Astral Threads, Ch 23: The Mountain Road (Patreon)

“How in the world do you keep growing?!” His father’s complaint rumbled through the room as he took in Sam’s new height. Surprise and exasperation warred with amusement as he studied him and then shook his head. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised any more when you show up a foot taller than you were the last time I saw you.”

“It comes with my race now,” Sam said with a chuckle. “I think I might be able to change it at will one day, with more practice. But I came to tell you that I’m heading out. I need to find out why the Harbinger of War rang and the seers at Runekeld might have an answer.”

“Krana has been waiting for you,” Jeric agreed. There was a line of tension along his forehead, but he didn’t disagree. “There’s a lot of work to do in the relic, but it’s worth doing. We’ll keep an eye on things here and make it a good place to live. Hopefully, by the time you return, it will be reborn.”

“Don’t stay away too long,” Aemilia added as she crossed the room and hugged him. She only came up to his ribs now. Her expression was much more worried than his father’s. “The world is a vast place and even with your progress, you’re still not the strongest in it. Be careful and send a lot of messages. We’ll work on unlocking the history here, and I think I’ll have a few more books done by the time you return.”

Sam analyzed both of his parents, taking in their progress, and he was surprised to see that his father was already Level 106 and his mother was 109. It looked like her books were still spreading quickly and bringing in a lot of experience, along with the history she was uncovering here.

“I’ll be careful,” Sam promised with a smile. “And Krana is familiar with the road. I’ll send message scrolls every week and more if something happens. ”

He avoided mentioning the bounty on his head, as did his parents, but they were all aware of the possibility. The only reason they weren’t more frightened for him was that he had several defensive artifacts by this point, which should be enough to see him through any surprise attacks, not to mention the advantage of Crystal Focus.

“Runekeld is a few hundred miles southeast of Osera, set into the slopes of the Western Reaches. I hear the dwarves live in the vast caverns there, ones that are much deeper than the dwarves have here. Make sure to be polite.” Aemilia’s eyes glowed with a tracery of golden light as she looked into the distance. “The road in that direction looks clear for now. But I can see the blemishes of Flaws along it. They aren’t even hidden. It should take you about a month to reach it, or perhaps a little more if the weather is bad. Be careful.”

“We’ll be careful, but we need to seal the ones on the way, if they aren’t too difficult,” Sam agreed. “That might slow us down, but leaving them open risks an invasion here. Krana will be able to scout the area, as can the Guardian Star if we’re close enough, but if they’re too hard for us, we’ll alert the church.”

He did his best to be reassuring, but he stuck to the truth. His mother was aware of the danger, and that leaving was as much an opportunity to improve himself as it was a quest for answers and auras for the relic. He needed to grow stronger and gain more Marks, and dealing with Flaws and bounties was the best way.

Even if he stayed here, they would still need to leave the relic to deal with Flaws in the area. Lesat, Lenei, and his parents would all be working on that while he was gone, along with the rebuilding and their professions. It should be enough for them to gain Marks of their own.

“Krana is almost here, but you should say goodbye to Altey before you go,” Aemilia offered. Her expression was calm, but there was a trace of sadness at the edges. “Maybe it will be safe enough to take her with you one day. She’s wanted to see Runekeld ever since Krana told her stories about it.”

“I will,” Sam said with a grin. “I’ll find a gift while I’m gone. Maybe something aligned with Ice. But one day, she’ll be able to walk across Aster Fall unhindered.”

He looked toward the distant village where he knew Altey was studying with the Ice Sylphs. He would visit her on the way out. Then he pressed his fist to his chest as he gave his parents a formal bow and his senses swept out across the mountain one last time to sense for any trouble.

“Contact me if needed and I’ll teleport back as quickly as possible. My range is increasing by the day.”

---

Sam spoke briefly with Lenei and Lesat, who were mostly content to stay here and train while welcoming new visitors, although Lesat was still grumbling a bit and Lenei warned him again to not stay away for too long or her Call might pull her to find him.

Then he met up with Krana on the way down from the peak and the two of them headed to the Ice Sylph village together, where he spent half a day talking to Altey and teaching her a few new runes. Her progress was slow but steady as she laid a foundation for herself.

“Every time you get taller,” she said thoughtfully as she looked up at him, “it seems like it fits you better, like you were always the wrong height for the world before.” Her words held a strange wisdom that tingled on the edge of his understanding.

