Halcyon Rising_Bastion of Hope

by Stone Thomas

  Precision Training Discount (5%): 79

  Total Adjusted Cost: 1,496

  Total Projected Remaining: 318

  Confirm?: Yes / No

  ∇

  Prandon and Hork were similarly endowed with massive skill lists, but thanks to Nola’s help, I was able to make the necessary changes quickly without my field of vision becoming a mind-numbing sea of glowing words and numbers.

  Hork’s shirtless torso bulged and rippled as his body grew from his new Strength increase. His Strength was impossibly higher than mine. I was fit, sure, but I was no hulking brute. I started to wonder if men could experience boob envy.

  Yes, Nola said.

  Sometimes, Nola, you could stay out of my head. Just sayin’.

  I looked around the temple. Prandon put a few copper coins into Vix’s hand in exchange for a sack of feathers. Hork flexed his muscles while Lura adjusted the thin strap of clothing that covered her most provocative bits. Nola looked relieved that the adventurers seemed satisfied.

  We could do this. We could skillmeister these three and send them off on epic adventures, to slay dragons and gain renown for themselves, for Nola, for Halcyon. We’d collect the world’s most powerful treasures and use them to defeat Duul, bringing peace back to the world. We’d unite the beastkin, the elves, and the humans in a war to span the ages.

  I’d lead the charge. Arden Hochbright. From orphaned temple servant to general in a holy war.

  A wave of confidence and hope washed over me. Hope that I probably shouldn’t have had, and confidence that I didn’t deserve. A Peter Pan lookalike had knocked me down with a single feather. Nola was still fragile and in the middle of an evolution cycle. Our front door was a pile of rubble.

  But I felt good, and I couldn’t put my finger on why.

  “Hello there?” a voice called from outside the temple’s door. A man stepped inside, with smooth cyan skin, followed by a middle-aged woman with gray and blonde hair.

  “Uncle Gowes!” Nola shouted.

  Of course. The god of wishful thinking. Bringing unearned cheer and false confidence everywhere he went.

  “Eranza,” I said to Gowes’ head priest. “It’s good to see you again.” Lily and Ambry raced to give the woman a hug. As the head priest of Gowes’ temple in Valleyvale, Eranza must have been present for the girls’ whole lives. She might even have known their mother, before the woman disappeared.

  “This might be the first interesting thing to happen in this neck of the woods,” Lura said. “Two adult gods in one place? That’s rare.”

  Nola’s yellow aura mixed with Gowes’ own blue glow as the two embraced. I expected the result to be green, but Nola’s yellow light overpowered her uncle’s, washing him in a golden halo.

  “Look at you!” Gowes said. “You already have adventurers. It makes me embarrassed I didn’t come with this sooner.”

  “With what?” Nola asked.

  “Your temple-warming present,” he said. He passed a potted plant to Nola. It was a thorny bush with small dark leaves and no flowers.

  “You shouldn’t have,” she said. “That was so… thoughtful of you to drop by, completely unannounced.”

  “Well,” Gowes said, “who doesn’t like company?”

  “Certainly not people that were already in the middle of entertaining company they hadn’t invited,” I said. “No, now we’re having twice as much fun.”

  “Valleyvale is in the middle of an imperial audit right now,” Eranza said, “so temple services have been temporarily suspended while the lawmonger reviews our books. What better time for a social call?”

  “Is that why your portal network was down?” Lura asked. “We’ve been all over this territory and haven’t found a single working portal. It’s irritating.”

  “The portal network is supposed to stay open,” Gowes said, “even in cases of dire emergency. I didn’t realize it was shut off.”

  “We tried Meadowdale after we left Valleyvale,” Prandon said, “but the goddess there sent us away. She kept saying something about a bashing stone, but after we saw how dead the city was we gave up. We don’t want to solve the mystery of an empty city, we just want to get back to civilization.”

  “There’s no goddess of Meadowdale,” I said. “Not anymore.”

