Gleam - Chapter 65 (Patreon)

The first three days of travel through the forest went far better than Chance had expected. After leaving Gleam behind together with Bella, he’d half expected to be under attack by monsters every few steps.

He’d spend the first few hours beset by the terrifying forces of faint wind rustling the tree leaves and the crunch of sticks beneath their feet. Not a single monster had come after them. Like Bella had predicted, the area around Gleam was completely cleaned out and, as far as they could tell, safe.

But, even after camping through several nights, the two of them hadn’t encountered a single living creature. Now that the threat of the Shikari was lessening behind them, Chance couldn’t help but start to appreciate the forest’s beauty.

There was just enough room between the trees for the sun to shine down, warming their backs. It might have gotten close to uncomfortably warm had the canopy not cast shade over everything else, keeping the forest at a comfortable, slightly chilly, temperature.

Of course, it was still a forest. Chance would have taken a real bed had the opportunity been available to him, but he was far from suffering as they camped out beneath the lush trees and the glimmering purple stars peeking through above them.

And, as he was starting to get used to, his peace came to an end at the hands of Yamish. Right at the dawn of the fourth day after leaving Gleam, as Chance and Bella were packing up their meagre camp, Yamish appeared between them.

He floated upside down, his elongated, sharp fingers interlaced and his legs crossed. Chance cursed, his urumi flying to his hands before he realized who had arrived. He lowered the weapon, his heart thundering, and let out a large sigh. Bella looked considerably less pleased at Yamish’s arrival, which wasn’t saying all that much.

“You scared the life out of me,” Chance said, sitting down on a curved protrusion coming from a nearby tree. The urumi slithered back around his wrist, returning to its purple, spiked bracelet form.

“Travelers should always be wary and prepared,” Yamish said, rotating so that his head was right side up. “You were not.”

“Are you the real Yamish? Or the fragment of will?”

“Both are real, but I am not here in my full capacity. You speak with the Yamish that you know most.”

“Not to cause offense, but why are you here?” Bella asked, picking her bedroll up and sliding it into her bag without taking her eyes off Yamish. “Is something wrong? Are the Shikari following us?”

“I am not observing their attempts to locate you. It is possible that they near, and it is possible that you have been forgotten.”

“Then why are you here? Are you going to give me more training?” Chance asked.

“To give you your instructions for this trial. The Shikari will maintain the search in whatever capacity they see fit for a period of four months. You may use this time as you see fit. Your only goal is to avoid capture.”

“You mean we could just… camp in the forest the whole time?” Chance asked. “Not that I’ve got any plans of doing that. The forest is nice, though.”

“Do what you will, but remember: those who do not advance fall behind. Vex is among your pursuers, so I do not predict your outcome will be enviable should you remain in such close proximity to Gleam.”

Bella’s face turned several shades paler. “Seriously? He’s chasing me?”

“He is an irritable child whose toy you have broken. He chases.”

“Of course he does,” Chance said. “Lucky us. Thanks for the warning, Yamish. Is there anything else we should know?”

“No. I have watched over you thus far, but no longer. This will be the last time we meet until the test is over. Do not fail to meet my expectations.”

Then he was gone as if he had never been there. One second Chance had been looking straight at him, and the second there was simply nothing. Bella glanced over her shoulder, then shuddered.

“That is terrifying. Nobody should be able to just… appear and disappear like that. There should at least be some warning.”

“You’re telling me. At least he isn’t kidnapping you out of bed while you’re trying to cultivate,” Chance said. He finished packing his own supplies up and slung his travel pack over his shoulder. “I suppose we should probably follow his advice and get out of here, though. Do you know how far away we are from the next city?”

“Roughly a few days, but I’m not certain,” Bella replied, checking the nearby trees until she found the marking she’d left on it the night before so they could remember where they’d come from. She spotted it and pointed in the opposite direction. “That way. It’s been a long time since I traveled through the forest, but it’s basically a straight path out.”

Chance only managed to take a single step before a sudden chill gripped his heart. He stumbled, grabbing onto a nearby tree to catch his balance as the feeling rapidly grew in strength. Chance instinctively started to meditate, counteracting the cold by channeling Essence into his Gate.

The spiked band around his wrist trembled and thin tendrils of ice worked their way through his body, slithering toward his extremities. Chance gritted his teeth, focusing even harder. He could dimly hear Bella asking him something, but it didn’t register.

As quickly as the feeling had arrived, it vanished. The chill slithered out through his fingers and toes, and a gray mist floated out around him. His urumi snapped open on its own, flipping as it fell through the air before falling point-first into the ground with a thunk.

“Chance!” Bella yelled, grabbing him by the shoulders and giving him a rough shake. “Snap out of it! Are you okay?”

Chance yanked Bella back as the gray mist surged, but it didn’t move toward them like he’d thought it would. Instead, it funneled itself into the hilt of his urumi and down into the earth.

The twigs beneath their feet hopped as a faint tremble rippled through the ground. Stone slithered beneath the dirt like a nest of snakes, gathering around the urumi and winding up it before clicking into place. Bella drew a dagger from her belt and lowered into a fighting stance.

“Your sword’s gone rogue.”

“Wait,” Chance said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I think it’s a friend.”

Stone continued to build itself, the seams melting away as each piece slipped up and merged with the growing statue. Within seconds, it resembled a young woman – mostly. Its eyes weren’t in line, and one of her ears protruded from the top of her head rather than its side.

