《Late to the Party (Fantasy Isekai)》


 1: Better Late Than Never?

    Lucas was startled to awareness by the warbling cry of some distant animal. Cold immediately bit at his skin, seeping up from the hard stone and through the layer of leaves and sticks and dirt and other dead plant bits beneath his back. He scrambled to his feet, shocked and bewildered.


    Last thing he was aware of, he¡¯d been munching lazily on his breakfast, content to take his time with the knowledge that he didn¡¯t need to be out of the house until lunch at the usual place with Claire, Jamie, Rian, and Aarya. With a sinking feeling in his gut as he took in his surroundings, he got the feeling he was going to be late to that appointment. He hated being late.


    He was in an utterly cavernous room; he suspected his entire eleven-story apartment building could have fit beneath the peak of the looming domed roof with room to spare. It was so high up he couldn¡¯t make out the details of the patterns he could vaguely tell were etched into the grand dome beneath creeping moss, and the room was even wider still, a gargantuan circular space.


    He¡¯d been to Wembley Stadium, once, and he was fairly sure the massive arena could¡¯ve fit inside this place with, again, plenty of room to spare.


    If its size wasn¡¯t intimidating enough, the sheer disrepair it had fallen into was unnerving in itself.


    Like in some post-apocalyptic movie, nature had crept in to reclaim the clearly manmade structure. Greenery from trees and plants had forced their way in through cracks in the white walls, winding and snaking their way up the support columns that lined the edges of the room until they reached the ceiling, with flower-covered vines hanging down like natural tapestries.


    The only areas not covered in creeping vines and moss were the impressively large holes where stone had fallen away from the dome, allowing the sun to peek in and illuminate the giant room nature had reclaimed. Inhaling, a heavy scent of earth and pollen filled his nostrils, strong enough that his eyes watered.


    And all around him, a solid wall of greenery taller than he was and dense enough it was impossible to see through.


    ¡°Hello?¡± he called out. ¡°Is anyone there?¡±


    His echo bouncing back was the only reply to his trembling query.


    With an irrational dread, he realised he almost certainly wasn¡¯t going to make it to lunch with Claire, Jamie, Rian, and Aarya at all. There probably should¡¯ve been bigger priorities at that moment, but his mind fixated on that point. Late late late. The word echoed in his mind as he spun on the spot, desperately searching for a passage through the dense foliage.


    ¡°Hello?¡± he called out again, hopelessly.


    Nothing once more. Silence hung heavy.


    Even as he swallowed, even as his heart raced and his breaths came too fast, he still found a kind of haunting, sad beauty to this place. Aesthetically, if nothing else, it was a sight to behold. The white marble peeking between gaps in the patchwork carpet of plant life high above spoke of a venue that had once been grandiose beyond belief. It wasn¡¯t a modern building; in fact it called to mind something more like a particularly impressive mediaeval cathedral.


    The only problem was the obvious question: what had happened to the people who built this place, that they¡¯d let it fall into such disrepair?


    Of course, there was actually a related and arguably even more pertinent question: how the hell had he ended up here?


    Lucas racked his brain, thinking back. Through the dull fog of fatigue, he managed to recall going through his usual morning routine, and there was nothing out of the ordinary he could identify; brushing his teeth, taking a shower, throwing on some pyjamas in anticipation of a lazy morning, frying up some bacon and eggs and toasting some wholemeal bread, plating it up, tucking in, and then¡­ nothing.


    A flash of light, the blink of an eye, and here he was. Nothing that would explain the transition between his bedroom and this unfamiliar, cavernous ruin. Not that there were any familiar ruins he could¡¯ve found himself in.


    He patted himself down all over, but found no injuries, just a skinny-fit body. His shaggy black hair was still a bit wild¡ªhe''d been meaning to get it cut on the way to lunch¡ªbut he felt no bumps or cuts beneath the mop. It was dry, too. Last he recalled, it had still been a bit damp from his morning shower.


    A cool breeze whispered through the room, throwing up little puffs of detritus and zapping a chill through Lucas¡¯ body. He shivered, his arms automatically coming up to wrap around himself. Even at this place¡¯s peak, Lucas thought, heating it must have been a nightmare, if they even bothered at all. Abandoned as it was, it was distinctly bloody cold, and here he was dressed in only his thin forest green PJs as appropriate for a nice spring day with no AC.


    Wherever this was, it certainly wasn¡¯t spring. His breath fogged the air. His poor toes already felt like shards of ice.


    In other words, he couldn¡¯t stand around here panicking, waiting to freeze to death. Answers would have to come later.


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    That in mind, he spent a few moments fruitlessly searching for an exit to the giant room, trying to keep his frantic breaths under control. It was hard when there was so much overgrowth blocking the view of his direct surroundings, but at least the gaps in the roof illuminated the scene well enough.


    There was nothing in sight, but he didn''t let that dishearten him. It stood to reason that there was a way in and out of this place. That was how rooms worked. Everyone knew that. From the sun shining in from a hole in the domed roof, he could deduce he wasn''t in a sealed cavern miles underground, at least.


    In the end, he decided to pick a spot on the wall and start moving towards it. Easier said than done with such wild overgrowth surrounding him, but Lucas wasn¡¯t one to be deterred.


    After a little bit of searching around, he found a relatively thick stick and set to using it as a crude bludgeon against the thorny bushes surrounding him. He could only be thankful that he¡¯d apparently woken in an area where the plants, for whatever reason, couldn¡¯t grow. There was a clear circle about as large as the centre circle of a basketball court where no flora could encroach, hence the weirdly uniform wall of bushes.


    It was like they just stopped dead at the boundary, held back by an unseen force. When he broke bits of bush away from the greater mass, he took to dropping them in a pile at the other edge of the circle, and he couldn¡¯t help noticing how the pile seemed to be duller in colour every time he went back to it.


    Naturally, the strange phenomenon raised even more questions, but he¡¯d already decided on his course of action before the oddity registered, so he put it to the back of his mind for now, deciding to just be thankful for the boon instead.


    Time passed. Hours crawled by. Fatigue weighed on him, but he considered stamina his strong point, even in peculiar circumstances, so he pushed through. He wasn¡¯t a fitness freak by any stretch of the imagination, but he¡¯d run a marathon just last year, and he¡¯d kept going to the gym even after he¡¯d accomplished that goal, so he felt he¡¯d be okay on that front.


    It got easier as he went along and he got a handle of the proper technique. At first he¡¯d struggled and flailed around with little finesse to clear a path, but before long he was felling obstructions with single blows, swinging his heavy stick in wide arcs that seemed to pass through the foliage as if it wasn¡¯t there, almost melting the overgrowth away to form a path.


    It still wasn¡¯t a fast process, but there was something to be said for getting the knack of a task. Trial-and-erroring his way to minimal competence, watching his own improvement before his eyes.


    It was actually kind of nice, if he ignored the fact he was in an unfamiliar, clearly-abandoned place with no idea how he¡¯d ended up there.


    By the time he felt too tired to keep going, the sunbeams had changed their angle quite significantly, shining almost directly in the opposite direction from the holes in the roof as they had when he¡¯d arrived here. That told him it had been morning when he woke, at least, and it was now around getting into the afternoon.


    Unfortunately, he hadn¡¯t made it even halfway to the spot on the wall he¡¯d been aiming for. Looking back, he found that he¡¯d at least kept in mostly a straight line, the clear circle visible a distance behind him.


    That was fine. This was all fine. Nothing to worry about or get upset over. He¡¯d just rest for a while, then keep going until there was no light left. Then he¡¯d sleep in his little clearing at the centre of the chamber. No problem. He¡¯d slept rough before, though admittedly with a sleeping bag.


    With a deep breath, he set out once more, wielding his stick with considerably more dexterity than he had when he started out. It didn¡¯t really help much. Darkness started to fall pretty soon after that, and he was forced to make his way back along the tunnel, forcing himself to feel a bit of accomplishment at the day¡¯s progress. He didn¡¯t know if it was actually an impressive feat, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that he was only a beginner in the art of felling foliage with a big stick.


    When he settled down among the twigs and leaves and bits of stray moss, he found it all small consolation. Exhausted and hungry and thirsty, he managed to fall asleep despite his discomfort, dearly thankful that he¡¯d never needed a soft bed to get some shut-eye.


    Even then, he slept poorly. The night was cold and damp, and the moss and leaves he piled atop himself as a makeshift blanket only did a little to stave it off. He woke repeatedly in the night, feeling afraid, lonely, and confused. Questions churned in his head; where he was, how he''d got here, what he was going to do.


    No answers were forthcoming, and he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.


    In the morning he rose feeling stiff and sore and cranky and quite baffled that he hadn''t caught a cold; his stomach was twisting with cramps, and he was a little light-headed from thirst, but there was nothing for it.


    Onwards and upwards. Hopefully. With all these bushes there were probably berries and stuff. And surely there was some Bear Grylls-esque method for extracting water from them? He just had to figure it out. Simple.


    It took another day of hacking away to make it to the wall. The work was hard and mind-numbingly boring, but he took some solace in his plainly increasing efficiency. It was barely mid-afternoon when he reached his goal, and he was potentially less worn out compared to yesterday''s equivalent work. His stick felt light in his hand, and every swing held more flourish than the last. The bushes seemed much less daunting when his stick was parting branches like butter.


    Just to put a damper on his spirits though, looking left and right at the wall yielded no sign of any kind of exit.


    Which was fine. Everything was fine. He¡¯d just have to follow the wall around the circumference of the room. There had to be a way out. It would take some time to find it, maybe, but it was starting to look like he had plenty to spare, all things considered.


    With a deep breath, he set out once more, shuffling along the slightly curved wall. Plants blocked his path at times, so thick that slashing at them with his stick was a fool¡¯s errand, so he was forced away from the wall a few times. But he always made his way back soon enough, and before long he found himself at a blockade of plant life so thick that it took him until he¡¯d halfway navigated around it to realise it was spilling out from an arched doorway thrice as tall as him.


    Lucas grimaced at it, stuck between triumph and despair. An exit stood before him, but really it was no exit at all. It almost seemed to mock him, like the dense green foliage was a tongue sticking out from its mouth. He could almost imagine it blowing raspberries.


    Picking a raspberry off a nearby branch and inspecting it, Lucas resigned himself to at least another long, arduous day of labour. Popping the little red berry in his mouth and luxuriating in the sweet explosion of juice on his tongue, he took some small solace in the fact he now had food on hand. (He made a mental note of where those berries were while he was at it.)


    ¡°Alright,¡± he murmured to himself in a voice raspy from disuse and plain fatigue, squaring his shoulders and hefting his trusty stick.


    There was work to do.

 2: Better Late than Never (2)

    On his third day in this strange place, as daylight steadily faded away and the cavernous room transitioned to an orange-pink hue, Lucas started to notice something strange. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that, as time passed, it became increasingly difficult to dismiss the strange thing he¡¯d noticed with logical-sounding explanations and excuses, until eventually he could no longer deny the reality before him at all.


    The path he¡¯d forged between the central circle and the wall was narrower than it had been yesterday¡ªnarrower than it had been this morning, even.


    At first he¡¯d dismissed it as merely the immense weight of the thickly-packed foliage naturally bearing down on his passage and filling in the gap. More excuses came after that; he was just imagining it, new plants were falling into place, hidden animals were moving things around, et cetera.


    But closer inspection revealed particular branches he¡¯d snapped were longer than they had been just hours ago. Flowers he remembered felling stood tall once more. Grasses and weeds he¡¯d stomped underfoot were climbing back toward the sun like nothing had happened. Everywhere he looked, the overgrowth was reclaiming the space he¡¯d painstakingly taken, regrowing itself.


    And it was happening far too fast to be natural.


    Burning with frustration, he had to waste another evening reasserting his dominance over the path, wishing with all his heart he knew the trick to how the central circle kept the plant life at bay.


    That night when he lay down shivering beneath the eerie beams of moonlight, he wasted far too much time watching the dark, menacing silhouette of the stubborn vegetation, dearly hoping the sight of a vine reaching through the bush and testing at the borders of the circle was just a dream.


    The cat came to curl up at his side, purring softly when he scratched it under the chin. ¡°Can you keep an eye on the bushes there for me, little fella?¡± he whispered, not truly expecting the creature to understand. But he was growing too tired to stay awake, his stamina at dangerous lows on his steady berry diet. ¡°See, I think this place is playing tricks on me. Moving around when I¡¯m not looking.¡±


    Soft, contented purring was his only answer.


    ¡°Feels weird to just think of you as the cat,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Given you seem pretty content to stick around here, I¡¯m going to assume you don¡¯t have an owner right now, so I guess the burden falls on me to give you a name.¡± An idea came to him. ¡°You¡¯re ginger, like my friend Jamie. I think he¡¯d appreciate sharing his name with you.¡±


    He wouldn¡¯t. The poor guy was a bit sensitive about ginger jokes after a childhood of teasing, but his love of animals would probably overcome it, settling him on grudging acceptance.


    Jamie the cat looked up at him for a moment, blinked, then turned away, settling down.


    When Lucas woke in the morning, the passage was definitely narrower again, despite Jamie¡¯s surprisingly diligent efforts to watch the foliage¡ªhe wouldn¡¯t look away from the passage until Lucas requested it, which was¡­ odd.


    Lucas didn¡¯t want to waste the energy on flying into a berserk rage, though he dearly wanted to. Instead, he channelled his frustration into the day¡¯s deforestation efforts. He wasn¡¯t going to let a bush get the better of him. Magical or otherwise.


    As the day went on and he engaged in battle against the absurdly thick overgrowth covering the exit he¡¯d found, he was starting to wonder if the rapid plant growth wasn¡¯t the only unnatural force in play.


    The fact was, he was way, way too good at chopping down vegetation. Suspiciously so.


    Now, it was entirely possible he¡¯d simply discovered some latent talent in himself he never would¡¯ve had any reason to encounter otherwise, but he found that unlikely. No matter how he looked at it, the arm-length, walking-cane-width, not-entirely-straight stick he¡¯d been swiping away overgrown foliage with shouldn¡¯t have been so effective, nor should it have lasted¡­ what? Three days?


    And that was saying nothing of the sheer skill he¡¯d accumulated in that time. Sure, there was something to be said for trial and error and picking up on best practices through brute force, but at this point the stick felt like an extension of his arm, an extension of his very soul. With every swing, some kind of instinct kicked into gear, and he seemed to always strike in the best way to fell anything barring his path most effectively.


    He might not have thought anything of it, dismissing it as him simply getting better at clearing a path as time wore on. Progress was slow¡ªno matter how good he got, there was so much plant life it would have taken hours even if he was the god of deforestation¡ªand the task itself was mind-numbing, so he¡¯d settled into that kind of dissociative zen state that always came with doing repetitive, boring tasks.


    Then, he snapped back to alertness as he was in the midst of swinging his stick hard at a solid branch tenfold thicker than it. Mild panic had thrummed through him. Lame as it was, he¡¯d gotten attached to his little stick. It had seen him through hard times, short though those times may have been. He was loath to lose it.


    Imagine his surprise when the stick whacked against a specific point on the branch. Picture his shock when cracks had radiated along the branch from the point of impact. Envision his utter bewilderment when the branch had snapped with a loathsome groan and crashed to the ground at Lucas¡¯ feet, with his own trusty stick none the worse for wear.


    At that point, he had to face the fact that his ¡°technique¡± was bordering on the supernatural. It might not have even occurred to him to think of it that way, if it hadn¡¯t been for the strange plant behaviour.


    And, well, finding myself here in the first place. That¡¯s pretty supernatural, as things go. Can¡¯t rule anything out.


    Lucas stood there for a long moment, holding his stick out at arm¡¯s length, pointing it up at the ceiling, inspecting it like it held the mysteries of the universe within. The thin bark had been stripped from it ages ago, hours of use paring it down to a pale, sandy-brown surface. He ran his fingers along it, testing every millimetre of its surface, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Smooth, almost polished, though without any real sheen.


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    It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s just a stick. No different to a billion other sitting on the ground beneath a billion trees all over the world. Wood. Nothing more.


    But the longer he held it and concentrated on it, the more he became aware of a feeling he couldn¡¯t quite define. It was even stronger when he closed his eyes.


    There was a fey feeling to the wood, a vitality that radiated from within. It was akin to the feeling of drinking hot soup on a freezing cold day, the way heat would spread pleasantly through one¡¯s chest, but milder; distant and muted. There was a hair-thin thread of that kind of warmth running through the length of the stick, and it radiated through the wood and into Lucas¡¯ tightly grasping hands.


    When he consciously tapped into that feeling, he gained an understanding of the wood, its strengths and weaknesses, on an instinctive level. It was like proprioception. A natural awareness.


    And when he turned his attention back to the plants around him, he realised he could vaguely feel them, too. His impression of them was much weaker compared to the stick in his hand, like holding his hand a few feet above a mug of boiling water rather than grasping it, but it was there, and he realised he must have been unconsciously tapping into that feeling, identifying weak points.


    What would happen if I approached it with intent?


    Lucas opened his eyes, filled with determination and brimming with anticipation.


    Shifting stance, he pointed his stick forwards like a rapier. Narrowing his eyes, he took aim at a particularly menacing tangle of thorny branches, picking out targets by feeling. Then he lashed out.


    ¡°Have this, you bastard!¡± he roared.


    One strike. Two strikes. Three. Then more. All in quick succession, delivered with surgical precision.


    Once he was done, he stepped back, resetting the stick into the position it had been before, pointing at the ceiling.


    A section of bush taller than him slowly dislodged itself from the greater mass of foliage and flopped to the ground, joining the rest of the clippings he¡¯d expertly shorn away over countless hours.


    It took all the self-control he had not to squeal like a little kid who¡¯d just opened a Christmas present he¡¯d been looking forward to for months. He did a little dance on the spot, hopping from foot to foot and spinning around.


    Holy shit holy shit holy shit.


    The looming verdure didn¡¯t seem so intimidating anymore, he thought with a shark-like grin.


    It doesn¡¯t matter how fast you grow back. I¡¯ll just chop you down all over again.


    It was well and truly dark by the time Lucas cleared enough of the overgrowth to get a glimpse of the room beyond the formerly-hidden archway, and thus his glimpse didn¡¯t yield much information at all. He could vaguely make out the outline of some kind of corridor that must have ringed the large domed room he¡¯d woken in, at least part way.


    It was hard to be sure, but he guessed it was about the width of a single lane on a highway. It was impossible to tell how tall it was; too dark to see the ceiling, and he could feel the solid mass of overgrowth in there that would make it hard to see anything even in daylight.


    But none of that discouraged him. Clearing it out would be child¡¯s play.


    The path had once again narrowed when he made his way back to the central circle, and he relished the chance to put the plants in their place. He spent a half hour widening the path threefold, the task trivialised by his new super-gardening powers when he actually used them with directed intent.


    Even in the dark, his ability to fell the foliage in his path was prodigious. Dauntless, he took some time to gather berries and other plant clippings that could prove useful for the night, following his plant sense like a radar. Sturdy sticks he could lash together to make a bed frame, vines he could weave and lattice into a crude mattress, leaves and moss for insulation and some small comfort, kindling for a fire, and so on.


    His spirits were higher than they¡¯d ever been since arriving here when he settled in that night. He popped berries in his mouth and chewed them with aplomb, lounging on his new bed and shooting mocking smiles at the soon-to-be-conquered foliage while his fire crackled merrily.


    (Lighting the fire had been an arduous, painful process that turned out to be much harder than those ¡°primitive survival¡± people on the internet made it look, but he got it in the end with his plant senses to assist him. It almost went very wrong when some of the moss caught aflame, but he¡¯d at least had the foresight to clear a small area of anything flammable and the crisis was quickly dealt with.)


    Sleep still wasn¡¯t an easy or comfortable affair¡ªeven with the new comforts, such as they were, he still spent hours on his back, staring up at the glittering stars through one of the many holes in the dome''s ceiling, his arms wrapped around himself despite the cold, worries and fears running through his mind now that there was little else to occupy it in the moment, for surely even the most composed man would find himself suffering some anxiety under these circumstances, burdened by countless questions.


    Where the hell am I? What the hell happened to this place for it to become so rundown? How the hell did I end up here? I hope everyone isn¡¯t worrying about me too much¡ªwho am I kidding, it¡¯s been like three days now, they¡¯re definitely all freaking out. I hope I can find my way back to them soon. Or at all. They¡¯ll forgive me for missing lunch if I explain, surely.


    And the prospect of magic was too tantalising to be completely overcome by worldly concerns. Frankly, that worked to his detriment. The anxieties were bad enough on their own, but they were mixing together with his excitement, forming a cocktail that had him buzzing with energy, unable to settle. Ideas and questions spun through his mind, and they wouldn¡¯t go away no matter how he tried to tell himself they could wait for tomorrow.


    In the end, Lucas was forced to resort to drastic measures.


    Closing his eyes, he focused on breathing deeply. He¡¯d never tried meditation and had little knowledge of the techniques, but he had some vague idea of putting things out of his mind and trying to centre himself. A part of him wanted to sit up and cross his legs and adopt the classic pose, but he refrained.


    On a whim, he picked up his stick from where it rested beside his bed and held it to his chest instead, remembering that mindless, zen-like state he¡¯d fallen into in the course of his super-gardening. At times, his body must have moved for hours on autopilot while he watched on as if peeking over his own shoulder. He tried to think back to that feeling. That disconnect from his own body. That lack of thought. That distance from his feelings and worries.


    His breathing evened out. His muscles loosened and relaxed. His thoughts faded away like he¡¯d physically dropped them, letting all the anxiety and worry and nerves and other unpleasant emotions sink away, leaving only calm and warmth.


    When next Lucas opened his eyes, the orange-pink light of morning was flooding into the enormous chamber, motes of dust dancing in angled sunbeams. Almost immediately, his heart tripped over a beat and went tumbling as he beheld his surroundings, a solid wall of green.


    On second thoughts, it shouldn¡¯t have come as much of a surprise to find the foliage had reset to its starting position, looming over him like nothing had happened in the last few days. The plant life was thrumming with energy, defiant. Almost pointed in its obstinacy. Like it was throwing down a gauntlet, challenging him.


    After a quick breakfast of more sweet berries, Lucas hefted his stick like a deadly blade and dove back into the fray with a grin on his face.


    There were so many things he wanted to try, he didn¡¯t know where to start.

 3: Better Late than Never (3)

    Never in his life did Lucas think he¡¯d be able to find such joy in cutting down overgrown plants. In his mind, gardening had seemed a slow, monotonous task that required careful consideration. Even just 24 hours before, it had been mind-numbing enough that his conscious thoughts had drifted away to nothingness, allowing his body to operate on autopilot.


    Now, it became almost a game as he sought more elaborate and absurd ways to wield his wooden stick. He twirled it like a baton, swung it like a sword, thrust it like a spear; all seemed to work just as well, his mind instinctively guiding his body to strike with the utmost efficiency.


    The plant life melted away before his technique, and he was somehow getting even better as time went on. Every hour, more foliage fell before him. Each swing of his stick cleared a larger area.


    On a whim, he started getting more acrobatic with it, adding spins and leaps and lunges into his repertoire of moves. At one point he even did a somersault that transitioned neatly into an absurdly fast overhead strike. As the day wore on, it felt like he was barely having to slow from a casual walking speed, such was his ability to clear a path.


    More than a few times, he caught Jamie staring at him, his yellow eyes full of judgement. Lucas didn¡¯t care. A cat born with feline flexibility didn¡¯t get to look down on him for suddenly discovering supernatural dexterity.


    ¡°Let me have this,¡± Lucas said, scowling.


    The cat didn¡¯t say anything. It didn¡¯t need to.


    Even with magic, progress was not, overall, swift. Even with his suddenly prodigious talent, there was simply so much overgrowth that even a dozen people of equal ability would have taken some considerable time to make a dent in it all.


    And that was to say nothing of the increasingly rapid regrowth. At one point, the path actually closed behind him, cutting him off from the starting circle. It wasn¡¯t too hard to chop his way back since he knew the circle was directly in the centre of the room and he could still see the ceiling, but it did admittedly send him into a bit of a panic for as long as it lasted.


    Getting lost in overgrowth was not a fun experience, he learned.


    After that bit of excitement, he spent some time in the centre circle considering his next move. He was fairly confident the plants weren¡¯t going to be fast enough to overwhelm him if he was smart about it, but a battle of attrition was definitely not to his advantage. But what else could he do?


    Lucas thought on the matter, sitting on his makeshift bed and watching the plants grow back before his very eyes. They were rejuvenating fast enough that he could see vines crawling along in real time, like one of those time lapses in a nature documentary, inch by mocking inch.


    ¡°It¡¯s even worse than that,¡± he told a still-uncaring Jamie, grimacing. ¡°It¡¯s not just growing back, it¡¯s adapting.¡±


    When standing in the centre circle, it was clear the route he¡¯d initially cut through over the course of his first few days here was filling out much denser than it had been, branches thicker, thorns more numerous.


    It was unnerving, to say the least. Witnessing bushes grow like a wound scabbing over discomforted him on a primal level. Plants were technically living things, yes, but not in the way people typically thought of as living. They weren¡¯t intelligent. The verdant mass surrounding him took on a more sinister mien when he thought of it as one hostile being.


    And he was beginning to believe that was precisely what it was. When he closed his eyes and focused on the sunlight-warm vitality that tickled at his strange new sense, he couldn¡¯t help but notice how uniform it all was. There was extra heat in the parts that were growing back, trickling in from the greater whole like water flowing from a lake into a newly built canal.


    It wasn¡¯t quite uniform. There were little hints of variation in the life he could feel, but it was in the same way that there were mild differences between the vitality at different points in his own body.


    Hell, he should¡¯ve pegged all this vegetation as supernatural rather than unnatural in the first place. The sheer variety of plants growing in a place like this made no sense. Cacti, pine needles, and palm leaves didn¡¯t strike him as the kind of plants that would typically grow in the same climate, let alone in a location with inconsistent sunlight, and there were far more species than that on offer.


    At least the insects weren¡¯t so diverse. He¡¯d only seen flies and similar little midges thus far. Small mercies.


    Come to think of it, the only other living creature he¡¯d seen in this place was¡­ Jamie.


    Lucas opened his eyes, turning to inspect the ginger tabby. It was crouched next to him, staring at the same spot he was, inspecting the overgrowth. It had taken to doing that, even since he¡¯d requested it, though it didn¡¯t take any further action.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been so focused on myself, I never wondered how you ended up here,¡± Lucas said, tilting his head as if seeing the cat from another angle would give him the answers he sought. ¡°Did you climb over the plants or something? They¡¯re too thick for something even as small as you to sneak through. Or, they are here, anyway.¡±


    Jamie looked up at him, blinking owlishly. His irises were thin slits.


    ¡°You haven¡¯t left the circle once, as far as I can tell. Unless you¡¯re doing it at night, while I¡¯m asleep. I suppose that¡¯s a possibility. You have to be eating something, after all. I¡¯ve never seen you show any interest in my berries.¡± Lucas narrowed his eyes. ¡°Are you sneaking out on me? If you¡¯re frolicking free in open fields every night, hunting for delicious meat, you can tell me. I won¡¯t get mad.¡±


    As if in response, the cat hopped up onto its feet and darted towards the foliage. Lucas let out a startled shout, but it had already dipped through a small gap in the overgrowth before he could even take a step, and then it was gone, swallowed up by the green. No matter how Lucas tried to peer through the gaps, he couldn¡¯t see a hint of ginger fur.


    He stared for a long time, his heart dropping.


    I really hope the little fella comes back, he thought. I don¡¯t wanna be alone, here.


    After a few minutes of fruitless waiting, he went back to inspecting the overgrowth, trying to take his mind off his concern. The part of the bush that had just finished growing back in was visibly thicker than its surroundings, and darker in colour. Around him, he could feel the flow of vitality moving in other directions, shoring up other points he couldn¡¯t see with his eyes, no doubt.


    He felt dread, for a moment, at the prospect of fighting against this thing forever. Whatever this was, whatever the fuck it wanted, he couldn¡¯t let it keep reinforcing itself like this. At the moment, he could fell it faster than it could regrow, but that state of affairs wouldn¡¯t necessarily last forever. There was no guarantee his skills would continue to increase at the same pace they had been. He could end up overwhelmed.


    Grim-faced, he rose to his feet and hefted his stick. Then he picked a spot to the side of his original path and started cutting, aiming vaguely for where he thought the exit he¡¯d found would be.


    From there, his days settled into a bit of a monotonous routine, despite the potentially deadly stakes. He¡¯d wake up, feast on whatever berries he¡¯d foraged throughout the previous day, dredge up what little water he could from a combination of condensation, dew, and water-storing cacti, trot away to go to the toilet an appropriate distance away from his campsite, then set to work.


    He never did figure out what Jamie went off to do that day, or whether he was gallivanting around at night while Lucas was asleep. The cat had showed up the next morning as if nothing had happened with a fish placed by its side like an offering, and Lucas had almost cried with relief.


    The fish was delicious, too. He¡¯d never been the biggest fan of fish, but compared to berries it was practically a delicacy. This became a part of their routine, too; Jamie would bugger off to god knows where every night and come back with a pair of fish clutched in its jaws, which Lucas would cook for them both. It turned out a semi-tamed cat was useful for a lot more than companionship.


    He made sure to show his appreciation, showering the cat with compliments, ¡°Who¡¯s the best boy in the world? You are!¡± and all that. As was good and proper.


    Aside from that, he generally spent the entire day battering down flora. His fears of the overgrowth¡¯s adaptability proved founded; every day it got denser, branches wider, thorns sharper.


    There were moments where he¡¯d look down and find vines coiling around his leg like a particularly slow snake. A venus fly trap would have had his hand if his life-sense hadn¡¯t alerted him to the danger with a sudden spike of heat. Thorns seemed to lengthen at opportune moments, trying to catch him off guard and nick him, going for a death by a thousand cuts.


    There was even a day when it tried to lure him into a trap, once again displaying a devilish cunning that was, while primitive, rather alarming.


    The bushes had been thinner when he woke, much to his surprise, and he hadn¡¯t trusted it, not with his senses telling him there was just as much vitality in the plants as ever. It had parted before him easier than it ever had, letting him get far into its midst before it struck at him with vines covered in superglue-strong sap. Luckily, he¡¯d been ready, and beat them back.


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    But even if it was far more intelligent and deliberate than a fucking plant had any right to be, it still wasn¡¯t human-level intelligent. It couldn¡¯t seem to comprehend that he could spot its machinations a mile off, any plays it made lighting up in his sense like a burning beacon¡ªhell, it didn¡¯t even realise it could have just stopped growing berries and he would¡¯ve been totally fucked, he already spent most of the day feeling weak and light-headed as it was¡ªand all this practice was only honing his senses even further, refining them to pinpoint precision.


    In other words, he was growing faster than the plants were.


    After a week of this back and forth, his skill was reaching the point of absurdity. He was at a level where he was pushing his own vitality into his stick until it was shining like the sun in his magical plant sense, and it tore apart any plants in its path as easily as a lightsaber would a piece of cardboard.


    He could practically run forward, swiping his stick ahead of himself without the slightest finesse, and he¡¯d reach one of the far walls in a matter of minutes. The greenery was helpless against him.


    His newfound martial superiority allowed him to explore the domed chamber much more thoroughly. It turned out there were three more similar archways leading out of the main chamber at the (presumably) cardinal directions, all filled with the same absurdly thick, dark bushes that, now that he thought about it, shouldn¡¯t have been able to survive in such darkness, surely? More foul plant magic at work.


    What brief glimpses he got of the chamber¡¯s floor gave him the impression there was once a giant artwork painted onto the marble with impressive precision. The lines were a foot thick, dotted with elaborate mosaic patterns rather than being fully filled in.


    Suddenly, with burning desire that surprised even him, he really wanted to see what it looked like with no fucking plants in the way. An unlikely prospect, but he went to bed each night dreaming of a clean, plant-free chamber.


    Ultimately the battle of attrition wore on him. It was easy to be confident when finding his way back to the circle of safety was a relatively easy matter, but venturing into the corridor beyond the exit, which was the obvious next step, was another kettle of fish. Getting lost in there was a far more plausible and frightening possibility.


    But what else could he do? Slashing at the plants here forever, carving paths across the domed chamber over and over for all eternity, was not a viable strategy. He had to get out of this godforsaken place if he wanted to find answers to his myriad questions.


    Making his way back to the circle after another day of battle with moonbeams shining in through the holes in the ceiling, Lucas resigned himself to the inevitable. Tomorrow, he would have to man up and head out of the domed chamber and into the overgrown corridor.


    Anxiety kept him up much of the night, and when he finally fell asleep he dreamed of being strangled to death by countless vines that moved like snakes and held him as strong as steel chains, his stick breaking into a thousand splinters against their inviolable strength.


    He woke up with a start, slick with sweat, his heart thundering in his chest. The flora loomed larger than ever that morning, and he struggled to even eat his meagre breakfast of berries. There¡¯d evidently been a spot of rain in the night, giving him some water, but it brought him no relief even though he was parched.


    Dread suffused him as he set out for the day. Picking a direction, he shredded through the vegetation in his way and arrived at the wall far too quickly. He could feel the vitality around him buzzing to a crescendo, and he hoped he was imagining its anticipatory glow.


    By the time he made it to the archway, his stomach was churning. The stick was trembling in his hand.


    He told himself he was being stupid. There¡¯s no way the plants can overcome my crazy stick magic. The vitality in my body is brighter than all the plants in the chamber combined. I¡¯m better than the plants. In every way. They¡¯re nothing. They can¡¯t hurt me.


    It was hard to make himself believe that when his nightmare played out behind his eyelids every time he blinked.


    Lucas drew in a deep breath. Let it out. Inhale. Exhale. In, two three four. Out, two three four. He¡¯d been trying to meditate every night in bed, to mixed results, and while he didn¡¯t think he was anywhere near enlightenment and it did little for his nerves now, it had given him an easy way to tap into the vitality flowing through his body, and feel the plants around him. He¡¯d improved with the sense in leaps and bounds.


    Vitality pumped through his body like blood, and it warmed him, comforted him like an embrace. He could feel the same from the plants nearby, though nowhere near as clearly as his own body. He pushed at that sense, straining it, focusing with all he had on the flow moving through the plants. It stood to reason, he thought, that if the plant was one entity, if he tapped into its flow as he did his own body he¡¯d be able to feel everywhere it was.


    He stood there for a long time, trying desperately to feel the life around him like it was his own. His sense expanded, pinging further and further out, but ultimately it barely reached a dozen metres. Not good enough.


    With his senses strained like this, the stick in his hand stood out all the starker.


    Pushing the warmth into the stick was simplicity itself at this point, and it glowed brighter and brighter in his senses, and he¡¯d kept pushing until it almost hurt to ¡®look¡¯ at. He could feel its vitality as clearly as if it was his own.


    Was that the answer?


    Following that thought, he reached out for the nearest branch, touching it with the tips of his fingers. It immediately seemed brighter in his senses, pulsing at the connection. He let the slightest bit of his vitality flow through that connection. A single spark.


    The spark caught, kindled, and burst aflame, and vitality erupted in his senses, expanding for miles and miles around. He could see the complex web of connections in his mind¡¯s eye, lashing all the plants in the area together under one mind, one will. It mapped out the surrounding area for him in an instant.


    The domed chamber was just one room of an enormous castle complex. Hundreds of smaller buildings cowered in the shadow of the main keep in concentric circles, with the outer circle sitting twice as tall; a defensive wall, presumably. There were five high towers along the walls, sitting at equal positions around the dome at the centre of the complex. The building he was in was the largest, but there were plenty of other impressive structures. Keeps, mansions, ziggurats, towers, and more.


    And all of it was filled with plants.


    Heart sinking to his stomach, Lucas lashed out, stabbing forward into the mass of tangled branches. They shied away like they¡¯d been burned, the vitality in the branches hopelessly outmatched by the power Lucas had poured into his stick. Lucas imagined them screeching in pain. A tunnel wide enough for a man to crawl through had been cleared by a single wanton thrust.


    Success buoyed his confidence, and, feeling vindictive, he slowly drew his stick to the side, clearing out more. Then he slashed back the other way, too fast for the branches to retract on their own accord. Where his stick struck the branches, they withered and crumpled to splinters before falling away.


    Lucas grinned maliciously.


    What followed was a massacre of epic proportions. The branches here were nothing like the plant life that had been barring his path for the last week, boasting none of the adaptations and traps he¡¯d come to expect, Lucas¡¯ own vitality blocking the greater force from modifying its defences.


    Now, it was just a bush that grew back quickly. It didn¡¯t stand a chance against him. He felt silly for being so worried about it.


    Periodically pulsing a drop of his vitality into the greater mass to keep up his sense of the overgrowth, he flourished his stick ahead of him like it was a performance, melting a path so fast that the bush started to shy away before he could even get to it, conceding ground before a foe it knew it couldn¡¯t stop. He made great time.


    The corridor itself held eight further archways of its own, leading to even more corridors heading toward giant adjoining wings and rooms flooded with plant life. Two of them led immediately onto stairs, and he prioritised clearing those out first once he reached them.


    The stairs just led up to another corridor resting above the first one, also ringing the central chamber, the only source of light coming from thin slit windows that looked down on the great domed room, but that was fine. His goal was the nearest adjoining room.


    His hopes that there would be useful stuff hidden away in there to pilfer were immediately dashed; the plants filled every square inch of space. It had been a long shot, but he¡¯d banked on there being spots the plants couldn¡¯t reach.


    The next three rooms he tried told the same story.


    He tried not to let himself be bothered by it, but he couldn¡¯t help a bit more aggression leaking into his stick as he swatted at the brown plant that was rapidly becoming his least favourite.


    There were countless rooms of various sizes, and as the day passed by he found all of them empty save for the dark bush that had come to fill them for who knew how long. His anger boiled over, lending more and more fury into his blows.


    That was what almost killed him, in the end.


    It was so humiliating, because it wasn¡¯t like this was some grand ploy on the part of whatever fey intelligence flowed through all the plants; his vitality was seeing to that. It had been unable to adapt his attacks ever since he entered the corridor, just frantically growing back more thorny branches in his wake. The growth was fast, perhaps alarmingly so, the vitality flowing in as if in panic, but that wasn¡¯t what caught him out either; his stick was still more than fast and strong enough to keep it at bay if he was careful.


    In the dark, he was relying on his vitality sense to guide him, seeking out more plants that barred his path. They surrounded him, an endless sea of overgrowth for him to take out his anger on. But he kept ahead of the regrowth with sheer ferocity.


    With his increasing anger at the plants and how they¡¯d seemingly left behind nothing for him to use in this place, so too did the force of his swings increase. He was getting reckless, and he knew it, but his confidence had been growing throughout the day as the plants continuously had no answer to his new advance.


    And then his stick clashed with a wall as he went for a too-wide swing, invisible to him in the dark. It hit with a resounding clack and crack, and went flying out of his hand. Lucas let out a yelp, as much from the shock as the sudden pain jarring up his arm.


    He didn¡¯t even have time to reach for it before the branches were upon him, striking like a nest of vipers. Vitality surged like a tidal wave, overwhelming. The branches lit up as bright as his stick had ever been.


    They surrounded him in seconds, coiling around his limbs even as he thrashed and screamed for help. In moments, they hardened, then constricted. His heart hammered in his chest, and he wheezed as the pressure on his ribcage doubled and redoubled, like he was getting squeezed by a giant hand. The last breath left him, and his vision dimmed.


    His vitality flickered like a candle flame and he had one final thought.


    This can¡¯t be how it ends. This can¡¯t be how I die.


    In a last act of desperation, he flared his vitality, drawing on all his anger and fear and using them as kindling. The pleasant heat inside him burned, his heart itself caught fire, and he pushed that scorching flame into the plants around him, fighting back against the ocean of vitality bearing down on him.


    Before, he¡¯d been content with a pulse to give him awareness of the overgrowth. Now, he did as he had with his stick, overwhelming the plants around him until his world was nothing but light, burning and burning.


    The devilish will of the plants fought back, but his vitality was stronger, at least in this small area. His will threaded through the branches, and he screamed inside his mind: BACK!


    A bubble of empty air appeared around him, and he fell to the floor, coughing and wheezing and sobbing. He stayed there for a long time, curled up on the ground and trembling like a leaf in the wind. His chest ached. His limbs were battered and bruised. His pyjamas had been shredded by thorns, and it was easier to list the areas of his skin that weren¡¯t criss-crossed with cuts.


    But he was alive.


    More alive than he¡¯d ever been, he thought, feeling his vitality flow through all the plants within three metres of him.

 4: Better Late than Never (4)

    When Lucas woke on his tenth day in this place, a biting chill lanced right through him, and his muscles were sore from shivering through the night. Rain was hissing static on the domed roof and a steady deluge of water was streaming down from the gaps in the ceiling, pouring onto the mass of plant life and dampening the ground. There was a frigid chill in the air, biting at the already-stinging cuts that criss-crossed his skin. After yesterday¡¯s incident, his chest felt like one big bruise.


    It took him a moment to find Jamie. The ginger tabby was unhappily ensconced beneath Lucas¡¯ DIY bed, trying to escape from the rain. It hadn¡¯t worked well. The poor bugger was drenched, trembling in place.


    Lucas let out a long sigh as he scooped the cat up and brought it to his chest. ¡°Me too, little buddy.¡±


    The floor squelched beneath his feet and stung his soles when he stood, colder than anything he¡¯d felt so far. Instantly, he knew it was going to be a bad day. The events of yesterday had left him in a dark mood before bed, and it seemed it was going to carry over to this morning.


    Yesterday. Just the memory of it had his stomach dropping. Such a ridiculous unforced error.


    After he¡¯d calmed down enough to think straight, he¡¯d retreated to the circle of safety as fast as he¡¯d been able, pushing his vitality into the nearby plants to force them back, not bothering to retrieve his trusty stick. He¡¯d performed no more magic for the rest of the day. He hadn¡¯t done much of anything beyond gathering Jamie into a cuddle on his bed and trying not to cry. Words couldn¡¯t express how grateful he was that the cat hadn¡¯t scratched him up and escaped.


    Lucas wasn¡¯t an inactive person, but neither was he an adrenaline junky. The closest he¡¯d come to death before yesterday was when he¡¯d fell off his bike into the path of an oncoming car in primary school, and even in that situation the car had been able to slam on the brakes before even getting close. He hadn¡¯t even broken a bone before; he often jokingly bragged about it.


    The incident in the corridor hadn¡¯t unlocked some hidden thrill-seeking fetish within him. Quite the opposite. Regardless of the discovery of a new aspect of his plant magic (which was still a surreal thing to be thinking) he wasn¡¯t keen to jump back into the fray.


    The danger of the situation had been clear from the start, but a part of him must not have been taking it completely seriously. He¡¯d grown overconfident in his ability, gotten high on the feeling of casually performing superhuman feats. Bulling ahead with no real plan had been reckless. Idiotic. Had almost got him killed.


    There was some silver lining, though. As he ate his usual sweet berry breakfast, he regarded the mass of plant life with both his eyes and his vitality sense.


    With a flex of will, he pushed his vitality, projecting it out of his body in an omnidirectional wave. It pinged the plants like a sonar, lighting them up in his senses where they¡¯d previously been a dull impression.


    He was standing at the edge of the circle, facing outwards with a hand hovering millimetres from a branch, and his vitality radiated out in a sphere around him until it could go no further, like he¡¯d exhaled until he¡¯d run out of breath. It expelled the other vitality signature, granting him dominion over the plants within around five metres of his person. Yesterday it had been a struggle to hold three. Though admittedly he¡¯d been moving then, rushing back to safety.


    The greater mass fought back, to the point he could feel it like a physical weight, adding to the strain. But he was determined, and he had stamina to spare. It was an ongoing battle, and he had to constantly focus conscious effort on it, but he was successfully keeping his hold.


    Triumph surged through him. He might have jumped up and celebrated, if the technique wasn¡¯t already using up so much of his mental bandwidth¡ªand Jamie definitely would¡¯ve objected to the excitement. As it was, he mechanically chewed on his berries and willed his vitality to hold the plants in place.


    ¡°I¡¯m an actual goddamn wizard, Jamie,¡± he said, earning a little meow from the cat.


    Instinct and desperation had revealed to him a new aspect of this vitality he hadn¡¯t considered, but should have. Probably would have in due time, if he¡¯d just sat down to think about it and experiment.


    That was what he was going to do now.


    Focusing, he could feel the properties of the plants under his command. His vitality filled them up to the brim, and it gave him an understanding of where they were strong, where they were damaged, how they could grow, the adaptations they could make, and more.


    They had a rudimentary database of genes in them. A memory, of sorts. Plants had to adapt to survive, growing where and when and what they needed to or they¡¯d wilt, and whether it was an actual physical thing or a quirk of vitality, Lucas found he could tap into that bank of knowledge, somewhat. Possibilities unfolded in his mind¡¯s eyes like blueprints, and he put a mental pin in that to come back to.


    There was also something like intent in them. Will, maybe. They were plants, so their desires were entirely primitive, instinctual, and rather uniform, despite the ostensible variety in their species. They wanted nothing more than to absorb nutrients and grow, and they held instincts that told them how they could do it.


    Right now, that manifested in a thirst to suck up water through their roots, which they could then convert to energy and sustenance.


    But he knew something the plants didn¡¯t¡ªcouldn¡¯t possibly¡ªknow: his vitality could do more for them than anything natural ever could.


    This was less instinct on his part and more inference. He had deep experience with feeling the way the mass of fey vitality flowed through the greater whole over the last few days, and he¡¯d seen how fast plants could grow under its influence with his own eyes. He wouldn¡¯t be anywhere near as adept with the technique, but he figured he could do something similar.


    ¡°To what end?¡± he asked out of one corner of his mouth, pretending it was coming from the tabby cat cradled in his arms.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know yet,¡± he said at a regular volume. ¡°But it¡¯s worth testing, right?¡±


    There was a moment of silence. The cat groomed its paw without looking up at him. It had gone beyond the point of even having to look at him to judge him, it could radiate that vibe with aura alone.


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    Lucas snorted at himself. He was losing his mind in this place.


    He passed the morning playing with his power, moving vitality around and seeing what it did. He was cold and wet, but somehow found he wasn¡¯t miserable.


    It¡¯s hard to get too down in the dumps when you¡¯re playing around with magic, no matter the circumstances.


    Elation filled him the first time he managed to coax some thorns into growing along a branch, and there was nothing the cold could do about it. Childlike wonder overwhelmed him when he managed to take control over a vine and make it wriggle like a snake, and for a while his damp feet were a secondary concern. It was all he could do not to cackle in delight when he figured out how to encourage a part of the bush to secrete silk-thin threads he could hopefully weave into warmer clothes later, his hunger long forgotten.


    At a point, he started mixing and matching genetic codes from different plants, imbuing traits that shouldn¡¯t have been possible in their species. Bark grew on flower stalks; serrated thorns pricked on petals; berries started blooming on solid wood. He turned plants into strange colours, painting a fascinatingly awful picture in defiance of nature, and grew and shrunk them beyond their ordinary forms.


    None of this was a fast process. Even with his vitality pumping out double-time, he couldn¡¯t get things to grow as quickly as he¡¯d seen them do. His skill was amateur compared to whatever mind was controlling the enormous mass that spanned miles and miles all around, but he had advantages. Anything that went against the plant¡¯s individual nature was both more taxing and even slower than an already sluggish process.


    But frankly, he didn¡¯t give a shit if it was slow.


    ¡°Magic,¡± he found himself saying more than once.


    Generally, the cat would stare up at him blankly at those moments.


    ¡°I¡¯m a goddamn wizard,¡± Lucas hissed at the irreverent feline. ¡°Show some respect.¡±


    It was almost enough to make him forget his situation entirely.


    But not quite.


    Hours flew by, his dexterity with his new skill increasing by the minute, and soon enough the initial excitement wore off. It never went away completely; he didn¡¯t think he could ever lose the joy of performing magic. But dark thoughts started to creep back in, anxieties and worries digging their talons into his brain.


    I¡¯m still trapped in a strange place with no idea how I got here.


    He couldn¡¯t forget that.


    After lunch (more berries, which he had to force himself to go through since he couldn¡¯t countenance sending Jamie out to fetch fish in this rain) he started to focus on the vitality of his own body. He¡¯d noticed a marked increase in athleticism when he was battling the foliage with his trusty stick. Manipulating plants was exciting, but was there anything he could do with his own body? The question was worth answering before making any further plans.


    Closing his eyes, he let his vitality draw back from the surrounding plants, the tide receding. Almost immediately he felt warmer, stronger, more alive. He lit up like the aurora borealis but golden. Little flecks of vitality from the plants were drawn into him too, like flotsam on the tide, and he mentally prodded at them, seeing if they¡¯d do anything. There was nothing he could discern.


    The vitality flowed naturally through him unprompted, just as he didn¡¯t have to consciously tell his heart to keep pumping his blood through his veins. It moved sluggishly by nature, but he could somewhat affect it if he wanted to. When he squeezed and compressed it, it would go even slower, and his body started to feel physically heavier. When he pushed, it would go faster, and he got a heady feeling akin to an adrenaline rush.


    Strangely, he found it didn¡¯t fill him to the brim like the vitality that suffused the plants at times. In fact, his vitality only really flowed through a small portion of his body, though it covered every section generally. It shone bright enough that his ¡®aura¡¯ looked like a golden silhouette when he wasn¡¯t concentrating, but a more discerning eye showed him that the flow of his aura was really only moving through a much smaller circulatory system, mostly sticking close to his skeleton.


    Something told him he should¡¯ve been able to push it further, but he couldn¡¯t figure out how. Inspecting the plants didn¡¯t help, their vitality and the way it moved in them was too different to his own body, simple enough in comparison that he could overwhelm them with little finesse.


    Concentrating harder than he ever had in his life, he mentally zoomed in on a tiny part of the channels the vitality flowed through and spent god knows how long watching the way it moved. It was like water steadily flowing through a pipe, constantly in motion, but what was moving it? He¡¯d seen no indication of any force acting on his vitality, and he didn¡¯t know what was actually happening when he commanded it to speed up or slow down, just that it did.


    Mere observation wasn¡¯t helping. Instead, he found one of the tiny specks of plant vitality and assumed direct control over it. He commanded it to move at the same speed as the rest, following it along as it flowed through his channels, starting at the base of his skull. He watched it like a hawk as it flowed down his neck, curved across his shoulder, flowed down his arm and back up, spiralled between his ribs before aligning on his spine and plunging down past his hips and down one leg, then back up, and then repeated the whole process in reverse on the other side of his body.


    Nothing jumped out at him, but he didn¡¯t give up. There had to be something. If plants could be filled to the brim despite their even more basic vitality channels, it stood to reason that he could too. He just wasn¡¯t seeing it yet.


    The speck made four full circuits of his body before he noticed something unusual.


    It happened as the speck was travelling along his left arm, following a channel that clung to his humerus. Just as it was reaching the elbow, there was a brief moment, so short he almost missed it, where the speck deviated from the flow without his command, like it had hit a tiny, tiny irregularity in its path.


    Lucas instantly zeroed in on the area, dismissing the speck back into the regular flow, its job done. With intensity he never knew he was capable of, he focused deeper and deeper on the spot where the speck had moved and, sure enough, there was a minute hitch in the flow of his vitality, a bump he never would have noticed otherwise. He took conscious control over all the vitality flowing through the zone, slowing it down when it reached the bump, then letting it go once it was passed. It made the area feel sore, but he ignored the pain.


    Time lost all meaning. Some part of him hurt like he was staring wide-eyed, unblinking at the spot, narrowing down the cause of the bump moment by moment, until his attention was on an area no larger than a few microscopic specks of vitality.


    And there, impossibly small, was a gap in the wall of his channel. A sub-channel, its opening so small it was functionally shut. A trickle of vitality could have forced its way in, but before anything substantial could make it past the entrance, the pressure behind would push the flow on. That was why there was a slight hitch. It was minutely disrupting the overall flow, but not so much that it was noticeable unless one was going to obsessive levels to search for something that they couldn¡¯t know for sure was even there.


    Lucas¡¯ grin was probably feral. Victory felt good.


    Unfortunately, engaging his muscles for the first time in god knows how long brought him back to awareness. His body was apparently desperate for his attention, and that did not feel good. A groan of pain escaped him, and he stumbled back to his bed, wracked by shivers.


    Jamie hissed at him, wriggling in his arms, and Lucas let the cat go. It dropped to the floor, sending it a disapproving look over its shoulder as it trotted away.


    ¡°Hey, can you blame me? Magic, Jamie!¡± he said.


    The cat huffed as it disappeared into the foliage.


    ¡°I¡¯ll do something that impresses you some day!¡±


    Every inch of him was sore. His skin was tender like he¡¯d been sunburned head to toe. He was light-headed and weak, his stomach was growling furiously, his throat was dry as sandpaper, he was feverish, he was cold, he had a headache, and his hands and feet had gone numb.


    But even despite it all, he didn¡¯t stop grinning.


    How could he, when there was more magic to discover?

 5: Better Late than Never (5)

    Lucas took a bite of savoury apple as he made his way down a dark corridor, his faithful feline companion trotting along at his side, an ever-present shadow. Jamie had finally deigned to join him on his excursions once it became clear he could push back the foliage effortlessly. The cat had been hesitant at first, almost skittish, but had calmed down over time.


    His vitality hung in a spherical orb around him, keeping away any plants. Their aggression had lessened since his near-death experience, but he wasn¡¯t feeling like taking any chances. Even if keeping this up made him feel like his soul was constantly out of breath.


    Beats having the breath wrung from my lungs by branches as strong as steel. I¡¯ll endure this happily.


    Even now, with a nominal assurance of safety, the memory elicited a swooping feeling in his stomach.


    The area surrounding the domed hall was a veritable labyrinth. Even with the near-clairvoyant vision granted to him by piggybacking on the vitality flowing through the mass of plants, it was way too easy to get turned around. The size of the complex was just too big to wrap his head around, so he¡¯d settled for exploring the place one section at a time, not confident enough in his magic to stray too far from the safety of the circle yet.


    So far, he¡¯d checked all of the rooms immediately surrounding the domed hall, as well as gotten a decent look at the domed hall itself. With his ability to clear away plants little greater than five metres in all directions, it was impossible to get a full, unobscured view of the grand mural painted onto the floor; the foliage would grow back in his wake, and he couldn¡¯t clear the whole room anywhere near fast enough. But a methodical approach walking back and forth across the hall over the course of a day had given him a decent mental image.


    Unfortunately, even with plenty of time to mull it over, he still had no idea what it was meant to be.


    ¡°What do you think, Jamie?¡± he muttered.


    The cat gave no answer. Didn¡¯t even look at him, the stuck up little furball.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know either,¡± Lucas said. ¡°It¡¯s beautiful, though.¡±


    Multiple curving columns radiated out from the circle of safety at the centre of the room, forming something that looked like a spiral galaxy that stretched across the entire floor, right up to the walls. Each arm was elaborately designed, full of densely packed symbols, hieroglyphs, and pictograms. Scripts flanked and occasionally weaved through each arm. It was incredibly intricate, and somehow all flowed in a way that pinged at his memory.


    It was a work of art as impressive as anything he¡¯d seen, the sheer scale of it boggling his mind when he thought about how much effort it must have taken. The floor space was probably thrice as large as a football pitch. Humans could do incredible things, when they wanted to.


    And it looked familiar.


    Which makes no sense. I¡¯ve never seen anything like this. I¡¯m pretty certain of that.


    But it was still niggling at him like a splinter in his toe. He¡¯d definitely remember encountering a giant magical array. Because that was what it obviously was, though its purpose was unclear. He had theories, but¡­ no way to verify anything right now.


    Ultimately, sating his curiosity had only left him with more mysteries.


    Resolving to come back to that later, he got started on delving deeper into the maze, picking a direction and exploring a zone in that area, always making sure he knew where he was in relation to his nominal base of operations.


    Jamie was actually a help on that front, oddly enough. Even if Lucas had had no other way of figuring out the way back, his cat companion always appeared to know which way to go. More than that, he seemed eager to return, setting off at a trot whenever Lucas declared himself done for the day.


    It set Lucas to wondering just how long Jamie had been living in this place¡ªhe evidently saw the central circle as his home to return to. Or something like that.


    When he looked down into those little amber eyes, he couldn¡¯t help the feeling that there was something unusual about the cat. Talking to him had started as the average emotional-support animal deal, but, over time, more and more indications were popping up that Jamie understood more than a cat typically would. Many times now, requests had been answered with surprising accuracy.


    This world clearly had magic in it, after all. A too-smart cat wasn¡¯t outside the realm of possibilities.


    ¡°How much of what I¡¯m saying do you understand?¡± Lucas couldn¡¯t help asking him.


    Of course, the cat would just look up at him. Maybe he¡¯d blink. However much he understood, he still couldn¡¯t exactly speak. That trait was still reserved for children¡¯s cartoons, sadly.


    Frustratingly, there was little to report regarding the complex around the dome. Every room was empty, marble walls bare. There were discoloured areas that implied there were once rugs on the floor and tapestries on the walls, and indents that might have once held torches or something.


    Every time he cleared out another room without finding anything of use, his irritation built. He was keeping up hope out of stubbornness more than anything, but it was looking more and more like the overgrowth had devoured absolutely everything, somehow.


    The only thing looking up was his magic.


    Magic.


    The word always gave him a little thrill when it came to mind. He wondered if that feeling would ever go away. He hoped it didn¡¯t. He had little else to be positive about right now. Hell, everything positive in this situation came back to magic.


    Experimenting with his vitality, using the plants as test subjects, was his best source of hope right now. His skill with ¡®customising¡¯ the plants had grown in leaps and bounds, hence his nice, savoury apple. Scientific knowledge probably would¡¯ve made things much easier, but it wasn¡¯t too difficult to fiddle around until he got approximately what he wanted. He could have cried when he bit into his seventh attempt and found it wasn¡¯t sweet.


    He was thoroughly sick of sweet things. If he never saw a berry again, he¡¯d be just fine with that.


    Commanding the plants to clear out of his way was getting easier too, and his control was improving, bit by bit. It still wasn¡¯t fast, objectively speaking; if he didn¡¯t walk slowly he¡¯d quickly find his path barred and end up having to wait anyway, but he felt he was able to move faster than he had yesterday, and he¡¯d be even faster tomorrow.


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    By far the most technically adroit feat he¡¯d managed so far was his roughshod clothing. Scratchy and rough as it was, it was decent enough for a first attempt. Plenty of plants could produce gossamer-thin fibres on command, and, though it was finicky, his vitality let him weave them together.


    Over the course of many hours of tedious work, he¡¯d bodged together a robe that was about as attractive as wearing a burlap sack but protected him from the elements well enough, formed some strips of rough cloth-like material that he wrapped around himself like bandages for warmth, and woven together a pair of reedy soles that he lashed to his feet with spun cord so he wasn¡¯t constantly mushing cold refuse under his feet with every squelching step. He even had a sack flung over his shoulder in case he found anything useful.


    It wasn¡¯t the height of fashion or quality clothing, but it beat out his shredded, dirty PJs.


    Truth be told, there was probably more he could be doing with the plants, but most of his attention was pointed within. Even when he was deploying his vitality to battle back the plants, it was still only a fraction of his focus. When he wasn¡¯t actively exploring the sprawling corridors and rooms around the domed hall, he didn¡¯t bother with plants at all. Mapping out his channels took top priority.


    It was by far the hardest thing he¡¯d done with his magic. Everything else had mostly come easily, to the point he suspected he was fumbling his way through some amateur plant magic techniques that little kid wizards and witches could¡¯ve done. This was another matter entirely.


    Even with total concentration, it was a struggle to force vitality into the little sub-channels that split off from his larger circulatory system. If the main channels his vitality flowed through were akin to rivers, then the sub-channels were hose pipes. Once he¡¯d picked up the trick of finding them, he realised there were hundreds of sealed channels splitting off from the main loop. Opening them up came with a feeling like a needle piercing him from the inside, and anything but the slightest trickle of vitality flowing into them caused a bone-deep ache.


    It was a frustrating process, but also exhilarating.


    Frustrating, because once he¡¯d opened those channels, he had to actively pay attention to them to keep vitality flowing into them or they¡¯d close off again. Unlike the main channels, these were more like veins. They constricted, and reset to their closed form by default.


    Exhilarating, because wherever vitality was coming from, his body produced more of it to fill up the new space, thus increasing his overall power. He¡¯d only opened three new sub-channels¡ªtwo in his upper left arm, one in his right forearm¡ªand he was already feeling the difference. Small, but there. Unmistakeable.


    And that wasn¡¯t even mentioning the fact that the sub-channels had multiple sub-channels of their own. Opening and maintaining them all was a daunting project, but the thought of how powerful he¡¯d feel when the task was done almost had him salivating. He wondered how big his vitality range would be at that point.


    Not that there aren¡¯t bad parts to magic.


    That thought was a bit of a downer, but he couldn¡¯t afford not to face it. In absence of other compelling evidence, he had to assume something supernatural also brought him here. Whether it was an accident or deliberate¡ªthough he couldn¡¯t fathom why someone or something might have actively targeted him¡ªmagic had ripped him out of his living room in the middle of breakfast and dumped him in a hostile environment, where he almost certainly would have died in some horrific manner at the hands of some murderous foliage.


    He wasn¡¯t stupid. He could put two and two together.


    Man finds himself in a strange place plus a giant freaky magic circle present in said place equals the giant circle brought him there.


    It was near certain that there were other magic users out there. There was no way he was the only one. Hell, ample evidence of that surrounded him. Whatever controlled the plants didn¡¯t seem smart enough to make the magic circle, but there was still a certain consciousness to them. He didn¡¯t yet know how he¡¯d handle the situation if and when he ran into something more intelligent.


    Feeling vindictive, he directed his vitality to wither a few branches rather than retract them. It cost him a few seconds as the more complicated task was carried out, but it made him feel a little better.


    His exploration lasted most of the rest of the day, Jamie remaining ever-present at his side. There was little direct sunlight this deep in the corridors, but he¡¯d been learning to tell the time by the feeling of the more distant plants. When he concentrated for a moment while piggy-backing off the overgrowth¡¯s vitality, he could feel when the sun was no longer shining so brightly on the plants outside.


    So he knew it was late afternoon when he found the first skeleton.


    At first, he didn¡¯t know what he was looking at. Not counting the hivemind intelligence that suffused the plant life, the only creatures he¡¯d seen were small insects. For a moment he just stared in bafflement, suspicious of these strange white plants that had plopped out of the greater mass and weren''t obeying his vitality when he ordered them away.


    Then the skull clacked to the floor, and comprehension dawned like a blast of sunlight directly in the eyes.


    He yelped, hastily backing away. The bones fell outside of his range, and the plants moved to cover them once more. They were small enough that they simply got woven back into the great tangle, not registering as a gap in his vitality sense.


    Lucas stared at where he knew them to be for a long time, his chest heaving as he panted for breath.


    That really was a dead body, wasn¡¯t it? Someone died here.


    Had they gone the way he almost had, trapped and constricted and choked? The thought horrified him, but he imagined it was the most likely explanation.


    Someone died here.


    Intellectually, he¡¯d known the plant life was hostile. It had been trying to kill him for almost two weeks now. Had nearly succeeded.


    But for some reason, the thought that it had killed others hadn¡¯t yet crossed his mind, and the revelation was harrowing.


    Moving carefully forward, he forced the plants back once more, and inspected the bones where they were still lying innocently on the dirty marble floor. Jamie followed along, leaning forward to sniff at them before looking over his shoulder at Lucas as if saying ¡°what am I looking at here, human?¡±


    They weren¡¯t as white as he¡¯d expected they¡¯d be, a subtle yellow tint to them. He supposed that made sense. Of course they would¡¯ve been dirtied by the plants, if they were held there long enough for the flesh to be stripped away.


    ¡°Shit,¡± he muttered. ¡°Shit, shit, shit.¡±


    There was no hint of flesh or muscle, nothing mummified. Lucas didn¡¯t know what that indicated, but that probably would have spoken to how long it had been to someone with the right knowledge. Years? Decades? Centuries?


    Nor were there clothes, or any kind of personal belongings. Nothing to identify them, or give a hint as to who they were and how they ended up here. For all he knew, they might have been like him, waking up confused at the nexus of an overgrown labyrinth, then gotten in over their heads.


    Staring into the skull¡¯s empty eye sockets, he tried to imagine what this person looked like. Their eye colour, the shade of their skin, the style of their hair. Had they had any scars? Blemishes? Were they beautiful/handsome? Hell, he couldn¡¯t even tell their gender.


    ¡°Some biologist types could probably tell, but not me,¡± he said, cursing his lack of knowledge.


    He felt a disconnect. A strange, instinctive rejection. Looking at a skeleton, it was hard to imagine it had once been a person, with thoughts and feelings and desires. A human being who¡¯d lived an entire life, only to meet their ignoble end here, trapped in a snare of brown branches, terrified and in pain.


    Is there anyone out there who misses them? Had someone, one day, long ago, wondered where this person had gone, why they¡¯d missed an arranged meeting? Had they called out for this person, in their final moments?


    At least it¡¯s probably an adult, judging by the size of the bones. Small solace.


    The only reason he¡¯d seen it was because there was a little bit of light creeping into this part of the corridor from a small crack in a wall. Were there more out there, and he just hadn¡¯t seen them in the dark?


    Lucas drew in a shaky breath. So many questions, so few answers. It was a running theme, ever since he¡¯d found himself in this place.


    Eyes stinging, feeling off balance, Lucas shrugged his makeshift sack off his shoulder and got to work gathering the bones. He didn¡¯t know what this poor soul¡¯s wishes would have been for their remains, but he¡¯d figure something out. For now, he set off back the way he¡¯d come, feeling melancholic.


    Over the course of the next few days of exploration, he found a dozen more skeletons.


    Not all of them were adults.

 6: Better Late than Never (6)

    Lucas thought discovering the first skeleton had plunged his mood to rock bottom. Surely there was no lower to go.


    Every subsequent skeleton he found proved him wrong.


    A line of bones was slowly building at one end of his circle. They popped up at random in his steady traversal of the labyrinthine corridors. Some were relatively close to each other, some were off on their own in the middle of nowhere. There was no warning as to when he¡¯d stumble across another set, no sign to look for.


    His walks through the corridors started to fill him with dread for more reasons than his own safety. Every time he stumbled across another set of bones that had once been a living, feeling, thinking person was just as harrowing as the first. The morbid sadness never went away.


    Every time he saw a new one, he thought: that could have been me.


    In another world, under slightly different circumstances, if he was slower, or less lucky, or a bit more tired, he could¡¯ve ended up as a faded bone tangled deep in the heart of this monumental overgrowth, forgotten for who knows how many years before someone else came along. The thought of his remains sitting there, forgotten, affected him in a way few things ever had before.


    ¡°Am I going mad, Jamie?¡± he asked, staring down at his growing pile. At some point, it had started to feel like he was actively looking for them, other things that should¡¯ve been higher priority falling to the wayside.


    As usual, Jamie didn¡¯t reply, but Lucas narrated a voice for him anyway, if only in the comfort of his mind:


    You were already mad. This is just your latest weird little obsession.


    ¡°Sure, but this feels really unhealthy. It¡¯s¡­ I feel like I¡¯m overreacting. Am I overreacting?¡±


    That¡¯s a matter of perspective. You never know how you¡¯re going to react to the reality of death until you face it for yourself.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel right. It doesn¡¯t feel me. This isn¡¯t how I pictured myself responding to a stressful situation, is all. I thought¡­ I don¡¯t know what I thought, but I certainly didn¡¯t see myself obsessing over something like this. It¡¯s like the idea is drilling itself into my brain, telling me I can¡¯t leave their remains out here like this, now I know they¡¯re here.¡±


    You were already talking to a cat and making up voices for it. Isolation does weird things to people.


    ¡°Good point,¡± he conceded. Swallowed. Took another deep breath. He didn¡¯t ¡®talk¡¯ to Jamie for a little while after that.


    Gathering up every bone he encountered and doing his best to leave none behind was a chore, but he endured it. Bringing them back to his safe circle, he did his best to lay them out in such a way that bones didn¡¯t mix up between the bodies, but he didn¡¯t want them to take up too much space.


    Handling the bones was perhaps the worst part. They were so rough and dry. Brittle, even. His skin felt dirty afterwards, like touching them tainted him on a spiritual level. He scrubbed his hands with rough leaves and some of his gathered drinking water every time, and it took way too long to feel clean, if he managed to feel clean at all.


    The temptation to leave them grew more enticing every time, though he knew he never would. Never could. He hated being in their presence and kept as far away from them as possible. He even made sure the skulls were facing away from him, unable to bear the weight of their accusing, empty eye-sockets.


    Their presence wore on him. It was so hard not to stare, to wonder. Questions churned in his mind. Who they¡¯d been, why they¡¯d been here, how they¡¯d died. They dragged down his mood, dark possibilities abounding, but he couldn¡¯t stop thinking about it.


    He found himself staring at them in moments when his mind wandered, gaze drawn to the row of remains like they had a dark gravity. He¡¯d always snap his eyes away when he caught himself doing it, but over and over he¡¯d end up looking again.


    Even his dreams weren¡¯t safe from them. Every night played out scenes of how they might have died. Trapped in deadly branches, screaming in terror. Devoured by a venus fly trap. Poisoned by the tiniest nick from a toxin-secreting thorn.


    All grim possibilities, and they never failed to wake him. He¡¯d turn over in his creaking makeshift bed and stare into the darkness at where he knew the skeletons to be.


    The small ones were the worst. Children, presumably. Two of them. They occupied his thoughts more than the ten adult skeletons combined.


    All those morbid dreams weren¡¯t so bad, compared to the ones where the skeletons sprung to life and attacked him, determined to add him to their ranks. They screamed the screams of agonising deaths, and the two small skeletons wailed like children who¡¯d lost their parents as they dragged him into the bushes and held him still as the plants snaked their way around his limbs.


    He woke up screaming himself the first time he had that nightmare, startling Jamie awake and earning himself a scratch. It wasn¡¯t the last time.


    Sleep had already been a struggle just due to sheer discomfort as much as anything. Things had been looking up on that front once he¡¯d figured out how to weave himself some scratchy quasi-blankets and bedsheets out of plant fibre.


    Now, things were getting worse. He¡¯d be surprised if he was getting more than two hours of good rest each night, and he couldn¡¯t afford the exhaustion that came with that level of sleep deprivation.


    He found himself talking to Jamie more and more, muttering and meandering from sentence to sentence, narrating everything he was doing.


    ¡°Have to find them all, Jamie. Can¡¯t leave them here.¡±


    Sometimes, he even imagined the other Jamie there, watching it all with his typical sardonic expression, a quip ready on his lips. If he and Rian saw him in this state, they would¡¯ve roasted him until he was charred as coal.


    And then they undoubtedly would¡¯ve helped out.


    Throughout all this, he¡¯d been continuing his slow exploration, day by day. It felt more dangerous, in his current state. His vitality was harder to focus on when he was so tired. Shaping it both within and outside himself took more effort.


    It meant both progress on mapping his sub-channels and protecting himself against the plants were, together, far slower. Even one at a time wasn¡¯t what it had been when he was in sound mind. He had to pick, and he hated neglecting his internal manipulation, so he was spending less time exploring, which meant he was going to spend far longer here than he wanted to, which meant more time around the piled skeletons.


    It was a vicious cycle.


    He was on the verge of giving up on exploring the complex entirely, not wanting to find any more bodies to wonder and worry about. The edge of the complex was calling to him. The mysteries of this grand place had lost their shine; even the array he¡¯d awoken in the centre of was falling down his list of priorities. Any more of this, and the command for Jamie to show him the fastest way out would surely pass his lips.


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    Lucas grimaced, sitting at the edge of his bed on another cold morning. He¡¯d positioned himself so there were no skeletons in his line of sight, clinging to Jamie in his lap like a lifeline keeping him above the dark waters of madness. Last night was another bad one. The days had bled together, and he no longer knew how long he¡¯d been here.


    ¡­ no. That¡¯s not the only reason I haven¡¯t left.


    He had to do something with the skeletons. Bury them, honour them, even if that didn¡¯t follow their religion. It wasn¡¯t like he could incinerate them. Did bones even burn? Didn¡¯t matter. They needed to be dealt with. They¡¯d never leave his dreams if he just abandoned them here. He just knew it.


    His frown deepened. His eyes fell closed, almost pained. He had to stifle a groan.


    There could be more out there, among all the fucking plants.


    He knew himself well enough to know that it would haunt him if he didn¡¯t check to make sure, and he was starting to think it might actually haunt him. There was something to the bones. A resonance. It prickled his skin whenever he was near them, a phantom feeling like a breath on the back of his neck, but in his very soul.


    No matter how he felt about it, he was going to have to scour the entire complex. Find them all. The compulsion felt foreign, but it couldn¡¯t be ignored.


    Every time he looked at one of the bones, he saw himself trapped in the constricting plants, slowly decaying, forgotten. He''d want someone to get his remains out of there, if it had happened to him.


    ¡°Fuck me,¡± he whispered, letting his eyes fall shut and tilting his head back. ¡°Fucking heeeeeell.¡±


    And so his exploration continued. He was no longer hoping to find any useful supplies or answer any questions; his only purpose now was to ensure there were no other bodies, then get the hell out of this place. He¡¯d find somewhere to bury the skeletons and from there¡­ he didn¡¯t know. He just couldn¡¯t stand to be in the overgrown complex for any longer than he had to. He told himself he¡¯d come back in the future, when it wasn¡¯t all affecting him like this.


    That desire to escape was ever at the forefront of his mind in the ensuing days. It overpowered everything else. He couldn¡¯t fathom how a cavernous room like the domed hall could feel small, but in his tired haze the walls seemed to constrict. He¡¯d find himself watching the dome, expecting a chunk of marble to fall away and crash down on him.


    The corridors were far worse in that regard. Even when they were wide enough they could¡¯ve fit a two-lane road with room to spare, they felt too small. He barely dared to step into any of the smaller rooms, only glancing in and ensuring there were no lost remains.


    Being inside was driving him mad. Only Jamie¡¯s presence kept him from falling over the edge, the reminder that there was another living being in this place acting as a lifeline that he clung to desperately.


    Ironically, these feelings drove him on faster, to the point he felt like he might¡¯ve been moving only a little slower than he had been when his vitality was under more clear-headed control. He wasn¡¯t stopping to carefully inspect his surroundings anymore, his slim hopes of finding something he could put to use brutally suppressed.


    So while he wouldn¡¯t go so far as to say he was making good time, things weren¡¯t too bad. There was no way to estimate how long it would take him to check this entire place over, but it couldn¡¯t be too long, surely? A matter of weeks. Maybe a month.


    Lucas paused as that thought came to him, standing in a corridor that was wider and taller than a bus, but still made him feel like he¡¯d crack his head on the ceiling if he jumped. There was a bramble in his hand, letting him pulse his vitality through the overgrowth and give him a 3D mental map of his surroundings for miles.


    He focused on it, turning it over in his head, and tried to form an estimate of how much ground he¡¯d covered so far. The vitality signatures in different plants were mostly uniform with the greater will¡¯s intelligence flowing through them all, but he was learning to pick up on the subtle distinctions. Younger plants were an ever so slightly paler shade of gold; more resplendent with the life that had birthed them.


    Looking at that schematic of vitality, picking out the sections where the colour was a tad brighter, he estimated he¡¯d covered maybe a tenth of the place.


    Lucas¡¯ stomach dropped between his feet and settled on the floor. His throat closed up. His breaths started coming faster, and he couldn¡¯t stop them. Suddenly, there wasn¡¯t enough air in this place. The dark was more menacing than it had been a moment ago, and before he knew it his feet were carrying him forward. An area on the vitality map had blown large in his mind¡¯s eye, and he hastened towards it.


    He moved fast enough that it was a struggle to keep the plants away to the fullest extent of his territory, but his legs disobeyed him when he told them to slow down. Jamie let out a yelp and darted after him, soon catching up and staying right on his heels. When he glanced down, he found the cat staring back up at him, eyes narrowed in consternation.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± he huffed, then broke out into a sprint, pushing his vitality sphere with everything he had. Jamie charged after him.


    Time blurred along with his vision. He was both hot and cold at once, and his chest hurt like icy fingers had grabbed his lungs and squeezed. His heart was pounding against his ribs like it was trying to escape.


    Along dark corridors, up black stairs, through shadowed archways, he walked, hastily forming a tunnel ahead of himself barely a metre wide and just tall enough to fit through. Eventually, he had to stoop.


    Up and up he went. He¡¯d noticed five towers the first time he¡¯d discovered the trick to piggybacking off the plant life¡¯s vitality, but he hadn¡¯t appreciated how tall they were until he found himself climbing the staircase of the southernmost tower. They seemed to go up forever, surely carrying him high into the sky and above the clouds.


    He was a fairly fit man, marathon and all, but weeks of berries and fruit for sustenance had hollowed him out a little. Lactic acid was burning him from the inside out by the time he made it to the top of the staircase what felt like a lifetime later. He was sore all over. Everything hurt, physical and metaphysical. He¡¯d been pushing his vitality through his channels to give himself a boost unconsciously. When he relented his grip on it, he felt a deep spiritual ache.


    But he couldn¡¯t stop yet.


    The topmost room of the tower was large and hexagonal, with tall ceilings and bare white walls. The floor was stained with sickly green patches, and Lucas was careful to avoid them as he made his way to the nearest wall. When he found what he was searching for, he exhaled a long breath that felt like it deflated him.


    A gap in the wall. No brick or marble, just a gap filled by vines as thick as tree trunks latticed together to block all sunlight.


    Sweeping away the last defence of the plant life keeping him in took more effort than it should have; his concentration was shot. He was so desperate for what lay beyond, it was hard to think of anything else, and his frustration built the longer it was denied to him. Eventually, he just blasted them away with an unnecessary amount of power, pushing his vitality out as far as it would go with his feverish fury as fuel.


    The sun shone on his face, and for a giddy, delirious moment, Lucas wondered if he¡¯d become a plant himself; energy filled him up, like the sunlight was rejuvenating him. Warmth suffused his body. Fresh air had never tasted this good.


    In a trance-like haze, Lucas stepped out into the open air. Narrow bridges spanned the gaps between the towers, linking the top floors, and even they were covered in thick vines serrated with razor-sharp thorns. At another time, being this high up would have been terrifying. The waist-high walls flanking the bridge wouldn''t have been enough to comfort him. He''d never been afraid of heights, but this was ridiculous.


    Mania had brought him up here, but he couldn¡¯t find it in himself to chastise himself for it. Even if he¡¯d been thinking more rationally, he was sure he would¡¯ve eventually had the idea to climb one of the towers so he could stand atop one of the sky-high bridges and see for himself that these overgrown plants didn¡¯t cover the entire fucking world.


    And they didn¡¯t. Oh, they went on for a disturbing distance. Miles, easily. A space the size of a city had been covered like something out of a fairytale; a verdant blanket draped over the surrounding buildings to form a surreal impression of a stormy green sea frozen in place. Only the tips of the tallest structures poked through. The dome, the towers, and a few other buildings.


    But beyond, far away but not so far as to be called truly distant, there was a forest that looked entirely natural. There were rolling hills. A flowing river.


    The true marvel of it all, of course, was the sky. Big and blue and beautiful, with fluffy cotton buds drifting lazily along here and there. Seeing it unobstructed and free was liberating. A gentle breeze sighed past him, ruffling his rough clothes, and it carried the scent of grass and pollen.


    There was nothing Lucas wanted more than to be out there. Away from this complex. Away from these plants.


    Away from the bodies. The obligation.


    Soon, he told himself.


    That night, back in the circle, he felt more grounded than he¡¯d been in days. Darkness still surrounded him, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel that he¡¯d been struggling to see as he spiralled deeper into a pit of depression.


    He was tired. Deeply tired. Barely able to keep his eyes open or lift a limb, having collapsed onto his bed the moment he got back from the day¡¯s efforts, Jamie immediately hopping up and taking his customary position curled up against his chest.


    But he had hope.


    Grasping around by his bed, he took a stick in hand to help with his pre-sleep meditation. Then he let his mind sink into his vitality, content to continue mapping his channels until he fell asleep.


    It wasn¡¯t until morning that he realised it was not a stick he had picked up.

 7: Better Late than Never (7)

    Lucas stared at the object in his hand for a long moment, blinking dumbly as he tried to shake off the fog of sleep. He¡¯d woken up clutching it to his chest. His vitality flowed through it as easily as one of his own limbs.


    Easier, in some ways. If anything, pushing his vitality into it was almost too easy. It was an empty vessel for his life force, going beyond readily accepting and into demanding. When he cut off the flow, it kept pulling, though not strongly enough to overpower his control.


    It was a dull yellow-ish white. Slightly curved in the middle, with rounder knobbly stumps at either end. Rough to the touch. Somewhat brittle.


    A human bone.


    Heart suddenly in his throat, Lucas let out a yelp and tossed the bone away with such strength that he lost his balance and went tumbling off the bed, dislodging a suddenly-irate tabby cat and hitting the hard stone floor with an embarrassing thump. He wheezed as the air was pressed from his lungs. Then he lay there for a time, gazing unseeingly up at the domed roof. Jamie hissed at him and trotted off to preen himself at the other end of the circle, uncaring about the pile of bones.


    The sky was grey this morning, only little hints of sunlight peeking through the clouds. The air was chilly as always, but it felt too crisp for rain. Something to be thankful for, he supposed.


    There was a distant rustle as the bone landed among the plants. The discombobulating haze of having just woken up slowly parted like a curtain, and Lucas¡¯ brain kicked into gear.


    He had been cycling his vitality through a human bone. A dead one. It was the easiest external manipulation of his vitality he¡¯d managed so far, as natural as circulating it through his own channels.


    He felt nauseous.


    Ever since he¡¯d first sensed the strange energy flowing through him and the surrounding plants, he¡¯d been thinking of it as life force. It seemed obvious enough. No two auras were precisely the same, but they were so close it hadn¡¯t seemed worth seeing them as different things. It was all just vital energy that, as far as he could tell, only occurred in and could manipulate living things.


    But now that he thought it through more, that last part didn¡¯t necessarily make sense, did it? Sticks weren¡¯t living, after all, and they were easier to empower with his vitality than the living plants. There was no will in them. No desire. They were empty vessels to impose his own will upon, welcoming his vitality.


    Same as the bone. Dead things were less capable of resisting life force, it appeared. If life force was even the right term for magical energy.


    The thought turned his stomach once more, but he couldn¡¯t put it down now he¡¯d picked it up. There was an aspect to this he¡¯d misunderstood, and understanding the mechanics of whatever the fuck it was he was doing here was imperative. Magic had evidently brought him to this place, and it was most likely going to be the thing that got him home. Obviously, there was more magic than messing with plants.


    Slowly, grimly, Lucas sat up and turned his attention to the collection of bones he¡¯d gathered. Yesterday he¡¯d been too tired to deal with the ones resting in his sack, and he¡¯d lazily dropped them to the ground by his bed, hence how he¡¯d thoughtlessly picked one up instead of a stick. Now, he reached for one with intent. It sickened him, but he needed to understand this.


    His fingers closed around a smaller bone than the last. A rib, he thought. It was rough and dry, and mercifully large enough that he could be confident it was an adult¡¯s. It was stupid, but he didn¡¯t want to be messing around with children¡¯s bones. Handling any of them felt wrong in a visceral way, but experimenting with a kid¡¯s corpse would be extra fucked up.


    Lucas hesitated. As much as he knew he had to, he really didn¡¯t want to do this. It felt like he was standing at the top of a steep hill pocked with deadly sharp stones, and if he stepped off he¡¯d go tumbling down, bruising and battering his body and helpless to stop the fall.


    Drawing in a deep breath, he pushed a sliver of his vitality into the bone.


    Instantly, it lit up in his senses, drinking hungrily of his vitality. Life essence moved on its own, following familiar channels like water returning to a dried riverbed. Paying unerring attention to his own vitality, he sensed an uncanny confusion. For a moment it seemed to be reaching out beyond the edge of the bone, as if looking for something that wasn¡¯t there, and he got the impression he could¡¯ve pushed it further. It felt incomplete, somehow.


    But then the moment passed, the flow doubled back on itself, and in seconds his vitality was cycling through the bone like it was the most natural thing in the world.


    It was, to be frank, a hundred times easier than cycling his vitality through the plants. His control was instant and absolute. It barely dented his concentration.


    Live plants had their own vitality, constantly intermingling with his own after he pushed out the larger will that suffused those in his surroundings. There was nothing like that in dead things, human or otherwise. It was just his vitality. Just him.


    But, now that he was looking at it closer, there was something there. A hint of an impression. He turned his attention to the other bones, reaching out with his vitality senses, and there he saw the distinction.


    It came down to the vessels themselves, he realised. Everything that lived and died was fundamentally a receptacle for vitality, but that didn¡¯t mean everything was the same. Their channels performed the same function, but through different¡­ wavelengths, maybe? Alternate designs?


    He¡¯d already known that, with the contrast between how his vitality flowed through him and the plants. But now the difference was stark. Sensing them took different frames of mind, minutely different configurations of his vitality. He¡¯d adapted his supernatural senses to the plants unconsciously.


    Like tuning into different channels on a radio.


    With a tweak to his vitality, using the bone in his hand as a guide, the next pulse of his vitality sense lit up the bones around him in his mind¡¯s eye. Except no, lit up wasn¡¯t the right word. It would be better, perhaps, to say they darkened in his senses.


    Because he wasn¡¯t sensing them directly, not really. None of them held any vitality, but they didn¡¯t need to. They were passively hungry for life force, and they¡¯d take anything readily; they were empty receptacles, and by nature they sought to fill the void, the lack of life.


    When his vitality misted the air in a sphere around him, he could feel the minute pull as they sought to welcome his life force in. Their effect was what he was feeling, not their form.


    With little effort, he was sure he¡¯d be able to feed them vitality even from a distance, filling their channels in order to¡­ he didn¡¯t know what. Enforce them like he had with his lost stick, maybe?


    Lucas let out a shaky breath. He grimaced at the rib in his hand, turning it over and over in his fingers, feeling the little nicks and fractures. It had been part of a person once, filled with vitality. Now it was just¡­ calcium and collagen, inert.


    It was sad. Maybe he was just anthropomorphising them too much, but he imagined it was a lonely existence, to be created for a purpose only to be abandoned. Its enthusiasm to welcome his vitality rang of desperation.


    But that was assigning too much will to the remains of a person long dead.


    Shaking his head, Lucas pushed himself to his feet and strode to the edge of the circle, a new idea in mind. If this worked, things would be much easier, and leaving wouldn¡¯t seem such a far off goal.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Closing his eyes and levelling out his breathing, Lucas lifted his free hand and placed it against the nearest plant, pulsing his aura into the wider flow. The plants came to life in his vitality sense, spanning miles.


    Then he switched his vitality to that other channel, using the bone as a conduit, and pulsed once more, searching for that now-familiar pull on life energy. Over the course of seconds, thousands more faint signatures winked to life in his mental map of the area, flickering like candles in a mild breeze.


    Lucas¡¯ lips trembled as he counted up how many bones he was going to have to collect. Triumph and horror went to war inside him. On the one hand, he¡¯d drastically reduced how much longer he was going to have to spend here; he no longer needed to search the whole place room by room.


    On the other hand, there were so many skeletons littered around this place he didn¡¯t even want to count them, trapped beneath the plant life, gone and forgotten.


    In the end, he settled for feeling numb as he prepared himself for the grim task. He found he didn¡¯t want to feel anything at all.


    ~~~


    It took days. By the time it was done, Lucas felt wrung out. Hollow, like his emotions had been scooped out of him and dumped in a pile of foul black sludge on the ground. Jamie hovered close to him at all times, mewing softly, probably sensing his distress. He¡¯d stopped talking to the cat at some point, singularly focused on the grim task.


    His circle was well and truly overrun with bones now, just as he¡¯d feared. Keeping them all in their ¡®sets¡¯ without mixing had proved an impossible task, but he tried his best. He didn¡¯t know how many bodies he had here, and had no intention of counting.


    There was a hole in his chest where his heart was supposed to be. He wasn¡¯t suited to this kind of work. He¡¯d never been able to handle death. Stepping on a snail had ruined his whole day, not so long ago. This was¡­ too much. Overwhelming. He¡¯d gotten so far past the point of emotional distress that he¡¯d ticked over and reset to 0, but it was building again, a savage beast trying to break out.


    He couldn¡¯t stay here another night. He had to get out.


    The sun was shining directly down through the gaps in the dome, motes of pollen dancing in golden columns of light. Noon. That gave him about six more hours of light; the sun set later than that, but the dome was at such an angle that it got dark inside a few hours before the stars came out.


    So he had to get around half a hundred skeletons out of here before then. There was no way he could carry them all in one go, but he didn¡¯t want to make multiple trips. His vitality was turbulent, tougher to keep a grip on. It would only get worse if this labour dragged out.


    And I don¡¯t think I have it in me to turn around and come back once I¡¯m out.


    An alternative solution was in order, then. Luckily, necessity was the mother of innovation; an idea came to him, and Lucas set immediately to work testing it. He moved to the nearest plants and laid his hand on a branch, forcing his will into the foliage and twisting them to his design.


    There was a creak of moving branches and the air filled with the scent of wet wood. Lucas fought to keep his concentration over the next hour as he multi-tasked with his vitality; he commanded wood be fashioned into round logs, ropes weaved out of plant fibre with various thickness, and small baskets be latticed from vines.


    He was out of breath and a headache was forming when it was done, but he didn¡¯t dare pause for rest. Another half hour passed as he lashed the logs together with the rope, and for once he was thankful for scouts and Duke of Edinburgh and all that crap he¡¯d hated as a kid. The knots weren¡¯t great, but he hoped they¡¯d hold with some help from his vitality. The final products were malformed and ugly, especially the lumpy baskets, but they¡¯d have to do.


    Next was the bad part. Gathering bones into individual baskets wasn¡¯t that hard in and of itself. It didn¡¯t even take particularly long.


    It was just impossible not to count how many bodies he was transporting when he was gathering them one by one.


    Fifty-two. Seven children.


    That could have been him. Any one of them.


    There was a lump in his throat that just wouldn''t go away by the time he had everything ready to go. The baskets were stacked on the makeshift sled he¡¯d bodged together. A few hours had passed, and it only now occurred to him that it didn¡¯t matter when the sun went down.


    It was going to be dark in the corridors anyway.


    Gritting his teeth, he looped the larger ropes around his torso then leaned forward to give an experimental tug. The ropes strained, pulling tight against his chest, painfully so. The wood groaned under the sudden pressure.


    Lucas grunted from pain and exertion and not a little bit of shock. He hadn¡¯t expected it to be so heavy. He didn¡¯t know how much the average skeleton weighed when divested of flesh and muscle, but they hadn¡¯t felt that bad individually. With so many of them together, it must have added up.


    His feet kicked and scraped against the ground, struggling for grip until enough detritus had bunched up beneath him to get some traction on so he could truly pull.


    After a few tense moments, just when the thought that he was going to have to make multiple trips after all was starting to rear its ugly head, the sled shifted an inch forward with the scrape of wood on marble. Jamie hissed at the sudden noise, darting away.


    Once it had that forward momentum, moving became easier, though it was still far from easy. The strain was agonising, and the ropes felt like they were going to cut right through him.


    It was working, but there was no way he was going to go the distance like this. If he stopped, he wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d start again.


    Desperate times called for desperate measures. Do or die. Et cetera.


    Lucas reached into his vitality and slowed it all throughout his channels, even the sub-channels. Immediately, he felt heavier, but not like he¡¯d increased his weight. He was just more now, his existence denser. He felt like he was turning to stone.


    But pulling the sled was easier, if fractionally. The ropes didn¡¯t hurt as much.


    A silver lining in all this, he didn¡¯t have to dedicate too much attention to forming a path through the overgrowth. He was moving so slowly that new plants only entered his range every few seconds, and it was simple to order them aside.


    It was dark by the time he¡¯d made it to the edge of the dome, and from there time lost all meaning. He felt disconnected from his own body, watching himself from two paces to the side. He was panting from exertion. Steam wafted from his sweaty skin. He was red as a tomato all over, and blood oozed out from where the makeshift ropes were gouging him.


    And he kept putting one foot in front of the other. He had no idea how he kept going through the exhaustion, but he suspected his vitality had something to do with it. As time passed, it only seemed to glow brighter in his senses, solidifying into lava. The pain of his body became a distant concept, but his vitality burned hotter and hotter, scalding his insides.


    He was an automaton. Inhuman. His mind emptied of all thoughts but the exit, his legs moving in a preprogrammed direction. If he¡¯d had to think, his mind would have caught on fire.


    Seconds stretched into years into decades into centuries into millenia. Corridors stretched on for miles. Turning corners was a herculean labour. He¡¯d chosen the fastest route, taking underground passages, and now he sorely regretted it. Fresh air on his skin would¡¯ve been a balm.


    He moved past sights that would have surely fascinated him just a day ago. Artworks painted on the walls of an underground chamber; always depicting a group of five paragons resplendent in their gleaming white armour, facing a formless dark monster. Each had an emblem inlaid in silver: a sword, a shield, a bow, a wand, and a star. Words accompanied them in flowing scripts.


    They barely registered, noted and discarded as irrelevant. Only the mission mattered.


    Corridors. Darkness. Vitality sense. One foot in front of the other. Breathe in, breathe out. Keep moving. Don¡¯t stop. Eyes closed, don¡¯t need them. Focus.


    Forward, forward, forward.


    He was burning and drowning. He was on fire and trapped in ice.


    Forward.


    His body was coming apart. Every cell was separating, lightning filling in the gaps.


    Forward.


    He was in hell. There was no end to the torment. This pain wasn¡¯t meant to be endured.


    But endure it he would.


    Forward.


    Lucas was jolted out of his trance when a drop of something icy cold and wet fell on his head. Then another. And another. Soon, there were dozens of them pattering against his skull. They quickly blended together, and before he knew it he was soaked through. He opened his eyes.


    His body was practically parallel to the ground, giving him the best angle to pull on the sled. Because of this, his face was close enough to the grass to count the individual blades.


    Grass.


    Strangely, there¡¯d been none of it back inside. Not that he¡¯d seen. Whatever fey intelligence controlled the plants favoured bigger or more inconvenient flora.


    He reached out to run his fingers through the verdure beneath him. It was overgrown, untended. There were weeds and thistles battling with clovers, and all of them were damp.


    Beneath it all was dirt. Soil. Mud.


    No marble. No stone. No thorns or twigs or other plant detritus.


    It was the most beautiful thing he¡¯d ever laid eyes on.


    Lucas¡¯ vision blurred, and he slumped to the ground, uncaring of the damp ground and rain sapping the warmth from his body. He ached inside and out. Sore wasn¡¯t an adequate word to describe the state of his muscles. His vitality was threatening to melt through his channel. A giggle escaped him, and once he¡¯d started he couldn¡¯t stop in spite of the pain it caused him.


    Relief suffused him. His last thought before he let go of consciousness was a simple one:


    I¡¯m out.

 8: Accumulate (1)

    The man sat on a plinth of obsidian atop a gently sloping hill, surveying the lands around him. Plains of black grass rolled to the far distance. Leafless trees with black trunks and branches stood sentinel, with shadowed silhouettes prowling through the dark forest. Skeletal creatures shambled aimlessly across the fields. Foul creatures dotted the sky, flying without wings. A faint buzzing sound carried on the air, and with it came the stench of burning and rot.


    Despite it all, the man seemed content. His form was wispy like he was a creature of smoke, all but his head covered by black. His bone white hair was finger-length, and it swayed in the breeze. Deep red eyes surveyed the lands, and there was a smile on his face.


    He spoke with a soft, sibilant voice. The fabric of reality seemed to recoil from the sound, twisting and warping to escape yet unable to break away from his will. Every word he spoke was blasphemy. Every syllable was sin. His speech was near musical, but to hear it was to know the melody of madness.


    It was too much for a mortal mind to comprehend. He spoke for a long time, narrating a tale of misery and woe, but trying to retain his words was like grasping water in one¡¯s hands.


    The man smiled, but no mirth reached his eyes. They were deep and unfathomable and the fiendish red of hellfire.


    And they seemed almost sad.


    With a sigh, the man waved a hand in dismissal.


    Darkness rose like a wave and swallowed the world.


    ~~~


    Lucas jolted back to consciousness, and immediately wished he hadn¡¯t.


    Everything hurt. Dry throat, stinging eyes, sore nose, ringing ears, skull throbbing like a stubbed toe, and those were just the problems above his shoulders. His entire body was aching, from his skin to the core of his bones. The makeshift ropes had rubbed his skin raw. Muscles he didn¡¯t know he had were sore. His arms and legs were heavy as lead. His organs had twisted themselves into knots and he didn¡¯t have a clue how he was going to go about untying them. His thoughts were sluggish, his mind struggling to come back online.


    But when he blearily opened his eyes and blinked up at the open sky, none of that seemed to matter.


    It still hurt, mind. But no amount of pain could pierce the euphoria that filled him when he remembered he was outside. He¡¯d made it.


    Groaning, he rolled over onto his back, only to have the shock of a lifetime when a warm presence he hadn¡¯t noticed let out an indignant yowl and scrambled off of him, leaving a score of stringing lines along the base of his spine in its wake. His heart plummeted and he flailed in panic at the sudden attack, but the fear sputtered and died when he beheld his attacker.


    Small and a little skinny, the tabby cat stared back at him with narrow-eyed suspicion, sitting on its haunches a metre or so away.


    ¡°Sorry, bud,¡± he whispered, the words stinging his throat. Jamie hissed in warning when he reached out for pets, but made no further moves when Lucas¡¯ hand came to rest on his head. Warmth radiated from beneath his soft fur, and he leaned into Lucas¡¯ touch despite the affront in its feline yellow eyes.


    ¡°Trying to steal some body heat from me, buddy?¡± Lucas asked. He shivered. ¡°Afraid I don¡¯t have much to spare, to be honest.¡± He spent a little longer petting the cat. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about yesterday. I think I went a bit mad, didn¡¯t I? It was only inevitable, given¡­ everything. But I¡¯m better now.¡±


    Insofar as a guy still talking to a cat can be called better, anyway.


    The sun had come out to burn away the morning dew, but Lucas had evidently spent the night on the damp ground and it hadn¡¯t done him well. If he wasn¡¯t already weary enough, he was as cold as he¡¯d ever been. It was baffling he still hadn¡¯t gotten sick.


    His little friend stuck around as he set to finishing the grim task he¡¯d set himself, only deigning to bother him when it saw he was snacking on apples, demanding a portion for itself. Using a sharpened stick as an implement, he spent much of the morning digging holes in the ground. It would¡¯ve been tiring labour even if he¡¯d started off at peak condition. As he was, it was practically self-torture.


    Over fifty graves were needed. By the time the sun was at its apex he hadn¡¯t done three. And even that had exhausted him.


    After a bigger lunch and a much longer rest that gave him some time to actually think, he was awake enough to remember he had magic at his fingertips. Calling upon his vitality with a bit of concentration, he threaded the magical energy into the mass of plants nearby, and commanded them to spread forth and help him dig.


    A dozen branches sharpened and flattened their ends to crude shovels under his control, then speared out to scratch aside the dirt. It was uncoordinated and messy, but it got the job done.


    Manipulating his vitality hurt. Even his channels hadn¡¯t escaped the punishment he¡¯d put himself through yesterday¡ªif it was even yesterday; he felt like he¡¯d slept a lifetime away. The walls of his channels stung like an open wound he was constantly pouring saltwater over, and the smaller sub-channels were even worse.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Watching the flow, he felt it was all moving slower now. Not as slow as he¡¯d forced it to before, but it was substantially more sluggish than the previous default had been. It felt like his vitality was¡­ thicker? It took some effort to speed it up to where he thought it should be, and with his vitality moving faster in his channels he noticed it got easier to manipulate and shape it outside of him.


    Huh.


    That wasn¡¯t something he¡¯d noticed before, because generally he hadn¡¯t focused on manipulating his vitality internally and externally at one time. And even when he had been focused on internal matters, opening up his sub-channels had taken priority above all else. Speeding up and slowing down his vitality and the effects those actions had on him had been interesting quirks he¡¯d noticed then swiftly moved on from.


    Slowing his vitality down had already proved its worth in boosting his strength and endurance during that torturous escape. Now, he supposed, it was time for the opposite to have its day.


    Things went much faster that afternoon.


    He quickly set aside his own stick when he concluded that putting himself through bodily labour was inefficient use of his brain power and vitality. He was better off promoting himself to a managerial position, coordinating his plant workers in their digging.


    Strolling slowly along with the tabby cat following behind him, he spent the rest of the afternoon focusing almost entirely on his external vitality senses. He sped up his internal vitality to the edge of discomfort, and his range and finesse increased by leaps and bounds. Before long, he was controlling dozens of spade-tipped wooden tentacles, and their sheer quantity made up for how slowly they moved.


    He settled into an almost meditative rhythm, and soon enough the shaping required little conscious thought from him. His mind drifted, always going back to the contents of the baskets sitting innocently on the sled.


    The sun was beginning to set by the time the graves were ready. Making his way back to the sled to start on the next step, he couldn¡¯t help feeling like he should do more, like he should conduct himself with solemn and grave purpose. There was no way to know if these people would appreciate it, especially coming from someone who wasn¡¯t religious himself, but he resolved to say some prayers for them all the same. He didn¡¯t know what else he could do.


    Each basket contained a pile of bones, and he wondered about each of their stories as he spent the rest of the night lowering them into the dark pits. He didn¡¯t linger on their deaths. Instead, he considered who they might have been in life, their hobbies, their favourite foods. It was all fiction, he knew; his freaky ability to imbue their bones with his vitality gave him no clues as to the people they¡¯d been. But he did it anyway.


    After each skeleton was laid to rest, he spent a moment with his head bowed, and sincerely hoped that they were comfortable and happy in whatever came next for them. He hoped whatever came before had been comfortable and happy too, regardless of its end.


    Filling the graves back in felt like an ending, and he fetched stones to place at the head of each plot. Maybe it gave them some measure of peace, wherever they were. Maybe it didn¡¯t. But it was something he felt he had to do. A timeless reminder that these people had been here, long after the grass had grown long. They¡¯d be remembered, in some form.


    When he was done, he found himself at a loss. The end had snuck up on him, and it was almost a jump scare when he realised there were no more baskets on the sled.


    It was the dead of night by then, though the moon was bright enough to see clearly by. The ground around him was unmistakably a grave site; rectangles of disturbed dirt with stone markers at their head were surely a universal concept.


    Ahead of him, the overgrown castle city he¡¯d escaped from loomed, a jagged silhouette. The mass grave he¡¯d dug was barely a hundred metres beyond its borders.


    Behind him, the open expanse of an unknown world. Infinite possibility. And, hopefully, answers to the myriad questions that had previously had to go on the back burner.


    He didn¡¯t know which one was more frightening in concept.


    He did know there was no fucking way he was going back inside the city without an impossibly compelling reason.


    And so his path was set. Travelling in the dark didn¡¯t seem like the smartest move, so he headed back towards the sled, where his bedding was stored. He¡¯d hunker down for the night, and tomorrow he¡¯d set off in search of answers. It wasn¡¯t the most comprehensive plan, but he¡¯d always been adaptable.


    As he settled in for the night with Jamie curled up in his customary position on Lucas¡¯ chest, he gazed up at the moon. He felt a bout of melancholy. The bones had been a constant weight on his mind for days. The issue finally being dealt with felt surreal. There was a void in his psyche now, in a way. A lack of purpose. It didn¡¯t make sense, since he absolutely did have many more goals to work towards, questions to answer. But he couldn¡¯t help how he felt.


    On a whim, he reached out with his vitality sense, tuning in to that different channel. The bones tried to passively absorb his vitality like they always did, like weak glue traps.


    Lucas frowned.


    Something was different.


    He¡¯d laid out the bones in the right configuration as best he could with his shoddy understanding of anatomy. The layout of a skeleton was largely logical, and he thought he¡¯d done a decent enough job even working off instinct and half-remembered biology classes. They were as accurate as he felt they could be.


    That proved to be true, he supposed.


    When he¡¯d connected his vitality to that rib bone, he¡¯d noticed a strange sense of confusion that wasn¡¯t his own. The vitality had automatically reached out a hair beyond the bone¡¯s pre-existing channels as if to form a further connection. It had felt less natural to make the vitality loop back, having to bridge the gaps himself. It wanted to continue on, but couldn¡¯t. He hadn¡¯t thought much more of it.


    Now, he understood. Much as he wished it didn¡¯t.


    Where a single bone was passive in its attempts to absorb his vitality, a fully assembled skeleton was almost eager. It wasn¡¯t truly will. It wasn¡¯t consciousness. Not on the part of the bones, anyway.


    It was his vitality, mingling with the skeletons, that wanted to seep into the bones, and he recognised the shape it was trying to mould itself into without his conscious input.


    It was impossible not to. It was exactly the same image as his own channels, after all.


    With but a twinge of his will, Lucas knew deep in his own bones, he could have commanded the skeletons to rise.


    This was necromancy.


    He didn¡¯t end up spending the night in that place. Instead, he packed up his meagre belongings onto his sled and dragged it away through the darkness until he was too tired to go any further, never wanting to see that damned cursed city again.

 9: Accumulate (2)

    The countryside was beautiful. Boasting a great tapestry of luscious fields that undulated to the horizon, crystal-blue waters that wound through the landscape, and distant white-tipped mountains that stood sentinel over all the land, it was like something out of a painting. It was awe-inspiring. Jaw-dropping. Something out of a fairy tale. The sight of it brought tears to Lucas¡¯ eyes.


    And he was beginning to suspect there wasn¡¯t a single human out there.


    Resting on a patch of dry grass, Lucas held a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun and pondered the small village he could see nestling at the bend of a distant river. It was too far away to make out any details, but he reckoned there were probably a dozen or two buildings, constructed from mud and stone and thatch in the style he¡¯d come to expect from the settlements he¡¯d come across thus far.


    A week had passed since he¡¯d escaped the overgrown city, and this was the sixth settlement he¡¯d encountered. At this point, he held no hope of finding it populated with people. He¡¯d learned his lesson.


    The first time he¡¯d happened upon a village¡ªa sign of civilisation that had his heart soaring¡ªthe disappointment of realising it had long been abandoned had been almost crushing. He¡¯d broken into a sprint, shouting greetings, only to be met with silence as deep as the grave.


    A little hamlet consisting of a grand total of nine buildings, each one had been vacant, many reduced to piles of rubble. What few possessions had been left behind had rotted away if the building was even still standing. There hadn¡¯t even really been anything useful to salvage. His best find was a wild patch of root vegetables that looked like purple carrots and had the consistency of potato. A stick remained his greatest weapon.


    The same story had played out five more times over the last seven days. Settlements large and small lay abandoned. Anything that could be taken had already been taken. Many buildings had long collapsed, and most of them were steadily being reclaimed by the wild if they weren¡¯t already overgrown entirely. Luckily for his heart, he found it was purely natural overgrowth taking back territory people had stolen.


    Still, it was disheartening. Demotivating.


    Hell, even if it had all still been standing and populated with friendly faces, the technological and developmental level would have been distressing on its own. Packed mud walls and thatched roofs¡ªrotten and patchy¡ªspoke of a civilisation that was far behind what he was used to.


    Finding himself trapped in the past wasn¡¯t that much of a surprise given everything else he¡¯d been through, but it was still pretty fucking inconvenient. He was deluding himself with the hope that he¡¯d stumble across a bunch of skyscrapers the moment he passed those far off mountains.


    It didn¡¯t seem likely.


    For now, he was stuck with a more immediate dilemma. The settlement in the distance was almost certainly empty too, but what if it wasn¡¯t?


    Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me six times¡­ shame on me again by that point, probably?


    But what if¡­?


    The trouble he was facing was thus: food could quickly become scarce if he was unlucky. He¡¯d come to rely on his ability to grow fruit at a whim, but he hadn¡¯t realised how much he¡¯d been dependent on the vitality flowing through the plants of the overgrown city until he didn¡¯t have access to it anymore. Without that link and the genetic information stored within it, he couldn¡¯t arbitrarily grow apples out of brambles, or some such.


    Luckily, forage wasn¡¯t much of a problem out here, considering there didn¡¯t seem to be anyone else to pick the land clean. But he was aware that things could change quickly. He didn¡¯t know these lands; who was to say he wouldn¡¯t stumble into a situation where food was abruptly a rarity? None of the weird fruits and vegetables he¡¯d managed to pick so far would keep all that well, and he was no skilled hunter.


    A mewling sound rang from beside him, and he absently reached down to scratch Jamie behind the ears. The tabby cat had followed him all the way out here, much to his delight. The two of them had thoroughly bonded in their time in the overgrown city, or so Lucas had liked to think. It was nice to see that their relationship wasn¡¯t totally one-sided.


    Though it was entirely possible the cheeky little bugger was just happy to have someone to scrounge off, since he had no problem munching on the purple carrot things. He had no idea how the cata been surviving before Lucas met him, or why it was there when he woke. Cats were supposed to be carnivores, hunters, and they patrolled territory. Jamie hadn¡¯t ever seemed particularly inclined to stray beyond that little circle upon which the foliage couldn¡¯t encroach.


    He was still hoping it would be able to teach him a thing or two about tracking prey, though he wasn¡¯t going to be eating mice unless things got really desperate.


    He¡¯d resolved that he wasn¡¯t going to be eating the cat, either, no matter what situation he found himself in. He was no vegan, but he couldn¡¯t imagine butchering and eating a creature he¡¯d bonded with. He¡¯d rather die. Maybe that was the perspective of a man who hadn¡¯t had to endure starvation yet, but he liked to think he¡¯d stick to that decision.


    To that end, he probably couldn¡¯t afford not to check the village for supplies. With a sigh, Lucas pushed himself to his feet and set off.


    Over the past week, he¡¯d gotten used to walking long distances with no destination in mind, only vague goals guiding him. His primary objectives were to figure out where the hell he was and how he got here, and so far he¡¯d made no progress on either. Even so, he¡¯d gained some appreciation for cross-country hiking, at least.


    After the trepidation of the first few days had finally released its vice grip over his heart, he¡¯d come to appreciate the scenery.


    Unmarred by roads and the endless cacophony of civilisation, the whispering wind was the only noise in the countryside. At first it had seemed eerie, so quiet it was as if it was highlighting the lack of the bustling din of the city that had been ever-present in his life, but it quickly became soothing, and he found he liked it.


    He¡¯d headed west from the overgrown city and never looked back. Bathing in streams was heavenly in comparison to wiping himself down by dipping makeshift rags in his gathered drinking water, but he would¡¯ve killed for a hot shower.


    The air was generally cold, but there were few overcast days, and the warmth of the sun made up for the crisp weather. He¡¯d long gotten used to the scent of pollen and damp plants that seemed omnipresent in the countryside. It was nothing compared to the domed chamber¡¯s aroma.


    The weirdest part of it all was the plant life. After the time he¡¯d spent in the overgrown city he¡¯d thought he¡¯d never find weirder foliage, but the further he travelled, the more oddities he saw.


    Here and there, things seemed to be warped. Trees would have multiple types and colours of leaves, and they grew in ways he could see no logical reason for them to. Bushes had contorted themselves into nonsensical shapes in places, and if he inspected a branch it could sometimes bleed into a different species of plant multiple times across its length. Pulsing his vitality through them gave him the impression that often several plants had kind of¡­ grown into each other. Combined.


    Even the colours were off, on a more general level. Grass and leaves and other stuff that was supposed to be green were instead closer to blue, and bark on trees inched towards red instead of brown. And that wasn¡¯t even speaking of the plants that looked like a bad photoshop job; one tree he saw had a neon yellow trunk with circular pink leaves, and he stayed well away from it.


    It all combined to give the place an alien feel, and he didn¡¯t know how to feel about it. Magic and mediaeval architecture was distressing enough, but if it turned out he was on another planet entirely, he was liable to have a breakdown. It was still gorgeous to behold, at least.


    And there were other positives. No longer needing to constantly push plants out of the way, his vitality experimentation had turned almost entirely internal. His improvements with speeding up/slowing down the flow as well as opening a dozen more sub-channels had seen material results in reality: he was making absurdly good time.


    There was little in the way of roads or paths, but that barely slowed him down. His stamina was proving to be outrageous. It was like slowing down his vitality¡¯s flow also slowed down the loss of his energy. One con was it made him more hungry, but he felt that was a decent trade.


    Aside from the abandoned villages, his travels had carried him past some marvellous landscapes. He¡¯d skirted around a forest of golden-leaved fir trees, forded a river with water clear as glass despite its current, and from atop a great hill beheld an endless expanse of rolling grasslands like a green ocean. The sights he¡¯d encountered almost didn¡¯t seem real, even if they weren¡¯t especially grand in scope or scale.


    It would have been a perfectly pleasant experience if he hadn¡¯t been snatched away from his breakfast and dumped here just a month(ish) ago. It left him with mixed feelings, appreciating the beauty of the place with a tinge of bitterness.


    That feeling was suffusing him now as he marched across rolling greeny-blue fields, aiming unerringly for yet another village that was probably devoid of all life. The image before him was a dreamlike vista, but the colour seemed to wash out as dark thoughts seeped into his mind.


    The past week had raised even more questions, and they weren¡¯t pleasant ones.


    Paramount among them: where had all the people gone?


    Considering the half a hundred skeletons he¡¯d found in the overgrown city, he wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to know.


    It was mid-afternoon by the time he arrived at the village¡¯s edge, and he found it was a little bigger than he¡¯d guessed from afar. There were maybe thirty buildings, and a good majority of them were still standing, though the larger ones had fallen. That probably owed to the comparatively impressive stone work, grey blocks stacked high to stand the test of time. How much time, he didn¡¯t know. The high hiss of the nearby river was the only sound.


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    Looking closer, there were etchings on some of the stones, tiny symbols scratched into the outer walls. It seemed random. There was no pattern to it Lucas could discern, at least; it didn¡¯t give him the vibe of written script, somehow.


    The village seemed to have sprouted out of a larger round building at its centre that had since collapsed, ringing it in four concentric circles that each boasted more houses. A wider road sliced through the village, and Lucas followed it to the centre, deciding to start his search from the middle and expand outwards. Long grass filled the gaps between buildings, and he had to stomp it down.


    Arriving at the centre of the settlement, he stopped before a squared block of stone. It had been cut precisely at some point, but time had worn away at it, rounding its edges and sanding away at the script carved into its outward face. What had once presumably been words had worn away to blurry white lines.


    Still, though the words had faded, five larger symbols still stood out well enough. They were arranged with four smaller icons in a row below a much larger icon. A sword, shield, bow, and wand below a five-pointed star.


    Lucas spent a brief moment wondering what it meant before his curiosity ran its course. He turned away, surveying the village.


    Out of habit more than any real optimism, he called out: ¡°Hello? Is anyone here?¡±


    Silence answered him, as he¡¯d come to expect by now. Jamie rubbed himself against Lucas¡¯ leg and purred, and he reached down to pet the cat with a sigh. Setting his main sack down and hefting an empty sack for looting, he got to work.


    The houses immediately surrounding the central building were single story affairs with two or three rooms each, and there was little to speak of inside of them. Anything wooden had long rotted, and the floors consisted of packed mud and whatever plants could endure with little sunlight. Lucas employed his vitality sense, but nothing pinged his mental radar.


    The next ring told much the same story, though he did find a set of dull, misshapen lumps of metal of some kind that once might have been knives. He chucked them in his looting sack, sure he could find a use for them in some way. Metal had been in short supply so far; the kind of thing people would bother to take with them when they left their home behind, he imagined.


    The third ring had nothing of note, and by the time he got to the fourth, outermost ring he was feeling dejected enough that he didn¡¯t so much find something as tread straight on it. His footwear was more sock than shoe, clumsily woven together from plant fibres as it was, and it did nothing to prevent something sharp from sticking into the bottom of his foot.


    Lucas let out an enraged roar that sent Jamie skittering away. He ended up hopping around, frantically batting at his injured foot to dislodge the foreign object. It took an embarrassingly long time before the piece of shaped metal tumbled to the floor, and Lucas glared at it with all the loathing he could summon.


    Which turned out to be not much loathing at all, once he got a good look at it.


    Shaped into a curve, it took him a moment to realise what the two-pronged fork was even supposed to be. It was the ornate floral design with a purple gem inlaid at the opposite end from the spikes that gave it away.


    Lucas picked up the hairpin, marvelling at the first manmade trinket he¡¯d encountered since finding himself in this place a month ago. Embarrassingly, emotion overwhelmed him, and he found his vision blurring. He had to swallow back a lump in his throat.


    It was so silly. He¡¯d encountered six villages, for fuck¡¯s sake. They certainly weren¡¯t built by animals.


    But somehow a cheap curved piece of metal that someone used to pin up their hair, something worthless enough it had been left behind here, was what hammered home that there really had been people in this place not so long ago.


    A laugh bubbled up from his belly, and he didn¡¯t bother to stop it.


    Naturally, he wasn¡¯t allowed to have nice things, and what meagre happiness he¡¯d gotten didn¡¯t last long.


    A frightened yowl came from somewhere outside, and closely following it was a sound he¡¯d never be able to forget.


    It was like someone had taken the death rattle of a dying animal, the buzz of a giant fly, the screech of a wounded bird, and the gurgle of a drowning man, and combined them all into one. It pierced through him, driving icy lances of fear deep into his heart. It was an unnatural sound, activating primal instincts that told him to run run run get away now!


    But Jamie was out there facing whatever fucking godawful beast made that noise.


    Vitality roaring in his channels, Lucas burst out of the house. With no other option, he palmed a warped maybe-dagger in each hand and charged towards the source of the noise against every self-preservation instinct he had.


    The noise kept going and going, like the monstrosity making it didn¡¯t have to stop for breath. It didn¡¯t change pitch or volume. There was no emotion to it, no purpose. It bastardised the natural order of the world.


    And yet still it was a boon, because Lucas could follow it to its source without having to search. It was coming from the centre of the village, and he charged towards it with reckless abandon, hoping that the lack of Jamie¡¯s yowls didn¡¯t mean the worst.


    Then he rounded a corner and sighted the beast for the first time, and he had no time to regret his rash decision before its giant bloodshot eye was upon him.


    Just as its voice was a horror-show combination of disparate elements, so too was its form. The eye¡¯s sclera was a sickly yellow, and it covered half of the creature¡¯s carapaced insectoid body. A dozen spindly legs jutted out at odd angles, and steaming black ichor drooled from three gaping maws, one at either end of its body and one smaller mouth between the bloody, broken wings on its upper back. All three held crooked, serrated teeth, and a dozen tongues that wriggled around like worms.


    It moved jerkily, skittish, standing out from its surroundings like it was a stop-motion clay animation in a live action movie. It didn¡¯t immediately charge him down as he expected, and if it had, it probably would¡¯ve killed him, because he¡¯d frozen on the spot the moment he laid eyes on it.


    His mind had gone blank. All thoughts and what little plans he¡¯d been cooking up had fled him. It was like his brain refused to comprehend what it was seeing, refusing to believe it. This had to be a dream, and he¡¯d wake up at any moment having drifted off where he sat down on that distant meadow. He¡¯d disconnected from his body, sensation muted and distant. His vitality had even settled back to its default state in his inattention.


    Without warning, the creature went from jerky back and forth movements to an all out charge. Its thin legs scraped it along the ground, and only its wings that seemed to vibrate more than flap kept it from dragging through the grass like a centipede. Before it had closed half the distance, it lunged at him, sailing through the air.


    Lucas found himself unprepared.


    It collided with his upper body, and Lucas didn¡¯t so much block its assault as his knives just happened to already have been raised when he froze up. It was heavy, its body tough as leather, and the impact drove the air from his lungs and sent him sprawling to the ground. It followed him down, its jaws snapping at his face.


    Survival instinct dragged him out of his terror-induced haze. His vitality roared brighter than it ever had before, practically stopping in his channels it was moving so slow. His limbs turned to steel. He shoved the creature with all the strength of his upper body, and it tumbled off to the side. Lucas rolled and scrambled away backwards, but it gave him no reprieve.


    He lashed out blindly with one of the knives, and it bounced off the monster¡¯s thick hide. Lucas screamed as it hauled itself onto his legs, frantically kicking to keep his limbs away from one of its razor-filled mouths. The force of his kicks bucked it off once more, but again it came at him.


    It never stopped its demonic scream.


    The ensuing moments were filled with terrified combat. Lucas lost track of himself, of his surroundings, his entire being focused on fighting for his life. He lashed out with his knives with all his vitality¡¯s strength behind the blows, but they were uncoordinated and unskilled, and the metal wasn¡¯t strong enough to pierce its rough skin. It became a game of keep away, with Lucas constantly throwing the creature off and backing away to gain space, only for it to tirelessly launch itself at him over and over.


    He became more and more frantic by the moment. His dull knives couldn¡¯t hurt the beast, and he desperately didn¡¯t want to find out whether its teeth could pierce him. This couldn¡¯t go on. Eventually he would tire. Eventually it would get him, bite him, and then he¡¯d be done. The tarry ichor drooling from its maws didn¡¯t look like the kind of thing he wanted to get in a wound.


    Their battle moved closer to the village centre, and Lucas went tumbling to the ground once more as his feet got tangled with something lumpy and hard. The beast wasted no time taking advantage, but he was getting better at blocking even as his stamina slowly trickled away, and he fended it off with his dull blades and tossed it to the side before its teeth could tear at him.


    Glancing down furiously at what had tripped him, Lucas found something he¡¯d forgotten about. When he¡¯d set out on his search of the village, he¡¯d left behind the sack of things he¡¯d gathered from elsewhere. Focused on the battle, he hadn¡¯t seen the danger.


    Now, half his stuff was strewn across the floor, and close at hand was a stick.


    He didn¡¯t have time to contemplate the idea that came to mind, he just acted. Tossing one of the knives aside, he snatched up the stick and surged to his feet.


    What happened next surprised even him.


    His vitality flowed into the stick, following a familiar habit he¡¯d formed in those early days in the overgrown city. The piece of wood lit up like a beacon, his slow-moving vitality reinforcing it until in a moment it was suddenly tenfold as strong as it should¡¯ve been.


    The beast came at him again, and Lucas acted on instinct.


    It didn¡¯t even get close to him.


    Moving with the proficiency and speed of a master, he batted the beast aside, and for the first time the pitch of its scream changed. All of a sudden, it seemed so slow. It was nothing compared to the grasping vines that had struck like snakes, and its teeth weren¡¯t half so sharp as the thorns¡ªthough neither had touched him.


    And its skin wasn¡¯t half so invulnerable to the stick as it had been to the dull knives.


    He hadn¡¯t even intended to scratch it on that first attack, aiming to parry its lunge away from him like he had done to the fast-moving branches in the overgrown city. A glancing blow from the stick¡¯s point had scored an oozing line along its flank, and it was curling up as if to defend the wound.


    But the evident pain didn¡¯t stop its assault, and it came back at him once more without hesitation. Confidence surging into him, Lucas determined it would be their last clash. He held his weapon ready.


    The beast lunged length-ways this time, attempting to attack him with all three of its mouths at once.


    Lucas watched it come, waiting for the right moment.


    It twisted in the air, contorting itself into a U-shape, surely hoping to wrap itself around him and tear him to shreds from multiple angles. Its teeth were razor sharp. Its tongues looked deadly. Droplets of ichor sprayed through the air in its wake. Every eye on its grotesque body was trained on him, filled with malice and hunger.


    And Lucas smacked it in the fucking face before it could reach him.


    It let out a screech as the stick folded it like a piece of paper and slammed it to the ground. It kept screeching as he raised his stick and brought it down once more with all the strength his body possessed. The screeching only stopped when he¡¯d battered it a dozen more times, turning the monster into a pulp of black blood puddling among the mud and grass.


    Then the strangest thing yet happened.


    Its body lit up with wispy white vitality, and the vitality rose like a spectre roughly in the shape of the creature¡¯s form. It rose like white smoke glowing with an inner light, and it headed straight for Lucas.


    He could only watch dumbly as it drifted towards him, and when it reached close enough it seemed to twist on itself. There was an ache in his chest like he¡¯d just opened a new sub-channel with his vitality, then the white vitality surged towards him like he was vacuuming it up.


    Alarmed, he tried to step away, but it followed as if it was fixed in the world in relation to him. There was no escaping it as the vitality flowed into his channels, and when it was done, he felt larger, denser. Again, just like what happened when he opened one of his sub-channels.


    A soft mew brought his attention back to the real world. He looked down.


    Jamie was sitting on his haunches, blinking up at Lucas with feline bewilderment.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know either, little buddy,¡± Lucas said with a tremor in his voice.

 10: Accumulate (3)

    Lucas swung his stick, putting all his strength into the strike. Amateurs made the mistake of only using the power of their arms, but he¡¯d picked up better technique through experience, short as it was.


    He stepped forward into the swing, pivoting his body to one side with his stick held behind him in a two-handed grip, then rotated his upper body as well as swinging his arms, vastly increasing the power in his strike. His stick lashed through the air with a whoosh. With his vitality strengthening it even further, anything that had been in the path of the blow would¡¯ve had a bad time.


    The movements weren¡¯t something he¡¯d ever been taught. He¡¯d never had any combat training in his life. It just seemed the obvious way to put more power into an attack, learned through trial and error, and he was keenly aware that this probably wouldn¡¯t have occurred to him so quickly without someone pointing it out just a few months ago.


    That was a running theme, he was noticing: things had been coming easier to him. Presented with options, the most effective one popped out to him. It had started simple with his plant magic, able to discern the weakest part of the plants blocking his path and strike them with the correct strength, and it only got more impressive from there. With everything else going on, his skill with the stick had fallen to the wayside.


    Now, he was thinking about it again, for obvious reasons. Magic had overshadowed his feats with the stick quickly, but in those early days he¡¯d been wielding it like he¡¯d been doing it for years. He¡¯d spun it like a baton, thrusted it like a rapier, swung it like a longsword, and more. Most impressive of all was when he¡¯d flipped like an acrobat, ending his somersault with a deadly overhead strike. The branch he¡¯d hit hadn¡¯t stood a chance.


    Lucas had never been a particularly talented guy. He was in the middle of the class. Unimpressive in PE. Mediocre in music and the arts. He wasn¡¯t the slowest learner among his peers, but nor was he the fastest.


    And now here he was picking up skills like it was the easiest thing in the world. It didn¡¯t feel like him. More like he¡¯d been gifted in preternatural talent in¡­ everything.


    It didn¡¯t sit right in his gut. For now, he was thinking of it as a Gift to distinguish it from himself, from his own talents¡­ Whatever his talents were. He was sure he had some, deep down, undiscovered.


    Once he was thinking about it, he couldn¡¯t help noticing other ways he¡¯d improved, if more marginally in comparison to his magic and¡­ swordplay? Stickplay?


    Meditation was one discipline that had gone under the radar, so to speak. On the earliest nights it had done nothing noticeable for him, and he still didn¡¯t think he was a master of zen, but pushing thoughts from his mind and sinking into his vitality had become a natural thing before falling asleep every night. It had come in clutch ever since he¡¯d left the overgrown city and had to sleep rough.


    As far as mundane stuff went, there was also the weaving. The first batch of clothes he¡¯d made¡ªwhich he still wore¡ªwere scratchy and rough, with some patches that were noticeably more threadbare. The latest sack he¡¯d made was, while not high quality, clearly an improvement. He hadn¡¯t even used that skill much, and it was arguably part of his plant magic besides.


    Even super basic shit like bloody walking had changed. Quite apart from being generally fitter, his gait felt smoother, his posture and balance more refined, and he came to realise he¡¯d become remarkably accurate at predicting how much ground he could cover in a given period of time. Thinking back, he¡¯d even figured out a good technique for stomping down the grass in the village in no time.


    It all came to him easily, even when he wasn¡¯t trying or thinking about it, but definitely faster when he was actively trying to improve. He didn¡¯t know whether to be disturbed or excited.


    Because this wasn¡¯t him. He wasn¡¯t supposed to be a genius or talented. He was just¡­ Lucas Brown. A C-student destined for nothing special, a footnote at best.


    Evidently, whoever had brought him here had done more than snatch him out of his kitchen before he could finish his breakfast.


    The rest of his practice session was ferocious, fury driving ever more force into his swings. By the end, he was imagining his stick connecting with the skull of a bearded man wearing a robe and wizard hat, and he was bellowing out curses and insults between each attack.


    Lucas came back to himself with his chest heaving and sweat slicking his skin. He stayed still for a long while, his hands behind his head as he greedily sucked in air beneath the morning sun. Steam wafted off his skin. His vitality buzzed like an angry hive.


    The village was still visible in the distance as a little smudge of grey among endless green-blue fields. He¡¯d intended to follow the river down stream for the entirety of the day and put as much distance between him and the village as possible as fast as possible, but his stick had been calling to him all morning. He hadn¡¯t been able to resist it.


    Now, he had time to think. He didn¡¯t like that; he was liable to consider the implications of his magic if he stood around for too long without distraction.


    First, imbuing human remains with his vitality. Then, sucking up the soul of a slain monster. Both were disturbing, but in a way they showed intriguing possibility, even if he was reluctant to deploy either of them themselves.


    Just how broad was the talent he¡¯d been gifted? Could he get good at anything?


    It was daunting to think about. Intimidating. Frightening. But he knew he couldn¡¯t afford not to consider his next steps. If he had an ability to improve himself at an impossible pace, he had to be strategic about it. It made sense to pursue skills that afforded him the best chance of survival.


    The wind shifted, and a rancid scent invaded Lucas¡¯ nostrils. He grimaced. He¡¯d think about all that stuff when he didn¡¯t stink of sweat and grime. Grumbling under his breath, he started the trek down to the river¡¯s bank to clean off and sate his thirst.


    Jamie hopped up from where he¡¯d been lounging on Lucas¡¯ blanket and trotted along beside him, tail swishing through the air. The tabby cat seemed disinclined to leave his side at all after yesterday¡¯s incident, probably having decided Lucas made for a good distraction if they ran into any other murderous beasts.


    The water was tepid, but he was used to that at this point. Stripping down, he started wiping himself down, eyeing the cat as it settled by the edge of the water, staring at its reflection. He descended into thought, considering the future.


    It went without saying that he wanted to get stronger. The fight with the beast yesterday had been terrifying, and his skill with the stick had saved him. There was a chance the gift would have given him another option in the end, but he certainly wouldn¡¯t have escaped with only a few scrapes and bruises. He poked at the few purple patches on his skin, and found they were less sore already.


    Was that another aspect to it? Healing? It was hard to be sure. The vitality humming through his channels was probably another factor; the inner warmth it provided certainly seemed to be a balm when his muscles were aching, so it would make sense for it to have an effect on injuries too.


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    Regardless, he didn¡¯t want to stretch himself too thin trying to be versatile. Being a jack of all trades sounded nice, but with his gift the other option wasn¡¯t necessarily only master of one. It made sense to pursue his plant magic further since he¡¯d already gone fairly far with the skill, and he¡¯d seen with his own eyes what greater mastery could achieve back in the overgrown city. Fantasies of lassoing enemies with vines that were strong as steel and struck like vipers flashed through his mind.


    If his skill with the stick could transfer over to more conventional handheld weapons, that¡¯d be great. He didn¡¯t want to disparage a tool that had saved him on multiple occasions, but there were surely more efficient weapons out there. If it didn¡¯t transfer, he hoped he¡¯d be able to learn another combat discipline.


    Lucas grimaced as his mind turned to the other major skill he¡¯d discovered thus far. Necromancy wasn¡¯t an option for a host of obvious reasons. Assuming there actually was any civilisation in this place, he felt it was safe to assume they¡¯d look down on raising corpses and skeletons to do his bidding. If he was the only man alive after all, he could reconsider.


    As for devouring the souls of beasts¡­ Well, it had been an involuntary thing, and he only had one data point to go on. If he slew another beast and it happened again, he¡¯d give more thought to it. Frankly, he didn¡¯t see a huge downside to it right now. It hadn¡¯t done anything to him but shore up his channels, making him marginally stronger in the long run.


    If there really were no negatives to it, then ¡®grinding¡¯ was a tempting proposition.


    Aside from that, the possibilities were endless. He was spoiled for choice. It was almost paralysing, to have theoretically infinite options.


    He liked the idea of throwing fireballs around. And if he could find a way to fly, he was certainly going to pursue that path, whether it be under his own power or through a winged familiar. Something to do with water would be cool too, he thought as he emerged from the river. Add air and earth, and he could get an elemental mage thing going.


    He sat down on the grass beside Jamie, turning over options in his head. Maybe he was getting ahead of himself a bit. There was no guarantee that his gift was limitless, after all. For all he knew, it only granted him a certain number of skills, though he hoped not.


    Jamie mewed and trotted over to plop himself in Lucas¡¯ lap, then stared up at him in sheer bafflement that he hadn¡¯t started giving the cat pets already. Smiling wryly, Lucas obliged his master, scratching the tabby behind the ears where he knew the cat liked it. Jamie¡¯s eyes closed and he purred in bliss.


    Lucas stared at the cat for a moment, wondering. Letting a hunch guide him, he trailed his fingers under the cat¡¯s chin and started scratching at his neck. The cat¡¯s purrs turned blissful, and somehow Lucas knew he was in the throes of euphoria. He continued, itching a spot on Jamie¡¯s fluffy chest he¡¯d seen the cat struggle to lick, and kept going, finding all the good spots. It went on like this, practically doling out a massage to the creature, and by the time it was done the feline was a happy puddle in his lap, lazily batting at his hands.


    Okay. So he was really good at petting a cat. Really useful. If the Gift really was limited and this had taken up a slot, he¡¯d cry.


    Lucas sighed.


    He knew he had to plot his path forward sooner rather than later. The beast had been one thing, but what if he ran into something bigger? Or, worse, hostile people? As much as he hoped he wasn¡¯t the only man in the whole world, there was always the possibility of encountering people who wished him harm.


    Or, indeed, the people who had brought him here in the first place. Quite apart from being able to defend himself, he wanted to ensure he had the ability to seriously hurt someone if and when he found those guys.


    For now, he figured his best course of action was to mostly keep on as he had been: improving his internal vitality manipulation, opening sub-channels and whatnot, while seeing where his stick would take him. It was crude, and there was no guarantee he wouldn¡¯t pick up bad fighting habits, but he needed something to physically defend himself, and the way of the stick was all he had. Hopefully, it would translate to bludgeoning weapons in general.


    On top of that, he¡¯d put time into his plant magic again; it made sense to grow his skill with the magic he already knew, at least until he found other disciplines to pursue. It had been through plant magic that he¡¯d accidentally discovered the existence of another branch of magic, after all. Even if that branch was necromancy.


    After drying himself off, Lucas gathered his things and set off, following the river. He practised manipulating vitality as he walked, but today he was pushing it faster through his channels. Recently, he¡¯d mostly focused on slowing it for the strength boost it gave him when he wasn¡¯t trying to expand his network of sub-channels (he¡¯d managed to open and maintain twenty at this point, all in his arms). Now, his mind was more occupied with magic, and external vitality was more important here.


    His vitality formed a sphere around him, and its range doubled and doubled again with the speed of the flow in his channels. He kept it up until the flow was getting mildly uncomfortable, and kept it there. The surrounding plants lit up in his mind¡¯s eye for at least twenty metres around, far more mundane than he was used to seeing in the overgrown city, just a few different species of grass and weed, with some more slimy things beneath the river¡¯s surface.


    It took but a sliver of will to tweak the plants, though his options were far narrower without a network linking the different species. He couldn¡¯t graft traits from other plants, so he set them to things they could already do on their own; the grass grew a few centimetres longer, flowers swayed and flapped their petals, and weeds shifted to darker shades of blue under his command.


    It was fun, if a bit mundane. With his current skill, he couldn¡¯t really do more than that. He picked a few blades of grass and sharpened them with his vitality to the point they could cut through weeds and flowers, but without a dangerous adversary he wasn¡¯t confident he was going to pick up anything impressive from wielding them, so he let the breeze carry them out of his grip.


    Evidently, improving his plant magic would require more creativity. The network linking the foliage back in the overgrown city had been a crutch, and his capabilities were far more limited out here.


    But he didn¡¯t let that dishearten him. There were other things he wanted to try.


    For example, last time he¡¯d discovered a new magic, he¡¯d done so by accidentally ¡®tuning in¡¯ to something else by pure accident. In unknowingly imbuing a bone with his vitality while thinking it was a stick, he¡¯d stumbled across necromancy and permanently unlocked the ability to tap into a different ¡®channel¡¯ of vitality.


    Could he find more channels? Lucas looked around, surveying the surrounding scenery. There¡­ wasn¡¯t really much of note, aside from the village far behind him, little more than a speck now. Maybe the river? Or some underground stone? Or perhaps even the wind itself? Really commit to the elemental magic idea.


    As he was lost in thought, he¡¯d stopped walking. Jamie, being a rascal, took this as an opportunity to claw his way up Lucas¡¯ front, blissfully ignorant or uncaring of the pain he was dealing out. The little shit probably thought Lucas¡¯ gasps were some kind of affection, judging by the purrs rumbling in his chest once he¡¯d settled in Lucas arms like a baby.


    Lucas¡¯ ire didn¡¯t last long, because the cat had inadvertently given him an idea. Last time he¡¯d discovered a new branch of magic, it had been through holding something and imbuing it with his vitality. He was hesitant to try that on a living thing, but he was willing to bet the contact would make it easier for him to tune in to the frequency of Jamie¡¯s vitality.


    Closing his eyes, Lucas sped up his vitality at the nearest points to where his skin was in contact with the cat, letting the rest of his channels return to a normal speed. Vitality flowed out of his body, and he kept it close rather than spreading it out around him, shrouding it over the warm body in his arms.


    Jamie went still as Lucas¡¯ vitality surrounded him. His purrs stopped. But he didn¡¯t feel uncomfortable, or afraid. Instead, he had an aura of¡­ curiosity? He was content, comfortable. Maybe a little hungry. A nap wouldn¡¯t have gone amiss, either, since he didn¡¯t need to walk.


    Lucas¡¯ vitality was like a cloud, and he could feel an empty space in the shape of a cat. Second by second, the vaporous vitality slowly seeped into Jamie¡¯s body. Jamie welcomed it, pulling more actively than the bones had, embracing the vitality.


    A moment later, a whisker of the cat¡¯s own vitality rose from one side of its face and twisted through the air like a thread. It curled towards Lucas, aiming loosely for his heart and, out of curiosity, he let it.


    When it touched him, the empty space in his senses filled in, and Jamie¡¯s body appeared in Lucas¡¯ mind as clearly as his own vitality channels. Lucas opened his eyes.


    ¡°Well,¡± Lucas said, staring down at the creature in his arms. ¡°You are definitely not a cat.¡±

 11: Accumulate (4)

    Jamie hopped up onto a mossy wall with cat-like grace. His muscles bunched like a cat¡¯s. He did a little crouch and wiggle before leaping, just like a cat. His self-satisfied purr sounded just like a cat. He demanded attention in a way that screamed ¡®needy cat¡¯. He even paused to lick his butthole with his back leg stretched out with the kind of shamelessness that only cats could exude.


    But he wasn¡¯t a cat.


    Three days after the initial discovery of this fact, Lucas still hadn¡¯t managed to wrap his head around it. When he looked at Jamie with mortal sight, he saw an average tabby ginger cat with pretty green-gold eyes. But in his vitality sense, he saw-slash-felt a confusing mess of vitality, like a hundred animals had been mashed together and shoved into a container that was far too small to physically hold that much mass.


    That mightn¡¯t have been so bad, on its own. If he didn¡¯t want to deal with the existential questions and instead wished to go on living with the delusion that Jamie was a cat and nothing more, surely he just had to retract his external vitality back into himself and stop sensing the problem, right?


    Unfortunately not.


    Ever since the moment Lucas¡¯ vitality had sunk into Jamie¡¯s body and the creature¡¯s whisker had brushed against his heart, a connection had formed. No matter how far they went from each other, Lucas could feel Jamie¡¯s vitality channels as if they were his own. He always knew where the creature was and what it was doing.


    Take this very moment for example: Lucas was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree and munching on some kind of fleshy fruit he¡¯d found growing in a grey bush a little while back, and he was absently misting the air with his vitality, letting it seep into the nearby plants and cataloguing the information it provided him. Jamie¡¯s wall¡ªa haphazard pile of rocks seemingly in the middle of nowhere presumably marking a boundary between two gently sloped hills¡ªwas well outside the range of his vitality, and still he could sense the little orange creature¡¯s contentedness after snatching a fruit from Lucas¡¯ stash and gobbling it up.


    They had a bond. An unbreakable one, as far as Lucas could tell. Not that he¡¯d tried particularly hard to break it¡ªpartly because he couldn¡¯t guess how Jamie would react to the betrayal, but also because¡­ he had insight into the creature¡¯s mind, assuming he wasn¡¯t being duped somehow, and it wasn¡¯t a malicious being, particularly. While its form clearly wasn¡¯t a cat, it had, if nothing else, adopted the mind of one, to some degree.


    If it looked like a cat, moved like a cat, and thought like a cat, then surely it was a cat?


    Jamie had settled down to bask in the sun, stretching out and blinking languidly right at the celestial body with no apparent damage to his eyes. There was nothing in his vitality or emotions to suggest ocular pain.


    The thing was, there was no reason to distrust the creature aside from basic prejudice, and further than that there was always the possibility that Jamie could feel Lucas¡¯ emotions in turn. What would he think if Lucas was constantly trepidatious at the not-cat¡¯s presence? Jamie wasn¡¯t trying deliberately to be deceitful, as far as he could tell. He was just¡­ existing. In the way he knew how.


    At the end of the day, there wasn¡¯t a lot he could do about it. He didn¡¯t want the creature to be an enemy, so it was probably better not to go and recklessly make it one, surely? Even without the literal bond they¡¯d formed, he¡¯d grown attached. It was the only living thing he¡¯d seen in days, aside from the beast that had literally attacked him. Jamie had never attacked him, which was a point in his favour. Unless you counted harassing him for food and tripping him up by winding between his legs as he was walking.


    Lucas sighed. Nothing could be easy around here.


    Finishing off the last of his midday meal, Lucas pushed himself to his feet and got back to walking. That was pretty much the story of his life since he¡¯d left the overgrown city: walk west. Walk west, and hope he happened across people eventually. He hadn¡¯t come up with any better plans.


    Jamie hopped off the wall and followed as soon as he noticed Lucas was moving on, trotting along in his general vicinity, creeping closer to weave between Lucas¡¯ legs every now and then for reasons that made sense only to the false feline.


    Watching the way the ¡®cat¡¯ moved was actually kind of interesting, when he got past the mild instinctual horror of it. The mass of bones and flesh and disparate vitality channels shifted around beneath his skin, acting in some vague facsimile of a coherent body and somehow managing to give, to Lucas¡¯ eyes, the outward appearance of a cat. It was uncanny. He¡¯d never be able to tell there was anything amiss if not for the bond.


    ¡°So fucking bizarre,¡± Lucas muttered to himself. But wasn¡¯t everything around here?


    Picking his way through the valleys between rolling hills as the hours went by, Lucas mostly focused on his vitality channels. His work with his sub-channels was bordering on obsessive, but he couldn¡¯t help it. It occupied most of his attention when nothing else was pressing, and very rarely was anything pressing.


