by Demi Harper
‘It’s only been a couple of hours since the raid,’ I pointed out. ‘Wherever the kobolds are now, it can’t be far. The raiders weren’t carrying any supplies other than weapons, so I suspect their base is quite close. They may even have arrived there by now.’
‘You’re right, Corey,’ she said, though she still sounded nervous. ‘We’ll still be able to communicate through our link. I’ll be monitoring your mana constantly, and will let you know when it’s time to come back. Based on your current mana levels, we’ll probably have about twenty-four seconds in total. Once you reach the base, you’ll only have a few moments in which to look around. Use them wisely.’
After a pause, she added, ‘And Corey? Promise me you’ll return the very instant I tell you to do so. I know you don’t like taking orders, but this is literally a matter of life and death.’
I thought again of the golden shards, the dead Core. It felt like a shadow passed over me at the thought. ‘I promise.’
She glowed softly. ‘In that case, go ahead. Pick one of the captured denizens – preferably one you remember clearly – and focus on them. When you’ve pictured your target, concentrate your will, and let Observe do the rest.’
Needing no more encouragement, I focused hard on the memory of the kobold raid. My mind fixed instantly upon their commander – Barka, as I’d decided to nickname him. Anger filled me as I recalled the creature barking instructions as his raiders pillaged the gnome village, his vicious teeth bared as he surveyed my cavern.
But no. I had to focus on my denizens in order for this to work.
I cast my mind back to the limp, unresisting forms the raiders had so easily carried away. I recalled one in particular: tucked beneath a kobold’s scaly arm, the gnome had hung limply, eyes open and staring, entirely resigned to his fate. I focused hard on the memory.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then I was drawn inexorably toward the tunnel the kobolds had fled down, like the pull of a magnet too strong for me to resist.
The green, moss-covered walls of my cavern flashed past as I raced uncontrollably toward the tunnel. I couldn’t help but flinch as I reached it, some old instinct insisting I was going to smack my head painfully against the rock ceiling.
I passed through unharmed, of course, only to be thrown along the tunnel in a trajectory that had me aiming straight at the place where wall met floor rather than following the tunnel’s curve. I braced myself for impact—
—only to travel through the rock without slowing. Everything went dark as the porous stone surrounded me, then an instant later I was out again, zooming through the ceiling of an unfamiliar cave dominated by an underground lake. I barely had time to marvel at the sight before I was whisked through the bottom of the wall on the opposite side and into the dark again.
This was where my Sphere of Influence ended. The instant I left it, my mana began to deplete; I watched it drain from its blue globes, constant and frighteningly rapid. When I next emerged from the rock it was in a long, high tunnel. A honeycomb maze of rock arches and pits, all draped in colossal spiderwebs as thick as string. These would have made passage impossible for any corporeal traveler; as it was, I soared right through them all, passing unseen beneath their unseen occupants’ many-eyed stares.
I was now moving so fast I could scarcely comprehend the scenery I passed along the way. More caves; more tunnels; more strange sights, all occurring within the blink of an eye. I traveled on a downward gradient in an arrow-straight line the entire time, soaring over sinkholes and chasms and all sorts of other vertiginous sights on my journey deeper beneath the earth. It was hard not to feel small and insignificant as I traversed the breadth of uncaring stone – but I managed it.
At least, until I reached the kobolds’ lair.
My enemies’ cavern was wider and longer than mine, though the ceiling was much, much lower. Stalactites hung down, almost touching the matching stalagmites that thrust up from the ground, so the entire space gave the impression of monstrous jaws about to close.
It was dark here, too. Unlike the Grotto, with its natural light from the hole in the ceiling, this underground chamber was a place of shadows. The mana globes in the bottom right of my vision pulsed softly, their cool blue glow both reassuring and a constant reminder that my presence here was guzzling away my mana by the second.
I looked around quickly, squinting through the smoky shadows. Fires were lit here and there; their flickering reddish glow revealed nightmarish silhouettes prowling between the flames.
