Ends of Magic

Nathan retreated back to the center of the wide passage, pulling on clothes that Aarl had tossed him. He wanted to take refuge among the Heirs against something his antimagic couldn’t protect him from - Kozar’s reaction to Simla’s death.

I’m pretty sure he’s dead, at least. Armor lying empty on the ground after fighting a construct with a disintegration aura - not definitive, but rather suggestive.

Khachi was standing up straight, coaxing shards of shattered construct out of his armor. It wasn’t clear if they’d come from his own metal-crushing hammer strikes or Kozar’s javelins, but it didn't look fun to have jagged shards stuck inside your gear. He was glancing around to see if anybody needed healing, but none of the Old hands appeared badly injured, and the remaining members of Simla’s team seemed more shell-shocked than anything.

Aarl had been assisting the Old Hands, and his metallic helmet shrunk back into the body of his armor as he grouped up with Nathan. Sarah exhaled a long-held breath as she stowed her own weapons. They all turned to look at Stella, who was pancaked flat on her back on the metal floor.

That doesn’t seem comfortable. Is she alright?

Nathan leaned down towards the mage, and opened his mouth to ask.

But before he could, Stella raised a hand into the air, though her eyes stayed closed. “I’m ok. Just… rather tired.” The enormous yawn that punctuated her words gave authenticity to the statement. “I don’t think I can take more healing.”

Nathan shrugged, then looked around at the rest of the Heirs. “I didn’t see much of the fight. What happened? Especially to Simla?”

“He tried to fight the spider construct.” Khachi’s expression was shadowed as he glanced towards the empty armor. “He trusted to speed, skill and magical equipment to protect him from the disintegration aura, but the spider defended itself with the legs until Simla’s protections were spent, and then followed him when he attempted to retreat. They’re faster than a Stalker when pouncing on retreating prey.” The cleric shook his head gravely. “And Disintegration is not an injury I can heal. Another of that team perished to the construct before Kozar’s strike ended the threat.”

Aarl pointed at the Old Hands. “True aim from the others. The Old Hands are untouched since their spider construct ran into Nathan. They’ve got decades of teamwork, and Neta stayed calm and controlled the fight.”

“But we face smoke and fire now.” Sarah grimaced as she looked towards where the returning elites were interrogating the surviving members of Simla's team. “Kozar returns, and his nephew is dead. That will drip blood in his eye.”

Nathan met Khachi’s gaze, remembering Kozar’s humiliating ‘motivation’ of Simla less than twelve hours before.

No wonder he did something so stupid. He needed to take the risk, get his mentor's approval with a great deed.

“Should we…” Nathan tilted his head towards the entrance, raising his eyebrows to suggest they scarper before facing down an enraged elite Adventurer.

Khachi shook his head. “No. We will not bait the Castlebear. This will be done on the field of victory, not from the shame of defeat.” Then the wolfman turned to face the approaching elite Adventurer.

Nathan stepped backwards, yielding the floor to Khachi. He did not want the coming confrontation to be about him.

Khachi did a great job facing down Eldred, now I’ll need to rely on him again.

Kozar’s face was stony, his words loud. “Once more the Heirs have triumphed, and shown themselves the toughest giantslayers of the new generation.” He glanced back at the Adventurers trailing him. “A hidden threat, an army of constructs. If only I had trusted the rear defense to a team that had just defeated an army of constructs five times this size. Instead, my nephew and protégé is dead. What a blunder of Algoa."

The [Divine Justicar] did not quail in the face of Kozar’s barely veiled accusation. He acknowledged the statement with a grave nod. “To repeat prophecy, that victory required preparation and the full exertion of Stella’s magic. She has not been able to recover, especially after shielding us on our approach to this dungeon.”

The older Adventurer's eye fell on Stella, where Aarl was helping her sit up and take a drink of water. His lips twisted past a smirk and all the way to a snarl. “Do you take me for a fool? That was an artifact, not a mage. And one you clearly can’t use again. Or can you?” He stepped forward threateningly, javelin rising to point towards Khachi.

“What occurs?” Delric joined the conversation. His voice was calm and his weapons sheathed despite the threat of imminent violence.

Kozar fixed his attention to the new arrival. “How did your team survive without casualties? Are you simply so blessed?”