    His progress seemed exponential; he was opening sub-channels at a faster and faster rate as he gained more vitality to devote to the task. He was up to thirty now when he¡¯d been at twenty just a few days before. Furthermore, he felt he¡¯d barely made a dent in mapping out the full system, which was both an exciting and frustrating prospect. How long would it take to map out his entire network? His bottleneck at this point was finding the bloody things in the first place, tiny as they were. The ache was bordering on pleasant at this point. He worried that''d he''d developed a masochistic streak.


    All of the sub-channels he¡¯d opened so far were in his arms. A hunch had told him it was best to do them in order, making sure he didn¡¯t skip or miss any. In retrospect, he wondered if that was the Gift steering him on the optimal course, or if it was his own logic. Maybe it didn¡¯t even matter, and he could open them up anywhere in any order without issue. But he¡¯d already started this way, so he figured he might as well continue it.


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    Aside from increasing his overall vitality capacity, which was a big boon in and of itself, the warmth of vitality spreading out from his bones and through his muscles was soothing. The sub-channels were thinner than a hair, and spread vitality right up to his skin. The permeating vitality was a calming, comfortable sensation, like his biceps were constantly being massaged, and he was eager to feel it spread through his entire body, however long that would take.


    Lost in thought as he typically tended to be when he was seeing to his sub-channels, it came as quite the shock when he noticed an aberrant movement of vitality he didn¡¯t consciously command. He froze mid-step and stumbled, hardly bothering to catch himself as he toppled over. His vitality was far more important than his body.


    Frantic with sudden panic, he zoomed out from the sub-channel he was working on to take in the full breadth of his body, watching like a hawk as the gold aurora flowed through his channels. A hundred fluttering heartbeats passed by, and he saw nothing amiss there. But the feeling still persisted.


    It took far too long for Lucas to comprehend the problem, and the realisation just filled him with more dread. He zoomed out even further, taking in Jamie¡¯s system and¡­ Lucas blinked, even though the abnormality wasn¡¯t something he was seeing with his eyes.


    Jamie¡¯s vitality system was a mind-bending labyrinth. Trying to understand it felt like he was reading a foreign language while cross-eyed. But he didn¡¯t need to comprehend it in full.


    What Jamie was evidently doing made perfect sense to him. He¡¯d been doing it himself for weeks.


    Within Jamie¡¯s false front leg was a mass of bones floating aimlessly and a tangled mess of vitality channels. Over the last few days, he¡¯d never seen Jamie¡¯s vitality do anything other than flow like normal. It had never once sped up or slowed down.


    Now, a whisker-thin trickle of vitality had deviated from its course and was slowly threading itself outwards. Within moments, as Lucas watched on dumbly, it teased its way to the edge of Jamie¡¯s false feline body. At that point, he expected it to turn around and begin the process of returning to the main vitality channel to form a small loop. Instead, it started¡­ wiggling. Without rhyme or reason, it squirmed and wobbled a writhing path through Jamie¡¯s leg, forming a chaotic bundle just as bad if not worse than the primary channels.


    Lucas stared down at the creature. ¡°Are you ever going to stop being weird?¡±


    Jamie had settled down to wait, his legs huddled underneath him as he dug his claws into the ground. Meeting Lucas¡¯ eyes, he meowed. It was horrifically cute, for an eldritch abomination.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t think so,¡± Lucas muttered. ¡°At least you¡¯re keeping things interesting for me, I guess.¡±


    By mid-afternoon, Jamie had opened five sub-channels of his own in the time it took Lucas to finish one. It was terribly unfair, and Lucas was trying not to feel jealous. Mostly failing. He told himself that he had access to magical abilities the cat lacked, but that didn¡¯t make him feel better. Quite apart from the fact he was still dealing with how unearned his new skills felt, there was always the possibility that Jamie would hop up and perform plant magic at any moment. There was now proof that the bond was a two-way street, after all. He wouldn¡¯t put it past the impertinent little shit, after that earlier display.


    Of course, just as Lucas was in the midst of wrestling with those feelings, Jamie had to go and display another ability entirely.


    One moment, he was happily trotting along at Lucas¡¯ side¡ªwith stamina that was rather abnormal for a cat; he probably should have picked up on the creature¡¯s strangeness a long time ago¡ªand the next he was frozen in place, staring at the hillside ahead of them with unerring focus. His ears pricked up. His pupils dilated. His back arched, and his lips peeled back to reveal sharp fangs. He hissed.


    Through the bond, Lucas picked up on Jamie¡¯s alarm, and snapped to alertness himself. There was no indication of what had set the cat off, just the resulting emotions: fear, anxiety, and, above all and most strangely¡­ nakedness? What?


    Before Lucas could parse that last emotion, Jamie¡¯s vitality flared in his senses. In seconds, it was almost too bright to look at but simultaneously overpowering his mundane sight until it was all he could see, blazing until the channels and bones and everything else faded away into an indistinct glowing form. It started shifting like a molten liquid, and the bond itself started to burn like it was a channel itself. Lucas let out a gasp as the creature¡¯s vitality flowed through the bond, flooding right for his heart.


    His heart caught fire. He fell to one knee, wracked with pain. He grit his teeth, but a low scream tore from his throat anyway. Tears gathered in his eyes. It was too much. It was burning him inside out. He desperately clawed at his chest, but there was nothing to be done. The flow turned to a torrent turned to a deluge.


    And then it was done as abruptly as it had started. The pain vanished in an instant. Not a hint of what he¡¯d been feeling before lingered, though he still found himself gasping for air. Lucas patted himself down, especially around his chest, but found no injury.


    ¡°What the fuck was that?!¡± he ground out, his voice raspy, his throat sandpaper.


    Looking around, there was no sign of Jamie, so no answers were forthcoming there. But he didn¡¯t need to search. Turning his attention inwards, he found the answers to his questions before he could think to ask them.


    Nothing in his vitality system had changed save for one rather glaring anomaly. Nestled in a pocket of space within his heart as if it was the most natural thing in the world, a miniature replication of Jamie¡¯s vitality system had made itself at home. Feelings of relief and safety emanated from the creature, and he could tell it was feeling drowsy. He mentally poked at it, and it swiped back with sharp claws at the thing daring to interrupt its impending nap.


    Lucas couldn¡¯t imagine a scenario where he would¡¯ve been more baffled. It would¡¯ve been less shocking if the ¡®cat¡¯ had transformed into a teacup. Seriously, what was this thing? What had he bloody attached himself to?


    As if sensing his confusion, a spike of exasperation emanated from the cat. With the air of an adult scolding an unruly child, it transmitted a pulse of vitality that thrummed through Lucas¡¯ system, making straight for his brain.


    When it hit, his senses expanded. Sound turned crisper, louder, granting him the ability to pick out blades of grass swaying on the other side of the hills, insects burrowing through the dirt, his own blood thrumming through his veins as his heart hammered.


    And the thing Jamie was really trying to show him. Carried on the wind came a collection of distant sounds that Lucas briefly struggled to understand: a deep rumble, a melodious tinkle, a breathy whisper, and a husky reply. They mingled together into unintelligibility, distance rendering them faint echoes.


    But he soon realised what they were.


    Voices.


    People.


    Lucas broke into a sprint.

 12: Populated (1)

    Four people walked in a line, following the small valley formed between two tall hills. They were alert, scanning their surroundings, but evidently not overly so; they seemed happy enough to chat away, their voices echoing through the quiet and up to Lucas¡¯ vantage point on a hilltop above.


    Second in the procession was a man decked out in thick plate armour that looked heavy; it clanked and scraped together with every moment, and every step he took reverberated with a thud so deep Lucas swore it was shaking the ground. In contrast with his intimidating outfit, he had a friendly grin, and he seemed uncaring about his long black hair blowing wildly around his face.


    ¡°What makes you say that, Jyn?¡± were the first coherent words Lucas managed to make out, the voice a gravelly boom. The echo had made the group¡¯s conversation unintelligible while they were further away, but the deep voice had been by far the most active of the four.


    ¡°It¡¯s a question of proof, Wick,¡± replied a thin-voiced man in a deep magenta robe with a starry pattern. The robe was loose and airy, and the hood obscured the upper half of his face, but enough was visible to see his painted blue lips were smiling. ¡°Despite practising the mystic arts, I am a scholar at heart, and if I see no evidence of a phenomenon through my own eyes, I¡¯m inclined to disbelieve it by my nature.¡±


    ¡°Good thing we decided not to bring a cleric with us,¡± Wick, the armoured man, said with a chuckle. ¡°As it is, I think our Skycloak may run you through the back if you¡¯re not careful.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m plenty acquainted with sceptics, thank you,¡± said the figure at the back of the line, a woman with platinum blond hair tied in a braid, wearing gleaming white armour only just visible beneath the long blue cloak she was apparently known by. Hers was the husky voice, and her accent was more refined than the others, enunciated like she was in no rush to make her point. She was watching their surroundings with distant serenity.


    ¡°Yeah, somehow I don¡¯t doubt that,¡± said the last of the group, her voice sweet as a bell. A short, light-footed woman at the head of the line wearing only a black shirt, black trousers, and sock-like boots, she seemed to bound along with endless energy, flitting ahead of the group before coming back every few seconds. Every step seemed to take her further than it should, and barely disturbed the grass in comparison to her companions. She held a short bow in one hand, while the other never strayed from the quiver of many-coloured arrows hanging from her black belt. Her brown hair was tied up in a ponytail.


    Lucas was lying at the top of the hill, tense with indecision. It was an overcast day, but the shiver running through his body could only partially be blamed on the cold.


    He¡¯d intended to get their attention and introduce himself immediately upon arriving atop the hill, but paranoia had reared its fanged head and dug poisoned teeth into his brain, injecting him with dark thoughts: what if they were allied with the people who¡¯d brought him here? If he ran up and claimed to have been snatched from another world, would he immediately find himself imprisoned for study? Even if they weren¡¯t, what guarantee did he have that they¡¯d be friendly? Claiming to be a dimensional traveller could find him branded a heretic or something.


    So he¡¯d settled down to wait and watch and see what he could learn by listening in on their conversation, and quickly felt too awkward to approach. It hadn¡¯t even occurred to him that they might not speak English until their words reached him just now. They spoke a language he¡¯d never heard before, full of rolling syllables and throaty vowels, their words blurring together in a confusing soup.


    As it turned out, it didn¡¯t matter.


    Somehow, he understood every word of it.


    Jamie, who was deeply displeased that Lucas had moved towards the unfamiliar voices after he¡¯d gone through the effort to warn his minion of the potential danger, strongly disapproved of the situation and wanted him to run the other way. The not-cat¡¯s opinion of Lucas¡¯ intelligence had lowered drastically, and Lucas couldn¡¯t blame him. He was questioning it himself.


    Mostly because a part of him still deeply longed to approach the group. Lucas leaned more towards introvert than extrovert, but he¡¯d long since used up his tolerance for being alone without any human contact. A few days alone was usually enough to charge up his social battery, and at this point he felt like he was overflowing with the desire to just exist in the vicinity of other people.


    ¡°Now now, Rena,¡± Wick said with a hint of reprimand. ¡°Did we not agree to put our disagreements aside for the sake of this quest?¡±


    Rena clicked her tongue, hopping forward a few metres and turning to walk backwards. ¡°I¡¯m not the one talking about scepticism right in front of a Skycloak. Given our destination, don¡¯t you think you two are the ones being provocative here, if anyone?¡±


    The hooded man chuckled. ¡°I have no quarrel with the Order, if that¡¯s what you mean to imply. If refusing to believe certain details of the legend of the Lost City until I see them with my own eyes is enough to cause offence, I would advise our dear companion to grow thicker skin. Skycloaks can¡¯t afford to get upset any time someone questions an old story. Why, they¡¯d spend all their days miserable!¡±


    ¡°I assure you, Wandmaster, your opinion means nothing to me,¡± the Skycloak said.


    ¡°Now now,¡± Wick said again, frowning now.


    At the front of the line, Rena turned back ahead, so the others couldn¡¯t see her smile.


    Jyn, the robed man, glanced at the Skycloak over his shoulder. ¡°If my opinion means nothing, perhaps facts will. Those who enter the Lost City do not leave.¡±


    ¡°Have you observed this with your own eyes?¡± the Skycloak said. Lucas was getting a little peeved they hadn¡¯t given a name to go with the face yet. Thinking of her as the Skycloak felt rude.


    ¡°Well played,¡± Jyn said with a chuckle. ¡°All right, how about this one: There are no records of anyone surviving an excursion into the Lost City.¡±


    ¡°Better,¡± said the Skycloak, eyeing him neutrally. The group was moving closer to Lucas¡¯ position, and he could just about make out the elaborate engravings in her moonlight-white armour, swirling patterns radiating out from a circle at the centre of the breastplate and rippling all across the metal. In the middle of the circle was a simple symbol, one he''d seen back at the village: a sword. ¡°But I want to see it with my own eyes,¡± she added.


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    ¡°Oh? And there¡¯s not a hint of desperation to this quest?¡± Rena said at the head of the group, still facing ahead. Her smile was growing.


    ¡°The Order¡¯s affairs are not your concern.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not hearing a no there, Swordmaiden.¡±


    Lucas stifled a groan. What was with all the nicknames for this woman? Did they not actually know her name?


    ¡°I see no reason to give you any answer, Bowmaiden,¡± the Skycloak said calmly.


    ¡°Ah yes, sharing information with your comrades? What a silly thing to do!¡± Rena said, shaking her head. Her smile was so wide now it surely hurt. ¡°You know, Skycloaks aren¡¯t usually this reticent. Your people aren¡¯t as sure in their beliefs as they once were, and I¡¯ve heard a few interesting things in recent times.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you have,¡± the Skycloak said.


    Wick was looking between the two women slowly, his brow furrowed. Jyn was staring at Rena¡¯s back with his lips pressed in a thin line.


    ¡°In fact,¡± Rena continued as if the Skycloak hadn¡¯t spoken. ¡°It seems rare to find a believer at all, these days. Why, I haven¡¯t met a devotee who truly believes in the possibility of Lucas Brown¡¯s arrival in years!¡±


    Lucas jolted like an arrow had pierced through his heart and nailed him to the hillside. He let out a wheeze that seemed to evacuate all the air in his lungs, leaving him wrung out and feeling like he¡¯d never be able to inhale again.


    She couldn¡¯t have just said what he thought she did. There was no way.


    ¡°I don¡¯t fault people for losing hope in these times,¡± the Skycloak said, serene as a still lake. Her stoic expression hadn¡¯t twitched even once.


    ¡°But you haven¡¯t? Is there some special reason for that, Skycloak?¡±


    All three turned to look at the Skycloak, unable to hide their desire to know her answer. Lucas looked at her too, with far more bafflement. With Jamie enhancing his vision through the bond, he saw the Skycloak roll her eyes.


    ¡°This is an exploratory mission. Fact finding, nothing more. The Order hasn¡¯t sent a team to the Lost City in years.¡±


    ¡°Proving my point, wouldn¡¯t you say?¡± Rena said with a note of triumph. She faced forward again, but her smile was gone. ¡°Even the leadership of you Watchers don¡¯t believe anymore, for Jai¡¯s sake! It¡¯s been a hundred years since their failed summoning. This mission is pointless.¡±


    The Skycloak eyed her, taking her gaze off the surrounding hillside for the first time. ¡°I¡¯d like to verify the current situation with my own eyes.¡±


    Jyn chuckled at that. ¡°A scholarly Skycloak indeed.¡±


    Wick joined in with a rumbling guffaw of his own. ¡°What is it you hope to find, friend?¡±


    ¡°Hope, I suppose,¡± the Skycloak muttered softly.


    ¡°Hm? What was that?¡± He cupped his ear.


    ¡°I merely wish to study the site,¡± the Skycloak said, louder. ¡°Think of it as a pilgrimage, if you must.¡±


    Wick blinked, then shrugged, his heavy armour clanging with the movement. ¡°If that is what you wish. Frankly, your reasons aren¡¯t too important as long as you¡¯re paying as you promised.¡±


    ¡°I keep my word.¡±


    ¡°Glad to hear it.¡±


    The group lapsed into silence after that, and soon they¡¯d round the corner at the end of the hill and pass out of Lucas¡¯ sight. He¡¯d be able to follow them using Jamie¡¯s senses, of course, but he was struck with indecision.


    The paranoia that had been seeping into his brain was threatening to overwhelm him, and maybe it wasn¡¯t even appropriate to call it paranoia anymore. Lucas Brown, they¡¯d said. His bloody name, unmistakeable. There was surely no way that was a coincidence. The archer, Rena, was clearly under the impression that the Skycloak or her order were searching for a man named Lucas Brown at a place called the Lost City¡ªeven odds that was the overgrown city he¡¯d been dragged into.


    What was unclear was why they wanted to find him, why he¡¯d been dragged here in the first place. The fact that they had his name meant it had been targeted. They wanted him, specifically. He couldn¡¯t fathom why. He was just some guy, average in every department, if you didn¡¯t count the gift. And the gift was something that had only showed up when he arrived here, for fuck¡¯s sake! Did they already know about it, somehow? Lucas thought about it for a moment. Could it be that they were the ones who¡¯d given it to him, and now they wanted it back? Or somehow knew he had it and wanted to use him for their own purposes?


    If any of that was true, it would surely be better to avoid these people. They were exactly the kind of hostile magic users he¡¯d been worried about. The man in the robe, Jyn, was the most obvious wizard to ever exist. Wick¡¯s armour shook the ground when he walked; something heavy enough to do that was surely too heavy for a man to carry. Rena the Bowmaiden¡¯s movement was distinctly supernatural. He hadn¡¯t seen anything unusual from the Skycloak, but had no doubt there was something magical to her too.


    If they found out who he was, there was no telling what they¡¯d do.


    That thought set Lucas'' brain a-thinking, and a plan started to form.


    Who said he had to introduce himself as Lucas Brown? Judging by the way they¡¯d been talking, not everyone believed in the so-called Order¡¯s cause, not even its own members, and the Bowmaiden in particular seemed mildly disdainful of it. A hundred years, they¡¯d said. It was like he was a myth, a tale. All things considered, he was willing to bet they wouldn¡¯t know what he looked like. They didn''t seem to have reached ''photography'' in their technological tree, and how would they get one of him if they had? The more he thought about it, the more confident he was.


    The thing was, he needed answers. Directions. These people were the first real chance to get them he¡¯d come across, and he had no idea when another opportunity might arise. He wasn¡¯t sure he could afford to let it pass him by. Acting wasn¡¯t his strong suit, but they¡¯d have no reason to instantly suspect his true identity if the existence of Lucas Brown was so contested.


    Worst came to worst, his plant magic could potentially get him out of the situation. It could buy him time to run away, at least. Trip them up with weeds around their ankles, or cut off their line of sight with clouds of pollen in their eyes, or turn the grass mushy and slippery somehow. Hell, maybe his stick technique would face a trial by fire. He wasn¡¯t totally defenceless.


    Lucas made his mind up. Jamie hissed in disapproval inside his breast as he leapt to his feet and sprinted down the hill at a diagonal, aiming to come around at the other side. He didn¡¯t want to make it seem he was the one approaching them; it would be better to give them the impression he was a traveller headed in another direction to them who encountered them by chance in the countryside.


    Reaching the bottom of the hill, he took a moment to catch his breath. The quartet¡¯s conversation had lapsed, but their footsteps were still easily audible to him through Jamie¡¯s enhancements, and he started walking in parallel to them, timing it so they¡¯d spy each other from a distance at a dip between two hills.


    His heart was in his throat, for more reasons than just fear of discovery. Slightly pathetically, a decent portion of his anxiety was devoted to potential embarrassment. His social skills had probably atrophied without use, and his mind was tripping over itself in its scramble to decide what he should say. For a moment, he was assaulted by scenarios of flubbing his introduction, fumbling his words or failing to speak their language at all, followed by rank humiliation where they all pointed and laughed at him, then forced him to come with them not because he was some test subject to be dissected, but because they wanted a bullying victim.


    Momentum carried him forward more than conscious action. He¡¯d committed to his course already, and his body was moving on autopilot while he internally freaked out about the upcoming confrontation. No backing out now.


    By the time he rounded the corner and the group of four laid eyes on him, he wasn¡¯t ready at all. He hadn¡¯t even set up any plant magic. His stick was still in his sack.


    Desperate to do something, he held up a hand in greeting and, to his horror, said the worst thing possible.


    ¡°What is up, my dudes?¡±

 13: Populated (2)

    Wind hissed through the grass, ruffled at clothes, and whispered between the hills. It was an overcast day, slate grey clouds threatening rain, so it was hard to tell what time it was. Cold nipped at any exposed skin, but it wasn¡¯t so bad as it had been recently, hints of spring creeping in with the smell of flowers in bloom.


    Lucas was considering whether being killed by hostile plant life back in the overgrown city wouldn¡¯t have been so bad after all. It would¡¯ve been a slow and painful death, but at least he wouldn¡¯t have to look forward to any nights kept awake by this embarrassing moment.


    His face was steaming hot, undoubtedly red as a tomato. His hands had gone clammy. His smile was fixed awkwardly in place, and no matter how he tried, he couldn''t seem to get any of his facial muscles to move. Any plans he¡¯d concocted had gone out the window, his throat closing up and clamping down on his stupid bloody traitorous vocal cords.


    Jamie, meanwhile, appeared to have curled up and fallen asleep inside Lucas¡¯ vitality channels, the little shit, restoring Lucas¡¯ senses to their baseline.


    More to comfort himself than to genuinely prepare anything, he started letting vitality trickle out of his channels, seeping it into grass and claiming command over it without giving it any orders.


    Wick looked far more intimidating up close than he had from a distance. He towered over Lucas, a bulky 7ft colossus in his heavy grey armour, and there was no hint of the amiable smile he¡¯d shown his comrades before. He¡¯d moved to the front of his group, interposing himself between them and Lucas. ¡°Greetings,¡± he said neutrally. ¡°Odd to meet a stranger out here.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Lucas said automatically, but his mind failed to conjure up any further words. Maybe he should¡¯ve let the beast eat him? With its three mouths, it surely would¡¯ve been relatively quick, compared to this agony.


    Rena the Bowmaiden had pulled a carmine arrow halfway from her quiver, but her shortbow was still at her side. This close, he could see the limb of the bow was an intricate helix, two pieces of smooth sandy wood spiralling around each other to form a curve. The string glittered like a long, thin jewel, and he wondered if it was even a string at all. ¡°What brings you so far north?¡± she asked. Her chime-like voice was cutting.


    Lucas swallowed. Problems were already popping up, quite apart from his stage fright; he didn¡¯t have the slightest clue where he was. North? North of what?


    ¡°I got lost,¡± he said, then inwardly cursed. It was technically true, at least.


    ¡°You got lost,¡± the Bowmaiden said slowly. She glanced at Jyn the robed probably-wizard, whose expression was hard to decipher when all but his blue lips were covered by his loose hood, and they were studiously neutral. She looked back at Lucas, brow furrowed. ¡°From whence?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know,¡± Lucas said. True again. ¡°I¡¯ve been lost for a long time.¡±


    Rena eyed him up and down. ¡°You look the part, to be true. No offence intended.¡±


    ¡°None taken. Things have been¡­ rough.¡± The more he thought about it, the more he liked the ¡®tell the truth but omit some details¡¯ angle. He was neither a practised liar nor a skilled actor. This made things easier. ¡°I was attacked by a beast in an abandoned village nearby. I barely escaped with my life.¡±


    Sympathy appeared in Wick¡¯s eyes. He reached up to move a lock of his shaggy black hair out of his face. ¡°That sounds like an ordeal. But I must repeat Rena¡¯s question, stranger: what brings you so far north? We¡¯re a long way from civilisation, and surviving out here so close to the Blighted Lands is a dangerous prospect for a man alone.¡±


    Lucas grimaced, his eyes going wide. ¡°I didn¡¯t know I was so close to the Blighted Lands,¡± he said, because he hadn¡¯t ever heard of the place until just now.


    The Skycloak spoke for the first time, blank-faced as ever. ¡°Your name, ser?¡±


    Trying not to show any alarm, Lucas reached for the first name that came to mind. ¡°Rian,¡± he said.


    Jyn had already been quiet, but now he went completely still, which basically meant his robe stopped ruffling in the wind. It was an eerie effect, like he¡¯d been put on pause. Was the colour of his robe darker?


    ¡°Like the Lost Swordsman? Bold of your parents,¡± Wick said. ¡°Many think of him as a deserter and curse his name.¡±


    Jyn sneered, probably in agreement, but still said nothing.


    What the fuck?


    Lucas shrugged, affecting nonchalance as best he could. ¡°Not mine, I suppose.¡±


    ¡°Your clothes and your sack have the feel of magic to them, though crude,¡± the Skycloak observed mildly. ¡°Where did you find them?¡±


    Lucas startled and looked down at himself. The off-white robe he¡¯d woven back in the overgrown city looked mundane to him, if extremely ugly, and the rough things vaguely resembling a shirt and trousers he¡¯d bodged together during his travels showed no sign of magic he could see. ¡°How can you tell?¡± he asked.


    The Skycloak pinched a fold of her sky-blue cloak and raised it to her eye level. ¡°Woven magic lingers for a time. Your fabric has no patterns to channel it, so the residue is faint, but I can tell these things.¡±


    Oh. Lucas hadn¡¯t known that. Hadn¡¯t picked up anything at all from his clothes. Was it another vitality frequency he hadn¡¯t found yet? A part of him itched to search for it immediately, but he couldn¡¯t just ditch this conversation now that he¡¯d plunged himself recklessly into it. The four weren¡¯t quite hostile, but he didn¡¯t want to inadvertently escalate things somehow.


    ¡°Our resident Skycloak is a talented sensor,¡± Wick said. His eyes had never left Lucas for a second. He barely seemed to blink.


    ¡°Talented is a strong word,¡± the Skycloak said. Her eyes flicked down to the ground at Lucas¡¯ feet then back up again. ¡°Mana senses are of limited utility if their range is low. I can hardly claim to be anything special when I didn¡¯t notice Ser Rian here until he was upon us.¡±


    There was a moment of silence, four sets of eyes lingering on Lucas. He swallowed.


    ¡°What about you four?¡± he asked, turning the questioning back on them.


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    ¡°We¡¯re heading for the Lost City. I¡¯m Wick, acting as Shieldmaster for this excursion, though I can wield the sword as well,¡± Wick said. He gestured behind him vaguely. ¡°I can¡¯t hold a candle to our Skycloak on that front, so it¡¯s the shield for me for the duration. The silent one in the robes is Jyn, and the fair lady is Rena. As you can probably guess, they are our Wandmaster and Bowmaiden respectively.¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Does your Skycloak have no name?¡±


    Rena rolled her eyes. ¡°Perhaps she doesn¡¯t. She claims we don¡¯t need to know it, but I suspect she¡¯s embarrassed that no one thought to give her one when she was born.¡±


    The Skycloak didn¡¯t rise to the taunt, but her blue eyes were icy, and it took Lucas a moment to realise she was looking at his arms. ¡°Your clothes, Ser Rian. They can¡¯t have been made more than a month ago. Did you weave them yourself, or is there another Wandmaster nearby?¡±


    Lucas swallowed. He¡¯d been slowly threading his vitality into the plants around him. Not wanting to blast any of the people before him with his vitality, he¡¯d been shaping it low to the ground, grasping at the foliage beneath his feet and preparing in case things went wrong; the way Wick was staring at him wasn¡¯t a good sign.


    He was cursing himself for that decision now. If the Skycloak¡¯s ¡®sensor¡¯ ability was anything like his vitality sense, it was likely she¡¯d noticed his magic use. But then why had she focused on his clothes specifically, calling out the magic residue rather than the technique he was actively using right now? Was she testing him, somehow? Or had she not noticed it after all?


    Whatever her reasons, he didn¡¯t want to lie. Besides, what harm could it do? If anything, revealing it would help him. Not only could he offer it as a skill in exchange for their help, which they didn¡¯t seem likely to give right now, but it could be an explanation as to why he was out here. He wasn¡¯t going to say anything along those lines, but letting them form their own conclusions would be fine. They¡¯d have no reason to connect plant magic to Lucas Brown, surely?


    ¡°I made them myself,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Woven from plant fibre with my magic.¡±


    For some reason, that caused a shift in the group before him. Wick¡¯s easy grin returned to his face, Rena looked like she was trying not to laugh, and the tension seemed to drain away from Jyn as he sighed.


    ¡°I see,¡± the Skycloak said. Her gaze turned away, scanning over the hills. ¡°You¡¯re a floramancer, then?¡±


    Floramancer? Is that what it¡¯s actually called?


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Not a master or anything, but I know a few tricks.¡±


    ¡°No amount of tricks will grant you victory over the Lost City, friend, though I don¡¯t suppose that stops anyone from trying,¡± Wick said amiably. He paused to chuckle with a shake of his head. ¡°Though I¡¯ll say I admire your guts, Ser Rian. Or should I call it arrogance? Admitting to floramancy in front of a Skycloak takes a special kind of man, I know.¡±


    Lucas took a step back, alarmed. He looked at the Skycloak, but she seemed to have dismissed him as something unworthy of interest.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to cause any offence,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure she won¡¯t take any,¡± Rena said. ¡°We¡¯ve got a devout one here. Still has faith in Lucas Brown¡¯s arrival, if you can believe it!¡±


    What does that even mean? Why bring that up? Where¡¯s the connection, here?


    ¡°That¡¯s our purpose out here,¡± Jyn said, smiling wryly. His thin voice was a bit of a shock, the wizard having been silent for so long that Lucas had forgotten the sound of it. ¡°We¡¯re visiting the Lost City to find out why Lucas Brown never arrived with the others.¡±


    The others?


    Lucas¡¯ head was spinning at this point.


    ¡°If you were hoping to battle against the curse and find some loot,¡± Jyn continued, ¡°it behoves me to warn you that many mages, some great, have tried. None who enter the city return.¡±


    ¡°We hope to be the first,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°We hope to reach the place only for our Skycloak to have a change of heart when she realises the futility of our quest,¡± Rena corrected him with an impish smile. ¡°Full pay for escorting her there, none of the danger of having to actually enter the city.¡±


    ¡°Will you travel with us, Ser Rian?¡± the Skycloak cut in. ¡°We could use a floramancer¡¯s skills on our quest.¡±


    Lucas smiled awkwardly. If the Lost City was what he thought it was, letting them form their own conclusions about him and his goals hadn¡¯t been such a good idea after all.


    The others turned to stare at the Skycloak with wide eyes. Even Wick, who¡¯d been watching Lucas without blinking since the moment they¡¯d encountered each other.


    ¡°You¡¯ll be compensated for your help, of course,¡± the Skycloak continued. She tilted her head, letting her braid sway down her shoulder. Her blue eyes were cool, serene. ¡°Think of it as a guarantee. On your own, you may not find anything and end up leaving empty-handed. With us, you may still find nothing, but you¡¯ll make some coin regardless.¡±


    Or, he thought, he could never go near that fucking place again.


    ¡°Also worth pointing out that you¡¯re a lucky bastard to even make it this far,¡± Wick said with a frown. ¡°Close enough to the Blighted Lands to hear the Demon Lord buggering his undead horses, and only one encounter with a beast? You¡¯ve surely been blessed with luck, Ser Rian.¡±


    Lucas almost laughed. ¡°Doesn¡¯t feel much like it.¡±


    ¡°Believe me, friend. You¡¯re fortunate to be alive,¡± Wick said.


    Rena nodded. ¡°What madness drove you to travel alone all the way out here? Nearest town I can think of is weeks away, if the maps are true.¡±


    ¡°They may not be,¡± Jyn added. ¡°Wandmaster Aelyx feared the increase of beast attacks in Harwyckshire meant a horde assault was coming, and our last correspondence was two moons ago. It¡¯s entirely possible Harwyck no longer stands. The safest option is to head for Dawnguard, six weeks¡¯ travel from here.¡±


    ¡°Which brings us back to our initial question,¡± the Skycloak said, watching Lucas neutrally. ¡°Where do you hail from, Ser Rian?¡±


    Lucas took a moment to consider his answer. ¡°Far away,¡± he said, hoping he didn¡¯t sound too sad.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t we all?¡± Wick said with a wry smile that didn¡¯t meet his eyes.


    The Skycloak¡¯s gaze had sharpened at Lucas¡¯ answer, but her expression smoothed out again when she caught him looking. She gave no reply.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure I want to find the Lost City at all, with the way you¡¯re all talking about it,¡± Lucas said slowly.


    ¡°Why?¡± Rena said. ¡°You¡¯ve already taken an equally massive risk, travelling this far alone.¡±


    ¡°It didn¡¯t feel so dangerous,¡± Lucas said.


    Rena scoffed, propping a hand on one hip and glaring at him. Despite her blatantly unfriendly change in posture, it was actually a comfort; she¡¯d finally let her arrow slide back into her quiver. Unfriendly was better than combat ready.


    ¡°Whether or not you accompany us inside the city,¡± Jyn said, ¡°I highly recommend you travel with us there, Ser Rian. For your own safety. We will see you back to civilisation afterwards.¡±


    Now that was appealing, as much as he didn¡¯t want to ever set eyes on the Lost City again. Maybe Lucas could wait out of sight while they went in and, well, searched for Lucas Brown. This whole situation was rather awkward, now that he thought about it.


    Then another thought occurred to him. ¡°What were you planning to do without a floramancer?¡±


    Jyn raised an arm, poking a hand out of his voluminous sleeve. He held a black rod about the length of a drumstick clenched in his fist. There was a spark of vitality, but before Lucas could make any sense of it, there was a flame dancing on the end of Jyn¡¯s wand like it was a candle lighter.


    It took everything Lucas had not to grimace. He knew in his bones, with instinct honed from spending a month in that damned piece of shit city, that burning the plants wouldn¡¯t work. Oh, the fey intelligence inhabiting that place might let them think it was working for a while, just long enough for them to let their guard down. The plant hive mind was no human intellect, but it had tricks up its sleeve. Its floramancy could be deadly.


    Suddenly, with a certainty as sure as death itself, Lucas knew that none of them would return from the so-called Lost City if they went in there without him.


    And he knew, with equal certainty, that he didn¡¯t have it in him to let that happen.


    Fuuuuuuuck.

 14: Populated (3)

    They made camp as the sun began to set on a tall hill that gave them an overlooking view of the countryside for a mile around. Lucas felt exposed. He¡¯d gotten used to sheltering in little nooks and crannies, hiding away from the things lurking out there in the night. A view of his surroundings meant his surroundings had a view of him.


    ¡°Better to see them coming, if they¡¯re going to come, and hold the high ground while we¡¯re at it,¡± Wick said, noticing Lucas¡¯ distress and somehow divining its cause. ¡°Nothing worse than beasts throwing themselves at you from above, believe me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d rather not have them throw themselves at me from anywhere, Ser Wick,¡± Lucas said, cringing a little as he tested out the title. Back home ¡®Ser¡¯ held connotations of something noble and knightly, but these people had used it for him and he found it hard to imagine they¡¯d mistaken him for a knight, given his threadbare, self-made clothing. He wanted to figure out what they meant by it, and hoped Wick would correct him if it was inappropriate.


    Wick showed no unusual reaction though, so perhaps it was just a generic title like Mister or Miss. Or maybe it was just a quirk of whatever translation magic was in play here.


    Either way, Wick replied amiably enough, ¡°Few men wish to face down beasts, Ser Rian. But it¡¯s a danger one must always be prepared for in these trying times. It¡¯s best to give oneself the greatest advantage if engaging the enemy is unavoidable.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d argue it¡¯s avoidable,¡± Lucas muttered.


    ¡°Don¡¯t mistake your luck for skill,¡± Rena said distractedly, most of her attention on inspecting an arrow with a white shaft and obsidian head.


    The group had settled down in a square on the hilltop, with their packs stacked in the space between them. Jyn had summoned bedrolls for himself and two of his comrades from a black circle that opened in the air after a wave of his black wand and a complex burst of vitality. The wizard had been apologetic that they only had three beds, but Wick was happy to give up his and sit cross-legged on the grass, ignoring Lucas¡¯ protests. Everyone was close together, their bedrolls nearly touching at the corners, Rena on Lucas¡¯ left, Jyn on his right, with Wick directly across from him in open space. Only the Skycloak stood apart at the edge of the hill¡¯s slope, watching the sun set. Apparently she was content to sleep wrapped in her cloak.


    They¡¯d refused a fire, claiming any light in the night would attract beasts like moths and the moon was typically bright enough to provide light besides. A bit embarrassing for Lucas, who¡¯d had one crackling away every night prior. Maybe they were right about his luck. In his defence, he hadn¡¯t known monsters were a possibility until a few days ago. Probably should have guessed, given magic and everything. Live and learn.


    Wick nodded. He crossed his arms across his massive chest, still clad in his armour. ¡°These lands are dangerous. There¡¯s a reason civilisation has fled so far south. I intend no offence, Ser Rian, when I say that you do not strike me as a man who has cut a swathe of destruction through the demon horde to arrive here. You don¡¯t have an, ah, martial bearing.¡±


    ¡°Maybe I have hidden depths,¡± Lucas said.


    Wick grinned, eyebrows rising in challenge.


    ¡°I can defend myself, at least. I got along okay before meeting you lot.¡±


    ¡°Lucky,¡± Rena said again, sing-song.


    Lucas held his hands up. ¡°Fine, fine. Honestly, I¡¯m much happier with the company anyway, beasts or not. I was beginning to wonder if there was anyone else alive in the whole world, for a while.¡±


    There was a moment of silence. Jyn was the one to break it. ¡°Your feeling is understandable, Ser Rian. Not even mentioning the Blighted Lands, there are places in Mornlunn where you would probably find yourself the only human in a hundred miles, if you were to go there alone. In those circumstances, one might as well be the last man alive. It¡¯s a harrowing thought.¡±


    Lucas saw an opportunity both to steer away from the heavy subject and gain some information, and seized on it. ¡°Where would you say the nearest settlement is from where we are now?¡±


    Jyn paused to think on it, his blue lips moving without sound, his head tilted back slightly. ¡°As aforementioned, Dawnguard is the closest destination with a guarantee of safety I know of, far to the South-West. Harwyck is closer, to the South-East, but as I already revealed: its protection isn¡¯t so certain. The same could be true for Southwold, Greenford, and Mirton. It¡¯s hard to say, but in terms of pure distance, I¡¯d probably give it to Mirton. All are weeks away regardless. Moons, even.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Lucas said. Not as helpful as he¡¯d hoped, but he supposed learning some town names wasn¡¯t nothing. He was reluctant to push it, wary of revealing his ignorance. ¡°You four came from Dawnguard?¡±


    ¡°We did indeed,¡± Wick said. ¡°Our Skycloak is right from the Moontower itself, even.¡±


    ¡°Hard to believe such a vaunted acolyte as her deigned to come down from on high. I didn¡¯t think the Skycloaks took interest in the affairs of us mere mortals until they had no choice,¡± Rena murmured, eyeing the Skycloak¡¯s back.


    ¡°Now now,¡± Wick said, frowning at her.


    Lucas shifted, leaning forward. More than the others, he was wondering why Rena was a part of this quest in the first place, with her blatant disdain for the Skycloak¡¯s goal. ¡°Is she someone important in the Order?¡± he whispered.


    ¡°No,¡± the Skycloak replied, making him jump and turn to her. She was still gazing out into the distance¡ªin the direction of the Lost City, Lucas realised. ¡°Quite the opposite. As our Bowmaiden has noted, my faith is somewhat of a rarity these days.¡±


    ¡°Faith in what?¡± Lucas asked, dreading the answer.


    ¡°Lucas Brown, of course,¡± Rena said with an impressively disdainful roll of her eyes.


    ¡°Our saviour,¡± the Skycloak said. Her blue cloak fluttered in the wind, outlined by a rosy red from the setting sun. She turned her head slightly, regarding him out of the corner of one eye. ¡°After a hundred years of waiting, many have their doubts. I understand that. But Lady Claire taught that patience is a virtue, and I¡¯m certain those who¡¯ve kept faith will prove justified.¡±


    Lucas tried not to show any reaction under the Skycloak¡¯s scrutiny. He didn¡¯t know if he succeeded; her stoic mien gave nothing away.


    ¡°Does Lady Claire herself even believe nowadays?¡± Rena asked, deceptively mild.


    ¡°She hasn¡¯t been seen in quite some time,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Last I heard she was leading an excursion into the Blighted Lands. A Dread General was mentioned.¡±


    ¡°If anything had happened to her, word would have travelled far and wide,¡± Wick said, eyes darting between his comrades before settling on Rena with an air of long-suffering.


    Rena rolled her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m sure word would arrive eventually, yeah.¡± She sneered. ¡°But far too late, as with all things the Order does and advocates for.¡±


    The Skycloak once again ignored Rena¡¯s brazen provocation, and conversation lapsed after that. Lucas desperately wanted to seek more answers, but he didn¡¯t know what to say, what questions would sound natural, how to act so he didn¡¯t reveal himself ignorant of things that even some random guy would be expected to know in this place.


    If nothing else, he¡¯d at least confirmed to his satisfaction that this wasn¡¯t Earth. Blighted Lands? A bunch of places he¡¯d never heard of? It screamed ¡®other world¡¯ to him. That was something, he guessed.


    ¡°So you reckon beasts are more common around here?¡± Lucas asked no one in particular after a few awkward moments had passed, figuring that was safe enough.


    Wick huffed a laugh. ¡°We barely go a day without spying some nearby. We avoid them as much as we can, since our task isn¡¯t to cull their numbers. Vile creatures.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve only seen one in my travels,¡± Lucas said with a frown. He described the monster he¡¯d slain as best he could, leaving out most of the context of how he encountered it. Dredging up the memory of that twisted thing turned his stomach. ¡°Do you know what species of beast that was?¡±


    ¡°There are no species among the beasts, lad,¡± Wick said. ¡°Common misconception.¡±


    ¡°Beasts are creatures born from demonic chaos warping the world,¡± Jyn said, blue lips pulled down in a grimace. ¡°Though any two may look similar and there are some common themes among them, they aren¡¯t animals.¡±


    ¡°Some say they once were,¡± Rena said. She¡¯d moved on to another arrow now, holding its yellow fletching close to her face for inspection.


    Jyn sighed. ¡°You will occasionally see traits derived from living beings in beasts, yes. Animals, plants, and the like. Chaos draws on mana, and mana is life.¡±


    ¡°A friend of mine swore he once saw a beast with a human head in place of a foot, and it screamed every time the monster took a step,¡± Wick said gravely, eyes distant. ¡°Man took a lot less quests after that. Shame. He was a skilled Bowmaster.¡±


    ¡°It sounds plausible,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Though I¡¯ll emphasise that it wouldn¡¯t have been an actual person, just random happenstance caused by chaos.¡±


    Wick hummed, sceptical. ¡°Regardless, the beast you encountered sounds like a mild one as these things go, Ser Rian. Perhaps a D-rank,¡± he said. He gave Lucas a steady look. ¡°Did you slay it?¡±


    Lucas nodded slowly. ¡°Bashed it to death with a stick I strengthened with my magic.¡±


    All three before him look pleased at that.


    ¡°Good for you,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Unorthodox for a Wandmaster¡ªnot a method I would¡¯ve chosen¡ªbut what works, works.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll put in a word with the Wardens for you,¡± Rena said, pointing at him with an arrow that trailed mist with every movement.


    Wick nodded and slapped one gauntleted hand on his armoured thigh, creating a sound like a hammer striking an anvil. ¡°Any man who rids the world of one more beast, no matter how minor, deserves a reward.¡±


    ¡°Floramancy doesn¡¯t have a lot of easy combat applications, sadly,¡± Lucas said to Jyn, hoping the wizard would drop him a tip or two.


    Jyn just shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ll have to take your word for it, Ser Rian, as I¡¯ve never met a floramancer in all my years. Superstition and prejudice have rendered your art a rare one. I¡¯d be interested in what you have to say about it, if you¡¯re willing.¡± He leaned back, folding his arms within his capacious sleeves. ¡°I major in pyromancy, myself. With minors in brontomancy and ferramancy. Little crossover between our disciplines, I¡¯m afraid, but I¡¯m sure we can work out an equitable exchange as fellow Wandmasters.¡±


    Lucas tried not to break his own neck with the force of his nod, but it was a close thing. ¡°I¡¯d like that,¡± he understated. He turned to Wick, lest he get carried away and play his hand. ¡°How about you, Ser Wick?¡±


    Wick blinked. ¡°Only magic to my name is my soulshield, lad. Hardly anything I can exchange there.¡±


    Rena spoke, anticipating he¡¯d turn to her next. ¡°You¡¯re not having any of my arrows even if I was interested in any magic you can summon, even if it¡¯d vex the Skycloak. They¡¯d be wasted on you. No offence.¡±


    Lucas leaned back and held his hands up. ¡°Peace, guys. Just wanted to know what you can do.¡±


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    They were looking at him oddly now, and Lucas¡¯ stomach flipped.


    ¡°I¡¯m a Shieldmaster. I wield a soulshield and armour to protect the less hardy from danger, as outlined in the Doctrine of Five,¡± Wick said slowly, as if just figuring out Lucas might be a little slow, which was probably better than realising he was named Lucas Brown and had only been in this world for a month.


    ¡°And I¡¯m a Bowmaiden,¡± Rena said, wiggling an arrow that was faintly glowing neon yellow. ¡°If you need any explanation for that, you really are damnably lucky to be alive out here.¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes,¡± Lucas said, thinking quickly, eyes darting between them. ¡°I was just curious as to the specifics. Not all Bowmaidens or Shieldmasters are alike. I didn¡¯t mean to be rude.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a good shot and light on my feet. A Bowmaiden¡¯s quiver is a private thing,¡± Rena said, but there was a teasing gleam in her eyes. She chuckled to herself, the sound a soothing chime. ¡°I¡¯m not going to sit here and list out my arrows to you, Ser Rian. Feel free to look and make guesses, but don¡¯t touch.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s not much to tell about my skill set,¡± Wick said. ¡°My soulshield has held true until now, my mana is suited to defence, and my armour is of good craftsmanship. We haven¡¯t worked together long, but our group is a strong one.¡±


    ¡°Though not perfectly rounded,¡± Jyn said. He nodded towards the Skycloak. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed we¡¯re a party of four; we have no Star to speak of. I¡¯ll give you no gold coin for guessing whom our Swordmaiden wishes to see fill that slot.¡±


    Rena snorted. ¡°Maybe you can be our Star, Ser Rian. I¡¯d love to see a Skycloak work under a floramancer.¡±


    Lucas just smiled awkwardly. The talk in their little camp shifted from there, turning to beasts they¡¯d encountered so far. Having faced tentacled monstrosities and unknowable horrors and eldritch fiends, their adventure sounded quite the horrible one, though they spoke of it with jolly spirits. Eventually, their talk turned back to the supposedly weak beast Lucas had encountered, and, strangely, the mood briefly darkened.


    ¡°A beast weak enough to be slain by an amateur floramancer making it out of the Blighted Lands by itself,¡± Rena began, eyes thoughtful. She glanced at the Skycloak¡¯s back. ¡°If there¡¯s one thing I¡¯ll credit the Order with, it¡¯s keeping the border protected well. A demon horde punching through the front lines and bringing beasts with them is one thing. A weakling like Ser Rian described on its own¡­¡±


    ¡°Troubling,¡± Jyn agreed.


    ¡°Is there a gap in the lines?¡± Wick wondered, grim.


    ¡°I¡¯ll send word to the vanguard as soon as I get a chance,¡± the Skycloak said without turning.


    Rena nodded.


    ¡°It could have been part of a pack and got separated somehow?¡± Lucas suggested. ¡°The, uh, front lines can¡¯t be completely watertight, right?¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t match behaviour we¡¯ve observed from them,¡± Jyn said.


    ¡°They¡¯re beings of chaos,¡± Wick said. ¡°The whole problem is they¡¯re unpredictable.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not wrong,¡± Jyn conceded. He waved a hand, his baggy sleeve flapping around. ¡°But this isn¡¯t my area of study. I¡¯ll report it to the College when we return, and they can figure out what to make of it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll actually deign to show your face to those, ah, what did you call them? Old fogeys?¡± Wick said with a teasing lilt. ¡°You must be more worried than you let on.¡±


    One corner of Jyn¡¯s lips twitched. ¡°Bah, the place isn¡¯t so bad if I just hold my nose. Then I¡¯ll just have to see the old masters. Which is bad enough in itself, come to think of it. Maybe I¡¯ll just send a letter.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the ugliest building in Dawnguard by far,¡± Rena said, lowering an arrow with a head that seemed to be made of some kind of ruby gemstone. ¡°What kind of wizards build something out of slate grey stone right next to the Moontower and Aarya¡¯s keep? In the same city as the Mornhold? I almost died of disappointment when I saw it with my own eyes.¡±


    ¡°Lady Claire called it brutalism,¡± Jyn said.


    ¡°I¡¯m told Lady Claire never had much appreciation for architecture,¡± Wick said.


    Rena spat to the side. ¡°One can see that plainly. Name an ugly grey lump in the city and it was probably commissioned by the Grand Wandmaiden. Eugh.¡±


    ¡°Not all of them are hers, surely,¡± Wick said with a shrug. ¡°When you¡¯re as long-lived as her, you end up influencing a lot of people. No doubt there are those who appreciate that style.¡±


    ¡°Tasteless bores. Where I¡¯m from, the most important part of a building is its beauty,¡± Rena said with a haughty sniff. Then a sigh seemed to deflate her, and her eyes turned wistful and distant as she rotated an acid-green arrow in her fingers. ¡°Now Duskpoole, there was a real city. Every building was a work of art.¡±


    There was a moment of silence, then Wick placed a hand on Rena¡¯s shoulder and squeezed. ¡°May the Demon Lord choke on his own cock.¡±


    Rena laughed, but it was hollow, false. ¡°May he be buggered to death by a lichdragon, and the soul of every lost Northman be there to see it.¡±


    Conversation lapsed once more after that, and Lucas decided not to pick it back up again.


    As night fell and the stars came out, the group settled down to sleep. The Skycloak took first watch by unspoken agreement, and Lucas found himself tossing and turning out on the borrowed bedroll. It was lumpy and a little rough, but it was so comfortable in comparison to his recent sleeping arrangements as to be paradoxically uncomfortable. Even a packed moss mattress had been a luxury recently; many nights he just slept on the hard ground, relying on his vitality to ward off any nasties in the night that might infect him.


    The others drifted off quickly in comparison, and soon enough Lucas was sure only he and the Skycloak were awake. Clouds crawled overhead, and sleep wouldn¡¯t come. He didn¡¯t mind much, to be honest, happy to slip into his vitality system and rummage around with his sub-channels instead. It was slow, careful work, almost meditative, and usually saw him slipping off to dreamland eventually.


    Taking his vitality¡ªor, he supposed, mana, as his new companions had called it¡ªin metaphorical hand, he started guiding it towards a new sub-channel with keen anticipation. The familiar ache throbbed in his soul as he aimed a trickle of energy into the next sub-channel in the sequence, slowly forcing it open micrometre by micrometre.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± a soft voice cut through his concentration, startling him. Lucas let out a yelp, his concentration slipping away. His vitality was instantly forced out of the sub-channel, leaving behind a deep soreness he hadn¡¯t felt before, and he winced. He¡¯d never aborted opening a sub-channel like that. Hopefully it didn¡¯t cause any damage.


    Lucas looked up to the source of the voice and found the Skycloak staring back at him. In the pale moonlight, he could see she had one platinum eyebrow raised the barest fraction¡ªthat was probably akin to a normal person gawking at him in sheer bewilderment. He hadn¡¯t known her long, but this was the first time he¡¯d seen any kind of emotion on her face. She was a sensor, Lucas recalled.


    ¡°You, um, felt that?¡± Lucas asked, keeping his voice low, reluctant to disturb the others.


    She nodded once. Her blue eyes were studying him like he was a fascinating specimen. ¡°Why were you moving mana in your arm?¡±


    ¡°Just¡­ trying to expand my capacity,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°Your capacity,¡± she repeated. Her eyebrow rose another millimetre. ¡°I did notice your system is underdeveloped for your apparent age, considering you¡¯re a mage. You¡¯re in your early twenties, yes?¡±


    ¡°Twenty on the dot.¡±


    ¡°Curious. Your mana system is more akin to a child who¡¯s just awakened their soul.¡±


    Lucas held back a grimace. That sounded about right. ¡°It¡¯s a problem I¡¯ve been dealing with,¡± he said, gesturing at his arm. He looked around, checking on the others. They all seemed to still be fast asleep. ¡°But I admit I¡¯m kind of flailing around blindly. If you have any suggestions¡­¡±


    Surely a sensor would be able to help?


    The Skycloak stared at him for a long moment, her eyes searching, before she raised a hand and beckoned him closer. Lucas tried not to be too eager as he hopped to his feet and scurried over to her, but judging by the increasing height of her raised eyebrow, he¡¯d failed. He grinned sheepishly. ¡°I really appreciate any advice you can give, uh, Miss Skycloak?¡±


    ¡°You can call me Swordmaiden, if you wish to address me directly,¡± she said.


    Lucas was burning to know why she wouldn¡¯t just give her name, but worried it was some kind of cultural custom everyone from this world would be expected to know, so he didn¡¯t ask. ¡°Okay. Thank you, Swordmaiden.¡±


    The Skycloak¡¯s eyebrow returned to its neutral position. ¡°Circulate your mana as you were.¡±


    Always willing to play with his vita¡ªmana, Lucas delved back into his system and probed at the sub-channel he¡¯d unwillingly abandoned. It was tender as a bruise, and feeding mana into it was thrice as painful as it usually was, earning a wince from him, but he persevered. It went slower than it had the last few times, but still faster than his first sub-channel opening. Time slipped away. He lost himself in the process, revelling in the warm ache of mana permeating another small section of his body. When it was done, he let out a breath of euphoric relief.


    Opening his eyes, he found the Skycloak kneeling by his side, watching him with her head tilted, her hands resting in her lap. The night was a little brighter, the moon unobstructed by clouds. Her hair shone silver, and her armour gleamed. ¡°Interesting,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s like you¡¯re manually stimulating your system to expand just as an adolescent¡¯s system would naturally as they grew up. Why are you targeting such a small area?¡±


    Lucas smiled ruefully. ¡°That¡¯s all I can do, to be honest. Have to do one sub-channel at a time.¡±


    She tilted her head further. With the moonlight shining on her hair, it made her look like an owl. ¡°Sub-channels, you say? Why do you call them that?¡±


    ¡°Because¡­ they¡¯re smaller than the main channels?¡±


    ¡°They are?¡±


    Her question had that teacher rhetoric vibe where Lucas got the impression she knew the answer, but wanted him to come to the conclusion for himself. Lucas thought about it for a moment as he assessed his channels again. ¡°It definitely feels like it. They¡¯re not?¡±


    ¡°The pathways that carry mana through our souls are uniform in size and capacity. They grow with us as we age, expanding steadily over time as greater volumes of mana pass through them.¡±


    ¡°So¡­¡± Lucas trailed off, zoning in on his sub-channels. Or¡­ maybe sub-channels was the wrong word for them¡ªquite apart from the fact that the Skycloak had just called them pathways, which was probably the correct term for them, they supposedly weren¡¯t meant to be any different in size from the rest of his system, if he was understanding her implication. ¡°They¡¯re definitely smaller right now,¡± he murmured, and then he took control of his mana around the first pathway he¡¯d manually opened, increasing the flow into the opening.


    When the ache of a new pathway faded away, he¡¯d assumed that meant it was complete, no further action needed. He¡¯d been leaving the flow at the level that caused no further discomfort once the pathway was open and settled, instead turning his attention to the next pathway.


    Now, he understood his mistake. It hadn¡¯t stopped hurting because it was complete, it had stopped hurting because it had gotten used to the volume of mana flowing through it. All thirty pathways he¡¯d opened still had room to grow.


    The familiar ache burned inside the first pathway he¡¯d opened, and Lucas cursed himself for his foolishness. In his rush, he¡¯d missed something crucial. How long would it have taken him to notice this on his own? Would he ever have?


    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± he said, immediately flushing at how euphoric his voice sounded; it had practically come out as a moan. He cleared his throat. ¡°The pathways I¡¯ve opened aren¡¯t smaller at all. Well, they are. But only because I¡¯ve left them that way, like an idiot. Thank you for your help. I might never have noticed.¡±


    ¡°No thanks needed, Ser Rian,¡± the Skycloak said mildly. ¡°It¡¯s my task and duty as an acolyte of the Order of Five to provide knowledge of how our world works.¡±


    Silence lapsed as Lucas set to his pathways. Another thing the Skycloak had said was weighing on his mind: why was he only doing one at a time? It required concentration and intent, yes, but he was getting faster at it with every try. If he could improve his efficiency, why couldn¡¯t he improve his multitasking?


    The answer was, of course, difficulty. He sat there for who knows how long trying to push mana into two pathways at once before he got it working. In the end, he didn¡¯t really improve his multitasking at all, improvising a solution that worked around the problem instead: his usual method for expanding new pathways was to push a steady flow of mana into it, relying on precision to keep the flow going in the small space. With already-opened pathways, precision wasn¡¯t so important. He just needed more mana in the area to flow naturally into the pathways and steadily expand them. To do that, he slowed his mana down in the area as he already knew how to do.


    With that revelation came the extremely odd sensation of an upper arm that simultaneously ached like he¡¯d somehow lifted weights in a way that targeted only his bicep and felt like it was hardening to stone. The slowed mana meant more and more built up in the area, and it needed somewhere to go. Most of it flowed on through the path of least resistance, returning to its regular flow rate in the larger system.


    Some of it, though, flowed into the pathways he¡¯d previously been thinking of as sub-channels.


    Expanding so many at once was more than a bit uncomfortable. Lucas let out a groan which he hoped the Skycloak wouldn¡¯t misinterpret as a dozen pathways started straining. He was going to have to get used to this feeling, he imagined.


    Despite the pain, triumph gripped him, and he found himself grinning. Opening new pathways would be just as slow, but he could improve on that just as he had been. Once they were open, though, precision would no longer be needed. He just had to expand the area that had been slowed to include the new pathway. This was huge.


    ¡°I have to thank you again,¡± Lucas said, opening his eyes and turning to the Skycloak. ¡°You¡¯ve done so much for me in so little time, I can hardly believe it.¡±


    She was looking up at the moon placidly, her half-lidded eyes reflecting its pale light. ¡°I must reiterate that no thanks are needed, Ser Rian. It is merely my role.¡±


    Lucas found himself curious, and his successes buoyed his courage. ¡°Is that what the Order¡¯s all about? Teaching people?¡±


    ¡°In modern times, perhaps,¡± she said softly. ¡°As we have access to such vast amounts of knowledge, sharing it with those who seek it out is only the right thing to do. But ultimately, we learn all we can so we can be of assistance to our saviour upon his arrival.¡±


    ¡°Lucas Brown,¡± Lucas Brown said, frowning, a pit opening up in his gut.


    ¡°The hero prophesied to save us all,¡± the Skycloak agreed, eyes sliding to him while her head stayed pointed at the moon. ¡°Are you a believer, Ser Rian?¡±


    Lucas didn¡¯t reply.

 15: Populated (4)

    The stars were beautiful, but they were wrong. With no light pollution marring the night, they were brighter than Lucas had ever seen them. Countless jewels twinkled in a jet black canvas that stretched from horizon to horizon, with a narrow band of milky white-purple slashing through it from North to South.


    Every single one of those pin prick dots was a blazing sun a hundred times the size of the Earth. It was harrowing, to feel so small before the majesty of the universe. It took his breath away, for more reason than one.


    Those weren¡¯t his stars. Even though he¡¯d slept beneath them for a month, he hadn¡¯t stopped to really look at them until now. None of the few constellations he knew were present. There was no North Star. Even the patterns on what he could see of the crescent moon were subtly off, the craters in the wrong places, and he was sure it was just a bit bigger than the one he was used to.


    It hit him then that he really was in another world. No friends, no family, no familiar comforts. A primitive world under assault from monsters. Far from home, with no idea how he got here, and no idea how he was supposed to get back.


    A shiver went through him like a bolt of lightning as a realisation came to him: he didn¡¯t know the specifics of how he got here, but he figured he had the broad strokes. And clues as to why.


    The Skycloak still sat serenely beside him, resting on her knees with her hands in her lap, expressionless. She¡¯d shifted her azure cloak aside, exposing her brilliant white armour. It shone in the night like it was alive with the light of the moon itself. It was flawless, not a fleck of dirt daring to touch the metal. As he watched, he started to notice movement in the light glinting on the breastplate, as if rivers of moonlight were flowing through the elaborate patterns engraved into the armour.


    Her blue eyes were scanning the horizon, but she seemed to notice his attention and tilted her head a fraction to regard him. She said nothing, though, waiting patiently for him to speak.


    They¡¯d fallen into a heavy silence that Lucas hadn¡¯t known how to break after her earlier question went unanswered. How was he supposed to answer? She was essentially asking if he believed in himself to show up and save her world some day. And, well, here he was. So he apparently had no choice but to believe in the first part. The latter was the sticking point. Even with this Gift that¡¯d been dumped on him, he didn¡¯t know how he could ever hope to defeat some apocalyptic Demon Lord who spawned murderous beasts.


    Her predecessors had brought him here. Kidnapped him, basically. If they¡¯d just asked¡­


    ¡°Why did your people try to summon Lucas Brown?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°They didn¡¯t,¡± the Skycloak said. ¡°They summoned the heroes prophesied to save us from the Demon Lord¡¯s omnicidal onslaught.¡±


    So the mages who brought him here hadn¡¯t targeted him specifically? That was both reassuring and infuriating. More the latter than the former. ¡°Okay. Why did they do that?¡±


    The Skycloak looked at him for a long moment, searching his face until Lucas became mildly uncomfortable and had to break the staring contest, turning his gaze out over the rolling silver hills. Only then did she reply, ¡°We have preserved many accounts speaking of those times, as ordered by Lady Claire. Many insights into the mindsets and rationales of the First Order are recorded in both the College of Wands and the Moontower, and it seems no two men involved in the summoning could agree on the precise reasons for their actions.¡± She paused. ¡°But there¡¯s a common theme. Even a hundred years ago, they foresaw the Demon Lord would eventually bring the world to its end if he wasn¡¯t stopped. They needed the Five Prophesied Heroes immediately.¡± She put odd emphasis on the final word.


    ¡°Prophesied,¡± Lucas murmured. ¡°And who gave this prophecy, exactly?¡±


    ¡°Good question,¡± the Skycloak said.


    Lucas found himself glaring at her. ¡°Seems like the kind of thing your Order should know.¡±


    ¡°The Prophecy of Five is a mystery dating back to the times before recorded history,¡± the Skycloak said with a hint of exasperation, staring him down without flinching. ¡°There are many stories of its origin. Oracles, wise men, omens from above, and so on. But the truth is, Ser Rian, the earliest records our scholars have been able to find on the matter were written when the Prophecy was already ages old, passed down through stories and spoken of as if t¡¯were as much a staple of society then as it is now.¡±


    Lucas grimaced. ¡°I didn¡¯t realise it¡¯s that old,¡± he said, which was true because he hadn¡¯t known of it at all until today.


    ¡°Few have the time to learn history these days. I don¡¯t blame them for it; there are more important things, for most people. The Doctrine of Five is as it has always been, why question where it came from or what it means?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not following you,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡± The Skycloak looked back to the sky, as if dismissing the topic. She seemed to have an odd preoccupation with the moon. ¡°The Prophecy¡¯s original wording is as lost to time as its true origin, but we all know the content anyway: ¡®Five warriors shall save the world. One wielding a bow, arrows flying true. One swinging a sword, the bane of any foe. One holding a shield, behind which their comrades can always find safety. One waving a wand, commanding miracles unimaginable. And one star, guiding them all safely through the night.¡¯ And thus, every party of adventurers in the last millennium has consisted of five members. The basic principles of the Doctrine of Five.¡±


    ¡°And so the Order sought to summon the best five they could get, no matter who it was or where they were,¡± Lucas said, trying and failing to wrap his head around the idea that the ¡®best five¡¯ apparently included him. There had to be some kind of mistake here. He was just some guy. A nobody. What kind of magic had searched through the fabric of reality and decided he was the best man for the job? Their spell had to have gone wrong somewhere, somehow.


    ¡°From a given perspective,¡± the Skycloak allowed after a moment of contemplation. ¡°The summoning was rather more complex than many believe.¡±


    ¡°How so?¡± Lucas asked, suspecting this was where he¡¯d discover the flaw that had led to him ending up here instead of some gigachad super-warrior named Beastkiller Megahero from the Planet Battlezar.


    Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    ¡°For some time before the summoning, before even the Demon Lord, the First Order had been seeking prospective heroes who matched the prophecy. There are records of serious problems for centuries prior to the Demon Lord¡¯s arrival, magical anomalies and calamities coming in cycles that ravaged the population, and they sought salvation in the way our people have, apparently, always been taught: the Doctrine of Five. It¡¯s unclear what they wanted or expected, but their searches for the Five failed. Matters got significantly more dire after the Demon Lord¡¯s arrival, but they¡¯d learned from their previous failures.¡±


    Lucas itched to ask about the Demon Lord, but was certain that would be something he¡¯d be expected to know. He stayed quiet.


    The Skycloak continued, ¡°Unwilling and unable to search far and wide for the Five Heroes as they once would have, and knowing they couldn¡¯t wait for the Heroes to arrive on their own, they set out to perform the greatest work of magic the world has ever seen. And here is where confusion lies, and why there¡¯s so much scepticism. You see, it¡¯s commonly known as the summoning, because most don¡¯t know that was just one part of the magic they performed. There was more to it. It wasn¡¯t a matter of summoning the greatest warriors that fit the roles.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ grimaced. He felt he knew where this was going, now.


    ¡°They wanted to guarantee success,¡± the Skycloak said, speaking so softly her voice was little more than a whisper, yet he heard her clearly despite the wind. ¡°There was no room for failure, so they used all they had, holding nothing back. No cost too great is a common phrase in their journals. For the people is another. Their magic would not only reach through the world to find the Heroes our world needed, but would ensure they would be immediately ready to save the world. A thousand wands, bows, shields, and swords, to provide power.¡±


    Never mind. That was not where he thought it was going. Jesus. Surely she doesn¡¯t mean¡­


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like what I¡¯d call a summoning,¡± Lucas whispered, horror suffusing him from head to toe. ¡°That sounds like a ritual sacrifice.¡±


    The Skycloak nodded solemnly. ¡°It worked, to a degree. The college has never seen magical talent like Claire Hammond¡¯s. Rian Lee¡¯s swordsmanship was undefeatable. Nothing could get past James MacAllister¡¯s shield. And they say Aarya Reddy never missed a target with her bow. The only problem, of course, was that their Star was nowhere to be seen, and the Star¡¯s power was designed to be the greatest of them all.¡±


    White noise filled Lucas¡¯ head, and his vision started to blur. Suddenly, he felt hot and cold at once, and something had squeezed all the air from his lungs and he couldn¡¯t get enough air no matter how desperately he sucked in deep, gulping breaths. His heart felt like it was going to jackhammer through his ribs. His stomach had tied itself into a knot then sunk through the ground.


    The day he¡¯d found himself here, he¡¯d been planning to meet them for lunch.


    Claire. Rian. Jamie. Aarya. He¡¯d heard three of those four names used in less than a day, but hadn¡¯t put the pieces together, somehow.


    They¡¯d been summoned too, brought here to fight against the Demon Lord.


    One hundred years ago.


    ¡°In the original Doctrine, the Star was meant to be the group¡¯s guide. It was a discipline of knowledge, understanding all four of the other roles so they could give advice. Over time, it evolved in people¡¯s minds to become the leader of the party, and eventually the Star was expected to not just have knowledge of all four roles but use them. Not to the point of mastery, of course, but of considerable enough skill. The Summoners expected the Great Star of Prophecy to be more than that.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t mention Stars,¡± Lucas whispered, still reeling but trying hard not to show it. He couldn¡¯t break down now. Not here. Not now. ¡°For the sacrifice. You said nothing about the Stars.¡±


    The Skycloak remained silent. There was the slightest furrow in her brow, and she laced her fingers in her lap.


    ¡°How many were sacrificed for the Star, Swordmaiden?¡±


    The moonlight glistened in her eyes before they fell closed. She breathed in slowly, then spoke, ¡°There is no record in any account of how many Stars gave their lives for the cause. Every account I could find claims those who powered the working with their lives did so willingly, making the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good in the face of defeat at the Demon Lord¡¯s hands.¡± She paused. ¡°But I do not know how many Stars did so.¡±


    Lucas drew in a deep, shaky breath. ¡°And it failed regardless.¡±


    ¡°It did buy us time, recall. Four great warriors on our side were able to stop the Demon Lord¡¯s advance, but not defeat him. Lady Aarya, the Great Bow, was slain at the battle of Caelan, taking down three Dread Generals with her. We might not still be here today, without them.¡±


    Lucas felt like he¡¯d been punched in the stomach and stabbed in the heart. It was only because he was still frozen in shock over the Star revelation that he didn¡¯t burst into sobs.


    ¡°Lord Rian, the Great Sword, went missing shortly after, and these days he¡¯s known widely as the Lost Swordsman if the speaker is sympathetic. The Deserter, on the other hand, is perhaps the kindest epithet used by those who mislike his leaving,¡± the Skycloak continued, oblivious, clearly caught up in her own troubles. ¡°Only the Great Shield, Lord Jamie, and the Great Wand, Lady Claire, still live.¡± She let out a soft sigh. ¡°And who knows where they are and what they¡¯re doing? After all this time, even they¡¯ve given up hope of Lucas Brown¡¯s arrival.¡±


    This was too much.


    ¡°People often ask why I still believe. Even many of my brothers and sisters have lost faith, if they ever had it at all. The world grows darker every day, so how do I still hope for light?¡±


    He couldn¡¯t deal with this. Couldn¡¯t process anything.


    ¡°It¡¯s because I believe the Great Star is the only hope we have left. And I refuse to live with no hope at all. I will not give in to despair.¡±


    His brain was going to explode. It would ooze out of his ears. His heart was going to pulverise itself to pulp and drip through his ribcage.


    ¡°Many Stars must have been sacrificed, if they refused to acknowledge the number when they had no problem revealing that thousands of swords, shields, bows, and wands had offered their lives for the greater good. Perhaps it wasn¡¯t entirely voluntary. I shall not believe so many lives can go to waste.¡±


    Stop. No more.


    ¡°Over time, more and more importance has been assigned to Stars, and the Summoners were far from immune to this way of thinking. They didn¡¯t want a Star who¡¯d be passable in the other four disciplines, they wanted a master of all.¡±


    I¡¯m begging you.


    ¡°It stands to reason, then, that the power they transferred to Lucas Brown must be immense. The kind of strength that could defeat the Demon Lord once and for all. It¡¯s our last hope, and so I cling to it. That''s all we have left.¡±


    Please.


    As if in answer to his prayers, Jamie the monstercat stirred in Lucas¡¯ chest, snapping to alertness. In an instant, Lucas¡¯ senses expanded, countless new sounds shocking him out of his paralysis. Lucas seized on the distraction with every fibre of his being, surging to his feet and into a ready position, his mana exploding out of him and into the plant life all around. The Skycloak rose at the same time, her eyes darting from side to side.


    ¡°What is it, Ser Rian?¡± she asked, her voice back at full volume, resolute and unpanicked. The others were stirring at the sudden commotion.


    With Jamie¡¯s mana flowing through their bond, Lucas could hear myriad blades of grass swaying in the wind, every flap of a fly¡¯s wings, each drop of dew falling from a flower.


    And dozens of heavy footfalls on the ground, reverberating through the earth. Coming towards them, fast.


    ¡°Beasts,¡± Lucas breathed, his voice a thin rasp, and their camp burst into action.

 16: Populated (5)

    The party wasted no time, shaking off the weight of sleep in an instant. Multiple sources of mana spiked.


    ¡°Which direction, Ser Rian?¡± Wick barked. He was standing in the centre of the camp, and he¡¯d locked his forearms together, his eyes closed, his face a rictus of concentration. Motes of light were slowly streaming out from the left side of his chest and gathering in front of him, forming the outline of a misshapen rectangular slab large enough to cover even his massive frame.


    Lucas closed his eyes and listened. There was so much ambient noise, so many little things moving around, and the distant beastly stampede was an endless din of rolling thunder, difficult to pinpoint. Jamie stirred in his chest, arching his back and hissing, and through the bond flowed an impression of the monstercat¡¯s intent. Lucas got a feeling akin to magnetism in his soul, directing his attention.


    ¡°South-East,¡± Lucas called back, orienting himself in that direction and squinting into the darkness. The moon was bright, shining silver on the rolling hills, and they had a long sightline, but he saw nothing out there.


    ¡°Rena!¡± Wick said.


    Rena nodded. Snatching an impossibly black arrow from her quiver without looking, the Bowmaiden notched and loosed it in one smooth movement, firing directly up in the air. It screamed like a firework as it rose, the sound building in pitch along with the arrow¡¯s height. Rena watched it with narrowed eyes for a long moment, then held out one hand above her as if trying to grab hold of it despite the great distance it had travelled.


    Lucas followed her gaze upwards to see what she was trying to do, and to his shock found her hanging in the air, dangling from the arrow¡¯s shaft by holding tight with the hand she¡¯d held up. The arrow appeared to have frozen in place, and she was staring off into the distance.


    Lucas snapped his eyes back to the ground, only to find Rena had vanished. He blew out a stupified breath at the casual display of magic. He¡¯d felt no movement of mana.


    Meanwhile, Jyn had his wand poked out of his sleeve and was drawing symbols made out of smokeless fire in the air. Once he¡¯d finished the last arcane glyph, he drew the wand back like a fishing rod, pulling it over his head.


    Lucas almost cried out as the flaming letters shot towards the Wandmaster, but the man¡¯s blue lips parted impossibly wide and the fire poured straight down his throat with a hiss. When it had all entered, he closed his blue lips, and a glow began to build beneath his voluminous hood. Smoke started venting out, covering his lower face.


    The stars on his robe lit up like embers, and he dropped to his knees. He placed one hand on the ground, and the grass around it blackened. He trembled in place, saying nothing. The scent of burning meat filled the air.


    Horrified, Lucas started towards the man, but Wick stepped in his way, moving impossibly fast for such a massive man carrying a jagged slab of metal that surely had to weigh a tonne.


    ¡°Don¡¯t disturb him, lad,¡± Wick said, face stern. His shield was easily big enough for a man to hide behind, but it was hard to gauge its precise dimensions when it was so unevenly crafted. It looked like a chunk of metal that had been torn out of a greater piece, rather than a specially designed shield. By its jagged face covered in nicks and scratches and gouges, it evidently did its job. ¡°Hells, have you never seen a pyromancer¡¯s working before? It¡¯s a disturbing sight, but the man faces no danger from fire.¡±


    Before Lucas could reply, Rena¡¯s arrow whistled once more, a descending note this time. She¡¯d evidently fired it straight downwards, because a moment later it shrieked into Lucas¡¯ line of sight and stopped in the air with the Bowmaiden suddenly hanging from it like she¡¯d been there the whole time. She dropped the last few metres to the ground, landing in a crouch, and the arrow popped like a bubble. Lucas spied it back in her quiver.


    ¡°He spoke true, Wick,¡± she said. ¡°Beasts to the South-East. My fareye spell works ill in the dark, so I couldn¡¯t tell you how many there were, just a shadow approaching from afar. But I reckon they¡¯re about two kilometres out. And closing fast.¡± She huffed a mirthless laugh. ¡°No wings, at least.¡±


    Wick growled under his breath and moved to the edge of the hilltop facing the beasts¡¯ approach. He set down his heavy shield in front of him. ¡°We¡¯ll have to wait for Jyn to finish his scrying.¡± He glanced at the Skycloak as he passed her, who was holding out a chain necklace before her eyes. At the end of it was a milky white gemstone, and it was swaying like a metronome, getting faster and faster. ¡°Do you have any insights, Swordmaiden?¡± Wick asked.


    ¡°Nothing relevant,¡± she said, sounding far calmer than the others, like the approach of a pack of beasts was of little interest. She stowed away her necklace beneath her cloak, then looked at Lucas. ¡°What alerted you to their approach?¡±


    Lucas stilled, suddenly aware of his thundering heart and the monstercat hissing and spitting inside it. He was still reeling from all he¡¯d learned tonight¡ªhis brain had overloaded and was struggling to restart. Even so, he at least knew he didn¡¯t want to reveal Jamie¡¯s existence to these people, not when he didn¡¯t know what the implications of bonding with the monstercat were and, hell, what the strange little creature in the centre of his soul even was. For all he knew, he¡¯d done something heretical, a capital crime.


    He grasped for the first excuse that came to mind. ¡°My floramancy,¡± he said with a grimace. They¡¯d mentioned the Skycloak wouldn''t be appreciative of that discipline, hadn''t they? Hopefully that would mean no follow up questions from her.


    ¡°How does floramancy tell you beasts are approaching from kilometres away?¡± Rena asked, because of course the Skycloak wasn¡¯t the only one who could seek clarification. Damn it.


    ¡°Disturbances in the grass,¡± Lucas lied, but then paused to think that lie through. It felt like that was something he could plausibly do, if he trained his floramancy abilities up high enough. ¡°I can leave portions of my mana behind in plants,¡± he said, theorising and bullshitting at the same time. Itching to test it out, he started threading his mana into the grass around him. ¡°It becomes part of the plant, and I maintain a connection to that plant until my mana cycles out of its system, giving me some ability to manipulate it from long distances.¡±


    ¡°Can you slow down their approach?¡± Wick asked, eyeing Jyn¡¯s still-crouched form. Steam was rising from beneath the Wandmaster¡¯s hood, and some of the stars on his robe¡¯s arms were now hot enough to form little shimmers in the air.


    ¡°The further away a plant is, the less I can do with it,¡± Lucas said with a shake of his head, and he felt that was probably true. The thunder of the approaching beasts was getting louder by the second, and he was starting to hear other noises; snapping teeth, screeches, snarls. ¡°They¡¯ll be on us soon.¡±


    ¡°Can you fight?¡± Wick asked.


    Lucas darted to his pack and grabbed his stick. ¡°Passably,¡± he said, infusing his mana into the wood. At the same time, he started speeding up his mana flow and letting it seep out into the air, giving him a mental map of the nearby plants. His stick was bright as a beacon, but most everything else was of little use; just grass and weeds and small flowers. Concentrating, he set his mana to stiffening the grass in a perimeter around their camp, pointing them upwards like spikes. He held little hope it would delay the beasts for long, but it was something.


    When he came back to himself, he found The Skycloak was staring at him, moonlight in her eyes even though she was facing away from the moon itself. ¡°Your floramancy is intriguing,¡± was all she said. Of the party, she was the only one who hadn¡¯t prepared for battle, though there was tension in her frame.


    ¡°Are you not going to ready your magic, Swordmaiden?¡± Lucas asked.


    All three turned to stare at him, blatantly dumbfounded. Oh, for fuck¡¯s sake.


    ¡°The fact you¡¯d use floramancy in front of a Skycloak suggested you¡¯re from the middle of nowhere,¡± Rena said slowly. ¡°But I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d be such a country bumpkin as to not know how Skycloaks fight.¡±


    ¡°Never seen one before,¡± Lucas said stiffly.


    Silence lingered again, and it was painful for Lucas most of all. With everyone quiet, all he had to focus on was the sound of warbling screeches of who knew how many murderous beasts rapidly closing in on their location with murder on their minds. Their footfalls were heavy, weighty, like recklessly charging horses, but there was an irregularity to them, a lack of rhythm. Lucas thought back to the twisted monstrosity he¡¯d encountered before, and wondered with trepidation what grotesque creatures were running with such uneven tempo. He pictured beasts with too many legs, none of them the same length, shambling along with impossible speed for their insectoid frames. Would they have more than one mouth, too? Would they have claws and pincers?


    Lucas fell down a rabbit hole of speculation, lost in nightmarish imagination. His heart rose to his throat, threatening to cut off his airways. His stomach trembled. He¡¯d be sick at any moment.


    A burst of heat gave him the shock of his life, and he let out a shriek of terror that would probably haunt him for the rest of his days, if he survived. The area was suddenly scalding hot, stinging his skin. Stumbling away at random, it took him far too long and too many calls for calm from his new comrades to screw his head back on and understand what was going on.


    But to be fair to himself, Jyn was on fire.


    The wizard was a living bonfire, a moving mannequin made of flame. There were dark pits where his eyes were supposed to be, and his lips were electric blue and sparking. His robe and wand had vanished. Had they burned up? ¡°My apologies,¡± he said. There was nothing recognisable about his voice; his words were being formed by minute changes in the crackle and roar of the flames that now made up his body. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to startle you, Ser Rian. It sometimes escapes me that my talents with pyromancy are uncommon; I spend most of my time around others equally learned in the greater pyromancical arts, or at least familiar with our techniques.¡± When Lucas shakily nodded, Jyn¡¯s burning body rotated in place so he was facing his other comrades. ¡°Forgive me, I felt it prudent to enter a battle-ready state immediately, and give myself as much time to prepare as I could.¡±


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    Wick grimaced. ¡°We¡¯re in for a tough fight?¡±


    ¡°A pack of sixteen beasts has caught our scent, and only Rena could hope to outrun them. With how their chaos magic is affecting the nearby heat, I would estimate the smallest of them is the size of a wolf, and the weakest is a B-rank at minimum. There¡¯ll be no holding back here. Prepare your greater techniques, all of you.¡±


    Cursing under his breath, Wick hefted his shield and took on a look of concentration. A film of opalescent light started spreading over his armour, starting from his heart and radiating outwards. When it got to his arms, it transferred to his shield and started spreading over that, too.


    Rena started fiddling with her quiver, moving to the back of the group to stand by Lucas. She was muttering under her breath, frowning down at her arrows as she shuffled them about into an order that probably made things more efficient somehow, but Lucas couldn¡¯t guess as to her rationale.


    Jyn was now floating cross-legged a foot off the ground, his hands on his fiery knees. The flames on his body were gaining in heat, rippling the air, and they started moving around his body like lava flows, forming symbols like he¡¯d previously done with his wand. Every now and then some of the symbols would glow, then sink into his body. Again, Lucas couldn¡¯t guess as to what effect they were having on him.


    The only one not preparing was the Skycloak. She stood at the ready, a pace behind and to the side of Wick, facing the South-East where the beasts were approaching closer and closer ¡ªin fact, Lucas could see a dark blur on the horizon, flowing over a silver hill. If he listened close, he was sure he could hear their bloodthirsty screams. They were moving so fast it was hard to track them, appearing on one hill and then the next between blinks. They¡¯d be here in no time.


    Lucas focused on his breathing. His knuckles were popping where he was gripping the stick too tightly; it was digging painfully into his palms, but his fingers wouldn¡¯t listen when he ordered them to loosen their hold. Paying too much attention to them meant they started trembling, so he turned his focus elsewhere, trying to plunge his mind into his mana. He¡¯d had it moving fast to boost his external control, but he felt he¡¯d done all he could with his floramancy with so little time available: sharpened blades of grass and thorns as spike traps, flowers that were sticky with pollen, weeds overgrowing to hopefully trip anything that passed through them. It wasn¡¯t much, but he could only hope it would make a difference.


    He didn¡¯t need Jamie¡¯s hearing anymore. The approaching beasts were thunderous, a stampede. Their screeches were high and piercing, no longer a question of his imagination. They didn¡¯t need to stop for breath as they ran, and their cries didn¡¯t change pitch or falter despite their frantic movement. Soon they crested a larger hill only a few peaks over from the camp, and they were visible long enough for him to make out details.


    It was as Jyn said: no two were the same, but there were themes. Chitinous armour arranged over their bodies at random, an arbitrary number of limbs of wildly various lengths and types, gaping maws filled with too many teeth. They looked like someone had taken a bunch of different animal parts and tied them together with bits of rotting plant. Parts of their body would be insectoid, others covered in fur, only to run into a section that was slimy and molluscoid, leading into an area that was naked patchy skin.


    They moved jerkily, zig-zagging for no apparent reason, as if they were constantly forgetting and remembering where they were supposed to be going and why. Even their speed was inconsistent, slowing up and speeding down without any obvious cause.


    They dipped into a valley again, and the Skycloak spoke. ¡°Maintain order against chaos, always,¡± she said, her tone like a prayer. ¡°Remember who you are, and keep it in mind at all times. Your image of yourself must be clear in your mind and soul. Immutable. Project it, use it as a weapon against them. No magic you can bring to bear will be stronger than your will to exist.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re no amateurs, Skycloak,¡± Rena hissed.


    ¡°She does not speak for your benefit,¡± Wick said, glancing at the Bowmaiden. He nodded at Lucas. ¡°Have courage, Ser Rian, and follow the Skycloak¡¯s advice. It¡¯ll see you through this.¡±


    Lucas nodded shakily. He couldn¡¯t do anything else.


    When the pack of beasts peaked over the next hill, no more obstacles in their path, it felt like their screams gained a note of triumph. There were no more jerky movements; they charged in a wave.


    The Skycloak slapped her hand to her breastplate over her heart. Her cloak billowed around her as if gaining a mind of its own, freeing up her movements. Her armour started to glow, swirling patterns appearing in the plate, and suddenly her armour looked like it was carved out of the face of the moon. She pulled the hand out, and with it came a gleaming white sword like she¡¯d drawn it right from her heart, its luminous blade twice the length of one of her arms. It thrummed with power, leaving after images of light in its wake when she hefted it skyward in a two-handed grip.


    ¡°Bowmaiden! Wandmaster!¡± she called out, but Rena already had a crystalline blue arrow nocked and aimed, the string of her bow pulled close to her face. She loosed, and a cold wind rent the air in its wake as it soared across the valley between their hill and the approaching beasts. It struck true at the centre of their pack, and a cold mist exploded out from the point of impact, encasing the surroundings in ice for a dozen metres.


    Jyn followed up with a pair of fireballs launched from each hand like cannon balls. They gained speed and expanded as they flew, and erupted into horizontal pillars of flame when they landed, forming a line of fire. He¡¯d aimed in the beasts¡¯ path rather than their midst, and the creatures were forced to leap through the flames.


    The attacks scattered the beasts apart, but only a few had actually been caught in the effects and little damage was done even then. They were only slowed momentarily. The pack was still coming, still screeching.


    Lucas slowed his mana to give himself strength, and tried to ready himself for a fight. Meditation wasn¡¯t so easy when a battle was imminent, even with his stick in hand. He was trembling like a leaf.


    Come on, he told himself. Courage.


    The beasts careened down the hill and into the valley below, then started their charge up the last hillside. The hill shook with the force of their stampede, sounding like an endless explosion this close, an oncoming storm moments away from hitting. He could smell them now, rot and mould and burning shit invading his nostrils.


    Lucas gave a silent prayer. He didn¡¯t know who to.


    And then they were there.


    Three vast beasts had pushed to the front of the pack, each of them as large as a horse, jockeying for pole position. On the left skittered a slimy centipede-wolf hybrid with yellow spines ridging its back and two barbed mouths at the end of wiggling stalks attached to its neck where a head should¡¯ve been. In the middle was an unnaturally fast beast with seven unidentifiable mangled heads as a body that alternated between sprinting on two mammalian back legs and a dozen or more insectoid appendages when the back legs lost balance. And last, on the right a tangle of interlocked legs with a mass of giant bovine faces occasionally visible tumbled heel over heel, almost rolling up the hill. And there were a dozen more beasts close behind them.


    Once again, Lucas¡¯ mind stuttered to a halt, the mere sight of these horrors overwhelming him. He should have expected this. Even after his encounter back in the village, he¡¯d for some reason been subconsciously expecting more traditional monsters like werewolves or trolls. This madness was beyond anything he¡¯d conceived of.


    If he¡¯d been on his own, he would have died in the first attack, frozen in fear and unable to mount a defence.


    Luckily for him, his new comrades proved their mettle.


    Wick gave a mighty roar and slammed his shield down hard enough the ground trembled and knocked Lucas off balance. The shieldmaster had timed it to perfection; at the same moment his great chunk of metal hit the ground, the vanguard of the beast pack reached the top of the hill, screeching and hollering, and they crashed against a shimmering wall that had radiated out from the point of the shield¡¯s impact, drawing from the opalescent light he¡¯d spawned on his armour and shield, causing them to dim. The beasts compressed like living accordions and tumbled to the ground, their screams never changing.


    Before the monsters could rally, Rena and Jyn struck in tandem. The Bowmaiden loosed three spelled arrows in rapid succession, almost on top of one another: the first scored a green line through the air, the second trailed pink sparks, and the third rang like a gong when it followed the others in striking the seven-headed beast.


    All three struck the same head, and it bubbled like a boiling stew with the first arrow, went still and glassy with the second, then shattered into countless pieces with the third. The creature stumbled backwards onto its mammalian biped legs, bearing its dozen insectoid ones with their pointed, spear-like tips.


    Jyn attacked the beast on the right, aiming for its countless legs. He raised his flaming hands before him, forming a square with his thumbs and pointer fingers and pointing it at the dazed monster. Leaning close, he spat a small ball of flame into the square.


    When the fireball passed through his fingers, parts of it fell away, siphoned back into his burning body, leaving a rune made of white-hot fire to travel swiftly through the air. It expanded as it flew, growing until it was half the size of the beast it finally struck. The symbol flashed, turning an eye-searing white. There was a sound like water poured on a frying pan, and the symbol burst apart into motes of fire the size of flies; every one of them honed in on the beast, and where they struck they burned deep holes into its many legs. When it tried to stand, it collapsed, and the beasts coming up behind it trampled it into the ground.


    Lucas could only stare in disbelief. Their feats were wondrous, more than worthy of song and story and adulation. Their skill was beyond his ken, their teamwork flawless, their courage unimpeachable.


    And they all combined paled in comparison to a single slash of the Swordmaiden¡¯s holy blade.


    The Skycloak hadn¡¯t moved after the initial clash, waiting behind Wick¡¯s flank to see which beasts her comrades would target before charging in. With her back to him, Lucas only saw her turn her moonlight sword horizontal to her right, readied. Next thing he knew, it was on her other side, the world was awash in light, and the pitch of a beast¡¯s scream had finally changed as it died in agony. It took him a moment of blinking light spots from his vision to understand what had happened.


    With the other two beasts down, she¡¯d focused on the centipede-wolf on the left of the vanguard three. Unoccupied by her comrades, it had been able to get to its feet, and it wasted no time in lunging for its nearest foe. A fatal mistake. Faster than moonlight, she¡¯d swept her sword before her in a broad arc. The blade itself had missed the beast completely, but the afterimage had not.


    The white light trailing the blade had radiated outwards as a deadly crescent moon, and it had passed through the beast as easily as air.


    Lucas watched wide-eyed as the beast fell apart in two halves. The light had struck the centipede-wolf at an angle, slicing its mouths free of the stalks then continuing on diagonally through its body, splitting it like a hot dog bun. Its yellow spines landed face down in the ground, and the grass around them started wilting. Its wounds trailed faint wisps of white smoke. Before it had finished dying, the Swordmaiden had already moved on, her blade ready for another attack as more beasts reached the peak of the hill.


    The feeling of safety brought on by his comrades¡¯ competence did not last. No amount of confidence could survive the heaving mass of monsters that followed after the faster three. He hadn¡¯t understood what a pack of sixteen beasts truly meant until they were metres away from him.


    More importantly, he hadn¡¯t expected what sixteen beastly screams would do to him.

 17: Populated (6)

    The cacophony of demonic screams hit Lucas like a physical force. It was more than sound; a dark resonance pierced right through him and shook the foundations of his soul. He stumbled back as his mana system roiled, the very pathways themselves trembling, and from there his body became a distant, muted thing.


    His mana itself darkened, turning gradually from golden aurora to dim honey, and it seemed to thicken, becoming more physical than it had been. At the same time, his pathways twisted around on themselves.


    Lucas expected agony. He¡¯d anticipated the burning, like his mana had been turned to acid and was eating through his pathways. He¡¯d foreseen the ache of his pathways themselves distorting. That much he could have handled, on its own.


    But what he hadn¡¯t predicted was the transformation. There was malicious intent behind the warping of his pathways: the beastly resonance was vibrating through his soul, and it was gradually corrupting his mana. Parts of his system were darkening and splitting off into a flow of darker, thicker mana. The darker mana was lurching all over the place, seemingly at random. One moment it formed a network of pathways that resembled a horse¡¯s leg, the next it shrank into a tiny tree, and a moment after that it was outlining the skull of some kind of long-nosed fish. The form kept shifting, moment by moment, and Lucas¡¯ golden mana was warping with it.


    The screams were like a corrupting signal, and Lucas realised they were trying to turn him into a beast. It was happening so fast he could barely believe it, far along before he¡¯d even realised what he was looking at.


    Lucas let out a yell of distress and dove into his mana, gripping everything he could in a metaphorical hand and forcing it to flow how it was meant to, following his pathways. He frantically summoned his image of himself in his mind¡¯s, just as the Skycloak had said, and interposed it over the mental map of his pathways. His mana brightened, strengthened, if only marginally.


    The screams were still ringing in his ears, biting at his soul. His entire mana system gave a shudder. The darker mana parasitizing off his soul was beginning to form a shape, but Lucas refused to even consider it. It wasn¡¯t him. That wasn¡¯t his mana. That wasn¡¯t what his body was supposed to look like, and he refused to accept it as the reality.


    Lucas finally lost his temper. He grit his teeth as he took his entire mana system in hand and ordered it to obey him or else. A growl tore out of his throat. His mana flared, shining through the dark mana. Jamie yowled in his heart, the monstercat¡¯s own mana blazing like the sun, setting Lucas¡¯ heart aflame.


    He was sick of this shit, sick of this place, sick of constantly getting taken off guard and having to react too late. No more.


    The beasts screamed, and Lucas roared back. Mana erupted through his pathways and exploded out of him in an omnidirectional wave. The screams went quiet, muted. The world was finally at peace, the screams far away. Blissful, serene.


    Lucas¡¯ soul was anything but.


    Mana burning in righteous indignation, Lucas¡¯ eyes snapped open, and he charged. He raised his stick high above his head, then brought it down in a savage slash just before a beast could meet Wick¡¯s shield. The gnarled wood crashed down on the monster¡¯s long, sinuous head, shattering its three fanged beaks. Its momentum carried it forward, crashing into Wick¡¯s shield and tumbling limply to the ground. Lucas didn¡¯t give him time to recover, hefting his stick and lashing out once more.


    There was no finesse to his following strikes. There was only rage, the impact of the blows thrumming through him and grounding him in the moment. Each strike affirmed him, cemented his soul. He only stopped when a hand grabbed his shoulder and dragged him back.


    ¡°Well met, Ser Rian,¡± Wick bellowed with a manic grin, his face inches from Lucas¡¯.


    The party of four had formed up as a wedge ahead of Lucas, protecting him as he waged an internal battle against the beasts¡¯ chaotic corruption. They moved as a group, their teamwork exemplary, always keeping Wick at the tip of their formation, with the Skycloak filling in any gaps in his defence with her deadly white blade, the two close quarters combatants giving Rena and Jyn the freedom to launch their ranged attacks at the onrushing beasts.


    Lucas had stepped out of their protection to vent his fury, and Wick had dragged him back. ¡°I admire your tenacity, but ¡®tis the Shieldmaster¡¯s role to stand afore his comrades, not the other way around.¡±


    Lucas nodded his thanks to them. ¡°I¡¯m okay now,¡± he said, his voice a quiet rasp. It hurt his throat just to do that much. Roaring like a madman probably hadn¡¯t been the best idea. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Think nothing of it,¡± Wick rumbled as he eyed the beasts prowling ahead of them. ¡°It happens to us all. Even the most experienced warrior can be taken off guard by the call of the beasts.¡±


    ¡°Does your floramancy have any ranged techniques?¡± asked the Skycloak without looking back, her eyes watchful of their onrushing enemies.


    Lucas took the time to look around now that the screams weren¡¯t as much of a problem, taking in the battlefield. There were less of them than before, with multiple rapidly rotting corpses strewn across the ground. Fires covered the party¡¯s flanks to either side, and the beasts seemed unable or unwilling to try and flank, just attacking head on from wherever they landed whenever one of the party¡¯s attacks repelled them. In the rare moments where they did manage to get close, Wick¡¯s shield was impassable. They attacked over and over with reckless abandon, but none were threatening to break through the party¡¯s guard.


    ¡°I can figure something out,¡± Lucas said, rubbing his throat. There was a constant pressure on his entire being, the chaos screams of the beasts trying to find purchase. It took active will to resist, but with Jamie¡¯s help it was manageable.


    Something tugged on his attention, drawing his gaze back to the beast he¡¯d just pummelled. A dim white mist in its approximate shape was gently rising from its pulped form like a ghost. It was just as with the beast back in the abandoned village, but brighter this time, and larger, with little sparkles like starlight twinkling in the wispy cloud. The beast here had been thrice the size of the one from before; its long, worm-like body was covered in beaks that had been snapping at anything that got in their range, and its legs were long and were so thin they shouldn¡¯t have been able to hold its body up. His stick had pulped its body into lumpy black chunks, and the legs were mangled and broken.


    None of the others gave any reaction as the pale smoke reached up from its still body and, just as with the beast back in the abandoned village, speared straight for his heart.


    This time Lucas was ready, barely reacting beyond a sharp inhale and clenched fists as the beast¡¯s mana surged into his channels. It came with the sensation of his entire body being full up, engorged. He briefly felt too hot as the mana assimilated into his system, but it soon passed.


    Lucas frowned. That felt too easy. A trifle, compared to what he¡¯d experienced after killing a much smaller beast. That made no sense.


    And then it did. Lucas couldn¡¯t help but give a wry smile, noticing that Jamie¡¯s mana system, still nestled in his heart, had gotten much brighter, and the monstercat appeared to have gone back to sleep, radiating satisfaction.


    You greedy little shit, Lucas thought, you¡¯ll get fat if you keep that up.


    Lucas didn¡¯t have it in him to scold the creature even if he¡¯d felt inclined to. Jamie had helped him enough already to earn a tasty snack.


    Hefting his stick into a ready stance, Lucas returned his attention to the present.


    The battle was still raging, eight beasts remaining on the field, charging back in over and over. They were disgusting, terrifying creatures, but a sense of calm was settling over Lucas as he beheld their ineffective tactics. The party appeared to have their situation in hand, though they were a bit haggard, unkempt. Grimacing, Lucas wondered how long he¡¯d burdened them.


    No more.


    Wick¡¯s shield was impassable, and he wielded it with skill. He seemed to always know where the beasts would strike and be ready to interpose it at just the right time. The opalescent light was still streaming over his armour and the slab he¡¯d summoned, and it would flare every time one of the beasts struck, creating a wall that curved around the group¡¯s front. He was the fulcrum of the formation, everyone else moving according to where he went.


    The Skycloak stuck close to his shoulder at all times, lunging in to beat back the beasts as they collapsed at the foot of Wick¡¯s shield, ensuring they couldn¡¯t get hold and grapple him. It forced the beasts to charge rather than pile up, which played to Wick¡¯s strengths. Judging by the moon-white light glowing on five of the beasts¡¯ corpses, she was still the most deadly of the party.


    That wasn¡¯t to say Rena and Jyn weren¡¯t contributing.


    The Bowmaiden¡¯s arrows never seemed to miss, and the variety in their effects was staggering. In the span of five heartbeats, she fired as many arrows, each striking true at what appeared to be a different beast¡¯s weak spot, delaying their attacks.


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    The first arrow hit harder than it should have, launching back a fur-covered spider-thing with tentacles instead of legs. It tumbled back down the hill, scrambling at the grass in futile attempts to arrest its momentum.


    The second was the same ice arrow she¡¯d used earlier, and it froze a good number of the countless legs of the many bovine-faced thing that had been one of the first three to attack, tripping it again before it could lunge back into the fray.


    The third seemed to pass through a creature with the body of a horse with multi-armed headless primate at either end of the torso, all held up by eight four-jointed spindly legs; a moment later the creature was pulled backwards as if it had been lassoed, following the path of the arrow all the way to the adjacent hill. It rushed back towards the fight immediately, but its absence brought the others breathing room.


    The fourth stuck in the eye socket of an emaciated pig-like thing with translucent skin showing eel-like skeletal creatures swimming around inside its stomach; the arrow immediately duplicated, then again, and again, until dozens of arrows were pocking the beast¡¯s flesh, and it collapsed, its inner eels writhing in agony.


    Lucas initially thought the last one had missed after all, striking the ground not a few paces ahead of Wick''s shield. But it quickly became clear it had hit precisely where Rena aimed it. The first beast to come near it¡ªa worm with three animal skulls at either end¡ªwas drawn to the arrow like it had an inescapable gravity pull, holding the monster in place long enough for the Skycloak to bisect it with a slash of her sword. Both sides kept moving, skinless skulls gnashing their crooked, broken teeth.


    Jyn was acting more as battlefield control at this point, creating walls of fire that herded the beasts to their front, trying to force them into attacking head on so Wick didn¡¯t have to reposition himself too much. He waved his arms around like a conductor guiding an orchestra, and the roaring fires ahead of them danced to a tune only he could hear, constantly shifting and repositioning, harassing the monsters. Grasping limbs of white-hot flame rose from the inferno, impossibly long, snatching at anything that came near. There were faint images of predatory animals stalking through the fire, hungry to feed on anything that strayed. Many of the beasts bore burn marks, but the fire didn¡¯t appear to be deadly to them.


    The party coordinated with precision, speaking only in clipped words, knowing their roles without needing to be ordered around and trusting in their comrades¡¯ competence. The Skycloak was very much in the lead and thus was the most vocal, pointing out which beast Rena and Jyn should allow to attack next so Wick could be prepared to block it, opening up a chance for her to strike. There appeared to be some limit to her blade¡¯s deadly light attack, as it seemed to dim and lighten up according to rules Lucas couldn¡¯t identify and wasn¡¯t going to ask about. Even when it was dimmed, her strength, speed, and skill were incredible; her blows never seemed to miss, launching beasts through the air before they could react.


    Lucas tried to slot himself into their formation as best he could, taking up a position in the middle, halfway between a close combatant and a ranged one. Determined to contribute, desperate to take out his fury on these disgusting things, and, he had to admit to himself, craving to feast more on the beasts¡¯ power, he reached out for the surrounding plants with his mana.


    The grass and weeds and flowers and fungi were struggling just as much with the chaotic effect of the screams as his own mana system had been¡ªthe quaint traps he¡¯d set up beforehand had all wilted without his will sustaining them¡ªbut his mana shored them up with order in an instant, drawing on the template of the unaffected grass from elsewhere to reinforce the chaos-afflicted plants. With that done, he crouched down, running his fingers along the plants, threading his mana into them directly and shaping them to his needs. Blades of grass stiffened to sharp points, and he picked them out in a bundle, rising once more.


    The grass blades couldn¡¯t take as much mana as his stick, so they weren¡¯t as strong, but they didn¡¯t need to be. This was just a test run. Lucas slowed the mana of his entire right arm until it felt appropriately heavy, then pinched a single blade of grass between two fingers. Now came the hard part.


    Watching the rampaging beasts, he waited for the right moment. The battle was chaotic, and he didn¡¯t want to get in anyone else¡¯s way, knowing he was a new, untrained element in their dynamic. Only when a beast was downed by one of Rena¡¯s arrows and the others were focused elsewhere did he attack, taking aim and snapping his arm out, letting loose a single blade of grass. It sliced through the air like a knife.


    To his utter bewilderment, it struck the translucent pig beast in one of its too-skinny legs and sank right in. Which, admittedly, wasn¡¯t where it had been aiming, but he couldn¡¯t bring himself to care. Fluid spurted from the wound, the pig stumbled just long enough for a more effective attack¡ªthe arrow that hit far too hard for its size¡ªto take it in the flank and send it tumbling back down the hill. Lucas was absolutely elated.


    The ensuing moments devolved into the closest thing Lucas had ever gotten to what he¡¯d heard called the ¡®high of battle.¡¯ He lost himself in launching blades of mana-enhanced grass at the snarling, snapping beasts. The vast majority didn¡¯t hit at first, but those that did stabbed deep into the beasts, the life and order in his mana rejecting their chaotic bodies. And he improved rapidly. Over the course of minutes, he went from one in ten hitting, to two in ten, to three in ten.


    His contributions weren¡¯t huge, compared to Rena¡¯s harrying arrows, Jyn¡¯s battlefield control, Wick¡¯s stalwart protection, and the Skycloak¡¯s decisive, deadly slashes, but any difference meant something. Adrenaline coursed through his veins, his heart pumping pure ecstasy. His body fell into a rhythm, crouching to pick more grass, imbuing them with his mana, then launching. He felt like he could do this forever. It was his life¡¯s calling, he was sure of it.


    And then something went wrong. Lucas didn¡¯t even know how it happened.


    One moment, their formation was holding as it had been, the five of them moving like a well-oiled machine, working to pin down whichever beast the Skycloak called out so she could slice it apart with her moonlight blade. The next, Wick was bellowing a curse and slamming his shield down, his armour and shield glowing brighter than ever, opalescent light streaming out of him. He¡¯d seen it before anyone else; for no apparent reason, all six remaining beasts had rallied and were charging at once, ignoring the ranged members¡¯ harrying.


    Wick went down to one knee and let out a cry as all six smashed into his projected shield wall at once. His prismatic light flared until it hurt to look at, then shattered like glass, sending him stumbling back. The Skycloak swept forward to bat away three of the beasts, but her blade hadn¡¯t had time to build up light, and it only launched them back, dealing no real damage. The other three beasts lunged past her guard, descending on Wick like a crashing wave.


    ¡°Wick!¡± Lucas acted without thinking. He heaved himself forward with all the strength his mana could bring him, baring his stick like a sword. He lashed out with a backhand attack, catching a furry tentacle before it could slip past Wick¡¯s shield and wrap around his ankle. There was a crack, and the tentacled creature was sent spinning.


    After that, things got too hectic for even Lucas himself to understand. He descended into instinct, the stick guiding his movements, wielding him rather than the other way around. His world was nothing more than him, his stick, and his foes. It twirled ahead of him with a mind of its own, deflecting claws, parrying spikes, batting away sharp fangs. It countered with savage blows, drawing on his mana almost without his conscious input, drinking hungrily of his soul and converting it to violence.


    Mana flowed through him like molten lava. He felt like a burning rock. His stick struck true over and over, the beasts moving in slow motion. He was dimly aware of others around him, playing their roles. Arrows sailed past him, finding openings and keeping beasts at bay so he wasn¡¯t outnumbered for long. Fire roared nearby, though he couldn¡¯t see what it was doing. There was even a moment where the woman in the shining white armour was at his side, the two of them moving together like they were partners in a dance, raining down ferocious force on their freakish foes. Her blade lit up and carved the beast in half, and the two split apart to focus on new enemies.


    He barely registered which beast he was fighting, or how many were left. His entire focus was on whatever weapons they wielded, and how his stick could best handle them. At times he had to take small wounds in order to deal greater wounds in return, and he made those trades gladly, as long as it meant destroying these monsters, these blasphemies, these violations. He¡¯d never felt so alive.


    They made him sick. Their warped bodies, their maddening screech, their rotting stench. Everything about them was wrong, and they had to be purged.


    A distant part of him noted that he¡¯d succumbed to a different kind of madness to the one the beasts had inflicted on him with their screams, but the rest of him was perfectly fine with it. Better berserk rage than the violation they¡¯d tried to inflict on his soul.


    The impact jarred his arm as the stick crushed one of the skulls of the worm creature. It kept coming at him, and he kicked it back to give himself space, pain lancing up his leg, flaring in his ankle and knee. A roar rumbled in his chest, and he charged in, smashing another skull. The creature coiled up, then lunged, and his stick rose to meet it. Its weight was unexpected, and he went tumbling back, the beast landing atop him. The last skull snapped its teeth inches from his face, and this close its scream was deafening, the chaos creeping back in on his soul, shaking his mana pathways.


    Lucas punched it as hard as he could, mana thick in his arm, cracking its lower jaw, but it just started trying to stab at him with the twisted horn atop the skull.


    And then a spike of moonlight speared down through the top of the skull and carried through into its body. The moonlight flared, blinding, burning Lucas¡¯ eyes, painting a white line through the centre of the world.


    It took a long time for his vision to return to normal. Long enough for his breathing to even out, for his mana to settle down to normal, and for the adrenaline to subside. By the time he¡¯d blinked the light away, all the aches and pains he¡¯d been ignoring made themselves known.


    His knee and ankle were throbbing, already feeling stiff. His muscles were sore like he¡¯d run two marathons back to back. Even his mana pathways ached, rubbed raw by overuse.


    The stars were so bright, so beautiful. He could have appreciated them a lot more if the Skycloak wasn¡¯t leaning over him, blocking half the view.


    ¡°You¡¯ve returned to us, Ser Rian?¡± she asked him. Her eyes were scrutinising, and he didn¡¯t like that one bit.


    He tried to reply, but only a dry croak passed his lips. His throat felt like sandpaper. He just about managed a single nod instead.


    The ground rumbled as heavy footsteps approached. Wick¡¯s face appeared next to the Skycloak¡¯s, covered in dirt and sweat. There was respect in his golden eyes as he searched Lucas¡¯ face, and he grinned when he saw Lucas was lucid. ¡°Well fought back there, lad. A bit reckless, and as a Shieldmaster I can¡¯t condone how many hits you took, but I¡¯m hardly going to scold you when you came to my rescue like you did. Chances are I only would¡¯ve been injured, but you never know with beasts.¡± He paused, kneeling down, and spoke more softly when he continued, ¡°So I¡¯ll happily call that saving my life, and I owe you accordingly, lad.¡±


    Lucas attempted to shake his head, but only succeeded in sending the world spinning. He groaned. He felt like a living bruise.


    ¡°A bloody stick! Mad as a sack of rats, you are. Always the shit you least expect in this line of work!¡± He chuckled, shaking his head. ¡°You can tell us all about how you got so good with a piece of wood in the morning, eh?¡± He clapped his gauntleted hand on Lucas¡¯ shoulder and gave it a squeeze. ¡°Get some sleep. The day is won, and we¡¯ll watch over you.¡±


    After all that, Lucas was more than happy to oblige.

 18: Ambulate (1)

    Lucas drifted in and out of consciousness a few times, which was an odd experience when he knew it was happening. Every time he woke he caught snippets of muffled conversation around him and the impression of something hard like metal swaying beneath him. He tried to stay awake, but he was too exhausted to make any noise or even move, his limbs leaden and his thoughts foggy. The rocking movement of whatever he was lying on combined with the soft blankets he was swaddled in quickly lulled him back to sleep without fail.


    At first, it felt like he was blinking between places, tuning back in to marginally different sounds around him. But soon enough, dreams started filling the gaps.


    Lucas had never been a lucid dreamer, and frankly wasn¡¯t even sure he believed in the concept. So the dreams kind of unnerved him rather than comforting him as they might have if he¡¯d experienced them with blissful ignorance, which was frustrating. He really would have liked to believe they were real and he truly was living out some of his past experiences with his friends, if only for a short time.


    They went by quickly, flashing past his eyelids, interspersed with moments where he was subjected to the aches and pains in the cold of the waking world.


    He relived the first time he met Rian in the second year of primary school. The stocky bald boy had been playing with a Thunderbirds toy that matched Lucas'' own, and of course that meant they became best friends on sight. It was one of his earliest clear memories.


    He woke to muffled voices, vaguely familiar. One rumbled beneath him, and a reply came from a little to his right. He tried to move his head, tried to listen, but unconsciousness took him again.


    Next, he dreamt of encountering Aarya and Claire in a PE session where boys had to pair up with girls, presumably so they¡¯d all realise ¡®girl germs¡¯ and ¡®boy germs¡¯ weren¡¯t a deadly epidemic. The four of them hatched a dastardly scheme to hang out with their best friends by pairing up and sticking close by, and ended up finding themselves getting along as a group rather than a pair of pairs. A quartet was formed.


    His next awakening was accompanied by a much higher awareness of how sore his body was, which of course meant sleep took longer to claim him. He was awake long enough to make out some of the words around him and form a vague idea of the ongoing conversation about curses and lost cities and directions. Lucas strongly disliked the idea of returning to the overgrown hellhole, but didn¡¯t want to leave these people to it without him, either. He fell asleep feeling conflicted.


    As expected, the next dream introduced Jamie to their group. The redheaded boy transferred into their class halfway through their third year of primary school and was directed by the quartet¡¯s Form Group teacher to the table their quartet had claimed. Initial scepticism of the intruder fell away that same day the moment he defended Aarya from some little shit who called her a slur, his angry fists winning him the eternal loyalty of the group. And then they were five, and so they remained for over a decade.


    The ensuing dreams told the story of their friendship, with brief interludes for Lucas to wake up and try to figure out what was going on around him through the treacle pudding his brain had apparently transformed into.


    They went on many an adventure in primary school, riding their bikes as a group and missioning through the countryside and exploring abandoned buildings, and they only got more audacious as they grew up. Mischief and mayhem and detentions galore. They loved a prank and abhorred a day without a new experience. With Aarya¡¯s boundless cheer, Claire¡¯s mind, Jamie¡¯s athleticism, Rian¡¯s strength, and Lucas¡¯ adaptability, they had it all. There was so much life in their little group, Lucas was always sure they drew envy from other kids.


    The memories buoyed his heart and filled him with the warmth of nostalgia.


    The waking world yielded little information. The most clear image he managed to comprehend was him lying on the grass on a soft bedroll, with the Skycloak leaning beside him with her eyes closed in concentration, her hands clasped to her chest where moonlight was slipping between her fingers, beaming down on Lucas¡¯ form, cold seeping into his skin where it touched.


    After that came the final dream.


    The cafe and bar nestling in the corner of the Harris Arcade had been their annual meetup spot since Aarya¡¯s eighth birthday party, and they knew the place too well. For the most part it stayed familiar with its arcade machines, karaoke stage, and long bar counter as stalwart presences, but over time they¡¯d started making a game of spotting what had changed since their previous visit. Thus, Lucas could see that the neon sign above the bar was the wrong colour, the shabby totally-not-Pokemon plushie claw game was somehow back, a smoking section had reappeared, and a dozen other little inaccuracies mixed together from across the years. Hell, this wasn¡¯t even the place they¡¯d been planning to meet for lunch on that day.


    Even then, he almost dismissed it all, wanting so badly to believe that his friends were in front of him. They¡¯d arranged themselves in the usual formation at the round table at the back of the room, furthest from the arcade machines: Lucas with his back to the wall, Rian to his left, then Claire, then Aarya, then Jamie completing the circle on Lucas¡¯ right. There were smiles on their faces. There was laughter in their eyes.


    And they were all wearing mediaeval outfits.


    Claire was in a voluminous black robe, her usually-wild black hair scraped back into a strict bun that didn¡¯t suit her at all. There were dark circles beneath her green eyes, and her face was pale.


    Rian wore a brown tunic with a leather belt cinching it at the waist. The man who insisted he would shave his hair until the day he died had it flowing down to his shoulders in deep brown waves, with multiple braids filled with beads mixed into the ordered mess. There was a haunted look in his blue eyes.


    Jamie¡¯s hair, on the other hand, was cropped short, as if the two of them had swapped styles. He wore a sleeveless white shirt, and he was bulky in a way he¡¯d never been. Jamie had always been a runner, and his lithe build had matched. Seeing him like this was surreal.


    Aarya was the most different of the four. She wore a dress of midnight blue, with silver embroidery cascading across her shoulders and down her torso in looping patterns. They formed images of silver animals frolicking through a night time forest, lit by a pentagonal moon symbol stitched over her heart. Her dark hair was styled in an elaborate braid tied around her head to give the impression of a tiara. Her make-up was immaculate, eyes kohlled and lips ruby red. She looked like a queen.


    Lucas was transfixed for a long moment, beholding the changes in his friends. They were chatting among each other amiably, though no sound passed their lips that Lucas could hear. He didn¡¯t care. He was just happy to see them, no matter the circumstances. He drank it in like a man who¡¯d spent the better part of a month in an arid desert, and the sight of them was his water.


    When he tried to speak to them, no words came out of his own lips, either. That wasn¡¯t initially distressing on its own, but it quickly became obvious that, while they could hear each other, they could not hear him. In fact, they didn¡¯t even look at him. As if they couldn¡¯t see him at all, even though he was right here.


    As they chatted away, their attention was constantly straying to the entrance, and this became more frequent as time passed. Soon, their conversation was growing more strained, their smiles dropping. They checked their watches, glanced at the clocks, fiddled with their phones.


    Lucas waved his arms, bellowing to get their attention. He slammed his hands on the table. Threw anything he could get his hands on. Nothing worked. He tried to rise from his chair, but found himself rooted in place like he was stuck with superglue.


    Before long, they weren¡¯t looking at each other at all, and conversation had died, their smiles gone. Then, one by one, they gave up waiting, turning their attention to the table, until Aarya was the only one checking her watch, periodically glancing at the door. Their conversation restarted, but there were no smiles now. A grim countenance fell over the group. Their talk quickly turned heated, rude gestures flying all over the place, looks of anger on their faces.


    Aarya was still gazing at the doorway when she turned pale as a ghost and fell limp in her chair, her eyes unseeing. She slowly slid down until she was almost falling from the chair, and only stayed up because Rian scrambled over to hold onto her shoulders, screaming at her with tears in his eyes. The other two were staring at her in horror.


    After a long moment, Rian¡¯s head drooped, tears on his face, and he let Aarya¡¯s body fall from her chair, where it vanished beneath the table. The usually-cheerful man kept his head bowed as he rose from the table with a haunted air to him. Claire and Jamie called out to him as he walked away, but he left the arcade without looking back. The darkness beyond the doors swallowed him.


    Claire and Jamie could barely look at each other after that. They sat in the same places, not speaking a word, as time seemed to go on fast-forward, the restaurant decaying and crumbling to dust until only the table was left. Finally, Jamie slumped and rested his head in his hands, covering his eyes. Claire reached out as if to put a hand on his shoulder, but hesitated an inch from touching him. She drew her hand back and sighed. With one last glance at her watch, she rose from the table and left with a dark look in her eyes. Only Jamie remained, but before Lucas¡¯ horrified eyes he seemed to petrify, stone creeping up his arms and legs and along his torso, until only his head was flesh and blood.


    Then it all vanished, and Lucas was back in the world of the waking. Sensation came rushing in, clearer than any other time he¡¯d awoken. The rustle of the wind through the grass, the soft bedding beneath his back, the heady scent of something hearty cooking on a crackling fire, and he opened his eyes to the sight of a woman with platinum blond hair taking up most of his vision, scrutinising him with analytical blue eyes. The fog of sleep vanished as if it had been snatched away, like he¡¯d been snug under warm blankets and someone had ripped them off, exposing him to the cold.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Good morning, Ser Rian,¡± the Skycloak said. ¡°I¡¯m happy enough with your progress to let you wake, but you shouldn¡¯t stress yourself. The strain you put on your mana pathways wasn¡¯t life-threatening and wouldn¡¯t have done long term damage on its own, but caution is prudent when it comes to matters of the soul.¡±


    He was hurting, but not as badly as he had been. His aches were soothed, weeks-old bruises rather than days-old ones. The throbbing in his ankle and knee had mostly abated. Even the irritating stings from little cuts and scrapes that had gone untreated were largely gone, just a few egregious ones nagging at his attention as he shuffled around in the bedroll.


    His throat felt dry as sandpaper. Again. But all it took was a single cough for the Skycloak to hold out a waterskin for him, and a few gulps solved the problem swiftly enough. The cool liquid seemed thicker than normal water, soothing his body as it passed through him. ¡°What was that stuff?¡± he asked. His voice rasped at first, but got better with every syllable.


    Honestly, his mana system was the most attention-grabbing pain right now, and even that wasn¡¯t as bad as he thought it probably should be. His mana was flowing placidly, and after a quick inspection he felt no damage. It just felt¡­ sore. All over. It wasn¡¯t even painful, necessarily, just deeply uncomfortable, and even then the drink the Skycloak had given him was working wonders. Jamie was fast asleep in his chest, but he got the impression the cat had been up and about a few times. Hopefully the Skycloak hadn¡¯t noticed.


    The Skycloak glanced at him as she withdrew the water skin beneath her cloak. ¡°Holy water. You¡¯ve never had any?¡±


    Lucas held back a grimace. Great, he thought, assuming it would be suspicious to ask what holy water was. ¡°Never had any need for it,¡± he said neutrally instead.


    ¡°Fortune smiles on you, then,¡± she said. ¡°Recovering only forty hours after exhausting one¡¯s mana is an uncommon feat. Doubly so given your underdeveloped system.¡±


    Lucas blinked. ¡°A day and a half? Felt like a lifetime.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s still a long time to sleep, Ser Rian,¡± Wick rumbled from nearby. Lucas turned his head to find the other three arrayed around a small fire pit, watching a pot as something meaty-smelling bubbled within it. Wick was out of his armour for once, instead wearing a simple brown tunic and half-length trousers tucked into thick socks that came halfway up his shins. ¡°But exhausting one¡¯s mana does strange things to people. Who knows, perhaps you did live out another life in your dreams?¡±


    Lucas eased himself up onto his elbows and craned his neck, looking around. They were on top of another hill, but with far different surroundings from the one on which the battle had occurred. The grass was different, thick and clumpy and boggy rather than the rolling carpet of blue-green he¡¯d been traversing for days before. There was a wall of tall trees standing sentinel at the foot of the hill, sunlight poking golden fingers through the canopy and lighting up the mossy ground dusted with sprinkles of frost. In the distance a crystalline river snaked through the land. The sky was cloudless and radiant blue.


    A sigh escaped him, and he let himself slump back onto the still uncomfortably comfortable bedroll. He recognised this place, though he¡¯d only seen this forest from a distance. Doubling back on himself was depressing beyond belief, but there was nothing for it. His whole purpose for leaving the city had been to find people and, thus, answers. He had the first part before him, now it was just a matter of getting more of the latter without giving himself away. A tricky task, but no other option was available at present.


    And besides, he wasn¡¯t going to leave them to die to the malicious plants that infested the city. Especially not after they¡¯d helped him without obligation to do so.


    ¡°Did you carry me?¡± he asked, remembering the soft fabrics tied around his torso and the hard metal that had rocked beneath him.


    ¡°It was no burden,¡± Wick said. ¡°And no man gets left behind, in these times. We humans are too few to abandon even one living soul.¡±


    ¡°Still. Thank you,¡± Lucas said. It wouldn¡¯t have been nice to wake up on that same hilltop, with the rotting corpses of beasts all around him. He turned to the Skycloak. ¡°And thank you for your healing.¡±


    The Skycloak nodded, rising to her feet and moving over to the bubbling pot.


    ¡°Feel free to help yourself to the stew,¡± Jyn said, nodding towards a wooden bowl and spoon that rested next to the pot.


    Jamie stirred in his chest, and Lucas absently patted at his heart. The monstercat let out a purr that resonated through his soul, radiating contentment and pleasure. With it came a vague impression of a desire, with a questioning lilt to it.


    Hunger, naturally.


    Lucas¡¯ mouth started watering as the scent of cooking meat wafted past him. His stomach growled. Jamie wasn¡¯t the only hungry one, it seemed.


    The pot turned out to contain a vegetable stew made with beef stock, and Lucas could have ascended to nirvana with the first bite. Berries and fruits grown with the urging of his mana had been much of his sustenance for the last month, and even a bad stew would have been heavenly. This was good. Jyn had tended the fire and kept the pot¡¯s heat consistent with his pyromancy, and Rena had combined an eyesight enhancement technique with experience to gauge what ingredients were needed and when. The two made a good team off the battlefield as well as on it, it seemed, creating a stew that was hearty and warming and rich.


    They ate quietly, savouring their meal in a circle around the fire. Lucas found himself full before he was halfway through his first bowl, unused to such a strong meal. Rena and Jyn had seconds, and Wick went for thirds. The surprise came from the Skycloak, who finished off five bowls in the time it took Lucas to dither his way through half of one, then pointedly eyed his leftovers when he set them aside. Getting the hint, he passed them over to her and could only watch in appalled fascination as she tipped the bowl back in one gulp. She nodded at him with solemn appreciation.


    ¡°Ah, a good meal,¡± Wick said with a sigh, resting a hand on his stomach and letting out a loud belch. ¡°My compliments to the cooks.¡±


    ¡°Mine as well,¡± the Skycloak said.


    Jyn and Rena had been silent as they focused on cooking breakfast, and the Bowmaiden seemed keen to make up for it as Jyn set to cleaning out the empty pot.


    ¡°So, Ser Rian,¡± she drawled. ¡°You¡¯re rather adept with that stick.¡±


    ¡°I do okay,¡± Lucas said, eyeing her.


    ¡°Lasting as long as you did was impressive,¡± she continued as if he hadn¡¯t spoken. ¡°Of course, you would have been in deep trouble on your own.¡±


    ¡°Anyone would¡¯ve been in trouble,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°Oh, I know,¡± Rena said. ¡°Quests are undertaken in parties for a reason and all that. Just trying to praise our new Star without giving him a big head. It was impressive, but not that impressive.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m your Star now?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°Unless you think you can outshoot me with a bow?¡± Rena offered with one eyebrow arched in challenge. ¡°You can¡¯t, by the way. I was trained by the Duskpoole Rangers, and there are no better marksmen in the world.¡±


    Lucas shook his head.


    ¡°Or if you think you can outmatch any of the others in their fields? They¡¯re pretty good themselves.¡±


    Lucas shook his head again. He¡¯d seen them all in action, and didn¡¯t think he measured up to any of them right now.


    Right now, he thought. With the Gift, the Great Star, the Prophecy of Five and a bunch of other shit he didn¡¯t want to think about right now, the current power disparity likely wouldn¡¯t remain that way for long. The thought was simultaneously exhilarating and mildly frightening. He''d never been much of a fighter. That was Rian''s thing.


    ¡°Then it stands to reason that you should be our Star, if you¡¯re joining us on our quest,¡± she said with a smile. ¡°Don¡¯t go thinking that makes you a leader, though. Just fill in the gaps like you did before.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll do that, I guess?¡± Lucas said. He looked around, finding the others weren¡¯t paying much attention to the conversation. ¡°Will that require training? Practice with teamwork?¡±


    ¡°We have no time for that,¡± the Skycloak said, proving his assumption about her attention wrong. In fairness to him, she did seem engrossed with something in the distance. ¡°Do what you can, and we¡¯ll work around you as necessary.¡±


    ¡°You showed good instincts before,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°Right up until you lost your mind to battle frenzy,¡± Jyn said.


    ¡°You¡¯ll do fine,¡± Wick said, shooting the wizard a lighthearted glare.


    They lapsed into silence again for a little while, the crisp morning rolling by. The others busied themselves with their own tasks; Wick moved away to inspect his armour which he summoned in the same manner as his shield, Jyn pulled a burned book from his robes and read from its black pages¡ªit seemed to be faintly smoking, and the wisps of smoke were travelling up and under his spacious hood; Lucas wondered how he was reading it¡ªand the Skycloak held up her white pendant necklace and watched it sway from side to side as if she was hypnotising herself. Rena started sorting through her arrows, picking them out seemingly at random, frowning and muttering under her breath.


    With no food or conversation to distract him, Lucas was left alone with only his thoughts for company. After the dreams he¡¯d been through, his friends were at the forefront of his mind. He¡¯d have liked it if his childhood memories had occupied that space, but he kept replaying that image of Aarya¡¯s pale, slack face as she slid from the chair, disappearing beneath the table. With it came the memory of what the Skycloak had said before.


    ¡°Lady Aarya, the Great Bow, was slain at the battle of Caelan.¡±


    She¡¯d said Aarya was dead. Casually, like it was old news.


    It couldn¡¯t be true. That was just¡­ There was no way. He didn''t want to believe it. Refused to.


    Lucas desperately wanted to know the truth, but he couldn¡¯t bring himself to ask. Seeking answers here felt too perilous, too many traps he could blindly walk into and expose himself. This stuff seemed like common knowledge.


    They¡¯ve talked about Claire a bunch. She¡¯s apparently around somewhere. I¡¯ll track her down and ask her, he told himself. There wouldn¡¯t need to be any need to hide himself with her. It wasn¡¯t much comfort, but it was a goal, an end.


    A small voice in the back of his head reprimanded him, telling him he was just avoiding the issue like he always did until it was too late. He ignored it.

 19: Ambulate (2)

    Seeking something to occupy his mind, Lucas took the time to delve into his mana system while everyone else was busy with their own routines. He was eager to get back to opening up new pathways anyway. He hadn¡¯t yet had the chance to test the more efficient technique the Skycloak had alerted him to because of the beast attack, and wanted to see just how much of an improvement it actually yielded.


    Initially cautious after the Skycloak¡¯s warning, he relaxed when he found his mana flowing as it should. His pathways were a little sore still, but he could endure that. He started slowing the mana around the smaller pathways in both his arms, forcing the excess to flow into the smaller channels, widening them with a satisfying ache. With that in place, he moved on to the next closed pathway in the sequence, hoping to get a few open this morning. It was a good diversion, requiring focus.


    They set out not long after the meal, the party packing up their things with the ease of experience while Lucas watched, barely paying attention. The Skycloak had carried his sack here for him, and all his crap was still in there. The small camp was gone in seconds, the fire quenched, and they were on their way after a brief argument over Lucas¡¯ state which he was forced to tune back in for. He ended up convincing them he could walk on his own, at least for a while, though that involved hiding how groggy he felt, like he¡¯d just recovered from a fever.


    He couldn¡¯t stand the idea of someone carrying him. Way too embarrassing. He¡¯d power through it, drawing on his mana for energy if need be.


    Conversation was light as they set off down the hill and into the forest. It wasn¡¯t dense enough to get turned around easily, but Jyn took the lead of the group with his wand out, a small blue flame flickering on its tip that pointed like a compass. It didn¡¯t seem to point North, and Jyn just smiled when Lucas asked.


    Seeing an opportunity to push himself, Lucas portioned out some of his mana for messing with the surrounding trees a bit, though the majority went toward opening pathways. He wasn¡¯t doing anything fancy, more focused on forcing physical changes through on living plants at speed than anything else. Reinforcing the strength of plants as he¡¯d done for the grass blades was quick enough, and shaping them with his mana was simple, but he wanted to improve his ability to transform them.


    The mana of the plants gave mild resistance to his efforts as usual, and he got the impression they disliked the idea of rapid change. The trees were especially ponderous, branches growing only millimetres under his mana¡¯s attention, and he supposed it made sense. Trees experienced time on a much wider frame than people, and their life was ever a slow one. Even their mana itself was in no rush to get anywhere.


    Shaping leaves was easier, as they were more subject to change, growing in the spring and summer, wilting in the autumn, and falling by winter. It still took mana, but not anywhere near as much as what growing a tree trunk would probably require. And the more he transformed a plant, the more pliant it became, as if getting used to the idea of change.


    Living beings had ways they were supposed to be that were coded into their very mana, Lucas theorised, and the further one diverted from that path, the harder and/or more costly the change was to make. Changing something was an act of fundamentally editing its mana¡¯s conception of what it was supposed to be and how it should behave, hence why it became less taxing after the first time a deviation was successful.


    Lucas frowned as the thoughts passed through his head. This felt way too smart for him, making connections easier than he was used to, logical leaps appearing in his mind as if placed there. It was a little freaky. And more than a little awesome, when he allowed himself to be positive about things. Whatever the source, it felt good to expand his understanding of his magic.


    He couldn¡¯t spend too much time on any one individual plant as they were on the move, Jyn guiding them at a decent pace, but before long Lucas was able to witness his modifications with his own eyes, green leaves transitioning to orange then red in a handful of seconds. He left a spattering of red leaves slashing through the forest in his wake, and had a thought. It probably wasn¡¯t a good idea to leave such an obvious sign of their passage, but he hardly thought the party was going to let him turn back and revert the changes he¡¯d made.


    Instead, he delved into the rudimentary mana networks of the leaves, paying close attention to what was happening as he made changes. His modifications weren¡¯t transmutation or anything like that; in this case, he was merely working with what the plants already knew how to do, speeding up the process. Reversing it was just as simple, if a smidge more costly, and he watched how the mana shifted, activating tiny signals in the plants that presumably corresponded to the physical changes he desired.


    Lucas was struck by a wave of inspiration, and decided to ride it. He¡¯d had the idea back on the hilltop before the battle that he could potentially leave orders in plants once they were outside of his range, and he figured now was as good a time as any to try it.


    Picking out a single leaf at the forward edge of his current range, he set it to turning as red as it could get. With his mana concentrated on one leaf, its colour bled away and it shrunk to half its size in just a handful of seconds as if it had long been denied sunlight, and it was easy to pick out among its verdant brethren. Now came the tricky part, and he wasn¡¯t sure if it would work.


    He shaped a trickle of his mana into the form that would command the leaf to change back to green, and then held it. It was an uncomfortable thing, to halt the flow of mana. Unnatural. He wasn¡¯t sure how it would feel if he did it inside his own body, but it probably wouldn¡¯t be pleasant.


    The mana he¡¯d shaped existed as a faint second layer over the leaf¡¯s own mana, acting like a guide, an outline. He eyed the leaf as he passed beneath it, and kept watching over his shoulder all the way until it exited his range behind him.


    For a moment, nothing happened, and Lucas was prepared to try a new tack. But then, as if reversing time through the seasons, its colour started lightening, from autumn orange to sunny yellow, all the way to full green. Its size changed too, which was probably down to some scientific process Lucas was unfamiliar with. He¡¯d have to read up on it, if there was any kind of study on it in this world.


    Lucas smiled to himself, feeling rather accomplished. There was no greater mood-lifter than discovering a new trick to his magic.


    He kept practising as they traversed the forest, seizing the opportunity while he had so much foliage around. The prospect of returning to the overgrown city was a constant source of dread gnawing at the back of his mind, and he wanted to push his floramancy as far as it could go before he got there. Whatever malicious mana mind was infesting the plants would find him a much more dangerous opponent.


    The sun progressed across the sky into afternoon, changing the angles of the columns of golden light spearing down through the canopy. It was overall a pleasant walk, all things considered, the spongy moss soft and the roots running through the ground not too hazardous for his feet¡ªhe¡¯d have to get some better footwear than the crappy sock-boot-things he¡¯d woven. An abundance of plant life made for good test subjects, and he was working on trying to find a way to combine elements of different plants without the connecting mana in the overgrown city to guide him when he noticed the abandoned shack.


    The group had been quiet, following behind Jyn with his fire compass spell. Wick was always close to the wizard, watchful, ready to do his job as a shieldmaster. Rena stalked behind the two, bow in one hand, her keen eyes trained on their surroundings¡ªshe¡¯d noticed Lucas¡¯ experiments and given him a wry smile, but hadn¡¯t commented. The Skycloak seemed content to bring up the rear, standing apart from the party.


    The forest wasn¡¯t dense, the branches high up and the floor mostly free of bushes aside from a few bramble patches here and there, so it came as quite the surprise when, between one step and the next, there was abruptly a crude wooden building nestled in a clearing nearby. Its roof had long since rotted away, and its log walls were half collapsed in on themselves, but it was undoubtedly a man-made structure.


    Lucas didn¡¯t let any hope swell in his heart. He¡¯d found too many abandoned structures to indulge in optimism. Sure enough, Jyn made a circle with his finger and thumb and held it up to his hood around where his eye would be. He stared for a moment, then declared no heat signatures were within.


    ¡°Adept enough to craft an illusion that¡¯s lasted for who knows how long, but couldn¡¯t build a bigger shelter than this?¡± Rena asked, head tilted to one side.


    ¡°No one can be good at everything,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°It¡¯s unlikely to be an illusion,¡± Jyn said, frowning. He held up his wand, where his compass flame was flickering. ¡°Or, at least, not a mental technique. I¡¯ve never heard of oneiromancy lasting more than a few months, and this shack seems years gone.¡±


    ¡°What would you say it is then?¡± Lucas asked, intrigued, wondering if he could pick anything up from this magic.


    Jyn tilted his head back, and Lucas followed his gaze. The canopy above seemed to be shrouded in shadow, like a black sheet had been draped over the treetops. There was still light getting through, but there were strange fractal distortions in the air, like floating panes of glass, and the sun was shining nowhere near as strongly as it should¡¯ve been. Yet somehow there was no change in brightness in the clearing compared to outside the spell¡¯s area of effect.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°Lumomancy,¡± Jyn said, sounding unsure. ¡°Light magic. A strange art. Rare. I couldn¡¯t guess how this was accomplished.¡±


    They spent a few minutes exploring the area, but there wasn¡¯t much to see. The shack had evidently been abandoned, nothing of note left behind. They found disturbances in the ground where fences and paddocks had once been, the sections reclaimed by moss, and there was a pile of animal bones around the back. Inside the collapsed shack, Lucas found faded scratches next to little notches marked on some of the wooden posts making up the house¡¯s frame, the notches getting higher up the wood as they progressed along, and Lucas realised after a lot of squinting that they were names. Three of them, at first. Then only two on a last log.


    ¡°Lila, Ven, and Hoss,¡± he read, struck by a mild bout of melancholy, wondering what kind of lives these kids had lived out in this forest. It was a small place for three children and, presumably, at least one adult. Even if the tallest scratch was barely to his navel. When he looked back, he found the others staring at him.


    ¡°What language is that?¡± Rena asked.


    Lucas flushed, his eyes snapping back to the childish scrawls. The script was made up of blocky squares filled with sequences of dots, but he¡¯d read it as easily as English without thinking. ¡°I don¡¯t know its name,¡± he said.


    Thankfully, they took that as a good enough answer.


    The Skycloak found a small, curved stone that had been hidden beneath a layer of moss, and spent some time clearing it up while the others watched on. There was more writing on its face, two lines of square characters, and the Skycloak looked at him expectantly.


    Lucas cleared his throat. ¡°It says, ¡®Here lies Lila, our beautiful girl. Our heart is always with you, no matter how far you go.¡¯¡±


    At that, without a word to one another, the party started rummaging through their belongings. They each withdrew something clenched in their right fist, which they held to their heart for a moment as they bowed their heads. Then, one by one, they placed their objects down at set positions, drawing a line between their offering and the previous object to be laid. It formed three sides of a pentagon. The Skycloak had set down a pearly white gem, Rena a blunt arrowhead, Wick a dull brown coin, and Jyn a glass bead that glowed with inner firelight.


    Lucas copied them, not knowing the significance of this ritual but not wanting to stand out for his unfamiliarity with the custom. There wasn¡¯t much to offer in his sack, so instead he used his magic to fashion a thin twig into the vague shape of a heart without snapping it, then held it to his chest for a moment. Jamie roused, blinking blearily and yawning, but Lucas hushed him back to sleep. Lucas didn¡¯t know if the others had said a silent prayer at this part, but he felt it was appropriate.


    I hope you¡¯ve found joy in whatever came next for you, Lila.


    He laid the heart-shaped stick down at the final corner of the pentagon, drawing in the last two lines himself with his finger to surround the gravestone.


    On a whim born from morbid curiosity, he switched the ¡®channel¡¯ of his mana sense for the first time since he¡¯d escaped the overgrown city and let it seep down into the ground. The outline of a small form appeared in his mind¡¯s eye. He spent a moment studying it, though it made him feel a little ill. There was no obvious sign of trauma or damage on the small form. No breakages in the bones. He allowed himself to believe that she¡¯d died peacefully, of natural causes.


    There was no more talk after that small impromptu ceremony, and they left the shack in a solemn mood. Part of Lucas wanted to study the light magic that had stopped them seeing the shack until they were right beside it, but he left it be. He liked the idea of that remnant of the people who lived there remaining for centuries, even after any other sign of them was lost to time. He had no idea if it¡¯d last that long, but it was a comforting thought.


    Lucas continued his mana experiments during the rest of their journey through the forest, focusing on leaving commands behind him. It was challenging and fascinating work; he had to delve into the genetic memory of the plants¡¯ mana to get an idea of what they were naturally predisposed to doing, since it was much easier to coax them along paths they were spiritually familiar with. Getting them to behave unnaturally was a much harder task without his mana there to force the issue, and he hadn¡¯t figured it out by the time the trees thinned and they emerged from the forest.


    Another patchwork quilt of rolling fields stretched out ahead of them, long grass swaying in the wind and forming green-blue waves. Already familiar with the frustration of traversing long grass, Lucas reached out with his mana and took control of a few clumps in their way, commanding them to bend aside. The grass lazily parted, forming a path.


    His floramancy had gone uncommented on in the forest, but, unfortunately, Rena seemed intrigued by his efforts, crouching by the flattened greenery. She contemplated it with a blank expression for a moment, then walked on a few paces, looking around at the narrow path he¡¯d made. Just when Lucas thought she wasn¡¯t going to comment on it, she glanced at him over her shoulder.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure I quite believed your story about slaying a beast with a stick until I saw your, ah, skill with my own eyes,¡± she said, looking him up and down like his body held great secrets¡ªwhich it actually kind of did, he realised.


    ¡°It is unbelievable,¡± he admitted absently, unsure what else to say. Most of his awareness was still on his mana within and without, and he was kind of hoping she¡¯d leave him alone so he could keep up his practice. Rena kept staring though, and he felt compelled to give a longer answer. ¡°To tell the truth, I¡¯m as surprised about it as you are. My ability with a stick¡­ Let¡¯s just say it didn¡¯t come from combat training.¡±


    ¡°So how did you get so good with a stick, then? I¡¯ve heard of kids stick fighting, but usually they move on to a sword if they have the knack for swinging things about.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s common for Wands to walk strange avenues,¡± the Skycloak said from behind Lucas. This was the first time he¡¯d heard her speak since just after their meal this morning.


    ¡°Hitting things with a stick is far from the most unusual use of magic I¡¯ve seen in my time,¡± Jyn said with the quiet tone of a man anticipating a headache. He shook his wand, and the blue flame flickered out. ¡°I once met a man who specialised in the magic of fingernails and claws. I believe he called his art unguimancy.¡±


    Rena shot a mock glare at Jyn¡¯s back, then huffed. ¡°Well yes, but that discipline, weird as it may be, wasn¡¯t societally shunned like floramancy.¡±


    ¡°Superstition,¡± Jyn said with a dismissive wave of his hand.


    ¡°She¡¯s not wrong,¡± Wick said mildly, looking at something behind Lucas, presumably the Skycloak. ¡°I remain surprised you haven¡¯t had more objections, Swordmaiden.¡±


    The group had come to a stop, and Lucas took a step to the side so he had everyone in view. Hopefully someone would explain why his magic was apparently offensive without him having to ask.


    ¡°That I possess an uncommon belief in one aspect of the Order¡¯s creed does not mean I believe them all,¡± she said. She was scanning the fields ahead, eyes shrewd. ¡°I tolerate a floramancer because we can make use of one. Besides, it is not illegal.¡±


    ¡°Pragmatic,¡± Jyn said with a note of approval.


    ¡°Hypocritical,¡± Rena said with the opposite.


    ¡°Admirable,¡± Wick said with a wide grin. ¡°I¡¯ve always thought the stigma around floramancy was nonsense, not least because they¡¯re so rare! There¡¯s a Dread General who wields dark fire, but do we shun pyromancers? No!¡¯


    Jyn glanced at him, lips thinned, but said nothing.


    ¡°There¡¯s more to it than that, Wick,¡± Rena said.


