Open gates have never looked so enticing. I’m standing at the edge of Halmuth with my team, about to depart the trading post. The festive atmosphere hasn’t stopped for the last three days, delaying us more than I thought necessary, but my friends convinced me that it would be good for morale to relax and celebrate before we continued on with our trek through the Barrens.
I shake hands with my favorite [Hunter], who’s come to see us off. “Congratulations on your promotion, Camryn. I’m glad to know that Halmuth will be in good hands while Javier recovers. Sure you don’t want us to take him with us?”
She shakes her head. “He won’t survive the transit on foot. We’ll need a [Caravanner] with passenger Skills.”
I perk up at that description. “Oh? Now that sounds intriguing. I’d love to learn how those work. Nothing like creature comforts on the road. Too bad that’s probably not gonna happen. No offense, but we won’t pass through here again. I think I’ve had quite enough monster attacks for a lifetime.”
“None taken,” Camryn says. “Are you sure you’re fine with Orav joining you? I get the impression that you’re a private group. Don’t let us impose.”
“What’s done is done. How else is Totten going to know what we’re up to?” I tease her, although I’m only half joking.
Camryn shifts uncomfortably. “I’m going to talk with him about how we treat outsiders. I’ve never put much thought into it before. We just keep Halmuth safe. Seeing what happened to you has been a revelation. To be honest, I think I preferred it when I thought Totten was just looking out for us.”
I shrug. “It’s easier to be happy with the way things are when you don’t know how they got that way.”
“Good luck out there,” Camryn says tersely. She pushes me toward the gate. “Go on. I’m not very good at goodbyes. You’re making me feel awkward.”
Now that it’s actually time to go, I’m stalling. I don’t know why. I’ve been in a hurry to get out of this place since we arrived. I wave one last time, square my shoulders, and march out the gates, following Azariah as he strides confidently into the wilderness.
Orav and Mikko are chatting as we go, engrossed in a discussion about the best way to use a shield in a fight. Orav is younger than Mikko, but has more experience in skirmishes. They are both tall, although Orav is clean-limbed and agile where Mikko is powerfully built. All the same, I’m glad that my brother has someone to talk with on the way.
Avelina and Melina are side by side, but they’re quiet, each lost in her own thoughts. We haven’t spoken much with Avelina since we returned from the hunt. She’s been withdrawn and pensive. Once she found out that Irving didn’t make it, she gave me a look like her entire world had shattered, like I betrayed her trust.
It hurts more than I expected.
Lionel is bending Rakesh’s ear about some tidbit of gossip that he picked up during the festivities. Popular among the [Hunters] for his quick wit and free healing, Lionel looks like he hasn’t slept a wink in the entire time we were supposed to be resting up and preparing for the next stage of our journey. Watching him chatter on, though, I wouldn’t know that he’s running on his last legs, about to pass out at any minute. Maybe his [Healer] Class gives him a boost to his overall vitality.
That leaves only Azariah to talk with, since everyone else is nicely paired. I’d rather not engage the crusty old guide. Not after his betrayal. Sure, things worked out in our favor, but that was because we worked hard to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. It had nothing to do with his claim that he can find a way forward in life, not just across the trackless Barrens.
I drift back and forth between the groups of people I’m traveling with, listening to random snatches of conversation and trying to distract myself from my frustrations. I linger when I hear Orav explaining that he volunteered to guard our team for the next leg of the journey since he’s tired of the constant politics among the [Hunters].
“Guess I’m just disillusioned with life in Halmuth. Totten runs that place with an iron fist, you know? I wanna see what else is out there. Densmore is a big place.”
“Definitely is,” Mikko grunts. “Careful for what you wish for, Orav. A few short months ago, I thought I wanted to see the world. Now, I just wish I could go home. I miss my parents.”
I miss a step. Recovering from my stumble, I hurry onward, out of earshot. I never knew my brother was dealing with homesickness. Why didn’t he just tell me?
A familiar old argument pops up in my head, accusing me of dragging them into trouble. I should have let them stay in Silaraon, where it’s safe.
