Jonathan was escorted back to his cell. It had been some days since he first arrived at the cult hideout, during which he had been put to work, inscribing various equipment for the cultists. As much as he hated producing enchantments to aid them, Jonathan didn’t have much of a choice in the matter as food and water were held from him, locked behind work quotas.
The master also visited him almost daily. Having mostly opted out from direct mental assault, he instead employed more subtle methods in his efforts to recruit Jonathan. Silent suggestions, magical emotion manipulation, threats and promises for wealth and power were shrugged off, and were sometimes followed by clash of wills. Jonathan didn’t think he could hold onto his wits forever, each day slowly exhausting him more. At best, he would have a few weeks before his mental resources were ground down to nothingness.
He didn’t spend the time he had available idly however. His off hours and travels to and from his work station were spent plotting his escape. Routes, directions, guard schedules, Jonathan memorized everything he could get access to, slowly building up a complete picture of the cult’s operations. It was bigger than he would’ve first expected. Well over hundred individuals that he could identify were dressed in dark brown hooded robes, in addition to almost double the number in service staff, everything from crafters to cooks and cleaners.
There were still many mysteries up in the air, like the undead and soul collecting, but Jonathan was sure that in time he could root out answers to them. The one thing that currently puzzled him was his location. A cave with a node space in the middle of a mountain was ideal for a dungeon, but the place wasn’t being used as one. The air didn’t hold the right energy flavor proper dungeons had, but was instead tainted with something else he wasn’t familiar with.
One of the mysteries was solved, when one day he returned to his work station. The medium sized room was littered with various magical crafting materials, everything from inscribing tools to alchemy stations.
Over the course of his stay in the hideout, Jonathan had seen various people coming and going from the room, but today there was a person he wasn’t expecting to ever see again.
The woman was dressed in a similar prisoner’s clothes he had been given, a simple pair of gray pants and shirt. Long, dark flowing hair was bound behind her back and her deep purple eyes were fixated on a crystal in front of her. She looked younger than Jonathan remembered.
“Suma?” He asked in disbelief.
She put the crystal down and turned to look at him. Jonathan was expecting to see recognition in her eyes, but she just stared blankly at him.
“Yes?”
Jonathan’s mind was racing. This was impossible. There was no way she could be here.
Tightening up his mental defenses, Jonathan tried to shake off whatever the master was doing to him, but nothing changed. There was no flickering in her appearance, no weird visual disturbances in the air, simply nothing to indicate that she would be some kind of an illusion, or a memory projected to a random person. But it simply couldn’t be her!
“How… how are you here?” Jonathan asked, struggling between skepticism and joy.
“I was captured. Sorry, but do you know me?” Suma cocked her head, clearly confused at his reaction.
“You don’t remember…”
“Remember what? Have we met before?”
Everything about this was wrong. Suma had died years ago. Not only that, she had died in the battle of Veladstad in Dalmatia, covering his group’s escape from a dungeon. It simply wasn’t possible for her to be in the ring world, alive and well. Even if she was resurrected, which she wasn’t, Suma wasn’t a planeswalker. Jonathan could tell instantly that her level was far too low to awaken her core. But say that she was brought back to life and somehow found her way into this world, which would break every law of nature by itself, she should still recognize him.
As Jonathan looked at the woman, he felt oddly guilty for her death. Like with the anger towards Gaven, this emotion didn’t feel like his own, but rather manifested itself to his head from elsewhere.
Realizing that he had been staring, Jonathan shook his head, trying to come up with something to say.
“Uhh… Maybe. It doesn’t matter. What are you doing here?”
Suma gave him an odd look and shrugged. “Like I already said. I was captured. My skyship was raided and I was brought here.”
“And you…” Jonathan caught himself before he could ask the question. If Suma was pretending to not know him for whatever reason, he wouldn’t want to ruin her plans. And if she didn’t, asking would only make him seem weird in her eyes. No. What he needed right now wasn’t answers, but allies, and Suma was a prime candidate. A thought of her working with the cult and being placed here to gather information from him crossed Jonathan’s mind, but he dismissed the idea quickly. It simply didn’t fit her character.
