Read Ar'Kendrithyst Chapter 39: Jane.

Chapter 39: Jane.

Eight year old Jane watched the neighborhood kids play with sticks like they were swords, in the park next to her childhood home. She wanted to play, too. She didn’t really know why, but something in her gut pulled her toward the swords and the hitting and the running. The chase and the victory. She wanted to play, so badly.

So she ran out there, picked up a stick, and joined them.

Erick came rushing out to the park two minutes later, terrified that he had lost his daughter. But she was fine; the other kids’ parents knew Jane, and Erick. One of them was just about to go get him, but since he was here now, everyone went back to playing in the park.

Jane became the Black Knight who terrorized everyone else, who burnt down the crops and stole princesses from castles.

For an entire summer she had new friends; everyone attacked everyone else as ‘good’ and ‘evil’ roles passed around like game controllers. It was a wonderful summer. It was magical. It ended early when a ‘sword’ ended up in a friend’s guts, one weekend in July. The stick only went in two inches. Nothing bad happened except for a lot of crying and some antibiotics and a trip to the hospital, but then that friend moved away, and Jane was shunned by the rest.

She was still 8 years old.

When she was 10, she had a reputation:

Head in the clouds and a fist in someone’s face, watch out for Crazy Jane or she’ll leave you bleeding on the concrete and your parents will move you away to Hawaii.

Some kids actually wanted to move to Hawaii, though. This rumor proved to be very detrimental to the health of many local kids. Many, many broken bones were set into casts by the local doctors. Jane though? Jane was the one who did the breaking. Jane thrived.

Jane got into lots, and lots, and lots…

And lots…

And lots of fights that year.

And so, so many Parent Teacher conversations.

The first time she had ever seen Erick drink himself to sleep was after one of the rougher Parent Teacher meetings, when she was 12. She changed, after that.

Oh, she still beat the ever loving shit out of whoever came and gave her grief, that did not change. What did change, though, was that she always did it quiet, now, making every effort to keep the markers of violence off of the visible body parts of her challengers, never leaving any lasting damage, and stamping down any hints of further violence instead of inciting them to grow. She even started snuffing fights before they started. She paid attention to what Annie-down-the-street heard, then she got pro-active and either stayed away from certain people, or beat them down hard enough that they stayed away. On one memorable occasion, she took a baseball bat to certain bicycles, to make sure they couldn’t catch her after school, when they planned to go at her 5 versus 1.

In the course of becoming the biggest baddest girl in school, Jane’s actions had a ripple effect on many different aspects of school life. One of those came to a fateful conclusion when she beat up a bully who was trying to move up the ladder, toward Jane. That bully had been picking on some nerds, and they wanted to show her their appreciation. They weren’t trying to shove in on her; they were genuine.

Somehow, in some way Jane never actually knew, she made true, real friends with the nerds, and the nerds loved D&D.

Turned out, Jane loved D&D, too. She was as surprised as anyone, and her father was thrilled that she was spending time with some calmer kids. He cheered her on, and soon, Jane had all the D&D books and fantasy stuff she could have ever wanted.

She could also do all the violence she ever wanted, among a bunch of like minded folks. It was imaginary violence, but it still scratched that itch. She loved it. Her friends loved having her, too; no one touched them all the rest of grade school.

Jane still had to beat down some uppity bastard every now and then, but mostly she killed imaginary mindflayers and evil dragons. In one memorable campaign, they played the part of the evil king's enforcers. When they finally crushed the last of the resistances, that campaign ended, and the next campaign was them fighting for a new resistance against their old characters.

Jane took immense satisfaction from personally beheading her previous Blackguard with her new Paladin. She still remembered that moment, years later.

Flash forward to the end of highschool: Jane had been playing D&D and a dozen other table top RPG settings for the last 6 years. She knew how to work a system. She knew how to both powergame, and metagame. Though she didn’t know what she wanted with the rest of her life, constant roleplaying had helped her form the backbone of her philosophy.

Much like how her father chose to help people; Jane wanted to help people, too.

He was all about the peaceful solutions, working the local powers and working with the local powers to help the individual; keeping a community well tended through constant, vigilant work. When Jane was a girl, Jane’s philosophy of life was tied to her father's. As she got older, it changed, and while she still saw her father’s work as important, Jane was not her father. Where he saw fields that needed tending so peace and prosperity could blossom, Jane only saw how Erick put himself out there, vulnerable, one hidden knife or pulled gun away from death. Her fears were proven true when she stopped one of the kids in her school from using his knife on her father, but all anyone saw was Jane with a knife at another kid’s throat.

Erick believed her when she told him what had happened. He always believed her, so she tried to never lie. But still, some part of Jane knew that she had crossed a line. The way her father viewed her had changed, fundamentally.

Erick managed to talk Jane’s way out of juvenile detention, as well as solve the problem of a kid gunning for him with a knife, by talking to the kid’s mother and getting them both out of their house with their abusive grandfather. Jane never saw any of that. All she saw was the knife in the kid's hands.

Erick made everything so much more complicated than it had to be.

Arguably, he got better results than Jane.

But that didn’t matter. She couldn’t watch her father put himself in danger. That’s why she went to college four states away. She still wanted to help him and the world, in some massive way, but she couldn’t watch him make himself vulnerable.

In college, away from the trials and tribulations of small town midwestern life, Jane played D&D with new people, and learned about theaters of war in far off nations.

She knew then, what stage she wanted to live upon.

Flash forward 4 years, and college was over. Jane had been playing D&D with a steady group for 4 more years, and done, so, so much more than just get a BA in Communications and play D&D.

She knew three languages, a bit of computer programming, how to professionally throw a punch and take a hit, how to shoot and aim, how to use everything around her as a weapon, even some science and mathematics. She could tell you the exits of every room she glanced through, and the best way to escape any situation as quickly as possible. She had go-bags, she had wilderness training. She could run as fast as the fastest people at school, and she could parkour with the Street Running club. She could dance, and sing, and be a social butterfly, if life demanded it of her; though she tried to avoid those situations. She lifted weights. She ran on treadmills and through the woods. She watched the news, both local and international. She knew her armors and her weapons, though all that was just an immensely fun hobby; she never expected to need her RPG stuff in her daily life, going forward. Her credit score was even great: 770, which, on the surface, seems like a funny thing for a field agent to need, but thinking about it a bit more, good credit is vitally important. Can’t have agents tempted by foreign money, after all.

And then she fell to Veird, with her father, on the way to her internship in Langley, Virginia.

And Veird? Veird was great. Better than anything Jane could have ever asked for. Better than working for her old government, better than playing D&D. This was real. This was here. This was now.

Monsters! Magic!

Violence!

The most necessary violence Jane had ever seen!

Even working at the CIA wasn’t as necessary as the work she was doing now.

… the work she would be doing. Right now she was still leveling. Still gathering power.

Jane was SO READY for this kind of life. Danger that needed to be cut down, right outside the city walls. Threats to the world ten kilometers away. This was great! It was motherfucking terrifying, sometimes, but that was a small price to pay for living on a world with magic. A world with a surface area thirty times the size of Earth, if you counted the Underworld.

Jane counted that Underworld, oh yes, she very much did.

Sure, her dad had some emotional stuff to work through, but he was coming around.

What wasn’t coming around was this stupid fucking spell.

This FUCKING, SHITTING, stupid SPELL that would just not COMBINE CORRECTLY.

Aurify.

Mana Shaping X.

[Airshape X].

[Telekinesis X].

Handy Aura, 5 MP per second, short range

Grip the air and fly, if you are able!

Jane stood in the north tower of the house; her tower. All around her, her magic held the air, a dozen clumsy hands gripping air that was not enough to hold her up. Sure, she could grab the stone and pull up that way, but [Handy Aura] would not FUCKING let her just FLY THROUGH THE AIR like her father.

Erick had handed her his own spell days ago. She looked at it now.

Flight of a Thousand Hands Aura, 1 MP per second, medium range

Gain complete, quick control over a large amount of air and a thousand arms of intent. Take flight, if you are able!

Jane played around with her [Handy Aura] for ten minutes, climbing up the interior walls of her tower like she was a spider. She was not a spider right now; being a spider in Spur was a very bad idea, and she was a little ashamed that Erick had had to tell her that.

Teressa still wasn’t talking to her.

Jane set down on the floor, grabbed the box for [Handy Aura], then ripped it to shreds. She felt a twinge inside of her soul as the spell was forced apart; some necessary linkage between all of those spells damaged by breaking [Handy Aura]. She could use those parts separately, of course, but she would have to wait a full day for them to be healed enough to try to combine them again.

She looked outside, to the west.

Platinum rain fell across the farms.

She smiled. For all of her dad’s difficulty in adjusting, he was doing exceedingly well with the Script. Not bad for a guy who never liked fantasy stuff! Today was the second attempt at a full day of rain. Jane had spent the first three hours with him, but she had come back home to experiment with her own magic for the last two hours. Which she had. Now that that was done, and her six desired spells —no wait! Seven; there’s the flight aura now. Now that her seven desired spells were met with either Error messages or failure, she could check the box on another day of experimentation. It was time to go back to the farm.

But first! Lunch!

Jane went down to the kitchen and inspected the larder.

It was full.

She stared at the meats and the vegetables and all the rest...

Jane didn’t want to cook. She recast a preservation and a low-temperature [Ward] inside the box, Shaping both to fit the container. Blue glittering light briefly filled the space, before settling inside like filling a mould with resin.

Teressa was sitting in the kitchen, alternately reading or looking off into space.

Jane asked, “Want to go to lunch? My treat.”

“No thank you, ma’am. I’m on duty, right here.”

“Alright.” Jane tried a different tack to have a friendly relationship with her father’s guards. “Want me to bring you something? I’m going to bring Erick something, too.”

Teressa looked into the air. She went back to reading. “No thank you.”

“… Alright.”

