Nym took his time setting up the teleportation spell. He’d only done it twice himself, and never with an extra person, let alone four. The amount of arcana it needed scaled up quite heavily with the base spell, but he thought he might be able to modify it to a version that had a static arcana cost and just grabbed everything in a set area. If he was right, that was how the teleportation platforms worked.
The spell took hold, and the world pinched around them. Everything was dark for an instant, and then they were standing near the edge of a small town that was just starting to wake up with the new day. Nym staggered to one side and would have fallen if Ophelia hadn’t caught him. “That was… harder than I thought it would be,” he said.
“Take your time,” she told him. “Just catch your breath.”
“Is that Geldrin?” Monick asked, pointing at the town.
“Yes,” Nym said. “It was the first town I could think of that I knew had a healer and would be far enough away that the refugees hadn’t reached it yet.”
“Wait, refugees?” Bildar said. “What are you talking about?”
“Like I said, the ghouls overwhelmed the walls. I don’t even know how many wights were commanding them. A lot of them had soldier uniforms on, so I’m thinking something bad happened near the center of the forest and a huge chunk of army mages were killed and raised. Either way, Ebalsan is half-gone and there’re no people left. I think everyone either ran for it or is huddled up in the keep.”
All four earth mages looked horrified at the news, but Nym wasn’t really sure why. Their own camp had been hit even worse. It had practically been flattened by the time Nym got there, and even though most of the undead had moved on, there were still ghouls roaming directly on top of their bunker, looking for the humans they presumably smelled.
If there’d been a wight there, Nym was pretty sure that the building crews would have died. It would have understood what those chimney stacks rising out of the ground meant, and ghouls had no problems with digging. It was kind of strange that they hadn’t figured that out, unless the ghouls didn’t actually know anyone was there and were just loitering. Perhaps they’d heard the survivors through the stacks but couldn’t figure out where they were.
It didn’t matter in the end. His only goals now were finding Analia and extracting as many of his personal possessions as possible from his house. At the least, he wanted the money stashed in his room. It was over twenty crests now, more than enough for him to live humbly for the rest of his life. In fact, at his current life expectancy, he wouldn’t even have to be all that humble as long as he was willing to do some work occasionally.
“Do you have any money on you?” he asked.
“Couple shields,” Monick said.
“Nothing,” Ophelia added.
Bildar shook his head, and Nomick just shrugged. Nym fished two crests out of his pocket and handed them over. “That should be enough for a healer and a decent inn for the night. Is there anything in your personal supplies worth going back into those woods to dig up?”
“Maybe ten crests, a few trinkets and mementos,” Bildar said. “Some stuff with sentimental value. I would like to go back for it if possible, but this situation being what it is…”
“Should have stayed in Thrakus and fought the contractors guild,” Monick said. “It would have been less dangerous.”
“That was a losing battle. They had bribed damn near everybody who could have done a thing,” Bildar said.
“I need to get back,” Nym cut into the conversation. He’d heard that argument too many times already and didn’t have time to listen to them have it again. “Are you going to be able to get to the healer from here?”
“I think I can manage to hobble a few hundred feet,” Bildar said. “Are you sure you’re ready? You’re barely upright.”
“Doesn’t matter. If I don’t go back, we’ll lose Analia.”
“Right.” Bildar didn’t look happy. “Nym, thank you. Be careful. There’s something fishy going on with the army. Whoever those two guys who tried to arrest you on false pretenses are working for is probably still out there.”
“I’ll try to stay away from them. Go on now. I need to focus.”
The Earth Shapers started towards the town while Nym built back up the conduit he needed to pull in third layer arcana. There had to be a faster way to do it, but for now, the spiral method was what he had. For now it was fine since the only third circle spell he knew was teleport, and it wasn’t a time sensitive issue to cast it, but eventually he’d be using arcana from the Astral Sea in a combat situation, and taking thirty seconds to forge the conduit, then another ten seconds to get the arcana under control, would not work.