“You’re the one making the undead then?”
“I am. Not that I have much of a choice, mind you. What is your deal then? Why are you here?”
Jonathan moved onto his own work station and picked up a rune pen. “Similar story. I was captured and now I either work for them, starve to death or join them.”
He still wasn’t dismissing the option that this was some elaborate way to manipulate him into joining the cult, but his instincts told him it wasn’t. But whether he could trust her was another question entirely. In his youth, Jonathan had known the woman. She had been a necromancer, and a good one at that, specializing in architectural necromancy. Using undead to do manual labor in construction and that kind of stuff. Thalco and her had started a relationship, which ended in her death, and he had never quite recovered from it.
Whether she was the same woman Jonathan had known was still a mystery, so for now, he needed to proceed with care.
As he worked on his own tasks, he kept a close eye on Suma. She seemed completely absorbed in her work, carefully filling a complex set of runes with mana. It wasn’t inscribing like he was familiar with. In honesty, Jonathan had no idea what she was doing, but couldn’t help but feel a twinge of nostalgia as he watched her work.
He wanted to keep talking. To get to the root of her situation, but Jonathan was at a loss for words. Where could he even begin? Not able to keep the questions to himself, Jonathan coughed to break up the silence.
“So, necromancy?” He asked in a casual manner to gauge her reaction.
Suma didn’t answer for a while, finishing her most recent rune infusion. She laid the crystal down on a table and turned to face Jonathan once again, looking slightly annoyed.
“Do you have a problem with it?”
“No! No. Just curious. Why did you choose that particular field?”
“I always had a strong affinity to death.” Suma answered nonchalantly. “But I really got into it after… after a loss in my family”
Jonathan nodded, having expected as much.
“Brother?”
“Sister, actually. A spell she was working on backfired.”
That wasn’t the story Jonathan was familiar with. Back in Dalmatia, Suma’s brother had fallen on a battlefield, and she had almost thrown her life away in an attempt to bring him back. Were things different here? Was she lying? What was going on?
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you,” Suma said, her voice slightly distant. “It was a long time ago, but…”
“I know the feeling. Recently, I lost people too. Bartholomew, Leoric, Tori… and Thalco.” Jonathan’s eye was fixated on Suma’s face, trying to see even the slightest hint of recognition to the names, but none came. She simply gave a small nod, her expression unreadable.
“So… You’re a prisoner, right? The master hasn’t managed to break your will?”
Suma snorted in bitter laughter.
“That man? He has no chance. His spellwork is sloppy at best, relying too much on raw power, without the finesse that mental infiltration requires. Typical for a hedgewitch.”
Jonathan raised an eyebrow at her assessment. “Hedgewitch? I’ve heard that term before, but I’m not familiar with it.”
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“That’s what we call those who have some knowledge of magic, but haven’t been trained properly,” Suma explained. “They’re often dangerous, not because they’re especially strong, but because they don’t know the limits of proper techniques of their abilities. Pyromancers without training start forest fires, Psycomancers gain delusions of grandeur and self importance. It’s not surprising that he founded a cult based on nonsense.”
“I see.” Jonathan said, filing the information away for future reference. “So, if he’s so bad, how did he manage to capture you?”
“Mostly dumb luck I suppose. I was flying home from the sixth ring, and the captain, being outringer, didn’t know about the risks of flying too close to the mountain. We got shot down, and the next thing I knew, the cultists were slaughtering the crew. I fought back the best I could, but I’m not that powerful without a supporting team. They captured me, the master tried his tricks on me and now I’m forced to create ritual crystals for the cult if I want to live.”
Jonathan glanced at the crystal sitting on the table in front of her.
“So how do they work?”
“Similar to a spell orb, but easier to use. I infuse the crystal with a summon spell, and when the spell is activated, the conjured beings are linked to the crystal. It’s a way to get around the natural limit for summoning, since the undead aren’t mentally bound to you. One simply needs to hold the crystal to issue commands to that group of summons, and they can focus on other things elsewhere.”
