“By all means, point the way,” I told her.

Dusk led us to a small patch of the garden that I hadn’t really looked at, but on further investigation, I noticed that the tree roots formed a frame, to something small, like a trapdoor.

Dusk gestured, and the earth opened, revealing a tunnel down. I glanced at Kene, then beckoned the Peacepyre over. The tunnel ran down into the earth, and it was lined with stone that reminded me of climbing into a tomb.

As I headed down, it turned out that I wasn’t entirely off base.

Dusk had created a place to hoard items she found interesting, like the stereotype of a dragon. At the moment, it held the mana water she’d created, as well as a few knick knacks that I wasn’t even aware that she’d absorbed. Loose change, a sock, some glass bottles.

And a ghostly, flickering image of a knight, flickering between substantial and not. She pointed at it excitedly explaining that she’d managed to condense some of the temporal echos, death, and memories of fighting in the temporal catch to create an artificial warrior ghost that could sleep down here and guard her realm.

I stared at her, then slowly turned to Meadow.

“Meadow…?” I said.

“It should be safe,” she said. “Death, time, mental, and physical mana are all part of ghosts, and all also quite present in Dusk. She’s essentially constructing a golem, only out of spiritual material, rather than purely physical.”

“It’ll likely be operational around third gate,” Kene commented. “That’s when most battle ready, permanent constructs start working.”

I patted Dusk’s head, though in truth I was still a touch concerned by the ghostly knight, but since it didn’t seem to have thrown Kene or Meadow, I let the subject drop.

We emerged from the underground, and then from Dusk’s realm entirely, and Meadow glanced at the waning sky.

“It’s getting late. If you all are up for a midnight adventure, you may find the next magical locus nearby interesting, but you could also go home.”

Dusk was happy to continue, and I glanced at Kene to see how they felt.

“My stamina is endless,” Kene said, flexing before laughing at themselves. They removed a potion vial from their belt and drained it, then offered me and Meadow a second one. “Vitality potion. Not exactly as exciting as a healing potion, but it’ll perk you up.”

I took the potion and downed it. It tasted like grass and mint – not horrible, but not my favorite either. Meadow, however, shook her head.

“I’m too old for such things,” she said. “But thank you dear.”

She turned and smiled mysteriously at us.

“I think it may be best for the two of you to head on alone,” she said. “I’ll be here, waiting for you, or you can fly back to the village if you’d like. But just follow the traces of death energy in the air, and you’ll find it.”

“How will you know?” Kene asked, and Dusk wind-whistled her amusement at the question.

“Oh, I’ve learned to keep an eye on the nature around me,” Meadow said. “I’ll know.”

Kene got a considering look in his eye at that, but nodded and glanced at me. He offered me his hand, and I took it, before we made our way into the brush, expanding our mana senses to look for death energy. I tapped into Vampiric Senses to help me move easier in the night.

I was the first to find the thread of death energy in the air, to my surprise, and as we moved towards it, through the thicket, the moon rising above us, I squeezed Kene’s hand tighter.

“Scared?” they asked, a teasing tone in their voice.

“You’re telling me that you like this?” I asked.

“I can see in the dark,” he responded. “I assume you’ve picked up a similar ability, since you didn’t call out the Peacepyre.”

“I can,” I said. “Vampire spell. It offers enhanced senses, including night vision.”

They nodded, then seemed to hesitate before asking, “How strong is Meadow?”

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I thought for a while she was an Arcanist. But now I think she may be an Occultist.”

“If she’s using the spell I think she is, One With Nature, that’s a fifth gate spell,” he said. “And she’s confident she can keep it running for however long we need. If she wasn’t just as knowledgeable about potions as my own grandmother, I’d think it was overconfidence, but now I’m not sure.”

“I don’t think it’s overconfidence,” I said. “She’s not arrogant, or at least she doesn’t seem to be.”

Dusk let out a complicated crow caw, and I startled, unused to that sound from her. I didn’t actually catch what she said with it, but Kene nodded, so I didn’t press the issue.

We followed the feel of death until the light gradually began to grow brighter, small, bioluminescent mushrooms.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Kene glanced at me and smirked.

"Gee, I wonder why Meadow might possibly have suggested you come this way?"

"Beats me," I said, putting on an innocent voice, then changed it to be more serious. "You haven't been too bored, have you?"

"Not at all," he said. "Meadow's interesting. Her approach to alchemy is a classical Kijani style, in contrast to my old Mossfordian. I learned a fair bit. And I have some recipes and ideas I want to try now. And she only asked that I show you the classical approach to minor and lesser healing potions – or in today’s nomenclature, first and second gate healing potions. Which I would have been willing to do regardless.”

“I’m glad it helped,” I said, nodding. “Other than Healer’s Heart and the big four, are there any components I need to help with a healing potion?”

“You’ve got Dewdrop Feverfew, and Sunset Marigolds,” Kene said. “A splash of alcohol for cleanliness. The rest are fairly mundane – henbane, sir john’s wort, echinacea, and rosemary. Technically, the echinacea isn’t classically part of the recipe, but even my grandmother admits the flowers are useful in healing potions.”

I was so distracted by talking to Kene that if Dusk hadn’t let out an abrupt, splintering-wood sounding warning, I wouldn’t have had my defensive spells up in time.

As it was, I just barely managed to flare Briarthreads and step in front of Kene before a huge fist, shaped oddly like a turkey trail mushroom, slammed into me and sent me staggering back, but I just barely managed to get a good visual and sense on it.

