Rylan flew forward, once more tethered to the cloudcrank only by a length of rope.

Though this time, it was by his own choice.

Stretching out his right hand in front of him, he tugged on the node within his spirit, and Arphin appeared with a pop.

Together, they crashed into the bat in mid-air.

After squinting into the dark fog for so long, the burst of white light that erupted from Rylan's Mana Shell was blinding in intensity, but he still managed to sink Arphin's glowing blade right into what he was pretty sure was the stupid beast's chest.

Then he was sent careening back, the impact having actually managed to smack the air out of him.

The rope pulled taut, and he swung to the side, once more colliding with the fuselage. For a moment, he spun helplessly in the breeze, though he never let go of Arphin.

Then a rough, hairy hand reached out and grabbed a hold of his arm.

"Way to take one fer the team!" Nazyr exclaimed with a big grin as he helped Rylan onto the fuselage behind him.

"Excellent work, milord, milady!" Yuel added. "I do believe we've seen the last of that thing!"

"Are you all right, Ryles?" Leahna called over worriedly.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Rylan replied, shaking his head. He was now lying on his belly on the fuselage behind Nazyr, his legs stretched out on the tail. "Now what? Do we still have our heading?"

"I don't think we've strayed too much, right Naz?" Yuel replied. "We should really start to see some... look!"

Rylan lifted his head to look in the direction Yuel indicated, and saw the fog there was lit up with blue light. As they approached, the diffuse glow resolved into a collection of spherical light sources—glowing bulbs along the length of floating stalks.

"The Stellar Temple ought ta be on the other side o' that kelp," Naz called over the wind. "We better find a spot to land here, approach on foot!"

"I'll bring us a little lower," Yuel called back. "Everyone, look for a nice and flat patch of sand!"

Flying low enough to see the cloudbed was an unnerving experience. Thankfully, with a little help from Arphin, they soon found a flat expanse of sand between two dunes. Yuel circled the area, lowering some flaps on the wings to slow them down before he headed in for the landing.

Rylan still felt the cloudcrank was going awfully fast as they descended towards the wavy sand in front of them.

Grasping the handles on the wing in a white-knuckled grip, he braced for impact.

A shock went through the small craft as the runners touched down. More, lighter shocks followed as it bounced up and landed a second time, then a third. Finally, the runners made firm contact with the sand below and with a lot of shaking and grinding, the cloudcrank ground to a halt.

"You know..." Rylan commented as he slipped out of the safety harness, mightily grateful to have solid ground beneath his feet once more. "We could've just walked."

Yuel tutted, wagging his finger. "Ah, but slogging through the sand for eight hours wouldn't have been half as fun, now would it?"

"This might've been a lot quicker," Rylan replied dryly, "but I'm not sure it was worth several years of my lifespan."

"I thought it was great," Leahna piped up, her eyes gleaming as she came around the craft. "Though I can see why you insisted I buy another tier of Mana Shell; you certainly get a lot of mileage out of yours!"

"Har har," Rylan grumbled as Nazyr started to guffaw. "Let's just get going, all right?"

"About that," Yuel said. "Did you want us to come along, or would you prefer us to stay here and prepare the craft for our return trip? Because we're going to need some time to find a proper slope and build a bit of a ramp for the lift-off. And if things go awry and we're forced to make a hasty getaway..."

As Yuel spoke, Nazyr reached into the fuselage, and produced two lightweight bamboo shovels then held them up demonstratively.

Rylan hesitated. "Perhaps that would be better. More people does not equate to more stealth."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He glanced at Leahna, who nodded in agreement.

"All right then," Yuel said, clapping his hands together. "You go do whatever it is you need to do then. The Stellar temple should be up on a hill just beyond this patch of kelp, you can't miss it. Just make sure you mark your path for the way back!"

As they were on a stealth mission, Rylan did not dare to bring out his glowband; the shimmering colours that glowmetal produced were too recognisable.

Thankfully, the kelp produced plenty of light to navigate by.

To make sure they could find their path on the way back, Rylan occasionally plucked one of the buoyant glowing bulbs and cut it open,

He'd been surprised to find the bulbs weren't filled with air so much as glowing foam, which quickly floated up to disappear among the swaying strands of kelp overhead. Although he also saw some of it get sucked into a swirl as Izzy flew by and started playing with it.

Thankfully, there was still plenty of glowing sap that dripped from the bulbs' outer membranes, which he smeared onto rocks and large shells that they passed by.

