Forsaken

by Cebelius

  'Do try and remember that you also are at risk,' Hantu's text scrolled by.

  The way this fight is structured, I doubt it, but I'd rather not pay the penalty for losing in any case so shut it, and let me think.

  He continued to turn a slow circle, waiting for the automaton to reappear as he considered how best to stop it.

  A sudden thought sent his eyes flicking toward his map, and he grinned broadly as he saw, right there in bright red, a dot labeled 'Kappi.'

  Finally. FINALLY this game cuts me a break!

  'Game nothing. I cut you a break,' Hantu Raya's text floated by. 'What's the point of a mini-map if it doesn't show you your targets?'

  I think I love you, Abram thought.

  'Ugh, spare me.'

  He watched the dot moving in a wide circle to come back for them, thinking hard. He could summon a tentacle rune and activate it early, but he had no confidence that it would hold this thing. He could lay them in series and try that, but it was still a low percentage move. In situations like this, trying to brute force a solution usually failed in spectacular fashion, and he only had one shot to get this right before the people it attacked were the ones he actually cared about.

  The thing had obviously been crafted specifically to operate in this space, but that was no help. He had no idea where the side walls were, or how far it was to the nearest break in the ground, presuming there were any.

  He blinked, then grinned.

  I don't know ... but I know someone who does.

  "Sif! Are there any uneven spots near here? Any holes or breaks in the floor?"

  Sif cocked her head as she considered, then pointed. "That way, two hundred feet. There's a crevasse and the rock is four feet higher on our side."

  "Can we jump it?" he asked.

  Sif nodded, but then pointed at the stricken dwarf and said, "We can, but she can't."

  He took another quick glance around, then waved to Angie as he said, "That's fine, pick her up, and if she can't keep quiet knock her the fuck out! We need to get over there now!"

  Angie didn't hesitate. She picked up the dwarf without apparent effort, slung her up into a fireman's carry, and ran after Sif. Abram brought up the rear, glancing over his shoulder every few feet. The automaton had yet to reappear within his visual range, but he could see its dot coming up rapidly from almost directly behind them.

  Then he heard it: a rapid clacking from the dark. For a horrified moment he wondered if he had miscalculated. What if this thing had a different attack pattern, and he hadn't waited long enough to figure out what it was?

  Another glance back, and he saw it. The dead dwarf was still impaled on the lance, now jammed up against the body of the automaton and providing — if anything — even more cover. The extra weight certainly didn't seem to be slowing it down.

  "Sif, how close are we?" he asked, wincing as he saw the thing pause and orient its lance at him.

  A quick glance at the bars still floating above it revealed that it had just over one thousand stamina, which confirmed it could only charge three times without rest.

  He also noticed that its hit points were now at 179/3000, but the fact that its own attack would inevitably break it was cold comfort. In fact, it made things even more precarious, because he had no idea how much of that hit point loss was from the damage he'd seen, and how much was self-inflicted over the years. The automaton might be MUCH tougher than its remaining hit points indicated.

  Oh God, I hope not.

  Abram looked ahead in time to see Sif leap down and out of sight. Angie turned, but he waved at her and shouted, "Go, go! I got this!"

  He came to the edge and checked the distance. It was about six feet, but there was also a four foot drop and he was confident he could make it. If he somehow didn't, well ... oh well.

  Whirling, he saw Kappi had stopped, and its lance was trained at him. A glance at the thing's stamina meter confirmed that it was plummeting.

  Abram pointed at a spot just a few feet away between him and the automaton and cast.

  "Tentacular rune!"

  The rune appeared, and he triggered it immediately. This thing was too fast for Abram to rely on the rune as a trap, but it might be enough to trip it if the rune was already operational. That was the hope anyway.

  The tentacles didn't have an audible component, and they rose from the stone in eerie silence, waving like a sea anemone seeking prey.

  "Come on, bitch!" Abram yelled, watching the stamina meter above the automaton continue to drop. "Hit me with your best shot!"

  As soon as the meter started getting close to a hundred stamina remaining, Abram turned and made his leap.

  He would have made it, but Angie caught him anyway and silently hauled him off to one side. As soon as she set him down he turned and readied his hands.

  The metallic scream followed, though it changed pitch almost immediately. Kappi caught air and as it cleared the crevasse Abram cut loose with his lightning, but still managed to miss. It was just too fast.

  It hardly mattered. While he did miss, he couldn't help but catch the fact that the automaton was spinning in a forward roll, obviously tripped up by the rune's tentacles. The first thing that hit the stone on their side of the crevasse was its head.

  At seventy miles per hour.

  Sparks showered around the body of the thing as it disintegrated under the impact, though most of its bulk bounced and clattered out of visual range almost immediately.

  Abram's eyes lifted to the red dot that represented Kappi on his mini-map. It was already flickering. A few seconds later it turned gray before fading off entirely.

  He dusted his hands, nodding in satisfaction as he looked at Sif and said, "You're a lifesaver. My rune may have tripped it, but without this drop it might have recovered. Even if it didn't, it would still have run me or the dwarf over."

