Chapter 18: Incursion
Not for the first time in his life, Marcus wondered what chaos storms really were. They had been a fact of life for everyone on the planet for hundreds of years now, but he knew from historical records that it hadn’t always been so, and he’d heard that other planets in the system did not have them. What event started the chaos storms, and why haven’t they gone away after all this time? Whatever set this phenomenon into motion must have been absolutely titanic in scale. One would think that such an event would be widely recorded in every historical record on the planet, but Marcus could never get a clear answer out of any of them. Everyone seemed to blame someone else for their origin.
As his thoughts wandered along these lines, Marcus stared out through the window into the town outside. Glowing rivers of multicolored light were weaving their way in between the buildings, giving everything a dazzling gleam. An odd tinkling sound could be hear faintly through the window. The chaos storm was raging unabated.
Marcus and his students were trapped here for the moment. They were forced to take shelter in one of the coastal cities when they saw the storm coming, and thankfully had no issue in finding a local inn with enough free space to accommodate the ten of them. Marcus had been hoping that this surprise chaos storm would abate just as suddenly as it began, but unfortunately it seemed they would have to stay here over night.
Thankfully, chaos storms rarely lasted more than a day.
“Still no sign of it weakening, eh?” a voice called out behind Marcus.
He turned slightly, realizing it was the owner of the inn. He was an elderly man, with a thin figure and completely grey hair. He seemed to be a rather compassionate sort, as he had taken in a bunch of vagabonds and city homeless into the place when the storm started, even though they couldn’t pay for the meals or a room for the night. Too cruel to let them die out there, he said.
“No, it seems we will have to wait for morning,” Marcus said, shaking his head.
“Ha ha, don’t be so glum about it!” the old man said, slapping his back for good measure. He didn’t seem intimidated at all about Marcus clearly being some kind of mage. “Stop worrying and go play a round of cards or two with your students. They all found ways to amuse themselves while we wait. You’re the only one being so nervous about this. Just be thankful you weren’t caught out in the wilderness while the evil storm rages about. Now that would be something to worry about…”
“I suppose you’re right,” Marcus conceded. It was indeed fortunate that they hadn’t encountered the chaos storm while flying over open ocean, since there was little there to take shelter in. Marcus supposed he could have frozen some of the water and fashioned a shelter out of the ice, but he didn’t have any convenient spells for shaping ice, so it would have been tricky. Not to mention that sitting in a block of ice in the middle of the ocean would be… unhealthy in a number of different ways.