Delve

Mana Manipulation is…weird.

Rain started to raise a hand to scratch at his chin, then stopped. Idiot. I’m wearing a full helmet. How do I keep forgetting that? He shook his armored head. Tallheart’s work was amazing. Once he’d gotten the armor on and the smith had finished his adjustments, the heavy plate felt almost as natural as a second skin. Each piece interlocked with the others, the joints cleverly made from overlapping plates that somehow slid past each other without friction. He could tell that it was slowing him down a bit, but the weight was perfectly distributed. It felt heavier than the chainmail had, but less cumbersome somehow.

It’s amazing. I was worried at first, at least until Tallheart finished all of his adjustments. Now the only problem is visibility. This eye slit is too damn small. That’s the price I pay for being safe from arrows, I guess. I’ll get used to it eventually, and if not, well, I do have Detection.

Rain activated the skill, making sure that nothing was sneaking up on them. They were currently on their way through the mine, descending toward the lair. Carten’s…capture…of the scout had been a wakeup call for them. Apparently, there was an expedition inbound to clear the mine of whatever had killed the miners, led by the owner herself.

He looked over at the scout. The man’s hands were bound behind him, and he was trudging along disconsolately. He was young, probably not even out of his teens. Rain waved an armored hand at him to get his attention, marveling at the fine articulation of his gauntlets for the hundredth time. “Hey, what’s your name?”

The scout looked at him. “Why should I tell you? You’re just going to kill me. Why are you dragging me down here if not to hide my body? Didn’t want to carry my rotting corpse?”

Rain was taken aback. “No. We aren’t going to kill you,” he said, his voice echoing within his helmet. “We’re just taking you with us so you don’t go and tell your friends.”

“Tell them what? That you’re squatting in Lady Vekuavak’s mine? What are we doing down here, if you aren’t planning on killing me? None of you have any mining equipment or anything… Wait, are you bandits? Did you kill the miners? Is this your base?” He gestured to the tiled hallway that they had just reached.

Rain shook his head, the helmet not impeding the motion in the slightest as the tiny interlocking plates covering his neck slid within the collar of the breastplate. “Ameliah, is it okay to tell him now?”

Ameliah looked back at him from where she and Tallheart were leading the way. She nodded. “We’re almost there. He’ll find out soon enough anyway. Be ready to silence him if he tries to send a message.”

“I already told you!” the man protested, “I don’t have any skills! I can’t send a message—”

“Quiet,” Carten said, laying a hand on the man’s shoulder. The scout gulped and lapsed into silence.

“Your name?” Rain prompted.

“Stint,” the man replied, shrugging to free himself from Carten’s meaty paw. Rain smiled at the man to reassure him, then admonished himself for forgetting the helmet again. He tried to make his tone sound as friendly as possible instead. “Let’s start over. It is nice to meet you, Stint. I’m sorry we had to drag you down here. We’re going to break the lair’s core, and we can’t let you warn your friends. We want to be in, out, and away before they even realize we’re here.”

Stint stopped, an expression of surprise on his face. “A lair? There’s no lair down here…” His expression shifted to horror as Carten pushed him to get him moving again. “I can’t go into a lair!”

“An’ why not?” said Carten. “You allergic or somethin’?”

Rain turned to Carten, regarding him in the dim light. “Wait, you know about allergies?”

“Yeah,” Carten said. “Remind me to tell you about my Aunt Mazel sometime. She’s allergic to milk, but she doesn’t let that stop her from eating wheels of cheese whole. The smell, I tell ya.”

Rain shook his head. Okay then. I’d have been fine not knowing that. I suppose it isn’t that unexpected he knows what allergies are, though that sounds more like lactose intolerance. The word was in Staavo’s book, after all. He turned back to their captive. “Look, we’re adventurers. There’s a lair down here and we’re going to take care of it. Then we’ll let you go back to your…Master? Lady? What’s the correct term?”

“Lady,” Stint said. “And she’s not going to be happy. I don’t believe you’re adventurers for a moment. I’d have heard of you. There’s nobody with armor like that around here. You and the cervidian. If you’re an adventurer, where’s your plate?”

“Well, I don’t have one…” Rain trailed off. “I kinda got kicked out of the Guild. Jamus, show him your plate.”