Jane skipped out the front door.

She frowned. Though she very much doubted that her father’s guards could ever actually be ‘friends’, it would have been nice. She was not that good at making real friends.

Her problem probably was that she didn't really consider people she wasn't around as part of her life anymore. She never stayed in touch with her old D&D groups; she just left people behind.

It was a personal failing, for sure.

Jane put that problem out of her mind, and walked southwest. She exited the human district near a bustling dragonkin neighborhood where three generations ago, the people here had been living on the island archipelagos of Nergal. A pair of young adventurers had moved over 15000 kilometers to come to Spur, over 60 years ago, across what was just barely Veird’s largest ocean; the Letri Ocean. Jane only knew this because the old greyscale vendor had told her all this to keep her in her stall longer; she didn’t need to bother, though. Jane had smelled the flavor on the air, and she knew this part of Spur would quickly become her favorite.

Peppers and dried seeds, ground into powder and stacked high, in colorful pyramids of purple and yellow, orange and red. Hundreds of weird spicy mushrooms, and at least one strain that was mildly psychedelic. Sprigs of dried herbs, hanging from clips, strung across the back of the store. Pots of dried not-orange rinds, and strips of curled bark. And, of course, massive barrels of salt, both mined and from the sea. This was not an alchemist supply store, it was much more specialized, and quite a bit smaller, because this place held spices from all over the islands. Some were grown in Spur, by Ratchet’s daughter, but most were imported.

Though with Erick’s platinum rain, that might change. All of these spices needed constant tending and a stable environment to reach peak flavor; Ratchet and her family were still experimenting with growing this stuff in Spur.

The old greyscale behind the counter saw Jane. She shouted, “Jane! How is my favorite human today!”

“Better than yesterday, Ratchet.” Jane smiled. “I don’t want to jinx it, but today’s rain looks like it will proceed as planned.”

Ratchet laughed, “Ohh~ child! I saw that spell of your Da’s and it was something! The new ones, doncha’ know. [Withering] and [Stillness]. Shut that Tania up right good!” She busied herself behind the counter. She pulled out a small stone container and set it on the counter. “Here. A token of my thanks. Now I know you said he doesn’t like the spicy stuff like you do, so I made this one up with the citrus and herb blend. A lot of flavor; goes good on pale meats.” She brought out another small jar. “And this one is for you. Don’t get the two confused now!” She smiled. “This one is powerful strong.”

“Thanks, Ratchet. How much do I owe you for mine?”

“53 gold, 8 silver.”

Jane handed over her Mage Guild badge, saying “I’m Jane Flatt”, as Ratchet quickly swiped it over a truthstone. The stone glittered green, and Ratchet quickly wrote out a bill of sale, copying Jane’s guild number onto the bill. When she finished, she handed the bill over to Jane to sign, which she did. Then Ratchet handed over an ingredients list of the spices used and their individual prices. Jane briefly read over it, then said, “Looks great. Thank you.” She put the stone containers at the bottom of her shoulderbag.

“You be good, now!”

Jane smiled. “I try to be.”

Her next stop was only five minutes down the road: A popular eatery that had only grown as Erick’s rain brought more and more food and people back to Spur. They served meat, cheese, and bread, and their name, in big bold lightwards hanging outside of their two story restaurant and sandwich shop, was exactly that: ‘Meat! Bread! Cheese!’.

It might not have been the most healthy thing on Veird, but by god, the food was delicious. Meats sliced and grilled, or deep fried, or full steaks. There were just so many ways to put meat, and cheese, and bread together, but Jane already knew what she wanted. She bought two cheesesteak sandwiches, special ordered, then had them wrapped in butcher’s paper and stuffed in to her shoulderbag. Four silver for two massive sub sandwiches was a rather decent price, too. Then, she went to the farms.

The farms were lush and green, as platinum rain fell all around, but not on the main path; someone had put up [Weather Ward]s all along the two kilometer road to the center of the farms. Strolling through the dry path, watching the rain fall all around her, was nice, at first. But her sandwiches were getting cold. She turned on [Swift Movement], and began moving three steps for every one she took.

She felt someone staring at her well before she got to the temple. She slowed. She looked around with Meditation. There were a few eyes, so she popped them, slapping them with Willpower, shattering them like they were crystal spheres. None of them were the typical light-in-darkness of a Shade, but still, having [Scry] eyes watching her was freaky.

Killzone popped onto the road in front of her.

She stopped. “Captain Killzone.”

Killzone smiled, and spoke with a twang in his voice, “Welcome back to the defense of your father, Jane. Nothing much happened while you were away.” He added, “Thankfully.”

Anger bubbled. She kept it under control. “I’ve been defending him since I was 10.”

Killzone paused, then glared.

Jane paused. She asked, “Was that supposed to be a report? Or were you deriding me for a failure?”

Did he think Jane wasn’t good enough? She was the one who figured out someone had tampered with their food. She didn’t know it was parasites, and she didn’t capture the guy, but she kept her eyes wide open all the time.

Killzone spoke hard, “You need to lose that attitude or keep it under control when you’re speaking to me. I do not speak in riddles; I do not speak in code. If I was deriding you for a failure, I would tell you. Do you understand?”

“Not at all!” Jane said, “Please tell me what part of this interaction I have fucked up, because it certainly sounded like you getting mad at me for taking a break.”

Killzone paused. He said, “Don’t push back so hard, Jane. I have been thinking about giving you permission to enter the Dead City, but I can’t let you in there if I think you’re gonna fly off the handle when someone says the wrong thing.” Killzone relaxed into a twang, “Heck. I even started off talking like this, tryn’ ta build a rapport.”

So, aside from Killzone’s belief that talking in a twang was anything more than something a psychopath would do, and there was a lot of everything wrong with what he said, for once, there was too much good for Jane to focus on, she chose to focus on the good.

Jane felt butterflies rumble in her stomach. He was thinking of letting her into the city? What changed?

“What changed?”

“I want you to join Spur’s Army.”

That… was an idea.

Jane waited for more than that.

Killzone said, “Bulgan is almost the lowest man on the pile, right now. I want the rumors of you as the newest member of Spur’s Army to drive his value even further into the ground. This is your opportunity to get into the city, and I have to offer it to you, because if I don’t, they’ll think I’m weak; unable to capitalize on a situation.” Killzone asked, “Do you want to become a member of the Army? You can explore the Dead City and get paid to kill monsters. You’ll be level 45 in under a week. More, if you push.”

Jane said, “Why do I have to be a part of the Army, and what does that mean?”

“Because if you’re not, then you’re on your own in there." Killzone explained, “Our duties include keeping our territory safe, and rescuing adventurers, but we cannot give the adventurers we rescue more than the barest support. But if you’re in the Army, you can tell any Shade you meet —and you will meet more than a few— that they can take up any complaints they have with you, with me. And as far as what that means? It means you’re going to kill a lot of monsters, 12 hours a day, five days out of every ten, with a group I place you with. You might even go on rescue missions.”

“… What about Tania?”

“She’s telling people that she sent her worst spiders after you, which might be true. So if she went after you, she would prove herself a liar.” Killzone said, “Though they all lie all the time, so take that as you want. I put the odds at 20% that if she were in a room with you, she’d kill you. If she saw you on the streets, though? She’d 100% pursue, if only for a conversation. Those odds are only slightly higher than normal. If you react fast enough, you might be able to [Shadowalk] away—” He paused. He asked, “What shadow skill were you able to get from the spider?”

“[Shadowblend].”

“Eat a thousand more shadow essences as a spider and you’ll upgrade that to [Shadowalk].” He continued, “You’ll need it: conventional [Teleport] is blocked in there as soon as you come under the attention of a Shade. This is one of the most dangerous aspects of Ar’Kendrithyst.” He finished with a twang, “That there’s the spiel. What happens next is up to you. Talk to Liquid in the Courthouse if you wish to get the ball rolling.”

Jane looked over to the temple, still at least a kilometer away.

Killzone almost turned away, probably to [Teleport] back to Forward Base.

Jane said, “Absolutely yes. I agree. Don’t tell Erick.”

Killzone laughed. “Oh. No. That’s not going to happen. If you being in the Army is going to be a problem, then… No offense, but I’d much rather have him, than you, no matter how good Mog and others say you are.”

Jane almost glared, but she stopped herself. “Sorry, sir. I meant…” She said, “I’m going to tell him; no one else should. Right after lunch… Er—” She looked across the green, rainy fields. Thousands of people were harvesting and moving produce as fast as it came out of the ground. She didn’t want to interrupt this massive undertaking, and her father certainly wouldn’t want an interruption, either. Telling him now would not be fair; he’d want to blow up at her and she wanted to talk him down, in private. “I’ll tell him tomorrow, after he’s slept.”

Killzone eyed her for a few seconds. He said, “Carry on, almost-soldier.”

She bowed to Killzone. “Thank you, Captain.”

He vanished in a blip of black.

Jane controlled her gleeful outburst into a simple, quiet, “yeeessss,” then went on to the temple.

- - - -

Jane stepped up the temple steps, out of the [Weather Ward] tunnels people had built along the road, into the open aired holy space dedicated to Atunir, Goddess of Field and Fertility. Her father was sitting back in a cushioned chair, reading by lightward. Poi and Rats were nearby; Poi standing his usual guard, Rats walking around the Ring of Gods looking happy in the rain. Poi noticed Jane well before she got anywhere near the temple; he nodded at her as she crested the temple steps.

“Hey, Dad! I got lunch!”

Erick’s face brightened as he turned to see Jane. “Welcome back! Eat any nice monsters lately?”

Jane went to the table near him and moved the chessboard aside, saying, “Ugh. No. I was trying to make a Handy Aura of my own, but failure! Again. I might just have to eat a bird and get proficient with [Airshape]. But which bird? There are dozens of options. I’ll probably go with some magical bird, like a firebird.” She set out the sub sandwiches, then set out the spices she got from Ratchet. “This one is yours. I told you about Ratchet, right?”