    ¡°Is there? Ask a common man why he distrusts magical crops and he¡¯ll tell the story of the Thorny Fields, I''d wager.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s not the reason the Order mistrusts floramancy,¡± Rena said. She cocked her head like a bird, shooting a look at the Skycloak. ¡°Surely a Skycloak who still awaits the arrival of Lucas Brown would hate floramancy more than any other?¡±


    For the first time Lucas had seen, the Skycloak gave Rena her attention. ¡°There are many reasons Pentaburgh fell, the corrupted plants just one among them. If I were to despise floramancers for their failure, I would have to condemn the geomancers for the walls falling, the biomancers for the plague spreading, the hydromancers for the water spoiling, and every other Wand whose duties went unfulfilled.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re deflecting,¡± Rena said. ¡°None of those other disciplines have been cursed by a demon. None of the others still linger as a problem to this day. Floramancy is the very obstacle that prevents you believers from awaiting his arrival by the site of the summoning!¡±


    Lucas¡¯ eyes went wide. Cursed? ¡°What do you mean cursed?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nonsense,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Floramancy was always a dangerous magic, just as all life-shaping disciplines are. Accidents happen. It¡¯s not possible for an entire branch of magic to be corrupted by an outside force, not even by the Demon Lord himself. Magic comes from within. It¡¯s personal.¡±


    ¡°Around fifty years ago, arguably the most important city in Mornlunn was overtaken by a murderous demon that lives in the mana of plants,¡± Rena said. ¡°And ever since then, floramancers have brought with them similar calamity and disaster. Even if it¡¯s not cursed, the practice of plant magic was condemned by the Order. By Lady Claire herself. There must have been a reason.¡± She glanced at Lucas. ¡°You seem a decent sort, Ser Rian, and I don¡¯t care one way or the other about your magic after the things I¡¯ve seen Wandmasters do in my time. There are disciplines out there far worse than one that¡¯s supposedly cursed, and I¡¯ll be the last to heed an Order edict. I¡¯m just curious how our Skycloak justifies it to herself.¡±


    The Skycloak¡¯s eyes were suddenly sharp as blades, fixed on Rena. One of her fists clenched, and for a moment Lucas felt a premonition, an instinct rising up and giving him warning. Something deadly gathered in the air, and he was sure violence was going to erupt at any moment. He tensed.


    But then the Skycloak closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, they were once more placid as a still lake, tranquil as the moon. After a moment of calmly staring Rena down, she looked away, dismissing the Bowmaiden. ¡°Let us continue,¡± she said. ¡°We have much ground to cover.¡±


    An awkward silence settled on the group as they moved on through Lucas¡¯ path in the grass. Ahead, Rena looked shaken. Wick looked uncomfortable. Jyn looked back at his wand as if nothing had happened.


    Lucas, meanwhile, was piecing things together, and not at all liking the picture that was forming.

 20: Ambulate (3)

    Lucas spent a lot of time in his own head as he and the party made their way across the countryside. Their stop at the shack turned out to be an outlier; they saw multiple abandoned settlements over the next few days, but the group showed no interest in checking them out.


    ¡°The Guilds stopped running salvage quests into this part of the country decades ago,¡± Wick explained the first time they saw a spattering of squat buildings on the horizon. ¡°There was a reason for that: there¡¯s nothing out here worth salvaging anymore.¡±


    ¡°And even if there was,¡± the Skycloak said, ¡°our objectives do not involve petty loot.¡±


    Progress was therefore swift, likely covering more ground than Lucas had in his solo travels. Every day took them closer to the overgrown city and Lucas¡¯ apprehension grew. He was forming a few ideas about the dynamics of this group he¡¯d found himself recruited to and the world he¡¯d found himself in, and questions were clawing at his mind. Working on his magic was only so much of a distraction, his work on his pathways settling into a monotonous routine that didn¡¯t really require much of his attention and his floramancy experiments following a mostly linear improvement.


    Lucas dithered over what to do for quite a while. Making incorrect assumptions about the world could turn out to be detrimental, but it could be equally problematic to give himself away to these people with questions. He was relatively confident that a huge burden of expectation would be placed on him if they knew who he was, and there were worse scenarios than being seen as a saviour to consider.


    Eventually, Lucas decided he would gather his courage and approach each of the four directly, catching them on their own when he could, and just¡­ strike up casual conversation. Maybe ask them questions about themselves. If he was lucky they¡¯d spill more tidbits about the world without him having to ask directly and reveal his ignorance. It was a less suspicious method of information gathering, he hoped.


    He took some time to formulate some questions that could yield relevant information without arousing suspicion, and settled on keeping things simple. No point overthinking it.


    Four days after he¡¯d awoken following the battle, he found an opportunity to talk to Wick alone. He found himself pleased with that; so far, the shieldmaster had seemed the most amiable out of the party. The giant of a man was assigned first watch for the night when they settled down to camp in a sparse grove of thin trees with long, thin leaves beside a lake large enough the details of the far shore were blurry, and he seemed in good spirits after a hearty stew. The night was overcast, but Wick was smiling when Lucas sat down on a log beside him.


    ¡°Trouble sleeping, Ser Rian?¡± he asked, voice soft by his standards. It sounded almost a growl. He was still in his bulky armour, and his attention was on their surroundings.


    ¡°Sometimes my mind won¡¯t turn off,¡± Lucas said, smiling back. ¡°So I thought I¡¯d keep you company.¡±


    Wick snorted. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll not turn down some conversation on a dull, still night. But the Skycloak will have my balls if I neglect my duties, so try not to distract me to much, eh?¡±


    Lucas looked back over his shoulder, eyeing the Skycloak where she was curled up on the ground, wrapped entirely in her cloak. She looked like a cocoon. ¡°She¡¯s the leader of your party, right?¡±


    ¡°Ostensibly,¡± Wick said. ¡°It¡¯s unusual for a commissioner to take part in the quest they¡¯ve ordered, but since it¡¯s her coin, I¡¯ve no issue letting her be Star as well as Sword. It helps that she¡¯s been competent.¡±


    Lucas thought back to the battle. ¡°She seemed more than competent to me.¡±


    ¡°Oh, she¡¯s far more than competent as a Sword, for certain,¡± Wick said with a grin. ¡°Quite the talent, for one so young. She is¡­ impressively deadly. A frontline warrior, no doubt. I¡¯m surprised the Order allowed one such as her to chase this fool¡¯s errand.¡±


    Lucas paused. ¡°You think this quest is hopeless?¡±


    ¡°Hopeless is a strong word. But what does it matter? I get my coin either way.¡± Wick shrugged, his breastplate shifting with the movement, somehow soundless. ¡°I personally enjoy the theory that the Summoners made a mistake somehow, and Lucas Brown arrived deep in the Blighted Lands, where he¡¯s been fighting alone for the last hundred endless winters. It sounds appropriately heroic.¡±


    That sounded awful to Lucas, and he didn¡¯t even know what the Blighted Lands was. From the context he¡¯d picked up, it was obviously a bad place where the beasts came from and demons resided, but that was about it. He spent a moment to come up with a question that might clarify things without revealing his lacking knowledge. ¡°Do you actually think anyone could survive there on their own that long?¡±


    ¡°It would take a hero of legend,¡± Wick said, which wasn¡¯t really an answer. ¡°So maybe a prophesied saviour could. For any mortal man, I can¡¯t imagine resisting the chaos for even a hundredth of that time. You recall when the beasts tried to corrupt you?¡±


    Lucas nodded. He wished he could forget that feeling.


    ¡°Imagine that, a thousand fold,¡± Wick said, his grin dropping away, a haunted look appearing in his eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t know how those frontline Skycloaks do it, Ser Rian. Just an hour in that hell changed me in ways I still don¡¯t understand years later. No amount of coin could get me to go back for even a minute.¡±


    ¡°You went to the Blighted Lands?¡±


    ¡°A quest took my party at the time just inside the border,¡± he said. ¡°We weren¡¯t prepared. I didn¡¯t even have my soulshield then. It¡¯s a miracle we all made it out.¡± He gazed off into the distance; North, Lucas realised. ¡°Nothing could get me to go back. Even being this close gives me the shivers, and we¡¯re days away.¡±


    The look in Wick¡¯s eyes then was a terrible thing to behold, and Lucas decided to steer the conversation away, feeling guilty. He cleared his throat. ¡°Your soulshield was impressive.¡±


    Life warmed Wick¡¯s eyes, and he grinned. ¡°It was a bitch to bond with, I tell you. Wearing a set of radiant armour made me arrogant, and I foolishly tried to claim a huge chunk of skymetal, thinking it would make me invincible to have a tool so large. It felt like it nearly tore my soul apart!¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that could happen,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°Oh, it can¡¯t, fear not. It turns out, trying to fit something too significant into your soulspace just means a portion of the object breaks off.¡± Wick paused. ¡°Assuming you have the will to overpower the object, that is. I don¡¯t know what would have happened if I wasn¡¯t so pig-headedly determined on the matter. It was still unpleasant, anyway!¡±


    Soulspace, Lucas thought. ¡°How do you bond with something? Is that exclusive to shieldmasters?¡± As Lucas asked the questions, he realised he knew the answer to the latter. ¡°No, the Skycloak has a bonded sword too, doesn¡¯t she?¡±


    ¡°And Jyn has a Wand,¡± Wick said, eyeing him. ¡°I noticed you performed your floramancy without a focus. I thought at first it was your stick, but you cast magic without it.¡±


    ¡°Never needed one,¡± Lucas said quickly, then added speculation he didn¡¯t think was true: ¡°It might be a floramancy thing.¡±


    Wick hummed. ¡°My uncle taught me people need something to focus their mana, whether it be a wand, shield, sword, bow, or whatever else they give their heart to.¡± Then he shrugged. ¡°But what did he know? He was a shieldmaster. I always thought he was the smartest man in the world when he taught me how to bond my armour and shield, but as time goes by, I realise he was ignorant of many things.¡±


    They fell quiet for a while at that, Lucas feeling anxious after his slipup, Wick contentedly watching their surroundings. The night was still and quiet, the lake a sheet of glass reflecting the pale light glowing through the clouds.


    Eventually, Lucas asked, ¡°Is that why you became a shieldmaster? Your uncle¡¯s tutelage?¡±


    ¡°I did look up to him as a lad, but I hit a growth spurt and he was looking at me by the time my age was in the double digits!¡± Wick chuckled under his breath. ¡°I¡¯m a big brute of a man, Ser Rian. I would have loved to be a swordmaster, slaying beasts with a mighty blade as tall as I am, but protecting people behind my bulk is my true calling. There¡¯s no greater feeling than taking a hit meant for someone else, in my mind. The first time it happened¡­ I¡¯ve been chasing that warmth ever since.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s noble of you,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°My uncle called it masochism,¡± Wick said dryly. ¡°But he could hardly talk. He charged into battle with a shield the size of a dinner plate! Mad fool.¡± He shook his head as if in exasperation, but there was a fond look in his eyes. It suited him much more than the haunted look he¡¯d briefly been afflicted with before. ¡°Shieldmasters go underappreciated. How many stories of us have you heard, compared to tales of wizards and warriors carving paths through legions of beasts? But what out there is more valourous, I ask you, than a man whose mind is singularly focused on defending others?¡±


    ¡°We four warrior types would have been in deep trouble without you back on that hill,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°You would have been thoroughly buggered!¡± Wick raised a fist to the sky. ¡°The shield is truly the best tool! Anyone who would bond with another is a fool!¡±


    ¡°Keep it down, you big oaf,¡± a high voice grumbled from the camp behind them. Rena. ¡°I can feel your voice through the ground.¡±


    ¡°I apologise,¡± Wick whispered, smothering a smile. Lucas couldn¡¯t help but grin back. And then they were stifling giggles like a pair of school boys. It wasn¡¯t even funny, particularly, but Lucas found himself afflicted with the classic ¡®inappropriate time to laugh¡¯ curse, and it was hard to resist its call.


    They settled down after a few minutes, and Lucas felt lighter for it. Like he¡¯d purged something heavy within himself.


    ~~~


    His opportunity to talk to Rena came in the morning two days later, and he already had a question prepared for her. It was a direct one, but he had a feeling she¡¯d be more amenable to that.


    They¡¯d navigated around the lake for a few days, and the Skycloak declared they¡¯d take the opportunity to bathe before parting from the conveniently accessible water. Lucas was unsettled to find that none of the others felt any compunctions undressing in front of each other, and tried not to be too obvious about it as he averted his eyes from the naked women of the party as they stepped into the frigid water. Sometimes, making a big show of not looking was almost as awkward as staring. When he took too long, Wick bluntly informed him that he needed to wash as much as the rest of them. Lucas managed to beg off by claiming he¡¯d keep watch and take his turn when someone finished.


    It was an awkward wait. The plains were flat and empty, giving him a sightline but nothing to see for miles, and he was uncomfortably aware of the splashing sounds behind him. But before long, some footsteps approached, and the Bowmaiden appeared at his side.


    ¡°Have you never seen a naked woman before?¡± she asked.


    Lucas gave her a flat look. She¡¯d changed into a forest green tunic and brown trousers, her bow and quiver dangling from one wrist as she towelled her brown hair with a grey cloth in the other hand. Her honey eyes sparkled with mirth as she stared back at him. He decided to ignore her question, foreseeing teasing in his future if he engaged with her on that subject, no matter how he answered.


    Instead, he asked a question of his own, as planned. ¡°Why are you a part of this quest?¡±


    Her face went blank. ¡°What brought this on, Ser Rian?¡±


    ¡°You obviously dislike the Skycloak and the Order; you¡¯re constantly trying to provoke her, talking down to her, even though she ignores it. Wick said this quest was commissioned, not commanded, so I guess I¡¯m just wondering why you accepted the job.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m a mercenary,¡± Rena snarked. ¡°Carrying out distasteful quests is what we do.¡±


    ¡°So it¡¯s just¡­ you can¡¯t resist needling her?¡± Lucas asked, trying to wrap his head around that. There was also the other side to it: ¡°Then, why did the Skycloak commission you for this? You don¡¯t strike me as the type to keep your views quiet; she must have known you¡¯d be abrasive towards her.¡±


    ¡°She didn¡¯t seek me out specifically. I saw an advertisement for the commission and took it,¡± Rena said. ¡°Apparently, she didn¡¯t have a lot of options, and didn¡¯t fancy going solo.¡±


    ¡°So¡­ you¡¯re here of your choosing? Then we¡¯re back to my original question.¡±


    Rena eyed him for a moment, searching his face. ¡°What do you know of the fall of Duskpoole?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Uh, pretty much nothing,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°It was known for months that the Demon Lord¡¯s army was advancing,¡± Rena said darkly. ¡°Beasts were ravaging the countryside. The frontlines at the borders of Duskshire had collapsed and retreated, and this was known. Commander Bray sent hundreds of messages to Dawnguard for reinforcements.¡± She chuckled, but there was no mirth in the sound. ¡°The Order¡¯s force only arrived when the city was a burning ruin, barely a thousand of us fleeing through the countryside with demons and beasts on our heels. All the rangers but me gone. And they expected us to be grateful. I could see it in their eyes. They thought themselves saviours, heroically coming to our rescue. They wanted songs about it.¡±


    Lucas hesitated, unsure what to say. ¡°Would your people have survived without their arrival?¡±


    Rena pinned him with a glare. She tossed her cloth to the ground and shook out her hair. ¡°A lot more of our people would have survived if they bothered to show up the first time we called for help. I¡¯m not going to praise them for saving a thousand of us when hundreds of thousands were lost due to their dithering.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± Lucas said slowly. ¡°That explains why you hate the Order. I understand that. Your feelings are valid. But why accept this quest, then?¡±


    She looked over her shoulder, where the Skycloak was emerging from the water. Lucas quickly averted his eyes from that sight, not wanting to be a creep.


    ¡°Few Skycloaks still believe Lucas Brown will one day arrive. I was curious if there was something to this one, or if it¡¯s blind faith,¡± Rena spoke softly, as if fearing being overheard. ¡°If it¡¯s the latter, no big deal. Just proves she¡¯s a delusional idiot after all. If there¡¯s something more to it, though, and Lucas Brown, by some miracle, turns out to be there?¡± She patted Lucas on the shoulder. ¡°I¡¯d love to have a word with our prophesied hero.¡±


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    She sauntered away, fussing with her quiver, and Lucas let her go. He¡¯d only gotten to ask one question and hadn¡¯t learned as much as he would¡¯ve liked, but he decided he wasn¡¯t going to have any more one-on-one conversations with the Bowmaiden.


    ~~~


    It took a bit longer to find a good moment to talk to Jyn, which was a bit frustrating since it was arguably the conversation he was looking forward to most. His opportunity came on a stormy night. Dark clouds had built for an entire day, and the Skycloak had hurried them on until they found shelter in an abandoned hamlet that had been halfway reclaimed by a forest. They arrived as the sun was setting, and rain was pelting them hard as arrows by the time Lucas had finished coaxing nearby trees into leaning over the least collapsed building, giving them shelter for the night.


    The rain was an endless hiss on the impromptu roof. Distant thunder rolled. Mist rose from their every breath, the air inside their shelter frigid. Jyn watched them all, huddling in their cloaks, and let out a sigh.


    ¡°Would you like me to light a fire for you?¡± he asked no one in particular. The stars on his dry-looking robes were faintly glowing, and steam was wafting from him. He radiated heat.


    The Skycloak shot him a disapproving stare. She¡¯d wrapped her blue cloak around herself, hood up, and only her eyes were visible.


    ¡°Rain often affects beasts. They may be inactive, even if it''s dark out,¡± he justified himself. ¡°And you people are going to freeze in those wet clothes at this rate.¡±


    ¡°You yourself said their behaviour cannot be predicted,¡± the Skycloak replied. ¡°A light in the darkness may attract them.¡±


    ¡°Anything about our presence may attract them,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Even after all this time, we still don¡¯t know how, exactly, they sense our presence. I¡¯ll be fine regardless, but surely the rest of you would rather be warm too?¡±


    Wick and Rena were staring at the Skycloak with near desperation.


    The woman bore their attention for a moment with blank eyes. ¡°Do you have a technique to create heat for us without fire?¡±


    ¡°Of course I do. But I¡¯d have to be awake to maintain it, and I do not wish to be up all night. Better a fire that burns naturally, lit by my magic.¡±


    ¡°You can maintain it just until we fall asleep,¡± the Skycloak ordered, and it sounded final.


    ¡°As you wish,¡± Jyn said, his lips in a neutral line. ¡°You¡¯ll have to all stay close to me, then.¡±


    While the Skycloak was content where she was, Rena, Wick, and Lucas huddled close to Jyn with their backs to the wall furthest from the crumbled stone building¡¯s door, where wind and rain were blowing in through the cracks of the wooden barricade Lucas had formed from tree branches. Jyn tapped his wand against his sternum, and started radiating heat, and soon Lucas found his eyes drooping. However, he forced himself to stay awake, using the ache of mana flowing through newly-opened pathways to fight off sleep.


    Jyn had pulled out his smoking black book, wisps of smoke wafting out from the pages and drifting under his hood. It looked like a lump of charcoal vaguely in the shape of a large tome, and there were no pages to turn. However, Jyn would periodically move the book as if turning invisible pages, and the trails of smoke would change the way they curled through the air.


    ¡°Your magic is incredible,¡± Lucas whispered, soft as he could. He was on his lonesome on Jyn¡¯s right, while the other two were on his left. Rena had reasoned she wanted to be enclosed between two people for extra warmth.


    Jyn heard him. ¡°Many consider pyromancy a brutish art, good only for burning things. Fools, the lot of them. There¡¯s no such thing as a limited branch of magic. All disciplines have hidden multitudes. I don¡¯t have to see them with my own eyes to know that. Did you know a master hemomancer can learn your entire life¡¯s history through reading your blood? They don¡¯t just swing around red swords..¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t,¡± Lucas said honestly. ¡°What does it feel like to you? Your pyromancy?¡±


    ¡°Like I¡¯m on fire,¡± Jyn said casually.


    Lucas took a moment to digest that. ¡°All the time?¡±


    ¡°Oh yes. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve gotten used to it. Pyromancy is all about lighting and tending an inner flame in your soul at the novice level¡ªthey call it the heart¡¯s flame, because that¡¯s where it begins. Many keep it there, because that¡¯s all they need to throw some basic fireballs around, and they lack imagination, creativity. Fire can do so much more.¡± He closed his book, fanning out a puff of smoke that billowed away into the air. ¡°At this point, my entire soul¡¯s on fire. My mana is fire. It¡¯s been this way so long I don¡¯t remember what it¡¯s like not to be burning.¡±


    ¡°Is your body real, then? Or is the form you showed against the beast pack the real you?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re both me,¡± Jyn said. He was smiling, which wasn¡¯t something Lucas had seen often. The room felt warmer. ¡°My body and soul are fire, but they weren¡¯t always so. Mana is life, but it¡¯s also memory. It remembers what my body was. The shape I¡¯m supposed to be, and how that shape works; thus, I breathe, eat, and sleep. It¡¯s no easy feat to shift back once I¡¯ve given myself to the flames, but I managed it, after a fashion, and it¡¯s gotten, ah, less harsh since.. What you¡¯re seeing at this moment is the real me, but it¡¯s also an illusion, from a certain perspective.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a bit contradictory,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°It¡¯s magic,¡± Jyn said with a shrug. ¡°Defying the conventional logic of the world and bending it to our will is the whole point.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Lucas said, mulling over Jyn¡¯s words for a moment. Conventional logic. ¡°Is it easier to command fire when it¡¯s acting as it¡¯s¡­ supposed to? I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s the right word.¡±


    Jyn seemed to understand. ¡°Fire wishes to burn. The simplest technique an amateur can learn is to use their mana to fuel an existing fire, making it larger, hotter, and so on. It¡¯s the same in floramancy, I imagine?¡±


    Lucas nodded.


    ¡°Most arcane arts are that way. Theoretically, a Wandmaster could pursue basic competence in every branch of magic, merely using their mana to encourage the natural order of the world to do more. Grow plants faster without sunlight, stoke fires hotter without kindling. Useful tricks, but most men want to do more than that. Us included, yes?¡±


    ¡°So¡­ if you go beyond basic techniques, you¡¯re locked into that branch of magic?¡± Lucas asked, a little alarmed. It came out louder than he intended, and he winced, checking he hadn¡¯t woken anyone up. Everything seemed fine, but his relief was short lived, overcome by disappointment.


    Floramancy was amazing, but he¡¯d been really liking the idea of pursuing multiple magical disciplines. But then, with the way he¡¯d been able to work with bones¡­ Didn¡¯t that mean he¡¯d started down two paths of magic already? Or were they just similar applications of a basic mana technique?


    Lucas thought of the Gift, and what the Skycloak had said about Stars. It felt like he should be able to explore more than one magic.


    ¡°You¡¯ve not had much of a magical education, have you, Ser Rian?¡± Jyn observed, frowning. With his pale skin and blue lips, the expression was oddly cartoonish.


    ¡°There weren¡¯t any Wandmasters around where I grew up,¡± Lucas said. Of course, there wasn¡¯t even magic where he grew up. Though some modern technology might as well have been, as far as he was concerned.


    ¡°Hm. From a certain perspective, that¡¯s a good thing. Quite apart from how you would¡¯ve been treated for your affinity for floramancy, the College would have pushed you down a rigid path of discipline and order, more likely than not. Those old fools can¡¯t stand a bit of creativity.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve mentioned the college a few times,¡± Lucas said slowly. ¡°You don¡¯t like them?¡±


    Jyn¡¯s frown abruptly flipped into a wry smile. ¡°You do not want me to start listing my grievances with the College, lad.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d like to know what the College is, at least.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll have to tell me about the backwater hovel you hail from someday, where people hear of the spoils of the Lost City and not the College of Wands.¡±


    Lucas just shrugged, heart suddenly thudding in his chest.


    Mercifully, Jyn let it go, more eager to air his grievances with the apparently famous organisation. ¡°The College of Wands is an organisation dedicated to the research and teaching of magic. Their competence in either of their stated purposes is questionable, in my humble opinion, but that¡¯s neither here nor there. They hoard knowledge, and only one inducted into their august ranks by slaving through the schooling program, then an apprenticeship, then a mastery, can have access to it. It¡¯s unconscionable.¡±


    It sounded like a magical university to Lucas, which he supposed was implied in the name. ¡°You think they¡¯re too rigid?¡±


    ¡°In both research and teaching, yes. Forbidding avenues of magical experimentation is just pathetic. Magic is personal. It¡¯s yours. Your experiences, your understanding. No one should be able to tell you what you should and shouldn¡¯t do with it. My best teacher was a Wandmaiden who merely pointed out what had been proved to work before and directed me away from paths that she knew led nowhere, then let me pursue the ideas that most intrigued me.¡±


    ¡°I guess it¡¯s a question of what they actually want. What are the College¡¯s goals? Why do they train people and research magic?¡±


    ¡°That,¡± Jyn said, ¡°is a good question. If you ever manage to get a non-cryptic word out of the High Council, be sure to pass it on to me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do that,¡± Lucas said. A cold wind flashed through the room, and he shivered, huddling a little closer to the living radiator without shame. Jyn didn¡¯t seem to mind. ¡°So what¡¯s the technique you¡¯re using right now to warm things up?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m merely taking the heat from my soul and letting it expand in a controlled manner,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Is it a comfortable heat? I can provide more.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± Lucas waved him off. ¡°I¡¯m curious though, how do you even do it? What goes into forming a¡­¡±


    ¡°Heart¡¯s flame?¡±


    ¡°Yes. That. I wouldn¡¯t even know where to begin.¡±


    ¡°Well, how did you begin working your floramancy?¡±


    ¡°I felt the mana in some plants,¡± Lucas said with a blink. ¡°Is it the same with pyromancy? Finding the mana in flames and copying it to your soul, somehow?¡±


    ¡°Somewhat. With work, one¡¯s mana slowly attunes to the fire, making pyromantic workings simpler and simpler, while making other workings more difficult. Working with heat has granted me access to some brontomancy techniques, which in turn has some small overlap with ferramancy, enough for minor certifications from the college, but ultimately these are just creative applications of my burning soul.¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± Lucas said. That sounded so simple. All of a sudden, he really wished the Skycloak had let Jyn light a fire.


    ~~~


    The Skycloak was the last on his list, and frankly he wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to talk with her at all. Out of all of them, she seemed most likely to realise who he was. The others were knowledgeable enough about the world, but she claimed that she had learned all she possibly could in order to act as a guide to the Chosen One upon his arrival. It felt like he was walking on eggshells whenever he was around her, waiting for the moment they¡¯d crack and he¡¯d go plunging through the ground.


    It probably wouldn¡¯t be anything so dramatic, he told himself. She was a believer, after all. In the worst case, she¡¯d thrust him into a position of immense responsibility and expect him to rise to the challenge regardless of how he felt on the matter.


    The problem was, he wasn¡¯t willing to trust someone who was part of the organisation that had brought him here. That had brought Claire, Rian, Jamie, and Aarya here. It didn¡¯t matter how desperate they¡¯d been, he knew he was going to struggle to find any forgiveness in him for his kidnappers. Sympathy, yes, absolutely. He had empathy in spades.


    But they could have simply asked. That was what bothered him the most. He probably would¡¯ve been just as baffled that he¡¯d been selected by who or what decided who the world¡¯s saviour was to be, but he liked to think he was a good enough person that he would have answered the call. Snatching him out of his kitchen hadn¡¯t endeared him to them much.


    Lucas knew himself. He¡¯d get involved in all this somehow since he had the power to take action and make change. But it would be on his terms.


    All of that that wasn¡¯t even mentioning how they¡¯d evidently fucked it up. A hundred years had passed since they¡¯d hatched their insane plan, and things had evidently gone to shit.


    Still, Lucas knew she had information, and he wanted to get it.


    They¡¯d moved on the morning after the storm. The worst of the rain had passed, but it had still been drizzling and miserable, which set the tone for the next few days of travel. Cold and wet, Lucas hadn¡¯t paid much attention to his surroundings whether they were walking or resting, focusing instead on shaping his internal mana, opening up as many pathways as he could. The ones at the top of his arm were far wider now, almost as wide as his main channels. There was a massive disparity compared to the rest of his body; he felt like he was wearing overinflated armbands in his soul.


    It was as they were exiting a dark, damp forest and Rena called the group to a halt that he realised time was running out for him to talk to the Skycloak. The Bowmaiden pointed out something on the horizon, her keen eyes having spotted it through the rain before anyone else.


    There, between two grassy hills, five green fingers reached to the heavens, towering over the landscape for miles around. They were all too familiar. Barely a few weeks ago, Lucas had solemnly wished he¡¯d never see them again, and here he was. The city couldn''t be more than a few miles away, all of it wild grassland. Not a long trip at all.


    The emotion he felt then wasn¡¯t fear, exactly. He wasn¡¯t scared of the place, confident enough in his floramancy to see him through even before the improvements he¡¯d made since leaving. It was more a kind of dull dread. The apprehension of knowing you had to do something you really didn¡¯t want to do.


    The group moved on into the grassy meadows, buoyed by the fact their destination was finally in sight, and Lucas slowed so he was walking alongside the Skycloak. She regarded him with an arched eyebrow, waiting patiently. Her blue hood was up, and droplets of water were cascading down the back of her head. None dropped over her face, somehow.


    ¡°Can you tell me anything about this demon I¡¯m going to be facing?¡± he asked grimly. He didn''t feel particularly inclined to try the smalltalk tack with her. She didn''t seem like she''d be receptive anyway.


    ¡°Not much is known about the demon itself, truth be told. Just the history,¡± she said, somewhat absently. Her gaze kept straying to those five distant towers. ¡°According to our records, first warnings of its appearance were noted in the summer of 1048AC. At first, it was limited to plants growing too fast. But soon they started to realise the plants were trying to connect with each other, and when they did, they would share traits. Floramancers were called in, but couldn¡¯t find the root of the issue.


    ¡°Matters escalated rapidly. Pentaburgh boasted world-renowned glass gardens full of exotic plants, and we believe the demon managed to gain influence there some time in the winter, plants there growing rapidly despite multiple floramancers present to tend the gardens. Most all who have studied the fall of Pentaburgh agree the outbreak could have been stopped here, but the city faced catastrophes on multiple fronts.


    ¡°Plague afflicted the city despite the presence of master biomancers. The walls fell to a demon attack despite the presence of a large cadre of geomancers. The waterways were spoiled by rotting creatures despite the careful tending of hydromancers. The city was poised to fall even before the outbreak of the plant demon; it was just the final straw.


    ¡°In a way, it can be seen as a boon. The people were forced to evacuate, and the demon filled the city with its plants, preventing the greater demon horde from tearing the place down and salting the earth. It attacked them as surely as it did anyone else.¡±


    Lucas frowned as he took all that in. ¡°That doesn¡¯t tell me much about how to deal with it.¡±


    ¡°If we knew how to deal with it, Ser Rian, we would have a long time ago.¡±


    ¡°I get that,¡± Lucas said, frustrated. He already knew he could at least survive it. It would''ve been nice to gain some insight on how to exorcise it, if it really was a demon. He wasn''t so sure. ¡°Can you tell me the difference between beasts and demons?¡±


    She looked at him. ¡°You¡¯re quite ignorant of commonly known things,¡± she said. It wasn¡¯t quite the last thing he wanted to hear from her, but it was down there among the worst things she could have said.


    At least he¡¯d prepared a response for it. He tried not to let the alarm show on his face as he spoke, affecting indignance instead. ¡°I¡¯m a country bumpkin. I know. Sorry for being uneducated.¡±


    ¡°I apologise. I meant no offence,¡± the Skycloak said with a shallow bow, her right hand held to her heart. ¡°To put it simply, a beast is a construct of mana that has been warped by chaos, and a demon is a being that uses chaos to warp mana.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± He was going to say unhelpful, but it did succinctly explain. ¡°So demons create beasts?¡±


    ¡°They do.¡±


    ¡°And so the Demon Lord is the guy who¡¯s best at that, I suppose?¡±


    ¡°That is also common knowledge,¡± the Skycloak said mildly.


    Lucas ignored her. ¡°And the Demon Lord and his demons live in the Blighted Lands.¡±


    The Skycloak looked at him steadily.


    ¡°Wick implied you might have fought there. On the frontlines.¡±


    ¡°I have.¡±


    ¡°What exactly is the Blighted Lands? What¡¯s there?¡±


    ¡°Chaos,¡± she told him, and would say no more on the matter.

 21: Ambulate (4)

    It took them the better part of a day to reach the city, with a stop to camp for the night along the way. There was a nervous energy in the party as they came closer to their destination, and by their tired faces the next morning he suspected they got less sleep than they would¡¯ve liked.


    Himself, Lucas mostly felt a dull resignation. He¡¯d been here before¡ªspent a week inside the verdant overgrowth¡ªand his awe for Pentaburgh¡¯s grand architecture had worn off long ago. The domed hall he¡¯d woken in still loomed large in his mind, but the idea of returning there brought him little ardour. Quite the opposite.


    Even Jamie didn¡¯t seem to be enthused about coming back here, his hackles rising. It sent an odd sensation through Lucas¡¯ mana system, tinged with feline emotion. His little monstercat friend was scared, which made Lucas feel awful. He tried to send comfort through their bond, but wasn¡¯t sure if it worked. The creature seemed bigger. More¡­ more. He didn¡¯t know what to make of that.


    The party¡¯s anticipation only grew as they navigated the undulating hills on their approach. It felt like every time they crested the top of a grassy hill the city loomed twice as large, and they were soon able to pick out details.


    ¡°I see the Great Summoning Hall,¡± Wick said with reverence. ¡°It must be enormous.¡±


    ¡°If it weren¡¯t for that and the towers, you might not spot the city at all from a distance; it¡¯d blend in with the hills,¡± Rena said, squinting through the morning haze. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s why they call it the Lost City. I always thought it was because the city had been lost to a demon.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m thankful we happened across a floramancer,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Burning my way through that would have been an arduous task.¡±


    The Skycloak said nothing, her eyes thoughtful. Lucas found he had nothing to contribute either. He was growing less enthusiastic by the second, cursing his past self for going along with this. And then immediately feeling like a whiny shithead when the thought passed; no matter how he felt about the place, he wasn¡¯t going to let it claim anyone else. There¡¯d be no more abandoned bones.


    He was, on the other hand, trying to come up with ways to get the party to abandon their quest at the last moment. He wasn¡¯t having much luck.


    The city grew and grew, the towers looming ever higher. Eventually the hills flattened out and they stepped out onto a wildly overgrown flat plain about a mile long that had probably once been farmland. The city was a green blob in the distance, with five fingers spearing up to the sky, only the marble white of the domed keep breaking the pattern of greens and blues. The final stretch was covered in silence, each of the other members of the party lost in their thoughts.


    It struck him then that none of the others had actually been here. The city was a story to them. A legend, even. All they knew of it were from second-hand accounts, and those accounts weren¡¯t necessarily reliable. As far as he knew, he could be the only person alive who¡¯d been inside and made it out alive. It was entirely possible he was the world¡¯s foremost expert on the interior of Pentaburgh.


    Natural bushes and brambles posed little obstacle to Lucas¡¯ floramancy, and they arrived at the base of the walls when the sun was just reaching its zenith, illuminating the massed tangle of verdure that seemed too big to be real. The party was still for a long time, all of its members staring at the solid wall of plants before them.


    Lucas had seen this place before and felt little more than loathing for it now, but he had to admit it was quite the sight, especially considering it was seemingly an important place to his comrades. It hit him harder than he thought it would. It was one thing for it to sit in his memory, but to be this close to the dense mass of foliage in real life still afflicted him with memories he¡¯d rather stay buried. He was being irrational, he told himself. He¡¯d survived in this place when he barely had a clue what he was doing. The demon infecting the plants hadn¡¯t been able to get him then, and it certainly wouldn¡¯t now.


    It was hard for those thoughts to take root when he was staring at a working of floramancy so vast it was impossible to even comprehend how it was done; he appreciated its scale all the more now that his understanding of plant magic had grown. The sheer power required to cover so much ground, to control so many plants¡­ It had Lucas wondering how this world had survived a hundred years, if demons could perform feats like this.


    The overgrowth had spilled out of the city like a flood, gradually declining in height from the outer walls until there was just a tangle of vines and branches snaking across the dirt. The actual walls of the city were barely visible beneath the giant vines, looking like a long row of cramped green fangs where much of the stone had fallen away. The most intact parts of the walls had to be ten metres high, and from here little of the innards of the city were visible, just two of the nearer towers looming large.


    Wick broke the silence with an uncharacteristically frightful tone. ¡°The stories don¡¯t do it justice.¡±


    ¡°Yes. While I won¡¯t give up my disdain for superstitious fools, I can understand how floramancy gained the stigma it did among the uneducated, after seeing it with my own eyes,¡± Jyn said. ¡°No offence meant, Ser Rian.¡±


    ¡°None taken,¡± Lucas said. He kind of got it too, imagining mediaeval peasants standing where he stood, beholding this sight. Or running from it, rather.


    The Skycloak drew in a deep breath, then spent a moment with her head bowed. When she looked up once more, her eyes were filled with determination. ¡°Let¡¯s go over our plans,¡± she said. Reaching into her cloak, she pulled out a rolled up scroll and kneeled down to flatten it on the grass. It was a map drawn on thick, cloth-like paper, and Lucas was shocked to see how detailed and precise it was. He was even more shocked when the Skycloak swiped a finger across a line at the side of the drawing, and the map zoomed out.


    Jyn noticed his bafflement. ¡°Iconomancy,¡± he said. ¡°The magic of symbols and images. Very useful, if too expensive to be practical for most of us.¡±


    The other three crouched around it at either side, Jyn and Rena on opposite ends, and Jyn across from the Skycloak. Lucas ended up taking a position behind the Skycloak. She moved aside a little so he didn¡¯t have to lean over her shoulder.


    The city, Lucas realised as he looked at the map, was a giant pentagon divided into five concentric zones by smaller pentagonal walls, with five straight walls that ran from the central pentagon at the centre to the points of the pentagonal outer walls further dividing the city.


    Lucas frowned at the map. That¡­ wasn¡¯t the impression of the city he¡¯d gotten from piggybacking on the plant life¡¯s connected mana.


    It must be an old drawing. The plants have probably torn down half these walls or more.


    ¡°We approached from the West,¡± the Skycloak said, tapping her finger against the Western wall of the city plan. She glanced up at the city itself with a grimace. ¡°But we don¡¯t know precisely where we stand right now, and landmarks will be difficult to discern. If we can locate Rian¡¯s Gate, we¡¯ll have a much easier time following the initial plan.¡±


    ¡°No guarantee it¡¯s still standing,¡± Rena said, lacking any of the usual hostility she showed towards the Skycloak.


    ¡°This is the moment when we must hear your capabilities with floramancy, Ser Rian,¡± Jyn said.


    Lucas nodded slowly, taking a moment to think on his answer. ¡°It¡¯s pretty simple. By pushing my mana out in a bubble around me, I can feel and manipulate nearby plant life.¡±


    ¡°Range?¡± the Skycloak asked.


    ¡°About ten metres right now. So far, any plant within reach of my mana is mine to control as I see fit. It¡¯s easier to get a plant to do something it knows how to do, but I can push for unnatural changes and behaviours with more mana. Plants don¡¯t have that much will in them to resist. It¡¯s there, but easily overcome.¡±


    ¡°Do you believe you can keep the demon¡¯s plants off of us? It¡¯s important you be honest here,¡± the Skycloak said.


    Lucas knew he could, but he suspected voicing that would be construed as overconfidence. As far as they knew, he had no reason to be so certain. It was meant to be a demon, after all. ¡°I think so,¡± he said instead. He looked at the overgrowth overflowing the walls. ¡°I can try now?¡± he offered.


    The Skycloak nodded, and Lucas set to the task. It was a simple enough matter to infuse his mana into the plants, but he¡¯d forgotten the feeling of another powerful will resisting him. Regular plants were pretty much docile, passive. It was hard to even call their instincts and desires will, compared to the (supposedly) demonic intelligence that watched over the plants in Pentaburgh.


    But he¡¯d been able to overpower it within days of discovering floramancy, and really the difference here was comparable to having been pouring water through empty pipes for days, only to find himself dealing with pipes that already had water in them. With a bit of effort, he forced the demon¡¯s influence away and commanded the plants in his range to retract with a bit of mana to sweeten the deal. The nearby vines started crawling backwards, shrinking.


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    ¡°It works,¡± Lucas said, feeling no triumph and not bothering to affect any. If anything, he was growing confused. From his experiences with beasts, he expected something similar with demons. But there was no feeling of chaos here, no warped or dark mana. It was just¡­ floramancy. He voiced the question on his mind as he looked back at a suddenly more confident-looking group, ¡°Can demons use magic?¡±


    ¡°They can,¡± the Skycloak said, staring down at her map with a thoughtful expression.


    ¡°Is their magic the same as ours?¡±


    ¡°There are similarities,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Did you feel something strange in the plants?¡±


    Lucas shook his head. ¡°It didn¡¯t feel strange to me at all. That¡¯s the problem.¡±


    ¡°Demonic influence can be a subtle, insidious thing,¡± the Skycloak said. ¡°They are not mindless beasts, but cunning and intelligent monsters, and that¡¯s what makes them so dangerous.¡±


    Lucas looked back at the city. He wasn¡¯t so sure that was the case here. One of his first thoughts when battling with the overgrowth had been that it wasn¡¯t particularly intelligent at all. But if the plants weren¡¯t a demon¡¯s ploy, what was going on here?


    Curiosity taking him, Lucas retracted his mana to let the other will flow back in, then approached the nearest plant and placed his hand on it. With a pulse of mana, the vast network of plants covering the city appeared in his mind¡¯s eye. It was a dizzying amount of mana, flowing through hundreds or even thousands of miles of pathways, forming one enormous mana system that connected an entire ecosystem of plants together.


    Before, he¡¯d used it primarily as a guide to orient himself in an unfamiliar place, and had piggy-backed on its connections between plants to force them to grow in ways that should have been physically impossible. Now, he watched the flow of the mana without interfering, focusing on where it went and the intentions behind it. The network was too vast to wrap his head around with his current understanding, so he narrowed his mana sense down to a smaller area, observing the plants nearby to him as the greater will worked on them.


    Without his own will obstructing it, the supposedly demonic mana simply ordered the plants back into the shape it wanted them to be in. But why did it want them back in that shape? He didn¡¯t feel like there was a greater picture here, no wider plan. It wasn¡¯t even really reacting to him. It was just¡­ reverting to default. Following a prewritten routine.


    Lucas thought back to the times when it had adapted. Physically destroying plants with his stick had prompted it to retaliate with much more cunning than it was showing here. It had even almost got him, striking when an opportunity arose with Lucas¡¯ cocky mistake. He¡¯d lost his stick only for a moment, and it had seized its chance.


    Was that it? It was reacting to threats, and floramancy didn¡¯t register? It didn¡¯t quite fit with what the others had told him, but¡­


    ¡°Ser Jyn,¡± Lucas called out, and the party paused. They¡¯d been in quiet discussion, leaving Lucas to his magic. ¡°Can you do me a favour, and burn a plant?¡±


    There was a moment of silence. ¡°Will any plant do?¡±


    ¡°One within my range,¡± Lucas said. ¡°I want to see how it reacts to your fire.¡±


    A second later, a mote of flame the size of a golf ball struck a nearby vine. It caught alight immediately, the mana infused in the technique presumably fueling the fire to burn hotter and longer than it otherwise would, allowing it to consume the plant. Judging by the heat it gave off, it likely would have gone on to burn away much of the plant life connecting to the affected plant, given time.


    But the greater will in the plants reacted immediately.


    Mana surged into the burning area from all directions, and the changes in the plants were faster than Lucas had ever seen, practically instant. The area directly surrounding the fire blackened and cracked, weeping glue-like white sap that gave off a chemical smell. Where it dripped on the fire, it expanded, swallowing the flame and, Lucas realised with shock, draining the mana Jyn had powered it with. The excess mana was carried back into the plants, where it grew into a bulbous light blue berry. The berry engorged with mana, and after a moment it burst, spurting out a thin stream of pale liquid that arced through the air like it¡¯d been shot from a water pistol.


    There was a yelp behind him, and Lucas spun to find a rapidly expanding cloud of shimmering mist wafting up from where the liquid had landed, right on the spot Jyn had been crouched in. The Wandmaster was lying in the grass to one side, with Wick¡¯s arm around his neck, having pulled him away. Jyn stared at the glittering lights dancing in the mist, and a wry smile pulled at his blue lips.


    ¡°Iceblooms. A species from the far, far North. Known for the fire retardant juice in their berries,¡± Jyn said with a shaky laugh. ¡°Inconvenient for a typical pyromancer. For me¡­¡±


    A man made of fire would¡¯ve been in deep trouble, Lucas thought. He abruptly found himself lending more credence to the demon plant theory. He swallowed, taking in the stunned members of the party. ¡°You guys really did need a floramancer,¡± he said.


    All four of them nodded.


    ~~~


    They circled the city as a group, sticking close together. If the others had been wary of the demon plants before, they were outright paranoid now. Lucas was confident that it wouldn¡¯t react with hostility to his floramancy¡ªin fact it likely wouldn¡¯t do anything unless provoked¡ªbut the Skycloak didn¡¯t want to take the chance and no one was gainsaying her. Therefore, they kept a good distance from the walls as they walked.


    Lucas had piggybacked on the plant demon¡¯s mana to seek out the gate that had been mentioned¡ªRian¡¯s Gate, one of five named after the prophesied heroes after four of the five¡¯s arrival¡ªbut when he¡¯d awkwardly explained this technique to the Skycloak, she¡¯d instead directed him to seek out another, smaller entrance she¡¯d described called the Worm¡¯s Tunnel. Apparently, they¡¯d find an easier route with that as their starting point.


    The goal was, the Skycloak explained as they walked, to reach the summoning array itself. ¡°I wish to study it myself, in person.¡± She glanced at Jyn. ¡°See it with my own eyes, and come to my own conclusions.¡±


    ¡°Admirable,¡± the Wandmaster said without looking back. He¡¯d been out of sorts ever since the earlier incident; Lucas reckoned he¡¯d been working under the assumption he could burn away the plants, seeing himself as a greater pyromancer than any who¡¯d previously tried. Clipped, one-word answers seemed to be his habit when he was discomfited.


    Rena prowled at the front of the group like a cat on the hunt, her magically-enhanced eyes trained ahead. She had a blood red arrow nocked, though her bow was pointed down. ¡°Is there anything in particular you expect to find?¡±


    ¡°Records on the summoning array used are vague on the details. Lady Claire was quite adamant about restricting access to knowledge of libremancy. I gather she wanted no more attempts at summoning.¡±


    ¡°And you took the opportunity afforded by Lady Claire leaving for whatever quest she¡¯s on,¡± Rena said without looking back.


    ¡°So you know what Lady Claire¡¯s up to, after all?¡± Wick asked. He was eyeing the overgrown city like the vines would come to life and attack at any moment. Lucas had given up trying to verbally reassure the man, instead placing himself a the right of the group, closest to the city.


    He had to remind himself that these people had grown up with stories of the Lost City and the lives it had claimed. He knew it could kill, too. Fifty two graves.


    ¡°I never said I didn¡¯t,¡± said the Skycloak. ¡°But it¡¯s irrelevant. Our quest is here. I intended to make a copy of the summoning array, but¡­¡± she trailed off, uncharacteristically hesitant. ¡°I still wish to, but that may not be viable.¡±


    ¡°Underestimated the plant demon, eh?¡± Wick said. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Swordmaiden. It seems that everyone does. Hells, we all did.¡±


    They arrived at the site of the Worm¡¯s Tunnel a few hours after they¡¯d first reached the city walls. It would¡¯ve been impossible to find without Lucas¡¯ magic letting him sense through the plant network and the Skycloak already knowing what to look for; barely bigger than a set of double doors, it hid at the bottom of a section of wall at the North-West of the city, and apparently it had once been covered up with various magic doors that wouldn¡¯t open except for people who knew secret unlocking techniques that had been exclusive to an order of thieves. The Worms, they¡¯d called themselves. Naturally, the Skycloak knew these methods, found in a memoir written decades ago by the former leader of the group when he was on his deathbed.


    Lucas was sure it would have been a very impressive thing to see, if the secret passage hadn¡¯t already been busted open by the demon plants. A huge vine wide enough to fill up most of the corridor had smashed it all out of the way, which had made the tunnel remarkably easy to spot during his search. The Skycloak had given no outward sign of disappointment to this discovery, but Lucas wondered.


    Giant vine aside, the entrance was covered by a thicket of bushes so dense it was practically a solid mass of plant the size of a block of houses. It took some time and effort to unravel the mess of tangled twigs enough to form a tunnel to the tunnel, and he had his work cut out for him in moving the massive vine after that. Since it was already well into the afternoon by that point, the Skycloak bade them camp for the night and breach the city in the morning.


    The party had stayed well back as Lucas worked, and they insisted on moving away even further to camp. There was some concern about underground roots. Lucas didn¡¯t know how they were going to handle camping inside the city if just this much was a problem, but he was outvoted and didn¡¯t feel like sleeping alone without a lookout.


    They set out away from the city once more, which gave Lucas a paradoxical feeling, both happy and frustrated. He was glad to put the city at his back, holding a tiny hope that his new comrades might abandon their plan to explore it and head off elsewhere. On the other hand, he knew that wasn¡¯t going to happen and couldn¡¯t help his exasperation at the extra walking. It didn¡¯t matter if they were a metre or a mile away, the plants wouldn¡¯t attack outside the network¡¯s area of influence.


    Quite to his surprise, this ended up causing somewhat of an unanticipated problem for him from an angle he hadn¡¯t even considered. It was so stupid. This should have been one of the first things he thought of, but he¡¯d been so disturbed by his experiences that he¡¯d been putting it out of mind.


    Rena was at the front of the group, her light-footed leaps carrying her further than they naturally should have, and she rounded, opening her mouth to speak. There, she paused, cocking her head to one side, her brows furrowing, mouth clicking shut as she squinted back at the city. ¡°There¡¯s something at the base of one of the walls,¡± she said. ¡°On the ground. Little stones, arranged in rows. About fifty of them, I¡¯d say?¡±


    Lucas¡¯ heart dropped as he followed her gaze. He hadn¡¯t recognised the scenery on the walk out here, but looking back there were distantly familiar landmarks. Nothing that stood out, necessarily, just things he¡¯d unconsciously noted as he passed them; particular bushes, small trees, and hills. Panning his gaze from the plains at their North and West to the city wall at their East, he could almost trace the line he¡¯d taken away from the city, what felt like a lifetime ago now.


    And at one end of that path were the graves he¡¯d dug before he left.

 22: Immolate (1)

    Rena was moving before Lucas could think of anything to say that might stop her. His tongue had tied itself in a knot. He could only watch as she bounded across the grassland, heading back towards the city as if her previous apprehension from the demon plants was a distant memory. In a matter of seconds, she was far enough away that he would¡¯ve had to shout for her to hear him. The others followed with varying degrees of curiosity.


    Lucas genuinely considered running away then. The weight of the future was getting heavier by the second; he could see his paths forward narrowing as the party drew further away from him, and the urge to turn and sprint in the other direction was near irresistible.


    Reason won out. Running was a stupid idea; it¡¯d only worsen his position. It would be better if he was there to deflect them, somehow.


    Lucas hastened to catch up. His heart was racing, and he took deep breaths to try and calm himself. This wasn¡¯t a moment for panic. He didn¡¯t even know why he was reacting so strongly. It was ridiculous. These people¡ªor at least some of them¡ªwould see him as a chosen saviour. They¡¯d welcome the discovery, surely?


    The problem was, he thought to himself, being a chosen saviour was a rather daunting prospect. It didn¡¯t feel like the kind of thing that was supposed to happen to an average man like Lucas Brown. Jamie? He could see it. Rian? Surely the first name on the ¡®prophesied to save the world¡¯ list. Aarya was so charismatic and charming, she¡¯d literally been voted most likely to be a celebrity in their last year of secondary school. Claire had a full scholarship at Oxford University.


    Why was there so much emphasis being placed on Lucas¡¯ arrival? Was it just because he hadn¡¯t shown up with the others at first, and his abilities had gotten mythologised in the absence of the real thing? Or was it as the Skycloak had claimed, and the power they¡¯d given him was just that much of a difference maker?


    It didn¡¯t matter, really. The end result was the same, and he wasn¡¯t sure he was ready to face it. It would¡¯ve been one thing if he¡¯d shown up when he was supposed to, with his friends at his side. Together, they could¡¯ve faced anything.


    But that was the story of Lucas¡¯ life. Always late when he was needed.


    Potential approaches were warring within his mind, and no clear victor was forthcoming by the time he rejoined the back of the group, coming alongside the Skycloak. She glanced at him with a searching look, and another idea came to him.


    He could just tell them. Reveal himself right here, right now. Apologise for the deception, and explain that he hadn¡¯t been sure how far he could trust any of them.


    The problem with that was it was true, and it remained so. He didn¡¯t know how far he could trust any of them. Wick seemed an amiable fellow. Jyn was generally helpful. The Skycloak was free with her knowledge. Even Rena, the most abrasive of the lot, hadn¡¯t treated him poorly at any point.


    But what did that mean, when they thought he was just some country bumpkin plant mage who didn¡¯t know shit about the world? Sure, they probably suspected he was hiding something, the Skycloak most of all, but how would their attitude change if they knew he was the man supposedly destined to save their world?


    Lucas wanted to help. He really did. If the state of this world was as dire as had been implied and the potential the Gift granted him was as powerful as believed, turning his back on it would be reprehensible.


    So he told himself, but when the moment seemed to have come, the weight of it was crushing him. The burden was squeezing his thundering heart, gripping his lungs until he felt breathless. His vision tunnelled, the unavoidable future stretching out ahead, and it would start with that graveyard.


    He wasn¡¯t ready for this. He wanted to just be Ser Rian, just some guy with weird rare magic and a dearth of common knowledge.


    ¡°Ser Rian?¡± Wick¡¯s voice sounded a thousand miles away.


    Lucas delved into his mana, breathing deeply. He was acting weird, attracting attention to himself, making the problem worse. He slowed his mana throughout his body, finding comfort in the strength, the solidity it gave him. It made him feel heavy, tethered in the moment. More present. He allowed himself to get lost in the sensation, as if drawing his mind away, disconnecting from his emotions and physiological reactions.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Lucas¡¯ voice said at his brain¡¯s command. It didn¡¯t come out trembling. That was good.


    Clarity settled on him as he distanced himself from his body, his mind focused on his mana. It was far easier to fall into this quasi-meditative state than it had once been. The Gift had its benefits beyond magic. He had to keep that in mind; so much of his attention had been on arcane pursuits, when he could have been improving himself in other areas.


    ¡°Are you guys sure you want to go back towards the city?¡± he tried. ¡°The plants are one thing, but if there¡¯s something over there I can¡¯t deal with¡­¡±


    Rena shot him a withering look. ¡°They¡¯re stones.¡±


    ¡°Right. So why¡¯s it so important to you to go and investigate them right now? Just curious.¡±


    Four sets of eyes were on him now. Wick spoke next. ¡°Stones arranged unnaturally like that implies someone was here recently to place them.¡±


    ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Lucas said. ¡°They could¡¯ve been placed at any time.¡±


    ¡°And we¡¯re investigating to find out,¡± Rena said, eyeing him like he¡¯d lost his wits. He kind of had. ¡°We can¡¯t safely make camp for the night if there¡¯s some bandits stupid enough to come this far North around.¡±


    Lucas had nothing to say to that. It had been a pathetic attempt anyway, a hopeless delaying tactic. Even if he¡¯d somehow succeeded, they would¡¯ve simply investigated later instead.


    The group¡¯s attention turned away from him as they approached the gravesite, and Lucas¡¯ options narrowed even further. It didn¡¯t seem to matter so much, now. With the calm afforded him by conscious dissociation, he could approach his potential choices more rationally.


    First off, he had to tell himself there was no guarantee of discovery. He had already considered the possibility, but quickly discarded it as panic started to set in.


    A set of grave sites wouldn¡¯t necessarily be immediately identified as recently dug; at least two weeks had passed, and that was enough time for grass to partly grow back. In the event their recentness was discovered, that didn¡¯t necessarily mean their minds would immediately go to someone extracting bodies from the city and burying them out here. If their minds did go in that direction, they wouldn¡¯t necessarily make the logical leap to it being Lucas Brown who had done the digging.


    And in the extremely unlikely event that they did make that leap, the chances that they¡¯d then make the connection between the novice plant mage they knew as Ser Rian and Lucas Brown were tiny. To them, he was just a mildly useful country hick in dirty, self-woven clothes. How could they possibly believe him to be the chosen saviour of their world? If anything, they¡¯d get mad at him for making such a claim. Lucas mentally patted himself on the back for refraining from confessing.


    Peace settled over him as all those thoughts coalesced and implanted a simple fact in his brain: the chances of them discovering him here were so slim they might as well be zero. There was no use panicking, especially when he was here to affect the outcome himself.


    That all went out the window the moment they actually reached the gravesite.


    ¡°They¡¯re graves,¡± Wick said with horror in his voice. ¡°So many, with no fifth rites?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re recent,¡± Rena said, her eyes darting around the scene. ¡°Not fresh, but dug within a month at most.¡±


    Jyn¡¯s wand was poking out from his voluminous sleeve, and he was waving it in a slow circle. The stars on his robes were glowing softly. ¡°The bones are all old, but the warmth given to them by flesh and blood faded away at wildly different times.¡±


    ¡°So someone gathered bodies,¡± Wick mused.


    ¡°Bones,¡± Jyn said. ¡°Dead long enough for everything else to rot away.¡±


    ¡°There are tracks. Recent ones,¡± Rena said. Her gaze panned to the other end of the gravesite, and Lucas¡¯ stomach dropped. ¡°What¡¯s that pile over there?¡±


    The three moved off to investigate, intrigued, and Lucas was left alone with the Skycloak, who hadn¡¯t moved an inch, hadn¡¯t drawn any attention to herself. He looked at her, and what he saw was worse than anything the others had said.


    With it, Lucas resigned himself to the inevitable.


    Because she was staring back at him, her blue eyes comically wide as they searched his face. Her lips were moving, but no sound was passing them. Her fingers were clenching and unclenching at her sides, as if she was trying to physically grasp the right words to say. She looked, in a word, stunned.


    Seeing so much emotion from a woman who¡¯d been steadfastly stoic since the first moment he¡¯d first laid eyes on her was distressing beyond belief, and Lucas found himself transfixed. His eyes met hers, and he couldn¡¯t look away.


    Slowly, almost reverently, she raised one of her white-gauntleted hands, pointed one finger upwards, and placed it against her quivering lips.


    Lucas nodded. That was fine by him. He was happy to just let things play out from here. No more worrying.


    Dipping the hand back beneath her cloak, the Skycloak closed her eyes and drew in a breath that seemed to send a bolt of lightning through her body. She shuddered once, violently, then went still. A transformation overtook her then, her expression smoothing out, her back straightening and shoulders squaring with renewed purpose. All of a sudden, she seemed a foot taller. Greater, somehow. When she opened her eyes, they hadn¡¯t returned to the icy placidity he¡¯d been expecting.


    Instead, they were burning with white fire, bright as the full moon, filled with indomitable determination. She looked at him once, nodded, then strode with her head held high towards the other three where they were investigating a familiar pile of wood. As she passed him, she spoke softly:


    ¡°Stay behind me and be alert.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ breath hitched as her words hit him. Questions rose, but she gave him no time to voice them, moving with the air of someone on an important mission. He hurried behind her. His future was concrete now, hundreds of paths pared off, closed to him forever. In a way, it was a relief. Lucas had always struggled with choosing from a plethora of options. A solid idea of the way forward made things easier.


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    Wick, Jyn, and Rena had gathered around the pile of wood that had once been a makeshift sled. It had fallen apart in the intervening time, his flimsy plant fibre ropes coming undone. Unfortunately, it hadn¡¯t decayed enough to obscure its purpose. If the grooves in the dirt didn¡¯t give it away, the ropes lying loose on the ground and the baskets he¡¯d piled the bones in, strewn in a loose pile, made it obvious enough.


    Looking at the wreckage, it was a miracle it had even survived the journey from the Summoning Hall. It hit him how much of a feat dragging it out here was, with the baskets of bones atop it and all.


    Far from triumph, it was hard to feel anything but a kind of exasperation at his past self in this moment for running off and leaving it all out here. Logically, he knew he couldn¡¯t have anticipated that it would come back to bite him. He hadn¡¯t expected to end up back here at all. He¡¯d known nothing about the world or his purpose in it. Even now, he still barely knew. How could he have predicted there¡¯d be people looking out for signs just like these?


    None of that sunk in. The anticipation was mounting by the time he reached the others, and he kept his distance, standing behind the Skycloak as she¡¯d instructed.


    ¡°Come,¡± the Skycloak said, interrupting whatever the three had been discussing. ¡°I won¡¯t countenance this many graves without fifth rites for a moment longer.¡±


    Lucas stared at her back, confused. She wasn¡¯t going to tell them?


    ¡°Someone lashed together a wooden sled and piled the bones up to bring them out here,¡± Rena said. She pointed to the deep grooves leading from the back of the former sled to the forbidding wall of foliage a few dozen metres away, letting the sight speak for itself.


    ¡°And they buried them with only headstones, no fifth rite,¡± Wick said.


    Jyn was silent, watching the Skycloak. His blue lips were neutral, emotionless. His wand was still in his hand, pointed at the ground.


    ¡°I would like to rectify that presently,¡± the Skycloak said.


    ¡°Why would anyone take the time to bury so many long-dead skeletons without giving them the fifth rite?¡± Rena said slowly. Her eyes were on the city, but it seemed like she was seeing something distant. ¡°Unless,¡± she continued, ¡°they didn¡¯t know to do so.¡±


    ¡°Who could not know about the fifth rite?¡± Wick said.


    ¡°These are questions for after we¡¯ve dealt with the issue at hand,¡± the Skycloak said. Her right hand was on her heart. ¡°While we stand here in discussion, over fifty souls lie in unhallowed graves. No matter how curious you are, no matter your feelings, that takes precedence.¡±


    There was a moment of silence, and tension thrummed in the air. Wick seemed to pick up on it, looking between Jyn and the Skycloak, while Rena¡¯s gaze sharpened, though she was still looking towards the city.


    Eventually, Jyn nodded. His wand disappeared into his sleeve.


    The group was tense and quiet as they set about performing the fifth rite; the same ritual they¡¯d wordlessly enacted over Lila¡¯s grave back in the forest. They withdrew small objects from whatever storage they had and held them to their hearts with their heads bowed, then placed them as offerings at five predetermined points around the gravestones, before drawing lines to connect each offering, forming a pentagon. The tip of the pentagon always faced North.


    Lucas, of course, still had little to offer, so he replicated the trick he¡¯d performed before, forming little sticks he scavenged into hearts. The stares on his back as he shaped the bits of wood were sharp as knives. He found himself sweating under the scrutiny, and whenever he turned back he couldn¡¯t help noticing that the Skycloak was stood apart from the group, placing herself between him and the others.


    She still hadn¡¯t told them about him. Why?


    Time seemed to crawl as they made their way through the graves one by one in silence. Despite tensions, the group made no rush. It seemed all of them respected the sanctity of the fifth rite ritual, though Lucas was sure he wasn¡¯t imagining the steadily increasing attention on him as utilised his floramancy.


    He kept his mana slow¡ªso slow it was practically still, and he felt like his soul was stone. The solidity helped ground him, leeching away his anxiety. It felt ironic, somehow; the last time he¡¯d felt the need to infuse his body with mana-induced strength, he¡¯d been at this very same place.


    Jamie was tense in his heart, mana slowing to match his host¡¯s, the monstercat evidently agitated by Lucas¡¯ own emotions. At least he had confirmation that was a two-way street, he supposed.


    The end of their impromptu ceremony came far too quickly, and Rena wasted no time once the final offering had been placed by the last gravestone. She stepped up to the Skycloak, face to face.


    ¡°What do you know?¡± Rena asked. ¡°What did you not tell us about this quest?¡±


    ¡°I withheld nothing relevant from you,¡± the Skycloak said. Her right hand was back on her heart, fingers flat against the white breastplate.


    Lucas had gone beyond baffled at this point, settling back into apprehension. There had to be a good reason she hadn¡¯t exposed him, and he didn¡¯t like the possibilities that were coming to mind. He took a step back, ensuring he was behind her, as instructed.


    Rena sneered. ¡°So you just happened to commission a quest to the lost city at the exact same time that someone who didn¡¯t know about the fifth rite showed up.¡±


    ¡°I had no knowledge of anything unusual in Pentaburgh. The quest I commissioned is precisely what I expected to happen: we would come here and, if possible, find our way to the Summoning Hall and record the Array there for study.¡±


    ¡°And nothing happened to prompt this trip? No alarm that alerted you to someone¡¯s arrival in the city?¡±


    ¡°Nothing of the sort. It is as I already told you: Lady Claire forbids us to approach the Summoning Hall, and I took the opportunity presented when she went away on campaign. I expected nothing like this.¡±


    ¡°I believe you,¡± Jyn said, speaking for the first time. ¡°But why, I wonder, are you not overcome with joy at finding something ¡®like this?¡¯ You are far too intelligent not to piece together the evidence we see around us, yet you act like you suspect nothing.¡±


    The Skycloak turned her head slowly. From Lucas¡¯ position behind her, he couldn¡¯t see the look on her face. But he could see Rena take a step back, wide-eyed, and how Wick went still.


    ¡°Jyn Sakhelyan,¡± she intoned, and the air seemed to thicken at the sound of her voice. ¡°Out of all the members of this party, I judged you most likely to discern my identity.¡±


    ¡°I have some guesses,¡± Jyn said. He was frowning, now. A bead of sweat dripped down from his hood and rolled under his chin. ¡°Would you like me to list them for you?¡±


    ¡°That will not be necessary,¡± the Skycloak said. ¡°I am Valerie Vayon.¡±


    Rena paled. Wick¡¯s breath hitched. Jyn¡¯s lips thinned.


    ¡°Ah,¡± the Wandmaster said. He shifted his weight. ¡°That is one of the more unfortunate possibilities I¡¯d considered.¡±


    ¡°I fear you could possibly be working with some misconceptions, and, as a devout member of the Order dedicated to ensuring the dissemination of knowledge, I feel obligated to clarify them for you,¡± Valerie said, her voice casual but somehow deadly. ¡°For example, you may be under the impression that the consequences for the actions you are no doubt considering would fall only on you.¡±


    Silence reigned, wind silently brushing through the grass, kicking up shreds of detritus. The offerings stayed still at the points of their pentagons.


    Lucas tried not to hold his breath. He had no clue what was happening, at this point.


    ¡°Allow me to clarify further, in order to ensure no further misunderstandings,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Though I was not spoiled for choice for party members on this quest, I still took the time to investigate you all. I knew I wouldn¡¯t be able to trust anyone, but I at least needed to know your skills, competence, and experience. In the course of this research, I learned quite a lot about you.¡±


    The Skycloak let that statement sit for a moment.


    ¡°I know who you are, Wandmaster Jyn. A master of pyromancy, a storied quester, a man of deep curiosity who wants to see the reality of things for himself.¡± Her voice was softening as she spoke, until it was little more than a whisper. ¡°And you are a husband. A father. A son, a brother, a cousin, and a friend.¡±


    ¡°I believe you said you wanted to be clear,¡± Jyn said through clenched teeth.


    ¡°If you make an enemy of me today,¡± Valerie said, ¡°I will not stop with killing only you.¡±


    Holy fuck, Lucas thought, just as rooted to the spot as Wick and Rena were, gaping at the usually-calm Skycloak. Even Jamie had gone still in his chest. What the hell was happening here? Why was the Skycloak threatening Jyn, of all people? Rena, he might have understood, given her attitude. The Wandmaster had done nothing wrong that Lucas could recall.


    ¡°You realise you have all but confirmed a theory I was struggling to believe?¡± Jyn said, forcibly mild. The ease in his voice was betrayed by the way his wand arm was twitching.


    ¡°The truth would have outed eventually,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I chose to have this confrontation here rather than deep in the city, where no doubt more conclusive proof awaits.¡±


    Jyn watched her for a long moment, grimacing. Then he let out a sigh and his shoulders slumped. ¡°Well, if you¡¯re in the mood for giving out information, tell me: how much time have you spent around Lady Claire, Captain?¡±


    ¡°More than most.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯ve seen her work magic, I imagine?¡±


    ¡°Many times.¡±


    ¡°I was only blessed with such a chance on one occasion, back in the days when I was still a scholar at the college. She was there to visit the High Council for one reason or another, and happened to pass by my laboratory as I was pursuing a new theory. I wanted to see if I could stretch my affinity for pyromancy into hydromantic or cryomantic effects, as I can with brontomancy and ferramancy. My theorem intrigued her, and I hastened to give an explanation. She then used pyromancy to tear the heat from water, turning it into ice, before I¡¯d begun. It was so¡­ easy for her. She didn¡¯t even really understand the principles behind it.


    ¡°Before then, I¡¯d only heard stories of the Great Wand¡¯s power, of her fantastical, theretofore unseen workings. I didn¡¯t appreciate what it looked like until I saw it with my own eyes.¡±


    ¡°And it made you feel inadequate,¡± Valerie said, distinctly lacking in sympathy.


    ¡°It did,¡± Jyn said without shame. ¡°I¡¯m not going to lie and call it a life changing moment. It didn¡¯t alter me fundamentally. But it did get me thinking about the Five and the Prophecy, every now and then¡ªthis was no obsession, I assure you¡ªand, after some self reflection, I found myself questioning them. From whence did they summon someone that talented? Well, I looked into it, and I¡¯m sure you know the answer: they didn¡¯t. Not really. Their talent is a gift from us.


    ¡°To tell the truth, that made me feel better for a time. If I¡¯d never met her again, my involvement in this story would have ended there. But, sadly, I did, and I saw the truth of who she is.¡± Jyn¡¯s head turned, and Lucas felt the weight of his attention. ¡°A thousand Wands gave their lives to grant her the power she wields, and she spits on their sacrifice with her methods.¡±


    Valerie shifted, interposing herself between Lucas and Jyn, cutting off the Wandmaster¡¯s hooded gaze. ¡°You know nothing of the realities of this war, Wandmaster. Mind yourself.¡±


    ¡°Heroes from another world,¡± Jyn mused, ignoring her. ¡°Isn¡¯t it ridiculous? What makes them so special that grants them the right to wield the power our people gave their lives for? The answer is nothing. They¡¯re just people. Lady Aarya said it herself in her famous speech to King Vlahar¡¯s court, did she not? Lord Rian abandoned us, and Lord Jamie is, by all accounts, a broken old wreck. If that¡¯s the case, why must outsiders with no connection to this country or its people gain from our sacrifice? If we could summon such power, shouldn¡¯t it go to one of our own?¡±


    ¡°It is already done,¡± Valerie said. ¡°The Great Five are not transferable.¡±


    ¡°According to whom? Lady Claire? There¡¯s a quite significant group who consider her words on the matter to be suspect. They approached me some years back with their quaint little plot. I¡¯m not sure I believe it, but I was content enough to take their coin and pass on information. It seems you knew of this, when you accepted me on this quest.¡±


    ¡°Most of the Darkstar¡¯s members and associates are known, yes. Lady Claire doesn¡¯t take you people particularly seriously, however.¡±


    ¡°She wouldn¡¯t. Arrogance.¡± He tilted his head. ¡°Why did you accept my application, if you knew my associations?¡±


    ¡°Getting information from you was my secondary objective. Now, it¡¯s not even tertiary.¡±


    For some reason, this seemed to relax the Wandmaster. He smiled. ¡°So I was never making it back to Dawnguard alive either way.¡±


    ¡°There are more lives than your own at stake now, Ser Jyn.¡±


    Jyn sniffed. ¡°I don¡¯t believe you.¡± He leaned to the side to get a look at Lucas. ¡°Lucas Br¡ª¡±


    Valerie snapped her hand out, her sword appearing like she¡¯d drawn it from her chest. With the movement, a crescent of moonlight raced through the air, clearing the space to Jyn in the blink of an eye and bisecting him from shoulder to hip before anyone could react. The two pieces of his body fell in opposite directions. Both burst into flames.


    And the flames rose.

 23: Immolate (2)

    Wick cried out in alarm, his great slab of a shield slamming into existence in his arms as he leapt to interpose himself between Jyn¡¯s fiery form and Valerie. ¡°Stop this madness!¡±


    The fire spread like a spilled drink. It rolled low across the ground as the two halves of Jyn¡¯s burning body sank down. It was as if they were melting wax figures, flattening out until he¡¯d turned into a deep red puddle with tongues of flame that flickered upwards seemingly at random. The air shimmered with the heat of the fire, but it gave off no smoke. Looking closer, Lucas could see tiny worm-like figures moving around in the flames, rapidly shifting in and out of glyphs.


    Jyn wasn¡¯t dead, Lucas realised. He didn¡¯t know whether to feel relief or dread about that, considering all that had been said.


    The sun was sinking below the horizon, burning the sky a deep red and throwing long shadows across the grassland to their East. To their west, not twenty paces away, the overgrown city loomed.


    Lucas was behind Valerie, still desperately trying to make sense of this whole situation. From what he understood, Jyn wanted to steal his Gift. It was difficult to wrap his head around, and the knowledge settled in his gut like a hot stone. As much as he¡¯d been wondering what he¡¯d done to deserve such power thrust on him, it turned out he was a bit of a hypocrite; the idea of this power being taken away from him now was as horrifying as imagining someone scraping out his brain through his ears.


    He was very, very confident it couldn¡¯t be taken away from him with his life intact. It didn''t feel like just something that had been grafted onto him upon his arrival, it was him, his very soul. Somehow, they¡¯d woven it into his being.


    His mana had been moving as slowly as possible in his pathways, and Lucas started pushing it to the opposite extreme, speeding the flow up until it was surging around his system, doing full circuits in seconds. Mana poured out of him, and he directed it towards the plants in his abruptly expanded range. Grasses and weeds lit up in his perception, but he left them primed for now, forming the shape of what he wanted but not enacting any changes. At the very edge of his perception, his mana tickled at the outer strands of the overgrowth spilling from the city.


    Jamie howled in his chest, spitting at Lucas'' enemies. It was like the monstercat was battering against its cage, wanting to get out and attack. Oddly, he seemed fixated on the fire.


    ¡°Stand aside, Ser Wick,¡± Valerie said with a voice as cold as ice. She held her sword at the ready; its blade had dimmed, but was quickly regaining luminance. Lucas dearly hoped she had more tricks up her sleeve, considering her beast-slaying attack had failed to put Jyn down for good.


    ¡°I cannot!¡± Wick shouted. His eyes were wild, flitting back and forth between the two hostile parties. ¡°I am a shieldmaster, it is my duty to protect people. I will not stand idly by and watch humans come to harm, no matter what.¡±


    The flames started to pulse, forming rapidly shifting peaks and valleys that seemed familiar. After a moment, Lucas placed it: it looked like a sound wave. The flames had already been roaring as if they were being fanned by a fey wind, and now, with the movement, the fluctuations in pitch and volume started to form a thin, crackling voice. ¡°You may be a bulking brute, Wick,¡± said Jyn¡¯s fire, ¡°but you are no fool. You must surely realise she has no intention of letting any of us leave here alive.¡±


    Wick shot a pleading look back at the fire. ¡°Enough of this provocation, Ser Jyn! Matters do not have to escalate any further than they already have. I¡¯m sure we can come to a peaceful solution.¡±


    ¡°You don''t even believe that yourself,¡± said the fire, burning with contempt.


    ¡°I must believe it,¡± Wick said. His voice sounded far too small for such a large man. ¡°I swore no comrade would ever come to harm in my company again, and I won¡¯t gainsay myself. Not on that. Never on that.¡±


    Lucas felt bad for him, then. But it was nice to know that at least one of these people were who they¡¯d appeared to be, that he¡¯d judged him correctly.


    ¡°That woman is not your comrade,¡± the fire said. It started rolling across the ground, spreading its range wider to their left, and Valerie shifted to keep herself between it and Lucas, forcing them both backwards. Her sword was shining like the full moon, now, pointing unerringly at a random spot in the fire. They¡¯d called her a sensor, Lucas recalled. Was Jyn''s ''real'' body somewhere in the fire?


    ¡°I have been her shield and she has been my sword,¡± Wick growled.


    ¡°And have I not been your wand? Has Rena not been your bow?¡±


    Wick twisted, his gaze landing on Rena at the same time as Lucas¡¯ did. The Bowmaiden had stilled in place, off to the side of the confrontation. She had a black arrow nocked in her bow, pointed at the ground in front of her, and her eyes were on Lucas. Her face was pale, her arms trembling.


    Lucas eyed her arrow, trying to remember which one it was, or if he¡¯d even seen it before. He hadn¡¯t taken her up on her offer to inspect her quiver, and now he cursed himself for it. Was it the arrow that she could teleport to, or the one that knocked things back with impossible force, or another entirely?


    Out of all of them, she¡¯d been the one he expected hostility from if his identity was uncovered. But if anything, she looked scared.


    ¡°Rena Luor,¡± Valerie said with a voice that promised violence. ¡°If you aim that arrow at him, I will flay you and feed your skin to your dogs.¡±


    ¡­ that would explain it.


    Rena flinched violently and took a hasty step backwards, her bow coming up seemingly on reflex before she caught herself at the last moment and forced it back down. After a deep breath, she started moving with slow sideways steps, keeping her distance.


    ¡°Not helping,¡± Lucas breathed.


    ¡°Captain Vayon, please,¡± Wick begged, his eyes beseeching. Jyn¡¯s fire was spreading out to the left, opposite to Rena on the right, forming a constantly shifting triangle with Valerie as its last point. Wick seemed caught in indecision about where to position himself between them, constantly turning on the spot, trying to keep watch on all three potential combatants. ¡°Please,¡± he said again, speaking to them all.


    ¡°I will make this simple,¡± Valerie said. ¡°This is the most important moment of any of our lives. Millions of souls are in the balance, under threat of fates worse than death, and their potential salvation stands behind me. I will go to unimaginable lengths to ensure he lives to reach that potential, but know that I will go to far, far greater lengths to ensure everything you¡¯ve ever loved dies in agony if he doesn¡¯t." And then she added on, as if an afterthought, "However, I have no quarrel with you if you stand down.¡±


    It would be really rather nice if she''d stop saying things like that.


    ¡°She¡¯s lying,¡± the flames said. ¡°The moment news of Lucas Brown¡¯s arrival spreads, mayhem will unfold. I know of multiple factions who¡¯ll be out to secure him for their own interests, and I¡¯m sure she knows more. She won¡¯t let that information propagate.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t,¡± Valerie agreed, sounding almost pleasant. ¡°Hence why I¡¯m making it clear what will happen if your lips are loose.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t¡ª¡± Rena began, only to freeze when Valerie¡¯s gaze fell on her. A dark look appeared in her eyes, and she puffed out her chest, starting to move with more purpose as if forcing courage into her steps. ¡°You don¡¯t strike me as the type to take chances, Captain Vayon. Not just from the rumours about you: I thought that even before you told us who you are.¡±


    ¡°The fact I haven¡¯t killed you already speaks to my willingness to negotiate, does it not?¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Valerie,¡± Lucas murmured. She glanced at him over her shoulder, and he shook his head at her. She turned back around without any sign of having acknowledged the exchange.


    ¡°I find it difficult to trust a woman they call demontouched,¡± Jyn said, his fire glowing brighter as if to punctuate the last word.


    Rena nodded in agreement. She seemed to firm her grip on her bow, though it was still pointed down. Her gaze was fixed on Lucas as she circled around them, forcing Wick to step in her path.


    ¡°I thought you, of all people, wouldn¡¯t lend credence to superstitious nonsense,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Is it superstition? Based on what I see with my own eyes, Captain, I¡¯m not sure. Threatening our families and friends, trying to intimidate us with threats of extreme violence, and that look in your eyes... Does that seem normal human behaviour to you, Ser Wick, Ser Rena?¡±


    ¡°You are posing a threat to the man she has travelled all the way here to find, and is considered vitally important by her Order,¡± Wick said, glaring. ¡°You told me mere minutes ago that you know I¡¯m no fool, and now you try such base manipulations? If you stand down, I¡¯m certain no harm will come to you. Correct, Captain Vayon?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to repeat myself,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°They say you first fought on the frontlines when you were fourteen, Captain Vayon,¡± the fire crackled. ¡°That must have been a harrowing experience, fighting demons at such a young age.¡±


    ¡°Your concern is touching,¡± Valerie said dryly. She lifted her sword, and the fire stopped in place where it had been trying to flank them again.


    ¡°I heard you killed a Dread General,¡± Rena said from her other side.


    ¡°It was hardly a feat of single combat,¡± Valerie replied. ¡°But I did deal the final blow, so credit has fallen on me.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s still an impressive achievement,¡± Jyn said.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°One you should keep in mind as you consider your future actions,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Peace,¡± Wick pleaded.


    ¡°And what do you think of all this, Ser Rian?¡± The fire vibrated in place, making a sound that was almost laughter. ¡°I thought it was strange that someone would give their child that name. It¡¯s¡­ uncommon to use the names of the Five. But no, you just gave the first that came to mind. That of your friend. Blissfully unaware of its significance. So many clues, in retrospect. So obvious.¡±


    Lucas swallowed, trying to remember how to speak. His mouth was dry, his face bathed in sweat from the heat of Jyn¡¯s fire. He couldn¡¯t fathom how the others looked so unruffled by it. ¡°I don¡¯t want to fight any of you,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°Tell that to your guard dog,¡± Rena said. Her bravado vanished the moment Valerie turned to regard her, and her shoulders hunched to her ears.


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand what the two of you want here,¡± Lucas said, nearly pleading for answers.


    ¡°They want your power for themselves, whether that be by controlling you or stealing it from you,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Whatever else they say to justify it to themselves, that¡¯s the true reason they¡¯re still here.¡±


    ¡°You talk as if you don¡¯t want his power, Captain Vayon,¡± Jyn said, his fire brightening for a moment. The flames moved a little faster, covering extra ground, forcing Valerie to quickly reposition her sword and Lucas to stumble back to keep her between them. He could feel the heat of the flames against his face like he was staring into an open oven. His eyes were dry as sand.


    ¡°I want to save the people of our world,¡± Valerie growled, emotion peeking through her calm mien. ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°The very same,¡± Jyn said. His fires raised higher, twisted and undulating, and the silhouette was outlined in the blaze. ¡°Do you truly believe the Summoning chose the best man for the job? That there is no one better out there to wield the prophesied power?¡±


    ¡°I believe in the First Order more than contemporary Wands who must work with far less information than their predecessors possessed.¡±


    ¡°You do recall the First Order¡¯s summoning failed, don¡¯t you? It¡¯s been quite the topic of discussion, this past, oh, hundred years or so.¡±


    Something seemed to settle, like the air had gone still. The former party stopped moving; they¡¯d all noticed the same thing, and now they were waiting, anticipating.


    Jyn¡¯s flames hissed a sound approximating a groan. ¡°Is there truly nothing that can convince you to step aside?¡±


    ¡°You already know there isn¡¯t,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Please, all of you,¡± Wick said, voice tinged with despair. Helpless. ¡°Don¡¯t do this.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Wick,¡± Jyn said. ¡°When words fail, there is only one answer. And I do not believe there exists the words to solve this impasse.¡±


    The shieldmaster straightened up, holding his head high and his shield before him. He turned on the spot, meeting each of their eyes one after another. Shimmering opalescent light started bleeding from his heart, and soon it covered his armour and shield.


    ¡°I am a Master of the Shield,¡± Wick said. ¡°I wear a set of Radiant Plate forged by the artificers of Ancient Amyn. I hold a shield torn from a chunk of skyrock that fell from the heavens before my very eyes, like it was destined for me. I am sworn to be a guardian, a man who protects others from harm, and I have never once regretted giving that oath. I will do my duty today. If you wish to fight one another, you¡¯ll have to go through me.¡±


    ¡°Then I apologise. You seem like a fine fellow,¡± Jyn said. The fire went still as if taking a breath, then started fluctuating rapidly, imitating rapid speech. ¡°Ser Rena, think of Duskpoole. Remember how late the Order was in coming. That loathing you feel for them, that spite, that darkness that eats you from the inside out day after day, you could finally defeat it here. You can¡ª¡±


    Multiple things happened at once, almost too fast for Lucas to register them.


    Valerie reached back and shoved him, hard. Her strength was immense, and he went flying onto his back. The breath left his lungs with the impact. He wheezed.


    A screeching red arrow pierced through the empty air he¡¯d just been occupying. He heard Wick roar with fury. Lucas¡¯ heart tripped over a beat and went tumbling.


    Jyn acted next. The mass of fire spun, forming a tornado of flame that reached up like a cobra rearing back to strike. It lashed down like a whip, fast as lightning, heading straight for Lucas.


    A column of white light tore through the centre of the flames, parting it and dispersing it.


    Valerie used the momentum of her upwards slash. She swung her sword over her head and then there was once again a flash of light tearing through the air. It took a beat for Lucas to realise she¡¯d thrown her sword. It shot towards Rena, but suddenly Wick was somehow there, bellowing his defiance with his shoulder braced against his shield. There was a sound like a hammer striking an anvil, and Wick skidded back until he crashed into Rena, sending her flying.


    But the Bowmaiden wasn¡¯t out of the fight; righting herself in the air, she snatched another arrow from her quiver, nocking, drawing, aiming, and firing in one impossibly smooth motion. The arrow was already halfway to Lucas¡¯ face before he even realised where she¡¯d been aiming, but Wick was there again. Somehow, the giant of a man had overtaken the arrow¡¯s flight and spun to put his shield in its path. Ribbons of red light rippled out from the impact, and Rena screamed a curse at him.


    ¡°No one dies today!¡± he roared back. ¡°No one!¡±


    With Wick distracted, the fire surged once more, this time attacking as a wide wave. Valerie dashed forward to meet it. She held her hand out to one side, and her sword rocketed through the air, hilt first. She caught it with ease and spun with the sword¡¯s momentum, white light bleeding from her heart and into the blade. At the completion of her turn, the light in the sword speared out. It struck the ground with a resounding boom, scoring a deep groove in the fire¡¯s path. The shockwave from the sheer force of the blow beat the fire back. Tonnes of dirt were flung high towards the sky. A cloud of dust rolled over Jyn''s fire, turning the air hazy and red.


    The opening exchange of the fight couldn¡¯t have lasted more than a couple of seconds, but it was more than enough for Lucas to know he needed to get out of here. Easier thought than acted on.


    Valerie was back at his side in an instant. She gripped him by the shirt and hauled him to his feet from where he''d been crouched, gaping. He felt like a ragdoll in her steel grip, and she shoved him behind her as she retreated. She slashed her sword to the side and batted an arrow out of the air. It shattered like glass, and there was another scream from Rena¡¯s direction.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have your head on a pike, Rena Luos!¡± she hissed. Her armour started glowing the same way her sword did, fed by moonlight streaming from her heart. But she didn¡¯t attack.


    Lucas felt like a spectator to this battle. Everything was happening so fast, it was hard to think, hard to even keep up with the flow of the fight as Valerie manhandled him around.


    Jyn¡¯s flames stalked around the edge of the battle, trying and failing to flank Valerie. Wick was always in his way whenever he tried an attack. The shieldmaster seemed to have a preternatural sense for when attacks were coming and an ability to put himself in their way in defiance of physics or sense.


    There were burning constructs of countless animals stampeding through the flames, launching themselves out intermittently to test their luck against Wick¡¯s shield. Fire broke against his invisible wall of force like waves on rocks, flames blooming outwards on impact. The pyromancer was roaring something at the shieldmaster through his flame speech, but Wick was resolute.


    As Valerie shoved Lucas across the ground, simultaneously batting away Rena¡¯s arrows, he came to the realisation that more and more of the plants covering the city walls were coming into his range. He dared a glance over his shoulder, and sure enough she was moving him towards the city.


    ¡°Valerie?¡± his voice came out horribly high pitched.


    ¡°Form a tunnel for us,¡± she growled without looking back.


    Fires raged ahead of them, the inferno growing by the second and slowly cutting off any other escape route. Wick was still holding Jyn¡¯s fires back from attacking them a few paces away. Similarly, Rena¡¯s arrows couldn¡¯t get past Valerie¡¯s defences.


    The battle fell into a somewhat predictable rhythm, giving Lucas a few short moments to think. They were in a stalemate, of sorts. Valerie couldn¡¯t go on the offensive as she was protecting him, and even if she did so Wick would likely try to stop her. Meanwhile, Jyn and Rena couldn¡¯t gain an advantage while Wick and Valerie¡¯s defences were so strong.


    A plan struck him like a bullet to the skull. His mana had been slipping into nearby plants since before the battle, and now he called on them to serve him.


    Grasses and weeds doubled their height in an instant all around him. Step one done. Next, his mana slipped into all the networked plants in his range, slapping aside the demon¡¯s will with ease. Calling on every drop of mana he had to spare, he dragged as many vines as he could along the ground, snaking them through the suddenly longer grass.


    Right towards Jyn¡¯s roiling sea of fire.


    The moment came. Lucas tore his will out of the vines just as the fire reached them, letting the plant demon¡¯s influence return.


    The fire had been moving at speed, and it swallowed up huge masses of the vine in an instant. Immediately, mana surged through the network. A wave of foamy white sap washed over the flames affecting the plants, but the plant demon wasn¡¯t done there. Its mana flooded into the wall of plants beside the battle, and little blue flecks started appearing in the sea of green. Then they burst. Below the roar of the flames, Lucas heard the sound of countless little pops. It was music to his ears.


    Hundreds of streams of pale blue liquid sailed through the air like an artillery strike, and this time they didn¡¯t miss their target. The fire was simply too big. Lucas figured Jyn couldn¡¯t have been controlling every bit of such a huge, moving blaze at once like some living avatar of flame, and he was proven right. Parts of the fire recoiled away, but plenty fell under the Icebloom fluid. Sparkling blue mist billowed into the air with the satisfying hiss of quenched flames. If it had ended there, with some of the Jyn¡¯s fire put out and the man forced into a brief retreat, Lucas would have felt triumphant.


    But then the mist started infecting the fire. It was the strangest thing Lucas had ever seen, defying all he knew about physics¡ªbut, he supposed, this wasn¡¯t physics at play. This was magic.


    The mist seemed to multiply whenever it came into contact with flame, converting the heat of the flames to the cold of the cloud in the blink of an eye, and soon it was spreading through the fire faster than the fire could retreat. The fire surged away, retreating.


    Through the mist and the blaze, Lucas could see an area of the fire that was building in intensity, gathering together and turning white from sheer heat. It packed together, coalescing into Jyn¡¯s fire-man form. The burning mannequin raised its hands, forming a square between its thumbs and index fingers.


    Lucas wasted no more time. Pivoting on his heel, he ran towards the city walls and the overgrowth he never would have imagined he could find salvation in. Throwing out his mana ahead of him, he forced the vines to part like a curtain and dived through. He landed on his stomach, winding himself, then turned back.


    It seemed Valerie hadn¡¯t wasted any time either.


    Wick was distracted by placing himself in the way of Jyn¡¯s upcoming attack; Valerie¡¯s defensive fighting had lulled him into a false sense of security.


    Moonlight shone on her sword, feeding from her glowing armour. It was radiant, brighter than Lucas had ever seen it, hard to even look at. But he couldn¡¯t look away as she levelled the tip of the blade at Rena.


    The world went white.


    For a moment, all Lucas knew was Wick¡¯s bellow of rage and pain. It was perhaps the worst sound he¡¯d ever heard. When Lucas¡¯ vision returned, there was a smoking white scar in the landscape where Rena had been.


    Valerie didn''t stand around inspecting her kill. Instead, she pivoted and dived into the tunnel, landing at Lucas¡¯ side. Grabbing hold of him once more, she dragged him deeper into the overgrowth.


    Lucas let the overgrowth close around them. Wick was still wailing with anguish when the plants cut them off from the world.

 24: Immolate (3)

    I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m really back here, Lucas thought. More than that, he couldn¡¯t believe the place was acting as his refuge. The idea of the overgrown city being a safe haven from outside attackers would have seemed laughable just a month ago.


    His mana surrounded him in a small sphere, pushing back the plant life to form a bubble of empty space. He wasn¡¯t pushing it to the edge of his range, instead keeping it close enough to keep them concealed from above as they navigated through the overgrown streets. Lucas didn¡¯t want to risk a fireball from the sky. The plants grew back in behind them as he allowed the greater will to regain control.


    It was all too easy to slip back into the familiar rhythm, creeping forward as the foliage parted ahead of him. Like he¡¯d never left.


    There were differences this time, though. For one, the heat. Sweat dripped from his brow, and his shoddy self-made clothes stuck to his skin. Waves of heat kept rolling through the clear space, raising the temperature bit by bit, and they hadn''t been able to escape it thus far.


    Jyn, Lucas thought with a grimace. The pyromancer hadn¡¯t given up.


    ¡°We must keep moving,¡± Valerie said from behind him, her voice carefully controlled, and Lucas hurried forward. He hadn¡¯t even realised he¡¯d stopped.


    That was another difference, of course. The company. Valerie stuck as close to him as she could without tripping him up, her white sword brandished and ready. It was their only source of light in the darkness, though she was the only one who actually needed it in the current circumstances. Lucas could use his mana sense to orient himself via the plants.


    Her presence gave Lucas mixed feelings. On the one hand, not being by himself in this lonely overgrown place made it a far less depressing prospect to be back here. On the other, the one time he¡¯d chanced a look back at her over his shoulder, the brief glimpse he got of the look in her eyes had frightened him enough that he¡¯d kept his eyes forward ever since.


    He tried to tell himself it was a trick of the light; she was holding her sword low, meaning its glow threw strange shadows upon her face. It only helped a little. If Rena had been the recipient of that dark rage, Lucas didn¡¯t blame her for seeming so skittish, before.


    Thoughts of Rena threatened to drown him in dark thoughts, so he pushed them away. For now.


    Jamie was there in his chest too, and was not at all happy about the heat and the plants. Its presence was muted, like the monstercat was trying to hide within him. His senses were at their limit, despite their limited utility in this situation, and it seemed the cat wouldn¡¯t let him turn them off. It made him even more aware of the heat prickling his skin.


    They walked a winding route from the city, trying to stay ahead of whatever Jyn was doing. Mana was still flowing through the plant life, heading out towards the walls, which presumably meant Jyn was trying to take on the plant demon after all. But the flow was spreading out, as if having to cover more ground. Jamie¡¯s hearing told him the fire was roaring louder and louder, with dozens of pops retorting every second followed by quenching hisses. An ongoing battle between fire and icebloom.


    Lucas led the way, since he was the one who could actually see where they were going. They had no destination in mind for now; Valerie had simply instructed him to keep moving.


    ¡°Ser Jyn will be able to find us via our body heat,¡± she¡¯d said.


    ¡°Is there anything we can do about that?¡± Lucas had asked. This had been moments after entering the city through the Worm¡¯s Tunnel. ¡°Make our bodies colder or something?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t be certain how his magic works,¡± Valerie had said. ¡°I have theoretical knowledge of pyromancy through research, but a man like Ser Jyn does not strike me as the type to recite spells from a dusty old tome. Our best option is to move out of his range as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°How far will that be?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    It had seemed to pain her to admit such a thing.


    An hour or so had passed since then, and they remained on high alert, baking under the pressure of Jyn¡¯s technique. They¡¯d primarily moved in a straight line at first, only making turns when there were obstructions in their path. Most of the narrower streets had rubble blockages. They could have moved them with Lucas¡¯ floramancy and Valerie¡¯s brute strength, but time was of the essence, and more than a few times they¡¯d had to double back on themselves.


    Progress wasn¡¯t exactly quick even with Lucas¡¯ improved plant magic abilities, and the heat was becoming excruciating. Lucas¡¯ breaths were coming in laboured gasps through dry, cracked lips. The very air itself seemed to burn his lungs. Jyn was trying to overheat them, cooking them within the plants in such a way that the plant demon wasn¡¯t reacting because it apparently wasn¡¯t registering this as a threat to it. What did it care if two people within its territory died from heatstroke?


    Lucas longed for cold, for safety, for a moment to let him process his thoughts. In his heat-addled mind, one place stood out, a zone where he¡¯d always been able to stop and breathe.


    He moved on autopilot, Valerie following behind him. Something cool pressed against his back and lifted some of the burden, but not enough to sway him from his decision. The route wasn¡¯t a familiar one¡ªhe¡¯d never been out to this area of the city in his explorations¡ªbut it didn¡¯t need to be, given the layout of the city. All the wide roads found their way to the keep in the centre.


    The journey could have taken five minutes or an hour. Lucas couldn¡¯t say. His body felt heavy, and not just because he¡¯d started slowing down his mana to give him strength to keep moving. The heat made the air stale and thick. Like being in a sauna. If Lucas saw Jyn again, he would¡­ Well, he¡¯d probably not feel very bad for the man when Valerie killed him.


    He¡¯d feel bad for Wick, though. The shieldmaster¡¯s wails still echoed in his mind. They wouldn¡¯t stop.


    Soon, the walls started transitioning from stained-green stone to white marble, and the designs of the buildings got more grandiose. He barely registered any of it beyond a slight feeling of relief. They were getting closer.


    Valerie was silent behind him, the cooling presence still pressed against his back. He¡¯d expected her to be more vocal about this situation, to be peppering with questions about where they were headed, but she hadn¡¯t said a word. Did she suddenly trust his judgement? That was an unsettling thought.


    They entered a building and headed down into its basement where a once-secret passageway lay wide open, its hidden entrance having long ago been battered open by a particularly enterprising tangle of roots. Finding this place would have been impossible without the plant demon¡¯s network to mooch off, and the tunnel might have collapsed without its thick roots running through them. Lucas mumbled his appreciation to it as he stepped into the tunnel.


    The tunnel was actually cool for a few minutes, though the heat soon caught up with them. It was worse, down here. More enclosed. Practically an oven. There were positives, though; since Lucas didn¡¯t have to worry about attacks from above anymore, he could push out his mana to the edge of his current range, giving them a much larger space without plants.


    Happily, the walk was a short one. Though Lucas couldn¡¯t actually say how long it was. It might not have been short at all.


    Valerie went first up a ladder when they reached the end, shoving aside a marble floor panel with one hand. It flipped through the air and shattered against the high ceiling. Lucas had already moved the plants above out of the way beforehand.


    From here, things were very, very familiar indeed. He didn¡¯t even have to use the plant demon¡¯s network to check for directions. Along this corridor, down that one. Through that arch, up those stairs. Around a corner, then a left, then a right. He was moving faster, building up speed as their salvation neared. He barely even noticed as the world opened out ahead and above of them, the ceiling turning from a high corridor to a cavernous dome.


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    Familiar plants entered his range. Ones that had felt the touch of his mana for dozens of hours. They welcomed him back like an old friend, bending to his will faster than any plant ever had before. They parted before him at his command like it was what they were always meant to do. Lucas found himself practically running.


    Cool air hit him, and he collapsed to his knees, just¡­ breathing. He stayed like that for a long while, feeling clammy and heavy and nauseated. Time passed. The cool thing that had been pressed against his back trailed up his neck, then down his sides. Everywhere it touched, it seemed to wash the heat away. It went under his armpits, down his legs, over his stomach. Lucas had never felt such relief. Even Jamie started uncurling in his chest, stretching out as if reaching for the cool relief.


    Clarity returned to him bit by bit as whatever Valerie was doing beat back the onset of heatstroke. The moment he opened his mouth to ask for water, he found something soft and cool at his lips. The liquid was more viscous than water, and it soothed the aches of his body as it passed through him. A familiar feeling. He thought back, trying to remember what she¡¯d called it.


    ¡°Holy water,¡± he heard her say, as if from a distance. His eyes had fallen closed, and he opened them.


    The first thing that came to him upon seeing his surroundings was relief. It was a surreal thing, to be happy to be back where he¡¯d started, when not so long ago he¡¯d never wanted to see it again. The dome was unchanged, with vines and moss creeping along it. The sky burned red beyond gaping holes in the marble high above, granting just enough light to see the looming wall of plant life around their circle of safety, just as he¡¯d left it. He¡¯d forgotten, being away for who knows how long, just how big this place was. From the circle at the centre, he could have plopped down a football pitch in any direction without hitting the walls.


    Lucas laughed. He couldn¡¯t help it. When he was done, he let himself flop onto his back with a sigh.


    Valerie lowered herself to her knees, taking up the same position as the last time she¡¯d given him some of the healing water from her flask. Her countenance couldn¡¯t have been more different. Soot stained her skycloak, much of her blond hair had fallen loose of its braid, and there was a mixture of dirt and soot on her pale cheeks. The biggest difference, though, was the expression on her face.


    Gone was the stoic composure that had greeted him after the battle against the beasts back then. Replacing it was a wide-eyed look that seemed to clash between hope, shock, and disbelief all at once.


    It was almost worse than the snarling rage he¡¯d seen when he looked at her earlier.


    ¡°Are you truly Lucas Brown?¡± she asked almost reverently, her voice quivering.


    Lucas nodded. His heartbeat pulsed in his head at the movement, and he winced. Heatstroke really wasn¡¯t a nice feeling.


    Fuck Jyn, he thought with venom.


    ¡°How long ago did you arrive here?¡± Valerie glanced around the centre circle, taking in his makeshift bed and little odds and ends he¡¯d accumulated during his stay. He felt a bit bad for leaving them behind, seeing them now.


    ¡°About a month, give or take,¡± Lucas said. His voice came out remarkably clear, considering how dry his throat still felt. Would she give him another sip of holy water if he asked? By the wonder in her eyes, the answer was probably yes. Lucas didn¡¯t ask.


    She nodded. ¡°I¡¯m sorry you felt the need to hide yourself. But I can¡¯t fault your decision, given recent events.¡±


    Wick¡¯s scream echoed in his head.


    ¡°You killed Rena,¡± Lucas said. He hadn¡¯t meant to make it sound like an accusation, but it did.


    ¡°I will do what I must to protect you while you remain in this vulnerable state,¡± she said, unashamed. ¡°Far too much rests on your survival for me to show mercy to anyone who would do you harm.¡±


    Lucas sighed, deciding to leave it there. Seeing someone die didn¡¯t sit right with him and it never would, and Wick¡¯s cries would stay with him for the rest of his life¡­ But it was hard to feel too bad for the woman herself when he recalled the terror of a magic arrow with an unknown effect flying at his face. He¡¯d seen what some of those things had done to beasts. He wasn¡¯t going to chastise Valerie for killing someone who was trying to kill him.


    ¡°You¡¯re not actually going to kill everyone Jyn and Rena care about, are you?¡± he asked. Because he would have to chastise her for that.


    Valerie eyed him. ¡°If you would prefer I didn¡¯t, I will refrain.¡±


    Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Please don¡¯t.¡±


    Confirming she actually meant it was still a little disturbing, though.


    ¡°As you wish,¡± Valerie said. She was still staring at him, searching his face. ¡°I should have figured it out sooner. Black hair, blue eyes, a cleft chin, a severely undeveloped mana system for your age, ignorance of things everyone would know. I saw the signs, but¡­ I told myself I believed you¡¯d arrive one day, but perhaps a small part of me doubted after all.¡± She sighed. ¡°This situation could have been avoided. I apologise again, Lord Lucas.¡±


    Lucas cringed. ¡°Please don¡¯t call me that. Just Lucas, please.¡±


    ¡°It is the appropriate title for your status. While it will be necessary to withhold your identity for some time, you will eventually be put in a position of considerable power.¡±


    ¡°Really don¡¯t like the sound of that. The whole position thing.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s reality, I¡¯m afraid,¡± Valerie said. Her lips twisted. ¡°I¡¯m not unsympathetic, believe me. I know the weight of expectation intimately. And I¡¯ve read the Four¡¯s accounts of their early days here. I understand this whole situation must be as confusing and distressing for you as it was for them. But the reality is that you are here, and you have been granted an immense power that people will wish to use for various ends.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re no different,¡± Lucas said bitterly.


    ¡°I¡¯m not,¡± Valerie admitted. ¡°But a lot has been written about you. About your personality, your ideals. If any of it is true, I believe you¡¯ll follow the path of the Hero as foretold.¡±


    ¡°Saving the world,¡± Lucas said, ¡°is not exactly something I have a lot of experience with. I¡¯m just some guy. Surely there was someone out there in the universe who¡¯s saved a thousand different worlds? I really don¡¯t understand how I ended up chosen for this¡­ duty. How any of my friends did, honestly. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I love them all. They¡¯re awesome. But I don¡¯t see how they¡¯re any more suited to it than I am.¡±


    ¡°It had to be someone,¡± Valerie said simply. ¡°Regardless of what you decide to do, know this: I will be here to help you. My mind and sword are in your service from this moment onwards, body and soul.¡±


    Lucas didn¡¯t know what to say to that, so he let his head tilt back and rest on the cold, hard ground. The red-pink sky was slowly bleeding away to black, and darkness was creeping into the summoning hall.


    He was at the edge of the safe circle, and he reached out to touch the nearest plant. The network lit up in his mind¡¯s eye. It was settled, calmly going through its regular routine. Jyn¡¯s attack had ceased, evidently.


    ¡°What do we do about Jyn?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°I will have to silence him," Valerie said. "Luckily, I imagine he won''t give up and retreat for civilisation to alert his allies, so I will have opportunity."


    Lucas grimaced. "Right. But how do you beat him? What was he even doing, back there?¡±


    "Unfortunately, I cannot guess as to the particulars of the technique he was employing, but I suspect he was transferring the heat from fires he was creating to our location so as not to earn retaliation from the plant demon.¡±


    ¡°It was retaliating, though.¡±


    ¡°Hm. Interesting. Regardless, it appears the wards on the summoning circle are still active, and have thwarted his plan for now.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Had a feeling that would be the case.¡± Lucas closed his eyes, feeling out the plant life around him with his mana. It was all so vibrant, compared to anything outside. The so-called demon¡¯s influence. He felt drowsy. Even the crappy bed he''d made weeks back sounded inviting right now. ¡°So he was trying to kill me too," he murmured.


    ¡°Yes, and I imagine he will continue to do so. The concept of stealing the power of the Prophesied Heroes is not a new one,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Those delusional enough to believe in it have dreamt up many different scenarios where they could have the power for themselves, and killing the Hero to tear the power from their corpse is among them.¡±


    Lucas shuddered. ¡°How do you know for sure that¡¯s not possible?¡±


    Valerie was quiet for so long that Lucas opened his eyes and looked at her. She was gazing up at the roof of the Summoning Hall with a carefully neutral expression.


    ¡°Valerie?¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°There are certain things that are merely facts to me. Words on paper, or stories related by mentors and teachers,¡± Valerie said slowly. ¡°It occurs to me, belatedly, that these histories, accounts, and records I¡¯ve memorised might not be such a distant thing to you, Lord Lucas. I fear I¡¯ve already revealed information that could have been handled more sensitively.¡±


    Foreboding dread settled on him. He almost didn¡¯t want to ask, but now felt he had to. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    Valerie drew in a fortifying breath, squaring her shoulders. ¡°We know the powers are not transferable after death,¡± she said, ¡°because Lady Aarya¡¯s body was recovered.¡±

 25: Immolate (4)

    Lucas gazed into the flames, watching them sway and dance. The fire consumed the entirety of his vision, his focus, his feeling. Sitting this close, it was eye-searingly bright, driving spikes of pain through his skull. Heat scorched his face, arms, and bare chest. Sweat slicked every square inch of his body.


    He endured. It wasn¡¯t a matter of determination, but necessity. If he was to survive this world, let alone save it, he needed to get stronger. If he wanted to survive the next few days, he needed to be able to counter a master pyromancer.


    No pressure.


    His mana suffused the air in a close bubble around him. He wanted his focus as narrow as possible so he could give all his attention to the flames.


    So far, it hadn¡¯t made much of a difference.


    Night had fallen, plunging the cavernous Summoning Hall into darkness. Valerie had stuck her sword point down into the marble at the centre of the safe circle, and it had sunk halfway to the hilt as easy as slicing cheese. Beside it, she¡¯d taken out a flint and steel and lit a small fire.


    At first, Lucas hadn¡¯t been able to help staring at it distrustfully, half expecting the flames to rear up and attack at any moment. He¡¯d known it was irrational. If the safe circle at the summoning array¡¯s centre prevented an indirect attack through heat, it would surely stop Jyn from taking their little camp fire in hand.


    But knowing something logically didn¡¯t stop one¡¯s subconscious reactions. It was probably going to be difficult to trust fire, so long as the pyromancer was out there somewhere and Lucas hadn¡¯t yet figured out how to contest him.


    They were working under the assumption he was nearby. Through one of the gaps in the dome, they could see the dim red glow of a distant fire, blazing somewhere outside the city walls if the docile plant mana was anything to go by. Lucas had hoped it was just the remnants of Jyn¡¯s fires burning away on their own after his retreat; there was no hint of distress in the network. Valerie wasn¡¯t willing to be so optimistic.


    They¡¯d agreed on one point, however: Lucas needed to learn pyromancy. To counter Jyn, to give him a new weapon and useful tool, to test his Gift. And to keep his mind distracted.


    Anything to stop him from thinking about Aarya.


    ~~~


    ¡°First, some context is required,¡± Valerie said. She held up her hand to forestall Lucas¡¯ arguments. ¡°I¡¯ll get to Lady Aarya, I promise. But things will make more sense if you have a better understanding of the history behind these events.¡±


    Lucas settled down, scowling. ¡°Fine.¡±


    ¡°First off, you are in Pentaburgh, formerly a major city in the county of Seffonshire, in north-central Mornlunn. Mornlunn is a country on the eastern coast of Aureon, which is a continent on Aerth. We¡¯ll delve deeper into geography at a later date.¡± Valerie waited for Lucas¡¯ nod before continuing. ¡°It¡¯s currently the fourth month¡ªknown as quatmuun here¡ªof the year 1101 After Conquest. The conquest refers to the unification of several states that have long since divided once more, Mornlunn being one of them. 120 years ago, the Demon Lord appeared in the far north of Aureon, in a frozen country called Aeyem.


    ¡°According to records, our world has always dealt with demons and chaos beasts of unclear origin. They were a fact of life. A devastating phenomenon in certain circumstances and the cause of countless tragedies, their numbers waxing and waning in long cycles for reasons that were never discovered. But they never pushed the world to the brink of ending. Our ancestors defeated them each time.


    ¡°Historians note that the world was already in the grip of a particularly bad cycle, and things got worse. With the Demon Lord came the Blight, a massive chaos effect that corrupted the world¡ªreality itself¡ªon a massive scale. The demons suddenly had a place where they could retreat to and grow.


    ¡°Aeyem fell within a year, its people scattered south into neighbouring lands. It became known as the Blighted Land. Demons under his command were able to grow to power our histories had never seen, and he named the foulest of them his Dread Generals. The Dread Generals led armies of demons under his banner to ravage the continent. Armies of men rose to face him and fell on the field. The more the demons spread, the more people were killed or driven away, the more chaos got a foothold, the larger his Blighted Lands grew.


    ¡°Within twenty years, the Blighted Lands covered a quarter of the continent, and much more of the world besides.¡±


    Here, she pulled out the map scroll from beneath her cloak and unfurled it. It stayed flat on the ground without her having to hold it down. Swiping a black ink bar on the left, she zoomed the image out to show five continents. She pointed to the easternmost continent, a curving mass with a narrow land bridge at the peak linking it to the ice cap at the top of the world.


    ¡°They did not know it at the time, but his influence had spread north of Aeyem and onto the Winterlands. We believe now that his armies marched across the ice and onto Ixia, Aureon¡¯s closest neighbour to our east. We have had no contact with any human civilisation from Ixia in thirty years.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ foot kept tapping. He couldn¡¯t stop. ¡°So your people turned to the old Prophecy.¡±


    Valerie nodded. ¡°Mornlunn was perhaps the strongest country still standing on Aureon at the time, and certainly the biggest believers in the Doctrine of Five in all the world. Seeing the danger the Demon Lord posed, they sought the Heroes they believed were destined to defeat him.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve already told me this part,¡± Lucas said impatiently. His hands were trembling. He couldn¡¯t sit still.


    ¡°One hundred years ago, the greatest work of summoning in the history of Mornlunn¡ªof Aerth¡ªwas carried out in this hall. The Heroes were brought to this very spot,¡± Valerie spoke softly, the light of her sword shimmering in her eyes. They seemed to glow in the dark as brightly as her sword did. ¡°As you know, there were only four of them.¡±


    Lucas could imagine it. This room, without the plants, marble unmarred and grand, the floor packed with robed wizards. Rian would¡¯ve been the first to speak, demanding what the hell was going on and who all the creepy-looking wizard types around them were with lots of swearing. Aarya would¡¯ve defaulted to trying to befriend them, peacemaking, charming. Claire probably wouldn¡¯t have said a word, watching and calculating. Jamie¡¯s first thought would¡¯ve been making sure his friends were safe, all else including his own wellbeing falling to the wayside.


    He wondered what his first actions would have been, if he¡¯d been there with them. How he would have felt. He found he didn¡¯t know. All he was sure of was that it would have been a hell of a lot nicer to face all this with his friends at his side.


    ¡°No one has any idea why I wasn¡¯t there with them?¡± Lucas asked, feeling numb.


    ¡°People have a lot of ideas,¡± Valerie said. ¡°No one knows the truth.¡±


    ¡°Best guesses?¡±


    ¡°The prevailing theory is to do with the sacrifices.¡± Valerie grimaced. ¡°Another matter that perhaps should have been revealed to you more delicately. More failings on my part.¡±


    Lucas grimaced. Another thing to feel guilty about, even though it wasn¡¯t his fault and wasn¡¯t something he¡¯d asked for. ¡°How did they react when they arrived?¡±


    ¡°Confused. Understandably distrustful. Worried about you. Lady Aarya wrote in her diaries that she was terrified, in those first few days. But she gained courage from her friends.¡±


    ¡°Diaries?¡±


    ¡°There are copies of them in the Moontower. You can read them when we get to Dawnguard, if you like.¡±


    Setting aside the assumption that would be their course of action, Lucas leaned forward. ¡°What happened next?¡±


    ¡°They agreed to help, and they remained in Pentaburgh for a time to train in the Great Powers granted them. Each occupied one of the Five Towers, and had a small army of instructors to help them gather knowledge and strength. By all accounts, their progress was incredible, beyond the wildest dreams of the First Order.¡±


    Towers, Lucas thought. He mentally oriented himself to figure out which one he¡¯d climbed, then pointed north. ¡°Which tower¡¯s in that direction?¡±


    ¡°That would be the Tower of the Star,¡± Valerie said.


    Lucas huffed a mirthless laugh. Of course it was.


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t long before the four set out to gather field experience, and their power was immediately obvious,¡± Valerie said, eyeing him. ¡°Never before had a party achieved such success. They killed a Dread General within six months of their first quest, and hope swept through the surviving people of Aureon as the Heroes travelled the continent. Before long, they were armies unto themselves, and no one could hope to match them in their discipline.


    ¡°Years went by, and political power concentrated around them to match their personal prowess. They were more influential than any noble, and eventually even royalty answered to them. Who could give orders to people who could mount excursions deep into the Blighted Lands by themselves?


    ¡°After an incident involving the ousting of a corrupt king who had been oppressing his people, Lady Aarya took control of the country of Solara, far west of Mornlunn in central Aureon. Solara prospered under her rule, and by all accounts the people loved her.


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    ¡°Twelve years after the Heroes had been summoned, the Demon Lord took to the field outside the Blighted Lands for the first time that we know of. Solara was taken by surprise, its people butchered for weeks before a word of warning could travel. Lady Aarya¡¯s army was forced to face the Demon Lord at Caelan, the capital of Solara, wildly outnumbered and without reinforcements.


    ¡°Survivors were few, and what accounts we have from them are contradictory. We can¡¯t be certain what exactly happened,¡± Valerie said solemnly. ¡°Lady Aarya¡¯s army is said to have been slain to the last man, but the squire of Solara¡¯s Lord Commander was able to carry her body across the countryside strapped to his back. He was exhausted, delirious, barely able to speak. But the cleric who recorded his final words wrote that Lady Aarya¡¯s arrows decimated entire legions of the Demon Lord¡¯s army and slew three Dread Generals before she faced the Demon Lord himself in single combat.¡±


    ¡°And she lost,¡± Lucas said, his voice a thin rasp, barely able to escape past the lump in his throat. His eyes stung.


    Twelve years after they¡¯d been summoned. 88 years ago. And where was Lucas?


    Valerie nodded. ¡°We can only assume so. Her body was borne back to Mornlunn, where the remaining three mourned her. After that¡­¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Lucas snapped. ¡°Don¡¯t hold back now, after all that.¡±


    ¡°Lady Aarya was said to be ¡®the life of the party¡¯ and after her death Lord Rian and Lord James fell apart. The former vanished. The latter became cold and unfeeling. Only Lady Claire kept strong, and she recognised the loss of Lady Aarya as a devastating one beyond her personal feelings.


    ¡°And so she sought to extract the Great Bow from Lady Aarya¡¯s deceased body, if she could.¡±


    ~~~


    Lucas had not reacted well to that revelation. He could admit that. The surrounding plants hadn¡¯t deserved to feel his wrath. They¡¯d done nothing wrong except be the nearest thing on hand he could destroy, and yet he¡¯d turned them black, forced them to strangle and snap one another, made them rot away until there was no hint of the lifeful verdure there had been before.


    It had felt wrong, to see anything around him alive when Aarya wasn¡¯t.


    They¡¯d grown back anyway the moment he¡¯d let the plant network¡¯s will back in, and forcing them into destroying each other had provided him no relief. If anything, It just made him feel worse, like a child who¡¯d calmed down from a tantrum and regretted breaking a toy.


    Valerie had watched him shout and cry and rage without a hint of judgement in her gaze, and when he was done, sitting on the floor with his head in his hands, she¡¯d asked him what he wanted to do next.


    And so here he was. Sitting cross legged inches from a tall fire, feeling the heat scorch his skin, and wondering what the hell he was doing.


    Distracting yourself, a voice in his head snarked at him. Valerie had offered to give him the introductory initiation into pyromancy she knew, but when she''d told him it was the very basics of a course that took months or even years depending on talent, he''d decided to try figure it out for himself.


    He closed his eyes, trying to shut out every sense but his mana, thinking back to the ways he¡¯d discovered floramancy. And¡­ that other one he didn¡¯t like to consider. It was a weapon in his arsenal and he knew he¡¯d have to face it some day, but not today. Or any time soon.


    In both, he thought with a grimace, it had started with contact. Touch as a conduit to channel his vital energy. Mana to object.


    That didn¡¯t seem so appealing with fire. Sure, Valerie had healing capabilities, but there was still a primal, instinctive part of him that recoiled from the mere idea of sticking his hand into a burning flame.


    Lucas pulsed his mana, focusing on the feeling of the flaming sticks. He could feel, distantly, how they were charring, the fire burning away the fuel in the wood. It was simple enough to slip his mana in there and keep the fire sated past the point that the kindling should have remained combustible. He¡¯d figured it out with mere seconds of experimentation.


    It was as Jyn had said, back in that crumbling building during the storm. Fire wished to burn, and so helping it to do so was as easy as giving it a source. Floramancy was the same: making a leaf grow a little faster barely even required attention. Coaxing an element to do what it was meant to was as simple as magical techniques got. A pure, simple application of mana.


    But Lucas wanted¡ªneeded¡ªmore than that.


    He thought back on Jyn¡¯s words, tips freely given in the assumption that Lucas wouldn¡¯t be able to employ any pyromantic techniques anyway. The Wandmaster probably wouldn¡¯t have been so forthcoming if he¡¯d known who Ser Rian really was. Lucas revelled in the schadenfreude that thought brought him.


    With work, one¡¯s mana attunes to the fire, Lucas recalled Jyn¡¯s voice and words with startling clarity.


    So how do I attune my mana to the fire? Lucas thought. From the way Jyn had talked about it, it seemed like a process that took a while. Right now, his only connection to the fire was through the sticks it was burning, and he needed to somehow copy the feeling of fire to his very soul. A heart¡¯s flame, Jyn had called it.


    The monstercat currently occupying the chest area of his mana system probably wouldn¡¯t like that much. He¡¯d have to cope with it, the little freeloader.


    Jyn said it felt like his soul was on fire.


    Lucas grimaced. The flames were hot on his eyelids, shining through them and turning his vision red like he was looking at the sun. He focused on the heat, and the beat of his heart.


    Reaching down, he picked up one of the newer burning sticks. It was only aflame at one end, right at the tip, but even the unlit end was uncomfortable to the touch. He moved his mana into the wood directly and it lit up in his mind.


    It was a strange sensation, to wield a stick that was on fire. His mana coursed through most of the wood as it usually did, but at the end, where the fire burned, his mana would be drawn away and devoured by the flame. Fire was different from what he¡¯d worked with so far. Sticks and bones were mere receptacles to his mana, and living plants didn¡¯t so much consume his mana as accept it.


    Fire, on the other hand, was hungry. It took his mana by default, and he had to actively hold it back. A simple enough task with such a small flame, but hotter and larger fires made it harder, like it gained strength with size. Fire had no pathways, nowhere for mana to flow, because it consumed mana to live. Pushing more mana into it just made it grow hotter. It drained him far faster than floramancy, making him feel out of breath.


    Somehow, he had to do the same thing with his soul. An inner fire¡ªthe heart¡¯s flame¡ªthat consumed mana in order to burn. Lucas ghosted the tips of the fingers of one hand across his chest. The scorched skin prickled at even the soft touch. Lucas held back a wince, breathing deeply. He turned his attention to his internal mana while keeping his mind focused on the heat of his body.


    All this thinking was just delaying the inevitable.


    In his other hand, the smaller flame consumed his mana like a ravenous, insatiable beast. He dropped the stick back into the fire and felt as it quickly consumed the last of the mana that had been lingering in the wood.


    Drawing in a deep breath, Lucas shoved the now-free hand into the fire.


    Pain. His vision went white, and he cried out. The world faded away. There was only a searing heat, intense and all-encompassing, as if his hand had been plunged into molten lava. The pain was immediate, a white-hot agony that shot through his nerves like lightning, searing every inch of his flesh despite only his hand touching the fire. A violent shudder thrummed through him.


    His skin blistered and sizzled, the scent of burning flesh filling the air with a sickening stench. The flames danced and writhed around his hand, as if taunting him with their relentless hunger. It felt as though his very bones were being consumed by the inferno, every nerve ending screaming in protest against the onslaught of fire.


    Even after all he¡¯d agonised over doing this, he hadn¡¯t been anywhere near prepared for the reality of the agony.


    With each passing moment, the pain intensified, becoming a relentless torment that threatened to consume him whole. Sweat streamed down his face. He wanted to scream, to tear his hand away from the fire and flee, but something held him there, rooted to the spot, as if his soul were being tested by the flames.


    Yet, amid the unbearable pain, there was a growing sense of detachment, as if he were watching the scene unfold from a distance. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, each agonising second stretching out into eternity.


    And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the pain began to recede, replaced by a numbness that spread through his hand like ice. The flames still crackled before him, but he felt strangely disconnected from them, as if the fire were no longer a threat but merely a distant memory.


    Panting for breath, he grabbed his mana and slowed it in his hand, providing more fuel for the flame. It kept burning even as he withdrew his hand from the fire, cradling it against his chest, the skin blackened and charred, the pain now a dull ache that pulsed with every beat of his heart. His arm trembled.


    Focusing on the burn in his hand and the way the fire tore away his flesh and blood and bones, he drew on his mana, copying that feeling of an outside force consuming his mana and placing it in his chest.


    And his heart caught fire.


    The feeling was so immediate, so intense that he almost lost control entirely. He gasped, doubling over, but held on.


    It wasn¡¯t painful, not like his hand. It was strong, vivid. As he fed it mana, it got hotter, burned higher. It was hungry for fuel; it would consume every drop of mana in his pathways if he let it.


    But it was his, part of his soul, a construct of his mana, and he took it under his control, using it to pump soulfire through his body like a heart pumping blood. Magma flooded through his pathways like they were veins, and head radiated through his body. He could feel potential crackling at the edge of his fingertips, and he pushed on it. Heat rushed into the burned limb, pushing out the pain.


    Jamie the monstercat regarded the new intruder on his domain for a moment, confusion emanating from him as he tilted his mana-constructed head from side to side. He batted at it a few times like it was a toy, then recoiled at its warmth, hissing. Not for long, though. In moments he seemed to adjust to the situation, and ended up curling around it, purring contentedly. Lucas couldn¡¯t help but give a shaky smile at that.


    Stoking his heart¡¯s flame, Lucas pushed his mana out in an omnidirectional wave, just as he would for sensing plants nearby. The information he received was both familiar and so, so new.


    It was just like seeing through a heat vision camera without the cold parts, only the heat. He saw everything in his dozen-metre range from every angle. A mental 3D map. The flames before him were white hot, as was much of his body¡ªparticularly his hand. Valerie was hovering just behind him, her armour a deep red and her body a rosy pink, hand outstretched but not touching him, uncharacteristically hesitant. Judging by the angle of her head, she was looking at his hand. He couldn¡¯t blame her.


    Heat rippled through the air from the fire, projecting a red-to-yellow-to-green gradient of warmth through the plant wall all the way to the edge of his range. Even the ground held heat, white beneath the fire, then transitioning from red to green in a wide circle.


    It was beautiful.


    Lucas opened his eyes and stared at his hand, no longer burnt but burning, a limb made of moulded fire. He flexed his fiery fingers once, marvelling at the contained flame, then looked at Valerie over his shoulder. The sheer bafflement on her face might have been amusing, in other circumstances.


    ¡°Fucking ow,¡± Lucas said with a tremor in his voice.


    That was when the roof caved in.

 26: Immolate (5)

    Light flashed. There was a sound like a point blank lightning strike, and a spider web of cracks spread through the dome high above. Lucas¡¯ ears rung. The entire building shook. A chunk of marble the size of a bus broke away from the roof and plummeted like a meteor, trailing flames as it spun end over end. It crashed into the foliage nearby with a muffled boom, and the wall of plants rippled like a shockwave. The ground trembled.


    Lucas scrambled to his feet, clutching his firehand to his chest, gaze fixed on the ceiling. The cracks spread and widened, and in seconds it felt like the roof was raining rubble. The rocks beat a staccato rhythm against the plant life, a constant cacophony of noise. A piece of marble the size of a medicine ball crashed to the ground mere metres away from him. Lucas flinched away, but didn¡¯t make it a yard before Valerie snatched him by the upper arm and pulled him close. Her strength brooked no resistance as she swept him off his feet and over her shoulder.


    Next thing Lucas knew, he was hurtling through the air, the ground rapidly receding before his eyes. His heart stuttered and his stomach flipped through loops. He didn¡¯t even have time to cry out before they were up and out into the abnormally warm night, through a gap in the dome.


    Valerie landed on the singed marble as easily as if she¡¯d just stepped up there, rather than making a leap that would have carried her over a ten story building, but her cloak suddenly looked several shades darker. It was only when she set him down on his feet and he got to look out at the city and the lands beyond that he understood the situation. Half of the Summoning Hall¡¯s roof had been charred black. Little pockets of blue flame clung close to the ground like petrol fires, radiating out from a smoking, blackened point at the dome¡¯s edge.


    A field of fire raged outside the city walls. The flames seemed to go on forever, circling around half the perimeter of the city and sprawling out for what had to be at least a mile. They burned high as buildings. Jyn had to have been setting this up the entire time. Hours of work. Obscene quantities of mana and masterful control of it. A part of Lucas admired the dedication and wondered how the Wandmaster had even accomplished all this.


    Mostly, he dearly wished Valerie¡¯s initial attack had succeeded in slicing the persistent bastard in half. He felt guilty for the thought. Then he felt pathetic for feeling guilty.


    If it had just been fire, that would¡¯ve been bad enough. He didn¡¯t think his rudimentary pyromancy could match up to the level of power on display. But with so much fire, the air out here was dry as an arid desert. Wind rolled through, bringing with it only more heat; thick, almost suffocating. The sense granted to him by his heart¡¯s flame showed him the very air itself was a deep red, and it was all venting upwards.


    Dark clouds swirled overhead, illuminated by flashes of brilliant blue-white light that danced across the sky like celestial fireworks.


    Jyn said his pyromancy let him ape some brontomancy techniques, Lucas thought, a little disbelievingly. With his basic understanding of pyromancy, it was hard to conceive how the art could translate to throwing around lightning. But the reality was before him, punctuated by rolling thunder.


    The attack on the dome had just been the opening foray. Forks of lightning lashed out from the heavens every other second, striking the broken buildings and crumbling towers with deadly accuracy and hitting with far more power than a natural phenomenon. Each bolt illuminated the city in stark relief, casting eerie shadows that danced across the moss-covered marble and stone. With each subsequent crack of thunder, another fire sparked to life that the plant network rushed to put out.


    The plants were going haywire, the entire mass writhing like a living creature in pain, launching massive quantities of bioluminescent purple fluid high into the sky and excreting a pollen-filled golden-brown gas that hung over Pentaburgh like a low mist. It didn¡¯t seem to be having any effect. The lightning took on a life of its own, twisting and writhing like serpents in the sky. It arced and leaped between the overgrown buildings, tracing intricate patterns of light across the city. The air was filled with the smell of ozone.


    As Lucas watched on in awe, a lattice net of lightning flashed over the tower to the south. It collapsed in on itself, the upper levels of the tower descending into the lower ones, billowing up an enormous plume of dust.


    Despite the chaos and destruction, there was a strange beauty to the scene, a primal power that resonated deep within the earth itself. It was mesmerising to behold how much a master of magic could wield, and a thrill went through Lucas when he realised that could be him some day.


    Lucas wondered how much control Jyn even had of all this. It looked like a wild storm. A natural disaster. How was he even doing it? There were waves of heat flowing around, but Lucas couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of what purpose they were serving, especially not with his meagre range.


    And he definitely couldn¡¯t imagine how he¡¯d go about countering this. In future, he was going to make sure not to give any enemy wizards prep time.


    ¡°Is this any better than being inside?¡± Lucas had to shout to be heard over the thunder, crouched on the roof of the Summoning Hall and desperately hoping lightning wouldn¡¯t strike the same place twice. The marble was shaking beneath them; it felt ready to finish collapsing at any moment. There was as much noise inside the domed chamber as without, an endless cascade of masonry raining to the hall¡¯s marble floor.


    Looking back through the gap they¡¯d hopped out of, he saw that the ¡®safe¡¯ circle was covered in rubble, but the plants in there were overgrowing even wilder than ever before, practically filling the space halfway up the walls.


    When no reply came, Lucas turned to look at his companion. He immediately wished he hadn¡¯t.


    Her face was twisted in an inhuman rictus of rage. Her cheeks had sunken like her skin had been vacuum sealed to her skull, and black bruises had appeared beneath her eyes, which themselves had turned a ghostly white and shone with malice. She¡¯d gone pale as death, which only served to accentuate the deep, dark wrinkles lining her face. Her jaw was clenched, her teeth bared in a beastly snarl. There was an aura to her, a promise of unimaginable violence to anyone who was unfortunate enough to meet her wrath. The entire world seemed to fall into shadow as he beheld her, like her very presence darkened reality.


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    Demontouched, they¡¯d called her. Lucas understood it, now.


    ¡°Valerie?¡± he called, taking an involuntary step back. Her frenzied gaze cut to him, and he froze.


    That seemed to snap her out of it. Her eyes screwed shut, and she went still, seeming to hold her breath. Trembling in place, she dipped her hand beneath her coat and pulled out her pendant necklace. She held it up in front of her face for a moment, and the gem shone brighter, bathing her features in moonlight. It started swaying from side to side like a pendulum. Its movement shifted the angle of the light on her face back and forth, and it progressively seemed to wash away the darkness in her expression and return her previous colouring. Her features smoothed out, her hollow cheeks filling in. In moments, she looked like a person again, as if it had all been an illusion.


    ¡°I apologise,¡± she said, her voice uncannily emotionless. ¡°We should get moving.¡±


    So we¡¯re just gonna ignore that for now, huh? Lucas thought, shaken.


    ¡°Where to?¡± he asked. Answers could wait. If he even truly wanted them.


    ¡°Away,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Where? How?¡± Lucas asked, looking around. Lightning flashed, burning afterimages into his eyes that he had to blink away. The artificial storm seemed unending. The pollen gas appeared to be keeping the lightning from striking too deep and it put fires out quickly, but he didn¡¯t like the thought of breathing whatever that stuff was, so leaving that way was, tentatively, out.


    The dome gave another alarming rumble beneath them, and Lucas¡¯ heart lurched to his throat. They couldn¡¯t stay here, either.


    Valerie¡¯s face was utterly blank. ¡°I am compromised,¡± she said.. ¡°You must lead.¡±


    Lucas blanched. ¡°Me? Lead?¡±


    Valerie just nodded mechanically, staring at him with unnerving intensity in her blue-white eyes.


    ¡°Okay,¡± Lucas murmured to himself, quickly surveying their surroundings.


    The dome hadn¡¯t been hit again since the first attack, and they¡¯d been out here for a good minute now. Why? It was clear Jyn had at least some ability to direct the lightning, or he wouldn¡¯t have been able to ensure the first strike hit the Summoning Hall and drove them out. Lucas watched the lightning for a moment, trying to find a pattern in the strikes. They were chaotic, veering wildly into different areas. But they mostly hit the southern side of the city, directly before the flames, though some snaked around to the north.


    The fire and lightning to the south made going north almost too inviting, and it was there that Lucas saw Jyn¡¯s plan, or at least the outline of it. Whether it was because he just didn¡¯t want to come in here to retrieve their bodies or some other reason, the Wandmaster wanted to kill them outside the city. He was trying to push them out, baiting them north where the man himself would probably be waiting with something he¡¯d set up.


    Even knowing that, Lucas didn¡¯t know how to counter it. Staying on this roof meant potentially falling to their deaths. Fleeing into the foliage risked getting struck by lightning for real, despite Jyn¡¯s plans. Hell, staying here risked that too. It was clear the pyromancer didn¡¯t have total control over the lightning, just enough to keep it generally in one large area; the element was a mere sub-discipline to him.


    Lucas decided to be bold. Fortune favours the brave, and all that.


    ¡°We need to get out of the city as fast as we can,¡± he said. ¡°Can you jump that far?¡±


    Either they¡¯d spring the trap and Valerie would defeat him, or he wasn¡¯t actually there after all and they¡¯d escape.


    Valerie shook her head, tugging on her sky-blue cloak. It was definitely darker, more sapphire than sky. He waited for her to elaborate, but her lips were pressed thin, her jaw clenched.


    The roof rumbled again. Lucas stumbled, but Valerie¡¯s hand snapped out to steady him. Her grip on his arm was painful, so close to his firehand. Another bolt of lightning blasted an overgrown roof within a block of them, spraying rocks and plant detritus into the air.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get off the roof!¡±


    Valerie followed as Lucas started running down the dome, heading north. The Summoning Hall was wider than any stadium Lucas had been to, and the dome seemed to stretch on forever. The curved marble roof was pocked with jagged holes. More were popping up by the second as chunks of marble broke off and plummeted. They had to divert around them, prolonging their run even further. Footing got shakier as they ran, the structural integrity of the dome worsening as more marble fell away.


    As they neared the edge, Lucas reached out for his mana sense, aiming for nearby plants. An immediate problem arose.


    It felt like he¡¯d abruptly had extra air pumped into his lungs. Heat rippled through his soul in a way it wasn¡¯t supposed to, and the plants within his range flickered and fuzzed in his mind¡¯s eye, their mana starting to flow back through the connection into him. It was his heart¡¯s flame, he realised. Even as he changed the ¡®frequency¡¯ of his mana to tap into his floramancy, it remained burning, fire-attuned, and that altered the very nature of his technique. Where normally his mana seeped into the plants and melded with them seamlessly, now his heart¡¯s flame sought to consume the new fuel it had been connected to.


    From where they were on top of the roof, the only plants in Lucas¡¯ range were below them, inside the Summoning Hall itself. Moss and creeping vines clung to the walls and parts of the roof, and they started wilting at abnormal speed. His mana barely touched the plants for a second before they were dead, their mana gone, devoured by his heart¡¯s flame.


    Lucas ground to a halt, stunned. This, he supposed, was the wall that stopped wizards from pursuing multiple disciplines, especially ones that clashed with one another. There had to be overlap, synergy, to wield two arts simultaneously.


    Fire mana consumed plant mana. Of course it did. It was so obvious, it infuriated him that he hadn¡¯t predicted it.


    He didn¡¯t know what to do. He needed his floramancy here, but the idea of dismissing his pyromancy after the pain he¡¯d gone through to get it filled him with terror. He lifted his firehand and flexed his flaming fingers. What would happen to his hand if he let his heart¡¯s flame go out? Would he be left with a stump? Or would it revert to how it had been before the nexus of his soul had caught alight, burned and deformed?


    Hesitantly, feeling sick, Lucas gripped his heart¡¯s flame, seeing if he could¡­ shrink it, at least. Maybe if it was less ravenous for mana, he could work with the plants for long enough to do something.


    Jamie the monstercat woke immediately, hissing at his host for daring to mess with the heat source he was curled around. He radiated indignance and seemed to cling tighter to the flame, hissing and spitting.


    Lucas had an idea.

 27: Immolate (6)

    Lucas soared above the city, feeling more alive than he ever had. Death could come for him at any moment in a flash of electricity, but confidence born from success surged through him with indomitable will. It was a heady feeling to wield so much power, even if it was borrowed twice over.


    The vine he was standing on was as wide as a train carriage, and long enough it surely could have reached up and placed him among the clouds. The thorns along its surface were half as tall as him, wide as a car tire at the base and thin as a needle at the tip. Mana surged through the giant plant in quantities that boggled his mind¡ªall Lucas had to do was guide it with a trickle of his own.


    He was crouched low with his flesh hand pressed flat to the vine¡¯s stalk, acting as a guide. He made sure to keep the vine low, not wanting to present too easy a target for the still-rolling lightning. Some of the strikes hit the city, but the majority of them hit the other giant vines that speared towards the sky, acting like lightning rods. It seemed less frequent than before, and struck further away, not even bothering to aim for Lucas¡¯ vine. Like it was only going off to remind Lucas it was there.


    Lucas smirked to himself, though it wasn¡¯t really amusing at all. The situation was just as he thought. The only question now was just what Jyn had waiting for them to the north of the city. Would their entire surroundings erupt into flame, perhaps? The Wandmaster would find himself disappointed, if that was the case.


    Valerie hadn¡¯t said a word since he¡¯d summoned this giant plant, climbing on behind him in stoic silence with impressive balance; the vine wasn¡¯t exactly moving smoothly, but she stood like she was on solid ground. She had her sword at the ready, lunar light dancing along the blade, and her eyes were watchful. Her reticence was a bit disappointing. He¡¯d been ready to brag at length about how he¡¯d achieved this feat. Maybe later.


    He knew his attitude was shifting towards the cavalier, but it was hard not to be when such elation was coursing through him. This kind of power at one¡¯s fingertips would make any man feel like a god.


    It was a simple thing, really. Or a simple thing made incredibly, mind-blowingly complex, expanding on a rudimentary technique and making it awe-inspiring.


    At its core, the entire city had been overrun by a stupidly overpowered version of the trick he¡¯d figured out back in that old forest, where he left behind a command for a red leaf to turn green again once it left his range. Though he couldn¡¯t begin to guess the complexities of the plant network, the concept was the same. Except the technique he¡¯d managed was a ¡®Hello World¡¯ kiddy¡¯s first code and this was akin to a program that ran an entire network of data centres. A rudimentary magic AI, even.


    There were still mysteries afoot. Who had done this? What was its purpose? Why had so much vitriol fallen on floramancers in the wake of it?


    But he had no time or means to answer those right now, so they went to the back of his mind for now.


    The vine stretched out over the city, bearing them just above the overgrowth and pollen mist at a pace faster than they could¡¯ve taken if they walked. If Lucas had the mana to pull this off himself, he certainly wouldn¡¯t have had the control to do it so fast. Just another way the network was incredible. Calling it a demon seemed unfair, an insult. It was art.


    Half a dozen other giant vines grew up like towers, reaching as if to snatch the lightning out of the sky. They all leaked huge cascades of brown-gold pollen that dampened the lightning strikes, and fired back massive amounts of purple fluid with every hit.


    It had seemed a mad idea when it first came to him, but earlier success had put him in the mood for off the wall thinking. If the plant network could adapt and learn, he thought, could it learn from him? There¡¯d been nothing to suggest that it was possible. Just a gut feeling. The Gift at work again, he suspected.


    So, once Lucas had solved his mana incompatibility problem, he¡¯d reached out with his mana once more and grown some more reasonably sized vines to the apex of his range. Tapping into the plant network had given him knowledge of how to grow it; one just like this had filled the Worm¡¯s Tunnel. A vine had crept up a dozen metres above him, then split outwards to form a fork, standing taller atop the Summoning Hall than anything nearby save the four remaining great towers. After that, he¡¯d gotten as far away from it as he could while keeping it upright. Valerie had silently insisted on keeping herself between him and it.


    Lightning had struck the vine not long after, burning it down in an instant. So close, the sound had been deafening, hitting his ears like a physical force. If he hadn¡¯t been looking another way, it probably would¡¯ve blinded him, too.


    Lucas had built a new one to the same result. And another. As long as the vine towered so high above its surroundings, it attracted a lightning strike that otherwise might have hit nearby, thus protecting a small region from further strikes. A sacrifice for the greater good, one could say.


    That was when the plant network had caught on.


    Lucas had never felt such triumph as he did when he saw giant vines spearing upwards from other points in the city. From there, he just had to find a way to hijack one. That had been no easy task either.


    The Summoning Hall had been practically collapsing by the time an opportunity came. Lucas had felt the mana nearby him surging, and he wove his own will out into the plants as far as he could. Grabbing hold of the very edge of the newly-forming megavine, he¡¯d pulled a small section of it towards himself. The vine had kept filling in the gap, and he had kept pulling, until eventually he¡¯d had a giant vine of his own, reaching down to collect them from the edge of the domed roof.


    From there, it had been a bit touch and go. Finding the right balance of inserting his own will into the giant vine so he could dictate which direction it would grow in and letting the plant network¡¯s will do as it wished so it would keep growing indefinitely was no easy feat. The Gift had come in clutch again.


    Now, they sailed beneath one of the bridges linking the five towers, and it felt like they were flying. Lucas¡¯ spirit soared. Nothing else could compare to this sensation. It overrode any anxiety or fear he¡¯d been experiencing; the life or death situation tumbled down his list of priorities. The city walls were in reach.


    But all good things had to come to an end, and he¡¯d already established that Jyn was a persistent bastard, so it didn¡¯t at all surprise him when a meteor came hurtling out of the field of fire far behind them. It didn¡¯t shock him when Valerie pivoted on her heel and sliced it out of the sky with one of her moonlight slashes. It didn¡¯t even faze him when one half of the bisected meteor twisted in the air and rocketed down to land on the vine far behind them.


    It did take him off guard, however, when the fire cleared and he saw a towering man in armour standing there rather than a magenta-robed wizard.


    Wick¡¯s armour had been blackened by the fire, and his face was red and ruddy. His hair was singed and tangled. There was a smoking white mark scored deep into his shield, only a sliver of metal having withstood Valerie¡¯s attack. The shieldmaster pulled it apart with a grunt to form two shields that rested on either forearm.


    There was a dark look in his eyes, fixed on Valerie. He started walking towards her, his footsteps vibrating the still-growing vine.


