Before they left the portal Alistair had created using Dimensional Gate, Kanda raised her hand and set a marker. The marker glowed with white intensity that was slightly frayed along the edges.
“Don’t worry, it’s a skill you’ll get later on, during your Second Attunement. That is, if the three of you make it to your second year,” she told Alistair, Juno, and Zola.
“Why wouldn’t we make it to our Second Attunement?” Juno asked.
“You really don’t see how there could be complications in the near future?”
“I really don’t,” Juno said as he stood tall and proud. “We’re a trio of badasses.”
Kanda waited for the glow from her marker to settle before turning to Juno. “Have you even thought about what you’re getting into?”
“The kingdom-wide conspiracy? I mean, sometimes, but I know we’re doing the right thing. Wait, do you mean the abandoned fortress and the dungeon that is definitely inside? Perhaps the quest for the Bonesdoggle Femur Blade?” He laughed. “In that case, I thought about getting a quest enough to go to the Wraithen Archives and see if there wasn’t something we could add to our little excursion here. Does that answer your question?”
“You’re missing the point, Juney.”
“Juno.”
Zola spun her wand in her fingers as she looked the boy over. “We are here to get levels and cards, Juno.”
“And treasure. We can’t forget treasure. Alistair has a dagger, remember? Why can’t I get something like that?”
Zola continued spinning her wand in her fingers. “What’s your point exactly?”
Ghost: I’m with her, but I also agree that children should have knives, at least by Juno’s age.
Alistair: I don’t know what to say to that.
Ghost: Then you say nothing. If you have nothing to say, just say nothing. You don’t need to tell me you don’t know what to say—
“Come on.” Kanda started in the direction of the golden bee and the glittery trail it was leaving behind. “Let’s argue along the way. Or better, let’s stay quiet. Quiet never hurt anyone.”
Ghost: Agree to disagree. Quiet has absolutely hurt people, but don’t point out the flaw in her argument. Or, if you do, send her a Spectral Text so she knows it’s me critiquing her.
“Sure, I’ll get right on that,” Alistair said under his breath as they pushed through the forest, the four taking a winding path covered in shadow. Every now and then, the sun would peek through the fall foliage, shining light onto a forest floor that was covered in leaves and an increasing number of pine needles.
They soon came across pine cones, which brought a smile to Zola’s face. “Look,” She said as she picked up one of the cones and folded its scales back, producing a small seed. “They’re edible.” She ate the seed to prove her point.
“You’re like a squirrel,” Noctarii said, the fae still hidden in the shadows.
Squish! Ziggy, who now sat on Alistair’s shoulder, hopped down to the forest floor and investigated her pine cone. He ate it, and released a satisfactory sound. Squiiishhh….
The two girls laughed. “He’ll eat anything, won’t he?” Kanda asked.
“He’s a fat little bastard,” Noctarii said, “but he’s our little fat bastard and yes, he’ll eat anything. Including humans. He especially likes angsty teenagers, so the four of you should be weary. Isn’t that right, Ziggy?”
Ziggy squinted at Noctarii, his black eyes folding to some degree.
Noctarii nocked an arrow and pointed it at the slime. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“He probably could eat a fae too,” Kanda said as she moved on, the older girl pushing away some stray branches. “A word to the wise.”
“A word to the wise… a word to the wise,” Juno said. “Hey, that’s the Chief Historian’s favorite line. I wonder if his mom ever figured out the Eldertongue thingy we got her.”
“You could always ask him,” Zola told Juno.
“Nah. That would require a conversation I don’t want to have. Every time I talk to him when you guys aren’t there, he recommends books. Books I don’t want to read. Anyway.”
A message came in from Kanda.
Kanda: What is Ghost saying?
Alistair: He’s grumbling about Juno, as usual. He also pointed out some flaws in an earlier statement you made about silence. Or something. He’s always pointing out flaws.
Kanda: What does he think about this quest?
Alistair: I’d ask him, but he’d probably reply with some cautionary assassin quote.
Kanda: Okay. What do you think about this quest?
Alistair: I have no thoughts about it, really. If we can get Attribute or Imprint Cards, that’s good. I would rather be here than hanging out with your uncle, obviously. As for the quest reward, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but money is not something I currently need.
Kanda: Oh? You are a rich orphan now? Kidding. Sorry if that came off wrong.
Alistair: It’s fine. And Ghost set me up, set us up—I hate saying it like that—in Solaria.
Kanda: Interesting. So what you’re saying is you’re paying next time we go out to dinner?
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Alistair: Sure.
Kanda: You’re such a gentleman. But I have a better idea. Even if we get the reward here, and Juno suggests spending the extra money on a dinner in Solaria, we still charge it to my uncle and give the two gold coins to the waitstaff as a tip.
Alistair: I’m fine with that.
Kanda: The fucker. I’m still thinking about the outfits he wants us to wear tomorrow. It will be humiliating. My uncle is such a bastard.
Juno and Zola discussed a mushroom they came across, the two speaking loudly enough to drown out the conversation in Alistair’s head.
“I wonder if it’s edible,” Juno said as he poked at the red mushroom.
“You shouldn’t eat something like that.”
“What about Ziggy?”
Squish! The slime hopped down from Alistair’s shoulder. It zigzagged over to Juno and Zola, its black eyes forming into a squint as it investigated the mushroom. Ziggy made a gesture that looked sort of like a shrug and ate the mushroom.
Juno laughed. “Holy shit. The slime is freaking fearless.”
Alistair tuned back into what Kanda was saying in his head.
Kanda: Hello? Are you listening? Does Ghost think we could deal with both Goran and my uncle on this trip, or not?