Jamus fished out his bronze plate from underneath his robes and showed it to the man. Stint glanced at it, then looked away. “It makes no difference. Adventurers or not, we’re all going to die if we go into a lair. Even if we do survive, my Lady will have you all killed for stealing her property. If there really is a lair down here…when she finds out you broke it…”

Val brought his orb down to hang right between the scout’s eyes. “You know, you are making a compelling argument for us to just kill you and leave your corpse in this tunnel.” Stint paled, staring at the orb.

“Stop it, Val. We’re not killing him,” Rain said. He looked forward. “Right, Ameliah?”

She didn’t respond immediately. Oh no. Please don’t tell me—

Ameliah sighed. “No. We’re not going to kill him. He’s just following orders.”

“Stupid,” Carten said. “He’s seen all our faces. We don’t want a noble after us. I ain’t got a use for that kind of trouble. I should’ah never brought em back to the camp.”

“Carten’s right,” Val said. “We should kill him.”

“Could we please stop discussing my impending murder so casually?” Stint said. “Look, let me go, and I’ll just run away. Lady V. doesn’t have to know. Please don’t drag me into a lair. I don’t want to die.”

“We can’t risk it,” Jamus said. “We’ll talk about letting you go once we’re finished.”

“We’re here,” Ameliah said. She rested her hand against the barrier to the lair, the percentage showing as 23%.

Tallheart looked at Rain. “Have you managed to bond with the armor yet?”

Rain shook his head. “No, I still haven’t figured it out.”

“You should not enter until you do,” Tallheart rumbled.

“Yeah, I know, I know. I can’t use the enchantments until it’s bonded to me. Give me a minute.”

Rain tried once more to direct his mana into the armor. Apparently, Tallheart hadn’t wanted his work to fall into the hands of anyone else, so he’d added a failsafe. Once Rain bonded with the armor, he’d be the only one who could use it. The downside was that he’d also be the only one able to recharge the enchantment.

It’s a good thing I decided on the Mana Manipulation route. He said he’d need a liter or two of my blood instead if I had chosen to go without it. I like my blood inside, thank you very much. Anyway, come on, Rain, focus. Send the mana into the capacitive intake, not the metal itself.

He’d only taken the skill an hour ago, and he was having more trouble with it than any of his skills so far. He’d been expecting some sort of spiritual sense of his mana passages, or something to do with chakras and cycling his breath. Instead, he’d gotten something that felt more like a power-distribution panel straight out of science fiction, though the system didn’t actually spawn a window for it. Diverting emergency power to legs, captain! RAWR! ENERGY LEGS!

…

Damn it, not even a tingle. I guess that means no power-running for me, at least without using an actual skill like Velocity. What is even the point of moving mana around my body if it doesn’t actually do anything?

Rain relaxed, letting himself return to equilibrium. His mana, if left alone, would settle evenly throughout his body. The exception was what he’d decided to call his ‘core’, which he felt as a swirling fountain of energy nestled in the center of his brain. That appeared to be the source. His regeneration slowly drew mana in from wherever it came from and released it to flow out into his body. Does mana come from the soul? Where does my soul get it? Does it make it? If so, from what? Thin air?

He shook his head. He’d already experimented with Winter, watching how it boosted the flow to a raging, icy torrent. Skills seemed to interact with his mana in strange ways. He couldn’t make heads or tails of what the skills were doing as they guided the energy in complex patterns. It was like trying to understand an operating system by reading a tiny snippet of machine code. At least he could feel it now, fuzzy as the sense was.

Maybe one day I’ll be able to make my own skills…but for now, I should focus on something simple. Like SENDING MANA INTO ITEMS LIKE THE DAMN SKILL SAYS I SHOULD BE ABLE TO!

Rain wasn’t sure what the problem was. Every time he tried to send his mana into the armor, it was simply absorbed into the metal without activating anything as far as he could tell. Frustrated, he diverted his mana out of the palms of his hands, pushing it into the armor, which glowed with a black light as the mana was swallowed by the dark gray metal.

“No,” Tallheart rumbled. “You are not listening. Form an interface with the enchantment’s intake matrix.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do!” Rain said, staring back at Tallheart.

“C’mon,” said Carten, pushing Stint into the barrier and motioning to Jamus and Val. “He can’t do it when we’re watchin’.”

The others followed, leaving Rain alone with Tallheart and Ameliah, though he could hear the others speaking softly on the other side of the barrier.