  I took a deep breath and thought back to Laranj, the goddess of harmonic sound. After a lifetime working in her temple, there was nothing I could do to save her from Duul’s cretins. She was a vision of beauty, with pale carnation skin and eyes that sparkled with kindness. Her loose-fitting clothing was prone to drooping in the front, revealing far more cleavage than I think she realized. I often caught myself staring, wondering what it would feel like to—

  “Kāyaaa!” Hork yelled.

  “That’s right,” Lura said, “her name was Kāya.”

  “Wait,” Nola said, “the goddess Kāya is in a city conquered by Duul, and she has a bastion stone?”

  “You don’t think Duul is recruiting other gods into this war now,” Gowes said, “do you?”

  “What I think,” Nola said, “is that our moment of peace is about to end. Violently. Painfully. And very awkwardly.”

  +6

  “I’m sorry,” I asked, “did you say awkwardly?”

  “Kāya is the goddess of awkward moments,” Nola said. “You think I’m annoying with all the clever things I can’t hold back, or Gowes with his constant optimism? We’re nothing compared to her.

  “She’s the worst to have around at family reunions! When my first cousin started hitting on me without realizing how closely related we were, that was Kāya’s fault. When he kept hitting on me after that, it was definitely Kāya’s fault.”

  “Okay,” Vix said, “that sounds uncomfortable, but not exactly dangerous.”

  “You’re right. Kāya was never dangerous,” Nola said. “Her own temple failed to attract a following. She couldn’t find a head priest willing to stick around, and she had nothing to offer anyone. A boon of awkwardness isn’t much of a boon, now is it?

  “Still, she’s impatient to become a more important deity. With an empty temple in Meadowdale, she may have seen an opportunity to steal a congregation for herself. She’s not the type to build from scratch. If she can steal a temple she will. She’s power hungry.”

  Says the woman who literally tried to eat an electric battery, I said.

  Hush!, Nola said. Now is not the time to discuss my dietary needs. Kāya is trouble.

  “Kāya is trouble.” I said it conclusively. Everyone nodded at my wisdom. “With Duul killing deities, she may have inherited some new powers. She could be more dangerous now than ever.”

  “That’s possible,” Nola said. “Now that the balance of power is off, she might use the distraction of war to kill off the gods whose power she thinks she’ll inherit. Why wait for Duul to do it?”

  “She might even be working with Duul,” I said, “helping him maintain his army in exchange for his protection.”

  “Which would explain why she feels comfortable in a city full of god-killing cretins, and why she wants a bastion stone to keep the city secure,” Nola said.

  “Can someone catch me up on this bastion stone?” I asked.

  “I can,” Vix said. “So far, we’ve been using energems to store the low-level actions we’ve trained up. A fire wall and a few snowballs have served us well, but they’re not awe-inspiring. No offense to Ambry and Lily.

  “One action, which only a few high level builders have unlocked, is Bastion. Even my sponsor hadn’t unlocked that skill yet, and he had been training his builder skills for decades. At high levels, it’s enormously useful because it makes all buildings within its range much, much sturdier. Temples, towers, walls, you name it. A city with a bastion stone is almost impregnable.

  “Bastion is also a one-time only skill,” she said. “Once a builder uses it, the skill closes back up again, making bastion stones a very rare type of energem.”

  “Skills can close back up?” I
asked.

  “Every class has a powerful one-time-only skill at the end of its skill tree,” Nola said. “Bastion is one such skill.

  “If Kāya takes up residence in Laranj’s old temple,” Nola said, “it will give her the ability to soak up the nourishing vibrations of everyone’s souls that remain trapped there, to evolve faster, and to accumulate power. Power she might wield against us next. It also means Duul is doubling down on his presence here. He wants a permanent settlement, and he’s sent her here to manage it.”

  “Which would provide a launch pad for any future attacks on Halcyon, or on Valleyvale,” I said. “That’s unacceptable. We need to evict this Kāya before she turns Meadowdale into an impregnantable fortress.”

  “Impregnable,” Vix corrected.

  “Yes,” I said, “that.”

