Oblivion's Peril

by M. H. Johnson

  Val shook his head. Now was no time to dream of the future. He had just fought for his life, been forced to declare himself, hopefully forged a new ally, and had allowed himself to savor, for just a moment, the sheer wonder of his surroundings, the endless possibilities before him. But people he cared for were dying, and salvation might finally be within his grasp.

  Val entered the gardens behind the manor, taking a deep breath of fresh air alive with the scents of countless blossoms carefully arranged in flower beds painting the grounds a glorious rainbow of colors. A sea of flowers swaying in the gentle breeze.

  And there it was. Just ahead, exactly as he had recalled. Red shining brighter than rubies, violet blossoms so brilliant they glowed to his Magesight even when his eyes were closed. He smiled in relieved satisfaction, knowing this area resonated with alchemical potential, for all that he had had no opportunity to examine this corner of the garden until now. Careful hands gently plucked free first one, then several handfuls of Sweet Lingonberries radiating sharply with magic potential from the tiny evergreen shrubs by his feet, but of Infused Peppermint and Black Hawthorn, he could find no trace.

  He swallowed, well aware that time was running out.

  Slipping into Shadowmind, he closed his eyes and pulled up his Dominion Matrix.

  Congratulations! You have claimed your second territory! As a Tier 2 Overlord, you have 4 additional territory points to spend to upgrade your provinces. Greengrove Province is a Level 3 Lesser Territory presently containing Tier 2 farmlands and vineyards, one Tier 3 garden, one Tier 2 alchemical garden, and 1 Ancient Wonder. The tides of fate and serendipity might just reveal this lost wonder in all its glory. Perhaps it was never destroyed, but only hidden from the prying eyes of man, until this very day! Your subjugate mage had ideas about what was hidden away, but even he doesn't know for sure! Do you wish to cast Halcyon Restoration to bridge the impossible chasm between dream and reality? Cost to cast is 3 territory points! You presently have 16 territory points available.

  Val frowned. From what he recalled earlier, a 3 point Halcyon Restoration could repair an entire city before it entered its final moments, or bring back up to 6 tiers of potency to wonders lost to the ravages of war or time. Three points was expensive, and he had not even attempted to develop the gates or research whatever other territory improvements might be available to him. And more to the point, his friends were sick, perhaps dying. He had to act, and now.

  Warning, if Halcyon Restoration is not cast before leaving this territory, any undiscovered wonders will be permanently lost until the next hero dares to walk the King's Path!

  Val grimaced, frustrated that the prompts gave him no real insight into the nature of this undiscovered wonder. Yet knowing that it was magic-related, if there was even the slightest chance it could provide insights, resources, or aid in overcoming the horrific plague putting everyone he loved in peril...

  You have chosen to cast Halcyon Restoration! 3 territory points spent, 13 points remain. Congratulations! An ancient, mystical workshop thought permanently lost to the depths of time had only been hidden until Jordia's newest contender dared Fate's arena! You have discovered a Tier 5 Arcane Laboratory Complex! Your laboratory's protective magics are now fully attuned to you! You can activate or disarm laboratory safeguards at will. Your laboratory has made 3 major breakthroughs! The nature of said breakthroughs can be found in the careful notes taken by the previous owner. As this is the Southern Continent, notes are written in Runic Shorthand! Cypher & Insight checks needed to comprehend!

  Your complex has multiple resource modules providing modest quantities of natural resources. Included among them is a Tier 2 Silbion Spring, a Tier 3 Fungal Grove, a Tier 3 Enchanted Garden, and a Tier 2 Enchanted Mine containing Altersian and Elementium crystal blossoms!

  But Val was hardly paying attention to the prompts, presently gazing in dumbstruck awe at the magnificent edifice sparkling in the sapphire tinged sunlight. It was a dream of ivory towers, elegance, and wonder. And here it had been hiding completely under their noses, flashes of sunlight and darkest shade from the grove of magnificent towering redwood trees having somehow hidden it perfectly, even in plain sight.

