For all the excitement Killian had the night before, the departure from the city was rather mundane. Meeting at the front gate to the city, Killian arrived last to avoid the amount of attention he would garner, but it didn’t seem to matter. Talks of the Dusk Elf going to clear a dungeon with some adventurers could already be heard by some of the people he quickly passed along the way. The trio had said they would provide some of the more magical or specialized gear since he provided everything else. After letting him know they were ready, they departed on foot.
Killian offered to shift them into the newly prepared dungeon camp pocket space, but the trio said they should take their time and enjoy the trip. The ride in the Jeep would already cut the weeklong walk down to about three days or less depending on terrain conditions, so it would be a good excuse to just have fun. After the group was far enough from the city gates, Killian shifted the Jeep out, and the real journey began.
Killian had to admit he agreed with his friends; flying may have been faster, but he was enjoying the trip as he was. He got to enjoy introducing Blue Feather to various genres of music, and since they could understand the language, they began to fight over what to listen to. Arden seemed to like electronic music like dubstep or techno, stating that a lot of it was relatively simple in structure and most didn’t have lyrics so he could just focus on the brand new sounds and melodies. Shan surprised Killian when she found the album for that videogame where the guy kills demons with a sawed-off double barrel shotgun and began headbanging without even knowing that was a thing. It shouldn’t have surprised him given her temper, and when he pointed that out, he got the same treatment as Arden usually did. Imari didn’t have a hard favorite, but she did seem to enjoy the few orchestral pieces Killian had on his phone. She had a habit of tapping to the next song before the current one was finished, eager to hear what was coming up next. This, of course, annoyed everyone else to no end.
Whether they listened to music or spent the time chatting, the group held nothing but smiles. This pattern continued until the night of the second day of the trip. Killian plopped down into his camping chair, doing his best to keep his frustration from bursting out of his chest. He had still not made any projects with his spatial weapon. For two months, in between learning everything else he could about magic, he still had devoted time to try and work out this spell. And for two months he had failed. Killian just couldn’t work out how to make a version of it that could be moved; even now he sat surrounded by cut pieces of rock and grass with nothing to show for it. The trio were sprawled out on a blanket in front of the chair Killian set up for himself, at first interested to watch Killian as he used his magic, but after a couple of hours of failure, they now lounged in relaxation. Imari lay in the middle, and she talked quietly with Shan to her right, and Arden to her left sat up and spoke to Killian to help distract him.
Killian had asked Arden to tell him about his abilities, having been interested after seeing him in action when they first met, and Arden jumped to help Killian ignore his mounting frustration. He was surprised to learn that, unlike games and movies back on earth, Arden's magic was powered by rage. He thought of screaming barbarians instead of competant warriors like Arden. He called it "His Fury," an ability to charge magical energy with emotions and use it for various purposes. Arden was a happy and carefree man by Killian's estimation, but as he listened to Arden explain, he learned hidden depths to his new friend that he hid quite well.
Arden was an orphan, his parents having died quite young. He was raised by a family friend who was a highly regarded adventurer named Kelnick. Arden used to get into all kinds of trouble, lashing out at the pain of losing his parents, only starting to calm himself when he met Imari and Shan. Kelnick decided the boy needed an outlet for the remaining emotions and, after beginning to train him in combat, saw he had a talent for emotional magic. Kelnick held the same affinity and so taught him to use that pain and anger to make himself stronger. Arden could gather ambient ether and, with his will, force it into shapes or effects to enhance himself in combat. Killian learned that, depending on the emotion, a person could do many different things, which reminded him of his own sorcery. Arden could only use anger to any real degree, and it was primarily used for physical enhancement. It had only been a couple of years, Killian learned, that Arden could focus his fury outside of himself to enhance his sword and shield. Killian remembered the devastating slashes the warrior delt to the Nightmare and how he used a shield bash to topple it onto what had qualified as its back.
Killian listened long enough to calm down, noticing movement in the grass to his right. He was still getting used to his spatial sense, and so without looking away, he could see the snake as it began to slither under the blanket the trio laid on. He noticed that Arden had spotted the animal as well, waving Killian down before he got up to grab it. It slithered completely under the blanket and moved in the warriors direction, Killian assuming the other man would deal with it.
As it slowly made its way under the blanket, Killian only continued to listen with half an ear. Arden's words fell into muted background noise as something stirred in Killian's mind, only realizing a few moments after the fact he had spun up his mind to watch the snake move in slow motion. He followed the bulge of the creature as it slithered, watching the petaled pattern of the cloth rise as it moved under it, like a ripple pushing the cloth around itself only for it to drop back in place after it's passing, leaving no evidence it was ever there.
A searing hot spike pulsed in Killian's mind. "That's it!" he shouted, shooting up from his chair.
"Whoa, what?" Arden choaked out, stopping in the middle of his description of his magic.
The two women leaned up from the laid-back position, Shan noticing the snake. She absentmindedly grabbed it by the head just as it showed itself, throwing it away from camp, and asked, "What's it? Did you figure out a way to make your thing work?" gesturing at the space he had practiced his magic a short time ago.
