The trowel hit the dirt, and Islwyn bit back a sigh. Yet another day of gardening.

  The afternoon starlight bore down heavily, and with the fruiting trees being grown on the far end of the council garden, there was nothing to provide any shade. Just rows upon rows of freshly tilled off-red dirt and the dozens of workers digging holes to plant the season’s crop in. The noise of the capital surrounded them, blocked off only by ornamental fencing at the garden’s borders. Carriages creaked as they went by and conversations from those on the surrounding streets were occasionally loud enough for him to hear one side of. The garden he’d been working with was rather small, only taking up half of the block which it shared with a few stalls for merchants, but he couldn’t deny the results with what he’d been told the harvests were like here. Stray clouds drifted overhead, but the soil was fairly dry. They’d have to do some watering at the end of the shift.

  The dirt grew into a pile next to the hole with every scoop, ready to fill it back in once he was done. Jellberries were a bit odd in that they grew better when planted deeper into the ground than most plants. It made the process a bit of a pain. Not that much of a pain, just…

  It wasn’t that there was a problem with gardening. Really, he rather enjoyed it. Putting in effort over a period of time and eventually being rewarded with the literal fruits of his labor was nice. His mouth practically watered at the promise of future jellberries. That golden skin, barely keeping the sweet, juicy insides from bursting… Maybe he could even convince Katriona to bake them into a pie, though he’d need to make sure she didn’t do anything strange with it…

  But that was far off. Jellberries didn’t grow overnight, and even if they did, this wasn’t his garden to take from. The council would pay him for his work, sell the garden’s produce, and he’d have to buy it from the market at a markup.

  It was a job.

  Honest work. Respectable even, given how much time he had been putting in at the council gardens. It was just…

  Working as a gardener didn’t exactly compare to where he’d thought his life would be right now.

  Setting a bulb into the freshly dug hole, Islwyn let his free hand wander to his neck, where his necklace hung. The marble was still there, proof that it hadn’t all been in his head. Proof of the lie he’d been sold.

  How long had it been now? A decade and a half? He could no longer recall any of the features that had been hidden beneath that cloak. The words, though, never escaped him. Instead, they haunted him.

  A great hero? Him? What a joke that had turned out to be. The only legends being written about him involved how legendarily mundane his life was.

  “Islwyn!”

  He startled from his daydreaming, sending dirt flying everywhere as he spun to face the voice.

  He died a little inside as complaints from those working around him were hissed his way, but he put those on hold as he responded. “Yes, sir?”

  “If you’re not going to focus on the job, you might as well leave! There’s no sense in paying you if….”

  He couldn’t blame the boss for trailing off like that. Not when the sky was lighting up as if a stray star was barrelling towards them.

  The shadows around them shrank in size, but were cast harsher as a streak of blue sailed through the air at a speed almost unimaginable. The world around them went silent as everyone stopped to stare, broken only by a harsh BOOM that had his ears ringing and his chest aching. There was an explosion in the distance, far enough out that he didn’t think anyone would be caught up in it, and yet close enough that he could see the top end of the resulting fireball from above the treeline.

  It was over almost as soon as it had started, but they all just stared. What had that been? He’d never seen anything like it before.

  The stillness that followed the explosion was broken by a streak of red in the corner of his vision.

  “Create a perimeter! Nothing moves in or out until I’ve investigated!”

  “YES MA’AM!”

  The knights sounded off as they struggled to keep up with their commanding officer. Not that Islwyn could blame them. Even just trying to follow along with his eyes was a struggle with her speed, and he barely glimpsed her vibrant twintails flowing behind her as she disappeared around a street corner.

  Now that was a legend. A far cry from what he had turned out to be.

  “Staring at her slack-jawed isn’t gonna make her go on a date with you, ya know.”

  Islwyn flushed and stuttered, turning on the new voice with his eyes narrowed. “I-I wasn’t staring at her! And don’t push your weird obsession with her onto me!”

  A smug grin laughed down at him. “Ehhh, you may have me there. Really, you’re the weird one for not being obsessed with her!” Any rebuttal Islwyn may have conjured up was pushed to the side as the black haired young man turned towards the garden manager. “Hey, boss man! Mind if I take Islwyn off your hands?”

  The boss smiled wide, his worries forgotten for just a moment. “Bhaltair! Of course you can take him, whatever you want!” His gaze fell back towards the plume of smoke rising up into the sky. “I don’t think anyone is going to get much work done today anyway, not after that.”

  Bhaltair reached down to grab Islwyn’s hand, tugging him up off of his knees. “Great! Thanks again, boss man!” He promptly ignored the way that Islwyn stumbled and yelped, dragging the taller of the two behind him and away from his post. The other workers at the garden had broken out into wide-eyed whispers, and Islwyn hated that he couldn’t tell if they were regarding the huge explosion or Bhaltair gracing them with his presence. There wasn’t an opportunity to find out as he was led out of the gardens and into the streets, obviously following the path the knights had taken.

  Islwyn eventually found his voice again and yanked his hand out of the relatively loose grip. “Dude! You can’t just drag me out of work! I still had a whole row to take care of!”

