Aster Fall 49: Transit Point (Patreon)

Sam sprinted across the tenth layer, his steps fluid. Behind him, the Ice Sylphs spread out in a wedge, their lean forms and white cloaks blending into the snow so well that they seemed to disappear between one moment and the next.

The snow curled around them in the same way it did for him, but it was much stronger. There was a constant flow of Ice humming in the air, resonating with their movements. If he hadn’t been tuned into that same energy, it would have blurred his senses, hiding their presence.

They had no difficulty in keeping up with him. If anything, he was probably slowing them down. The only thing letting him hold the pace was his increased physical attributes from the essence he’d absorbed. He frowned, pushing more essence into his movement as he tried to propel himself faster.

As they ran, he reached out through his amulet to his father, checking on his position.

“Dad, I’ve found the Ice Sylph hunting party,” he sent quickly, between breaths. “We’ve destroyed one flaw and are heading back for the other. Then we’ll meet you at the Grand Flaw.”

“You’re not alone? Good!” Jeric’s voice echoed in his mind, tinged with relief. “I was worried you’d run off and taken a risk all by yourself. Lenei and the church forces arrived about two hours ago. It was a bit hectic, but they destroyed a flaw on their way in already. We’ve sorted out the adventurers with them and we’re all heading to the other two subsidiary flaws now. They’re close enough together that we should be able to get them one after the other. Hold on a moment.”

There was a pause and then Jeric’s voice continued. “Lenei is here. I’m passing your message on to her, so she can tell the church. Since your information about the first flaw was good, they’re inclined to trust the rest of it.” There was a pause as he talked to Lenei and then he was back.

“She says the church wants you to stay out of it, since they don’t want any distractions. We’ll be at the next one in about two hours, since we have to backtrack south a bit to get to it. Then we can cut north toward yours and back around for the Grand Flaw. We may have to split our forces to do both.”

“Dad, no,” Sam insisted as he focused on a way to convince his father that would also work for the church. “The Ice Sylphs won’t allow it. The six of them alone are at least as strong as the entire church force. This is their land, and even the church is only a guest here. We've already taken out one.”

He glanced up at the sky as he checked on the position of the moons. It was early evening now and they’d been running for more than an hour.

“We’ll be at the next flaw shortly and wipe it out. Then we’ll move toward the Grand Flaw and keep an eye on it until you arrive. We have to make sure the Outsiders don’t escape.”

“Sam...” Jeric’s voice was a hesitant rumble, one that became more resigned as he continued. “I’ll tell the church about the Ice Sylphs, but don’t take any extra chances, alright?”

Sam felt a flash of embarrassment as he considered his attack on the fifth flaw, but he pushed it aside. He might not have planned it that well, but it had still been necessary.

“I’ll be fine,” he promised. “Once this is done, we can settle in and have a real life here.”

There were a few more words exchanged, and then Sam turned his attention back to running. When he looked over, he noticed that Siwasir had moved up to run beside him.

“Your father worries about you,” Siwasir said simply. He’d overheard Sam’s side of the discussion, enough that he’d made sense of it. The sylph was running so smoothly it was almost like he was standing next to him.

“You are at that age where some rebel against their parents’ directions, but remember that he only wishes to keep you safe. All the same, a hunter must hunt, or he is not a hunter.” Siwasir looked to the sky, where Elsanar was flying above them. The drake was nearly invisible, except for his wings that refracted the moonlight and sent an occasional gleam across the snow.

“Life is dangerous even if you stay at home, and then you will never grow,” the sylph added. “That is also a form of death. Just be wiser in your actions and bear in mind that attributes do not change our basic nature. They only enhance what is already there. You will have to moderate your impulsiveness with careful thought.” With that, Siwasir turned his attention back to the front.

Sam understood what he meant. He was saying that Wisdom might add to your perception, including of your own actions, but it didn’t make you wise. You had to do that on your own. Instead of following up, however, he turned his attention to the ice drake. He didn’t understand Elsanar’s connection to the Ice Sylphs, and it had also felt like the drake had something personal against that wyvern.

When he asked, Siwasir looked to the sky to check on Elsanar’s position before answering.

“The ice drakes are the lords of the mountains. They carry the lineage of an ancient ice dragon, and they have great hearts and keen minds. The wyverns, on the other hand, are monsters that corrupt the ice with their presence. They are a plague on the peaks.” He sent a glance over his shoulder to Sam before he looked forward again.

“Do you know how quickly a wyvern grows and how much they eat? It takes a century for a drake to grow to adulthood, but for a wyvern, it is a tenth of that. They multiply like locusts, spreading everywhere, and as adolescents they hunt in swarms.” Siwasir frowned, his lean face marked by hard lines.

