As the guards descended on the courtyard, we hurried Lambkin out of sight. The Malae traders needed locking up, and so too did Lambkin, probably—but we had some questions to ask him first.

Lore held our captive by the wrists bound behind his back as we weaved through the crowds of the marketplace. You might have thought that so many people being around would mean that someone would surely spot that Lambkin was a prisoner, and perhaps even question what was going on. But the truth was that the crowds were so dense, so tightly pressed together, that nobody could even see the ropes around the man’s wrists.

As we walked in silence away from the courtyard, through browsers and guards charging to the scene of the crime, I perused my ability selection choices. Having regretted not picking it first time around, I skimmed the list first, looking for another shot at Portal Relay or an improved version of it, but found nothing—not yet anyway.

Ability selection unlocked

Select an ability from the list below:

Option 1: Warped Shield II (Worldbending) — Upgrade to Warped Shield. Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a melee weapon, Warped Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

I already had Warped Shield, of course, though I tended not to get into situations where I had to use it. The original ability was nowhere near as useful as I’d thought it would be, considering it had only applied to non-enchanted weapons. The whole world seemed to be carrying enchanted weapons these days, and even if the enchantment was minor it meant that my ability wouldn’t kick in.

I mentally earmarked this option as I knocked into a broad, scarred man’s shoulder. I glared up at him, thought better of getting into another fight, and hurried through the crowd after Lore.

Option 2: Saved Portal II (Worldbending) — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

This was the problem with getting a skill to a decent level—every ability choice you had to select from was very compelling.

I’d passed over the original Saved Portal for another ability before. I don’t remember what that other choice had been, but I did remember feeling bad about not picking this one. There were so many applications to it, not least of which was around making a “base” for the team to operate from. But nowadays, with Val and Arzak gone, that didn’t seem so important. Still, it meant that we’d always be able to quickly retreat from a fight if we got in over our heads—and the Architects knew that we did that very often—so it was still a very compelling option.

But, as the crowds started to thin ahead of us, as we approached the end of the bazaar, I looked at my third and final ability choice.

Hidden condition met! Alternative ability choice unlocked.

Option 3: Disintegrate Seams (Worldbending) [Requires: Needlework level 15] — Use your magicks to tear away at the seams of light or medium armour, immediately weakening the armour.

I almost laughed when I envisioned using this ability. I face down a huge, towering enemy—the large guy I’d just bumped into a minute ago springed to mind—and I have no hope of piercing his armour with my dagger. So I activate this, then the string that hold the man’s armour together falls apart… and so too does the armour itself, dropping to the ground. Maybe it even reveals some embarrassing underclothes.

It really was tempting, simply for that reason. But my mind won over my heart, and I picked the option that I’d told myself I would select next time it came up.

Ability unlocked — Saved Portals II

Saved Portals II (Worldbending) — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

My instinct whenever I got a new ability was to try it out straight away and see what I was dealing with. In this case, though, there was no location around me that was useful to keep saved, so I had to hold back. Maybe we’d find somewhere soon. Maybe we would even go track down a safehouse for this precise reason.

Finally, we left the din of the marketplace behind us, and Lore hurried Lambkin into the cover of a small, dark alleyway.

‘You could unbind my hands now, good sir,’ Lambkin said.

Lore didn’t do any such thing. ‘Nah, first you tell us why you’re involved with malae traders.’

Lambkin looked to me next, holding his hands out behind his back. But I shook my head; I was in no mood to disagree with Lore here. The ex-captain, seeing he wasn’t getting anywhere, hung his head down and sighed. ‘I am not involved with malae traders.’

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

‘You were in their camp!’ Lore protested. ‘You fought alongside them!’

‘You’re literally wearing the same headscarf as them,’ I added.

‘Yet you will notice I damaged none of you?’ Lambkin said. ‘And as Corminar Cladenor here says’ — he nodded to the ranger — ‘I am a fine shot. I would have hit you if I’d wanted to, as the second highest levelled archer in the Tundras.’

‘We are not in the Tundras,’ Corminar growled.

‘Be that as it may—’

‘I think… we’re getting a little off-topic,’ I interjected, not wanting this to devolve into another pissing contest between the two rangers. ‘Why were you there, Lambkin? You should be in Aptleed, keeping an eye on Tokas, and you not being there would worry me, let alone…’ I gestured back the way we’d came.

‘I am no malae trader,’ Lambkin said. ‘I was infiltrating the traders. Months of work, it was, to get me this far—and all of that had now gone down the drain.’

‘Down the drain?’ I asked. ‘The guards will arrest them, and—’

‘You think that is the extent of the operation?’ Lambkin asked, echoing my earlier doubts. ‘No, Styk. They are just one unit. One local unit. Who knows how many more are out there, and who knows who they report to? My intention was to work my way to the top, to understand—’

‘It’s a Player,’ Lore said. ‘It’s a Player in charge. His name is Yusef.’

Lambkin held the barbarian’s gaze, then nodded. ‘Then it’s as she suspected,’ he said, and then immediately paled.

‘...What was that?’

‘Nothing.’

‘You said something about “as she suspected”. Who is “she”, Lambkin? Tell me it’s not her. Tell me you didn’t.’

‘I…’ Lambkin started.

‘You were supposed to watch her! Not team up with her!’

The bound man gave shrugging his best attempt. ‘We thought you were all dead!’

‘Why?’

Lambkin blinked at me. ‘There was a Player-led invasion of the Tundras. And where were you? We figured that the Player-slaying had fallen to us, considering that you were nowhere to be seen. Though, I must admit that the Player in question fell through our fingers, and died over the course of her next invasion, as far as I could—’

Corminar coughed pointedly.

‘...You were in the Dawnwoods,’ Lambkin realised aloud.

‘We were.’

‘Ah. And you…’

‘Eliminated the Player, yes,’ Corminar finished for him.

‘You might have written to me.’

It was my turn to blink now. ‘We were a bit busy!’

‘Before then!’ Lambkin said next. ‘I move halfway across the continent on behalf of my new friends to watch over a tiefling gone awry, and I expected they might check in on us every now and then.’

‘Well I figured you’d be making a new life with Sae. That’s what you said, didn’t you? Thought you’d put all this behind you.’

Lambkin mumbled something under his breath.

‘What’s that?’

‘She didn’t come, alright?’ the ex-captain repeated. ‘When I got back to Umlok, she was gone. Her father, the baron, he’d taken advantage of my absence to marry her off to some cousin of a duke. Never saw her again. And so the only friend I’ve had is…’

‘Tokas,’ Lore finished.

The bound man nodded, and finally I reached forward with my knife to slice the ropes from his wrists.

‘Alright,’ I said. ‘We’ll let you go free on one condition: take us to Tokas.’

‘And if she doesn’t repeat everything you just told us,’ Lore said, ‘we’re gonna have some words, you and me.’ The barbarian towered over the ranger as he delivered this implied threat.

Lambkin nodded, and then began to lead us through the winding streets of Coldharbour, to see a woman who we’d though we’d never see again.

To see a woman who’d betrayed us.

"Styk"

Level 19 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 204

Dexterity — 114

Strength — 77

Wisdom — 70

Charisma — 49

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 55

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.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

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%