She also had about seven fingers too many on each hand, and they stuck out in every which direction. Stone eyelids slowly lowered in a blink and the girl’s rocky mouth ground open. Her jaw cracked loudly, and she rubbed her chin, pursing rocky lips in displeasure.

“Old City?” Chance asked. “Is that you?”

“Unfortunately,” the statue replied. Its voice was surprisingly high pitched for a stone, but compared to a human, it was still a few steps crunchier than expected. Bella slowly lowered her weapon, watching the statue warily.

“I was under the impression that the Old City was a bunch of alleyways in Gleam.”

“Hi. That’s me,” the Old City said, waggling its many fingers in greeting. Chance struggled to avoid gagging, and he almost succeeded.

“I think you’ve got too many of those,” Chance said. “Like, way too many.”

“Are you sure? I thought the more, the better. They’re useful, aren’t they?”

“You don’t need a bunch of extra things because they’re useful,” Chance said. “And too many fingers is most certainly not useful. What are you even going to do with a finger on your forearm?”

“Grab things.”

“Nothing of mine.”

The Old City scrunched its nose – which was a fairly impressive task, given that the rock making it up still had all the normal properties of rock, none of which included being supple or flexible. It flicked the finger on its forearm off.

“Happy?”

“Do that to all the extra ones and I’ll be a little less horrified. You look scarier than some of the things I’ve killed inside you.”

“Which ones are the extra ones?”

“Here,” Bella said, splaying her fingers out as a tiny grin tugged at her lips. “Try copying this.”

The Old City peered at her palms. It looked down at its own hands and shook them off. Fingers flew in every direction, several nearly smacking Chance in the face. He managed to bob and weave past all of them before sending the statue an accusatory glare.

“Is this better?” the Old City raised its hands, revealing the proper ten fingers. Unfortunately, not a single one of them was on in the right direction or place.

“You are not supposed to have a thumb in the center of your palm,” Chance supplied. “How did you manage to do that?”

“Look, this is hard. Have you ever formed a body out of a bunch of rock? No. I didn’t think so.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one? You’re two whole years older than me.”

“My wisdom does not extend to making pathetic bodies like yours.”

“You’re the great Scholar-City of Gleam, aren’t you? It feels like it should be a fairly simple task to not get an ear stuck in the middle of your head.”

The statue reached up and cursed, grabbing the ear and shifting it over to the proper position on its head.

Bella cleared her throat. “Chance. This is Gleam’s awakened form? You’re not playing a joke on me?”

“Are you implying that I am insufficient?” the Old City asked, cocking its head to the side. It moved a bit too far for its rocky form to permit and its head snapped off, thumping to the ground and rolling to a stop beside Bella’s feet.

Its body knelt, reaching blindly for the missing head. Bella hesitantly picked the head up and returned it to its owner. The Old City plopped its head back on and twisted it into place, sealing over the cracks as if they had never been there.

“I don’t mean to be rude,” Bella said. “You… just aren’t what I expected, I guess.”

“Well, don’t complain too much. I’m not exactly here voluntarily. Chance scammed me. I didn’t want to get bound to anyone this early. Ever, actually. I just needed a few hundred more years to gather my strength.”

Bella’s eyes narrowed and she tapped a finger on her waist. “Chance would never scam someone.”

“I know him better than you do, fleshbag. He scammed me right out of life and home.” The Old City pointed a misplaced finger at Chance. “I wouldn’t be here if I had literally any other choice.”

“How?” Bella asked. “I can’t see Chance ever trying to take advantage of someone.”

“He was supposed to get strong enough to defeat Yamish before I got smashed up or bound. Instead, he just made a deal and got himself bound to me.”

“I’m sorry, what? You wanted Chance to try to defeat Yamish? Did he tell Yamish about your existence or something?”

“Well, no. He didn’t beat Yamish, though.”

“You wanted a boy who arrived on Gleam no more than a few months ago to defeat one of the strongest cultivators that have ever lived on Centurion,” Bella said flatly. “And what did Yamish want with you?”

“To consume my Essence.”

“And yet here you stand,” Bella said. Chance opened his mouth, but Bella shot him a sharp glare and he let it close with a snap. “So what you’re telling me is that you wanted him to defeat a vastly superior opponent and, instead of leaving you for dead like anyone with a brain would have, he managed to save your life and find a way to protect you from all the other cultivators in Gleam that would almost certainly bind you if they had a chance.”

“When you put it like that, you make me seem ungrateful. I gave him a magic urumi.”

“From what I’ve seen that urumi do, it would be worth a few hundred gold at most,” Bella said, shaking her head and pointing her dagger at the statue. “I won’t be having any of that. Chance might tolerate it, but I won’t. No guilt tripping. Learn some respect. If it had been anyone else you’d made that deal with, they’d have sold you out to the Shikari leadership in a heartbeat. Chance probably passed up on hundreds of thousands of gold just to save your ungrateful rocky butt.”

Chance and the Old City’s eyes both grew wide as Bella’s tirade came to an end. She crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow. The Old City shifted uncomfortably.

“We can agree to look past it,” it said. “The fact of the matter is, I’m stuck with you now. I didn’t want to show myself until Yamish stopped hanging over you like a storm cloud. Now that he’s gone, we can actually talk.”