Then again, there are Rifts and an entire contingent of the Royal army patrolling town, so maybe safety is an illusion. They made their choice. Stop going in circles, Nuri! Grow up. Find a new knot to untangle.
My mind calms as I focus on walking one step at a time. Travel goes well for once, and a little after sunrise, we stop to set up camp and ensure we’ve got shade for the blazing heat of the noonday sun. I pass out the remaining helms to keep us from roasting.
Dinner is a quiet, rushed affair. We set up a schedule for keeping watch during the day, and Rakesh deploys his paper birds for early warning. Without further discussion, we wrap up in our sleeping rolls and pass out.
When I wake, it’s already twilight. For the first time on the road, Azariah let us sleep in instead of prodding us awake with his boots. He’s been silent, brooding and avoiding us unless absolutely required. That suits me fine, as long as he gets us where we’re going.
“Hey, we should play a game the [Hunters] run for our new recruits,” Orav suggests, his voice too bright as I struggle to rub the sleep out of my eyes. “Instead of hunting epic beasts or tracking down dinner for the morning, let’s try to sneak up on tiny creatures and put a little daub of paint on them to prove we tagged them. Most critters by sunrise wins!”
“How do we verify if we’ve tagged them?” Rakesh asks. His notepad is out, his pen in his hand, and he’s so studious looking that I burst out laughing.
“What? It’s a legitimate question, Nuri!” Rakesh says, scowling at me. He sounds more deeply offended than I’ve heard him in a while. “Not everyone grew up with rustic pastimes like the rest of you.”
“It’s not that,” I reply, getting the words out around peals of laughter. “I just love how you are always so genuine about learning new information. You really, honestly care. It’s great.”
“It’s a good question, anyway,” Orav says, coming to Rakesh’s rescue. “Normally, the paint we use is mana-conductive, and each color is keyed to a different aspect. Javier isn’t the [Principal Hunter] for nothing. Some are better in fights than he is, but no one’s his level when it comes to sensing and tracking. He could count how many we tagged without moving from the central tent.”
“Fascinating,” Rakesh says, and he means it. He’s faithfully noting down everything that Orav says. I know from prior discussion that he’ll synchronize with his grand Skill once it’s recharged again, adding his new knowledge to the compendium of information shared nationally across the index.
“Heard you have some sort of advanced mana senses,” Orav says, nodding toward me. “Maybe you could take Javier’s place for the competition?”
“Not a bad idea,” Melina says, finally joining our conversation. “I can probably create an analog for the paint, something connected to our mana signatures, with Rakesh’s help. I’m only concerned that we might hold up our [Pathfinder] if we’re taking time to sneak off and stalk poor little animals.”
“Don’t use me as an excuse,” Azariah growls. “I’ll participate in yer little game. Gonna win, too.”
“It’s settled!” Orav says, his voice brimming with happiness. “Let’s figure out a prize for the daily winner.”
“How about no cooking, cleaning, or camp setup responsibilities?” I suggest. None of the chores take particularly long, but after a long night’s march, settling back and resting sounds like a premium prize. Plus, it doesn’t require me to make anything or promise to give away future compensation. Non-monetary prizes are good until we’re back in civilization and making money again.
Enthusiastic cheers meet my recommendation. Everyone wants a chance to get out of work.
Everyone except Rakesh, that is; he sighs in resignation. “Suppose I’ll become our full time camp hand at this rate. I have no tracking or hunting Skills.”
“We’ll stick to a rotation. Maybe the daily winner will simply get to sit out one time a week or something.” I nod to myself as an idea occurs to me. “Hey, how about you and Mel work out a formal rule set for us? That seems like a good distribution of responsibilities.”
Rakesh brightens immediately. “Perfect! I’ll draft up a proposal.”
=+=
The rules stipulate how long we can hunt and how far we can stray from the team while tracking down harmless creatures. No one can roam all night, and we have to stay within range of my Domain for safety. Even so, there’s a lot of room for us to take turns exploring the Barrens during our nightly trek.