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    Lucas¡¯ heart shot up into his throat. ¡°Ser Wick!¡± he called out. ¡°I¡ª¡±


    Valerie spoke over him, her voice quiet and deadly, almost sibilant. ¡°You approach me in an unmerciful mood, Shieldmaster.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want your mercy, Swordmaiden,¡± Wick said. His voice was hoarse, raspy. He held up the two halves of his shield, inspecting them with dispassionate eyes. ¡°In fact, I don¡¯t want anything from you. You¡¯ve broken me just as thoroughly as you¡¯ve broken my shield.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not in an apologetic mood, either,¡± she hissed. Her sword rose as he neared, aimed at his chest. It was starting to glow once more.


    ¡°Did I not just tell you I want nothing from you? Your apologies would be meaningless.¡± He stopped when the point of her blade tapped against his breastplate. His eyes were red-rimmed and sunken, but in them there was a steely determination despite it all as he stared at Valerie. ¡°Just as meaningless as my promises, I suppose. What kind of shieldmaster lets his comrade die? ¡±


    ¡°What are you expecting from me here?¡± Valerie asked.


    ¡°For the third time, I tell you: nothing. I¡¯m not here for you.¡±


    Valerie went still. ¡°Be careful, Ser Wick. I am yearning to enact violence on someone at this moment. Harm Lord Lucas, and I¡¯ll indulge myself without remorse.¡±


    Wick sneered at her, slamming the two halves of his shield to the ground. They stuck into the stalk of the vine and started fading into motes of prismatic light. ¡°Harm him? What do you take me for? I am a shieldmaster; a defender of men!¡±


    ¡°Then why are you here?¡±


    ¡°To protect the one person in our party who still deserves it.¡± He looked at Lucas. ¡°I failed my party. I broke my promise to protect my comrades from harm. The only thing left to me is my debt, and I intend to pay it.¡±


    ¡°Debt?¡± Lucas asked, confused.


    A resounding boom cut through the night, louder than any crack of thunder yet. The world went white. Scorching heat washed over him. His head spun.


    Next thing he knew, he was flying through the air once more in a rather different way. Indomitable metal arms wrapped around him and held him in place as the air screamed past his ears and lashed at his hair. His stomach lurched. Lucas let out a cry as the city blurred beneath him. Soon, their momentum started to slow, and the earth rushed towards him. He closed his eyes. There was an impact. A dull thud. A feeling like a warm blanket had been wrapped around him. Then he was spinning, his brain rattling around in his skull. Then¡­ crisp night air on his face. Something cold and hard against his cheek.


    Opening his eyes to find himself splayed on Wick¡¯s armoured chest was quite the surprise, and he scrambled to his feet, head on a swivel, trying to find his bearings. Darkness engulfed most of the world, but the glow of fire reflected off the clouds nearby. Grass and tough soil beneath his feet told him they were out on the plains. The city walls were hundreds of metres away, lit up by a still-blooming ball of fire at the edge of the vine Lucas had just been riding.


    ¡°Wick? What happened?¡± Lucas asked.


    The giant of a man sat up, barely visible in the darkness. There was a long scar in the ground from where they''d landed. ¡°I rescued you from danger,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°Why? What danger?¡±


    ¡°Jyn. I was supposed to be there to engage the Skycloak so she couldn¡¯t defend you from his assault. The condescending twat has been trying to manipulate me all day.¡± Wick spat to the side. ¡°Just because I¡¯m a failure, doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m going to be a party to his murderous scheme. As if I¡¯d just forget he¡¯s the reason that fight broke out in the first place. Arrogant bastards, Wands. The lot of ¡®em.¡±


    Lucas paused. ¡°I didn¡¯t see any fireballs coming. Did he get past the lightning rods somehow?¡±


    ¡°He seemed to believe he could explode the air from a distance. I know not how. My abilities allowed me to protect you from it, whatever it was.¡±


    ¡°Then¡ª¡±


    Lucas cut himself off, snapping his gaze back towards the city just in time to see the vine they¡¯d been riding on collapse into countless flaming pieces.


    ¡°Valerie,¡± Lucas whispered.


    Wick snorted. ¡°That you believe a woman like Valerie Vayon would ever fall to a man like Jyn Sakhelyan betrays your lack of familiarity with our world, Lord Lucas.¡± Wick heaved himself to his feet, dusting off the front of his armour with a sigh. ¡°You¡¯ll have a lot to learn in the coming days. Fear not. She survived.¡±


    ¡°How can you be so sure?¡± Lucas said, eyeing the fires blazing behind the city walls. They were quickly dying, subdued by the sparkling mist of countless iceblooms. The night was almost dark.


    ¡°Because she¡¯s a Skycloak, Lord Lucas,¡± said a voice from behind, and Lucas spun.


    Jyn stood there, a beacon in the darkness with the stars twinkling on his magenta robe. He raised a hand, poking a pale finger out of his voluminous sleeve. Lucas followed it, and found his gaze panning up.


    Valerie was floating slowly down to the ground, her cloak fanning out around her like wings. It was hard to tell in the dark, but it seemed to have darkened a shade or two once more. It was closer to the colour of midnight than the noon sky on a clear day. Her hand rested on the chestplate of her armour, and from it she drew her shining white sword as she landed, bright enough to batter away the night. Her eyes were white as the moon and full of murder, and she couldn¡¯t seem to decide whether Wick or Jyn were going to meet her wrath.


    Motes of multi-coloured light coalesced into the two halves of Wick¡¯s shield, and he hefted them in either direction, protecting Lucas from both sides. As it turned out, he needn¡¯t have bothered. Neither of them were able to get another word in, let alone attack.


    Lucas¡¯ heart erupted, flaring with pain. It felt like his soul was tearing open from the inside, something immense pushing its way out claws first.


    Jamie the cat burst from his chest.


    Except he wasn¡¯t a cat.


    Blazing with the power of Lucas¡¯ heart¡¯s flame, the creature had four long, multi-jointed legs tipped with claws that left hot red marks in the grass. Its enormous feline body glowed with fiery light from bulging veins criss-crossing every inch of its body. Two golden magma eyes swivelled wildly in its skull until they fell upon Jyn.


    The monstercat charged, quick as a flash, its jaw with multiple rows of teeth gaping open. Its finger-long fangs sunk into Jyn¡¯s shoulder before he could even react. The man let out a sigh and burst into flame.


    That was when the screaming started.


    Jyn¡¯s fiery body wrenched to one side, pulled into Jamie¡¯s jaws with a force like gravity. The flames rolled over his body as if they were being sucked away, and the veins on Jamie¡¯s body bulged, growing brighter. Jyn tried to attack with his pyromancy, but any flames he spawned were sucked into Jamie¡¯s jaws like a vortex. Jyn writhed and screamed, his voice shrill and desperate and terrified, but Jamie¡¯s grip was adamantine. There was a sickening crunch, and Jyn¡¯s flames vanished. The pyromancer fell silent and limp in the monstercat¡¯s grasp.


    Silence reigned on the grassy plains as the three of them stared in horror, unable to look away.


    ¡°What in all the five damnations is that?¡± Wick breathed.


    ¡°I genuinely don¡¯t know,¡± Lucas said after a moment. He was about to give some reassurance to his two companions that Jamie was on their side, but words jammed in his throat when Jyn''s body started glowing a ghostly blue.


    For some reason, he didn¡¯t see the next part coming, initially certain that the pyromancer had one last trick up his baggy sleeves; they were certainly big enough to hold secrets.


    A hazy white form in the vague shape of Jyn¡¯s body rose and started floating towards Lucas. It moved ponderously, unhurried, and when it reached him it twisted like water going down a drain. The familiar hollow feeling yawned open in Lucas¡¯ chest, and the apparition speared towards the gap as if it was being sucked in.


    A part of Lucas recoiled, horrified. But his body remained in place as the misty figure dispersed itself into his mana pathways, making him feel suddenly twice as large. By the time the process was complete, he was a balloon that would¡¯ve popped at the slightest prick.


    Slightly wide-eyed, he looked at his comrades, beseeching them to explain what was happening.


    Neither were looking at him, their own eyes wide and fixed with wonder or horror on the gruesome scene before them. Jamie had lowered himself to his haunches and was merrily crunching his way through Jyn¡¯s corpse with great bites of its multiple-hinged maw.


    Lucas lowered himself to the ground and stared, abruptly too overwhelmed with everything in his insane life to even feel sickened.

 28: Immolate (7)

    A new morning dawned on Pentaburgh with a cloudless sky and the acrid scent of smoke lingering in the air. A yellowish haze had settled over the city, and its silhouette was subtly different. Only four towers loomed now. What remained of the dome that had once been majestic even after decades of disrepair looked like a broken egg shell. The rest of the city was as it ever was, a mass of undulating green, eternal.


    Lucas was sitting cross legged in the grass of one of the sprawling plains to the city¡¯s north, feeling groggy and exhausted. He hadn¡¯t been able to sleep last night, pumped up on adrenaline, his mind turning over and over. He¡¯d mellowed out over long hours, but his brain had filled with cotton instead, and sleep continued to elude him. Thus, he was left a shirtless, unkempt mess as the sun crested the horizon and burned the night sky away. He was sure his hair was gross, but he couldn¡¯t even bring himself to run his fingers through it.


    Though part of the reason for that was because one of his hands was made of fire now, and he didn¡¯t know how to change it back. He was irrationally afraid he¡¯d use the wrong hand and burn his hair off. Anything he touched with the firehand seemed to catch alight, after all, bringing with it a stinging sensation in his flaming limb like he was the one touching something hot and not the hot thing doing the touching.


    That aside, the firehand was tough to control, sluggish. It was like there was a split second of lag between his brain and his hand, which he supposed made sense. The limb was a magical construct, and it wasn¡¯t necessarily being maintained by just his own will anymore.


    The tabby cat rumbled with satisfied purrs in his lap as Lucas reached up to absently scratch it behind the ears with his firehand. Jamie seemed to prefer his burning limb, and Lucas was right there with him; touching the cat was the only way for it to feel a sensation that wasn¡¯t mild burning. It wasn''t a regular feeling, nothing like his flesh-and-blood left hand. More like touching something cool with a thick glove on. It was better than nothing. Or burning.


    Letting Jamie devour his heart¡¯s flame had worked as he¡¯d hoped, but it wasn¡¯t a perfect solution. Pyromancy was still somewhat available to him, but magma no longer coursed through his pathways; his mana had settled back to its default state within minutes of going through with the plan.


    There was a disconnect, just like with his hand. His heart¡¯s flame didn¡¯t respond to him as easily as his own mana did; it felt muted, distant, compared to how it had before. He had to actively connect himself to Jamie like when he shared the cat¡¯s senses to use it, and only then would fire-attuned mana warm his pathways once more.


    It meant he could use his floramancy without issue again, but his potential for pyromancy had been weakened significantly, and the two couldn¡¯t be wielded simultaneously. A frustrating outcome, but he hadn¡¯t seen any other ways around it in the moment.


    If he had to choose between losing pyromancy and weakening his control of it, he¡¯d choose the latter every time. If his hand had reverted and the pain of the burns had returned, he probably would¡¯ve passed out.


    ¡°I mistrust that thing, Lord Lucas,¡± Wick said for the millionth time, eyeing the cat from where he was sitting nearby in his blackened armour. He¡¯d tried to wipe the soot, but only succeeded in streaking it across his breastplate before giving up. His black hair was a matted, tangled mop.


    The shieldmaster had insisted on sticking around despite Jyn¡¯s unpleasant death, and he¡¯d gotten as little sleep as Lucas had. He¡¯d claimed he wanted to make sure someone was up to keep an eye on Jamie, but Lucas suspected the man was still haunted by the previous day¡¯s events. He hadn¡¯t said anything about it, but his eyes had a dark, despairing look to them.


    Lucas couldn¡¯t blame him. He was struggling to keep certain images out of his mind, too.


    It was going to be hard to look at Jamie the same way ever again. It was one thing to feel the abnormality of the monstercat¡¯s body. Beholding its true form¡ªif that even was its true form¡ªwas another matter entirely.


    The way Jamie had eaten Jyn¡¯s fire had been unexpected, to say the least. Even hours later, he radiated satisfaction for a good meal. Apparently eating Lucas'' heart''s flame had given the creature a taste for fire. That hadn''t been part of the plan.


    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s harmless,¡± Lucas said despite all that, scratching the cat under the chin and earning more appreciative purrs. Then he realised what he¡¯d said and grimaced. ¡°Well, not harmless, exactly. But he¡¯s no threat to me. I¡¯d been travelling with him for days before I met you.¡±


    ¡°Soulbonding with a creature of unknown origin may not have been wise,¡± Valerie said, also eyeing the cat. In the light of morning, her cloak seemed closer to black than blue, draped around her like a blanket where she was kneeling with her hands folded on her lap. The cloak was the only thing out of place about her; she¡¯d tamed her blond hair back into its braid, wiped all hint of soot and dirt off her cloak, armour, and skin, and her expression was just as placid as it usually was. She¡¯d been the only one to get any sleep, and had seemed embarrassed about it when she woke just before sunrise.


    ¡°It¡¯s not like I meant to,¡± Lucas said, a touch defensively. He¡¯d already explained how he¡¯d met the cat and the connection that had been made between them. Apparently, such things weren¡¯t unheard of. Many people bonded their souls to creatures, magical or otherwise, for a variety of reasons and a wide range of benefits.


    There were downsides to it, of course. Valerie had told him that a portion of one¡¯s soul would forever be dedicated to the bonded creature, and the effects were hard to predict. ¡°The heart has only so much room,¡± she¡¯d said.


    Bonding with something demonic was, however, quite unheard of indeed. Valerie was being diplomatic with the whole ¡®unknown origin¡¯ wording, and Wick¡¯s mistrust was rather an understatement. He knew what they were both really thinking. It was hard to blame them.


    But just as the plant network in Pentaburgh had turned out not to be a demon after all, he didn¡¯t think that was the case with Jamie, either. This wasn¡¯t so much a gut feeling as a deduction. Demons were creatures that birthed beasts through chaos, and Jamie had never shown a hint of anything like what he¡¯d felt from beasts.


    Lucas could feel Jamie¡¯s mana network through their bond. He could sense the unnatural twist of too much mass packed into a tiny frame, and he¡¯d seen with his own eyes what the creature could become. It was obvious Jamie was an eldritch abomination of some description.


    Just¡­ not a demon. Probably. Hopefully. It would be a bit embarrassing if he was, so Lucas was going to insist that he wasn¡¯t, even if the difference turned out to be academic.


    ¡°Besides, he helped us out back there, didn¡¯t he?¡± Lucas said in his monstercat¡¯s defence.


    ¡°I would have dealt with Ser Jyn,¡± Valerie said.


    Wick¡¯s countenance darkened at that, his lips twisting. The two of them were spaced far apart, and each seemed determined to pretend the other didn¡¯t exist. Lucas had been worried that Valerie would insist on silencing Wick, but she¡¯d barely acknowledged him at all.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you would have,¡± Lucas said. Judging from the way Jyn had reacted to the revelation of her identity, there must have been something well known about her skill set that had him worried. ¡°But you have to admit that was a much easier end to the battle, right? No big elaborate fight where you had to worry about protecting me from whatever else Jyn had been setting up all day. And hey, now we know Jamie can handle it if we run into any more hostile pyromancers in the future.¡±


    He really hoped they didn¡¯t run into any hostile pyromancers in the future.


    Valerie stared at him. ¡°I¡¯m detecting a concerning tendency toward recklessness within you, Lord Lucas.¡±


    ¡°Just Lucas, please.¡±


    ¡°Soulbonding a strange creature, engaging beasts with a stick, sticking your hand in a fire in order to speed up your learning of pyromancy,¡± she said, ignoring him. ¡°Eventually, these kinds of risky actions will not go your way.¡±


    ¡°There were extenuating circumstances in all of those,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°I, for one, am pleased you engaged the beasts when you did,¡± Wick said. He huffed, shooting another distrustful glance at Jamie. ¡°Regardless, my shields will be there to protect you from danger, whatever direction that may come from. Useless shieldmaster though I may be, though my promises may be broken, I will give my all.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Wick,¡± Lucas said, unsure how else to handle that.


    Silence settled on them for a moment. The morning was crisp, their breaths fogging the air. His heart¡¯s flame wasn¡¯t in his own heart anymore, but he could draw on it with some concentration, pushing warmth into his body. It made him keenly aware of his firehand, tingling where it connected to the flesh of his arm.


    Jamie looked up at him curiously as he cycled the fiery mana through his pathways, drawing it right to the fingertips of his firehand. They glowed brighter, and left a faint afterimage in the air when he moved his hand. With some concentration, he kept the fire-attuned mana in his hand and let it build. Soon, the fire broke the contains of his fingers, a tongue of flame licking up like he¡¯d lit a candle and radiating waves of heat into the air.


    Activating his heat vision, he watched the little flame, stoking it with his fire mana. It was different from feeding a natural fire his regular, pure mana; though it had no pathways, he could feel it in that same strange sense that linked him to plants when he was performing floramancy. Any fire mana he fed to the flame became a part of the flame, and the flame became a part of him.


    With a flex of will, he manipulated the heat around the fire until it was floating a centimetre off the tip of his finger. The connection remained. Shaping it took more control, but he managed to mould it into a shaky, flickering line. Next, he compressed it into a sphere the size of a marble and let it float down the length of his finger and across his raised palm.


    Then he clenched his fiery fist, snuffing it out. It didn¡¯t burn a bit. If anything, it felt cold. Compared to the blazing white heat signature of his hand, he supposed it was.


    Triumph was surging through him as he let go of his connection to Jamie, letting his heart¡¯s flame fade back into its now-default distant state. It had been a small working, little more than a trick. The mental delay caused by having to use Jamie as an intermediary for his magic made it far more laborious than it needed to be.


    But it was confirmation that he could still work with more than one magic.


    As if to prove it to himself, he pulsed his mana in a sphere around him once it had returned to purity. The surrounding plants lit up in his sorcerous eye, and he commanded a hundred blades of grass at random to grow as fast as they could. They obeyed. His heart soared.


    Valerie was watching him curiously when he returned his attention to his surroundings.


    ¡°I must remind you I have some rudimentary knowledge of pyromancy and several other disciplines as part of my role. Enough to get you started on many of them,¡± she said. ¡°If you want to continue discovering things for yourself for now, that¡¯s your prerogative. You¡¯ve shown results as an autodidact so far. But know that you may not always have the luxury.¡±


    Lucas smiled at her. ¡°I¡¯ll ask for help if I really need it. Yesterday, I just¡­ I needed to skip ahead.¡±


    ¡°I believe,¡± Valerie said, ¡°we should go over some of yesterday¡¯s events. I¡¯m sure we¡¯d all like some clarification on a few points.¡±


    Lucas nodded hesitantly. ¡°I have questions, yeah.¡±


    A singular question, really. One he wasn¡¯t sure how to ask.


    ¡°Firstly, just to ensure I¡¯m understanding this correctly: your familiar now contains your heart¡¯s flame?¡± Valerie asked, her eyes straying down to the tabby cat in Lucas'' lap. She seemed like she was waiting for him to burst into his monstrous form and attack at any moment.


    ¡°Kind of,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Maybe it would be more accurate to say he is my heart¡¯s flame now?¡±


    Valerie stared at him. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of such a thing. It goes against the commonly understood principles of magic, and pyromancy in particular.¡±


    ¡°The Great Star evidently grants unique paths to power,¡± Wick said. ¡°How many impossible, unreplicable feats are attributed to the Heroes? I fail to see how this is any different.¡±


    Valerie sighed. ¡°I¡¯ve seen Lady Claire work magic a thousand times. It merely surprised me that something like this wouldn¡¯t occur to her.¡±


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°Well,¡± Lucas said, a little thrown off balance by the casual mention of one of his best friends as some incredible wandmaiden. Her becoming great didn¡¯t surprise him. It was just¡­ It was hitting him now that she¡¯d been around for a hundred years. What would she even think of him, when they met? He cleared his throat, banishing the thought. ¡°She probably found a better solution for, uh, multimagicking than I have.¡±


    ¡°Practise and experience,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Right. But I didn¡¯t exactly have time to gain either of those.¡± Lucas smiled wryly. ¡°Well, the point is she never would¡¯ve needed to pursue this path I¡¯ve started. I guess we can only find out what it brings.¡± He scratched under Jamie¡¯s chin with his burning fingers. ¡°It¡¯ll do for right now.¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t argue with the results,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Along a similar line: the floramancy you displayed.¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± Lucas said, frowning. ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t expect anything like that out of me away from the city. Not for a few years, at least. Hard to say for sure how advanced the plant network is in terms of magical skill required, but I¡¯d guess it¡¯s pretty much as top tier as it gets, and it did most of the heavy lifting.¡±


    Valerie glanced at the city. ¡°You¡¯re saying it¡¯s a work of floramancy, not a demon?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s like a super basic artificial intelligence imprinted into the plants using mana. It¡¯s absolutely incredible. Seriously."


    ¡°You¡¯re certain of this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my best guess.¡±


    Her eyes turned distant. ¡°If you¡¯re certain it¡¯s not demonic, there¡¯s only one person I can think of who could achieve that.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas said. ¡°I think we''re maybe on the same page there.¡±


    Partially because he could only name one magic user at all, now that Jyn was dead.


    ¡°The question,¡± Valerie said slowly, ¡°is why Lady Claire would do such a thing.¡±


    ¡°Honestly, I suspect you know her better than I do. I last talked to her over a hundred years ago, apparently.¡±


    And wasn¡¯t that a horrible idea to confront?


    Valerie frowned¡ªan extremely strong expression by her usual standards, yesterday¡¯s demonic fury notwithstanding. ¡°The reason for the initial creation of the plant network is transparent: preventing the city from being breached by the Demon Lord¡¯s forces. By anyone¡¯s forces.¡± Her frown deepened, brows furrowing. ¡°But why stop anyone approaching the city in perpetuity? Why the secrecy? Why the lies? Why the condemnation of floramancers? There are multiple records of serious incidents involving plant magic in the wake of Pentaburgh¡¯s fall. Did she orchestrate that?¡±


    Wick was looking between them both, brow furrowed, but he said nothing.


    ¡°Lots of questions for her, then,¡± Lucas murmured. What kind of person had Claire become, over the course of a century?


    ¡°Easier said than done,¡± Valerie said. ¡°She¡¯s currently on an expedition into the Blighted Lands, attempting to break through to Aeyem for reasons she wouldn¡¯t divulge. I don¡¯t know when she¡¯ll return. She wouldn¡¯t tell me the details of the quest, if I wasn''t going to be involved in it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d usually be involved with a quest like that?¡±


    "My name would typically be close to the top of the list for such missions."


    Lucas frowned. "And Jyn said you''ve been fighting on the frontlines since you were fourteen, didn''t he? How old are you now?"


    ¡°We¡¯ll table this discussion for the time being.¡± Valerie shook her head once as if to dislodge the troubling thoughts. ¡°You don¡¯t think you could replicate yesterday¡¯s feats without the plant network?¡±


    Lucas stared at her for a long moment. What was that about? ¡°Not as I am now,¡± he said slowly, searching for the right words. All he could come up with were Earth references. They¡¯d have to do. ¡°Look, the plant network basically gave me a temporary cheat code that let me use a level 100+ technique when my floramancy is level¡­ I dunno, maybe 10? In comparison?¡±


    He was prepared to explain what the hell he was on about, but Valerie just shook her head and said, ¡°I would strongly advise you not to think in gaming terms.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± Lucas said, blinking.


    ¡°Lady Aarya wrote of video games extensively in her diaries, and I¡¯m given to understand she tasked the Guild of Iconomancers, among others, with trying to replicate the concept. The results did not satisfy her,¡± Valerie said with a flat look. ¡°Most importantly, she spoke of the difficulties Lady Claire had early on when the two of them took a gamified approach to growing their skills. It led to some dangerous misconceptions. Underestimating enemies and such.¡±


    Lucas gaped at her for a moment, his mouth flapping soundlessly. ¡°Yeah, Aarya was pretty big into games. I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m surprised.¡± The knowledge that that hadn¡¯t changed even in a new universe warmed him a little, overriding his shock. Suddenly, with a burning ferocity that took him off guard, he dearly wished to speak with her. His eyes stung, and he had to blink away the onset of blurriness in his vision.


    ¡°Anyway, just don¡¯t expect me to be spawning any giant vines,¡± he said, suppressing any upsetting notions before they could consume him. ¡°The plant network in Pentaburgh stores a massive amount of information about the plants in its mana, which even a novice floramancer like me can tap into to transform plants in ways I wouldn¡¯t usually be able to. And that¡¯s not even talking about the amount it offsets the mana cost. Hopefully I¡¯ll figure something out one day, though.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll endeavour to ensure your skills rise as high as they can in any and every discipline you desire,¡± Valerie agreed.


    ¡°Cool,¡± Lucas said. He hesitated, trying and failing to find a tactful way to phrase the question on his mind. ¡°And¡­ I guess I have something I''m curious about¡ª¡±


    ¡°My time spent on the frontlines of and within the Blighted Lands from a young age has had negative effects on my psyche, but it is a manageable problem,¡± Valerie said immediately. ¡°I will explain further if you request it of me, but know that I do not wish to.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± Lucas said, taken aback. ¡°If you have it handled, then I¡¯ve got no problems.¡±


    He wasn¡¯t sure that was true, but it felt like one of those situations where he had to back down.


    ¡°I have a question for you,¡± Wick said, his nostrils flaring as he shot a glare at Valerie. ¡°Were you truly planning to kill Jyn the entire time?¡±


    ¡°He was a peripheral member¡ªor perhaps merely an ally; it¡¯s hard to be sure¡ªof a cabal who call themselves the Darkstar,¡± Valerie said. ¡°They are one of the many groups who seek to usurp Lady Claire¡¯s position, though their intent is more radical than most. I wished to know more about them, so I accepted his application for the commission I¡¯d posted with the express intent of interrogating him, yes.¡±


    ¡°Torture him, you mean,¡± Wick spat.


    ¡°I am willing to go to great lengths for the good of Aerth and its people.¡±


    Wick scoffed.


    ¡°Your scorn means nothing to me. I do what needs to be done, and sometimes there are people who need to die.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Are you going to tell me that Rena Luos deserved to die, too?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Wick gaped at her for a moment. ¡°You cannot honestly tell me you believe that?¡±


    ¡°She raised her bow against Lord Lucas with lethal intent, and thus showed that she could not be trusted to put the fate of the world above her petty emotions. Her life was forfeit at that moment.¡±


    ¡°And your actions had nothing to do with her provocations towards you on our journey?¡± Wick scoffed. ¡°I could see you practically burning to draw your sword on her, at times.¡±


    Valerie sent him a withering look. ¡°If I was the type to kill people for disparaging the Order, half the world¡¯s remaining population would be in the grave. I¡¯ve heard far worse than anything that passed her lips.¡±


    ¡°She could have been persuaded to stop,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°I was not willing to risk the prophesied hero''s life to spare some average bowmaiden,¡± Valerie said, with the tone of finality.


    Wick looked away with a sneer of disgust, crossing his armoured arms.


    ¡°If there are no more questions for one another, we need to discuss our future course of action,¡± Valerie said after a moment, looking at Lucas. ¡°In the short term, our aim should be to get you to the Moontower in Dawnguard. There would be nowhere safer for you to grow and learn.¡±


    Wick spoke before Lucas could, ¡°Are you certain? Rena may have been trying to provoke you, but she wasn¡¯t wrong in her constant taunts about the Order¡¯s lack of belief in Lucas¡¯ eventual arrival.¡±


    ¡°With the man himself right in front of them, it would no longer be a question of belief.¡± Valerie sighed. ¡°Regardless, we won¡¯t immediately be revealing Lord Lucas¡¯ arrival to the world at large, just some select individuals I trust.¡±


    ¡°Will you listen if I order you to stop calling me ¡®Lord?¡¯¡± Lucas asked.


    Valerie¡¯s eyes narrowed the slightest fraction. ¡°I will act as you desire, but I must reiterate that you¡¯ll need to get used to such treatment.¡±


    ¡°Let me put it off for now,¡± Lucas pleaded. He gestured to himself, an ungroomed man with a scraggly beard and a bare sunburned upper body. Even his plant fibre trousers looked shabby, not even accounting for the tears they¡¯d picked up in the last day or so. ¡°Look at me, Valerie. I¡¯m no hero yet. I¡¯ve barely gotten started on that journey. Doesn¡¯t feel right to go around calling me Lord.¡±


    ¡°And,¡± Wick added mildly, ¡°if we are to conceal his identity for the time being, referring to him with such deference may not be wise.¡±


    Valerie but bowed her head to concede the point. Her hands briefly tensed then relaxed in her lap before she continued, ¡°Are we agreed on heading to Dawnguard?¡±


    ¡°Tentatively,¡± Lucas said. ¡°What¡¯s our long term goal?¡±


    ¡°Defeating the Demon Lord and saving the people of Aerth from plunging into the fifth circle of Damnation,¡± Valerie said.


    Lucas held back a groan through force of will. No pressure or anything. ¡°Okay, but what¡¯s our roadmap to that? How do we get from here to there? It just seems too big to wrap my head around. Need to break it down into more achievable goals.¡±


    Valerie¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°You grow. You train your body until it''s at peak condition; strength, endurance, dexterity, reflexes. No aspect of physical ability left imperfect. At the same time, you train your mind until you¡¯re as far above the common man as a dragon is from an ant. Knowledge, wisdom, memory, intelligence. You¡¯ll grow your mana system as you have been doing until it runs through your entire body. You gain skills, magic, and, most of all, experience.


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen talented warriors lose their lives in their first battle because they made mistakes that are only obvious to a veteran. We won¡¯t let that happen to you. There will be quests and commissions in Dawnguard, posted by guilds and other organisations. We¡¯ll start as small as we can and build our way up, always ensuring we¡¯re cautious and mindful and as covert as we can reasonably be.


    ¡°We¡¯ll train your swordplay to the level of a Captain of the Order and beyond, and do the same for every other handheld weapon. Shields and Bows, too. We¡¯ll get you mastery in as many different fields of magic as we can. You¡¯ll learn strategy, tactics, administration, logistics, politics, negotiation, and so much more.


    ¡°And throughout it all, we¡¯ll gather allies. Not just teachers and mentors, but advisors. People at the top of their fields who can help ease the weight of leadership from your shoulders and ensure your decisions are the right ones. We¡¯ll assemble warriors. Starting with a party for our quest, we¡¯ll go on to build an army.


    ¡°Eventually your skills will surpass all of those people, and in time you¡¯ll be training us, forming a force that can face the Demon Lord¡¯s and bring us all into a new era in which we can rebuild.¡±


    Silence fell like a million tonne weight. Lucas stared at her, wide-eyed, his lips moving but no sound passing them. That was¡­ That was a lot. He¡¯d known for some time that he¡¯d have a heavy burden of expectation placed on him and a map to his future planned out before he could even get a word in. He¡¯d expected it, even told himself he welcomed the pressure of important decisions being taken off his hands. But now that it was actually happening, it was still filling him with a cold dread that turned his skin clammy.


    ¡°I think our most important question here,¡± Wick said, ¡°should be what you want, Lucas?¡±


    Lucas had been overwhelmed enough by Valerie¡¯s speech. Somehow, Wick¡¯s question was worse. There was just so damn much pulling his mind in different directions, it was making his head spin.


    ¡°I want to go home,¡± Lucas said, staring at his hands. One fire, the other flesh. ¡°I want to meet up with my friends for lunch as I was supposed to, and go on about my day in the kind of good mood only a chat with those guys can bring out of me. I want to go to my boring bloody classes at uni and wonder if I even want this stupid history degree. I want to go to my part time job at Waitrose and despair at my horrible, mundane life the entire time I¡¯m there. I want to have a hot shower and brush my teeth and sleep in my bed and wear my clothes and browse some brain-melting social media sites and do pointless shit until I fall asleep.¡±


    Lucas looked up, meeting the gazes of his two new companions. Valerie¡¯s face was devoid of emotion, but Wick¡¯s eyes were deeply understanding. ¡°But I can¡¯t have any of that, can I?¡±


    ¡°Those are worthy goals,¡± Wick said, even though he surely didn¡¯t know what a lot of those goals even meant.


    Lucas drew in a deep breath and held it in his chest for a moment. He swallowed past the lump in his throat.


    ¡°I want to find my friends,¡± he said. ¡°All of them. Claire, Jamie, Rian, and even Aarya. Even if it just means finding out what happened to them. I want to know all about their adventures, where they went, how they felt, who they loved, and what they wanted. If I can hear it from their own mouths, great. If not¡­ I¡¯ll take anything. Books. Stories from people who met them. Whatever.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll do everything we can to ensure that happens,¡± Valerie said solemnly.


    ¡°And, goddamnit, I want to use this insane Gift your people have given me. Magic is fucking awesome. And the kind of things I was doing with just a stick¡­ I want to learn every discipline there is. Every artform, every skill. I¡¯ve been mediocre my whole life, and I¡¯m not gonna pass up the opportunity to do amazing things.


    ¡°Fuck it, I¡¯ll even farm beasts until I¡¯m so dense with mana I fall through the planet.¡±


    Valerie had been nodding along, but she paused and gave him an odd look at that. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Hm? Part of the Gift is, apparently, sucking up the mana from things I kill. It first happened with the weak beast I killed with my stick I told you all about. Then again on that hilltop.¡± Lucas grimaced. ¡°It works on people, too. When Jamie killed Jyn, it must have registered to the Gift as me doing it, with our connection.¡±


    Valerie was wide-eyed now. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of such a thing, Lucas. Nothing like that is mentioned in any of the records of the Great Summoning.¡±


    ¡°What? What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°The Great Star is only supposed to give you the ability to learn any skill at a prodigious rate,¡± Valerie said. ¡°As far as I''m aware, it has nothing to do with devouring mana.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Lucas said, because how else was he supposed to react to that?


    END OF ACT ONE: ''ARRIVAL''

 29: Extrapolate (1)

    ACT TWO: ''ADJUSTMENT''


    Lucas breathed in the warm, dry air and focused on the heat of his body. Through his heat vision, he saw a large bubble of greens and yellows and reds with his cross-legged red form at its centre. His heart was highlighted in stark white on a red background, blazing like a sun and pumping magical heat through his soul.


    It was shaped, naturally, like a sleeping cat.


    Inhaling, the surrounding heat flowed towards him, condensing around his body and turning the air arid. On exhaling, heat dispersed outwards as he pushed more warmth from his heart¡¯s flame out in an omnidirectional wave. In his mind¡¯s eye, it was like watching the tide go in and out, and on every cycle the air turned a slightly darker shade of red. Even the water below him, rushing by in a torrent, was starting to take on a hint of yellow in his heat vision, warmed by the increasingly toasty rock he was sitting on.


    His firehand was the only thing that could compare to his heart¡¯s flame. It wasn¡¯t quite pure white to his pyromantic sense, more a startlingly bright white-red colour. When he curled his fingers, the areas where muscles and tendons were supposed to be brightened. It was an odd sight. The transition from flesh and blood arm to fiery hand was a hard line, but he felt no pain in his wrist. If anything, the only sensation came from the firehand, a slight tingling at its base where it connected to his mortal arm.


    It was like having a neverending case of extremely mild pins and needles. It was incredibly annoying. There would come a point, he was starting to think, when he¡¯d be tempted to ask Jamie to eat the bloody thing. Jyn had demonstrated it was possible to regain a regular human form after turning part of one¡¯s body into flame, so Lucas wasn¡¯t at the point of despairing yet. He just had to figure out an apparently master-level pyromantic technique. No big deal.


    Exhaling sharply through his nostrils in frustration, Lucas snapped his firehand out in front of him and exerted his will. Jamie cracked an eye open where he was curled up in Lucas¡¯ chest, and a second later power surged through Lucas¡¯ pathways. Heat filled him, shooting through his system in a flash. Pressure built in his firehand, rising until the limb glowed in his heat vision with a dazzling nimbus. He could feel the rage of the fire snarling like a wild beast, demanding to be unleashed so it could consume.


    Lucas opened his eyes. Then he let down the walls that had been subduing his mundane senses.


    Moonlight reflected on a torrent of foamy white water that cascaded roaring and hissing through a trail in the rocks a few metres from where he sat. Wind sighed through a copse of tall oak trees on the opposite bank of the rushing stream, kicking up the occasional bit of detritus, but the breeze couldn''t penetrate the sphere of heat around him. Steam danced skyward. The smell of baking rock invaded his nostrils. Sweat dripped down his face and his bare chest and back, making little hisses when drops fell onto the toasty rock. A few trails of wispy smoke flickered up here and there as dry twigs and little bits of kindling caught alight and quickly burned out like twinkling stars.


    Lucas drew in a deep breath, then let it out. Inhale. Exhale. His firehand was ready to explode, a massive amount of fire packed into an area too small to contain it. Its shape started to warp, bulbous growths of white-hot flame bulging up out of his control.


    Curling all his fingers but the index, Lucas picked out a tree at random and took aim. Then he let the heat free.


    A beat later, a line of fire speared forth like his finger had abruptly grown a thousand-fold in length. The night lit up. The tree he¡¯d been aiming for exploded, splinters flying through the air. Its top half spun end over end from the force of the blast, then crashed to the ground in a flaming heap, while the bottom half erupted into flames like it had been struck by lightning, glowing cracks spider-webbing down the trunk.


    With the first obstruction felled, the line of fire kept going, hitting another tree with similarly devastating effects. Then another, boom after boom. It would have kept on piercing and burning and exploding forever, but, alas, the heat and power Lucas had packed into his firehand didn¡¯t last nearly so long.


    The pressure he¡¯d built drained rapidly, and soon the line of fire started to lose its horizontality, slowly turning into a stream of liquid flame spouting from his first knuckle like a hose. Eventually, the technique had not enough power to even sustain the stream, and an uncontrolled gout of flame bloomed in front of him in a wide cone. All in all, the technique lasted no more than a few seconds.


    A satisfying improvement.


    Lucas let it sputter out until all the extra heat he¡¯d built up was gone, watching it leave his body through his pyromantic sense. It was oddly mesmerising. Like a lava lamp that flowed in one direction in a single stream. The mana pathways in his firehand were spiritually no different to the rest of his body, carrying the hot mana of his heart¡¯s flame. He could have pumped more into the technique, but there was currently only so much his pathways could handle before he felt like he was going to burn himself up from the inside.


    As cool as he¡¯d thought Jyn¡¯s technique had looked, he wasn¡¯t anywhere near ready to go full living fire mode. He hadn¡¯t even figured out how to turn one hand back to flesh and blood yet.


    Far before that, he had to finish expanding his pathways. In the two weeks since the Pentaburgh incident, he¡¯d gotten all of the pathways in his arms and hands open. Next on the agenda was following the system down his torso and into his legs. It was distinctly uncomfortable for his arms to feel so much more than the rest of his body. Spiritually, he pictured himself like one of those guys at the gym with bodybuilder arms and piddly little chicken legs. Valerie hadn¡¯t commented on it, but he was sure he looked comical to someone who could sense such things.


    Unfortunately, the arms and legs were, Valerie explained, the simplest parts of the mana system. They were ¡®just¡¯ limbs, after all. Nothing really complicated was needed there.


    The torso was another matter. In terms of one¡¯s physical form, it contained the bulk of the organs that kept the place running. Spiritually, it was a similar story.


    ¡°The Heart is the centre of your mana system,¡± Valerie had explained. ¡°Yours won¡¯t be well developed yet, barely distinguishable from the rest of your system. It¡¯s supposed to grow as you do, maturing by the time you become an adult.¡±


    With more time on his hands and nothing pressing needing doing as they travelled south, Lucas had taken a night to map out as many pathway openings as he could find. There were thousands of them. Tens of thousands, even. Hundreds upon hundreds in each arm alone. Passively expanding multiple pathways at once had made the task less arduous, but progress was still far from fast. He still had to go through the process of opening them individually. He was getting better at that, at least.


    And, just as Valerie had said, there were a lot of pathway openings around the area where his heart was located in his physical body. Maybe even as many as a thousand. That was probably going to be deeply unpleasant, when he eventually got around to it.


    Speaking of unpleasantness, he thought, redirecting his ire at the grim future prospect to a more present source of irritation: his firehand. It had settled down to its default state with the built-up fire mana spent, burning merrily away. He clenched his fingers to form a fist, then pressed the tips of his knuckles down on the stone ground.


    The sensation of mild burning flared in his knuckles, like he¡¯d just touched them to a hot plate right out of the dishwasher. It wasn¡¯t painful, per se. Just his body communicating to his mind, ¡°Hey, this is quite hot.¡± He pushed further, sinking his firehand halfway into the stone, and the sensation spread accordingly. He wondered what would happen if he pushed it all the way down until his flesh hit the rock, but chickened out.


    When he lifted his firehand once more, there was a black scorch mark in the approximate shape of a fist on the stone. He stared at it for a while, thinking.


    Jyn had told him mana had memory. Somewhere in his mana, there was some kind of record of what Lucas¡¯ hand was supposed to be.


    But he had no idea how to find it, let alone make use of it.


    After reaching out to suppress the fires on the other side of the stream, Lucas let his connection to Jamie go dormant. The heat of fire aspect mana started draining from his channels, his magical energy gradually returning to its base equilibrium. Pushing himself to his feet, making sure to steady himself with his flesh hand and not the fiery one, he strode to the edge of the rock and hopped off before the heat of it could start to affect him, then continued on towards their camp for the night. He stretched his arms above his head like he was trying to pull himself upwards as he walked, earning some satisfying pops and clicks from his body.


    How long had he been sitting down? Judging by the position of the moon among the tapestry of blinking stars, it had been about two hours since they¡¯d finished with exercise and sparring for the day.


    He didn¡¯t think he¡¯d ever concentrated on one thing for so long in his life. Sure, it was magic and all. A little bit more interesting than mundane homework. But still. The Gift popped up in unexpected ways at times, growing his abilities in things he hadn¡¯t even been focusing on.


    It was something he¡¯d noticed for himself a while ago, but Valerie¡¯s keen gaze had seen things more precisely.


    After the battle with Jyn and their draining conversation following it, Lucas had slept much of the day away only to wake up to Valerie sitting nearby with a thoughtful look on her face. She¡¯d told him quite casually, ¡°You fall asleep easier than you did when you first joined our party. And you sleep more deeply.¡±


    Putting aside the fact she¡¯d evidently watched him sleep, it had been an intriguing revelation, and only the first of many.


    They¡¯d remained in and around the city for a few days so Lucas could take advantage of the plant network for as long as possible; quite apart from his desire to learn all he could from the massive technique itself, its mana database to transform plants was invaluable, granting him the ability to cross traits between plants that he couldn¡¯t yet do on his own, and repeating the giant vine trick on a smaller scale allowed him to weave some new and better clothes aout of plant fibres with minimal mana expenditure. (His old set had been shredded under tonnes of rubble in the Summoning Hall. His sack had suffered a similar fate.)


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Even in that short time, Valerie had observed changes in him. They weren¡¯t massive leaps and bounds in progress, but, according to her, days of practice condensed into hours. Things he actively put his mind to like his magic saw rapid growth, but everything else passively improved too. His posture got a little straighter, his casual movements more graceful, his enunciation clearer. Even his breathing was refining.


    Most impressive of all, apparently, was Lucas¡¯ recovery time. Exhaustion just didn¡¯t seem to stick to him anymore, the aches of a long day¡¯s exertion gone by the morning. He was getting fitter just by existing.


    That had led to a day or two of focused exercise, to see how much improvement he could expect there. Valerie had bullied Lucas into joining her on a jog around the city, and he hadn¡¯t even expected to finish the first one; approximately fourteen kilometres when he hadn¡¯t done any training for a month was no joke. Instead he huffed and puffed his way to the finish line, and the next day was a few minutes faster and a little less tired, and the day after that yielded the same result. The soreness that usually lingered after long runs faded within hours.


    Similar results came in strength training, though with only big rocks to pick up and put down the improvement was less measurable. It felt progressively easier, though. Undeniably so.


    When they¡¯d started making their way south with Dawnguard as their destination, Valerie had insisted on a workout routine at the end of each day, taking advantage of Lucas'' remarkable recovery time. Situps, pushups, crunches, squats. The usual. He wasn¡¯t at the point of flexing ripped muscles yet, but after a week and a half of working out at the end of every day¡¯s travels he was seeing some definition all over. More than should¡¯ve been possible, in such a short space of time.


    Thus, Lucas¡¯ days had been rather full since he¡¯d left the city behind for the second (and hopefully last) time. Breakfast was typically followed by a few hours¡¯ walking before they¡¯d stop for lunch, after which they¡¯d walk until a couple of hours before sundown, at which point they¡¯d go through a workout routine followed by some combat training with Valerie which basically amounted to her kicking his arse for a bit. The rest of the evening he was free to work on his magic, as he was doing now.


    (Not that he wasn¡¯t working on his magic all day, too. His multitasking was another thing that was improving, and fiddling with his mana and/or magic while keeping watchful of the world around him was getting easier. Practically the entire time they were travelling, a portion of his attention was dedicated to prying open new mana pathways.)


    Seeing such tangible improvement in himself was as exhilarating as it was frightening. He found himself thinking about Jyn¡¯s pyromancy as he made his way back to where Valerie and Wick were sitting, attempting to analyse how the Wandmaster had performed those feats. He was especially interested in the glyphs. They seemed more mystical than merely throwing fire around, as he was currently doing and Jyn had disparaged.


    Wick and Valerie had set themselves down on a bit of flat grassy ground next to the stream, and they probably hadn¡¯t said a word to one another since Lucas had ambled off a few rocks over to practise his magic. Sure enough, when Lucas reached them, Wick was sitting by the water and staring off into the distance, lost in thought, while Valerie was hunched over her scroll as she¡¯d taken to doing for the last two weeks.


    They¡¯d spent the better part of a day picking through the Summoning Hall, Valerie systematically recording every inch of the array painted on its floor while Lucas kept the plants at bay. Lucas had been shocked to see it intact, considering most of the roof had fallen. But the rubble had been nowhere to be seen. The plants had somehow protected the array from any damage.


    That had implications, another clue to the mystery of the plant network.


    Valerie was a deft hand with her black pencil-ish thing, and the iconomancy on her map had allowed her to dive into the deepest bowels of excruciating detail. Apparently she was still invested in the mystery of why Lucas hadn¡¯t shown up for a hundred years even though he was now evidently here.


    ¡°If the array itself was the problem, I¡¯d like to know,¡± Valerie had said when he¡¯d asked her about it.


    ¡°And what if the array wasn¡¯t the problem?¡± Lucas had asked.


    She¡¯d looked at him then, her eyes sharp. ¡°Then I keep pursuing other possibilities until I find the answer.¡±


    In the present, Lucas approached her and peeked over her shoulder. She¡¯d enlarged a small section of the diagram where strings of stylised symbols spiralled around one another in a row of intersecting helices.


    ¡°Any progress?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°Nothing substantial to report,¡± Valerie said without looking up. She trailed her finger over a set of symbols. ¡°As you can imagine, the array is rather intricate.¡±


    ¡°Anything I can help with?¡±


    ¡°I don''t think libremancy would be the best use of your time at present.¡±


    Lucas shrugged at that. He''d never been a book guy, he wasn''t going to argue the point.


    ¡°How goes your pyromancy?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Good enough, I guess.¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ It¡¯s a powerful tool. Really packs a punch, as you probably heard back there. But I wouldn¡¯t feel confident using it in a fight. The delay from my heart¡¯s flame having a mind of its own is too problematic.¡± Lucas grimaced. ¡°Then again, a lot of my floramancy tricks are pretty slow. But with plants, it¡¯s like I¡¯ve peeked behind the curtain to the upper levels of the craft and gotten some clues on how to get there, while the path forward for fire is more opaque.¡±


    ¡°Your progress isn¡¯t as fast as you¡¯d like?¡± Wick asked. His eyes were still distant, but he¡¯d tilted his head to listen.


    ¡°Does that make me sound kinda whiny?¡± Lucas asked, running his flesh hand through his hair. It was awfully tangled and getting a bit long, but there wasn¡¯t much in the way of shampoo or scissors around here. Valerie had offered her sword for the job, but he''d politely declined.


    ¡°It¡¯s a very human thing to be frustrated when learning doesn¡¯t come easily,¡± Wick said. ¡°I would know. The shield is the simplest of the Five, and even that had me out of my mind at times. No fast learner was I.¡±


    ¡°You seem pretty damn good at your job to me,¡± Lucas said, then immediately realised that probably wasn¡¯t a good thing to say, given everything that had happened.


    Wick smiled, but it was a brittle expression. ¡°It¡¯s been a long and difficult road to get to where I am, with many mistakes made along the way. That¡¯s just how it is for most of us.¡±


    ¡°So I am coming across as whiny. Floramancy skewed my expectations for myself, I guess,¡± Lucas said. He sat down by the fire, watching the flames dance. With Jamie now dormant in his chest, he couldn¡¯t sense the heat of it, but he could feel it well enough. ¡°But then, even beyond the Gift I was relying heavily on the plant network there. Maybe I wouldn¡¯t have advanced so fast without it.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I just can¡¯t help wondering what my progress would have looked like if my heart¡¯s flame was normal.¡±


    ¡°From what I understand, your unique situation was necessary,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas said. He sighed. ¡°Yeah.¡±


    Valerie looked up from her scroll and squinted at him. ¡°Have you eaten?¡±


    Lucas sighed again. ¡°I have, yeah. Salted beef jerky didn¡¯t exactly hit the spot, but I ate it.¡±


    ¡°You always have your fruits,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°I got sick of those a long, long time ago.¡± Lucas sighed for a third time. ¡°I¡¯m gonna sound whiny again here, but I¡¯d kill for a sausage roll. Gourmet local bakery or Greggs, I don¡¯t care.¡±


    The problem was, Jyn had been the one with the ingredients for stew in his little portal thing. Valerie had looted his wand, but apparently his storage space was accessible only by him. She had supplies of her own, so it wasn¡¯t a total disaster. But it meant for much less appealing meals in the last while.


    At least he¡¯d been able to weave together some bedding for himself. If he¡¯d had to go back to sleeping uncomfortably just as he¡¯d been getting used to something soft beneath him at night, he would¡¯ve screamed. Wick had taken to sleeping in his armour, which he never seemed to leave these days. And Valerie had always been content with her cloak.


    ¡°Do you even have sausage rolls here?¡± Lucas mused.


    ¡°If you¡¯re referring to ground pork cooked in an intenstine casing then wrapped in savoury pastry before being baked in an oven, yes, we have them,¡± Valerie said. ¡°There¡¯s a good bakery near the Moontower, run by a family who¡¯ve been there for generations. They season the sausage with firepetal and sage and sprinkle the pastry with pink salt from Eiyr.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ mouth watered. ¡°Careful talking like that, you¡¯ll have me running the rest of the way to Dawnguard.¡± A thought occurred to him. ¡°Hey, did the concept of a sausage roll predate Jamie¡¯s arrival here? If they didn¡¯t, I bet he bullied someone into inventing them within a week.¡±


    Valerie smiled. ¡°They¡¯ve been around a long time, but Lord James¡¯ well-known love for them did increase their popularity for a period. Hardly a staple food these days, but common enough.¡±


    ¡°He ate them for lunch pretty much every day,¡± Lucas said. ¡°The night before the array snatched me up and dumped me in Pentaburgh, he¡¯d been complaining in the group chat about our plans to go to some new baguette place for lunch because they don¡¯t do sausage rolls there.¡±


    ¡°He was known to get quite upset if one wasn¡¯t at hand,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°I¡¯d never heard of this,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°The little quirks of the Heroes often get lost among the dazzling shine of their great deeds,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But the information is out there, if you think to look for it. It¡¯s simple enough to form an idea of their personalities from biographies and diaries and such.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll want to read those,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°We¡¯ll ensure you get the opportunity,¡± Valerie said.


    Lucas nodded. He could feel a bout of melancholy creeping in, so he sat up straight and pasted a smile on his face. ¡°Hey, can I make some guesses at what else they introduced to Aerth?¡±


    ¡°Be my guest,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Hm. Well, Claire¡¯s an obvious one. She definitely introduced that one library system, if there wasn¡¯t something like it already. I forgot the name.¡±


    ¡°Dewey Decimal Classification?¡± Valerie offered.


    Lucas snapped his fingers. ¡°Yes! That¡¯s the one. I bet she found an unorganised library and lost her damn mind.¡±


    ¡°She told me once she worked as a part time librarian.¡±


    ¡°Not for a while, but yeah, she loved it.¡± Lucas sighed wistfully. She hadn¡¯t worked at the library in years. Or a century. He wondered if she still missed it as much now as she did back then. Probably not. ¡°She quit because of uni stuff. Her parents are kinda strict.¡±


    Valerie gave a wry smile. ¡°Lady Claire chafing under strict authority figures. How ironic.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, she could be a tyrant herself.¡± Lucas chuckled at that. ¡°As for Rian, I can¡¯t say what he brought up first, but I bet he had people playing football with him within a month.¡±


    ¡°The game is still popular today,¡± Valerie agreed. ¡°Though the professional leagues he envisioned failed to catch on. The world is too tumultuous for that, unfortunately.¡±


    ¡°I do love a game of footy. I play goalkeepr, of course,¡± Wick added with a subdued smile. He didn¡¯t seem to ever grin like he used to.


    ¡°And Aarya¡­ well, I already know she tried to get video games going.¡± He shook his head, smirking to himself. Ridiculous woman. ¡°Actually, I think she¡¯d be more likely to bring some part of her culture. If Diwali isn¡¯t a thing here because of her, I¡¯ll eat my shoes.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s evolved to be more about honouring Lady Aarya herself than what she intended it for,¡± Valerie said softly. ¡°But yes, the celebration is still popular. Light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. Those are words people can get behind, in these times of darkness and evil.¡±


    Despite the grim reminder, Lucas smiled. He spoke of his friends well into the night, and felt lighter for it.

 30: Extrapolate (2)

    The lands south of Pentaburgh were subtly different to the ones Lucas had been through when he¡¯d forged out west of the city, and the strangeness only became clear in contrasting the two areas. The further south they went, the more normal the landscape seemed.


    Oh, it was anything but ordinary. Snow-capped mountains zigzagged on the far horizon, rolling meadows stretched on forever with only the occasional forest to divide them, and crystalline rivers slithered through the landscape. In terms of beauty, the southern countryside was equal to the western in every way.


    It was in the little details that they differed. The south seemed more¡­ mundane. Where there had been a faint hint of blue to the grass and leaves in the west, the southern verdure was more as it should be at this time of year: green. Trees in the west, in retrospect, had seemed to cower. There¡¯d been an unnatural stillness in the air, a stale taste to every breath.


    And that was before he even got into how some of the species of plant had seemed to blend together. He¡¯d been writing it off as some random whim of a passing floramancer, but now that he knew the art better he was doubting that assumption. Mana could compel a plant to do something unnatural with the right know-how, but fusing them together like some of the bush-tree hybrids he¡¯d seen¡­ That rang odd to him.


    When he brought it up a couple of weeks into their trek south as they crossed a wide, green grassland, Valerie looked grim. ¡°That would be the influence of the Blight.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ eyebrows climbed. ¡°I thought the Blighted Lands were further north than that?¡±


    ¡°The Blight ever reaches out to influence new territory,¡± Valerie said. ¡°The frontlines have it mostly contained from truly expanding, but the areas to the south of the border are so unpopulated that some amount of its foul contamination leaks through. This causes mild chaos events even many kilometres outside of the Blighted Lands proper, which drives people away from living in the area, which allows the Blight more room to manoeuvre. Thus, the problem compounds, and eventually the Blighted Lands will push deeper into Mornlunn, where the process will start all over again. A slow death.¡±


    ¡°So the further south we get, the less we¡¯ll feel the Blight?¡± Lucas asked.


    Valerie nodded. ¡°It occurs to me that you have spent every moment since you arrived in this world with the weight of the Blight¡¯s gaze on you, without you even realising it.¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound good,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Do you think that¡¯s been affecting me?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s hard to say, as my read on your personality comes from the accounts of your friends, some of which were written after having not seen you in decades, and a mere few weeks of knowing you.¡± Valerie¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°Either way, getting you to Dawnguard will do you good.¡±


    Their journey from the Lost City had taken them down through an undulating patch of hills, then across a long stretch of moorland, followed by a seemingly endless mire known as the Hagland, until they reached the Carbra River, which they¡¯d followed for miles before splitting away down a rocky stream that cut through a solemn oak forest called the Oakenwood. It was slow going; many paths had grown over long ago, forcing Lucas to flex his floramancy for hours on end. He didn¡¯t mind, really, taking it as good practice, but it would¡¯ve been nice to make more than a few miles¡¯ progress every day.


    They only made it out of Steffonshire after two weeks of travelling, which seemed dire until Valerie showed him the map. Steffonshire was far longer than it was wide, and because of its moors and mires it had been sparsely populated even before the Blight advanced to its doorstep. Indeed, the abandoned settlements they¡¯d spotted had been few and far between. Even beyond the reaches of the Blight, people were suspicious of the county that contained one of the most famous fallen cities on the entire continent.


    Harwyckshire, on the other hand, supposedly boasted a decent population even today.


    ¡°I feel it prudent to give you prior warning and a few words of caution,¡± Valerie said, watching him as they set down their things to make a camp at the end of the Oakenwood. She unclasped her cloak and folded it with a reverent kind of care. ¡°First of all, I would advise you to keep your floramancy subtle if you employ it in front of people at all.¡±


    ¡°I figured that might be a problem,¡± Lucas said with a frown. He sat his new sack down with a lot less regard. It was mostly filled with spare clothes, some good sticks, and a selection of fruits and vegetables he¡¯d tried to engineer to be long-preserving. They hadn¡¯t rotted so far with some care from his mana, so he was calling it a success. ¡°You guys talked a lot about superstitions surrounding it. I¡¯m not going to get mobbed or something, am I?¡±


    Valerie didn¡¯t respond for a worryingly long time. ¡°People can be irrational,¡± she finally settled on saying with a clipped tone.


    ¡°You have to keep in mind that common folk have been told for decades that floramancy is practically demonic magic,¡± Wick said. He¡¯d plopped himself down on the ground the moment they¡¯d stopped for the day, armour still on. ¡°There are highly learned scholars of magic out there who believe it unquestioningly. What¡¯s a country man who may never have met a Wand before to think? I don¡¯t think it¡¯s irrational at all for people to protect their homes from evil.¡±


    ¡°Angry mobs should not get to decide who or what is evil,¡± Valerie growled.


    Lucas tensed, expecting barbed words to go flying back and forth between the two¡ªWick would surely question whether Valerie thought only the order should get to decide what was evil, or something like that. To his surprise, the shieldmaster winced before bowing his head, black hair shading his eyes. ¡°I apologise. I spoke thoughtlessly.¡±


    ¡°As ever,¡± Valerie snapped. She exhaled sharply through her nose and turned to Lucas. ¡°As long as people don¡¯t see your floramancy, we should have no problems. And even if your floramancy does get outed, I will deal with the issue.¡±


    Lucas blanched. ¡°Uh, I¡¯ll just hide it. Pass myself off as a pyromancer, maybe.¡±


    ¡°The potential of a mob is another reason we¡¯ll be hiding your identity.¡± She paused. ¡°Be careful about speaking in large crowds. The translation spell that comes with the Great Powers will translate your words to the native tongue of the listener, while their words will be English to you no matter what language or dialect they speak. This is a very well known trait of the Heroes, and suspicion will fall on you swiftly if people realise you have it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Wasn¡¯t really planning on doing much talking anyway. Didn¡¯t wanna give myself away by not knowing about something obvious.¡±


    Valerie nodded. She started running her fingers along certain spots of her armour, and the white metal shimmered into translucent moonlight before flowing up into her heart. In moments, she was clad in only a long-sleeved shirt, tight trousers, and long socks, all sky blue and all made of thick, smooth material.


    Lucas slipped into another set of marginally tighter plant-based clothes he was coming to think of as his exercise outfit, and they moved a short distance away from the camp, where Valerie started marking out an arena using sticks Lucas¡¯ plant sense found for her. She then led him through some warm-up exercises, stretching out in a routine that was remarkably modern.


    (As it had turned out, it was. Stretching before exercise was no new concept to the people of Mornlunn, but Rian had introduced some ideas from his basic understanding of 21st Century sports science to the troops under his command, and it had spread throughout the warriors of the world over the decades.)


    When they were done, Valerie spoke, ¡°One more thing. You should be prepared to hear people talk about you with considerable vitriol.¡±


    Lucas shrugged. ¡°People not believing I¡¯ll ever show up like Rena talked about, I¡¯m guessing?¡±


    ¡°More than that. With a hundred years to consider the idea, people of all stations and statures have come up with creative explanations regarding your absence. Quite a few have concluded the blame falls on you in some manner, and won¡¯t be shy about saying so despite my presence.¡±


    ¡°I mean, it isn¡¯t my fault, though? It¡¯s not like I asked to get dragged to another dimension, let alone show up a century after I was meant to.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s one thing to know that intellectually. Hearing people¡¯s feelings about you for yourself may be more emotionally taxing, so it seemed prudent to forewarn you of it.¡±


    Lucas sighed. ¡°These people don¡¯t even know the real me at all, just stories.¡±


    ¡°They may know more than you think,¡± Valerie said. She settled into a ready stance, legs bent, arms loose at her sides. Then she attacked.


    They went through the usual routine, Valerie beating him up with various techniques, critiquing him on what he could have done better, then going again with the expectations that he¡¯d implement her suggestions. The humiliation of getting battered by a woman half a head shorter than him had faded quickly over the last couple of weeks in the face of how fast her tutelage was rubbing off on him.


    Oh, she was still kicking his arse every time, but he was lasting longer in every exercise.


    They started off with grappling, where she got him in an arm bar in about four seconds before she let him up and advised him how to do better. After a few dozen or so more little bouts playing out various situations, they switched over to punches and kicks, with similar results. Weapons came next, with swords fashioned from wood to Valerie¡¯s specifications using floramancy. There was where the gap between them was widest, despite that being the skill Lucas had the most experience in by far. His accidental self-teaching in the way of the stick, apparently, didn¡¯t let him measure up to years of training as a Skycloak.


    (Fixing his firehand was steadily becoming even more of a priority than it already was. It was as much a hindrance as a help in his training; it gave him some advantage in that his opponent had to constnatly be wary of it, but so did he. They were having to practise double as it was, with one-handed manouevres for times when he didn''t want to burn someone, and two-handed so he didn''t pick up bad habits that would be detrimental if and when he fixed it. The sword training was especially aggravating in this regard, having to reinforce his stick and grip it lightly with the firehand.)


    Lucas had been confused about why she was prioritising teaching him how to fight people, at first. Considering his whole ¡®saviour of the world¡¯ status, he¡¯d expected to jump straight into stuff that would help him with one day defeating the Demon Lord. Valerie had simply reminded him that factions like Jyn¡¯s were out there, and thus Lucas needed to be able to defend himself against human opponents as a prerequisite to revealing his arrival to the world.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Even with that explanation, a part of him was still sure she just wanted to kick his arse. The Skycloak was relentless and merciless. Only when she was holding back was he able to follow her movements, and her strength was unbelievable. The Gift let him learn absurdly quickly¡ªValerie claimed he¡¯d improved to a level that would usually take a talented fighter a few months, and made sure to emphasise that was while training multiple disciplines¡ªbut it still felt too slow when she was manhandling him.


    Especially when she hooked her wooden sword around his ankle, moving faster than he could react to, and sent him sprawling onto his back. She rested the tip of her sword against his chest.


    ¡°Focus,¡± she said, then pulled her sword away to let him up.


    Lucas growled under his breath in frustration. That bout had lasted perhaps ten seconds.


    The thing was, ten seconds didn¡¯t sound like much, but it felt like every extra second gained was twice as hard as the last. Bridging the gap as he was now seemed insurmountable.


    He needed an edge. The biggest advantage available to him was, of course, his magic. He needed strength, speed. More than what merely slowing his mana had given him.


    For that, he needed to understand why slowing his mana made him stronger.


    Staying on the ground, Lucas breathed deeply and slowed his mana as much as he could. He watched its effects through his inner eye.


    He felt denser. More solid. Like he was more there, in the present. Like this, he¡¯d had the strength to pull a sled that had to have weighed 100 kg halfway through an overgrown city. It was the factor that let him last 10 seconds against Valerie. Her monstrous strength would bat his sword out of his grip without it.


    But why? How?


    Inside, his mana backed up. Mana was only produced when spent, his soul working to maintain a consistent state as well as it could. In this state, he was basically not losing any mana at all.


    But he was losing some. It took concentration to identify it, but he could tell a trickle of new mana was being produced, starting around the area of his chest that Jamie rested in. The mana wasn¡¯t coming from Jamie¡ªit wasn¡¯t fire attuned.


    Last time he¡¯d identified something in his mana, it had been through specks of foreign mana travelling through his body. He replicated the trick now, leeching a bit of plant mana into his system and watching it circulate around his pathways. It made several full circuits before he caught sight of some of them disappearing.


    Curiously, a few specks vanished as they passed through one of the pathways in his upper bicep. One of the first pathways he¡¯d manually opened, he realised.


    Following the lead, Lucas focused on his upper arms, where his pathways were most developed and abundant. Here, the tangle of pathways was so thick it was hard to see it as anything other than one big mass, but some focus let him pick out individual pathways. Each was as thick as the main channels carrying mana through his torso, and it had been a long time since they ached from mana passing through them. They were fully matured. All taken together, they pretty much overlapped with every last atom of his actual arms.


    Lucas took control of the mana in the grain-of-sand-sized area where he¡¯d seen the little dots of plant mana vanish, and instead of slowing it, he sped it up instead. He usually only did this when he wanted better external control, as it let him more quickly replace the mana he was spending around himself. Now, he just wanted to get a better idea of where it was escaping. Mana stayed slowed in the rest of his body, only to surge in that tiny area.


    The effect was immediate and obvious, a tiny stream of mana trickling out of his pathways for no apparent reason, just like it would if he was consciously projecting it. Seeing as it was his mana, he could follow its progress. Or lack thereof, since it was vanishing before it could pass the bounds of his skin.


    Lucas found himself baffled and intrigued. As he thought about it, he started to see the shape of things.


    Mana pathways weren¡¯t physical things. Not really. One could map them to physical locations on the body, but they weren¡¯t actually here in the mortal realm. In its default state, mana was intangible, spiritual. It could interact with the physical world both within his body and without only when he acted on it, when he made it change.


    It was that thought that lit a spark of idea in Lucas¡¯ mind, and it quickly caught alight and started blazing with all the strength of the sun. Mana could affect the world, shape things to his will. Making things more of themselves, fires burning hotter, plants growing faster, was its easiest function, but it could, with cleverness and control, change things.


    Who was to say it couldn¡¯t do the same to him?


    That might have been what was happening when he slowed his mana down. It would explain why it made him feel more solid, why it ached. He was potentially changing himself in tiny, tiny ways, if only temporarily, by accident.


    What could he do if he changed himself¡ªshaped himself¡ªdeliberately?


    He set to doing just that, letting his already-slowed mana seep out of his pathways and into his physical body, preparing to alter his arms in the same way he¡¯d shape a plant. It would be easiest there, where his pathways were so abundant and covered so much space.


    ¡°I feel the need to clarify,¡± Valerie said, dragging his attention back to his surroundings, ¡°that I have not been running an elaborate ruse to motivate you into finding an alternative solution for self improvement. Actively enhancing your physical capabilities with mana is dangerous when your mana system is undeveloped, and I can¡¯t even begin to guess what you might do to yourself with only your arms at the required level of growth.¡±


    Lucas grunted. He was still on the floor from where she¡¯d trounced him, while Valerie stood over him with her wooden sword pointed to the ground, both her hands resting on its pommel.


    ¡°But the responsibility always lies with the teacher. I misjudged where your mind would take you when faced with a challenge, and any injury you did to yourself would have been my fault. It¡¯s clear now that I should explain mana enhancement to you before we go any further.¡±


    And with that Lucas let his mana return to his pathways and focused all his attention on Valerie.


    She gave him a wry smile. ¡°First, we must start with the heart. As I explained to you when you were mapping your pathways, it is the central point of your mana system. It doesn¡¯t perform the functions of a human heart, to be clear; it¡¯s taken on that name because of its location.¡±


    Lucas nodded. He¡¯d already noticed how often the heart was part of a working; Valerie drew her sword from her heart, the opalescent light that covered Wick¡¯s armour and shield like film at times came from his heart, and, of course, there was the heart¡¯s flame that marked the start of a pyromancer¡¯s journey. Presumably, Rena had had some kind of heart thing going on too.


    Valerie fisted her hand over her heart, with her knuckles facing to her left. A white light flared to life, and the handle of a blade coalesced in her grip. In the past, she¡¯d always drawn her sword in an almost immediate motion. Here, she pulled on it slowly, letting Lucas see how her sword seemed to form from a disc of wispy mist over her heart.


    The sword was far too long to be drawn just from straightening her arm if it appeared fully-formed at once. Instead, it snapped to full length in a swirl of mist the moment it was clear to do so. She held it sideways in front of her, twice as long as her arm and a hand¡¯s length at its widest. The crossguard was also white, unadorned and with no engravings. A white aurora started bleeding from her heart to the blade, and it lit up like moonlight.


    ¡°Your soulheart regulates the nature of your soul, of your mana. For some magical disciplines such as pyromancy, this means attuning a certain kind of mana there yourself in order to customise your mana to your desire. For most of us, it¡¯s a matter of soulbonding an item or creature.¡±


    ¡°Can you soulbond more than one thing?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°To a degree. There must be compatability between them, and one''s heart can only endure so much. Stars typically bond more than one of the other categories: Sword, Shield, Bow, and Wand. This grants them versatility, as it means their mana has more than one aspect, and there are benefits to each of the four paths. But it means being weaker in each. Mana can¡¯t be more than two types. When you bond more than one class, in truth you¡¯re splitting your mana between them.¡±


    ¡°So, if you had a Bow and Sword, they¡¯d both be 50% weaker than just having one class?¡±


    ¡°The numbers aren¡¯t necessarily so even, but you have the right idea. As a shieldmaster, Wick¡¯s mana makes his body far more difficult to harm, and he can extend its protection to any defensive objects bonded to him. Bows gain keener senses and dexterity that helps with their accuracy. Wands perhaps go without saying: they attune their mana to the discipline they wish to be their speciality. And my sword mana makes me much stronger and faster than my body should be physically capable of.¡±


    Lucas eyed the muscles visible through Valerie¡¯s tight trousers. ¡°And I¡¯m assuming it multiplies your base capabilities?¡±


    ¡°Correct again. That¡¯s why you must be sure to train your body as well as your mana. The amount your mana increases your strength is based on the density of your mana, and if you¡¯re already strong, there¡¯s more to multiply.¡± She paused. ¡°It¡¯s worth noting that the Great Star is most likely going to offset the drawbacks of multi-classing for you.¡±


    ¡°I do really hope that¡¯s the case,¡± Lucas said with a smile. ¡°So what else can you do? With sword mana, I mean.¡±


    Valerie cocked her head to one side, owl-like. ¡°What do you think sword mana can do?¡±


    Lucas thought about it for a moment. ¡°Well, I¡¯m guessing¡­ basically sword stuff? Like, there¡¯s obviously the things I¡¯ve seen you do. Projecting light from your blade to hit from a distance, and calling your sword back to you. I reckon you can make your sword sharper and tougher, so it doesn¡¯t break. Uh. Shit man, Rian would be so much better than me at this. You can probably enhance your instincts; stuff like knowing where and when to strike, and seeing weak points and incoming attacks. And you can cut things that can¡¯t usually be cut, like when you cut the fireball Wick was riding on, back in the city. Anything that a sword can conceptually do or be used for, sword mana can improve that and take it to absurd heights.¡±


    ¡°Good guesses. Everything you listed is possible with sword mana, and there''s so much more.¡± One corner of her lips twitched up. ¡°They say Lord Rian could cut the distance between himself and his foes.¡±


    Lucas snorted. ¡°Sounds like him. He could probably have done that back on Earth,¡± he joked. "Is it like that for every kind of soulbond? You gain traits from the thing you''re bonding with?"


    "It is," Valerie said. ¡°Now, enhancement. The act of permeating the body with mana in order to grant specific physical or mental attributes, and the vector through which the aforementioned soulbond abilities are granted. As you¡¯ve discovered, the technique involves taking hold of your mana and actively moving it through your mortal form to augment your capabilities as you desire. This is known as cycling. Can you tell me what dangers could come from this?¡±


    ¡°Doing it incompletely could injure you,¡± Lucas said with a sigh. ¡°Enhancing your muscles but not your bones could mean fractures or even breaks. And enhancing just your bones might make them too strong to be contained by your flesh, or something? I dunno.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re on the right track,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Immaculate control of your mana can offset the danger, but it¡¯s inadvisable to try enhancing yourself until your system has matured to cover your entire body, since that makes it much easier. It usually does so by one¡¯s early teenage years, for what that¡¯s worth.¡± She paused. ¡°Cycling is generally a full body technique. I¡¯ve never met anyone in your situation. I don¡¯t want to speculate what you could do to yourself by enhancing only your arms.¡±


    ¡°Probably pull them out of their sockets quite violently,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°That¡¯s a possibility,¡± Valerie agreed. Her eyes hardened. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to ask that you refrain from any attempts to enhance yourself until you¡¯ve matured your pathways. The risk is too great, otherwise.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t heal it?¡±


    ¡°My healing capabilities are not absolute. It¡¯s entirely possible that you could deal yourself an injury I could not rescue you from. I have every intention of teaching you enhancement in future, when it¡¯s safe. Please be patient until then.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ shoulders slumped. ¡°Fine,¡± he said.


    ¡°Good,¡± Valerie said. She hefted her wooden sword, gesturing at him with the point. ¡°Now, get up. Tonight¡¯s training isn¡¯t over.¡±

 31: Extrapolate (3)

    It was only when he heard a trill of birdsong that he realised he hadn¡¯t seen any signs of animals in over a month. Since he¡¯d arrived in Aerth, come to think of it. There had been that one distant, indistinct animal call at the moment he ¡®awoke¡¯ and then¡­ nothing. Not a hint.


    He wasn¡¯t counting Jamie, for obvious reasons.


    The bird¡¯s tweeting was unlike anything he¡¯d heard before. It was a single long, warbling note with a quality like a slide whistle that was being pulled rapidly, almost like an alarm. The sound seemed to bounce around the linden grove they were walking through, leaving Lucas in a disoriented state as he turned this way and that, his head on a swivel, trying to pinpoint its source.


    Taking pity on him, Valerie placed a hand on his shoulder to still him, then pointed. He followed her gesture, squinting up into the foliage. When he saw it, he had to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.


    From the strange birdsong, he¡¯d been expecting something exotic like a parrot. Not a bit of him had imagined a garish red reptilian thing about the size of an adult goose with leathery, near-translucent wings, a ridged spine, a tail with a set of fin-like protrusions at its end, and an arrow-shaped head at the end of a long, snake-like neck. Perched high in a tree with its tail coiled around a branch to keep balance, its neck was coiling and uncoiling in time with the sliding note it was making, its mouth wide open with a three-forked tongue flicking back and forth. Its head was swaying about, but he couldn¡¯t see where it was looking.


    Lucas stared at it for a long moment, gobsmacked. Then he looked at Valerie seriously and asked, ¡°What the hell is that thing?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a merax; a species of wyrm,¡± Valerie said. ¡°They¡¯re scavengers with the magical ability to sense death from great distances. Entirely harmless to living people. This specimen is fairly large, so it must have been doing well for itself recently.¡±


    ¡°Harmless on its own,¡± Wick said. ¡°But they can be ravenous as beasts if you get caught on your own against a flock of them, I hear.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no official record of a merax attack on a living person.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure that¡¯s the case,¡± Wick said. ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean it hasn¡¯t happened. Common folk might not all have fancy records and books, but that doesn¡¯t mean the stories they pass down don¡¯t have truth to them.¡±


    Valerie nodded to concede the point. ¡°It¡¯s very rare that a group of merax will encounter the opportunity to feed on a human, but given their known behaviour, I can¡¯t discount the idea that they might try it.¡± She looked at Lucas from the corner of her eyes. ¡°Be careful not to fall asleep alone beneath a linden tree.¡±


    Lucas couldn¡¯t tell if she was joking or not. Did Valerie do jokes? ¡°So is there something dead nearby, and that¡¯s why it¡¯s making that noise?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s entirely possible.¡±


    A shiver went down Lucas¡¯ spine. ¡°Creepy. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m disappointed or relieved that it¡¯s not a baby dragon, to be honest.¡±


    ¡°They share common genes,¡± Valerie said. ¡°In the same way that a domestic cat is from the same genetic family as a tiger.¡±


    ¡°So there are dragons here?¡±


    ¡°In many different varieties, yes.¡±


    ¡°What kind of dragons are we talking about? Human-level intelligent and hoarding gold? Fire-breathing flying lizards? Magical nukes?¡±


    ¡°All of the above,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°Technically, what people colloquially refer to as dragons encompasses a variety of different species. Some are more intelligent than others, but this works on an individual level and correlates with mana capacity,¡± Valerie said. ¡°You can have five dragons hatched in a clutch, and only one of them become self-aware while the other four are mindless animals.¡±


    ¡°Are there people who ride on them?¡± Lucas asked.


    Valerie narrowed her eyes at him. ¡°There have been cases of warriors bonding with dragons and using them as mounts, yes. A rare thing, but it has happened.¡±


    Lucas nodded thoughtfully. He was totally going to be a dragon rider someday. ¡°Good to know.¡± He turned his gaze back to the merax, which was still trilling its sliding note. Weird as it looked, it was still a beautiful creature, and there was something to be said for finding a goddamn living thing in this place. ¡°I¡¯m guessing we¡¯ve seen basically no animals around because of the Blight?¡±


    ¡°Your guess would be correct, yes,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Animals feel its effects more keenly than we do, and flee from it. It¡¯s another factor in why the population has been pushed so far south. Livestock goes mad otherwise.¡±


    ¡°Once heard of a farmer¡¯s family who got eaten alive by a herd of cows that suddenly gained a taste for human flesh,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if that tale was true,¡± Valerie said.


    Wick glowered at nothing.


    ¡°So we can expect to see more animals further south?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°We can,¡± Valerie said. ¡°In fact, we should have seen a lot more by now.¡±


    ¡°Can I expect to be as weirded out by them as I am by this one?¡± Lucas asked, pointing at the merax, which still hadn¡¯t stopped its endless note. Did it ever pause for breath? What had set it off in the first place?


    ¡°Aerth has many animals you¡¯ll be familiar with from your world,¡± Valerie said. ¡°And just as many you won¡¯t be. Some will ring similar to mythological creatures from Earth; others will be outside your imagination.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.¡± Lucas pursed his lips. ¡°Anything we¡¯ll be able to hunt?¡±


    ¡°Not any species of wyrm,¡± Valerie warned. ¡°But yes, there will be plenty of animals to hunt for food. That was always the plan.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ shoulders slumped in relief. ¡°Thank fuck for that. I¡¯m not sure how much longer I can take chewing on jerky for every meal.¡±


    They left the linden grove and the merax behind, its cry following them for a surprisingly long time. The very next day, they got their opportunity to hunt.


    They were trekking along a meadow parallel to a slow-moving river when Valerie called a halt and approached the riverbank, Lucas obligingly flattening the grass for her with floramancy. She crouched down and inspected the mud with shrewd eyes. When Lucas followed, it was immediately obvious what had attracted her attention: the hoofprints were about the size of a tennis ball with a small triangular spike missing at the tip, trailing in two lines from the water to the edge of the grass. When he looked closer, he saw that some of the grass had been flattened from the creature¡¯s passing.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen tracks like that,¡± Lucas said. Then added, ¡°Not that I¡¯ve seen a lot of tracks or anything. Always been a city boy, me.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s an alber, I believe. A fairly large one,¡± Valerie said. She looked at Lucas over her shoulder. ¡°Alber are a lean boar-like species with a pale hide and white antlers. Their meat is comparable to pork, but tougher, and a well-butchered adult would yield a day or two of meals for the three of us if we use everything. Do you wish to hunt it?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d literally take any meat at this point, so yes,¡± Lucas said. He frowned. ¡°Actually killing an animal for myself¡­ This is gonna suck, but I guess it has to be done.¡±


    ¡°I can hunt it myself while you wait nearby, if you like,¡± Valerie offered.


    Lucas shook his head. ¡°Can¡¯t be getting all squeamish about hunting if I¡¯m in a medieval world. Gonna have to learn. Besides, I always felt a bit guilty about eating meat. Remind me to tell you some time about industrial farming practises back on Earth. It¡¯ll make your toes curl.¡°


    ¡°I¡¯m somewhat familiar. Lady Aarya found it barbaric, apparently, though she never went into much detail.¡±


    ¡°Sounds like her,¡± Lucas said with a sad smile. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s do this.¡±


    It turned out tracking wasn¡¯t a particularly exciting task, for the most part. The lion¡¯s share of their time was spent following the vaguely southbound hoofprints the alber had made through the meadows and into a forested area. Valerie showed him how to gauge how old the tracks were¡ªobserving how mud at the edge of the track was positioned and how much had fallen in was the primary method, apparently, as well as checking the colour of the mud, depending on knowledge of recent weather to guesstimate when it was made. Jamie¡¯s senses made the task easier.


    Lucas¡¯ floramancy had some utility here too, seeking out any plant detritus in the tracks. Pyromancy, however, turned out to be the more useful of the two magics he was currently practising: his heat sense let him see tiny hints of the animal¡¯s lingering body heat, and it got marginally brighter as they followed the trail.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    All things considered, they concluded the tracks had been made that same morning and upped their pace to catch up. The forest they ended up in a mile or so away from the river was mildly overgrown with brambles and gorse, but luckily the animal followed one of the narrow paths beaten by creatures repeatedly making their way through the forest, so following wasn¡¯t so treacherous. It did make tracking a little harder with seemingly multiple animals using this route, but Lucas¡¯ heat sense saved them from losing the trail.


    And there was birdsong. Buzzing insects. Barks and calls and other animal noises. It was objectively quiet and peaceful, barely any noise at all, but to him it was cacophonous when he¡¯d spent so long hearing nothing but wind whispering through foliage. The countryside in Steffonshire, he now realised, was a horribly lonely place in comparison, so lacking in life.


    Valerie kept up a running commentary as they walked, teaching Lucas about this or that, pointing out plant species and what animal a sound belonged to and giving little anecdotes and stories about the area. It was as she was doing this that he noticed something curious about her teaching style.


    ¡°That purple-leafed plant that looks like a cannabis plant down there is a hazemary,¡± she said, pointing at a plant that did indeed look like a purple version of a cannabis plant. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have the intoxicating effects of cannabis, however, being rather more traditionally toxic: it¡¯ll make you ill like you ate a bad mushroom.¡±


    ¡°How much do you know about Earth?¡± he asked. It seemed like every tidbit of information she gave him included a comparison to a concept familiar to him. It was obviously deliberate.


    ¡°I have educated myself in a wide variety of Earth concepts, as members of the Order are supposed to.¡± Her brows furrowed, and she looked away as they moved on. ¡°Skycloaks are seen as general sources of knowledge, these days. Many forget that one of our primary remits is to help you acclimate to Aerth. It¡¯s¡­ less common than it should be, for members of our Order to bother.¡±


    ¡°So you learned a bunch of stuff about Earth to make it easier to explain things to me?¡±


    ¡°Once, that wouldn¡¯t have been seen as unusual. It used to be our purpose.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re the only Skycloak I¡¯ve ever met who could tell a single fact about Earth. Not that I¡¯ve spoken to a lot,¡± Wick said, following behind them. ¡°Some would have called it a waste of time.¡±


    ¡°Evidently, it wasn¡¯t,¡± Valerie said.


    As they closed in on their quarry, the tracks getting brighter to his heat sense, Valerie had him switch back to his floramancy.


    ¡°While my personal instruction will be based entirely on theoretical knowledge and won¡¯t be able to take you to great heights, I do know enough about the bow and arrow to be confident I can get you started,¡± she said. ¡°And from there, the Great Star should allow you to refine the skill yourself.¡±


    That made enough sense. ¡°Sure. So, you know how to make a bow?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but we¡¯re not going to need something particularly complicated for the task at hand.¡±


    ¡°You want me to shoot the alber myself?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s best we get you practising on living targets as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Feel like I should try stationary targets first.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing saying you can¡¯t practise as we move,¡± Valerie said.


    With his pure mana hanging in a bubble around him, he soon gathered up a few promising sticks. They didn¡¯t need to be super strong or elastic, since he could just fiddle with their properties with floramancy anyway. But there were limits, so he did have to be at least a little discerning.


    The bow string was more complicated, but Valerie helped him weave some plant fibres into something serviceable. Attaching the string to the two limbs of the stick was the real hard part with his whole fire hand situation, and it took some cheating with his floramancy to get it done.


    It made for a bow that was far stronger than it had any right to be when infused with his mana, but when he tried to switch to his pyromancy to give his firehand better dexterity it would inevitably burn through the string. The same problem was true of the wooden arrows he made. Wielding a bow and arrow started to look like it wouldn¡¯t be possible after all.


    Wick, who had been quiet throughout Lucas and Valerie¡¯s impromptu crafting session, heaved out a sigh. His breastplate dispersed into opalescent light, revealing a glittering diamond-like string running diagonally over his barrel chest. It was tight enough that it left behind a deep line in his light brown tunic when he lifted it up and over his head.


    The string, of course, was attached to a familiar limb with two pieces of smooth, sand-coloured wood twining around each other. He held the bow out to Lucas with a conflicted expression.


    ¡°This is Rena¡¯s bow,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°It is,¡± Wick said stiffly.


    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ not sure I feel right using this.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not the one who killed her.¡± He pointedly didn¡¯t look at Valerie.


    ¡°She¡¯s not soulbonded to it anymore,¡± Valerie said. ¡°There¡¯s nothing about it that makes it inherently hers.¡±


    ¡°Would you be okay with it if someone killed you and used your sword?¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t kill her.¡±


    ¡°You know what I mean.¡±


    ¡°I do.¡± Valerie cocked her head to the side. ¡°Celestra is thousands of years old. Countless warriors have wielded it before me, though I admit I¡¯ve never heard of someone soulbonding it. I would want it to continue being used to protect people.¡±


    Wick scoffed.


    ¡°How did this even survive?¡± Lucas asked. He¡¯d assumed it had been vaporised along with its wielder.


    ¡°It¡¯s a Duskbow, the famous weapon of the Duskpoole Rangers. I knew these had magical protections, but I didn¡¯t think that would be enough for it to survive me, so I didn¡¯t bother looking for it.¡± She looked at Wick. ¡°Why keep this hidden?¡±


    ¡°I intend to bring it to her loved ones,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°She had none. Her family perished in the fall of Duskpoole,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Unless you think her dogs would appreciate a shortbow?¡±


    Wick¡¯s nostrils flared. ¡°I believe it would do her no insult to allow Lucas to use this. She seemed to like him well enough when she didn¡¯t know his true identity. However, I¡¯m going to do everything I can to ensure it falls into the hands of someone who will appreciate the sentimental value of it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± Lucas rushed to say before Valerie could reply. ¡°I¡¯ll get my own bow at some point, right?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll get you something much more powerful to soulbond with,¡± Valerie agreed.


    With that matter tentatively settled, they continued their hunt. They moved slower now, as Lucas fashioned worthy sticks into arrows, improving his design via trial and error and some instruction from Valerie. The Gift guided him, refining how he fletched pieces of bark into fins, balanced the weight of the arrows, and improved the aerodynamics of the points. And floramancy meant he could replicate his better attempts with precision.


    The same problem as with the old bow still persisted, however, and the only solution was to focus on his floramancy to keep feeding mana to his arrows so his firehand wouldn¡¯t set the wood aflame. The lag between his brain and his hand made it a horribly vexing endeavour, but there was nothing else to be done for it.


    He took aim at random trees as they walked. The glittering jewel string of the Duskbow felt icy cold to his fiery touch, but it didn¡¯t snap. Drawing it was harder than expected; he had to put serious effort into moving it at all, and he couldn¡¯t hold it drawn for more than a second or two unless he slowed his mana, which was problematic when his firehand would only loose the string half a second after he commanded it to.


    Gauging where to aim was a less stressful matter, thankfully. Within the range of his plant sense, measuring the direction his wooden arrow would fly in was simple enough. His firehand still handicapped him, but he could generally hit his targets with consistency if they were less than a dozen or so metres away from him, which wasn¡¯t a range to scoff at, and if the wind didn¡¯t change the course of his shot.


    With his firehand in play he probably wasn¡¯t going to be hitting ten bullseyes out of ten or shooting moving targets anytime soon, but the small success offset the demotivational setbacks that had been battering at him thus far.


    Still, the improvement he saw wasn¡¯t as substantial as he would have liked by the time Jamie¡¯s sudden attention alerted him that they were closing in on their quarry. He consoled himself with the knowledge that he¡¯d literally only just gotten started. He¡¯d improve.


    They caught up to the alber just before noon, and Valerie¡¯s quick description hadn¡¯t done justice to how weird the thing looked. Being told about a skinny pig-thing with antlers didn¡¯t prepare him for seeing it.


    It was resting in a clearing with its legs folded beneath it, its head bowed. The prongs at the end of its curling antlers looked viciously sharp, and the tusks sticking out the side of its short, stumpy snout promised a bad time for anyone who pissed the ugly thing off. From the slow rise and fall of its lean brown torso, it appeared to be asleep, at least.


    ¡°So how are we doing this?¡± Lucas whispered. ¡°That thing¡¯s huge.¡±


    Valerie hadn¡¯t mentioned its size. For some reason, when she¡¯d said antlers he¡¯d pictured a creature closer in statue to a small deer than a small moose.


    Valerie just looked at him, then let her eyes trail down to the bow slung over Lucas¡¯ shoulder.


    ¡°What if I miss?¡± he hissed, because he was fairly sure he would. Weird as the creature was, he was very much looking forward to eating it. Letting it get away didn¡¯t sound appealing. ¡°Hell, the arrow might not penetrate even if I hit it!¡±


    In response, Valerie touched her hand to her heart and drew her great white sword. It started to glow, and she raised an eyebrow at him.


    With a sigh, Lucas lifted his bow. Drawing a sharpened wooden arrow from his crappy quiver, he nocked it on the string. He took in a deep breath as he drew the string back so his drawing hand was by his cheek and the arm gripping the bow was out straight so he was staring down the shaft of the arrow. Keeping both of his eyes open, he positioned the tip of the arrow so it was pointed at the alber as best he could. Couldn¡¯t rely on floramancy when aiming at a living target, but his practice had won him some ability to guess how an arrow would fly. Lucas breathed in, steeling himself, readying his firehand to release.


    It was quite the surprise when a long silver arrow sprouted just below the alber¡¯s neck, striking with enough force to send it sprawling to the ground. Another quickly followed, hitting barely an inch from the first. The two arrows vanished with a puff of mist, and dark blue ichor burst from the now-open wound in a fountain of gore. The alber let out a wheezing squeal and scrambled uncoordinated to its feet. Wide, feverish eyes darted about in search of whoever had dared attack it. But it seemed dizzy, stumbling all over the place, and getting worse as more blood spurted from its wound. Just as quickly as its rage had risen, the creature drained of strength. Its legs crumbled and it toppled back onto its side, drawing in rattling, raspy breaths. In moments, it was still. Dead.


    Lucas stared.


    ¡°In case it wasn¡¯t already obvious,¡± he said. ¡°That wasn¡¯t me.¡±


    ¡°So it would seem,¡± Valerie said, starting forward into the clearing. She stared in the direction the arrows had come from. Lucas made to follow her, but Wick stepped in front of him with an arm held out to block his way. ¡°I am Captain Valerie Vayon of the Order of Five. I would ask you to show yourself, Stranger!¡±


    Lucas didn¡¯t know what or who he had been expecting to step out of the forest, but it certainly wasn¡¯t a girl who couldn''t have been older than fifteen clad in a grey fur pelt and holding a bow taller than she was.

 32: Extrapolate (4)

    The girl¡¯s grey pelt had been cut like a legless, sleeveless jumpsuit, with the bottom half of the creature¡¯s jaw covering the lower half of her face, while the upper half had been pulled back like a hood, exposing the top of her head. Her dark brown hair had been hacked short with reckless abandon, leaving a choppy mess that stuck out all over the place in inconsistent lengths. Her arms and legs were deeply tanned, corded with lean muscle, and covered in tattoo-like red triangles in neat, uniform rows, all pointing ¡®out¡¯ towards her hands and feet. On her face, only three long, narrow triangles were visible, one larger one in the centre of her forehead pointing down, with two smaller ones on either side of it pointing up.


    Her deep amber eyes took them in one by one before falling on the fallen alber, which she strode towards without any sign of fear of the three strangers. Her footsteps made no sound, despite rolling over dry twigs and leaves with some haste.


    Most intriguing about her, naturally, was the longbow that had to be taller than she was slung over her shoulder. It seemed to be made up of two wide black limbs tied together by a smaller handle at the centre, and its string was the same twinkling diamond thread as Rena¡¯s shortbow. There was no sign of any arrows on her person.


    ¡°Greetings, Bowmaiden,¡± Valerie said, watching the girl passively. ¡°Are you alone out here?¡±


    The girl glanced at her, eyes narrowed. ¡°Yeah,¡± she said. Her voice was surprisingly smooth and clear. Lucas had been half expecting her to be some kind of feral child who hadn¡¯t spoken a word in her life, which was maybe a bit rude of him.


    ¡°I see. Is there a settlement in this forest or somewhere nearby?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± the girl said. She grabbed the alber that had to be twice her size by its four leggs and heaved it over her shoulders as if it weighed no more than a pillow.


    ¡°We¡¯ve been tracking that creature all day,¡± Valerie said.


    The girl gave her a disdainful glance and started walking away, heading for the treeline on the other side of the clearing.


    Wick chose that moment to move forward, and Lucas followed him. They ended up in a line, watching the girl walk off with the meat they¡¯d been looking forward to for hours.


    ¡°Are we actually going to let her just steal our kill?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°She isn¡¯t stealing anything,¡± Wick said. ¡°She was the one who took the creature down. And we didn¡¯t claim it.¡±


    ¡°Still seems a bit rude,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°I dislike leaving a child alone in such a remote location,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I had hoped there was some village nearby that hadn¡¯t been marked on the map. It¡¯s a common enough occurrence. But if it¡¯s as she says, the nearest known settlement is over a week¡¯s journey from here.¡±


    ¡°These solitary types are not uncommon in the countryside,¡± Wick said with a frown.


    ¡°And they do not survive long,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Living alone in the forest is a compelling story but it should have gone out of fashion a hundred years ago. Beasts have made it too dangerous for even those who can live off the land perfectly well.¡±


    ¡°What do we do, then?¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°Follow,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°And if she attacks?¡± Wick said.


    ¡°I will subdue her,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Don¡¯t kill her,¡± Lucas said quickly.


    Valerie looked at him with a cool expression. ¡°I see I haven¡¯t made a good impression on you with some of my previous actions,¡± she said after an uncomfortable moment. ¡°But allow me to assure you I would not kill a teenage girl because I was concerned about her living alone in a forest.¡±


    Lucas winced. ¡°Right. Sorry. So, after her?¡±


    Valerie nodded.


    Easier said than done. The girl left no sign of her passing, and her silent movement made her impossible to pinpoint even when relying on Jamie¡¯s senses. There was little whatever skills she deployed could do about Lucas¡¯ pyromantic sense, though, and he was able to pick up the remnants of body heat that lingered in her wake¡ªthe heat signatures did fade remarkably quickly, but not quick enough.


    They caught sight of her again a few minutes later as she ghosted through the forest, clearly familiar with the area. She noticed them immediately, stopping to turn and glare at them. However, she made no particular effort to throw them off her trail. She kept moving at the same pace, walking mostly in a straight line, only diverting to pick her way around obstacles like bushes and large tree roots.


    Before long, she arrived at her destination: hidden among the roots of a giant oak was a small shack constructed from wooden poles, walled with mud, and thatched with fronds. Judging by the verdure of the fronds, Lucas thought it couldn¡¯t have been constructed too long ago. A fire pit rested a few metres away from the shack, and she dropped the alber on a wide, flat stone beside it before disappearing into the shack. There was a roofed rack to one side, with improvised tools hanging up. Another roofed area was full to the brim with firewood.


    Lucas and Wick exchanged looks, while Valerie inspected the campsite with thin lips.


    ¡°Can we take this as confirmation she¡¯s out here alone, or?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°There¡¯s no sign of other mana signatures,¡± Valerie said. ¡°And this¡­ camp isn¡¯t big enough to serve more than one person. Yes, she¡¯s alone.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas said. ¡°So what¡¯s the plan here, exactly? Convince her to leave? I get the impression she probably has an independent streak.¡±


    Before Valerie could reply, the girl reemerged from her shack and stomped up to them. She stopped a metre away, staring at Lucas with an intimidatingly intense level of scrutiny, but said nothing.


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    ¡°Uh, hello?¡± Lucas said, giving her a little wave.


    ¡°You speak Raeli and they speak Mornish, but they understand you,¡± she said, eyes narrowing. Valerie and Wick snapped their gazes to him.


    Lucas¡¯ heart dropped. He¡¯d already buggered up the whole "don''t reveal the translation magic¡± thing after meeting just one person. ¡°Magic,¡± he said with an awkward smile, resolving to never talk again in his life.


    The girl nodded, accepting that. Thankfully. ¡°You do not look like a Raelar. I was confused. I did not know magic could do this, but I do not know much about magic.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m hardly an expert either,¡± Lucas said.


    The girl¡¯s eyes flicked downwards. ¡°Your hand is on fire,¡± she said dully.


    ¡°It is,¡± Lucas admitted.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t it hurt?¡±


    ¡°Barely notice it at this point, to be honest. Tickles a little.¡±


    She squinted at him. ¡°How do you use a bow with your hand on fire?¡±


    ¡°Not very well.¡± At her unimpressed expression, he hastened to add, ¡°The bow¡¯s string is special. It doesn¡¯t burn.¡±


    The girl nodded sagely.


    Wick and Valerie had been watching their conversation blankly, so Lucas asked, ¡°You speak Mornish, right?¡±


    ¡°I speak Mornish,¡± the girl confirmed. Valerie¡¯s attention sharpened, leading Lucas to assume the girl had indeed switched language. It all sounded like English to him.


    ¡°May we ask your name, Bowmaiden?¡± Valerie asked, and Lucas inwardly cursed himself for not thinking of that. Had his social skills atrophied that much?


    ¡°Aly,¡± she said.


    ¡°Well met, Aly,¡± Wick rumbled. ¡°I am Shieldmaster Wick, and this is Star James and Swordmaiden Valerie.¡±


    Lucas shot the shieldmaster a glare. Did he think he was funny?


    Aly grunted, squinting at Wick briefly before turning her attention to Valerie.


    ¡°Well met,¡± Valerie agreed. ¡°Do you know this area well, Aly?¡±


    ¡°I have lived around here a long time,¡± Aly said neutrally.


    ¡°And you know the way to local towns?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Would you be interested in taking on a commission? We¡¯re not lost, per se, but it would help us immensely if you could show us the fastest route to the nearest settlement.¡±


    ¡°I know things. People in white armour and blue cloaks are said to be good.¡± She scowled. ¡°Why is yours dark?¡±


    ¡°There is magic woven into the threads of our cloaks,¡± Valerie said. ¡°We¡¯re supposed to recharge it with our own mana after we make use of that magic, but I am unfortunately incapable.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    Valerie smiled grimly. ¡°A personal failing on my part.¡±


    Aly nodded at that. She pulled the ¡®hood¡¯ of her pelt up so it covered the top of her head. Only her eyes were left visible, twinkling pools of amber peeking out from between the fanged jaws of some bear-like creature. ¡°I know failing,¡± she said, oddly solemn. ¡°Why do you come from the north? The animals are afraid of things that way.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re returning from a quest,¡± Valerie said. ¡°There was a large pack of beasts marauding around in the countryside having gotten past the frontlines, and we went to deal with them.¡±


    The lie was so smooth Lucas almost believed it himself for a moment.


    ¡°Hm. There are many beasts around here, too.¡± She eyed their group. ¡°You lost your Wand and Bow?¡±


    Wick stiffened, his jaw clenching.


    ¡°The north is dangerous,¡± Valerie said with a sorrowful nod.


    Wick¡¯s eyes burned with indignation, but thankfully he said nothing.


    ¡°I am sorry,¡± Aly said. ¡°Losing friends is sad.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Wick said stiffly.


    Aly watched them for a moment, then turned on her heel and strode over to her tool shack. Withdrawing a knife, she approached the alber and crouched beside it. ¡°What do you offer?¡± she asked, brandishing her knife.


    Lucas forced himself to watch as she stuck her knife into the alber¡¯s torso and sawed it down all the way to the carcass¡¯ crotch. Blood gushed out, staining her hands. She barely seemed to notice, going about the grim task with practised efficiency. In moments, she had the alber¡¯s skin halfway peeled back from its torso, and began working on the legs.


    It was unpleasant, bloody business, but Lucas knew he¡¯d have to get used to sights like this. To blood and gore in general. He told himself that he¡¯d been living off the product of acts like this his entire life, and it would be pathetic to baulk at it only when the reality was in his face. Still, he decided to give himself a little leeway; this was literally the first time he¡¯d seen a dead animal.


    Images of Jyn¡¯s final moments flashed into his mind, and he pushed them away with every ounce of determination he had. Thinking about that would do him no good.


    Valerie had been talking while he was zoned out. He was vaguely aware the girl had gruffly rejected coin in favour of material goods, and Valerie was now trying to impress on her that coin could buy whatever material goods she wanted.


    ¡°No,¡± Aly said with a shake of her head. ¡°People give me different prices. I know this. Only the farmer treats me like I¡¯m not a fool, but he doesn¡¯t have much I need.¡±


    In fairness, Lucas thought she had a good point, if it was true. And he had no reason to think she was lying; if anything, he was inclined to believe it out of hand. He was no cynic, but he was aware there were plenty of people out there who¡¯d take advantage of someone they saw as dim-witted, and there were few people more looked down on than wild types like Aly.


    Hell, he¡¯d even done it, getting all surprised when he heard her speak clearly. Asshole that he was.


    ¡°So you wish us to buy you goods equal to the value of the coin we¡¯d pay you?¡± Valerie asked.


    Aly nodded.


    ¡°So be it,¡± Valerie said, her face studiously blank. ¡°Will two pieces of silver be acceptable?¡±


    Lucas eyed her. Valerie had explained to him that the monetary system worked in multiples of ten. Ten bronze coins to one silver, and ten silver coins to one gold. (It had apparently been ye olde Britain level of confusing before Claire bullied the economy into being more practical.) Valerie had apparently offered eight silver to accompany her to Pentaburgh. Two silver to show them to the nearest town seemed excessive.


    So it was all the more surprising when Aly shook her head absently, focused on peeling away the alber¡¯s skin off its legs. ¡°My current task pays well, and it is important. I need more than that to delay it.¡±


    ¡°Your current task?¡± Valerie prompted. Evidently, this hadn¡¯t been mentioned thus far.


    ¡°I scout,¡± Aly said with a grunt as she managed to pull the alber¡¯s skin on its rump away from a tough bit of connective tissue. ¡°People say there is unusual beast activity nearby, so they pay me to find it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re hunting beasts on your own?¡± Wick spoke up, alarm in his voice.


    Aly paused to squint at him. ¡°I do not fight beasts, just find them and tell people about them.¡±


    ¡°Unusual beast activity?¡± Valerie prompted, frowning.


    Aly shrugged. ¡°More of them than usual. More attacks, more missing people. Townsfolk want to know the numbers so they know what to do about it. They pay me to find out.¡±


    Valerie¡¯s frown deepened. ¡°Tell me all you know, Bowmaiden.¡±

 33: Extrapolate (5)

    A trio of beasts loitered in the middle of a wide, flat meadow. They seemed almost drunk. It was hard to reconcile these uncannily erratic things with the bloodthirsty monsters that had charged miles across the countryside just to get to their party a few weeks ago. These ones were barely two hundred metres away in broad daylight, and they showed no sign of acknowledging Lucas and the others¡¯ presence where they were peeking over a swell in the landscape.


    The largest one¡ªabout the size of a pony¡ªstood rigid in one spot, but seemed to lose its balance every now and then for no apparent reason. It was constantly forced to steady itself with a hoofed leg that swayed above it, attached to the middle of its skeletal torso like a scorpion¡¯s tale. Its terribly emaciated body was the colour of mould with thick black veins criss-crossing its underside, while its head was bulbous like an inflated puffer fish at the end of a long neck that seemed to hinge twice at right angles. Its four stiff, straight legs ended in too many black claws.


    The second largest beast raced around it in a circle like a dog with too much energy. No larger than a great dane, its worm-like body rippled like it thought it was an eel swimming, keeping remarkably consistent rhythm even though its dozen or so insectoid legs were clawing wildly all over the place. Black-red ichor bubbled from dozens of mouths that yawned open and closed on the top side of its body where a creature¡¯s spine was meant to be. It had no visible eyes.


    The last was smallest by far, but perhaps the most alarming. A shadowy gasbag jellyfish creature with eight translucent wings and smaller wings constantly growing out of them in progressively smaller fractals, it would inflate like a balloon and rise a few metres into the air in random directions, then at some indeterminate point it would pop and go crashing to the ground with a wet splat. Then it would rise up once more and repeat the process all over again.


    They¡¯d been watching the three beasts from the other side of the field for a few minutes now, having spotted them from a greater distance half an hour before and approached cautiously, and the mad creatures had shown no sign of deviating from their barmy behaviour. It could have almost been comical. Slapstick, even. He would have laughed, maybe even chastised himself for being afraid of these pathetic things.


    If not for the unmoving human bodies strewn around them. There was no laughing about that.


    Nine in total. Nine people with lives and desires and dreams who¡¯d met their end by pure chance, through no fault of their own. Even from a distance, he could see the corpses were mauled and mangled. Limbs amputated, body parts crushed, entrails torn out.


    Lucas felt cold and oddly distant. At a moment like this, he was sure he was supposed to be feeling a burning kind of rage, a fire inside him that yearned to consume the perpetrators of this horrendous misdeed and through his righteous indignation right the balance in the world.


    But he was numb. His brain was getting jammed like a clockwork machine, cogs catching. He couldn¡¯t move past the shock stage of his emotional reaction, the sight of those bodies turning in his mind over and over.


    The aftermath of Rena¡¯s death hadn¡¯t affected him like this. Neither had Jyn¡¯s, and he¡¯d seen the whole thing beginning to end in all its gruesome detail. The perpetrator of that deed was still living in Lucas¡¯ chest, coming out only occasionally to trot along beside them in their travels, mostly still satisfied with its meal. One could argue he was responsible for Jyn¡¯s death, in a way.


    But that didn¡¯t disturb him nearly so badly. When he looked back on Jyn¡¯s death, he felt a muted kind of horror, almost disappointment.


    Apparently, there was something about finding corpses that distressed him so much more than actually witnessing the process of death. It was in the unknown, he realised. Seeing a death with his own eyes cemented it, shutting out speculation. Here, he didn¡¯t know how they¡¯d gone, whether they¡¯d screamed for their loved ones, whether they¡¯d cried and begged and prayed for salvation that never came.


    It wasn¡¯t just about the circumstances of their death, either, but the details of their life. Rena and Jyn, much as he regretted their untimely ends, had been his enemies. They¡¯d tried to kill him. There was no way around that fact. And it evidently lessened his empathy for them, knowing they were, at least in part, people capable of bad things themselves.


    Here, there was no such surety. For all he knew, these nine people could have been saints in life. They could have been truly kind with every bone in their body, generous and forgiving and charitable and every other virtue under the sun. No one deserved to die like this, but he couldn¡¯t help imagining that these people could have potentially deserved it even less than others. He couldn¡¯t know for sure, and that gnawed at him.


    Am I weird? Lucas thought.


    It took great effort to turn his gaze away. He closed his eyes and lowered himself to the ground, rolling onto his back with the grass tickling his exposed neck. It didn¡¯t quell the nausea. The image of the carnage in that field had already burned itself into his mind. It would be a big shame to puke now, having had one of the best meals he¡¯d had on Aerth since that first time he¡¯d tried Jyn and Rena¡¯s stew. The alber had indeed tasted like pork, seasoned with some unknown herbs Aly had gathered in the forest. Considering how she lived, she was an incredible cook.


    There had been no conversation among their group since they came upon the scene, the four of them observing the situation with grim countenances all around. Lucas¡¯ movement drew Aly¡¯s attention, as if she¡¯d been snapped out of a trance. Her eyes burned with fury.


    It had taken some time for the Bowmaiden to explain her commission to them. She was something of a lone wolf, unused to briefing other people on her missions, but Valerie had managed to coax it out of her.


    The elders of a nearby town she often sold pelts to had tasked her with determining the number of beasts in the area, a job she was well versed in as a Bowmaiden with some skill in stealth. Apparently, things were looking bad in Harwyckshire, and concerns of a large force of beasts having slipped past the frontlines were growing. Aly had told them she was starting to believe it: she had been running into far too many beast tracks, and not enough beasts. They were moving with purpose they didn¡¯t usually, she¡¯d said.


    The scene before them was the first time since she¡¯d set out weeks ago that she¡¯d actually managed to track some beasts down. After sharing the alber meat and her campfire with them the night before, they¡¯d forged out in the morning with the intention of parting ways at the end of the forest. Valerie had no longer wanted to distract the young Bowmaiden from her task.


    But there had been south-leading fresh tracks at the eastern edge of the woods, and Valerie was a Skycloak. She couldn¡¯t ignore nearby beasts.


    Or so she¡¯d said. Lucas wondered if her intention from the start had been to accompany Aly on her scouting.


    It had taken them the better part of a day to locate the monsters they¡¯d been hunting, and Lucas had picked up some tracking tricks of a different variety. Apparently, the chaos inherent of beasts made tracks behave differently than they should. One footprint in the mud could look days old while the very next would look minutes or even seconds fresh. They could change in size or depth. You could even find them full of material that didn¡¯t fit with the local environs, like when they saw a print shaped like a multi-pointed star¡ªwhich they now could attribute to the skeletal mould-coloured abomination¡ªfilled with dry red sand.


    But mana had a memory, and it didn¡¯t lie. Beasts left metaphysical traces of chaos; it didn¡¯t linger for long, but if you reached out with your senses and felt a mild sensation reminiscent of the mana-twisting horror that assaulted one¡¯s soul at the sound of a beast¡¯s screech, the tracks were recent.


    And so, as the afternoon started to transition to evening, the sun plunging its way towards the zagging mountains on the western horizon, they¡¯d found their quarry.


    ¡°You¡¯re sure you can take them?¡± Aly asked, her voice tight.


    ¡°These beasts shouldn¡¯t cause us any difficulty,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But I¡¯m wondering how we should approach this.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Lucas asked. He cracked an eye open to regard her. Her hand was resting against her breastplate, her fingers drumming a rhythm on the white metal. She looked thoughtful.


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    ¡°I¡¯m thinking it may be best for you to take these kills,¡± she said.


    ¡°Is this really the time for training?¡± Frankly, now that he¡¯d snapped out of his horror-induced stupefaction, he wanted these monsters dead as fast as possible.


    Valerie gave him a significant look, her eyes flicking down to his heart. ¡°It could benefit you.¡±


    Lucas opened his mouth, then closed it. ¡°Oh.¡±


    She wanted him to deal the final blow so he could devour their souls. Even if it was nothing to do with the Gift, Valerie saw it as something that had to be taken advantage of, providing it wasn¡¯t dangerous. Apparently they were about to put that to the test.


    Okay.


    He had to admit that idea brought him a morbid kind of satisfaction. The pleasure of promised vengeance, perhaps.


    ¡°I think I can do that,¡± he said. ¡°So, what, you soften them up first?¡±


    Valerie nodded.


    Aly was looking between them, eyes narrowed behind the fangs of her animal pelt hood. (It was made from a direbear, apparently. Basically just a grey-furred bear that could use basic wind magic to fly around. Killing one was quite the achievement by her culture¡¯s standards, she¡¯d claimed with a puffed out chest.)


    ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky with beasts,¡± the young Bowmaiden said. ¡°That¡¯s when they get you.¡±


    ¡°Believe me, Ser Aly,¡± Valerie said, ¡°I¡¯m taking this situation more seriously than you can imagine.¡±


    They spent only a few minutes planning before it was time for battle, and they rose from their prone position at the edge of the field, striding forth to face a group of monsters. Despite knowing he wouldn¡¯t be in the thick of the action and two comrades would stand between him and the beasts, dread pooled in Lucas stomach as the four approached their enemies.


    The beasts were something out of a surrealist nightmare. The skeletal mould-thing with the multi-hinged neck; the rippling worm creature with ichor bubbling from blubbering mouths; the eldritch winged jellyfish that constantly rose and dove with no care for itself. They were comically strange, and somehow all the more unnerving for it, especially with the brutality they¡¯d inflicted on the corpses scattered around them.


    And then came their screams. They only reacted when Valerie was within striking distance of them, and their wails reverberated in Lucas¡¯ very soul. But he was ready this time. He needed no speech on the methods of resisting chaos. Not now he¡¯d done it before and knew his winning formula.


    Rage filled him, burning in his veins. He grabbed his mana system in an indignant hand and spiritually roared his defiance at the frenzied darkness trying to warp him. His mana system was his; it was him.


    The power of only three beasts was paltry compared to his previous experience, but it was no trifling matter in and of itself. His mana system still shuddered. Jamie still howled in his chest, furious at the creatures disrupting his sleep.


    Me too, buddy, Lucas thought. Let¡¯s punish them.


    Jamie arched his back and hissed, and fire mana blazed through Lucas¡¯ pathways. Heat suffused him, and his pyromantic vision came to life. He started to build up mana in his firehand, readying an attack. He wouldn¡¯t be able to control the battlefield like Jyn had done, but he could still play a part.


    Aly was the first to attack, pulling back the string on her massive bow like it was nothing, her muscular arms bulging and her arrow tattoos glowing. She drew without an arrow, but one appeared in a flash of silver light when she was in position, and she loosed it immediately. The arrow was barely past the bow¡¯s limb before she was drawing back the string for another shot.


    As they¡¯d agreed, the arrows struck the jellyfish thing as it tried to rise into the air, knocking it off course before it could dive bomb them. They had no special effects, but they pierced the beast¡¯s hide and sent it spinning to the ground like a popped balloon.


    The skeletal creature charged to meet Valerie at an unbalanced gallop, its head swinging back and forth like a flail on its multi-hinged neck.


    The Skycloak stopped just short of it and raised her white blade as if to use one of her crescent projectile slashes, but instead the light of the blade mirrored. Four identical lights in the shape of her blade appeared in the air at off angles between her and the advancing beast, and they reflected her movement as she brought her sword down in an overhead stroke. They tore through the beast¡¯s legs and torso, and it went tumbling to the floor in a gory, screaming mess.


    The worm creature came slithering behind it, its body moving unnaturally smooth even as its legs pounded at the ground with reckless, jerking haste. Lucas saw his opportunity. He pointed his firehand, and gave the command to let the built up mana free. A second later, fire erupted forth.


    Much the same as he¡¯d been practising with one finger, he let his entire hand extend, turning into a long lance of contained flame. There was a fraction of a second where it roared an inch over the beast¡¯s head entirely, but correcting that was as easy as repositioning his hand a fraction.


    The beast had been aiming for Valerie who was in front and to the right of him, so his pyromantic attack slammed into it from an off angle, striking as fast as a bullet and with the force of an artillery shell. A boom split the air, and the beast was sent hurtling back. Silver arrows pierced into its drooling mouths as it spun over and over. Its dark slobber splattered everywhere. Some would have hit Lucas if Wick hadn¡¯t been there with his shining shields.


    The jellyfish beast started to rise into the air once more, its wings buzzing as its gas bag body ballooned. Arrows flew for it again, but it wrapped its wings around itself, using them to slow the arrows from striking its body.


    Its wings weren¡¯t strong enough to block the white light that lanced through its lower half. Its body crumpled like a tin can and it tumbled back to the ground with a shrill wheeze. It hit the earth with a splat, then shuddered in place.


    The battlefield fell quiet. None of the beasts were dead, just beaten back for a moment. Now was Lucas¡¯ chance.


    He charged forward, Wick ahead of him, Valerie falling in on one side with the light of her blade building once more. He heard Aly pursuing them behind, staying at range. They went first to the skeletal thing as it was the largest, writhing on the ground with its legs amputated. Lucas took a moment to feel some schadenfreude over that.


    Serves you right, you bastard, he thought as he hefted a thick wooden stick like a club. Fire didn¡¯t seem able to pierce their hides even with Jyn¡¯s greater expertise, so beating it to death was the only option. The creature screamed louder than it ever had as his stick smashed down on its skeletal body again and again, and Lucas revelled in the mind-flaying sound. He almost felt disappointed when the beast went still and a translucent white figure rose up from its corpse.


    The spectre twisted into a lance that aimed straight for his heart, and Lucas braced himself. It didn¡¯t help much. He didn¡¯t think there was anything that could brace him for the feeling of having an entire being¡¯s worth of extra mana shoved into his system. It was like being force fed liquid electricity to the point his stomach distended to thrice its size, but throughout his entire body. Keeping his concentration was all but impossible. If Wick and Valerie weren¡¯t there to protect him, he would¡¯ve been in deep shit.


    But they were, and he came back to himself to the sight of Valerie stabbing her white blade right through the winged jellyfish monster, pinning it to the ground. At the same time, Wick was standing strong against the repeated charges of the skittering worm. Most of the beast¡¯s mouths were leaking ichor from puncture wounds; Aly¡¯s arrows, presumably. The Bowmaiden herself was a distance away from the battle, launching an endless stream of arrows that struck with unerring accuracy.


    Wasting no more time, Lucas went for the jellyfish. Valerie had it so injured he didn¡¯t have to hit it more than a few times before its own spectre floated up, swaying around like it was swimming in the wind. It went slowly for his heart, and this time was worse than the last. Much worse.


    There wasn¡¯t enough space inside him for all the mana, even with Jamie eating a significant amount of the burden. It felt like he was tearing apart from the inside, like his pathways were cracking. They were warping under the density of the mana, and he could see his system twisting in his mind¡¯s eye. He couldn¡¯t hold it in. He was going to burst.


    Panicked at the sudden rush of soul-deep pain, Lucas started venting out his mana in every direction, desperate to alleviate his system. The air around him shimmered with heat, building and building; his mana was still fire attuned. He breathed out a cloud of steam, scalding the inside of his mouth. His firehand blazed.


    It felt like an hour before the feeling passed and he regained awareness of his surroundings. Valerie was close, peering into his eyes.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± she asked softly.


    ¡°No more,¡± Lucas gasped out. ¡°Kill the other one.¡±


    ¡°We already have,¡± she said. ¡°Was two at once too much?¡±


    Lucas nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t know how the fuck I¡¯m supposed to be some super badass slaying entire armies of demons on my own if eating two beasts¡¯ worth of mana does that to me.¡±


    Valerie¡¯s expression shuttered, her eyes trailing off to one side. Lucas followed her gaze.


    Aly was there with her bear pelt hood down, her narrow eyes watchful.


    "She''s a sensor," Valerie murmured.


    Lucas groaned.

 34: Extrapolate (6)

    It was apparently a cultural taboo in Mornlunn to leave a dead body unburied and without the ¡®fifth rite¡¯ ritual for any length of time; funerals were therefore meant to be held immediately and were typically brief affairs. Thus, they set to the grim task of gathering the remains of the dead while they still had sunlight.


    Lucas¡¯ stomach churned throughout. Blood and viscera coated the grass, and the smell of decaying flesh would surely never leave him. It was a genuine miracle he didn¡¯t puke. He fashioned a set of tongs out with his magic, unable to bring himself to touch the bloody pieces.


    Digging the actual graves was a simple enough task with the four of them wielding wooden shovels augmented by Lucas¡¯ floramancy. With the excess mana packed into his pathways, he¡¯d been able to make them strong as steel.


    Night was just falling by the time they were done, and they ended up carrying out the fifth rite ritual by the light of Valerie¡¯s sword. They¡¯d dug the graves in a three-by-three grid, and they started the ritual at the top left.


    ¡°The fifth rite is as much a practical thing as it is a cultural or religious one,¡± Valerie explained as she placed her offering: a white gemstone. She spoke quietly, and only when Aly was out of earshot. ¡°In Mornlunn lore, there are believed to be five Damnations to which unhallowed souls are sent, each corresponding to classes and acting as punishment for various sins. We place five offerings for departed souls to ward off the devourers that drag them down into the Damnations.¡±


    Lucas took that in. ¡°And what¡¯s the practical reason?¡±


    ¡°Vitamancers and necromancers both agree that a tiny remnant of the soul remains in the heart after death,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Why it¡¯s there and what it does is still up for debate after hundreds of years of study, but it doesn¡¯t lie completely dormant. Sensors with a particular talent for soul arts have observed activity akin to a living soul in pain, and it stops when the fifth rite ward is active. Whether that actually corresponds to an afterlife of eternal damnation and a ward against it, we don¡¯t know.¡± She looked at Lucas. ¡°The custom long predates the Conquest. We can reasonably assume that someone, somewhere, a long, long time ago, figured out something to do with the soul¡¯s next stage after death we haven¡¯t been able to rediscover since.¡±


    There was no reply he could give to that, but he liked the idea that they were still able to do something to help these people, even if they¡¯d been too late to save them.


    Their offerings were simple things. Lucas defaulted to his now-customary twig shaped into a heart using floramancy. Valerie seemed to have an endless supply of faintly glowing white gems stashed under her cloak even though she took it upon herself to fill two of the five points. Wick started off giving dirty old coins, but had to switch to tiny bits of wood after four rites. Aly just picked single strands of fur off her pelt. The value of the offering wasn¡¯t in the object, apparently, but in the prayer.


    ¡°As I said, we don¡¯t truly understand why the fifth rite works,¡± Valerie told him quietly when she got another opportunity. ¡°Just so long as what you place has been sincerely given with the intent of honouring the dead, the pentagon will keep the remnant safe for around twenty years, even after the offerings and the diagram itself fade. The prevailing theory is the objects get infused with some kind of undetectable mana by our prayers, but Lady Claire told me she tested that theory and the rite worked as usual even though she¡¯d given no prayer.¡±


    ¡°She could be a bit disdainful of religious stuff at times,¡± Lucas commented idly.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Valerie said, looking away. ¡°She certainly can.¡±


    The night was truly dark by the time they were done, and it was a solemn group that made their way out of the field. They were all tired after an arduous bout of battle and evening of labour, but the idea of camping so near to a gravesite was, thankfully, as creepy to the native Aerthlings as it was to him.


    They picked up the belongings and supplies they¡¯d stashed prior to the battle and walked for about five minutes in silence, making their way to the top of a hill Valerie had picked out back when they¡¯d still had daylight. The night was dark, clouds obscuring the moon, so Lucas¡¯ firehand was their guiding light. Wick took first watch, standing sentinel a short distance away. Lucas had felt a curious gaze on him intermittently for the last few hours, so it was no surprise when Aly spoke the second he¡¯d settled into his bedroll.


    ¡°You talked about eating beasts and fighting armies, and your body filled up with mana,¡± she said. ¡°What did you mean?¡±


    Through the dim light of his firehand, he could see Valerie frown. ¡°Speak Mornish, Bowmaiden,¡± she said harshly.


    Amber eyes narrowed, but the girl seemed to shrink in her furs under Valerie¡¯s intense stare. ¡°Can¡¯t I ask questions about the people paying me?¡±


    ¡°You can,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But do us the courtesy of speaking in a language we all understand. It¡¯s only polite.¡±


    ¡°Why do you not have the same magic he does?¡± Aly asked. The bottom half of her face was hidden behind the lower jaw of her fur bear pelt, but the scrunch of her eyes gave the impression of a pout.


    ¡°It¡¯s a technique Ser James is working on. He does a lot of magical experimentation.¡± Her gaze seemed to pin Aly in place. ¡°We do not want to reveal any of his techniques until they¡¯re perfected. Could I ask you to keep them a secret?¡±


    ¡°Who would I tell?¡± Aly asked, brows furrowed. At Valerie¡¯s continued stare, she hastily added, ¡°Fine, fine.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    The fact she hadn¡¯t made any connection to Lucas Brown from the whole translation magic situation was encouraging, but didn¡¯t guarantee she wouldn¡¯t figure him out from other clues. From the look Valerie had now turned on him, he assumed she wanted him to keep on hiding the truth. It didn¡¯t sit right misleading a kid, but he had to be practical, here.


    Lucas sighed. Luckily, he¡¯d had time to come up with a plausible excuse. ¡°I¡¯ve developed another special technique along with my translation spell. This one lets me absorb mana from beasts,¡± he said, because he didn¡¯t think she¡¯d believe him if he tried to claim she¡¯d misheard that. ¡°I was being hyperbolic about fighting armies. When my technique worked, I got overexcited, thinking I¡¯d be some unstoppable force some day. Absorbing only two beasts was difficult. It dampened my hopes a little, that¡¯s all.¡±


    Aly watched him for a long moment, then nodded. She put up her hood, letting the upper jaw¡¯s vicious fangs fall over her eyebrows. It was a wonder she didn¡¯t cut herself on those things. ¡°It¡¯s sad when magic doesn¡¯t work as well as you thought it would,¡± she said softly.


    ¡°Your magic seemed pretty impressive to me,¡± Lucas said, steering the topic away from himself.


    Aly snorted quietly. ¡°It¡¯s nothing. Anyone can bond with a weapon.¡±


    ¡°I was thinking about that,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Have you bonded with your arrows rather than the bow?¡±


    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s how I was taught. I didn¡¯t think it was strange until I met some of these Mornish archers.¡±


    ¡°What difference does it make?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°Bonding with a bow is generally accepted to be more versatile,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Better aim, more drawing power, keener instincts. Common perception is that bonding an arrow means only being able to summon one at will, which is of little use when Wands can work magic into arrows anyway.¡±


    Aly scowled. ¡°This is ignorance. There¡¯s way more to bonding an arrow than that.¡±


    ¡°Like what?¡± Lucas asked. ¡°I¡¯m curious.¡±


    ¡°You Mornish are all the same. The farmer knew nothing about this, too!¡± With a flick of her wrist, Aly summoned a silver arrow into her hand and held it up for his inspection. It was about a metre long, and its tip was a filed point rather than a triangular head. Its phosphorescent glow gave it a faint nimbus in the dark. ¡°I can make the arrow however I want it to be.¡± Another flick of her wrist, and the arrow faded away only to be replaced by another. This one was about twenty centimetres longer, with a long, sharp arrowhead smoothly integrated onto its tip. ¡°With some mana, I can make it pierce anything.¡±


    ¡°Anything?¡± Valerie asked with a raised eyebrow.


    Aly looked away. Her arrow vanished. ¡°I¡¯ve found nothing my arrow can¡¯t hurt yet.¡±


    ¡°What about your bow? Mine¡¯s less than half its size and it¡¯s a struggle to draw it. You must be really strong to use that,¡± Lucas said.


    Aly shrugged, picking her bow up from where she¡¯d dumped it next to her and frowning at the dark wood. ¡°It does its job.¡±


    ¡°I know a Bowmaster who¡¯d take your lack of care for your bow as heretical,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°What do I care what some Mornish archer thinks?¡± Aly hissed, surprisingly venomous. Though she didn¡¯t actually look at Valerie, he noted, her gaze instead on her bow. ¡°You people wouldn¡¯t know good shooting if an arrow struck your pale asses!¡±


    Valerie studied her blankly for a moment, then looked at Lucas.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°That was in Raeli, huh?¡± Lucas asked, suppressing a smile. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be good for team spirit to give you a translation.¡±


    ¡°Hm. Tone is universal,¡± Valerie said. Then to Aly, ¡°I meant no offence, Bowmaiden. I was simply making an observation. Forgive me.¡±


    Aly said nothing, still staring at her bow.


    ¡°You mentioned a farmer earlier,¡± Lucas said, grasping for a topic change.


    ¡°My friend,¡± Aly said. ¡°He doesn¡¯t cheat me, or treat me like I¡¯m stupid.¡±


    ¡°He sounds like a kind man.¡±


    A smile twitched at Aly¡¯s lips, her eyes going distant¡ªthe expression of someone who was thinking about something that made them happy, and didn¡¯t realise it was showing on their face. ¡°Yes. He pays me to cull predators after his livestock, but he could do this himself, if he wanted to. One of the mother hen types, you know?¡±


    ¡°I get it. One of my friends is like that too,¡± Lucas said, thinking of Jamie.


    ¡°He learned how to make curry in Raeli style. His children hated it.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to hear you¡¯re not completely alone out here,¡± Valerie said.


    Aly¡¯s smile faded. Her eyes darted between Lucas and Valerie a few times before she hunched in on herself, pulling her fanged hood closed, hiding her face behind the interlocking teeth. She flopped over onto her side.


    Conversation lapsed, and Lucas settled into his bedroll, looking up at the stars. He still felt overfull with mana, but wasn¡¯t sure what to do about it. It wasn¡¯t a part of the Gift, according to Valerie, but the Skycloak was pragmatic enough that she wanted to make use of it anyway, providing their tests proved it to be no harm to him.


    Venting the excess mana until it wasn¡¯t overwhelming anymore had been a panicked decision and probably the same one he¡¯d make again, but he kind of regretted it. Despite everything, it felt like a waste.


    The feeling of his overburdened mana pathways was annoying enough that it would probably keep him up all night if he didn¡¯t do something about it. Luckily, some ideas had already been turning over in his mind ever since they¡¯d left Pentaburgh and the plant network behind, and he snatched the excuse to test them.


    After relieving Wick of his watch¡ªmight as well let the shieldmaster get more sleep if Lucas was going to be up anyway¡ªLucas reached out with his plant mana and delved into the most complicated plant he had in his range. Seeing as they were atop a hill in a wide grassland, the best he could get was a large weed covered in nettles. Lucas inspected it in his mind¡¯s eye, cataloguing the information his mana fed to him. It was about a foot long at the stem, with thirty three nettle leaves, and a tangled web of roots that stretched about two feet in every direction underground, forming an inverted dome shape.


    There wasn¡¯t much to the plant. Its only interesting trait was its leaves that were covered in tiny hairs containing a concoction of chemicals including a weak acid that would irritate the skin of anything that touched it.


    But that was enough to work with.


    Lucas pumped mana into the plant, giving it the fuel to make it more. It started growing, its stem lengthening, leaves widening, roots stretching deeper into the dirt. Most of all, the chemicals that give it its sting increased in quantity and quality.


    This was only part of Lucas¡¯ plan, however. He¡¯d been watching in his mind¡¯s eye the entire time the plant was growing, observing where his mana went and how the plant spent it without his will guiding its changes. He noted the mechanisms by which acid entered the tiny hairs and held that pattern in his mind. If he imposed this design on the plant now, his mana would maintain it in that shape for as long as the magical energy lasted. But this was an old trick. One he¡¯d figured out weeks ago. He wanted more.


    Delving into the plant¡¯s genetic memory, he found the ¡®codes¡¯ that made the hairs partly break off when brushed against, leaving the remaining hair to act like little needles that injected the tiny amount of irritating chemical concoction stored within. Extrapolating from the knowledge he¡¯d gathered, Lucas created a second inactive pattern of mana, this time one where the mana shored up the hairs so they didn¡¯t break, preventing any stinging.


    Now came the real experimental part, where he had nothing to guide him apart from the knowledge that something much more complicated than this was possible.


    He wanted the plant to implement one of the two different mana patterns he¡¯d constructed based on various criteria; one where the plant¡¯s sting was considerably more painful than its base state, and another where it didn¡¯t sting at all. It took some considerable tinkering, but he got it in a few minutes.


    Ultimately, it required a third pattern that linked between the two, and this one was of almost entirely original design. To put it simply, the construct created an absolutely minuscule film of mana around the plant that sensed what mana it was coming in contact with. If it was Lucas¡¯ mana that touched the plant, it would activate the ¡®no-sting¡¯ pattern. Otherwise? Ouch for whoever touched it. It took bloody ages to get it in a state he was relatively confident it would do what he wanted.


    Excited to test it, Lucas snuck over to the plant and gingerly poked his flesh finger at the underside of a nettle. He felt the mana he¡¯d implanted in it activate, and sure enough there was no sting when his finger made contact. He gripped the stem in his fist and rubbed the back of his hand under every nettle, but there was nothing. No hint of pain. Just a mildly dry plant.


    Lucas chuckled to himself.


    ¡°Ser James?¡± Valerie whispered, sitting up. She¡¯d been wrapped in her cloak, and in the darkness her eyes were just visible peeking out from under her hood. They were an eerie blue-white.


    ¡°Can you heal stings from nettles?¡± he whispered back.


    She looked at him. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Okay. Can you touch this for me?¡±


    Eyeing him dubiously, she walked over and pinched one of the nettles between a finger and thumb. She stared at the plant for a moment, then stared at her hand as she withdrew it. Soft white light flashed on her fingers. ¡°That was considerably more irritating than I would expect from a stinging nettle. Do you need healing too?¡±


    ¡°Nope,¡± Lucas said with a smile. He held out his flesh hand for her to inspect, and there was no sign of the little red bumps that typically came from nettle stings.


    ¡°Ah,¡± Valerie said. She glanced back at the other two¡ªboth asleep. She spoke softly, ¡°Are you feeling better?¡±


    ¡°A little,¡± Lucas whispered. ¡°To be honest, the extra mana just took me off guard. Wasn¡¯t expecting it to feel like that.¡±


    ¡°I could sense it straining your pathways. It was like you were inflating.¡± She paused, frowning. ¡°It was extremely strange to behold from the outside, I must say. There was no hint of the spectre you described. From my perspective, the mana in your system abruptly doubled in¡­ density. But that doesn¡¯t feel like the right word. Hm.¡±


    ¡°All I can call it is ¡®too much.¡¯ If it¡¯s always like that, it¡¯s not much of a boon.¡± He rubbed absently at his heart. ¡°Do you think it¡¯s some kind of sabotage? Someone messed with the summoning?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s possible,¡± Valerie said slowly. ¡°I¡¯ll have to study the array more.¡±


    ¡°You think it¡¯s something else?¡±


    ¡°I suspect your undeveloped system is the source of the problem, here,¡± she said. ¡°It was hard to tell how much mana you absorbed since you purged it from your pathways so quickly, but your arms didn¡¯t seem to be nearly as strained as the rest of your system.¡±


    Lucas huffed a mirthless laugh. ¡°So it¡¯s a matter of expanding my pathways again. Maybe.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± Valerie agreed.


    ¡°Guess I¡¯m just gonna be working as a support for a while,¡± Lucas said, shoulders slumping. It wasn¡¯t as if he wanted to be in the thick of battle, but having yet another thing weighing on his mind while fighting for his life wasn¡¯t an appealing idea.


    ¡°We¡¯ll have to be careful not to overwhelm you with the mana you consume during a conflict,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But I think we should experiment more with this. One data point isn¡¯t enough to form any conclusions. For example, I want to see what happens if you use the absorbed mana to expand your growing pathways rather than expelling it from your system.¡±


    Lucas smiled wryly. ¡°The idea did cross my mind. Forcing my pathways open is a three outta ten ache right now, but forcing the issue with excess mana sounds very unpleasant,¡± he said, but even as he was disparaging the idea he was turning it over in his head. The pain, he thought, was because the mana was trying to expand pathways that were already as big as they could get.


    If the problem was that there wasn¡¯t enough space to accommodate the new mana, he¡¯d use the new mana to make more space. Easy as pie.


    Except for how much it would hurt.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯ll be worth trying,¡± Lucas said, simultaneously resolved and resigned.


    ¡°I¡¯m certain there will be more beasts to kill,¡± Valerie said. She held up her hand, inspecting the fingers she¡¯d stung on his nettles before sending Lucas a flat look.


    He winced. ¡°Sorry about that. Should¡¯ve told you what I was doing.¡±


    ¡°No harm done,¡± Valerie said. ¡°You enchanted the nettles to sting other people and not you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Like the plant network, but basic as shit.¡± A thought occurred to him. ¡°I wonder if I could do the same with pyromancy¡­¡±


    ¡°Enchanting constructs is an advanced and highly useful field of magic,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Though I would be remiss if I didn¡¯t put extra emphasis on the advanced part of that statement.¡±


    ¡°The plant network would be considered a masterwork, then.¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s what you believe it is, then it¡¯s one of a kind in all the world. Complex enchantments with lots of possibilities accounted for are one thing, but a construct that learns and adapts?¡± Valerie shook her head. ¡°Just when I was learning not to be frightened of Lady Claire¡¯s power.¡±


    Lucas stared at her. ¡°You were frightened of Claire¡¯s power?¡±


    Valerie blinked once, slowly, then turned away and started moving back towards their little camp. ¡°Anyone sane is. Have fun with your experiments, Lucas, but try to get some sleep.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± Lucas said. He had every intention of doing so, though that last tidbit of information was a tad distracting. Did that mean she was scared of his power too? Or was Claire herself the issue?


    He settled back into his watch with thoughts churning in his mind, idly implementing more basic autonomous magic constructs in the surrounding plants. The night passed by.


    The next morning they had the leftovers of the alber that Aly had preserved in packets of blue leaf filled with chunky salt for breakfast, then got straight back to business. The trio of beasts they¡¯d slain had killed nine people, but hundreds more poor souls had gone missing the past few months; according to Valerie, it was unlikely for only three beasts to wreak so much mayhem in such a short length of time. There were almost certainly more roaming Harwyckshire.


    Sure enough, they found more tracks after only a few hours of searching, a mile or two to the east of where they¡¯d battled the trio.


    There were many, many more than three.

 35: Not Too Late (1)

    A wide path had been trampled flat by the passing of a horde of beasts. Whatever had been growing in the rest of the field had died, the plants that hadn¡¯t been in the direct path of the beasts turning black and twisting in on themselves. Through his plant sense, Lucas could feel the way the chaos had warped their natural mana, turning it off-coloured and sickly and wrong.


    It somehow only affected this field. It was like the beasts had just decided this one area in particular needed to be obliterated by chaos then moved on. Further along and behind on the beasts¡¯ trail, the fields looked fine, save for the path the beasts had pounded flat in their cross-country charge, scoring a line that stretched for miles through the grasslands.


    The affected field wasn¡¯t a huge one, at least. The beasts were moving in a mass that didn¡¯t span more than three lanes of traffic wide, and the field was maybe five lanes wider than that, and as long as a few football pitches. It was in the variety of different tracks where they saw just how many there were.


    It was difficult to tell them apart, and even then a single beast could make a dozen different tracks by itself. For all they knew, this could¡¯ve been done by one huge monster with hundreds of different legs.


    But they were prepared for the worst, and the worst case scenario, after a thorough inspection, was determined to be a pack of thirty beasts.


    ¡°What do we even do about this? What can we do?¡± Lucas asked quietly, horrified. Sixteen had been bad, and had almost gone terribly even with support from an experienced Wandmaster and a Bowmaiden who¡¯d apparently once been an apprentice to some elite archery unit. Aly was skilled, but she was objectively a downgrade. The step down between Jyn to Lucas was similar.


    Valerie stared at the tracks, expressionless. One fist was clenching and unclenching. ¡°A warning needs to be sent out, at minimum.¡±


    ¡°So we head for the nearest town?¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t that way,¡± Aly murmured, pointing along the beasts¡¯ trail. ¡°This pack is moving south-east. The town is south-west.¡±


    ¡°Is there anything else in that direction, Ser Aly?¡± Wick asked. He was standing apart from the group, shields out and watchful of their surroundings. The grasslands around them were mostly flat, the closest forest miles away, so it was unlikely anything could sneak up on them. The shieldmaster refused to let down his guard anyway.


    ¡°Not close,¡± Aly said. She grimaced. ¡°But if they keep heading that direction, eventually¡­¡±


    ¡°Harwyck,¡± Valerie finished for her.


    Aly nodded.


    The name rang a bell. ¡°Didn¡¯t Jyn say something about Harwyck? That he was worried it might end up falling to the demons?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t imagine a scenario where the Order allows Harwyck to fall,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Many people said the same about Duskpoole back in the day, I¡¯d wager,¡± Wick said with some venom.


    Valerie glared at him. ¡°If the demon forces take Harwyck and either kill the population or force them to flee, the Blight would be free to spread through Steffonshire and a significant distance into Harwyckshire. It would be a disaster.¡±


    ¡°Even from the very top of the Moontower, one cannot see the entire world,¡± Wick said. ¡°And Lady Claire is not currently on her perch, according to you. We could indeed be looking at a serious crisis. We¡¯ve been seeing the signs for a while. Recall when you said we hadn¡¯t encountered as many animals as you would have expected, Captain.¡±


    ¡°So what do we do?¡± Lucas asked.


    Valerie¡¯s gaze flicked to Aly, then back to Lucas. ¡°I am reluctant to commit our party to a hunt for beasts, considering our current circumstances.¡±


    ¡°Can we really leave this alone?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°We must think long term,¡± Valerie said, as if she was trying to convince herself. She was tenser than he¡¯d ever seen her, practically grinding her words out through clenched teeth.


    ¡°You don¡¯t want to leave this alone,¡± Lucas said, certain of it.


    Valerie blew out a sharp breath through her nose. Her eyes were darkening. ¡°Of course not. I¡¯ve fought for years to prevent just these kinds of catastrophes from occurring. But as devastating as this situation with Harwyck may potentially be, if it goes as badly as it could, there are far worse losses we could take.¡±


    Lucas flinched back as if she¡¯d stabbed him. Equating his life to however many thousands lived in what sounded like an important city¡ªa county named after it, and all¡ªwould never sit right with him. He understood her perspective; if he was destined to be incredibly powerful, it made sense to keep him alive. His power was worth more than a city, if it took him to heights great enough to defeat this omnicidal Demon Lord. There were millions of lives on Aerth in the balance, after all.


    It still made him a little ill. This kind of cold calculus wasn¡¯t meant to involve someone like him.


    ¡°We can¡¯t chase them down,¡± Lucas said.


    Valerie shook her head robotically. She withdrew her white pendant, but kept it clenched in her fist rather than holding it up.


    ¡°You wanted to fight them?¡± Aly asked with a disbelieving look.


    ¡°I am a Captain of the Order of Five. It is my duty to protect the people of Aerth from the evil that plagues our lands,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But I have greater duties that supersede even that.¡±


    Aly clutched her bow in a white-knuckle grip. ¡°Like what?¡±


    Valerie muttered something too quiet for Lucas to hear. Her fist clenched so tightly around her pendant it trembled, but after a moment she composed herself and tucked it back beneath her cloak. To Aly she said, ¡°You must lead us to the nearest town.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I was gonna. Gotta warn the people who paid me to scout.¡±


    ¡°How far is it?¡±


    Aly hesitated, looking off into the distance. ¡°Too far to make it before sundown. And if there¡¯s this many beasts lurking about¡­¡±


    ¡°Do you know a defensible position we could stop in on the way?¡± Wick asked.


    Aly nodded slowly.


    The party was grim as they set out, parting from the beast tracks and heading south-west from the next field over, bearing them to the edge of the forest in good time. Aly took the lead, bare-footed steps leaving no disturbance in her wake. Wick was close behind her, shields still out, prepared to protect her from any lurking beasts if needed. Lucas was behind him, head on a swivel and his pyromantic sense searching for anything that might be hidden. Valerie took up her customary position at the back of their procession, and he didn¡¯t dare look back at her for fear of what expression he¡¯d see on her face.


