The Heptagon Mage

Gilliam was preoccupied with the flying itself, making sure that everyone was floating properly so he didn’t see what Angela referred to until he followed her pointing.
As he saw into the distance he couldn’t help but feel a mixture of pride and a kind of self-fear. She was pointing towards a deep and massive, blackened crater. There was debris thrown out quite the distance from ground zero, and the temple where he once woke up chained was no more. There were a few of the locals going through the area but for the most part, the whole place was destroyed. At the distance they were he couldn’t confirm if the cubical teleportation building was still there or not, the air was permanently dusty, after all. He could see relatively far but after a certain range, it all faded into the sand.

“Well... I think it might be.” Gilliam replied to the comment about it being what she thought it was. It seems they opened the gate to the island they were at from this place.
He couldn’t remember if Sirzan, Sizran... whatever the demon’s name was, said that they opened up portals to other worlds from the fingers as a safety thing, or if that was something that Gilliam pieced together himself; in any case, this was a very good proof for the idea being good.
Imagine if this portal was in the heart of the... well... Heart. This could all be over already.

Though not seeing the teleportation building could be considered negative, since they had Savia, teleporting at least into the Hand was not a problem. Though that was something he wanted to wait with.
“So, I have something I want to find out.” Gilliam stated to the group, having them fly in closer. “The Fractured Lands are made up of floating islands, with teleportation circles between them. However, there is air between them as well, if what Sirzan, or whatever it was, is correct. This means that we can fly between them, this is much safer than finding a teleportation circle and fighting into it..”

He briefly considered how much effort that would take, they would without a doubt die from exhaustion sooner rather than later.
“I will give Savia coordinates of the second island, so we can go there if it takes too long or if we’re in danger, but if we can find out the distance here and if it’s not too bad, it can make things much easier.”

Angela and Petal nodded, it seems that the plan was smart enough that there weren’t any questions or uncertainties, which was always good in one sense.
Gilliam also had to admit that he liked the determination in the eyes of his group. Angela had plenty of motivation in the sense of saving her world, following her prophecy but also as a self-mastering thing. In a way he wondered a bit about Petal’s motivation or possible hesitation against her people... but given how she was treated he didn’t think that would become a problem. Besides, the dream of a safe place for her people who aren’t murdering hobos was a good one.

Gilliam used a few minutes to draw up the coordinate runes for Savia, using the same way of writing in the air that he uses to make spell circles was hardly an issue, though it took a few minutes as the coordinates in the Fractured lands appeared to be much longer and complex.
“Does this feel right?” Gilliam asked Savia after she had been looking at the runes for a short while.

“Savia sees... air? Building on the ground?” She seemed a bit confused, but it matched the location Gilliam had chosen.
Above the teleportation circles on the Hand, it was safe enough, all things considered. If nothing else it gave them options.

“Yes, perfect, that’s good. We’re going to start flying in the direction we think is correct, and... Well... If we’re in danger, take us there.” He smiled at his tiny companion, the tiny companion a lot of their safety relied on.

Something Gilliam didn’t like to consider, was that the last time he was here someone was ordered to ‘open a portal to the Heart’. Hinting that there could be a direct route there somehow.
When he spoke with Sirzan he was told to just channel magic into the teleportation circle and it’d work, which was true. But what if there was another way of doing that which could save them all kinds of travel?
The problem here was if this was not how it worked... They would reveal themselves and ruin the surprise. This was also the problem by just landing and demanding to duel their leader, sure it could work but what if it didn’t? The risk was too great.

Flying towards the rough area he remember the teleportation circle being in, they passed over the carnage. The explosion had caused problems for the city between the temple and the teleportation booth, though the explosion itself didn’t reach that far it seemed that the shockwave had done quite a lot. Their buildings were made of rocks and sandstone but didn’t have too much structural strength. The tower where he took the orb was much stronger, so if nothing else they did have some way of making solid structures.

Getting over the area with the teleportation circle, it seemed that it was not only still there, but it was also heavily guarded. Nothing short of an army was down there. And since there were flying forces in addition to ground troops, the party had to fly even higher up. They went to the point of almost losing sight of the land itself in the sandy haze.
This still worked fine for them, they had a direction so they just had to hold it. Something he had not done yet as far as moving without landmarks went, it could end up with them moving in circles.
But this was also what this test was for. The fallback of teleportation was always an option, after all.

“Now, I don't know what we’ll find out there, so...” Gilliam didn’t know if the sand storms were going to become dangerous or what, so he cast a solid barrier around everyone except Savia; she was in Gilliam’s bubble.

