Ferra braced, putting all his force into the horizontal blow. His target contemptuously blocked the blow, sending Ferra stumbling as he withdrew his glowing yellow training blade.
“Shield!” A voice roared out across the valley.
Without hesitation, the divine welled up within Ferra, infusing his shield and body. The greatsword swung from above and Ferra set himself against the shield; the impact sounded like the tinkling of bells, his hasty enchantment not yielding to the blow. His shoulder would have likely broken or at least bruised, had his entire body not been suffused with stolid divine energy.
“Good, your speed and quality are improving. It didn’t crack that time.” If Ferra had not been capable of healing, his body would currently be a map of bruises; Grek’s training held no punches.
“Again!”
Ferra went through the form again, getting into his stance and swinging at Grek. Just as easily the swing was blocked, though at least with each repetition he felt slightly more sure of the motion. Grek’s return swing came again, this time from the side and slightly harder than before. Ferra would have tumbled, had done so in the past; he’d learned to brace his feet against the ground using light, and so instead he just added another bruise to the collection.
“Again!”
They went until his limbs were shaking and his thoughts wavering such that he could no longer safely call on the divine, the well growing empty and ever harder to pull from.
“Good work today.” Grek gave him a clap on the back, the towering man nearly bowling him over. “A few more weeks and we’ll make a bulwark of you yet, and your mental endurance is already better than I’d hoped for. “
Ferra collapsed into the grass and gave the taller man a weak thumbs up. “Woo.”
The weariness in his voice was rather self evident; it was all Ferra could do to prevent himself from passing out.
Grek chuckled as he sat on a stump nearby. “If you don’t want to be made into a vanguard, you’ll need to master that velocity trick pretty soon here. It’s a sad state of affairs but we only really need you for the zone control right now; against most enemies after the walls are down, you might as well at least be practiced with frontlining. Takes some pressure off me, and we can have you intercept any enemies that might slip past and head for Mel or Mirana.”
Ferra just groaned. “I feel like a beaten mule.”
Unseen by the cleric, Grek nodded. “Good. That means it’s working. When you stop getting bruises, I’ll have taught you all I can.”
Ferra turned his head to send a baleful glare towards the seated man. “Some day I’ll make sure to return the favor.”
The orc grinned. “Excellent! I look forward to the day you have something to teach me.”
“Ugh. Are all orc teaching methods so thoroughly abusive?”
“Oh, stop your whining. When I was your age and was learning from the clan’s warriors, I didn’t have the advantage of soothing my bruises away with the light of Kiara.”
“No shamans or druids?”
“Hah. No, we have both, and in plentiful numbers. But asking for healing was an indication you weren’t up to the task of learning whatever was being taught.”
Ferra digested that for a moment, before rolling onto his side facing Grek. “Y’know, you’re not doing a very good job on selling me the merits of orc culture.”
“You don’t see the merits of diligence, hard work, and commitment?”
“That’s just the same thing three times!”
“Hmm, I must not have given you enough bruises. I’ll keep it in mind for tomorrow’s session.”
“Philea must love you guys.”
“It’s true, there is no shortage of followers of Vengeance among my people. Vaegar, Lomon, and Prill are just as common, however.”
“What about Gomon?”
“We are still as yet undecided as to if Lomon and Gomon are two sides of the same deity or separate entities.”
“What about you, yourself? Who do you pray to?”
The orc was silent a moment, watching the sunlight slowly fade, setting behind the peak at the center of the island. Ferra was beginning to think he didn’t plan to answer, when the man finally spoke. “Personally I hew towards Gomon. Justice and personal integrity call to me more than Law and respect for my betters; it’s a sad truth that even the best of people aren’t as good as they think they are, and my family’s disagreements with the elders were one of the reasons we ended up heading to Vale. Tradition is a valuable tool, but they can’t see that in this case it’s preventing positive growth.”
The cleric had nothing to say to that, so he didn’t.
