Chapter 18 — The World's Boundary

Fear swept through Xyn as the indifferent judgement of the god’s rebuke overwhelmed his warrior spirit and drained his foolhardy courage. How silence spoke to him, he didn’t know, but his courage would fail him entirely if he didn’t act. Focusing his mind, Xyn pled his case.

“Great Raven of Shadow, it is true that I seek power,” he began, and felt encouraged that his voice only shook enough to show his fear. “I saw a glimpse of your Truth and was drawn to seek out your shrine in hopes that seeing your Truth more directly would further aid me to better understand my Path. If it is not too much, I would desire to meditate in your glade for a short time and maybe ask a few questions.”

The silence judged his words.

The raven held him in place with its endless gaze.

{THOUGH A FOOL, YOU ARE AT LEAST AN HONEST FOOL. YOU SHOW WISDOM IN ASKING FOR A BOON THAT YOU CAN AFFORD. USUALLY, THOSE WHO RECEIVE MY BOON ARE TASKED WITH PROTECTING MY REALM FROM ANYTHING THAT WOULD THREATEN IT, BUT YOU ARE UNWILLING TO ACCEPT SUCH TERMS.}

The silence judged him.

Again, the raven’s gaze held him motionless, and Xyn found he couldn’t reply to say that he was willing to provide a service or favor even if he didn’t want to be bound to the land.

{ONE OF THE BLOOD THAT HAS ACCEPTED THE PRICE THROUGH MANY OF THEIR GENERATIONS HAS SOUGHT TO GIFT MY POWER TO THEIR DESCENDANTS WITHOUT PAYING THE PRICE. IN EXCHANGE FOR ALLOWING YOUR REQUEST, YOU WILL ENSURE THAT SUCH A DESCENDENT IS BROUGHT TO ME TO BE MARKED AS KIN.}

If Ayla’s family angered the land god... if Xyn could do something for Ayla’s family to keep that from happening, that would surely be an effective way to earn her trust. And, he certainly wouldn’t want her to be sad. Though, it would be annoying if he was held responsible for descendants he didn’t know about.

{IT IS AGREED. ADDITIONALLY, YOU WILL AID IN STOPPING THE EXPANSION OF THE ONE WHO CONSUMES.}

Stopping the land god from the mire and cleansing the land was something his tribe had been working at for hundreds of years, and he was pretty sure that’s what he was doing for Master Arienos.

{IT IS AGREED. BEHOLD. THE TRUTH YOU SEEK. WITNESS THE BOUNDARY OF THIS WORLD.}

Xyn’s eyes were drawn to the great raven’s chest. The faint moonlight that gave the feathers definition was replaced with a yawning darkness that reached through as if into another place. That void was not nothingness but rather a bridge, beyond which swirled a mist of light and dark, creation in all its possibilities.

Fear and wonder filled Xyn’s heart, more than if he was looking down on the world from above the tallest tree. He drank in the Truths, and when the vision left him, he was meditating in front of the shrine, alone.

Was Mist really an embodiment of all Creation?

No. Or at least, his Mist wasn’t. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t expand his Mist to embody pale reflections of those concepts. More within his reach was the concept of space and the bridge between spaces. Applying those to his Fog of Lost Souls and even his Floating Petal Step... if his illusions became spaces or even worlds unto themselves... if his movement technique made use of the boundary of the world to make him as substantial as mist... if his sword could reach into the boundary of the world...

Xyn’s head spun with the possibilities.

The gift from the Raven of Shadow was inestimable. Was the exchange really even? Or had the land god favored him for some reason?

The serenity of ancient Order blanketed him and calmed his mind. Xyn gladly drew in the energy of the glade and circulated it throughout his body. For the land god, this amount was trivial, but for Xyn, the gains were transformative. He could feel his newly gained understanding of Void stabilizing and his aura reserves expanding to match.

