Chapter 8: The Once-Great Giild

Main Quest Updated!

Ancient City Mystique: The entrance to Othiamphuus lies at the bottom of Golden Lake, protected by an ancient guardian. The real journey begins now. Investigate the Once-Great Giild and discover the ills that have plagued the amberkin for millennia.

Level Up! Angler Level 3.

1 Unassigned Stat Point Available!

Level-Up Rewards Available!

When Derek and Teetch arrived in the small room Teetch called the Keeper's Hut, the small amberkin wanted to move on to the city immediately, but Derek convinced the little guy to let Derek level up first. The amberkin hadn't liked it, but Derek told him they never would've gotten to the Giild if it were not for Derek's last level-up. When Teetch acquiesced, he told Derek to hurry because Chaasmyth would only be trapped on the Human side while moonlight still powered the gate, and the duo couldn't get past the big fish if he returned to The Realms.

Derek's phone worked as usual despite being soaked. Apparently, MythMaker makes it waterproof. Is it indestructible? Derek also noticed he didn't have cell service. It wasn't something he expected, but being able to contact people would have been nice. Derek quickly navigated to the Character screen in MythMaker to see Dirk Dawn standing in a forest clearing with a dense stand of trees blocking his route. However, as Derek watched, the trees parted before the little fisherman, and the words Level 3 hovered over the path forward. Derek tapped on the path and watched Dirk mechanically stride down it. As he crossed some invisible threshold, the area around Dirk's path transformed into a flat expanse of water as far as the eye could see. The dirt trail had morphed into a long wooden dock that stretched into the horizon. Despite how endless it looked, Dirk quickly arrived at another five-way intersection with the now familiar color options of red, blue, green, yellow, and purple. This time, MythMaker decorated the options with five separate docks with correspondingly colored boats waiting for Dirk to choose a stat.

Derek checked Dirk's stat sheet.

Dirk Dawn

Level: 3

Race: Human

Class: The Angler

Attributes:

Hardiness: 1

Mysticism: 1

Survival: 2

Community: 2

Fortune: 0

Abilities:

Improved Cast

Line of Steel

No Sudden Moves

Guts

Inexorable Pull

Infinity Line

Derek looked at Dirk's attributes and felt his choice was obvious. Being a well-rounded Angler had served Derek well so far, and there was one area in which he was sorely lacking. Besides, any good fisherman would tell you a healthy dose of luck is just as important as technique. They were probably referring to ideal weather conditions and whether or not a fish would take the bait, but Derek thought the same wisdom surely applied to being a Hero of Prophecy. Derek chose the purple boat.

Are you sure? Y/N

Derek almost turned back when MythMaker gave him the option, but he'd gotten that far by trusting his instincts, and he wasn't about to stop trusting his instincts because he'd just arrived in a magical world. He tapped Y and watched Dirk row the purple boat into the vast expanse of ocean. Soon enough, Dirk came upon a royal purple chest floating in the waves, suspended by a flotilla of white and purple striped buoys. Dirk hauled the chest into his boat, and Derek tapped it hurriedly. He was excited to see what Fortune abilities looked like, and he could tell Teetch was getting impatient. The amberkin was pacing the Keeper's Hut at increasing speed, and his vein's light pulses could've matched the beat to any good frantic EDM song.

Neon purple light spilled out of the chest, and MythMaker wrote out three items in the fancy handwritten scrawl. Derek claimed them all.

Bait Sense (Rare Ability)

Creatures of the Realms possess a diverse array of palates, and the Angler has an innate sense for all of them, allowing him access to catches that have long laid dormant. Description: When the Angler names and Identifies their catch, they also gain an instinctual knowledge of the bait that best suits that catch. Warning: Bait Sense has a 10% chance of producing bait that will enrage a catch but still attract them to the Angler's location.

Lucky Cast (Ultra Rare Passive Ability)

The Kismeth have always taken a shine to fishermen, and this Angler has attracted their notice. Description: Every cast of Wooden Rod has a 5% chance to catch something from the Realm of the Kismeth. Warning: This effect can range from deadly to benevolent but will most likely be neutral.

