Chapter 5: There and Back Again

Dialogue and descriptions from The Longest Journey by Funcom - Transcript compiled by Bluejay, slightly modified by me

She woke the next morning, confused for a moment and then recollected the events of the previous night.

Ben-Bandu was waiting for her as she exited the barrow into a tranquil glade.

Ben-Bandu in the morning

He dashed away hurriedly down a path. The Elder, seemingly ensconced like an oyster in his hammock, put down his pipe as April approached.

She who seeks and finds

Tempting as it i was to frighten a sleeping Crow awake, she settled for calling loudly at the dozing bird.

Waking up Crow

He took off as she threaded her way down the path down to the swamp. The Banda had told her it was the fastest route to reach the other side of the north road last night. A Banda waylaid her to offer her a food package and skipped off before she could thank him. The foetid smell of the swamp tickled her nose as she reached the end of the path. Big things were moving down deep in the water as she peered cautiously into it. A narrow wooden bridge wiouund its way into the depths of the swamp. There were no other animals saved for insects. Especially clouds of mosquitoes hovering everywhere in the dimmer regions. She hoped one of those clouds would not get a whiff of her and charged. The last thing she needed then was malaria. She set off at a slow trot, careful to keep an eye on the way ahead of her.

Sweat was pouring off her when she finally came to the end of the bridge and walked out into the forest. The trail led upwards.She wiped her wet brow in relief as she looked back at the swamp. The humidity of the swamp was overwhelming and there was hardly a breath of fresh air in there. And those strange tentacled creatures. Ugh. That was an ordeal she'd prefered to not go through again. And she was thirsty. No water to drink, she had emptied the waterskin during her journey through the swamp but there were left over fruit from the food package. She frowned as she checked her stuff. Did she drop something? It felt like she had dropped something. Whatever it was, one of those... things... probably ate it. It would come to her eventually. The Banda stone was safe, however. She finished the remainder of the fruit as she strode up the hill and paused to examine a solitary plant bearing dark purple tulip-like flowers with a satin texture. Pretty, but a little too gothic for her tastes. It's like, where's the funeral? The petals were soft to the touch, and soothing, like skin moisturizer. Might be useful. She would bring a few in case her hands got dry. It never hurt to be prepared for a dry-skin emergency.

It grew chillier as the hill ascended higher and she shivered. Her thin clothing would not provide much warmth if it got any colder. An astonishing sight came into view as she reached the top of the hill: a mountain castle floating above the plains. It must be Roper Klack's castle. The whole gravity-defying bit kinda gave it away. She wondered if that was like the Arcadian equivalent of an RV. Relocation was a big problem. It took a couple of hours for her to reach the plains at the bottom of the hill and the stone ledge over which the mountain castle hovered. What seemed to be keeping it anchored was a statue of a man standing at the end of the ledge, grasping a large metal ring attached to a chain riveted to the bottom of the mountain castle. There was no visible doorway to get into the castle. So how did Klacks get into it? Fly? She examined the statue carefully for clues. Nice stonework, but not particularly realistic. It felt odd under her fingers. It had a strange texture and her fingers felt tingly. She jumped back in alarm as the statue spoke suddenly.

The man of stone

The only item that was remotely moist were the few tulip-like purple flowers which she tried to rub on the statue. But the stone surface was too coarse, and the petals were not moist enough by themselves. She would need to mix them with something to make it easier to apply. She looked around. No water, no trees ... but berries growing on plants nearby. The berries looked ripe and juicy, but her mom had taught her never to judge a book by its cover. They' were probably poisonous, and almost certainly fattening. Perhaps mixing the juice of the berries mixed with the flowers? Unfortunately, the berry plants lay on treacherous marshy ground that would probably result in her getting stuck and drown if she try to cross it. But it should be no obstacle to Crow, who was quick to respond to the flute.

Crow to the rescue

It took him but a couple of minutes to gather as many berries as he could hold in his beak and fly back with them. Task done, he flew off as she squeezed the juice from all the berries onto the flowers. The berries were ripe and sticky, keeping and carrying them around on her wiould only stain her clothing so she elected not to keep any. The amount of sticky, mushy moisturizing cream that resulted was so small that she hoped it was enough to accomplish the task. Quickly, before the cream dried up in the chill, she spread it over the mouth and arms of the statue.

