While I'd heard about the Sahevin attack and the unexpected competition between the Shapers, most of my attention had been dedicated to working out our route with Bevel.

Originally, we'd been planning to stay away from the coast, but near the end of our planning session Arizar had shown up, suggesting that we make a few surgical strikes at the Sahevin, since we were all experienced combat mages.

I'd tried to refute the point, since I wasn't that much of a combat mage, using Nexxa as my example.

"Your sister isn't a mere combat mage," Arizar said, shaking her head. "Your sister is a force that is incomparable. Even my father couldn't match her destructive capacity. If the Sahevin weren't so resilient to Storm effects, she'd be able to solve our Sahevin problem in an afternoon."

"Well, so, what are we going to do then? My main attack spells are all Storm based."

"Not true. Your Earth Star is an excellent tool."

"Not sure it'll be that useful. We don't want to bring the cliffs down on them. That'd just make it easier for them to climb. And they'd just be able to swim over anything I destroyed underwater."

"Well, it will need some modifications, of course. The same resonating sequence that makes it so effective at disrupting crystallized structures can be modified to create a cascading buildup within the water," she said, leaning closer as she started sketching changes to the spell. "Combined with shifting it to a water affinity, if I were to put it in fisherman's terms, you'll be able to use it as a water explosion. One that will only work near the surface, unfortunately, given the nature of the underlying spell relying on drastically different material densities. That said, it should have devastating effects on anything caught beneath said surface."

"Huh," I said, noting down her proposed changes. There were a few other minor things I'd want to adjust, but the idea was sound enough.

After spending an hour scribing the variant, which I'd decided to tentatively name Depth Charge, we were ready to head out.

We were taking our gliders. To my surprise, Arizar had one of her own. One she'd built herself.

"They're a rather wondrous invention. So much more mana efficient than relying on our own impulse, and they require less attention. I will admit, I got rather carried away. This is my fourth iteration, and I have several others I wish to build," Arizar admitted with a light blush, quickly sliding her arms through the padded loops she'd chosen to use instead of straps.

I couldn't help but ask about those, choosing not to press her on her embarrassment, much as I was tempted to.

"Well, it's a useful device for assisting with flight, but I'd rather not have to cut myself free every time I need to abandon it for combat," Arizar replied, blush fading as she explained how a quick enchantment secured them in place.

"Huh. Yeah, good point," I said before making one more stop to grab padding and leather. We'd use the straps for now, but I fully intended to make similar adjustments for Bevel's and my own gliders later, with Arizar's help.

Our first stop was less of a stop and more of a wide sweep around the Sahevin camp atop the Golden Halls. The awakened Sahevin started taking pot shots the moment we appeared, proving ineffective but annoyingly attentive. Still, as long as they didn't die to one of our spells then get respawned, their spells were weak and lacked any of the sophistication or aiming assist we were capable of.

Respawning changed the rules. If a Sahevin died from one of our advanced spells, then got respawned, they kept their knowledge of the spell that had killed them. While this didn't seem to apply to Bevel's use of her wind magic, I wasn't planning to send my daughter to slaughter thousands of Sahevin on her own, no matter how good she was at it.

All it would take would be one little mistake and she'd be surrounded by far too many fish trying to rip her throat out.

Absorption of spells was why we'd decided to use bombs instead of maintaining our offensive with spells. Especially since they didn't raise their barriers unless we used magic first.

Those barriers were sturdy too. Strong enough to withstand a full powered Lightning Bolt. They didn't seem to require a lot of understanding, not the way the Sahevin used them. Just weave together a bunch of mana in a rough shield and block.

Pure brute force mana.

It was honestly annoying how much mana the Sahevin had to throw around. They were acting like they had as much mana as I'd had during the Howling season.

No one had figured out where they were getting all that mana, though we had a half-dozen theories.

One of our objectives for the day was to hopefully draw out an answer.

And if not… well, my new Depth Charge spell shouldn't give them any new tools, since it lacked an aim component and was specifically modified to only be useful when firing from air into salt water.

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We flew lower than I usually would, the top of the cliffs fifty or so feet above us as we skimmed over the waves. As we flew, whenever one of us spotted a gathering of Sahevin beneath the waves, I'd fly over and drop a couple Depth Charges on them.

It worked really well in a cone directly on the other side of wherever I aimed it. The aiming part was a lot harder than I'd expected, despite my enhanced Pattern Recognition helping with the distortion effect of the water.

The constant shifting of the wind and waves meant that each shot was working with an entirely new set of variables, and even the water itself didn't distort things beneath it accurately. That didn't matter much if they were grouped up like they preferred.

After an hour, they started to wisen up, splitting apart and scattering.

Still, in that time, I must've reduced over a thousand of them to sludge. Neither Arizar nor Bevel had been idle either. While Arizar had used the same spell I had - though she'd called it Torrent Star - Bevel had modified her big ball of boom.

The new version used an air wedge to get the ball deep underwater. Then the spell that had previously compressed the air simply acted as a barrier, though with gaps that created spears of air.

