Chapter 19 — Return to Mirewood

Xyn watched Ayla freeze up initially upon hearing Fredrick’s voice, but with a steadying breath, she properly responded to the annoying human, “I have no idea what you are implying, but I am investigating cult activity that is currently threatening our kingdom together with Explorer Xyn here.” Ayla gave him a glare for some reason before turning back to the overly-rotund baron. “Alennil here is assisting the investigation as a diviner. Speaking of diviners, I see you have distracted Diviner Ephren who is currently tasked with confirming the fate of my cousin.”

At receiving Ayla’s disapproving gaze, Diviner Ephren interjected in his defense, “I’m terribly sorry, Lady Ayla. I cannot disobey a direct order of a baron when told there is an ongoing crisis.”

Ayla waved away Ephren’s apology and stared down Fredrick. “Now if you don’t mind, please have you and your men move aside from the entrance so I can continue with my duties.”

Fredrick was taken aback by Ayla’s assertiveness, and seemed to wince as he gave his refusal, “I’m sorry, dear Ayla, heat of my heart, but I cannot do so. You see, with your lovely personage reported as kidnapped, I would be derelict in my duties if I didn’t see you returned to your family. And before your feline abductor gets any ideas of dastardly action, he should know that a duel of honor is quite different from acting against an officer of the king engaging in his lawful duty-”

Xyn surrounded Frederick and his men with the Fog of Lost Souls using the opportunity to incorporate his new insights. For some reason, the more the human baron talked the more glares he was getting from Ayla, and interrupting his speech and escaping seemed the best course of action.

“Like in Lorel’s Watch?” Xyn meekly suggested.

“Fine.” Ayla sighed. “Alennil, we’re leaving, use your magic to keep up unless you want to explain your situation to dear Fredrick.”

A beam of light cutting through the fog and a muffled “Don’t let the kidnappers get away with my desperate Ayla!” accompanied by sounds of weapons being drawn and soldiers bumping into walls seemed to convince Alennil to nod and cast his quick movement spell.

Ayla in the lead, they fluttered and charged past horrified inn staff that were already running for cover at the first signs of a confrontation among nobles. The kitchen passed by in a flash and soon the trio were in the back alley.

Xyn used Breath of Sleep on two soldiers he presumed to be Fredrick’s men, clearing their escape into the streets. That Alennil stuck close and didn’t try to get away was surprising. Was the human really telling the truth when saying he wanted their protection?

When they arrived back in the secret room, Ayla was grumbling unhappily. “Desperate? How did sawdust-for-brains get to that?! And what was that about a duel, Xyn? Just why does Frederick even have reason to know you?”

At Ayla’s fiercely accusatory glare, Xyn hoped that explaining about how he defended her honor would help with what had just gone wrong. “He showed disregard for your strength as a warrior, and with your father’s permission I challenged him in a duel to defend your and your master’s honor.”

But the expected praise didn’t come. Instead, the color drained from Ayla’s face, and her expression became like the fleeing staff at the inn. “My… father’s permission…” Her face quickly re-colored with anger and her eyes flashed. “I worried this would happen, but like an idiot, I trusted that you would have more common sense! I should have never let you out of my sight!”

“I don’t understand why you are angry,” Xyn honestly pleaded, dismayed that his efforts had rebounded against him in some way, and even worse, her trust in him had actually decreased! “I thought you found Fredrick’s claim unwelcome, so I just wanted to help.”

“Why do I only attract interest from socially inept suitors?!” Ayla complained to the air before spinning around to face Alennil. “You’re not interested in me are you, Alennil?”

“Well… I wouldn’t have danced with you if I wasn’t interested. But your family was giving preference to direct heirs, and…” Alennil paused then leerily continued, “I’d rather be the master of my own house, you know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ayla challenged, annoyance in her voice.

But Xyn knew what the diviner meant, and purposefully seeking a weaker mate was foolish, so he chided the human, “A strong mate will produce strong kits. Why would you want your kits to be inferior?”

Both sets of eyes turned his way as if he had said something strange. Did humans not believe it was so?

“Alennil, even though I will probably regret it. You will lend Xyn your ‘light reading’,” Ayla declared. “It’s about time he learned about human courting. Though it’s not the most ideal source, such will have to do until I can buy him something better.”

Though still not understanding what had gone wrong with his plan to gain Ayla’s trust, Xyn was glad she hadn’t given up on him entirely.

“I guess I don’t mind, but what will I read?” Alennil weakly complained.

Ayla rolled her eyes. “Borrow something from Yillian.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Yillian objected with an eye roll of his own. “I’m guessing you ran into some kind of complication. Fortunately, I anticipated that a speedy departure might be necessary and gathered Xyn’s and my packs from our rooms while you were gone. I’ve already packed up the books and notes referenced in the journal, as well.”

Yillian was a good companion. Xyn gave an approving thumbs up as he collected his own pack. “Thanks, Yillian.”

“Ah, good work, Yillian,” Ayla praised then turned back to Alennil. “Would a divination on our current course of action prove useful?”

Alennil nodded. “It might. Honestly, I’d rather not risk dying by teleporting to an unknown location without doing at least a basic survival and outcome divination.”

