To Fly the Soaring Tides

The inexplicable flaming ball radiated heat like a furnace as it approached the crew. Cira could feel the sweat bead on her face and gave the brothers a look to see them shaking in fear.

“A-are you sure we can do it?” Lero asked as the unknown enemy floated toward them slowly like a dandelion on the wind.

“Not with that attitude,” Cira quipped back, “but you better hurry up.”

There were no artifacts in any of her bags of goodies that were perfect for dealing with flame sprites, but Cira did have artifacts for all the primary elements and then some—it was only natural. While she had never found a proper use for the Fog Blaster, it was the one artifact she regretted not bringing along this time.

In a pinch, she would try to fend off the sprite with her Water Wand. It was a simple wand which… shot water. Even if it worked on one, it certainly wouldn’t work on a group of sprites. The continuation of their journey was very much relying on her crew’s abilities.

Well, just in case, Cira used her quill to begin enchanting their little bubble of light in the abyss with a little conversion spell. It was extraordinarily inefficient, but there was plenty of darkness to go around. The only problem was it would take time to fill the area with water mana—it was a slow conversion and an imperfect space.

“Guys?!” Cira urged them along as their knuckles turned white around the hafts of their new water-attuned staves, “Do something! Just surround it with water!”

She almost pulled out her wand when they finally snapped back into reality and started casting. Their weapons each shined a rich blue before mana converged over the sprite. Steam hissed and they were nearly so startled as to interrupt the spell, but Cira shouted to keep going as it flickered.

“Tawny, blow it away.” The girl did as requested, and all the steam pushed further down the tunnel before it dispersed or disappeared into the shadows. This left a billowing ball of steam that slowly got smaller as the darkness reclaimed the space around them.

Cira kept a close eye on the first sprite, but it floated around with less purpose than your average salt nymph. The two brothers went at it while everyone else looked around nervously, waiting for another to strike. While the coast was clear and the aggressive sprite smoldered, Cira wrapped up the first stage of her enchantment and a handful of cerulean runes appeared around them in the space between the light and darkness, which was notably smaller than on the last floor.

“What is that?!” Jimbo reflexively pulled a revolver out of his coat and shot at one of the runes.

“Put that away, you idiot.” Luckily, Cira’s enchantment was not so tangible, owing to its spatial nature. “I’ve enchanted our little bubble to eventually, maybe, ward of these sprites. No need to be alarmed.”

“How do you enchant the air…? Can I do that?” Ike excitedly pulled his mithril needle out and Cira slapped it away.

“No, you can’t. Why did you even bring that?” He put it away and looked at the ground, crestfallen. “It’s an advanced technique, and it’s only so easy for me now because I have this here quill. I normally suck at it.”

Even now, it wasn’t working great. Much of the accumulated water mana, which built up as imperceptibly luminescent humidity, was leaving their bubble and drifting away. She would be getting a better result by holding the Water Wand out and just spritzing on the ground. This told her a few very important things, though.

One of which assuaged her very real worries of running out of air in a cave full of fireballs—there was a draft. Despite Tawny’s efforts to blow the steam away, the breeze still flowed past Cira’s face into the cave behind them. And soon, the steam fizzled out and the cave got dimmer again. The other sprite was noticeably further away by this point.

“It worked!” Lero high fived his brother.

“But it was very slow, tedious, and loud. How many times do you think you guys can do that?” They had a very limited stock of mana potions, which existed in Cira’s pocket. She had all intentions to teach them alchemy to brew their own after she picked those herbs near the village, but the Third Order really crunched their schedule.

“A… few more times. At least.” They both nervously nodded at each other.

“That won’t do… but let’s continue. Hopefully we won’t encounter another aggressive one.” Cira led the way, and they started walking again until it was dark enough to summon more Lamplights. She had another idea on how to deal with the sprites when the time came, so tried to work on the enchantments.

My precious moisture is escaping… If I create a barrier of wind, I can stop that, but then we may run out of air. Allowing airflow and continuously adjusting the barrier’s size as the darkness gets thicker would be a tedious mess without my aura. But air passes through shadows with no issue… Why wouldn’t I use shadows? Then I can simply make it impermeable to water—much easier than furling wind.

Cira often made barriers out of ambient light, so this should have been a matter of course, especially given the needle in her hand. This would even help keep the shadows from eventually crushing them, rather than just keeping them at bay. The enchantments would take time, so she started waving the quill around as they strolled ever deeper.

