Where the northern lights gather

I wake up with all of the places sore. Atleast I got some sleep. It is painfull to walk and move, but I can't stay in bed the entire time. I went to eat and I see Aktor and Revon sitting on the same table.

- Hi, what are you two discussing?

Aktor stays silent and Revon answers.

- We were just discussing the tatoos that were put on you. Aktor dosn't seem to like the fact that I made you take an overhaul.

- I mean, it is painfull now, but perhaps they will help me in the future.

- That's what I've been saying to him but he won't listen.

Aktor states.

- I just feel like people shouldn't enhance themselfs by doing that.

- Why do you think so?

- It takes the proses of progression out of the picture. It... it just feels off to me.

- They won't be given to people who can't physically endure it. They are only given to people who are qualified.

- Then why are you selling them at a festival?

- They've been told to only give low tier tatoos, but since I was there, we gave him a high tier one ment to be used in the icy cold and dangers of Ikujää,

- I get it that it is necessary there, but here.

- We made an exception. And it dosn't take away the need to train yourself.

- Still it feels wrong.

- And so we have been at it for quite some time.

I add.

- I will still keep training myself, don't you worry.

- Oh, and by the way, we need you to come to Ikujää. More specificly, to the station 8.

- What, why? I thought that they don't accept outsiders easily.

- Well, as it turns out, we called an person who was in charge of the mana circuits about what we did, and she didn't seem quite so happy about our arrangement.

- Do I have any say in the matter?

- No, unfortunately you are now considered Havi's property. For now.

- I belong to Havi? Now if I recal, Havi is some business in Ikujää, right.

- Well yes, but they are basically the coverment of Ikujää. The rulers of Ikujää, if you will.

- And thanks to you, who gave me these "circuits", I have to belong to this coverment.

- Yes.

- Fantastic. Well then, when will we leave?

- We need ro be there in a month, so as soon as possible.

- Well, let me eat first atleast.

I eat the breakfast and then we leave.

- Goodbye, my sweet festival. For you were one of the more pleacant memories of my life.

- And here he goes again.

We left the town and then traveled couple of weeks on horse back and ransu. Nothing interesting happened, if not for the mention of an canibalism in Ihm. Apparently it is acceptable, atleast in the northern islands, or some clans, to eat other humanoids. There is a thing in one of the clans that if you kill a person, you must eat the person, with exeptions of brain and bones. They have learned quite a few resepies for that as well, but I didn't look more into that. Aktor was quite facinated by this idea, for some reason. Thankfully that practice is not well liked in most places and is ignored.

Apparently there is an lizard person in Ikujää, that is allowed to eat anyone who is found dead in the tundra outside. He just has to bring their tags, bones and brains. Everything else is free game for him. He apparently is one of the few living humanoids that can go outside the facilities in Ikujää without any circuits.

Then we came to a dock that sends boats to Ikujää. We had to wait couple of days for the ship's return. At least we got to eat lot of good seafood. We also got to see few animals and magical beasts that live in a cold area.

Then I saw the ship, and by the five it was huge. Far bigger ship than the ships in Aeternius. Probably twice the size of an normal ship. maybe three times larger. We had to wait a day for all the cargo to leave and enter the ship. And then we were off.

The ship is called Icebreaker since it had to break some ice to get to where it was going. The front had some magical heat coming out of it, probably for breaking the ice. The back of the ship had some mechanical device that made the ship move. Others called it an engine. Apparently both the front and the back used huge amount of magic to operate. The magica was that was used comes from huge mana crystals found on Ikujää. The mana crystals found there can be recharged when magic runs out.

And so we sailed for a two days. Most of the time we spend on ice. I'm surprised that the ship even got through the huge amount of ice that rose to the size of the ship and bigger. I asked why they didn't make their base inside the ice and they said, it was because the heat that comes out from the stations would eventualy melt the ice to the point that it would have been more inconvenient.

Then we were ordered inside as the cold became too much to bear. We were ordered to go inside in the start of the second day. Not that there were anyone dumb enough to stand in the cold when the warmth of the ship was so close. And after the fourth day was halfway, we hit the land. Or the ice that was not to be broken.

We were now on some icy cavern with some building around us. We saw the cargo being loaded up to, what they called, a train. We were going to get inside this train when the cargo was unloaded to it. It took couple of hours and then we were off. The train went on a icy tunnel for a while.

Then, finaly we hit the land. We were inside some cave lit up by some magical lights. The cave was huge and looked like it was dug by some machines. I heard that 58% of the people living in Ikujää were humans. 23% were dwafs, 11% were elfs and 8% were beast folk. Apparently they keep a strict records of everything. I had to sign some papers before I could go outside the trainstation.

Then I heard a troubling news come out of Revon's mouth.

- We are now at the station 1. We have to go another seven stations to get to the station 8.