“No. Nathan destroyed the spider construct that was attacking us. Else we would have faced one of those ghoul uncles ourselves. Tough as anything on the face of Davrar.”

Kozar's attention turned to Nathan. “And you. A Steel Screamer’s waste, but easily able to destroy the constructs that have disintegrated my nephew.”

Nathan grimaced at being called out.

No getting around this confrontation, I suppose.

Nathan met Kozar’s eye calmly, refusing to raise his voice. “Yes. I am immune to their aura, and can disable the control magic once I reach the central body. It takes time.”

“Tell me. What made you decide to save the Old Hands and not my nephew?” Kozar’s intimidation flared forth, but Nathan was ready, and activated his Rage in response.

He matched Kozar’s eyes as the wrathful man continued to talk, his presence swelling until it seemed to blot out half the world with the threat of brutality. Kozar was more than a man in that moment, replaced by a hulking figure whose every aspect promised violence unless appeased. His voice grated out like the crash of weapons. “Did you allow the second spider construct its rein, encourage it to strike down my nephew?”

The skill - and it was definitely a skill - focused on Nathan, encouraging him to admit his guilt. All he had to do was cave in, go along with Kozar’s story. That was all it would take for the overwhelming weight of intimidation to be diverted.

Nathan took a deep breath, stabilizing himself against the onslaught of Kozar’s skill. This urge - to falsely confess - was not his. It was being impressed upon him, by a man so stricken with grief he didn’t care about being subtle. But the foreign influence just flared Nathan’s rage higher. His anger pushed Nathan to attack the man, but his focus controlled the urge, and Nathan settled for throwing off the terrible grip of the skill.

Battle Meditation 5 achieved!

Damn that’s insidious. Do people know he has this skill? This can’t be ok. But if I challenged him over it it would be a duel - and he'd beat the pants off me.

Nathan furrowed his brows as he met Kozar’s eyes. “No, I did not seek this outcome. Simla was a worthy foe in the ring, so I judged him capable of fighting his own battle until I could help. I was on my way to fight the second spider construct when your strike destroyed it.

A hand landed on Kozar’s shoulder. It was Argan, the water mage on his team. “My salt-brother, this is not the fight you wish it to be. Calm yourself. Let the tide recede.”

The older Adventurer shook off the calming hand, taking a step towards Nathan. “I think to challenge you over that assertion, boy. How do you answer?”

Uhhhh shit.

Khachi stepped forward, speaking hesitantly. “Such a challenge is without weight for you to issue to one so much your junior. I speak for my mother, who will stand for Nathan in this challenge. As she did on the night of the Solstice. She favors him, this is known.”

Kozar's face twisted into a snarl. “She would, would she? Kia would step into the dueling ring for this one?” The man's blazing eyes flicked between Nathan and Khachi. “I hear the lack of conviction in your words. She’s never been one for the dueling ring. I hope she will disown you for that claim. I will make sure she hears of it.” Then the large man snorted disdainfully, backing up a step.

Argan took him by the shoulder. “Now that the challenge has been made and answered, the details will be negotiated by [Message] over the coming days. Nothing will happen today. Let us retrieve Simla’s armor.” He pulled Kozar back, away from the tense gathering of Adventurers.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Delric spoke out of the corner of his mouth. “Go. Now.” His voice was quiet but urgent. “He may calm, he may not. But if you are near, he may devise less public ways to show his displeasure. Make your next meeting inside the guild, when the terms of this dispute are formalized. I will save your share of the treasure from this place.”

Nathan glanced around at the rest of the Heirs. Aarl was nodding quickly, already turning to pick up Stella. Khachi looked frustrated, but also nodded. Sarah just rolled her eyes and headed towards the entrance.

Soon enough, the Heirs were striding out of the cavern, watched by all of the Adventurers who were waiting to loot the treasure below. Kozar stared with barely concealed hatred, while Argan just looked tired. Neta gave a small wave, and Nathan returned it, careful to conceal his hand from Kozar.

—

The Heirs headed due south at high speed, towards the nearest hill. Nathan was half-expecting one of Kozar’s javelins to arrive without warning, and kept glancing back until they reached the top of the hill and jogged down the far side.

You have leveled up to level 117! You have stood off manipulation and deadly threat from a bitter rival!

That’s not a good sign. For one thing it definitely confirms that I was in danger.

