169 – Jane, 1/2

Events proceeded rapidly after her father vanished from sight, but Jane still had to live through those events.

Darabella yelled about how the Beginning Pad simply wasn’t capable of not linking with the Destination Pad. Yarlinnia collapsed to the ground, holding onto the wall so that she didn’t collapse all the way. Visions of Implications of this happening in her house crossed her face like dark thoughts. She was in deep shit, and she knew it. Nirzir started crying like the little girl that she was as she finally realized that Erick was actually gone, which caused tears to fall from Teressa’s eyes, too.

Jane wiped away hot tears of her own, thinking, perhaps unkindly, that if this was what it was like to deal with the death of a loved one, then she was glad she only had the one. She was already exhausted. She wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a day. But that was only her first reaction. Not one second after that feeling came, it went, and Jane resolved herself to emotional strength…

Minutes passed with Darabella yelling about how this wasn’t possible and Yarlinnia saying the same and Nirzir demanding answers and Jane being numb to it all—

And then Jane realized that being sad was probably premature. Sure, Ophiel had collapsed and ‘died’ rather spectacularly, and in a way Jane had never seen before. But…

Jane asked Poi, “Is Yggdrasil still out there?”

While staring at the Teleport Pad that had taken Erick away, Poi said, “Yes.” All eyes in the room locked to him, as everyone suddenly went silent and hopeful. Poi elaborated, “Yggdrasil is still at both Candlepoint and Holorulo, but he’s as dim as a normal tree and the rainbow crown is almost completely gone.”

Jane’s chest tightened. “What does that mean?”

“We’re not sure. We’ve asked the Arbors of Treehome, but they are currently without consensus. They haven’t had enough time to understand what just happened.” Poi turned away from the Teleport Pad, to look at Jane, and then glance at everyone else. “News is spreading very, very fast, with many people having noticed that something massive and unknown shifted in the future of the world the very second Erick willingly stepped on that pad. This is how Redarrow thought to contact me, and how that conversation started. There is absolutely no covering up that this happened.” He looked to Yarlinnia, who had recovered some of her noble bearing. “So before anything gets too out of hand, and to prevent future problems for you, Scion Yarlinnina, and for the rest of us, I’m asking for everyone here to allow for a Mind Mage recording of the mind and memories of the last three hours, for all future investigatory purposes. Does anyone here have a problem with this?”

It had been three hours already? Jane frowned at herself— No. it had only been fifteen minutes since Erick vanished.

Ah.

She was probably in a bit of shock. Ah. Yeah. She was. She was sitting down in a provided chair. When did that happen? Anyway. Poi was calling for a recording all the time so far, starting at when they entered House Whitesteel’s property. Yeah. That made sense.

Yarlinna said, “I consent. I had nothing to do with this, and neither did House Whitesteel—”

Darabella yelled, “It’s the same people who killed Goliro! It has to be!”

“Please,” Yarlinnia whispered, but apparently not loud enough for Darabella to hear.

Darabella accused, “The Pads worked as they should have all this time until now! But now they didn’t? When they’re meters apart? Impossible! Someone was involved in shifting the magic, and—”

“Darabella!” Yarlinnia yelled. “Please. Not right now.”

Nirzir demanded, “What do you think is going to happen now, Poi? What is going to happen here? Will there be an investigation?”

Yarlinnia paled. Darabella’s hope soared.

Poi spoke with authority, saying, “There are many people who are allied to Archmage Flatt, and they will be coming down on this land and this house like a storming archmage— Which is oddly appropriate.” He continued, “Whatever these Teleporting Pads are doing will be investigated a lot more than they have been before. I advise everyone here to keep their emotions in check, and to only speak the truth.”

Jane suddenly realized the depths of what her father had done; this was a worldwide problem, now.

Teressa, who had been silent this whole time, stared hateful daggers at Yarlinnia and Darabella, but she remained silent.

