Chapter 205. The Ravine. Part 1. The Fall.
Zhangjiajie District. Hunan Province.
High on a wide elevated ridge with a sweeping view of countless snow-capped peaks stretching as far as the eye could see sat a small wizarding village, the only official point of entry to the mountains of Tianzi, which were encircled by a massive barrier that prevented the creatures inside from escaping into the wider world.
The settlement was modest and had the feel of a frontier outpost. About fifteen shops offered ingredients both herbal and animal, potions, and various amulets, mostly protective charms designed to repel beasts and dispel illusions. A small four-story pagoda served as a hotel, accommodating wizards of every description, from Asian to broadly European in appearance. It was also possible to rent a winged horse here. For ten Qian, riders were permitted to circle the mountains from the air.
Along the busy street, making his way toward a small gate, Severus walked, a pair of curious eyes peering out from beneath his robe.
"Severus, come on, tell me what you saw." Nagini had been at it for hours, unable to keep her curiosity in check. Beyond that, the brief flicker of emotion she had sensed from him when he left had left her genuinely worried.
You're not going to let this go, are you? He groaned inwardly, silently cursing himself for losing control of the barrier that kept his thoughts and emotions from reaching his familiar, however briefly.
"No!" Her firm, decisive answer drew another suffering exhale from him. He had no wish to tell her anything. He didn't want her worrying over something he simply would not allow to happen. If it came to it, he would take the house and the surrounding grounds with him. Creating an artifact capable of containing that much space was not beyond him, and he had a magical source to power it. As a last resort, there were also two magic reserves he had prepared for exactly such occasions, each holding enough for a year. The transition to Archmage rank shouldn't take more than a couple of days. Preparations were already well underway.
"I thought I'd have to 'interrogate' you considerably longer."
He couldn't help smiling at that. This impudent reptile had a way of catching him off guard even at his most guarded.
Let me tell you when we get back. For now, let's focus on what we came here for.
"Fine, but don't you forget!"
All right, all right.
"Not 'all right, all right.' I want 'yes, I'll tell you.' I know your 'all right, all right.' You'll get me talking about something else and I'll forget all about it." She muttered it with mild complaint. It had happened before. More than once.
Yes. I'll tell you. He echoed her phrasing with a smirk, then added with a shade of mockery, Satisfied, my Lady?
"Stop being sarcastic."
Fair enough. For now.
"Sssssss." A very disgruntled hiss came from beneath his cloak.
And. Thank you. I do feel better. He looked with quiet warmth at the pair of eyes with their vertical black pupils peering over his shoulder. But all he got in return was a dismissive sniff as she ducked back under the cloak, though the relief she felt was impossible to miss, and the anxious feeling that had been trailing after her slowly began to recede.
"I also wanted to ask: why are we even going out there? You already found the Qilin and the Phoenix."
I want to look at that place the old man mentioned, the ravine where a hundred wizards went down and no one came back. But don't worry. I'm not planning to take any risks. If I sense something dangerous, we leave immediately. And I don't intend to stay in this country much longer. We'll be here until evening, then two days for the museums and the Muggle collectors, and at the start of the third I'm meeting someone. As soon as I have the dragon egg, we go straight back to Britain.
They were approaching the iron gate now, guarded by a dozen enforcement wizards. He straightened his robe and glanced to the right, where a smaller wicket gate stood for individual visitors. Two more wizards flanked it in black suits and caps, the character 義 on their chests, a character carrying many meanings, among them integrity, loyalty, and justice.
"You were going to stay here a week."
I changed my mind. Other plans have come up.
"I see." She had already guessed the reason behind the seven days shrinking to five, but she didn't raise it again. He had promised to explain everything once they were back at the hotel.
Passing through the gates cost ten Qian and produced no difficulties. To Severus's mild surprise, they also handed him a map, ninety percent blank, but marked with the most dangerous zones, and perfectly readable to anyone who wasn't completely direction-blind.
He didn't linger at the entrance, where about ten people were already gathered in dark, heavy-layered clothing with daggers at their belts, talking through their plans in low voices. They paid him little attention. Lone wanderers in a place this dangerous were not uncommon.
The ravine he was heading for lay almost at the center of Tianzi, roughly three kilometers from the oasis where, according to the old wizard, a massive Sea Serpent lived.
The atmosphere is fairly grim, but we've timed this well, at least. He looked around at the bare trees and leafless shrubs that allowed a clear line of sight through the forest in every direction, exhaled a small cloud of cold breath, and smiled slightly. Nagini had already ducked back under his robe.
"I can't understand how that old man found herbs here at all. There isn't a living blade of grass in sight!"
