Explorer of Edregon

“Alright everyone, we’ve got about two weeks’ worth of time to work with to hit all the different fragments surrounding the rankers and their ‘alliance’ before we need to come back,” Vin explained as they made their way to the first of the unknown fragments adjacent to the rankers. They were currently running along the inner edge of the neilans’ fragment, having used Lumel’s Mass Dimensional Shift to get most of them through the barrier, before opening a hole with the top half of Dancing Leaf for Alka. Seeing as the neilans refused to leave their houses in the center of their fragment, Vin wasn’t worried about accidentally running into any of them, and the lack of monsters made for a pleasant enough journey.

“Why only two weeks?” Scule asked from Alka’s shoulder. “Don’t we still have plenty of time before the next wave?”

“It’s been twenty days since the battle for wave five,” Shia stated, galloping along beside them on Blossom as they ran. “That means there should be another thirty days before wave six arrives, but with how erratic the waves have been and how early they keep coming, I’m assuming Vin wants to be back a solid fifteen days prior to what is expected.”

“Exactly,” Vin nodded. “The fourth wave was five days early, and the fifth wave came eight days early. We don’t know just how drastically that number is going to increase just yet, so to be safe, I’m planning to stick around Terra starting fifteen days prior to the time we were originally given.”

“Two weeks should be more than enough time to check out all these fragments,” Lumel said, only sounding a little embarrassed at how he was carrying her on his back while they all ran. She was still the only member of the team without a method of transportation to keep up with them, and Vin’s original idea of carrying her piggy-back style had somehow stuck. “You said you’re not expecting us to encounter any real civilizations, right?”

“I’d be surprised if we did,” he admitted. “I mean, if it was a regular fragment filled with regular people, wouldn’t the thousands of rankers just have rolled right on over them and continued onward? The only thing that makes sense is if they’re locked in on all sides with fragments like the death fragment, or things like that.”

“Fantastic, a ring of death fragments, and we’re about to go run straight into all of them,” Scule drawled. “Remind me why I came again?”

“Because the last time you let Vin go somewhere without you he created a spell that’s halfway to replacing you?” Alka reminded him.

“Oh yeah! No more of that!” Scule said, glaring at him.

Vin could only shake his head and laugh as they ran, and he mentally went through the list of fragments they needed to hit in his head.

There are nine fragments surrounding any cluster of three, but we’ve already explored the valley in the mist and the neilans’ fragment. That means there are seven surrounding fragments we need to check out, and possibly the beastkin and orc fragments if we think we can get away with it without running into any of the rankers. Theodore is going to be focusing his efforts on the rankers’ fragment, so if we do get the chance to peek into the fragments of the other alliance members, we should take advantage of the opportunity.

The sounds of Shia and Scule arguing about something roused him from his thoughts, and he tuned in just in time to catch the tail end of the conversation. The two of them arguing was practically background noise at this point, but he thought he heard something interesting.

“Did I just hear you trying to convince Shia to help you make a super poison?” he asked.

“I mean, yeah,” Scule said, as if the idea were obvious. “Come on, I’ve already gotten a few magical poisons under my belt now, and she’s working with Mary on creating magical strains of plants. Seemed like an appropriate ask.”

“I will not be using my Druidic abilities to convince any plant life to become magically toxic,” Shia frowned, remaining adamant in her stance. “Mary and I want to create plants that are beautiful or help people. Poison does neither of those things!”

“Technically most poisons can be used as medicines as well, for your information,” Scule said, taking on a snooty tone.

“Were you planning on using them as medicine?” Alka asked.

“…Okay, no, but that’s not the point!”

Vin could only laugh as the argument continued. Even Lumel chimed in here and there, already growing more confident in herself with her new look. She still wore her heavy robes and kept her hood up out of habit, but she kept her entire face exposed to the world now, which was a massive step for her. Vin smiled as they ran, enjoying having his friends by his side again.

It wasn’t long before they reached the end of the neilans’ fragment, and they all pulled up short. The one downside of running through the strangely empty fragment of the neilans was that they couldn’t get even a sneak peek at what was waiting for them in the next fragment, as the cloudy grey barrier blocked all sight.

“Okay, the fragment to the north-east of the rankers is directly on the other side of the barrier,” Vin said, looking at Shia. “Can you cut a hole and let Alka through? Then maybe we wait a minute and cut another hole, letting her come back? I figure it's better to be safe than sorry seeing as we know we’re dealing with dangerous environments here.”

“Sending in the unkillable golem to see what’s in store?” Alka asked, her eyes flaring excitedly. “I like this plan!”

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“Should one of us maybe take Epli before you head in?” Lumel asked, hopping down from Vin’s back and peering at Alka’s head. “I know the schlimes are rather durable as well, but if it is another repeat of the death fragment, things might not end so well for it.”

“That’s a good point,” Alka admitted, tapping the side of her head. “Epli, you should come out and hang back for a minute.”

Vin could only stare at the slime that pooled out from behind the cracks of Alka’s helmet. If he hadn’t known she was purely a construct, he would have thought her brain was being liquified and flooding out around her face. Within seconds, there was a one-foot-tall replica of Alka made of slime standing atop of Alka’s own head.

“Wait,” the replica nodded, looking down at Alka under her.

