Rune Seeker

“There’s Dr. Benza,” Hiral said as the party walked down the déjà vu-inducing streets. It was so strange to have the same buildings in two sets of memories: One from the city’s past, where he was part of the construction, and the other from his own time period. From his days walking through the finished city with Gauto.

I’ll be seeing him again soon. Wonder how he’s been doing…

Of course, there was one big difference at the moment—the complete lack of sunlight. Instead of the sun shining overhead, some of the large stones Hiral had placed with Sander and Korkin softly glowed, lighting up the neighborhood. Lined up as they were in the buildings, they bathed everything in a gentle yellow light.

Huh. That must be why Sander was so particular about where some of the blocks went.

“Looks like he’s got Fenil and Laseen with him,” Seena said from beside Hiral—where she used him as a shield between her and her sister.

“Who’s the other one?” Yanily asked.

“Catchin,” Hiral said immediately, his brain filling in the name without even thinking about it. “Uh, she’s the one who’s doing the rune-work on the towers. Makes sense for her to be here.”

“You know her?” Seeyela asked.

“Apparently,” Hiral said. “Seems like I’ve met her a couple of times through Yummi and Fulerik to talk about runes.”

“She doesn’t know anything I don’t, surprisingly,” Hiral said. Actually, now that I think about it, I haven’t used any time to go through the book Odi gave me with his research. I need to spend some time doing that…

“And what are we looking for here today?” Yanily asked.

“Since I asked Dr. Benza about the possibility of the Fallen waking up, he spent a few months trying to figure out how that might happen. This whole system”—Hiral pointed from the top of the nearly finished tower down to its base—“is all set up to drain the Fallen of their solar energy. They have crazy high capacity and absorption rates…”

“Higher than yours?” Yanily asked.

“Yes. Mine are both S-Rank. The Fallen, according to what Dr. Benza said, are likely all SSS+Rank.”

“Let me guess… their output would be the same too?” Seena asked.

“Sounds that way, yeah,” Hiral said.

“Monsters. We can’t fight something like that.”

“No, we can’t. Which is why we need to make sure they don’t wake up. Or, at least work it so they fall back asleep.”

“Back to Dr. Benza’s theory?” Seeyela suggested.

“Why don’t we let the doctor himself explain it?” Hiral said as the party walked up to the group of researchers.

“Explain what?” Dr. Benza asked, looking up from the clipboard. He shook his head and turned to Fenil. “Double-check these readings while we’re in the tunnels. I want the fluctuations under control before we install the…” He trailed off, eyes jerking to the empty tower top.

“Probably just an error in the notation,” Fenil said.

“We have too much riding on this to count on probably,” Dr. Benza said, and Fenil nodded. “Now, then, what did you want me to explain?”

“Your theory on what could go wrong,” Hiral said.

“Easier if I show you,” Dr. Benza said. “Which is also why Miss Somezz has joined us today.”

“Hiral, good to see you again,” Catchin said. “You too, Left, Right.” She turned to Seena. “You must be Seena. I’ve heard so much about you. Oh, oh, and is that Li’l Ur? He’s sooooo cuuuuuute. Can I hold him? Just for a minute? One cuddle; that’s all I’m asking for.”

“You will do no such thing!” Li’l Ur protested, hands on his hips. “My cuddles are strictly reserved for my mistress.”

“Uh… hi,” Seena said as Catchin’s expression fell in disappointment.

“What did you hear about me?” Yanily asked, sliding up beside Seena.

Catchin turned from Seena to the spearman. “Who are you?”

Yanily just sighed and looked at Hiral. “Seriously? Didn’t even mention me.”

Hiral couldn’t do anything but shrug at the man. Then he pointed at Seena’s sister. “This is Seeyela, the other member of our party.”

“Nice to meet you,” Catchin said. “You’re all dressed differently today,” she added, pointing to the Second-Skin of Ur’ThulHiral and his doubles wore.

“There are some benefits to it,” Hiral said simply.

“It’s fascinating I can see your runes through the coat,” she said, reaching up to run her hand down the runes on his chest. “They’re so clear.”

“Ahem,” Seena coughed beside them, the fire of her Mantle of the Phoenix flaring like a waterfall to reach the stone street.

Catchin jumped slightly at the heatless flames, then seemed to notice where her hand was. “Ooops, sorry,” she said with a too-innocent smile.

“No problem,” Hiral said quietly, watching Seena out of the corner of his eyes.

“Finished? Are we finished?” Dr. Benza asked. “Great. Follow me.” Then he walked away from the tower.

“But, isn’t the tower right there?” Yanily asked.

“Yes, it is,” Dr. Benza said. “But the entrance to the tunnels that give access to the roots of it is this way.”

“Roots?” Seena said. “Is the tower grown?”

“They aren’t literal roots,” Laseen said. “We just call them that because of how they look.”

“How what look?” Hiral asked.

