Unbound

Thadeus Thangle pushed through the blowing wind, peering into the snow-like accumulation for his target. His wild thatch of white hair was tangled with sticks and leaves, but he hadn't put mind to his appearance in weeks. Illusions, after all, covered many things and he'd had more important things to worry about. Now he clutched at the enchanted rock in his fist, praying to the Twins that its gale inscription not fail. It held, for now.

Twin's praise for small blessings.

Around him was a forest of giant, oozing mushrooms. They formed a second canopy beneath the trees, stretching thirty or forty span floor to gills, while the tops soared higher still. The expedition into the Verdant Pass had encountered it two days after emerging breaking through the Tin Gate, and with them came the humanoid mushrooms called Lamellans. They varied from Gnome to Human to Ogre-sized, and no two were alike in appearance, but all of them were violently opposed to the company's intrusion. Even worse, they had control over the larger tree-fungi: at their command, spores would rain down from above like snow.

The spores were the true killers.

The efforts of the wind mages had made it safer for their company, but it had taken them two deaths to realize the danger. Those two scouts—Twins have mercy—they had died when the spores rooted in their chests and began to grow. In seconds the poor fools were more mushroom than man, and they were dead. No measure of healing could save them. Now their mages expended themselves to keep the spores away from their teams, but their Mana would only last so long.

The Lamellans were many, but the true threat was the monster lure at the center of their horde. The steady supply of undifferentiated Mana was enticing and enraging the local beasts in turn, driving them into a frenzy and fueling the nonstop production of their spores. The Hand led a charge against the Lamellans, personally taking down hundreds of them, but still they came, their unnatural procreation more than a match for an Adept's killing fury. Zara may have been able to find and destroy the lure, as well as the entire forest of monsters, but she had gone ahead. Doing what, only the Sorcerer knew.

That left him. A tiny Gnome against a fungal horde.

His target ducked behind a thick stalk of fungal flesh, swift as a hare in a winter storm. Through haze of violet Mana vapor, the Gnome could only make out the dim flash of crimson and white metal. Thangle would have been impressed if he wasn't so annoyed.

Damnable redcloaks. How dare they touch my precious illusions!

He had spotted the redcloak moving through the army, covered in a Seeming spell. The spell itself was similar in kind to his Obfuscation in that it was an illusion, but where Obfuscation confused the senses a Seeming simply showed you what you expected. In this case, a small, weaker Lamellan carrying a heavy rock. Their size and threat were dwarfed by the ten foot monstrosities that swarmed around them, and even the monsters themselves were fooled. Not the Terrific Thadeus Thangle, though. He spotted the violet haze of augmentation Mana in an instant.

Thangle ducked beneath a thicket of fibrous strands, his small size a boon as he moved alone through the horde. Aside from the wind stone in his grip—enchanted by a harried mage—that ensured the spores kept away from his face, Thangle was slowly rotating his own augmentation Mana in deft circuits. Each pass turned Lamellan senses away, toward juicier, extant targets.

Obfuscation is level 62!

"Nine Sundered Serpents!"

That cataclysmic shout was all Thangle heard before the forest around him buckled, and the flash of silver and deep blue Mana surged out in jagged streams. Trees crashed to the earth, followed by mushroom spears that sprayed fountains of snow-white spores into the air. Those spores were caught up in the storm of Mana and dissolved instantly. Those streams, nine of them, extended from the greatsword of the Chosen Hand and bisected legions of the Lamellan all at once. The man stood at the head of the guard, his Spirit a riot of power that hurt Thangle to even look upon, even as his Skill threatened to cut the Gnome in half.

Blasted fool! Thangle danced backward, taking cover behind the ten span thickness of a tree. Can't he see I'm out here?

Of course he couldn't, that was the point of his illusion. But Thangle only saw that as the man's failure. If Felix were there, he would have spotted the Gnome right off the bat.

I should have gone to the Foglands, too, he whined. But no, I decided to help the city guard instead!

The earth shook again, but this time it wasn't the Hand's attacks, but the fungal horde's response. A creature, birthed from the glistening gills of a downed mushroom, it was the size of one of those ice warriors. Easily twenty span tall and just as wide, a solid, damp knot of mindless violence. It charged the moment it gained its feet, bashing through trees and fungal forces alike on a b-line toward the Hand.

