Alexander Gray

  Alexander sat quietly surveying the dingy tavern, almost deserted in the midafternoon. Lyton did not have mu the way of proper amenities, but at least they had ae ale. He was currently the only patron, and he had had to reassure the waitress that his tailored suit did not mean that he was a noble, and she could simply address him as ‘sir’. The ‘my lords’ were getting annoying – just now the useless girl robably sg off i rather thag him a well-deserved tankard.

  The rough wooden door smmed open with an abrupt bang, surprisingly remaining attached to its hinges, and in strode a handsome man with short blonde hair, blue eyes, and an expensive white robe.

  Roderik Ice. Unlike himself, Roderik actually was nobility, which is what made him such a useful asset. Who else would have the es to acquire the vial he needed on such short notice?

  “What the fuck do you want Dreamcloud extract for? Are y to kill aire vilge?” While his voice sounded angry, Roderik’s eyes danced with a barely suppressed excitement at the idea.

  Annoying, but useful, Alexahought, reminding himself to be civil. He was, after all, a ranking member of the Shadow cil.

  “I just want to knock out one Dryad.” It was crucial to his pn that she be unscious for a couple of days before he used her for his purpose – aing it up was going to be the culmination of a rather devious and exquisite pn. He was quite proud of it.

  “Why don’t you just use Valerian root like normal people?”

  “She has at least a third-tier evolved css.” He had done his research before he had e to Lyton, and, while it was difficult to find accurate data, he had been thh. The Dryad inhabiting the Lirasian Forest was an a recluse, and almost certainly close to level three hundred – if the rumors were to be believed. It was she who would be the unwitting mouse that sniffed out the cheese for him.

  “Are you fug crazy?” Roderik stared at him in shock.

  “As you’re well aware, our Master does not set tasks of little or no sequence.”

  “Ohousand gold,” Roderik demanded, produg a delicate vial taining a softly glowing liquid of the deepest violet.

  Excellent, he found it. It was the only thing that would work for his pn. He was certain that the Dryad would be resistant to anything less. But Roderik was defirying to pull one over on him with the demand for a thousand gold – probably banking on him being desperate.

  But I know his weakness.

  “One hundred,” he tered, holding back his trump card to heighten the effect. If he knew ohing about Roderik, it was his single-minded focus – such a simple iation device would not work on most of his associates, but in this case, it would be more than enough to sway the likes of Roderik.

  “Do you know what I had to gh to get this? Ohousand, not a single gold lower.” Roderik frowned, and Alexander couldn’t help but pare him to a sulky teenager.

  “One hundred, and you have this entire vilge. I just need a few uncssed youths for my Sacrifice magic like st time.”

  “You mean that?” Roderik paused in surprise, a sudden gleam of greed dang in his eyes. He licked his lips lightly.

  Got him. Without a word, Alexander summoned a pouch with one hundred gold s and dropped it oable with a heavy thud, knowing that the deal was sealed.

  “Your ale, sir,” the waitress interrupted, arriving with a rge wooden tankard and a smile for the new arrival. “My lord –”

  The temperature at the table suddenly dropped. There was a soft whooshing noise and a siing squelch. A wooden tankard cttered across the ground spshing ale in all dires. Fuck, that was my ale. The waitress blinked, staring down in stupefa at the thice of ice protruding from her chest before toppling sideways and hitting the rough wooden floor with a dull thump.

  Always so hasty, Alexahought, staring in annoya his ale lying now on the floor, mingling with the blood of the waitress. Oh well. He pulsed a little mana into his sed ring, st the Dreamcloud extract.

  “Just because we’re friends, Alexander, I should let you know Dreamcloud won’t work on the Dryad,” Roderik said with a smirk.

  “What?” Alexander excimed.

  “They’re almost immuo practs and poisons,” Roderik said.

  “Fuck, are y to screw me over?”

  “Don’t be silly,” Roderik said. “How about this: if you throw in the full thousand gold, I will get something far more potent from the Shadow cil. Something guarao take out a three-mark Dryad. Something crafted by the Master…”

  “The Master?” Alexander whispered, eyes suddenly widening.

  “Yes!” Roderik said.

  Wordlessly Alexander dropped the rest of the gold in his waiting hand.

  “I have it here by tomorrow,” Roderik announced, making the pouch of gold disappear before he sprinted out of the inn like a kid excited to py hide-and-seek.

  Something from the Master. Alexander slowly smiled as the sounds of screams ahuds rose from outside. So predictable. Noisy too. Roderik had not the slightest inkling of nuance or subtlety. At least his pn was ing together.

  Still menting his spilled ale, he got up and raised the skeleton from the body of the waitress before sending a mental call to the zombie trolls he had left hiding in the woods and stepping out into the main street.

  This vilge will make a good base for the first phase of the phought, turning his gaze to the dense wood of the Lirasian Forest.