I spotted Barka, the kobold commander, straight away. It stood before one of the larger fires, barking viciously at a figure lying sprawled at its feet. For a moment I thought it was a gnome, but a closer look revealed the figure to be another kobold, smaller than the commander.
The prone kobold raised its head weakly. The commander snarled down at it, raising one arm. A wicked-looking whip was clutched in that clawed hand.
Barka brought the whip down, again and again. All around, kobold spectators yipped and barked excitedly, as though cheering their commander on.
I couldn’t help but wonder what the unfortunate creature’s crime had been. Had it failed to follow orders? Forgotten to sharpen its teeth? Humped the wrong leg?
Slightly revolted at the sight, and feeling my mana still trickling away by the moment, I backed off from the commander’s grisly punishment and tried to get a more strategic look at the base itself as I flashed through it. Where were its weaknesses? Who was the leader? And what did they want with my gnomes?
A pall of smoke hung over everything. The smoldering fires gave the cavern an infernal glow, and the constant skulking movement of the kobolds made it difficult for me to focus. A diabolical chorus of baying and growling echoed from the walls and low ceiling. I could hear no words, only hate.
Observe continued to drag me through the smoky haze and toward a commotion at the center of the cavern, and it was there I finally found what I’d come here to see.
Lining up to enter a circle of jagged stalagmites was a ragged procession of gnomes. Their hands were cruelly bound behind them with rope. Their shoulders were slumped and their faces were bruised. To either side, red-scaled kobold raiders snapped their jaws at any gnome who stumbled, kicking their prisoners back in line.
‘I’ve found the gnomes! They’re alive,’ I said to Ket.
I heard her reply as though she was right beside me.
‘I’m sorry, Corey.’
What? What for? I thought. But Ket didn’t elaborate.
‘Get ready to come back,’ she said instead. ‘You’ll soon be out of mana.’
I glanced again at my mana globes. She was right; I was now down to just one globe. But another look at the gnomes made me forget about all that. Their patchy togas and dirt- and blood-smeared faces conspired to make them one of the most pathetic sights I’d ever seen. But rather than making me feel disgust, as it had when I’d first laid eyes on them, I now felt something else. Something that made me uncomfortable at the sight of their predicament, and frustrated that I wasn’t in a position to do anything about it.
‘Come on, Corey. You need to come back.’
The line shuffled forward as the gnome at the front was dragged into the stalagmite circle. I followed, conscious of my still-draining mana but unable to leave without seeing what would become of my former denizens.
Dread filled me, and I immediately wished I hadn’t looked at all. Ignorance is bliss, but knowledge is nightmares.
Amid the circle of stalagmites, sheltered from the rest of the cavern, was a raised altar. The cloying smoke and shadows prevented me from seeing clearly, but the altar looked to be constructed from a jagged mass of black volcanic rock and broken bones, all smeared with blood both red and black. Atop the altar was a large gem, multi-faceted and glowing the same crimson color as the surrounding fires.
A God Core.
And not a friendly one, by the looks of it.
Dimly, I registered a soft yet urgent hum inside m
y mind. My vision tilted with dizziness, just as it had when I’d accidentally expended nearly all my mana using Growth. I could hear Ket screaming down our connection for me to get out, but she sounded further away this time, and I couldn’t stop staring at the scene before me in that hellish grotto.
A kobold wearing a tattered kilt made from strips of hide hung with rat skulls – some sort of shaman, perhaps? – yanked the front-most gnome to its knees before the altar.
The gnome whimpered. Ket’s voice wailed in the back of my mind, but all I could think about was the knife in the shaman’s hand. The serrated obsidian blade glinted in the dim firelight as the shaman’s arm encircled the defenseless gnome’s throat, the kobold’s other hand gripping the prisoner’s hair tightly.
No, not prisoner.
Sacrifice.
The blade flashed; blood spurted; a limp, twitching body in a ragged brown tunic slumped to the ground. Ket’s voice began to fade, and I could now feel myself draining away. What had begun as a vague humming sensation rose to a violent vibration, and Ket’s warnings of what would happen if I expended every last drop of my mana came flooding back.
