Tokas and I walked, not portalled, into town. I didn’t want to draw any attention to us in case the tiefling was right, that there was danger here. So we waited for a pair of merchants to pass us on the road, then fell in step behind them, acting as though we were with them.

‘Why did you ask me to come?’ Tokas whispered, glancing back at the others—and at Arzak specifically, I suspected.

‘Extra hands,’ I replied, hoping that this would be a good enough answer.

It wasn’t. ‘You don’t want me here, not really. If you have to ask me not to cause trouble, then you don’t trust me.’ Tokas quickly scrambled to add, ‘Not that I blame you.’

‘Let’s just concentrate on the task at hand, yeah?’

But Tokas wasn’t put off. ‘Arzak doesn’t like it. Me being here. I should go.’

‘Once we get Lore, you can do whatever the hells you want. Until then, we need you here. We owe him that. You, in particular, owe him that.’

The tiefling went quiet. I should have known; any talk about what she’d done to betray us was usually quick to shut her up. She just couldn’t face it. I admittedly wasn’t sure I could either. At least we were both talented in emotional compartmentalisation, unlike our orcish friend.

We drew closer to the town, the sights and smells—what little there were of each—tickling our senses. Sand-lashed walls in the eyes, grilled vegetables in the nose.

‘You feel anything?’ I asked.

‘Remorse.’

‘Magicks, I mean. Do you feel a trap?’

‘No more than before. Which is to say… I still think we are in danger.’

I kept my eyes peeled as we entered the town proper. None of the locals seemed to be paying us any mind, not looking at us with anything more than a fleeting glance. Or were they taking care not to look at us?

I shook my head. Tokas was making me paranoid. To prove my paranoia unfounded, I pulled out a handful of loose change, and approached one of the two market stalls, geared towards those on the long road from Zelas to Coldharbour.

‘What’ll it be, young sir?’ a man probably double my age asked, looking down at me with what I can only describe as kind, purple eyes. ‘Water’s cool, fresh from the well,’ he said, gesturing to the selection of waterskins on the stall in front of him. ‘Or I have some rations for the road, cooked this morning.’

‘You got something to cover my head?’ I asked. ‘A cloth, or…’ Something cheap enough that it wasn’t the end of the world in terms of my wealth.

‘Ah, yes, got a little red to your head, ain’t ya? A little red for a human, at least!’ He tossed his head back and laughed as though the joke was hilarious.

I smiled politely.

‘I got just the thing,’ the merchant continued, then pulled some cloth from beneath the table. It was sea green, the exact same shade as Val’s magicks.

‘I’ll take it,’ I said, then, handing over the coins, added, ‘Thanks kindly.’

‘You’re welcome, young sir.’

I retreated from the stall to where Tokas was waiting for me in the shade of a building, tying the new scrap of fabric around my head. Tokas looked at it, but didn’t say anything. With her, that meant she had nothing nice to say about it.

‘You learn anything?’ the tiefling asked.

‘Only that I’m a “young sir” around here.’

Tokas said nothing.

‘And you?’

‘The same uneasy sensation of magicks at play. But I cannot sense the source, as though it is far away, or as though the magicks have been tied off, allowed to fester.’

‘Could be something as simple as a bound water spring?’ I suggested. ‘I heard about them in Coldharbour.’

Again, the tiefling said nothing, shaking her head.

‘Come on,’ I said, holding out my arm for her to hold. ‘Act natural. We’ll look around more.’

‘As a couple?’

‘As a fake couple, yes. Lone travellers arouse more suspicion than couples.’

Tokas hesitated. ‘Aren’t you worried that I’ve just lured you out here to hurt you?’

I lowered my arm. ‘Well I am now you’ve said that.’ I shook my head. ‘No, I know you won’t do that. Not any more.’ Tokas almost seemed pleased to hear this, but I kept my arm lowered nonetheless. ‘Maybe we’re a couple who’ve just had an argument, instead,’ I suggested.