Nirzir looked at the Teleporting Pads and obviously ran some ideas about them through her head. She seemed to readily come to the conclusion that she should take advantage of the situation for Clan Void Song, and take the pads for herself, but then she stared a bit more, frowned, and looked away from the pads. Jane wasn’t entirely sure what she was seeing in Nirzir, but she guessed that the young girl had changed her mind about something.

Darabella looked as though she gazed upon a sunrise for the first time in a long time.

Yarlinna resolved herself. She said, “House Whitesteel has nothing to hide and neither does Enduring Forge. We will not allow foreign powers to infiltrate our land, but diplomatic inquiries are acceptable, as is a Mind Mage certified memory of the last few hours. We planted no traps for the Archmage, and I would like the rest of the world to know this, now.”

Poi nodded. “Then you consent to a Scan?”

“I do.” Yarlinnia stepped toward Poi, saying, “I consent.”

Poi began scanning Yarlinnia. Teressa was next because she wanted to get it over with before people started showing. This proved to be prescient of her, for people did start to show right away, and everyone was interrupting Poi’s scans to get him to talk to them.

For a moment there, as strangers yelled and demanded and questioned, Jane imagined that Erick was truly dead.

… She didn’t believe it, though, and she told the strangers as much.

But.

… No. He was alive. He had to be.

– – – –

People stood outside of the tower rooms, waiting for Jane, Teressa, Poi, and Nirzir, by the time Jane and everyone else made it back to that space. Those people gestured to the [Prismatic Ward]s wrapping up the area, and spoke of how they couldn’t exist with her father dead. None of those people knew that [Prismatic Ward] was a Permanent spell, and Jane didn’t feel like correcting their erroneous thoughts.

She cleaned up her living space and packed away everything that she needed to pack away, while Teressa, Poi, and Nirzir did the same with their own living spaces.

There was a sudden concern halfway through packing.

Jane met with Nirzir in the workshop room.

Nirzir said, “I want all of it. The record players, the runic webs, the sparse notes. All of it. Even the rusted staff of [Grand Fireball]s. I will pay a handsome sum for these items.”

“Take them, Nirzir; they’re a gift.” Jane glanced to the staff, and thought that her father could have done better; he could have splurged for rustless steel. Yesterday, the staff looked fine, but today it looked more like a metal spike that someone had left at the bottom of a swift-moving river for a century. It was rusted and pitted and looked like it would break under the slightest touch. Jane said, “I don’t want this shit, and he’ll be back.”

Nirzir stared for a moment, then she nodded. “Thank you for your gifts. Songli will always remain open to you and to Erick. When he returns… Make sure to send word?” Her voice almost broke as she asked, “Please?”

Jane nodded, saying, “I will tell you if he shows up.”

“… Dead or alive, Jane.” Nirzir said, “I have to know.”

Jane froze. After a moment she gave a small nod, then said, “Good luck with this rune stuff.”

Nirzir bowed a little.

Jane returned the gesture.

Time seemed to move swiftly. Soon, they were packed, and some porters from Void Song had come to help Nirzir take her new toys away. Jane was thankful that Poi and Teressa didn’t seem to care that Erick’s work was being taken from them. They were rather hopeful that he was coming back, too.

As they exited the Watcher’s Roost, the [Prismatic Ward]s remained.

Which was rather concerning, but not for the reasons that other people found them concerning. A lot of people had odd ideas about her father’s magic, but it had been a few hours by now, and if he was alive then he would probably go to ground and make a safe space for himself, and in such a case, he only had access to eleven [Prismatic Ward]s; one for each Ophiel, and one for himself.

As he cast Ophiel’s [Prismatic Ward]s, the oldest ones got taken down, first.

And so, even though there were only seven [Prismatic Ward]s around this tower, it had been at least half a day since he vanished. If Erick were alive he should be recasting more [Prismatic Ward]s somewhere else, thus automatically removing the [Prismatic Ward]s from this area.

… He could be limiting himself to 3 [Prismatic Ward]s to keep people thinking he was dead— Or more realistically, to ensure that the four of them had a safe place to be while he was gone. That first option didn’t sound like her father, but the second one did. He could be purposefully not taking these ones down just to keep Jane safe; she could see that.

