The open half of the Temple's front doors gave us a pretty good view outside as Dalmar and I approached it, but we were still pretty careful about poking our heads out, neither of us wanting to get dissolved by snake snot.

"Looks clear" Dalmar said quietly as he scanned the skies and the balcony surrounding the temple.

I did my own slow survey before taking a couple of steps out the door. Sam hadn't made an appearance, so I was fairly confident we were safe, but after watching something get dissolved to the bones, one tends to be a little cautious.

"Yeah, I think it's gone" I finally replied. The wyverns had taken to flight again, and this time they were focused on us, though none of them seemed willing to go past some kind of imaginary boundary around the temple. "Wyverns are definitely staying back, so we're probably ok for now"

"You going to put a portal here?" Dalmar asked as stepped around me and headed toward the west corner of the temple. He took a look around that corner, then turned back to give me a questioning look when I hadn't replied.

I was studying the doorway and thinking about the temple layout, so it was a moment before I said "No, not at the temple. It has to be some kind of arch or entrance, but I've been avoiding ones with doors and the temple doesn't have anything else that will work" I shrugged before adding "and I feel kind of weird about putting one in a different goddesses temple"

The clop clop of hooves got us to turn to the doorway to see Maria stepping outside, her horse stopping just inside the entrance. It was the weirdest thing to see a metal looking horse walk and not hear the clank clank of metal on stone. My brain kind of...blinked I guess, at the dissonance, making me grin at how strange my new world was sometimes. A metal, flying horse. How cool was that?

Maria was so thrilled and happy her grin was going to hurt after a while, but she only laughed when Dalmar asked "So what do you feed her, metal oats?"

"What are you boys planning?" she asked, looking around and giving the horde of wyverns around us a good look.

"Talking about portals" I said, walking toward the edge a to look up and down the canyon "If I put one here it'll be in the other buildings somewhere" I was trying to decide if it was really worth the four days of sitting here. Lor Frell seemed to be a crossroads for the Underroads, but would that really be all that useful to me?

"If?" Maria asked, her and Dalmar coming over to join me. Maria hugged my arm as she did her own quick look up and down the canyon. I shrugged and said "Trying to decide if it's worth the effort. It might make more sense to put one at that city along the coast since it sounds like your people could reach here via the north road"

Maria released me to turn and lean back against the stone railing around the balcony, totally ignoring the wyverns flapping and screeching twenty feet away. She studied me for a second, then said "But you're already here, and it would be easier than walking here from my castle"

"Sure" I said "but really, what's a couple of days walking to get here? It's not like we're really in a hurry here, and at the rate I've been putting up those stone arches, my town will be cluttered with them in a year or two"

That got a grunt of laughter from Dalmar as he nodded, obviously picturing Mudtown full of stone portals. I finally shrugged and said "I'm thinking not. Once your people find the entrance to the underroads and send an expedition here, we can maybe plan a quest to the coast, to..." I paused, trying to dredge the name up.

"Lor Koss" Dalmar said, getting a nod of thanks from me as I continued "Lor Koss. If I set one up there it should give us pretty good coverage of the forbidden lands, though..." I frowned at a wayward thought and added "I'd want to be sure we had people stay there after that since the idea of an unguarded portal in the Forbidden lands that leads home isn't something I like"

"Wouldn't work right?" Maria said with a shrug "For anyone you haven't blessed I mean"

"Maybe" I shrugged "but I don't know if someone can use some weird kind of magic that would allow them to"

"True enough" Dalmar said with a nod "it's not like anyone has a clue about pretty much anything"

"Well, then I guess we decide what we do next" Maria said, having to speak a little louder since an especially aggressive wyvern was flapping and squawking as close as it could get. She nodded for us to head into the building, leading the way as we followed. She ran a hand along her horse's neck as she stepped inside, and it turned to follow her. Looking at the back end of the horse I wondered if the thing dropped metal horse poop.

We ended up at the statue of Tarra, and Maria stayed leaning against her horse as she asked "So you want to go looking for those books?"

