[participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]
Stepping through a hole in the fabric of reality will never feel normal. The blackness recedes unwillingly as I step through, as if reluctant to relinquish its prey, to reveal lush pastel jungles and a pulsing, purple sun. If this place isn’t a true Rift, then it’s a near cousin. The colors are strangely inverted from what I’m used to seeing. I shake off the alien, itching sensation of pushing my way through a portal and take stock of our situation, [Greater Heat Manipulation] at the ready in case we meet enemies.
“That was awesome!” Avelina screams.
“Quiet, Ava,” I hiss, pulling her down into a crouch next to me and putting my finger to my lips to try to impress upon her the need for caution.
“Sorry, Nuri,” she whispers back.
I scan the surroundings for danger, but the dense vines and towering tree trunks limit my visibility, and after a few fruitless seconds, I give up on visual cues. Opting to scan the area with my developing mana senses instead is equally frustrating, however. As usual, despite my repeated practice, the feedback comes and goes. One second, everything is in sharp focus, and I feel in tune with the world around me; the next moment, it fizzles away completely. I might as well be imagining that it existed in the first place.
No immediate danger manifests. but I’m still wary. If we run into the wrong beast, then my team’s little adventure will be over, just like that.
Melina staggers through the portal a moment later, gagging. She clutches at her sister for support and then doubles over, vomiting up her breakfast all over the ground. Lionel is a split second behind her, likewise spewing scones and honey.
“Ah. Right,” I mutter, feeling bad that I didn't warn them about how disorienting the experience of portal jumping is. They’ve never been in a Rift before, so they don’t know what to expect.
“Form up. Mikko, you’re on point. Ava, wand out and mana circulating. Burn anything that moves; don't hesitate. We can’t afford to wait to find out if something is a threat. Consider everything hostile. Rift rules apply, even if this place is different,” I say, quietly calling out commands.
Mikko looks pale under his bronzed skin, but he's still on his feet, thanks to his sturdier constitution compared with the others. He holds his glass hammer at the ready, vigilant and heroic looking. He’ll fight if the need arises. I’m proud to have him by my side.
I nod at my brother and help Melina recover her footing. “It passes. The first time is the worst. You never get used to it, but you get better at pushing on, anyway.”
“This is why you should always travel with a [Healer], Nuri. You’ve been missing out. [Soothing Touch],” Lionel says, reaching out and laying a hand on Melina’s shoulder. He repeats the gesture on himself a minute later. Almost instantly, the healthy flush of vitality returns to their faces. He gives me a crooked smile. “Ready to go, Boss.”
I smile back tightly, but my attention never leaves the treeline. I’m expecting an ambush at any moment, and no matter how hard I strain, I can’t seem to sense any mana. It’s got me feeling jittery. I’m not sure I can stand hours of jumpiness like this without cracking under the pressure.
“Nuri? Which way?” Melina asks.
I clear my throat, still squinting at the trees as though I’ll find a clue. “Formation, everyone. This doesn’t seem like a regular Rift, but the principles should be similar. Lionel, stay in the back with me and Mel. We’ll keep threats off you, as long as you keep us alive. Let’s get moving; it doesn’t matter which way we go. We’ll sense the ambient mana density increasing or decreasing, and adjust accordingly.”
“When do I start burning things? What’s the plan?” Avelina asks, her voice low. She shuffles closer and almost whispers her question, as if to make up for her earlier brashness. I shouldn’t get so irritated at her for not being stealthy like Tem or Mbukhe. She’s our highest damage-dealer; she doesn’t need to have scouting skills, too.
“Burning starts as soon as we find monsters. Let’s not rush it. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. This is supposed to be a simple extermination mission, but something’s not right. If we can find the core, then we should shut this place down and make a dash back to the surface. Keep your eyes peeled, folks.”
“I lost communication with Rakesh,” Melina announces softly. She shifts closer to the rest of us, as if drawing courage from our nearness. “Where are we, Nuri? Why can’t I reach him anymore?”
“As best as I can tell, we’re in a space between worlds,” I say as we walk, although I know it’s an incomplete answer. Melina isn’t going to be satisfied with half-truths and speculation, but I don’t have any real information to go on. “This isn’t a Rift. Or, if it is, then it’s not normal. My guess is that someone has modified it—tampered with it, somehow.”
“Sounds dangerous,” Mikko murmurs solemnly. He hefts his hammer, tightening his hands on the handle until it creaks under his prodigious strength. “You sure we should keep going? Maybe it’s best to scout it out and come back another time.”
My brother’s concern gives me pause, but eventually I shake my head and keep trudging onward, pushing pale pink leaves and too-bright vermillion vines out of the way. The leaves are soft, but the bark on the tree trunks looks more like quartz, or some sort of crystal, rather than organic matter. I make a note not to touch them if I don’t have to; I don’t want to cut myself.
