Seven people, each sitting at one point of a star-shaped table, received the same notification at once. Their argument cut off mid-word when it arrived, silence falling so suddenly and completely that the vaulted ceiling echoed their last words back perfectly for once.

  They sat in silence for a few seconds after dismissing the white-on-black message, exchanging stunned glances.

  “I thought we had this island protected,” Jiri ventured. She had withdrawn her hands into the oversized sleeves of her robe and they all knew she was running her hands across the arsenal contained within.

  “That notice is our protection.” This was Adroyo, and the speed of the swirling tattoos on his skin let on just how much that window had disturbed him. “It is the only protection anyone can have from that.”

  Shiza nodded from her seat. “We’d do well to evacuate the island.”

  “But we won’t,” Keralle said. “We can’t and so we won’t.” His jade eye whirred in its bronze socket, the sapphire counterpart flickering between each of his colleagues. “Those who know will already be leaving. Those who do not could only hurt themselves and others. We will take care of this personally. It is the only option.”

  Zethan nodded at that but – as always – didn’t speak. His sister had already left to try to find the source of the incursion. Sazitol’s eyes were glazed as he tried the same in his own way, perusing the infinite currents to see where success could be found.

  They all were thinking the same thought: if this island is no longer safe, what had changed? And where else may now be vulnerable?

  *

  Agensyx ran, having thrown Jay onto his back after his dire words. Jay couldn’t get him to talk about what had scared him so much about that window or why he was so desperate to get somewhere else at such extreme speed. Nothing he could do could so much as break the spirit’s stride. Even threatening to throw himself off the snake’s back hadn’t done anything.

  Their bond was suspiciously quiet too. Was this what it felt like when one half completely shut the other out? It was a horrible stillness, made worse by the fact it left Jay alone with his thoughts and the echo of that spell.

  He couldn’t stop replaying the memory. There was a feeling of wrongness to the growth, like a deeper version of the uncanny valley, where something tipped it over from purely wrong to viscerally disturbing. Jay couldn’t put into words exactly what the issue was, because it was more complex than just the rampant growth, even if that was factoring into it. It had something to do with the way the growths shifted and writhed, fibers twisting and reshaping into patterns that accommodated the new growth coming in from behind. There weren’t really words for it, not words that he knew, but he did know that he never wanted to see that again.

  There really should have been something in the spell’s description about that. Jay probably wouldn’t have chosen it if it had said “this spell turns everything into the twisting horribleness of an infectious entity from the darkest depths of Lovecraft’s nightmares.” Unless it hadn’t been something about the spell itself that did that. Maybe it had been something about him specifically casting the spell that caused it to generate something like that.

  That was a horrible thought and Jay was very thankful for the wall of ice that sprung up in front of Agensyx for being able to give him something else to think about.

  The familiar skidded, trying to turn away before he hit it like a bird with a window, but the wall curved with him. They hit and Jay flew from his back, already bracing for broken bones, but a portion of the barrier reshaped itself to catch him instead of breaking him. Agensyx wasn’t so lucky. The wall looked, from the brief flashes that Jay got while rolling down the slope, like it had collapsed on him at first in one titanic sheet.

  Then Jay stopped rolling, courtesy of a foot on his back, and he could see that it had turned into something like a shell that had sealed itself over the snake spirit and frozen to the ground. Jay could see his familiar thrashing inside, trying to break out. Failing to break out, really, since there weren’t any chips flying or cracks forming that he could see.

  “If you’re getting kidnapped already, I’m not sure you’ll live to get your reward,” Cinri said.

  “Not a kidnapping,” Jay eked out. Her foot was really pressing, keeping him from taking a full breath. “He’s my…familiar.”

  “Huh.” She let her foot up. “Didn’t know people still did that. Guess I have to let him go.”

  “That would be appreciated,” Jay said as he stood up.

  “Shame, really. Looks like he’d give me some good wisdom.” Cinri swiped a hand to the side and the ice began to flake away.

  “Why is it called that, anyway?” Jay asked the question before he could think about any of the reasons doing so might be a bad idea.

  She seemed to make some inference from that, the depths of which escaped him. “One of those towns, huh?” Cinri spat to the side. “Wisdom is wisdom. Practical knowledge about how to use your powers. Every fight worth having gives you something along that line.”

  That made a lot of sense. So much of what he read had mentioned some logic to the naming structure but had never just come out and said it. Now that it was in plain words, it was infuriatingly simple. Practical knowledge. The other half to the actual Knowledge stat, which most of the books had agreed was theoretical only.

