“Time to leave?” Lionel asks when we rejoin the team, all but begging to get out of the Rift. Of all of us, I think he’s the least interested in the new surroundings, even if he’s the best at scouting and infiltrating.
I shake my head. “Not yet. We found something you need to see, back in the core room.”
Lionel’s face falls. “Down there? Again?”
“Someone enchanted the core to function differently from other Rifts. Somehow, it’s got a concept, like it’s been imbued. I didn’t even know enchantments could tap into those properties. This could be ground-breaking!”
As I expected, the scholar in Melina rises to the fore when she hears about the strange effects of the enchantment. Far from put off by the grotesque nature of our find, she leads the charge back to the core room, alight with hunger for hidden knowledge. I find myself trotting to keep up, amused by her predictable response.
“Conceptual enchantments, a secret yours for the taking,” I declare grandly, gesturing at the core when we once more reach the room. “No need to worry about going stark raving mad with violent rage like I almost did earlier. The enchantments are inert now.”
“We think,” Mikko murmurs.
“Look at me. I’m fine. Totally fine! You will be, too,” I insist. I turn to Mikko. “You worry too much, brother. I wouldn’t have gathered the team if I didn’t think we were safe. The violence in the air is dissipating. From what I can sense, the Rift monsters scattered after we broke that bloody ritual powering the enchantment. We won’t have any company for a while. Mel, do your thing.”
“Wait, go back to the part where Nuri went mad with rage,” Avelina says, sidling up to the conversation with a huge grin on her face. “I can’t believe I missed all the fun.”
“Minor side effects. No fun was missed,” I say, waving my hand at her to shoo her away from the core before she gets any ideas.
“And the guards bound and gagged in the corner? They look like your handiwork,” Avelina says.
“Well. Yes. Ignore them.”
Avelina gives me a flat look. “Minor, huh?”
“Your scale is different, Nuri. Minor for you is probably terrifying for anyone else,” Lionel points out helpfully. He and Avelina exchange mischievous looks, which sets me at ease, oddly enough.
It’s a much-needed taste of normalcy.
“He almost took over the Rift and claimed the Keep for himself,” Mikko supplies. “I had to physically fight him off from wrestling with the core.”
“Good job, Mikko,” Melina says, not looking up from where she’s rapidly sketching down the green-black script of the enchantments. How she focuses on her task so effectively, yet still seems to split her mind and listen in to the conversation, I’ll never understand.
I cough. “Fine. It was . . . scary.”
“I knew it!” Avelina laments. She punches a fist into the opposite palm. “Didn’t I tell you we’d miss all the fun, Lio? I can’t believe you argued against checking out all the crazy pulses of mana and sounds of fighting.”
Lionel snorts. “You know it’s bad when I’m the voice of reason. Honestly, I just didn’t feel like patching you up if you got yourself hurt.”
“I don’t have to get close to burn things!” Avelina protests. “It’s just more fun that way.”
I step in between her and the Rift core, cutting off her line of sight in case she tries to burn anything. “Don’t get any ideas. That will be a very different kind of fun.”
“I’m not stupid, Nuri. I’ll save my firepower for the right targets. I’m surprised you didn’t want to shut this place down, though.”
“I’m tempted,” I admit. “But there’s too much going on that we don’t understand about all of this. Besides, I’m not in a rush to lose another hand.”
“Good thinking. Who knows what chain-reactions we’ll set off? Nothing about this place is normal,” Avelina says, turning slowly to take in the strange fortifications built up in the Rift’s core room.
She has a point. Unlike most Rifts, the thick walls and sturdy, foreboding barricades aren’t designed to keep people out; these seem intentionally placed to contain something. Or perhaps someone, given the nascent intelligence in the Rift’s Domain.
“Plus, we never fought the boss.”
Avelina crosses her arms. Sparks pop behind her eyes. “You mean you invited Mel to sit here scribbling without a care in the world while there’s a major threat floating around? That’s not very smart. You need to do better, Nuri. We’re counting on you.”
“It’s not here anymore. They probably already killed it—or replaced it when they built up the Old Keep and subverted the core, is my bet,” I say. “Nothing in range of my Domain. We’re as safe here as we’ll ever be inside a Rift.”
