Kestra had decided that moving away from her camp site would be a much better idea than sticking around for anyone with a tracking skill to locate where she had exposed her book of revelations to this new world. She hadn't meant to forge another spell, but had hoped to trick her body into better night sight.
There was a feel to the way her Night Sight potions had affected her body, and when it got too difficult to see in the gloom of night, she stopped and concentrated on making her body feel that same affected feeling. This was a more conscious act based on how using her Identify skill had felt to use between the notice she would transmigrate and her arrival in the Myriad Realms, when she had been unmoored to her world and not yet tethered to this one.
♦•♦•♦ Congratulations! ♦•♦•♦
You have successfully taught yourself the Novice Grade Tiger's Eyes spell!
+100 EXP
♦•♦•♦ ▲▼▲ ♦•♦•♦
♦•♦•♦ Tiger's Eyes ♦•♦•♦
See in low light circumstances like a tiger prowling the night.
Grade: Novice
Components: None
Cost: 3 Mana to cast, 2 Mana per minute to maintain
♦•♦•♦ ▲▼▲ ♦•♦•♦
That gave Kestra some ideas, which she set aside for the moment. Her current priority was getting away from where she had stopped, and leaving as few tracks as possible.
Even with her new spell granting her Night Sight, Kestra couldn't move as quickly as she would have liked. The vision she gained wasn't the same as her normal vision, just enough to see where the tree trunks and brush were located, but not good enough to make out where roots tangled the ground.
When she pulled up the world's screens, the surrounding light level didn't change her ability to see them, nor did they change what she could see around her. Unlike mana forms or fire, they cast no light. Beyond the lack of illumination, which could occur with very weak light sources, her vision didn't shift the way looking over a fire at night made it harder to see into the gloom beyond the fire. Neither did the map give off a glow, despite somehow being more substantial than the screens. By these signs, Kestra determined that they were not physical manifestations. It was a kind of hallucination provided by her connection to this new world.
Checking the map, she confirmed she was still heading in the right direction to get to Sortalheim.
When the blue and brown colored moon rose overhead there was no brilliant band of light swaying with the seasons in the sky, which was yet more proof -- if Kestra had needed it -- that this was not her home world.
This new moon had begun its evening ascent a few hours before sunset and sat high in the sky when Kestra heard rustling in the undergrowth that didn't sound right. She stilled beside a tree trunk and slowly, stealthily set to stringing her bow.
The crunching sound of heavy, flat footfalls sounded to her right. She carefully angled her body in that direction, hoping to better see what was treading through the woods.
The crunching sound stopped. A muffled huff of breath made the hairs on the back of Kestra's neck stand up straight.
"If you ain't hostile, show yourself," a deep masculine voice called out, not loud, but still projected to carry.
Kestra did not want to meet the natives alone and in the dark. She wasn't sure if the cities would be any better, but at least it was easier to spy upon a solitary location. She sank as far into that feeling of being One with the Land as she could enforce, letting her eyes sway their focus just enough to prevent falling into tunnel vision.
A few long, slow breaths passed. World screens flickered at the edge of her vision, but Kestra ignored the distraction.
"This is your last chance to show me you ain't got bad intentions," the man said.
If Kestra could have shrunk away, she would have. As it was, she planned to hold very, very still until the man left, and then swing wide of his path.
She felt movement behind her and ducked, sending her bow back into her Holding ring while pulling out her short blades and thrusting at the body that had suddenly loomed out of the dark behind her. She felt the solid thunk of her blades hitting armor even as she rolled away and took off running.
Crashing sounds announced her pursuers, and she didn't even get a chance to open up her stride before a weight slammed into her side and knocked her into a tree trunk.
She dropped one of her blades, sent the other back to her ring even as she twisted and tried to get a punch at the throat of the man that had charged her.
"I told you," he grunted as he grappled her. "If you wasn't hostile you should've showed yourself!"
Kestra didn't bother saying anything, focusing on fighting to get loose. She got a knee up, braced against the tree trunk and shoved them both backward. They fell, tumbling through some brush, and just when she thought she was free, a second body tackled her.
This person got hold of her arms and twisted them up behind her back until she choked out a scream of pain, muffled by the dirt.
"Stop thrashing or I'mma break your arm!" the second person, a woman, warned.
Kestra shuddered at the pain, but stopped kicking.
"Puck! Status!" the woman barked out.
The man, Puck, said, "A-flipping-fine. You?"
"He stabbed me, got the jacket. Look for two long knives, be careful in case they're poisoned."
Puck asked, "You cut up?"
"Nah, but my jacket's gonna need repairs. Get the damn knives secured, then come help me get our peeper sorted out."
"On it," Puck answered. A soft glow bloomed near the man's hands, directed to the ground.
