timewalk

  Vivian Ross Vivian hopped through the shattered hole in the sewer floor, cushioning the impact with her legs as she nded in the cavern below. She had lived in Myrin’s Keep for a couple of years now, and she had not had even the slightest inkling that something like this existed below the town.

  She waited as the five applits shimmied down the rope, chattiedly among themselves. Their first enter with the monsters in the sewer had beeably rough, but they had surprised Vivian with how quickly they adapted, and by the time they had unlocked their csses, their team was able to deal with all the threats they entered with reasonable efficy, which was how they earheir experiend unlock so quickly. Sure, they were green as fresh grass, but her experienced eye saw potential here.

  The mayor’s son, Aiden, seemed to have a natural aptitude for leadership. Or perhaps the group members simply uood the value of teamwork. But even the Goblin and the girl from the slums had quickly slotted into their assigned roles, and by the end, Vivian would never have said they had first met their panions a st few hours before.

  They’re not guild members yet, Vivian reminded herself, worried about getting attached – but she hated to admit she was desperate for recruits. I css adva, she had recruited only a few new members, most going to the garrison or the Town Watstead – and one of her , Katie Brockworth, had turned up dead in an alleyway just two days ago. Stabbed in the bad left with a literal calling card picturing a finger pressed across lips tucked into her bloody robe. She would track down the murderer ahem.

  Vivian frowned. Her guild was simply too o have established a great reputation. If news of the murder got out, it would bee o impossible to attract good people. But hopefully this time, it would be different. She tried not to get her hopes up too much as she led them all back through the forest to the shrine.

  That shrine. Her eyes settled on the enormous bck obelisk and the intensely glowing runes inscribed on it, and the tiny Fae creature sitting beside it, waiting for their return. This was no ordinary shrine, she khe Pathfinder Guild that supplied the critical artifacts was far from able to create something this powerful. inally modeled on the shrines grown by the highest-level se dungeons, the Pathfinder Guild had learo duplicate the most essential features, spreading their structed shrio all ers of the ti. But what stood before her was most certainly an inal – a dungeon shrine.

  An involuntary shiver rushed through her body. She had seen one only once before, and it hadn’t been nearly as big as this o had been moments before the dungeon had decimated her party, leaving her – the sole survivor – horribly injured. She had barely escaped with her life.

  How does Aliandra have one of these? It was a question she most certainly o iigate. But for now, she was eager to see what csses it could bestow on their five didates.

  “Who would like to go first?” Aliandra asked.

  There was a momentary pause while all of them g each other.

  “Havok go first!” the Goblin decred. “Havok create havoc.”

  “Alright, Mr. Havok. Let’s see if we get you a good css so you be a powerful warrior. Use the mana affinity feature first, it has a ake you even stronger.”

  “Ok, Miss Aliandra!” Havok’s face lit up with a big smile hearing Aliandra use his preferred name, arode up to the shrine, resting his rusty sword and the shield he had acquired in the sewer against a rock before reag out to touch the shrih grubby green fingers.

  Vivian had no idea what to expect, but the runes on the shrine dimmed briefly before it emitted a deep, bone-shaking thrumming hat shook the entire Grove. A carpet of yellow-white fmes erupted from the moss around the Goblin’s feet, burning without ing, flooding the Grove with a powerful st of inse ated with the soft uone of warm caramel. An enormous pilr of yellow-white light burst forth, transfixing the Goblin and lifting his tiny body off the ground, leaving him suspended in a vibrating torrent of mana and energy. His mouth en and moving as if he were screaming, but no sounds could be heard.

  Suddenly, the light cut off, the thrumming noise faded, and the Goblin dropped to the ground amid the still-flickering tongues of fme. He groaned, obviously shaken, and cmbered to his feet frantically looking around, but after a nod from Aliandra, he once again pced his hand on the shrine – a touch more tentatively this time.

  The runes dimmed one more time, somewhat anticlimactically, and Havok removed his hand, slowly walking over to retrieve his discarded sword and shield.

  “What did you get, Havok?” Aiden asked while their entire group stared at him with anxious curiosity.

  The Goblin looked up at them and raised his shield. A sudden fre of yellow light burst out, maing as a brilliant shield of mana the mundane one of chipped and scratched wood. His rusty sword burst into yellow-white fmes.

  “Havok is Holy Knight!” he decred and broke into a huge grin of excitement.

