The Ruby Magician

Wyn immediately felt nauseous, like he was shunted out of reality and brought back a second later.

Which, to his surprise, was exactly what happened.

When he stepped through the portal he didn’t know how he would feel, though he was glad he at least kept his lunch down. When Tasha came through she began throwing up almost right away. Almost was key here, considering she was able to hold off long enough to step out from the portal’s entrance and throw up a few feet away from where the others came through.

Lionel came next, followed by John and Cedric being last. The rookies all took a few minutes to adjust, their heads and stomachs swimming.

“That was very uncomfortable,” John said. He was holding his head as a headache pierced his skull. “No amount of preparation was enough.”

“Exactly,” Marcy said. “Which is why it’s important to have these first time climbs guided.”

“I can see that,” Wyn said. He took a few deep breaths and steadied himself. It didn’t take his body long to settle back down, but he certainly didn’t feel ready to fully engage in a fight at the moment.

Then he looked around.

“By the gods.”

Wyn realized he was standing at the edge of a field. Behind the group was a small village surrounded by a wall made up of wooden logs. There was a well worn road leading from the village towards a sparse forest of trees. Wyn realized they were standing by the road. The treetops and limbs were swaying with a slight breeze, and some patches of tall grass further into the field were leaning with the wind. The sun was high in the sky. Wyn noticed a small fire smoldering on the edge of the forest where the road lead deeper into the woods.

None of this was right.

“How in the hells is this possible? It should be late afternoon, not midday.” Wyn tried to look further away. He could see clouds above him mostly covering the sun, and far away behind the village a mountain top crested high above the terrain.

A minute ago he was standing in the tower base, and now he felt like he was in another location entirely. Not only that, but this was far too grand to be fully inside the tower.

“The tower teleports us to a realm of its design,” Cedric said. He was walking ahead towards the campfire. “Or at least that’s what the researchers believe. No one knows exactly, but it makes sense.”

“But the point,” Marcy continued, “is that the tower is choosing a challenge for us. So for this month, the goal of the first floor was to find a little girl from the local village who got lost in the woods.”

“How do you know that?” Lionel asked, then unsheathed an axe and inspected it. He looked at Marcy from the corner of his eye.

“Your parchment tells you,” Tasha replied. She wiped her mouth with the sleeve on her robe in one hand and held her parchment in the other.

Wyn pulled his out from his pack and looked at it. Sure enough, continuing on the information from the party and floor was new writing. It read exactly as Marcy told them, though more like a wanted poster in the town square.

“I didn’t ask you,” Lionel said. “I asked the Archer.”

“I’m not an Archer,” Marcy said. “I’m a Ranger. And you should be kinder to your teammates, especially the one who can save your ass.”

Tasha tried and failed to hide a smirk. Lionel openly scowled.

John walked over to the campfire along with the rest of the party. He began to take the shield off his pack and attach it to his left forearm. It was dark grey, nearly black, and runes were etched along the edges. “Is that why you have green goo on your armor?“

Marcy sighed. “That’s enough questions for now. You all have to learn this stuff on your own, after all. I won’t tell you everything.”

Cedric laughed. “So that means we’ll shut up now. We have a few hours to accomplish our goal in order to be back in a reasonable amount of time. We’ll help make sure you don’t die in the process, but you should start trying to figure out what to do.”

The group waited around the campfire, the rookies not sure about their next move. The smoldering logs weren’t lit, and instead gave off a pitiful smoke that rose from cinders. It made a good point to commune, though, as the two veterans stood to the side silently.

Wyn took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He had to focus, and the fact remained that they had a task and a path to accomplish it. They needed to find a little girl, apparently, and the road that connected the village to the woods was an obvious starting point, as well as the old campfire. This was a good starting sign, and he wondered if other signs in the woods would be as easy to spot.

“Hey guys,” Lionel said. “I found something.” He stood by the edge of the woods away from the campfire. He was holding something in his left hand. “It looks like a little girl’s ribbon.”

“That’s good,” Wyn said. “It’s definitely a clue. We should keep to the road and head into the woods. It’ll probably form into a trail or something similar.”