But even so! Her father would know that Jane and them would move back to Spur soon enough, so if the [Prismatic Ward]s around the Watcher’s Roost started vanishing on their own (because Erick would surely need them, right?) then he was alive.

But then, as they were getting ready to leave and Poi gave some parting words to Arakag, the mayor of Enduring Forge, the plan to watch the [Prismatic Ward]s was ripped away.

Some assholes in the gathered crowd, which Jane later discovered were from the Church of Storm and Thunder, having noticed that Erick was gone and every one of his party members was leaving, decided that they personally needed to investigate his rooms. Their goddess Sininindi had given them a Quest to discover Erick’s whereabouts, and so, the high-ranking cleric and several of his friends all cast [Ward Destruction]s, popping every single [Prismatic Ward].

Jane would have gone apocalyptic—

Except that Poi had stopped her, avoiding an international incident.

Time seemed to flow unceasingly toward the future, toward a moment when Jane would find out her father was dead, and Jane was lost in the flow.

Soon enough, it came out that the clerics had gained Enduring Forge’s blessing to cast their spells. Everyone wanted inside Erick’s rooms, for maybe there was a clue about what the man had been thinking when he decided to try his luck with untested Spatial magic.

While Jane was still simmering in the background, almost insensate, with Teressa’s hand on her shoulder, Poi managed to tell everyone exactly how much they had managed to fuck up by breaking the [Prismatic Ward]s, and he had managed to do it without screaming. Jane wouldn’t have been able to manage that, at all. Once the depth of the collective idiocy had been revealed there was a lot of shame to go around, but there was nothing more to be done about any of it.

Jane put that anger behind her.

Jane, Teressa, Nirzir, and Poi left Enduring Forge without further fanfare. Once they were on the Surface, in the Northern Tribulations where the snow fell fast and layered everything in ice, they bade a quick farewell to Nirzir. There were platitudes about ‘always being welcome in Eralis’ and ‘You could visit Spur if you want’, and while Jane tried to remain polite, and Nirzir was as pleasant as she’d been this whole time they had traveled together, there was no mistaking that there was a class divide between them. Not only was Nirzir a princess, she was also a near-archmage, and Jane had no problem believing that the young girl would cross that final bridge to tier 8 and tier 9 spellwork in the coming months. Jane was still having difficulty combining tier 5 spellwork, and though gridwork had helped, it could not make up for pure talent.

They lived in different circles, and Jane was only able to step foot into Nirzir’s because of her father bridging gaps. And now that time was over.

Jane shared some of those thoughts with Nirzir, and it looked to hurt the girl deeply, but it was true, and so Jane said it. Nirzir wiped away a frozen tear as she blipped away in a shattering of violet light, leaving the rest of them there on that mountainside, under the heavy snow.

“Just us three, then,” Jane said, her voice half-stolen by the wind. She held out her hands, “You’ll have to excuse the blipping; I’m not good at lightwalking. It’s the lack of a Domain.”

“You’re not the only one bad at spells, Jane.” Teressa took a hand, saying, “Your father is abnormal, and so is Nirzir.”

Poi silently took the other hand. Jane could tell he had words to share, but he held them back for now. Jane was in no mood to hear them, anyway.

It would be twenty [Teleport]s to get them all the way back to Spur, but that was only if they went in a straight line, and they couldn’t go in a straight line. That was fine, though. Jane began blipping west, landing them on mountainsides and frozen tundras that she had already passed by when she was working with the Elites at Oceanside, helping people the world over.

And just like that, she let her thoughts move to more pleasant places. She had gained a lot of personal strength on this trip, and that was nice. Her power would be enough to get all three of them to where they needed to go without stressing her resources.

