Moonlight Relic, Ch 31: Crystal Passage (Patreon)

On the other side of the field, a matching sphere of crystal flame sprang into existence and swirled for an instant. Then it shattered, flowing away into wisps of energy that dissolved into the local dimensional currents. When it faded, Sam was standing there, in the same position as he’d been before.

He stumbled as the world seemed to rotate around him and then he nearly fell over. It felt like he’d just passed through an ocean that was spinning in a dozen different directions at once. Stability from his trait entered his awareness a moment later, however, bringing him back to a sense of balance.

He could also feel the astral energy in his body spinning, almost like there was a muscle flexing that had just been woken up. It was vibrating along his eyes and bones as a wave of sparks stretched from his talons to his toes. The essence constellation in his soul rumbled in satisfaction as it began to rotate.

Then it all stopped when the world resolved into its usual self.

He was on the opposite side of the field, twisted forward at an angle. He’d thought he was touching the ground, but his hand was three feet away and reaching upward. He grumbled as he straightened himself out and shook his arms, and then he looked back to the workshop that he’d been standing next to. It was eighty feet away.

He’d teleported to the very edge of his Crystal Focus range, which was the most efficient on his essence. It had taken a dozen points, something that he could regain in a few minutes of meditation. It was also the quickest way to use the ability. Anything farther would require a higher energy expenditure and take longer. He was already planning on Crystal Focus for his next upgrade, but that was another reason to get it as soon as possible.

He hadn’t thought about his essence regeneration rate in a while, but with the increase to his Wisdom, he was up to 81 points per hour. The base was 14% per hour at 10 Wisdom and every six points after that added another percent, which put him at almost 29%. If he meditated, it would be twice as fast. It was plenty of essence to practice with Crystal Passage.

He took a deep breath as he chose another target, this one farther away. The crystal flames swirled around him in a sphere again as he held the image of the other side of the village in his mind, the field where they’d landed after fighting the Blood Elemental. He still remembered every detail of the grass there and the impression of Aster Fall’s energy when they’d returned.

He felt his astral energy stir again as he disappeared. The sphere blinked out of existence and reappeared above the field an instant later.

It dissolved, leaving Sam behind.

This time, when he landed, he stumbled for a moment, but there was no problem with telling where the ground was. Instead, it felt like he’d started to take a deep breath at the beginning of a run and had stopped. There was an ache for more movement as he felt stifled, and then the astral energy subsided, spinning away into finer threads.

He was about a quarter of a mile from where he’d been standing. This time, it had taken him thirty points of essence. The transfer had still been nearly instant, but it had taken him longer to lock onto the location. He looked down at the grass below his feet, where there was a slightly scorched mark that looked something like a rune, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

He was pretty sure he could use almost anything as a dimensional anchor, as long as he imbued it with a location rune and a bit of his personal signature. A rock in the village should work, especially if he could put it in an area that would stay clear.

There was one other thing he’d noticed this time as he teleported too. He’d felt the distinct presence of wards brushing over his skin. They’d felt friendly and very similar to the wards around the village. The presence of the hearthstone was in them. As soon as they noticed the Initiate of Ice blessing on him, they’d turned aside.

Instead of trying again, he turned and headed for Siwaha’s house. He needed to check with her to make sure it was alright to keep practicing. Once he knocked on the lintel, it didn’t take Siwaha long to look outside and see him.

“Ah, young Sam.” She smiled as she looked up at him. “I suppose you won’t fit inside the house as well as before, will you? Let me see you.” She stepped out of the house and placed her hand on Sam’s chest. Then she tilted her head to the side, almost as if she were listening.

“You’ve fully healed?” There was a note of surprise in her voice, which then faded away as she studied him. She tapped him on the chest a few times, and then walked around his back, examining him in almost the same way as Asenya had. “I suppose that does make sense with your Evolution and your recent work, doesn’t it? Hmm. You look healthy at least.”

