by Stone Thomas
“I’d much rather you carve us some runes,” I said.
“I have a few uncarved rune stones left,” he said, “but they’re scrapestones. A lower quality material, prone to a quick crumble. I can do a coincidence if you like.”
“As a last resort,” I said. “They’re unpredictable.”
I turned toward the rest of the group when Vee tapped me on the shoulder.
“Since you’re skilling everyone,” Vee said, “can we improve my Network Adapt skill so I can connect active portal idols to the portal network faster?”
“Sure,” I said. “It’s as good a skill as any. It’s not like you can just conjure up an idol of your own.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Not yet, anyway.”
“What do you mean, not yet?” I asked.
“I’d need some major skillmeistering to pull that off!” She laughed and pushed her glasses further up her nose.
“Vee,” I said. “This is very important. What in gods’ names are you talking about?”
“Avelle trained me in how the portal network functions,” she said. “A few of the other portal mages were higher level than me, but I learned what I could. They had Idol Hands unlocked, so they can take inactive statuettes of Avelle and turn them into glowing portal idols. I can’t. Yet.”
I opened her skill menu. Her current attributes weren’t close to letting her unlock Idol Hands, or else I’d see that skill as “Locked” in her portal mage skill list. I used Skiller Instinct, but I got a sneak peek of something else instead.
Δ
Skiller Instinct Preview: Vee Runkker: Portal Mage
Locked. Contrabandwidth 1. Apply security measures to a portal that will prevent a proffered material from entering or exiting through that portal. Maximum security protocols: 1. [50 AP to cast] [Requires: Focus 20, Resolve 20] [375 XP to unlock].
∇
“I can’t see what the minimum requirements are for Idol Hands,” I said. “Do you know them?”
“Gosh,” she said. “No. Maybe. More Hardiness for sure. Or was it Resolve, I always get those confused.”
“Vee,” I said, “this is very important. I need you to—”
“Focus!” she said. “It requires more Focus.”
I took a deep breath. “If you’re right, and we get you this skill, we can open a portal out of here. Are you right?”
Her eyes darted back and forth. “Yes,” she said. “Not maybe. Yes.”
“Good,” I said. I opened my own menu first. Skilling the mommas and a few others had earned me just enough XP to improve Precision Training again, saving another 1% XP for people I trained — bringing the discount up to 9%. Every XP would count now. In Vee’s menu, I added one point of Focus. Then another one. I just needed to get close enough to see the skill pop up so I’d know the full requirements.
Another point of Focus didn’t do it, but one more did! I fixed her other stats, unlocked the skill, and breathed a sigh of relief.
“Okay, Vee,” I said. “We did it. Let’s make a portal idol!”
“Yes!” she said. “I just have to carve one first! But I don’t know how to carve.”
“You’re killing me, Vee,” I said. “In fact, I’m dead. I’ve died and gone to hell. It all makes so much sense now.”
“Idol Hands lets me turn any statuette of Avelle into an active portal idol,” Vee said. “Usually that means paying a master crafter to cut a large emerald, or a master carver to hone her shape from a rare and powerful wood capable of channeling magical energies. I’m sure any statue will do though. We just need someone to carve.”
“That sounds like something I can do,” Greggin said.
He sat in the corner whittling away at a two-inch stone with his rune chisel. “You’re lucky I am an astute student of the divine form. I know Avelle’s face and proportions well, but I’m not a carver by class. No special skill will speed this along. It may take all night.”
“Okay you two,” I said. “Team up and let’s get this done.”
+51
Greggin spent hours chiseling at the soft stone he used for rune crafting while I continued to level everyone up one by one. In that time, more lumentors had gathered around the mantid gladiators, but Reyna made sure to bubble and brand each one of them. New rifts tore open the sky, larger and larger as the night wore on, but not a single soul escaped this world.
Each rift was a little lighter than the last. We had been here all night, and soon it would be daybreak in the world of vibrant light.
“My turn,” Vee said, taking the small stone carving of Avelle from Greggin. She channeled her power into that small shape and when its green glow was steady she handed it to me.
“Mamba,” I said. “How is your heart to heart going with the rex fulmin?”
“That poor snakie’s mind is in too much pain from the Great Mother’s curse,” she said. “It only dances with my mind for a few beats before its song dies down.”
“A few beats is better than nothing,” I said. “On my signal, I’ll need you to ask that creature to lie still.”
“You sound like you have a plan,” Reyna said.
“I do,” I said. “But it’s risky. Do you trust me?”
“I’m leaning toward it, sometimes,” Reyna said. “But then I second guess. Oh, you’re right. He just wants me to say yes. Yes!”
“The temple’s dome is too cracked and unsteady,” I said. “If we open a portal inside it, we risk it collapsing and taking the idol with it. We only have one shot.
“Vee can use Network Adapt to bring an arch online at a distance as long as I get the idol in place. I’ll step inside Valona’s protective shell and turn that into a portal arch. The rex fulmin and the mantid gladiators are only after her. If we can get Valona out of here, everything should calm down enough for you all to follow after.”