Wonder Bait (Rare Equipment)

A white, gelatinous cube with an indescribable flavor. An Angler looking for adventure might use this as bait. Description: Wonder Bait has a chance to attract any manner of catch. Warning: Creatures non-native to the owner's current Realm may also be attracted.

Although Derek was ready for the beam of light that shot from his phone and started to scan his entire body, he didn't think he would ever get used to the uncomfortable feeling that MythMaker was printing out a better version of himself rather than just improving him. However, as the laser scanned him from top to bottom, Derek couldn't deny he felt much better as it took the fatigue from his aching lungs and the numerous cuts and scrapes he'd accrued while running from the Linconstruct. It even replaced his wet clothes with dry ones. When the beam finished, it moved on to printing a little purple fanny pack that contained the Wonder Bait.

Derek clipped the pouch around his waist with a small buckle, unzipped it, and removed a white cube. It reminded him of tofu, but it was remarkably sturdy. No matter what shape he deformed it into, the cube would rebound to its original shape.

"What a misappointment Hero of Prophecy you turned out to be," Teetch said, shaking his head, "Sure, that thing smells good, but I expected something flashier. Scrolls in the archives described wonders beyond amberkin imagination."

Derek smelled the Wonder Bait but couldn't detect any scent. "Are you sure this is what smells good? I don't smell anything. And this isn't all I got from the level-up. MythMaker gave me a couple more abilities, even one that lets me cast into the Realm of the Kismeth! Whatever that means."

"Don't meddle with the Kismeth, Derek Dunn. They have a strange perception of fate, and individuals who've piqued their interest tend to regret it," Teetch said, eyes never leaving the Wonder Bait, "How can you not smell that thing? Your sense of smell is beyond repair. I don't know how Humans can smell anything in your Realm with all that pine tainting everything. Even your food tastes of it."

"What is with you and pine?"

"Just put that thing away. It's a painful reminder that I haven't had a decent meal in months," Teetch said, walking away from Derek toward one end of the Keeper's Hut.

The Keeper's Hut was shaped like a dome, with the door Teetch and Derek had entered built into the dome's apex at the top of the room. The walls were made of a material that reminded Derek of adobo-style huts and had that same hand-crafted feel. Derek could easily imagine someone shaping the entire structure with their bare hands. The main layout of the hut was remarkably similar to a studio apartment. Derek could see where someone would prepare their meals; there was even a little work desk at Derek's knee height. There wasn't a bed, but that made sense because amberkin didn't sleep much. Thick layers of rust-colored dust coated everything. Around the circumference of the circular room were ten more doors evenly spaced from one another. Each door seemed made of a different material, often a material that Derek couldn't identify. One looked like it was made of gold, while another didn't look like a door, just a rectangular, inky blackness that light couldn't seem to pass through.

Each door had a fist-sized device that looked like a metal lantern fastened to the top of each doorframe. This device contained crystals of various types. Derek imagined that, at one point, the crystals glowed with a faint light, but now, they all hung dully from their doors, dusty and disused—like the rest of this place. Derek wasn't impressed with his first visit to a Mystical Realm. Teetch stood in front of the only door without a lantern.

"What is this place?" Derek asked.

"The Keeper's Hut," Teetch said impatiently. I already told you. Now, let's leave this place. The Queen needs us."

At the risk of annoying the amberkin further, Derek asked again, "Yeah, but what is the place for? It looks important, but it feels abandoned."

"We don't have time for this, Derek Dunn," Teetch said, staring at his clawed feet and drawing a line on the dusty floor.

Derek didn't move, his eyes staring daggers at the amberkin. Some of him knew Teetch was right, but he wouldn't let the amberkin drag him around in the dark. Derek left his entire world to help the guy; the least he could do was answer several questions.

Teetch let out a frustrated screech that Derek had noticed he did when he'd reached his limit with Humans, so it was a sound that Derek heard often. "Yes, Derek Dunn, this place was important, but no longer. It once was a bridge between the Giild and the Realms of the nine other Mystical Races. The amberkin have always been the most widely traveled of the Ten, but that was long ago. If that doesn't satisfy your curiositiveness, I'm leaving you as bait for Chaasmyth. He didn't seem to like you much."

"Good to know it wasn't just my imagination," Derek said with a shudder, imagining those powerful jaws closing on him. "Let's get out of here, but later, you gotta tell more about those other Mystical Races."