    Conversation was nonexistent. Not a word passed between them all the way through the forest, or across the next stretch of fields that descended into a valley and then up the next hill. Lucas marvelled at his improved fitness when they reached the top of the steep incline and he barely felt winded.


    Aly led them over a stretch of rolling hills, then on a winding path picking their way through a smelly peat bog, across another chess board of fields, before finally spying their destination when they crested another rise.


    For some reason, none of them had questioned where, exactly, she was leading them. The assumption in Lucas¡¯ mind was that she¡¯d show them to a hill with a good view in all directions or something. In retrospect, he should¡¯ve expected this.


    He hadn¡¯t noticed how tense Aly was until her shoulders slumped and she let out a trembling breath at the sight of the farm houses in the distance. The place was in a natural basin surrounded by mismatched hills. Three buildings squatted in the centre of a grid of four small fields; two of the buildings were grey one-story affairs with thatched roofs, while the third was a little taller and constructed from dark wood, presumably a barn. The fields were dotted with a dozen or so fluffy sheep in one corner¡ªthough Lucas wasn¡¯t going to take for granted they were the sheep he was familiar with. They could end up being carnivores with canine heads and cloud vapour instead of wool for all he knew. The other fields were crops of various types Lucas couldn¡¯t identify. Farm stuff wasn¡¯t his forte.


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    Faintly visible in the patch of field on the direct other side of the farm from them were a few figures. One taller man, seemingly working with a long tool of some kind in the waning light of dusk. Two smaller silhouettes danced around him in circles. Even from this great distance, they could hear the childrens¡¯ laughter.


    ¡°They¡¯re okay,¡± Aly whispered with a hint of a tremor in her voice.


    ¡°This is your farmer friend, I take it?¡± Lucas asked gently.


    ¡°I told him it¡¯s getting dangerous out here, but he doesn¡¯t want to leave this place. He said his grandfather¡¯s grandfather lived here.¡± She paused. ¡°And his wife is buried here, too.¡±


    ¡°Endangering his children for sentiment,¡± Valerie said.


    Aly shot her a glare. ¡°Some people don¡¯t like to move around. That¡¯s good. It¡¯s nice to have people be in the same place I left them.¡±


    ¡°We should approach,¡± Wick said. The farmer in the distance had stopped working, his children rushing over to him. He appeared to have noticed them, staring in their direction. ¡°We don¡¯t wish to intimidate the man.¡±


    ¡°Lead on, Bowmaiden,¡± Valerie said.


    They started down the hill, and the farmer mirrored them, moving back towards his home with his children skipping ahead of him. The sun was getting lower in the sky, throwing long shadows across the plain like creeping fingers and burning the opposite hills a rosy red. There was a pleasant breeze coming from the south, carrying the sound of bleating sheep and childish laughter. The scent of live animals and grain filled the air.


    Aly¡¯s anticipation seemed to grow as they got closer, and she practically broke into a run when the farm buildings obscured their view of the farmer. The rest of the group followed at a more leisurely pace, giving the girl time to explain the situation to the farmer.


    Lucas zoned out a bit as they crossed the long distance to the farm, Aly getting further and further ahead of them. The landscape was yet another beautiful vista. It was like every time he turned around, there was a breath-taking view.


    But it was difficult to appreciate such things with the sharp blade of knowledge hanging over his head. There was a pack of maybe 30 beasts out there. A part of him hoped they¡¯d gone on to Harwyck after all, which was a horrible thought to have. The idea of an entire city ravaged by an army of beasts was horrifying. Thousands of people torn to shreds like those poor nine just this morning. His stomach lurched just thinking about it.


    Thoughts of the beasts itched at his brain, making him paranoid. Looking at the farmstead, he found himself picturing a group of them lying in wait, hidden in the shadows beside one of the stone buildings, or waiting within the barn. Among the flock of sheep he visualised some smoky wolf monster blending in, waiting for the right moment to strike. At the apex of one of the distant hills, he imagined a massive five-headed centipede rearing back, preparing to charge.


    It was only when Valerie let out a shout of warning and broke into a sprint that he realised he wasn¡¯t imagining that last one after all.


    The screams hit him next. Both beast and human.


    The Skycloak was halfway to the farmhouse with her soulbonded sword shining before Lucas even reacted, charging after her with a muttered curse. Wick stayed at his side, shields hefted, armoured footsteps thunderous. Aly¡¯s cry of alarm drifted over to him, the girl nocking, drawing, and loosing long arrows rapid fire even as she ran. Valerie soon overtook her, and then the Skycloak was past the farm buildings and out of view.


    The scream of the distant beast rose to an ear-splitting pitch, battering at his soul and setting his mana pathways trembling before he snatched them in his spiritual hand and held them in place, drawing on the righteous anger that was becoming so habitual now. Fuck, he hated beasts with everything he had. It burned at him hotter than fire mana ever could hope to. Mercifully, a searing white light lit up the dark of dusk, and the creature fell silent.


    Lucas¡¯ heart didn¡¯t stop thundering, and he kept moving forward. He didn¡¯t trust for a moment there was only one beast out there, not after those tracks they¡¯d seen.


    It took agonisingly long seconds to pass the farmhouses and see the scene beyond. Valerie was already running back towards them, the two children thrown over her shoulders as the farmer sprinted behind her.


    Two more beasts were barrelling down the distant hill, wailing their song of chaos at the top of their eldritch voices. One was far ahead of the other; it looked like a tree¡¯s roots had been fashioned into the approximate shape of a three-tailed scorpion with tentacles instead of pincers, and an amalgamation of the upper halves of four animals fused together to form mandibles. Lagging behind was a hideously overweight wingless bird monster that dragged its grotesque, bulging body along with eight bent spider-like appendages with tips like long spears.


    Aly kept firing her arrows, each one striking true. She was aiming for the legs, making the creatures stumble and buying the farmer time. He was much slower than Valerie even with the children burdening her, thrashing and crying in her arms. Lucas took aim, then stopped himself. His pyromancy didn¡¯t have the range for this. Would it be better to use floramancy?


    Behind him, the sheep were stampeding in a frenzy, running about all over the place. Some of them were writhing on the ground, and their bleats were full of such fear it wrenched at Lucas¡¯ heart. These poor animals had no good way of protecting themselves against the beasts¡¯ chaos-inducing scream. It was driving them mad. Or, Lucas realised as he thought back on how the beasts had affected him before, it could be even worse than that.


    Trusting that Valerie and Aly would have the oncoming beasts covered, Lucas turned and ran back into the field they¡¯d just come from. Wick cried out after him, but his heavy footsteps soon followed. Fire mana coursed through him, and he slowed it like he would his regular mana when he wanted strength. Scorching heat filled his pathways, and the air around him began to shimmer. His firehand¡¯s fingers fused into a white-hot mass.


    Quite unexpectedly, Jamie leapt from his chest in tabby cat form and darted ahead. Lucas gawked at the monstercat, truly baffled as to why he would do this, but couldn¡¯t focus on it for long.


    He reached the first sheep in a matter of seconds, and lunged for it with his flesh hand. The animal panicked, but Lucas wrestled it down. Its woolly coat was surprisingly rough to the touch, and it was stronger than he expected such a small thing to be. Nothing that threatened him, but its terrified thrashing forced him to put his back into pinning it down; he was off-balanced as he didn¡¯t want to burn it with his firehand. His flesh hand pinned its head to the grass while he straddled it. He would¡¯ve imagined that would be the end of its resistance, but the beasts¡¯ screams had put it into fight or flight mode, and it was thoroughly settled into the former.


    Now, he was faced with a moment of indecision. Ultimately, he''d taken action because he feared the sheep would turn murderous¡ªor, worse, into another pack of beasts¡ªand now he was faced with figuring out what to do about it.


    The easiest, safest option was to kill it. Snap its neck, or stab it with his stick, or melt its brain with a concentrated burst of fire, and move on.


    Fuck me, Lucas thought, staring into its black eye. It looked so scared.


    Growling with frustration at himself, he reached out with his mana. With his heart¡¯s flame burning, his pyromantic sense gave him a 3D view of the sheep¡¯s heat. Snug reds stuck out beneath its woollen coat, and Lucas delved deeper into it, picking out the hot blood pumping through its veins far too fast to be healthy. Its heart was hammering.


    And he could see how the creature was already warping. It was subtle¡ªthe chaos effect was evidently distant enough that its effects were slow acting, and a flash of white light behind him indicated one of them was already dealt with¡ªbut there were slight bulges in its skin, like tumours growing in fast-forward.


    Lucas acted without thinking too hard about it. If this didn¡¯t work, he told himself, he¡¯d have to kill it anyway, so the inherent danger didn¡¯t matter all that much.


    Through the connection of his flesh hand against the sheep¡¯s neck, he started pumping fire mana into the creature, blindly fumbling for its pathways. The sheep let out a piercing bleat and thrashed twice as hard, but Lucas¡¯ body weight proved too much for the small thing to buck off. A familiar pattern started lighting up in the sheep¡¯s heat signature. In seconds, a tangle of white lines was highlighted throughout its body. It was trembling under the force of beastly corruption, and Lucas let his fury flow through his connection to the beast, snarling with his anger that the chaos had no power here.


    The sheep stilled along with its pathways. A smouldering ember started to glow in the centre of its dark eye, and it fixed on Lucas, watching him with something like curiosity. Soon, he didn¡¯t need to shepherd the creature¡¯s mana, for it immediately took his hint and started holding its mana pathways in place itself. The next bleat it let out sounded almost angry. It was a strange sound, but a far better one than the terrified warbling from mere seconds before.


    Taking that as a success, Lucas leapt away from the creature, took a second to pick another target¡ªassessing which sheep looked like they were having the hardest time with the chaos¡ªand ran off to hunt it down. Wick had been standing over him, and seemed to guess what he was up to as he pinned another sheep. By the time he¡¯d repeated the process with his fire mana, he looked up to find Wick had a third sheep pinned nearby, ready for him.


    Helping the sheep got easier each time he did it, but the beasts¡¯ screams had quieted before the time he got halfway through the flock. The ones he hadn¡¯t been able to get to were still panicked, but without the chaos corrupting their pathways there was no vector to show them how to fight it off. In the end, he was left with five sheep with the hints of flaming fury in their eyes, two that looked merely confused by his fire mana¡¯s attentions, and eight more that had, miraculously, been rounded up by Jamie.


    They were packed in a little huddle at the corner of their field, with the tabby cat sitting on his haunches before them, staring with unblinking red eyes. Lucas eyed them for a moment, then looked at the cat. ¡°You didn¡¯t eat any of them, did you?¡±


    Jamie looked at him, somehow managing to convey disdain.


    ¡°Right,¡± Lucas muttered. He looked at the fire-eyed sheep. The firesheep, he decided to call them. They were loitering around nearby, and he was starting to think the spark in their eyes wasn¡¯t going to go away.


    Wick appeared at his side, watching the firesheep with equal trepidation as Lucas was feeling. ¡°Unlocking magic in animals is a dangerous thing, Lucas,¡± he said softly, his voice coarse as gravel.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t know what I was doing, to be honest,¡± Lucas murmured back. ¡°Just¡­ didn¡¯t want to be dealing with fourteen sheep beasts.¡±


    ¡°It probably wouldn¡¯t have gone that way. More likely they would¡¯ve gone mad.¡±


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t keen to deal with something like that, either.¡± Lucas sighed. ¡°Would it have been better to kill them?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Wick said. ¡°Every creature deserves a chance to live.¡±


    Lucas nodded.


    They moved back towards the farm houses with Jamie trotting along beside them, glancing periodically back at the firesheep over their shoulders. The five newly-magical creatures watched them go. Lucas could have sworn one of them nodded at him.


    What the hell did I do?

 36: Not Too Late (2)

    Valerie met them halfway, jogging out from the farmhouse. She looked none the worse for wear. The farmer and Aly, each carrying a child, followed at a slower pace. The sky hadn¡¯t quite turned black yet, but the farm¡¯s position surrounded by hills meant darkness was already falling on them. ¡°We dealt with the three beasts and the farmer¡¯s family are safe,¡± she reported. ¡°But I believe it would be best to stay here until morning. Travelling at night when there may be a large pack of beasts about would not be wise.¡±


    ¡°Do you think more will come for us?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°I can¡¯t be sure. What I can be certain of is that there are more out there.¡± She turned to gesture back to the farm buildings. ¡°Ser Elwyn has agreed to shelter us for the night in exchange for our protection in case any more beasts do come calling.¡±


    Lucas looked back at the flock. They seemed to be clustering together again, the firesheep surrounding the regular sheep like guards. ¡°So we¡¯re going to hunker down?¡±


    ¡°Our best bet is to barricade a building as best we can, take up a defensible position just in case, and try to avoid any notice until the sun comes up, at which point we¡¯ll make a run for the town if the area is clear. Taunton, apparently.¡± She tilted her head, squinting at the sheep. ¡°What happened here?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want a bunch of crazy sheep attacking us from behind, so I helped them, uh, solidify their mana. It¡¯s had side effects.¡±


    She looked down at Jamie. It was unusual to see the monstercat out and about; he much preferred lazing in the heart of Lucas¡¯ soul. ¡°And this?¡±


    Lucas shrugged. ¡°Hell if I know.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Valerie said. Her lips thinned. ¡°Unlocking magic in wild animals without bonding them is a risky manoeuvre.¡±


    ¡°So Wick already told me,¡± Lucas said. ¡°But it was the best option I could stomach, and it worked.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m right thankful for it, Ser James,¡± the farmer said as he arrived within earshot. It was hard to see details in the dark, but he seemed a tall bald man, wearing a heavy fur cloak over his shoulders and a dark shirt and trousers with rugged leather boots. There was a brittle smile on his face as he rubbed soothing circles on the back of the blonde girl sobbing in his arms. ¡°It might sound a mite odd to warrior types as yerselves, but them sheep are like family to me. Raised ¡®em all since they were lambs.¡±


    ¡°Silly man,¡± Aly said, following behind Elwyn. The boy she was carrying seemed younger, his blonde hair long and wild. He was taking in Lucas¡¯ party with curious dark eyes that matched his father¡¯s, looking far less stressed by the situation than his sister. Didn¡¯t even look like he¡¯d been crying. All three of them wore furs with similar colours to Aly¡¯s, and Lucas wondered if she¡¯d gifted them.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you start with your nagging, kid.¡± He huffed goodnaturedly. He bowed his head to Lucas and Wick. ¡°Name¡¯s Elwyn, pleased as pie to meet ya.¡± He hefted the girl a little higher on his hip, and she whimpered. ¡°This is Eleanor, and the fearless little tyke Aly¡¯s got there is Elbert.¡±


    ¡°Lots of El¡¯s there,¡± Lucas commented. ¡°I¡¯m James, as you apparently already know. Star of our group.¡±


    That sounded so full of myself, Lucas thought, internally cringing. Why did the class have to be called the Star, of all things?


    ¡°Wick, at your service,¡± Wick said. ¡°As a shieldmaster, I pledge to protect you and yours for the duration of our stay here.¡±


    ¡°Thank you kindly, Ser Wick,¡± Elwyn said with a small bow. ¡°Aly explained a bit for me. You people have been hunting beasts. Mighty honourable work, and I gotta be thankful for it right now, ain¡¯t I?¡± With introductions handled, the farmer took on a more serious expression as he looked at Valerie. ¡°What¡¯ve you got planned, Captain?¡±


    They ended up scavenging spare wood from the barn to shore up the main house, barricading the windows. The house wasn¡¯t a big one, with five outer rooms surrounding a pentagonal central common room with an unlit hearth at its tip. The central room was about four metres across at its widest. All the heavy furniture aside from one table went piled up against the outer windows, shoring up the barricades.


    It left the common room feeling empty save for the chests that sat flush against the walls, but that was a benefit; they didn¡¯t want to be tripping over clutter if they ended up having to fight in here. Each outer room had a door leading to it, and they set about blocking those next, leaving one looser in case they needed to create a choke point.


    Everyone pitched in, a nervous energy pervading them as they worked. Even the children carried little bundles, following behind their father like ducklings. They were all constantly glancing up to the hills surrounding the farm, waiting for the moment a beast would appear. It felt like they were on a hidden timer and had no way of knowing when it would hit zero.


    They were mostly quiet as they worked. The only voice penetrating their silence was Valerie¡¯s hushed instructions, coordinating everyone.


    So it took him a bit off guard when Elwyn struck up a conversation with him. The two of them had been working quietly to shore up the windows in the kitchen of the little farmhouse¡ªLucas couldn¡¯t really work on his own with his firehand handicap, so he was mostly acting as an assistant for the others as needed¡ªand Elwyn let out a quiet chuckle as they dragged a wooden cabinet in front of one of the windows.


    ¡°This must feel below an experienced warrior like yerself,¡± Elwyn whispered with an apologetic wince. ¡°So I gotta make sure I give my biggest thanks for yer help. Not many would bother.¡±


    Lucas blinked at him. ¡°I¡¯m not particularly experienced.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t gotta be humble, lad,¡± Elwyn said with a wry smile. ¡°I may be a backwater nobody, but believe it or not I¡¯ve met some veteran warriors in my time. People can see it in the way you carry yourself, the way you walk n¡¯ that. Only people who train themselves for a long ruddy time move with the kind of grace and poise you three do.¡±


    Well, Lucas thought. Well. What did he say to that?


    He averted his eyes, focusing on the wooden cabinet. In the time they¡¯d been working, he¡¯d gotten a much better handle on moving things around. Following his ¡®instincts¡¯ led to an easier time; better handholds, tighter grips, and more comfortable posture when lifting. Beyond all that, he was much stronger than he¡¯d expected to be. If the cabinet wasn¡¯t so unwieldy, he could¡¯ve lifted it on his own; Elwyn was mostly there to keep it balanced and direct it.


    ¡°The other two have much more experience than me,¡± Lucas muttered eventually as they finally got the cabinet settled before the window.


    ¡°Bah, you noble warrior types never accept the praise you deserve. Little Lady Aly is just the same,¡± Elwyn said with a huff. ¡°A good girl, that one. Glad she found some people to watch her back. Don¡¯t let her wander off, ya hear?¡±


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    ¡°We¡¯ll try not to,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Little Lady, huh?¡±


    ¡°Oh, she¡¯s the granddaughter of a tribal chieftain or some such. Not actually a noble or anythin¡¯. She acts all huffy when I call her that, but I think she secretly likes it. Poor girl misses her home. Or her people, at least.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s from Raelan, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s where her family¡¯s from, aye. Said she¡¯s never been there herself, but if I¡¯ve got my timelines right she should¡¯ve been old enough when the place got swallowed up that she should remember some of her time there.¡± Elwyn sighed. ¡°But maybe it¡¯s better if she really doesn¡¯t remember. The kid doesn¡¯t seem hung up about it, apart from her mother.¡±


    ¡°Her mother?¡±


    ¡°Not a story she¡¯s seen fit to share with me,¡± Elwyn said sadly. ¡°But the few times she¡¯s mentioned her mum, she seems to get all melancholic, y¡¯know? And I¡¯ve seen no sign of the woman. Dead or alive? I don¡¯t know. But I assume the worst when I see a teenage girl has been wonderin¡¯ the wilderness on her own for years. We¡¯re not so far away from beast country, ya know?¡± Elwyn snorted. ¡°I mostly like to ignore that fact, but it¡¯s hit me harder than ever today, obviously.¡±


    Before Lucas could think of a reply to that, the little girl, Eleanor, came trotting into the room. In quite the contrast to her earlier terror, there was a small smile on her face and her eyes were beginning to brighten. She made a beeline for Elwyn and looked up at him with naked hope. ¡°Papa, is the lady out there Mama¡¯s sister? Is she my auntie? Is she?¡±


    Elwyn chuckled, bending down to relieve his daughter of the plank of wood she¡¯d been awkwardly carrying. He placed it beside the cabinet. It was almost as tall as the girl. ¡°Quiet voices now,¡± he said to her. ¡°As for your question: not as far as I know, sweetheart. Your mama had only a brother. Captain Vayon just looks similar, is all.¡±


    Eleanor¡¯s lips pursed. ¡°But she acts just like Mama. And she¡¯s really amazing like Mama! Did you see her sword?¡±


    ¡°I did,¡± Elwyn said. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and started leading her back to the front door. Lucas followed. ¡°Maybe one day you¡¯ll be amazing like her, eh?¡±


    Eleanor¡¯s eyes lit up once more. ¡°Do you really think so?¡±


    ¡°You can do anything you set your mind to, my love,¡± Elwyn said. He ruffled her hair, earning a squark of indignation. A second later, though, the girl caught sight of her brother outside¡ªhe was carrying a small bundle of sticks towards the house¡ªand dashed over to him, shouting about how she was going to be an amazing swordmaiden like her mother and Valerie. Once her brother had acknowledged her proclamation, she went bounding over to Valerie and started chattering at the bewildered Skycloak with the lack of social grace only a child could get away with.


    Elwyn chuckled softly to himself, leaning against the jamb of the front door. He spoke softly enough that Lucas suspected he wasn¡¯t meant to hear it, ¡°I do wonder what Lesa would think if she knew her daughter wanted to be a Skycloak?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nice to see she¡¯s cheered up a bit,¡± Lucas said. ¡°But it could end up being a long night still.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Elwyn said, shoulders slumping. ¡°I must thank you again. I¡¯ve not got much, but I¡¯ll somehow see you paid for looking out for us.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re sheltering in your home for the night,¡± Lucas said, holding up his hands as if to ward the man off. ¡°That¡¯s enough payment.¡±


    ¡°All the same,¡± Elwyn said, and then he was stepping out of the house and back to work before Lucas could form a reply. With a sigh, he followed suit.


    Their efforts quickly bore fruit; most of the windows in the farmhouse were soon boarded up. After a significant look from Valerie, Lucas got the hint to subtly use his floramancy to shore things up tighter than they could by hand, closing gaps. The thatched roof was pliable too, becoming more like a solid impenetrable mass than densely packed straw.


    Curiously, the sheep took it upon themselves to crowd into the barn. The five sheep with the glow in their eyes seemed to be corralling the others, herding the flock to safety on their own initiative. And when they were successfully ensconced, the five crowded around the others like guardians. All the farmer had to do was close and bar the large doors.


    ¡°Animals get used to routine,¡± Elwyn explained when he caught Lucas¡¯ baffled look. ¡°But I admit that¡¯s the most effortless herding I¡¯ve seen since I lost old Bella a few months back. Haven¡¯t gotten around to getting a new sheepdog, but now it looks like I might not need one! Ha!¡± He paused, glancing to one side. ¡°And your little cat helped, too! Good little critter, that. Is he for hire?¡± he joked.


    Lucas just smiled. He wondered how the man would feel if he knew Jamie¡¯s true nature.


    Before the barn doors were fully closed, he was sure he saw a glowing-eyed ram staring deeply into the eyes of another sheep, their foreheads touching.


    Night had fallen when Valerie declared the house as safe as it was going to get, and they sealed the doors last. With that, they condemned themselves to a night in a single room.


    Silence fell on them, and the air started to thicken with tension with every passing minute. No one attempted to start up any conversation. Ostensibly most of them were trying to sleep, but in reality they were too focused on listening for signs of activity outside.


    There¡¯d been no direct sign of any more beasts since the initial conflict, but the likelihood none were out there seemed slim. It was the kind of night where the cold air carried with it a kind of dread, a certainty that evil lurked beyond their dark walls.


    Wick didn¡¯t seem to know where to stand, his head constantly on a swivel as he tried to decide the most likely point of entry for any beasts that came. Valerie stayed in the centre of the room, her sword held ready but not yet glowing. Aly lingered by the farmer and his children where they¡¯d ended up huddled beneath their oak table, a heavy blanket draped over them.


    Jamie had decided to curl up atop the very same table with his tail hanging off the edge, and it seemed to be quite the source of fascination for wide-eyed young Elbert. The boy batted at the tail whenever it strayed near with a look of determination furrowing his brow. Lucas couldn¡¯t decide whether to find it amusing or alarming; he didn¡¯t think Jamie would react too poorly to a kid grabbing his tail, but cats were generally unpredictable.


    But then again, Jamie wasn¡¯t really a cat. Through their connection, he could feel not only the monstrous amalgamation of bodies that somehow packed together to form a cat, but also the very same spiritual flame that powered Lucas¡¯ pyromancy. It was odd how their connection worked. Proven by earlier events, it seemed Jamie didn¡¯t even need to be resting inside Lucas¡¯ chest to act as his heart¡¯s flame; somehow, fire mana still transferred over when Lucas sought it.


    That was something worth investigating. He made a mental note to revisit the thought when his ongoing vigilance wasn¡¯t required.


    Problematically, Lucas didn¡¯t really know what to do with himself beyond a vague sense of needing to be on guard; his firehand was the only source of light and heat in the oppressive darkness right now since they didn¡¯t want to put power into any techniques and his firehand was somehow a passive thing. A part of him felt he should be near the children, keeping them warm. At the same time, he wanted to be ready to fight. The idea of a beast catching him off guard was unconscionable.


    Minutes crawled by, seconds feeling like hours. He repeatedly found himself holding his breath and had to consciously let it go.


    Eleanor started blubbering at some point, sounding tired as much as scared. Elwyn spoke softly to her, but she didn¡¯t quieten down. If anything, her whimpering started getting louder. It sounded cacophonous in the otherwise silent night, echoing in their empty pentagonal room.


    ¡°We may need to put her to sleep,¡± Valerie said quietly.


    Wick shot her a look over his shoulder.


    Valerie rolled her eyes. ¡°I have perfectly harmless, humane means of knocking someone unconscious.¡±


    ¡°Frightened children should be comforted,¡± Wick murmured.


    ¡°I agree,¡± Valerie whispered back. ¡°She can find comfort in her dreams, because there¡¯s clearly none to be had for her here.¡±


    An idea hit Lucas, and he got Jamie¡¯s attention through the bond, sending emotions of protection and comfort with his intent focused on the children. The monstercat watched him for a long moment, unimpressed, his eyes two hot coals in the dark, but eventually rose to his feet and hopped off the table, appearing in front of the children with a sceptical tension to his body. After a moment, he approached and nuzzled his face at Eleanor¡¯s leg. Her eyes widening in fascination, she slowly reached out a hand and gently grabbed a fist of Jamie¡¯s fur, then let out a gasp. She probably hadn¡¯t expected him to be so hot.


    Elwyn smiled down at his child, then turned to Lucas. ¡°Thank¡ª¡±


    A beast¡¯s distant scream cut through the night like a knife, and in its wake the room was plunged into silence.

 37: Not Too Late (3)

    The house was silent, as if even the building was holding its breath. Lucas inhaled as slowly as he could, sure that even the slightest sound he made would be cacophonous in the still night. There was no wind. No rain. None of the sounds one could expect from being surrounded by people; everyone had gone as motionless as him. There was no peace to this soundlessness.


    Not with the things moving around outside. It sounded like there were dozens of them, but it was hard to tell with their erratic footsteps. There was no rhythm to their pacing, nothing to gauge where their attention was. One would come closer, then move further away. Another would loop around the building a few times, then spring off into the distance for no apparent reason. A third would hop around frantically then stop, then go again faster, then stop, then amble along. All these sounds mixed together, blending into a rumbling mush of movement.


    At least they weren¡¯t screaming. The initial beastly noise had come from out in the field to the east where the corpses of the first three attackers had doubtless lay before their rapid decomposition. It had gone on for minutes, oscillating and shifting back and forth like the beasts were searching for who had done this to their comrades. Eventually, they¡¯d settled, and the night had fallen silent.


    After a few minutes though, they came to investigate the farm houses. For whatever reason, they hadn¡¯t actually tried to enter any of the actual buildings. They were just prowling. There was no indication that they knew there were people and animals inside some of the buildings, and yet they weren¡¯t leaving.


    It left Lucas in a tense in-between state, expecting battle at any moment but being denied it. The waiting was wearing him thin. He couldn¡¯t calm down with them out there talking through Elwyn¡¯s small farmland, but his heart thundering along for so long surely wasn¡¯t good for him. He didn¡¯t dare do anything to mess with his mana in case they¡¯d somehow sense it.


    More heavy steps approached, skittering like giant bugs. A few beasts let out screeches, and Lucas winced. Holding the shape of his soul at the forefront of his mind was mentally taxing, especially when he didn¡¯t know when one of the bastards was going to scream and he¡¯d have to put his full focus into resisting the chaos. One could only maintain anger for so long. Eventually, fear would creep back in.


    Silence fell once more, but it didn¡¯t last. However, the sound that broke it this time wasn¡¯t a beastly scream. It was quieter, muffled.


    A sheep¡¯s bleat.


    Like a chain reaction, the beastly screams rose to a feverish pitch, dozens of monstrous voices ringing out at once. The force of it slammed through the party, earning a visible flinch out of Wick. Eleanor, the farmer¡¯s daughter, gasped and slapped her hands over her ears, releasing Jamie from where she¡¯d been cuddling him in her lap. Elbert¡¯s eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped against his father¡¯s chest. Elwyn made a small noise of distress and gathered both of his children to him, lookin suddenly wan and pale, eyes turning feverish. Only Valerie showed no reaction, her face hard as stone.


    Lucas, meanwhile, was focused on wrestling his mana system into submission. Those disgusting abominations out there were not going to have their way with his soul if he had anything to say about it. Fear bled away, previously-waning fury stoked once more. It blazed hot within him, burning away the chaotic corruption. His jaw clenched, teeth grinding together. He wouldn¡¯t let them win. He refused.


    Outside, a thunderous stampede of footsteps were storming towards the barn. Multiple sheep raised their voices in response. There was something strange about the sound, a depth that couldn¡¯t usually be found in a prey animal¡¯s call. It resonated in a similar way to the beastly screams. It was familiar, too. Lucas¡¯ eyes widened and his brows climbed, disbelieving.


    Delving into his pyromantic sense, he could only watch with shock as a wave of heat wafted out from the direction of the barn. The barn itself was outside his range, but the clouds of red pulsing in the air were unmistakable: there was a fire in there. How?


    The heat signatures of the beasts were nonsensical. It was hard to get a handle on their numbers, but twenty or so was his best guess. His pyromantic sense told him little about how they actually looked or how big they were. The heat on their bodies fluctuated rapidly, going from hot to cold and back again at random, sometimes even vanishing completely. He¡¯d think he had an idea of the shape of one of the monsters, only for some of the heat to disperse and reveal one part of its body was actually somewhere else, or it was a different size than it had appeared, or something. It was infuriating.


    There was the sound of something slamming into the wooden walls of the barn, then the crack of splintering wood, followed by the screams of the beasts rising to a triumphant crescendo. The sheep bleated to match it, undaunted. A pile of monsters scrambled over each other to get to their prey.


    And a torrent of fire erupted from the barn, spilling over the beasts and sending them sprawling back. The fire flooded out of the barn, quickly spreading through the grass. Lucas acted as fast as he could. Jamie glanced at him as he took control of the heat surrounding the house. He couldn¡¯t do anything elaborate, but the mental lag of his pyromancy wouldn¡¯t affect him setting down a boundary and holding it. He pushed his fire mana out to the limits of the farmhouse, coating it in a shell of his fire magic.


    A second later, the fire from the barn rolled over the outer walls of the house. White-hot flames broke against his hastily erected pyromantic barrier like waves on rocks, then spread out, quickly surrounding the building. It took a moment to realise there were figures in the flames apart from the chaotic heat signature of the beasts.


    It was the sheep, Lucas realised with sheer bemusement. All fourteen of them, galloping through the fire like it was nothing. No, he realised, they weren¡¯t just moving through the fire: they were the fire.


    Their woolly fleeces were shining balls of flame, their legs blazing rods, and their heads were roaring infernos in the shape of a sheep¡¯s skull. They moved as if they were flesh and blood, and in their wake they left after echoes of fire trailing behind them. The barn and second building were ablaze, and the inferno was just getting hotter as the sheep pumped heat into the air. At the same time, the sheep seemed to be drawing from the natural fire that was being caused by their magical flames, compounding their heat and strengthening themselves. They were getting hotter by the second.


    Lucas marvelled at them. The five he¡¯d accidentally made magical had evidently somehow passed on the gift to the others. To his pyromantic sense, it was a beautiful thing to behold. They¡¯d dived right into the fire body technique Jyn was so proud of¡ªthere was no knowing if they¡¯d be able to turn back or if they¡¯d even want to.


    ¡°What¡¯s happening out there, Lucas?¡± Valerie whispered, snapping Lucas¡¯ attention back inside the house. Looking around, he saw why.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The Skycloak crouched by the table, her white pendant necklace keeping Elwyn and his children entranced. They were watching it sway with lifeless white eyes, unable to tear their gazes away. Aly hovered nearby, watching them with a helpless kind of horror in her eyes, bow clenched in a white-knuckle grip. Wick was standing over Lucas, both of his shields pointed in the direction the screams were coming from.


    Lucas swallowed. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with them?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re not strong enough to fight off the chaos, so I¡¯ve been forced to take drastic measures,¡± Valerie said. ¡°What is happening out there?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the sheep,¡± Lucas said. ¡°The ones I gave magic to passed it on. They¡¯ve turned themselves into fire, and¡­¡±


    He was about to say they were fighting off the beasts, but they weren¡¯t. Not really. Oh, they were putting up a good showing. The fires they¡¯d created were as powerful as a furnace, stretching far beyond Lucas¡¯ range and reaching a dozen or more metres into the sky. They¡¯d created hell out there.


    But beasts were the spawn of demons, and hell was old hat to them.


    The fire was somewhat keeping them at bay, but it wasn¡¯t lasting. The same effect that made it hard to get a handle on them with his pyromantic sense made them all but immune to fire. A master pyromancer like Jyn hadn¡¯t been able to do more than harass the beasts, and the sheep¡ªwhich were quite considerably less powerful and experienced¡ªdidn¡¯t have a Skycloak with a certain-kill-sword to filter the beasts towards. Even if they had, the sheep didn¡¯t possess that kind of tactical intelligence. The fire wasn¡¯t hurting the beasts, so the sheep were just trying to make it hotter, pouring out more and more power.


    It wasn¡¯t working. The real, tangible effect the fires were having was in the powerful drafts they were creating, making it difficult for the beasts to move around. The monsters still swiped with whatever unnatural weapons they possessed when a fiery sheep got too close, and it was mostly luck so far that none of the sheep had been hit. But it felt like it was only a matter of time.


    Most problematic for the humans hiding inside the only building that hadn¡¯t been incinerated was that the fire now surrounded them on all sides, including above. Lucas could keep the heat of the flames away easily enough, but what did they do about air? Suffocating in the middle of a giant oven sounded like a horrible death. Lucas was no expert on breathable air in enclosed spaces, but he suspected seven people surely couldn¡¯t last more than a day in a room this size.


    Lucas explained all this to Valerie, and her lips pressed into a thin line. She looked at Wick. ¡°Do you think you can get Ser James out of here?¡±


    ¡°It would be difficult,¡± Wick said. ¡°But doable.¡±


    ¡°Hey, no,¡± Lucas said. ¡°I¡¯m not leaving anyone here behind.¡±


    ¡°I believe I can survive this with only some severe burns,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°And the others?¡± Lucas said, gesturing at the farmer and his family, still entranced by Valerie¡¯s pendant. ¡°You clearly don¡¯t want them to die either.¡±


    ¡°I would also rather not take that path,¡± Wick rumbled. ¡°I will only do it if my choice is between saving no one and saving one person.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not going to need that path,¡± Lucas said. He looked at Jamie and held out his firehand. The monstercat rose and stalked forward to nuzzle at his fiery fingers, somehow cool to the touch. Lucas obliged him, giving some scratches behind the ears. ¡°Me and Jamie are going to help out the flock.¡±


    Instead of diving deeper into his pyromantic sense, he cupped Jamie¡¯s chin and lifted his head, then held it there. He stared deeply into his bonded companion¡¯s molten eyes and searched. There was heat in the monstercat¡¯s core, a higher temperature than anything else in his range. Lucas¡¯ heart¡¯s flame, merged with an eldritch abomination. Jamie¡¯s body was packed with countless bones, muscles, veins, and organs, all crushed together into an impossible configuration that somehow, on the outside, looked and moved and sounded and felt like a normal tabby cat.


    What Lucas was most interested in, though, were the mana pathways. Jamie had been working on opening pathways just as Lucas had, but the creature was both advantaged and disadvantaged. On one hand, it seemed to come easily to him, opening and expanding pathways to completion with barely a lick of effort, uncaring of the pain or just not feeling any in the first place. On the other hand, there was so much in its anarchic tangle of a system that Lucas suspected it would take the creature years to fill it all out.


    ¡°You and I,¡± Lucas said, ¡°are bonded by our very souls. We¡¯re a part of each other. I can sense everything inside of you as easily as I can my own mana. You are my mana, my heart¡¯s flame. You¡¯ve been very accommodating of my unreasonable request, and you¡¯ve cooperated with my desires even when all you really want to do is sleep. I don¡¯t know why you agreed to all this, why you initiated it, or what you got and continue to get out of it.


    ¡°But just this once, I¡¯m gonna need you to focus with all you have. Listen to me, and act as soon as I give the orders, okay?¡±


    Jamie¡¯s eyes flashed, and Lucas took that as agreement. He wasted no time diving into his pyromancy, seizing control of a pocket of nearby fire.


    The sheep were still going, still pushing the blaze greater and greater. They were sucking up an unbelievable amount of superheated air and venting it skywards, but they were doing so as one uniform mass of flame. The only deviation was the sheep themselves dancing through the conflagration.


    Meanwhile, the beasts were thrashing around, barely paying attention to the fire itself anymore now that it had reached a consistently climbing equilibrium. The heat didn¡¯t stick to them, and the uniformity meant they could wade through it to chase down the firesheep without having to worry about getting unbalanced by pockets of venting heat.


    Here, Lucas could make a difference.


    To give himself more room to work with, he pulled in the boundaries of his control, blanketing only the central room in his protection. A mistake.


    There was an ear-splitting boom. The heat and fire rushed to fill the new space, and the cooler air he¡¯d previously been maintaining in the outer rooms ignited in an explosive reaction he hadn¡¯t predicted. The walls of the inner room trembled from the force, and Lucas winced. It was only his current pyromancy and previous preparation with floramancy that kept their shelter standing.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± was all Lucas could manage in reply. He had more room to work with now, but the power of the fire had increased. Sweat dripped down his brow. The room was getting hotter just from their body heat filling the stale air with nowhere to go. Was he feeling light-headed because of the exertion or lack of air? Either way, he had to act.


    ¡°I¡¯m gonna need you to hold this boundary around the room, okay, buddy?¡± Lucas murmured.


    The ward of heat around them seemed to strengthen without his input. He took that as confirmation.


    Pushing fire mana through his pathways as fast as it would go, Lucas blasted his pyromantic sense out to the furthest reach it could go and lost himself in the fire. The sheep were doing most of the work for him; he just needed to give them a guiding hand.


    As a beast lunged to strike at a passing firesheep, Lucas sent a command. Jamie responded faster than ever, focused on the task, and Lucas took control of the heat in the beast¡¯s path and amplified it, creating a pillar of superheated air that rose at incredible speed, roaring like a jet engine. It was little wider than a fist, but it caught the beast mid-lunge and launched it out of the top of his sense¡¯s range in an instant. Its scream rose high into the sky until it faded with distance. Music to Lucas¡¯ ears.


    The thrill of success surged through him, but Lucas wasn¡¯t done. There were at least ten more beasts within his range alone, and that could not be tolerated.

 38: Not Too Late (4)

    In the aftermath, a black scar marred the natural basin where the farm had been. The fires had raged and ranged far beyond Lucas¡¯ control, with the firesheep happy to spread the carnage. The five-sided room that had once been the central common room of the farmer¡¯s house was the only bit of colour in a sea of black that stretched all the way to the surrounding hills, and it had all but collapsed the moment Lucas and Jamie had released it from their pyromantic protection.


    Elwyn and his children were moving around in a daze, the farmer in a state of shock at the sudden loss of his home. Aly hovered nearby, her shoulders hunched like a child who expected to be scolded at any moment.


    Jamie was curled up back in Lucas¡¯ chest, having hopped in and fallen asleep the moment his pyromantic services were no longer required. Lucas had the feeling he wouldn¡¯t be doing anything strenuous with his heart¡¯s flame for a little while. Slumped on a patch of blackened soot with his shoulders resting on his crossed knees, he felt okay with that.


    Valerie was sitting near to Lucas, huddled in her cloak to get a power nap; she¡¯d stayed up all night watching over him while he launched beasts all over the place. Wick was standing sentinel, watching the firesheep warily. Lucas had told the shieldmaster he didn¡¯t need to, but Wick had said he couldn¡¯t trust an animal capable of wreaking such carnage. To be fair, it was hard to blame him.


    The firesheep themselves were odd things. There was little difference between them and the average sheep you¡¯d come across in any old field in the English countryside. Except, of course, for the fact they were on fire. They had replaced their woollen fleeces with contained balls of flame, and their eyes glowed like cinders. They could act as normal sheep if they wanted to, but they seemed to like being partially on fire and spent most of their time in that state. When they bleated, it came out a wavering crackle, like their very voices were constructed by fire. It was oddly reminiscent of the fiery speech Jyn had employed.


    Ever since Lucas and the others had emerged from their protected room, the firesheep had seemed eager to crowd around him. He didn¡¯t know why. Were they expecting him to grant them more power? Had he inadvertently become the god of magical sheep?


    Valerie didn¡¯t seem to think so, but she was too tired to elaborate too far on her point. Last night was an ordeal.


    It had been long and hot and tense. Time had blended into an incomprehensible goop, filled with nothing but the fire. Hours had passed with Lucas immersed in his pyromancy. Everything else had fallen away.


    It had become a monotonous task, and one that at one point seemed to have no end. There had been no way of telling how far he was launching the beasts with his jets of flame¡ªit had to be pretty far, considering it took them so long to make their way back, but make their way back they did, eventually.


    Long minutes had crept on by, drawing out into hours. He¡¯d had almost no awareness of the goings on inside their safe space beyond the little attention he¡¯d paid to the heat signatures in the five-sided central room that was their refuge. Everyone but Valerie had eventually succumbed to sleep. The Skycloak herself had stood over him with her sword at the ready for practically the entire night.


    So he¡¯d shaken up his efforts, experimenting with his blasts of heat. He¡¯d narrowed them to see if a thin lance of superheated flame could pierce the beasts¡¯ hide, to little effect. The same had been true of trying to create thin lines of heat to see if he could cut them like an ascending guillotine. Whatever shape and configuration he¡¯d tried, he achieved nothing more than throwing the beasts great distances. Trying to trap the beasts only resulted in them somehow corrupting the fire, so he¡¯d avoided that.


    It had been nonsensical and infuriating. How could he beat a beast to death with a mana-infused stick, but concentrated blasts of fire did nothing?


    He¡¯d had no choice but to focus on launching them as far as he could. It was still satisfying to send the monsters screeching into the air, even if they ended up coming back. He¡¯d taken what pleasure he could get.


    It could¡¯ve been hours or days before he noticed a change. Keeping count had become a lost cause after a while with the way he was constantly launching them away the instant they entered his range, but it started to feel like their arrivals were less frequent. At first, there¡¯d barely been peace for a handful of seconds. Eventually, a full minute could pass before a beast returned.


    And the gap had only increased. Eventually, so much time was passing between another beast showing up that the sheep had stopped spreading their fire so much, only returning to action when a monstrous scream could be heard in the distance.


    Then, after what felt like an eternity, a solid, consistent warmth spread over the land, pouring into the farm in a flood. The sun had risen. They¡¯d survived.


    Only in retrospect did he realise that the beasts were failing to come back whenever he launched them in a certain direction; vaguely south. He was too relieved to wonder why.


    It had been an exhausted, harrowed group that emerged from the central room of the farmhouse to find pretty much the entire surroundings burned and blackened. There had been a remarkable lack of smoke, but after a moment Lucas had realised that any natural fuel for the fires would have burned out hours and hours ago, and all that had remained was mana-induced fire, which didn¡¯t produce fumes.


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    Even after safety had been tentatively confirmed, conversation had been sparse. Almost an hour had passed, and not more than a few words had been exchanged. Oddly enough, Lucas felt like he was probably the most awake out of anyone. It was hard to feel tired when his mana pathways had been rubbed raw by a night of almost non-stop activity. It felt like he had a headache all over his body.


    With more awareness of himself after spending half the night in a quasi-trance with Jamie, he could feel the stiffness in his joints and soreness of his muscles. His skin was clammy with sweat, his dank hair plastered to the top of his head. Yet he somehow still felt dried out, his mouth arid and his eyes like cotton.


    Triumph drowned it all out. Not a single soul had been lost to the beasts last night. Not even a sheep. Even if he¡¯d only driven them away, he¡¯d take it as a victory, and he was going to ride that high for as long as he could.


    The feeling wavered when he looked back over at the dejected farmer and his shellshocked children. He told himself that he¡¯d saved them, that if he and his comrades hadn¡¯t been there, they¡¯d be dead; it wasn¡¯t Lucas or his party¡¯s fault that the beasts had been there. The problem was, it wasn¡¯t guilt he was feeling here, just simple empathy.


    A kind, good man had lost his home, his livelihood. It felt wrong to sit here feeling all triumphant in the face of that, so he had to remind himself that it could¡¯ve been much worse.


    ¡°Do you think they can rebuild?¡± Lucas asked.


    Wick looked up from his staring match with a firesheep and glanced over at the farmer¡¯s family. ¡°It doesn¡¯t seem likely. I know little about farm work, but this doesn¡¯t strike me as a salvageable situation.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, me neither.¡± Lucas sighed. ¡°But what can they do? Go and set up a farm somewhere else?¡±


    ¡°I suppose so,¡± Wick said. ¡°It was foolhardy of them to keep living so remotely; I don¡¯t know how they¡¯ve survived this long, with the signs of beast activity we¡¯ve been seeing.¡±


    ¡°The Bowmaiden,¡± Valerie said. Her voice was muffled beneath her cloak, and her eyes were still closed, but she sounded a bit more alive than she had before she¡¯d settled down to rest. ¡°I don¡¯t know how, but I suspect she¡¯s been keeping the beasts away in some fashion. It makes the most sense, and it would explain why she wasn¡¯t overly concerned about payment. I don¡¯t for a second believe two silvers is less than her commission.¡±


    ¡°Baiting the beasts away, maybe?¡± Lucas asked, frowning. ¡°But she was pretty far from the farm. Her camp where we met her is miles away.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps the farmer simply got lucky,¡± Wick said. ¡°Beasts are chaotic monsters, after all; one can never predict their actions. Why they sometimes attack and sometimes don¡¯t. Why one will spot and pursue you from miles away and another won¡¯t react unless you strike it first.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s only so much luck one can have,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But you¡¯re not wrong. It is technically possible that fortune smiled on them and no beasts happened across them until last night. The number of beasts making it this far south wasn¡¯t so high in the past, after all.¡±


    ¡°But you don¡¯t believe that?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m sceptical. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything sinister afoot here, for what it¡¯s worth.¡± She paused, her eyes cracking open to observe the scene ahead of them. Aly had approached the farmer, her head bowed, and he was ruffling her hair with a sad smile on his face. ¡°Just a girl going to a lot of effort for someone she cares for.¡±


    The three of them observed for a moment, before a firesheep¡¯s crackling bleat drew their attention.


    ¡°Another topic we should discuss, since we didn¡¯t have time before,¡± Valerie said, her eyes scrunching up in distaste. ¡°Do try not to create any more dangerous magical creatures without consulting me, Lucas.¡±


    ¡°They saved us last night,¡± Lucas said stubbornly. The evidence of the danger they posed was all around them, but better that than everyone getting mauled by beasts. ¡°And they would¡¯ve been either beast food or corrupted monsters otherwise. I like this outcome better.¡±


    ¡°It didn¡¯t go too terribly this time,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But empowering mindless animals with magic rarely ends happily.¡±


    One of the firesheep lowered its head in her direction and stomped a foot, snorting sharply.


    Valerie stared it down. ¡°Animals are creatures of instinct. Many can be trained to a degree, but for the most part they lack the intelligence to make sound decisions or understand the power they wield. This, as you can imagine, leads to them using their new magical abilities in detrimental ways a creature capable of logic or born with magic would know to steer clear of.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen plenty of humans do dangerous things with their magic, and they do it deliberately,¡± Wick said, watching the firesheep as it stomped its foot once more.


    ¡°It is quite illegal to empower mundane animals with mana, and for good reason,¡± Valerie said to Lucas. ¡°There are many species with magic of their own, and the vast majority of them can trace their abilities back to an ancestor which was granted mana by a human. Some are harmless; moonflies, for example, are merely flying insects that hatch at night and try their hardest to fly towards the moon. Others are as devastating to the population as beasts; a few-hundred years ago a hemomancer wondered what would happen if he gave his pet rat a taste of blood mana, and it led to the deadliest plague in Aerth¡¯s history. Records say the Red Death killed almost half the population of Aureon.¡± She gave Lucas a look, then pointed at the sheep that was still hopelessly trying to intimidate her. ¡°The point is, one cannot know what effect mana will have on an animal. These firesheep of yours have already shown their capacity to cause serious damage and the ability to transfer their magic to other sheep. Who¡¯s to say they won¡¯t burn the countryside from here to Dawnguard?¡±


    ¡°I get it. I do,¡± Lucas said, holding up his hands. ¡°I just¡­ It didn¡¯t feel fair to kill them, you know? They were just innocent animals, and they were terrified.¡±


    ¡°Protecting lives is always the best option,¡± Wick said firmly. ¡°Don¡¯t let this one guilt you for that.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not trying to guilt you,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I¡¯m warning you of the potential consequences of reckless use of magic.¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t do it again,¡± Lucas said, feeling like a scolded child.


    Valerie waved him off with a sigh, her eyes turning heavenward beseechingly. ¡°You probably will. I¡¯ve gotten enough of a read on your character by now to know that you¡¯re going to do it again now that it¡¯s worked once.¡±


    Lucas could only smile at that.

 39: Not Too Late (5)

    They gave Elwyn and his children as much time to process their loss as possible before setting out. The farmer spent much of that time picking through the ashes of his life with purpose, walking around with his eyes on the ground as if searching. Eventually, he found a spot at some cue Lucas couldn¡¯t recognise a few dozen metres away from the farm house and crouched down, digging away some of the ash and soot with his hands as scoops. When his children saw what he was doing, they ran over to join him. When they were done, the three stayed kneeling there, heads bowed, talking among themselves too quietly for Lucas and the others to hear.


    ¡°His wife¡¯s grave,¡± Aly said softly, her eyes fixed on Elwyn¡¯s back.


    ¡°How did she die?¡± Lucas asked.


    Aly shrugged. ¡°Elwyn said she got sick.¡±


    ¡°They couldn¡¯t get her to a healer? Or get one out here?¡± Valerie asked.


    ¡°Not a lot of healers around in these parts, I imagine,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°There isn¡¯t,¡± Aly confirmed. ¡°Not magic ones, anyway.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Valerie said, sounding unconvinced.


    When the small family was done, they came back to pick through what little could be taken from their ruined house. They hadn¡¯t had much in the way of possessions to begin with, and the fire had destroyed most of them. Again, Lucas felt bad for that. He approached Elwyn as he was digging through the heap of stuff that had been packed in a trunk at the back of the central room.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry about your farm,¡± Lucas said, rubbing the back of his head.


    Elwyn¡¯s eyes were surprisingly warm as he smiled. ¡°Our lives are worth a hundred of everything on this farm put together, my lad. Don¡¯t apologise when I should be heaping you with thanks.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s very positive of you,¡± Lucas said, unable to help smiling back. ¡°Still, though. I guess I just feel sorry that something like this would happen to you at all, even if I don¡¯t receive any blame for it.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t,¡± Elwyn said with finality in his tone. ¡°No one can be blamed for the actions of mad beasts. Least of all the heroes who fight against them.¡±


    Lucas struggled not to grimace. The man was just using heroes as a generic term, he told himself.


    ¡°As for this happening to me¡­¡± Elwyn¡¯s gaze trailed over to the spot where he and his children had apparently said their goodbyes. ¡°I¡¯ve been lucky to have a peaceful life here for so long. One I can only be thankful for with all my heart. I would¡¯ve liked it to go on into eternity, but nothing lasts forever. All things must be balanced.¡±


    ¡°You think this was some kind of karma?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°Not exactly. I don¡¯t think it was some inevitable action of the universe to punish me for daring to be happy. What kind of miserable world would that be?¡± Elwyn chuckled to himself as he fished out a small trowel from his box. ¡°It¡¯s just the way of life. You have your ups and downs.¡±


    ¡°Seems like a pretty heavy down.¡±


    Elwyn smiled. ¡°I¡¯ve had worse.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas said, looking away. His attention was drawn back when Elwyn gave a small laugh of triumph.


    ¡°There we go,¡± Elwyn said as he pulled free a black cloak that had been sequestered at the very bottom of the chest. He spread it out on the floor before him and let out a melancholic sigh. ¡°Lesa wanted to get rid of this thing, but I kept it just in case she changed her mind. And then¡­ Well, I was never going to throw it away after I lost her, was I? Silly, sentimental man.¡±


    ¡°Your wife was part of the Order of Five?¡± Valerie¡¯s voice appeared behind him, shocking Lucas halfway out of his skin. She met his half-hearted glare with a flat look.


    ¡°She was,¡± Elwyn said. ¡°Unfortunately, she rather lost faith in the cause and decided she wanted to make a life with me instead.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately?¡±


    Elwyn smiled. ¡°I¡¯m delighted beyond words that my love decided to spend her life with me, but it¡¯ll always make me a little sad that she felt she could no longer hold onto something she once believed in.¡± He glanced at Valerie. ¡°I hope you take no offence to this, Captain, but my Lesa once said she didn¡¯t think Lucas Brown would ever show up at all.¡±


    Lucas swallowed.


    ¡°She wouldn¡¯t be the only member of the Order to make such a claim,¡± Valerie said evenly.


    ¡°Oh, I know. But it¡¯s pretty morbid, ain¡¯t it? It¡¯s like saying you don¡¯t believe the world can be saved, and we¡¯re all doomed to fall to the beasts. I hated when she talked like that.¡±


    ¡°What do you believe, Ser Elwyn?¡± Lucas asked, half dreading the answer but still needing to hear it.


    ¡°I hold out hope,¡± Elwyn said, ¡°that things can change for the better, whether that be by the hands of a chosen hero arriving to save the day, or through the strength of our people. Frankly, I don¡¯t give a damn if it¡¯s Lucas Brown or someone else. To me, believing in this prophecy stuff is about optimism, and I like to look on the positive side of things.¡± He looked down at the dark cloak and smiled sadly. ¡°I think she still wanted to believe, too, deep down. In a hopeful future, if nothing else. She would have found her faith again, eventually.¡±


    Lucas didn¡¯t know what to say to that, and there was a pause in the conversation as they all thought over Elwyn¡¯s words.


    ¡°Lesa was her name, you said?¡± Valerie asked. ¡°Lesa Willows?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s her,¡± Elwyn said, his face lighting up. ¡°You knew her?¡±


    ¡°No, but I know the name,¡± Valerie said. ¡°She worked directly with Lady Claire for some time.¡±


    ¡°Now that she was proud of,¡± Elwyn said. He let out a sigh. ¡°To tell the truth, I think her admiration for Lady Claire was part of what soured her on the Lucas Brown thing. She had many stories about how the Great Wand no longer wanted to discuss the summoning. It shook her, I think.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s common for non-believers to cite Lady Claire¡¯s lack of enthusiasm for the subject.¡±


    ¡°Mm. From Lesa¡¯s stories, it sounded to me more like Lady Claire has been very tired for a very, very long time, rather than having given up.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Valerie said with a sigh. ¡°If only more people would see that. Herself included.¡±


    Elwyn looked at her. ¡°Lesa once told me that there was no time Lady Claire looked more fulfilled than when she was rescuing people from beasts, and Lesa felt the same. That never left her, I don¡¯t think. Her cloak stayed in this trunk from the day she took it off until the day she died, but she never put down her sword for a moment. She ranged all around the countryside, helping whoever she could. I reckon the same is true of Lady Claire. No matter how tired she is, she wants to help.¡±


    Valerie smiled, and it was perhaps the most genuine expression Lucas had seen from her. ¡°I¡¯d like to hear more about Lesa, some time.¡±


    ¡°Careful now, Captain. Get me talking about my Lesa and I¡¯ll never stop.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind.¡±


    After that, Elwyn shortly declared himself ready and collected his children for the journey. They had only one sack of belongings between them, and Elwyn would hear none of their offers to carry it for him. The man was determined not to be a burden.


    They sat out about two hours after breakfast¡ªmore jerky, to Lucas¡¯ disappointment¡ªand headed directly south. Cresting the hills that surrounded the natural basin, Elwyn paused and looked back. He said nothing, just surveying the lands that had once been his, expressionless. His shoulders slumped, and there was a brief moment where his eyes turned sad.


    But his daughter placed her hand in his, and the man¡¯s expression seemed to light up with life once more. They set off down the other side of the hill, leaving the farm behind.


    Somewhat predictably, the firesheep followed them. Their interest in Lucas had waned as it became clear he had no more divine blessings for them, and instead they now seemed devoted to the farmer who¡¯d raised them.


    ¡°I was there for all of their births and the births of their parents and grandparents, but they¡¯ve never shown appreciation for it until now,¡± Elwyn said with a chuckle. He shook his head. ¡°Except for feeding time, of course. Then I was the messiah.¡±


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    The little flock frolicked around them as they travelled, and unfortunately at least part of Valerie¡¯s fears proved founded. The newly magical creatures acted as normal sheep would, uncomprehending that their fiery fleeces could start up a blaze. Bushes, trees, and other plants regularly caught alight. Lucas was on hand to put the fires out, but with Jamie conked out it was even harder than usual to control his pyromancy. They were lucky it was a relatively damp spring morning, the grass dewey.


    It was most frustrating because Lucas knew they could transform all the way back if they wanted to¡ªsomething he was more than a little put out about. How did they figure out shaping themselves so quickly? Life wasn¡¯t fair.


    Determined not to be upstaged by some domesticated animals who¡¯d had fire magic for less than 24 hours, Lucas poked Jamie until the monstercat grumpily allowed some fire mana to trickle into Lucas¡¯ pathways. His pyromantic sense lit up. Its range was lower than usual, and it was slightly blurry like the metaphorical lens was out of focus. It took some concentration to zero in on a firesheep and comprehend its flaming form. A male, judging by its curling horns. He was fairly sure it was the third one he¡¯d given his mana to.


    Obviously, the ram¡¯s fiery fleece was the hottest part of its body. It was just like Lucas¡¯ firehand; what had once been a thick coat of wool was now made up of tiny strands of fire that, somehow, behaved exactly as wool was meant to. There was a constant stream of heat flowing through the sheep¡¯s body along familiar lines¡ªmana pathways¡ªbut the fleece was a separate matter.


    That, Lucas thought, was the strangest thing about bodily transformation¡ªAKA self shaping. Just as his firehand remained even when Jamie wasn¡¯t pumping fire mana into his pathways, so too did the sheep¡¯s fleece show no sign of needing magical maintenance. There had to be something to that. Something he was missing.


    He focused on the heat of the firesheep¡¯s fleece, seeking a source to it. There had to be one, otherwise it would revert to a regular wool fleece like he sometimes saw the other firesheep doing¡ªhe didn¡¯t know why or how they were doing that, either.


    But he saw nothing. At least, not through his basic pyromantic heat sense. He needed a closer look.


    Moving next to the sheep, he placed his flesh hand against its side and started transferring fire mana into the creature. He¡¯d half expected to have to chase the sheep down and pin it like before, but it accepted his presence without a hint of fear. In fact, it seemed to welcome him. Quite to Lucas¡¯ surprise, the mana in its system was virtually indistinguishable from his own. After a moment of thought, he realised that made sense.


    The original mana the sheep had fed off was Lucas¡¯ in the first place, so it was understandable why it was so familiar. That had some implications. Ideas scratched at the back of Lucas¡¯ mind, begging for attention, but he pushed them away with considerable reluctance. His firehand was the priority. These sheep, weird as they were, were his best lead on figuring out how to get his hand back save for talking to a pyromancer.


    The pins-and-needles sensation where the firehand met the flesh of his arm was going to drive him insane otherwise.


    His own fire mana cycling through the sheep¡¯s pathways gave him a better idea of the animal¡¯s system. It was more mature than he¡¯d expected, and he didn¡¯t see any indication that it was making any effort to expand its pathways. Its mana circulated slowly, keeping within the confines of the framework laid out for it, no sign of it spending mana in any capacity despite its flaming fleece. The heart of its soul was seemingly fully developed, which was another point of interest, and Lucas devoted his attention there.


    If the sheep¡¯s pathways were, for the sake of comparison, as wide as a golf ball, then its heart was the size of a baseball. It shone with magical energy, and it seemed to be blazing like Jamie¡¯s did? Why?


    With his real eyes, Lucas gave the creature a discerning look. One of its coal-black eyes with the twinkling ember at its centre gazed coolly back at him, unconcerned by his scrutiny. It was kind of unnerving. Sheep weren¡¯t meant to be so poised.


    ¡°What on Earth are you doing there?¡± Lucas muttered, then corrected himself, ¡°Or what on Aerth, I guess?¡±


    Valerie appeared on the other side of the sheep, observing the spot where his hand rested on the sheep¡¯s flank. ¡°You¡¯re giving the sheep more mana?¡±


    Lucas nodded absently, still trying to puzzle out what the sheep was doing with its heart.


    ¡°Why?¡± Valerie asked.


    ¡°Trying to figure something out,¡± Lucas said. ¡°What does its heart look like to you?¡±


    ¡°I see nothing particularly out of the ordinary.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fully grown, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes. One could argue the mana system is a living being¡¯s soul. Even if one doesn¡¯t have the requisite mana levels to perform magic, it¡¯ll still develop as one grows.¡±


    ¡°So everyone and everything has a mana system?¡±


    ¡°Everything living,¡± Valerie corrected him. She glanced up, searching his face. ¡°If you are thinking of tinkering with your own heart, I would once again advise extreme caution. It¡¯s arguably the single most important part of your soul.¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t planning to right now. Firehand¡¯s the focus,¡± he said. But he couldn¡¯t help his curiosity and had to ask, ¡°What are the other most important parts?¡±


    ¡°Your education in biology should allow you to make accurate guesses for the very top spots.¡±


    Lucas thought about that. ¡°The brain, then.¡±


    Valerie nodded.


    Lucas thought about it. ¡°And then the lungs, maybe?¡±


    ¡°Right again. The others aren¡¯t so easily ascertained via reasonable deduction, and aren¡¯t especially relevant right now. What you should know is that the soul is generally divided into heart, mind, breath, and body by those who study it.¡±


    ¡°Body? Like, the entire thing?¡¯


    ¡°Multiple different aspects under a broader umbrella, which should give you some idea how important they are individually compared to the first three. That¡¯s not to say they¡¯re worthless, but many get by without developing them extensively. One can do great things with just a strong heart, deep mind, or long breath.¡±


    ¡°Huh. So, are we talking flesh, bone, and muscle?¡±


    Valerie raised a hand and tilted it from side to side. ¡°Technically, one can classify parts of the mana system as such to simplify things, but scholars dislike it.


    Lucas smiled. ¡°So is there a stereotype of skinny wizards here?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately,¡± Valerie said. ¡°One can do great things while neglecting to develop the body, but that doesn¡¯t mean one should.¡±


    Lucas filed all that away for later. Had to keep on track. ¡°So, anyway: you¡¯re saying the way it¡¯s rotating the mana in its heart is normal, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s how it looks when the heart of a fully matured soul creates mana,¡± Valerie confirmed.


    ¡°Huh,¡± Lucas said. He looked at the sheep, inspecting the spark in its black eye. ¡°So that means you¡¯re producing mana.¡±


    On a whim, he reached out to the sheep¡¯s fleece and tried to suppress the fire. The sheep whipped its head around to look at him straight on, but after a moment it acquiesced to his request. Fire rolled over its body like it was being sucked away into the sheep¡¯s heart, leaving untouched wool in its wake. In a second, it was a sheep like any other, save for the ember speck in its eyes. It looked at him with its head tilted, confusion painted over its expression.


    Lucas had been watching its mana, and so he saw as excess appeared in its system, bolstering and brightening. Moments later, its heart¡¯s flame stopped blazing. Instead, it settled down to a smouldering state that Lucas had never seen from Jamie.


    Could it really be that simple? Did he just have to ask Jamie to change it back for him? No, it felt like there was more to it than that, and with the Gift working on his mind he was inclined to listen to inexplicable hunches.


    He directed his fire mana to the firesheep¡¯s wool, and it took the hint. He watched the changes as its fiery fleece returned to life, cataloguing the movements of mana in its heart. Then he had it repeat the process over and over, observing keenly. The sheep went along with his whims with an air of animalistic exasperation.


    It didn¡¯t seem to be doing anything particularly special. Its mana was moving in a recognisable pattern, but there was no sign of particularly strenuous activity. Not even in the creature¡¯s brain.


    The most interesting part was in how it acted when it replaced the fire with its regular woollen fleece. It was the same every time, with no variation, matching the identical pattern of mana that flared in its pathways.


    Mana is life, but it¡¯s also memory, Lucas thought, recalling some of Jyn¡¯s words on pyromancy. It remembers what my body was. The shape I¡¯m supposed to be, and how that shape works.


    Theoretically, his mana remembered what his hand was supposed to be. Lucas looked down at his firehand, simultaneously focusing on the mana flowing through the corresponding pathways. It all moved in the shape of his hand, the pathways in the area having been forced to full maturity under Lucas¡¯ attention.


    Now, his mind was building momentum, hurtling towards an answer, and excitement built within him. He didn¡¯t want to slow it down; his instincts were highlighting this path in great glowing letters.


    Adrenaline and anticipation rising, he spiritually shook Jamie awake, demanding his heart¡¯s flame cut off the fire mana it was using to maintain his firehand. Jamie emitted a feeling of disbelief, tinged with indignation at being awoken so harshly. Lucas barreled through his complaints, demanding¡ªno, commanding. With a puff of emotion that communicated his disdain for Lucas¡¯ intelligence, Jamie complied.


    Lucas was ready for it like he¡¯d been preparing for this since the moment he¡¯d woken up in this place. In a way, he had. From the instant a magical soul was attached to him, it had been building a profile of who he was meant to be; he¡¯d even tapped into it when fighting off the beasts¡¯ corruption, fueled by fury.


    This time, fury wouldn¡¯t serve him. Instead, he channelled determination.


    The flames started peeling away from his hand, the mana powering them flowing back into his heart¡¯s flame, and Lucas affirmed his mental and spiritual image of his hand, holding it in his mind. His mana reacted, tapping in to a database he''d always known had to be there but had been too scared to experiment with.


    Flesh and blood and bone and muscle. Four fingers and a thumb. The palm. The knuckles. A few dozen inches of skin. Flexors and abductors.


    A flash of pain, white-hot.


    A burst of mana, icy cold.


    And then came feeling. Cold wind biting at sensitive skin; sore, unused muscles; creaking, semi-arthritic bones. It felt raw, stinging with pins and needles. It was like he''d taken a snapshot of his hand from the moment before he''d plunged it into the fire, back in Pentaburgh, just feeling the first hints of heat licking at his skin.


    Lucas opened his eyes and clenched his hand into a fist so tightly the knuckles popped and his nails sliced crescent moons into his palm, rivulets of blood running down his wrist and forearm. His eyes watered from the pain, but it was the most beautiful pain he¡¯d felt in weeks.


    Beside him, Valerie raised an eyebrow. ¡°Congratulations,¡± was all she said.


    Lucas was still grinning at his returned hand like a madman hours later when Taunton came into view.

 40: Depopulate (1)

    It was surreal to see a town that he could easily tell was lived in even from far away, and it hit Lucas surprisingly hard. For that week he¡¯d been travelling alone, he¡¯d gotten used to approaching settlements with mounting hope only to find them long abandoned. After half a dozen disappointments he¡¯d stopped letting himself believe he¡¯d ever find people. It hurt less that way.


    Tall wooden palisades stood behind a wide moat empty of water, both surrounding a town that could¡¯ve been taken out of a medieval painting. Wattle and daub buildings with thatched roofs and timber beams clustered around stone walls that surrounded the modest keep at the town¡¯s centre. Wooden watchtowers loomed over the wooden walls at even intervals, and five spired stone towers rose from the walls around the keep.


    Even from a great distance, there were signs of inhabitation. A few bits of laundry on lines. Smoke rising from a handful of chimneys. Fields stretched out from the town in neat rows, some tilled, some fallow, some sowed, and others still seeming ready for harvest. Though there was no one out working them at the moment, it was clear they¡¯d been recently.


    Though it was only in the upper half of Mornlunn¡¯s most central county on the map, Taunton was one of the northernmost still-populated towns remaining in the entire country. Boasting a permanent population of around 200, its primary economy was in acting as the last major waypoint for questers forging north into Steffonshire or beyond into the Blighted Lands. A frontier town, they called it. It was supposedly common for there to be more people passing through than local inhabitants, meaning there could be as many as 500 people in the town.


    The prospect was both exciting and surprisingly unnerving. While being in a populated area would be a balm for his soul, he had to admit it would probably be a bit overwhelming after so long in the wilds. If the adjustment period he¡¯d needed for a semi-comfortable bedroll was anything to go by, sleeping in a proper bed was going to be an ordeal.


    In the end, he decided he was going to look forward to it. It was about time he let his guard down and felt a bit of optimism.


    Eleanor and Elbert lit up with excitement the nearer they got and started skipping ahead with Elwyn and Aly in their wake. Wick seemed lost in thought, observing the town. Valerie was as sharp-eyed as ever, and she held onto Lucas¡¯ arm to slow him, growing a gap between them and the others.


    ¡°Remember to be wary. We can¡¯t afford discovery here,¡± she whispered.


    ¡°I can be discreet. I hid myself from you and your party for a whole week, didn¡¯t I?¡± Lucas whispered back.


    ¡°Poorly,¡± Valerie said. ¡°It was only through the unlikelihood of the circumstances that we didn¡¯t consider your identity sooner.¡±


    ¡°And that doesn¡¯t apply here?¡±


    ¡°You got lucky. The original four members of the quest to Pentaburgh all happened to speak Mornish as our native tongue,¡± Valerie said. ¡°A town like Taunton is more likely to have a diverse range of people. Someone will hear you differently to others. They might not make the connection just from that, but it will make them ask questions.¡±


    ¡°Okay, okay, I¡¯ll keep my head down,¡± Lucas sighed. ¡°I wasn¡¯t exactly planning on chatting up every person I see.¡±


    ¡°Good,¡± Valerie said with a nod. ¡°We¡¯re going to head straight for the keep and check in with the scriveners there to see if there¡¯s any urgent news. Then we¡¯ll get a room for the night. I don¡¯t want to be here for more than a day.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s the rush?¡± Lucas asked.


    Valerie shot him a flat look.


    ¡°I get it, I¡¯m just not super excited to get back out travelling straight away.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve shown no signs of fatigue even with our training.¡±


    ¡°Ah, well. I always have to make sure to put on a show there,¡± he said with a wry smile. Then, more quietly, ¡°And truthfully, the Gift has me feeling fitter than I¡¯ve ever been by a mile. We could probably go twice as far in a day before I¡¯d feel it. I wonder how well I¡¯d do in a marathon, these days¡­¡±


    Valerie watched him for a moment. ¡°You¡¯re in a good mood,¡± she observed.


    ¡°There was a time when I wondered if I was the only person alive in the whole world,¡± Lucas said. He gestured widely at the town ahead of them. ¡°I¡¯ve met people since then, obviously, but you were all just random people in the countryside. Here¡¯s a sign, before my very eyes, real and tangible, that there¡¯s civilisation out there.¡±


    ¡°Understandable,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I¡¯ll admit it¡¯s heartening to see you in high spirits. You¡¯ve been prone to dour moods, with seemingly only your magic able to cheer you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been holding on,¡± Lucas said. ¡°But this feels like the turning point in my fortunes, I guess.¡±


    But as they got closer, hints that his cheer was premature started to arise. They noticed disturbances in the fields that hadn¡¯t been clear from a distance, and the sight of them was familiar; it would¡¯ve been difficult to forget the signs of beast tracks when he¡¯d been taught to spot them just a few days ago.


    It wasn¡¯t the same kind of mass stampede as they¡¯d seen before, thankfully. The trails were all, from a cursory inspection, individual, and they were mostly spread out, only converging as they filtered towards the town¡¯s tall wooden gates.


    The oddest part was that the trails didn¡¯t stretch back beyond the grid of fields surrounding Taunton. One and all, they seemed to just¡­ appear. There were a few craters in the ground, like a meteor shower had descended on the fields.


    Something heavy settled in Lucas¡¯ stomach. He had an awful suspicion, but he kept it to himself for now, hoping it wasn¡¯t true.


    As they got closer, signs of battle became clearer. The wooden palisades were covered in scratches in many sections, like something huge had clawed at the wood, trying to scramble over. Dozens of dark gashes rent the ground beneath the walls, and broken arrow shafts, javelins, and other thrown weapons littered the soil.


    The gates had had it the worst. They were chipped and splintered, and the remains of what had probably been a drawbridge was strewn around the far side of the moat.


    ¡°It seems we weren¡¯t the only ones with uninvited guests last night,¡± Wick murmured, walking slowly at the head of their group.


    ¡°The town weathered the assault, at least,¡± Valerie said, gesturing.


    There were people stationed in a few of the watchtowers, and a couple of men rushed along the walls towards the front gate. One wore a distinctive blue cloak. Muffled shouts echoed over the fields.


    The party and the farmer¡¯s family approached the front gate with the firesheep trailing behind them, and the trouble of the destroyed drawbridge immediately presented itself. Luckily, the Skycloak manning the gate called down to them, ¡°You¡¯ll have to enter from the west or south, unless you fancy scaling the moat, Captain Vayon.¡±


    Lucas stepped forward to peer down the moat. It wasn¡¯t deep or steep enough to be unmanageable, but he reckoned the farmer and his kids would have trouble. He was working under the assumption they weren¡¯t going to bring the firesheep into a town full of flammable buildings.


    ¡°Who goes there?¡± Valerie called back. ¡°Is Ser Bery no longer stationed here?¡±


    ¡°Deryk Maye of Summertown,¡± the man replied. He was a tall man with dark hair, decked out in the same outfit as Valerie, white armour and blue cloak. ¡°I came to relieve Ser Bery as of last month. She requested a return to the Moontower.¡±


    ¡°Well met, Ser Deryk. I¡¯ve heard of you.¡± Valerie nodded to herself. ¡°What happened here?¡±


    ¡°Beasts came from the north. They fell from the sky, though none of them had any means to fly that we could see. One of them even landed right in the centre of the bloody market and caused mayhem. We had to fall back to the keep. If the townsfolk were still here, it would have been a disaster.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ stomach dropped. It was exactly as he¡¯d thought. Shit. How much damage had the monsters done? How many people had died putting them down?


    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°The townsfolk have evacuated?¡± Valerie asked.


    ¡°Fled south towards Dawnguard the moment Harwyck sent out its distress call,¡± Deryk confirmed. ¡°I assume you haven¡¯t heard the news on that matter? Judging by the fact you have the young Bowmaiden Aly with you, you came from the north¡ªmy thanks for that, by the way. It will soothe Bowmaster Jeisyn¡¯s mind; the man has been wracked with guilt, thinking he sent the girl out to scout a countryside crawling with beasts.¡±


    ¡°I was fine,¡± Aly snapped, looking uncomfortable. ¡°Tell him he doesn¡¯t need to be nagging at me all the time.¡±


    ¡°Even if you aren¡¯t officially a member of the Society of Bows, he feels a duty of care towards you,¡± Deryk replied. ¡°He¡¯s just that kind of man.¡±


    ¡°Harwyck sent out a distress call?¡± Valerie asked.


    ¡°Come to the western gate,¡± Deryk said. ¡°We¡¯ll talk there.¡±


    ~~~


    It had started in the dead of night with the tolling of bells. Thankfully, the few people remaining in Taunton had been living in fear of a major beast attack for weeks, and most were already in the safety of the keep. Those outside had been ready to flee at a moment¡¯s notice, with the walls manned by guards. Most of them should have been able to get to safety.


    They hadn¡¯t been expecting one of the beasts to already be in the town, having descended from the sky like a vengeful god of death. A horse-sized tentacled shadow thing, it had gone out of its way to snuff out any torches and plunge the town into darkness, screaming in fury all the while. Only then had it started killing.


    ¡°It was fortunate that only one landed within the town,¡± Deryk said, though he didn¡¯t look like he thought it was fortunate at all. His eyes were dark with anger. ¡°As it was, I had to abandon the walls to hunt it down, and in that time more came to batter at the gates. We¡¯re used to seeing small packs attacking us in the night, and weren¡¯t prepared for so many. Bloody careless of me. We lost eight men while I was distracted, and five more before we dispatched all the monsters.¡±


    Lucas felt ill.


    They were moving as a group towards the keep, with the two Skycloaks taking the lead. Elwyn and his children ended up in the middle of the group with Aly stalking along beside them, while Wick and Lucas lagged behind, just close enough to be in earshot of Deryk and Valerie¡¯s conversation. The firesheep had been herded into a small pen just outside the city walls, with a pair of men warily watching over them. They were all quiet, listening to the Skycloaks talk.


    There were few people out on the streets, and those who were had their own business to attend to, paying little attention to what they assumed was an average questing party returning from whatever commission they¡¯d been out on. Lucas was still awed by them, and tried not to stare too much. People. Civilisation. He could hardly believe it.


    What would these people think if they knew Lucas Brown was among them? What would they do if they found out how the beast that had infiltrated their town had gotten so high in the sky in the first place? Or how all the others had ended up in their town¡¯s proximity?


    The latter two questions seemed especially pertinent as they traversed the main road that cut right through the town from the main gate up to the keep at its centre. The dirty path had been churned up by combat, mud mixing with blood and other unidentifiable fluids to form a brown-red slurry.


    A number of the buildings sitting in neat rows on either side of the street had had their daub stained with bloody sprays, and those that hadn¡¯t were dented, cracked, or outright smashed through in the midst of whatever conflict had transpired here. Even the walls surrounding the keep at the far end of the long street showed signs of a clash, long scars visible on the stone, with some sections missing like it had been torn away by tooth and claw.


    Thirteen men. Deryk¡¯s assertion that it could have been worse didn¡¯t make him feel much better.


    ¡°There would have been a panic, most likely,¡± Deryk said. ¡°Hundreds would have died to beasts or stampedes. There was almost a crush as it was when the call from Harwyck arrived. I tried to limit the spread of the news, but it got out, and everyone rushed to leave as soon as our warriors and questers left, fearing the city would fall before reinforcements could arrive from Dawnguard. Some didn¡¯t even bother taking their belongings.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s problematic for a number of reasons,¡± Valerie said grimly. ¡°We¡¯ll need populated towns if Harwyck falls, else the Blight will spread even further.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Luckily, the Guilds and guards had the honour to remain, to ensure any questers still unaccounted for don¡¯t return to an empty, desolate town, if nothing else. But we can¡¯t hold out here if the city falls. I¡¯ve called for aid, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Harwyck will take priority,¡± Valerie finished for him.


    Deryk nodded.


    Harwyck, Deryk explained, was in grave jeopardy. The signs of increased beast activity had been noticed for months, and the city was already on high alert when an enormous demonic horde had crashed through the frontlines and plunged south into the heart of Mornlunn, striking straight for a city that acted as a stalwart shield against the spread of the Blight. The city¡¯s Commander had already gathered an army to meet the threat, but it hadn¡¯t been enough.


    The army had been routed, the Commander slain, and the remaining leaders of the city had sent out desperate calls for aid. The College of Wands, the local chapters of the Order of Five, all the guilds, and even the various criminal organisations; everyone had called in their contacts to come to the city¡¯s defence until a major force could be assembled from Dawnguard. The stakes were well known, and the vast majority of warriors had answered. There¡¯d been an exodus of battle-capable people from Taunton, with the civilian population evacuating for Dawnguard shortly after, and the same story had apparently played out all throughout the county. There was apparently around fourty people left in the town, accounting for last night''s losses.


    The request for aid had gone out three weeks ago. They hadn¡¯t heard any further word from Harwyck in eight days now. No one nearby had, either. Many feared the worst, and there was a grim atmosphere in Taunton; many saw the beast attack as a sign that the city had fallen, and the demon horde had allowed their minions to flood into the surrounding county to ensure the Blight¡¯s spread.


    ¡°We will remain for as long as we can,¡± Deryk said. ¡°But there will come a time where it would be foolhardy. There¡¯s no use throwing our lives away if it turns out the spread of the Blight is inevitable; we can make a difference only as part of a larger effort involving all the other settlements dotted around Harwyckshire. The Guild folk will remain until they can confirm the fates of all their unaccounted members or until it becomes truly untenable. I will depart when no one else remains here.¡±


    ¡°That could condemn you to a fate worse than death, you realise,¡± Valerie said, looking at him side-on.


    Deryk smiled back. ¡°I may not be a veteran frontliner like yourself, but I have my own sense of duty, Captain.¡±


    Valerie gave no reply to that.


    At that moment, they passed an archway that led to a small, grassy area devoid of buildings. Stones stuck up from the ground at regular intervals, surrounded by pentagons drawn into the ground with objects placed at each point. There was a small crowd of people, heads bowed, observing the graves.


    A bunch of the graves looked new, the soil brown and fresh. He didn¡¯t have to count them; he already knew there would be thirteen.


    It was too much. Lucas retreated within himself. Sights, sounds, smells; they all bounced off him. He moved in a daze, a trance state, following the others without allowing any thoughts to penetrate his mind. The Skycloaks kept talking, but he no longer registered any of it. Valerie would tell him later if there was anything important discussed.


    He waited as the group paused to bow their heads for the fallen; people often seemed compelled to get bodies buried as quickly as possible. Lucas had felt a similar obligation, back in Pentaburgh. It had been rooted in manic emotion, but he wondered if there was more to it, considering what Valerie had explained about the fifth rite ritual. Something to consider.


    They moved on towards the keep, and Lucas spent most of it feeling like he was watching himself from a step to the side, peeking over his own shoulder.


    He tried to keep his mind utterly blank, to turn himself into an automaton that did no more than follow, but thoughts kept battering their way in.


    Beasts had fallen from the sky in the dead of night and attacked a town right at the same time that he¡¯d been using pyromancy to launch beasts high into the air. Much as he tried not to think about it, it was impossible not to.


    Just a few hours ago, triumph had tasted so sweet. Now his victory had turned to ashes in his mouth. He remembered with crystal-clear clarity how relieved he¡¯d felt when the beasts took longer and longer intervals to return, and he¡¯d kept launching them in the direction that caused the delay. Eventually, they¡¯d stopped coming back at all.


    Now he knew why. He¡¯d been throwing them at another, tastier target. In essence, he¡¯d unknowingly sacrificed the innocent residents of a town to save himself and his party.


    The clues had all been there. If he¡¯d stopped to think about it, he could¡¯ve figured out what was happening. He¡¯d known, vaguely, what direction Taunton was in relation to the farm; Aly had told him at some point. If he¡¯d just thought¡­


    It was a heavy burden to place on himself. Perhaps even unreasonable. It was an accident, not some grim pragmatic decision he''d made.


    But making such a costly mistake wasn¡¯t something that could be shrugged off when the sight of thirteen newly dug graves was fresh in his mind. People had died to the beasts he¡¯d inadvertantly directed here. He wondered, as he always seemed to these days, who the people had been, the lives they¡¯d lived, and more.


    It felt like the majority of his attention was devoted to suppressing the part of him that wanted to ask those questions here. He couldn¡¯t bear to even consider the answers.


    At some point, he found himself standing in the courtyard of the keep, staring blankly at a giant star engraved into a monument at the yard¡¯s centre. His hands shook so violently that he would¡¯ve rolled his eyes and called it pathetically fake if he saw an actor doing it in a movie. The thought squeezed a laugh out of him, and once he¡¯d started he couldn¡¯t stop. He placed his head in his hands. Why couldn¡¯t he stop laughing?


    He was vaguely aware of hands on his shoulders, of a deep voice whispering to him. None of the words penetrated past the ringing in his ears.


    Lucas had blamed himself for a lot of things since arriving on this world. Many of them were silly; things he couldn¡¯t have actually done anything about, or matters on which he didn¡¯t have enough information to make a sound decision. He¡¯d acted illogically at times. Occasionally gotten overly emotional over stuff that was out of his control or not actually that big of a deal in the first place.


    A part of him would have loved it if this was an overreaction. He wished it was. With all his soul, he wanted there to be an alternative explanation to the one he¡¯d settled on.

 41: Depopulate (2)

    Lucas stared up at the wooden beams that lined the ceiling of the dingy little room as they creaked and groaned. It was bizarre to have a roof over his head and know that there were people walking around on the floor above him. An actually inhabited building. There were even muffled voices.


    The room was dark, only a thin sliver of light creeping around the gaps where the dark grey curtain covering the window wasn¡¯t quite flush to the wall. But his eyes had adjusted after however long he¡¯d been lying here in this bed with rough sheets, a lumpy pillow, and a mattress that didn¡¯t feel much softer than the ground. He could make out the rough stone walls, the table by the wooden door where they¡¯d dumped their stuff, and the shadowed silhouette of the Skycloak sitting motionless on the edge of one of the other two beds lying against the opposite wall, facing the door with her back to him.


    She had her pendant clenched in her fist; she hadn¡¯t put it away since they¡¯d gotten here hours ago. At least, it felt like hours ago. Lucas couldn¡¯t tell; he¡¯d been mostly out of it during the journey over here, barely aware of his surroundings. He knew this room was somewhere in the keep, at least, and that the other skycloak, Deryk, had led them here. That much he¡¯d registered. There¡¯d been more talk. He hadn¡¯t paid much attention to that, either. Just enough to understand Wick was heading out to gather information while Valerie kept watch over him.


    Noise drifted in through the walls. People were working outside now, the town coming back to life. Muffled shouts, the clang of hammers on metal, the rush of pouring water. The cacophony of life.


    It was all beautiful to hear, and it sent Lucas¡¯ gut wrenching.


    It should be louder than this. More voices.


    Maybe a dumb thought. Thirteen people wouldn¡¯t have added that much to the hubbub outside. But he wasn¡¯t in the mood to logic his way out of his emotions.


    A light draft stirred at the curtains and ruffled his clothes, nipping at his face with a little chill. There was no fire mana in his system; Jamie was utterly uninterested in accommodating any pyromantic antics now that there was no flaming hand requiring a portion of his attention. The monstercat was well and truly conked out.


    Practising any floramancy was also inadvisable with so many people around¡ªnot that there was much plant life around in the keep to begin with¡ªso manipulating his mana internally was his only passtime at present. He was fine with that. Circulating his pure mana was relaxing, almost meditative. Losing himself in the magical energy flowing through his soul had been a large part of what had allowed him to sleep at all when he first arrived on Aerth, and the process had only gotten better at soothing him.


    And right now, his mind desperately needed soothing.


    Lucas sighed and clenched his eyes shut, plunging himself back into his mana before any dark thoughts could even begin to find purchase.


    Without his input, it flowed in a smooth, tranquil stream. There was a warmth to it, even absent of any fire aspect in the mana. When he¡¯d first discovered his mana, he¡¯d thought of it as vitality, and he thought the term still very much fit: the magical energy suffusing his pathways was life. His life.


    He found himself wondering if it had always been there, or if it was something grafted onto him for the sake of the Gift. Now that he¡¯d felt it, he couldn¡¯t imagine not having mana in some form. There was mana in everything that lived; even beasts had their own warped approximations of mana, though he wasn¡¯t sure those monsters could be classified as living.


    What did it mean for him, spiritually, that his mana system was so undeveloped? His arms were mature now, and he was making good progress down the flanks of his body on the way to his legs¡ªthe ache of expanding pathways along his sides was like being tickled on a bruise by a bunch of sharp pins, and he¡¯d be glad when he was done with it¡ªbut he wondered what implications that had, considering how the soul seemed to be tied to one¡¯s existence.


    Did it mean his arms and sides were more real than the rest of him, right now? If he ended up overwhelmed by chaos, would his arms be the last part of him to change, attached to a warped, quasi-beast body? There was no obvious way to answer that question, at least to him, but it was interesting to think about, in a morbid way.


    ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡± Valerie¡¯s soft voice jolted him out of his reverie. Lucas blinked back to awareness, taking in his surroundings, briefly confused. After a moment, he recognised the wooden roof, stone walls, and dark grey curtains letting in a little light. Their room in the keep. Right.


    Lucas sighed. ¡°Not particularly, no.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s important not to let your emotions fester. They can infect you worse than any wound,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Part of my role as a member of the Order is to listen to your troubles and offer advice. Despite what some may think, the heroes are only human. They¡ªyou¡ªfeel just as strongly as anyone else; you¡¯re not invincible. Lord James and Lord Rian showed that.¡±


    Lucas looked at her from the corner of his eye. She was still facing away, her pendant clutched in one raised fist like she was resisting the temptation to bash herself in the face with it. She hadn¡¯t even removed her armour. ¡°You don¡¯t look like you¡¯re feeling much better than I am.¡±


    ¡°My mental health is not the concern here.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t it?¡± Lucas frowned. ¡°Maybe, after all I¡¯ve seen, it would ease my mind to know your mind is at ease.¡±


    There was a moment of silence. ¡°I really have left a poor impression on you, haven¡¯t I?¡±


    Lucas hesitated. ¡°I think you mean well; you want to save the people of Aerth more than anything. It doesn¡¯t feel like there¡¯s a selfish bone in your body. You¡¯re all practicality, laser-focued on the goal. But I think you¡¯ve developed a very low tolerance for anyone who gets in the way of Aerth¡¯s salvation.¡± He huffed a mirthless laugh. ¡°There¡¯s probably good reasons for that. It frustrated me when people wouldn¡¯t put their petty grievances aside for something as low stakes as a game of rugby in school. I can¡¯t imagine how infuriating it must be to see people obstructing the path to saving the world.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately,¡± Valerie said, ¡°you will probably face it yourself, in due time.¡±


    ¡°And at that point, I¡¯ll be able to empathise with how¡­ angry you get about it all.¡±


    ¡°I rather doubt that,¡± Valerie said in a slightly strangled tone. She slipped her pendant beneath her cloak, then turned in place to look at him with eyes that glowed faintly white in the dark. ¡°Currently, I am distressed about the situation in Harwyck and how powerless I am to affect it. I deeply wish to fight to protect the city, but I am having to face the fact that I cannot. You won¡¯t like to hear this, but I must be clear: you are a far higher priority than one city, even if it means a massive expansion of the Blighted Lands.¡±


    Lucas stared at her. ¡°Not a fan of that kind of talk.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s reality,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I do not like turning my back on hundreds of thousands of people for the sake of one man, but a dark future beckons if you were to die. The power you wield is quite likely Aerth¡¯s last hope. We must forge on to Dawnguard as soon as possible and get you to safety, before Harwyckshire becomes too dangerous to travel.¡±


    Lucas sat up. ¡°You want us to just leave? After everything?¡±


    ¡°I recognise that we have to.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ I caused this. I fucking flung a beast right into the midst of their town, which distracted them from their gates long enough for who knows how many more to get in. People died because of my reckless fucking stupidity. I can¡¯t just ignore that and leave without doing anything.¡±


    Valerie¡¯s lips thinned. ¡°I understand your grief, and self-recrimination is completely natural in a situation where lives have been lost. But no one could have reasonably expected this outcome from your unconventional defence of Elwyn¡¯s farm. Are you going to chastise yourself for protecting innocents?¡±


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°At the cost of other innocents,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°This wasn¡¯t a sacrifice, throwing away the lives of these townsfolk in payment for the safety of those you were protecting. It was an extremely unfortunate accident. You didn¡¯t weigh up their lives, this wasn¡¯t a choice you made.¡±


    ¡°I know that. I do. But does that matter to the families of the people who got torn apart by a beast?¡± Lucas¡¯ heartbeat was hammering in his head. The room felt too small, the walls closing in, the ceiling dropping. ¡°Will knowing it was a mistake comfort the folk who now have to wonder if their home is truly safe? It sure as hell doesn¡¯t make me feel better.¡±


    ¡°If you intend to tell them,¡± Valerie said slowly, ¡°I warn you I may have to take drastic measures. Please don¡¯t.¡±


    Lucas blinked, shocked out of his dark thoughts like he¡¯d been slapped. ¡°What?¡±


    Valerie didn¡¯t reply, just staring at him. Were her eyes brighter?


    ¡°I won¡¯t let you hurt anyone. I¡¯ll order you not to, even,¡± Lucas said, suddenly a little panicked.


    ¡°It is my duty to protect you from danger, and that doesn¡¯t change if the danger posed comes from yourself,¡± Valerie said, levelling a steady gaze on him. ¡°While I will generally accommodate your wishes as much as is reasonably possible, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t allow you to potentially enrage a crowd of frightened people against yourself.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ I get it, but I don¡¯t want to just sit back and pretend I had nothing to do with what happened here,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°There are ways you can do that which don¡¯t involve inciting the ire of the townsfolk,¡± Valerie said evenly. Her expression darkened, lips pulling down. ¡°Keep in mind that if you do earn enough hostility that violence is directed towards you, I will protect you.¡±


    Lucas swallowed. ¡°Fine. Not exactly like I was planning to go shouting it from the rooftops anyway,¡± he muttered. Then, louder, ¡°But I don¡¯t want to leave without trying to help these people at least a little bit. If you think it''s too dangerous I''ll listen to you, but I''d like to do something if I can.¡±


    ¡°We were going to stay the night and leave in the morning regardless. If you wish to offer our assistance during that time, we can do so. Discreetly.¡±


    ¡°Maybe we can bring people to Dawnguard with us? I bet a lot more people will want to leave now, but might not feel safe unless they have a bigger group.¡±


    Valerie was quiet for a moment, and her gaze started to drift before snapping back to him. She shook her head. ¡°The risk of exposing your identity is too high.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be careful,¡± Lucas said quickly. ¡°I won¡¯t say a fucking word in earshot of anyone but you and Wick for the entire trip.¡± He leaned forward. ¡°We know there¡¯s beasts prowling the countryside. Won¡¯t it be safer for me if we have more people to protect me?¡±


    ¡°Few of those desiring to evacuate would be warriors.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯d still be bodies between me and a beast,¡± Lucas murmured, feeling disgusted at himself for even saying it.


    ¡°I do not believe for a moment that you would allow a civilian to die in your place.¡±


    ¡°Valerie. Come on. You want to help these people to safety. Be both know it.¡±


    Valerie closed her eyes. ¡°What I want is an insignificant factor in this equation.¡±


    ¡°Uh, no? I think what you want is pretty important here.¡±


    ¡°The needs of the world take precedence over my desires. If every member of the Order went around following their every whim, we would have fallen to the Demon Lord long ago. The greater good comes first.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ shoulders slumped. ¡°I was a normal guy living a normal life less than two months ago, but I know enough to know that this kind of talk can lead to bad places. How do you know what the greater good even is?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fairly confident that prioritising the survival of all life on the planet constitutes the greater good.¡±


    ¡°Was that snark?¡± Lucas asked, staring at her. Her face was serene.


    ¡°I have learned that talking back to the Great Heroes doesn¡¯t pay well, so no,¡± she said. She opened her eyes and stared dully at him. ¡°Are you going to listen to me on this matter?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, actually. It was just a whim, anyway. Trying to make up for my mistake in a tangible way, I guess,¡± Lucas said with a sigh. He let himself drop back onto his lumpy mattress, holding his hands up before his eyes, their silhouette barely visible in the scant light. ¡°Not exactly feeling like taking matters into my own hands right now. If you¡¯re not on board, then fine. That¡¯s that.¡±


    Valerie was quiet for long enough that Lucas looked up again, and found her staring at her armoured hands, her eyes distant.


    ¡°Valerie?¡±


    ¡°My goal, ultimately, is the salvation of the people of Aerth,¡± Valerie said. ¡°As many of them as possible.¡±


    An ember of hope lit in Lucas¡¯ chest. He sat up.


    ¡°I despise the idea of leaving people in peril out here, of turning away from Harwyck and leaving it to collapse when I know my presence could make a difference. But I must. The stakes are too high.¡± Valerie turned her eyes to him, every other part of her utterly still. ¡°We will assess the situation in Taunton tonight and see what help we can safely offer. At the same time, I will be investigating the people here. If I find anyone I believe will be able to offer you genuine protection or assistance, I will then evaluate the likelihood of them discovering your identity, and whether they would react with hostility if they did. If the chances of the latter two are too high, I will dismiss them from consideration. This is the best I¡¯m willing to offer.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take that,¡± Lucas said. It was better than nothing.


    ¡°It may be that I deem no one suitable. If that turns out to be the case, will you accept it?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ll have to.¡±


    ¡°You would need to be circumspect with your magic,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Perhaps only practising pyromancy. Our training would slow down, too.¡±


    ¡°I can deal. There are other things I can be working on with my mana. I¡¯ve got ideas.¡±


    ¡°Ideas,¡± Valerie repeated, eyeing him suspiciously.


    ¡°Yeah. Nothing dangerous. I¡¯ve wanted to see if I can unlock other branches of magic on my own for a while now.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll have to take your word for it.¡± She let out a long breath that wasn¡¯t quite a sigh, but hinted at exasperation all the same. ¡°In return for this, you¡¯ll put any thoughts of confessing to your guilt out of your mind.¡±


    ¡°I wasn''t really planning to go confessing to anyone. That was just guilty rambling." He paused. "I don¡¯t have to just sit around and wait until we¡¯re ready to move on?¡±


    ¡°I have few objections to that, so long as you agree to be discreet in your interactions with the locals and stay close to me.¡±


    Lucas nodded quickly and shot to his feet. He was ready to get straight out there, to try and redeem himself in whatever little way he could, but heavy footsteps echoed from outside their door before he could even get to his feet. They got steadily louder until they reached the door, and then came a light knock. Valerie rose to answer, swinging the door aside to allow entry for Wick.


    The shieldmaster had to duck beneath the doorframe, and stayed a little stooped in the room proper. His gaze flicked between them a few times, then to the closed curtains, before finally coming to rest on Valerie. ¡°I sense tension,¡± he said with a glare at the Skycloak, apparently assuming she was the obvious source of any discontent.


    ¡°We¡¯ve been discussing our immediate plans for the future,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°I assume we¡¯re not moving out immediately?¡± Wick asked.


    ¡°We¡¯ll leave tomorrow, and see what we can do to help in the meantime,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I¡¯ll be seeking trustworthy companions to accompany us to Dawnguard.¡±


    ¡°Generous,¡± Wick said, heavy with the implication that was unusual for her.


    ¡°A compromise,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Lucas wished to do something for the people.¡±


    Wick turned his gaze to Lucas. ¡°Feeling responsible, lad?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas said softly with a shrug. ¡°No way I can fully make amends for this, but I¡¯ve gotta do something.¡±


    ¡°I know the feeling.¡± Wick let out a tired breath as he lowered himself onto his bed, still armoured. It groaned under his weight, and the man was almost as tall as Lucas even seated. Lucas comforted himself that the bed frames were fairly high. ¡°Rare is the occasion where a shield can protect everyone; for the most part, you can only put yourself between danger and your charge and hope it¡¯s enough. And there are times when protecting one person means condemning another, even if it isn¡¯t initially clear that¡¯s the case. That¡¯s the life of a defender.¡±


    ¡°What about those times when your defence directly leads to hurting someone else?¡± Lucas asked, almost desperate for a comforting answer.


    ¡°That¡¯s the life of a defender,¡± Wick repeated. ¡°You can¡¯t save everyone. I¡¯ve learned that all too well, in recent times.¡± He reached across the gap between their beds and lay his hand on Lucas¡¯ shoulder. ¡°But you keep doing the best you can, saving as many people as you can. Walls get knocked down all the time, but they can always be rebuilt. With new stones, if need be, and with the knowledge of how to do it better.¡±


    Lucas dredged up a watery smile. ¡°Thanks, Wick.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it, lad.¡±


    Lucas nodded. He looked at Valerie. ¡°Can we get started?¡±

 42: Depopulate (3)

    Lucas spent much of the remainder of the day helping out where he could. It was somewhat awkward since he had to rely on Wick or Valerie to actually talk to people and find out what needed doing, but with so few people remaining in the town there was plenty of work to go around and therefore not much attention paid to him. Mostly, he found himself carrying stuff from place to place. Not exactly strenuous labour.


    It didn¡¯t ease his guilt, but it occupied his mind a little.


    Ser Deryk, the Skycloak assigned to keep watch over this area, seemed to be acting as the local leader since Taunton''s mayor had gone south with the bulk of the civilian townsfolk. After the previous night¡¯s incident, he¡¯d decided to bring everyone remaining in the town inside the keep, no longer trusting in the safety ostensibly provided by the outer walls. The keep had room for a hundred, and less than half that number currently inhabited the town.


    Thus, the town was abuzz with activity, everyone who lived outside the keep hauling their necessities inside, while those who already lived within it ventured out to help hasten the process. When Lucas and company had offered their assistance, that was where they¡¯d been immediately directed.


    The townsfolk were generally amiable enough, though there was a hardness to them. They were all well used dealing with questers if they weren¡¯t questers themselves, and even a relatively notorious Skycloak like Valerie only raised a few eyebrows. One grizzled, leathery old man in a blacksmith¡¯s apron even barked a reprimand at her for setting down his anvil in the wrong place.


    They were all moving with calm efficiency for the most part, but one couldn¡¯t miss the way many of them would occasionally look up at the sky with mistrust. These people were used to enjoying safety behind well-defended walls, and that assurance had been snatched away from them in the dead of night.


    None of that distrust extended to Lucas. Why would it? They had no reason to believe a Star just returned from a quest to the north would have any means or motive to launch a beast so high and far. It felt wrong to accept their thankful nods and glances, as if this meagre help made up for his mistake, but revealing himself wasn¡¯t on the table. He wouldn¡¯t have done so even if it was. Regardless of his feelings of guilt or his prophetic importance, stoking an angry mob against himself didn¡¯t sound like a smart idea.


    So the sun crawled across the sky as Lucas lost himself in manual labour as best he could. There were a few moments where the drudgery of carrying stuff was broken when he was called upon to help with repairs a little, but for the most part his lot in life was as a pack mule.


    He gave no complaints, even though he could see a lot of other stuff going on. For example, people armed and armoured were constantly heading outside the gates, ranging far away, and later coming back with heaving sacks that Lucas and other labourers would pick up and bring to the keep.


    It seemed like Taunton was preparing for the eventuality that they wouldn¡¯t be able to rely on the surrounding farmlands anymore, taking the incident at Elwyn¡¯s farm as a sign. Sure enough, a few farming families trickled into the town throughout the afternoon, herding livestock with them. Elwyn greeted each one, and the farmer children ended up mingling together in a little gang that played around in one corner of the keep¡¯s courtyard.


    The livestock ended up stationed inside the town. Lucas wanted to feel indignant on the firesheep¡¯s behalf, but the discrimination was understandable in this case.


    There was guild activity going on, too. Inside the keep he overheard Aly awkwardly conversing with a bowmaster called Jeisyn, marking out the beast tracks she¡¯d seen on a map. He was dressed in an outfit that could¡¯ve been straight out of robin hood: green tunic, slightly darker green tight hose, and red pixie boots. He was just missing the feathered cap.


    The obsidian bow with a carmine string that seemed to emanate a red mist hanging off one shoulder made the picture slightly more intimidating, though.


    A few other people in similar outfits loitered around. Most of them seemed more interested in any signs of human activity out there. The guilds were mostly still sticking around because they didn¡¯t know for sure whether or not they had members still out there in the wild, after all.


    That was presumably why every warrior present gave Aly their undivided attention as she talked about the nine corpses she¡¯d found with Lucas¡¯ group; even Lucas himself stopped to listen as she described the carnage without even slightest tremor in her voice. They questioned her on the details of the bodies, and she recited what she¡¯d seen with remarkable clarity; attire and hair and eyes and approximate heights and more. Lucas barely recalled a fraction of what she detailed, and it was enough to make him ill.


    When she was finished with her report, Jeisyn spoke with a deep frown, ¡°From those descriptions, I suspect that may have been Henry¡¯s team and Simon¡¯s team.¡±


    ¡°You mean to tell me they lost to three beasts that the wild girl and a three-man-team she¡¯d never worked with before managed to handily defeat? I don¡¯t believe it,¡± a bowmaiden spoke up, sounding strained.


    ¡°One of those three is a veteran of the frontlines,¡± another bowmaster pointed out nonchalantly. ¡°Heard a story or two about her prowess, haven¡¯t we?¡±


    ¡°Propaganda to buoy the populace¡¯s morale,¡± the bowmaiden replied. ¡°From what Aly described, I don¡¯t believe those beasts were any higher than C-ranks. By the five Damnations, man, Isabelle is on Henry¡¯s team! She alone could slay ten C-ranks with one arrow! I don¡¯t believe for a moment that they lost their lives to three beasts.¡±


    ¡°Maybe there were more beasts involved?¡± said another bowmaster.


    ¡°I¡¯ll point out we haven¡¯t confirmed it was Henry and Simon¡¯s teams,¡± said the first bowmaster who¡¯d replied, still casual as you like.


    They descended into bickering over the matter, and Lucas decided to get back to his task. As he was leaving, he heard Jeisyn sigh and say softly to Aly, ¡°You realise I can¡¯t let you venture back out into the countryside again in this situation?¡±


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to,¡± Aly snapped back. ¡°I¡¯m not stupid.¡±


    ¡°I never said you were. But you have a stubborn streak regarding your way of life, and I feel obligated to protect you from it,¡± Jeisyn replied, and then they were out of earshot.


    As time went on, Lucas was amused to find himself rapidly improving at carrying stuff. Part of his training with Valerie so far had already, when possible, involved picking up and putting down heavy things for strength conditioning, but doing so with purpose saw him gaining an easier understanding of where to hold objects of various weights and sizes. He wasn¡¯t suddenly the world¡¯s foremost labourer, but he rose to competence remarkably quickly. Enough to not slow down Wick and Valerie too much, at least.


    Wick tended to wander off to wherever his services were needed¡ªa seven foot tall brick shithouse of a man drew more requests for help than Lucas¡¯ average frame¡ªbut Valerie stuck to his side like a barnacle for the most part. Her sharp eyes were constantly scanning the people of Taunton, as if she expected a beasts might burst from one of their chests and attack at any moment.


    She didn¡¯t appreciate it when Lucas joked that the greatest danger of that happening came from him.


    The only times she left Lucas alone were during lulls in work after extracting a promise from him that he¡¯d stay put in the exact same spot with Wick watching over him. Each time, she stalked off for only a few minutes before returning, and never once commented on her findings. Each time, she seemed to return more terse in her speech and more tense in her bearing. She wouldn¡¯t comment on that either.


    It was in one of those moments where he was left alone with Wick in the keep¡¯s courtyard that he had his first and only interaction with the local representative of the College of Wands. A mousy, frail-looking woman in a silver wizard-y robe styled similarly to Jyn¡¯s but with white clouds instead of stars and an open hood showing the entirety of her pale, gaunt face, she seemed about ready to fall to the ground and fall asleep right there as she ambled up to them and rested a half-lidded gaze on Wick. Her eyes had no irises; instead, they looked like a hurricane captured within glass marbles.


    ¡°I received word back from the College,¡± she told him. Her voice was thin and breathy, and a little bit of wind stirred with every syllable. ¡°Jyn Sakhelyan apparently vacated his position and his rights as a scholar quite some time ago, but your report is appreciated nonetheless.¡±


    Wick nodded. ¡°I expected as much. They¡¯ll communicate the situation to his kin?¡±


    ¡°They will,¡± the wandmaiden said. She scrutinised him for a moment. ¡°What was your commission, if I may ask? You didn¡¯t stop by Taunton on your way north, so I have no record of it.¡±


    ¡°A matter our skycloak wanted to investigate,¡± Wick said. ¡°I am not at liberty to discuss it.¡±


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Hm. Valerie Vayon,¡± the wandmaiden mused. ¡°What brings someone like that so far south, I wonder?¡±


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t tell you, Ser Jeanne. Men with loose lips don¡¯t get paid.¡±


    ¡°Men with loose lips die, you mean.¡±


    ¡°Dead men don¡¯t get paid.¡±


    Jeanne shook her head. ¡°I didn¡¯t know Sakhelyan personally, but from what I heard of him, he wasn¡¯t the type to accept a northbound quest. It would have taken more than coin to convince him. Curious¡­ But not enough for me to risk crossing someone like her.¡± Her pale stormcloud gaze turned to Lucas. ¡°Ser James, wasn¡¯t it? You¡¯re feeling better, I trust?¡±


    Lucas glanced at Wick, and the shieldmaster gave him a subtle nod. After looking around to make sure there wasn¡¯t anyone in earshot to potentially hear a different language pass his lips, Lucas said, ¡°Yeah. Things up north were¡­ We had a tough time.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a cruel world we live in,¡± Jeanne said. ¡°But there¡¯s plenty of beauty in it still. Have heart.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll try to keep that in mind,¡± Lucas said.


    The wandmaiden nodded to herself and crossed her arms within her voluminous silver sleeves. ¡°You should talk to Ser Marsh, Taunton¡¯s liaison to the Guild of Stars. Among the many skills he¡¯s adequate at, many have found his ability to provide a listening ear to be his most useful.¡± She looked at Wick. ¡°Ser Loren wishes to speak with you, when you have time.¡±


    Lucas had no intention of bearing his worries to a stranger, but figured it would be interesting to talk to an experienced Star anyway. Since both Loren and Marsh could be found in the guildhall, their trio decided to head there once Valerie had returned. It was a long, two-story wooden building squatting beneath the southernmost of the five stone walls of the keep, and it saw almost as much activity as the keep proper.


    At peak times, it often acted as the administrative centre of the town more than the main keep itself did; keeping on top of the needs of several hundred questers at once made it a busy place. Now, it was largely quiet. The vast majority of questers had headed for Harwyck, leaving behind the local guild leaders to keep things running and a relative handful of warriors to ensure the town wasn¡¯t left undefended.


    Its double doors opened onto a large reception area taken up by five desks arranged in a row at the back wall. It was a sparsely decorated room, with only five adornments on the back wall denoting what faction each table represented. The rest of the floorspace would typically have been taken up by questers waiting their turn to speak to the people manning the desks. There was no one here at present, but sitting at the desk before a large kite shield was a stocky woman with chin-length auburn hair and wearing eye-searing golden armour with an open-faced helm. Her green eyes fixed on Wick the moment their party entered.


    ¡°Ser Wick. Good,¡± she said. She was surprisingly soft-spoken, considering the steady confidence in her gaze. ¡°You still intend to leave for Dawnguard tomorrow, yes?¡±


    The other man in the room looked up from the documents he was reading through on his desk. The man who had to be Marsh looked like he could¡¯ve been another bowmaster, with his black tunic and hose. But the sword propped against his chair, the shield resting on his desk, and the wand holding his long black hair up in a bun told another story.


    The five-pointed star painted onto the wall behind him was another clue, if the rest of it hadn¡¯t made his identity obvious.


    ¡°We do,¡± Wick said with a nod.


    ¡°Would you be willing to accept a commission to take some things with you and deliver them to the Guild of Shields?¡± Loren asked.


    ¡°Absolutely,¡± Wick said.


    If looks could kill, Valerie¡¯s cold stare would have committed the nine familial exterminations on Wick at that moment. ¡°We will be moving with the utmost possible haste,¡± she said. ¡°We cannot afford to be distracted.¡±


    ¡°It won¡¯t be so much of a distraction,¡± Loren said. ¡°Just a few personal belongings of mine that I don¡¯t want to see lost.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll see it done,¡± Wick said. He slanted a side-on look at Valerie. ¡°The burden will be on me alone, Skycloak.¡±


    ¡°So be it,¡± Valerie said.


    Loren led Wick away deeper into the guildhall through a side door, leaving Lucas and Valerie to approach Marsh. Lucas didn¡¯t have the first clue what he was going to talk to the man about until he was at the man¡¯s desk and a question came to him. Valerie had already given him approval to talk to the man.


    ¡°Could you tell me about the people who lost their lives last night?¡± he asked.


    The Star blinked at him. ¡°I can,¡± he said slowly. ¡°But what brought this on? Are you searching for someone among the dead, perhaps?¡±


    ¡°Not particularly,¡± Lucas said. ¡°I just feel like I should remember them, in some way.¡±


    ¡°Noble of you.¡± Marsh looked between him and Valerie for a moment, then shrugged. ¡°Well, first there was¡ª¡±


    A distant shout echoed from outside, cutting Marsh off mid-sentence. The three of them went still and silent, listening as more people took up the call in reply. The voices mingled together, and Lucas couldn¡¯t make out the bulk of what they were saying. But he didn¡¯t need to. The tinge of fear to the voices was unmistakable, and really he only needed to hear one word.


    ¡°Beast!¡±


    After a moment of hesitation, Marsh gathered up his weapons and leapt over his table, sprinting for the door. Loren came barreling out of the side room a second later, Wick hot on her heels. Valerie just watched Lucas, only moving when he did. She stuck to his shadow as he belatedly chased after the others.


    They burst out into the cool evening air and ran for the staircase that led to the top of the stone walls surrounding the keep. It seemed half the remaining questers in the town had had the same idea; a half dozen or so warriors were barrelling up the steps ahead of them, and a dozen more were already running along the crenelations, heading towards the eastern side of the wall where Ser Deryk stood out in his white armour and blue cloak.


    As he and Valerie mounted the steps at the back of the group, a strange feeling overcame him. Emotion, and one he immediately recognised as not his own. It took him far too long to realise what it was and where it was coming from¡ªhe was almost to the top of the stairs when it hit him, and he turned his attention within.


    Jamie? What¡¯s wrong with you all of a sudden?


    The monstercat was going mad within Lucas¡¯ soul, thrashing and hissing and crying out. He was practically scrabbling all over the place in a mad frenzy, like a tiger trying to batter its way out of a cage¡ªclearly the monstercat¡¯s emotions had overtaken it, because Jamie was the one with control of whether he was inside of Lucas¡¯ soul or not. If he wanted to get out, he was the only one that could facilitate his exit. Lucas tried to nudge at his heart¡¯s flame, but Jamie¡¯s fury rendered it unusable.


    Lucas didn¡¯t know what to do. He didn¡¯t know how to comfort the abomination bonded to his very soul, and he hadn¡¯t the first clue why it was so enraged in the first place. Jamie had never shown such a reaction to beasts before. Nothing he tried could even get his soulbonded companion¡¯s attention. He was utterly frenzied.


    As they reached the top of the wall and started their run around to where all the commotion was, Lucas seized his pure mana and cast out his plant sense. It was somewhat of a long shot, but there wasn¡¯t much else he could think to do; it was hardly as if he could seek help from someone else regarding the monstercat, so he sought clues in his environment. His floramantic sense reached out and touched on the nearest plant; a small weed growing at the base of the wall they were running along.


    The plant bone connected to the dorsal fin of the weed, which itself was feeding into the rotational helix that bridged the gap between liver and apple. Green teeth chomped a red box containing fourteen fox bulbs which would pupate into an amalgamation of leaves and retinae. Mouths could hear everything, everywhere, all the breathing and flowing and warming and movementing and collapsing and and and


    eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes looking looking looking looking looking seeing seeing seeing seeing seeing knowing knowing knowing knowing knowing eating eating eating eating eating


    Lucas stumbled. He immediately drew his mana back from the plant, but it was too late. Something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong.


    ¡°Valerie,¡± he wheezed. His heart was suddenly thundering like he¡¯d sprinted a marathon without a drop of water¡ªand he hurt on a spiritual level, like a monster had raked icy claws through his soul. Jamie was howling. So loud it threatened to split Lucas¡¯ skull open. His mana pathways shuddered from how abruptly he¡¯d cut himself off from the mana he¡¯d pushed outside himself to sense with. It was suddenly hard to breathe, and he gasped like he was drowning on land. His body trembled so violently that he would have collapsed if he hadn¡¯t already been leaning against the wall.


    Valerie was at his side in an instant, holding him up and swiftly looking him over. ¡°What is it?¡± she whispered, but with the way her eyes widened, darting over his form, she seemed to have come to her own conclusion. Her lips moved soundlessly for a moment, and her grip on his upper arm grew so tight he worried she might snap through his humerus. ¡°Your mana¡­¡± she finally managed to croak out, horror suffusing her voice.


    Then she seemed to stop herself, going utterly still. Her eyelids fluttered shut, and she drew in a shuddering breath. Her free hand stole beneath her robe and withdrew her moonlight pendant, which she swiftly clasped around Lucas¡¯ neck.


    The world turned to a pencil sketch, all colour vanishing save for the holy white light of the full moon hanging in the grayscale sky. Lucas stared at it, transfixed. It was impossible to think of anything but its celestial radiance. Nothing else could possibly be worthy of his attention. Even his soul itself was entranced, his mana drawn towards the majesty of the moon. It embraced him like a beloved child, and he felt safe and warm in its hold.


    Just beyond its brilliant light, Lucas could just about make out the face of a familiar woman.


    ¡°It saw me,¡± he told her wondrously.


    The woman¡¯s eyes were like twin moons themselves, and he found himself being pulled into them. ¡°From this moment until I tell you otherwise, you are not to stray an inch from my side for any reason. You will follow any order I give the moment I give it. You will trust no one but me. Do you understand?¡±


    He nodded. There was no room for disobedience.


    The woman drew in a deep breath, then bellowed a single word at the top of her lungs.


    ¡°DEMON!¡±

 43: Annihilate (1)

    ¡°So, what¡¯s the difference between a demon and a beast?¡± Lucas asked, somewhere on the road to Taunton.


    Valerie pondered the question for a moment, staring off into the distance. ¡°Have you ever encountered a demon, Ser Wick?¡±


    ¡°I have not,¡± Wick rumbled from ahead, eyeing her over his shoulder. ¡°Though I once strayed into the Blighted Lands when I was young and foolish, I was fortunate enough only to face beasts and, I suppose, the horror of the Blight itself.¡±


    Valerie nodded. ¡°Considering how much influence demons have had on our world throughout history, it¡¯s surprisingly rare to find people outside of frontline warriors who¡¯ve ever seen one.¡± She paused, fists clenching. ¡°The first thing you need to understand is this: demons abhor our very existence about as much as we despise theirs.¡±


    ~~~~~


    For the second night in a row, the tolling of bells rang out over Taunton.


    The town erupted in a frenzy of activity. Panicked shouts, pounding footsteps on stone, the scrape of weapons drawn. Any sense of calm had fled in the wake of Valerie¡¯s bellowed warning, everyone who''d been out in the town rushing for the keep with reckless abandon, dropping anything they were carrying on the spot. Even the men who had been in the watchtowers and on the walls leaped to the ground and sprinted for the stone walls. In seemingly no time at all, the area outside the keep was devoid of life, and the keep¡¯s gates slammed shut.


    Lucas watched it all unfold from the roof of the keep itself. Valerie had dragged him straight here after her shout, snapping reprimands when he lagged behind for even a heartbeat. From on high, they gained an unobstructed view of the area surrounding the town in every direction. A patchwork grid of fields stretched towards the horizon, the flat land marred only by a few distant hills. Lucas strained his eyes, staring into the darkening land to the east; the sun was well on its way to setting, the sky transitioning to black, and the shadows cast by the town were lengthening along the plains like grasping fingers.


    He saw no sign of any beasts out there, but admittedly that might have just been his own sight failing him in his current state; this world of grayscale was mightily disorienting, and it was hard to focus on anything other than the light of the moon¡ªhe could still see it hanging there, always in the corner of his vision no matter where he looked, luminant and loyal. When he let go of his thoughts, all else but the moon faded away, and it increasingly felt like he was standing at the bottom of a dark tunnel, with only the milky sphere shining upon him from the other end.


    It was warm, comforting. A small part of him wanted to lose himself in that feeling, remembering the wrongness that had infected him upon coming into contact with the chaos in the weeds.


    But a greater part of him knew he couldn¡¯t close his eyes and cover his ears and detach himself from what was going on around him. As tempting as the moon¡¯s gentle solace was, he couldn¡¯t countenance the idea of being unaware while some monster assaulted the town. So he fought to remain lucid, to keep watch and understand. One day, he¡¯d be fighting these monsters himself. Valerie¡¯s lectures couldn¡¯t substitute for an encounter with the real thing.


    The moonlight pendant was the only thing affording him that kind of courage. Without it, he definitely wouldn¡¯t have been able to keep his nerve when he finally caught sight of the demon for himself.


    ~~~~~


    ¡°The corruption of a demon and a beast are incomparable. Beasts wield chaos as a blunt tool, blindly throwing whatever they have at you without any kind of strategy or finesse. We even rank them by how much corruption they can cause, though it takes some skill and experience to measure the chaos effect of a beast.¡± Valerie narrowed her eyes, glaring at something far away. ¡°Demons cannot be classified. Their contamination is more insidious, more malicious, and more targeted. A beast will just scream at you in the hopes it will contaminate you with infernal mana, but it will just as happily rip you apart physically. Demons won¡¯t be content with just mauling your body.¡±


    Lucas swallowed, shooting a glance at Elwyn and his kids up ahead. He spoke quietly, ¡°Can you tell the difference between a demon and a beast by sight?¡±


    ¡°They look nothing alike. A beast¡¯s form is corrupted, but a demon¡¯s form is corrupting,¡± Valerie said grimly. ¡°Believe me, you¡¯ll know a demon when you see it. Namely, because you won¡¯t understand what you¡¯re seeing at all.¡±


    ~~~~~


    At first, it was like a mirage on the horizon, rippling between lengths of shadow. For a moment he thought it a mere illusion brought on by the moonlight pendant, but as the anomaly became larger he realised other people were reacting to it, crying out warnings.


    And then it crossed the distance between the far fields and the town¡¯s palisades in the blink of an eye. Another cry went up, people screaming in fear and pain. Below on the outer wall, Deryk was shouting commands to those around him, but the Skycloak¡¯s voice sounded muffled and far away, like Lucas was underwater and there was wet cotton wedged in his ears.


    The demon was a living distortion, warping everything it touched. It had no true form of its own. Even reality itself couldn¡¯t comprehend this being of absolute mayhem. To his small, mortal mind, it looked like a translucent blob the size of a building rippling along and through anything in its path, leaving disorder in its wake.


    In truth, he wasn¡¯t even seeing the demon itself, just the effect it had on the world, the corruption.


    The demon moved through the outer palisade walls like they weren¡¯t even there, and behind it they started to distort, the pointed wooden stakes twisting and bending around themselves until in mere seconds they appeared like a great hand had snatched up a handful of trees and squeezed them together. Some rotted, some burned, some spawned smaller palisades in fractal patterns, and some turned into different types of wood entirely.


    The defenders of Taunton seemed to take that as their cue to attack. Dozens of arrows, spells, and other projectiles flew for the demon.


    And they did nothing. Worse than nothing, in fact.


    ~~~~~


    ¡°Perhaps the biggest problems with demons,¡± Valerie said, ¡°is just how few techniques actually work on them, and how inconsistent the effectiveness of our few known techniques are. The trouble is, the vast majority of magic has a chaos factor; in a contest of chaos, demons are going to come out on top.¡±


    ¡°Like making a plant do something it¡¯s not meant to,¡± Lucas realised after a moment, eyes widening. ¡°Making a pine tree grow apples, for example, would be against the natural order, and that would create chaos?¡±


    ¡°Somewhat,¡± Valerie said, tilting one hand side to side. ¡°In a way, one could argue that all magic is chaotic. Even if you¡¯re simply feeding mana to something to make it more of what it¡¯s meant to be, it¡¯s still unnatural.¡±


    ¡°So what kinds of magic actually can affect demons then?¡±


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    ¡°As I said: it¡¯s inconsistent.¡± She paused, drumming her fingers on her breastplate over her heart. ¡°A slash of my sword will part one demon¡¯s form like paper, while another will barely feel the blow.¡°


    ¡°But generally?¡±


    ¡°There is no generally when dealing with demons.¡±


    Lucas gave her a flat look.


    ¡°Chaos is the most important factor,¡± Valerie said. ¡°The less chaotic your attack, the more effective it is. They¡¯re not like beasts. Their physical form isn¡¯t so tangible. Even if your attack deals no damage, you can still beat a beast back through sheer physical force. If you¡¯re reckless, your attack too chaotic, a demon will corrupt the effects of your attack and turn it against you.¡±


    ~~~~~


    Arrows warped the moment they entered the demon¡¯s body as if they¡¯d passed into a funhouse mirror. Their trajectories went from straight and true to zig-zagging all over the place, and those that held magical effects were especially distorted; an ice arrow twisted up like a wrung towel, disgorging worm-like figures of frost; a dark arrow grew to thrice its original length and started to spiral in on itself; a crossbow bolt disintegrated into a hundred smaller crossbow bolts, and each of them started attacking each other.


    Every single arrow went hurtling back towards its shooter, forcing the Bows to dodge away.


    The demon didn¡¯t even let the pure magic attacks reach it. A bolt of soundless lightning veered off at the last moment, crashing into the side of a house and blowing it apart in a spray of debris. A beam of dazzling light refracted around the demon¡¯s form and scored a smoking line through the building behind it. A wall of dirt slammed up in its path, but the demon rippled straight through the obstruction; the dirt crumbled and collapsed in its wake.


    A myriad of fey winds picked up, the air itself disturbed by the demon¡¯s passing; they moved in a thousand directions at once, tiny hurricanes curling about without any kind of pattern. Lucas was vaguely aware of a familiar woman on the outer wall of the keep below trying to fight back against the miniature maelstroms, only for them to converge on her like a school of piranha. She went flying from the wall with a scream, plunging through a thatched roof.


    It hadn¡¯t even slowed down. It moved forward slowly, ponderously, as inevitable as the tide. An oscillating, high-pitched sound echoed across the town. Lucas didn¡¯t recognise the noise at first, and his heart dropped when he did.


    Laughter. The demon was laughing. Mocking them.


    It had already shown it could cross great distances in an instant; it didn¡¯t need to roll forward at this almost leisurely pace. Taking its time.


    It was enjoying their fear.


    ~~~~~


    ¡°Another difference is one that will immediately become obvious within moments of encountering a demon: they aren¡¯t mindless monsters like beasts. They have a base cunning to them, and they can strategise.¡±


    Lucas winced. ¡°Beasts being so single-minded was probably what saved us, back on the hill. Can¡¯t imagine those things with actual brains.¡±


    ¡°Indeed,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But take heart: while demons may be intelligent, they¡¯re no geniuses or masters. There¡¯s no¡­ ruthlessness to them. No pragmatism. They¡¯re sadists. You can almost always count on a demon to revel in causing fear and pain and misery, and you can exploit that, if you¡¯re smart about it.¡±


    ¡°You know,¡± Lucas said, ¡°that doesn¡¯t actually make me feel better.¡±


    ~~~~~


    To the west, in the opposite direction from the demon, a great boom thundered, and a gout of flame flared up. A handful of small figures pranced around inside the flames, bleating with panic. The firesheep. Fear clamped icy fingers around Lucas¡¯ heart, but the moon reached in and pried them off one by one. Calm settled over him like a warm blanket, and he turned back towards the demon.


    In the town, hay and wood and any other organic materials seemed to melt together; the demon flowed through the world, and it dragged the things it corrupted in its wake, like a living avalanche of anarchy. Shapes started to appear in the disordered mess, twisted figures forming the vague approximation of monstrous bodies, silhouetted in the waning light.


    They all started moving on their own, and they screamed.


    Beasts, Lucas realised with muted, distant horror that the moon graciously swallowed before he could descend into a panic. It¡¯s creating beasts.


    The pendant saved him, there. He didn¡¯t think he would¡¯ve been able to get a handle on his mana in his disordered state, but the moon had control of his system, pulling his soul into its tender hold. He felt cold, like he¡¯d been out all night. A shiver thrummed through his body.


    That was surely a far better feeling than the others who¡¯d been foolish enough to look upon the demon without an iron grip over their own soul¡ªor, indeed, without a magical pendant to immunise them from the demon¡¯s corrupting presence.


    All of a sudden, Lucas was surrounded by screams and shouts, people thrashing, clutching their heads, clawing at themselves, running madly all over the place. Most of the warriors had managed to maintain their grip on their sanity, but there were still a few who¡¯d lost control, and the handful of civilians down in the courtyard who hadn¡¯t had time to get somewhere safe were going ballistic. Many of the defenders were suddenly distracted trying to subdue their frenzied comrades and charges, and Lucas¡¯ head was on a constant swivel, trying to follow a dozen different conflicts at once.


    Throughout all the carnage, Valerie was still as a statue, barely seeming to breathe, gripping Lucas¡¯ upper arm as she glared at the demon below. When he looked at her, the moon seemed to merge with her face, turning her ghostly pale. The effect only seemed to accentuate the gauntness of her cheeks, the hollowness in her eyes, the wrongness of her corrupted mien. Her expression wasn¡¯t one of loathing or disgust or contempt or any other hateful emotion a measly human word could encapsulate. It was all of them and more, a dark thing within her that was desperate to get out and destroy the abomination approaching them.


    She held her sword out before her in her other hand, radiant with moonlight¡ªthough it paled before the majesty of the real thing, he couldn¡¯t help admiring it. Moonlight, he realised, was the embodiment of order in the world; it could be blocked, distorted, and manipulated in a myriad of ways from the ground, but no creature on Aerth could hope to affect it at its source. The moon was eternal. Unchanging. It had lit the night for millions of years and it would continue to do so far millions more, regardless of what happened down here in the mortal world. Among all the orderly things anathema to demons, the light of the moon could certainly be counted as one of the strongest.


    And yet, Valerie wasn¡¯t attacking. He could feel her urge to eliminate the abomination, but she hesitated. Why? She was whispering under her breath rapidly, too quiet and quick for him to make out any words even as he strained to listen. There were tears in her eyes, threatening to spill over.


    Before Lucas could formulate a theory or even just ask, the demon reached the walls, and everything got worse.


    ~~~~~


    ¡°Despite how little we know about demons, there are protocols in place for how we combat them,¡± Valerie said. ¡°On the frontlines, we move in squads of five parties of five. We¡¯ve found that greater numbers of well-ordered warriors is effective in counteracting a demon¡¯s corruption¡ªit¡¯s imperative that all warriors be assured in their identity, their soul solidified and steady.¡±


    Lucas wondered how steady Valerie¡¯s soul was, considering some of what he¡¯d seen. He didn¡¯t dare voice that thought. ¡°And the strategy?¡± he asked instead.


    ¡°The strongest warriors engage the demon directly, utilising techniques with minimal chaos factor. Others act as support, working to ensure the combatants can stay strong against the demon¡¯s corruption; just as you can enforce your will to steady your own mana, there are people who are particularly skilled at helping others steady their mana.¡± Valerie turned from the horizon for the first time in this conversation, her pale eyes piercing into Lucas, filled with resolve. ¡°Every battle against a demon is a drawn out, arduous process, and often the demon will flee if it realises it¡¯s in danger of defeat. But they can be defeated. I¡¯ve seen it with my own eyes. Dealt the final blow with my own hand. The trick is to keep it distracted, baiting it so it can¡¯t focus its attention on one target for too long, and whittle down its strength.¡±


    ¡°What do you do if you don¡¯t have a squad of Skycloaks?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°You run,¡± Valerie said simply.


    ¡°And if you can¡¯t run?¡±


    Valerie thought about that for a moment. ¡°You pray it loses interest in you.¡±


    ¡°Is that something that happens often?¡±


    Valerie looked away.

 44: Annihilate (2)

    The darkening sky warped and shimmered as the demon rose up, a living mirage that distorted the light of the stars themselves. It loomed over the walls, stretching itself ever higher like a rising wave. If not for the magical attacks constantly flying at it, it might have been totally invisible. The mere thought was terrifying; as disturbing as the demon¡¯s ghostly visage was, not being able to see it¡ªnot knowing for sure where it was or what it was doing¡ªwould¡¯ve been a thousand times worse.


    Nothing Taunton¡¯s defenders tried was having any effect. Below, Ser Deryk was occupied trying to keep the civilian townsfolk from hurting themselves in their frenzy¡ªbut even if he hadn¡¯t been occupied, his thin rapier-like blade didn¡¯t glow white like Valerie¡¯s did, and the man seemed to rely on sheer speed, flitting back and forth across the courtyard, so Lucas suspected the man would¡¯ve been just as ineffective against the demon as everyone else.


    The world was filled with panicked screams and the surreal sounds of various magics. There were only a handful of Wands present in Taunton, but magic wasn¡¯t exclusive to the Wand class.


    Stars launched their own weaker spells. Arcane arrows and other projectiles flew at the demon in a seemingly constant stream. Those Swords with ranged abilities sliced at the demon¡¯s translucent body. Even Shields had some offensive ability: Loren seemed to be able to launch ghostly projections of golden light in the shape of her armour.


    None of it worked, but Lucas still found himself admiring their courage. They were shouting to each other, coordinating their efforts. For every failed attack, they switched to a new technique, never discouraged, never giving up. At the same time, they were covering each other, making sure anyone who was focused on attacking the demon was simultaneously protected from the poor souls who¡¯d been driven to madness by the demon¡¯s chaotic corruption.


    He wanted desperately to delve into his own magic and help somehow, but Jamie was still too frenzied to reach, battering against the inside of Lucas¡¯ soulheart. And, still reeling from his previous experience with trying to tap into a plant, he was loath to try his floramancy¡ªeven so, he seriously considered it anyway. Standing here and doing nothing didn¡¯t sit right.


    Valerie¡¯s grip on his arm was still vice-like, strong as steel, threatening to snap his arm if he twisted the wrong way, and the blasted woman wasn¡¯t responding to any attempts to get her attention. Even waving the moonlight pendant in her face had no effect. She was still muttering to herself, glistening eyes flitting between the scene below and the demon, her shining blade held out before her, unmoving.


    Looming above them, the demon¡¯s shimmering form seemed to ripple like a body of water disturbed by a falling rock. And then it fell, plunging down on the courtyard and all within it like a wave.


    The moon shuddered and dimmed as the demon plunged down past him. It didn''t even touch him directly, but the grayscale world trembled, hints of colour seeping in through cracks in the sky. Distant, muted sounds started to gain in volume and definition. Where before the cold had been numbing, it suddenly started biting at his skin and stabbing icy shards deep into his flesh, attacking him like it had a mind of its own and malicious intent.


    Its effect on his mana was minor at first, like a shadow had ghosted its fingers across his soul. That didn¡¯t last. There was a predatory purpose to the demon¡¯s chaotic magic, and it didn¡¯t appreciate being denied. He could feel its attention pass over his body until it arrived on the pendant, and soon deep black fingers started to stretch across the moon, steadily snuffing out its light.


    Lucas lost all awareness of anything else around him, staring up in horror as the shadows around the moon seemed to contract. Cracks spread across its lunar surface like an egg shell, and one piece fell away, revealing a writhing mass of luminescent winged creatures trapped within.


    Something reached into his mind and rummaged around with all the finesse of an ice pick slammed through his skull. Icy agony pulsed inside his brain. The moon suddenly seemed a thousand times as bright, and he screwed his eyes shut to the glare. Blurry images danced on the back of his eyelids.


    The walk into town, seeing the despondent faces on the people in the graveyard. The signs of beast tracks on the leadup to the town. The confrontation with the beasts back in Elwyn¡¯s farm.


    Horror suffused him, and his eyes snapped back open. The demon seemed to feed on his feeling of fear and self-loathing, drawing on those recent memories.


    The moon hung in the sky, shining bright as the sun, and the stone walls stood grey and imposing, but below them the demon¡¯s form had flooded the courtyard, and it was roiling like a stormy sea, each wave manifesting its own disturbing translucent image.


    The vast majority of scenes playing out meant nothing to him, horrifying as they were; they were little more than a scrapbook montage of misery and regret, each one surely meant to torment a different victim. He didn¡¯t recognise the blond girl tearing apart a crowd of people with clawed fingers and sharpened teeth. The scene of a young man strangling a woman while laughing maniacally was of no obvious significance. And the red-headed woman laying into a group of people with similarly coloured hair with a giant warhammer could have been a horror movie, for all the emotional effect it had on him. There were dozens of similar scenes.


    But he knew that one close to the centre, the fires raging and beasts frolicking through the flames. His heart threw itself against his ribcage as a spout of flame launched a beast into the air, sending it flying through the sky like a comet towards Taunton, where it immediately started attacking. A moment later, the image cut back to a view of Lucas¡¯ face, watching the carnage the beast was wreaking with a savage grin on his face.


    That wasn¡¯t how it had happened. Not even close.


    But it didn¡¯t matter. The truth hit him with the force of a train, knocking his mental fortitude off balance. The moon wavered, dimming.


    The image wasn¡¯t necessarily meant for him. Surely he wasn¡¯t the only one seeing this.


    Laughter in a thousand discordant voices echoed like rolling thunder.


    ¡°Vvvvvvaaaaaaa¡­¡±


    The chorus was cacophonous. The sheer volume of it vibrated his entire body, affecting him on more than just the physical level. His mana pathways shivered. Jamie¡¯s rage kicked up to a new level; the eldritch creature he¡¯d bonded to barely resembled a cat anymore, unfolding itself into a manic mess of animal parts that had no right to fit together. He could barely make sense of the creature¡¯s form even through their bond.


    Just fucking get out! He thought, bringing one hand to his chest as he¡¯d seen Valerie do plenty of times. You¡¯re the one that knows how, you dumb¡­ whatever you are!


    Lucas¡¯ thoughts were growing scrambled, and the noise wasn¡¯t helping. Desperate, he tried to focus on what was going on around him, hoping he¡¯d see some clue as to how he could get through this disaster.


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    Instead, he saw carnage.


    He didn¡¯t know what the demon had done, but in the intervening time where he¡¯d been distracted by Jamie, it had spawned things down below. They were like beasts, but not; each one was humanoid, with two arms and two legs, but that was where the similarities to human beings ended. They moved like contortionists, lurching this way and that, but there was purpose to their motion, intent.


    For some reason, Lucas found himself focusing on one in particular, a single scene among many. It looked like a woman in a dark cloak, but the hood had melted into the sides of her face. Thick, black veins trailed out from where the fabric had fused to her skin, running down to her jawline and below like lightning bolts. Her eyes were wild, frenzied, and they were focused like she saw only one man in the courtyard.


    Elwyn. Frozen still with his children cowering behind him, all three of them just as intent on the monstrous creature as it was on them. They were wide-eyed, trembling, frozen to the spot as it stumbled towards them.


    There were many like that, though just as many people were fighting back against their personal monsters. Either way, any semblance of a coordinated defence had broken down.


    The demon¡¯s laughter rumbled through the world, revelling in the misery it was causing as it rippled back up the outer wall of the keep. It had no face, no eyes, but somehow Lucas felt its attention was riveted on the scene beneath it.


    Valerie evidently felt the same, and took it as her cue to act.


    Except she didn¡¯t attack.


    Lucas didn¡¯t even realise what she¡¯d done until there was absolutely nothing he could do about it; in the blink of an eye, he was resting over her shoulder like a bag of potatoes, soaring through the air with the town blurring by below them, his stomach turning as much from being pressed to the metal plate on her shoulder as at the sudden momentum. Valerie¡¯s cloak was spread out like a pair of wings, and even with his grayscale, colourless vision he could tell the magical fabric was rapidly darkening, to the point it was nearing the black of night. His heart threatened to race, but the moon shone upon him once more from the corner of his vision, cracked and dimmed but back to soothing his panic before it could even begin.


    But that only worked for the fear that came with realising he was soaring high through the air on the back of a woman half a head shorter than him. Not even the moon could do anything about the horror that suffused him when he realised the intent behind this sudden flight.


    She was running away. Escaping. Leaving all those people to die horribly.


    ¡°You pray it loses interest in you.¡±


    Everything had happened so fast. In reality, it had probably been a handful of seconds since the demon had entered the town; she''d been planning this from the moment she saw it, hence why she''d taken him straight to the roof.


    Lucas started thrashing, a keening cry breaking through the moon¡¯s calming embrace, tearing out of his throat. ¡°No! Back!¡±


    Valerie ignored him. No matter how he tried to wriggle out of her grip, her arms remained steel. Her cloak was almost midnight now, and they descended rapidly, the ground rushing towards them at terrifying speed. But Valerie landed as easily as if she¡¯d just hopped off a curb, barely bleeding a fraction of her momentum, transitioning into a sprint down the wide main street that led directly west of the town where the firesheep still burned. Their bleats of terror grew louder.


    ¡°Valerie!¡± Lucas tried to shout, but it felt like his body was muted, numbed. His heart should¡¯ve been beating harder than this, his breaths coming more laboured, his stomach churning. He felt distant from himself, his very soul being pulled away from the physical reactions of his body, drawn upwards towards the false moon.


    Again, she ignored him. Didn¡¯t let him down. She moved with incredible speed, far faster than he could have managed even with mana-assisted strength, yet somehow barely making a sound.


    Or maybe that was merely because Lucas couldn¡¯t quite focus on anything other than the desperate screams in the distance, both human and beastly. He imagined he could pick out individual voices among them, faces flashing through his mind.


    Wick, with that easy grin he hadn¡¯t shown since the incident in Pentaburgh. Aly, with her perpetual frown. Elwyn with his welcoming eyes, and his two innocent children. Even the people he barely knew; Deryk the skycloak, Jeisyn the Bowmaster and all the others from his guild, Loren and Marsh who he¡¯d barely met for a few minutes before the alarm had gone up.


    None of them deserved to die. Especially not like this.


    Jamie was still going mad in his chest, furious at the demon but trapped in a prison of his own making, and he seemed to get worse and worse as they got further away. It was starting to hurt, but Lucas didn¡¯t know what he could do about it. His mana seemed not his own, tugged between the moon¡¯s influence and whatever it was his bonded companion was doing.


    Valerie reached the edge of the town and passed through the gate in no time at all. His stomach lurched as she leapt again, pure strength carrying them over and through the inferno the firesheep had stoked up, a wave of heat washing over them before they burst through. The firesheep were running around madly in the conflagration, utterly frenzied, mindless with terror even this far from the demon and without its attention. They wouldn¡¯t escape its wrath, either.


    It was all horrifying, but the moon was stealing his disgust before he could even process it. For the first time since he¡¯d been graced by its calming light, he glared up at the moon with anger, and even that he could feel draining away; even cracked and deformed by the demon¡¯s assault, it was picking him apart, pulling away the parts it felt he didn¡¯t need.


    Fuck you, Lucas thought, reaching up for the pendant.


    Valerie came to an abrupt stop, and Lucas would¡¯ve gone flying from her hold if she hadn¡¯t snatched his arm, pulling him down next to her. The sudden halt in momentum jarred at his bones and sent his brain rattling in his skull. But as dizzy as he felt, Lucas wasted no time in tearing the pendant from his neck, snapping its chain, clenching hard in his fist; a part of him hoped it would shatter.


    Sensation flooded back in, briefly overwhelming. The cold of the night, biting, fighting against the hot flames that roared away a dozen metres to his right. The screams in the distance, the terrified bleating of the firesheep, the awful laughter of the demon as it tormented the people of Taunton. Colour bled into his vision, turning the world to watercolour; the brilliant reds and oranges and white of the flames, the majestic twinkling sky, and even the reddish-pink of his mildly scorched fingers. They weren''t more than a hundred metres beyond the town''s western gate; close enough to hear the screams from the keep with startling clarity. There was no sign of anything chasing after them, beast or demon.