  “Sounds to me,” Lily said, back in possession of her battle axe, “like we should chop off her head.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Nola said. “We have to win this without killing any more of the gods than Duul already has. But I do worry that Valleyvale will need its energem back if it’s going to defend against what’s coming.”

  Gowes nodded. Lily and Ambry breathed a sigh of relief.

  “I’m sorry you’ll have to give up the energem, Nola,” I said. “I’m sure that mega hurts.”

  Don’t make me laugh when I’m trying to be serious!, Nola said. Make me laugh later though, I do like puns.

  You must have been amped up to put it to good use here, I said.

  Stop it!, Nola said. A smile started to crack up the side of her face. I’m shocked at the way you’re conducting yourself.

  I smiled back. You’re right, goddess. My behavior is awful. Re-volting even.

  We both laughed at jokes no one else had heard.

  “Sorry,” I said to the group, all of whom stared at us like we were crazy. “We were sharing a moment.

  “In all seriousness,” I continued, “I don’t think we should move the energem, not now that we know some of the cretins from Meadowdale are on the move, and that some of the rabbits in the forest are actually anibombs. We’ll keep it safe here until we’ve determined what’s going on. And in the meantime, no one eats it.”

  I was relieved I wouldn’t have to make any irreversible choices about the energem. The best decisions, after all, were the ones I didn’t have to make! That energem could be our most powerful defense, but Lily and Ambry had a point. It wasn’t rightfully ours.

  “Our first order of business should be checking out Meadowdale,” I said. “Valleyvale comes second.”

  “Allow me to look into the future to see if there’s anything helpful for your journey,” Nola said. She closed her eyes. We waited. She scrunched up her nose. She squinted one eye tighter than the other. She bit her lip.

  “I see,” she said, sounding less than confident. “The path to Meadowdale is encroached by wild creatures left unchecked. The dangers you face will be determined by the choices you make.”

  “Lura,” I said, “might I prevail upon you and your friends to accompany us to Valleyvale? You’re more seasoned fighters than we are. We would appreciate your protection.”

  “An escort mission?” she laughed. “Do I look like an escort to you?”

  “No,” I said, apprising her skimpy clothing, “definitely not an escort. I was thinking more exotic dan—”

  Arden!, Nola yelled.

  “Ahem,” I continued, “an exotic, dangerous, but very respectable young woman.”

  “We’ll pass,” she said. “Do you have an inn in this dump of a settlement? With the portal network down, we’ll need to rest and figure out how the hell to get somewhere entertaining without spending the next two weeks walking.”

  “But you’re adventurers,” I said. “We have an adventure for you.”

  “It’s a babysitting job,” Lura said. “We don’t sit babies.”

  “Baybees!” Hork yelled.

  “There’s a guest house on the top of the hill,” Vix said. “It’s simple, but you’re welcome to it. If you change your minds about pitching in—”

  Lura waved at her companions and the three adventurers climbed over the front door’s remains and out of the temple.

  “We have a guest house?” I asked after they left.

  “A city needs at least one inn,” Vix said. “I threw something together so I could upgrade it as needed. After Duul’s army flattened out a path directly to our front door, I figured we’d get strangers wandering in.”

  “The Wandering Inn,” I said. “That sounds like a good name for it.”

  “I think that name’s taken,” she replied.

  “We should go,” Lily said, “before this trouble extends to Valleyvale. Our father isn’t the kind of Mayor that deals well with emergencies.”

  “True,” Ambry said.

  “Nola,” I asked, “are you sure none of Duul’s minions are lurking nearby?”

  “Just the random one or two that strayed from the rest,” she said. “Nothing we can’t handle. It’s strange though. During the first wave of attacks I sensed new generals, cretins, and war dogs appearing regularly. Now, it’s mostly quiet. I wonder if what Lura said about the portal network is related to it.

  “For now,” she said, “Duul isn’t our most pressing concern. Good luck on your journey.”

  I nodded and turned toward the door. Arden, Nola said. Wait. There’s something I didn’t tell you.

  Yeah, I said, which set of stairs I fall down. Are they at least carpeted?