“I don’t trust them on their own in there,” Ameliah said. “Hurry up, Rain.”

Rain glared at her, then sighed. “Not helping.”

She shrugged. “Sorry. It’s different for everyone. I just…do it.”

Bah. Ok, come on Rain, you can do this. Interface with the armor. If it’s like a game, what interface would I use…?

…Dur. Inventory.

Inventory

Equipped

[Unknown]

Unequipped

[Unknown]

[Unknown]

He blinked.

“Did you succeed?” Tallheart asked.

“I’m…not sure,” Rain said.

I didn’t think that would actually work. It was one of the first things I tried ages and ages ago, but it didn’t work then, so I assumed it wasn’t a thing. I guess I was wrong… Oh, maybe that was before I had any magic items? Wait, this says I have three…

Rain focused his mana, trying to push it into the unknown items listed on the panel. This time, he felt the system take hold, directing the energy out of his body and sweeping it over his possessions before drawing it back in. The screen immediately changed, revealing additional information.

Inventory

Equipped

Dark Revenant’s Armor [Unbound]

Durability: 1,309/1,309

Hardness: 207

Material: Dark Steel

Mana Conversion: 99.9%

Mana Saturation: 0/13,202 mp

Mana Dissipation: 92 mp/s

Mana Capacitance Rune

0/14,209 mp

Import Efficiency: 1%

Export Efficiency: 0%

Enhanced Durability Rune [Inactive]

+12,029 durability, 20 mp/day

Enhanced Hardness Rune [Inactive]

+597 hardness, 25 mp/day

Enhanced Dark Resistance Rune [Inactive]

+50 dark resistance, 20 mp/day

Dark Regeneration Rune [Inactive]

+1 durability/s, 0.8 mp/s

Unequipped

Strength Ring [Depleted]

Durability: 3/14

Reservoir

0/90 mp

Strength Enhancement Rune [Inactive]

+10, 2.4 mp/day

Focus Ring [Destroyed]

Durability: 0/15

Rain was distracted from the panel immediately. He could feel the armor’s capacitive intake now. He pushed mana into it with Mana Manipulation, watching as the number under the Capacitance rune slowly started to tick up. He pulled open the description for Mana Manipulation, checking the rate.

Mana Manipulation (1/10) Exp: 0/200

Allows internal control of mana

Allows expulsion of mana to environment

Allows transfer of mana to and from capacitive items with direct contact

Maximum transfer rate 120.0 mp/s (fcs)

Same as always. Does Channel Mastery work? Nice, yes it does. Not that I needed it. 240 mp/s is just excessive. He slowed down the rate, seeing no need to rush. He didn’t want to break anything by going too fast. 10 mp/s will be fine.

As Rain charged the armor, he watched his mana tick down and the number listed by the Capacitance rune increase slowly. It looked like “import efficiency” was exactly what it sounded like. For every 100 mana he transferred into the armor, only 1 would make it into the enchantments. Rain continued transferring mana as he looked up. “I figured it out.”

“Good,” Tallheart rumbled.

“Don’t waste all your mana,” Ameliah said. “This is still a lair we’re going into. Anything could happen.”

Rain bobbed his head, then looked at Tallheart. “Have you been in one of these before?”

The antlered man nodded slowly. “Yes. Many times, with Lilly. Do not worry about me.”

“Lilly?” Ameliah asked.

“Snowlilly. My wife. They would not let her join the Guild, but she would not let that stop her. Delving was what she lived for, until…” Tallheart stopped, staring at the lair. He stepped through the barrier wordlessly.

“Oh,” Ameliah said. She looked at Rain. “She’s dead? Did you know?”

Rain shrugged. “Yeah. I don’t know any details, though. I didn’t want to ask him... I don’t think he wants to talk about it.”

“Come on,” Ameliah said, a somber expression on her face. “Let’s go.”

Rain followed her through the barrier, revealing the others waiting in the entry hall. He glanced at his party screen as soon as it appeared. Curiously, Stint’s name wasn’t listed. Interesting. Either it doesn’t work for people who aren’t awakened, or he’s not ‘with us’ as far as the system is concerned. So many damn questions.

“I really don’t like this,” Stint said, staring into the darkness. “Can you at least untie my hands now?”

