Zones of Alacria- The Dragon Gate

by K R Dimmick

  I started flipping through the book again to find the symbol that was now on Baynor’s hand. There were a lot of entries in the runes section of the book, but finally, just a single rune before the end, I found it.

  “Got the second one,” I pointed out the symbol that looked like a cross between a capital W that had been speared by a stick going through the middle of it and a headless stick figure that was shrugging.

  Arik raised his eyebrows.

  “Ear,” he said seriously. “It’s the elven rune for death. It talks about happiness passing away, covenants being broken and war leading to cold corpses in graves. It’s the most ominous rune there is. It looks like Baynor’s mind has been wiped, as well, and he’s now simply following the sigil’s direction. I hope we can reverse it and get him back, but I am more concerned now that I know this rune is involved. You said the original was glowing bright green… I’m almost afraid to ask, but what color was this sigil?”

  I thought back to what I’d seen after the sigil changed.

  “It stayed the same green,” I said anxiously.

  Arik took a deep breath.

  “Well that’s something, at least. That means he didn’t change the magic behind it, all he did was alter the instructions. That’s a huge relief,” Arik smiled. “All we have to do now is work out how to reverse the instructions. Let’s start looking.”

  We poured over the book, looking for runes or other symbols that would be the opposite of death.

  “There are three possible ones that might work. This one, called Ur,” he pointed to a rune that looked a little like a triangle leaning to the left. “It’s all about life force, physical health and healing, independence, and resourcefulness in survival.”

  “That sounds like a good one to counteract death,” I said.

  “True, however, it also has to do with the controlling of aggression and rites of passage, so it might not actually counteract it. Plus, it’s not one that’s easy to control. Another choice is Jeran,” again, he pointed at another rune, this time, one that looked like a small diamond shape with a vertical line through it. “This is all to do with natural cycles, peace and the right action at the right time. So, since it’s not his time to die, that might negate it. It also has the ability to speed things up or slow them down.”

  “I still like the sound of the other one,” I chipped in.

  “Lastly, there’s Sol,” he indicated a rune that looked like vertical lightning. “This is all about wholeness, success, honor, life-giving force and taking action. It also provides guidance, hope and faith in the outcome. I think we need to go down and try all three on him, then see what happens.”

  “Agreed,” I nodded.

  “Once we’ve hopefully worked out which one will turn the effect off,” Arik carried on, warming up to the subject. “I have an idea for what we can use to remove it completely.”

  “Okay, but that’s going to have to come later, because if he turns up in their guildhall without a sigil, they’re going to suspect something,” I said, getting up to leave. “Let’s get started on trying some of these out.”

  “Where’s Baynor?” I asked the elf hunter that was now sitting in an empty hut.

  “Kira came and took him a little while ago,” he said, looking surprised at my question.

  “There’s no way my sister would have released him,” Arik declared. “Are you sure it was her?”

  “Of course I’m sure it was her,” the elf said indignantly. “I do hunt with her every day. I think I’d recognize my squad leader.”

  He crossed his arms and glared at Arik. Before I could say anything though, a shout came from the clearing outside.

  “Corrupted beasts sighted.”

  We ran out of the little hut to find the rest of Kira’s team running toward us.

  “Where’s Kira?” a hunter with copper-colored hair called out as they got closer.

  “She took Baynor and left, apparently,” I said.

  “There’s no way she’d have done that on her own,” he declared. “We have rules. She would have called us, her team, and let us know before she left El Sanctum. No one goes into the forest alone.”

  Soter started growling.

  “Well, technically, she wasn’t alone,” I muttered, getting annoyed at the hunter. “Either way, she isn’t here. We need to find both her and Baynor quickly, before he gets to Ratters Town.”

  “No. We need to attack these corrupted beasts before they do any damage to the forest, or us,” the hunter scoffed, crossing his arms. “Kira can take care of herself, and Baynor is of no consequence to us.”