As expected, Orav is significantly better at hunting than the rest of the team. He wins the nightly hunt for a week straight, prompting a spirited debate about adding an amendment to the rules that requires winners to sit out after three wins in a row. Orav opposes the new rules, but he’s on his own. Even Azariah agrees that he’s got an unfair advantage, although that might be sour grapes after the [Smokeborn Pathfinder] narrowly loses out again. While he’s excellent at finding water and charting a course, he can’t compete against a dedicated [Hunter].
Lionel is a surprise contender for third place, often matching Azariah’s tag counts. He shadows Orav as much as possible, picking up a few hints on movement and reading the signs of the wilderness. He’s always been good at sneaking around, but working with Orav, a [Hunter] whose Class Skills granted him a proclivity for stealth and speed, gives him a huge boost.
I’ve also seen an influence from Azariah. As surly as the [Pathfinder] can be, he’s helped Lionel learn to scout and pathfind—although I suspect that he’s motivated to create competition for Orav so that someone can dethrone the talented young [Hunter].
Rakesh and I are the only ones not participating. He prefers to write down his findings, while I feel like I’d be cheating to participate in a contest that I also judge. That makes me think of Lady Evershed, whom I remember fondly despite all her political maneuvering. I wonder if she’s broken through the barrier yet to the Second Threshold. I suspect that she has, given the arrangements she worked out with the [General], not to mention brokering the treaties with Naftali. I should visit her when I’m back from Gilead.
Instead of hunting, I turn my attention to puzzling out the runes I observed when Viewing the Oletheros. After Scalpel, something in me reacts in violent revulsion to the thought of control or domination. Still, it’s rare that I have a chance to add something new to my runic vocabulary, so it seems wasteful not to learn what I can. Besides, I have an idea for using the rune that will sidestep my ethical concerns.
Animals are an inspiration to me in general. From the very beginning, I’ve created playful hedgehogs and flying horses. Fairies and tiny swimming creatures abound in my menageries. I love wings and fins and strange shapes. I want to get back to my roots, making a glass bestiary that I can infuse with mana, just like the mana-rich animals of the Barrens. It’s a lifeless region in many ways, yet something animates the animals we’ve encountered.
If I can apply that mysterious property of mana to glass animals, then maybe I can also decipher the Oletheros’s Skill and find a way to puppeteer my merry little band. If they can move around, then perhaps I can use them to carry my glass pseudo cores instead of distributing the sets to my teammates.
Visions of exploring Rifts solo, surrounded by a beautiful, glittering horde of animated glass animals that also function as remote mana cores brings a smile to my face. My heartbeat quickens as a new thought suddenly occurs to me. I wonder if I can connect to them via my Domain? Could I potentially draw on the mana from a distance, without needing to touch them directly? I haven’t tried it yet, but theoretically it would enable me to get around the resonance problem—a difficulty I haven’t otherwise solved.
When we stop for the day, I gather up a few stones, which I set on a spare anvil that I’m borrowing from Mikko. I set out two spare sets of my glass cores and my prototype sketches of animals. “I’m sitting out of camp prep today. I need to work on a new technique while it’s fresh.”
“Perks of being in charge. Keep it up, and I might stage a mutiny,” Lionel teases. “Then I can kick back and relax while you do all the work.”
I rub my temples with my thumb and forefinger. “Be my guest, Lio. Trying to keep you in line gives me a daily headache.”
“Har har.”
“I’ll show you what I’m making when I’m done. Got some kinks to work out, but this is an interesting one,” I say, which seems to mollify Lionel.
He darts around, setting up the camp in record time. Instead of leaving me to work on my project in peace, however, he’s more distracting than ever. He’s experimenting with a new idea as well, constantly releasing mana into his legs to jump farther and faster. Each time he activates the body enhancement technique, it sets off a riot of colors in my Domain’s passive version of manasight. I hope he figures out how to make it work without as much leakage; he still hasn’t resolved that issue, no matter how much we’ve been practicing.
