A mist barrier spread across the horizon, so far that its end wasn't visible to the elves on the Lady Dancer. Two elves stood on deck, barefooted and sparsely clothed, performing a form of dance. As the ship neared the mist barrier, a passageway slowly started to come to life. The creation of the passageway seemed to move with the movement of the two elves.
Arinthal, who stood beside the captain on deck, instantly became curious.
"What are they doing?" he asked the captain.
"It's a dance we just invented some months ago. It's called the Evissi ecnad, my prince," the old elf responded.
"Well, what does it do?"
"You see, when the gods imprisoned us here, they created this mist barrier to prevent anyone from leaving. The barrier is actually very strong and almost impenetrable, hence we need two arcavels to use their velori to create an opening in the wall. The moment they stop while we're under it, we'll be crushed by the force of the mist wall."
"That's interesting," came a simple reply before he started to make his way to below deck.
Just then, one of the dancer's legs gave way under the weight of the mist wall's magic, and she fell down. The second elf couldn't handle the pressure alone, and so soon the wall came crashing down. The captain immediately became alarmed and started crying out for help.
In a split second, Arinthal's mind went to how the dance was performed. Every stroke of the hand, every repeating step, and every foot movement. Immediately, he jumped to the two elves and started to perform the dance.
Instantly, blue wisps of power started flowing out of his body. The wall stopped falling and the ship started sailing smoothly again. Behind the ship's steer, the captain could only look at Arinthal with shock as he mused on the conditions for the dance.
It must always be performed by two arcavels.
And here Arinthal was performing it alone. For safety reasons, he ordered a nearby Mythren delegate to heal the fallen elf, since her leg had been badly broken. Soon the other end of the passageway became visible and the Lady Dancer crossed to the other side, out of Aetheria.
Arinthal finally stopped the dance and took time to look at the wide stretch of sea, his first time ever seeing it.
"Um, your highness, would you like a healer to come and ease your exhaustion?" the captain called out from the steer.
"No, why?"
This time, the captain's eyes were almost popping out of their sockets. The weight of the mist wall was approximately a hundred tonnes, and even with velori, the weight could only be reduced to a thousand kilogrammes. That would be a tedious task for two person arcavels, let alone one with unstable magic.
"Well then, I'll be here if you need anything," he replied as his gaze followed Arinthal below deck. Arinthal seemed oblivious of the captain's shock as he retreated to his private chambers.
He took out the parchment Ethlbert had given him and started to study the runes. They made no sense to him, and as far as he knew rune magic, those runes were probably drawn by a very powerful unknown force. With a sigh, he dropped the rune on the desk and rested his head on his palm. Before he knew it, he had slowly drifted off to sleep.
A loud crash woke him up, since it had caused him to fall. Just then, a resounding knock landed on the wooden door.
"Who is it?" he asked, annoyed.
"The captain seeks your presence, my prince," came the voice before shuffling footsteps went up the stairs above deck.
"I'll be right there."
He stood up and took a quick peek in the bay window in his chambers. A storm raged on outside, but something seemed off about the timing. Arinthal had no choice but to go above deck to investigate.
He walked up to find several elves channeling velori to create a shield around the ship.
"Why are they doing that?" he asked a shocked captain.
The latter didn't reply but instead he pointed toward the northwards direction of the ship. That was when he saw...
It.
"Alpheus.."he muttered