  Vivian Ross

  Vivian sat on the cou the guild hall studying her notes. Her lecture on strategy and group dynamics had been a great success with the novices all attending, and most of them asking good questions. Havok had been a bit of a handful, but even he seemed to be abs the finer points of bat strategy like a sponge.

  Ign for a moment the ingruous image of a Goblin padin wielding a rusty sword ented with holy fmes, the five recruits had been a huge windfall for the guild, particurly after the ret loss of Katie. Devan and Havok didn’t have homes, but there were bunks downstairs, and both seemed highly motivated to level up and begin earning their keep.

  The only thing that was still bugging her was the enigma of Aliandra.

  How does she have a dungeon shrine?

  She khat questioning good fortune was a recipe for disappoi, but somehow, she just couldn’t let it go. Aliandra had, after all, taken a group of cssless people, some of them society’s worst rejects, and given them both mana affinities and potent bat csses. In faine of twelve people had received magical affinities in the end. Impossible odds.

  And that was not all. In addition to a shrihat burnt through hundreds of thousands of mana, if not millions, Aliandra had equipped the didates with ons and theed monsters for them to fight, manufacturing a highly effective bat trial to ehey unlocked excellent csses.

  Aliandra had the entire package, the ability to create bat csses from ordinary people – whenever she wanted – and was already a member of the guild.

  I should be ecstatic, she told herself sourly. Browsing the guild shop, was the person who could single-handedly popute the entire guild with advanced csses.

  A… she worried at the issue, like a dog with a bone.

  “Hey, you’re the new guys, aren’t you?” The overly loud voice of Braden called out across the guild hall and Aiden looked up at his approach.

  “Yup, we just joined, I’m Aiden,” he answered as Vivian tried to tu the background voices.

  “I’m Braden. You should join us leveling down in the dungeon! It’s great experience.”

  What dungeon?

  “Dungeon?” Aiden’s surprise echoed her own.

  “Well, it’s not really a dungeon, we just like to pretend. But the sewers have real monsters and they’re great for leveling up. Also, they seem to respawn quickly so you go down there often to grind out some experience.”

  “Oh, thanks for the tip! We got our bat trial in there.”

  The two tiheir banter, but Vivian sat stunned as if struck by a bolt of lightning.

  Fuck. How could I be so blind!

  All the evidence was there, right in front of her. The dungeon shrihe incredibly dense mana. The magically grown biome – trees did not grow underground in the darkness. The monsters defending the sewers. There were even traps.

  She’s a dungeon.

  The cold grasp of icy fingers closed around her heart as the certainty of it settled in with the weight of a millstone made of ice-cold granite. Vivian stood up slowly. “Mieriel, may I see you in the meeting room for a moment? It’s urgent.”

  She spun on her heel and strode to the meeting room with Mieriel hurrying along behind.

  “Please close the door,” she said, and as soon as Mieriel shut it, she tinued, l her voice just in case the wards were not enough.

  “I need your skills. Aliandra is a dungeon, and we o get to the bottom of this now. Before it’s too te.”

  “Are you sure?” Mieriel asked, suddenly serious, her face paler than normal.

  “As sure as I be without your skills. Bring the boy in here, we o start with him.”

  “Ok.” She turned ahe room.

  Mieriel

  As soon as ehe room and sat down, Mieriel began eling her Augmented Dedu, feeling her mind grow clearer as her magihanced her focus and faculties. She reached out with the subtle tendrils of Memory Coer, gently suggesting to ’s mind that whatever happened was not important enough to remember. It was a subtle danind magic that had to be perfect to avoid raising the subject’s suspi, but Mieriel’s life depended on her using this skill to hide her identity daily, and she was extremely profit with it.

  “What’s this about?” asked, already ign her and fog on Vivian.

  Mieriel cast her ving Story skill, her mind magic flowing out to vince ’s mind that she spoke with authority.

  “The Guildmaster just has a few questions, and I want you to ahem as holy as possible, ok?”

  looked up at her in surprise, and as soon as their eyes ected, she cast Charm Person, feeling their minds ect. It was the most delicate of skills. If he suspected foul py, or didn’t already trust her, it would backfire spectacurly. With great care, she yered her magito his mind, gently eroding his natural defenses and his resistances faded.

  “He’s ready,” she said. It was this skill that had earhe hate of her hometown and gotteossed into a duo be food for the monsters.

  Viviahe drill. After all, they had performed this routine enough times that Vivian knew intuitively how to ask the questions in a way that wouldn’t evoke suspi and break her fragile charm magic.

  “I remember you told me you had a skill for identifying dungeons,” Vivian began, her voice friendly and calm, even though Mieriel could feel the palpable tension behind her fa?ade.

  “Yes,” answered, and she could feel his belief iruth of what he was saying through her Empathy skill.