“Swear it’s safe?”
The intensity in Avelina’s voice makes me smile. Despite their squabbling, she’s fiercely protective of her twin. “Yes. My judgment hasn’t been the best lately, but I’m confident that we’ve earned a breather.”
“Right. Good. That’s good,” Avelina says, sinking down to the floor next to her sister. She leans back against the wall and closes her eyes. “Then I’m gonna sleep. Wake me up when it’s time to burn things again.”
She sleeps peacefully for two hours. Thankfully, none of the heavily-armored lizards or ghostly hounds bother us, and Melina finishes copying the enchantments while the rest of us try to recover our mana and soothe our frayed nerves. All too soon, we’re awake and in formation. We agree to return to the surface and review our findings with Rakesh. We need to regroup and come up with a plan.
I square my shoulders and march up the stairs, leading the way. Doubts assail me, and there’s still a faint, intermittent whisper in the back of my mind urging me to throw myself against the power of the Rift and prove my mastery, but I shove it all away. My team needs me to lead, so I need to become a leader. Decision-making is a heavier weight than I want, but the mantle of responsibility settles over my shoulders, anyway. No turning back now.
“When we’re back topside, I’ll report in to the [Inquisitors]. Then we need to have a talk with the local rulers. Something’s rotten here, and I think they know far more than they’ve let on. Let’s hope Rakesh has information for us.”
“What if it gets ugly?” Melina asks.
“Survive,” I reply instantly. “This is big, but your lives are more important to me than the secrets of an old man. Fight if we can, flee if we must. I’ll do my best to get you out.”
She nods in response, seemingly satisfied, but I can’t shake my feeling of unease. It’s clear that [Lord] Dimitri is hiding something big. We’re putting together the pieces of the puzzle, but some of them don’t seem to fit. Time for some answers.
I refuse to allow the prospect of confronting [Lord] Dimitri daunt me. I’ve faced down far worse monsters all alone, and prevailed. And this time, I’m bringing friends.
=+=
After a harrowing half hour of sneaking through the Old Keep, we slip past the guards—warned well in advance of their presence thanks to my new [Arcane Domain]—and dash to the relative safety of the tree line. To my surprise, the creeping vines no longer bar our path. Perhaps they were controlled by the co-opted Rift core? Its presence has been suspiciously silent since we broke the conduits of power leading from the mummified corpse to the Rift Core.
Still, none of us let down our guard on the return trip to the portal back to town. A roving lizard crosses the trail, but we dispatch it before it can raise the alarm. No other monsters bother us, and we don’t encounter any guards, either.
Our only real delay is stopping to pick a cluster of bright purple berries, which shine in my mana senses. The local birds are eating them without trouble, so I summon up the courage to taste them. Lionel can help me if I get poisoned, after all. They’re sweet and refreshing, with incredibly sticky juice that gets all over my hand. They remind me strongly of mulberries, but with restorative properties that leave me feeling refreshed.
The team stuffs as many of them as they can into their mouths, eager to fill up on food that isn’t hard tack and dried meat. Field rations aren’t exactly tasty.
Soon after our unexpected snack, we finish retracing our steps. It hardly seems possible that it’s only been a few days since we entered; it feels more like months, to be honest. For our first real solo mission, it’s gone well. I’m struck by how much we’ve improved in this short time, from my new Skill to everyone else embracing their team roles.
We’re not out of the fire yet, I remind myself sternly, turning my attention toward the way out. We’re standing on the crest of a grassy knoll, overlooking the entrance clearing and scoping out the soap-bubble surface of the portal. I don’t see any danger, but I don’t want to risk that I’ve missed something.
“Stay sharp,” I whisper to the others, wary even though I still don’t pick up anything in my Domain. “Things are going a little too well, if you get my drift. Who knows what alarms we’ve set off? I doubt we can kill the energy flow to the weird enchantment controlling the Rift core without alerting someone that there’s a problem.”
Fire crackles along Avelina’s knuckles. She lifts her fist, and her hair twists back from her face as the heat warps the air. “I’m ready!”