Erick walked to the table. “She’s the spice woman, right?”

“Right!”

“Still haven’t seen her in person, though I’ve heard stories.”

“She made up some spice blends, and one of these she made for you, free of charge.” Jane sat down, checking the spices. That one smelled like citrus and pepper. Probably not hers. She stuck her pinky into the white, black, and green powder and tasted it. Oh… Really good. But not for her. This other one though— OH YEAH. Eyes already tearing up. This one was hers. She kept that one then slid the other to her father, next to his sandwich. “You should like this. It’s mild but flavorful.”

Poi frowned behind her father. Erick didn’t see Poi’s frown, but Jane certainly did. She grabbed back Erick’s spices before he could try some, and showed it to Poi. Erick turned, then frowned himself.

Jane asked, “Want to try it?”

“Thank you.” Poi dipped one claw ever so slightly into the salty mixture. He tasted it. “Good.”

Poi moved away from the table.

Erick smiled, then unwrapped his sandwich. He smiled wider. “I love this place!” He picked out a mushroom. “And you even got them to add mushrooms!” He ate the shroom.

But Jane was still thinking about Poi’s reaction. Guards are weird. Spices trigger a response, but the food doesn’t? Maybe wet things were okay; the really bad parasites were dried, apparently.

… But that still didn’t make much sense.

So she asked, “Why the response against spices, but not against the sandwiches?”

Poi said, “I enjoy Ratchet’s spices, but they’re always so expensive. Importing from Nergal is a chore.”

He smirked.

That bastard tricked her into thinking that there was a security risk, just to get some spices!

Erick activated his own Handy Aura, slicing off half of his sandwich, then pushing it toward Poi, along with the spices. “Here! Have some. I can’t eat all this anyway.”

“Gladly, sir.” Poi took the portion then liberally applied the spices, setting the stone container back in front of Erick. “Thank you.” He stepped away and ate his portion.

Jane looked over and saw Rats trying not to look their way. She sighed, then called out, “Want some of this, Rats? I can’t eat it all, either.” She telekinetically sliced off half of her sub, too.

Rats scrambled up and gratefully accepted his portion. He eyed the stone containers of spice.

Jane pushed both of them forward. “This one is spicy. The other is mild.”

Rats quickly picked the spicy one. With one quick pinch, he sprinkled some flaming red salt and stuff onto his portion, then licked his fingers. He shivered. His eyes watered. His red scales turned redder.

He squeaked, “Other one, please.”

Erick pushed his spice toward Rats, who gratefully accepted.

Jane smiled, picking out a pinch of red for herself and testing it out.

It was okay. Good. Spicy, for sure. Not as hot as she expected. Not as hot as she wanted. She put a lot on her sub sandwich, and as she kept adding more, Rats’ and Poi’s eyes went wider and wider. Erick just smiled as he ate his own, much more temperate sub.

When they wanted water, they drank platinum rain from cups Erick had made.

It was actually quite a delicious drink, for being nothing but water and ‘light’.

- - - -

She played chess with her father for three hours, then Silverite came to the temple, and Jane went home to prepare some coffee-tea. She harvested leaves from the plant with [Telekinesis] then went to the kitchen and heated up a heavy wok in a [Temperature Ward]. When the wok was hot, she took it out of the [Ward], dumped the leaves inside, and constantly tossed them. She stopped when the leaves were browned and dry, with a little bit of caramelization from their high sugar content. Then she crumbled them up, wrapped them in a fine cloth she had bought to use as a filter, then put them in a specialized stone jar that would also act as the brewing pot.

Jane stopped on the way back to the temple to buy dinner, but by the time she got to the temple with more subs, she saw that other people also had the same idea. Silverite had gone back to town, but Al and Savral had showed with two big iron pots of not-curry and not-rice. Valok and Apogough came a bit later. Krakina showed up later still, but only stayed for five minutes, talking quietly with Erick before going back to town. Krakina was spooked.

Judging from her hushed tones and the odd looks from everyone else, she was spooked by Erick.

Jane wasn’t sure she read that right, so she pulled Savral aside when she could. “What’s up with Krakina?”

Savral turned away from Erick, saying, “WeatherWitches have a supernatural sense for danger, but sometimes they get stuck when they get tripped too hard. I heard from Ikawa that Krakina thinks the storm has passed, but also that her grandmother is usually more sure about these things.” He looked out at the rain. “Her uncertainty is probably related to the unnatural weather. Her predictions have been somewhat… off, lately.”

While she had him here…

Ah. No. I shouldn’t do that. Not here.

… She would not talk to Savral about Killzone’s offer.

“Okay. Thanks, Savral.”

He looked at her for a moment. Then nodded, and went back to the small party.

Night time approached and everyone had coffee. Erick tried making the coffee out of the leaves Jane had prepared; but he didn’t manage to do it right. Jane was quickly tasked with going back home and grabbing a cutting, so Erick could stick it in the ground near the temple and let it [Grow] more coffee-tea, so he could continue to experiment.

Jane went, cut some branches from the bush, and rushed on back.

Light orbs hovered all across the farm by the time Jane returned. The farmers still wanted to work, even at night, but they were moving much slower than they were this morning. But by the temple, the lights were brilliant, and pointed in every direction. The temple light illuminated the night for miles. Everyone was drinking Erick’s coffee. They were all laughing with each other, too. Jane didn’t want to interrupt, so she just went around back and stuck the clippings in the ground near the back of the temple.

The clippings immediately started growing, vining up the back of the statue of Atunir, twisting up a few feet, then directly horizontally out, like green clouds forming in the sky, with flat bottoms and a tiered structure. That was unexpected. This was not supposed to happen. The clippings came from a bush not...

Not whatever this was.

Jane called out, “Hey, Dad! Come look at the coffee you made.”

At Jane’s words, Erick poked his head out to see what was up, then he went back inside to rush down the stairs, into the platinum rain, around to the back of the temple. Al, Savral, Poi, and the rest, all came with him. Erick walked over to Jane, followed closely by Poi.

He looked at the twisting, [Grow]ing coffee-tea-tree, and said, “Pretty.”

Four cuttings had spread roots and grown up into a single tree, which spread out from the back of the temple like someone was making art out of the plant. Green leaves suddenly shifted to glowing platinum, like someone switching on a fiber optic light inside of the tree.

Jane had a good idea of who that ‘someone’ could be. She was witnessing the touch of a god on Veird. Something stirred inside of her, like a flame flickering to life, like her eyes opening for the first time. A presence seemed to stand above them all, like a weight descending to lift them up.

Erick had a completely different reaction.

Erick laughed, smiling, saying, “I bet this coffee tastes delicious!”

Valok and Apogough were feeling the same sense of wonder Jane was feeling. Their eyes were closed, they were praying. Al, Savral, and Rats joined them. Poi kept his eyes wide open though; constantly scanning his surroundings.

Jane turned back to the platinum plant. Platinum leaves on rich brown trunks and branches towered up the back of Atunir’s statue, covering almost all of the west end of the small temple, looking like a multi-tiered thunderhead frozen in time, in miniature.

Erick said, “It’s like, a perfect bonsai tree. But normal size. It’s a normal tree, ha!” He activated his Handy Aura and quickly took off a thousand individual leaves. They began growing back almost instantly. “Nice.”

Valok almost exploded at him, but Jane casually stepped between him and Erick. Valok stamped his anger down, not saying a word. Jane casually stepped back to where she had been.

Al and Savral struggled not to laugh.

Apogough said, “Uh! Erick!”

Erick turned, several invisible arm fulls of platinum leaves hovering in the air beside him. “What?”

Valok went blank, like the sacrilege was too much to comprehend anymore.

Apogough said, “She… Atunir obviously claimed the tree for… For her holy self.”

“Phshh! That’s crazy! The leaves are already coming back, and I made this coffee myself. But I must admit, I am very eager to taste what she has added to the brew.”

Apogough reluctantly said, “Oh…. Okay.”

Erick turned to Jane. “How do you make it so good?”

“I’ll show you!” Jane, had attached the heavy wok with a string to her shoulderbag. She tapped the heavy metal now, saying, “We can keep this one here; I can get a new one for home.”

Erick smiled wide. “Sounds good to me.”

Thirty minutes later, Jane had prepared the platinum leaves exactly how she would have prepared normal leaves, but the leaves didn’t turn brown like normal. They certainly dried out and there were bits of caramelization here and there, but the prepared leaves did not look like tea leaves.

Everyone was watching her the whole time, except for Poi; he was still looking outward.

Jane was glad for taking that two week long tea ceremony and coffee creation class.

Jane powdered the leaves and placed them in a very fine tea cloth in a strainer above a large stone pot. She began slowly pouring another pot of boiling platinum rainwater, first in the center of the leaves, in the center of the strainer, then slowly circling the pour against the leaves, then up the cloth. She went slow the whole time; gradually, methodically.

When she was done, she had a very large pot of densely-opaque platinum ‘coffee’.

She poured the first cup, then went over to the statue of Atunir and placed it among the bounty.

The cup and liquid inside turned solid, affixing itself to the statue, like it had always been there. Apogough and Valok sighed in relief. Jane started handing out other cups. They all got theirs, and then Jane poured hers, but everyone looked reluctant to actually drink it.

So, Jane went first.

It tasted like the best coffee she had ever had; medium bold, smooth, caramel and vanilla, with hints of cream and a lot of ‘light’, with only the barest bitterness.

Erick tasted his next. He smiled. “Delicious. Like espresso and cream.”

Around the group the tasting went. Everyone described something a little bit different.

Al said, “That’s divine food, for you.”

Nothing happened for the rest of the night. Some people drifted away, some came back. Valok, Apogough, and Krakina, went away for the rest of the long night.

