Published at 4th of July 2026 6:53 am

Chapter 303 Tempest

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As soon as Mirian had emerged from the Elder Gate, shed begun the process of communing with Ceiba Yan. The Sacred Tree wasnt happy; he had trouble understanding things that werent in his domain, and battleships were far outside the purview of a tree.

Mirian opened up her aura to him, feeling the familiar spirit-construct forming.

Im here, she sent. Ceiba Yan was much more attuned to runes than to glyphs, but mostly communicated in the flows and patterns of aura. They didnt speak in words, but in feelings.

Tlaxhuaco would be protected. Xecatl would be protected.

She landed next to Xecatl.

I hate being weak, Xecatl said bitterly. If I wasnt

Mirian shook her head. It shouldnt matter. Whats the situation?

Mirian surveyed the fires smoldering across the coast as Xecatl explained. Smoke was heavy in the air, but she could make out the Akanan navy ships spread along the coast. She could see two clustered groups that formed a screen, though Xecatl said there were two more groups out of sight. She layered lens spells, shifting light as needed to see through the haze. The shine of bronze hull plating that didnt quite reflect light right caught her eye. Orichalcum. Gods blood. No wonder the leviathans couldnt handle them. Xecatl didnt know how many archmages or Sorcerer Elite units were here. No doubt, Liuan had held some in reserve to protect her and the other Akanans, but the gun teams would be prepared with airburst shells, and with that much orichalcum, direct attacks on the ships would be a problem.

She shifted her lens spells, looking farther out to sea. There were more vulnerable ships, but much further out. If she went for those, she could be flying straight into a trap.

Ceiba Yan had a suggestion. The sun had been beating down a long time. It was warm. Rain often came after that. The sky was ripe for it. It had been growing quickly. Some water would be nice. Water quenched flames. He didnt like the idea of giving water to an enemy, but perhaps its abundance would quell the conflict.

Wise tree, Mirian thought with a smile.

The sunlight was always stronger this far south. The ocean was warm, and the air heavy with humidity. Winter was fading up north, but cold air from the north was high above them. Raindrops needed particles in the air to coalesce around, and the smoke was providing that in abundance.

Creating a storm from nothing was far beyond even her. But helping one along? She could do that. The biggest thing they needed was heat, and there was an easy way to get a lot of that.

Mirian drew heavily from the leyline repulsors in her armor. Ceiba Yan knew how the air felt in a summer deluge, so she just had to push him to create that. Start with heat displacement. Bring the heat up there down here. Intensify the temperature difference between down here and high in the sky.

Those were simple glyphs, and with Mirians guidance, the tree easily responded. His great swirling aura reached up, like branches straining for the sun.

Ill take it from here, she told Xecatl. Let your people know itll take an hour or two before theyll have the cover to move freely. Several hours to complete the spell. Open up all channels on the waterways.

Xecatl stood as regally as she could, moving to convey her orders. Mirian could still see the fracture in her soul. It was painful even for her old friend to be standing.

Mirian shifted her attention to the spell. Together, she and the Sacred Tree cast. Huge surges of auric mana soared into the sky.

Ceiba Yans roots had already incorporated his half of the special device shed made for him. The second half wasnt ready yet, but that didnt matter; he could still start siphoning and pressuring the leyline below them, the same one that was energizing the Uxalak Gate. With Mirians leyline repulsors tethered to that same leyline, they could push it. Just a few degreesbut sometimes, that was all it took.

Now, begin shifting the leyline up and towards the north. Mirian had planned on moving the nearest leyline in that direction anyways. That would cause a southern leyline to redirect to Akana, allowing more of the overload that usually passed through Baracuel to move south instead where it could be dissipated into the low-saturation area. It was a critical maneuver, necessary to delay moonfall, especially given that shed eventually need to open one of the Gates to Divir to give the Ominian the chthonic anchors she had. The only change was that she was bringing the leyline up a little. Enough that the Labyrinth containing it would push into the ocean and the waste heat it was generating would help warm the shallow sea.

Soon enough, the sky began to darken.

***

It was one of Cearsias officers who noticed the temperature change first. Is the upper heat engine malfunctioning? he asked. When the communication came back negative, maintenance did a divination check for energy leaks. Nothing. The guns were running hot from just how many firing missions theyd done, but the cooling engines were displacing the heat just fine.

The clouds had begun to roll in next, which made Cearsia frown. Liuan had said the entire operation would have good weather.

She hadnt thought long on it, though, because she was still overseeing all four battleship groups and checking in with the rearguard. When Prophet Liuan had told her that a tree would be their most dangerous target, Cearsia had thought she was chipped in the head. It was known that the Sacred Tree was a myrvite, and that even plant myrvites could be nasty, but when a shield unlike any shed seen before had protected the city, shed changed her outlook. She was keeping the fleet far back, having had her arcanist advisors calculate exactly how much drop-off spells cast at ten kilometers would have. It was enough they should be safe.