The woman giving the orders, and currently sitting on Kestra's back, shifted her grip on Kestra in a way that made her wheeze in pain. When she could focus again, she felt thin bands of some hard but flexible material cutting into her arms and keeping her bound.
The woman moved quickly, standing and hauling her up to her feet. She was significantly taller and held Kestra by her throat. "Now. What are you doing out here in our woods?"
Kestra didn't know what to say. She tried to swallow, but the grip on her throat made that difficult. "Going to Sortal--" she got out before the hand tightened.
"You're one of Ramakith's Hounds, huh?" her captor growled, her grip tightening.
"Quest! I have a quest! For a gate!" she choked out.
The grip loosened, not by much, but enough that she could gasp in for breath.
"Tell me about this quest," she ordered.
"Visit a gate! A jie gate? That's it! My map pointed me to Sortalheim. I don't know anything about the current politics, or this Ramakin Hound!" Kestra said.
"I only found one blade, and it's clean of any poisons," Puck said, returning with her short sword. He pointed his palm toward Kestra's feet and sucked in a breath. "Well, hello, Miss. So, you ain't a local. Is that what you're saying?"
The woman behind her growled out, "Fuck a duck!" and her hand slackened on Kestra's throat even more.
Kestra swallowed, choking due to the bruising.
The woman behind her grabbed her more to keep her upright than to bind her. "[Minor Heal]," she intoned, and a familiar sensation of mana-fueled recovery eased Kestra's bruising and closed up the scratches across her face.
She drew in a shuddering breath, suddenly feeling starving while the post healing exhaustion struck.
"Fuck a gods-damned duck," her captor growled again.
Kestra hadn't felt this weak in years. She fought against the dizziness and fatigue to stay conscious.
Her captor laid her down.
"She don't look like she's from Earth," Puck commented.
"Shine that glow stone over her clothes," the other woman said. Puck complied. "That's not linen, and these are buckskins. Boots are strange, too. Something like moccasins, but fancier. Nah, she ain't dressed like anyone we've run across so far. What do you make of her knife?"
"It's well made, but simple. No patterning to the iron, and the proportions are more like a Roman gladius than the saber styles the smiths around here favor." By the admiration in Puck's tone, Kestra wasn't going to bet on getting her blade back. The strange content of their words bothered her.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Were they transmigrators, too? But from a different world or universe?
"Well, she hasn't started on any kind of tempering, and she's got one perfectly opened foramen while the rest all look like ground gravel. I think she's a fresh drop, but who the hell knows where from."
"Back to camp?" Puck asked.
"Yeah. We can always oath bind her to keep her trap shut if she's stupid enough to continue on after hearing us out." The so-far unnamed woman stepped back and let Puck hoist Kestra up and over his shoulder. The quickness of his movements violently shoved the air out of Kestra, and combined with her healing exhaustion to knock her out.
----------------------------------------
She came-to staring at the man's back, swaying with his strides.
She must have passed out again because the next thing she knew she was being slipped off the man's shoulder and dumped against a stone wall. There were lights coming from enchanted bits of crystal, and several more people around them.
"You know, Puck, if you wanted some companionship, there's more than a few women in the camp who'd jump at the chance," an older woman said as she bustled over, practically shoving her captor out of way as she reached out for Kestra, a healing aura preceding her.
"She needs food if you don't want to kill her with over healing, Ruby," the woman with Puck growled. "And we think she's a fresh drop. Said she was following a quest to Sortalheim to find the jie gate there."
The older woman stopped. "She doesn't look the others you've brought back."
"Food, Ruby. Then you'll be invited to the interrogation," the brawny woman ordered.
"Yes, Tami," she said, ducking her head and heading off.
Kestra noted that her Night Sight was gone. Probably happened when she passed out, she guessed.
The stone walls she could see were irregular, and as she looked around a bit more, Kestra realized they were in a worked cavern. She had seen enough when dungeon delving with her team to recognize the smoothing over of natural formations.
Tami squatted down in front of her, making no effort to hide the intense scrutiny to which she was subjecting Kestra's person and gear.
She was a large woman, easily one of the tallest humans Kestra had yet met, and seemed to be moderately muscled under her gear. She wore leather armor, but there were plates sewn in between thinner layers of the leather. It was an interesting idea, and one Kestra thought might have intriguing applications for enchanting.
Tami's skin was paler than most of the humans Kestra was used to, though darker than the elves she had met. Her hair was the color of light streaming through honey, and her eyes were a pale color, too, probably gray, but Kestra couldn't say for sure in this lighting. She had a square face, high cheekbones and wide, thin lips, a broad forehead that showed concentration wrinkles despite the woman's seeming youth. If she was thirty, Kestra would be surprised.