The petrified man

Bits of stone rained down as he strained at the metal ring. The chain moved and the bottom of the mountain dropped down to reveal a staircase. It was not as dark as she feared as she ascended, candles on the landing revealed a long flight of stairs that led straight up to the top. As she stood there and contemplated the amount of climbing she had to do, the entrance thudded shut. There was no going back now. She sighed and steeled herself for a tough climb. Oh for a hovercraft or a pair of wings.

After what seemed like eternity the stairs finally ended at a wooden door. Instead of a room beyond the door, disjointed walkways and stairs on different levels wound round a chasm in the center. There was no straight path to any of the doors in the wall.

She supposed she would have to play the mad alchemist's game in order to proceed. There was no visible sign of any operating mechanism to raise the missing walkway at the second level except for a couple of gargoyle statues on the first two landings. The first gargoyle had his hand out, as if he was begging. Could it be that simple? She placed an aren on the outstretched hand, wondering if anything would happen. The pillar beneath the gargoyle pivoted, revealing a different statue on the other side.

The wizard's annoyance was music to her ears, she was doing something right. The hands of the statue were on fire. She blew out the flames. A low rumble brought her attention to the center doorway below. In the carved face of the stone door, two eyes were glowing and above it, two candles had lit up. That must be the way into the castle. She ran up to the statue on the second landing and turned the hourglass it was holding. With a scraping of stones, the missing walkway appeared to close the gap. As quickly as possible, she crossed before the liquid in the hourglass ran out.

The next level had three doorways and a flight of stairs ... which should she take? The first door had a mirror and there was something not right with her reflection.

A rolled up parchment lay at the foot of the door. As she bent down to take it, the reflected April snarled and lunged out of the mirror. She pulled back in time from being grabbed.

Reining in the urge to shake a fist at the irritating voice, she returned to the hourglass. Putting her full concentration on it, she made it safely to the door.

The staircase behind the door led to the lower walkway leading to the stonefaced door. It stared at her stonily as she waved at it. There was no clue as to what she should do to bridge the gap between the walkway and the door. As she stood there stumped, Klacks chortled over her predicament.

She backtracked through the door, intending to return to the upper level and find something that would operate the stonefaced door. Instead, she found herself back at the beginning of the labyrinth.

The begging gargoyle had pivoted back. Maybe putting another aren wiould open the door. As she placed the coin in the hand, it rotated once more. This time, its pal was holding salt and pepper shakers in each hand. She removed both and flames leapt up in the hands again and refused to be put out this time.

The pepper shaker gave her an idea of what to do. Belong long, she was back before the stonefaced door and vigorously shaking the pepper shaker. The face crinkled up as the pepper floated past its nostrils. The force of the violent sneeze it gave rocked the door downwards, bridging the gap.

The chamber beyond was empty, except for a large roaring fireplace and a staircase below a huge circular window. Chandeliers hung lfrom the high ceiling. Evil alchemist or not, at least he had made some effort to make the place look good. She could barely see anything through the window. It was as if there was a thick fog outside obscuring everything. The chamber was chilly though, the only warmth eminating from the fireplace. She peered into it, wondering what sort of fuel was keeping the fire burning. Roper Klackscertainly knew how to keep a big fire... wait, were those human bones down there? She shuddered, too late to back out now. Steeling herself, she turned to climb the stairs and stopped as laughter rang out. A thin wild-haired man stalked out to the landing. His eyes gleaming in a machiavellian manner as he stared at April who retreated slowly from the stairs.

The evil alchemist

He gestured, a corona appeared between them and a ball of fire exploded near her feet.

She pulled out the calculator.

He made a pulling gesture and the calculator floated from her hands to his. He peered at it and jabbed at the buttons.

Hysterical mirth seemed to overwhelm him as he bellowed with laughter, tossing the calculator in his hand with glee. As he continued to laugh, he became wispy as smoke and disappeared into the calculator which fell with a clatter to the floor, to her amazement and relief. Nothing of him remained.

The entire castle began to shake. From the flickering of light and shadows through the window, she realised that some of his spells had unraveled the moment he vanished. The castle was floating away. Far below, a hapless petrified Lorhan hung swinging at the end of the chain. She tried to keep her balance as the mountain castle rose to higher altitudes. The trembling stopped after a while. The castle was moving and who knew where it would drift to. Hurrying through the doorway from which Klacks had made his entrance, she found herself in a statue strewned passage that led off in two directions. Before her was a staircase winding up into the upper levels which she decided to try first. The room at the top was obviously Klacks' workroom. Ropes dangled from the dome ceiling. Racks and shelves were cluttered with books, all sizes of flasks and strange apparatus reached from ceiling to floor on every wall.

