Spell: [Message]

Designation: Telepsychic Type

The most common staple of a [Relay Mage] though some individuals with the aptitude for it do possess it. It is the most mainstream communication spell and despite the level of difficulty encountered when learning it as it requires a great deal of focus, it is still easier than learning [Far Speak]. Another advantage of the spell is the ease with which a [Rune Smith] can attach it to a casting aid for those with the wherewithal to acquire such artifacts one of them being the Dwarven-made armacus that their [Ship Masters] and [Ship Captains] use. Use of [Message] is mostly intercity but long range casting is made possible through the linked cast network of the Mages Guild which commands monopoly of the most [Message] Relay obelisks. Certain variations documented include [Priority Message] and [Urgent Message].-World Compendium of Skills , The Order of Vesper, Church of Thea.

“ Aye, best be getting me boys here then,” he grinned. He tapped his temple twice.

“ [Message]! We got a Deep whelps, bounty’s all or naught,”

As soon as the last of the words rolled out of his mouth. There was a loud boom on the faraway deep wurm. A small mushroom cloud bloomed on the creature’s toothed head as the thing slammed back into the ground. It had been raising itself to shoot another of its projectiles.

The observers had barely seen the origin of the shots but oh it came. The Ikaros came streaking from the cloud cast sky, sails furled but fin-sails deployed. There was also a rudder rail underneath the vessel deployed parallel to the body of the aership. It seemed to be riding on gravity to build up speed on its steep dive.

A shadow fell upon the people on the battlements as the craft rapidly grew in their vision. Many quailed thinking it would crash onto the wall but at the last moment, Arthur spotted a turquoise pulse of aer mana, aer ballasts filled up and fin sails swiveled and extended , the rudder retracted. The bulk of the ship passed overhead, keel almost touching the top of a destroyed watchtower as a backdraft slapped rainwater onto the observer’s faces.

“ Hahaha, look at her go,” the dwarf chuckled. The Hammerkopv class battle schooner deployed its main sails as it left its immediate vicinity. Steam hissed from its vents, and magical carronades protracted from their weapon emplacements.

“ Aye, we pissed the deep off real good, best be getting that evacuation going then; this will be a war of attrition.” the Dasnoir said, turning back to the observers who were gawking as they saw the aership head unerringly, towards the gargantuan monster. The deepwurm had already shaken off the stun from whatever ordnance had been visited on its hard to miss head and looked incensed as it screeched again. No sound attack came this time.

“ You!” Grizzlythorn growled pointing the maul at Arthur. “You get to live yet another day. But this is not over.” The guard sergeant turned on his heel, demeanor changing from bloodlust to commanding as he rallied the Guard to move. The streets started getting clogged with evacuees and the mana storm would soon roll in. They had to move people out of its path before people got sick.

Aldmoor was still between a rock and a hard place. But somehow, the wyverns had been harried on the other side. The ones that seemed to have breached the perimeter had been downed, as carcasses lay on the rooftops, blood draining into eaves and storm drains along with rainwater. Arthur was surprised even as he let tension bleed from his posture.

“ While you were going at it, ballistas from the aership took them down. You didn't notice,” Orhill said as he dispelled his spell construct. The guild master advanced on him, posture open as he kept an eye on his compatriot issuing commands. His gaze also tracked the activity on the far eastern wall, wary of something—or someone.

Meanwhile, the adventurers stood off to the side, alert even as they watched the aership bank towards the monstrosity at full sail. The ones that had gone below were running parallel to the town's walls, some dragging injured comrades while others dispatched any stray monsters they found.

Nolan Bluecastle was down there seemingly taking over command of both the guards and adventurers who'd gone down for melee combat. The rest of his party Val'erith and Alphonse the Cryomancer were covering their retreat as were other adventurers with ranged weaponry and spellcraft.

They were going to find the nearest entrance to the town walls, taking the chance to do so as the Ikaros single handedly held the deep wurm at bay. Arthur's attention returned to the activity on the battlements.

“ You should have left sooner…this complicates things.” Orhill remarked, pointing at the people who’d seen the altercation. “ By Aeris, best I hope you had another plan in mind.” Orhill said, looking none the worse for wear. His robes barely looked soaked as the rain continued to drizzle around them.

Arthur shook his head wryly saying, “ I had everything riding on this. It's either they made it out or didn’t. If they didn’t, I would have to move regardless. I know they can take care of themselves so it doesn't have to come to that.”

“ That doesn’t change that you have to leave…now,” Orhill insisted. The tone in the man’s voice sounded urgent. “ Use the crowds below to get out of the town. Even I cannot protect you once Larissa catches wind of what happened here.”

“ Fine,” Arthur cast his gaze upon the far wall. The fighting there had almost died down. He was lucky he didn't have to fight something that came from the skies. “ I’ll send a letter, or something. “ The guild master nodded in acknowledgement.

