Zed’s back hit the tree with enough force to shake his bones as Abed shoved him into it.

“I knew we shouldn’t have listened to you,” Abed snarled, spittle flying in Zed’s face as he pinned him in place with a forearm against his neck. “You led us into an ambush!”

Jason reacted immediately and the barrel of his rune blaster shoved against the side of Abed’s head.

“Careful,” he warned. “I don’t want to pull the trigger but I will if I have to.”

Abed’s eyes moved from Zed as he looked at Jason.

“I know a thing or two about rune blasters,” he said, undaunted. “And I know that yours is out of juice.”

Jason shrugged. “True, but think of it as a simple gesture. The real threat is in the rest of my team killing you before I pull the trigger.”

Zed’s eyes picked out Oliver and Ash. Despite how fatigued they looked from using up too many spellforms in their encounter with the stealth types, Oliver was already calling gravity magic to him and Ash looked more than ready to act should she be needed.

The only member of their team that looked unbothered was Chris who watched the scene with disinterest.

“He almost got us killed,” Abed said, his anger far from subsiding. “Because of him we lost Big Man Desolate.”

“Bullshit,” Eitri spat, the rifle he’d fought with gone as if it had never been. “That walking corpse got himself into trouble by himself. And I don’t see why you’re bringing him up. You never liked him, none of us did.”

“True,” Madam Shaggy agreed while Lady Long Legs simply shrugged.

“Besides,” Eitri went on, “something tells me the fool is far from dead.”

“You should also control yourself, Abed,” Madam Shaggy added. “I’m sure you remember who slaved away to bring him back when he was unconscious. I don’t think that person would appreciate you wounding the kid.”

Eyes panned towards Festus who was rested against a tree, a frown on his face as he studied the contents of his book of runes.

They were in a section of the forest where the trees weren’t as burly. The light from the sky was brighter now and streamed in with enough rays to see with. The glowing plants were no longer glowing now that there was enough light to see with and the forest lost a touch of its fantastical nature.

But it wasn’t left any less daunting.

Most of the party members were restless, tired as they caught their breaths. They rested close to each other, mages seated or lying in the grass. Francis and Tulip sat facing each other as they conversed about one thing or the other. Shanine had been relegated to standing beside Festus, a less than important part of the team; a burden if anyone was being honest.

Hillary sat alone. With Jim’s absence he had no one with which to exchange words. The Olympians converged at one point, staring at a miniature version of the map captain Ven had shown them, no doubt having a conversation in their silence. Meanwhile Zed remained in the hold of Abed, pinned down by a strength he significantly doubted he could over power, he could feel the fur of the tree crawling about the places where his skin touched it like a thousand ants flocking to a puddle of sugar.

It wasn’t necessarily uncomfortable, but it was slightly disturbing. Regardless, he held his silence and waited for the other Rukh mages to talk Abed down. There was no benefit to him in the death of Abed if he died first.

“The fool led us into an ambush,” Abed repeated again, as if it somehow pleaded his case.

“And you didn’t see the ambush,” Eitri said, discarding the point. “The kid only gave his opinion on a route we could’ve followed.”

“And I was against it from the start. We should’ve listened.”

“We really shouldn’t have,” Lady Long Legs objected, a hand on her waist. “All you did was say he was wrong with pointless reasons. If you had sounded like an actual Rukh mage instead of a jealous lover boy, maybe we would’ve listened.”

“It had nothing to do with that!” Abed scowled. “He was simply wrong and I knew it.”

“Yet, you offered no idea of your own,” Ash pointed out.

“This is not your place Beta rank.”

“She does have a point, though,” Eitri said. “This is a deadly endeavor. We all knew it before we joined. We knew we were going to be running into Rukh rank monsters and fighting for our lives and we agreed to come along. So we all know an opinion like, ‘I don’t know what it is but I know what it is not’ doesn’t hold water here.”

Abed turned his attention to Madam Shaggy and she simply shrugged.

Abed’s scowl deepened but he said nothing further.

Zed raised a hand and tapped Abed’s arm to draw his attention.

When Abed looked at him, he gave the man his most harmless smile.

“I’m glad we could all have this talk,” he said. “But, if it’s not too much to ask, can you let me go while we finish it. The blood’s no longer reaching my brain and I can almost feel myself getting dumber. Heck, I didn’t understand anything the guy with the disappearing gun said.”

The pressure on Zed’s neck grew and he choked on his words. “That’s a no, then, I take it.”

“You’re pushing it, Abed,” Jason warned.

And you’re doing nothing about it, Zed thought.

Everyone remained standing, motionless, as if in some kind of deadlock as they waited for who would break it.

Zed choked in silence as they waited. He’d tried his luck at bargaining for his freedom, even if poorly, and had failed. His only hope now was that he didn’t run out of air before the group made a decision.

Luckily, the decision was made for them.

