Side Story: Tilyana's Whispers (Patreon)

I peered into my wardrobe with a smile, wondering what to wear. Given the bright morning sun outside, a thin dress seemed suitable. Now then, what style and shade of green would suit me today? Short-sleeved and mint coloured, perhaps?

'Something warmer,' whispered the wind, blowing in through an open window. 'Something drier.'

I looked out of the window at the cloudless, blue sky and shrugged. The wind would know the weather better than I did, being up in the air and all, so I switched to a long sleeve version and then picked out a thick, hooded cloak to wear over the top. Now, what was it I had to do today?

'Travelling,' creaked the Lehibe tree in which I made my home. 'Synklisi.'

I blinked. I was travelling to Synklisi? Why was I going there?

'Answers.'

Oh. Fair enough. That was a good reason; finding answers to things was kind of my job. To be fair, there's always a good reason when the tree started speaking. It would be helpful if he told me the question, though.

'*****************,' hissed the tree, the incomprehensible noise painfully ringing in my ears.

My smile faltered for a moment. It was one of those things then. Things that [Nature's Voice] wasn't allowed to tell me, no matter how much it wanted to. Still, I liked Synklisi. Always so many interesting sights. Voices, too, despite it being such a large city. I always enjoyed visiting. And if I'd find some new answers over there, so much the better.

I packed up a bag and stepped outside into the warm morning air in my thick cloak. It was fine for the moment, but in half an hour or so, when the sun had risen a bit, it would be uncomfortably hot. Or at least, it would have been, were it not about to cloud over and rain.

The downside of travelling to Synklisi was that I'd have to take the portal. The first issue with that was that I'd need to walk past the local dungeon. It had once been a beacon, shining as brightly with life as any other part of the land, but was now a cold, dead place. What had gone wrong with it, I couldn't say. Those who entered it claimed that nothing was wrong, and that it was better. That it was safer. I wasn't so sure. To me, it felt like the calm before a storm.

As if responding to my depressing thoughts, the rain began. First a few spots, then a shower, then a deluge. I smiled as I continued my peaceful walk, while others in less appropriate clothing rushed to shelter.

"Greetings, wise one," said a porter as I entered the warehouse, as if the wisdom were my own. "Are you travelling today?"

"I seek answers in the great city," I informed him.

"Synklisi it is then," he said, walking away to arrange a break in the transport of goods through the portal.

'Empty,' rustled the wind, bringing news from the other side. 'safe.'

I ignored it. Even if there was a big enough gap for me to enter right now, it was still polite to wait for them to do things properly. I wasn't in that much of a hurry.

Saying that, when the porter started to set up the bridge, I stopped him and jumped through instead. That was the second problem with travelling by portal; the insides were deeply unpleasant. All of nature was silent, and the mana roared continuously, trapped in the unnatural structure and straining for release. The less time I had to spend within, the better.

I emerged onto the busy street in Synklisi, the dungeon surroundings always a hive of activity. Alas, even the great dungeon had fallen cold and dim, a lifeless place despite the constant river of delvers buzzing around and within it. Where did all the life go?

'fled,' scratched the stone. 'afraid, lost, damaged.'

The same answer as the last time I asked, as well as every other time, and the same as every other dungeon. How can a dungeon be damaged? For that matter, how can a dungeon flee?

'***************,' screeched the stone, causing me to wince.

Perhaps the answers I was sent here to find would finally solve this mystery? But where was I supposed to go to find these answers? If it was related to the mystery of the changed dungeons, the delvers guild would seem a good place to start my search.

'Place of rest. Place of dining. Place of sleep.'

I veered to the left, swapping out the delvers guild headquarters for the inn next door. But what information would I find there? Was I about to meet someone?

'This way,' whispered the air. 'Over here.'

I glanced in the direction I was being led, but the room was not occupied, so I walked in the opposite direction, to reception.

