It was Simon who noticed it first. Whatever magic that caused the wall to drop without making any noise must have ended as soon as the slab touched the ground, allowing a cascade of vibrations to ripple through the floor. With Earthsense still active, these vibrations were a klarion call to Simon, who jerked his head around with such speed that Drevock noticed and instantly followed suit, axes held at the ready. Gabe and Professor Alrik were slower to pick up on their party members’ actions, but when Simon cursed loudly, they quickly realized what was wrong.
Encountering the abandoned campsite had raised Gabe’s anxiety levels up a few notches, but seeing a solid wall of stone instead of the pathway they’d just come from, the pathway they knew for certain would take them safely out of the tunnels, ratched it all the way to the max. As his heart rate began to spike and his breathing became more shallow, Gabe had the sinking realization that he was more than a little claustrophobic. Even though he knew intellectually that the room they were in was quite large, he felt as if the walls were closing in around them.
On instinct he began to cycle his mana as a means to try to regulate his breathing and calm down. He was surprised to find that not only did the technique relax him almost instantly, but now that the strain in his soul had mostly subsided, he felt a similar sensation as when he had his aura active, though to a lesser degree. His thoughts slowed down and he found that he could breathe easier. As a test, he stopped cycling his mana and found that the clarity and vibrance he felt slowly ebbed away, though his panic did not rise to the same levels as before. Once they dealt with their problems, Gabe was going to get a solid answer from Professor Alrik about just what exactly did attuning his soul mean.
Simon was standing next to the now blocked passage, his hand flowing through practiced motions. There was a rumble through the stone, but otherwise nothing happened. A look of frustration on his face, the young earth mage tried again, this time both hands flying through the air. Now the entire chamber shook, causing dirt and loose stone to fall from the ceiling. Turning back towards the others, he had a worried look on his face.
“I don’t know what kind of wards or enchantments are in this place, but I just tried to move the stone and nothing happened. I might be able to push through with a stronger spell, but with how everything shook with a tier two spell, I don’t think the rest of the structure would hold. Whoever the Dwellers were, they knew what they were doing. Maybe with enough time and practice, I could come up with a Construction spell that would shield us if the ceiling collapsed, but I don’t think it’d be worth the risk. Looks like we won’t be going back the way we came.”
“As worrying as this development is,” replied Professor Alrik. “It ultimately does not change our plans. While having a secure way out would have been ideal, we are here to uncover the secrets of the Dwellers. To do that, we must continue on and hope that a path out of here will reveal itself once we achieve our goal. I think it will be most prudent for us to discover what we can about the misfortune that befell the previous occupants of this room and then decide which path forward we will take.”
Professor Alrik made a good point. As much as the blocked passage made him feel like he was trapped, going back wasn’t really an option. He’d already accepted that this job might kill him, what was one stone wall compared to a hole in his chest. Still, he went back to cycling his mana. Knowing something to be true didn’t always mean that he could tamp down his emotional response to it, so having a little magical reassurance helped.
Going back to rummaging through the debris, Gabe first checked out the remains of the pack. This one wasn’t as large as the one Simon had set down next to the fire pit. It was made from a deep green fabric that was rough to the touch. There were several hand sized holes punched through the material and what Gabe presumed to be its contents were scattered about around it. If Gabe had to hazard a guess, it looked to him as if someone or something had held the bag upside down and let everything fall out.
Sifting through the mess with his foot, Gabe realized two things. First was that everything that had been left in the room, from the tents, the pack, and everything scattered across the floor, was made of fabric or paper. Not a single piece of metal, glass, ceramic, or any other kind of material could be found. Secondly, everything that had remained had been shredded to pieces. With the exception of the tents and the pack, nothing else was even remotely whole. He’d been hoping to find a journal or something, but all that remained was scraps of cloth and bits of parchment.
He walked over to where Drevock and Professor Alrik were standing near the tents.
“Did you guys find anything? Everything over there is too shredded to be useful. Though I did notice that there doesn’t seem to be any kind of metal or glass amongst the trash.”
“Nothing that can explain what happened here. Your observation about the types of materials left behind is quite interesting. The tents have wooden poles in them, so it would seem that whatever did this,” Professor Alrik waved one of his arms over the mess. “left behind anything derived from a plant. This is very curious indeed.”
Gabe tried to figure out what this meant but he simply did not have the knowledge base to even know where to start. A half dozen ideas passed through his head, ranging from spells that had gone awry to monsters that only ate particular types of minerals, though none of them seemed any more likely than the others. Without more information, he doubted they would be able to figure out what happened here. When he said as much to the group, the others agreed with his assessment.
“I fear that this will remain a mystery, at least for the time being. Perhap we will uncover more information as we progress, but for now we must leave it be.” said Professor Alrik. “Which means that we have a new problem to focus on, though hopefully this should be easier to resolve.”
