Grand Game 301: A Fatal Impulse (Patreon)

A portal has opened.

I rose to my feet. “I’m going in,” I said through the farspeaker bracelet. I padded forward, eyes trained on the luminous curtain before me, but around the corner of my eye, I noticed Safyre’s summons stiffen.

I paused and swung towards the caster. “What’s—”

“Something is coming through!” Safyre yelled. “Get back!”

My head whipped back towards the portal. She was right. A dark miasma was pouring through.

A stygian.

I drew my swords in a flash, but for a heartbeat, I was torn between advancing on the emerging foe or withdrawing. Temporizing, I unfurled my mindsight.

“What is it?” Duggar asked tersely.

“Danger,” I said. “Withdraw to the cave and make sure the twins go with you. Safyre and I will handle this.”

“Understood,” the alpha replied, not voicing any arguments.

Leaving Duggar to see to the pack’s safety, I reached out with my will to the stygian. It still hadn’t passed fully through the gateway. Whatever it was, it was big.

The target is a level 158 stygian shambling horror.

The tension eased from me. For all its size, the approaching enemy was no great threat, and even without Safyre’s help, I was certain I could handle it. With her buffs and summons thrown in the mix… it wouldn’t be much of a fight.

“It’s only a rank fifteen shambling horror,” I yelled to Safyre. “I’m going to engage.”

“Wait!” she cried. “I can sense more enemies crowding behind this one. The horror is blocking the portal, but the others look set to follow on its heels.”

More? “How many?” I demanded.

“I can’t tell,” she replied, sounding frustrated. “Can’t you look through the portal with your mindsight?”

Could I? The notion had never occurred to me.

“Send your summons forward,” I instructed, “and hold the horror at the gate. I’m going to try and do as you ask.”

She nodded curtly.

Trusting her to protect me, I closed my eyes and concentrated solely on my mindsight. Only nine mindglows were in range.

Safyre and her five pets. The stygian. Me. And Ghost—what is she still doing here?

“Get back, Ghost!” I snapped.

The spirit wolf didn’t reply, but I had little attention to spare her. Safyre’s summons had engaged the shambling horror, and I didn’t expect the battle to last long. I couldn’t see past the portal, but I knew where it was. Concentrating hard, I tried to push my awareness through and ‘see’ beyond.

To no avail.

I deflated. “I can’t do it,” I yelled. “I can’t extend my awareness past the edge of the portal.”

“Damn. We have to close the gateway, then,” Safyre said.

“Agreed. Go ahead.”

“I’ll go look!”

My head snapped to the left, only now noticing the bright mindglow racing towards the tear in the air. “Ghost, no!” I shouted.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be long,” she replied brightly. Then she was gone.

“Michael, what’s happened?”

“Ghost—the spirit wolf, I mean—she has gone through. Hold the portal open.” I took a step forward.

“Euww, there are hundreds of nasty creatures here, Prime,” Ghost sent, her mindvoice hushed. “I don’t like them.”

I froze. The spirit wolf was speaking to me from beyond the gate. “Get back now!” I ordered.

“In a second. Oww. This one is even bigger than the others. He’s huuuge.”

I ground my teeth in frustration. “Ghost, come back. Please!”

A stygian shambling horror has died.

“Michael!”

At Safyre’s cry, my gaze whipped back to the gate. Three other stygians were flying through the gate. Smaller than the shambling horror, they fit through easily.

Another came through. Then another.

Ghost had said hundreds were waiting to enter on the other side. Dread curdled in my stomach, realizing what had to be done. “Close the portal,” I ordered.

“Are you—”

“Now!” I ground out harshly, eyes tracking the seven other stygians that had come through in the interim.

Safyre has cast dispel greater portal. A ley line to sector 18,240 has begun closing…

…

“Prime?” Ghost called, her voice sounding small. “I don’t like it here. Can I come back now?”

“Yes! Quickly, before—”

A portal has closed.

My mental projection cut off midway. The gateway was shut, leaving Ghost stranded on the other side and out of reach. Hold on, Ghost, I thought.

