Siege State

The next day, the dawn light found the group mounted and ready. For an hour or so already, they had been riding along the western trade road, eager to be on their way. The threat of the orc Idealist assassin prickled at them too much for comfort.

So it happened, that as dawn’s first pink rays began to brighten the sky, the titanic trees to either side slowly began to grow smaller. The old, dense undergrowth became more widely spaced, sparser, and more light filtered through the canopy, making it seem in more ways than one as if they rode from night into day.

Half an hour later, Meri called, “The forest is getting thinner. We’re almost there.”

The declaration surprised Tom. Not because he disagreed, but because he realised it had taken that much longer for anyone to notice. In many ways, it felt like the time he had spent as a Hunter had passed in a flash, but he had obviously become much more attuned to the old forest than he realised.

The realisation left him feeling bittersweet. The Deep had taught him much, and become his home. Suddenly, it seemed all too soon that he was leaving.

“Rosa,” Tom queried. She had been staring into the middle distance with a focused intensity. Ever since they had left, she had been prone to falling into reveries. She was clearly anxious for the safety of her family. Her mother and father and two sisters gone before her to warn Horizon of the orc threat, and ask their assistance in defeating it.

Upon hearing her name, she started, just slightly. “Mmmm?”

“Could you give us a run down of the Proving Grounds again?” he asked.

The rest of the party gathered a little closer. They had been over what to expect from the vast plains between the Deep and Horizon, but they were oddly nervous. They were dangerous, of course, but no more or less so than the Deep Green. Just different. Tom supposed that the Deep, though full of peril, was at least familiar. Rosa opened her mouth to speak.

“This is a good idea, I think,” Darius interrupted. “It is not wise for those not knowing of the Proving Grounds to travel them.”

Rosa bridled at the man. “Do tell us, then,” she said sarcastically.

Darius nodded magnanimously. “I will,” he lifted his handsome face to the dawn light, tapping a thoughtful finger against his masculine jaw.

“The dangers are many,” he began. “This Deep Green forest has almost as many, I think. You must be cautious, but the Proving Grounds respect the brave.”

Tom swore he could hear the collective eye roll. Luckily, the light was still low enough that Darius could not see their derision.

“First, there are the terrain,” he lectured. “It is not like your Green. There are grasses for as far as you can see, and only that. No thousand thousand different trees and bushes and plants. Only grasses. It tricks the eyes, makes it difficult to tell far from near and left from right. The trade road is narrow. You cannot rely on the sun to find it if you lose it. Stay on the road. Concentrate on it, yes?”

Darius paused, though whether he was considering his next words, or waiting for some verbal nods of acknowledgement from the group, Tom could not say. Though his accent was thick, his voice was melodic and clear, and Tom found himself grudgingly drawn into the lesson.

“The wind, it is constant also,” he continued. “Why is this a danger?”

No one answered him. Neither Rosa, who had made the return trip a few times, or Tanya, who had travelled back and forth for trade, had mentioned anything special about the wind in the Proving Grounds.

Darius made a disappointed clicking sound with his tongue. “The wind is a fey thing, in the Grounds. You must be aware of it. Have you ever stood in a market and listened to the sounds of voices? Of the shouting, and the barter, and the…”

“...Clamour..?” Markus ventured.

Darius snapped his fingers. “Yes! The clamour. Can you hear a knife drawn in the market? Or a bowstring? Or- better- can you hear a merchant use a Bargaining skill?”

They shook their heads ‘no’. “Not unless you’re a market guard, or the one doing the trade,” Tanya said.

“Exactly. This is so. The creatures of the Deep are loud. They are crashing and snapping and rustling. Not so in the Proving Grounds.”

Tom begged to differ. He remembered being stalked by the shadowy panther in his early days in the Deep. It had made no sound at all. Sprites of all varieties tended to be still and quiet until you stumbled upon them, too. But he held his tongue. Correcting Darius would only derail the lecture, and he was interested to hear about what type of creatures roamed the plains.

“In the Grounds, they are quiet as a whisper. You must be ready at any time for an attack. The grass, the ‘hush-hush-hush’ song of it as the wind blows will mask any sound. The soil is softer. There are very few trees, and no sticks and leaves to crush underneath. You must always be watching.”

“If there’s grass all round, won’t we see it parting if something’s coming at us? Breaking like a bow wave?” Markus asked.

“Our birds would be able to pick out any monsters, I’m sure,” Meri said, giving Tom a confident look.

Darius laughed, a good-natured sound, though slightly grating in its condescension. “No,” he said, slashing his hand emphatically. “Can your birds see a fish when it moves below waves? Can they see every person when they fly above the city? No. No, and no. The wind, and the grass, they are fey. They conspire and play tricks.” He rolled his hand, wobbling his head back and forth slightly in minor concession. “Sometimes, yes, you will see movement in grass. If it is still. If you are lucky. But only sometimes. You must be alert.”

“What about smell?” Meri asked. She gestured to her moth, to her greatwolf and Sesame, and to the other mounts. Though Lut, her moth, and Kari, her greatwolf, and Sesame, had supremely good noses, the horses and mules had excellent senses of smell too. Together, they had picked out a few monster attacks their bird-net had missed during their fortnight in the Deep.

