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And North wasbusy. West was sort of sedate and focused, but North had an energy to it. Dragons moved about with purpose as they pushed crates, pulled carts, loaded barges. West was also quiet, while North was downright industrial with the sounds of fabrication.
There was a dragon on the dock who directed Akoni where to moor our barge since the bay was so busy. We unloaded the cargo we’d brought with us, and then set off to find the dragon who was supposed to have our provisions.
“It’s so different,” I said, taking it all in while Akoni consulted with a passing dragon for directions.
“All the major cities are fairly distinctive,” Keon said. “East is everyone’s favorite, I think.”
“What’s fun about East?” I hadn’t had a chance to go out to East, but my roost-sibs lived out there with Mahon’s side of the family, and Hekon’s whole family was out that way.
“It’s big, sprawling, and haseverything. Except the Wyrm Seat.”
Akoni convinced one of the dragons to take us to where we needed to be, which was a flat open market style arrangement, with a single lean-to like structure, but the rest of the wares out in the open surrounded by a fence. Sacks of flour, grain, boxes of vegetables, and dozens of other items. The sign hanging off the single structure had a pictograph that roughly translated toquartermaster.
The quartermaster herself was a petite emerald dragon with sparkling green skin and short, deep green feather-like hair. Her skin had a distinct scale texture, including a ridge of extra flesh that ran down her spine and disappeared under the back of her dress, and toenails that looked more like claws than nails.
She sized all of us up. “How long will you be staying around North?”
“Not sure yet, we may be back,” Keon said.
“There’s nothing north of North.” She gestured to some helpers to load up a small flat wheelie cart with our stock.
“Not a damn thing,” Keon agreed.
She looked between all of us, then settled on me. “Aren’t you supposed to be human?”
“Excuse me?” Akoni asked indignantly.
“You’re Helena, right?” the Quartermaster asked.
All those hashtags had probably set the expectation I was a manufactured monstrosity. Which, technically, I suppose I was… “That’s me.”
“You’re not what I expected,” she said, side-eyeing me harder than I’d been side-eyed since the family reunion.
I pasted my bestbless your heartsmile on my face.
We got our shit together, skipped grabbing one last hot meal, and headed off to the Gate.
Within an hour, though, while we still had reception, the Lemurian feeds started to rumble with the news that we’d been spotted in North, headed to north of North. And that the only thing north of North was the Gate.
The Gate waslike I remembered it. This time, the only difference was I could clearly sense the weight of the power core on the fabric of space-time.
Auryn set down the two buckets of water we’d brought from the dock. He wasn’t Maren, but he was able to transmute water into air the way she had, because the air in the Gate tunnel and cavern was stale and thin. There was extremely minimal infrastructure in here.
“I was expecting to sense the Gate more.” I placed my hands on the stone set into the wood frame in a larger rock face. The slow, vacant cold still tingled against my senses, and thevastnessbeyond it, but nothing more.
Akoni crouched down, flipped open the panel to the power core, and pulled it. “If it hasn’t changed to your senses, that means the power core wasn’t feeding it anything, either due to damage or a closed circuit. Either way, it’s cold and dead.”
Sounded logical, and like good news. It meant I could poke it without worry. “So how do we think the best way to do this is? I was expecting to get some memories when I saw the Gate, but nothing.”
“Where would you start with it if you were going to troubleshoot it without magic?” Auryn prompted.
Good question. I’d try troubleshooting it like any other busted, not-turning-on machine. It had power, so disconnect the power supply and get a look inside to see if I could spot anything obvious. Like rats or a busted capacitor.
After a moment of quandary, I decided to go flying noodle since my senses were so much sharper.
Oh!
In noodle form, the Gate was heavy, cold, still, and hushed. My scales tingled. I extended gossamer ribbons towards the stone, feeling along it, looking for clues or anything distinctive in the stone.