Dalmar nodded and looked at me, so I nodded and said "Yeah. After that I'm ready to move on"

"Go down and see if we can help Bob?" Dalmar asked, getting a headshake from Maria as she said "No. Unless they send a message I say we let them do this on their own. I think Bob wants to handle this himself, and it is their quest"

"I agree" I said "the five of them should be more than enough to handle it, and I doubt we could take the horse into the mines"

"Vysta" Maria said, patting the horse's nose and saying "Ignore the mean man baby, you're not a horse, you're a beautiful Pegasus"

Based on the look the horse gave me I kind of thought it might actually understand what we were talking about, so I said "Sorry, I mean Pegasus. The Pegasus might not be able to travel into the mines"

"I say we find a book" Dalmar said "then see if we can fly out of here on Vysta"

"That works for me" Maria said as she made a reaching motion and her bow appeared in her hand. Dalmar hesitated, then made his hammer disappear and the black axe replaced it, quickly followed by the silver shield the elf captain had used appearing on Dalmar's left arm.

I pulled Bruce up, then said in my toughest tough guy voice "Let's kick some ass" getting a laugh from Maria and a snort of humor from Dalmar.

Maria patted her horse's nose, then headed back toward the side door we came in. I took the tail end position, and sort of studied Dalmar's new weapons configuration. He had always carried the big hammer, so it sort of looked wrong to see him with an axe and shield. It was going to be interesting to see how it affected everything since it was Dalmar that made our group so dangerous. His high level, great health, and overall toughness allowed Maria and I to be effective. I probably had the most versatile class in Tarinath, but I wouldn't be very effective if I didn't have a highly effective tank to slow the enemy down and give me room to work. That new axe was probably one of the best weapons I'd seen to date, so I doubted he would be losing much in the damage dealing area, and I've always thought that shields were a good idea.

We ended up trooping down to the bottom level after a discussion about the value of searching every level and deciding we'd rather just see if we could cross the canyon to see something new. Other than the rose, which was nice, we hadn't found a darn thing worth keeping in the front buildings, and the one we were in now appeared to be half home, half store, though it was pretty much empty now. A couple broken pieces of furniture was about it, and the door was missing from the front of the building.

The wyverns weren't visible to me as I stopped to the right of the open doorway, but Dalmar and I waited as Maria said "Let me cross over and make sure it's clear", then faded as she stepped out onto the canyon road.

The buildings on the other side weren't in any better shape, and after a couple of minutes, I saw Maria appear in a doorway a little to the right of ours and wave for us to come over. Dalmar and I exchanged looks, then he took off running with me right behind him. It hadn't seemed all that far until I was out there and the wyverns began screeching and squawking above us, but I still piled through the door behind Dalmar a little before the first wyvern landed outside.

"You guys are getting your cardio in" Maria said, grinning back at us as she walked toward a door in the back of the room. This store was one big open room that had what probably used to be display cases scattered around. The cases were only piles of wood and glass now, with nothing to show what used to be in them.

The rear door opened into another hallway, and we all stopped to discuss where to go from there. Maria sort of sighed as she looked down the hallway to the right at the stairs leading up, then back to the left at the stairs leading down. "Flip a coin?" she finally said

I wasn't thrilled about the idea of looking through dozens of empty rooms, so I sent Telina a mental "A little help?". I wasn't as surprised this time to get a little nudge toward the stairs down, and told Maria and Dalmar "Telina says we should go down"

"She does huh?" Maria said with a laugh, turning and heading that way.

Instead of zig-zagging back and forth, these stairs wound downward in a circle similar to the ramp leading up from the west bridge area, though there was only room for two people to walk abreast. We descended maybe a hundred feet before the stairs ended at an iron door, and I thought we might be facing east again, but we had wound around so much I really couldn't be sure.

"Locked and trapped" Maria said, kneeling down and starting to fiddle with stuff only she could see. It made me wonder if Maria and Shadow, or even the mages who did this, all saw the same thing. It wasn't like they were actually picking the lock, and Maria had said she had patterns she followed to undo stuff, so would the patterns on a door be the same for everyone?

When she opened it a couple of minutes later, we found ourselves looking at a fifteen by fifteen room with a chest on each of the other three walls. Nobody was dumb enough to move forward, and Dalmar said "Maria?"

"Nothing" she said in surprise "the chests aren't even trapped"

"Sounds like bait to me" I said, looking back up the stairs, then kind of squatting a little to look up to see if anything was above the door.