  It’s about your trip to Valleyvale, she said. I’m still not adept at using premonition, which is why I didn’t offer the adventurers a premonition boon, only one based on clever insight. I tried to read the future to see what perils you’d face on the way to Valleyvale, but I didn’t see anything about that.

  But you told us…, I started.

  Something generic, she said. Forests are dangerous, blah blah blah. A fortune cookie could have told you that. I did sense something though, something brief that’s still unclear to me.

  What?, I asked.

  That my head priest would betray me.

  I stammered, mentally. My thoughts were like kittens trying to climb up stairs and tumbling back down. No, that would make them clumsy but cute. My thoughts weren’t cute. They were more like a morbidly obese goblin eating a sandwich and trying to whistle at the same time. Spit and baloney everywhere.

  I know it’s hard to accept, Nola said. I don’t accept it either, but I saw it. I needed you to know.

  I stepped toward the goddess. Her eyes were drooping. She needed to climb back into her crystal and rest, but I couldn’t leave her here without reassurance.

  I took her hands in mine and peered into her eyes. Her yellow skin was warm and soft. Despite the tired look on her face, just touching her made my mind clearer and more alert. I liked this, much better than the false bravado Gowes instilled.

  Nola, I said softly through my mind, I would never, ever do something to hurt you. I would sooner let the gods strike me dead than betray you. I came here with nothing. When I came here I was nothing. You’ve given me strength and shelter. I’m yours.

  No one ever thinks they’ll hurt the ones close to them, she said. Until they do. Good luck on your journey. I’ll be here when you return.

  With that, she climbed into her crystal shell and folded her arms across her chest. A floating clear panel of crystal glided through the air and closed the crystal’s front opening. With a quick pulse of pastel yellow light, it sealed her inside.

  I stepped through the temple’s entryway. The outside air was crisp and refreshing. I fought against the unnatural confidence Gowes caused and tried to assess our situation with a level head.

  “Lily, Ambry,” I said. “I’d like you both to stay here and watch the temple.”

  “We should help you,” Lily said. “We need to make sure it’s safe to bring the energem back to Valleyvale. It’s our home, we need to protect it.”


  “I know how important everyone’s safety is to you,” I said, “which is why I’m going to Valleyvale personally after we check out Meadowdale. Halcyon is your home now though, and you promised to protect Nola. With me gone, I’ll need you both here to guide the settlement and to fend off potential attackers.”

  I wanted them to choose. I wanted them to prove to me that they were as invested in Nola’s safety as I was. Otherwise, I wasn’t sure I could trust them when it really mattered.

  “Father won’t be kind,” Ambry said.

  I said nothing.

  “I can’t just sit here on my hands while this goddess Kāya puts everyone in danger,” Lily said.

  I didn’t part my lips to argue. I locked eyes with Lily, then Ambry, and waited.

  “The energem,” Ambry said.

  “Protecting it, and Valleyvale. It’s practically our birthright,” Lily said. She folded her arms and pouted her lips. She glanced back to Nola, floating inside her crystal. The goddess looked peaceful, but vulnerable.

  “Fine,” Ambry said. Her face stayed perfectly stoic as she voiced her decision.

  “If you let anything bad happen,” Lily said, “you know what I’ll do.”

  “Chop off my head?” I asked. “You have a manic streak.”

  “And you love it,” she said. “Now go, before Gowes convinces us all that exploding rabbits are some kind of good luck omen.”

  “I do wonder about their industrial applications,” Gowes said.

  “Okay, Vix and I are leaving,” I said. I headed toward the path to Halcyon’s nearest neighbor with Vix. I took the bottled fairyfly with me. If its tears really did provide healing, it might come in handy.

  I wasn’t thrilled that the temple door was broken again, but Nola was in good hands. Besides, the most worrisome enemy she saw on the horizon was me. I got a sick feeling in my stomach as I thought about the possibility of betraying her.

  Once the temple had receded into the background, Vix pulled me out of my dark thoughts saying, “This is exciting.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “It’s the first time I’m leaving Halcyon since I arrived,” she said. “It can get lonely, hanging around the temple all the time.”