April 6th

Year 2120

Southern Mountain Range

Southern Wastes, Gartaena

“D-don’t kill me!” the man exclaimed desperately. “My shadow monsters will kill you if you do!”

“We’re not killing you, we’re taking you with us,” Kayline said.

“Besides, your shadow monsters can’t hurt us much if they can’t get to us,” added Merdilen while healing himself with his Transmutation. “Now tell us: how did you learn how to tame shadow monsters?”

“W-well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to tell you,” the man muttered nervously. “It all started three months ago. I was part of the Crimson Ruby at that time, and I worked with the group of bandits from the mountains west of here. A group of men attacked us, seemingly belonging to some kind of cult, a cult that treats shadow monsters as superior beings. They had learned to tame them and to use them in battle, and after a gruesome fight, we managed to defeat them, capturing one of them. The rest of the bandits were pure brutes, so I left with the captured cultist, taking hold of this abandoned fortress.”

“So you betrayed them,” Alvoren commented.

“...I guess you could call it that way,” the man said with a sigh. “But it was just because I was the only one who’d be able to fully take advantage of his potential. Anyway, I took him here, and he taught me their ancient art. Ironically enough, one of the very first shadow monsters I tamed ended up accidentally killing him. I’ve been in constant warfare for territory with my old allies since then, and they had never succeeded in actually killing me or capturing me, because of my defensive legion of shadow monsters. Until now.”

“We’re meant to bring you in alive, but they said nothing about a little torture,” Merdilen bluffed. “So tell us everything you know about the Southern Wastes.”

“Well, I don’t know much, as I have never been farther down from here, but I’ll tell you what I know,” the man started. “The Southern Wastes are the southern region of the world of Gartaena, left that way as it was the main warzone of the Transmutation War. Although it is shrouded in mystery, I do know there are strange cultures, weird landscapes, and ancient powers and knowledge over there. There are extremely few maps of that region, as no sane explorer would voluntarily venture into it.”

At least that last part of it was true, Merdilen thought. He had never seen a map of the Southern Wastes before he got his books from the House of Records, and even the map he did have just outlined the main mountains, lakes, rivers, and of course, Morkilen Farenthar’s fortress. They would have to be really careful when traveling over there.

“Anything else?” Alvoren asked.

“I don’t know anything else, nor any details,” the man answered.

“Okay, time to leave, come with us,” Merdilen told him, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him up. They left the tower, crossing once again the bridge Merdilen had formed.

After binding the man’s mouth to make sure he wouldn’t call any shadow monsters to him, they started the trip back to the other mountain.

They started walking, but when they were about halfway to the bandits’ lair, they realized there was a problem with their plan.

“What if they suddenly decide to not let us go?” Kayline said. “Sure, they might not come after us when we leave, but while we’re actually there, they can feel tempted to keep us there as slaves or whatnot. How can we make sure that doesn’t happen?”

“The ideal would be for us not to go back to them, but I doubt our Mr. Captive here will walk back to them alone and unguarded,” commented Merdilen.

“Can we, you know, throw him to them in some way…?” Alvoren wondered, and then his eyes flashed with the spark of a sudden idea. “I’ve got it! What if we… catapult him there?”

“That’s stupid,” Kayline said immediately. “We don’t know how to build one.”

“I do!” Alvoren exclaimed. “We saw that when I was at school several years ago, and I still remember the basics.”

“W-well, it’s still stupid,” she protested. “We don’t want our captive to get there smashed against the ground. It’d go against everything we believe in.”

“I might be able to do something against fall damage,” Merdilen said, remembering his daring escape from the House of Records. “So there’s this thing called a parachute… He’ll probably throw up during the ride, but we were told to get him there alive, not clean.”

“I can’t believe you’re considering this!” Kayline told him dumbfounded, raising her eyebrows. “In that case… How are we meant to make them know it was us?”

“A note,” Merdilen said simply. “We’ve got time.”

“You guys are so stupid,” Kayline finally said, sighing, giving up.

