Chapter 43: Isekai Life & Homecoming

I was standing in the window of my room, sipping a cup of tea provided by Dara, watching the thirty or so Sentinels getting escorted out of the palace gates by a relative handful of Ravenwatch. Despite their politics, the Sentinels were at least leaving obediently. Some appeared confused, others were yelling angrily, and I silently reminded myself that it’s entirely possible that some of the Sentinels were decent people, just as it was possible that some of the Ravenwatch were Storm Elves. Just removing the Sentinels from the palace was a useful shorthand, given how thick they seemed to be with characters like High Commander Sundamar and High Priest Travaran, but it did not mean we were out of danger.

The previous day, after our big meeting where I outlined our plan, Siora, Dara and Lewel returned from the kitchen with a big meal of roasted nuts, poached fruit, salad, and cheeses. With the abundance of vegetarian food, but not meat, I had started to worry about the level of protein my human companions and I were getting, so I made everyone pool and share the beef jerky and salted goat from their trail rations. It made for an odd contrast, and I wasn’t even certain that my “Heaven” would keep track of these kinds of nutritional details, but better safe than sorry.

After that, Siora shooed off Lewel and Dara so we went over some of the details of the plan, ironing things out. One of the things I wound up was a bit of a shopping list for everyone, to pick up some things that we would all need in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately, Calliope wasn’t able to give me a more proper goodbye. We both felt a little weird about having sex the very night after I negotiated an engagement with someone else. After what happened with Yua, I wonder if things would be different if Kythaela was in the immediate picture. Speaking of Yua, the newly-released Haseth was able to task a handful of Ravenwatch to guard our rooms instead of the hostile Sentinels we had the night previous, and I guess she just decided to keep to her own room rather than risk being seen. If she was even interested in anything like that.

And so, I was woken up nice and early by Dara, providing me with a light breakfast and some tea while I packed up and prepared to take my first ever open-air flight in either lifetime.

I turned back to my chest of stuff. I figured it way better to pack lightly, taking only clothes, spell book, spell components, and my darts. I had already handed my gems, potions and other valuables to Calliope for same keeping, so it was pretty simple to get ready to go.

There was a knock at the door, so I called out, “Come in, please.”

It was Dara again. She offered me a quick curtsy, before informing me, “Sir Seran is waiting for you without, Prince Theodore.”

“Ah, thanks,” I said, finishing my packing and tightly fastening down the flap of my backpack. The last thing I wanted was for everything spill out somewhere over the Lakelands.

When I finally stepped out into the hallway, Seran, the youngish elf-knight who I had last seen flying off with Calliope’s body, was waiting outside with Raszil. He offered me a bow, which is still something I was having trouble getting used to. It was one thing for Bekkar to do it constantly when were alone, the man had that obsequious attitude, but an elven knight, armed and armoured, was a different story.

“We are prepared to depart at your command, Prince Theodore,” he said, adding, “I hope you found Lady Calliope in satisfactory condition upon your arrival?”

“Well, not right away, but yes, thank you,” I replied, realizing just then that I never ad a chance to thank the elf-knight for taking Calliope away to be raised. I bowed slightly in return. “I am in your debt, Sir Seran.”

“Think nothing of it,” Seran said, rising, “You returned to us our Princess, restored the honour of the Ravenwatch, and rescued a half-dozen of my companions. There is debt to be had, Prince Theodore.”

“Thank you, all the same,” I replied, then looked over at Raszil, “All set?”

Razsil unhappily shook his backpack, slung over one shoulder, as confirmation. “You still haven’t told me why I need to go,” he complained, “I left my homeland because I didn’t have patience for fanciful things like flying about on griffonback.”

“Well, part of it is because I have need of your skills,” I told him as we began to follow Seran through the halls of the palace.

“And the other parts?” Raszil asked irritably.

“Punishing you for hiding information from me, and shocking everyone in the throne room yesterday,” I replied.

The gnomish cleric sighed loudly. “No good deed goes unpunished.”

“Hey, it might end up being a good time, you could enjoy it,” I replied to that, “You don’t know, just give it a try.”

