It took a long time to get back to the Galvrungs territory. The mountain range was large and without movement’s skills like father’s Shadow Wings, one needed specialized mounts — flying mounts.

Riding on a cloud raptured me and thus I hadn’t considered it, but weren’t the Galvrungs on the last finger? How were we to get there with goats and carriages — or whatever that flying thing was?

I asked.

Albert didn’t answer.

Instead, Franky was the one to reply. “By goat, obviously. What else?”

“Wait— goats can fly?” I said, my tone uncertain.

Hagrid rolled his eyes, before retreating again, leaving me to wonder what the hell I had done to him.

“Mmm, that’d be pretty funny indeed.” His sight looked for his master’s cold eyes.

“Master, can’t we try doing that?”

I could almost hear the laughter of the wind.

He coughed to himself, and came back to me, “Are you familiar with herdrics?”

“Yes.”

I had chosen this carriage especially because I knew of them.

“Then you know that they’re alpine creatures, right?”

“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“They’ll pull us up”

“They’ll what now?”

“Uh, don’t worry, it’ll make more sense soon.”

[…]

The Balmung domain was atop a plateau, and to the east of the manor began a relief of mountains called the Hand of God.

After walking at a brisk pace, we reached the foot of the first finger.

We had been on travel for 2 days now, and only now was the first mountain at reach, and we had another 4 mountains to cross.

”Why not just go down the mountain range, walk on flat ground and ascend afterwards?” I asked.

The masked man looked at me, but didn’t answer. As the air grew heavier, I knew I had said something unnecessary.

Yet again Franky interjected, “Kid, stop yapping that mouth of yours, will you?”

“Uh?” I winced, feeling unfairly attacked, but he didn’t care.

Right after talking to me, he looked at Albert, his brows creasing.

Albert stayed silent for a bit, and with a genial smile, “You just reminded me of some unpleasant memories. Don’t worry about it.”

“...” I looked at him, conflicted. I didn’t care at all about hurting him — not after that experience — but it seemed I had touched a genuine sore spot. His meek answer disarmed me; and, maybe because of how it contrasted with his earlier demeanor, left me contrite.

The droopy-eyes student, Franky, looked at me — a stare worth thousand words.

“Keep it shut,” his eyes commanded, and so compelled I could only eke out a meek “sorry.”

“Humph,” He replied, “You better be.”

I then looked at Albert. Beyond the mask, his eyes seemed unfocused, as if he had zoned out.

[…]

Some time passed, and the cart leaned. It leaned just enough for me to know.

The ascension had begun.

After this happened, and I started second-guessing myself, Franky told me, “Hey, if you don’t want to end up a pancake, you better fasten your seatbelt.”

“Oh- sure.”

My gaze scurried around the bench, and once the object of that frenzy was found, I fastened it. A few minutes later, I understood what Franky had meant.

I was sitting as if glued to the ceiling, looking downwards with my legs dangling in the void. Albert, who was below me, was now asleep.

The student looked at me with a snarky smile, while the gruff old man sitting alongside half-masked, kept reading.

What the hell? Will the whole trip be like this?

In normal circumstances, I would be quaking, but it seemed even my body knew this wasn’t a good idea; considering how I was — technically — on the ceiling, I would probably fall if I did that.

Alright.. alright... alright... I know what I said, but no way I am actually gonna die like that right.. right..?

I was going in shock, my eyes were unfocused.

No way, no way, no way, no way, no way, no way.

My breath got rough.

“Heeh Uhhh”

“Heeh Uhhh”

“Heeee Uhhh”

“Ohhh shut up, where’s that bravado you showed me earlier?” Franky said in a mocking voice, not a smidgen of empathy.

I didn’t have the presence of mind to reply, all I could do as the fear of crashing to the ground devoured my thoughts was stay immobile and silently tear up, my eyes open — totally frozen in place.

I wanted to close them, but I couldn’t.

The void had grabbed hold of them.

Soon enough, when my back was now totally parallel to the floor and my fear grew some more.

“Oneiris, help me.” I said in my distress, and Franky, who sat next to me, burst out in a fit of laughter, apparently speechless.

“Hahahaha, really.”

Soon, the carts started slowly but surely realigning, and after some time I was back to a normal seated position.

“What… what happened?” I blurted, as my blood settled.

“Did you really think we would spend the whole trip up in that position?” The student said, his eyes filled with ridicule.

“Even for us, this would have been dangerous.” He added, before spanking the leather seats in a way that felt inappropriate.

