The Wandering Spire

Jeze focused on the locked door in the Crone's school. She heard the metal pilings turn through the power of her runes and Will. Sweat dripped down her brow as the pressure built up in her chest and head as if she was squeezed by a giant hand.

"That's right! Find the order the pilings need to be in as if you were using a key," Ziplocke instructed.

Jeze manipulated the tiny rods. She could feel them and searched for the order in which the door could be unlocked. The effort felt like sprinting up a steep hill. It exhausted her.

"You can do this," Ziplocke shrieked.

Jeze's eyes rolled up in her head, and she collapsed. Ziplocke tested the door, it remained locked.

"I guess not," Ziplocke said softly as he watched Jeze lying on the floor.

A moment later, Jeze slowly rose up. She held her head, looked to the locked door, and sighed. She tapped her bracelet and completed the glyph. She felt the energy taut within her like a pulled bowstring ready to be released. Jeze directed the power to the metal pilings within the lock, and she felt the giant's hand squeeze her body once again. A minute later, Jeze was back on the floor, and the door remained locked.

"Maybe you should summon dirt, shape it to stone, and then shape it to metal. That would be easier for you to manipulate and attempt to create a key," Ziplocke suggested. His arms crossed, and his pointed chin rested on a green hand.

Jeze's head wheeled with the idea. She never shaped that deep into an aspect before. The stone to metal would be tricky, but she did read about it somewhere. The idea was sound, though, she reflected. It would be easier to shape the summoned metal to push the pilings than shaping the pilings themselves.

The teenager slowly rose up and searched her pack for a flask. In it was an amber liquid that Jeze drank. The thick, warm concoction soothed her body as it went down. A minor skill she learned from the Crones was alchemy. It was one her brother completely ignored, but she took an interest. She was a dabbler at best in the field, and the amber potion she made helped to recover one's Will. It was infused with herbs, spices, and crushed chicken bones. Jeze felt it was more of a broth than a potion, and it helped with her recovery from her training.

With Jeze's trial paperwork mostly completed and her knowledge of the next Wandering Spire's location, Jeze used her remaining time to train and prepare. For the past week, Jeze spent her mornings trying to pick locks using the focus she pulled from her brother's journal; in the afternoons, she crafted nourishment potions in the Crone's alchemy lab, and in the evenings, she explored the Deep Wood with Raynor. Traveling the Deep Wood at night was dangerous, and she was getting proficient with killing the occasional pack of roaming Howlers.

The demons did not come in a large force as before but in trickles, and she was curious to find their source. What did Daverius discover? She wondered. While exploring the Deep Wood with Raynor, the Old Hunter instructed her on how to track. Raynor told Jeze that he didn't need anything in return due to the fact that she saved his life. But the teenage girl asked Ziplocke for help, and a few nights out of the week, the Goblin instructed them on how to shape and control the Fire aspect.

"Let's go," Jeze said, and the two left the Old Crone's school and traveled to Raynor's cabin in the Deep Wood.

At Raynor's cabin, Jeze was much further along with Runes. While the Old Hunter struggled with the patterns, Jeze practiced range attacks with the Fire and Earth aspects in addition to her ax throwing.

"Gonna need to split me more logs," Raynor grumbled, as the current target was about to fall to pieces from being struck with darts of flame and fists of stone.

The Old Hunter struggled with the lesson. He was able to create a spark, but it didn't last long enough for him to complete the next pattern in order to shape it. Raynor roared with frustration.

Ziplocke cackled with glee. The Goblin took pleasure in seeing the Old Hunter become enraged. Jeze wondered if Ziplocke was a little bit of a sociopath.

"The Fire aspect is one of the harder aspects to shape and control. When summoned, it needs fuel to stay in this plane, but when it consumes, it creates more Fire, which is born here and then harder to shape and control!" Ziplocke cried with glee and hopped up and down.

Jeze wondered who was a tougher instructor. The harshness of the Crones when they scolded and whacked their canes. Or, Ziplocke's annoying glee and taunting when the student failed. Raynor looked like he was about to skin the Goblin to make boots.

"How are you doing, little girl? You appear too slow with the movements," Ziplocke observed.

Jeze growled, she was like five times the Goblin's size. Jeze demonstrated her stringing of the foci. She etched the Fire aspect runes onto a small wand and completed the final gesture to summon a spark. Jeze gestured quickly to complete another glyph in order to shape the spark into a dart. Finally, she completed the final glyph to control the dart, and it launched into the log. It sizzled a hole into the target.

"Still too slow. A monster in the Spire will be gnawing on your bones by the time you launch your attack!" Ziplocke cried in a high-pitched voice.

The Goblin took Jeze's stick, and in one fluid motion, he launched a Fire dart into the log.

"Fire is one of the harder aspects to control. It requires speed and grace, which you two oafs lack," Ziplocke observed.

Jeze continued to practice. She was better with the Earth aspect as it lasted longer on this plane. It didn't require fuel to remain. The challenge with Fire was that once it consumed, it spawned new flames that were native and harder to manipulate, like when Jeze tried to shape an unsummoned shadow. With the Earth aspect, Jeze was able to summon a pile of dirt up to fifteen meters from her. Further, and her glyphs failed. She made a discovery when launching stones at the log.

"I don't need to have the summoned aspect in front of me to strike my target," Jeze observed.

"How do you mean?" Ziplocke asked.

Raynor cursed and grumbled as he failed in his attempt to shape another summoned flame.

Jeze summoned two mounds of dirt. One was in front of her, and one was on the other side of the charred log target. She focused on the opposite mound and caused a ball of dirt to be shaped into a fist-sized stone. Jeze gritted her teeth as she controlled the stone fist and hurled it at the log. It missed and nearly took off Ziplocke's head.