"If we don't hurry, there will be no later, Derek Dunn," Teetch said, opening the door to the next room, "But it will do little good to talk of the other races. They are all but gone, just like us."

"Dude, you're like a walking cliffhanger. Whenever we have one of these talks, I leave with more questions than answers."

Teetch flashed his mismatched smile, "I'll make a scholar out of you, yet. That inquisitive nature is, or was, perfect for the archives."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Derek said, following the amberkin into the next room.

If the Keeper's dusty Hut had been a letdown when it came to feeling Magical, the next room was anything but. However, this room reminded Derek of something closer to a science fiction movie than a fantasy. The room was hot and humid, like the sauna at the city pool, but elongated into a hallway. It was fifteen feet long with a ladder at the far end, but its entire length, the walls, and the ceiling were made of a transparent material so that Derek could see into vast black depths. If Derek hadn't known he was already underwater, he would have assumed they were in the blackness of space and that the hallway was the transparent bridge connecting two high-tech spaceships.

"Follow my lead, Derek Dunn," Teetch said, facing the wall with his hands clasped like someone on a diving board. "Prepare to get wet, and I suggest closing your mouth. Passing through one-way membranes with an open mouth leaves behind a nasgusting aftertaste."

"Wait a second! Why can't we just use the ladder? I just got these clothes dry! Are we really going to waste a level-up laundry service?" Derek asked.

"I would imagine that the Wheel has sealed the entrance since my escape, and if they haven’t, they certainly have it under active surveillance. Those skaags would leap at the chance to nab me so they could make a public example of their so-called Heretic. I'm not interested." Teetch said, his smile taking on an almost feral quality before he dove through the wall into the water.

Φ

Their swim out of the Keeper's Hut was much more pleasant than the one into Golden Lake. Even though the swim covered more distance, the trip upward felt much faster. Thank you buoyancy. The water felt hot springs warm, and there was a noticeable lack of murderous prehistoric fish. However, Derek did forget to close his mouth before the one-way membrane. It had a citrusy aftertaste that was quite pleasant.

When Derek and Teetch spluttered to the surface, he took a long moment to take in his surroundings. He wondered if how he felt at that moment was similar to those guys who landed on the moon for the first time. There was a good chance Derek stood somewhere where no man had gone before, and he would soak in the moment.

The two of them were standing on a dock in the middle of a lake resembling Derek's version of Golden Lake. Their dock was shaped like a donut and floated in the lake's center. Derek didn't have the best spatial awareness, but it felt like the whole thing was about one hundred feet in diameter. Their donut-shaped dock was connected to the mainland by a wide strip of dockway that stretched in one continuous line until it reached the shore. The planks were made of the same adobo-type material that composed the Keeper's Hut. From above, he imagined the layout of the docks would look like a lollipop with a donut on the end. The Keeper's hut was at the bottom of the donut hole portion of the lake, which seemed completely walled off from the rest of the lake, which made sense if they kept Chaasmyth in the donut hole.

The lake was surrounded on two sides by vast forests of trees almost indistinguishable from pine trees save that their needles were an amber-ish yellow. Derek's internal compass was out of whack, but on what he would consider the north side of the lake, there was a gigantic mountain with a river winding down its side. Near the peak, the river started the same golden amber color, but the water was crystal clear when it reached the lake. The sky and clouds were as stunning as they were the first time Derek saw them in what felt like a lifetime ago. The sky consisted exclusively of soft sunset colors, yellows, oranges, and pinks, casting a beautiful, dreamlike lens over everything. A glowing orb hung in the sky, and Derek didn't want to even think of the implications of a potentially new solar system in a magical realm at the bottom of a lake.

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Derek turned to the south, the side he'd been saving for last. At some point, he'd been affected by Teetch's soaring rhetoric about the greatness of the Giild, and Derek wanted to savor his first real sight of the amberkin city. It was even greater than he'd imagined or seen through the lake. No lens or gate could hope to capture Othiamphuus' surreal majesty. A massive spire stabbed impossibly high into the sky near the center of the city. He wasn't sure if it was magic or an optical illusion, but the tower felt endless, spiraling ever higher into the sky, limited not by design but by Derek's limited eyesight. Derek had difficulty thinking of something humans had made that could compare. The other spires in the city couldn't hope to match that central tower, but the other spires all seemed to bubble and twist into their own irregular, unique shapes on the skyline.

