Chapter 19: The Rise of Penrith - Chapter 2

A week after their official debut in Penrith, Boh, Quill, and Rayden set out on their first expedition into the eastern edge of the Feral Lands, journeying thirty miles out from town into the unknown. Along the way, the three of them found several new islands of green in the dead sea of cracked earth surrounding Penrith. Rocky hills were slowly transforming into grassy knolls, and healthy meadows were spreading throughout the dry steppes. It even rained for a few hours, nourishing the vegetation suddenly sprouting up from acres of old, barren soil.

Even if Rayden had wanted to remain skeptical of his patron’s influence, it was impossible to deny the changing landscape. Mana was slowly seeping into the Boot and cajoling the environment back into something livable. It was beautiful, but staggering.

He now understood exactly how optional the hardship Sepith’s poorest citizens experienced really was. The entire rim of the kingdom was just the barren remains of a feast, a carcass picked clean and discarded by Attuned who cared little for the scavengers who came after. If they had merely left some meat on the bone, this whole area could be covered in farms.

One day, when he was able to Siphon himself, he would do his best to make things right. However, he would have to become a Knight first, and that required several more dungeons and countless trials. Since none of either had formed around Penrith proper yet, the Feral Lands were their best bet. Rayden was excited; he had ventured close to the edge of the wilderness before but had never journeyed inside.

Today, that would change.

The untamed wilds of the Feral Lands were so densely packed with mana that strange and warped biomes formed unpredictably, giving shelter to equally bizarre and dangerous monsters. It was the opposite of the Siphoned lands surrounding them, a feast just beyond famine. Closer to the kingdom’s capital, the edges of the mana-rich frontier were heavily patrolled and trimmed, but because the Boot was far away and surrounded on three sides, they were heading into unknown territory.

This was a boon for Rayden and his comrades, since the dungeons in the area would be unguarded and plentiful. By law, they still needed a permit from the kingdom to enter, but the three of them were outlaws now, and outlaws didn’t concern themselves with such trivial regulations. It was extremely unlikely that anyone else would be this far south, anyway.

Nearing the top of a sloping hill half-covered in fresh grass, Rayden lagged behind the others, messing around with his new powers. He was dressed in his usual leathers, while Boh trudged ahead in a chainmail shirt and leather pants. Quill was gliding up the hill beside him, back in her fancy and freshly cleaned robes.

If Rayden didn’t know them, he would have assumed a fat dwarf was escorting a prim noblewoman through treacherous lands. He tugged on the wind with his Talent, ensuring both of them were sufficiently annoyed.

“Rayden, I have noticed exactly what you’re doing,” Quill said as she turned around, her hair blowing around her face in a chaotic mess. “It’s quite bothersome.”

“Sorry,” he grinned. “The whims of the wind are mercurial and unpredictable, you know?”

Boh looked behind him as his beard was stroked by the breeze, grunting in disapproval. Rayden waved back at him, noting that, surprisingly, the dwarf wasn’t wearing his flagon on his hip. A bit of an oddity, but he assumed it was stored in the comically large pack the man was lugging on his back.

Funnily enough, the dwarf had made it clear that he hated camping. Rayden had expected his gruff friend to lecture him about the joys of hard living, but it turned out Boh was a tavern type of guy through and through.

He left the dwarf alone, but gave Quill one last gust for good measure. She stopped in place and glared, but couldn’t hide a smile from creeping onto her stern face.

“You know, growing up, I had servants who would fan me with leaves in the heat of summer. I think at least one of them wanted to be my concubine. I’m going to see if he’s available, so I can switch you out, Rayden.”

”Oh yeah?”

“Stop with the flirting,” Boh grumbled. “Or I’m going to fucking kill myself.”

Rayden shot Quill a wry look, then thinned out his mana until the wind was reduced to a cool breeze. It was a welcome relief in the sweltering heat of late-arriving summer, one his paramour insisted he provide regularly since the moment she realized he could. He was fine with being the team’s climate control, as long as they tolerated a fair amount of mischief.

I’m no concubine with a leaf fan, I’m my own master!

Truthfully, cooling down the others was good practice for his Talent anyway. He had spent the past week focusing on his mastery of wind, since conjuring lightning was more dangerous and less practical. A peal of thunder might scare off most animals nearby, but it might also attract the strongest.

Over the course of their two-day journey south of Penrith, Rayden had finally gotten to learn a bit more about his new friend’s Talents as well. Boh was a pure Cultivator, enhancing his body with both his base mana and Talent, which he understood as an internal forge. He could cover his body in an aura of flames, benefiting from the protection they provided, while also tempering his body into a stronger and more durable vessel.

He had called himself the hottest dwarf in Sepith, but Rayden contested that he was more deserving of being called the drunkest.

Their Talents had good synergy together. Rayden could cool Boh down, allowing him to wield stronger and more dangerous flames. And if the dwarf was being particularly surly, he could buffet him with all the hot air spilling out of his head.

Quill still wasn’t comfortable divulging the details of her Talent, but he had been able to glean a few new details. She did not actually make people see illusions like he had suspected, but instead was able to plant ideas directly into people's and monsters' minds. She could make a person think they were seeing something in front of them, but a literal illusion was not actually created.

