Elevation of Mana Chapter 209 Seeking Shelter

Neera was, well, it wasn't pretty. Her head had been halfway ruined, boiled or baked would be the best word, or maybe flash fried. I wasn't quite sure how to describe the exact effect, but it was gruesome. I wasn't sure it had even effected her head when it came down tot it, or just super-heated the air around it to such a degree that she'd had no chance, but it didn't really matter. If I wasn't mistaken the crystal she'd taken from the monster had even reacted, burning her thoroughly.

“Oh, I can't look at that, that's just... was there no... cleaner way?” Chien asked, turning from the woman, it was a rather visceral image, and one that I knew would be haunting me for some time.

“I was in a hurry. Damn the smell,” I replied as I covered my face.

My partner must have not gotten wind of it before because he looked to breathe in and then began to vomit once more until he was only dry heaving. We'd seen death, plenty of it, but we'd also known her, at least a bit, and this was... not pretty. We needed to move too, for the smell of his sick mixing with the rest of it was really not helping in the least.

“Alright, we need to move, I want to make it to Icehome by night.” I put a hand on his shoulder and we turned. With a final turn I put forth a fire spell to destroy the corpse, hot enough that it would render the burned body into ash.

I pulled an iron bead from my hair, one of very few that were there, and began shaping it. We needed a heading, a direction to go to get where we were going and quick. The spells to form it and magnetize it were simplistic, nothing compared to some of the work we'd done, and within a few moments I had a needle. From there I began to hold it in a pocket of dead air, only nullifying the gravity around it to let it float and point northwards.

It didn't take long once I knew north to get a decent heading on which direction Neera had been taking us, and that would have to do. I assumed she knew how to get home, mostly because I didn't have much other option and we needed a direction. Like it or not we needed supplies to get home, and somewhere safe to shelter even briefly.

While I was doing that Chien was doing something else, and I saw him rejoin me shortly. Along with his self something large our former captor had gathered floated beside him.

“Why?” I asked incredulously.

“Because they'll want it, and we want them to move south.. I also felt that we owe them a bit... Even if she was an enemy those people are in deep without their leader.”

“I suppose, and it's not like we have anything against the people she'd been leading. We can use it for warmth too. I feel we may need it sooner than later.”

Those things were more efficient than spells for simple pure conversion to heat. Perhaps I could cook up a magic to rival them, but I hadn't, and they might even be something like perfect or near perfect efficiency, since they were quite literally solidified magic for making fire.

And that fire would be something that we could really use, the cold, kept off by small spells from each of us, was biting, chilling me even through the magic woven around my body now. I wasn't going to be able to travel as fast as Neera had, nor would Chien. Both of us were weakened, tired, out of it from the long journey and hard fight. Even the ancient must have been, injured and less than she would've been at her prime. After all, under the magic, and the age, and the memory we were still flesh and bone, still very fragile, very breakable, very fallible.

So the two of us wrapped ourselves up with what clothes we had on us, and we began to move. Snow crunched under foot and the wind howled in our ears as we slowly made our way toward safety. It was almost painful how long it took us to cover any ground at all. We had no flying ship, nor even the simple sled we'd had the first time we came here, and the missing coats we'd worn at that time were also soon becoming a real issue.

We didn't make it far before we had to stop. Only a few hours of walking and the exhaustion was quickly taking its toll. My eyes hurt from the lack of rest during the chase, and as the excitement of the day faded, so too did my energy. Chien was a bit better off, even if he was hauling a huge stone along behind us he had at least gotten better sleep than I. Not that he objected when I pointed to the first rocky outcropping I saw and began moving toward it.

The two of us cut blocks of ice to form our shelter in silence, forming them over what would be a bed of stone. We didn't have anything to sleep on, and normally that would be disastrous, but stone would be better than snow and ice, at least I hoped it would.

“I'll take first watch, you rest,” he assured me as we carved out three divets in the rock.

“Thanks,” I replied with a nod, sinking into one as he placed the stone between me and where he'd be sleeping.

As I tried to get comfortable I felt him slipping a tiny stream of magic into the crystal he'd taken, and the thing lit up like a perfect fire, one without smoke or mess. Heat seeped out into the shelter, filling it until it became nice and toasty before it began to suffuse even the rock I way laying on, leaving it warm to the touch and lulling me quickly into my dreams. I'd had my worries, but he'd been totally right to get it.

It took us two more days of marching across the wasteland before we reached something I could even start to recognize. It was a few of the outcroppings here and there, things we'd seen passing by that tickled my memory. After days in this frozen wasteland we were ragged, and those small sights spurred us on with vigor.

Some group out of Icehome for one reason or another spotted us first. Unlike the ones we'd met on our first travel through this area they weren't intent on hiding themselves, but rather looked at us coming and made their own move. Ten in total, they would have known who should be out here, and where they should be coming from, but they showed no fear of the pair approaching them.

We must have looked ragged and half-dead, and we really were. Our clothes were nothing even vaguely appropriate for the weather, and they were not in the best of condition after all we'd been through. As for ourselves, we'd had poor rest and no food for two days now, only having consumed snow we'd melted ourselves.

“Who are you?” asked their leader as we neared. “And what in all the winds happened to you?”

“We were in a fight, a bad one. I'm Justin, and though it has been some time, I have visited before, as has my friend Chien here. We seek shelter and aid to return home.”

“Wait, were you with the group that went to hunt the great monsters? Is the Matriarch with you?” one of the group blurted out, clearly excited at the idea of their leader returning.

“We were, and...” I wasn't sure where to go with it.

“Is she hurt, does she need a rescue party to go for her?” asked their leader, clearly deeply concerned.

With a sigh I shook my head. The effect was immediate, faces fell, and worried looks were shared. Our oldest weren't just leaders to most of our kind, but cornerstones of society. Their power kept things working, kept them running, and the loss of one was no small thing. To hear that she was gone sent a wave of emotion through them.

Quickly they came to aid us however, taking our burden and offering food and drink before beginning to lead us back to Icehome. It was more than we deserved after what I'd had to do, but there was nothing for it. Now though I'd have to deal with whatever powers were left behind, not a task I looked forward to in the least.