The spell came together and pulled Nym back to Ebalsan. He’d targeted the air about a thousand feet right above his house, and when he came out of the teleport, he was free-falling towards the ground. Nym regretted that decision immediately, as it took him a few seconds to get oriented. A quick application of second layer arcana saved him with a few hundred feet to spare, but if he’d realized how bad the back-to-back teleports would take it out of him, he’d have chosen a more secure landing and flown in.
It was too late now either way, but he’d remember for next time to give himself a longer recovery period. It probably wouldn’t hurt if he limited the number of people to something more reasonable in the future too.
A quick far sight spell revealed ghouls still crawled through the ruins, but Nym didn’t see anything more dangerous than those at first glance. He switched over to scrying to get a better look at the interior of his home. It was still standing, which was more than he could say for that abominable pet store next door. The ghouls had gone through and cleaned that out completely, leaving a thoroughly disgusting mess behind as they tore through walls.
His house was miraculously almost completely untouched. It was a good thing Analia had never gotten around to actually getting a pet, or no doubt the ghouls would have crashed through a wall looking to eat it. The fact that there was nobody home probably helped the house survive too.
His pack with his money was still where he’d stashed it. The books were all there too, but Nym didn’t have a good way to transport so many. Teleport didn’t take anything that wasn’t being carried, and he wasn’t even sure how well it would work on Analia’s trunk full of personal possessions even if he was holding it. She’d just have to learn to live without them.
He took a moment to send another message to the girl after he’d retrieved his pack. She didn’t respond, which was going to make things difficult. She’d had that anti-scrying rune sequence added to every outfit she owned, and he doubted he’d find her without help, assuming she was still alive. Unless things had gotten far worse for the wall defenders after he’d left, he didn’t see any reason for her to be dead.
Then again, Ebalsan was broken and abandoned. Ghouls had flooded over the walls and no doubt killed thousands of people from various towns surrounding the forest. Things obviously had gotten worse. Analia could well be dead, and if not, the only people who might know where she was were Collective agents.
Since he had nothing better to do while waiting to see if he’d get a response from Analia, Nym flew over the forest back to the Earth Shaper’s camp. It was a relatively slow flight for him, but it did give him a chance to catch his breath. He’d only been awake for four or five hours, but it was hard to recall a more exhausting day in the last few months.
Nym found the camp without any issues, but when he got there, the bunker had been dug up. Twenty ghouls had descended on the mages who’d decided to remain behind. It must have just recently happened, because there were still ghouls in the area feasting on some of the remains. Nym stared down at the scene impassively, less concerned with the ghouls than with finding what he’d come for.
He supposed anything he found was his at this point. It wasn’t like the original owners were still around to dispute his claim. Clearing out twenty ghouls would be a pain though, especially since he still wasn’t back in top form.
A glint of light caught his eye, and he turned in the air just in time to see a wight looking up at him from the ground. The creature had a hand extended up at him and a glistening line of something anchored to it was flying at him. The arcana-forged material struck him before he had time to process what he was seeing, splattering against his leg and sticking there.
The wight grabbed the arcana line and pulled. Nym tried to fight back, but his air cushions broke immediately and he tumbled towards the ground. He managed to create new ones before he crashed, but the wight was already on him, having closed the distance in moments. Its hands grabbed hold of Nym and dragged him the rest of the way down to the ground.
Arcana flared around the wight and Nym felt his mind start to falter. It was hard to concentrate on the monster, even with its hands on his shoulder. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he did know he didn’t like it. So he responded with the first thing he could think of.
An immense wave of air rolled out of him in every direction, so strong that it threw back nearby ghouls, loose sticks, and kicked up dirt into a small blinding storm. The wight’s grip loosened, but did not falter. However, its magic broke and left Nym free to focus on a counterattack.
