Chapter

Mikel had been through the wringer.

In the past week (Depending on if you count time in The Market of Dreams as a one-to-one with the outside world) he'd trekked over fifty miles to find one of his father’s oldest and strongest retainers - he’d drunk himself silly. Twice.

He'd been tossed bodily into an alternate reality where time traveled four times the rate of base reality; been chased by beautiful, dangerous women intent on gutting him; battled a remnant memory of The Time Demon, harbinger of his house; raided an ancient library and freed a lich; was almost killed by a black-clad assassin; was again accosted by The Time Demon - a creature LONG thought killed; trapped in a time freeze where only he could move and now, on the searing road most likely being chased by assassins, The Time Demon... And maybe a lich.

He still wasn't quite sure what to make of the Lich other than it was evil and it was around.

He and Helsket were on the run, away from the madness that had occurred in the city of Farraway towards Stennin, the ancient library of Herediarity, and to find Calcifer - the next person they needed to stage their attack of HelGate to retrieve the ancient artifact, The Panacea, to cure Mikel’s dad of The Rot - a deadly disease which murdered the body as it ripped apart a person's mind and soul.

The day dawned hot and choked with smoke as the summer sun crept over the red horizon and bathed the Continent in the first bloody rays of a day that promised to be hot, humid, and most unpleasant.

Mikel and Helsket departed from the old adventurer’s house under cover of darkness, watch guards posted outside.

Neither had slept, but both kept to their own vigil that night, to give the other space to attempt again and again unsuccessfully, to fall under night’s spell.

For the first hour, they’d hoofed it, hard.

Helsket took up a spot behind Mikel and whenever the young adventurer began to falter he would give him an encouraging bump on the leather armor strapped to his back. When Mikel started to falter, Helskt backed off.

“I think we’ve gotten far enough away,” Helsket said as he walked up beside Mikel. By this point, the sun was several hand widths into the sky and blazed down on the blasted landscape with the ire of a forgotten god.

“Far enough away from what? The Time Demon? The assassins? The lich? A bloody Diabolical Lynx? You’ll have to be more specific,” Mikel grumbled, discomfort plain for all to see.

The hour’s forced march hadn’t been pleasant. His body ached from the madness of the previous days and the eighty-plus pounds loaded on his back and shoulders bore down on him without mercy. Each hard step he took felt as if a hammer blow fell on his back.

The thoughts of the previous day’s adventures were thick in his mind. He wasn’t sure what to make of most of the madness he’d gone through, but now, given little else to do but suffer under the sun or think about something else, he chose the latter. The exercise of puzzling out the truth of the last few days, and ordering his thoughts helped to distract from the pain, but only a bit.

The biting pain of the ruck and armor still tore into him. The only thing worse was the oppressive, all-encompassing heat.

Helsket grunted and hiked his pack up on his shoulders, the fine mace Telgil had given him had found its way there after Farraway had faded into the shimmering distance.

“It was quite a few days, I’ll give you that,” Helsket said as he wiped his brow with a handkerchief he pulled from his pants pocket. It was already sopping wet and Mikel half wondered if the action of wiping the sweat away had done anything of value for his friend.

“Oh, this isn’t the normal way adventures go?”

Helsket shook his head, “Only the really good ones… Or bad ones… Or the ones you don’t ever talk about after the fact.”

He made an exaggerated worried face, then smiled a gap-toothed grin at Mikel, “Lighten up. You should take some time to examine the goodies you got from the library. I’m not much for books, but the three you brought back seemed like they might be useful. Plus the slate and the earpiece. We’ve got many long hours ahead of us, so you might find it useful to apply your mind elsewhere while we walk. I’ll keep an eye out for any trouble along the way.”

“Way ahead of you,” Mikel said with a shake of his head, “I’ve been trying to get things in line, but I haven’t had much success. Maybe you’re right. I’ll try the slate. There are only so many times I can think about almost being killed before it loses its luster. I’m sure I’ll have many other attempts on my life soon enough. Better not to waste all my worry on the first one. Or is this the second one? You know, I’m already losing track.”

Helsket grunted a laugh as Mikel shifted in preparation of grabbing the slate without taking his pack off or stopping.

With a deft maneuver even Mikel felt proud of, he dropped one arm of the pack and allowed it to dangle like a dead weight off of his left shoulder. Trying to keep the exposure to the extreme weight to a minimum he slipped his free hand into an outer pocket on the ruck, under the leather armor, and fished out the slate and earpiece from the library. The books were in the pocket too - but wrapped in a piece of clean linen to keep them safe. Librarian’s words still played in Mikel’s mind, and although he wondered if he’d ever speak with the strange disembodied voice again, or even go back to the library, he wasn’t about to push his luck by hurting books he was explicitly warned not even to remove from the library.

He already had too many enemies who far outclassed him.

He hitched the pack back onto his right shoulder and rolled his left shoulder in an attempt to relieve the pressure he’d put on it.

“You ever see something like this?” Mikel held up the slate with the earpiece held against the face and under his thumb.

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“A few younger adventurers carried them around. They weren’t unknown, but rare all the same,” Helsket said, “But no one seriously engaged in the field kept them past their first few years. They’re handy to have around if you’re green, but after a while, you get a feel for your Skills and get used to the inherent feelings of your resources and powers and Skills moving about your body.”

Mikel nodded, unsure of how that would actually feel, but was open to the experience.

“And the earpiece?”

“It’s different from the models I’ve seen, but many adventuring teams use them to communicate with one another in the field. Having comms open is a huge benefit in complex and multi-layered combat encounters. I can’t tell you the number of times having the ability to hear someone yell “Get out of the way!” from across an entire battlefield, has saved my ass.”

“Do you have to do anything with them to link them up, or are they made to speak to one another no matter who’s using them?”

