Chapter 12 : On the Road Again

Mnemon Rhomon, Sorcerer

Realm Year 764, Ascending Wood

Domain of the Silver-Crowned, An-Teng, Satrapy of the Realm

Their stay in Jade Plum Citadel was only long enough to spend the night, buy supplies, and head out the next morning. From the city, the road wound up the mountains, steeper and steeper, until it passed over the Firepeaks and started sloping down again.

“So how far away is our destination, anyways?” Siata asked, looking somewhat bored, laying back and staring out over the thin mountain air. The road they traveled upon was clearly an old military road, built wide and sturdily for marching legions, and maintained somewhat inconsistently. Their ram lizard trundled along without much care, broad tail sweeping around and occasionally whapping against the underside of the large raised archway that Rhomon currently sat upon. “We’re to The Lap, correct? That’s a good few weeks away by ship.”

“Well…” Rhomon began with a considering nod of his head. He had already checked their map before setting out, so it was a subject he had already calculated. “A horse drawn carriage can generally make twenty to forty miles in a day. So long as nothing delays our course, we’ll have arrived in The Lap in a good twenty to forty days.”

“So long!” Siata complained briefly, sighing out dramatically and kicking one leg up. 

“That’s eight hundred miles, sorcerer.” Brahm pointed out after a moment of calculation, staring at the back of his head. “Do we even have enough food for that distance?”

“I know I might not seem it, but I am a child of the Realm, and a sorcerer both.” Rhomon refuted with a dry tone. “I am trained in archery, and I know the rituals required to summon animals. So long as we supplement our rations with one every night, our stocks will last us.”

“That explains why you insisted on buying a bow.” Brahm grunted. “I won’t be able to partake, of course.”

“Which is why we bought an extra barrel of rice- that’s all for you, monk.” Rhomon reached back and patted the barrel in question, one of two quarter-casks full of the dried grain in question. Each one held a bit over a hundred pounds of rice, which was frankly overkill in his opinion, but he wanted to make sure. “It’ll be fine. We’ll restock if we need to over at The Lap and come back the same way.”

“Ah, pardon master…” The alchemist he had hired asked in a slightly sheepish Low Realm. 

He nodded. “Apologies- can everyone speak Low Realm?” He leaned back and asked the gathered. They glanced between each other, slowly nodding, then glanced back at him. “If so- we’ll use Low Realm as standard speech amongst ourselves.”

“It’s akin to High Realm, yes?” Shuri asked with polite deliberateness, bringing his hands together. “We should be able to manage, if so.” 

Rhomon wiggled a hand. “Some of the loan words and abbreviations might trip you up, but yes you should be capable of parsing most of it. Low Realm isn’t so much a proper language of its own as it is an amalgam of whatever words, sounds, and pronunciations most suit the situation covering a core of high realm vocabulary.”

“We see. We will endeavour to keep pace.” Shuri smiled and nodded. Rhomon gave a thumbs up and switched over fully to Low Realm. 

“We have enough food to last the entire journey, if I just summon up something to eat every night.” He reaffirmed with a nod.

“You can conjure food?” The alchemist replied with astonishment, eyes widening slightly.

“Well no, I don’t know the spell that does that.” Rhomon shook his head. “I do, however, know how to lure common beasts from a mile around and use a bow, which is almost as good.” 

“Is this yet more thaumaturgy, sir Rhomon?” Shuri asked in High Realm, the alchemist’s brows furrowing as she parsed through what was said. 

“It is- Although it’s probably the most common sort. Common enough that few would say there’s any magic to it at all.” Rhomon replied in a deliberate and steady Low Realm, letting the snake-prince work out the words. “The art of summoning is most famously used to conjure and control spirits, but it can be used against men and beasts as well, and much easier in such cases. Just about anyone could do it with a bit of training.”

He waved it off. “I’ll demonstrate when we stop for the night.” With that the snake-prince nodded and leaned back. 

