Between the Spaces: Portal-Slayer
The young firre eladrin was worried. He should have been back by now. After a few minutes of pacing, she made up her mind. If the archon wouldn’t return to her, she should go find him.
‘Samaerna, where ya headed?’ a coure asked, flitting about her head as she gathered her things.
‘The inner planes,’ she replied much more nonchalantly than she actually felt. The coure landed on her backpack, crossing his arms and glaring up at her.
‘Rolec wanted you to stay here. You know it’s not safe to go that far from Arborea.’
'He should have been back days ago. What if something happened to him?’ She made shooing motions at the little eladrin, but he refused to move.
‘If you’re going, I’m gonna keep an eye on you. I can’t be losing my favourite cousin because she forgets the belief-art doesn’t work away from the Wheel.’ The coure got off of her things, then, and let her finish packing.
‘Thanks, Avex. I appreciate the help.’
It took longer than she had thought to find a portal to the inner planes. Eventually she found passage with a Rrakkma team, heading to Earth to assault a den of illithids. They insisted on sending the two eladrin away before they moved towards their objective, though.
‘It’s so closed in here. I don’t think Rolec would be somewhere he couldn’t use his wings,’ Samaerna said, musing out loud as much as she was talking to her tiny companion. ‘What about Fire? That has an open sky, doesn’t it?’
‘Whoa, hey, no way!’ Avex waved his arms so vigorously that he almost knocked himself out of the air. ‘You might be immune to the flames, kid, but me an’ Rolec would go up faster’n a drunk bralani. Why don’t we try Water instead?’
‘Going somewhere?’ a slow, ponderous voice asked from the tunnel wall next to them. ‘Won’t get far without someone who knows where it is you’re headed.’
‘Yes! We’re looking to get to Water. Without passing through Ooze, if possible. I’d never get all that filth off my wings,’ Avex said.
A face appeared in the wall. ‘I’m a bit hungry. If you don’t mind, a meal would jog my memory on a shortcut to Water.’
Avex nudged Samaerna’s arm. ‘Hey, Sam, what ya got for this guy?’
Samaerna looked through her bag, pulling out a number of objects before finding an Elysian stone that the elemental thought looked absolutely delicious. ‘This way, then,’ it said, and emerged fully from the wall to grind its way down the passage.
A few hours’ travel brought them into a tunnel with ankle-deep standing water. ‘Here you go. Enjoy your stay,’ the elemental said, and disappeared into the surrounding stone.
‘Oh, hey, eat this,’ Avex said, handing Samaerna a small berry before eating one of his own.
Samaerna eyed the fruit curiously. ‘What is it?’
‘Air fruit. We use it to get around on Thalasia. Should work here, too.’
After consuming the fruit, Samaerna waded further into the pool. When she was waist-deep in the water, a strange tugging sensation enveloped her, starting at her feet and moving slowly up her legs. Avex brushed off her concerned look. ‘It’s an elemental vortex. Those are naturally different than a portal. Go on, I want to get onto Water as well, you know.’
It felt, at first, like she was drowning. She was completely surrounded by water. No, Water. The very essence of liquid enveloped her, and flowed through her. After a few moments, she realised that she was breathing the water. She wasn’t in any danger. Still, it felt so real, so heavy. She wasn’t accustomed to dealing with actual, physical reality in its purest form.
A pair of celestials suddenly popping into the plane was apparently something of interest, as Samaerna could feel the presence of a number of creatures around her. She couldn’t see them, but she could feel them in the ever-present water. It must have been more elementals. Although she could breathe, she found that the fruit didn’t allow her to speak underwater with any effectiveness, so she gestured and pointed vaguely, making indications of a winged person and some kind of direction. She got from the elementals a guide, which brought her to the City of Glass - a haven on Water for air-breathers. She never really realised how much she appreciated not being completely submersed. Avex was shaking his wings and complaining about how long it would take them to dry, and he wouldn’t be able to fly for at least a day, and could he ride on Sam’s shoulder so as not to slow them down?
Once here, she was able to get down to business: finding Rolec. Archons were somewhat rare visitors to the City as of late, so at Samaerna’s detailed description of him, she was quickly able to discern his location. He was last seen heading through the local portal to Ice.