Time would be needed to truly consolidate his realizations into his techniques, but for the first time, he glimpsed something greater than his naïve yearning for Storm. Maybe his mother was right, after all... ugh. Just a bit, Xyn regretted not properly thanking her before leaving—not properly saying goodbye. Though it was just glimpsing the beginning of his future path, a belief of a triumphant and proud return had begun to flicker in his heart—that his future was no longer as the runt of the litter but as a martial artist destined for something greater than either of his litter-siblings, greater than his parents.

Yillian was uncomfortable that Ayla and Xyn hadn’t simply tied that cultist noble guy up and handed him over to Ayla’s uncle, or better yet, her father. Rather, the guy was still trespassing in Ayla’s uncle’s house!

Whatever.

The guy seemed at least somewhat knowledgeable about events related to Fenton’s research. So, there was that. But, weren’t these family secrets? Maybe Ayla was planning to off the guy once his usefulness ended. Admittedly, a diviner would be useful to their current assignment, but... Yillian had a sense for liars, and that guy was a liar.

And Xyn was off to somewhere. Again.

Letting out a deep breath, Yillian returned to his experiment with the teleportation circle. He was surprised that Alennil assumed that the circles would be useless after the original owner died and didn’t even consider the possibility of modifying the circle to accept a relative instead.

Yillian looked over his planned modifications one last time. The change wasn’t really that complex. Just make ‘self’ into ‘self + similar’ and then adding the blood of the relative to increase the degree of match. Fitting the changes into the circle without damaging the original was the difficult and time-consuming part. What he didn’t know was whether modifying the circle like this would still allow access to the associated teleport beacons. He wouldn’t know that until they tried to use the circle.

Worries for later. Yillian readied his tools and started carving the added pathways for the enchanted blood-ink into the stone of the floor. His enchanted chisel etched the stone readily enough, and his hands were steady from years of practice. Completing the design successfully was only a matter of time, and he wasn’t particularly in a hurry… other than what he imposed on himself in his eagerness to see his speculation proved correct.

Once the new design was ready, he carefully poured the blood-ink into grooves, using a special brush to even the gel out and ensure a good connection to the original design. A quick-drying spell hardened the mixture and left it ready for the final enchanting. He carefully infused the new design with Spatial energy, matching it as closely to the original as possible.

A test of the flow showed the newly integrated section was properly acting as part of the whole, but the identity safeguards were still preventing the magic from activating, as expected.

“Ayla, I need your help to test this,” Yillian announced and motioned toward the revised teleportation circle. “Try standing in the center.”

“Ah… okay.” Ayla put down her cousin’s journal. “It’s not going to send me somewhere that I can’t get back from is it?”

Yillian shook his head. “I just need to see if the magic will activate so I can check for paired beacons. I won’t initiate the transfer.”

“Alright, Yillian.” She readied her sword just in case and stepped into the circle.

Holding his breath, Yillian powered the magic, and it activated, causing the circle to light up with a purple color.

“You actually got it to work?!” Alennil asked in disbelief, from where he was still reading through a large book. “The enchanting class taught us there was no way to use another mage’s privately-keyed teleport circles! If the safeguards could be circumvented so easily, there’s no way the Tower doesn’t know about it!”

Yillian took exception with the ‘so easily’ part, but he couldn’t keep the cocky grin off his face at the initial success of his experiment. Now, was the real test.

Ayla gave him an uncertain look at the glowing circle and nervously gripped her sword tighter, but Yillian was already working the magic to interface with the beacons. Interestingly, it worked much the same as the odd medallions they had, and he was able to sense the general locations of four additional beacons paired to this one. The locations were a little fuzzy, likely due to the imperfect match to the original key. Two were in close proximity, maybe toward the capital; one in a direction near Mirewood; and another some distance to the west, maybe near the seacoast.

Yillian reported his results.

“I can’t believe even the beacons work!” Alennil was dismayed but had advice for the situation at hand, “Of the two in the direction of the capital, one or both probably go to the Tower, and one is likely for the secure meeting room where we were meeting with the cult leaders for orders.”

“We should investigate the other locations first then,” Yillian recommended.

