The Forsaken Hero

It had taken R’lissea two days to ride back to Haven on a fire demon. Said demon had wandered off the moment she’d entered the realm, leaving us with only Fable. Fortunately, that was enough.

Fable lowered himself and allowed us both to climb on. Once R’lissea had her arms laced around my waist, he took off, accelerating so quickly that the wind tried to pluck us from his back. I bit my lip and held on tight while R’lissea soul cast a spell, setting a translucent green barrier around us. Even after the winds died, I didn’t relax my grip. It was hard being without my own spells.

”Sorry about that,” R’lissea said, smoothing my hair with a comforting hand. ”I think I will have to brush your hair again.”

”I’d like that,” I admitted.

My nerves were already on edge, and it wasn’t hard to imagine how much they would fray as we got closer. The long, soothing strokes of a brush were something I was already looking forward to.

Fable broke out of the ruined city and into the Empire beyond. There wasn’t much to see from his back–the world sort of blurred together, but the terrain seemed mild compared to the ancient forests of Heartland and the mountains of the Ingrid Alliance. Farmland, scorched black and torn apart by demon claws, spread like a blanket, broken up by occasional rivers and canals.

As we rode, R’lissea and I caught up on everything from the last week, from the surrender of the Empire to the books I found in the library. There were so many names and details from the negotiations that I tuned most of it out, not caring much for the politics.

I smiled as I imagined Luke stuck at a meeting, his tail twitching in boredom. He probably just wanted to invade and destroy the whole empire anyway. I couldn’t even guess why he decided to negotiate a surrender in the first place.

”Is it just me, or has Fable gotten faster?” R’lissea asked as we streaked by the ruins of a small farming village. ”We’re close to the halfway mark, but it’s only been a few hours.”

”He’s eighth level now,” I said, petting my wolf’s neck. ”And he’s had a month of training to consolidate his realm.”

”You sound envious,” she said.

I lowered my head. ”I’m just too weak. Even though I broke through, I can’t cast my own wards for this trip. I might not even be able to cast eighth-circle spells without hurting myself.”

”You’ll be alright.”

I turned, my eyes wet. ”How can you be sure?”

She smiled, gently patting my shoulder. ”Because you forgot about something. There’s always Celestial Grace.”

My eyes went wide. ”I...didn’t think of that. But will it really work that way?”

Her lips pursed. ”It’s hard to say, but I can’t think of why not. It strengthens both the body and the soul, but at your level, the change to your body is far greater than that of your soul. We might have to tweak the spell a bit, but I think it’s worth looking into.”

”I bet Emlica would help us with that!” I said, clapping in delight. ”I bet she’ll be super impressed.”

”Oh? Is she good at that kind of thing?”

My worries faded into the background as I began describing our research on Adaptive Resistance, gesturing animatedly with my hands. Just thinking about it again got me excited, and soon, I barely even remembered we were riding Fable, much less my apprehension of the destination. All the while, R’lissea just listened, smiling faintly. She seemed relieved, for some reason.

The day wore on, and the endless farmland turned to lightly wooded hills. The villages became towns that, more often than not, were populated. We’d seen several demon packs along the way, but none in the last few hours.

There began geological formations as I’d never seen in Enusia, from steep cone-shaped mountains to sweeping plateaus draped in dusty trees and shrubbery. The rugged cliffs were dark, almost black, catching the light in a way that nearly seemed reflective. The unique color wasn’t just in these formations, but peeking through the earth from time to time. It must be the reason they called this the Blacksand Empire.

”We’re almost there,” R’lissea said, ”The city should come into sight in just a few minutes.”

”How can you tell? It all looks the same,” I said, gesturing around the rolling hills.

She smiled and pulled out a comb, working through the wind-tousled tangles. ”It’s hard to get a bearing without mountains, but I always have a faint sense of where we are in Enusia. It’s one of the perks of being the Life Hero.”

”You can’t get lost?” I asked curiously.

”Not if I’m outside in nature. But in a city? Totally.”