  The dome of ice retreated enough for Agensyx to break free, his roar sounding as angry as Jay had ever heard him. The bond was equally red with the emotion, and Jay could feel him preparing something. Something dire, something that would focus its effect on Cinri.

  Jay got between them, doing his best not to slip on the ice of their little hollow in the wall. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he called down, trying to push calmness across their connection. “She’s a friend.”

  She attacked you, Agensyx growled. She trapped me. This cannot stand.

  “She thought you were a monster kidnapping me. Which makes sense, given that you just grabbed me and took off.”

  She still must know better. His mouth had begun to glow.

  “She does. I explained the whole thing.”

  The glow stopped building and then died out entirely. I will be watching her carefully.

  That’s fair. Jay decided it would be better to respond to that mentally. But at least she’s paying us. He turned to Cinri herself and spoke out loud. “So how do we get down from here?”

  She gestured and blocks of ice slid out of the wall, where they hovered in place. “Walk.”

  He made it down the literal floating stairs with only a couple stumbles. Cinri just dropped, barely bending her knees when she hit the ground. Showoff.

  “So how do we actually get to your island down here?” Jay asked.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “All you have to do is follow me. It’s a straight run to Kinicier’s Haven until we get to the last part. It’s on you to keep up.” Ice formed around her feet and she dashed off at a slightly different angle than they’d been moving before, movements blurring slightly despite how casual they appeared.

  Agensyx reached for him again, ready to carry him, and Jay moved backwards out of reach. Confusion drifted into his mind from the familiar bond.

  “Look, I’m not sure how strong Cinri’s corrupt Duke is, but he’s definitely stronger than I am. For all I know, he’s maxed out everything he can at every opportunity. If I don’t find a way to get some of my own stats higher – and learn how to use the things I’ve already got – I won’t have a hope of even making it into his home without dying.

  “I don’t know what I can do for most of them, but I know running works for Agility. It’s happened once already. Might as well train it while I can.”

  The confusion cleared. Agensyx nodded. A good philosophy. If you need a break, tell me.

  They ran after Cinri and while Jay could tell the spirit was holding back to avoid leaving him behind, it felt good to actually be going somewhere under his own power. He’d keep the pace up as long as he could. If there was one thing every bit of information he’d found had agreed on, it was that true strain was what made the System raise its numbers.

  *

  These caverns were fantastic. Giant enough to put Carlsbad to shame and then some, but there were entire ecosystems down here that were so unique. They’d passed a region of oversized mushrooms and moss, a smaller region of what looked like natural fireglass that was actively burning, and he was pretty sure he’d seen humanoid beings moving in and out of a titanic column of stone.

  How much history was down here that hadn’t been recorded in the books in the library itself? They clearly knew about it up there since they were sealing the entrances, but it hadn’t even been obliquely mentioned in any of the things he’d read. Was it just an unwillingness to come down here that kept anyone from collecting everything unique and putting it into a book?

  Yeah, probably.

  The sight of humanoids who had clearly not been human actually reminded him of something. A question he’d developed while reading. He sped up from the comfortable running pace he’d settled into to move closer to Cinri. They’d caught up to her, but she was still more than fast enough to stay ahead by whatever margin she wanted.

  “Was that guy at the entry to the library a dwarf?”

  She gave him a flat look. “What kind of godsdamned remote place did you grow up in that you’ve never seen a dwarf before? They’re everywhere.”

  “Doing what, working at libraries?”

  “No, Arakour is a special case. Most are caravan merchants,” she said.

  “Not smiths?” That seemed like it should have been the default for dwarves. That was the real question he’d wanted to ask.

  Cinri laughed. “Not the ones anyone sees. And I mean literally no one. Ever hear the name Caleroth Bluff?”

  Jay shook his head. “Never.”

  “It’s a giant outcropping of rock on Fazoya. Everyone knew there were dwarves under there; caravans would come and resupply enough that it was obvious. Also there was smoke venting out of it basically constantly.” She condensed a small chunk of ice and popped it in her mouth, continuing the story around it. “Then the smoke stopped. Caravans would come and go without having anything fresh. Eventually everything growing died around there after a few months and the town nearby was about to starve.

  “They tried to go to the dwarves for help. No one let them in or even talked to them. They got desperate. Broke down a door with the help of their [Irrigator]’s water control. There was a flayed body in the entryway, stuck to the wall with bronze nails, with a one word message written below it in the body’s own blood. ‘Tresspasser.’

  “Most of the town turned around and left. Two of them kept going, down the halls and stairways as far as they could. They didn’t see a single dwarf the whole time. Then they found the forge room.

