It rained on the day we buried Tokas.
Arzak thought it was the gods at work, so rarely did it rain in Coldharbour. But that was the way things went sometimes. Sometimes the weather really did reflect your mood.
It was far from the only funeral held in Coldharbour that day. So many had lost loved ones to the misdeeds of the Councilman. So many mourned. There had been broader devastation, too; people had lost their businesses, their homes. Huge stretches of Coldharbour had been levelled. The road to rebuilding would be long and arduous. If we’d realised the truth sooner, perhaps all of this could have been avoided. Perhaps lives could have been saved. Perhaps Tokas would still be with us.
And yet, despite all this, the citizens of Coldharbour had still made great efforts to thank us. The people of Coldharbour had paid for Tokas’s funeral, had given us rooms in the untouched palace, and put great wealth in the hands of Lambkin, to be given to Tokas’s children when they came of age. The people we met, despite so many having lost their own friends, gave us their most sincere condolences.
There were so many funerals held in Coldharbour that day, yet only the funerals of Tokas and the cultists we’d fought alongside had attendance numbering in the thousands.
Arzak gave the eulogy. I’d heard it dozens of times before as I’d helped the nervous orc practice it overnight, and so instead my attention drifted. Tokas, for all her crimes, hadn’t deserved this. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was responsible for her death. That we all were. If we hadn’t been so involved in petty squabbles—Val and I particularly guilty of this—maybe we would have been paying more attention to the world around us. Maybe we would have realised what the Councilman was capable of. Maybe we would have realised the truth of Alenna’s experiments.
As if Val was thinking the same thing, I felt her hand slip into mine and give it a gentle squeeze. I squeezed back.
* * *
The mood was low, understandably, in the aftermath of the funeral. Arzak had left with Lambkin and the children, leaving the rest of us in the temple, now the only ones there.
Lore was the lowest of us. He sat on wooden bench with head in hands, unmoving. We’d all been to two funerals in as many days, though the turnout for his old friend’s had been… not quite so extensive.
I took a seat at his side. ‘I don’t think I said it before, but I’m sorry about Alenna. I know she was about the closest thing you had to family.’
Lore didn’t move, but I knew he’d heard me. It was just all too much.
‘And about what she did…’
At this, the big man moved to look at me. ‘She did what she thought she had to,’ he said. ‘Alenna was always a fan of the old tiefling stories. Always believed there was a truth in turning your enemies’ strengths against them. I guess she was just… putting her money were her mouth was.’
‘Yeah.’ I said no more, letting Lore continue on his own. After all, this wasn’t really a conversation. It was a chance for Lore to let out some of those feelings he’d been bottling up.
‘She’d go to any lengths to save her people. I get that. I would too. But it… it doesn’t help the pain.’
I put a hand on the man’s shoulder. This time, when he put his head in his hands, he sobbed.
* * *
On the way back to the palace rooms that had been generously gifted to us for as long as we were in Coldharbour, Lore came to an abrupt halt.
Even those in the streets around us stopped to stare. People here knew us. Not just me, the descendant of a Player, but the rest of the team, too. We were the heroes who had saved Coldharbour, if also the heroes who had watched Sunalor fall. The reverence that the people here had once had for the Players had seemed to drifted onto us instead. People wanted to help us. People smiled when we spoke to them. People hopped to serve, even if we would ask them not to.
It only occurred to me now that this meant that Tokas had been successful. Her goal here had been to reveal the truth of the Player, to show the people that these outworlders weren’t what everyone thought they were. That Coldharbour now recognised us as the real heroes instead of the Players meant that the tide was turning. In time, maybe we could count on others, too, to bring the fight to the Council. Hopefully Raelas was out there, right this minute, spreading the word.
‘What is it, Lore?’ Val asked, her voice soft.
‘There’s one more thing I have to do,’ the barbarian said. ‘Will you guys wait for me, in Coldharbour? Just for a few days?’
‘Sure, but what is it? What are you doing?’
‘There’s still malae out in the desert. In the canyon. We need to destroy them.’
I nodded. ‘OK, sure. We’ll come with you, and—’
‘No,’ Lore said, and for a moment I thought I glimpsed the yellow magicks of Divination behind his eyes once more. ‘No, you two… stay here. Trust me.’
I nodded, and watched Lore turn away. He spoke to the people of Coldharbour, many of them freshly out of pale orange robes, and asked for volunteers to go with him, on a mission to eradicate the mala menace. The locals, still in awe of us, stumbled over themselves to volunteer, and it wasn’t long until Lore and Corminar had near enough an army, most armed with torches.
Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed Val staring at me. ‘What?’
‘You sure you don’t want to go? Don’t you want to be the hero?’
I watched Lore and Corminar lead the locals out of town. ‘I want to be a hero, sure. But I’ve never wanted to be that kind of hero. I just want to be good. To help people. That’s all. Maybe get a little rich in the process for all my hard work, sure, but I don’t need the fame. That’s for other people. Besides…’ I nodded to Lore. ‘I think he needs to do this.’
* * *
My and Val’s room in the palace had a balcony with a view over all of Coldharbour, in all its devastation and its beauty. I stood on the balcony, my eyes unfocusing, and breathed in the high, fresh air coming off Coldwater Bay.
I was level 22 now, and far stronger than any other level 22 out there. I’d benefited from the restart, from the experient boost afforded me by the Sisyphus Artifact. I was the one who’d ended the Councilman—though not without the team’s help. I was the strongest of us, now.
