timewalk

  Malika

  Malika pushed open the well-oiled doors to Thuli’s fe and took a moment to adjust to the noise a before stepping inside. Her business in town sisted of selling the mountain of essehat had been filling her rings to Weldin and dropping off some of the hellfire essences and the abyssal brimstoar with Morwynne Fizzlebang for evaluation at her alchemy shop. But after she had taken care of all that, she had found Sabri waiting for her so that they could go to the bcksmith together – ohing had led to another, and their small group had grown to include Mato and Havok.

  “I ’t eveify you,” Sabri said, eyeing the Goblin padin.

  “Havok strong. Twenty-two,” he answered with a firm nod and stepped across the threshold into the din.

  “You’ll get there, Sabri,” Mato said, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

  “Greetings,” Kavé said, gng up from where she sat wiping oil onto a pair of delicate-looking swords with a well-used rag. “This one will let the master know you are waiting.” She slipped bato the din of the fe where, presumably, Thuli was w industriously to create the noise.

  “How’s she doing?” Malika whispered. Ali would certainly want to know.

  “Level twenty-four, now,” Mato said, smiling.

  Malika surveyed the antechamber of the fe, studying the many shining pieces on dispy. Few, if any, would be of use to someone like her, but she couldn’t help grinning at Sabri’s obvious excitement as she dragged Havok over to examihe shields. Not that the little holy Goblin needed any encement, his jaw was literally hanging open at the dispy of exquisitely crafted defensive equipment – a stark trast to his worn and battered gear.

  “Hey, hey,” Thuli said, voiing through the room as he entered with a big smile. “Wele back, what I do for you all today? Oh! Rift Warden! There’s a fancy Title!”

  The dwarf’s stamina circuted smoothly through his muscles using a teique that was surprisingly simir to what Rezan had been teag her.

  “Hi, Thuli,” Malika said. “We wao…” but she was interrupted by an ear Goblin.

  “Havok need shield. But…” he gnced mournfully at some of the dispy items, “not have lot gold.” He pulled out a shield that had deep scratches and notches in it, so bad that it looked like it was about to fall apart.

  “Aye, fiere. That ya do.” Thuli picked up the shield, exami with a critical eye, and then tossed it into a trash bin behind him. “Scrap.”

  Havok’s eyes widened as they followed his shield flying into the bin.

  “Kavé, why don’t ya see what you hammer together for Mr. Havok here? You’ve reached a high enough level to make him something good, now. And it looks like young Sabri could use some upgrades, too. gratutions on reag level nine, ss.”

  “Thanks, sir!” Sabri said.

  “Yes, Master,” Kavé said, almost simultaneously.

  “What did I tell ya about that master twaddle?”

  “Yes, M… aah, Thuli.” It was clear that Kavé was surprised, but extremely happy to be given another er by the master smith and she quickly drew the two of them off to the side to discuss what they needed.

  Thuli chuckled and turned back to them. “Kavé is about ta surpass every apprentice smith in Myrin’s Keep, and I ’t wait ta see the faces of their masters when it happens. Now, what I do for you two? Do ya need an upgrade on your bear pte?”

  “That would be great,” Mato said. “We just got a bunch of levels retly and something more advanced would definitely help.”

  “Something to do with yer shiitles?” Thuli asked knowingly.

  Mato shifted unfortably.

  “Yes, something like that,” Malika said. Beating about the bush wasn’t going to ge things, and they he smith’s expertise if they were going to get stronger. She quickly retrieved the k of Abyssal Bloodstone Ali made from her ring and showed the darkly gleaming blem to the heavy-set Dwarf. “I was w if this might help – Ali said it’s a form of magicite.”

  “By Thovir’s beard! Where did ya get that!” Thuli excimed, his voice ringing through the smithy, causing the others to stop and stare for a moment before returning to their pnning.

  “We entered an abyssal rift down in the fire dungeohe a fe. This was growing on the walls in the cave oher side.”

  “Does that mean ya get more?” Thuli asked, his voice hushed in stark trast to his earlier outburst, spicuously ign the circumstances of their finding it.

  “Probably,” Malika answered. But it wouldn’t be because they could go bad mi – although she didn’t o tell him that. By tacit agreement, they seldom mentioned which of the exceptionally valuable materials Ali could actually just make. It would probably be a disaster for the ey a in people pestering her for materials. All Thuli really o know was that there could be more if he found a use for it.

  “I do so much with su advanced material, but I’d o employ a jeweler to cut it properly. Nothing I could make would require such a big k. But I think I might be able ta vihat Giddy Clicksprocket ss to do it for cheap, she’d love the opportunity to work with such a high-level material,” he looked at her, his eyes specutive. “I’m not sure I afford to buy this ht, though, but I could split it with you and make him an upgrade for his bear armor as part of the payment.”

  “That sounds great,” Malika agreed, watg him store the egg-sized jewel as soon as she agreed. I bet we’ll see Giddy Clicksprocket at the guild store pestering Weldin for some of this bloodstone before evening, she thought – she had personally witnessed just how persistent that Gnomish jeweler could be.

