Morning hurt. Sleep was hard to come by, and what I did manage to get was full of dark imagery and things half remembered. Stumbling toward the latrines, I took care of business before heading towards the fire to try and heat up. Halfway there, I noticed a light mist. Not enough to be called any form of rain, but just enough that you could feel it condense on your skin.

“Bribis. Carrigan.” I nodded to the two who were staring into the flames.

“Going to be a rough day.” Carrigan noted. “Hopefully the majority of the rain will stay north in the bogs.”

“Bogs?” I asked, confused. While I had a bit of general geography, most of the local stuff was still a mystery to me.

“Aye, the bogs.” Bribis nodded absently. “No magic practice today. If it clears enough, you can see the reason why alchemists are forbidden from battles.”

“Nobody’s really sure-“ Carrigan started, only to be interrupted by Bribis.

“It was the second incursion of shadow.” He said in a flat tone. “The Greater Shadow had a nasty habit of spawning lesser shadows to corrupt life and corpses near it. And so we made one of the greatest mistakes in history. The alchemists were ordered to create vile concoctions. Gases that dissolved flesh. Potions that only activated once the body died. Eating it from the inside so that it couldn’t rise again as undead. A war of potions.” He trailed off, the haunted look in his eyes giving me shivers. “Between that, and the battle magics unleashed? The land may never heal. The potions boiled, and exploded. Shadows and flesh dissolved. The muck permeated the ground, while the magics caused the gases to react. A permanent bog, overrun with the restless dead.”

“Six times.” He said after taking a break for a minute. “Six times since then there have been cleansing attempts. Armies, camped on the border of the swamp bombarded the spirits from afar. Hammers smashed fetid bodies apart. And still they came. Far more than could be accounted for. As if they were simply reforming out of the muck itself. And should they get ahold of someone alive?” He paused to shudder violently. “The last time they tried, they made a recording stone like what I gave you for your family.” He nodded to the stone I was wearing as a necklace. “Only, they put in the memories of the screams. The wards fell in the night. Seven in ten failed to escape alive. One in three never spoke again. Often killing themselves within two years. An exception was made for the remaining two in ten. A small group of mages were given leave to research mental magics. The entire campaign was wiped from their memories, and they were given generous stipends for the rest of their lives.”

“How have I not heard of this?” Carrigan asked. “I thought I had the highest clearances at the Mage’s college?”

“Nothing against you, but the other races have seen how short human memory is.” Bribis said, patting Carrigan’s hand. “The headmaster is briefed, and swears an oath never to reveal it without consulting the others first. The human emperor and a select few others are filled in, swearing the same oaths.”

“Is it weakening at all?” I asked.

“No. But neither is it growing, so we are hopeful. Every five years the boundaries are measured. We’ve been lucky. But all races have sworn. Never again.”

“What works best against them?” I asked, but he just shook his head.

“We don’t know, as nothing ever truly dies. Spells will scatter the ethereal, while blunt force works best for the rest. As far as research has determined, no experience has been earned despite all the deaths. If you are quiet, and respectful of the dead, then you have a slightly higher chance to move past unnoticed.”

“Heavy stuff.” I muttered. “Probably going to give my current nightmares some company.”

“What did you say?” Bribis hissed, grabbing my arm with surprising speed.

“I just had some weird nightmares last night, can’t quite remember them.”

“Question!” Bribish shouted, getting the attention of the camp. “How many had troubled dreams last night?”

Several hands were raised, though it was an odd distribution. Most were clustered in the cooks and porters section, while some of the lower leveled guards had their hands up. As he took in the view, his face paled.

“PACK UP! EMERGENCY FORCE MARCH, HIGHEST ALERT POSSIBLE!” Bribis shouted, glowing a bright red with the activation of a skill. The entire convoy flipped into action, packing everything. Breakfast was discarded, pots thrown in without cleaning. “Nightmares are indications that the swamp is active, and the majority of those affected were those that don’t have much battlefield experience. A very bad sign. We’ll be splitting ourselves up. Carrigan, rear guard. Prioritize fire magics. I’ll be in the front cart, making sure that the roadway isn’t too muddy. Sean, you and Elendria will be in the middle two wagons, do what you can. We press on until we are past this bog. Here.” He handed me a six pack of blue potions contained in test tube shaped containers. “I know you haven’t used these yet, they are mana potions. A thousand mana recovered within ten minutes, but don’t take a second one within two hours. Got it?”

