The moment had finally arrived. I did a last-minute check, and finding no reason to delay, I gave Aerion the signal. We’d timed the guard change—a classic exploit—and night would soon fall, masking our escape.

  Without hesitation, I brought out Light of the Fearless, activated its twin abilities, and cut through the bars of my cell.

  As expected from my earlier testing, they parted with ease, and I was out in seconds, making a beeline for Aerion’s cell. A quick glance back confirmed that our guards were happily chatting away, oblivious to my escape.

  They’d remain oblivious all the way up until I’d broken Aerion out and handed her Aurora, which the Sylrithar had quietly slipped me before we'd been escorted back to our cells.

  By then, it was far too late. Facing the two of us, both armed, they didn’t stand a chance. Aerion clubbed the right guy on the neck while I kneed the guy on the left in the gut.

  We were gone before their unconscious bodies hit the ground, hanging a right and then a left on the suspended walkway before breaking open the door to another hemispheric structure and closing the door behind us.

  Aerion put her ear against the door and listened for a long moment. “All clear,” she muttered.

  “Never been this happy to have bought jewelry in my life,” I replied, before realizing this was actually the first time I’d bought jewelry in my life. While they’d stripped my armor, I’d managed to convince our captors let me keep my rings and bracer—and while 10 points of Dominion weren’t anything amazing, the 34 additional points provided by Light of the Fearless more than let me take down a single elf guard.

  My gleaming suit of armor sat in a corner, looking pretty. Well, okay. It wasn’t exactly gleaming, but it was the most amazing piece of armor within a hundred miles. Probably.

  It rippled open as I approached, and I stepped into it, welcoming the familiar sensation and the incredible boost to Grace it gave me.

  Aerion took a bit longer to don her own light fabric armor, but it wasn’t long before we were ready to go.

  “You’d think they’d have just a few more people they could trust,” I said, peeking out the door to find not one or two, but a whole dozen elves engaged in heated conversation—no doubt searching for us. “I get the need to make this jailbreak look convincing, but come on. It might as well be a real break at this point.”

  “I do believe that’s the intent, Greg,” Aerion said.

  “Yeah, but… Ah, nevermind. Let’s get out of here while we still can. Want me to carry you?”

  Aerion went pensive for a moment before nodding.

  I barely suppressed a grin, but apparently not well enough, because Aerion stuck her tongue out. It was cute.

  Carrying around a beauty like Aerion in my arms was something I’d happily do all day, considering my stats and how light she was. Not that she’d ever agree. Special occasions only, and this certainly counted.

  Without another word, I scooped her up and bolted out the door. My Grace stat was nothing to scoff at, and when combined with [Snap], allowed me to move a fair bit faster than a normal human.

  Useful for daring escapes off massive… trees?

  “Well, would you look at that?” I muttered in awe, forgetting entirely about our plight for a moment.

  By how long we’d been on that damned lift, I knew we were a fair ways up. I was thinking Sequoia Redwood high—a couple hundred feet, maybe.

  But there was fog between us and the ground. Actual, thick fog, illuminated by the last rays of sunlight, and where it parted, I could just barely see the ground below. Hazy and blurred thanks to the sheer amount of atmosphere between us and it.

  We had to be thousands of feet high.

  That also meant that the ginormous trees the elves had constructed their homes within and around were the size of modern skyscrapers. Not just in height, but girth, and we weren’t talking about pencil ‘scrapers here.

  Light from windows carved within each tree spiralled down, all the way to the ground, and while it wasn’t anywhere near as orderly as the ones on Earth, I could guess just how many people lived within them.

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  “We were so wrong,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone. “There aren’t a few hundred elves here. There must be thousands. Tens of thousands!”

  Trees full of light spread in every direction. I wouldn’t be surprised if this forest had a population greater than Basecrest, even.

  “No wonder they felt the need to hide our sight,” Aerion said. “To witness this…”

  “Well, now we know why Dominium is so worried about them. If their population is this large, I can only imagine how big their army is. But uh, admiration later, yeah?”

  Shouts cut short our ogling, forcing me to move according to the path the Council of Elders had instructed. The nice thing was that I no longer had to rely solely on my memory.

  “No, left, here!” Aerion said, pointing to the other branching path.