It didn’t take him too long to fill Siwaha in on everything that had happened. As she listened, however, he got the impression that she knew quite a bit more than that and she was just letting him say it to be polite. There was little in the valley that escaped her notice.

“You caused quite a commotion on the peak,” she said with a sudden smile. “All sorts of things are trying to get up there now. Fortunately, most of them are staying in the mountains, and if they’re as wise as their ancestors, they will remember to avoid our valley.”

Her words were kind, but Sam had the sudden impression that frost would be warm compared to Siwaha if she were ever angered. It made him feel better about leaving his sister with her.

“Come along then, and tell me what you need,” she continued. “I was just about to go and check on Raelia and Danir. The healing enchantment has been working better than expected and I let them go home last night. They’ll still need to spend most of their time here, but some rest at home is good for them.”

“Good, I was worried about them,” Sam said. “I thought it would take a month before they looked better.”

“It would have originally, but you put quite a bit of Earth mana into the enchantment, didn’t you? The Spring Wind Blossoms started to absorb it as well and it sped things along.” Siwaha chuckled as she walked away into the village and gestured for him to follow. “So, what do you need? It looks like you have a question.”

As they headed for Raelia and Danir’s home, it didn’t take him too long to explain about Crystal Passage and the wards he’d felt.

“You were a bit lucky,” Siwaha said with a smile over her shoulder. “But the wards know a friend when they see one. They won’t harm you, no more than they would harm one of us when we travel with the snow. For outsiders, it can be dangerous to attract the wards’ attention and few who can teleport would risk it in the valley.”

As they arrived at their destination, she paused and looked up at him. She barely came up to his ribs now, but the force of her presence was as strong as ever. He felt like a small boy in front of her, just one that had grown up very quickly.

“Since you have a Dimensional Mage interested in you, you should know that the only safe place for him to teleport is inside Highfold, which has been granted an exception to the wards. Outsiders and guests can travel within its walls. And I imagine you already know that the ruins limit teleportation within their borders.

“For long range teleportation, you should know that the dwarves built a few transportation platforms in the city, which help to stabilize a transfer, but they don’t use them much, since it’s an expensive practice. Teleporting out is available to anyone, but to teleport onto a platform, you need a key and the dwarven council doesn’t hand those out easily.” Siwaha studied him with a thoughtful gaze. “I don’t think that will be a problem for you, since you have access to anywhere in the valley, including other parts of Highfold. If you need a key, however, I can request the council send one.

“Unfortunately, your Dimensional Mage could teleport out from within the valley, since the wards don’t pay as much attention to that, although it might take him some time to set up the spell. That cannot be altered. The wards are like a vast and ancient oak tree. They have deep roots and it is not easy to shift them.”

Her words cleared up the questions he had about the wards, but they also gave him another worry. It was good to know that Micas couldn’t teleport within the valley, but if he could teleport out...then he could take someone else with him.

Sam frowned as he thanked Siwaha, and then he spent a few minutes chatting with Raelia and Danir from the door before he turned to leave. He could fit inside the house if he had to, but his horns brushed the ceiling and it felt like he was taking up all of the space.

It was the same problem he had with their small house. The workshop he’d borrowed was designed to hold upright looms and was a bit taller, so he would probably sleep there too. A bedroll would be good enough for a while.

When that was settled, he stepped a few paces away from the door and a sphere of crystal flame swirled out around him. He’d already gained a certain dislike for these short hops, since it felt like he was barely getting to stretch his muscles, but he needed to practice more before he tried anything longer. The sphere blinked out of existence.

An instant later, he was back at the wildflower field.

The distance was slightly longer, but it still cost him the same 30 essence. He growled as he shook out his muscles, but there was no sense of vertigo this time. Whether it was his trait or his race, something had adjusted.

That was enough testing for that version, at least for the moment. He’d try a longer hop in a little bit. Right now, he wanted to see how the second form of the ability worked. He spent a few minutes meditating to restore his essence and then he turned toward the center of the field as crystal flame built up around his arms.