I shut down my Domain, figuring we’ll rely on Azariah and Orav to keep an eye out for any threats, and review my rough sketches. I’m looking for a suitable creature to use for my first attempt at a glass golem. A soft smile spreads across my face as I finally come to a decision. I’ll recreate one of my earliest animal creations: the hedgehog I made for Ifran when he first started working at the Pehilaraon Glass Works.
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[Vitrification] sings, changing the pile of stones I collected into glass. They’re little lumps of colored glass, depending on the mineral component of the source material. While the result is less predictable than making a batch of glass from known ingredients, it’s still likely to follow a few basic principles.
The glass is separate and loose, but a blast of [Greater Heat Manipulation] merges them together into one molten puddle. At this extreme heat, the glass doesn’t stick to the anvil, which I’m shielding from the full force of the temperature fluctuations. I layer my hand in a glove of cold to protect myself, and start sculpting.
Working with my fingers feels therapeutic, in a way. Directly shaping the glass, as though I’m a [Potter] working with clay, is more fun than fiddling around with blow pipes and jacks and blocks. Fine control is great, but what I really love is feeling like I’m a kid again, making big mud pies down by the river while my family is picnicking.
Hedgehogs are time-consuming, however. Pinching the glass and pulling to create each little spine gets tedious, no matter how much I enjoy the soothing feeling of molding the glass. I briefly wonder if there’s some sort of [Glass Manipulation] Skill that I could pick up to go along with my [Greater Heat Manipulation]. Then I could imagine anything I pleased, and it would just appear, ready to go.
But where’s the art in that?
Making things myself, rather than relying on magic to bridge the gap, is worth the long struggle. I pour part of myself into what I make, no matter how plain or simplistic the design. It still bears an imprint of my soul. This hedgehog will be no different.
Content with the slow practice of patience for now, I pinch another tiny bit of hot glass between my protected fingers. Pulling it up quickly at first, I slow down as the spine reaches its desired length, twisting it slightly between my fingertips to thin it out and leave a spikey point.
On and on I go, until a tiny forest of spines decorates the top of the glass ball. The heat stays consistent, ensuring the glass is malleable in my hand, and I rest the emerging hedgie on its side so that I can draw out the little legs. Each ends in a cute cluster of wee paws, splayed so that it will support itself when it’s annealed. Next, I turn my attention to elongating its snout. I’m smiling as I give the hedgehog its own snaggle-toothed smile, even though I’m well aware that the real animal wouldn’t share my emotions.
I shape the little round eyes, lamenting that I don’t have any iron sulfide to turn the glass black. Two quick pinches later, and I’m flattening out the creature’s rounded ears, admiring the adorable little face staring back at me. He looks cuddly, even with the sharp spikes.
I love him immediately.
“Mel, mind annealing this little guy? I think I’m done for now, since I don’t have any other colors to work with at the moment.”
“My pleasure, Nuri!”
Melina doesn’t even look up from her own work as she helps. She lifts up the hedgehog with her [Object Manipulation], applying both her temporal field and [Flawless Annealing] without needing to reach out and touch the glass. Her control has come a long way over the last couple years, and I’m excited to see how she evolves the Skills once they rank up even higher.
“Done,” she announces only minutes later. “Cute lil guy. Will you give him a name?”
I shake my head. “Too worried he’s going to break when I start experimenting. I’d rather not get too attached.”
Melina pouts. “Aw, shame.”
Setting aside melancholy thoughts, I thread a little mana into the hedgehog to see if I can forge a connection. Nothing happens. Layering the energy and creating a scaffold likewise does little other than enhance the glass’s durability and luster slightly. Mentally, I form the shape and intent of the Dominion rune that I Viewed the Oletheros using, but it fizzles out on contact.
I shrug. I’m not really expecting that I’ll be able to imbue it with life. Creating a golem is usually a two-step process: building a form and then enchanting it with function. Imbuing might be a way around that if I can rank up my ability, but it won’t be easy.
“Well. Worth a try,” I murmur.