"Yes!" he said, more to himself, but the others heard him all the same. Killian began to pace a few strides back and forth, saying, "For my spell to work, I need to bend physical space. The problem is you can bend, push, pull, or twist it all you want, but it can only go so far. And anywhere I managed to move it would only drag even more space behind it. But I don’t need to do that, at least not directly. I should have figured this out before; after all, I've watched objects move through distorted space plenty of times by now, twisting and turning as they follow the new path I have manipulated. But I don’t need to bend the space directly; I just need to create a pattern that bends the space it's in at that given moment."
He bent down, placing his hand under the blanket, moving the tip of his finger in random circles as he continued.
"It's like that snake just now. When it was moving underneath this blanket, it distorted the shape of it by pushing it up. You could watch it move around by the impression it made, but the blanket itself never moved. The snake did. If I treat physical space as the blanket, I just need to use my magic to create something to act as the snake, something to bend it in the way I need. That way, I can wave it anyway I choose because I won't be moving the space itself."
The trio already had a difficult time understanding anything beyond teleporting or his pocket spaces when it came to his magic, but this went completely over Arden and Shan's heads. Imari nodded along, understanding the theory behind it if not the underlying concepts involved. When the dusk elf sat back down and began to stare into his hands as he attempted to work out his idea, they left him to it.
Killian spent the next two hours ignoring the night around him as he tried to use his space magic in a new way for the first time. He thought that he would be relying on his invested ability of increased dimensional manipulation to aid him, but it was tough going. He used his spatial sense to focus on the space in front of him but realized he would have to lean more on his sorcery. The spell he was trying to make would definitely fall under space magic, but he would be using normal magic to create the pattern he wanted his innate magic to follow. Killian was sure his training with Seren and the books she gave him were the only reason he might be able to do it. Reading those firsthand accounts as the sorcerers described how they needed to frame their mind and focus on the result they wanted readied Killian to work on his first real bit of magic, not just handed to him.
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Killian stared at the distortion of light he gripped in his hand, smiling when he moved it with ease. It was a strange sensation to be sure; he managed to work out a way to have something to hold onto, but there was no weight to the magic in his hand. As he sliced the air with a few small strikes, he felt like a kid playing with a pretend sword. He walked to a nearby tree and slashed the magic downward towards a low hanging limb. He felt no resistance, but the limb fell to the ground with a thump. He nearly stumbled from the force he put into the swing, expecting it to feel like it would with a normal sword. He realized that was foolish; he understood how it functioned and that there wouldn’t be any resistance; he didn’t actually cut the limb, just interposed empty space where the limb occupied, which effectively did the same thing.
The trio shot up from their nodding off when the tree limb hit the ground and saw Killian standing there in shock. Shooting up, they barraged him with questions, with Arden picking up the limb for Killian to try a few more times. With a twitch of his hand, chunks flew from the limb to bounce in the grass. He poked the trunk of the tree, only doing minor damage when the top part of the edge touched the trunk; this would be a slicing and chopping weapon; he couldn’t figure out a way to fold space to get a point as well as an edge.
As the trio made their way back to their blanket, discussing how Killian's new weapon could be used in the incoming dungeon delve, he looked down to inspect his work. For all the effort he had put into it, it was a simple and crude-looking bit of magic. It would be difficult for others to keep track of, but with his spatial sense, he could take in its shape with ease. The "blade" of the weapon was about one and a half feet long and about half a foot wide. It resembled a large cleaver more than it did a sword. Only the front edge and sides would be useful, the sides being used for blocking. When another weapon or something similar hit one of the two sides, it would move through the bent space and follow its path until it came back around and hit itself, meaning blocking would feel strange as well, seeing as the blocking force would be whatever someone else put into it.
Crude and ugly though it was, Killian grinned to himself. This was his first bit of real magic; he made a laser spell sure, but it just followed a pattern to create a new effect. This spell, he had to work out himself start to finish, and he was sure there was nothing else like it in the world. He was the only one with his magic; it was made for him by one of the higher deities, so he held in his hand the first spell of its kind. He thought back to all the fantasy tabletop roleplaying games he played back home and how all of the wizards used their own names when naming a new spell.
Killian's Planar Razor. Bad ass.
He had to chuckle to himself that the first two spells he made in the world rhymed, laser and razor, but he would just call the laser a beam and move on. He sat back down, and the others made him celebrate even though he was mentally drained from the non-Euclidian mindset and had to use. Caving, Killian leafed through his food warehouses and gave his friends an evil grin, telling them that he would be committing a heinous crime against them. He shifted a pizza into his hands, fresh as if it just came from the oven, and told them that they would never be able to forget the flavor and be slaves to him in hopes of getting one more taste. It was just a local delivery-style pizza, not one of the expensive and high-quality ones. With the speed Shan wolfed it down and the looks she gave him when there was none left in the box, Killian worried he may have made a mistake. The party wound down, and the group went to sleep to make sure they were rested for the danger and excitement waiting tomorrow.