“Don’t know,” Helsket said, “I’m a front-line man. I’ve commanded troops, but always on the field. I was happy enough to leave the planning to your dad and Cal. Those two could come up with some terrible tricks for prospective enemies.”

“But I always heard stories about how dad was in the field, just as much as you. How did he swing that?”

“How indeed?” Helsket asked as he scratched his bald spot. It had begun to redden under the sun’s assault, but the leather-brown color of the patch of skin indicated it had long since adapted to life without hair.

“Have I told you how useful you are when it comes to information?” Mikel asked with a roll of his eyes.

“Not today,” Helsket laughed.

“Consider it done then.”

The two men chuckled as Mikel flicked on the monitor and began leafing through the contents, delving into the deeper functions he hadn’t had time to even touch upon.

Librarian had said there were functions only accessible outside of The Market of Dreams, and he meant to locate them and understand them as quickly as he could.

Hello Mikel. This is your monitor - how may I help you?

It was the same greeting as before and Mikel quickly thumbed it away before pulling up the main navigation hub of the device. He wasn’t sure how it worked on a base level, but on the surface the user interface was clean and he could inuit how to navigate through the various sub-menus, glyphs, and charts with relative ease. He wondered if that was part of the magic of the little black slate, or just spoke to how well it was crafted.

He first navigated to the Skill menu and pulled up the Callisto Jewel abilities.

When he’d pulled up the menu under Librarian’s direction he’d only seen a brief overview of the abilities as they scrolled away faster than he could keep track of - until the list landed on one he could use - Incarnadine Metafora.

The pattern repeated itself now and Mikel found himself looking at the slate with a single entry blinking white at him, with several dozen blacked-out entries above.

He pressed Incarnadine Metafora and watched as the familiar Skill description replaced the largely blacked-out list.

Incarnadine Metafora

Effect: Move your body from current location to location 20-50 yds. distant, you can perceive with some ocular capacity. “You become Blood - As the Goddess traveled so shall you. On a tide of crimson wrath, ride into eternity.”

Essentia Cost - 50

Stamina Cost - 0

Health Cost - 0

Cooldown - 10 minutes

His mind flashed back to the feeling of moving with the Skill and shivered. He’d never wondered what it felt like to be reduced to a puddle of blood and then flung fifty yards - but he’d found out. He wondered what he looked like in that form and shivered again.

He knew he’d have to practice with the skill and would ask Helsket to keep an eye on him and report back what he saw.

The fact he was actively planning to use The Callisto Jewel wasn’t lost on him, and although Celine’s instruction had helped a bit with his level of unease, it didn’t entirely alleviate it.

The Callisto Jewel felt heavy against his chest, cold to the point of aching, but at the same moment offering no respite from the crushing heat of the deadly summer.

He studied the screen a moment longer before experimentally scrolling down in an attempt to see more of what the entry had to offer.

Mikel was pleasantly surprised to find a few more bits of information he’d been unaware of.

The new screen mimicked the previous one in layout, text style, spacing, etc. but held new information.

Incarnadine Metafora

Transmission Skill

Essentia Based

Cast Time - Instantaneous

Cross Association - Blood

Level Up! to increase Skill scope.

Level Up! to increase Skills available.

Tree Growth

Mikel squinted before pressing the Tree Growth line as it pulsed gently. He smiled as another new screen emerged.

Tree Growth

Incarnadine Metafora - 5/1000 -- Unlock Incarnadine Wrath

Incarnadine Metafora - 100/1000 -- Unlock Blood Goddess Blade

Incarnadine Metafora - 1000 / 1000 -- Level UP! Unlock Grim Refraction

Further Progression LOCKED until Level UP! Achieved

A moment of thought later Mikel realized what he was looking at; the Skill Tree Librarian had mentioned.

He didn’t need to level up Incarnadine Metafora to Level One before he unlocked access to new Skills. He forcibly moved his mind away from thinking about the compound amount of Stamina he’d need to gather just to level Incarnadine Metafora, not to mention the new Skills he’d unlock as he moved through the progression system.

That was just depressing.

“Helsket,” Mikel said, holding up the slate, “is this how you know about your growth as an adventurer? Like levels and stuff. You said you get a feel for it later on - mind taking a look at this?”

Helsket nodded and took the slate, squinting at the fine print on the monitor. The little black box looked tiny in his massive, calloused hands and a fleeting thought shot through Mikel’s mind hoping the big man wouldn’t crush the device by accident.

His concern proved invalid as, with the tip of a meaty finger and thumb pinching outward on the face of the slate, Helsket somehow expanded the text so he could see it better.

“That works,” Helsket said, “Otherwise I would have had to get out my glasses.”

Helsket’s earlier comment about not liking books shot through Mikel’s head - it was apparent to him that his friend not only liked books but thought highly enough of them to keep a set of bird-watching books at home and to have a set of reading glasses.

After a moment of close inspection, he pinched the words back down to normal size and handed the slate back to Mikel.

“Yes - although I have a good feeling of what I can and can’t do instead of reading it on a screen. You don’t get good by worrying about numbers too large to figure easily.”

Experimentally Mikel pinched the screen and expanded it a few times to see how Helsket had completed that simple operation. Satisfied, he said, “I get that, but I’m just starting. I can see how this would be helpful. Especially with the progression laid out in such a clean way. It’s like a roadmap for getting stronger.”

“And yet, nothing will get done until you get into a fight or ten,” Helsket said as he hiked his pack further up his shoulders, “You can stare at numbers all day long, but until you get out and do something, they don’t mean much. Know what I’m saying?”

“I do,” Mikel said, even as he began to flick through the screen, delving deeper into the secrets of the little black slate, “I know exactly what you’re talking about.”