“It’s probably just my Charisma,” Sam said with a laugh as he tried to chase the feeling and it slipped away from him. “But it does make things easier. I’ll be back soon.”

“Be careful. The world is dangerous,” Altey reminded him with a sternness that was even greater than their mother’s. She was small and fierce, barely taller than his waist now. “Make sure to get rid of anything that bothers you. Don’t be nice to it or try to capture it for research.”

“You’ve been listening to the hunting team too much!” Sam chuckled as he ruffled her hair. “Did Marin tell you that?" The shaman who was Siwaha's apprentice was often sarcastic, and that sounded like something she'd expect him to do.

"Don't worry," he said reassuringly. "I'll take care of myself and Krana. You do the same here. Make sure to study well and show me your runes when I get back.”

"Don't stay away too long." Altey frowned as she tapped her foot on the ground, like a miniature version of their mother. "You're the one who ties everything together here. And I can't talk about magic with anyone else like I do with you. You bring it to life."

Her words were more than he expected, and for a moment Sam's eyes blurred as he looked down at her. He gave her a nod as he patted her shoulder. Her eyes were fixed on him as he turned away.

He waved to Krana, who was standing nearby holding her horse’s reins, letting her know that he was ready. A moment later, a crystal gate formed in the air, its translucent sapphire pillars gleaming with flames. It led to the farthest point along the road that he was familiar with. It would only save them a handful of hours, but it was useful.

“Time to go home,” Krana said with a long look at the gate. Her expression was a mix of longing and worry. “Hopefully it’s still the same.”

Then they stepped through the gate and onto the road that led away from Highfold. It wound down through the mountains like a long dragon, cutting back and forth on itself as it coiled until it joined the high road far below. In the sky, the shapes of a dozen black Sky Guards turned to a blur as they followed.

---

The clear mountain wind blew Sam’s hair back from his face and whipped around his horns as he stood tall on the road and looked into the distance. The peaks of the Western Reaches stretched out in front of him, presenting an illusion of timeless heights that went on forever, threaded through with faint silver lines that reached into the distance and gave everything a gleaming highlight. The lines were like reverse shadows cast by an unseen silver sun.

The purple and golden flows of mana that always gathered around the peaks were there as well, a hazy cloud gathering on the high slopes as they prepared to flood the land below.

It wasn’t visible from where he was standing, but the road crossed down those slopes, falling away to the distant Storm Plains, its path invisible except for the curve in front of him. It felt like years since he had last been on the road, but it had been less than one. His 19th birthday was approaching in another month, and then it would officially be a year since he and his father had first gone to explore the Outsider ruins.

There was no horse for him to ride on this journey, since he was much too large for them now. It made things easier, at least, since he didn’t have to care for it, which left more time for crafting. Everything he needed was stored in his dimensional bags. The road called to him as it disappeared in the distance, a small echo of the astral threads that cut through the sky.

He had to wonder if other worlds in the void were as tangled with dimensional lines as Aster Fall, wherever the Outsiders or the Astral Guardian came from. Somehow, he doubted it. The Nexus near Aster Fall pulled everything toward it, even the paths of the Titans.

He flexed his hands as he gave Krana a nod and began to walk, his boots whispering against the stones of the road. The mobility enchantment he’d placed on them made them comfortable and his steps as light as a breeze. The miles began to flow away beneath them.

He needed to work on Spell Forging on the way, and over the last day, he’d come up with a plan to test it out and to strengthen himself. The Toa’an Elemental Domain that he was practicing required him to focus his elements around a single concept. He had the idea for that with The Stars Encompass All, but he didn’t have enough spells that related directly to it.

His plan for while they traveled was to put Spell Forging to work creating new and stronger spells for himself. Fortunately, his crystal flame already fit the concept. He just needed to incorporate an astral concept into the structures he was using and to strengthen the ones that were already there. His Cloak of Runes could be infused with principles of the void and spatial movement to become an Astral Cloak, his crystal flame lance could be reworked with a moon or star alignment to become a Lance of Caelus or a Lunar Lance, and so on.

Sapphire runes flickered along the tips of his talons as he formed them and released them, considering the possibilities. Once the Astral Forge was full of essence, he was looking forward to seeing how it worked. It was time to reforge his old Starflame Bracer into something stronger. Plans flickered and grew with the runes on his fingers.

