Miguel raced down the empty street, spear in hand, as he heard another scream emanate from within the alley ahead. He skidded to a stop, turning to see three burly young men surrounding a small figure curled on the ground. The largest of the attackers aimed a kick at the victim, but he never had the chance to connect. Instead, Miguel barreled into him.
To Miguel, it felt like he’d just collided with a brick wall, but he was moving fast enough that he managed to send the unsuspecting young man stumbling into a nearby trash can. The impact sent garbage scattering across the alley. The would-be attacker tripped over the can, ending up sprawled on the trash strewn ground.
Meanwhile, Miguel planted, then swept his spear around to trip the next nearest young man. Once again, it felt like he’d hit a telephone pole, but the inertia of his swing knocked the feet out from under the young man. Finally, Miguel aimed a front-kick at the final assailant, who turned out to be tall, rangy girl. The blow took her in the stomach, and she stumbled backward, gasping for air.
Miguel set his feet over the fallen figure, then leveled his spear, shifting it from one opponent to the next.
“Don’t,” he spat, the deadly blade hovering only a few inches from the first bully’s face. “I swear to God, if you do what I think you’re about to do, I’ll rip out your throat. You’re a Warrior, right? That means you probably have Heavy Blow active. That means you’re getting ready to activate Shockwave. Don’t. I’ll kill you before it charges up.”
“You won’t get us all,” said the girl. “I’ll roast you before you –”
“That makes you a Sorcerer, then. Ethereal Bolt, right? You know how quickly I can impale you with this spear? Less than a second. I know because it wouldn’t be my first time. Your little spell won’t mean much when you’ve got a foot of steel in your belly,” Miguel stated, his voice calm despite the hammering of his heartbeat.
He flicked his eyes toward the young man who’d been his second victim. He’d landed hard, banging his head on the ground. It hadn’t knocked him unconscious, but it had clearly dazed him. That meant he was a low-Constitution archetype. Probably a Ranger, but he could just as easily have been a non-combatant. Maybe one of the rare ones. Miguel didn’t think he was a Healer, though. If he was, then he’d have already mended his budding concussion.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with you!” growled the Warrior.
“Seems like it has plenty to do with me,” Miguel said, staying on the balls of his feet, just like he’d been taught. It wasn’t so different from when he’d played soccer before Earth had been touched by the World Tree. He needed to be ready to move at the slightest provocation. “I can’t stand by and let you beat someone up three-on-one.”
“We got a hero over here,” said the girl with a snort. “You think you’re some kind of fairy tale knight? Prince Charming, maybe?”
Miguel didn’t rise to the taunt, instead keeping himself ready for battle. He didn’t want to kill anyone, but if it came down to it, he wouldn’t hesitate. While some of his sharp edges had been filed down over the past few months of relative peace, the mindset that had seen him through the journey across the wilderness wasn’t buried so deep that it wouldn’t return at the slightest provocation.
“Just leave,” he said after a moment. “Call it a draw. You go your way, I’ll go mine.”
“That little bitch deserves to –”
Just then, a loud meow came from the head of the alley. Miguel’s eyes flicked in that direction, and he almost grinned when he saw Artemis standing there. She didn’t look particularly intimidating – not to Miguel at least – but he knew she was a deadly predator. Clearly, the trio of bullies knew that as well, because the moment they laid eyes on the giant Maine coon, they paled.
“W-what…the…is that your cat?”
“She’s a friend,” Miguel said. “Just leave. She won’t attack. Not unless she has to.”
That did the trick. The three bullies quickly regained their feet and raced out of the alley. Miguel found it amusing how they pressed their backs against the wall so they wouldn’t have to get any closer to Artemis than absolutely necessary. Once they were gone, the cat sat and started grooming herself. She’d never even made a threatening move, but the danger she represented was enough to send those bullies running.
Elijah could do the same when he wanted. Sure – he usually didn’t, instead preferring to wear a friendly mask. But Miguel had seen a few flashes of the man beneath.
The same was true of Colt.
And his mother. Both of them, really. Carmen was only a Blacksmith, but she was made of sterner stuff than most Warriors.
That was what Miguel wanted. Not because he intended to bully people into submission, but rather because he knew he’d need the power it represented. If he was strong enough, then nobody would dare mess with him or his family.
Once he was sure the bullies were gone, Miguel finally turned around to get a good luck at the person he’d saved. She was tiny – well under a hundred pounds – and looked like she was made of skin and bones. What’s more, a good chunk of her black hair had been ripped out, leaving only a bloody scalp behind, and most of the skin Miguel could see was purpled with bruising.
He knelt beside her, saying, “It’s okay. They’re gone.”
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Suddenly, her eyes opened, and she lunged at him. Miguel managed to fend her off, mostly because her outburst only lasted a second before her strength gave out. But even as she collapsed to the ground, he knew he needed to help her. So, he tossed his spear aside, scooped her in his arms, and lifted.
After that, Miguel turned and strode out of the alley. His burden wasn’t particularly heavy, so he managed a decent enough pace as he headed toward the temple – or monument – Elijah had built for Alyssa.
As he did, he got more than a few odd looks from the few people he passed along the way. He had no idea why none of them bothered to help, but he couldn’t let that distract him.
* * *
With her eyes closed, Carmen ran her hand over the surface of the column, feeling for any imperfections. She didn’t particularly care for working with stone, but she’d taken to the project with gusto. After all, the entire building was meant to honor her wife. What sort of person would she be if she didn’t give it her all?