“The crystal network we put in place that connects the tower to the island’s systems,” she said. “It’s somewhat modeled after trees, if you’d like to think about it that way. Except, the roots connect the trunk—the tower—to all the other parts of the island, feeding them the energy they need to operate.”

“How many of these crystal roots are there?” Hiral asked.

“Tens of thousands, ranging in size from the width of a spiderweb to about the thickness of your leg,” Laseen said.

“The tunnels you worked on before house a lot of them,” Dr. Benza went on, “but most were grown through the stone, once we figured out how to do that. As an added benefit, the process made the whole island stronger. The entrance is in here,” he added, turning into one of the buildings.

Huh. This isn’t one of the ones I built. Coincidence?

Like outside—and Hiral’s bedroom—the room was lit by glowing stone blocks within, revealing a wide pit in the center of the room. The top of a ladder poked up from the hole, and Hiral stepped over to the lip to look down. At least thirty feet deep, about half that again wide and long, there were tables running along the two side walls, and a tunnel leading out the far end.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It wasn’t the tunnel that snagged Hiral’s attention, but instead the contents of the two tables. On the first were sets of crystal armor—looking like little more than five plates—similar to what the party had gotten from The Buried City. On the other table, weapons. Crystal weapons. Dozens of them, ranging from knives and swords to spears and even axes.

This must be what Gauto told me he found. Crystal weapons.

“I thought all the weapons were over on the Builders’ island,” Seena said as she stepped up beside Hiral.

“Most are,” Dr. Benza said, joining them. “The vault over there will house the most powerful equipment we’ve managed to build ourselves, along with the true artifacts. These are… plan B. Each of the islands have stores of supplies primarily kept on the other islands in case something happens. These”—he waved his hand towards the small armory below—“aren’t nearly as strong as what’s in the vault, but could at least serve to get parties started.”

“What’s the difference?” Seeyela asked. “You said that like the equipment you made is different from the artifacts.”

“Very different,” Fenil said. “Artifacts are A-Rank or above. We can’t build anything beyond B-Rank.”

“Sorry, what?” Seeyela asked, and the party shared a confused look. Each of them was carrying A- and S-Rank gear provided by the PIMP, and Hiral even had several S-Rank pieces.

“How familiar are you with history?” Dr. Benza asked.

“Uh… not our strongest subject,” Yanily said.

“Have you heard of the Progenitors?” Dr. Benza asked, and everybody looked at Li’l Ur, who practically preened at the mention.

“We’ve heard mention of them,” Seena said. “Nothing more than in passing. Why?”

“Anything A- or S-Rank we have is something found in one of their ruins,” Dr. Benza said.

“Ruins?” Seeyela said.

“Ruins,” Dr. Benza affirmed. “As far as we can tell, the Progenitors were the origins for most of the species on our world. Even the great beasts, like the dragons and the phoenixes, among others, trace their roots back to their own Progenitors. Although, they do go by a few other names. Primals. Primordials.”

“All P-words,” Yanily said quietly. “He would’ve gotten along well with Odi.”

“The Phoenix Progenitor, was it like the mother of all phoenixes?” Seena asked.

“Probably,” Dr. Benza said. “Our records of the beast Progenitors are far more limited than those of our own. More stories of their existence than anything else.”

“Was there a… a giant spider Progenitor?” Seeyela asked. “Maybe one connected to the Ghost-Web Spiders?”

“Oh, yes,” Dr. Benza said, nodding. “A massive and powerful beast said to breathe clouds that rained deadly venom, and with armor that could withstand nearly any blow. It was said to have ruled a large continent on the other side of the world. She may still even be there, as it’s largely unexplored. Too dangerous.

“Actually, those parts of our planet that remain a mystery to us are areas in which we believe beast Primordials may have lived. Or perhaps still live.”

Hiral shared a look with both Seena and Seeyela—the benefactors of their classes sounded an awful lot like these Primordial beasts. Just what exactly did that mean?

With a shake of his head, Hiral dismissed the question he couldn’t answer, and instead moved on to one Dr. Benza could hopefully help with. “If these Progenitors are the first beings on this world, how did they come to be here?”

“Where they came from,” Dr. Benza said, “well, we have no idea, but they were around a long, long, loooooong time ago. Built cities, ruled the world, that kind of thing. Then, from what we can gather, they started fighting. We don’t know if it was each other or something else, but they mostly vanished.

“We think some, other than the beasts, lived in hiding amongst their descendants, but their civilizations were wiped out. We found what we call artifacts in what remained. Some of them we could—and did—wield in our fight against the Enemy, but our people weren’t strong enough to make full use of them. Rank disparity, you know. So, into the vault they go, in the hopes the PIMP will train powerful-enough people to use them.

“Oh, and before you ask, while some people thought the first Enemy we found was a Progenitor, we’ve pretty much dismissed that notion. There just isn’t any other evidence of them in the world.”

“Do you know what happened to them?” Seena asked the lich sitting on her shoulder.

“I remember… fighting,” Li’l Ur said. “It was one of the reasons I sought out eternity and strength in undeath, but more than that… I’m sorry. There are too many holes in my memory.”