“A thousand mana per, minimum two hours between. Is more better?”

“Aye, the longer the better. Best recommended is five hours.”

“I’ll try and pace myself.” I said, climbing up into the wagon Bribis wanted me in. Elendria gave me a worried look, but I shooed her towards her wagon. “Go. If need be, form an ice wall along the bog so we can escape. Carrigan and I will handle anything that flies over the wall.”

“Of course, my lord.” She said with a nod.

That was all we had time for, as the wagons started off in a hurry. I figured it was time to start pulling my own weight, and put one of my constellations into use for the first time. “Weary travelers, find renewed vigor. For Drevor’s Spear shall light your way.”

Travel buff in effect!

Your party travels under the direction of Drevor’s Spear. Stamina consumption reduced by 25%.

Mana cost: 20/minute

Effective mana regeneration rate: 3.69 per minute

And so we fled. The oxen weren’t fast, but they maintained a speed that was nearing a jog. Everyone in my wagon was staring off into the bog, knuckles turning white as they gripped the side of the wagon. I sat back, keeping a portion of my mind on the constellation above us. The rest was poring through the lore in my head. Myths from back home. How do you kill or disrupt a ghost?

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“You ok Chris?” I asked. We had been moving along the edge of the bogs for two hours already, and the oxen were content with their speed. I was starting to develop a small ache along the right side of my head, probably from holding the constellation spell for so long.

“I think I see shapes in the fog.” He muttered, not taking his eyes off the bog. I couldn’t blame him. The entire time we had been travelling, the sun seemed duller and the hairs on the back of my neck had been standing straight up. Like we were being watched.

“It’s just your mind playing tricks on you. We’ll be fine. Besides, we have four mages in the convoy. We can blast straight through those ghosts, or whatever they are.” I said with a reassuring smile. “I just wish I could do something about this drizzling rain.” I muttered. The cold was already seeping in, and I didn’t want to spare the magic to create an umbrella.

Chris remained silent, well silent ish. He was still mumbling under his breath, but it wasn’t directed at me so I ignored it. Instead I tried to formulate a game plan for when the specters arrived. Back on Earth there were a few ways to get rid of spirits, but how well would they work? If it were just a house, we could smudge the area with sage. Looking out across the bog that stretched for an unknown distance, I didn’t really think that would work. You would need a hell of a lot of sage. Earth magic could produce pure salt, which was supposed to work incredibly well against anything evil. Since it was abundant, summoning salt wasn’t very mana intensive.

But something Bribis had said was niggling at the back of my mind. Why had nobody gotten any experience for it? Either they weren’t killing things, or they were simply destroying puppets. I was going to go with the latter as the explanation, since running several campaigns had to have killed something if there were something to kill. So I also needed have a plan for destroying magical puppets. Of course, the first instinct would be to use shadow mana to drain the magic from them. That could work, or it could backfire spectacularly. Would shadow mana help or hinder a puppet created in a vast wasteland of alchemical reactions and the blood of shadow creatures, Greater and lesser. Best keep it in reserve unless a prime opportunity presents itself, one with next to no danger.

I was still stuck on destroying a magical construct. I guess that meant iron was going to have to be my go to. Folklore back home had it as a defense against many magic creatures, even ghosts. Why else would they ring cemeteries in wrought iron? The only problem was how to deliver it. It wasn’t going to be slowed down any by a non-corporeal entity, so it has to do all of its damage on the first run through. That meant as wide of a surface area as possible. Flechettes came to mind, so I spent a bit of mana making one.

Unfortunately, it took a bit of concentration. Even a small, dart shaped bit of iron took ten mana to create, and about five seconds in the actual creation. That just wasn’t going to be practical. My lovely vision of a blunderbuss firing a cone of flechettes into the enemy ranks was doomed to failure before I even began. Each shot would take several hundred mana in just the iron formation, coupled with a bit to create an air pressure high enough to launch them would mean I had less attacks with it than I did with my solar sphere.

