Chapter 56: Outsiders

  TASTKA POV

  “Who could have built a bridge like this?”

  Eyssa’s question hung in the air, despite the hissing drum of the rain around us all. It was an echo of what we were all thinking, I was sure. I definitely was. I pulled my hood tighter, even as the rain let up slightly to a heavy drizzle instead of the downpour we’d been dealing with.

  We’d all seen bridges before. Usually shaped lengths of wood across short gaps, things like that. This was different. A bridge made entirely of rope, and just looking at it made me wonder if it was safe. The rope was thick woven cord from some kind of plant – my Identify Plant Skill told me it was similar to some vines I had seen before – but in a way I hadn’t seen before.

  This wasn’t something my people had done, I knew that. Yet it wasn’t so strange that we all couldn’t immediately see what the purpose was. A way to cross the gorge, that had been covered in an Umbral veil. We might have passed dozens of these and never noticed.

  “Don’t make decisions for them, don’t do anything for them you don’t have to, but practicing your Lumen Control will help you get to where you need to go.”

  Had she known about this? My other self? She’d claimed she didn’t know all the details, and she couldn’t predict how others would react. Yet she’d also said she knew much more about what was beyond our lands than I did, and that our objective would help both the clan and my other self.

  Duvad was poking one of the supporting poles with the butt of his spear, while Fisk looked over the bridge dubiously. Eyssa paced back and forth, looking from various angles, as if unsure if it could be trusted.

  “Vedas, Tastka… this storm doesn’t seem to be easing up much.” Fisk looked up from his inspection. “You two are the injured ones I’m worried about. Dashe’s arm doesn’t affect his balance, but you two might have trouble in the rain. We should cross when we can, but if you want to wait out the rain I will.”

  Vedas twitched and tilted his head. “I’m limping but my balance is fine.” He didn’t sound happy about it, but probably less happy about being in the rain even longer. Every Calen in our group was fit for the journey, and that included having good balance. I was probably the least fit for it when I’d left.

  “I should be fine, but if you’re worried give me a little while to recover and I might be able to keep the rain off of us for a while,” I offered.

  Dashe stopped staring off toward the far side and looked my way. “Are you going to try making another new spell? I thought it was tiring.”

  I flicked my tail toward him in acknowledgement. “It can be, but my [Flux Speaker] class gave me a spell that is meant to deflect thrown weapons. I think I can just change that long enough to deflect the rain from Vedas and me.”

  Fisk’s tail swished in worry. “Don’t exhaust yourself trying it. If you think you can do it without getting worn out, we’ll try that. Learning to use that skill better could be useful, so practice is good, but we don’t want you making your mind-fog worse.”

  I didn’t tell him that it had mostly cleared up far faster than Dashe expected… but Fisk had a point. I felt fine, but if I pushed myself I could really cause myself some damage. “I’ll be careful.”

  While it was true I was fairly confident I could modify my spell, a lot of what I said was just a front. I’d barely figured out how to make a light, and this was a much more complicated spell. My false bravado was just so I could practice, because if I failed the worst that would happen was we’d end up more wet.

  Eyssa and Solen crossed over first. They took their time, steadying with both hands, spears cradled across their backs. The two of them were best-suited for this, and made their way across the rope bridge with little difficulty, signaling safety from the other side.

  Fisk went next, the bridge swaying more than with the other two. He kept looking back at me, but his hood hid the eyes and ears enough that I couldn’t read his expression. I was busy, anyway.

  My spell, Just Missed Me, was meant to gently deflect thrown objects – or anything else headed toward me fast enough to hurt me. The name was a little odd but descriptive enough, in this case. My plan was to cast the spell and use my Flux control to just lightly change it, so it would deflect smaller things.

  …

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  So that is how I ended up carefully creeping across the rope bridge, still soaked and trying to wrap toes around the thick, woven cord to keep my balance. I had gotten the rain barrier to work, after a try or two… but that small tweak was more complicated than I thought. It burned through my mana in no time at all.

  It wasn’t that bad. The rope in the middle was wide, but made up of several smaller ropes bound together, which gave plenty of purchase for the claws on my toes to wrap around and cling. If the ropes hadn’t been slick with rain and the storm causing a wobbling sway to the bridge, all of us could have practically run across it with little loss in speed.

  The weather made it slow going, and by the time I neared the end my arms were burning with fatigue and my toes cramping, but it was tortuous and annoying more than dangerous. So long as I took my time, it was easy.

  Behind me, Vedas was going even slower, his injured leg still healing and making his steps shorter. Dashe eased onto the bridge behind him as I stepped off onto the slick, wet ground. Dashe had stayed near the bridge while I was crossing as well, so we had someone at both ends. Duvad was the last to cross, so we had at least one healthy member on each end while the three injured moved along the rain-soaked rope.