It would be nice to earn it as an actual Skill, with a label to show that it’s lesser, normal, or greater, but that might be too much to ask. I’ll have to settle for a trial and error approach for now, relying on a freehand spell. On the plus side, that will give me more versatility, if less power than a similar Skill, so maybe it’s for the best.
Surveying the vast void within my soul space, however, reminds me that my Potential is higher than ever before, but with only three Skills to show for it. I miss my old ones, even if I’m making the best of things.
“Still no luck?” Melina asks.
I shake my head. “Even when I try to recreate the domination rune through intent, it’s not taking root. It’s like talking to a brick wall. No response.”
Melina sets down her notebook and comes over to sit next to me. She pats my arm and smiles. “Nuri. Why so down? You don’t have the full Skill like that monster. I know you’ve made excellent progress with runes, but a freehand spell like that is incredibly difficult. I don’t think Ezio could do it. Don’t hold yourself up to an impossible standard.”
I laugh weakly. “But that’s what I do best, Mel. If others can do something, then why not me? I do expect to replicate whatever the beast did to usurp the lizards.”
“I believe you’ll get there in time. Let me help you, though, instead of beating yourself up when you run into a dead end,” Melina says. She flicks me on the arm with her pen. “Hey! None of that now. Frowning is a bad look for a leader.”
I sit up a little straighter. “You’re right. I’m wallowing. Time to get to work instead of letting myself sink into self-pity. Wanna go over the runes with me?”
Melina taps her pen on her book of notes. “Got them pulled up already. Honestly? I don’t think that’s the answer.”
“Oh? You’ve got an idea?”
She nods eagerly. “I do! I just realized that you’re skipping a step. Have you tried using imbued glass? There’s already a mana connection, so you won’t be trying to connect with an inanimate object.”
“Pretty sure glass is inanimate no matter how much I imbue it,” I joke. Then I think over the statement again, and stand up to pace. I always think best when I’m pacing. Movement lets me get out all the nervous energy so that I can think without interruption.
“That’s . . . an excellent idea. I can’t believe I overlooked it. I’ve been thinking about life in too narrow of a context. Mana is the power of creation. It’s not alive the way you and I are as organic beings, but it’s an entire paradigm of life. You’re right!”
“Slow down!” Melina says, laughing at me. She beckons Rakesh over to join us. “What happened to scholarly rigor? We have to properly test every hypothesis, Nuri.”
“That’s my line,” Rakesh says stiffly. He folds his arms and gives Melina a stern look, but his eyes are gleaming with amusement. “I will allow you to use it this time, however.”
I gesture toward the inert hedgehog, still pacing. “If I’m trying to forge a connection with the glass, then Mel’s right. It will be easier to connect with something already imbued with my mana and intent.” The longer I talk, the more I warm up to the idea. “The real question is if I can connect to anything I’ve made, or only specific concepts.”
Rakesh raises his hand as though he’s in class, so I do my best Ezio impersonation and call on him. “Do you have anything other than the glass pseudo cores and the helm of frost? I don’t know if either of those are ideal candidates for what you have in mind. Neither are your spears of sharpness, most likely.”
“Let’s test it out. I’ll make something new,” I say. Inspiration blossoms within me, and I can’t wait to try out all the fresh ideas.
=+=
Orav tosses a deerlike creature down next to the campfire. He stretches out, his jaw cracking as he yawns, and gets to work skinning the animal and preparing the meat. “Mana-awakened Oryx. Good eating. Expensive anywhere else due to its strengthening properties.”
Melina’s notebook and pen seem to materialize in her hand, which makes me think she cut off the rest of us momentarily so that she could dig it out of her bag and not miss any of Orav’s explanation. “Is that why I’m less tired after marching for a week than I was when we left Halmuth?”
“Yeah. Little-known secret. We don’t advertise it, except to rich clients. Unless you’ve got the [Hunter] Class, then chasing down many of the mana-awakened beasts in the Barrens is a death sentence. Even then, it’s no guarantee that things will work out.”
