timewalk
Aliandra Ali stood ohreshold watg dejectedly as Ryn’s bright smile gave way to a ed frown.
“What’s wrong, Ali?”
It all came out in a rush – yesterday’s story, and her failure in the library. Her friends had all been supportive and ed when Malika helped her back to the camp, and she had already told her story oo them. But even today, telling it a sed time, there were still tears. Tears of frustration mingled with grief for the library, her past, and the shame of haviroyed her books for nothing.
“I destroyed it, Ryn. The Painter’s Remembrance. And for nothing…” Her heart felt like a lead weight had beeo it, dragging it down toward her feet, and she reached up to wipe her eyes, stopping in surprise as Ryn handed her a tissue.
“It’s ok, Ali,” she said gently, putting an arm around her shoulders to fort her. “You had to try it if there was even a small ce to save the whole library. For what it’s worth, I think you were brave.”
“Brave?” Ali’s throat choked on the word. She felt anything but. She had been g since yesterday, and she couldn’t help but feel she should have knower. But Ryn’s arm and her kind words calmed her down a little and helped her push the tears away. “I loved that story.”
“I know, it was beautiful, wasn’t it?”
Ali nodded, not trusting herself to speak. The other two books hadn’t affected her nearly so deeply, but sacrifig this story had left her raw inside.
“And I don’t think it was for nothing,” Ryn tinued.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you got the imprint.”
“Yes, but it makes gibberish books,” Ali repeated. It was worse than useless – like her skill was taunting her.
“But you’re not done growing your skill yet,” Ryn answered. “If you work at it, I’m sure you advance your skill into something that will turn out to be amazing. Who knows? Maybe you still salvage the library?”
Malika had told her much the same thierday after she had found her sobbing in the darkness. But she had been much too distraught to pay any attention. Ryn’s right, she thought, skills grew as their wielder learned and gained experience. With careful cultivation, skills could be iionally influeo grow in a specific dire. This was something that had beeed incessantly in her csses and studies – it took effort, but guiding your skills in productive dires, rather thaing them meander randomly was by far the most potent way of developing your css into something powerful.
“It might be hard,” Ali said.
“I just know you do it,” Ryn answered with a smile. “e, I found aory I just know yoing to love. Let me show you.”
***
Ali sat cross-legged on the moss out in front of her tent. Her visit with Ryn had cheered her up a lot and her kind words had lit something of a fire of new purpose in Ali’s heart. If she could study her way to a better skill, and wrest something useful from her trying experience, she was going to figure out how. She just could not imagine leaving the library in that state, where a stray breath of air could destroy irrepceable knowledge forever.
Malika was nearby w through a set of kick drills, training herself, but Ali knew she had deliberately chosen to remain nearby to offer support if she needed her. Ali caught her eye and smiled for a moment before returnitention to her purpose.
She opened her Grimazing at the frustrating, but beautiful magic floating in the air in front of her. She had tried many times to study and uand the tents inscribed in her imprints, but she had precious little to show for it. However, this time she had a bit of a new pn.
Instead to uand how the magic of the creatures and pnts were encoded into runes, she was going to focus precisely oructure of the Grimoire: specifically, on how it encoded variants. The randomness had been a pain in her side for quite a while now, and she would need a deep uanding of how it worked if she were to ever uhe mess that was encoded in her book imprint.
With a little trickle of mana, she enabled her Runic Script skill, carefully inscribing a runic circle for Inspiration around herself, feeling the cool trickle of magic caressing her skin as the circle closed. She hadn’t yet figured out how to use her Inspiration skill audy Trance simultaneously – both requiring focus – but her runic circle erfepromise. Then, with a substantially rger eled amount, she activated her Study Trance, giving her mind over to the focused tration of her Sage of Learning skill. The swish-thump of Malika’s shins striking the tree trunk faded into nothingness along with the entire camp, shrients, and even her minions.
Nothing remained, just her mind, and the glowing Grimoire floating before her. With a powerful determination, she began to read.
Sometime ter, Ali’s awareness slowly returo the camp and its surroundings. Malika was meditating off to the side, and Mato and had both returned: sat by the campfire repairing some arrows chatting amiably with Mato while he stirred a bubbling pot. As usual, the herb-seasoned broth smelled amazing, aomach voiced a no-nonsense gurgle.
Not now. I have to get this first.
