We found some beds for the night at an inn, one that Corminar described as a “boutique inn”. The stone walls were bare and flush, decorated only occasionally by ornate water fountains which the owner insisted we could all drink from whenever we wanted. There was talk of a palm-wine tasting downstairs this evening, but with all the hot sun I’d suffered over the past couple of days, even I wasn’t that interested.

So instead I retreated to my—single!—room, and I continued to work on my cloth armour. I was working on some simple cloth-based bracers, which were supposedly the simplest thing to make. And if they were simple, then hopefully that meant that I could make them to a higher quality. Besides, some cloth bracers were a whole lot better than the armour I had currently, which was… nothing.

I thought of Val as I worked on the last part. Where was she right now? Was she away in some far-off land continuing the work? Or had she had enough of Players, staying away from them—or us, as she might have thought—for the time being?

I finished the last stitch, and took in my latest creation.

Needlework — +3,150xp

Needlework increased to level 17!

Needlework increased to level 18!

Base Points gained — +2 DEX, +2 CHA, +2 Free Points (DEX/CHA)

Level up!

You increased to level 19!

With my Legacy of Sisyphus active effect upgraded by the lifeforce of Niamh, I was progressing fast. Obviously, my overall level was more of a vanity metric than anything else, but it made me feel a bit more comfortable in myself that I was comparable in level to those I passed in the street. And it had taken so little time, in the grand scheme of things. Who knew that fifteen times the experience points and a lifestyle with action could be so conducive to levelling up.

Conducive, I thought, big word. Maybe I’ve been spending too much time around Corminar.

I pulled the bracers onto my arms. They fit fairly nicely, which was good considering I’d made them with myself in mind. They could have been better, admittedly, but they were worth it for the option of knocking away any glancing strikes. Satisfied, I took them off again—it was the early hours of the morning by this point, and I didn’t intend to get into a fight right about now.

Placing the bracers to one side, I got into bed. For an inn that cost so much per night, the beds really weren’t as comfortable as they should have been. I tossed and turned for a while, until I heard movement in the hallway. With sleep not taking me, I crept across the room to see which of our party was heading out at this time. I inched the door open just in time to see Lore disappearing down the staircase.

Maybe it was not being able to sleep, or maybe it was some innate nosiness, but I instinctively decided to follow him. I hurried back inside my room and yanked my trousers back on before hurrying down the stairs. I spilled onto the moonlit street and saw the silhouette of the big man heading west, towards the outskirts of town.

I could have called out to him at that point, but some instinct within told me to keep quiet. If Lore was heading out at this time, he probably didn’t want anyone to know about it. Maybe I should have given him some privacy, but he’d been acting increasingly antsy over the course of the evening, and this surely had something to do with it. I kept a distance as I followed him, and hovered a hand over the dagger I’d thought to bring with me; if I ever returned home, then I’d definitely have a fight or two on my hands.

But nobody came to ambush Lore, and nobody even spoke to him, the streets being as deserted as they were. And eventually the barbarian arrived at his destination: a small cemetery on the outskirts of the city. I hesitated on the boundary.

‘You coming, Styk?’ Lore called out without looking back.

I paused for a moment, but the jig was up. ‘How’d you know it was me?’

‘Battlesense abilities aren’t just good in a fight,’ he said.

I approached the man’s side. ‘You mind?’

Lore shook his head, and led us on into the cemetery. He took a route that said he knew exactly where he was going, through the winding graves, his eyes fixed on a small one at the far side. There, he removed one of the steamed buns from his pocket, knelt down, and placed it atop the gravestone.

PLYAS ERELOS

DAUGHTER, SISTER, HERO

I waited to ask the question, giving Lore the moment of peace that he’d wanted, that I’d intruded on. ‘Who is she?’ I finally asked.

‘My sister.’

‘Plyas? That’s a tiefling name isn’t it?’

The barbarian nodded. ‘Foster sister. I was adopted.’

‘Oh, I didn’t—’

‘My parents, they were merchants. Came through here. Weren’t doing well. Couldn’t afford to feed me. Left me on the doorstep of the Erelos family.’

