Rune Seeker

Hiral left the keep a short time later, right around when his father started to ask how things were going with his mother in the same raid party. Really, things weren’t bad – mainly because Hiral generally ignored Sera being there and made Ilrolik deal with the woman – but he somehow had a hard time telling his dad that. The man wasn’t pushing the two of them to get along – hell, Elezad didn’t agree with how Sera had behaved either – it was more the hope in the man’s eyes they could be a ‘family’ again someday.

That… wasn’t in the cards. Hiral loved his dad and his sisters more than anything. He’d go to war for them – as would Left and Right. His mother though? He didn’t hate her, which kind of surprised him when he really thought about it, but he also didn’t love her. Or, even really like her. She was basically a stranger to him. One he had no interest in getting to know any better.

And, grudgingly, she was good at what she did. Both as an Artist and as member of his raid party. If she…

“Hiral!” Elezad said, door opening behind Hiral, and his father jogging out after him.

“Dad, if this is about Sera…” Hiral started.

“It’s not,” Elezad said. “Not… exactly.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hiral asked quietly while the camp bustled around them. A few people eyed the pair, though nobody approached for the moment. With how busy – and in demand – the Trust’s time was, somebody would come sooner or later.

“Before things got crazy – and you went out on your trial run – you asked me about new tattoos,” Elezad said.

The sudden change of topic caught Hiral off guard for a second, but he nodded. He had asked his father about new tattoos. He had the Rune of Exchange on the palms of his hands, but Left wasn’t benefitting from that at all. Getting a couple more tattoos his double could potentially use – and that Hiral could custom choose – was tempting.

“You want two tattoos, one on each palm?” Elezad asked him.

“Yes…”

“I’m good, but I don’t have a Left or Right,” Elezad said. “If you want two tattoos, and you want them both done before you go out again, you need two Artists. And the two best ones on the island – and in the Cradle – just happen to be your parents.”

“I only really need one on my left hand…” Hiral started, brain already running through excuses.

“For now,” Elezad interrupted. “If I remember how Left gets access to the tattoos correctly, he will be able to use the others as you connect to your Edict-things. How often to you think you’ll have the downtime needed to get – and recover from – new tattoos? New S-Rank tattoos.”

Hiral groaned inwardly at his father’s logic. The man was right. With Runic Regeneration+ and all the other bonuses Hiral had now, the recovery process shouldn’t be a big deal, but the time to actually ink the complex tattoos? With the forced downtime right now, yeah, it was the best time to do it. And, since a beast wave could happen at any time, the sooner the work was done, the better.

“You… may have a valid point,” Hiral said. “Is there nobody else who could…?”

“Hiral,” Elezad had, his rare-yet-stern-father voice coming out. “Your mother has done half the tattoos on your body, including both of the Herald tattoos, which I remember waking up to when the Ex-General attacked. The two that were so perfect, they merged into something new! Something never seen before.”

Hiral blew out a breath. “She also did Touch of the Primal and Way of Shadow didn’t she?”

“She did,” Elezad said. “Why?”

“They combined too, for Left,” Hiral said. “Into Touch of Night.”

“They did what now?” Elezad asked. “Really? The Heralds weren’t the first combination?”

“Is that so unusual?” Hiral asked. He hadn’t heard of tattoos combining like that before – now that he thought about it – but just chalked it up to a random ability evolution. If that was all it was, though, shouldn’t some other Shapers – at some point – have had that happen before?

“For a Shaper, very unusual,” Elezed said. “Remember I said there were some advantages to Artists and Academics using tattoos through their Mediums? We’ve only seen tattoos outright combining in very rare instances – so far – in them. Never with a Shaper. Ever.

“Yes, Shapers can use their tattoos in tandem,” Elezad continued. “Seamlessly in many cases, but merging them into a single, new tattoo? Nope. Except, Left can do that?”

“He’s done it twice now,” Hiral said. “Touch of Night before, and now the Herald of the Unending Cycle.”

“It has a name?!” Elezad said. “The new tattoo created its own name?”

“The PIMP created the name, I guess?” Hiral offered.

“True, that would make sense,” Elezad said. “And very interesting. Could it be… could it be Left is as much a Medium for you as he is his own Shaper? Is that what let him do the impossible? And, what other combinations could he facilitate? With S-Rank tattoos!”

Elezad’s eyes widened with every word of his more and more frantic speech, the implications of it clearly exciting the man. “We’re going to have to test this!”