  While Mato discussed the specifics of his armor with Thuli, Malika watched Kavé work the fe. She had her hands elbow-deep in a crucible of molten steel and she was maniputing aruding ptes of the stuff from it using what had to be her steel-shaping skill. Stamina flickered and ed through her body and out from her hands into the steel. Sabri looked on, openly awestruck as the dragonkin hahe molten steel like a baker rolling dough, all the while Havok kept up aed, mostly one-sided versation with the two of them.

  Malika watched fasated for about half an hour while Kavé worked her skills and craft, surprisingly using stamina-based skills almost as often as mana, as seen by the intricate flow of energy through her Soul Sight. Mato and Thuli eventually joined her, around when she quehe steel and finally put everything together.

  “Yours will take a couple of days ta fe,” Thuli told Mato while helping tweak the fit for Sabri’s new breastpte and adjusting the straps for Havok’s shieel shield. Both seemed overjoyed with their purchases aled up quickly with the dragonkin apprentice.

  “Ok, not a problem,” Mato said, g hands with the dwarven smith with a momentous sp that echoed throughout the fe.

  Men… Malika thought, rolling her eyes. She was, however, extremely eager to see what Thuli was able to fashion for Mato with the bloodstone. She didn’t know any specifics, only that Appraise called it exceptional, and rare – and that it could help enhance certain entments. If Thuli could do something good with it, she would o let Ali know to make a few pieces to sell to the guild store – they were ly running out of money, but they were always in the market food new equipment, and who knew what Giddy Clicksprocket might make if she could get her hands on some of the bloodstone. As long as people didn’t ask too many questions about where it came from. It was called ‘abyssal’ after all, and ah an advanced Appraisal skill would be able to see the Demonibsp;trait.

  “Oh, before ya go, Mr. Havok, take this,” Thuli said, reag into a bin arieving a pin but sturdy shortsword and handing it to him. “Ya need somethier to go with that shiny new shield o’ yours.”

  Havok stared at the sword and then g the dwarven smith, momentarily nonplussed. “No gold,” he said, turning his tattered money pouside out to demonstrate. A pinch of dust and half a dead moth fell out.

  “Take it,” Thuli insisted. “On the house. It was just gathering dust in that bihere. Just bring your business back to our shop when ya grow outta it.”

  “Ok!” Havok decred, his eyes lighting up and accepting the gift.

  “Where to ?” Mato asked.

  “Back to the guild to drop these two off, and we have a lesson with Mieriel in an hour,” Malika said, holding back a grimace.

  “ht,” the Beastkin said, nodding his head with a suddenly serious look in his eyes.

  Malika left it unsaid, but it was time to pick the Sun Elf’s brains for the best mind magic defeeiques.

  Aliandra

  Ali snapped her head up from her studies as the electrum-inid locus at the bottom of the library atrium surged with mana. Visitors? Intruders? It hadn’t even been half a day yet and already her runic teleportation circles eg the library to the guild were getting their first use.

  Easy, Ali. It’s probably just a few of the novices ing to check it out. She slipped her mind into one of the minions she had left to keep watch over the locus at the base of the Elder Tree. Oh, it’s Vivian… and Mieriel? Vivian was staring at the barrier across the entrao the jungle, where the rift break had finally been halted. As the drago’s eyes flickered across the locus, Ali froze.

  T over the human and the elf were three wiry trolls. Fnked by his two aides, the elder troll in the ter stood easily two and a half meters tall – he wore a, flowing silk robe of the deepest purple and a look that said he owhe pce. His sky-blue skin was adorned with ritualistic sigils and runes, delicately rendered in snow-white aint that matched his shock of spiky white hair. Ali was no expert in troll culture, but even she could tell the ceremonial tusk braiding was overly ornate. Visitors of importance.

  It took several minutes for the party to asd the stairwell, a even that wasn’t suffit time to still her rag heart. They climbed in plete silence, giving Ali ample opportunity to observe how deferentially even Vivian acted around them. An aura of intense cold billowed off the rgest troll, leaving frost riming the stairs as they passed, but his aura was shot through with eddies and swirls of violet mana that reminded Ali of Ryn.

  “What is it, Ali?” Ryn whispered, clearly reag to her body nguage.

  “Trolls!” Ali whispered back, scrambling to her feet.

  As soon as they stepped onto the uppermost nding, Ali identified the party and gasped inwardly at their levels.

  Mage [Seer of Divergent Paths] – Troll – level ??? (Ice, Divination)Mage – Troll – level ?? (Ice)Warrior – Troll – level ?? (Ice)Warrior – Human – level ???Spy – Sun Elf – level 52 (Mind)

  “Aliandra, you have visitors,” Vivian said, her voial and stilted. “This is…”

  “Tol’zerath!” Ryn excimed with a gasp and immediately bowed low.

  For a moment, Ali froze. A Tol? Here? How does Ryn know him? But her experieh visitiurers from the troll kingdoms took over and she bowed low enough to match Ryn.

  “Tol’zerath is pleased to be received with appropriate respect, even out here in the human nds,” one of the attendant trolls said, her voice husky and pompous even through the heavily ated on. “You may rise.”

