Prince of The Abyss-Chapter 210: Without a Path

Aether walked.

At first, nothing changed.

The islands stayed high, suspended above the sea, stone platforms hanging in open air as if the world had decided height alone was enough to keep people alive. Bridges stretched between them, creaking softly beneath his steps, iron fittings cold beneath his hands when he brushed past railings. The water remained far below, distant and unreachable, its sound muted by height and mist.

Up here, the city felt detached.

People moved with routine confidence. Merchants called out prices. The ring of metal from the smith echoed between walls. Lanterns burned even during the day, their glow softened by fog. Everything felt stable, as if falling was no longer a possibility worth considering.

Aether kept walking.

The bridges began to change.

They sloped downward now, subtle at first, barely noticeable. A gentle decline that forced his steps to adjust without him realizing why. The air felt heavier here, carrying more moisture, the salt sharper. The mist thickened, clinging closer to the stone, settling in places where it hadn't before.

He paused at the edge of one bridge and looked back.

The higher islands loomed behind him, stacked and layered, their buildings packed tight, lights glowing faintly through the fog. From here, they looked distant, elevated not just in height, but in purpose. Like a place meant to be seen before it was ever meant to be reached.

He turned forward again.

The descent continued.

Each island sat slightly lower than the last. Not enough to alarm anyone, but enough to be felt. The bridges grew longer, their supports thicker, more reinforced. Stone replaced wood more often now. Iron railings showed signs of rust, eaten away slowly by the air.

The sound of the sea grew louder.

Not waves crashing, not yet, but movement. Water shifting against rock. A low, constant presence that made itself known without demanding attention. The smell followed soon after. Salt, strong and unavoidable, mixed with something older, something stagnant.

People changed too.

Up above, they walked freely. Down here, they moved with more caution. Conversations were quieter. Faces more alert. Some buildings bore marks of repair. Cracks filled with fresh mortar. Beams reinforced where they had failed before.

Aether kept going.

Eventually, the islands no longer felt suspended.

They felt anchored.

The air opened up ahead of him, fog thinning just enough for something massive to reveal itself. He slowed, steps instinctively cautious, eyes drawn forward.

A giant island sat ahead.

Not elevated like the others. Not stacked or fractured. It rested on the water itself, its stone base disappearing directly into the sea. Waves broke gently against its edges, white foam curling around dark rock. Docks extended outward from its sides, ships tied in neat rows, their hulls worn and scarred.

The bridges above descended toward it like roots.

Long, sloping paths that carried the city downward, connecting the suspended islands to solid land. From here, it was obvious. Veyr did not simply float above the sea. It descended into it.

This island was the end of the fall.

Aether stepped onto the final bridge.

The height behind him felt unreal now. Looking back made his chest tighten. The upper islands seemed impossibly distant, swallowed by mist, their lights reduced to faint glimmers. Ahead, the sound of waves filled the air completely, loud and constant.

He reached the stone.

It felt different beneath his feet. Solid. Heavy. Unmoving in a way the higher platforms had never been. The ground here was damp, darkened by years of contact with water. Moss clung to cracks in the stone. The air was colder, sharper.

Buildings spread outward across the island, wider and more spaced apart. Warehouses lined the docks. Nets were hung to dry. Sailcloth flapped softly in the wind. People worked here with a different kind of focus. Less talk. More watching the water.

This was land.

Not safety. Not comfort. But something real.

Aether stopped near the edge of the island and looked out over the sea. Waves rolled endlessly, stretching toward the horizon, indifferent to everything built above them. The Tides felt closer here. Not present, not attacking, but acknowledged.

He understood then.

Veyr wasn't a city that stood above the world.

It was a city that led you down into it.

From the heights where people pretended they were untouched, down through layers of stone and routine, until you reached the water again. Until you were reminded what waited beneath everything.

Aether exhaled slowly.

He had come down far enough.

For now.

But what he figured. Veyr was made up of two zones: the upper islands, where the richer people lived, and where those with Will's lived. The higher up you were, the stronger the people there, for exemple the smith was trained by a master of the Wind Will, he didn't know what that meant, but a master is a master.

When going down, people got quieter; he noticed that but didn't think much of it, because they were weaker. Also, it was funny how the strong stood high, and the weak stood lower.

This place was very socially unstable; those with Will look down on those without. Power meant everything; if you were weak, you lived lower down; if you were strong, you lived high up. A good life.

If you didn't have one.

Well, if he had to guess, it was this place. The lowest place in Veyr, which is funny, since the guy at the Inn had called Veyr an island, when it was a lot more than one island, but since they are all connected, it kinda made sense.

Aether followed, passing through the city, seeing the faces of the people inside; they were hollow, without any ember, pale as ghosts. It was like those who lived here were stripped of their ember completely. It made him wonder what would happen if they were sent inside the Tide's. They would never be allowed inside the Trial, but he wondered if they would even try to act human.

Also, if one's Will is based on the ember burning inside of them, when does it manifest? I mean, the guy who talked to him at the smith had asked if he had one, and when he responded, he acted like he couldn't get one.

So maybe at birth, but then it didn't make sense. How did it work? Was it given if your ember is high, or was it just purely luck? If you were born with a special ember. Like, had the Smith guy been born with a wind ember, and that is the reason he can use the Wind Will...

He didn't think things were going to be so different outside the tides, but they were. He had no idea what he was doing, what he had to do, and how the world worked.

There was a part of him that missed the Tides, only a bit, though.

After a bit of walking, Aether got to the end of the city, but that wasn't the end of the island; it was here where he realized just how giant this island was. Looking into the horizon, he saw a giant field, and beyond it, forest mountains, and probably even more.

It made him wonder if there were going to be any monsters inside this place. By his experience, it was perfect for monsters.

But for some reason, Aether felt as if this was going to be the place he was going to have to explore.

Really, he wasn't that good at clearing books.

He had just followed his master around at first, then with Frozen Crown, he just stumbled across Jack's note, and then Avrie, with the Kingdom of Glass, it wasn't that hard, I mean, there was a castle in the sky.

But this is a seeker trial; you have to create one from scratch, instead of trying to change an ending that will come no matter what. Plus, Seeker class books are harder to change or to create and end.

There was also the fact that in all his other books, he was put in a good place, and he was here to, but he died, and now he was somewhere else. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Even in Trials, the Codex puts you in important places, but he had died, so he might as well be in a random place in the world.

So as much as he didn't want to admit it, he had no idea what to do. But he felt that this was a good start, walking around the lowest island of Veyr.

...

And that was what he did, crossing through the field and entering the forest, though he didn't know if it was a good idea. When in a field, he could see if there was a monster around, but for forests... that was hard to do. It was easy for monsters to hide.

But there might also be important places inside them. And he was going to take that risk, even if the monsters were probably going to be a lot stronger than him. If there was something to find, it was worth it.

...

...

For example... a dojo, just like this one.