We set off from camp the next morning just as the sky turned from midnight black to simply very very dark blue. The ambient light of the sun was just enough for us to navigate with, and the sooner we got going, the more we could justify resting while the midday sun passed over.

I found myself trudging down the road next to Arzak, who was never the loudest among us, but had been particularly quiet since her brief argument with Tokas. I couldn’t honestly say I knew what she was going through, and part of me regretted bringing Tokas along with us. But then I remembered Lore, somewhere out there, across the lands, being manipulated by our terrible enemy. We really did need all the help we could get.

Still, I could try to comfort Arzak some. ‘How’s it going?’ I asked.

‘I head to fight Player who can see future, and I do so with woman who betrayed me and prophesied to kill me,’ came the simple answer.

‘Fair enough.’ I gulped. ‘Anything I can do to help?’

‘No,’ Arzak snapped, then after a moment she sighed. ‘Sorry. I have lot of stress on top of me.’

‘You mean you’re under—’ I started, then shook my head. Now wasn’t the time. ‘It’s OK. I get it. But you understand why I had to bring them along?’ I nodded my head towards Lambkin and Tokas, who were at the rear of our pack by quite some way.

‘I understand. Is Lore.’ I noted that she was echoing my earlier wording.

‘Is Lore, yeah.’

‘Got protect him.’

I nodded, and we proceeded on in silence for a few minutes.

Arzak spoke next. ‘You leader now, huh?’

The question took me aback. ‘What? No. I—’

‘You say “Why I had to bring them”. Not why “we” had to bring them. I.’ Before I could protest any more, Arzak shook her head and smiled. ‘Is OK. I think we all know by now that you leader. Or would be. You progress fast, thank to artifact. You be stronger than all of us soon, if not already. And got brain that even Val jealous of.’

I didn’t answer. What could I say to this? I knew I was progressing quickly, and I was lying if I said I hadn’t noticed that I was the one giving the orders these days. I looked forward, towards Val, my eyes skimming over Raelas, who was looking my way.

I still couldn’t figure out how I felt about her. Part of me wanted to run to her, to embrace her, to be with her every second. But another part roared with a furious anger about what she’d done. About how she’d left. About how she blamed me for something I could do nothing about.

And yet, she’d run to me, hadn’t she? In the moments that the corruption took hold, she’d run to me. That had been her instinct. Not to run, not to flee, but to risk herself.

Arzak watched me stare. ‘She need time,’ she said, and then, ‘Maybe you do too.’

‘She knows I can’t help who my parents are, right?’

‘In head? Yes. In heart… more complicated.’ Arzak kicked aside an old, leather satchel that someone had discarded on the road. ‘We all suffer from Players. They do terrible things to us. Those wounds not close. Not completely. Is hard. But she come around, in time.’

‘Will she?’ I found myself asking. ‘I don’t know what I’d do if she didn’t.’

Arzak’s eyes widened, and she came to a halt for a moment. ‘Maybe you tell her this. Maybe she not know. Maybe she think she love man who not truly love back.’

‘Does she?’

The orc shrugged. ‘Not my business.’

‘But you just said—’

‘Not my business,’ Arzak repeated.

I shook my head. Arzak had removed her metaphorical “gossip” hat and put on her “good friend” hat once more. There was nothing that could be done about that. So I instead jumped at the opportunity to ask something that I’d been wondering about for some while. ‘You said everyone here suffered at the hands of Players. I know what happened to Val, to Corminar, to Lore… but what about you? You’ve never spoken about it.’

Arzak remained quiet while we passed two merchants on the road, travelling the other way. We offered them polite smiles and nods, and they returned the sentiments. I could tell we were drawing close to another settlement, because we passed an ever-growing number of travellers, setting off with the dawn.

‘Is not story I like tell.’

‘I figured,’ I replied. ‘You don’t have to if you don’t want to.’

The orc shook her head. ‘No. Is OK. I tell. Story start in Northern Reaches. Far north. Off human maps. Very cold up there. Miss it now, in this place.’

‘Yeah, I bet.’

‘If I tell story, no interruption.’

‘Got it. Sorry.’ I snapped my trap shut.

‘In far north, is frozen tundra. Hard to live in tundra. Cold, yes, but also there are beasts up there. Emerge from snowstorms. Eat crops. Eat orcs. Eat buildings, sometimes. We not always cope. Our clan, we reached south, to call in outside help. A Player answered the call, a fearsome warrior.’