I’m coming—I turned to the nearest stygian—just as soon as we deal with these.

✵ ✵ ✵

Even the twenty stygians that had made it through were no match for Safyre. Partially, that was because most were under rank fifteen. Smaller than the shambling horror, they wheeled and dived through the air, attempting to strike at us from above.

None came close to landing a blow.

Safyre and her copies—each with two wands apiece—blasted fifteen stygians out of the sky all on their own. Unable to withstand the concentrated firepower, the creatures quickly succumbed.

I took care of the rest, if in a less flamboyant fashion. Shadow blinking from stygian and stygian, I dealt death while airborne. None of the nether beasts managed to land a blow, and my new Class did not come into play at all.

As the last stygian died, I alighted softly on the ground, my thoughts mired in rage. I was furious, but I was not sure with whom.

Myself. Ghost. Even Duggar.

The spirit wolf shouldn’t have been anywhere near the portal, and that was on Duggar and me. But she should also have listened when I’d called her back. I shoved my swords back into their sheaths. There was plenty of blame to go around.

“What happened?” Safyre asked quietly from behind.

I turned around. “Ghost saw a few hundred more stygians waiting on the other side of the portal. That’s why I made you close it.”

“Ghost… that’s the spirit wolf?”

“She is that, and a member of the pack too.” I paused. “I have to go after her.”

Safyre nodded, saying nothing of the risk. If I died in the nether-infested sector, there was no coming back. “If there are that many stygians near the portal’s coordinates, we can’t open another gateway. They will be waiting for that. You will be spotted and overrun the moment you step through.”

I nodded. “I will have to use the bracelet.” Unlike a traditional mage’s spell, the aetherstone did not create a luminescent gateway.

“That might work,” Safyre said, handing the artifact over.

“What happened?” Aira asked.

I glanced over my shoulder. The wolves had re-emerged from the den, and this time it was not just the elders but every adult in the pack from what I could see. The twins, thankfully, were not among them.

I exhaled heavily. “I can’t say for certain, but I think we just got unlucky. A horde of stygians were close enough to the portal to sense its opening and they tried to rush through.”

I remembered the stygian shambling horror from my last trip into the hidden sector. Was it only simple misfortune as I had told Aira? Or had the beast and its fellows been waiting for my return all this time? I shuddered. If the latter was true, then it was more than a little disturbing.

The elders were still looking at me, seeming to sense there was more I was not saying.

Sighing, I delivered the bad news I was avoiding. “Ghost went through. I told her not to…” I shrugged. “But she wouldn’t listen,” I finished lamely.

The wolves exchanged glances, and behind their shuttered minds, I was sure they were conversing furiously.

“Is she dead?” Duggar asked finally.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Ghost has no physical form, so the nether won’t affect her. There is also no reason any of the stygians would be able to detect—much less harm—her. But she is alone, likely scared, and without a way back.”

“Won’t she go into the dungeon?” Oursk asked. “Its entrance is but a few steps away.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. You likely know the answer to that better than me. Would she?”

He looked away. “I’m not… sure.”

“What are you planning?” Aira asked.

The pack were more philosophical about death and loss than I was, and I was sure the elders would not approve of what I intended, but I didn’t shirk from Aira’s gaze. “I am going after her.”

Sulan stepped forward. I braced myself, expecting a blistering scolding for my brashness, but she surprised me. “This is my fault,” she said, going down on all fours. “I should have kept the pup in the den. I’m sorry, scion.”

I stared at the white wolf. Shame and guilt rolled off her in waves. Sulan, I realized, cared more for Ghost than she let on. “It’s as much my fault as yours,” I assured her. “I saw her hanging about the portal. I should have suspected… something.”

Leta snorted. “You’re both behaving like fools. I’m not sure what’s gotten in Sulan, but she’s wrong.” The elder stared at her companion. “You’ve been coddling that wolf for too long, Sulan, and this is what it’s got you. Ghost is no pup. She should know better than to disobey a battle leader in the midst of a fight.” She turned to me. “The pack comes first. Ghost is lost. Accept it.”