So, while Kayline guarded their captive, Merdilen and Alvoren worked on making a makeshift catapult. It took way longer than it should have taken, as Merdilen had a missing arm, but after several hours and a lot of failed attempts, they finally did it. They had to make it extremely big as for it to throw a man all the way to the mountain, but as Merdilen was a Transmutator, they were able to.

“There was never any doubt that I, the great hero Axerhos, and my loyal companion would be able to make this!” Alvoren exclaimed victoriously.

“Okay, time to leave,” Merdilen told the captive man.

Merdilen then made a makeshift parachute, and after untying the man’s hands, strapped the parachute to his back.

“You don’t have to do anything,” he told the man. “It’ll open automatically with the wind. If it doesn’t… then you’ll plummet to the ground and die. If I was you I’d be praying right now.”

“Oh,” was all the man was able to say. He seemed to want to say something else, but no words came out of his mouth. He was terrified. But they didn’t really have a choice.

They loaded him onto the catapult, and after making sure he was as ready as he could be, Merdilen told him, “Off you go,” and cut the catapult’s rope with his sword.

The moment he did that, the catapult sprung into action with enormous force and speed, throwing the man onto the sky. The catapult broke in half because of the massive pressure and force, but they didn’t need it anymore. Needless to say, the man would never reach the mountain with that poor makeshift catapult, but that was where the parachute came in. When the man reached the peak of his flight, the parachute opened because of the wind, and the man stopped falling, instead gliding calmly over to the mountain. After a short trip, the man came to a stop, hitting the mountain and falling into one of its many small roads.

“Woo-hoo!” Alvoren exclaimed happily. “Our brains are massive!”

“They are indeed,” Merdilen agreed, grinning, and Kayline sighed once more.

“Sir! You must see this, sir!” the lesser bandit told the bandit boss, who scoffed. “The leader of the shadow monsters is here!”

“That group of adventurers actually succeeded?!” the bandit boss asked incredulously, getting up from his chair so fast it toppled over.

“Seems like it, sir. You must see this.”

With that, the bandit boss followed the lesser bandit, into one of the many roads lining the outside of the lair. Lying in it was, effectively, the leader of the shadow monsters, somehow wearing a parachute.

“What the-? How did you get here, you?” the bandit boss asked the fallen and bruised man.

“They catapulted me here,” the man said weakly. “One of them was… a Transmutator.”

“A-a Transmutator?!” the bandit boss exclaimed, his surprised mouth slowly twisting into a grin. “Sherdaine will want to hear about this.”

“Hey, Merdilen, I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a while,” Kayline told Merdilen as they settled down on a place to camp. The place wasn’t that special, as there was almost no grass in the Southern Wastes, but it was already getting late, so they’d have to make do. “Why is there no useful information about the Transmutation in your ancestor’s fortress? That would’ve spared us a lot of trouble.”

“I have no idea,” Merdilen genuinely answered, sitting down on a comfortable chair he’d just Transmutated from a rock. “If I had to guess, I’d say it was so Morkilen Farenthar, his archenemy, wouldn’t find it, but still, it’s strange. If he, Kateko, lived in the fortress, he could’ve protected the secrets to the Transmutation himself, without needing to destroy it for Morkilen not to have it. But, if he didn’t live in his fortress, then what’s the point in having a personal fortress in the first place? It’s strange. I have personally never understood that. Maybe we’ll find some clue to it in Morkilen’s fortress, although I don’t think so.”

“Hmmm,” Kayline wondered, looking at the sky. “Maybe he didn’t want the Transmutation either?”

“But that makes no sense,” Merdilen argued. “Why create something that you don’t want?”

“Maybe he did want it in the beginning,” Alvoren proposed. “Maybe something happened along his journey that made him change his mind.”

“Could be. But, what?” Merdilen asked. “What could have made him make such a decision? True, my own life would have been more peaceful without the Transmutation, but I can still use it for good, so I like having it. I don’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to be a Transmutator and wouldn’t want anyone else to be one either.”