In the end, the structure of her Grimoire was straightforward. Each chapter had a broad set of inscriptions representing the essence of what the Grimoire category required. It was followed by something that felt a little like an index taining a se of variation, modifications, additions, aions that made each variant unique. Simple as it was, it had required unraveling an incredibly plex set of ected are ruhat created the pages, the imprints, and the book itself as she had to delve deeply into the nature of the skill. She was far, very far, from a full uanding of the meisms, but she had at least learned a few things.
With her mind, she grasped the imprint open before her and pushed. Without aance whatsoever, the Grimoire pages flickered and shifted, and the imprint switched with the oer it, ging the order of the chapters. It was not a big thing, but it had been a substantial breakthrough in her uanding of how the entire spell worked. Now she could order her imprints in whatever way suited her.
Finally, she brought up her notifications. The echo of her chimes and the shifting in her skill had been what finally prompted her to eudies aurn to the present moment.
Requirements met for skill adva.
Oh – yes! A full skill adva was not at all what she had expected, but she’d take it any day. Biting her lip iement, she read on.
Grimoire of Summoning has reached at least level 20.Learned 20 imprints.Achieved a rudimentary uanding of the structure of imprint magic.Augmented an imprint with at least 8 major variations.
Grimoire of Summoning gains Basic ization.Grimoire of Summoning – level 20Mana: Release the mana from an uing or inanimate target, learning about its structure, aaining some in your oool. Requires tinuous uninterrupted focus and the target is destroyed. Mana: Ma a Magical Grimoire st the runic imprint of any object you have fully uood. You may create any object recorded by using the Grimoire as a focus. You may spera mana to influehe variatioed. trol improves with skill level. [Summons ot exceed your css level. Reserve cost is reduced by 3% per css level higher than the summon.]Are, Nature, Minion, eled, Knowledge, IntelligenceAccept this adva?
Ali immediately accepted the adva. Intuitively, she k wouldn’t be the plete solution to her problem with her book imprint – as the requirements stated, her knowledge was still rudimentary at best – but the advance was a step in the right dire.
Ryn was right, she thought. I do this! If she kept at it, she could guide her skill growth dowh of more and more trol, until eventually she would have what she needed.
And for now, she thought, a big smile on her face, this is going to be very useful! Let’s try a few mushrooms first…
She flipped the pages over to her mushroom imprint and eled her mana. This time, though, she uood precisely where in the inscription to i it, choosing the on Glo variant. It used a little more mana to trol, but her book produced a small mushroom which gave off the telltale golden light and are mana. She did it again, and again, creating a pretty fairy ring around where she sat, without once creating an unwanted variant.
Perfeo more would she spend hours cyg through unwanted variations, unsummoning them just to get what she needed. And even more encing – while she could tell she wasn’t quite there yet – she was certain that with a little mrowth she would be able to influeher attributes too, like color, size, and even level seemed tantalizingly close to her reach.
Finally, feeling a little better about herself, Ali got up and wandered over to joihers at the campfire.
“Studying is hard work; do you want some beef aable stew?” Mato asked.
Ali nodded enthusiastically and accepted a pte of something hot and delicious, and besides that, she had no idea because she wolfed it down in an instant.
“Hey, you should at least chew once, don’t just i!” Mato excimed, but he quickly dled another helping onto her pte. “Where do you put it all?”
“My brain?” she chuckled.
Tapping his knuckles on his own head, Mato made a hirious hollow knog sound. “Yes, the empty space, I uand.”
“Mato, you beast!”
“You doing ok, Ali?” Malika asked, “You were out for about four hours.”
“I feel a lot better now,” Ali admitted. “I studied my Grimoire with my Sage of Learning skill, and I earned an adva.” She shared it with them, pointing out that the adva of her skill allowed her to avoid any of the random variations that had so frustrated her before.
“That’s going to save you a lot of time,” approved.
“Hey, I have an idea I want your opinions on,” Ali asked, getting everyone’s attention. It was ahat had been kig around in her head for several days now, and after her st visit with Ryn, she was certain she wao do something about it.
“Ryn and Basil both said they’re up for unlog their csses in the couple of days. I want to do something nice for them. Do you think to let them use the shrine is something they would appreciate?” Ali khe mayor had a shrine, and it was offered to everyone iown. But Malika had told her that her shrine was better. She just wasn’t quite sure if it was enough to be the kind of gift they might appreciate.
“Oh, heck yes!” Mato’s excmation was instantaneous.
“Is it really that different? I want to give them something that’s at least meaningful and helps them out.”