“I gathered a party and gave very strict warnings,” Ven said, approaching them as his gathering of Olympians disbanding. “In the event that the most recent events have led us to forget that warning, I will repeat it. Any and every mage that proves to be a detriment to the party or members of the party will be put down without question. By virtue of strength, only one mage has proven themselves above this warning.” He came to stop beside Abed. “And that mage is not you, Abed.”

Abed turned his scowl at Ven, looking up at the armored Olympian with the pained expression of the betrayed.

“Let him go,” Ven told him. “I won’t say it again.”

Abed stepped away from Zed and Zed fell to the ground gasping for air. It filled his lungs in a rush and he sucked in more with each breath.

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“A moment too late and I’d have been scouting from the skies above,” he said.

Ven’s head turned slightly and Zed could feel the man behind the faceless helmet studying him.

“The intelligence I saw with the map,” Ven said. “Was it a fluke? Was that you or is this you?”

Zed shrugged. “I come in different flavors, depending on when I’m needed.”

Ven made a sound somewhere between a grunt and a groan before turning back to everyone else.

“We’ve checked the scans and there aren’t any beasts following,” he said.

“Your scans didn’t catch them the first time,” Abed said. “Why are we to trust it a second time.”

“Because the first time we scanned for mana signatures, a mistake we shouldn’t have made,” he said, turning to Kid while the other Olympian looked away. “This time we’ve scanned for mana signatures and heat signatures. There are more monsters on the path but not something we can’t handle.”

“So you’re sending us back in there,” Abed said. “We’ve got a non-mage with us.”

“Would you rather leave?” Eitri asked from where he stood.

“It’s not a terrible idea,” Abed replied. “Just get me an updated map and I’m sure I can plot a way out of this forest and get her to safety.”

Shanine left Chris and moved to Zed. He was already standing, observing the conversation as if he hadn’t been pinned to a tree not too long ago with his life practically in Abed’s hands.

Regardless, Shanine slipped behind him so that he covered half of her.

“Don’t let him take me,” she begged quietly. “I don’t want to go with him.”

“I don’t intend to,” he told her. “But you’d get a better chance if you go with that Olympian.”

Shanine looked at the Olympians, confused. “Which one?”

Zed pointed at Ronda. “That one.”

“Why?”

“Well, remember when I met you at the party with Abed?”

“Yes.”

“She was the woman with me.”

“What does that have to do with anything.”

“Well, she didn’t know you but she was more than willing to fight Abed if it meant freeing you from him, even though he was stronger than her.”

Shanine frowned. “Well, she’s still weaker than him, though.”

“Not really,” Zed said. “Besides, even if she is, the literal commander of this group is on her side so that should count for something.”

They fell into a silence of the kind that blooms at the conclusion of a conversation. Their quiet whispers concluded, Zed returned his attention to Ven.

“…Now the path of the fallen trees is just around the corner,” Ven was saying. “And since the non-mage doesn’t want to go back, we’ll simply push on. After all, we’ve already gone in too deep to be turning around. The mana surge is just around the corner and once we find it, we can start plotting a new course out of here, where everyone can receive their payments and we can all go our separate ways.”

Ven’s face moved to Zed for a moment before returning back to the others.

“Now,” he continued, “the plan for this is simple. From what we’ve seen of the map, once we’re over the fallen trees, we’ll have a few more monsters to contend with. Most of them will be Beta ranks, so in the spirit of growth the rest of us will play support while the Beta mages fight. Any objections to that?”

Zed raised a hand.

“Yes,” Ven said.

“We’re only two Beta mages,” Zed said.

“I’m aware. Is that an objection or are you merely pointing out the obvious.”

Zed lowered his hand and shrugged. “Apparently, I was pointing out the obvious. That was unwise of me.”

“Noted.” Ven returned his attention to the group. “Now, once that is dealt with, we have a long stretch in front of us before we reach a bit of a clearing. On the other side of the clearing is something that seems to be a tree. Our scans show its quite massive and that’s where the three monsters are, even now. Then comes the most important part. We’ll need all the Rukh mages we can get to stop them. And to be successful, we’ll need to do that without interruptions. But there is a chance that once the fighting begins, other monsters will see that as a chance to get a taste of the good stuff. It is important to know that we cannot be interrupted.”

“The good stuff?” Zed asked.

“The mana surge,” Ven explained. “If the other monsters intrude on our fight, then we can consider this a failure. The plan is to leave at least two Rukh mages behind with you and Ash. Your duty will be to hold back any monster that starts to make its way to us.”

“And what if Rukh monsters show up?” Ash asked with a raised hand.

“That’s what the Rukh mages are for. We’ve checked the scans and the closer we get to the mana surge, the weaker the monsters are. There’s technically only Beta monsters so close to it. However,” Ven added, stalling Ash’s raised hand, “we cannot eliminate the fact that too many Rukh monsters could show up, so we intend on ending our fight before that happens. Which means we’ll be going hot and we’ll be going hard. I take it you’re still with us, operations commander Festus?”

