Rune Seeker

Yanily’s declaration rang true in Hiral’s ears, and like the spearman, he looked up at Fallen Reach above them. If that was why Fitch was there—a shared hatred with the Enemy inside of him—it couldn’t mean anything good. Assuming they were right about Fitch being Infested… but how else would he have gotten there, much less survived at all?

It had taken everything the party had to make it this far, and not without terrible losses. For Fitch to have made it there singlehandedly? He had to have had help.

Unless…

Unless… Just how strong was he now? No way he could’ve been E-Rank still. Infested were D-Rank at a minimum, and Picoli had been High-D, like the Boss they’d fought in The Buried City. But, could Fitch be more powerful? Could he be C-Rank? B?

No, Hiral couldn’t believe Fitch was that strong. The Infested being there had to be connected to the Fallen waking up. And, if that was the case, the PIMP believed being C-Rank would be enough to have a chance to stop it. Not a great chance, but a chance.

“He’s probably C-Rank now,” Seeyela said, like she had the same train of thought Hiral did. “Fitch, I mean.”

“If he’s any stronger, we’re in trouble,” Yanily said.

“We’ll deal with it when we come to it,” Seena said. “First, let’s see if we can figure out what he wanted at the Grandfather.”

“Whatever it was… it seems like it attracted some attention,” Yanily commented as the group left the maze of alleys to enter a courtyard with a massive tree in the center.

It wasn’t as tall as some of the towering trunks Hiral had seen in the first zone on the surface, but what it lacked in sheer height, it made up for in volume.

The tree’s trunk had to be a hundred feet across, making it bigger than most buildings. Branches full of thick, green leaves stretched wide over the courtyard, drooping down as if they were in a constant state of falling—almost like a frozen, green waterfall—with vibrant red fruit hanging between. Age, like eternity itself, permeated the area, bringing a clarity and sharpness to Hiral’s thoughts, like being in a place he’d known all his life. A place where he was welcome.

But, not one where he was alone. Besides the party and Grandmother, dozens of people had gathered around the ancient tree, a buzzing of conversation filling the air.

“What’s going on here?” Grandmother called, her voice calm but carrying, and all other discussion ceased.

“Grandmother!” one among the crowd said—a middle-aged man with thick, scarred arms. “We were just about to call you. Somebody has desecrated the Grandfather.”

“Desecrated? How?” Grandmother asked, her voice taking on a hard edge.

“They cut a hole into the trunk, near where the Grandfather produces seeds for…” He trailed off, noticing Hiral behind her. “An Islander? Did you do this?” the man bellowed, a pair of hammer-like clubs growing out of his hands.

A power like Nivian’s?

“Do you think he would be with me if he was responsible?” Grandmother asked flatly.

“Uh…” the man started.

“Put your sticks away before you embarrass yourself more,” she hissed. “And show me this hole.”

“The Islander…?” the man started.

“Is part of my party,” Seena said, and the man finally looked from Hiral in his sleek, black cloak to Seena with her flaming mantle. Eyes widening at the fire falling down her back in a constant sheet, he did a double-take on spotting Li’l Ur, then quickly took in Seeyela and Yanily in their unique armor.

“Who are you?” he asked.

Grandmother rapped her cane on the hard stone of the courtyard, the motion sending out a shockwave that staggered the man backwards, and he turned his full attention back to her. “I believe I asked you to do something,” she said calmly.

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“Of course. Sorry, Grandmother,” the man said with a quick bow of his head and a spin on his heel. “Clear a path. Grandmother is here!” he shouted, as if everybody wasn’t already looking at them and parting for the elderly woman.

The group quickly approached the wide, knotted trunk. The bark was thick with age, except in one area where it had clearly been cut open. Wood chips littered the ground, and dark sap ran like blood in rivers from the garish tunnel that had been carved into the trunk.

That’s more than a “hole.”