Lionel huffed. “No shit it’s a clue. And I found it! Catch up, stragglers, or I’ll leave you behind.” He laughed and pocketed the ribbon. He stepped backwards with a slight skip and mocking smile, then disappeared after entering the woods.

“What an ass,” Tasha said. “Do I have to keep him alive?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Wyn said. “We’re better off sticking together. We’ll accomplish our goal faster that way and stay safe.” He eyed Lionel as he said it, trying to convince himself of those very words. Something felt off with him around, and he made a mental note to keep an extra eye on the arrogant Fighter.

Tasha sighed. “If you say so.” She grabbed her staff and set off to follow Lionel. Cedric began to follow them as well, staying true to his word to keep silent.

“Think we’ll be alright?” John asked, and he fiddled with the straps on his shield again.

“Yes,” Wyn said. He grabbed his spear and secured his pack. “I do. We’ll be fine as long as we work together. Climbers do this all the time.”

“That’s the spirit,” Marcy said. “Stay confident and positive.” She elbowed John in the side for emphasis.

“You’re stronger than you look,” John said, wincing.

Marcy’s smile grew wide. “Just you wait.”

Suddenly Tasha screamed. Marcy unslung her bow lightning fast, and the three of them ran into the woods behind the others. They weren’t too far past the tree line, but just enough to where John, Wyn and Marcy couldn’t immediately see the situation. A short trip into the woods and the trees were suddenly denser and the sunlight didn’t shine near as bright.

After a few seconds of running they saw Lionel hacking into something on the ground with his axe. Tasha was beside him using a free hand to cover her mouth from the scream. Cedric was standing off to the side with his staff at the ready, away from Tasha and Lionel but staring intently further into the woods.

“What in the hells happened,” John said, unsheathing his sword as he ran behind Lionel.

Lionel stopped hitting whatever he was hitting with his axe. “That happened.”

John looked down in front of Lionel at a pile of green goo and dark black bits. Lionel’s axe was now green, dripping with the slimy substance. His armor was speckled and blotched in areas of it, too.

John bent down to inspect it closer. “Is that what I think it is?” A long, hairy appendage twitched once, and John fell back on the ground with a yelp, dropping his sword.

“Yea,” Lionel said. “A spider the size of a small dog! It came down from the tree beside Tasha. I just started hitting it.”

Tasha held her staff close to her chest. She wasn’t screaming anymore but was as white as a sheet and completely still, breathing soft and deep.

Wyn looked over at Marcy. She was calm and collected, unfazed at the situation. “That’s what you’re covered in, isn’t it? You cleared these out before we came inside?”

Her face twitched a bit as her muscles worked to keep her thoughts from expressing themselves, but the faintest hint of a smile curled on the corner of her mouth.

Wyn walked over to the group. “So there are spiders here. It’s darker here, too, even though we’re only a bit into the woods. It’s reasonable to assume it’ll get darker the deeper we go, too.”

“Just our luck,” Lionel said. “I didn’t bring a torch or lantern.”

“Me either,” Wyn said. “And you know there are probably other things here, too. We have to stick together so we can be more prepared.”

“We are together,” Lionel said. He wiped his goo-covered axe on his pants.

“No,” Wyn replied. “You and Tasha went ahead, out of our vision.”

“So? I handled myself just fine. Her scream scared me more than this piece of shit.”

“Which is great, and I’m sure you can handle yourself with a bigger one, too. But what if there were five of them instead of just one?”

Lionel glared at Wyn. He shook his head and took a deep breath. “Yea, alright, Red Mage. But who put you in charge?”

“No one! And I’m not trying to be the leader. But for now we need to have a plan and stick to it. We’re here to beat the tower, not argue.”

John grabbed his sword and stood up. “He’s right, you know. That’s why we came to Alestead! So let’s work as a team!”

Tasha cleared her throat. “Yes. Let’s do it.” She seemed to relax a little, though kept her staff close to her chest.

“All of you are ridiculous,” Lionel said. “Whatever.”

