Ivon stood back up, but as he did, a white stone the right size to fit in the palm of Seth’s hand fell out. It made a loud clatter when it hit the ground, and Barnett looked over.
Seth reached out and grabbed the stone, holding it out towards Ivon. “Sorry Ivon, didn’t
mean to make you drop this. What is it anyway?” He looked harder at the stone. There were little black runes almost burned into the stone. Whoever had done it must’ve spent a significant amount of time, as every rune looked incredibly precise.
Ivon didn’t immediately answer him. He was staring at Barnett, and holding perfectly still. Barnett was staring back, a slightly shocked expression on his face. He said, “Where in the world did you get your hands on a whisper sigil? The guild hasn’t seen one of those in decades.”
Ivon stayed frozen for one more beat before snatching the stone from Seth’s hand. In a flash, the scout had dashed to Barnett and shot behind the portly man, looping his arms around Barnett’s neck in a choke hold.
Seth didn’t know what to do. He had known Ivon for longer, if still only a few days, but Ivon was obviously the aggressor here. He said, “Ivon, let him go. What are you doing?”
Ivon didn’t let go, though, and after about four seconds, Barnett went limp. Ivon dropped the man unceremoniously to the ground and began striding toward Seth. He said, “I’m sorry, boy, but they didn’t kill my son, they took him hostage. I’d do anything for him. Even betray the guild.”
With that he lunged at Seth. Seth, having practice blocking Ivon’s attacks by literally hundreds of times by swapping to his heavy armor, instantly activated Quick Change, but his plate armor was still in for repairs. The scout’s fist slammed into Seth’s face, and he stumbled backwards, seeing stars. Before he really knew what was happening, he felt Ivon’s arm clamp around his neck from behind, just like he’d done to Barnett.
Ivon said, “Easium, forgive me,” as he choked Seth unconscious.
Chapter 28
Seth awoke in Ramses’ office, sprawled out on the big wooden desk. Ramses, Aurora, and Dominick stood around him. They’d found him and Barnett unconscious in the library when someone walking by had heard a commotion, but by the time anyone had arrived, Ivon had been gone. Seth told them his story.
When he finished, Ramses said, “That’s essentially what Barnett said, too, though he was a little more heroic in his tale. He’s resting down in the infirmary, but he is uninjured. He had no idea who might’ve had access to a whisper sigil. We don’t even have any of those anymore. They’re incredibly rare and expensive. We can only assume he was a spy, but the question is on whose payroll.” Ramses looked between Seth and Aurora. “You two have spent more time with him than any of us have, any ideas?”
Seth spoke up, “Sorry, but what is a whisper sigil, and how does that automatically mean he’s a spy?”
Aurora said, “A whisper sigil is a magical item that is dropped by a very specific roaming champion in some land we no longer have access to. When two are held next to each other, they become paired. When you hold a whisper sigil and speak into it, whoever holds the paired one can hear your speech whispered into their ear, no matter how far away they are. Did Ivon say anything else that might help understand?”
Seth thought back to the fight again and said, “Actually, he did say something about them taking his son hostage, not killing him. Could he have meant the Howlingshields?”
Ramses said, “If the Howlingshields have access to the kind of resources needed to purchase a pair of whisper sigils, we’ve grossly underestimated them.”
Seth said, “When Ybarra interrogated us in Vardon, he was asking about the strongest member of the guild. Ivon answered that you were probably the strongest member in Vardon before the attack, commander. Ybarra wanted to know where you went. Perhaps he was using Ivon to find you.”
Ramses seemed to consider it for a moment. He said, “I have no idea who this Ybarra character even is, but if the whole point of the attack on the Vardon headquarters was to get to me…” A look of deep sorrow passed over his features.
Dominick spoke up for the first time then. Seth had almost forgotten the skinny man was in the room. “Sir, I think I should mention I heard that several of our scouts were late returning while I was collecting the potions. They were all due back more than an hour ago from their routine circuits of the area.”