    Lucas glared at the pendant with disgust, gripping it tightly in his hand. Logically, he knew it had saved him. He could still feel its effects, even, nipping at the edges of his feelings and taking the bite off them. But emotion that had been totally muted was flooding back in, and it was hard to get past the anger permeating him. He was ready to throw it at Valerie, to rage and demand she take him back. But when he saw her face, he froze.


    Her demonic mien was worse than he¡¯d ever seen it. Inhuman, almost. The gaunt cheeks, the sunken eyes, the pale complexion. Ghoulish.


    But the sight brought him no fear, for there wasn¡¯t a hint of that otherworldly fury in her expression. The vast majority of her face was blank, emotion wiped clean. Her lips were neutral, her brows straight. She wasn¡¯t even breathing heavily.


    The only emotion was in her eyes, and it was the furthest thing from rage.


    Tears streamed down her face, carving wavy lines through the soot and dirt marring her cheeks. Her eyes were bloodshot and red-rimmed, her icy blue pupils dilated without a hint of that moonlight that sometimes entered them. Shadows seemed to dance across her form, lit by the great flames to their side. Her cloak was dark as the sky behind her.


    ¡°If you have a plan to save those people that would not put you in jeopardy,¡± she said quietly, with the slightest tremor in her voice, ¡°I would very much like to hear it.¡±

 45: Annihilate (3)

    Lucas closed his eyes and tried to centre himself. It turned out that blocking out the world and focusing on his mana was a far harder task when the wind carried a chorus of spine-chilling screams, accompanied by the roar of a panic-fuelled magical fire. It seemed an unending noise, as if the world itself was crying out in agony, never stopping for breath.


    The screams were the worst sound Lucas had ever heard, and shutting them out was the hardest thing he¡¯d ever had to do. Especially when he realised the number of shrill, terrified voices drifting from the distant town was shrinking by the minute.


    Conflicting desires were at war within him. The noble part of him wanted nothing more than to sprint to their rescue. The part of him he couldn¡¯t decide whether to name cowardly or pragmatic wanted to sprint in the precise opposite direction and never look back until he reached civilisation and could be relatively sure the monster causing those screams was far, far away from him.


    It didn¡¯t matter either way. Valerie sat in the grass in front of him, mirroring his cross-legged position, and she¡¯d promised to throw him over her shoulder and flee, not stopping for anything this time, if she got even a hint of danger directed at his person.


    Valerie had given him a time limit.


    ¡°We cannot linger if your plan fails,¡± she had told him. ¡°If we cannot save these people, we must use the demon¡¯s preoccupation with tormenting them as a chance to escape.¡±


    Then her eyes had hardened, and she¡¯d said to him: ¡°If you take one step back towards the village, I will knock you unconscious and carry you the rest of the way to Dawnguard.¡±


    Somehow, he was sure she meant it.


    He tried to tell himself that he¡¯d seek to help if she wasn¡¯t there, that he¡¯d put the safety of others over his own, but even he wasn¡¯t convinced. The thought of facing that abomination again sent his body into a panic, and the knowledge that he¡ªthe chosen hero¡ªwas expected to face demons even more powerful than that in the future terrified him. The prospect made him want to run back to Pentaburgh and try to find a way to force the summoning portal to reopen and spit him out on Earth.


    But he couldn¡¯t run away. Not here and not in the future. It wasn¡¯t in him to. Not when he knew millions of lives were in the balance.


    Not when he knew his friends were out there somewhere. Jamie. Rian. Claire. Even Aarya. He had to find them all, discover what had happened to them for himself.


    There was no going back without them.


    Time was ticking away; he had to make this work.


    Deep breaths. In. Out.


    His mana roiled like a storm was raging within his soul. The demon was hundreds and hundreds of metres away¡ªValerie had insisted on putting more distance between them and Taunton, and now they were far enough that he could have blocked out his view of the town with his palm if he held it out at arm¡¯s length¡ªbut its influence still lingered, even indirectly.


    As they¡¯d gotten further from the town, it had lessened but never quite gone away entirely. Chaos plucked at his mana, and he had to maintain a constant conscious effort to keep his pathways from disfiguring.


    They¡¯d stopped and sat down in a patch of rough grass once Lucas had explained his plan, and since then his hands had clenched tightly around his knees. Tension was detrimental to his focus, but he couldn¡¯t seem to loosen the grip. His fingers ached from the stress he was putting on them, and he wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he found bruises on his knees later.


    Focus, he thought, frustrated at himself. He needed to be better than this. The distractions didn¡¯t matter. His inadequacies didn¡¯t matter. So many people were counting on him, the big important bloody prophesied hero that he supposedly was. It was about time that he lived up to the title.


    Uncurling his fingers took force of will. His hand shook as he reached out, grasping the moonlight pendant that had been resting in the grass before him. Immediately, tranquillity settled over him. Not quite as total as it had been back in the town, when he wore it around his neck, but it numbed the edge of the frantic emotions that were trying to tear a path through his psyche.


    He closed his eyes, feeling the moonlight shine on his eyelids, a pale luminance that seemed to dim his emotions any time they threatened to rise. At the same time, it centred him, warding off the demon¡¯s chaotic influence.


    He needed to figure out how it did that, and he needed to figure it out fast.


    ¡°It was created by Lady Claire herself,¡± Valerie had told him, tears still shining in her eyes. She¡¯d made no attempt to wipe them away, as if she didn¡¯t even notice they were there. If she spent almost all her time under the effect of the pendant, Lucas thought, she probably wasn¡¯t used to feeling so strongly.


    It was a pitiful existence, in his opinion, to live all her life so¡­ muted. Not that he was ever going to say that to her. She probably thought of it as necessary, and maybe it was. He¡¯d seen for himself the demonic visage she¡¯d gained when her anger had threatened to peak through the deadening effect of her pendant, and didn¡¯t want to imagine what she¡¯d look like without the pendant to keep her reined in.


    Demon-touched, Jyn had called her. Lucas had been wondering what that meant, and he was accumulating dozens of theories about it. He hoped one day she¡¯d tell him, rather than having to find out for himself the hard way.


    For now, though, all the information he needed from her was how the pendant worked.


    ¡°It¡¯s the effect of moonlight mana,¡± she told him, in the present. ¡°Lady Claire told me it¡¯s the rarest mana of all, because it can only be gathered during a full moon, and the vast majority of it dissipates before even reaching Aerth. Gathering it in a high enough quantity to create the artifact was the work of decades. It¡¯s singularly unique.¡±


    He turned the milky white gem over and over in his fingers, feeling the smoothness of it, trying to tap into the feeling of the mana. It didn¡¯t work like the vitality of plants or fire. It was more insubstantial, like mist. Hard to attune himself to¡ªthough he was fairly sure he was getting there. Each time he tried to probe his mana into it, it felt easier.


    But figuring out how to work with the moonlight mana was only half the battle. Maybe less. ¡°And what about moonlight mana fights off the influence of a demon? Why does it calm us so?¡±


    Valerie took a moment to answer that. ¡°Tranquillity,¡± she said, voice almost reverent. ¡°Surely you¡¯ve looked up at the man and beheld its placid beauty, Lucas? It¡¯s the most constant thing in our world, besides the sun itself. Unchanging. Ordered. It stands, symbolically, in diametric opposition to chaos.¡±


    ¡°I did. I have.¡± Lucas frowned. ¡°But surely the sun is even more unchanging¡­¡±


    ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Valerie said. ¡°To us, yes, it¡¯s constant, for certain. For all our existence, it¡¯s been the bright spot in the sky, bringing us warmth and light¡­ but it also heralds change. Lady Claire said the sun is an immense and chaotic ball of fire, constantly shifting, and its light alters our world. The seasons. Night and day. Warmth and cold. All are affected by the sun.¡±


    ¡°And that brings chaos?¡±


    ¡°No. In some complex magical workings, the sun is indeed used as a conceptual anchor. But for my purposes, the moon was superior. A light in the darkness.¡± She paused. ¡°The moon is, in reality, an enormous sphere of rock that happened to get caught in our planet¡¯s orbit countless centuries ago. But magic isn¡¯t always so concerned with the reality of things, when you reach the level of wielding concepts and metaphors.¡±


    ¡°And that doesn¡¯t apply to the sun?¡±


    ¡°It does, but in different ways.¡± Another pause. This one was long enough that the distant screams started to creep back into his perception. When she continued, her voice gained a strained edged to it. ¡°Time runs short, Lucas. You must focus.¡±


    Lucas nodded. He knew what he had to do, and he was actually fairly confident it was going to work.


    He hoped that wasn¡¯t just blind hope.


    Because actually doing it was another matter entirely.


    Especially when there was an eldritch abomination currently rampaging in the nexus of his very soul.  It was mightily distracting, and no matter how much he tried, there was no blocking out the emotions the creature was sending to him. Even the pendant couldn¡¯t handle them for him anymore, such was the beast¡¯s distress.


    Jamie the monstercat no longer even vaguely resembled a cat. Through their bond, Lucas had always been aware that the ¡®cat¡¯ was an eldritch amalgamation of countless creatures, a feline outline containing a multitude of different skeletons and musculature mushed together.


    Now, the creature had done away with the facade entirely. Thrashing around as an undulating mass, it more closely resembled a beast. It snapped with hundreds of jaws, swiped with hundreds of claws. It never kept a single, simple form for more than an instant.


    Its rage and bloodlust flooded through the bond, and every iota of its attention was directed at the demon looming over Taunton, even with all the distance they¡¯d put between them. Nothing Lucas tried got its attention. It was like the creature¡¯s mind had been utterly overridden by the singular desire to fight the demon. Lucas wasn¡¯t sure Jamie even acknowledged his existence now.


    And time was ticking. Every second that went by was potentially another death, or worse.


    Lucas breathed deeply and seized his mind in an iron grip, all his will dedicated to observing his mana pathways. Zooming in closer, he narrowed his attention on the area that mapped onto where his real heart was in his physical body. It was little different from the rest of his pathways, save for the fact there was a monstrous creature thrashing around in there, trapped for no reason that Lucas could immediately discern.


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    Casting his mind back, he tried to remember the times when Jamie had voluntarily escaped his chest, recalling the feelings and sensations. It had been painful, though the pain hadn¡¯t lasted long; Jamie¡¯s mass was too big to be contained in the form of a cat, and similarly the monster¡¯s soul was far too large to live inside Lucas¡¯. When Jamie had broken out, it had been like both their souls abruptly remembered that fact, and suddenly the monster had been too big to stay contained in Lucas¡¯ soulheart. Yet, somehow, it had done no actual damage. Jamie had just¡­ opened a gap and burst free. Simple as anything.


    But how?


    Lucas focused on the bond itself, feeling out the connection. In a way, it was hard to distinguish between himself and Jamie; he felt the monstercat¡¯s soul almost as easily as he felt his own. There was practically no gap between them. They were, from a certain point of view, functionally one being, though they operated independently from one another and, as far as he could tell, couldn¡¯t directly act on each other¡¯s souls; there had to be reciprocity, permission.


    Regardless, it was hard to tell where he ended and Jamie began. Their souls were intertwined, woven together like a patch sewn onto a doll so perfectly that one had to hold it close and squint to see the stitches. He had no idea where he¡¯d even begin trying to decouple them, and after everything he didn¡¯t want to. If nothing else, he very much didn¡¯t want to lose access to his heart¡¯s flame.


    That could be an angle, Lucas thought, terribly aware of the seconds ticking by. Jamie was both the engine and the conduit for Lucas¡¯ pyromancy. When Lucas was channelling fire mana, their connection went beyond a mere bond. Beyond them being one. The lines between them blurred, going past any ¡®sewing¡¯ metaphor; in those instances, it was more like a temporary heart transplant where the surgical scars were somehow perfectly healed.


    In his capacity as Lucas¡¯ heart¡¯s flame, Jamie became a being of fire, a fundamentally different existence from his strange base state. It was in those moments where they felt closest; the fire mana that coursed through Lucas¡¯ system when he performed pyromancy was a part of Jamie, spreading the monstercat¡¯s influence through his body, bringing them together, merging their existence.


    It was a frustrating state of affairs, having to rely on a thinking, independent being to perform pyromancy, but at the same time it was strangely comforting, looking back on it. The mental lag between thought and action was far from ideal, but Jamie had never denied him. Quite the opposite, in fact: Jamie had been maintaining Lucas¡¯ firehand for weeks, allowing him to direct his attention elsewhere. He had no idea what he would¡¯ve done if he had to keep up the firehand himself. Maybe he would¡¯ve failed and ended up with a charred and blackened stump to deal with.


    The firehand, he thought almost absently, flexing his mercifully fleshy fingers.


    Restoring his hand had been a function of his mana¡¯s memory. Even if he couldn¡¯t possibly recite every detail of his mana off the top of his head, it was recorded in the annals of his soul. There, surely, would be the answer to his conundrum; somewhere in the archives of information within his mana would be the moments when Jamie had escaped from his chest. He just had to find it. His confidence surged.


    But here, Lucas stopped himself before he could go any further. A huge part of him, the instinctual, emotional, reckless side of him could think only of those people still trapped in Taunton. He was desperate to do something¡ªanything¡ªto help them.


    But he¡¯d been thinking along similar lines back in Elwyn¡¯s farm, and look at where that had got him. Much as it pained him, he had to stop and think, to consider the possibilities, the potential ramifications. Based on what he knew, what could go wrong if he released Jamie now?


    First and foremost, he had no direct control over the monstercat¡¯s actions, and no certainty of what Jamie would do upon release. Their connection was a symbiotic one. There was no dominant half of their bond, and communication between them was rudimentary at best, vague feelings travelling forth along their spiritual link¡ªwell, not so vague right now. Nothing about Jamie¡¯s current murderous rage was unclear.


    If Jamie went off the rails and started hurting people rather than the demon or rampaging through the countryside like a mad beast, Lucas had no guarantee he could stop the creature. Hell, Jamie could even turn on him, for all he knew. He¡¯d already been unable to calm Jamie down while he was inside Lucas¡¯ chest; Lucas didn¡¯t fancy his chances of reigning Jamie in once he was out.


    But he had to if he was going to do anything to help. He needed to be able to concentrate on his soul without a monster thrashing around within. His plan depended on it.


    A sickening thought occurred to him: he didn¡¯t have to help, necessarily. It was possible the townsfolk could make it out of this on their own, and his interference would only make things worse.


    He banished that notion before it could go any further. Those screams carrying on the wind didn¡¯t sound like people who were mounting much of a resistance.


    Lucas drew in a shaky breath, feeling like his lungs were being constricted. He was in the open air, only the sky above and grassy fields stretching long in every direction, but he felt like there were invisible walls closing in around him. A cold wind brushed over his skin, making him shiver.


    There were other possibilities to consider. The demon could corrupt Jamie, thus corrupting Lucas through their bond. Or it could make Jamie change sides somehow. Or the demon could even straight up defeat Jamie; the eldritch cat seemed pretty chaotic, putting it squarely in the demon¡¯s domain.


    The trouble was, he knew far too little about his bonded companion. The question of the monstercat¡¯s nature and origin had been at the back of Lucas¡¯ mind ever since he¡¯d bonded with the bloody thing, but with no obvious direction to search for answers, it hadn¡¯t been a priority. He regretted that now.


    Thinking back, he examined the interactions he¡¯d had with the creature so far, and the behaviours it had exhibited. It had been there on his stomach from the moment he woke up, but what had it been doing there? Few if any animals had dared exist so far north, and especially not inside the city itself, so he didn¡¯t think it was hunting. It had taken a liking to him immediately and showed no hostility to other humans until their final confrontation with Jyn, and it hadn¡¯t been interested in the city itself, from what he could tell, so he didn¡¯t think it was some kind of guardian left behind to protect Pentaburgh.


    It had immediately initiated a bond with him the moment he¡¯d touched it with his mana, as if it knew exactly what to do and had been waiting for it. There was a feeling of intentionality to that, of purpose. Taking into account how it had also helped him sort out his mana upon the confrontation with that pack of beasts on the hilltop¡­


    Was that it? Was it some magical creature meant to bond with someone to help them fight against demons, somehow?


    It seemed implausible, but it was an explanation within the realms of possibility, at least. And even if his decision-making was suspect, he was still willing to assign some level of significance to his gut instincts and guesses.


    Whatever the case, he knew the reality of the situation: he wanted to let Jamie out, and was just trying to convince himself it was the right decision. It was a risk. A massive risk.


    But one he had to take. Using his mana in this situation wasn¡¯t viable, and his plan hinged on using his Gift to bridge the gap between the novice mage that he was and the master he needed to be for this to work.


    And then a thought occurred to him. Could he solve both problems at once?


    Opening his eyes, he looked at the spot on Valerie¡¯s chest from which she¡¯d drawn her mighty white sword. ¡°Remind me: how do you bond with a magical object?¡± he asked, his words coming out in a rapid tumble.


    Valerie blinked slowly. ¡°It¡¯s a matter of attuning yourself to it, feeding mana to it over time until it becomes indistinguishable from your soul. We¡¯ve been over this.¡±


    ¡°And that lets you put store in your soulheart?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Valerie said even slower, eyeing him with suspicion.


    ¡°But there¡¯s something already in my soulheart. What then?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a Star,¡± Valerie replied. ¡°There¡¯s room in a Star¡¯s heart for all four of the other disciplines, and the Great Star, I imagine, will surely grant you even greater capacity.¡± Her eyes flickered to the moonlight pendant, watching it rotate slowly through Lucas¡¯ fingers. ¡°You¡¯re going to try to bond with the pendant?¡±


    ¡°After a fashion,¡± Lucas said. He paused. ¡°Do I have your blessing?¡±


    ¡°Do what you must,¡± Valerie said.


    Lucas nodded.


    Something settled in him, hardening. Resolve. He had a way forward, and he was going to snatch it with both hands.


    Lucas delved deeper into his mana than he ever had before and searched back through his memories at the same time, focusing on the sensations of the bond, cataloguing every instance of interaction between his soul and Jamie¡¯s. The task was a monumental one, and he wouldn¡¯t have been able to even try it without his gift, but in moments the information was there at his mental fingertips, ready to be perused.


    Except he didn¡¯t need to reach into any individual memory, he needed to tap into the whole. Everything he knew about the bond flooded from his memory into his conscious mind, and he held it all there, relying on that feeling as a guide.


    Concentrating with all his might, he started to draw little tendrils of mana out of his pathways. They curled through the air like ribbons in his mind¡¯s eye, tiny little wisps seeking out the soothing light of the moon. He directed them to the surface of the pendant, and where they touched, the mana gained a luminescent sheen.


    For the first time since he¡¯d felt the demon¡¯s chaotic influence, Jamie went still, freezing in the form of an undulating beast with a million eyes on each of its thousands of tentacles. Its attention split, part remaining fixed on the demon, and more zeroing in on the pendant.


    You recognise that, don¡¯t you? Lucas thought. You¡¯ve seen it before, but not here. And not so weak. It¡¯s tranquillity. The power of a celestial object that behaves in predictable patterns, day after day, month after month, year after year, and it can help us¡ªyou¡ªface the monster that you hate with more vitriol than I ever imagined was possible.


    It will let you do what I¡¯m pretty sure you were made for.


    The pendant turned weightless, carried by magic, and Lucas released his grip on it, letting it rise from his fingers and float towards his heart as if drawn by a hungry maw. Harsh white light shone on his eyelids, and he opened his eyes to see the pendant glowing greater than it ever had before, like the power within was expanding out of the puny gem that contained it. At the same time, the illusory moon high in the sky seemed to be growing, getting closer.


    He could feel Jamie¡¯s mana digging deeper and deeper into the pendant with every moment. The monstercat was laser-focused on the lunar mana, its attention falling away from the demon entirely. Lucas could feel it as if it was own¡ªbecause, in a way, it was. The lunar mana started to mix and mingle with the fire, spreading throughout his body at a flex of Jamie¡¯s will. There was an endless depth to the creature¡¯s power, and it was willing to share every drop of that strength with him for the sake of defeating its hated enemy.


    Hours or days could have passed, though it couldn¡¯t really have been more than seconds. Cracks spider-webbed across the gem. A shriek tore through the air. Could air blew over his skin, freezing his sweat into tiny icicles.


    And yet, he felt warm.


    Warm, yet tranquil as the full moon.


    The moonlight pendant shattered with a deep hiss as the last of the lunar mana speared right into his heart, consumed both by his bonded companion and the natural gift imparted on his soul by the ritual of the Great Star. He felt it course through him, somehow remaining placid despite how it surged through his pathways. The moonlight fought against the chaotic influence of the demon, and, with Jamie¡¯s help, it was winning. It wasn¡¯t immunity to the chaos. It wasn¡¯t a perfect defence. But it was greater than what he¡¯d had before, and with it, along with Jamie¡¯s newly calm state, he could act. With purpose.


    Lucas took a deep breath, calmer than he¡¯d felt in hours. Days, even. He was ready. They were ready, united more than they ever had been, their purpose utterly aligned.


    Back to the plan.


    All he had to do now was combine his newly learned magic with his floramancy abilities to create a novel plant network technique that could fight the demon off from hundreds of metres away semi-autonomously. Preferably within the next few minutes, before the demon could finish tearing every living creature within Taunton apart.


    And that was only part one.

 46: Annihilate (4)

    Life flickered erratically around him. It was like the entire world was thin as a reed, and a distant, howling wind was constantly blowing. Lucas felt like a tree in that gale; still swaying, but much more solid than everything else. The demon¡¯s influence was still hitting him, would uproot him and send him careening into the maelstrom of chaos if he¡¯d let it, but his will had far more of an effect on himself than it had before.


    Aided by Jamie and the lunar mana, he was actively solidifying his existence, establishing himself in the world in a way he hadn¡¯t been able to on his own, when previously he¡¯d had to rely on rage-fuelled determination. He didn¡¯t know what the monstercat really was or where it had come from, but he was fairly sure he knew what it was meant for. Whether it had been born naturally, created in a laboratory, or was simply some freak occurrence of demonic corruption turned against its progenitors, Lucas was almost certain that Jamie¡¯s purpose was to fight demons¡ªit was just incomplete. The who, what, when, where, why, or how didn¡¯t matter to him so much. Not right now.


    Right now, his focus was on the plant life. Valerie wouldn¡¯t let him get any closer to the town, and his only hope of having any effect from a distance was with the magical discipline he¡¯d been cultivating since he found himself in this world. He was no master, not even close, but it was the best he had.


    And when it came to floramancy, the most impressive display he¡¯d seen was the plant network that had covered Pentaburgh. Set up by ¡°Lady¡± Claire, for decades it had defended the city from all comers, and undoubtedly agents of chaos counted among that number. Lucas couldn¡¯t hope to match the Great Wand¡¯s masterwork right now, but he desperately hoped he could affect some approximation of its effects.


    It was the only plan he could think of, and thus it was the people of Taunton¡¯s only chance of salvation.


    Lucas took deep breaths, focusing on the feeling of the grass and weeds and meadow plants against his back, arms, legs, neck, head. He wasn¡¯t sure how much lying down to give him more points of contact with the vegetation would help, but he was willing to fight for every tiny advantage.


    His plant mana was already roaring through his channels at the absolute apex of his speed, and he was pushing it out into the air as fast as he could, spreading it as far as it would go around him and directing it into every plant in his range. Merging the lunar mana with Jamie and uniting their causes had given him a great boost, but his range still couldn¡¯t have been much larger than fifty metres in any direction. Not even close to enough to reach Taunton from this distance.


    But if things went to plan, it wouldn¡¯t need to.


    Jamie matched every movement of Lucas¡¯ plant mana with the new lunar mana, following his machinations step by step with barely a second of lag. Lucas didn¡¯t know how much the monstercat grasped of his plan, but he supposed it didn¡¯t need to. Jamie knew that Lucas bore the demon ill will, and it needed nothing more.


    The very air was becoming saturated with arcane power. Slowly, steadily, the plants around them were starting to glow a ghostly white, like they¡¯d grown on the moon and been magically transferred down to Aerth. A ring of luminescence was building, with Lucas at the epicentre.


    It was undoubtedly a beautiful sight. But it was only the beginning.


    High above, somewhere beyond the clouds, the true moon watched over them. He could feel the tiniest hint of its celestial mana poking through the clouds, so faint it was barely there. That was fine. As long as the moon¡¯s influence was greater than zero, he could make this work. He hoped.


    When he felt the plants in his range were sufficiently under his influence, with Jamie¡¯s lunar mana piggy-backing on his plant mana, he delved deeper into the memory of the plants. Information unfurled in his mind, a genetic archive of life. There were millions of blades of grass in his range. Thousands of different species of weed. Countless small flowers and shrubs and wild vegetables. His mind flicked through all of them, noting their properties, purposes, and possibilities. Knowledge flooded through his consciousness, and he took it all in an iron grip, mushing it together.


    What resulted was a tangled amalgam of genetic information packed into a tiny space, the mana memory of thousands of plant species inhabiting a place where only one was supposed to reside. Something strained, fighting back against the impossibility. Without his influence, none of these individual plants could¡¯ve held this much information.


    But all of them together, linked? That was another matter entirely.


    In his mind¡¯s eye, he imagined the mana memory spreading out, diffusing over the massive amount of plants currently under his soul¡¯s sway. It went easier than he expected, like the magic itself already knew what to do now that he¡¯d activated the ¡®spell.¡¯ Soon, the strain on the mana construct started to fade, and by the time it had fully dispersed, he didn¡¯t need to hold it together at all.


    I have a plant network. Basic, and it currently relies on me, but still.


    The thought was a giddy one. No doubt a manic grin was splitting his lips. It was hard to tell, when his conscious mind was so dispersed through his mana like this. He felt like he was a cloud floating around the outside of his body, connected but diffused. Valerie stood guard nearby, a shining silhouette in the area of his influence, interposed between him and the distant town. Her mana held the same celestial radiance of Jamie¡¯s, but¡­ darker, somehow. Something to ask about later.


    Like this, he could barely hear the screams. It was almost peaceful. Part of him wanted to drift off to sleep and let the moon carry away his troubles.


    But he couldn¡¯t. No matter how tranquil the lunar mana made him, he could never escape the duty he¡¯d imposed upon himself. Lives were in the balance.


    Back to work.


    He had his plant network, or the beginning of it; a rudimentary form of the masterwork that guarded Pentaburgh. Right now, it was little more than an area of potential. If he left it to its own devices now and came back in a year, he¡¯d probably find blades of grass that had grown thorns, and weeds that sprouted petals, and a general mixture of colours and traits that wouldn¡¯t have naturally occurred in the wild. Maybe after clear nights under the light of the moon, his patch of grass would turn white and give off a calming aura to any who treaded through it.


    He needed it to do more than that, and he needed it now.


    When Lucas delved deeper into the newly formed plant network once more, this time he focused on the lunar mana that had been copying his movements from the beginning, courtesy of the creature residing in his soulheart. Lunamancy was quite literally new to him, so this was going to take a lot of improvisation. Trial and error, but hopefully with as little error as possible.


    The most important part of lunar mana, as far as he was concerned, was its resistance to demonic chaos, but it was hard to wrap his head around how it was doing it. It was, at its essence, a passive effect. As Valerie had explained, the moon was an ancient, unchanging sentinel, and thus was the mana it radiated down on the world. It resisted chaos by its very nature, its steady passivity granting it the stability to maintain order against demonic malice. It was a symbol of peace, of tranquillity. Far removed from Aerth and its mortal concerns.


    Somehow, he needed to tap into that ability and make it active, while still maintaining its resistance to chaos. To that end, he focused deeper and deeper until his entire mana sense was trained on a single blade of grass, suffused with the aura of moonlight. Around him, the demon¡¯s chaotic influence still tried its damnedest to warp the world in its infernal image, but this single blade of grass stood strong.


    The moonlight seemed to reinforce it. The blade of grass was just more there than such a small plant had any right to be. A greater presence.


    Oh, he could feel the influence of the chaos. It was much like when he¡¯d first faced the beasts alongside Valerie and the rest of the party, on the first night he¡¯d met them all. The beasts¡¯ screams had messed with his mana pathways, and he¡¯d been assaulted with the horrifying sensations of seeing two different versions of his mana system interposed upon each other; the way his mana system was supposed to be, alongside the tangled monstrosity the beasts¡¯ rudimentary chaos was trying to transform him into.


    The same was true here, when he looked close. It was hard to see beneath the lunar mana suffusing the plant, but there were multiple faint outlines of chaotic mana pathways, changing every second. While the grass¡¯ regular pathways largely followed the blade of grass itself, the chaotic ones looked like wild scribbles. Lucas couldn¡¯t even imagine what the grass would end up looking like if the chaos had its way¡ªand he was confident at this point that he¡¯d never have to see it. The chaotic pathways couldn¡¯t find any purchase, the light of the lunar mana chasing them away every time they tried to solidify.


    ¡°Okay,¡± he whispered. He felt Valerie tilt her head, listening. ¡°I¡¯m going to try the potentially inadvisable part now.¡±


    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t place you in any danger,¡± Valerie told him. She wouldn¡¯t have let him try it otherwise.


    ¡°We¡¯ll have to see.¡±


    Valerie nodded, and Lucas delved into the plant network once more.


    This time, he was there to give instructions. Both to the plant mana, and the lunar mana. What he needed was far more complicated than what he¡¯d messed around with before, back during his experiments with the stinging nettles, but he¡¯d already established that he could give mana rudimentary commands and leave it to operate without his direct input. Experimenting with changing leaves¡¯ colours as they travelled had proved that long before he¡¯d figured out the truth of the plant network of Pentaburgh.


    But it had to be done. Lucas focused on the lunar mana first, holding that image of the mana resisting chaos in his mind. With a force of will, he changed the mental image, pushing it. Instead of white light trapped in the form of a blade of grace, he forced it to radiate out, to glow, pushing back against the chaos in the air.


    Immediately, he felt the strain of mana rushing out of his body as the construct drained more lunar mana as required. Jamie was up to the task of producing more, but the increase in power needed for just that much was a bit alarming. His mana was moving way too fast through his network. Any other type of mana aside from lunar, and it might¡¯ve burned him from the inside out.


    The pale light on the back of his eyelids grew steadily brighter though, which encouraged him enough that his worries fell to the wayside, forgotten. He licked his lips, his heart picking up.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get too excited yet,¡± Lucas muttered. ¡°Focus.¡±


    Taking deep breaths, centring himself, Lucas did his best to hold the shape of the entire construct in his mind. Information flooded into his brain, mapping out a 3-D image of his network. He dismissed most of the finer details, focusing instead on the whole, in abstract. Just as he¡¯d done for the lunar mana, he took the picture of the current state, and imagined it changing, becoming what he wanted it to be.


    He pictured the construct drawing on the ambient mana of the moon, powering itself, growing. He imagined its power radiating out, combatting the chaos.


    And then came the part he wasn¡¯t sure was going to work at all.


    He imagined it growing brighter and brighter, reacting to where the chaos was greatest and advancing against its antithetical enemy. In his mind¡¯s eye, his invented construct pursued chaos like a giant agent of a world-scale immune system. He had it reach out tendrils of lunar mana to other plants, inducting them into the network to become part of the glorious crusade against demonic influence, and where it found living beings affected by chaos, he had it perform the very same cleansing it was doing on him, imbuing the memory of its calming effect deep in the network. It would spread and spread and spread, ever seeking out infernal influence and bringing order to the world, freeing living beings from madness. As long as it had power, it would fight chaos.


    Immediately, Lucas¡¯ capacity to produce mana reached its limit, flooding out of his pathways in an endless torrent. The glow against the back of his eyelids grew so bright he was sure the moon had been dragged down into the atmosphere and was about to crash into him, and at the same time, the amount of Lunar mana Jamie held in his heart was draining away alarmingly fast. The product of decades would be gone in mere minutes, if he let it. He was forced to cut it off¡ªor, more accurately, ask Jamie to¡ªlest he lose access to lunar mana forever.


    His eyes snapped open, and Lucas found himself surrounded by moonlight.


    Lunar mana spread through the plantlife like a slow wave, flooding towards Taunton. It moved agonisingly slowly, but where it moved it grew. Already, it had spread a good dozen metres beyond the original plant network Lucas had created, and it was still going, like a lake that had overflown its banks. Slow as it was, its growth was exponential, inducting hundreds¡ªmaybe even thousands¡ªof new plants into its ranks every second. Every moment, it got brighter. Soon, it¡¯d be painful to look at.


    And it was doing all this without Lucas¡¯ input. He and Valerie retreated to the edge of the lunar mana¡¯s range the moment he felt his new ¡®spell¡¯ was complete, no longer needing his input. With Jamie helping him, his effective range of influence was about fifty metres, so the area he¡¯d affected was about a hundred metres across in total.


    Standing at the edge of the original circle, the lunar plant network already had to stretch at least a hundred fifty metres ahead of them, and every second it ate up more distance. It was incredible to behold, beautiful in a way no mundane plant could ever match. It radiated pale light, bathing the world in tranquillity and order.


    He could still feel the demon¡¯s chaotic influence, but it was¡­ muted. Distant. Everything was. The construct was working. Just as it had been when Valerie¡¯s moonlight pendant had rested around his neck, the moonlight was picking away the edge of his emotions, keeping him at a placid equilibrium.


    Which reminded him of something. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about your pendant,¡± Lucas said, his voice coming out far too even for the scene playing out in the distance.


    ¡°That¡¯s okay.¡± By contrast, Valerie¡¯s voice sounded oddly strained. ¡°But you¡¯re going to have to stick close to me, for a while. Until we get back to Dawnguard, at the very least.¡±


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Lucas glanced at her. Her attention was on Taunton, her eyes slightly vacant, lips parted. Tear tracks still stained her cheeks. It was an odd look on her, when he was so used to her unflappable visage, but he much preferred this to the demonic, ghoulish mien she¡¯d gained when her emotions heightened.


    Abruptly, Lucas understood what she was saying. ¡°Right. I guess I¡¯m gonna have to take over the role your pendant previously occupied.¡±


    Valerie nodded slowly. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem. I¡¯ve become adept at identifying when I need to dull my emotions, and I¡¯ll be sure to let you know I need it. The technique to calm me isn¡¯t a complicated one; looking at what you¡¯ve achieved here, I doubt you¡¯ll struggle to replicate it.¡±


    Lucas hesitated. If it weren¡¯t for the lunar mana construct¡¯s calming effect, he might not have worked up the courage to ask: ¡°What happens if your emotions aren¡¯t dulled?¡±


    ¡°Bad things,¡± Valerie said. She let out a slow breath, shoulders slumping minutely. Her eyelids drooped closed. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you all you want to know, Lucas. But not now. Not when we¡¯re still standing within a mile of a rampaging demon.¡±


    Lucas flinched, abruptly snapping his gaze ahead.  A towering inferno raged at the edge of Taunton, the fire sheep still deep in the throes of their frenzy. He hopes the lunar plant network would be able to help them, as he¡¯d instructed it. There was always the chance that humans and animals would work differently, and the command he¡¯d imbued the mana with would be incompatible.


    The lunar mana had spread further at this point, reaching a good two-fifty metres ahead of them, eating up about a metre per second, but that wasn¡¯t fast enough. Lucas grit his teeth as frustration and impatience spiked, but the emotions were swiftly sanded down by the lunar mana. Frustration rose again, trying to rail against the dulling effect¡ªhe wanted to feel something, damn it. But the lunar mana just dulled that too.


    A part of him was tempted to take a few steps back, leaving the mana¡¯s area of effect. But that was a stupid idea. Even here, the demon¡¯s influence wasn¡¯t being fought off entirely. The chaos was merely muted. Taking the full force of the chaos didn¡¯t sound like something he wanted to do, even if he was barely receiving a fraction of the demon¡¯s attention. That could change at any moment.


    Still, it was mildly unnerving to be able to hear an endless chorus of blood-curdling screams and animal fear mixed with a roaring supernatural inferno, and experience no stronger emotion than discomfort. It made him feel like some kind of psychopath. Lucas was a pretty empathetic guy, by nature. This felt wrong to him on a visceral level.


    ¡°Do you think this will work?¡± Lucas asked with a tremor in his voice. He could just about see the rippling, mirage-like form of the demon as it raised itself up over the town once more, the screams spiking to a crescendo in response.


    ¡°I hope so,¡± Valerie replied.


    ¡°And if it doesn¡¯t?¡±


    ¡°Then we run.¡± Valerie looked at him, and a hint of steel flashed in her icy blue eyes for but a moment. ¡°I will not allow you to step into danger. Believe me when I say that I want nothing more than to rush in there and save every last one of those people. All my heart and soul burns with the desire to rend that demon to pieces.¡± Heat was entering her voice as she spoke, the lines on her face deepening, but the moonlight emanating from the plants seemed to fill in the lines before they could darken, and her anger abated as fast as it had came. ¡°But I cannot risk your safety. Not with this.¡±


    Lucas nodded. Swallowed. ¡°So we won¡¯t stay around to try anything else?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Okay.¡± Lucas took a deep breath. ¡°Okay. Then this has to work.¡±


    Valerie nodded. ¡°For what it¡¯s worth, I hold out hope your construct will make a difference. There are risks to leaving such an open-ended enchantment unsupervised, and the potential ramifications of this are unforeseeable. If this thing can truly sustain itself, let alone grow independently, who can say where it will end up?¡± She looked around, her gaze panning over the lunar plant network as it continued to reach towards the town. ¡°I can¡¯t predict what will happen here, how this thing will evolve, so I choose to be hopeful that it will be a force for good in the world.¡±


    ¡°A magical enchantment that seeks out and suppresses chaos has to be a good thing, right?¡±


    ¡°We can only hope.¡± Valerie tilted her head back, looking up at the moon. ¡°Whatever happens, I prefer this to leaving those people alone to die. At least we tried something.¡±


    Lucas nodded. ¡°I just wish I could do more.¡± His fists clenched at his sides, then relaxed as the lunar magic worked on him once again. He stared at the rippling form of the demon, taking in its wrongness, its malicious perversion of reality. ¡°I wish I was powerful enough to make that thing regret coming here.¡±


    ¡°You will be, some day,¡± Valerie said with gravity in her voice. ¡°But not today. Today, you¡¯ve done your best, and you¡¯ll have to make your peace with that.¡±


    ¡°Do you speak from experience, there?¡±


    Valerie sighed. ¡°I¡¯ve lost count of how many times I¡¯ve been forced to concede ground in the face of one of these monsters. Of how many people I¡¯ve had no choice but to leave behind.¡± She raised a gauntleted hand, her white armour gleaming with the same luminescence as the nascent plant network. ¡°Believe me, Lord Lucas, this is a decent outcome, all things considered. There¡¯s at least some hope.¡±


    It was then that the lunar mana finally reached the fire sheep. The conflagration had been going out of control, yet somehow hadn¡¯t spread, staying in the confines of the pen they¡¯d been sent to just outside the town walls. He could still see the shapes of the sheep themselves, frantically charging about within their pillar of flames. It reached higher than any building in Taunton, trapped in an area that couldn¡¯t have been much bigger than a basketball court.


    The flames themselves were hot enough that they were nearly as white as the lunar mana, the two blending into each other from a distance. However, with heightened senses granted by Jamie, Lucas could just about see the line where the lunar mana was forced to stop; the fire sheep had burned away any hint of plant life in their pen at this point, and thus the lunar mana had nothing to transfer to. Instead, it was forced to go around.


    Luckily, the firesheep weren¡¯t directly between the spot where the lunar plant network had been born and Taunton, so it was only a minor diversion. Still, it was a delay. One they couldn¡¯t afford when the screams carried on the air were notably lesser in number than they had been ten minutes ago.


    Lucas crossed his arms. His foot started tapping. Nervous energy tried its best to flood through his body, though it was muted by the lunar mana. He tried to strain his hearing to see if he could pick out individual voices among the chorus of horror, but quickly gave up on that¡ªhe probably could¡¯ve done it, but it would¡¯ve haunted him to the end of his days, and for little benefit. With a shaky breath, he pushed himself in the precise opposite direction, trying to shut the screams out. Listening to that horrible noise yielded no benefit.


    The thing was, it felt viscerally wrong to just be standing here, watching, waiting, hoping. He knew Valerie had the right of it: they had just as little chance against a demon as anyone else. If they went charging in there, they¡¯d just meet a horrific fate. He knew that. He did.


    But knowing that didn¡¯t make standing by any easier.


    A gauntleted hand came down on his shoulder and squeezed gently. ¡°Hold it together,¡± Valerie whispered. ¡°Just a little longer, and we¡¯ll see whether your efforts have borne fruit.¡±


    Indeed, the lunar mana seemed like it was gathering speed. Whether that was cause for concern or not fell by the wayside as he saw it start to surround the fire sheep, glowing brighter and brighter to match their raging flame. Soon, it had wrapped around the pen on both sides, and was undoubtedly spreading out around the back, too. In no time, it would have the pen entirely encircled. What happened next would be telling.


    More long, agonising minutes ticked by. His emotions kept spiking and being suppressed, nerves and fears rising and falling. It left him feeling emotionally exhausted, getting duller and duller over time, as if the lunar mana was adapting to his moods and heading him off before he could feel too strongly.


    It felt like hours had passed by the time the lunar mana started to reach Taunton¡¯s walls. The network must have picked up some kind of lichen, moss, or vines at some point, as it immediately started climbing over and through the wooden palisades, luminous white patterns soon covering the wood like veins. A quick check of the plant network¡¯s mana memory confirmed it for him. It had picked up hundreds of new species on its steady advance, though none of them were particularly impressive in their own right.


    The town started to gain a holy, otherworldly feel. At this point, pale light covered the entire field between them and the town, using him as its mana battery. He felt like he was standing on the surface of the moon.


    ¡°It¡¯s beautiful,¡± he whispered.


    ¡°In other circumstances, I might join you in appreciating it,¡± Valerie said.


    At that moment, as if in response to their words, the lunar mana finally finished surrounding the fire sheep. The effect wasn¡¯t quite instantaneous, but the fire noticeably started to die down. Over the course of a few seconds, the flames stopped reaching so high, transitioning from a raging spout of fire to a controlled burn. It seemed to sway, as if moving with one great mind, testing the air. He could see the sheep within, still darting around, but there was greater purpose to their movements now. It was no longer a mad dash, but something more controlled, if still fearful. The lunar mana was taking the edge off their panic, stabilising them against the chaos.


    And then something truly unexpected happened, a possibility he hadn¡¯t even accounted for. Before his eyes, a sheep approached the edge of the fire and poked out its head, nosing down at the lunar mana. Then, as if the sheep was breathing it in, a tendril of lunar mana reached up, threading its way into the sheep¡¯s mouth.


    The sheep lit up from within as the lunar mana spread through its body, turning its burning fleece to an ethereal, ghostly shade, more transparent than regular fire. It moved back into the fire, where it chased down its fiery brethren, butting its head against theirs, and where it touched, it spread the lunar mana it had absorbed. When it ran out of lunar mana, it ran back to the edge of the fire to consume more.


    The effect spread rapidly through the rest of the sheep as more of them followed the first¡¯s example, the fire itself gaining that ghostly pallor even as it lowered and lowered, coming under their control as they gained a resistance to the demon¡¯s chaotic influence. It was only as the sound of the flames died away that he realised how loud it had been before, his forced-calm mind tuning out the dull roar.


    Hope flared in his heart. A grin found its way to his lips, and he turned his gaze on Valerie, expecting to find a similar expression of triumph and joy on her face.


    But she was frowning.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Lucas asked.


    Valerie glanced at him briefly, before turning back to the town. ¡°Can¡¯t you hear it?¡±


    ¡°Hear what?¡±


    ¡°Nothing,¡± she said. ¡°The screams have stopped.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ heart dropped.


    Suddenly, the effect of the chaos on him doubled, then redoubled, then doubled yet again. In moments, he felt like he was at the centre of a mad storm, the entirety of the demon¡¯s focus bearing down on him. His mana went haywire, slamming from side to side, writhing like a snake thrashing around inside a narrow tube. Phantom mana systems overlaid themselves on his being in his mind¡¯s eye, and it took all his concentration to maintain the true system, the one he knew to really be his. Rage wouldn¡¯t help him here, even if the lunar mana would let him summon it.


    Pain hit him a few seconds later, as if his body hadn¡¯t initially realised what was happening, and only now understood it had to sound the alarm. His entire body network throbbed, then started to burn. A small, keening scream tore its way out of his lips, and he dropped to his knees. He drew all his mana back inside himself, desperately snatching for any respite. Sweat slicked his skin.


    The light of the moon shined on him, but it was no longer the only colour in the world.


    Red. The red of blood. The red of flesh. The red of his heart that felt like it was getting pummelled. It creeped into the edges of his vision like spindly carmine cracks, as if his sight was shattering and letting impossibility bleed in. Even when he closed his eyes, he could still see them. Jamie was thrashing in his chest once more, raging against the chaos despite the moonlight suffusing his very being.


    Something started to build in Lucas, then. Something primal. Instinct guided him, tugging on qualities that civilised, sane humans typically left buried in the distant past.


    The scream still shredding his throat started to turn, going deep. Soon, it was a guttural roar, a sound he never could¡¯ve imagined his throat making. Jamie added his own voices, bellowing his rage from the mouths of a hundred different maws, and Lucas¡¯ defiant cry turned truly inhuman.


    Snarling, he surged to his feet. Something latched onto his arm, and he spun round, ready to tear whatever dared to delay him apart.


    Valerie stared back at him, her face as gaunt and ghoulish as he¡¯d ever seen it. Her eyes shone with malice, the sclera uniform red and the irises black as tar. They seemed to look into him and through him, and they were wide as she whispered, ¡°Get a hold of yourself.¡±


    Lucas¡¯ top lip curled back, and her grip on his arm turned tighter.


    ¡°Focus on the moonlight,¡± she said, sounding far too calm, her tone incongruous with her furious, demonic visage. The hand not gripping his arm was trembling. ¡°Remember the tranquillity it brought. Picture the light it shone on the darker parts of your soul.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to,¡± Lucas growled.


    ¡°You must.¡±


    ¡°Must I? This seems way better than dulling my emotions to me. This way, I can actually fight back against that bastard.¡±


    ¡°No, you cannot,¡± Valerie said shortly. She took a deep breath and shut her eyes. When she reopened them, the sclera was white once more. The lunar mana seemed to glow brighter, chasing away some of the darkness on her face. ¡°It¡¯s manipulating you. Drawing you closer is exactly what it wants.¡±


    That gave Lucas some pause. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides.


    ¡°Believe me, I have long experience with what you¡¯re feeling. If you let it overcome you now, you¡¯ll never be able to get rid of it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m tired of feeling afraid,¡± Lucas said, voice much smaller than it had been a moment ago. Jamie had gone quiet, his attention on Valerie.


    ¡°I have experience of that too,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Giving in to that temptation doesn¡¯t make you feel better. It never will..¡±


    Lucas stared at her for a long moment, watching the way the moonlight washed over her. It gave her an almost saintly appearance, if he ignored the gaunt cheeks, sunken eyes, and ghostly pallor. ¡°You gave in to the anger?¡±


    ¡°Never, ever allow a demon a foothold in your soul, Lucas. Never. Because you can be sure of one thing: it will not let you go.¡±


    Lucas looked at the town, where the fire was burning higher once more. He looked back at Valerie. ¡°Will you tell me about it?¡±


    Her lips pursed, some red bleeding back into her sclera. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you anything you want to know, as long as you channel the fucking lunar mana right now.¡±


    Lucas nodded, settling back down into the grass with jerky movements. Valerie stayed standing, looming over him as a silent sentry, but he ignored her. Once his mind was set, stabilised, it was a relatively easy matter, compared to before. Back in the town, the moonlight pendant was an outside phenomenon, forcing calm upon him. Here, the pendant¡¯s effect began inside him, right in his heart. A simple mental request to Jamie, and lunar mana flooded into his pathways. It wasn¡¯t as thick as it had been, with so much of it expended on the plant construct, but it was within him, so not much was needed anyway.


    The effect was immediate, like he¡¯d been burning, and the mana was dousing him in cool water. And it didn¡¯t just put out the metaphorical fire, but soothed the burns with the world¡¯s most effective salve. A buzzing in his ears he hadn¡¯t even noticed was washed away. The chaos-induced mana pathways all faded until they were barely perceptible¡ªnone of them could hope to have an influence on him when holy celestial light was coursing through his system.


    Opening his eyes once more felt like being reborn as a new person, granting him an entirely different perspective on the world than he¡¯d held just a minute ago. Now, with the placid rationality if magically induced calm, he saw that trying to fight the demon would be fruitless. It had turned its attention on them when it realised they were contesting its influence, and it had acted to overwhelm the interlopers who were trying to restore order to its rabid chaos. Trying to attack it directly would have been doing exactly what it wanted.


    But it wouldn¡¯t give up after only one effort. ¡°Beasts are coming,¡± Lucas said absently, as if the problem was a distant thing. They were pouring out of Taunton¡¯s gates. Dozens of them.


    ¡°I know,¡± Valerie said, reaching down to pick him up by the arm. Her strength was immense, hauling him to his feet like he weighed nothing. ¡°We have to flee.¡±


    ¡°Do we?¡± Lucas asked.


    The firesheep were finally moving.

 47: Annihilate (5)

    The first firesheep crashed into the beasts¡¯ ranks like a meteor, and the impact barely slowed it down. Flitting around the chaos monsters like a fiery white pinball, it set off explosions of pale flame every time it struck, sending the beasts reeling. Even from so far away, Lucas could hear their screeches, and he liked to think he had enough experience with beasts now to recognise that the tone of their cries belied confusion and pain.


    Or maybe that was just wishful thinking. Either way, it was clear the firesheep was doing serious damage, and the beasts had yet to muster an answer.


    It wasn¡¯t long before the sheep¡¯s brethren joined it, a dozen more lunar fireballs soaring across the landscape like rockets and striking with the force of wrecking balls. Behind them came the lunar plant network. At this point, it was an unstoppable white tsunami, spreading inexorably over and through the town. It looked to have sped up once more, eating up half a dozen metres every second, when at first it had barely crawled through one in the same amount of time.


    The plant network¡¯s effects on the enemy were more subtle than the firesheep, but no less potent. While the firesheep struck with great force, sending the beasts flying and dealing great physical damage¡ªLucas couldn¡¯t help noticing the similarities in the injuries to the ones he¡¯d seen Valerie inflict on them¡ªthe lunar plant construct seemed to subdue them.


    Beasts were agents of chaos, beings of mana warped by demonic influence. Everything about them was impossible, mad. Most magical attacks were ineffective on them, because magic was, at its core, inherently chaotic, at least in part.


    The moonlight wasn¡¯t enough to undo them. It didn¡¯t tear them apart or show them the error of their chaotic ways with the scouring light of order. Its influence was difficult to even see at first, especially from the distance Lucas and Valerie watched from.


    Realisation came to Lucas when a sinuous, snake-like beast that had been evading the firesheep and launching its own counterattack took a glancing hit from moonlight-induced fire and went sprawling. At this point, the beasts were surrounded by the lunar plant network, and where one hit the ground, moonlight rose to meet it. It scrambled back to its feet, readying itself to skitter away from whatever attack came next, but it was helpless to defend itself as another firesheep hit it like a cannonball.


    Lucas blinked. ¡°It should¡¯ve been fast enough to dodge that, right?¡±


    ¡°Your plants are slowing the beasts,¡± Valerie said, finishing his thought for him.


    Indeed, the more time they spent inside the lunar plant network¡¯s domain, the more sluggish the beasts behaved. Before long, they started to look almost drunk¡­ reminiscent of the time when their party had faced those three beasts in the open field.


    ¡°The light of day weakens beasts, somehow,¡± Lucas murmured.


    ¡°It would be more accurate to say the dark of night empowers them, but yes, essentially,¡± Valerie whispered back. ¡°Nighttime is inherently more chaotic, darkness obscuring the truth of things. When you can¡¯t be sure of what¡¯s real or not¡­¡±


    She trailed off, her point made. Lucas nodded.


    Before long, the beasts barely posed a threat to the firesheep at all, and some of the firesheep started to break off from their herd, rocketing into the town. They didn¡¯t care for roads or pathways, blasting straight through buildings and lighting them up with their ghostly lunar fire. The plant network flooded along with them, until soon it seemed the entire town was lit up within by moonlight.


    Lucas swallowed. With the beasts mostly subdued, the firesheep picking off the last of them, the night had turned eerily quiet. Even their lunar fires burned softly, barely giving off a peep of sound.


    It felt wrong to ask for the screams of the townsfolk back, but he¡¯d take it, if it just gave him an indication that any of them were still alive.


    ¡°Do¡­¡± Lucas had to stop and swallow again, the lump in his throat choking his words. ¡°Do you think the demon killed them all?¡±


    ¡°I doubt it,¡± Valerie said.


    That wasn¡¯t a no.


    The firesheep were gallivanting around the town now, circling the demon where it was perched above the keep, a rippling mirage. That was a relief, at least. Lucas had worried they would go charging straight at the monster and break like the tide against a cliff. The demon¡¯s direct attention was no longer on him, but he could still feel the phantom weight of it.


    Everyone here working together in perfect harmony surely wouldn¡¯t be able to face that thing. He couldn¡¯t comprehend how Valerie and her comrades killed them. His respect for her and her order was rising with every moment.


    The moonlight seemed to make it more tangible, refracting through its body like light through fog. It was rippling on its perch, an undulating intangible mass, surely watching proceedings below. Lucas found himself wondering what it was thinking. Was it looking down on this novel situation and wondering what the fuck was going on? Was it planning to escape? Or was it just considering how best to punish these insolent creatures that had dared to interrupt its fun? Did demons even think at all?


    Whatever the answer, Lucas would never know. Eventually, the demon did move, rising up like an inflating balloon, and evidently that was what the firesheep had been waiting for. Half a dozen blazing white comets launched out of the pale fires that had now engulfed most of Taunton¡¯s buildings, rocketing straight for the demon.


    Jamie stirred to life in Lucas¡¯ chest, crowing with triumph at the sight of someone, anyone, taking the fight to the enemy. Lucas concurred.


    There was no sound as the firesheep smashed into the demon¡¯s sides almost simultaneously. It hadn¡¯t moved an inch from its spot, and Lucas had to wonder if that was arrogance or ignorance. Either way, it hadn¡¯t felt the need to dodge, expecting that it had nothing to fear from these enemies, and that cost it. From this distance, he couldn¡¯t see if the firesheep did any true damage, but the demon¡¯s form shuddered like a sound wave as it was pushed backwards, and a great screech tore across the farmland.


    Lucas slapped his hands to his ears, groaning, flinching backwards. The sound couldn¡¯t have lasted for more than a few seconds, and the lunar mana Jamie was helping pump through his channels staved off the worst of its effects, but just for a moment it was like being assaulted by the combined effects of an entire army of beastly screams.


    He winced as he pulled his hands away from his ears, feeling the wetness there. He felt dizzy, and reached out to place a hand on Valerie¡¯s shoulder, lest he fall over. She was still as a statue. Lucas looked at her, and winced. Her eyes were practically black.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± he whispered.


    ¡°You may need to purify me,¡± she replied, voice strained.


    Lucas nodded slowly. He tightened his grip on her shoulder, drawing on his lunar mana and letting wispy tendrils poke out from his fingertips. ¡°How do I do that?¡±


    ¡°Your plant network is dealing with the emotional aspect, so don¡¯t worry about that for now,¡± Valerie gritted out. ¡°Concern yourself with the demonic corruption. If you link your mana to mine, I imagine it won¡¯t be difficult to identify.¡±


    Lucas chanced a glance at the ongoing battle. His heart dropped when he saw the demon was no longer looming above the keep, and the feeling of dread didn¡¯t let up until he¡¯d found it; it was on the move now, flowing across the town, chasing the firesheep around as they harassed it.


    A moment later, Lucas realised he could hear shouts. Voices. Barked orders. Screams, pleas, exclamations.


    People.


    He breathed a huge sigh of relief that made him feel like a balloon deflating. There were survivors. Hopefully, the firesheep would hold the demon¡¯s attention long enough to let the people get away.


    Valerie had heard it too. ¡°Once you¡¯re done stabilising me, we¡¯re going to run.¡±


    ¡°What? No! We need to¡ª¡±


    ¡°We need to prioritise your safety,¡± Valerie said. She turned her sunken, dark gaze on him. ¡°This endeavour has already been more successful than you can imagine. I resigned myself to the fact that everyone in that town was going to die the moment I realised a demon was approaching, because I knew that I had to get you away from here no matter what else happened. The idea that anyone else could survive did not cross my mind. I have to thank you for that.¡±


    Lucas closed his eyes, focusing on his mana as it wheedled its way beneath Valerie¡¯s armour, seeking out her mana system. ¡°And here I am wishing I could do more.¡±


    ¡°Understandable,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Anyone who¡¯s ever faced a demon has experienced that feeling of powerlessness. Of hopelessness. Any survivors of a demon attack at all must be taken as a victory, but we cannot endanger ourselves¡ªendanger you¡ªfor their sake.¡± She paused a moment as his mana finally met hers. ¡°You¡¯re going to need to be careful with this.¡±


    A moment later, Valerie¡¯s mana system unfurled in Lucas¡¯ mind, and it took him a moment to understand the shape of the problem. For the most part, her system was no different to his, at least in form¡ªhers, obviously, was that of a fully developed adult, reaching every extremity. The starkest difference was that where his natural mana registered to him as a shining gold that was almost gaseous in its consistency, it was so light and malleable, hers was thick and white like milk. It moved sluggishly through her channels, and Lucas had no doubt that made workings of magic exceptionally hard for her all on its own.


    If not for that consistency, he might have described the colour as moonlight, and it was with that observation that he realised what was wrong. Her mana system covered her whole body, a complicated array of channels filling every nook and cranny of her form, and parts of it were darkening. Not in the way that the chaotic influence of a demon or beast¡¯s might try to corrupt one¡¯s soul; it was a more gradual thing.


    The effect seemed to begin in random places, multiple at once, but it had an insidious agenda, coordinated. Whatever was causing this, it clearly had specific designs for her. Beginning at random points in her system, it was like an infection was leaking into her mana from nowhere, steadily darkening it, corrupting it. Every moment, more points of infection appeared.


    ¡°Talk me through this,¡± Lucas said, trying his best to keep his voice even. He wasn¡¯t sure if he succeeded. ¡°What the hell is going on here, Valerie?¡±


    ¡°You heard them call me demon-touched,¡± Valerie stated.


    Lucas nodded as he sent his lunar mana towards the closest point of infection.


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°It¡¯s well known that I suffer from an infliction imparted on me by a demon, but that this happened during my time on the front lines is a common misconception.¡± She paused, stiffening as Lucas¡¯ mana reached the nearest infection. In the end, it turned out Lucas barely needed to do anything; the mere touch of lunar mana purged the encroaching dark mana, whatever it was. The problem was, there were dozens of them, and more were popping up at every moment. Valerie continued in a tightly controlled voice, ¡°The truth is, it happened when I was very young. I won¡¯t belabour you with the details right now, so I¡¯ll simply say I foolishly found myself alone in an area I knew to be dangerous, and I encountered a demon. I told you before that they¡¯re sadists, yes?¡±


    Lucas nodded. Valerie¡¯s sluggish mana was difficult to move his through. He couldn¡¯t speed it up any faster than it was already moving, so he was essentially forced to chase down the corruption at its same speed. Luckily, purging the source stopped its spread, letting him overtake and purge it entirely. Still, it left him wondering if he¡¯d be able to get rid of them at all, and wished he¡¯d been able to observe how the pendant performed this task, while it was still whole.


    ¡°I was a strong-willed child, and I can only assume the demon found my resistance entertaining. Somehow, it mutilated my very soul, and what you see before you occurs whenever my equilibrium is even slightly imbalanced.¡±


    ¡°And even the most controlled person can¡¯t be perfect forever,¡± Lucas muttered.


    ¡°Indeed. Perfect tranquillity at all times is simply impossible, no matter how much one trains.¡± Her voice turned small. ¡°And I was a child. Far from trained. I was naive enough to believe it had let me go, and I ran.¡±


    She fell silent, forcing Lucas to pick things up for her. ¡°And bad things happened,¡± he said softly.


    Valerie just nodded. He could feel, through his connection to her, as her entire mana system shuddered under the force of memories she¡¯d probably rather leave buried.


    ¡°I understand,¡± he said quickly, opening his eyes and glancing at the town. The fires were still raging, the firesheep playing their game of cat and mouse with the demon.


    ¡°Yes. Agreed.¡± She took a deep breath, and her mana system stabilised somewhat. More points of infection had popped up, though, to Lucas¡¯ dismay. ¡°Some time later, I ended up with the Order of Five, where Lady Claire took an interest in my affliction. It wasn¡¯t something she¡¯d seen before, and so she studied it extensively. Eventually, she settled on the solution of pumping lunar mana into my channels.¡±


    Lucas blinked as he digested that. ¡°So, it¡¯s not that your mana is naturally white, and you¡¯re getting infected by¡­ I don¡¯t know. Demon mana?¡±


    ¡°Demon mana seems an accurate descriptor,¡± Valerie said through clenched teeth.


    ¡°It¡¯s the opposite, isn¡¯t it? Your mana is naturally demonic now, and the lunar mana¡­ Well, it stops bad things from happening.¡±


    ¡°Correct.¡±


    Lucas drew in a deep breath, glancing between Valerie and the demon. ¡°Is being close to that thing making it worse for you?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Should we leave?¡±


    Valerie looked at him for what felt like the first time since his mana had touched hers. ¡°We should,¡± she said. ¡°But not yet.¡±


    Lucas nodded. His mana had barely covered a fraction of Valerie¡¯s system, starting at her shoulder, and he¡¯d been at this for minutes already. He moved around behind her, placing his other hand on the small of her back, and he splayed the fingers of both hands, giving himself multiple points of contact. From each finger he teased out a hair-thin strand of lunar mana and directed it into Valerie¡¯s system. It wouldn¡¯t ultimately increase the amount of mana he was giving her in absolute terms, but he didn¡¯t necessarily need to overwhelm her entire system anyway; with multiple points of entry and selective injection, he could seek out the individual infection points without having to sluggishly pump his mana through her entire system.


    The night settled into an eerie quiet once more. It felt like there should be far more noise; the lunar plant network was utterly silent, the beasts had been vanquished, and the shouts of the townsfolk had long since faded away. Anxiety gnawed at the bottom of his stomach as he wondered what that last fact meant.


    A moment later, he got his answer.


    Dark shapes appeared in the near-white fire, moving towards the town gates. At first, Lucas tensed, expecting more beasts to come barrelling out of the flames, chasing down the interlopers who¡¯d dared to intrude on the demon¡¯s twisted games.


    Instead, tall, thin silhouettes began to coalesce into recognisable forms. Even from a great distance, he could tell they moved with too much purpose and poise to be beasts; the chaotic creatures lurched all over the place, and a pack of them would never move in roughly the same way, like he was seeing here.


    Survivors, he thought, feeling as if the weight of the world had lifted from his shoulders, and now he didn¡¯t know how to balance himself. Relief felt like sunlight shining on his face after a day spent in the freezing cold. Deep breaths centred him, but each one came out shakier than the last as the survivors got more substantial, the frontrunners bursting through the barrier of the flames, and he found himself looking for identifying features.


    Wick was at the front of the pack, his shields held out ahead of him. As soon as he passed the flames and found safety before him, he split from the group, running sideways to let them pass him, presumably to cover their retreat. That was just the kind of man he was, Lucas thought, and not even the trauma of spending fuck-knows how long under the tender ministrations of a demon could change that.


    He picked out Aly next, a dozen or so more people after Wick. Her fur-pelt hood made her look like a woman with the head of a wolf. Under each arm she¡¯d tucked the farmer¡¯s two children, their names escaping him at the moment. He hoped the farmer had made it out too, but he didn¡¯t see the man.


    A few dozen more people came running out of the fire before their numbers started to thin, and Lucas was horrified to realise he recognised so few of them. Worse, they were almost all warriors. Very few civilians emerged from the town, and those that did were generally being carried in much the same way Aly was carrying the two children.


    And when it was clear no more were coming, Valerie shrugged off his grip, spun on her heel, and practically dragged him along with her as she started off at a run. ¡°We leave. Now,¡± she said.


    ¡°But¡ª¡±


    ¡°Now, Lucas,¡± she repeated, and the steel in her voice brooked no argument. He shut his eyes for a brief moment, caught between two minds, but her pull threatened to knock him off balance, and if he fell he had no doubt he¡¯d soon find himself thrown over her shoulders and carried for the next few miles.


    He turned, allowing himself to be dragged along behind her as she started to run. Lucas stumbled, his legs getting caught beneath him. Only Valerie¡¯s iron grip kept him on his feet, practically dragging him along. It''s took him a moment to find his rhythm, and then he was moving along with her, relying on her guidance to keep him from crashing into anything as his attention couldn''t help straying behind them  every few steps, searching through the darkness for the forms of the fleeing townsfolk, silhouetted by the raging fire and lunar plants in the distance.


    Beyond them the town was in chaos. Pale white fires raged. The magical sheep were still dancing around just about avoiding the demon, though it didn''t appear to be trying very hard. Lucas couldn''t say what gave him that impression. It was something about the way the Demon was moving. When it first arrived, he''d seen it cross hundred metres in the blink of an eye. Now it seemed almost lethargic. It''s translucent form tumbled to and fro, almost lazily pursuing the sheep.


    After a moment Lucas realised what was so wrong with the picture. It was like watching a cat or some other predatory beast toying with its prey. The firesheep had provided some novelty, entertainment. They had distracted it for long enough for the townsfolk slip away, but how long would that last?


    As if in answer to Lucas''s question, the rippling form of the demon reared up like a wave, rising higher above the town like a monstrous tower. The sheep kept dancing around it, but it was no longer pursuing them. Then, like a wave breaking, it crashed down on the town.


    Even from this great distance, he saw the shockwave produced by the impact. Firesheep went flying, battered away by the demon¡¯s attack. But not all of them.


    The demon rose up once more, and this time it had a sheep in its translucent grip. The poor thing was thrashing wildly, utterly overcome by terror. Not even the moonlight mana could calm it when it was so close to the demon¡¯s corrupting influence, inside the monster itself, like it was drowning in air. As Lucas watched in horror, the sheep began to thrash more and more, until its body was contorting in impossible shapes. Its fiery wool started darkening, steadily turning grey.


    It was just like Valerie''s mana, he realised. He had cut off his connection to her magic energy, but he was sure if he reconnected, the white-to-grey change it was undergoing would look something like what he was seeing now. His stomach turned. He racked his brains for anything he could do, but nothing came to him. Nothing that wouldn''t involve going back at least. And there was no way Valerie would allow that.


    Further and further, she dragged him away. They were picking up speed now, and it was difficult for Lucas to stay upright while constantly peeking back at the battle over his shoulder. The flaming town was becoming more of a distance speck. If he remembered the landscape right, soon it would be hidden entirely behind one of the hills that mark the horizon beyond Taunton.


    But still, he couldn''t bring himself to look away. He felt he owed it to these creatures, even if they were acting on some kind of instinct and didn''t know truly what they were doing for him and the people of Taunton.


    The poor creature in the demon¡¯s grasp was barely recognisable as a sheep anymore. Its legs were steadily elongating. Its head was stretching out like taffy, like some unseen force was pulling on it. Its jaws were wide open as if it was screaming. The scene brought to mind one of those Medieval torture devices, those horrifying things that stretched people¡¯s limbs out. Lucas couldn¡¯t imagine the pain and terror it was surely experiencing.


    Eventually, its fiery wool darkened to a near black, and that seemed to mark the end of the demon¡¯s interest in the poor firesheep. Like some psychotic sadistic child who had been torturing an animal and lost interest, it simply dropped the creature, letting it fall into its own white flames. It was destroyed instantly.


    Throughout all this, the other sheep had been frantically circling the demon, desperate to help their friend, to no avail. The demon was utterly uninterested in anything they did to it. Their attacks were ineffective. The lunar mana was only preventing it residual influence. When it brought its full attention on them, the power they wielded was not enough to stand up to it.


    The plant network was a different story. It was still slowly creeping across the town, inducting new plants into its ranks. When the Demon finally decided to descend properly from the town, the plants and the lunar mana were there. They seemed to grow brighter. A translucent wall of white sprung up in the demon''s path, not quite halting it, but noticeably slowing it.


    There was a moment of stillness as the demon came to a full stop of its own accord. Lucas liked to imagine that the demon was truly baffled, never before having been denied like this. He hoped the network he created would exceed his wildest expectations.


    It was not to be. He had no idea what the demon did, what kind of infernal technique it deployed then. All he knew was, one moment the town was standing, if overcome with a white blaze. The next, there was an immense shockwave that seemed to tear through the fabric of reality. The world itself twisted.


    Both the firesheep and the plants were blown back, their pale fire suppressed as if by a great gust of wind, and the town itself was utterly obliterated in an instant. Debris and detritus went flying, flaming chunks soaring through the air. In the span of a second, the town was gone.


    The sheep, bless their bravery, were undaunted. A dozen distant comets went charging back in immediately, striking at their hated enemy, stoking their fire once more. It was about vengeance for them now. Lucas wasn''t sure whether he imagined the furious bleats carried on the wind, but he liked the idea of the sheep roaring their defiance against the demonic foe.


    It turned into a running battle as the demon attempted to pursue the people who dared to try and escape it. The sheep harried and harassed it, charging at the monster over and over again. They never lingered long, having learned from their defeated comrade¡¯s mistake. Still one or two of them got caught, and the demon didn''t waste any energy warping them into beasts this time. It just crushed them like bugs.


    This couldn''t last. The sheep would all surely fall eventually.


    But, Lucas realised, it might still be enough anyway. With their sacrifice, the demon couldn''t pursue the survivors of Taunton as it was capable of. For whatever reason, it couldn''t cross the distance in an instant like it had before. The survivors of Taunton had a chance.


    With every moment, the gap between them and the demon grew. Before long, it was so far away that Lucas could barely even make it out. Without the white fire of the sheep and the plants network, he wouldn''t have been able to see it at all. By the time he and Valerie crested the hills and lost sight of the ongoing battle, it was barely more than a smudge on the horizon.


    With nothing else to see, he was forced to turn ahead and finally focus his full attention on running. It took him a while to get up to pace, to get his breathing in order, to get his gait in a proper rhythm. He''d been relying on Valerie, but now he put his all into escape, and soon he was running alongside her, and their pace quickened. Privately, he thanked her for not rushing him as much as she surely wanted to.


    A mixture of emotions battled with him as he ran. Pride, for the creatures that had stood up to a being of chaos and evil, despite the fear he''d been able to see them. At the same time, there was guilt. They were only animals, but leaving them behind to throwthemselves hopelessly at the demon, felt wrong.


    But there was nothing he could do about it. Not as he was.


    As Lucas ran, he dearly wished he''d get to see those sheep again. If only to thank them.


    Those feelings, guilt and dread and pride and hope, followed him all through the night as they made their escape.

 48: Later Than Ever

    Dawn had broke and fallen far behind them by the time Valerie agreed to stop. Weeks of daily training and a magical ability to improve himself had pushed his fitness far beyond anything he¡¯d ever thought himself capable of, but he was firmly at the limit of his endurance. Valerie had set a gruelling pace, and she barely seemed to be out of breath, even though she¡¯d thrown him over her shoulders and carried him multiple times in the night.


    Lucas shakily lowered himself to the grass, gulping in gasps of air like he¡¯d been drowning. Sweat slicked his skin. He hadn¡¯t felt this out of sorts since he¡¯d run a marathon.


    Still, the relief that suffused him was indescribable. Neither of them had sighted the demon in pursuit for hours, and before long its chaotic aura had fallen away too. Whatever had happened back there, it had evidently stopped pursuing.


    Problem was, they¡¯d also lost the townsfolk, too. With only two of them to worry about, they¡¯d had a lot less to slow them down, and had thus grown a larger and larger lead on the people of Taunton. Now, looking back the way they came, he couldn¡¯t even see their comrades.


    Guilt churned in his stomach. Focusing on his own safety so singularly didn¡¯t sit right with him, even if he understood it from a rational standpoint. From Valerie¡¯s perspective, his life was undoubtably more valuable than all the people of Taunton combined. Perhaps even all the people of Harwyckshire. He was sure many people would agree with her on that point, perhaps even some of the other survivors themselves, if they knew the truth of the matter.


    That didn¡¯t particularly make him feel much better, but acknowledging that it wasn¡¯t a question of selfishness and callousness that had pushed Valerie to all but abandon the others offset a little of his discomfort. She¡¯d shown she cared. She would¡¯ve kept running and not looked back from the first moment she¡¯d grabbed him and leapt from the keep, otherwise.


    Lucas sighed as he waited for his body to stop its aching. Nearby, Valerie had settled into a crouch, watching the direction they¡¯d come from with narrowed eyes. She¡¯d brought them to a stop atop a small hill that gave them a decent view of the horizon in all directions, rolling grasslands stretching on as far as the eye could see. The day was overcast, angry grey clouds looming over the world ominously, which Lucas felt was appropriate. A happy, sunny day wouldn¡¯t have suited the mood.


    Eventually, Valerie spoke, ¡°We can rest here for a while, I think. The worst of the danger has passed.¡±


    Lucas slumped, too tired to muster a more enthusiastic response. ¡°Any sign of other people?¡±


    ¡°None that I can see from here,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But they¡¯ll be moving significantly slower than we were, with so many people.¡±


    ¡°So many,¡± Lucas repeated. ¡°Did you catch how many there were? How many survived and escaped?¡±


    ¡°Twenty-seven,¡± Valerie said, sounding grim.


    Lucas nodded. ¡°How many people were in town before the demon attacked?¡±


    ¡°Around forty. This incident could have been much, much worse. Should have been much worse, one could argue.¡± She paused. ¡°I feel the need to reiterate, to be sure it sinks in for you, that your gambit was incredibly effective. Again: I expected zero survivors last night, not counting ourselves.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas breathed. ¡°After seeing what that demon was capable of, I can understand that. Without the firesheep¡­¡±


    He trailed off, throat tightening. It felt silly, to be so attached to creatures he¡¯d met only a handful of days before and barely interacted with in any significant manner. But he felt responsible for them, in a way. He¡¯d been the one to elevate them from mundane sheep into magical creatures. Created them, you could say. Sure, they wouldn¡¯t have survived their first encounter with the beasts to begin with if not for him, but¡­ Whatever. His feelings weren¡¯t rational right now.


    He could forgive himself. Anyone would have their equilibrium thrown off by encountering a fucking demon for the first time. It¡¯d be a harrowing experience for anyone.


    ¡°Do you think any of the firesheep survived?¡±


    Valerie took long enough to answer that Lucas made the effort to raise his head and look at her. She was gazing back at him levelly, lips thinned. ¡°I find it very unlikely,¡± she said. ¡°But stranger things have happened. Your plant network is an unknown factor, and therefore difficult to predict. The presence of lunar mana also has to be taken into account. It has always been effective against chaos; the only reason it isn¡¯t deployed more is due to its rarity.¡±


    Lucas considered that for a moment as he shifted himself into a more comfortable position, crossing his legs, resting his elbows on his knees, and lacing his fingers beneath his chin. ¡°How big of a resource did I spend last night? You said that pendant took decades to fill up¡­¡±


    ¡°It was a singularly unique magical item crafted by the greatest living practitioner of magic, yes,¡± Valerie said, a bit dryly. ¡°I¡¯m sure Lady Claire would have plenty of complaints about the manner in which it was used, but not the purpose. She would undoubtedly scold you for using it to power such a crude enchantment, and her scoldings are quite legendary in the Order. As long as the enchantment was made to fight a demon, though, she¡¯d be sure to praise you for your ingenuity and quick-thinking afterwards.¡±


    ¡°And what would she think of the firesheep?¡±


    ¡°She would be considerably less sympathetic.¡± Valerie sighed. ¡°As I told you before, though the threat they pose pales in comparison to demons and beasts, magical creatures can be dangerous things in their own right, and their creation is illegal for good reason. But she¡¯s a utilitarian thinker, these days. The noble end of their story would make up for the reckless start, in her eyes.¡±


    Lucas nodded to himself. Even though a hundred years had passed, and the Great Wand was probably a vastly different person to the girl Lucas had grown up with, that was, funnily enough, pretty much exactly had he would¡¯ve imagined her reacting to the situation. He could picture what she would¡¯ve said to him. ¡°Air-head¡± probably would¡¯ve been thrown around a few times. She liked that one, when he pissed her off.


    ¡°If we reckon we¡¯ve escaped the demon,¡± Lucas said, ¡°do we wait for the townsfolk?¡±


    Valerie rose to her feet, her gaze straying north once more¡ªthe direction they¡¯d come from. ¡°We should make for Dawnguard with all haste.¡±


    ¡°But we know this countryside isn¡¯t safe right now. Going all that way with just the two of us¡­¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± Valerie looked up at the sky, a frown on her lips. ¡°It¡¯s approaching midday now. We¡¯ll find shelter for the night and rest up until tomorrow morning. If they catch up to us by then, we¡¯ll accompany them. If not, we¡¯ll forge out alone. We can¡¯t delay too long.¡±


    ¡°That works for me,¡± Lucas said.


    Much to Lucas''s dismay, it turned out that finding shelter involved more walking. His body protested every step, muscles aching, bones creaking. But he refused to be carried any more, at least. Resting on Valerie''s shoulders when the situation was desperate was one thing, but the thought of being lugged around like a sack when the circumstances no longer called for it was too embarrassing to bear.


    Thankfully, it didn''t take them long to find a copse of trees near the trail they had apparently been following. Lucas hadn''t been able to pay attention in the dark, but Valerie informed him that they''d actually met one of the main roads south within an hour of leaving Taunton. Hence, they''d covered a lot more ground than they otherwise might have. According to her, Dawnguard was likely now only a littler over a week''s travel away.


    Welcome news, and it also meant that the chances of meeting up with the others were much higher. Lucas had worried about that. He''d thought that everyone would be fleeing madly into the open countryside, and that encountering them again would be a matter of luck. He didn''t feel particularly lucky these days, unfortunately.


    Lucas messed with the plants a little with his floramancy to create a more comfortable setting for them. With a roof made of tree branches over their heads, walls of misshaped tree trunks, and spongy moss beneath them to lie on, it wasn¡¯t long before Lucas found himself drifting off to sleep. He fluttered in and out of consciousness for an indeterminate amount of time, feeling like his eyes were more often closed than open. Valerie was always in the same place when he came to wakefulness, sitting at the doorway to their impromptu shelter, ever vigilant, a silent sentinel.


    Her presence comforted him; he was certain that, no matter what happened, she¡¯d give everything she had to keep him safe. She¡¯d proven that. The sight of her become synonymous with security in hid mind, and he slept easier knowing she was there.


    It was raining by the time he woke properly, feeling refreshed. The Gift bestowed upon him by the summoning had worked its magic once more, and the aches and pains of earlier had mostly faded¡ªnot completely this time, since he¡¯d overdone it more than ever before, but even so, the level of recovery was absurd.


    Lucas shuffled over to Valerie, peaking out of the doorway. The skies had opened up at some point. Though it wasn¡¯t raining right at that moment, there was a telltale dampness in the air, and the foliage outside their shelter glistened with water. The clouds seemed lighter, too.


    ¡°Do you need me to purge your mana again?¡± Lucas whispered. He didn¡¯t know exactly how long it had been or how frequently she needed it done, but he remembered seeing her fiddle with her pendant multiple times per day, so figured it was fairly often. Worth asking, anyway.


    Valerie glanced back at him before turning her attention outside once more. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t hurt,¡± she said neutrally.


    Connecting his mana to hers was easier this time, and the act of purging her was easier too. The points of infection were fewer, and they spread slower. With no need for haste, Lucas sought to inject his mana at the right points directly, acting with surgical precision rather than just forcing his mana in at as many points as possible. With his eyes open, watching her, he was sure he saw some tension bleeding from her posture as his mana worked to purify hers. He liked to imagine it was akin to giving her soul a massage. It was hard to tell though, what with her armour and her cloak, the latter of which had turned so dark it was practically black, after all the times she¡¯d used it.


    ¡°This situation with your mana stops you from recharging the magic on your cloak yourself?¡± Lucas asked as the thought came to mind.


    Valerie nodded. ¡°I struggle with most forms of magic.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen you do quite a lot of magic, though,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°All of it relying on the lunar mana Lady Claire gifted me.¡± Valerie tilted a look back at him. ¡°Now I¡¯ll be relying on you to remain effective. At least for a while.¡±


    ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be a problem,¡± Lucas said. ¡°I used up a lot of lunar mana, but I should be able to get more at night, right? And Jamie seems to be producing a bit on his own.¡±


    Indeed, though the monstercat was utterly conked out right now, Lucas could feel the power in the creature through their soul-deep bond. Jamie now had access to both pyromancy and lunamancy, but, while the former required the cat¡¯s express consent to use, the latter needed no input. Lucas wondered why that was, and even Valerie didn¡¯t seem to have an answer when he asked.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    ¡°The truth is, you know more about this creature than I do, Lucas,¡± she said, stretching herself out after he¡¯d finished purifying her mana with magical moonlight. ¡°Quite apart from the fact I¡¯ve had very little interactions with it since learning of its existence, you¡¯re the one who¡¯s bonded it to your soul. Even if I¡¯d read a book that revealed every detail of your companion¡¯s existence, that knowledge wouldn¡¯t compare to what you can get from inspecting your bond.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough,¡± Lucas said, directing part of his attention internally. ¡°But honestly, I¡¯m not sure if I can get any useful answers even through that. Can you make any guesses, based on the differences between pyromancy and lunamancy?¡±


    ¡°Hm. Lunamancy is an extremely rare discipline, owing to the scarcity of the mana it relies on. While that pendant was in my possession, you could make the argument that I was the world¡¯s foremost practitioner, though not by any means its top expert.¡±


    ¡°The latter title would go to Claire, I assume?¡±


    ¡°Correct. Regardless, I know enough to state the most obvious difference: pyromancy is about turning one¡¯s own soul into a power source for magic, while lunamancy relies on absorbing an outside element.¡± She gave him a thoughtful look. ¡°Your bonded companion consumed a pendant that contained decades of stored lunar mana and, though it immediately expelled a majority of it into your creation, I suppose it¡¯s possible that it has combined the two disciplines. Turned itself into a source of lunar mana.¡±


    ¡°Is that possible?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But Lady Claire often said magic is without limit, and it¡¯s us, people, who insist on stifling it with our categorisations and disciplines.¡± She paused, letting out a mirthless scoff. ¡°Of course, that¡¯s easy for her to say, when she stands head and shoulders above any other Wand in this age. Limits for her and limits for the rest of us are very different things. But then again, I suppose that applies to you, too.¡±


    ¡°Well, I definitely hope I don¡¯t have to absorb lunar mana every night. If Jamie really is a moonlight battery now, that¡¯d come in pretty handy against demons, I imagine.¡± Lucas grimaced as he shook his head. ¡°The thought of fighting one of those things at all is insane to me, as I am right now. Knowing that the others fought them solo¡­¡±


    ¡°There aren¡¯t many people alive who could defeat a demon in single combat, yes. And even those that can do so generally don¡¯t fight a demon alone unless there¡¯s no other choice. The risks are simply too great.¡±


    Lucas raised an eyebrow. ¡°There¡¯s people aside from the Great Heroes who can do it?¡±


    Lucas cringed on the inside at using a term like the Great Heroes to refer to his friends, but Valerie didn¡¯t seem to notice. ¡°I¡¯d say there¡¯s maybe a few dozen. Veteran warriors who¡¯ve learned the best practices and old Wands with great repertoires of magic¡ªfor the most part, though, our greatest weapons against the demons are people who are born with or develop unique abilities.¡±


    ¡°Huh,¡± Lucas said. ¡°That makes me feel a little better, I guess. But still¡­ The idea I¡¯m meant to be one of those people some day is pretty daunting, after last night.¡±


    ¡°Understandable,¡± Valerie said. She opened her mouth as if to continue, then went still, eyes snapping to something in the distance. Lucas quickly moved to follow her gaze, but even with Jamie¡¯s senses, saw nothing.


    ¡°What is it?¡± He asked.


    ¡°Movement on the road,¡± Valerie said.


    ~~~


    Taunton¡¯s survivors were a saddening sight to behold. They trudged along the path, exhaustion clear in their slumped shoulders, dragged steps, and drooping eyelids. There was a palpable aura of despair permeating the group, despite the fact they¡¯d survived and escaped their harrowing experience in the clutches of a sadistic demon. Many of them seemed almost dead on their feet, having to be led along by one of their more awake and aware comrades, and there weren¡¯t many of the latter.


    Of the survivors, Wick seemed the most aware of his surroundings, walking at the head of the group as was his habit. But even he looked like he was ready to collapse, stumbling every few steps. None of them noticed Lucas and Valerie waiting on the road a hundred or so metres ahead of them, and Wick was no better.


    Lucas grimaced, his throat tightening as he beheld the pitiful procession. He got the feeling that none of them had been able to stop and rest; he could see a couple more children aside from the two Aly was still carrying, as well as an older man who appeared to only still be on his feet by a miracle. There was no sign of the farmer, Elwyn. Or the other Skycloak who¡¯d been tasked with overseeing the town, Deryn.


    There were also only twenty-three people, when Valerie had previously counted twenty-seven. For a moment, he deluded himself with the comforting lie that Valerie had merely counted wrong; an understandable mistake, given the lack of visibility and the chaotic situation.


    But no. Closing his eyes and putting his hands over his ears, even metaphorically speaking, never solved anything. Whether those four people had fallen behind the group or if they¡¯d been picked off by enemy action somehow, it was clear more had been lost.


    ¡°Ser Wick,¡± Valerie called out when the group arrived within a reasonable distance. Lucas had wanted to run to them as soon as possible, but Valerie had held them back. Looking at them now, he understood. In their state, there was no telling how they would¡¯ve reacted to a stranger surprising them out of nowhere.


    Wick came to a halt, looking up from where his gaze had been resting on the ground a few paces ahead of himself. He blinked blearily. ¡°Captain Vayon,¡± he said after a moment, voice hoarse. His gaze strayed to Lucas, and Lucas had a horrible premonition of doom. Thankfully, the man apparently still had some wits about him, enough to remember to greet him with, ¡°Ser James.¡±


    A ripple went through the group at the interruption. A kind of human pile-up occurred as people started bumping into each other, not realising the one in front of them had stopped, and it cascaded along their lines. Soon, the whole group had halted, and it seemed inertia had been the only thing keeping many of them going. Well over half of the pack collapsed, some falling unconscious, others¡¯ stamina simply giving out.


    Like a dam had been broken, emotions started flooding back in. In moments, the silence had been broken by dozens of wailing voices, cries of despair, quiet sobs, and a general outpouring of grief. There was relief in there too, to be certain, the kind of half-sobbing laughter that could only come from surviving something truly harrowing.


    Even Wick drew in a few shaky breaths before seeming to steel himself. There was a dark look in his eyes as he approached Lucas and Valerie, and by the time he was close enough to whisper and be heard, his head was bowed, his eyes screwed shut in remembered pain. ¡°Forgive me,¡± he breathed. ¡°I was unable to protect you.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the last thing I¡¯m concerned about right now,¡± Lucas whispered, wary of the possibility of the translation magic giving him away. He figured the chances of those poor people figuring him out were low, but he wasn¡¯t willing to take anything above zero, after the incident in Pentaburgh. There was no knowing who¡¯d be hostile.


    ¡°You escape the demon?¡± Valerie murmured, her sharp gaze flitting between the survivors as if cataloguing them.


    ¡°I believe it no longer pursues us, but I can¡¯t be sure,¡± Wick said. He nodded at Lucas. ¡°Those sheep of yours kept up harassing it for miles out of Taunton, but they couldn¡¯t stray too far from those glowing plants.¡±


    ¡°Do you think they survived?¡± Lucas asked.


    Wick grimaced. ¡°I deem that unlikely.¡±


    ¡°Were there no other survivors aside from those with you now?¡± Valerie asked.


    ¡°I deem that very unlikely,¡± Wick said. ¡°The demon¡­ it made a game of hurting us, tormenting us. It wanted to break us down, crush our spirits. And what I saw of those people when it succeeded in that endeavour¡­¡± Wick shivered, and his eyes looked haunted. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I would want any of them to survive that.¡±


    Valerie grimaced. ¡°We must get moving, and soon. The demon is undoubtedly still out there, and we have no reason to believe it¡¯s given up the pursuit for good. When nightfall comes¡­¡±


    Wick looked behind him. Almost all the survivors had collapsed to the floor now, some sitting, some lying down. Many were unconscious, and even those that were still awake didn¡¯t seem ready to go anywhere any time soon.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s going to happen,¡± Lucas said on Wick¡¯s behalf.


    Valerie gave him a look then, and he knew what she was going to say without her needing to say it.


    ¡°We can¡¯t leave them again,¡± Lucas hissed.


    A moment of silence passed, their gazes locked on each other. Valerie¡¯s was neutral, but Lucas put all his determination and stubbornness into his own.


    Eventually, Valerie sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll do what I can to heal them, and they¡¯ll have time to rest. But we must be on the move by nightfall; there shouldn¡¯t be any danger this far south, but there shouldn¡¯t have been any danger in Taunton, either.¡± Her gaze panned back to the survivors, assessing. ¡°I have a bad feeling about all this.¡±


    ¡°I think we all have a bad feeling, right now,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Getting attacked by a demon will do that to you.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I suspect the overall situation is much worse than that.¡±


    There was little conversation to be had with the other survivors. Most were unconscious, exhausted, but even those who were awake didn¡¯t have much to say, often trapped within their own minds. Lucas stayed close to Valerie as she worked her healing magic, having to provide her with lunar mana for her workings. It went some way to easing the tension in the group, but not all the way. Not enough.


    Remembering how he¡¯d felt for the brief moment he¡¯d been under the demon¡¯s sway, and taking into account the fact he¡¯d had some significant protection courtesy of Valerie¡¯s pendant, he couldn¡¯t blame them for their sorry state. The demon had tormented them for a good half hour, and many hadn¡¯t escaped the experience with their lives.


    It seemed to him that plenty of the people here hadn¡¯t fully escaped, either. More than a few had a distant look on their face, twitching and muttering to themselves, frightened by any movement. Others were catatonic, their eyes empty. Valerie¡¯s healing did what it could for them, but often she just put them to sleep.


    Despite all that, the survivors who were still cognizant enough to recognise their surroundings and speak were perhaps the worst.


    They found Aly towards the back of the group, still clutching the farmer¡¯s children to her sides. Her eyes were wide and haunted, but they focused on Valerie¡¯s face when they approached, gaining a sharp edge. ¡°You,¡± she muttered. Her voice seemed impossibly small. ¡°I remember you. We met in the forest. Travelled together.¡±


    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s me,¡± Valerie said, approaching the girl slowly, like she was a wounded animal that could lash out at any moment. ¡°I¡¯m Valerie, and this is James. We were comrades, for a while.¡±


    ¡°I looked for you at the keep, when that thing attacked, but you weren¡¯t there,¡± Aly said with a note of quiet accusation in her voice. Some others nearby stirred at those words, and guilt gnawed at Lucas¡¯ stomach. He ached to apologise, but Valerie seemed to sense this and shot him a warning look.


    ¡°We made to put some distance between us and the enemy, so James could prepare the spell you saw,¡± Valerie said. ¡°You recall the sheep he gave magic to? And the white plants?¡±


    Aly nodded slowly. ¡°When I looked at the plants, the things it was doing to me seemed far away. Made me realise it was showing me a dream.¡± She shuddered, jostling the children she clung to. ¡°It felt so real. I saw my mother, the look on her face. Just like I remembered, and even things I forgot, like her freckles.¡± She hiccuped. ¡°It made me watch. Over and over again. Things I never wanted to remember. Now I can¡¯t stop thinking about them.¡±


    ¡°There are no greater evils in this world than the one you faced last night, Aly,¡± Valerie said softly, taking another slow step forward. ¡°And you did very well to survive it. You were very brave.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel brave,¡± Aly said.


    ¡°You saved those two children. Eleanor and Elbert, I believe?¡±


    Aly flinched, then frantically looked down, her eyes wide. She shook the two children, suddenly panicked. ¡°Eleanor! Elbert! Are you okay?¡±


    Valerie closed the distance, placing a glowing hand on Aly¡¯s shoulder. The young bowmaiden stilled, her eyes drooping. ¡°You did incredibly well, Aly. They¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°I tried to save Elwyn too,¡± she murmured, her eyes misting over. ¡°But he wouldn¡¯t move. He just kept staring at that¡­ that thing. I tried to tell him it wasn¡¯t his wife, just like that other thing wasn¡¯t my mother. But he wouldn¡¯t listen to me. And then¡­¡±


    ¡°Hush now, child. Rest,¡± Valerie said, and Aly drooped even further, her words devolving into incoherent mumbles. Her grip slacked on the children, and Valerie wasted no time scooping them up.


    ¡°Fucking hell,¡± Lucas whispered under his breath, moving to join her. Then, louder: ¡°Are they okay?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But they¡¯re not unsaveable, if we get them to the Moontower swiftly enough. Being civilians with very little mana actually worked in their favour, here; I imagine the demon was less interested in them.¡±


    ¡°Will we be able to get them there in time, do you think? You said Dawnguard is about a week away¡­¡± Lucas trailed off at the look on her face. ¡°What about the rest of these people, too?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re all going to need to see healers,¡± Valerie said grimly, rising to her feet with the two children now cradled in each arm. She looked around, assessing the group. ¡°Our previous plan is untenable. We can¡¯t afford to dawdle.¡±

 49: Later Than Ever (2)

    Their rest stop didn¡¯t last much longer. Lucas had expected to have a nightmare of a time rousing everyone in their current states, but they were like zombies, their minds hollowed out. All it took was a little coaxing, and they were on their feet. They shambled along with barely a lick of attention paid to their surroundings, and to Lucas¡¯ surprise they made decent time, at first. None of them had any regard for their physical health. They were far more interested in putting more distance between themselves and Taunton.


    The next few days proved to be deeply unpleasant. Most of the survivors remained in that catatonic state, their minds having retreated deep within themselves. Disturbing as the sight of them was, they proved easier to handle than the ones who rediscovered consciousness, because most of the latter ended up in a state similar to Aly had been. Present and aware, but still horribly affected by what they¡¯d been through at the demon¡¯s hands. It had delved through their memories and dredged up the very worst moments of their lives in order to torment them, and it had been adept at its craft.


    Emotions ran high. People panicked, had night terrors, went through bouts of paranoia. Fights broke out here and there as people ranted about their experiences.


    One man constantly muttered to himself, and screamed when Lucas tried to get too close. Another man in heavy armour insisted every shadow hid a beast. There was even a woman who¡¯d keep to the sides of the group as if she was acting as a guard, watching everyone like a hawk, but when Lucas approached her, he discovered that she was under the impression all the others were manifestations created by the demon, and she had to keep an eye on them all.


    There was only so much Valerie could do to calm them down. He and Valerie became sort of shepherds for the group, corralling them in the direction of Dawnguard, and he could tell that Valerie thought less and less of the task as the days went on; he waited for the moment when she¡¯d approach him to declare that they were leaving these people behind, and was preparing arguments against it, but she never did.


    Lucas had been worried that the demon¡¯s little illusory show would¡¯ve revealed to them that he was responsible for launching the beasts into their town, but that seemed to have been long forgotten. Instead, more than a few remembered that Lucas and Valerie had escaped the brunt of the demon¡¯s attack, their memories likely aided by the stark fact that Lucas and Valerie were indeed much better off than the rest of them. Outright hostility never quite manifested, since the excuse Valerie had used on Aly seemed to mollify most, but resentment towards them still simmered.


    Their progress was at least relatively swift, regardless of everyone¡¯s mental and physical state. None of the survivors wanted to chance being left behind to a demon¡¯s clutches, so they all pushed through their fatigue and wouldn¡¯t hear otherwise; they outright refused to stop, and sometimes even demanded to continue going through the night.


    Valerie put her foot down, there. As much as she, too, wanted to get back to Dawnguard as soon as possible, pragmatism won out¡ªif they pushed themselves too hard and caused injury, the journey would only take longer in the end.


    Everything would have gone much faster if they¡¯d all remained in that state of stupor. It felt horrible to think that way, selfish. But the stress of constantly dealing with these mad people was getting to him, as the days went on, and many times he found himself wishing that they¡¯d all just mindlessly follow his orders.


    But the longer they spent like that, the worse the damage to their psyche in the long term.


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen this plenty of times before,¡± Valerie told him one night when he brought it up to her. ¡°Demons do so love to break people¡¯s minds. It¡¯s¡­ curable. But their chances are higher if they get to healers soon. Proper healers.¡±


    Watching Aly nervously try to feed the farmer¡¯s children, Lucas grimaced. ¡°Is it better or worse in kids?¡±


    ¡°That depends on the child,¡± Valerie said softly.


    If there was one silver lining in this dark, dark cloud, it was that Lucas was growing rather skilled at wielding lunar mana against demonic corruption. Working on Valerie afforded him a lot of practice, and it turned out there was use for it in the others, too. Dealing with whatever was sending the stupored survivors into their current state was beyond him, but he was starting to see the shape of how lunar mana took the edge off people¡¯s emotions, and he liked to think that was helping them. Most of the more alert survivors wouldn¡¯t let him get close, even after he showed what an effect he could have on Wick and Aly.


    Days and nights came and went. Typically, they¡¯d walk through the entire day, relying on Aly to hunt for them, and Lucas to build them shelters for the night with his floramancy. There was little conversation aside from the quiet coordination between Lucas and Valerie, and the dour mood of the group never seemed to lift, no matter how much distance they covered. It felt like the survivors couldn¡¯t quite mentally escape Taunton, even when the destroyed town was surely dozens of miles behind them.


    It was only when a great white tower appeared on the horizon that the mood lifted even a fraction.


    First sight of it showed little more than a pale white line spearing up between two distant mountains, but just that small glimpse was enough to send a wave of relief through the group. Their pace crawled to a standstill as sobs of relief punctuated every further footstep. Even those in the deepest throes of paranoia and panic gleamed some comfort from the sight of the Order¡¯s famous headquarters.


    At the back of the group, Valerie stepped close to him and said, ¡°It¡¯s taller than it looks.¡±


    ¡°It looked pretty tall,¡± Lucas replied.


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s taller,¡± Valerie said. She gave him a small smile, though it was wiped away just as swiftly as it appeared, leaving him blinking, wondering if he was imagining it. ¡°It¡¯s said you can see all the way to the other end of Aureon from the roof.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve never tried?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°If you could see all the way to the top of Aureon,¡± Valerie told him, ¡°you¡¯d be able to see the Blighted Lands, too.¡± She paused and let out a sigh. ¡°One day, when the Blighted Lands have been purged and the Demon Lord vanquished, then I¡¯ll climb to the top of the Moontower and behold the horizon in every direction.¡±


    ¡°Well, I was going to ask if I can go have a look right away, but I reckon I like your idea better,¡± Lucas said. ¡°It¡¯ll be a nicer experience, seeing a land free of all this evil.¡±


    Valerie nodded.


    They set off once more with renewed purpose, which somehow ended up making them move slower. There was less urgency in the group, now that the Moontower was in sight; Lucas supposed they thought it was a mark of safety, warding off their fears of another demon attack in the night.


    In fairness, they¡¯d seen neither hide nor hair of any demon or beast since the incident in Taunton. But Lucas rather felt they¡¯d flipped from one extreme to another. Doing away with their rampant paranoia was a relief, but he would¡¯ve liked them to maintain some diligence. The day after sighting the Moontower couldn¡¯t have seen half as much progress as the previous day.


    But onward they continued, and he had to admit it was a more pleasant journey when they didn¡¯t have to corral their charges as much. Even the catatonic members of their large party seemed drawn towards the Moontower¡¯s protecting embrace, barely needing to be coaxed forward anymore.


    The tower grew and grew, seeming to reach ever higher as they approached. After two days of moving towards it, Lucas started to appreciate just how tall it must actually be¡ªit seemed to go on forever, and Valerie revealed to him it might as well do so. Apparently, the mountains it appeared to be nestled between were actually quite significantly closer than the tower itself was.


    ¡°It was built to be precisely 5000 metres tall, or so Lady Claire says,¡± she told him one night, sitting by a fire. They¡¯d taken to situating themselves away from the rest of the group at night, for the most part. ¡°Since it so precisely hits 5000 metres, she believed it had to be deliberate.¡± Valerie shrugged. ¡°Records of its construction are long lost, if they ever existed. We don¡¯t even know exactly when it was built, just that it had been around for several-thousand years at the time of the Conquest.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s crazy,¡± Lucas said. ¡°I don¡¯t know the exact height of the tallest tower back home, but I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯d be less than half of that. A quarter, even.¡±


    ¡°The Burj Khalifa was the tallest building at the time of your comrades¡¯ summoning,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Lady Claire didn¡¯t know the precise number either, but she estimated it was around 800 metres.¡±


    ¡°Sounds about right,¡± Lucas said. ¡°Not even a fifth, then. And that¡¯s with the wonders of modern engineering. Kinda insane that some ancient people in your world outdid us like that.¡±


    ¡°To be fair,¡± Valerie said, ¡°Your modern engineering has a distinct disadvantage to magical engineering. Lady Claire explained your laws of physics to me. They sound quite restrictive.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know. Never been much of an engineer, to be honest,¡± Lucas said.


    Two days after they¡¯d first sighted the Moontower in the distance, they reached the pass between the two looming mountains, both capped with snow. Lucas had hoped things would get even easier from here, anticipating the road Valerie described that wound right between the mountains before cutting a straight line right towards the city¡¯s main gates, but, naturally, there were complications.


    ¡°That''s a lot of people,¡± he said, wide-eyed.


    They¡¯d found themselves on a small rise overlooking the point where multiple main roads converged on the approach to Dawnguard, forced together by the pass and the small river that flowed through it; the terrain was hazardous and rocky, forcing the gravelled road narrower and narrower until it was barely wide enough for five people to walk side-by-side without rubbing shoulders. The road stretched out before them, one long walk all the way to safety, and yet the entire group had come to a halt, boggling at the teeming mass of humanity that seemed to stretch on forever.


    There had been some hints of human presence on their approach, and they¡¯d anticipated coming across more refugees fleeing south. They had done just that. Except no one had expected there to be this many.


    ¡°Does the crowd extend all the way to the city?¡± Lucas asked, squinting into the distance. It was hard to tell, with the two mountains looming over them, partially blocking the view, but it certainly seemed like the convoy stretched right through the pass, at the very least.


    ¡°It just might do,¡± Valerie said grimly. ¡°There are¡ªor were¡ªcertainly enough people in Harwyckshire as a whole to cover that much distance.¡±


    Lucas hesitated. ¡°What are you saying?¡±


    ¡°The worst may have come to pass,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Let¡¯s move. We need to find out what¡¯s happened.¡±


    The group¡¯s urgency had been low before, and now it was practically non-existent. Grim anticipation hung over them like a dark cloud, and Lucas got the feeling the others were dreading what news they were going to hear as much as he was, hence their hesitation. Valerie was the only one who seemed keen to learn anything, and even she maintained her position at the back of the group, making sure everyone kept moving forward.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    It took them a little while to reach the main mass of people, and long before then the grim atmosphere of these people shuffling towards Dawnguard became clear. There was an air of defeat and despair to the crowd as a whole. There were no smiles, no enthusiastic declarations. Not a soul was trying to lift the mood. There was a low din of people murmuring to one another, but it was like nobody wanted to make too much noise, not wanting to draw any attention to themselves. The loudest noises were the barked orders of those few people still armoured and armed, attempting to coordinate the seemingly endless procession.


    Valerie approached the nearest as their group sought to join one of the offshoots before it merged into the greater column at the entrance to the pass. The man wore dirty red armour, his helmet covering his face, and his voice was hoarse as he called out to the crowd, ¡°Keep moving! If you hold things up, I¡¯ll come in there and kick your arse forward myself!¡±


    ¡°What news, Ser? What¡¯s going on, here?¡± Valerie asked him when they came close. He was positioned off to the side of the path, where the rocks were more hazardous, but seemed stable enough. Valerie stepped out of the line to address him, and Lucas followed, the others shuffling around at his back, pushed along by the tide of people.


    The man glanced at her, then did a double take. ¡°Ah, a skycloak. I didn¡¯t recognise you with your cloak drained so. Are things so dire up north that you can¡¯t even recharge that thing?¡±


    Valerie¡¯s expression darkened. ¡°I have been away on a separate mission to my comrades, Ser, so my knowledge of the current situation is unfortunately lacking.¡± She looked around at the crowd, then leaned forward and asked quietly, ¡°Has Harwyck fallen?¡±


    ¡°Not yet, as far as I know. But it¡¯s a matter of when, not if, I¡¯m told.¡± The man sighed, his shoulder slumping. He gestured widely at the grim scene around them.  ¡°Hence what you see here. The decision was made to evacuate the county, bring people back towards Dawnguard and redistribute them south.¡±


    ¡°Are there any other members of the Order present here?¡±


    ¡°No. Closer to the city, perhaps, but not on this side of the mountains. Most of them went north as part of the force that was looking to help Harwyck, from what I understand. Don¡¯t think it¡¯s worked. Maybe if they¡¯d set out a few moons earlier¡­¡± He shook his head. ¡°I don¡¯t think anyone in charge thought there was any hope of holding it. If you ask me, your comrades only went north to extract as many warriors from the city as they could.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s very possible,¡± Valerie said through gritted teeth. ¡°Thank you for your help, Ser.¡±


    The man nodded, already dismissing them as he went back to barking atthe crowd to keep moving; some had slowed to try and listen in on the conversation.


    They had to navigate the uneven roadside to catch up with their companions, most of whom had kept shuffling along with the crowd, with Wick left to watch over them. The tall shieldmaster regarded Lucas and Valerie with a blank expression as they returned. ¡°Has Harwyck fallen, then?¡±


    ¡°Not yet,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°But it¡¯s a matter of time,¡± Wick said.


    ¡°If it hasn¡¯t happened already,¡± Valerie agreed, her voice tight. She looked at Lucas. ¡°It¡¯s more imperative than ever that we make it to Dawnguard as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°You want to leave them now,¡± he whispered, mindful of the translation magic messing things up for him. Wick was watching them, but didn¡¯t comment.


    ¡°They are as safe as they can be among this crowd, and they won¡¯t get to the city any sooner due to our presence,¡± she said. Her lips thinned briefly. ¡°If the city is following protocol, a triage camp will be in place outside the city walls, and they¡¯ll get preliminary treatment there. Anyone who truly needs it will be sent onwards to the houses of healing, while the rest will be kept stable.¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s safe out here, why do we need to get to Dawnguard faster now?¡±


    ¡°Safe for them and safe for you are different things,¡± Valerie said, giving him a hard look. ¡°Having you travel for so long with twenty people was risk enough, but here? With this many people around? Every moment, the chances of something going wrong increases.¡± She glanced back at Wick. ¡°I will allow Ser Wick to use my name to secure the best possible treatment for those who escaped Taunton. Simply find any Skycloak and tell them Captain Vayon sent you, and told you to use the word Helga to confirm our association.¡± She turned to Lucas once more. ¡°Will that ease your worries?¡±


    Lucas nodded slowly. He still wasn¡¯t happy about it, but recognise the merit in her argument. ¡°And how are we going to skip the line, anyway? You saw what it was like in the pass; the road is absolutely packed with people, and on either side are rocks that¡¯re so sharp they can probably cut your eyes if you look at them too long.¡±


    Valerie¡¯s stare seemed to sharpen, somehow.


    ~~~


    The world blurred beneath him. Part of it was due to the tears in his eyes from the buffeting wind. Another part was the dizziness; Lucas had never been afraid of heights, but clinging to someone¡¯s back as she leapt from giant rock to giant rock was not the same thing as peering over a high ledge.


    Most of it was the sheer speed Valerie was moving at, covering hundreds of metres with every jump and somehow keeping the ride smooth enough that he wasn¡¯t in danger of throwing up. Small consolation, considering the circumstances. It still felt like a fucking rollercoaster ride, his stomach swooping as they sailed through the air.


    Lucas tried to distract himself by focusing on Valerie¡¯s mana. She didn¡¯t expressly need him to work on her right now, since she was in a decent enough state, very few points of corruption leaking into her system, but she wasn¡¯t against him inspecting her. Probably because it was a decent enough learning experience, for him. He could see how well-controlled her mana was, the way it flowed evenly to every extremity, suffusing every atom of her body and augmenting it. The strength it granted her was mind-boggling, and the thought he himself would be able to pull off casual feats like this some day made him a little giddy.


    That might have also been the dizziness, to be fair. Unfortunately, it only got worse when he closed his eyes.


    Below, the long line of humanity twisted through the pass like an endless snake. The road was absolutely packed with people, and there was quite the variety on display. He picked out people of every ethnicity that was vaguely analogous to Earth, and ones that weren¡¯t. There was no one starkly inhuman, per se, but he saw traits that he didn¡¯t think would¡¯ve occurred in a world without magic. Blue skin, pointed ears, absurd heights and proportions. That sort of thing. He¡¯d have to ask Valerie about it later¡ªhe¡¯d been working under the assumption that people here were mostly, well, the kind of human he was used to. But thinking back, Jyn had had an unusual complexion, and blue lips. And Wick was a good seven feet tall. Was that some kind of giant¡¯s blood? Or was it relatively normal?


    Thoughts like these ran through his mind as they sailed over the crowd, jumping from convenient rock to convenient rock. Sometimes Valerie was forced to cross over the road, and Lucas was sure they drew a lot of attention, though no one was in high spirits enough to point out the Skycloak bounding around overhead.


    Even with their higher pace, it still took a good few hours to navigate to a point where the mountains were no longer blocking their view of the city beyond, and if Lucas had been moving under his own power, he probably would¡¯ve been rooted to the spot, awed.


    In his time, he¡¯d been to a few big cities, and had the privilege to see them from unique perspectives. The Shard gave a fantastic view of London. Tokyo Skytree let you appreciate just how far the urban sprawl spread. The Burj Khalifa placed you above the clouds and granted you a perspective that was usually reserved for mountain peaks, with countless skyscrapers jutting out below you like glass teeth.


    For some reason, even with the knowledge of the Moontower, he hadn¡¯t been expecting Dawnguard to be so vertical. His imagination had conjured up something medieval-looking like Prague or Bruges, not¡­ this.


    Dawnguard was, in a word, beautiful. Valerie¡¯s descriptions hadn¡¯t done the place justice, but to be fair to her, no words could have adequately prepared him for the awe he¡¯d feel.


    The enormous white walls, smooth as moonlight on a calm sea, stood in silent defiance of the swirling dust that rose from the throngs of weary travellers camped at their base. Each sun-bleached battlement glimmered with an otherworldly sheen. The walls surely stretched hundreds of metres high, judging by the tine specks at their base that had to be people.


    Within the shelter of those grand walls, he could see a labyrinth of fantastical skyscrapers and looming structures. The spires and towers seemed more suited to the modern cities Lucas was accustomed to, though admittedly the pearly aesthetic distinguished them from skyscrapers quite nicely. Bridges spanned the gaps between tall roofs like a cobweb spun by a giant spider of pure light, bustling with people.


    And from the heart of the city soared the Moontower, far exceeding any mortal measure he had deemed possible. 5000 metres had been just a number before, but seeing it compared to the city around it finally allowed him to appreciate the absurdity of the structure. Its jagged spire, carved from an unearthly marble that caught and bent the light, seemed to pierce the very belly of the sky. The morning was relatively clear and bright, but at night it would surely ascend beyond the atmosphere, melding with the stars so that the highest pinnacle shimmered, caught in a perpetual dance with moonbeams. A haze of pale luminescence wrapped itself around its uppermost reaches, as though the tower¡¯s topmost chamber served as a conduit for the celestial realm.


    ¡°I hope we don¡¯t have to climb that thing,¡± Lucas muttered.


    Beneath him, Valerie snorted. ¡°I imagine you¡¯ll be given immunity from that little hazing ritual. Fear not.¡±


    According to Valerie, there was pretty much no such thing as a suburb in Dawnguard these days. There had been more sparsely populated areas once, before the Demon Lord¡¯s advance pushed millions of people south, but Mornlunn¡¯s rulers had decided they needed to build up, packing as many people as possible into the city¡¯s ancient walls and their longstanding, powerful magical protections.


    Thus, you ended up with a medieval-style city with a population rivalling that of Tokyo or Shanghai or Mumbai, and things were about to get worse with the fall of Harwyck. Valerie couldn¡¯t tell him how many refugees there were now, but if there were less than a million in total he¡¯d be surprised.


    Outside the great gates, a sea of tents sprawled, housing those who had evacuated from Harwyckshire and perhaps even beyond to find safety within the city¡¯s embrace. Ragged standards fluttered in the wind. Voices in a dozen tongues mingled with the clanging of makeshift forges, the cries of peddlers hawking wares, and the comforting lullaby of song around fires. There were families huddled in close warmth, warriors sharpening their blades, and Wands sketching protective runes on the dusty ground. All of them waited, hopeful that the city¡¯s gates would open and grant them a place behind those radiant walls.


    It was nice to see that not everyone was so hopeless as those Lucas and Valerie had already passed, but he could see they were in a minority, even here, with relative safety so close.


    Lucas had been hoping he¡¯d finally feel safe when the city¡¯s walls came within reach, but dread was settling on him more and more. He couldn¡¯t help thinking he was hopping out of the frying pan, only to fall right into the fire. Facing down a demon and a horde of beasts had been terrifying. Now, he had to face down people.


    Politics, he thought with disgust and trepidation. His gaze kept being drawn back to the venerated Moontower. The global headquarters of the Order of Five. Thousands of skycloaks called that place home, and not all of them viewed him as Valerie did.


    And they were far from the only faction at work in this city. They were people of a like mind to Jyn, who¡¯d kill him to try and extract the power his summoning had bestowed upon him. Others would try to dissect him to study how the great powers worked and see if they could be replicated. Even the factions who weren¡¯t so malicious would be troublesome; some would force him to act as their pawn, others would want to butter him up. Plenty of people would worship him as their saviour finally arrived, and a similar number would probably berate him for taking so long to get here.


    As if he had a choice in the matter.


    Valerie kept going even after they emerged from the pass and onto the open plain, despite no longer having any rocks to leap over. Instead, she seemed perfectly happy to continue running with him on her back. He had to admit her pace was higher than his greatest sprinting speed, and she didn¡¯t appear to be breaking a sweat. If not for the way her mana seeped right into her muscles, joints, and bones, he would¡¯ve thought it was legitimately taking her no effort at all. It was like she was using mana to replace the oxygen depleted by her exertion, and Lucas couldn¡¯t wait to learn how to do that.


    They sped across the open land until they reached the edge of the tent city, and only then did Valerie finally stop to let him down. He had little time to mumble a thanks before she was moving forward once more, dragging him along by the crook of the elbow until his stride matched hers. Her eyes scanned the crowd, and there was a tension in her body that felt incongruous to the situation.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± he whispered, eyes darting around in search of what had spooked her.


    Valerie just grimaced at him as she pulled him deep into the throngs of people lining the main roadway towards Dawnguard¡¯s main gates. With his head on a swivel, Lucas just about caught a glimpse of a sky-blue cloak pushing its way through the crowd towards them before Valerie grabbed him by the scruff and hauled, forcing him to duck his head.


    ¡°What¡¯s gotten into you?¡± he asked.


    Before she could answer, an outraged voice cut through the low din of the crowd, ¡°Vayon! I know you saw me!¡±


    And so it begins, Lucas thought.

 50: Later Than Ever (3)

    Valerie made no move to speed up, hide, or otherwise escape the woman calling out to her, but neither did she go through any great effort to allow her to catch up. She kept pulling Lucas through the crowd, weaving through the throngs of people lingering between the endless rows of tents when she could and forcing open a path when she couldn¡¯t, all the while keeping her neutral gaze firmly ahead. The woman had stopped calling out to them, at least, but that was mostly because she was barely a few metres behind them.


    Lucas wasn¡¯t sure what was going on, but every time he looked over his shoulder, she appeared to be closer. Close enough now that he could see the fierce scowl on her uncannily pretty face, getting angrier every time yet another person got in her way. She was a striking woman¡ªthat was his first impression of her up close. A heart-shaped face, verdant green eyes, and orange hair that seemed fiery in the mild afternoon sun. She wore gleaming white armour of the same style as Valerie¡¯s, though hers was significantly more polished, since she probably hadn¡¯t been roving the countryside for the last couple of months. Her cloak, too, was pristine, the same colour as the sky above.


    For a brief moment, as he looked back to check how close she¡¯d come, her eyes and Lucas¡¯ met. There was a breathless second where time seemed to stop, and he was sure the woman would recognise him for who he was. But she gave no particular reaction beyond a baffled look before turning her furious attention back to Valerie.


    It wasn¡¯t long before she drew close enough that she was able to close in on Valerie¡¯s other side and hiss, ¡°I thought we left this kind of childish behaviour behind years ago.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing childish about my behaviour,¡± Valerie snapped back, not even glancing at the newcomer. ¡°I¡¯m trying to get to the city as soon as possible, and thus I do not wish to stop.¡±


    ¡°And it would have delayed you so long to look back and acknowledge me, would it? I¡¯m sure the fact that you know very well how I despise being ignored had nothing to do with your actions, did it, Vayon?¡±


    Valerie looked at him and rolled her eyes. There was a brief moment where the redheaded woman and Valerie were forced to part as the crowd became particularly dense¡ªpeople crowding outside a large tent giving away food, it turned out¡ªbut Valerie kept him close.


    ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡± Lucas murmured to her.


    ¡°Her name¡¯s Florence Wynn,¡± Valerie said. ¡°An old comrade, as you can no doubt see.¡±


    ¡°You seem uncharacteristically antagonistic, right now,¡± Lucas observed.


    Valerie just scowled, but Florence was back before she could reply, leaning over Valerie¡¯s shoulder to get a look at her face. ¡°I must admit, it took me off guard when I returned to Dawnguard from my mission to find you¡¯d set off on a mission of your own. I was under the impression you¡¯re not supposed to take missions away from the front lines, or so you went to great lengths to imply.¡±


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t a rule,¡± Valerie said, sending the woman a flinty look. ¡°My career has just so happened to play out that way, thus far. There¡¯s no edict banning me from running regular missions, if I so desire.¡±


    ¡°You just haven¡¯t found the time to do so, is that it?¡± Florence¡¯s nose wrinkled, then she smoothed out her expression and let out a soft sigh. ¡°Well, far be it from me to scold you for finally following my advice and taking on a more low-stakes work for once. Except, no, you¡¯ve gone and got mixed up in something serious again, haven¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean,¡± Valerie said tightly.


    ¡°Come on, Val,¡± Florence groaned. ¡°I¡¯m not an imbecile; it doesn¡¯t require any particular talent in deductive reasoning to take the fact that you¡¯ve arrived from the north at this time and figure out you decided to go and stick your nose in this Harwyck fiasco. Look at you! Your cloak is practically black. I bet it barely has a speck of mana in it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not entirely incorrect,¡± Valerie said. Lucas couldn¡¯t help but notice she was keeping herself between him and Florence, and wondered what that meant about the woman¡¯s trustworthiness. He didn¡¯t think Valerie was likely to reveal his identity in this situation even to Claire herself, but her actions still made him wary, and he found himself watching this Florence out of the corner of his eye as they continued to navigate through the teeming crowd.


    Apparently, he needn¡¯t have bothered. ¡°So. Out with it, then,¡± Florence said, craning her neck to eye him over the top of Valerie¡¯s head. The two were of almost the same height. ¡°I assume this man you¡¯re escorting is an important person you extracted from the city, or something?¡±


    There was a pause as they were forced to take a detour behind a larger tent to avoid a truly impenetrable-looking mass of people packed together around a white-robed man who appeared to be giving off a healing aura.


    ¡°His name is James,¡± Valerie said when their path was more open, ¡°and he¡¯s a lunamancer.¡±


    Florence blinked a few times, her gaze flicking between Lucas and Valerie for a moment before settling on the latter. She gave Valerie a sad smile. ¡°Ah. I didn¡¯t think you were still pursuing solutions to that issue.¡±


    ¡°My pendant broke,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°What?!¡± Florence hissed, briefly coming to a stop in her shock, separating them as people filled in the gap, and Valerie left her behind without looking back once again. It took her a few seconds to weave back through the crowd to Valerie¡¯s side again. ¡°What do you mean, it broke? That thing was crafted by Lady Claire herself, was it not?¡±


    ¡°Even Lady Claire hasn¡¯t managed to create an enchantment that grants total invincibility to magical objects,¡± Valerie replied with a roll of her eyes.


    ¡°But it had so much mana in it! Surely a human Wand can¡¯t possibly act as an adequate replacement for that!¡± She glanced at Lucas. ¡°No offence intended, Ser James. I¡¯m sure your skills are exemplary, for Valerie to have sought you out and, ah, recruited you to assist her. But I¡¯m sure I don¡¯t need to tell you how difficult and time-consuming it is to gather lunar mana, and the pendant we refer to was a product of decades of work by the greatest Wand Aerth has ever known.¡± Lucas just nodded, unsure whether it was safe to speak, and she looked back to Valerie, leaning closer. ¡°How in the five hells did it even break?¡±


    Valerie grimaced. ¡°A demon.¡±


    There was a hitch in Florence¡¯s step, but this time she didn¡¯t come to a stop. ¡°How, Val? I may not be as experienced in facing demons as you, but even I know that¡¯s no explanation. The bloody thing was specifically designed to fight against demonic influence, so how, pray tell, was it destroyed by a demon?¡±


    ¡°Extenuating circumstances,¡± Valerie said. She continued in a lower voice, cutting off Florence¡¯s reply, ¡°Not something I¡¯m willing to tell you about here, where anyone could be listening.¡±


    Florence studied Valerie¡¯s face for a long moment. Valerie¡¯s expression was blank, but Florence seemed to find something there regardless, her eyes going wide before narrowing. She leaned in, and spoke quietly enough that Lucas wouldn¡¯t have heard it without the enhanced hearing Jamie had granted him. ¡°You were complaining about that group, last time we spoke. Said Lady Claire wasn¡¯t taking them seriously.¡±


    ¡°She should have,¡± Valerie growled back. ¡°She really, really should have.¡±


    Lucas couldn¡¯t help but agree. A member of said group, if they meant the same one he was thinking of, had tried to kill him, after all.


    Sucking in a breath through her teeth, Florence grimaced. ¡°Come, I¡¯ll escort you to the city gates. I¡¯ve been assigned to assist the city watch with the refugees out here,¡± she said with a note of bitterness in her voice. ¡°Please let me know if you intend to venture out from the city once more? I should be finished with my duties here by week¡¯s end, and at that point I would very much like to speak to you in more depth. No avoiding me, Vayon!¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dream of it,¡± Valerie said.


    Florence scoffed, but she upped her pace to lead them onwards, her head held high. Her cloak seemed to grow brighter, like the sun was passing near the patch of sky her mantle represented, and many in the crowd shied away, not quite bowing, but definitely respectful.


    Lucas and Valerie exchanged a look, then swiftly moved to follow Florence through the gap her sheer presence was creating. Their progress still could not be considered fast by any means, but it was at least quicker than how they had been moving before. More than that, the thinning crowd gave Lucas more room to actually see what was going on around him, rather than feeling like he was stuck in the middle of a scrum.


    They turned off from the main road, Florence evidently thinking better of trying to go straight to the city when there were so many people packing the way. Instead, she led them through labyrinthine route zigzagging between tents and campfires and myriad scenes of hope and despair. For every hollow-eyed soul, there was another man whose eyes burned with determination to keep on going. Those who had given up were matched in equal number by those who would never surrender; it seemed like everywhere he looked, there was someone trying to get another to eat, or telling a joke, or playing a song.


    It was as harrowing as it was inspiring. The refugees, driven here by a war that blurred nightmares and reality, huddled around meagre fires, clinging to the promise that the great white-walled city would protect them from the demonic assault. Demons had never reached Dawnguard, after all. Safety stood so close in reach.


    Children with ruddy cheeks and dirty clothes darted between shelters. An air of desperation and defiance clung to every whispered prayer, the wind carrying the smell of sweat.


    They passed a makeshift infirmary where healers in soot-stained robes bent over the wounded. The infirmary smelled of poultices and scorched flesh, and the groaning of the afflicted formed a dissonant lullaby that would haunt his dreams. A wiry woman in a white floral gown, features sharpened by sleepless nights, flittered between the patients, her hands glowing an icy blue. Valerie pulled him onward before he could drift towards it.


    Lucas found himself wondering, as they navigated through the camp, how many situations like this one had played out in the past as the Blight advanced, and how many more would play out in the future, if nothing was done. How many more could play out, before there was nowhere left for the people to go? He liked to imagine a heroic last stand, humanity banding together on the eve of annihilation, but then he saw a woman with the same blank eyes as some of the survivors of Taunton, and that notion drained away.


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    There was no stand to be made against demons. Not with sheer numbers. All that stood between chaos and the last bastions of humanity were those powerful and courageous individuals who could truly fight those monsters on equal terms.


    One day, he was going to have to be one. For the first time, looking around at this place, at the dichotomy of hope and despair, he didn¡¯t dread the prospect. Didn¡¯t get stuck on the absurd concept of him fighting monsters out of an eldritch horror story. Didn¡¯t feel fear and bewilderment over the idea that he would one day wield enough power to sunder armies.


    In fact, that time couldn¡¯t come fast enough.


    One day, I¡¯ll take the fight to the demons for real, he thought, and he determined it was an unspoken promise. I¡¯ll kill every last one of them, from the lowest beast to the Dread General and the Demon Lord himself, so that these people never have to go through this shit again.


    But that was something for the future.


    Right now, he could see a little girl with dirt on her face and a hollow look in her eyes, and he stopped to approach. She was so blond her hair was practically white, and her eyes would¡¯ve been a fascinating shade of amethyst if they hadn¡¯t turned milky from whatever had afflicted her. She should¡¯ve been in one of those infirmaries they¡¯d passed by, not crouched at the corner of a large tent, going unnoticed at the side of the packed crowd. But he supposed that was just how things were going to go, when so many people had been forced out of their homes and herded south by monsters; people, even children, were going to fall through the cracks.


    But he¡¯d seen her now, and he¡¯d catch her before she could fall all the way.


    He expected Valerie to keep him moving forward, but her grip slackened as he neared the girl, and instead she moved ahead of him, reaching beneath her cloak. Her brows furrowed as she rummaged around for a moment, then she went still. Slowly, she turned her gaze to him.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll help her.¡±


    Valerie nodded. Her lips were thin, and there was a look in her eyes he couldn¡¯t place. Florence joined them a moment later, her eyes fixed on Valerie. She placed a hand on Valerie¡¯s shoulder, but Valerie didn¡¯t seem to notice.


    Lucas leaned down over the girl, who gave no reaction to his presence or his reaching out with a hand glowing a soft white. Even when his fingers ghost over her shoulder and his mana trickled into her system, she didn¡¯t even flinch.


    Otherwise, he might have made some effort to hide his grimace. Her mana was¡­ withered. Not corrupted, not like he¡¯d seen at the hands of beasts or demons. And it wasn¡¯t infected like Valerie¡¯s either. It was more like when someone spent so long away from the sun that their skin turned paler and paler. He couldn¡¯t diagnose exactly what had happened to her or what might have caused this, but he¡¯d had a lot of practise with using his lunar mana to alleviate ailments of the soul, in the last week or so. It didn¡¯t take much effort to drip some into her system and cycle it around a bit; since she was a child, her system was so undeveloped it practically only covered her bones, just as Lucas¡¯ had done when he first arrived here.


    In a matter of minutes, the fog in her eyes was clearing up, and she was blinking blearily up at him as if waking up from a long sleep. Her brows furrowed, and her lips trembled. Lucas opened his mouth to speak, but Valerie¡¯s hand on his shoulder hushed him. ¡°You¡¯re safe now, child,¡± she said in a voice softer than he ever knew she was capable of. She held out a hand, and the girl seemed to take it on pure reflex. ¡°Come along now, we¡¯ll get you somewhere safe. How does food sound?¡±


    They found an area that seemed to be dedicated to taking care of children who¡¯d arrived here without a guardian, or who¡¯d gotten lost. A matronly old woman in a grey shawl smiled at the young girl, who hadn¡¯t spoken a word in the time they¡¯d led her there, and thanked them for their help. She quickly moved on, with dozens more children packed into her small tent, most of them in a similar state to the one Lucas had helped.


    Valerie nudged him to move on, but there was less urgency to it, now. When he looked back at her, he found her watching that tent with a distant expression, even though they couldn¡¯t see the little girl any more.


    Florence was no longer leading them as she had been, instead taking up a position on Valerie¡¯s other side. She leaned over and whispered something to Valerie, but Valerie just shook her head as if to dislodge a thought and picked up her pace, forcing Lucas and Florence to hurry to keep up.


    It took much of the rest of the day to navigate through the camp, with many more incidents similar in nature to the previous. The sun was well into its descent by the time they passed by the last tent and made their way into the no-man¡¯s-land before the city¡¯s looming, impossibly tall walls. Even here, people seemed to occupy every possible space. Pushing through was a work of effort, especially since Valerie insisted in them staying together, not willing to take her sight off him for a moment. Florence¡¯s shining cloak proved a boon once more, respect for the Order parting the crowd like a plough.


    Eventually, the chaos of the crowd gave way to a more orderly line to enter the city, overseen by watchmen in white and red armour and red mantles, with a five-pointed star icon on their chests. Here, Florence¡¯s cloak did nothing to part the crowd, though it did get them ahead into a smaller line that was apparently meant for important people who all seemed to be escorted by someone connected to the city watch in some way¡ªit said a lot about the situation that even so-called VIPs had to be stopped and checked, though their line move notably fastre than the rest. It wasn¡¯t so much a queue as a very slow shuffle toward the checkpoint. Lucas assumed they had a plan to get him through, since he had no way of identifying himself. Maybe two skycloaks vouching for him would be enough.


    They were in the line for a few minutes when Florence spoke, addressing him in a hushed voice. ¡°Your lunamancy was impressive back there, Ser James.¡±


    He eyed her. ¡°It was nothing. Basic stuff, really.¡±


    ¡°Even the basics of lunamancy are impressive,¡± she retorted. ¡°It is a rare art.¡±


    ¡°Ser James has spent most of his life isolated from the wider world,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Ah.¡± Florence considered him, green eyes sharp. ¡°That would explain it. I couldn¡¯t have ever imagined a Wand who delved into such a notoriously difficult discipline would be so humble about it. If you¡¯re not a College-trained Wand, that makes much more sense.¡± She nodded to herself, and her expression softened. ¡°Still, what you did for that girl was a kind thing. I know your mana is a precious resource.¡±


    ¡°I learned it precisely for that kind of purpose,¡± Lucas said, eyes straying to Valerie.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Florence said. She smiled grimly. ¡°I hope she¡¯s given you a good deal to get you to follow her around, Ser James. The places she typically runs missions to are, ah, not pleasant, shall we say?¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t be returning to the front lines for some time yet,¡± Valerie said.


    Florence raised an eyebrow. ¡°Oh? What brings this on?¡±


    ¡°There are things I need to do in Dawnguard,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I¡¯ll be operating locally for a while, with Ser James here.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Would you like company?¡±


    Valerie stared at her for a moment. ¡°Perhaps.¡±


    Before long, they made it to the front of the line, and there was nothing between them and the city gates. The main, imposing gates were shut, forcing people to funnel through a few people-sized doors that seemed to have been cut out of the great white slabs of stone as an afterthought. That explained why everything was moving so slowly, at least.


    They barely stopped for a moment to talk to the watchmen guarding the doors¡ªthere were dozens of them standing sentinel, and they were all practically identical, save for their height and builds. All wore dark armour with an oil-like opalescent sheen, covering them from head to toe. Their full-face helmets had no gaps to see through, so Lucas assumed there was some magic going on there to let them see or hear anything at all.


    Florence exchanged some brief words with the guards who¡¯d been manning the VIP line. As expected, it turned out Valerie needed no identification as a skycloak, and the two of them were enough for Lucas to be trusted as Ser James of Somercot. With barely a delay, they were waved on to one of the doors.


    Florence, of course, was still on duty. ¡°I meant what I said earlier, Val,¡± she told Valerie, grabbing her by the elbow. ¡°Speak to me if you intend to leave.¡±


    ¡°We have no intention of departing Dawnguard anytime soon,¡± she said. ¡°Ser James has a lot to learn before I will consider him safe to take missions with me.¡±


    Florence stared at her for a long moment with searching eyes, then nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll seek you out when my shift ends tomorrow,¡± she said, and then she was gone, slipping back through the crowds, heading towards the refugee camp once more.


    Valerie let out a sigh of relief. ¡°That woman doesn¡¯t know when to leave things alone,¡± she muttered.


    ¡°It seemed like she was worried about you,¡± Lucas whispered.


    Valerie said nothing to that, and they made their way towards the doors. With only half a dozen entrances, and each only large enough to fit one person through at a time, there was once more a delay in proceedings, forcing Lucas and Valerie to join in the queue. It moved fairly fast, though, with the guards hurrying things along. In what felt like no time at all, Lucas found himself stepping through the gap in the great gates, the great city opening up before him.


    Valerie had told him much about Dawnguard over the course of their journey. From stories of its founding to more practical descriptions of its general layout, he¡¯d felt he had a decent understanding of what he could expect to see when he finally arrived.


    But how could any amount of description prepare him for the truth that the walls were twenty metres thick, and made of white stone that looked sturdy as steel? What set of words could adequately brace him for the sight of hundreds of buildings reaching high into the sky, lining a road that seemed to go on for miles, right up to the Moontower itself? Was there any tale that might have matched up to the reality of just how many people were packed into the city streets, even with hundreds of watchmen trying to keep the area around the gates from getting too congested?


    The answer to all those questions, Lucas felt, was a resounding no.


    There must have been some kind of ward keeping the noise back at the gates, because the din of the crowd here rolled over him like a sudden burst of thunder, making him flinch back. If he¡¯d thought the diversity of people among the refugees was impressive, it had nothing on the city, and he¡¯d only just stepped through onto the main street. There were so many types of people on display at just a glance, hundreds of disparate cultures with their own clothing styles.


    He found his head on a swivel, taking in the sights, the sheer variety of the buildings. Some city edict had evidently forced any enterprising architects to keep with a general theme of ¡®white¡¯, but aside from that they seemed to have free rein to go wild as they liked. Some were made of timber, some stone. Others seemed to be white metal. Many buildings were ornate, covered in swirling patterns and murals and elaborate designs. All of them, every single one, loomed high over the wide main street. None of them could¡¯ve been shorted than ten stories. Many surely had to boast hundreds.


    Lucas had come to a stupefied stop, and Valerie allowed it for a few seconds before pulling him along. The sights meant nothing to her, of course, she had eyes only for the greatest, most impressive building of all, rising seemingly infinitely at the far end of the street.


    ¡°Come,¡± she said softly. ¡°There¡¯s work to do.¡±


    There¡¯s a lot, Lucas thought, nodding dumbly.


    Being surrounded by this many people was a surreal experience. For weeks, he¡¯d been alone, in an unfamiliar world, with only a cat¡ªthat turned out not to be a cat at all¡ªto keep him company. Eventually, he¡¯d gained a small number of companions, with one woman, Valerie, being the only constant among them. There¡¯d been a time a time when he worried that he was the only person in the world, irrational as that sounded. It had terrified him.


    Seeing this many people alive and thriving lifted a weight he¡¯d known was there but hadn¡¯t allowed himself to think about too much. This world was on the edge of annihilation, and seeing that there was still some life, some civilisation, gave him hope he desperately needed.


    At the same time, though, it placed an entirely new weight on his shoulders, one that was perhaps heavier.


    Because it was partly up to him to protect these people, to deliver them a victory against the force of evil that sought to rob them of all they held dear. This city¡¯s future hinged on him. All these people. All these buildings. All of this history and culture and life.


    Arriving here provided him a promise of safety that he hadn¡¯t enjoyed in the months since he¡¯d been dragged into this strange world. At the same time, it provided him a clarity of purpose that had been somewhat murky, even after Valerie had elucidated what had brought him here.


    He saw what he needed to protect, now, clearer than ever.


    Lucas¡¯ fists clenched at his sides, determination coursing through his veins. He set his eyes on the Moontower, and moved forward, Valerie close to his side.


    It felt like he was finally taking the first step towards his destiny.

 51: Lately (1)

    Since discovering magic, Lucas had steadily been starting to think of it in all its myriad forms as, in essence, a singular phenomenon. It had started with how his floramancy had seemed to transition so easily into necromancy, when he¡¯d picked up a bone and circulated mana into it, thinking it was just another stick by the side of his makeshift bed in the middle of the summoning hall.


    The theory got a bit muddier when comparing floramancy and pyromancy, since they seemed to be incompatible for the most part, but they ultimately functioned in the same way. In its simplest form, magic was an act of moving around that mystic energy known as mana, to varying effects depending on the nature of the mana. It could get complicated, and do strange things one mightn¡¯t consider intuitive at first glance, but he suspected it was at least consistent across all the disciplines, to a degree.


    That being said, he¡¯d found himself wondering how well techniques transferred between the disciplines. Jyn had displayed the ability to turn his body into fire, and glean information from heat, a kind of postcognitive sense for what temperatures an object had experience. Could Lucas somehow turn himself into moonlight, if he worked at it? Or a plant? It seemed ridiculous to consider, but a few months ago magic in general would¡¯ve seemed absurd, too.


    After all the hassle with the flaming hand he¡¯d sported for a few weeks, Lucas was confident he¡¯d be able to change himself back if it went drastically wrong, at least. Quite apart from its magical properties, mana acted as a kind of archive, one could say. Jyn had told him mana had memory, and that had turned out to be true. Somewhere deep within the mystical energy flowing through his metaphysical body, there was a blueprint for his physical body, accurate down to the individual cell.


    Or, well, there would be. Lucas was yet to map out his entire mana system. While his arms were pretty much complete, there was still a lot of progress to be made in the rest of his body. Opening new channels was going a lot faster now, his advancement increasing exponentially as he gained more mana to devote to the task, as well as the Great Star simply making him better and better at it. The problem at this point was that he hadn¡¯t yet developed the mental fortitude necessary to literally do it all the time, and multi-tasking was still a work in progress.


    So right now, the only parts of his body he felt completely confident in being able to change back to flesh, blood, and bone were his arms. Staring down at one of the arms in question, resting on his crossed legs, he found that confidence and courage were different things. He closed his eyes, feeling at the mana in his hand, focusing on the flow of it.


    It wasn¡¯t that he feared being caught. It had become easy to forget, since his comrades so far had shown little concern for his floramancy, but it was technically a branch of magic considered socially taboo. Claire had, for whatever reason, wielded her influence to manipulate events to make it so. Presumably, it was something to do with the plant construct she¡¯d left behind in Pentaburgh, not wanting anyone to disturb it or the summoning array it probably guarded.


    Or so Lucas hoped. If, after all this, it turned out the excuse that a demon of some kind had cursed an entire branch of magic turned out to be a real thing after all, he didn¡¯t know how he¡¯d handle it. Floramancy was his first magical art, and he found he¡¯d grown somewhat attached to it. He couldn¡¯t imagine having it taken from him.


    And so, he¡¯d asked Valerie to find him a hidden practice room in the Moontower, where he could mess with it without fear of discovery. She¡¯d obliged, and her solution had taken him somewhat by surprise.


    He¡¯d been expecting to be led up an endless flight of stairs to a room that sat higher than the clouds themselves, but instead she¡¯d taken him downwards, deep below the bowels of the great tower to a tall, wide, and, most importantly, empty chamber that seemed to have been chiselled out of strange white stone.


    It turned out the complex descended almost as far below ground as it rose above ground, like it was actually a 10,000m tall tower that had been stabbed into the ground. The reality wasn¡¯t quite that extreme, as far as anyone knew¡ªbut the operative term there was the ¡°as far as anyone knew¡± bit.


    With so much space above ground, with windows letting in sunlight making them much more pleasant to work in, the members of the Order tended to gravitate upwards. Claire¡¯s office was, apparently, the very top floor of the immense building.


    And so the basement levels had fallen somewhat into disuse. They weren¡¯t entirely abandoned, but they were used rarely enough even before the time of the summoning that the records of how far down they went and what they contained were lost, and it had been a long time since anyone had tried to map it out. Superstitions abounded, of course. Humans were never meant to go so far below the ground.


    Valerie had told him all this on their way down, and he¡¯d become less and less enamoured with the idea of shutting themselves away dozens of stories below ground level.


    ¡°Who knows what¡¯s down here?¡± he¡¯d asked, watching the white walls like something might jump out at him at any moment.


    ¡°No one,¡± Valerie had replied, eyeing him over her shoulder as she led the way further and further down. Only a white crystal housed in a black metal rod had lit their way. ¡°And thus, they won¡¯t know you¡¯re down here, either.¡±


    That had been a week ago, the very next day after they¡¯d arrived at the Moontower. He¡¯d still been in awe of the place, then, ready to believe any fantastical rumour that popped up. In his defence, the building had to be magical in myriad ways to even exist as it did above ground, and learning that it stretched down into the earth too? That had set his imagination wild.


    Standing at the base of the Moontower upon their arrival had been one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of his life. It had been akin to what he imagined standing at the base of Mt Everest must have felt like. Craning his neck backwards, it had seemed to stretch on forever above him, an endless white road climbing fay beyond the stratosphere, a road straight to the stars.


    Its height had been incredible enough, but it was surely wider than any Earth skyscrapers he¡¯d ever seen. It was five-sided¡ªbecause of course it was¡ªand each of the five equal white faces were wide as two football pitches, granting the tower¡¯s interior a vast amount of space. Even the five walls that surrounded the tower¡¯s compound had to be a hundred metres high.


    The place had crawled with skycloaks and the various servants that kept the place running like an ant¡¯s nest, zapping Lucas¡¯ heart with anxiety. But no one paid him any mind. He¡¯d been just another face in the crowd of thousands, and, like any big city he¡¯d ever experienced, everyone had their own things to do, too busy to devote any attention to the stranger standing around gawking up at the tower.


    And, in fairness, that probably wasn¡¯t an uncommon sight.


    A week wasn¡¯t enough to lose that childlike wonder for this immense feat of magic and engineering, but it was more than enough to grow fed up with the stairs. Valerie¡¯s quarters, where they were staying, took up a solid chunk of the 224th floor. The room she¡¯d chosen to let him practise floramancy in was 72 floors below ground level.


    That was a lot of climbing.


    ¡°Your mind is drifting,¡± Valerie¡¯s voice snapped him out of his reverie, and he quickly wiped the scowl from his face. She did not countenance his complaints about the stairs, insisting that it was good exercise. ¡°Shall we head back up?¡± she asked.


    Lucas shook his head, as much out of a desire to put off his suffering as to continue his work with floramancy. ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± he told her. ¡°Just gotta work up the courage to actually try this.¡±


    There was a pause. ¡°You¡¯ve done something similar before, have you not?¡±


    ¡°And it was deeply unpleasant,¡± Lucas said. ¡°The firehand had its good points, but I guess there was a part of me that worried I¡¯d never be able to deal with it. That¡¯s stuck with me, a bit.¡± Lucas opened his eyes, staring down at his hand as splayed out his fingers. ¡°And I guess there¡¯s a bit of apprehension in me at turning my hand to wood, or whatever, in the first place. I imagine fire as more malleable. Wood¡­ isn¡¯t supposed to move. That¡¯s a factor in magic, right? The further you take an element from its nature, the harder it is?¡±


    Valerie¡¯s boots clacked on the stone floor as she stepped closer. Lucas looked up, blinking a little to adjust his eyes to the darkness so he could take her in. Her expression was neutral as her gaze moved between him, sat cross-legged on the floor with one of his sleeves rolled up, and the potted plant they¡¯d brought down yesterday resting a few metres away, giving him something for his floramancy to work with. Her armour was back to its pristine condition, and her cloak was the blue of a cloudless sky in the height of summer. Her blond hair, too, had been tamed into a braid that fell to the small of her back.


