Rune Seeker

Hiral stepped out of the portal and immediately got slapped with a notification window to the face.

Successful completion of Wild Dungeon – The Rise of Fallen Reach within 3 hours has provided a small amount of power to the Grandfather. Storm cloud encroachment rate will be reduced.

Time until complete encroachment: 3:21:07

He reread the message—the timer noticeably dropping while he did—then turned to Seena and Seeyela standing by the dungeon interface. Other than the three of them—and Li’l Ur, of course—the small chamber within the Grandfather was empty. Grandmother must be off somewhere.

“You both saw the notification?” he asked.

“Yes,” Seeyela said, grimacing. “Just over three hours isn’t very long.”

“It’s worse than that,” Hiral said, and both women crossed their arms like bad news was somehow his fault. Before continuing his thought, he activated Foundational Split to make sure he could get Right and Left’s opinions—not because he felt outnumbered. Not that at all. “Complete encroachment probably means the clouds reaching the central part of what’s currently clear. Here. But there are fifteen miles of islands before getting here in both directions.

“Most of the Grower islands and half of Fallen Reach will get hit with the storm wall long before the three hours is up.”

“Which means we probably have closer to two and a half hours—maybe only two,” Seena said. “We don’t have time to stand around here.”

“I guess hugging Favela can wait three more hours,” Seeyela grumbled.

“Sorry,” Seena said, giving her sister a hug. “Party Interface shows you both okay on solar energy. We should head right up to Fallen Reach and track Fitch down. The Fallen and the towers are important, but we need… well… It’s the Spear of Clouds, isn’t it?”

Hiral looked to the long, narrow gash cut open on the inside of the tree. It was the perfect size to hold the Spear of Clouds. All this time, the legendary weapon had literally been right under his feet. Well, a mile under them, but close enough.

“I’d bet money the two are connected,” Hiral said, “but you’re right. Getting the spear back here needs to be the priority. We can fix the towers after we don’t have to worry about more Enemies showing up on our doorsteps.”

“We killed one; we can kill another,” Seeyela said. “Uh, unless it’s that big one. But that was, what, thousands of years ago? It has to be dead by now, doesn’t it?”

Hiral shook his head. “I wouldn’t count on it being dead. And… sorry, but more bad news. I don’t think we’d have such an easy time against another Enemy.”

“That was easy?” Seeyela asked quietly.

“Why not?” Seena asked louder, though the look on her face suggested she was thinking the same thing her sister was.

“We were in a C-Rank dungeon,” Hiral said simply. “I don’t know if the PIMP expected us to beat that Enemy or just keep it busy until Dr. Benza got the islands up, but it wasn’t going to be strong enough to wipe us out. It was tuned to our level and strength. Yes, it could’ve killed us, just like the giant one almost did—if Yan didn’t stop it—but it wasn’t meant to be an unwinnable fight. Any Enemies we meet out here won’t have that handicap.”

“So, you’re saying we should expect real Enemies to be stronger?” Seena clarified.

“Much stronger—up to A- and S-Rank,” Hiral said. “We need to do everything we can to make sure they don’t reach the islands. Or, if they do, we’re probably going to see them finish the job they started in the dungeon.”

That statement had both women just shaking their heads. The destruction they’d witnessed was still far too fresh in their minds. Adding in the fact it’d be their families falling out of the sky if the party failed, the imagery hit pretty close to home.

“We won’t let that happen,” Seena said. “We’ll…”

“Hiral,” Seeyela said quietly, interrupting her sister, “this theory of yours. Are you saying… Are you saying Yan didn’t have to die to save us? That there was another way? Something else the PIMP expected us to do?”

Hiral blew out a breath. “Maybe.” Then he held up a finger. “And maybe not. Look, we don’t know all the rules of these wild dungeons, but apparently I spent a lot of the last year thinking about it.”

“The implanted memories?” Seena asked.

“Yeah. My theory is this: We aren’t actually back in the past changing things, but we are in the dungeons as sort of interactive witnesses. We’re playing the roles of people who were there and who were part of the chain of events. That’s why we get the quests. Those things happened—maybe not exactly as we played them out, but they actually happened.

“The quests lead us along the path of history, kind of like telling us the story. For the last dungeon we just did, somebody rescued Dr. Benza and the others from the Rat King. Then they took the spear across to Grandfather, and eventually escorted Dr. Benza down to the town.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“And Yan?” Seeyela prompted to get him back on track.

“And… something must’ve happened to stop that giant Enemy from destroying the Grower island. Maybe there was a way for us to move faster, or maybe it would’ve gotten naturally distracted. Or… Or maybe Yanily had a role to play.”

“You’re saying the PIMP may have sent us in there knowing what was going to happen to Yan?” Seena asked.

Hiral’s heart clenched at the question, but he nodded and spoke the next word very quietly. “Balance.”

Seena closed her eyes slowly and seemed to be forcing herself to keep her anger in check.

Seeyela just drew her daggers and stomped over to the interface. “Balance?” she seethed, glaring at the device. “Yan’s life was the price of us getting stronger? You can have your damn levels and achievements back.” No response from the interface, if she even expected there would be one. “You hear me!? Take it! Take it all! Just… Just give us back…”

Seena walked up behind her sister and wrapped her arms around the woman. “Shhhh,” she said quietly.

