The Third Portal: Chapter Forty-Seven

“Very dramatic,” Elio said, snorting out a puff of smoke as he spoke. “But what, exactly, was that? I felt you draining my spell dry for power.” 

I started explaining everything that had happened during the time we’d been gone – meeting with Edgar, the transformation of the Beastmark, the development of my roots, finding Dawn, and more. Dusk chimed in several times, adding her take on things. 

Partway through the story, Elio started walking, and gestured for us to follow. I did as he said, and he led us through one of the portals to Port Heliodoor, where he transformed into his full, six-winged draconic form. He was a towering two hundred feet long from tip to tail, if not even larger still, and his scales shone every color of the rainbow. 

“Climb aboard and continue your story,” he instructed. 

I did as he said, and with a thunderous beat of his wings, he lifted into the air and began moving deeper into Crysite, flying towards the floating mountains. I did my best to tell the story over the thrumming in the air, and he listened attentively. We soared over streams, lakes, and rivers, until we at last came to the massive, circular river surrounding the center of the island, and the range of floating mountaintops. Elio gently glided to the base of the mountains, where I dismounted, and he returned to his human form, popping his back and letting out a grunt. 

“Well, you have been busy, haven’t you?” he asked rhetorically. “I would like to take a look at that staff, if you are willing.” 

“Sure,” I agreed, pulling it from my spirit and tossing it to him. 

He snagged it, then turned to the mountain we had landed in front of, and placed his palm on a rather strange, bumpy rock formation. Light radiated out of his hands, and I realized that it wasn’t a natural rock formation. Gemstones of every colour of the rainbow forged themselves out of his mana and slotted into the indents on the rockface. Once they’d all been filled, the earth began to shake and shudder, then a massive door, easily large enough for him to have passed through in his draconic form. 

It led deeper into the mountain, which quickly opened up into an absolutely massive room. He must have hollowed out the better part of the mountain to create the chamber, and had punched through in several places to create thin gemstone panes that served as stained glass windows, forming into a dozen elaborate scenes. 

The floors of the hall leading into the room, as well as the room itself, were made of forged gemstone mana, so dense and potent that it felt entirely permanent. The colors covered every possible hue for every possible color. Yellow tiles alone ran the gamut from the vibrant citrine, to golden beryl, to topaz, to yellow jade, and yellow was only one of the dozens of colors on display. 

Shelving ran along the walls of the hollow mountain in rings, starting out wide and slowly shrinking as they neared the zenith of the chamber, and the shelves were covered in items both mundane and magical. There were statues made of finely detailed and carved wood, elaborate crowns that looked like they would be suitable for a king, piles of enchanting tools that looked like they would have once cost a fortune to produce but were nowadays relics of the past, and above all, books. There were thousands of them, maybe tens of thousands, following the spiraling shelving all the way up to the very top of the mountain.

 Even using Surveyor’s eye, I couldn’t make the highest of them out, but even among what I could see, there was no coherent theme. There were books on history, philosophy, enchanting, biology, carpentry, wardcrafting, psychology, physics, alchemy, and more. Some were very clearly old or valuable, but others looked to be recent acquisitions. 

Though the shelving of the abode held his treasures, the main center of the space was very clearly an enchanter’s workshop, with a separate area that seemed to serve as a waiting room. I was less interested in the waiting room than I was in the lab, though. I’d become much more familiar than I’d ever wanted to be with enchantment work, and this place looked absolutely cutting edge. While I could identify a handful of machines, most of them were as opaque and arcane to me as the bottom of the sea. 

The ghost of the enchanter who had worked on the arrays manifested entirely of her own accord and began drifting towards the equipment, but one glare from Elio sent her scampering back into Dusk without a second thought. Elio gestured for us to take a seat, and spent what had to be half an hour studying my staff, while I spent the time working on my mana meditation. It was getting close to completion, but the third gate technique was much more advanced than the second or first.

When he’d finished, he returned the staff to me, and I drew it into my spirit again.

“It’s interesting,” he said. “It seems to resemble life, in the same way a construct or animated skeleton does, but it’s distinctly not alive. It leeches off your spirit, bonding as much as it possibly can to exert the power of the truths it’s connected to. And the connection to those truths is quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.” 

“Does that mean that if I were to expand my spirit, it would automatically eat up that space, but increase the amount of power my Nascent Truths can exert?” 

“Yes,” Elio said flatly. I sighed. A part of me had been hoping I could increase my spirit enough to take on the spirit bond created by a crystalheart, and double the amount of mana and energy I had. Ah, well. Maybe if I got a spellbinder rose…

Elio shifted and extended a hand to Dusk. 

