Chapter 45: WindGrave
About two weeks later.
—puuuuuuu
A blow horn split the sky in front of a massive metropolitan city, mountains rising on either side and a body of water stretching far beyond the visible horizon. Land expansion sprawled outward from the central walls, far wider than anything Ethan had seen since arriving in this world.
Windgrave Fortress.
This wasn’t some random outpost like the wilderness stronghold he’d grown up in, the dark forest fortress that had defined the limits of his old life. This place doubled as a sea port leading directly to the capital while simultaneously defending against the most dangerous beast attacks in the kingdom of Bark’s recorded history.
It was also the second headquarters of White Tower.
"What’s that?"
Inside the city, a crowd of citizens pointed toward a silhouette approaching from the horizon.
It wasn’t the warship drawing their attention. Warships were common enough overhead, merchant vessels and noble transports and White Tower patrols crossing the sky on a near daily basis.
What had stopped them in the street was the turtle.
Massive, ancient, striding forward across open terrain with a presence that bent the air around it.
"That’s a beast horde? Why didn’t the city guard alert us before time?"
"I can’t handle another loss of goods. Do I risk it and lock everything up now?"
"Shit. Incompetent fucks."
The complaints rippled through the gathered crowd, voices stacking on top of each other, but no one actually moved to leave. They stayed where they stood, eyes fixed on the horizon, watching the beast close the distance.
"You people, calm down."
A guard pushed forward through the crowd, his team falling in behind him.
"Can’t you hear the horn?"
He didn’t turn back to face them. His eyes stayed locked on the warship and the turtle moving beneath it.
"That’s victory, not an attack!!"
He exhaled, something like relief settling into his shoulders.
"Another god beast. Our kingdom is truly blessed."
,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Some time later, the warship docked on a platform built atop the city walls.
It went through a series of checks, inspections that moved with practiced efficiency, before being cleared to proceed deeper into the city.
The god beast was steered away in a different direction, guided toward the mountain peaks rising beside the fortress, its enormous frame dwarfing the terrain around it even from a distance.
"This place is massive."
Ethan said it quietly, looking down at the city as they flew, the streets and rooftops stretching out beneath him in a grid that seemed to have no end.
When he’d first seen the warship, back at the ruined compound, he’d felt something close to awe.
But nothing could have prepared him for this.
The city shattered every expectation he’d built since waking up in this world. The wilderness stronghold had been a wall holding back monsters. This was something else entirely, something that felt closer to the cities he remembered from his old life, scaled up and layered with magic he was only beginning to understand.
"Something about this place always gives me the creeps."
The voice belonged to Psycho Fin, or as Ethan had come to know him over the past two weeks, Fin Anon.
Ethan glanced over at him.
Fin was a seasoned member of White Tower, assigned specifically to keep Hela and her sister Ella out of trouble whenever the situation called for it.
If Ethan had to summarize the man in a single phrase, it would have been simple.
’Bad at his job.’
He kept the thought to himself.
"Don’t worry, the inside of White Tower is much more brilliant."
Fin nudged him with a friendly elbow, the motion casual, easy in a way that didn’t match the seriousness of everything they’d just survived together.
Ethan offered an awkward smile in response, the kind that didn’t fully reach his eyes.
(This new life was going to be a hassle.)
He let the thought settle without resistance.
Two weeks had passed since the rescue. Two weeks of travel atop the turtle’s back, watching the wilderness fall away behind them as Arian pushed the pace toward human territory. Two weeks of learning, in fragments, exactly how deep the politics surrounding White Tower actually ran.
Fin had been part of that education, whether he meant to be or not.
The man talked more than anyone Ethan had met since arriving in this world, filling silences with commentary that ranged from useless to occasionally important, and somewhere in that constant stream of words Ethan had pieced together the shape of what waited for him inside the city walls.
White Tower wasn’t simply an organization that hunted beasts and rescued captives.
It was the kingdoms strength a crucial backbone. And Arian’s position as High Regent carried weight, but weight came with obligations, and obligations had a way of reaching down and touching everyone standing close enough to her.
Including, apparently, Ethan.
He looked out at the city again as they descended toward the inner districts, the platform growing larger beneath them, lined with White Tower personnel moving through their duties with the kind of efficiency that came from doing the same work for years.
Beside him, Hela remained quiet, her eyes fixed forward, her expression unreadable in the way it usually was when there were too many people around to read anything from her honestly.
She hadn’t said much since the confrontation with her mother atop the compound. Whatever had passed between them in that single exchange, the words about being a woman now, the pressure that had filled the air and then receded just as fast, it had settled something between mother and daughter that Ethan didn’t fully understand and wasn’t sure he was meant to.
He didn’t ask.
It wasn’t his business, not directly, and pressing into it would only complicate a situation that was already complicated enough.
The flying summon banked lower, bringing the platform into clearer view, and Ethan caught sight of the structure rising at the center of the inner district.
White Tower itself.
Even from this distance it dwarfed everything around it, tiers of white stone stacking upward into the sky, banners marking different sections of the organization’s hierarchy, the entire structure radiating the kind of authority that didn’t need to announce itself.
"We’re here."
Fin said it with the same casual ease he seemed to bring to everything, swinging one leg over the side of the summon as it touched down on the platform.
Ethan followed him down, his boots landing on solid stone, the noise of the city rising up around him in full for the first time.
Hela landed beside him a moment later, her flying summon dissolving back into nothing the instant her feet touched ground.
She looked at the tower rising above them, then back at Ethan.
"Welcome to Windgrave."
Her voice carried no particular warmth, but it wasn’t cold either.
Just a statement of fact, delivered the way she delivered most things.
Ethan looked up at the structure looming overhead, the weight of everything still ahead of him settling into something he could finally start to plan around.
’Here we go.’
Comments