  The Goblin is a fug Padin? Vivian thought in amazement, reizing the Holy Shield and secration he had just used. People spent years as acolytes to various temples and orders trying to earn a simir css, and the Goblin had just pulled o of the shrine like it was the easiest thing in the world. Well, not that easy, judging by the curl of smoke wafting out of his left ear.

  The group cheered for him and suddenly they were all lining up to use the shrine, with excmations of excitement as they unlocked their csses and affinities, and cheers of gratutions as each person earheir css.

  Vivian stared, openly dumbfounded as each didate unlocked potent mana affinities followed by a ridiculous css.

  Padin – Goblin – level 1 (Holy Knight)Warrior – Human – level 1 (Ice Swordsman)Rogue – Human – level 1 (Wind Bde)Archer – Human – level 1 (Lightning Archer)Mage – Human – level 1 (Rock Mage)

  What the fuck? Vivian couldn’t believe her eyes. She had thought Aliandra and her group to be the anomaly of the tury when she first evaluated them, but this group standing before her looked to be every bit as remarkable. Every single person had an affinity-enhanced css.

  As the excitement slowly tempered into a quieter versation, Aiden turo her.

  “Vivian Ross, could you please tell us about the guild? I assume that’s why you’re here, right?”

  “It is,” she admitted, colleg herself and pig her proverbial jaw up from where it had hit the floor earlier. She felt bruised having just been a spectator.

  Moment of truth, she thought. But she would o hahis carefully.

  “Membership to my guild is optional, but it is avaible to each of you if you would like.” She knew from hard-won experiehat if she were the one pushing, she would end up with entitled people who refused to work hard and didn’t cooperate – and that was the death of a guild. The itment had to be genuine and offered freely for it to be worth anything. Unfortunately, that way was the slowest way to build a guild, especially oarting out with little to ation. Even worse if Mieriel was right and Katie’s death was a sign they were being targeted by a new assassin.

  “With normal guilds, level ten is the minimum to join, and ts as bronze rank,” Vivian tinued. “I waive that requirement and allow people to join immediately at novice rank. I believe in solid training and hard work tress, and the guild provides instru aures on adventuring as part of your membership. You will also gain access to the quest and jobs board at level ten, allowing you to earn money with your css.”

  She paused, sidering what else she might say to vihem, without f the issue either way.

  “You don’t o make a demediately – the option will remain open for you if you wish to think about it.”

  “We all got pretty good csses, didn’t we?” Aiden asked, pursing his lips in thought.

  This is where he pitches a ‘deal’ for better treatment. Vivian had heard it all before. He was the son of the mayor, and he had an Ice Swordsman css – in most guilds in the kingdom, he could write his own charter.

  “Yes, you guys have incredible csses.”

  It’s a pity though, I thought they looked good together. Vivian had allowed herself to hope too much, and now she felt thhly let down.

  “Havok will join guild! Havok get strong and take jobs to help people!”

  Vivian bli the excitable Goblin for a moment. Just like that? No ditions? I suppose he is a Goblin.

  “I would like to join too.” This time it was the girl from the slums, Devan, dressed in her rags, now spttered with blood and ooze. “I would like to earn some money, and maybe buy a better dagger.”

  Vivian couldn’t believe it. The girl had nded a Wind Bde rogue css, and her ambition was to buy a slightly better on. What is wrong with these people?

  “We would like to join too,” Aiden said after exging gnces with his two friends. “And I was w if we could keep this group as our party? We seemed… good together?”

  “Yes, you were. You may sign up as a group if you all agree,” Vivian said, but inside, her mind was reeling.

  What just happened? All of them? All five had asked to join the guild, asking for no special treatment iurn. Each of them was smiling, seemingly excited by the prospect. A piece of her wao scream that it was too good to be true, but nobody ged their minds, all of them happily falling in beside her as she turo lead them back to town, her voice expining the signup process without muput from her mind.

  “Thank you, Aliandra,” she said, turning to the Fae who was looking just as happy as she felt. “I’ll let you know whehers make their appois.”

  They all got crazy good csses… but it was the Fae who did it. Csses, affinities, and everials. Vivian swallowed as she turned away. Just who or what is she? Do I even want to ask that question?

  Aliandra It had only taken two days for all the crafter and mert didates to plete their trials and Ali had happily taken each of them to the shrine o a time to choose their csses. Not all of them had revealed tent mana affinities using the shrine, but every single one of them had found a css that excited them among the list of options her shrine had offered.