"Well" Dalmar said, sort of shrugging to settle his armor and shield "only one way to find out. You two stay here"

He walked purposefully to the center of the room, then crouched with shield up, axe raised, as he waited for something to happen. After a half minute, he slowly straightened and gave us a bemused look before saying "Nothing"

I led Maria into the room, and we all sort of held our breath for a second to see if something would attack. I grinned at the sound as we all breathed out, then said "Maybe something in the chests?"

So we opened each chest with extra caution, Dalmar opening them with Maria and I standing just inside the doorway, ready to fight whatever popped up. Again nothing happened, and we ended up with a chest of gold, a chest of silver, and a chest of copper coins. Hundreds of each of them, and they weren't poisoned, and were definitely real.

"Ok, this has to be a distraction" Maria said, hands on her hips as she scowled around the room "Why would Telina send us to get money?"

Good question, though it was one that Telina didn't answer. I rolled my eyes in frustration and said "She's not saying"

Maria dismissed that with a wave of her hand, and said "Got to be a hidden door. Give me a minute" Her eyes did the glowing thing and she grinned and pointed at the wall to the left of the door, saying "There. Not sure how to open it, but there's a doorway there"

She traced a door five feet to the left of the door we came in, then fiddled and pushed at various places before shrugging and saying "No clue"

"Let me try" Dalmar said "This is a dwarven city"

He put his axe away and pushed on the right side, falling forward when the wall swung inward with no resistance. It caught us all by surprise, so Dalmar fell face first into another stairway before I could grab him, tumbling down in a cacophony of metal on stone. He managed to stop himself after ten feet, then cursing softly, he got to his feet as we hurried to catch up.

"Anyone laughs and I'm pushing them down the rest of the way" Dalmar growled as he dusted himself off, giving Maria a look as she held a hand over her mouth and what sounded like giggles slipped out. I grinned at their byplay, but looked down to make sure we were alone, and saw that Dalmar was lucky to stop after ten feet, because the stairs led straight down further than I could see.

Maria slipped past me and Dalmar, then said seriously "Don't go any farther, there are a lot of traps ahead of us"

Nine of them if the number of stops Maria made as we descended were any indication. A room with a fortune in gold as a distraction. A door that could only be opened by a dwarf. Now a stairway with multiple traps in it. Whatever was down here, it wouldn't have been found by your average group of eternals. It was the first time I really considered that with Bob in our group, we had four different races covered. Equal opportunity adventure team as it were.

"I'm thinking your goddess pushed us toward something interesting" Dalmar said as he and I waited for Maria to disable another trap. I took the opportunity to renew the group blessing and my armor spell before doing a restore, figuring we probably hadn't reached the hard part yet.

When Maria stood up, she said "That's the last one I can see, but we'll take it slow" We had covered less than a hundred feet, and I still couldn't see the bottom. I was beginning to wonder if we weren't headed toward another of the underroad access points.

The stairs ended after another hundred and fifty or so feet, leading directly into a short hallway. There was a room at the other end, and it was well lit, though the source of illumination was at the top of the room and outside our field of view. From our vantage point at the bottom of the stairs, just inside the hallway, we could see the room must be fairly large since we could see a stone statue of a dwarf holding a battle axe standing against a wall fifty or sixty feet on the other side.

The hall was less than a dozen feet long, so Maria eased forward, moving to the center of the hall and leaning forward to see as much of the room as possible. I had taken a single step when Maria let out a "Oomph", then fell on her ass. I had Bruce up, and Dalmar took a step forward, both of us looking for whatever attacked her.

"Som ob a bik!" she yelled, holding her hand to her nose, the absurdity of it drawing a laugh from me and Dalmar. When she turned to glare at us, hand on a bloody nose, I quickly pointed at Dalmar and said "It wasn't me", at the same time Dalmar pointed at me with his shield arm and said "He laughed"

Maria broke into giggles as Dalmar and I both tried to look innocent and I sent a quick heal spell Maria's way. Maria climbed to her feet, nose healed and blood gone, still giggling as she stepped backwards. When we joined her, she said "You guys are a couple of goofs" a grin still showing, though her eyes were focused on the hallway.

"What hit you?" Dalmar asked, getting me to say "Sam's not acting like there's anything there"

Maria put a hand out, appearing to touch something a couple feet in front of her and said "It's an invisible wall. Walked right into it"

I put my own hand out and immediately felt what she was talking about. It felt like glass. Kind of cold and slick, though it didn't give me any sense of fragility. When Dalmar stepped forward and put his hand out, it passed through whatever Maria and I were touching.

