Rune Seeker

Hiral ducked low under the hooking punch, then brought his own fist up and in towards where the light construct’s liver would be. His fist whistled through the air—no, whistled wasn’t right; it sang—the tone perfect before it slammed into the construct’s side. Another chord echoed at the blow, sharp yet profound, and his opponent staggered sideways.

It would fall. He’d hit it exactly where he needed to, striking the glowing symbol that matched the progression on the wall. With that done, a quick glance showed he had half the strange musical piece complete, and he immediately turned towards where the next opponent would appear. Even his turn elicited strange music, almost like a soft wood flute, telling him he was following the correct path, and then he launched himself forward with a Rejection-powered leap.

The pitch of the music immediately went off-key, screeching in his ears so painfully he stumbled midway across the disc and fell to his knees. Just like that, all the progress he’d made on the score vanished from the wall, and the opponents flickered and vanished from the disc.

“Damnit,” Hiral cursed, slapping his hand against the stone.

That was the sixth time in a row he’d failed at exactly the same part. No matter what he did, he just couldn’t seem to get to the next construct that appeared on the far side of the disc. If he went too slow, the music faded, and he failed. If he went too fast, the music screeched in his ear like a dying cat.

He’d gone wide. Gone straight. Tried leaping up, or even leaving one of his doubles over by where the construct would appear. None of it had worked. And, unlike the previous instructions on this new Primal style, a blue construct didn’t appear first to demonstrate the movements necessary to hit the right notes.

“What am I doing wrong?” he seethed, flipping over from his hands and knees to sit on the stone.

“Having trouble?” Yanily called, and Hiral looked over to find the man sitting on the edge of his own disc, his feet dangling in the water.

“You could say that,” Hiral huffed, but he pushed himself up and walked over to the rim of his own area so they weren’t shouting to talk to each other. Maybe a short break was what he needed—he’d been at it for almost four hours straight now. “You saw that last attempt?”

“Heard it too,” Yanily said, sticking a pinky into his ear and wiggling it around.

“I keep getting stuck at that same part. Can’t figure it out. How’re you doing?” Hiral dropped down to sit cross-legged.

“About three-quarters now,” Yanily said. “Needed a break to… I don’t know… consider what I’d learned? I think I know where I need to go next in the movements, so I thought I’d take a minute to watch how you guys were doing.”

“Wish I could say the same,” Hiral grumbled.

“I have to admit, I’m kind of surprised,” Yanily said.

“At how badly I’m not succeeding at this?” Hiral said, leaning back on his hands and staring up at the distant ceiling. “Sorry, you don’t need to listen to me whine. It just… it reminds me too much of the Shaper test back home.”

Left and Right came down to sit beside him, but they didn’t say anything.

“That was the whole not-being-able-to-get-a-class thing, yeah?” Yanily asked.

“Yeah,” Hiral said. “I thought I was finally over it, you know, having a class and everything finally. Getting stuck like this, though… it just reminds me too much of that. Little voice in the back of my head telling me it’s going to be the same thing all over again, and I’m going to be stuck failing for…” He trailed off. “Sorry.”

“Don’t need to apologize, Hiral,” Yanily said, and Hiral looked from the ceiling to the spearman. He had his spear across his lap and a thoughtful look on his face. “It’s… actually kind of nice to see you struggling.”

“Gee, thanks,” Hiral deadpanned.

“I mean, that came out wrong. Look, you’ve been so good at everything since we came down to the surface. Overpowered, you know.” Yanily wasn’t speaking in his usual half-joking tone. “The jump down—which I was pretty sure was going to kill you from the get-go—then the dungeons. Dealing with everything on the surface. You… you were the first one to act when Picoli got taken over. If the rest of us hadn’t just stood there, maybe Balyo wouldn’t…”

“You can’t blame yourself for that, Yanily,” Hiral said. “Picoli was just as much your friend as Balyo was. Besides, you saw it too. Even if we were ready for that thing inside Picoli, we couldn’t have stopped it then. It was too much for us. We were… we were lucky we got away.”

“Because of what Balyo did,” Yanily said, fingers trailing the length of his spear, small sparks dancing behind. “It won’t be the same next time. We’re stronger. We’ll be even stronger.”

“We will be,” Hiral agreed. Assuming I don’t keep us stuck in this second trial until Fallen Reach passes us.

