Cara’s stomach lurched. A blue haze washed away Jake and the world around her, replacing it with smooth bark. She pulled off her boots and the tree-song rushed back into her awareness, embracing her in its warmth. Her already racing heart quivered. She was home.

An icy chill snatched away the giddy lightness. Home wasn’t how she’d left it, even ignoring that this was Erinbar. The tree-song was choppy, rough, awash with fear and anxiety.

She let go of Gramok’s hand and looked around the bare room. No windows, a single doorway, and a wide-eyed ranger staring at them.

The ranger frowned at Gramok for a moment before bowing his head. He was young, even younger than her, and not at all familiar. A raw recruit, and definitely not from Tolabar.

“He’s with me,” Cara said. “I vouch for him.” She reached out and lifted the ranger’s chin. “I’m a Lookout, just like you, not a Keeper.” She glanced at Gramok and smiled. “That’s Gramok. Technically, he’s a knight, but we don’t talk about that.”

The ranger’s throat bobbed. “They’re expecting you at Tolabar.”

Eloran Erinbar So’aroaska

Level: 6

Only level 6? Either Eloran was a lot younger than he looked, or he’d hadn’t trained to become a ranger. Cara bowed her head to him. “Thank you. Which way to the elevator?”

They made their way through the treetops. Almost like home, except that everything was in the wrong place. At least the breeze across her face was right. She breathed in that banquette of sweet and acrid scents, familiar and yet never quite the same twice.

It didn’t stop the darkness coiling around her heart. Were they conscripting now? Just how bad was it?

Gramok walked alongside her, gawking at it all. “Impressive, beautiful, and dangerous. I see where you get it.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Save your flattery for the barmaids, and, please, don’t fall off.”

“I gotta keep in practice somehow.” He paused and cleared his throat. “Does anyone ever fall off?”

“Not often. Most wood elves aren’t nearly as clumsy as me.”

Gramok peered over the edge and gulped. “Anyone ever survive?”

She looked away and smirked. “No. It takes weeks to clean up the mess, too.”

Silence.

Had she finally gotten him?

Gramok dropped back behind her and walked down the centerline of the treetop passageway. “Don’t fall off, got it.”

Success. Cara turned and grinned at him. “Just kidding. The Forest looks after us and breaks our fall. It’s pretty embarrassing when it happens, though, and it hurts like hell. I don’t recommend it.”

His eyes narrowed, and that grin slunk back across his face. “How many times have you fallen off?”

That wasn’t the point! “We should get going.” She pulled herself up straight and looked at the edge. “You know, you’re a lot heavier than a wood elf. I’d be careful if I were you.”

Eloran glanced back at them. “You could… you could stay here the night.” He winced and hid his face. “It’s not as safe as it used to be out there.”

Sorrow, grief, loss flooded through the tree-song. Who had he lost? She reached out and rested her hand on his shoulder. “Thank you. We’ll be okay, I promise.” Her chest tightened and pain swelled. That stupid injury still hadn’t fully healed. “Could we stop off at the apothecary on the way?”

It wasn’t far. The apothecary’s eyes were dull and his movements heavy. He listened, handed over the potion, and returned to work, all in silence. As expected, the potion tasted worse than torric dung. It didn’t completely heal the injury, but the lingering pain was gone.

Another night’s rest and she’d be fully healed. Her jaw stiffened. The next time she slept, it would be at home, in Tolabar. She pulled out her pack and checked on Nibbles.

The little darling raced out, darted up her arm, and leaped onto her shoulder, squeaking wildly.

Cara closed her eyes and stroked the most beautiful little girl in the world. “Hey, darling.” For a moment, everything wasn’t quite so bad.

“Weren’t you going to leave Jake your pack?” Gramok asked.

Her eyes shot open. “My pack!” She sighed. Why did she have to be so useless? “Too late now. He’ll manage.”

“Yeah, he’s good at that. So…” He raised an eyebrow and gave her a probing look. “You and Jake…?”

A rush of adrenaline. Heat tingled across her cheeks and her ears burned. “A goodbye kiss. On the cheek. It was nothing.” Her heart pounded. She bit her lip. “Who knows when we’ll see each other again?”

A beaming smile lit up Gramok’s face. “I’m glad you took my advice.”

“Uh-huh. I seem to remember your advice being rather different.”

“Novor, novor.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes. “You going to be okay traveling through the night?”

