‘No!’ Ted roared, clutching his head and bolting away from us, down the road. ‘No! No! No! Not you! Not you! Leave me alone! Leave me alone!’ From the muffled sound of his words, he was shouting through tears.

‘You?’ Val called out from up ahead. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Should not be in Auricia?’ Arzak asked. The last time we’d seen him, he’d found new riches, and had opened a popular new sweet shop in the capital. One which traded in enchantments under the table.

Ted didn’t reply, instead continuing to flee, so I opened a portal beneath his feet and dropped him back in front of us. He hit the ground harder than I’d intended, but at least the sand was soft around here. The man scurried backwards on hands and feet, looking up at me as I loomed over him.

‘What you doing here, Ted?’ I repeated Val’s question.

‘Leave me alone!’ the man cried again, stumbling to his feet, his bag falling from his shouder. He turned to run, and collided heavily with Arzak’s broad chest. He bounced off it, landing back on his arse once more.

‘You spy on us?’ the orc asked. It was a fair enough question, considering we knew Yusef had people monitoring us. And what with how much this man hated us, it was a reasonable leap to assume he was one of them.

‘Spy?’ Ted spluttered. ‘What do you mean spy? And on you? I want to be as far away as possible at all times from you people!’

‘Then why not in fancy shop?’

‘Oh, I dunno, maybe because last time you were they you bloody flooded it?’

‘Huh,’ I said. ‘I forgot about that. My bad.’

‘Your bad?’ Ted repeated. ‘Your bad? Do you know how much I had to pay the landlord for all the repairs? And that’s not to mention all the stock I lost, and the customers never really came back in the same way after someone mildly electrocuted half of them.’ The man stared daggers at Val—the woman who I suspected he’d once had a bit of a crush on. That had changed, then.

‘My bad,’ Val said, echoing me.

‘Stop saying that!’ Ted turned and tried to run once more, but I opened a portal in front of him. He didn’t fall through it, but it was enough to stop him in his tracks. He turned back, his eyes on the satchel bag that he’d dropped in the confusion. ‘You ruined me. My benefactors demanded their money back—money I no longer had. I had to flee. Had to leave the human realms behind, had to come out here and start from scratch. Had to start looking for salvation.’

‘Salvation?’ Corminar asked. He’d had the same thought as me.

‘Don’t tell me you’re running off to join the cult.’

‘Cult? No,’ Ted replied. ‘I’m looking to join the Church of Ascendancy. I’m—’

‘That’s the cult!’

‘—after a new start, in a new world. There’s a man who’ll grant us that if we serve him. A Player. I’m going to—’

‘He’s not granted anyone anything!’ I cried. ‘He’s lying to you! Seriously, why do none of you see that? Honestly, is all it takes some charismatic, strong—’

‘Handsome,’ Val added.

I turned to her. ‘Seriously?’

‘Mm,’ Arzak added. ‘Nice legs.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Some charismatic, strong, handsome guy and you’re all falling over yourselves to believe every word he says. That’s how despots get their power, you know.’

Ted glared back at me.

‘I read history books,’ I explained.

‘I doubt that,’ the once sweet shop owner retorted.

‘That I like history books?’

‘That you can read.’

I replied by tossing him through a portal, just for the hells of it.

‘Don’t join the cult, Ted,’ Val said. ‘You’re better than that. Well, you’re not, but don’t join it anyway.’

Lambkin picked the man’s satchel bag up off the ground, shaking the sand from it. This was a man who was honourable even in the face of an enemy; it was sometimes infuriating.

‘We’re going to kill him,’ I told Ted. ‘Your Player hero. So no point you going. Why don’t you trot back on to the Tundras and—’

The ex-captain handed the man his bag, and Ted’s hand shot straight into it. I realised the mistake a moment too late.

‘Lambkin, no!’

But it was too late. Ted’s eyes lit up as he withdrew a round purple sweet from the bag. He popped it in his mouth, and—

The man disappeared.

‘Ah,’ Lambkin said. ‘My apologies. Portal magicks, was that?’

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It was a good point. For all we’d seen of Ted’s enchantments before, none of them seemed close to my particular brand of Worldbending magicks. I looked down, seeing footsteps in the sand, and realised the truth. ‘Not portals,’ I said. ‘Invisibility.’

We chased the footprints across the dunes, but soon they faded; Ted had an enchantment even for that.

‘Hm,’ Arzak grumbled, eyes on Lambkin. Her ire for Tokas had now started bleeding onto the ex-captain too.

‘Wouldn’t worry,’ I said, clapping Arzak on the shoulder. ‘We’ll run into him again.’ I sighed. ‘We always do.’

Even I was prophesying now.

* * *

Our journey northwest continued.

Nobody had got into an argument for a while, which I was considering a success. If we could just keep that up until we faced down Yusef, then that was fine. We could all fall apart once the job was done, and once Lore was saved.

We passed through small hamlets on the road, all of them near-desolate. Corminar had thought to ask about it at one point, and the answer given was that all the young, working people had left with the cult, leaving just the old behind. They were looking for a greater life than these small desert towns could provide, and the allure of ascendancy was strong. It was no wonder that Yusef had so much success recruiting in these parts; these were places forgotten by the region’s leaders, left without support, left to face the harsh realities of life.

So when we arrived at a town that was lively and bustling—at least compared to those that came before—we were a little surprised. Tokas again hesitated at the perimeter of the town—she’d done this once before—and all of us slowed to a halt at her side.

‘Perhaps Yusef did not travel this way,’ Corminar suggested, seeing what I’d seen about the town ahead of us.

‘What, he veered off the merchant road?’ I asked. ‘Like Tokas said, there’s nothing in these parts until Zelas City, and that’s down this way.’

‘Maybe there was something going off the road for?’ Val said.

Arzak shook her head, and the reasoning that followed reflected my own. ‘Only thing he interested in is strength. Strength in recruits. Recruits in city. Ergo, he pass through here.’

‘Ergo?’ Val repeated, eyebrow raised.

‘Did I not use right?’

‘If he came through this way, then his recruitment efforts didn’t go so well,’ Lambkin said. ‘Why might that be?’

I shrugged, then took a step forward. ‘Let’s go find out.’

‘No,’ Tokas said. All this time, her eyes had been on the village, scowling as if trying to penetrate the minds of those who lived there. As if trying to hear their intentions.

‘Something wrong?’

‘It’s as before,’ Tokas said. ‘Like when we were ambushed. I felt something. Magicks. Could be another trap.’

We turned to look at the village ahead of us. The people were smiling, which I suppose was odd in itself, but it didn’t exactly scream “trap”. We could have simply skirted around the village to be safe, but if these people had somehow resisted Yusef’s charms, then maybe it would be useful to know how.

‘Alright,’ I said, ‘We’ll scout it out first.’

‘Who put you in charge?’ Val asked.

‘Arzak.’

Val looked to the orc.

Arzak shrugged. ‘Little bit, yes.’

‘Why would you do that? His head is big enough as it—’

‘Look, I’m going in because I can portal straight back out again if anything goes wrong. That’s all.’

‘And I’m coming,’ Tokas said. ‘If this is what I think it is, then you’ll need me to sense the magicks.’

‘I’m a magick user too, you know,’ I replied.

‘Not like this you’re not.’

I furrowed my brow, but didn’t press the matter further; I didn’t think Tokas would volunteer to walk into a potential trap unless she really thought she could help. ‘Fine,’ I said, and stepped towards the town. ‘But don’t cause trouble.’

Tokas didn’t reply.

"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%