I blinked, staring at Ivy. The crystalheart was… Well, it was perfect for him. A treasure that doubled a person’s energy and mana reserves, being handed to a dragon with a legacy that made his mana impossibly potent? That was more than a little terrifying. 

I was brought back to the moment by Elio turning and waving for us to follow. 

“Dusk, Malachi, come on then. Everything’s ready.” 

Once again, he led us through the teleportation platform, then took on a massive draconic form. Kene and I climbed on, while Ivy shivered, then exploded into his full draconic form. Dawn looped around my neck, while Dusk sat on my shoulder, and Siobhan stretched her wings, and we set off flying. 

When we arrived at the massive multicolored workshop, Elio gestured for us to wait in the lobby-esque area, then headed into his lab, emerging with a pair of smooth boxes made of dense mana. He handed one to Dusk, and the other to me, then stepped back. 

Dusk’s box dissolved first to reveal that her cloud had transformed. It had been a pure, white before, but the magic that Elio had laid into it had caused it to grow much more intensely lustrous, like mother of pearl, and cast faint streaks of multicolored light behind it as it moved. Dusk let out a laugh of joy that sounded like a stream rushing over new stones, leaping on and flying over to throw her arms around Elio’s neck. He grunted, but patted her head, and she flew loops around the room several times before hovering next to me. 

Since it seemed to be my turn, I tapped the top of the box, and it melted away, revealing my runelight lens. Visually, it seemed to be the same as it always had, but as I pulled it into my spirit and started running energy through it, I could feel the difference. The power flowed so much smoother, and the spikes of crystal within my mana-garden diminished slightly in size, freeing up a bit of mana without weakening the effect. 

Though I didn’t get up and hug the grumpy old man, I did rise and bow at the waist as well. 

“Thank you. Your work is wonderful.” 

“Of course it is, I am an excellent enchanter. I would never deliver a subpar product,” Elio said, though there were hints of him being pleased by the compliment underneath the admonition. “And I have something for Dawn as well.” 

I started to say that he didn’t need to do that, but Ivy kicked the back of my leg warningly, so I shut my mouth. 

Elio produced a shard of brilliantly intense solar mana, of the same sort that I had seen around the starfall.

“Sealed primes,” Ivy blurted. “That will kill her!” 

Ignoring his comment completely, Dawn floated over, snatching the mana up and thrashing in the air, like a dog with a new toy. Within moments, the mana had broken down and flowed into her form, which sparked and buzzed for a few moments, before settling down. 

“Uh. Yeah. Remember how I said she was a Sky Estragon Shade?” I said, scratching the back of my neck. “Not… Not exactly.” 

Dusk laughed and said she forgot about that lie, while Elio barked out a laugh of his own and crossed his arms.

“Certainly not. Little spark, do you not have eyes? If she is an estragon’s shade, then I am a human ghost.” 

Ivy focused his senses on Dawn, then tilted his head. 

“What is she? She feels like a dragon, but made of mana. Only a shade should feel that way.” 

Elio rolled his eyes and snorted out a puff of smoke. 

“Bah. You all can speak while you climb. Go on, get out.” 

I thanked Elio one more time, then we headed out, and I started to explain everything that had happened with finding Dawn, as we started hiking up the mountain. Hannah and Arthur both manifested herself next to me, startling Ivy, and setting another round of introductions in order. 

“You live a weird life,” Ivy said. “A really weird life.” 

Arthur barked defensively, then bounded onto the stone next to me, where I patted his head. 

“He’s not wrong,” Kene said, and I flicked some snow at them and started moving faster. 

It quickly became apparent that while I had been right about the fact I could use spells to navigate around and over obstacles, and even help Kene and Ivy cheat the same way by popping them in Dusk for a little bit before pulling them out again, I had left one major detail out of my mental accounting: trails.

The Beastgate Trial Trail had been cutting through the wilderness, but I’d more or less had a path to follow, and there was a real trial. Here, I was walking up a steep, untended mountain side, Foxstepping up sheer rock faces, and using Immovable Lock to step me from falling. 

It was less like a normal hike, and more like a puzzle: could I get over, around, or through an area without sapping my mana too dry? 

“It should be better once we clear the tree line,” Ivy said. “Of course, we’re a lot more likely to run into slaughter spirits there, since not much can live up there other than some birds.” 

As if called by the very suggestion, a wave of stone exploded out of the cliff face.