Matilda’s caravan was moving through barren land, the earth looked scorched and unfertile, not a single blade of grass could be seen on the ground.
The few trees they passed were nothing but dried up sticks that had long since fallen over, the stumps that remained in the ground had a black hue.
Sunlight seemed like a scarcity in comparison to the flatlands they had been through until now.
“It looks like we are pretty close. Supposedly thick smoke marks the entrance.” Matilda informed her allies as she folded a small map and put it back into her pocket.
“Smoke? Is the land on fire?” Till raised an eyebrow as he looked over to Agnes, but she shook her head, “I don’t know anything either.”
“You actually don’t? I took you as the type that plans their actions ahead.” Matilda also turned towards her, but only an amused scoff escaped Agnes’ mouth.
Matilda turned to the rest of her party, “Everyone listen up, and listen well. We are about to enter extremely dangerous territory, watch your back, watch someone else’s back too if you can. I’d tell you to make your final preparations, but I honestly don’t know what to expect, both the environment, and whatever else makes this place so dangerous are unknown, so just keep your wits about you, and fortify your resolve to survive!”
Agnes felt a prickling sensation around her wrist, she looked down at the armband she donned, it appeared to have activated on its own for some reason.
She caressed the artefact to feel its texture, it was too rough to be silk, but too smooth to be regular string or rope.
The strength of a rank one artefact should be enough to protect her against the most common types of poisons, but it was still strange... was there something in the air?
...Or did someone poison her?
Agnes glanced at each of her fellow party members, she and Till were the closest to the rations for the entire duration of their journey, it would have been nigh impossible for anyone to do something without either of them noticing.
Unless that someone acted during the night.
She squinted her eyes as she looked at Sarah, out of all of them, she was the prime suspect, as she was against Agnes joining them from the get-go, but those were nothing but baseless speculations.
No one seemed to act without Matilda’s explicit orders or permission, and she was hellbent on getting Agnes to help them, so that possibility also shrunk.
“This must be it.” Matilda’s words pulled Agnes out of her thoughts.
She looked ahead at a giant cloud of dark grey, it spanned the entirety of the visible horizon.
“It actually does look like smoke from something burning.” Till noted.
Agnes observed the phenomenon more closely, she saw many pitch-black dots, a lot of dark blue, as well as several purple particles mixed into the bunch.
Her brows furrowed, none of those had anything to do with fire, or something burning, especially the purple particles.
A single thought enveloped her mind as she glared down at her wristband that was behaving more strangely the closer they got to the fog, ‘Miasma’.
The horses dragged the party and the carriage through the smoke-entrance, the air instantly became harder to breathe, and whatever managed to travel down into their lungs felt like it was scraping along the way.
Sinnah trailed her fingers over her skin, “I’m getting goosebumps, it feels like I wandered into a graveyard.”
“This used to be a battlefield, right? Then you are probably not so far off from the truth.” Till spoke from behind her.
“Boss.” Sarah exclaimed to get Matilda’s attention, “Should we dismount?”
Matilda stroked the mane of the horse she was riding, “That’s probably for the best. Everyone, we will continue on foot. Tomalta keep protecting the carriage from behind, Miser to the left, Sarah to the right. Sinnah, join Till on the carriage and take the reins, we will continue at a slower pace. Make sure that none of the horses wander off on their own! Agnes, would you join me at the tip of the formation?”
Agnes dismounted from the carriage as the others got into formation, she joined Matilda at the helm of their caravan, “A formation?”
Matilda squinted her eyes at Agnes, “Yeah? Got an opinion?”
But Agnes shook her head, “No, just observing.”
“What do you make of the Land of Fog? Now that you have seen it for yourself?” Matilda changed the topic and asked the experienced rank two mage.
Agnes gazed up, “This place is sickening, even the air we breathe is filled to the brim with what looks like residual death particles.”
“Death particles? Should I be worried?” Matilda raised her eyebrows.
“They are not as bad as it sounds, at least for now. Like the other elements they have their own source, which in this case should be corpses. If this really used to be a battlefield, then the number of dead must have been insane... so much so that they could taint a major part of land for years to come.” Agnes explained.
Matilda’s brows returned to normalcy, “’At least for now’? I suppose you mean without a mage to wield them?”
“That, and although there are people who specialise in this type of magic, even they would find it hard to survive in this place for extended periods of time. The air would affect them too, since they are still just humans at their core. Out of all the elements, it's probably the most volatile, even for its wielders."
“Take this as a warning that we shouldn’t linger here for too long.” Agnes continued.
... ...
Within dense white fog a man clad in armour was sitting in a tree-top, his hand was outstretched, reaching for an orange glowing fruit, a Delightful Death.
His armour was covered in dirt and blemishes, while the cheekbones in his face were visible, he looked almost malnourished.
The fruit began to swing as his fingers tickled the bottom, it was just barely out of reach.
He looked back down to the base of the tree; the ground couldn’t be seen from his height anymore, “I will need to cut it down! Get ready to catch!” he shouted at the top of his lungs as he took off one of his gloves.