He muttered under his breath while Seran lead us out a door to the gardens behind the palace. I expected them to be breathtaking, a wonder made by the confluence of nature and magic over a multi-century lifespan ... but it was basically just more of the same. Not that the Sea of Willows wasn’t impressive, but I though it would be different. Oh well.

What did turn out to be impressive was the griffon stables. It was entirely open air, except for some kind of skin or canvas pulled over the stalls to keep off rain. A full two dozen of the massive creatures lounged about, some getting grooming was elven attendants, others gnawing on bones or watching a pair of ... cubs? Griflets? Young griffons wrestling each other. Even the babies were the size of full size hunting dogs. I didn’t even want to think about what they could do to me, despite being cute.

Barador and two other griffons were set aside from the others, waiting passively as their huge saddlebags were loaded, and two other members of the Ravenwatch were on hand to pilot them. Seran introduced them as Sir Mias and Sir Rowes, although as far as I could tell, they were short, compact women, identical in every way but the face, that for a moment I thought Dog might be recycling NPCs on me like a video game. But then it occurred to me, the best pilots for the griffons must share fairly similar builds.

“So, where are we headed, Prince Theodore?” Seran asked, as he did one last preflight check of all the various straps and mechanisms holding the complex griffon saddle in place on Barador.

“I’d prefer to wait until we’re in the air, if that’s alright, Sir Seran,” I offered, trying to be as polite as possible.

Seran for his part, nodded. “It is not my place to press, Prince Theodore, especially considering your betrothal to my lady. Alright, we’ll reorient and navigate in the air.”

Seran then instructed Raszil and I on the finer points of flying by griffon. There was a cunning series of straps and brackets designed to hold your leg in a completely fixed position while flying, which allowed you to relax your legs and still remain upright, unlike horse riding where you had to grip with your thighs. “Better to break a leg than to fall,” Seran explained, “Unlike on a horse where it’s better to be able to escape the saddle and leap free.” Apparently as passengers, our job would consist mainly of not panicking, and trying to relax enough that we didn’t have legs cramps, despite our legs being held tightly.

It was a reminder that I would be flying without a parachute ... but, at least I had the benefit of Featherfall. I realized, sudden, that Raszil had neither benefit of experience nor a safety net. Maybe he was right to be angry with me over forcing him into this.

Once the safety lecture was over, it was time to depart. With the help of a stool, I gingerly mounted Barador, the big griffon looking over his shoulder to stare at me disdainfully. I gave him what I hoped was a confident smile before remembering that some animals see smiling as a threat. Schooling my face to be expressionless, I waited patiently while Seran and Sir Mias strapped my legs down tight. It was difficult to try and keep my cool, with the prospect of open-air flying ahead while my legs were bound so tightly, but I don’t think I was too nervous.

Soon enough, Seran, too, was mounted in place, and guiding Barador to the open clearing in the garden that served as a launch pad. My stomach twisted as the huge beast got up to speed, massive wings trying to catch the air as he charged forward. For a moment I wondered if we’d ever get up to speed- crazily I wondered if I was too heavy, despite Haseth being bigger and more heavily armed than I was, a bout of illogical driven by my anxiety. Finally, though, Barador found his wind, bearing us up into the sky with great, powerful strokes of his wings.

Up we went, the ground below tilting drunkenly and shrinking as the griffon fought his way up into the sky. We cleared the trees, and I had the sinking feel that we were going to plummet when, finally, the winds that blew free over the canopy caught Barador’s wings, and he was able to stretch out and glide, taking a moment’s rest before beating his wings for alititude one again. But now that we were free and up in the air, the griffon’s previous ungainly scrambling for altitude gave way to a graceful glide, circling around the launch pad.

We circled the palace grounds in ever-widening circles, as the other two griffon riders, first one and then the other, climbed up into the sky with us. I couldn’t tell which was which, except that one of the tiny, toylike griffons in the distance had two figures n it’s back instead of one. With nothing else but the occasional bird in the sky, it was easy to keep track of where each other was, so formation flying was completely unnecessary, the other two Ravenwatch knights could follow us from miles away if they had to.