Then he remembered Arcis’ words about how to send a [Message] with the Psiphone,

’To send [Message], hold psi symbol, think [Message], compose; release to send.'

“ And, tell Mister Edel, I’ll also be in touch too,” Arthur said. He looked over the guild master’s shoulder at the broad back of the dwarf and at the far off Ikaros that was pulling death defying stunts around the deep wurm. Something that he found unimaginable for a ship with sails but the sailors no doubt had skills.

He gave one last nod towards the guild master while back walking, then he turned around pulling the hood closer over his face and walked along the wall, towards the stairs that would closely convey him to the main gate.

Unbeknownst to him, Dasnoir had been keeping tabs on his movement. After he'd disappeared, the dwarf had gotten interested; and after his telepsychic sniffer had gone off, he'd revised his perception of Arthur.

The first thing that had drawn his attention wasn't his fight with Grizzlythorn, but his adamantine dagger. It was a relic class artifact; dwarves loved nothing more than to pore over them like works of art.

As he neared the first guard tower, he stared wistfully about the town he'd only known for a few months. In some way, he felt responsible for the towners plight, but what could be done?

Hearing the boom akin to thunder coming from the western side, he saw the magical carronades firing streaks of magic missiles which scored smoking gashes along the deep wurm's hide.

Like the dwarf said, it was going to be a battle of attrition. The wurm would reach the town before the aership even brought it low. For all its armaments, it was on the lower end of offensive power. The larger ships he'd seen when he first set his eyes on the Port of Riftedge didn't seem like they would show up either.

The brief monologue from the dwarf revealed that they worked like a mercenary enterprise, getting paid to clear wyverns and the like besides the transport end of the business. So maybe that was their business model after all.

Wary of Grizzlythorn spotting him, he filled out the matrix of his Nightstalker's cloak as he neared the corner of the broken watch tower. As soon as he went around it, the rune matrices took and he disappeared from mundane vision.

Light seemed to bend around him as he moved. So he stayed very still, staring at the immediate vicinity for whoever would spot him. He made sure to crouch to make his exposed surface area as small as possible.

Then he palmed on the psiphone in his pocket, he murmured, “[Message]—” The spell's matrix came into existence. Arthur found the spell matrix form in his consciousness, it seemed kind of wobbly and felt like it would slip from his mind any moment.

It just needed to snap into place before he composed it but it seemed, not getting used to it earlier was doing him a disservice. The resistance was akin to pushing two circular magnets against one another with their repulsion sides only with your will of mind.

It seemed that the psiphone functioned like a casting aid, but aptitude mattered as well. After some swearing and cursing under his breath, the matrix finally slotted in. It had taken all his mental concentration to do so; It would have been risky if he had to do it on the move.

He sent the [Message].

“[Message], Hi Kit—erm , Arcis. Tell Nora to meet me at the direhogs den, she'll know what I mean.”

Just like Arcis instructions as [Host-Mind] said, he released the thought from his consciousness , and he felt it move. He wondered if that is what the synth girl felt everytime she communicated via the telepsychic link.

He hoped that, whichever way, the [Message] would reach her in time before he ran out of options. Arthur was himself, in a dilemma of sorts. He weighed his options, he could either go down from the walls and mingle with the rest of the evacuees. Or he could take his chances on the walls and run all the way to the main gate. In either case he'd most likely get caught by the Guard, Grizzlythorn must've set some watchers on him; that he had no doubt about.

From where he crouched, the gate was sparsely manned, almost abandoned. The Aldmoorian's were evacuating via the other less used gate Northern gate. Anyone going that way would be easy to spot, not unless they had a the Nightstalker's cloak like him.By guesstimate, he had fifteen pars before he had to reimbue it which was enough time

His mana well was however, not looking very good even though it was recovering at a prodigious pace. He was never one for mana potions either, leery of quaffing strange concoctions and he had some in his [Inventory] courtesy of the [Alchemist].

‘I think I am way too stubborn for someone whose life is on the line,’ he mused to himself as he ducked below the embrasure from spying the town below. The only way down was flying or jumping onto the roofs. The main gate was so near yet so far.

Arthur could have just flown all the way on his hoverboard, but for the dwarves he might as well have been advertising his magitech. Even if he could fly on the other side of the wall, a straight shot out of the town, the defenders were rather jittery and watching the skies; he would most likely get shot from a trigger happy mage.

Down below, the streets between the houses would offer better cover; he could fly forty or so feet down and the cloak's reserves would hold out just fine. If he used it sparingly, he needed about a couple of casions to reach the nearest roof, then somehow get down to the town streets.