- Why, oh why do we have to go all the way there?

- All the circuits that are put into a humanoid body are handled by them. Or rather, the research on them.

- How many stations there are in total?

- It was 13, but one of them was destroyed so we have to go the long way.

- Destroyed? What happened?

- There was an accident in station 10 that destroyed most of the facilities. We would be able to go through there, but the collapsed tunnel doesn't help.

- So, we just need to go the long way right. How long will our trip to the station 8 take?

- About day and a half. The trains are quick and can cover long distances in quick fashion.

- So let's go then.

- The train is about to depart in 30 minutes. Let's get something to eat first.

We go and eat to pass the time. Then our day and a half was spend sitting on a train until we finally reached the station 8. There we were greeted by a dwarf with eyeglasses. He started talkin to Revon.

- Took you long enough. Do you have any idea how important this is?

- Sorry, it's just that the travel time takes so long to reach station 8.

- Now then, follow me and we will begin our investigation.

We started walking.

- As I told you, they are just normal mana circuits. There is nothing to investigate.

- It doesn't matter. What does matter is that we allowed the enchanters to do rank 1 mana circuits on the outsiders. You however, made something that we believe to be rank 3 mana circuits. That is why we called you all here. With an exeption of the spear guy. He is only here as a witness.

- I'm sorry okay. Just be understanding on this matter.

- If we see that it is rank 4 or above, we have some fines for you to pay.

- Well... That's

- They better not be rank 4.

- They are on the edge of being rank 5.

- By the five, you realy got carried away.

We then enter a building that reads "Havi research". There we saw many machines doing stuff I don't understand. They were probably making the liquified mana crystals or something. Then we enter a smaller room where I'm ordered to strip up and go stand in a glassy tube that was attached to a machine.

- Will this hurt?

- Only briefly.

The machine starts operating and the tube is filled up with some liquid.

- Is this suppoced to happen?

- It is, now try not to move too much. The liquid wont go past your head so don't worry.

The liquid was bit cold but not too cold. It started to shine a bit with a bluish light. Then it started to be drained by the machine and I could leave the tube and I was handed a towel.

- As you said Revon, this is on the edge of being a rank 5. This will make Nor verry high value for Havi.

- As long as he doesn't have to suffer, I'll do anything.

- You are lucky that Havi's top executives are looking to restore station 10.

- They are doing that? What do I need to do?

- You need to be there in case magical beasts from the outside come crawling in. This would make the top executives be more forgiving in this matter.

- If that is what it takes, then of course I will help.

- I will send a message to the one in charge of this project that you will be assisting them. They are currently repairing the railway between station 9 and 10. It mostly have been mining the collapsed tunel open and then putting the railway back up. When they finally reach the station itself, then your job becomes important.

- Will do, we will leave immediately.

- You do that.

We leave the dwarf and go to the place where the train is about to depart. Then it took a half of our day to get to the collapsed tunnel. During our travel Aktor asked Revon about something.

- Why am I here exactly? I have no part on this.

- Oh, come on now. Consider this as a... well... a trip to test your skills. You haven't been in Ikujää before have you? This is great experiment on your skills.

- I suppose that's right.

Then we stoped at the mining site. There were lot of people here and it was cold. Couple days of mining later, we were finally nearing the station 10 itself. There was an order that all of the people with mana circuits lower than rank 2 are to leave the area. With couple of exceptions.

The reason why the people with rank 2 are allowed to stay is because of the sheer cold that was outside. These stations are burrowed deep underground with many heaters and thermal insulations. Apparently outside is now -137°C, with the lowest ever recorded temperature being -198°C. The mana circuits are there to keep the people warmer than they would without them. Normal people would not survive long in these temperatures, let alone breathe.

The path was finally open with many magical beasts roaming around the station. I saw Revon charge at them with high speed and killing his first magical beast of the day. I charged and took care of the wolfs like beasts that were larger than humans and Aktor and Revon took care of the more bigger ones.

It took couple of hours to finish off but we finally did it. There is a risk of more of them coming so we stay with the workers to ensure their safety. Closing the hole was our top priority. It took half a day, with some instances of magical beasts coming from the hole, but the workers finally shut the hole.

The magical beasts here were no joke. I had problems with only one of the higher snow wolfs that were my targets. Having to fight many of them at the same time would have been imposible before my mana circuits, but now I standed a chance on fighting them.

The workers are now mostly safe, but we still have to stay in case of a breach. Luckily in the couple of hours we were there, there weren't any breaches. The workers made sure that the hole doesn't open by puting multiple layers of rock and metal to it.

The job was finally done. Now we only had to wait for the railway to station 11 to open and we could go visit stations 12 and 13. Apparently we had to go there to get the aproval of the high executives.