Alistair: Likely not.
Kanda: Ask him.
Alistair did, and Ghost responded just as they passed over a fallen pine tree with one end rotted out.
Ghost: Tell Kanda she is getting too ballsy. As you know, I’ve had plans for a while now to use Felix’s paranoia against him. If we get a chance to strike, obviously, we take it. But striking Felix at an assassin’s retreat where he has all sixteen of his Baronblades plus trainees, not to mention the assassins that will be in attendance, is a terrible idea. I do have an idea of something we could do there, but will discuss that later.
Alistair: And trying for Goran isn’t crazy?
Ghost: No. Especially if Kanda helps us. I can explain this to her later in person, but she needs to think logically about these things. We cannot be impulsive with Felix. Right now, the order, as I see it, is Goran, Kang, and then Felix. But only after he has suffered greatly and perhaps inspired a mutiny. Even if my wish there doesn’t come to pass, he should be last just so we can truly experience what it feels like when all the walls are closing in.
Alistair: I’ll relay the message.
Once he had done so, Kanda rolled her eyes at Alistair.
Ghost: I think that was meant for me. If so, tell her—
Alsitair didn’t have time to respond to Ghost once spectral soldiers, their bodies made of what looked like opal, bloomed out of the pine needles and surrounded the four battledeck students.
Kodama Wight, Level Ten
Kodama Wight, Level Eleven
Kodama Wight, Level Nine
Kodama Wight, Level Twelve
Kodama Wight, Level Ten
Each of the spectral soldiers had a massive halberd, which they immediately used to engage Alistair and his group by slamming them against the ground and producing a wave of mana.
Zap!
Juno got the opening shot as he jumped backward, hit a tree, laughed, groaned, and summoned Desolara. “Get ‘em, Dessy!”
As she scuttered forward, stinger at the ready, Juno fired a few more times at their opponents.
Zap! Zap!
Zola summoned her Runestone Onikuma, who crashed forward with a roar, the bear swatting away the ends of one of the halberds.
By this point, Alistair was moving on the lowest leveled one, who just so happened to be on the perimeter of the fight now. He used Shadow Play to take control of the shadows of the area as Ziggy took off toward the spectral combatant. Now under Alistair’s control, the shadows moved like they were going to strike his opponent, causing it to swipe at them with its halberd and leaving an easy opening for Ziggy to do his damage.
Squish! The slime leaped for its head, latched on, and prevented the spectral soldier from moving as Noctarii fired bolts at it.
“That one!” Alistair said, pointing to the nearest opponent, which had just been struck in the chest by a blast from Juno’s wand.
Noctarii rushed into its open mouth and took control over its form. It was sloppy, but the fae managed to strike the same spectral soldier that Ziggy was battling.
A gust of radiant fire burst out of the palm of Kanda’s hand. Her attack struck one of their opponents and completely fried the spectral soldier to the point that it fell forward into a heap of ash.
“Ha, nice!” Juno called over to her. “Teach me that one.”
“We’re close to the fortress,” was all Kanda said as she took out another with what looked like a boomerang made of light.
Zola’s onikuma trampled its opponent, which Desolara moved on as well, the scorpion stinging it repeatedly.
Zap! Zap!
After two more shots from Juno’s wand, the creature shattered like a glass statue.
“Hell yeah.” He blew at the tip of his wand as if it had smoke coming off it. “That was tight.”
Noctarii and Ziggy took care of the rest, the two tagteaming the soldier with Ziggy on its head followed by Noctarii exploding out of the skull of the one he had been motoring.
Two cards appeared in the air, both twisting, and both giving off a prismatic glow.
“They’re yours,” Kanda said as she moved on, the older girl following the golden trail yet again.
Once the three mages put their wands away and recalled their summons, all aside from Ziggy, they checked out the cards.
“Plus one to Stamina. There’s an Imprint Card called Kodama Summon,” Zola read it again. “I want this one.”
“Let me at least check it out,” Juno told her. He read the card quickly. “Lucky. Alistair?”
Alistair took the card from him.
[Use your wand to summon a pair of Kodama Wight soldiers with attack power two times your STR to engage your opponent. Thirty minute cool down.]
He handed the card back to Zola. “Not bad.”
Ghost: It would be an excellent distractionary measure. Tell her that.
As much as Alistiar hated relaying what Ghost said, he went ahead and did so.
“I didn’t even think of that. So…” Zola smiled at the two of them.
“So?” Juno asked.
“Can I have it, or what?”
“Sure,” both boys said.
“Yay!” Zola pressed the card into her chest. “And I still need a third summon. But soon. Maybe even this fortress.”
“What about the DEX Attribute Card?” Juno asked Alistair.
Ghost: Give it to him. He needs it more than you.
“It’s yours,” Alistair told his roomate.
“For real?”
“Um, for real.”
Juno shoved the DEX card into his chest. “But don’t think this means I’ll be running with you in the morning.”
Ghost took over. “That’s absolutely what it means,” he growled.
Alistair: Hey!
Juno burst out laughing. “There he is!”
Zola rolled her eyes. “Alistair, now isn’t the time.”
Alistair regained control over his body. “Sorry. I just thought it would be funny.”
“It was fucking hilarious, bro, but seriously, the morning runs are all you,” Juno told him. “I get my cardio in at the breakfast buffet. Believe me.”
Squish!
“Ziggy too.”
“Please,” Zola started to say. “Both of you to lay off the—”
“Hey!” Kanda to them, her voice just close enough that they could make it out. “I think I found something. If this isn’t the fortress, I don’t know what it is.”