Andrew Thompson
Stories
8
Chapters
3,542
Words
1.4 M
Comments
0
Reading
4 d, 23 h
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“Gently,” Dallion said as molten iron was poured into a mold. For the achievements the furies had managed to accomplish, their forging equipment was beyond pitiful. In fact, it could pretty much be said that they didn’t have a forge at all. When he and Jiroh had come up with a plan to extract metal from ore, he thought they were thinking out of the box. In another world, that probably was true. Here, though, all furies did the same. Once gathered, thunder furies melted the metal, then using air…-
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Despite Kafka’s protest, Dallion spent a large part of the day in the cloud city. The rhythm of the place fascinated him. The contrast with Jiroh’s family on the ground was astounding. It was as if someone had drained all the joy from the furies living on the ground and placed it here. People felt free, almost careless, cheer emanating from them like radio beacons. It was slightly different inside. As back on Earth, the service industry had a far less enjoyable time. Jiroh never hid that her job…
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“Stay close,” Jiroh whispered. An entrance appeared on the face of the pyramid as they approached. Unlike the other structures, this one didn't seem to have any other way of going in. The moment the trio arrived a few steps from the entrance itself, a tall fury dressed in a dress to cloud fabric appeared. The difference was that the dress was deep green. “Good morning,” she said. There was a smile on her face, but Dallion could sense that she was far from happy to have them approach. Rather, she…
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The day stretched to three. Even with Dallion’s forging skills, finding enough ore wasn’t as easy as initially thought. The individual quantities were small, and each had to be heated to the point of melting by Jiroh using lightning. The process was cumbersome even by ancient standards, though fascinating for the fury’s entire family. Only Jiroh’s mother would occasionally remind her youngest that they had to check out the crops. Every now and again, Jiroh’s younger siblings would appear with the…
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The nearest cloud city was a two-hour flight away, but before they could go there, there were a few things that had to be prepared. The first was finding an adequate iron deposit. Due to the furies’ way of life, technology of that aspect was beyond crude. In theory, a number of scientific methods were devised, but from Dallion understood the practice was: if one could see evidence of ore veins that was considered good enough. It was no coincidence that most contested areas were mountains. On the bright…
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“Here she is,” Jiroh’s father said. His tone wasn’t disapproving, nor was it enthusiastic. Rather, it was as if he was discussing a cat walking in through the window. Dallion could feel a deep sense of apathy in the room. It was coming from everyone, even those who were glad that she had returned. This had to be what it was like living on the ground. “Yes, I am here,” Jiroh replied, keeping her calm. “These are the—" Before she could finish, one of the clouds lumps in the room leapt up…
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It took close to an hour for the mage to calm down. Despite everything she had attempted to do to Dallion, he couldn’t ignore the sheer terror that emanated from every fiber of her being. It had taken half an hour of talking—while also using the appropriate music skill—just to get her out of her panic loop. The state of dread was the same that someone experienced after learning their awakened abilities had been sealed. Initially, Dallion thought that had been the case; for a mage, maybe not being…
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“Mind your head,” Jiroh said as they made their way into the small building. Back on Earth, Dallion would have called it a storage tunnel, though here it was the equivalent of a shack or cottage if one wanted to be extremely generous. Since they had the ability to control air currents, furies predominantly used two types of materials: cloud matter and stone. Anything made of wood or metal was considered too much effort and reserved for the well off. For some reason, that made Dallion think of the…
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Fire streamed around Jiroh for several seconds, melting entire sections of the cloud away. Dallion’s heart sank. Euryale had been a few dozen feet further ahead before the blast. The moment the flames were gone, Dallion split into two dozen instances, rushing in her direction. A large hole loomed in the ground of the citadel, reaching all the way down to the ocean itself. As for the gorgon, there was no trace. Unwilling to accept this, instances of Dallion leapt into the ocean in an attempt to spot any…
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The windows went transparent, letting sunlight flood into the room. While it felt that the conversation with the green Moon had only lasted a few minutes, it seemed that almost a full day had passed. Dallion had skipped evening, night and even next day’s morning without even noticing. The pain in his eyes had gone, along with the exhaustion. Unfortunately, the faint sensation of hunger had made itself known, reminding that even mental trials were exhausting. Dallion stood up and looked outside.…
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