The XP that had resulted from the fight only bolstered that. I’d added an experience preservation charge to the artifact, meaning I could afford to die yet again without losing anything. And I’d increased the effect of the experience point gain up to a massive +1,900%. I now grew at twenty times the rate of anyone else. More and more, I was becoming unstoppable.
And that was to say nothing of my two latest abilities. Both had been upgrades, but important upgrades they were.
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Stab IV (Knifework) — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through all but the toughest hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR]. Damage increased by an additional [+100%].
I now dealt double damage with my blade, and could pierce almost all armours. That was what had drawn me to this upgrade rather than any new ability; rendering my enemy’s armour useless made me surely unstoppable. But there was the Worldbending ability upgrade, too.
Portal Slice III (Worldbending) — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects except those specifically imbued with Worldbending protections.
The applications of this upgrade were near endless. I could now use my portals to slice through practically any non-living thing. I could slice through weapons, armour, brick walls… you name it, I could slice through it.
No other level 22 person in Alterra could hope to be this powerful. More and more, the rest of the Slayers were no match for me. I suspected that if it came to fighting any of them—not that I would—I would win handily. Only the Players, the Council themselves, could hope to pose any resistance.
I found something stirring within me, then, as I stood on that balcony. A… temptation, perhaps, for lack of a better word. I’d told Val I had no interest in being the sort of hero who needed fame. But… why not? Who deserved it more than me? And who in this world had done more to deserve it?
My gut twisted when I caught myself on this path of reasoning. This was exactly what Val had been afraid of, back when she’d left. She’d feared me going down this route, becoming the Player that my mother was. But the worst part was that she was right. I did have the potential for it within me. I would have to wrestle those demons.
‘You alright out here?’ Val asked.
I turned back to see her standing in the balcony’s doorway, wearing a necklace and a thin green silk dress that left little to the imagination. I realised my jaw was hanging loose after maybe only fifteen seconds. ‘Where’d you get that?’ I asked.
Val turned on the spot, giving me a good view. ‘You like it? I asked one of the palace staff.’
‘It suits you.’
‘I know.’ Something crossed Val’s face then, a flash of darkness. Had she known what I’d been thinking? What I’d been wrestling with? ‘Styk?’
‘...Yeah?’ I asked, trying to ignore the pit in my stomach.
‘Forgive me.’
I breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t onto me. Not yet. ‘You’ve gotta stop asking that. I told you, I already have.’
‘I know. It’s just… I still feel I have to make it up to you.’
‘Hence the dress?’ I asked.
‘Among other things.’
I traced her figure with my eyes once more, my vision this time settling on the necklace. It was small, silver, and had the shape of a knife in a cage. ‘You have the palace staff bring that too?’
Val fingered the pendant gently. ‘No, I’ve… had this a while. Since Lore’s farm. It’s supposed to symbolise where we met. In a prison. With a butter knife.’
‘That was before…’ I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Val blush before that moment, but blush she did. ‘You’ve known that long?
The witch nodded, and I kissed her. In that moment, I felt all the pain we’d caused each other, all the anguish, all the uncertainty slip away. We were back together, now, and I didn’t want us to ever part again.
‘You still want to make it up to me?’ I asked. ‘I want two things.’
‘Tell me.’
‘I want us to talk to someone around our relationship. To stop squabbling. To sort out any issues between us.’
‘Done. And the other?’
‘I want us to stop wasting time. I want you to marry me.’
* * *
Arzak was squealing with joy. I don’t think I’d ever heard her squeal before.
Val had just told her the news, and the two of them were unabashedly stealing glances at me from the palace steps. I shook my head, trying to ignore them, focusing instead on the contingent marching back to the palace.
Lore and Corminar stood at its head, but at this distance—and in the dim light of the setting sun—I couldn’t see their faces. Surely they sensed from Arzak now jumping up and down with joy that something had happened. But if they’d picked up on it, their body language didn’t show it.
Some way away, Lore turned to his contingent, said a few words, and his party of Coldharbour residents began to disperse. Their job was done. The two Slayers approached, and then I saw that I had been right; their face were glum. My stomach lurched.
‘News?’ Corminar asked, eyebrow raised, nodding to Val and Arzak.
I nodded. ‘I’ll explain later. Something tells me you have more important news.’
Lore looked at me, eyes glowing yellow more brightly than ever. ‘The malae,’ he said. ‘They were gone.’
‘We found only tracks,’ Corminar said. ‘Hundreds of carriages. Heading south. Heading for the Goldmarch.’
‘The Council,’ I said.
Simultaneously, Corminar and Lore nodded.
"Styk"
Level 22 Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 60
Intelligence — 271
Dexterity — 147
Strength — 92
Wisdom — 76
Charisma — 50
Skills:
Worldbending — Level 72
Knifework — Level 52
Stealth — Level 26
Identification — Level 18
Needlework — Level 18
Abilities:
Stab IV — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through all but the toughest hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR]. Damage increased by an additional [+100%].
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].
Throw III — Throw blades at great speed towards your enemy. Deal considerable damage to armourless area, with addition damage scaling with [DEX] and [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 III — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects except those specifically imbued with Worldbending protections.
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.
Titan Husk — Warp your flesh to withstand all physical damage effects, including fire, frost, lightning, poison, and corruption.
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 +1,900%