Deren's Ford
"This is a joke, yes?" Sapphire River at Midnight looked over at her new friend and raised an eyebrow.
"Not... Exactly." Storm of Amber smiled.
"I know I'm new to the plains, but I still know what a ford is..." The Eclipse cast her gaze down into the gorge below. It's hardscrabble face, dotted with short, twisted pines, sloped steeply down, more than a mile deep. Sapphire thought she saw water below, glinting blue in the faint light of the sun, but no one was climbing down to walk across it. "And that's no ford."
"It was a ford. Once."
"Oh?"
"Two hundred years ago, the Raksha invaded. They came against the Scavenger Lands wearing impossible shapes. Fire-ships made from the dreams of dead men, that sort of thing. The war lasted years and exhausted every nation. The Raksha armies pushed the Marukani into full retreat, and my people made for the defenses of Celeren. One of the Raksha's war-behemoths bit this hole in the earth to stop them."
Sapphire shaded her eyes with her hands and peered at the far rise, half a mile away; she looked east, the way they'd come, and thought of the five mile stretch of gorge she and Storm had ridden past to reach this central spot. "It must have been huge."
"No smaller than Juggernaut, from what I've heard. It still wasn't going to stop Deren. He was a Dragon Blood and a sorcerer, besides, and there are not many of those among my people. I don't know what Spell or Charm he used, but he flooded the gorge - brought the water up flush with the land - and then froze it solid. He lead his family across to safety."
"Alright... I guess that's a ford. But what makes you think it's a demesne? There's no manse here, but the area's untouched by the Wyld."
The Zenith pointed down into the gorge. "Still waters run deep. No one's been down to the bottom of this place since it was made; who knows what might be down there?
Sapphire smiled. "I think it's worth finding out."
