Delve

Rain shifted from foot to foot anxiously, watching Emerton soaring overhead. The Aeromancer was using a linen wingsuit, having gotten the initial elevation through skyfalling with Jamus’s assistance. Air Manipulation gave him some measure of control above and beyond what he had through aerodynamics, but it was far from full flight. For that, he’d need the wings Staavo was still tinkering with—or a higher level, of course. With just the wingsuit, he would be coming down eventually; it was only a matter of how fast. That wasn’t the source of Rain’s anxiety.

If I can see him, so can Three Cliffs.

They were close now, camped at the edge of what was clearly a tree farm. The trunks were aligned in even rows, and the soil was a far cry from the dust beneath their feet only meters away. Likely as not, magic had been involved in reclaiming arable land from the salt flats, but that didn’t matter now. What mattered was what had happened to the city. Three days ago, when they’d been only halfway across the plain, a cloud of smoke had appeared on the horizon.

“I still think you should have gone up this time,” Rain whispered, turning his head so Ameliah could hear him. The two of them were standing with Vanna, Samson, and Tarny at the edge of the trees. Subtlety had been parked nearby, the wagon train extending out behind it into the flats, bustling with activity.

“I can’t do everything,” Ameliah whispered back softly. “Emerton can do this, so he should. You have to let them leave the nest, Rain.”

“And if he gets shot down?” Rain countered, lowering his tone further as Vanna glanced at him.

“By who?” Ameliah asked, arching an eyebrow.

“The Empire, obviously,” he hissed. “Maybe they didn’t pursue us because they knew they wouldn’t have to.”

“If they captured the city, we’d already know,” Ameliah said. “They’d have seen us coming. And besides, how would they have even gotten here?”

Rain looked at her, not doing a good job of hiding his anxiety. “Maybe they learned to make ships like the Bank’s. Or maybe they captured one or something. You don’t know. And if they saw us, so what? Who’s to say they’re not just biding their time?”

Ameliah rapped him between the eyes with the tip of her bow, surprising him out of his agitation. “All the more reason for me to stay right here with you, dummy. Relax.”

Rain shook his head, about to say he was trying when a gust of wind made him look up. Seconds later, Emerton touched down, his boots landing smartly on the hard dirt. He stumbled slightly, but it was practically graceful in comparison to one of Rain’s landings.

“Well, it wasn’t just a fire,” Emerton said, working his jaw as he raised the brass goggles from his eyes. He gestured to the spyglass strapped to his belt, safe in its case. “This thing is amazing, especially with the acc—“ He coughed, catching himself, then clearing his throat. “Anyway, I’ll give them back later. I might go up again to get another look, but there was definitely a battle.”

“Survivors?” Samson asked.

Emerton nodded, and Rain breathed a sigh of relief. “Hundreds, but they were like ants from up there, even through the telescope.”

“And the city itself?” Vanna asked. “Are there ships docked?”

“The city is…well, it varies,” Emerton said, rolling a shoulder as best he could with the linen flap of his wingsuit restricting the motion. “It has three tiers, built on shelves carved into the cliff face. That’s why I couldn’t see it from where we stopped yesterday. Bad angle. Anyway, the damage is worst on the lowest tier. It looks like it got flattened by a giant, then set on fire. Not a single building left standing. As for ships, same story. Nothing floating in the harbor except splinters and barrels.”

“Fuck,” Vanna cursed, looking over Rain’s shoulder at the bustling caravan.

“That’s what I said,” Emerton replied. “The second tier of the city’s in better shape than the harbor. It’s only partially burned down. You can see where the Fireballs hit, coming in from the ocean. It’s all wooden buildings on that level. They must have had some way to stop the fire from spreading beyond just the reservoir I saw, or it’d all be ash, just like the harbor. The third-tier buildings are mostly stone. Their noble district, I expect. It seems more or less untouched, other than what must have been the stairs to get up here to the top of the cliff proper. The stone is all scorched where they were. Whoever did this went out of their way to stop anyone from escaping.”

“How big of a city are we talking about here, anyway?” Tarny asked.

Emerton glanced at him. “The second tier is probably as big as Vestvall on its own, and the harbor would have been twice that size if there was anything left. The third tier’s small by comparison.

Rain frowned. “What about on our level?”

Emerton shook his head. “There’s a big lumber yard there, but that’s it. I didn’t see anyone around. If there are any people up here, they probably saw our dust and are hiding under cover.”