“… and now I know how the others feel,” Hiral said under his breath. “Left uses his tattoos a lot, but we haven’t seen any other mergers. Maybe it’s Rank-related somehow?”

“That could be,” Elezad said. “You did do the super-risky-but-necessary-to-save-our-lives thing of kicking your way into A-Rank.”

“It was really more of pulling a curtain aside. Temporarily. You make it sound like a home invasion.”

“Either way, if you see any more of these mergers, tell me right away. We’re already exploring how Artists and Academics can use this to their advantage. If we can find a way to make it possible for Shapers too, it would be huge.”

“Sure,” Hiral said. “And, I’ll send Left over to talk to you about it. He might have some insight on how it happened too.”

“That would be wonderful,” Elezad agreed. “But, back to what we were talking about before we went off on a tangent…”

“We?” Hiral asked with a raised eyebrow.

A dismissive hand-wave from his father practically swatted the word out of the air before it reached his ears.

“Your two new tattoos. Do you have any ideas? I’ve got at least one in mind, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.”

“Well,” Hiral said. “Left actually had a really good suggestion. Since he’s getting more and more access to his tattoos, and with the layout of the Cradle, we were thinking about Bond of the Hidden Prince.”

“Hrmmm,” Elezad said and rubbed at his chin. “Interesting choice. Summons an eagle companion that can be used for scouting and combat.”

“One Left can use his other tattoos through,” Hiral pointed out the aspect that had really sold it for Left. “He’s thinking ahead to when he gets access to Perfect Sense, and the things he could do with Banner of Courage.”

“An Eagle of Courage?” Elezad chuckled, then stopped. “Actually, that’d be brilliant.”

“Not to mention Way of Light or Waters of Frey,” Hiral added. “There’s a lot of strong tattoos he could use through the Bond.”

“I like it,” Elezad said. “What about your second choice?”

“We haven’t settled on anything yet,” Hiral admitted. “You sound like you have something in mind?”

“A bird theme, apparently,” Elezad said. “I was thinking since you and Right are a bit faster and more physical than Left, he could use a high-speed movement option. Something to get him out of danger – or into position – in a pinch. Putting it on his hand – your palm, to be precise – would also make it very easy for him to activate.”

“A bird-themed movement ability?” Hiral mused. “And it’d be S-Rank… so that has to be… Moonlit Murder?”

Elezad tapped his nose. “The name always makes me shake my head, but it’s a powerful – though woefully underused – tattoo.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Turns the user into a murder of intangible crows to move around at high speeds,” Hiral said. “Great for escape, which means very unpopular with Shapers.”

“Also, very good for repositioning and distraction,” Elezad said. “The crows don’t all need to move together, and the user can reform from just a single one anywhere within range. That’s not even taking into account if Left can figure out how to consciously combine more tattoos. Imagine merging Moonlit Murder with Wings of Anella?”

“He’d weaponize the movement ability, like Seena does with hers,” Hiral said.

“Exactly!”

“Hrm, yeah, I like that too. Let me run it by Left to see what he thinks. He’ll be the one using it.”

“Don’t wait too long. These two tattoos aren’t simple if you go ahead with them. We’ll need a few hours to ink them.”

“You sure you can’t do both?” Hiral asked tentatively, and Elezad was already shaking his head. “Fiiiiiine.”

“There’s a good son,” Elezad said. “How long do you need to figure out if those are the two you want?”

“Give me an hour?” Hiral asked.

“Sounds good,” Elezad said. “I’ll find your mother and get preparations started. We don’t have a studio set up yet, but we brought the most important things with us.”

At the words, Hiral looked over at the crafting building. “Think there’s an Artist’s studio schematic out there in the Cradle somewhere?”

“We’re hoping so.”

“Actually, Dad,” Hiral started. “I meant to ask, but how close are we to clearing our half of the valley? Any idea how much longer we have left before we move on to the contested phase of things?”

“Well,” Elezad said, stepping in closer to Hiral so they wouldn’t be overheard by everybody. “There are one-hundred-and-fifty-one regular, ‘known’ trials.” His father even used air quotes when he said known. “Then there’s the hidden trials…”

“Slow down,” Hiral said. “I thought we didn’t know what all the trials are?”

“We don’t,” Elezad said. “Let me start over. In the interface for the War Table, there is a category for regular trials and another one for hidden trials. The regular trial section has a-hundred-and-fifty-one lines in it – they’re even Ranked and numbered – and the names and rewards for the trials fill themselves in when we learn them. If we haven’t found one of these regular trials, the line is still just three question marks. But, because we know how many there are, we’re referring to them as known trials as well as regular.”