The man glanced back up at the fruit, then held the glove just under it, before letting go, “Right here!”
He watched the glove disappear into the white fog below him and waited for several seconds, before another voice shouted back up at him, “In position!”
The church’s warrior unsheathed his sword, “Here goes!” he roared as he swung his blade with both hands, skilfully severing the stem that connected the fruit to the humongous tree.
The fruit dropped, his eyes followed it, until he could no longer see it.
He awaited a response with bated breath, as he put his sword back into the sheath in the meantime.
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A painful growl came from his stomach, he clutched his belly and winced, but a small smile spread on his face as he finally received an answer, “I got it! You can come down!” his ally yelled from down below.
The man huffed a sigh, then turned around to face the trunk, to slowly make his way back down thanks to the notches he created using a pocketknife, and a lot of time.
At the bottom he sized up the small net full of Delightful Deaths the second warrior was holding onto.
His mouth watered at the sight, but he forced himself to look away, he knew that he mustn’t take any of them.
“Man, I am so hungry. Come on, they won’t miss one or two, right?” his companion asked while scratching his skin.
“Don’t.” the first muttered, “You know that we are going to have a problem if we don’t reach the quota. Stupid Plamus! Who decided it was a smart idea to put him in charge of the rations?!” he cursed, “I don’t understand why the others aren’t doing anything about him! How are we supposed to retaliate if none of the rank three mages act against him?!”
“They are getting their fair share of food thanks to his arrangement, of course they won’t complain. I’d turn a blind eye to our treatment too if I was in their shoes.” the second grumbled as he threw the net over his shoulder to carry the bunch.
“Shit!” the first roared as he glared at the net.
“What?” the second looked at him in confusion.
“We are still missing a few...”
“What now? There aren’t any more in this area, we’ve been through this place so many times already. Should we head deeper? We even have these compass artefacts that Kassan created, we should be fine-”
“And then what? Get clobbered and eaten by the locals? No thanks.”
“But we can’t just wait around for more to grow, that could take days!”
“Let’s head back.”
“You know what happens if we return without enough fruits.”
“Of course! How could I not?! But I would rather receive the punishment and then be hungry for a couple of days than getting ripped apart by the monsters that lurk in the fog! Kassan said it’s only a matter of time until a rescue party arrives, we just need to hold on until then, even if it means that we have to bend over and appease that bastard for now.”
“Shh! Not so loud.” the second hushed his ally, then looked around himself in fear, ”What if someone hears you?"
“Hear me? Out here? Yeah right. Plamus hasn’t moved his butt outside of the camp in forever, there is no way he will start now.”
“It’s not just Plamus you should be worried about... there are others that have sworn their allegiance to him, if they heard you and ratted you out...”
“I know. I know, those idiots that sold their soul for a bit more food. Despicable.”
“You can’t blame them; they are just looking out for themselves first and foremost. To be honest, I have considered joining them myself.”
“What?! You? Have you gone insane?”
“N-no, it’s just that... at this rate I’ll get too weak to properly carry the Delightful Deaths back to the camp. When that happens, we will fall into a cycle where we are continuously unable to reach the quota...”
“I... hadn’t even considered that yet...” they both went quiet, until the sound of something stepping into a puddle of water near them jolted them back to reality.
“Treeman! Run!” the second’s face warped as he turned his body around to flee.
“Wait! A Treeman would rush us down immediately! Who goes there?! Are you a human?” the first grabbed his partner’s wrist and stopped him from leaving on his own.
The splashing ceased, and the two began to sweat, “Hey! Let go of me! If you want to get killed just say so! But don’t drag me down with you!” the second whispered, he tried to free himself from his ally's grip, desperately pulling and tugging, but to no avail.
A human silhouette appeared from out of the fog, and both of their pulses relaxed, “We are part of the human camp, part of the survivors from the attack on our outpost by the locals. We are tasked with guiding others back to camp if we stumbled upon them.” the first explained with a smile, ready to welcome another survivor with open arms.
“Us humans need to stick together in this plane to ensure our survival.” the second nodded along, but they both recoiled as the figure stepped closer...
Before them appeared a young boy, his clothes were tattered and torn, many holes revealed his pale skin, while the rest was mostly covered in dirt, or looked otherwise wet.
He looked distraught, thin scratches covered most of his exposed skin, especially his face.
His eyes had a ferocious tint to them, his hair was long enough to reach his shoulders and completely dishevelled.
“Hey! Isn’t that-” the second pointed at the young boy.
“Are you alright? You look hurt, we should get you to the camp as soon as possible.” the first took a few steps closer but stopped as the boy flinched back.
“So young...” he mumbled, the boy looked no older than thirteen, fourteen at most, “Were you part of the competition? I guess you are a mage then?”
“Camp? What about the old one? Why did you abandon it?” the boy finally spoke, his eyes seemed like they were looking right through the men in front of him.
