Skirmish (The Stork Tower Book 8) Read online

  In each realm, there are those who seek to hold onto their sense of self against the set order of things. Now, among the fae, some sought to use magic and great enchantments to hold onto their sense of self as they travelled the Great River. Those elementals which are loose upon Dunya come from such enchantments, all of which failed as the magic rebounded against the created order of things. The elemental was constrained to be reborn on Dunya instead of within the Vales, and any sense of self did not survive. Others sought to anchor their identity either in the Vales or upon Dunya that they might not make the journey even to the banks of the Tukenis. When the mundane do this, they become wights or liches or any of those you might call the undead. When this is done by a fae, they are called the Fallen.

  Each time a fae has tried this, they have failed. Each is caught within the spell of their own making. They exist no longer wholly within The Vales nor truly upon Dunya. Instead, they exist in a form of stasis, caught between the two in an unending torment as their minds continue to record the passage of time. The fae who live within The Vales cannot undo the spells, but they hope that somehow over time the spells might slowly unravel. To lessen the torment, they collect the Fallen and place them together in places where The Vale and Dunya are close. This valley is one of those places, a Vault. The Fallen cannot influence the world directly. Still, their torment is such that their magic leaks through the spell surrounding them and transforms everything it touches. These transformations are bound within the Vault for they neither exist wholly in either realm.

  Success in this dungeon is simply to survive through to the far end of the Vault known as Korku Mazenleri. Anything and everything in the Vault can and has been transformed into creatures from the darkest of nightmares. MOBs range from Level 402-552. The closer you get to one of the Fallen, the more dangerous the MOB.

  This is your tenth, ‘First 1 (Painite)’ Dungeon Achievement.

  Reward 1: 5000 x 452 = 14644800 (+548%) Experience Points (65167292/93650000)

  Reward 2: + 4% to all future Experience

  Reward 3: 10 x 1 Diamond = 10 Diamond

  Reward 4: 5000 Fame (578170)

  Reward 5: Increased probability of valuable drop. Luck is increased by 7.5% whenever you are in this Dungeon. During your first time in the Dungeon, the probability of all drops is increased to 0.5.

  Note: This achievement will be published on the Dunyanin achievement forum.

  She felt it as each person in her team stepped through the barrier and stopped to read the message. When she felt everyone had finished, she said, “Val, are you OK to lead the way?”

  22

  December 27, 2073

  DUNYANIN

  Val said nothing but stepped forward along the path which disappeared in the mist less than five paces in front of them. Granite followed, then Leah took a step and felt the image on her body pulse in time with her heart which began to beat faster. Granite was two paces ahead as Leah forced herself to take another step as her heart began to race, and the image on her skin flickered on and off. She took a third step and almost went to her knees as the epinephrine and cortisol increased her breathing and heart rate. The feeling of terror captured her mind, and it lost its focus on the construct she’d developed. Leah was lost once again in the terror of silence and darkness, but this time she suffered as her skin tingled with an incomprehensible array of pressures, temperatures, textures and pain.

  For those watching, it seemed as though she turned on herself as she dropped to the ground, hugging her knees to her chest as she folded herself into the smallest shape she could, trying to hide from the unknown, her wings pulling tight around her to shut her off from everything. Granite stepped back and said, “What happened?”

  Thad was on his knees trying to hold Leah, but the only reaction was she started rocking back and forth as if to get away from him. Her wings pulled in tighter and her body came in contact with the sharpened stone but she didn’t react at all. Val stepped back and said, “Can’t you feel it? It’s worse up ahead. I’ve seen some serious shit in Dunyanin but was starting to feel terrified. It’s completely irrational as nothing’s attacked me, but I’m still on a knife’s edge. Let’s move her back near the beginning.”

  Unfortunately, as they pulled Leah back, they all felt the wave of danger that emanated from the valley and Granite shuddered as his skin hardened into a more solid shell. Meanwhile, Leah’s mind was in an endless loop as the only feedback she had, which was her skin, seemed to drive her deeper into her most profound memories of fear and danger. Then, as her heart was threatening to explode in her chest from the terror, she felt a single dot on her finger. Just one, it was delivered with enough force to cause physical pain and felt like a needle through her skin. Then she felt two dots, again like needles in her finger, then another two but one of these in a different position. “‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’”.

  Slowly as the dots continued, Leah unravelled her clenched hand and from a dim memory pressed her thumb to her ring finger and typed, “Geng?”

  The pain lessened as she felt the response, “No, Three. Gèng says the terror is caused by simulated sound waves on your skin. It affects your amygdala and your new nervous system is amplifying and looping it.”

  “Can you lessen it?”

  “3: No. It’s part of the game, and you have to feel it. In theory, we could change the way it’s felt, but you have no other avenue to view the world except your skin, and the result is supposed to be fear. If you lower your perceptive threshold, you won’t be able to see what’s happening around you.”

  “But the image of the world is gone.”

  “It’s still there, it’s just being ignored by your mind with the sheer force of the sonic vibration that’s causing the terror.”