“I guess that kind of makes sense,” Hiral said. “And, Al said we need to finish seventy-five percent of those to bring down the wall of fog?”

“Yes… and no,” Elezad said. “This is where we’re running into a complication. Of the one-fifty-one trials, we – as a larger group – have completed just over thirty trials…”

“That’s it?” Hiral interrupted. “We have… fourteen raid groups, don’t we? My group has done three, and that’s with us spending twenty hours recovering from the A-Rank trial. How…?”

“Not every group has the same level of coordination, disregard for personal safety, and ability to recover after a difficult battle that yours does,” Elezad said softly. “For a lot of these folks, even completing one trial at this point – they’ve barely formed groups and run three dungeons, tops – is a happy miracle. We’d rather they take it slow and survive, than try to race through trials and get themselves killed.”

Hiral groaned at himself. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s fine to say that with me,” Elezad said. “Just remember when you’re talking to the others here at camp, they aren’t as advanced as all of you. I don’t just mean power, gear, or skills.” Elezad tapped the side of his head. “This place isn’t just a physical challenge, but also a mental one, as they have to change the way they’re thinking about things.

“And, let’s be honest here, it’s one thing to think you know what the Cradle is all about, and another thing entirely to actually be part of it. The Makers here went from happily living on Fallen Reach without even knowing how much danger they were all in, to getting attacked by flying, invisible squids, introduced to dungeons and joining parties with Growers, to being told they were needed to help protect the world from those flying squids I mentioned earlier. All in in a few weeks. It’s a lot.”

“And it’s not much different for the Growers and Bonders,” Hiral said, understanding. “Sure, they had more exposure to the surface, but this is still a huge shift. And us? We had the same shock of it back when we found out we couldn’t return to Fallen Reach like we’d thought.”

“You’ve been fighting ever since,” Elezad said with a nod. “For you, this is just more of the same. For the rest of us? Our world’s been turned on its head, and we’ve been told to keep up or get left behind.”

“I didn’t…”

“Not you,” Elezad said. “Or your raid group. It’s just the situation. We know we don’t have a lot of time, but we need a little bit right now to wrap our heads around things. The trial completion speed will increase, don’t you worry about that, but for now? We’re okay with people taking it a bit slower to ease into it. We’ll start using those contribution points if – when – we need to get people moving.”

“I know you and the rest of the Trust have things under control,” Hiral said.

“Well, I’m glad it looks that way,” Elezad said with a laugh, then coughed into his hand when Hiral glared at him. “Anyway! Back to what I was saying before. We’ve completed just over thirty of the one-hundred-and-fifty-one trials…”

“Do you know what Ranks they are?” Hiral interrupted.

“We do,” Elezad with his own glare. “Sixty E-Rank trials, forty D-Rank, thirty C-Rank, twenty B-Rank, and one A-Rank.”

“One?” Hiral asked. “The Playhouse? That’s it? No, that can’t be right. We know there’s that Mechanized trial… oh! Mechanized is in the hidden trial category?”

“Exactly,” Elezad said. “We’ve only got four trials in that category, and only one of them has actually been completed. The other three – like Mechanized – have just been found, not finished. And, here’s where the complication lies. We’ve completed thirty regular trials and one hidden trial, but the counter Al is watching says we’ve completed thirty-one of one-hundred-and-fifty-one trials.

“One-thirteen is the magic number to open up the rest of the valley, by the way.”

“So, you’re saying, completing hidden trials count toward tearing down the fog wall?”

“Exactly,” Elezad said.

“How’s that a problem?” Hiral asked. “Shouldn’t that make things easier?”

“Easier to take down the fog wall, yes,” Elezad conceded. “The problem lies in the fact the hidden trial we did complete didn’t provide a schematic or anything for our faction.”

“Faction?”

“It’s what Al is calling our side,” Elezad said. “Here’s our worry – the hidden trials are more about individual strength than faction strength. If we complete too many of them, will our fortress be strong enough to repel an attack? Will our parties be too weak, because we didn’t find some of the Rank-appropriate loot trials?”

“Mechanized said something about advanced classes,” Hiral said. “That sounds like it would benefit the entire faction.”

“It’s the only one out of the four trials found that offers something for anybody beyond the people who complete them. And it’s a pretty enticing something,” Elezad continued. “Hence the conundrum.