  Bhaltair didn’t seem to care in the slightest, walking further down the street as he spoke and forcing Islwyn to follow along lest he be left behind. “Relax! It’s fine. Your boss didn’t care, right? And you can’t tell me you were actually going to get anything done after that! I mean, did you see it?! It was amazing!” His ruby red eyes almost sparkled as he recalled the explosion, his shaggy black hair flying around as he threw his head back and arms out to the side. “BOOM! It might have been the loudest thing I’ve ever heard!”

  Islwyn ran a hand through his short blond hair, accepting that work wasn’t a high priority. “Yeah, it sure was something, alright. What do you think it… wait a minute. Why did you really come for me? You’d have to have been at the garden already when… whatever that was came crashing down.”

  “Dunno! Looked pretty interesting though, right?” Bhaltair beamed up at him, blatantly ignoring the later half of his questioning. “Wanna go investigate? We could be some of the first on the scene!”

  Islwyn frowned down at him. “First of all, how do you expect to be the first when the knights are already ahead of you-”

  “I said some of, not the first!” Bhaltair interrupted.

  Rolling his eyes, Islwyn continued. “And secondly, did you not hear when they passed by? They’re setting up a perimeter, no way they’d let you in.”

  The response was a scoff, but the smirk on Bhaltair’s face didn’t fade away for more than a second. “Islwyn, Islwyn, Islwyn. For shame. Don’t you know who you’re talking to?”

  “The biggest pain in my ass around?”

  Bhaltair squawked, playing up a shocked expression. “No! You need to learn some respect, you know that?”

  “I’ll show you some respect when you act respectably.”

  “I’m very respectable!”

  “Bhaltair!” someone yelled from the other side of the street. When the boys looked through the crowds, there was a small group of girls walking in the direction of the gardens, the lot of them giggling to each other as their leader jumped up and waved at them.

  She was short. Islwyn understood that his height was a bit outside the norm, but she seemed to match that energy in the opposite direction, probably not even reaching his chest if they were to stand next to each other. Her bright orange hair was cut above her shoulders, and her golden eyes shone brightly.

  “?sahild! What’s up?” Bhaltair shouted back as he quickly crossed the street.

  The name jogged Islwyn’s memory a bit. She had been a year below them in school, hadn’t she? Or maybe it was two? You’d think that the red skin and the thin, arrow tipped tail snaking out from under her pale blue dress would have made her stick out more, but he always did have trouble telling Wessk apart.

  “Oh, you know, same old same old,” she replied with an exaggerated sigh before she started draping herself on his arm. “Bored out of my mind without you to brighten up my day…” She tilted her head back to look up at his face, fluttering her eyelashes.

  It was almost too awkward to watch.

  “Seriously? How can you be bored after that explosion?! Didn’t you hear it?”

  She blinked slowly before shrinking back, a bit embarrassed. The girls she had been walking with giggled even louder, only shutting up when she shot them a quick glare. “Aha… yeah… I guess you’re right, that was pretty wild…”

  Correction. It was definitely too awkward to watch. Islwyn cringed as Bhaltair pushed straight through what just about anyone could recognize as flirting.

  “Right? Guess you must be really bored if even that didn’t snap you out of it! Unfortunately I can’t help you out with that, I’ve gotta take care of some stuff with my buddy Islwyn! I’ll see you around though!”

  The look that ?sahild leveled at Islwyn sent a shiver down his spine. Had he just managed to make an enemy without saying a word?

  “Islwyn, huh?” She tested his name out as if it were a curse. Her tail curled to point at him like she was about to use it as a weapon to impale him. “I guess I won’t keep you then. See you around, Bhaltair!” The hatred was wiped off her face in an instant as she smiled up at him once more, letting go of his arm and continuing down the street. Her friends followed behind her, giggling even louder and some of them sending pitying looks Islwyn’s way.

  “See?” Bhaltair preened as he started walking down the street again. “She thinks I’m respectable!”

  Islwyn didn’t have it in him to argue that none of the looks the girl had given either of them could reasonably be summed up as “respect”. Nor did he argue that a girl with an obvious crush on Bhaltair wasn’t exactly a good judge of character in the first place. “Fine, sure. You’re very respectable.”

  “I knew you’d come around!” He replied. “But back to what I was saying before you so rudely doubted me,” he ignored another of Islwyn’s eye rolls, “we could definitely get in there and check it out! It didn’t even look like it landed that far from here. Quick adventure! A few hours max!”

  Islwyn sighed. Almost every conversation around them had something to do with the explosion, and Bhaltair wasn’t the only adrenaline junky around. No doubt there’d be a crowd trying to “check it out”, and that would only cause problems. “You really think that the knights are going to let you just stroll right in? We don’t even know what it was, what if it’s dangerous?”

  That gave Bhaltair a bit of pause, and he gave the blond an evaluating look. “Sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone to get results. Nothing is ever perfectly safe. It’s a matter of weighing up risk against reward.”

  He scoffed. “Risk versus reward? What exactly is the reward in this case scenario? Some spirit decides they like how gutsy you are and sticks around for a bit?”