“Hey guys? I just leveled. For ‘standing off manipulation and deadly threat from a bitter rival.’” Nathan spoke aloud to the rest of the Heirs.

Khachi sighed deeply. “We will report this to Sudraiel. She will not appreciate us leaving a steaming heap of Castlebear dung on her desk, but it is not of our making. Stella, are you fit to [Message]? Or to walk?”

“I can probably stagger around, but I don’t think I should do any spellcasting for a day or so.” Stella clearly wasn’t comfortable in Aarl’s arms, but she looked as limp as a wet dishrag.

Sarah glanced around at the landscape. “Where to? It seems to me we should vanish into the wilderness again. Now we have two powerful enemies who want Nathan on their spears.”

“Let’s go east. Uncharted wilderness that way. We can’t get too far like this.” Aarl hefted Stella again, then set off at a calm jog.

The rest of the Heirs followed him, heading for the broken rocks of the southern mountains. They were headed directly for the Giantsrest city of Ardglass, though it would take several days of hard travel through inhospitable mountains filled with dungeons to reach the place. They weren't planning on going that far.

Night became day, but the Heirs kept going. They needed to put distance between themselves and Kozar, and there was also benefit in getting farther away from the very obvious sites of battle - in case there were any agents of Giantsrest looking for them out here. But who would search for them in such a barren wasteland?

They were starting to flag partway through the day, and took a quick breather. Stella was taking tentative steps, showing her recovery from her repeated displays of magic.

“I can’t believe nobody has called Kozar on having a social skill.” Nathan spoke up, having simmered on the man's hypocrisy for long enough. “It was clear as day - he’s got some kind of intimidation skill to force people to act the way he wants under threat of violence.”

Aarl looked over at Nathan from where he was stretching, the strands of his armor sliding over one another noiselessly. “Hear me, but that would make sense. But if that’s true, then some part of it hides the skill from others. I didn’t see anything like that. He must use it sparingly, and pick his targets.”

“That is something to communicate to Sudraiel.” Khachi said thoughtfully. “It lights a lantern on some politics of the last years - an intimidation skill that hides itself from onlookers. And to think that such a man was Guildmaster of the Adventurers not so long ago.”

Sarah was watching their surroundings, occasionally looking down her rifle for the magnified vision her skills provided. “I would give a grand Insight to see Kia slay him in the ring over such a thing. I know death in the ring isn’t how things are done, but the man acts like the spawn of a Soul Eater.”

“Will Kia really fight for Nathan?” Stella asked curiously. “I thought she didn’t fight in duels.”

“She doesn’t. But she told me that if I was challenged in such a way, she would stand for me.” Khachi shrugged. “And I think she will stand for Nathan, if it comes to that. She taught Nathan the [Airwalking] Insight, stood for him on the Solstice, and has told me to follow his fire.” The wolfman’s lips twisted. “And she finally found another who will drink umna with her. I would pity Kozar, if he deserved it.”

Stella waved a hand in the general direction of Gemore. “I’ve gotten some [Messages] from the guild inquiring as to the results of the day, but haven’t responded yet. Can you help me figure out what to say later? Maybe tomorrow morning?”

Khachi nodded. “Yes, this must be approached carefully. If you are able, let us resume our travel.”

Stella heaved a heavy sigh, looking over the broken terrain ahead with scant enthusiasm. “Well. Harpy tits.”

They traveled for a while longer. Nathan’s movement skills and extensive Stamina pool made it easy for him. He didn’t want to push it too far, since he didn’t currently have access to easy mana from Stella for recharging. But he’d barely gotten below two thousand Stamina since his class Development, and it was hard to worry too much about it.

It's not quite infinite. But it sure is a hell of a lot more Stamina than I've ever had to work with before.

After a little while, Nathan gave voice to something else that had been bothering him. “I don't understand how people can survive on Davrar in the longer term. Even before considering the Endings.” Nathan shook his head in faint disbelief. “A lot of the threats we’ve dealt with are ones that grow over time. We caught them early, and they were still challenging encounters.”

He started ticking off encounters on his fingers. “The Ashborn Cobras - they just keep breeding until there’s an army of them, and the only thing they seem to need is water. The Fortress Foundry - it kept making those terrible constructs. If it had waited another year it could have overwhelmed all the Adventurers of Gemore, even the Guardians. The Tomb of the Skilan Mage-Lord of Necromancy - he had an army in there, and probably planned to supplement it with anything that the army killed.” Nathan thought about the other fights they’d been in.