  “The entire room was covered with bodies. Most of them were stacked in piles. All with slit open veins, blood caked everywhere. There was another message, traced in the collected blood of the dwarves there: ‘We are dishonored. We are seen.’”

  “Shit,” Jay hissed. “Those were the smiths?”

  “As far as anyone knows, those were the smiths. One person saw them and they all killed themselves. ‘Touchier than a dwarf’ is a phrase for a reason, Jay.”

  He hoped his confusion at hearing that phrase for the first time wasn’t written all over his face. “That’s rough.” And verifiably crazy, he thought.

  Dwarves are like that to every individual, Agensyx said. Apparently he’d heard the whole thing. Or enough to realize he already knew about the incident for other sources. She didn’t tell you all of it. Ask about what happened to the rest of the town.

  Oh God, Jay replied. I’m not going like it, am I? It was a rhetorical question and the familiar knew it. But he asked the question anyway.

  “Oh the dwarves slaughtered them. Took all the adults, put them in one building, lit it on fire. Something about purifying the disgrace the townspeople had brought to the dead dwarves by intruding on their tomb.” Cinri said easily, like it wasn’t completely horrific.

  “I’m afraid to ask, but what did they do to the kids?” Jay asked.

  “Oh they were fine. Dwarves don’t kill children. The group that did all of that found places for them.” Her voice shook on the last sentence.

  Jay didn’t ask about that. Whatever about that topic was making her shaky, especially when talking about a war crime massacre hadn’t, was beyond the level that he wanted to know about. Maybe there’d be time for things like that after he broke the Curse. Or at least figured out more of what that would actually require.

  Cinri stopped running without warning. Jay couldn’t stop quite as quickly and only barely managed to avoid running her over. He seemed to be the only one that couldn’t stop on a dime though, since Agensyx did the same thing she had.

  “What? Why are we stopping?” Jay panted the words, feeling oddly out of breath now that they’d stopped moving.

  “Can you run on water?” Cinri gestured ahead of them, where the dark stone became water. “Because if not, we needed to stop.”

  “I forgot about the water.”

  “I would never have guessed,” she snarked. “We’re going to need a much larger boat to get over there than I made getting here.” Her eyes flicked toward Agensyx, seemingly evaluating his size.

  “I can swim,” Agensyx said, out loud for once.

  “You don’t want to swim in that. Trust me as the one who’s been across it already. You really don’t want to swim in that.” Her tone said she wouldn’t entertain any argument.

  This was a day for asking questions he really didn’t want the answer for, apparently. “Why not?”

  “There’s things in there,” Cinri said. “The less said about them the better, but they’re huge and anything that big will probably kill you before it even notices you’re there.”

  “Horrifying, thank you. You didn’t think it’d be a good idea to tell us that before coming down here?” Jay asked.

  “As long as you don’t fall out of the boat, it won’t be a problem, so no.” Cinri rifled in the inside of her cloak and took out three vials of shimmering blue liquid. “Hand these to me when I ask, please.” She held them out to Jay and he took them.

  He could guess what they were: mana potions of some kind. Whatever she was about to do, it was going to be enough to use up all the mana she had and then some. More than twice over, even. She was clearly far more powerful than he was, so how much mana was this going to need?

  [Sense Magic] triggered as Cinri put her hands forward. Blue wisps crawled from her palm to her fingers and dripped to the ground, trails of frost left behind where they hit. More substantial mist flooded the area, condensing into an opaque blue ice. An oval sheet of it about the size of Agensyx had formed by the time she requested the first potion.

  He popped the cork and handed the vial over the moment she did. One gulp and it was empty, the vial itself clattering to the ground. More of the boat formed and the process repeated twice more until they had a large sailless boat with a flat rectangle sticking off the bottom side. She’d downed the last potion just before making that last section, the purpose of which Jay couldn’t even guess at.

  She lowered the boat into the black water, the wisps seemingly acting like hands now, and grunted out two words: “Get in.” The wisps didn’t dissipate yet, despite the boat being fully in the water.

  They both got in the boat, Agensyx doubling in on himself in the center of the boat and Jay leaning against him in the back. Cinri started counting quietly, looking like she was bracing for something, and let the magic fade. The boat began to move immediately with no clear propulsion, and she took two steps for momentum before leaping into the boat.

  “I’m going to sleep the whole time we’re on the water,” she said.

  “How are we even moving?” Jay asked. How many questions was that today? A lot. It had been a confusing time. “And how long are we going to be on this thing?”

  “Current. One goes one way, the other goes the other. They’re not natural, before you ask. And about two days,” she answered. “Rest while you can. I certainly will.”