Leveling up the World

As the sun set, complete calm fell upon the village. Unlike towns and cities, nighttime was the point at which everything pretty much stopped. Only a handful of guards were still awake, keeping an eye out for creatures or provincial messengers. The villagers had no illusions that they couldn’t stop any advancing army, especially one coming from abroad. Whispers of war and tensions between Countess Priscord and the Archduke had made many quite tense. Despite saying, and often believing, that nothing interesting happened in the middle of nowhere, there were some who still remembered the wars of succession forty years ago. The situation had been similar back then, causing many small towns and villages to be completely cut off from the rest of the province. There were no merchants, no travelers, even monks from the Order rarely made any visits.

Sitting in front of his house, Havoc looked at the night stars, sipping a cup of boiled alcohol. One could say it was an acquired taste—one that an outcast was forced to get used to.

“I knew you’d come back,” the large man said. “It was just a matter of time.”

A figure appeared a few steps away. A faint trail of dust in the air indicated that he had run to the spot faster that the common eye could see.

“Didn’t think you’d be so open about it. Even after dark, people can hear.”

“Even if they see me, they’ll soon forget,” Dallion said.

“Are the guards alright?”

“I didn’t fight them. They let me in.”

The truth was that Dallion had used his music skills to let down their guards enough so he could invade their realms and place a limiting echo there. The echoes would only remain until he got far enough from the village, after which they would destroy themselves. Until then, though, they would limit all the people’s memories of Dallion. Even now, they had become convinced that an animal had made its way to the village gate, then walked away without even entering. By tomorrow, they would have forgotten even that.

“Will you let me finish this?” Havoc asked, holding his drink.

Dallion nodded.

The large man shook his head with a quiet laugh, then gulped down what was left and placed the cup on the ground.

“Let’s go.” He stood up and entered the house. Dallion followed.

“Who really de-leveled you?”

“The Order are the only ones who could. Didn’t I tell you already?”

“That was before I figured it out. Now we can have a real conversation. It wasn’t just the Academy that sent you. The countess was involved as well, and so was the Star.” Dallion said the word slowly, making sure that Havoc understood the meaning behind his reasoning. “You were to capture the aetherbird and bring it to the…” Dallion paused. “The countess, I believe.”

Havoc remained silent.

“It’s my guess she initially wanted to use it to become a mage. Being crafty, she knew that the other partners in the deal would be against it. The Academy needed the skill gem so they could study and potentially recreate it. The Star, on his part, only wanted to make sure that the aetherbird remained imprisoned. That’s what happens if you keep it in its gem, right?”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“I might be talking crap.” Dallion made his way to the nearest chair and sat down. “Maybe the deal was nothing like this, but the players were the same. Something on the way messed up. You had a change of heart.”

Havoc made his way to the nearby shelf and took a large bottle. The strong stench of alcohol filled the room as he removed the cork.

“I’d say it was Eury’s mentor. I’ve no idea whether he shared it with the rest of you, or decided on the spur of the moment. Bottom line, he got the skill gem and the rest of you let him have it. Suggesting he failed was a nice touch.”

“Did I do that?”

You might as well have. “After using the information and the devices you got, he probably gave you a feather or two to buy your silence, then had someone go explain the failure to the countess. I think that was you.”

“Why not just go himself?”

“A few days ago, I thought he had. Not anymore, though. When I tried to do the same, the countess snuffed me out. She must have some artifact that senses magic.”

Havoc turned pale. Almost dropping the bottle, he stepped back against the wall, terrified of what Dallion had just told him. The fear was emanating from him to the point that it was more noticeable than the smell of alcohol.

“No,” the large man whispered. “You can’t have it…”

“Is that so strange? Your friend succeeded, why shouldn’t I?” Dallion leaned back in his chair. “Or was he supposed to fail?”

A brief burst of regret told him that had indeed been the case.

“I won’t kill you, Havoc. Not unless you give me a pretext to. It’s thanks to you I managed to surprise that first hunt. After this, my debt is paid.”

Splitting, Dallion drew his harpsisword, slashing the air currents Havoc had surrounded himself with. None of those instances became reality, but the warning was clear: Dallion wouldn’t have any problems facing Havoc should it come to a fight. What was more, Havoc knew it as well.

“What did the Star promise you?” Dallion asked.

“I… What makes you think that?”

“You’re the only one of the group who’s alive. The Star told me he hunted down and killed off the rest. It didn’t feel like a lie. You were easy to find, which means he never intended to kill you.”

“If you know that, you have your answer.”

“All the rest would have made the same offer, yet they still died. You knew something they didn’t. What was it? Was it the location of the gem?”

Relief emanated from Havoc. That wasn’t the answer.

“How to find it?” Dallion narrowed his eyes.

“It was that he had it in the first place!” Havoc shouted. “He let it slip. I pretended not to know, but I knew. When he vanished for a while after the mission, I knew he had gone off to hide it. I never asked him, didn’t go searching for it, I didn’t even talk about it, but I still knew. When the Star came to me, I was delevelled. What can a level three do against the Crippled? I had to tell him.”