“This… this is unforgiveable,” Grandmother said, stalking up to the tree and putting her hand gently on the great trunk. Closing her eyes, the woman lowered her head as if listening to something, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “The Grandfather is hurt, yes, but it will survive. It urges us not to despair.” She then hesitantly pulled her hand from the trunk and turned to face the crowd.

“Who did this?” somebody shouted.

“We will get to the bottom of this,” Grandmother said with a small gesture to herself and the party beside her. Then she gestured at the wound in the large tree trunk. “Has anybody… gone inside?”

Dozens of horrified faces stared back.

“We… we would never!” a woman shouted.

Grandmother nodded. “Go fetch the arborists, and keep others back from the Grandfather for now. It needs time to rest.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” the man who’d drawn weapons on Hiral said. “You heard her… You and you…” he continued, giving out orders as the crowd dispersed.

“Did Fitch do this?” Seena asked quietly when the crowd wasn’t focused on them anymore.

“Seems like too much of a coincidence if he didn’t,” Yanily said. “We’re going… in… aren’t we?”

“We are,” Grandmother said. “I didn’t even know it was possible to do this to the Grandfather. Just what kind of power did Fitch come back here with?”

Hiral extended his senses to the wound in the tree—a bit more difficult, with his doubles still part of him—and felt along the edges before moving deeper in. Almost immediately, there was a difference.

“Fitch didn’t do all of that,” Hiral said. “It’s like he just opened a door to a passage that was already there.”

“A passage inside the Grandfather?” Seeyela asked.

“Look for yourself,” Hiral said, walking around until he could look straight into the gash. It really was like Fitch had cut open a space just big enough to squeeze through—it didn’t even go all the way to the ground—and then slipped inside. It was dark more than a few feet past the opening, but as Hiral squinted, he could make out a familiar if faint glow deeper in.

“Is that light in there?” Grandmother asked, stepping right up to the wound.

“Roots?” Seena asked, spotting the glow as well. “Like the ones on the surface?”

“Looks that way,” Hiral said. “But I’m not sure what they’d be doing here.”

“Only one way to find out,” Seena said, tapping Hiral on the shoulder. “What? You’re the tank now.”

“Out of the way,” Grandmother said. “I’ll go first.”

She started forward, but Hiral held up a hand and activated Foundational Split. Solar smoke billowed off him to form into Left and Right at his sides, and the two doubles looked at Grandmother.

“Nice to meet you, Matron,” Left said politely.

“I’m going first, aren’t I?” Right asked Hiral after a small bow of his head to the old woman.

“No, but you’re coming in right after me,” Hiral said, drawing his RHCs off his thighs.

“Just… what kind of ability is this?” Grandmother asked, her eyes moving between each of the black-clad versions of Hiral.

“The OP kind,” Yanily said.

“O-pee?” Grandmother said.

“We’ll explain later,” Seena said behind Hiral as he climbed through the carved-out wound in the side of the tree.

The bark and outer layer only seemed to be about two feet thick, and he quickly found himself within a much older, carved-out tunnel. No, carved wasn’t right. It’d been grown like this.

“Ground is slick in here,” Hiral said as his feet squelched in thick sap, though the magic of his boots and his Walk on Water ability negated most of it. “Watch your step,” he added without turning, walking deeper into the tunnel with his weapons level. Nothing seemed to move in the shadows ahead of him, and Grandmother said Fitch had already left.

Though that doesn’t mean something else isn’t in here.

More footsteps sounded behind him as the others followed him in, while he let his senses extend further down the tunnel. Even with the cut to the outside, the air in the space was thick and cloying, and had a taste to it like the deep, deep forest. Nothing about it seemed threatening, though, and he continued forward when the glow from Seena’s fiery mantle lit up the space.

“Do we have to worry about you burning the Grandfather down?” Yanily asked, and Seeyela immediately shushed him.

Hiral only had to walk about thirty feet before the tunnel ended. There, he found a small, circular room twenty feet wide. On the far wall was another deep scar in the wood, like something had been carved out of it. But, for everybody who entered the room, their eyes only went to the scar for a brief second before settling on the object in the center of the room.

A dungeon interface.