Zethira woke just before dawn the following morning.  She’d thought to stretch and do a few exercises to prepare for the day ahead, but she remembered quickly that Elsie had fallen asleep on her chest yet again.  Unwilling to disturb the gentle breaths of her love, instead Zethira lay as motionless as she could, breathing deeply and meditating, mentally preparing for the day ahead.

Only when the sun had fully risen above the horizon and blanketed the island campsite with its warming rays did Elsie finally rouse from her slumber.  For a few minutes, the two lay in each other’s arms, whispering the occasional sweet nothing back and forth.  Only once the sky became fully alight with the daystar’s rays did the two finally eat their remaining food and don their armor, completing the final preparations before ascending to their destination.

Elsie smiled as she jumped into Zethira’s outstretched arms, wrapping her own around Zethira’s neck.  It was unnecessary— she was more than capable of flying under her own power— but neither of them would turn down an excuse for a little extra physicality in their relationship.  A touch of Elsie’s magic lightened the two of them, telling the planet’s gravity to kindly leave the two of them be, and with but a thought, Zethira floated upward, slowly ascending toward what would hopefully be the first of many Aetherial shards they would collect.

The sky island floating over the archipelago down below defied all logic, as seemingly everything that was once a part of the floating continent did.  It was roughly the shape of a cylinder, half a mile tall and perhaps three in diameter.  Like the former skybound continent, it twisted and warped gravity and magic about it as it slowly drifted eastward, limiting the ability of the couple to fly once they reached the outskirts to only a couple feet off the ground. 

And it was as rich and teeming with life as the densest jungles they waded through on Primaos a week prior.  Towering trees hundreds of feet tall ascended even further into the sky, along with waterfalls cascading downward from a seemingly never-ending reservoir on a cliff protruding upward through the treeline.

“Let me guess,” Zethira said.  “We’re going to have to comb every stretch of this island looking for the shard because the mana density is too thick for Elana to pinpoint where it is.”

Elsie sighed.  “I was about to tell you exactly that much.  How did you know?”

“Because that seemed like the best way to make this as frustrating as possible, and considering that we’re dealing with the power of the goddesses themselves, it felt like it wasn’t going to be quite as simple as simply walking straight there and picking it up.”

“Elana does suggest that the interior of the island is the best place to start, and that there are likely to be several powerful creatures drawn to it.  We’ll have to fight our way through them.”

“Wraiths?”

“Not during the daytime, thankfully.  But we should hurry.”

Elsie took the lead as they wandered through the oppressively thick and humid jungle in the sky.  Every step felt like wading through an undercurrent of plants and dew, and each breath felt like it was in a sauna.   Water vapor rushed into Zethira’s throat, seeking to clog Zethira’s windpipe and quench the internal flame that she, like all other dragons, held within her core.  

She attempted to conjure a flame, both with her draconic breath and with the fire rune carved into the back of her left hand, and both attempts were an abject failure, even with Elana’s blessing enhancing her magical stamina.  Her wind magic, on the other hand, fared considerably better in effectiveness, though it failed to do much to make the air any more pleasant to breathe, especially as the couple traversed further through the forest.

The creatures of the forest were predominantly massive insects and spiders, along with a few scorpions slightly larger and faster than the one Elsie fought months earlier back in northern Osteria.  They were eerily quiet, seeming to go out of their way to avoid the couple as Elsie and Zethira continued their way into the more inland parts of the floating forest.

“Wait, Elsie,” Zethira said.  “Do you hear that?”

“No.  I don’t hear anything.  Why?”

“That’s exactly the problem.”  She drew her blade and looked around.  “This place is teeming with life, but this part of the forest is far too quiet.  Stay on your guard.”

Elsie floated a couple inches off the ground and drew her blade.  She was constantly looking around, and Zethira followed a few paces behind, keeping her eyes and ears out as they progressed into a part of the jungle so deep and thick with trees stretched for multiple layers that nearly no light reached the surface.  Zethira leapt up and used her Runic Blade to slice a small branch about ten feet off the ground and tried in vain to ignite it.

“Zethira,” Elana said, taking temporary control of their shared body.  “You must sense it as well.”

“Wraiths, right?”

“Correct.  I did not mention how to fight them before because I was hoping we would not have to ever do so.  They are made of mana, and are much like shadows given a semi-physical form.  They are immune to all physical attacks, but their attacks, despite being both of and not of physical reality, can still inflict damage on both your physical body and your store of mana.  Enough damage, I should clarify, that even my blessing will not avail you should you be drained by them.

“However, they are extremely weak to light, burning away in the presence of any such lights stronger than a candle.  That small comfort means we can at least take solace in the fact that major population centers won’t be affected.”

“Seems little solace for our asses if we don’t figure something out soon.  I don’t suppose your magic or my other abilities will be effective if we can’t use fire.”

“Gravity will have little effect, as they are nearly massless and incorporeal.  I believe Elissa used lightning magic once, a very long time ago?  That could work.  And your sword has strange magical energy as well.  I do not know what sort of magic it is, but it may have some effect.  Elissa has been listening in and is ready.  They approach.”