“Wait a second.” I muttered to myself, ignoring the odd look from Chris. Spheres were among the simplest of shapes to create, in fact mana almost defaulted to a sphere on its own. So I made a small iron sphere, and was thrilled with the results. Three mana was all it took, and it formed in a single second. Now this was something I could work with!

“Hey Chris, do you know how long it will take us to get around this bog?”

“I don’t know.” He said. “Normally it is at least a three-day trip. It definitely won’t-“

“STOP!” I interrupted him. “Best not to tempt fate. Thanks.” I said. I turned to look at the bog, when the cart lurched to a stop.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Sean.” Shaking my head, I blinked a few times to get my bearings.

“Ugh, what in the world was-“ I started, freezing when that voice penetrated. “Danielle?”

“Hey sweetie.”

“PAPA! PAPA!” I couldn’t believe it. Just as beautiful as when I left, Danielle was standing there holding Isabelle. Simple jeans and a powder blue t-shirt, I smiled as I saw Isabelle had a handful of Danielle’s curly hair wrapped around one of her hands. We were standing on a beach, though the waves behind the girls were barely large enough to be called waves.

“Hey there.” I said, nervously. “Sorry I look a mess. Not many showers around.”

“Papa! You didn’t say hi to me!” Isabelle pouted.

“Hey there sweetheart!” I said, looking straight into her eyes. As soon as she had my attention, she lit me up with one of her electric smiles. “I’ve missed you, ya know?”

“Missed us? We’ve only been shopping for half a day.” She said, looking adorably confused. “I tried to tell Momma to hurry, but she didn’t wanna.”

“Shhhh.” Danielle said, giving her forehead a kiss. “We can’t tell papa where we were shopping, or he will know what gift we got him.” Isabelle’s eyes got wide as she turned to her mom, covering her mouth with her hands.

“You got me a gift? I can’t wait to see it!” I said, getting excited. I smiled at them, but something seemed weird. Why hadn’t they gotten any closer? I tried moving, but my legs were too heavy.

“Seeeeaaaaannnn.” I heard a pained groan coming from the side, and I turned to see who would interrupt my reunion.

“Janie?” I asked, finally putting a name to the girl we had left back at Three Rivers. “What is this?” This was too weird. She was half formed out of water, bits breaking off and wavering as she struggled against something.

“Itttsssss faaaaakkkkeee.” She moaned, growling as she tried to solidify. Her head gained a bit of definition, but the rest started losing. “Not. Long. Left.” She struggled to get out. “Fake. Hero. Tricked. Sacrificed. Me. Raise. Bog.” She managed to get out, just before her head was dragged back into the water and dissipated. While she was speaking, I caught a flash of pure rage cross Danielle’s face.

“What’s she talking about?” I asked, though my mind was clearing. Seeing Janie had brought back my memory, and I knew what was happening.

“What was who talking about?” Danielle asked, looking confused.

“Hehe, papa’s got an invisible friend!” Isabelle cried, clapping happily. I smiled, taking a deep breath as my heart broke at what I was about to do. In front of me, a small mana construct formed. A curved rectangle, as wide as my chest but only a few inches deep. Inside were as many springs formed of mana as I could create, compressed as tightly as possible by a solid wall of mana. In front of that was an array of iron spheres pressed against a thin wall of mana, barely strong enough to hold back the springs. Guiding walls of mana limited the field of fire to roughly sixty degrees in front of me.

“Thank you.” I said, tears dropping from my eyes. “For letting me hear their voices one last time. As payment, I promise you this. I will forgive this one trespass into their memories. Forgive you for this one horrible thing I am about to do. I won’t hunt my way into the middle of this bog, and end you permanently. Try this again, and the gloves are off. I don’t care how long it takes, or what I have to do. If I have to reduce this entire bog into a null zone with no mana, I will spend countless resources to make it happen. I will kill you, and somehow find a way to make sure that you don’t enter the reincarnation cycle this world believes in. Should I not have a way to do that, I will shred your soul so thoroughly that it will take an eternity to put it back together. Now, get out of my sight.” Growling out the last words, I let the mana wall holding everything back shatter.