Probably he was right. There was nothing to be gained from keeping quiet. It would be impossible for the Star to find the gem by that information alone, so the Star never tried. Having the aetherbird effectively banished from the world was almost as good as holding it captive. If faced with a similar choice, Dallion had no idea what he’d do. It was easy to claim he’d resist at any cost, but he suspected it wouldn’t be true.

“Did he visit you after I was here?” Dallion slid a finger along the table, then looked at it, as if checking for dust.

“I only saw him once.”

“Why did you think I’ll return?”

“Because you’d have figured it out.” Shaking, Havoc took a gulp from his bottle. The alcohol seemed to do little to calm his nerves. “I messed up when I told you that we gave a handful of feathers to the mages. Anything less than one is impossible. I thought you’d come back to ask me that. I didn’t think you’d actually succeed in…” he looked around, “In capturing it.”

“Weren’t you told how to do it?”

“Oh, we were. The mages were very specific. The only way to capture the phoenix was to invade its realm. We were even given the devices to do so. The problems started when we entered the realm. It wasn’t the first time we were sent to fight mages, but fighting that… we failed. One of us even died.”

That’s how he did it, Dallion said to himself. He made use of the aetherbird’s afterimage to trick everyone into thinking they had failed. Clever. However, that suggested that he was given some additional piece of equipment. Dallion’s level was close to that of the hunter’s and he had only managed to achieve victory thanks to the Star, also taking part in the fight.

“It was later that he slipped up,” Havoc continued. “Said it was a mistake to ever complete that mission. He should have said “accepted,” instead.”

“You came to the conclusion just because of that?”

“No. It was him asking about it the next morning that gave me the idea. He asked if I remembered anything from our conversation. When I told him I was drunk and didn’t remember much, he was relieved.”

“Lucky you.”

There was probably more to the story, but Dallion wasn’t interested. If Eury were here, things would be different. There was no telling how she’d react learning Havoc had brought to the death of her mentor.

“Where did he hide it?” Havoc asked.

“In the realm of an unawakened child.”

“I don’t understand…”

“We’re not friends, Havoc. I don’t owe you a thing. I’m here to learn the Star’s location.”

All remaining blood was drained from the large man’s face. If he looked pale before, now he’d become outright sickly.

“I told you, I only saw him once. I’m not lying.”

“I know you’re not. In fact, I’ve been using my music skills to make sure that you wouldn’t. I know that someone like you would move mountains to figure out where to stay away from. That was the reason you wanted me to break your limits so you could get as far from here as possible. I know the Star isn’t in the fallen south, so where is he?”

Droplets of sweat covered the man’s face. Within him, an invisible battle was raging. If he were to provide the information and Dallion failed, the Star would come back and Havoc would rejoin the rest of his team. However, it was beyond a mid-level awakened to go against the emotions Dallion had been infusing him with at every word. The guilt within Havoc had grown so much that he wanted to let it all out.

“East,” he finally said. “That’s where the cultists keep going.”

“The cultists go everywhere. Why are you—”

“There are no cities to the east. If they were simply hiding there, the Order would have sent a few armies and wiped them out, but each time they did, the armies were annihilated.”

Is that true, Nil?

You’re asking highly theoretical questions. It’s possible, although I’d venture the Star is in the fallen South. What better place to reminisce about the past?

Nil…

Yes, I suppose it’s possible. The Academy has been told not to venture there. To be honest, I’m surprised the enclave you went to was allowed to exist at all.

So, that’s it.

There are hundreds of places mages are discouraged from going. The east is one of them, the south is another.

“That’s not enough to be sure. He could be in the west.”

There had been small instances of the poison plague on the west, far from the rest of the civilized world. It was just as possible that the rogue mage to have gone there to test his creation.”

“The Star warned me not to go there.”

That came as a slight shock. Dallion remained calm for a few moments, then slowly took a few steps towards Havoc.

“When he told me he’d spare my life, he warned me never to go east.”

That changed things. The “east” was a pretty big concept. Whole provinces of the empire stretched there, places Dallion hadn’t even visited. However, for the Star to give the warning, it had to be a place that Havoc was able to realistically reach.

“Anything else that slipped your mind?”

“That’s it.”

Dallion stared at the man for a while longer, then went to the door.

“We’ll never meet again, Havoc. Just in case you’re wondering, when I face the Star, I’ll tell him you showed me where to find him. Keep that in mind in case you think of somehow warning him. Win or lose, the Star doesn’t like being betrayed. You, of all people, should know that.”

“You’ve changed.” Havoc whispered as Dallion opened the door. “You haven’t just become stronger, you’ve become heartless as well.”

“Everyone in the wilderness becomes heartless.”

“Not like you.”

For a moment, the prophecy of the hunter dwarf went through Dallion’s mind. What if it really was him who’d bring the end of the world; not through helping the Star of the phoenix, but because of what he’d become? In order to defeat a monster, he himself had turned into one. The big question was, would he be able to turn back?