"Can I help you?" asked the receptionist. An advantage of Synklisi; not so many people calling me 'wise one'.

"I require that room," I said, pointing.

"Do you have a booking?"

"I do not."

"Oh. Sorry, but I'm afraid every room is occupied tonight due to the tournament."

A big disadvantage of Synklisi; when I come out with strange requests, sometimes people say no. "I search for answers that may be found there," I clarified.

"Can you at least be a bit more specific about which room you want. Which number is it?"

"I don't know."

I could tell by the look on the receptionist's face that this conversation was not going to go well, but if the room belonged to another then I had no right to claim it. Maybe I'd just arrived a bit early and needed to wait for the room's real occupants to turn up.

"I'll await the owners," I said. "They may be the ones I seek. Thank you for your time."

I sat at a table in the tavern area, keeping watch through the ceiling for anyone entering the indicated room. The place was busier than I remembered, and was rapidly getting busier. What had the receptionist said about a tournament? Was that something important?

Eventually, a group of three elves entered the room, so I climbed the stairs to visit them.

"Oh! How may we be of service, wise one," asked the elf who answered my knocking.

None of the three were known to me, but they obviously all knew me. "I was led here to seek answers," I replied.

"Answers to what?" she asked.

"I'm not allowed to know," I answered sadly.

The elves looked at each other in confusion, apparently not knowing what I meant. That was unfortunate, yet I must have been led here for a reason.

"If you know not either, may I be permitted to wait here? Perhaps the answers will reveal themselves in time."

"By all means, wise one. This room sleeps four, and we are only three. You're welcome to stay for as long as you need."

The elves unpacked and left, and though I investigated the room thoroughly, I found nothing untoward. Why I was led to this specific room, I did not know, but I trusted in the voices. I lay down to wait on the spare bed, listening to the relaxing background susurration of a million whispers just beyond the cusp of hearing.

I sat up abruptly when some of the voices went wrong. The awful hissing was back, but this time it wasn't speaking to me. It was coming from right next door to me, and only my proximity allowed me to listen.

Was this what I was here to find? I looked through the wall and saw a young human boy, who was in turn looking straight at me. I saw his eyes open wide in surprise as they met my own, and the hissing fell back to silence as he turned away. That was new, and very interesting. Presumably he was the one I had been led here to seek. Who was he?

'Change,' answered the earth itself, a deep rumble from far beneath my feet.

'Unbound,' added the wind. 'Unchained and free.'

He brings change? Does that imply he caused the changes to the dungeons? I observed him leave his room and kept watch with curiosity. He sat in the tavern below, and while his eyes were turned downwards, his senses expanded outwards. He needed no eyes to see. I recognised his use of [Mana Perception], but there was another skill involved. One I did not know. What was it?

'*********,' hissed the earth, and I had to slam my hands over my ears to dull the pain.

He can use a skill that [Nature's Voice] isn't even permitted to tell me the name of? I needed to talk to the child, so I followed him downstairs and sat at his table. So focused was he on his strange senses that he failed even to notice my presence.

My [Eye of Judgement] showed only the result of a low levelled [Analysis], displaying only items of rank two or below. It also attracted his attention, by the effect of his [Secrecy] skill, so I talked to him while considering what I had seen. There was only one rank three skill [Analysis] couldn't display. Was that his strange perception skill?

'Count,' whispered the wind. 'Notice.'

Count? Well, yes, he does have a silly number of skills, but why does the exact number matter? Trusting in the voices anyway, I quickly counted the number of skills. Seven rank one artes, ten spells and thirteen skills. Six rank two spells and twelve skills. One rank three skill. Certainly a lot, but again, why was that important? What was I supposed to notice?

Wait... When I wasn't counting, when I read the skills, there weren't that many... I read his status again carefully. Seven rank one spells, and eleven rank two skills. Three spells and a skill were missing. How was that possible?