He didn’t know the depth of her suggestion’s power, the totality of the sensory impact, or even the limit to what she could implant, but she had implied her Talent was most effective when delivered as short commands or warnings.

She still hadn’t explained why talking about it made her so uncomfortable, but she’d referenced that it had to do with her mother a few times. Rayden of all people wasn’t going to balk at that, and now that he knew her Talent was essentially mind magic, he could imagine how the people around her would want to leverage her ability.

He had tested his luck asking her to try it on him to see if the Mother’s blessing offered protection, but was sternly told to fuck off.

That was OK, as patience seemed to be the key to winning Quill over regardless, despite their fast start. Rayden was definitely the more clingy of the two of them. He wanted her to embrace him, to share every single detail and hardship she’d ever experienced, and talk deep into the night like excited teenagers. When she held back instead, it made him afraid that she wasn’t truly invested.

However, he was wise enough to understand his own insecurity. Being a paranoid asshole wasn’t going to help things along. For now, he would just take it slow and enjoy the time they were spending together. They’d already had a few more dinners and most of them had ended just like the first. Quill seemed to like messing with him, playing coy at the beginning of each night before pouncing on him at the end.

He suspected something fucked up had happened in her previous relationships, but for now, he was fine with the pattern they’d developed.

I’m a patient, kind concubine, perfectly fine with developing trust organically!

“Ugh, of course,” Boh suddenly shouted, shaking Rayden from his thoughts. “It’s a bloody paradise for elves.”

Rayden sped up to the top of the hill and looked out at where his companion was scowling, taking in a towering wall of trees just over the horizon, made up of long branches covered in a patchy green curtain of leaves. They were like banners hanging along the gate of a great natural fortress.

Their destination was an overgrown forest.

Could be worse.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“I doubt there are elves in there, but I’m sure there’s plenty of man-eating monsters,” Rayden sighed.

“Hmmm. We do have a delicacy among us,” Quill said, pretending to scratch her chin. “What monster doesn’t want a dwarf who cooks himself?”

Boh scowled at her, then flipped his hammer into the air a few times. He was silent for a few moments before replying, “Eh, whatever.”

Rayden and Quill exchanged a look, surprised the gruff man didn’t have a single quip.

“You alright, buddy?” Rayden asked.

“Just need to hit something with my hammer,” the dwarf grumbled.

“Fair enough.”

Quill tilted her head, but all Rayden could do was shrug. It appeared Boh was just a moody guy sometimes.

He looked down at the valley beneath them, then looked back at the others. While the hill was only about fifty feet high, the way down was a lot steeper than the way up. If they wanted to head down safely, they’d have to go back and around–wasting precious minutes, and more importantly, an opportunity for fun.

“Wanna jump?” Rayden asked.

“Yup,” Boh grunted. “I ain’t going around.”

The two of them looked at Quill expectantly. They could strengthen their bodies with mana and easily survive the drop, but Quill would have to be willing to let him hold her.

The redhead saw the mischievous expression on his face, looked behind them at the long way down, then sighed.

“If you must.”

Boh immediately leaped down without another word, his silhouette alight with red flames. Rayden and Quill both blinked, surprised by the lack of communication.

“What’s gotten into him?” Quill asked, taking advantage of their moment to lightly kiss Rayden on the cheek.

“I don’t know…but he seems depressed. Are we sure he didn’t just jump to his death?”

She stepped closer to the edge and then peered down.

“Nope, still alive.”

“Good,” Rayden laughed. “You know, the night we got back from the dungeon, he was really down on himself. As much as he jokes about it, I don’t think he likes being an alcoholic.”

Quill arched an eyebrow.

“Huh, I thought all dwarves celebrated as much.”

“Me too,” Rayden shrugged. “Once we get to the forest, I’ll try and talk to him. Now, are you prepared for our descent, my fair Lady?”

“Ugh, not really.”

She looked down again, a little squeamish.

“Scared of heights?”

“Only when I’m leaping from them…”

Reluctantly, she climbed into his arms and curled up her legs, reminding him of a small bear-like animal he’d seen sitting in a tree one time. Except way sexier, but he kept that thought to himself.

“Hurry up, manservant,” she grumbled.

Knowing he’d pay for it if he teased her any further, Rayden braced his legs with mana, then walked to the edge of the cliff and jumped. There was a brief sensation of floating as his empowered legs cleared the slope, then the two of them plummeted down in a rush of air. Rayden preemptively poured mana into his feet and legs to guarantee their survival, but he also had a trick in mind. As the wind whipped past him, he waited patiently for the fast approaching ground to near.

He blasted a gust upwards at the last moment, attempting to cushion their fall into a glide, but he vastly overestimated the current strength of his Talent. They crashed through his stiff breeze and hit the ground with a resounding boom. Rayden narrowly kept his empowered knees from buckling as a cloud of red dirt exploded around them, in a display decidedly less cool than he was hoping for.

When the debris cleared, Quill hopped out of his arms and gave him a wry smile.