  Bhaltair met his scoff with a wry smile. “You never know! Spirits are fickle things at the best of times, maybe that’s what it takes to really get their attention.” Then, with an almost completely nonsensical topic change, Bhaltair bumped into his shoulder. “So how is the new job treating you? Making lots of friends there?”

  Taking the opportunity to get away from Bhaltair’s insane adventure plans, Islwyn shrugged. “It’s… a job. The pay is decent I guess, but I don’t really see the appeal of working for money when I can live on the council credits perfectly fine.” He’d only taken the position after Bhaltair had practically set the whole thing up for him. Islwyn wasn’t sure what sort of favors had been called in, or if the gardens had really been in need of some extra hands, but it felt rude to complain too much after all the effort Bhaltair had put into it.

  “That’s better than a job you hate! Something to get you out of the house is always a positive, you know?” Bhaltair hesitated before continuing. “...and the friends part? Any nice coworkers? Or maybe cute ones?”

  Islwyn focused on the street ahead of them, preferring that to meeting Bhaltair’s eyes. “...not everyone is like you. People don’t shout for me from across the street. Besides…. I’m not sure that I could handle having to deal with any more if they all end up like you.”

  Bhaltair laughed. “Oh, come on! You know you’d love having two of me around! Plenty of people would!”

  Islwyn had a feeling that ?sahild chick was near the top of that list.

  “Just…” Bhaltair continued, “keep at it for a bit longer, alright? I know it’s not exactly glamorous or anything, but if you still won’t come adventuring with me…” He trailed off, expecting an interruption.

  “I still don’t think resource gathering counts as adventuring, but you’re correct, I’m not interested.”

  “And I’m telling you, it’s not just simple resource gathering. We slay monsters! That’s an adventure! But…” Bhaltair hummed, pausing to think for a moment, though his legs kept moving them further and further from the city center and into the outskirts. The pause in their conversation only made the topic of the ones surrounding them all the more obvious, and it seemed like the closer they got to the edge of the city the more animated people were about what had fallen from the sky. “Look. If you really don’t want anything to do with it all, fine. However,” he stopped walking, forcing Islwyn to stop as well and drag the moron out of the middle of the path, “I will be investigating tonight, once all the hype dies down and the guard on whatever-it-is relaxes a bit. I would very much appreciate it if you joined me. Even if that just means going up to the perimeter, taking a look, and then coming right back.”

  Guilt gnawed at him. His hand idly wandered to his necklace, the cool touch of the marble relaxing him. He really didn’t want to go, but when Bhaltair pulled something like that… “...Fine. But only to the perimeter! Come let me know when you’re ready to head out.”

  Bhaltair fist pumped. “Yes!” His shout drew looks from all over the street. “You won’t regret this, Islwyn. I’ll pick you up later, okay?!”

  With that, he ran off down the street, leaving Islwyn alone.

  Islwyn really needed to learn how to say no to people.

  With nothing better to do now that his friend had taken him off of his shift early and dragged him to some random street, Islwyn began the slow trek home, taking in his surroundings as he went.

  The cobbled streets of the capital had long been worn down smoothly, lined by bluewheat and flowering shrubs on either side. He seemed to have been led into the business district, with small brick or stone-walled shops all around, vines hanging down their sides and trees growing from their rooftops. A baker was hawking his wares from an open window, an upscale tailor was kindly informing a young lady that his wares weren’t covered by council credits, and a smith was working his magic for all to see.

  Literally.

  The man had apparently decided that walls were an unnecessary constraint, leaving everything open to the public eye. His forge was only just far enough from the street that the heat wouldn’t bother passersby, but it sat cold without any fire. The back of the shop held the only “wall” present, and even then it only took up a small section of the space, wooden boards with nails acting as supports to keep various tools in place and easy to access. The front corner of the shop not taken up by the forge featured various completed works, ranging from swords to fencing to cooking utensils, a wide variety showing off his skills. The remainder of the floorspace was a mess of tables holding half completed works, multiple anvils, and tools and machines that Islwyn wasn’t familiar enough with to name. It all seemed a bit cluttered to him, but he wasn’t the professional.

  Islwyn found himself stopping in front of the cold forge, watching the smith wave his glowing hand before the heap of metal that looked to be roughly the right shape for the blade of a longsword. The blade began to glow along with his hand, but with the red hot light of heated metal rather than the shimmering magic of the spirits. It was slow going, an incremental sweep from the tip towards the hilt. Even with magic, proper forging wasn’t something that could be rushed through.

  It was when the smith was almost done with the process that his hand stopped glowing rather suddenly, and a miniscule light floated away from it.

  “No! Blast it, you–! Come back!” The smith cursed and pleaded, his work unfinished, but the spirit drifted away, flying up into the air and out of reach.

  The smith let out a frustrated sigh, setting the partially heated blade down on top of an anvil and wiping the sweat from his brow.

  “Tough luck there.” Islwyn commiserated.

  The smith spared him a glance as he got to work heating up his actual forge. “That it is, young man. Best heating spirit I’ve got my hands on in a long while. Perfect control and temperatures for my work! But I suppose the old sayings exist for a reason, eh?”

  “Only fools expect a blessing to last.”

