Chapter 27

Wandering through the village felt surreal, shocking me in a way that being transported and told I could do magic hadn’t managed to do. The twisting paths between clumps and clusters of tents led me through sight after sight of cringing, desperate humanity. These were people who had been stolen from their world and thrown into this new one, dragged from what was comfortable and familiar and thrown into a world that changed all of the rules.

Despite that, we still remained human; here and there they huddled around small fires, seeking the simple companionship of presence, gathered by heat and the sense of being part of something, no matter how small and petty it was. I drew up the hood of my robe and tugged down the sleeves, finding that they could cover up to my wrists if I didn’t extend my arms. It felt weird pretending to be something I wasn’t, but within a handful of turns the fear had muted to something more like cautious trust. I spent a few minutes wandering this way, thinking about the change in their reactions. It was something more than just body language or seeing the scars; I could see the way they tensed as I approached, even when others walking those same paths did not. What was it?

I thought back on my meetings with Marcus, and my encounter with the Greenwarden’s Disciples and Guardian. I remembered feeling afraid by their presence, but not in a way that made me afraid. It was like they had some kind of presence, an aura that pressed outwards from them, like ripples in the air pressing outward. I thought on that sensation as I roamed, no longer just searching for food; I’d spotted a couple of campfires along the way where several gathered, freshly cooked food – Boarfiend, from the size of the carcass being cut up – being handed out on smoothed pieces of wood. Small bowls of some kind of broth rested in hands and laps, diced up tubers and roots floating within. I experimented with distance, figuring out how close I could get before conversation would slow or stop and tension would crawl into them. I closed my eyes feeling for the moment of contact, and felt a little spark of recognition when someone entered the area of my presence. It was like a little internal radar that kept whispering to me, not a threat, not a threat. They all felt… weak.

I circled back around to one of the fires, and took my place in a loose line that waited for meat to be carved off the carcass and skewered, roasting over a low, ruddy fire. The man tending the flames cursed and grumbled, teasing and poking as he tried to stoke it up. I watched him move with careful pokes and prods, my senses reaching out to the small firepit. The flames were weak and low, the pace of food slowing as the fire cooled. With a little touch of energy, I carefully reached out toward the flames, feeding a bit of my power and intent into it, my breathing slow and deep like a bellows.

My eyes popped open as I heard a loud snap from within the fire and it surged upward for a moment, greedily consuming fuel and air, before it calmed back down to a steady burn. Even though I had made no physical move toward it, I could see a couple of people staring at me with concern and confusion; they knew I had something to do with the fire, but no idea how. I finally reached the front of the line, and took my given skewer and bowl, laying the skewer across the top of the bowl as I’d seen other people do. The fat dripping from the meat spattered into the top of the stew, mixing with the broth. By the time I found a quiet place to sit where people weren’t staring at me, it had given the thin broth a somewhat richer taste. While it was about as simple as food could get, it was delicious and filling in a way I hadn’t realized. While I hadn’t felt hungry since the beginning of the tutorial, I also hadn’t eaten since before then, and even though it seemed unnecessary now, it brought a certain feeling of peace.

I only felt a momentary spike – a minor threat , my mind whispered – as Cenna appeared next to me, sitting down on the log where I’d sat for my meal. Her hands were empty, and only clasped each other lightly over her lap.

“So,” she finally asked me, “What are you planning to do from here?”

I took another drink of the broth as I considered her question. In lieu of an answer, I shrugged slowly, careful not to spill any of my meal.

“Are you going to leave?” It wasn’t a threat, or a suggestion, but just a simple question. One I wasn’t sure of.

I lifted one hand from my bowl, and made a so-so gesture with my hand. I hoped that my lack of answers would be enough to dissuade her, but she seemed oddly intent on speaking to me. Even in the lengthening evening shadows, she was still pretty, in a lean and austere sort of way. Her reddish hair hung loosely, framing the pale skin of her face. I could see her hands fidgeting slightly, turning this way and that as if in conversation, though she didn’t speak. Finally, she sighed quietly. “Do you understand why we have a place like this?” She gestured around. “It’s not for you or me… As much as you seem to be enjoying the food and company, we both know that.” She paused, as if considering her words cautiously. “We know the world, the real world, is out there.” She gestured to the shadow of the wall, the jagged-topped palisade that stood between us and the forest. “This place isn’t real. Someday, that’s going to get people killed. But, Lyrella thinks we can just shelter here and kill anything too big that comes sniffing around. Keep people safe.” She shook her head. “It’s not keeping them safe though, is it? The things out there… Have been getting stronger. Those… Guardians? If one of them comes in this direction, everyone will die. They don’t know how to defend themselves. They don’t… see it like I do. Like I think you do. They think it’s enough to be safe.”

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Finally, I set the bowl aside, my appetite fading. “What do you think we have in common, Cenna? We fought together, once, and then you ditched me.” My tone was flat, lingering somewhere between accusation and distrust.