The two sat in contented quiet; if Grek was upset, he kept it to himself. The sounds of wind whistling and leaves rustling filled Ferra’s ears. The change of pace was nice, after all the stress of recent weeks. He couldn’t help but let a small contented smile creep onto his face. No plans, no schemes, no training, no being exiled from your home; Just listening to nature and watching the sunset after a hard day.
It couldn’t last, of course. Before too long Grek stood with a sigh. “We should probably head back.”
“People might start wondering where we are?”
“No, remember Mirana is watching.”
Ah, right. It was standard procedure for the team. Can’t get lost or ambushed if there’s always someone keeping an eye out for you; fae friends were uniquely suited to the task. “Dinner?”
“That, and night creatures. Mirana just sent me a warning.”
“Ah, fair enough.” With a groan Ferra rolled over, stood slowly, stretched, and winced. “Ow.”
Grek gave him a broad grin. “Good training, eh?”
“I certainly feel like I’m learning, just wish it didn’t hurt so much!”
The lawgiver continued speaking as they started walking out of the valley, into the trees. “Well you get off easy for now. We’ll be doing team practices much of tomorrow, and after that we’ll be starting the survey.”
“That’ll be underground work, right?”
“Indeed. The witches and druids’ long range rituals are in agreement. This and the nearby islands are all supposedly sources of various critical materials, arcanite among them. Mirana’s almost finished her surface survey, and then we need to map the caves out for ore, minerals, and other resources. A relatively low risk assignment for while we’re on probation, but an important one that makes good use of Mirana’s and Avalanche’s less combat focused skills.”
“And then we compile all our findings into a report for Haven’s administrators to begin doling out to companies?”
“Exactly.”
The sound of snapping twigs took front and center for a number of steps before Ferra spoke again. “Well I must say it’s always a pleasure to watch such competent people work.”
“Ah no, you think too highly of us. We can reach yet higher, there’s still four more ranks to climb in the guild.”
Ferra snorted. “And I say you’re too hard on yourself. How many teams actually hold those ranks, when compared to the total population of adventurers out there? You’re already at the peak for average person, so if you think you still have space to grow that’s really just a boast moreso than being humble.”
A chuckle. “Mmm, I see you’ve trapped me with my own words. I suppose I have no choice but to accept the compliment, then.”
Before Ferra could respond, he was interrupted by the sound of the rope ladder up to the airship unrolling from where it was moored fifty feet above.
“Alas, I have always hated this part. I find it easier to just use law, despite the risks.”
So saying, Grek suddenly leapt up like gravity had forgotten him, traveling in a wide arc towards the deck of the ship. With a sigh and no small amount of jealousy, Ferra engaged in the laborious task of climbing a wildly swinging rope ladder with arms trembling so badly that he could hardly hold on.
When he finally reached the top he saw Grek and Mel both waiting, grins on their faces. Before he could say anything Mel impudently quizzed him. “What took you so long?”
Grek crossed his arms. “Hey, that’s my line!”
Mel stuck her tongue at him. “Sucks to be you!” With a flourish and a swish of the hair, she sauntered belowdecks.
Grek sighed. “Truly I am cursed with the worst subordinates. Stealing someone else’s punchline is deplorable.”
“But we were training with swords, today. No punchline to be seen.”
“You-” Grek’s face ran through a mixture of expressions before settling on vague amusement and exasperation. “Even the newbie is talking trash at me. How far the mighty fall.”
He chuckled. “In any case, the meal’s ready. Traditional elfin fare or so I’m told, courtesy of Mirana. Supposedly she’s trying out a new dish today.”
“Hmm, details?”
“All I know is that she apparently engaged in a good bit of foraging for it. I guess this island has quite a few edible plants. I swear, if she tries feeding me nothing but grass again…” Grek shook his head woefully as he headed towards the stairs.
“Grass..?”
“Early on in our career she tried making a meal entirely out of leafy greens, forgetting that orcs can’t really live off of that kind of thing. Went to bed hungry, that night, after handing out a good deal of ribbing.”
“Ribbing?” Ferra inquired with an innocent smile, holding the smugness back.
