— Keira —

Much like their journey to Stoneshield, the first few nights of travel spent crossing the dwarven nation’s territory were uneventful. They might have actually been even more peaceful as they weren’t even questioned by the roving patrols. A wagon train resembling a small trade caravan certainly drew less attention than a group being escorted by a large number of mounted soldiers.

They were also moving quite a bit faster than they had on the way to the city. The shaggy mountain yaks pulling the wagons were not the fastest mounts but they were faster than a person on foot. They could also easily keep up a constant pace throughout the night regardless of the gains and losses of altitude.

Likewise the wagons themselves were crafted with clever mechanisms that helped them maintain consistent grip and speed even on the steepest sections of road.

Keir grew slightly concerned as they passed out of the range of Stoneshield’s system’s influence. As the carefully carved slabs of stone gave way to bare rock and scraggly patches of grass and lichen she half expected the wagons to struggle for traction.

Aside from the occasional small jolt as the wheels rolled onto or off of the increasingly scattered patches of cut stone the wagons didn’t seem remotely bothered by the switch.

As relieved as she was by that Keir didn’t actually relax much, she only switched her focus to other potential issues.

They hadn’t spotted a patrol since early the night before. So far outside of the patrol routes of the city guard the odds of encountering dangerous creatures were exponentially increased. If her research was accurate that was doubly true at that time of year.

Creatures that hibernated were running out of time to bulk up for the winter and many other creatures were in the process of migrating to warmer areas deep in the forest. As a result, even usually peaceful herbivores that were more likely to run than fight during the rest of the year would be considerably more aggressive.

Judging by how tightly bundled Emrik and Aleka were, it was apparently quite cold as well. The breath of those few people who still needed to breathe, and the yaks of course, fogging in the air lent more weight to that impression.

Keir couldn’t really be sure just how cold it might be however. The air was surprisingly dry enough to limit any frost. Marsaili was the only other living person in the group and she was well into tier four. Keir didn’t know the dwarven general’s elemental affinities but her heavily mana infused body would not be bothered by cold weather.

It didn’t help that Aleka had almost certainly grown up in the tropical areas that the Walking Sea passed through. Emrik might have been a local but her skin tone indicated she likely spent most or all of her time in the warm temperature controlled cavern city.

With a mental shake of her head, Keir turned her attention away from the shivering craftsmen and back to scanning for threats.

They were well above the tree line and the tough rock of the hills and mountains neither created nor held onto much soil. With even the tallest vegetation barely tall enough to reach Keir’s knee height, only the frequent cracks and folds in the rocky terrain and the occasional boulder fields provided real cover for an ambush from ground level.

The sky was clear and the incredible night vision of the undead made it easy enough to spot threats from that direction. A fact made clear by the sight of the occasional dire bat diving for prey in the distance and on a particularly tense occasion the shape of a wyvern flock migrating overhead. At the height the creatures were flying they were the size of normal insects, but if Keir had properly identified their silhouette the adult females that made up most of the flock would be at least forty feet from snout to tail. They could also spray thick streams of acid capable of melting flesh and stone like a candle dropped in a hot forge.

Fortunately it seemed the flock was well fed as they paid no attention to the small convoy far below. A trend which continued for the duration of that first night beyond the borders of Stoneshield. Aside from aerial creatures in the distance the only potential threat Keir spotted was the impressive rocky carapace like form of a boulder bear. It was dragging a pair of what Keir suspected were verdant elk.

It had stared back at the convoy for at least a minute before apparently deciding that it wasn’t worth the risk of losing the meal it already had to try for a larger one.

Any threat that may have been below the surface was all but impossible to detect from the wagons but the dwarves had long ago solved, or at least mitigated, the issue of subterranean beasts attacking trade caravans.

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The metal tread of the wagon wheels were stamped with dwarven runes that muffled the vibrations they caused when they rolled. The muffling field was disorienting and unpleasant for creatures that relied on tremor senses to remain in, let alone hunt.

As had become standard they found a reasonably defensible position with plenty of time to set up tents and get the sun vulnerable undead concealed before the sky began to lighten with the coming dawn.

Keir took first watch as she always did and it was, if anything, even less eventful. That’s why the midday sun found Keir standing on a decently steep slope running through complex sword forms.