"On the other side of the forest." He pushed a small branch aside. "I read that the weather here moves in a cycle. When one half is warm, the other is always cold, and it rotates every year, just like the outside seasons."
"Why would anyone design it that way?"
"Certain herbs and magical creatures require specific climatic conditions. But the barrier, which was built only to contain magical beings and keep them from troubling Muggles or breaking the Statute of Secrecy, meant external weather had no effect on the territory inside. Many species of plants and creatures simply died out. In the third century BCE, an unknown wizard spent a year creating charms capable of simulating weather, only winter at first, and he spread them across half the territory beneath the barrier, which saved dozens of species. Five years later he built a second half, perpetual sun with brief rains, and set the two halves rotating clockwise. That's the history of this place." He finished his account and tilted his face toward the bright blue artificial sky overhead, drifting with pale clouds. I have to admit, for something built quickly and under pressure, it's genuinely astonishing. Very few wizards even in my world could have managed this with a Magister-rank core, and Archmages were no exception.
"But how are they still working after all this time?"
"Remember the crystal in the Magical Jungle?" She sent him the image of her own attentive expression with a nod. "Most likely the same principle. He bound the charms to some object and built a self-restoration sequence into the rune array, which is why both the sky and the barrier are still standing. That's only my theory, though. It could be entirely different. It's magic. Almost anything is possible."
"I suppose."
"And I'll admit, now I'm curious myself. Whatever he did, it's lasted thousands of years."
"If they really are bound to an object, how would you find it?" The puzzled voice came from just beneath his collar, while Severus had climbed a low slope and was watching a five-tailed white fox standing frozen twenty meters away, just as still, just as watchful.
"That's fairly straightforward. The two most dangerous locations are the obvious starting points: the ravine and the oasis where the Sea Serpent lives. It's quite possible the object was hidden in one of their lairs, just as those who hid the crystals in the Magical Jungle did." He finished his thought and, without sparing the magical creature a second glance, simply walked on, adjusting his angle slightly to avoid provoking it. Fourth-rank creature. Based on the unstable magical signature around it, it only just crossed into that rank recently, so comparable in strength to Magisters who have barely cleared the Master rank. Still respectable. Though I'll hope there are no seven-tailed foxes here. Those creatures can trap even an Archmage in their illusions, and the nine-tailed variety can take down a peak Archmage. My own limits in that area are something I don't even know, but there's no point in taking unnecessary risks. Illusions don't work on Devils in any case, and even a nine-tailed fox, if I could catch one at my current strength, wouldn't be of any real use.
He passed the watchful creature at barely ten meters. It watched him go in evident bewilderment, having braced itself for a fight the moment it sensed genuine threat from the unknown figure. But it thought better of testing its luck, turned, and disappeared into the trees.
The rest of the journey was not exactly uneventful. Over the next couple of hours he encountered a wide variety of creatures, one of which actually attacked, and was sent face-first into a solid tree trunk to reconsider its choices, assuming nothing ate it while it was unconscious.
But one thing did change: the weather. The temperature, which had been hovering around -10°C, climbed gradually to nearly +24°C, and the sky settled into warm, steady sunshine. The trees came alive and regained their beauty. The ground bloomed beneath a thick carpet of green grass. Even Nagini decided to emerge from under his robe and bask in the bright warm rays filtering through the dense canopy above.
At last, pushing the final branch aside, he saw it: a wide, nearly empty stretch of stone, split by a long ravine that disappeared beyond the horizon. At the ravine's edge, a few dozen wizards stood in small groups of up to five, each group maintaining a careful distance from the others, studying the drop with various artifacts and detection charms.
"Interesting." Severus stepped forward a few paces and stopped at the edge, looking down with quiet curiosity into the darkness. Nothing was visible at all.
"Can we just… not? This looks genuinely frightening." Nagini glanced uneasily downward and retreated under the robe again.
I agree, but that's exactly what makes it interesting. Don't you want to know what's at the bottom?
"Not even a little! Let it stay a mystery wrapped in shadow forever!"
Don't worry. Nothing will happen to us while I'm here. But if you're frightened, I could always leave you— He didn't get to finish. A firm shove in the ribs and a very unfriendly face hovered in front of his.
"Just you try it. I'll bite you from head to toe." Nagini hissed the threat, drawing a brief laugh from Severus.
You wouldn't be the first to try, my little Lamia. He stroked the top of her head gently, then simply stepped forward off the edge.
"SNAAAAAAPE!" But no one except the named person heard her wail. The wizards studying the ravine watched in stunned silence as a figure fell, accompanied by what sounded suspiciously like hissing, until it vanished into the darkness below.
Absolutely out of his mind. Every wizard present shared the sentiment.
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