by Isaac Winter
> Your Familiar has been injured!
Yeah, yeah, thanks for the memo.
I doubled over, spikes of pain slicing through my side. The world swum beneath my feet like the waves of a boat and I fell to the ground.
The others wasted no time in taking the momentary distraction to their advantage, however.
Fel leapt forward and swung his hammer at knee level, knocking Alcazar’s legs out from under him with a sickening crunching sound. The attack caught him off guard while he was still focusing on Tris and the dragon. He fell heavily to the ground as Cael and Tris swooped in. Tris tossed one end of a rope to Cael. It glowed a ghastly green with magic.
“You destroy families. You prey on weaklings. Any other crimes to confess?” She spat as green tendrils of magic wrapped around him like a vice, rendering him motionless. Tris wove the strands tight, her dancing hands reminding me of an orchestra conductor. Cael held him fast, his weight pinning the sorcerer down while Tris did her work.
Alcazar growled at her, muscles bulging as he tried to break free. With two broken kneecaps, though, he wasn’t going to go far.
“Think again, asshole. Any last words?”
A low, throaty chuckle escaped, racking his body with maniacal laughter. “Duck.” He said with a grin, and invoked a word of power.
With a rumble like thunder, rocks loosened and fell free from the building, crashing to the ground around us. I threw myself out of the way and skidded my knees in the dirt. Just then, I heard a familiar chirp.
Aurelius!
He fanned out his wings to full-length and rose from the ground, eyes glowing with a ferocity I’d never seen. “Stop him!” I gasped, and the dragon understood.
Rocks tumbled down around us and a great cracking sound sliced through the sky above. The whole building was gonna fall!
I heard a yell as a large stone tumbled onto Cael’s foot, pinning him to the ground. Tris strained to hold the ropes tight around him, and Fel dodged the debris as best he could.
It was up to me. “Tris, hold on!” I yelled, stumbling to my feet. My dragon and I made a beeline for the fallen sorcerer, dancing to and fro to avoid the rain of destruction around us. I drew my staff and pounded the butt of it right into Alcazar’s stomach. The air wheezed out of him in a gust and so did the word of power. The last few rocks clattered the ground, but the building stood. “Now!” I screamed to Tris, who nodded next to me and let go of the ropes just long enough to draw her dagger.
She stamped her boot down on his chest to hold him and drew the knife across his neck in a quick, clean stroke. Blood spurted from the wound and Alcazar’s cries devolved into bloody murmurs. His life force drained out slowly, pulsing onto the ground around us. But that wasn’t enough.
“Roast him,” I commanded, and Aurelius swooped in.
A column of fire exploded from the dragon’s throat and right onto Alcazar’s face, leaving him screaming and flailing even as he burned to death. The rank smell of burning flesh attacked my nostrils as he burned, finally going limp as the flames took him. Tris backed away, shoulders heaving, as she watched him burn.
Fel had gone to Cael’s aid, prying the stone off of his leg. Unfortunately, it didn’t look good. I rushed to him, grimacing as I saw his foot. Definitely broken. And our healer was gone. I let out a breath.
“Can you stand?” I asked, offering him my hand.
He grunted and tried to move, then sunk back down. “Don’t think so.”
“We won,” I offered.
He let out a sigh of relief. “That guy’s a nasty piece of work.”
Tris joined us then, patting me on the shoulder. “Thank you.” She paused as if considering her next words, then added, “for letting me get my revenge. Erik’s death will not have been in vain.”
I knew how hard that must have been for her. “I’m glad you’re okay,” was all I managed to stammer.
“You saved us all,” Fel agreed. “Your dragon, too.”
I blushed and Aurelius squealed happily on my shoulder. “Thank you, everyone. But really, it was a team effort.”
“Not a bad team, either.” Cael said. “Now is someone gonna help me up or am I gonna sit here all night?”
We laughed, the smiles coming more easily now. We’d defeated both a world-rending Tear and the sorcerer in one day. Things were looking up.
It’s too bad no one ever told me pride comes before a fall.
23
Cael
Fel and Laurie did their best getting me to bed and loaded up with some medicinal herbs, but I was really starting to feel Mabel’s absence. She made things look so easy.
If they thought I was getting any sleep tonight, they were dead wrong.
My mind flitted from one idea to another like a hummingbird, never stopping at one long enough to really process it.
Mabel was gone.
My foot was broken.
Alcazar had pulled Laurie’s strings.
My powers were gone.
Tris wasn’t talking to me.
And the Tears were still coming.
All in a day’s work, right?
I rolled over in bed, tracing the cracked paint on the wall with my eyes. I felt so useless laying here like this. I should be fighting. But that stupid rock got the best of me, and now I couldn’t even walk. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to reign in my anger. I should have been faster. I should have dodged the falling stone. I totally could have, too. I had one of the highest agility scores in the group.
But I was distracted. I was paying more attention to protecting Tris than myself, and I’d paid the price.
That’s what you get for caring about someone, I thought to myself bitterly.
Caring. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, trying to will the thoughts away.