He began to chant a spell, this one slightly longer than what he’d cast previously. As he completed his incantation, all three of the remaining passages glowed with a golden light. Gabe wasn’t sure what to make of this, though judging by the frown on Professor Alrik’s face, he had a sinking feeling that it wasn’t a good sign. Simon, who had a better grasp of his master’s spells, clarified the problem for Gabe.
“Well shit. It looks like the tunnels aren’t just warded against tampering from earth magic. This is gonna be rough. Guess we’re going in blind.”
This caught Gabe off guard. Hadn’t Professor Alrik assured him that he would be able to guide them through the tunnels.
“Professor, what does Simon mean ‘we’re going in blind’? I thought your magic would lead us where we need to go in here?”
The old gnome gave a resigned sigh before sitting down cross-legged on the ground. “What he means is that that spell I believed would guide us does not appear to be as effective down here. Fate’s Guidlight is supposed to illuminate the most direct path towards one's objective. The fact that all three pathways were illuminated tells us that either there are wards in place to trick Illumination magic or, and this might be even more troubling, that each is a possible path forward. This worries me because it means that I have severely misjudged the situation.”
“What are we going to do?” Gabe tried to keep the panic out of his voice. He was still cycling his mana, which was helping keep him calm but the idea of being lost within these tunnels was starting to activate his newly realized claustrophobia.
“You, Drevock, and Simon are going to clear away some of this mess and set up our own camp here. Despite the lingering questions as to what happened to our predecessors, this area does make a convenient rest area. It will take me a while to finish up and I am always starving afterwards, so it would be prudent to stay here a short while.”
“Master, do you think it’s wise to do it here? If each path works, we could just choose at random and proceed with caution.” There was an undercurrent of worry in Simon’s voice that put Gabe on edge. Whatever Professor Alrik was about to do, it came with risks, risks Simon must not feel were worth it.
“I appreciate your concern Simon, but this is not the time for half-measures. We have committed to this course of action, we must see it through.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Professor Alrik, what are you two talking about?” asked Gabe.
“If these tunnels want to block my standard magic, then it is time to get creative. Gabriel, recall that your involvement in all of this started when I cast a spell to see the future? Well, if I cannot tell us which path to take, then the next best thing is to divine what will happen should we take a given path.”
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Apparently, Professor Alrik’s divination spell, Futureweaver’s Insight, used up almost his entire mana pool. As Gabe, Simon, and Drevock cleaned up and set up camp, the old gnome meditated to recover all the mana he’d spent since they’d entered the tunnels. From the way Simon kept sneaking worried glances at his master, Gabe got the impression that there was something more going on. Clearly the spell wasn’t something run-of-mill, but he avoided asking further questions for now.
The first thing they’d done was build a fire in the pit that the previous group had built. With the professor needing all his mana for the spell, he wouldn’t be able to recast Nightvision once it lapsed and they didn’t want to be caught in the dark. Gabe was helping Simon pull out various supplies from the pack, while Drevock began preparing a light meal for them. Not knowing how long they would be in the tunnels or how often they would have access to heat, they’d mostly brought dry food that would keep for a long time. Since they had a fire going anyways, the large man had grabbed the frying pan and began cooking up some vegetables and what remained of their meat supply.
For their part, Gabe and Simon cleaned up the mess of the wrecked camp. Or rather Simon did. Whatever protections the walls had against his magic, the floor was clearly not as well warded. Simon had been able to cause a small half foot wall of stone to rise from the ground and used it as a broom as it flowed across the floor, pushing all the debris against the wall between two of the open pathways. The area now mostly clear, he then raised a series of stone slabs to serve as a table and some benches. The work was much cruder than Simon normally did, leading Gabe to wonder if there was some sort of magical resistance that Simon was pushing through to cast. It just added to the mystery of these tunnels and helped to explain why earth mages hadn’t been able to simply tunnel their way to the hidden Dweller settlements.
The two of them sat down at the table, Simon with his book of spellform subpatterns in hand. With Professor Alrik obviously pre-occupied, Gabe figured he could share his earlier realization regarding the effects of cycling his magic with Simon. He reasoned that Simon likely knew what was going on and he hoped that the discussion would distract him from what the professor was doing.
“Hey Simon, I noticed something earlier. Ever since I ‘faced the loom’ or whatever you called it, whenever I cycle my mana, it feels as if I have a weaker version of my aura active. Also, when I actually cast my aura when we first entered the tunnels, it felt much stronger even when I didn’t add any extra mana. Do you know what that’s about?”
“What did you think attuning to your mana meant?” replied Simon without looking away from his book.
“To be honest, I didn’t really think about it. There were more pressing matters at the time and I was a bit distracted from the pain in my soul.”
Gabe waited for Simon to answer his question, but he just kept reading in silence.
“Fine, I’ll work it out myself,” Gabe said with a groan. “But you better let me know if I’m completely off base.”
From the slight twitch of Simon’s lip, Gabe figured that this had been Simon’s goal. Gabe didn’t mind playing along, especially if it meant keeping Simon’s mind off Professor Alrik. The professor must have regained his mana as a few moments ago he’d begun chanting a spell in a low voice. Already this incantation was longer than any other he’d cast and he gave no indication he was stopping anytime soon.
