by Kyle Johnson
“Yeah, I had a feeling it would help,” he nodded, rubbing his forehead. “This Quest, Lythienne? It’s way more complicated than I expected it to be. It’s going to get worse, soon, isn’t it?”
The woman nodded slowly. “I am forbidden to tell you more,” she replied in a pained voice. “But you are correct: if you wish to fully complete this Quest, it will become more complex before it becomes less so.”
He sighed and rose to his feet, pacing about his small dojo. Need to find some time to expand this, as well, he thought idly. “I’ve got an idea of what happened here,” he spoke after a few moments. “I’m pretty sure I know what I’m going to see at the crown, at least in a general sense. I don’t get the memory stone, though, or that grey creature we saw commanding the Ekimmu.”
“The rabisu,” the ancient elf spoke quietly. “Ask your new Follower of them; all Keepers learn a small amount about the creatures of Darkness. Her knowledge will be incomplete, but it should suffice for your purposes. As for the stone, I can tell you only this: it is the key to both victory and defeat, depending on if and how it is used.”
“Yeah, I figured it would be something like that,” he grunted. “the Quest wouldn’t have had me find it unless it was part of some kind of alternate victory condition.” In many games, he knew, there could be multiple ways to complete a Quest. Depending on your character build, back story, the methods you chose and even the order you decided to complete parts of the Quest, different options could open up for you. Usually, the more completely you finished each Quest, the more and better choices you had.
“I can tell you one last thing,” she said softly. “You must lose if you wish to win, and your victory will not be a joyous one. We will not speak again before you have left this place, child. Go with my blessing.” She gestured, and he felt himself rising from his mindscape.
His eyes opened and he drew in a deep, shuddering breath, frowning. The old woman’s warning weighed heavily on him: he would have to lose in order to win, and he would not be happy with victory? He glanced over at Geltheriel, who sat, unmoving but awake. Does that mean she’ll have to die for me to win? he wondered. The Quest does say I have to keep her alive or I’ll fail; that could mean that she’ll sacrifice herself for victory. Kind of seems like her personality, really. Still, can I do that? He shook his head, knowing the answer: no, he probably couldn’t. If given the choice of completing the Quest in a lesser fashion or sacrificing the woman for a better Quest ending, he’d probably grab her and run for the nearest exit.
He shrugged. There was no point in worrying about it now; he would have to see how things were playing out and make his decisions, then. “I’m awake,” he announced at last, banishing his thoughts. “We should get moving. I’ve got some questions for you, and I want to tell you what I think is going on, here.”
He sensed the woman rise next to him and felt her grab his arm and pull him to his feet. “This time, stay in contact with me,” she said simply. “Then I will know if you fall behind.”
Aranos shook his head and summoned a Mana Arrow, blinking as its dim light stabbed into his eyes. He heard Geltheriel curse beside him, and he glanced over to see her rubbing her eyes, as well. “Sorry about that,” he said quickly. “It’s just that, we’re going to be talking, so we won’t be in Stealth, anyways. Might as well have a light so that I’m not falling over the steps in the darkness, right?”
“Or, we could have used the time to start teaching you Night Vision,” she sighed in response. “But I sense you are too distracted for such a task, in any case. So, ask me your questions as we walk.”
“Okay,” he began, following behind her on the stairs. “Let’s start with the memory stone. What is it? How does it work? What are they used for?”
“The name explains most of their function,” the woman shrugged. “They are crystals infused with Mind mana and enchanted to hold memories within. The simplest among them can hold a single image, or perhaps a brief conversation and are used primarily to remind their owners of something, or to occasionally pass a simple message. The most complex can hold entire lifetimes worth of memories, though, and are without value. They are often kept by the ruling families of realms, who pass down the wisdom of entire generations to a new monarch when they sit upon the throne.”