Divine coffee certainly kept Jane, Erick, Poi and Rats all awake, though. She expected to flag somewhere around hour 20, but she kept going strong, and so did everyone else. They played board games, and told stories.

When the sun arose on the other side of Spur, they were at hour 23, out of 24.

Valok, Apogough, and Krakina, showed at 30 minutes till the end, at a prepared field next to the temple. Krakina was silent, but she was present. That mattered a lot, to Jane. Looking over at her father standing at the end of the prepared field, she saw that Krakina’s presence meant a lot to him, too.

When sunlight finally spilled over the walls of Spur and struck the empty fields, tiny green shoots lifted from the ground, twining around trellises, growing across holes in the lattice work, then budding with platinum flowers. The flowers wilted, and groups of bean pods appeared. Inch long things at first, the pods quickly grew to a seven inches long and thick as an orcol’s finger. The trellises were absolutely packed with beans.

Apogough and Valok each picked one, while Krakina looked over Valok’s shoulder.

Erick picked one, then opened it in front of Jane. They looked like kidney beans, but bright white with little silver striations; the color of Erick’s magic and [Exalted Storm Aura] mixed together. Jane threw a very small [Cleanse] at the beans in Erick’s hands. Nothing happened.

“Looks safe enough,” she said.

Apogough, Valock, and Krakina were already eating some. They chewed, silently, thoughtfully. Erick popped one into his mouth. He chewed. He offered the beans to Jane as he popped another one into his mouth. She took one and ate it. She chewed. Some people spit out the beans, then tried another. Everyone was chewing, tasting.

Judging.

She finished eating the bean. She said, “Tastes like beans.”

Erick smiled. “Yup. Tastes like beans.”

“Success!” Jane smiled. “Great job, Dad.”

Erick shouted, “Success!”

Al and Savral shouted over their own open bean pods, “WooooOOO!”

Valok did not shout, but Apogough did. Krakina did a small cheer, but Jane could tell she was still scared. Their shouts started a chain of cheers from the farmers.

Erick shut off the rain.

The skies cleared on another wonderful day.

Jane groaned, “I am fucking tired.”

“Gods above! Me too.” Erick said, “Let’s go home.”

Jane giggled. “What the heck? ‘Gods above’?”

“I like the local curses.”

Jane laughed.

They both said quick goodbyes, left the board games and the coffee stuff at the temple, and went straight home.

“Yo,” said Killzone, outside and beside their front door. “Howdy.”

“What’s wrong?” Erick asked.

“Nothin~” Killzone smiled. “But you and those three—” He gestured to Poi, Rats, and Teressa. “Y’all ‘ave been up for a whole darn day! I’ll take over while everyone sleeps.”

Teressa mellowed immediately, saying, “Thank all the gods and demons. I am shit-tired. Good night, everyone.” And then she walked inside, toward her room.

Jane giggled. That was the most Teressa had said all day long.

Then Jane realized she had giggled. Oh. She was getting loopy.

Rats quickly followed Teressa, saying, “Thank you, Captain.”

“Shucks. Ain’t no big deal!” Killzone smiled wide, his utterly black skin, teeth, eyes, and everything, still a bit disconcerting, but his voice was so nice. “Y’all sleep well.”

Erick went in, saying ‘Thanks’, followed by Poi, saying nothing. Jane lingered, just a little.

Jane said, “After we sleep, I’ll tell him. Thank you, for this.”

Killzone grinned, speaking softly, “You and your father are the best recruits I’ve ever had. I expect good things, Jane.”

Jane grinned. “I expect to hit level 60 by next month.”

Killzone tried to hide his joy, but he couldn’t. He just nodded, and took a further step from the front door.

Jane walked in, went to the bathroom, popped out a [Cleanse], then went to bed. [Cleanse] was wonderful; washing machine, toilet paper, shampoo and conditioner, toothbrush and shaver —if you used it right— [Cleanse] really was one of the best spells ever. That, and [Ward]. The damage mitigation alone—

Ah. She had forgotten to renew the house’s [Temperature Ward].

Jane opened her eyes. She flooded the house with a Shaped X [Air Conditioning Ward], which was like a [Temperature Ward], but not; kinda like how the chickens around Spur were not actual chickens.

And now she was thinking strange thoughts.

She relaxed into the cooler air, letting out a sigh of contentment as she closed her eyes and snuggled into her comforter. She adjusted her pillow for maximum goodness.

… Her words were slipping.

… And so was she.

- - - -

Jane woke at sunset. She made dinner.

As she was cooking, everyone else woke up. Jane verbally said ‘later’ to Killzone, with a promise to meet tomorrow. Teressa, Poi, and Rats, probably all had their own words to say to the solid-black wrought orcol, but they kept them telepathic, if Jane was correctly judging the little silent looks between them all. While she grilled five steaks and scrambled a dozen eggs, Killzone left, right before Erick came downstairs.

When Erick saw her there, waiting for him at the table, steaks and eggs and salad already set up on his plate, he paused. With the most resigned, deadpan voice, he asked, “What’s happening.”

Jane began, “I’ve been invited to join the Army because Bulgan is the lowest man on the totem pole and me being there, flaunting him, will keep him down at the bottom, and not a threat to Spur. Or anyone else that he wasn’t already a threat to.” She paused. When Erick didn’t immediately interrupt, Jane continued, “I’m going to accept. [Teleport] is blocked if a Shade so much as looks at you, but as soon as I eat enough shadow essences, I’ll be able to [Shadowalk], both as a spider, and as a person. That skill still works in my human body.” She added, “That’s one of the main reasons the Mage Trio were willing to pay 10000 gold on the corpse.”

Erick gazed at her, saying nothing.

She waited.

Erick remained quiet. He stood there at the entrance to the kitchen dining room, thinking.

He sighed.

“Good.” Erick sat down at the table, in front of his plate. “I approve. Be sure to run away as fast as you can if you ever see a Shade. They don’t look like those big monsters we saw yesterday… Ah… No two days ago.” Erick stared at her, saying, “They look like they looked in life, but with all the powers of those giant forms.”

“Um. Yeah? Okay?” Jane was flummoxed. Her words didn’t work right. Erick was supposed to yell and scream. Not… Accept what Jane was saying. But. She could take the win. “Well. Sure. Uh.” She started digging in to her own plate of steak and eggs and salad. She stopped. She turned to Erick. “It’s called [Avatar of Melemizargo]. I’ve read up on the place and the various known dangers… rather extensively. Both first hand accounts and accredited treatises. I’ve done a lot of research before I decided to pursue this option. Ar’Kendrithyst is home to some of the highest level monsters on the continent… unless I were to go mucking around in the forests nine thousand kilometers up north. But the rogue dragons up there are much more dangerous than giants and… And other things… in the Dead City.” She quickly added, “And unless I attack the wrong things, I might not ever see a Shade. There’s only 38 known and another 2 suspected Shades, in nearly a million cubic kilometers of dense cityscape. Stay away from the Spire and the Gardens, and the territories, and you… you should be safe.”

Erick nodded, saying, “I approve, Jane. You’re smart, you’re good. Just promise me that you’ll always escape instead of fight, if you look overwhelmed.”

“… I promise to help my teams and myself survive to the best of my ability.”

“… I guess that’s as good as I’m going to get.” Erick sighed. “I’d love to tell you not to go searching for so much danger, but that’s impossible. We’re in danger all the time; but you’re aware of it, and you’re proactive. I approve.”

Jane had dished out dinner, and now sat down at her seat, unsure of everything.

As Erick cut in to his steak, Jane still didn’t know what was going on. She expected a massive fight. She glanced over to Teressa and Poi and Rats, who were divvying up the other steaks Jane had cooked; they had been expecting a massive fight, too.

What was going on, here?

She asked, “What’s going on here, Dad? I expected a fight.”

“You’ve been right about a lot of things. And I had like… four days to think about this, I think? Time was funny during a godly intercession I had with Rozeta. She introduced me to the souls of the people I killed, and there was some closure, and then I spent a lot of time thinking.” He shrugged. “These are my conclusions.”

Rats almost dropped the food, but Teressa and Poi were right there to stop a problem before it happened. A plate still clattered, though. Jane turned away from the drama in the kitchen to focus on her father. He pointedly looked away from Rats, too.

Jane said, “Okay. That’s… Good? Good conclusions.”

“Yup!” Erick had already eaten a bite of steak; as he sliced into the rest, he said, “This is good.”

“… Thanks, Dad.”

“You used those spices from Ratchet, yeah?”

“I did. A bit of both blends, actually.”

“It’s good!” He took a bite of salad. “I miss ranch dressing, though.”

Jane giggled.

The change of atmosphere from some dreadful thing to talking about ranch dressing was par for the course, for her father. He liked to keep things light and airy, except when he didn’t.

Jane had expected this to be a heavy conversation.

But it wasn’t.

Jane returned to eating her olive oil and vinegar dressing salad.

Then she had a thought.

“Ranch dressing is...” Jane rattled off, “Equal parts mayo, buttermilk, sour cream, a bit of chives, onion powder, garlic powder, and more dill than the other herbs. And salt, black pepper, and lemon.” Jane paused. She waved off, “And something else, too. Parsley? Maybe.”

Erick stopped eating, then laughed. He asked, “Why haven’t you made any! You love it, too.”

“It’s just food. And I don’t have [Grow].”

“Food is wonderful! You should get [Grow]!”

“You know what’s wonderful? Potatoes. I miss potatoes, Dad. And corn! Grilled corn to go with the grilled steaks.”

“I’ll make some when you make me ranch dressing~”

Jane smiled. “I’ll write down the recipe. Not sure how to make mayo, though.”

“Oh! That’s easy. Oil, egg, mustard seeds, and salt. Blend, then drizzle more oil in slowly while blending really well the whole time. Add some lemon juice at the end. I made some spicy mayo for the last neighborhood party and got to shove that gourmet mix right in Francine’s face. You remember her— of course you remember her! Well! My bowl was empty. Hers was full.” He stopped. He said, “I need to make lemons. Lemon juice is in everything.”