'*********'

Ignoring the incomprehensible hissing, I tried to work it out for myself. It was so easy to query [Nature's Voice] for every little thing, but I did need to use my own brain on occasion, or it would waste away to nothing. From this close up, I could hear the individual tones of his mana, and I had enough experience to pick out the individual affinities. It wasn't at all the usual mix I'd expect from a human. In fact, it was impossible; he had both space and time. He also had body and... and...

'Focus,' encouraged the earth.

There was a fourth affinity there. It was to body as space was to time. Soul affinity. No-one should have access to that. It was used by some monsters in dungeons, but no-one was ever attuned to it. And it wasn't just him. I could hear the same note from several others in the room. How had I never...

'Remember,' urged the earth, but I couldn't. I could feel the answers being torn from my head, despite my efforts. So I'd been wrong all along; it wasn't that [Nature's voice] wasn't allowed to tell me, but that I wasn't allowed to know. Although, that in itself was an answer of a sort. To call this city interesting had been an understatement, and I returned to my borrowed bed, thinking about what I had just seen.

He had skills I was not permitted to know about. He had... something else. Something to do with his magic. I remembered hearing it, but the very memories of the sound had been torn from my head. Forgetting a sound, which was not related to the System, and the different count of skills depending on how I viewed them, implied that this wasn't a System restriction. No, quite the opposite. Given the attempts of [Nature's Voice], it was obvious that the System wanted me to know. [Nature's Voice] had called him unbound. Unlike me, he was permitted to know.

So, something external to the System was restricting knowledge. That was certainly a sizeable answer, but one that only led to more questions. What was restricting knowledge? What was it that was restricted? Why was that one child among all the peoples of the world exempt? How did this relate to the lifeless dungeons?

My new questions did nothing but invoke the painful hissing from [Nature's Voice], so what should my next move be? Was it worth talking to the boy again? For all I knew, we'd had a lengthy conversation in which he'd already told me exactly what had happened to the dungeons, and the knowledge had been taken from me. For now, I should just watch and wait, and see if anything of interest happened. Maybe in a few days I'd try my luck with another conversation.

The very next day, he attracted the slime that is not called Blobby to the surface, which did indeed count as interesting, but wasn't anything I hadn't done myself. The morning of the following day was uneventful, but when late evening came around...

'Prepare,' intoned all of nature, completely unprompted. From the wind, from the sky, from the earth, all spoke the same message. 'Disaster. Death. Anguish. Prepare!'

I leapt out of bed instantly. What must I do?

"What's wrong, wise one?" asked one of the elves who were graciously allowing me to share their room, but I lacked the time to answer.

'Be there. Bring healing.'

Healing? That was a power I lacked. There were many life mages in this building, and more in the hospital. Should I round them up? No, if a disaster of some sort was about to happen, then they could move themselves. I was right next to the dungeon; there was a potion store only a few doors down. It would be closed at this time of night, but this was an emergency! I threw open the window and leapt out. What's happening?

'***********,' hissed everything, and the volume was enough that I staggered, knocked out of my sprint. Is this related to the child? I looked back towards the inn, and through the walls I could see him sleeping soundly in bed. Apparently not, then.

High quality potions have been in short supply in the Emerald Sea since Vargalas left to follow his own voices, but Synklisi should have plenty. Besides, right now, I'd need quantity over quality. I ignored the closed sign on the door and made my way in, and I could see the proprietor upstairs, not yet asleep.

"There is an emergency!" I shouted. "I'm in need of potions."

I watched him come running down, emerging from a door behind the counter

"Emergency?" asked the storekeeper. "What happened, and what do you need?"

"All of your healing potions, please," I answered, taking out an enchanted storage bag.

The storekeeper stared at me without moving. Did I not answer comprehensibly? I know I have a bad habit of not being very clear, with a tendency to talk in the same way as the voices that follow me everywhere, but I'm pretty sure 'all of your healing potions, please' should have been obvious. Did I forget to say it out loud? Sometimes I forget when I'm talking to real people instead of the voices in my head, and right now I was a bit panicked.