Rain nodded, taking a moment to digest. He looked up as Vanna caught his attention. She glanced again at the company behind him, then spoke in a low voice. “What now?”

Rain chewed his lip, still thinking. His tension had faded, and he was quickly transitioning into problem-solving mode. He kept his voice low to match Vanna’s as he thought aloud. “Well, if it was the Empire, they didn’t stick around. Their ships would still be in the harbor if they were here.”

Samson shook his head. “No one has ever sailed up that coast, Rain. There isn’t a safe channel past the badlands, and if the Adamants had ships that could brave deep water, they’d never have bothered marching overland to Fel Sadanis in the first place. No, I would wager this was a squabble between the pirate factions.”

“What about Lightbreaker and his army?” Tarny asked. “Could they have come this way and burned the harbor?”

“Maybe,” Samson said, flexing his hand on the hilt of his sword as he thought. “I can’t see a reason for them to do that, though. Plus, the damage Emerton described isn’t consistent. Another theory: maybe a Citizen finally got fed up with pirates raiding their shipping lanes and decided to do something about it. More than a few use fire. Then again, the city’s still mostly standing, so maybe not.”

“We need to know more,” Rain said, scratching at his beard. He let his hand fall, decision made. “I’m going down.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Vanna asked. “Couldn’t Ameliah go?”

“I should stay here to protect the company,” Ameliah said, shaking her head.

“And I don’t want to risk anyone else,” Rain said, continuing where she left off. “I’ll be fine. I have to leave the nest sometime.”

Ameliah smirked.

Vanna nodded, smiling as well. “Take a team with you, at least. I’ll get everyone else set up here for the night.” She shook her head. “What are we going to do about ships, though?”

Rain gestured at the trees. “We’ll build them.”

“And food?” Tarny asked. “I can’t cover everyone with Fall, and it wouldn’t be enough if I could. We can’t rely on buying supplies from the city. They have their own mouths to feed, and with the damage, they might even be worse off than we are.”

“We’ll fish,” Rain said, turning to face him. “The ocean to the south is supposed to be teeming with monsters, isn’t it? How many people do you think a Leviathan would feed?”

Ameliah laughed. “Rain. I know you’re joking, but come on, at least try to keep it reasonable. With this bow, maybe, maybe I could take down a whale, but a Leviathan’s completely out of the question.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “What do you mean, maybe? One of your arrows would literally blow one to pieces. They’re big, yeah, but they’re just animals. As much as I wouldn’t want to suggest hunting—”

Ameliah interrupted him. “They’re not.”

“Huh?” He tilted his head, looking at her.

“They’re not animals,” she clarified.

Rain blinked. “Wait, what do you think a whale is?”

“What do YOU think a whale is?” Vanna asked. She and everyone else were staring at Rain like he’d grown a second head.

Rain furrowed his brows. Clearly, something’s gone wrong in translation. If whales are ‘Whales,’ then what the hell are Leviathans?

Looking up, he waved his hands, shelving the question for later. “Never mind, not important.” He shook himself, stiffening his spine. “Right. Time to say hello.”

The high collar of Rain’s new white linen greatcoat flapped in the wind as he plummeted down the cliff face, his speed only somewhat moderated by Levitation. The fabric mostly hid his armor, belted shut at the waist with a sword belt that was entirely for show. The hem hung all the way to his ankles, where he’d clamped it between his feet to avoid a Marilyn Monroe situation. Beside him, Jamus was employing a similar technique to keep his orange robe under control, and at Rain’s other elbow, Nails had no such issues. He was wearing a stiff Emouile leather jacket, paired with canvas trousers that wouldn’t have looked out of place back when he’d been nothing more than a farmhand.

The idea was for them to look like adventurers, nothing more, nothing less. In two out of three cases, it was even true, with Rain and Jamus openly wearing their bronze Guild plates for the first time in months. With a sword at his waist and what little of his armor that was visible enchanted to look like steel, Rain would seem to be a high-bronze warrior. Jamus was obviously a mage, and there was no hiding it. Nails, though, would likely be taken for a Rogue of some description, not a Mentalist. He’d even borrowed a few nasty-looking daggers from Telen and strapped them to his belt to sell the illusion.