“If you try to interfere,” Reyna said, “the Great Mother’s familiars may turn on you too. Their divine retribution curse is no better than Duul’s rage curse. It causes a single-mindedness that deprives their victim of free will. You’ll be driven by the insatiable desire to see justice done, which in this case, means killing my mother. I won’t let you hurt her.”
“So I won’t get cursed,” I said. “Duh. I’ll also leave my Vile Lance so I’m not a walking lightning rod.”
“It’s still too risky,” Isilya said. “The rex fulmin will see you, and Mamba can’t draw its attention for more than a few seconds at a time.”
“Oh,” Savange said, “if only there were an item of furtive measure. Really, you’re making me do too much of the work here.”
“Greggin!” I yelled. “I need your sneak socks.”
The little blue elf looked disappointed, but he tugged the long thick socks from his feet anyway. I kicked off my boots while he made sure the socks were right-side out. The coarse fabric scratched at my feet as I pulled them on.
“Why are they wet?” I asked. “Nevermind. If they work they work.”
“No shoes,” he said. “Any layer outside the socks will stay visible.”
A blast of lightning took us all by surprise. It struck at the center of the low, wide dome of magic Valona maintained around herself. The thunder that followed was deafening.
“She’s near the end now,” Reyna said. “Look.”
The sky had torn open with more rifts than I could count. Some were small cuts in the sky, others were gaping wounds. They closed slowly, but more opened to take their place.
“Here goes,” I said. I left my boots and Vile Lance behind and took the steps down one level. This was now the ground floor of the temple. Most of the other buildings were gone, with only a few roofs still poking out from hell’s dense mud. Swarms of mucker-mites had gravitated toward those buildings, covering them in boney white arms that tapered to fine points. The defensive wall was more of a short ledge, leading to the empty frame of the city’s entry gates.
Valona was enclosed inside a swirling encasement of dark energy. With little to b
lock the path toward her, the rex fulmin circled her, occasionally slamming its head into the dome, then rearing back and slithering away to prepare another attack.
I took a deep breath and climbed out of the temple’s window. Lumentors wafted freely through the sinking city, but none turned my way. Neither did the mantid warriors, or the rex fulmin. So far so good.
The coarse fabric of my sneak socks clung to the cold mud, so I walked slowly. Each step got me closer to Valona’s protective shell.
Mucker-mites reached their arms through the mud, probing blindly for people or buildings. I sidestepped them. Even they didn’t follow after me.
It was eerie, passing through this battlefield without drawing attention. I was the ghost now, drifting unseen through someone else’s world.
The rex fulmin whipped its tail to the side, splashing mud a few feet high. I prepared to Vault in case it swung near me before I remembered I couldn’t. No Vault, no Piercing Blow, no combat skills at all without my spear in hand. I pressed on.
I had cleared half the distance to Valona when the rex fulmin barreled past me. Its long body took a full minute to pass by. It didn’t bother to look my way even once. When the coast was clear, I lifted my foot for another careful step.
My first thought was how cold the mud had gotten. My second thought was how gross and slimy this mud felt between my toes. My third thought was, Stop having thoughts and run for it!
In the minute I stood waiting for the rex fulmin to cross my path, the mud had swallowed enough of my sneak socks that my feet left them behind. I was barefoot now, exposed, and suddenly interesting to the massive serpent stalking the city.
The rex fulmin charged at me head first. My feet didn’t carry me quickly enough through the thick mud to get out of its path. When it got close, I jumped.
Vaulting would have cleared this snake completely, but instead I landed on its face. My toes slid down the monster’s smooth hard face-scales until they found its mouth. My hands gripped a boney ridge that separated the snake’s massive head from its neck.
And up we went.
The wild beast’s body shot toward the sky, using its coiled lower body to support our ascent. I clung to the creature as we neared a massive rift in the sky. Six bolts of lightning crashed to the ground around us.
“Mamba!” I yelled. “Now!”
The scales that protected the rex fulmin began to glow brighter. Orbs of white light targeted us now, crashing not only into the rex fulmin’s lower body, but also its neck and its head.
“Oh, come on!” I yelled, letting go with one hand and narrowly avoiding one of the mantids’ curses. “Not cool, Great Mother. Not cool.”
I looked back at the temple tower. Mamba was dancing, but the rex fulmin wasn’t listening.
We were three stories up now, with a clear view of the remnants of the city, the hundreds of contained lumentors that had gathered here, and the sparse wasteland in every direction. I was closer to Valona than ever now. This was the time.
I let go completely.
Black mud splashed in every direction as my body sank two feet down from the impact. I scrambled to climb out of the Arden-shaped hole I made before the mud closed in on all sides.
I had little to run. Valona’s dome was a shroud of foreboding magic before me. I approached it.
“Hello?” I called. There was nowhere to knock, but I raised a fist anyway. I rapped my knuckles against that lightless shell, leaving small indentations in its wall. When I pressed my palm against it, my hand sank through and disappeared.
I stepped forward. For a moment, a curtain of stillness fell over me as I crossed the threshold into Valona’s private cell, a prison she had created to keep herself alive.
The goddess floated in the center of this enclosure so perfectly and so motionlessly that I second-guessed whether she was even still alive. Her eyes were clenched shut and her hands faced palm-up at the end of outstretched arms. She was like a statue caught in a levitress’s spell.