“Alright!” John said, swinging his sword in an arc. As he did it lit up in flames, runes on the hilt activating the magic inside. The other rookies recoiled from the sudden burst of flame. “Onward!” As he yelled he stuck his flaming sword up and forward.

The flame from the sword lit up the area above them. The sudden burst of light and heat made the previously hidden hanging spiders shriek and flail. The noise was eerie and unnatural, like high pitched squealing and chittering. There were several close ones that had started to descend before the others, following the first that was felled by Lionel. Their hairy legs jerked away from John’s flame, scurrying helplessly in midair while suspended by thick strings of web.

Tasha screamed again.

Wyn reacted quicker than the others. He raised his left hand in front of him and thought of the spell he wanted to cast. The brief review of magic and spells with Daniel suddenly seemed laughably inept, but Wyn hoped to the gods it would work.

“Ice Shard!” Wyn yelled, and felt his mark activate. He could see it glow out of the corner of his eye under his sleeve, too. It was an incredibly odd but invigorating feeling.

A series of magical runes instantly formed in the air in front of Wyn’s left hand the moment he said the spell. They were the copied runes for the Ice Shard spell, and a sharp, pointed slice of ice flew directly away from his hand. It was fast, too - faster than arrows from a bow and possibly as fast as those from a crossbow.

The shard of ice crashed into the spider closest to Tasha, dangling from a singular web strand above her. It pierced its main body and the momentum took it further back into a tree, pinning it like a nail. Its legs curled as it went still.

Lionel acted nearly as quickly, though his efforts to strike at the nearest spider were in vain. He tried to swing his axe high in the air to strike it but it was too far out of reach, even with his height. He swung upwards several times, hoping to hit it as it lowered.

John, initially shocked at seeing the many spiders, snapped out of his inaction. He saw the closest spider and swung his sword at it, activating another rune on the sword. The flame that coated the sword’s blade lashed out, growing several feet in an arc. It caught two spiders on fire. They began to shriek and cry continuously before falling from their web, the connection breaking from the flames. They fell in a fiery heap to the ground.

The other spiders stopped their advance and retreated back into the treetops, their black bodies blending in with the leaves and dim light. The woods became silent save for Lionel cursing and the flames from John’s sword crackling.

Cedric walked over to Wyn. “Not bad! That was an impressive cast.”

Wyn briefly heard a chittering sound and thought the spiders were waiting up in the trees to attack again. A loud thwack came from Tasha’s direction, followed by more thumps and pounds.

Wyn looked over and saw Tasha was beating a spider with her staff, green spider’s blood flying everywhere. She was groaning with the effort. Random shrieks filled the air, but whether from the spider or Tasha was impossible to tell.

He ran over beside her along with Marcy. Cedric went to check on John and Lionel.

Tasha’s robe was now a splotchy bright green and beads of sweat formed into streaks on her forehead. The spider was a mashed pulp beside her.

“That’s unconventional,” Marcy said. “I like it!”

“It was quieter than the others,” Tasha said. “I never saw it. It fell on my shoulders and I knocked it off in a panic.”

“It’s alright,” Wyn said. “You took care of it.”

“But my shoulder and back hurt,” Tasha replied, and turned her back to them. “I think it bit me. Is it bad?”

Both Wyn and Marcy winced. Tasha’s robe was cut and she had puncture wounds on her shoulders and upper back like shallow stabs from a knife. The wounds slowly bled, and large welts already formed around them.

“You’ve been bitten a couple times,” Marcy said. “We need to heal you. Nothing serious, though.”

She began to reach for her pack but Wyn caught her wrist. He briefly saw that her mark was on her left hand and wrist and had two outer runic circles.

“Let me,” Wyn said. “We have to be the ones to do this, right?”

Marcy nodded and stepped around to where Tasha could see her. She held the Mage’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “Wyn will heal you. You’ll be fine.”