  “Here we go,” Ali said, ing to a stop before the shrine.

  “I still ’t believe you have all this growing down here,” Basil said, his eyes never resting as they darted among the trees and mushrooms.

  Ali shrugged and smiled at him. “Was your trial easy?”

  “Oh, no, Eliyen made me work harder than she ever had!” he said, and then he paused. “Wait, I have something for you.” He carefully unslung the small pack he was carrying and slowly pulled out three carefully ed cy pots.

  Ali could already see the mana wafting outward even before he uned them. “What is that?”

  “It’s a gift for you,” Basil said, uning the pots and handing them to her. “For your colle.”

  Each pot was filled with a dark brown potting soil and from the ter sprouted a clump of sword-like blue leaves, leaking a strong bluish-purple mana into the surrounding air.

  Blue Mana Grass – Grass – level 11 (Are)

  “You got me some are grass!” Ali excimed. Bless his ki. What a thoughtful gift!

  “It’s incredibly difficult to cultivate,” Basil said, twisting his mouth to the side. “Eliyen made me germihem for my trial. They be processed into ingredients for mid-range mana potions, so they’re always in high demand.”

  “I didn’t realize you could grow a level eleven mana pnt without a css,” Ali said, taking each pot aing them down carefully ooh.

  “I ’t,” Basil said ruefully, scratg his head and further mussing up his tousled brown hair. “But when Eliyen heard I wao give them to you as a gift, she helped me finish growing them. That’s why we took a little longer.”

  “Thank you, Basil,” Ali said. “Now, let’s get your css unlocked. First use the mana affinity feature.” Ali activated the shrine for him.

  “Ok,” Basil said, his face suddenly serious. He reached his hand to touch the shrine and then a few moments ter, a cascade of vibrant green mana burst from his body. A rush of tiny wildflowers rippled across the ground at his feet in a blooming wave, filling the air with the heady st of jasmine. Illusory vines made from mana shot up from the ground, filling the air with an explosion of green leaves and aromatic, woody sts.

  “Oh, my!” Basil excimed, his breathing ing fast. “I got a nature affinity!”

  “Surprised, are you?” Ali ughed, watg as the vines and flowers slowly faded. “I’ve unlocked the css sele too, take your time.”

  Ali turo the pots on the ground and carefully destructed each of them.

  Variant: Blue Mana Grass added to Imprint: Grass

  Looks like a clumping grass, she thought, recalling how Basil had categorized them. Sing the Grove, she selected a rge boulder protruding from the ground beside a heavy oak and began to create her grasses, grateful that she could select the proper variant directly now.

  She pnted several clusters of it led up against the rock, fasated to discover that the mana the grass emitted had somehow ged tnature golden color instead of the inal purple. Looks so pretty!

  “That looks great,” Basil said, walking up to join her. “I tried so hard to find something that matched your affinities.”

  “You done?” Ali asked. “Get something you like?” It was such a thoughtful gift. Ali could already see the welling fount of are mana geed by the blue-bded grass slipping into the weave of her domain, augmenting and strengthening it, just like the Glos.

  “I love my css!” he excimed.

  Ali looked up and identified him.

  Herbalist – Human – level 1 (Nature)

  That leaves only Ryn, she thought. Fully eight out of eleven didates had unlocked a tent mana affinity, and Ali’s mind stubbornly insisted that meant the pendulum o swing the other way – that Ryn would fail to get something good. The thought filled her with ay even though she uood ce did not work that way.

  But what if I gave all the good csses ters?

  Shush, she told her mind. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, and Ryn’s boss was only due ba a week anyway. She put it out of her mind, resolving to enjoy her time on their regur lunch date today. She had fihe st book all too quickly, and now she was looking forward to chatting about it.

  “e, Basil,” she said, calling her minions over. “Let me escort you back up to town.”

  ***

  “Hi, Ryn,” Ali called out into the bookshop, gazing around but not seeing her friend anywhere.

  “I’ll be right there, Ali,” a voice called out from between several closely-set bookshelves. Ryn always seemed to be reanizing the eore, and there were books piled on boxes and id out carefully on the floor in various heaps, clearly in the middle of the s process. The Kings and Emperors board that seemed to be perpetually midgame was showing peared to be the te stages of an epic battle.