“I felt your mana. You tried something fancy, huh?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “I wanted to control our fall with my Talent, but I’m not strong enough yet.”

She put her hands on her hips and looked him over.

“Well, good try. I’m sure Jim would be proud of you, and at least you didn’t drop me.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“Good,” she nodded. “If you were half as charming as you think you are, you’d say something about how light the cargo you carried was.”

“Oh course, my svelte, petite cargo,” he said teasingly. “So buxom, yet, light as a feather.”

“…careful now.”

He heeded her warning, looking for Boh instead. The melancholic dwarf was already walking towards the forest, slowly shaking his head. Rayden had a feeling he was heading towards another unprompted heart-to-heart with the surly man. He was willing to give him a few more hours to get his shit together, but they couldn’t head into a dungeon with one of their party members ready to off themselves.

Ivy and Jim weren’t here to pick up the slack.

Rayden squeezed Quill’s hand, then the two of them caught up with their grouchy companion. The edge of the forest loomed just ahead, a great fence of trees standing in a line like green and brown pikemen. Now that they had gotten closer, it was striking just how abruptly the landscape transitioned from dry mounds of cracked earth to an explosion of foliage.

“I assume you’ve both been to the Feral Lands before, right?” Rayden asked, attempting to bring Boh into the conversation. “What should I expect?”

Quill waited a moment to see if Boh would take the bait, but the dwarf marched on in silence.

“We’re only going to dip our toes in the perimeter, so I wouldn’t expect anything stronger than the spriggan we killed in the last dungeon,” she answered. “However, we should see some strange and mutated animals, as well as weaker monsters. Some of the latter may have valuable parts, since very few Attuned ever head out here. We’ll take it slow, keep our eyes peeled, and hopefully find another gray gate.”

“You don’t think we’re strong enough to try a green one?” Rayden ventured.

Boh suddenly broke out into a dark laugh.

“We’d have as much luck in a green gate as I’d have in a court of naked elves.”

“I wouldn’t put it quite so rudely, but he’s right, Rayden,” Quill added. “Not only do some of the monsters within begin to have Talents, they occasionally have the intelligence to properly use them as well. Imagine fighting the stormcrow again, with just the three of us, and in an arena where it could actually fly.”

“Hey, why didn’t it fly before?”

Quill raised her hands and shrugged.

“How would I know, you’re the one with similar powers, sparky. Something was blocking the rain from coming in, so maybe it was the shade’s doing.”

“Huh,” Rayden said, scratching his head. “So how strong do we need to be then?”

The redheaded mage turned to Boh, allowing him another opportunity to jump in. Sadly, she was left hanging once again.

“We’d probably need Jim and Ivy back, and at least a few of us would have to have to reach out first Profundity,” Quill reasoned. “On the bright side, I’m only one dungeon away. What about you, Boh?”

“Same,” he grunted without turning around.

“You’re so talkative today, Boh,” Rayden teased. “You sure you don’t need a drink?”

The dwarf’s gait faltered, and he stood still for a half-second, quiet and unmoving. Rayden instantly regretted his words, but Boh was already striding forward again by the time he started to apologize. However, his hesitation lasted long enough for Rayden to notice the sweat pouring down the dwarf’s neck.

Oh shit.

Rayden put his hands behind his head, then turned to Quill, who was staring at Boh’s back with concern.

“What the hell has gotten into him, Rayden?” She whispered. “We have to say something.”

“I know,” Rayden moaned, ruffling his hair. “Fuck.”

He had an inkling of what was going on, and he didn’t like it one bit.

“Quill, I think we’re going to have our work cut out for us tonight.”

“Oh? Mind expounding on that?”

He slowly shook his head, not wanting to answer until he was sure. The redhead was visibly miffed by his reluctance, but ultimately dropped the subject. Together, the three of them continued in silence until they were within a hundred yards or so from the forest.

Rayden realized that the thick treeline was far less orderly than he had surmised from afar. Gnarled and thick trunks shot upwards of forty feet in the air, sprouting into spindly branches that curved up into the sky like wooden claws. Green and yellow leaves hung from the thin limbs in scattered bunches, weaving into a dense and verdant canopy.

He could make out patches of olive colored moss and rust-red lichen on the trees further in, as well as sprawling bushes ripe with some type of black and red berries. For a man who was used to traveling through barren wastelands, the overgrown forest was intimidating. The sounds of animals and insects within unnerved him, juxtaposed with the silent lands they’d been traveling through the past couple days.

It was the first time he’d seen a place truly untouched by the machinations of men.

Quill quietly rested her head on his shoulder, staring into the forest’s shadows along with him. He could tell she didn’t find it nearly as daunting, but had keyed in on his unease. She was perceptive, and patient too.

After a few minutes of soaking in the new environment, Rayden realized that Boh hadn’t said a word in close to half an hour.

“Hey, Boh, doing OK, buddy?”

The dwarf startled, then slowly turned around, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes and two trembling hands.

“Uh, ‘ol Boh has something to tell you. He probably should have told you earlier, but he was a bit nervous. You see, he hasn’t had a drink in close to three days, and…he didn’t bring one with him.”