Now that Derek was on the outskirts of the great city, he felt something he didn't expect. When he thought of large cities, he thought of them as bustling and vibrant, with people hurrying from one destination to the next. Othiamphuus didn't feel alive in the same way. It was closer to a mansion owned by someone old and wealthy who no longer used half the rooms. Derek felt a pang of sadness for the amberkin city, but then he realized Golden Lake's fate was just as tragic, if not more so. He would've rathered his town fade into obscurity rather than be cannibalized and have a new commercialized town wear its bones.

"Beaujestic, isn't she?" Teetch asked, nudging Derek with an elbow that didn't reach higher than Derek's waist, "You should've seen Othiamphuus in her glory days. The Realm was easily double this size, and you could hear the Queen's singing from anywhere in the Realm. Now, we're lucky when she sings at all."

Derek looked at the ancient city and said, "Beaujestic isn't the word I'd use, but that's because it isn't a word. Still, I've never seen anything like it, and I doubt I ever will."

"Pah, you wouldn't know beaujesty if it fell from the sky and hit you in the head," Teetch said.

"Speaking of falling from the sky," Derek said, pointing to some shapes flying in a V formation over the lake, "Are those pterodactyls?"

"Good eye, Derek Dunn. You've spotted the next stage of our plan, but we do not use that bizarre name; we call them Swoopers. They're another Human Realm creature the amberkin have adapted to suit our needs."

"Is it illegal for amberkin to name anything cool?" Derek interrupted, "You guys have caught and trained freaking pterodactyls, and you call them Swoopers., Holy moly! What a wasted opportunity."

Teetch crossed his arms and huffed, "You'd not be mocking the name if you'd seen one swoop down for a kill. Hunting and fishing using Swoopers is a popular pastime and profession for the kin. I would've assumed an Angler would appreciate the concept, but I never had a taste for it. As a scholar, I much prefer their alternate use as messengers. Although I've never imprinted a Swooper myself, they're quite finicky."

"First off, I've gotta catch me one of those. It could really up my fishing game. Second, how are pterodactyls the next part of our plan? Third, how do you make hunting and fishing dinosaurs that can even send messages sound boring?"

Teetch huffed exasperated, "I'll address each of your idiocilic points and hope the misunderstandings cease. We have work to do. One, a Swooper would never stoop so low as to imprint on a Human; you would need extensive training even to try, but good luck, maybe you'll find a Swooper with inferior sensibilities. However, if a Swooper hasn't chosen me as a companion, the thought of one choosing you is laughable. Two, we will catch one and use it to send a message. Three, I have not made Swoopers seem boring. They just are. I've never understood the allure."

"Wait. That's your big plan, to send a message?" Derek asked.

"I stole the amberkin's most valuable artifact that many largely consider the last hope of the Giild. I can't very well just walk through the front gates or shout my presence from the rooftops. We take a risk even now being so exposed, but I'm relatively certain we can rely on my people's continued neglect of the old ways to afford us some time."

"It must be some message if it's going to make your people forget you stole their last hope. And what makes you so sure your people aren't checking this entrance regularly? They sent Amber Mad Seekers after you. Compared to that, a daily check of the entrance seems fairly low maintenance."

Teetch paced back and forth, and Derek could feel the floating structure sway with Teetch's movement. When Teetch finally answered, Derek could tell the amberkin wasn't as sure of himself as he acted. I can relate.

"We can't be sure of anything, Derek Dunn. Our time is drying up as we speak, but I am relatively certain we have until the Feeding at nightfall. The Wheel probably had the main exit of the Keeper's Hut laced with some sort of trigger Ambessence, but no other amberkin will visit this place. They do not make a habit of inviting remembrances of who we once were," Teetch said with his little fists clenched as if the thought made him angry, "As far as the message is concerned, I have a friend who may be receptive to our plea. We studied together long ago and once considered each other friends. The favor I'll ask is relatively minor; he just needs to leave a door open for us."