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Killian and the members of Blue Feather stood in front of a broken staircase. The top step was flush with the earth but looked as if it had been sheared off by Killian's razor. The stair led downward to a closed door, itself and the walls surrounding it three feet to either side made from an unfamiliar stone. It would have been easy to miss; nothing stood out about it unless you were close up or looking down from the sky. That's how it had been found, Shan informed him. A rider spotted it during routine patrol and landed to investigate. Killian was lost in thought when he felt a tug at his sleeve.
"Here," Imari said, handing him a leather box pouch. "Inside are a few healing potions. I know you could just store them, but it's better to have some on you. Dungeons can come from anywhere in any plane, so it wouldn’t be weird to run across a place or effect that stops magic from working. Maybe you can still access your pocket spaces, but I'd rather not find out you can't when you need one."
Killian nodded and looped the pouch through his belt. Inside were four finger-length vials with a red liquid. He thought they had a slight glow to them, but it was hard to tell in the daylight. Turning to view the others, they were finishing their own preparations. Killian had most of their supplies stored away, but they each had a back with some basic rations, rope, some various tools, and some more specialized gear for each of them. Arden carried a massive greatsword on his back, informing Killian it was for when protection went out the window in the need of raw damage. Imari had a case with rolled paper and pens for easy access. More than just a hobby, there could be a lot of useful information to be found in dungeons, from magical secrets to interesting locations in other planes. Shan looked pretty much the same, only making sure her falcon Nahlen had a hammock-like pouch strapped to her back so he could rest in. The size of dungeons could be deceiving, but in close quarters, Nahlen would be less effective if not in danger from friendly fire.
After the others sounded off they were ready, Killian checked his pistol was snug in its holster, the pouch was firmly secured to his belt, and formed a razor in his left hand, nodding he was ready as well. They formed up, Killian being able to be anywhere in the formation; he walked next to Imari, who was in the middle with Shan in the back, leaving the position of vanguard to Arden. The man held his shield out in his left hand, his longsword loosely in the right. The jovial and carefree countenance he normally wore transformed into the quiet and focused look of a professional. He led the party onto and then down the stairs. Shan had already given the door a once-over and was confident there were no traps, so Killian used his telekinetic ability to open the door ahead of Arden so he could maintain the guard.
Moving into the space, the four found themselves standing in a room made of the same stone as the entrance. Aside from the sunlight pouring in from behind them, the chamber was dark. Killian could feel moisture in the air, thick and heavy. A grit he could feel on his teeth. He had listened to what a dungeon was, but it didn’t prepare him for the otherworldly feeling that slid across him as he stood in this place. Imari whispered a few arcane words, and a ball of light filled the room with a soft glow.
The four could make out more of the room, seeing a stone table against the right wall and a few broken stone chairs. Another door against the far wall had metal bands wrapping it and a thick lock of the same metal hung from a loop on the frame holding it closed. The room was devoid of anything else. Killian took all of this in with his eyes and spatial sense. The trio warned him to keep it close; they had heard stories of adventurers seeing things not meant for mortal eyes in dungeons and going mad and didn’t want Killian to catch something like that behind a wall without knowing.
The room was unremarkable to his spatial sense, but to his eyes he could tell something was off, though he didn’t know what.
"You guys think this room is weird too?" He prompted.
"Mhmm," Arden acknowledged.
"It's the light," Shan said, holding her bow at the ready. When Imari and Killian looked back to her in confusion, she said, "Move the ball of light around."
Imari gestured with a finger, the ball moving ahead and over to the table and then to the door. It took Killian a few seconds to see it. The shadows moved as normal, but when the spell moved closer to a wall or floor, that spot didn’t get brighter. The same amount of light would be on the wall right next to it as it would be across the room.
"The stone is absorbing the light, well, most of it. Only enough to let someone see, but the rest is vanishing into the stone," he said.
Imari walked to place her hand on the closest surface, saying, "It's cool, so I don’t know if it's absorbing it, though maybe it's just been dark in here long enough. If it does absorb light, I would imagine it would heat up after some amount of time. I don’t feel any movement in the ambient magic either."
Her words reminded Killian of his Dusk Elf ability to sense magic. He had never really used it till now, so he slowly reached out to see what he could sense. The ambient ether in the room felt different than outside; it was hard to describe. It felt still. Stagnant. It also felt... sad? This was a strange ability, and the information it gave was hard to put into words. Killian came back to himself as Arden spoke.
"Are we moving forward?" he stiffly asked.
The others looked and nodded, Imari stating, "Yes."
Killian walked in front of Arden to the door, placing his razor against the lock and flicking his hand downward. Pulling the remains out of the door, he blinked back into formation and opened the door like before.
Air flowed into the space behind the door, a sound flowing back into their room to replace it. It was hard to make out for a few moments, only getting easier when it grew louder. It was wet, like the sound someone made with a nasty cough. The undeniable sound of something rattling around where it shouldn’t. A few heartbeats later, it became obvious what the sound was. Groaning. It held as much pain as it did anger.
As the sound of metallic-like pings began to move closer to the open door, Arden spoke to the group in a firm but calm voice.
"Get ready. We're not alone."