“The drakes never have many hatchlings, and when they can, a wyvern swarm will hunt a clutch of young drakes, sometimes even the eggs before they hatch. They kill them to consume their mana and flesh. It causes the wyverns to grow even faster, and there are so many of them that the drakes cannot always stop them. Once a drake grows, they are stronger than a wyvern, but few make it to that age and their path is a struggle.

“Elsanar has lost several of his children to the wyverns and was hunted himself when he was younger. So, he hates them for good reason and would see the mountains purged of them.”

Siwasir took a breath and let it out slowly, some of the tension easing from his face.

“He is here now because of the Outsiders. They have been helping the wyverns, protecting them and using them as guards, which will allow their presence to grow out of control if it’s not stopped. That is a threat to all of the drakes.”

When he finished, he was silent for a while as they ran along together. It was comfortable that way, with only the drifting snow passing across Sam’s cheeks and the rhythmic cycle of his breath. There was something simple about the sylphs, or perhaps primal, that painted reality in stark, clear lines.

The other sylphs didn’t speak, but they were a close and comfortable presence. It made him wonder what it would be like to hunt the mountains with them, running across the snow. Just by being near them, it felt like he was more a part of the snow and wind than he had ever been.

The rest of their run was in companionable silence as they passed through the tenth layer and the ones above it, zigzagging their way up the broken staircases and landslides that led to the sixth layer.

He did his best to lead them around any monsters in the way, and for the most part their path was clear. There was twice when an Ebonstreak Nighthunter glided above them, but each time one of the Rangers saw it before it could get close and a white arrow sent it tumbling to the snow.

Just as they entered the sixth layer, a message from his father arrived, letting him know that the church had arrived at the next flaw and was engaging the Outsiders there. The news made him jump, his aura sparking around him. He wished that he was there, watching his father’s back.

But there was nothing he could do about that right now. He’d made his choice to go alone and now he had to see it through. At least Krana and Lesat were with him, as well as Lenei.

He pulled his attention back to the present, scanning the map as he adjusted their path toward the next flaw. The sixth layer had mostly been a housing district, and the streets were layered with abandoned shops and two-story homes.

In the night, everything was limned with moonlight. He led the sylphs through the streets as quickly as possible, bypassing all the monsters he could sense. The flaw was near the middle of the layer in an area that was curled around with narrow streets and tightly packed buildings surrounding a medium-sized plaza.

It looked as if it had once been a market center, probably filled with bakeries and shops for the people who lived nearby. As they approached, the Guardian Star’s voice rang out in his mind and he halted, bringing the sylphs behind him to a stop.

Scans of this area indicate at least 20 citizens of Aster Fall are in the vicinity of the flaw. Several of them are badly injured. Distortions near the flaw may be concealing other Outsiders. There are at least four.

This area also has fewer beasts than average. There should be a reason. Be careful.

Sam frowned as he heard the report and a sudden memory of that brewer and his grandson back at the inn came to his mind. The Iceblood Guild had been trying to kidnap the boy, but until now, he hadn’t seen any trace of prisoners or humans working for the Outsiders.

Was this where they were keeping them? If so, what were they doing with them?

Siwasir gave him a curious look as he hesitated, so he explained his thoughts.

“How can you sense them?” Siwasir asked, looking puzzled. “The ice here is quiet, and I cannot tell much of what is in the area, except for the traces of monsters.” He glanced toward the sky, tracking the ice drake’s position above. “Elsanar also cannot see a flaw or Outsiders here.”

“I’ll explain the story to you later,” Sam replied as he held up his right hand, showing off the nine-pointed star on it. “This star is a magical construct, similar to an artifact, and it is very good at scanning for dimensional flaws. I was given it as well as a job to do.”

He felt entirely comfortable explaining his story to the Ice Sylphs, who had already shown him great trust. He saw no issue with telling them the full story. If anyone were likely to believe him, it would be them.

It didn't take him too long to explain the major details, until the sylphs knew the story almost as well as his family. It was strange, since he'd just met them, but in a certain way he already felt like they were his blood relatives. There was an implicit trust when he felt their presence.

That had to be a side effect of Initiate of Ice, and there was a moment of doubt when he realized it, but at the same time, there was no harm in telling the story.

“I see,” Siwasir said thoughtfully, his eyes narrow as he looked at the star. Then he turned to the sylphs behind him, giving them a nod as he accepted the information and turned the conversation back to the present. “If they have seized captives, there must be a reason. We will be careful in our attacks to distinguish friend from foe.”