  “Fine! You go take care of the corrupted mobs, and I’ll go find Kira and Baynor,” I replied, now thoroughly annoyed at the short-sighted elf.

  Mikael and Allion both walked into the clearing from opposite directions, pausing to glare at each other.

  “We’re wasting time. Mikael, Allion, I need your help,” I declared before either of them could leave. “Baynor has somehow been let out and we need to catch him before it’s too late. Kira is also missing. Let’s go.”

  Allion looked as white as a sheet, but simply nodded and joined the party I set up.

  “I’ll do some more research to make sure we have the correct runes,” Arik called out as my party started to head out into the forest in the direction of Ratters Town.

  “Mikael, Orianna,” shouted a petite, blonde-haired woman who was frantically waving at us as she ran to catch up.

  “Kaylin,” replied Mikael. “What are you doing here?”

  “Ya said ta come find ya if I needed help,” she replied, looking extremely worried. “Well, I needs help.”

  “We’re searching for someone; can you tell us while we move?” I said, sending her a party invite.

  “It wouldn’t be that mindless man with the dark brown hair, would it?” she asked.

  “Yes! Which direction and how far?” I demanded.

  “Over there,” she said, waving toward Ratters Town, “And not far. I passed him a coupla minutes ago.”

  I started running in the direction she’d pointed to, Soter one step ahead of me, the rest following behind. Two minutes later, I could see Baynor shuffling along to his destination, bashing into trees and mindlessly getting back up when he tripped. I grabbed his shoulders and spun him around as Soter bit the back of his vest. His face and arms were covered in scratches and bruises from the various things he’d walked into and his gear was covered in dirt. He immediately tried to turn around to keep walking. I struggled with him, trying to hold him in place, but failed, since he was considerably larger and heavier than I was, even with Soter’s help. Mikael arrived and solved the problem by simply picking Baynor up and throwing him over his shoulder.

  “He looks just like that pie maker I saw a few days ago,” Kaylin said breathlessly. “I’s Kaylin, by the way.”

  She stuck her hand out toward me as I watched the text above her head change from Resident to Kaylin Gemma - 10.

  “Ohh, ya have a pet wolf,” her eyes went wide as she looked at Soter like she wasn’t sure whether he’d bite or not.

  “Are you talking about Jon Lytel?” asked Mikael urgently.

  “Oh, ya know him,” Kaylin seemed surprised. “Yeah. Three days ago, he looked just like that as he walked inta the Mayor’s office. No one saw him come out, and he ain’t been seen since.”

  “Andrew must have taken him,” I declared.

  “That’s part of why I’s here,” Kaylin interrupted me. “Andrew is now forcing people ta accept the protection sigils. He took ma sister and said if I don’t publicly stand up and get a sigil, I won’t see her alive again. He took her inta the Mayor’s office yesterday as well.”

  “He must know you’re the one persuading people to say no to the sigils,” Mikael said.

  “Yeah, and if I get one, then I’ll look like a right hypocrite, and everything I’ve said will get dismissed. I finally feel like I’s making a difference and helping people, and I don’t want it ta
all be for nothing. Equally, I can’t let ma sister die,” she looked at me in desperation. “So, I’s here to get yer help. I need ya ta rescue her. I don’t have much ta offer ya, but I’s a Jeweler, and I’ve noticed ya don’t have a lot of rings yet. So, I’s hoping this is enough.”

  You have received a quest: Save the NPCs 2

  Free Kaylin’s sister and any other NPCs from wherever Andrew is holding her hostage.

  Completion of this quest will give you 10,000 XP and a ring of your choice.

  Do you accept? Yes / No

  “We need to help Jon, too,” Mikael said quickly. “I know I wasn’t on board with rescuing that traveler, Saris, but these people are locals. If Andrew sacrifices them, that’s it, and it’s not their fault, like it is with Baynor and Saris.”

  Kaylin went white at the mention of Andrew sacrificing people.