The streets were a convoluted maze the closer they were to the wall. Only the buildings closer to the main thoroughfares seemed to have been following the building plans. He would get lost down there if it weren't for [Eidetic Memory]. Thus Arthur plotted his way from above.

Most buildings were barely above four stories on account of the wall's reach, so he memorized the most likely paths to the gate, taking note of where the guards were busy coaxing some elderly citizens to leave their houses. Some were escorting families, carrying little kids for those who had less hands to spare. The Guard were not so bad, they were just doing their jobs.

As for the adventurers, they were picking up the slack watching the skies for stray wyverns. The rooftops were full of archers and mages but he supposed the rain was godsend; However, it would not be long before the main storm cell hit.

‘Hah, I feel like a fugitive, always running' Arthur exhaled, as he rubbed his hands together. Prunes were already forming from being in the drizzle too long. The air was humid, with the promise of further deluge. He supposed he should have been grateful for that; he would have hated to be wet and cold.

As stealthy as he could, he peeled away from the wall, watching around for guardsmen. Most watchers had their eyes on the sky so he leveraged that and stayed out of sight. He needn't have gone far to fight somewhere he could go down the wall. There was a section of embrasures that had taken the brunt of the deep wurm's onslaught, crumbling to the houses below.

One of the two storey buildings had been caved in through and Arthur could see what could have been someone's bedroom below. Rainwater had already wet the floor, broken shingles, bricks and lumber lay about, crushed by a boulder sized projectile that looked like it could cave the wooden floor. It was a generous jump but Nora had taught him how to parkour back when they were training in the Oasis.

With one last look around his surroundings, Arthur scooted over to the breach on the crenelations, breathed in and jumped 6 feet. Were it not for his hybridized constitution, he would have broken something even at 3 feet if he'd done it wrong. The flat roof, slanting where the boulder had smashed through, broke his fall and his parkour let him come to a stop without further incident.

‘Phew!,’ his breath was coming in hard. ’ Let's not do that again.’ he said, getting his bearings. He slid and jumped the rest of the distance into the room. The occupant of the house seemed to have escaped from the house in time; a lot of things were missing on the ground floor.

Arthur peeked around the door, left ajar and scanned the outside for guards. Finding none, he exited onto a narrow street with identical two storied and three stories houses. It was the old residential quarter and if his directions were right, it would put him just adjacent to the main road. Arthur psyched himself and walked into the rain.

It was admittedly, harder to navigate the Underneath than the Strombreaker's current crew thought. It was more so frustrating for Arcis because she found the limitations of [Scan]. There was too much information being shoved into the synth's head and she was no longer the same disparate entities who could multitask at will.

She had to sit in a trance and let someone else do the flying while she muttered directions. Meanwhile, she’d been trying to reach her father but she supposed that she was too optimistic to get a link so deep into the ground.

The old dungeon had circuitous paths; in some places, the tunnel got too narrow to pass through so they had to reverse course and find another way. Maybe she could have connected to it to get a map of itself?

Without [Host-Mind] she rather ran the risk of something happening to her and stranding the rest of the Stormbreaker's crew. It seemed to her like she had to relearn how to use the different parts of herself again.There were no more extrapolations and decision trees to guide her on her way. She felt lost.

‘Is this what Papa felt like when he lost his memories?’ She huffed as she sat at the front of the cockpit. Elena was at the helm. In her mind's eye, the telepsychic pulses were bouncing off the walls and locking onto mana signatures.

The dungeon tunnel was one uniform color at least that's how her synth mind perceived it. It was akin to comparing the different color spectrums in thermal vision; gray was mostly inert.

Black was Nox, smoky amethyst was Ter, though different metals differed; lava orange was Pyr, aqua was Aqer, turquoise was Aer and Lux was an unmistakable prismatic combination of all the colors.

Mostly, she found them in mixed concentrations and they were seldom heterogeneous for her to pick out where one began and where one ended. They were also in different shades, lighter even, showing that the concentrations were not that dense. As a result, in her mind's eye, it was akin to looking at a washed out gouache painting.

Nevertheless, it allowed her to know that the densest concentrations were probably crystal or metal ore if they had a uniform pattern, if not, then they were monsters. Some of them were undoubtedly, dangerous as some scorpions the size of a small car.

A few times, they'd run into some stone trolls, the monsters had been surprised as much as they were but Arcis had seen them coming and slammed the throttle;they mowed into them .

However, it would have taken much more than an acquaintance with the hull of the Strombreaker to splatter them onto the dungeon floor. Luckily the ironwood hull would take much more than a group of stone trolls to get done in. Though, the paint job would need redoing.

“ Anything from your father?” Nora came besides, sitting next to her. Her eyes were peeled straight ahead, watching the walls as they passed by. The Stormbreaker was gliding slowly, still following the subterranean river that had time and again led them into its branches and other apertures too small to pass.

