by A F Kay
The blood burned Ruwen’s wrist, as if written in lava. He didn’t like having a demon tracking symbol on his wrist. “You didn’t need to do that, Echo. My name is Ruwen, and you’d have done the same for me.”
Echo locked gazes with Ruwen. The blackness of her eyes was so complete they felt like holes he had fallen into. “You are wrong, Ruwen. I would have left you.”
Echo dropped Ruwen’s hand, turned, and disappeared into the mist. He rubbed at the rune, the pain only now fading. He had given Echo thirty of his minutes, and with their conversation, he now had fifty-three minutes left.
Ruwen strode into the fog, but he moved slower now so he could look for traps. The mist absorbed every sound, and even the wind blowing through the leaves above had disappeared. The creaks and pops of the bending bamboo sounded distant and faint. So it wasn’t until he was almost in the water that he heard the stream.
Following the stream would lead him directly uphill, and he smiled at the good fortune. The bamboo grew denser along the banks, so Ruwen walked in the water instead. The water didn’t feel cold, which meant it must not originate from a glacier, and his bare feet touched mostly gravel.
Ruwen’s minutes had reached twenty-two when he found a clump of black sorrow fruit. They grew in the bank's shadow, and he almost missed them. The three small fruit looked like black raspberries. He placed two in his right sleeve and ate the last.
Like the other fruit, the black sorrow tasted sweet. But the sweetness mingled with a tart taste that made him wish he had a handful of them. The fruit added thirty minutes to his counter, bringing him to fifty-two, and while he could still see his body, he verified in a calm area of the water that his reflection had disappeared. To anyone looking, he was invisible.
Ruwen moved forward with much more confidence. The stream would take him uphill and he had two black and five red sorrow fruit in his sleeves, sixty-five minutes. For the first time, he felt truly confident about getting to the summit.
As Ruwen climbed, he found it harder to breathe. It felt like he pulled a thousand-pound weight behind him. The sensation felt so real he turned and looked behind him. But only the stream and mist were there.
Before Ascendancy, his mind had been his entire focus, and he had cared little about his body. But since then, he had worked hard, and many points had gone into Strength and Stamina. He felt vain thinking about it, but he’d become proud of his body. Walking up a stream certainly shouldn’t be this hard.
Ruwen thought about resting for a while and then shook his head angrily. He strode forward instead, upset with himself for even having that thought. The invisible weight remained, and he leaned forward, but it didn’t help.
Pine had warned Ruwen that the mountain itself would try to make him fail. Maybe this weight was part of that. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself forward, determined not to let his mind stop him.
The sound of crashing water caused Ruwen to focus on his surroundings. He had moved in a daze, and twenty minutes had gone by, bringing him down to thirty-two minutes. Thank Uru he had been following the stream. If he’d zoned out like that in the bamboo, who knows where he might have walked.
This mist had thinned here, and the waterfall looked like a sheet of water ten feet across. It disappeared into the mist fifty feet above Ruwen. The side of a mountain stretched fifty feet in both directions before the fog obscured it, forcing him to make a decision.
Climbing this rock face was out of the question. Ruwen hated heights, and he had no idea how far this cliff rose. With this enormous weight that pulled on him, he didn’t even know if he could climb. That meant choosing either left or right and following the base until he could find a way up.
A wave of hopelessness crashed into Ruwen and he sat in the water. Why was he even here? None of this mattered. Seeing his parents mattered, and he needed to return to do that. His life had turned from simple to complicated since his Ascendancy, and this Step training was an unneeded distraction. Sitting here felt so nice. The sound of the falling water relaxed him, and he didn’t have to pull that terrible weight.
Ruwen watched the counter on his palm drop to thirty. He had gone years without seeing a waterfall, and now this was the third one he’d seen since his Ascendancy. The other two times acted as bookends for his time in the Spirit Realm. The lake with the giant octopus Tickles had a lot of waterfalls filling it, and their trip in the Spirit Realm had started near a waterfall in Fractal.
