An Unexpected Welcome

An Unexpected Welcome

Morning came slowly to the Alfadin Valley.

The first rays of sunlight crept over the eastern peaks, turning the snow capped peaks around them from dull grey into brilliant white. Frost clung stubbornly to every rock and branch, but the bitter wind from yesterday had finally settled.

Rintaron was quietly feeding the campfire and watching the fish that were now cooking above the flames. The others slowly emerged from blankets and cloaks and rolled up their things ready to move at any notice.

Kaelen had gone back down to the river and knelt beside the frozen table of ice covering it in parts on the river banks, staring into the water that was free to move.

He watched the river surge beneath a smooth granite overhang before disappearing completely beneath the mountain.

It wasn't a waterfall.

It wasn't a cave.

It simply vanished as if being sucked down into a deep well

He pulled his notebook from his satchel and began sketching the bends in the river from memory.

Blena wandered over carrying one of the fish they had cooked.

“You've been staring at that river since breakfast.”

“I'm thinking.”

“I can tell. That's usually when you forget to eat.”

Kaelen ignored the remark.

He sketched the three steles.

Then the river.

Then the mountains. It was bvious that something was bothering him about this disappearing river.

He frowned, a whole story being told in his mind with the lifting of eyebrows and creasing of forehead. Blena was more intrigue with his face than the river.

“No...”

He stood.

Walked several metres downstream.

Looked toward Monolith Peak.

Then back again.

“No...”

He moved another few paces.

Then suddenly stopped.

“...Blena.”

She sighed dramatically.

“If this is another flower...”

“...I'm leaving.”

“It isn't. I am not the flower guy that would definitely be Alster. Anyway forget that.. I am onto something here...”

“Good. Maybe you could share aloud it instead of just showing it all over that face of yours.”

She walked over to hear his conclusions and was followed by Tajan and Alster who had heard them talking.

Kaelen pointed between two ridges.

“Stand here.” He said to Belna as if she were a manikin displaying clothing at a marker stall.

“What am I looking at?”

“The gap.”

“I see a mountain. It is really big and stoney and it takes up my entire view.”

“No. Exactly here.” He pointed to a spot between the ridges of curved flat river rocks.

Blena shuffled half a step to the left.

Her eyebrows rose.

“Huh.”

Beyond the granite ridge, another tower came into view.

Hidden perfectly behind the mountain unless someone stood at the exact place where the river disappeared beneath the stone.

Tajan slowly lowered her hood.

“That wasn't there yesterday.”

“It was,” Kaelen replied.

“We simply couldn't see it.”

The tower stood on an enormous stone platform suspended above the valley, its foundations built directly over the place where the river vanished beneath the mountain.

Unlike Alfadin Tower, no blue beam escaped from its summit.

It stood silent.

Kaelen's mind immediately began racing.

“The river...”

“What about it?” asked Blena.

“It disappears directly beneath the tower.”

“So?”

“So...”

Kaelen began pacing.

“What if it isn't disappearing?”

Everyone waited and had gathered round to hear the explanation.

“What if it's being used?”

Blena blinked. Not just confusion but some incredulity.

“Used?”

“The river.”

He pointed excitedly toward the tower.

“Moving water. Pressure. Mechanical force. The pre-Sundering engineers could have channelled it beneath the tower.”

“You think water powers towers?” Blena asked.

“I think moving water powers mechanisms.”

Alster nodded slowly.

“There are cave systems beneath these mountains.”

“The river could travel underground for miles.”

Kaelen's excitement grew.

“If they built water wheels, those wheels could rotate crystal arrays, or lenses, or pressure chambers, or....”

“Kaelen.”

He stopped.

Blena folded her arms.

“Normal speed.”

He took a deep breath.

“Right.”

Tajan smiled.

“I think his brain just overtook his mouth again.”

Kaelen laughed.

“It happens.”

“It happens a lot,” Blena corrected.

Tajan looked back toward the tower.

“Mechanum.”

Everyone turned.

“The Mechanum Ascendancy. If anyone understands ancient machines, it's them.”

Alster nodded.