“That means things like the Emperor’s Greatsword or the Spear of Clouds are from the Progenitors, then?” Hiral asked. “And Amin Thett, he was a Progenitor?”

Dr. Benza’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Hiral, and he quickly turned to Laseen and Fenil. Both of them immediately held up their hands defensively.

“We didn’t say a thing,” Laseen said.

“Not a word,” Fenil chimed in.

“Didn’t say anything about what?” Hiral asked.

“Whoever authorized your need-to-know information gave you far too much,” Dr. Benza said, sighing. “But, yes to both your questions. The sword and spear are both artifacts from the Progenitors, and I’d ask you don’t mention them in public. Especially the spear. Amin Thett, as far as we can tell from what little records we’ve found, was one of our direct Progenitor ancestors, as was The Emperor. Why would they come up in the information you were given?”

Hiral pointed at the sword and the ring floating over his shoulder. Without a View ability, they wouldn’t be able to see the items’ names, but maybe they would’ve recognized the workmanship?

“Ah, is that what those are supposed to be?” Dr. Benza said. “Admirable replicas, though the originals both lie broken within our vault. Now, that’s enough about artifacts and the Progenitors. We should get moving.”

“Before that—real quick—you’re going to seal this space up?” Hiral asked. “Why?”

“It won’t be sealed,” Dr. Benza said.

“Big hole in the floor seems like a safety hazard to me,” Yanily pointed out.

“Let me show you,” Dr. Benza said before pointing down into the hole. “Fenil, go down there and pull the ladder aside.”

“Me? Why me?” the researcher asked.

“Because I said your name.”

Fenil opened his mouth as if to respond, but Laseen subtly shook her head.

“One second,” Fenil said, awkwardly shimmying onto the ladder and then climbing to the bottom. Once there, he slid the ladder out along the floor, so the top of it now rested a few feet below the top lip of the pit.

“Now what?” Seeyela asked.

Instead of answering, Dr. Benza walked over to the side wall, where Hiral spotted another small crystal embedded. A wave of his hand, and the air at the top of the pit shimmered slightly before it was replaced by solid stone. In the blink of an eye, what had been a huge hole was now, instead, a stretch of perfectly normal-looking floor. A second wave of his hand, and the floor vanished to once again reveal the pit with Fenil standing at the bottom.

“It doesn’t completely fill in the space, obviously, but instead reconstructs the built-in floor,” Laseen said.

“How?” Seena asked.

“Gravity magic,” Seeyela said. “It’s like my Bamf+, without the purple smoke. Where do you keep all the floors when they aren’t here?”

“Storage warehouse underground,” Laseen said. She then leaned down to indicate little points just under the top lip that seemed to sparkle in the light. “These are the ends of some of those crystal roots I told you about, with the other ends being in that warehouse. They help guide the transportation.”

“Amazing,” Seeyela said.

“I designed it myself,” Dr. Benza said, only to then look at Laseen. “With some help, of course.”

“Of course,” she said.

“Now, then, that’s not what we’re here for. Follow me,” the doctor continued, waving for Fenil to get the ladder back into place. As soon as it settled against the edge of the pit, Dr. Benza climbed on and started down.

Hiral, though, instead of following, went over to the wall where Dr. Benza had activated the crystal.

“Something up?” Seena asked as she came over to join him, standing so close their arms touched. She seemed to notice it at the same time he did, and took a half-step to the side.

Hiral pushed down the small pang at the forced distance, then pointed at the crystal in the wall. “This,” he said.

“What about it?” she asked him. “You talked about these crystals before. That was how you knew how to use the dungeon interfaces, wasn’t it?”

“Not these ones. Only some of the houses have them, and I guess now I know why.” He thumbed over at the pit. “But they don’t work. Never have. It’s like the crystals for the lights. Those switches don’t work in Fallen Reach. We all just assumed they were decorative.”

“Why don’t they work?”

“Great question. No idea.”

“Do you think it’s something we need to worry about?”

Hiral could only shrug at the question. “Maybe we’ll figure it out when we go down into the tunnels, or maybe it won’t matter. Our first priority is learning how to keep the Fallen asleep, not turning on the lights.”

“Yeah, I guess.” She took his hand and turned towards the pit. “Sorry,” she said, immediately letting go. “I just…”

“I know,” he said. “Tonight. We’ll talk it out before we go to sleep. Who knows what things would be like if we don’t and then wake up in a few months?”

She chuckled. “Yeah, we better. Might be married. Uh… the others are waiting; we should go.” She then ran off so quickly Li’l Ur got left behind.

“Mistress!” the tiny lich called, dropping to hover just a few inches above the floor, then gliding off after her.

“Sorry,” Seena said to Li’l Ur as she waited for him on the ladder. As soon as he caught up, she glanced up at Hiral, face completely red from her blush, then disappeared down below.

“Married, huh?” Right asked. “Does that mean we’d be married too?”

“Not helping,” Hiral said flatly.