“We were attacked by the locals a while ago, nearly wiped out. The portal back home was destroyed. Thanks to Kassan we managed to flee into the dead part of the swamp, where we’ve set up camp until reinforcements come to rescue us. It is a bit of a distance away from here, but we have no problem navigating there due to the compass Kassan created.” he gestured while taking out the artefact.
“A compass created by Kassan?” the boy titled his head as his eyes focused on the compass, it looked like a flat white crystal, on it were dimly glowing runes and a single line that pointed behind the men.
“This line here shows the way back to the camp, I can’t explain how it works, perhaps you will understand, or if you are interested you could ask Kassan.” the man wanted to show him up close but understood that the boy was keeping his distance on purpose.
He thought for a moment, squatted down to place the compass on the ground, then got back up, “Each of us has one. We will head back first. Use it if you want to find us.” he smiled once more, then pulled his buddy along.
The boy waited until they had completely disappeared, he closed his eyes for a moment.
He nodded his head contentedly as he opened them again, then reached for the artefact.
He couldn’t make heads or tails of the runes, but the element imbued was obviously light, something that this plane was lacking... yet here it was, “Kassan.” the boy mumbled.
“What do you mean ‘I shouldn’t have let them leave’, Lu? What did you expect me to do? I am not a cold-blooded killer. Besides, those two weren’t that bad. They even gave me an artefact. ‘A trap’? Do you really think so?” the boy was talking to himself, weighing the choice of whether it was a smart idea to take the compass with him or not.
“...You do have a point... you were right about Marv too...” he eyed the artefact strangely.
“I know. I know. I could navigate there even without it, yes, you don’t have to remind me. But what if this thing is more than a compass, like a symbol that whoever carries it belongs to the group of survivors. Such a thing would probably come in handy.”
“So, what if I can survive just fine on my own? You aren’t a human; you don’t understand us that well. I’ve only had you to talk to ever since Marv sold me out.”
“What? No, I am not complaining, I am glad that I have you, but-”
“You know what? Forget it, I- I'll take the compass along for now. It's not too late to toss it out somewhere down the line.”
... ...
Plamus’ hands were folded and resting underneath his chin on a table, he was seated on a wooden bench, within a crude and hastily assembled hut.
There was a door to his left, that lead into another room behind him, and one in front of him, through which two members of the church’s warriors had just returned.
Hadrian took the net full of Delightful Deaths off their hands and began sifting through it, while Reyna was leaning against the wall next to him.
Plamus looked at the two, his intense gaze caused them to stiffen, their backs were straight, and their chests puffed out, however they did their best to avoid eye contact with any of the three mages present.
“Well, Hadrian?” he asked while offering the two warriors a pleasant smile.
He pulled out a very small fruit, just barely bigger than one of his fingers and held it into the air, his back was turned towards Plamus, “They are off by three, two if you count this one.”
“Mhm. I see. That’s a shame, you two know what happens when you are unable to meet the quota.” Plamus yawned, not even bothering to cover his open mouth with a hand.
“We are terribly sorry, but getting more than these was impossible, the swamp hasn’t had enough time to grow new fruits since our last time!” the first offered an explanation, but Plamus just tilted his head, “Well, who told you to head into the same direction twice? You can only blame yourselves. None of the other groups had any problems so far, so why is it that you two are too inept to do your part? Did you think that you could eat a couple of them, and we wouldn’t notice? It’s a shame, but we won’t be making any exceptions for you. Hadrian.”
Hadrian revealed a twisted smile, he cracked his knuckles as he stepped towards the two, “W-Wait a moment!” the second warrior took a step forward, his voice full of pleading.
“Would it be possible to make up for our lack of fruits, with information?” he continued, even Reyna then turned her head to look at the man.
“Hey, what are you doin-” the first warrior pulled his ally back and whispered into his ear.
“Let’s hear it.” Plamus’ smile returned, “Just know that only valuable information will make me even consider being a bit lenient today.”
“You really shouldn’t-” the first wanted to stop his friend.
But the second just shook his head, “I am sacrificing one person to save two. I will atone however you wish afterwards, may the gods’ punishment befall me, but for now we must prioritise our own survival.”
He turned back to Plamus, “The boy you are looking for. We found him today. He looked feral, like a wild animal, shied away from us. I believe his name is Frey?”
Reyna stopped leaning against the wall, her burning gaze engulfed Plamus!
Plamus nodded in her direction, before focusing back on the two again, “Frey? Did he introduce himself to you with that name? Or have you ever interacted with him before today?”
“N-No, but there aren’t many such young mages with black hair that were part of the competition, he is practically a child. I know that you are looking for him, the rumour has spread far and wide.” the second stuttered.
“Are you confident in finding him again? This plane isn’t exactly small, not to mention with all the fog.” Reyna’s intense glare changed its target from Plamus to him.
The second warrior gulped; he lowered his head, he could feel the beating of his heart within the tips of his fingers, he could feel a rush of dread wash over him, “He took one of our compasses...”
A wide smile manifested on Reyna’s face as she pulled out her own... right next to the white line were three dots... each indicating one of the compasses in her vicinity...