  Val knew the odds of such a wonder remaining undiscovered for so many years was so fantastically slim as to be virtually nonexistent, that nothing but a patch of mundane forest and romantic ruins had been here the day before. Yet simultaneously, Val was utterly certain that the incredible, magical structure had patiently waited, cloaked in fading magic over a span of centuries, to reveal itself only at that very moment. For cause and effect run both ways in the quest for perfect quantization, wonder and mystery twin companions to any king who dares the Mystic's Path!

  Val blinked. On some level, he had thought he would have to sacrifice all magical glory to survive the Path of Shadow, but perhaps it was not that simple. Had he not been manipulating magics and unearthing wonders since he first beheld this incredible realm? Arcane arts and Shadowmind both were integral to who and what he was. And even if he would never walk the Path of Magic, how many wizards ever dared the mantle of Overlord in any case? Few if any, he suspected, not for a thousand years.

  Nothing said he couldn't continue to advance as a mage even as he embraced his darker skills to their limit, his Enhanced Shadowmind actually making casting magic safer than it otherwise would have been.

  Then he gasped, catching sight of an incredibly lush herb garden full of exotic blooms flourishing under the wondrous spray of an enchanted waterfall that branched into streams running through his garden. The Silbion channeled into the mist generated by the waterfall was modest, yet it managed to sustain the most exotic collection of plants Val had ever seen. Plants blazing with such strong potency to his Magesight that he couldn’t help but feel a sudden surge of hope.

  Cautious hands touched the closest plants, delighting in the tonal ring of fingertip against flower. He suddenly had no doubt that specialized perks were available to enhance this wonder further, but his friends were dying.

  The cold thought chilled his excitement. Holding tight to his sense of the place, he closed his Dominion Matrix, relieved to see the wonder had not changed to a bittersweet mirage. It was well and truly here. His smile turned to desperate relief as he caught sight of exactly what he needed, Infused Peppermint and Black Hawthorn looking exactly like their more mundane earthly counterparts save for the fierce green glow of magic radiating from both of them, only inches away from a patch of Sweet Lingonberry also thriving under the mystic spray.

  Val carefully gathered what he needed for all of his potions before turning about and heading to the gate that would lead back to his friends just as fast as his sprinting legs could carry him.

  19

  "Val, please tell me you have it!"

  Julia, gazing at him with desperate eyes. Fingers pale and trembling, nervously picking at a growing blister on her chin.

  Val caught her before she stumbled. Looked around. Noted a half dozen men and women dressed in the plain white uniforms Val recognized as belonging to skilled assistants and technicians. All of them were gazing at Val with bloodshot eyes, covered in sores, breath ragged, several spitting gobs of bloody phlegm. Desperate hope, alarm, and despair tinted their exhausted features.

  "Please, my baby girl... I'm afraid," whispered one, coughing through anxious tears.

  Julia’s hand, squeezing his own. "Please, Val. Give us good news. Please.”

  His heart was pounding. He dare not waste a moment. "Is Gregor at the lab?"

  Julia nodded and Val wasted no time, flexing PRM-enhanced muscles as he swept her in his arms and raced through the manor, dodging scores of critically ill patients lining the halls leading to a massive improvised infirmary. Their breathing was ragged, most of them coughing up blood. Only the dead were silent. Corpse eyes staring glassy-eyed into the unknown.

  "Yes," Julia said, choking back a sob. "The healing potions ran out, Val. So strong... and they only hold death at bay for a
handful of hours! Only those of us fully Terran or, well, mixed, are even upright. Poor Gregor needs another potion but refused even to take his own tinctures, saying other people needed them more than he!"

  Val held his sobbing Julia close as he raced for the lab, anxiety and relief warring within.

  Your two territories are linked by portal stones only Terrans can use. Synergistic bonuses are available with stronger connections! Do you wish to allow 15% production and quality bonus from Tier 3 Enchanted Garden to affect your Tier 2 Alchemy Lab, and a 7.5% production, quality, and breakthrough bonus to your Tier 5 research facility? Alchemy lab will detract garden production by 20% if used at peak. Research Lab needs will detract garden production by 25% if used at peak, with one dedicated alchemist overseeing cuttings and directing Christine's use of the alchemy lab in conjunction with administrator's experiments. This synergism will require 1 territory point invested in a tier 1 gate usable by anyone, or 2 points invested in a tier 2 gate, admittance linked to qualifiers modifiable when you are in your territories. Gate can be further upgraded as desired.