“Don’t forget the potatoes!” She paused. She asked, “How do you make sour cream? Can’t have mashed potatoes without sour cream.”

“Cream and lemon juice!”

Jane laughed. Erick smiled.

Jane liked seeing her dad smile; he was usually full of laughs and jokes, and while most of them were terrible, he tried so, so much harder than the dads of all of the other kids, back when Jane was a kid herself. He was a really good guy. Jane hoped that this adjustment she was seeing was something good; something to be encouraged. Not just a candle flickering bright right before it guttered to ash.

Jane and Erick both stayed up for a few hours, then they both went back to their own beds.

They both slept till the sun came up.

Poi, Rats, and Teressa took turns staying awake, though, each of them catching a few more hours of sleep during the night.

- - - -

The next morning, Jane did some stretches, had a light breakfast, said ‘later’ to her father, then went to the Courthouse to sign up for Spur’s ‘Army’. She filled out her paperwork, then got called in to the Lieutenant’s office. There sat Jane’s first problem, in the form of a grey metal wrought dragonkin named Liquid, second in command to Spur’s Army.

“DENIED.” Liquid gleefully smiled as she slammed a red stamp across Jane’s paperwork. “You’re missing several necessary skills! Good bye!”

Jane almost phhhbt’d. “What am I missing?”

Liquid slid Jane back her failed paperwork. “I’m not your mother; do some research.”

Jane snapped up her paperwork, then went to figure out where she fucked up. Jane had heard stories about the logistical side of the Army being led by a grade-A asshole, but to actually see it in person was a different experience entirely.

She paused in the middle of the Courthouse. She remembered back to her first day, when she and her father were being led by a bluescale rookie to Irogh’s office, and the bluescale got into some yelling match with a grey metal wrought dragonkin; that grey metal wrought was the one Jane had just spoken to.

That had been Liquid.

Jane experimentally clapped with one hand, like Bluescale had done.

Redscale Taro was walking by, on his way to somewhere, but he stopped and laughed when he saw Jane clap with one hand. “She’s kind of a sandflea, isn’t she?” He clapped with one hand, his claws clacking against scales.

“What does the hand thing mean? I’ve never seen anyone else use the gesture.”

Taro shook his head. “No one knows; but it pisses her off.” He pointed to her papers, “Don’t do it while you’re actually in the Army, though. She’ll make your life hell.”

She asked, “Would you happen to know the full prerequisite—”

Some other people rushed over to talk to Taro. The new people looked concerned and talked loudly.

Jane said, “Nevermind. Thanks, Taro,” as she walked away.

Taro waved her goodbye, but was already trying to defuse whatever situation the new people were throwing at him.

Jane looked around, trying to decide where to find out what she needed to know. She had thought she was prepared; she had read up on the prerequisites for joining the Army, and she had already ticked off every box. But apparently she hadn’t.

Irogh’s blue door was ajar.

Well that was as good a lead as any.

Jane walked across the courthouse and knocked on the open blue door.

“Come in!”

Jane entered. “Hello. Quick questions, if you have a moment?”

Irogh set down his book. “I certainly do.”

Jane stepped into the room. She did not sit down. “What prerequisites am I missing to get past Lieutenant Liquid and into the Army? Killzone invited me, and I checked all the boxes, so… I’m not sure what’s the problem.”

Irogh made a small gesture with one hand and the blue door shut. He said, “There are several unlisted prerequisites: [Telepathy], [Prestidigitation], and some way to kill 10 to 20 shadowolves at once, under ideal conditions. Most people achieve this with [Force Crash: Decay], or [Chain Force Beam], or some other method. If you have [Shadowalk] you can forgo the kill requirement, but there’s no way around [Telepathy] and [Prestidigitation]. The first is used to communicate, the second is used to communicate when the first can’t be used, and to leave trails for others to follow. You are also required to have 2 free points that a commander can call upon to spend how they see fit, at any point in time.”

“… Literally none of that was in the paperwork.”

“Yup.” Irogh just nodded, like he could say more, but also he couldn’t.

“What other requirements can [Shadowalk] let you ignore?”

“Do you have [Shadowalk]?”

Jane frowned. She did not. She asked, “Is there a way to get about a thousand more shadow essences?”

“Yes. You could go to the Underworld entrance, to the north; a lot of shadow monsters spill out from the Sinkhole. Though you should be exceptionally careful about using your spider form there; being an adventurer is already dangerous enough without painting a target on your back, and there are a lot of adventurers in that area. Other than that, you should be able to find a shadow essence every hundred wolves or so.”

Jane felt her stomach drop. So much for wolf farming.

“One last question: I thought [Telepathy] was restricted by law?”

“It is. But you won’t get prosecuted unless you abuse it; every soldier has [Telepathy].” Irogh asked, “Are you sure that’s all your questions? I can help more than this.”

Jane thought. She asked, “Would wading into a pack of wolves with a [Force Shard Aura] check off that box of ‘capable of killing 20 wolves at once’?”

“Yes. They swarm when they can. So, if there aren’t any cats directing the wolves, and you can survive such a maneuver, an invisible [Force Shard Aura] will satisfy this requirement. But wolves won’t approach if they see danger flying all around you. They’re dumb, but not that dumb.”

Jane smiled. She already had [Invisible Shard Aura].

Invisible Shard Aura, 4 MP per second, close range

A storm of invisible blades surrounds you, dealing 25 + WIL damage.

Jane said, “Thank you very much, Irogh.”

He gestured at the door; it opened with a click. “Anytime, Jane.”

- - - -

Jane stood on the Courthouse steps and looked at her Status.

Jane Flatt

Human, age: 22

Level 33, Class: None

Exp: 381,601/570,288,700

Class: -/-

Points: 2

1500/1500

1500 per day

1800/1800

1500 per day

Strength

Vitality

Willpower

Focus

Favored Spell waiting!

2 free points. Enough for [Prestidigitation] and [Telepathy], but not enough to satisfy the ‘2 free points’ requirement.

… She could do this. She could get this done today. One more level was only, like, 30 mimics? That’s… doable. Theoretically. Jane frowned. For not the first time, she was more than a little jealous of her father, and especially of [Withering].

Jane rushed over to the Adventurer’s Guild and picked up a kill quest for 10 crystal mimics. Getting the quest itself didn’t take long. Mimic kill quests were basically just rolling up to the window and telling the receptionist that you’re going to kill some mimics. But Paril, the tealscale on duty, liked to talk.

“Are you venturing with anyone else?” asked Paril.

“Solo,” said Jane. “Not sure where, though.”

“You be careful out there, love. There’s hunters out there in the Forest.”

Jane thought this would be a quick trip to the Guild, but hearing ‘hunter’, Jane paused. “Hunter?” she asked. “Really?” She looked to the board. “Is there a bounty? What level are they? Where are they?”

“Oh, gosh, no. No bounty yet. A team came in missing four of six people not an hour ago, claiming the killers were at least level 40. Mog’s debriefing them now.” Paril said, “The quest will probably go up this afternoon but hunters don’t like to stick around. Or maybe they will? This particular group was out west at the thousand kilometer ring. So just don’t stick around that and you should be fine. But you never know with adventurer killers. Sickos sometimes stick around, taunting others into ambushes in hopes of a high level payday.” Paril chastised, “Don’t get suckered into those kinds of fights, Jane!”

“I don’t plan on it, but if there’s no quest, then I have work to do. Thanks for the warning, Paril.”

“You take care, now, and watch your back!”

Jane smiled, nodding. She would have eight eyes out there; she could certainly watch her own back, and front, and sides, and the skies, all at the same time.

- - - -

Jane stood under the open sky, far from Spur, but her view was from a thousand feet above, with a [Scry] eye. She was alone out here, as far as she could see. She had to [Teleport] twice, traveling 1570 kilometers east with two trips, to get to this barren hunting ground.

There shouldn’t be any interruptions. She wasn’t anywhere near the thousand kilometer ring around Spur where adventurers liked to congregate.

She plotted a preliminary course, her [Scry] eye traveling fast and sure, from the crystal mimic in front of her to the next, and the next. Jane stopped at four mimics, then she returned to herself. She stripped, and for a brief moment, the sun felt good on her bare skin, and wind flowed through her hair. She breathed. She relaxed. She read her skill one more time. It hadn’t changed since she ate that entire spider.

Polymorph, instant, 500 MP

Change your physical body.

Familiar Forms: 2/6

~Jane Flatt

~Shadow Spider

She had read a lot of books about [Polymorph] and spoken to several people in the Guild, and the Oceanside Trio, about [Polymorph]; they all said the same thing. [Polymorph] is perfectly safe as long as you keep 2 or more under your Familiar Form cap. At 1 Familiar Form slot every 5 Willpower, she had room for 2 more forms before problems started to happen.

[Polymorph].

Everything turned to numb, unfeeling mush, for one bright second.

Feeling came back, slowly, first with thousands of tiny air currents across hundreds of thousands of sensory hairs, all across her body. Then came sight from eight eyes, two large forward eyes evolved for maximum hunting ability, six smaller ones to make sure nothing and no one was sneaking up on her. Her fangs felt like daggers attached to her lips, her feet gripped the sand and sunk in a bit. She tapped the ground with her forelegs, she tapped the ground with her back legs. She wiggled her long abdomen and tapped all around with each leg.

[Scry].

A ninth eye, a nightsky blue, appeared in front of Jane’s forward two eyes.