The tree was doing something besides casting that shield; everyone had figured that out. Even a novice could feel their arcane sense tingling from that damned tree. However, it would tire eventually. Even the most powerful myrvite had a limited aura.

Clouds had continued to gather and the wind had picked up. The weather diviners had started performing new calculations with their spell engine calculators.

Then, several teams all brought in their reports within minutes.

Grand Marshal, surveillance teams think theyve picked up the second false prophet by the tree.

Disappointing, Cearsia thought. Shed rather be testing out their ability to coordinate fire on an airborne target. And? Whats she doing?

We dont know. Arcanometers are sensing large movements of diffuse arcane energy, but its not clear for what.

Just then, one of the sound teams came on over comms. Sir, theres something big moving. Divination is picking up low frequency waves, but

A leviathan? the communications officer demanded.

No, sir, its more similar to an earthquake. Except its been going on for several minutes.

Is it on intercept for any of the fleet?

No, sir. Were continuing to monitor the situation.

Cearsias frown deepened. Begin recalling the western squadron. That squadron was on the other side of the archipelago from the rest of the fleet. If the enemy was doing something, that would shorten the time needed to retreat or reinforce them. Thered been no attack yet, but Cearsia had a good sense for how battlefields operated. When there were several unexplained shifts that seemed unrelated, it generally wasnt. If the big tree was doing magic, they would be ready. If enemy arcanists or that false prophet were doing something, she wanted to make sure all groups could rapidly respond to each other.

The admiral in charge of the western fleet came in over the glyph comms. Grand Marshal, Ive just received your retreat order. Id like to emphasize tht our fire teams are doing significant damage to the target city, and weve had no meaningful enemy

Dont question my orders again, Admiral, she snapped. Withdraw immediately as ordered along our predetermined route.

There was silence on the other side. Then, Yes, Grand Marshal. Command staff noted the fleet beginning its maneuver a few minutes later, and she saw the ships turning on the projected illusion map.

Cearsia looked up from the map. The communications officer wiped his brow. He was sweating. They were all sweating. Her eyes flickered up to the temperature gauge. Tlaxhuaco was warm, but it usually wasnt this warm. Cearsia turned to the comms. Ask the weather diviners whats going on.

A moment later, the weather team came back on. Some sort of warm front has moved in. The temperatures arent a threat, just double the hydration regimen and have sorcerers use heat displacement spells to cool crew who are feeling it. And, uh, it seems winds are picking up, but theyre mostly just its vertical movement. Should bring relief from the heat wave.

As soon as the communication ended and orders were going out, the remote speech engine blared out again. Sir, massive changes in the ambient arcane force in this area, just as another team said, Tectonic waves detected. Big ones! Were going to see some rough seas in a moment.

Cearsia stepped outside and gripped the railing. She looked out at the water. Sure enough, huge waves were splashing outward, just to their east. It looked like someone had taken a pole and gouged out a line through the ocean. All along a north-south axis, huge waves were spreading out from an epicenter. Alarms rang out across the fleet.

A shadow passed over the deck.

She looked up.

Dark clouds were condensing above Tlaxhuaco across the entire coast. A veil of smeared gray was reaching down alreadyrain coming down to wash away the fires that were still burning.

Cearsia shivered.

Sir! We need to brace for someone was saying inside. Her eyes were locked on the sky, though. The clouds were growing faster than anything shed seen, and what had been a breeze was beginning to turn into a gale. The ships would survive the big waves; with their enchantments and spell engines that could dampen the force of a hit, they were designed to endure far worse. No, what bothered her about those clouds, what bothered her about the wind, was that it was making her arcane sense prickle.

But thats impossible, she thought. Even that damned tree couldnt do something like this.

The clouds continued to billow up, huge dark towers forming. Cearsia tore her gaze away and headed back inside the bridge. Everyone else was braced for impact, and she joined them as the massive wave from the undersea earthquake hit the ship. The Prophets Prosperity was lifted up, then smashed down. Loose papers and glyph instruments went flying, and the ships hull groaned. The battleship continued to rock, even with the spell engines trying to stabilize it.

When the alarms had stopped blaring, Cearsia snapped, Tell the weather diviners to come look outside. She returned to the observation deck.

Communications sent the message. A few moments later, several confused wizards emerged from the lower decks. They looked up at Cearsia, staring at them from over the railing, then looked up. She saw their eyes widen. An officer emerged from the bridge. Divination teams are looking into it, Grand Marshal.