  “Well, technically, Jon chose to get the sigil,” I said as Mikael glared at me. “But Kaylin’s sister definitely didn’t bring this on herself. Just remember, I’m on my second to last day here, too. I’m supposed to go to the Dragon Gate this evening.”

  I glared back at him until he dropped his gaze down to the ground. Thinking yes, I accepted the quest. Hopefully, they’d all be in the same place as Saris, otherwise, I wouldn’t have enough time to do this before I had to leave. I had no idea how long it would take me to rescue them, but I could at least give it until sundown. I sincerely hoped that would leave me enough time to get to where I needed to be and work out how to finish the riddle and cross through the Dragon Gate. Otherwise? Well, there was no other option. I needed to be at Goran Thedgate tonight, so I had a day to work things out if I couldn’t get through straight away.

  53

  Sparks Will Fly

  “Okay, we need to find Kira. If what that hunter said was true, she should have been with Baynor, so something’s happened to her,” I voiced the thought that was probably going through everyone else’s minds.

  We can find her. Soter commented in my mind, giving me an idea of what to do.

  “Mikael, you should take Baynor back to El Sanctum,” I said. “Kaylin, I think it would be a good idea for you to go there as well, at least until we’ve found your sister. Someone also needs to be able to fight against these corrupted beasts the hunters said were around, and Mikael can’t fight and carry Baynor, so I think Allion needs to go with you, too. Soter and I will find her and bring her back.”

  They nodded, even though Allion looked like he was about to refuse.

  As soon as they were out of sight, I put my staff into my inventory and cast Transform, imagining my body changing into a wolf.

  Once again, my body went through the liquid feeling as it rearranged my arms and legs until I could walk on all fours. The little timer told me I had ten minutes to find Kira before it would all be down to Soter.

  Split up and circle. Howl if you find her scent.

  I bounded off to the left of the path we were on, while Soter disappeared to the right. Sniffing and looking for anything that spoke of Kira, I rushed through the trees and undergrowth.

  Finally, eight minutes later, after traveling around the back of El Sanctum, I spotted a small, bright green and brown mark on the ground. I quickly approached and found I could see other larger marks leading further away.

  I lifted my head and let loose a loud howl, my throat vibrating in a way I’d never felt before. I heard Soter’s reply in the distance and knew he’d be here soon, so I set to searching for Kira myself before he arrived.

  The marks all led toward a particularly dense set of bushes. As I looked closer, I could see several of the branches had been broken and I could smell the vibrant forest smell all elves gave off. There was also a conspicuous absence of any other smells. It was like someone had somehow cleaned up all traces of their scent. I pushed my way in through the scratchy twigs, and just as my timer hit the ten-minute mark, I spotted Kira’s foot at an unusual angle.

  Transforming back into myself, I heard Soter arrive and start pushing through the brush. As I stepped toward Kira, I trod in something sticky.

  Blood. A lot of it.

  Soter was right, that was more blood than I’d ever seen before. I quickly looked at Kira’s health bar to find it was at 1% and she had a bleeding debuff.

  With a thought, I grabbed my staff out of my inventory and instantly cast Wound Seal.

  Spell Failed. You must have a live target to cast that spell.

  As I looked back at her, I realized that, in the time it had taken me to cast the spell, the bleeding had taken the last percent of her health. Before I could second-guess myself, I cast Resurrect. I knew it had pretty much a 24-hour cooldown, but I couldn’t let Kira die. I still had the vial of Gorgon blood, and that would just have to do.

  Kira’s body became mostly transparent and I noticed a misty, white copy of her floating above. I mentally pulled on the cord connecting the two and forced the mist back into her body. Once again, the little golden lights surrounded her still form, creating the grid I knew I would see when I started to heal her. The instant her body started to vibrate, I cast Wound Seal. There was a huge hole in her left side. I joined all the gridlines back together, and when her body became visible again, I cast Healing Mist to help top up her health as fast as possible.

  She sat up and started coughing as I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Three more rounds of healing later, and she was as good as new, or at least as new as she could be with the post-resurrection debuff.