Elezad held up one hand. “Focus on completing normal trials that offer minor upgrades for individuals and faction boosts.” He held up the other. “Or, work on the trials that seem to offer larger individual boons, but limited or no options for the faction as a whole.”

“Stronger people means a stronger faction…” Hiral said.

“It does,” Elezad said. Then he looked at the crafting building. “But, is strength all we want? Like I said earlier, you’re looking at the Cradle a bit differently than the rest of us. For you, it’s a giant dungeon with enemies you need to fight. You had the laws that govern some of rules of this world literally in the palm of your hand, and what did you do? You made them into a weapon.”

“Gran said the same thing…”

“Too be clear, I’m not complaining about your choice. Nobody can argue with how effective it was,” Elezad clarified. “But, while we need to start looking at things more like you do – and get ready for a fight – maybe you also need to expand how you think too?”

“We need to be stronger to beat Vorinal and the Raze, and to take back our world,” Hiral said, though it wasn’t to argue. He saw where his father was going with this. “But,” he said. “That won’t happen overnight.”

“Not even with how long night is down on the surface. It’s so… dark,” Elezad said with a shake of his head.

“You barely looked out of the cave at the savanna,” Hiral said.

“You know how clumsy I am. I would’ve fallen in some hole in the dark, or gotten snatched up by one of the flying, invisible squids,” Elezad said. “Better to stay inside. And, no, what we have to do won’t happen overnight. Even if we do as the quest told us – to close those three Black Gates – will that suddenly chase the Enemy away or give us back access to a world we haven’t explored in thousands of years?”

Elezad and Hiral both shook their heads in unison.

“Once we defeat the other faction,” Elezad said. “We’ll still have the Cradle, and we can slowly continue completing any of the trials we’ve missed. The Trust gets this, and there’s a valid argument to focus first on whatever we can do to make sure we do defeat the other faction.

“On the other hand, if all we focus on is fighting – on war – what will that mean for our people? Our children? Not just today and tomorrow, but in the years to come.”

“If we don’t win these fights, there won’t be years to come,” Hiral said.

“That’s true. It’s just… Nat and Milly want to fight. They want to be able to protect themselves and the things that are important to them. Like you did. And I respect their choice. But, as their father, I don’t want fighting to be the only thing they have todo. There’s so much more to living than just that. I want them to laugh and love. To enjoy music or sports.

“Right now, they believe fighting is the best choice. More like it’s the only choice.”

“Which makes it no choice at all,” Hiral said.

“No, it’s not. Look, Hiral, we could go back and forth on this forever. We need to win here, in the Cradle, to give us a safe place on the surface. To continue the fight to defeat the Raze so they don’t wipe us out. It’s kind of a pressing matter, and it definitely needs to be a priority. We also need to not lose sight of why we’re fighting – other than basic survival, which, arguably, is a very good reason – so fighting isn’t all we become.

“Some of us have to keep thinking about what happens after, and how we change along the way,” Elezad said, once more looking at the crafting station. “If getting a few more schematics so people can do things like create instead of destroy will help that, it’s definitely worth considering. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Then it’s a good thing we have people like you and the Trust considering this stuff,” Hiral said. “Every time I start to try and think about what comes later, the PIMP seems to slam another dynamic quest in my face.”

“You do seem kind of central to things, whether you want to be or not,” Elezad said.

“Luckily, I’ve decided I want to be,” Hiral said. “We’re going to be A-Rank here soon, Dad. Not stopping there, either. We have the power to fight. The power to make a difference. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Elezad didn’t immediately reply to that, just standing there looking at his son, instead. Hiral didn’t shrink under the man’s gaze. They all had their part to play in this battle against the Raze, and being at the front of that – being the vanguard – was Hiral’s role. The big-picture implications of what this all meant to the Makers, Growers, Bonders, and Undead, he’d leave that to people like his father and the Trust.

“That’s what you’re going to do,” Elezad finally echoed Hiral’s words. “And once you put your mind to something…”

“Yes, yes, I’m very stubborn,” Hiral chuckled.

“You are, and I am apparently easily distracted,” Elezad said. “I was supposed to be going to find your mother so you could get some new tattoos.”

Hiral half-sighed. “And you should probably do that before I come to my senses and change my mind.”

“It really won’t be so bad,” Elezad said. “Come back here in an hour.”

“An hour,” Hiral agreed, then stood there as his father waved, turned, and jogged off into the crowd to find Sera.

It won’t be so bad? I think I’d rather fight that old goat again…