‘Styk?’ Val asked again, after I hadn’t replied.

At seeing her, I’d frozen. A huge mess of emotion had come rushing back as I’d met those deep brown eyes. Complicated feelings—ones of love, and ones of betrayal, not to mention everything else in between. I’d recoiled my hand, pulling myself from Val’s grasp, and her eyes had widened.

But this was hardly the full extent of our problems in this moment. When Val had called me by name, the guards had started putting two and two together. One of the prisoners knew me—and probably the rest of the visiting group—by name. We either had once been friends… or still were. They’d not worried about our presences here because we wore their uniform, but now narrowed eyes suggested they realised the robes were just robes, that they were no guarantee that we were allies.

As the first soldier pulled her sword free, Lore pounced, pushing her into the edge of the tent, tearing the fabric as they fell through. Everyone else leaped into action next, the tent devolving into a chaos that I couldn’t keep track of. While the others fought off the guards, I focused on why we were here: freeing Val and Arzak. If we didn’t get out of here soon, then more cultists would surely descend on us.

I grabbed Val by the wrist just as Arzak rose from her desk some ten yards away, jamming her quill into one of the cultists’ necks.

‘Styk…’ Val said, but thinking she wanted to discuss things beyond the immediate moment, I didn’t reply. It was time for action, not introspection.

I threw my other hand forward and opened one end of my Saved Portal in the centre of the tent. It crackled into life, revealing the steps overlooking Coldharbour’s central plaza. A woman stumbled backwards on the other side, having been just about to collide with it.

‘Through,’ I told Val. ‘Now.’

‘The bracelets!’ the witch said, waving her hand in front of me.

‘Yes, very nice.’

‘They’re not a bloody fashion accessory, Styk. They’re trapping us here. Remember the prison in Tarenthe? It’s Council work.’

It took me a moment, but then it came back to me. Once upon a time—it felt like eons ago, now—we’d had to save a friend of Corminar’s called Aiwin from a Goldmarch prison. This hadn’t just been any prison break, though, and we hadn’t just had guards to contend with. All prisoners had a belt that they couldn’t remove. If they strayed too far from a gem-based artifact, this belt would close around them and continue closing until they were cut in half. From the looks of it, Val and Arzak’s bracelets were of a similar style.

‘Alright,’ I said, and nodded. I looked around at the chaotic fighting just in time to see Lambkin fire an arrow at a guard that the guard rebounded with a spell. I did not look in time to react to it heading towards me. ‘Ow?’ I said, as I pulled the arrow from my shoulder.

Val approached to heal it, and I allowed her to without making eye contact. Raelas glanced at me from across the skirmish.

‘Where’s the artifact?’ I shouted over the din.

‘Next tent over!’ the witch cried back. ‘But, Styk, it’s surrounded by a metal box, you won’t be able to—’

I didn’t wait for the end of that sentence; I had a plan. I opened another portal and leaped through it, landing at the edge of the tent and crashing into two new guards who’d just stormed in, knocking them to the ground. But it hadn’t been them I was after. I swung around, activated my Knifestorm ability and tore to shreds a cultist that had been attacking some of my hired help.

Protector of the Divine Servants defeated!

Worldbending — +900xp

Knifework — +1,350xp

Knifework increased to level 42!

Base Points Gained — +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)

Stealth — +650xp

Stealth increased to level 26!

Base Points gained — +1 DEX, +1 WIS, +2 Free Points (DEX/WIS)

Level up!

You increased to level 20!

There wasn’t time to celebrate my levelling up. ‘Ama,’ I said. ‘With me.’ The woman nodded, and I opened another portal that took us back out into the sun and the makeshift alleyways between the rows of tents. Dozens of cultists, weapons raised, were storming towards us. ‘Better act fast.’

Ama nodded again, slightly more aggressively, this time.

I wasted no time in launching myself at the next tent along, again using my Knifestorm ability but this time to slash the tent fabric into shreds, rather than flesh. The cries of battle grew louder behind me as my friends held off the enemies. Glancing back, I realised I should have told someone to get the other prisoners ready to flee—it would hardly be heroic to leave them behind. My instinct was to open a portal, but without the ability to transmit sound through it, I’d need to stick my head through and shout for someone, and I simply didn’t have the seconds to spare, what with so many enemies storming towards us.

‘The metal box!’ I shouted to Ama. ‘Break it!’

For all of Ama’s faults—including killing people when I’d explicitly told her not to—she always jumped at the opportunity for destruction. She gritted her teeth together and roared with effort as she wrenched the metal box apart with her magicks, this protective box apparently reinforced by enemy magicks.