"All of your healing potions, please," I repeated, just in case.

"Why?" he asked, eventually.

"I'm not allowed to know," I answered, my usual smile long since replaced with a frown. Not being allowed to know things rankled at the best of times, but now that it was so important, it made me angry. Lives were at risk here!

"As you wish," he said, shaking his head. "May I have that bag? Carrying that many potions out to the front would take some time."

I gladly handed it over and reached for my purse. This many potions would be expensive. I hadn't even asked how many there were in stock.

'122,' creaked the building.

Hmm... A lot, certainly, but hardly enough to make an impact on a large-scale event. Should I visit other stores?

'No time,' whispered the wind, moments before a bell started ringing. The dungeon break alarm, one that I had heard only yesterday. So, a dungeon break was happening for the first time in years. From the response of [Nature's Voice], it must be on an unprecedented scale. Thank goodness so many high-level delvers are here for the tournament.

'Not here,' whispered the wind.

'Under rock and stone,' added the earth. 'Where I reach for the heavens.'

Under a mountain? A dwarven settlement?

The store owner came running back out, now visibly rushing. Apparently, the ringing of the bell had alerted him to the urgency of my quest, and he waved away my attempts at payment, informing me we could sort it out later.

I left the building to find delvers of all ranks gathering outside the warehouse that housed the portals, the unbound child among them. I didn't need to merely provide the potions to the group, but to travel with them. But first, I needed to know what was going on.

"A dungeon break in the Emerald Caverns," explained the first delver I asked. "Monsters of level twenty on the surface."

'Greater. Stronger. Twisted and broken.'

"No," I informed him. "Already things grow worse."

He looked at me strangely, presumably wondering why I asked him what was going on if I already knew, but I didn't know until I asked.

I followed through with the rank fours, and travelled behind as they fought their way through a swarm of monsters towards the dungeon. I had no skills suited to combat, but... 'two paces left' I was very good at dodging. A fireball went sailing through my previous path only half a second after my sidestep. 'Pause.' A particularly vexed dwarf landed upside-down right in front of me, pulling himself back to his feet while grumbling, then running back towards the battle. 'Forward.'

There had been fighting here before we arrived. We passed the dead and dying, and I provided healing where I could, my batch of potions stabilising a dozen casualties until the healers that were working their way from behind us could reach them.

With a sizeable squad of rank four delvers, the swarm of monsters before us were little more than vermin. They died in their hundreds as we advanced, until we beheld the dungeon.

I promptly spun around and threw up.

It was wrong. I didn't know how else to describe it. And I didn't need my skills or my class to tell me that either; my ears were more than enough, and every other elf in our party had exactly the same reaction. What happened here?

There came no answer, not even the unintelligible hissing.

Then why am I here? What help can I offer?

Again, there came no answer, leaving me to do nothing but wait.

More forces arrived behind us, and the next stage of the plan began. The third ranks would guard the entrance, while the fourth ranks would push forward into the dungeon. The third ranks took their positions.

'No*e m*st ent**'

"Stop!" I shouted. "None must enter!"

People looked at me in confusion, particularly the dwarf who had devised the plan. "What's up, lassie?" he asked. "We're on a time limit here."

The voices were distorted. Something was interfering, but I could still make them out. "Despair rises from below," I repeated, word for word. "The sleeping mother lays new paths for them."

"The heck is that supposed to mean? Why are you even here? You aren't armed?"

"She's the [Oracle] of the Emerald Sea," spoke up an elf. "If she says we must not enter, then we must not enter."

"Then what? I can't just discard our whole plan because of some nonsense riddle!"

"You need wait only a moment longer," I said. "The messengers already approach with their tidings of pain and sorrow. These will be needed by those who respond."

