Spectres & Skin: Exodus

by RJ Creed

  I looked at Gellert for a while, and then dared a glance back at Ryken, but … none of us had any ideas. We couldn’t convince the Father of anything, that was probably a given. Especially not when it came to over twenty refugees.

  “Do you have any other options at all?” I asked him.

  “Well, we can’t stay here indefinitely. I can fight off the wolves and bandits by myself — I am a good fighter, after all — but eventually I’ll be too tired or too weak from hunger and I will be overwhelmed. Or perhaps some of them will give in and eat Blighted food, and be struck by madness. Or maybe they will try to steal from the farmlands, as I have heard some of them muttering about, and they will be killed by errand boys sent by the Collective.”

  I swallowed and glanced at my companions, who didn’t dare return my look.

  “Anyway, that’s my sad story for today. If there’s nothing you can do, there’s nothing you can do. I wouldn’t have brought it up with you. Thank you for stopping to chat.” He moved away again and sat down, head in his hands. The poor man — I wondered when the last time he might have slept was. He probably felt some kind of responsibility to these people that meant he didn’t dare close his eyes for a moment.

  I didn’t know what to do. No quest had come up, which meant that there was nothing that I could do to help. Right?

  “Let’s move on,” Gellert said to me quietly. “We’ll complete our quest and consider our options on the way back. We need to keep moving.”

  “We can’t eat in front of these people,” Ryken confirmed. I nodded.

  “Lucius,” I called, and the armour-wearing man looked up at me with bleary eyes. “We have business for the Collective but we will consider what we can do for you. We will be back here in a day. If you think of anything we can do to help — considering that we’re only Initiates; the lowest on the totem pole — let us know. OK?”

  He stared blankly at me for a while and I wondered if he had fallen asleep. For a second his eyes fell on Moro, and then travelled with some effort back up to me. “Fine,” he said. “We will put our heads together. Good luck with your business.”

  We said goodbye and continued on, past the refugees. As we went, I inspected a few of them. As Ryken had said, they were all low level people with random descriptions and trades, all Neutral to us. Nothing noteworthy.

  “What could we do to help?” I asked them as soon as we were out of earshot. My stomach was rumbling audibly and I felt pretty guilty about the fact that I had enough food in my pack to more than satisfy me for each meal until I returned to the city gates, where I would be happily let in to sleep in a warm bed and eat some more.

  “We could…” Gellert started off strong but instantly it faded. “No, that’s nothing. I thought I had something.”

  “Go for it,” I said.

  He shook his head. “I was going to say we go to their village, Oakhaven, right? We see if we can … do anything.”

  “What? Fix the Blighted earth in their farms?” Ryken asked, and then gave a hollow laugh. “We’d be better off trying to convince the Father to let them in to populate the slums.”

  “Are they really that crowded?” I asked. “The parts of the city that I’ve visited, the market district and those beautiful gardens … it just seems like there’s so much space in Dawnspire.”

  Ryken shook his head, twisting his tongue. “There’s no space. There just isn’t. I grew up in the slums.”

  Gellert and I said nothing. To my surprise, he continued.

  “It was awful. We had to beg and steal to get a crust of stale bread every day until we learned to pick locks and pockets. I was caught, finally, and I was going to be put to death, but Rae … wouldn’t kill me.”

  This had my interest. I turned to him and watched his face as he kept talking.

  “The Father’s spectre. He ordered her to end my life three times and she turned away and did nothing. The Father decided that this meant Titania had chosen me. I don’t believe in the Collective’s whole deal, I think it’s bullshit, and the fact that the spire is all gold leaf and precious stones … sickens me, when there is poverty like this inside and outside the city gates.” I raised my eyebrows; I hadn’t been expecting this tirade. “Then he told me it was join the Collective or be banished. I had no choice. I didn’t know this had happened to anyone before, so I thought…”

  He lifted his head and looked at me, and a bitter expression took over his face. “Nothing,” he finished darkly.

