Cara’s stomach lurched. A blue haze washed away Ted and the world around her, replacing it with smooth bark, and the earthy scent of her Forest.

She pulled off her boots and the tree-song rushed back into her awareness, embracing her in its warmth. Her already racing heart quivered. She was home.

An icy chill snatched away the giddy lightness. Home wasn’t how she’d left it, even ignoring that this was Erinbar. The tree-song was choppy, rough, awash with fear and anxiety, even more so than before.

She let go of Gramok’s hand and looked around the bare room. There were no windows, only a single doorway, and a wide-eyed ranger staring at them.

The ranger frowned at Gramok for a moment before bowing his head. He was young, even younger than her, and not at all familiar. A raw recruit, and definitely not from Tolabar.

“He’s with me,” Cara said. “I vouch for him.” She reached out and lifted the ranger’s chin. “I’m a Lookout, just like you, not a Keeper.” She glanced at Gramok and smiled. “That’s Gramok. Technically, he’s a knight, but we don’t talk about that.”

The ranger’s throat bobbed. “They’re expecting you at Tolabar.”

Eloran Erinbar So’aroaska

Level: 6

Only level six? Either Eloran was a lot younger than he looked, or he hadn’t even trained to become a ranger. Cara bowed her head to him. “Thank you. Which way to the elevator?”

They made their way through the treetops. It was almost like home, except that everything was in the wrong place.

At least the breeze across her face was right. She breathed in that banquette of sweet and acrid scents, familiar and yet never quite the same twice.

Even that didn’t stop the darkness coiling around her heart. Were they conscripting now?

Just how bad was it?

Gramok walked alongside her, gawking at it all. “Impressive, beautiful, and dangerous. I see where you get it.”

She gave him a look. “Save your flattery for the barmaids, and, please, don’t fall off.”

“I gotta keep in practice somehow.” He paused and cleared his throat. “Does anyone ever fall off?”

“Not often. Most wood elves aren’t nearly as clumsy as me.”

“You’re positively graceful by orc standards.” Gramok peered over the edge and gulped. “Anyone ever survive?”

She looked away and smirked. “No. It takes weeks to clean up the mess, too.”

Silence.

Had she finally gotten him?

Gramok dropped back behind her and walked down the centerline of the treetop passageway. “Don’t fall off, got it.”

Success!

Cara turned and grinned at him. “Just kidding. The Forest looks after us and breaks our fall. It’s pretty embarrassing when it happens, though, and it hurts like hell. I don’t recommend it.”

His eyes narrowed, and that grin slunk back across his face. “How many times have you fallen off?”

That wasn’t the point! “We should get going.” She pulled herself up straight and looked at the edge. “You know, you’re a lot heavier than a wood elf. I’d be careful if I were you.”

Eloran glanced back at them. “You could… you could stay here the night.” He winced and hid his face. “It’s not as safe as it used to be out there.”

Sorrow, grief, loss flooded through the tree-song. Who had he lost?

Cara reached out and rested her hand on his shoulder. “Thank you. We’ll be okay, I promise.” Her chest tightened and pain swelled. That stupid injury still hadn’t fully healed. “Could we stop off at the apothecary on the way?”

Eloran nodded and led the way.

The apothecary’s eyes were dull and his movements heavy. He listened, handed over the potion, and returned to work, all in silence. As expected, the potion tasted worse than torric dung. It didn’t completely heal the injury, but the lingering pain was gone.

Another night’s rest and she’d be fully healed. Her jaw stiffened. The next time she slept, it would be at home, in Tolabar.

Without Ted.

She pulled out her pack and checked on Nibbles. The little darling raced out, darted up her arm, and leaped onto her shoulder, squeaking wildly.

Cara closed her eyes and stroked the most beautiful little girl in the world. “Hey, darling.” For a moment, everything wasn’t quite so bad.

“Weren’t you going to leave Ted your pack?” Gramok asked.

Her eyes shot open. “My pack!” Kalkarka! Why did she have to be so useless? “Too late now. He’ll manage.”

“Yeah, he’s good at that. So…” He raised an eyebrow and gave her a probing look. “You and Ted…?”

A rush of adrenaline. Heat tingled across her cheeks and her ears burned. “A goodbye kiss. On the cheek. It was nothing.” Her heart pounded. She bit her lip. “Who knows when we’ll see each other again?”

A beaming smile lit up Gramok’s face. “I’m glad you took my advice.”

“Uh-huh. I seem to remember your advice being rather different.”

“Novor, novor.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. “You going to be okay traveling through the night?”

The twitch of his eye said no, but he nodded. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve gone all night, and I won’t even be drunk this time.”