“Let’s map out what we can while we’re here. Knowing the way through this Rift, or whatever it is, will prove beneficial. Besides, if Rakesh is right about something going on between the [Magistrate] and [Lord], then I’d rather not draw more attention to ourselves and give them time to tie us up. Getting caught in the middle of some petty feud or bureaucratic maneuvering sounds like a real quagmire.”
“Getting eaten by monsters sounds worse,” Lionel grumbles from behind me, but there’s not much teeth to his words. He hastens his pace, falling in beside me with a grim set to his jaw.
He sounds nervous and looks worse. I’m starting to wonder if I should have given them more time to train before taking on such a dangerous mission. My gut tightens at the thought of someone sustaining serious injuries. Self-doubt rears its ugly head. What if I get them killed because of my impatience?
“Contact!” Mikko roars, shattering my brooding.
Up ahead, a flash of obsidian scales and viridescent markings bursts through a narrow gap in the gnarled, crystalized tree trunks. An oversized lizard leaps into the air, clearing a boulder the size of a cart in a single bound. Fanged and covered in scales that gleam like links of chainmail, with heavy armor on its chest and barbed crests jutting out from its back, the huge lizard looks like something out of my worst nightmares. The serpentine-like creature contorts past trailing vines and dodges through the underbrush with the preternatural grace of a mana monster. A dense mana-signature signals a powerful beast, and I swallow hard as my mouth suddenly goes dry.
“Skill user!” I shout, furiously trying to look beyond the veil around its core so that I can see what its Skills do. I spread out my mana with an instantaneous flex of will and activate [Greater Heat Manipulation] to siphon away energy, dropping the temperature around the monster until frost glitters like shards of broken glass strewn across the leaves of the bushes in front of us. Maybe I can stop it before it reaches us, or at least give the others a fighting chance.
The pony-sized lizard grows sluggish, its vitality sapped by the extreme cold, but it doesn’t falter. Instead, its entire face unhinges along two criss-crossing jawlines, its four-sided maw opening wider than should be possible. A second—no, third—row of sharp, serrated teeth glints from inside its terrifying mouth, and the sharp, knife-like fangs brim with hissing green saliva. A drop falls to the ground, where it steams and boils, eating through the thick grass.
A surge of mana gathers, and I shout out a warning just as the lizard unleashes a mighty roar. The mana-enforced shockwave knocks me back a few steps. I stagger, trying to regain my balance, and thud down to my knees. The layer of ice freezing it in place shatters, and it catapults itself forward despite the thin coat of rime across its scales that should slow its movements.
Mikko lowers his center, widening his stance and raising his hammer as the lizard monster charges at him. He plants his feet, twists his hips to avoid the snapping jaws, and smashes the glass weapon into the side of the creature’s torso while activating [Strength of the Forged Gods].
His body blazes with power in my mind’s eye, limned with the fiery, telltale light of his empowering Skill, and the concussive blow sends the creature cartwheeling. The scaled beast flies across the clearing and slams into a rock with enough force to crack the chitin armor.
I pump my fist in the air, about to cheer for my brother’s quick takedown, but a buzzing in the back of my mind stops me. For once, my recovering mana senses work properly. My eyes widen in horror as I realize it not only lived through the devastating attack, but it’s back on its feet and flaring its mana, about to use another Skill.
“Skill incoming! Take cover!” I bellow.
My teammates drop down to the ground, huddled behind Mikko for protection. We brace ourselves just in time as the lizard’s discordant shriek echoes through the jungle again. This time, I’m only pushed back a half a stride by the disorienting attack, anchored and prepared as I am, but it buys the monster time to close the gap.
Quick as a wink, it’s on us. Claws flashing in the garish, purple sunlight, it springs on Mikko, who deflects the attack with a wild parry of his hammer. The sinuous beast changes direction in the space of a heartbeat, spinning around and lashing out with its clubbed tail and smacking Mikko in the chest.
I reach for my [Greater Heat Manipulation] to burn it to a crisp, but Mikko is faster. He recovers his footing, counters the followup swipe, swatting aside the claws with ease. His hammer whirls around, and he cracks open more plate armor when he connects with the lizard’s back. It rebounds, head whipping back, and careens through the shrubbery with an angry snarl.
“Mikko! Aim for the head!” I yell, drawing on the energy in the air to cool down the beast and slow its movements again. “The armor’s too thick to easily break otherwise.”
“On it!” Mikko calls. He thunders forward, shoulder-tackling the monster to the ground and driving the air from its lungs. He leaps to his feet while it’s still struggling to breathe after the massive collision, raises his hammer, and swings it two-handed.