A large luminesscent purple crystal secured to a stand on a low oak table glimmered in the dim light. Tiny specks of light flitted back and forth inside. This must be where Klacks had trapped the souls of all those unfortunate people. It looked too dense to be broken easily and, as she tried to move it, found that it was fixed rigidly to the table Dust, inches thick, covered the curtains. She'd bet they had not been washed for years. Typical. Evil alchemists spent too much time mixing potions and coming up with megalomaniacal schemes, and not enough time to do basic household chores. Pulling back the curtains to let in some light, she discovered a green vial behind them. Clever fellow, that Roper Klacks. Who'd think to look there?

She picked it up, along with another vial on one of the lower shelves, this one containing a white liquid. After a careful scrutiny, she spotted a red vial on a top shelf, but it was too high for her to reach it. There was no ladder so she would have to leave it for the moment. A large book lay opened on a desk. One of the pages had been torn out, leaving only part of it readable. If he had bothered to tear it out, it must be important.

Where would he had put the missing piece? It would be easy to hide it in a room full of books and papers but, she doubted Klacks would do something as mundane as that. No fun and enjoyment in watching someone rifled through his precious belongings even if he would allow it in the first place. So, it had to be where it posed a challenge for his victim and entertainment for himself. It dawned on her. Of course, the parchment at the mirror door in the labyrinth. Ten to one, that was where he had placed it. But how to avoid her evil mirror self? She flipped through the book, which was full of illustrations, hoping for a clue. It seemed to be Klack's alchemical tome, His hand-writing was intricate but schizophrenic with frighteningly detail renderings of his alchemical creations, some of which were so abstract that she could not comprehend what she was seeing or too horrific to contemplate. The torn page had a line of illustration at the top. Clouds and spider's web, plus...magic finger? If alchemy was anything like chemistry, that last one was probably some kind of catalyst or something. Clouds and spidersweb plus catalyst made .. invisible?

The liquids in the two vials she had picked up might possibly be parts of the potion. She unstoppered the white vial and to her astonishment, as she shook it, she heard the sound of distant thunder. It smelled like ozone and as she tipped a drop onto her fingers, it felt moist and light. Fluffy, almost. Clouds! The first component in the illustration. The green vial had the smell of morning dew, the texture of thin strands of hair and the sound of the rustling of tiny legs. Spiders, of course. The rest must be somewhere in the room. The table before the fireplace was cluttered with flasks, beakers, the metal frame of a globe, a lighted candle holder, empty vials in a stand, a large bronze cauldron with a fire blazing beneath, a big old skull with a weird blue light inside and a yellow vial.

The source of the blue light turned out to be a blue vial. She took a sniff. The smell of the blue liquid was hard to define, sort of sharp, decisive and earthy. It felt cool to the touch, like ice and she could hear a distant, tingling sound, like crystal bells. Could this be the catalyst? The yellow vial smelt of fresh flowers with a texture that felt like satin, very fragile and it gave off a sound like the rapid flapping of fragile wings. An insect?

The couldron had a tap, moulded as a head with a tongue, for emptying the contents of the pot into a container. An empty vial stood ready to be filled. With everything ready at hand, she decided to try to make an invisible potion. Following the first illustration, she measured out a small amount with a beaker from each vial and emptied it into the cauldron, which resounded from the tones of the different essences before falling silent. Taking that as a sign the process was completed, she poured the finished potion into one of the empty vials. Fortunately, the vial was small and easy to carry around

Time to test the magical essence that, with luck, would make her invisible. She hurried back down to the laybyrinth to the mirror door. Bracing herself, she took a sip from the vial. Her tongue was flooded with a strange flavour she could not define but since it did not cause her to heave, she was not complaining. She was delighted to see that it worked as she looked down at herself. She was invisible! That was so cool! With no evil mirror April, the parchment was easily retrieved. As she turned away from the mirror door, she found herself visible again. Good timing. She had got to hold on to this stuff. If nothing else, it was perfect for sneaking into clubs back home. Back at the tower room, she found her assumption was correct. The parchment fitted perfectly with the torn page. Now she was able to read the rest of the formulas.

