Ch. 53: Gryvus

Adrian couldn't see every bit of Rosy's memories about the last time she was here through their bond, but he could understand what she was feeling about it. It felt like a bittersweet memory, mostly bitter. Inwardly, he could tell that she was berating herself for something, but if she didn't want to share, he knew that it wasn't his place to ask.

She led them through the 13th and 14th mountains the long way, keeping as far from the snake-panther nest as possible. Though they could take the monsters out fairly easily, she still seemed to be anally against coming anywhere near one of the things.

...

After they got past the 14th mountain, they were finally able to see the base of the mountain that contained Gryvus, in all of its glory. 

Adrian finally understood what Rosy meant towards the beginning of their journey, when she'd mentioned that destroying the path to Gryvus would be the same thing as destroying a large part of the city itself. 

While every single obstacle that they'd gone through so far could have possibly been done from another angle if absolutely possible, this one wasn't so straightforward. 

The city of Gryvus was nestled on the very top of a large, pretty much unclimbable mountain. It was basically shaped like a huge needle that reached past the clouds. Climbing it would have been an even bigger death wish than anything that Rosy and Adrian had managed to go through so far. 

Luckily, they didn't need to climb the mountain itself. Gryvus as a city was much larger than the mountain that it was built on. About half of the city was protruding out of the mountain's summit. There was a huge support column built from the ground up supporting it. It really was a work of art, a huge support column built all the way to the sky, with beams connecting it to the mountain at regular intervals. 

"Alright. Let's climb."

The support column also had a stairwell built inside of it. Rosy explained that gryphons being unable to turn into their bird forms were not rare. It was common for there to be one or two per generation, and the support column had been built to allow for those specific people to be able to leave the city, rather than live their entire lives on the top of the mountain. They still couldn't leave the mountain range, but they apparently used some of the 14th mountain circles for agriculture.

...

"It's nice to see you, princess. You made excellent time."

"Of course."

...

The easiest part of the trip had been climbing the support beam. Once they reached the top, Reese was waiting for them with a retinue of a dozen or so gryphon warriors. They escorted Adrian and Rosy to a large mansion that had been prepared for them, where the duo was able to finally relax in an indoor setting, rather than catch a few hours on the side of a cliff.

Now, the next day, they were on a balcony in the mansion that they'd been given, looking out over the mountain range that they'd been desperately struggling to get through for a little over the past week.

"They left a note on the door while we were sleeping. They weren't expecting us to get here for another week, so they've given us a couple of days before they're ready to gather."

"Uh huh."

"These gryphons seem to be really nice. It feels kind of wrong." Adrian remarked.

"Uh huh."

"They've given us an entire mansion, even though they should hate you for what you've done in the past, you know."

"Uh huh."

"And I think that you're not listening to me at all."

"Uh huh."

Annoyed, Adrian nudged her shoulder with his own. "What's wrong?" He asked. Finally, she snapped out of her stupor and made eye contact with him for a moment before sighing.

"Sorry. Just remembering the last time I was here."

"It was that bad, huh?" 

"No... I didn't even manage to kill anyone. I was too dead tired by the time I got up here. I was just running on fumes, but I fought as hard as I could. Pretty sure I brought a few pretty close to death." She remembered, looking over the balcony with a somber expression.

"Sounds like you were just as messed up back then as you were when we met." Adrian said.

"Yeah." She agreed, nodding slightly. "But I can remember what happened after pretty clearly. I struggled as hard as I could, but I wasn't strong enough. After I climbed the support beam like we did earlier, I attacked a group of gryphons near the doorway. Around the spot that Reese greeted us from, in fact. I stumbled before I was able to deliver the finishing blows, though. After that, they called the guards on me, and I ran. Eventually, the entire Gryvus military cornered me in the far side of Gryvus... right around here." She told Adrian. 

Adrian listened to her story in silence.

She pointed to a small ledge a little ways down the mountain. "Cornered, I chose to kill myself, rather than surrender. I jumped over a railing... right around here. I rolled down the mountain and landed right on that ledge over there. There's a small overhang that I was able to hide in. I spent the better part of a month lying there, healing and living off the rations that I'd hidden in my gear."

"You think that they gave us this mansion to remind you of that?" Adrian wondered. It couldn't have been a coincidence that they gave her a place within eyesight of the very spot where she fell, he realized.

"I'd bet on it." She answered, then shrugged after a moment, "Not that it really matters."

"What do you mean?" Adrian asked her. It seemed like a pretty big dig, from a political perspective. In the terms that Adrian understood, it was basically them saying 'we don't need you, because we've beaten you before. You're wasting your time here.'

"Gryphons consider themselves better than everyone else. They'll take shots like this, get underhanded whenever they need to, but they won't do anything truly despicable. They're arrogant and dull, but they aren't going to 'besmirch' their honor. We can negotiate with them... hopefully."