  Reminded of their lone survivor, he glanced over to see that she was laying on her uninjured side and conscious. Her eyes were fixed on him. His trailed down the length of her body, noting at least four separate gashes, three on her arm and one below her knee, all on the same side.

  "Are you sure it's destroyed?" Angie asked, still staring after it.

  "Yeah, it's gone dark. We can go look at the wreckage here in a minute if you want. Does anyone know first aid? This chick looks like she could use some healing."

  He blinked as a sudden thought occurred to him, and he pointed at her and cast, "Target."

  Lygi

  HP: 31/48

  SP: 40/96

  MP: 20/20

  Now that her bars were visible, he said, "She'll be okay as long as she doesn't bleed out or get infected. She's only just over a quarter down."

  No one questioned him, and Angie proved adept at sewing Lygi's wounds shut using thread and needle from the dwarf's own pack, along with a rotgut alcohol that served as a sterilizing agent. Bandages were made from a set of the dwarf's spare clothes. Lygi bore the process in stoic silence.

  Once she was tended, she stood and managed to hobble along, though the wound on her leg obviously pained her greatly as even a moderate pace quickly drained her stamina bar.

  Their first destination was fortunately very close by.

  The remains of the automaton proved far more lucrative than Abram's entire run through Svartheim earlier, as it seemed that a great many of the defunct machine's functions had been powered by rune-inscribed gemstones.

  As he and Angie worked to completely disassemble the machine, Abram glanced back at Sif and said, "You can sense gems, right?"

  She blinked at him, then nodded. He had her use her gifts to find and gather up any that had scattered away from the body. Since she could also sense living beings in her immediate area, there was no way she would get lost, something that couldn't be said for any of the rest of them as there were precious few landmarks.

  The gems were of a variety of types: sapphires, rubies, a few emeralds, and a single exceedingly fine diamond that Abram was sure weighed at le
ast an ounce. Every single stone had a rune carved upon it, though he had no way of knowing what they meant, and didn't much care. As far as he was concerned, they were trade goods that would enable them to buy things they needed once they got to Sidastrgeil. Among the many things on the mental list he was compiling was a decent set of cooking gear and soap.

  Lots of soap.

  Sif returned with several more loose stones, but aside from a few sapphires Abram put in his pouch, he had Angie keep the rest. He managed to scrounge a piece of one of the legs that had snapped between joints. The remainder was about a foot long, and locked at a horizontal angle. This he gave to the dwarf, and when she took it with a bemused look at him he made gestures to suit the words as he said, "Use it as a crutch. Otherwise, you'll slow us up."

  Her lips thinned, but the leg piece was long enough to serve her as a crutch, and she tucked the flat piece under her armpit and quickly became adept as they set out again.

  Sif's unerring sense of direction set them on the right path, at least with regard to the way they'd been moving initially. The crevasse eventually tapered away and they angled back to find the original path. Abram couldn't tell the difference, but apparently the bergsrå could, and he didn't bother to question it.

  As he glanced at the lone survivor hobbling gamely along a few feet away, he couldn't help but grin, knowing the expression was hidden behind the darkness of his cowl.

  One out of three ain't bad I suppose, presuming she actually makes it all the way to the outpost.

  'Oh yes, living in the 33rd percentile is where it's at,' Hantu dryly commented.

  33.3 repeating. Don't short me.

  'You suck at sidequests.'

  So do the people who left me here.

  'And just think what you plan to do to them. I would watch your back if I were you. That dwarf didn't thank you, or anyone, for saving her.'

  Abram glanced at her again, brow furrowed as he thought about that. It was true. They had saved her life, but she'd said not a single word since the fight ended.

  He nodded slightly as his thought scrolled through the text bar.

  Noted.

  15

  The Road Not Taken

  The smooth horizontal crack through which they moved turned out to be at least another five miles deep, but it finally narrowed into a series of cave entrances. Two of these actually had portcullises affixed, and one looked to have suffered a cave-in at some point in the distant past. That left two options open to them, one of which also had a portcullis, but in the raised position.

  Abram glanced to Angie, then Sif, who turned to the dwarf and asked, "Which of these leads to Sidastrgeil?"

  She pointed toward the raised portcullis, but didn't speak. Abram noted that her stamina bar was hovering in the single digits, and her hit points were down to 28/48. It was obvious she was keeping up with them principally through force of will.

  Abram asked, "Which of these will get us to somewhere we can find food and water?"

  The dwarf glanced toward him, seemed to think a moment, then pointed toward the opening that had no gate, nor any evidence of recent travel. Abram noted that it had a slight but noticeable downward slope. The path to Sidastrgeil, on the other hand, proceeded evenly from the fracture through which they'd just come.

  Sif tilted her head, considering the lower entrance a moment, before she said, "There's a kobold down that way."

  "A kobold? Are you serious? Just one? Down here?" Abram asked, incredulous. "I thought this was a high-level area."

  Sif cast him a confused glance as Angie said, "Kobolds may not be what you are thinking of. They are draconian creatures, though I would be lying if I told you I knew how they came to be. They live in Subterranean Celestine because dragons hunt them without mercy in the world above. They are not to be underestimated."

