Eight 4

I dodged, rolling to my left to put distance between me and the thing that Sklein had become. Hard-earned training kept me moving, turning me toward the hillside leading up to the top of the Glen’s waterfall. About halfway there, the dark creature’s Spitter talent kicked in, and a tree behind me rattled as something thunked into its trunk. I started counting.

At three seconds, he shot at me again, the missile whizzing like an angry bee flying past. I kept counting.

In the meantime, Ikfael’s javelins had whooshed at Sklein, piercing his torso one after the other, but the creature hadn’t collapsed. The natural toughness from becoming dark meant that the stone projectiles hadn’t penetrated deeply.

She dissipated Knight Otter and flowed into the pool. Then another javelin emerged from the ground. This time, it carried a Spiral Pierce and multiplied as Ikfael cast Thousand Arrows. The Glen sounded like a shooting range as the javelins machine-gunned into Sklein.

While the dark creature stumbled, he still didn’t fall even with his “chest” pin-cushioned. Was his core not located there? Had the transformation shifted it up or down?

As Ikfael had begun her attacks, Snow and the silver wolf pack ravaged the lesser undead. The ones stuck on the spikes were easy prey, and their limbs were torn from their bodies. Sulia’s zombie, though tougher, was also just as unskilled, the wolves dancing around her.

Their fight against the soldier was more challenging. His training lingered after death, and Moonlight’s illusions were useless; the undead relentlessly pursued the living undeterred by Camouflage or illusions.

About then, I’d just made it to the top of the waterfall and ducked as a splinter of bone whizzed past me. It’d been another three seconds in between shots. I kept counting.

The soldier that Ikfael had drowned rose from the stream. Now there were two of them on the field, so a handful of Moonlight’s pack peeled off to harass the newcomer and lead him away from the main action. In fact… let’s get them all away from Sklein, I thought. A single splinter could prove lethal to a blynx or wolf.

I ducked again as Yuki carried the message to Snow and Mouser below. I heard a splinter whizz by, as well as the sounds of the wolves acknowledging the instruction and moving away. Still three seconds, I thought, but no sign of what that obscure talent does.

Dog’s Agility continued to flow through me, pushing me toward action, but I was the spell’s master, and I moved when I wanted to. My spells were mine to command—I cast Lightning Arrow, then Spiral Pierce.

I popped up, drew, and shot at Sklein, aiming above where his heart would’ve been. A beat later, I repeated the motion, shooting the area below the heart. That second arrow banged into the beak already damaged by Ikfael’s attacks, causing it to shatter.

Sklein still didn’t collapse. All the electricity from my Lightning Arrows had done was to cause the dark creature to stutter for a second or two. Wasted mana that, but it had to be tried.

The next time I popped up to shoot, I drilled a Spiral Pierce arrow into Sklein’s throat to no result. I did, however, see that Knight Otter had reformed behind him, and she sent her spear piercing through one of the spider-leg joints. A quick Cat’s Claw from her, and she sliced through, causing Sklein to stumble.

A fifth leg began to grow from his torso, and he righted himself, turning to face Knight Otter. A splinter shot from his ruined beak, blowing a hole through the water sculpture.

Gods damn it, I thought. Being undead and dark is such a cheat.

As Knight Otter re-filled her torso with more water, Yuki’s qi brightened within me to grab my attention. ‘Mouser says the wolves took down Sulia and a soldier and found more than one core in both of them.’

What? How is that— No, never mind. Number and locations?

‘In addition to the primary in the chest, four secondaries at the hips and shoulders.’

Another leg began to emerge from Sklein, which freed up one of the others to swipe at Knight Otter. The hips? I thought, but the dark creature had five. We’d just have to attack all of them. But first, the easier targets.

I yelled out what I’d learned, so that Ikfael knew it as well. She must’ve had the same idea as me too, because over the course of the next few seconds, a collection of Spiral Pierce arrows and javelins sprouted from the dark creature’s shoulders. The actual location of the cores turned out to be about two inches down from the clavicle and two inches in from the armpit.

The loss of them sent Sklein staggering, and darklight leaked from the holes, the coal-dust-like energy swirling around him—swirling but not dissipating. When Sklein spit his next splinter, the darklight went with it. The splinter shot through Knight Otter again, but the darklight clung to the sculpture. The water lost cohesion like it’d been unceremoniously spilled out of a pail.

Alarm rang through me. Concern, anger, and something else too... a feeling of losing something I hadn’t known I’d had. Ikfael! I thought, and then my consciousness whooshed down toward Sklein. Behind me, my body fell to the ground, disappearing behind the cliff’s edge.

The last thing I heard was Yuki’s cry, ‘Ollie/Eight!’

###

Darkness enveloped me, permeated by a lingering sense of dislocation. A moment of panic followed—the last thing I’d seen was Knight Otter falling. My own body too.