Ramses said, “Which direction were they scouting?”
Dominick looked slightly scared. “Towards Vardon, sir.”
Ramses said, “They might be moving in on us as we speak. Let’s tighten up the defenses in case they spring an attack.”
Ramses started to walk out of the door, but Seth spoke up, “Um, excuse me, sir, I know it’s not a great time but…what about Pahan?”
Ramses grimaced and said, “I definitely can’t go down there with you now. I’d like to say that you can’t go either, but I won’t stop a man from trying to save his friend. You and Aurora can go down there, and I can send Dominick with you to help keep you healed. I need Molly to stay here, too, but you’ll want her to apply her fire gel to your weapons, if the monsters below are anything like the shades up here, they’ll be weak to fire. The entrance to the cave system is in the dungeons, Dominick knows the place. Oh, and Barnett did find a few rough maps of some of the cave systems, you can take those with you.” He indicated a few pieces of parchment folded on a small table. With that, he swept out of the room, his black and red cape billowing behind him.
Dominick said, “Let’s head out to the main courtyard and find Molly.” He walked out the door, too. Seth grabbed the pieces of parchment, and he and Aurora followed.
As they walked down the hall, Aurora quietly said to Seth, “I’m sorry about Ivon. I trusted him, too.”
Seth wasn’t sure how to respond. He felt betrayed, but at the same time wondered if Ivon was beyond redemption. He said, “If they have his son, I wish he would have just told us. We could have helped get him back.”
She said, “I always got the feeling that Ivon was used to doing things himself, so that probably didn’t even occur to him.”
Seth said, “So, he was with them the whole time? Even when he killed all of those people and helped us escape the wall?”
Aurora’s eyebrows raised, and she said, “Good point. I don’t know. We may never know.”
They walked the rest of the way to the main courtyard in sullen silence. When they got there, men and women in red capes were exiting from the barracks. It looked like Ramses had had all of the shifts woken to prepare in case of an attack. Dominick bee-lined toward a robed woman with bright red hair, who was conversing quietly with another robed man. He interjected and quickly informed her of the situation.
She nodded gravely, and then appeared in their party, so Dominick must have invited her. She grabbed the gnarled wooden staff off her back and raised it above her head. As she sucked in a huge breath and brought the staff down, flame erupted from the end, circling the four of them. Seth felt no heat, and the flame was gone almost instantly, but he saw a new message appear in his log.
Your party member Molly casts Flame’s Wrath on you. For the next four hours, all of your fire damage will be increased by 30%
She then pulled three small vials of glowing red liquid out of a robe pocket and handed them to Seth, Aurora, and Dominick. Molly nodded at them, and then her icon disappeared from their party as she turned back to instructing the other mages.
Seth inspected the vial she’d given him
Fire Gel Apply to bladed weapons to add 10% additional fire damage for 240 minutes.
He pocketed the vial, wanting to save it until they were about to enter the cave, and the group started to head back to the building they’d just left. Seth remembered his plate armor then, though, and jogged into the crafting building. It hadn’t been repaired yet from his duel with Randolph, but he had a feeling he’d be needing it.
Seth quickly put the armor on over his second outfit and switched back to
his chain armor. Dominick led them across the stone bridge again, but instead of heading to the first floor where the library was, or the second floor where Ramses’ office was, they descended several flights of stairs into the stone of the mountain. They eventually ended up in a room with six cells, three to a side, but there weren’t any prisoners occupying any of the cells.
Along the back wall was a huge metal door. It almost looked like an old bank vault from Earth, with a huge metal handle and big rivets driven in around the edge. Dominick said, “Well, this is it. Behind here is the entrance to the cave system. I’m not quite sure what to expect, I’ve never been down there.” He looked like he wanted to say more. Probably that he wished Ramses and Molly were with them to protect him.
Aurora said, “Let’s put that gel on our blades now.” Seth and Aurora uncorked the stoppers and spread the red-orange jelly along the lengths of their blades.
