A figure with a dark cloak concealing their face stepped through the half open gate into a small yard where a large man was busy working some metal on an anvil. A furnace burned hotly next to him with another bit of metal waiting in the coals for its turn. The smith barely looked up, small burn scars covered his massively muscled arms, his hammer falling with almost mechanical precision as the figure approached.
“Flameblade,” the smith said as the cloaked man got close enough for conversation.
“Damnit,” the figure cursed, reaching up to pull back the hood to reveal a youthful face, “how did you know it was me?”
“I didn’t,” the Smith replied, holding back a smirk, “I greet all customers who enter with their faces hidden like that.”
“That’s… you’re messing with me,” the champion said, narrowing his eyes at the larger man.
“Probably,” the smith chuckled, “did you ruin your sword again?”
“Some ascender broke into my house, pointed a poisoned crossbow at me, didn’t have much of a choice,” Flameblade shrugged, pulling his saber from beneath his cloak and dropping the weapon on an empty table. What had previously been a flawless blade was now charred and pitted, how it fit in the sheath was itself a miracle. The smith put the metal he’d been working on back into the forge before turning to inspect the weapon.
“I do have other customers you know,” the large man admonished, taking in the cratered surface of the weapon, “I can’t keep making you new swords all the time.”
“If you know any other smith who can make a weapon that stands up to even a single slash, I’m more than willing to take my business there,” Flameblade replied dryly, “besides, if you’d just make me an awakened weapon that wouldn’t be an issue.”
“Awakening a weapon isn’t easy,” the smith retorted, sounding almost angry, “if there’s some trick to it, I haven’t found it yet.”
“They probably know in the higher worlds.”
“And what fun would it be to simply be told the answer? No, I refuse to ascend till I figure this out, not sure why you’re still in this world.”
“If ascending were easy I’d have done it as well,” Flameblade snapped before quickly calming himself, “sorry… sometimes it feels like I’ve been cursed to remain behind forever.”
“Or maybe there’s something keeping you here,” the smith shrugged, tossing the ruined saber into a pile of scrap metal, “so, twenty-five inch, single edged saber, light curve, heavy polish?”
“Yup,” the champion nodded, pulling out his coin pouch, “one cloud twelve?”
“One-fifteen,” the smith corrected.
“What? Your prices went up?”
“Value of silver dropped.”
“Since when?”
“Since I spoke to a money changer this morning,” the large man shrugged, “lots of bolts entering circulation it seems, probably some noble digging into his savings to show how affluent he is for some party. You’d know better than I.”
“Why?” Flameblade asked, pulling coins from the felt pouch, “I don’t go to any parties.”
“But I’m certain you get invited to all of them,” the smith chuckled.
“If they knew who you were they’d invite you too.”
“I don’t want to go to any silly parties,” the large man scowled at the thought.
“Neither do I… there, one cloud fifteen bolt you cheapskate.”
“Don’t know why you’re complaining, the kingdom spends more money on you than they do on their own royal castle,” the smith snorted, “should be ready in a week, you can use one of the show weapons along the wall till then, just know if you ruin it, I’ll charge you for it too.”
“Ya, ya,” the smaller man dismissed with a wave of his hand, walking over to inspect the weapons on display by the entrance to the forge yard. After selecting a basic saber he turned to leave, putting his hood back up, “have a good day Ironblade.”
\*\*\*\*\*
Nathen stepped foot outside for the first time in days, perhaps more time had passed, or perhaps much less if the trials were all just in his mind, but regardless it was good to be outside. The fresh mountain air, devoid of the smoke of braziers or the stagnation of being underground, was refreshing. The sun was low on the horizon, though if it was rising or setting he didn’t know.
“Alright, got the blade,” Nathen said aloud, patting the sword on his hip as if to ensure it was still there, “are you going to lead me back?”
He still felt somewhat silly, talking out loud to a god like this, but he didn’t know how to pray properly. But he imagined there was no ‘proper’ way to pray to a god of freedom, he couldn’t remember the high priestess every praying. She showed a certain level of reverence, or perhaps respect would be more accurate, to the relic in the center of the church. But he’d never seen her praying.
After a moment in which he got no reply, Nathen shrugged and began walking, half expecting the world around him to simply blur together as it had when he’d walked here. But it didn’t, a minute later he still on the same mountain side. Though he did notice, with a glance backwards, that the vault had vanished. Besides that detail, however, the world hadn’t changed around him.
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“No path home?” He asked aloud again, and received no reply before sighing, “guess I’m walking back on my own.”
That wasn’t ideal, he didn’t even know which way to walk. He was in the North, he knew that, but didn’t know which way was South. The sun rose in the East… right? He paused at that thought, had the sun been rising in the east in this world? He’d never paid attention, it was a minor detail he hadn’t even thought about but he now kinda wished he had. Then he remembered the holy symbol he’d been given, his hand going to his chest where it still hung beneath his shirt. It would let him figure out North come nightfall. So he just had to wait for that.
Looking around for anything to occupy him till then he noticed a thin pillar of smoke rising into the sky off to his left. Was there someone else this far north, he wondered. Or was it just a brush fire? It looked too small to be a wild fire but it wasn’t like he had any experience with them. Figuring it would be better to know than not he began walking towards it.
Within an hour it became clear the sun was still rising, so he had most of the day before the stars were out. In addition to walking towards the smoke he kept his eye out for supplies, he still had some rations but didn’t know if they’d last till he made it back to Templeholm. Besides, he was itching to try out his new blade and swordsmanship on something other than the Custodian. The construct had been an outstanding sparring partner, but fighting it had lacked the thrill of fighting a monster. Nathen had never been an adrenalin junky, but perhaps that was just because he couldn’t afford to be one in his first world.