  I corrected my course, then kissed Aerion’s forehead in thanks, which, of course, caused her ears to go red.

  We crossed a handful of elves going about their business, but none that bothered to stop us. Soon, we found ourselves at a lift.

  Luckily, it was easier to go down than it was to go up, and Aerion, ever the mechanical genius, figured the system out in about ten seconds. To anyone observing it must have looked like she’d done this a hundred times.

  And so, we were swiftly descending to the forest floor, leaving me with nothing to do but admire the jaw-dropping scenery.

  “Seriously,” I said. “Times like this I wish I had a smartphone.”

  Not even AI could make up anything this gorgeous. The gargantuan trees that surrounded us lent an aura to this place. I felt like an ant among giants. The perfect sunset lighting took an already-impressive scene and elevated it to surreal levels. This was the stuff every landscape painter would kill for.

  When I finally wrenched my eyes off the scene, I noticed that the lights within the trees stopped about a hundred feet off the forest floor. Why that was, I couldn’t say. Were there any predators that made dwellings any lower dangerous?

  I sincerely hoped not, considering we’d have to ride through that forest to get out. While we hadn’t encountered any terrifying monsters on the way in, that could’ve been for any number of reasons—like the elves having cleared out safe routes through the forest.

  If that was true, and we lost sight of those, we were in for some real trouble.

  I chose to trust in Aerion’s riding skills and the detailed instructions the Council had given us. If we did get lost even with that, we’d just have to use our brains and deal with it.

  The lift hit the ground with a thud, but I was ready with Aerion already in my arms.

  Jumping off, I sprinted right, hugging the tree like our instructions told us to.

  About halfway around the wooden pathway that ringed the colossal trunk, we encountered the stables.

  There were, of course, several guards. They weren’t, however, expecting an assault—let alone any that came from the tree—and so, we actually managed to make it to our horse before they reacted.

  We didn’t just get on our horse and sally out, however. That would just result in a hot pursuit and a messy escape.

  Instead, Aerion opened the corrals of each horse, while I smashed the butt of Light of the Fearless against their rumps, making them bolt out of their corrals.

  We didn’t even have to compel the last few—seeing what was happening, they escaped on their own.

  By that time, the handful of guards had their swords unsheathed and were cautiously moving in on us. Too cautiously. After mounting our horse, Aerion sent it galloping out at top speed.

  The guards didn’t stand a chance. It was clear that these guys weren’t hardened warriors, but rather amateurs—the sort that got paid hourly for protection duty. 99% boredom and 1% action.

  We bounded past them in a blur. After that, it was Aerion’s job to navigate us through the route the Elders had prescribed, while I warded off any would-be pursuers with [Launch]ed rocks. Compared to taking out a swarm of aerial enemies, this was child’s play, and I actually had a harder time ensuring I didn’t hit the horses and only incapacitated the riders.

  After all, we’d decided that the elves weren’t our enemy. I’d feel terrible if I accidentally killed one or two.

  Turned out it was an unnecessary concern, considering the caliber of warriors they sent out. My rocks pinged off them harmlessly, forcing me to fire a cluster each time. Even that only worked half the time, causing me to deplete my ammunition reserves at an alarming rate.

  It was honestly exhausting.

  Seriously—were there really that few people the council trusted? Or were they just paranoid by nature?

  Thankfully, our pursuers gave up shortly after I started [Launch]ing Siege Bolt Cores at the ground nearby.

  One of those caused a sonic explosion so deafening, the sound shockwave knocked over the leading horse, causing the three behind it to trip and collapse.

  They apparently decided the risk wasn’t worth the reward after that, because we proceeded unmolested. Either that, or the Council had issued orders to retreat. Regardless, the rest of our journey proved uneventful, and we were soon out of the Sylvanglades and back onto familiar territory—endless plains as far as the eye could see.

  Hours blurred together, and by the time we returned to the caravan, our horse was near death and we were both running on fumes.

  It wasn’t an act when we both half-dismounted half-fell off the damned horse.

  The look of utter horror Grug gave us almost made it all worth it. Almost.

  “Grug?” I said, resting a heavy hand on his shoulder. “You and me need to have a nice, long chat.”