The next morning I woke up from the light of the suns. I was feeling great but a bath would be appreciated. Without water washing was a problem. At least sweating wasn’t that much of an issue with temperatures not far above the freezing point of water.

Using the heat spells over the night made sleeping quite a bit more comfortable.

We arrived at point where only some mosses were surviving the rough climate at the end of the next day. We had steadily gained altitude crossing the alpine pastures.

We turned east while skirting the barren waste for another day. There was a vast ridge connecting the two mountain peaks in front of us. It was still covered in snow at the top.

We made our camp in a small pan at the fringe of the pastures a while after sunset. The weather was fine, there were only a few showers in the morning. Temperatures in the night were near freezing point.

I looked at the ridge in front of us, sitting on a small boulder. Loraline sat down beside me.

“Is there a a kind of path you know? It looks like staying at the flank of the mountain to the east will avoid most of the climbing. There is a sheer cliff face along all the ridge though.” I pointed up at the ridge.

“Nobody tries to cross this ridge. The cliffs look rugged enough to find a way up, but I can’t see much from here. The east was said to be the side which can be scaled.” Loraline looked down to her feet.

“We try the east side. We do have the appropriate tools for scaling a sheer cliff thanks to you.” I laid an arm around her shoulder.

“I’m afraid of what lies behind that ridge, Lilly.” Loraline laid her head on my shoulder.

“We’re all afraid are to some degree.” I studied the eastern mountain range closely.

There was a spot near to top of the ridge in the mountain to the east which looked odd when I focused on it.

“Milly, Tilly.” I looked back at the camp.

“Yes, Lilly.” They got to their feet and came over.

“Do you see that protrusion in the mountain flank over there, just below the ridge?” I pointed at the odd spot.

“Somethings strange about it, but I can’t really explain what.” I added.

“Mmm. I can feel what you mean, but I can’t explain it either.” Milly sat down on my lap.

“It’s magical! There is a faint magical aura if you juice up the magic sight.” Tilly jumped with a wide grin.

I put a sliver of mana in my magic perception. There was a faint magic aura visible, but it was too far away to see any details.

“We will perhaps find out more when come closer. We will pass that spot at some point I think.” I put my other arm around Milly’s waist.

“We won’t have time to investigate this, Tilly.” Milly gave her a firm look.

“But maybe we find something interesting!” Tilly pushed out her chest.

“Let’s wait till we’re up there. We should have a good view backwards when we reach the area.” I smiled at Tilly.

“We want to get distance to our pursuers!” Milly frowned.

“Let’s see how close we pass it and what we see from our pursuers then.” I patted Milly’s head.

“Maybe we find something useful!” Tilly smiled.

“Or something we shouldn’t disturb.” Milly gave her a firm look.

“No need to decide this tonight.” I laid my chin on Milly shoulder.

“Let’s get ready for the night!” Milly got up again.

The next two days we scaled large screes interspersed with rocky outcroppings to climb. It was getting colder and in the afternoon of the second day we reached we just below the odd spot in the cliff. It had about twelve meters in diameter and we were about three hundred meters away, slightly above our current position above another scree ramp.

“I want to investigate the magic spot.” Tilly crossed her arms below her chest.

“It’s an unnecessary risk.” Milly propped her hands on her hips.

We hadn’t seen our pursuers on the pastures below. It was only a few degrees above freezing through the day and dark clouds were advancing from the sea. The ice had retreated far north now. I wondered how far the horizon was away.

“I can’t see any sign of our pursuers.” I sat down on a rocky outcropping next to me.

“See we have time enough to sneak a peek!” Tilly put down her backpack.

“Lilly is the one who recklessly sneaks a peek.” Milly put down her backpack as well and sat down beside me.

“We might find something usable.” Caroline put down her backpack and sat down on top.

“We might as well find something dangerous.” Milly furrowed her brows.

“We need a protected place to rest for tonight. We will have a snowstorm. There is a chance it will last longer than a day.” Loraline stared north at the advancing clouds.

“We better use the time for finding shelter.” Milly looked out at the clouds as well.

“It will take less than an hour to go up there.” I looked up to the roughly circular spot.

“And it will be even a shorter detour since we can continue our way from up there.” Tilly took a swig from her waterskin.

“The protrusion with the spot will provide some shelter towards winds the north and is large enough for a cave or crevice.” I looked at Loraline.

“It’s better than in the midst of scree before us I suppose.” Loraline scanned the way up to the ridge in front of us.

“That sounds at least reasonable.” Milly shot Tilly a stern look.

“Investigating magical anomalies is perfectly reasonable!” Tilly puffed out her chest.

“Let’s continue. I want to sneak a peek as well, but shelter is more important.” I grinned at Milly.

“I was waiting for that all the time!” She slapped me on the back of my head.