“Is it just me, or is this tomb larger than the last?” Cira asked as passing sprites illuminated the widened hallway and distant ceiling.

“As our people multiplied over the years,” There was a longing look in Kuja’s eyes as she gazed down the line of towering grave markers, “our tombs naturally grew in size. There is more room to expand as we travel down the mountain, anyway. You will see the last tomb to be more akin to a city beneath the earth.”

Cira pictured something like the Nimbus Stratum or even the former queen’s nest that became Uru. A true necropolis then. I wonder what manner of residents I will find there.

Shifting around the group to place her glyphs where they needed to be was awkward as they moved through the intermittently lit tunnel, but Cira was afforded a moment to draw a few tricky ones above her head when a curious sprite decided to stop for a snack.

“Try ice water this time.” Cira instructed as she continued painting mana. Down here in the cave, she hardly noticed the lack of aura, just gliding along with her runes and magic circles. Maybe I will move in with the goblins…

The steam hissed violently while the occasional chunk of ice whined before abruptly exploding. Rictor intercepted each one with a rock if it were aimed at the crew, but overall, the sprite didn’t seem to like it. Somehow, it was faster than the last. The brothers had to follow it around with their conjurations and if it took much longer, it would be upon them.

“Gil, try to hold it in place.” He wasn’t the most skilled fire mage, but Cira thought he could sway it to a degree.

“How?!” He barked in response.

“Just pretend it’s a torch or something. Even if it’s sentient, it’s still just a flame.” It should be a simple matter with his staff, “Manipulate it as you would any other.”

“Hmm…” He started concentrating as his staff blared. Sweat poured down his face and each passing second was putting more strain on him, but the sprite started slowing down, “Hyahhhhhh!”

Gil put his whole being into pushing it back, and the brothers finally caught up as the sprite retracted to the size of a melon.

“Just a little more!” Eros shouted.

“Come on!” his brother showed the same vigor and their staves’ light reflected the potency of their efforts for one final push. The sprite disappeared in a little puff of steam.

“Still slow…” Cira pondered, “But not as bad. The cold seemed to agitate it, so maybe we’ll table that one...”

The smaller sprites still flickered in the distance and with one last brushstroke, she moved everyone along again. The shadowy array was nearing completion, and now she just had to fill in the easy parts against the ground. Enchanting space successfully was a really satisfying task and Cira’s smile grew with each glyph that didn’t fade away upon completion. These ones were still mostly invisible against the black backdrop, but the crew had been watching her work and started messing with the active array.

“Crazy.” Jimbo put his hand through one of the blue runes, “They’re following us.”

“Wouldn’t be much good if they stayed behind.” Gil countered, trying and failing to poke one.

“Very true.” With a nod, Cira could only agree. “But it’s already starting to get warm again, isn’t it?”

The brothers turned pale, seeming a little unsteady on their feet so soon after their last mana dump. They looked forward warily, while the others readied their staves just to feel safer.

“What do we do?” Eros looked to Cira for answers.

“You two step back. We’ll try it without water this time.” For the sake of caution, Cira slowed down until a light seeped through the curtain of darkness. Then a few more paces and multiple sprites came into view of varying sizes. The brightest one was so big Cira’s hands wouldn’t even touch if she gave it a hug.

Cira wanted to give them a chance at peace, but the big one was hungry. Luckily, the others seemed aimless. Perhaps the perceived mana was too great a threat for the little guys.

“Tawny, can you create an airless void around the sprite?” The plan was a one-two punch.

“Uh… I think so?” Her staff lit up as she began.

“Now, someone superimpose a Lamplight over it. It has to be larger than the sprite. We will deprive it of its two sources of fuel.”

Subtly pushing himself in front of the other paladins, Marko cast his Lamplight and started moving it forward, “So, we’re just gonna snuff it out like a flame?”

“Precisely,” Cira nodded, “Though they are comprised primarily of fire mana, it is impossible for them to exist in a space in which fire cannot. Because they are made of mana, we also have to cut off their ability to feed on the darkness.”

“You said sentient, but… are these creatures lifeless like the slimes?” Kuja asked “I have seen a few dark ‘sprites’ over the years. We knew them as wisps, but I always thought they had their own souls…”

“They do.” It would do nobody any good to let this misunderstanding perpetuate, and the poor woman looked like she was doubting her eyes at this point. “While all true corporeal creatures possess a soul, not all souls originate from one and not all spirits are what you may typically consider ‘ghosts’. Some are born naturally of the aether, sprites being the weakest classification of which. They are also known as immature spirits, or even wisps.”