  “You used it when you explored the Goblin dungeon for me, right?” Vivian asked.

  “Yes, but there was no duhere.”

  “I wao ask you, have you noticed anything unusual with your skill around your friends?”

  “Oh yes. I noticed that every time I go down into Ali’s domain, my skill tells me it’s a dungeon.”

  Mieriel caught Vivian’s eyes, but tinued.

  “At first, I didn’t believe it, because it’s Ali, you knoere in the middle of this other dungeon – the Ruins of Dal’mohra. It’s incredible, did you know it’s the real ruins of the a city?”

  “That is amazing,” Vivian said. “What do you believe about your skill and Aliandra now?”

  “Oh, I’m certain she is a dungeon. We all had a talk about it, but we decided not to tell her. She has had enough trauma already, and we didn’t want to burden her with that too.”

  “I see, thank you . You go join your friends now.”

  Mieriel let her skills drop as soon as he left. ’s emotions clearly told her that he was sincerely worried about his friend, and he was eager to help Vivian with all her questions. He believed the truth of everything he had said.

  “I k,” Vivian said, g her teeth. “I k was too good to be true.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Get Aliandra in here, we o verify it at the source. We o find out when she’s pnning to destroy the town and how to stop it.”

  “She will be harder than ,” Mieriel warned. She didn’t kly what it was, but Aliandra’s mind was very hard to shift. Either she had a mental defense skill, or her wisdom was incredibly high or enhanced.

  “We just need her for a few minutes, you do that?”

  “Ok,” Mieriel answered, straightening her shoulders. She retrieved a mana potion and dow before she left to invite Aliandra to her interrogation.

  ***

  “Vivian, stop.”

  “I ’t stop, we have to find out the truth! Why did you ask her to sleep? Wake her up.”

  “Vivian, you’ve interrogated the girl till she’s ready to break down. She ’t take any more.”

  “I don’t uand how she still be resisting.”

  “Vivian, she isn’t resisting. I told you that already. Everything she said is true.” Mieriel’s heart had broken when she heard Aliandra spilliale about the Blind Lid the death of her mother and father. ected to Aliandra’s mind with her magic, she had experienced her pain, she had lived it with her. The tears Aliandra had spilled onto the table as she desperately reted her life were not even nearly enough.

  “She’s a dungeon. Why are you being so soft, Mieriel?”

  “Vivian, I ’t take it anymore!” she yelled, finally snapping Vivian out of her single-minded focus as she stared at Mieriel in surprise. “You fet, I’m in her mind when you do this. I feel what she feels. She doesn’t know. She really doesn’t.”

  “She’s a dungeon, Mieriel. We ot let her roam free. Dungeons are evil, devious, and incredibly dangerous. If we don’t stop this here, we will be too te to prevent the disaster when it happens! And it will happeh know that.”

  “So, you’ll kill her? Just because she has a dangerous css?” Mieriel mahrough ched teeth.

  “Yes. I have no choice.” Righteous anger and fear poured from Vivian’s heart like a storm.

  “A dangerous css, like a Mind Mage?”

  Vivian’s eyes shot up eg with hers, but this time Mieriel held her gaze, refusing to look away.

  “I remember when they came for me,” Mieriel whispered. “When they wao kill me because I have a dangerous css. Mind Mages are too dangerous, they said, wheossed me into that dungeon, naked and bleeding, food for the monsters.” Mieriel held her locked gaze until she felt the flutter of uainty in Vivian’s anger. “I will never fet the sight of my savior – my knight in shining armor – fighting her way down into the depths of that duo save me. Do you remember what she said?”

  “She never did anything wrong. She doesn’t deserve to die.” Vivian answered quietly, eg the words she had spoken all those years ago. “Damn dungeons!”

  “Vivian, don’t turn into those people you stood against. I couldn’t bear it, you’re better than they were. This Fae girl has a dangerous css, just like me, and she doesn’t even know it. She deserves a ce.”

  “I… I’m sorry Mieriel. I’ve lost so many good people to dungeons, and I’m terrified to lose the few I have left. I don’t want to lose you, too.”

  “Nor do I want to see you turn into the monsters you stood up to,” Mieriel said, holding firm. Vivian was stubborn, and this was the only way to make her see. But inside she was scared, too. She still had nightmares of the ed and twisted mohat had lurked in that dungeon.

  “ you take her to her friends? Make sure they take care of her? I need some time… time to think,” Vivian said, her voice rough and subdued and her fached to the color of a sheet. Her heart was a maelstrom of flig, agoniziions. Self-loathing and guilt mingled with fear and ao crash up against her Empathy. For all her skills, Mieriel had no idea where Vivian might nd in the end.

  Bending down, Mieriel drew the small, frail Fae into her arms and carried her out into the guild hall.

  “What did you guys do to her?” Malika asked, leaping out of the coud snatg Aliandra from her arms.