  I looked away and fixed my eyes on the ground. Moro padded silently beside me, amber eyes straight forward, and I glanced at her. Ryken had expected to be chosen; he had expected a spectre.

  If I hadn’t done Carl’s cheat, would he have had her instead? Had I stolen the kid’s destiny?

  If so … well, then what? I was leaving in a few days. So that would mean that on a whim I had entered an alternate reality — because this place was revealing itself to be just as real as home, if not more — and I had ruined everything here.

  That would be so fucking typical of me it would almost be laughable.

  We all walked another hour in silence before we came to a line of trees and a small lake that provided us with some safety so that we could eat our meal in peace. By now the three of us were almost exhausted with hunger. We drank and then refilled our water bottles, and Ryken showed us how to inspect water to check its purity before we drank it.

  We sat for a little while, and began to walk east again. Unlike in the real world — back when I could walk — my feet weren’t aching, but I had a general ache in my body and general fatigue by the time the light began to fade.

  “Should we stop to sleep soon?” I asked them.

  “You’re the boss,” Gellert reminded me, and I sucked in a breath. Right.

  “OK. Can everyone handle one more hour of walking? We can rest after that.”

  “We should take shifts,” Ryken muttered, as if I hadn’t thought of that. (I hadn’t.)

  “Of course,” I said. “I’ll take the first watch, if you guys want.”

  “It’s fine, I’ll do it,” Ryken said. “I would rather my sleep not be broken in half, and it takes me a long time to fall asleep anyway.”

  I agreed, since I was exhausted, and by the time we had pulled out our fur roll mats from our packs and lay back on them. Ryken sat up against a tree, his sling on his lap, and chewed on some meat while he stared out at the landscape.

  This place was definitely beautiful, and so different from what I was used to back on Earth, with its bright green plants and blue skies, but I was already getting itchy feet. I wanted to explore. I did miss Luke, too. I was desperate to know how he was getting along. Had he risen to demigod status yet? Perhaps he was one of the titans, twinkling in the night sky.

  I tried to find an image in the brightest stars, but found nothing. It was a little like counting sheep, though, because after only a few minutes of staring up at them, I was out like a light.

  I woke with a start. There was a hand in my shoulder, and my hand went down to wrestle with my dagger’s sheath.

  As my eyes adjusted, I realised it was a very unimpressed-looking Ryken, who took the time to take a deep, loud breath, and then lay back on his own mat. I stared at him for a moment until I remembered that it was my turn to keep watch. I envied him for thinking ahead, because he would get to sleep through the rest of the night, and I was probably going to have trouble getting back to sleep when it was time for Gellert’s shift.

  My eyes trailed across the mats in the dark, lit by all those bright stars, and I noted that both of my companions were present, along with all of our possessions, and everyone seemed alive and unscathed. I wasn’t wrong, yet, to have trusted the kid to come along with us, but I was still going to be wary of him.

  I leaned back against the tree that he had leaned against, and I thought about what he had told us. He’d been sentenced to death for stealing, which was a frightening reality, but he’d been allowed to live because the griffin ha
d disobeyed orders.

  “Moro, here,” I said quietly. The wolf didn’t even hesitate for a fraction of a second, and she lay down beside me and rested her ghostly head on my knee, though I felt nothing. “Can spectres disobey their soulbound people?” I asked her, attempting to stroke her fur but feeling nothing. It was a shame. I would have enjoyed a warm, furry companion right at that moment.

  Instead of answering, she looked up into my eyes and I stared down into hers. I felt like I could feel the answer radiating through me. No. They couldn’t disobey us. Because, in a way, they were us. We were one and the same, Moro and I. Rae and the Father were the same. So, if Ryken was telling the truth — and he was a total shit, but he didn’t seem like he would randomly lie — then what had gone on?

  I felt my eyelids becoming heavy as I thought myself in circles, the stroking motion lowering through her spectral head until I was rubbing my own knee. I jerked awake again at the feeling of my own hand, relieved that only a couple of seconds had passed and I had missed nothing. A shudder passed through me and I felt the need to carefully look left and right.