“Nay! Thanks to these beautiful carts — created by Venerarable Master Albert — traversing this mountain range is as simple and smooth as an elevator ride!”

“Elevator? What’s an elevator?”

“You, boy, really know nothing.” He snarled, “Just think of an elevator as a tool to go up and down things without stairs.”

“Magic.”

My eyes widened behind my helmet.

“Yes, magic.”

He then went back to his explanation about his master’s invention and about how the masked man, along with a team of elite engineer, had conceived these floating carts and how they were state-of-the art. Apparently, these things were the next evolution of what I knew as a flyer. Capable of moving without rails.

Still, while at the razor edge of technology, they were too costly to mass-produce — not that they’d want to mass-produce it. This model being more a proof of concept than anything else.

They essentially worked by loading the carcasses of the carts with light mana particles.

Light and dark mana functioned outside the traditional elemental circle with all the advantages and disadvantages that implied. They also acted like two parts of the same coin.

Similarly to how north and south pole rejected each other, the light particles in the carcasses repulsed by the environmentally charged dark particles allowed the cart to float. It wasn’t perfect as it could only really work in areas high in dark concentration particle like this mountain range, and light dominions if suitably adapted, but remained that using this system they could float, offering a smooth ride.

“Got all that, kiddo?” He said proudly, as if he had invented it himself.

“Now what is amazing is...”

He then started explaining how the engravings in the cart worked to allow, when a certain altitude was reached ,for a re-balancing of the light mana in the carcasses to change the orientation of the carts.

This was what I had experienced when I went from totally parallel to the floor to a comfortably seated position.

When he finished, he had sparkles in his eyes.

As did I.

“Scriptural magic,” I blurted out, unable to restrain my enthusiasm.

Franky and Hagrid both looked at me surprised, and Hagrid — peeking out from behind his leather shield — was the one to ask, “Where… where have you heard of that?”

“I read,” I said.

“You read..? Where?”

“There’s an atheneum at Hedria.”

“Is there now?”

“It doesn’t matter!” I said, as I looked back at Franky, “This is amazing!”

I could hear Hagrid mutter something as he watched me in a daze.

#

On the way up the first mountain, I could notice that the higher we went, the redder the mountain became.

What a cool shade of red it was.

I admired it out of necessity, desperately trying to take my mind away from this uncomfortable situation.

Albert had already removed himself, still asleep.

The gruff man wore a mask of displeasure — it was obvious he had not accepted me as part of the group — still every so often, he’d peek out from over his book, and his piercing gaze would drill the sides of my head.

Franky was much more lax, kind of like a big brother. He spent the entire ride up shifting between bantering, bullying me or just laughing to himself; the thing was he wasn’t exactly funny, and so while I did laugh a few times, it was mostly awkward silences.

So, having run out of things to say, he was now silent.

As I was sitting, looking at the window behind my seat, Franky asked. “Hey what are you up to?”

His face stale with boredom. We had been on this long elevator ride for close to half a day, and with Albert being in his own world, and Hagrid isolating himself, there was nothing to do.

“Ah nothing, I was just thinking about how beautiful that red is.”

I could see Hagrid twitch, but when I looked at him, he hid again.

Uh?

“Well, if you say so, can’t you talk a bit more normally, aren’t you 11?”

“Yes, I should turn 12 when we arrive there.” I boasted.

“Exactly, why do you speak... like that?”

“My mom always said I was a really smart kid,” I answered boastfully.. before my mood soured.

Mom…

“Yeah.. your mom said.. your mom said you were cute too, didn’t she?” he replied in a mocking tone.

I didn’t answer to that, I just looked towards the side window and admired the view. While this feeling had been terrifying at first, after some time I had gotten used to it and could more easily enjoy the beauty of such an experience. In the sky, could be seen weird bird like figures, with eyes all around their bodies and purple feathers. In the sky were scattered dark red clouds that matched the hue of the mountain we were ascending and that seemed to originate from it. While this could have looked ominous, these crimson effluences striping the lovely cyan sky were more picturesque than scary.

From there, I could calculate the general location of the manor, and then the shadow territory beyond it... Seeing that this place, that I thought huge, that represented my entire world couldn’t even be seen anymore, I was left both gleeful and frightened.

‘My world was tiny, was it?’

Had I stayed back there, I would have never seen the vastness of the world. And even if I had run away on my own, I probably wouldn’t have lasted long.

I knew what was to come in around 2 weeks of time, but I also knew that if I triumphed over all the challenges that were waiting for me, I would grow more powerful than I could ever hope.