“Ali, I don’t think you appreciate how good your shrine really is,” Malika said. “The shrine in Myrin’s Keep is an artificially structed artifact with a five-thousand mana reserve. It unlock your css experiend offer one additional css choice. And I had to rob someoo afford the twe silver to pay the fee to use it.”
“Uh…” Ali had no idea where to even start. “You robbed someone? Why are there fees?”
“Yes,” Malika grimaced. “I oor street ur, remember? The people who own shrines charge for access for many reasons. Mostly it’s to keep the good css choices among the nobles and the wealthy and force the poor to live with the natural css choice offered by the system. That’s how you get a lot of borer, fighter, thief, and farmer csses, and the wealthy preserve their positions with superior css choices.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s just greed, Malika,” said. “I don’t think it’s a spiracy to keep the poor people down – they just want to liheir own pockets.”
“That’s terrible, it should be free!” Ali had never heard of charging for the shrine and the options it unlocked. In Dal’mohra, her father had taken it as his civic duty to provide the shrine whenever anyone .
“Yeah, well, that’s not how it is. Most pces charge a lot more than twe silver. This mayor is being quite generous, taking only enough to cover all those expensive mana potions he o recharge the shrine.”
“Oh,” Ali answered. She guessed it made sense, even though the idea bothered her immensely. It was a good thing her domain worked to recharge her shrine; she couldn’t imagine produg one and a quarter million mana to fill its reserve using mana potions.
“Your shrine also allows oo unlock mana affinities, which the town one doesn’t do,” Malika added.
“That’s not a guarahough,” Ali pointed out. “It only sometimes finds tent affinities.”
“Still, it’s better than no ce. But the biggest value is the sheer number of css choices it offers. Anyone is bound to do much better if they have six to eight options to choose from, rather than one or two,” Malika said.
“Ok, that sounds like the kind of gift I want to give,” Ali said. If it were just saving a couple of pieces of silver, she would have probably looked for something else. If the town shrine only offered one choice, then Ali was certaiood a good ce of giving them both a sting gift that might dramatically improve their quality of life permaly.
“Ali, would you sider your shrio more people?” Malika asked, her voice sounding a little uain.
“What do you mean? Which people?”
“I know it’s not my pce to suggest what to do with your shrine, but…” Malika said, her eyes glittering intensely, “I’m sure there are many people in Myrin’s Keep just like I was. Held back by the circumstances of their lives, never having the opportunity to grow and step out of the slums like I did. I was fortuo have met you, and I ’t imagine my life if you hadn’t offered me the opportunity to use your shrine. I’m just w if you would be open to sharing that opportunity with strao give them a better ce?”
“I guess the shrine has enough to safely do about a dozen people before it runs out of mana,” Ali said, but the more she thought about it, the more the idea began to grow on her. “How would we find people – the, uh… right people?”
“I think the Guildmaster might be very ied in helping us with that,” said, looking up from his twine and arrows.
“Shouldn’t we be worried about people disc the shrine?” Mato asked.
“Hmm, that’s a good point,” Malika said. “Perhaps we shouldn’t risk it. I wouldn’t want Ta or Mori finding out.”
“We haven’t heard from them in a while,” said, “and I think we trust the Guildmaster.”
“I really want to do something nice for Basil and Ryn,” Ali said. “I’m willing to talk to Vivian Ross about it and see if she thinks it’s safe.”
***
Ali perched on her barrier, returning Vivian Ross’s curious gaze across the dark mahogany wood fereable. The chairs arranged around the table looked fortable, but Ali ighem, preferring to use the unique advantages of her barrier magic to elevate herself to the same level as everyone else.
“So, what’s this all about?” Vivian asked. It had taken all of about five mio get this meeting. It seemed their thh work at exterminating the Kobolds and keeping the farmers happy had gained a lot of positive reputation for the guild, and Vivian had most certainly noticed. While Vivian seemed to be in an open and ood, Ali still fouo be a little intimidating and weled the support of her friends at the table.
“I have a proposal for the uping css advahat would require your support,” Ali began.
Vivian raised her eyebrow but waited for her to tinue.
“I have a css shrine,” Ali said. “It’s a bit more advahan the ohe mayor has, and I wao offer my services, provided you help with security.”
“I see,” Vivian said, her eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly, but the rest of her face remained a stony mask as she sidered Ali’s revetion. “So that’s how you guys all unlocked your csses without returning to the Town Hall?” she asked after a few moments’ thought, reminding Ali just ho the Guildmaster really was.