  Moro got to her feet and stared silently at me. It was unnerving.

  “What?” I whispered.

  What was she trying to tell me?

  As soon as the question passed through my mind, I shuddered and I knew the answer. I had seen something, somewhere, and though my subconscious — and therefore my spectre — had noticed it, it hadn’t quite transferred through to my conscious mind yet.

  “What is it?” I whispered. The wolf turned her large glowing head and dipped her muzzle an inch. In the distance I heard scuffling, and some snuffling. Then, too close for comfort, I heard an unmistakable mournful note, long and crisp, hanging in the cold night air.

  Wolves.

  “Shit.” I scrambled to my feet and went to kick Ryken and Gellert awake.

  “The fuck? You can’t keep watch yourself for five fucking minutes?” Ryken shouted into the fur of his roll mat. I kicked him again. “I’m fucking awake!”

  “Just making sure.”

  “What’s wrong, Matt?” Gellert slowly rose and rubbed his face to massage away the sleepiness. “Is it my turn?”

  “Wolves,” I told them. “I think they’re coming this way.”

  “Couldn’t have fought off a couple of wolves yourself and let us sleep?” Ryken asked, but he got to his feet with only one more filthy look in my direction.

  “There,” I said, and Moro’s hackles rose and her white fur stood on end as an animal that really barely resembled her launched itself from the shadows of the trees nearby.

  I was ready for the beast this time. I took two long strides to meet the animal mid-leap, and just before its jaws connected with my jugular, my hand blurred from my waist and my dagger was almost instantly hilt-deep in the scrawny, patchy-furred animal’s trachea. The momentum was still on its side, though, and it landed on me, spilling a bucket of blood over my brand new leather armour.

  You have defeated Scrawny Wolf (Level 2)

  You have gained 15 EXP!

  I cried out with disgust and tossed the already limp body off of me, and with my boot on the wolf’s shoulder I yanked my dagger free again, trembling with adrenaline and watching as my comrades fought off another wolf each.

  A third remaining wolf, the biggest, appeared to be enraptured by my spectre, circling the phantom mirror image of itself and rumbling with a growl that came from deep within. That was interesting. So she could affect events, even though she couldn’t actually do anything. Yet.

  “You guys OK?”

  I was in kind of a weird position. On one hand, they were struggling more than I had. Ryken’s dagger had been knocked out of his hand and he was kneeing the animal in the jaw repeatedly, and Gellert was struggling to get an arrow out of his quiver so he could jam it between the other wolf’s eyes. Should I help them? On the other hand, though, they would be able to earn more experience if I let it be.

  The largest wolf finally made my decision for me when it launched at Moro with the aim to tear into her throat, and dove straight through. I took that split second of confusion and darted towards the animal as fast as I could. My dagger blurred from my side but just missed the jugular as the wolf thrashed away from my weapon. I swore as I slashed at fur, scraping off just a couple of percent points from his HP bar and nothing more.

  I tried to sheathe my dagger again so I could use my only ability, but it was still so sticky from blood that I was having trouble manoeuvring it properly. The wolf lunged, jaws-first, and I lifted my leg and caught it square in the gut with the tip of my firm leather boot. As it yelped loudly I drove my dagger into what I thought was its throat, but again it moved at the last moment — instead my dagger slid against wet fangs, making a horrible noise that made me shudder. I wanted to risk a glance at my teammates to see how they were doing, but I was in too much immediate danger myself.

  I allowed myself to lean back slowly as the wolf pushed me hard with his dripping teeth, until my back was against a tree trunk and I was bent in an incredibly uncomfortable position. My hands were shaking, and I was pretty sure that I was riding my Strength skill pretty hard right now. My arm was getting tired fast, which probably came down to Fortitude. My green stamina bar, which I hadn’t really needed to pay attention to until now, was sliding downwards fast.