Sulan growled at Leta but didn’t contradict her, and all eyes turned to Duggar, whose own inscrutable gaze rested on me.

“Tell me, alpha,” he said, stressing the title. “Truthfully. If you went after Ghost, do you think you can retrieve her without dying?”

I hesitated. There was no way to know that for certain, and I didn’t want to lie to Duggar, but I could not give the elders more reason to argue. And Leta was wrong. Despite her ‘age,’ Ghost was a pup in every way that counted.

“Yes,” I said firmly.

“Then you must go,” he said, sitting on his haunches.

Leta growled in disagreement, but the alpha disdained to look at her.

I inclined my head at Duggar, appreciating his support. “I have a plan, not just to get Ghost back, but to finish what we came here to do. The pack will travel to the tundra today.” I met Leta’s angry eyes. “And if I have my way, no one will die today.”

✵ ✵ ✵

There was no time to debate matters further.

We’d wasted enough time already, and every second longer that I delayed, the greater were the chances that Ghost would wander out of range.

I pulled Safyre aside. My plan had one potential hiccup, and I had to check with her first. “Do you need the aetherstone bracelet to open the portal again?”

“I don’t.” She tapped her temple. “Now that I’ve already opened one portal, I have the location logged.”

My shoulders eased. That was the answer I’d been hoping for. “Take this,” I said, handing her a pack.

She took it without question.

You have lost a large bag of holding containing 29 sets of winter gear and 470 caches of cold weather supplies.

“If something happens to me, it’s up to you to get the pack to safety.” I gestured to the bag she held. “And build a future for them, the twins, and yourself on the tundra with that. Can I count on you?

She nodded solemnly.

“Thank you.” I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath. I’d not been wrong about Cara—Safyre. She had proven trustworthy in every respect, and I knew I could depend on her to see things through.

Looking at her, I told her what I planned. “I’m going to teleport to the sector alone.” I held up my hand, stilling the questions I could see bubbling behind her eyes. “Fighting the stygians there is suicide, I know. But I don’t intend on fighting. I plan on doing what I do best—running and hiding.”

I grinned, and so what if my expression was a touch more maniacal than was comfortable? “I will draw the stygians away. All of them. Give me five minutes, then you can open a gateway and let the wolves through.”

Safyre squeezed my arm, but refrained from pointing out the multitude of flaws in my plan, for which I was grateful. “I will need to send you to the valley’s safe zone first, of course, so you can use the aetherstone bracelet. Once you reach the hidden sector, though, how will you find Ghost?”

“I will call to her with mindspeech as I draw the stygians away. I don’t think the beasts will be able to hear. Hopefully, Ghost will answer.” I tapped the farspeaker bracelet. “Contact me the moment you open the portal and when the last wolf reaches the tundra.” I held her gaze. “Do not delay or linger in the sector for any reason. Once I have Ghost in tow, I will circle around the stygians and rejoin you in the tundra.”

Safyre nodded. “Do what you must. I will see to it that the pack reaches the tundra safely.”

She had not released my arm, and I squeezed hers in return. “Good luck, Cara.”

She smiled, pleased by my use of her old name. “Don’t die,” she replied. “That would make me… cross.”

Eased by her words and feeling more relaxed than I had any right to be, I retreated a few steps and waited while Safyre closed her eyes and summoned a portal into being.

Safyre has cast lesser portal.

The curtain of light materialized and I ducked through without hesitation, transitioning, between one second and the next, from mountain to village.

✵ ✵ ✵

You have entered a safe zone.

The tear in the air vanished behind me, and I glanced around. Safyre had sent me to a secluded area of the village, one I immediately recognized. I was outside Mariga’s cottage, and best of all, no one was around to observe me.

This is perfect.

Dropping into a crouch, I wrapped myself in shadows and reached out with my will to the bracelet on my wrist.

Aetherstone bracelet activated. Connection to ley line network formed. Selected exit: nether portal 1 of sector 18,240.

I was on my way. I’m coming, Ghost.

Transfer commencing…

…

…

Passage completed!

Leaving sector 12,560. Entering sector 18,240 of the Forever Kingdom.