The Great Serpent Wall
Fulha looked over the railing at the shore ahead of them while the late afternoon sun glowed above them. Fortunately they could fly the Atlom's Axe over the narrowest part of the Shau Ba Hou Inlet which meant they didn't have to travel through a large part of the closest of the Ljosafar lands. The Ljosafar had multiple territories controlled by different warlords in their lands. No one outside of the Ljosafar lands knew how many different warlords there were but all of them hated outsiders. Ljosafar hated outsiders so much that they hated the Ljosafar from their other territories. Which was fine as far as Fulha was concerned since no one outside of their lands liked the Ljosafar either. They were the only people on Ardu that had actually followed Mrtis leading up to and including the great war. While other countries had been tricked into fighting for Mrtis, the Ljosafar had done so willingly and openly and now they were in another struggle with Mrtis, Fulha wasn't dumb enough to think that the Ljosafar were not involved this time as well.
Yesterday they had flown away from Khunduz towards the narrowest point of land between Ashfanabad and Chi Eng Zhou, their next stop on their journey. The Atlom's Axe couldn't fly at night, Fulha wasn't sure why, but knew it had something to do with how majic worked. So rather than crash at sunset, the party had landed at the shore of the narrowest part of the inlet. They had left at the break of dawn as soon as the ship could safely fly, then they had spent the day flying across the inlet so as the sun lowered, but well before actual sunset, they would land for the night. The air over this part of the Shau Ba Hou Inlet had been surprisingly good for the time of year. Instead of the rainy skies they had been suffering through since leaving Michocan. A cold brisk wind threatened a wind burn on any exposed skin while the grey overcast skies still seemed cheerful to Fulha because they were going to a place he had been studying his whole life. Fulha was looking forward getting to Chi Eng Zhou, he'd been a fan for as long as he could remember.
As soon as Fulha had learned about this mission from the Mahapratanidhi, he'd been ecstatic. He was positively floating in the air, not that he had let anyone else know. As an aristocrat Fulha had been raised knowing that one didn't show their emotions most of the time. Privately in family or with close friends was fine, but to the general public? never. Starting tomorrow the party would be traveling along the Great Serpent Wall until they reached the Great Gate. Inwardly Fulha entertained Irene's suggestion of just flying over the wall to the Celestial Palace, but he was well aware that doing so would be the worst possible thing to do. The Great Serpent wall was quite possibly one of the most well defended defensive fortifications he'd ever heard of, the wall was better defended than some palaces he'd seen in past.
The next morning Fulha could hardly wait for his first sight of the Great Serpent wall, one of the greatest achievements of the peoples of Ardu, by this time tomorrow they would be camping in the shadow of the wall itself. Fulha's only concern was that the wall guards might think they were an attacking force and kill them. This wasn't an idle threat as Fulha knew well, the warriors of Chi Eng Zhou had access to weapons that no other country could imagine. Those weapons were one of the major reasons that Fulha was so insistent that they follow the wall to the Great Gate rather than just flying over the wall. The Atlom's Axe was a wonderful ship but there was no way that the ship would survive a barrage from those weapons. Fulha was very glad that he'd been able to convince the party that discretion was the better part of survival and making a good impression was better for the success of the party's mission.
Fulha's first sight of the towering wall was everything he had expected. He had always known that the wall was fifty feet thick and tapered to thirty feet at the top. He had also known that the wall was made of truly huge stones, some of which were big enough to be a house in and of themselves if they were hollowed out. The best part, the part Fulha had been most looking forward to was the iron cladding that covered the outside of the wall from top to bottom. The part of the wall that Fulha was so excited to see were the intricate bas relief designs that had been molded into the iron cladding before it was attached to the wall. The designs were beautifully done and added a level of artistry to something that for anyone else would be purely functional. The designs showed better than anything anyone said that function and beauty were equally important and that neither could exist without the other.
The light of the late afternoon sun lit the bas relief to a warm almost golden color, throwing the shadows of the bas relief into sharp focus. The massive scale of the dragons on the wall made everyone feel insignificant, it was impossible not to considering that everything about the wall was in a scale that boggled the mind. The rivets holding the iron cladding onto the wall had to be as thick as his torso. The guard towers on top of the wall were impossible to see from this angle, but Fulha was certain that the guards could see them though. The wall was a testament to the ingenuity and prowess of the Celestial Empire, a marvel of engineering that Fulha was certain no one else could reproduce.
Behind them the gentle sound of waves was masked by the brisk wind that chilled everything around them. The Great Serpent Wall towered a hundred feet above the party as they set up their camp for the night. The glow of the fire danced on the wall making the lowest of the reliefs dance in the night, high above them on the wall Fulha could barely hear the soldiers moving around. The first thing that Fulha had done when they had landed was to call up to those same soldiers that the party was peaceful and heading to the Great Gate to enter the country, as was proper. Fulha had also asked the soldiers to please inform the Celestial Palace that envoys from Kishnagar, Ashfanabad, Michocan, Hafla, Grundhorn and Oristan peoples were traveling to the gate to gain entrance to meet his court.
The next morning was the first day of following the Great Serpent Wall to the Great Gate. At Fulha's advice the engineer kept the Atlom's Axe at just below the height of the top of the wall as a sign of respect. In daylight the bas relief that covered the walls looked even more beautiful than they had in the dimmer light of dusk.
