The trip to the Stormwing Circle was relatively uneventful. The path was well traveled, and even in places where it traversed uneven or unstable ground, it was clear that the sect members had taken the time and effort to reinforce it.

I spent a lot of time at the window looking up at the insane cliffs and valleys. It was very pretty, and somehow had this sort of zen vibe to it that made you relax just being there. I felt like my family could finally be in a better place - provided everything worked out at the Circle itself. Which remained to be seen.

It could go either way really. I was relatively confident that they would allow us at the very least to be on our way elsewhere, but I wasn't certain, and that bit of uncertainty was gnawing at the back of my mind. I wasn't exactly the least anxious person around, after all.

At least I was a far cry better than Alessa, and she was a far cry better than our mother, who liked to wring her hands like she was attempting to get water from them.

Speaking of my family, I was eventually joined at the window by Liam, who was looking at everything with eyes so wide he was giving Steeve a run for her money. The fox in question sat on my shoulder like a bird and in general seemed to be enjoying the scenery. Occasionally she'd poof away to go play in some water or chase a bird, but she always came back. The woman driving (piloting?) our carriage watched her with some degree of consternation, but apparently thought better of telling us off about it.

Throughout the trip, the storm clouds continued to gather, as if they felt the only way that we could get a proper welcome into the Stormwing Circle was with some proper storms. The deep bass sounds of distant thunder were running almost constantly through the forest now, and as the sun set, we'd occasionally see the flashes of lightning light up the inside of the cloud. It was all very beautiful, but quite honestly I felt scared of the storm inside, as I'd never really seen anything quite like it. Liam kept commenting about how awesome the fireworks were, which was cute, at least.

Steeve would make her fur stand on end when a lightning bolt struck, like she'd just been zapped or electrified with static. For one particularly big bolt, she made a curl of smoke come from the top of her noggin' and lay there twitching every so often like she was a fried fox. Liam absolutely howled with laughter.

I'd tell him not to encourage her, but quite frankly her antics were exactly what I needed to keep my mind off of things.

I even heard the driver giggle once or twice when Steeve brought her electrifying show on the road.

"A very unique companion you have, Venerable One," she said to us.

"That she is."

The sun very abruptly set at dusk, something István told me was associated with equatorial latitudes, whatever the hell that meant. I assumed he'd be keeping track on how it was relevant to us, so I just filed it away in the back of my head.

We could see where the path entered through a tall gate in the very distance, so we were nearing the end of our trip. Gran had awoken, and was sitting inside the carriage, and I was helping Liam climb onto the front bench for a better view.

"Venerable, why not let someone else do that for you?" The driver asked, clearly confused why someone in my position would assist a child.

I froze temporarily, not wanting to ruin the ruse, but at the same time I never wouldn't help a kid.

I looked at the path ahead, trying my best to keep the length of my pause to 'appropriately mysterious', thinking furiously about how to respond.

"If I can't care for the least of my people," I responded, "What purpose is there in even having power?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The woman seemed very startled by that, which I wasn't immediately sure was a good thing.

"This one thanks Venerable for their wisdom," she said, somehow managing to give me an appropriately deferent bow while maintaining control of the carriage.

The procession stopped outside the gate. Which was one hell of a gate. It towered over us, and looked thick and sturdy. The doors themselves had a massive emblem made out of some sort of incredibly smooth stone that was this kind of blue-green with a depth and shimmer that reminded me of water. It depicted a spiral swirl, with jagged lightning arcs with stylized gusts of wind behind them. In a corner, a gorgeous bird had been added, but hadn't obtained the full level of polish that the rest of the emblem enjoyed. I imagine that being out in the elements would fix that by weathering the stone.

Above that was a very large, gently arched plaque made out of dark, aged wood. It had an assortment of characters on it in a very loopy, ornate calligraphy. I realized they were similar to the ones I'd seen on some of the Artifacts we'd found. Even with that knowledge I still couldn't read them, or at least I was unable to before Steeve noticed me staring at it and did some 'tailslation' for me and fixed the letters.

'Circle of the Stormwind', read the top, which at least meant we hadn't been hoodwinked into going somewhere else. On either side there was vertical writing, which said ridiculous things like 'riding wind and breaking waves to question Heaven and Earth' and 'Garthering rain, swirling clouds, pursuing thunder and lightning'. Both of those sounded like something Liam would run around the house shouting about if we had bad weather, not something I'd carve on my gate.

I guess Steeve could always be trolling me with the translation.

Just above the door, I noticed a narrow strip with some additional words on it. 'Pure as wind, mighty as thunder.' There, that was better. Why not just leave it at that? Didn't need to give me a damn novel to read.

Behind me, I could see István outside the carriage, furiously copying the characters into his notebook. In this case he was doing exact copies of what I'd seen prior to Steeve's help. It was amazing how he could encode that nonsense into perfect representations, despite not knowing what it said.

I scratched Steeve's ears, leaned in conspiratorially, pointing at István without really saying anything. Steeve's eyes lit up and she made an en en en sound, before teleporting directly onto his notebook. He seemed a bit conflicted, looking up at the sign as if willing himself to memorize it, while at the same time not wanting to disturb the fox he was trying to curry favor with.

She twitched her tail, and I assume the sign changed the same way it had for me, as his countenance morphed into a grin, and he gave scritches to Steeve on her very fluffy belly, something she was more than happy to tolerate.

Not that stopped István from leaning his head a bit side to side. If I had to guess, he was trying to see if he could somehow see around the translation, like it was some sort of layer of paint, instead of Steeve just dorking with reality for select people. She seemed amused at this and started bobbing her head side to side as well.

They made a cute pair.

Ahead of us, Junior Lǐ had hopped down from his perch and walked to the door. He held his hands out, setting them on the giant doors. Suspecting he wasn't about to move those huge things with just his own strength, I quickly switched to aura sight and watched as he channeled a pulse of Nebula into the door. What he pushed through the heavy objects was definitely not enough to move them on its own, which left me confused.

My confusion was resolved when moments later I saw a bunch of Nebula flow into the hinges from below, or possibly the other side, it was a little hard to tell. It seemed that Lǐ's power was more key than motivation, allowing the door to recognize a legitimate visitor and then open.

One hopes he never had to use it in a hurry though, because it moved quite slowly as it opened outward. Directly behind it was a small step that led into the Circle proper. It was a smart design because it meant in their closed position the doors rested directly against this stone, and as a result would be very hard to move against the their own will, as it were. I remember them sealing together so tightly it as if they were one unit.

There were two little ramps on the outside edges of this step, which explained how the wagons made it through, although the alignment must be pretty snug. István was still petting Steeve, although he was definitely sparing his eyes to the mechanisms of the gate and all the fine seals covering the hinges. While they were written in the same characters that the gate had been, I could tell he was already working on reverse-engineering them with his eyes.

Not that I cared, just so long as he didn't cause some sort of incident taking apart a priceless heirloom or other sect treasure. I would think he'd have enough sense to restrain himself.

The driver of our horseless carriage did whatever they do to urge it forward, neatly aligning herself with the ramps with an ease that suggested she did this a lot.

She looked over at me with a wide smile.

"Welcome, Venerable One, to the Stormwind Circle."

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