As a warrior based class she didn’t actually need to run through forms or katas to keep her skills sharp. If she wanted to learn a new form or a new weapon style she would have to practice and master it the same way anyone else would. When it was mastered however, even if she didn’t touch a weapon or practice a style for centuries her muscle memory would be as perfect as if she’d practiced the day before.

The same was true of the specialties of other classes. Magic users like Antheia perfectly retained the motions and pronunciations of all of their spells. Artisans retained even their least used techniques as well as the things they did every day.

What Keir was doing as she practically flew over the rough rocky slope, her blade flashing through imagined foes, was less practice and more a very active form of meditation. So many of her usual meditation methods were either drastically less effective or wholly unavailable to her since she returned from the dead.

As she’d fallen into the familiar patterns she was pleased to find she could still lose herself in the familiar motions. The added challenge of the steep slope and often unstable chunks of rock made it easier to go into a sort of flow state where she let her thoughts drift by, acknowledged but not focused on.

Her last experience in her soulscape had thrown her, especially so soon after being nearly crushed by a minor incarnation of Mortis. She was not too proud to admit, at least to herself, that the very real threat of having her soul shredded and dissipated if she’d have failed the challenge she’d inadvertently accepted had rattled her.

She’d let herself believe that threats like the paper doppelganger were the worst she would find so early on her path. Almost being destroyed by an essentially unrelated challenge was an unpleasant wake up call.

Instead of properly centering herself after that experience she’d tried to keep herself busy. In the short term that had worked but she knew she had to start developing better coping mechanisms. If anyone knew how poorly ignoring or bottling up issues and trauma worked out long term it was an elf.

Keir knew she would need to handle things more thoroughly later but for the time being she needed to prepare herself to resume exploring the library in her soulscape.

The longer she let herself avoid returning to her search the harder it would be to do so. She knew it wasn’t ideal but she had hours before they could even start getting ready to leave.

With that decision made Keir finished her form with a flourish; using an unstable stone to shift and extend a diagonal slash that would have bisected a humanoid enemy from shoulder to opposite hit that would have seemed out of reach.

As Keir returned her blade to a neutral stance she smiled faintly. The exertion hadn’t worked up a sweat, though as a mid rank Tier Three that might have been the case even if she’d been alive. Her undead muscles also didn’t ache in quite the same way as they might have when she was alive. Likewise her heart was as still as it had been since it beat it last time. Even so, she felt much better than she had that morning.

Her smile only grew as she felt the little air elemental settle down on her head.

Her steps were far lighter when she made her way back down the slope than they had been on the way up. She was only a little more tense as she sat cross legged on the back of a wagon with her sword across her lap and settled her breathing.

With each visit it became quicker and easier to enter her soulspace, even with her new wariness.

She quickly followed the sound of waves deep into her soul and found herself once again standing near the tide pool in her soulscape.

As she took a moment to stare into the pool of bloody seawater she could almost imagine the little air elemental fluttering around above the water. She imagined tufts of red salt coated seagrass dotting the beach and the hardy vegetation of her homeland filling the middle of the island.

Keir could feel a wry, and a bit self effacing, grin cross her face as she noticed what she was thinking. While some part of her enjoyed the bizarre sights of the bloody sea and the temple in its depth, it was only the prospect of the excitable and inquisitive elemental being bound to her soul that made her view her soulscape as anything more than a representation of her path and the abilities she gained as she walked it.

Despite it being right there in the name she’d all but completely set aside the fact her soulscape was also an embodiment of her soul, or at least it was meant to be one.

After a few moments she made a commitment to herself to add more of herself to the space before making her way down the stairs and through the first room of the temple to the library.

As she scanned the labyrinthine shelves nearest to the entrance she wondered what she would do if she found another box like the one she’d found. A part of her wanted to say she would leave it right where she found it and hope it was gone the next time she walked down that path. Another, unfortunately larger, part of her knew that she would probably pick it up as well.

Sure the experience had scared her in ways she would have to deal with for a while. It had also granted her a tier four blueprint and a measure of resistance from such literally soul shattering knowledge. She would do her best to prepare but she would accept the challenge again.

After stealing herself once more, Keir again set off into the maze of books and trials.