Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick and Jane stepped into Al and Savral’s apartment.

Savral chopped up vegetables before adding them to the skillet. A roast was already in the oven, practically done. He had been cooking a dinner large enough for everyone, including Guildmaster Mog, who was currently sitting in the living room talking with Al. She was looking as good as ever with her short black hair and muscly arms, but she also looked a bit run down. She had seen better days.

She was saying, “It’s just tough, you know?”

Erick said, “Smells great, Savral. Thanks for the invite.”

“It’ll taste great, too,” he said, with a smirk.

Al turned to see Erick. “And the last person arrives!” He almost looked like he could laugh, but there was a pall in the air. “I got a messenger from Ulrick Ulrick a bit ago. He wants to snatch you up.”

Erick smiled. “I think you’re stuck with me, Al. Don’t know if I’ll ever get to Scion of Focus though, not without killing some monsters, and we all know how that almost turned out.” The gloom in the air returned, as almost-smiles turned to flat grimaces. Erick walked toward the living room, Jane following. “I heard today was bad.”

Al frowned, but not at Erick. Mog stilled.

A professional facade overcame Mog. “Six rookies were killed today. All of them over level 20. Seven assistants from the Mage guild lost their lives. The Guard is maintaining the quarantine but that’s about all they can do; the shadowcats are constantly testing our frontlines. Merit is easily holding her own, so I don’t feel an incursion into the rest of Spur is possible, but it’s also not possible to dislodge the shadowcats from their various hideouts without more firepower. I would like to believe that they’ve been living there for a long time, because the alternative is worse. Shadow tunnels are everywhere.” She paused as she broke her facade. She asked Al, “How was that?”

Al said, “Silverite will tear you a new one, but you’ll survive. No one expected multiple cats.”

Mog sighed, and then stood. “I can’t stay for dinner. I have—”

“Now wait a minute.” Al said, “You need to eat, too.”

“I’ll get something on the way. I can’t do this right now. I thought I could, but I can’t.” She turned to Savral. “Thanks for the invite.” She turned to Al. “I’m going back out there.”

Savral said, “Wait wait.” He pulled the roast out of the oven. It was as thick as an orcol thigh and roasted brown. He sliced off an inch thick cut, the knife slipping right through the bone in the center. One quick pluck and Savral pulled out the bone, and with two more quick actions, the dripping meat was soaking two slices of bread on each side. “Here.” He handed the hot sandwich to Mog.

Erick was impressed by both Savral’s speed and also how damn sharp that knife must be.

Mog smiled small, taking the sandwich. “Thanks, Savral.”

“Anytime, Guildmaster.”

Al added, “You stay safe out there, Mog.”

Mog nodded, blowing on the hot sandwich as she stepped down the stairs. In a moment, Erick saw her on the street outside. The sandwich vanished in two bites. A little after that, she was out of sight. Savral let the roast rest on the counter while he tossed vegetables in an oiled skillet, making sure they were caramelized just a bit, but soon, dinner was served.

Ten minutes into dinner, Erick stuck his two-tined fork into a not-potato, and paused. A question had been percolating in his mind since he saw Mog. He asked, “How bad was it?”

Savral instantly argued, “It wasn’t that bad. Yes. People died. Yes. Mog is in some deep shit since this happened inside the city and she and Merit have never gotten along. But if you ask me, the people who died today only died because those people got cocky—” He quickly added, pointing his finger at Erick and then Jane, “But I never said that. Okay?”

“Understood.” Jane asked, “How did people die, anyway? I saw the preparation that went into the operation. It seemed like overkill, but it obviously wasn’t. You guys had maps and plans and routes and sections. It all seemed very professional, like this was not your first time doing this.”

“These sorts of things happen.” Al said, “Spur is only half-populated, so there’s lots of room for monsters to hide. That said, I’m not sure how three cats managed to hide for this long. Or how so many people managed to get themselves killed.”

Savral said, “I only know for sure about one of the teams. Cerulean Sky. They were formed a few months ago and had spent all that time honing their tactics in the Crystal Forest. They should never have gone against a known shadowcat without spending at least a month in Ar’Kendrithyst. Everyone else in the kill squads had that kind of knowledge. Cerulean Sky fucked up. They left their back lines exposed, their mages didn’t have enough HP, they didn’t set up enough wards. The whole team didn’t account for basic Dead City strategy.”

Jane said, “I talked to them in the beginning of the day. They set up multiple fallback points. Everyone did, all over the place, all in accordance with the plans. Every mage I talked to had put on a full strength personal ward hours ahead of time.”

“And that’s the crux of the problem, isn’t it? The plan was fine for one shadowcat. No one is going to fault Mog for that. But when the other two appeared… When was it? Just after noon? Everyone should have changed tactics. We did. Cerulean Sky did not. They expected their defenses to be there waiting for them, but a shadowcat’ll send two wolves to fight against each other in those fallback points, and then there won’t be a fallback point because the wolves hurt each other to kill the emplaced [Ward]. Shadowcats are smart enough to pick their battles; they likely saw that Cerulean Sky was full of untested rookies.” Savral said, “That’s what I heard and saw, anyway. I believe it’s the truth. Not sure what happened to the other teams that lost people… Dark Bloom, though? That team is full of overconfident idiots, but they’ve spent years plundering Ar’Kendrithyst. I don’t know how they lost three mage guild people. No one knows. Zago is furious. There’s going to be an inquiry there, for sure.”