“Here we go!” Jamus called over the wind as they neared the ground, and Rain braced himself for the impact. Force Ward was already active just in case someone lost control over Levitation at the last moment. They’d chosen to descend quickly to avoid getting blown off course. Even as swiftly as they’d fallen, they’d drifted apart considerably. The last thing Rain wanted was to make his entrance by crashing through someone’s roof.

Rain released the hem of his cloak before impact, and his boots struck the cobblestones with a solid clang. He bent his knees, absorbing his remaining momentum without so much as a stumble.

Nailed it.

Straightening, he resettled his collar while checking on Jamus and Nails, who’d landed much more quietly thanks to a lack of metallic footwear. A quick glance at his HUD told him that nobody had needed Force Ward’s protection, but he left it running, as he planned to do for the foreseeable future.

The square they’d chosen as their target had seemed deserted from above, but as a Prismatic-Intent-enabled pulse of Detection informed him, they weren’t entirely alone. There were people in the buildings, and as Rain scanned the windows, he saw a man’s face appear only to vanish again with a startled expression. A moment later, a pair of hands reached out through the window, pulling the wooden shutters closed.

As Nails and Jamus walked back over to join him, Rain felt a hand clap itself on his shoulder from behind. He didn’t outwardly react, and a moment later, the hand was removed. Val would meet them back here in three hours, as per the plan. Unlike the others, he was dressed as a commoner, not that anyone could see him at the moment. Where Rain’s party would contact the locals directly to gather information, Val would come at the task sideways.

Rain had toyed with the idea of making the entire descent under inverted Detection, but ultimately decided that it would have made things worse, not better. Anyone strong enough to threaten them would also likely have enough Arcane resistance to negate the effect. Besides, the aura only worked on those in range. Their fall would have been visible from all across the city, so it was only a matter of time until someone came to investigate.

The trouble was that they didn’t know how strong or how friendly that welcoming committee would be. Rain had thus elected to keep the first contact delegation small. He wasn’t confident in his ability to protect a large group, and Ameliah was back at the camp, protecting everyone else. If they got in trouble, they’d need to handle it on their own, or at least hold out until she could respond to Nails’s Message.

“Look there,” Jamus suddenly said, catching Rain’s attention as he pointed, “A body.”

Rain cursed, seeing what Jamus had indicated. A man was crumpled face-down on the ground at the mouth of an alley, shaded by the overhang of the buildings on either side. Rain rushed forward, a quick pulse of Detection confirming that there was a point to haste. “Not a body,” he called, his eyes latched onto a smear that he was increasingly sure was blood. “Come on.”

Rain didn’t need to see the suspected wound to know that the man was in a bad way. The smell was enough. The whole city reeked of smoke, salt, and spoiled fish, but that charming bouquet was swiftly overridden by one of blood, vomit, and shit. The man moaned as Rain’s loud footsteps reached him, trying to crawl away, but the moan then became a choked cry of pain as his arms gave out on him. He collapsed, coughing and whimpering in agony.

Anger flared in Rain’s heart. The blood crusting the man’s shirt and the cobblestones was mostly dry, so he’d been here for a while.

Was he stabbed? Filth, why is he out here? Did nobody even try to help him?!

“Oh my,” Jamus said, crinkling up his nose as he peered over Rain’s shoulder. “Potion?”

“Fast,” Rain replied, sinking to one knee as he activated Purify. He’d been planning to avoid using flashy magic, but this was too much. He couldn’t sit idly by.

The man spasmed as the white light washed over him, and Rain quickly took the offered bottle from Jamus, holding it to the injured man’s lips. “Drink.”

Obviously in agony and delirious with fever, the man tried to turn away, but Rain’s grip around his jaw was like iron as he poured the crimson liquid into his mouth. The man spluttered, trying to spit it out, but Rain didn’t relent until the need for air forced the man to swallow.

The change was almost immediate. Like a veil lifted, the haze of delirium vanished from the man’s face, leaving first confusion, then surprise. He gasped, struggling against Rain’s grip with returned strength. “Ah!”

Rain released his grip and let Purify fade, standing as the man scrambled back. “Stay calm,” he said, his voice echoing from within his helmet.

This didn’t seem to help.

The man let out a startled yelp as his crablike flight sent him bumping into the back wall of the alley, which seemed to be a dead end. “A—Adventurer! I— Wait, I…”

The man paused, then looked down and gasped, panicking again as he scrambled at his stomach with frantic hands. His fingers found a thin hole in his tunic, then froze in wonder.

