by K R Dimmick
Well that was interesting. Once we became a lot larger as a guild, we’d be able to build up fairly fast. I thought yes, and instantly, the Guild XP decreased to 75,000 and our stone supplies went down to 1,000.
The rest of the evening was devoted to finalizing our plans for the rescue and my journey to the Dragon Gate. If everything went according to plan, and I was still alive in three days’ time, I’d get to see our first guild building.
I awoke before the sun was up, Soter curled up behind me like a fluffy, warm pillow. A large, angry red number six glared at me from the corner of my vision. Today was the day. It was do or die.
I did a quick check of my inventory to make sure I had everything I needed. All sixteen slots were full. I had my bow, ten Freezing Bombs and Frost Bombs, fifty HP, SP and MP potions, my vial of gorgon blood, some Star Orange Cupcakes, ten Fortitude, Intelligence and Wisdom potions and the blank parchment I’d picked up in Gads End Dungeon. I’d also gotten five XP Release potions for the people we were rescuing, a Karma Reset potion just in case something gave me negative Karma and two items labeled as ‘potion’. One of those was my Phoenix potion and the other was a Timer Reset potion in case I needed to drain out my timer and reach the end of it before I could cross the gate. I’d have to work out which was which by the look of them. As an undiscovered potion, the second Phoenix potion Aliz and I had created refused to stack in my inventory with the first one. Since I had no more slots available, I’d given Mikael the spare one to carry on the off chance that I needed a backup. I’d also loaded him up with ten Magic Resistance potions so we could all have one of those as a buff before we got there.
In my pocket were the three high-quality lock picks Suri had given me all that time ago for recovering the Alchemy journal from Andrew’s office. I figured I’d need them to get Saris and anyone else who might also be imprisoned out of their cells.
I really needed a larger bag, I thought, as I walked across the clearing, with Soter behind me. I met up with Mikael, Kira, Allion and Damir who were organizing the fake attack on Ratters Town to distract the Dragon Hunters. The King had already given us his blessing, so now they just had to pull it off.
“The sides of the pit traps are all oiled and ready to go,” one of the elf hunters reported to Kira.
“Pit traps?” I asked. “I thought we weren’t hurting anyone?”
“We’re not,” replied Kira. “There are no spikes at the bottom, but we’ve oiled the sides so they can’t simply climb out and rejoin the fight. We’ve also got about thirty net traps ready to contain the people who don’t fall into a pit. After that, we have some single rope traps that, when activated, will string people up by their feet, also leaving them unable to fight. We’ve estimated we should be able to contain around a hundred people, if all goes to plan.”
“Which, of course, it never does,” chipped in Mikael with a smile.
“I’ll be stunning people with weak lightning bolts too,” added Damir. “The others can then tie up anyone who is stunned, so we do have a backup plan of sorts.”
“How long do you think you’ll need to grab their attention?” I asked.
“Well, it will take us around thirty minutes to get into position,” Kira replied. “Then Mikael will walk up to the guards with his hood on, so they can’t see his face until he gets closer. As soon as they ask him to remove his hood, he’ll throw the Freezing Bombs at them. Allion will then quickly enter the town.”
“I doubt I’ll need more than ten minutes to spread the word of the incoming attack, and I’ll be sure to go to the town hall and let everyone there know about, it as well,” Allion added. “The Dragon Hunters are bound to have at least one person there who will then spread the word back to their guild. I think they’ll be pouring out into Ratters Town five minutes after that.”
“Then all we have to do is lure them into the forest,” finished Mikael. “So, I reckon that, after an hour, the Dragon Hunters’ guildhall should be fairly empty.”
“Wait!” Arik yelled as he came running into the clearing, out of breath. “I’ve… discovered… communication…”
“It’s okay, catch your breath,” I said as he bent over, huffing.
A couple of minutes later, just as Mikael was starting to get antsy, he’d recovered enough to talk.
“I’ve been up all night working on this,” Arik said. “I know the biggest issue you faced was a lack of long-distance communication, and I’ve been worried about how that was going to make things even risker. Kira really needs to know when Allion is finished, before he’s back within message range, and you need to know when the Dragon Hunters arrive in force from within El Sanctum.”
“I know,” Kira said, starting to look a little annoyed at her twin. “But I’ll be in range of Mikael, so he can pass any messages from Allion to me. After that, well, we don’t have a tinkerer to make us a long-range communicator, and there’s no way we can ask King Faelyn to lend us his, so there’s not a lot we can do about it. You just need to stop worrying.”
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong,” Arik grinned. “As I was saying, I worked on this all night. I’ve discovered that you can combine sigils to get new and different effects. Seeing Orianna add those sigils on top of Baynor’s is what gave me the idea. I thought the first one would work, but the interaction caused a new effect.”
“As least I now think that’s what made it fail,” he muttered. “Rather than it being about Baynor fighting for control.”
“Anyway…” He carried on. “I’m pretty sure that if you combine two certain sigils, it should allow you to communicate at long distances with someone else who has that same sigil combination. I didn’t have enough mana, or another person with me, to be able to test it out last night. I have managed to inscribe the sigil combination on myself, however, even though it took about twenty MP potions to manage it.”