The people here were different, sure. But they had such big hearts. Even if they didn’t show it at first, each character felt as alive as any human I’d met in the real world. They had personalities, dreams, fears. Was I falling in love with an NPC?
I huffed in annoyance, burying my face in the pillow.
Stupid feelings like that are what got my foot broken.
Despite my annoyance and frustration at my situation, the exhaustion of my body soon took over, and unconsciousness wrapped itself like a smothering blanket around me.
So you’ve returned, Veilwalker.
I opened my eyes to see the tall, spindly faerie I’d encountered on my last trip. The Gaia. She still looked regal as ever, but there was something stretched, thin about her. The flower crown she wore wilted and her limbs dangled like twigs.
I remembered my ordeal with the Meliae all too well, but how did they get here? They never left their Groves. Ever.
Circumstances have changed.
I gaped at them. “Did you just read my mind? Cut that out!”
She ignored me and threw a lock of hair over her shoulder, sitting down next to me. Wait, where was I?
Dirt walls stretched far above me and bioluminescent insects fluttered in spherical lanterns. I scrambled the check my map, but it didn’t show. None of my HUD did!
I started breathing faster, feeling the verge of panic coming on. The Gaia touched me with her spindly, stick-like fingers. It was a light enough touch, but it sent a cool flow of energy all the way through me. Just like Mabel’s buffs, I remembered sadly.
Stay calm, Veilwalker. We have come to you in an hour of great need. We require your help.
Wait, what? A race of uber-powerful nature faeries needed my help? Joke was on them—I didn’t even have my runes anymore.
I hung my head. “I don’t think I’m the guy you’re looking for. I lost my affinity. I can’t read the runes anymore. I’m useless.”
The weight of my failures stacked on my shoulders, one by one. My limbs were so heavy, my head even more so. I wanted to sink into the ground and hide forever. All of this was my fault. All the way back to my first trip in the Veil. All the way back to the Academy, and that stupid boo
k.
The Gaia grabbed my chin with her spindly fingers and turned my face toward her. I looked for the first time directly into her eyes. Once as clear and blue as a summer’s day, they had changed. Glittering black orbs stared back at me. They were multifaceted like an insect’s, seeming to look everywhere at once.
Say that again, Veilwalker.
“I’m use—”
She pinched my lips shut, the sharp tips of her fingers pressing painfully into my skin.
I won’t have that talk. You’re a Veilwalker. Start acting like it.
I wrenched my face away and sputtered, rubbing the scratch marks she’d left. “What do you want me to do?”
Our power has been waning. Little by little we waste away. The quakes have affected the entire Veil, but it has been tearing apart our homeland as well. We are but a shadow of our former majesty. You must defeat him, Veilwalker, you must.
Now I was getting frustrated. Angry tears flecked my eyes as I balled my fists. “I’d love to, but I lost my only trump card! How am I supposed to face Crane now?”
We do not have much left, but we’d like to leave a token of our agreement. If the Tears continue, my people will be wiped out. There is no other option. Will you help us, Veilwalker? Will you save my people?
> New Quest Unlocked: Their Darkest Hour
The Meliae have been hit harder than most by the glitches and earthquakes throughout the Veil.
To save their people from extinction, you must go to the source and end the Tears once and for all.
Accept? [Yes/No]
Great. Now I was gonna have genocide on my head if I failed. I looked around at the vines, the lanterns, the life all around me. The Meliae prized natural beauty above all else, and the recent disasters had put that in jeopardy. They were pure-hearted, if proud.
“I will help you.” They were right. Hiding wouldn’t do any good. I’d come back to the Veil with a fire in my eyes and one mission in mind: take Crane down.
Save my friends.
Save Overture Academy.
I wasn’t going to let them down.
“I will do everything in my power to restore your people to their former glory,” I pledged with a hand over my heart.
See you soon, Veilwalker.
With that, the Gaia vanished in a whiff of smoke, leaving nothing but a silk-wrapped package beside me.
That’s when I woke up, drenched in sweat and tangled in blankets. I willed my heart to slow as I wiped my forehead and took a few shaky breaths.
It was just a dream...
I tried to shake the memories out of my head, but the imagery stayed with me. It was so vivid! I swung my legs over the side of the bed, hoping to grab a glass of water to calm my nerves. That’s when something tumbled off the mattress and clattered against the floor, making me flinch with fright.
I crouched and squinted, terrified of what I’d find.
A small bundle of violet silk lay on the floor.
24
Laurie
No matter what I tried, sleep would not find me that night. The bed was too lumpy. The sheets were too scratchy. And there was the minor detail of a baby dragon flitting around my room with enough energy to put a sugared-up kindergartener to shame.
When Alcazar threw him across the garden and he crashed into the wall, I didn’t just see it. I felt it. The pain lanced through me just as surely as it had through the little dragonling. When he came into this world, it felt like finding a piece of my soul I hadn’t known existed. We were connected, now and forever. And I had to protect him.
“What’s the matter?” I mumbled, rolling over to look at him. He perched on the lamp mounted to the wall, looking rather pleased with himself. “You’re hungry again, aren’t you?”
He chirped in response.