This time, it spiraled out in front of him until it formed two swirling, crystalline pillars. Each was ten feet tall and there was five feet of space between them. When they were fully formed, silver streaks of astral energy appeared and began to travel along the uprights in crackling arcs, running through the crystal flame. The area between the pillars took on a glassy look, as if space had been frozen there.

Then translucent distortions began to appear.

His thoughts were fixed on one of the places he knew best in the valley, an area on the far edge where they had fought their first wyvern. Just behind that area, there was a cave where the bandits had stored supplies. The entire area had been drenched in his and his father’s blood, which was something he wouldn’t forget anytime soon.

Essence drained out of him and into the pillars as he searched for the location. He could feel the sense of space folding as his mind traveled through the gate. The sense of the world here was distorted, visible only as a flow of energy that was twisting wildly through a dozen different currents, but it felt like he recognized some of the things he passed. There was a sense of familiarity to it all as he searched for a connection on the other side.

Slowly, the distortion between the pillars began to turn into a spiral.

A couple of minutes later, as he struggled to keep the energy balanced, the sense of the right area flooded his mind. As he locked onto it, the spiral grew more intense as it expanded from one side of the gate to the other. More essence drained out of him as he reached through the passage and constructed new pillars on the other side to form a similar structure.

When he was done, the spiral froze. The ripples in it disappeared and it turned as translucent as a crystal mirror. A moment later, it sprang to life as colors filled it, resolving into an image of the far side of the valley.

He let out a slow breath as he studied it, and then he stepped forward. He could feel space rippling around him as the crystal pane stretched out in front of him, and then he was through, standing on the other side in front of the bandits’ supply cave.

A cold breeze from the mountains swirled down, rustling over his horns. Behind him, the Crystal Passage hung open, waiting for another transit. When he looked back through, he could see the field of wildflowers just a step away.

There was no sense of instability or disruption in the transfer, just a smooth transition from point to point. This time, the astral energy in his body hadn’t reacted except for a slight tug that felt like it wanted to move more.

Overall, it was a successful test.

The main problem was the amount of essence it took. Forming the gate cost him 100 points for each side, locating the connection had been about 30, and transferring himself was 10. He’d been full to start, but now he only had about forty essence left. He grumbled to himself thoughtfully as he studied the gate, making sure that it was still stable.
That was an expensive ability.

Beyond forming the pillars, the main difficulty was in locking onto a location. The cost would increase the longer that took and the farther he tried to reach. He had a fairly good sense for this location, but it was still slow. A dimensional marker should help with that, but there wasn’t much he could do about the cost to construct the gateways.

The spell was definitely an essence hog.

Even if he was more efficient with the location, it was a minimum of 220 essence to create a Crystal Passage and a small transfer cost for each person or thing he sent through. Without all of the attribute gains from killing Outsiders, he wouldn’t have even been able to afford it. If he started with full essence, he could transfer himself and one or two other people through the gate, but he’d have to combust essences to do more.

He’d need to test out the cost for longer distances, since he was only about forty miles from the sylph village here, but anything within the valley would probably be similar.

He tapped his chin as he studied the passage. The pillars were impressive, and it was definitely a useful ability. The Guardian had been right about that. The only problem was planning how best to use it. Holding it open right now was draining his essence at about a point a minute.

Maybe he could make an artifact that would help...something to absorb the essence cost for the initial construction or to make the location search more efficient, but that would have to wait until after he made some other things. The ability was also at Basic, so hopefully it would become more efficient as he leveled it up.

A few minutes later, he felt the ache of essence drain in his meridians as he stepped back through to the village. He turned and looked at the passage one last time, examining the pillars, but it looked as solid as before, if not more. The streaks of astral energy were calmer now, but they were still flickering through the pillars like lightning bolts, making it look like someone had trapped a storm inside.

He was fairly sure that was due to his race and not something that was supposed to be in the ability, but it didn’t seem to be harming it. He watched the effect for a moment before he let the passage fade.

