52.6 Centuries of Protection

General Summary

Day 1073

At breakfast, Eusphyra stands attentively at Black Tourmaline’s shoulder as we all eat together. Most of the others (Liliales’ group and Bran’s group) have taken to the city to explore and get the lay of the land while those closest to Black Tourmaline remain and continue getting her settled. Lyssa and Skyen may have been tempted to explore the city as well, but both remain near their partners (Skyen looking a little out of place amidst the rest of us) and serve breakfast.   Black Tourmaline says it is a miracle that anyone at all survived for this long - all of the protections were built in haste. She had worked all of these magical networks up after the Empress had fallen and the retreat was well underway, with the path back to the sea blocked off. They were unsure if Osyr could exist beyond the mountains, and so Black Tourmaline and the remaining Osyr stayed behind as a last stand against the fae and trolls while the elves shepherded Kaide to a new home.   An illusion comes to life above the table, showing us the city in the final hours of the war. Furious trolls move almost like a force of nature, wild and almost…fast. Amidst them, I see Root, Trunk, and Canopy cold and calm in their hatred. Canopy is manipulating the weather, bringing forth a toxic storm of acid rain…and my skin tingles at the thought of being deluged in water that burns, especially for the Osyr who remained. Deep in the lake, the sleeping Osyr were sheltered even from the now-poisoned water. And many of the stone guardians were created at this time, so that the souls who became stone were protected from the rain. But she knew that over time, the water would run clear again as nature drained the toxic water and let fresh water pour back in, so she dove down to keep them safe as well.   The last illusion she shows us is of trolls carrying in the eggs that I recognize from my journey beneath the city: Magic-eating creatures who would infest the underground and slowly feed on Black Tourmaline’s protection. I had thought they had found their way beneath the city of their own accord, drawn by the natural confluence of magical energy here. I see now that they are an infestation, deliberately introduced to wear down the centuries of protection that Black Tourmaline put in place, and eventually feed on the sleeping Osyr themselves.   With Black Tourmaline’s mind joining our circle, we progress much faster in how to wake the Osyr safely. The magic holding them in stasis is keeping them ice cold, like many deep-dwelling ocean creatures. To wake them will involve warming them, gently and gradually. We can begin slowly churning the water to rotate the sun-warmed surface layer to go deeper to meet them using motion, flow, and water magic that many of us are well-practiced in, and with the sheer magical strength that we have present, it should not be difficult to wake them once they are sufficiently warmed.   Before they wake, though, we will have to deal with the infestation of magical bats. According to Cousin Soo, the pack here is malnourished and starving from feeding on pure magic rather than their preferred diet…the flesh of other magical creatures. While I had sympathy for relocating them at first, the knowledge that they would happily eat people and can grow to the size of small buildings makes me perfectly satisfied in my choice to send the kids down to deal with them, with Soo’s supervision.  

Days 1074 - 1078

It takes us four days to bring the Osyr up to the right temperature, during which time the dragons all lounge by the lake to observe the magic and keep an eye on things. It is a rare pleasure to splash about in the water in my full, inconveniently enormous dragon form, with Starfield and the others. After a day or two, the children of the city lose their fear and join us in the water, sliding down my tail and laughing in delight at the massive waves that Starfield and I can create for them to ride.