Cara smiled as best she could. Tolabar was in danger. It needed her, and it needed her now. “Let’s get going, then.”

Eloran guided them to the elevator. It was square instead of round, and smaller than most of Tolabar’s. They squeezed in between the handrails and it shuddered into motion.

How bad was it? Did she dare ask?

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The boy kept glancing at Gramok and then looking away or down. Curiosity? Fear? Both? Gramok was doubtless the first orc he’d ever seen.

Gramok smiled warmly at Eloran, but it was hard to be reassuring with tusks like those. “Ask your question. I don’t bite.” His smile slipped back into a grin. “Usually, anyway.”

Eloran gulped. “Well…” He looked down, left, right, anywhere but at Gramok. “What are you doing here? Sir.”

“None of that ‘sir’ crap here, I get enough of that back home.” He paused and looked out across the Forest.

The leaves rustled. A bird called in the distance. Why was Gramok here? He didn’t have to be. This wasn’t his home.

“Repaying a debt.” He snorted and clenched his fists. “Pretending I’m a better orc than I really am. Isn’t that all most of us can ever do?”

Eloran looked up, his eyes wide, finally daring to meet Gramok’s gaze. “Are you going to fight?”

“Yeah, I’ll fight.” Gramok’s brows pulled together. He crouched down and put his huge hands on the boy’s shoulders. “But fighting doesn’t make me, or anyone else, a good person. I’m a warrior so others don’t have to be.”

Eloran stiffened up and nodded. His voice lowered to a whisper. “Me too.”

***

Ted scratched his head. It had to mean something. “That modifier resembles quick, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s quickly? Which would make that…” What, exactly? A vague understanding would just be storing up trouble for the future.

Idonia paced up and down the room, incredibly sprightly for her age. Not that Ted had a clue how dwarven old age worked, anyway. There wasn’t a hint of frailty about the woman, despite her wrinkles.

She picked up the Runesmithing book and flipped through it. “Here! The rune is reused, describing the best way to engrave them into leather boots.”

Which would mean…

“Motion!”

Their shouts came in unison, and they shared a smile. Sometimes, great minds did think alike.

Would it be cheeky? Ted bit his lip. Cheeky or not, the chance of not being the slowest all the time was too good to pass over. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to do another rune for me?”

She bellowed with laughter and slapped her knee. “Convince me? That’s a good one.”

“Sorry, I know you’re busy.”

Idonia shook her head, still chuckling. “Boy, if you want to be the first to test a newly-reinvented rune, you’re more than welcome. If we’re lucky, it won’t rip your legs clean off.”

Ted swallowed. She was laughing now, but he’d been getting on well with Orlanda until he’d told her the truth. “The risk’s worth it.” Best to leave it at that.

“Alright. Boots off!”

He sat on a too-low chair and pulled off his boots. The cold of the stone floor seeped through his socks. At least there wasn’t any dirt or dust.

Did all that cleaning magic here make allergies worse, or were allergies not really a thing here?

Idonia took the boots and grinned. Her eyes gleamed, and she got to work immediately.

She started by carefully cutting into the heel, making grooves for the rune. Every motion was careful, controlled, precise, and yet full of gleeful energy.

Once the grooves were dug, she took a tiny ball of metal and levitated it in her hand. There was a surgical precision to her magic that put every spell Ted had ever cast to shame.

She melted the ball and filled part of the groove with the liquid metal, freezing it before it could burn the leather. She repeated the process again and again, each time filling a little more of the groove.

It was a delight to behold, even if it was slow going. There wasn’t any doubt that he was watching a master at work.

The door swung open and Luther strode through. His breathing was slow and steady, but the expression on his face was anything but. He paused, took a deep breath, and snarled.

“What’s up?” Ted asked.

Luther shook his head. His shoulders slumped, and he took a seat beside them. “This doesn’t leave the room, understood?”

Ted nodded. Idonia continued her work, either oblivious or, more likely, just not caring about irrelevancies like the end of the world. Not while there was Runesmithing to do.

Either way, Luther continued. “I scouted the caves below. There’s an army coming, vast and powerful. It’ll be here in around 40 to 50 hours, and Ardic doesn’t have a golden pickaxe of a clue what to do.” Luther leaned back and threw up his arms. “Not that I do, either.”

Shit.

Ted bit his lip. That’d put it the night before the Emperor’s arrival. Even if the imperial guards that would accompany him were inclined to help, they’d be too damned late.

This wasn’t his fight. He didn’t have to stay. He had his own problems to deal with.

He shook his head, all too easily imagining what Cara would tell him if she were here. That they needed his help. That he could make a difference. He couldn’t really see how, but, hey, not like he was going anywhere just yet. “Anything I can do, I’m at your disposal.”