Shadow spiders had a lot of innate abilities, but aside from this one's [Shadowblend] that even worked in Jane’s normal form, none of the spider’s abilities were listed under any Script description that Jane could find; she wasn’t a [Polymage]. She could only activate monster abilities by knowing what they were. Her eyes were the easiest to activate; they were always on. Some sort of [Detect Magic] ability was obvious enough; that’s how the spiders saw the house [Ward]s so clearly. There was also [Darkvision] and [Detect Heat], though Jane was sure the abilities, whatever they were, weren’t called that. The point was, is that Jane saw her own [Scry] eye looking like a floating ball of magic, even without Meditation active.

And Jane saw herself at the same time.

She was a terrifying monster; absolute black with flickering darkness here and there, but the shadows on her were less than those on the original spider.

Jane-Spider was an 8 foot wide hunting spider of unequal measure. She had a long, tapered abdomen with spinnerets able to produce several types of thread, including sticky, steel, anti-magic, gossamer, and net versions of spider silk. Her legs were strong, able to fully utilize her 25 Strength; she could bend inch thick metal bars in both forms. The Guild had lots of those so people could prove their Strength, and Jane had taken one home with her for her own experimentation. Her fangs were massive, combat-knife type fangs, and could apparently suck a cow dry, though she never tried that, nor would she want to. They should be able to also inject paralyzing venom, [Decay] venom, and [Anti-Mind] venom —accounts were hazy about the specifics— but Jane only felt one venom sac behind each of her fangs.

Diet probably accounted for the various known effects.

Jane would likely never have access to anything except [Decay] venom.

She had doubts about her ability to produce anti-magic silk, too. She had tested many different types of silk on herself, and none of them produced the absolute disconnect from the Script that Jane remembered. This was also likely a failure of diet that she would have to live with; she wasn’t about to go live life as a spider.

With the preliminary study of her body done, she abandoned the [Scry], and prepared for the combat portion of her experimentation.

Flex. Then—

Hop!

Jane-spider launched fifteen feet into the air.

She laughed, and her crackling, spider-voice carried on the wind.

The world seemed to unveil itself as she reached the ultimate height of her jump. She saw so, so much, her eight eyes picking up so many details that her human eyes would have missed completely. Her [Detect Magic] effect, or whatever it was, picked up on every Crystal Mimic for miles; they were little beacons to her spider sight. It was beautiful; it was surprising.

Jane was still working out exactly what abilities she had.

Except for one.

Shadowblend, close range, 1 to 10 MP per second

Become one with the shadows.

[Shadowblend] was the only skill that translated into her normal self, and, like all monster skills, only had one rank, and almost no description. Normally, [Shadowblend] would have been considered a failure; people want [Shadowalk]. But Killzone seemed to imply that she could upgrade [Shadowblend] to [Shadowalk] if she ate enough shadow essences as a spider.

How many essences to [Shadowalk] if you started off with the body of a shadowol—

Too much thinking. Get your head in the game, Jane. You’re here for a reason.

[Conjure Armor].

Brilliant blue cloth armor folded around her black chitin, enveloping her body. She gathered up her clothes and wrapped them in a bundle of normal silk, pulled from her spinnerets. With a bit of sticky silk to attach the clothes-sack to her abdomen, she was almost ready.

[Conjure Weapon].

A pair of foot long blue blades attached themselves to her raised forward legs, like spikes at the end of spikes. She attacked the air with them, testing balance.

Jab! Jab! Jab!

Balance felt good. Weight was great. Weapons seemed quick, and sure. They felt like punching daggers, but made her long legs look like spears. They were probably the correct choice of weapon. She would find out soon enough. This was her first time experimenting with her spider-self in a combat setting.

She turned to the crystal mimic, still fifty feet away, still playing the part of an agave, but Jane saw through the lie. It was so easy! With her spider eyes, she saw the magics in the monster’s body; the location of the rad at the mimic’s heart, and the streamers of magic that flowed in veins through the rest of the crystal form. She wouldn’t even need to [Scry] between mimics; she could just jump and spot the next nearest one.

Shadow spiders seemed the perfect ambush predator, especially if this [Detect Magic] ability translated to people using ongoing magical effects.

Too bad Jane was more the direct-type.

She tore across the sands of the Crystal Forest, rushing with six main legs, preparing two forward punching daggers to tear deep into the mimic. Tap tap tap. The mimic noticed. Tap tap tap. Jane ran faster; the mimic started to move. Taptaptaptaptaptap—

Leap!

[Invisible Shard Aura]!

A hundred blades of invisible force swung around Jane, sweeping in from the right like the start of a concentrated, glass-filled tornado. Jane’s six back legs found perfect footholds on the edge of the agave’s sharp spines, then grabbed hold with all of her Strength score behind them. The monster thrashed, but couldn’t attack, not through Jane’s superior, 6 legged leverage. Jane’s forward spear-knives slipped deep into the monster’s center, directly left and right of the central rad, ripping through magical and mundane arteries. Her shard aura shredded the monster, as she held there, digging deep gouges into crystal flesh, spilling clear goop across the sands.

The monster flailed. It didn’t matter.

Twenty damage here, forty damage there; the monster tried to stab, but couldn’t land a direct blow, Jane’s grips and Strength keeping its most dangerous spines in check, her invisible storm of blades constantly slicing deep into faux crystal flesh, clipping off 50 HP, five times a second.

Bigger monsters suffered more with AoE auras, and Jane's aura covered the whole body of the mimic.

The monster thrashed. One spider-foot slipped, a hundred damage cut into her [Ward] as her leg skidded along the sharp edge. More heavy damage came as Jane lost her footing. She leapt away before the mimic could land a critical blow, [Strike]ing her own two swords wide as she left, ripping through the central stalk, almost splitting it in half. The monster screamed, shrill, then quieter.

The mimic tried to run, tried to fight, but it just bled out, too much damage done near its central mass for it to survive. Jane watched as it died. A message popped up out of the corner of her vision.

You have slain Crystal Mimic A!

95% participation!

+20,693,935 exp

The whole fight took about ten seconds.

Good experience, but the kill was kind of sloppy. Dad was right about at least one thing: no need to inflict excess suffering, especially on a pest species. This mimic had suffered too much. Jane could definitely do better. She harvested the rad from the mimic, and slipped it into a silk pouch. By the time she made her way to the next mimic, her mana and her personal [Ward] were both back up to full.

She killed Mimic B much quicker. The key was [Strike]ing multiple times in quick succession, which was easily accomplished with two quick thrusting forelegs. Everything else was the same, from holding down the counter attack, to attacking around the central rad.

Mimic C went even faster. She used [Silent Movement X], this time.

The remaining mimics never knew what killed them.

- - - -

Jane finished off mimic #22 with perfectly practiced silent ease, when the notification came. She leveled.

Jane Flatt

Human, age: 22

Level 34, Class: None

Exp: 13,255,031/922,746,500

Class: -/-

Points: 4

1500/1500

1500 per day

1800/1800

1500 per day

Strength

Vitality

Willpower

Focus

Favored Spell waiting!

She bought [Prestidigitation] and [Telepathy].

Prestidigitation 1, 1 hour, short range, 10 MP

Create minor magical effects that last for 5 minutes per spell level.

Exp: 0/100

Telepathy 1, self, super long range, 1 MP per minute + Variable

Communicate with the minds of people you know. 1 connection available per level. Unwanted connections are harmful to caster.

Exp: 0/100

A few hours had passed since she started killing mimics, but she was done, for now. If she really needed to, she could probably push to level 35. Maybe 36, if she really had to, but that would take hundreds of mimics.

… She could do that.

But did she need to? No. She planned on getting into the Dead City today. Even though her Mana Exhaustion limit was something like 15000, she had already gone through a few thousand by now. Who knew how much she would need to keep in reserve once she got inside the walls?

She dispelled her weapons and her armor.

[Polymorph].

Jane slipped out of her spider self, back into human form. The spider silk bag that had been wrapped around her abdomen now hung loose around her legs. She felt her skin as she extracted herself from the silk net. Yup. All normal skin. She felt her scalp, and slipped her fingers through smooth, human hair that barely touched her shoulders. Two eyes, no fangs. Just to be sure nothing was off, she looked at herself with [Scry].

Yup. All normal.

There had not been a single instance where she had retained other-animals body parts after she had transformed back, but still… She was a little paranoid. Transforming into that not-bear abomination had really freaked her out.

She ripped open the silk bag and put on her clothes, then placed the sack of rads into her shoulderbag, leaving the rest of the spider silk behind, to dry out in the midday sun. It was good to be human again, so she took off on a light jog toward Spur. Jane reveled in the feel of blood pumping through her body, savoring the desert air. Her hair hit her in the face, though. She slowed. She took a hair clip from her bag, and put her hair up in a bun at the back of her head. She had had short hair, but every time she came back to her own body, her hair was shoulder length, again.

When she had enough of a jog, she stopped to stare at the sky.

In a blip of blue, Jane moved a thousand kilometers closer to Spur, then in another blip, she was one kilometer from the eastern gates. Here and there in a wide open part of the Crystal Forest around her, other people were either blipping in, or blipping out, in teams or singular. There weren’t any roads to Spur; [Teleport] was the only way to travel. If you weren’t in the Wayfarer’s Guild, the Guard tended to frown upon people ‘porting into the city proper.

She said hello to the guards at the gates; they said ‘hello’ back. They knew her well.

- - - -

Jane turned in her mimic kill quest by verifying the truth of her actions over a glowing green stone.

“They caught the hunters,” said Paril, the tealscale receptionist, writing down Jane’s actions in her ledger. “It’s so weird, too!”

“Who were they?”

“The guy who came in lied to Guildmaster Mog. He was the hunter, trying to cover his ass.” Paril handed over 15 gold—

Jane put her hand up. “Ah. Direct deposit, actually. Sorry about that. What about this liar, now?”

“Sure thing, hon.” Paril took the gold back. “This guy thought he could pull one over on us! Anywho, he’s sitting in jail now, but he’s headed for execution unless a [Witness] reveals something we don’t already know. The nerve of some people. Are you going out again?”

