Modern Age Online

They continued to follow Varlin through the tunnels. Occasionally they heard the sounds of nearby ants skittering in the dark. But they never got close. Kaleb thought Abby was right. Most of the ants had to be further toward the center of the nest. Near the queen. Kaleb also figured since none of the ants were investigating the magical disturbance, that meant they couldn’t feel it.

A few more waves of magical energy pulsed through the tunnels as they traveled deeper. Varlin seemed a little gun-shy after getting his eardrums blown out. So he would physically stop after every pulse and brace himself. Kaleb tried a few times to get a lock on the source with his limited magical senses. But it was like trying to find someone by smell. Easy if you knew how, but learning would take a while.

Their quiet journey was interspersed with several conversations. About the ants, Varlin’s life with the House of Ainsley, and various bits of IRL things. Kaleb, who hadn’t left the game since its launch, drew some odd looks from his friends. But when he informed them of his vacation from work, Two Gun and Abby seemed jealous. Meanwhile, Two Gun and Claire’s farm was doing well. Although Two Gun was concerned about its continued automation. Also, Abby was preparing for a test in her college courses.

They were talking about their own college experiences when Varlin raised a hand. Two Gun and Kaleb drew their weapons. Abby summoned her shadow blade, and they all glared down the tunnel Varlin was facing. The Sorcerer slowly crept forward followed closely by Kaleb and the others. Soon as they made their way down the tunnel, Kaleb started to hear low voices. The voices grew as their group got closer and closer, and Kaleb thought he could see a light up ahead of them.

“I’m telling you, we hit it too hard. We’re going to draw attention.”

“And I told you, I don’t care. I hope someone finds us. It’ll be a lot more interesting than wailing on a magical wall all day.”

“Yeah. A fight would be more preferable to gathering energy all day. At least the others get to be above ground.”

“Would all of you be quiet? Bahn told us to be here, so we are here. If you got a problem with it. Take it up with them.”

The voices settled into quiet, grumbling as Kaleb and his friends slowly sneaked forward. They all shared glances as they overheard the conversation. But Claire raised a finger to her lips as they moved. But as they drew ever closer, Two Gun kicked some loose soil with his cowboy boot, creating a small cascade of falling dirt. Kaleb thought they were in the clear. But obviously someone from the other side was on lookout.

“Did y’all hear that?”

“I think someone’s here.”

Claire glanced at all of them before she shouldered past Varlin and ran ahead. She was followed closely by Abby and her husband. Kaleb and Varlin shared a look before they rushed down the narrow ant tunnel. As they drew closer to the source of the light, they had just enough time to see the others chasing several red humanoids down the tunnel and into the darkness. Kaleb was about to chase after them when Varlin grabbed his arm.

“What’s all that?”

Varlin was pointing at various bits of equipment strewn across the tunnel floor. As they got closer to look, Kaleb felt himself step through the ward surrounding the ant hill. Just on the other side of the ward were several pickaxes and lanterns lying on the tunnel floor. One of the lanterns was glowing with an odd red color. Kaleb shared another look with Varlin before he asked.

“Were they trying to dig around the ward?”

“No way. Not with pickaxes. That would take forever.”

“Then what were they doing?” Kaleb wondered aloud as he knelt down near a pickaxe.

It was a decent-looking bit of equipment, if a little dated. The pickaxe head shone like new in the dim light from the lanterns. But the wooden haft was well-worn from use. Kaleb noticed runes carved into the wooden handle as he turned the tool over in his hand. It took him a while to remember his runic library, but he soon found out what the rune was for.

“This has the rune for ‘transference’ on it.” He said, holding up the pickaxe for Varlin to see.

“What is it transferring and where to?” Varlin asked as he studied the tool.

Kaleb shrugged as he studied the others. They all had the same rune etched into each handle. As he moved to check the lanterns, a thought occurred to him.

“What if they were hitting the ward with them?”

Varlin stopped his inspection of the pickaxes to look at him. “To what end? Siphon power from the ward? That would be extremely tricky. Magical energy doesn’t like to be contained. All attempts so far have gone explosively wrong.”

“What do you mean it ‘doesn’t like?’ Is magic sentient enough to have a will?” Kaleb asked as he looked over at the lanterns.

He had just gotten to the one with the red glow, as Varlin explained. “Not as we understand it. But it gets excitable when contained. Now we can chalk that up to energetic energies having nowhere to go in an enclosed space or it could be something else.”

Kaleb shook his head at the thought of a sentient power source and ran his hands over the red-glowing lantern. As he did, the glow seemed to dim, and he had to move closer to the other lanterns. The lantern seemed older and more ornate than the others. It almost looked like an old oil-based lantern to Kaleb. After a cursory inspection, he found a few more runes etched into the metal. Two of them stood out to him. Transference and storage. He had seen the first on the pickaxes, but storage was a rune he had used a lot recently.

The last rune seemed similar to the protection rune he had inscribed on all their armors. But it was slightly different. He realized it was the sturdiness rune as Varlin asked over his shoulder.

“Same thing on that one?”