  “Aye,” the smith nodded sagely before shooting Islwyn a grin. “Too bad we’re all fools!”

  Islwyn laughed along with him, even if he didn’t find it particularly funny. The humor of old people never made much sense to him.

  “It does make ya wonder though,” the old man continued. “When blessings are so fleeting, what’s the point in them? Still have to keep this whole set up going for when there ain’t one around. And it sure as shit don’t compare to the foundry….” He added bitterly.

  Islwyn’s eyes widened in surprise. “You’ve been?”

  The smith nodded. “Aye. A magic of its own, I tell ya…. Ah, but I should be getting back to it. These blades won’t forge themselves.”

  “Right, sorry to bother you.”

  “Think nothing of it! I ain’t gonna complain about someone showing interest in my wares. Better that than more people shouting about the damn explosion.”

  Islwyn continued on his way as the man started to grumble, trying to tune out any further conversation regarding the blast. He had a feeling he’d get more than enough of that once Bhaltair got a hold of him again.

  Instead, he turned his focus to the place that smith had mentioned. “The foundry…?” There it was, off in the distance, towering above the buildings surrounding it at an odd angle. In sharp contrast to the district around it, the foundry almost hurt to look at. The incredibly smooth and reflective surface was sure to shine the star’s light into your eyes regardless of the angle you looked from. The corners were sharp, at perfect angles, and at a few different heights the finest glass around allowed light to reach the inside of the building. It had been a long while since he had dared to touch one of the building’s walls, but he remembered how incredibly cool it was to the touch, even with midday’s starshine beaming down on it. That was all odd enough to draw attention, but the real kicker was the strict guard.

  The foundry, like the few other buildings made of Hensiktium in the capital, was an anomaly. It had been there far longer than anything else, since time immemorial, and yet there were no signs of degradation to be seen. If you weren’t employed there, or part of the council, entry was forbidden. The assumption was that they didn’t want people messing around and damaging something so incredibly ancient, but the council wasn’t exactly forthcoming on their reasoning…

  Islwyn supposed it made sense that a smith might have worked at the foundry in his younger years, but to hear someone so casually mention having been inside… well, it wasn’t exactly something he ran into very often.

  Really the only other people he interacted with at all who made regular use of the eyesores were the knights, but…

  As memories drifted to the surface, of knights and red twintails, Islwyn suddenly felt a lot more eager to get home.

  /~/~/~/

  Islwyn lay slumped back on his couch, staring up at the ceiling. It was an alright ceiling, and an alright couch. He was in an alright room in an alright council apartment. The brick walls did the job to keep the elements out, even if he wished they were a bit thicker so he didn’t have to hear his neighbors in the late hours of the night. The apartment was big enough to be liveable, but having only a bedroom and bathroom sectioned off with proper doors, leaving the kitchen and living room as one big, or not so big, really, open space didn’t really allow for much more than very basic living.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  It was all just… acceptable.

  Nothing about it was particularly good, but when all of your needs are met passively, can you really complain? He’d heard stories of years long past, when people supposedly had to struggle and work themselves to the bone just to scrape by for this much. Destroying themselves for what he was just given. He had no right to be unhappy when he was so fortunate.

  But he was. Or… maybe unhappy wasn’t the right phrasing.

  “I just don’t see the point.” He admitted to no one with a sigh.

  Forcing himself to sit up, he reached to the short table before him, picking up a small bag filled with coins. Rifling through them, he tallied up the total in his head.

  “With this much… I could buy a nice shirt? Or maybe get a plant to take care of all for myself…”

  That could be nice. He did enjoy gardening after all, and if he got his own plants growing then he wouldn’t even have to worry about paying for fruits not covered by council credits.

  “But is that really worth having a job for?”

  Tossing the bag back onto the table, he leaned back into the couch and stared at nothing for a bit.

  “I shouldn’t have let Bhaltair drag me from work. I’d at least have something to do if I was still at the gardens…”

  Forcing himself to stand, he made his way to the restroom, stopping in front of the sink and splashing himself with some cold water,leaning down so he could look at himself in the mirror.

  “Ugh, I had this dirt on me the whole time?! Why didn’t that bastard say something?!”

  Scrubbing the dirt away, Islwyn took a moment to really inspect himself. Dull blue eyes stared back. His face was angular, and bordering on gaunt. Short blond hair framed his face, with his pointed ears jutting out into the air.

  His eyes drifted down, catching on his necklace. That marble. That damn marble, and the broken promises it held.

  “...liar.”

  He forced himself to move on, to the blue shirt that was also stained with dirt.

  “Great, I’ll need to wash this too…. Though if Bhaltair is going to drag me out then I guess it can-”

  A knock on the door interrupted him.

  Speak his name, and he shall appear, it would seem.

  Quickly making his way over and throwing the door open, he made sure to give his best disappointed look. “About time you got here, you– oh. You’re not…”

  It was definitely not Bhaltair staring back at him.

  Instead of round ruby red irises, they were slitted emerald greens, barely open and weighed down by exhaustion. Shaggy black hair was replaced with well kept white, contrasting heavily with her haggard expression, hanging down to about the elbows with pointed ears much like his own poking out of the sides of it. Though perhaps more notable was the blue skin and thick, slowly tapering tail hanging out from beneath a white tunic, slowly wagging back and forth.