Grek stuttered mid step before continuing. “Puns are one of the inescapable facts of this world it would seem, to my continued dismay.”
The cleric said nothing, only laughing quietly as he followed Grek into the eatery.
It’d been a week, now, since Nova Fists had unreservedly welcomed him into their ranks after their first meeting in that guild hall. The meals were great and the company delightful; it was almost enough for Fezzik to forget he was lying to them all. Sometimes he was tempted to tell them; they might get pulled into his problems, they deserved to know.
Then his conversation with his father echoed in his ears, and then temptation faded.
No one could know. It would be ‘politically inconvenient’ if he existed, after all, so he must not. Fezzik was dead.
Ferra shook off the thoughts as he sat down, narrowly keeping a frown from showing. Mel beamed and waved, laughing when he let out a groan. “Another tough day?”
“My bones feel like they’re slowly becoming less bone and more powder with every new day of training.”
“Mmm.” Avalanche rumbled. “That means it’s working.”
Ferra shot the impudent lump of rock a quick glare. “Not you too!”
“Y’know, Avalanche has been this smug every time someone goes through Grek’s training.” Mel slugged him on the arm and then rubbed at her hand, wincing. “He got out of it on ‘medical conditions.’”
“Someday you will learn that hitting me on the arm is ineffective.”
“I doubt it.” Mirana snorted. “Can’t teach Mel anything.”
Mirana toppled over backwards with a shout, sprawling onto the floor as her chair tipped over.
“Y’know I did learn recently how to move physical objects without burning them using my flames.” Mel smiled innocently, batting her eyelashes.
“On the topic of me, and how amazing I am.” Mel turned to Ferra. “I keep forgetting to toss the idea at you, but I kinda want to try making armor out of the flaholy magic.”
Ferra raised an eyebrow. “Flaholy?”
The woman shrugged. “Well Avalanche hasn’t named the combination yet, and we’re the ones that discovered it, so it’s only natural that I would name it.”
“That is,” Grek sipped at his mug, “a uniquely terrible name.”
She shrugged again. “They can’t all be winners. Except this one, cus, y’know, I named it.”
Ferra narrowly avoided snorting water out of his nose. “Oh right, I should probably actually grab some food.”
In short order, he had before him a plate of various vegetables and meats, more than half of which were of unknown providence. “I don’t recognize many of these. Where’d you get them from?”
Mirana looked up from her meal. “Mostly just from the island itself. This must have been an elfin colony at some point, I was able to find ingredients for almost the entire recipe. It’s only missing a couple spices and secondary herbs.”
It was simple fare, as far as preparation went. No fancy folding or slicing or arrangement, just spoonfuls of the aforementioned ingredients. Ferra took a bite. While the presentation was nothing to write home about, it was cooked to perfection, and the flavors did this amazing little dance on his tongue.
“Wow, this is amazing!”
Grek took a bite and elbowed Mirana. “Much better than the grass you tried to feed me.”
“Ugh.” Mirana made an exasperated little sound. “It was one time, yeah? Are you ever gonna let that go?”
Avalanche rumbled with laughter. “No, he will not. You’re too canny to give out much ammunition nowadays, his quiver runs low.”
Grek furrowed his brows. “Stop giving away my secrets, you overgrown pile of gravel!”
Avalanche’s response was completely even and calm in tone. “No, I don’t think I will. Giving you a hard time is the only thing keeping me going in this cold, unforgiving world, after all.”
“Ahem!” Mel slapped the table. “Now we all know that I’m the first one here to jump on the ‘make fun of Grek’ bandwagon here, but I never got my question answered.” She turned to Ferra. “Hows’about it?”
He shrugged, glancing at the stoneborn. “If ‘lanche here doesn’t think there’d be interference with your magic or the baubles he’s made you, then of course! Worth trying, at least.”
Grek broke in. “There will be time for experimenting before the team exercises tomorrow.”
“Ugh, do we have to?”
He shot the sorcerer a reproving glare. “You know how important it is for Ferra to have a good idea of how we act in different scenarios both for his own safety and so he can actually contribute.”