She had even gained the Class Ability Blood Mana, so she could go as hard and as fast as she needed to go. The Class Ability Quest had even been the same for her as it had been for her father; ‘Create a well-made tier 3 skill or spell born of a Health-cost skill and a Mana-cost spell.’ She had chosen [Strike] and [Flying Weapon], to make [Flying Striker], which was what she used with the adamantium sword that her father had gotten for her…

Jane had briefly shown her own [Flying Striker] to her father, showing him how she had copied his spellwork and made it her own…

There were differences, of course. Her own [Flying Striker] cost a bit more than his, and the [Strike]s cost Health, instead of costing Mana like her father’s version of the same spell.

In the moment of those thoughts, Jane had a minor breakdown. Her father had always tried to get her to do more magic, but she had never been good enough at it until recently. She hadn’t even shown him half of her spellwork, for she was embarrassed by inadequacy, but now… She might never get to show him any of it.

Gridwork, and even a bit of runework, and Charm Magic lessons from Riri Star Song, and [Polymorph] work… She was getting decent. She was achieving success.

She was much better than before.

But right as she was ready to go off on her own, to prove herself as competent and adequate…

Her father goes and runs off first.

“Gods dammit, dad,” Jane whispered to no one in particular, as she stopped blipping and the world resolved into full focus, instead of just flashes of light and momentary landscapes.

The three of them landed on a stormy beach that was half frozen and too cold to support much life. Icebergs rolled in the ocean as ice floes threatened to roll up the beach and swallow Jane’s feet with every passing wave. A cold wind bit at her face, tossing frozen salt into her eyes. She teared up, and in that moment, something about everything was too heavy to hold. Jane could only feel the weight of it all pushing her down to the ground. She wanted to fall. She wanted to give in.

But she didn’t.

“I… I need a moment,” Jane said, walking back up the beach, out of the threatening waves and their swallowing ice. She eyed a block of ice up the beach that she needed to sit on. “A little while. A few minutes.”

Poi followed to get out of the waves, but Teressa just stood there, not making a sound. The massive woman faced the sea as the frozen ocean rolled over her boots, but her [Conjured Armor] was pretty great, so she didn’t seem to care. She simply watched the world for a bit, allowed herself to be covered up to her knees in ice, and remained. Jane went and had her meltdown a dozen meters away, up the shore, upon a cold, blue hunk of ice. Poi stood nearby, remaining as silent as his silent armor.

Jane’s meltdown rapidly flowed through the normal stages of pain, and then moved on, taking her to odd places filled with odd thoughts.

She also found she didn’t really care about the weather, like Teressa, but for different reasons. Jane had gotten the Class Ability Extreme Survivor which greatly reduced the damage she took from natural environmental effects and even mitigated magical environmental effects. From a bit of testing, if an aura was large enough, it counted as an environmental effect; bit of a nice bonus from that Class Ability, in Jane’s opinion.

So being out here on this stormy, icy beach was probably as horrible as being at a real beach down in Florida in the winter, which was to say it probably wasn’t that bad at all. But she had never been to Florida, like her father had when he went to help after the hurricanes. Maybe a more appropriate analogy would be… This felt about as bad as being at the edge of Lake Michigan in the summer.

Whatever the case, this physical experience wasn’t that bad at all. She could go for a swim and feel fine, for sure. The emotional experience was something Jane tried to distance herself from, and she mostly succeeded.

Teressa seemed fine.

As for Poi? The Mind Mage’s black adamantium armor gleamed silver in the grey light of the cold world. Poi’s metallic armor seemed like it would have been a weak point in cold environments like this one, but he was used to protecting himself from the heat, anyway, so it was probably a small adjustment to protect from both the heat and the cold. Apparently he had figured out a cosmetic spell to make the adamantium appear to be silver, too, so that he could maintain regulations while not always being reflective—

And Jane was trying to distract herself from her pain. It was easier to think about anything else at all, than it was to think about her father, and what he had done.

Poi’s voice was a small thing, “It’s okay to grieve.”

