Alator and I immediately stopped rowing and leapt up, a foot on the gunwale, staring out into the forest. After a few moments, the boat swaying under us, Alator stretched out an arm.

“There. Sixty yards.”

Without a word, I nodded, took my place back on the thwart, and brought high the oars. Together, we wrenched to port, teetering for a moment, then set off. The bustle woke resting Raik, and after a few moments of bleary confusion, he started.

“No, no, no, not towards the Ribs!”

“We heard a voice in there,” I grunted with the effort, throwing us over the water.

Raik’s face went low and he avoided meeting our eyes.

“It doesn’’ matter — we can’t go ’owards the Ribs, the crabs’ll tear the hull apart and if we attract the attention of those lizards, they’ll rip us limb from limb.”

We continued rowing unabated.

“I’ll protect the ship, Raik,” Alator said levelly. “You won’t keep us.”

Exasperated, Raik lunged for one of the oars. With tensed and focused effort, I threw him back down against the stern.

“You don’t know wha’ you’re doing,” he spluttered. “You’re damning us! How do you know i’ was even a person? People say the Mire-Hiss can mimic voices!”

I simply shook my head.

“Not worth the chance on my conscience,” I muttered.

The tarred hull of Raik’s ship scraped up onto the stony shoreline and we leapt overside. Bronze Spear of Blinding in hand, I instantly took off fast into the forest in the direction I’d heard the voice, my legs moving mechanically over the brush and thistle. I heard behind Alator trying (in his inimitable and fairly intimidating way) to calm the panicked coral-folk.

Suddenly a heavy vibration came from a shifting mound of sand and a few rugby-ball-sized crabs, pale and pink like new bone, glowing in the light, burst out and snapped their pincers at me. In a giant leap I was over them and away, and two more steps put me past the treeline and into the eerie forest.

Spiked greyed branches scratched at my exposed skin as I tore through.

The scream echoed out again, directly in front of me: a woman’s. It was weaker than the first, perhaps more pained. Blood pumping in my ears, I ducked a low branch, dense with grey leaves, and emerged into a sunlit clearing.

Two of the lizard fiends had cornered a woman against one of the white Ribs. Her back was pressed against the quartz and she held a long wooden staff in front of her.

A wizard — witch! I mean a Mystic!

“Get away!” she screamed, and wildly waved her staff. One of the lizards fell back a step then snarled, a forked tongue shooting out of its mouth to taste the air, and kept encroaching.

Without slowing or stopping, I adjusted my grip on the spear and touched the Analysis Card.

Fiend :

Mire-Hiss A, Level 2

Stats :

Str 4, Dex 5, Con 4, Mnd 2

Attacks :

Tail Whip, Venomous Bite

Loot :

Golden Scales, Mire-Hiss Venom Gland

Weakness :

Sluggish reflexes

XP :

21

Fiend :

Mire-Hiss B, Level 2

Weakness :

Distracted by movement

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Name :

Lenya of the Hoary Gold, Level 14

Stats :

Str 4, Dex 8, Con 6, Mnd 17

Skills :

Elementalism Lvl 3

Herbalism Lvl 1

Influence Lvl 2

Mysticism Lvl 4

Special :

Balance Power

Inventory :

Ritual staff, Golden Talisman

Weakness :

Fearful of tight spaces

Home :

Fey Plains, Aricaeëth

Another World! But first . . .

[Battle Tactics] buzzed through my mind and, reacting instantly, I reached into my pouch and threw one of the scorpion Chitin Fragments as hard as I could against the far side of the quartz. Mire-Hiss B instantly stopped what it was doing and its neck started twitching in the direction of the chitin, and it even took a few steps towards the forest on that side.

The other spun to face me and hissed, its bright yellow eyes stark against the grey and green of its dry scales. It teetered on its feet a moment, hesitating to act, and that gave me the precious seconds I needed to close the distance, pump [Weapon Mastery] through my thews, and jet the head of my spear through its neck. It crunched in with a cloudy burst of green dust and blood.

At that moment, Mire-Hiss B’s mind caught up to the clamour and it dropped to all fours and started a frightening dash towards me. Both of my Skills were fresh in my mind, but my spear was still locked in the other fiend’s neck.

As it skittered towards me, I flashed [Vigour], feeling again the marked difference of Level 2, and twisted my body, drawing my leg back, thigh pumping with energy.