“I know, I know, they’re just so boring.”
The conversation moved on to lighter topics, banter and boasts of past adventures. Ferra largely stayed silent, listening to their tales and sharing few of his own; he had hardly any to share in the first place, of course, and many of his misadventures would lead to questions he couldn’t answer.
They went to bed early for they would need to rise the same. A great deal of preparation was still needed before the team was ready to enter largely unknown tunnels, where denizens of the deep might rest.
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Caves, Ferra was quickly learning, were not typically very comfortable places. They were damp, and dark, and dangerous. This high up, even much of the flora was actively trying to kill them and suck out their souls or whatever.
Mel and Ferra stood in the middle of the formation, Grek taking point, Mirana holding the left, and Avalanche on the right.
“Twenty ahead, Five left. Ground level.”
This time, Ferra was prepared. He’d already anchored a protective barrier around his eyes, so Avalanche’s attack didn’t incidentally destroy his vision. Light flashed for a quarter second as a beam of energy seared out from the array of arms Avalanche had mounted on their back. In the distance, something screeched in pain and died.
“Octopus.” Mirana spoke a second time, confirming the hit. Grek pulled out his notepad, dutifully recording the contact.
The group continued in relative silence, eyes and ears peeled for potential enemies. Ferra looked over with some curiosity at what had been hit, revealed by the orb of light following him to be a curled charred tangle of tentacles that looked exactly like the rock they lay upon.
Mel clearly noticed his curiosity. “They’re camouflage predators. Pretend to be some kind of rock or protrusion, then leap out at unsuspecting prey. They have a paralytic coating on their skin, they’ll eat part of you while still alive and frozen, and then leave eggs under your skin. Not a fun way to go.”
Fae magic, it seemed, nullified one of the greatest abilities of many subterranean creatures. It was exceptional at detecting minds. Hiding out of sight, disguises, ambush, nothing worked if the creature was within Mirana’s rather impressive range. Only magically resistant or exceptionally stupid creatures seemed capable of hiding from her detection, and even then it wasn’t a sure thing.
But just in case, the team had Avalanche. Their array of arms and otherwise attached arcanic devices included a staggeringly wide band of measurement methods. Vibrations, temperature, sound, composition of the air. If something avoided Mirana’s detection, Avalanche’s gamut inevitably would find it.
It was rather shocking just how much information that stone mind of theirs could process, Ferra felt.
Avalanche’s standard attack, too, was something tailored to their unique scenarios and to adventuring specifically. As Ferra had learned this morning, it was the team’s default response to anything that lacked inherent magical resistances. It was also completely unusable in areas with other people, as the initial flash would instantly blind anyone unprotected within a fairly large radius, but you can’t win them all, Ferra supposed.
It was a good thing that Avalanche was made of stone and a good deal more resistant to heat than the average flesh individual, too. Inefficiencies in the spell matrix saw a significant quantity of waste heat being dumped directly into their body, enough that even a heartbeat long cast would cook a human from the inside out.
“I still don’t understand how you can power that for any significant length of time.” Ferra whispered, drawing closer to Avalanche. Even now, after Avalanche fired occasionally at incoming enemies, Ferra could already feel heat wafting off their stone frame.
The voice rumbled back, equally quiet. “Most of the spell framework is stored in the limbs and so recycled. Very little magic actually leaves me, most of the beam itself is just concentrated light. That’s not cheap, sure, but being able to skip out on a complex spell framework just to hold the payload together has significant savings, and the attack itself having little dropoff over longer ranges; well, it all just comes together into a surprisingly efficient attack.”
“Incoming swarm. Insect.” Mirana’s voice was tense as she interrupted.
Mel stretched smoothly in the gold and red armor they’d made her that morning. “If it’s a swarm, that means it’s my turn,” she said with a fierce grin.
Grek moved in front of Mirana and drew his sword, pocketing the notepad for now. Mel brightened as she drew on the energy within her. Sinuous cords of power rippled along her muscular frame, writhing just under the skin in pulsing yellow, orange, and red patterns. The flamelike patterns in her hair glowed brighter. It was like watching a dying coal spring to life after landing in a patch of dead pine needles.