Festus raised his head from his book with a puzzled expression.

“Wah?”

“I take it you’ll be joining us for the fight,” Ven repeated.

“Which wah?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You sai’ we fy’t,” Festus repeated slowly. “Fy’t hu?”

Zed gestured towards Ronda, nudging Shanine in her direction. When the girl moved, Zed made his way to Festus.

Festus saw him coming and frowned. Zed gave him a smile in return as he came to stop where he was.

“Can we count on you to join us in the fight against the monsters at the mana surge?” Ven asked.

“’Ow ’any?”

“How many?” Zed interpreted, peering over Festus’ shoulder and into his book. Unsurprisingly, Festus had been busy working on runes.

He had a pencil in his hand and scribbles on the pages open to him.

Having spent a considerable amount of time being trained by Festus even when the old man’s mind was muddled by his practice of new runes, Zed understood his confused words well enough to play interpreter.

“Three,” Ven answered Zed’s question, his voice confused.

“You fighting the monsters?” Zed asked Festus, slipping his hand over his shoulder to touch what looked like a complete rune. “What does this one do?”

“No ai’dia,” Festus muttered. “Taw it in tha ais of wan of tha sneks we run into. Prolaly a veak rune. A perseftion rune, maybe.”

“Can I interpret that as a weak rune and a perception rune?” Zed asked.

Festus nodded.

“I see. So we haven’t figured out what it does. Nothing good, I take it, if you’re seeing it in the eyes of snakes called woven vipers.”

“Operations commander,” Ven tried to draw Festus’ attention.

“He’s a bit occupied,” Zed answered. “But he said he’ll fight with you.”

Festus looked up from the book.

“Wah ’m I fytin?” he asked Zed.

“Bishop rank monsters,” Zed answered. “May I have that,” he added, slipping the pen from Festus’ hand. “By the way, how do you see runes in a monster’s eyes. I saw the snakes, too, but I didn’t see any runes.”

“Tha’s becos ju din’t loo’ well.”

“So monsters can use runes, too, then?”

“No.”

“But you can see runes in monsters,” Zed said, surprised, while Ven moved on to addressing the others with words Zed wasn’t listening to. “How do you see them if they don’t use them.”

“Evryfin have rune,” Festus explained, frowning. “Is ther if ju luk.”

“So I’m not just looking well.”

“Yes.”

Zed nodded. He placed the pencil between the open pages of Festus’ book and reached over to close it.

“From what I’m getting, you’re kind of in charge of this,” he told Festus gently. “I know it’s not rune based, but it’s going to be problematic if the others don’t understand a word you say. So why don’t we continue after the whole mana surge thing.”

Festus scowled at him but did not refuse. Instead, he opened the book back up and flipped through it. He stopped at a page with different runes and pointed at one at the top corner.

“Ju hav faya rune,” he said. “Ju len win’ rune.”

Zed peered down at the rune. “Is that a wind rune?”

“Yes,” Festus said, then he pointed out two other runes. “Briz rune, air rune. Dis win’ rune.”

Zed looked at the runes. Wind, air, and breeze. They all looked similar but were different. It was in the crossing of what he was beginning to term the final lines. The air rune’s final line was simple and regal, there were no complications to it and it finished with simplicity. It would be the easiest to learn.

The breeze rune was different from the air rune in the way twins are different and he watched them with the experienced knowledge longtime friends of identical twins simply possess to help them differentiate between twins. Most people think it is an instinctive thing while others think it’s about a slight difference in mannerisms. In truth, it is none of those.

When a person spends enough time around twins, each twin simply begins to look different. They are identical but different. It is in the slight shape of the head, the almost imperceptible difference in how their brows curve. It’s in their eyes. In the same way, when enough time is spent around runes, no matter how similar the runes are, there will always be differences to spot.

As for the wind rune, it stood out completely. It was half of a breeze rune and half of an air rune. But most importantly, it was sharp.

Zed had a feeling it wasn’t simply a wind rune, not in the way wind was interpreted.

“Have it,” Festus said, holding the book out to Zed. “You’ll need it to study the rune.”

“Hey,” Zed smiled. “Your English is back.”

“And I can still smack you upside the head. Now stop acting like you’re my favorite grandchild and start learning. I intend for you to be able to at least draw it on your own by the time we get back.”

Zed took the book graciously but couldn’t restrain the urge to point one thing out.

“Once we continue the journey, Ash and I are scheduled to fight a few more monsters on our own.”

Festus’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Why?”

“They are all Beta rank monsters.” Zed shrugged. “Or at least they are supposed to be. It’s in the spirit of trying to make us stronger. We’ll fight them because we’re the only ones that’ll find them challenging.”

Festus took a moment to think about it before nodding.

“I guess that makes sense.”

“Which means your book might not be safe.”

Festus shrugged unbothered, but his words were far from his reaction.

“If anything happens to my book, I’ll give you an extra mouth to talk out of.”