"Hey!" The Goblin cried.

"Sorry! I am still getting the hang of this, but I don't need to have the soil close to me or even front of me," Jeze said.

"Yes, but it would be much easier for you to target from the front. But there are advantages to attacking your foes from behind!" Ziplocke said with a sharp-toothed grin.

Jeze liked that idea and focused more on hitting the target from different angles of attack. That had much more utility. Raynor paused to watch the young girl practice.

"You need to be careful with that, girl. You might hit one of your teammates instead," the Old Hunter observed.

That was true, Jeze reflected. She trusted the Old Hunter's judgment as he was more experienced than her, and she suspected Raynor to be Adventurer rank. The old goat was not one to brag. Up until this comment, she had not taken her teammates into consideration. Doubt crept into her chest. Was she prepared to work with a team? Jeze wondered. Thoughts flooded in through the cracks that her doubt had made. Maybe her mom was right, and she could find adventure in other places?

"Less daydreaming and more training!" Ziplocke squealed.

This snapped Jeze out of her negative thoughts. Her annoyance with the Goblin replaced her concerns, and with gritted teeth, she resumed hitting the target from different angles.

"Much better," Raynor observed.

The Old Hunter attempted a few more tries, and each one failed. He howled to the moon like a furious wolf. Ziplocke cackled and rubbed his tiny hands together with spiteful pleasure.

"Enough of this. Let's travel the Deep Wood. I hope we run into demons so I can vent my frustration," Raynor grumbled as he glared at the Goblin.

Ziplocke shrieked and hid behind Jeze's knees. The teenager nodded in agreement. She was eager to learn more about what her brother discovered within the Deep Wood. Jeze gave spicy paste to Ziplocke and poured two bowls of recovery broth for herself and Raynor. Afterward, she wiped her mouth and gathered up her sack with all of her weapons, potions, and channeling tools.

"Let's go," Raynor rumbled and hefted his ax and bow.

For an hour, they hiked in silence through the Deep Wood with Ziplocke on Jeze's shoulder. Raynor pointed out markers and whispered to Jeze on how to find the game trails through the undergrowth. The teenage girl nodded studiously and soaked up the knowledge in her sharp mind. She held up a hand and paused.

"You hear that, girlie?" Raynor asked.

"Movement in the forest that is not a person or an animal," Jeze observed.

Faintly, in the distance, the sounds of movement through the undergrowth could be detected by those who could listen. In Jeze's mind, the noise came from a creature that loped on all fours but could also stand on two. Sounds that could only be made from Howlers. A bunch of them.

Raynor nodded, a glint of pride in his eye. "You learn fast. Are you ready?" He asked.

"No," Ziplocke squeaked, a sound that reminded Jeze of a mouse.

She nodded as she readied a single-hand ax in her right hand with her left hand readied to tap her rings. They ignored the Goblin and hugged the shadows created by the dance between the full moon's light and the trees of the Deep Wood.

The Howlers had demon senses and were better equipped than the humans in the darkness. But Raynor and Jeze were prepared, and the Old Hunter knew the Deep Wood like the back of his hand. In the dim light, they fought, with the Howlers on the losing end. The demons shrieked and yelped as they desperately searched the trees for their foes. Arrows zipped and struck them from the darkness, and a hunter stalked them with ax and dagger like a fierce wolf.

Jeze took the time to train her control over the Earth aspect and struck the remaining Howlers from all angles with fist-sized stones. The creatures spun with confusion as they were bombarded and torn apart from all around. In less than five minutes, a dozen Howlers lay dead on the ground.

"Good work! That was fantastic! Oh, how I wish I could take you two back home with me!" Ziplocke cried in a high-pitched voice.

"Hush or I will flay your hide for a dishrag," Raynor threatened in a low voice.

Ziplocke quieted and crawled up to Jeze's shoulder. The teenager patted the Goblin on his bald head and crouched to study the tracks the creature made. She was confident she could follow them back to their source. She lit a torch.

"Careful, girlie. The Night Eye can not protect you with that," Raynor cautioned.

Jeze nodded. She did not need the Night Eye. She needed answers.

"Suit yourself," Raynor whispered, but the Old Hunter followed her.

They followed the tracks under the flickering torchlight that created eerie shadows amongst the trees that even gave Ziplocke the chills.

"You missed this," Raynor corrected Jeze when she was stuck.

The Old Hunter pointed to a cracked branch and crushed twigs made by the loping gait of Howlers.

"Thank you," Jeze whispered, and the two followed the trail with the teenager in the lead.

After thirty minutes, Raynor ordered Jeze to put out the torch. This plunged the trio into pure darkness, and Jeze waited for her eyes to adjust to the full moon's silver light. The Night Eye resumed guiding them.

"What do you see?" Jeze asked.

"Look up ahead," Raynor replied.

Jeze focused, and in the distance, she saw a faint blue light. It was so faint it was easy to miss. This was it! She thought. Raynor placed a strong hand on her shoulder.

"Easy, girlie. Daverius was something special. What he can face, I'm not sure I could handle," Raynor cautioned.

Jeze scowled but agreed. She summoned up shadows to hide her and crept forward. Raynor used his hunter instincts and was silent as a fox. The two moved more quietly than a breeze and came upon a clearing where the source of the pale blue light came from its center.

"This has to be what Daverius found," Jeze observed.

Raynor and Ziplocke agreed with silent awe. In the middle was a large pile of rock and earth with a cave opening large enough for a bear. The pale light came from the small cracks under the dirt on the sides.

"You are on your own. I will not venture there. But I will wait for you here," Raynor stated.