“Your soul feels like its flavor would be bold,” she said.
“Valona,” I said, digging the glowing green portal idol from my pocket. “Your grace. We have to get you out of here.”
“With that?” She spoke firmly, with a measured pace and an even, almost stoic tone. “There is no arch here to summon a portal. My shell is a magic construct, too impermanent and formless to support your little idol.”
Wrinkled skin clung to the bones of her face, making her look weak and emaciated. Her skin was gray like Reyna’s but it seemed drained and pale. It was odd to think of this woman as the mother of a young, vibrant demigoddess with long legs and round curves. Valona was short and elven in her features, with long ears that rose above her head. Her appearance was a relic of the elven souls that nourished her for so many years in Mournglory.
“If I were to leave my shielded dome, my control of the barriers between worlds would falter,” she said. “This realm would collapse into yours and the rex fulmin would continue its pursuit. The only way forward is to draw in fresh energy to revive my strength. Yours is the freshest I have sensed in many years.”
“My soul feeds Nola,” I said. “It is the one thing I can’t give you.”
“A god can last a long time without nourishment,” she said, “but only if we are not called on to use our gifts. I have held a firmament against this storm for too long. I cannot maintain it much longer.”
“What can I do?” I asked.
“If you will not commit your soul to me, there is nothing you can do. Hell will erupt through the nexus and pollute the heavens. It will consume the world of vibrant light and release the rotten souls once trapped here.”
“But the Great Mother,” I said. “How does this benefit her?”
“The Great Mother is the queen of penology,” she said. I cracked a smile, but Valona added, “That doesn’t mean what you think it does.”
“Oh,” I said.
“She is the goddess of law’s order. The matron of divine retribution. Our lady of holy convictions and the confessor of just punishment. The consequences are what they are, and she will deal with them when they come. For now, she has judged me guilty of treason against the empire. My punishment is capital.”
“It’s not right,” I said. “All the suffering she’ll cause.”
“She won’t blame herself for it,” Valona said. “She will blame me. I knew standing against her wishes would bring risk, but I had hoped that Reyna would grow into the power to control the rifts as I do. Her class is only suited to cordoning off errant souls. She cannot contain this realm after I pass. I worry most for her.
“What I need, to save myself, my daughter, and the realm in which we stand, is a head priest.”
“If I did become your priest,” I asked. “Would that really make a difference?”
“I stand ready to evolve,” she said, “but the energy it would take to summon my crystal cocoon would deplete me too much. I need skillmeistering before I dare attempt it.”
I turned away. How else could I stop the world from imploding? Nola had a war to win, with or without me by her side.
“You would need to renounce Nola first,” Valona said. “There is an incantation, specific to a head priest. Speak it — mean it — and your bond with the goddess will break. By the gods and with my soul, I free myself from your control. I steel my mind and close my heart. From you, Nola, I now depart.”
Our enclosure filled with blinding light, crackling and sizzling as lightning diffused across its dark surface.
“I could dig up the sneak socks under the mud,” I said. “You could walk away from here. The rex fulmin didn’t bat an eye when I wore them, so you could stop spending energy on this barrier. Save it for the rifts instead.”
“The rex fulmin’s mind is focused too heavily to be fooled,” she said. “It was never you it wanted.”
“Would I ever go home again?” I asked.
“Eventually,” she said, “but not to stay.”
“I’ll have children to raise. I can’t abandon them. I can’t leave Vix to raise them alone.”
“How could she raise children at all if the world of vibrant light goes dim with death?” she asked.
I closed my eyes. “By the gods and with my soul…” Bile splashed up my throat as my stomach churned. So this is what betrayal tasted like.
“I free myself from your control…” I dug into my pockets. What if I grew a plethorchid plant here? Could I shield Valona from the rex fulmin with it? Right. The seedpod was empty, gone. I had spent my last seed to purchase the fairyflies’ freedom.
“I steel my mind and close my heart…” All I had left was a map, a compass, and…
“Nevermind!” I said. “Eat this instead!” I held out the lilac energem.
Valona’s eyes widened. She held one hand over her head, but moved the other one to my open palm. She took the pulsating stone and pressed it against her mouth. Light purple wisps of energy fled that stone and she breathed them in, inhaling power and energy until the gem went dull.
When she opened her eyes again, they filled with blackness. Her skin darkened and glowed. She pointed her free hand to the ground. Two familiars formed there, shiny and gray. They were the size of seraph guardians, but shaped like men whose bodies were wrapped in bandages from head to toe.
“What happened to evolving?” I asked. “We need your help. Duul is attacking Halcyon soon and—”
“Subdue the rex fulmin,” Valona said. Her voice was firmer now, demanding and stern. Her familiars stood motionless at her feet while she floated there, maintaining the firmament she had erected overhead. “Clear the city and lead your people home. I will not evolve to an audience.”
+52
I stepped through the curtain of Valona’s magic with her little mummers following behind. They weren’t mummies, not really. Their skin looked like it was made of overlapping bands of cloth, but it was an illusion. There was no separate body beneath.