“There’s a Flaw about fifty miles ahead of us,” Krana announced, her voice bringing him back to the present.

She was riding next to him on top of a stout young gelding. It had a swirled grey coat and white mane and was part of a stocky mountain breed popular among the dwarves in Highfold. So far, it seemed to have a calm nature, steadier than most horses.

Sam’s aura flared as he poured essence into the Guardian Star and initiated a scan of the area. A rainbow of light flared off the points on his hand as it rose into the air and began to spin. He hadn’t sensed any bounties yet, and his range for them was 110 miles thanks to his race’s synergy with the Bounty Hunter trait, but he had no doubt that something would show up soon. Until then, hunting Flaws would do.

“How far off the path?” he asked as he waited for the Guardian Star to finish its work.

“About ten miles from the road, close enough to ambush travelers,” Krana answered with a frown. “I don’t know if they can control where they appear, but that one is a problem. It’s set into the mountain slope in a fairly defensible small canyon and it looks like there are wards of some type around it. They’re obscuring some of my view, but not all.”

Two Flaws identified, the Guardian Star’s voice rang out in Sam’s mind as the rainbow light of the scan faded. The closest is the one Krana is referring to. It’s 22 miles away. It’s not concealed, but there is a layer of curses around it that will need to be broken. They are currently corrupting the area.

The second is more hidden and ten miles behind the first. It appears to be the real origin point, while this one is a Flaw that has been deliberately forced open in that location. It’s probably intended as the main fortification while the Outsiders maintain a fallback point.

“We’ll want to go after the deeper one first,” Sam announced as he quickly explained what the star had said to Krana. After all of the battles he’d had with Outsiders up to this point, dealing with Flaws now felt like a matter of course. The only problem would be if this one had something strange about it. “That way, we’ll cut off their retreat and hopefully throw them into confusion. If we leave them there, it will only threaten Highfold and the trade passing this way. Can you see what type of Outsider they are and their levels?”

"They’re weirder than most of the ones I’ve seen,” Krana answered as she looked toward the Flaw. “About ten feet tall, humanoid torso and face, but their legs and back are a mass of vines. Looks like a Wood alignment, or a sub-variety. Levels are 40-80, but there are two at 105 and 110. They look a bit different than the others and are taller, about twelve feet.”

“Let’s finish this quickly then,” he said. The Flaw didn’t sound serious, but if it was more than they expected, they still had the Sky Guard to fall back on. Even now, the golems were hovering above them with some type of camouflage enchantment that made them practically invisible in the sky. “We still have a long way to go. Maybe they’ll have an interesting aura.”

Krana left her horse behind at a camp near the road, hobbled so that it could wander around to forage. She placed a location spell on it so she could find it easily later and one of the Sky Guards was appointed to watch it. Otherwise, if a mountain troll or an ice serpent found it before they returned, it was unlikely to survive. They couldn’t take it with them on the paths they needed to tread. Krana grumbled about it, but there was nothing to do.

“Perhaps you can find a beast as a mount. Then you could bring it along,” Sam chuckled as he found a loose rock and began quickly inscribing a protective enchantment on it. It glowed with a soft blue-silver light as he stuck it inside the horse’s harness a few minutes later. It wasn’t much, but it would shield the gelding against weaker things, just in case the Sky Guard was occupied with something else. “Don’t the Dwarven Battleguard ride cave boars or something?”

“Aye,” Krana muttered as she gave the horse a last glance. She sent a stern glare at the Sky Guard, like she was warning it to take good care of him. “Ironside Cave Boars for the legions. Evolved ones for the Battleguard. Animated stone golems in a similar shape for the Royal Guard, which are much more dangerous, but also hard to craft. They have their own enchantments to attack and defend as needed. There are a lot of different beasts that make good mounts if they’re trained. Boars, rams, cave lizards, griffins....

“I even knew someone who rode a cave drake he befriended, which was the best of the lot, but horses are a smoother ride than most. I like horses, since you get a view from higher up and they only want to eat grass. Boars bounce you all over the place, they attack everything on sight unless you bonk them on the nose constantly, and their spines are bony. You don’t want to try that without a saddle.”