The lizard’s screams end in an abrupt yelp as its face craters. Its broken, mangled body bounces off the ground and crashes into a thick, dark-red, crystalline trunk. The giant tree shudders under the force of the impact, dropping leaves and a few strange, small, shriveled purple fruits that pop open with a fizzle when they hit the ground, releasing a puff of superheated steam that resonates with my heat Skill.
And then, silence.
I extend my senses, straining to detect other threats, but I don’t pick up anything. The frantic fight is over, but I don’t feel good about our showing. The others are still huddled behind us, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, without having lifted a hand to participate in the brutal melee. I clear my throat, breaking the quiet born from shock, and gesture everyone closer.
“Impressive job with that hammer, Ko,” I say, slapping him on the shoulder. “Glad you’re on my side. Everyone else all right?”
Shaky nods and murmurs of affirmation meet my question. I take a moment to smile and offer a few encouraging words before I let my gaze grow stern and heavy. “I’m glad you’re all unhurt. That was only a single enemy, however. The rest of you need to react more quickly next time. What if we’d been flanked by a second lizard? Or what if it had bitten Mikko and he was dying to its acid breath? We need you to be ready, Lionel.” I click my tongue, thinking it over. “A temporal field could have helped, too.”
“Sorry, Nuri. I should have—should have—slowed it down,” Melina says, hanging her head. “I’ll try to do better next time.”
“No room for trying,” I shoot back, more harshly than I intend. “Just act. Do what you have to do, and do it fast. We’re all relying on each other.”
“Tough to clear out the monsters if Mikko smashes them all,” Avelina interjects, matching my frown with a defiant glare. Guilt flares into anger in the space of a blink. “‘Sides, you froze the ground. What did you want me to do, contest the frost with fire? Sounds like a good way to create elemental backlash.”
“Don’t look at me like that, Nuri. I just heal things,” Lionel says, his voice wavering a bit before he regains his groove and grins. “I knew Mikko was too tough for that overgrown gecko.”
I’m about to snap at Lionel for not taking things seriously enough when I see the way the others relax a bit at his joke. Maybe his humor is exactly what we need to balance out my paranoia and need for control. I bite my tongue, settle for an exasperated scowl instead, and walk over to check the big lizard’s mangled corpse for any sign of a lingering mana signature. Luck isn’t on my side.
“No core. Probably too small. Let’s keep moving, but keep your mana at your fingertips. I want to see everyone’s Skills in action the instant a threat shows up. No hunkering down behind Mikko, even if he is a glorious meat shield. Got it?”
Nods all around. I crack a small smile so that they know I’m not angry at them, just nervous about getting through our first real mission without something going disastrously wrong. I don’t want my friends to get hurt. “Excellent. I knew I could count on you. Now, let’s march!”
=+=
An hour later, we’re still trudging through the sweltering jungle without reprieve, hacking at the thick vines and ducking under low-hanging branches. The landscape looks pretty much identical in every direction. Other than the markings Mikko leaves behind with his machete, we don’t have any way of tracking our progress to make sure we’re heading the same direction. The odd purple sun overhead never moves, so the direction of the shadows can’t guide us. It simply beats down on us with relentless, suffocating heat. I’m trying to conserve mana, so I don’t shield the team from the elevated temperature by running [Greater Heat Manipulation].
I walk up and tap Mikko on the back to alert him to stop. When I’ve got everyone’s attention, I pull out my water flask and take a long swig. “Take five. Drink up, everyone. It’s hot and sweaty, so you need to replenish your fluids to keep your energy high.”
I ease myself down onto a fallen, moss-covered log, sinking into the thick layer of verdant growth with a contented sigh. After an hour of clearing out a path through the thick vines, taking a break feels nicer than I want to admit. I’m supposed to be a seasoned veteran of this kind of adventure, but I’m ready to be done for the day.
The others chat quietly, subdued but in good spirits. Even though they froze up, other than Mikko, we handled the first monster with relative ease. I suppose that a confidence boost is good for them. They finish drinking in a couple minutes, and I know that I should order everyone to keep moving so we’re not wasting time, but it’s peaceful here. I feel refreshed, and it’s hard for me to begrudge the others their rest.
Melina tiptoes over, clears off a pile of the hand-sized, pale pink leaves, and plunks down next to me. Her lips round into a circle as she also sinks into the luxurious moss, and she pokes at the springy surface with a gentle smile.
“Pretty soft, eh?” I say, nodding at the moss. “I’m thinking of taking some back with us to stuff into a pillow. Not even that drafty inn could keep me from a good night’s sleep after that!”
“That’s . . . not a bad idea.”
