Type of mage: Name of Affinity Patron Deity or Primal

Chronomancer/ Time Mage Aet Unknown

Void Walker/Void Mage Locus Unknown

-Glossary of Affinities and their Primals, Nys’vera Aesterith’s Treatise on Mana

The downpour had come swiftly; were it not for Arthur’s penchant to pick out the signs of lightning-laden storm clouds, they would have been drenched like lost chickens. Luckily they’d found an overhang sheltered away from the winds which was blowing the falling torrents into sheets that washed across the landscape, reducing visibility to almost nothing.

Muddy storm runoff flowed in the gully past their shelter and down the windward side of the mountain. Despite the hazardous nature of much deluge, there was vegetation whose roots held fast to the soil, minimizing the risks of a landslide.

“Bad weather for flying, “Arthur remarked as he tended to the little fire between them. He was brewing tea; the first time he’d done it ever since he’d left the Keep. Nora, who was sitting across from him draped in a shawl, nodded noncommittally as she watched the rain and their drab surroundings.

“Never seen this much rain before?”

“Ye…yeah. I didn’t know It could get so cold” she pulled her shawl closer.

“I thought the cold wouldn’t bother you since you’re a part vampire and all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve lived most of my life in the desert,” she retorted, then her countenance fell. “I miss little Nyke already.”

“Are you finally going to tell me why we absconded at such an ungodly time?” Arthur yawned tiredly. He handed her a steaming cup of Valerian tea. Nora received the cup with a faraway look, before the aroma hit her nose and her eyes lit up. Then realization dawned on her and her pale cheeks went flush.

“Is this Valerian tea?” Nora squealed.

“Yea, I figured you’d depleted your mana. From the distance we covered, you must have burnt through your reserves.” he grimaced, recalling what it felt like. “ It would have taken a couple of days just to get to the other side of the mountain.”

“ I was conserving my magic for it, yes.” She took a sip, eliciting tremors from her body then a contented sigh as she closed her eyes. When she next opened them, she met Arthur’s gaze. She started,“ My magic is strongest before dawn...or early evening; I kept this from my clan, I don’t know…I just did."

“And?—”

“Pardon. I digress… they were going to keep you against your will.”

“Ah…” Arthur remarked sadly.

“Yes, it was clan politics. Venera wanted to let you go but the clan head was adamant that you would be an asset against other Clans once he knew what you could do. That, and the storage magic that you unsuccessfully tried to hide—I had to get you out…”

‘Yea right, I don’t fancy myself a trophy to rub in other people’s faces; what if they kill me for it?’

“Does Venera know about this? You escaping with me I mean?”

“I would imagine she does. She knew that my dream had nothing to do with living the entirety of my life in the desert.,” Nora said. “That’s why I wanted us to get as far away from the camp as possible.”

“Then, if she knew this would happen, why’d she let us go?”

“Do not be mistaken, Arthur Sturmdrache. She did not let us go; she is a manhunter and her duty is to the clan. There is a reason why she is the second in command of clan Nightcrawler—The only way to lose her was to obscure our route. Hence why we are going through the Great Vale instead of the obvious route around the mountain and the forest.”

“So we’ll lose her?” Arthur said, almost relieved by the prospects.

“There is a chance she might yet catch up to us… Though I thought the Vale would be our best chance to make her pursuit difficult. We'll move as soon as the storm passes, or push through this weather if we must—”

“That bad huh? I have been so naïve,” Arthur kneaded the ridge of his brow. “Yet luck smiles on me again. Tell me Miss Nora, do the gods hereabouts engage in cosmic tomfoolery?”

Nora almost spit out her tea. She gasped and then half shouted, “What are you saying? The deities may not be so apathetic as you might think.” Her eyes darted around their shelter as if looking for an eavesdropper.

Arthur did the same and clammed up immediately. Then Nora scooted closer and whispered, “You should be careful about what you say; some of the Primals and goddesses have been known to be very active and can be very fickle with their boons.”

“Oops, sorry about that Oonaris, I didn’t mean to” Arthur supplicated, putting his hands together.

“You’re a follower of Oonaris?” Nora asked, shock visible through her face.

“Ah, not really…I wouldn’t call myself pious, but that’s the goddess I am supposed to thank for my luck right?”

“Eh, is that so?” Nora said, sipping her tea. She looked back to the rain, “The storm is about to let up, we should get moving soon.”

“Right,” Arthur said, as he put away the utensils and started prepping his hoverboard. “What about the campfire?”

“Hmm…” Nora contemplated. “I think it would be best if we leave it be; trying to tamper with it will only make it obvious that we passed through here. Once we’re ready, just douse the fire with water.”