Derek felt he could've asked a lot more questions, but standing out in the middle of the lake and realizing that he was probably already a wanted criminal in Amberkin Land, he decided he wanted to get out of the open as soon as possible. "So how do we get this friend of yours a message? It seems like an awful lot of things need to happen just right for this plan to work."

"Derek Dunn, you are the Hero of Prophecy. Events pivot around you. I trust that Kaagen's Swooper will show itself before long and that you'll be able to catch it."

"So this plan is entirely dependent on me being lucky?"

"I wouldn't phrase it in such an uncultured manner, but you've seen to the heart of my plan."

"We are so screwed."

Φ

While Teetch and Derek waited for Kaagen's Swooper to show up, the sun sank closer to the horizon, and one particular Swooper started to take an interest in Derek. At first, Derek didn't realize it was the same dinosaur each time. They all looked pretty similar to him. The pterodactyl would pass periodically, swoop by Derek's face, and screech before flying away. However, after the third or fourth time this happened, Derek noticed that typical Swoopers were colored with varying shades of brown and were uniform. Derek's little friend's hide had more of a yellowish-mottled brown color, and its feet were burnt orange. In a way, it reminded Derek of those little bathtub rubber ducks and all of a sudden, Derek started to think that the little guy was cute instead of annoying. He decided to use Identify on the little fella.

Swooper (Level 1)

Remnant of a lost age. Once known by another name. However, amberkin have long since domesticated and selectively bred Swoopers to fit their needs. Modern-day Swoopers are considerably smaller than their ancestors to better suit the diminutive amberkin. Swoopers are more intelligent than their small skull would suggest and do not make great household pets. However, with time and dedication, a Swooper may imprint on an individual and become one of the Realm's most loyal companions.

When Derek asked Teetch why the Swooper wouldn't leave him alone, Teetch grumbled and eventually mentioned this was usually the first step toward imprinting. Swoopers generally pick their companions, and judging by the way Teetch pouted about it, Derek suspected a Swooper had never chosen the little amberkin. Just like kids who get picked last always think sports are stupid. When Derek finally realized that his Wonder Bait attracted the little dinosaur, he didn't tell Teetch. It was funnier to let him think that Swoopers liked him better. Instead, Derek leaned into the attention and started encouraging the Swooper's attention. He even fished a rainy-day marshmallow out of his pocket and fed it to the Swooper.

After the marshmallow disappeared down its gullet, there was no getting rid of the yellow Swooper. It even started to follow Teetch and Derek as they walked in circles around the dock. The Swooper came up to about Derek's knees in height, not counting the cylindrical crest on the back of its long, narrow head. Its mouth was full of short, needlelike teeth. Bats must have been descendants of pterodactyls because they shared the same basic bone structure in the wings, and the little Swooper seemed able to use them as arms and wings. Instead of flying, it followed them, hopping and waddling along on all fours behind them. Every once in a while, Teetch would try to get rid of the dinosaur with shoo-ing motions, but that only seemed to encourage the Swooper like it thought Teetch was attempting to play. The way it instinctually tried to annoy Teetch without training endeared it to Derek even more, to the point where he was starting to feel a connection to the pterodactyl. He named the Swooper Duck. Teetch hated the name Duck, but no amberkin had room to talk about naming conventions.

As the sun dipped dangerously low on the horizon, Derek turned to Teetch and asked, "Are you sure this Kaagen guy's Swooper is gonna show up, and how will you know it's his?"

"Of course, I'm not sure of a kin's behavior I haven't seen for months! Sometimes, I wonder if you even consider what you're saying before you eject it from your facehole." Teetch hissed, "However if his patterns hold, he'll send it to feed soon. Kaagen always liked his Swooper's food fresh. Regarding identifying his Swooper, I could recognize Kaagen's Ambessence on the creature if it were doused in gasoline and pine and lit on fire."

"And you think I'm the one who doesn't think before I speak. I swear you're just making up words half the time." Derek said, "How do we know it's gonna come this way for fresh food?"

"Simple, there aren't any other options," Teetch said, motioning to the river in the mountain. "The Realm is a shadow of what it once was, and soon, even Kindaala's Rest will be no more. The Desiccation consumes all."

"Not if we can help it," Derek said, patting Teetch on the back. He was getting used to the amberkin's strange, malleable skin. "We'll save the Queen, and it'll fix the Desiccation or whatever, right?" Duck squawked in a way that almost sounded like it was trying to be reassuring.