I smile smugly. “Yep! I know.”
“Nuri, I think we’re going the wrong way,” Melina says, leaning toward me and pitching her voice so that it won’t travel too far and alert the others. “Maybe you’re sensing something I can’t, and I know you’re the resident Rift expert, but it seems like the ambient mana is getting thinner out here compared with a quarter of an hour ago. I suspect we have to backtrack.”
That’s an hour wasted! I groan internally, not interested in retracing our steps, but I school my face so that the others don’t see my bad attitude. I’m in charge, so I have to set the emotional tenor of the trip. Still, it irks me to know that my senses are so unstable. I don’t begrudge Melina for having a better feel for energy flow than I do right now, but it does make me feel the keening ache of my lost Skill.
I give her a tremulous smile and nod. “You’re probably right, Mel. I’m less reliable than I used to be. I trust you, though; if you say this is the wrong way, then that’s that. All right, let’s break the bad news to the team.”
“Nuh uh. That’s all you, Boss.”
I squint at her, wrinkling up my nose in distaste. “I hate that nickname. But fine. Someone has to do the dirty work. I guess that’s what it means to be a leader.”
Melina graces me with a brilliant smile. “I’m proud of you, Nuri. You’ve really come a long way in the last few years. Don’t feel bad about the nickname. You’ve earned it! It might have started off with Lio teasing you, but the rest of us mean it seriously. You’ve been through a lot, but instead of getting bitter, you’ve grown up. That’s why we follow you. We trust your judgment.”
“Thanks, Mel. That means a lot coming from you,” I say after a moment of dumbfounded silence. She’s rarely so unreservedly positive about anything, tending to simply tell us the unvarnished truth. She’s not cruel, although sometimes she can be thoughtless, but she doesn’t go out of her way to build people up with meaningless words.
I stand up, tucking away my water flask and scanning the area for threats. No joy; my senses are still muted—blunt and dull where they were once sharp and vibrant. Melina seems to pick up on what I’m doing, and she nods in encouragement. Now that I’m sure we’re relatively safe, I gather everyone together for a quick talk. “Good news. We’ve filled in more of our map, and already crossed off this way as an option. That will save us time for future exploration.”
Avelina snorts. “You mean, we went the wrong way, and now we have to backtrack since you got lost.”
I open my mouth to defend myself, but the flickering gleam of fire and amusement in her dark eyes stops me short. “Am I really so transparent?”
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“Clear as glass,” Avelina rejoins. She laughs quietly, like rain tinkling against a window pane. “Plus, I grew up around Mel. You think I’m not used to the way she goes from precise and incisive to overly diplomatic whenever she’s wrong? I’d have to truly be an idiot not to pick up on that kind of equivocation. You don’t think I’m an idiot, do you, Nuri?”
I roll my eyes at her fluttering eyelashes and overly-wide smile. “The only people who think you’re an idiot are the ones you don’t actually get to know you.”
“Got that right!” Avelina crows. “People think I’m dumb, when really it’s just that I’m not pretentious like some people I know.”
“All right, all right, that’s enough making fun of me,” Melina says, looking like she bit into a lemon. “We all have different communication styles, as my twin so clearly pointed out. Let’s focus on the news that we have to turn around.”
“Hey, look on the bright side,” Lionel says, throwing an arm around Melina’s shoulders. She shrugs him off, but he continues undeterred, grinning in his sunny, trademark manner. “At least we have a clear path now. We’ll make it back to the portal in half the time, I’ll bet. Maybe even a third!”
“That’s a good point,” I say, chiming in before Melina can retort. “And for the record, I’m serious about this being good news, now that I’ve had more time to think it over. Eliminating a direction means that we can safely go the opposite way. Imagine if we took off at a ninety-degree angle? We could have been moving perpendicular to the core, or in a circle instead, and the ambient mana levels would never change. If you look at it from that perspective, this is a huge time saver in the end.”
“Huh, I didn’t think of it that way. Good idea, even though I think you made that up on the spot,” Mikko says, winking at me. “Let’s pick up the pace. I’ll bet we can get back in a quarter of an hour if we jog. Lionel’s right; there’s no more underbrush or roots in our way, so the path is open.”
We take Mikko’s challenge, setting off at a steady lope as though we’re a pack of wolves on the hunt. I’ve always been fascinated by their capacity to run at a low, constant speed for hours and hours on end, coursing after prey until they win by sheer dint of superior endurance. That’s us. A pack of wolves. Superior predators. Not to be messed with! I think, grinning as we run back the way we came.
All of our hard work training with Ember is paying off now. We run at a good clip, able to talk and move without running out of breath. Mikko takes the lead and sets the pace, relying on his [Iron Skin] for protection and [Greater Endurance] to keep him moving. Our mood is rising like the morning sun, warm and jubilant.