Like a dam had burst, Jane roared, “But how can I grieve when I don’t even know if he’s dead?” She barely had the cognizance to yell at the air, instead of at Poi, but she turned herself away from the man, and screamed, “AND THOSE IDIOTS WHO DISPELLED THE—” She guttered, her voice becoming a whisper, “Those idiots who broke the [Prismatic Ward]s… Why? Why did they do that?”

Teressa sighed; it was a small sound from all the way over there by the waves, but Jane still heard it.

Jane accused Poi, “And you can’t sense him, can you.”

Poi instantly said, “No. I cannot sense him, and I would tell you if I could, so don’t get like that with me, young lady.”

Jane felt bad all over, for different, compounding reasons. She muttered, “Sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” Poi said, “Anyway: I have some small news on that front. Necromancers and even a few Arch Necromancers are trying their luck at summoning his soul. I’ll let you know if any of the ones we know succeed.”

Teressa whipped around, scattering ice as she moved. “Shit!”

Jane stared at the ground. “Shit.”

Poi stared at the horizon, his voice going hard as he said, “We won’t let anything bad happen to his soul, but we have to know.”

A cold wind blew.

Jane stood. She said, “We could check on the other places that he wanted to go. The Orrery. Oceanside. We could even go to the Core.” Jane knew that they would say no, and honestly, she had no idea why she suggested those places. In a bit of brightness, she suggested one place that they might agree to, “Yggdrasil at Candlepoint?”

Teressa instantly said, “Yes. Let’s go see Ygg—”

“No.” Poi said, “We’re being recalled to Spur, and both of Yggdrasil’s bodies are rebuffing all attempts at communication. He started off calmly telling people to go away, but now he’s responding to every petitioner with full-lightning [Fulmination Aura]s. Someone tried to attack him with a [Dispel Familiar].”

Anger blossomed like a volcano unleashed.

Jane roared, “Who the FUCK at Candle—”

“The attempt to [Dispel] was at the Yggdrasil at Holorulo, where he has no defenders,” Poi said. “The shadelings and others at Candlepoint are heavily protecting Yggdrasil.”

Jane suddenly had no idea what to do about anything.

Teressa calmly, strongly, said, “I want to kill something. Let’s find a few monsters to end.”

“And this brings me to the next topic.” Poi said, “There are enough monsters to kill at Spur. I didn’t want to say this while Erick was with us, but there are certain truths that must be shared now that Erick has moved on.

“Kiri and the archmages and a few of the true powerhouses, like Killzone and Merit and Mog, are all that stands between the life and death of everyone in Spur, since you can’t count on random adventurers to do what needs to be done.” Poi said, “Dark, dead souls flood out of Ar’Kendrithyst every single night like an endless, black ooze. We think that Melemizargo and the Shades no longer have a leash on the souls of the trillions of people from the Old Cosmology who once openly worshiped the old God of Magic, but whatever the case, the black ooze is deadly to all life. Brightwater has been abandoned. The Blessed Shade Farix —that’s what he’s calling himself— has taken his people and occupied the destroyed city of Frontier. He has rebuilt that land into an impenetrable fortress in order for his people and himself to survive the dark floods each night. Anhelia and her Land of Light inside the Dead City either exacerbates or is the long term solution to the problem —we’re not sure which— for she has created a beachhead inside the Dead City, which is her attempt to take back Ar’Kendrithyst for the wrought.” Poi looked to Jane and Teressa, saying, “Our place is at Spur, and they have more than enough problems to keep us busy while we’re waiting for Erick to come back.”

The depth of Poi’s words sunk in…

And Jane asked, “Why not tell us—” She answered her own question, “Because then dad would have quit the Path.” She looked to Teressa, saying, “That explains the shadows in the [Future Sight].”

Terssa frowned.

Poi said, “According to Silverite, operating as though Erick had the option to quit the path was never an option for us, or for Spur. According to the answers Erick got on the Sliding System, this answer tracks.” Poi explained, “So, if Erick had heard about this problem, then it is Silverite’s opinion that the Path would have eaten Spur alive. The Path certainly fucked up Songli. It was only after that disaster that Erick operated to avoid another such problem at the grass lands. Perhaps if he went to Spur now, after Enduring Forge which seemed a complete success, he could have solved this black ooze problem in the space of an afternoon. He was getting good at that.”