“You called it facing the loom, which I don’t really understand. It’s obviously meant to be symbolic, so I’d guess that it means that I’m preparing to weave something? Since we’re talking about my soul, mana threads are the obvious connection.”
Though he was still reading, spun one of his fingers in the air, the universal sign of someone saying “go on”.
“But the professor called it tempering the soul. This must be symbolic as well, but tempering metal involves heating and folding it. That can be a dangerous process if done incorrectly as it can cause the metal to become brittle and break. Given the pain I felt and the fact that you both said that I risked damaging my soul, this seems the most accurate description. Attuning means to make one thing more like another, so I guess taken all together I strengthened my soul by increasing its connection to life mana so that I can cast spells better?”
Gabe wasn’t too sure of his answer. Puzzling through the symbolic meaning of the two phrases had been easy enough but that didn’t necessarily translate well to what he’d actually done. Plus his explanation only accounted for why his aura spell was stronger when cast, not what was happening when he cycled his mana.
With an exasperated sigh that Gabe hoped was fake, Simon set down his book and looked Gabe in the eye.
“You’re almost there, so I suppose I can help you out. It’s the least I can do for my favorite junior apprentice. Think of it this way, for the most part everyone’s soul is the same. Whether we can access mana or not, the thing that makes up who we are is consistent. The soul is just a place where mana interacts within our bodies and its default state is to be neutral to every prime mana type. What you did by cramming more mana into your soul than it could accommodate was force it to adapt to that type of mana.”
“So instead of having a neutral soul, now mine is attuned to life mana?”
“See, you’re using that word, which is correct, but I don’t think you actually understand what that means. Instead of tearing, your soul absorbed the excess life mana you were trying to use. Your soul, your very essence, is now tinged with life mana.”
“Okay, so my soul has life mana mixed into it. I can see how that could make my spells stronger, I guess, but I still don’t understand the connection to cycling.”
“Before when you cycled your mana, you were just manipulating threads within the node. Now that your soul is attuned, the mana within it will move as well. As you cycle your mana, your forcibly moving life mana around your soul, which explains what you experienced. As you increase your mana pool and are able to manipulate larger amounts of mana, the effect will increase proportionally.
Gabe took in this new information. Objectively, it sounded like a good thing but he had the sense that there was more to it. Professor Alrik had mentioned that this was the first step to advancing his magic, so it somehow related to compound nodes.
“So far this all sounds pretty good, almost too good. What’s the catch?”
“My, aren’t you a cynical one,” Simon said with a chuckle. “There’s not really a catch, except for the part where you’ll have a harder time manipulating opposing mana types. I wouldn’t try to unlock my death or dark mana nodes if I were you. Oh, and there’s also the part where if your life mana node gets blocked or damaged for any reason, your soul will wither and you’ll likely die a slow and agonizing death.”
Seeing Gabe’s worried expression, he continued. “But don’t worry, that would only happen if you do something really stupid like try to force more mana through your life node after it’s empty. Cycling works well because it increases the mana pull in a way the node tolerates. If you try to force it, bad things will happen. Any more questions? I was just getting to the good part.”
He tapped the battered book for emphasis. Gabe wasn’t sure how a technical manual for spellcasting had a ‘good part’, but he figured Simon was messing with him. Probably.
“Okay, so just to recap. I almost damaged my soul by forcing too much mana into it, but instead my soul absorbed it. Now my life magic is more effective, when I cycle mana in my node I’m also moving the mana in my soul which makes me feel buffed. I need to avoid death and dark mana spells and forcing mana into my node. How does this relate to forming compound nodes and becoming a Knotted wizard?”
The expression Simon was giving Gabe led him to believe that he must have just said something extremely stupid, though the way his mouth quirked implied he was more amused than annoyed.
“And here I thought you actually had some potential. Let me say it in a way you might understand. Compound node make dense mana, dense mana hard for soul to handle. Attuned soul strong, strong enough for dense mana. Make sense?”
“Yeah yeah yeah, I get it now. So what, now that it’s attuned I can form a compound node?”
The thought excited Gabe. If his soul was ready, then maybe when they uncovered the secret repository of Dweller compound nodes, there would be one he could use.
“Not quite my junior apprentice, you still have several steps to go. As it stands, your soul is only slightly attuned. You have to work on expanding your mana pool and the size of your soul. Doing this will naturally increase how much life mana is in your soul. Once it’s grown enough, then we can talk about Knotting up. If you want we can-”
Simon was cut off as Professor Alrik finished his incantation and a great flash of golden light flared from his body. His eyes were suffused with the same glowing radiance, its light so bright that Gabe couldn’t look directly at him. Still seated, Professor Alrik lifted both hands and splayed them out to the side. Light blasted from his eyes and impacted against the wall, dripping down to the floor like molten gold, forming a glowing rectangle. From within the light, an image began to form.