“The Edrani Empire defensive outpost didn’t count I suppose, since that wasn’t growing in power. But one danger like that would doom a city if it was left to grow in power over time.”

The other Heirs’ breathing was labored, but Aarl answered him smoothly. “Levels and specialization. A growing threat like that will kill a lot of people - it will wipe out villages and teams of Adventurers. But a single Adventurer with the right build and levels can kill as many Old Gemore constructs as they need to. That’s where you get Elites, and their Insights and builds specialize towards the enemies that are the most threatening when they gained their levels. Ten teams will die, but the one that survives will be capable of ending the threat.”

“Indeed. Such is one reason among many for the village to exist.” Khachi picked up the conversation, though he took breaths in between each word. “They are attacked earlier with smaller forces, and allow appropriate response from the Adventurers guild before the threat grows to insane proportions.”

That seemed to resolve the issue, but Nathan wasn’t really done thinking about it.

That makes some amount of sense - if a threat doesn’t kill absolutely everybody who fights it then the people who survive will counter-level and specialize to be better at countering the danger. That only works with big numbers, and only works when you don’t have it happening every year. Otherwise you get ground down by attrition. I suppose that’s probably why Sudraiel tries to keep the delving teams from waking up too many dungeons. But what about the Fortress Foundry? What woke that up?

Nathan pulled himself back from the musing, thinking about his own circumstances.

Does that imply anything for me? It kind of suggests that I’ll specialize towards whatever I keep fighting. And I want that to be mages, and magic. Not random constructs or snakes in the wilderness. I wasn’t really well-suited to fighting those constructs - I don’t have easy ways to pierce their armor, or solutions to the numbers or level of brute force the bigger ones have. But if I kept fighting them, my next class Development would probably contain those answers. And I don’t really want that.

Frowning, Nathan followed the line of thought for the next few hours of traveling. What that really implied is that he should be thinking about heading towards Giantsrest. Find Faline and follow the green-and-pink-eyed assassin into the slavers' empire to help her topple the entire damned edifice. It would also get him away from Adventurer politics.

They set up camp for the night in a flat spot among a forest of rock spires, protected from sight in all directions. Regardless, Nathan and Khachi layed out an abundance of tripwires in the unfamiliar wilderness.

As they were sitting down to eat the stew Aarl had made, Nathan broached the topic. “I think we should head back to Gemore soon, and not spend much longer in the wilderness. We need to deal with the fallout of this thing with Kozar, and then I might head towards Giantsrest - or maybe I’ll just go soon and that’ll make everything easy. I’m over level 81 now, and have new skills. And so do you. Going home will let you practice with your parents. And you'll finally get a bit of a break."

The rest of the Heirs received Nathan’s statement with a series of complex shared looks.

Sarah cast her spoon back into the bowl of stew. “That’s got some reason to it. Hear me, but I don’t want to adventure with a team of four after all this.” She waved her hands around to encompass the Heirs sitting around the low fire, then sighed. “But this problem is petrified in place. Let’s not say goodbye yet. Things may change, and it will take us some time to travel back.”

The rest of the Heirs glumly agreed, and settled a watch schedule. Nathan was on second watch, and found it difficult to go to sleep as he once more considered yet another impetus that was pushing him to abandon the Heirs.

They’ve saved my bacon plenty of times in the past few months, just as I’ve saved theirs. Operating on my own is going to be tricky to get used to.

He resorted to meditation to get out of the destructive spiral.

Don’t worry about it yet. There’s still time to enjoy their company.

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Magic Absorption 10

Permanent Talent 2: Perfected Body 4

Talent 3: High-tier Slow Fall 8

Class: Implacable Antimage level 117

Stamina: 3515/3810

Antimage’s Impassivity

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Improved Antimagic

Strenuous Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Utility skills:

Battle Meditation 5

High-tier Earnestness 9

Mid-tier Sprinting 10

High-tier Spellsense 8

High-tier Notice 4

High-tier Identify 4

High-tier Dodging Footwork 5

High-tier Enhanced Memory 7

Mid-tier Lecturing 8

High-tier Tumbling 2