  Ali lifted her head in time to see the rgest troll fix her with an icy gre. “Enough. That elvish whelp informed me that you have the Lich’s book. You will give it to me. Now.” His voice crackled and snapped like a grinding gcier while his mana fred around him, filling the air with a biting chill.

  Not again…

  Ali took a deep breath, ready to defy trollish royalty, but her impending impertinence was snuffed before she could even voice it.

  “Tol’zerath,” Lira said, her voice filling the room with resonand the sudde of pine and wildflowers that somehow pushed the frost back. She said a few harsh words that seemed to stagger the big troll, guttural utterahat sounded impossible falling from the dryad’s lips. Then she switched bamon, and added, “So nice of you to visit. Look at how big you’ve grown.”

  She just treated him like a toddler! Ali stifled the surprised chuckle that threateo burst from her lips at the look of pure shod startlement upon the wizeroll’s face.

  “Great Mother of the Deep Woods,” he said, f a spihat ainfully unaced to geion into the sembnce of a bow of respect.

  “That won’t be necessary, child. I was just telling dear Aliandra here that we don’t get enough visitors,” Lira said. “e, sit. I will make us tea.”

  As Lira turoward the kettle, her faentarily cealed from the visitors, she gave Ali a wink. Suddenly, all the tension she was holding faded and Ali stepped up to usher her guests to appropriate pces at the table. She wields that tea like a deadly on. I o learn a few of her tricks, and maybe an imprint for different teas?

  Lira distributed the small steaming por cups and then sat beside the Tol and pced a hand on his arm. “So, to what do we owe the honor of your visit?”

  The big troll cleared his throat awkwardly aracted his mana as he reached for the teacup. “Nathaniel Sunstrider has a copy of the Blind Lich’s book. Acc to him, the inal is here. I have had a vision of dire import. The fate of the troll kingdoms may hinge on what is in that book. You must let me have it.”

  “Why didn’t you read his copy?” Ali blurted out, before even sidering who she eaking to.

  The two troll attendants gasped, but Tol’zerath silehem with a gesture. “That elf’s fate is shrouded from me. I do not trust him. The portents that surround him are obscured by something…”

  “… something dark, like writhing tendrils of eldritch mana that seem to be feeding upon him?” Ali asked. The image she had seen was unfettable.

  “How did you…” Tol’zerath began, his eyes dartiween her and Ryn who sat nearby. “You do not possess the sight.”

  She could not suppress a shudder. So, he saw it too. “No, not with her magic,” Ali answered, guessing what was on his mind. It had not been a divination, at least that she was aware of. “I saw him when I used my spell.”

  The troll collected himself with a deep breath. “Tell me, how is it that he has the book, then?”

  “I copied it for him,” Ali said softly, “in exge for him allowio y mother’s book.” She reached over and tapped ce’s cover where he sat quietly, resting oable.

  “Then you must trade with me,” Tol’zerath decred. “What I offer is of far more value than anything that self-important elf gave you – the purity of trollish magic has never been surpassed by anything produced by the lesser races.”

  Not likely, old troll, Ali thought. Matg her mother’s work would be impossible, even for the vaunted reputation of the trolls. However, she stopped short of saying anything as he summoned a meticulously crafted book bound in purple-tanned leather of a texture and lighthat made Ali hesitant to ask where it came from. Yet, despite his arrogaion of trollish superiority, his manner seemed surprisingly tentative as he pced the tome oable beside ce. The words on the cover were written in a script she could not uand.

  “Tol’zerath is the realm’s foremost visionary on the subject of divination,” Lira said, surprisingly iing herself into the discussiht at that moment. “The reputation of any library would be greatly enhanced by boasting his work.”

  “Exactly,” Tol’zerath said, drawing himself up to his full height while his mana flickered along the backs of his hands and across his shoulders, leaving a brief dusting of snow to float down to the table. “My work on divination is groundbreaking, and there are few left alive who even prehend its significe.”

  Should I? I afford to let him see my Grimoire? Ali studied the powerful troll sitting across the table from her, masking her scrutiny uhe guise of sidering his words. Despite his arrogant superiority – or perhaps because of it – she found herself more ined to trust him. Besides, I already showed this ability to Nathaniel Sunstrider.

  “Very well, you have a deal,” Ali said, and choosing to follow Lira’s lead, she fttered the troll leader further by adding, “But I will owe you a favor for yreat generosity.”

  By the grin that creased his leathery face, she knew she had chosen her words well.

  Ali g Ryn, but her friend’s eyes were glued to the divination tome like it was the only thing in the room. I’m going to have to learn to read and write Trollish soon. Ryn will need a transtion, Ali thought as she listeo Lira and Vivian quiz Tol’zerath about his vision and the implications for the Troll kingdoms. It didn’t take long for her to duplicate Nevyn Eld’s book again, but Tol’zerath’s tome had to be copied by imagining the words to be pictures – a far more difficult uaking, and one she would not have been capable of till retly.

  “Oh!” Ryn excimed as soon as the duplicated divination tome appeared, and Ali could instantly tell she had leveled up. Twice!

  ----------

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