“Gotcha,” he said thoughtfully, turning the idea over in his mind. Those orbs must have been memory stones of some kind, then, he realized. So, why didn’t that first Traveler get Lythienne’s memories instead of me? “Can they be keyed?” he asked after a moment of thought. “I mean…”
“I am aware of what ‘keyed’ means,” she sighed, shaking her head. “Yes, that is quite common, really. Many memory stones can only be accessed by the one who placed the memory within. Others can be keyed to certain races, bloodlines, or even Classes. No matter what, though, the creator of the stone can always access it, as can whoever has their memories stored within.”
“Got it,” he nodded, understanding enough to know that this line of questioning wasn’t going to lead anywhere. “Okay, what about that creature we saw talking to the Ekimmu?” he moved on, noticing how she stiffened at his words. “I mean, if you don’t want to talk about it…”
“No,” she sighed heavily. “There is an excellent chance that we will be facing the monster in our Quest, and it makes no sense to withhold information about it that could save your life.
“That is a rabisu,” she explained. “A life-stealing creature of hatred and malice. I know little enough about them, but it is said they are formed by capturing a pure, innocent soul and tormenting it until nothing is left but hatred and hunger. They feed on the life energy of the living: the cold you felt as we neared it? That is the result of their aura, which drains vital energy around it. Their touch is deadly, and even those who survive their attacks are often left withered and weakened for days or even months.
She gazed at him, and he saw the fear in her eyes. “They are fearsome enemies,” she admitted, “even more so because by sword and bow will not harm them. They are creatures of Spirit and are only affected by enchanted weapons and magic, especially Light and Spirit mana. If we are to face it, I do not know how we will defeat it.”
Aranos blinked slowly, his thoughts whirling. “I’m not sure if my Entangling Web will hold it,” he replied. “It’s magic, but at the same time, it’s meant to grab onto a physical body. I did develop a new Spell, though, that imprisons someone in mana. That might hold it long enough for us to flee, if my Spells don’t hurt it.”
“Then that is our best hope,” she said in an emotionless voice. “In the stories of the Keepers, only great heroes with powerful magic and weapons could face a rabisu with any hope of victory. Perhaps, though, the stories have exaggerated with time, and we will be sufficient.”
Wow, nice sideways insult, he thought with irritation. “Okay, that actually fits in with what I think happened here,” he said.
She looked at him curiously. “The city obviously fell to the hordes during the Feast,” she said in surprise. “What else could it be?”
“I don’t think that’s what happened,” he said slowly. “It doesn’t add up, really. Think about it: if a bunch of creatures of darkness stormed this city, where are they? Why would they abandon it?”
“The edimmu and gasha are here,” she pointed out. “Perhaps it was they?”
“No, that doesn’t work, either,” he denied. “You heard Ekimmu: they were summoned. And the gasha are formed from the bones of those who dies in betrayal, right? So, how many people would have to die just to make the six gasha we’ve seen so far? And, there’s probably more of them waiting above.”
“Scores,” she admitted slowly. “Hundreds, perhaps. Still…”
“The city wasn’t burned or destroyed,” he pointed out. “It looks more like it was drained of life until it collapsed. Wouldn’t having a rabisu roaming it for hundreds of years do that?” She nodded slowly, and he continued. “I haven’t seen a single trace of any crea
ture in this city so far except the edimmu and gasha. I mean, sure, the city fell hundreds of years ago, but there should have been something for me to see with my Tracking skill, right? Nothing was burned, there are no corpses or bones left from where the defenders made their stand.”
“But the city is looted,” she pointed out. “An invading army would certainly steal all of value it could.”
“Yeah, but I think that was the edimmu,” he guessed. “They’ve been looking for this memory crystal thing for centuries, right? I’m guessing they just grabbed everything they could and brought it back, just in case. That’s why there’s been no sign of broken glass in the city: the edimmu even collected that, because it’s kind of like crystal. I’m guessing that the ‘Mistress’ has a massive pile of loot and junk hidden away somewhere.