  He quietly made note of the fact that she was quite… chesty as well, putting effort into maintaining eye contact.

  Luckily for Islwyn, she appeared to be just as confused as he felt, biting her lip and scrunching her eyebrows for a moment. “Excuse me, is this the residence of…” she looked down at some notes in her hand, “a Miss ?ydís Karlsdotter?”

  “...and who’s asking?” Islwyn replied. Good looks or not, he wasn’t going to give out information to some stranger.

  “Ah! My apologies.” Her cheeks blushed purple. “I’m Eydís Vindheim with the council medical office, I’m here for a home visit?”

  That… sounded legit. Her name was vaguely familiar as well… probably one of Bhaltair’s million acquaintances.

  “...you’ve got the wrong door. ?ydís is two to the right of me.” He gestured towards it with his thumb.

  Eydís looked down at the note again, and then to his apartment number, before her blush deepened. “...so it would seem.” She coughed into her hand awkwardly. “I’m terribly sorry for bothering you sir, have a good night.”

  “You too?” Islwyn halfheartedly added as he watched her walk away.

  “You know, your favorite knight will be jealous if she sees you watching Eydís like that.”

  Islwyn’s hand shot to his chest as he leapt back, half a step away from a heart attack. “Will you stop doing that?!”

  Bhaltair grinned as he peeked his head around the doorway. “Where’s the fun in that? I’m training your situational awareness and I get to tease you! Still though, Eydís? I didn’t realize you had a thing for Veska girls…”

  Islwyn glared at him. “You’re insufferable. You can go adventuring on your own.” He slammed the door in Bhaltair’s face.

  “Wha–” his friend’s voice was muffled through the door. “Come on man, it was just a joke!”

  /~/~/~/

  The star was barely peeking over the horizon as Islwyn and Bhaltair left the safety of the capital and trekked into the forest, its final light of the day spearing through the gaps in the canopy and leaving the ground a mess of harsh contrasts between deep shadow and illuminated foliage. The sound of their steps on fallen leaves was a constant companion, keeping silence at bay, only broken by occasional distant chirping and gurgling and howling of wildlife.

  Bhaltair held a sword in hand, looking as comfortable and confident as ever while he led the way.

  Islwyn also possessed a sword, but his was still sheathed at his hip, his right hand resting warily on the pommel. “You know I barely know how to use this thing, right?” He asked once again.

  He couldn’t see Bhaltair’s face, but he knew that his friend was rolling his eyes. “All that time spent watching the knights and you expect me to believe you haven’t picked up anything?”

  He grimaced. “It sounds weird and creepy when you say it like that, and there’s a big difference between watching the knights train and having actual experience.”

  Bhaltair turned to give him an annoyed look. “I’m the frontline. I’ll handle any monsters. You shouldn’t have to worry about a thing, giving you a sword is just to help my peace of mind.” Looking forward once more, he continued. “Better to have a weapon you’re vaguely familiar with than none at all if something slips by me.”

  Islwyn felt a little tension leave his body. “I guess that makes sense.”

  “Though… I guess if you’re feeling that bad about a sword, we could try to find a spirit while we walk?”

  He scanned the forest around them, spotting one or two tiny motes of light in the distance. Perhaps more were hidden behind a tree, but even then… “You really think we’ll just stumble across one suitable for combat?”

  Bhaltair shrugged. “You never know! No two spirits are the same after all, could very well be that the next one along the path is capable of raising mountains.”

  Islwyn gave the back of Bhaltair’s head a dubious look. “And have you ever seen someone raise a mountain? Because I’ve not noticed any new ones around.”

  Bhaltair shrugged. “I guess it was more like a large hill than a mountain…”

  “Large enough to be compared to one in the first place?”

  “Well it crushed the draignos well enough, so I was impressed.”

  Islwyn blinked. “Crushed?”

  “Yep!” Bhaltair waved his sword around dramatically. “You shoulda seen it! One minute the damn thing is swooping down for us, next thing I know there’s a giant heap of rock falling down on it!”

  That still sounded like an exaggeration, but Bhaltair wasn’t the type to outright lie. Still though, even if the truth was watered down a bit, “Who managed to pull that off? Takes more than just the right spirit.”

  Bhaltair snorted. “Who do you think?”

  He probably should have expected that answer. “How did you manage to get a knight to join you on one of your little adventures, let alone her of all people?”

  “Ah, well… it wasn’t so much that she joined us, more… saved our asses when we were running back to the capital screaming…”

  Bhaltair at least had the sense to be embarrassed about it.

  “...and yet here you are telling me that we’ll be safe with just you?”

  “Of course! We’re not planning on investigating a draignos nest, so that’s not a worry.”

  “A nes- were you trying to steal its eggs?!”

  Bhaltair ignored the question as he came to a stop. “Oh, look! A conveniently timed distraction!”

  Islwyn rolled his eyes. “Don’t give me that. You’re not getting out of it that… wow. That’s… are they normally this big?”

  If Bhaltair hadn’t said something, Islwyn likely would have kept on walking.

