The next day was uneventful and peaceful. They made good ti throughout the day, without any run-in with bandits along the way, and by evening, they had covered slightly more ground than the previous day—about ninety-six miles.
The terrain here had begun to change. More green. More lush. And less rocky earth to be seen around.
By the next morning, their path shifted dramatically. They left the greens behind and started a steep climb up a large mountain that had lood on the horizon for miles. The climb was dangerous, as the path up the mountain was extrely narrow. Zephyr could even see the sheer drop of the cliff when he looked out the other window. Any little mistake would prove fatal as they skirted the very edge.
And to make matters worse, after climbing nearly halfway up the large mountain, a heavy fog descended on them, limiting visibility drastically.
Zephyr and Rita were especially tense, sitting rigidly in their seats, careful not to make excessive movents. Veronica, on the other hand, remained unnervingly calm as they ascended through the limited visibility. She had navigated the treacherous path countless tis, and the perilous ascent, even shrouded in fog, no longer moved her.
The further they progressed, the more uncanny the fog beca. It began to limit even their visibility of each other as they sat in the cabin.
Zephyr gripped the seat and the window fra to ground himself, refusing to ask for help and give Veronica the pleasure of watching him get flustered. She watched with amusent in her eyes as Zephyr gripped the seat tighter as the fog filled the cabin. Rita instinctively reached out to Veronica, and as her current guardian, Veronica allowed it, squeezing her hand for reassurance.
"Just relax... both of you. There’s no danger. This is simply an illusion array ant to divert anyone who finds their way up here back to the ground." She explained. "The only ti you should be scared is if you’re caught in this fog with malicious intentions." She added.
’How can you tell who has malicious intentions though?’ Zephyr would’ve asked. But his mind was currently preoccupied with hanging on for dear life. It felt as if he were floating in the clouds, as his body had lost all sense of bearing and direction. If it weren’t for the seat he gripped tightly and the sound of Veronica’s voice, he wouldn’t have known where up or down was.
’This is an illusion array?!’ Zephyr thought. He didn’t know much about illusions but he could tell this was very advanced. In fact, it reminded him of Grand Commander Regina’s render.
He clenched his jaws tightly as his body fought off the bout of nausea that threatened to overco him. The feeling beca stronger the higher they climbed, starting to get unbearable even for Zephyr with his enhanced body. ’How is Veronica handling this?!’ He thought. By now he’d realized there was no way mbers of the Freehold traveled up and down the mountain within these conditions. It wasn’t a matter of strength or grit. They had to have keys or passes of so sort that would let them pass through the fog freely without any of the disorienting effects.
’Fuck! Veronica’s at it again!’ He gritted his teeth.
Just as he was about to launch into a string of expletives, his body suddenly settled. His balance stabilized. He could feel his proper orientation again, but the fog still persisted.
"—and you’ll feel no disorientation." Zephyr heard the end of a conversation through the now clearing fog. Veronica seed to be explaining a few things to Rita, confirming Zephyr’s suspicions.
"What the fuck Veronica!?" Zephyr yelled. Silencing the follow-up question Rita was about to ask. "Why didn’t you help !"
"..." She kept silent, only chuckling lightly in response. "What do you an?"
"Don’t give that shit!" Zephyr was livid. "I can hear that Rita’s perfectly fine, so I know you have sothing to prevent the disorientation!"
"Huh?" Rita’s voice cut through, confused. "You weren’t given a dallion?" She asked with a steadily rising voice, turning to face Veronica as the fog cleared even more.
A guilty look crossed Veronica’s face as she saw the look of horror on Rita’s face, realizing that she might have taken things too far there.
"What?!" Rita yelled, genuinely furious, not at all caring about Veronica’s prestigious image. "Zephyr felt that all the way through?!" She asked, flabbergasted. She rembered how it felt when the effects began to set in. They hadn’t even climbed that far when she began to squeeze Veronica’s hand like she wanted to crush her bones. It was then that Veronica handed her the dallion that acted as a pass. She ca back to herself, reeling with dizziness for a few minutes before getting her bearings. She muttered a question and Veronica took her ti to answer, with Rita thinking Zephyr had also gotten his dallion and was in the process of trying to get his bearings like her.
"Relax... I knew he could handle it. I was simply testing him." She clenched her teeth, partly feeling bad for going that far with a sixteen year old, and partly irritated that she was being told off by her would-be apprentice.
Zephyr’s gaze went cold at her statent. He didn’t even bother to retort, simply watching her silently before turning his gaze out the window that now showed a totally different environnt.
Veronica muttered a few more words, but Zephyr could not be bothered to care. The giant statues he saw outside were more interesting to him.
How long had Freehold existed for them to have statues of previous heads? This seed more like a fully-fledged, proper organization. The statues lined the narrow path that led to a tunnel they were passing through. They were massive, with their nas engraved on a plaque at the foot of each statue.
’Frank Goldsworth’
’Claudius Maximus’
’Selene Haggort’ Zephyr read a few nas before their carriage went into the tunnel and everything went dim.
Veronica had returned to silence, along with Rita who stared at the ground of the carriage with a frown on her face in the dim light.
Zephyr looked on passively before closing his eyes and leaning back. What should have been a thrilling experience—entering a place with such history for the first ti—was now ruined, for Zephyr and Rita.
As they crossed the end of the tunnel, Zephyr squinted, adjusting his eyes to the abrupt change in light. When his vision cleared, what greeted him was a sight to behold.
A vast city was built into the mountain, which seed to have been hollowed out for that singular purpose. Sunlight stread down through the massive gaping hole above, redirected by mirrors and reflective arrays that guided the brilliance to every level below.
Verdant, lush clusters of trees punctuated the landscape, appearing as vibrant green patches scattered across the city’s various levels. Dozens of colossal platforms, filled with bustling buildings, vibrant shops, and sprawling arenas, defied gravity, hovering above one another. They orbited a gargantuan central statue that plunged from the highest reaches, all the way to the bottom floor of the city.
These platforms hovered in concentric levels, each connected by concrete bridges to roads that protruded from the sides of the mountain, leading to residential buildings seamlessly integrated into the very rock face. Every available inch of space had been exploited with breathtaking ingenuity, while still adding a mystical and artistic feel to the designs. It was a terrific feat of engineering.
Zephyr and Rita were gobsmacked, leaning their heads out the window without a care. The sight rendered them speechless.
’Well, at least it’s a beautiful place,’ Zephyr thought to himself. He’d had this image of a bunch of people living in the forest, always on the lookout, careful not to draw attention. But this... this was sothing else entirely.
Their carriage rolled closer to the city, reaching a checkpoint where the guards exchanged a few words with the two coachn, Jim and Dirk. They flashed an emblem to the guards and were imdiately allowed to pass through the checkpoint, entering the city.
They had arrived at Freehold!
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