Less than a half hour later, Fable abruptly dug his claws isn’t the ground, bringing to a skidding stop. The sudden deceleration threw me into his mane, giving me a mouthful of fur as I let out a startled cry.

”Oww, ” I mumbled, rubbing my neck. I hadn’t had whiplash like that since Lord Evlon threw me around.

”Sorry, I should have given you some warning,” R’lissea said, pulling me up by the shoulders. ”But we’re here. See?”

Still muttering a complaint, I raised my head and froze. The ground in front of us was gone. Just...gone.

Fable had stopped just a few feet scant of plunging off the edge of a titanic cliff. Even calling it a cliff didn’t feel right. It was monstrous, easily a five-thousand-foot drop. The rim curved away on either side in a colossal bowl that had to be dozens of miles across.

The view was breathtaking, if terrifying. The cliffs gently sloped inward near the bottom, which was just as frightening as the massive crater itself. The landscape was torn by narrow obsidian ridges, razor-sharp crags, and shining lakes surrounded by perpetual fog. Everything was the same sharp, black earth, with facets that glittered in the light of the evening sun. Even the patches of sand and dirt gleamed duly, reflecting heavy, dull light like a pit of shattered glass.

My stomach twisted as I finally comprehended the scale and majesty of the crater in front of me. A tremor struck my heart, and I squeezed my eyes shut, tail waving until it struck R’lissea’s waist and quickly coiled around it.

”Where did this come from?” I mumbled, pushing my face into Fable’s fur. ”The ground was so nice and flat...and then this!”

”I told you we were here,” R’lissea said, giggling as she gently unwound my tail from her waist. Her fingers sent shivers racing up the appendage. ”Black Sand City. ”

Tentatively raising my head, I followed her pointing finger to a formation I missed during my panicked once-over. A towering spire dominated the center of the bowl, the only true mountain in sight. Its tip rose high above even the rim of the crater, sharp and narrow, like a jagged spear.

Hidden amongst the many crags and cliffs were countless towers and keeps, mansions and houses. Where the other cities on this continent sprawled horizontally, this one rose vertically in a spiral woven around the mountain.

”That’s where Elise is?” My voice trembled. ”There?”

Elise nodded, rubbing my back reassuringly. ”It’s the capital city of the Black Sand Empire. The very heart of their power.”

”But why would Luke agree to go there? It looks--”

”Beautiful? ” she offered. ”It is a caldera.”

”Caldera?” I tried out the unfamiliar word. ”No, wait, I was going to say terrifying!”

R’lissea giggled and pointed to the rim of the cliff, just beneath Fable’s feet. ”The Caldera is the crater part. The mountain collapsed after all the lava got squeezed out, making it look like a big bowl.”

”This whole thing is a volcano?” I asked, eyes wide. ”But I thought those were mountains!”

”Not just here, it’s the whole empire, if I understand it right,” she explained. ”It’s just the slope is so gentle, it feels flat when in reality, we were slowly climbing to the peak.”

”And that city–”

”Blacksand city.”

”--is where we’re going?”

She nodded, and I sank back, tail curling.

I bit my lip. ”I’ve never seen it before. I thought I’d seen them all, but...”

”What do you mean?” she said, chuckling. ”Surely, there’s a million things you’ve never seen in this world before. What are you...”

Her voice faltered as I shivered, and her hand rose, resting on my shoulder. With a gentle tug, she turned me around to face her.

”Xiviyah, what are you trying to say?” She asked.

”I’ve never seen this place before, not in a battle or anything,” I said. ”I’ve seen so many cities...but not this one. And out of all of them, the church made it so I have to come here. I know we’re trying to save all the people of the empire, but this feels a lot like before. Are we really going to be saving people? Or is this just a trap?”

”I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or not,” she admitted. ”But if it is a trap, Elise is already in the middle of it.”

”She didn’t have to be.” I gripped Fable’s fur tightly. ”You chose to come here without me, and now we’re all in danger.”