  He would have died.

  The dirt and leaves and tree trunks before them were all a bit soggy. A thin film clinging to them, covering a roughly circular area about three times as wide as Islwyn was tall. Thin strings of the slime stretched between tree trunks in a few places, only visible thanks to the setting star’s light hitting them at just the right angle.

  “Definitely above average…” Bhaltair muttered as he looked around, eyes settling on a long stick that he picked up.

  Islwyn quickly stepped back. “Are you insane?! Don’t set it off!”

  “I do this all the time, relax!” He reached out with the stick, careful not to let any part of his body move above the ooze as he tried to hit the taught strings. One snapped under the stick’s weight, and he kept on swinging.

  “How can I relax when you’re trying to get us killed?!” He gripped his necklace tightly, hoping it would instill some sliver of bravery into him.

  Another snap had Islwyn backing up even further.

  “We’ll be fine! Isn’t it better to set it off anyway? Save someone else from stumbling into it for a-”

  A third string snapped, and the area in front of them exploded with slime. In less time than it took Islwyn to blink, the film covering everything jumped up off of its resting place, pulling in on itself and flying up into the canopy.

  Now hanging from the branches, an oozing, dripping mess swung back and forth, slowly coming to a stop. The stick that it had swallowed up was no longer visible.

  If either of them had walked on through, snapping those strings with their bodies, it would have surrounded them completely, suffocating them with the snot-like substance, and then slowly dissolved their bodies over a period of days. The stickiness of the slime made it all but impossible to get out once you hand sprung the trap.

  Bhaltair turned to him with a grin. “See? Told you we’d be fine.”

  “I hate you.”

  /~/~/~/

  Night had settled in, the sky illuminated only by the smattering of far off stars.

  Much to Islwyn’s relief, Bhaltair hadn’t set off any more magl slymes. They had, however, reached something that made him just as worried.

  Crouched down in some foliage, the two of them looked out to the sight of the impact.

  Trees had been toppled, splintered, and utterly smashed , leaving a gaping hole in the forest about the size of two blocks in length and a single block wide. The charred trunks at the edges of the forest hinted at a fire, but it must have been put out long ago by now. The object had burrowed into a crater, partially burying itself and sending dirt all over. The knights they had seen earlier, or more likely a second group given how long it’d been at this point, had the area cordoned off. The vast majority of them were at the boundary of the clearing, some looking inwards, most looking outwards, likely watching for any curious monsters. Well, except for the small handful off to the left that were telling off some civilians who seemed to have the same idea as Bhaltair. They were too far away to be heard, but their gestures seemed pretty heated on both sides.

  But of course, most of his attention fell to the object itself. It was… smaller than he expected, given the light show and size of the explosion. About the size of his apartment, or at least the parts of it that he could see. It was a bit hard to discern without the glare of the starlight, but the surface looked remarkably similar to Hensiktium, which raised all sorts of questions. A rectangular, boxy shape with chamfered edges, some sort of design he couldn’t make heads nor tails of was carved into it. For a moment, he thought that the carvings shimmered briefly, but that had to be a trick of the late starlight. That sort of shimmer came off of the caster of magic, and he highly doubted that a giant metal… whatever-this-is was capable of such things. An… almost bowl-like shape was stuck to the top of it, made out of a darker material he didn’t recognize at all. It was like someone had taken a cone of the darker material and impaled the Hensiktium box, but without doing any real damage to the structure. It was entirely different to anything he’d seen before, and yet remarkably simple, but not in a way that seemed natural. If someone had told him that the object was hand carved, he would believe them easily, but what sense did that make for something that fell from the sky? It’s not like it had been summoned with magic, right? At the very least, he had never seen magic capable of making something quite like this.

  Several knights were standing around it, hands on their swords or taking notes as they inspected the thing.

  The whole thing made Islwyn uncomfortable, leaving him toying with his necklace nervously, but Bhaltair was watching with wide, excited eyes, whispering his every thought.

  “What do you think it is? That looks like Hensiktium, right? Do you think the buildings in the capital also fell out of the sky? No, wait, that doesn’t make sense…. Still, though, it’s super weird, isn’t it? What’s that bowl thing? It looks manmade, doesn’t it?”

  Islwyn didn’t answer a single question, his eyes locked on the object and a bit too nervous to look away. He watched as the knights started to circle around it, taking interest in the side they couldn’t see. One warily stepped closer to it, and then out of view completely. After a moment, there was some excited shouting and the rest walked out of sight as well.

  “They must have found something!” Bhaltair whisper-hissed excitedly.

  The civilian group arguing with the knights on the perimeter picked up on that, renewing their attempts to get past, requiring some of the knights to assist in keeping them back. The perimeter to Islwyn and Bhaltair’s right weakened with the reduced manpower.

  Bhaltair’s incessant whispering paused for a moment. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “I somehow doubt we ever think the same things. I would be worried if we did.”

  “Come on, follow me.” And with that Bhaltair started carefully creeping to the right, careful not to draw attention from the knights.

  Islwyn had a sinking feeling as he followed along. “No. Don’t you dare!” he hissed.