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I found a lump in my throat. ‘You never said.’

Lore shrugged. ‘I was young, I don’t remember them. Didn’t even know my own name, so they let me name myself.’

Well, that’s the mystery of the cool name answered, at least.

‘What happened to her?’ I asked, then immediately added, ‘If you don’t mind talking about it.’

I knew the answer before Lore spoke it. ‘A Mala,’ he said. ‘Back when they were rare. We were playing in the dunes—saw it coming, but were too young to know what it was. Plyas… she was always the braver of us… she touched it.’

The rest of the story hung in the air, Lore not wanting—or needing—to spell it out.

‘I left about a year after that. I was angry. I fought a lot. Fell into a Barbarian class and barely looked back. It was only when I checked in on the folks a few years later that I’d learned one of the Malae had slipped through a mercenary’s attack on them.’

‘A Player, I’m guessing?’

Lore nodded. ‘I didn’t blame him, not at first. These things happen. But when I spoke to him, when I mentioned it… he didn’t care. He didn’t care that a kid had been killed by his carelessness. And I’d thought he’d be a hero. No, the only hero around here was her.’ He nodded down to Plyas’s grave.

‘I lost someone to malae too,’ I said.

‘I thought you might’ve, yeah.’

‘Losing her… it hurt. Made it hard to open up to someone again, after that.’

Lore turned to me. ‘Until Val?’

I gulped. ‘Until Val.’

‘She’ll come back,’ the big man said. But I wasn’t quite so sure.

* * *

I woke up late the next day, finding the bed surprisingly comfortable after all. The sun was high in the sky, pouring in through the wooden shutters. I staggered downstairs to get some food from the kitchen, and found only Corminar and Lore sitting in the hall—the latter still yawning and very sleepy.

‘The Trio?’ I asked, grabbing a seat on the bench next to Lore.

The elf shook his head. ‘Absent.’

‘They’ve left?’

‘Belongings remain in their rooms. I broke in.’

‘I’m a bad influence on you,’ I told him.

As I ate a heart breakfast, we spoke about our plan for the day—namely, hunting down the Player behind the Malae breeding: Yusef. We had absolutely no leads. We didn’t even know if he was still in the city, just that he’d at some point been through here. So the first step was asking around to find out. Surely, if a Player was still in Coldharbour, someone would know about it.

We stepped out into the near midday sun and I immediately insisted we stop for a lot of drinks. This was something that Lore in particular was keen on, though I suspected that was just because he wanted to pay a visit to some old haunts from his youth. We walked wherever our legs carried us, having no real destination, which sent us west once more. Though instead of veering off towards the cemetery, we stuck to the main road, heading towards the Mountain Gate.

Lore had fallen into the role of casually asking people about any Players coming through town, or occasionally about Yusef specifically. Though it was quite a direct question, the barbarian seemed to phrase it in ways that resonated with the locals—he understood their ways and culture so well, having grown up here. All knew of Yusef, their eyes lighting up at his very mention, but none knew his current whereabouts—suggesting that he was not in Coldharbour.

We were just about to find another spot to get a drink when the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. There was some silent, indiscernible change to the bustling main road, one which caused all three of us to stop, searching for its cause. And we found it staggering in through the gate.

It wasn’t a Mala, this time, but a man.

A man who cradled his arm—an arm touched by dark corruption.

I ran to help him, pushing through an amassing crowd of locals. ‘Don’t touch him!’ I shouted. ‘Don’t touch him!’

But the locals all looked at me like I was crazy. ‘Well of course we don’t touch him,’ one of them said, ‘he’s been attacked by a Mala.’ The same woman turned to the corrupted man. ‘Stay with us, OK? We know what to do: we need to get you to the Doctor. He specialises in this kind of thing.’

I flashed a questioning look to Lore. ‘You know about this Doctor?’

The barbarian shook his head. ‘Nope, never heard of him.’

‘Then maybe we go pay him a visit.’

"Styk"

Level 19 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 198

Dexterity — 114

Strength — 77

Wisdom — 70

Charisma — 47

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 53

Knifework — Level 40

Stealth — Level 22

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%