Elevation of Mana Chapter 211 Heading Home

It took days for people to figure out what they wanted to do, days that I really didn't want to stay here. I did, no matter how much arguing and huffing crusty, grumpy elves were involved in. This was mostly because the elders did agree on one thing, that I wasn't getting the supplies I wanted just yet, not while they were still figuring out what they needed for whatever they decided, because of course they did. I really couldn't stand people most of the time, even if I had promised to help them.

While I was sitting off to one corner of Icehome that I'd managed to secure for a makeshift workroom one of the leaders joined me. His name was Pok, an odd name to me, but he had people's respect and was polite, so I couldn't really object to him.

“More questions?” Chien asked from where he was trying to shape one of the bone parts for our next sled. These were not the materials we normally worked with and we were missing our own tools sorely.

“No, well yes, but not presently. We've come to... sort of a conclusion, a compromise if you will.”

“And that is?” I asked as I tried to fit one of the poles into another. We could have used one of their sleds, but I found them cumbersome and didn't like the design.

“Two parts, those that wish to remain here in Icehome will, and that's a goodly few. Others however will travel south and try to find new homes. A lot of people are nervous about leaving, but myself and others know that being here without the matriarch will be... very difficult.”

“It will clear up space for those staying at least, and if they seal up some of the tunnels heating the whole structure will be easier. You should help them work on that.”

He looked at me like I'd grown a second head. “Why would that help?”

“Air moves and carries heat with it, if it has to go more places it will cool faster.”

It was hard to to remember sometimes that a lot of the elves hadn't been exposed to my personal education or any of the ideas that I pushed out. Many didn't understand even the most basic of physics, sure they knew many things, many practical applications, but the idea of air movement causing cooling just wasn't known by all of them, particularly not when it came to structures like this. It wasn't stupidity, but a lack of paradigm change.

“It works sort of like this.” As I spoke I made a small infographic with color coding and some movements out of light.

“Your magic is... impressive,” he wondered as my explanation finished.

“It's something you could easily do, you just need to practice. There's not all that much power behind that particular spell, just a lot of management and visualization. Your people need to learn this as they move, it will help them deal with the different issues in the south.”

He looked at me for a few moments, contemplating, then spoke again.

“Will you be staying with us once we leave?”

“I will not, I am returning to my own home, which has lost a few people, but it isn't nearly as open as the central region or far western coast will be. In either of those your people should find a completely open area. Though be aware that the center is probably very desolate at the moment.”

“Hmm, not sure how we should tackle that one, but best to figure it out before others try to take the territory I suppose.”

“A good way of thinking,” I agreed.

He wouldn't have an easy time at first, but if they survived a few years then there'd be a lot waiting for them. Perhaps I should put together a basic primer on agriculture? No, that would be too much interference in their affairs.

It took almost a week of rushing around like chickens with their heads cut off for everyone to figure out where they were going and what they were doing. Supplies were argued over, I stayed out of it. Families disagreed where they should fall, I stayed out of it. A huge number of people spent the time arguing over the fact that people weren't adding mana to the heating room, I actually did help with that one.

Once our sled was done and we'd secured the needed provisions Chien and I spent time helping to heat Icehome. This wasn't because we cared about that, we really didn't, but rather gaining goodwill from those who remained here, and the fact that we had nothing better to do. Neither of us wanted to waste time, but it was much safer to travel as a group, at least until we reached warmer climates.

There were even a lot of people who went out to get more, or gather all they could before leaving. For example almost the whole crew that had brought us in had disappeared immediately after our announcement, and hadn't returned yet.

Once all the preparations were done and ready though it was time to lead. I would love to have said that I was at the head of the group going out the large door in some cinematic exit, but that would be a lie. There were others more well versed in where we were going, and leaders like Pok who needed to be seen taking charge. So I settled into the middle of the group, Chien and I happily letting them take point.

Days we spent sailing over pale blue and brilliant white ice, for much of this was glacier. The cold wind was kept at bay by spell and by heavy furs given to us by our traveling companions, with dense, brown and gray hairs that whipped as we seemed to almost float over the landscape. Magic drew many of the sleds that made up the convoy, but not all. A few had men pulling or pushing them, shoes covered in sharpened antlers that gripped into the ice, legs working like turning pistons as they drove their burdens fast across the frozen landscape.

At least our guides were better navigators of this place than Chien and I, and they made the journey far faster than we could have alone. I compared the last time we made this trip to this one, and though we'd been moving faster with just the three of us, our current trip took nowhere near the same amount of time to reach the edge of the cold lands.

We also didn't come out at quite the same place as I'd first entered. I remembered the sea of pines and their clouds of pollen, but no, this time we came to a different scene where the plateau ended. Off in the distance to my left I could see green trees stretching out, and even a few that looked coniferous among them, the start of the pine sea, but to my right stretched open land, dry looking grass that went all the way to the distant horizon.

Before us though rose the mountains that split these two lands, higher even then the plateau we were on, jagged and wild as they cut towards the sky with their points looking like the teeth of a great beast, ready to slam down upon the world. Those mountains held life though, not burnt to a crisp as the grasslands had been, having been hard enough to cross that none of the fiery monsters had bothered trying to cross.

“I think we'll settle somewhere near here,” Pok told me, pointing to a spot on the grassland side, still up a bit, but in a little divot. “We won't be too far from our old home, should we wish to hunt the ice again. Many of the men are more comfortable with that then they are with whatever beasts may be down there.”

“Best of luck, and if you need advice, send someone to us. You know about where Atal is?” I asked.

“We can find it, safe travels.”

We left the majority of the warm clothes with the others, they needed it more than we would and the two of us began our descent. With magic this was not some long scrabble down cliffs. No, instead we just jumped, using our power to slow ourselves. It wasn't full flight, being far easier than that, but rather more like using parachutes and small pushes to keep away from the cliff-side.

“Weeeee.” I heard Chien laugh from beside me, a clear attempt at getting me to smile, it worked.

“Going to practice jumping out of the next blimp?” I replied once he stopped.

“You know I just might!”

It was in a rather dark time a small mote of light, a little thing to make us just a bit happier, a bit better than we'd been. We'd seen death, and pain, and more than most men would want to, but for just a few moments, we got to be two silly jokers bouncing through the air like balloons. These were some of the moments that made the bad times bearable.