  “It’ll be fine! I know one of the knights over here, I just wanna ask some questions!” Bhaltair whispered back.

  That was… possible. It seemed like Bhaltair was friends with half the capital at times, and Islwyn knew he was at least acquainted with a good number of the knights largely due to his work “adventuring”.

  But his last assurance that things would be fine had precluded him setting off a magl slyme. Even if things had turned out alright in the end, that didn’t bode well.

  Islwyn didn’t speak up, however. Bhaltair… this was just how he did things. Things had gone well for his friend so far in life, hadn’t they? Better than Islwyn at the very least.

  So he just followed along, wondering just what it was that set them apart. What made Bhaltair capable of so much more? He kept one eye on his friend’s back and the other on the forest floor, trying to make sure he didn’t step in the wrong place and alert the knights.

  There was a sharp gasp, and suddenly Bhaltair was no longer in front of him.

  His heart leapt into his throat and his face paled as he tried to keep his panic down, rushing forward, hand swiping for the marble on his neck, a yell for the knights on the tip of his lips–

  “Shhhhh!”

  Relief washed over him as Bhaltair’s head popped up, a finger to his lips.

  As panic fell to relief and then anger, he glared. “What was that?!” He hissed, barely managing to keep his voice down.

  “I fell.” The simple explanation was punctuated by a gesture to the hole he was now standing in. “Some vines had covered it up, so I didn’t notice until it was too late…”

  Indeed, there were vines over the hole, the ones at the center having parted or snapped under the strain of Bhaltair’s weight, leaving an opening just big enough to fit through. That left the question of why there would be a random hole in the ground, though.

  “Is it a cave or something?” He asked as his racing heart started to calm.

  Bhaltair looked down into the darkness of the hole. “No, it’s almost like…hmmm. Let’s check it out!”

  He vanished into the hole once more.

  “You– what happened to investigating the- the thing!”

  “We can do both!” Bhaltair’s voice was quieter but had a slight echo to it. “It’ll still be there after we check this out.”

  “Can you even see anything down there?” The opening of the hole was dark, cut off from the night’s starlight by the trees above.

  “There’s some sort of light deeper inside, come on already!”

  This felt like a bad idea. He looked over to the impact site, watching the guards send the other civilian group home. It would be so easy to just call out for one, ask them for help before Bhaltair did something truly stupid…

  But with a defeated sigh, he put his legs over the ledge and dropped down into the darkness.

  It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the lower light level. The ground beneath them felt smooth, unnaturally so, but not even. Flat, but at an angle. Viewed from below, the opening above looked a bit like a doorway or window that had been overrun by the vines.

  When his eyes had fully adapted, he couldn’t help but think it looked much like a hallway. Though the whole structure was at an odd angle, with them having dropped down into the highest point as the hall delved deeper into the ground, the structure was impressively uniform. He turned, spotting Bhaltair waiting patiently, and further down the hall there was a soft green glow.

  “Sorta looks like a building, right?” Bhaltair asked, wonder clear in his voice.

  “In a way… but why would a building be underground like this?”

  “Well that’s what we need to find out, isn’t it? Maybe it’s some sort of secret hideout where someone buried valuables!” He started walking down the hall, towards the glow, with each step having a metallic ring to it.

  “And why would someone need to hide their stuff?” Islwyn asked as he followed along.

  “Well… maybe they stole it? This could be a criminal’s lair!”

  Somehow that didn’t feel right, but Islwyn didn’t deny it. It was possible that someone was crazy enough to hide out in the forest to escape the wrath of the council and the knights, but this place felt… a bit much for that. And even if that were true, the entrance being so heavily grown over suggested that whoever had built this place was long gone.

  The deeper they walked, the brighter things got, their world taking on a green tint. Eventually they found the source. Recessed into the wall was what looked to be glass, and behind it was… well, he wasn’t sure what it was. The shape was impossible to make out without blinding himself with how intensely the light was emitting from it. The hall stretched further beyond that point, the light even brighter around what looked to be a turn at the end of it. There was no detailing on the walls, no difference between wall, floor, and ceiling, every bit of it being the same except for this one spot with the light.

  This place felt wrong. Where Bhaltair’s grin got wider with every step, Islwyn’s gut was telling him to leave. His grip on both his necklace and the hilt of his loaned sword was tight enough that he feared he might break either of them. “Bhaltair, I don’t like this.”

  His friend paused. “What’s wrong? It’s just a hallway, right?”

  “What do you mean just a hallway? How deep into the ground are we right now? What is that light? And– and the hall itself…” It had been impossible to tell until it got this bright, but now it was undeniable. It was the same material as that thing out on the surface. The same material as the strictly guarded buildings in the capital. He reached out to touch it, to feel its cold touch and get that last bit of confirmation.

  “Dude, what’s up with your necklace?”

  “Huh?”

  His hand fell short of the wall as he looked down.

  The marble was glowing. The same green light that was in the wall was coming from within it. Or, no, it was different, wasn’t it? It was a deeper, more intense shade, like the eyes of that Veska girl from earlier.

  “I– I don’t know, it’s never done this before…”

  A bit worried, he took his hand off his sword, pulling the marble off of his neck and holding it between the two of them by the string. The marble swung between them due to the jostling, growing brighter towards Bhaltair and dimmer as it came back to Islwyn.