“I guess some truths are better left unknown,” Alvoren commented, to which Merdilen looked at him curiously.

“Maybe that’s true,” he finally answered. “There’s no way to know anyway, so there isn’t much of a point to wonder about it.”

They sat there in silence, looking at the sky, the landscape, and each other, until Kayline broke the silence a little later.

“Hey, Merdilen… do you think you could make me a notebook and a pencil?” she asked.

“Huh? That’s a strange request,” Merdilen commented, “but sure. May I ask what you want it for?”

“I like to draw a lot,” Kayline replied. “I used to have a notebook with drawings of every place I visited in my travels, but needless to say, I lost it when I joined you. My little brother would be slightly disappointed if I came back empty-handed, so I want to make it up for him. The Southern Wastes provide landscapes quite… unique, you know?”

“Nice,” commented Alvoren. “You must be a good big sister.”

“Yeah,” agreed Merdilen, and Kayline let out a sad smile.

Torlen and her mother… Kayline hadn’t seen them in almost three weeks, which was more than any other job she had taken. They’d be so worried… But she had to do this. Even if it took a month or two of worriedness, if it meant saving her mother’s life and her family economically, then it’d be worth it. Their life would be a thousand times better when she returned with Merdilen and Alvoren, and that was worth doing anything. With those thoughts in mind, she started to draw the landscape around them, the mountains, the valley, the rocks, everything, in order to have something to bring back to Torlen when she returned.

After a short while, they had dinner and went to sleep. That night, Kayline dreamed of her family.

The next day, they woke up early and started their trek once more towards Morkilen’s fortress. The day was colder than the others before, and Autumn was fully visible now. Although there were no trees anywhere near their camp, they were sure orange trees would already be dropping their leaves all around the southern half of the world of Gartaena. Fortunately, they had a Transmutator with them. Merdilen had Transmutated warmer—but still flexible—clothes for all of them, so they were all okay.

Of course, Kayline would have preferred to be wrapped up in blankets with her family in their home, drinking hot cocoa and reading a good book, but nothing was perfect. Still, Merdilen had warmed up their food using his Transmutation, so they had been all right.

They kept walking for a few hours through a long valley between two mountains with relatively no problem, and they only sighted one shadow monster, which they could easily evade. They were getting ever closer to their objective.

They had kept walking for the entirety of that day with ease, and the next day started similarly. But, when they thought that they would finally have several peaceful days in a row, they saw once more the most stubborn squad of fighters in the world of Gartaena.

A big and burly fighter wielding a greatsword, a slimmer archer carrying a bow and arrows, and a small rogue with no visible weapons. The Anti-Transmutation Strike Team.

Thanks to the multitude of bandits along the way, Merdilen, Alvoren, and Kayline had managed to get several days’ advantage between them, but their luck had finally run out.

“There you are, traitor!” Sir Grendar bellowed towards her. “This will be over soon!”

“The Anti-Transmutation Strike Team,” Merdilen muttered to Alvoren.

“Ohh, so these are the guys, huh,” Alvoren answered. “It’s three against three, and we’ve got a Transmutator on our side. We should win.”

“That’s right,” Kayline agreed. “It will be over, but for them. But remember: no killing. They’re still human.”

“Of course,” Merdilen said. “Let’s do this.”

Then, Merdilen Transmutated a part of his Transmutation glove into his sword, and along with Kayline, rushed Sir Grendar. Meanwhile, Alvoren rushed Jarleren. Usually, Jarleren always managed to stab Merdilen at least once, as he always had the benefit of stealth, but now that Alvoren was on him, that wouldn’t happen anymore. This time, they would win.

Merdilen attacked Sir Grendar with his blade, and Sir Grendar perfectly blocked it with his Bladesmasher. Kayline used the distraction to circle him and slashed twice at the man’s back. She wasn’t able to actually reach his body with her swords because of the armor, but she bit deep into it, leaving two deep cuts on the shining plate.

