It had taken two weeks of wheedling, purchasing, and research, but at last the three friends were standing around the portal, each of them heavily laden with supplies and other materials.<\/p>\n
Canere, for his part, had spent those two weeks discovering everything he could about Keleborn\u2019s Arcanum<\/em> and Adweyed. Which, in the end, wasn\u2019t much. Aside from being able to confirm that the skycity had generally been one of the most northerly. And yet one of the warmest \u2013 apparently the mages who had originally carved Adweyed from living rock had magically sealed the climate, or otherwise heated it, so that life upon the floating citadel was more akin to the balmy tropics of the far south than the more normal whipping winds of Hania.<\/p>\n His more gallant and dashing friend had spent some of the time helping him, some of the time practicing his swordsmanship with Ira\u2026 and the rest of it attempting to woo the few other girls around their age in Yn Dref. Yaden knew where his priorities lay, although he had turned up to the day of leave remarkably well organized for someone who had supposedly spent the night before chasing around after a particular blonde.<\/p>\n As for Ira, well, she had done exactly what she said she would, convincing Vendol to lend her the supplies necessary for such a trip. They were less than she personally would have brought, but, had she had unlimited time and resources to prepare, there might still be something missing that she considered a nice addition. And, for all that both Vendol and the arcanists had been convinced by Canere\u2019s impassioned arguments and logical conclusions, Yn Dref simply did not have much in the way of resources to spare.<\/p>\n But it had enough, and now a faint hope that one day, things might be better than they were before.<\/p>\n Of course, said faint hope rested on Canere and Yaden, who were jostling one another like little boys as Ira watched.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to laugh when you can\u2019t handle the step to the ground! You\u2019ve never been able to resist, so what makes you think you can now?\u201d<\/p>\n Canere glared at his friend. \u201cGo first then, and stand your ground at the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd let you unburden yourself at me? Not a chance. These leathers are fine enough without your assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n The young arcanist shook his head, then gave Yaden a shove towards the portal. Which led to a mock shoving match, the two of them somehow managing to strip away all the dignity of the moment.<\/p>\n Finally, Ira had had enough. \u201cCanere, Yaden. We need to go if we want to get in a good day\u2019s hike.\u201d For it was the pre-dawn hour, that moment when the light glimmered behind the mountains, but the sun had not yet risen to spill golden warmth across the land.<\/p>\n It was remarkable how quickly the two men settled down, sombre expressions affixing themselves where only seconds before there had been smiles and glee. And with the seriousness came a nervous glimmer in each of their eyes. For the first time, they were to leave Yn Dref, leave the comfortable squalor of the crumbling city and step out into the great wide world. The thoughts of what that might entail rested ill at ease in their stomachs.<\/p>\n Acknowledging their seriousness but not their nerves, Ira threw a perfect salute to the guards of the portal. It was time the explorers were gone.<\/p>\n Looking only straight ahead, the tall and muscular guardian of Yn Dref strode through the portal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It had taken two weeks of wheedling, purchasing, and research, but at last the three friends were standing around the portal, each of them heavily laden with supplies and other materials. Canere, for his part, had spent those two weeks discovering everything he could about Keleborn\u2019s Arcanum and Adweyed. Which, in the end, wasn\u2019t much. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[60,4],"tags":[19,62],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-bB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":404,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=404","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":0},"title":"Breaking an Empire #12","date":"December 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The twelfth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. Two days of march passed, and on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=45","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":1},"title":"Breaking an Empire, Part #7","date":"February 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A little bit lighter than the previous entries, this one clocks in at about 1500 words total. I'm quite fond of this story now, and of the characters in it. It's the first time I've written a story that focused on more than just one or two companions, and its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":423,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=423","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":2},"title":"Cages of Light","date":"January 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This story takes place at the same time as the events in Tarranau,in the city of Bhreac Veryan. Canlynedig panted as he ran through the streets of Bhreac Veryan, his eyes glancing behind him. He could hear the shouts as the Brawdoliaeth chan Danio charged after him, knocking aside pedestrians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":448,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=448","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":3},"title":"Breaking an Empire #20","date":"February 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The twentieth installment of a 30k word short story set in The Four Part Land. It takes place 400 years in the past from the time of Tarranau and Chloddio, and details the collapse of Hymerodraeth Heula, the Empire of the Sun. Glanhaol Fflamboethi made its way southward in three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":234,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=234","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":4},"title":"Writer's Carnival","date":"August 25, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome all to the Writer's Carnival. We've got eight stories for you to read today, excellent pieces of one and all. I'd like to thank all of the authors who participated, and made this such a success. I'd especially like to mention John Wiswell, and send my best wishes to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=37","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":5},"title":"Breaking an Empire, Part #3","date":"January 24, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the next in the series, another 1400 words in the story. This writing has reached the begin of the meat of the story, the part that I really want to tell, and the part that ties back into what is happening in the story of Tarranau, all those\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Four Part Land"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}