“We’re close now,” Sam added, looking at the sylphs and then toward the area in front of him. “The flaw is inside that building in the plaza, on the right. It's just below ground on a lower level, which was probably used for storage once.”

He pointed to one of the buildings that faced onto the plaza. The building had a narrow door to one side and a shop face that opened onto the square. It looked like there was an apartment above it for the shopkeeper.

The sylphs nodded and spread out, taking up positions as they scanned the area.

Sam looked over the map, making sure that the area was clear of monsters again, and then he was moving. A Starfire formed in his hand as he raced forward, and he sensed the sylphs moving all around him. Their formation was different this time. They were letting him take the lead.

Instead of a trap, it seemed like the Outsiders had chosen concealment as their main tactic to protect this flaw. If he hadn’t known it was here, this would have looked like any other building.

As he approached the entrance, his battle aura flared around him, the cloak of flames stretching backward as his talons lengthened. He’d learned the last time not to rush in carelessly, but he had the Ice Sylphs with him now, which gave him confidence.

He hammered through the door with an explosive crack as he entered, throwing the tattered remains of it to the side. Then he was ducking as a warning screamed through his senses.

An Iceblood spear slammed through the area where his head had been and before he was fully conscious of it, he was spinning. His talons slashed up to the side, slicing through the bone spear shaft, and he surged inward.

Iceblood Hunter. Level 52.

The Outsider had been guarding the door, hidden in the shadows. He pulled his spear back as Sam rushed at him, but he only had time to bring it across his chest in a block. The broken shaft dangled loosely from his hands.

Flame and wind flickered around Sam as he darted forward, his talons slicing up and across before the Outsider could react. Pale blue blood splattered across the hallway, but at the same time, he heard a bell ringing from farther down.

The Hunter’s corpse slammed into the wall, sliced into half a dozen chunks, and then Sam was running, heading down to the stairs as fast as he could. Entering the door had tripped some type of alarm spell, and now they needed to get to the flaw as quickly as possible.

Behind him, the Ice Sylphs flooded the hallway, bringing with them a chill breeze that coated the walls in ice. They were surrounded by sparkling auras of blue and white mana that made them seem like winter spirits.

They descended, slicing through another Iceblood Hunter and then a Warrior as they moved along a curving staircase and reached the basement. When they did, a large, open area spread out around them. It was lit by pale blue spheres of light that were attached to the walls, giving everything an unsettling cast. There was something corrosive about the light, as if it were darker than it should be.

The area was far larger than the building above had indicated. It stretched for more than two hundred feet to the front and the sides, extending under the plaza above. Perhaps it had once been a market area for when the weather was bad or a storage area for the merchants, but now its purpose had been turned to something else.

Long rows of dull, bone cages and shackles decorated the area, some of them filled with people and others with wild beasts. The bones that made up the bars were long and oddly shaped, with strange joints, as if they had been twisted into their present purpose. Dark, curling inscriptions covered them like thorns, giving them a threatening presence.

A sense of despair and the smell of recent death pervaded the area. Everything about the room stank. It was a combination of blood, pain, waste, and torture. Smaller bones from humans and other races decorated the floor, some of them still wet with gore.

Inside the cages, there were at least a dozen people and as many beasts. A handful of people and a few Outsiders were outside of them, moving around the area between some low tables that were scattered with packs of equipment, weapons, and other items that had clearly been taken from the captives.

At the far end of the area, the flaw glimmered in the air. Its rainbow colors rippled with a torrent of energy as flickering lights passed through it. Unlike most flaws, the edges of it burned with a ring of rotating flames, as if it were slowly searing its way through the world.

It was much larger than the other flaws he’d seen, big enough that a wagon could go through it.

All around it on the stone floor, there was a complex diagram laid out in bone talismans and curling inscriptions, marking out some sort of stabilizing enchantment that held it open. Some of the designs looked like hooks, as if they were pulling the flaw open, but he couldn’t make out any more.

What was happening here was clear. For some reason, humans and beasts were being captured and either sacrificed or sent through the flaw to whatever was on the other side. It was some type of harvesting operation.

By the time he arrived in the room, the two Iceblood Shamans were already chanting as they prepared a curse. Three Iceblood Hunters and an Iceblood Warrior rushed toward the door, accompanied by an angry shout.

“You!” One of the human figures who was standing beside a table spun toward the door, shouting as he saw Sam. His eyes were wide, as if he recognized him. That didn’t stop him from attacking, however. His hands waved through the air as a spell pattern began to form.