Kaleb nodded. “Kind of. It has the Transference rune. But also the ones for Sturdiness and Storage. Sturdiness makes sense, but from what you’ve said, Storage doesn’t.”

“Well, the Demons aren’t known for being bright.” Two Gun’s voice spoke from the darkness.

Kaleb snapped his eyes up. “That’s who they were?”

Two Gun nodded as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. As he did, his hand swept over where his hat used to be.

“Lost my damn hat. But, yeah. They were a bunch of red horned humanoids. They were wearing Demon colors too. I chased them as far as I could. But my Stamina ran out. It hasn’t exactly gotten a workout recently. But Claire and Abby are still chasing them down.”

As Two Gun was speaking, the light in the red lantern dimmed and died in Kaleb’s hand. Kaleb studied it for a short while as Varlin explained what they had found. If Varlin was right, then they couldn’t store the magical energy in the lantern. It had to be doing something. As he rolled the lantern over in his hands, another thought occurred to him.

“What if they were transferring the energy from this lantern to somewhere else?”

“What do you mean?” Varlin asked.

“Well, first they hit the ward with the pickaxe. Transferring the magical energy into the pickaxe. Then they transfer that energy from the ax to the lantern. Once it’s in the lantern, it siphons off somewhere else.”

“How far could it go?”

Kaleb shrugged. “No idea. But if you had a big enough rune, and you built the lantern as a pair to it. Then maybe they would link up or something. I’d have to ask Daivor.”

Two Gun grabbed a pickaxe and hefted it onto his slim shoulder. “Should we test it out?”

Both Kaleb and Varlin shook their heads. “No sense damaging the ward any further. Also, we don’t want to give these Demons anymore magical energy. If that is what they are doing.”

Kaleb nodded in agreement as he picked up another ax and waved forward with the now empty lantern. “Let’s follow this tunnel out. We can catch up with the others and see if they captured any Demons.”

The others nodded, and the three of them followed the long, dark tunnel. It went on for a respectful distance and along the way; they saw a few Demons lying in pools of their own blood. Kaleb grimaced as he thought about how the others weren’t trying to grab a Demon for questioning. But Two Gun pointed out that some of the Demon corpses looked untouched. Varlin suspected it was some kind of poison, or maybe even a magical death pact.

After another short bit of walking, they found the tunnel’s exit. Claire and Abby were seated just outside the tunnel. The tall green woman laughed as she panted.

“See? Told ya they’d follow us out.”

Abby just nodded as she sat on the grass, looking exhausted. Kaleb started to explain what they had found, but they were interrupted by the sound of several cars. Rolling through the grass field. Kaleb and Two Gun drew their weapons as Clair and Abby stood. Varlin seemed to study the cars for a few seconds before he waved them down.

“It’s the House.” He said simply.

Kaleb watched as several robed individuals stepped out of the cars and approached. Some even had spells at the ready in their palms. He spotted Jar-lock among the group of sorcerers as they got closer. The large Mage grinned at them as he got closer. Kaleb waved a pickaxe idly, drawing a lot of attention.

The next few minutes were full of explanations and some heated conversations. Varlin and the Ainsley Sorcerers wanted to take the lantern and pickaxes to study them. But Kaleb was reticent, wanting to study the storage device for himself. Eventually, he argued for one pickaxe and that he be kept in the loop of their research. The NPCs from the House of Ainsley seemed hesitant to agree, but Varlin accepted eagerly. Kaleb didn’t want to be a part of the argument Varlin was sure to have later with his leaders. But he happily walked back to their car with a pickaxe in hand.

“Really, son? You could’ve had a pickaxe or a ride back to our car. And you chose the pickaxe?” Two Gun grumbled as they walked through the field.

“Oh hush, love. You know it wasn’t that cut and dry,” Claire said.

Abby snorted. “I don’t know. They sure weren’t eager to offer us a ride after the Professor got his new toy.”

Jar-lock chuckled. “And we know they had the room.”

Kaleb ignored them and looked over the pickaxe again as the setting sun glinted off the metal. He wasn’t sure what he could learn from the application of its Transference rune. But he would find out. Also, the whole escapade made him remember the giant tree in the middle of the magical forest.

“This is definitely what that giant tree was talking about, right?”

Jar-lock nodded in understanding as it took Two Gun and Claire a few seconds to catch up. “Almost absolutely. But I can’t believe that it’s just the Demons siphoning power from her roots.”

“Yea. If it were, I doubt the big gal would even feel it.” Two Gun agreed.

“But it’s a place to start, and we were going to focus on the Demons eventually anyway, right?”

The others all agreed as Abby looked miffed at being left out of the conversation. Claire and Two Gun explained as Kaleb told Jar-lock.

“I was going to go to Under-Town in the next few days. I have some commitments to honor. Also, I feel it would be a great field trip for everyone.”

The large Mage nodded slowly. “That sounds good. That’s the underground city, right?”

Kaleb nodded and described Under-Town as their small group continued through the fields and into Austin’s suburbs. It was going to take a while to walk back to their car.