“Are you saying…” Tawny pondered briefly, “We’re basically killing ghost babies?”

The Lamplight blared on as the sprite in their clutches gradually dwindled.

“Not quite… but you’re not entirely wrong.” Cira thought the comparison was fair if you didn’t think less of them for not having been born with a physical body. “Why do you think I’m trying to ward them off?”

The once large sprite could now fit in Cira’s palm and when she blinked, it was gone. A somber silence fell over the crew for a moment until they heard a trickling sound. Everyone looked over and saw Jimbo pouring liquor from his flask onto the ground.

“Now we’re square. I say we hurry the hell outta here.” With a shrug and a sip, he moved the group forward. The smaller sprites had already found their way to the sides of the tomb and some were far enough to have disappeared.

“I mean, they’re probably like bugs anyway, right?” Rictor tried to bring the mood back around, “I would have felt bad killing a bunch of goblins because they got little hands and seem kind of smart, but these guys are just balls of mana that float around.”

“The last human baby I met was pretty dumb.” Jimbo countered, “Who knows what the adults are like. In fact, if I met a baby with this much mana that wanted to eat me, I’d smother it too. It’s fair game.”

“True, true…” Oliver nodded in agreement, “Lady Cira, what are the adults like?”

“Ahhh,” I was hoping not to bring this up, “Well, sprites don’t age, so adult isn’t the right term. Once they collect enough mana, they evolve into a greater lifeform. Flame sprites, for example, may become a giant beast made of condensed flames known as a salamander. Usually in the form of a lizard or something similar, hence the name. These mature spirits possess less intelligence than most, but it still far surpasses most humans.”

“Oh…” Rictor hung his head, and the others grew silent again, “Well now I feel kind of bad.”

“Don’t. Any sprite nearing maturity is a potential calamity. It’s convenient that they come to me if you think about it.”

“Hold on a minute.” Gil cut in with a serious edge to his voice, “What if there’s one of those salamanders down here?”

“Not possible. You would know. A salamander could turn the Lost Cloud into lava if it felt like it or maybe even inadvertantly. There’s no way one could be here unnoticed.” Cira shook her head vehemently, “Although it would explain the inexplicable presence of flame sprites… and the powerful draft from below… and—wait, Mac, you son of a bitch!”

“What?!” The crew covered their ears and shrunk down as the grumpy voice entered everyone’s minds.

“Is that soul you promised me a damned salamander?!”

“Of course not, you idiot. How could there possibly be a matured spirit here? We would be standing in a volcano. Has your brain begun to rot away with your soul?” He sounded like he just woke up, “You have no idea how thick the mana is down there, and it is very difficult to see through, so if you have no more stupid questions, may I please rest?”

It sounded like an excuse to sleep and not look really far away with his spider powers, but Cira was too busy glowering to split hairs. Of course I knew that, dammit… “Well, what is it then?” Cira finally mustered the courage to ask.

“…” but Mac had fallen asleep.

“What an asshole.” Shores gave her a pat on the shoulder.

“Well, we won’t have to deal with any salamanders.” The darkness was starting to get monotonous and shrunk their bastion of light in even further as they progressed through the floor. The occasional smaller sprite would pass, but a while went by without encountering anything aggressive. This whole time Cira had been shuffling around the group and finishing up her barrier until she finally got the first layer complete.

Black glyphs shone with an unsettling radiance and formed lines between key points around the crew in a semi-sphere ending at the ground, like hazy silhouettes in the Lamplight. Their visibility was instantly cut down as the world around them got darker, but it was a price they would have to pay for now.

“I was wondering what you were doing…” Tawny looked around, “Why make it darker though?”

“It was necessary. See?” Cira pointed out the twinkling blue coalescing around the inside of the barrier, “It’s already holding in my moisture, and I have a feeling we’re going to need it to keep the shadows out below.”

“We have almost reached the next staircase,” Kuja popped in with an update, “But I sense a great deal of mana ahead. We may not be able to leave this floor without a fight.”

“Bummer. I was just thinking this was too easy.” Cira doubled down on the warding runes while they walked toward the impending heat. Sprites were an opponent she couldn’t punch to death—well, she wasn’t equipped to.