“No dishonor in leaving, lad. This isn’t a fight we can win.”

Maybe, maybe not. Ted scratched his head. There had to be a way. “If you’d asked me a month ago, I’d have said magic was impossible. Now, I’m a Spellcrafter. Anything can happen.”

“For you, maybe. We can’t all be Heroes.” Luther scoffed and stared up at the ceiling. “Not more than once, anyway.”

An awkward silence settled between them. What was there to say?

Idonia held up Ted’s boots and smiled. “Ready for you to test, Hero.”

Ted blinked. He hadn’t meant for her to know. Not that she’d really reacted. “How long had you known?”

She shrugged. “Who cares? If we’d had more Heroes on our side, we’d have held Tarkath, and we wouldn’t have lost all this Runesmithing knowledge in the first place. Now test the damned boots!”

He held the boots in his hands. They felt a little heavier, but otherwise, just the same. Yet, the moment they were both on, magic tingled up his legs.

He stood up and walked around, effortlessly faster than normal. The mage quarters were too small for a proper test. “Be back in a moment.”

Ted headed outside. The town’s magical glow had dimmed for the night, but it was still bright enough to see up and down the street. Aside from the few soldiers, it was all clear.

He broke into a sprint. Wind rushed past his face. Fast, but not as fast as when he had Mind Over Body up, and his stamina went down the same as ever.

How big was the difference? He focused on the Boots of Speed, but all they told him was that they made walking and running faster.

Time to test it, then. He picked out a spot about 100 yards down the street and sprinted there and back again several times, waiting between runs for stamina. Twenty-one seconds. Twenty-seconds. Twenty-two seconds. Not bad, especially with a turn. Nearly Olympic level.

He chuckled. With Mind Over Body, he’d already have been faster than even an Olympic sprinter. Did they have a rule against magic? Whatever, they had rules against drugs and that didn’t stop them. Fastest human alive!

Well, fastest Earthling alive, anyway.

His fists clenched.

Maybe. Maybe not.

It took a bit of internal searching, but he found the mental switch to deactivate the boots. The magic tingled back down his legs, and his speed returned to normal.

He moved so damned slowly now. How had he ever lived like this?

He repeated the experiment. Thirty-one seconds. Thirty-one seconds. Thirty-two seconds.

So damned slow.

He flicked the boots back on. They made him about fifty percent faster, or 10 feet per second at a sprint. He wasn’t sure which. Fifty percent scale better with Mind Over Body, but it wasn’t a deal breaker if it was just a static increased. Satisfied, he headed back into the mage quarters.

Luther and Idonia’s Dwarvish conversation died as he entered the room. Had they been talking about him? Maybe, but that would be a stupid thing to get offended over. He was a guest, and a Hero to boot. Of course they wouldn’t trust him with everything.

Idonia looked up at him with all the excitement of a puppy at Christmas. “Did they work?”

He relayed his experiment and its results, which only made Idonia buzz with more energy.

“Come on,” she said, opening the book. “There’s more runes in here.”

Luther rose to his feet and shook his head. “The lad needs sleep.”

“About that…” Ted bit his lip. He’d forgotten to remind Cara about the pack. “I don’t actually have anywhere to sleep. Or any money. Or food, for that matter.”

“There’s room here in the barracks for casters,” Luther said. “Consider yourself deputized. No obligation, leave when you want. Take the guest quarters. You’ll actually fit in that bed.”

Ted bowed his head. “Thank you.”

“Least we can do.” Luther stared at Ted for a few moments, his face pensive, before he spoke again. “You’ve fought these dungeon spawn before. You have a fresh perspective. There’s a war council meeting tomorrow. I want you there.”

“Council.” Idonia waved her hand dismissively. “We can actually achieve something here. What’s another meeting going to achieve?”

Luther shrugged. “Cooperation is our only hope now. Theres no help coming that isn’t already here.”

Help. Cooperation.

A glimmer of hope coiled around Ted’s chest. What was it she’d said earlier? If they’d had more Heroes, Tarkath might have survived. Heroes could have stopped Heroes.

They had to fight fire with fire.

Ted bit his lip. Crazy as it was, they didn’t have any other options. “An idea’s bouncing around in my head, but you’re not going to like it.”

Ted explained his plan. It had a few holes, sure, but what else did they have?

Luther’s expression grew more and more incredulous until Ted was done. “That is the single most insane plan I have ever heard.”

Ted shrugged. He’d heard and done worse, but that probably said more about him than the soundness of the plan. “That’s not a no.”

Luther sighed and shook his head. “When all you have is copper, copper tools must do. It’s late. We both need rest. I’ll have someone escort you to the war council tomorrow morning. You can explain your plan to Ardic then.”