I’m too young to shatter!
I wrenched my mind away from the visions, away from the smoky cavern, away from the kobolds and my hapless gnomes, dooming them to their fate.
Thirteen
Altar
I tore myself away from the vision – not a moment too soon.
My last remaining mana globe, containing barely anything, was flashing red in the bottom right of my vision. The edges of my sight were dark, and I struggled to focus on what was in front of me.
One instant I’d been gazing down in horror as a gnome was sacrificed before me, the next I was looking once more at my bumbling denizens piling stones one atop the other in an attempt to construct the world’s most abysmal altar. It took me far too long to concentrate on the familiar surroundings, and as soon as I did, my muddled thoughts were interrupted by a quavering cry.
‘Corey!’
Ket flung herself upon my gem, and a warm fuzzy sensation instantly crept up to embrace me. She hugged the gem for a moment longer and then zipped up into the air to rejoin me.
‘Corey,’ she said again, sounding equally likely to either scold or weep. Predictably, she settled for scolding. ‘I told you to come back as soon as I called you. Why did you wait? You could have died! You almost shattered!’
‘Almost,’ I replied with forced calm. The panicky vibrations that had affected me were thankfully beginning to subside, assuaged by the slight but steady in-flow of ambient mana from my surroundings. But the anxious hum was still there in the background, a constant reminder of my near-empty final mana globe, which was gradually fading back to its usual blue hue but was still too empty for me to yet feel properly safe.
Ket was still worried, too.
‘Ignoring my warnings was reckless, Corey. If I hadn’t been cautious with my estimate and begun calling you back earlier than was strictly necessary—’
‘Let’s not focus on who ignored who,’ I said quickly, ‘or whose fault it is that I almost just died—’
‘It was your fault!’
‘Shh. We’re not thinking about that any more. And you were right, by the way.’ It pained me to say it, but it was true. ‘We probably shouldn’t raid the kobolds’ base.’
‘Really? You think?’
I chose to ignore her tone. ‘It’s grim down there, Ket. Really grim. And the gnomes…’
‘Oh, Corey,’ said the sprite sadly. ‘I know. I saw what you saw.’
‘Why kill them?’ I was genuinely confused. ‘I don’t know much about kobolds, but from what I’ve seen, they’re little more than beasts. I’d half expected to find them roasting the gnomes for food, not murdering them in some kind of ritual.’
‘Don’t let appearances deceive you,’ warned Ket. ‘They might look like animals, but kobolds are just as intelligent as gnomes.’
‘I think you’re using ‘intelligent’ rather optimistically, but I can see your point.’ After a moment’s thought, I added, ‘If they’re so smart, though, why go to the trouble of traveling all this way only to kill the gnomes in such a manner? Why didn’t they just slaughter our entire village while they were here?’
Ket sighed. ‘Because they’re clearly under the influence of someone – or something – else.’
I remembered the blood-red stone atop the altar. ‘Another God Core.’
‘Yes. The thing you have to remember, Corey, is that not all gods are good. Are you familiar with the concept of sacrifice?’
‘Of course I am. I’m no child, Ket.’
‘Good. Then you’re aware that blood – particularly the blood of one’s enemies – is the key to the darkest of powers in this world. Just as you are granted mana by the worship of your Faithful, so too does the kobolds’ Core benefit from the sacrifice of others – including his own denizens. No doubt the kobolds are ecstatic to have found victims that aren’t their own kin – hence their enthusiasm in capturing gnomes, almost to the point of extinction.’
‘Extinction? Wait… you’re saying my eighty-odd denizens are some of the last gnomes in existence?’ Now that was pressure I didn’t need. ‘If things are so terrible for them, what’s to stop the kobolds from leaving their Core?’
‘They can’t, Corey.’ She sounded sad again. ‘Where you’ve won followers with Faith, other less scrupulous Cores choose to acquire them through force. The kobolds are entirely under the control of their Core. They’re essentially no better than thralls.’
