Chapter 492 – No Way Home?

The rest of the day was quiet, at least by Sophia’s standards. Leo was still in the Roots with Reko and Arvinn; they planned to try to mature another harvest and would probably be there for several days. That meant there were no interruptions. 

The remainder of the afternoon was spent in the market, where they managed to sell off the extras from the Event. Dinner was street food and they ended the evening with a short spar to try to tire themselves out. It was a nice date and a good reminder of why they got together in the first place.

There was less carnivorous moss, but Sophia didn’t mind. Carnivorous moss was exciting but she was happier without it.

They got to bed late but still woke up only an hour or so later than normal. That was a bit early to go visit someone, which only meant that they had time for a leisurely breakfast before they made their way up to the fifth branch and followed Revanos’s directions to Archon of Stone Issvako’s workshop.

Sophia knocked, then entered when a voice told her to “Don’t just stand there, get in here already.”

It probably should have been a surprise to see Revanos already waiting for them, having tea with a softly glowing bird made of brown light. The bird looked a lot like the image Othala showed them back in the ruined development complex in the wildlands past Izel, though she looked a lot older than the bird Sophia remembered.

It had been over sixteen hundred years, possibly quite a bit over; Sophia wasn’t certain when in the lifespan of the Kestii Empire Archon Issvako installed the conduits. It was probably early on, which could easily add a hundred years to the timespan. The Archon was probably not young when she created the conduits, and she was far, far older now. “Archon of Stone Issvako? And Revanos?”

“That’s me,” the brown bird said with a nod. “Revanos has told me something of what you want, but he also mentioned something about repairing ancient conduits in Kestii. I haven’t thought about that project in centuries, and apparently it’s been that long since it was maintained. What did you see?”

Sophia described what she’d seen in the conduit, then what they did to patch it back together. Dav added details Sophia didn’t remember and gave his own impressions, which focused far more on the false stone walls and far less on the space beyond the walls.

Issvako insisted on examining them both after they mentioned the explosion or whatever it was that kicked them to the far exit after they repaired the first conduit. She didn’t say what the results were, but Sophia guessed they passed because she told them to keep going and seemed a little more relaxed.

When Dav mentioned the Windows under Mazehold, Issvako asked them if they’d explored them at all. Dav admitted they hadn’t, which seemed to satisfy the old bird. 

At the end of the story, Sophia added that they’d hired some people to look into the conduits. She thought it was nothing more than the natural end of the story; they were being taken care of and should soon be repaired.

Issvako did not take it that way. “You hired people to look at broken conduits. Have they come back?”

Sophia glanced at Dav. He shook his head, which meant he knew just as much as she did. “Not that I know of, but they said they were going to be there for at least a month to look at the situation.”

“It’s been a lot more than a month,” Dav stated with a frown. “I hadn’t thought about that. Wasn’t someone supposed to follow them once they knew what they’d need?”

“Ancient conduits were not the same as the ones we make today,” Issvako said heavily. “They were sturdy, even overbuilt by today’s standards. That is undoubtedly the reason that they still survive; indeed, I am certain it is the reason anything is left after the breaking you spoke of. If they are maintained, that is for the best; it makes them far easier to manage and they are far more tolerant of even long-term issues than a modern conduit.”

Sophia heard the “but” even before Issvako said it.

“They don’t break easily and when they do, the pieces stay near each other. I have never heard of a conduit as damaged as the ones you saw still capable of being repaired, much less with such a basic emergency patch.” Issvako sighed audibly. “When modern conduits break, they have a limited window of time before they bleed back into the Way Between. It is cheaper and easier to build, and that is why it is used and has been for the past few centuries. It also likely misled them into believing that your conduits were not truly snapped, and that makes all the difference in what they needed to do. They are fools for not coming to speak to me before they left; I will have to go there and see if they have managed to get themselves killed or if they were sensible enough to recognize the difficulty. As you have not heard from them, I do not have great hopes for their survival.”

Issvako waved a wing at Sophia. “Do not worry; this is not your doing. Indeed, I am certain you told them enough for them to know better if they thought at all; if they have gotten themselves into trouble, it is by assuming that you did not know what you spoke of and that the damage could not possibly be as severe as you stated. I will take care of it.”

There was an edge to Issvako’s voice that told Sophia that if she’d had a mouth instead of a beak, it would have sported a sinister grin. “In fact, I know exactly who to send. You have told Prelate Varthas of this, have you not? He should know better and should already have handled this; the Way is his responsibility. I will insist that he take care of it himself instead of dumping it on his juniors.”