  This… what did this mean? The necklace was…

  His mind raced back to a face beneath a cloak.

  “This is a key to a brighter future, young hero. Keep it with you at all times, so that the world may see it as proof. Hold it tightly to remind yourself of the bravery of humanity, to remind you of the smile you must wear, to banish your fear and allow yourself to fulfill your purpose! ”

  “We should leave, Bhaltair, something is wrong and I–”

  Bhaltair snatched the necklace out of his hands.

  “Are you kidding me?! This is amazing!” No longer did he keep his voice down, his words echoing down the hall. “If it gets brighter the deeper we go, then…”

  Bhaltair was running down the hall before Islwyn’s mind could catch up to the fact that he had stolen the necklace.

  “What the fuck Bhaltair?!” He chased after him, trying to keep up as best as he could, but there was no closing the gap. Bhaltair was in much better shape than he was, and no amount of desperation could make up for that. “You know what that thing means to me!”

  Bhaltair just laughed. “Don’t you get it?! This is your chance! It wasn’t a lie!”

  “What do you even mean?!” Their steps were loud and their words even louder. The knights would surely have heard them at this point. Bhaltair had thrown his chance to investigate the impact down the drain.

  “How am I the one piecing this together and not you?” Bhaltair called back in a teasing tone. “If this place is making it glow, they must be connected!”

  The gap between them widened with every step, and Islwyn’s mind raced. Bhaltair was probably right. This place, whatever it was, had something to do with that cloaked figure. Had something to do with the promise of him becoming a great hero. Had something to do with the meeting that had haunted him for most of his life. This place… it could change everything for him.

  But something felt wrong.

  “Bhaltair will you just stop and–”

  His plea was interrupted by another voice as Bhaltair rounded the corner, the marble glowing even brighter now. There was a twinge of familiarity to it, but that was set aside as the cold monotone rang out, echoing down the hall.

  “Candidate recognized. Congratulations, Hero.”

  As Islwyn rounded the corner, he saw Bhaltair had stopped in a large room. Though the walls and floor were still featureless, there was furniture here. Chairs up against what might be a huge desk with all sorts of details he didn’t have time to take in were up against the wall to his right. A large table filled the other half of the room, though no chairs accompanied it. The necklace was glowing bright enough that it was hard to look at him. “See Islwyn?! I told you that–”

  Islwyn missed the end of the sentence as the glow intensified enough that he had to look away, covering his eyes, a sound impossible to describe rushing to his ears.

  It took a second to recover, and when he did, the glow of the marble was gone.

  And so was Bhaltair.

  “Bhaltair?” His heart started to beat faster, and his hand went for his necklace, but it wasn’t there around his neck like his body expected it to be. “Where’d you go?” He walked into the room, looking all around it, the details blurring together as his panic increased, his friend nowhere in sight. “This isn’t funny Bhaltair!”

  The monotone voice returned.

  “Unrecognized occupant. Provide proof of candidacy.”

  Did that mean him? “Proof?” he asked the room, feeling a little bit silly, “What do you mean? What sort of proof?” The necklace had glowed more before… before whatever just happened. Could that be it? “Do you mean the marble? Where did Bhaltair go?”

  “Unauthorized occupant. Deploying countermeasures.”

  A wet splat from behind caught his attention. When he turned, the floor was covered in a thin film. It quickly coalesced, gathering itself up into an oozing blue mass that slowly moved towards him.

  Islwyn drew his borrowed sword nervously, holding it between him and the slyme. His hands shook, but this one was small. He’d never seen a blue one before, but one this small… even he should be able to take it out, right?

  “Answer me!” He shouted. “Where is Bhaltair?!”

  Another splat, off to the side. Another blue slyme had dropped down from somewhere. He turned, keeping his eyes on both of them. This was… not great, but Bhaltair killed these things all the time. Small slymes should be easy to handle.

  And then there was another splat. And another.

  Islwyn dared to look up, and his face paled. The ceiling was dripping with more slymes, slowly oozing out of holes before falling to the floor. Not even Bhaltair could take them on at once.

  He took one last look around the room. Still no sign of Bhaltair.

  But there was nothing he could do.

  He ran.

  /~/~/~/

  Islwyn was a mess as the knights tried to get the story out of him.

  A few stood around, listening to his disjointed retelling, asking for clarifications occasionally as more of them went down into the underground hallway to investigate themselves.

  The star was starting to shine its light on them once more by the time the knights got everything figured out, the early hours of the day creeping onwards as Islwyn sat there on the ground, hoping that somehow the knights would notice something he hadn’t, that they’d come up out of that stupid hole with Bhaltair at their side, laughing about how this was just another one of his adventures.

  He thought he’d seen red twintails at one point, but he couldn’t bring himself to focus on any of their faces. Couldn’t bring himself to see the looks of disgust they must have after he left Bhaltair behind.

  Eventually, one climbed out of the hole, walking right up to him. The group of knights around him quieted down, listening to the update.

  The knight took a deep breath.

  “Bhaltair is dead.”

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