Surprisingly the first movement he saw wasn’t a monster or animal, but a group of people. He had to do a double take upon seeing them, what were other people doing this far north? They were armed and spotted him the same time he saw them. Nathen waved to signal he his peaceful intent and their leader responded in kind. Getting closer he counted five of them, all men, all armed.
“You lost?” the leader asked kindly.
“You could say that,” Nathen shrugged, “surprised to see anyone else this far North, honestly.”
“Oh, we’re in the North now?” the man asked, “suppose that makes sense.”
“You don’t know where you are either?” Nathen asked incredulously.
“Were you hoping otherwise?”
“I was hoping you could at least tell me if the sun rises in the east.”
“You’re certainly an ascender,” the man chuckled, “new to this world?”
“You could tell?” Nathen asked.
“This world is… weird, don’t expect the sun to rise from the same direction every day. The mountains up here move around, slowly but it happens. There’s no North Star, compasses don’t work,” he shrugged, “we’re from a community of lost, most of us are ascenders, you’re welcome to join us.”
“Is it that hard to find your way back to the kingdoms?” Nathen asked.
“We had another guy who left, saying he knew which way to go, a week later he walked back into camp from the opposite direction he’d left, saying he’d walked in as straight a line he could.”
“I might know a way back,” Nathen offered, once again thinking about the coin around his neck.
“You can talk about it with the boss when we get back,” the man shrugged, “till then we’re going to wipe out a monster nest. Care to join us?”
“Sounds like fun,” Nathen smiled and extended a hand, “I’m Nathen.”
“Masood,” the man replied, then motioned to the others, “and these hooligans are Anton, Brage, Rainer, Lucas and Ibrahim.”
“So, what kind of monsters we fighting?” Nathen asked as the introductions were finished.
“Archer moles, the kingdoms call them something stupid like Arch-moles, but… they’re moles that launch their claws at people,” Masood shrugged, “so we named them Archer moles.”
“So long as I can test my new sword on them,” Nathen shrugged.
\*\*\*\*
“Alright, I’m here,” the officer said as he stormed into the clearing, “what’s going on?”
“Doc has made contact!” one of the soldiers said, “this way sir.”
Following the other man through the trees they quickly found where a young man in a dirty lab coat seemed to be in a shouting match with a glowing circle of light that hovered in the air before him.
“Lieutenant, finally!” the doctor said, motioning him over, “tell them that I’m Doctor Erlham!”
“So you really made contact?” the officer asked, walking around to the front of the circle a blurry face resolved itself, appearing to be another man looking somewhat annoyed.
“Captain,” the officer saluted, causing the man on the other side to raise an eyebrow, “Lieutenant Dren reporting.”
“Lieutenant?” the man asked, leaning forward, “you look… younger.”
“Seems to be one of the effects of making the transit,” Dren replied, “and that’s why the doctor looks the way he does.”
“I see…” the captain paused, waving his hand for Dren to lower his hand, “then you’ll know the code phrase?”
“Of course sir,” Dren said before quickly rattling off a long sequence of numbers. The captain on the other side looked down as he spoke and nodded as he spoke.
“Here I was thinking the scientists were trying to pull one over on me,” he nodded, “then report Lieutenant.”
“Of course, sir, the transit device works, the world on the other side is habitable, near as we can tell,” Dren listed quickly, “if anything is wrong with the food or air it hasn’t affected us yet. No sign of local viruses either.”
“Considering your body is younger, could it be that your new bodies are altered to survive on that world?” the captain asked, “rather than the world being habitable to humans? I suppose it doesn’t matter in the end… sounds like it’s perfect for escape.”
“There is a downside, sir,” Lieutenant Dren said, “while the world is habitable, and likely able to support quite a population, there is already a local civilization.”
“Oh?”
“They’re rather primitive, early middle ages technology, feudal government, no gunpowder that we’ve seen. But seeing as none of the weapons we were sent with made it through, it’s unlikely we can defeat them militarily.”
“Any chance the Doc could figure out a way to transport weapons?” the captain asked, both men looking at where the doctor was watching.
“No,” the doctor shook his head, “it seems only clothing and small bits of metal make the transition, belt buckles, dogtags, that kind of thing.”
“If you can send people, then you can send objects,” the captain countered, “what’s preventing us from sending a pile of guns?”
“I believe there is some… intelligence filtering what is or isn’t allowed through.”
“What kind of Intelligence?”
“The locals refer to them as Gods,” the Doctor offered slowly.
“Really? I thought you didn’t believe in gods.”
“I didn’t,” the doc replied quickly, “but this new world is… strange. The Erlham field is much stronger, to the point that I can manipulate it with my finger, that’s how I opened this window.”
“And?”
“And, it’s clear that we’ve severely underestimated the powers of the Erlham field, it can do so much more than simple transport people to another world,” the Doctor answered, talking faster than before, “it refreshed our bodies, allowed me to open a window between worlds. Who’s to say it can’t create gods?”
“And these… gods are preventing us from sending you resources?” the captain asked skeptically.
“I believe so, theoretically you’re right, there shouldn’t be a significant difference between sending a person and an object, yet only people can be sent.”
“I see… Lieutenant, do you agree with him?”
“I can’t say I understand the science of it, sir,” the Lieutenant answered carefully, “but there are things in this world that are hard to explain. Each of us was greeted by a little… fairy creature upon arriving who offered us a weapon. On of my soldiers seems to have doubled his strength through meditation. Who’s to say what else is possible.”
“Right… so, I assume you have a plan to prepare for the evacuation?”
“Yes sir.”
“Let’s hear it.”