Jane gave a small, strangled smile; her father was getting better at that, wasn’t he.

Poi continued, “But there is no way to know that, and Silverite was not willing to take that chance. It was a calculated risk to deal with the problem this way, and she took the risk. I believe she was right to take this risk.” He stated, “So these are the problems we must solve for ourselves. With any luck, we people of Spur will be able to solve this problem on our own, without Fate fucking us over… But it is very possible that Erick will show up at the absolute last moment and fix everything, though we should not count on this.” He added, “It would be preferable if we solved this problem before he gets back.”

Jane steeled herself. “We can solve problems without dad. Thank you, Poi…” for the reminder.

Teressa breathed deep, then exhaled; the seams of her armor around her neck briefly billowing out thick air. She hadn’t spoken much since Erick vanished, but she did so now, saying, “I don’t know about you, but I’m shit against oozes. What the fuck do you expect us to do at Spur? Sit on our asses? Get swamped protecting the mages?— Not that I’m necessarily against getting swamped, but— I’ve felt useless for too long, Poi.”

Poi said, “Magic is the primary force that harms the dark souls, but [Cleanse] makes them physical enough to actually injure, so Kiri and the Archmages have been the primary forces to deal with them. For a while they were doing fine, but the problem has mutated. A few weeks ago, they experienced the first living dead amalgam, and it’s only gotten worse from there.” He said, “Sometimes, the dead souls congregate around a host body they’ve found inside the city, or, at night, when they spill over the walls, the ooze finds a host among the defenders of Spur, or in the crystal mimics or other monsters or animals out there. These dead souls change those hosts. The soul amalgams that spill out from the Dead City are the worst, for they’ve had time to acclimate to their power; they’ve had time to discover what they are in their new life. All of them show sentience, but some actually show sapience. But the ones that happen outside of the city, the ones that are born each night the ooze spills out, those get crazy. Both types of dead-soul monsters are twisted into near-Ancient levels of power.” Poi told them, “That’s what you’ll be killing.”

Jane nodded. “Then that’s what I’ll be killing.”

Teressa breathed a sigh of relief, agreeing, “Then that’s what we’ll be killing.”

Jane amended, “—what we’ll be killing; yes.”

Teressa breathed out something that was near a laugh, but also too tired to be anything joyous. “Then if you’re done having your pity party, let’s get going, Team Leader Jane.”

At that, Jane laughed. “Ma’am yes, ma’am!”

Poi said, “Before we continue, I need to say a few more personal things.”

Jane and Teressa looked to Poi.

Poi said, “Jane. You need to send a letter to Nirzir to smooth over the shit you said back there. You really hurt her. She thought you were friends.”

Jane frowned and felt a sudden pain in her chest as Poi’s words hit unexpectedly hard.

Poi continued, “Also, I apologize for stopping you from killing those priests.”

“Ah. No.” Jane said, “I’m sorry that you had to do that. I should have kept my cool… And my words to Nirzir might have been too harsh. You’re right to say what you said about that, too. I barely even remember what I said… it all happened too fast.”

Teressa said, “You were right about us being in different circles, though. Erick could barrel through that shit because he belonged wherever he felt like belonging, but we three are uncivilized adventurers, and we do as the barbarians do. We cannot move to Nirzir’s circle, but she can move to ours.”

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It seemed the large woman’s mood had improved.

“Teressa is also right.” Poi breathed, then said, “As an addendum: I hope that Erick returns, soon, and I will also act like I expect him to return, sooner or later. We shall all pretend like we know that he will be back. But there is a certain subset of people who will pounce now that he is gone. Expect what happened back there at Enduring Forge, with the [Prismatic Ward]s, and how they tried to [Dispel] Yggdrasil at Holorulo, to happen again. Again and again, we will all be tested.” He said to Jane, “Which is why it is important to ensure that you antagonize none of the enemies that your father might have made. You should send that apology letter to Singer Nirzir so that we don’t have Songli as an accidental enemy; this is what you should hope for as an outcome to that.”