“Anyway, enough of that depressing stuff. Back to what I was saying. Since you were so good at stuff, it made me wonder if there was something special about you, or something wrong with us Growers.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Hiral said quickly. “You’re all… amazing.”

“Well, obviously. It only made me doubt for, you know, a minute. Two, tops.”

“And that’s what you’re surprised at? That I’m struggling?”

“No, not that. The trial isn’t easy—I’d honestly be more surprised if you weren’t struggling a little. No, what I’m surprised about is that you haven’t figured out why you’re struggling.”

Hiral narrowed his eyes at the spearman sitting peacefully across the water, feet dangling in. “Are you saying you know what I’m supposed to do?”

“It’s kind of obvious…” Yanily said, fingers running back in the other direction along his spear. “Do you want a hint?”

“I’d love one,” Hiral said, leaning forward. Part of him wanted Yanily to just spit out the answer, but maybe there was something to be said for figuring it out himself… with some help.

“Actually, I’ll give you two hints,” Yanily said with a chuckle. “The first is that this style I’m learning over here is the Chord of the Primal Storm. What’s really interesting about it is that it almost seems like it was made just for me. It’s got aspects of my Reed Spear Style and Dancing Spear Style, along with abilities I got from Stormstrider. I’m pretty sure the next part of the score will even have me using Skyfall.

“The second clue is something Odi said right before we started.”

“Those are your hints?” Hiral asked, and Yanily nodded.

Hiral shared a glance with Left and Right, and by the look on Left’s face, he’d just figured it out.

“No, I’m not going to tell you,” Left said. “You’ll get there, and feel better about yourself for it.”

“Smug, isn’t he?” Right asked from the other side, and Hiral could only nod.

Okay? So, those clues. It is kind of interesting this Lost combat style seems so perfectly suited for Yanily. Using abilities and skills he’d picked up along the way. I’ve gotten that feeling about my own Chord of the Primal Echo, but that one part of the score I just can’t figure out. Which means it must be connected to the second clue. What did Odi say before we started the trials?

Other than the maniacal laughter.

Was it all the D stuff? No… before that, he…

Hiral’s eyes widened, and he slapped himself in the forehead.

“Ah, he figured it out,” Yanily said.

“Took him long enough,” Left agreed.

“Not like you got it without the hints,” Hiral grumbled.

“Care to share?” Right said. “Uh, because I want to make sure your theory matches mine.”

“Obviously,” Hiral said flatly, but he answered by unsheathing his RHCs and putting them on his lap. “We’ve been using our abilities—including you two—but we’ve forgotten about our gear. Odi said we’d need it, and now I see what he meant. If Yanily’s fighting style seems to incorporate everything he’s done up to this point, well, for me, that means I need to use these.” He pointed at the weapons.

“Not just those, I’m thinking,” Yanily said across the way, his eyes clearly looking over Hiral’s shoulder.

“Sword and ring too,” Left agreed. “We’re going to need to use them all.”

“And those parts we completed where the tone doesn’t seem quite right,” Right added. “I bet Left and I need to use our own abilities there. We were close enough the score progressed, but it always felt just a bit off.”

“Probably,” Hiral said.

Why hadn’t he thought of that before? The part he was struggling with had constructs appearing on the far side of the disc. Of course his RHCs were the best way to hit them quickly. He should’ve…

“Take a breath, Hiral,” Yanily said. “We all miss something sometimes. Now you know, so, what are you waiting for?”

“Thanks, Yan, and for the tips too. Maybe I would’ve figured it out on my own, or maybe not. I really appreciate it.” Hiral stood up and put his RHCs back on his thigh-plates.

“To be fair, I kind of had an advantage,” Yanily said. “All our Grower combat styles revolve around a weapon. Since you don’t have any ability styles, I figured you might not know that.”

“They all need a weapon?” Hiral asked. “What about… Vix?” he finished a bit more quietly, the thought of his dead friend bringing that ache back with it.

“Bladed knuckles, mainly. Sure, he could use the style without them, but it wasn’t nearly as strong. Enough talking, though. Seena is giving us the old stink-eye for taking a break.”

Hiral glanced over and… yup… that was quite the glare.

With a small wave at the party leader, Hiral took Left and Right back to the center of the disc, then restarted the trial.