“Not for any quests, no.” Jane smiled. “I like talking to you, Paril, but I won’t be able to talk for a while. I’m joining Spur’s Army, if I can get through the prerequisites.”

Paril paused. She frowned. “Jane. You’re reckless. Don’t get your father mad. He’s liable to blow a hole in that wall if you die, and then we’re all screwed.”

“I have [Shadowblend] and I’ve read about how the city works.” Jane smirked. “I’m glad to know where your concern actually lies, though.”

“Adventurers got to look out for themselves, then everyone else. I used to be out there with all of you, till I saw one too many people lie down and never get back up. Don’t let that happen to you, you hear?”

“I won’t let that happen to me.” Jane waved, walking away, saying, “See you later, Paril.”

“Bye, Jane! I mean it! Be careful in there.”

- - - -

Jane laid an updated application on the receptionist’s desk. In a few minutes, she was called in to see Liquid. The grey metal wrought was not very gleeful, this time.

This time, Jane had added [Telepathy] and [Prestidigitation] in the ‘extra competencies section’, along with 2 extra points to spend, and her ability to wade into a pack of monsters with an AOE damage aura, as well as [Shadowblend]. The application made no hint that any of that was needed. All the application expected of the applicant was at least 600 HP, 600 MP, the ability to kill shadowolves, a 1 month commitment to start, and a letter of recommendation or a contact in the Army. Jane had no letter, but she listed her contact as ‘Killzone’.

Liquid sighed. She picked up a different rubber stamp, and said, “Approved,” as she stamped the word across the application. Liquid looked straight at Jane, saying, “This is not a game. You should have taken the failed application and stuck to the world outside the Dead City. People like you die all the time in there.”

“No offense meant, ma’am, but you’ve never seen anyone like me.”

“I am two hundred and eighty years old. I have seen every single type of person there ever was, or ever will be.” Liquid frowned. “And I have loved every single one of them like they were family. 90% of them died in the first year. I keep telling myself to stop caring for the new kids, but I can’t help it. So if you could, be more of a bitch so I can write you off early.”

“Then maybe we should kill all the Shades, ma’am, and take back the city.”

Liquid full stopped. She began to chuckle, breaking into a full laugh. Then she sighed, and said, “If you can do it without inciting Great Purge… More power to us all.” She frowned. “You have been accepted into Spur’s Army. Your contract is renewed monthly at the discretion of me, up to the first year, where you can then sign on for a longer contract and be awarded better duties. As a new recruit, your main duties will be monster killing, and whatever the officers on location demand of you…”

Jane listened. She knew everything Liquid was saying before she signed up, but it was Liquid’s prerogative to make sure Jane knew what she was getting into. Jane wasn’t ready to commit years to Ar’Kendrithyst, but after a few months, who knew? Maybe she would. From what she had read and heard around the Guild and around town, the Army and the Guard were two of the best jobs around, and in the Army, Jane could expect to help a lot of people, and gain a lot of levels.

The Army hadn’t been Jane’s initial choice, but the soldier life might actually be better than the life of a solo adventurer.

Liquid handed Jane some more papers, saying, “Even if you haven’t listened to everything I’ve said—”

Okay. Maybe Jane should listen a bit more.

“—Hold this in your heart: Spur’s Army is not traditional. We are an army of irregulars, since transient adventurers do become soldiers of Spur for short periods of time. Our two main goals are to secure our territory, and rescue adventuring teams from themselves, UNLESS they are under direct attack from a Shade. In the case of a Shade, if the team can make it back to Forward Base on their own, they’re safe. We WILL NOT rescue people from Shades outside of our territory. You can let people try to rescue their own members, but be aware that letting anyone fight a Shade will only end in them dying, too. Even if an unfortunate soul is just one step outside the boundary, we will not rescue them from a Shade. Do you need me to repeat any of that? Have I made myself clear?”

“As air.” Jane gathered the papers. They were directions to Forward Camp, a map of the camp and the surrounding area, processing papers for the person on duty there, and a map of Ar’Kendrithyst. Jane flipped through the main map; it was several pages long and about as detailed as any other map she had been able to find. A top layer, three middle layers, three bottom layers, most of them with great big blank spots. A lot of blank spots, actually. “What’s with the blank spots?”

“Killzone is waiting for you.” Liquid put her right fist over where her heart would have been, if she were an actual dragonkin and not a grey metal wrought. “Dismissed. May the Relevant Entities of the Script look kindly upon your soul.”

Jane stood, put her fist over her heart, and walked out of Liquid’s office.

- - - -

First, Jane went to her dad.

He was in the garden, making not-lemon trees. Greyscale spice lady Ratchet was there, talking with him about the citrus he was [Grow]ing, as they cut into the sunshine yellow fruits for a taste.

“Oh! So sour!” Ratchet said, her mouth scrunching. “I like it!”

“This one’s the winner!” Erick saw Jane. “Jane! Welcome back.”

“I got approved for the Army. I’m going there right now.”

While Erick’s face suddenly dropped, Jane turned on [Telepathy], and spoke to him in her mind.

‘I also got this, so I’ll ‘call’ you whenever.’

Erick smiled wide, rushing to hug Jane, flooding the feeler of her own mana that linked her to him, projecting his voice into her mind, ‘Ah haha! Good! Yes! Call me and talk to me!’

They embraced, then Jane pulled away, thinking,‘You can probably ask Poi if you want to talk to me, you know. Otherwise I’ll call you every… Every other day. I’m going to be very busy.’

‘Yes yes! You will. I’ll be busy—’

“What’s all this quietness!” Ratchet asked, “Am I losing my best customer to the Army?”

Jane smiled. “Yes, Ms Ratchet. Going there right now; just had to say good bye to Dad, but also ‘I’ll talk to you tonight’.” She turned to Erick. “I love you, Dad. I’m not going very far, but you should not come. I don’t want you in the Dead City, okay?”

“You’re worried about me?” Erick said, “I’m worried about you!”

“I’ll be fine. Don’t go inventing any more world altering spells, though, please.”

Teressa was guarding Erick right now; from her position several feet away and without a helmet on, she was faintly smiling.

“I’ll try not to, but who knows what the future holds?” Erick smiled, a tear quickly falling, then brushed away by the back of his hand. “I love you, Jane. Call me when you get settled.”

“I will.” Jane pulled her shoulderbag around to her front, then pulled out the spidersilk wrapped rads she had harvested from the mimics. “And these are for you.”

Erick stepped away from the silk bag. “Please don’t tell me that’s an egg sack.”

Jane burst out laughing. “No! It’s rads from mimics!” She shoved them at her father. “Take them!”

Erick reluctantly held the spider silk bag. Then he set it down on the ground.

He said, “When I get grandchildren, they better be humanoid.”

Jane laughed again. “I love you, Dad.”

“I love you, too, Jane.” He wiped a tear away. His voice choked, “Ca— Call me later. Okay?”

“I will.”

Jane stepped away, waved, then blipped into the desert north east of Ar’Kendrithyst.

She stared at the sky.

Then she had a little cry.

When she was done, she looked up at the Dead City. She frowned. Her [Teleport] was supposed to get her a little closer than this.

Were the Shades already looking at her?

They might be.

They were. Definitely. One of them was, at least; probably that one.

Probably.

She gazed at the massive, towering walls, then looked right. Spur was somewhere far off in the distance, maybe 40 kilometers in that direction. She turned back toward the wall, to look up, and up. And up. The Dead City was at least two miles away. She could walk… but she had the mana. And she had to make sure of what she was seeing.

[Teleport].

She blipped three feet to the left, not gaining any forward distance. She knew she hadn't gone far because she looked to the right, and saw her footprints in the sand.

Yup. That Shade was here, watching her, preventing her [Teleport].

Jane started walking.

The walls got much, much bigger than she ever thought they could be.

It was early afternoon by the time Jane saw the first overt evidence of the magic of the Dead City. The sun was just over the walls; its shadow in front of Jane a clearly marked line of darkness. The shadow flexed as it crept forward, keeping pace with the sun’s travel across the sky.

Jane smiled and stepped through the dark line. Cold crept up her jeans as the sun vanished. She sighed. It was a refreshing cold. Bracing. Invigorating. Not nearly as deadly as she expected. The line of shadow wasn’t the Shade watching, it was just a well known effect of the Dead City. The Shade was somewhere else.

Soon, Jane saw the Crack in the Wall and the flapping blue flag; she was right on course. As she neared, the walls seemed to loom directly overhead, and the sheer magnitude of it all finally began to feel real.

Jane shook a little, and whether that was from excitement, or fear, she couldn’t tell.

Probably a bit of both.

The Crack beckoned; a massive rent a third of the height of the wall, wide enough for ten people to run side by side. A giant solid blue flag on a hundred foot pole, right in the middle of the Crack, flapped on a strong breeze streaming out from inside the city. As Jane neared, the flapping of the flag and the wind were the only sounds for miles around. The Crack was dark black just inside the edge of the wall, which showed the wall’s browns and whites as nothing more than a thin, foot-wide veneer. Jane walked past the flag, into the Crack. The walls did not feel oppressive from this angle, because, as she walked further, darkness gave way to brilliant crystal light.

She easily passed a hundred feet of dark stone wall, and now, the walls were not black at all.

Deep reds, smokey grey glows, shimmering violets; The wall was not a wall of stone, stacked and manufactured by long dead artisans, but rather, it was grown. And here, Jane was seeing for the first time, exactly what the Dead City truly was.

Ar’Kendrithyst was a geode.

Kendrithyst was both the name of the original city, and the name for the red-violet-smokey crystal that filled the interior.

Jane walked down the sands that had filled in the Crack, into the wind pouring from the interior of the Dead City. She smelled nothing. The air was moist, but not full of life. The light of the afternoon sun bounced in the walls all around her, shimmering smoke and red and purple inside the solid, cracked crystal city wall. The path ahead of her was flat, and clear, with shimmering kendrithyst lights playing across brown sands. There were no obstructions; this path was routinely cleared, but not by the Army.

