79. The Fog Breaks (Patreon)

Oz checked in over the night, but when he realized Fflyn was sleeping, he left quickly without disturbing him. After sleeping himself, he checked in again, and seeing more fog, he returned to reading. Books piled up beside him as he worked his way through the books he hadn’t scanned or accidentally absorbed from the sea of knowledge. Pages turned, quietly resting against one another. The smell of old leather and book filled the air, as the sun crept slowly across the sky.

I really wish I knew more about that voice I heard in the depths of the sea of knowledge. Is it the spirit of the library? Some fragment of Saoirse’s? A ghost?

I’m not strong enough to survive going back, yet. But I will. As soon as I’m strong enough, I will.

Carrying his book with him, Oz wandered through the library, casually placing a few books into the spots they fit into on the sorted shelves. As he finished his book, he came across the World Door, and a strange stained cloth, hanging from the back of it. The cloth swayed, gently rocking as if caught in a draft.

Oz frowned. He lifted his hand to feel the air around the door, but felt nothing. He caught the cloth and steadied it, and it stopped swaying. Did Linnea hit the door or something? Do shocks even transmit across World Doors?

He opened the door. “Linnea!”

Linnea sat by the door, frowning at something on the ground, her back to Oz. She didn’t turn at the sound of his voice, and it was only a few seconds later that she reacted at all.

“Oh. Hello there, jailer.”

Oz winced. “Linnea, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know. It still hurts.”

“What if I locked the library door, and let you roam the library, too?”

“Wonderful, my cage gets bigger.”

He grimaced. “Linnea, come on. I can’t—”

“I know. Let me complain.”

Leaning against the doorframe, Oz looked at her. “We could try smuggling you out. You could help with my excursion into the Lafayne Region.”

Linnea scoffed. “We could try. We wouldn’t succeed, but we could try.” She shook her head, then turned at last, looking at Oz. “What’s happening out there, anyways?”

Oz clicked his tongue. He shook his head. “It’s not good. We’ve found a ghost knot so far, not to mention the zombies or the fog that eats people.”

“That sounds like a lot of not-good,” Linnea said, raising her brows.

“It might not be much consolation, but yeah, it looks like there’s gonna be a hell of a distraction in a little bit. People will forget all about you.”

“A distraction? More like the next war,” Linnea muttered.

Shifting where he stood, Oz frowned at her. “Is it that bad?”

“A necromancer, this close to the Mages’ Quarter? It’s pretty obvious what their goal is. People are not going to be happy.”

“Even with all the powerful mages in the Mages’ Quarter, is a single necromancer that big of a threat?” Oz asked.

Linnea nodded. “Can be. Besides, who says that necromancer isn’t as strong as the strongest mages in the Mages’ Quarter? Now that Madame Saoirse is gone, it really isn’t all that unlikely. Fifth- and sixth-stage mages are rare, but certainly not unheard of. If someone’s set up something that close to the Mages’ Quarter, and no one’s noticed it, they’re probably pretty powerful.”

Oz’s brows furrowed. “And to think, I just walked in.”

“Not too surprising. If they’re pretending the Lafayne Region is still an ordinary mortal region, they can’t exactly set up a powerful barrier. It’d be too obvious. A beguiling array is low enough energy that they could have gotten away with it, but it would still be strange if there was no explanation for why mortals are suddenly starving to death around the region… not that mages pay close attention to mortals.”

“No,” Oz agreed. A beguiling array… ah, there it is. A kind of illusion array that creates a strange terrain one can stumble into without realizing it, but once you’re inside, it’s impossible to escape without knowing the exact right path to take. That’d be pretty dangerous for mortals, yeah.

“More likely, they avoided the beguiling array so that mages wouldn’t immediately notice something fishy if they passed by. After all, no one sets up a beguiling array around ordinary farmland.” Linnea nodded. “So there you have it. They spread the rumor about the disease to keep the mortals out, and if any low level mage stumbles in, the fog cleans them up. If the necromancer is smart at all, they probably grab the mages’ bodies and dump them on the mountain, to make it look as if the dead mages stumbled off the path and got caught in a monster’s lair.”

Oz raised his brows. “The mountains are that dangerous?”

“If you don’t take the path, sure.”

He pursed his lips. “Well.”

Linnea looked at him. “If you’re done?”

“Oh, yes. Right. Er, do you want to come into the library?”

She shook her head. “I’m perfectly happy out here, working on asserting dominance over the local spider population.”

Oz froze. After a beat, he laughed. “Right, yeah! Haha…”

Linnea stared at him, completely deadpan.

“Ha… Er. I’ll leave you to it.” Oz shuffled back and closed the door.

Shoving his last book into the place it belonged, Oz scooped up a few new books from a disorganized shelf and settled back into his nook. Getting comfortable once more, he activated the possession spell and once more found himself looking out through Fflyn’s eyes.

Outside the barn, the fog thinned slowly. The pale disc of the sun grew brighter moment by passing moment. Erich and Aisling meditated quietly, while Loup snored in a pile of wolves. Oz stood and stretched, going to the window to get a better look.

Instead of the tight, choking fog from before, too thick to see a hand in front of his face, the fog now was only thick enough to block off fifty or so feet in front of him. The fallow field between him and the fifty feet laid swathed in misty grey, but no longer did the fog white it out. A low shape loomed at the fifty-foot boundary, a wall, perhaps, or a boulder.

The fog retreated before Oz’s eyes. He could see a hundred feet, a hundred fifty, two hundred. The cloud lifted, and at last the scenery revealed itself.

“Aisling! We’ve reached the next town!” Oz called.

Aisling opened her eyes. She sat there for a moment, taking a deep breath, then stood and walked to his side. “The fog lifted?”

“It’s almost gone,” Oz confirmed.

She stood, unfolding herself from the floor. Looming over Fflyn’s shoulder, she peered past him out the window. Her braid swung down and thumped gently against Fflyn’s back, the frayed hairs tickling his nape. “So it is.”

A chill ran down Oz and Fflyn’s spines. Fflyn instantly fell still, mind utterly blank.

Oy, hey. She’s at least five years older than you.

You felt it, too. You like her! Like like her. Pervert!

Oz sighed. Too young, you’re far too young.

“It’s lifting?” Loup asked. She yawned so wide that tears squeezed out of her eyes and wiped her face on the ruff of wolf fur before her.

“Seems so,” Oz confirmed.

Erich rose. “In that case, I’ll return to Elder Silverfang.”

“Remember what we agreed upon,” Oz said. I don’t need him blabbing to anyone unnecessary about the necromancy. Not only is now not the time to spook the necromancer, but also, I’m in here. I don’t want to die when the necromancer realizes I’m poking around in their homeland.

“Of course,” Erich agreed. He nodded to Fflyn and retreated, stepping out into the last remnants of the fog. His dark form retreated, quickly becoming little more than a shadow in the pale mist. In a few moments, he vanished, fading into the background.

Oz nodded to Aisling. “Let’s go investigate this town.”

Aisling nodded. “Loup, will you come with us?”

Loup hesitated, then shook her head. “I’ll find you tonight.”

“Just you and me, then. Shall we?” Oz asked.

Oooh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?

Oh, shut up.

Aisling lowered her head. “Let’s go.”