“Every child knows that story.” Rade waved one hand dismissively. “One morning, the gate opened as it always does, only instead of travelers and traders waiting, it was an unspeakable evil which promptly began slaughtering its way across the Core. Heroes fought back. We won. We locked that gate, and there’s been no access to the Realm of Time ever since. So on and so forth. What’s that ancient history got to do with us?”
“Resources?”
Rade scowled, confused. “You’ve lost me.”
“A high-ranking elf wizard once told me that stopping the invasion wasn’t the victory most of us think it is. It was really the beginning of the end for the Core.”
Rade snorted. “Five hundred years is a long time for an ending!”
“When that gate got sealed, we lost access to ever getting any more of one of the seven elements.Permanence. The stuff that makes spells last longer or forever. What was already here was here, there will never be another resupply, and that’s what makes it so valuable.”
“Yeah, you can’t even buy it in the market,” Azarin said. “I’ve asked. Any Permanence that turns up gets seized by the Council. They say they need it to keep the Great Machine turning.”
It was hard to even imagine that mountain-sized device linking all the realms together for over forty-five hundred years could ever stop, but if it did, it would ruin everything. Realms like mine would starve to death in a month. The others might survive, but they’d lose access to every other form of magic except for the one element native to their own.
“Elves call this timeYavus Olum.This meansSlow Death.” Krachma speaking up at all was rare. Him knowing anything in Elvish was an even bigger surprise. “Krachma prefers regular death.”
“That missing ingredient is why even really powerful wizards like the Council can’t do what the ancients did. They can’t build floating cities anymore. It’s why things are breaking down. That’s why the Slump started slumping,” I said.
“Indeed, this all sounds very terrible, and this hypothetical death is so slow that I’m sure my great-great grandchildren will surely regret when it all grinds to a halt… What’s any of this got to do with us today?” Rade asked impatiently.
“Korthican made his home on that isle, but it had already been settled by the ancient civilization that predates the Core. They’d built a lighthouse there, but it hadn’t been used for a long time. Until Korthican enchanted a light so bright it could be seen by ships many miles away to stick on top of the old tower. It was supposed to be symbolic of hope or the greatness of the Core or something. All I know for sure is that other wizards who lived by the bay complained to the Council about the brightness keeping them up at night. I think that light is the lamp Carcalla thinks is still hidden in the secret room beneath where the lighthouse used to stand.”
“And?”
“It’s said that Korthican enchanted that lamp tonever go out.”
Rade didn’t get it immediately, but Azarin did. “Naanwalla’s tits! That thing’s got Permanence in it?”
“Most likely. After the sealing of the time gate, the Council sent the watch to round up all the items enchanted with chronomancy, but the lamp was never found. They assumed it was lost in the battle when the lighthouse got blasted to pieces. But if it got hidden beneath the ruins all along, that would explain why the island’s infested now. Powerful artifacts are supposed to attract monsters.”
“That’s true. Like a moth to flame.” Rade used an expression I’d never really understood until I’d moved here, as back home,we had flames everywhere, but it was too hot for bugs. Here, I’d watched the dumb little things fly right into a torch and pop themselves into dusty sparks.
“Anything with time magic in it’s got to be worth a fortune, but adventurers have looked before and found nothing,” Azarin said. “And then somehow Carcalla gets a tip about a secret door and even got the password for it.”
“It can’t be that reliable of a tip, or surely he would’ve sent some professionals when he first heard about it, rather than putting it off however long and then sending the likes of us. I’m guessing it’s just a small possibility it’s still there, but even a hint that there might be some Permanence is enough to get people curious.”
“So it’s likely been gone for centuries, but this great and splendorous artifactmightbe there, so really nothing’s changed for us, except adding a small chance that we might make an obscene profit.” Azarin grinned. “And here you were getting me all worried for nothing!”
“Only we’ve all been running our mouths in public about what we’re doing and where we’re going for the last few days, and there are many who’d slit our throats for a shot at a bit of Permanence. We’ve said who we’re working for. Surely someone else knows the old legends about the island, and they’ll reason out that’s why Carcalla’s interested in the place. I nearly got killed by Tempus Metum cultists just a few months ago, and they’re obsessed with anything connected to the time realm.”
“You think they’d want to protect the lamp or steal it?”
“They were hideous underground mutants trying to murder me, Azarin. I didn’t pause to quiz them on their club’s purpose in life.”
“Oh, you’re just being paranoid now, Oz. We’ve not talkedthatmuch.” Azarin laughed, but then she noticed Rade place his face into his palms. “What?”
“I… may have complicated that.”
“Braden Prescott.What did you do?”
We all knew it was bad when Rade didn’t react poorly to her using his actual given name, as opposed to the fake noble one he’d assigned himself. “I felt some guilt for saying cruel things to Rufus, so I took him out for a drink. We went to a pub last night, where we may have boasted at great length about our pending adventure.”
“That’s not so bad.” Azarin waved one hand dismissively.
“To the whole place… loudly…”
“Why would you do that?” I asked, bewildered.