And then the path disappears.
We stumble to a halt, glancing around in confusion at the sudden wall of vines blocking our way forward. I squat down and peer at the weeds and bushes in our path, checking for the marks we left on the ground. Signs of cuts from our earlier passing are there, but they’ve healed over like scar tissue covering old wounds.
“Are we back at the beginning?” Mikko asks, a note of uncertainty in his voice. He seems to know the answer already, but he still looks at me with such a hopeful expression that I feel guilty delivering the bad news.
“This is between the first and second marker, as near as I can tell. See here? There are cuts on the vines, grown over like scabs. We came through here, all right, but the forest is taking back what belongs to it.”
A vine unfurls behind us, crossing the path and threading into the tangled net of long, ropey roots and branches on the other side. A dozen more overly-bright green tendrils join the first, weaving through each other to heal the pathway we hacked through the trees. They quiver with so much mana that I can see it with my naked eye, growing as fast as thought, flourishing like no plant is able to back on our plane.
“It’s boxing us in,” Melina breathes.
Fear rises in my teammates, crashing and urgent like a crescendo. I know that I have to do something before panic renders them frozen in place, incapable of action until it’s too late. If we stay where we are, the living jungle will strangle us where we stand.
Cursing, Mikko jumps forward and slices away the growth with his trusty machete. “Let the forest try to kill us! As many times as it rises up, I’ll cut it down again. Let’s move!”
I attune to sharpness, weaving a lattice of mana filaments many times finer than a single human hair. Flinging out my hand, I unleash the attack, slicing a swath of vines from the trees to make a road broad enough for us to run side by side. We surge into action, charging down the new path as fast as we can while Avelina blasts aside trunks and tendrils alike with brief bursts of fire from her wand.
Grateful for my brother’s steadying presence, I run close beside Mikko, drawing strength from his steely determination. With him here to shield us, we just might make it through. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that we’re heading straight for a trap.
“Keep a sharp eye out!” I roar, abandoning all pretense of stealth. “Lizards are the least of our worries, now. The Rift is aware of us. I’m almost certain that it’s seeking equilibrium. If we cut something down, it will regrow it. The trees don’t seem malevolent, at least not yet, but the more we fight, the more likely it is that the jungle will see us as interlopers.”
“How?” Melina yells, running up to join our efforts. She creates a few localized temporal fields in front of Mikko and Lionel’s blades, allowing them to put less force into their swings but still accelerate the cuts enough to cause the same amount of destruction. “Trees aren’t sentient, Nuri!”
“Not outside a Rift,” I reply grimly, supplementing the violence against the vines blocking our path with an invisible blade of sharpness and clearing out a dozen strides of trees with one burst of mana. “Down here? Nothing is off limits. If this jungle gets angry enough, it might try to remove us directly. I know it sounds crazy, Melina. Trust me, I get it. But I’m not willing to risk my survival by debating whether or not the trees are sentient. Throw away everything you think you know about how the world works, Mel.”
“That seems like a good way to get ourselves killed,” Melina grumbles. “Just because the world works differently inside a Rift doesn’t mean that nothing applies. There are still rules! There are always rules, Nuri. We just have to figure out what they are.”
“Work on that when we’re safe. We need to get back to the portal and reconsider if we’re ready to delve any deeper today. It might be better to cut our losses and come back when we’re properly kitted out to deal with heavy brush. Might need axes and saws.”
“Or a flamethrower!” Avelina yells.
“That’s you, Ava,” Lionel replies.
“Incoming!” Melina warns.
A moment later, I sense it too, a trio of strong mana signatures gnawing at the edge of my consciousness. I shout, spinning to my left and striking out with [Greater Heat Manipulation]. I flood the area with my Skill, draining the heat from the environment—and, more importantly, naturalizing the energy to match my own. A second later, three of the same type of lizards we fought earlier crash through the undergrowth.
“On it!” Mikko growls, hurling his machete at the first monster and unslinging his glass hammer for follow up.
The armored lizard disappears in a puff of quick-cast mana, blinking forward past the projectile instead of dodging.
Mikko chops his feet and comes to a halt, slack-jawed in shock at the unexpected Skill on display from the monster. He yelps and twists aside just enough to avoid losing his throat to a razor-sharp claw strike. For all his speed, he’s not fast enough to get out of the way. The tips of the monster’s talons catch his shoulder, slicing through his tunic and vest and digging deep furrows across his muscular frame, despite his [Iron Skin].
“Mikko!” Lionel screams, dashing over.
Mikko smacks away the lizard, bellowing in pain and rage as he gains distance from the threats. He lifts his glass hammer and lays about with savage blows, knocking two of them over, but their armor holds.