Meanwhile, Alvoren thrust his sword at Jarleren, who dodged it with incredible nimbleness and speed. The smaller man in turn stabbed at him with his dagger, and Alvoren blocked with his shield, a moment before raising it to block an incoming arrow fired from Salvatore. Sir Grendar kept exchanging blows with Merdilen and Kayline, and although Sir Grendar wasn’t damaged at all because of his armor, he was clearly overwhelmed.

But at that moment, Merdilen felt a presence.

It wasn’t like the shadow monsters, yet it felt powerful. But it wasn’t defiled and corrupted like the Transmutation that had created the shadow monsters; this was just plain, raw power. He looked around him, confused, but Sir Grendar took advantage of the distraction and cut at him with his Bladesmasher. Merdilen reacted just in place, turning his shoulder’s sleeve into steel armor, but he was still superficially cut from it. Salvatore also tried to take advantage of the situation, and fired an arrow towards Merdilen’s head.

But the arrow didn’t land.

The arrow just stood floating in the air, a foot away from Merdilen’s head, as if time itself had stopped for it. Everyone froze in shock, just as the arrow had.

“Wh-what?” Merdilen asked in a whisper while looking at the immobile arrow, his voice trembling. The powerful presence Merdilen had been feeling intensified enormously.

“I’ll be taking him alive and unharmed, thank you very much,” a man suddenly said from somewhere behind Merdilen.

He pivoted around, his heart beating hard in his chest, only to see a group of about thirty men looking at them, all of them armed. He recognized some of them. Bandits, from the subsection of the Crimson Ruby that inhabited one of the mountains from the Southern Mountain Range. But he didn’t recognize the man who had spoken in the first place, although he did seem oddly familiar. He had black hair and eyes, and was grinning. His arm was extended. Extended towards the arrow. He spun his hand around, then thrust it downwards. The arrow… mimicked his movement, spinning once in the air before falling downwards and burying itself in the ground.

“W-who are you?” asked Sir Grendar.

“You don’t need to know my name,” the mysterious man said, still grinning. “Now hand over the Transmutator before this gets ugly.”

“Never!” Kayline and Sir Grendar exclaimed simultaneously.

“As you wish. As a courtesy, we’ll leave you alive, just unconscious.”

With that, Merdilen, Alvoren, and Kayline stepped to the side, preparing once more for battle, their eyes darting between the two enemy factions. A few seconds later, all hell broke loose. The bandits attacked everyone, and they all started to fight each other, trying to distinguish friend from foe in the forty-people battle.

While Merdilen, Alvoren, and Kayline along with Jarleren and Salvatore defended themselves from the rest of the bandits, the mysterious man attacked Sir Grendar, probably thinking him to be the greatest threat of them all. Sir Grendar swung the massive Bladesmasher towards the man, but with a simple hand movement from the man, the greatsword was raised and slashed way over the man’s head, as if a wind current or something like that had pushed it upward. The man then pulled out a thick dagger, and stabbed towards Sir Grendar’s chest. He simultaneously did another hand movement and the dagger shot forward with immense speed and strength, as if the wind itself was propelling it, and even though it wasn’t enough to kill Sir Grendar, the simple dagger surprisingly buried itself deep within the armor, reemerging once more after a few moments, red with blood.

Seeing as how the man had so easily deflected the Bladesmasher earlier, Sir Grendar tried to punch him with an armored-covered fist, trying to catch him by surprise. But the man simply jumped upwards an unnaturally enormous amount, getting high over Sir Grendar’s head and kicking him in the neck. The kick was pushed by some unknown power, flying with exploding force towards the neck, and Sir Grendar plummeted to the ground with a loud thud!, alive but unconscious.

Merdilen looked at the fallen combatant, his eyes widened with surprise. The man had defeated Sir Grendar, one of his biggest enemies, without breaking a sweat.

What is this man? he wondered. But, in the distraction, he was hit in the head twice by the pommel of a bandit’s sword, and fell to the ground. He heard someone shout his name, but then the mysterious man approached him, kicking him too with one of his powerful kicks. Merdilen’s vision went black, and even though he tried hard not to, lost consciousness completely.