    ¡°You¡¯re not incorrect,¡± she said. ¡°But the fact remains that you know it¡¯s possible to change yourself back, and you have an idea of how it¡¯s achieved, even if your previous technique involved a different discipline.¡±


    Lucas shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s not necessarily a logical thing.¡±


    ¡°No. But using logic to reason yourself through emotions you know to be irrational is a good solution to problems such as this.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not convinced it¡¯s irrational,¡± Lucas grumbled.


    ¡°It¡¯s not entirely, of course,¡± Valerie agreed with a nod. ¡°Things can always go wrong, in the practice of magic.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not encouraging.¡±


    ¡°If you feel uncertain about working with your magic at the moment, we can continue your sword training?¡±


    ¡°No, I think I¡¯ve had quite enough of that for today. Even with the Great Star, there¡¯s only so much I can devote myself to learning one thing at a time. I''ve got to mix things up.¡±


    ¡°We could work with bows or shields.¡±


    Lucas sighed, letting his shoulders slump. Then he straightened up once more, glaring between his hand as he clenched it into a fist and the potted plant. ¡°No. I¡¯m gonna do this. Today.¡±


    ¡°You said that yesterday,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Shush. I¡¯m concentrating.¡±


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Another woman might have rolled her eyes, but Valerie just returned to her post by the door, standing guard without complaint. She was ever vigilant, even down here, right in the heart of the Order of Five¡¯s territory, her icy eyes on a constant scan.


    Lucas held back a sigh. He¡¯d hoped that reaching Dawnguard and ostensible safety would mellow her out a bit, but instead the opposite had happened. She was tenser than ever. Wouldn¡¯t let him out of her sight for more than a moment. He hadn¡¯t had any time alone in the past week, and wasn¡¯t going to for the foreseeable future, it seemed. Until Claire was back, she¡¯d told him, she was going to keep him under constant guard.


    The thing was, Claire¡¯s return didn¡¯t have a precise date attached to it. They didn¡¯t even know what she¡¯d left to do beyond taking on some kind of mission in the Blight to Aeyem with only her most trusted subordinates. Valerie would usually be counted among that number, but had begged off, seeing an opportunity to investigate Pentaburgh.


    Nervous butterflies fluttered around in Lucas¡¯ stomach whenever he thought about Claire. 100 years she¡¯d been in this place, living the life of a leader, a general, a chosen hero, and so many other roles all at once. Quite apart from how much it would all have changed her, the thing that worried him most was how she¡¯d see him. He¡¯d be like a child to her, no matter what he said. And that wasn¡¯t even getting into how she¡¯d feel about him, after all this time. She¡¯d never been one to accept excuses, and from what he¡¯d heard about her second-hand thus far, that didn¡¯t seem to have changed much. Would she blame him? The Claire he knew wouldn¡¯t, but she¡¯d still be mad.


    Focus, he told himself, gritting his teeth and forcing all his attention to the mana in a single finger of his right hand. He chose the pinky. Easier to work with something small, he reasoned. His pathways were so dense in the digit that they practically filled it in its entirety, and he spent some time watching the mana move.


    Ever since his crude attempts at meditation back when he¡¯d first woken up in the summoning hall, watching his mana had become something of a soothing pastime, for him. Letting his consciousness drain away into his mana was simply relaxing, pulling him into a quasi Zen state.


    The dim golden glow coursing through his pathways was like a miniature and fiendishly elaborate lava lamp. At rest, it flowed almost lazily, looping itself through the hypnotic patterns formed by his pathways. If he zoned out a bit, akin to letting his eyes unfocus, it all seemed to mush together as one big blob of golden magical energy.


    His worries started to drop away. The trepidation as his mind fretted over what could go wrong here; the frustration at Valerie¡¯s paranoid vigilance; the anxiety over the inevitably meeting with Claire. They all slowly fell to the wayside as his breathing levelled out, and his heartbeat settled into a steady rhythm.


    Warmth suffused him as he started to take his mana in hand. Or, in finger, to be more precise. A tendril of mana slithered out of the tip of his pinkie and snaked ahead of him, seeking flora. Usually, he tended to let it emanate out in all directions, but that wasn¡¯t needed here; he knew the plant was directly in front of him, a few metres away, and he didn¡¯t want to be relying on brute force tricks when he was working on a technique that required finesse. Being controlled in all steps of the process seemed prudent.


    In no time, his mana located the plant and dived right into it. It lit up in his mind¡¯s eye, unfurling a map of its potential. It was essentially a succulent, with thick, fleshy leaves coloured a pale pink, shaped together in a pointed, prickly mound. When they¡¯d picked it up, it had been more unfurled, but had seemed to shrink in on itself overnight, left in the darkness.


    Through its mana, he could feel it was going into a sort of plant hibernation, conserving energy until it could get sunlight. Obviously, it was a plant, and thus hadn¡¯t the intelligence to understand that they had every intention of keeping it alive for their purposes. He could see where it was going to go, from here, the routes its roots were going to take. Plants didn¡¯t have consciousness, per se, but there was something like that, in there, a genetically coded instinct. An intent of sorts that he could read, as well as other paths it could take in other circumstances.


    But he was more interested in the more concrete information stored in its mana. The cellular layout of its physical form. Like this, he could see the plant without looking at it, and delve into it as deeply as he wished, zooming in from a comprehensive view until he could peruse an individual cell. He wasn¡¯t at the atomic level yet, but figured that would be something he could do, with more skill in the art. It made sense to him, and hunches like that were to be heeded when you had a cheat code imprinted on your soul.


    For now, he endeavoured to split his attention, simultaneously holding that image of the plant¡¯s molecular structure in his mind and overlaying it with the mana suffusing his pinky finger. Through the mana connecting him to the plant, he started to pull, drawing in floramantic energy. The golden thread of mana started to gain a green tinge, steadily creeping up from the plant to his finger.


    If it weren¡¯t for the meditative state he¡¯d inadvertently trained himself to slip into when messing with his mana, he was sure nerves would¡¯ve had him trembling at this point. His mind couldn¡¯t quite get past the wrongness of transmuting his body into another material, yet. Hopefully the Gift would work on that.


    Instead, he remained calm as the thread slowly turned green, and the colour started to spread within his little finger. It didn¡¯t take long for the entire appendage to match the mana of the succulent plant, and he was ready for the next step.


    Lucas opened his eyes, observing his finger. It didn¡¯t look any different to normal. Maybe a bit more tanned than he was used to, with all that time spent outside under the sun. His gaze flicked to Valerie, still standing by the door, though she was observing him now. She had some skill with sensing mana, and no doubt was following along what he was doing. She noticed his attention and gave him a nod, staying silent.


    Okay, Lucas thought. Plantfinger time.


    This was where he¡¯d had trouble yesterday. Getting the plant mana into his own system was easy enough, and holding it in a specific place while keeping the rest of his mana that base life-energy gold wasn¡¯t so difficult either. It was in the transmutation that he was struggling now. While he was confident enough in changing back, having done it before, the method he¡¯d used to transmute into another element in the first place¡­ wasn¡¯t really replicable, here, and he wasn¡¯t willing to go that route even if it was.


    Burning his hand had been a deeply unpleasant experience born from desperation. How would he even repeat that with a plant? Sting himself on something poisonous, maybe? Shove his hand into a tree¡¯s trunk? Didn¡¯t sound like a good way to do things. If he was going to be turning himself into various elements, he needed to figure out how to do it properly.


    Lucas raised his hand, bringing the finger close to his face, inspecting both the physical digit with his eyes and the plant magic flowing through it with his mana sense. Then he brought up the other one, comparing them. Was he imagining that it felt different? The prospective plant finger seemed to have a certain quality that the other lacked, but it was difficult to put his finger on.


    It turned out that one¡¯s flesh and blood had a feel to it that you didn¡¯t really notice until another part of the body lacked that feel, and all of a sudden it felt deeply wrong. Human flesh had a warmth to it. Blood pumped through the body, and brought heat. It was a big part of how body heat was regulated, after all.


    And apparently mana had some kind of effect on that? Enough that swapping out his pure, natural mana for plant mana made a noticeable difference, anyway. It felt not just colder, but stiffer. Harder to move.


    A theory came to mind, and he pulled more plant mana into the finger, packing it in denser, making it move slower. After a while, he felt able to move the finger with plant mana in it with as much dexterity as the regular one. He figured that was due to the rule he¡¯d mentioned earlier: the further you strayed from a given thing¡¯s natural state of being or behaviour, the more energy it required to manipulate.


    That little confirmation¡ªbeing correct¡ªraised his confidence further, and it gave him an idea regarding how to proceed.


    Lucas let his other hand fall, focusing all his attention on the finger infused with plant mana once more. Right now, the plant mana was merely flowing through his pathways. It was having some effect on his physical body, but while it flowed where it was supposed to, the effects were easily offset.


    But with the extra mana he¡¯d been taking, and with the act of slowing down his mana in his channels, Lucas had been reminded of something that had slipped his mind due to all the shit he¡¯d been through in the last few weeks before reaching Dawnguard.


    Mana enhancement. The act of taking your mana and absorbing it into your physical body, granting a variety of augmentations based on the nature of the mana. Valerie had warned him off it for now, citing the possibility of danger while his mana system wasn¡¯t fully developed. But if he was just targeting an area where he was fully developed¡­


    Lucas asked her about it, still focused on his finger.


    ¡°It¡¯s still dangerous,¡± she told him. ¡°Excess mana in a physical object will slowly change that object¡¯s very nature, and thus it¡¯s best to enhance all your body at once.¡± She paused, and he heard her shift. ¡°But if it¡¯s just for the sake of body transmutation, isolated to a small appendage, the risk may not be quite so severe.¡±


    ¡°Is that permission?¡±


    ¡°I will neither force you to do anything nor prevent you from doing anything.¡±


    That caught him off guard enough that he couldn¡¯t help turning his gaze to her. There was nothing unusual in her bearing or expression, but there was weight to her words when she continued, ¡°The situation in Dawnguard is fraught, but not so desperate as it was on our journey here. Suffice to say, a member of the Order is not supposed to be so heavy-handed as I have been with you on our travels.¡± She paused, her lips thinning. ¡°By law of the Order of Five, I am technically your subordinate. I cannot command you to do anything.¡±


    Lucas was left blinking for a moment. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t even know what to order you to do.¡± He shook his head. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not asking for permission, then, but advice.¡±


    ¡°I would advise you to follow your instincts in this particular matter,¡± Valerie said. ¡°When it comes to improving your skills, at the very least, the Great Star is undoubtedly a far greater guide than I am.¡±


    Lucas nodded, turning his attention back to his finger and the mana within. With a deep, fortifying breath, he set to the task.


    Mana trickled out from the channels, but through force of will Lucas kept it in place, suffusing his pinkie in the physical world. The temptation to start feeding it straight into his physical body hit him like a truck, but he tamped it down, his instincts urging patience. He carefully spooled out more and more mana. It started to build, and soon he could just about make out a dim green glow beneath his skin, like someone was shining a weak green torch through the finger.


    Still, he let it build. Watching like a hawk, every iota of his attention dedicated to assessing the equilibrium between the physical and the magical, he waited for the right moment.


    Minutes passed. Sweat began trickling down his forehead. His limbs started to ache from holding still so long. Even his mana itself was beginning to strain against his iron grip, too much energy packed into one place, with nowhere to go.


    And then, just like that, it was time.


    Taking hold of all the mana he¡¯d built at once, he shunted it straight into his flesh in the blink of an eye, giving it no time to react. Immediately, he felt the change. Saw it, too.


    The glowing green mana flashed bright enough to sting his eyes, then dimmed. Fading as if the colour was being drained away, it gradually bleached white. But it didn¡¯t stay that way for long. A different colour started to fill in, one that was mighty familiar¡ªLucas looked between the succulent plant and his finger a few times, and within about ten seconds the pale pink of the latter matched the fleshy leaves of the former.


    Soon enough the fleshiness matched too, going from the softness of human skin to the firmness of plant skin. At first, the new plantfinger was stiff as the plant itself, but Lucas had accounted for this possibility; there was a reason he¡¯d built up mana to such a degree, going four or five times over what would¡¯ve been needed to simply transmute his finger.


    With the excess mana, he could move it around as easily as the pinkie on his other hand. It still looked odd, like uncanny valley CGI, since plants weren¡¯t supposed to move that way. But it worked, and he set it to wiggling like a worm. A child-like giggle bubbled up from his belly.


    And then a frown pulled his lips downwards. He stared at the finger in consternation for a long moment, then turned, almost reluctantly, to show it to Valerie.


    ¡°I definitely should¡¯ve done my thumb,¡± he said, annoyed with himself.

 52: Lately (2)

    In the week and a half since arriving in Dawnguard, Lucas¡¯ life had quickly settled into a routine. Valerie neglected to give him much of a tour of the tower or the surrounding territory controlled by the Order, wanting to limit opportunities for things to go wrong, for the time being. He could have demanded it, but her reasoning was sound.


    Instead, he knew little of the place so far, aside from the basement room where he practised his floramancy, an out-of-the-way kitchen area where they took their meals, and one of the lesser used training rooms (which was essentially just an empty room where the walls were enchanted to repair themselves from most damage) higher up the tower where Valerie helped him to work on his swordplay and other combat abilities. They were taking things slow and cautious for now, curbing the chances of exposure.


    There was a general, nebulous, longer term plan to get him soulbonded to the other classes so he could train with them too, and to add more academic pursuits to his regime, but for now they were more focused on getting him to a state where he could adequately defend himself if needs must.


    To be fair, he saw rapid improvement. Though Valerie still mostly kicked his arse up and down the training room, he felt he was getting better, lasting longer, forcing her to put in more effort to win. The days were long and gruelling, leaving him exhausted before falling into bed each night. But they were rewarding.


    As for where he fell into bed, that was the third place in the tower he was growing familiar with.


    Valerie¡¯s quarters were a spartan affair. Already a large space, the lack of decoration just made it feel bigger. Befitting her status as a captain, the apartment was divided into three separate rooms, one of which was supposed to be a bedroom, and the other an office, but Valerie only seemed to use the larger main room, leaving the other two utterly empty. Tall, thin windows lined the far wall at equal intervals, giving a dizzying view of the sprawling city far below and acting as a daytime source of light.


    Lucas had taken up residence in the bedroom, which was actually significantly larger than his flat had been, to his chagrin. In just a week of being here, he¡¯d accumulated almost as many possessions as Valerie had in however many years of living in this place. To be fair to her, she obviously hadn¡¯t spent much time here, in the past. Her life was largely lived on the front lines, holding back the endless hordes that poured from the Blighted Lands.


    It was a little sad to think about. She¡¯d been fighting since she was fourteen, at the minimum, never stopping to take time for herself. There was absolutely zero personalisation in her living space, no artwork or posters or treasured possessions of any description. The furniture she did have was built of simple, pale wood, with no ornamentation; a bed, a table, a chair, an armour stand, and a wardrobe. Once Lucas got himself an armour stand, his room would already match hers, and he had every intention of livening the place up further if he was going to be staying here for a significant length of time, which looked increasingly likely.


    The worst part of living here, though, was the communal showers. They sat at the centre of the tower, with the Order members¡¯ quarters surrounding them on the outside. He¡¯d yet to actually run into anyone else there, but the worry over it turned something that should¡¯ve been relaxing into a somewhat nervous experience.


    At least he¡¯d managed to convince Valerie to wait outside. It turned out that she would indeed follow his orders, if he phrased them as such.


    Sitting on the edge of his bed, Lucas wondered about Valerie. There was no door between his new room and the main living area his companion claimed, because she¡¯d never seen the need to install one, and so he could see her sat at her table, dressed in the simple blue tunic and trousers that was apparently standard Order uniform beneath their armour, scrawling away on some document or other with a feather quill.


    Apparently, she was being rather thorough in the report she was writing on her mission. Every day since they¡¯d returned, she¡¯d dedicated a couple of hours afer their training to writing it. Lucas suspected part of it was to give him some free time to relax and do what he pleased, but she¡¯d definitely gone through multiple pages at this point, and he wondered what her thoughts on their little adventure were. He could only imagine she had a lot to say about his performance.


    Shaking his head, Lucas pushed himself to his feet and strode through to Valerie¡¯s room. She glanced up at him briefly, then went back to writing when he waved her off. He came to a stop by her desk, and silence filled the room, broken only by the monotonous scratching of Valerie¡¯s quill on the parchment.


    The quill never needed to be topped up with ink; Claire had charmed a bunch of them to draw from a reservoir kept somewhere in the tower, because she found quills frustrating but didn¡¯t care enough to figure out how to manufacture pens. Its magical signature was also paired to Valerie, somehow. Only she could write with it, and anyone perusing her report would know for a fact it was written by her, assuming they knew how to check such a thing.


    Lucas watched her write for a moment, waiting until she finished a paragraph before he spoke, ¡°Are we really going to just tread water until Claire comes back?¡±


    Valerie went still for a moment, then carefully laid down her quill by the side of her parchment. Leaning back in her chair, she laced her fingers in her lap and levelled a cool gaze upon him. ¡°What would you prefer to do?¡±


    A sigh almost escaped him, but he held it back. Valerie¡¯s attitude had changed since arriving here. She was more than happy to advise him on what she believed was the best course of action, and for the most part he preferred to listen to her, but she was always going out of her way to make it clear that it was all up to him.


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind what we¡¯ve been doing, exactly. Training me up is a good idea.¡± He paused, grimacing. ¡°Though I¡¯ll admit the need for secrecy is grating on my patience a bit. Having to sneak around in dark underground rooms does rather take away a lot of the fun of learning how to fight with a sword.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve been improving rapidly.¡±


    ¡°Still not enough to last ten seconds against you.¡±


    ¡°I have had a lot more training, and the gap in our experience is vast. Even so, you¡¯re catching up much faster than even the most prodigious warriors I¡¯ve worked with. Your skill is still fairly average at this time, but just a few weeks ago you were a clumsy amateur who barely knew how to use a sword at all.¡±


    ¡°Sure. I know I¡¯m improving way faster than is reasonable. That¡¯s all well and good,¡± Lucas said. ¡°I do enjoy the training, despite the secrecy, and I¡¯m looking forward to learning the other roles and whatever magic we can secure access to.¡± He hesitated, unsure how to express himself. ¡°I just want more of a concrete idea of what we¡¯re doing while we wait for Claire to return. It would be one thing if we knew when she¡¯d be back, but I kinda feel like I¡¯m in limbo like this.¡±


    Valerie watched him for a moment, expressionless. ¡°I¡¯d been working under the assumption you¡¯d prefer to pursue whatever skills took your fancy, and worked to accommodate you. Would you like me to draw up a more structured training regime?¡±


    ¡°That might help,¡± Lucas admitted. ¡°I guess I just want some short term goals to work towards? Everything seems kind of far off right now.¡±


    Valerie nodded. ¡°That¡¯s understandable. I had noticed you were feeling restless, but I suppose I thought you were just struggling to adapt to living in a place of safety after having been in danger for a long time, and it would pass on its own. Forgive me.¡±


    Lucas flapped a hand in dismissal. He turned, moving to one of the windows, overlooking the vast city below.


    From so high up, the sheer scale of the city was mind-boggling. This lofty vantage surely let him see for dozens of miles, yet Dawnguard seemed to sprawl all the way to the horizon in every direction, an endless sea of buildings. It had taken them hours to navigate the main street that slashed straight through the city, forming a line right from the front gates to the Moontower.


    The morning sun threw hundreds of long fingers of shadow over the landscape, all those tall buildings looking like twigs from up here. It was hard to even pick out the few he¡¯d already learned, like the sprawling College campus that took up much of the northern sector of the city, or the various towering guild headquarters. Lucas wondered how exactly many people were down there, trying to live their lives as best they could.


    Another part of him wondered what they all thought of him. It was a surreal feeling, to look out at a city that boasted a population of millions and be reasonably sure that the majority of them knew his name, and had opinions about him. An intimidating thought.


    He looked back at Valerie over his shoulder. ¡°Nothing to forgive. I am struggling to adapt. A big part of my motivation here is that I¡¯m kinda sick of being cooped up in this tower. No offence.¡±


    ¡°None taken,¡± Valerie said. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk, moving her laced fingers beneath her chin. Even in an ostensibly lounging posture, her back was still straight, her shoulders back, and she spoke in an even voice, ¡°Would it help if we specifically worked towards training you to a state where we could take missions in and around the city?¡±


    ¡°What would that standard look like?¡± Lucas asked, curious.


    ¡°A full member of the Order is expected to have their class bonded, and to possess significant skill in its usage. They must know the Order¡¯s laws, and the laws of the polity they¡¯ll be operating in. Further, the academy hands out certificates to show that a member has reached the necessary skill or knowledge in diplomacy, negotiation, battle tactics, teamwork, survival, geography, history, mathematics, and magic theory.¡± Valerie frowned. ¡°There used to be more, as our members were once supposed to be able to adequately answer any question you could come up with if we were to encounter you.¡±


    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t imagine the subjects in that last part would apply to me anyway,¡± Lucas said.


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    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°Even without them, it¡¯s a lot. I¡¯m going to have to do all that?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to do anything. If you truly wish to leave right this moment, we can.¡± She didn¡¯t look enthusiastic about that possibility.


    Lucas rolled his eyes. ¡°Okay, okay. You think it would be best for me to do all that?¡±


    ¡°Not necessarily all of it. I would propose that we give you an abridged course of all a skycloak would be expected to know. A sprint through the academy curriculum, if you will.¡±


    ¡°A speedrun,¡± Lucas said, smiling.


    Valerie nodded. ¡°Essentially. Notably, the academy curriculum includes several mandatory training exercises that would get you out of the tower in controlled conditions.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not expecting me to go on a field trip with a bunch of teenagers, right?¡±


    ¡°The academy is not a school. It¡¯s not uncommon for students thrice your age to attend.¡± She paused, eyes narrowing. ¡°And no. It would be us two, and perhaps others I can trust.¡±


    That gave Lucas pause. ¡°Trust, huh? I was starting to wonder if there was anyone in this whole city you trust. I can¡¯t help noticing Florence is the only person I¡¯ve met, and that wasn¡¯t an introduction you consented to.¡±


    ¡°Trust is a difficult thing, in the circumstances. I would trust any member of the Order of Five to fight by my side in a battle. But it¡¯s not a matter of confidence or competence.¡± She rose from her chair, and came to join him by the window, where she looked off to the horizon. Her quarters were north-facing, where the Front Lines lay far off. ¡°There are no factions in the Order of Five. Lady Claire¡¯s word is law, in all things. No one who wears the skycloak would ever be foolish enough to disobey her, let alone betray her.¡± Her gaze turned to him. ¡°But you are not Lady Claire. And if I cannot be certain how someone will treat you, I cannot take the risk of putting my faith in them. The stakes are too high.¡±


    Lucas sighed, feeling a little frustration creeping in. He tried to push it down. Valerie was being eminently reasonable in her deduction. She certainly wasn¡¯t wrong that there was no way of knowing for sure how anyone would react to his arrival, and they knew for a fact there were groups out there who¡¯d take advantage of him in various ways¡ªsome would even seek to kill him.


    So he wasn¡¯t frustrated at her, he supposed, and he had to remember that. What bothered him was this ridiculous situation he¡¯d found himself in.


    Seriously. How did this bloody ritual decide that my friends and I were the bloody chosen ones? By what criteria did it think we were destined to save an entire world?


    It wasn¡¯t that he didn¡¯t believe in his childhood best friends. Maybe he was a bit naive, but he reckoned they could do anything if they all put their heads together. Sure, saving a world from demons was a harder task than anything they¡¯d been through by a long way, but they could¡¯ve pulled through with the power of stubbornness and friendship, or some such nonsense.


    The idea that some great magic ritual would believe in them too, however, was something he wasn¡¯t sure he¡¯d ever be able to get past.


    He sighed again, his shoulder drooping for a moment before he shook himself and squared them back up. ¡°You think there¡¯s people in the Order of Five who¡¯d do me harm, then?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Valerie admitted. ¡°As you can probably tell from my living quarters, I haven¡¯t spent a great deal of time here. In those rare occasions when I¡¯ve been stationed in Dawnguard, the vast majority of my attention has been dedicated to researching in the archives. My hope is that members of the Order would see you as an extension of Lady Claire, but I am aware that the Order¡¯s general remit has changed over time, and our membership has a variety of opinions on that.¡± She blew out a breath through her nose, and there was a hint of darkness in her expression. ¡°While I know of most of the Order by name, there are very few I truly know on a personal level. One could say I have perhaps neglected to build social ties.¡±


    Lucas moved closer to her, laying a hand on her shoulder and letting his lunar mana seep into her pathways. She went briefly still, then relaxed and gave him a grateful nod.


    ¡°Can you trust that Florence woman?¡± he asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I wish I could. But I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± Lucas said. ¡°We can always just keep up the secret. Keep telling everyone I¡¯m your resident lunamancer now, and I¡¯m doing various academy-ish things so I¡¯m not a liability during your missions. At the same time, we sound out your comrades to see who can be trusted.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s probably the best path forward, if you¡¯re amenable to it,¡± Valerie agreed.


    ¡°Sure,¡± Lucas said, stamping down on his irritation once more. It was, again, not her fault. He doubted she wanted to be unable to trust people, thus forcing him to keep up a false persona and generally skulk around, avoiding drawing attention to himself. ¡°You up for heading down to our practice room before we do the sword stuff? I want to work with my floramancy a bit more.¡±


    ¡°Certainly,¡± Valerie said, as if she¡¯d ever outright deny anything he requested, these days.


    He felt he had to check, ¡°You don¡¯t think it¡¯s a bad idea, for any reason?¡±


    ¡°I see no need to caution against it,¡± she said, eyeing him as she strode over to her armour, which she quickly set about donning. It wasn¡¯t like regular armour, needing to be clipped on and such, she merely touched her fingers to it, and it transitioned into lunar light that rolled over her body until it had her fully encased. She was capable of storing it in her soulheart, but avoided doing so unless it was unnecessary, saying it was uncomfortable.


    Next came her cloak, which she¡¯d hung up in her wardrobe. Once the sky blue garment was in place, she continued, ¡°The room is deep underground enough that it would be unlikely for anyone else to head down there without reason, and positioned such that we would hear them coming even if they did, with plenty of time to hide the fact you¡¯re working with floramancy.¡±


    ¡°The plants might look a bit suspicious, though,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°As long as you clearly display use of lunamancy, it wouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡±


    Lucas shrugged. ¡°If you say so.¡±


    They left through the front door, which was really just a slab of pale white stone that only moved through magic, sliding out of the way. Valerie touched her hand to it, and some glyphs lit up as it slid closed once more, oddly silent. Outside was a curving corridor that they followed all the way to an unassuming archway which opened out onto the bane of Lucas¡¯ existence.


    The grand staircase spiralled through the tower all the way from the top to the bottom, but the height was the only thing grand about it. It was an enclosed space, barely wide enough to fit two people walking side by side, and squat enough that he was sure he¡¯d hit his head if he jumped too high. Diamond-shaped glyphs glowed at either end of every other step, projecting kaleidoscope-light patterns on the walls and giving the staircase its light.


    Heading downwards, at least, wasn¡¯t so bad, and Lucas had little cause for complaint as they descended. If he was feeling petty, he could rant that the steps were too shallow, prone to tripping, but obviously that wasn¡¯t a problem for the skycloaks, given they had cloaks that could grant them flight. It probably hadn¡¯t ever occurred to them that there could be better ways of navigating their stupidly tall tower. Maybe they didn¡¯t even want to, looking down on the plebeians who didn¡¯t have a magic flying coat to propel them up. It felt like every few seconds they passed a member of the Order casually hopping up the steps a dozen at a time like they weighed nothing, or those floating down past them, barely even needing to touch the stairs at all.


    (To be fair, it was probably a significant defensive advantage, if the Moontower were to ever come under attack. But he wasn¡¯t feeling charitable enough to acknowledge that.)


    When they reached the 100th floor, it mercifully opened up a bit. Most of the floors above that were private quarters and barracks, and the grand staircase provided only one arched exit per floor. Below that were more common rooms and training areas and administrative offices and places that generally saw a lot more use, so someone had had the bright idea of cutting windows into the staircase, turning it from a suffocating passageway to a decent approximation of a pleasant climb/descent.


    Unfortunately, none of them had thought to turn it into a magic elevator, and so it still took a good few minutes overall to reach the ground floor, which was just ridiculous. And they still had so long to go!


    At least he was able to get a brief look at the main chamber of the Moontower. The bottom ten floors of the tower had been hollowed out and expanded, forming a massive atrium that surrounded the grand staircase at its centre, with a glass roof that was so clear you could only see it was there due to the sunlight refracting through. The white marble floor was packed with people, Order members and otherwise, all flitting between the hundreds of doorways that lined the great hall.


    It was beautiful. It was marvellous. It was open.


    And it was rather exposed, meaning that when he saw the red-headed woman making her way through the crowd, that meant she could also see him. If she could see him, she could undoubtedly see Valerie.


    Indeed, he couldn¡¯t help noticing that his companion¡¯s pace had increased, and he hurried to follow her, taking two steps at a time. Simultaneously, the red-headed woman making her way through the atrium clearly sped up too.


    Lucas sighed. ¡°She¡¯s just going to chase after us,¡± he told Valerie. ¡°I¡¯ve got the feeling she¡¯s the type who¡¯d follow us right down to our training room.¡±


    Valerie slowed down, her shoulders tensing for a moment before she sighed. ¡°You¡¯re not wrong,¡± she said.


    They ended up stopping at the ground floor, where the grand staircase fully opened out, its walls having been hacked away. There were a few skycloaks on guard, making sure there wasn¡¯t a constant scrum to get to the stairs, but those who had permission to be there seemed to know there was no point rushing anyway.


    It took only a few seconds for Florence to make her way through the crowd, and her green eyes widened when she saw Valerie there waiting for her. They soon narrowed in suspicion, and she strode up to them, looking them both over. ¡°You two are difficult to find,¡± she said.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been training Ser James here to be mission ready,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I can hardly take him into the field unprepared.¡±


    ¡°So I assumed,¡± Florence said. ¡°Strange, that you appear to be headed down to the bowels when we have perfectly good training rooms up above. I saw your name on the schedule.¡±


    ¡°We desired privacy.¡±


    ¡°That much is evident.¡± She eyed Lucas for a second, frowning. ¡°Why do you want to hide away your lunamancer¡¯s ability?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a rare art,¡± Valerie began.


    Florence cut her off. ¡°And therefore a very valuable one. But you¡¯ve always put the Order before yourself, Val. You¡¯d never hide away such a valuable asset.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s my fault, really,¡± Lucas said, scratching the back of his head. ¡°I¡¯m the one who doesn¡¯t want the attention.¡±


    ¡°I can appreciate that,¡± Florence said. ¡°I¡¯m just surprised she agreed to it, even if she intended your primary utility to be for her purposes.¡±


    ¡°Enough of this,¡± Valerie snapped. Her eyes were darting around, cataloguing all the people around them. ¡°What did you want?¡±


    ¡°Apart from to check up on my friend?¡± Florence asked with a glare. She crossed her arms and huffed a mirthless laugh. ¡°We barely get to talk these days, busy with our own things. I want to know what¡¯s been going on with you. There must be something, if you missed out on Lady Claire¡¯s mission.¡±


    Valerie closed her eyes, took a deep breath. When she opened them again, they were cold as ice. ¡°There is something I would like to talk to you about, come to think of it,¡± she said, then turned on her heel and strode towards the staircase once more.


    Lucas and Florence exchanged a look, then hurried to follow.

 53: Lately (3)

    Valerie led them into the training room deep in the bowels of the Moontower, pivoted hard left, and strode straight to the far end of the space. Lucas¡¯ gaze strayed to the succulent plant that still rested in the right-most corner as he moved to stand against the wall directly across from the door, but Valerie quickly drew his attention before he could worry too much about it.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to spar,¡± she said, her icy stare pinned on Florence.


    The red-haired skycloak blinked a few times as she made her way into the room, coming to a stop only a few paces inside the door. ¡°Why down here? Surely it would be better to use one of the trainings rooms designed for such things.¡±


    ¡°Privacy,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I still intend to ask you some questions.¡±


    ¡°And you want to spar at the same time?¡± Florence sighed. ¡°What¡¯s going through that impenetrable head of yours, Val? What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°I think that will become clear.¡± Valerie glanced briefly at Lucas. ¡°I¡¯m afraid today¡¯s training will be temporarily delayed, Ser James. I apologise for the inconvenience.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Lucas said. Technically, he was aware he could order her to put a stop to whatever scheme she was playing and reveal her intentions outright, but he found himself curious what Valerie was up to, here. There had to be a reason for this.


    He discounted the possibility that she just wanted to beat up her comrade due to some dramatic history between them. She didn¡¯t seem the type.


    ¡°Good,¡± Valerie said, and without another word placed her hand over her heart, as he¡¯d seen her do far too many times up to now. There was a glow beneath her hand, and she seemed to reach into it, her fingers grasping around a hilt that hadn¡¯t been there a moment ago. In one swift movement, she slashed her arm downwards, instantly drawing a white longsword that was twice the length of her arm. Faint runic patterns danced along the flat of the blade, and it started to glow a lunar white, drawing power from her heart. She held it up, pointing the tip towards Florence.


    In Florence¡¯s place, Lucas would¡¯ve been quaking in his Order-issued boots. The other skycloak wasn¡¯t so easily intimidated, though¡ªor was just used to facing Valerie¡¯s deadly blade¡ªand stared her down with a flat look. ¡°Why do I get the feeling I¡¯m going to have to take this rather more seriously than a typical spar?¡± she asked dryly.


    ¡°Your instincts do you credit,¡± Valerie said, still holding up her sword. It didn¡¯t even waver, despite surely having to be a heavy weapon.


    Florence rolled her eyes and sighed. ¡°So be it,¡± she said, and she turned on her heel to take a position on the opposite side of the room from Valerie. ¡°How are we doing this, Vayon? Academy style?¡±


    ¡°Until surrender,¡± Valerie said.


    Florence raised a red eyebrow. ¡°Are you sure that¡¯s wise? We¡¯ve not seen much of each other in the past few years, but I¡¯m relatively confident neither of us has suddenly developed a willingness to concede defeat. Especially to each other.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good that you recognise your flaws,¡± Valerie said, ¡°but I¡¯m somewhat counting on your stubbornness, today.¡±


    ¡°My stubbornness.¡± Florence scoffed, then shook her head. She looked at Lucas. ¡°You¡¯ll want to get comfortable, Ser James. We¡¯re going to be here for quite some time, I imagine.¡±


    Lucas couldn¡¯t stop looking between them, like he was watching a tennis match. ¡°Is it even safe for me to be in the room?¡±


    ¡°Neither of us are amateur enough to let our techniques stray in your direction,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°It could be said you¡¯re standing in one of the safest places in the whole of Dawnguard,¡± Florence drawled. He couldn¡¯t tell if she was being sarcastic. ¡°I meant it when I said you should get comfortable. You¡¯ve nothing to worry about, unless you greatly value your free time. I can¡¯t imagine this ridiculous woman gives you much of it as it is.¡±


    ¡°Stop stalling,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Draw your weapon.¡±


    Florence sighed, tilting her head back and glaring at the ceiling. She muttered something scathing-sounding to herself, though Lucas didn¡¯t catch any of her words. When she aligned her gaze on Valerie once more, there was a blazing determination in her eyes. ¡°Come on then, Vayon. It¡¯s been too long since I had the chance to display my superiority over you.¡±


    What happened next was almost too fast for Lucas to follow. It was only after the initial clash that he was able to piece together some idea of what had happened.


    Florence snapped her hand to her heart and back down in a motion so fast it blurred. At the same time, Valerie had lunged forward, crossing the few dozen meters between them in the blink of an eye, like her sword had been fired from a cannon and pulled her along with it by the arm. It speared straight for Florence¡¯s heart, aiming for whatever she sought to draw from there, but Florence pivoted her upper body out of the way, slashing upwards with her right hand.


    Her right hand, that now held a glaive with a glittering ruby blade, its black haft filigreed in a floral pattern. If she¡¯d placed its butt on the ground, the full thing would have been taller than her, but she swung it like it weighed nothing, brutally aiming to cleave Valerie up the middle.


    Of course, Valerie saw it coming, and simply stepped aside, using her momentum to turn the failed stab into a lateral slash. Florence countered in much the same way, simultaneously side-stepping and raising her glaive to a horizontal position, blocking Valerie¡¯s blow and giving herself room to manoeuvre.


    Neither of them were willing to give ground, to take even a single step backwards, and so their battle quickly descended into a twirling dance as they circled one another, trading lightning-fast blows, striking at like vipers and dodging with the reflexes and precision of cats. They never closed within a metre or so of each other, their defences and offences keeping them equally at bay.


    Lucas blinked, firmly awe-struck by the spectacle. It was like watching a dance. The clang of their weapons striking at each other echoed through the room like great gongs, accompanied by the whistle of their attacks slicing through the air. He¡¯d seen Valerie in battle before, of course, but never like this, wielding her weapon with such incredible precision. And the fact someone was matching her blew his mind.


    It was far beyond the peak of human ability as he¡¯d previously understood it. On Earth, the feats he was witnessing would easily be considered superhuman. Here, they were¡­ Well, he was going to call it a friendly spar, but he wasn¡¯t sure either term was accurate. There was definitely something here he was missing, and he wasn¡¯t sure it was a cultural matter.


    The two combatants had their eyes locked on each other, and he got the feeling the rest of the world had fallen away for them. There was something being communicated in this bout, but he couldn¡¯t guess at what. They spun around each other, pirouetted, attacked, blocked, parried, countered, their blades blurring.


    No magical techniques were thrown, thankfully, the moonlight glow of Valerie¡¯s blade remaining in place, when it easily could have swept out in a crescent arc. Florence, too, evidently had some kind of ability ready, twinkling motes of light following the ruby blade of her glaive like afterimages. They burst out every time her blade met Valerie¡¯s, like a blacksmith hammering against metal.


    Lucas couldn¡¯t say how long this went on. It could have been hours¡ªthey certainly exchanged enough blows to fill up a training session that lasted that long¡ªbut was surely only a handful of seconds. At some unseen signal, their attacks stopped, but neither backed away, instead continuing to circle, their eyes locked together. Their blades rested against one another, sparking and hissing, but not striking.


    After the cacophony of their rapid exchange, the silence that descended on the room was heavy. Lucas found himself riveted, watching with wide eyes, barely daring to blink. He didn¡¯t want to miss a moment.


    Florence was the first to break the tension, snorting. Not a strand of her red hair had strayed out of place, her breaths came calm and easy, and there wasn¡¯t a hint of damage on her armour or cloak. She looked for all the world like she hadn¡¯t just been locked in deadly combat with a comrade.


    ¡°At least some things don¡¯t change,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°Some things,¡± Valerie agreed.


    Florence¡¯s eyes narrowed. Her glaive raised a fraction. ¡°Out with it, already,¡± she snapped. ¡°Unless you¡¯re trying to distract me with worries over what in the five hells is going through your head? I never took you for the underhanded type, but perhaps things have changed indeed.¡±


    ¡°I think you have some idea already,¡± Valerie said, raising her own blade. It had been pointed at Florence¡¯s heart, and now it was aimed at her head. ¡°Show me that skull of yours isn¡¯t completely empty.¡±


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    Florence bared her teeth in an expression that seemed to struggle to decide between a snarl and a grin. Her green eyes blazed. When she spoke, there was a note of soft danger in her voice, ¡°Are you questioning my loyalty, Captain Vayon?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m questioning many things,¡± Valerie said evenly, undaunted.


    ¡°Oh, but I know you.¡± Florence paused, tilting her head. ¡°Much as you don¡¯t like to admit it, there are many in the Order who don¡¯t quite believe in its stated objectives as strongly as our predecessors did in the past. Some even say they should be changed.¡±


    ¡°I have no trouble admitting it.¡±


    ¡°But you hate it. The Order should believe more than anyone, and yet they seem to be giving up! Unforgivable, yes?¡±


    Valerie said nothing.


    ¡°And you¡¯re wondering how I feel about it all. You¡¯ve spent most of your time since the academy on the front lines, fighting against demons, holding back the Blight, seeing for yourself what the Order should really be focused on.¡± Florence scoffed. ¡°Meanwhile, I¡¯ve been running missions domestically, living a life of comparative luxury. That¡¯s what you think, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°I do not believe you live in luxury,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Comparatively,¡± Florence emphasised. ¡°And the most important part is what I¡¯m surrounded by, isn¡¯t it? Other skycloaks who barely see the front lines, probably haven¡¯t fought against anything more dangerous than a B-rank beast, all whispering and grumbling about the Order¡¯s objectives, believing Lucas Brown will never come, and we should officially change our modus operandi, since barely anyone believes in it anyway.¡±


    ¡°Is that how you feel, Florence?¡±


    Finally, Florence came to a stop, and Valerie matched her. They kept their weapons levelled towards one another, but remained utterly still for a long moment. ¡°Are you questioning my loyalty to Lady Claire, specifically?¡±


    ¡°Not necessarily,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°You think there¡¯s even the slightest possibility I¡¯ll betray her, somehow.¡± Her eyes narrowed to slits, showing only a slither of her green eyes. They seemed to glow. ¡°What did you discover out there on your mission, Val? What has you questioning me, of all people? You know me!¡±


    ¡°I knew you many years ago,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I don¡¯t know you now.¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t changed,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°We¡¯ll see about that.¡±


    And then the battle was rejoined, far more ferocious than it had been before. They held nothing back, this time. Florence dodged one of Valerie¡¯s moonlight slashes by barely a hair, and stabbed out with her glaive, the haft lengthening twice over, aimed at Valerie¡¯s feet. Valerie was forced to hop over the attack, but Florence followed, and the sparks her ruby blade was forming seemed to give chase as well. When Valerie batted the blade aside, the sparks kept coming, and she was forced to waste the second moonlight attack she¡¯d been gathering on dispelling them.


    Things rather devolved from there. Lucas barely dared to move, with all the techniques that were being thrown around. Even Jamie the monstercat, who¡¯d spent most of its time since arriving in Dawnguard inert as if trying not to draw any attention to itself, stirred to life, intrigued by the commotion.


    Comparatively, the initial battle they¡¯d been through might actually have been a friendly one after all. Now, they were really tearing up the room, Valerie¡¯s destructive moonlight slashes and beams competing with Florence¡¯s stone-sizzling sparks to see who could do the most damage.


    At some point, he started to wonder if they were doing it on purpose. There never seemed to be any true danger of hurting each other. Even as their techniques became more constructive and deadly, it only resembled a carefully choreographed dance all the more; it was like they knew what their opponent was going to do before they did it.


    There were a few hitches, like when Valerie used her sword mirroring technique, or when Florence stabbed her glaive into the stone floor and somehow launched a hail of sparks that Valerie was forced to dodge. But even then, the danger barely lasted a moment.


    This battle lasted much longer than the last. To the point where Lucas somehow started to feel somewhat inoculated to the inherent fear of standing on the sidelines while two immensely powerful individuals hurled magical techniques at each other just a few metres away. He grew enough in confidence that they wouldn¡¯t hit him that he ended up lowering himself to the ground, sitting cross-legged.


    When they finally broke apart once more, they were at least breathing heavily, and there was a hint of sweat on each of their foreheads. That was good, Lucas felt. He would¡¯ve felt woefully inadequate if they¡¯d gone through all that without breaking a sweat.


    There was another moment of silence, and then, for reasons he couldn¡¯t hope to discern, they dispelled their weapons and simultaneously took two long steps away from each other, and bowed at the same time. Whatever they¡¯d gotten out of that exchange, there was something more relaxed in both their stares, though they were still focused on each other.


    ¡°There are several factions outside the Moontower who plot harm against the Great Five,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°You¡¯ve already told me this,¡± Florence said. ¡°You¡¯ve already told Lady Claire this. What has you so concerned?¡± She narrowed her eyes. ¡°Do you believe these groups have infiltrated the order?¡±


    ¡°I have no concrete reason to believe it. I couldn¡¯t name any individual I believed to be compromised,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But at this crucial time, I have no choice but to be suspicious of the possibility. I do not know who I can trust here, Florence.¡±


    ¡°You can trust me,¡± Florence said, stepping forward, a hand resting on her heart. Lucas felt that gesture seemed rather strange if it was meant to convey sincerity, considering what she could do with it. Maybe it was meant to signify that she could draw her weapon with her hand there, but the fact she hadn¡¯t proved her honesty?


    Valerie just stared her down, expressionless.


    ¡°What did you find out there that has you thinking this way? Where did you go?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s more a matter of who I worked with,¡± Valerie said after a pause. ¡°A man named Jyn Sakhelyan, a pyromancer from the College of Wands.¡±


    ¡°The College is involved in this?¡±


    ¡°Possibly. It¡¯s hard to say. Either way, he confirmed for me that his group, Darkstar, seek to steal the power of the Great Five for themselves. Whether or not it¡¯s possible, the fact remains that their attempts to do so will undoubtedly cause unnecessary death and damage, at a time when we can simply not afford it.¡±


    Florence clicked her tongue. ¡°Darkstar. What an awful name.¡±


    ¡°Agreed.¡±


    ¡°And you really thought there was even the slightest possibility I would work with such a group?¡± Florence asked with a glare.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Valerie said simply. ¡°The chances were minute, I admit, but they existed.¡±


    ¡°And do you trust me now?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Valerie said, and only she and Lucas knew how blatantly she was lying. He felt a little guilty at that.


    ¡°Good,¡± Florence said with a nod. ¡°So what do you actually want to do, Val? What are you planning?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t trust you that much, yet.¡±


    Florence sighed, shoulders slumping. Her eyes turned heavenward, undoubtedly beseeching whatever gods this world believed in for strength.


    ¡°I want to know your thoughts on some things,¡± Valerie continued. ¡°I want to know what you think about the Great Five. About the Order of Five¡¯s goals. About everything.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you come up with some difficult questions, while you¡¯re at it?¡± Florence grumbled, still looking upwards. She shook her head and closed her eyes, letting her chin drop to her chest. ¡°To be honest, I haven¡¯t given much personal thought to it. Does that disturb you? The idea of not thinking much about the future of the war probably sounds disrespectful, to someone who¡¯s spent so much time fighting it.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t like it,¡± Valerie said, ¡°but I understand. Avoiding problems cannot solve them, but it¡¯s all too human to do so.¡±


    ¡°I hear people talk, of course. And it¡¯s not like their words never make me think.¡± Florence¡¯s lips twisted, like she wasn¡¯t sure whether to smile or frown. When she opened her eyes, the usually vibrant green looked oddly dulled. ¡°I do find myself wondering if it¡¯s even possible to win, if we keep going as we are. What do I think about the Five Heroes? Well, only one of them is active, right now, isn¡¯t she? And you know her a lot better than I do. I haven¡¯t exchanged more than a few words with her.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s doing her best, I can assure you of that.¡±


    ¡°But she¡¯s working alone, isn¡¯t she?¡± Florence shook her head. ¡°I¡¯d never consider going against her, or trying to steal her power, or whatever nonsense these people think they can do. And I¡¯d hope the same could be said of all skycloaks. Whatever else you can say about her, she¡¯s spent a hundred years fighting for us, never giving up.¡± She sighed. ¡°I honestly don¡¯t have much of an opinion on the others. Don¡¯t even know what¡¯s fact or fiction about them. Still don¡¯t think I¡¯d go against them, either. But I wouldn¡¯t necessarily treat their orders as sacrosanct as I would Lady Claire¡¯s.¡±


    Valerie gave the slightest frown. ¡°That does not give me confidence in you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯d be a lot less confident in me if I lied,¡± Florence said with a jerky shrug that was all but nonchalant. ¡°As for the Order? I don¡¯t mind the whole Lord Lucas obsession as much as many seem to. I can understand some have given up on him ever showing up, to be frank, but I can also see why others still choose to believe in it. To be honest, I reckon I¡¯d give him a chance if he finally arrived. Not like it¡¯s his fault he¡¯s a hundred years late, is it?¡±


    Lucas carefully didn¡¯t react to any of that, staying cross-legged on the floor, chin propped up on one fist. If they hadn¡¯t been so careful to avoid any of their attacks flying in his direction¡ªtaking advantage of there being a zone they couldn¡¯t launch attacks towards, even¡ªhe might have thought they¡¯d forgotten he was there at all.


    ¡°Can I count on you to protect the Heroes and the Order from enemies, Florence?¡± Valerie asked.


    Florence blinked, then scowled. ¡°Of course. What do you take me for?!¡± She blinked again, her scowl turning to a look of confusion. ¡°Though, again, I can¡¯t think of anyone who could really threaten the Heroes.¡±


    ¡°Nothing is certain, and no one is invincible. We don¡¯t know what these groups, the Darkstar or any others, are planning. It¡¯s entirely possible they¡¯re formulating a scheme that would take Lady Claire off guard.¡±


    ¡°Or Lord James?¡±


    Valerie grimaced, her eyes briefly flicking to Lucas. ¡°Yes. Or him.¡±


    Lucas had already been observing the conversation closely, his gaze panning back and forth like he was watching a tennis match. At that, his attention snapped to Valerie and stayed there. ¡°Lord James? Do you know where he is?¡± he asked.


    Valerie¡¯s sigh was an answer on its own.

 54: Lately (4)

    Lucas took the steps two at a time, cycling mana slowly through his pathways to offset the fatigue. He¡¯d initially been leaping up three or four at once, but that had quickly proved untenable, even with mana augmenting his body.


    The 224th floor had come and gone a while back, but that didn¡¯t give much of an indication of how far they had to go. Apparently, the closer one got to the top, the taller the individual floors were. The fact there were 500 floors didn¡¯t mean the 224th was just before the halfway point.


    Valerie would tell him how many steps were left if he asked. She probably knew that kind of thing.


    But he wasn¡¯t in the mood to talk to her right now. His fests clenched at his sides, and he had to resist the urge to turn around and snap at the woman to leave him to do this on his own. She¡¯d probably obey that, too. Unfortunately, he knew that would be a bad idea; no matter how displeased with her he was, the fact remained that she was the only trusted ally he had in this place. The only one who could bail him out if he happened to encounter something unexpected on his climb to the apex of the Moontower.


    It didn¡¯t help that Florence was only a few steps behind her, having watched their exchange downstairs with a look of utter bewilderment on her face for the duration. For whatever reason, she¡¯d decided to follow after them. Luckily, she still seemed far more concerned for Valerie than him, though he couldn¡¯t guess at what was actually going through her mind, then or now.


    The temptation rose within him to tell her exactly who he was. It was a stupid thought, born of a childish desire to spite Valerie, and self-preservation ultimately won out. He hadn¡¯t followed all the nuances of Valerie and Florence¡¯s insane spar, but he understood that Valerie currently didn¡¯t trust her to know his identity, and she surely had a reason for that.


    Just like she had a reason to say nothing about Jamie, Lucas thought, scowling. His pace picked up as the fury surged through him once more, and he had to take deep breaths, forcing calm upon himself as he slowed himself to a more manageable gait once more.


    He understood, logically, that she was under no obligation to volunteer information without prompting. Her goal was to keep him safe and secure until Claire returned to decide their next moves, and everything else was, at best, a secondary consideration. If a piece of knowledge might, in her mind, put him in danger, she wasn¡¯t going to offer it.


    Hell, he could even understand why she thought giving him this information in particular might be dangerous. She (correctly) assumed he¡¯d want to go find his friend.


    If that was the only reason, it might not have bothered him so much.


    ¡°I am not certain Lord James can be trusted at this juncture,¡± Valerie said reluctantly, gaze flicking between Lucas and Florence for a moment before locking onto him. She held up a hand to stall his outraged argument. ¡°The rumours surrounding him do not paint an encouraging picture.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡±


    ¡°It means I would not feel comfortable approaching him on official business without Lady Claire present,¡± Valerie said.


    Lucas blinked, baffled. ¡°You can¡¯t seriously think he¡¯d attack us or something?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not what I mean. By most accounts, Lord James refuses to fight.¡±


    ¡°Then why?¡±


    ¡°As I understand it, he is not particularly fond of the Order.¡± Valerie paused, grimacing. She looked more uncomfortable than he¡¯d ever seen her. ¡°Without Lady Claire there, we would likely have significant trouble convincing him to believe certain realities.¡±


    Lucas briefly glanced at Florence, who was watching their exchange with both eyebrows raised. His fists clenched at his sides. ¡°But you know where he is.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s generally understood he¡¯s somewhere in the south of Mornlunn.¡±


    ¡°And do you have a more accurate location?¡±


    There was another pause, the reluctance clear in Valerie¡¯s face. Then she said, ¡°I know how to find out.¡±


    And so here they were, on an exhausting charge to the top of the tower. The grand staircase seemed to go on forever. It had been at least an hour since they¡¯d started their climb, and there was no end in sight. A part of him was tempted to ask, but he kept his lips firmly sealed, grinding his teeth together instead.


    Not a word had been exchanged between them since Lucas had stormed out of the door of their little training room, and he wasn¡¯t going to break that silence now. He didn¡¯t even want to look back, only knew they were there because of the clank, clank, clank of their boots on the steps behind him.


    Now more than ever, he wished he had an easier way to get up these stupid, shitty stairs. None of the magics he¡¯d learned so far were any help here. He¡¯d have to find one. Maybe he¡¯d pick up geomancy and turn the whole fucking thing into an escalator. Or perhaps there was some branch of magic or other that allowed teleportation. That was a nice idea. No climbing at all. No steps involved whatsoever.


    The thought brought a smile to his face, which he quickly wiped away.


    He didn¡¯t know how long it took before the staircase started to open out, abruptly expanding until it was wide enough to fit twenty people across, and the steps themselves were polished to a sparkling sheen. Soon after, light burst into the widening space as the walls of the grand staircase abruptly vanished past a certain point, leaving only the staircase to climb several hundred metres through the shell of the tower¡¯s very top, reaching up to a grand arched doorway that seemed to float in the air just below the tower¡¯s roof. None of the outer walls of the tower had any windows, and, looking down, it appeared the staircase rose up from within a cloud that he certainly had no recollection of passing through. He didn¡¯t even know where any of this light was coming from. It felt like they were outside.


    It still took them a good five more minutes to reach the doorway, and only when he was before it did he realise it wasn¡¯t really a door at all. There was nothing to push open, no lock or handle. It was just an empty black void, utterly colourless and reflecting nothing, seeming to drink in any hint of light. A solid, impenetrable wall of darkness.


    ¡°Here we are. This is Lady Claire¡¯s personal office,¡± Valerie told him, voice strained.


    ¡°You won¡¯t be able to enter,¡± Florence added with the vibe of someone who didn¡¯t think they¡¯d be listened to, and she was completely correct. He didn¡¯t know why she bothered to keep telling him this.


    He shook his head without looking back at them, and stepped up to the archway. Lifting his hand, he gently placed his fingers against the darkness. They sunk straight in like there was nothing there. There was no hint of hot or cold, and no physical resistance. There might as well have been nothing there.


    There was no change as he sunk his arm in all the way up to the shoulder. A sharp inhale of breath behind him made him go still, looking down at himself to check for any injuries, but he saw nothing. Glancing back over his shoulder, he found both Florence and Valerie staring at him with wide eyes.


    ¡°How are you getting through Lady Claire¡¯s wards?¡± Florence asked, her voice barely above a whisper.


    Lucas didn¡¯t answer as he turned and stepped fully through the dark gateway. For a moment, he was surrounded by such true and complete darkness that it set his heart thundering, but it took only a second step to get out of it, light rushing back in, and then he was in Claire¡¯s office. He stopped, blinking. Confusion flooded him as he looked around.


    The office was supposed to take up the entirety of the top floor of the Moontower. Valerie had explained that it was called the ¡®top floor¡¯ but really was a tall enough space to encompass a dozen of the regular floors, like the one where Valerie¡¯s quarters were located.


    So it took him a bit off guard to find himself in a five-sided room that, while large in its own right, was only just about twenty-ish paces across at most in any direction, and was maybe twice the height of what he¡¯d imagine a ¡®regular¡¯ room to be. Each of the five pale walls held several smaller archways like the one he¡¯d just walked through, all equally dark, and the room itself was as bright as daylight without any obvious source for that light.


    He looked back just in time to see Valerie and Florence follow him in. Valerie showed a neutral expression as was typical for her, but Florence was frowning deeply at him, brows furrowed. ¡°How did you get through?¡± she asked again, sounding more accusatory now. ¡°Only members of the Order should be able to pass Lady Claire¡¯s wards. It should¡¯ve been like touching a wall to you.¡±


    Lucas shrugged, noting that she and Valerie neglected to mention that all the way up the stairs. If the barrier really had denied him entry, he would¡¯ve been fuming. At least Valerie had reason to suspect they¡¯d let him through anyway. ¡°Maybe the wards counted me as a subordinate to Valerie or something,¡± he said, turning his attention back to the room ahead and striding to the centre, looking around.


    None of the archways were labelled in any way. They were much smaller than the one he¡¯d stepped through, which towered over him, rising until the tip of the arch was probably only an inch or two from the ceiling. These were more in line with regular doors. Twenty of them in total.


    ¡°Any idea where these lead?¡± he asked without looking back.


    Valerie stepped up to his side. ¡°Offices, workshops, vaults, personal quarters,¡± she said, pointing to each wall one after the other as she listed off their purposes. ¡°I don¡¯t know the full layout of the place, but it¡¯s not meant to be complicated. Lady Claire deemed the wards enough of a defence against intruders, in the unlikely event any hostile entity made it up here, so she felt no need to make it confusing for herself.¡±


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    ¡°So, they¡¯re, what? Pocket dimensions, or something?¡±


    ¡°No, they exist in real space. These doors are portals linking this room to others in Lady Claire¡¯s quarters, partially for convenience, but primarily for the aforementioned security.¡±


    Lucas looked at her askance. ¡°You have portal magic.¡±


    ¡°Their utility is much more limited than you might be thinking, even without taking into account the Blight¡¯s corrupting effects on long distance magic,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Not many people apart from Lady Claire who can do this with them, for one thing,¡± Florence said from behind them, still by the entrance. ¡°They¡¯re notoriously unstable, and a constant strain on the caster¡¯s mana. Further apart the portals are, the worse it gets. And there were rumours they could be compromised, if someone got between them.¡±


    ¡°Thus Lady Claire has deemed it a magic that shouldn¡¯t be widespread,¡± Valerie added.


    ¡°There are lots of those.¡±


    Valerie glanced back at Florence, one eyebrow fractionally raised.


    Lucas didn¡¯t bother to look back at her, still studying the archways, but Florence¡¯s voice sounded somewhat sheepish as she spoke, ¡°I¡¯m not questioning her edicts. Merely pointing out that there are many disciplines of magic that are too dangerous to be left to proliferate. It makes one wonder why Lady Claire tolerates the College.¡±


    No one had anything to say to that. Lucas turned to the left, heading towards the archways Valerie had labelled as Claire¡¯s offices. He decided to take the one furthers on the left, practically right next to the entrance archway. Florence was frowning at him again when he passed her, but she said nothing as he strode through the barrier once more.


    The new room he found himself in was another pentagon, the same size and layout as the last, except four of the walls were lined with bookshelves. The centre of the room was dominated by a giant oaken table, also stacked with books. More scrolls, books, and loose pieces of parchment and paper covered most of the floor. It was an absolute mess. Calling this place an office seemed suddenly inaccurate.


    Lucas frowned, feeling out of place. If there was one thing he could say about Claire, it was that she was obsessive with keeping her spaces clean. Whether it was the bedroom in her childhood home where everything was neat and tidy and packed away in its proper place, or the side of the flat she¡¯d shared with Aarya during uni where the kitchen had to be sparkling at all times and not a mote of dust was allowed, or even in her job at the library where every book had to be neatly stacked, she demanded order.


    This was the first tangible, undeniable sign that at least one thing about her had changed. The Claire he knew would¡¯ve thrown a fit at the state of these books. Even the shelves themselves looked ratty, haphazard, and books were one of the primary things she obsessed about keeping uncluttered.


    There was a sinking feeling in Lucas¡¯ gut. He¡¯d frozen by the entrance upon seeing the state of the office, and he forced himself to move forward, angling for the table. With so many books and bits of paper strewn about, he was forced to pick a winding path, not wanting to step on anything¡ªeven if it seemed like Claire didn¡¯t actually care about any of this stuff. That had to be it. This place was just tertiary to her objectives, and it must have fallen by the wayside as she got distracted with all her responsibilities.


    He spent a good while exploring, but there wasn¡¯t much of use to him. Oh, there was plenty of interesting stuff. Half of the books seemed to be magical tomes of some description, and the translation magic that came with the Great Star translated text just as easily as speech. Part of him urged to read them, but that wasn¡¯t what he was here for.


    The rest were mostly dry texts about various subjects. Admin crap. The work of a leader, and important in its own way, but again irrelevant right now.


    Most interesting was the large map that covered most of the table, partially hidden beneath books. It was a map of much of the country of Aeyem, where he recalled Claire¡¯s current mission was located, deep in the Blighted Lands. There were a bunch of scrawlings in painfully familiar handwriting, though he couldn¡¯t make sense of it, since it was all apparently in some kind of shorthand. The map itself wasn¡¯t labelled. It was more of a piece of art than an actual map, and Lucas wondered why she¡¯d used this for whatever she was doing rather than a proper one.


    A pang of longing took him off guard, and he found his eyes stinging as his gaze roved over words written by his friend¡¯s very hand. He wanted to see her, even if she was a hundred years older and practically a stranger. He wanted to see all of them, Rian, and Aarya, and Jamie.


    But there was only one he had any decent chance of actually meeting right now.


    Valerie and Florence were waiting by the entrance when he was done, watching him with a neutral gaze and incredulity respectively. Florence spoke as he finished his inspection and approached them, ¡°The audacity to snoop around Lady Claire¡¯s office like this right in front of two members of the Order. I don¡¯t even know what to say.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure she wouldn¡¯t mind,¡± Lucas muttered.


    ¡°She absolutely would,¡± Florence said.


    Valerie nodded in agreement, face still unreadable, but said nothing.


    ¡°Are the other offices like this one?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°Not all of them,¡± Valerie said. ¡°This is a personal study. She doesn¡¯t often invite anyone in here. From what she¡¯s told me, it¡¯s where she comes when she wants to think.¡±


    Lucas frowned at that. This didn¡¯t seem like the type of place that would be relaxing for her, looking at it. Had she really changed that much, or was she lying to Valerie? He preferred the latter, but a bad feeling told him it was more likely the former.


    The next room was again the same size, but much more presentable. Floor-to-ceiling windows revealed a stunning view that seemed to stretch on forever to the far south¡ªthough the rumour Valerie had told him about seeing to the end of the continent proved unfounded, it did let him see far beyond the bounds of the city, to the mountains and endless fields and whatever else lay beyond. The room itself was decorated with lush carpets on the floor and tapestries on the walls, with only one left bear, holding three more archways instead. Again, a large table dominated the floor space¡ªeven bigger than the last room¡ªthough there was no clutter covering this one. It was surrounded instead by tall-backed wooden chairs, a dozen in total.


    ¡°This is where Lady Claire typically meets people,¡± Valerie explained. ¡°It¡¯s generally known as the planning room.¡±


    There was nothing much to see there, so he moved on to the next¡ªthe three extra archways apparently just led to the other office rooms. The messy first room was the only one with a single doorway.


    The next few rooms told similar stories, though their layout was obviously different. There was a room with an absolutely enormous black stone table that was apparently a map of the whole world that could zoom in and out with incredibly accuracy, but they couldn¡¯t activate it without Claire here, so it was just a black stone table to them. After that came a room filled witha few dozen padded chairs, all facing a pane of black glass that covered the entirety of one of the walls where Claire projected briefings with lumomancy for her subordinates.


    The last ¡®office¡¯ was similar to the first, except thrice as large, and much, much neater. Shelves stacked with books in an orderly fashion, nothing left on the floor, and the table spotless. Apparently Claire didn¡¯t use it much, and the books themselves weren¡¯t of much use right now at all. He barely glanced at them before moving on.


    Lucas barely spent any time in the workshops, not daring to disturb any of the magical projects Claire had under way. He couldn¡¯t even make sense of most of them. The rooms didn¡¯t show as much variety in space or layout as the offices, but they made up for that in their contents.


    For the most part, they were all filled with workbenches lining the walls, with a pentagonal table in the middle. All were covered in glyphs and runes and scripts and various magicy things, along with beakers filled with strange liquids and gases, metals that felt wrong to look at, and materials that moved in ways they shouldn¡¯t.


    The only thing that made any sense to him was the small plant sitting at the back of one workshop, its oddly straight leaves a bright red, looking like ribbons waving in an unseen wind. He had to resist the urge to go and approach it.


    The vaults were closed even to him, which he actually hadn¡¯t been expecting. Getting into Claire¡¯s quarters in the first place had led him to assume she¡¯d worked out some way to key him into her wards long ago, and he¡¯d have free rein of the place. Apparently she¡¯d been more strict than that, which he should¡¯ve expected, really.


    It was a bit frustrating. Valerie had told him that Claire¡¯s vaults held the rarest and most powerful weapons in all the world, and she wanted him to bond with the best the Moontower had to offer. If they had to wait for Claire for him to bond with anything¡­ Well, that was probably going to be untenable.


    Claire¡¯s personal quarters let him in, though. Only him. It only occurred to him halfway through exploring the room behind the leftmost archway¡ªa cosy sitting room consisting of only one luxurious sofa that sat before a fire that never seemed to go out and burned just hot enough to be comfortable when you sat on the sofa¡ªthat his companions hadn¡¯t followed him in. He returned outside to find twin looks of disbelief. Neither of them had thought he¡¯d be able to enter these rooms.


    It probably didn¡¯t help out his case with Florence very much, but he found he didn¡¯t care. He had bigger things to worry about than whatever she thought of him. If she figured him out, fuck it. They¡¯d deal with that when they got to it. She seemed a good sort, anyway. She probably wouldn¡¯t do anything bad with that information. Hopefully.


    He spent little time in Claire¡¯s bedroom beyond observing the four-poster bed for a moment and noting it was the neatest room he¡¯d seen so far. The bathroom had little of interest, either, apart from being far more ornate and modern than what he was used to seeing in this world. Her personal practice room wasn¡¯t so different from the training rooms he¡¯d been using, and he quickly moved on once more.


    The last room he entered was, ironically, the one he was looking for. To be fair, he¡¯d expected it. When Valerie had told him that Claire had a way to track down Jamie, he¡¯d gone straight up here, working under the assumption that she¡¯d keep whatever magical means she had for tracking her friends safe.


    Lucas found himself in what he could only describe as a shrine. Each of the four walls were dedicated to the other five Great Heroes, with life-sized paintings hanging in pride of place to denote each section.


    On the left was Rian¡¯s. A handsome face stared out, his hair cropped close to his head. A dashing smile in a chiselled jaw. Eyes sparkling with mirth. Flanking his painting were various swords in a wide variety of states. Blades of every colour and quality, some pristine and others so damaged they¡¯d probably shatter against a stiff breeze. Below the painting were various writings and sketches, pinned to the wall, all clearly Rian¡¯s handiwork. A metre from the wall stood an white marble plinth with an empty half-sphere depression on the top.


    Next to his was Aarya¡¯s, and Lucas¡¯ heart clenched. It looked like a memorial, and he couldn¡¯t bring himself to stare at it for long. He saw flowers and dozens of smaller paintings of Aarya before he forced himself to look away. A leather-bound book sat atop her plinth, but he dared not go near it.


    His own wall came next, and his was practically a conspiracy theorist board, utterly covered in drawings and writings to the point they were straying over the edges of his painting¡ªwhich he thought was a bit of an idealised rendering of him. Some had even fallen to the floor, forming a little pile that tumbled almost to his plinth. Stepping closer, he could see that they were full of speculations regarding what had happened to him. One caught his eye, big red letters on a piece of paper about A3 size which read: ¡°MERIHEM.¡± Underlined thrice. They looked hastily scrawled, the paper slightly torn from the zeal of the quill strokes.


    Jamie¡¯s was last. He barely spent a moment registering the long ginger hair or the fierce eyes of a man who¡¯d do anything to defend his friends.


    Instead, Lucas¡¯ gaze fell on the little wooden box that sat upon Jamie¡¯s plinth. Moving like gravity was pulling towards it, he rushed to snatch it up. It snapped open at his touch like a pocket watch, revealing a compass that looked like it was made of mist, partially see through. It was a ghostly silver, fading whenever he moved. But when he went still, it got more substantial, and eventually, a red arrow started to solidify. He turned and turned until the red arrow was facing directly ahead of him.


    And he knew where he had to go.

 55: Lately (5)

    When Lucas returned to the main room, he found Florence and Valerie waiting for him not two paces from the archway. They were stood side-by-side. Valerie''s eyes went straight to the box he was carrying, then flickered back up to meet his gaze. He stared back, challenging her to say anything. She just nodded shallowly.


    Florence, on the other hand, had been glaring at Valerie when he emerged. Cutting off halfway through a hissed word, she turned a dark look on him, which was quickly wiped away when he held the box up. Her eyes went comically wide, to the point he was sure it was exaggerated, like she was acting. But the outrage in her words felt sincere, ¡°What in the five hells are you doing, Ser James?¡±


    His grip tightened on the box. Its wood was oddly smooth, like it had been polished, but it looked dull as normal wood. When he tried to probe it with his mana, it outright rejected him. Evidently, it had some protections from tampering in place. Not that he would want to damage it. As of now, it was the most precious item he owned.


    Though, admittedly, his ownership over it was rather dubious. Florence wasn''t wrong to be upset.


    ¡°I want to find Lord James,¡± he said simply.


    ¡°And that justifies you invading Lady Claire¡¯s office, does it?¡± Florence grimaced, turning back to Valerie. ¡°What is going on here, Val? How is some backwater lunamancer casually strolling through wards crafted by the world¡¯s greatest Wand?¡±


    ¡°It''s a complicated situation,¡± Valerie said. Her body language was relaxed, not a hint of tension in her. Lucas found himself surprised by that. He would''ve thought she''d be ready to take action, when it appeared someone was suspicious of him.


    There was a moment of silence as Florence waited for elaboration. But Valerie said no more. The redhead made a frustrated sound, then whirled back to Lucas. ¡°I don''t suppose you would be willing to give an explanation, Ser James?¡± She paused, scowling. ¡°Is that even your name?¡±


    ¡°For what it''s worth,¡± Valerie finally said, ¡°I¡¯m sure Lady Claire would be fine with him having it. Her repeated failure to bring Lord James back into the fold weighs on her heavily.¡±


    ¡°Is there anyone who can succeed in that task?¡± Florence asked, her voice gaining a hint of disbelief.


    ¡°I hold out hope,¡± Valerie replied. Her stare had not strayed from Lucas, and her expression was unchanging.


    ¡°This is a compass,¡± Lucas said, holding up the box in the palm of his hand. Tapping its front with a finger, he watched their expressions as it snapped open easily. With it faced towards them, they would be able to see the ghostly pointer within. ¡°But you''ve seen this before, right? She used it to track him down at some point. With the way you''re talking, I assume she''s done it multiple times.¡±


    ¡°That is correct,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°I haven''t seen it before, but I''ve heard enough about it to guess what it is as soon as I saw it in your hand,¡± Florence added. She was wide-eyed, her gaze going back-and-forth between him and the box. ¡°I still don''t understand how you got in there, but the vaults still stopped you.¡± She looked at Valerie. ¡°That doesn''t make sense. If he was just leaching off of your permissions due to whatever link you have to each other because of this arrangement you have going on to replace your pendant, he wouldn''t have been able to enter Lady Claire¡¯s personal quarters.¡±


    ¡°That is correct,¡± Valerie said again. She looked at Florence for the first time since Lucas had returned to the main room, but she didn''t say anything. Her expression didn''t change, still utterly blank.


    So why did Lucas feel a hint of danger in the air? An image shot through his mind like a lightning bolt, drawing him back to the incident outside Pentaburgh. He saw Rena¡¯s face in that final moment, before a column of shining white light engulfed her. He remembered Wick¡¯s scream of despair.


    Before he knew it, he was taking a step forward, interposing himself between Valerie and Florence. Valerie hadn''t moved, she hadn''t even given a hint that violence might erupt. But he saw the way this might go if he didn''t intervene. He understood the need to keep his secret. He really did.


    That didn''t mean he wanted to kill someone for it, unless they knew for certain that person was a threat. He could forgive the death of Jyn and Rena, because it had become pretty undeniable that they were hostile to him, that they would have killed him in that situation without remorse, and undoubtedly inflicted violations on his soul for whatever purposes this Darkstar group pursued.


    Things with Florence didn''t have to be that way. Sure, they didn''t know her well enough to know if they could trust her. But they could find out.


    If things did turn out that way, if they really couldn''t trust her, then he supposed there was no better time or place to find out than now, far away from anyone else in the tower, behind wards that would prevent anyone else from interfering.


    Fuck, he hated thinking about that. Considering killing a person before even discovering whether they were an enemy or a friend felt wrong on a visceral level. But that was the reality he found himself in. He was going to have to make these calculations more and more. When every person he met could be a potential danger, he had to consider what to do if a fight broke out.


    Taking a deep breath, he faced Valerie, his back to Florence. He met her eyes for a moment, then gave a significant look downwards, towards her heart. Again, barely anything about her changed. But this time he did notice the difference.


    Her eyes had hardened.


    Spinning on the spot, he faced Florence. He met her eyes too. They were a deep green, so vibrant and luscious, he wondered if that was where she got her name.


    For barely a month he¡¯d been skulking about, taking on his friends¡¯ names to hide his identity. First Rian, then Jamie. Even as he understood the need and even agreed to it, it frustrated him. He didn¡¯t feel like some great world-saving hero at all, but the fact of the matter was this world expected him to be one, and there was more to that than quietly building his power. The Star wasn¡¯t meant to be just a warrior. They¡¯d sacrificed more for him than the others for a reason.


    He was meant to be a leader, too. That had to start somewhere.


    ¡°My name is Lucas Brown,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m the Great Star.¡±


    Silence reigned for a long moment. Florence blinked. Her mouth flapped open, but no sound came out. Her eyes searched his, then roved over his face, lingering every now and then on little details, then they went distant, her attention turning inward, thinking. She seemed to rock on her feet, like she¡¯d been about to take a step back then stopped herself. A shaky breath escaped her, and she shook her head. Her shoulders slumped, then she appeared to square them.


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    Lucas waited, watching her. This was a gamble, he knew, and there¡¯d be a steep price to pay if he was wrong. If this went poorly, at least one person would die as a consequence.


    But she had said she''d be willing to give him a chance.


    Time to see if she meant that.


    When she¡¯d finally gathered herself enough to speak, her voice was brittle and her eyes were misty. ¡°You¡¯re not lying. Valerie would never be misled by some conman.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s difficult to determine the exact dates, but I believe he arrived in the Grand Summoning Hall in Pentaburgh precisely 101 years after the original summoning,¡± Valerie said from behind him, sounding shockingly unbothered. She¡¯d evidently taken a silent step or two to the side, giving her a line of sight to her comrade. ¡°I hadn¡¯t expected to encounter him out there, hoping only to study the summoning array itself and gather some clues as to what might have happened.¡±


    ¡°What did you think you were going to be able to do, if even Lady Claire didn¡¯t know why Lord Lucas hadn¡¯t arrived with the others?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Valerie admitted. ¡°But I had to try.¡±


    Florence drew in another shaky breath. ¡°Explain everything,¡± she said. Then she glanced back at Lucas and winced. ¡°Please,¡± she added.


    Valerie did most of the storytelling, since she had more context, and better understood how to relay a mission report to a fellow member of their order. She glossed over how she had backed out of Claire''s mission with the express intention of heading to Pentaburgh, and spent little time on how she¡¯d formed her team. She only gave Jyn any special mention, and that was in the context of elaborating on her investigation into the Darkstar group, whom she had been trying to convince Claire to deal with for some time.


    ¡°Why does she not take these group seriously?¡± Florence asked, frowning. ¡°You have more insight into her mindset than most people. I never understood her lack of interest in these groups that railed against her.¡±


    Valerie shrugged. They had ended up moving to Claire¡¯s messy office, where Valerie had pulled open a map as a prop for her tale. ¡°I have spent a lot of time around her, but that doesn''t mean I understand her. I don''t need to.¡±


    Florence¡¯s frown deepened at that, but she let the matter drop.


    The rest of the story went by quickly. Valerie deemed the journey to Pentaburgh up until encountering Lucas irrelevant. She gave her perspective, revealing she hadn''t even suspected him at all at first, though she had noticed discrepancies. She had dismissed, mostly believing his story of being a country bumpkin. Men like him were not uncommon, apparently. It was only when they reached the wall of the city, where they found the graves without their rites performed, that all of Lucas¡¯ strangeness was recontextualised and she realised the truth.


    ¡°And I assume the pyromancer had to die,¡± Florence said neutrally.


    Valerie just nodded. She went on to explain all she¡¯d seen Lucas accomplish so far. While he made his mistakes, and was clearly not on the calibre of the other great heroes, who''d been around for years, the progress he had made in his skills was undeniably unnatural. According to her, not even the greatest prodigy would have been able to improve as rapidly as he had, nor would anyone pick up new skills as simply. For proof of this, she revealed that Lucas¡¯ lunamancy had been gained only two weeks ago; she told the tale of the Demon and the pendant in the process.


    Florence looked faint by the time it was all done. She was gripping the edge of the table, and her hands were trembling. ¡°This is madness,¡± she whispered. ¡°Utter insanity.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s the truth,¡± Lucas said. He had kept quiet throughout most of the story, but even so, Florence¡¯s gaze had barely straight from him throughout. It was only at the end, when it seemed the reality of the situation had settled in, that she had closed her eyes and bowed her head over the table.


    ¡°I know. I believe you. Both of you. But, fucking hell, let me take it in for a moment. I just can''t believe I''m standing here, one of the first people on Aerth to meet you. This isn''t supposed to be my life. This isn''t supposed to be the kind of thing I get caught up in.¡±


    ¡°But you are, and I need your help, just like I need Valerie''s help. I need all the help I can get, frankly. Valerie wants to wait for Claire, and I understand her rationale. Training me up to a level that I can survive some of the things this world can throw at me before I make any kind of public debut is definitely the right way to approach things.¡±


    Valerie glanced at him sharply, but he held up a hand to her before she could complain.


    ¡°I''m not deviating from that plan. I''m not stupid, however it might''ve seemed in the last few weeks. That was just¡­¡± He trailed off, searching for the right words. He leaned his hip against the table. ¡°Let¡¯s call it an adjustment period.¡±


    ¡°I don''t begrudge any of your decisions,¡± Valerie said. ¡°You were plunged into a situation you were not prepared for, facing death and worse when you''ve been a normal person living a normal life for years. It was only natural that you did not perform perfectly. A little known fact, at this point, is that the other four made plenty of mistakes of their own in the early days.¡±


    Florence snorted. ¡°Blasphemy.¡±


    ¡°Lady Claire would tell you herself,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But she recognised the need for the legend of the heroes to be as spotless as possible.¡± She showed a slight frown. ¡°Obviously, we are well past that point.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Lucas said. ¡°It seems like a lot of people have low opinions of Rian and Jamie. And Claire too.¡± He paused, and let out a sigh. ¡°And even me. Even though I haven''t done anything.¡±


    ¡°For those people, the fact you haven''t done anything is rather the point,¡± Florence murmured. She shook herself. ¡°Well, I can never claim I was one of the most devout members of the Order. I didn''t think about it too hard, but I guess I never actually believed you''d show up someday. But here you are. If Valerie vouches for you, then I trust you are who you say you are. The Great Star is finally among us.¡± Those words seem to shake her again, a visible shudder thrumming through her body. She took a deep breath. ¡°What does that mean for us, though? What do you want to do, Lord Lucas?¡±


    ¡°I want to train until I''m strong enough to hold my own, to the standards of the Order. Then I want to go and find Jamie. I''ll bring him back here, where we¡¯ll hopefully meet up with Claire. Wherever Rian is, we¡¯ll track him down, too. And Aarya¡­¡± Lucas paused, having to swallow past a sudden lump in his throat. ¡°We¡¯ll find a way to bring her back. There has to be a way. She can''t be dead.¡±


    Florence and Valerie exchanged a look. Valerie spoke softly, ¡°Lord Rian went missing when my grandmother was a young girl, so any accounts of him are second-hand at best. But they say before he left, he spoke a lot like you were doing just now. Lady Claire does not like to talk about him.¡±


    "I don''t care,¡± Lucas said. ¡°If you need five heroes to defeat this Demon Lord and save the world, then you need all five of us. There''s no way any of us can do it without the others.¡±


    They lapsed into another silence after that. Lucas¡¯ gaze strayed over Claire¡¯s office, but he constantly found himself being drawn back to the archway, beyond which lay that personal room, the one with the paintings. The urge to go back there and just stare at the lifelike visages of his friends was almost overwhelming. His very soul cried out to look upon them, to remember every detail.


    Distantly, he noted Valerie and Florence whispering to each other, but didn¡¯t pay any close attention to it. His mind was on his friends. The last time he¡¯d spoke to them all as a group had been at the ice rink, as part of their weekly outdoor activity¡ªit was a tradition of theirs to go out and do something ¡®fun¡¯ every weekend, and they rotated through who chose the activity. Ice skating had been Aarya¡¯s idea. Next would¡¯ve been Lucas. He was planning to take them all kayaking on the Thames. He¡¯d found a good spot online. Had been looking forward to it for ages.


    That was barely a couple of months ago for him. It would¡¯ve been over a century for the rest of them¡ªaside from Aarya, for whom it¡¯d be just over a decade. He wondered if any of them would even remember that day on the ice, or if he¡¯d be the only one laughing if he brought up the moment when Rian had fallen on his arse trying to impress some girl or other.


    Either way, he wanted to tell them all.


    Valerie¡¯s voice brought him out of his melancholic musing. ¡°Lord Lucas?¡±


    He turned from the archway, looking at the two skycloaks. They were both watching him with twin looks of determination, and the relief that sight brought made him feel like he was deflating.


    ¡°What are your orders, Lord Lucas?¡± Florence asked, green eyes burning.


    Lucas squared his shoulders. If he wanted to tell his friends about that dumb memory, he was going to have to shape up and be worthy to stand side by side with them.


    ¡°For a start, you two are going to beat the absolute shit out of me,¡± he declared.

 56: Lately (6)

    Before revealing himself to Florence, he hadn¡¯t exactly been taking it easy. Training had already occupied most of his day. It was just that Valerie had generally been content to¡ªor, perhaps, resigned to¡ªleave him to his own devices until Claire returned from her mission. With no particular schedule to keep him on course, the temptation to follow whatever whim arose had, admittedly, been difficult to resist. He hadn¡¯t strayed completely off track. The time had been far from wasted. But he couldn¡¯t deny that it hadn¡¯t been utilised with total efficiency.


    That changed with the recruitment of Florence, but she wasn¡¯t necessarily the catalyst herself. He and Valerie had already discussed properly handing over control of his training to her, and Florence finally spurred them to make that leap.


    Lucas quickly discovered that both women had strong opinions on what a training regime should look like. He¡¯d never worked so hard in his life.


    The first day had been the hardest. They¡¯d decided to test just how far they could push him, and had him running up and down the grand staircase until he literally couldn¡¯t go on. After, he¡¯d rested and recovered remarkably quickly. Without the Great Star doing whatever it did, he was sure he would¡¯ve been sore for weeks.


    If the day had ended there, it would¡¯ve been bad enough, but it seemed Valerie and Florence had taken the request to beat him up rather literally. He wasn¡¯t convinced the ensuing few hours could be called sparring, since they insisted on him using every ability in his repertoire, magical or otherwise, and handily trounced him still. There was no denying its utility, letting him practise using his magic in combat situations. That one training session grew his strength and confidence unlike anything he¡¯d ever seen. It still hurt, though.


    And that still wasn¡¯t all they¡¯d done. After a large dinner of meat and eggs with a surprisingly-pleasant-tasting salty gruel thing, they¡¯d had him work on his magic until long after the sun had gone down, and the tower had to be lit by magic crystals ensconced in the floor. They went through all the magic he currently had, and catalogued how he used it. Florence met Jamie, and was deeply unimpressed with one (at minimum) of Lucas¡¯ magics being linked to another being¡ªand that wasn¡¯t even getting into the soulbond. To be fair, Lucas wasn¡¯t happy about the heart¡¯s flame situation either, but it was the best compromise he¡¯d been able to come up with at the time.


    A legendary lecture had ensued. While Valerie was only able to use basic magic with great difficulty due to her condition, and Florence was also a Swordmaiden and thus not specialised in the art, they were still both skilled and knowledgeable in their own way. In just a few hours of dedicated tutoring, they had him opening new pathways far more efficiently, and cut down on the lag time with Jamie and his pyromancy until it felt almost manageable in combat, if he was really prepared. There wasn¡¯t much they could tell him about floramancy and lunamancy, since they were taboo and rare respectively, but many of the principles they taught him carried over.


    They even made him practice his necromancy, when he reluctantly told them about it. It wasn¡¯t so much necromancy as osseomancy at that point, letting him shove his ¡®neutral¡¯ mana into bones and manipulate them in subtle ways. A single bone on its own wasn¡¯t so useful, little better than using floramancy on a stick. It was only when they brought him entire skeletons that he found more utility, letting him animate them like puppets. He was surprised how unbothered by it they were, since he¡¯d assumed necromancy or osseomancy or whatever would be considered evil magic of some description.


    Florence had simply told him: ¡°There¡¯s only one true evil on this world. Humans get the benefit of the doubt, no matter how distasteful their abilities may initially seem.¡±


    He was bothered enough for all three of them, at least.


    Their mentorship wasn¡¯t limited to combat and magic, either, though it was definitely the majority of their focus. He needed to know a lot more about the world to be able to navigate it safely, and so they agreed to set aside a few hours before bedtime to drill a bunch of general knowledge into his head. Locations, history, politics, flora and fauna, and more. He was shocked at how easily it all sunk in. He never needed to be told a fact twice.


    They also ran him through hypothetical scenarios. Conversations he might have, negotiations with potential hostiles, battles he might take part in. Florence most took over from Valerie here, since the latter spent much more of her time fighting demons at the edge of the Blighted Lands. Florence had swathes of experience with running more mundane ¡®missions¡¯ all over Mornlunn, and thus her knowledge of such things was second to none.


    Not to be outdone, though, Valerie took control of any lesson about beasts or demons or blight. Few people knew that subject better, and most of those were still on the Front Lines, hardly in a position to teach him anything. She¡¯d already been giving him the basics on their travels, but now she went in depth, and he couldn¡¯t help thinking she¡¯d held most of this stuff back on their journey in order to keep his morale high.


    That first day set the tone. He went to sleep close to midnight, and was expecting to be woken up early the next day. Instead, they insisted he get a full eight hours rest. That wouldn¡¯t always be possible in the field, they told him, but while training it was best to ensure his body recovered every night as best it could.


    Every day after that, they trained at every waking moment. Valerie taught him (and beat him up with) the sword. Florence taught him (and beat him up with) the glaive. They went through dozens of other weapons, too. Though they insisted their skills with other disciplines were rudimentary, they seemed incredible to him. They built up his current magics, rather than overwhelming him with more. His unique blessing to be able to follow multiple disciplines of magic was useful, but for now his mentors agreed it was better to grow in depth rather than breadth.


    In a matter of days, he felt like he was improving in leaps and bounds. After a week, he wasn¡¯t completely helpless in a fight against either of the skycloaks, though they were still handily beating him, and he was starting to believe he¡¯d be able to bumble his way through a conversation with a local without drawing suspicion to himself or looking like an uneducated moron.


    His magic advanced rapidly, too. Especially floramancy. It wasn¡¯t long before he managed to change his whole arm into a plant, and customise it. Taking the traits of multiple different plants and combining them to suit his needs was a difficult skill to master, but just taking the first steps gave him a feeling of triumph that very little else could match.


    It wasn¡¯t just in training that Florence¡¯s assistance was vital. She knew the people stationed at the Moontower far better than Valerie, who was somewhat famous in a way that perhaps wasn¡¯t exactly positive, and she was able to work up a plan to subtly probe who might be trustworthy with the secret of his identity. Whenever Valerie was tutoring him in the lore of demons and whatnot, Florence would head out to investigate the current state of affairs. She never outright told anyone about him, but she was rapidly gathering a list of names she thought could potentially be trusted.


    Eventually, an idea occurred to him, and he tasked Florence with tracking down Wick. It took her a few days, but eventually the giant of a man strolled into their training room just as Lucas was getting his legs swept out from under him by Valerie, sending him crashing to the floor. Lucas had the wind knocked out of him, so it took a little while for him to form a greeting.


    ¡°Hey, Wick,¡± he wheezed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry it took so long to check in on you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve nothing to apologise for,¡± Wick said, eyeing Valerie for a moment, then Florence, before turning back to him. ¡°Everyone from Taunton is settled in. Aly has officially registered herself as the guardian of the farmer¡¯s two children.¡±


    Lucas had almost forgotten about them. Or, perhaps, deliberately put them out of his mind lest the unfairness of it all get to him. He smiled shakily. ¡°That¡¯s great to hear. Is she staying in the city, then? She didn¡¯t seem the type.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s uncertain for now,¡± Wick said. He¡¯d moved to stand by the doorway of their training room, while Florence watched him from the other side. ¡°Aly is someone used to living in the wild, but it seems she recognises that isn¡¯t a life she should drag the two little ones into. I¡¯m sure it will be an adjustment for her.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas said with a sigh as pushed himself to his feet. Valerie waited nearby, and he held up a hand for her to give him a moment. ¡°She¡¯s a Raelar, right? Some kind of hunter nomad culture?¡±


    ¡°They weren¡¯t all nomadic. I wouldn¡¯t take the way she lived as representative of their entire culture,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Sadly, they have been greatly diminished by the Blight. From what I understand, many of them felt compelled to take back the lands that had been stolen from them, and they inevitably failed.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s awful,¡± Lucas said, frowning. ¡°I remember she was alone out there, and Elwyn said something about her being a princess?¡±


    ¡°I haven¡¯t been able to get much about her life out of her,¡± Wick said, sadness written over his face. ¡°She¡¯s very focused on the two children. I believe she may be distracting herself from her distress.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not uncommon, in my experience,¡± Florence said.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°It''s unhealthy,¡± Wick said. ¡°But if she isn¡¯t prepared to face her emotions yet, maybe it¡¯s best not to force it.¡±


    A solemn silence fell over the room at that.


    Wick ended up sticking around for most of the rest of the day, giving Lucas a new sparring partner. Or, perhaps more accurately, giving another person to beat him up. Wick¡¯s defence was impenetrable, as far as Lucas was concerned, and his strength was absolute monstrous when he went on the offence. Not as strong as the two skycloaks, and certainly not as fast, but a different kind of challenge.


    When they were done, Lucas and Wick ended up sat at the side of the room, leaning against the wall and sharing a skin of icy cold water with a hint of something tangy in it¡ªapparently, it was the local equivalent of an energy drink. Across from them, Valerie and Florence had huddled together to speak in hushed voices, debating over a piece of parchment Florence had fetched a few minutes ago.


    ¡°I informed Jyn Sakhelyan¡¯s family about his death,¡± Wick said abruptly.


    Lucas almost choked on the water he¡¯d been drinking.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t tell them about you, Lord Lucas,¡± Wick hastened to add, stiffening under Valerie¡¯s sudden attention. ¡°I merely gave them a vague summary of what happened to him. Why a skycloak felt the need to lure him out there and dispose of him. It was not a pleasant conversation.¡±


    Lucas took that in for a moment. ¡°Yeah, I can imagine.¡± He grimaced. ¡°Were they, uh, sympathetic to his cause?¡±


    ¡°They didn¡¯t appear to know about it. However, this kind of situation is exactly what groups like Jyn¡¯s keep an eye out for, in my estimation. If they weren¡¯t on board with anti-Order schools of thought before, they¡¯ll be ripe for being convinced now.¡±


    ¡°Sounds about right,¡± Lucas said. ¡°They¡¯ll be angry, devastated. If someone comes along and whispers in their ear, manipulates them to point that anger in a certain direction¡­¡±


    ¡°None of Jyn Sakhelyan¡¯s family pose any threat,¡± Valerie said. Her and Florence¡¯s conversation had come to an abrupt end as both of them picked up on Wick¡¯s words.


    Wick shrugged his massive shoulders. He¡¯d dispelled his bulky armour, leaving him in a black gambeson and rough trousers that looked like bark. ¡°It¡¯s a shame to lose anyone to that kind of group. Even if all they can do is pass on word of things they see, they¡¯re still a thorn in our side, no?¡±


    ¡°Our?¡± Florence repeated, one eyebrow raised.


    ¡°I swore to protect Lord Lucas,¡± Wick said simply. ¡°If he wishes for my presence in his party, I shall be there.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, Wick,¡± Lucas said with a smile.


    ¡°Think nothing of it,¡± Wick said, giving a brief, brittle smile of his own before wiping it away as quickly as it¡¯d come. ¡°I also visited the residence of Rena Luos. She had no living kin, and thus no one to pass her belongings on to.¡± He frowned. ¡°She had a lot of dogs, though. I¡¯ve been looking after them, as best I can.¡±


    ¡°How many dogs?¡±


    ¡°A dozen or so.¡±


    ¡°That sounds expensive¡­¡±


    ¡°Sparing a bit of coin for her beloved companions is the least I can do to make up for failing her so completely.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t¡ª¡±


    Wick held up a hand, cutting him off. His eyes strayed to Valerie and seemed to darken, before he took a deep breath and turning back to Lucas. ¡°For the sake of maintaining the peace, let us not talk of such things, my friend.¡±


    Lucas nodded slowly. ¡°Just let me know if I can help you out with the dogs at all. Regardless of what went down or who¡¯s to blame, I¡¯d feel like shit if I let a bunch of puppies go hungry when I¡¯ve got the power to do something about it.¡±


    ¡°Puppies,¡± Wick said with a snort. ¡°Far from it. You should come meet them some time. From what her neighbour told me, the dogs are some kind of breed that was unique to the region around Duskpoole. They¡¯re rather large.¡±


    Lucas promised to do so, and Wick left soon after, leaving them to the evening lecture part of Lucas¡¯ training.


    Wick ended up joining them on a daily basis after that, becoming part of Lucas¡¯ training and adding an extra voice to his education. It turned out that, while Florence and Valerie were very well-informed on the intricacies of their society on a theoretical level, Wick had plenty to offer in a more practical sense. There were nuances to life that the members of a quasi-religious warrior sect could never be privy to, and Wick ended up filling in a lot of gaps.


    One could debate whether knowing things like how to recognise a vendor who was more likely to bargain at a market and how to get a free room at a guild would be all that useful to Lucas in his current situation, but he appreciated the tips all the same.


    The rhythm of his days settled. The schedule was somewhat rigid, but he found he appreciated that. Removing as many decisions as possible from his life took a lot of weight off his shoulders, allowing him to focus entirely on the lessons his comrades were working so hard to drill into him. His improvement was rapid, and it only accelerated as the days went by. He still had a long way to go, but it still frightened him a little, just how quickly he picked things up and improved.


    In what felt like no time, he was jogging up to the 224th floor where he and Valerie still stayed without having to stop once. Then, not long after, he felt only a little winded by the time it was done. Eventually, a day came when he reached the top before he even realised it, and almost ran right past the door, Valerie having to call him back; he¡¯d run the entire 200+ floors without breaking a sweat.


    It felt almost wrong to end the day without the familiar ache of fatigue, and he forced himself to keep going all the way up to Claire¡¯s office. That gave him the exhaustion he was looking for, and he trudged down to his bed with an equal mixture of satisfaction and trepidation in his heart.


    For all he wanted to make himself strong as fast as possible, now that it seemed more within reach, he found himself experiencing something akin to stage fright. His time at the Moontower hadn¡¯t exactly been comfortable, per se, but it felt like an interlude. A respite. Once he was capable enough in Valerie and Florence¡¯s estimation to run missions, he was going to be out there again, fighting, facing the grim reality of being the Chosen Hero who was supposed to bring hope and salvation to a world standing on the brink of destruction.


    It was a daunting prospect. He dreamed that night of an army of demons rushing towards his position on an open field, and he had no choice but to face them all alone. As far as nightmares went, it wasn¡¯t the most terrifying or disturbing his subconscious had dredged up, but he woke up in a cold sweat all the same, heart beating like a jackhammer. Trying to get back to sleep ended up being a futile endeavour. Though it was still pitch black outside, he pulled on some clothes¡ªalways the blue shirt and trousers the Order provided their people, which made him feel like a nurse¡ªand trudged out into the main room of Valerie¡¯s spartan quarters. As he eyed the near-empty space, it occurred to him that he¡¯d never got around to decorating his temporary room.


    He was unsurprised to find Valerie at her desk, chin propped up by laced fingers. Dim light from the crystals in the floor threw shadows over her face, but her icy eyes were sharp as steel in that darkness. She didn¡¯t acknowledge him until he was right next to her, placing his hand on her shoulder, and even then she spared him only a glance. Her mana wasn¡¯t as bad as he¡¯d seen it, but it was bad enough to tell she¡¯d been in a dark mood.


    ¡°Penny for your thoughts?¡± he muttered, watching her.


    ¡°It¡¯s my birthday today,¡± she said simply.


    ¡°I see.¡± Lucas didn¡¯t know what to make of that. It wasn¡¯t uncommon for people to resent their birthdays, he supposed. There could be any number of reasons for it.


    In that consideration, though, he realised he didn¡¯t know much about Valerie at all. He¡¯d asked little questions here and there on their travels from Pentaburgh, but she¡¯d been rather tightlipped. Here, he was sure she¡¯d be more willing¡ªwell, willing was the wrong word. The point was, she¡¯d explain anything he asked, he was pretty sure. He was under the impression that she didn¡¯t want to be a hypocrite, and she pretty much expected members of the Order to follow the commands of the Great Heroes without question.


    He was also very much under the impression she didn¡¯t want to talk about herself, so he left it be.


    He pulled up a chair and sat next to her, pushing lunar mana into her channels and forcing away those little dark points of corruption, wondering where they actually came from. He said nothing.


    They sat together like that as the darkness started to burn away, the sun rising from the east. It was nice that that was the same here. For some reason, he thought it would have really bothered him if something so fundamental about life had been different. The place felt less alien.


    Eventually, all the dark spots in Valerie¡¯s mana were gone, and she let out a long breath. She hadn¡¯t moved a muscle since the moment he¡¯d entered the room. Hadn¡¯t even twitched.


    ¡°I¡¯m twenty-five, if you were wondering,¡± Valerie said. Her voice was uncharacteristically quiet, subdued. It wasn¡¯t that she was usually loud, but he¡¯d become so used to her even tone that any deviation from that norm tended to catch him off guard. She hadn¡¯t strayed in all the time they¡¯d been in Dawnguard.


    ¡°Eleven years on the Front Lines, then,¡± Lucas said, then winced. He didn¡¯t know why that was the first thing that came to mind, nor why he¡¯d blurted it out like a moron.


    ¡°And many years of hell before that,¡± Valerie said, still quiet.


    Silence reigned for a long moment. Lucas didn¡¯t know what to say, and in the end he said nothing at all, which he wasn¡¯t sure was any better.


    ¡°My ninth birthday was the last time I remember being happy,¡± she told him. ¡°My mother baked sweet buns for me. Friends came over and helped me eat them. There were presents. My father got me a little bow that let me tie my hair up. I can¡¯t picture any of their faces. Not from that day.¡± She paused, then spoke even quieter, ¡°Did I really have a sister, or is that the demon tormenting me?¡±


    Again, Lucas didn¡¯t know what to say. This was so far outside his wheelhouse.


    But he was the Great Star. The power of thousands of souls guided his skills, growth, instincts, and so much more, and some part of him, when he searched for it, knew that she didn¡¯t want to hear pity or platitudes or hollow encouragements.


    ¡°Did you ever get the demon that did this to you?¡±


    Valerie shook her head. Her chin still rested on her laced fingers, and it made for a jerky, awkward movement, so unlike her.


    ¡°We¡¯ll find it, some day. Think of it as a commission, if you like. Eventually, when I¡¯m able to kick around demons like rats, I¡¯ll pin the one that did this to you by the tail, and you¡¯ll deal the final blow.¡±


    Valerie nodded. Neither of them spoke until the sun had fully risen, and they got back to work.

 57: Desolate (1)

    Somewhere around a month of hard training flashed by. Little by little, Lucas felt like he was coming somewhat up to speed; he could last a decent amount of time against Valerie when she was genuinely trying, though he was completely on the defensive, relying on Wick¡¯s lessons. That was, admittedly, with weapons only, not going all out. But, still progress.


    The story was the same for pretty much every type of combat they were drilling him in. The contrast between the amateur who¡¯d first woken up in the Summoning Hall and the intermediate fighter he was growing into was stark.


    His magic, floramancy especially, was coming along nicely, and he felt he had a pretty decent grasp of the disciplines he¡¯d picked up thus far, though he hadn¡¯t found cause to pull off anything truly impressive yet.


    He¡¯d mapped out the pathways in his legs and most of his torso, with only his head and heart still to go. Opening up the channels around his vital organs was a nerve-wracking experience. There were just so many channels. He¡¯d thought he was used to the dull ache of opening them up and keeping mana flowing through them until they¡¯d reached full size, but it turned out organs were a different matter entirely.


    Dealing with his head and heart were going to take the entirety of his focus, rather than letting them open up in the background while doing other things, like had been the case for his arms, legs, and much of his torso.


    An enormous amount of information somehow found space in his brain, too. His memory had never been his best asset, and he found it a little freaky how well he remembered things after only being told once. Still, he couldn¡¯t deny it was a boon. He could now name all the continents, countries, states/counties/provinces/whatever, capital cities, and so on around the world, and a bunch of other geography stuff. History wasn¡¯t particularly comprehensive, but he generally knew what he needed to.


    That was kind of the theme for his education. A speedrun through what he needed to know in every subject. He wasn¡¯t at a level where he would¡¯ve been able to get one of the Order¡¯s certificates, but Valerie and Florence were happy enough with his advancement.


    There were parts of his education that didn¡¯t sit right. Learning about beasts and demons was harrowing, but the need to prepare for them was undeniable. Lessons on how to fight other humans, however, in a practical ¡®how can I kill this type of enemy¡¯ sense rather than just sparring to get his combat capabilities trained up were deeply uncomfortable.


    Again, he recognised the necessity. The grim reality was there were people out there hostile towards him, and his comrades, while very competent, were not omnipotent. He had to be able to not only defend himself, but put down threats.


    And so there were lessons where he learned about various forms of magic and how to fight their users. He learned the strengths and weaknesses of the Five Classes. Trying to be practical about it, detaching himself and telling himself it was necessary, didn¡¯t seem to allay his discomfort when Valerie was lecturing him on things like aiming for the eyes on lumomancers because their techniques relied heavily on eyesight.


    ¡°What weaknesses do floramancers have?¡± Lucas had asked.


    Valerie had given him a look. ¡°You already know that.¡±


    ¡°Fire,¡± Florence had added.


    All this learning and improvement slowly started to come together, and he started to see the outline of the impressive figure he could one day become. He was still undoubtedly in the early stages, and no one skill he possessed was anything to write home about yet, since there was just so much he needed to cram in. But there was a moment, lying awake in bed after a hard day¡¯s work in which he¡¯d just lasted a full minute against Florence, that he started to believe.


    Every night, before bed, he¡¯d look at the compass he¡¯d pilfered from Claire¡¯s chambers. The red pointer barely moved, but still he found himself staring out the window, following the compass¡¯ directions and imagining he could see across all that distance to wherever Jamie was. Before long, he¡¯d be out there, starting their search. He didn¡¯t know long it¡¯d take, or what they¡¯d go through on the way, but he was confident he would reunite with his friend. Just a bit longer, and he¡¯d be ready.


    The situation changed the very next day.


    He woke like usual, feeling well-rested, yesterday¡¯s exertions gone like they were never there. Valerie had been up long before him, and she¡¯d fetched a bowl of the salty gruel stuff for him; she rarely ate at the same time as him, for some reason. With breakfast finished, they set off down towards their basement room. Today¡¯s focus was going to be on utilising pyromancy in combat, getting him to work closer together with Jamie the monstercat.


    Lucas¡¯ soulbonded companion had been oddly subdued ever since arriving here, spending the vast majority of the day inert, as if asleep. He hadn¡¯t emerged from Lucas¡¯ soul at all, which took him by surprise a bit. It was easy to forget Jamie was even there. In fact, the monstercat seemed to have decided he was nocturnal now, only seeming to be fully awake at night, while Lucas was asleep. Multiple times, he¡¯d woken to find the creature just¡­ there. Aware. Not doing anything. Not even particularly focused on anything in particular. But undoubtedly in a state of readiness.


    Aside from that, the only time he stirred during the day was when Lucas wanted access to pyromancy, and even then he wasn¡¯t particularly attentive.


    That was why it put him on edge when Jamie snapped to attention as they were halfway down the grand staircase. He immediately informed Valerie about it.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what I should make of that,¡± Valerie said. ¡°You know more about that creature than I do, after all.¡±


    Lucas grimaced, absently reaching up to rub against his heart, as if he could glean some deeper insight into Jamie¡¯s emotions. There was nothing out of the usual emanating from the creature. ¡°It¡¯s just¡­ I¡¯d kind of been taking his inactivity as a sign that things are generally safe here, because, I guess, if he sees no reason to be on alert, there¡¯s no immediate danger.¡±


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°And him waking up and taking notice of his surroundings has you worried there is now danger,¡± Valeire surmised. She looked back at him. ¡°Is there anything else apart from him waking up at an unusual time?¡±


    ¡°No. I¡¯m not getting anything out of him at all, really. He¡¯s just awake.¡± Lucas frowned, delving deeper into their connection, such as he was able to. There wasn¡¯t really a connection between them, at this point. They were just one soul, intertwined. There¡¯d been times during their journey from Pentaburgh that he¡¯d been able to understand exactly what Jamie¡¯s attention was on, but he hadn¡¯t felt that in a while. To have Jamie awake and aware but focused on nothing in particular like this was always eerrie. Like some instinct in the creature had awoken it, but even it didn¡¯t know what or why. ¡°Did Florence mention anything going on today?¡±


    Florence had been keeping an ear to the ground, staying on top of the whatever rumours were going around. Mostly, it had been to make sure they were up-to-date on the politics of the city. Apparently, things were a bit out of alignment with Claire having been gone for quite some time. Her presence typically kept a lot of disparate elements in line. There wasn¡¯t word of anything boiling over, especially not towards the Order itself, but Lucas was starting to wonder.


    ¡°Nothing,¡± Valerie said, frowning as she turned ahead once more. Her pace had notably slowed¡ªthey tended not to linger long in areas that weren¡¯t their training rooms, the cafeteria, or Valerie¡¯s quarters. Valerie¡¯s reputation preceded her. There was a lot of staring, and he¡¯d caught more than a few disbelieving whispers at seeing her here rather than the Front Lines. He also couldn¡¯t help noticing that literally no one apart from Florence had approached her, let alone said a word to her. ¡°Actually, no. There is something, but not what you were implying. The Front Lines had to rapidly retreat, and the force that went to assist in Harwyck lingered after the evacuation in order to assist. They were expected back any time this week. They could be returning today. May already be here, even.¡±


    ¡°So there¡¯s going to be a lot more skycloaks here, all of a sudden?¡±


    Valerie nodded, picking up her pace once more. Soon, they were practically jogging. ¡°The situation was crucial enough that a great percentage of the Order¡¯s standing forces were deployed. Honestly, I¡¯m surprised it took them this long to return.¡± She paused. ¡°And I¡¯m somewhat surprised that nothing has happened here in the meantime. One would have thought it would be the perfect opportunity for one of these radical groups to try something ridiculous.¡±


    ¡°Can you think of any reason the returning skycloaks might have spooked my little passenger?¡±


    ¡°Yes. There are too many possibilities to count, some more likely than others. It¡¯s difficult to say without delving deeper into the capabilities of your soulbonded companion.¡±


    Valerie hadn¡¯t wanted to mess around with Jamie unless Claire was here to oversee things. She¡¯d been relieved about the creature¡¯s inactivity. ¡°What would you say is your best guess?¡±


    ¡°The obvious,¡± Valerie replied. ¡°The returning forces bring trouble with them of some kind.¡±


    It was a frustratingly vague answer. It also matched what Lucas was now thinking.


    They ended up almost running down the stairs, making it to the atrium in record time. As soon as they reached the area where the walls fell away and the grand staircase spiralled through the centre of the great room, it became immediately obvious that their suspicions were correct. The place was always busy, but today there had to be thousands of people packed together, spread out in every direction and overflowing beyond the five massive arched entances. It was like a crowd at a concert, all blending together into one mass. The vast majority of them wore skycloaks, and many of their cloaks were darkened, like Valerie¡¯s had been when hers was drained. They all faced the staircase.


    Despite having so many people packed into one place, it was eerily quiet. The only sound was the echoing voice of one man, too distorted to make out his words from so high up. Lucas peered over the edge of the staircase¡¯s rail, and from there could make out a single man in the middle of the open stairs, making him visible from every direction. He appeared to be floating a few metres in the air, and his gauntleted hand was placed against his neck. It was hard to discern too many features from here, beyond the fact the man was dark-skinned and bald. His cloak was cobalt blue.


    Lucas and Valerie edged further down the staircase, not wanting to bring any attention to themselves. It seemed like the whole Order was down there, and he wondered how word of this hadn¡¯t found its way to Valerie. He¡¯d noted that no one had talked to her on their own volition in all his time here, but did it really extend this far?


    The man¡¯s words became clearer only when he appeared to be reaching the end of whatever speech he was given.


    ¡°¡ªmy friends and comrades, we must make this decision carefully and with due consideration, but it must be done swiftly. Delay too long, and the cause will be lost. Our leader is not here, but decisive action must be taken all the same. I propose that we cast a vote in seven days time. That will give us long enough to send messengers to the Front Lines and further afield to gather the opinions of as many of our brothers and sisters as possible without tarrying too long. Thank you for your time.¡±


    As the man finished speaking, a low din erupted in the room. Countless hushed voices conferred with one another, but the man who¡¯d been speaking didn¡¯t join, instead floating upwards, heading up the staircase. He only rose a few levels, but he appeared to remain there. Valerie rushed down, and Lucas was forced to hurry to catch up with her.


    They came across the speaker a dozen or so levels up from the ground floor. He was standing with his hands behind his back, walking slowly up the stairs, his gaze pointed out across the sea of skycloaks, but seeming not to see anything. It was clear he was deep in thought, because he didn¡¯t notice Valerie¡¯s approach until she was right next to him, her hand on his shoulder.


    His eyes were gold as molten lava, Lucas noted. They were the only remarkable thing about him. He sported a salt-and-pepper beard that clearly hadn¡¯t been groomed in quite some time, and his lips were oddly pale and thin, in contrast to his dark skin. Small scars dotted the bridge of his nose like freckles. He was tall, but not Wick tall. Only a couple of inches over Lucas¡¯ six-ish feet. But the way he carried himself made him seem larger.


    This was a leader, Lucas was sure. Not someone who went out on Claire¡¯s missions, but a guy who ran things in this tower. He would¡¯ve been able to tell even if the man hadn¡¯t had a room of thousands of skycloaks listening quietly to him mere moments ago.


    ¡°Master Haddem. What¡¯s going on here?¡± Valerie asked, voice strained. Lucas hadn¡¯t heard that title before, and it only further confirmed this man¡¯s status.


    ¡°Captain Vayon,¡± the man¡ªnow revealed as Haddem¡ªsaid, blinking. ¡°I sought you out on the Front Lines, but you were not there. If you have been here all this time, then you must not have heard the news, though I¡¯m sure you will have already guessed what has happened.¡± He sighed, shook his head. ¡°With the fall of Harwyck, the Blight has spread. It plunged south far faster than we could have predicted, and it moved further than even our most pessimistic estimates.¡± He paused. The reluctance in his voice was clear. ¡°Pentaburgh now rests within the Blight. The Order of Five stands at a crossroads.¡±


    Valerie sucked in a sharp breath. ¡°We are debating whether to abandon the city?¡±


    ¡°We are debating whether to abandon any hope of Lucas Brown arriving,¡± Haddem said, and he sounded like he was agreeing with her.

 58: Desolate (2)

    Florence paced back and forth in the centre of the room. Her hands were clenched behind her back, and there was a deep frown on her face. She occasionally stopped and opened her mouth as if to speak, only to shake her head and continue her pacing.


    Valerie, on the other hand, was motionless, leaning against the far wall. Her arms were crossed, and her head was bowed. The only part of her moving was her eyes, which were panning side to side like she was reading something invisible.


    Lucas found himself with little else to do but observe his two comrades, sat against the opposite wall from Valerie. The new development up in the atrium had sent them both into a state of indecision that seemed so uncharacteristic of them. After Master Haddem¡¯s revelation, Valerie had immediately pulled Lucas away, heading down the stairs. Florence had joined them at the ground floor and followed them on their way down without exchanging a single word.


    He wasn¡¯t sure how long it had been since they¡¯d arrived here. Maybe an hour? There was no easy way to tell. Regardless, they¡¯d done nothing but lose themselves in their own thoughts in that time. Even Lucas had run through a bunch of mental scenarios, trying to guess at the implications of what had occurred.


    But he was sick of that, at this point. ¡°What are we going to do?¡± he asked.


    Florence stopped her pacing. Valerie looked up. Neither of them replied.


    ¡°Personally, I think the obvious route is for both of you to vote in favour of abandoning all hope of my arrival,¡± he said with a wry smile. ¡°Feel like that would remove a lot of suspicion.¡±


    Valerie shook her head slowly. ¡°Questions would be asked if I were to abandon my stance on that matter.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like they¡¯d know your vote, right? I¡¯m assuming it¡¯ll be an anonymous ballot thing.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be expected to campaign heavily in favour of taking back Pentaburgh.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s well known that Valerie Vayon is one of those who hasn¡¯t given up hope in Lucas Brown,¡± Florence said. ¡°The story of a veteran front liner seeing all the horrors of the Blight and still believing in our eventual salvation seems to resonate with a lot of people, even those who don¡¯t believe. I don¡¯t know if it would have a huge impact if she was seen to give up on that, but this kind of thing is hard to predict.¡±


    Valerie nodded.


    ¡°Are there that many cynical bastards?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think calling it cynicism is necessarily fair,¡± Florence said. ¡°You have to possess a very strong will to stay optimistic after the events of the last century.¡±


    Lucas sighed. ¡°Okay. So we think Valerie will have to be seen trying to convince people to take back Pentaburgh if she doesn¡¯t want to draw suspicion to herself or make a bunch of people decide everything is beyond hope.¡± He paused, eyeing his two comrades. ¡°But surely it¡¯s better for the order to choose to give up the city itself, right?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s hard to say,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Either way, it¡¯s possible we might see a splinter in the Order¡¯s forces. There are those who won¡¯t accept giving up, and those who will refuse to participate in what they see as a futile mission. They will do what they will, regardless of the vote, and they¡¯ll try to convince others to do the same.¡±


    ¡°And I think we should be hatching a plan to convince people that taking back Pentaburgh is unnecessary.¡± Lucas shrugged. ¡°Just, y¡¯know, in a way that they don¡¯t lose all bloody hope or whatever. We know that I¡¯m right here, and trying to take back Pentaburgh on my behalf would be pointless. It¡¯s not like there¡¯s anything else of note there. Trust me, I explored a lot.¡±


    ¡°There is the matter of the Summoning Array itself,¡± Florence pointed out.


    ¡°We have a copy of it,¡± Lucas said, nodding to Valerie. ¡°And it¡¯s not like the array is needed any more, right? All it¡¯s good for now is studying.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure I like the idea of demons having access to it,¡± Florence muttered.


    That gave Lucas pause. ¡°Is that a thing? Do you think demons will be able to learn from the array?¡±


    ¡°They don¡¯t wield magic like that.¡± Valerie gave Florence a sour look, then pushed herself up from the wall and strode across the room, before lowering herself to sit across from Lucas, a metre or so away. ¡°Though I suspect the plant network there will protect the city for some time anyway. I agree that there¡¯s no use in trying to retake the city.¡±


    ¡°How many people know about the plant network?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°Everyone knows the story of Pentaburgh¡¯s fall.¡± Valerie¡¯s expression darkened slightly. ¡°As for how many people know it¡¯s there to protect the city, I¡¯m going to assume none at all, apart from ourselves. Though I admit I never truly believed the entire discipline of floramancy was cursed, even I was under the impression that the plants of Pentaburgh were the actions of a hostile entity of some sort.¡±


    ¡°Sometimes, I¡¯m not sure I believe you that it isn¡¯t. The story of Pentaburgh is an old one, and you¡¯ll have a hard time convincing anyone it¡¯s a lie.¡± Florence followed Valerie¡¯s lead, coming to sit by them, forming a little triangle. ¡°There¡¯s also the argument that it¡¯s best to push the Blight as far away from Dawnguard as possible. We¡¯re already seeing animals fleeing further south. Any further, and we won¡¯t be able to keep livestock in the city without them going mad. I assume we agree that abandoning Dawnguard is out of the question?¡±


    ¡°Pushing the Blight back would be an incredibly costly endeavour for little actual gain,¡± Valerie said. ¡°And it would take a demon offensive the likes of which this war of a hundred years has rarely seen to bring the Blight closer to Dawnguard. There¡¯s simply too many people here. We don¡¯t have to be worried about losing Dawnguard at this time.¡±


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    ¡°I¡¯ll defer to your expertise,¡± Florence conceded. She looked at Lucas. ¡°We should be clear: making the decision to give up on your arrival would be a monumental change in the Order. One that I don¡¯t think even Lady Claire could undo upon her return. The political situation in the city is already fraught, and I suspect certain factions would take it as a sign to take action, though I don¡¯t know how that would play out, exactly.¡±


    Lucas grimaced. ¡°Honestly, I think that¡¯s a better scenario than sending who knows how many people to horrible deaths for a pointless cause. There¡¯s no need to hold the damned place for my arrival. I¡¯m right here.¡±


    ¡°We are not ready to reveal you to the masses,¡± Valerie said immediately.


    Florence nodded in agreement. ¡°At the very least, we¡¯d want Lady Claire here to protect you before we even considered that option.¡±


    ¡°I know,¡± Lucas said, frustration building. ¡°I wasn¡¯t suggesting that. I just meant it would be absolutely horrible of us to stand by and let the Order try and retake Pentaburgh when we know it doesn¡¯t need to be done.¡±


    A moment of silence passed, the three of them exchanging looks.


    Eventually, Florence spoke. ¡°You¡¯re not wrong, Lord Lucas. I agree that it would be best for the Order not to attempt to retake Pentaburgh. At the same time, allowing the scenario to be framed as abandoning hope of your arrival might not be the best course of action, either.¡±


    ¡°So we convince them the city¡¯s safe instead,¡± Lucas said, leaning forward. ¡°We tell them about the plant network. There¡¯ll be records that Valerie went on a mission north, right? And there¡¯ll be eyewitness testimony from people who saw her out there. The Taunton survivors, for example. We can say she was on a mission to Pentaburgh. Get Wick to vouch for what she¡¯s saying.¡±


    ¡°It would be difficult to convince people the city¡¯s safe from demons,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But it would still ultimately mean, from the perspective of those who don¡¯t know the truth, that Lucas Brown would eventually arrive in a city surrounded on all sides by the Blight.¡±


    Silence lapsed once more. Lucas found himself grinding his teeth in frustration. He knew they weren¡¯t shooting down his arguments to put him down, but it would be nice if they could be more constructive.


    Then, an idea occurred to him.


    The rest of their conversation took hours. It seemed Valerie and Florence were determined to pour over every little detail, trying to envision all the possible scenarios. Their ideal outcome was to prevent a large scale action to retake Pentaburgh without letting the Order widely give up on Lucas Brown, while also ensuring Lucas himself remained anonymous for the moment. It was inevitable that some unforeseen consequences would arise, and things would get complicated, but as long as those three conditions were met, everything else was largely irrelevant.


    In the end, they left the basement training room just after noon with the beginning of a plan in mind. Lucas was a bit disappointed that his magic practice was cancelled for the day, but the current situation took precedence. He wouldn¡¯t have been able to focus anyway.


    Jamie the monstercat was still in his strange state of general alertness, vigilant but without his attention directed at anything in particular. They¡¯d discussed this, too, but ultimately concluded they didn¡¯t know enough about Jamie to determine what the problem was. Lucas searched in himself for any hints, but the Gift apparently didn¡¯t know what to make of the cat either. If he wanted to figure the creature out, he was going to have to do it himself.


    He tried asking, directing a sort of mental question down the link: ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±


    But the monstercat gave no reply, still alert, still silent. He¡¯d give Lucas access to pyromancy at will, and the lag between command and reaction seemed quicker than it had been, thanks to the training he¡¯d been working on.


    There was no way of knowing what had disturbed the creature, it seemed. Lucas would just have to be vigilant, too.


    They made their way up from the depths of the Moontower to the ground floor. There were still a lot more members of the Order in the atrium than usual, though much of the crowd had dispersed. A constant stream of skycloaks were pouring up the stairs into the tower, many of them with their cloaks darkened.


    Florence took the lead, while Valerie guarded him from behind, as they made their way into the atrium itself, weaving a path through the crowd. This was the first time, Lucas realised, that he¡¯d left the confines of the pentagonal tower since arriving here over a month ago. It felt like no time at all. He¡¯d blinked, and here he was. The realisation came as a surprise; normally, he was the type of person to get all grouchy if he was cooped up in one place for any extended period. Had Valerie and Florence kept him so occupied that his mind hadn¡¯t been able to comprehend that he¡¯d been shut inside for over a month, or was the Great Star just helping him deal with that better? He couldn¡¯t decide. Maybe it was just that there was such a great distance between Valerie¡¯s quarters and the places they trained in that the fact it was all in the same building didn¡¯t register.


    It hit him surprisingly hard when they reached the far end of the atrium and stepped through one of the giant archways out into the world beyond. The countless towers of Dawnguard loomed over him, with the great Moontower lording above it all at his back. It cast a shadow that seemed unending.


    A constant, low din rumbled through the city, the sound of millions of people going about their day. In his head, he¡¯d always imagined a pungent stench lingered over medieval cities like a toxic mist, shit and sweat and dirt mingling to form a nose-searing cocktail. But here he could smell only grass and baked bread. He wondered if that was artificial, somehow, then dismissed it as unimportant. The key point was he could draw in a lung full of fresh air without gagging, and it tasted wonderful.


    Outside the atrium, a wall surrounded the Order¡¯s territory in the city. Yet another pentagon. It seemed everything the Order built adhered to that theme, whether it be inns or barracks or storehouses or the Moontower itself. He got the impression it was a tradition that had gone somewhat out of fashion; he¡¯d seen plenty of regular, four-sided buildings out there in the city proper.


    They made their way across the courtyard, sticking together as a trio. He felt eyes on them, caught snippets of whispers, and tried not to hunch his shoulders. He told himself the attention was for Valerie, who was apparently a recognisable figure and someone people would be specifically looking to given all that was going on. They shouldn¡¯t have any reason to suspect him. Still, he worried. It was difficult not to after having spent the majority of his time in this world fretting about people discovering his identity.


    No one stopped them for a chat, and they made it to the enormous arch that led out to the south of the city. There was one archway on each of the five walls, each wide enough to fit a motorway through and at least six stories tall, and they showed no hint of any way of blocking them, which traditionally meant to show that the Order was always open to any visitors, or something. The organisation hadn¡¯t always been the quasi-military outfit controlled by a Great Hero it was today. In times gone by, it had been practically a religious sect.


    There, Valerie finally emerged from Lucas¡¯ shadow and approached the guard station that squatted at one side of the arch. An unassuming door straight into the thick wall, somewhere within it contained the seldom-used magical mechanism that would seal the arch and erect a protective barrier that spread from the very top of the Moontower like a giant carousel.


    Two guards stood on either side of the door, and undoubtedly more were inside. They eyed Valerie warily as she approached, clearly recognising her.


    ¡°The Order is in danger,¡± she told them. ¡°We need to activate the barrier.¡±

 59: Desolate (3)

    Both of the skycloak guards reared back in alarm, like Valerie had just swept her cloak aside and revealed she¡¯d been hiding a tiger beneath it. The man on the left of the door had an unfortunate combination of curly blonde hair and big eyes that made him look comically childish as he stared at Valerie, gaping like a fish gasping for air. On the opposite side was a tanned woman with soulful dark eyes blown impossibly wide in shock, and she was the first of the two to regain enough composure to ask:


    ¡°For what reason, Captain Vayon?¡± Her voice was deep for a woman, but the effect was rather undercut by the tremor that ran through it. She seemed to be determined to look anywhere but at Valerie, ostensibly searching for a threat.


    ¡°Enemies manoeuvre in the city,¡± Valerie said darkly, ¡°and they almost certainly intend to take action against the Order. We must bar entry to outsiders until the threat has been dealt with.¡±


    The man with the curly hair rushed into the guard room, hissing for someone¡¯s attention. Lucas decided to take that as a good sign, feeling optimistic. Valerie¡¯s declaration was being taken seriously rather than summarily dismissed, so they were already on track, rather than careening into one of the failure scenarios his companions had described.


    Their plan was, admittedly, an audacious one. An attempt to kill two birds with one stone.


    ¡°Enemies? Here?¡± The remaining guard said, sounding panicked.


    ¡°Human enemies, Arryl,¡± Florence clarified, drawing the woman¡¯s wide-eyed attention. Florence¡¯s tone was placating as she continued, ¡°Captain Vayon has been investigating rogue elements in Dawnguard who seek to depose Lady Claire¡¯s position and pursue their own agenda.¡±


    ¡°Is that why you¡¯ve been away from the front lines so long?¡± Arryl asked. The sight of Florence had seemed to calm her somewhat, her voice gaining confidence and her expression evening out. She couldn¡¯t quite meet Valerie¡¯s icy stare though.


    ¡°I remained here to handle a threat to Lady Claire and the Order at large, yes,¡± Valerie said. ¡°The present situation as posed by Master Haddem is not quite accurate. The Order needs to have all the information available to make a decision, but before that, we must secure our safety against outside threats.¡±


    The woman seemed to find her confidence at that. ¡°The Order is composed of the greatest warriors on Aerth! Even with Lady Claire absent, who could pose a threat to us?¡±


    ¡°One that greatly outnumbers us,¡± Valerie said.


    Arryl opened her mouth to reply, but she was interrupted by a newcomer appearing at the door and growling in a deep voice, ¡°What¡¯s this I hear about someone ordering the gates closed?¡±


    He was a short, pale man, and he was wearing only the Order¡¯s signature armour, his cloak evidently left behind in his haste. Scars crisscrossed all over his face, and one eye was closed. The remaining eye was a milky white, but it fixed on Valerie when he saw her. His lips pressed into a grim line.


    ¡°Captain Hull,¡± she greeted him just as the blond guardsman returned, cowering behind the newly arrived Captain¡¯s shoulder despite being a head taller. There were a dozen more lingering back there in the room, too, all stretching to get a look at what was happening.


    ¡°Captain Vayon,¡± he replied, eye narrowing. There was a tension in his jaw. ¡°I will ask again: what¡¯s this about closing the gates?¡±


    ¡°A threat to the Order is making moves in the city as we speak,¡± Valerie said. ¡°There are organisations who believe that Lady Claire is undeserving of her position, and the Order should be forced to withdraw its support for her. It is urgent that we close the Moontower to outsiders until the threat has been handled.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have the authority to make that kind of decision,¡± Captain Hull said, frowning.


    ¡°But you do, Captain,¡± Florence said.


    Captain Hull¡¯s frown deepened. ¡°You vouch for Vayon¡¯s words, Wynn?¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    The pale man sighed. His gaze turned to Lucas next. ¡°And what about you, boy? You appear to be an outsider, to my eye.¡±


    Lucas was taken off guard for a moment. He hadn¡¯t expected to be brought into this conversation at all, and he scrambled to get his brain into gear. ¡°I¡¯m in training, but I¡¯m confident the wards will let me through.¡± Whatever Claire had done to let him into her quarters, he was fairly sure the same principle would apply to the magical barrier that would enclose the Moontower. ¡°And I¡¯m here because I¡¯ve seen the threat for myself, Captain. One of them tried to kill me.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s my apprentice and assistant,¡± Valerie cut in smoothly. ¡°He has access to magic that helps me with my¡­ condition.¡±


    ¡°Something happened to whatever Lady Claire gave you?¡±


    ¡°It was destroyed. Ser James here has been an adequate replacement.¡±


    ¡°I see. And was its destruction anything to do with this current crisis you¡¯re describing to me?¡±


    ¡°Tangentially,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Regardless, I have strong enough suspicions Dawnguard is about to go through significant turmoil that I must insist on closing the gates to outsiders as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Hm.¡± There was a beat of silence as Hull flexed his jaw. ¡°When I heard your name thrown about, I assumed this would be part of some play to force the Order to throw everything at retaking Pentaburgh. Was I incorrect?¡±


    ¡°You were,¡± Valerie said. ¡°As I was telling your comrade, the Order doesn¡¯t have all the information on the matter. Retaking Pentaburgh may not be necessary.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s significant, coming from you,¡± Hull said.


    ¡°Lady Claire shared with me some theories of hers, and I recently went on a mission to confirm them.¡±


    Hull¡¯s one good eye narrowed. ¡°Explain, Captain.¡±


    ~~~


    Closing off the Moontower wasn¡¯t so simple as pushing a button at the order of one captain. There were five guard posts much like Hull¡¯s, and they all had to activate their own elaborate magical matrix. Lucas only got a glimpse of the arrays employed, and they made his head spin. They seemed to employ hundreds of branches of magic, requiring countless materials and incredible amounts of mana. In Valerie¡¯s words, it was designed to defend against almost anything. Nothing was impenetrable, but the Order¡¯s defences were meant to be the closest thing.


    Theoretically, anyway. The big problem with that declaration was that they¡¯d only ever been activated in drills and tests, to date. They¡¯d never truly been tested.


    Lucas hoped things would remain that way. He hoped their little ruse turned out to be a deception they¡¯d have to beg forgiveness for, rather than an inadvertently prophetic move. They were sure the Harwyck situation and Claire¡¯s absence would indeed lead to political strife of some description, but they weren¡¯t at all certain what form that would take. If it escalated enough for the Order to genuinely come under threat to the degree that the barrier was needed, everything had gone dreadfully wrong.


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    But it was a genuine possibility. They weren¡¯t being completely deceitful, at least. Still, Lucas felt a little bad as he watched the Wands of the Order rush around, frantically working to activate the barrier and close the Moontower to outsiders for the first time in living memory.


    It had to be done, he told himself. They hadn¡¯t had any perfect options before them; this path was just the most convenient of the bunch. The one where, hopefully, the least skycloak blood would be shed.


    A better part of an hour went by before the Wands were ready to activate the barrier, and that was more than enough time for word of what was happening to travel. People were gathering in the courtyard outside the atrium, watching from a distance. Tension built. The low din of conversation quietened until only the buzzing static of whispers remained. And when they fall started to feel it activating, silence fell.


    It was unmistakeable. Lucas was sure even someone who had zero ability to sense mana would have noticed it. There was an electric hum in the air. Cold washed over him like an invisible wave, only for a warm wave to follow it. They alternated for a time, until the temperature reached an equilibrium. His ears popped. Goosebumps pricked his flesh. A shiver ran down his spine and jolted all his limbs at once.


    Then came the light, like a second sun had erupted high in the sky. He looked up. It was coming from the top of the Moontower. It should have been far too bright to look at, enough to sear his eyes, but he stared straight at it without issue even as it somehow seemed to brighten. Except, no, he soon realised it wasn¡¯t brightening. It was spreading. Growing.


    Like a translucent curtain was being draped across the world, the magic of the barrier glided down from the very top of the tower and slowly, ponderously reached for the walls that surrounded the Order¡¯s territory. The walls themselves seemed to glow as if they were absorbing the barrier¡¯s power. In the distance, he could see that same translucent white light spreading over the archways.


    And then, just like that, it was done. The Moontower was closed to anyone but members of the Order. He didn¡¯t know what the barrier would do to anyone who attempted to intrude. Considering how many people walked through the area on a daily basis, he hoped it wasn¡¯t lethal.


    ¡°Step one done,¡± he murmured.


    Beside him, Valerie nodded.


    The Moontower and the rest of the Order¡¯s territory had been a hive of activity, but everything seemed to come to a halt as the barrier snapped into place. Skycloaks started to flood out of the atrium, filling the outer courtyards. Everywhere Lucas looked, people stood around, staring up in awe. All of them would have seen the barrier before. Never like this, though.


    Florence took the lead as their little trio made their way back to the atrium, heading for the grand staircase once more. As expected, the Masters of the Order were awaiting them.


    The Order adhered to a simple but odd structure. Simple, in that the ranks were fairly well-defined and delineated. Odd, in that the actual power wielded by the members of those ranks were far more varied.


    Only Lady Claire, at the very top, held absolute power over the Order of Five. Her word was absolute, unquestionable. If she wanted advice, she¡¯d ask for it. Otherwise, you shut the fuck up and did what she said.


    Below her were the Masters, and, even though they were nominally all leaders of the Order, their influence tended to vary. Each of the Masters were in control of different aspects of the Order. There was a Master of the Front Lines (a Shieldmaster with a brilliant head for strategy called Azym), a Master of Logistics (a female Star called Kyo), a Master of the Tower (Haddem, who they¡¯d met briefly earlier), and several dozen more, generally assigned based on what Claire didn¡¯t want to deal with herself.


    After that came Generals, who were only active on the field of battle, in charge of different sectors of the Front Lines, and Stewards who were tasked with overseeing a region, like Deryn had been back in Taunton. Both were leaders and their commands were expected to be followed, but the resources assigned to them varied. Deryn hadn¡¯t had any subordinates to command, for example.


    The masters were all able to assign adjuncts as they saw fit who could speak in their name, but Generals and Stewards didn¡¯t necessarily have to follow their orders unless it came from the mouth of a Master, since Adjuncts were equivalent to Captains, which sounded awfully messy.


    Sitting below Generals and Stewards, Captains, too, were a complicated rank. Valerie was a good example of that. Though captains were generally supposed to be leaders of small squads, Valerie had never actually been given a position of command. She¡¯d only ever been involved in missions as a co-leader.


    Then there were Rangers like Florence who were generally known to be the elite of the Order but hadn¡¯t been given the rank of captain yet, and finally, the lowest full members were known as Acolytes, if they were referred to by rank at all, and they didn¡¯t really have any actual power, save for their own personal strength. There were apprentices and students below that, but they didn¡¯t really count, seeing as they were still in training.


    So the hierarchy of the Order was simultaneously clear and unclear. It generally worked when Claire was around, since it was understood the Masters were just doing what she wanted them to, and if there were disputes between them then she could come down from on high and untangle the mess with but a few words.


    But when she¡¯d been gone for months, things weren¡¯t so simple. It wasn¡¯t that the masters were individually power hungry, according to Valerie; it was only inevitable that powerful people would have strong ideas about how things should be done, and even in an organisation dedicated to averting the extinction of the human race, petty rivalries would still pop up.


    Which made it difficult to know who could be trusted among them. Neither Valerie nor Florence knew any of the masters well enough to gauge how they¡¯d react to Lucas¡¯ appearance. As much as he despised the sneaking around, Lucas didn¡¯t want to risk sparking a civil war in the Order over him. Their plan was to take things slow, scout people out one at a time, and bring people in on the secret only once they were thoroughly vetted.


    Eleven masters were present in the Moontower at that moment, and every single one of them stood at the bottom of the Grand Staircase, arranged in a line. It was notable to Lucas how there was no insignia or mark of their rank. They wore the same white armour and blue cloak as everyone else. Apparently, only Lady Claire wore a different uniform to the Order¡¯s ranks. That felt rather symbolic.


    Master Haddem was the first to speak, ¡°What is the meaning of this, Captain Vayon?¡±


    Under the gaze of the masters, Lucas simultaneously frustrated and relieved that he couldn¡¯t involve himself in the coming confrontation. The Great Star bestowed upon him a translation spell that made all who heard him speak understand him in their native language, and it would¡¯ve given him away instantly when he was surrounded by such a diverse array of people.


    He had to trust in Valerie and Florence, here. Luckily, they¡¯d both proven themselves competent plenty already. He had faith.


    ¡°Many have questioned why I remain in the Moontower despite the current crises ongoing along the Front Lines,¡± Valerie said, projecting her voice. The atrium went quiet as all the skycloaks present shamelessly listened in. ¡°This is why. A threat seeks to strike at the Order directly, relying on Lady Claire¡¯s absence and the distraction of the ongoing situation.¡±


    ¡°This threat waited until the bulk of the force sent to Harwyck returned to act?¡± one of the Masters asked, a dark-skinned woman with short hair coloured gold.


    ¡°Nhiti, Master of Defence,¡± Florence whispered to him, and Lucas nodded. Master Nhiti was a prime example of someone whose remit could easily find itself clashing with other Masters¡¯, like the Master of Security.


    ¡°It did,¡± Valerie said. It stung a bit that so much of this strategy relied on misleading the members of the Order. There was a threat out there in the city that was hostile to the Order, and it was very likely they would be planning something, seeking to take advantage of the ongoing crisis. But they didn¡¯t actually know that for sure.


    That wasn¡¯t the only thing they were going to shamelessly lie about before the day was done, though.


    Valerie spent a while conversing with the masters, essentially repeating the arguments that had gone down at the five gates. The Masters questioned her much more in depth than her fellow captains had, and some of them seemed outwardly hostile about it. The Moontower¡¯s barrier would be visible throughout the city, and many claimed this action would spark off the very hostile actions Valerie was worried about.


    Rightfully so. That¡¯s what they¡¯d been hoping for when they enacted this plan.


    Eventually, it became clear Valerie really had done a lot of investigating, and actually had reason to believe there were significant hostile elements in the city the Order would have to deal with. That wasn¡¯t a lie, either. She¡¯d been working on weeding out these groups for quite a while. She even gave information Lucas hadn¡¯t heard before, about groups other than the Darkstar, though none of them had silly names like that, acting more informal about it.


    Eventually, they got to the heart of the matter. ¡°This comes at an inauspicious time,¡± Master Haddem said, frowning at Valerie. ¡°You know well that the Order stands at a crossroads, and I have to say I am very surprised to see what road you¡¯re advocating for, Captain Vayon. I would have thought you¡¯d be one of the strongest supporters of retaking the Lost City.¡±


    Valerie took a deep breath, and Lucas felt himself holding his.


    Now came the part where she started outright lying.


    ¡°I am not in support of retaking Pentaburgh,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Because I believe that Lady Claire will have the means to summon Lucas Brown upon her return.¡±

 60: Desolate (4)

    Silence reigned in the atrium, but it was swiftly deposed. Bedlam broke out. It seemed every member of the Order was suddenly determined to have their voice heard, and their shouts blended together into an incoherent cacophony. The crowd around them surged, trying to get closer to Valerie, to hear what she had to say.


    Even some of the Masters were shouting, several of them moving closer. In the chaos, there were only a few people maintaining their composure. Valerie was one of them, and she appeared to be locked in a staring contest with another: a tall, pale woman with a shaved head and an abnormally long neck was glaring at her with such naked contempt that it took Lucas aback. Her lips moved, and he somehow heard her over the thousands of other voices vying for dominance, despite the fact she seemed to be speaking at a volume that was barely conversational. She had a soft, sibilant voice, and even though he¡¯d never met her before, her words immediately informed him who she was:


    ¡°Are you so determined to bring this place to ruin, Demon-touched?¡±


    The atrium fell silent once more, like the entire room had sucked in a sharp breath. The air itself seemed to fall still.


    So this would be Master Iwuni Meyah then, Lucas thought, doing his best to show no outward hostility towards the woman. The master who advocated for ¡®destroying¡¯ Valerie when she was first brought to the Moontower.


    He hadn¡¯t heard much about the woman beyond that, but he felt he didn¡¯t need to. Florence had tried to explain that the Master of Security wasn¡¯t a bad person, she was simply forced to be cautious by her experiences and the position she held.


    Lucas understood that. He could even understand why a skycloak would argue to eliminate someone who¡¯d been infected by some kind of demonic taint, even if it was a child. Horrible as the idea was, it made sense. He would¡¯ve been against it, and he was glad the Order hadn¡¯t taken her advice, but he understood.


    However, bringing it back up after Valerie had served the Order faithfully for over a decade seemed spiteful in the extreme. What was her angle here, even?


    ¡°My goal always has been and always will be the destruction of the Demon Lord and all his Blighted forces on this planet, Master Meyah,¡± Valerie said coolly.


    ¡°And how do you imagine your current actions assist you in this goal of yours? As far as I can see, sending the most populous and defensible city known to humanity into a panic is rather counterproductive to that aim.¡±


    ¡°The city will not panic if we make announcements¡ª¡±


    ¡°Will the people listen? Or will they see the Order¡¯s forces return from Harwyck and erect the barrier less than a day later, and come to their own conclusions? And what will the rogue elements you¡¯ve described think of this? It¡¯ll only be a provocation to them!¡±


    That was, admittedly, the whole point. But it was hardly as if Valerie could say that.


    Valerie stared at the woman for a moment. ¡°As Master of Security, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re aware of many of the hostile groups out there in the city.¡±


    ¡°Of course I am,¡± Master Meyah snapped. ¡°And thus I know far better than you what threat they pose.¡±


    ¡°When Lady Claire returns to the Moontower,¡± Valerie said, raising her voice once more, ¡°she will have the means to summon Lucas Brown right here to the Order¡¯s place of power. That is what her mission into the Blighted Lands sees her pursuing. There are many groups in the city and beyond who wish to gain one of the Great Powers for themselves, and they would undoubtedly take rash action upon learning of his arrival. Before that occurs, I believe it is best to deal with these enemies before they can become a true problem, directly posing a threat to Lord Lucas himself.¡±


    ¡°You want the Order to hunt down its enemies in Dawnguard, in other words,¡± Master Meyah sneered.