Lightning sparked between them and threw the wight free. Electricity crackled down the monster’s arms and crackled around Nym, but he wasn’t the same mage he’d been six months ago. The lightning rolled off him, leaving him unharmed but for the claw marks sliced into his shoulders when the wight convulsed and was thrown backwards.
He examined the creature to make sure it was dead for real before he floated back up into the air. With the wight’s expiration, the magic webbing lost its cohesion and fell apart, leaving him free. A few ghouls crept towards him, but Nym was already back out of reach. He ignored them while he scried around for other wights.
He didn’t see any, and the ghouls were already reverting to their normal, feral behavior. Some of them wandered off into the woods while others finished up on the scraps of human still left. There was nothing left to do but scavenge what he could from the camp, but Nym was considering skipping doing even that.
That wight hadn’t been trying to kill him. It had a clean shot before he’d realized it was there, and it had chosen to tether him and pull him down to the ground. Then it had physically restrained Nym and tried to use some sort of mental manipulation, possibly a spell that would force him unconscious. That meant it was trying to capture him, not kill. Nym had never encountered an undead before that had done anything but try to kill.
He knew the wights were clever, maybe even as intelligent as they’d been in life, but this behavior was new and had disturbing implications. If the wights were capturing people, there had to be a reason. Whatever the undead were doing in the forest might be advancing to the next stage now that they’d broken the army’s siege.
Whatever they wanted live mages for, Nym doubted it boded well for the remaining humans still alive. He looked down at the bloody stains in the dirt where the earth mages had been eaten. It was impossible to tell if the ghouls had consumed all of them, or maybe just a few. Did the wights want every mage, or only ones with specific spells?
It might be time to cut his losses and leave. Losing Analia would be a blow, but the situation was escalating beyond his ability to handle it. The best course of action would be to recover his strength and teleport out.
[We need to talk. I know you’re still in the area. I know who you’re looking for.]
Nym frowned and considered the message. The voice was familiar, not Analia’s though. Then it clicked. It was her father.
Nym took his time setting up the teleportation spell. He’d only done it twice himself, and never with an extra person, let alone four. The amount of arcana it needed scaled up quite heavily with the base spell, but he thought he might be able to modify it to a version that had a static arcana cost and just grabbed everything in a set area. If he was right, that was how the teleportation platforms worked.
The spell took hold, and the world pinched around them. Everything was dark for an instant, and then they were standing near the edge of a small town that was just starting to wake up with the new day. Nym staggered to one side and would have fallen if Ophelia hadn’t caught him. “That was… harder than I thought it would be,” he said.
“Take your time,” she told him. “Just catch your breath.”
“Is that Geldrin?” Monick asked, pointing at the town.
“Yes,” Nym said. “It was the first town I could think of that I knew had a healer and would be far enough away that the refugees hadn’t reached it yet.”
“Wait, refugees?” Bildar said. “What are you talking about?”
“Like I said, the ghouls overwhelmed the walls. I don’t even know how many wights were commanding them. A lot of them had soldier uniforms on, so I’m thinking something bad happened near the center of the forest and a huge chunk of army mages were killed and raised. Either way, Ebalsan is half-gone and there’re no people left. I think everyone either ran for it or is huddled up in the keep.”
All four earth mages looked horrified at the news, but Nym wasn’t really sure why. Their own camp had been hit even worse. It had practically been flattened by the time Nym got there, and even though most of the undead had moved on, there were still ghouls roaming directly on top of their bunker, looking for the humans they presumably smelled.
If there’d been a wight there, Nym was pretty sure that the building crews would have died. It would have understood what those chimney stacks rising out of the ground meant, and ghouls had no problems with digging. It was kind of strange that they hadn’t figured that out, unless the ghouls didn’t actually know anyone was there and were just loitering. Perhaps they’d heard the survivors through the stacks but couldn’t figure out where they were.