  “She’s just exhausted and needs some rest, will you take care of her for me?” Mieriel asked, eling a little mana to increase the weight of her words, and yering in a little of her Misdirect Attention skill, drawing Malika’s attention to Aliandra instead of herself. She wove a little of her Memory Coerore broadly to ence their minds tet.

  “Ok, I’ll take her home,” Malika said, turning her bad walking to the door.

  I hope you’ll five me, Aliandra. If you ever remember this versation.

  ***

  Name: Mieriel DawnbloomRace: Sun Elf

  Css: Mind’s Eye – level 49- Empathy – level 25- Heightened Perception – level 35- Memory Coer – level 30- Augmented Dedu – level 26- Mind for Espionage – level 36- Misdirect Attention – level 22- Inspicuous Presence – level 31- ving Story – level 24- Charm Person – level 20- Astral Proje – level 10

  General Skills- Reading – level 15- Identify – level 14- Politics – level 21- Etiquette – level 16- Ag – level 5

  Aptitudes- Languages: Elvish, Dwarven, ana (Affinity): Mind- Alert (Racial): +11 to Intelligend Perception

  Attributes- Vitality: 50- Strength: 14- Endurance: 17- Dexterity: 46- Perception: 315- Intelligence: 363- Wisdom: 276

  Equipment- Head: Analyst's Gsses of Perception – level 35- Ring: Silver Guild Ring – level 30

  Health: 500/500Stamina: 170/170Mana: 2208/2208 (+552 Reserved)

  Malika

  “There is definitely something fishy about her. I don’t trust her at all!” Malika was adamant about it. Something was off-kilter. They had most certainly done something to Ali – and that made her furious.

  “I don’t know what you mean. Mieriel is nice – she seems perfectly trustworthy,” answered.

  “That’s the problem. She’s too nice.”

  “You just don’t trust anyone,” Mato chipped in. He was already making some soup at their campfire, just in case Ali woke up.

  “Yes. Other than you guys, I don’t trust anyone.”

  “See, you should try trusting people more. That’s what normal people do,” Mato said.

  “I don’t think yetting it. I don’t trust anyone normally. So why do I feel that Mieriel is as trustworthy as you guys? I don’t even know her well enough to know her st name.” It was holy the stra feeling. Every time she thought about Mieriel, which was strangely infrequently, she felt uneasy. But when she was in the guild hall, Malika felt like she could trust her with anything.

  “Oh,” said with a soft voice. “That’s what you mean.”

  Finally, someos it. “Yes, it’s weird.”

  “So, a normal person wouldn’t notieone messing with their trust because they trust many people by default. But for you, that trustworthiness is ingruous against the backdrop of a default distrust?”

  “Yup, but I don’t know what we do about it if she’s fug with us.”

  At least was smart enough to figure out what she meant. It had been hard enough to expin it even to herself. The mihe words came from her mouth, she realized the truth. Mieriel was dangerous. She had hurt Ali. Hurt her! What surprised her most was the sudden rage, the vengeful thoughts, that had her picturing ing her fingers around that nibsp;woman’s neo. She was not Ta and never would be – but damn, she would –

  “I have a few ideas for this kind of thing,” said, pulling out his notebook.

  “Like… what kind of things?” Malika asked. Trust to have thought of something like this already.

  “We pn things out down here, and we write it down in the book. Thery it out up there and pare notes after the fact. The notebook will remind us of what we pnned in case we’re made tet anything,” expined.

  “I haven’t fotten anything,” Mato said firmly.

  “You’ve Identified Mieriel?” asked.

  “Of course,” Mato answered fidently.

  “What level is she? What kind of css does she have?” asked.

  “Yes, it’s …” Mato blinked. “I know I’ve identified her…” A look of surprise and fusion flickered across his face. “I ’t – why ’t I remember?”

  “Yes, same for me,” said, writing something down in his notebook. “That’s our first test. we Identify her and remember what we see?”

  “How do we fight something like that?” Malika asked.

  “Wisdom is the mental fortitude attribute,” said. “When we gh the remainder of the dungeon, and level up, you should all spend points on wisdom. Especially you and Ali.”

  “Wisdom will help?” Malika asked. If it was just a matter of spending some more points that was something she was definitely going to do. Wisdom was one of her css’s primary attributes.

  “Yup,” said. “And Ali should wear her adventurihat mom made for her. Magic resistance will help a lot too.”

  “I’ll tell her when she recovers,” Malika said. If wisdom and magic resistance were their defenses, she’d keep a when she visited Weldin too. Perhaps a few items could help.

  Ok, now we’re getting somewhere, Malika thought. Mieriel would not get away with this. She and Vivian were up to no good, she k! Are they pnning to steal Ali’s shrine? Or… worse? If they suspected her, why hadn’t they just killed her?

  timewalk