"Great" Maria said with a disgusted look "it looks like we're not allowed at the front of the bus"

"I'm not feeling any..." Dalmar's words were cut off as he stepped past whatever was blocking us. He turned back to us, still talking based on the way his mouth was moving.

"Can't hear you" Maria said in an exaggerated way, getting Dalmar to frown and step back through the barrier.

"..at?" he said "I couldn't hear you" the words getting a bark of laughter from me as Maria said "It's soundproof. You were cut off as soon as you stepped through it"

"Oh" Dalmar grunted, nodding his understanding as we all considered our options. We eventually tried having Dalmar hold Maria's hand as she tried to push through, but no variation we tried allowed any part of her to go through.

"Dwarves only zone" I said, getting a nod from Dalmar.

"I don't see any traps, but I'm betting that statue over there will want to kick your ass at some point" Maria said, a disgruntled look on her face.

"Probably" Dalmar said as he looked at the statue. He sighed and swapped out his axe and shield for his war hammer, saying "I'll do the axe thing next time. I don't think this will be a good spot to be trying to build up a new skill"

"You get killed, I'm going to be really pissed" Maria said, leaning down to give him a hug. I passed on the hug and just gave him a nod before Dalmar stepped through the barrier and walked into the room alone.

"Damn it" Maria grumbled "What if no one had chosen to be a dwarf? This is a stupid design"

I held back a grin, telling from her tone that she was really worried, but finding a lot of humor in her aggravation at being left out of something.

Dalmar stopped in the middle of the room, hammer held across his front in his normal ready position, and from the way his head tilted up, it looked like he was listening to something. He turned in a circle, eyes scanning the ceiling area, lips moving as he spoke to someone, though Maria and I couldn't hear anything. The conversation didn't seem to go well since he kind of crouched down facing to our right and brought his hammer up, ready to swing.

A statue identical to the one we could see strode in from the right, battle axe held over its head. Dalmar stepped to his left and swung his hammer, slamming it into the statues stone gut as the thing missed with its own downward swing.

"Behind you!" Maria yelled, pointing at the statue we had seen all this time, raise its own axe and step forward. Dalmar was to experienced to be surprised by a statue he knew about, so he circled the first one to keep it between him and the second. Of course a third one strode into view from our left and Dalmar ended up backing out of our sight to our right, leaving a very frustrated Maria to scream "God damn it!!!"

"Hey, he's got this" I said softly, grinning as a stone statue was knocked into view to fall on its back. It climbed back up, but was missing a few chunks of stone as it strode purposefully back into the fray we couldn't see.

"I know" Maria said grumpily, letting a chuckle slip past as what I was pretty sure was the same statue came stumbling backwards, a couple more pieces of stone missing. "It's just..." she trailed off as Dalmar jogged forward to hit the statue again, causing it to crumble and fall apart. It looked like he had taken a few hits himself, so I flicked a quick heal his way before he backed out of sight to our left, two more statues following closely. The heal spell hit the barrier and flared up in a flash of white before fading, getting me to let out my own muttered "Damn it"

We waited, probably both picturing the fight in our heads, until Dalmar jogged back into sight to stop in the middle. He was bleeding from a lot of places, but he grinned our way as he pulled out a potion and drank it. A soft white glow enveloped him, and when it faded, his injuries faded with it. He waved as four statues came after him, stone battle axes raised, and he backed out of sight again.

"He could at least fight where we could see it" Maria said, then giggled as she realized what she had said.

"Then he'd want to charge for the show" I said back, watching as Dalmar slipped back into view for a few seconds, swinging his hammer sideways at a statue we couldn't see, then he followed the swing to move out of view again.

It was a long fight, close to ten minutes, and I think he was making a point to let us see him periodically, because he would trot into view, wave or drink a potion, then wade back into the fray. Maria and I were to keyed up to relax, so we watched and waited until Dalmar finally walked back to the center of the room and had another silent conversation. He was fairly beat up, but wasn't in a hurry to use a potion, making me hope he might have won.

"Think it's over?" Maria asked, her fingers resting on the invisible barrier as if she was pushing to get through.

