Rune Seeker

Several hours after explaining things to his father and talking to Gauto, the party sat next to the Crawling Pits dungeon interface while the storm wall rolled past overhead. Getting ready – and saying goodbye – had taken longer than they’d thought it would, and they’d barely made it down before the storm had arrived. Thankfully, all their flying mounts were fast when they wanted to be.

Well, everybody was thankful other than one, particular party member.

“I can’t believe how much you screamed,” Yanily practically guffawed at Drahn. “The stoic tracker of a hundred drops to the surface… I think the whole island heard you. Probably both.”

“I didn’t scream,” Drahn said from where he sat straight-backed against the wall. Some of the color had returned to his skin, and his body wasn’t shaking uncontrollably anymore. “It was your imagination. Or the Islander.”

“The Dracolich’s master was screaming like…?” Yanily started, but a hand from Seena on his elbow cut him off.

“Left, how long until the storm passes?” the party leader asked the double at Hiral’s side.

“Should be within the next few minutes at the most,” Left said. “If it follows the same intensity of the last few we sat through.”

“Did we really need to hide down here?” Drahn asked, and a small shudder ran the length of his body. “Will it make a difference with the rain…?”

It was one thing to talk big about going to rescue Nivian and Wule – and to come to the surface – but the rain had thousands of years of bad stories surrounding it. To enter was to die. Until Hiral and the others had proven there were ways to survive. For this, Hiral couldn’t blame Drahn about being nervous. The man had grown up being taught to fear the rain and what lurked within – even though they didn’t know exactly what that was.

“The storm wall is the worst of it,” Seena answered the tracker. “Weather wise. It’ll just be rain on the other side, though I guess it can get pretty heavy.”

“When it gets like that – with the thunder and lightning – that’s when we need to be most careful about the Enemy,” Seeyela added in. “They don’t seem to come around when it’s just a drizzle.”

“That said,” Seena continued, “I talked to the B-Rankers who went over to the Endless Tunnels – where we also need to make a stop – and they said the rain was light the whole time. They didn’t see any hint of the Enemy, and they had a high-attunement scout with them.”

“As high as Hiral?” Yanily asked.

Seena just laughed. “I don’t know if anybody else has focused all their stat points on just two attributes. And definitely not with one of them being attunement.”

“A lot do up on Fallen Reach, actually,” Hiral chimed in. “Uh, not the attunement part, but just focusing on two stats. Shapers put almost all their points into strength and endurance.”

“Which just proves how…” Drahn started.

“Don’t even,” Seena interrupted. “Enough with the racism. You’re going to need to get used to working with Makers if you want to keep running dungeons.”

“Actually,” Yanily cut in. “You must’ve had one in your party when you did this dungeon. That couldn’t have been so bad.”

“While I agree focusing entirely on strength and endurance isn’t necessarily the best option,” Hiral said. “It does make the Shapers walking tanks. Almost perfect for the role in a dungeon.”

“We had a Grower tank and healer,” Drahn said. “Why would we trust an Islander for the two roles needed to keep us alive? They’d probably…” he trailed off at a glare from the party leader. “Ahem. The only Islander with us was some scrawny man in a robe. He didn’t even do anything, just had his flying weapon contribute while he stood in the back.”

“An Academic or an Artist,” Hiral said. “You use a bow, don’t you?”

The tracker turned his head to the side to look at the aforementioned weapon leaning against the wall.

“Their Medium – the flying weapon – is no different than you standing in the back and firing arrows at the monster,” Hiral continued. He purposely kept his voice light, to not be antagonistic, but maybe educating Drahn on Makers would help get him past some of his biases.

“A bow takes skill,” Drahn said. “I need to line up my shots with precision so I don’t hit my constantly moving party members. I need to time my abilities to have the largest effect. The Islander stood in the back and barely moved. I don’t even know if he was paying attention.”

“Ah, the Medium isn’t an automatic weapon,” Hiral explained. “He probably looked like he was in a daze? That’s cause he was mentally controlling the Medium’s movements and actions, like an extension of his own body. From what Gauto told me,” he turned his words to Seena and the others, “it’s taking some getting used to.”

“I saw your sisters spacing out a bit when we ran the dungeon,” Seeyela said. “But it wasn’t too bad.”

“It’ll take practice, I guess.” Hiral shrugged. “Some people are picking it up better than others, but they need the protection of their party members for the time being.”

“Practice?” Drahn scoffed. “The man was high-C-Rank. Which just proves my point. He must’ve leeched experience off others.”

“Probably not,” Hiral said patiently. “Artists and Academics just got access to their Mediums recently, so it’s new to everybody. And, before that, they got all their experience from their trade. Artists got it from inking Shapers, while Academics got it from things like learning or being a merchant. It was a lot safer than what they’re doing now, but also a lot slower.”

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“Speaking of safer,” Left said. “Listen.” With that, the double pointed towards the ceiling.

As soon as Hiral turned his attention away from the Grower who really didn’t seem to like him – It’s Fitch all over again. Uh… hope he doesn’t become Infested too… – he noticed what Left was talking about. The constant howl of the storm wall passing by had faded slightly, and it didn’t sound like something was trying to scour the roof off their heads.

“Time to go,” Seena said, standing up in a fluid motion, though Li’l Ur hung onto her hair for balance. “Drahn, since you have a Party Interface now, and have joined our party, you should be able to see the glowing roots that will lead us from one dungeon to the next.”

“Noticed them when I left here the first time,” Drahn said while nodding. “Went to the jump point instead, though. We following them?”

Seena smirked. “Kind of.”

The tracker’s face went pale as he had a guess at what she meant.