“Yes,” Ali answered. “The features I have to offer are the ability to draw out potential tent mana affinities, and an alternate css choice search that produces at least six options.”
“Six?” The sho Vivian’s face was obvious this time, and equally quickly hidden. “That’s a remarkable cim. What do you want in exge?” Her voice seemed cautious and guarded.
“Nothing,” Ali said. “I just want to set some ditions on the didate choices. I nning on the service to two friends, and Malika suggested it wider. I take ten more people. My ditions are that they are not charged for use, and there is ri on eligibility – poor or wealthy, noble or on, bat or non-bat. I want it to be fair. I’m not sure of the best way to do that safely, though, which is why I’m asking for your help and visible involvement.”
“That’s very generous of you. Aris?”
“The mana attu is not a guarantee. In practice I’ve seen it succeed about half the time,” Ali said. She had watched it in a under her father’s hand many times. “The css chooser has never offered fewer than six choices as far as I’m aware. I figured having a ce at signifitly better csses would align well with yoal frowing the guild and the opportunity to be involved allows you a better ce for recruitment.”
“Very well,” Vivian said thoughtfully. “I’m ied, I will talk to Mayor Turner, and in exge, I ask only that I see your shrine for myself.”
Alexander Gray Alexander sat morosely in the back of the rickety mert wagon, refleg on his terrible fortune. His research had taken him all the way out here to the vilge of Lyton, a nothing vilge in the middle of nowhere, led up against the imperable a Lirasian forest in the most worthless part of the Kingdom of Toria. And there his leads had simply dried up. So here he was, hitg a ride on a slow, bumpy wagon, irely certain what he should do.
The mert was a taciturn man of few words – for which he was grateful – and he had accepted a small silver piece for a ride. But the wagon was so unfortable and slow that Alexander was beginning to sider abandoning his Druidic disguise and having his skeletons carry him instead. The only problem was the momeook off the amulet, his real css would make him a pariah in every humalement across the ti, and he couldn’t afford the time and energy to kill everyone who saw him.
He sighed.
He owed the Shadow cil a report at the very least, and he had nothing. The acolytes and underlings of the order, unwilling to even utter the Master’s name for fear of annihition, would have little patience for his failure. It mattered not that he had been diligent with his studies and had grown fast. The Master himself was impatient.
Nevyn Eld.
He shivered at that memory. Even though he wao swear, he dared not. The Master’s appeara their isoted academy had been a plete shock to everyone. He had simply materialized in the middle of the hall – a being of such poresehat even Alexander’s css resistao fear ah magic had crumbled before him. He had been reduced to a curled-up trembling ball on the ground, rooted to the spot in the aura of despair he projected. Alexander had always known he was destined freater things, but at that moment, he knew he was beholden to the Lich with his scarlet blindfold and monstrous presence – his robes billowing out from the sheer power of the darkhat he emitted. His path to true power would e directly from the Master – and perhaps even one day, he may earn the immortality of the Lich transformation.
His mentors still gave him tasks to carry out – menial jobs that would never get the attention of the Master. But Alexander remembered what the Lich cared about most – the discovery of dungeons. Specifically, new and uncharted ohat could be captured and domihen turo his inscrutable purpose.
He didn’t know what the Lich wanted with these dungeons, but the only time his voice had held aion or passion had been when he was talking about acquiring them. Alexander khen that his path tnition would be to find one and capture it for him.
As, all his research had led him to this dead end. He was beginning to run out of hope.
Absently he brushed the ice crystals from his sleeve before he suddenly stopped and stared.
Ice?
“Whoa,” the mert said, reining in the cart horse.
Alexander gnced around seeing fresh ice crystals on the grass beside the road, ingruously sparkling in the midday sun. A sudden nervous whinny from the skittish mare alerted him to the danger right before the tendrils of fear cwed their through his ribs to encircle his heart.
“Aah…” the mert’s cry was cut off as the fear got hold of him, and Alexander could see the wide-eyed stare of terror, and smell the sudden stench of loosened bowels.
A tall figure shrouded in a bck hooded cloak emerged from the forest, seemingly abs all the light around him. The icy chill deepened as the frost spread across the road, reag the wheels of the now stationary cart and the hooves of the terrified horse. Heavy metal sabatons ched as the shrouded being stepped out across the ice. With a seemingly casual wave, the dark figure fired two nces of ice, taking the horse through the chest and the mert through the throat, dropping both in an instant.