“… Right, right,” Jane said.

The cold wind blew.

Jane looked up at the cloudy sky and at the dim sunlight past the clouds to the south, asking, “When did it turn into fucking day? Wasn’t it night? I blipped us west, didn’t I? That means it should be darker…” She looked around, saying, “Yeah. This is the right beach. I’ve been here before.” She pointed south. “The Forest of Glaquin is past that ocean. Isn’t it?”

“It is.” Poi said, “We’re on the right path. You simply didn’t realize how deep the grief is hitting you, and how much time has gotten away from us. If you want to talk to a therapist there are some at Spur I can put you into contact with.”

Jane groaned.

Poi added, “I had hoped that your father would take the offer before we left, but it is what it is. We already have some therapists down at Candlepoint talking to the shadelings, too, and that seems to be going well.”

“Are the shadelings real people?” Jane asked.

“Real enough as anyone.” Poi said, “So take that as you will.”

“I’m not opposed to a Forest jaunt…” Teressa stared south. “But why’d we come this way? Don’t want to go through the Republic?”

“Absolutely not,” Jane said, glad for the change of topic. “Done that before. Never again. Border patrol got a [Leash] on me and I almost had to kill them to get away. If I had a Domain like dad I probably could have clipped their [Leash] easily, but… I haven’t made one of those yet, either.”

Teressa nodded. “Me either.”

After another moment of silence, Poi said, “It’s fucking freezing. Let’s get to blipping, please.”

Jane smiled. “Yeah, yeah.” The party regathered and Jane held out her hands, saying, “That was the halfway point. The ocean is a few blips away, and then we’ll be in the air, moving as fast as I can. I’ll support us with [Greater Lightwalk], but it’s not that strong. Don’t test the flooring.”

Teressa took her hand, saying, “Don’t fall; got it.”

Poi took her other hand.

And then they were off.

– – – –

The northern coast of Glaquin was yet another frozen wasteland, but then they passed the coast, and headed into the skies above the Forest. The flashing landscape below grew taller, and greener. And then, after a few more blips, the Wyrmrest Mountains appeared. Another two blips put them firmly beyond the reach of those craggy peaks, which seemed much smaller and carefully organized when compared to the Tribulations. They were now in the Crystal Forest.

Jane, Poi, and Teressa, stood upon cold, orange sands as the sun rose in the east, shedding light upon orange dunes. They had managed to beat the sun here, but barely. There had been some minor falterings in the skies over the Forest, but they were here, and safe, for a relative definition of ‘safe’, anyway.

A typical example of a normal crystal mimic grew upon the rocky sands, not forty meters away. It reminded Jane of home.

She asked if anyone was against walking for a bit, for she was down to a third of her resources. Teressa gave a small joke about facing a wyrm attack while she rested, for this was the start of wyrm season. Poi said that any wyrm unfortunate enough to meet any of them would end up very dead, and he wasn’t sure which one, Teressa or Jane, would kill it faster.

Teressa laughed. “It would be a contest, of course! To see who could land the killing blow!”

Jane got into the spirit, saying, “You think you could actually kill one these days? Last I saw, all you could do was stand in the way.”

“Hey now! I could take on an eyebeam wyrm these days.” Teressa moved her left arm and her massive shield moved with her, to attach to her left arm. The magically enhanced shield was bright silver, but it reflected the dawn, becoming gold in the light. “We got trained up like proper warriors over in Songli.”

Poi grumbled, “Reflections make everything so much tougher for teammates.”

Jane laughed, then tapped his shoulder, saying, “So that’s why you got reflections in your adamantium, too, eh!”

“My armor has multiple modes of use.” Poi said, “And thankfully, I’m getting the hang of its reflective nature. It’s a sight better than full-body reflection.”