"Look, Derek Dunn, Kaagen's Swooper approaches," Teetch said, pointing at a lone Swooper headed in their general direction.

"Awesome! What next? How do we catch one of those things?"

"You're the Angler." Teetch said, "I guessumed that you would simply reel it in with your pole. That's what you seem to do with everything else."

"Yeah, but catching something out of the air is way different than the water, "Derek said, removing his Wooden Rod from his back and attaching another of their precious Seekerclaw Hooks to the line.

"Yes, I would imagine catching something in the air is far easier without all that water in the way," Teetch said, "Hurry! Catch it. You're letting our last chance fly away."

Derek ignored the amberkin and tried to envision where he wanted the line and hook to end up and match it with the Swooper's flight path. He licked the tip of his finger to see if there was a breeze. Derek waited poised for the Swooper to get parallel with their position before bellowing an Improved Cast. The line sailed through, wove between the Swooper's legs, and wrapped around its ankle before biting into flesh. He winced at the needless injury, but he and Teetch couldn't risk letting the mini pterodactyl fly away.

Teetch let out an audible sigh and said, "You caught a Swooper mid-flight. The miracles never cease. Our odds of success were considerably lower than I implied, but I was right. A Hero of Prophecy truly works wonders. I should never doubt myself again."

"Teetch," Derek said through gritted teeth. Stop yapping and be ready to secure this thing when it gets close. We don't want it flying away before we get a chance to send our message."

The item description for Seekerclaw Hooks said that anything hooked by them couldn't escape, but the Swooper put up a valiant effort. It erratically flapped its wings, clawed, and bit at the fishing line to no avail. It even tried to nip at Teetch before the amberkin grabbed it by the skin on the back of its neck, and the Swooper finally calmed down. Derek saw its chest's rapid rise and fall, betraying how scared the creature was, but at least it had stopped struggling.

Teetch instructed Derek where to grab the Swooper to calm it down, and Derek held it while Teetch rummaged around in the folds of his robes. Derek tried to ignore how weird the dinosaur's skin felt in his hands. If he had to compare it to anything, it felt like pebbled sandpaper, and the sensation wasn't pleasant. Teetch retrieved a tube from somewhere in his robes and uncapped it to reveal a folded piece of yellowish paper. The tip of his clawed finger started to glow with a faint light, and Teetch scrawled out a message, seared directly into the paper. When Teetch finished his missive, he folded it around the ankle of Kaagen's Swooper and secured it with an elastic band he also retrieved from the tube.

Derek untangled the Swooper from his line and removed the Seekerclaw Hook from its other ankle. He did his best to ignore the steady trickle of blood flowing down its ankle. The invasive way hooks penetrated a creature's flesh was his least favorite aspect of fishing. It was hard to shake the thought that he'd potentially ruined something's life for sport. Duck seized the opportunity to lick the other Swooper's wound. At first, Derek thought the Swooper was being gross, but when Derek looked into its beady eyes, he would've sworn he saw compassion. Kaagen's Swooper stood up, shook its head, and took flight, heading toward the mountain. As the Swooper faded to a speck in the distance, Derek rubbed Duck on the spot you'd typically rub to scratch a dog's ears and called him a good boy.

"Let's not dally, Derek Dunn," Teetch said, "It would be a shame to have come all this way to be then apprehended by a mere Feeder," Teetch said, stowing the tube back in his robes and hurrying along the dock toward the city.

Everything had started to take on a dusky burnt amber color while they were wrestling with Kaagen's Swooper, and it was clear they didn't have much daylight left. Derek hurried after Teetch, with Duck scrabbling after them with little hop skips and baby flaps of his wings to keep up. As they left the circular dock for the narrower dock that led to the shore, Derek noticed a transparent barrier separating the waters of the main portion of the lake from the section that held Chaasmyth and the Keeper's Hut.

The waters of the main lake churned where Teetch and Derek passed. At first, Derek attributed it to some natural process, but when he looked closer, he saw heaving masses of fish of varying sizes clambering over each other to be nearest to the surface. Individually, every fish was larger than the fish Derek was accustomed to, but then he would get glimpses of some fish that defied logic and would have rivaled the size of some sharks before they disappeared in the thronging masses. Many fish had the same skein of golden veins that Derek attributed to Teetch and the Amber. But Teetch said the amberkin are the only species able to tolerate Amber without going Mad.