It’s only been a week and a half, but already our bodies seem to have become stronger thanks to the mana-rich meat we’ve been eating. Orav hunts for real after the competition each night. While Azariah is better at finding things no one else can—like when he tracked down the Oletheros—Orav is more practiced at normal hunting. He’s bringing in a bounty of food for us to eat, and I don’t think I’ve ever feasted so well.
Beyond feeling more refined as we eat well, Azariah leads our team to formations that help with increased mana absorption. I can’t take advantage of it as well as the others, though it’s nice to top off my glass pseudo cores. How he finds them so quickly is still beyond me, since he refuses to drop his shields and let me get a proper Viewing of how his [Wayfinding] Skill works.
“I can’t believe so many Rifts were closed in the Barrens,” I remark after we find our third scar on the land. Even though the portals are no longer active, and the mana flow isn’t a torrent like it would be with an open Rift, there’s still an elevated amount of energy in the air.
“[Mages] get around,” Azariah says cryptically. He spits to the side. “Could do with less of their meddlin, truth be told.”
I stroke my beard. “Not in the Utility faction, I see. Don’t blame you. Tapirs is a real piece of—well, nevermind. I don’t wanna talk about him.”
“Got experience with [Mages]?” Azariah asks. There’s a knowing tone in his voice. “You act like one sometimes, but ya ain’t so bad.”
“I’m not a [Mage]!” I protest, although I can see how from his perspective I share a lot of characteristics with them. My mastery over mana, my claim to have closed Rifts, and my ability to produce masterworks without a studio or forge is suspicious.
“Might as well be. How come you know so much about Rifts, anyhow? Sometimes I go years without meetin someone who’s seen a Rift, let alone been in one.”
“Studied them for a while at an Academy. Then I got suckered into delving into a Greater Rift with a high-leveled [Scout].”
Orav chuckles, shaking his head. “You keep claiming you’re not a [Mage], but how many normal people go to an Academy?”
“I only audited one class. Melina was with me, too. Nothing all that strange,” I mumble.
“You mean the lass who can control time and levitate things? Yeah, she doesn’t act like a [Mage], either,” Azariah says, snorting out a stream of smoke from each nostril. His bushy white eyebrows climb up his forehead as he looks at me skeptically.
Thankfully, Lionel runs up to the campfire just then, saving me from any further awkward discussion. He waves boldly. “Five in an hour! Beat that, O Mighty [Hunter]!”
Orav scoffs. “No way you got five.”
“Did too! Taking home the prize. Nothing you can do about it,” Lionel boasts. “I got you. I got you good this time!”
I don’t point out that it’s the ninth night of our competition, and everything that Lionel has learned so far is from copying Orav. We’ve made it a little over halfway to the inland sea, and everyone is determined to take a win off Orav before our time is up, so I let the teasing slide.
“I’ll eat smoke for dinner if you got more than three,” Azariah says, piling on. “You’ve got a trick planned. Always do, ya wily little stinker.”
“Whoa. He’s not lying. Verified his claim,” I say, nodding at Lionel. “He managed to tag two jerboas just before the time ran out. Congrats!”
Orav groans at the same time that Lionel jumps into the air and pumps his fists. He claps Azariah on the back, earning a dirty look, and runs around in circles.
A slow smile spreads across my face. It’s good to have downtime after the craziness of fighting the Oletheros.
While Lionel indulges in an extended victory dance, I return to the task that’s eluded me since we set out from Halmuth: creating an imbued glass animal that not only accepts a mana connection, but is receptive to the Dominion rune. I still feel uncomfortable at the idea of forcing my will on something, but controlling a glass creation is no different from a [Toymaker] making a marionette dance across the stage.
Tuning out all the noise and boisterous celebration around me, I re-create the hedgehog shape that I’m so fond of experimenting with each time we stop for camp. This time, however, I let my mind run free. I imagine the first mewling cry of a kitten, wet and miserable and desperate for its mother. Mentally, I coax a magnificent oak from a lowly acorn, exulting in its green shoots and towering, graceful boughs.