Gently picking the schlime up, Alka placed it down on the ground, giving herself a tiny high-five. “Be back in a few!”

“The barrier heals fast, so try not to miss the timer,” Shia said, shifting the bladed chunk of Dancing Leaf to the top of her staff as she approached the barrier. “If you do, I’ll make new cuts every twenty seconds or so, so just look for that.”

“Yes, mom,” Alka snorted, pulling out her sword and motioning for her to get on with it. “I’m ready!”

Nodding, Shia took a deep breath before bringing the piece of petrified elderwood blade down, slicing straight through the barrier and revealing a sliver of darkness on the other side. Immediately, the flowing grey energy began sealing itself once more, but Alka was faster than it. Lunging through the slit, she vanished, and the barrier closed a few seconds later. Shia began counting as they waited, but Vin turned to find Lumel chatting with Epli.

“Is it comfortable being crammed into the small space between Alka’s helmet and her head?” she asked, frowning slightly at the tiny version of herself. “Now that we all know about you, there’s no need to hide or anything.”

“Safe,” Epli said in the schlimes’ simplistic speech pattern. “Enjoy.”

“Guess that means it’s happy,” Vin shrugged. “I mean, it does eat excess mana coming off of the mana gem powering Alka’s body. I bet that has to feel pretty good being in such close proximity to it.”

“Yes,” Epli nodded, turning its head and rippling as its body transformed to match Vin’s instead. “Tasty.”

“Does anyone else find that a little, I don’t know, weird?” Scule asked, standing on the ground and scowling as Epli morphed into a larger version of himself. “I mean, it’s basically just sitting there, licking the back of Alka’s head all day, right? Just seems odd.”

“I don’t think you can conflate a being who feeds via the absorption of mana with ‘licking’ the back of someone’s head,” Lumel said, turning to frown at Scule.

“A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed,” Scule muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets defensively. “Oh, by the way, I almost forgot. I like the new look. Lavender is a nice choice of color.”

“Thank you,” Lumel said, her frown quickly morphing into an embarrassed smile. “I thought about making myself just look like a regular human, but it felt somewhat disingenuous. Like I was trying to pretend I was something I wasn’t. I still want people to know I’m a pulmon, so this felt like a good compromise.”

“I know I already told you, but I agree with Scule,” Vin said, taking her hand and giving it a quick squeeze. “You look great.”

A sleepy Reginald poked his head out of Vin’s pocket, nodding along and squeaking out his agreement.

“Suck up,” Scule snorted before translating. “Reginald says you and Shia are tied for the prettiest people with only two legs in all of Edregon.”

“Aww…” Lumel said, her cheeks turning red as she smiled at the nodding rat. “Thank you, Reginald! That’s very sweet of you.”

“Hardly. Notice how he specified two legs?” Scule chuckled. “Even so, I’d be careful if I were you, Vin. The rat’s a player. Might want to keep him away from your girl just to be safe.”

“I think I’ll take my chances,” Vin said, looking down at the adorable rat in his front pocket and petting him on the head. “And for the record, I don’t know about calling Lumel ‘my girl.’ Just sounds a bit odd if you ask me. She’s her own person after all.”

“I don’t mind,” Lumel muttered quietly enough for only him to hear, her cheeks absolutely burning now as she pulled the edges of her hood over her face a bit. Vin couldn’t help but grin at the sight. With her new lavender look, her blushing was remarkably pronounced as it turned her cheeks a darker purple.

“Alright, we’re coming up on a minute,” Shia said, interrupting all of them and getting everyone’s attention on her. “Remember, if Alka doesn’t come back, nobody freaks out, this is Alka we’re talking about. Good chance she’s just having a grand time fighting a horde of monsters or something.”

“Even so, she should know how serious the situation is,” Vin said.

“I know, just trying to keep everyone calm,” Shia smiled, before turning and bringing up her staff. “And three… two… one…”

With a downward slash, Shia cut a slit in the barrier once more in the exact location she had the first time, and they all waited for Alka to come tumbling through.

But there was no sign of her.

The barrier sealed back up, and Shia gave them all a nervous smile. “It’s alright, that’s why I tried to reassure everyone! Remember the plan, I’ll start cutting every twenty seconds, and we wait for her to come back.”

“You know, I’m just now realizing our masterwork plan didn’t involve a scenario for the event that she doesn’t come back,” Scule pointed out helpfully. “What happens then?”

“We’ll figure that out if we need to,” Vin said, nodding toward Shia to get ready. “Nearing twenty seconds.”

“Yep,” Shia said, raising her staff and slashing it down again, opening a slit for the third time. This time Vin tried to peer through the gash in the barrier, but wherever they were, it just looked dark on the other side. Try as he might, he couldn’t make anything out. Again, Alka failed to return to them, and again, unease grew throughout the rest of the group.

“Let’s give her a few more chances,” Shia decided, getting nods from everyone. Even so, Vin was already starting to put together a rescue plan, but he agreed waiting at least another cut or two was probably for the best. Alka was nearly indestructible, most likely she’d gotten trapped by something and just couldn’t get back to them. After another twenty seconds, Shia slashed through the barrier again. And while Alka didn’t come flying through, at least something of hers did this time around.

Her scream.