“Fine, fine,” I said, throwing my legs off the bed and standing up. “Let’s go get you some food, okay?” Aurelius hopped onto my arm and I opened the door a crack. I tried to be quiet, but the old wood and hinges squealed all the same. I winced and stepped out into the hallway. The lamps cast a warm, sleepy light on the walkway.
I was scrambling around in the pantry for the dried fruit when I heard a voice behind me.
“You couldn’t sleep either, huh?”
I jumped at the noise and banged my head on a shelf, yelping in pain. Aurelius tumbled off my shoulder in the commotion and dove into the bag of fruit snacks. He slurped a roll of licorice into his mouth and smacked his lips, cawing with delight.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Fel said with a chuckle. “Your dragon has quite the sweet tooth.” Aurelius had moved onto the candied peaches now, his claws punching right through the metal seals like paper.
“You can say that again,” I said and pulled him away from the snacks. Smoke billowed from his nostrils as he gave me a death glare. “You can’t eat out of the jars like that.” I waggled at finger at him, but I doubted he understood.
“But yeah, I couldn’t sleep. What about you?” I finally calmed Auri by giving him a piece of fruit leather to chew on. He gnashed at the snack noisily, smacking his lips and making little squawks of joy.
“Can’t sleep most nights anymore.” Fel said, the sadness creeping back into his eyes. “So instead I read. Figure I might as well do something useful with my time. Won’t you join me?”
I followed him out of the larder into the small library. It was hardly anything compared to the vast stacks at the Academy, but the books on these shelves bore names I’d never heard of before.
A Primer on Daeldran Politics.
Myths and Magic in the Veil.
A Brief History of Potionmaking.
We definitely didn’t have any of these books where I was from. “A little light reading?” I teased, pulling out the thickest tome on the shelf. It had well over one thousand pages and was bound together with a lovely red leather. This was no trophy book, though. The dog-eared pages and frayed ribbon bookmark showed that it had been used. And often.
Explorations of Veil Arcana, I mumbled as I read the cover. “One of your favorites?”
Fel looked up. “Borrowed that one from the library when I was trying to research about this place. It’s an interesting read if you want to be put to sleep, I guess.”
“Sounds like the book for me.” I hefted it over to the plush reading chair and sank down into it. Auri perched on the arm of the chair beside me. He watched my every move, his red eyes unblinking. Maybe he thinks if he blinks, he’ll miss something important.
Fel hunkered down in the seat next to mine after stoking a fire in the fireplace. I watched the flickering flames for who knows how long, watching them lash away at the wood. The logs crackled and blackened, yet still the flames rose higher. The smell hit me with a wave of nostalgia as I remembered long nights in front of the fireplace back home.
Home. Now there was something I hadn’t thought about in a long time. Hadn’t had time to, really. I’d been thrown into one near-death experience after another, with no time to reflect or relax. But here I was. I drew the scent of the fire and the books into my lungs and let it out slowly.
This was my home now. At least for the time being.
I cracked open the book, admiring the intricacy of the title page. It was a handwritten script, the ink a vibrant black on the page. It reminded me of Cael’s book of Runes. A little too much, actually, I thought with a shiver.
A small crease ran through the leather cover, right next to the spine. Normally I would have just flipped the page and moved on, but something about it caught my eye. Like a sticker just slightly peeled up at the corner. I looked closer, latching my fingernail underneath the endpaper that was sticking up. The same script font could be seen underneath. Almost as if someone were trying to leave a message.
I leaned over to Fel, who was nodding off to a copy of The Warrior’s Way. “Fel,” I whispered, nudging him. “You ever seen this before?”
“…ask me in the morning…” He mumbled, his eyes still half-clos
ed.
“Looks like someone left a message. Under the endpaper. Here.” I shoved the book in his direction and he startled, dropping the tome from his lap.
He wiped his bleary eyes and peered at the endpaper, eyebrows ascending. “By my beard,” he muttered, holding the book closer. Fel rubbed his eyes again. “We need more light.”
I leapt up from my chair and grabbed a lantern left by the larder. “Will this help?”
“Here, bring it closer. And my clips, too.”
Aurelius watched us with a curious gaze as we cleared the table of debris and set the book and lantern down upon it. With the light shining directly on the inside of the cover, the truth was even clearer. There was something hidden under there. “The clips, Laurie.”
I handed over the metal clips he used for hanging garments. One on each side, anchored to the table. With the clips holding the book open, he produced a pair of skinny metal tongs and slipped them underneath the upturned endpaper. The old glue cracked as he lifted, but it had long since dried out. The endpaper came free and he set it aside, marveling at the inscription on the inside of the cover.
Only…it didn’t make sense at all. A list of numbers stared back at us. Three columns of numbers, and each entry had three components to it. A secret code, clearly, but hell if I knew what it meant.
> You have found: The Seeker’s Code.
This message was clearly meant to be hidden. But from who?
Some of the numbers had faded into the cover, lost to the sands of time. Some of them were illegible, and there were a few spots where the endpaper hadn’t come up cleanly. I did my best to transcribe what I saw.
“We need to tell Cael.” I dropped the pen and stood up from my chair. “This could change everything.”