Published at 21st of October 2026 6:51 am

Chapter 182: Approach

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Despite the inconvenience of the hostile teleport, the view is quite stunning. A clear, sunny day with glistening water far below. Its hard to tell how good my gliding is in these conditions, but from experience I know I can get about fifty feet of horizontal movement for every foot I fall when combining the cloak and glide spell. I think Im at least five miles up, with higher estimates at seven, so that should get me about two hundred and fifty miles. However, I seem to be falling a little faster than normal. The wind is with me, though, so that should even out as I get lower.

I keep my cloak fully extended and rigid, allowing my hands to stay free, with my feet wrapped in the bottom to keep my body horizontal. I dont really have much to do but admire the scenery, or glistening lack thereof. Well, I occasionally get tossed about by the wind, but the enchanted cloak does most of the sorting for that on its own, with only minor changes by me. It is hard to breathe, though, and Im constantly gasping for air, feeling myself drift from consciousness only to snap awake an unknown period of time later. Probably just seconds, given my healing boons. The cloth face covering doesnt help with airflow, but I know I cant remove it for fear of the deadly cold. Besides, Id have an even harder time breathing without the enchantment warming the air.

Its easier to breathe an hour later, almost to an alarming degree. I must have dropped at least a mile (it seems foolishly optimistic to think Ive gone fifty horizontally, though my math suggests something close at least). Im low enough now to make out some birds flying below me. Well, at least I spot a few islands dotting the water below that I can land on. Tiny things, but with some vegetation at least. Maybe I could survive on one long enough to figure something out, but Ill keep that as a last resort.

Now that I can breathe properly again, I stop being so idle with my time and look for ways to slow my fall even more. Its past sunrise, but obviously being so high up is a great opportunity to learn a flight spell. Well, spells in general, given the sense of being apart from and a part of the world, but especially flight spells given the fact that I am currently flying.

I dont dare retrieve my spellbook from its satchel on my hip. I doubt Id drop it given my enhancements, but itd simply be too disastrous if it happened to risk it. Besides, the wind might rip some pages. Fortunately, Ive been focusing on the spell recently, and so have the passage mostly memorized and can recite the chant without reference. I feel myself making good progress, but I doubt Ill finish by the time I get there, not to mention spending so much time inverting the Eye being draining.

Well, its not like it would get me there that much faster, given that its the basic form that achieves flight by sort of catapulting the caster with no control or duration. It does, however, shift my thoughts in some useful directions. The passage on the spell mentioned that birds will use columns of upward-moving air to gain altitude. Unfortunately, these air columns are mostly along cliffs, but they can be found just from random confluences of air.

So, taking a break from trying to force the spell through, I take my divining rod out and look for the nearest column. Its a bit of a thrill when I finally get to one, suddenly lifting upwards, though its over too fast since I sort of shoot through due to my horizontal speed. Still, I must gain at least a dozen feet, maybe two. Not much, but I repeat the process about once every minute or two, gaining me maybe a thousand feet after an hour.

Still, Im not sure if its worth the minor course deviations to gain the altitude. Eventually I settle for a more passive approach, simply continually divining paths with air moving up on average, rather than looking for dramatic bursts of height. While I no longer gain height this way, I do notice a marked reduction in the rate of descent, and I dont have to deviate from the path nearly as much to do it.

An hour after I start this, I find that my efforts to track Terrys location by divination have started to fade strangely, with the sensation barely being felt at all. Its not as if its being countered, but simply that the target is being concealed or even fading from the sphere of legitimate targets. No doubt whatever effect Terry alluded to. Strange that it had a delayed occurrence. No matter. I know the direction it was in, and can keep myself on course using my navigation knowledge. At least Ive made good progress, having flown nearly a hundred miles in the two hours since Ive started, judging from the fading warmth of the divining rod.

Still, I should track other locations, just to get a better idea of where Im going. I start with another divination of the capital and mark its angle, then do other random spots that come to mind: That town with the cave I collapsed, the port I arrived at and the port that I left and a few others. Then I compare that with my memory of maps of this sea.

The answer nearly takes my breath away as much as the initial elevation did, and I get angry at Terry for his recklessness all over again. But surely Im mistaken. Surely, I got an angle wrong, or hes just going someplace near there.

Worry knotting me, I angle my cloak slightly downward to exchange glide distance for speed. My concern is proven correct an hour later as the destination, still a tiny dot, creeps into view. With the bird gods boon and a spyglass, I can just make out the dozens of warships surrounding the island and soldier camps ringing the city. Theres really no other place this could be other than the much rumoured quarantined city, Malsas I guess Im about to find out whats going on the hard way. Lucky me If I can get past the blockade, that is.