The girls took the protection barrier and the group started flying off in the direction they thought might be right. Getting up to max speed they all made sure to stay close and hope for the best.

Not long after leaving the landmass under them, they were in the void between, it was nothing but sand. As they entered this area the sandstorm became denser, they lost sight of the ground much faster than just height would cause. Taking out some rope from the ring Gilliam turned to the others.
“I think we should tie ourselves together, like mountain climbers. Just in case...”
He feared that a sudden gust could separate them and without any way of knowing right from left...

The others again nodded to his idea and did as told. Though Petal needed some aid in tying the rope around her waist, she was not the best with knots, it seemed.
Continuing in the direction they picked out, using the last glimpse of landmass as something to have behind them, they hoped for the best as they disappeared into the sandstorm.

It felt surprisingly easy to keep a steady course, however since there were no landmarks or anything else to base this on, they might be flying in circles for all they knew. This lasted what felt like hours. Since the information Gilliam had was that flying between landmasses should be possible, aiming and distance were an issue, and it would probably have to take more than a few hours to become a problem for skilled flyers.
The shield he cast before was, well, a normal barrier spell, but he was happy that it worked as intended. More than protection from attacks it was a broad umbrella against the sand, working like a hamster ball of sorts. As it was a barrier it would also keep them safe from an attack like normal, but it wasn’t the main reason for it this round.

It didn’t take long after they left the Finger before Gilliam decided to tie a string to Savia as well. She might be good at flying but the winds were strong, though they were in a bubble that should make this as safe as possible, she couldn’t teleport to him if she didn’t know where he was. So it was better safe than sorry.

Flying around even longer, Gilliam missed modern navigation more and more. Just something to keep time would be extremely nice, but the best would be a proper map with accompanying GPS. Sadly he had none of these and would have to just... fly ‘thataway’.
This flight lasted for several more days, they didn’t stop for more than a brief moment. Food was an on-the-go ordeal, Gilliam would take food and drink out of the ring and they would eat them from within their protective bubble. Toilet trips became a bit less intimate than they would normally be as you would do it on the end of a rope when flying in a sandstorm. There was no way around staying linked with the others due to the nature of no vision after only a short distance. So they didn’t have any way to practically work around this.
If nothing else, hygiene was not an issue as Gilliam was smart enough to learn the cleaning spell Jial used, before leaving. Water was practically unlimited but the food was not, they had to ration as much as they could and just power on.

Small talk was the only thing they had to do for entertainment. Angela had an interesting life in her travels across Lisica, learning to master herself. Petal didn’t have much to add, her whole life could be written down in one vague paragraph, it didn’t help that nobody knew how old she was, and due to no proper measurement of time, it was hard to say. This had Gilliam feeling a bit weird, though based on what he had gathered from his first time in the Fractured Lands, and his own experience, she wouldn’t be too young if anything.

Most of the stories used to pass time came from Angela and Gilliam. Gilliam had many stories that were surprisingly mundane to him but gave them a lot of interest and intrigue. Just the concept of electricity, and flipping a simple switch to turn on lights seemed expensive enough that only mages or nobles had that in Lisica.

Due to everything else, there was not exactly much time to be any form of intimacy during this flight, however, Petal did make a thing out of wanting to hold onto Gilliam during her resting time. Though it didn’t go much further than that.

“Ok... This has gone on for too long...” Gilliam suddenly broke out. They had been flying, hopefully straight, for what felt like a week. He did find a tiny bit of amusement in the thought that he was in a seemingly magical world, trying to fly between floating islands to find a demon lord in the hopes of stopping the invasion of yet another magical world, but he was bored.
“I have no idea how long we have been flying but this is taking too long... I get that it’s safe but we’re going to run out of food unless we super luck out...”

“I agree.” Angela nodded at the end of her rope, pulling at it to get closer. “We might get there, we might not. Though this was a good idea initially I doubt it’s stable enough that we can do this.”
She did seem a bit sad about it, but at the same time, she didn’t seem like she was against doing something else.

Gilliam agreed with her. “I guess we’ll just have to move on the lands instead, it’s going to be less safe, but at least it’s a more stable form of transport.”

The group discussed this for a short moment. The short of it ended up as this being too impossible, without any form of navigation they might as well be flying in circles or just heading into nothing. They brought a lot of food but even with rationing, it was slowly emptying. It was only going to get worse if they kept on with this.