  “Hi, Ali,” Ryn said, finally emerging from behind the book piles. “I got you a present.” She offered a stylish paper bag with two handles.

  “What is it for?” Ali asked, accepting the bag, and looking inside. She gasped in surprise at what she found. Carefully, she pulled out the heavy Monster pendium. “Ryn, this is too expensive!” She couldn’t deny that she coveted this book, but holy, what was Ryn thinking?

  “I wao get you something to say thank you for the shrine, and for thinking of me.”

  “But you haven’t even gotten your css yet? What if it doesn’t turn out well?” She blurted her fears out without thinking, and then instantly wished she could pull the words back.

  “Nonse’s the thought that ts, and I really appreciate it. Besides, I get a store dist and you’ve been drooling over that book every time you e over. It would make me happy for you to have it.”

  Ali hovered momentarily between wanting tue and wanting to keep the book, in the end deg that she couldn’t reject the gift and potentially hurt Ryn’s feelings.

  “Thank you! I love it.”

  “I know,” Ryn answered with a mischievous grin. “You be a little obvious sometimes, you know?”

  “That bad?” Ali asked, but she k was true.

  Ryn just chuckled as she walked over to the table and id out some teacups and cookies beside the gameboard.

  “What are you studying?” Ali asked, pointing at the Kings and Emperors set as she took a seat. Every time she visited the board was set in some new figuration.

  “The Elorthian royal deferategy today,” Ryn answered. “Do you py?”

  “I know the rules,” Ali answered. She wasn’t familiar with the defense Ryn had named, but then she wasn’t familiar with the Elorthiaher – perhaps they had e after her time. At least she was familiar enough to read the board and uand the position.

  “I reset the board if you want to py,” Ryn said, and Ali was surprised to see the iy in her friend’s eyes – an iy that was almost as great as when she spoke of her favorite books.

  “Sure,” Ali answered, but then as Ryhe board, she noticed something amiss. “You left out some of your pieces.”

  “That’s the handicap,” Ryn answered.

  “You have nine fewer pieces, that seems a little excessive?” Ali said. And a little presumptuous, she thought. This would be the first time they pyed, and although Ali wasn’t an expert, she wasn’t a beginher. A nine-piece advantage was the rgest handicap that could be given.

  “Oh, I’m sorry! I’m just used to giving everyone a nine-piece advantage,” Ryn answered quickly, her face registering sudden distress, “I didn’t mean to e across as rude.”

  “It’s ok,” Ali answered, quickly trying to assuage Ryn’s mortification. She liked Ryn and if she had an infted opinion of her skill at her favorite game, Ali didn’t mind too much.

  But no more than five moves into the game, Ali realized that the nine-piece advantage she had been given was nowhere near enough. Somehow, Ryn’s py was dominant from the start and Ali immediately found herself on the defensive and losing ground. But the look in her friend’s eyes was not one of gloating, but rather a pure joy and happihat Ali found was beginning to affect her too, despite her quick losses.

  They spent the half hour enjoying tea and cookies, while Ali lost repeatedly – but in turn, she grilled Ryn for everything she had felt about the characters in the book she had just read, and what the ending had really meant.

  “Hey Ali, I ask you a favor?” Ali was getting ready to leave when Ryn stopped her.

  “Sure, what do you need?”

  “Well, you’ve mentiohe library a bund… well, I was w if you’d take me to see it? It sounds so grand!”

  “It’s a bit of a mess at the moment.” Ali hadn’t been in the library since her fiasco with her book imprint, and she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to front whatever feelings lurked in there for her.

  “It’s ok if you don’t want to,” Ryn demurred. But Ali could tell she had set her heart on it.

  “Ok, I’ll take you,” she said. It was just some annoying feelings anyway, and if it made Ryn happy, well that’s how friends should treat each other. “It’s a bit of a long walk. And a rope climb.”

  But Ryn was already beaming.

  The walk itself retty uful, and her barrier magic made the dest down the ventition shaft much easier, but Ali still collected several of her Kobolds to escort them. Habit. It paid to be prepared, ae ’s scouting, there were still many caverns and passages that led to pces unknown.

  “I’m sorry it’s in such bad shape,” Ali said, leading the the mossy carpet she had po the huge, shattered stone doors. “I think it’s going to take a lot of work to repair. e on in!” Now that she was here, showing Ryn, she wondered what she had been so afraid of. Ryn’s awe and wonder as she gazed up at the library made it all worthwhile.