  “Ugggh,” Kira groaned. “What happened?”

  “I was kind of hoping you might be able to tell me that,” I said. “However, the reason you feel so dreadful is that I just Resurrected you.”

  “What!” she exclaimed.

  “You’ll feel better in ten minutes. In the meantime, what do you remember?” I asked.

  Her shoulders slumped.

  “Not much,” she replied. “I put Baynor in our hunting room and left someone to guard him. After that, it all gets a little fuzzy.”

  She picked her hand up out of the pool of blood and looked at it, her eyes getting wider by the second.

  “Is this my blood?” she asked in a very high-pitched voice.

  “Yes, but you’re okay now,” I replied calmly.

  She took a deep breath.

  “How did you find me?”

  “Soter followed your scent,” I lied. I knew I should trust Kira, but I just couldn’t bring myself to tell anyone else about my transformation skill.

  She crawled over to Soter and wrapped her arms around him, thanking him over and over.

  Now I smell of blood.

  I did my best not to laugh at the expression on his face. About ten minutes had passed, so it was time to get back and try to find out what had happened.

  “Come on, let’s get back to El Sanctum,” I said, offering her a hand to help her up.

  We got back to find Baynor had been tied to the largest tree in the clearing. Despite that, he was still mindlessly attempting to walk away.

  After a tearful reunion between Arik and his twin, Kira, a few of the hunters were looking extremely contrite and kept apologizing for not realizing she was in trouble.

  I grabbed Arik and pulled him toward Baynor, leaving Kira to give a piece of her mind to the elven hunters.

  “We need to work on reversing this sigil, because I’m running out of time,” I said.

  “This one might be down to you, I’m afraid. I’ve tried already, but I don’t have enough mana to infuse into it, since I’m such a low level, so I’ll talk you through it,” he replied, pulling Orquin Glic’s Compendium of Marks, Symbols and Runes out of his robe and turning to the correct page. “Let’s start with this one.”

  The rune Ur looked back at me from the page.

  “What you have to do is draw the rune over the top of his existing one, using your mana. Project your mana through your finger and use that to draw with. You should, I hope, be able to see what you’re drawing,” Arik told me. “
Infusing your mana into the rune as you draw it is what will turn it into a sigil.”

  I took hold of Baynor’s hand and pulled my mana up into my right index finger. I drew a vertical line over the top of the glowing green sigil. It glowed bright blue and started pulling mana out of my body at an alarming rate.

  “Quickly, draw the other stroke,” Arik urged.

  Starting at the top of the line, I drew another one, slanting downward and to the right. Another bright blue line appeared, and both flashed very brightly as soon as I finished. I took my finger off his hand and the intensity of the glow reduced slightly. Finally, the sigil stopped draining my mana. A quick glance showed it had taken 570 mana. No wonder Arik hadn’t been able to do this.

  Success! You have correctly inscribed the sigil: Ur

  Baynor stopped walking. We might have managed this on the first run, I thought. All of a sudden, he started to shake violently and then started to scream.

  Arik grabbed my hand and pushed it toward the sigil.

  “Pull your mana out of it, fast,” he shouted, trying to snap me out of my shock. “Concentrate on taking back what you put in.”

  I focused on reconnecting with my mana in the sigil. My mind lurched, and it felt like the sigil was attempting to pull me into itself. I mentally stood my ground, asserting my will over it. I pictured my mana leaving the shape of the rune and becoming fluid again, and absorbing it back into my body.

  There was still some mana in the rune when my capacity to hold it reached 100%.

  “How do I take on more than 100% mana?” I asked, starting to panic.

  “Use some,” Arik said quickly.

  Desperately trying to hold the flow of mana coming into me, I thought about casting Healing Mist with my left hand. It was less effective than normal as I wasn’t holding my staff, but somehow, my left hand knew what it needed to do, and I watched the mana needed for the spell disappear as a blue mist gently swam around me.