Chapter 38: Lantern

Subject: Caim Location: Riventread - Outskirts Layer

At night, the festerfont was an entirely different beast. The seeker pillars’ inscriptions glowed pale blue, but it wasn’t very comforting.

To be fair, the lingering embers of sunlight had yet to vanish entirely over the horizon. Even so, Caim hadn’t thought to account for low visibility. Even with the moon so large in the sky, only bright colors stood out past a certain radius.

Of course coming here at night would be different. This is yet another reminder of my lack of experience… Just when I thought I was getting used to this routine.

He wished the moon didn’t look so unnatural. Deprived of one of the few comforts of the impending night, Caim looked down.

His only source of comfort clinked softly against his belt. It was the gentle hum of metal tapping against fabric.

When he’d tried to leave the Guild, an armored Defender stopped him at the door. Terrified, Caim remembered thinking he’d been discovered as an intruder. He thought he was going to be locked up and interrogated.

With a friendly smile, the Defender merely pointed to Caim’s badge, the blue glow of which revealed that he was leaving for a contract. The only question the stoic Guild guard asked was why Caim didn’t have a lantern on his person.

A lantern to pierce the veil of night. The Defender was only making sure Seeker Initiate Caim was travelling safely.

Outside the city, the night made even a traveler’s journey significantly more dangerous. Without light, a seeker’s job would be nigh impossible. Perhaps other technologies or spells could help, but most relied on these lanterns.

Caim had a loaner lantern securely fastened to his belt. The design of this particular lantern was cylindrical, metal vial of clear liquid and suspended shining amber orbs.

If he listened carefully, he could hear the soft hiss of the chemical reaction taking place within.

Delicate as the translucent material encased in metal seemed, he’d been assured that it would not break.

Apparently, these special lanterns were commonplace among travelers at night. Not just seekers, but the rare few who braved the wilderness Caim had only heard about through rumors.

If someone was outside the streetlight-illuminated city without one, they had something to hide. That… or, they were fatally reckless. Gwen’s words.

Enemy gone, Scion reported.

“Well done,” Caim whispered, watching his metal guardian fade away.

He retrieved the seed of a fallen Carapaser and stored it into his belt pouch, making the lantern’s grey metal chain jingle softly. Caim then retreated to the edge of the festerfont, waiting for Scion to be available again.

There weren’t any seekers around. He knew that because there were no glowing lanterns in the distance. The loaner lanterns were dimmer than the personal models used by established seekers, he’d been told. They were freely offered, so Caim couldn’t complain.

He had passed a handful of seekers on the road, but it made sense that there would generally be fewer willing to brave the festerfonts at night.

Something moved closeby, softly displacing a mound of sand.

A pair of Carapasers saw Caim and started the chase.

Caim wasn’t brave, he was just needy. He didn’t want to always be needy, so he was here despite the fearful chill in his bones.

I won’t be out much longer, either. I think I’m actually starting to get tired again. Finally.

Was that just an excuse to retire after the contract was over? He’d be free to second-guess his motives later. Right now, he had time to spend surviving while waiting for Scion to be ready again.

Caim bent low and grabbed a clutch of small rocks to throw. He looked around for multiple paths to take. One path to attempt, others to fall back to in case he encountered more enemies.

Each time he set out, Caim made a point to check in with Gwen to make sure she was doing ok. She always answered that she felt safer than she did before, and that she would be fine as long as he returned.

She’d apparently spent much of her time with Nina, a Seeker Champion and Alice’s mutual friend. Gwen knew how to make friends. When Caim said that to her as a joke, the merchant’s vulnerable side came out.

Caim aimed a stone at the closest Carapaser, letting it fly after a slight delay. He nearly hit his target, but his aim was just slightly off.

He turned and ran, listening closely to the sound of the Carapasers cutting a winding path through the sand.

It was difficult to guess what was going on in Gwen’s head.

Gwen claimed that the only reason people were willing to give her a chance now was because his actions had vouched for her. She mentioned something about “social worth”, “borrowed trust”, and some other concepts Caim didn’t really understand.

Sometimes, when Gwen spoke, she sounded like the young girl she was. Other times, she wielded a merchant’s tongue like a concealed blade.

Caim still wished he had a weapon, but a more literal one. Anything better than stones. He would set out searching soon.

Gwen would be a valuable ally once she perfected that mask, so long as Caim could still place his trust in her.

She was perceptive, but also easier to read once you got to know her. Terrified of Greys, a local group of which she owed money to, the merchant kept herself at an invisible distance.

He spun around and readied another throw.

Caim wondered if he would have closed himself off to trusting others if he hadn’t met Alice.

The stone hit his target, knocking the Carapaser off its course. It wasn’t harmed, but he’d bought a little more time.

In spite of all her trials, Gwen forcibly donned a brave face for Caim whenever he was at risk of being just a little too trusting. It was hard to notice, he only just barely saw through half-baked logic concocted to protect Caim from himself.

But that only made Caim want Gwen as a close ally even more.

Scion was finally ready, and Caim summoned it to slay his pursuers.

Enemy found! Scion cheered, happy to be called upon again.

The first Carapaser fell in an instant. It was just a large slug, afterall. Or, rather, it was a slug mixed with a leech and armored like who-knows-what kind of creature. The point was that it was a small target for a seeker, and Caim still found them difficult to handle.

If you’re that excited to be of use, you could stick around a little more, he joked to himself.

Forbidden to, Scion replied unexpectedly after piercing the second blightbeast with a projectile.

What was that supposed to mean?

Caim continued the contract in silence. He didn’t make another attempt to communicate with the magical construct, not even to ask for clarification. He didn’t need to, any response of lack of response would be too much for him to handle right now.

Subject: Caim Location: Riventread - Outskirts Layer

Striding toward a new target, Caim was about to turn Scion loose on what he thought was a lone Carapaser, when a trio emerged from behind.

“What? There was nothing there before!” he exclaimed, disengaging.

Six more Carapasers, and a crab-like blightbeast he’d never seen before cut off his escape route.

A leaping Carapaser knocked Caim down, and he flailed about in a panic, trying to regain his senses.

All was darkness, fumbling chaos, until Caim finally managed to clamber to his feet and distance himself from the hotbed of enemies.

At least, that was what he thought he’d succeeded in doing, until another Carapaser coiled its tail and launched itself at Caim’s face, clamping down hard on his cheek. The entire side of his face, really.

The sudden, sharp pain was a shock. He reached up and tore the creature off his face before it was able to wrap its tail around his neck and dig in even more. Rows of teeth hurt more coming out than they did going in.

Caim staggered away and sighted a seeker pillar and sprinted for it at an unsteady gait. He only stopped once he had safely passed the pillar and confirmed that there was nothing behind him.

“Ouch… that really hurt!”

That was new. Never before had he encountered that number of blightbeasts so close to the edge.

I’m not dealing with that again. I’ll circle around to the other side if I have to.

And that was just what Caim did. It took a little longer than last time, but Caim killed the last Carapaser of the contract, and his badge hummed.

Leaning against one of the seekerstones, using its broad surface to shelter him from behind, Caim retrieved the seeds in his belt.

Swallowing each blightseed was a painful chore, but they gave him an exhilarating rush. He very noticeably felt them contributing to an accumulating change.

This continued until there were only three blightseeds left. The first of these remaining three triggered the biggest reaction yet.

Caim’s arms fell limp by his side, and his back slid down the length of the pillar as his knees gave out under him.

This is… just what is this?