Is she all right? Am I? Where’s Yuki? Yuki, I can’t feel you. There were too many unanswered questions crowding my head. My breath started to come fast.

Even after all these years, I could still become afraid. I’d just gotten better at recognizing my fears, of setting them aside so that I could get the work done. Whenever I’d felt incapable or overwhelmed, I’d focused on what was within my control.

In the face of Diaksha’s terrors, I’d learned to be undaunted. So, lost in the dark, I pushed past my questions, found a familiar incorporeal muscle ready to be used, and opened my eyes.

The darkness receded, and the first thing I noticed was that the weight of my armor was missing and so were my weapons and my pack. Even my arming jacket was gone. All I had were the clothes I’d worn underneath.

All around me were the beginnings of a cave, dimly lit by the exit nearby. Deeper in, where it should’ve been darker, however, I could still see as if the space was illuminated by a faint ambient light. The sight reminded me of films where, no matter how dark the scene was supposed to be, the audience could always make out what was going on.

That weird disconnect from reality added to the surrealness of my circumstances. Another was when I looked toward the cave’s exit. I saw the Glen, but it was a weird distorted view of my home. It was like looking through a portal—I sensed that as long as I stepped out through, I’d be back there. Something in me knew it to be true.

I also sensed that it would be a terrible, terrible mistake. That wasn’t Taoism-Sensei but instead something more ineffable—a conviction different than intuition, talents, or skills.

All the while, a sense of urgency had been running through me, one that I did my best to control. Hurrying wouldn’t help nor would shallow thinking. If I was being affected by a spirit- or consciousness-altering ability of some kind, then the situation demanded deep focus and critical examination.

I checked my Status:

Conditions

Occupied (Evolving*), Out of Body

This certainly didn’t feel like an out-of-body experience. Yes, I’d used my will earlier to unlock my vision, but at the same time a cool, damp air blew across my skin; it flowed into and out of my lungs as I brought my breathing under control. I also smelled my sweat and the scent of the woods on me.

I tried opening my spirit eyes, and the result was that the dim tunnel turned all-encompassing bright. Everything and everywhere was a density of spirit that was dizzying. It hurt my eyes so much, I had to close them or else risk falling.

Once I got myself under control again, I peeked to see the dim tunnel once more. The walls, I noted, were made of limestone, just like the ones under the escarpment west of the Glen.

Maybe this is a spirit journey? Except this was unlike any of the others I’d experienced—not the ones with Ikfael, the Deer God, or even when I’d occasionally gone wandering in my sleep. I could use my Status camera, for example. There was also no silver cord no matter how hard I looked, and when I tried to reach into my chest to pull out a weapon, my hand ran into my shirt.

“Hello,” I whispered, and that was another differentiator—I could speak. So if not a spirit journey, then an illusion or delusion? How else could I describe the weird blend of experiences?

This isn’t helping, I thought. I need to pick a direction—out or in. Unless that sense of knowledge was an illusion too. No, wait, there’s one more thing to check.

I brought Hollow Night to mind, the spell wrapping around to hide me from the universe. In the past, it had let me escape the grip of some of my opponents’ spells, but when I popped back into “reality,” my circumstances hadn’t changed. The limestone tunnel, my sweat-stained clothes, the exit—everything was the same. Well, it’d been a long shot.

It really did seem like I had to decide on a direction to go. My head and heart told me to get back to the battle to defend myself and the Glen, yet when I took a step toward the exit, I experienced a feeling of deep regret, as well as a sense of… sorrow. Like… like I was abandoning something important—something so important it ran all the way through me.

In my previous life, I’d almost drowned in sorrow, so I knew to my core the feeling of it. That was me urging me to head downward—the sensation emerging from the depths of my soul.

It wasn’t lost on me that before I’d appeared in this place, I’d seen Ikfael attacked, which was then shortly followed by a sense of loss. Her blessing was still active inside me—I didn’t need to check my Status to know it—but putting all the clues together, I had to wonder if my leaving would somehow endanger her.

Well, I couldn’t take that chance, so I turned right around to walk back into the tunnel.

If you lived long enough, you learned to trust your instincts. Either that, or you learned not to trust them. In my case, I had learned to trust them, and I also trusted Leilu and Moonlight to defend me and the Glen in my stead. Those two excelled at leading prey around in circles; I put my faith in them.

Whatever this place was, I committed to my decision and began to jog downward.

The walls were limestone, yes, but there were no stalagmites, stalactites, or branching paths. There also weren’t any rocks, ripples, or pockets in the ground either. This place was like the idea of a tunnel rather than the real thing.

So, after a couple of minutes, when I saw that there truly wasn’t anything to catch unwary feet, I picked up speed—moving from a jog to the ground-eating lope hunters used to travel long distances. Which was good, because the tunnel continued on and on.