Before it reached, I threw the dead lizard aside & kicked forwards with my leg. The Mire-Hiss reacted as quickly as it could, stretching its mouth wide to reveal two lines of dirty, cracked teeth, but my sandalled foot met the thing’s chin and it was thrown backwards over itself, landing heavily on the golden dust.

I wrenched my spear free and sped over to it, cutting first from afar across its side, then as it howled and lashed out, brought the spear up and stabbed down, through its eye, through skull, into the dirt.

Bzz.

// SYS : You gained 42 XP for defeating the two Mire-Hisses. You now have 83 and need 115 total for the next Level. //

Nudging the spear free with a slush sound, I looked up and took a step towards the woman, still pressed against the quartz Rib. Full fear took her and she scrambled to the side, stumbling over one of the lizard bodies.

“Are you —” I started.

“Stop! [Command : Halt]!”

A profound ripple of energy moved in towards her — I felt my hair stand up on end and my instincts spat bile as my muscles were forced taut still. I recognised the brush of magic as the dust was pulled towards her from the ground, [Command] must be a type of [Mysticism] — Old Mereth, the Witch of Akhur’shet, had performed the same sort of, I assumed, [Elementalism].

Despite my full cognizance, a stream of panic flashed in my mind through paralysed nerves and I reached for [Vigour] to break free. In a moment the bloated pressure on the air was broken with a light snap and my power was my own again, and I moved another stride towards her.

“You don’t need to do —”

Desperately moving away, she tripped over a root. Sparkles of gold jewellery all over her body glinted as she dropped hard sideways and backwards onto her hip.

As I took another step I realised the grim smile was set in my face and my eyes were wide. I blinked and corrected myself and took a step forwards.

“D-don’t come any closer!” She arched her back as challenge and put out her hand. A pulse of energy crackled over her palm and a lick of smoke trailed from it.

At that, I stopped dead.

“I didn’t mean any harm,” I gently put down my spear and raised both hands to her, and gently moved a foot back.

The tension in the air stilled, but didn’t lessen much. She dragged herself to her feet and with one hand rubbed an untidy auburn plait from her face, revealing almond-shaped bright grey eyes set in a porcelain face.

“Don’t move!” she yelled. “Where am I?”

“Round about Ith-Korr. I’ll explain everything later. Right now, are you hurt?”

Near hyperventilating, she felt around with her hand and tested her weight on her booted feet.

“N-no, I don’t believe so.” Then, without so much as an excuse me, she turned her back on me and started to whisper. I heard the first few words, at least: “Woretio? Woretio, where am I?”

. . . What on Earth is — hold on! She’s talking to her own System?

// SYS : It appears so, but I haven’t heard of Aricae’ëth. //

She’s clearly just arrived — fresh off the boat. Does that mean there’s a World Gate around here?

// SYS : No, there isn’t. //

Huh . . . Is this another one of your fun ideas? Like the way you brought Alator here? Is there a chance you could bring someone across who doesn’t immediately want me dead?

// SYS : This is not my design. You can hold your accusations, Talbot; I’m as lost as you are. Listen to me, all the Systems of the New Worlds share information freely. How she can have a SYS that I am not aware of is . . . a mystery to me. . . . //

I’d never heard SYS trail off in confusion before. The little bronze sphere bobbed up and down next to my head, its blue eye trained on her back.

Then I saw them, for the second time since coming to Barbican — but this time it was certain: Lenya had long, curved ears. I couldn’t help but stare.

// SYS : Anyway, by the looks of her, Aricae’ëth is likely a very relaxed forest World. Barbican must be a bit of a shock to the system. //

“What do you MEAN you don’t know?” Lenya shrieked.

Yikes.

As she whispered (and sometimes yelled) to the invisible entity near her right shoulder, the point of her chin moved a smooth arc and her head never rested on her tall neck, always gesticulating with one hand.

She was quite possibly— though I’m not sure how much this tells you — the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.

Above big loose leather boots and rolled woollen socks I could see slim, pale calves before her legs disappeared under a heavy robe that draped to her knees. Just glancing at the curve of Lenya’s body as she moved under the robes flushed my face red and I turned away, but couldn’t help looking back out of the corner of my eye. I planned to look busy as soon as she faced me.

At length, she turned back to me and put her hands on her hips, obviously catching me staring at her, probably mouth wide and tongue lolling.

“Don’t move!”

“I’m still not moving, Lenya.”

Her eyes widened, nostrils flared.

“How dare you address me by — WAIT. How do you know my name?” She blurted out the last part almost as a single pitched syllable.

Oops.