“Fine,” Val said. He unsheathed a knife, but stopped as Ameliah laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t tell me you’re seriously going to cut up my rope,” she said.

Rain smiled at Val’s expression. He stepped forward to untie Stint’s bindings. He had a bit of trouble with the gauntlets, but he managed it. The ropes hadn’t been that tight, and even though he couldn’t feel what he was doing, his fine manipulation wasn’t that impeded by the cleverly articulated metal.

“You sure these joints aren’t magic too, Tallheart?” Rain said as Stint rubbed at his wrists where the rope had been tied.

“They are not,” Tallheart said.

“Let’s go already. Someone give me a damn light,” Carten said, walking into the darkness without waiting for a response. Rain used Detection to make sure that he wasn’t going to run into anything nasty. Ameliah sent her light to lead the way, moving to walk beside the big man.

“You stay in the middle where I can see you,” Val said, giving Stint a push. “Don’t try anything.”

Jamus laid a friendly hand on Stint’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe. Val and I will watch the rear. Tallheart, will you make sure nothing happens to our friend here?”

Tallheart moved to tower over the anxious-looking scout. Stint looked up at him with a concerned expression. Tallheart stared back. “I do not bite, human,” he said.

Rain grinned, moving to walk beside the smith as the group followed Ameliah and Carten down the tunnel. Rain looked at the description of the armor again. Now that it had a little charge, the numbers had changed. He was also feeling a curious pressure start to build up, like a weight on his shoulders that had nothing to do with the mass of the metal.

Dark Revenant’s Armor [Bound]

Durability: 1,309/13,338 [1,309]

Hardness: 804 [207]

Material: Dark Steel

Mana Conversion: 99.9%

Mana Saturation: 0/13,202 mp

Mana Dissipation: 92 mp/s

Mana Capacitance Rune

24/14,209 mp

Import Efficiency: 1%

Export Efficiency: 0%

Enhanced Durability Rune [Active]

+12,029 durability, 20 mp/day

Enhanced Hardness Rune [Active]

+597 hardness, 25 mp/day

Enhanced Dark Resistance Rune [Active]

+50 dark resistance, 20 mp/day

Dark Regeneration Rune [Inactive]

+1 durability/s, 0.8 mp/s

Rain looked at Tallheart, moving the screen to the side so it didn’t block his view of the antlered man. “Hey, about this armor. I’ve got some questions.”

Tallheart sighed. “Very well. Ask. Promise you will stop if there is danger?”

Rain laughed. “Of course. Don’t worry, Tallheart. I could probably handle this lair on my own now.”

Carten snorted. Ameliah glanced back at him and shook her head, then returned her attention to the darkness ahead of him. Yeah, that’s fair. I shouldn’t make light of it, but it’s hard to take the danger seriously with what Immolate did to those bats last time. I suppose if the ram shows up… Rain checked his mana, halting the transfer to the armor. He didn’t want to be empty if something unexpected happened. The feeling of weight from the armor didn’t go away even after he stopped feeding it mana.

“Right,” he said. “First things first, why does it feel so…heavy all of a sudden?”

“Soulstrain,” Val said before Tallheart could answer. The smith nodded.

…Shit. “Is it going to get worse if I keep charging it?”

“Probably,” Val said. “How strong is the enchantment?”

Rain shrugged. “I don’t have a reference point, just those crappy stat rings. Oh, can I recharge those somehow?”

“Do not worry,” Tallheart said. “You will get used to it. It should not be too strong for you. And no. You cannot.”

“It says they have a reservoir? Is that different from a Capacitance rune? It must be. Why do they show up in my inventory then? I’m not even wearing them, they’re in my pack… How does Mana Manipulation—”

Tallheart grumbled unhappily.

“Oh. Sorry, I’m getting off track.” Rain paused, trying to order his questions. Ok, the first thing I need to know is, what does this mean for my defenses. He pulled up his Statistics display.

Statistics

Total

Base

Modifier

Health

200

200

0

100%

H.Regen

100/day

100/day

0/day

100%

Stamina

200

200

0

100%

S.Regen

100/day

100/day

0/day

100%

Mana

5100

5100

0

100%

M.Regen

1.66/s

0.21/s

-0.05/s

812.0%

Movement Speed

10

Perception

10

Resistances

Heat

Cold

Light

Dark

1

0%

1

0%

1

0%

51

0%

Force

Arcane

Mental

Chemical

1

0%

1

0%

1

0%

1

0%

Humm. Dark resistance is up by 50, which is awesome. No change to Force Resistance though, or any of the others. Armor must not work like that. Durability is probably how much damage the armor itself can take. How much of that makes it to me…yeah, it’s probably complicated. I don’t see it helping much if I get punched by a troll. I suppose it would spread out the impact…

Rain decided to keep things simple. First, he needed his assumption confirmed. “Durability is how much damage the armor can take before it breaks?”