“We’ll be cautious.” I got back to my feet.

“Why do I feel always a shiver running down my spine when to declare being cautious?” Milly glared at me.

“We look for some shelter first.” I patted Milly’s head.

“Women like you should be chained to the kitchen for their own safety.” Milly tugged at my right earlobe.

“Only if you eat all I cook.” I stuck out my tongue at her.

She shot me a furious glare.

We got ready and it took a bit more than an hour to reach the outcropping. Unfortunately there were no obvious caves or larger crevices. The clouds had closed a bit. The coast had vanished in a gray haze.

“Let’s have a look at that magic then. We’ll pass the place for the south side of the outcropping anyway.” I looked at Milly.

She nodded and so we approached the magical blot in the cliff. The sheet of rock was nearly upright here and fit neatly in it’s environment save being magical. It was about five meters up in the sheer rock face.

We stopped about ten meters below the spot. I put a sliver of mana in my magic vision. I noticed Milly and Tilly doing it as well.

The magic was much more powerful than the enchantments I’d seen back at the castle. I could see only a thin veil with a glowing strand in the center going right into the mountain. This means there was no rock behind the veil.

“It’s illusion magic, quite powerful that.” Tilly’s eyes shone in a purple light.

“There is a cave or something behind it. I can see magic where I’d expect rock.” I pointed up at the center of the circle.

“I still can’t see anything out of place here.” Loraline was looking up as well.

“The same with me. I see a sheer rock face looming above us.” Caroline shook her head.

“It’s supposed to look like that as far as I can see. The strand behind it provides the power for the magic somehow.” She stepped back to look further in.

“A cave behind it will be convenient. The question is what else lurks behind it.” Milly frowned at the illusion.

“I’ll try to throw a stone inside.” I picked up a stone.

“Good it’s not a shaft in a mine.” Tilly grinned.

“We run should we hear drums.” I threw the stone at the center of the illusion.

It vanished into the rock. I couldn’t hear anything.

“Not a sound!” Tilly tilted her head and looked at me with a slightly opened mouth.

“Next try. Watch carefully.” I picked another stone and put a light spell on it.

Then I threw it up into the illusion.

“It was hard to trace, but it fell down somewhere behind the illusion until it vanished from sight.” Tilly gave me a bright smile.

“No drums.” I patted her head.

She giggled.

“I could try to throw in a climbing hook.” Caroline looked at Milly.

“Try it. Maybe we find our shelter from the storm.” Milly propped her hands on her hips.

Caroline got our grappling hook from her backpack. We stepped a bit aside.

“Let’s try get it in.” She threw the hook up, the rope disappearing into the rock.

She tried a few times until the rope stayed taut putting all her weight at it.

“It’s stuck.” Caroline started to climb up the rope with ease.

After a few moments she reached the place where the rope vanished into the rock.

“It still feels like rock. I can push myself through along the rope with some effort.” Caroline disappeared into the rock up to her hips. Finally she was gone completely.

After a few moments the rope was tugged a few times.

“I get up now. We pull up the backpacks after that.” I started to climb the wall with the rope.

I pushed through the illusion at the end and stood at the mouth of a large cave leading deeper into the mountain. Caroline had fastened the rope to a large boulder laying at the side of the cavern. I had an eerie feeling as I looked deeper into the cave. The magic line went along the cave in it’s center. As the cave curved up and to the right it vanished a few dozen meters away. It was darker inside than on the outside as well.

“Looks okay for me. We may want to get some distance from the entrance though.” I looked at Caroline.

“It’s better than everything else we have. It’s perfect for weathering the storm.” She looked at the rope vanishing into the illusion of a wall.

“Then let’s get up the the backpacks.” I tugged at the rope a few times.

Caroline nodded.

After a few moments we felt weight at the rope and pulled it up cautiously. A few minutes later we had all our backpacks in the cave. The rest came up the rope as well without a problem. Finally we pulled up the rope and coiled it up beside the boulder it was tied to.

“Where should we set up the camp?” Milly looked at Loraline.

“We should go a bit deeper as the entrance is wide and it will get nasty here after a while.” Loraline looked down the cave.

“It looks not really natural. The diameter doesn’t change much. It looks like someone drilled a hole here.” Tilly went up beside Loraline.

“We should explore a bit beyond the point we want to rest, to be sure we haven’t nasty surprises in the night.” Caroline walked next to Loraline.

“We may find the source of this magic!” Tilly looked at me with a pleading look.

“Let’s continue down the cave a bit. Caroline has a point. We turn back should we find nothing interesting after a few minutes.” I got my backpack ready and readied my ax.

“Checking the area sounds reasonable.” Milly touched Caroline’s helmet and it started to illuminate the immediate surroundings.

Cautiously we started to venture deeper into the dark hole in the mountain.