“It would be dangerous to stop at nightfall, master.” The alchemist said with a worried glance up towards the peaks of the mountains. The roads lead to the only clear pass through, many miles away, winding around the slopes and over broad, flat ridges. “We’d be within the Domain of the Silver Crowned…”

“Why is that dangerous, alchemist?” Brahm asked with narrowed eyes.

The alchemist glanced back at the monk, then to him, and swallowed back her nervousness. She coughed into her fist. “The Katora clan… They do not permit trespass over their territory. Not for casual visitors…”

“Who?” Shuri asked with a tilt of his head.

“Allow me, if you would cousin.” Siata spoke up, pushing up with a charming smile and a raised pinky. Rhomon nodded, pulling the reins to make the ram lizard pull away from the treacherously long drop off the side of the mountain. Siata smiled, pulling his legs up and performing an acrobatic spin to settle down and smile at the snake prince. “Long ago, when the righteous Dragons overthrew the Anathema and liberated An-Teng, they gifted Lady Ivory Cup and her clan with the lands around the northern Firepeak Pass, and charged them with defending the land from any Anathema spies from The Lap.”

Siata shrugged. “They’d upheld this watch for as long as anyone can remember since. But we don’t have anything to worry about- We’re scions of the Realm traveling through for specific purposes, not anathema spies or careless wanderers.”

“I would still recommend that we push through, master and honorable scions…” Melia pressed her fingertips together with a polite smile and pressed brows. 

“We cannot.” Rhomon stated plainly with a shake of his head. “The interior of the Domain of the Silver-Crowned has been cultivated into a shadowland. If we tried leaving at night, we’d pass into the underworld instead.”

“”“What!?”””

“Cousin- what do you mean it’s been cultivated into a shadowland?” Siata asked, standing up and stepping forwards, sitting on the food barrels to talk more directly with him. Brahm was slightly more alert, and Shuri’s eyes were wide. Melia’s face had frozen into a polite smile. 

“From what I remember…” Rhomon began with a tapping of his index finger on his chin. “Upon reaching adulthood, all adults go through ferocious and arbitrary trials to determine whether or not they’ll betray the clan. Everyone who fails is killed and buried beneath thorns. Already being a cold and dreary place where life finds it hard to take root- this practice has cultivated a shadowland over the centuries.”

He shrugged. “If we try to pass through at night, we’ll step right into the underworld.”

“Then… how about we camp at the edges of their territory, then pass through during the day?” Melia tried again.

“Camping at the edge of their territory instead of walking up and asking for hospitality is incredibly suspicious behavior.” Siata replied with a scrunched face and frown. “It would be difficult to justify such an action to them, if this shadowland has become normal to them.” 

“So we’re not going to do any of that.” Rhomon smiled and nodded confidently. “We’re going to travel to the village, ask for hospitality for the night, sleep behind salt lines, and move on in the morning. We are not anathema spies, nor are we casual wanderers, nor are we doing anything suspicious. We are scions of the realm and some locals that are accompanying us traveling through to the Lap on business.”

Rhomon nodded his head at Siata. “I’ll leave the actual talking to you, cousin Siata, as the Dragon among us.”

Siata blinked, briefly pointing at himself before smiling brightly and kicking up. “Why of course! Ahah! Naturally such a thing would fall to me!” He chuckled, stepping back along the gently-rolling cart and plopping down at the back again, sprawled out in a comfortable lounge once more. There was a bright, self-pleased smile on his face as he settled down.

Rhomon pulled the reins a bit, steering the plodding ram lizard away from the cliff wall and back towards the center of the broad road. This section of mountain pass was a sweeping plateau, covered in a handful of farming villages and wild goats, who chewed at long windswept grasses and squinted at them as they passed. 

It was just about the last bit of land that was green. The road ahead wound its way up through the lowest point between two mountains, the grass getting progressively browner and sparser up until it stopped entirely. A set of stone walls and towers loomed, built right along the road and looking out for miles around. 