Sift had been so excited about it, convinced that waterfalls hid treasure. Ruwen frowned. Madda had said Sift completed this trial right before meeting Ruwen. He thought back to Sift’s exact words in the Spirit Realm when they were deciding what to do, “there is always treasure behind a waterfall.”
Ruwen pushed himself to his feet and approached the waterfall. The closer he got, the louder the noise became until it felt as if the sound was trying to repel him. He ignored the thoughts telling him to stop, holding on to Sift’s words of treasure.
The water hit Ruwen like a thousand fists, and he stuck his hands out, searching for an entrance. He traced them back and forth, but his hands only found rock. Had he been wrong. The entrance in Fractal had been underwater, and he wondered if maybe it was the same here.
Ruwen dropped to his knees, thankful for his Elder Viper helmet, which protected his eyes and nose and allowed him to breathe. The water was only two feet deep and he walked forward on his knees, hands outstretched.
This time Ruwen’s right hand kept going, and he angled himself in that direction. As he moved forward, the water suddenly stopped.
Ruwen kneeled in the darkness, dripping, a slight breeze striking his face and chest, making him shiver.
Sift had been right.
Chapter 33
Ruwen pulled one of his five red sorrow fruits from his left sleeve and ate it. He shivered again as his senses sharpened, and the cold become more intense. A small cavern came into focus, and just like Sift had said, there was treasure.
Vines covered the walls, and Ruwen stood as he studied the area. A tunnel continued off the back of the cavern, which is where the airflow came from. He walked to the nearest vine and collected the fruit, methodically working his way around the walls. When he finished, he had a small mound of fruit.
Ruwen added his four red and two black fruit to the pile, removed his Elder Viper helmet, and took off his shirt. He knotted the end of each sleeve and the bottom of his shirt, making three areas to store fruit. In the left sleeve he added thirteen green sorrow fruit, and in the right, six black. The main part of his shirt he filled with seventy-three red sorrow fruit.
Placing the Elder Viper helmet back on, Ruwen ate one of each fruit that he’d set aside bringing him to sixty-three minutes. Not eating everything right now was a risk. He could lose this shirt and the almost six hours of time it contained. But the fruit had more value than just minutes, and if he needed to be invisible later, eating all the black fruit now would be foolish.
Another thought struck him, and he removed one of each fruit, placing them under his helmet. He had no idea how he’d gotten here, or where here was, but if there was a chance on bringing anything back when he left, he wanted to try.
Ruwen took a handful of red berries to keep his increased senses active, otherwise seeing would be difficult, and strode up the tunnel at the back of the cavern. He reluctantly admitted he owed Sift again for his unlikely wisdom.
The green sorrow fruit had increased Ruwen’s physical abilities and it made pulling the invisible weight a little easier. But as the tunnel climbed higher, the weight increased, and he worried if it continued, he might stop moving completely.
Six green fruit later, Ruwen exited the tunnel to find daylight had returned. His body trembled from the effort of walking up the tunnel, and he leaned against the boulders that hid the tunnel. He ate a black fruit just in case there were others up here, and a red one to help him sense any enemies.
Two things became apparent almost immediately. Ruwen had a
lmost reached the summit, and he wasn’t alone. This close to the top, only clumps of boulders broke up the short brown grass that covered the glade, and no bamboo grew. Six hundred feet to his left sat a small mud-covered boy, surrounded by six Elder Vipers, and three creatures that looked like five-foot clouds.
Ten feet in front of the boy, the grass turned from brown to green. Against all odds, the boy had almost made it to the summit before being forced to meditate. Ruwen looked the other direction to find some distant Elder Vipers and cloud creatures. The grass turned from brown to green just fifty feet in front of him, and there was nothing in his way.
But Ruwen didn’t move. Instead, he stared at the distant boy who had covered himself in mud. Ruwen had used water to lower his temperature, but using mud was even smarter. He pictured Pine sitting in his home, watching his grandson’s empty body, and being powerless to help. Had the boy found the Journeyman’s Glade? If he failed here would he still be allowed to continue? Ruwen didn’t know.
