Melody of Mana

Snow blew across the frozen plain, screaming, howling, leaving nothing but hard tundra for dozens of miles. The icy wind raged and raged against the world, trying to strip leaves, to freeze the flesh of any weak creature that might intrude upon the cold waste. For intruders did indeed mark this place, bustling about like ants.

Even with my shields up and spells going the chill wind still brushed me now and then. I could walk through a snow bank back home but here, here was another level of cold. Water would flash-freeze and we had to be dozens of degrees below zero. Still this was the best place for what we had to do, nobody would have a chance of stumbling upon us by accident.

I was overseeing the erection of one of the gates. It had been pre-made, but setting the thing up, then adding the safeties around it was considered a job only a few people were qualified to do, and sadly I was one of those. Selene was with the other, in a significantly more sheltered valley about a hundred miles to the south.

Once we'd reported our success orders had come down from on high, dictating the placement and teams to put the things up. Either the emperor was still cross with me, or I'd simply drawn the short straw in whatever method had been chosen to place us, because this location sucked. The valley were the other team had been sent was so much nicer, and ever so slightly volcanic. That meant that a lovely little vent to one side constantly spewed boiling water, which, when it rolled downhill a bit formed the most beautiful little pool, basically a warm bath for anyone to fight the chill in.

Instead I was on a blasted plain, cold, miserable, and wanting this trip to be over. We were two weeks north of Durin's fortress, having traveled primarily by sled. The beasts of burden more acclimated to the cold were even having trouble with the weather. That was saying something, as each looked like an auroch, with thick layers of hair covering almost every inch of skin.

Every member of my team, including the pack animals, had been given a special kit. The first item, and one our mages had to constantly fuss with, was an armband designed to repel the cold. It was pretty good, the enchantments had held well back at the fortress. Here though it just wasn't sufficient, and the mana use on these things was through the roof, terribly inefficient for long hauls like this.

Even with the armbands, and heavy winter clothing I'd still needed to help patch up almost a dozen cases of minor frostbite. Nothing too serious had happened, but it was still a reminder of the harsh weather here in the winter.

One by one I got the wards snapped into place and set up. It was a happy accident that our shielding protocols helped to push back the wind and cold. I checked and rechecked, nodding on my third pass as everything looked right as rain to my eyes. At my signal our team moved back to the heavily insulated wagons.

"Alright Captain Omar, we're ready as we can be," I said, nodding to the commander of the soldiers with us.

"Good to hear, I understand you can contact the other team?" The radio tech was still getting around, but I nodded, moving to the very large magical item at the back of the cart.

This was much like my previous models, with a few alterations here and there. I had not made it, nor had any personal hand or even knowledge of its creation. I supposed that it was an inevitability that Mystien would put some of his people on upping the power and experimenting with the design.

"Team one, team one, this is team two, we're set up, what is your status?" I said into a small receiver, after pressing a certain sequence to activate it. The other team should have theirs on standby, ready to get transmissions.

Around a minute later Dras' voice answered. "Team two, this is team one, we're ready, activate at your leisure."

"Still need to vacate the immediate area, will contact when ready."

"Right team two. Talk to you later." I nodded to the captain and he began the process of moving our little convoy.

Radio formalities hadn't really been developed yet, as they were still in the stage of being brand spanking new. I had no doubt that in a few years there's be some form of code developed, particularly once the military started using them for real. The people in charge of that sort of thing liked their protocols.

Within a few minutes the wheels started turning and I settled back for a bit to rest before the bit show. One or two soldiers were being left behind for the testing, along with one of the auroch wagons. If everything else went well, one of those poor beasts would be our first living test subject.

"Have to say, I didn't even know what was up this far north. Should be safe for everyone no matter what happens though," the captain said, trying to make a bit of small-talk.

"I don't know. There had to be something up here, and with how cold it gets when you go even a bit further north a frozen wasteland seems the right thing. That or a solid sea, something like that right?" I wasn't sure either, as nobody really came this far up north, so it wasn't mapped.

"How far you reckon it goes on? I mean, there's got to be something at the end of it, unless it just goes on forever." He had an almost spooked tone to his voice as he looked out a small window onto the tundra.

"It doesn't go on forever. The world is round, we even have the math for roughly how big it is." That much was true, during my tenure in school I'd had to take a few looks at maps, and while our area was known, the rest of the world was... vague.

"Really? I've never heard that. So do we know what's over on the far side?" He inquired, looking curious.

"Unless you went to a formal school or had much to do with sailing you wouldn't. As for what's over there, nobody knows. I imagine there's ocean at some point, but it's hard to say for sure, could be another continent, or anything. While the elves have mapped their continent pretty well, ours isn't done. If you go far enough east the maps available just sort of say 'there's more people here.' explorers have gone, but..."

"But?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Lot's don't return, and those that do talk of mountains nearly impossible to pass. Some have claimed to get past either through a few passes or sailing around, but they disagree a lot about what's there. Lot of them seem pretty unreliable too, so I don't know." I shrugged.

Much like medieval Europe our maps kind of sucked, particularly when you got far away. There was just a certain point on the map were you got stuff like 'Here be Monsters' or an indication for 'more stuff that way'; interesting, but I wasn't going exploring right now. All those were far beyond the city-states that were currently looking to be our next conquest, perhaps in a decade or two I might head that way.

After a bit we stopped. There were checks from the military folks before I was given the go-ahead to get back on the radio. We were about half a mile our, still within easy visual range, and I looked out the window as I spoke.

"Team one, we're in position, and you?" I said, using a radio was still a bit weird.

"All ready team two, start it on up."

I rummaged around in my things for a few moments. We'd added a remote turn on/off for this particular model, if only because we knew that we'd need to stand well back. It was more complex than it needed to be, with a few safeties to make sure it wasn't accidentally turned on. I watched, as slowly at first the lights on my end flicked on. Each indicating the checks to make sure everything was ready to go before activation.

After I got a good reading from the gate I looked up at Captain Omar. "You ready?"

"Girlie, I was ready to be done with this freezing wasteland a week ago."

I snorted in laughter before pressing the final rune. I pressed my eyes to the window as bit by bit the system to get the gate going turned on. All until the last piece fell into place and the whole thing lit up.