Dominick took his out but said, “I guess I can’t really use it on my staff.” He was just holding a wooden and metal staff, and there weren’t any bladed edges.
Seth said, “I could use it on my second sword if you’re not going to,” Dominick agreed, and Seth took the vial. He swapped outfits, but then couldn’t move. He swapped back, drew Fearless, and swapped again, but he still couldn’t eke out enough motion in the restrictive plate armor to apply the gel. Aurora finally took pity on him and spread the third vial of gel over his longsword before he switched back to his first outfit.
Dominick unlocked three huge locks embedded in the metal door, then grunted as he lugged it open Behind it was a wall of impenetrable darkness. Aurora grabbed several torches from a nearby shelf and lit them with a flint and steel mechanism from her pack before doling them out and leading the way into the cave.
Chapter 29
The cave floor was relatively smooth, but it distinctly headed downward as they walked. It seemed to spiral in a long lazy circle for quite some time, and Seth imagined they were getting lower and lower into the rock spire that half of Slyborn stood on.
The cave ceiling was plenty high for the party to walk upright, and most places it was wide enough for the three of them to walk abreast, with the occasional thin or low section. They descended for around twenty minutes before the cave seemed to level out and stop curving. They forged ahead, their lighted torches not able to penetrate very far into the pitch black, and quickly came to a fork in the tunnel.
Dominick said, “Let’s take a peek at those maps.”
Seth handed Aurora his torch and pulled the pieces of parchment out of his pack. He spread them open on the stone floor and the group inspected them. It was quickly apparent that, while the maps were definitely of the cave system, they didn’t delve very far, and Seth had no idea where they needed to go, anyway. As deep as they could? To the center of the system?
While some tunnels on the map were labeled as dead ends, most of them just ended in open lines, indicating the surveyors hadn’t gone any farther.
Aurora said, “Well, these aren’t terribly helpful since we don’t even know what we’re looking for.”
Dominick said, “Seth, any ideas?”
Seth picked up the papers and stowed them in his bag, took his torch back from Aurora, and looked at the two dark tunnels branching from the one they stood in. For some reason he couldn’t explain, he felt a tug towards the left tunnel. He voiced as much, and the other two party members didn’t have any other ideas, so they went that way. Seth privately hoped it was Pahan leading him.
The first monster they came up against was similar to the shades they’d seen in the stronghold, but seemed to have more substance. Its shadow tentacle lanced out at Seth just like the shade when he first arrived at Slyborn, but he was able to dodge as he’d spotted the oddly dark patch that didn’t seem to light up with his torchlight just before.
It appeared that the fire gel Molly had given them, and the Flame’s Wrath buff were doing their trick, as Seth slew the shade with barely three swipes of Fearless.
You’ve slain level 27 Greater Shade, +24,854 experience, 159,420 experience until level 31.
He cringed when he noticed that no experience was being diverted to his beast bond with Pahan. He could only hope that they could actually find him in this maze.
They came to another branch not long after that, this one with three options to choose from. Seth again felt an inexplicable pull toward one of them, this time the center tunnel. They were past the point that any of the map sketches had catalogued, so his gut feeling was their only compass.
A few minutes of silent, tense walking later, they came across three of the inky blotches of darkness in the tunnel. The three shades all lanced spears of shadow at Aurora, who’d been walking in the lead. So quickly that Seth barely saw the motion, she had her left arm up, and the translucent blue shield sprang out of it. The three spears of shadow smashed into the shield, but Aurora didn’t even flinch. Seth stepped around to her right and slashed at the monsters, but he couldn’t land a good hit without completely exposing himself.
One of the shadow spears slammed into Seth’s right shoulder, and he groaned, losing a few hundred health points. Dominick’s heal landed just an instant later, bringing Seth immediately back to full health. Hitting and being hit by the shades had increased Seth’s fury bar, and as it crept past thirty fury, he activated one of his new skills for the first time, Cleave.