“You’re poisoned,” Lionel says, sprinting over to Mikko’s side. He ducks away from the prowling lizards and places a hand on Mikko’s bleeding wounds. “[Lesser Neutralizing Touch]. That’s the best I’ve got, big guy. You’ve gotta fight it off on your own!”
Mikko sweeps Lionel out of the way of a snapping lizard, pushing our [Healer] behind him with one muscular arm. He lurches forward and kicks out, sending a lizard spinning into a tree. The bark splinters, sending shards of razor-edged crystals all over, but the hit is enough to stun the monster momentarily.
The hulking [Blacksmith] crushes the lizard’s skull with a massive, empowered swing. He trembles with rage, howling like an ancient, bloody god of vengeance incarnate, and lumbers after the other two.
The cunning monsters break rank, dashing away from Avelina’s searing streaks of fire and splitting up to force us to choose between them. They dart into the twisted cover of brush and tangled roots, and disappear into the thicket.
For a minute I think they’ve fled, and my shoulders sag in relief. My intermittent mana senses kick in again just then, however, and I spin around in alarm as I realize that the pair is doubling back. I track their mana signatures as they pick up pace. They’re sprinting straight toward Melina, the most vulnerable member of our team.
“Avelina! Protect your sister!” I yell, running back to our [Gaffer], who throws up a slow field on either side of her to buy time.
The scaled beasts burst from the cover of the jungle, converging on Melina. One goes down to a fireball, but it screams and rolls in the dirt, extinguishing the flames. The other hits the temporal phenomenon and strains to keep moving, pitting its might against Melina’s magic. It slows just enough to allow Melina to run off in the opposite direction.
I see the battle unfolding with sudden clarity. Mikko stomps toward the heavily-armored lizard, but he’s not going to make it in time to save Melina now that the first monster is back on its feet and gathering itself to pounce.
It’s up to me to act.
Before Mikko can reach the monsters, I seize control of the mana in the air, contesting the ambient energy with my own. I cast [Vitrification] through the mana I’ve claimed, forcing it to bend to my vision of what could be. Despite lacking a physical connection, the Skill flares to life, leaping like lightning along the ethereal pathway I’ve traced out in my mind.
The pair of slavering monsters shiver, vibrating in place as the Skill imposes my will on them, and their heads transmute to glass, killing them instantly as the brain stem is severed by the merciless, unyielding nature of [Vitrification].
I drop to one knee, panting with the exertion of surpassing my limits, but there’s no time to rest on my accomplishments. All too aware of our vulnerable position—fighting with Skills is like sending up beacons of mana, inviting more monsters to join the fray—I push myself harder than I have in ages, seeking outward with my sputtering mana sense. I can’t let my team down. I can’t let monsters ambush my team. They’re my friends. My family.
I can’t remain weak forever.
More enemy signatures suddenly show up in my awareness. The mana in the immediate vicinity paints a picture in mind so vividly that it almost hurts, outlining locations and shapes with startling clarity, but I have to do more. I grit my teeth, gather up most of the remaining mana in my glass pseudo cores, and push.
Something deep inside me thrums in recognition of what’s happening. My mana churns and dances, roiling like an angry sea during a tempest. Magic flows freely, moving to the grand, esoteric rhythms of a many-splendored, unseen will that’s vast and domineering, like a red sky at sunrise that presages a coming thunderstorm.
A long-awaited chime sounds deep in my soul, filling me with glee and gratitude in equal measure, but I shake my head and ignore the temptation to check on what I’ve received. I don’t have time to sink inward and examine the name of my new Skill, not now when our blood is up and battle rages around us. Nonetheless, I know instinctively from the shape and flavor of the hundreds upon hundreds of runes etched upon my soul that it’s an upgraded version of my old [Manasight], which I’ve been desperately trying to earn again for months. I hope it’s combined with some sort of Viewing functionality that my [Inquisitor] friends tried to teach me.
I force myself to my feet and grab Avelina’s arm to keep from collapsing from dizziness as I push beyond my limits. Knowing what’s at stake, I tap into my newest Skill. Regardless of the name, I recognize just enough to know it’s useful. Details can wait for when we’re alive and on the other side of the fight.
I channel my mana, nearly spent from so many quick casts of sharpness in a row, into mapping out the region around us. I’m not down to the last dregs yet, but I’m uncomfortably close to where I’ll need to start rationing my Skill use if I don’t want to drain myself dry.
Especially with a third Skill.
An intricate network of mana blossoms in my mind. Mikko, Lionel, Melina, Avelina—each one of them stands out like delicate flowers growing on a lattice framework of pure energy. And worming toward us in virulent, vibrant tones are a score of the scaled lizards, about three to four hundred paces out. They’re led by an intense mana signature, a beast that’s half again as large as the rest of them and glowing with a strange sense of violence.