  Abram considered that a moment, then asked, "How far is it from here to Sidastrgeil? By that I mean how long will it take us to get there, presuming we camp for the night soon. Lygi's just about had it, and needs to rest."

  "I can continue as long as any of you," the dwarf said sharply as she turned to stare at Abram. "How do you know my name?"

  "I'm a wizard, don't question what I know," Abram shot back. "Just like I know you're slowly dying, and your stamina is all but exhausted. If we walk another few hours, you'll be at half health, maybe less."

  "I can-"

  "You can shut the fuck up," Abram spat. "I have no patience for dwarven bravado and/or posturing, and any leverage the three of you might have had with us is gone. Your friend immediately turned on us when the chips were down, and you're just injured dead weight. So you speak when spoken to, provide the information required of you, and otherwise keep your pie hole shut. Do that, and maybe, maybe, we'll get you back home alive. Capisce?"

  "Too far, wizard," Sif snapped. The dwarvish woman's mouth was already open — no doubt ready with an angry retort — but Sif had beaten her to the punch and she hesitated as Abram blinked in absolute disbelief. He turned his attention to the bergsrå, but was glad in the next instant that the deeper darkness of his cowl had hidden the expression as he remembered their ruse.

  Wizards are always hard to control so this outburst probably didn't break character, but I'd still better knuckle under, he thought sourly, and dipped his head as he reined in his temper.

  "Whatever you say, boss," he said as he folded his hands together, monk-style inside his sleeves. It was an open question whether it was worth bothering to maintain the deception at this point.

  Probably, given if we do actually get Lygi all the way back to the settlement, she'll talk. If she annoys me too much it'll be a moot question because I'll leave her at room temp before I take much more lip. Now that we've got the gems from that automaton, we don't even need the money she promised. Ungrateful little shit.

  As Abram mused, Sif glanced toward the declining tunnel, then shook her head and said, "We'll keep heading toward the settlement. Lygi has food in her pack. The rest of us will manage."

  With a last glance toward the tunnel down which they would find a kobold, Abram turned and set off after the dwarf. Angie was in the lead, with Sif behind her and the Lygi next, with Abram in the rear. As they walked, he noticed Angie glancing back at him with borderline metronomic regularity and made a mental note to himself to tell her later to knock it off.

  Trust me lady, something grabs me from behind, I'll scream.

  The passage they were in looked like nothing so much as an ant or earthworm tunnel, save that it was cut from stone rather than dirt. Reaching out, he brushed his fingertips against the walls. It was only about twelve feet from one wall to the other at the widest point, but the floor wasn't flat. The tunnel was roughly but completely circular.

  He wanted to ask what kind of creature might have made this tunnel, but after his outburst with Lygi his persona as a hard-ass was fairly well-established and he didn't want to send mixed signals. He was a wizard. He knew what he knew ... even if that turned out to be nothing much.

  'This would be the point where your father would remind you in wry tones to think before you speak,' Hantu's text floated by.

  Abram rolled his eyes but didn't contest the point. Hantu wasn't wrong: it was exactly what his father would have done.

  His father had always known what to do. His father had usually also known just what to say, and otherwise had said nothing at all. His parents had both been everything anyone could reasonably ask for in terms of caregivers and loving family.

  Right up to when they told me point-blank that I wasn't welcome in the house anymore.

  Abram's lips twisted. He couldn't blame them. Not rationally. They had borne his fears throughout his childhood. He had been homeschooled because his crippling terror had made getting a normal education impossible. A good side benefit to that had been his ability to finish high school by the time he was fourteen.

  Four years later, after watching him categorically reject every college acceptance he received, his p
arents had enough. He had suggested online courses, but they wanted him out. His father had known what to say then too. He had explained that Abram was his own man, that he was responsible for his own destiny, and that he couldn't rely on his mother and father for shelter forever. He was grown and needed to fend for himself, including housing.

  He understood their frustration, but the transition to his apartment — something that for most people would have been a simple move — was for him one of the most difficult, traumatizing experiences of his life.

  The last favor his parents had done for him was to bribe the moving company to allow their agoraphobic son to ride in the closed container of the moving truck, and it had taken him most of the time the movers needed to get his stuff up to his new pad to make the twenty-foot journey from the back of that truck to the lobby of his apartment building.

  Living on his own had been an unexpected blessing though. He hadn't realized how much he hated seeing the pity in his mother's eyes when he saw it every day, hadn't realized how much he resented the way visitors to their house would tiptoe around him. Once he was alone, he had found his own rhythms. He had met people who interacted with him as though he were normal, because to them he was normal. He didn't have to disabuse them, or listen behind a closed door while his parents explained why their son couldn't come out to play, always telling the truth ... and shaming him deeply in the process.

  He glanced up at the rounded roof of the tunnel above his head and realized that whatever had made this passage, he was less afraid of it than he was of the clear blue sky.

  My life is so backward. I didn't do anything to deserve this. Why was I cursed with such a stupid disad?

  He couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been afraid to be out in the open. There was no inciting incident, no origin, no explanation. His parents had been understanding, but he knew they had never actually understood. How could they? HE didn't understand. There wasn't anything to understand. It was just the turd that wouldn't flush, plunger be damned.