Her first few attempts with it didn't kill a single Sahevin Seeker. But she improved her design with every cast. By the time we left she'd gotten it to the point that she could kill a tightly packed group.

Despite the thousands of Sahevin we'd killed, the real victory was the dozens of Spawners we'd destroyed. Unlike the Sahevin themselves, the tentacled fleshcrafters that formed their backbone couldn't be so simply restored. Each one had to make the journey from their nests the slow way.

Unfortunately, in addition to scattering, the remaining Spawners were now under the protection of the awakened.

I doubted we'd have such an easy time slaughtering them en masse again.

"That was fraying awesome," Bevel crowed as we soared further out over the ocean, the cliffs of Cape Aeternia barely visible behind us as we moved closer to the Everstorm.

"It was a rather invigorating way to start the day, wasn't it?" Arizar said, her too-pleasant laugh carrying easily on the wind. "Did I note you making adjustments to your spell near the end, Percival?"

"You did," I said, my attention split between the conversation and the ocean below as we ascended to a safer height. No point getting knocked out of the air by one of the many projectiles the Sahevin were still throwing at us. Their aim was so bad, I was certain that the transition from water to air was actually helping them.

"I wasn't aware the spell had adjustable parameters. Did I misread part of it?"

Certain we were far enough away that my Aegis would absorb any errant shot, I looked up, thinking about her question. "There are dozens of inputs. They're not adjustable directly, but we can still control the mana-flow into each. Which is pretty important."

"Ah, of course. I'm used to overcharging spells, but I haven't attempted to adjust other factors during combat before," Arizar said, nodding.

"Papa's smart like that," Bevel said, practically glowing as she moved into the lead, letting Arizar and I fall into her wake.

"Nexxa showed me how to do it," I said, shaking my head. "All I did was copy her. And practice with it, obviously."

"Putting in the practice is a vital part of being a true mage," Arizar said, her voice warm. "It is a good sign for both your progress, that you both constantly strive to improve your spells."

"Thanks," I grumbled out, while Bevel's own expression of gratitude was much more effusive.

Our conversation continued for a while, discussing what we might change with our spells, and if there might be a way to exploit the Sahevin's tendency to barrier up so heavily.

The entire time, we were scanning the ocean floor with a second Order spell Arizar had provided me, called Sound the Depths. It sent out waves of water mana that worked somewhat similar to how sonar would. The spell helped interpret the results with an overlay that displayed the shape of things beneath the waves.

There were entire cities of Sahevin down there. The number they'd sent to our territory were barely a drop in the bucket.

Most of those that were visible were fighting each other. Or running from those who would hunt them.

There were occasional pockets of order, and without exception, those would include several awakened merman Sahevin.

Despite the valuable intel we were collecting, the Sahevin weren't the main reason we'd come out this way. That honor lay on the horizon ahead where the Everstorm loomed.

Bevel wanted to fly into the outer edge.

While I'd been - I believe justifiably - concerned with such an action, Arizar had reassured me, telling me that the edge of the Everstorm was mostly safe this soon after the Howling season.

I'd taken exception to the word mostly, but… well, it wasn't like I could've stopped Bevel from sneaking out to visit on her own.

Better she make the attempt while she had Arizar and I there.

The horizon was encompassed by the Everstorm, stretching as far as the eye could see. Even when looking up, the Everstorm didn't seem to have an end.

"Ever wonder what might be inside?" I asked even as I flipped the glider on its back so I could better trace the upper part of the storm.

"I believe every child in Spellford spent some time wondering what sort of secret kingdom might lay at the heart of the Everstorm. I was hardly immune to such pondering," Arizar replied, flipping her glider in the same manner. "My personal favorite was a kingdom of water horses with spiral horns atop their heads. It is a peaceful place, where friendship itself is magical."

Less than a second later, Bevel also flipped her glider, calling from where she was flying ahead of us. "Hasn't a Dragon-souled checked?"

"I'm certain they have. Yet whatever they found, they never shared. Or they did, and the answer was so boring that no one took them seriously."

"Sometimes the boring answer is the right one," I noted, thinking of an opinion piece in an issue of one of the science magazines I'd kept in the office. It had mentioned how often people spread misinformation based on how interesting it was. They'd claimed that unless it related to humans, the boring answer was usually the right one.

They'd made a point to mention repeatedly that the exception was people. There, they'd said that the more outlandish the explanation, the more likely it was to be true.

Had forgotten I'd ever read that article, but I found more and more thoughts like that returning to me with my improved memory.

Arizar was in the middle of opening her mouth to respond when a beam of light shot up right in the middle of us, emerging from within the Everstorm.

"Well, it seems the Sahevin have taken exception to our presence," Arizar said calmly.

Too calmly, in my opinion. Whatever the source, that beam had been strong enough to set my Aegis alight with a miss.

Still, she was right.

The Sahevin knew we were there. And they weren't happy about it.

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