Just like the portal, a distant part of me observes with interest. Something to discuss with Melina while we piece together the rules of this strange place. But first, we have to survive this upcoming battle. From what I can see with my expanded mana senses, that’s no easy task.
“Rift boss!” I yell in a panic, pointing toward the threat. I’m almost certain that I’m wrong, but I don’t want them to underestimate the threat. A true Rift boss usually lives nearer to the Rift’s core, and we haven’t reached high enough mana density to justify my hasty conclusion. Yet I’ve never encountered a creature like this before, one so in tune with a specific concept that it’s tangible on my tongue. I taste the warping in the air, that curdled-milk wrongness that ought not be, and it terrifies me more than I let on.
The others spin around, torn between determination and dread. I grit my teeth and force out the words, eyes squeezed shut to deal with the headache. “A pack of them are heading this way! On the other side of us from the last time. I’m seeing at least eighteen—no, twenty-three. Form up. We only have about fifteen or twenty seconds until they get here.”
Melina tilts her head to the side, looking at the forest with pursed lips. “I don’t sense a thing, Nuri. You sure?” Her thoughtful expression suddenly shifts, and her face lights up. “New mana sensing Skill? Took you long enough.”
I nod curtly. This isn’t the time to boast, but I can’t help but smile at Melina anyway. “Yes, new Skill. Well spotted, but we’ll talk later. Avelina, we need you. Summon your flames. Hold nothing back, you hear me? It’s do or die time. Burn them all.”
Avelina nods, a savage grin spreading across her face. She lowers me down to the dirt, pats my arm, and steps past me with her wand in hand. “My turn, Nuri. You’ve done more than enough already. Get some rest.” She spins the fire-aspected wand once, sets herself, and takes a deep breath as the blood-curdling baying of the predators reaches us. “Let me show you how far I’ve come. [Adjuration of the Phoenix].”
My newest Skill is still running when she taps into the power of the mythical Phoenix, unveiling the power of the Skill dominating her core space. I am not prepared for the sudden bloom of harsh, pale light as a seemingly endless flood of energy rushes in from elsewhere. A hundred new runes I’ve never seen before blaze into glorious, overwhelming crimson.
I cry out, a sunburst of pain blossoming in my brain, as more information than I can handle surges through me. I see not only the flow of mana, not only the runes etched on the Skill in Avelina’s inner world, but also a glimmer of insight into the concepts from which they‘re distilled. It’s too much for me: the grit of sand and rust dragged across a naked eye, the char of burnt-bones in the nostrils, the despair of—
I shut down the Skill, sinking down to the ground and shaking from sudden withdrawal as my mana disappears. The beasts arrive a second later, slavering and snarling, and are met in turn by a scintillating lightshow. Flames hotter than even I can produce pour forth from the wand Avelina and I made together, outshining the sun, transforming the entire world into light and heat and unbearable, all-consuming power. Hot, hungry tongues of orange-white fire in its purest form engulf them, immolating the lizards and melting skin and scale alike.
Only the big lizard remains by the time Avelina’s flames gutter out. Her eyes roll back in her head, and she slumps over, falling to the dirt next to me with a thud. I check her pulse to make sure she’s still breathing, then turn back toward the smoking battlefield. A mana signature still flutters weakly, and it draws my attention like a moth to the flame.
Heh. No pun intended.
The leader of the pack teeters toward us, swaying and stumbling. Its mana is sluggish as it tries to rally enough energy for a Skill, but it’s clear from its shaking knees and lolling tongue that it doesn’t have much strength left. I glance over at Mikko, expecting him to crush it with his hammer, but for the second time in this fight, he’s too slow to act.
“Die, ya oversized salamander!” Lionel screams, emerging from his hiding place in the shade of a tall, sprawling tree. He leaps up behind the lizard, his glass rapier in hand and his arm extended, dashing forward like an arrow shot from a bow. The glittering glass point pierces the brute’s skull, ending its life and snuffing out the gathering mana.
Whooping in exhilaration at the clean kill, Lionel braces his boot against the neck of the corpse and pushes with his legs while he tugs on the handle, ripping the weapon free.
“Nice one, Lio!” I shout.
Mikko moves up to congratulate Lionel, wrapping him in a one-armed hug. “Look at you go! Most fearsome [Healer] around.”
“That’s me,” Lionel boasts, slapping Mikko on the back. He pulls away and puffs out his chest. “I’d like to see how we’d do against that flaming bear now. We’re way stronger than we were a few months ago.”