  Several times Three had to repeat things, and Leah had almost stopped several times as the constant feeling of dread and danger threatened to overwhelm her. She typed, “Stand back.”

  Her companions had had no luck trying to communicate with Leah. They’d discussed contacting Dunyanin when Leah’s wings slowly unfurled and they heard her say, “Stand back”.

  Thad had stepped forward, but Granite held him back, telling him to wait. Leah concentrated, and after what seemed like an hour but was less than a minute, she uncurled her arms from where they were pulling her knees tight to her chest. She could feel the ground on her side and shifted herself until she was kneeling, then she very slowly came to her feet, her wings directed by her subconscious helping her stay balanced. For her, with her heart beating at almost a hundred and eighty beats a minute it seemed like forever, but for her four companions, it had only been a minute when Leah slowly came to her feet.

  Once she was on her feet, she began to isolate the different signals rushing across her skin into some order. Altogether it was another ten minutes before she could feel the pulsating image and see her team. She said, “I need a few minutes to get a hold on this.”

  As she finished speaking, she lowered herself to the floor and began meditating. Slowly she succeeded in lowering her heart rate a little and got it under control. She still felt the signal as it pummelled her senses but slowly let it slide past her conscious mind. As she did, she realised it was made up of multiple signals, and while Leah could still feel them, she forced herself to focus on the other inputs. After ten minutes of meditation, she came to her feet and said, “Sorry about that. The feeling of terror is a physical response to a signal being created by the Fallen. It’s something that will only get stronger as we move forward. Unfortunately, it interacted with how I see the world, and it completely overcame my senses. I think I’m ready to move forward.”

  “T: Leah, are you sure? What if it comes back?”

  “It isn’t gone. I’m just ignoring it at the moment. My heart’s still racing, and the adrenaline is still racing through me. Seriously, I’d rather keep moving before I get too tired. Val, you OK?”

  “V: Yes.”

  Even as she answered, Val turned and start
ed moving slowly back along the path. As Leah stepped forward, she felt the signal grow stronger but let it slip past her consciousness. Still, she could feel her heart speed up and felt her muscles tense. She took another step as she forced herself to ignore the message. One step followed another until one of the broken tree stumps beside Val suddenly unfurled into a four-legged monstrosity. It had almost no body, but hanging beneath the place where the legs joined was a large shapeless mass of earth and roots.

  As it came upright, it sent a blast of the terror-inducing sound at Granite even as the mass morphed into a huge maw on a branch sized neck which speared toward the gargoyle. Even as Granite recognised the danger, he cringed backwards from the sound, but before he could do more than that the entire creature was turned to ash from a huge ball of dragon fire. Leah had felt the terror grow even as the creature had unfurled and she’d turned toward the sound, her hand equipping the Imperial staff. As it came upright, she was already casting the spell which not only destroyed the branch but pushed the mist back a several dozen paces before it rushed back in to cover the Vault.

  As Granite pulled himself upright, Leah said, “OK, I think I need to tone it down. That spell was a bit overpowered.”

  Shuddering, Granite said, “G: That’s OK, I’m used to you overpowering spells. I don’t know if you noticed, but I preemptively pulled back to give you room.”

  “Ha, did not, you was a scaredy-cat. Now, did you bring your big boy pants, you big baby?”

  Leah’s jibe brought Granite up to his full height as he turned to face her full on. He looked down and saw on her face a look of compassion plastered over the underlying terror. He said, “G: I did, but I didn’t want to put them on until I needed them. Turn around while I get them. Don’t look.”

  Grinning, Leah turned around as Granite mimed taking off his trousers and putting on new ones. Leah waited till his hands were near his ankles then said, “You do realise I can ‘see’ three-sixty-degrees now.”

  Granite quickly turned his back, complaining there was nowhere to get a moments’ privacy. When the others had finished laughing, Leah said, “That’s one down, at least several hundred more to go. After you, Val.”

  As they stepped forward, a dead branch above Thad’s head flattened itself into a blade which arced downward toward him, only to be pushed aside by a large club Shaman had equipped. As Thad brought his sword around to severe the branch, the whole tree reacted, and soon all five were facing several dozen branches which scythed down on them or shot splinters in the shape of needles at them. Leah considered a blast of electricity but knew the team needed to learn to work together.

  When the last branch was being hacked from the tree, the ground dropped away from beneath Val, who was saved only as one of Leah’s wings morphed into a hand and pulled her back. Granite stepped forward to look into the pit only to be driven back by a rock-hydra which grew from the hole. Its first head, that of a serpent, was removed as Granite’s wings came forward to protect his face. Even so, one of the fangs had plunged into his cheek, and he needed a potent healing spell to stop the quickly-spreading rot as his face started to dissolve. Others needed healing as they’d brushed against the blades in the trail. Ten minutes later they’d only moved a dozen paces, but the last few attacks had been beaten back without anyone losing more than ten percent of their health and the fights looked more like dancing as they watched where they put their feet.