I emptied my bag of healing potions, just as a dwarf sprinted into the cavern, struggling for breath but not letting that stay his voice.

"The monsters are tunnelling! We have level forty golems in the grand hall! It's a massacre!"

More dwarfs entered.

"There are monsters in the passageways!"

"Ogres have tunnelled their way into the warehouse!"

"Fire salamanders in the eastern hall!"

The general paused for only a moment before reorganising his forces, dispatching one rank four fighter to each location along with a team of rank threes, leaving us with only what was required to hold the dungeon entrance. The dispatched delvers each grabbed a handful of potions on their way out.

"If we'd run into the dungeon..." muttered a rank four lion-kin, as he returned to his position on the front line.

"Yeah, I owe you my thanks," said the general. "Any more information you can give us?"

"The unbound one calls out to the sleeping mother," I answered, again repeating word for word the message brought to me from the root of the mountain. "We can do nothing but hope that she stirs."

"What's that supposed to mean? Any elves around here who can translate?"

"She said to hold the line and wait!" shouted someone, which I thought was pretty obvious.

ding
New quest added: Destroy the Emerald Caverns' Dungeon Core. Time limit: <Error>.

"What the heck is a dungeon core," complained the general, once again turning to me.

'*********.'

"We are not permitted to know," I answered. "Fortunately, there is one here who is. We must wait for him."

"Bah. More waiting," complained the dwarf, but it wasn't for long. The unbound child came rushing in shortly after. As I'd expected, he did know what a dungeon core was and where to find it, but he would never be able to share the information with us. He needed to enter the dungeon personally.

He did so without question and without argument, despite his low level. Not that there was any danger with Kranakellicium in the party. It had been decades since I last spoke to the dragon. Maybe there would be a chance again after this situation was resolved?

The delvers continued to hold the line against the monster tide, which gradually grew in level as the dungeon emptied itself. They wouldn't be able to hold forever, but they didn't need to.

ding
Quest completed: [Destroy the Emerald Caverns' Dungeon Core]

'D*wn ris*s,'

I covered my eyes before a quantity of mana sufficient to blind my [Mana Sight] lit up the entire mountain. The delvers screamed and fell back, but the monster swarm didn't take advantage. They stopped, and then they vanished. It was over.

I sighed as I looked around at the damage. The potions that my advance warning allowed me to gather had doubtless saved dozens of lives. Stopping our strongest fighters from entering the dungeon, and hence allowing us to respond quickly to the tunnelling monsters, had saved hundreds. But what if I wasn't here to point out that the child needed to enter the dungeon? Would he have insisted himself? If he hadn't, it would have been the end of the Emerald Caverns at best.

At worst, if whatever happened to this dungeon spread and infected others, it would have been the end of the world.

Kranakellicium returned with the child. "It seems we have achieved victory," he stated, which I felt completely underplayed the consequences of a loss.

Another messenger ran into the room, yelling for the general. "Everyone who died in the dungeon break just vanished!" he shouted. The delvers, who had fallen silent in their fatigue, stirred and whispered, wondering if the protection that now pervaded the dungeons had responded here too.

'Life remains,' groaned the mountain, which seemed to confirm it. 'But the debt must be repaid.'

Debt? What debt?

'**********.'

Again? Never before have the restrictions annoyed me as much as they have this day. Yet it seemed that Kranakellicium wasn't completely wrong. The diseased dungeon had been purged, and the Emerald Caverns saved. The dead would even be raised to life. Yet there was to be a price. Would that price be one that the world could withstand?

Just as the life had left the dungeons years prior, I felt it withdraw from the land. There was no change to the mana, no visible signs, and no-one else reacted, but I knew. A life that had previously surrounded us all, that had wrapped the entire world like a blanket, had departed.

The earth mother had left us.

'Weakened. Reduced. Lesser. Alive.'

For the first time since the battle for the Emerald Caverns began, I felt the smile return to my face. Yes, there was still hope. There was always hope.