Rain grimaced. Clearly, the man had been stabbed in the gut, but the only remaining evidence of it was the sliced fabric. It was a long moment before he looked back up, and it took longer still for him to speak. “I died. I’m dead, aren’t I? This is a dream.”

“You aren’t dead,” Rain said, having waited patiently. He took a careful step into the alley and was relieved when the man didn’t immediately cry out in fear. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut, his lips moving.

Counting?

Reaching three, the man opened his eyes. “You’re still there…”

Rain smiled and extended a hand, “Here, let me help you up.”

“Stay—Stay back!” the man shouted, pressing himself against the wall and kicking with his legs to keep Rain away from him.

“Easy,” Rain said, retracting the hand. “We’re here to help.”

“Adventurers don’t help,” the man muttered, glaring at Rain suspiciously for a long moment before he began patting at his trousers. “Especially ones that look like you. What’s with the helmet? Afraid to show your face?” He let his hands fall with a defeated sigh, having inverted his pockets and found them empty. “Shit.”

“Robbed, clearly,” Jamus observed. “And left to die.”

“Salted fish guts!” the man spluttered, only now seeming to spot Jamus standing there. He pressed himself against the wall again. “Where’d you come from?! Gods, you’re orange!”

Rain grinned, holding up the empty potion bottle. “Take a minute and think. If we wanted to hurt you, we wouldn’t have fed you a potion. We just want to help and to ask what happened to the city. We just came in from a mission on the flats, and we were a bit surprised to see the damage, to say the least.”

Every word, true.

The man blinked, then licked his lips. He blinked again. “I—“

Whatever he had been going to say was cut off by a booming shout from back in the square.

“COME OUT AND FACE DEATH, ADAMANT BASTARDS!”

Rain whirled. Out in the light of the square stood a man in full plate, more like Carten’s than his own. Unlike Carten, this man’s armor was painted garishly in red and yellow. He held a surprisingly-normal-sized longsword in a two-handed grip over his head. He had no helmet, with only a stubbly beard to protect his wide-jawed face. That marked him as an idiot. The silver Guild plate dangling from around his neck, however, marked him as something else entirely.

Hurriedly, Rain stepped forward before the man could shout again, placing himself in front of Nails, who’d lingered at the mouth of the alley. He let the empty potion bottle fall from his grip, spreading his palms to show that he was unarmed. “Hello, we’re—“

“Awwww, shit,” the man interrupted with a resigned sigh as he let his sword fall from its guard. “Just a pack of bronzies.” He turned, muttering loudly to himself as he began walking away. “I thought when I saw…never mind. Fuck.”

Rain shared a glance with Jamus. Jamus shrugged. Rain then looked at Nails briefly before loudly clearing his throat. “Um, excuse me.”

The silverplate ignored him, still walking away and muttering, swishing his naked sword around at invisible targets as he worked out what was quite clearly a number of issues.

“Hey!” Rain shouted, and the man stopped at last, turning to face him.

“What?” he demanded. “No, before you ask, I won’t train you.”

“Why did you think we might be Adamants?” Rain asked, cutting straight to the question he needed answered the most.

“What kind of a dumbass question is that?” The silverplate asked, sheathing his sword with contemptuous force. “’Cause there’s fuckin’ Adamants around, bird skull. I wouldn’t be out hunting em otherwise, would I? No, I don’t know where specifically, and if I did, I wouldn’t bloody tell you. Not that you’d have a chance at stealing a bounty from me. You’d just get yourselves killed, like as not.” He jabbed a thumb at his chest. “You find out where one’s hiding, you come find me, got it?”

“And you are…?” Jamus asked.

The man recoiled as if slapped. He huffed in offended disbelief, not once, but three times, each exclamation more vigorous than the last. “Unbelievable!” he finally said, turning and marching away.

Rain reached out, grasping at the air. “Wait, I just have one more qu—“

“Fuck off!” The man roared, then vanished behind a building as he left the square.

Rain let his arm fall and turned back to his companions. He opened his mouth to say something, then paused. The formerly-injured man was still there. He’d gotten to his feet but was still trapped in the alley behind Jamus and Nails.

Seeing that he had Rain’s attention, the man cleared his throat. “Thanks for saving me, I guess. Not to be ungrateful, but can I go, or…?”

Rain just stared.

What the HELLS is wrong with this town?