They pressed on. The lightning strikes grew closer and more violent, and Vir found himself sticking close to Cirayus as bolts touched off nearby, deafening them. Shan howled in misery.
“This is lunacy,” Vir said. “One strike and we’re dead.”
“This is Saunak, lad,” Cirayus shouted back, eyes glued to the black clouds.
As if on cue, the thaumaturge turned and raised his arms theatrically.
“We’ve arrived!” he said. “Welcome to my home!”
Vir’s panic morphed into full-blown terror. “That’s your home?”
60PRAGYA SARANA
Saunak’s home was nothing as simple as a tent or a hut. Nor even was it a cavern dug into the mountainside.
No, it was a glowing disk. One that pulled all the lightning from the area. A disk that encircled the top of an Imperium spire like a crown, not unlike the ones Vir had seen at Mahādi. Unlike those, however, the cylindrical black tower almost looked alive, covered with glowing lights of various hues.
“There is but one safe route through the lightning,” Saunak shouted over the cracks of deafening thunder. His Automaton had lowered him to the ground, and he now walked beside them. “Follow closely, or you may perish. You have been warned!”
Vir shielded his eyes. The lightning flashes were so close and so frequent that his ears rang and his hair stood on end. The residual heat hit him in the face like a Fireball spell.
For all his gains, there was little he could do against a lightning strike, other than to stick close to Saunak’s Automatons and shore up his Prana Armor. Luckily, they’d slowed to a crawl to allow Saunak to keep pace—it seemed not even he dared to ride atop his machine’s shoulders in this storm. Unluckily, that also meant a slow slog through the lightning field.
Shan sidled up to Vir, eyeing the storm warily as the lightning’s intensity and frequency increased. Strikes touched down mere paces away, surrounding them in a rain of death. Several struck Saunak’s Automatons, though they hardly seemed to notice, dissipating the prana and energy into the ground below.
They were halfway through when the situation went from bad to worse. Lightning began arcing from nearby rocks.
Vir’s skin tingled and Shan shivered. They each Blinked away right as a bolt struck where they’d been, lancing at the Automaton’s leg.
“Enough of this madness!” Cirayus roared. “I’ll not suffer your suicidal antics. We’re leaving.”
“Irrational!” Saunak said calmly. “I haven’t even reset your Artifact yet! You’d be better served threatening me with bodily harm!”
“If such threats would work on you, I would already have!” Cirayus roared back.
“Saunak!” Vir shouted over the thunder. “Is there another way through? Can you do anything about this lightning?”
Saunak rubbed his chin, frowning. He sighed. “Very well.”
The demon brought out another tablet from his white coat, this one black. His fingers played over it, and a pulsating surge of Ash prana shot out, bound for the tower.
The glowing green ring winked out, and the lightning halted immediately. The dark storm clouds burned away in moments, leaving a still, lifeless landscape.
Vir, Cirayus, and Shan all stared.
“What?” Saunak asked. “You’re the first guests I’ve had in a century! Can’t you allow an old demon some theatrics?”
Yep… He’s definitely insane.
The rest of the journey proceeded without drama or mortal peril, and soon the group arrived at the base of the tower. Saunak’s spire sat on a rock island surrounded by a circular chasm on all sides, with four great bridges connecting it.
It’s Imperium, Vir thought. The architecture bore a remarkable similarity to the spires he’d seen at Mahādi, though this building felt rougher. More ancient. As if it hailed from an older era of Imperium advancement.
Vir followed Saunak over the bridge, which was wide enough for both massive Automatons to walk side by side.
Like the roads at Mahādi, the bridge was pristine, and with Prana Vision, Vir found countless preservation inscriptions running over it.
Peering over the Imperium metal guardrail, Vir found a dizzying drop below. Yet what lay at the bottom wasn’t an abyss of black as he’d expected, but magma. Deep and glowing red. Threatening to consume whatever pitiful soul fell in.
The green ring above the spire blazed into existence once again, and lightning started ravaging the ground around the spire. Thankfully, the bridges were excluded from its zone of destruction.
“Still don’t have a clue what the Imperium intended with this weather controller ring, but it does make an awfully effective defense against Ash Beasts, let me tell you,” Saunak said, cackling, marveling at the ring far above.
It was too bright to view directly, so the thaumaturge wore the pair of dark goggles he’d kept draped around his neck.
So that’s what they were for? He brought them along just for this?
The demon spun a full circle on his heels before waltzing over the bridge with a skip in his step.
Cirayus hung back and placed a hand on Vir’s shoulder.
“Do you see, now? He’s not right in the head,” Cirayus said, leaning in close to Vir’s ear. “Saunak’s sanity left him a long time ago. We cannot trust him. We’ll get him to fix the Artifact, and then we’ll be on our way. Understood?”
Vir nodded. There was so much he wanted to learn from Saunak about Imperium creations… But Cirayus had a point. The risks were outweighing the benefits.
“Don’t tell him anything. Don’t even let him suspect who you are.”
“I’ll be careful,” Vir promised.
They followed Saunak across the bridge into a cathedral-like entrance that stood a hundred paces high, and easily sixty wide. Metal catwalks ran along the sides of the great room, suspended fifty paces in the air. They resembled piers, except instead of ships, they were clearly designed to berth something else.
Saunak’s Automaton walked over to the railing and settled against the wall. The glowing blue eyes dimmed to nothingness, and the gargantuan machine stilled.
Its cousin did the same, taking a position opposite it, like stone sentinels that guarded the entrance to Saunak’s home.
They would make for effective guards, Vir thought.
“Welcome to Pragya Sarana, my sanctuary in this stormy realm,” Saunak declared, his arms outstretched. “Come in, come in! Make yourselves at home.”
Saunak strode up to a door at the end of the Automaton garage.
“It’s quite comfortable, I promise,” he said. “You’ll find nothing but the best amenities here.”
Like the ones at Mahādi, the door dematerialized, vanishing without a trace to leave behind an archway tall enough to accommodate Cirayus.
Vir paid careful attention to Cirayus, hoping for a reaction. While he’d seen these doors before, he was nearly sure it was Cirayus’ first time.
To his chagrin, the giant’s eyes merely widened slightly, though the slight hesitation in his stride told Vir it wasn’t that Cirayus wasn’t impressed; he was simply very good at masking his emotions.
The door opened to a great hall with a ceiling that soared twenty paces high. Though they were now within the spire’s thick trunk, light trickled in through blue-colored stained-glass windows that ran up the sides of the wall.
They’re gorgeous, Vir thought in awe.
As usual for an Imperium creation, prana patterns swirled along the ornate etching in the glass, augmenting its beauty. At least, Vir assumed it only resembled glass—the panels may very well have been made of Imperium metal.