“Can you make another jump with your ability?”

“I wouldn’t go as far as to call it jumping. Its shadow porting; not really in the domain of space magic,” Nora replied, dusting off her garments. She threw the empty cup to Arthur who took it and stowed it away in [Inventory] “I can do one more ; a short one though. We don’t know what we’ll encounter in the forest.”

“I wish I could teleport.”

“We should also work on flagrant use of your storage magic sometime,” Nora reproached arms akimbo. “We’ll attract the wrong sorts and given that we don’t have much in the way of strength.”

“Someone else told me that too,” Arthur bit back a grimace. “And my ability with the sword still leaves much to be desired.”

“ You thought it’s easy to be both a [Mage] and a [Swordsman]? Hahaha,” Nora snorted, hiding her amusement behind her palm. “You are not from around here are you?” she showed her fanged smile.

“Well…”

“Your kinfolk must either be an eccentric noble house or live in an out of the way place and have had the times pass them by. That explains your uncommon sense.”

Arthur masked the misunderstanding with an ‘Ouch’ as he pretended to be hurt by the sentiment. Since he knew the dhampir could read him, he had turned his face away as he stowed the hoverboard into storage.

“I’m ready,” Arthur said after extinguishing the fire.

“Come closer; it needs contact to work.”

Like the first time, the shadows enwrapped the duo. Arthur’s senses blacked out between one blink and the next as his stomach lurched; like experiencing sudden acceleration.

Thereafter, they found themselves in the midst of trees. The sod squelched underfoot, petrichor wafted from the dirt and droplets of water trickled from the canopy above—the drizzle didn’t even seem to reach them.

Arthur checked to see if his companion was okay, but he didn’t have to worry, Nora was as enthralled by the flora as she was. Her eyes were wider than he’d ever seen them before. He let [Veres’ North] take hold and picked out their next direction; the skill was going to be the most useful skill in this sea of trees yet.

Their movements through the maze of trees was furtive and observant. For two lone travelers, the forest was an unknown place and given the amount of mana they felt in the air, they knew that monsters were about and they could not afford to let their guard down.

To cover their tracks through the undergrowth where leaf litter and brushwood could be easily disturbed by their passing, Nora used one of her skills, [Shadow Shroud] which masked their scents and sounds

As they moved, the storm above them became lighter the further they went in; only the crepuscular rays served as a guide to show them how far the day had gone. As the hues of light turned into deeper oranges signaling the onset of evening, Arthur looked at his out of sync watch and sighed.

“How do you measure time Miss Nora? I seem to have forgotten” Arthur whispered the Azure Surfer coasted over the ground. There was no need for the mana sail since this far in, it’d just be a hindrance, snagging on the underbrush.

“Hmm? Did your house skimp on tutors too?”

Arthur did not lie, he remembered Aeskyre telling him about how they measured time on Eryth but it had just slipped his mind.

“Miss Nora…”

“Sorry,” She pursed her lips. “Eh, a day has twenty-five quarts and between one quart and the next, we have sixty par’quarts; also called quarts and pars in shorthand.”

“Is a par’ the smallest measure of time Miss Nora?”

“No, one par is further divided into sixty instans or casions.”

“Ugh, really? Does everyone use such measures of time?”

“I am not well informed on such matters,” Nora contemplated. “Most of the people who use such units are the well learned like [Scholars], [Sages] [Tutors], [Mages] and some [Aership Merchants]. I would wager those who are not academically inclined use bells to tell the time in towns and cities. Why do you ask?”

“I just wanted to know for the sake of it,” Arthur said, as he deftly navigated around tree roots.

As dusk fell, Nora and Arthur used her [Shadow Port] to cover more ground in two consecutive instances only occasionally stopping to correct for direction. They decided to set camp for the night in a hollowed out tree, taking their dinner while at it.

Arthur took the first watch to let Nora sleep off her exhaustion The duo had had covered days’ worth of travel they would have otherwise spent walking on foot.

For Arthur, keeping watch was novel; he only had the chirping of insects and the moaning of wind for company. All he could do was stare at the canopy to catch glimpses of twinkling creatures flitting through the air.

That there was noise around him was reassurance there were no predators nearby. At least not in the immediate vicinity where his enhanced sight could pick apart the details. Though the colors were washed out; what moonlight pierced through the canopy was too sparse.

‘This world’s nights are so peaceful’ Arthur thought as he stretched against the tree on back. He put his hands behind his head as he vainly tried to stifle a yawn. ‘What I would give for a cup of coffee though. Eh, this world must also have one if it can produce magical teas why not coffee…another yawn.