Barely more than a trio of grey lines by his gaze. He couldn’t distinguish much from their current position. 

He glanced down at the reins in his hands, and then over at the long gentle slope covered in grass that eventually cut off suddenly as it reached the cliffside. It might not be the best idea for him specifically to be guiding the cart as they moved near more treacherous portions. 

“How far away is that?” He asked, looking ahead again and squinting at the distance walls. 

“A few dozen miles yet, sir Rhomon.” Shuri declared confidently, snake eyes narrowed into thin slits. “We’ve a good amount of time before arrival. Perhaps an hour.” 

It occasionally tripped him up, how far one could see across a flat world. 

“Right. Tuck in for the long haul then, everyone. We’ll be on the road for nearly a month.” Rhomon sighed, tugging the ram lizard back into the middle of the road.

“Sorcerer. Earlier you mentioned an alchemical method you devised.” Brahm spoke suddenly. “Five Dragons Antithesis Refinement?”

“Five Dragons Antithesis Distillation Method.” Rhomon idly corrected, making the alchemist aide next to him perk up. “What do you want to know about it?”

“The name, why was that name chosen?” Brahm asked with a frown and squint.

“...Ah, you’re wondering if it has anything to do with the Antithesises of the Immaculate Dragons?” Rhomon asked, making the monk nod sharply.

“Forgive me. Antithesis of the Immaculate Dragons?” Shuri soft-spokenly asked with a tilt of his head.

“The state religion of the Realm is the Immaculate Faith, which venerates the Immaculate Dragons and their teachings.” Rhomon began to explain. “Adherents aspire to be like the Immaculate Dragons, and as an example of what adherents should not be like, each dragon has what is called its ‘Antithesis’.”

“The Unmanly Babbler, The Illiberal Churl, The Inconsiderate Horseman, The Sickly Whore, and the Ostentatious Peasant." Brahm spoke with a hint of zeal tucked away neatly behind his calm voice. “I’m simply wondering why his method shares a name with them.”

“The method works by dipping a stick of jade into an energized substance, allowing like traits to cling to the jade, and then pulling the stick out.” Rhomon waved off. “Whatever is left inside the substance is everything except what was associated with that color of jade, and therefore- the antithesis. It doesn’t have anything to do with actual spiritual matters.”

“Hm… Could you provide an example?” Brahm asked, leaning back and raising his straw hat slightly. 

“Let's say I dip a stick of red jade in a vial of spiced wine. I perform the process, then remove the red jade. The actual spice of the wine would be clinging to the jade, and what is left is merely wine.” Rhomon used one hand to pantomime dipping a stick in something and then removing it. “Every part of the substance that resonates with red jade in specific was removed, leaving the substance with ‘everything else’ remaining.”

“Hence, Antithesis.” Brahm nodded firmly. “I understand now, thank you for explaining.”

“Is that even useful?” Siata asked, leaning back. Rhomon could hear him move by how the cart creaked. “I’m not a learned sorcerer or anything, but what are the applications for that?”

“As my thesis example, I removed the addictive qualities from opium, letting it function solely as a pain suppressant.” Rhomon grinned in self-satisfied pride. “The process only takes time and a bit of essence, so any half-interested thaumaturge can perform it. There was talk about distributing it to every healer in the realm for its utility.”

“That’s very impressive, sir Rhomon!” Shuri declared with a little clap of his hands. 

“Eh… I suppose.” Siata replied in a distinctly less impressed manner. “Ah, whatever. I don’t really get it, but if the sorcerers of the Heptagram were impressed, then it was almost certainly impressive, cousin!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be the first to admit that it's a bit tricky.” Rhomon nodded. “It’s more useful for refining ingredients to be used in other potions than anything else. Extracting undesirable traits from your components, and all that.”

Its much more valuable utility was in separating jade dust from the soil. He already knew how he might create such a device too, he simply refrained from telling anyone about it quite yet.