The pillars dissolved first, turning sideways as they collapsed into a distortion of spatial ripples. Then those flowed away, disappearing into the ether at the same time as the astral energy shot away. A moment later, there was nothing except a mark on the grass to indicate where the passage had been. He gave it a small grin, even as he sat down in the field and began to meditate.

He’d have to practice with Crystal Passage more, particularly to see how far he could push the range on the short distance hops, but right now, he needed to restore some essence and get back to crafting. There was a lot to do before he met Garild.

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When he returned to his workbench, he was hard in thought as he tapped his talons on the center of the table. Then he picked up the chalk and began to sketch out an idea. He didn’t have time to make the best item possible right now, and even crafting the base for an artifact would take more than a few hours.

But he could make a scroll.

If Micas appeared, his dad needed either a good defense or an overwhelming attack. Either of those would be enough to delay him. If it was an attack, one hard kick might be enough. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was what he could do right now.

When there were a handful of runes interlocked on the table that formed the core of a design, he pulled out a piece of parchment that he’d cut from the wings of the Terror and began to examine it. A Plague Wing Moth...the material from it was aligned to disease and healing, as well as the transfer of vitality. Once, that would have surprised him, but it was common for materials to have some traits of their opposite. For the moth, it had used all of that energy to heal itself and to generate more plague dust. It was also the highest grade parchment he had currently for spells.

The wings of a First Evolution Terror.

And fortunately, there was a good bit of it. He could have tried enhancing a piece of hide or something else, trusting to his Componentless Scribe ability to improve it, but it would be easier to start with something that was already worthwhile. Crystal flame poured out of his hands and into the parchment as he smoothed it and began to prepare it.

The real question was what would work best against Micas. He could try a fear spell, capitalizing on the nature of the Terror, but it was likely Micas had some artifact to guard his mind, and as for disease, he wasn’t going to unleash something like that.

No, he was going to use what was closest to hand.

There was another property of the moth that would work for this, and it would probably help to level his Essence Scribe a bit. The wings were heavily aligned with vital energy, draining it, and using it.

So, what he was going to make was a Scroll of Vitality Siphon, along with some dramatic environmental effects that would be part of an illusion to accompany it. If it worked like he imagined, the scroll would overlay his father’s body with a vitality draining aura, and if he punched Micas, it would start to work, pulling energy from Micas and transferring it to him.

That nature was so deeply embedded in the moth’s wings that he didn’t need to create it. He just needed to enhance it and channel it, which was why he was fairly confident in it working. He’d have to add a targeting feature, so the scroll would only affect the one Jeric chose, and then build in the illusions that would accompany the activation, but the fragment of the moth’s nature that remained in the wings would be enough to do the rest.

He also intended to make his father look like an absolute terror walking.

When the scroll activated, the area nearby would fall dark and a sensation of beating wings and looming death would flood through it, targeting whomever the scroll was used on. Hopefully, it would be enough to scare the daylights out of Micas, which would be a good bit of revenge.

The Hastern didn’t seem like the type with much of a backbone, so he shouldn’t push forward if he was nervous. He’d retreat and try again when he was more confident.

To get the scroll to work like that, however, he was going to need to infuse it with an aura that could sustain the activation, making it into a miniature enchantment. That was where his new Modify Aura would come in. He rummaged through his storage until he found what he was looking for.

An Aura of Ashen Wings.

It was an Elite tier aura that had come from one of the wraiths that attacked the peak. The Aura of the Scythe from the raven would have been better, but he hadn’t managed to reclaim it. He had an Aura of Dust, an Aura of Corrosive Wind, and a few others, like an Aura of Crumbling Bone, that had all come from the same wraiths, but this one fit the best.

Whatever the bounty had done when it ate something, the sub-wraith it created wasn’t well disposed to the world.

Sam hummed to himself as he began to turn the aura between his hands, focusing on the nature of the aura swirling inside, as he began to slowly pare it away, focusing on the sense of ash. He needed to bring it a bit closer to vitality and death.