Page 38 of The Oracle of Dusk

“What?!” Aurora shrieked.

“My mission was to kill the imperial family. I refused. I swore I would win tolerance for dualism through gaining your trust instead. My punishment was banishment.”

“And you brought ushere?!You fucking idiot!” Phaedra cursed.

“That seems to be the general sentiment.”

“What now?” Aurora asked.

“This way.”

They raced down a corridor that seemed to come to a dead end. Silvanus reached towards it as they neared. The rock opened, as if a curtain had parted. And not a moment too soon. Several mountain denizens wielding steel had showed up. They jumped through the opening as Silvanus sealed it behind them.

The sun stung Aurora’s eyes, blinding her. She shielded her vision with a hand and squinted out onto the landscape that greeted them.

Only to see that they were near a narrow land bridge high above a mighty river.

“The Dragon’s Tail Mountain range is across this span. If we can get to the tunnels inside the mountain there, they’ll take us most of the way to Altanus Novus.”

“Did you dualists hollow out every mountain in Trisia?” Phaedra asked disdainfully.

Silvanus only smiled.

“Come!”

“Wait!” Aurora grabbed his wrist.

“What’s wrong, Aurora?” Phaedra asked.

They’d come out at the end of the canyon trade road, the border of the province of Aureum. Across the land bridge before them, The Colonnades Of The Colossus, lay Viridis proper. If they travelled south towards the sea, they would reach Altanus Novus. Not only that, they would pass by the most populated stretch of the province, town after town hugging the Dragon’s Tongue River. There was barely an uncultivated patch from here to the port. Hundreds of thousands of people lived here. Hundreds of thousands would die if she went that way.

“We can’t go to Altanus Novus! Drakon will follow me. He’ll decimate the Aurean capital. I can’t be responsible for that.”

“We need to go to a temple, Aurora. It’ll be the only place with enough divine magic to withstand Drakon’s attacks,” Silvanus said.

“Isn’t there another dualist sanctuary we could go to? With divine statues? Somewhere no one will get hurt?” Aurora asked.

“There is…”

“But?” Phaedra asked.

“I don’t know if we’ll make it there before Drakon finds us. It’s on the other side of Trisia, in the Giant’s Jawbone.”

“We can decide on a final destination later. Right now, we need to get into the next set of tunnels in the Dragon’s Tail Mountains before the Beast of Old finds us. Once we have a mountain between us and the apocalypse, we can quibble on the best place to begin your training,” Phaedra said, grabbing Aurora’s wrist as she pulled her across the land bridge.

Aurora had crossed The Colonnades Of The Colossus on her way to the ancient temple in Aureum. Soaring high above the ancient waterway, the river below was a set of perilous rapids, the columns and bridge above had held since time immemorial, supposedly built on the bones of a mythical monster. She allowed Phaedra to pull her along. It was surely a mistake, one that would be paid for in blood, but what choice did they have? They’d crossed half the land bridge at a jog when the sky began to darken.

“Did you miss me, little mouse?”

“Drakon’s found us!” Aurora shouted.

“Hurry!” Silvanus cried.

They ran for their lives.

But luck was not on their side.

A blast of purple fire hit the final colonnade, shattering it. It fell into the Dragon’s Tongue River with a resounding crash. A moment later, another blast took out the colonnade leading back into Aureum.

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