“Let’s hope that we don’t have to face anything on that level until Ava and I regenerate our mana, since we’re the main damage. Lionel, can you check that she’s all right? I think she overdrew her power. Mikko, stand guard?” I ask.
My brother slams his glass hammer down against the ground, sending up a shockwave of dirt and dead leaves. “Nothing gets by me. Do your thing, bro.”
I offer him a tired smile and settle down on the ground, sinking inward to examine my new Skill properly. Excitement courses through me when I turn my inner sight on the brand new Skill structure that rises up in my core space, soaring above the rest. It’s absolutely colossal, folded in on itself in a bewildering, spellbinding fashion, and every bit of its surface is covered in runes I don’t recognize yet. I can’t wait to catalog and decipher them with Rakesh and Melina to help me.
I drift closer, borne aloft on wings of willpower, and circle around the monumental Skill to see its true name. Emblazoned on the side is a pristine golden banner. Bold words etched across it in midnight-black ink that seems to drink in the light proclaim the title:
[Arcane Domain: My Eyes Shall Pierce the Veil]
What’s a domain? I wonder.
I’ve never heard a name like it before, although as I drift closer I realize that I recognize at least a few of the constituent runes. As I suspected, the base is a heavily-upgraded variant of [Manasight], but the rest of the Skill is new to me. The odd, three-dimensional map that extends my mana senses over many hundreds of paces is powerful already; the second half of the Skill, however, is what truly excites me. Based on the way I almost blinded my spiritual senses when Avelina activated her Skill, all my hard work to look beyond, as Casella instructed me, is finally paying off in a big way.
A grin splits my face, making my cheeks ache. If I’m right, I’ve achieved some measure of proficiency in Viewing, the ability to peer into someone’s core space.
Maybe now I can finally suss out how Mbukhe melts into the shadows. If I can find a way to transfer that to a bracelet or necklace, then I can keep Lionel safe. He can dance around the battlefield, cloaked in shadow, emerging at opportune moments to heal—or to reap lives.
My mind is spinning at the thought of how my new Skill will eventually empower my teammates, but I put it aside for now. I open my eyes, climb to my feet, and take stock of our situation. Wincing at the pain in my head, I nevertheless push forward, gathering the remains of my mana and reactivating my new Skill: [Arcane Domain: My Eyes Shall Pierce the Veil]. I feed all my remaining mana into it, straining to encompass as much of this strange Rift as possible in my new arcane domain.
My consciousness billows outward as my mana sweeps across the strange realm we’ve invaded. I don’t reach any limits of my sight, at least not within the first few seconds. I don’t have much left to give, but the Skill drinks it all down greedily, seemingly endless in its thirst for more and more power. The further my mana travels, the larger the map that begins to build itself in my mind.
Our position fills itself in on the glowing, arcane lines that delimit the space we’ve traveled. There’s an anomaly a ways up ahead that I presume is the portal back to the surface. It feels cooler than the oppressive heat of the jungle, but also less antagonistic.
I roam through my expanding domain, aware of everything in stunning detail. I stumble across a roving pack of more monsters, pinpointing their location and making a mental note to avoid them until we are recovered enough for a full-on fight. Their signatures are different from the lizard monsters we’ve seen so far. I don’t sense any Skill usage, but based on the feedback from my Skill, they feel physically stronger. If I had to gauge their combat prowess, I’d put them somewhere in the middle stage of the First Threshold—above our group, at least individually. Our teamwork and imbued glass equipment might make up the gap.
I’m almost out of mana, but I keep up my silent cartography. The more information we have to work with, the more likely our delve is successful. Still, some limits are hard and fast. I’m low on energy, and the Skill doesn’t seem to want to expand much past its current range without more power. At the ragged edges of my awareness, a long, unnaturally straight line appears. It takes me a moment to figure out what it is, but as I concentrate on the structure I’ve discovered, walls and towers take shape in an eerie, glowing mental map.
Aha! They’re ruins! They look like a mirror image of the towers above us. But how in the abyss did the Old Keep manifest inside a Rift? Perhaps Melina will have more insight into it than I do. I might claim to be an expert in Rifts, but it’s mostly practical experience, not scholarly learning. Melina might have an idea of what’s happening, or at least she might be able to help me form a workable theory.
In the very center of the twisting maze of walls, right where the old throne room probably resides, a dense spot I presume is the core blazes in my mind. It’s a bonfire, a beacon, a burst of starlight against the dark of the night sky.
Just as I’m about to end the Skill, since I’m running out of mana and I should probably report on my findings to the team, my domain shudders. I pull back instinctively to try to hide, but it’s too late. I’ve brushed up against a cold, twisted aura, an alien presence here in the Rift alongside us.
And unless I miss my mark, it’s angry.