Sam listened to her complaints and then pulled out the set of camp wardstones that they used at night. He hadn’t planned to go to the trouble, but if Krana cared about her horse that much, he’d lay them out for her. They would keep away most things under Level 80. It didn’t take too long to set the carved slabs of stone in a circular pattern around where the horse was staying and then to activate them. A moment later, a web of sapphire wards flared to life over the camp, shielding it from view.

Between those and the Sky Guard, the gelding was almost as safe as if it were standing in Highfold. It made him chuckle that so much effort was spent on a horse, but if it kept Krana happy, it was fine. Sometimes, he had to remember that she was still young for a dwarf, almost the same age as him. She was so sensible most of the time that he forgot.

When that was done, he began to rummage through his dimensional pouches, arranging scrolls and a few other items. His Starflame Bracer was fully charged at 200 essence. His other bracer, the “Endless Night of the Full Moons” with a lunar alignment, was also full at 2,500 essence. That one was slightly weaker during the day and took more charges to use, but it was far more powerful overall.

He also checked his supply of auras. He’d gathered quite a few of them over the past months and had worked on infusing them. He had only used a few for crafting, since once he started a pattern with them he could make up the difference with a bit of time and his own essence.

Altogether, he had about seventy Epic-tier auras and a few dozen lower ones. Most of the monsters he’d fought recently had been under Level 100 and hadn’t given him much experience, but he’d still been able to reclaim their auras.

When he’d sorted out his equipment, he cracked his knuckles as he looked toward the Flaw. The memory of those strange gashes in reality and their twisting rainbow aura came back to him, calling him. He’d never completely forgotten about the attraction he’d felt to the essence in them, like a lure to jump inside, but he was stronger than he’d been the last time he’d looked into that darkness. His fangs flashed.

This time, he was looking forward to it.

---

The path to the second flaw led up around the slope of the mountain that was split by a deep crevasse nearly fifty feet wide. To cross it, Sam summoned a wave of wind to lift him as he jumped. His increased Strength and Agility sent him flying through the air, and he let the wind gather around him as he floated across the distance.

Behind him, Krana snorted in annoyance as a Sky Guard picked her up by the waist and carried her across. It set her down a moment later without any difficulty and then returned to the air, where it faded away again as it kept watch over them.

“You need to learn to fly, like me,” Sam said as he grinned over his shoulder at her. “I’m almost there.”

“Dwarves shouldn’t fly,” Krana replied with amusement. “We’re like rocks and good at falling. Have you ever heard of a Sky Dwarf? Of course not. It’s against nature.”

Sam chuckled as he turned away, but it didn’t take long for his attention to fix on the Flaw again, which they were swiftly approaching. Before long, a yellow-brown glimmer alerted him to the presence of wards along the slope, right where they were nearly hidden by the curve of the mountain. They gleamed in his mind’s eye as he traced the formation with Crystal Focus.

“It’s only around the Expert tier for the ward,” he sent silently to Krana over the Amulet of Swirling Winds. “I’ll take care of it. The golems will be our backup if needed, but hopefully won’t have to interfere. Are you ready?”

Before Krana could respond, however, a low, grinding roar echoed out across the mountainside from the canyon. There was a trace of essence in it and the wards rippled in its wake. Their approach had been far from silent.

“They obviously know we’re here and are trying to lure us in,” Krana agreed. “Be careful of traps.”

A moment later, a wave of vines whipped around the cliffside toward them, their leading tendrils glimmering with sharp edges like wooden blades. Thorns stabbed out from the stalks, their tips glistening with a hissing liquid. Behind them, three vine-covered monsters followed, running on six stout legs that whipped against the ground with spiked tendrils.

Entangling Vine Hound. Outsider. Level 60.

Sam’s eyes flared as he saw the enemy approaching, a sense of battle lust surging in his veins for the first time in ages. A low roar ripped out of his mouth as he activated his battle aura and shot forward to meet them. All around him, crystal flame tore outward in a sphere, like the corona burning around a star.

Behind him, Krana gripped her warhammer and set herself in a broad stance, ready to swing. Her eyes glimmered with yellow Earth mana as a wave of stony spikes erupted from the slope and stabbed upward toward the vines, blocking their advance.

A wave of crystal flame tore away from Sam as his talons cut through the air. For a moment, it seemed like it was just flames, but then runes began to form in it, the flame curling in around itself as it changed shape. By the time it was twenty feet away, it had condensed into five burning points like meteors shooting across the distance.