The conversation lasted another couple of seconds, then Maria's hands fell forward and she stumbled across the barrier. "Finally!" she yelled as she jogged forward, head swiveling as she dashed into the room to join Dalmar. I followed more slowly, figuring the barrier wouldn't have come down if the fighting wasn't over, and looked the room over. It extended to the sides another thirty feet both ways, and there were over a dozen piles of stones scattered around the room, showing where Dalmar's fight partners had ended up.

"Holy crap that was aggravating" Maria said. Dalmar smiled and patted her arm as I cast a heal his way, then followed it with another one when a couple of cuts and bruises still showed. He nodded his thanks and said "Was actually pretty fun, though with out the potions I wouldn't have lasted" he nodded my way again and added "It restores endurance, which was almost as important as the health part"

"What was the conversation about?" I asked, noticing for the first time that there was an open section of floor in the far left corner.

"Got a warning about trespassing and asked for a command word" Dalmar said as he turned and led us to the opening in the floor "When I didn't know it, the voice said I would have to earn the right to continue by proving myself in combat. The statues started coming to life, though only four at a time, so not impossible" the opening in the floor led to more stairs leading down, and we all stopped as Dalmar finished with "when it was over, the voice said I had earned the right to continue"

"Why not fight where we could see you?" Maria asked in an aggrieved tone "I was worried you'd get killed and we wouldn't know"

Dalmar chuckled, but said "Bounced back and forth between the corners. Kept them from surrounding me"

"Oh" Maria said, then sighed and started down the stairs, saying "Well, I was worried"

I exchanged grins and fist bumps with Dalmar, then followed him down the stairs.

We were all probably braced for another long stairwell, but this one only led downward twenty feet or so, and into a room half the size of the one above us. A light like the one in the other room bloomed, but like upstairs, I couldn't see a source. It was just a glow that seemed to come from the ceiling itself.

The room looked like it was once an armory, racks along the right and left walls that looked identical to the ones in the arms shops in Telarin, though these were empty. There were two along the back wall that were a lot more elegant, and based on positioning, held something a lot more valued. Of course, like everything else in this city, they were empty. A desk sat in the middle of the room, and there was a dwarf skeleton sitting in a chair behind it, its head down on its crossed arms like it was sleeping.

Unlike the Blacksteel skeleton, this one wasn't in armor. Instead, it was in a mages robe, and there was a staff lying on the ground beside the table, looking like it had fallen at some point.

The important thing, and probably the reason we were here, was the book lying open in front of the skeleton. The whole thing looked like he had died while writing in it.

"Kind of looks like their magical weapons armory" Dalmar said, giving Maria a questioning look and getting a headshake back. She took a couple of slow steps inside, but stopped when Dalmar touched her back and walked past her. He moved cautiously to the desk, then looked back to say "Just the book. He doesn't even have a weapon"

Maria and I joined him as Dalmar cautiously pulled the book over, then turned it so he could read what the dead dwarf had written.

"The black dragon was killed by Lord Naral, though he will not carry the name Dragonsbane as he perished when the creature spewed one last breath of acid across our forces.Two more dragons were sighted only moments after our victory, robbing us of even that small satisfaction. The injuries I received are severe, and our healing mages have either accompanied the people through the underroads, or have been killed defending the city. I was tasked with protecting our heritage, and have done so. Tarra save..." Dalmar looked up and said "That's it. Looks like he died writing this"

Dalmar flipped the book closed and read the cover "History of Clan Frell"

"Protecting our heritage" I said thoughtfully, eyeing the walls. Maria nodded agreement and said "Based on the staff and robes he was a low level mage, and those are the only things visible" she nodded to herself and added "I can do one more Find Hidden today, so let me see what this guy was protecting"

Her eyes got the glow that showed she was using her ability, and she turned in a slow, but complete circle. When she got back to where she started, she pointed to the right hand wall and said "Between the two racks. There's a narrow section, not wide enough for a door, but that's all I see"

We gathered around the two foot wide, six foot high section of wall she outlined. Maria pressed a couple of places, then rolled her eyes and stepped back, saying "Oh go ahead"

Dalmar chuckled as he reached forward to push on the wall, but when his hand slipped through it like it wasn't there, he fell forward, letting out a "Shit!" when his head bumped into the wall on the right. His scowl quickly turned to a look of interest, and when he pulled back, he brought a war hammer with him.