    Valerie tilted her head. ¡°Why do you act as if that¡¯s something new to you? Is it not your job to see to the security of the Order? I know for a fact, as I was told by Lady Claire herself, that your department has carried out assassinations on enemies in the past.¡±


    ¡°My predecessors¡¯ methods are not my own.¡±


    ¡°Then the current situation is your doing,¡± Valerie said, with the first hint of emotion creeping into her voice. ¡°These dissident groups should never have been allowed to grow to pose any kind of threat.¡±


    ¡°Lady Claire did not consider them a threat at all!¡±


    ¡°Because she has far too many things to focus on, and thus can¡¯t devote the proper attention to a subject that she considered to be adequately handled by you!¡± Valerie took a step forward, jabbing an accusing finger in Meyah¡¯s direction. ¡°Remember that you are Master of Security. Not the Master of the Front Lines, not the Master of Defence, not the Master of Exorcism. Your job is to deal with human threats, and you have failed dismally.¡±


    Meyah¡¯s eyes narrowed, and she took a step forward to match Valerie¡¯s. ¡°You dare question my judgement, while your own mind is so clouded by a demon¡¯s influence you must have your emotions magically dampened to even function as a human?!¡±


    ¡°Enough!¡± Master Haddem barked, stepping between them. He glared Meyah down until she returned to the line of Masters, all of whom looked rather taken off guard by the confrontation they¡¯d just witnessed. Then he turned to Valerie. ¡°Captain Vayon,¡± he began, then his mouth hung open for a few seconds. He closed it, then grumbled something unintelligible under his breath before continuing aloud, ¡°You truly believe Lady Claire can summon Lucas Brown?¡±


    ¡°She will have him here upon her return, yes,¡± Valerie said with absolute confidence. To be fair, she¡¯d phrased it so she wasn¡¯t technically lying, but it was still a massive and deliberate deception anyway. ¡°Sending the Order to Pentaburgh would be an enormous waste of resources.¡±


    ¡°Why have you not brought this up before now?¡±


    ¡°Because I was ordered not to.¡±


    There was another moment of silence, Haddem staring at her wide-eyed.


    Another of the Masters, a man with a long silver beard that had been tied into several braids full of black beads, spoke up, ¡°You defy Lady Claire¡¯s orders for this, then?¡±


    ¡°There are circumstances where defying Lady Claire¡¯s orders are acceptable, Master Kym. She¡¯s said so herself. This is one such time,¡± Valerie said. ¡°She would not have appreciated my loyalty and obedience if I prioritised them over potentially hundreds of my brothers¡¯ and sisters¡¯ lives. You could say that keeping quiet on this matter would be defying another, more important order of hers: to think for myself and employ my better judgement in times of crisis.¡±


    ¡°Judgement?¡± Master Meyah hissed. ¡°How can you talk of judgement?¡±


    ¡°Enough, Meyah!¡± Master Haddem bellowed, sending the woman a glare. ¡°This hostility is beneath the both of you. We are all on the same side here.¡±


    Master Nhiti spoke next. ¡°Are you certain of your words, Captain Vayon?¡±


    ¡°Categorically,¡± Valerie said. She paused for a moment, turning her head from one side to the other, and Lucas could see she was meeting the gaze of multiple people in the crowd. She raised her voice again when she continued, ¡°I¡¯m sure my reputation precedes me. Many of you surely know that, even while on the Front Lines, I advocated strongly for my belief that Lucas Brown would one day appear, and the tides of the war would change. Ten years there did not crush my hope. Quite the opposite, it strengthened my conviction. I saw a world worse than any of the five hells, and I refused, despite the affliction Master Meyah has reminded you all of, to give in to despair. I had to have hope, because I wouldn¡¯t have been able to fight otherwise.¡±


    ¡°We know all this, Captain,¡± Master Haddem said softly. His voice still carried in the silence. The whole room seemed to be holding its breath.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°I say this to remind you all of how strongly I believe, and hope that reminder will emphasise how significant it is when I say that retaking Pentaburgh would be a costly mistake, with no ultimate benefit. It does not need to be done. I will not go so far as to reveal the details of Lady Claire¡¯s current mission, for reasons that should be obvious. But know that everything will change when she returns. Lucas Brown will be here at her side. The Great Star will walk among us.¡± She paused, turning her attention to the Masters once more. ¡°And I believe we should be doing everything we can to prepare for that moment. Foremost, we have to ensure this city is safe for him.¡±


    Lucas did his best not to draw attention to himself, but couldn¡¯t help thinking it was inevitable when he was standing so close to the woman who seemed to have enraptured the entire Order right now. There were people lingering on the grand staircase, even, watching them from above. Surely no one would be paying attention to him.


    ¡°This is dangerous talk, Captain. The action you advocate for is not out of the question, but instigating that kind of conflict in the city under the current circumstances seems reckless.¡± Master Haddem frowned as he glanced between Valerie and Florence. ¡°I would expect talk like this from Wynn, but it is unlike you.¡±


    ¡°Then take this as further proof that I truly believe things have changed,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°For what it¡¯s worth,¡± Florence added, ¡°I have seen evidence that¡¯s convinced me of her words.¡±


    ¡°What evidence would this be?¡± Master Meyah cut in, eyes narrowed on Florence. ¡°If it¡¯s only your word added to hers, you surely must understand it¡¯s not enough, Wynn. You¡¯re a skilled fighter and a good ranger, but you do not have the influence to move the Order itself.¡±


    Florence shrugged, unbothered. ¡°My word might not move the Order, but I¡¯d like to think it does have some weight among my peers. As long as my fellow rangers understand it¡¯s not just Captain Vayon who believes Lady Claire has found something in the Blighted Lands that may change the course of this conflict.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a reason she took all of her most trusted warriors with her,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°And why were you not included in that cohort?¡± Master Haddem asked. ¡°I must admit, I was under the impression Lady Claire preferred to pick you for these missions, due to your unique ability to resist the Blight. Was I wrong?¡±


    ¡°As I said, I stayed behind to deal with the situation we find ourselves in now,¡± Valerie said. She eyed the masters one by one. ¡°What¡¯s done is done. The barrier is active, and the whole city will be able to see it. What the people will think of that and how they¡¯ll react is difficult to predict, but we can say with some certainty that our enemies will begin to enact their plans. Perhaps they will even rush. If nothing else, even if we don¡¯t take direct action out in the city, we should maintain the barrier to protect ourselves.¡±


    ¡°But you believe we should go on the offence,¡± Master Haddem said grimly.


    ¡°I do,¡± Valerie said, squaring her shoulders. She reached into her cloak and withdrew a familiar scroll, which she held up above her head. With a flick of her wrist, it unrolled, showing the masters its contents. She gave them just enough of a look at it to realise what it was, their eyes all going wide, even Meyah¡¯s, before she snapped it shut and withdrew it beneath her cloak. ¡°That, as many of you have just surmised, was a copy of the Great Summoning Array.¡±


    The room burst into chatter once more, but this time it was a subdued, disbelieving hiss of traded whispers. None dared raise their voices. Even the masters were taken aback, though their reactions varied somewhat.


    Shock was written across all their faces and demeanours, but it seemed to manifest in different ways. Nhiti looked like she wanted to cross the distance to Valerie and snatch it from her grasp. Meyah¡¯s fingers clawed, like she wanted to tear into Valerie for withholding something so vital. Even Master Kym, who had spoken little but with much composure, had taken a step back, one hand frantically pawing at his silver-braided beard.


    Master Haddem, however, closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath. His eyes seemed older and slightly unfocused when he opened them once more. ¡°Lady Claire gave that to you, then?¡±


    Valerie said nothing. Apparently, there was a limit to how much she was willing to outright lie, but she wasn¡¯t about to tell the truth, either¡ªthat she¡¯d drawn it with her own hand, copying down the array in the Summoning Hall itself. The fact she¡¯d been inside Pentaburgh had to remain secret, for now.


    Her silence was taken as an answer, and Master Haddem sighed again. ¡°And if she has recreated the array as you say, then it may truly be that she has discovered some secret of the summoning that would lead her to believe she can bring Lord Lucas here to us.¡± He shook his head, giving a rueful smile. ¡°When I gave my speech this morning, I knew times would be changing for the Order. I had no inkling this is the new road we would be walking.¡±


    ¡°What are you saying, Zahyr?¡± Nhiti asked, looking at him askance.


    ¡°If all Captain Vayon has revealed today is true,¡± Master Haddem said, ¡°then I believe the course of action she has suggested is, broadly speaking, also correct. If Lord Lucas is soon to arrive, then the Order should take action to make certain any danger to his person is minimal. He will be vulnerable, for a time. A Great Hero yet to reach his greatness. Just as it was for the First Order with Lady Claire, Lady Aarya, Lord Rian, and Lord James, it is the Order of Five¡¯s duty to ensure Lord Lucas has the resources and space to achieve the destiny laid out for the five great heroes so long ago.¡±


    ¡°This is reckless, Zahyr,¡± Master Meyah warned.


    ¡°It is necessary,¡± Master Haddem replied, giving her a cool look. ¡°Even if it turns out Lady Claire is wrong, and Lord Lucas cannot be summoned, it¡¯s still prudent to eliminate enemies of the Order.¡±


    ¡°Taking an aggressive stance may make matters worse,¡± Master Meyah repeated an earlier argument, but it was obvious her heart wasn¡¯t in it.


    Everyone in the room could see where the winds were blowing. All the whispers echoing through the great atrium were on the same subject: how the Order was going to eliminate the enemies of the Great Five. That they were going to take action seemed increasingly inevitable. The only question was what action.


    Lucas, meanwhile, felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. This plan had been reckless in the extreme, and its failure could have been disastrous. But it looked to have worked. Valerie had played her role well, showing not a hint of the reluctance she¡¯d displayed when they¡¯d been planning it.


    The masters moved away, huddling close together, falling deep into quiet discussion. A small gap formed around them, the rest of the Order giving them space even as the rest of the atrium filled up. It felt like there were more people here than there had been even this morning, drawn by the sudden activation of the barrier.


    Looking around, taking in the countless warriors who¡¯d be his allies for the foreseeable future, Lucas was struck by the sheer variety of people present. People from every walk of life, every region. Little bits of knowledge he¡¯d picked up in Florence and Valerie¡¯s lessons over recent weeks popped up, and he recognised people from all across Aureon and beyond.


    Mountain clansmen from Palais in the far west of the continent, identifiable by their long earlobes. The dark-skinned, lanky people of long-fallen Aeyem. Uniquely yellow-haired folk from Caelunn to the south, which had never seen the Blight encroach upon its borders and yet sent countless noble warriors to fight for people of Aerth. He even spotted a few Raelar, with those triangular red tattoos on their foreheads and cheeks that reminded him so much of Aly. There were so many more races and ethnicities on display, too. Dozens of them.


    And they were all going to risk their lives to make this place safe for him.


    All of a sudden, he didn¡¯t feel quite so triumphant. The realisation didn¡¯t completely kill his mood, since he could tell himself that many more would have died, and in much worse circumstances, if they had tried to retake Pentaburgh. But there was always the other option. He could have allowed the Order to give up on his arrival. It would have made things more complicated for himself in the long run, but it probably would have led to less conflict.


    But he couldn¡¯t afford to think that way. Already, thousands of people had paid the ultimate sacrifice to give him this power, and many more would throw their lives away for his sake in the future because of it. Whatever he thought of the circumstances, the fact remained that he had been given immense power, and he was going to have to be worthy of it.


    The only thing worse than the thought of people giving their lives for him was the idea of wasting that sacrifice. Like it or not, he was important now. For the moment, he was going to have to prioritise his own survival, training himself up until he was worthy of the Great Hero moniker.


    Then, he¡¯d repay them for their sacrifices ten times over.


    Lucas¡¯ fists clenched at his sides, determination filling him. Valerie glanced over, and they exchanged a nod.


    The masters didn¡¯t confer for long. It was surely obvious to them that most of the skycloaks present were eager to take action, and it seemed plenty of the masters themselves were amenable to an aggressive stance, too. There was a predatory look in Nhiti¡¯s eyes, and several others looked ready to sally out and start a battle right now.


    But Master Haddem¡¯s voice calmed them all, bringing the atrium back to a ready silence as everyone stopped to listen. ¡°The Order will take action,¡± he said gravely, then held up his hands to quiet the roar of approval that responded. It didn¡¯t come from every corner, but it had to be the majority. ¡°We cannot wait until Lady Claire¡¯s return to act, and so we will seize the initiative ourselves. Tumultuous times stretch ahead of us, and it will be imperative that every member of the Order pulls their weight. Our plans have only just begun to form, and we will not rush into reckless moves.¡± He paused, once again having to hold up his hands for quiet as the room erupted. ¡°Until then, all will be expected to run missions for us. Resources and intelligence must be gathered, members must be called home, and much more will need to be done. We will be asking you all to work hard in the coming days, my friends.¡±


    That was met with another roar of approval.


    Meanwhile, Lucas was left with mixed feelings. It sounded like no one was going to be getting out of running missions, as long as they wore a skycloak. Notably, his two companions. Both of whom were extremely unlikely to leave him alone while they were forced away to work.


    Lucas couldn¡¯t hold back a wry smile. It hadn¡¯t been his intent, but it looked like he might end up leaving the Moontower after all.

 61: Desolate (5)

    The next morning found them back in Valerie¡¯s quarters. The entire Moontower was buzzing with activity like a pentagonal beehive that had been kicked by a giant. Corridors that had previously been mostly deserted were now packed at all hours of the day. Last night, it had taken twice as long as usual to climb the grand staircase, which was already enough of a chore to begin with. Even from over 200 stories up, he could see countless people rushing around at the ground level of the Order¡¯s territory. From here, it looked like a disturbed ant nest.


    Lucas drew in a deep breath. Held it. Counted to four. And then let it out. It was daunting to see so much activity spurred by a plan he concocted. But he supposed it was a sight he would have to get used to. He was expected to be a leader. Armies would move by his command in the future. This was just a taste of what was to come.


    He turned away from the window, facing the living area of Valerie''s quarters. To his chagrin, little had changed since his arrival. Despite his determination to add a bit of decoration to this place, in the end he found himself without the time to devote to the task. The only difference now was the extra skycloak draped over the back of the spare chair they¡¯d long ago dragged into the room so they could both sit at the table at the same time.


    Stepping closer to it, Lucas reached down and ran the tips of his fingers over the magical fabric. It was warm to the touch. Something like static electricity prickled his skin, a haptic buzz. The complexity of this garment¡¯s enchantment was far beyond his ken, but right now he didn''t need to understand it on that level, much as he wanted to.


    On the other side of the table, Valerie watched him in silence with a neutral expression. He found himself wondering what she thought of this. Skycloaks were only supposed to be handed out to graduates of the Order of Five¡¯s Academy. Did she resent the fact that he was receiving one despite only having been here for a little over six weeks? If so, she was hiding it well.


    He figured she probably wasn¡¯t. This was her idea, after all. She wanted him as protected as possible, while also drawing little attention to himself. There was precedent for higher ranking members of the Order deputising promising warriors in the field, apparently. Especially on the front lines. It was unlikely anyone would question the presence of an unfamiliar man wearing that iconic cloak, as long as it was made known he was her apprentice.


    Still, it felt like a cheat to him. Like he was skipping steps. Part of him wanted to do it all properly, to feel like he''d really earned it. But sometimes pragmatism had to win out.


    Deciding to get it over with, he took the cloak in hand and threw it over his shoulders in one smooth movement. It was surprisingly light, considering how thick it looked. That haptic buzz thrummed through his body, electrifying him, and the connection formed. He could feel the energy of the garment immediately, waiting to be tapped into.


    Instinct took over, and he fed a tendril of his pure mana into the cloak. It drank thirstily of his energy, but only for a moment. However the enchantment worked, it was evidently full already. That made sense. He''d already figured out that the bluer a cloak was, the more charge it had.


    There was more to it than merely charging it though. With a flex of his will, the mana system of the cloak mentally connected to his own. It took no time at all to synchronise them. In seconds, he understood the magical artefact intimately. The technique was not so different from how he''d been opening up his pathways for the last few months, except there was practically no resistance, and absolutely zero pain.


    With that done, it was now under his control. With a mental command, he had it wrap around him like a blanket. He could feel the minuscule drain on its energy, though it wasn''t enough to actually darken the material. Another command, and it flared out like a pair of wings. He spent a few minutes forming it into different shapes, amusing himself as much as practising. It was a spectacular working of magic, he had to admit. Anyone with even the slightest trickle of pure mana in their bodies would be able to use one.


    Once upon a time, the blue cloak had apparently been no more than a uniform. Claire had changed that. It struck him again how much influence his friend had on this world, taking him quite off guard.


    Lucas let out a sigh as he released his control over the cloak, allowing it to fall limp. He looked over at Valerie, and she met his gaze.


    ¡°It''s really incredible, isn''t it?¡± He muttered.


    Valerie nodded. Her expression was still neutral.


    ¡°Penny for your thoughts?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°You don''t have a penny,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°I''m sure I could find one.¡±


    ¡°There are many things on my mind at this moment. But you need not concern yourself with any of them.¡±


    ¡°I disagree.¡± Lucas frowned. ¡°For one thing, I really want to know what you think about me wearing one of these.¡±


    Valerie blinked. Her eyes gained focus, and until that moment he hadn¡¯t realised she¡¯d been spacing out, by her standards. She observed him for a beat. ¡°Ah. You need not worry. While I would take great offence to an outsider wearing one of our uniforms, you should consider yourself an honorary member of the order by default. A leader, even. Lady Claire was once one of your closest friends. You have more right to wear one of her cloaks than anyone.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Lucas said, feeling dumb. ¡°That was actually very reassuring. Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t concern yourself with it.¡± Valerie rounded the table, and moved past him towards the windows. After a moment, Lucas followed her. ¡°Chief among my concerns right now,¡± Valerie continued, ¡°is the situation out there. I''m trying to predict how those outside the barrier will react to its activation in the short term. Will they respond violently? Will there be protests? Will they stir up the population to make demands of the Order? It''s difficult to predict, and I dislike uncertainty.¡±


    That made sense. Lucas supposed that someone who spent so long fighting against chaos would come to develop a love of order. But still, he had to point out, ¡°No one can predict the future.¡± He paused. ¡°Or can they? I guess there is literally a prophecy that caused this whole mess, as far as I''m concerned.¡±


    ¡°Precognitive magic is notoriously difficult, though it has been done. Generally, it has been achieved through freak anomalies of talent, such as the great Oracle herself. Deliberate attempts to create such techniques have mostly been failures. Lady Claire claims that the future will have already become the distant past by the time you figure out how to See reliably through a repeatable magic technique.¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.¡±


    ¡°But that doesn''t mean you can''t make predictions based on knowledge and reasoning. For example, if I know of a group that styles itself as an opponent to the Great Heroes and has a particular dislike for the Order, and if I have reasonable suspicions regarding the identities of the upper echelons of their organisation, it is possible to make guesses at what path they might take in response to what they perceive to be unusual behaviour from the Order.¡±


    Lucas eyed her. ¡°And what''s your best guess?¡±


    Valerie''s gaze was distant, flittering back-and-forth across the city as if she was seeking out specific locations. Her eyes narrowed. ¡°I expect them to give me just cause.¡±


    ¡°Like Jyn did?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Like Jyn did.¡±


    They settled into silence after that, both of them descending into their own thoughts. Lucas found himself reaching into his pocket, seeking out the comfort of that smooth wooden box. He didn''t even need to open it up any more. He knew the arrow wouldn''t change its direction. But its presence reminded him that his friend was out there, and that always made him feel better. More anchored. Present.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    But the thought of Jamie drew his attention to another concern. Namely, the mysterious creature in his chest. Jamie the monstercat¡ªand now that he knew the real Jamie was out there somewhere, he was going to have to find an easier way to distinguish between them, but it felt wrong to steal away the name he''d given to the cat. He decided to call it Jam for short instead. That felt suitably appropriate for a pet.


    Even if it was, perhaps, not appropriate to think of the monstrous creature with way too many bones and limbs and organs and other bits he didn''t want to devote too much attention to as a pet.


    Regardless, the point was that Jam hadn''t come down from his state of awareness at all since first coming to alert the previous day. Every waking moment, the creature was seemingly on guard. It had him on edge too. Paranoid thoughts flitted through his mind. In the past, the cat had only shown such diligence when enemies were near, and especially so when those enemies were of a chaotic nature¡ªbeasts and demons, in other words.


    This didn''t feel like that, at least. In the presence of a demon, Jam had gone absolutely mental, thrashing around in the nexus of Lucas soul to the degree that it was difficult to even use his magic.


    So was it a mundane enemy that had caught his attention? It was hard to say. The thing was, Lucas had been able to feel what Jam was focusing on in the past, at least to a degree. This situation wasn''t so different now. The problem they were having was that it seemed Jam wasn''t focused on anything in particular. It was like even the creature itself didn''t know what was wrong, just that there were some kind of threat.


    The fact that it had come just as the forces from Harwyck had returned didn''t bode well. The most obvious conclusion to make was that Jam had somehow detected that something or someone within the returning army opposed a danger.


    Whatever was happening, it meant they had to be diligent even within the tower. That wasn''t necessarily a huge departure from the previous state of affairs, since they had to be careful not to reveal Lucas''s identity anyway. But still. It was extra concern they did not at all need.


    Lucas let out a sigh. Why did everything have to be so complicated? Not for the first time, he found himself wondering how things would have been if he had shown up with the other 100 years ago.


    As quick as that thought had come, he banished it with prejudice. It wasn''t a good road to go down.


    Luckily, a distraction came in the form of a knock on Valerie''s door. The visitor didn''t wait on permission before opening it and striding in, and the fact they were able to do so revealed their identity, immediately stifling is alarm before it could get started.


    ¡°I have another assignment,¡± Florence said. ¡°This one is outside the tower.¡±


    Lucas and Valerie turned to face her. As an experienced Ranger, Florence had been called into missions almost immediately, while Valerie¡¯s skills were yet to be directly needed. Valerie could undoubtably perform any menial task the Order required, but a Captain was not easily assigned to such things. They expected the masters would find her something to do eventually, but so far nothing had merited her attention.


    ¡°What is your task?¡± Valerie asked.


    ¡°I''m to meet a butcher who supplies meat for the Order,¡± Florence explained. ¡°As you would expect, it''s important that we secure provisions in case we find ourselves under siege.¡±


    Lucas grimaced. ¡°Does that seem likely?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a possibility,¡± Valerie said, far too nonchalant.


    ¡°An unlikely possibility,¡± Florence hastened to reassure him. ¡°But one we must account for.¡±


    Lucas nodded. He was not reassured. ¡°So, will we be accompanying you on this one?¡±


    ¡°If you like,¡± Florence said, with clear reluctance.


    ¡°I just want to get out and see the city for myself,¡± Lucas said. ¡°We reckon I''m decent enough in a fight now, right? I should be able to defend myself in the unlikely event that something goes wrong, surely. And it''s better to do something like this to give the masters the idea that Valerie is available for more mundane things, rather than leaving them to stew and eventually come up with some far and distant quest to send her on.¡±


    ¡°Would it be so problematic if Valerie was directed away? I''m more than capable in a fight myself, you realise?¡± Florence said, raising one eyebrow.


    Valerie''s lips thinned. ¡°I will not leave Lord Lucas''s side under any circumstances.¡±


    ¡°You would defy the masters if they ordered you on a solo mission?¡±


    ¡°Without hesitation,¡± Valerie said, also without hesitation. ¡°All I would have to say is that my current mission outranks anything they could assign me. Lady Claire is unlikely to punish me for insubordination, once she finds out my reasoning.¡±


    ¡°You''re not wrong.¡± Florence snorted as she moved the edge of the table. Her eyes were on Lucas''s cloak. ¡°It suits you. The colours of the Order.¡±


    ¡°I can''t deny it looks pretty good,¡± Lucas said. He shifted, feeling a little awkward. ¡°I''ll just have to get used to it, I suppose.¡±


    ¡°It''s easier once you''re in armour,¡± Florence said with a smile.


    ¡°I don''t know about that. I''ve never had to wear armour in my life.¡±


    ¡°The Order¡¯s custom armour is lighter than you think, and once you''ve bonded with it, you''ll barely notice it¡¯s there,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Plenty of our members forget they''re wearing it if they''ve had it on for a long time,¡± Florence said. ¡°Even veterans.¡±


    ¡°And we¡¯re okay with me bonding to Order standard issue armour?¡± Lucas asked, sceptical.


    ¡°This isn''t the same as typical bonding,¡± Valerie said. ¡°It¡¯s a custom procedure specifically designed by Lady Claire herself. It doesn''t bond to you directly, instead inhabiting a space held by your cloak. That''s why we needed to get you a cloak first.¡±


    ¡°Makes sense,¡± Lucas said. ¡°We gonna do that before we head out then?¡±


    Valerie frowned.


    ¡°You still don''t seem 100% on board with this,¡± Lucas observed. ¡°It was kind of mostly your plan, remember?¡±


    ¡°I know. It''s a necessary step we need to take. We need to show that I can do local low stakes missions, that you can accompany me in them, and that Florence can work together with me. I just don''t like that we are being forced into this before we planned to.¡±


    ¡°Hey, I still want to do one of those Academy training exercises some day.¡±


    ¡°I''m sure you''ll get your chance,¡± Florence said.


    They filed out of the room after that. The way down to the armoury was just as much of a chore as the way up to Valerie''s quarters has been, with the grand staircase endlessly choked by skycloaks flying back-and-forth.


    One silver lining was that Lucas got the chance to practice with his own skycloak. It took some getting used to. Physically speaking, the cloak shouldn''t have been capable of catching enough air to suspend his fall like it did. All it took was a bit of mana, and it acted like a parachute with a dozen times the surface area. He felt like he was hopping around on the moon. The training room beckoned to him, and he dearly wished they''d gotten around to this sooner.


    But it was not to be. The armoury was an enormous room that covered the entirety of a floor of the Moontower. Hundreds of suits of white armour hung on wooden racks. It made him think of the world''s strangest department store. It was almost eerie.


    A towering Amazon of a woman strode forward to meet them the moment they stepped out of the archway. She looked between the three of them for a moment before her steely gaze locked on Lucas. Turning on her heel, she beckoned him to follow her with a lazy wave. Lucas hurried to obey. She led him through the rows of armour with a purposeful stride, not stopping for a moment to glance at any of the sets of armour. Near the end of one row, she came to a halt seemingly at random as far as Lucas could tell. There, she pointed at a suit of armour that looked no different to him than any of the others and gave him a significant look.


    Glancing between her and the armour, he took a tentative step closer. It was identical to Valerie¡¯s and Florence¡¯s. White as moonlight, the metal was etched with subtle engravings he couldn''t make sense of, but assumed were part of some kind of magical array that would allow him to bond the armour and store it away like he¡¯d seen Valerie do plenty of times. The woman nodded at him, and he reached out to touch it.


    Against his fingertips, he felt the same haptic buzz that came from his cloak. Literally the same. It was like this suit of armour had been designed to pair with the cloak on his back. It seemed far-fetched; he doubted that was actually the case. But still, pairing them was as simple as putting the armour on while he was wearing the cloak.


    Which, admittedly, wasn''t actually that simple at all. Armour was a cumbersome thing, and especially when he was unused to it. Florence and Valerie had to help out, but he got it on in the end. From there he didn''t require instruction. The armour had been made for this purpose. Following simple instinct, he sent a mental command through his connection to the cloak, and it adhered to the armour like they had always been a set.


    The next step took a bit more figuring out, but eventually he happened upon the mental command that reduced his armour to motes of twinkling starlight that were immediately drawn spiralling into his chest. However, they didn''t enter his soul. Instead, the cloak gathered them up and integrated them into its own crude mana network. They were entwined in moments, and he knew all he needed to do to get his armour back was trigger another mental command.


    And just like that, he had the tools of an acolyte skycloak at his command.


    Turning to face his companions, he allowed the grin that had been threatening for some time to finally reach his lips. ¡°Let¡¯s do this.¡±


    He was ready for his first mission.

 62: Desolate (6)

    When they reached the atrium, the change in atmosphere from barely a day ago was palpable. It wasn''t just in the abundance of activity, though it was jarring to see so many people rushing about with clear purpose, determination etched onto their features. Nor was it a simple matter of the non-stop chatter in the air as members of the Order discussed their roles in the upcoming operation. Even the shining barrier that loomed over the Order¡¯s territory could only partially explain what felt different.


    It was, he realised, the attention. Valerie had always seemed to draw stares and whispers. Not only was her story common knowledge among the skycloaks, but she was known as one of the more prominent and powerful combatants in the Order¡¯s illustrious ranks. Few people could claim to have defeated a dread general, though she played it down, insisting she dealt only the final blow after a monumental effort from an entire squad.


    There was a different tone to that attention now. The stares came with different expressions, the whispers with a new emotion. Valerie ignored it all just as she had previously, and Lucas found himself wondering if she realised actually was now being looked up to, after a fashion.


    Florence certainly noticed. The red haired Ranger mostly presented herself as an amiable person from what he''d seen, but now she glared at anyone who looked like they might approach with quite some venom. It took Lucas off guard a bit. Why was she taking umbrage with it all now, but not before?


    In the end, his curiosity he got the better of him before they were halfway across the atrium. He leaned towards Florence and asked in a whisper: ¡°Why do you look like you''re about to bite one of your comrades¡¯ heads off?¡±


    ¡°Because I can''t stand the way some people around here have always treated her,¡± Florence said at full volume. ¡°It''s not fair on her.¡±


    ¡°You know it doesn''t bother me,¡± Valerie said from ahead of them without looking back.


    ¡°I think it should,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°How is it that you''re so well known anyway?¡± Lucas asked. ¡°I get that you have impressive feats under your belt, and have accomplished a lot. But if you''re so famous for your deeds, why does everyone act this way?¡±


    ¡°My fame isn''t exactly positive, as I''m sure you''ve surmised.¡±


    A handful of memories flashed into Lucas''s mind. Demon-touched, they¡¯d called her. It had come up from enemies and ostensible comrades alike. ¡°Yeah,¡± he said grimly. ¡°But how did you gain that kind of notoriety? To me, it seems like you''ve more than proven yourself as an enemy of the Demon Lord and all his evil shit.¡±


    Valerie did glance back at him at that, her face neutral. Was he learning her expressions well enough to notice sharpness in her gaze, or were her eyes just genuinely icier than usual? It was hard to tell.


    ¡°There was a lot of controversy surrounding me when I first arrived here,¡± Valerie said. ¡°And it was, unfortunately, a rather public affair before they decided what to do with me. I wasn¡¯t as I am now, you must understand. For a time, I was more often¡­ Well, as you occasionally saw me on our travels. Before Lady Claire devised her solution, that is.¡±


    ¡°They made the right decision in the end,¡± Florence said. She gained a smirk. ¡°If nothing else, I enjoyed our time in the Academy together. I can''t imagine what it would''ve been like without our little rivalry.¡±


    Valerie rolled her eyes and faced forward once more. Thus, she missed how Florence¡¯s smirk immediately transitioned to a grimace.


    Lucas was sure there was more to that story, but he could take a hint.


    They exited the atrium and crossed the courtyard towards one of the main archways. When they''d come here just a day ago, it had stood wide open, admitting any who came.


    Today the luminescent barrier covered the gap, and before it stood a row of guards in blue cloaks. Beyond was a small crowd of people, carps and pack animals, but they didn''t appear to be causing much of a fuss. There was an air of confusion, not indignation or fury. That was probably a good sign.


    Valerie was in the lead as they crossed the barrier. It let Lucas through with only a tingling feeling on his skin, but he still took a moment to make sure it would readmit him. Again, there was nothing more than a mild buzz, like goosebumps. He breathed a sigh of relief.


    ¡°Would¡¯ve been really awkward if it shut me out after all,¡± he said, trying for a nonchalant tone.


    ¡°We were confident it wouldn¡¯t,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Yeah, but confirmation is nice.¡±


    A five-man party of skycloaks were outside the barrier already, conversing with the crowd which had gathered. They were speaking to the people in a reassuring tone, but their words were blatantly empty. Platitudes about temporary measures, nothing to worry about, back to normal soon, and all that kind of thing, without actually answering any questions about what was going on. Lucas didn''t envy their role.


    As he and his two companions passed the crowd by, he wondered how many spies were in among the throng of people. The thought had him bowing his head to hide his face on reflex. Immediately, he felt silly. The likelihood of anyone recognising his true identity, even if they were a part of some anti-Order group, was preposterously low. If anything, he was just acting more suspicious.


    That in mind, he lifted his head and strode along behind Valerie, Florence flanking him on his right, as if he had nothing to hide. Forging out into the city was just another day for him, was what he tried to project.


    Last time he''d been out in the city, he hadn¡¯t been able to take much of it in. Oh, he was awed by the architecture, and discomforted by the sheer amount of people thronging the streets, but few details had properly registered while he was so nervous to get to the Moontower and the nominal safety promised therein.


    Since then, he''d learned a lot about the city in Florence and Valerie''s lessons. Despite this being only the second time he walked its streets, he felt he knew Dawnguard intimately.


    The Moontower had once been a very centre of the city. Dawnguard had grown much over centuries and millennia, but the five wide lanes that used to slash right through the city straight from the Order¡¯s grand entrances to the traditional outer walls were still there, though the actual walls of the city had long since expanded far beyond their old position.


    Each road corresponded to one of the Five. Lucas wondered if his companions had deliberately led him down the Road of the Star. He figured it was probably a coincidence; they didn''t seem the type for that kind of ironic joke. The Road of the Star aimed almost directly south, and it just so happened that their goal was in the south of the city.


    Dawnguard was essentially laid out in five non-concentric ¡®rings¡¯ that were actually giant pentagons in shape. The inner ring, where the Moontower was located, marked the traditional boundaries of the ancient capital. Four times the city had expanded as the population grew, and for whatever reason they didn¡¯t build the new walls equidistant to the old ones, moving the Moontower off-centre.


    Incidentally, there were some who argued that the city shouldn¡¯t be expanded beyond the five current rings, lest they anger fate, or some such superstition. They were rather preoccupied by five, in Mornlunn. Apparently that kind of thinking was prominent everywhere, though less so outside this country.


    The Road of the Star took them only to the edge of the first ring¡ªonly the Road of the Wand stretched to Dawnguard¡¯s outer walls, slicing right through the entire city. The ancient walls here loomed a little taller than the Order¡¯s borders, but were nothing compared to the titanic white walls of the fifth ring.


    From there, they cut away into narrower roads winding through a more mercantile district known creatively as Guildtown. It made him think of an old European city that had been stretched upwards. There were buildings of many colours, with a traditional look, except they loomed as high as 10 stories. The ground level were all shopfronts, with criers hawking wares, calling out deals.


    More than a few people accosted them on their way, asking about the rather conspicuous barrier of light draped over the Moontower. Their answers ended up mirroring the poor guards outside the Order¡¯s gates.


    Florence had to take the lead towards the end of their journey, as she was familiar with their destination. The crowds of people were becoming thicker and thicker the further they got from the walls. His first foray through the city had seen the streets choked, and it appeared that the integration of the Harwyck refugees had made things even worse. At times, it was like a packed crowd at a concert.


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    But after some detours, they eventually managed to reach the supplier. The shop itself was just a small room at the front of a grand, seven-story building. It was a decent sized room, maybe as large as a three-car garage, with walls lined with shelves containing various jars showing off a wide variety of meats, with a wooden desk at the far end manned by an older gentleman in a dark tunic and breeches. His sharp eyes narrowed on them the moment they entered.


    ¡°Ser Florence,¡± he greeted her with a nod. ¡°Who are your companions?¡±


    ¡°Captain Valerie Vayon and Ser James of the Order,¡± she said smoothly, crossing to the table without bothering to inspect any of the wares. ¡°Do you have what we¡¯ve requested, Ser Pence?¡±


    ¡°I do,¡± he said slowly, eyeing Valerie with undisguised wariness. She showed no outward reaction, but Lucas wondered if it bothered her. It bothered him on her behalf, at least.


    Ser Pence turned his attention back to Florence. ¡°And I feel I must ask whether I should be concerned that the Order is now stockpiling supplies after activating its defences?¡±


    ¡°That depends,¡± Valerie said, stepping forward. ¡°Would you consider yourself an enemy of the Order?¡±


    Pence recoiled an inch before catching himself. Then her words seemed to register and he frowned, seeming quite indignant. ¡°Would I be openly doing business with you if I considered the Order an enemy?¡±


    ¡°That does not answer the question, Ser.¡±


    His frown deepened. ¡°No, of course I do not see the Order as an enemy.¡±


    ¡°Then you should not be concerned,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°But if the Order believes there are enemies in the city to the point you¡¯re closing off that tower of yours, I do believe I should, in fact, be concerned. Conflict affects business, and I know what it sounds like when people are sharpening their knives.¡±


    ¡°Oh? And what exactly are you hearing?¡± Florence asked.


    ¡°Lots of things.¡± The merchant looked between them for a beat, though his eyes definitely lingered on Valerie again. ¡°Most relevantly, you¡¯re not the only ones buying up supplies, from what I understand. No one has come to me because I make it clear I honour my contracts, and my merchandise is promised to the Order. But others talk of the offers they¡¯ve received.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± Florence said. ¡°And has that activity increased since yesterday?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not some gossiping housewife who goes to the market every morning for the latest news,¡± Pence said with a sigh. ¡°But I do have eyes. I see people walking past my window I don¡¯t recognise, heading into other stores. There¡¯s definitely been a lot of activity. People with heavy purses coming out of nowhere, making big trades. Most of my younger peers seem pleased as pie with the situation, but I see what¡¯s going on, here.¡± He leaned closer. ¡°Don¡¯t cheat me now, Ser Wynn. Should I be looking to get out while I can?¡±


    ¡°Any conflict that arises should not be that destructive,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°But it would be best if you kept your head down,¡± Valerie added.


    The merchant nodded, and they swiftly went about their business after that. It turned out the man was in charge ofa business that imported a lot of meat from down south. Magical techniques could perform an approximation of a freezer, and thus there was a massive network of food suppliers transporting meat all across the world. The Order was able to buy in bulk, secure that the food wouldn¡¯t spoil.


    There was some negotiation on price due to the rushed bulk order that would essentially be clearing out Ser Pence¡¯s stock, but it didn¡¯t take too long. Lucas got the impression the man knew who Valerie was, and trod lightly around her.


    Lucas spent some time having a look around the shop, since he couldn¡¯t exactly contribute much to the negotiations. Most of the jars contained meat as he¡¯d expect it, but some were odd. He found a distinctly unappealing cut of fluorescent blue meat that was labelled ¡®byafar¡¯. A green thing twisted on itself like a rope was apparently known as steakplant. Some thin black thing he initially thought was burned fabric turned out to be the skin of an animal called a reeg. There was even a jar he initially assumed was empty, but turned out to be full of bassi jelly, whatever that was. His education had barely started on the exotic fauna of Aerth.


    It wasn¡¯t all weird, though. He spied pork and chicken and beef, and other cuts that looked rather similar to the aforementioned but apparently came from Aerthian livestock not found on Earth. Lucas actually found it all rather fascinating, and he made a little game of imagining what the unfamiliar animals might¡¯ve looked like in their life as he made a circuit of the shop.


    So caught up in his imagination was he that he was caught quite off guard by the human head staring back at him from within one of the jaws. With a yelp of surprise, he flinched back, only for the head to move, disappearing from view. He blinked in bafflement. It was only when a little girl who barely came up to his waist peeked around the side of the shelf and put her finger to her lips that he understood what had just transpired.


    ¡°Is there something amiss, Sir James?¡± Valerie called out to him.


    He held a hand up in apology. Valerie and Florence were staring at him, though the merchant was grumbling to himself as he scrawled something down in a ledger. ¡°Sorry, sorry,¡± Lucas said. He assumed it was safe for him to talk here if Valerie had addressed him directly like that. ¡°Nothing¡¯s wrong. My imagination played tricks on me for a second there.¡±


    The two skycloaks went back to their negotiations with Ser Pence, and Lucas turned back to the little girl who had been hiding behind the shelves. She was beside one now, squeezed between the tiny gap, staring up at him with wide hazel eyes. A cute little thing, with her black hair in pigtails and a frilly pink dress, her cheeks still chubby with baby fat.


    ¡°Hello there,¡± Lucas whispered. ¡°What¡¯re you doing sneaking around?¡±


    The girl leaned forward and whispered herself, smiling conspiratorially. ¡°I wanted to see the skycloaks. Grampy never let me meet any of you before, even though I really wanted to.¡±


    He didn¡¯t have the heart to tell her he wasn¡¯t really a true skycloak. Then again, the reality might have been even more exciting to her. It was hard to tell, with kids. Lucas crouched down, pinching his cloak between two fingers. ¡°You¡¯re like the skycloaks then, hmm?¡±


    ¡°They work for the Great Heroes!¡± The girl said reverently.


    Yeah, she definitely would¡¯ve been awed by the truth. Which just meant he definitely wasn¡¯t going to even hint at it.


    Lucas couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°What¡¯s your name, kid?¡±


    ¡°Carla!¡±


    ¡°Nice to meet you, Carla. I¡¯m¡­ James.¡± Giving a fake name to a kid felt awfully pathetic, but it couldn¡¯t be helped. This wasn¡¯t the first time a part of him wanted to reveal his true name to someone, and it wouldn¡¯t be the last. He crushed the impulse, grasping for another question to ask. ¡°Who¡¯s your favourite hero?¡±


    The girl gave a scandalised gasp, leaning out from her hiding place to glare at him. ¡°They¡¯re all cool!¡±


    ¡°Well, one¡¯s gotta be cooler than the others.¡±


    She seemed to consider that, brows furrowing. Then she shook her head so hard her pigtails slapped her in the face. ¡°They¡¯re all cool! I can¡¯t choose!¡± She ducked away with a parting, ¡°Wait here!¡±


    Lucas waited obediently as Carla rustled around behind the shelf. Judging by the sounds of things being shuffled, she had quite the collection of loot back there. When she reemerged, it was with five crude fabric dolls gathered in her arms.


    ¡°It¡¯s like this, see,¡± she told him seriously, like she was imparting a great lesson that he¡¯d do well to learn. After some fumbling, she held up one doll. Its body was the blue of a skycloak, and it sported yellow hair. ¡°This is Lady Claire! She does magic, and she¡¯s never stopped fighting for everyone!¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s very noble,¡± Lucas agreed after having to swallow past the lump in his throat. It was hard to decide which doll to focus on. The fact something like this existed at all shouldn¡¯t have taken him off guard, but here he was.


    Next she showed him one with a black body and orange hair. ¡°Lord James can never be hurt by anything!¡±


    After that came one with black hair, and it took Lucas a moment to realise the extra long arm was because it was meant to signify a sword in the toy¡¯s hand. ¡°Lord Rian can cut through demons!¡±


    The fourth toy was the most elaborate of the lot, with a prettily knitted dress in a floral pattern similar to Carla¡¯s own. ¡°Lady Aarya was prettier than any maiden, and her arrows never missed!¡± Carla sobered, inspecting the doll for a moment. ¡°She died though. And it made the others sad.¡±


    But the girl regained her spirits for the last toy. It was nondescript compared to the others, practically featureless in white clothing. Process of elimination revealed its identity, though. ¡°It¡¯s okay though, because when Lord Lucas gets here, the heroes will all be happy again, and they¡¯ll beat the Demon Lord together!¡±


    This was spoken loud enough that no one in the shop could have missed it. Lucas gave her a shaky smile. ¡°We all hope so, Carla.¡±


    ¡°Carla!¡± Ser Pence snapped, striding over. ¡°What have I told you about playing in the shop?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m bored,¡± Carla replied mulishly. ¡°Mother and Father are never here, and you don¡¯t let me play outside!¡±


    The man sighed. ¡°Forgive me,¡± he said, bowing to Florence and Valerie as he scooped up his granddaughter and bustled her into a back room. He returned in less than a minute, and the atmosphere after that was tense. Retaking his position by the desk, they continued their negotiations for a few more minutes, but it became clear his heart was no longer in it. He obviously just wanted them out of there. Lucas felt the man¡¯s glare on him more than a few times.


    They left with the ¡®mission,¡¯ such as it was, secured, but Lucas had dropped into a melancholic mood. His companions evidently noticed, because they said nothing to interrupt his thoughts as they made their way back through the streets.


    For some reason, seeing a child have that kind of faith in him had hit surprisingly hard. He examined the feeling, probing at it like a sore tooth. It was, he reckoned, the innocence of her faith. That was a girl who¡¯d evidently been taught that he was going to make everything right, like a comforting bedtime story to chase away any nightmares.


    Before today, he¡¯d met plenty of people who talked of his destiny. Everyone apparently knew his name and story. But the idea of kids playing with toys that were meant to represent him just came with a different level of expectation. Even after mulling it over all the way back to the main street that led to the walls of Dawnguard¡¯s first ring, he hadn¡¯t shaken the weight of that belief.


    Lost in thoughts about his fame and destiny, it took him quite off guard when he heard his name spoken by a stranger once more, this time full of unrestrained fury.


    ¡°Lucas Brown!¡± a man bellowed, and Lucas¡¯ head snapped around to the source.

 63: Desolate (7)

    Heart pounding an accelerating drumbeat, Lucas slowed his mana on reflex as he looked around for who¡¯d spoken his name. The crowds had grown even denser since their first time along this road, and it felt like dozens of people were staring at him with a wide variety of expressions. He tried to tell himself most were just curious about the skycloaks. To them, he was just a member of the Order out on a routine mission in the city, with the only anomaly being the barrier around the Moontower.


    There was no sign of anyone glaring at him. He saw no one approach. Nor any hint of an attack. After a few seconds turned up no hint of who had shouted his name, he turned to his companions flanking him on either side. Both were watching the crowds with assessing gazes. Judging by the fact they were both looking in the same direction he was, It was obvious they¡¯d heard what he had, and he didn¡¯t know whether to be relieved or more alarmed by that. A part of him had hoped he¡¯d made it up in a fit of paranoia.


    A lack of an obvious source only made his nerves worse. The worst part was how stupid this sudden heightened alertness made him feel. The mere occurrence of someone saying his name shouldn¡¯t have been such a dire cause for concern. He ground his teeth and tried his best to wipe his face of expression. He didn¡¯t know if he succeeded.


    It was Florence who found it. No more than a handful of seconds could have passed, but it felt like a lifetime. He was sure his stomach was now the wrong way up.


    At one side of the main road, a tavern took up the bottom floor of one of the towering wood and stone buildings. Wide open doors revealed three neat rows of benches packed with rowdy revellers, and halfway towards the back of the tavern a man stood on a stool, raving at the other patrons.


    Dressed in a matching grey tunic and hose set with a few damp patches that likely came from recent spills, the black-haired man wouldn¡¯t have stood out in a crowd if he weren¡¯t above it. He wasn¡¯t speaking as loud as when he¡¯d bellowed Lucas¡¯ name, but when Lucas listened close, it was clear the voice matched the one he¡¯d heard. Wild, bombastic gestures accompanied every word. It wouldn¡¯t be quite accurate to say the man had the tavern¡¯s undivided attention, but a decent portion of the place was listening to him. Some were jeering, some were laughing, some were not amused at all.


    Lucas looked back at his companions, ready to ask what they should do about this, if anything. Before he could open his mouth, the choice was rather taken out of his hands.


    ¡°Ah, and here they are!¡± The same man bellowed, his voice carrying from within the tavern. He possessed a deep tenor, and knew how to project it. ¡°A man starts talking about uncomfortable truths, and look who shows up!¡±


    Returning his attention to the tavern, Lucas found the man¡¯s gaze now fixed on the three of them. There was something almost feverish in his eyes, and his grin was edging on manic.


    Someone else in the tavern piped up before Lucas¡¯ party could. ¡°Oh, shut yer trap, Nial. Ranting up a storm in the tavern is one thing, but pickin¡¯ a fight with the skycloaks face to face is folly.¡±


    Lucas couldn¡¯t see who had spoken up, but Nial evidently could. He whirled on someone in the crowd, pointing an accusing finger. ¡°Coward!¡± He roared. ¡°Never roll over and let tyrants take you!¡±


    ¡°What tyrants? They exist to fight demons and beasts, you mad twat,¡± someone else said.


    ¡°Yeah? My cousin said he heard they were arresting folk in the fifth ring, and those folk definitely weren¡¯t demons or anything like that,¡± someone else replied, before Nial could.


    Nial pointed triumphantly at whoever had spoken in his defence. ¡°See! As soon as their Lady Claire is out of the way, they start trying to seize power.¡± He turned back to the front of the tavern and levelled a glare on them. ¡°I don¡¯t trust you bastards! I hate to repeat myself, but know this: Lucas Brown ain¡¯t coming. Some other world whelp isn¡¯t gonna save us now, and you delusional buggers need to accept that. He¡¯s probably already dead, snatched out of the summoning by the Demon Lord or some shit, I dunno. Instead of waiting around and hoping this useless git shows up, we should be gathering everyone we have left to really take the fight to the demons. Every able-bodied Aerthian. Do a bit of training, form up into a thousand divisions, and make war with this Demon Lord fucker. It¡¯s gotta be better than this slow, painful death, conceding territory and retreating every other fuckin¡¯ year.¡±


    The man looked quite proud of himself at his idea, and there were even a few voices raised in agreement. Others looked terrified or disgusted. Most of the tavern seemed indifferent to the proposal, more interested in the contents of their cups. Even in an ongoing war for the fate of all life, alcohol had to flow. Rosy cheeks and unfocused gazes were abundant in the tavern.


    When Valerie¡¯s gauntleted hand came down on his shoulder, Lucas was expecting her to turn him forward and lead him away. It came as quite the surprise when she stalked past him, moving into the tavern. Lucas and Florence exchanged a baffled glance, then hurried to follow.


    Nial¡¯s look of defiance appeared far less resolute once he had Valerie staring him in the eyes from within touching distance. Once he¡¯d stepped down from his stool, she was still half a head smaller than him, and his bulk far outmatched hers. But size meant nothing when mana was part of the equation, and anyone with a lick of common sense had to know that.


    It became clear the people at his table were all there with him, rather than just revellers who happened to be seated together. They stood, closing ranks around him, glaring at Valerie. She didn¡¯t seem to notice.


    But Lucas and Florence did, and suddenly he felt he had no choice but to step up to stand by her side. Whether that was because he feared for her or the poor bastards if they made the extremely inadvisable choice of attacking her, he didn¡¯t know.


    To his credit, Nial didn¡¯t back down in the face of three skycloaks, taking a moment to compose himself and regain the fire in his eyes. His fists clenched at his sides. ¡°So, you come to silence me? Can¡¯t handle a little criticism of your precious Order?¡±


    ¡°On the contrary,¡± Valerie said. Her voice projected just as well as Nial¡¯s did. Perhaps better. It seemed to fill the room, and everyone stopped to look at her. ¡°Your plan is intriguing. I just have a few questions of my own, if you don¡¯t mind, Ser Nial.¡±


    Nial squinted at her. ¡°Ask away.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s clear to me that you¡¯ve spent a lot of time on the Front Lines and beyond, in the Blighted Lands itself. Since you¡¯re so familiar with the place, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve come up with a solution to the chaos effect, and how you¡¯d train so many people to resist it? Your technique must be very good. Looking at you, I can¡¯t even tell you¡¯ve ever been exposed to the Blight at all!¡±


    That got a few chuckles out of the tavern¡¯s patrons. A few people had gathered at the end of the room, wearing aprons and such. Probably staff. They looked awfully nervous, the man in the expensive-looking embroidered red tunic especially so. Which Lucas supposed wasn¡¯t surprising. They were probably concerned of a fight breaking out.


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    In the other direction, outside the tavern, were a few more rubberneckers, looking far less anxious about the situation. Some appeared excited. If this scenario were playing out on Earth, he could imagine these same people with their phones out, delighted to get a chance to post something juicy on social media.


    The thought of Earth dimmed his alreadyplummeting mood, and he shook it off.


    ¡°I can see what you¡¯re doing here, skycloak,¡± Nial said with a sneer. ¡°Is it my fault that I¡¯ve never been allowed to go to the Blighted Lands, when your Order insists only those you¡¯ve deemed fit are worthy of the task? Surely if more people were allowed to go up there and fight, our chances would be stronger!¡±


    His comrades cheered their agreement, glaring and challenging.


    Valerie rather took the wind out of their sails as she nodded in mock concurrence. ¡°Indeed, I¡¯m sure with a bit of training, anyone could handle it. Chaos isn¡¯t truly so bad.¡±


    Lucas noticed more than a few dark looks coming from others in the tavern, but they weren¡¯t directed at Valerie. It was clear this Nial and his friends were severely underestimating what it meant to be subjected to the chaos of a demon¡¯s presence, and the Blight would only be exponentially worse. That didn¡¯t mean others were so ignorant.


    Nial didn¡¯t seem to realise that, though. ¡°You skycloaks and your master just want all the glory for yourselves. If you let regular people up there, then we¡¯d all see that you¡¯ve exaggerated this whole thing, and then you¡¯d lose your grip on power! That¡¯s what it all comes down to in the end. Powerful people who want to hold onto it.¡± He seemed to sneer and smirk at the same time. ¡°I wager Harwyck didn¡¯t even need tobe abandoned! You Order types just wanted to move the Front Lines back so you don¡¯t have to travel so far for your cushy position. My cousin heard¡ª¡±


    ¡°Shut your useless cunt mouth,¡± someone else in the tavern bellowed, and there was a crash of broken glass as another man surged to his feet. Lucas turned to find a bear of a man looming over a table on the other side of the room. There¡¯d already been space cleared around him, and it wasn¡¯t difficult to see why: his clothes were filthy, his hair unkempt, and there was a wild look in his bloodshot eyes. ¡°You don¡¯t know shit about what happened in Harwyck, and yet you speak as if you have any kind of authority? I¡¯ll wring your scrawny neck!¡±


    There were a few dark murmurs of agreement. Those in the crowd who¡¯d been taking amusement in Nial¡¯s words didn¡¯t seem so impressed anymore¡ªnot necessarily because they were as offended as the giant man was, but many were likely now realising this situation could soon escalate beyond a drunken idiot raving about nonsense.


    Displaying the sell-preservation instincts of a lemming that had just seen its friend jump from a cliff, Nial retorted: ¡°Oh, from Harwyck, are you? Tell me, how much coin did they pay you to leave your home¡ª¡±


    The bear of a man flipped his table and stomped across the room. ¡°You know nothing!¡± he roared, his voice raw.


    Things rather devolved from there. Nial¡¯s friends rallied to defend him, but the massive man¡ªpresumably a resident of Harwyck or at least the county around it¡ªwas fighting like a berserker to get to him. He threw his full weight into a punch, and the first man to step into his path collapsed. In the next moment, the rest of them were on him. He fought like a man with nothing to lose, but he was outnumbered. Nial himself stayed at the back of the group, wide-eyed.


    Lucas reacted on instinct, calling out, ¡°Enough!¡± and trying to break things up, but those in the crowd who¡¯d been unimpressed by Nial¡¯s little speech came to the tall man¡¯s defence, and the ensuing moments were chaos.


    Florence pulled him away, moving hastily towards the back of the tavern, and when he looked back, he saw Valerie dragging Nial with her. In the sudden madness the tavern had devolved into, Nial¡¯s defenders didn¡¯t even realise a skycloak had him in a headlock. His face had gone purple, and he was thrashing desperately against Valerie¡¯s grip¡ªLucas almost commiserated with the man, for he knew how unbreakable that grip was.


    Barely pausing in her stride, Florence shouldered open the wooden door at the back of the tavern, smashing it off its hinges. The back room was full of barrels piled high, with staff cowering there, watching them with wide eyes. Florence led them straight through into what appeared to be a private area meant for workers and residents that ran behind the massive buildings. People had gathered, hearing the burgeoning melee that had overtaken the tavern. Some asked for explanation, but their group gave nothing, not halting for a moment.


    Florence picked a building seemingly at random, then shouldered through its door. Into a dark corridor they went, then through another door that led to a set of stairs down into a dusty old cellar. Lucas barely had time to look around in bafflement; before he could ask what they were doing here, Florence aimed a savage kick at one of the walls, and the sound it made wasn¡¯t right. There was an echo like someone had rung a gong, and the wall parted. The hidden door revealed yet another set of stairs, heading down into darkness.


    Once again, Florence barely broke stride, leading them down. Lucas, Valerie, and their red-faced captive followed, and the secret passage closed behind them with an ominous thunk. Figuring they were no longer likely to face combat, he reversed his grip on his mana, speeding it up instead and projecting it out around him in a sphere so he¡¯d at least have some idea of where he was going. They descended into darkness, and at this point Lucas was beyond bothering to try and ask questions. He had a decent idea of what was going on, anyway.


    It had been little more than a footnote in the education they¡¯d given him, an offhand mention. Dawnguard was old. The inner ring was said to have been built over 5,000 years ago. The second, where they were, could be dated back 3,800. Naturally, many things had changed over such immense timespans, the needs of the people shifting. Buildings fell or were obsolete or deemed unsafe, and were rebuilt. City planners saw that things were moving inefficiently, and decided a restructuring was in order. Hell, even in the last 100 years, Claire had decided some impoverished districts¡ªthe equivalent of shanty towns and such¡ªrequired upscaling. Homelessness was not tolerated in Dawnguard under her watch.


    But that was on the surface. Tearing down and rebuilding structures that had been dug into the ground itself was a far more difficult prospect, even with geomancers on hand. Or so they claimed. Lucas wasn¡¯t sure that made much sense, and suspected there was more to it.


    Regardless, it meant that there were a lot of underground spaces in the city that hadn¡¯t changed in a very long time. Nothing so extensive as a true subterranean network that spanned the entire city. Most only covered a few blocks at a time, former basement levels of long-demolished old palaces and that kind of thing.


    Among the many things skycloaks were expected to know, the sublevels of the city took fairly high precedence. While the Moontower suited almost all of their needs, it was always good to have safe houses to fall back to, and it was important to know where they were and who controlled them¡ªthe Order wasn¡¯t the only organisation with knowledge of these places, after all.


    Needless to say, Lucas didn¡¯t know a single one of them at this point. He just knew they were now inside one. And, glancing back into the darkness where he knew Valerie and her captive were following, he had a pretty good idea why they were down here.


    They didn¡¯t need to walk in pitch black for long. It couldn¡¯t have been more than a minute before Florence found another door, but she was much gentler with it this time. Pushing it open rather than kicking it down, Florence led them into a room that was only just a shade brighter than the total blackness they¡¯d just somehow navigated through, then released his arm. Squinting in the gloom, he could just about make out they were in a small room with one wall lined with chests, another with bunk beds enough for perhaps six people, and a third with stacked wooden tables and chairs. In all, it was barely ten paces wide, perfectly square. There was no discernable source for the greyish light that made the room visible even with his mana sense, which was eerie.


    Valerie wasted no time. She pulled her captive over to the side of the room with the tables and chairs, pulled out a chair, and sat him down on it. As soon as her grip on his neck was gone, Nial let out a wheezing cough, and sputtered, ¡°What in the five hells are you playing at. I have¡ª¡±


    His words cut off as Valerie slapped him hard enough that a glob of fluid went flying from his mouth. In the grey light, it was hard to tell if it was saliva or blood.


    Florence moved toclose the door, and silence settled on the room.


    ¡°Ser Nial, was it?¡± Valerie asked. She crouched down in front of him. ¡°In the interests of ensuring you¡¯re not at a disadvantage, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Valerie Vayon.¡±


    Nial went rigid and his breath hitched. In the gloom, his wide eyes looked almost comical.


    ¡°Now, I have some questions for you,¡± she continued casually.

 64: Desolate (8)

    Lucas didn¡¯t immediately comprehend what was happening here, somehow, but it didn¡¯t take him long to figure it out either. There weren¡¯t many other explanations for why Valerie had dragged the man down to a secret location below the city, and the fact that Florence had led the way without needing to be told ruled out a number of them. No communication had passed between the skycloaks. Something about the way the man was speaking, or the contents of what he said, had drawn their suspicion. Enough to act on.


    At least, Lucas really hoped that was the case. The idea of his allies snatching up a guy and interrogating him just because they didn''t like what he had to say didn''t seem plausible. Wouldn¡¯t fit with what he knew of them. Valerie was capable of extreme violence and wasn¡¯t afraid of making a threat, he recalled, but punishing an innocent¡ªasshole or not¡ªdidn¡¯t seem like her.


    Sure enough, and to his relief, Valerie¡¯s first question confirmed his suspicion: ¡°Have you, perhaps, accepted some coin from an unfamiliar man recently, Ser Nial?¡±


    The man¡¯s curled lip was faintly visible in the darkness. As were his trembling hands. ¡°I know what you¡¯re getting at. Can¡¯t even consider the possibility that a man might have a different opinion from your own, eh?¡±


    The bravado was actually somewhat impressive. Lucas didn¡¯t think he would¡¯ve been so composed in the man¡¯s situation, locked in a dark room with three people he¡¯d just been talking copious amounts of shit about, if indirectly. Well, perhaps not so indirectly in Lucas¡¯ case, but Nial didn¡¯t know that.


    ¡°I find it difficult to believe that a man in your situation would stubbornly stick to belligerence, despite clearly recognising the name I gave you. It¡¯s especially strange for an Aeyemi descendant to say the things you have. Your fear is clear. Your motivations are not, and I will learn them.¡±


    Nial laced his fingers together in his lap and went still. But it was a tense stillness rather than any kind of relaxation. Obvious, even to Lucas. The man clearly hadn¡¯t any practice in hiding his emotions.¡°My motivations are contempt for you and your people, demon bitch. No coin needed here.¡±


    Valerie''s backhand slap snapped his head to one side. ¡°Well, I do believe that was at least partially the truth.¡± She paused, letting that statement hang. ¡°Perhaps the man was not someone unfamiliar to you. Perhaps he knew he didn''t have to give you coin at all. I think you were more than happy to follow orders and spread those opinions for free.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s no man involved here,¡± Nial growled. ¡°Just me. And yeah, more than happy to tell people what I think of you useless shits.¡±


    Florence interjected. ¡°What has you so against the Order, Ser Nial? Surely you can¡¯t think the city, or Mornlunn as a whole, would be better off without us?¡±


    ¡°I absolutely do! You people have failed for far too long. It¡¯s about time someone else took charge of things and really brought the fight to the demon bastards!¡±


    There was a beat of silence. Valerie broke it with a hint of anger in her voice, ¡°If it wasn¡¯t already obvious you haven¡¯t been to the Blighted Lands and thus have no idea what you¡¯re talking about, you just confirmed it for me.¡±


    ¡°Yeah? How¡¯s that?¡±


    She ignored him. ¡°Moreover, that¡¯s quite the extreme position. Most of the groups arrayed against the Order recognise the need for its continued existence, and very few of those remaining talk about arming the people for an all out assault against the Demon Lord¡¯s forces. Aerth¡¯s Order, True Aerthians, People¡¯s Liberation, New Dawn¡ª Ah. New Dawn then, is it?¡±


    Nial¡¯s posture hadn¡¯t changed from his rigid tension, as far as Lucas could see. Evidently, Valerie had a keener eye for such things. Which probably went without saying. Interrogation techniques and cold reading hadn¡¯t been in his skillset before arriving here, and he hadn¡¯t yet had cause to learn them since. They were somewhere on his training curriculum, but low priority. Something they¡¯d get to¡­ eventually. When there was more time, more resources.


    ¡°Have you heard of New Dawn, Florence?¡± Valerie asked, keeping her eyes on Nial.


    ¡°I have,¡± she said. Looking at her, her expression seemed almost pitying. An interesting take on the good cop, bad cop routine. They kind of seemed like two different flavours of bad cop to Lucas, in this context. At least they weren¡¯t torturing the guy. ¡°From what I recall, they¡¯re a fairly new group, formed some time after the 100th anniversary of the Great Summoning, and their goals are¡­ Well, now that I think of it, rather similar to what Ser Nial was advocating for.¡±


    ¡°An intriguing coincidence,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Indeed,¡± Florence agreed. ¡°So is that it, Ser Nial? Does New Dawn have its street level grunts out working the taverns, stirring up the public and trying to recruit for your glorious revolution?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about,¡± Nial said, but the tension in his voice was painfully audible. No interrogation knowledge needed to hear that.


    ¡°Were you instructed to sew discord before the barrier went up or after?¡± Valerie asked. ¡°I can imagine the event sent your superiors into quite the panic, if they were truly delusional enough to believe they could overthrow the Order?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t need no instructions,¡± Nial said, ignoring the latter question. His belligerent tone had faded almost entirely in a remarkably short time, and now he just sounded bitter. ¡°You lot think you¡¯re so superior to the rest of us. Can¡¯t imagine people don¡¯t worship the ground you walk on just because you live in the same ivory fucking tower as one of the Great Heroes.¡± He spat the last two words with an impressive amount of venom for a man clearly holding himself still so he wouldn¡¯t tremble too obviously. ¡°Here¡¯s the truth for you: half this city fucking hates you!¡±


    Valerie rested her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Nial winced. ¡°Do calm down, Ser Nial,¡± she said with mock sympathy. ¡°Getting so emotional may be bad for your health.¡±


    ¡°That a fact, huh?¡± Nial grit out through clenched teeth. ¡°Heard you know a thing or two about that, Vayon. Heard a lot of things about you.¡±


    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sure you have. But we¡¯re not here to talk about me.¡± Holding him in place with the hand on his shoulder, she buried the other deep in his gut. He let out a pained gasp and his body tensed like it wanted to double over, but Valerie was keeping him upright.


    Lucas¡¯ stomach turned, and it wasn¡¯t merely out of sympathy for the blow Nial had just taken. He opened his mouth, but didn¡¯t know what he would say. Instead, he turned away. The door was closed, and a good few-hundred metres of dark passageway spread out beyond it, eventually reaching a hidden door in the cellar of a regular building. No one would hear anything happening down here. That was the point.


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    ¡°We¡¯re not even here to talk about you, really,¡± Valerie continued. ¡°Whether or not you zealously believe in your words is immaterial. The fact remains that you are clearly spreading propaganda on behalf of an organisation that opposes the Order in principle and in fact. I would know why.¡±


    ¡°How does someone like you stay loyal to the Order, if even half the shit they say is true,¡± Nial wheezed, ignoring her question. There was another thump, and the man let out a groan.


    ¡°New Dawn is evidently trying to recruit more members. I would know why.¡±


    Nial was breathing heavily now. He gasped out, ¡°They locked you in chains when your age could still be counted on a man¡¯s fingers. What kind of people do that? Is that deserving of loyalty, of elevation to the highest possible position in our society? Do you really believe¡ª¡±


    He seemed to choke on his words as another thump landed. This time, though, he laughed.


    ¡°Go on then, Vayon. Beat me to death in a dark room and dump my corpse in one of those legendary underground rivers people are always telling tall tales about. It won¡¯t matter. I¡¯m insignificant, like you said. Just some guy who goes places and speaks his mind and hopes people listen enough to actually think about his words. Even if I¡¯m gone, the sun will still come up tomorrow. It always does. And one day, it will inevitably rise on a world with new Order. Who can say what form that will take? Maybe Lucas Brown will show up and take charge. Maybe Lady Claire will decide to make a bunch of reforms. Maybe Lord Jamie or Lord Rian will decide to come back into the fold, or maybe even Lady fuckin¡¯ Aarya will resurrect from the dead and get everyone working together again.¡±


    He paused as Lucas snapped back around to face him, but his grin only widened, focused on Valerie. ¡°Or maybe someone will come along and do something better, with something that doesn¡¯t involve a bunch of clueless nobodies from another world. Doesn¡¯t have to be this New Dawn group you keep talking about. Could be one of the other ones you mentioned, or one of the fuckin¡¯ hundreds of other enemies you fuckers have made in Dawnguard. It doesn¡¯t matter. One day Aerthians will take back our own destiny, and the Order will have to choose.¡±


    A beat passed in silence. Nial was grinning like a man who¡¯d just achieved his greatest triumph, though his eyes were still pained. Valerie stared back at him, unimpressed, while Florence lingered over them both. Lucas found himself feeling somewhat adrift, like he was disconnected from himself, watching this all unfold from a great distance.


    Something snapped.


    ¡°Do you think the five heroes wanted this burden?¡± Lucas heard himself asking.


    Nial¡¯s gaze snapped to him, his mouth falling open like the bottom half of his jaw had disconnected from his skull.


    ¡°You talk like the heroes are a group of foreign tyrants who came here to oppress and enslave your people for their own selfish ends. Why? Surely you know the history, that they were summoned here by a gathering of the greatest wands on Aerth at the time, thousands of them sacrificing themselves to ensure their prophesied saviours would possess great power. In that story, does it ever mention whether the heroes were asked their opinion on the matter?¡±


    ¡°Aeyemir,¡± Nial whispered.


    ¡°As far as I¡¯m aware, it doesn¡¯t. Know why? Because they weren¡¯t asked their opinion. They were just snatched from whatever they were doing at the time without so much as an apology, and dragged here into a war for the fate of an entire world and told they had to fix it. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ve been imperfect. I have no doubt they¡¯ve made mistakes, and they¡¯ll continue to make more. But they¡¯re here because your people placed that burden on them. They rose to the challenge because it was the right thing to do, but they didn¡¯t choose it. I wish more people like you remembered that.¡±


    Nial swallowed audibly. His trembling eyes were going back and forth between Lucas and his two companions, but undoubtedly his gaze lingered on Lucas the longest. ¡°You¡¯re speaking Aeyemir,¡± he said with a small voice, all his triumph washed away.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m speaking English, and the special magic your ancestors wove into my soul is translating it into your native tongue,¡± Lucas said. He took a step forward and leaned down in front of the trembling man, Valerie shifting to make room. ¡°I¡¯m Lucas fucking Brown, if you hadn¡¯t figured that out yet. Apparently that makes me a big deal here.¡±


    The man closed his eyes and shuddered.


    Lucas head felt like it was burning. He was so tired of hearing people¡¯s opinions on him, as if he¡¯d had any say in arriving 100 years after his friends. ¡°You were right. Things are going to change in this city. In this world. I¡¯m going to find Jamie and Rian and Claire and Aarya, and the four of us together are going to kick the Demon Lord¡¯s shit in, because there¡¯s nothing the five of us can¡¯t do together. One day the sun will rise on a world with no demons in it, no blight or beasts. It¡¯ll be a world ruled by Aerthians, ready to rebuild after a century of strife.¡± Lucas paused, feeling like he was staring through Nial¡¯s face, barely seeing him. ¡°Unfortunately, it¡¯s becoming abundantly clear there¡¯s going to be a bunch of people standing in the way of that. People with a myriad of old grievances dating back to before I arrived here. Personal feuds. Politics. Generational grudges. And you know what? I don¡¯t care about the context. I don¡¯t give a flying fuck about any of it. The only thing that matters is this: finding my friends, and making sure they can all make it back home with me. If that means we have to go through some apocalyptic demonic threat to get there? Fine. If that means we have to go through a bunch of people too? So be it. I don¡¯t want to, but I will.¡±


    He placed his hand on Nial¡¯s shoulder, opposite Valerie¡¯s. The man cracked open his eyes.


    ¡°Your Breaking Dawn group, or whoever they are¡­¡°


    ¡°New Dawn,¡± Nial murmured.


    ¡°Right, them. New Dawn can get on my side, or get out of the way. Did you see the barrier go up around the tower? That was a sign. An omen. A precursor for what¡¯s to come. The Order hasn¡¯t bothered to waste its time with groups like yours before now. Presumably Claire didn¡¯t think it would be worth the resources. I¡¯m changing that. Unifying everyone, just like you claimed to want.¡± He paused, leaning forward until the man¡¯s face filled almost all of his field of vision. ¡°But here¡¯s the thing, Ser Nial. We¡¯re not gonna tolerate people plotting to put a knife in my back before I can get to this Demon Lord guy. If my life¡¯s in danger, well¡­ I don¡¯t like it, but groups like yours are gonna have to go, one way or the other. It seemed like you were relying on the idea that you¡¯d be able to manoeuvre against the Order and they¡¯d kinda just watch you coming. Well, now I have them mobilising, and they¡¯re going to hunt you all down.¡±


    Nial shuddered again. He whispered, ¡°You say all this, then claim you¡¯re not a tyrant.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t fucking want to be,¡± Lucas snapped. ¡°I want to grab my friends and go home, but I¡¯m not an asshole, so I¡¯ll use this crazy magic your people gave me and go solve your problem before we leave.¡± He stopped to take a calming breath. ¡°Here¡¯s the deal, Ser Nial. You know my identity now, and so the only way either of these two are letting you leave here alive is if I order them.¡±


    Their silence was agreement enough.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to order them,¡± Lucas said, and he wasn¡¯t sure if he was lying or not, at this point. It didn''t feel like something he would sanction. But what choice did he have?


    ¡°I¡¯m prepared,¡± Ser Nial whispered.


    ¡°Your life is one thing,¡± Lucas said. ¡°The rest of your New Dawn group is another. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s people you care about among their ranks, right?¡±


    Nial closed his eyes as if pained.


    ¡°If you tell me about them and what they¡¯re planning, maybe we can foil their plot in a way that ends with them alive and, perhaps, forgiven. Maybe they¡¯ll even have their freedom.¡± Lucas squeezed Nial¡¯s shoulder, hard. ¡°Otherwise, the Order will simply have to respond to your plotting with overwhelming force. What¡¯s it going to be?¡±


    Nial answered.

 65: Desolate (9)

    When it was done, they left the dark room behind. Lucas wasn¡¯t paying much attention to where they were going, but in the darkness he was sure he wouldn¡¯t have been able to keep track anyway. Even so, he kept his eyes forwards, not daring to look back at Valerie and what she carried. He didn¡¯t even spread out his mana sense.


    It was clear Florence had a new destination in mind. She moved with purpose through the all-concealing darkness, taking them on a long and winding route until the air around them abruptly changed, their footsteps echoing off the walls like they were suddenly in a cavern. After a moment, Florence¡¯s glaive appeared in her hand, and its red blade glowed like a torch. She kept it low, illuminating the ground as she slowly moved around the large room, searching for something. It all looked like damp dirt to Lucas, but she eventually came to a stop and let the tip of her blade sink an inch into the ground.


    ¡°Here,¡± she said.


    A burst of magical energy followed, and the room seemed to groan. The floor trembled. Lucas barely had a moment to wonder what was happening before the ground parted beneath Florence¡¯s glaive like a trap door had been opened. It wasn¡¯t large, barely a metre squared. Within, the darkness seemed to swallow the light of Florence¡¯s weapon. There was a metallic smell in the air, all of a sudden.


    Lucas swallowed.


    Valerie stepped past him, hefting her burden over one shoulder. With no ceremony, she let the dark sack drop into the hole, where it vanished. There was no sound of it hitting the bottom, even after long seconds. A beat later, the hole closed without a hint of the noise it had made upon opening.


    ¡°So that¡¯s it?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°That¡¯s it,¡± Valerie replied. ¡°The body will swiftly find its way to another area, where people will be waiting to perform his fifth rites.¡± Shadows danced on her face, mixing with the rosy reds of the light from Florence¡¯s glaive. She was looking at him. He found he couldn¡¯t meet her eyes. ¡°You made the correct decision today,¡± she said.


    ¡°You feared I¡¯d take pity on him,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°I was prepared for an argument,¡± she admitted. ¡°But not the one we ended up having.¡±


    ¡°For what it''s worth,¡± Florence added, ¡°I believe that was brave of you. In a way, one might even call it noble.¡±


    Lucas shook his head so hard he felt something twinge in his neck. ¡°No fucking way am I ever going to call something like that noble. It¡¯s¡­ He was a person. I keep thinking back to when I first woke up in this place, when I found a bunch of old human remains in Pentaburgh. I spent so long thinking about them, agonising over who they were, their hopes and dreams, and stuff like that. It haunted me, for a little while.¡± He let out a sigh, looking up as if he might see the sky through however many metres of earth and rock stood between them and the surface. ¡°I know some of that stuff about him already, but I still wonder how long I¡¯m gonna end up thinking about Ser Nial.¡±


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t devote much thought to him at all,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Men who work against the interests of Aerth deserve no pity, Lord Lucas.¡±


    ¡°He thought he was working for the interests of Aerth. That¡¯s the problem. How many more people like him will I have to face before all this is done, do you think?¡±


    ¡°Too many to count,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°New Dawn, for a start,¡± Valerie said.


    Lucas considered that. He drew in a shaky breath. His hands wouldn¡¯t stop trembling at his sides, and he dearly wished he had some pockets to stuff them in to hide it. The best he could do for now was pull his cloak around himself, but that just made him look even more vulnerable. ¡°How much of what he said was true?¡± He wondered aloud.


    ¡°Much of it lines up with what I already knew about the group,¡± Valerie said. ¡°They were founded on the 100th anniversary of the Great Summoning by people who were discontent with the current strategy employed by the Order and humanity as a whole. They wanted to devote all of society in its entirety to the war effort against the Demon Lord, which sounds logical on the surface of it, but the reality of the Blighted Lands is not so simply solved as sending more people at the problem.¡±


    ¡°But the actual plan?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°If you can even call that a plan,¡± Florence grumbled.


    ¡°I got the impression Ser Nial didn¡¯t know most of it,¡± Valerie admitted. ¡°He was, as he said, a low-level grunt.¡±


    Lucas sighed. ¡°Yeah.¡±


    They hadn¡¯t needed to torture the man, in the end. Lucas didn¡¯t know what had been going through Nial¡¯s head, but he¡¯d been much more willing to answer questions after Lucas¡¯ little speech. Perhaps too willing. He''d sometimes been in such a rush to speak, it was like his words were getting jumbled up and tripping over themselves. It had seemed like they needed to stop him every other sentence to clarify what the hell he was saying.


    First, he¡¯d told them of the group¡¯s immediate goals.


    ¡°The most important thing,¡± he¡¯d said with a trembling voice, any sense of bravado having vanished, ¡°is getting people to see the¡­ uh, the truth as we saw it. Not just recruiting, but for stirring people up, getting them thinking about the Order and how ineffective they are. I weren¡¯t lying, earlier. My job¡¯s only to talk and hope people listen. I ain¡¯t a warrior. Or an assassin. Not even bonded with any of the classes. I can just talk loud. But that was enough for now. The goal is to push the people of Dawnguard and beyond to take our side when things get messy.¡± He¡¯d paused, swallowed. ¡°Like, say, if a skycloak gets ambushed down a dark alley. Maybe in that situation we¡¯d want people thinking about the things we¡¯ve been saying, and they might decide to look the other way, forget to call for help, y¡¯know? Maybe some of them would even join in on our guys¡¯ side.¡±


    ¡°Are there any specific plans for ambushes?¡± Valerie had asked. Lucas had been staring at Nial, but he¡¯d heard the dark undertone in Valerie¡¯s voice, and knew what Nial had likely been seeing in her visage just from the way the man reared back like a beast had just appeared in the dark underground room.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know the specifics,¡± he¡¯d cried. Then he¡¯d flinched back further, practically falling from his chair. ¡°I just know general locations. Areas we went people more stirred up, more angry.¡±


    Valerie had extracted those locations from him. Many of the names were familiar only as terms Lucas had heard in lessons, while others were new, but he assumed Valerie and Florence knew them all.


    After that was done, and Nial had regained some of his composure, he had spoke of how he¡¯d been recruited to New Dawn.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s the thing. I was doing it for free, before. Getting too deep in my cups and going on all these rants about the shit that dissatisfied me about the world. Order included. Someone heard me in the tavern one night, a man called Harald, and he had some opinions of his own, and they brought all my thoughts together. They sounded right.¡± Nial briefly regained his backbone then. He¡¯d looked Lucas in the eye. ¡°I still do believe it, you know. That we¡¯d be better off fighting our own war, all of us together. An army of millions.¡±


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    It took a bit longer to get a semi-coherent picture of New Dawn¡¯s organisation, not least because Nial wasn¡¯t clear on it himself.


    ¡°A guy like me don¡¯t need to know everything. I showed up to a few meetings and heard a few names: Harald who recruited me, of course. Then there¡¯s Malle, Tym, and Ella, who seemed to be the big shots. Wands, I reckon. Wore those special robes with the hoods that hide half their faces. They¡¯re who Harald reported to, at least, and I figure there were a bunch of others like him, recruiting. People he talked to like they were equals rather than subordinates. Mykael, Lorean, Domar, Zere, and a load more. The group had resources, plenty of coin to go around and weapons for people who do that sort of thing. I know a guy who they gave a sword to bond with.


    ¡°And obviously, there¡¯s the guys you saw with me back at the tavern. All New Dawn guys. Fighters, the lot. There to make sure everyone knew I wasn¡¯t some drunk fool to be ignored, but just one among many who thought that way. Good men, all of them. I¡¯d call them friends. If you can spare anyone from New Dawn, it should be them.¡±


    Then, Nial had largely shifted into speculation, narrating how he imagined it all would have gone, in his perfect world.


    ¡°Once we¡¯d bashed a few heads in, and the people had taken our side, the Order would have had to see that the will of Dawnguard and Mornlunn¡¯s populace were against them, and stepped down. Maybe they even would have brought Lady Claire to us in order to spare themselves. We would have allowed them to redeem themselves, because every Aerthian should have a right to take up arms in defence of our world, and the fact is they know the Blight and how to fight it. They would¡¯a trained us all, armed everyone to go after the demons. The Order has been holding the lines with, what? A hundred thousand warriors, is it? That¡¯s what they say, isn''t it? Imagine how we¡¯d do with millions. Tens of millions. The Demon Lord wouldn¡¯t stand a chance, as long as Aerth stood up on its own two feet and took the future into its own hands.¡±


    Valerie had slapped him then, and something had flown from his mouth and clinked on the stone floor. Closer inspection revealed a broken tooth. She¡¯d had to retreat to the other side of the room after that, barely able to even look at the man without descending into rage. Lucas had done his best with lunar mana, but she was as agitated as he¡¯d ever seen her.


    They¡¯d only gotten a bit more useful information from Nial after that. Hints at other cells working in other places. Speculation about potential ambushes. Key figures the group had been discussing in their meetings, such as the Masters of the Order, Stewards, Generals, Captains, and other prominent individuals they suspected would be too loyal to back down. Florence and Valerie¡¯s names were both known to the man, but he hadn¡¯t been able to say whether they were targets for ambush.


    Finally, Nial had spoken about himself. Lucas wasn¡¯t sure why. Maybe it was a play for sympathy, a last desperate attempt from a man who was facing his own end and held out some vain hope he could hold it off if he just found the right combination of words.


    ¡°I¡¯m descended from Aeyemi refugees,¡± he¡¯d said, despondent eyes fixed on the ground beneath his feet. ¡°My homeland was the first to be overrun, a hundred years ago. Our people never fit in anywhere because of it. Stupid fucking superstitions. Whether it¡¯s idiots thinking we caused the Blight directly, paranoid bastards calling us agents of the Demon Lord, or uneducated peasants who reckon the current state of the world is a punishment for some ancient crime Aeyem committed, folk don¡¯t trust us. That¡¯s why I try to hide it. Perfect fucking Mornish accent. No one knows I¡¯m an Aeyemi descendant unless I tell them, and I sure as the five hells don¡¯t tell anyone that.¡±


    ¡°And how did you come to hate the Order because of that?¡± Lucas had asked, morbidly curious. ¡°I met a woman who hated us because we were too late to save her home. But your ancestral home was literally the first. Seems unreasonable to resent the Order for failing to prevent a disaster it had no reason to know was coming.¡±


    ¡°I saw skycloaks every day, strutting around like they own the place, like they¡¯re a gift to the world because they happen to work for one of the great heroes. Our people should have the chance to forge our own destiny, and fight for our world in the way we see fit, not how some summoned hero from another world tells us is the best way.¡± His eyes had flicked to Valerie, probably sensing he wasn¡¯t winning sympathy here, then back to Lucas. He looked pleading. ¡°All my life, I¡¯ve had people look at me like I¡¯m a fucking soldier for the Demon Lord himself as soon as I opened my mouth and they heard my accent, before I learned to speak all proper Mornish. I just want to prove I¡¯m human. I¡¯m a man of Aerth. That¡¯s all it is.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t a bad play, admittedly. A part of Lucas had wanted to give him clemency, to trust that the man would be able to give his word and go hide out without giving away any of Lucas¡¯ secrets. But he just couldn¡¯t take that chance. Two people had already died for his secret, and he¡¯d been a lot more attached to them at the time than this man. He couldn¡¯t let Jyn and Rena¡¯s deaths be for nothing.


    But then came a problem, of sorts.


    When they¡¯d gotten all they could out of the man, Valerie had summoned her moonlight blade. He¡¯d tried to scramble away, but Florence was faster, grabbing him by the shoulders and holding him in place.


    Lucas¡¯ stomach had squirmed, and at first he¡¯d had the impulse to look away, just as he had when Valerie had been roughing him up. But then something had snapped again, and it was like acid was pouring down his throat and burning his lungs. A burning had spread through him, but somehow it wasn¡¯t painful.


    Jam had stirred in his chest, the alert monster cutting its attention to its immediate surroundings and acknowledging Lucas¡¯ actions for the first time since the forces from Harwyck had returned. Lucas had stepped up to Valerie and grabbed her arm. She¡¯d turned to him then with a look of deep irritation which she quickly wiped away, and he knew she¡¯d been expecting him to order that they spare the man.


    He had given her an order. But not the one she¡¯d anticipated.


    ¡°Give me your sword,¡± he¡¯d commanded her. ¡°And show me how to do this in the least painful way possible.¡±


    They¡¯d both tried to argue against it, clearly anticipating the stress it would put on him, but he¡¯d been adamant.


    If someone was going to die to keep his secret safe, he wasn¡¯t going to take the cowardly way of letting someone else do the dirty work. People were going to lose their lives at his command and his hand, and he needed to start somewhere.


    Now, staring at the spot in the floor where Valerie had dumped Nial¡¯s lifeless body, he wondered about that decision. His hands still shook. He still felt like he was sucking in every breath through a straw. He¡¯d be surprised if the rattling sound the man had made would ever stop echoing in his head. It had been too simple, too easy. The sword had plunged straight through Nial¡¯s chest like the ribs didn¡¯t even exist. Nial¡¯s eyes had been wide, and his mouth had been moving, desperate pleas tumbling out and falling on deaf ears.


    And when it was done, the man¡¯s soul¡ªor whatever the hell that energy was¡ªhad risen from his body like a ghost and made a beeline right for Lucas¡¯ chest. The familiar feeling of power had surged through him, with Jam drinking his own fill. There¡¯d been a dichotomy, then, between the physical and the mental. How could one part of him feel so good while the other was screaming?


    Lucas closed his eyes, took another breath. ¡°We offer mercy where we can,¡± he said. ¡°If we can spare people, we should. But we give them only one chance.¡±


    ¡°Agreed,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°We will offer no recourse to anyone who attacks us first,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Of course not,¡± Lucas said. ¡°If they leave us with no other choice, then that¡¯s it. We kill them. These New Dawn people¡­ I can¡¯t imagine any of them will be convinced, if they¡¯re like Ser Nial. We¡¯re probably going to see a lot more violence.¡±


    ¡°No one likes taking a life,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°No one sane, anyway,¡± Florence agreed. ¡°It¡¯s good that you feel this way about it. But you mustn¡¯t let it linger. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that men who want to kill you will stand in your way, and the only way to move them aside will be to kill them.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lucas said, feeling like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. ¡°That¡¯s why I asked you to let me do it. I hoped it would¡­ I don¡¯t know, help me desensitise. I didn¡¯t want my first kill to be in the heat of the moment, something that might distract me at a critical time like in the midst of a battle.¡±


    ¡°It was brave of you to do so,¡± Florence said, repeating her earlier compliment.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t feel like it,¡± Lucas said. He shook his head. ¡°But I guess I¡¯ll have more chances to learn to feel courageous for killing someone in the near future. We have some traps to spring.¡±

 66: Inviolate (1)

    Eventually, they emerged into a different cellar to the one they¡¯d arrived in, but they didn¡¯t immediately ascend through the building. It was brighter here, little hints of light peeking in from the gaps in a rickety old wooden door at the top of a staircase. They waited as they adjusted, but still remained once Lucas could see. It seemed they were waiting for him to make the first move. Instead, he took a moment to just¡­ breathe.


    The cellar was empty, every surface covered in a thin film of dust. The room itself was barely wider than the staircase; he wouldn¡¯t have been able to stretch his arms to full length in each direction. It was strangely tall, though, easily twice his height with little cubbies cut into the walls like shelves. They¡¯d emerged from the back wall, and it was like walking into another of the corridors, just with a little more light. A markedly odd place, but that matched with his current mood somewhat, so he didn¡¯t hate it.


    In truth, Lucas felt like he was living a dream-like bizarro world. His mind just couldn¡¯t make sense of the fact he¡¯d killed someone, no matter how he rationalised it. A matter of months ago, he¡¯d been a relatively normal guy, all things considered. A regular student in a medium-sized city in England. Much fitter than average, and he¡¯d always done well enough on tests, but he¡¯d always thought he was destined for a simple life, even if he hadn¡¯t known what shape that would take, yet.


    It wasn¡¯t even necessarily guilt hitting him now¡ªit was something more like sheer disbelief. The idea that he¡¯d find himself killing another human being had never even occurred to him back on Earth. It seemed so far outside the realms of possibility back then. Not worth considering. Not even for a second.


    Honestly, he was starting to wonder if it would have been better to just let the ¡®first time¡¯ come in the heat of battle, because at least in that case he would have had the immediate aftermath to distract him. Now, he¡¯d been alone with his thoughts on their trek through the underground passageways beneath Dawnguard, and he couldn¡¯t stop dwelling on the surreality of it all. Him. Lucas Brown. A killer. Anyone who¡¯d known him back on Earth probably would¡¯ve laughed at the concept. He¡¯d never been a pushover by any means, but he wasn¡¯t the macho guy who went around starting fights, either.


    But then, what would anyone from back home have said about Jamie, Rian, Aarya, or Claire? They didn¡¯t seem the killing type, either. Or world-saving heroes. This situation would forge a new person out of anyone, and he was no different. He saw the future stretching out before him now, clearer than ever before. In a paradoxical way, the surreality of the day brought the oncoming reality into greater clarity.


    And in it, he saw himself. Wielding a sword, aiming a bow, holding a shield, waving a wand. A path lined with corpses stretched out behind him, with the Demon Lord and his forces still arrayed ahead.


    It wasn¡¯t a nice thought. But it was his reality. Ser Nial would be far from the last man to die at Lucas¡¯ hand, and he had no choice but to face that. Unremarkable as he thought himself to be, he at least fancied he had the courage to forge forward, as long as he knew he¡¯d be reunited with his friends. That was what mattered.


    Lucas reached within his cloak, letting the tips of his fingers trace the outline of the little wooden box he¡¯d placed in one of the cloak¡¯s inner pockets. He couldn¡¯t bring himself to leave the compass behind. It told him Jamie was out there somewhere, and the temptation to go follow it was horribly enticing at that moment, for a multitude of reasons.


    Not least of which was the upcoming violence he¡¯d unleashed on Dawnguard. ¡°So, how do we play this?¡± Lucas asked. ¡°I assume the Order will want to put together some kind of official operations to suppress this group.¡±


    Valerie and Florence had been watching him in silence, and they exchanged a look at his words.


    ¡°First, we¡¯ll pass on our information to Meyah, Master of Security,¡± Valerie said slowly. ¡°It¡¯s her job to gather intelligence related to such things. And she¡¯ll have a greater picture of the factions manoeuvring within the city, and what resources the Order have to deal with them. She won¡¯t be the only one making decisions, but her input will have a large influence on what groups are prioritised.¡±


    ¡°Will we be able to get ourselves assigned to it?¡± Lucas asked.


    Valerie watched him for a moment, icy eyes inscrutable. ¡°We can try to make it happen, if that¡¯s what you wish.¡±


    ¡°It is,¡± Lucas said. ¡°I¡¯m involved directly with this group now. I feel obligated to see it through to the end, make sure I keep my word that the people Ser Nial cares¡ªcared about are given the chance to surrender.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good that you recognise they may not cooperate,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Can¡¯t exactly expect people who¡¯d join a group like that to be reasonable, can I?¡± Lucas said dryly. He shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not going to put myself in danger out of obligation to a man who¡¯ll never know the difference, but I¡¯ll at least try to let his people leave with their lives. In an ideal world, we manage to sniff out all this New Dawn group¡¯s plots and foil them before anyone gets hurt. But I¡¯m not expecting it to go that way.¡±


    Valerie nodded.


    ¡°And how are you feeling about all this?¡± Florence asked. There was no gentleness to her voice. She wasn¡¯t acting like he was going to blow up at any moment. Which he appreciated, he supposed.


    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ it is what it is,¡± Lucas said with a helpless shrug. ¡°How did you two feel after your first time killing a person?¡±


    Valerie and Florence exchanged a look. For some reason, Valerie¡¯s lips twitched like she was trying not to smile. ¡°My circumstances were rather different than yours, Lord Lucas. For one thing, I was a child.¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± Lucas said, feeling like an idiot. Part of him wanted to turn back and lock himself in the underground now.


    ¡°It''s not quite so traumatic as you might be imagining, though I admit things got a lot worse immediately after, to the point I didn''t dwell on the first very much.¡±


    ¡°That sounds pretty bad,¡± Lucas said


    Florence was grimacing as she watched her comrade in silence.


    Valerie didn''t seem to notice. She tilted her head, gazing off to the side towards the wall, but clearly not seeing it, instead watching something far distant. ¡°It was a guard from my town. I didn¡¯t know him well, and his name has long escaped me now, as most of them have. I had been declared missing, and there was a grand search out for me. The thing I remember most is the look of relief on his face when he found me. There was a gap in his teeth when he smiled, and his shoulders slumped like he¡¯d just dropped something heavy. My memory is somewhat blurred. Next thing I knew, my hands were buried in his chest. Lady Claire says my recollection may be inaccurate, but I believe she was merely trying to soften the blow that I¡¯d killed almost everyone I ever knew and loved when she was telling me that.¡±


    Lucas drew in a shuddering breath. ¡°Fucking hell, Valerie. You say that¡¯s not traumatising?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say it¡¯s not traumatising.¡± She frowned, still staring at the wall. ¡°Just that my first kill wasn¡¯t so traumatic as you might be imagining; I knew the man, but he wasn¡¯t particularly close to me, compared to others. It could have been much worse. Honestly, I haven¡¯t dwelt on him much. Other things to think about.¡±


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    Even Florence¡¯s eyes were wide. ¡°My first kill was a bandit leader who liked to cut off the ears of his victims as trophies, when we were in the academy,¡± she said.


    ¡°Ah, yes. I remember that,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°You should talk about these things more, Val,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°Why? Bringing up these memories just causes me great distress, and, in case you hadn¡¯t noticed, it¡¯s generally agreed that I should avoid excess emotion as much as possible.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not healthy, and not fair on you.¡±


    ¡°Gotta agree there,¡± Lucas murmured, feeling thoroughly guilty for even thinking his first kill merited any kind of consideration from these women, at this point. Even Florence¡¯s had to be far worse than his. The Academy, she¡¯d said. Technically, there was no age limit on the place, but she seemed to be the same age as Valerie, and they¡¯d gone up through the ranks together.


    Fucking hell, he thought. This world was a cruel place.


    He shook his head as if to dislodge all these dark thoughts, and took a step forward, gesturing for his companions to lead on. It wasn¡¯t fair to them to dredge up all these dark memories for the sake of comforting him in his time of self-pity. ¡°Let¡¯s get back,¡± he said.


    Thankfully, they complied without complaint.


    Night had fallen when they found their way back to street level. Poles with dim crystals hanging from them acted as street lights, doing a surprisingly good job of fighting off the darkness. The building they emerged from was a smaller one by the standards of Dawnguard, standing at a measly five stories of pale wood and red stone. They had to navigate through some kitchens and a now-empty dining hall on their way to the exit, but they encountered no one. The street they found themselves on was quieter, practically a back-alley compared to the main road they¡¯d travelled earlier.


    Florence took the lead once more, leading them on a winding route that Lucas figured was meant to avoid the area of the tavern they¡¯d entered what felt like a lifetime ago. They didn¡¯t want to encounter Nial¡¯s friends right now. It felt like it would be a bit of a dick move if they ended up having to kill the very people Lucas had implicitly promised to spare that very same night. They had to rejoin the road to get through the gate into the inner ring of the city, but by then the risk wasn¡¯t as high. The Moontower loomed in the distance, its barrier shimmering in the air like a luminescent silk curtain. Interestingly, from this perspective, travelling up the Road of the Star, a bright star twinkled just beyond the Moontower¡¯s very tip.


    Curious, Lucas asked about it. Valerie seemed lost in thought, so it was Florence who replied after a second of hesitation, ¡°I¡¯m not as well read on folklore as I should be, so I can¡¯t give an in depth explanation, but it¡¯s known as the Morning Star. The story goes that it always leads travellers back to Mornlunn, wherever you are in the world.¡±


    ¡°And does it?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°Well, I can¡¯t speak for anywhere in the world,¡± Florence said. ¡°But it was certainly visible north of me when I was on missions to the south of Mornlunn.¡±


    They were silent the rest of the way back to the tower. Their gait was unhurried, not wanting to draw attention to themselves by looking like they were in a rush or fleeing. Still, Lucas felt more and more eyes on them as they walked, raising his trepidation, but no one stopped them or called out to them. In fact, they saw no issue until they reached the gates to the Order¡¯s territory itself, where it seemed a crowd still lingered even after sunset. There was no particular hubbub going on, and he could hear no raised voices, but there were definitely at least ten times as many people there now as there had been when they¡¯d set out.


    Once again, he found himself watching the crowd as they passed. He wondered how many of them were there to gather information on the Order for nefarious purposes. He wondered if there was anyone who¡¯d be reporting to New Dawn. What were those leaders Nial had named¡ªMalle, Tym, and Ella¡ªthinking, right now? Were they moving to exploit the situation? Were they panicking, thinking their plans had been exposed and that the Order¡¯s kill squads would be coming for them?


    A vindictive part of him hoped they were scared. The people who¡¯d indirectly forced him to become a killer deserved at least that much.


    They passed through the gates without incident, the guards letting them through after just a glance once they were past the barrier. There were security protocols in place, but they were largely secondary concerns when the barrier was active; they knew anyone who could pass it safely was not hostile to the Order.


    Jam had settled down like a cat after a meal, but now perked up once more, back to alert. Lucas¡¯ heart rate spiked, looking around for some sign of danger, but there was nothing. Not that he could see, anyway. Something about his demeanour must have alerted his comrades, because they closed in on either side of him, at attention.


    ¡°Okay, seriously,¡± Lucas muttered, keeping his eyes peeled. He jammed a finger at his breastplate over his heart. ¡°You¡¯re gonna need to find some way to tell me what the fuck is wrong with you, little buddy.¡±


    Problem was, he kind of already knew, instinctively, that his bonded companion didn¡¯t even understand what was wrong itself. There was an air of confusion to its alarm, now. If it didn¡¯t know what to make of its hypervigilance itself, how could he hope to puzzle it out?


    A grimace pulled at his lips as they approached the Moontower proper, navigating through the small maze of support buildings and courtyards. He could really do with a place where he felt totally safe right now, and Jam¡¯s inexplicable guarded mood was going a long way to ruling the Moontower out.


    ¡°The creature?¡± Valerie asked.


    Lucas nodded. ¡°Gonna need to look into this, at some point. Sooner rather than later, preferably. Don¡¯t know what exactly has him acting like this, but it¡¯s clear something to do with the Harwyck contingent has him spooked pretty bad, and it¡¯s affecting me through our bond.¡±


    ¡°I can look into the returnees for anything suspicious,¡± Florence offered.


    ¡°Discreetly,¡± Valerie said.


    Florence shot her a sour look that said ¡®no shit¡¯ more clearly than if she¡¯d spoken the actual words.


    There were farfewer people in the atrium than usual after sunset, and the cavernous room had a different vibe to it in the dark. The glass ceiling let them see the shining curtain of the barrier hanging above. And the stars beyond, faintly. It made him think of being inside a building with an LED billboard on the outside, with their light facing outwards. By all accounts, it was the most powerful magical shield known to Aerth, created by the greatest wands of their age, updated and built upon by successive legendary figures all the way up until Claire herself.


    He stared up at it for a long time, entranced. His companions waited patiently when they noticed he¡¯d stopped.


    ¡°How long do you think this conflict in the city will last?¡± he asked them.


    There was a pause.


    ¡°It¡¯s difficult to predict,¡± Valerie said. ¡°I would hope not too long.¡±


    ¡°It would depend on us. The Order, I mean,¡± Florence said. ¡°The factions at work in the city won¡¯t expect us to go on the offensive against them, and they¡¯ll be caught off guard for a while, but they¡¯ll regroup. Some of them we¡¯ll be able to remove in one fell stroke. Others will take more effort.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s going to be messy,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°It was always going to be, regardless,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Conflict between the Order and dissident elements has been approaching boiling point for some time, hence why I was investigating Jyn and his group when I encountered you. You should not feel the need to take the blame for this situation.¡±


    ¡°Not what I was getting it, exactly,¡± Lucas said. He finally dragged his eyes away from the barrier, looking between Valerie and Florence. ¡°I don¡¯t think all this is my fault, by any means. Just¡­ a moment of doubt. I¡¯m just wondering if the aggressive approach is the right one. Looking at that work of magic up there, it¡¯s hard not to think we¡¯d be much safer hunkering down in here and waiting things out until Claire¡¯s return, you know?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that would be tenable, in the long term,¡± Valerie said. ¡°We¡¯d ultimately lose much more of the population¡¯s faith if we were seen to be hiding away. Groups like New Dawn would gain many more recruits, and we¡¯d simply end up dealing with a far greater problem down the road. No. The best way is to go after these rogue factions and systematically eliminate them so they can no longer pose a threat.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯d say the best way would be to eliminate the reason for these groups popping up. Make the Order undeniably a force for good and such.¡± Lucas sighed. ¡°But that¡¯s idealistic crap, because there are too many groups with their own ideas of how things should be, and a lot of their ideas of the future would involve me and my friends being vivisected.¡±


    Valerie didn¡¯t reply, opting instead to gaze at him in silence.


    ¡°You do not have to involve yourself in the violence directly,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°No,¡± Lucas said as he watched a trio of Masters approach from the grand staircase. ¡°I¡¯m going to, though.¡±

 67: Inviolate (2)

    It took three days to bait out one of New Dawn¡¯s ambushes.


    Tensions in the city were rising as people came to their own conclusions about why the Order had erected its magical barrier, and it felt like every passing day the stares on their backs got heavier. People stopped asking for explanations. Instead, they began to hasten away whenever a skycloak came into view. Everyone knew something was coming, they just didn¡¯t know what form it would take.


    After discussions between the relevant Masters, they¡¯d apparently deemed it most prudent to keep up the appearance that nothing had changed. If their activity started shifting, people would catch on, and then the intelligence they¡¯d gathered could end up being worthless. Unable to stomach that idea, Lucas had assented.


    Still, while they couldn¡¯t change the routes, they could change out the people patrolling them with much less issue. The Order generally didn¡¯t keep a strict schedule of who took what shift out in the city for security reasons. The Watch was there for low-level policing and community outreach, while the Order¡¯s purposes in the city were generally more targeted, going after more serious issues and ensuring no beasts or their ilk managed to sneak into the city. Unlikely as that seemed, it wasn¡¯t impossible. Demons had been known to pull off improbably feats, and so the risks had to be mitigated. The Order¡¯s patrols were really more to be seen than anything, make their presence known.


    So there was little cause for suspicion among the masses when Lucas, Valerie, and Florence teamed up with a Shieldmaiden named Cherry and a Bowmaster called Symar to make the rounds of an area Nial had mentioned as gathering a lot of attention from New Dawn. It was an odd composition for a party, with two Swords and no Wand, but it was the best they could do on short notice. Cherry and Symar were well-regarded, at least. Not elites, but competent enough that Valerie voiced no complaint.


    Most of all, they were both Mornish born and bred, so they wouldn¡¯t hear a different language coming out of Lucas¡¯ mouth. Which was good in theory, but he found himself tongue-tied anyway, for the most part.


    Lucas didn¡¯t remember a time he¡¯d ever been so tense as that first day of patrol. They didn¡¯t make it look like a patrol, per se, instead going with the cover story that they were investigating some unmentioned serious crime and thus needed to poke around and ask questions. Every time they¡¯d diverted from one of the main roads, he¡¯d been awaiting an attack. The shadows turned sinister in his mind. Surely, the next one would hide an assassin wielding a poisoned dagger. Undoubtedly, an evil Wand with a flesh-decaying spell would be waiting around the next corner. And so on. He¡¯d barely been able to speak. By the time Valerie had made the call to return to the Moontower at just past midnight, his whole body ached from stress.


    But nothing happened that first day or night, letting him approach the next with a little more confidence. That slither of bravery lasted until barely an hour into their excursion, when Florence pointed out, quite calmly:


    ¡°We have a tail.¡±


    Every instinct in Lucas¡¯ body demanded he look over his shoulder to check, but he resisted through force of will. How she¡¯d noticed without looking, he didn¡¯t know. His mana sense was pushed to its limit, but understanding the plants for fifty metres around him in the middle of a city wasn¡¯t particularly useful at that moment. He resolved to work on something.


    None of his other comrades reacted. Symar continued chatting quietly to Cherry as if nothing had happened, his blonde hair poking out from under his hood. When Lucas looked at the Bowmaster, the man gave him a wink and plucked his bowstring like it was a musical instrument. It made a chime-like twang.


    Their unseen follower stalked them all through the area known as the Corner. It was a neighbourhood of dizzyingly tall residential buildings, their bottom floors almost entirely devoted to market-like shopfronts selling everything one could think of. Oddly, none of the buildings were attached together, and they weren¡¯t planned out in a neat grid, making for a chaotic labyrinth of back alleys. The perfect place for an ambush.


    But one never came that day. The crowds shot them a mixture of curious, concerned, and condemning looks, and Lucas struggled to gauge the overall mood of the place, compared to other areas where reports were coming in of increasing unrest. They were out from noon until just shy of midnight, and though there were eyes endlessly on them, they weren¡¯t attacked.


    Once they were back in Valerie¡¯s quarters with just the three of them, Valerie looked him in the eyes and told him:


    ¡°If it¡¯s going to happen, it¡¯ll be tomorrow.¡±


    Lucas nodded slowly. ¡°You think the ones following us today were some kind of scouts? I never actually caught sight of them.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m good at that sort of thing,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°Can you teach me?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Somewhat. Some of my ability comes from my bonded weapon, giving me hints of my enemies¡¯ intents in battle. With practice, I¡¯ve come to learn how to interpret the information it gathers to a greater degree, and I suppose that can translate to something learnable even without my weapon.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not a priority at present,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Combat capability takes precedence.¡±


    Lucas knew what she was going to say next. ¡°Do you think I should stay out of it?¡±


    She seemed to consider her words. ¡°You need to gain real-world combat experience with deadly stakes. There¡¯s only so much that can be learned from sparring, even with elite combatants such as myself or Florence. Some lessons can only be taught by exposure to reality.¡±


    ¡°That was a bit evasive,¡± Lucas said.


    ¡°I am conflicted,¡± Valerie said. ¡°The unfortunate reality of this situation is there are rarely perfect choices available to us. In an ideal world, you should gain practical experience only in completely controlled circumstances. But that is not viable. Not with the resources we have easy access to.¡±


    ¡°For one thing,¡± Florence said with gravity in her voice, ¡°you''re going to have to know what it means to keep your composure in a real fight to the death.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve been in mortal peril plenty of times already,¡± Lucas said with a frown. ¡°Or that''s how it feels to me anyway.¡±


    ¡°Would you say you kept your composure?¡±


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    Lucas was forced to lift his hand and tilt it from side to side in a so-so gesture. But as long as the answer wasn¡¯t yes, her point was valid.


    ¡°Killing other human beings is no simple thing. It¡¯s rarely as easy as sticking a man through the heart with no chance of him fighting back.¡± She glanced at Valerie. ¡°There are few people in this city who can pose enough of a danger to the two of us together that they would present a harm to you while we¡¯re there, and none of them are going to be ganging up to ambush skycloaks in dark alleyways. This is probably the most controlled environment we''re gonna get.¡±


    Valerie nodded. ¡°We may want to take prisoners to gather more information on this dissident group. But safety is the priority.¡±


    They spent the next few hours discussing possible scenarios they''d face before turning in for bed. Lucas ended up struggling to sleep. Ser Nial¡¯s face was etched into his mind, and he couldn''t stop thinking about the blood on the end of Valerie¡¯s blade. What would the red ichor look like on the short sword they had been having him carry on their patrols? He couldn''t imagine it. But he figured he probably wouldn''t need to for much longer.


    The next morning started like any other. They woke late after the late night, had a filling breakfast of meat and potatoes and the strangely salty stew served in one of the Moontower¡¯s many cafeterias, then dressed in their clothes, armour, and cloaks. There was no difference between that day and the past two days when they walked through the atrium, meeting up with Cherry and Symar.


    Cherry was a short woman who kept her hair red-hair cropped close to her head, not a single strand allowed to grow out more than a centimetre. There was little sweet about her apart from her name, instead sporting a sour expression as if daring anyone to make any puns. With her flinty grey eyes and perpetually thinned lips, she looked markedly unfriendly.


    But in reality she was polite enough. She was neither hostile nor friendly. Just a professional doing her job. She greeted them with a nod and fell into stride with them without small talk.


    Symar was a taller man with honey-coloured hair that flowed down to his shoulders and a square jawline that framed a face that seemed perpetually set to a cheeky smile accompanied by a sharp gaze. He was thin and lithe, making Lucas wonder if that was a typical Bow trait; Rena and Aly had both been slight, and equally graceful in their movements, though the latter was bonded to an arrow rather than a bow, he recalled.


    He typically waited for them at the gateway to the city, chatting amicably away with the guards on duty. Upon spotting them, he waved a cheerful goodbye to his comrades and took the lead in their party, his bow strapped diagonally over his chest.


    They took the same route as they had the last few days, navigating down the Road of the Star all the way to the second ring, then forging out through smaller, winding roads until they reached the Corner, which squatted at the south-eastern point of the second ring¡¯s wall.


    Proceedings went as they usually did, for the first few hours. It had been about noon when they set out, and they went about their typical business of making it look like they were conducting an investigation of some kind, while being cagey on just what it was they were looking into, implying there¡¯d been unusual murders or some such and the trail had led them here.


    It happened when the sun was starting to set, burning the sky red and orange. Darkness hadn¡¯t fallen, but the buildings and walls of Dawnguard were so tall that long shadows cast much of the city into gloom long before the sun truly dipped below the horizon.


    They were cutting through an abandoned alleyway as they¡¯d taken to doing every few hours. Symar was in the lead, with Florence and Cherry a step behind each shoulder. Lucas was in between them, with Valerie somewhere behind him. Even now, his eyes were constantly on a swivel, searching the darkness for any hidden enemies. His mana was roaring through his channels, allowing him to push his mana sense to its absolute maximum range, covering enough distance around him at this point that it was difficult to even put a number to it. He could feel a flower shop that was four blocks over from them, not that that meant much in this chaotic jumble of buildings.


    Their enemies didn¡¯t come from the shadows. A large group of men stepped into view at the end of the alley, silhouetted by the waning light. Even disadvantaged by the position of the sun, Lucas could see they all held weapons; bludgeons, blades, and more. He was sure there was even a bow in there. Looking behind, he saw more goons stepping into view at the other end of the alley. New Dawn had waited until they were halfway to the end, undoubtedly seeking to complicate their choice.


    No words were exchanged. The enemy bowman lifted his bow and drew an arrow in one motion, but Symar was faster. His bow was in his hands in a blink, and a second later the enemy bowman was spinning away with a choked gurgle. Before he managed to get around the corner, Lucas spied an arrow sticking out from his throat.


    The rest of the New Dawn goons charged. No war cries. No taunts or shouts or commands. These were men who¡¯d already been over their plan, and knew what they needed to do, what was expected of them, and they were ready to lay down their lives.


    Lucas pivoted, leaving Florence, Symar, and Cherry to handle their half of the ambush while he backed up Valerie. There, he froze.


    Six of the goons who¡¯d flanked them were already dead, and the others seemed well on the way there already. In the shadows, he could just about make out six bodies already on the floor, unmoving, and Valerie was charging into the midst of the rest of them. For whatever reason, she bypassed the front lines of the group, going for a man at the back.


    To their credit, the violent and immediate death of six comrades didn¡¯t faze them. They had the wherewithal to immediately identify Valerie as the most dangerous enemy, because the bulk of the dozen or so enemies remaining focused on trying to overwhelm her. Only three went for Lucas, and he readied his shortsword as they charged.


    Time seemed to slow. The world tunnelled, placing him at one end and his three enemies at the other. Sound faded away. His heart hammered in his ears. They ate up the ground between them. Ten paces away. Then eight. Five. Three. Two. One.


    Then they were on him, and his sword lashed out to parry a blow from the first attacker.


    He wasn¡¯t expecting how easy it was.


    One wielded a cudgel, and he aimed overhead slash at Lucas¡¯ head. Pivoting out of the way was child¡¯s play. Compared to Valerie or Florence, the man might as well have been moving in slow motion.


    The next had a staff, and he thrust it out at Lucas¡¯mid-section. His dodge came as easy as breathing, merely angling his body to the side so the blow passed him by. He used the momentum of his movement to aim a backhand slash at the man¡¯s torso and¡­


    That was it. It was easy as that. The blade sliced right through the New Dawn goon¡¯s chest like it was nothing. Blood spurted. The man fell.


    The third attacker arrived just as the first was readying for a second attack, both of them trying to take advantage of his momentary distraction. If their abilities had been more equal, it might have spelled Lucas¡¯ end.


    But a moment later, his sword was thrust pointy end through the third man¡¯s neck. He hadn¡¯t even had time to identify the man¡¯s weapon. It didn¡¯t matter. Whatever it was, he was too slow with it. Lucas pulled his blade out with a sickening squelch.


    The guy with the cudgel didn¡¯t give up, going in for another attack. Lucas readied himself, holding his sword in a default stance Valerie had drilled into him, prepared to counter whatever the man tried.


    Then there was an arrow through the man¡¯s eye, and his cudgel dropped from nerveless fingers. It hit the ground with an almost comical bonk.


    Lucas spun on the spot, scanning the scene. He found the aftermath of carnage. Bodies littered the alleyway. Dark stains spattered the walls, mingled with the dirt, and covered the unmoving shapes on the ground. Florence had two men pressed up against the wall, the haft of her glaive pinning them in place. Symar and Cherry had a goon each trussed up. All were quietly whimpering and sobbing.


    Turning again, Lucas saw much the same scene where Valerie had been fighting. She had the man she¡¯d gone for in a chokehold, much like she had done with Ser Nial. The rest of her enemies were scattered across the dirt, little black lumps in the darkness.


    Lucas bent down and vomited up his lunch.

 68: Inviolate (3)

    After the city watch had arrived to deal with the aftermath, they returned to the Moontower to debrief and interrogate their captives. It was a tense walk, even escorted by the watchmen. Lucas hadn¡¯t interacted with any of them since arriving outside the city, where they¡¯d been deployed in force to handle the refugees from Harwyckshire. Their oily black armour stood in stark contrast to the Order, every part of their features hidden.


    If it weren¡¯t for their normal voices and the generally amiable conversation they gave, Lucas would have found them dreadfully intimidating. They seemed to take Florence¡¯s word about what was going on without complaint.


    Lucas kept his mouth shut pretty much the whole time. He was worried more than words would come spewing out if he opened it. That, and he didn¡¯t even know what to say to begin with, instead contenting himself to listen to the chatter between the watchmen as they walked.


    The sun set before they¡¯d made it to the inner ring of the city. Dawnguard felt like a different place at night. The streets were lit by magical crystals of some variety, but the light didn¡¯t penetrate all the way up to the looming buildings, leaving them as towering silhouettes that seemed to lean over them in the dark. Lucas imagined thousands of eyes staring at them from within those dark towers.


    Their captives didn¡¯t bring them any trouble, at least. Mostly because they were unconscious, courtesy of an oneiromancy spell the city watchmen had enchanted into their gauntlets. They could knock out anyone resisting arrest with but a touch, though there were ways to resist it¡ªthe one Valerie had taught him required causing himself a small wound, letting the pain keep him awake since the spell didn¡¯t act instantly. The New Dawn thugs knew no such techniques, and so they were out for the count, shackled in the back of a nondescript cart with a canvas hiding its goods.


    Lucas wondered if all the precautions meant they suspected another ambush from New Dawn to free their comrades, or some other kind of trouble. Valerie assured him it was standard procedure when he worked up the nerve to ask, but a watchman who overheard their conversation informed him there¡¯d been great unrest in the city that day, with multiple ambushes occurring, not just on skycloaks, but watchmen too. That explained the tension.


    Lucas kept quiet after that, keenly aware that any one of the watchmen escorting them could end up hearing him speak in another language, and he¡¯d have no way of knowing.


    Barely an hour had passed since the ambush by the time they reached the gates to the Order¡¯s territory, and yet the incident seemed like an entire lifetime ago. Lucas felt like he¡¯d been reborn as a new person. There was the Lucas of before that battle, who still had his food in his stomach, and the Lucas of after it, who¡¯d killed two men far too easily.


    That was what got to him, he thought. Nial had been an entirely different matter, an execution he took responsibility for because he felt that, as the one who¡¯d essentially sealed the man¡¯s fate, it was only right that he be the one to do the deed. Those two men in the alley, whose names he¡¯d probably never know unless he really pushed for it, had been able to fight back. Had started the fight, even. They¡¯d engaged in mortal combat fully knowing their lives were on the line.


    And he¡¯d totally outclassed them, not even mentioning Valerie and Florence, or even Cherry and Symar. None of those men had stood a chance, and it all just felt like such a fucking waste. Of their time, and of human lives. This wasn¡¯t the kind of shit a Great Hero was supposed to be dealing with. Back alley brawls with barely-trained combatants seemed more suited for the watchmen.


    A righteous anger swelled in him. A wave of indignation. These bastards had made a killer out of him. No matter what their intentions or motivations, he didn¡¯t think he could ever forgive them for that.


    So he was fuming as they passed under the Order¡¯s gates. The Road of the Star was less busy at this late hour, so the guards on duty had long seen them coming and sent out more skycloaks to help them with their burden, since the watchmen wouldn¡¯t be able to pass the barrier. Their three captives were taken from the cart and loaded onto stretchers, where they¡¯d be carried away to the Order¡¯s dungeons.


    One of the watchmen stopped Valerie before they could all part ways. ¡°Captain Vayon,¡± he said to her, his voice slightly distorted by his full-face visored black helmet. ¡°I need to relay to my superiors what¡¯s happening here.¡±


    Lucas watched, interested in a detached way. Evidently, the Order still hadn¡¯t communicated their intentions to the city at large. He¡¯d been so focused on springing the trap in the last few days, he hadn¡¯t paid any attention to the bigger picture.


    ¡°If none of the Masters have contacted your commander, I am not at liberty to discuss the situation,¡± Valerie said, staring him down.


    ¡°Tell me something, Captain,¡± he pleaded, palms held up.


    ¡°There are dissident elements in the city. We gave you a full report on what transpired today.¡±


    The watchman¡¯s sigh echoed in his helmet. ¡°Yes, we already figured that out. There have always been rogue factions in Dawnguard, though. Why have you skycloaks suddenly decided to be proactive about it? I don¡¯t believe it¡¯s a coincidence that your people have suddenly been searching about in specific areas, as if looking for trouble, and then a bunch of fighting kicks off.¡±


    Valerie said nothing, expression blank.


    Florence answered for her, ¡°We received news that forced our hand.¡±


    The watchman turned to her. ¡°And I don¡¯t suppose there¡¯s any chance you might share that news?¡±


    ¡°I think you know the answer to that, Ser,¡± Florence said dryly. ¡°Any intelligence shared with you will be shared with the entire watch in due time. After that, it¡¯ll filter down to the entire city. In a week, I¡¯d be hearing my precise words repeated back to me echoing from every tavern.¡±


    ¡°The watch is not corrupt,¡± the man growled.


    ¡°As an organisation? No. Lady Claire thinks highly of Ser Vaylence,¡± Valerie agreed. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean we can trust individuals not to leak information.¡±


    ¡°You could say the same of the Order!¡±


    ¡°Indeed you could,¡± Valerie said, and then she was turning away, and Lucas moved to follow her.


    Lucas initially assumed that they''d be taking part in the interrogation. However, the skycloaks who had come to meet them went one way with the captives on their stretchers, heading towards a building Lucas had never entered, while Valerie steered them in the direction of the tower.


    When asked about it, Valerie said: ¡°We have information to report first.¡±


    ¡°More important than the interrogation?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll get nothing out of them that the specialists wouldn''t be able to.¡± She glanced at him over her shoulder. ¡°And I suspect there is not much of use to get in general.¡±


    Lucas considered that with a frown. ¡°Really? You seemed really determined to make sure you captured that one guy.¡±


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°I identified him as the leader of that operation.¡±


    ¡°And the leader won''t know anything useful?¡±


    ¡°Nothing immediately relevant. And if he does, there are people more suited to extracting it from him. Torture is notoriously unreliable, as people will say whatever they think they need to in their desperation to make the pain stop. But, as distasteful as it may sound, there are extremely rare branches of magic that can let one plumb the depths of a weakened mind.¡±


    That earned a grimace. ¡°When I¡¯m out to the Order, I¡¯ll be having someone teach me to defend against that.¡±


    ¡°Easier said than done,¡± Florence said from behind him. ¡°And not particularly necessary. Phrenomancy is notoriously complex and perhaps the most highly, hm, regulated branch of legal magic.¡±


    ¡°To wit: you probably won¡¯t encounter someone who could utilise it to such a level that you would require special training to fight it off,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°What use is your special interrogator, then?¡± Lucas asked.


    ¡°If you¡¯re in a state that a phrenomancer is able to deeply penetrate your thoughts against your will, you have many other problems,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°We can set to learning how to protect your conscious mind from the basic manipulations of foreign magic, however,¡± Valerie said. ¡°It goes hand in hand with resisting the chaotic effect of demons, so it shouldn¡¯t be difficult to fit in.¡±


    Lucas dropped the conversation there, and they moved through the atrium in silence. Cherry and Symar had gone ahead, but rejoined them at the foot of the grand staircase. Quite to Lucas¡¯ surprise, they descended to the basement levels of the tower. It had been a few days since they¡¯d been down to their hidden away training room, and it occurred to him that he didn¡¯t really know what else was down here, except in the abstract sense.


    They didn¡¯t go anywhere near as far down as the training room, instead stepping out of the grand staircase about ten stories below ground level. A wide corridor lit by pure white crystals greeted them, and they followed it to the right around the grand staircase. The subterranean levels of the tower were the exact same dimensions as the above-ground sections, which had struck Lucas as odd since he learned of it. There was so much more space to work with down here; why not expand out? He already knew there were no plants surrounding the basement levels from his floramancy, and pyromancy suggested there was nothing unusual about the geothermic temperature beneath the ground. Lunamancy didn¡¯t yield anything interesting, though he hadn¡¯t expected it to. He was yet to check with necromancy because he fucking hated the art, but he resolved to do it at some point.


    No one had any satisfying answer for him, aside from tradition. The tower was so old that it predated recorded history, and that kind of cultural heritage was a weighty thing. Even Claire, a non-native, was apparently strongly averse to growing the tower¡¯s below-ground layout, though he felt she must surely have better reasons. Valerie insisted that Claire knew more about the tower than anyone alive today, as she was deeply connected to its wards. There was even a possibility she knew about the barrier¡¯s activation, despite being deep in the Blighted Lands where magic went kind of haywire. He hoped to ask her directly, when she returned.


    Wooden doors lined the outer wall of the corridor every dozen metres or so, and Cherry stopped to knock on one that, to Lucas¡¯ eye, didn¡¯t appear any different from the others. However, he recognised the voice that called, ¡°Enter,¡± from within. The door opened on its own a second later without a sound.


    Master Meyah¡¯s office was, in a word, tidy. Scrolls, parchments, and books were neatly arranged on shelves that lined every wall. A giant slab of a wooden desk dominated the centre of the room. It made the Master of Security herself look tiny, even with her height and proportions. She was out of her armour and her cloak, dressed in the blue tunic and trousers that made up the rest of the Order¡¯s standard uniform, and it made her long neck look even longer. Her eyes catalogued the intruders in her domain in the span of a second, then fixed unerringly on Valerie.


    ¡°Captain Vayon,¡± she greeted, and, to Lucas¡¯ surprise, he could detect no hostility in her voice. Though perhaps the careful neutrality of her tone spoke her feelings on its own. He didn¡¯t know her well enough to tell. ¡°What news do you bring to my office?¡±


    ¡°Approximately one hour ago, we were ambushed by a group of armed men we believe to be associated with one of the groups listed among the rogue factions in the city considered to be hostile,¡± Valerie said without preamble. Then: ¡°New Dawn, they call themselves. I assume you¡¯ve heard of them.¡±


    Meyah''s lips thinned. ¡°Of course I have. Your report regarding the group reached me three days ago, and I¡¯m given to understand an operation has been underway to bait this group¡¯s planned ambushes out with more competent combatants than they were expecting to face. Why are you bringing this to me directly?¡±


    ¡°The Master of Security would naturally have a greater understanding of the enemy we face and their movements, and a verbal report on our situation can only assist you in attaining a clearer picture of the wider-scale conflict that¡¯s brewing.¡±


    Meyah arched an eyebrow, then gestured for Valerie to continue.


    Valerie didn¡¯t immediately reply though, instead staring at the Master with those icy eyes of hers. Cherry and Symar shifted uncomfortably, while Florence was side-eyeing Valerie.


    After a tense moment, Valerie began narrating the events of the last three days, though she seemed to repeatedly demur that Meyah surely knew this all already. Lucas wondered if she was just trying to piss the Master off. She talked of their exact patrol route down to giving precise directions of where they¡¯d walked and all that they¡¯d seen in an extremely impressive display of memorisation. Lucas didn¡¯t recall half of what she described, but the bits he did remember informed him that she wasn¡¯t just bullshitting.


    He did note, however, that she mentioned nothing about the stalker who tailed them throughout most of the second day. Instead, she narrated their movements in excruciating detail all the way through to the ambush itself, where she once again made sure to describe every move she¡¯d made in the confrontation, then went on to explain exactly what everyone else had done.


    Excluding Lucas. From the way she talked, she made it sound like he¡¯d stood around doing nothing. What the hell was she playing at?


    Cherry and Symar didn¡¯t contradict her, to his continued bafflement. Meyah absorbed it all without comment, watching Valerie with a steady gaze. When the story was done, her eyes flicked to Florence. ¡°I suppose you¡¯d tell the same story, Ser Florence?¡±


    ¡°Not in so much detail,¡± Florence said after a moment. ¡°But yes.¡±


    Then she turned to Lucas. ¡°And what about you, Apprentice James? I couldn¡¯t help noticing that your mentor left out any mention of your involvement in the battle.¡±


    So it wasn¡¯t just him, then.


    ¡°By the look in your eyes,¡± Meyah continued before he could reply, ¡°I find it difficult to believe you stood at the sidelines and watched it all unfold. You¡¯re a Star, correct?¡±


    ¡°I am, Master Meyah,¡± he said, bowing his head slightly.


    ¡°It¡¯s not often a Star gets deep in the thick of things,¡± she noted idly. Then she said to Valerie, ¡°I find myself curious that you faced so many enemies. Most reports I¡¯ve seen talk of groups of five, thus far.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps my reputation preceded me,¡± Valerie said. ¡°It can have unfortunate effects like that. It¡¯s part of why many of the Masters argued I should be banished to the Front Lines permanently, I believe.¡±


    Meyah smiled tightly. ¡°Indeed. Was there anything else, Captain? Your report has given me much to consider.¡±


    ¡°Nothing immediately relevant,¡± Valerie said.


    ¡°Good. Dismissed, then. Ser Cherry, Ser Symar, remain.¡±


    Lucas waited until they were back in Valerie¡¯s quarters to ask what the hell that had all been about. ¡°That didn¡¯t seem like a regular bloody report,¡± he said.


    ¡°It seems our Master of Security believes there are spies in our midst,¡± Valerie said.


    That statement hung in the air for a heartbeat, and Lucas winced as his own heart lurched. ¡°We suspected that might be the case even before¡­¡±


    ¡°Based on paranoia at the possibility,¡± Valerie replied. ¡°I believe Meyah now has something more solid. Hopefully, she can get to the bottom of it and plug any leaks.¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­ okay?¡± Lucas scratched his head. ¡°I can¡¯t lie here, it didn¡¯t seem like you two got along very well. But now you¡¯re acting like there isn¡¯t even the slightest possibility that she¡¯s involved in the shady shit you¡¯re talking about?¡±


    Valerie looked at him, then. ¡°Of course she¡¯s involved in the, as you call it, shady shit going on. That¡¯s quite literally her job.¡± With a sigh, she dismissed her armour and lowered herself into the chair at her lonely table. Staring at one of the documents she¡¯d left there this morning, she muttered: ¡°There are very few people in this entire tower I trust more than her.¡±


    It took a while to digest that. Namely because: ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem to me like that feeling¡¯s mutual.¡±


    ¡°Of course not,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Anyone who trusts me is a fool.¡±

 69: Inviolate (4)

    Lucas decided to take the next day off, insofar as one could in the Order. There was a task he''d been stalling on for a little while now, and he felt there was no better time to work on his heart and mind. Spiritually speaking.


    Of course, avoiding any duties wasn''t so easy in the current state of affairs. He still had to involve himself in a few tasks members of the Order were expected to fulfil if they had nothing better to do. In the interest of not attracting attention to himselft, he carried out a few chores alongside Valerie and Florence without complaint when they were assigned. It was mostly a morning of carrying things around when someone spotted them ¡°idling¡±.


    After lunch, his comrades insisted on a small exercise routine, uninterested in any claims of taking it easy. His argument that he was going to be doing something quite strenuous that afternoon fell on deaf ears. So they did some runs, lifted weights, sparred a bit in one of the training rooms. Comparing Florence and Valerie to the New Dawn men he¡¯d faced once again struck him dumb. They were on a completely different level.


    How long would he last in a serious fight to the death against either of them? Probably seconds. The thought was humbling, but at the same time reassuring. Most people wouldn¡¯t survive the opening exchange. Yesterday¡¯s violence had proved that.


    Yesterday¡¯s violence. His mind kept going back to it. His memory had never been his finest feature, but it seemed the Great Star was determined to ensure he could recall that sight of his blade plunging through a man¡¯s neck in near-perfect clarity. The man¡¯s face was shadowed, but Lucas had still seen the whites of his eyes. They¡¯d been wide enough to form a pale ring around his irises, as if utterly shocked that ambushing a group of elite combatants maybe wasn¡¯t a bright idea.


    To be fair, he supposed they¡¯d been expecting to face mere highly-trained combatants. They weren¡¯t prepared for Valerie or Florence. Lucas was more the level they¡¯d anticipated, and he couldn¡¯t help wondering what would have happened to five skycloaks equal to him.


    He didn¡¯t have to feel bad about those men. Not in the abstract. They¡¯d come to kill, and they¡¯d died for it. They¡¯d probably had family and friends, sure, but so did most members of the Order.


    The waste of it all still weighed on him, though. He tried to shake it off as the three of them headed down the grand staircase, making their way to their basement training room for the first time in almost a week. Maybe it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, but the descent felt like it took longer than usual. It was probably nerves, on his part.


    It had been a little while since he¡¯d messed with his mana system in any meaningful way. For the most part, he was practically finished. Throughout the majority of his body, there were very few unfinished channels left. His system was comparable to a fully grown adult¡¯s, now.


    Except for two crucial areas. By far the most complex and numerous areas in the whole circulatory network that comprised his soul.


    The heart and the mind.


    Mapping out his other organs had been deeply uncomfortable experiences. They were vastly more complex than, say, his arms or legs, but they were incomparable to the heart and brain. The really worrying part of it was the unprecedented nature of his situation. As far as Valerie knew, none of the others had needed to map out their mana network like this, forcing mana through immature channels to rapidly grow them to their maximum potential. They¡¯d arrived fully formed.


    And that wasn¡¯t even mentioning whatever bullshit was going on with him absorbing the souls of enemies he killed. Which only he could see. Two more had filled him after the battle against the New Dawn thugs. It had been near overwhelming before Jam intervened, siphoning off the majority of the energy for its own ends, whatever the hell those were.


    In a regular-born Aerthian, the mana system developed over time, growing with the body. Growth wasn¡¯t uniformly consistent, since people obviously lived different lives and accumulated different experiences. No two people were biologically identical, and the same was true of their souls, too.


    Never before had anyone been forced to do what Lucas was doing. Never. Valerie hadn¡¯t heard of it, and neither had anyone she¡¯d discreetly asked. No record mentioned anything like it. It was yet another oddity among many that were coming to define Lucas¡¯ existence. Mysteries upon mysteries.


    He was truly treading new ground.


    The one silver lining was they were fairly sure he was doing the right thing. Unprecedented as it was, they knew enough about mana systems and such to be able to guess that having the soul misaligned with the body would¡¯ve spelled bad things. They weren¡¯t sure what form that would have taken, but there were definitely cases of the soul being attacked in some way warping the body and mind of a sentient being.


    Valerie herself was living proof of that.


    Seeing as Lucas didn¡¯t want to revert to the body of his child self, or whatever the fuck it would have done to him, he was happy enough he¡¯d stumbled across this solution.


    As they finally reached the basement training room, though, he really wished he didn¡¯t need to do this at all.


    ¡°This is gonna be awful,¡± he said with a grimace. Still, he entered the room first, moving right to the centre and dropping into a cross-legged position, taking up breathing exercises. He¡¯d stripped down to the blue under-uniform of the order, his white armour stowed away in his cloak¡¯s weird quasi-network. It was too uncomfortable to be sitting around in for however long this shit took, and he was going to be in plenty of discomfort as it was.


    ¡°I imagine it will be disagreeable,¡± Valerie agreed. ¡°But it shouldn¡¯t do you physical harm, as long as you¡¯re careful.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m still not quite sure I understand what the situation is, here,¡± Florence admitted, watching him. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of anything like this.¡±


    ¡°Not like I understand it either,¡± Lucas said with a shrug. ¡°I arrived with a soul too small for my body, apparently. That¡¯s all I know.¡±


    ¡°But how is that even possible?¡± Florence said. She seemed to ask this same question every time the topic came up.


    Lucas could only shrug. He closed his eyes and started feeling at his mana, entering a meditative state as he tried to lose himself in the flow. It was moving naturally now, without his guidance. His soul felt so much greater than when he¡¯d first glimpsed it. Heavier, more substantial. It suffused him almost entirely these days, to the point where it felt like it was simply a golden silhouette overlaying his body rather than a dense network of channels.


    ¡°It¡¯s almost certainly a major clue as to why Lucas did not arrive at the time of the summoning with the other four Heroes,¡± Valerie said. ¡°Studying the array itself is an ongoing process, but I¡¯m relatively confident the Grand Order did not plan for this to happen. Combine that with the mana absorption ability Lucas has described, one has to suspect outside interference.¡±


    ¡°The Demon Lord himself, maybe?¡± Lucas murmured. There was something soothing about watching his mana, and he clung to that feeling. He needed any source of calm he could find.


    ¡°A possibility,¡± Valerie said. ¡°But one would have to wonder why he wouldn¡¯t sabotage the summoning far more severely, if he was capable of interfering with it at all.¡±


    ¡°His motivations have ever been an enigma,¡± Florence said.


    ¡°Enigmatic or not, his goal is clearly to corrupt and/or annihilate all life on Aerth. His actions display that. Without the Great Heroes, one could make the argument he would have achieved that aim decades ago. Lady Claire alone is an enormous obstacle to him. If he could interfere with the summoning, I¡¯m sure he would have prevented it entirely.¡±


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    ¡°Arrogance, perhaps? Some records claim he declared himself the Demon Lord, after all, rather than the name being assigned to him. That sounds like the action of a conceited individual. If this is all some immense ego-trip to him, perhaps he interfered to show that he could. Or maybe he tried, but he overestimated himself or underestimated the power of Aerthian magic, and he failed to achieve his aims, only preventing the summoning of one Hero, and only temporarily at that.¡±


    ¡°One-hundred years stretches the spirit of the term temporarily, I feel,¡± Valerie said drily. ¡°But you¡¯re delving into baseless speculation anyway. We don¡¯t know what happened with the summoning yet. It could be that the Grand Order really did miscalculate, somehow.¡±


    ¡°Lady Claire studied it herself, didn¡¯t she?¡±


    ¡°Extensively.¡±


    ¡°And then, at some point, decided Pentaburgh had to be quarantined, from what you told me about your experiences there.¡±


    Valerie was quiet at that. Lucas cracked an eye open, and found them standing on either side of the door, staring at each other.


    ¡°What did she discover that made her believe she needed to not only abandon the city,¡± Florence continued, ¡°but go to such great lengths to make it look like enemy action that an entire branch of magic is now considered quite taboo?¡±


    ¡°A good question,¡± Valerie said. She slowly tore her gaze away from her comrade and looked at Lucas. ¡°There must have been a very good reason.¡±


    They fell quiet after that, dipping into private contemplation. Lucas didn¡¯t break the silence. Partially because he¡¯d been about to politely tell them to shut up so he could concentrate anyway, but mostly because he couldn¡¯t be dealing with heavy topics like that when he was about to go rummaging around in his souls equivalent of the mind. That didn¡¯t seem like a good time to be distracted.


    Here goes nothing.


    Since the heart seemed more problematic for monstercat-related reasons, Lucas decided to tackle his head first. The channels up there were a mass of tangles that, if he spiritually squinted and tilted his head a bit, maybe kind of resembled a brain considerably smaller than his own. He¡¯d pretty much mapped everything out, but hadn¡¯t yet dared to open the channels there. Some part of him had wanted to make sure a magical expert was on hand to watch and make sure he was getting it right. But they were at least somewhat growing out on their own. That suggested it shouldn¡¯t be a problem, and Valerie wouldn¡¯t let him work with true mana enhancementuntil his soul was fully grown in every part of his body.


    After yesterday¡¯s events, he wanted every advantage. It was a strange reaction, but outclassing his opponents like that had only made him want to ensure no one could outclass him in the same way. The feeling was nonsensical. But it was there, and it was spurring him on.


    So, carefully, tentatively, he started to slow the mana in his head alone, seeking out the tiny entrances to new channels that miniscully disrupted the flow. He winced as the familiar ache split seeped deep into his brain. There was a big difference between feeling that of pain in his arm compared to his head, it turned out.


    It was far more alarming, for one thing. His heartbeat immediately sped up and kept accelerating until it was at a dead sprint. A cold sweat broke out on his skin. The ache had nothing to do with physical pain. It was soul deep. He¡¯d never truly damaged himself through this method, but anxiety still gnawed at his gut. How could it not? You could make an argument that the brain was the most important part of the body: it was you. Break the wrong thing in there, and a fundamental part of him potentially died.


    And yet, he kept pouring mana through the channels, utilising skill picked up from experience and enhanced by the Great Star. He¡¯d done this literally thousands of times. There was probably no one on Aerth better at opening magical channels in the mana system than him.


    Time passed. The ache persisted, expanding as he opened more and more channels. He started to feel light-headed. A wave of dizziness passed over him but quickly passed. Tracing the outlines of his brain, mana flowed into newly opened pathways. It was like his skull was inflating, but somehow it wasn¡¯t painful. After a while, the ache actually felt kind of nice.


    He slipped into a quas- zen state. A trance. Images danced on the back of his eyelids, hazy and indistinct like dreams forgotten upon waking. He heard faint, muffled sounds. Phantom sensations prickled his skin.


    And then something settled. The ache faded as the channels in his mind reached equilibrium, widened as far as they would go. His soul locked into place throughout his head, solidifying into the shape it was always meant to take. The form it would have taken if his life had followed the correct course.


    Lucas opened his eyes and blinked a few times to adjust to the faint light. Quite to his disappointment, nothing had particularly changed about the world. That was natural. Nothing had really changed aside from him, and that was all internal anyway.


    ¡°How long has it been?¡± he asked. His voice came out as a croak, raw.


    ¡°About two hours,¡± Valerie said. She and Florence were watching him, standing sentinel by the door. Neither had moved.


    Lucas nodded. He wasn¡¯t done.


    Drawing a deep breath, Lucas delved back into his mana. Fixing up the mind area of his soul had been far easier than expected, but perhaps he¡¯d just been too pessimistic about it in the first place. The next stage, however, seemed far likelier to be problematic. Or, at the very least, weird.


    Jam was still at attention, awake and aware at the nexus of Lucas¡¯ soul, the spot known as the soulheart for its proximity to the physical organ. What Jam was wary of, Lucas still didn¡¯t know. He didn¡¯t have a good way of asking, and the monstercat wasn¡¯t inclined to tell, if it even knew itself. It did as asked, still. His pyromancy was still available to him, and Jam didn¡¯t have to do anything to act as a source for his lunamancy, dim as it was.


    Alright, buddy, Lucas thought. Work with me here.


    The problem with the heart, above and beyond the brain, was that it was new ground even to Lucas. Though he¡¯d become an expert in opening up his mana channels, he wasn¡¯t sure how much that knowledge would apply when said channels were partially inhabited by an eldritch abomination he¡¯d inadvertently bonded himself to. The creature was thoroughly tangled up in there, and he had no idea if he could get it out. Or if he even wanted to. Whatever it was, he was beyond certain at this point it meant him no harm. It had been with him since the moment he found himself in this world, and he believed that was significant, somehow.


    Lucas started moving his mana once more, slowing it around his heart, seeking out those tiny areas were other pathways branched off the channels he¡¯d once thought of as the main system.


    And in many of these spaces, he found Jam¡¯s mana network waiting. The pathways there weren¡¯t just his alone.


    The creature reacted to the intrusion of foreign mana like a cat that had been woken up from a nap. Its very soul flinched. Lucas liked to imagine it would¡¯ve let out an angry meow, if it was manifested in reality at that moment.


    It watched as his mana quested into the immature channels, widening them. But it didn¡¯t retreat. Lucas knew the creature had already spent some time copying the technique for itself, opening many of its own channels, but it had lost interest in the practise, mercurial as a true feline.


    Once it understood what he was doing, it was more than happy to accept Lucas¡¯ mana, drinking of his energy. Lucas watched in fascination as it started moving his mana through their shared channels, helping the process along. Their mana started to mix together, somehow, intermingling, and when it made it back to the main channels where Lucas¡¯ pure mana flowed, that mixture spread, flowing through the rest of his network.


    There had already been a strong connection between them, and Lucas felt it start to broaden. The point where Lucas ended and Jam began started to blur.


    That probably should have been cause for alarm, but instinct told him it was alright. This was just a continuation. A natural evolution of their understanding. The next step in their soul bond. Jam¡¯s mana system was clearer in his mind than it ever had been before, and he was sure the creature understood him too. Their consciousness was aligned.


    A lot of things started to make sense, but also didn¡¯t. Contradictory senses mixed. One part of his soul told him he had two arms and two legs, while another part told him he had as many arms and legs as he needed for any given task. One side had two eyes to see through, two ears to hear through, a nose to smell, a tongue to taste, and so on. The other side said those were unnecessary. Mere pretences. True comprehension of the universe came through will and will alone.


    That couldn¡¯t be right. Lucas had tapped into Jam¡¯s enhanced physical senses before, gaining better vision, hearing.


    Of course it was right. Why did he assume those improvements were borne from eyes and ears? Physical organs were too limited. Too few. The natural order of things was useful in certain circumstances, but sometimes more was needed.


    This was all horribly confusing, but there was at least one thing Lucas could wrap his head around, even if he didn¡¯t understand the mechanics of it. Jam¡¯s senses were obviously fucking weird, way beyond anything Lucas could hope to make heads or tails of any time soon even with whatever soulbond ritual bullshit they¡¯d just enacted.


    But he understood what it felt like to be in the presence of a demon.


    And Jamie¡¯s senses, somehow, were designed for detecting just that.


    Lucas opened his eyes. Valerie and Florence were watching him still.


    ¡°I think someone in the Order might be possessed by a demon,¡± he murmured.