  But right as they entered, Ryn stumbled, tumbling to the ground and staring about in shock.

  “Ryn! Are you ok?” Ali hurried over to help her up, berating herself for not having ed off all the bone encrustations on the floors.

  “It’s not that…” Ryn said, pausing while she stared off into the distance. In a small voice, she added, “I just got offered a css…”

  “You did?”

  “Yes, right as we walked in. It says my natural css is Librarian. Do you think I should take it?”

  “No!” Ali was not going to let Ryn take the natural css without trying the shrine first. “I know it’s a hassle, but we should get you to the shrine so you see all your options.”

  “Ok,” Ryn said, pig herself up and dusting off her dress.

  While Ryn put a good fa it, Ali could tell she was getting more and more nervous as they got closer to the shrine.

  “What if there are no good csses?” she asked finally as they arrived.

  “There will be,” Ali said firmly. She had worried about exactly the same thing, but she refused to add to Ryn’s ay. Seleg a css was stressful enough already, after all, it erma ge that would affect her entire life.

  “Put your hand on the shrine, and use the ability for tent mana affinities first,” Ali instructed, activating the shrine for her.

  Please, please, please be something good.

  Ryn pced her hand, and a long sileretched out through the Grove, spiking Ali’s ay. Just as she was certain it had failed, the runes dimmed, and a deep sonorous chime sounded across the Grove. Brilliant arg bolts of golden mana shot out from Ryn’s chest and arms, wreathed in fmes of deep violet. The mana tugged at Ali’s heart and her mind as flickers of half-remembered events cascaded through her like fragmented dreams limpses of other lives.

  Just wheensity of sound and mana reached a cresdo, it suddenly stopped, dropping Ryn back to the mossy ground in a boneless heap.

  Ali rushed over immediately, but Ryn slowly sat up.

  “That was intense! I got… are mana? And divination?”

  “You got two affinities?” Ali could scarcely believe it. Multiple affinities were rare – even rarer among humans. And divination mana was one of the rarest and most challenging mana affinities she had heard of.

  Ryn nodded, slowly getting to her feet, and allowing Ali to help.

  “Do you want to rest for a bit?”

  “No, I want to see what csses there are,” Ryn said, a determined look on her faow.

  “Ok.” Ali activated the shrine one more time and Ryn got that far-off look in her eyes as she examined her options.

  “There’s a lot of choices, Ali,” she said.

  “You should read them all.”

  “I already did. I have a reading skill, remember? Ali, there’s a css called Knowledge Seeker, and it says it’s a Librarian css that was unlocked for disc one of the great libraries.” Her voice was filled with awe and wonder. “It uses both are and divination mana. Do you think I should take it? I take it?”

  “Do you like it?” Ali asked.

  “I love it!” she excimed. “It’s… it’s a dream e true.”

  “Then you should definitely choose it,” Ali answered. After all, liking your css was the most important part. A sideration that Ali hadn’t had the luxury of indulging in at the time she had chosen.

  Ryn’s eyes unfocused as she trated and then she said, “I get a skill for memorizing, and anizing information, and ohat helps reading and studying, and… OH! I fly!”

  “Show me!” Ali answered, enjoying Ryement just as much as she had her own discovery of flying.

  Ryn trated for a moment and two transparent golden butterfly wings appeared from her back shimmering and insubstantial, bordered with a deep purple glow.

  Ali cheered while Ryed her wings, flying around but staying close to the ground while she got used to it. Her wings are so pretty.

  “Ali, I got a teleport spell too. I set any library I visit as a teleport destination and travel there. I only have one location to start with. I know it’s a long walk, but do you mind if we go back to the library so I set my first teleport there?”

  “Of course,” Ali said. She didn’t mind the walk, and now that Ryn had her css, she had a lot of questions about her skills. As they walked, Ali identified her.

  Librarian – Human – level 1 (Are / Divination)

  “Ali, why does a librarian css get wings?” Ryn asked as they walked through the giant dain.

  “Have you seen this library?” Ali asked, sending her barriers higher up the walls to illumihe many-story-tall shelves with their circur walkways and dders asding hundreds of feet into the air. “Back when it was in use, librarians and clerks would eleportation, flying, or telekinesis spells to retrieve books for people.”

  Ryn stared upward in awe.