“You’re a monster, ” she whispered. There was no accusation in her tone; just respect. “Lyrella doesn’t believe you, but I do. I’ve never even met anyone that high level. You just have this sense of danger all around you, like you’re ready to attack at any instant. I don’t think there’s anyone here who could stop you. Definitely not around here. ” She gestured to the people milling about in the falling darkness, congregating around one of the many fires throughout the camp. “I’m afraid what will happen to these people if they keep hiding here, and something truly bad happens. They’re good people… but within these flimsy walls, they think they’re safe. They can pretend they’re somewhere else, maybe in a world that doesn’t have things like monsters.”

I set my bowl aside and stood up, throwing back my hood and extending my arms out of my sleeves, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “Something’s coming,” I said aloud, a moment before a sound of panicked cries arose from the direction of the wall. I began running toward it, with Cenna a bare few steps behind me. We tore through the camp, leaping over or dodging around obstacles half-visible in the darkness. I wove a quick spell, drawing together a candleflame that suspended itself over my head. It seemed to just pop into existence, the form of the spell familiar enough to me that it took almost no effort to summon.

When I saw the large snout pressing into the gap in the wall, tusks tearing away chunks of bark, I knew it wasn’t a simple Boarfiend attacking, far too large to be one of the normal creatures. This one had three pairs of tusks, the broadest span just on either side of its’ mouth, inwardly-curved scimitar tusks that it thrashed back and forth, cutting through the wood like a saw. A spear jabbed up at it and into its’ cheek, and it squealed with rage, twisting to catch the haft between its’ tusks and snap it off as cleanly as breaking a twig. Another hard ram shoved the palisade apart enough for its’ head to thrust through, and it cut through a man as easily as it had the spear, greedy chomps grabbing onto his upper half and dragging him through the gap. It returned a moment later with the glimmer of metal armor and blood in its’ teeth, braying loudly enough to wake the entire camp. Cenna was shouting to the guards, trying to keep them far enough away from it to be safe, seeming to consider how to approach the razor-like tusks that protruded through the wall. I could feel a sense of murderous rage pouring through the gap in the wall like a cloud, heavy but unfocused, a sense of violence and the spray of hot blood. I shoved my way through it, pressing back against it with my Aura of Flames, the torches around me burning taller and brighter in answer.

My solution was simple: Trying to force its’ way through the wall held it in place, making my aim quite easy. I pushed my hands together, focusing the energy into a sledgehammer of force, and threw a firebolt the size of my head. When it struck the beasts’ snout, it burst, spilling flames over its’ head and knocking it a step backward, tugging its’ head free from the wall. It shifted aside, out of view of the gap, and in its’ place a handful of the normal-sized Boarfiends burst through, each tipping its’ head down into a charge and sprinting off in different directions. Two of them were engaged at once by half-dressed warriors, weapons flashing in the darkness. Three others rampaged out in different directions, one coming close enough to Cenna that she dove on it with a pair of daggers I hadn’t seen her carrying.

I pulled a firebolt out of thin air and pinched it flat, hurling it with a flick of my wrist, the disc of flame spitting out and cutting off the front leg of one of the running boars, sending it tumbling through a couple of tents. I ran toward the gap in the wall, knowing that wouldn’t be the end of the much larger Boarfiend. I drew a line across with my hand, and the gap filled with flames as another group of the smaller boars tried to push through, two of them getting in and sprinting away before the barrier went up, frantic squealing from outside indicating that others hadn’t been so lucky.

I ran forward and dove through the gap, over the flaming corpse of a Boarfiend, the fire separating around me as I leapt through it, closing up behind me. Keeping up the wall was a drain on both my mental energy and my magic, but I wouldn’t chance any more of them getting through.

The larger Boarfiend was lurking within the trees a short distance away, already bracing itself to charge once more. It sprinted forward, legs throwing up clods of soil behind it as it ran for the wall, head dipped down to ram its’ tusks into the palisade and heave it out of the way. I interposed myself with a shield of flame in my left hand, slamming the bottom edge into the ground and solidifying it with Crystalflame, surrounding that shield with a less physical barrier of fire. I crouched slightly to prepare to absorb the impact, and shouldered into the shield right as the Boarfiend struck, twisting the shield aside to try and deflect the strike.

Instead, the flaming barrier exploded, robbing the boar of just enough force that instead of smashing through the wall, it slammed into it, tusks deflected enough to only tear along the surface of the wall instead, sending up splinters wherever it struck.

It was only now, with it standing still and facing me, that I really took in the size of the thing. It resembled a pre-System polar bear, absolutely enormous and rippling with huge slabs of muscle. Its’ back rose nearly to the height of the palisade’s uneven tops, hooves tearing up the ground wherever it stepped. Every moment exploded with force, as if its’ stomping hooves and the toss of its’ head were an assault against the air itself, every step hitting the hollow of my chest like an immense drumbeat. With the gap in the wall sealed – for now – I had only the creature before me to square up against. The vague sense of discomfort I’d felt in the village finally faded as I returned to the familiar. Now that I was looking for it, I could feel the ripples burning outward from this thing, the aura of its’ presence brutal, domineering; it was determined that all in its’ path would yield, that all obstacles would be crushed.

And I had just set myself in its’ path.