Chain Melody

“Is something wrong? You’ve been staring off into the sky for a while now.” Chain’s question pulled Varen’s gaze back down to the almost nonexistent road that cut through the grassy enveloped and narrow gully in the mid reaches of the Stormroot Mountains. Chain had taken to placing her hands on the back of her head as they trekked onward and had to twist further back than normal to give the tall soldier she traveled with a curious look. “Well I guess you could say so.” “You guess?” “Well, I didn’t think about it yesterday just because I was glad to be out of that fog finally but… According to the people I talked with down in Nest Cliff there is supposed to be a dragon god in these mountains. Supposedly as long as you’re on the road you should be able to see the brilliant light of its shimmering green horn, but…” “There isn’t any light.” Chain finished Varen’s line of thought and turned her own gaze to the towering peaks the two of them aimed to ascend. Impressive as t...

The sky overhead began to take on a blue hue as the Great Bird Sol came into view in the eastern sky. From up high in the Stormroot Mountains the Great Bird was not visible beyond the peaks that rose up around the trails, gullies, and valleys that were formed by them and it might as well have still been night within. For Chain however it was already late but she allowed Varen to continue sleeping as she set about dismissing her ritual barrier. “That should do it, though I expected it to be colder.” The cool breeze that reached Chain as she dismissed her barrier was not chilling at all and did little to dull the warmth captured within the valley that the mountain road cut through. Away from the road and tucked away in a raised pit of sorts Chain only had one view of the road in the valley and the mountainside beyond it that was coated in deep green grass in nearly its entirety. Further down the mountain side the impenetrable fog that had slowed Varen’s ascent awaited all who d...

The fog seemed to persist without end but Varen trudged onward with drawn sword in one hand and compass in the other. Each step was made meaningfully though there was an obvious air of anxiousness around the soldier as he would occasionally stop to look around. When nothing appeared out of the persistent and unnatural fog he would turn his attention again to the compass and the overgrown cobbled road underfoot. Minutes turned into hours and the fog grew darker as the light towers of Nest Cliff were left far behind. As the exhaustion of a persistent uphill climb began to seep into Varen’s muscles he sheathed his sword and proceeded to use it as a walking stick. And still he climbed with no sense of time or place with only the quickly fading road and compass to keep him on his path. “This is starting to get ridiculous. I know what the inn keep said collaborated with what Chain and Lord Elliot said but this is getting ridiculous. Maybe I shouldn’t complain though since I haven...

“I hope you’re not hiding anything I’d rather not deal with this morning.” Looking out of his inn room window Varen addressed the fog that was almost thick enough to block out even the light of the Great Bird Sol. Were it not for the light towers that dotted the city of Nest Cliff the city itself could have seemed nonexistent within the fog that swirled with heavy laziness beyond the glass. The laziness of the fog reminded Varen of something similar and he let the curtain close as he turned his attention back into his inn room. “And what’s with you Chain, saying it’s too risky to use magic and then drugging yourself? At least when you use magic I know I can wake you up, but a potion.” Varen sighed heavily as he looked at Chain sprawled out on the inn room bed deeply asleep from the effects of a sleeping potion. Choosing not to dwell on his complaints Varen laid out the swaddling blanket on the bed that he would soon use to store Chain in the sleeping sling she would be occu...

High above and to the north of the Stormroot Mountains a score of zeppelins that served as the internal supports for Bright Rift airships filled the sky. The largest of the vessels with the zeppelins at its heart was comprised of a full five and was decorated in enough gondola cars, external decks, and framework that also served as corridors to leave most to wonder how the vessel flew at all. The man who had designed the monstrosity however had full confidence in its ability to fly as he stood at the fore of the vessel in the glass enclosed command deck looking out at the night sky. The man was a contradiction of sorts and as much a hodgepodge of elements as the airship he commanded. He could be considered lanky but such a description would undermine the strength of his figure and posture though he was surely tall and wiry. His gaunt face held a surprisingly soft and beautiful visage from which a pair of silver eyes peered out from under short black hair that spiked about in sp...