003 - Long climb, short hop

Caspian arrived at the western base of the tallest mountain in the range. On a small plateau, half way up, was the goal of this leg of his journey. Fortunately, the stream he was following ran right past the shelf he wanted, and he could go right up from the trail that wound across the face.

Caspian guessed he was right, that the caravan had slowed coming up the canyons. He had not seen any sign of them in four days. As Caspian traveled his awareness of the ley lines and mana became more palpable, all leading to the convergence of ley lines on the mountain side.

“You stay alert here. Your eyes are better than mine.” Caspian turned to look at Cyrril as he spoke. “Also, the ley lines are over-running my other senses.”

Six lines currently intersected roughly half way up the mountain. Four that circle the planet, one that reached to one of the moons, and one that reached to the sun. He would ride the last one. Once at the heart of the solar system he would switch to one that went beyond.

By riding the lines, he would most easily travel to Terra’s system. He could brute force his way across the intervening light-years, but that was like climbing the face of the mountain instead of going up the streambed and game trails. Even so, ley line travel was not very comfortable. Much like climbing the streambed, with the spring runoff up to your knees and running fast.

He started up the trail that wound across the mountain face. It was ancient, with plants growing in it. And it was just wide enough to walk on, his arm against the rock on one side, the other side a long first step with no second. The mountain rose straight up from the canyon floor, as did the others around it. The stream was fed by runoff from all of them. As he climbed the face, he would be visible to any that cared to see him. As he went up, so also the valley below came more into view.

About half way up Caspian stopped to catch his breath. The air was considerably thinner up here. He leaned against the wall where the trail switched back on itself. The view was breath taking. He could see most of the valley stretching away to either side, and across to the mountains two days behind him. Below in the alpine grasslands some movement caught Cyrril’s attention.

He showed Caspian what he could see. Two men, one larger and walking behind, one smaller and walking in front. The larger one glinted metal. The smaller one reflected nothing. They were a good day’s travel away yet, so Caspian did not worry. He had enough air now, and started up the trail again. Caspian was using his staff to ford the stream for a fifth time, when the ley lines flexed and surged. Stopping, he sent Cyrril to fly out and get a closer look. The men were visible to him, but were too far away to see what they were doing. However, they were identifiable as from the following caravan.

They looked like a warrior and a spy, as best Cyrril could tell. The larger had some metal armor on. The smaller one was all black. Caspian recognized what they were almost immediately, and laughed for a good while. While the spy would adapt and blend into the other world eventually, the warrior would have a harder time. Until then, they would stand out worse than Caspian did now against the rocks.

Caspian continued up the trail. Shortly before mid-day the ley lines surged again. Caspian was just below the lip of the ridge he wanted to be on, when he looked out across the valley vainly trying to see what was happening. He had two reasons not to use any magic just now. First, any use would resonate across the ley lines, and be just as visible, advertising his presence. Second, he wanted to save what he could for the journey to Terra, and what he expected at the other end. He turned up the final ascent of the trail. A stream ran down it, and covered his feet in freezing water as he walked up to the plateau. He went around the last bend, glad to be walking on level ground.

The surge that hit the ley lines as he turned onto the plateau almost staggered Caspian. The source of the disturbance wasn’t hard to spot. The spy had set up the locus for a gate, to bring the rest of the caravan up. That changed things considerably. Cyrril alerted that the gate had closed with the whole caravan now in the valley below, most of a day’s travel away. Cyrril then flew up to join Caspian. Here the ley lines were about all either could sense, vision seeming to be shades of gray in comparison.

The view from the plateau was spectacular. Caspian puffed hard in the thin air. He was in good shape, but rarely climbed to such high altitudes. The cold of the season did not help. He looked back at the land he had covered, again leaning on his staff for support. Cyrril circled and landed on the carved dragon at the top, above Caspian’s head. The carving was half as big as Cyrril but gave enough purchase to hold to.

Caspian looked around the plateau, and at the concentric rings of stones. The mountain had too little soil, otherwise Ash trees and mushrooms would have added to the rings. The rings were evenly spaced and arrayed. Caspian had learned their meanings long ago, and had seen enough places like this one that they ceased to amaze him. Smaller stones on the outer and innermost rings, the middle ring having the largest stones being almost as tall as a man. Seven concentric rings in all. Caspian could almost see the stones glowing with power. As it was there was so much potential here, it was hard for Caspian to keep focused.

The sun was approaching its peak, one ley line arcing toward it across the void. Caspian had enough breath to go again, and walked into the center of the circles. First, he cast a spell to soak up as much ambient energy as would fill him, and his equipment. Where he was going there was very little mana, and he had a few spells he would need to cast. These would over tax the area he would be in unless he had reserves to draw from. As the sun paused at zenith, he switched spells. Cyrril crawled down to his shoulders. Caspian then began to draw on the dirt with the end of the staff, singing in several different languages as he made his pattern.

He started with a circle. Then he inscribed this with an octagon, oriented to the ley lines, and compass. Next, he drew another circle inscribed within the octagon. Within the inner circle, he traced more lines, in a complicated pattern. The pattern had a part for each leg of his journey. First to take him to this system primary, Kakou. From there to the hub of the local star cluster. Next to the galactic arm anchor, and into the galactic center. Out to the anchor of the arm he was going to. Out to the cluster. To the Sol system primary. Then finally to Sol 3, Terra.

After completing the pattern and chant the third time, he activated the matrix he had set up. For a brief moment the rock circles gave off light enough to rival the sun, strobe in pattern, and then ceased. The sun continued into the afternoon. Casting the shadows of the stones across each other. The evening breeze obliterated Caspian’s few footprints leading in.