  “e on!” Ali said, hopping on one of her barriers. “Let’s fly!” Now that they could both fly, Ali decided Ryn needed a proper tetting the feel for the sheer enormity that was the grand library. While she was initially scared and cautious, Ryn rapidly got the hang of her wings, and after a while, she was darting bad forth making adventurous dips and loops, although when one almost ended in disaster, she became much more cautious.

  They paused together, h in the ter of the atrium.

  “I have one more spell, but I’m unsure how to use it,” Ryn said.

  “What does it do?” Ali asked.

  Ryn shared the skill with Ali, the text appearing as violet light trimmed with an outline of gold.

  Seek Knowledge – level 1Mana: The seeker will show the path to the knowledge you most desire or need. Recharge: 24 hours.Divination, Area, Knowledge, Intelligence

  “That seems very vague,” Ali said thoughtfully. “It is named after your css, so maybe it’s a signature skill of some kind? It doesn’t seem like it could hurt. Maybe just try it?”

  “Ok,” she said.

  Jagged tendrils of violet mana exploded out of Ryn like lightning feelers crag out across the enormous library in all dires, arg to shelves and walls and floor. The strange phenomenon tinued for about ten seds and suddenly an intense golden core of light shot out filling a single branch as if to form a pure mana lightning strike into the wall across on the sed floor.

  Ryn gasped, out of breath for a few moments. “I saw a book,” she said.

  “Let’s go see,” Ali said excitedly, giving Ryn a few moments to catch her breath. They both flew across the huge atrium towards the spot Ryn’s spell had struck.

  “There’s nothing here,” Ryn said, looking about in fusion. “I thought I saw a book – I’m sure I saw one.”

  There really was nothing there. Just a stone wall. Ali exami closely, payira attention to her Are Insight, running her fingers along the wall just to be sure, but she couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

  “Hmm,” Ali said. “Let me try something.” The wall bothered her. There was nothing there. Not even ambient mana.

  She activated her destruagic while resting her palm ft against the stone wall. The light of her magic twisted and ed strangely making the stone shimmer and ripple. Ali stared at it curiously – stone didn’t normally behave that way. Not even when she destructed it. She was about to say something when it vanished without warning.

  It did not explode into motes of mana, as she had expected. Nor did she receive the usual flood of knowledge p into her mind. Instead, the stone simply vanished, revealing a small shelf set into the wall with a gss door c the front. There was a hole in the gss the size of her palm, and the plex runic script etched across the gss fizzled and spat with leaking energy where her magic had deleted a critical piece.

  “An illusion?” Ryn gasped.

  “I think so,” Ali said. And if she wasn’t mistaken, a yer of high-potency prote runes which had just beeivated.

  Ali reached out and tugged at the gss door, making it swing open, revealing a single book within. It was a heavy tome, bound with thick bck leather and steel edge caps. Silver runes were inid into the cover and spine of the book, glowing with what Ali guessed reservation magic.

  Whoever made this book wa to st, she thought. She reached out and boriously lifted the heavy book so she and Ryn could see the cover.

  Dungeons and Domains: A plete Reference.

  It was titled in A Dal’mohran, so Ali tra for Ryn. What was so special about this book that it needed such extraordinary prote? Her eyes traced the silver letters, but she froze when she entered the author’s name right below the title.

  Nevyn Eld. Oh no, why him?

  She had always known he had been a promi magical researcher before he had turo the undead Lich he was now, but simply seeing his name in print, in her hand, sent chills of fear surging through her body and mind. Quickly, she stored the dangerous book, shivering as Ryn looked on with a ed expression.

  ’s voice echoed through the atrium, “Ali, are you in here?” The walls and shelves started to light up as his magic slowly drifted out over the space.

  “Down here,” Ali called out, shaking off the vision of the Blind Lich jured by her overactive imagination.

  “Mato says dinner will be ready soon,” shouted down. “Oh, hi Ryn, you are wele to join us.”

  “I should head home,” she answered. “I want to tell my mom about my new css!” She turned back to Ali, “Thank you so much for showing me your library, and for my css, and everything! You tell me about the book ter.”

  Ali and Ryn flew bad joined . Thehree of them walked back together so that Ryn could return safely back to the town.

  “Don’t fet to practice your skills,” Ali told her as she waved goodbye.

  Now, what am I going to do with the Lich’s book? she thought with a shudder. It felt like it was burning a hole in the back of her mind, through the ste entment in her ring.

  timewalk