The chittering in the darkness grew louder, paired with the thrumming of wings and now within the range of Ferra’s very human hearing. Moments later they came into sight, a swarm of beetle like insects filling the tunnel and shaking the air with the droning of their wings lit by the light of Ferra’s orb.
Then Mel released the energy she’d been pooling inside that tiny frame. She leapt forwards and slapped her palms down on the ground in a single motion. Flame surged out of her, filling the tunnel as a writhing wall. With a second forward leap and a guttural shout, she threw both of her fists forwards. The roaring inferno responded, advancing down the tunnel in a single breath.
The entire swarm was immediately crisped, killed or thrown to the tunnel floor in various stages of dying. A moment later Ferra was almost thrown forward onto his face by a sudden thundering gust of air from behind, air rushing in to replace what had combusted.
In the silence after, Ferra spoke, agape. “…just how many times can you do that?”
“Comfortably? Oh, like four. It gets really unpleasant after that, though.”
“I see.” Ferra faintly replied.
“Can’t do it too much deeper underground, though. Not enough ventilation.”
No wonder the empire wanted to regulate adventurers, if this was a reasonably competent middle ranked team.
“...what were those insects?” Ferra’s relative lack in knowledge of flora and fauna was giving his ego a mighty beating, or so it felt.
“Rockbeetles.” Mirana faintly responded gazing into the distance through the wall. “Not terribly aggressive, but they ooze an aggressive acid. Live in swarms, reproduce from eating minerals and rock and live off of magic. Don’t let the acid touch your skin.”
“Ah.”
After the ash settled the team continued walking, marking down ore as it passed within their sensing range. Occasionally they’d stop after a fight, if a creature they stumbled onto had something worth salvaging for alchemy or enchanting. There was even a godbug, something Grek excitedly pocketed while chattering about the potential for Ferra to make a divine amulet out of its shell.
Several nodules of exposed arcanite were hastily excavated with careful precision, Avalanche temporarily swapping out the tips from one of their arms, espousing the quality of the material all the while. The stoneborn’s emotions were still difficult for Ferra to parse, but he had the distinct impression that Avalanche was quite pleased.
The cleric was quite shocked at just how many raw materials were embedded in the open walls of the tunnels they were exploring. When he expressed this out loud, Grek gave a rather interesting answer.
“How is scarcity of resources a thing, if there’s so many here literally for the taking?”
“There’s a number of factors. First, remember that this cluster of islands we’re exploring is unusually rich. Second, the creatures that dig these tunnels are attracted to such metals, and it’s the dregs of larger nodes that are often left in the walls; not actually that much from the perspective of industry. Third, we’re almost halfway up the sky; the concentration of aether is much higher, and so is the regeneration of the native environment. Fourth, the finite nature of airship transportation. Aethercrystals only grow back so quickly, and sentient populations expand far faster. Then you have to consider that most airships are purpose built for a specific altitude, and it becomes very difficult to actually harvest and then funnel these resources into populations.”
He paused to take a breath. “I could go on, but those are the main factors.”
“Hmm.” The team continued in silence as Ferra contemplated, only stopping when Mirana let out a panicked hiss.
Ferra let his orb fade out at the designated signal. In the dimmer light leaking from Mel’s armor and Avalanche’s equipment, the three began speaking in hand signals. He couldn’t read them yet, but it was a factor discussed earlier; Mirana was ready for the issue, and relayed the conversation directly into his mind.
Widening in the tunnel ahead. Likely a rockworm nest, as I’m only faintly sensing minds. We’re going to try to-
Rumbling, starting faint and quickly growing louder, interrupted her. Grek pulsed twice in red light, guiding a faint beam towards a specific spot on the ceiling.
“Scatter!”