Death Knight! Alexander fought against the rising fear as the mourned glowing blue pinpoints of light under his shadowed hood to fix him with an icy gaze. It was a struggle, but it was nothing pared to him.
“Alexander… Gray…” The voice echoed strangely as if carried to his mind by the aura of fear itself. “Remove your disguise if you wish to live.”
My… disguise? For a moment the Death Knight’s and fused his fear-stri mind, but as soon as he uood, he scrambled to ply, pulling the amulet from his neck as fast as his shaking hands could manage.
“A… wise choice.” The ice cracked ominously as the Death Knight approached. Alexander was uo keep from ing his neck as the tall monstrous undead knight drew near, being more and more intimidating by proximity, t above his own normally tall frame.
The Death Knight seemed aware of how greed mingled with fear in his heart, pausing for far too long before it hissed, “The Master has a task for you.” It was not a request. But even so, a thrill of something that was not fear jolted through Alexander’s core.
Nevyn Eld, the Master, knows who I am?
It was simultaneously terrifying and exhirating.
“Of course, I will do it,” he stammered, not that he had the option of refusing. But he wahis. This was his ce – whatever it was, he had to execute it successfully.
“The Master has divihe existence of a new dungeon somewhere in this region, and you are the closest. You will find it and capture it for him. Or at the very least, discover its location and lead me to it.”
So, I got lucky. His fortuurned on this actal proximity to a new dungeon. But how was he to find it?
“Is…” he swallowed unfortably, notig his hands slowly turning blue with cold, “Is there any information that might help locate this dungeon?” he asked and then froze in fear as the Death Knight turo stare at him with its pierg blue glowing eyes. Those eyes stripped his soul bare, leaving him reeling in the presence of pure, inescapable death.
“It has both nature and are mana affinity, and it is less than a few months old,” the Death Knight finally answered. “Fear not, the Master has seen fit to send you some tools.”
The Death Knight waved a gaunt hand and summowo enormous corpses, dumping them onto the icy road with a substantial thump. Both bodies were enormous humanoid shapes, colored a ste grayish blue, with heavy tusks protruding from their lower jaws, and thick coarse crimson hair. They had both been sin by a rike through the ter of their chests.
Giant Trolls! Alexaared covetously at the enormous bodies, which must have weighed well over a thousand pounds each, with arms thicker than his torso. They were an amazing windfall for a neancer like him, but he failed to see the use of such a gift in trag down a dungeon.
“The Master also requires you to create a diversion in this region.”
“What kind of diversion?”
“Something that will and all attention for as long as possible. You are a Blight Summoner, are you not?”
“I am,” he answered, quickly grasping what was required of him. He didn’t know why Nevyn Eld required him to make so much of a disturbance, but his css was ideally suited to the task.
“Very well, theo work.” The Death Knight dismissed him, turning on a heel that ground the ito slush and disappeared into the forest. As the monstrous undead’s presence vanished, so did the overwhelming fear, until finally, Alexander breathed a sigh of relief.
As the ice begaing uhe sun, he sidered his task.
Nature… He smiled, feeling his fortunes ging for the better as the beginnings of a fantasti began to form in his mind.
First things first.
“Arise,” he anded, direg his magic towards the generous gift the Lich had seen fit to bestow upon him. The two enormous corpses twitched, and then slowly cmbered to their thickly spyed, three-toed feet, groaning mournfully.
Warrior – Zombie, Giant Troll – level 58Warrior – Zombie, Giant Troll – level 53
Your reserved mana has increased by +492.
His smile turned into a broad grin. He had never anded a minion this powerful, and the Master had seen fit to give him two.
He gnced over at the cart and raised the horse as a zombie too. Not oo let a useful reso to waste, he raised a skeleton from the corpse of the mert, smiling at the satisfying way the boore their way free of the dead flesh. It was only a low-level skeleton, but he could always use the extra pair of hands, and the man had soiled himself. Raising him as a skeleton would leave the stench behind. Obnoxious fool. Now, he could serve a higher purpose.
Hopping up on his new mount, he summoned a Sending scroll from his ste and eled his mana into it.
Meet me at Lyton. Bring a vial of Dreamcloud extract. Urgent.
The scroll crumbled into dust in his hands, and he brushed the remainder from his cloak. With his message sent, he anded his horse to retrace the path back to the vilge of Lyton. He grinned happily at the sound of the heavy thumping footsteps of his new minions following close behind.
Finally, fate is smiling on me…
timewalk