“Left, go take a look outside while we finish cleaning up here?” Seena asked the double.

For his part, Left just nodded and shaped his Way of Shadow tattoo. As soon as he neared the darkened stairwell leading up to the surface, he became practically invisible.

“If the rain isn’t bad,” Seena continued. “We’ll take our mounts. Flying is much faster than walking if we don’t have to worry about the Enemy.”

“What if we lose sight of the roots from above?” Drahn asked.

“As a ranged damage dealer, you invested in attunement, didn’t you?” Seeyela asked, and Drahn nodded. “So did Hiral and Left. Between the three of you on Drake’s back, we’ll be fine. Worse comes to worst, we backtrack a little, and it’ll still be faster.”

“And the sooner we get to the next dungeon,” Yanily said, stuffing the last of their supplies into his Interspatial Ring, “the sooner we’re killing stuff.”

“Barely more than a drizzle out there,” Left said, emerging from the tunnel he’d left through. “Lighter rain than anything we’ve seen since we came to the surface. I don’t know whether it has something to do with Grandfather restarting the magic of the Spear of Clouds, or the Enemy avoiding the area for now, but it seems like our best chance.”

“You found the roots?” Seena asked.

“Two sets, for once,” Left said. “The first heads straight east, towards where I believe the Endless Tunnels dungeon is. The other set appears to head more northeast, in the direction of the EnSath River.”

“Towards The Horns?” Yanily asked.

“More north than that. I think your previous guess of a dungeon across the river was accurate.”

“No goats and yetis then,” Yanily said with a shrug. “Too bad. I wanted to be the one punting a few of those bleating bastards off a mountain for once.”

“You may still get your chance,” Hiral consoled the spearman. “Who knows what will be in the dungeon?”

“Enough chatting,” Seena said with a clap of her hands. “It’s time.”

The smiles faded from the surrounding faces. As soon as they stepped out of this dungeon lobby, they’d be on their way to searching for Nivian and Wule. And, though they’d grown considerably stronger since they’d left the surface last time, that didn’t make the place any less dangerous.

The Enemy was still out there, and they didn’t know how far they’d have to go to find their missing friends. They may’ve been in a D-Rank zone now – and heading for a second – but the twins could’ve already moved on in search of more experience to rank-up.

“Lead the way, Left,” Seena said, and the party marched up the nearby stairwell.

Nearing the top, Hiral pulled the hood from his Coat of Ur’Thul up to keep the rain off his head, and stepped out into the darkness. Like Left had said, the falling rain was barely more than a drizzle. Compared to when they’d entered the tunnel, the previously parched ground had already grown wet and muddy.

“Worms must love it when it’s like this,” Yanily said. “Like a giant mudbath.”

“Glad we’re not walking,” Seeyela said. “It’d take forever.”

“Still think I’d prefer to walk,” Drahn said at the same time Hiral called Drake out from his Interspatial Ring.

Uncharacteristically, the Dracolich emerged quietly from the bone-white smoke that billowed into a large cloud in front of Hiral. Drake’s massive head turned this way and that in the rain, as if looking for something, then pawed the ground. Great gouges of thickening mud deepened with every pass of the sword-like claws, and Drake spread his wings above him. Blue flames filled the bone-fingers of his wings, and one of them stopped directly above the party, shielding them from the falling rain.

“Everything okay, big guy?” Hiral asked.

Drake’s huge head turned on its neck of unconnected bones to look at Hiral, the blue flames for its eyes glowing along with the luminescent lines running down its cheeks. The Dracolich growled slightly, then turned around to look into the distance. Another low growl rumbled from within its ribcage, then up and out past its jaw.

“Looks like he knows something we don’t,” Seeyela said. Beside her, Bliss likewise pranced in place. An impatient neigh left the Nightmare’s mouth, and she nudged Seeyela.

“I think they’re telling us it’s clear for now,” Seena said, patting her Phoenix – Vili – on the top of the head where it stood beside her.

“Then what are you all waiting for?” Yanily asked, already on Thunderclaws. The pair of them hovered in the air, gentle sweeps of the Gryphon’s majestic wings keeping them perfectly in place.

“Right, I’ll call you out when we get to the next dungeon,” Hiral said to his double, reaching out. As soon as their hands met, he cancelled that summons and pulled the solar energy back into himself. “Okay, everybody up.” With a quick assist from the Dracolich, Hiral climbed up onto Drake’s back, easily settling into the familiar saddle. Left was behind him a second later thanks to a beat from his Wing of Anella, though the blue-flame wing vanished as soon as he landed.

That just left Drahn.

“Get on Drake’s front claw, he’ll lift you up,” Hiral instructed.

Drahn glanced from the massive claws that looked easily sharp enough to carve the man into pieces with little more than a casual gesture.

“He’s not going to hurt you,” Hiral said.

“Drahn,” Seena added. “Come on. Just get on the Dracolich.”

With one more look like he was mustering his courage, the Grower finally climbed on the back of Drake’s paw. Then, gentle-as-could-be, Drake lifted the man until he was within reach of climbing to the saddle. Another quick minute to get him settled, and they were ready to go.

“I’m not sure how much you remember about your first flight,” Hiral said to the man behind him. “But, Drake’s saddle will magically keep you in place. You won’t fall unless you jump. Which I wouldn’t encourage unless you have an ability that lets you fly. Do you have one of those?”

“I don’t,” Drahn said.

“Yeah, don’t jump then. Feel free to hold on if it makes you feel better though.”

With that – but without any warning – Drake launched into the air with a single powerful beat of its wings. Falling rain swept to the sides as the ground sped away.

And as the screaming started anew.