Grek’s roar, deafening in the tight space, kicked Ferra into motion. Rockworms were actually one of the specific dangers they’d discussed that morning. Resistant to magic, able to track through solid stone, swim through rock like water, and larger than virtually any other underground creature. They made the tunnels most creatures used, after all. They were party killers, hard to hunt down, corner, or escape if your team drew their attention.
He backed away from the red marker, conjuring a pane on the tunnel floor beneath it. Ferra drew deep, thickening and strengthening it with every moment, every speck of his will focused on improving the weave and magic the wall as tough as possible.
When, two heartbeats later, a wall of chitin nearly as wide as the tunnel itself flew from the ceiling and slammed into the panel, shattering it instantly, the backlash made Ferra black out for a moment.
The rockworm writhed angrily, seemingly stunned. In front of him Grek leapt forward with a roar, blade swinging. There was no outside sign, but mid jump he switched his laws. Increased momentum to everything around him, and weakening of all chitinous materials.
The unenchanted blade cleaved through the protective four inches of layered chitin like a hot knife through butter, halfway bisecting the rockworm as the swing continued into flesh. A torrent of putrid fluids gushed out, Grek narrowly avoiding the backsplash as he leapt away.
A number of flame tendrils leapt from Mel’s palms in the same beat. The creature roared furiously, an act that would have deafened Ferra if his ears hadn’t already been protected. Her magic took advantage of the open mouth, surging inside it as well as the gaping hole in the rockworm’s side. One of the tendrils missed its target due to the thrashing, splashing harmlessly against the creature’s outer shell and dissipating into twinkling sparks. The creature screamed, a sound like a thousand sheep being messily slaughtered, raging in its death throes, burned inside and bleeding out.
Suddenly another red beam illuminated the stone beneath Ferra’s feet, causing him to hastily back up the tunnel at the same time as the rest of the team. This worm corrected its path, Avalanche updated the market as the creature continued to track them through the earth.
“Back!” Grek shouted with a roar of frustration, moving forward even as the creature broke through the floor. Ferra felt the laws shift, tumbling backwards as momentum was significantly increased around the orc. The cleric slapped down a ramp as he fell, assuming that the creature would come out at an angle and hoping to redirect its path into the ceiling.
The following sequence of events was so fast that if he’d blinked, he would have missed it entirely. The rockworm emerged from the earth, a furiously churning maw of teeth filling the entire tunnel. His ramp, braced against the ground, did indeed redirect the creature’s path up by some amount.
Grek jumped up, swinging his sword overhead in the same motion. It hooked the edge of that great maw, dragging him up towards the ceiling as the creature continued on its path. The blade was sharp, biting into the rockworm’s exoskeleton.
It bifurcated itself on the sword. The creature’s momentum, amplified by Grek’s laws, carried it up through the ceiling, pinning Grek’s sword against the edge of the new tunnel it was burrowing. As it did, the sword was still there, cutting, splitting the rockworm lengthwise down the middle.
It didn’t even have time to roar. Shortly after its tail disappeared into the ceiling tunnel the rumbling stopped as the creature slowed, and died. Grek fell to the ground as the force holding his sword disappeared, and he hastily gestured the team back uphill.
They did so, narrowly avoiding the actual flood of putrid earthen guts pouring from the tunnel above.
“That is foul.” Reflexively Ferra conjured a wall in front of them even as he gagged, stopping the smell from continuing to travel upwards. The team continued backing up, not wanting to be anywhere near that crime against smell any longer than necessary.
They stopped farther back, perhaps three hundred paces further up.
“So.” Ferra said, somewhat in shock.
“So.” Mel agreed.
“Well-” Grek started by clapping his hands together. “Congratulations on surviving your first rockworm! That played out perfectly, to be honest. Excellent job on the barriers, Ferra. No burnout?”
The cleric took the moment to pat himself down, now that the danger had mostly faded and the adrenaline was beginning to fade. “I don’t think so. Tired, but my control didn’t slip. Well’s at half, though.”
Grek frowned at the news. “Good, but bad. Has anyone here heard of ways to increase the well’s size for a divine caster?”