And worse, Ruwen would never know. He would spend his life wondering about this boy and his grandfather. Helping him made no sense. And with this invisible weight that made every movement difficult, he couldn’t even fight. At least not well enough to handle six Elder Vipers. He assumed those clouds were floating attacks of depression and doubt. The mist had hidden them down below.
Ruwen looked down at his shirt. It contained about four hours worth of minutes, and it gave him an idea. Not his best plan, but better than his usual ones. He could almost hear Sift’s groan.
Opening the shirt, Ruwen removed a fifteen-minute green fruit, and set it to the side. Then he ate every berry left in the shirt. His stomach hurt, but his palm read three hundred forty-one minutes. That should be enough.
Placing a few rocks in the shirt, Ruwen stuck his Elder Viper tail in his mouth, and picked up the last green fruit. Carefully, he made his way toward the summit. When the summit was only ten feet away, he moved toward the boy instead. It took him almost two minutes to near the boy, and Ruwen pushed his doubts aside. Now only fifteen feet away, he could see the scar on the boy’s temple and the white hair near his ear.
The creatures seemed intent on the boy, but Ruwen prepared himself to move quickly if necessary. Well, as quickly as his burden allowed him. He swung his rock filled shirt in a circle until it had gained a decent amount of momentum and then let it fly down the mountain.
It struck a mound of boulders with a satisfying boom. A mist creature and two Elder Vipers quickly moved to investigate. Ruwen took the blade from his mouth and crept toward the boy. He stepped past the guards and stood over Pine’s grandson. Taking aim with his dagger, he threw it at the most distant viper.
Ruwen had aimed for the head, but his movements were strained, and the dagger struck the Elder Viper’s body. It hissed and the other three vipers turned toward it, while the remaining mist creatures stopped their movement.
The attack had probably made Ruwen visible, so he didn’t waste any time. Taking the green fruit, he smashed it into the boy’s mouth, just to make sure he had some time. Ruwen grabbed the boy under the arms, picked him up, and spun. Two revolutions later, Ruwen threw the boy toward the summit, and then sprinted after him.
Ruwen winced as the boy landed on his head, and he hoped the green grass of the summit eased the impact. Ruwen, despite all his efforts, could barely move. Five feet from the summit, his sprint had turned into labored walking.
The boy looked up, his eyes wide, and he crawled toward Ruwen.
“Run!” Ruwen screamed, not wanting the boy to put himself in danger.
Fangs plunged into Ruwen’s right calf, followed by another attack on his left hamstring. A cool mist covered his body, and for a moment, he only felt despair. Another blow struck his neck, but his helmet protected him. The force of the strike, coupled with his injured legs, toppled him forward.
Ruwen’s outstretched hand was only a foot short of the summit, and he strained to move forward. Another wave of hopelessness struck him, and he relaxed, his will to fight smothered.
The misery made Ruwen think of Rami. Her training had often pushed him to this point, but he had always survived. The thought gave him strength, and he looked up.
The boy pounded his fists against an invisible wall as he tried to get back to Ruwen. A bright flash pulsed behind the boy, making Ruwen blink, and when his vision cleared, the boy had disappeared.
The Elder Vipers were pulling Ruwen away from the summit, their fangs deep in his body. He gritted his teeth and yanked his legs forward. The fangs ripped through his flesh and made his head swim, but he remained conscious. The massive damage brought his counter down to two hundred twenty-nine minutes.
All three mists converged on Ruwen, but he kept Rami in his thoughts, knowing he had already survived worse than anything the mists showed him.
Ruwen sank his fingers into the soil and pulled himself an inch closer. The Elder Vipers struck him over and over, trying to burn through his minutes before he reached the summit.
Another inch as his counter dropped under two hundred.
The Elder Vipers were pulverizing his legs, and the invisible weight Ruwen pulled no longer wanted to budge. His decisions had placed him here, and as Ky had told him not so long ago, he only had himself to blame. His plan would have easily worked if not for this invisible weight.
