Chapter 840 — Crossing the Border
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The night had not yet faded, the morning had not yet come, and yet the hazy radiance of the giant sun was already beginning to surface on the horizon; the faint glow of dawn seemed to be struggling to break free of the earth's bonds, while the stars still shrouded this land asleep in darkness.
Near the Typhon border, a tall tower with silver-white spires and pale grey walls stood quietly on the high ground beside the Shadow Marsh. Starlight poured down from the heights, tracing a layer of luminance over the tower's surface. The great ring at the tower's summit floated in empty air at the height of the spire, turning silently in the night sky, and the starlight shining upon its face was reflected again and again in shifting arrays of color.
A magical transmission came from afar, and a series of runes on the ring, dark until now, suddenly lit one after another.
The middle-aged mage on watch in the transmission tower started awake amid a shrill ringing. He broke off his meditation at once, rose from the rune array in the "Listening Hall," and saw a complex, gorgeously ornate spread of runes kindling across the wall before him, with the emblem of the Royal Mages' Association projected above them.
The mage's expression shifted. He strode immediately to the intricate array depicted on the wall and pressed his hand to one particular rune stone: "This is the Shadow Marsh Boundary Tower. Go ahead."
"Orders from Aldernan," a slightly distorted voice came into the mage's ear. "Notify the border outpost at once. Intercept..."
As he listened to the voice from afar, the middle-aged mage's brows had already drawn sharply together. Without hesitation he turned and struck a nearby rune pillar, summoning the other mage waiting on the lower level: "Nim, come take over. I'm heading for the outpost—emergency orders from the capital. Check the records yourself afterward!"
Then, without waiting for a reply from the other watch mage, he was already hurrying toward a window at the side of the hall. The robe, staff, and hat hanging nearby flew to him of their own accord, settling onto the middle-aged mage as if alive; and when the staff at last fell into his palm, the crystal window etched with countless runes had already banged open—
The middle-aged mage leaped straight out, plunging into the still-dark night sky beyond the tower.
Beneath the starlight, the robed mage swept over the high ground where the transmission tower stood like a bird in flight. Behind him, the ring atop the tower still turned in silence, more runes lighting in sequence. The other watch mage inside had already taken control of the array, and this costly, intricate magical construct hummed through the night, beginning to relay the orders from Aldernan to the next transmission tower...
...
Iron wheels ground against the guide rails inlaid in the earth. Repulsion runes gave off a faint glow along the underside of the car and the flanks of the carriages; the power spine released surging energy; the arcane devices droned as they ran at high speed. The metal-built mechanical serpent crawled low over the ground, churning the thin mist of the early-spring land in the dark curtain of night, racing toward the border.
The mechanical noise of wheels, bearings, and levers echoed through the quiet carriage. In the darkness of the freight car after lights-out, the tense, stifling atmosphere kept every one of them fiercely awake. Yuri raised his head; his superhuman sight let him make out pairs of eyes in the dark, and the worry on Wendy's face nearby.
"We've already passed the Shadow Marsh checkpoint. We'll reach the border soon," Yuri said in a low voice. "Even if Aldernan reacts fast, a magical transmission has to be relayed layer by layer, and that takes time. Besides, along this line it can go no further than the transmission tower beside the Shadow Marsh—Typhon has only so many towers, and the last leg still has to be carried by couriers on foot. They won't make it in time."