Analyze!

Name: Lamellan Titan

Type: Mycid

Level: 72

...

Thangle pulled his attention away from the beast as soon as he realized it was well beyond him. Instead he poured more of his concentration into his Obfuscation, even as the earth bucked again. Ahead the redcloak had been slipping like an oiled shadow between mushroom and trees, but the roaring charge of the Titan threw him to the earth. The stone he'd gripped fell and, with a flicker, escaped the reach of the redcloak's Spirit.

No!

The unremarkable boulder turned instantly into a shining green gem the size of a Human head. It was unpolished except along two sides, where gold script was barely legible. The moment it escaped the redcloak's Seeming, the monsters in the area went absolutely insane.

Zara considered the site of the next Passage. She had cleared the area with some difficulty, as the fungal growths were impressively resistant to magical forces. She found the trick of it soon enough, however, and now the low mound of their next pathway was razed. The last thing she wanted was one of the Lamellan creatures entering the Passages after them. It would be...unpleasant.

"My lady!" Keru shouted from above. Zara looked up to see him bobbing atop a thin branch, feathers fluffed in alarm. "The Mana purity just rose an entire twelve percent!"

She felt it. A lingering coolness on her senses like mint on the tongue, but strangely tasteless. Undifferentiated Mana. She whipped her head back to the battle happening half a league behind her. The lure is potent, more so than the last.

"Wait here, Grouse," she mumbled to her avum. The ugly bird chirped urgently and Zara rolled her eyes before tossing an opened bag of feed at its feet. Grouse cooed in delight before ignoring her entirely. "Keru, lead the way."

A wave of power lifted her from the clearing, carrying her behind her familiar at speeds not even her mount could match. The fungal forest reemerged around her, filled with their horrid spores, and dominated by the press of thousands of fibrous, glistening bodies writhing atop a single point. Her people were just beyond, valiantly trying to cut through the mass of violent Lamellan, but each one killed was met with another two emerging from the woods.

"Ten Sundered Serpents!"

The Hand's Mana surged forth, cutting down an enormous specimen in a single blow. A wave of Mana bolts, arrows, and conjured spears followed, with little result.

We haven't the time for this. Zara raised her hands and poured power from her core. It gathered in her hands where she shaped it into a spellform that was half sung into existence.

Full Stop.

Thangle hurled himself over an errant line of metal Mana, barely clearing it before it carved a Gnome-sized chunk out of a Lamellan warrior. He might not be seen, but those Mana blades would kill him just as easily as anyone else. Easier, in fact. The illusionist never put much into Vitality, after all.

He pushed up from the ground, careful not to breath in the spores that had fetched up between roots, and stumbled onward. At least, until a wall of blue-green Mana screamed into existence, visible to even the most Mana-blind. With a gasp, he put a massive tree between him and the power, and erected the paltry defensive magics he knew. The power swept through him, unconcerned with his attempts, and Thangle felt his senses heave.

Next thing he knew, he was twenty strides away, upside down against the burning remnant of a giant mushroom.

"You're alright, Thad?" Karp called from across the clearing. The red bearded archer was covered in soot and his footsteps kicked up piles of ash. Thangle managed a weary nod before righting himself. "Good. We got enough injured."

"The...the lure?" Thangle rasped. His body felt curiously dry—parched, even—as if he hadn't had a drink in days. "Where's the lure?"

"Lure? Oh the rock?" Karp gestured toward the easterly end of the clearing. "Zara and the Hand got it after they killed the rest of the shrooms."

Thangle gritted his teeth. He'd been trying to get the lure because no one else had noticed it or listened to him when he pointed it out. He—he let himself breath outward, releasing tension from his Body.

They got it and stopped it. That's all that matters.

If they hadn't, the fight would still be raging. In fact, the entire forest had nearly been struck down, as all the vegetation in hundreds of strides had been rendered to crumbling ash. Nothing but their people had survived, and even then quite a few were looking haggard. The danger, however, seemed to have passed. Thangle could appreciate no longer being in mortal danger. After the battle for Haarwatch, his appetite for large, involved battles had grown thin and it had never been large in the first place. There was a reason his physical stats were as low as they were; combat was not for him.

An icon wiggled in his vision and Thangle raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Obfuscation is level 64!