One hundred fifty-two minutes.
And then a horrible thought occurred to Ruwen. Sift had already succeeded at this. If Ruwen failed, Sift would never let him forget it. There was no way Ruwen would suffer through that.
Eighty-four minutes.
Ruwen dug his elbows into the soil and pushed, moving himself a fraction.
Fifty-six minutes.
He smiled into the ground as he used his elbows again.
Twenty-seven minutes.
Ruwen could no longer feel his legs, but it didn’t matter. With one more push from his elbows, he stretched his right hand out and touched the green grass of the summit.
The attacks stopped, and Ruwen looked at his left palm: seven minutes.
Again came the bright flash, and when Ruwen’s vision cleared, he no longer lay in the grass.
Ruwen now stood in the middle of a domed temple, the roof supported by a circle of white pillars. His injuries had vanished, and the counter on his palm had disappeared. He turned in a slow circle, verifying what he had secretly feared all along.
He was alone.
No Founders were here to meet him.
Chapter 34
Ruwen wondered if both Founders were with Pine’s grandson, assuming that was real and not part of the trial. The pressing weight had disappeared, and he felt light. Not sure what to do, he stepped out of the small temple.
A small rectangle shaped building stood thirty feet away. It had no roof, marble pillars surrounded the perimeter, and a pedestal stood in its center. Ruwen strode toward it, and as he drew near, he slowed, recognizing the small object the pedestal held. A crossing stone just like the one his hand touched back in the library at Blapy.
Touching that would return Ruwen home.
Frustration filled Ruwen, and he clenched his hands. He knew the chance to become a Master in the Bamboo Viper Steps was a tremendous accomplishment. Many failed to meet that standard after all. But he’d worked incredibly hard and had assumed his training would continue as a Grandmaster. Now that wouldn’t happen, and he felt a little stunned.
Ruwen left the building and sat against a pillar, staring at the temple he’d arrived in. Once again, his expectations had set him up for disappointment. Why wasn’t being a Master, assuming he passed that trial, good enough?
Sadly, Ruwen knew the answer to that, too. He had always thought he was special. His intelligence had only compounded the problem. Slib had bullied Ruwen, but Ruwen had used his intelligence like a weapon. He had loved how exceptional it made him. Looking back, he could see how arrogant he’d been.
The Ascendancy, and surprise Worker Class, had forced
Ruwen out of his comfortable world. For the first time he didn’t have time to plan everything, and worse, he’d needed the help of others. His greatest asset, his mind, had not been nearly enough to survive.
Uru’s plans had made Ruwen feel special again, until he spent even a moment thinking about them. Every task seemed more impossible than the last. He had only survived this long by focused hard work and amazing friends. But sitting here now, he knew the truth.
What Uru and Pen and Blapy expected from him was far beyond his abilities. Each revelation had made him feel special while highlighting how impossible the task would be for him to complete. His life had stopped being his own.
And honestly, Ruwen didn’t want to go back and face any of it. The pressure of everyone’s expectations, coupled with what he viewed as a failure here, seemed too much. No one had asked him if he wanted to save the universe. In some ways, he felt like a tool, created and shaped for a specific task. It made him feel terrible.
Ruwen’s parents hadn’t exactly lied, but they had kept some important things from him. So many secrets. Literally everywhere. Everyone from his parents to Uru to Blapy. Even these Steps had secrets.
That made Ruwen pause. The Addas had made him take a soul oath promising not to discuss the secret Steps. He thought back to the oath.
Darkness Holds No Shadows
You have vowed never to use the Forbidden Steps of the Shadow Form until discussing their origin, use, and costs with Madda and Padda.
Reward: +1 Knowledge.
Reward: Audience with Shadow Clan.
Restriction: Bamboo Step Rank of Master Required.
Restriction: Viper Step Rank of Master Required.
Penalty (Broken Oath): Exiled from the Bamboo Viper Step Clan.
Penalty (Broken Oath): Marked for Death by the Bamboo Viper and Shadow Step Clans.