Seth’s sword whipped in a brutal arc. Silvery white light leapt off his blade in an expanding arc in front of him and tore into all three of the shades. All three of them drew back momentarily, stunned by the attack. Seth jumped a few paces backwards, entering into the sweet spot for distance on his Charge attack, and then shot forward, stabbing Fearless through the rightmost shade. It wilted and disappeared.
A moment later, Aurora appeared next to him, slamming her translucent shield into the shade in the middle, knocking it back. A blue-white missile of glowing magic slammed into the one Aurora had knocked back, finishing it off. Seth glanced back and saw Dominick with his staff raised, another Riptide leaping off it and into the last remaining shade.
An otherworldly squeal emanated from the creature, and another spear of shadow shot towards Aurora. She easily caught the attack on her shield and then slashed at the creature several times, dispatching it with her Fire Gel dipped sword.
The group forged ahead. Every time they’d approach a fork, Seth would choose the way they went. The three of them continued to improve their group fighting techniques against the shades. Seth finally found a good use for his Quick Change Position skill.
When they saw a shade in the darkness, he’d touch Aurora’s shoulder and activate the skill. He’d activate his Charge skill, shoot toward the monster, slash a few times, then activate the Quick Change Position skill again, trading places with Aurora who would take all of the retaliating strikes on her shield.
Seth also got to see more of Dominick’s skills in practice. The priest had his Riptide attack, just like the one Aurora could use since she was a priest secondary, but he also had an attack called Bone Chill that slowed enemies and did damage to them in little chunks spread out over time.
The priest also had more variety in his healing spells than Seth had seen before. Once when Seth and Aurora had both taken some damage fighting five shades at once, Dominick had slammed his staff into the ground, golden light whirling around him like a tornado, and Seth saw the skill name Group Heal appear in his logs as his and Aurora’s health both shot up to full.
After over an hour in the caves, they got their first taste of a new kind of monster. They heard it coming through the darkness well before their torches illuminated its form. It looked like a man, but its skin was ghostly white and stretched taut across its thin, bony frame.
Everything about the monster screamed zombie, so Seth fell back on his training of many years of watching zombie flicks on Earth. He shot at the zombie with his Charge skill, and then hacked at the spot where its neck met its shoulders while it was st
unned from Charge. After four swings, the head fell off, and the body tumbled to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Seth only then realized he’d been wordlessly screaming as he fought the zombie. He looked back to where Aurora and Dominick were staring at him wide eyed and said, “Um. Sorry. Reminds me of something scary from home.”
As they continued delving deeper into the ground, they started fighting groups of three or four zombies at a time, with the occasional shade tossed in. The fights were getting to the point where they were actually challenging, though none of them had come close to death yet. Seth wondered if they’d reach a point where continuing was impossible with just the three of them.
Not long after that, they reached a dead end. Seth now firmly believed he was somehow tracking Pahan and taking all of the correct branches, so he was befuddled when they walked out of the tunnel into a big circular room with no other entrances.
His party mates could see the disappointed look on his face. Dominick looked around, torch held high above his head, and said, “Maybe we should backtrack to the last branch?”
Aurora said, “There could be hidden doors in the walls, let's check a little closer before we head back.” She started walking to the left around the perimeter of the circular room, so Seth headed right.
Seth had only taken a few steps into the cavern when the floor started rumbling. He and Aurora quickly backpedaled and formed up near Dominick, Aurora in front with her shield ready.
A meaty hand shot up from the stone in the center of the room, parting the rock like a farmer parting freshly tilled soil. Another hand shot out, and the zombie began to pull itself from the earth.
This zombie was pointedly different than any they’d faced before. It stood at least twice Seth’s height, and was built like a bodybuilder. Huge muscles bulged under its pasty white skin, and totally white eyes stared hatefully at the three of them under its jutting brow.
Quick Change Volume 1: Slyborn Page 19