Erick said, “I was thinking about taking a destruction request, but...”

Al instantly said, “I don’t think you should. Shadowcats are smart. A single cat is a 1000g Kill Quest. You don’t even have a fortification destruction skill yet, do you?”

“I’m two thoughts away from [Stoneshape].”

“Even still.” Al shook his head. “Three shadowcats.”

Erick frowned. “If they’re so smart, why aren’t we talking to them?”

Savral held back a laugh. Al glared at Savral. Jane looked curious.

Jane said, “I’d also like to know the answer to that.”

Savral glared at Jane. Then he relented, and said, “Technically we could, but they’d use the opportunity to ambush us. There are two outcomes here: either you join the long and well documented list of people who died talking to the shadows, or they’d use you, and you would end up killing the rest of us. In human culture, talking to monsters is a major crime because it’s usually provable that your interaction has led to at least one death.”

Al added, “The rads inside of their monstrous bodies drive them to eat and grow by either eating other monsters, or eating people. There’s no middle ground. Even people who can’t constantly disperse their own rads will turn into monsters. They’re all people eaters, every last one.”

Erick stared at his meal. He almost lost his appetite, but he was way too hungry and tired to give up a meal. He said, “Well that’s enough about that. I guess I won’t be taking a destruction job.”

Jane let out a long, relieved sigh. She smiled.

Dinner resumed. Erick got through half of his dinner before he called it quits. There was too much food. It was great food, but there was too much. Savral was a great cook.

And then Erick asked about enchanting, questioning what he had seen Ulrick do with a small rhyme and some rads in a magic circle. That started a whole long conversation where Savral hated mandatory item pricing, Al said that the prices had to be that way, and Jane was only interested in how enchanting wasn’t a skill in the Script.

“Yeah!” Erick said, excited. “It’s like it’s real magic.”

Savral phhbtt’d. Al glared at his son.

“What?” Erick said, “You make up some rhymes and out pops an item!”

“Not that simple.” Al said, “Ulrick was using a few skills he didn’t show you. Likely [Metalshape]. Maybe [Control Item], too. Probably a custom tier 2 spell.”

“Maybe. But...” Erick looked out across the room, at the city. Night had fallen. The darkness was broken by light orbs, but overhead hung the vast blackness of the heavens, and in the distance loomed the walls of Ar’Kendrithyst. He asked, “Could you do other magic that way? Like… cast a [Force beam] magic?”

Al and Savral laughed. Jane frowned.

Al said, “Go ahead and try.”

Savral complained, “It’s not the normal way to make a tier 2 spell, but—”

“Not a combination spell.” Erick said, “A new spell entirely.”

Savral smirked. “In that case then good luck with your error messages. I hope—”

“Oh hush, Savral.” Al turned to Erick. “Go ahead.”

“Okay. Let me think.” Erick paused in thought. “Okay. I got it. I’m going to try for a lightning bolt.”

Al gestured toward the window. “Shoot in that direction, please.”

“Hold on.” Savral said, “Describe the spell you’re going for.”

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Al huffed, “Let him try whatever he—”

“I don’t need details.” Savral was looking from Erick to the air. “A general idea is good enough.”

Erick said, “A lightning bolt. From the sky. Not that hard to grasp.”

Al laughed. Savral took his eyes off of the blank air to watch Erick. Jane sat back from the table. After a few moments of mouthing the words, making sure they all worked, Erick moved his chair so he could focus on something far away, like the top of that building over there. It was cast in shadow; it seemed deserted.

Al said, “Don’t actually cast a spell. Try to ‘enchant’ the spell out of the Script.”

“Well duh. Otherwise there’s no point.”

“What building are you going for?” Savral asked, with half a smile.

Erick pointed. “That one.”

Jane said, “He doesn’t even have any rads. This isn’t a proper experiment.”

“That building is abandoned. The harpies and owl shifters use the ones closer to the walls, so that one should be a fine target.” Savral said, “And since you’re putting so much effort into this, I’ll help. [Ward].” The air glittered black, a scintillating line of darkness falling around the room. Savral’s absorption [Ward] encompassed all of them. “For safety.”

Jane demanded, “Is anything going to actually happen?”

“Shh,” Al said.

Savral said, “Let him try.”

Erick focused on the dark, empty tower, maybe a thousand yards away. He mouthed the words again, making sure they were something like what he heard Ulrick do. When he was ready, he pointed to the tower, and spoke, “From ground to sky, and cloud to mount, from flash we mouth a subtle count, a strike of three from there to thee, marks the end of ancient trees. From ground to sky, and cloud to mount, from flash we mouth a subtle count, from high to low be now call’t, in this place, a [Lightning Bolt].”

Nothing happened.

And then two things happened.

Erick fainted because his mana dropped to 0.

Lightning struck the tower in the distance.

- - - -

Awakening, Erick experienced a few different events all at once. Firstly, the sun was up. Sunlight streamed in from a nearby window, and it was way too bright. Like a migraine making itself known, Erick knew pain. That pain expanded to fill his entire body, as a deep, deep wrongness flexed across his skin, settling into his bones.

There were also some blue boxes.