I need more height. There may be a hundred knights guarding that place, and just as many mages with divinations set up for attempts at infiltration. I need to glide in well over it, as if Im overshooting it by a hundred miles and using counter divinations to sell the lie. Then, once Im over it, I'll suddenly deactivate the glide spell and retract my cloak. Getting the timing right for reactivating it will be tricky, as I want to drop into the city as fast as possible, but I should be able to manage it if I can get the height first, that is.

Im maybe two to three miles up, putting me about a hundred and fifty miles away. At my best rate Ill just get there, but Ill need to be at least a mile up for my plan, preferably two lets aim for three. Unfortunately, that would mean that Ill need to get there without losing any more elevation an impossible task without new magic.

I spot a flight of geese fairly close. Perhaps I could negotiate with them to carry me up a bit for some bread I have in a pocket No, a silly thought. Maybe if I had some strings or something attached to them, they could lift while maintaining formation. However, I doubt more than half a dozen could grab onto my cloak and stay flying at a time. Simply not enough lifting power.

I rack my brain for any story Ive heard about things that can fly for some hint on how I could achieve it. Maybe if I could flap my cloak like a bird's wing, but the enchantment is simply not strong enough for that. The entire thing could collapse, causing me to lose more elevation than I would gain.

No more birds; think of other flying things Ive read that in Hyclion they have a New Year's festival involving thousands of flying paper lanterns. The book claimed they arent magic, but achieved flight by heating the air inside with a candle underneath. It never seemed believable, but maybe its worth the attempt.

Hoping that Im still far enough away for this to avoid attention, I cast firestream aimed below me. Due to complexities of the magic that Ive forgotten in exchange for the spell, there isn any force emitted as the flame seems to leave my hand. A normally fortunate feature, but inconvenient now, as otherwise I would have tried to use it to propel myself up already.

I dont feel anything at first, but then I realize I need to aim it slightly forward, so that the air ahead of me will be warmed before I fly into the updraft. I nearly yell with joy as I feel my descent slow, then gradually reverse. My forward speed also slows, but I can manage that now that I have a means of lifting myself.

I keep it up until I get about five miles up, which seems to be the limit, then rapidly go back down to cover some distance, dropping to two miles before repeating the trick. Unfortunately, I dont dare repeat the cycle more than once, as Im getting close enough that someone might notice it. Still, it gets me there somewhere between three and four miles up.

I examine the situation as I approach. The warships seem to be situated to keep the wrong ships from approaching the island, while it seems like the armys job is to stop people from getting out. Rather than just the simple ring of white tents surrounding the city that I initially saw, I now see that theyve constructed a second, wooden wall around it, wide enough to drive a wagon on top, with a section extending into the harbour on a mound of dirt to prevent any chance of a ship trying to make a break for it. A small gap with nets spread across and several wooden pylons tightly interspersed allows the tide to go in and out, preventing anything larger than a dinghy from getting through without demolishing much of the wall (and even then the nets would need to be dealt with).

The city takes up about a fifth of the large island, with the surrounding army taking another fifth, and still operating farms taking up the rest. Only the citys port seems a suitable harbour, with the rest being rocky cliffs. There must be thousands of soldiers down there. Tens of thousands. Maybe as much as what they used in Caethlon. Lucky for them that this happened afterwards, but what could possibly warrant such a comital of force, especially with the Kaldima situation brewing and Hyclion moving in the shadows?

The space between the citys original wall and the wooden quarantine one is about a hundred yards wide, and is constantly monitored by hundreds of soldiers with bows and crossbows, as well as a few dozen ballistae. Trebuchets, onagers and mangonels sporadically dot outside the walls, seemingly set to shoot over and into the space between.

There are bodies between the walls, arrows sticking out of them. Some are burned skeletons. Its hard to tell how many, but definitely in the thousands. Malsas only had about eighty thousand before this happened.

There are three complex entrances through the outer wall where it splits and bulges out to form a wide, circular yard with two sets of gates each one gate leading to the space between the walls and the other leading out to the rest of the world. Soldiers pay these sections particular mind as wagons (presumably full of food) are pulled into the yard before the soldiers driving them all run back out, closing the outer gate as they do. Then, soldiers on the wall open the inner gate and allow a group from the city to come and take the wagons.

Why arent there soldiers on the original city wall too? Surely there was a garrison before whatever happened to cause the quarantine

Theres a commotion as the people from the city take in the food, and I see a few dozen people break away and rush the wall. The soldiers immediately start shooting them down. A few reach it and start climbing, making surprising progress; are they enhanced? Regardless, they dont make it far up before the last of them die.

Its hard to tell from here still miles away but the soldiers, despite their overwhelming advantage, seemed afraid. The people rushing the wall, in contrast, didnt look like they had any emotion at all. Like rushing towards their deaths was just a thing to do.

What could be in there that certain death is preferable to returning? That could terrify armed soldiers in a fortified position fighting unarmed civilians? What is Terry getting me into?

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