“I think this would work if I could inscribe someone else,” he looked pointedly between Mikael and Kira. “Or better yet, Orianna can inscribe it, so we don’t waste any more MP potions,” he said, looking a little sheepish.
Mikael and Kira just stared at him.
“What do you think?” Arik asked.
“I think it sounds useful,” I chimed in. “If I inscribe them on Mikael, he’ll be able to keep everyone informed, including Arik, so we all know what’s going on, and we know when to move.”
Mikael glared at me.
“It’s not like I can’t remove them if something goes wrong,” I added, smirking at him.
58
Party Line
“The first rune you need to create is called Ansuz,” Arik told me, holding out the compendium which was already at the correct page. “It’s all about communication, transmission of intelligence, language, communion and listening. It’s what gives the bearer the ability to speak to others without having to write a message.”
After quite a lot of grumbling, Mikael finally walked over and sat on the ground in front of me.
“It needs to be inscribed on his throat, since it’s for communication,” Arik said.
Mikael glared at him again, then pulled his scarf aside and lifted his chin so I could get to his throat.
I pulled my mana up into my right hand and pushed it out through my right index finger as I carefully drew a small, vertical line down Mikael’s throat. My mana started to drain out of me. I drew the second line right from the top of the original, slanting down to the right. Then, before my mana got too low, I drew the final line underneath the second. The end result looked like a capital letter F that had become a little droopy. As I moved my hand away, the rune glowed blue then faded out as it stopped draining my mana. The inscription had only taken 500 of it.
Success! You have correctly inscribed the sigil: Ansuz
So far, Mikael looked absolutely fine. We waited while my mana regenerated, giving him and the sigil time to react. When nothing happened, we all decided it was time for the second one.
“This one is called
Rad,” Arik lectured. “It’s all about riding or going on a journey. It also talks about moving things in a specific direction.”
“I know this one,” I declared excitedly. “It’s one of the ones in my riddle.”
Arik looked surprised.
“Well, I guess it must be about the journey through the Dragon Gate, then,” he replied. “Either way, when you combine it with Ansuz, I think we’ll be able to direct our communication where we need to. Or, in other words, Mikael and I will be able to speak to each other, regardless of the distance.”
“You ‘think’?” challenged Mikael, standing up suddenly.
“Yes, well, I’m not 100% sure,” muttered a nervous looking Arik as he took a step back.
“Look, I can remove it if it doesn’t work,” I said to Mikael. “And if it does work, we’ll have a huge advantage, so it’s worth the risk.”
“Says the person who can’t die,” grumbled Mikael.
I guess he did have a point.
“Okay, fine,” I declared. “I’ll put it on me first.”
I pulled my mana up and inscribed Ansuz on my throat with Arik’s guidance. I didn’t feel any different, so as soon as my mana had regenerated, I started on the next one that looked like an angular capital R.
I drew the vertical line, then a greater than symbol attached to the top of the line, followed by a small line down from the center of the line, angled out toward the right. I sat heavily on the floor as soon as I’d finished, causing a few worried looks to pass around the group. The second one had used 630 mana, leaving me with just five left. I grabbed an MP potion and downed it quickly, making me feel much better.
Arik looked at me, his eyes squinting, almost like he was constipated. I was about to ask him what was wrong when I suddenly heard something in my head.
Can you hear me?
“Was that you?” I asked Soter, who simply shook his head.
“I’ll take that as a yes, then,” grinned Arik.
“Wait! That was you?” I asked.
Yes, came the answer.
“What was him?” Mikael demanded, looking thoroughly confused.
“It works,” I declared. “I can hear Arik in my head.
Everyone looked a little shocked.
“Hopefully, it’s just the thoughts he’s trying to direct at you,” said Mikael, looking even more worried than before.
“Yes,” Arik replied smugly. “You have to actually push the thoughts out toward the person, or people you want to hear you.”
“Okay, fine,” said Mikael, sitting back down on the ground and lifting his scarf and chin again. “Inscribe away.”
I added Rad on top of the sigil already on Mikael’s throat, having to use another of my MP potions as soon as I was done.
Can you hear me? I thought as loudly as I could, pushing my question out to both Mikael and Arik.
“Who was that?” asked Mikael, clearly shocked.
Arik simply grinned. I guess I’ll take that as a yes from both of them, I thought, laughing.
After a couple more quick tests, we each knew how to send our thoughts to one or both of the others. It was time to put our plans into action.
They’d arrived, as expected, at the edge of El Silvam without any problems. Mikael had crossed the bridge, walked up to the guards, and quickly disabled the two of them with Freezing Bombs. As soon as Mikael had waved to him, Allion had crossed the bridge in Stealth and hurried past the guards. The thickness of the ice prevented the guards from being able to identify either of them. Now it was up to Allion to spread the message as Mikael headed away from the guards and back into the forest.
I can hear shouting from the town. Mikael told Arik and me. That was hopefully a good thing, I thought.
It was time to go and party up with Baynor, then get ready for my part in this rescue.