My first thought was ornate, but I realized the hammer wasn't decorated, it had red crystal of some kind running in jagged lines throughout the head of the hammer. It wasn't like the marble texture you got in the old reality, but more like dark steel seamed with red quartz. The crystal had a slight red glow, though it was dim enough I thought it might not be visible in full sunlight. The tag made me blink in surprise.

Harn el Teras-Kana

Hammer of Earthen Thunder

Teras-Kana was wielded by Oran Hammerfist, First King of Tarra-Tel-Azat. When the People were forced to flee the demonic forces that arose to destroy Tarra-Tel-Azat, the weapons and armor of Oran Hammerfist were separated and carried to safety by different clans to prevent their use by any one clan. While no longer symbolizing royalty, one who wears the armor and wields the weapon of Oran Hammerfist will perhaps forge a destiny just as grand.

42-68 Damage

+4 Strength

+2 Stamina

+20% damage when wielded underground

+10% damage against iron or steel armor

+15% resistance to elemental attacks

15% chance enemy weapon will shatter when striking Teras-Kana

Thunder Strike

Wielder strikes the ground with a powerful blow that stuns all opponents within 50ft for 5 seconds

Any enemy of a lower level will fall to the ground and receive 15 points of damage.

(Cool down: 1 hour)

Usable by: Those who are worthy

"Holy shit" Maria said with a grin "We hit the mother lode"

"It doesn't have a class or race limitation on who can use it" Dalmar said thoughtfully. I blinked as I realized he was right, that worthy statement being pretty vague, and was seriously stunned when he asked "You want it?"

"Really?' I asked, not seeing how he could pass this up. He shrugged and said "It's nice, no doubt about that, but I'm going to be going into the blacksmith business, and this should go to someone who really needs it" he shrugged again and looked between Maria and I before adding "If not you two, then I think it should go to Diana"

I put out my hand, and Dalmar passed it to me. Well, he tried to pass it to me. What really happened is that when I had my hand around it and Dalmar let go, it seemed to become...immaterial and passed right through my hand to land with a heavy clang on the floor.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!!!!" I screamed, hurting my right foot when I kicked the damn thing as hard as possible. Maria was smothering a laugh as I jumped back with another curse before healing my toes. I glared down at the thing, then waved for Maria to have a try.

It actually made me feel a little better when the same thing happened to her. She bent down to grab it, but her hands passed through the handle like it was some kind of illusion. She straightened up with a frown, then shrugged and said "Well, if it only likes dwarves that will pretty much mean you're stuck with it Dalmar"

He bent down to pick it up and we all studied it for a bit, then Maria said "I bet this thing is part of a set"

Dalmar nodded, so I sighed and said "Set?"

My tone got a laugh from Dalmar and he said "It's a game thing. You collect all the pieces, like the armor, boots, helmet, and whatever, and if you wear them all, you get extra damage and stuff"

At my nod, Dalmar gave the hammer a pensive look, then made it disappear into his inventory. Looking at Maria he said "I think I'll set it in your throne room and let your people have a chance at it. If Diana or anyone else can't use it, I'll keep it"

"Cool" she said with grin "Just like Excalibur"

Dalmar let out a short huff of laughter before saying "I was actually thinking of Thor's hammer, but sure, that works"

We were wary enough to let Dalmar lead the way back, with Maria just behind him to be sure no traps had suddenly manifested. We had a tense moment when we got back into the big room and saw the statues were all standing with their backs to the walls. When they didn't move, Dalmar said "The way they were when I first came in. Must reset"

They didn't attack, and we were able to walk back through the invisible wall, though Maria couldn't resist testing to see if it blocked her from going back through. Which it did. None of us was interested in any more exploring, so we worked our way back to the temple, with the dash across the road being the only exciting part. This got the wyverns excited, so they were still flapping around when we walked across the balcony. I think our nonchalance pissed them off, because they got even louder, if that was possible. It was like being in a seagull swarm, if the seagulls were the size of pterodactyls.

Night was falling, and we sort of reached an unspoken agreement to set up camp, with all of us exchanging questioning looks, then sort of nodding and pulling out our camp stuff. Dalmar cooked while Maria and I discussed ways to make some kind of saddles for Vysta that would keep Dalmar and I from falling off.