Tokas nodded. Together, we roamed around the town, nodding and smiling politely to the locals, and I was called “young sir” a handful more times. The inhabitants of one of the houses we passed had opened up two of their rooms for travellers, and were even opening up their front room to sell food and drinks. Though they didn’t seem to have quite got this concept down, I insisted Tokas and I stopped in for one. Where better to hear gossip than an inn? Or, at least, the closest thing this small town had for one?

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The proprietor hesitated when we sat down at a table outside and ordered drinks, but that didn’t stop him calling me “young sir” either.

‘They are very polite in this town,’ Tokas noted, and I couldn’t help but hear the judgemental tone that laid under those words.

When the beer came, I took a greedy sip, only to find the liquid warm—not hot—and tasteless. I placed the beer back down on the table. ‘Not… amazing,’ I said.

Tokas hadn’t touched hers, and so couldn’t agree. Instead, she peered around the town, eyes narrowing.

‘Everything alright, young sir?’ the proprietor asked, and I worried for a second that I’d spoken too loudly. Then they continued, ‘Got a little red to your head, ain’t ya? A little red for humans, at least!’

It hadn’t been funny the first time around, but I smiled at the tiefling local and assured him all was fine.

Tokas looked at me with a furrowed brow. ‘What is it?’

‘That’s what the other guy said to me.’

Her brow furrowed further. ‘Exactly?’

‘Yeah, same thing.’

‘No, I mean: exactly? Word for word the same?’

I shrugged. ‘Yeah. I think so.’

‘You think so, or you know so?’

‘I know so. Why’s it important.’

Tokas glanced once more at the proprietor, then at the town at large. She looked back to me. ‘I need your blade.’

I whipped my hand to the dagger in its sheath at my side, holding it in place.

‘I need you to trust me,’ Tokas continued.

‘I don’t. You know that.’

Tokas swallowed. ‘This isn’t Plainside. This isn’t… that. Please, Styk. I’m trying to do better.’ The words sounded awkward coming from her mouth, but that was Tokas. Staring back into those eyes, against my better judgement, I believed her. With a reluctant sigh—and one hand pointing towards the ground at my feet, ready to open a portal—I handed over the knife, pommel first.

‘Thank you,’ the tiefling said, with glistening eyes that suggested she really meant it. Then she stood from her seat and stabbed the local in the chest.

‘Tokas, no!’ I shouted, my stomach dropping, a wave of guilt washing over me. I’d done this. I’d given her the weapon. I’d—

But there’d been no blood.

In fact, the proprietor of this establishment didn’t seem to have noticed the attack at all. He only looked back at me, and asked, ‘Everything alright, young sir?’

Then, the illusion broke.

Ripples of red magicks appeared around us as a huge illusion shattered. The walls faded away. The people too. The edge of the illusion spread further and further from the proprietor’s chest—or, at least, where the man’s chest had been, because there was no man any longer. The seat underneath me disappeared, and I fell, spreadeagled. I landed not on the ornate tiles I’d seen before, but on soft, dry sand. Even the beer was gone, but that wasn’t, I supposed, any great loss.

Further the red glowing ripples travelled, until they encompassed the whole town. It wasn’t just the one man. It wasn’t just the one building. The whole town wasn’t real. The whole town was an illusion. In the distance, more of the “locals” faded away from existence. In the distance, I saw the dark speckles of our allies charging towards us.

A paling Tokas staggered backwards as the illusion shimmered and faded around her. ‘Who…’ she started. ‘Who could have such power?’

I felt a chill run down my spine—a strange sensation in such a warm climate. Then I noticed something worse still. Some of the figures around us didn’t fade. Some of the people were real, hiding within the illusion. But their faces changed. And their clothes took on pale orange hues.

One of them—one with a familiar face—stepped forward, hammer raised.

‘Am sorry, spawn,’ Lillya said.

"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%