‘Now that’s worrying; I have to keep my mind occupied lest I fall asleep while keeping watch. Mmh, maybe I should play with the dungeon shard, see if I can unearth more stuff. It shouldn’t be strong enough to attract monsters right?’ he scratched at his stubble in thought. ‘Gotta get that shaved too, it's itchy…haven’t had a bath since the last time I was at the oasis. Aeris' breath! I dodged a bullet there.’

Arthur retrieved the dungeon shard from his knapsack. Unlike the first time he’d seen it, the shard was active, though faintly that the only way he could only tell was through his mana sense. ‘I would have thought it inert by now. Maybe it just needed a spark to awaken.’

“Key prompt,” he whispered.

//KEY.PROMPT

//…I

//CURRENT STATUS:

// DATE PARAMETERS UNKNOWN

//SCAN RESULTS:

// 34 ENTITIES DETECTED!

//INTERVENTION DISCRETIONARY

‘Eh, that’s new. Scan must have kicked in because I left it active.’ Arthur’s eyes bugged out. ‘It must have a shorter range than I thought, I mean there’s a whole forest out here. Now, how to see what these thirty-four entities are. That’s what identify must be for.

“Append changes; activate core function, identify.”

//CURRENT STATUS:

// DATE PARAMETERS UNKNOWN

//SCAN RESULTS:

// 33 ENTITIES DETECTED!

//IDENTIFY RESULTS

// SLOTH BEAR

//THREAT LEVEL:UNKNOWN!

‘Wait, so It was no fluke…it really is sentient if it can learn to be fluid instead of displaying non-important information like bloatware is to a phone. This sloth bear must be the nearest monster if [Identify] can pick it up.’

All of a sudden, the ambient noises went dead and the night became very still. Arthur picked on this and jerked up, surveying the surroundings as his [Danger Sense] went off. ‘Crumb! I should have known the sloth bear was within range.’ He stowed away the shard and took off running to wake his sleeping companion.

“Miss Nora…wake up, we have to go…”

“Who…whuh Arthur?”

“There’s a sloth bear coming towards our camp.I think we might have stepped into its territory. I don't want to have to fight something whose level of threat we cannot gauge.”

At the mention of sloth bear, Nora had already shaken off her stupor. “Can you move us? There’s no telling how we’ll fly in the dark, I have no [Light] spells.”

“No, my mana is too low for anything—we have to run.”

Then they felt the tremors on the ground and the unmistakable sounds of the underbrush being crushed.

“We have to go,” Arthur said. Any equipment laying about was stowed away and the two ran out of the tree hollow, well away from where the sounds of the sloth bear would be heard.

A guttural growl rent the night air; the two travelers increased their pace, with the dhampir easily eclipsing the enhanced human in speed. She also had the clearer night vision of the two, and legged it so fast her feet seemed to blur off the ground.

‘A real life Cullen’ Arthur screamed internally as adrenaline took hold. Timber exploded behind him. ‘Crap crap crap!’ he instinctively used a gust of air to propel himself from the flying splintered wood. While he could be said not to be a sprinter, his endurance was still topped up and he caught up to his companion…barely.

The monster was gaining on them; they could hear its large feet as well as its jaw-popping growls which blew hot air at their napes. The quaking of the ground from its ambling gait told the two that if they got bowled over, they were dead—

It had to be darn heavy to shake the earth like that.

Arthur tried to sling his thunderbolt behind him but his hands were not steady and it was not like he could run backwards to adjust his aim. ‘Shit in a creek man! Whyyyy!’

“I can sense something right ahead—it's faint. Use your mage’s sight!” Nora shouted from the front.

Arthur flared his mana sight and saw a hole in the space ahead. Yes, the atmosphere was literally engorged on mana, but the tear in space was the most conspicuous and seemed to pull at one of his affinities; Locus. A wry grin overcame him.

“Head straight for it!” Arthur heaved, “I think it’s a portal.”

“Whaaat!?”

“Just trust me,” he dared not look behind. He could smell wet dog and moss right on his tail as well as the pungent smell of decayed meat. He almost gagged.

The girl dhampir made it to where she’d sensed the portal, jumped—

And bounced right off in a yelp of surprise. Arthur’s eyes bulged, and being too late to stop, he plowed right into her in midair, the resultant motion—carried them straight into the rip in reality.

Left behind, was a very confused sloth bear who couldn’t get a whiff of where their quarry went. It grumbled despondently and scampered off into the night.

Elsewhere, a different kind of predator chanced upon the remains of a campfire. She flipped back the bangs from her face, twisted her hips and sighed…

“You got me good Angustifolia…”