“ Nothing, “ Arcis murmured, barely turning her head or opening her head. “ We’re still far too deep,” she groaned, rubbing at the bridge between her nose. It was taking all her concentration to sift through the feedback from [Scan]. Her mana reserves were holding steady because she was sitting on one of the many rune plates she’d covertly integrated into the ship as [Host-Mind].

Nora sighed wearily, but then she smiled; not that Arcis could see that. “ I have to trust that he’ll reach out somehow…” the dhampir in a sylvani disguise said, pursing her lips.

The installation was slowly recharging her mana as she sat cross legged above it. Though it was right underneath the floor so even Nora wouldn't know unless she aimed her mana sense that way.

There were other alterations she’d made through the golems; when the time was right she would reveal them. That and the other mana conduits she’d added throughout the hull, especially the bow helped her use the ship as a giant focus. There would be questions later but she’d cross that bridge when it came to it.

“ Uh, guys, is that a little exit I see?” Elena called out. Nora stood up, gazing past the obsiderite windscreen. The main panes and the slanted side panes giving a panoramic view showed that indeed, there was light shining from the outside.

They’d decided that having their bow lights on was just an invitation for monsters to get at them. That the obsiderite glass already provided some form of vision in the dark was already overkill.

“”Stop!”” Nora and Arcis called out at the same time. Elena slammed the air brakes which were really, just inverted thrust buckets on the engine’s nozzles. The bow pitched low suddenly, dipping into the river, Nevine who had been napping found himself rolling towards the windscreen. Nora braced, Arcis face planted on the windscreen.

“ Owie. What gives?!” Arcis said, as her cheeks were squished against the glass. Elena mumbled apologies and quickly released the brakes and the bow lifted from the river, dragging river weeds and mud.

“ This is where we fought a direhog,” Nora said in realization as she looked past the wind screen. Arcis suddenly jumped up in elation.

“I got a [Message] from Pa!” she said happily.

“Master Arthur sent a [Message]? How? No, hold on…what did he say?”

“It says tell Nora to meet me at the direhogs den, she'll know what I mean,” Arcis scrunched her face in confusion. She looked to the dhampir for directions.

“ Ah, we go up,” said Nora, looking at something beyond the ceiling. I think it's safe to go outside, I recognize the place. Arthur and I came here on our first adventure.”

“ Hoh, I didn't know you and Master Arthur became adventurers, I would have known.

“ They had aliases,” Elena supplied.

“ That explains things,” Nevine said as he picked himself from the floor. He corrected his askew glasses and posed another question, “ What’s up there?”

“ A hiding place I think. If he had to communicate through something only we would know, then that means something’s changed up there, but what?” Nora scratched at her temple, contemplating.

“ Think someone might intercept [Messages]?”

“ The dwarves!” Nevine smacked his palm. “ They might be in the vicinity. Normally, they come around if there is a mana storm to hunt down storm wyverns.” Then he started, staring at the exit. “ Mistress Nora, by any chance, does that exit into the Port of Riftedge?” Nevine pointed out.

Nora hummed and said, “ I think so, last time we were here, we run into an aership on our way out.”

“ Then we can’t go through that way,” Nevine shook his head. “ Not unless we’re sure none of the battle schooners are out there waiting for us. Even if they sent a contingent to deal with the storm wyverns, there is always one aership at the port. “

Nora nodded, “ And the Stormbreaker has no weapons yet.” She shook her head, “ No, with or without them, I doubt Arthur would approve of a confrontation with them.”

“ Ah, so that's why. “ Arcis spoke, nodding in understanding.

“ It's an empty lair. Don't worry, Arthur and I cleared it out. “ Nora commented. The energy seemed to come back to her posture as she straightened out. “ It should be big enough to hide the ship for a while, I think the Stormbreaker can fit right in” she added after a beat.

“ Elena, the lights, we’re definitely flying straight up…uhm,” she paused. “ Maybe you should let Arcis fly?” she winced. Elena gave a noncommittal shrug. Arcis once again, got onto the helm’s seat and flicked on the bow lights. The cavern was bathed in the illumination of Lux crystal funneled into two beams.

“ We go up there then we wait, I’m sure he’ll let us know when he comes about,” Nora said over her shoulder as she exited the cockpit. “ And Arcis, send him a [Message] tell him we’re there.” And she stepped out; she was going to be on the stern.

“ Aye aye,” Arcis chimed as she shifted controls around. The aership jolted and the whine of ventral thrusters picking up the slack echoed throughout the cavern. Steam wafted from underneath, where turquoise flames with orange tinges lapped at the river water. Even as the aership rose, [Scan] pulsing at full range , Arcis sent a message.

“ Message received Papa, We’re there.”

Unlike her father, her release of spell matrices was instinctual.