Then again, she might be a high human, one of the heritable magically gifted apotheosis paths. In that case, thirty was barely past puberty. Kestra had had a low affinity for mana, so she hadn't been that interested in learning more. If not for Dualla's interest, she wouldn't have known that much.
Tami moved like a [Scout] while radiating the hunger for conflict of a [Warrior]. A soul-deep ingrained discipline added crispness to her movements, while her bearing conveyed the arrogance of a high strata Honorable, possible even a noble.
When Tami met her gaze, she asked, "Where are you from?"
Kestra licked her lips. "Does it really matter to you?"
"Are you from the Realms?" she asked.
Kestra shifted, grimacing at the strain her bound hands put on her shoulders. "Isn't that an odd question to ask?" she responded.
"Yes or no: Are you from the Myriad Realms?" she repeated.
Kestra sniffed. "What would you do if I wasn't?"
"Warn you that the man in charge of Sortalheim, Lord Ramakith, is hunting transmigrators. He's already managed to enslave several."
She stilled. That was good to know. "And what else?"
"That depends on you. We aren't slavers, and we don't just welcome everyone with open arms. If you want to leave, you'll take an oath that will bind you to keep our secrets, and off you go."
"With all my gear?" she asked, shooting the woman and Puck both a skeptical look.
Tami's jaw tightened. "We aren't thieves."
Kestra sighed. "No, I'm not from the Myriad Realms. If there's a name for the world or the universe or the what-have-you where I'm from, the gods never shared it, and Druerjan held enough dangers for us not to need to explore into draycon or gnomish lands."
Some of the tension eased out of the duo who had captured her. "Will you swear by the Heavens you speak the truth?"
Kestra narrowed her eyes and glared at the man. "What will that do?"
Tami smiled. "If you lie when you swear you speak truth, you lose a tenth of your total experience and skill ranks. If you swear to do something or not do something and break your oath, you suffer extreme pain, possibly have your cultivation crippled, maybe even death."
She stared at Tami, weighing her words. After a moment, she said, "I swear by the Heavens that I hold the title Transmigrator."
A golden glow swept over her, and did nothing else.
Tami relaxed even more. "I swear by the Heavens that so long as you keep our secrets and do us no harm, nor seek to do us harm, I will not seek to harm you."
A similar golden glow swept over her. She smiled. "Return that oath and I'll let you out of your restraints."
Kestra shook her head. "I don't know you well enough to make such an oath. How about for the duration of this instance wherein I guest within your camp, for so long as I see you and yours acting with integrity, I will refrain from knowingly causing harm to you or yours within this camp?"
Tami pursed her lips. "That's finicky."
Kestra stayed quiet and let them think.
Ruby returned with a bowl of camp stew while Tami was thinking. Puck seemed content to let Tami take the lead, leaning back against the wall in a deceptively relaxed pose.
"Fine," Tami said. "I'll accept that oath."
Kestra repeated it as an oath by the Heavens, and Tami leaned her forward. She felt a shift of mana before the thing binding her arms released her. Kestra never saw it, but she did spot the engraved ring on Tami's finger. Probably a ring of Holding or the like, she surmised.
Kestra fell upon the stew as soon as it was handed to her. When the blatant trembling in her muscles eased, she smiled her thanks to the older woman, but she didn't slow down. The food was barely making it to her stomach before the mana pushing her healing stole it away to fuel the magical recovery.
There were a few mana-rich herbs mixed in, but not enough to supplement her healing.
"You cracked my skull pretty good," she commented to the man Puck when her bowl was empty. "I can feel the healing like an itch under my scalp, and if there's more stew to spare, I could use the sustenance to sustain the healing."
Puck wasn't as tall as Tami, but he was close, and he was wide, broad with muscles. He was clean shaven, about as dark as a Druerjan human, the color of Summer-bleached dirt. His hair was a reddish shade of brown-black, and long enough that he wore it pulled back in a braid that extended down his spine, though his eyes, too, were pale. They appeared green in the current lighting.
"Well, next time someone says to show yourself, maybe you should listen," he said.
She bared her teeth at him in what might have been charitably called a grin. "Yeah, I'll do that the next time the goblins are migrating and looking for a snack."
Ruby looked over at Tami. "What's a goblin?"
"On Earth, just a myth. What's your name, by the by?" Tami asked.
Kestra bit back her instinctive scowl. "Huh. I'm going to have to learn a whole new Etiquette," she muttered to herself. Louder, she said, "You may call me Kestra." In case there was some power of names shenanigans later on, she decided to withhold the Boom-Smiter surname that showed up on her Profile.
"Kestrel? That a kind of falcon?" Puck asked.
"Kes-tra," she said, emphasizing the syllables of her name.
Ruby smiled. "So, Kestra, why do you speak of goblins if they are myths?"