Mana Shield is level 22!

Turned Blade is level 19!

You Have Earned a New Title!

Warrior of the Fungal Forest (Uncommon)!

You have proven yourself in combat against the legions of Lamellan! +3 to VIT, END, and WIL!

You Have Gained a Level!

You Are Now Level 39!

You Have Earned +3 to INT, +2 to AGL!

You Have 2 Unused Stat Points!

System energy punched into his core, churning through the pages of his purple tome before spraying outward in streams of inky violet that sent his affected Skills and stats rising ever higher.

Years between levels and now I’ve gone and gained six in as many weeks. Thangle pushed through the knee deep layer of ash and hobbled toward the rest of the company. What are you doing, old man? War, at your age? Pfah!

And yet he was but steps from attaining Journeyman Tier. Thangle could not help but feel a little eager for the next fight, so long as it pushed him further. If he continued to improve, he might see his two hundredth birthday yet. The thought warmed him as he picked his way down the hill, joining the groaning procession on their March toward the next Gate.

When the path diverged from an easterly direction, Thangle's stomach fluttered in nervous fear. When Zara led them to another low hill surmounted by stone pillars, his blood went cold.

Again?

With a sing-song word, the Dark Passages beneath the hill opened once again. A crack like the maw of a dread beast opened up, and the fetid breath of the earth filled the area with a faint miasma. Or perhaps that was his imagination.

Perhaps.

Thangle had seen and heard monstrosities in those dark pathways. Karp was not the only one to nearly fall off, or the only one to hear the insidious whispers of those...things.

"We must hurry," Zara was saying to the company. She held up a green stone that shone dully in the sunlight. "The road ahead of us is littered with more and more of these lures. For all their illegality, the Inquisition seems intent on limiting all pursuit however they have to; whether that upsets the delicate balance of the Pass or not. Or even puts two cities in mortal danger." She shook her head and stored the stone. Thangle could tell she'd done something to muffle its influence, but he could still feel the bright feeling of its Mana. "They have shown themselves prepared to do whatever it takes to destroy us, our city, and all that lives within. We must likewise be ruthless in our chase. I know many of you fear the Dark Passages, but they are a necessary risk. I will protect you all. Just stay close, focus on the path, and do not stray."

Without another word, Zara disappeared into the unnatural darkness. The Haarguard, despite grumbling and anxious glances, all followed behind. Thangle was among the last to enter, along with Karp, and the pair of them traded nervous smiles.

"I truly dislike this place," Thangle said.

"Then let's get out fast," Karp said. His jaw clenched spasmodically. "Swift as an arrow, true?"

"Let's."

The earthen portal consumed them, soon followed by the blue-green light of Zara's power. It blanketed them and illuminated the path forward, so that they all appeared ghostly. The magic didn't unnerve the illusionist—in fact it fascinated him—but the fact that he could feel it made him truly fearful. Whatever place the Passages traversed, they numbed his senses in a way that made him feel almost Untempered. He couldn't even work is illusions within the Passage. Zara had mentioned the effect was worse the higher your advancement, but Thangle couldn't imagine that.

"You good, Karp?" he asked. The archer was gently pulling on his blindfolded avum, who remained fixed in place. He began tugging with greater intensity.

"Soon as I get this blighted bird moving," he grunted. "C'mon, what's wrong? We're gonna get left behind!"

"Wark!"

The avum's call was aggressive, and its crest feathers stood on end as it stared back the way they had come. Thangle looked into the dark without thinking, but instead of some slithering abomination, he saw a very surprised man in white armor and a crimson cloak.

"Wh-what is this?" he moaned in horror.

The scout survived!

"Redcloak!" Karp shouted, yanking his bow free and loosing an arrow in the same breath. The redcloak brought an arm up, and the arrow shattered on his plate armor.

"Heretics, all of you. You have taken me into a place of demons!" The redcloak, clearly an Initiate, surged forward on powerful legs in a serpentine pattern to avoid Karp's ceaseless arrows. "Free me!"

"No one asked you to come along!" Thangle hissed. He turned back to Karp. "We need to run! Now!"

"What? Why—?" The archer cut himself off as he noticed what Thangle saw, and the both of them retreated. Karp gripped the lead of his mount and with a final tug it began to trot after them.