“Genius!” Jonathan exclaimed, genuinely impressed by the concept. Possibilities of what such magic could offer was almost revolutionary, as he hadn’t heard of stable summoning rituals anywhere in the planescape. With the right setup and time, he could have a force of powerful allies always at his disposal, without splitting his attention too far trying to micromanage every single summon.
However, Jonathan quickly sobered up as he remembered what the tool was currently used for. Suma was forced to create an army for the cult, and even though the individual undead weren’t particularly threatening, the sheer amount that could be produced might be enough to overrun Rong.
“What’s the drawback?”
“The cost, mainly. These rituals require chunks of Necro-amethyst, which are quite rare to come across. I have no idea where they have managed to dig up this much to begin with.” Suma explained, seeming happy to talk about her passion. “Besides the cost, once the ritual is created, I am no longer in control of the undead. Anyone can use them, and whoever is holding the crystal has absolute control of the summons.”
“An instant army?” Jonathan asked, and Suma nodded.
Jonathan picked up a rune pen and returned to work, processing everything he had just learned. The ritual magic she had described was far too advanced for this world, but that was the least of his current worries. An instant army, people he had known living their lives planes away from where he had met them.
A creeping sense of dread started to overcome Jonathan. Things weren’t adding up the way they should. He was convinced that Suma was at least real. Despite the differences, the way she spoke and acted was too genuine to be fake. It was also unlikely that she was being controlled, as she lacked the typical signs mind control manifested on a person.
“What do you think their end goal is?” Jonathan asked after some minutes of silence.
“Hm? The cult? I’ve heard rumors.” Suma replied.
“What kind of rumors?”
“If I understand things correctly, they have something they are trying to awaken. Some kind of creature that would lead them to glory.”
“A vampire?”
“No. I don’t get that kind of image from them, do you? They lack the blood and sensual nature of vampiric cult. No, it’s something else entirely.”
Jonathan was reminded of the strange flavor in the ambient air. He was starting to get annoyed by the mysteries surrounding him. Being as experienced as he was, stumbling onto one new thing after another was getting on his nerves.
“Do you have any information on this creature?”
“No. I’m afraid the only thing I know is the rumors I’ve heard. I’m not in a position to ask too many questions.” Suma answered.
Jonathan nodded. Appearing too curious would be suspicious, and the people keeping them prisoners weren’t reliable sources of information as far as he was concerned.
“What about an educated guess?”
Suma didn’t answer for a while, thinking over the options.
“A demon, most likely. Perhaps a lich, but an infernal creature fits better.”
“This world has demons?” Jonathan asked before catching his mistake.
“Yes, obviously.” Suma replied, before turning on Jonathan again. “Wait! This world? What do you mean by that?!”
“Ring, I mean. This ring has demons?” Jonathan tried to cover up his slip, but Suma didn’t seem to buy it. Before she could ask further questions, Jonathan sent a whisper to her. “Not here. Not now.”
The Suma he knew was fully aware of different worlds. Her familiar appearance and demeanor had made him momentarily forget that he wasn’t supposed to talk about the wider reality to the people in this world. Jonathan still didn’t know what was going on with her, but the fact that she didn’t seem to know about the cosmos indicated that she wasn’t the person he knew.
Suma seemed hesitant to drop the subject, but as Jonathan glanced around the room, indicating that they might be observed, she relented. Casual chatter was fine, but it would be unwise to share deeper secrets if someone was listening. The last thing he needed was the master to double his efforts on breaking through Jonathan’s defenses.
Jonathan continued his work, this time being inspected by Suma. Something about other worlds seemed to have piqued her interest far more than was reasonable. Or maybe not. For a plane without knowledge of other worlds, it could be big news. But still, her interest seemed more personal.
“Who are you?” She asked after a long pause, having observed his inscriptions and taken a closer look at his level. Jonathan realized he hadn’t formally introduced, or really told anything about himself.
“Jonathan.. Uhh… Dalmatian.” He replied out loud, and sent another silent whisper to her.
“Don’t ask me more. We’ll talk further once we’re out of this place.”