A shadow passed over me at the thought. Then I realized that outside the cavern, the sun had almost fled. No longer blinded by that painful brightness, I gazed up through the hole in the cave ceiling, mesmerized by my first proper sight of the sky. No longer blue, it was now a deep inky purple, salted with tiny pinpoints of light.
‘Night falls,’ said Ket softly. ‘See the stars, Corey?’
‘The what?’
She seemed taken aback. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the stars.’
Forgotten? Or never known?
After a moment’s contemplation of the sky, Ket went on. ‘Would you believe those little lights in the sky are each just like the sun, only much, much further away?’
No, I didn’t believe that. But for once, I kept quiet, captivated by the twinkling specks.
‘Some say the fate of the universe is written up there,’ the sprite continued, sounding unusually melancholy. ‘Others simply take pleasure in admiring the constellations.’
Sensing my confusion at the unfamiliar word, she explained, ‘Pictures or patterns formed by certain arrangements of stars. See there – those three bright stars to the east forming the points of a triangle? That’s Jack’s Dagger. And that cluster of stars directly above, so close together they look like a single light? That’s the Morningstar, named after the weapon of the legendary human hero Dale. And over there, to the north – the Ratman, and the Bloodrager. Do you see them?’
I couldn’t see them at all, but again, I kept quiet. Whether or not these stars did indeed tell the fate of the universe, I knew for damn sure they weren’t here simply for the entertainment of stargazers like us. In fact, I was fairly certain the stars didn’t know – or care – about our existence at all.
A sobering thought, and one that reminded me uncomfortably of my time in the ground. That feeling of insignificance; lost in the void, waiting for the darkness to swallow me entirely…
‘Corey, look!’ said Ket suddenly, dragging me away from my maudlin thoughts.
While we’d been preoccupied with the sky, work on the altar had taken a surprising turn. Clearly taking pity on Gneil, Ris’kin had decided to join in with the construction efforts. The squirrel-fox avatar lifted the rocks effortlessly, bearing twice as much stone as the gnomes and carrying it quickly and efficiently up to the top of the hillock. Inspired by her prowess, the gnomes strained and sweated to match it. The little structure was taking s
hape before my eyes – though that shape was not particularly pleasing, nor even exactly definable.
Ris’kin’s presence also seemed to stimulate the gnomes’ Faith; their green-glowing auras had grown slightly brighter and more visible since the avatar had joined in the construction efforts, as though being in close proximity to her literally made their Faith stronger. I checked my triangle, and sure enough, though the Faith gains were still torturously slow to watch, the next tier had filled to almost a third. After my brief existential crisis of a few moments ago, I couldn’t help but be delighted by this new development.
And there was more.
‘There’s something I’ve been meaning to show you, Corey. Open your Augmentary. Let’s take a look at your map.’
I have a map?
I pulled up the Augmentary immediately; the familiar silver words and symbols listing my various abilities floated before me, but there was no map. Then Ket whisked the abilities away and brought up another image in front of me.
Like turning a page in a book, I was now looking at an interface I hadn’t seen before. Glowing golden lines spread out before me, some connecting, others branching off confusingly in various directions – tunnels, I realized.
This was indeed a map, but it was nothing like those you might see scrawled down on paper. Rather than a top-down diagram of the area, the Augmentary showed a confusing golden entanglement of tunnels and caves, as though I was viewing a translucent three-dimensional cross-section of everything in the surrounding area. The whole thing resembled a loose ball of twine.
The map tilted when I examined certain parts of it, helpfully rotating to give me the best view of what I was looking at.
‘As your Sphere of Influence expands, so too will your map,’ explained Ket. ‘As your Sphere grows larger, the map will condense to accommodate it, but you can focus in on any particular area to see it in greater detail. Try it now.’
In the very center of the map was a purple dot surrounded by a roughly circular area. I focused on it – on me – and sure enough, it began to expand, pushing the rest of the map from the edges of my vision. Looking down on it, I could now see various dots moving around the map-cavern.