“Good luck,” Arik said as I stood up. “I’m going to go and finish the secret project I’ve been working on. It will hopefully be ready by the time you all get back here.”
“Thanks,” I replied as I turned to head to the hunters’ hut.
Once there, I woke Baynor and sent him a party request. “We’re nearly ready to head out,” I told him as Soter took one sniff and walked out of the hut in disgust.
“I’m ready and I’ve been practicing my vacant look,” he declared, letting his face go completely slack. “What do you think? Does that look right?”
It did look pretty good. I helped him adjust a few little details until I was convinced he looked the same as when the sigil had been activated.
“In an effort to be completely transparent with you, I thought you should know that Arik has given me a side quest,” he said. “He wants me to remove all of his books from the Dragon Hunters’ library. I’m going to try and port in right beside the library, so that, if there’s no one around, I can quickly slip in and grab the books. Hopefully, it won’t take long to find them.”
“Okay,” I said, a little worried about him getting sidetracked and risking the success of the rescue. “I have no idea how many of Arik’s books are in there, but if you think ‘search for books by Arik Vidende’ while you’re in the library, it will tell you.”
Baynor looked surprised. I supposed he hadn’t spent time in the library like I had.
“Just remember, as soon as Saris is out of the cells, she’ll be able to message you. As soon as she and anyone else that might be there have taken the potion, they’ll be able to leave the guild and you’ll need to do the same,” I said. “Don’t wait for anything, just leave. We don’t want you getting trapped there by mistake, okay?”
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” Baynor nodded. “You just have to remember to focus on arriving in the prison when you go through the portal.”
I let him out of the cell and stood around, waiting for confirmation from Mikael that the Dragon Hunters had taken the bait.
Aliz wandered into the hut with a bottle of water in her hand.
“I had to come and hug you in case things go wrong,” she said.
Weird, I thought, but I let her give me a hug and found she patted my head and back at the same time. As she was about to let go, she briefly touched my legs, then grabbed my upper arms.
“Please be okay and get out of this,” she said.
“Are you all right?” I asked, a little worried that she’d drunk something she shouldn’t have.
All I got was a brief glare in response. She quickly glanced toward Baynor, and when she found he was looking elsewhere, she glared at me again.
I had no idea what was going on with her, but now wasn’t the time to work it out.
“Why don’t you go and see what Arik is up to?” I asked, hoping to get her to leave.
“No,” she cried out dramatically, once again grabbing me and patting me all over, as if to make sure I still existed.
Baynor was looking even more uncomfortable than I was at this point. Thankfully, Mikael came to the rescue.
They’ve taken the bait. About a hundred Dragon Hunters have just come pouring out of Ratters Town. I caught their attention before I ran into the forest and they’ve followed. I heard in my head. I can see Andrew, too, he’s with them, so it’s time to get going.
“I think it’s about time we get going,” I said to Baynor, while trying to push Aliz away.
“Good thinking,” he said, looking sideways at Aliz.
A couple of seconds later, a temporary portal appeared in the air in front of him.
“I have to go first, but follow as quickly as you can,” Baynor instructed, promptly stepping through the portal with one last worried look at Aliz.
Before I could step forward, Aliz grabbed me again.
“Stand still,” she said, once again completely businesslike.
She reached out and tipped the bottle of water over my head.
“What was that for?” I spluttered, trying to wipe the water off my face, only to realize I couldn’t see my hands.
“I covered you in S
keleton Flower clear tincture,” she said matter-of-factly. I didn’t want Baynor to know, so I had to disguise it. The water just activated it and I can’t see you at all anymore. You’re invisible until you dry out, so hurry up.”
She reached out and pushed me through the portal.
As I entered, I thankfully remembered to think about the prison. A second later, the portal spat me back out into the middle of the room. Luckily, the dark stone floor disguised my wet footprints.
A quick glance showed me three of the cells were occupied.
I rushed over to the first cell to find a very haggard looking Saris sitting on the floor.
“Get up,” I hissed.
Saris started looking around frantically, clearly terrified.
“It’s me, Orianna,” I whispered. “I’m invisible.”
A look of utter relief crossed her face.
“I’m going to try to pick the lock,” I said.
I took one of the picks out of my pocket and fumbled with it in the lock. It had an 80% chance of successfully picking the lock, so hopefully I would be able to get all three people out. Otherwise, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.
Carefully, I twisted the pick until it seemed to hit something. I turned it back and forth. One way gave slightly more resistance than the other way, so I figured that must be the correct way. I pushed slightly and heard a crunch.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Lock Picking.
You have failed to pick the lock and your pick is now broken.
“Nooo,” I’d broken the first pick. “I only have two left.”
“I can pick locks,” whispered Saris. “Twist it carefully and one side will be slightly mushier than the other one. That’s the side you need. Try again.”
I followed her directions and heard a faint click. I went on to the next pin and was given another faint click. Finally, the last pin clicked, and the lock opened. I breathed a huge sigh of relief and opened the door.
“Quick, give me the other picks,” she said, holding out her hand. “I know there’s other people in here, we need to get them out.”