Sophia bit her lip. She wanted to ask if they’d be in time, but there really wasn’t much point in asking. Anything that was going to happen probably already had. “Could they just be taking extra time to look at the situation in the conduit and not be in trouble?”

“It is possible,” Issvako admitted. She didn’t say it, but it was obvious that she didn’t think the best case was likely. “Thank you for indulging my curiosity. You came here for another reason. You wish for me to open a Gateway through the Way to a world without a Tower, a world without the Guide, a World truly across the Way and not merely alongside it.”

It took Sophia a long moment to decipher what Issvako meant. “Yes. We want to go to Terra, Dav’s homeworld. A Gateway seems like the best way, especially if it means we could go back and forth. I’m not sure how much magic there is there; Dav’s not aware of any, but that doesn’t mean much.”

Dav rolled his eyes. Sophia didn’t even have to look at him to know that, because he sent the expression to her across his mindlink.

“It is not possible to open a Gateway without the correct materials on both sides.” Issvako paused and turned towards Dav. “It will not stabilize. The normal method is to take the appropriate materials to both points, whether that is on the same world or not, and to then open a proper Gateway. I have never opened an unstable Way.”

“It has to be possible,” Dav protested. “The Guide spreads, doesn’t it? How does it do that without Gateways?”

“No one knows. I believe it uses unstable Ways and miniature Gateways, but many would disagree. Only the Guide itself knows, for Mimir is long dead. He could well have known how; he and his people arrived decades after we Archons did, when those who came through were still alive. Their methods were later improved into the Gateways we use, in all their variety, but he might well have known the original method, which is the only one that would work for what you ask.” Issvako waved a wing to clear the tea set out of the way. A piece of paper fluttered over from a shelf to take its place.

Sophia frowned at the paper. It was a diagram of something, but she couldn’t tell what. It almost looked like a crude spellform, but the structure was wrong and there were words in Bridge scattered around the diagram. On second thought, it looked far more like an incomplete ritual than a spellform, but Sophia didn’t know what it was supposed to do.

Issvako did not leave Sophia in suspense for long. “Decades ago, M’Beja, the Mage, tried to recreate the Guide’s functions for her own use. She came to me to ask about Gateways, the same as you have. This is a copy of her last attempt; it does not function well but it does start to open a Gateway. It simply cannot complete the link, which makes it useless. While her question was different, the answer I have to give is the same: I cannot help you. What I can do is tell you that the knowledge you seek once existed on Arcatiz but it is long lost. M’Beja believed that the Mimir’s stronghold still existed and set out to find it. She did not return, and she was far more powerful than you are. It is still the only clue I can give you.”

Issvako glanced from Dav to Sophia and then back to Dav. “If you bring me the knowledge I need to open a Way with only one anchor, I will open one for you. The knowledge is payment enough. If you do not, I cannot open a Way.”

“That’s where Lady M’Beja disappeared?” Revanos sounded incredulous. “I can’t … why didn’t she … you can’t mean to send two third upgrade people after something that a Patron couldn’t deal with!”

“I don’t expect them to go now,” Issvako stated, clearly exasperated by the Wanderer’s objection. “I thought that was obvious. I don’t know if more power would help or not; I don’t even know where she went. She said the Inchoate Mountains were easier to find than she expected but she never told me where they are!”

“They shouldn’t be far from here,” Dav interrupted. His tone was even, but Sophia could hear the excitement he tried to hide. “The World Tree was planted by the Guide at the end of the War of Two Mimirs on the orders of the Mimir who made it, wasn’t it? Wouldn’t the Guide pick the place closest to Mimir’s workshop where the Tree could thrive?”

Issvako spread her wings. “Many have looked over the years. None have found a mountain range that matches the legends, not since the end of the war. The search has long been abandoned, but my childhood was only a couple of hundred years after the War. It was within living memory, and so some did search then. They are all long gone.”

The old Waykeeper shook her head. “I do not expect you to look and if you do look I do not expect you to find what I need. I doubt that it still exists, for all of M’Beja’s confidence. I hoped you would not reach me for some time yet, because I do not like giving you an impossible task and hoped you would give up before you got here, but now that you are here I will not hide the truth from you. I cannot do what you ask. If  you obtain what I need, I will try, but that is all I can promise. You should look elsewhere for a way home or find yourselves a new home.”

That was anything but the answer Sophia wanted.

END OF ARC 6: BEYOND THE BROKEN LANDS