It was big, a full two heads taller than me, and taller than Kene too, looking like a giant gorilla made of mushrooms, mycelium, and dirt, encased in a fungal armor.

Its mana was well attuned with the surrounding mushrooms, since it had slipped past everyone but Dusk’s senses, and its body had blended into the darkness, even with my Vampiric Senses spell up. More, it had no smell, or maybe its smell matched the surroundings so well that I hadn’t noticed it.

Now that I’d seen it though, and with its veil slipping, I could sense it was third gate, but weak. Weaker than Ed, who was still relatively new to third gate.

Probably an ambush predator, or something that had wandered out of the deeper, older parts of the forest in order to prey on easier creatures.

Like me.

Kene raised his hand and flexed his fingers, sketching, but I didn’t have time to focus on him as the fungal-armored monster attacked, its mouth opening to reveal long, stringy teeth as it bit down on me.

I wrenched my arm back whipping it with Briarthreads and a pair of Pinpoint Boneshards, but that wasn’t my main concern.

It had absorbed a large chunk of my mana with the bite, leaving my life gate just under half empty, and the battle had barely started.

Dusk leapt off my shoulder and punched out at the fungal behemoth, and cast a spell I’d seen her practice once.

A wave of cracks rippled through the sky and earth out from her fist, knocking the behemoth back a few steps.

Dusk landed elegantly, then clapped, releasing another crack.

I used the opportunity to connect to her and draw out some mana to replenish my gate, and Kene finished his spell.

Script of flowing, flaming, runes wrapped around me and swirled to my hands, meeting with Briarthreads.

I grinned, then overcharged my life mana as Dusk struck out with repeated shockwaves.

As soon as she drew back, her mana running low, I leapt forwards, lashing out with the overcharged Briarthreads and capturing their moment as they struck.

With each strike, a flaming rune flowed out to intermingle with the attack, lighting it on fire.

The monster slammed its fists together and charged at me, the most obvious target, and I sent my Pinpoint Boneshards springing around me as I tried to sketch out a spell.

My sketching was interrupted as it arrived, burning and angry, and punched through my layers of defense, striking me in the gut.

If not for the fact it had to go through three layers, I would definitely have cracked a rib.

As it was, I was merely sent sprawling back. My head landed on the ground, and my vision spun for a moment. I glanced to the side and saw a small folk, one that looked like a tiny mushroom person.

“Oh, hello,” I said to it, as my vision turned red, then black.

A few moments later, I blinked back into clarity and rose to my feet. Kene had retreated, and Dusk was attempting to go at the monster with her shockwaves, using her tiny size to her advantage as she scampered around it.

“You okay?” Kene asked, “if you can’t handle it, we can–”

“Just peachy!” I said, extending my hands. I needed to do something. Oh, yeah, sketch.

I sketched out Material Echo, and my temporal mana spun out as each echo exploded into sharp, fiery threads that hung in the air around the monster.

An overcharged shockwave sent the fungal behemoth staggering back, right into the web of fire. Kene completed his own sketching then, and more runes of fire swirled out to encompass Dusk’s shockwaves.

“Wait, send me some,” I said, grinning at him.

“You have a concussion!”

“Do I?” I asked, tilting my head curiously. “No, I don’t need a concussive spell, that’s Dusk. I need fire, though. Overcharged if you can”

Kene began sketching again and my echoes vanished. I wondered why, then realized my second gate temporal mana was empty.

Oh, that’d do it.

I could sense Dusk’s mana was running dry, even with her continually drawing on mana from the plants in her realm.

“Malachi!” Kene shouted.

I blinked, then remembered.

Five was my normal limit for controlling Pinpoint Boneshard. I wasn’t in the best shape right now, but this was easy as pie, I was aiming them all at the same spot, so I managed to overcharge my mana, and still release five shards.

Each one was wrapped in flaming runes that burned hotly, and they all flew right to the fungal behemoth. The dual attack managed to tear through the monster’s head, and it staggered, slowing down as it did.

Dusk drew down her new second gate mana, drew power from what I had left in my unused spatial gate, and drew power from the mana giving plants in her realm, overfilling her mana-garden until she was bursting with power.

She concentrated all of that into a single, massive overcharged shockwave that punched through its chest, wrapped in more of Kene’s new fire runes.

It blew through the monster’s chest and smashed into a tree beyond, splitting it in half.

I scooped her up and kissed her head.

“You did great!” I told her, then turned to Kene. “And look at you, with a new spell and all. Useful too.”

“Malachi, hold still,” Kene said, walking towards me. He put his hands on my cheeks and looked deep into my eyes.

I thought he might kiss me, and I blushed, turning slightly.

“Stop moving,” Kene said.

I did as he said, and a soft green and gold light began to leak from his hands, spiraling up into my brain. A few moments later, he let go and let out a sigh, then bonked me on top of the head with one hand.

“Idiot! You shouldn’t take the risk of sketching in battle.”

“Hey!” I said, rubbing my head. He hadn’t actually hit me, just a gentle boop, but I hammed it up. “You did! But… Thanks for healing it.”

“I was in the back,” he said.

Dusk let out a disquieted chirp, and we both turned.

The fungal mound was shaking and slowly pulling itself back together.

“Primes,” Kene said.

“This way, hurry, hurry,” came a quiet voice. I whipped around to see a small folk that was shaped rather like a humanoid mushroom. It was taller and bigger than the one that I’d fallen near, and it waved towards us.

Dusk ran forwards to follow, and I glanced at Kene. He nodded, so I followed the small folk.