Tallheart nodded. “Essentially.”

“And hardness is…”

“Physical damage resistance.”

“But for the armor, and not me?” Rain asked. Tallheart nodded again. Wow. So anything that does less than 800 damage or so won’t even scratch it. That’s…a lot. I think? More than Ameliah’s casual punch did when we were playing with Force Ward, anyway.

“What about magical force? Or other kinds of magic? Does Hardness work?”

“No. Mana will be absorbed by the metal until it reaches saturation,” Tallheart said.

Well then. That’s…wow. This says the saturation limit is thirteen thousand. That’s like thirteen thousand extra health as far as magical attacks are concerned. And then there’s dissipation. If that does what I think it does—

“Pretty great, ain’t it?” Carten said, looking back over his shoulder. “That’s why Jamus’ll never beat me in a real fight. I’m practically immune to mana.”

“Yeah,” Rain agreed. This is a game-changer. Wait… “Does this mean my own mana will get sucked in, too? Everything worked fine with the chainmail, it just got a bit glowy…”

“You should be fine,” Jamus said. Tallheart was silent, letting the mage explain. “Metal always redirects mana flow, but it can’t actually absorb it within the domain of your soul. That should extend a few finger-widths from your body.”

Rain thought about it. Makes sense, I guess… The domain of my soul, huh? Wait a second… “Why do Velocity and Force Ward work on Carten? They’re mana too, and his armor is even thicker than mine.”

“No idea,” Jamus said. “You’d have to ask another aura user. You’ll have trouble finding one, though. Staavo might be able to help you.”

Rain sighed. It never ends. Ok, one last question. I think Tallheart might lose it if I keep bothering him. “Last thing. How do I activate the regeneration rune? The others turned on on their own, but this one still says ‘inactive’.”

“It will only activate in darkness,” Tallheart said.

Oh, ‘Dark’ Regeneration. I get it. The Lunar Orbs must be preventing it from working. I need to get a cloak or something. Wait, would that work, or does it need to actually be dark out, as in night time? Fucking damn it. I wonder if I can convince Tallheart to write me an instruction manual…

The group reached the core room without incident. The low-leveled monsters of the lair provided little challenge. Since Jamus and Val had been practicing under the influence of his Winter aura, they’d both gotten significantly stronger. Even Carten was more effective than ever, probably benefiting from the multitude of kills he’d racked up, even if Rain’s mana did nothing for him. The core panic was easily dealt with, leaving them standing around the stone pillar holding the core.

“What now? We just break it?” Rain asked.

“Yes,” Ameliah said.

“And you’re sure it’s not alive?”

“Yes.”

“Really sure?”

Ameliah sighed. “We don’t have the time for this. They’ll have noticed their scout is gone by now. We still need to walk back and get away before they get here.”

Rain nodded. “Does it matter who breaks it? Do we all need to do damage or something?”

Ameliah shook her head. “No. Everyone in the party will receive the full accolade, no matter who breaks it.”

Rain looked at Stint. “What about him?”

Val looked at the scout. “What do you mean? What about him?”

Rain shrugged. “The…accolade? It’s not divided, right? Can we invite him to the party or something?”

“Why?” Val asked.

“Why not?” Jamus countered. “I don’t suppose it would cost us anything?” He looked at Ameliah for confirmation. She shook her head.

“Stint,” Ameliah said. “Will you promise not to tell your master anything about us?”

Stint nodded. “Yeah. I won’t tell a soul. I swear.”

Ameliah smiled. “Good.”

Rain’s eyes flicked to the party display. Stint’s name and vitals were now displayed, the same as the others. “Wait, how did you do that?” He looked at Ameliah.

She smiled. “It’s about mindset. It was as much him deciding to join us as anything that I did.”

“Oh,” Rain said. Parties are weird.

“We done?” Carten said, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Hang on,” Rain said. “I want to try something.”