“Now, young woman, I believe that I owe you a growth item. What sort of item were you thinking about? Here, come with me. This will be custom work, so I’ll need to do some analysis on your spirit, and make sure it’s suitable for you.” 

Dusk piped up, asking if that meant that my Runelight Lens was unsuitable for me, and Elio made a so-so gesture. 

“The sacrificial circles in Idyll’s tower used complex logic enchantments and bound spirits to factor in the person and their sacrifices, and could even make some minor, rapid alterations to items I’d made. That meant they were always suitable, they were just not as perfect as they could have been. Like buying a new set of clothing from a store, rather than having it tailored specifically to you.”

“I’m a little surprised Orykson didn’t tailor the item that would eventually become Dusk to me,” I commented idly. 

“He likely did, you just didn’t know it,” the old dragon responded, before sighing and looking me up and down. “I suppose that since I did get to study your symbiote-staff, I could repay you by tailoring your item to more neatly link with you.” 

“I’d rather Dusk get the best item possible for her,” I said, shaking my head. “This was her whole deal anyways, and you already helped me.” 

Elio gave me a stern look that seemed to mix annoyance, pride, and solemnity. 

“She will be. I am a dragon, and I am good to my word. I am not going to cheat anyone out of their prize. I have used the Gemstone Bolster on anyone who received an item where it can be used, and I have given my best effort for any custom enchantments that I have made.” 

“Sorry,” I apologized, bowing my head slightly. “I just want the best for my sister, it wasn’t my intention to question your honor. I would be happy to take whatever help you are willing to provide.”

“Hmph,” Elio said. “Well, at least you admit when you’re wrong, and I can’t fault you for wanting the best for Dusk. But I assure you, while this newfangled ‘Crafstsman’ might be seen as the best enchanter in the world, I am no slouch. She will receive an excellent item, and yours should become even more effective at channeling your spiritual power.” 

I thanked the prideful elder dragon again, and then we began the measuring process. Dusk and I both were analyzed with a dozen different spells and enchantments, we had our mana-gardens prodded at with weak attacks, and I had to manifest the Runelight Lens for analysis while Dusk manifested her Immortal’s Cloud. After that, Dusk went through and described everything that she wanted from a growth item. 

“You do present an interesting case,” Elio told Dusk as she wound down. “The normal function of a growth item is to either grow more potent, or more commonly, to add more spells that can be cast. You can already call upon flight magic from a dozen different denizens of your realm, and the Immortal’s Cloud natural treasure grows more potent on its own, rather like a spell.” 

Dusk peeped like a bird, saying that if he didn’t have a way to improve upon it, that was fine – she had a few ideas for other growth items that she could potentially use, the cloud had just been her first choice.

“Now hold on. I didn’t say I couldn’t do it. I simply said it was interesting. I can think of a few different methods that I could use to power up your cloud,” Elio said, shaking his head. “Four of them, in fact.” 

He held up his fingers and started ticking them off. 

“The first, and simplest solution, is to simply take what the cloud already does, and dial it up to greater heights. It already hangs around your flight spell within your garden, greatly reducing the mana cost of flight, while increasing your mana manipulation abilities with the spell. There’s nothing wrong with essentially doubling both of those.” 

He held up a second finger. 

“The second is a bit more ambitious, but I think it’s worth it. I could work with it to allow the cloud’s power to bleed slightly into the spells you’re calling with your dominion. It won’t get any more powerful, but when you use your dominion to call on flight magic from your cavern estragon to pair with your own, some of that reduced mana cost and increased control will be applied to the cavern magic.” 

I felt my eyebrows raise as he ticked off a third finger. That one seemed a superior option, at least to me, but Dusk would make her own choices. With all the drops of destiny she’d imbibed, her mana was dense enough that the first might be worth it for her.

“The third option is a bit more traditional, but it’s got its own value. I can create what is essentially an air zippering full-gate spell and imbue it into the cloud. You’re already using some magic to shift the air around you and reduce resistance, but this would take care of that for you, and even be able to manage a pressure differential to increase your speed. It won’t reduce your cost much, or increase control at all, but it would massively increase your speed.”

He sighed and put down his hand, rather than lifting a fourth finger. That annoyed me for some reason, though I couldn’t rightly explain why. 

“Finally, we can go fully traditional, and just layer in a suite of spells used by fliers, with a new spell or two unlocking at each gate. While it’s true that you can already call on pretty much all of these through the application of your dominion and drawing on the spells of your realm’s inhabitants, having them built into the cloud would free up your dominion to allow for it to be used more, while keeping the spells. So, what do you think?”