"I'm not from this Earth place," Kestra said, adding, "and where I am from, the goblins are ravenous sub-sapient colony monsters. If they're just hatched at a spawn point, they usually won't get the numbers to start a migration, but if they're being spawned by a lair, well, tracking down the lair becomes a major priority for all sapient species, natural or spawned."
Ruby blinked. "Spawned? Like frogs?"
Kestra shook her head. "Mana pools in different locations, and the God of Trials will sometimes turn those pools into spawn points. Creatures that require a mana-rich environment to propagate will then seed the spawn points with their essence, and monster eggs form. Under the right circumstances, the eggs hatch, and you get new monsters."
Kestra's belly rumbled and Ruby excused herself.
"You, ah, believe that monsters come about because of this god?" Puck asked, looking uncomfortable.
Kestra snorted. "No. Monsters are just mana-hungry beings. Elamshaq is the patron of monsters because their domain is Tribulation, the great struggle, and for most people 'monster' means the beasts that have become aggressive in their search for mana. No one likes when the voice of the world announces that divine's 'blessings'. Sure, if you survive there's usually some great reward, but most people would forego the reward to avoid the tribulation."
"Wait," Tami asked, "Voice of the World? Did you have levels and all that?"
Kestra shrugged. "I lost 'all that' when I was selected to transmigrate. But, yeah. We had the voice of the world and our connections; here, there's the painted screens. At least there's still skills. Speaking of, what kind of classes does this realm have?"
Puck asked, "You mean classes like go to school classes or classes like occupations, jobs?"
"Something more essential to who you are than a mere job. I was a [Combat Alchemist] before my connection to the voice of the world was broken."
Puck's entire body perked up like a puppy hearing the snack pouch rattling. "What does a combat alchemist do?"
Were these people really that different they couldn't guess? "Make potions, powders, oils, and all sorts of concoctions ahead of time to better fill in whatever role their team needs."
"Did you happen to make explosives?" Puck asked.
Kestra knew the joy of making things go boom, and the feel of the conversation was reminding her of meeting up with other Free Lancer teams. There was no need to leave the impression she was a dangerous ally so she smothered her own enthusiasm to primly say, "The ingredients for the recipes I picked up were too costly."
Tami and Puck exchanged a look, with Tami asking, "Think you could make some of that explosive stuff here?"
"For what purpose?" Kestra asked. "I mean, big explody stuff is fun and all, but if you're after collapsing tunnels, a good Geomancer is a more reliable bet, and if you're thinking of projectiles, explosions can screw up rune scripts on the ammunition that pneumatic enchantments can be set up to empower."
"Enchanted ammo?" Tami said, her gaze turning inward.
"Yeah. Mana sticks to the enchantments--. Well, it did where I'm from. No idea if that carries over." Kestra frowned down into her bowl, suddenly realizing how loquacious she was being. She held out her hands and saw there was still a very fine tremor pulsing through her forearms. "Huh. I'm acting like I've been out of supply in a dungeon for two weeks. What Abyssal oddity is this?"
"How's your Stamina bar looking?" Tami asked with the arch look of someone who knows the answer.
Kestra turned to blink up at her in confusion. "Stamina bar? What are you talking about?"
"Your bar, that shows how much of your pool you've used up," Puck explained.
Kestra paused, letting her arm return to her side. She began her psychic probing of this realm's new soul-side attachments. During her poking, she found different illusionary bars, similar to the world's screens, and discovered she could move them around, change their size and their colors. One of the three bars was for her mana pool, another for her stamina, and the last for this EXP that turned into levels. She returned them to the default colors of sky blue, blood red, and honey gold respectively.
She also discovered a kind of illustration of her own body, with eleven circles connected by dimly lit tubes, similar to a very simple blood system, and five layers of anatomy: bone, then organs, muscles, blood, and skin. All of those were nearly translucent, and without the soul connection to clarify, Kestra would have had to guess at the systems. The mana system was gritty, needing to be flushed, and only the circle between her eyes appeared to be open to draw in more mana.
Ruby returned at some point and handed Kestra another bowl of stew, which she mechanically ate.
Those were interesting, but the fun bit Kestra found was the stack of world screen messages. She did some tinkering around as she had with the pool bars, and suddenly had four stacks of the message screens that would stay compressed until she focused on the illusionary indicators for their categories. The first she chose to view as a blue square, for general notices that didn't fit in her other categories. The second she color coded the same honey gold as her EXP bar and contained the notices of her EXP gains and leveling notices. The next she colored grass green for skill and spell acquisitions and rank ups. The last, for achievements and title notices, she went with the same red as her Stamina bar.
Which only just stopped blinking from being near empty.
Tami took the empty bowl from her hands, returning Kestra's attention to her surroundings. Tami passed it over to Puck, then stood, holding out a hand to Kestra. "You're really out of it. Let's get you tucked into a bedroll and we'll talk more when you're recovered."