The twitch of his eye said no, but he nodded. “Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve gone all night, and I won’t even be drunk this time.”

Cara smiled as best she could. Tolabar was in danger. It needed her. “Let’s get going then.”

Eloran guided them to the elevator. It was square instead of round, and smaller than most of Tolabar’s. They squeezed between the handrails and it shuddered into motion.

How bad was it? Did she dare ask? The boy kept glancing at Gramok and then looking away or down. Curiosity? Fear? Both? Probably the first orc he’d ever seen.

Gramok smiled at Eloran as warmly as he could. It was hard to be reassuring, with tusks like those. “Ask your question. I don’t bite.” His smile slipped back into a grin. “Usually, anyway.”

Eloran gulped. “Well…” He looked down, left, right, anywhere but at Gramok. “What are you doing here? Sir.”

“None of that ‘sir’ crap here, I get enough of that back home.” He paused and looked out across the Forest.

The leaves rustled. A bird called in the distance. Why was Gramok here? He didn’t have to be. This wasn’t his home.

“Repaying a debt.” He snorted and clenched his fists. “Pretending I’m a better man than I really am. Isn’t that all most of us can ever do?”

“Are you going to fight?” Eloran asked, looking up at the towering orc with wide eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll fight.” Gramok’s brows pulled together. He crouched down and put his huge hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Fighting doesn’t make me, or anyone, a good person. I’m a warrior so others don’t have to be.”

Eloran stiffened up and nodded. His voice lowered to a whisper. “Me too.”

***

Jake scratched his head. It had to mean something. “That modifier resembles quick, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s quickly? Which would make that…” What exactly? A vague understanding would just be storing up trouble for the future.

Idonia bounced up and down the room, incredibly sprightly for her age. How did dwarven old age work, anyway? There wasn’t a hint of frailty about the woman. Did the wrinkles really mean she was all that old?

She picked up the Runesmithing book and flipped through it. “Here! The rune is reused, describing the best way to engrave them into leather boots.”

Which would mean…

“Motion!”

They smiled at each other, having shouted out the answer in unison. Sometimes, great minds did think alike.

Would it be cheeky? Jake bit his lip. Cheeky or not, the chance of not being the slowest all the time was too good to pass over. “I don’t suppose I could convince you to do another rune for me?”

She bellowed with laughter and slapped her knee. “Convince me? That’s a good one.”

“Sorry, I know you’re busy.”

Idonia shook her head, still chuckling. “Boy, if you want to be the first to test a brand-new rune, you’re more than welcome. Hopefully, it won’t rip your legs clean off.”

Jake swallowed. She was laughing now, but he’d been getting on well with Orlanda until he’d told her the truth. “The risk’s worth it.” Best to leave it at that.

“Alright. Boots off!”

He sat on a too-low chair and pulled off his boots. The cold of the stone floor seeped through his socks. At least there wasn’t any dirt or dust. Did all that cleaning magic make allergies worse, or were allergies not really a thing here?

Idonia took the boots and grinned. Her eyes gleamed, and she got to work immediately. She started by carefully cutting into the heel, making grooves for the rune. Every motion was careful, controlled, precise, and yet full of gleeful energy.

Once the grooves were dug, she took a tiny ball of metal and levitated it in her hand. There was a surgical precision to her magic that put every spell Jake had ever cast to shame.

She melted the ball and filled part of the groove with the liquid metal, freezing it before it could burn the leather. She repeated the process again and again, each time filling a little more of the groove. It was a delight to behold, even if it was slow going.

There wasn’t any doubt—he was watching a master at work.

The door swung open and Luther strode through. His breathing was slow and steady, but the expression on his face was anything but. He paused, took a deep breath, and snarled.

“What’s up?” Jake asked.

Luther shook his head. His shoulders slumped, and he took a seat beside them. “This doesn’t leave the room, understood?”

Jake nodded. Idonia continued her work, either oblivious or, more likely, just not caring about irrelevancies like the end of the world. Not while there was Runesmithing to do.

Either way, Luther continued. “I scouted the caves below. There’s an army coming, vast and powerful. It’ll be here in around 40 to 50 hours, and Ardic doesn’t have a golden pickaxe of a clue what to do.” Luther leaned back and threw up his arms. “Not that I do, either.”

Shit. Jake bit his lip. That’d put it the night before the Emperor’s arrival. Even if the imperial guards that would accompany him were inclined to help, they’d be too damned late. “Anything I can do, I’m at your disposal.”