The best way was to use the static portals and somehow hide. If possible they could move across the outskirts of the landmass, flying that way could be possible. But when they came to the portal itself there wasn’t much they could do but fight.
After teleporting to the Hand they could get to the portal at the end of it. Hopefully without getting discovered. However, from there on it would most likely not be that easy. Arriving would cause a commotion once they saw the lack of demons coming out.

Thinking back to when he teleported to the Hand the first time, he did arrive in one of the cubical buildings, but he was still attacked moments after landing. So much happened that he didn’t remember if it was properly enclosed or not. Though once they teleport there that could easily be found out.

“Ok, we teleport high in the air, as soon as we arrive there, Savia will teleport us down past the ground, off the edge. That gives us somewhere to hide as we scout a bit. We’ll make our way around the outer edge of the Hand until we get to the static portal to the next bit.”
He felt somewhat proud of this, it was a simple but good plan.

“Or..” Angela seemed to ponder for a moment. “Once we get there, Savia just teleports us towards the other side of the Hand? Just teleport us as far as she can, doing this a few times to save time?”

“That’s possible, but Aeris said that non-teleporters tend to get super sick after rapid teleportation. I don’t want to be vomiting and feeling like shit if something happens.”
He hated to shut down that idea, it was not bad in theory and would be the fastest. But should a fight break out, feeling sick and vomiting is not a good condition to be in.

Angela looked a bit deflated.

Petal added to the talk. “You two can hide, I can run to where the portal is and show it to Savia, and we can go there right away?” She sounded hesitant to even air this like she knew it was a bad idea.

“Well....” Gilliam started, seeming like he was going shoot it down but changing his mind mid-sentence. “I hate to say it but... it’s not a bad idea... Savia can hide in your hair and if it goes bad you can just leave right away. You can go around the main settlement but... I know there are mages in the Hand. I don’t know if they can sense her, or you.”

Gilliam knew she was magically enhanced due to her levelling up, so to speak. But he didn’t know how this registered with other demons. He wasn’t afraid of most cases, but in the fringe case where someone might get a surprise attack on them. One of those ballista bolts would just tear them apart. Or a large-scale spell could take them out before they could teleport away. He wasn’t an overly controlling person, but he didn’t like the danger this put her in.
“It’s a good idea but I think it’s too dangerous.”

“I agree.” Angela chimed in. “What if they get you before you can react? We’re not here together to go alone.”

Having Angela agree to his point did put Gilliam a bit more at ease. He would have to make it up to her with some more autonomous freedom once all of this was over. But Angela also had a good point, splitting the party was never a good idea, after all.

“We need to find a way to do things together. I think around the perimeter might be the best, if we get sort of close, Savia can get us the final distance and we can get through it fast.” Gilliam commented, somewhat similar but with an added detail to his original idea.

The group agreed on it this time, which made Gilliam feel a little cool, all things considered.
Picking his companion out of his hair, caring for the string around her waist she seemed to somewhat wake up during the movement.
With some stretching and yawning noises not unlike puppies, she sat up in his hands and looked at him questioningly.

“Can you take us to the place I showed you before?” Though he asked her, it was a more rhetorical question than a real one.

The tired harpy in his hand woke properly up with her normal eagerness. “Savia can teleport!”

“That’s good. Now, before we go I need to explain something.” Gilliam needed to stop her so she could be part of the plan, it could be bad if they went there and were spotted during explaining.
Using his light drawing he aided the explanation.
“Once you teleport us high in the air, you need to teleport us down past the edge, so the bad demons can’t see us.”
Pointing and adding drawings to emphasise where to go and what to do, she seemed to understand it easily enough.

“Savia teleport now?” She asked eagerly, seeming extremely ready to do something besides sleep.

“I suppose there is no time like the present?” Gilliam asked the group.
The two of them flying in closer and holding onto Gilliam’s arms seemed to be their agreement.
“Yes, you can teleport now.” Gilliam smiled back at his bonded ally.

A buildup of energy could be barely felt in her tiny body, then a blinding flash of light. Feeling the jumble of movement, they didn’t feel any different shifts in the sand or air. Though this could be due to the barrier. However, once the blinding light left their eyes they expected a second movement, only to see that Savia was completely drained. She was breathing heavily, not able to sit upright and fell in Gilliam’s hands.

Not waiting for anyone to see them, Gilliam flew straight up, forcing the two others to be yanked along with the rope. He flew high enough up that they could still see the land below them, but only barely, using distance and the sand as cover he channelled healing energy into her as he flew.