“I could probably make an external store out of the godbug?” Ferra offered, only halfway confident in his ability. “It will also just keep expanding over time, for now, with repeated use. I’m not full up yet.”
“We’ll want to pay for some proper artificer tutoring first, but enchantment seems like an excellent short term solution.” Grek whipped out his notepad and started writing. “I’ll look into alternative methods of well expansion when we get back to civilization also, see if the libraries or priests have anything.”
“Mel.” Grek turned to the woman. “You had flame ready against the second as it emerged, yeah?
She gave a nod. “When Ferra pulled off his ramp trick and you leapt up to filet it, I withheld. Didn’t want to disrupt you.”
“Good.”
He turned to Avalanche. “Good on the tracking. I assume there were no others?”
The stoneborn frowned in that infinitesimal way of their kind, minimizing movement. “I didn’t detect any others. Mirana?”
The druid shook her head. “If there’s any other creatures within range, their mind gives off not even the slightest static. It’s possible the rest of the nest was out digging at the time.”
“Excellent.” Grek paused. “Now, we have a debate ahead of ourselves. Do we try to clear the rest of the nest? Getting a look at what they’ve dug up and stored there would give us an extremely quick idea of the resource distribution of this island.
“Excuse me-” Ferra raised his hand. At a nod from Grek, he continued. “I was under the impression rockworms eat precious metals. How would looking at their nest give us a clue?”
“Ah. It’s a simple answer, really, if non obvious. As they dig, precious metals and gems stick to the outside of their shells. When they molt in their nests, these shells and the resulting metal fall off into piles. Something deep inside their near nonexistent brain avoids eating metals that are found inside the nest, only eating there if they are starving and can find nothing else. Comparing rockworm nests against each other is a proven way to map resources between islands.”
“The things people think of.” Ferra shook his head slightly in astonishment. “That’s so clever!”
“Anyways.” Grek cleared his throat. “Thoughts?”
Mirana spoke, in her quiet measured cadence. “I could try a long ranged ritual to analyze the room. If there’s no worms inside it should work, though if they are the magic might aggravate them.”
“If I nullified one of fae’s properties, would it be possible to make us undetectable in the event of a failure?”
She frowned. “I don’t see how. It would presumably prevent the results of the survey making it back to me in the same way.”
Ferra had an idea, so he hesitantly asked. “Could we send out fake pulses while under cover of law, to draw any remaining out, and then do the actual scan from a different location?”
“Hmm.” Grek turned to Mirana. “How long would the ritual take?”
The half elf was silent for a moment, running calculations in her head. “Fifteen minutes to an hour? It depends on the accuracy we’d need.”
“Maintaining an unfamiliar law that long would be risky. I’m inclined towards just entering the nest. If there are any left, more space to work with would make this significantly easier, and if there are none we save a lot of hassle.”
A round of nods from the team was short in coming.
“Grek, Mirana. If either of you detect more than three, we’re retreating.”
“Understood.”
They circled around, traveling down a different, unfouled tunnel towards the nest. Movement was cautious, eyes alert and wary.
Nothing happened.
They made it to the nest, a mess of old shells and gemstones littering the ground, otherwise empty.
Nothing happened.
The team quickly recorded the concentrations of different metals and gems within the nest, before beginning the retreat back to the surface.
And still, nothing happened.
They’d headed underground around noon, emerging shortly after dinnertime. The last length had been surprisingly free of violence.
Ferra stretched out, enjoying the sunlight on his face. “So that ended up being far less climactic than I expec-”
“Shh!”
Mel shot over, covering his mouth with a hand. The rest of the team got into a combat formation, looking warily at the sky and through the trees.
After several moments of nothing happening, they seemingly relaxed, Mirana providing an explanation to him. “Don’t say things like that. Don’t tempt fate. The gods and fae are fickle, especially that bas- I mean wonderful person Vexell.”
Avalanche seemed quite pensive as they spoke. “I am somewhat unhappy at the lack of combat. Surely at least one would have come back to the nest in the time we were there. Did something kill them?”