When the railway was open again, we went to station 11. Apparently that is where most of the local food was made. Station 1 is the only place where the ship goes and is thus responsible of contributing the goods that come outside of Ikujää. The station 12 is where the local military is hold up and station 9 is the training ground for the soldiers in Ikujää. Station 13 is where the materials are dig up. Station 3 is apparently the "capital" of Ikujää, meaning that most of the executives live and make decisions.

We now are inside the station 12 and we saw many things that we didn't understand. They had staffs that launch metal shards in quick succession, an armor that was twise the size of a person and some uniforms that had many enchantments on them. We are lucky that they aren't planing to expanding their military might. This technology is far beyond any other nation. Luckily they are peacefull, at least according to Revon they use this technology to only fight the magical beasts in Ikujää. Thanks to their ksenofobia, they probably will stay in Ikujää for a long time.

Then we went to station 13 and it was the biggest cave I've ever seen. There were some kind of machines digging the ground with people operating them. Their use of magical crystals is something else.

Then we took a train to station 3 to talk to the executives that wanted to keep me here. We were met with an two elfs, one man and one woman. Man started talking.

- Greetings visitors. We are here to guide you to lord Dvalin, the high executive of Havi.

They guided us through a massive city undeground. We were about to enter the largest buidling, until elf woman strated talking.

- From here on, you will walk with respect. Also you will hand your weapons.

I give my weapons, Revon doesn't have any since he uses sumoned weapons and Aktor refuses to give his spear. He and the woman started arguing.

- I'm fine keeping my spear.

- You are about to visit the second highest person on Havi. You should show some respect.

- I'm fine with not going if I can't keep my spear.

- Lord Dvalin wishes to see all three of you. You can't just ignore his invitation.

- It's not that I can't. It's just that I will show disrespect towards him if I don't go and see him. Which I'm fine doing.

- You can't just...

Aktor starts walking away. The man starts talking to some communication device while the woman is trying to stop Aktor. The man starts talking.

- We made an exception on your part. You may keep the spear.

- Then, we won't have a problem.

We start going inside and I notice the woman givin Aktor a glare. We enter some metal box that suddenly starts moving upwards. We reach the top floor and we are shown to a door of the person we are going to meet. The door opens and we saw an old dwarf man sitting on a comfy chair. He greets us.

- Welcome, welcome. My honored visitors. It is good to see you. And Revon.

- Hey!

- Now, about our little issue. You need to sign some papers that tells you that you may not use them in a unjust ways.

He slides the papers and hands me a pen. I look about the contract a little closer and see nothing fishy about it. So I sign it.

- Exelent. Now that that's out of the way. I heard you had a little trouble with your weapons.

- You have a problem with that?

- I've no problem with it myself. But I'm curious, why did you insist on keeping your spear?

- It is a memento of when I was younger.

- So a long term friend. I get it. Even I can't stand not having my hammer beside me. We've been trough lot together.

He shows his used up hammer that was leaning on the side of his desk.

- Glad someone understands it.

- But you did give Jino a headache. He was the one who was in charge of you all. Even the trainee.

- So she was a trainee.

- She has an attitude alright. But hey, let's not dwell on the matter and let's us discus what happens next. We will...

The doors slams open and we see a lizard person walking in a loud fashion.

- Oi Dval! Are these the chums that I am escorting today!? Oh hi Revon! Long time no see!

-Hector, my friend! I've been well, how are you?

- You know, the same. Wandering around the tundra, fighting magical beasts.

Dvalin clears his throat.

- This person will show you around the town. His name is Hector Rex and he is our... Ahem!... local cannibal.

- That's me. Just your local canibal here, Hector.

I look a bit confused.

- He's a cannibal?

- Yes I am. ever since I came to Ikujää, my job is to get rid of corpses on the tundra. One of the ways is to eat most of them.

- Can't you, you know, leave them out there? Since it's so dangerous.

- People want confirmation about their loved one's wherebouts. When they hear that their loved one goes out and dies, they wish to get his remains with them.

- But... That's... Nevermind.

Dvalin states.

- People here sign papers that allows them to choose if they want their bodies to be eaten, if found outside. Most of them are okay with this arrangement.

- I don't only eat humanoid meat, I eat regular food too. And when eating a person, I leave the bones and brain intact. Then I bring the bones and the brain back to one of the stations, where it is cremated.

- And trust me, we make sure that those who wish to not be eaten by him wear a special marking on their clothes when outside the tundra.

I'm still baffled by this. Then Aktor starts asking.

- So what now? Are we allowed to leave Ikujää? Or more importantly, is Nor allowed to leave?

- With my authority I can make sure that he is free to go as he pleaces. Especially since he used his strenght to reclaim station 10.

- Then I'm leaving.

- Don't you want to go shoping for things? We even allow you to acces our specia stock as well as mana circuits.

- I... well, if Nor wants to go.

I nod.

- Well then, lead the way Hector.

And so we spend the rest of the day buying stuff.