He placed his hand on the core. The gem was solid, though he still had trouble making out any detail on its light-devouring surface. He couldn’t feel anything coming from it through the metal of his gauntlet.

Ok, here goes nothing. He focused, expelling mana through his hand, trying to force it into the core. The mana exited his body, passing through the metal of his gauntlet and fading from his senses. He couldn’t tell if anything was making it inside the gem.

Ameliah shook her head. “That won’t work. You need dark-aspect mana if you want to refill a dark-aspect core.”

“Oh,” Rain said, stopping and stepping back. “How do I get dark-aspect mana?”

“Enough,” Tallheart rumbled. He reached out with a hand and grasped the core. He squeezed. There was a crack, and then suddenly, Rain was somewhere else.

He stumbled. There was nothing in every direction, just a featureless plane of swirling darkness. Despite the fact that there was no light, he could still see. He looked down at himself, then gasped. What the fuck?

His armor was gone. As were his clothes. His body was made of translucent bluish light. Is this…my soul? Why is my soul naked?

His thoughts were interrupted by a dark light, rushing toward him. He lacked the words to describe how it could shine with darkness, yet it did. It was like the light given off by his armor when he channeled mana into it, but much stronger. The light stopped to hover in front of his eyes. It was coming from a small tile of some dark metal, about the same size and shape as an adventurer’s plate. There were words stamped on it.

He reached out to touch it, his spectral hand wavering as it made contact with the metal. It felt real enough. He stared at the black metal, reading the words stamped into it.

Accolade of the Everdeep Fortress

+10 Perception

With no warning, he was back in his body, the black plate clasped in his gauntlet. “Woah!” he gasped.

“That was most alarming,” Jamus said, staring at his own copy of the black plate. The light was gone, the plates appearing as nothing more than jet-black pieces of metal. Rain looked around, seeing that everyone had one. He blinked. Is it brighter in here? There was no sign of the shattered core. The darkness seemed to have fled, but he didn’t know if that was just because the core was gone, or if his senses had actually been improved. He pulled up his status. His perception was now listed as 20. He looked back down at the plate. Just having this makes me see better?

“What the depths is this!” Stint gasped, staring into the darkness around himself. “Where did all of this come from?” He waved his hands, reaching for something. Rain looked up, unsure what the man was talking about.

“That’s your interface,” Ameliah said. “Congratulations. You’re awakened now.”

Rain raised his eyebrows. “You can awaken someone by breaking a lair core?”

“Apparently,” Ameliah said. “I wasn’t sure. It’s not something I’ve tried before. Unclaimed cores aren’t exactly easy to find.”

Stint sank to his knees, tears rolling down his face. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Rain smiled, looking at the man, then back to his own plate, then down at his armor. This is what it’s all about. I’m going to awaken the world.

The room shuddered. Rain glanced up at the ceiling. A giant crack splintered through the stone as his eyes widened in horror.

“Time to go,” said Jamus. Tallheart hoisted Stint to his feet and dragged him toward the portal. Rain wasted no time following the others out of the collapsing lair. Ameliah was the last out. She walked through calmly, not looking back as the swirling darkness of the portal behind her vanished. The core room was briefly visible before it was buried in an avalanche of stone. Rain coughed as dust filled the tunnel.

“Fuck,” Carten said, then he laughed. “Ya could have warned us about that.”

Val dusted himself off, then sent his light down the tunnel. “Come on. We should hurry.”

Rain followed. As he walked, he examined the plate. An accolade, huh? It feels like…huh. What if I… He concentrated on the odd sensation. Abruptly, the plate vanished from his hand. What the? He concentrated again. The plate reappeared just as abruptly.

“It’s tied to your soul,” Tallheart explained, watching him. “I recommend keeping it hidden.”

Rain looked at him. “Tied to my soul?”

“Yes,” the smith rumbled. “Do not let anyone see it that you do not trust.”

“Why?” Rain asked.

“So no one tries to kill you,” Ameliah said. “When you die, the accolade will be free for anyone to take.”

Rain gulped, making the metal plate vanish again. He could still feel it, somehow, floating within him. Well, that’s alarming. He looked at Tallheart worriedly. He just said he’s been in many lairs before. He must have more of these… As if the bounty on cervidians wasn’t bad enough.

He looked at Stint. “Hey.”