As they hurried by, Derek watched the frenzied movements of the fish and arrived at the only logical conclusion: that every fish in that lake was Amber Mad. They jostled the dock, which wobbled dangerously beneath the duo's feet as they hustled past. However, Teetch didn't pay them any notice. It seemed at odds with how outraged the little amberkin had acted when the Wheel had driven those Seekers Amber Mad. Teetch had gone out of his way to relieve their suffering but didn't spare these fish a second glance. Derek was missing something but would have to puzzle it out later. Teetch was leaving Derek behind in his haste.

When Teetch reached shore, he immediately turned left, going in the same direction that would have led to the Lucky Catch hotel in Derek's Realm. A rose-gold dome-like structure reminded Derek of a large bubble emerging from the ground on the top of the eerily similar small hill. Teetch stopped at the entrance to the dome, where someone had carved a door into the side of the dome, made of the same material as everything else in Amberkin Land.

"Alright, Derek Dunn. This is where we part ways with your little friend." Teetch said, motioning toward Duck, scrabbling to the top of the small hill, "You and I's sacrilege is unavoidable, but the Swooper is unnecessary."

"You've gotta be kidding me? Mini pterodactyls are where you draw the line? I think you're jealous the little fella likes me more than you." Derek said.

"I wouldn't make light of this, Derek Dunn. We will travel the Flow, and I cannot let a mere Swooper pollute its veins." Teetch said, "If I start picking and choosing what laws to hold sacred, I would be no better than the Wheel."

"But aren't we already doing that by traveling through the veins ourselves?"

"Necessity forces our hands. That is not true of the Swooper. It stays. Say your farebyes."

"We have a bond! I think Duck has a part to play in all of this. My Hero of Prophecy instincts tell me he needs to come with us."

"If that is true, then the Swooper will cross our path again, but for now, we part ways," Teetch said, but while he was talking, the Swooper clambered to the amberkin's side and made a sad cheeping noise followed up by Duck licking the side of Teetch's face.

The amberkin looked like he was about to give in, but he steeled himself and tried to shoo the Swooper away. "We don't have time for this, Derek Dunn. Tell it to go."

Teetch was right. The sun had fully set, and the only light to see by was the natural glow emitted by Othiamphuus itself, casting everything in a shadowy gold. It could have been a trick of the light, but Duck's dino features looked genuinely sad to be left behind, but he seemed to understand. Derek gave Duck a nod, and the pterodactyl turned away slowly, walked to the edge of the rise, and took flight.

"Are you happy now?" Derek asked.

"You have never seen me happy, Derek Dunn. Not while the fate of the Giild is at stake."

Teetch pushed on the dome's wall, sliding into the structure's walls on invisible hinges like a patio door. Nothing was inside the room except what looked like a natural hole in the ground. Teetch strode to the rim of the hole and looked into its depths. Derek joined him at the edge, and the door swung back into place behind him.

The hole was dark, and Derek couldn't see the bottom. And then it pulsed. A tube of gold about the size of PVC pipe flashed and traveled from the direction of the lake toward the center of Othiamphuus.

"You must think me a hypocrite?" Teetch said as the glow faded.

"Honestly, the thought didn't even cross my mind. There's been too much happening for me to dwell on much of anything."

"That's kind of you to say, Derek Dunn, but you've made it known you view me a heretic. What's one more act of heresy for the Heretic?"

Actually, my phone thinks you're a heretic, Derek thought, but it didn't feel like the right response. The amberkin was wrestling with something. Derek couldn't have cared less about what weird amberkin law Teetch was currently breaking, but it bothered Teetch as if he was violating a personal moral code.

"Teetch, come on, man, you said it yourself. You stole that Scroll for a reason. That reason hasn't changed. You don't strike me as someone to give up when the going gets tough."

"But, what if I was wrong?" Teetch asked.

"Does it feel wrong?"

"No, no, it doesn't," Teetch replied.

"Then what are we waiting for? Derek asked.

"Finally, a good question," Teetch said as he jumped into the hole.