It didn’t matter in the end. His only goals now were finding Analia and extracting as many of his personal possessions as possible from his house. At the least, he wanted the money stashed in his room. It was over twenty crests now, more than enough for him to live humbly for the rest of his life. In fact, at his current life expectancy, he wouldn’t even have to be all that humble as long as he was willing to do some work occasionally.
“Do you have any money on you?” he asked.
“Couple shields,” Monick said.
“Nothing,” Ophelia added.
Bildar shook his head, and Nomick just shrugged. Nym fished two crests out of his pocket and handed them over. “That should be enough for a healer and a decent inn for the night. Is there anything in your personal supplies worth going back into those woods to dig up?”
“Maybe ten crests, a few trinkets and mementos,” Bildar said. “Some stuff with sentimental value. I would like to go back for it if possible, but this situation being what it is…”
“Should have stayed in Thrakus and fought the contractors guild,” Monick said. “It would have been less dangerous.”
“That was a losing battle. They had bribed damn near everybody who could have done a thing,” Bildar said.
“I need to get back,” Nym cut into the conversation. He’d heard that argument too many times already and didn’t have time to listen to them have it again. “Are you going to be able to get to the healer from here?”
“I think I can manage to hobble a few hundred feet,” Bildar said. “Are you sure you’re ready? You’re barely upright.”
“Doesn’t matter. If I don’t go back, we’ll lose Analia.”
“Right.” Bildar didn’t look happy. “Nym, thank you. Be careful. There’s something fishy going on with the army. Whoever those two guys who tried to arrest you on false pretenses are working for is probably still out there.”
“I’ll try to stay away from them. Go on now. I need to focus.”
The Earth Shapers started towards the town while Nym built back up the conduit he needed to pull in third layer arcana. There had to be a faster way to do it, but for now, the spiral method was what he had. For now it was fine since the only third circle spell he knew was teleport, and it wasn’t a time sensitive issue to cast it, but eventually he’d be using arcana from the Astral Sea in a combat situation, and taking thirty seconds to forge the conduit, then another ten seconds to get the arcana under control, would not work.
The spell came together and pulled Nym back to Ebalsan. He’d targeted the air about a thousand feet right above his house, and when he came out of the teleport, he was free-falling towards the ground. Nym regretted that decision immediately, as it took him a few seconds to get oriented. A quick application of second layer arcana saved him with a few hundred feet to spare, but if he’d realized how bad the back-to-back teleports would take it out of him, he’d have chosen a more secure landing and flown in.
It was too late now either way, but he’d remember for next time to give himself a longer recovery period. It probably wouldn’t hurt if he limited the number of people to something more reasonable in the future too.
A quick far sight spell revealed ghouls still crawled through the ruins, but Nym didn’t see anything more dangerous than those at first glance. He switched over to scrying to get a better look at the interior of his home. It was still standing, which was more than he could say for that abominable pet store next door. The ghouls had gone through and cleaned that out completely, leaving a thoroughly disgusting mess behind as they tore through walls.
His house was miraculously almost completely untouched. It was a good thing Analia had never gotten around to actually getting a pet, or no doubt the ghouls would have crashed through a wall looking to eat it. The fact that there was nobody home probably helped the house survive too.
His pack with his money was still where he’d stashed it. The books were all there too, but Nym didn’t have a good way to transport so many. Teleport didn’t take anything that wasn’t being carried, and he wasn’t even sure how well it would work on Analia’s trunk full of personal possessions even if he was holding it. She’d just have to learn to live without them.
He took a moment to send another message to the girl after he’d retrieved his pack. She didn’t respond, which was going to make things difficult. She’d had that anti-scrying rune sequence added to every outfit she owned, and he doubted he’d find her without help, assuming she was still alive. Unless things had gotten far worse for the wall defenders after he’d left, he didn’t see any reason for her to be dead.
Then again, Ebalsan was broken and abandoned. Ghouls had flooded over the walls and no doubt killed thousands of people from various towns surrounding the forest. Things obviously had gotten worse. Analia could well be dead, and if not, the only people who might know where she was were Collective agents.