Kayline woke up several hours later, confused. She just laid there in the ground for a few minutes, and her memories slowly started coming back to her. They had been fighting the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, and a group of bandits, whose leader wielded some incredible unknown power, had joined the battle, defeating them all. She sat up with a gasp, opening her eyes, and the midday sun woke her up completely.

They seemed to still be in the location of the battle, and Alvoren was lying unconscious a short distance from her, his body in a strange position. Her swords were gone, but she fortunately still had a bit of food left in her backpack. The Anti-Transmutation Strike Team was nowhere to be seen. Had they left before Kayline woke up? That was probably it. Merdilen… was nowhere to be seen either. Either the bandits or the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team had captured him, and neither possibility was good.

But, thinking about it, the bandits had been winning the battle when she had passed out, so they probably had Merdilen instead of the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team. Merdilen probably was alive, and possibly unharmed, because of what the mysterious man had said right before their battle. Kayline sighed, relieved. But still, they’d have to save him. Not saving him wasn’t an option. Not when they were in the position they were in. She walked towards Alvoren and grabbed his arm.

“Hey, Alvoren, wake up!” she told him, shaking him. “Alvoren!”

“Huh… w-what?” he mumbled, turning around to face her and rubbing his eyes.

Same as Kayline before, he looked confused at first, but then quickly regained his composure.

“We gotta save Merdilen,” Kayline told him.

“Of course!” he immediately said. “I, the great hero Axerhos, would never leave a loyal companion behind! Especially one that saved my life.”

“Yeah, he saved my life too. We owe it to him,” Kayline agreed. “But we can’t just walk in through the front door. We need a distraction. And new weapons, as our older ones were taken.”

With that, they both started looking around, searching for ideas, until Alvoren spotted three lonely figures far in the distance, walking away from them.

“I think I’ve got our distraction,” he said. It was the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team.

“That’s perfect!” Kayline exclaimed. “They’ll probably go attack the bandits’ lair to kill Merdilen, and while they’re fighting the bandits, we can sneak in and take Merdilen unopposed!”

“Right,” Alvoren agreed. “We must follow them, but without being seen. We don’t know what they’d do to us if they spotted us.”

With that, they started following the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, hiding behind rocks or dead trees whenever one of its members looked behind them. They kept following for several hours, until they saw Jarleren gesture something to the rest, and all three of them hid behind a rock. Kayline and Alvoren hid too, confused, looking for the reason for the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team hiding. Soon enough, they saw it. A patrol of four armed bandits was walking through the valley, unaware of the danger stalking them.

Jarleren removed his black cloak, revealing brown clothes under it, clothes the same color of the landscape around them. He then took out two daggers from somewhere beneath his clothes the bandits seemingly hadn’t found, holding one in each hand, and started to crouch out of the rock. Hiding in plain sight, he started to make a long circle around the bandits, crouching from rock to rock, until he was far behind them. He then stopped hiding and rushed the bandits, running hard but without making the slightest noise with his feet.

When he got to the unsuspecting bandits, he raised both daggers and sliced at two of the bandits’ necks. Both fell, dead, but before they even touched the ground, Jarleren sliced the necks of the two remaining bandits, who also fell next to their partners. Sir Grendar and Salvatore came out of the hiding spot, and Jarleren tossed one sword to each, leaving the other two on the ground. They both grabbed them, and kept walking, with more confidence now.

After making sure they had left, Kayline and Alvoren came out of their own hiding spots, heading for the bandits’ dropped swords. They each grabbed one, sheathing them in their empty scabbards. Kayline was used to fighting with two swords, but one was way better than none. Still, as they were heading straight into the bandits’ lair, Kayline had the feeling she’d get a second sword before their quest was over.