  Yes! Val shouted in his mind, surrendering two units of the very land's potential in actualizing a tier 2 gate between Highblood and Greengrove Provinces, with the qualifier that only he could use it. Val shivered, hit with the sudden odd certainty that his magical cuttings were perfectly suited for his alchemy lab. Just as they were for the ancient tower they had been grown so close to. It was as if a modern lab full of dwarven alchemical equipment had always been a part of the tower’s original design, no matter that it was constructed a thousand years after that ancient tower had been lost.

  Wasting no more time with his Dominion Matrix overlay, Val gently put down a wan Julia once they made it to the lab. He winced as she gasped, knowing how ill she was. Yet she looked so much better than all the Jordians they had encountered dying in the hallways and sick rooms. Frantic hands then pulled out all the herbs he had gathered as a wheezing zombie lurched off the ground and shambled toward Val.

  "Excellent!" said the zombie, who a shocked Val realized was just a dying Gregor, hacking up a gobbet of blood. "I know I look a sight, Val, but did you really have to shriek ‘zombie’? Those things aren't even real, you know."

  Val winced. "I'm so sorry, Gregor. Here. Let me whip up a quick batch of the purples."

  Gregor adamantly shook his head. "The purple you gave me earlier, that and my superior gnomish blood, are the only reason why I'm still on my feet. The minute it wears off, I know I'll drop. Besides, my body can only take a couple more healing potions today before I’m a useless puking mess. And if I'm going to gamble with my life, I'd rather it be with you giving what I can only hope will be a cure!"

  Val jerked a nod, knowing now was not the time to argue with his friend. "You're right. I'm sorry." He solemnly handed the dying man the packets of ingredients he had gathered, all at the peak of potency, glowing so brilliantly to Val's Magesight that he almost had to squint.

  The smaller man trembled with hope. "Excellent, excellent!" He took a deep whiff and smiled. "What an odd blessing. Even I can tell that the plant's arcane resonance is in perfect sync with our lab. As if it had been grown for our personal use which is, of course, impossible. Anyway, make yourself useful, Val. Crush the Black Hawthorn like so. Now add the Dragonberries with the Purple Elderoot..."

  Each second was both timeless and an eternity, Val losing himself in perhaps the most important arcane work he had ever embraced. Each alchemical ingredient, radiating such potent magics, was like a single pure note woven together in a song of such complexity, such potency, it was beyond what any mage could hope to accomplish with the casting of a single spell.

  And despite a frantic handful of seconds where Val had to use his odd gifts to corral loose strands of arcane power trickling from an almost but not quite perfectly constructed potion before it exploded, it was done. The brilliant swirling mass of bubbling liquid coalesced to a beautiful sea-foam blue.

  Within Val's exhausted, trembling hands was a beaker containing several dozen doses of what might save everyone within Highblood Province from an agonizing death.

  Advanced Cure-all Formula Learned! - Thanks to your Greater Alchemy, Magesight, Arcane and Mana Perception, the crafting of potions comes to you as naturally as breathing! You are far more gifted at alchemy than any Lesser Alchemist will ever be, able to see and feel the nuances of arcane interactions that others can only determine with the crudest of instruments.

  Hands actually shaking, Val debated pouring the precious, priceless liquid into individual vials, in the end simply dipping the vials into the wide-lipped flask, far less worried about grubby fingers than the Crimson Death burning through his people.

  20

  Christine's tear-filled eyes were piercing in their vulnerability as Val trickled the Cure-all into her mouth. "Thank you, dearest Val. Please, though. So many are in need. Your father, my Andrey..."

  "Already seen to," Val assured, wincing in memory of his weakened father, still fighting the infection so much better than the Jordians, he and Andrey both. It was a fight to get the pair even to take the medicine, Val at last arguing that worry for them would interfere with the making of his second batch. With grudging smiles, they had done as Val asked, Christine's eyes widened as she plucked the memory from his head.