To his surprise, he actually got a response when a trickle of foreign influence was poking against his mental barrier. It wasn’t an attack like the master had used, and Jonathan recognized the feeling as an attempt to open a telepathic link. If this was a trap, it was a well designed one, but Jonathan’s need for an ally surpassed his fear of manipulation, and he accepted the connection.
“Do you have a plan to escape?” Suma’s voice spoke in his head, causing Jonathan to sigh in relief. At the corner of his eye he saw her smiling. “Did you think this was a trap of some kind?”
“The thought crossed my mind,” Jonathan sent the thoughts through the mental link. “But what's life without some risks?”
“So, a plan?”
“I’m working on something. What kind of range do you have with mental communication?”
“Not high. About a hundred meters at a maximum. Why?”
“Once we are taken back to our chambers, keep the connection up. I want to know if we can stay in touch.”
“Doesn’t work. The rooms are inscribed to prevent magical communication from outside.”
That wasn’t what Jonathan wanted to hear, but it wasn’t unexpected. He hadn’t seen the inscriptions himself, but had felt some of their effects. When locked up, his mana regeneration was slowed down, and his spells became unstable. Protection against mental communication and scrying was only logical to prevent the prisoners from plotting against their captors or the place to be found by outsiders.
They also couldn’t bring anything from the workstations to the cells, since every time Jonathan was escorted back, he was inspected for that very reason. Quite a pickle indeed, but nothing he couldn’t get past with a little practice.
Jonathan considered his options, trying to incorporate Suma into his plan. Originally, he had intended to draw a ley-line into existence and use it not only to fuel his spells to break out, but also cause enough of a disturbance in ambient magic that if anyone was monitoring the levels, it would be noticed. If Alice had delivered his message and she was taken seriously, the cult’s hideout would be exposed and the Order could move in mass to take down the threat for good.
It was a hastily constructed plan and had too many variables that could go wrong, the corruption of the city leadership being his main concern. So he needed a plan B, which would entail the immediate aftermath of a breakout. He needed to survive long enough for the Order to swoop in, which would take a day at a minimum.
With Suma, they could hole up somewhere and defend a location for a time, but the risks with that were too great. No. What they needed was to get out of the cave and possibly seal the entrance, cutting the cultists from fleeing the scene. That would only work if they had only one exit, which was unlikely. Whatever the case was, if they got away, they could bring the Order here and maybe uncover something that would lead them on the escapee’s tracks.
They continued to discuss the possibilities for the rest of the work day, slowly grinding away holes in their plans. Jonathan would secure the initial breakout, after which he would find and free Suma. Depending on how the cult reacted, they would either escape right away or cause as much chaos as possible, while slowly making their way to the exit. Jonathan had the layout of the tunnels memorized enough that he was confident in finding his way out.
What complicated things slightly was that there were only two of them. Jonathan had seen other prisoners, but they were few and far between, and were mostly non-combatants with useful skills the cult could benefit from. Jonathan would free them if he could, but in the end the most important thing was to secure either one of their escape from the hideout.
One additional problem was their power level. While Suma hovered around level seventy, slightly above average for a normal adventurer in Rong, Jonathan was only twenty six. Most of the cultists on the other hand were in their fifties. While Suma was technically more powerful than they were, Jonathan had encountered over a hundred of the enemies. The sheer disadvantage they faced in numbers was something they would need to find a workaround.
At the end of the day, two sets of guards entered the work room. After making sure that neither Jonathan or Suma were trying to smuggle anything away, the pair was taken back to their rooms.
The Master came in for a quick visit, but he didn’t seem too eager in his efforts to overpower Jonathan’s mind. The man seemed almost depressed, his typical well-groomed facade nowhere to be seen. Had something happened to him? A scheme gone wrong perhaps? Whatever the case was, Jonathan was pleased to see the man not at his best.
As the night fell and the sounds of the cultists going about their business filled the hideout, Jonathan lay in his bed, going over the day’s events. Something was going on in this world. People that shouldn’t be here. Magic, far too advanced for the world. He needed to get out and start investigating things properly. To do that, the cult needed to be brought down.
He finally managed to fall into a fitful sleep, his dreams filled with faces of people he had long forgotten.