“No dishonor in leaving, lad. This isn’t a fight we can win.”

Maybe, maybe not. Jake scratched his head. There had to be a way. “If you’d asked me a month ago, I’d have said magic was impossible. Now, I’m a Spellcrafter. Anything can happen.”

“For you, maybe. We can’t all be Heroes.” Luther scoffed and stared up at the ceiling. “Not more than once, anyway.”

An awkward silence settled between them. What was there to say?

Idonia held up Jake’s boots and smiled. “Ready for you to test, Hero.”

Jake blinked. He hadn’t meant to let her know. Not that she’d really reacted. “How long had you known?”

She shrugged. “Who cares? If we’d had more Heroes, we wouldn’t have lost all this Runesmithing knowledge in the first place. Now test the boots!”

He pulled them back on. They felt a little heavier, but otherwise, just the same. The moment they were both on, magic tingled up his legs. He stood up and walked around, effortlessly faster than normal. The mage quarters were too small for a proper test. “Be back in a moment.”

Jake headed outside. The town’s magical glow had dimmed for the night, but it was still bright enough to see up and down the street. Aside from the few soldiers, it was all clear. He broke into a sprint.

Wind rushed past his face. Fast, but not as fast as when he had Mind Over Body up and his stamina went down the same as ever. How big was the difference? He focused on the Boots of Speed, but all they told him was that they made walking and running faster.

Time to test it, then. He picked out a spot about 100 yards down the street and sprinted there and back again several times, waiting between runs for stamina. Twenty-one seconds. Twenty-seconds. Twenty-two seconds. Not bad, especially with a turn. Nearly Olympic level.

He chuckled. With Mind Over Body, he’d already have been faster than even an Olympic sprinter. Did they have a rule against magic? Whatever, they had rules against drugs and that didn’t stop them. Fastest human alive!

Well, fastest Earthling alive, anyway. His fists clenched. Maybe.

It took a bit of mental fiddling, but he found the mental switch to deactivate the boots. The magic tingled back down his legs. He moved so damned slowly now. How had he ever lived like this?

He repeated the experiment. Thirty-one seconds. Thirty-one seconds. Thirty-two seconds. So damned slow. He flicked the boots back on.

About fifty percent faster, or 10 feet per second at a sprint. Which was it? He frowned. It’d make a difference if he ever considered spending a point on something other than Intelligence again, which seemed increasingly unlikely. Fifty percent would also scale better with Mind Over Body. That would be a nice bonus.

He headed back into the mage quarters. Luther and Idonia’s Dwarvish conversation died as he entered the room. Had they been talking about him? No, that was stupid. He was a guest, and a Hero to boot. Of course they wouldn’t trust him with everything.

Idonia looked up at him with all the excitement of a puppy at Christmas. “Did they work?”

He relayed his experiment and its results, which only made Idonia buzz with more energy.

“Come on,” she said, opening the book. “There’s more runes in here.”

Luther rose to his feet and shook his head. “The lad needs sleep.”

“About that…” Jake bit his lip. He’d forgotten to remind Cara about the pack. “I don’t actually have anywhere to sleep. Or any money. Or food, for that matter.”

“There’s room here in the barracks for casters,” Luther said. “Consider yourself deputized. No obligation, leave when you want. Take the guest quarters. You’ll actually fit in that bed.”

Jake bowed his head. “Thank you.”

“Least we can do.” Luther paused and stared at Jake. “You’ve fought these dungeon spawn before. You have a fresh perspective. There’s a war council meeting tomorrow. I want you there.”

“Council.” Idonia waved her hand dismissively. “We can actually achieve something here. What’s another meeting going to achieve?”

A glimmer of hope coiled around Jake’s chest. What was it she’d said earlier? If they’d had more Heroes, Tarkath might have survived. They could fight fire with fire. “An idea’s bouncing around in my head, but you’re not going to like it.”

Jake explained his plan. It had a few holes, sure, but what else did they have?

Luther’s expression grew more and more incredulous until Jake was done. “That is the single most insane plan I have ever heard.”

Jake shrugged. He’d heard and done worse, but that probably said more about him than the soundness of the plan. “That’s not a no.”

Luther sighed and shook his head. “When all you have is copper, copper tools must do. It’s late. We both need rest. I’ll have someone escort you to the war council tomorrow morning. You can explain your plan to Ardic then.”