Butterfly wings with clouds makes leaf? Makes you light as a leaf probably.

Clouds with ... (She frowned at the picture of a burning rock) brimstone makes storm. Storm! I can bring the wind back with this potion.

Brimstone with brimstone makes a big bang. Oooh, like a firecracker. I always wanted a firecracker.

Spider's web and butterfly wings makes... what is that? A chain around a chaotic symbol. Chaotic like... like magic. Chain magic? Bind magic!

The light-as-a-leaf potion was her first priority, she needed to get the red vial down from the top shelf. Belong long, she had another vial of pink luminescent potion. It did not look any different from the invisiblility potion. She was a little dubious that it was supposed to take off those few extra pounds in a jiffy. Those few extra pounds meaning, of course, everything. In order to avoid confusion, she used a peagreen stopper, of which Klacks' had of various colours, to plug the vial. Standing below the shelf, she took a tiny sip of the light-as-a-leaf potion and shuddered from the taste. Bitter. She did feel a lttle less... weighty though. If she put her mind to it, she could probably jump quite high. With a little spring that brought her right up to the ceiling, she acquired the red vial easily and landed lightly on her feet. She should save some of the stuff for the Olympic Games next year. It was a safe bet she'd dominate the high jump and pole vault contests.

She sniffed the red vial cautiously. Red usually represented really bad stuff so it was best to be doubly careful. The smell of sulphur that wafted from the mouth of the bottle was overwhelming and she yelped as the tiny drop of liquid burnt her finger. Shaking her finger to cool it, she shook the vial to hear the sound of something burning. Returning to the cauldron and scrupulously following the illustrations, she soon had another three pink identical potions lined up before her. Try as she might, even holding up the vials to the light, there was no telling them apart. So she plugged them with different coloured stoppers.Bright yellow for the bind magic potion, bronze for the wind potion and red for the explosive potion. An essence using brimstone with brinstone, which, obviously was a pretty explosive combo. So, a vial with some nitroglycerine, really. It made her nervous to have it on her person.

Goose-flesh racked her arms. The ambient temperature had dropped without her realising it, busy as she was with the potions. Wondering what had been happening out there, she tried to look out of the closed window, but the glass was too foggy to see through. She opened the window and was shocked by the view. She did not know how high up they were, but there were clouds below and she could not see the ground. Taking out her flute, she blew a tune. After a while, a black speck appeared with wings pumping furiously, Crow flew through the window.

Crow in the laboratory

Checking carefully she had the right vial, she unplugged it and held it near his feet so he could grasp it.

Hobbling awkwardly, he oriented himself before flying off. Scarcely a minute after he had gone, the mountain castle gave a violent jerk, nearly throwing her to the floor. Flasks, beakers and everything else around the entire place rattled intensely, the vibration tipping several over to shatter to the floor, as the wind began to blow, howling past and through the window.

(With a furious flapping of wings, Crow reappeared through the window)

She thumbed the stopper down firmly to make sure it was secured before putting it away. With the wind restored, it was time to release the prisoners. Standing at arm's length and with Crow looking on with great interest, she gingerly dripped a few drops of the explosive potion onto the soul crystal. Nothing happened. It just fizzled. The crystal seemed to be in constant fluctuation. Of course! A spell was probably protecting the crystal so she wiould have to remove it somehow. Or bind it? The crystal seemed to soak up the bind-magic potion like water on dry paper. The faint haze around the crystal vanished. Certain it would work this time, she poured some of the explosive potion over it.

The crystal cracked and a stream of pink smoke flowed out. Outside, a blazing streak of lightning flashed over the castle as it rapidly began to drop in altitude. The pink stream scattered throughout the castle to flow into the statues,. Stone skin fissured and became living flesh. The "begging" gargoyle blinked, as another looked in befuddlement at the scale braziers it was holding. The lower corridors of the castle began to stir with life and confusion as more and more prisoners woke and made their way to the lower levels. It was time to leave, she bid Crow to fly to safety. But she had forgotten about the wind. With a howl, it seized hold of Crow as he exited the window and swiftly swirled him from sight as he squawked in alarm. The force of the wind caused her eyes to water as she rushed to the window that she could barely see anything. There was no time to lose however, she could feel the castle descending and would most likely hit the ground. She rushed down the tower and after several precious long minutes of shouting and organizing, led everyone down to the bottom of the mountain.