Maria actually talked with the horse, a telepathy kind of thing, and according to the horse, Maria wouldn't fall off, even if the horse flew upside down, but anyone else...Well they were on their own.

"It'll have to be rope" I said, pulling the coil of it out of my inventory "will it hurt Vysta if we tie it around her?"

Maria waved that away, saying "No, she probably won't even feel it. I think if we sort of loop it around her to tie you two down, then tie all three of us together, it should keep you guys from falling off"

Which is what we did. I ended up cutting the rope into three sections, one each that would go around Vysta, then around Dalmar's and my waists, to keep us down. Then another length that looped between the three of us, and would use Maria as an anchor in between Dalmar and I to keep us from sliding sideways. Hopefully. I'm pretty sure falling from a thousand feet would kill just about anything.

"Where are you going to set up shop?" I asked Dalmar as we all relaxed

"I think you should stay at the castle" Maria said "I've got people putting in windows and stuff, and we have a place on the roof now. Kind of like a park, though we don't have plants"

"Have to have a forge" Dalmar said "and you can't just buy an existing one. They're passed along to the apprentice, but you can build one, at least that's what I was told by other smiths" he leaned back against one of the pillars and looked thoughtful for a moment, then added "but it would make sense to set up in one of the places Jake has a portal. And every town already has a smith, so it might be rude to set up a forge close to them"

It sounded like he was going to talk himself into accepting Maria's offer, so I didn't add anything, glad he was going to stay close.

I had kind of expected to talk with Telina, but I woke up the next morning with the blue light starting to shine in the eastern windows and a bit nervous about the day's plans. If everything went right, we would be flying today.

It took a bit to get our ropes set on Vysta, and I found it fascinating that her coat still looked metallic, but felt like real hair. Dalmar was going to be in front, then Maria behind him, then me behind her, all tied together. That meant that Maria wasn't going to be shooting any arrows, so we wouldn't have anything we could do to defend ourselves.

Dalmar and Maria got settled on the Pegasus while I opened both of the main doors, of course drawing the attention of every wyvern in the area. We had expected it, but getting through the flock of them was going to be interesting. I slid in behind Maria, then tied every kind of knot I could think of to hold the two ropes tight, before reaching around to hug Maria around the middle. She had her arms around Dalmar, and I could feel her giggle as she said "Everyone comfy?"

I wanted to close my eyes, but just held tighter as Maria said softly "Alright girl, let's show them what we can do"

Vysta surged forward into a hard gallop, forcing me to lean forward a little against Maria, who didn't move at all. The wyverns let out a coordinated screech as we galloped through the doors, across the balcony, then leaped into the air...to plunge face first toward the ground.

Yes, I'm not to proud to admit I screamed like a terrified little girl. I swear I could hear the horse laughing as its wings snapped open and we swooped into high speed level flight ten feet above the road. Maria was laughing, and let out a loud whoop as the horse began beating its wings hard and we began a steep climb.

The next few minutes were probably the most terrifying of my life as the wyverns began diving, climbing, swerving, and curving in from every direction. Vysta would dive and turn, then swoop into another climb before having to swerve to the right or left to evade a diving wyvern.

We were faster, but there was twenty or thirty of the things all around, above, and below us. We were gaining some altitude, but it was slow as we kept having to dive to avoid an attack. I'm pretty sure I felt my sphincter clamp onto the back of the horse when it went inverted, folded its wings, dove, then recovered to throw its wings out again to arc into a climb. Maria just laughed and screamed in enjoyment the whole time, but I had decided aerobatics weren't for me, and something had to be done.

Casting a spell while suffering from abject terror wasn't easy, but my survival instinct kicked in and I eventually screamed (in a high pitched voice) "Telina-Ras!!!"

I think I totally surprised Maria and Vysta, because we kind of wobbled and dropped for a second before Vysta began climbing, wings working hard as the wyverns dropped from the sky around us.

It actually made me feel kind of bad, but every wyvern within two hundred feet burst into white fire, then fell straight to the ground. There were a few still around the edges, but they flapped hard for the city, leaving us to continue climbing and turn north.

I had a level up message pop up a few seconds later, but I was to busy enjoying the smooth, level flight to pay it much attention right then.