Ahead of the two came three humanoid figures each slightly larger and taller than Zethira.  Other than a pair of almost imperceptible slits of pitch black inlaid within the only slightly less black rest of their form, they had no features of any type.  They made no sound as they lurched forward, and the underbrush at their feet made no movement as they traipsed closer and closer.  Zethira’s hand grabbed Elsie’s, attempting to pull her back, but as she turned around, Zethira saw another three approaching from behind.  Shit, we’re surrounded.

She took a deep breath and attempted to unleash a fireball with all the power she could muster, but it was quashed before it could even leave her mouth.  Dammit all!  She clenched her teeth and looked for any other possible escape path, but found none.  

She refused to show any sign of weakness or hesitation, for Elsie’s sake.  Instead, she gritted her teeth and made a break to her right, slashing at the single wraith in that direction with reckless abandon.  The slashes hit true, slicing and dicing the lifeless creature into smaller and smaller pieces.  But something felt wrong.  For all the horror with which Elana spoke of them, it seemed to die too easily.

Her worries were confirmed when the clumps of shadow at her feet gathered together into an inky pool and reconstituted back into the spectral form it had had moments earlier before being dismembered.  At least it’s something to work with.

Elsie seemed to be doing a little better.  Her gravity magic was as ineffective as Elana suggested, and the lightning she conjured wasn’t anything too impressive either.  But while the bolts on their own were about as effective as Zethira’s blade, the flashes of light which accompanied them were enough to stun the wraiths for a couple of seconds with each strike.

“Elsie, how long can you keep your lightning going?”

“At this intensity?  A few minutes?”

“Hold them off as long as you can!”

Zethira charged her weapon full of runological energy and loosed a massive blade of air at the swarm of wraiths before her.  They buckled and briefly fell apart, but she continued her assault with reckless abandon, swinging in every direction in front of her.  Only the direction in which Elissa stood, surrounded by the crackle of electrical discharge, was safe from the haphazard assault.  The attacks had had as little effect as the first, doing little but temporarily slowing the wraiths down as they continued their relentless approach, but the monsters before her were never her true target.

Bit by bit her attacks shredded through the underbrush and gashed at the thick trunks and branches of trees that stretched up and out in every direction, splintering stem and vine and trunk with each swing until, at long last, a massive trunk wobbled a few dozen paces away.  She launched two more blades of air in rapid succession, and with the sound of crackling and popping wood filling the air, the entire massive structure came crashing down.

“Elsie, get out of the way!  And make for the spot where the stump is!”

Elsie did as instructed, firing a couple of bolts of lightning on either side of Zethira as the two took each other’s hand and made a break for the clearing.  It was faint, almost imperceptible, but tiny streams of light did stream in through the canopy from time to time, none lasting more than an instant, but more than anything, the glimmers were progress.  Tenuous and fleeting, but progress all the same.

“Elsie, I need you to lighten me as much as you can.”

“But–”

“I know, I can’t fly, but I need as much height as I can get for a jump.  You’ll have to hold them off on your own while I’m airborne.”

“Understood, Zethi!  On your ready!”

The two shared a nod as they ran toward the stump.  Zethira nearly tripped a time or two through the dense underbrush, but a bit of wind magic kept her stable, and Elsie’s magic was able to keep her just off the ground as they rushed toward their destination.

“Now!” Zethira yelled as she jumped on top of the stump.

Her body grew lighter as she bent down like a compressed spring, and with her full strength, she bounced with tremendous force, lifting high into the air.  She looked down for the briefest of moments and saw the ground covered with sparks of blue and white as Elissa was only barely holding off the dozen or so wraiths with every bit of strength she could muster.  She looked away as quickly as she looked down, both out of fear for her love and because she knew what she needed to do.  

She launched two more bursts of air downward as her ascent slowed, giving her not quite enough height to reach the top of the canopy, but enough that her magic could close the gap.  With six swings of the Runic Blade all aimed at the branches high above, she began to tumble back to the ground even faster than she had ascended.  She used her magic to try to buttress the fall, and was partially successful, but landed with a loud thud that briefly stunned her.

But her gambit had been successful.  The branches slowly fell on the ground at her and Elsie’s sides, and the midmorning light from the sun streamed in through the hole now formed in the canopy.  With a shriek that sounded like an even more twisted and chilling version of a basilisk’s hiss, the wraiths’ shadowy forms bubbled and dissolved into the light landing upon them.

“Are you alright, Zethi?” Elsie asked.

Zethira gripped her sword and jammed it into the dirt at her feet, using it as leverage to climb back to her feet.  She walked over and sat down on the stump now covered in a warm glow.

“I am, Elsie.  I’ll recover from the pain soon enough.  My own natural regeneration coupled with Elana’s blessing makes for a potent combination.”

Elsie smiled and kissed Zethira’s cheeks.  “I– I’m just glad you’re okay.  Also, Elana says we should rest for a few minutes and then hurry.  We’re probably not far from our objective.”