“HellooOOooooOO! New SoOOldier!”

Jane paused. She had been expecting this.

A very old woman appeared on the sands in the middle of the path. She was a human, wearing rather boring clothes; tunic, pants, no shoes. But the staff in her hands was kendrithyst crystal, and her eyes were black with white irises. She was Fallopolis, Fall of the Metropolis, the only Shade everyone knew was absolutely crazy. All the Shades enjoyed tormenting new people, so the Crack had never been sealed, but Fallopolis actively and openly worked against the other Shades.

That’s what people said, anyway. Mostly, Fallopolis just kept the Crack open, and generally ensured people made it to Forward Base.

Generally.

Jane waited for the Shade to say something else; she wasn’t about to hang herself with her own words, at least not right now.

Fallopolis had paused, too.

Five seconds passed.

“OH ohOH!” Fallopolis spoke with a wide, happy grin, “It’s yoOOu! You’re on your own, girly. Better run! They’re coming for yoOOu!” She instantly vanished.

The barking of shadowolves crowded the Crack.

Jane ran forward. She had one brief moment to enjoy the view, so she took it.

Ar’Kendrithyst truly was a jewel. The afternoon sun spilled across a landscape of crystal towers and countless bridges, all made of shimmering reds and dozens of violets and smokey quartz of all kinds. There was no horizon, no end to the magnificent crystal city, and all of it glowed brilliant in the sunlight.

Ahead of Jane, the sands of the Crystal Forest spilled directly onto a dark red crystal road.

To her left and her right, were about a hundred wolves on either side, running through the crystal buildings, for shadow played with light everywhere in Ar’Kendrithyst, and if you had the ability, you could walk through the kendrithyst itself.

Jane activated [Swift Movement] without a conscious thought; the skill was so ingrained that she used it almost unconsciously. The next skill did take conscious thought, though.

[Radiant Shard Aura].

Pure radiance flowed from Jane as she raced directly ahead, Forward Base was a good two kilometers away at the end of the red crystal bridge. Nearby wolves cried out in pain; the light blinding to everyone but her. As she left the sands and touched down on the road, her radiance crashed through the road, blinding a hundred more wolves who had been waiting for her. Some of them failed to lift through the road and attack. Others fell from their perch, howling as they fell down, down, into the city, dozens of feet if they were lucky, thousands if they were not.

Jane raced forward, quickly leaving the ambush behind. Her aura scraped and crashed against the crystal road, but whatever kendrithyst was, it was far, far stronger than a tier 2 [Force Shrapnel] aura.

A giant hand appeared in front of Jane; grasping, reaching.

[Shadowblend].

If the wolves could do it, so could she. Jane turned off her aura and melded into the crystal bridge.

This was the easiest [Shadowblend] Jane had ever done. She stayed inside the bridge until she passed the giant—

Until she passed two giants!

She popped up onto the bridge, racing forward, Forward Base was still far, but she could still see what awaited her. Soldiers stood behind barricades at the end of the bridge. Killzone stood behind the soldiers.

Jane [Shadowblend]ed back into the bridge as a third giant tried to slap her into paste with a ten foot wide hand. He slapped the bridge instead, and the bridge cracked. Jane was already past the impact. She slipped onto the surface, out of shadow, as the bridge behind her began to break. Three hundred wolves had been chasing her, but now they weren’t. They scrambled to—

Killzone spoke to her mind, ‘Run faster.’

Jane ignored whatever was going on behind her and ran.

She ran straight ahead for two minutes, [Swift Movement] active the whole time.

She crossed the finish line to zero applause.

… She hadn’t been expecting applause. But she was expecting something. Anything, really.

A nearby orcol with a bit stronger bearing than everyone else, said, “Welcome to Hell Month, rookie. I’m Sargent Nanark. You are the lowest woman on the team, right now.” He pointed back the way Jane had come. “For your first mission, kill your welcoming committee. Giants require concentrated head shots and Decay magic.”

Jane turned around.

Firstly, she noticed how magnificent everything was. Spur-sized towers of crystal, smaller towers of crystal; red, violet, and smokey white, all glittering in the sun. Bridges of crystal ran throughout the whole tangled mess.

Then she looked at the giants. Three of them, each five hundred feet tall, climbing around the city like they were toddlers on a jungle gym. Hundreds of shadowolves followed their own paths through the kendrithyst.

A redscale soldier next to Jane asked, “You don’t also have [Withering], do you?”

“Afraid not!”

“Figured.” Redscale readied a staff. “They wouldn’t let you in here if you did.”

Sargent Nanark stepped to Jane’s side. “Do you have [Force Beam]? Some other long range attack?”

“No sir, but I do have 2 points to spend and 1800 mana. Scion of Balance as well.”

Nanark schooled away a quick smile. “Buy [Force Beam]. Decay it, if you can. Giants constantly heal themselves. Aim for the heads.”

Giants roared as they crashed forward. Shadowolves echoed that roar with a shrill, cascade of anger, as they poured up from the darker depths, up through kendrithyst towers, onto the only bridge leading to Forward Base. Wolves raced around giant feet, rushing forward, slobbering for an easy meal.

Force Beam 1, instant, medium range, 25 mana

A piercing, slicing beam of hardened mana that deals 25 + ½ WIL damage for 1 second

Purchase [Force Beam] for 1 point? Yes/No

Yes.

[Force Beam].

Jane’s new [Force Beam] skill was one of twenty different beams and several different varieties that erupted from Forward Base to strike the first giant. Redscale next to Jane released one of thirty fireballs that exploded the horde. Dozens of specialized [Ward]s clipped into the bridge. Wolves who were trying to pass through the red crystal struck the [Ward Wall] and went tumbling down into kendrithyst depths.

One giant went down. A hundred wolves perished. The second and third giant died much faster, once the rhythm of Forward Base swung into high gear. Jane cast [Force Beam] enough to get up to level 5, sweeping the enemy lines with destructive force, activating the spell as fast as she could, enough to have multiples going at the same time. With Chain, from Mana Altering 9, and Decay, from Mana Altering 8, [Force Beam] cost almost 40 mana a shot, but one beam hit dozens of wolves, though the damage dropped off significantly past the first impact. That was okay, though. Jane saw why Nanark recommended Decay; the wolves couldn’t meld with the kendrithyst crystal bridge while Decay was active, either because they physically couldn’t, or because the pain of Decay destroyed their ability to [Shadowblend]. Decay also prevented healing, but she didn’t get much of a chance to observe that with the giants; they died too fast.

Jane would need to test Decay on herself to make sure she was understanding what she was seeing.

And with that bit of introspection, she looked around the courtyard; Jane was the only one going all out, firing four beams at once into the rushing horde.

This kind of attack was common. Jane needed to pull back a bit. Conserve her mana. With [Force Beam 5] lasting 5 seconds, it was already pretty efficient, but 40 mana a pop added up rather fast.

Jane eased her counter attack, making sure to keep her mana high with Meditation and only attack when the wolves got within 50 feet. Half an hour later, the final wolves chose to break from the assault rather than die to the defenders of Forward Base.

Jane was pumped. She almost smiled at her soldier neighbor, but refrained, when no one else seemed to be smiling.

Nanark spoke to her mind, ‘Inside, rookie.’

Jane turned, blood still pumping hard. Everyone except for Redscale and a few other defenders were going back inside Forward Base. She couldn’t even see Nanark, or Killzone. What she could see was Forward Base.

Like few other buildings in sight, Forward Base was very opaque, and very, very large. Easily two or maybe even three normal city blocks in diameter. From this angle, Forward Base was deep purple. Almost black. The exterior had spell slits and a few platforms for shooters, but aside from the courtyard grounds where Jane and others had repelled the assault, which was itself only about forty square feet and sandy, Forward Base was extremely plain. Like a tower in the middle of a field, with zero ornamentation, Forward Base was definitely a military structure.

‘Inside, rookie. Now,’ Killzone said.

Jane obeyed. She rushed across the small exterior grounds, toward a darkened door.

No. Not a door. A [Ward], solid black.

She frowned. She knew a little bit of what to expect from Forward Base and the monster response to someone entering from the Crack, but she was very much at the end of expectations. She did not expect a solid black [Ward], or the actual base to be occluded from sight. She poked her left hand into the [Ward], and when it came back fine, she walked through.

Jane entered into a room of bright sunlight and happy voices, of comfortable furniture and people talking and someone slinging beer behind a counter while a fountain bubbled in the center. Killzone stood right in front of her, wearing his usual solid-black orcol body, and a small smile.

“Welcome to Forward Base, rookie.” Killzone handed her a beer. “Welcome to the Army.”

Jane refrained from laughing for joy, but she did take the beer and a hearty gulp of the gold, cold brew.

A cheer rolled up from the rest of the people in the room.

“Welcome!”

“She shot good!”

“[Shadowblend], too! Welcome aboard.”

“Bulgan is going to show, though.”

Forward Base rocked with the sudden words, “FUCK BULGAN!”

Jane toasted to that, saying, “Fuck Bulgan!”

“FUCK BULGAN!”

Jane was too giddy to put anger into her cheer, but when all the people of Forward Base said those words a second time, she felt their animosity. She understood their hatred. If Bulgan showed, these people were all prepared to kill him, no matter what it cost.

Joy at arrival turned to shared anger, and she remembered, again, one of the main reasons she joined the Army.

She was here to kill Bulgan.

- - - -

Outside, at the edge of the receiving courtyard, Redscale complained to his neighbor, ‘I want beer.’

Crimsonscale said, ‘We’ll get drunk soon enough. Long as nothing else happens.’

Redscale practically shouted, ‘You just had to jinx it, didn’t you! Idiot rookie.’

Crimsonscale spat back, ‘I’ve been here for two years! Superstitious veteran.’

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