“They've been rebuilding pre-Sundering devices for generations.”

“They also refuse to explain any of them.”

“Helpful,” Blena muttered.

Kaelen suddenly snapped his fingers.

“Anderix.”

“The engineer?” asked Tajan.

“He studied beside me at the Academy.”

“I thought he only stayed one term.”

“He did. The ascendancy doesn't let its people stay out long for fear of them being "influenced” by the northerners' world.”

“But unlike most Mechanites, he actually answered questions.”

Alster laughed.

“So he's officially the friendliest person in the Mechanum Ascendancy.”

Tajan smirked.

“That's like being the warmest glacier.”

Kaelen smiled.

“It still counts.”

Blena looked from one face to another.

“So, unless Anderix suddenly appears in these mountains, we're climbing.”

No one argued.Although they were all thinking that that did not seem like an easy task.

The ascent began gently enough.

Soon the path narrowed into steep switchbacks cut into the mountainside.

Loose shale shifted beneath every step.

Snow still clung to the shadows where the morning sun had not yet reached.

Blena disappeared around every corner before the others reached it.

She would stop.

Fold her arms.

Wait.

Then shake her head as the others slowly caught up.

“Are we climbing...”

“...or growing old?”

“We're collecting observations,” Kaelen replied.

“No.”

“We're climbing.”

Tajan chuckled.

“I agree with Blena.”

“You usually do,” Blena answered proudly.

Alster, meanwhile, had quietly wandered away from the path.

Again.

His attention had been captured by a tiny white flower growing impossibly from a crack in the cliff face.

Its silver petals shimmered in the morning light.

He whispered to himself.

“A Snow Crown...”

“I've never actually seen one.”

He had strapped a rope around his waist, tied to to a crag and leaned forward.

"Just a little further". He said to himself as fingers stretched in hope of reaching the flower.

Then...his boot slipped.

Pebbles rattled down the cliff.

“ALSTER!”

Blena lunged instinctively.

Alster windmilled both arms wildly before swinging out under the crag he was tied to before momentum brought him back towards the ledge he was on and he was able to stretch his tippy toes down and touch the rock. Blena was now within reach and she hooked four fingers into his belt and held on to the jagged rock face as his momentum again pulled both of them forward away from the path.

Silence.

He looked at his hand and then at the flower caught between his two longest fingers. Then at everyone else.

“...Worth it.” Blena stared at him.

“No. I guess not, it could have ended badly.”

“It absolutely wasn't.”

Even Kaelen laughed.

Rintaron shook his head.

“I once heard of a healer who climbed a glacier looking for Frost Moss.”

“What happened? Asked Alster who immediately Recognised the value of the moss.”

“He found it.”

“...then fell off the glacier.”

Alster nodded thoughtfully.

“So...”

“...successful botanically.”

Tajan rubbed her forehead.

“I honestly can't tell if healers are incredibly brave...”

“...or simply impossible to supervise.”

By late afternoon they finally reached the platform that held their target.

Every conversation stopped.

The second tower dwarfed the first.

Its stonework was older.

Its walls carried the same ancient script that had appeared upon Alfadin Tower.

But there was one crucial difference.

No energy escaped this tower.

Instead, faint streams of blue light flowed downward into the mountain beneath it.

Kaelen stepped forward.

His heart began racing.

He stared from the river, to the platform, to the hidden tower, then back toward the distant peak where Alfadin Tower stood.

Slowly, a thought formed.

“I don't think these towers are separate.”

Nobody answered.

“They were never meant to stand alone.”

His eyes followed the invisible line connecting the mountains.

“I think...”

“...they're all part...”

“...of one enormous machine.”

The others looked at one another.

For the first time since leaving Kefar, the group felt like they were making progress.

"And it is all connected back to the Heartwell Crystal'S Power loss". Said Kaelen as if for the group as they stood before the now possibly less mysterious towers.

Thy Quests
Kaelen believes the underground river may provide the energy that powers the ancient towers. Using evidence from the story, write three observations that support his theory. Remember that observations are things the characters actually saw, not guesses or opinions.