Idly, she glanced toward the courtyard. There, Elijah sat cross-legged beside a sapling. It looked little different from any other juvenile oak tree she’d ever seen. However, even she could feel the deeply powerful ethera coursing through its thin branches. Would it end up being a natural treasure? Or was it something else entirely? She had seen the other tree in Druid’s Park, and she was very familiar with their progenitor in Elijah’s grove. Yet, she still had difficulty understanding how they were all connected.
But she knew they were.
She could feel it as well as she could feel the enchantments in her own creations. And then there was the stone Elijah had found. Fittingly, given his core, it was called Dragonstone, and it seemed just as perfect for a monument meant to commemorate Alyssa’s life.
Sighing, she focused on the structure itself. The inner courtyard was lined with columns, which she had spent the past day carving. The two sculptors, Penelope and Iason, had initially objected to her participation, but then they had discovered her level. They’d come around pretty quickly after that, and Carmen had endeavored to justify their acquiescence ever since.
She leaned in with her summoned chisel, continuing her work. The design was simple enough, meant to represent a dragon coiled around each column, but that simplicity didn’t make it any easier to carve. Everything needed to be perfect, which necessitated a certain degree of focus. On top of that, she had to continuously flare her technique, Imbue Enchantment the entire time. Otherwise, the product would suffer.
More than once, she’d wished the columns had been made of some sort of high-quality metal. It would have made for an inferior building, but it would have been much easier for her to work.
“Can’t have everything, I suppose,” she mumbled to herself, continuing her exhausting work.
Just as she’d finished carving the scales on one coil, Carmen heard a disturbance near the entrance of the temple. Immediately, she cut off the ability and summoned her hammer. It wasn’t meant to be a weapon of war, but her summoned blacksmithing hammer did the job well enough that she hadn’t bothered creating another weapon. After it manifested, she used Augment Weapons, and it burst into flame.
“Just let me through!” she heard Miguel’s voice. “Uncle Elijah! I need your help!”
Before Carmen could even respond, Elijah was moving. He raced across the courtyard, and when he hit the steps leading to the exit, his feet slapped against the Dragonstone floor. Carmen followed close behind him, and when she saw her son, she let out a sigh of relief.
“What’s going on here?” Carmen demanded as she closed in on the young man. He was holding a child in his arms.
“Set her down,” Elijah said, noticing what it took Carmen another moment to recognize. The child was battered and malnourished, and to a degree that pulled at Carmen’s heartstrings.
Elijah knelt beside her, then laid his hand on her shoulder. A second later, she gasped, bolting upright. Or she tried to. Elijah’s hand kept her in place as he said, “Stay still. I’m not done healing you.”
“W-what…where am I? What is this place?” she gasped in a surprisingly deep voice. It was still feminine, but the raspy sound seemed out of place for such a young girl.
“Never mind that. How about you tell me what happened?” Elijah coaxed.
“She was getting beaten up by three people who had archetypes,” Miguel provided. “I saw…and…well, I couldn’t just let them keep going.”
“I see,” Elijah said.
Carmen focused on the girl and asked, “Why did they attack you?”
“It’s nothing,” the girl said, trying to rise. “I just –”
“Answer the question,” Elijah stated. He reached into his satchel and retrieved one of his miraculous berries. “And I’ll give you one of these.”
“But don’t eat it all at once, or it’ll knock you out,” Miguel supplied.
“Right. Low attributes,” Elijah muttered. “Better make it a half, then. That should be enough.”
The girl clearly didn’t know what to do, and her eyes flicked back and forth from Elijah to Miguel, then to Carmen and the pair of men who’d been tasked with standing guard at the entrance. They were part of Dion’s Builder crew, and they were meant to prevent any of the local population from walking off with the valuable Dragonstone.
“I…I tried to take…uh…something that wasn’t quite mine,” the girl admitted with a defeated sigh. “But it wasn’t my fault. They took it first.”
“Took what?” asked Elijah.
“My dad’s ring. I told them it wasn’t valuable, but they didn’t care. They took everything else, too,” the girl breathed. “It wasn’t much. But if it’s gone when my brother gets back…”
“Where is your brother?”
“Running the tower,” she said. “He’s an adventurer. He keeps saying that he’s going to strike it rich, but I think he’s just looking for a way out of Argos. He wants to get strong enough to go to a bigger city and…and…every time he leaves, people like Nikolas and Gabby come around. I tried to fight them, but…but I don’t have an archetype yet. And…and…”
By that point, she’d started sobbing.
Elijah awkwardly patted her on the head, saying, “There, there.”
“Elijah.”
“What?”
Carmen shook her head, saying, “You’re terrible at this. Are you done healing her?”
“Sure. She’s pretty malnourished, though.”
“Well, give her the berry, then,” Carmen said. “Then let me take over.”
Elijah shrugged, saying, “Be my guest. I have a tree to tend to anyway.” Then, he muttered something about trees being easier. Whatever the case, he handed the berry over, then left the area.
“What’s your name?” Carmen asked, helping the girl to her feet. She was skin and bones, evidence of the hard life she had led. Whoever her brother was, he had failed to do his job of providing for his sister. “And where are your parents?”
“Dead.”
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Carmen said with a shake of her head.
“Happened a while ago,” the girl answered, her shoulders drooping dramatically.
Then, without warning, she disappeared. It actually took Carmen a moment to recognize that she’d used some sort of ability. And that the coin purse she kept tied to her belt was missing.
“What the…what the hell just happened?” she muttered.
“That was so cool,” Miguel breathed, looking around as if he was going to find the girl. But Carmen felt certain that she was long gone. How she’d done it was a bit of a mystery – clearly, she was a little more developed than she seemed – but beyond that, Carmen had no idea what had happened.
She sighed.
“That was definitely not cool,” she said. “Not cool at all.”