Soldiers burst in behind us, and I opened a portal to drop through the ground at my feet, reappearing behind them. I had just enough time to slay two of them, my damage boosted by having broken their line of sight, before the other three turned to me.

2x Divination Students defeated!

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Worldbending — +1,950xp

Worldbending increased to level 58!

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

Clearly their Divination studies hadn’t gone that well. Faced down by the other three cultists, I hesitated, unsure in that split-second how to act next.

But Ama answered that question for me. ‘Out of the way!’

I glanced at her, and saw her hands raised at her side, the fragments of the metal box floating in the air around her. I had enough time to get out of the way, as instructed, because I opened a portal beneath me. The other three… they didn’t have enough time.

Scraps of metal tore into them, and before long, we were the only ones left in the tent. For now.

I ran for the gem, arching my Sorcerer’s Friend blade through the air in a Stab, and… my blade ricocheted from the gem. We needed something stronger. So instead, I grabbed the gem from the remains of the crate and portalled Ama and I back into the action.

There were… far more enemies in this tent, now. But at least their prisoners had now risen from the desks, and even though most of them weren’t fighting back, they were doing a very good job of getting in the way, which was just as good.

‘Lore!’ I shouted across the tent to the big guy, then threw the gem through the air without waiting for a response.

One of the guards, apparently recognising the gem for what it was, leaped through the air and snatched it.

‘...Oh.’ I shook my head, pressing after the guard with Ama at my side. As I passed Lambkin and Raelas, I shouted to them, ‘Get everyone ready to go!’

‘The other prisoners?’ Raelas asked.

‘Everyone!’ I reiterated.

Ama and I were on the enemy with the gem only seconds later, and I went to my new crutch ability, Knifestorm, to attack. The enemy brought up an armoured arm to block it, and in doing so knocked loose one of the belts holding my remaining bracer in place—the other one had been lost somewhere in the chaos. The bracer leaped free of my arm, and this time shot upwards, hitting me in the nose.

I staggered backwards, and blubbed to Ama through a bloody nose, ‘Get it!’

Ama raised her hands, and a second later ripped free all the pegs holding the top of the tent in place. These metal stakes all turned to face the enemy with the gem. Before Ama fired them, she said, ‘After this, I’m out of mana.’

‘Don’t miss, then,’ I suggested.

To her credit, she didn’t. The metal stakes almost all struck firm, but the enemy was armoured enough not to be completely felled by this attack. I pressed the advantage, leaping forward and tearing the gem from their hand, before running with it to Lore this time.

As I appeared at his side, I stabbed a cultist in the side, which gave Lore an opening to finish the job.

Office Manager’s Assistant defeated!

Worldbending — +650xp

Knifework — +850xp

I threw the gem down on the ground. ‘Both at once!’ I shouted, and we moved immediately, because there wasn’t a moment to waste in this chaos. Lore brought his great Bane Sword down on the gem, and I timed my Stab—coupled with Closed Reach to attack from inside the gem—to hit at the same time. The gem splintered into a dozen pieces, and all around me, I saw bracelets falling to the sand.

‘Alright!’ I shouted to the prisoners. ‘Through the portal! Now!’

Nobody seemed to be moving.

‘I’m on your side, idiots!’ I shouted, and this—of all things—was what stirred them into action.

Carle and Raelas began physically pushing the prisoners through, and they spilled out onto the plaza in the centre of Coldharbour. Val was one of them, pushed through rather enthusiastically by Raelas, and soon there was only the team—and Arzak—left. Carle, Arzak and Lore took positions around the portal whilst the last of us filtered through, doing so without any discussion as they knew they’d last the longest against the onslaught. But I wasn’t going to force them to find out how long that was.

As Corminar and Lambkin stepped through, I grabbed Raelas’s arm and pushed her through in a manner not dissimilar to how she’d pushed Val, then called out to the three of us left behind, ‘Now!’

They all turned at once, and leaped through the portal in quick succession—Carle, then Arzak, and then Lore. As Lore was halfway through, I let the portal closed, and it shut the moment the tip of his last shoe was through.

Back in Coldharbour, and out of trouble—for now—we collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. A crowd had formed around us, perplexed by the portal opened in the centre of the plaza and the fighting on the other side of it, and no small proportion of them were members of the Cult of Ascendancy.

‘Traitors,’ I explained to them, through bloodied nose and wheezy breath, and this seemed to satisfy them.

Gathering myself, I staggered back to my feet, and turned to meet the eyes of the team.

Well, not quite the whole team. Still, I couldn’t meet Val’s gaze.

"Styk"

Level 20 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 216

Dexterity — 130

Strength — 79

Wisdom — 76

Charisma — 49

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 58

Knifework — Level 42

Stealth — Level 26

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].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

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%