Merdilen woke up, dazed. He slowly opened his eyes, confused, and tried to remember where he was. After several minutes, he finally remembered. He had been captured by the bandits and been taken to their lair. Why had it taken that long to remember? He looked around, trying to get up. He was in some kind of dark cell, his legs, right arm, and the remainder of his left arm strapped to a wooden chair. He could see a metal door in front of him, but nothing else. He tried to Transmutate his bindings into sand, but nothing happened.

What… is happening? he wondered, getting increasingly nervous, and even afraid. His mind felt confused and shadowy, and thinking was hard. I… must be drugged, he realized. He was captured. Was there… any way out? Without his Transmutation, that didn’t seem likely. Where are Kayline and Alvoren? Are they safe? Are they alright? He had too many questions, and no way to answer them.

“...Hello?” he called out.

A few moments later, his cell door slowly opened, and a man entered. The same man with black hair and eyes. The man with strange powers, he recalled.

“Welcome to our base, my little gold mine,” the strange man told him, grinning. “You can call me Sherdaine. What about you?”

Merdilen didn’t answer anything, puzzled. My little gold mine? What had he meant by that? Everything was so strange. And… Sherdaine? Like in Kayline Sherdaine?

“What is it, cat got your tongue?” the man, seemingly called Sherdaine, mockingly asked. “Well, do you want to live?”

“...Of course,” Merdilen answered, still confused by the apparent drugging.

“Good boy. Then, make me thirty gold coins. If you don’t, you won’t eat today.”

“W-what?” he asked, surprised. “But… it’s not right. I-I shouldn’t…”

“Okay, whatever you want,” Sherdaine said. “But remember, this is for your own good. I know you’re a Transmutator. If you don’t Transmutate me thirty gold coins, you won’t eat. If you do Transmutate me thirty gold coins, you will eat. It’s that simple. Think about it. But the choice is quite easy if you ask me. You know what to do. Goodbye.”

Alvoren and Kayline kept following the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team with haste for the next two days, traveling back north, until they finally arrived at the bandits’ lair once more. The Anti-Transmutation Strike Team first knocked out two bandits, one of which had a bow and arrows, which they gave to Salvatore, then headed for the entrance. Kayline grabbed the sword the other bandit had dropped with relief. The Anti-Transmutation Strike Team muttered between themselves, bracing themselves, and preparing to enter the lair.

Such determination, Kayline thought. They’re not afraid to die if it means completing their quest. But Kayline understood them. She had felt the same way before she joined Merdilen. But still, that required a lot of determination.

The Anti-Transmutation Strike Team then prepared their weapons, and entered. Kayline and Alvoren immediately started hearing shouts and sounds of battle, and they ran away, searching for some other way in. Soon they found it; another cave entrance lay a distance to the side, in what seemed to be an emergency exit. Preparing their weapons themselves, just in case, they entered.

They found themselves once more in the dark and humid cave complex, lost as soon as they entered. But they couldn’t back down now. They had no choice.

“I’d guess Merdilen would be in the safest place of the lair: the center, the farther away from all entrances,” Kayline said.

“Damn,” Alvoren cursed. “You’re probably right.”

With that, they started going forward, guiding themselves just by their sense of direction and fighting any bandits they found in their way. Still, they found extremely few bandits, as all others seemed to be in the ongoing battle with the Anti-Transmutation Strike Team, which’s sounds they could still hear. They kept wondering the maze-like corridors, being mistaken, returning, and exploring again several times. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally got to where they had been headed to.

An especially big room, most of it empty except for a desk and a chair at the end and a few big cells to one side. Merdilen was probably in one of those cells, Kayline thought. Saving him now would be easy. But, in the middle of the room… was the man with black hair and eyes. To Kayline, he looked extremely familiar, but she couldn’t quite catch why.

“So the others were just a distraction, huh. Well, this should be fun,” the man said, grinning. “Hello again, Kayline. I didn’t know for sure before, but now, there’s no doubt anymore.” Kayline looked at him puzzled, trying to understand, and then he added, “What is it, Kayline? Don’t you recognize me? Don’t you recognize... your father?”