Soren had told him once that the sap would continue to glow for at least an hour or two before it started to fade, which should be plenty.

"I still can't believe we're actually doing this," Leahna whispered at some point. "It kind of feels like I'm dreaming."

"We're doing this all right," Rylan replied. "But we haven't succeeded yet. So keep your wits about you."

After a good ten minutes of walking, they reached the other side of the kelp forest. And as promised, they spotted the dark silhouette of what looked like a massive dome on top of a hill.

There were no sources of light or signs of movement, but they were still pretty far away, so Rylan did not want to make any assumptions.

He took a moment to make another mark on a rock, right by the start of the small trail they'd followed, then straightened up. "Let's go. Watch where you put your feet, and whatever you do, be quiet."

[Don't worry, Big Sis, Boss; I won't let anything sneak up on you!]

"Thanks lil' bro," Leahna whispered back. "Let's do this!"

There was a bit of a valley between them and the temple, filled with half-buried ruins of what must've once been a village. Rylan stayed well clear of any wall that looked close to collapse, though thankfully most were overgrown with sturdy corals.

It must've been a Hermean village, from before the fog...

Rylan couldn't help but wonder what the lives of the people who'd lived there had been like.

Farming must've been a lot easier, with all that liquid water available. Or had it been? The water had been salty, of course; he wasn't sure if plants liked that. Had they lived off of fish, then, and gone sailing across liquid water on wooden ships to catch them?

It was hard to imagine.

With Arphin's help, they stuck to well-sheltered paths that didn't expose them to many lines of sight from outside. Though frankly, it was probably overkill, as there didn't seem to be any—

Rylan stopped in his tracks as he spotted a blue glow in the distance. It was faint, but present. More importantly, he was seeing it through a nearby crumbly wall. Fog!

Leahna shot him a questioning look.

"There's a Sapphire-Grade Quinthar standing guard," he whispered to her.

[Forge! Really?] Arphin sent to both of them. [I don't sense anyone yet...]

"They're pretty far from us still, probably right at the temple; I can just faintly make out their spirit."

"Well, we figured there would be some guarding presence still," Leahna said with a shrug. "Let's just try to get closer and see what we're dealing with."

They crept through the ruins with increased vigilance, but all remained quiet, even as they got close enough for Arphin to get a good sense of the insides of the temple.

[I found the console!] Arphin sent excitedly. [It's in the main hall, right next to the staircase leading down to the basement with the Dungeons. Oh, but... All right, the good news is that, while there's a room that appears to be outfitted for guards down the hall, it's completely empty, so it looks like the Sapphire's all alone. The bad news is that he's sitting right by the main entrance, and has an excellent view of the console.]

Rylan clicked his tongue. "Kind of the opposite of what we expected," he mumbled. "I really hadn't expected any Quinthar to be willing to miss the parade."

"Lil' bro," Leahna asked with a thoughtful look. "Is he wearing boots with wings engraved into them?"

[He... is! How did you know?!]

Leahna nodded grimly. "That's Dash. One of the city's more famous Sapphires. He's supposed to be really fast; he's probably planning to run back to the city at dawn so he doesn't miss anything..."

"So we definitely can't let him notice us," Rylan said with a sigh. "We'd never get away. Arphin, what is he doing right now? Is he just sitting there? Are his eyes closed?"

[He's not napping, Boss,] Arphin replied chidingly. [Most people have enough common sense to know where to take their naps! No, he's holding a big horn—seemingly taken from the huge foghorn cadaver next to him—and he appears to be attempting to carve holes into it with a little knife for some reason. I wonder why... do you think he's trying to make a watering can?]

"Sounds like he's making a forn," Rylan said, shaking his head. "Like the three-holed one Nazyr played, remember?"

[Oh, that makes way more sense!]

"Anyway, we're going to need a distraction of some kind," Rylan continued, his brows drawing together. "He's clearly hunted that foghorn... Did you notice any large, aggressive creatures in the vicinity, Arphin?"

[I would've told you if I had, Boss!]

"Right... We'll need to come up with something we can actually accomplish ourselves and that will keep him occupied for long enough; we can't have him sprinting back before we're done."

Leahna pursed her lips. "That sounds... complicated."

Rylan shrugged helplessly. "It's that or wait for a changing of the guard. We can't afford to be seen by this guy."

No," Leahna replied after a moment, her eyes narrowing. "You can't afford to be seen by him. Which gives me an idea..."

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