“Go ahead,” Ayla agreed, adding, “We should hurry though, before Diviner Ephren brings Fredrick here to bother Uncle Nerel.”

“Right. Give me two minutes.” Alennil quickly began drawing glyphs and patterns on the floor with his finger.

While Alennil was preparing the casting, Ayla moved to the center of the teleport circle, where she motioned for Yillian and Xyn to join her. “I’m guessing the divination will be more accurate if Yillian begins the spell like before?”

Alennil nodded. “Yeah, he should select the beacon as well, or at least keep the intention of selecting the beacon strongly in mind.”

“Everyone will need to be touching me as I use the magic,” Yillian advised, and as the circle began to glow with energy, Xyn placed a hand on Yillian’s shoulder. Ayla did the same.

Alennil completed his divination spell and a curtain of light rose from the design he had drawn before dissipating into stray motes. “Likely survival and new knowledge is all I’m getting.”

“Good, get over here, Alennil. Let’s go quickly then,” Ayla ordered, and as soon as Alennil had taken hold of Yillian’s upper arm, Xyn could feel the magic fully activate.

The border of the world thinned and bent connecting the two distant locations until for a brief moment they overlapped, then with a pop, they were suddenly someplace else.

The moon was higher in the sky and shone down into the ruins of the tower they now occupied. The largely collapsed walls rose up around them unevenly with space above open to the night sky. The area with the teleport circle had been cleared to reveal the bare rock with only a few stray leaves laying about here and there.

Xyn cast out his aura and recognized a familiar taint in the air. Mirewood.

A field of overgrown wild grass was visible through the archway that used to house a door, making it likely they were on the outskirts somewhere.

“You can let go of me now,” Yillian complained.

“I’m still amazed that you actually did it, elf,” Alennil muttered as he stepped back and walked over toward the archway. “So, this is Fenton’s Mirewood location. Unless there’s some other structure around, I’m guessing he used this beacon for private material gathering for his own use.”

“Unless there’s a hidden cellar,” Xyn volunteered, feeling a chance that this tower’s cellar might actually have treasure worth finding… unlike the last one.

Yillian rolled his eyes.

“I’ll go with Alennil to scout around the tower while Yillian modifies the teleportation circle, Xyn you can come help when you're done investigating for a cellar or stay and guard Yillian,” Ayla ordered as she moved to follow Alennil out the exit.

“Ah, Ayla. I’d feel safer if I had my dagger and knife back,” Alennil tried. “Particularly if Mirewood is nearby.”

Ayla gave him a long look before nodding. “Yillian toss him his weapons.”

Yillian looked a bit disgruntled but did as asked, pulling the weapons out of his pack and sliding them over.

“Thanks.” Alennil nodded Yillian’s way. “No hard feelings, okay?”

Yillian grunted and returned to his work.

“I’m not the best fighter, Ayla, but I can usually hold out long enough for someone else to take out these swamp terrors,” Alennil advised. “Hopefully, the Remnant isn’t too close or this could get ugly fast.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

Xyn watched as the pair left the ruins.

“You’re really going to leave her alone with that guy?” Yillian asked.

“Ayla is strong,” Xyn asserted, but he still followed them with his aura as Ayla led Alennil around the outside of the tower.

“You know, poison is surprisingly effective on humans, right?”

Xyn started to second guess himself but remembered how Ayla dealt with his Rippling Strikes. “She’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.” Yillian shrugged. “By the way, I’m going to need more ingredients to make more blood-ink. I probably have enough for this one, but there are three more beacons.”

“So you’re saying you want to go herb hunting later.”

Yillian nodded and started carving the changes with his silver chisel and hammer.

Xyn didn’t mind. He had helped Yillian do just that on the road out of Mirewood. Instead, he set down the packs he was carrying and focused his aura on the task at hand, probing for the expected trapdoor.

Finding the trapdoor to the cellar required a fair amount of aura, and disappointingly, it was buried under a significant amount of rubble, far more than he could remove through aura manipulation.

Before he could work himself up to the required physical labor, sounds of combat started echoing out from the direction Ayla and Alennil had set off in and sounded to be getting more frantic.

Xyn shot out of the ruined tower, pausing only to get a lay of the land—rolling plains for miles adjacent to a marshy forest that stretched to the horizon and no signs of civilization other than the lone tower.

Quickly arriving to aid Alennil, Xyn exploded a larger-than-usual tangleweed that had managed to wrap a tentacle around Alennil’s casting hand. Several burnt and cut tangleweeds were scattered about with more closer to the forest. Ayla was still hacking methodically at one, falling back to lure it away as others continued to draw near.

“Thanks,” Alennil offered as he caught his breath. “There’s a ton of them and these are more tenacious than the ones I fought before.”

“Rest up. I’ll help Ayla.” Xyn Petal-stepped past the one Ayla was engaged with and directed his aura at the others that were following, drawing their attention.

His Rippling Strikes made quick work of the encroaching stragglers, but not only were more streaming out from between the trees, he sensed something larger behind them.

As if on cue, large root-like tentacles began dragging a massive hive of undulating limbs and salivating maws into view. It heedlessly knocked smaller trees over while using the large trunks to pull its bulk forward.

Rippling Strikes was not going to be enough to stop this one.