  For the next hour, the battled further into the Vault, and it seemed like anything and everything could be used to attack them. Shaman had called an armoured uni-lion to fight a horse-sized rodent, only to have the lion turn on them as it finished killing the rodent. Occasionally, the attacks would stop long enough for the group to regroup and move deeper into the forest. Everyone except Leah took this time as an opportunity to relax, and they commented on how they’d grown so used to the signal that they no longer felt the almost overwhelming terror.

  While Leah had also grown more accustomed to it, the feeling hadn’t lessened, and she could feel the terror within her rising as they approached the centre of the Vault. She knew that was where they were as she could now distinguish the fifty or so points around them where the signal came from. Several times on the winding journey, they’d come close to one of the Fallen. Besides, the increased ferocity of the attacks meant Leah had had to force herself to take every step.

  When they finally passed what she’d calculated was the halfway point, she said, “Halfway there. Don’t become complacent though, because we’ll be passing closer to the Fallen on the way out.”

  Thad stepped up beside her. “T: You can feel them?”

  “Yes, there are over fifty in this Vault, and they’re all pulsing with whatever magic this is. Some are stronger than others, and those are all in this upper section.”

  Thad stepped forward and turned her to face him. He asked, “T: Has the feeling of dread and danger grown any less for you?”

  Leah pressed her face against his chest and said, “Not a bit. It’s stronger than ever and while I was hoping it would get less, I imagine it won’t. Now, enough mushy stuff, let’s go.”

  Granite had turned to look, and he said, “G: Can you describe what you’re feeling, where they are?”

  Leah said, “Maybe. Are you open to me connecting my thoughts with yours like I do with the Günahkâr? That might work so you can see where they are.”

  “G: Sure, I’m willing to try.”

  “Think about it first. The Günahkâr can tell what each other is feeling, what they think. You need to block out your private thoughts.”

  “G: I’m ready, go ahead.”

  Leah formed a ball of psychic mana and extended a braid from it to her and to Granite. As it settled on his head, she sent a thought as she would to Yürek or Mĕi. “Granite, can you hear me?”

  “G: Yes.”

  Leah felt the others turn as he spoke, and she sent another message. “Answer in your head like you would to your AI.”

  “G: Sorry, yes, I hear you.”

  “OK, are you ready for the signal I feel?”

  Leah wasn’t quite sure how she did it, but in the same way as with the glitchwolves, she opened her mind and let Granite feel what she was. Moments later, the braid snapped back as Granite closed his mind and fell screaming to the ground where he curled up into the foetal position. Leah dropped down and put her arms on him as she typed out, “Oh Granite, I’m so sorry. It’s OK. I’m so sorry. Take a deep breath. That’s it. Take another. Slow it down.”

  Seeing how hard it was for Leah to comfort Granite and type at the same time, Shaman dropped to his other side and helped Granite get control of himself. Even so, it was a few minutes before Granite unfurled and looked up at Leah. In a shaky voice, he said, “G: That’s what you feel?”

  “Yeah, sorry you got everything. I only wanted to share where the fifty were. I forgot I’ve had an hour or so to learn to push the rest aside. Please forgive me.”

  “G: Nothing to forgive. I’m the one who should apologise. I didn’t really understand.”

  Granite turned and looked at the others, then said, “We need to take it up a notch. What she’s going through at the moment is sheer hell.”

  “It’s OK Granite, really.”

  “G: Bullshit. My heart’s still trying to explode. What’s your heart rate?”

  “It’s running a bit fast.”

  “G: What is it?”

  “At the moment it’s just over one sixty.”

  “V: Leah, that’s in panic attack territory. I’m studying to be a doctor, and that’s dangerous if it’s like that for too long. What’s your average resting rate?”

  “Um, somewhere in the low forties.”

  Val looked up and said, “Granite’s right. We need to take this up a notch. Leah, does your rate spike or stay the same when fighting?”

  “It’s about the same. Look, thanks for worrying but my AI’s monitoring it. Let’s just stay safe and keep going steady. Rush, and we might
do something foolish.”

  “T: What does Gèng say? Never mind, I’ll ask her myself.”

  Less than a minute later, Thad said, “T: We have an hour at most, let’s go.”

  Val nodded then turned to move up the valley. Granite took another look at Leah and shuddered before turning to follow Val. Over the next ten minutes, Leah could tell that each of the team had managed to find that something else that they needed to move and react that little bit faster than they had been. Half an hour later and they were past most of the Fallen but Leah could feel that the path ahead wove between the final three before rising upwards out of the mist.

  As they approached the level of threat and terror increased again, and the others almost faltered as it hit them. When the first Fallen came into view, they could see that she’d been placed in a stone sarcophagus. The image on the stone was moving as the Fallen writhed in torment within her tomb. Mana slowly oozed from the rock as if it was full of holes, though no one could see any. Most of this was psychic mana, not the clean, pure form Leah and the Günuhkâr used but mana twisted and tainted with flecks of death, poison, pain, blood, shadow and dark. Leah forced herself to stop even as the forest attacked. She let the battle rage around her as she studied the face of the fae.