Doubt ate at the corners of my thoughts. Fear too, for that matter, but I ran through both.

Five minutes, ten minutes. I was considering a Dog’s Agility when I noticed a slight rumbling in the distance. Up ahead, I spotted a variation in the light.

The tunnel opened into a wide-open space from which came the sound of rock grinding against rock. Slowly, I approached to peek through the entrance of a cavern nearly fifty yards across. From where the sound originated, high up in the wall opposite, a giant snake corkscrewed through the stone from right to left. The body looked to be at least ten yards in diameter and covered in a pattern of gray and white scales.

For a moment, my mind blanked. I’d heard about the monsters that lived under the escarpment and hoped I’d never encounter one. They were creatures of legend in the village. Not nightmare, fortunately. People were apparently too insignificant a source of power for them to pursue, so in the rare times they’d come to the surface, they hadn’t bothered with the village. The last time was something like three hundred years ago.

The hunters’ guidance on the creatures was simple: don’t poke the snake if you encounter one. Stay hidden and let it go on its way. My talents provided me with another option, my Status camera.

Error

Not a valid talent vessel.

Okay, another clue that this experience isn’t real, but let’s not take any chances, just in case. I crouched small against the wall, cast my Camouflage, and tore my eyes away from the snake to let them rove over the rest of the room.

A pool of water occupied half the space, the surface rippling from the snake’s passage. Still no stalagmites and stalactites, though. It was just a big, empty room shaped like an upside-down bowl. Except… faintly at the edge of my hearing, under the sound of rumbling rocks, I could’ve sworn I heard the sound of someone… hyperventilating?

I opened my spirit eyes and was once again engulfed by brightness. There were more variations in my view thanks to the distances of the various walls, as well as a spike in the density, about where the closest edge of the pool stood. More importantly, the giant snake wasn’t visible, which was confirmation it wasn’t a spirit or ghost.

As for the rest of the scene, I didn’t want to make any assumptions. Closing my spirit eyes again, I felt it unwise to underestimate the complexity of the situation.

As I watched, the “giant snake” finally disappeared from view, its tail vanishing into the stone. Up where it’d been, the rock face was unmarred. Moments later, the noise of grinding rocks faded, and the sound of someone hyperventilating became clearer.

I crept forward, and the air was instantly chillier inside the cavern, as if I’d walked into an icebox. There was a pressure too, like the walls and ceiling were pushing in on me. Goosebumps rose all along my arms; I felt the heat draining from my body.

Conditions

Occupied (Evolving*), Out of Body, Influenced (8)

I… what? The only time I’d been influenced before was in Knight Ithia’s presence. There must a powerful creature nearby—a high-leveled one if the condition’s rank was to be trusted.

At about halfway to where the spike in spirit density had been, I had to fight to keep my teeth from chattering. I still didn’t see anything, though. Maybe whatever was causing the spike was in the water?

I moved faster, then. The giant snake didn’t look like it was coming back, and there were too many uncertainties regarding the impact the cold would have on… my spirit, my psyche? Who knew? Not me.

At the pool’s edge, I heard more clearly the… woman; it sounded like she was struggling to breathe. She was nearby—not in the water like I’d thought, but along the edge just a couple of steps away. Ah, I smelled the acrid stink of fear.

My Status camera didn’t reveal anything, so I reached out… and touched an elbow. Instantly, a young woman was revealed to be standing in front of me.

The first thing I noticed were her eyes—they were blue like cornflowers. They looked right through me, though, staring at the water behind me. I might as well have been a ghost. The rest of her face was twisted in fear.

I turned to glance back, and my training kicked in—I leapt to the side, turning to get my hands up in front of me, ready to defend myself. The… the giant snake that had suddenly appeared in the water just as suddenly disappeared from view, as did the young woman.

I waited a breath, but didn’t hear anything approaching—only the young woman’s panting breaths. The cavern was otherwise as still as before. A suspicion niggled at the back of my head. It had been there before, but without any evidence, I’d discounted it. Now though…

I cautiously came up behind where the young woman had been and touched where her shoulder ought to be. Instantly, she reappeared once again, and before us both was the stonewater serpent—the great being who slept under the Glen, waking only once year on the summer solstice to gaze at the stars. Click, and this time my camera worked:

??? (Spirit of the Land, Stonewater Serpent, Silvered)

Talents: *Denied*

The serpent’s body rose about twenty feet from the water, her eyes locked on the young woman—the woman who had long, black hair hanging down her back, braided in the pattern of Voorhei’s hunters. Click.

Ikiira the Lodge Master (Human)

Talents: One With Water, Promising Start, A Hoarder in the Making

A sigh left me, the air frosting. This… this was the moment when Ikfael had sacrificed herself to save her village from the forest spirits’ curse. Sklein’s talent, The Gloominess of Forgotten Memories, had somehow trapped her in this moment, and I’d somehow tagged along.