“Wait for my mark,” I caution.
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“Don’t like going in blind,” Mikko grumbles. “Maybe Lionel should scout ahead and report back. He’s pretty nimble, and who knows if there are ways to fool your Domain. It’s still too new for us to rely on it.”
“That’s . . . sensible,” I say, swallowing a retort and changing my mind mid-sentence. His advice is good. Why are my hackles rising at the suggestion?
“Everything all right?” Melina asks.
I nod mechanically, but I’m not sure if I’m telling them the truth. Perhaps the influence of violence is more pervasive than I originally realized, even after cutting the power to the strange enchantment. Or, perhaps my newfound imperious attitude is an unfortunate byproduct of using my Domain so frequently. Something tells me it was made for a ruler, not an artisan.
“Lio, go on through. If there’s danger, hightail it out of there right away. Don’t get cocky, you got it? If you're not back in five minutes, we're coming after you.”
He nods. “Clear as glass, boss.”
“And don’t get caught,” Avelina adds crossly.
“Aw, I never knew you cared,” Lionel says, blowing a kiss. He snickers at Avelina’s eye roll and speeds down the slope, flitting from tree to tree for cover.
I frown, watching him with only my physical eyes. When we get back, I’ll have to ask Rakesh if he’s ever heard of anything like my new Skill. He’s likely to know what a Domain is, or at least he’ll suggest a line of research that will lead us to the truth. Until then, I resolve to avoid invoking [Arcane Domain: My Eyes Shall Pierce the Veil] if at all possible. The sheer scope and heft of the Skill in my soul space leads me to believe that it’s really for someone in the Second Threshold, and I’m worried about the downsides of overreliance on its power.
Lionel saunters across the grass toward the portal, outwardly appearing nonchalant. He looks halfway convincing, but there’s a tension to his movements that betrays his true feelings. I only pick up on it thanks to years of troublemaking and minor mischief with Lionel. He’s nervous as a mother hen, and guilt floods me at the thought of sending him out there by himself.
He’s a target. Alone. Vulnerable.
Nothing happens to him. Several tense moments later, he reaches the portal, glances around, and shrugs. He turns and calls softly toward our hiding spot. “Pretty sure it’s safe.”
“Way to give us away,” Mikko mutters.
“It’s fine. Let’s join him, Melina says.
“Check the other side,” I suggest.
Lionel tosses me a sloppy salute. His hand rests on the hilt of his glass sword, though, giving the lie to his confidence. He turns, steps through the portal, and disappears.
We wait the promised five minutes in absolute silence. The entire time, I’m staring at the portal as though by sheer dint of stubbornness, I can force it to tell me what happened to my friend. He doesn’t show up, however, and when I gingerly extend my Domain, I can’t sense a single thing from the other side. Not a ripple of energy gets through; we’re stuck in different dimensions, and my Skill lacks the refinement to punch through.
“Something’s wrong,” Melina says, breaking the silence and giving voice to what we’re all thinking. She paces back and forth, twisting a bracelet around her wrist with her other hand. Her lips twitch silently, as though she is debating with herself internally. “Let’s go before the trail gets cold. Nuri, can you track him?”
I grind my teeth together, paralyzed by indecision. “Wait another five minutes. Maybe he found something interesting, and he wants to be thorough before he reports back.”
“That’d be a first,” Mikko says.
I sigh. “Fine, another two minutes.”
Barely another full minute passes before Avelina huffs. She springs to her feet, shrugs on her pack, and wreathes her hands in fire. With a grim set to her jaw, she stalks toward the portal. “Let’s go. Someone took Lio. And I’m gonna get him back, even if I have to burn down the entire abyssal town on the way.”
“Mikko, you’re in front,” I say, joining the twins before they run off by themselves. “If it comes to a fight, let him get hit first. He can take it. If we have to retaliate, burn ‘em all.”
“With pleasure,” Avelina purrs.
=+=
The cold, slick-as-oil passage between the planes of existence is just as unpleasant as ever. As soon as we’re through, I shudder like a dog shaking water everywhere, spitting to get the foul taste out of my mouth. The others are similarly disoriented, but I’m proud to see that doesn’t stop Mikko from shielding us with his body, ready to protect the team if needed.