Since he had nothing better to do while waiting to see if he’d get a response from Analia, Nym flew over the forest back to the Earth Shaper’s camp. It was a relatively slow flight for him, but it did give him a chance to catch his breath. He’d only been awake for four or five hours, but it was hard to recall a more exhausting day in the last few months.
Nym found the camp without any issues, but when he got there, the bunker had been dug up. Twenty ghouls had descended on the mages who’d decided to remain behind. It must have just recently happened, because there were still ghouls in the area feasting on some of the remains. Nym stared down at the scene impassively, less concerned with the ghouls than with finding what he’d come for.
He supposed anything he found was his at this point. It wasn’t like the original owners were still around to dispute his claim. Clearing out twenty ghouls would be a pain though, especially since he still wasn’t back in top form.
A glint of light caught his eye, and he turned in the air just in time to see a wight looking up at him from the ground. The creature had a hand extended up at him and a glistening line of something anchored to it was flying at him. The arcana-forged material struck him before he had time to process what he was seeing, splattering against his leg and sticking there.
The wight grabbed the arcana line and pulled. Nym tried to fight back, but his air cushions broke immediately and he tumbled towards the ground. He managed to create new ones before he crashed, but the wight was already on him, having closed the distance in moments. Its hands grabbed hold of Nym and dragged him the rest of the way down to the ground.
Arcana flared around the wight and Nym felt his mind start to falter. It was hard to concentrate on the monster, even with its hands on his shoulder. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he did know he didn’t like it. So he responded with the first thing he could think of.
An immense wave of air rolled out of him in every direction, so strong that it threw back nearby ghouls, loose sticks, and kicked up dirt into a small blinding storm. The wight’s grip loosened, but did not falter. However, its magic broke and left Nym free to focus on a counterattack.
Lightning sparked between them and threw the wight free. Electricity crackled down the monster’s arms and crackled around Nym, but he wasn’t the same mage he’d been six months ago. The lightning rolled off him, leaving him unharmed but for the claw marks sliced into his shoulders when the wight convulsed and was thrown backwards.
He examined the creature to make sure it was dead for real before he floated back up into the air. With the wight’s expiration, the magic webbing lost its cohesion and fell apart, leaving him free. A few ghouls crept towards him, but Nym was already back out of reach. He ignored them while he scried around for other wights.
He didn’t see any, and the ghouls were already reverting to their normal, feral behavior. Some of them wandered off into the woods while others finished up on the scraps of human still left. There was nothing left to do but scavenge what he could from the camp, but Nym was considering skipping doing even that.
That wight hadn’t been trying to kill him. It had a clean shot before he’d realized it was there, and it had chosen to tether him and pull him down to the ground. Then it had physically restrained Nym and tried to use some sort of mental manipulation, possibly a spell that would force him unconscious. That meant it was trying to capture him, not kill. Nym had never encountered an undead before that had done anything but try to kill.
He knew the wights were clever, maybe even as intelligent as they’d been in life, but this behavior was new and had disturbing implications. If the wights were capturing people, there had to be a reason. Whatever the undead were doing in the forest might be advancing to the next stage now that they’d broken the army’s siege.
Whatever they wanted live mages for, Nym doubted it boded well for the remaining humans still alive. He looked down at the bloody stains in the dirt where the earth mages had been eaten. It was impossible to tell if the ghouls had consumed all of them, or maybe just a few. Did the wights want every mage, or only ones with specific spells?
It might be time to cut his losses and leave. Losing Analia would be a blow, but the situation was escalating beyond his ability to handle it. The best course of action would be to recover his strength and teleport out.
[We need to talk. I know you’re still in the area. I know who you’re looking for.]
Nym frowned and considered the message. The voice was familiar, not Analia’s though. Then it clicked. It was her father.