Seeyela’s shoulders rose and fell while she struggled with her emotions, Seena holding her the whole time. Hiral and his doubles gave the women space, but it only took a moment for them to part again.

“I’m sorry,” Hiral said. “I shouldn’t have…”

“Not your fault. Obviously.” Seeyela sheathed her daggers again, though she tossed one more glare at the interface. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re wrong. Doesn’t matter, in a way. Yan made his choice. He saved us, whether the PIMP set it up or not, and that’s what I’m going to focus on for now. We’ve already wasted too much time.”

Hiral quickly checked the encroachment timer, and five minutes had ticked by since he’d first looked at it.

“Hello? Is… Is somebody in there?” a voice called from down the small tunnel leading out of the Grandfather. “Hellloooo?”

“That’s not Grandmother,” Seena said. “C’mon, we should let her know about the timer before we go.”

“Need me to go first?” Hiral asked.

“Probably not best if the Islander goes first in this case,” Seeyela said, walking ahead without another word. The others quickly followed, then climbed out of the carved-out hole in the trunk to find a lot of activity around the Grandfather.

Several people were inspecting the deep wound in the tree—and had to move for the party to leave—while others worked on scrubbing the blood-like sap off the ground. Beyond them, Grandmother sat on a simple stool with a small table at her side. A line had formed in front of her, and after a few words from the old woman to the person in front, they ran off for the next person to take their place.

The owner of the voice who’d called out to the party while they were still in the tree ran over to Grandmother as soon as he understood who they were, and the woman shifted in her seat to look at them.

Hiral could see her eyes counting them, then wincing after a delayed look at the hole in the tree.

“Well, you better not be expecting me to get up and go over to you,” Grandmother called, her cane rapping on the floor as she finished speaking.

Seena led the way over, other Growers stopping and watching as the party strode over to stand in front of Grandmother. The person at the head of the line opened their mouth as if to say something, but quickly shut it at another tap of Grandmother’s cane.

The old woman let her eyes rest on each of the group members, weighing them, before she finally spoke again. “That fool boy did something stupid, didn’t he?”

“He did,” Seena said. “Saved our lives.”

Grandmother’s second hand joined her first on the top of her cane, and she leaned forward to rest her forehead against them as if she were suddenly very tired. Nobody spoke or interrupted the woman, and a few seconds later, she lifted her head again. “Damn boy. Always knew he’d break a few women’s hearts—just never thought mine would be one of them.”

“Will you take care of telling his mother?” Seena asked.

“You’re not staying long,” Grandmother said. It wasn’t a question.

Seena looked around at the gathered crowd like she was deciding whether or not she should say more. “We’re going up immediately. We got another notification window as soon as we came out of the dungeon that the storm would reach us in a few hours.”

“We all got the same notification shortly after you went in,” Grandmother said. “First time I’ve ever heard of something like that happening. Got a second one a few minutes ago, more than doubling the time we had left. But”—she turned to one of the Growers nearby who wasn’t standing in line—“Vecilli, tell them how close the storm is.”

“Probably about twenty-five miles,” the man said. “It was closing fast until we got that second notification. Another hour and we would’ve been swallowed whole.”

“Twenty-five miles?” Hiral asked. His earlier estimations hadn’t taken into account that the storm would’ve moved during the time they were in the dungeon. “If we estimate it’s going to be here in three hours, that means it’ll reach the edge of the islands in an hour. Assuming it’s moving at a constant speed.”

“That’s what we’re thinking too,” Vecilli said. “We’ve already started evacuating the most distant islands.”

Hiral turned to Seena and Seeyela. “It’ll be at the islands in an hour, and the city in less than two. A large part of the island in the direction of the far storm wall is farmland, and not too densely populated. But, as soon as it reaches the city, we’ve already seen what that means.”

“All the more reason to go now,” Seena said. “Grandmother, if you’ll excuse us…”

“Wait,” Grandmother said, holding up her free hand. “I know you have to go, but you can’t do what you’re planning. You can’t just go up like you would on one of your flying platforms.”

“Why not?” Seeyela asked. “One of your visions?”

“Yes,” Grandmother said. “The details are… fuzzy. But, if you go to the port, things will get very complicated. I believe your friend,” she said to Hiral, “is in trouble.”

“My friend… Arty?”

“The merchant. Yes. Others too. Something is happening up on the island.”

“We didn’t need more complications,” Seena grumbled. “Okay, we weren’t planning on taking one of the platforms. We’re going up on our mounts. Does that change anything?”

Grandmother’s eyes glazed over as if she was looking at something. Then she shook her head. “That’s not enough to change things.”

“If the port is the issue,” Hiral said, pushing aside his worry for Arty—What did he get himself into this time?—and pointing towards the hanging curtain of mist, “why don’t we go in the same way we came out? Might get a bit wet flying through, but the dock where Dr. Benza brought us should still be there. And the tunnels will take us right up to the city.”

“Lot of stairs, but it sounds like a good idea,” Seeyela said. “Might be a better plan than announcing our presence, too—and I’m talking about your less-than-subtle Dracolich here—if something’s going on.”

“Grandmother?” Seena said.

“I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about,” she said, eyes darting left and right, “but I think it’s… helping. It won’t solve all your problems, but it will give you time.”

“Yeah, I think that’s the one thing we don’t have,” Seena said, but she strode off to the side and summoned Vili. “Come on. It’s time for a reunion with Fitch.

“And he’s got some explaining to do.”