‘Ah, and they—’ I began.

‘What I say about interruptions?’

‘Sorry,’ I said again.

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

‘You and Val perfect for each other. Two big mouths, not know when to close.’ Arzak shook her head. ‘This Player not like the others. This one, kind. This one show me ways of swords. Bought me gifts. Gave me a… how you say, a role model? Saved my home four times over. Took payment, yes, but was never much, and she never ask for more. I join her on journeys, on quests, left clan behind—elder gave permission. I loved her.’

I resisted the urge to speak, but only just about; my mouth moved a little.

‘Two years later, I watch her die. She die at hands of another Player. The second Player I ever meet. I learn that I lucky to have met her and none others. I learn that those from Ascended World not care about us. Most of them not care about us. Most of them not love us. Most of them not like El.’

Silence passed over us for a moment as Arzak retreated into herself, and her memories.

‘Not all Players are evil,’ I said, ostensibly summarising the story, but of course thinking about a specific Player.

‘Not all,’ Arzak agreed, though she saw right through me. ‘But your mother, she in Council. I…’ The orc didn’t need to finish that sentence; we all knew that the Council were involved in deadly schemes, and if my mother was a part of it, then… Well, I couldn’t quite bring myself to think about it.

The orc glanced back at Tokas—the first time she’d put eyes on her, as far as I could remember. ‘And then I meet Tokas. She save me. Not from physical danger, but from emotional. I was not in good place, and she… she pull me out. I love her, too, but in different way. As sister. And then…’

Arzak gestured generally, but it was enough for me to know exactly what she was talking about. The betrayal. Accompanying Jacob during the devastation of Plainside, if to save her children. But the tiefling was here, now, trying to make up for it, even leaving her children in care back in Coldharbour to do so. I could see that Tokas was trying to make amends, but… did Arzak? Could Arzak?

‘Do you think you can forgive her?’ I asked.

‘Forgive? How I forgive someone who betray like that? How I forgive someone who going to kill me?’

‘We don’t know that. The future is unwritten. I’ve watched Lore change it time and time again over the past few weeks, though I didn’t realise at the time that that was what he was doing. You don’t know what will happen.’

‘I know it can happen,’ Arzak said.

It was hard to argue with that, but I was about to give it a go anyway, when suddenly I heard loud voices up ahead. Turning to face the front of our pack, I saw Val standing over Raelas.

‘Why are you still here, anyway?’ the witch demanded of the tiefling.

‘I…’ Raelas started, but Val didn’t give her a chance to speak.

‘Cos if you’re anything like your friends, then you’re gonna betray us as soon as you see some opportunity to get money. We don’t need that on—’

‘Val,’ Corminar said, his voice calm. ‘Enough.’

‘What? We’re not all thinking it? We should have handed her into the guards, rather than having another liability with us.’

I made a very conscious effort not to look over at Tokas.

‘I have nowhere else to go!’ The words seemed to burst forth from Raelas’s mouth, as though she’d been fighting to keep them back. ‘I have no one. No one. Can’t you understand that? Can’t you have a little bit of sympathy?’

‘After what you—’ Val started, but a firm look from Corminar cut her off again.

Val wasn’t wrong, though. Raelas had been collecting malae, arguably the most dangerous species alive. And she’d done it thinking only about coin. But then, if Tokas deserved a second chance, didn’t Raelas too?

‘I want to be good,’ Raelas said. ‘I want to be a hero. Like you.’

Val’s eyes flicked to me.

‘We have to give her a chance to redeem herself, Val,’ I said.

‘Do we?’ the witch replied, and then turned away.

I couldn’t help but feel like I’d made another poor decision. I could only hope that Yusef and Lore weren’t much further, because our group was falling apart at the seams.

I nodded to another merchant who was passing us on the road. I was again smiling, but this time trying to communicate that I was sorry for this scene he’d paid witness to.

Then I saw his face. One I recognised. One that recognised me.

Ted began to run.

"Styk"

Level 20 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 52

Intelligence — 227

Dexterity — 131

Strength — 80

Wisdom — 76

Charisma — 50

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 61

Knifework — Level 43

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.

Portal Relay II - Up to ten small-scale portals can now be positioned stationary to an entity, and used to communicate sound. In addition, your standard portals may be used to communicate sound.

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%