  But I had a free hand, and the wolf was entirely occupied with gnashing and pushing against my knife until my muscles gave out and he was given a free pass to my fleshy throat. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Gellert had a large gash in his arm and was watching our battle with a slack jaw. I gestured madly for him to hand me another weapon, and finally he snapped to it and handed me the bloody arrow in his hand. It was better than nothing.

  I couldn’t move it as fast as I could move a sheathed dagger, but I managed to position it, though it was slick and slippery, and was just about to puncture a hole in the creature’s side when it yelped and flopped over — dead.

  You have defeated Feral Wolf (Level 3)

  You have gained 1 EXP!

  “The hell?” I yelled. I looked up to see Ryken, with blood splashed across the side of his face, breathing heavily with his stiletto brandished. “You killed it? You saw I was just about to. 1 EXP?”

  “You get experience determined by the percentage of damage you inflicted,” Gellert said, wincing from what must have been incredible pain in his arm as he pulled bandages from his pack and wound them around. It appeared to fail once, and he swiped his hand through the air as if to dismiss text, but when he tried again and tied it with his teeth he sighed with relief.

  I was exhausted, completely, but I wasn’t cut. I watched with a frown on my face as Ryken bound his calf with a bandage of his own. “You stole my kill,” I said.

  “Grow up,” he muttered.

  Hypocrite.

  “Matt, would you like to get some sleep now?” Gellert asked. “I’m really wide awake now, I don’t mind watching for the next four hours straight, instead of trying to sleep for an hour.”

  I shrugged. “If you’re sure.” I wasn’t going to refuse the chance to get some extra sleep. “Wake me up if you get too tired.”

  “Will do,” he said, and took his place leaning against the same tree we had before. He picked up a fallen branch and pulled out a pocket knife, and began to whittle.

  “You learn that here?”

  He nodded. “Back in the beta I pushed a boundary and went to jail for a few days. Learned it in there to pass the time.”

  My eyes were already closing. “Think I could do it with my dagger?”

  “Yeah, don’t see why not,” he said. “I’ll teach you tomorrow when we eat breakfast, if you like.”

  “Sure,” I mumbled, and then I was asleep again before the word had fully left my mouth.

  I was woken by birdsong this time, instead of the scowling face of a teenage boy. I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, and the light streaming through the trees was almos
t painful at first. I was reminded again just how beautiful this world was. The lake at our back was glittering in the morning sun and little birds hopped from branch to branch above us.

  “What do you think? Should I kill a couple?” Ryken was asking Gellert as I sat up. They were eating bread and meat and squinting up at the canopies.

  Gellert simply laughed fondly. “Nah, let’s leave them to their songs.” I was starting to kind of like the old guy myself. He seemed calm and pleasant; level-headed. “We have plenty to eat.” Ryken grunted his assent.

  As I got to my feet and stretched out, they turned to me. “Mornin’,” Gellert said. “You still wanting to learn how to whittle?”

  “Do we have time for that kinda shit?” Ryken muttered, pulling out the map — which I had thought was in my pack still, actually — and chewing while he inspected it with a deep frown.

  “Yeah, I’ll just unlock it; why not?” I said, and sat down on the fallen log next to the older man. “Ryken, find us the quickest route.” I knew the quickest route already, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep the kid feeling useful while I was momentarily occupied. “What kind of good things come from this skill?”

  “Oh, as far as I can tell you just make things that you can sell,” he said with a shrug. “It keeps you busy, though, and it levels up your Dexterity, which is very handy. Ha! Pardon the pun.”

  “Wait, it does what? The attributes?”

  He raised his bushy eyebrows at me. “You didn’t know? Every fifth skill level you get a point in the related attribute.”

  “Oh, nice,” I said, and he handed me a block of wood he had clearly already found and stripped of bark for me.

  “Right, get your dagger and, uh, wipe it off in the water and grass, alright? Then we’ll get started.”

  “Looks like we’re closer than we thought,” Ryken said finally. “Should be at the cave marked on this map by lunchtime if we walk faster than we have been.”