Realignment, Part Seven

From the personal records of Lord Michael Hudson
Dated 12 March 2007

The work of realignment proved itself more difficult than I had anticipated today.

The process had been going well so far, we were holding to schedule and anticipating completion tomorrow. The work had been difficult, however, so we were pulling longer hours the last couple days. Today, in the ninth hour of work, something gave way.

It began with a sudden resistance. When it was reported to me, I expected it was one of the brief hindrances we had encountered throughout, and went to add my will to the realignment for the push we would need to get through it. This had been more than enough in every previous instance, so I grew concerned when all I felt was more resistance, as if the plane of Iravati was grinding against something unmovable. I halted all the work and gathered the advisers and mages together to work out what we were dealing with. The soldiers, of course, took it as a bad sign and evacuated everyone in Iravati not actively working on realignment to more secure, and thankfully elevated, regions of the city. We came to a conclusion fairly quickly, that it was simply a bit of unusually strong turbulence in the flow of the realms, but were not permitted to continue until the evacuation was completed. We took the opportunity to rest and recharge, and within three hours we were back at it. We gathered a group of strong spellcasters, united our efforts, and pushed. For a moment nothing much seemed to happen, but then we felt the realm push past the resistance and come free.

And Iravati immediately began to flood.

Massive waves battered it from every direction, and alarms went off all through the city. The soldiers, who were already in position in case an enemy broke through, leapt into action securing the parts of the city everyone had evacuated to and grabbing materials for makeshift dams. Akshainie came tearing up the hill to where we were working. She ordered that every watermancer join her, and turned to me.

“Whatever you lot did, undo it!” she demanded.

“We only moved the city along the planned path!” I answered.

“Then take it back, and figure out another way!” With that, she and six mages rushed off toward the water, and as I watched some of it began to stop in place and flow in another direction. I turned to the remaining mages, all of whom were watching me as if waiting for directions.

“You heard the woman! Let’s back it up and check our records!” So we resumed position and began pushing the other way. The resistance was much lighter this way, and after only about 20 minutes we managed to lodge the plane back in the grinding turbulence we had encountered before. The water stopped rising as soon as we did, and I sent most of the mages down to help the watermancers and soldiers in whatever way they could as the court mage and I reviewed our plans.

It took us a couple hours, but what we ultimately realised was that all our planar maps were out of date. I had brought the ones included in the file on Iravati, which were accurate to the time when Iravati was separated from the mortal plane. The city had its own maps, and while they had made updates where they could, the information was woefully incomplete. We would need to scout out the rest of the region we were passing through during realignment, and determine any course corrections on the way. The work would take longer, but we feel we have a way to reduce that impact and get the information we need. The Queen of Heaven has granted me a courier and a platoon of soldiers, and at daybreak we will set out into the planar void and begin charting a new path. The courier can relay messages back to the court mage, who will oversee the actual process of realignment following the path we find.

God grant us ease in our journey.

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