Grek shrugged. “Whatever it was, I hope we don’t encounter it. I’ll add the possibility to the report, but we’ve got what we came for. Time to leave.”
A roar shattered the silence, as collectively the team winced.
“Gods dammit.”
“Aw come on.” Mel whined, “that counts too? Really?” She shook a fist at the sky. A pinecone fell from a nearby tree, almost beaning her in the face.
“Maybe if we just ignore it and go to leave, whatever that is will ignore us too.” Ferra’s suggestion, made with a hopeful smile.
A second roar, closer to their location, accompanied by the pounding of footsteps.
“Welp.” Grek picked up his bag. “Time to be very far away from here oklet’sgonow.”
With that inspiring cry to battle, the group collectively ran away from the sound, and towards their distant airship. Grek leapt up above the treeline, looking back into the distance.
“Lesser wyrm! I’ll stall it!” Was all he shouted before leaping off in that direction.
Avalanche began floating backwards as well, their parting words being, “You three get the ship up and off the ground. I’ll bring Grek back in one piece.”
The next few minutes were hectic sprinting, trees toppling over in the distance interspersed with furious roars. They frantically climbed the ladder up to the airship, frantically hoisting the anchor even as a massive scaled body tumbled out of the tree line.
The wyrm was huge, a massive scaled body with rows upon rows of small clawed legs along its length. Like a centipede, except covered in glittering scales, round, and possessing a dragonish head. Grek was bouncing along its length like a grasshopper, slamming his blade down upon its back and generally being a nuisance. Avalanche was hovering in midair, lashing out with beams of light whenever they could get a clear shot at the wyrm’s eyes.
It didn’t seem to have blinded the creature, but the attacks were certainly annoying it.
As the airship began to rise, the wyrm’s attention turned towards it with a roar that shook the deck. As more of its body emerged from the trees the creature rose up, like the draconic equivalent of a caterpillar. Up and up its head climbed, more than a hundred feet and still supported by a body so long that the end hadn’t exited the trees yet.
Grek leapt at the side of its head with a roar, slamming into it with the force of a boulder and sending it tumbling. Avalanche caught him in midair with telekinesis, setting both down on the deck as they pulled out of range.
The creature let out a frustrated roar and launched a blast of fire towards them, but a full throated shout from Mel and a full body motion like she was dragging the unruly fire into existence had an orb of her own exploding in front of the fiery breath, disrupting its cohesion.
The creature gave one last roar, shaking its entire body and stomping to assert dominance as the airship sailed away. Eventually it shook its head, calming and retreating back into cover of the trees.
There was a long silence on the ship as everyone caught their breath.
“I don’t suppose there was any mention of a fucking wyrm being on the island when you guys signed the contract?”
“Ah no, there was not,” Grek replied faintly, seemingly quite distracted. “they did leave that part out.”
Mel shrugged. “On to the next island, I guess?”
“It would seem so.” Avalanche rumbled. “We are still not done, after all. It might be worth sending in what we have on this island with all due haste, however.”
Grek nodded. “’lanche, have you gotten messaging figured out yet?”
“I do believe I have, though if not we can always recruit some of Mirana’s friends for the task.”
“Mmm.” Grek looked towards the back of the ship, where the half elf was steering. “I’ll go talk to her about it.”
“So… what do we do after surviving something like that?” Ferra asked, heart still beating wildly and eyes dilated with panic.
“Now?” Mel asked, noticing his distress. “Now, we party!”
Planning could wait until tomorrow. Grek farsent their current report, Mirana sending a second copy by albatross. The group retreated belowdecks for a well deserved meal and libations, talking late into the night. Normally Grek wouldn’t loosen up while on a mission, but trusting in Avalanche’s capabilities as guardian, he joined them.
Somewhat relieved, destressed, happy to be alive, Ferra tumbled into bed.
“Next time,” was the promise the team had made, “next time we’ll be strong enough to not need to run.”
“For Terell!” Mel shouted, the cheer echoed by the rest of the group.
As Ferra drifted off to sleep, he smiled. How could he not? There were dangers in the world, but his friends were by his side.