Wyn set his spear against the closest tree and thought of his next spell. “Regen,” he said, and again felt the mark activate. The runes appeared in front of his hand and hung in the air, emanating a soft white glow that seemed to spill out onto Tasha. There was a radiating aura that started at her back and shoulders, then transferred to her whole body. She looked like a gently radiating white firefly. The wounds stopped bleeding right away, though Wyn guessed it would take the entirety of the spell’s length to heal her. He didn’t know if it would fully heal her, but it should at least close the wounds.

A smile flashed across Wyn’s face subconsciously. It was strangely funny - here he was, in a magical land inside a magical tower, casting magic.

Wyn suddenly thought that maybe he should be timing the spell to see how long it lasts. It had only been a few seconds so far, and he began counting in his head to get an idea of the spell’s length since the description was vague.

Another thought occurred to him. He pulled up his sleeve to expose his mark. It was radiating magic, giving off a similar glow to Tasha. Less than half of it was dull and grey, as though it wasn’t being used.

Tasha relaxed her body, physically relieved by Wyn’s spell. “That already feels better!”

“You didn’t choose Cure as your healing spell?” Marcy said, letting go of Tasha’s shoulders. She walked around Tasha to look at her back.

“I figured most healing Mages would prepare it so I chose something else,” Wyn said.

“Not a bad idea, but you’d be surprised how useful an instant healing spell is,” Marcy said, satisfied with Tasha’s back. She looked over at Wyn’s mark. “Did your mentor tell you about your mana reserves?”

Wyn thought about that for a second. “Not entirely. I rushed him to get ready to climb today. I believe I remember him saying ‘you’ll figure the rest out.’”

Marcy laughed. “Of course he did! Typical. Well, we don’t have an exact measurement of our mana. But you just know. Like an intuition.”

“He did say it was like how we know our mental or physical energy stores. Like when they’re full or low.”

“Something like that. But your mark is glowing because your spell is still working. It does that with skills, too.”

“What about passive skills?”

“Depends. But every class is a bit different, so your mentor was right - you really will need to figure it out for yourself. I’m not familiar with Ruby Magicians.”

Wyn sighed.

“I think I’m better,” Tasha said. “Thank you, Wyn.” She stopped glowing right then.

Wyn blinked, remembering he was trying to count the time. He figured it lasted about 3 minutes, though wasn’t exactly sure. He wondered if spells could even have exact times, or if they varied depending on different factors.

Marcy checked her back again. “It looks great! Can’t even tell what happened!”

Wyn looked down at his mark. It was still glowing. The outer runic circle wasn’t glowing now, but only the center image. It was slowly radiating inward, becoming softer and dimmer like the dulled bit from earlier. At least half of his mark was still glowing, and he wondered if Lucidity was already working.

It must be, but he needed more experience to truly figure it out. There’s no way he’d learn it all now.

“Everyone okay over here?” John asked, as he, Lionel and Cedric joined the rest of the group.

Marcy and Tasha filled them in as Wyn was still distracted with his mark. He wasn’t fully listening.

Tasha waved her hands in front of Wyn’s face. “Hello? Wyn?”

“Yea, sorry,” Wyn said, and dropped his arm. “Still trying to figure out magic and my mark.”

“Aren’t we all,” John said. “But let’s go. We can do it later when spiders aren’t plotting our demise.”

Wyn picked up his spear. “Fair enough. Do we know where to go?”

They looked around. It was even darker than before. A small sliver of light permeated through the trees though it was much darker in the denser forest.

Tasha help up her staff. “Torchlight!”

The end of her staff glowed like a bright lantern, much brighter than a torch, and the group shielded their eyes for a moment.

It was incredibly effective, though.

“Sorry,” Tasha said. “We need a light, and we need to get going.”

“And that’s where we need to go,” John said, and pointed with his sword again.

There was a small path leading deeper into the woods split by trees, and was a bit more worn than the undisturbed forest floor. It was a clear trail though not very wide.

“Then get on with it,” Lionel said. He waved his axe. “I’ll lead. Tasha, you should be in the center so we can all see. I don’t care about the rest of you.” He immediately set off towards the trail without waiting for a response.

Wyn looked at the others and shook his head. At least if something attacked Lionel would be hit first.