Anything that lets you pull jade from sand and water was, naturally, very valuable. In such a cutthroat environment as the Realm, it was best to get far away first and then start to make use of it elsewhere.

Probably Paragon. He knew they could keep a secret. Absolutely not The Guild.

“Ah, will you perhaps demonstrate this process later, master?” His alchemist aide asked sweetly, batting her eyes up at him and twisting her shoulders from side to side. A very blatant attempt to charm him out of his secrets.

As this was hardly a secret, he lost nothing here. “Sure. We’ll exchange methods as we go along.” He sent her an amused glance and smile. “I’m sure you know methods that are unknown to me, so the exchange would benefit both of us.”

She blinked, then smiled and nodded in a distinctly pleased manner. “Of course!” 

The conversation continued in an idle manner for many minutes, as they got closer and closer to the three grey lines in the distance. It was only after they passed over and around three wide hills that they got close enough for him to see the walls and towers properly.

They were of rough grey stone in construction, surrounded by bare slopes and sections of packed earth and crude mortar. The walls were built right into the stone of the mountains that loomed on either side, and terraces higher on the slopes held smaller buildings and crenulated walls for archers to crouch behind.  

Guards menaced upon the walls, wearing obvious steel breastplates over fur coats, with helmets that covered the tops of their head and allowed their long white hair to spill out dramatically in the breeze. At least, Rhomon thought that was what he was looking at, it was hard to tell due to his lacking depth perception. 

Siata pushed up from the back of the cart, stepping off and walking alongside as they approached the gates. The gates were wrought of a heavy pale wood, banded in steel and bearing a professional seal. The seal depicted a snake eating a sunburst, slightly faded with time and worn away by constant grit-filled winds. 

Pretty subtle stuff there, guys. 

Bows were raised at them in unison after a point, and Rhomon pulled quickly and tightly on the reins, bringing the ram lizard to a sudden stop. He held his position with a wary eye scanning across the walls.

Siata stepped forwards in a charming manner, hands raised disarmingly. “Hello! Warriors of the Domain of the Silver-Crowned!” He spoke in clear and precise High Realm as he approached, stopping after a dozen or so feet. “I am Sesus Siata, Dragon of Water, I’d like to request passage through thy noble gate.” 

“For what purpose?!” One of the warriors called out, carrying a spear and shield and looming over the battlements. 

“Hospitality in your lands for the night, and then passed through towards The Lap the next morning.” Siata clarified with an easy smile. 

“And your companions?” The warrior asked, speartip gesturing towards them in the cart. “Who are they?!”

“My cousin Mnemon Rhomon and his attendants, and the Immaculate Brahm.” Siata gestured to them in turn. “We’re going to The Lap to pick up an elder and escort him back to An-Teng for healing, so we’d appreciate a peaceful passage.” 

“And who is this elder?” The warrior growled. Siata paused before looking back at him. The guards on the wall shifted as focus was directed towards him.

“Our senile grandfather of a Fire Dragon.” Rhomon called out. “Who is liable to set the boat on fire and doom us all if we try to escort him by sea.”

That was all technically correct information, which was the best kind of correct. 

The guards pulled back slightly, clearly discussing things amongst themselves. After a moment, the guard with the spear stepped forwards again. “If you are a Dragonblooded- then show us your anima! If not, then begone!”

Siata smiled, bringing his hands up to his chest and taking a deep breath. 

A few moments passed.

His hands shot out explosively, a wave of blue-green energy bursting from his form. Rolling essence tearing its way out of his form and rippling apart the ground around his feet. Like a spiraling, self-destructive wash of water against a stony shore. Spreading out, losing energy, and overtaken by itself, again and again and again. 

Siata grinned, raising his hand up to cup his chin. “Will this suffice as a display, honorable guardians?”

They were quickly convinced by his showboating.

Rhomon had to remind his ‘cousin’ not to stand too close to the cart as they passed through the gates.