My new Domain billows out, expanding in a furious sphere despite my resolution to trim back my use of the [Arcane Domain]. Anger ignites in my chest when I realize I can’t sense my friend anywhere. He’s been missing for less than seven minutes, yet he’s completely vanished from my senses.
“Not here. Let’s move!” I growl.
As one, we run back toward town, following the trail we hacked through the vines and underbrush obscuring the ruins. Our speed now is multiple times faster than our slow crawl on the way in a few days earlier. At least up here, out of the Rift, there are no strange shenanigans. No vines regrow to cover our tracks; no dense, thorny bushes reclaim the land, preventing our passage.
“Anything, Nuri?” Melina asks.
I shake my head. “It’s like he disappeared. I can’t push my Domain as far as I could in the Rift, but he’s not within three hundred paces.”
“I wonder why you’re restricted out here,” Melina says, her brow furrowed as she follows the thought. “I’d have expected the opposite, since you had to contest the Rift’s presence while we were inside.”
“Later! We’ll ask Rakesh.”
Melina nods, and I can almost see her cutting off the line of reasoning and returning her focus to the task at hand. “We have to hurry. Get closer. I’ll boost us, but I can’t reach very far.”
Her magic stretches out, encapsulating the three of us as we draw together so that we’re all practically touching. Instantly, our pace seems to accelerate. The trees blur by, even though I don’t feel like I’m moving any faster. I’m running at my usual speed, but we’re caught in a small time warp compared to the surrounding area. Disorienting, but effective.
Sweat glistens on Melina’s forehead, and several minutes later, she’s forced to drop the Skill. She’s fighting hard to keep composed, but I can tell it took a lot out of her. Unfortunately, her time Skill is meant to be localized, designed for crafting small items in a stationary frame of reference, not for boosting an entire team of people on the move like that. I’m impressed she could withstand the strain for as long as she did.
Melina lurches, but Mikko loops his arm around her and keeps her upright. He shortens his long strides, matching her pace, and pats her shoulder in appreciation.
“Thanks, Mel,” I say in between breaths. “You bought us a lot of time. Unless they have movement Skills, we’ve probably made up the five minutes we waited around. I’m sorry I didn’t go through sooner.”
“Save your strength for the fight,” Avelina snarls. The air around her ignites with her fury, and I instinctively protect the other two with a bubble of cool air thanks to my [Greater Heat Manipulation]. They don’t have the inherent resistance that Avelina has developed through years of fire magic, and I’m not about to let her melt the skin off their bones just because she’s angry.
I’m about to answer her when something pings in my [Arcane Domain]. I grab onto their robes and skid to a halt. “Incoming, two people on our right!” I call out in warning, dragging the team to a defensive position behind a fallen tree.
Mikko readies his hammer, Avelina unslings her crystalline wand, and I check on my glass cores to see how much mana I have left at my disposal. I’m running fairly low, which makes me growl in frustration. I grip a small knife. I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way, and try to harvest enough mana for our inevitable showdown with [Lord] Dimitri.
Melina curls up in a ball, moaning and clutching her head. She overdrew heavily to move us along so quickly, but now she’s taken herself out of the fight. Ember would have her hide for that if we were back home.
I swallow hard. I’ll just have to do my best to ensure that she survives long enough for me to critique her energy use. Step one: handle the incoming enemies. Step two: recover our friend Lionel. Step three: a reckoning with [Lord] Dimitri.
Footsteps crash through the underbrush a little ways off. Avelina feeds mana into her wand, powering up the weapon until it’s glowing and uncomfortably hot. She braces her back against a nearby stump, taking aim at the trail ahead of us.
“Stop!” I scream, grabbing her arm just before she unleashes the deadly attack. “It’s our friends, Nala and Uchenna. They’re alone, and I don’t think they’re hostile.”
Avelina swears, pivoting away at the last second. She wrenches her arm and sends the bolt of compressed fire into a boulder a few dozen paces off to our side. I thought she’d cancel the attack, but it’s too far gone, and she has to vent it before loses control of the weapon entirely and takes us all out in a blaze of glory.