I meditate on the concept of life, orchestrating a song of joy for the mana to accompany. Singing in my spirit, I welcome the ambient mana around us to become more than it is right now. I invite it to flourish, to abound and overflow with plenty.
The energy of creation sings with me, cavorting about like my friend Lionel, spiraling into the cheerful little hedgehog and imbuing it with vitality. Life, although it’s not alive.
Power rushes into me. My inner world expands abruptly, shifting and rattling like a pantry full of plates during an earthquake. The world’s essence solidifies before me in my inner sight. I watch in rapt fascination and trembling awe as it forms a thousand mysterious, eldritch shapes that coalesce into the runic super-structure of a Skill.
I did. I did it!
My hard work pays off. I’ve finally earned a new Skill. Excitement races through me, raw and vibrant and unrestrained, as I examine the meaning and interplay of the majestic runes. I’ve never seen so many new and unusual runes before. I can’t wait to learn them all.
Pride rises like a warm flood in my chest. Although I didn’t directly create this Skill, like I did with [Vitrification], I was halfway there on my own. Until the Rift, when I gained my beloved [Arcane Domain], I wasn’t even sure that I could earn a Skill until I fixed my core—and even that Skill was a surprise. Sure, I made [Vitrification], but I created that from the rubble of my previous Skills. This one is different. I formed a theory and pursued it, and it’s uniquely mine.
Once again I see that magic is more than we make of it. My core is just a shortcut. It’s an easy way to store mana. Likewise, our channels streamline the process of pumping mana into our Skills. Without them we can still function in the metaphysical realm—we lose efficiency and gain excruciating pain, but we can do it.
Anticipation gets the better of me. I can’t wait any longer, watching with bated breath as the banner on the new Skill unfurls. Glittering in cobalt and platinum lettering, it proclaims the name of my newest Skill:
[Glass Animation]
Shrieking with excitement, I fall out of my soul space and back into my body. “Ahhh! I did it! I did it!”
Everyone clusters around at my yelling, confused by my hysterics. I grab Melina by the arm and spin her around. “You were right! Imbuing with life was the key, Mel!”
“You got the Skill?” Melina screams, equally excited. She grabs my arms back and spins with me, dancing next to Lionel, who joins us instantly despite me upstaging his victory.
“I got the Skill,” I confirm. “Unlocked something new, thanks to you. It’s covered in runes that I’ve never seen before. This is a huge boon for our library!”
Rakesh perks up in interest. “You’ll have to write them down for us later. But I’m nervous, if I’m allowed to be forthright, that you may regret earning this new Skill. You were trying to copy the monster’s domination Skill. What did you get, in the end?”
I laugh at Rakesh’s cautious nature. “No need to worry. It’s called [Glass Animation]. If it does what I think it does, then prepare to march across the Barrens with an army at our heels.” I’m practically vibrating in excitement as I continue talking, laying out my plan for creating glass golems with connected mana cores, so I never run out of mana again.
“Is this how you turn into a bad guy?” Lionel asks, snickering. “Because you’re sounding a little like an evil overlord right now.”
“Hey! I was gonna make a golem for you since you won tonight,” I say, shaking my head at my friend. “Guess I’ll make the first one for Mel, since she actually helped me earn a Skill. I’m not sure I would have made the jump, since I was so focused on animals.”
“Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee,” Azariah murmurs under his breath. He stares at me, expression unreadable.
“What did you say?” I ask.
“Ah, just somethin my mum said once.”
I scratch my chin. “I like it. Kinda has a ring of ancient wisdom.”
Azariah lifts his head suddenly. He growls in frustration. “Save yer celebrations for later. Skill’s buzzin like angry bees. No time for jestin. Storm’s comin.”
Orav squints up at the clear skies. “You sure? No signs I can’t see. Storm season isn’t supposed to hit for another few weeks.”
“Sure,” Azariah replies, looking shaken. He starts rushing about, packing up anything in the camp that’s not still in a travel bag. “Get movin or get washed away,” he roars. “Rain in the Barrens ain’t a joke.”