Outside, far below, Lorhan hung on for dear life as the ground whizzed past. The castle was sinking lower and lower. It floated past the farmlands of Marcuria. He let go with a yell as soon as he was over an open field, hitting the ground with a resounding thump before rolling to a stop. He sat up with relief and watched as the mountain castle sailed on, dipping lower and lower.

Within, the staircase at the bottom remained stubbornly closed. April had everyone backed up a little before she dripped a few drops of explosive potion on the staircase exit, hoping for the best. The explosion blew out the lower half of the staircase and forced the remaining half to fall out. One by one, they jumped to safety. Some leapt without bothering to descend and ended up with unpleasant bruises. Seconds after the last prisoner had gotten off, the bottom of the mountain castle hit the ground, tearing huge swaths. By then, it had drfited well past the inhabited outlying areas of Marcuria. With a tremendous roar, the castle plowed into a low hill. The impact broke up the structure completely, tons of stone rained down and an immense cloud of dust and debris rose to choke the air. As it slowly settled, all that remained of the castle were large chunks of stone and rubble.

The sun was high in the sky as a lone figure walked up to the north gates of Marcuria. Except for cuts and bruises, April counted herself lucky to have escaped serious injury. She had to spend a night in the forest while getting back to Marcuria as the castle had drifted quite a distance to the west. Crow had not caught up with her yet, she hoped he was all right.

The city walls were a welcome sight, almost home. Once past the city gates, she spent a couple of arens on a simple meat roll and drink. While in the forest, she had thought of scrounging for food but her unfamiliarity with the flora soon dispensed of that idea and she had endured a cold hungry night out there. Her hunger assuaged, she made her way down to the harbour where clamps of sailors were engaged in lively debate as they looked at the sails flapping in the breeze and the waves lapping gently against the pier. Some captains had apparently already decided to seize this window of revival, loading cargo and making ready to set sail. She found Captain Nebevay standing on the gangway, looking at the ships and out to sea.

Captain Nebevay

She would definitely make him eat his words!

A panting Crow settled on one of the piles by the ship with a relief sigh. At last, he had managed to catch up with April.

Shaking his head, Nebevay stomped off, calling to his crew to make preparations. With the time she had, she hoped she would be able to find a navigator .. a woman navigator. And if she was right as to where to find one, she could kill two birds with one stone. The Journeyman Inn was deserted except for a blue-skinned woman at the bar. Despite the colour of her skin, she had that weathered look to her. April was certain that this was Tun Luiec. She was startled to see a tattoo etched into the woman's forehead which gave it a semblance of a third eye, like a Cyclops.

Tun Luiec at the inn

Tun Luiec left with a rolling but light-hearted gait. April reckoned she had better pay a visit to Tobias and had a word with him before she left, in case Cortez happened to come looking for her, unlikely as that was. Still, she'd prefer someone knew of her whereabouts and Tobias was someone whom she could trust. He was not at the pedestal-table as she expected, instead she fiound him looking at the first mural of the Balance. More lanterns had been brought in chasng away the dimness of the the passage. He did not seem surprise to see her.

Tobias worries

She returned his bow and watched him disappeared through a doorway at the end of the passage with a heavy heart. She was afraid that she had seen him for the last time, afraid of the forthcoming war and what it would mean if she failed to find a way to return to Stark once she had done all she had to do. And that bombshell he dropped on her, she was completely at a lost. She slipped the talisman over her head and tucked it under her shirt.

With time to kill, she decided to pay a visit to Brian Westhouse but he was not at home. Neither was the Venar. She finally ended up at the Journeyman Inn, had a spot of lunch and dropped off into a nap without realising it. The sun was low in the sky as she hastily made her way down to the pier. Hurriedly, she summoned Crow , who responded readily to her immense relief, to tell him of their next destination just before she reached the ship. He settled himself on the roof of the cabin as she approached the gangway. Nebevay seemed impatient to be off and waved to her to hurry.

A couple of sailors released the warp on the mooring, leapt lightly onboard and used stout poles to push the ship away from the pier as the rest of the crew climbed the rigging to unfurl the sails. Before long, the ship was planing through the water, running before the wind. She looked over the side with some trepidation before lifting her eyes to watch the mountains glide by. As the sun gradually dropped down below the horizon, Marcuria steadily dwindled as the ship drew further and further away. She wondered if she would see the city again before the Tyren attack.