The whump of the huge explosion sends a wave of pain through my ribs, which are still tender from slamming into the stone walls in the Old Keep. Splinters of rock shred the trees and vines nearby, and the blast knocks us all over.
Even Mikko groans and staggers back, landing on one knee, which makes me feel better about myself as I stagger to my feet and hold out my hand, hoping I appear non-threatening. “Sorry, sorry! We thought you were someone else.”
Nala’s face is ashen and pinched, as though she’s staring down her own death. Her big partner, Uchenna, doesn’t seem much better off. He sinks to the ground, letting his shield clatter uselessly to the side, and lets out a shaky breath.
“What happened out here?” Nala demands. She eyes Avelina like the [Flameworker] is an avatar of death, and keeps her baton out as she advances warily. She doesn’t seem like she wants to fight us, but something has her on edge—and I suspect it’s not just the overwhelming display of firepower that Avelina put on.
“Our friend’s gone. Know anything about it?” I ask, caught between begging for help and accusing her of being in on it. I’d like to think the pair of [Guards] are on the level, especially since they seem to work for the [Magistrate] directly instead of the [Lord], but verifying is safer. After everything we’ve seen in the Rift, I’m not taking any more chances.
Uchenna recovers his shield and heaves himself to his feet. “Huh. Is that why a bunch of Dimitri’s flunkies marched out this way a few hours back? Their [Guard Captain] looked like he’d stuck his head in a hornet’s nest. How’d you rile ‘em up so bad?”
“Afraid we can’t answer that yet,” I say as calmly as I can. I smile, but the spell structure for my [Greater Heat Manipulation] is flickering into place, ready to burn the two where they stand if they show any signs of aggression. “If they apprehended Lionel, where are they most likely to imprison him? Take us to our friend, and we’ll talk.”
“Glad for it, anyway. About time someone stood up to him,” Uchenna says, taking the lead in our discussion. Nala may be his supervisor, but she’s still trembling, staring at the wand at Avelina’s side. I don’t blame her; if I had been even a heartbeat slower, there wouldn’t be enough left of Nala for her family to bury her.
“Start talking,” I demand.
Uchenna slings the shield over his back, approaching us with open hands. His rock-solid conviction that we’re not going to attack reassures me, but it’s his words that truly convince me that we’re on the same side.
“Nala and I work for the [Magistrate] directly, along with a few dozen other [Guards] in our district. Some of the chiefs have been putting together a case against [Lord] Dimitri for years. We had to move slowly, keep things quiet, you know? Eventually we sent out a call for help, but I didn’t know you were part of the solution. That’s why we were so surprised when you had that Writ. Anyway, Dimitri just found out that the [Magistrate] summoned you not to escort caravans or hunt down a few stray monsters, but to clear out the Old Keep.
“He’s gotta be keeping something big hidden there, because we’ve always been strictly warned to stay off his lands. Word in the Guardhouse is that he’s on the warpath. That’s why we rushed out here to try to warn you, but it seems like we’re too late.”
Avelina shrugs. “Guess that just moves up our timeline. Nuri, permission to burn [Lord] Dimitri’s estates to the ground?”
“After we rescue Lionel,” I say, knowing Avelina sometimes gets antsy. I nod at Uchenna, deciding to trust him. “Where are they most likely to take Lionel? We need to get him out before things fall apart.”
“No way your friend is destined for the town prison. I’m almost certain that he’s headed to [Lord] Dimitri’s own dungeon. We should hurry. [Lord] Dimitri was never known for his mercy, and he’s only gotten meaner in his old age.”
“Lead on,” I demand.
Uchenna lopes back the way he came, and we follow as fast as we can. Mikko hoists up Melina over his shoulders, letting her recover while the rest of us run. My mind is whirling with possibilities, running through scenarios to confront [Lord] Dimitri.
With all that we’ve discovered in the Rift, our case is solid. If I can call in our [Inquisitor] friends, then I’m confident that we can save the town. I only hope we’re not too late to save Lionel, too. Without our friend, it’s a hollow victory.