Beyond the Initiate, the path had begun to sag and fray, and in the dark...

"Run!"

The four—mage, archer, avum, and Initiate—began a mad dash toward their company and the brighter green-blue glow of Zara's magic. Behind them, the path fell apart all the faster, as if spurred on by the redcloak's frenzied screams.

"Heresy! Sorcery! Vile betrayal!"

"Shut up!" Thangle shouted back as they reached the edges of their group, who were just now turning back toward their altercation. "A blighted redcloak got in!"

"How?" Zara shouted as she pushed to the back, before she waved her question aside. "Night! I'm barely able to hold your fears in abeyance, let alone his!" Groans from around them shook the path even under Zara's direct influence, until it started feeling decidedly tacky underfoot. The Initiate charged at them with madness gleaming in his eyes. "Fine. Everyone be ready to run when I say."

An exhalation of thick Mana vapor poured from all of Zara's channels at once, and Thangle watched in awe as she wove them into strands of incandescent power, each one an enchantment that found their way onto the Initiate. Despite this desperate speed and reflexes, the enchantments layered upon the man until he frozen in place, unable to even lift a foot. Spinning her hands, Zara seized the redcloak in her remaining strands and hurled him bodily from the path.

Into the dark.

Where something opened an eye the size of the Sunrise Gate, and the man vanished into a mouth made from the stuff of nightmares.

"Now run. Bloody ashes, run!"

Never before had the Gnome been so thankful for military training, as the Haarguard moved with both speed and what precision they could wrangle from the jaws of their terror. Because all around them the Passages became a maelstrom of dark horrors, spindly limbs and hooked tentacles writhing around the dwindling protection of Zara's magic, while lamprey mouths flashed in and out of view, twisting among the throng of abominations.

Screams of the dead, the damned, of all their regrets called to them. Thangle heard voices he'd not put mind to in decades, centuries in some cases, but they slithered through his ears in agonized howls. The path wobbled and softened all the more as fear took hold, but he couldn't spare the concentration to keep track of who they lost. Avum, certainly. More than a few squawks were cut short. They slung spells at the beasts, but Zara only cursed at them for their efforts.

"You waste your Mana and merely draw more! Focus on the path! Only the path!"

The Socerer's magic bathed them all, but it waned the further they ran. She was clearly expending herself against the abominations, against the Passages themselves as they began to squeeze. Thangle felt it like a hand at his neck, and his meager Spirit could do nothing about it.

"There!" someone shouted.

A portal of aquarmarine light blazed into existence, perpendicular to their path. With a scream of effort, Zara twisted the path, and all of them stumbled. When Thangle regained his feet, the others were already running again. Karp grabbed him by the back of his robes, undignified certainly, but he wasn't about to complain.

The path collapsed behind them, and the darkness pounced, tearing into guards around them. Thangle pulled power from the purple tome in his chest and threw it out of the channels at his feet, shaping the lot of it into spears of augmentation Mana. Things snapped it up, twisting about themselves in their frenzy.

The portal flickered with each guard that passed. Dimmed. They reached it.

They leaped through—

—and directly into something warm, wet, and eagerly lapping at his face and chest and—

A lake, he realized. Water.

Thangle let out a strangled sort of laugh as visceral relief rushed through his limbs. He rolled over, letting himself soak in the shallows he found himself within. He felt weak, his core almost empty, his Body an exhausted sack of flesh. Men and women were standing all around him, shouting, cursing, but Thangle simply stared up and praised the Twins that he still lived.

Until he noticed the sun. It was...on the wrong side of the sky.

It was dawn only two glasses ago. And we traveled in the Passages for less than a quarter glass. How is that possible?

Because the sun was now lost in the west, nearly about to set beyond the mountains. They had lost nearly an entire day in the Passages.

"Blighted Night," Zara said from nearby. "We've barely moved five leagues."

"How?" the Hand rumbled. Thangle sat up, his gut protesting. The two of them stood close, and the guards were all picking themselves and their mounts from the edge of a wide lake.

"Our plight forced my hand. Either create an exit or die." Her bright kingfisher alighted on her shoulder and whispered something to her. She shook her head. "We may die either way. The Inquisition have passed the Iron Gate. Our chase just became more desperate."

Thangle laid back down in the water and closed his eyes. Madness.

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