Ayla nodded her agreement. “Yeah, that makes sense. Going directly to the Tower seems risky.”

“More than risky. Suicidal, or worse,” Alennil volunteered. “Though when they find Fenton’s replacement, his beacon will probably be removed from the teleport room.”

“Can we get back,” Ayla asked worriedly.

“The other beacons are likely the same as this one, so if Yillian here can make the same modifications to the others, then sure,” Alennil affirmed.

“So, seashore or near Mirewood?” Ayla asked.

“Mirewood,” Yillian suggested. “The other one is really far away, and if I can’t get the circle at that location to work, we'd have to travel back or wherever some other way.”

“Hey, you all aren’t planning to let me go home, right?” Alennil inquired, looking a little nervous. “And, I’d rather not be left alone considering what’s going on, but can we get my stuff back at the inn? Chaos dude’s stuff is there as well, if that interests you.”

{Xyn, Alennil wants to get his stuff from the inn.}

Ayla’s mental sending cut through Xyn’s meditation. How long had he...?

{Okay, I’ll be right there.}

Xyn was loathe to end his gains here, but being greedy and taking excessive advantage of the Raven of Shadows would surely lead to becoming further in the Raven’s debt, or worse, annoying it and damaging his chances at further visits for knowledge.

Rousing himself, Xyn showed his respect and thanks at the edge of the glade before leaving. On the way out, he made sure to carefully observe how the space changed until he was fully outside the Raven’s divine realm.

When he reached the hidden door to the secret room, he used his aura to draw the glyph and entered the room.

“Where did you go that it took that long to return?” Ayla immediately asked of him. She looked annoyed.

The way her eyes glowed with her emotions brought a bit of a grin to his face. He was in a great mood in general, honestly, but as he thought about how to explain, he realized. “Ah-!” He forgot to ask his questions to the Raven of Shadows, and it was too late to go back now!

“Did you really get stronger in just that much time?” Yillian asked in disbelief.

“Think so?” Xyn asked and let his aura briefly fill the room, his mood improving again at the looks of shock from his companions and the cultist human.

Being among the humans really was fun. He hadn’t even had a human master train him yet and had already experienced so much growth.

“No fair,” Ayla grumbled. “Did Master Garrin help you?”

“It’s not that he didn’t...” Xyn admitted. His initial revelation that caused him to seek out the land god was indeed thanks to Master Garrin, though Xyn suspected that she meant it differently, maybe?

“Well, nevermind that now,” Ayla brusquely set aside the matter and continued, “We’re going to get Alennil and the other guy’s stuff from the inn. Yillian’s going to stay here and finish working through Fenton’s research. He got the teleport circle working, by the way, so we’re thinking to investigate the places that Fenton’s been.”

“Okay?” Xyn was glad the investigation had progressed, particularly now that he had an agreement to uphold concerning the Xogg thing. “Lead on?”

Ayla rolled her eyes at him, but they soon found themselves on their way to the inn. Alennil knew a spell similar to Yillian’s Long Strider spell, so the three of them made a brisk pace through the sleeping town.

On the way, they detoured down a side-street to avoid a certain familiar carriage parked in front of a well-appointed house.

Alennil casually greeted the inn staff and led the way to his room when they arrived at the inn. Retrieving the items went fairly quickly even though Ayla insisted on searching Alennil’s pack. Xyn grabbed the chaos priest’s pack. ‘Unseen’ was what Alennil said the priest guy went by.

The only items of interest in Alennil's pack seemed to be his book of spells and a book he said was for light reading to "pass the time" which resulted in an eye roll from Ayla and an embarrassed shrug from Alennil. The rest was clothing and travel supplies.

It was on the way out of the inn that things went wrong. Xyn blamed his good mood for not anticipating or noticing the approaching disaster.

“Ah-! Ayla! Wh-what did you do to your resplendent hair of glorious flame?!” Fredrick sputtered out then the blood drained from his face. “A-and why are you coming down from an inn room with Alennil of House Bracken... a-and that d-damned pretentious cat?!”