“And don’t forget the doors to the Spire Tree,” he added before she could speak. “I mean, the whole purpose of those doors is to keep out invaders, but they don’t look like they were busted open and then repaired, do they? I’ll bet the doors at the top are the same way.”
She walked in silence, pondering his words. “You are suggesting betrayal,” she offered slowly. “The city was overthrown from within. But how could such a thing be?”
“That, I don’t know,” he replied. “But, yeah, it fits the facts. The Mistress was probably the city’s ruler or High Wizard or something. I’m guessing she thought she would be saving the city by whatever it was she did, here, but instead, she destroyed it. Now, I’m guessing, she probably thinks this stone can make everything right somehow, so she’s been looking for it. Our job is to keep it from her and figure out how it can be used against her.”
“Such stones will not take or impart memories against a person’s will,” Geltheriel informed him. “They cannot be used to steal minds as a weapon.”
Aranos shrugged. “We’ll think of something,” he said fatalistically. “Right now, we need data. One of the greatest detectives of my world said something like, ‘It’s a huge mistake to make guesses without data.’” He chose not to mention that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional detective. Heck, she’s a fictional character herself, he admitted. Holmes is as real as she is.
They continued in silence until they had passed the next landing. At that point, Aranos extinguished his arrow, and they continued in Stealth, not knowing what might lie ahead of them. This time, Aranos took the Keeper’s advice and reached out to place a hand on her back to follow her. “Move your hand higher or lose it,” she gritted as he felt something significantly rounder than her back beneath his palm, and he hurriedly slid it up to a safer location.
“Sorry, accident,” he said quickly. “Can’t see anything.”
“A likely tale,” she grunted, but she let the matter drop as they moved forward.
The next landing loomed above them after several long minutes, and Aranos was once more able to see. He dropped his hand, pointedly not looking at the place he had accidentally grabbed before, and rened his grip on his staff. “We’ll have to alter our plan a bit to take out these first gasha,” he murmured. “They’ll probably detect us while we’re in the Tree. I think our best bet is to get out there as fast as we can and try to trap one while I drain the other, before too much of it can form.”
“And if we charge forward to discover that there are many of them?” she asked quietly. “Or that they are already formed?”
“Then we keep running,” he said vehemently. “We try to lose them in the city and come back to take them out one at a time.”
“It is likely the best plan we can form,” she admitted. “Not the wisest, perhaps, but the best.”
They moved slowly until they were close enough to the landing that Aranos judged they might be in range of one of the gasha before dropping Stealth and charging out into the dim light of the city’s third level. He hadn’t quite been correct with his guess: one of the gasha had been closer to the stairs and was halfway through forming, while the other just started to activate as they rushed out of the Tree. Aranos launched a cloned Mana Arrow into the unformed pile and, instead of his Entangling Web, he concentrated on forming a Crystal Prison around the mostly formed creature. The spell shivered into place, coating the gasha in a crystalline shell of mana with the crackle of water freezing. The gasha froze, trapped in the middle of its transformation, but even as Aranos placed his palm on the second monster’s skull and began to drain it, he heard creaking and cracking from the prison as the skeletal giant began to break free.
He managed to drain the skull for almost 30 seconds before the crystal split and the gasha rose to its full height, but by that time his SP had almost refilled and he wrapped the monster in an Entangling Web. The gasha slowed to a snail’s pace in the tangling mana, giving Aranos time to finish draining the first skull completely. He stepped back and held out his staff, figuring the blunt instrument would be better suited for crushing the now-battered skull, but to his surprise Geltheriel leapt forward, her blade swinging in a glowing arc that cleaved completely through the skull. Three more strikes, and the skull lay in pieces that quickly dissolved into powder. She used an Ability, he realized. Something like my two-handed Mighty Blow, but for a sword.
The Keeper darted past him to draw the attention of the first gasha that was lumbering forward, but Aranos had not been idle while she dismantled the helpless skull. His mana saw was already digging into the running gasha’s spine, just below the flame-filled ribcage, aiming for a spot between the vertebrae. That attack, however, had drawn the creature’s ire, and it was ignoring the woman and moving straight for the Sorcerer, who quickly backpedaled to stay out of its reach.