  She chuckled ruefully. "For all that I've teased about the superiority of gnomish blood, your Terran ancestors procreating so freely with the other hominid tribes of Europe and Asia did leave its mark upon your people. Even your primitive scientists can sense what a powerful impact it had on your immune systems, so many of you Europeans resistant to strains of typhoid, bubonic plague, smallpox, and so many other deadly illnesses. Truly I should not be surprised that you and my daughter and your Terran sires stood tall and proud where the rest of us fell so quickly."

  Val smirked. "Considering that my mother declared herself a Volga Tatar, I'm hardly pure European, even if my sister and brother got the exotic Eurasian looks. It's my PRM skill that's boosted my immune system. With Jordia’s potent magic field supercharging my body, I can heal a hit point every two seconds. Infections don't stand a chance. Thank god Julia and I are mutts, though. If I had been too late to save her..." He gazed down at his trembling fists, blinking back hot tears he refused to shed.

  Christine squeezed his hand. "I'm proud of you, Val. You and my daughters both." Haunted eyes gazed into his own. "Please tell me Elise is okay?"

  Val nodded. "She is. The regeneration potion kept her alive even when..." He swallowed, recalling seeing a sobbing Sten holding a horrifically maimed Elise, covered in sores, writhing in pain, Val's potion all that had kept her alive in time for her to take his Cure-all potion. And the gratitude a sobbing Sten had showered upon a shaken Val had left the latter speechless. He had simply shaken his head, forcing Sten and Halvar both to take two of the first doses. For all that they swore their mercenary enhancements was buying them time, Val wasn’t taking any chances with his friends’ lives.

  Christine shuddered, squeezing her eyes shut. "To see my child suffering so... but you saved her. That's all that matters." Desperate golden eyes gazed at the dozens of groaning, dying men and women all around them still. "Please, Val. We don't have much time."

  Val paused only long enough to drink some cold clean water before racing back to his laboratory, the rest of the day a battle against terror and time, losing one entire batch to panic before finding the calm state of mind he needed to perform his craft.

  It was an endless day and night, he and a much improved Gregor working nonstop, Val alternating between generating fresh batches and picking his precious Enchanted Garden almost dry of those priceless herbs in his urgent rush to save everyone infected. And for all that they had lost well over a hundred to the horrors of the Red Death as it was now called, they had managed to save everyone else, near two thousand civilians and staff.

  You have successfully concocted your 100th batch of Cure-all Tincture. Congratulation
s! You have achieved Rank 2 Expertise in formulating Advanced Cure-all Tincture! Though the alchemical requirements have not changed, your Cure-all batches will be 20% more potent, with a 40% reduced risk of batch failure! Too bad about the half dozen batches you ruined in a panic, Val!

  Congratulations! You have achieved Rank 4 in Greater Alchemy!

  Val winced at this truth, wondering how many additional lives he could have saved if he had just been a bit more focused, if he had been able to fight off mental exhaustion just a bit longer. Gregor, however, was looking at his final reserve batch with something close to awe. "Saints above, Val, that looks near masterwork quality!" He chuckled ruefully. "I know you're gifted, but I'm beginning to wonder if you're better at this craft than I!"

  He frowned as Val gazed thoughtfully at his friend. "You're supposed to deny it, and I commend you for being a worthy disciple."

  Val smirked. "Sorry, buddy. I'm still in a bit of a daze. But hey, we saved a lot of lives today, didn't we?"

  Gregor nodded solemnly, all seriousness once more. "That we did, friend Valor. That we did. And Val?"

  "Yes?"

  "Thanks for saving my life."

  Val chuckled. "Isn't the first time." Val winked at the spluttering man as he quickly sealed the tiny vials and made his way back to the manor with a wave.

  "You are so exasperating!" Gregor groaned behind him.

  "You know you love it," Val smirked, enjoying the moment and his friend’s expression before the horror of all that had occurred struck him once more.

  A half-mad inquisitor intent on killing Val and everyone he loved to keep the secrets of the dwarves to himself, then death from the skies heartbeats away from killing them after they defeated the madman. They had been forced to flee Jordia as fast as they could, denied even a single day's rest before corrupt Highlords attempted to frame Christine for a capital crime before all subtlety was forsaken in the hopes of butchering her entire clan in a single calculated strike.