Stint looked at him. He was still clutching his own accolade to his chest.

Can I trust him? I don’t know a thing about him…

Stint shrunk back. “Don’t!” he said, staring at Rain with fear in his eyes. Rain blinked, realizing how imposing he must look wearing full platemail. Wordlessly, he raised a hand to his visor, sliding it up slowly, revealing his face. The whole front of the helmet slid up smoothly, allowing him to lock eyes with the scout.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Rain said, staring at Stint with a serious expression. “I just need you to promise you won’t tell a soul about this. As far as you know, there was no lair. We were never here. You never saw us. And there definitely wasn’t a cervidian. Do you understand?”

Stint nodded furiously. “I understand.”

“Good,” Val said, cutting into the conversation. He leaned in to stare at Stint, pulling his lips back into a vicious smile. “Because if not…”

Rain pushed him away lightly. “Stop it. That isn’t necessary.”

Val laughed. “Fine.”

The group made it back to the entrance of the mine without encountering anything, monstrous or otherwise. Carten poked his head out the door, surveying the immediate surroundings.

“All clear,” he said, stepping out into the open. “Let’s get gone.”

They returned to their camp, quickly loading up the cart with their belongings, as well as a decent number of metal bars and Tallheart’s crucible. He squished it down using his skills, removing the legs and compacting it so it would fit in the cart. Rain shook his head. I’m never going to get used to that. Tallheart also retrieved his anvil, but wisely didn’t try to put the massive chunk of iron on the flimsy wooden cart bed.

“Come on, we’ll circle around this way,” Ameliah said, hitching up the horse. She led them away from the camp, heading into the hills. She pushed a boulder out of the way, making space for the cart, then swore at the giant hole that had been left in the landscape. Stint stopped, staring at the hole, his mouth agape.

Rain smiled. Tell me about it, man.

Stint shook his head, recovering from his surprise. “She’ll follow you. Lady Vekuavak. You can’t hide what happened here. She’ll know someone stripped the mine, even if she doesn’t know about the lair.”

“Not much we can do about that,” Jamus said. “We’ll just have to outrun her. She won’t know it was us as long as she doesn’t see all this metal. Someone throw a blanket over the cart or something.”

Stint shook his head again. “She’ll catch you. She’s fast. You don’t know her like I do. She’s awakened too, and she’s not going to let this go.”

“All the more reason to hurry,” Ameliah said.

“I’ll…stay here,” Stint said. “I can slow her down. If I can convince her that you were gone by the time I got here…”

“I don’ like that plan,” Carten said. “He’ll squeal, and we’ll be fucked.”

“I agree,” Val said.

“No, I won’t!” Stint said, looking at them anxiously. “I promised.”

Rain sighed. “It’s not about what you promised.” Carten and Val are right. We can’t let him go. Not yet. He’ll give it away, whether he wants to or not. “Leave the cart. We’ll travel faster without it. The metal, too. If she at least gets that, maybe she won’t be as mad.”

“I agree,” Jamus said, unhitching the horse quickly. “Grab what you can. Let’s go.”

Tallheart stared at his crucible and the piles of metal. Wordlessly, he set down the anvil and walked to the cart. He dug his fingers into the crucible, pulling the Fire Cryst free. He picked up two of the iron bars, tucking them into a pouch along with the Fire Cryst. Next, he removed the filters, setting them aside. He laid his hands back on the crucible, pushing. He compacted it down into a sphere, then lowered his hands with a sigh. He picked up the filters and stepped away, leaving the remains of the crucible and the rest of the metal behind. He set the filters atop his anvil, then lifted the whole thing.

Damn it. Rain grabbed his own pack, settling it across his shoulders. He’d already adjusted the straps, using aoaka hide to extend them so he could wear it over his armor. The water barrel, the cauldron, and a few other things were also abandoned, the others taking their packs and getting ready for a long walk back to Fel Sadanis. Stint looked on anxiously. Rain handed him his bow and quiver. “Come on. You’re with us now.”

Ameliah nodded, then pointed off into the hills. “We need to move. Carten, guide the horse. Rain, do the thing.” She took off at a slow jog.

Rain activated Velocity, slowly increasing the boost so as to not alarm Stint or the horse. He hustled after Ameliah, conscious of the weight of the armor he was wearing. He grimaced. Jogging. I hate jogging.