Geltheriel’s sword flashed again, though, glowing in the same arc as before and clanging off the creature’s bony wrist. Sparks flew at the contact, and a small nick appeared in the bone, but she wasn’t trying to damage it, just to get its attention. The monster lost its interest in Aranos and spun toward her, slamming a fist in her direction that she easily dodged.
Aranos focused on driving his saw through the softer area between the vertebrae and was rewarded with a clang as the blade broke through and exited the other side. The creature collapsed, its entire lower half severed, and Geltheriel danced out of its reach as Aranos repositioned the saw to finish the job and decapitate it. Draining it was a simple matter at that point, and both of the gasha collapsed to bone fragments and swirling dust.
They rested a moment and moved around the tree, locating the second pair of gasha and removing them much more easily. Geltheriel had but one command for him after the first encounter. “Do not attack the second creature until I have engaged it,” she said bluntly. “I can dodge it and even, now that my Hunger debuff is gone, take a hit from it if need be. You, however, will die quickly if one catches you, and then we will both have failed.”
Aranos agreed after a moment of thought. She’s the tank, after all, he realized. Her job is to hold its attention so I can kill it. I’ve gotta stick to my role and not take hers.
The next two levels went much more smoothly for the pair as they found a solid rhythm. The gasha fell without much difficulty, and Geltheriel only took one hit for all of their trouble, which Aranos quickly bandaged. She recovered quickly while checked his notifications, noting that he was getting less and less experience for fighting the creatures as they went:
Huh, he thought with a trace of irritation, I’m getting half the XP for each encounter! What gives?
“XP awards are not just based on the level of your enemy,” he heard Veronica’s voice speaking in his mind. “They’re also about the challenge and danger of the encounter. Your creative approach to defeating the gasha is effective, but it is not very challenging to you, anymore, nor are you placed in significant danger, so the XP awards are reduced accordingly.”
Her voice left his mind, and although he grumbled for a moment, he could see the logic. Too often, in games, you could go out and farm XP to artificially increase your level: you could set up a situation that let
you quickly kill a bunch of high-XP creatures with little risk to yourself, like making a kill box and luring the enemies into it over and over. It looked like that would have limited utility in Singularity: the game would reward your ingenuity for a while, but the rewards would quickly taper off once the danger and challenge were gone.
Once she was healed, he glanced up and saw a massive structure overhead, nearly lost in the swirling, dark clouds of shadow and dust that obscured the crown. “That’s the top, huh?” he said softly.
“It is,” Geltheriel replied in an equally quiet voice. “What you are seeing is the Treehome, the center of any elven city and residence of its rulers. If this one is similar to the ones I have seen, it will have a fortified door blocking exit from the Spire Tree, two walls surrounding it with metal gates that will likely be sealed against us, and a bailey in between where intruders can be trapped and dealt with.”
“Yeah, sounds about right,” he sighed. “And once we get in? What’s the inside like?”
She snorted. “You presume much by assuming we will gain entry,” she pointed out. “Yet, if that unlikely event occurs, we should find ourselves within an entry hall, where suitors and the wealthy await the ruler’s pleasure. To either side are entrances to the wings of the Treehome, where the living spaces and administrative offices are. I have not been in those, so I cannot speak of what lies there. Our likely goal, however, is the receiving hall beyond the main entry, for that is where rulers greet petitioners.”
“Well, I’m not saying it’ll be easy,” he groaned, hauling himself to his feet, “but it should be doable. All we can do is go take a look and see.” The elf woman nodded unenthusiastically and sprung lightly to her feet.
“I have noticed that we have not yet slain all the gasha,” she commented. Aranos looked at her, puzzled. “The Quest has not updated,” she pointed out. “This means that there must be at least one more waiting for us above.”