The results were spectacular. Like the claymore mine that the spell was based on, iron spheres rocketed forward in a field of destruction. Everywhere they touched, the sands of the beach, the waters behind them, or even the facsimiles of my family, ripped apart.

“KIIIAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” Agonized wails assaulted my ears, as my wife and daughter transformed into hideous creatures with holes through them. The holes were lined with flames that were rapidly expanding, and the illusion I was under shattered to reveal a convoy under siege.

Elendria had summoned an ice wall that was holding steady, for now. Carrigan was sending small fireballs above the wall, piercing through dense clouds of fog that were constantly changing shape. We were still moving forward, but at a substantially slower pace. Looking up, I saw I had dropped our travelling constellation, but that wasn’t going to help much. Bribis was having problems up ahead, trying to keep our momentum going forward with a makeshift plow knocking back half formed bodies.

“Poor souls of the restless dead, deprived the wheel of reincarnation. Behold in the sky, the symbol of the lives denied you emblazoned upon the coffin that should hold your earthly remains. Death’s Embrace!”

Death’s Embrace Activated!

The undead fear and crave the symbol of future lives denied them by foul magics. All damage done by your party to undead increased by 50% while under this effect.

Mana cost: 50/minute

Effective mana regeneration rate: -26.31 per minute

“I’m on my way Bribis!” I shouted, leaping over the side of the wagon and darting forward to the lead carriage. I sent out a few magic missiles imbued with light to disperse some of the ethereal enemies, before climbing up next to the wagonmaster. “I’ll blast apart their bodies, take full advantage and get up to speed as quick as you can!” I shouted, forming another of my claymore mines on top of Bribis’ earth wedge.

“What about the specters?” Bribis shouted, but I was too busy. The spell formed just as fast, but I tripled the amount of iron projectiles. It was just at the limit of my ability, and I angled it so that it was firing just below horizontal.

“GAH!” I cried out, losing a bit of my balance as the spell released, ripping through the bodies with devastating effect. What I really hoped was simply oversaturated black, mucky earth exploded outward as the nearest bodies disintegrated under the assault. The spell was strong enough to clear a semicircle thirty feet long in front of the oxen, which took immediate advantage and lurched forward at maximum speed. Bribis grabbed the back of my shirt, and with a surprisingly powerful tug saved me from falling forward and getting run over by the cart. Instead, I flipped backwards into the back of the wagon.

“Ow.” I muttered, rubbing the back of my head. I was down to about half of my mana, but I put up our traveling buff. Losing 40 mana per minute was sustainable for now, especially with the threats looming. “Keep going Bribis! I’ll get the specters now.” I shouted, turning and starting to thin the enemies down. Elendria had apparently seen me moving to the head of the convoy, and was helping Carrigan keep them at bay. With the three of us working together, we managed to clear the threat in a few minutes.

“Dropping the undead damage constellation.” I warned Bribis before drinking my first mana potion. “And help me keep track. Had to drink the first potion.”

“That’s fine.” He said. “how long can you keep up the travel buff?”

“As long as my concentration holds out. My regen is down to three mana per minute though.”

“That’s fine.” He said with a sigh. “What happened back there?”

“Sorry. As soon as we stopped, I was dragged into an illusion.” I explained. It seemed that the bog had limited resources, and we had successfully avoided the trap. For now. “I’ll explain it all on the other side.”

“Fair enough.” He said, patting the arm of the wagonmaster. He slowed the beast down to a slightly fast trot, giving a shrill whistle over his shoulder. I guess that would be important in a world without brake lights. “I never thought they would be able to block the road.” I heard Bribis mutter as I sat down to get what relaxation I could. Though my nerves were still jittery, I would need to conserve what I could. What we just went through would no doubt be the first of many parts where we were forced to sprint a bit, but this race was more of a marathon. Pacing ourselves would be the key to winning.