  “The trees here look the same,” Eyssa said, scanning the nearby leaves. She had to raise her voice to be heard, as the storm was picking up again, the water coming down in drenching sheets. “We still have a little while before dark. We’ll have to make a shelter before then.”

  I could understand why. It was already dim thanks to the dark cloud cover, but at night it would be so lightless that we would have trouble seeing anything.

  Fisk helped Dashe the last few steps off the bridge, but his tail was low, and even in the storm I could see it twitching under his cloak. “I’m a little worried about whomever built this. We’re far out of our own territory now.”

  He was right. It was only a few days travel away from our usual lands – at least during one season – but it was days of travel that were stressful and had little need for our clan to go through. If anyone had been this way before, it had been generations.

  “Maybe the Sylen wanderers built it?” Solen suggested, one hand tugging her hood down against a sudden gust of wind. “They didn’t tell us about the dangers of the marsh, though…”

  Eyssa waved her hand dismissively. “I don’t think they pass through the marsh. They probably hit the mountains further away and follow the slopes. I doubt they’ve ever even been this far… it’s a strange place.” She pointed at the gorge. “The gorge gets deeper, and the slope is going up, but the water is flowing that way. That’s not normal.”

  I didn’t follow what Eyssa was saying about the river, but Duvad backed her up on her declaration that it wasn’t the Sylen. He had just finished crossing and was poking at the two supports with his spear, and looked up. “This would need regular upkeep and checking on, and the Sylen we know move around even more than our clan does.”

  Fisk scratched his chin, then grunted as he dismissed the concerns. “We don’t really have time to dwell on it right now. Maybe we’ll look for more signs when it’s daytime. And dry. Let’s get moving, we need to get back on course.”

  Eyssa was already moving on ahead, and Solen followed after her to scout the trail. The rest of us followed, picking our way through the trees with some relief. The canopy above didn’t stop the rain fully, but it was less relentless in its downpour, and the faint chill that had started to set into my body eased as I shivered mildly. A shelter would be nice. Solen and I could heat some rocks to dry out and get everyone comfortable.

  It was these distracted thoughts that led to me releasing a startled squeak when the shape faded into view ahead of us… and another to the side. And another. Duvad and Solen were immediately snapping spears into a guarded position, and I fumbled mine down to point vaguely at the figure to my side. Our small group quickly backed up into one another, tightening our loose formation as more shadowed forms seemed to ooze from the darkness.

  Each one was hard to make out, but I realized they still had some kind of Umbral protection on them that blurred their visage. They had short hoods like ours, but instead of full length fabric they only covered the upper body. I could also see they were more light-bodied than us, kind of thin and scrawny, but not in an unhealthy way.

  That didn’t mean they were defenseless, though. These elves might be smaller and lighter than us, but their spears were perfectly straight hafts, and the crystal tips weren’t simple barbs like our own. They were glittering works of art, and a brief glimpse with my new sense told me they had some complex mana patterns worked into them.

  “Lower your spears,” Fisk advised, voice low. “They got the drop on us and could have more hidden. I think if they wanted to fight us, they could have done it with less of a fight. They’re probably willing to talk.”

  I glanced at Fisk, tightening my grip – then I slowly lowered the spear. I saw the others reluctantly doing the same, one after another, as the words sunk in. Fisk was right. If they’d wanted us dead, they could have done it easily. They likely could have killed half of us before the rest knew we were under attack.

  This made me chastise myself. My other self had told me to refine my Lumen control, and I’d just found something hidden. Instead of looking further I’d wasted my time and energy exhausting myself trying to make something to keep the rain off. A waste of time.

  I should have been able to see this coming.

  Fortunately, Fisk was right. One of the smaller elves stepped forward when we lowered our weapons, and I saw under his hood – every one I could see was male – his eyes glowed a bright yellowish green. The shimmering gaze looked over all of us, then tilted one ear.

  “Celen farwalking, deepe too far, ye seek ayon?” He pointed – with his finger, not his spear – at Eyssa, and announced, “Answers we take, for travaile sage. Come.”

  I blinked, my tail raising with a lash of agitation and my snout scrunching in confusion. I’d only understood about half the words, and even those had a strange cadence to them, a lilt to the way they were said that made them hard to follow.

  After a moment, Eyssa and Fisk looked at one another. Eyssa turned to us with a sigh.

  “They want to ask us questions in return for letting us go.”

  Fisk’s tail flicked once, and he also sighed.

  “Well… what choice do we have?” It was not a question meant to be answered, I knew.

  “Lead the way.”

  The Pieces In Play

  Second Coming, and start a week after Chapter 70 drops.