Human. Visionary-Arcane Healer. Level 42.

There was a moment of confusion as Sam stared at him, trying to place why he was familiar. Then the man’s features and class registered. By that point, he was already a quarter of the way across the room. He twisted out of the path of a bone spear as he hurled the Starfire he was holding toward the flaw.

A Visionary.... The one who had been holding the horses when that Barbarian bothered them, in what felt like ages ago, back on the road to Highfold. The useless group that had driven the Flamecaller Devils toward them.

He was the one who’d whispered to that idiot, Jaser, not to attack Sam because he was an Outsider. Back then, he'd wondered how the man knew anything at all about Outsiders.

It seemed he’d just found the answer.

Behind Sam, the Ice Sylphs flowed out into the room, their movements like chiming crystal as spells and arrows flew from their hands. Unwilling to be left behind, Sam changed his target, charging toward the Visionary instead of the Iceblood Hunter that he’d been planning to kill.

KraaTTTToOOOOOMmm!

At that moment, the Starfire exploded in front of the flaw, releasing a wave of searing, white-blue flame across the inscription that surrounded it. An enormous wave of sound shattered the air in the enclosed cavern, loud enough to drown out everything else in the air.

A wave of compressed air followed it, blasting outward as it shattered everything within a few dozen feet of the flaw, including the two Iceblood Shamans who were trying to finish their curse and two humans who were standing near it, preparing to throw a package through.

In the wake of that explosion, a blur of crystal flame twisted through the air, and then Sam’s talons wrapped around the Visionary’s throat as he lifted him off the ground. Swirling bands of flame and wind wrapped around the man’s body, pinning his arms to his side as his clothing began to char.

Sam held him there, staring into the traitor’s eyes. He growled low in his throat as he considered how anyone could enslave their own people and sell them to Outsiders. Then he decided he didn’t care, and a flicker of memory made him speak.

“You said I would use your skull as a wine cup if you angered me,” he snarled. His words were barely intelligible. “You aren’t worthy.”

His talons flashed and the man’s head went flying across the room toward the flaw. It tumbled in a wild arc before it landed with a dull thump. It rolled through the portal, accompanied by the weak hiss of the inscription on the ground.

Whatever was on the other side, the traitor was welcome to find out.

Blue-white crystal flame from the Starfire covered the formation now, chewing away at the inscription there as if the dark curls were charcoal. The outline of the flaw wavered as the magic holding it open began to fail.

All around, there was another ripple of arrows and blasts of ice as the sylphs spread out, and then the room fell silent. There was only the movement of the sylphs as they confirmed the Outsiders were dead.

As he looked around, he could see that they had spared the remaining human traitors. Only three of them were still alive and they were bound in icy ropes, thrown to the side of the room like logs. Now, the cages were being thrown open by two of the sylphs as the rest began to gather the experience.

Their efficiency was incredible. Siwasir came up next to his side, joining him in looking at the flaw and the burning inscription around it.

“A transit point,” he said slowly, his expression troubled as he pointed to the ring of flames around the flaw. “I hadn’t expected to see one here. They are usually only seen in large wars, where resources flow through from the other side to support the Outsiders. The inscription they use tears at the Seal. The longer they exist, the more damage they do, even more than the other flaws.”

“Where were they sending them?” Sam growled, his hands flexing as he took a deep breath. He could feel the dimensional ripples from the flaw now that he was this close to it, as well as something of the concealing formation that was all around it.

He studied the inscription, but the curls meant nothing to him. Whatever system they were using, it wasn’t related to his form of enchanting.

“Flaws open from many different parts of the Outsiders’ realm,” Siwasir answered. “So, it is hard to say what they were doing, but it must have taken significant resources to open one this large.”

Analysis of the flaw suggests the Icebloods were preparing for the transit of something larger, perhaps a war machine, the Guardian Star spoke up. The citizens of Aster Fall and the beasts here would likely have been sacrificed on the other side to create a blood connection to this world. Some have probably already been sent over for that purpose.

It is one way of stabilizing a flaw, and it is commonly used by Outsiders to prepare for a larger invasion.

At that moment, the final lines of the inscription burned away and the flaw rippled in the air, suddenly feeling more present than before. At the same time, the auras of Aster Fall rushed toward it, building up the pressure around it as they began to force it closed.

Sam growled as he compressed a Starfire between his hands. Before he thought about what he was doing, he threw it through the flaw to the other side.

Seconds later, the flaw snapped shut, disappearing from existence. The only thing left behind was the smell of charred stone and the whispering susurration of a desert wind cutting across the sand.