The sun was gone now, and as the clouds spread out from the coast, they veiled the great towers of clouds that had begun to spread into a giant anvil. Shed never seen a storm form that fast. The waves were now white-capped as the sea churned. Then her eyes caught something else: in the same spot where the big wave had originated from, there was a faint glow that was illuminating the waves; a line of light flickering in the deep. Her arcane sense could feel it, even at this distance.

Cearsia resumed her position on the bridge. Send out new orders to the admirals. All ships in range, target that tree. Were not waiting anymore. Whatever its doing, I want it stopped. I want its aura reduced to nothing. I want it burning within the hour.

The illusionary map showed the fleet had been scattered by the wave, except for the western group that had been largely protected from the waves by the islands of the archipelago. She listened to the bridge, keeping her eyes on the map. The first and second groups began firing first, the huge spellpiercer shells cutting through the wall of rain. Arcanometers and light divination reported hits on the shield, but spotters could no longer visually confirm. Not that hitting Uxalak was a particularly difficult target.

The fourth and first groups continued firing as they moved to regroup. The minutes ticked by.

Then a new sound joined the boom and rumble of the guns: a deep thunder that reverberated far too long.

Through the windows of the bridge, Cearsia saw the first bolt of lightning come down some two kilometers distant from the coast. Then there was a clang! of something hitting the steel deck just outside the bridge.

Is that a hailstone? an officer said, peering out the window.

Nonsense. Hail doesnt get that big.

There was another clang, and another. Then it all started coming downhuge hailstones that came smashing into the deck. The forward bridge windows were angled, and a chunk of ice smashed into one pane, sending cracks through iteven though the glass was enchanted.

Who has repair glass? Cearsia asked. When no one answered, she said, Get a repair team up here. Tell them to use force shields on their way. Until then, shed do it herself. Her spellbook hovered before her, and she sealed the cracks as they formed as more hail came crashing down.

A roaring cacophony engulfed the deck, making it hard to even hear the orders.

The next bolt of lightning was less than a kilometer away. One of the officers said something, but it was lost in the deafening thunder that immediately followed.

Repeat! Cearsia said.

I said, the arcanometers are going berserk! Theres arcane energy enhancing that lightning! Some sort of link between the sky and the elevated levels where that earthquake occured.

More lightning streaked down, this time, hitting the ship.

Cearsia cast reduce sound in a barrier around the bridge. They could still hear the crash of thunder, but it wasnt overwhelming. Recalibrate the shield engines. Get those barriers up! Double up the shields on the bridge! she shouted.

That was good, because after that, the lightning started coming down like a drumbeat. One after another struck in an unrelenting bombardment, some close, some directly on the ship. The huge shield engines put up barriers, but after a few minutes the shields started shattering, completely overwhelmed. Either crews werent able to replenish the fossilized myrvite to those spell engines or they were breaking down from overload. An alarm sounded, then was cut short by a flash. The lightning strikes left behind misting light of orange and violet, and Cearsia found herself blinking back afterimages as bolts came down right in front of them. She added reduce light around the bridge. The repair team shed ordered hadnt made it up.

The illusionary map stopped showing the positions of the fleet. It was happening fast enough Cearsia didnt know if the spell engines were getting hit or it was just a communications breakdown. Damage reports were coming from all over the ship, but the illusionary projection that was supposed to log and display those reports wasnt working either. Her officers scrambled to write down the information as several glyph panels went offline.

Get those shield engines back up! Cearsia barked. Lightning continued to crash down, coming down faster and faster. Now the bolts were coming down like rain. She felt her aura draining simply from maintaining thereduce sound and reduce light spellsthere were just that many strikes.

An explosion sounded, shaking the entire ship.

Fossilized myrvite cookoff on the forward port turret! an officer shouted a moment later.

More boltsit was like they were sailing through a forest of lightning, through sheets of light.

The Vadrians Mercy reports fires on the

Several distress calls are coming in, but the spells being disrupted. Weve lost contact with the western

is Prophets Prosperity bridge, emergency stations, activate all damage control teams

Defense teams had established a shield around the bridge, but Cearsia could see it failing. Abandon the bridge. Get to the below-decks command station!

She wasnt a moment too soon. The barrier around the bridge that had been reinforced just a minute before shattered, and electricity crackled across the room. Glyphs erupted and sparks flew as the command staff shuffled down the stairs. A stray arc of lightning had sent one officer sprawling. Cearsia used lift person to carry them down with everyone else.

By now, the winds were blowing hard, sending the ship tilting back and forth. In the secondary command post, one of the officers had pulled out a schematic of the ship and was marking red ink across damaged areas.

There was red everywhere.

There was only one thing to do.

Prioritize shields, kinetics, and communications. Order a general withdrawal north. Immediately.

The Prophets Prosperity continued to groan and sway as the ship turned north. Grand Marshal Cearsia could only hope the rest of the fleet made it.

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