Darius tipped his hand back and forth. “Maybe,” he allowed. “The wind is constant. Everything smells of grass. Granny can sometimes sense attacks through the ground, but even this is not always. Be always alert.”

The group made low noises of assent. Hearing about the Proving Grounds from a Horizoner was sobering.

Though Rosa was nominally from Horizon, she had lived almost all her life in Wayrest, and was from a noble family. Tanya was a merchant. Both of them, during their trips back and forth, would have had protection from Patrols, Idealists who hired out their services to protect travellers. The last time Rosa made the journey was before she had manifested her first Ideal, and Tanya would have only held Trade. It was likely that neither of them had fought any monsters. Anything dangerous would have been taken care of by the Patrol.

“What kind of creatures are there?” Tom asked, curious.

“Many,” Darius said simply. “Too many, though not so much as your Deep, I am thinking. But some are more common.” The group waited for him to continue.

“There are snakes, small so you will easily miss them, and large, so they can eat a horse. Either can have venom to kill an Idealist.

“There are grass scorpions, who wait and strike by the road. Ghost foxes, who call out with voices of people in danger, to lure you off the road. Greathawks, to swoop and break your back. These are some of the more normal creatures, though still profane.”

Tom was reminded of the monks’ strange beliefs about mana-beasts. He held his tongue.

“You have sprites in the Deep?” he asked.

Tom nodded. “Golems, too. I’m guessing there’s grass sprites and grass golems?”

“You have guessed it!” Darius said, flashing Tom a grin. “Grass sprites and grass golems, and not so benign as grass, yes? They are vicious, and very hard to kill.”

“We’ll see about that,” Rosa said with a snort, shaping a blade of fire around one hand. Darius glanced at the display.

“This might make things easier. They do not like fire, true.” He turned to Tom. “Is she always this showing off?”

Tom froze, torn between minor outrage for the casual insult to his girlfriend and a chuckle of agreement. He settled on a carefully neutral expression.

“It is okay, I understand,” Darius said condescendingly, reading his face. Rosa’s expression was stormy, but she remained silent.

There was a brief, tense silence. Darius broke it with obliviousness. “There are soil sprites and golems too. But what is always the most dangerous in the Proving Grounds..?”

The group mulled the question over. Tom found the answer.

“Wind,” he said.

“Yes, wind. Wind sprites are a pain to kill. Only true magic can harm them. Otherwise, either you run or they run. And they run faster than you do. This is why all Patrols through the Grounds have typeless magic.”

Tom was gratified to know that Agony would be able to harm them, and doubly glad he had picked a damage uplift for it.

“Wind golems, they are less dangerous,” Darius continued. “Wind is not meant for substance, and wind sprites’ strength is in speed. Golems are slower. More of their power goes to making them …substantial. Still-”

“You must be alert,” Rosa said sarcastically. Darius either didn’t hear the caustic edge on her tone or chose to ignore it.

“Yes, good,” he said, clapping his hands together cheerfully. Rosa bristled.

“Now,” Darius said, becoming serious. “The most dangerous creature.” Everyone’s ears pricked up.

“Grass sharks,” he said. “Though we of the Bloody Dawn call them shredders. The horses on which Horizon makes its name, their wild ancestors still roam the Grounds. The shredders are the only creature that preys on them.”

Tom gave a low whistle. The horses Horizon bred were famous for their mana-beast ancestry. They were faster, stronger, and more intelligent than any other horse, though they no longer had any abilities. The wild horses would have all that, and their abilities still. Rosa had told him they roamed in herds a hundred strong and more. Any creature that dared to prey on them must be fearsome.

“The shredders, they are most like cats, I think, like lions. They have six legs, and their bodies are flat, low to the ground, but powerfully strong. Brutal, gripping jaws. They have a tail like a scorpion, long, long and longer, with barbs all down.”

There was silence as the group tried to picture the beasts. More than one of them shivered.

“Like I said, the monsters are many. Almost all are ambush predators. They strike, and if they fail, they try again later. They are vicious, and they do not like to give up easy meals,” Darius continued cheerfully. “It is okay though, we are not easy meals. We will prove ourselves. Be alert.”

“I hope they make me a monk for going through this,” Meri joked. Darius gave her a sharp glance.

The sun had peeked above the horizon now, throwing golden rays through the trees behind them. The trees were thinning out even more now, but the sound of birdsong still filled the air.

“I can see why they use it as a proving ground,” Tom said. “You need to be on guard, and it will uncover how you react under pressure. If you encounter a monster, you must kill it while you have the opportunity, or it will try and try again, and sooner or later, you won’t react quickly enough. There’s no room for half measures. You need to be brave.”

Darius gave Tom a bright, genuine smile.

“You are getting it. There is a reason why Bloody Monks are famous, no?”

Tom couldn’t help but agree. Training by way of culling monsters in the Proving Grounds would produce Idealist warriors ready for any threat with an instant’s warning from any direction. Any who couldn’t muster the requisite awareness would be quickly culled.

The more Tom thought about it, the more eager he was to see the Proving Grounds and test himself. It was a strange thought, one he would’ve found insane less than two years ago, but there it was. He was changing. He was not reckless, but he relished the chance to challenge himself and improve.

All of a sudden, the trees gave way as if they were a beach grudgingly acceding territory to the sea. They had made it. They were in the Proving Grounds.