Path of Dragons

Before Elijah swam to shore, he took a moment to take on the Shape of the Predator. However, the moment he did, he got a bit of a surprise when he suddenly realized that mist panthers were apparently very poor swimmers. He could stay afloat, and he could move a little, but his frantic flailing ruined any chance at maintaining Guise of the Unseen. So, he let the transformation drop and treaded water until he’d regained enough Ethera to comfortably approach the village.

By the time he did, he’d garnered enough attention from the village’s occupants. Indeed, stealth had never been an option. A few of the larger creatures stood on the rocky shore, gesturing threateningly with long spears. So, when Elijah got close enough to stand, he did so, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

He’d have preferred to find a different route on shore, but the lagoon was entirely enclosed. So, the stretch of beach before him – which was about three-hundred yards long – was the only way out of the water.

“I come in peace,” he said, hoping that there wasn’t a language barrier. “I’m here to help.”

That much was true. After all, the task he’d received from the tower had made it very clear that he needed to save a village. It didn’t take a genius or a leap of logic to assume that the village in question lay before him. That meant that the humanoid walruses were the Ulthrak he needed to save.

Of course, that would almost assuredly require their cooperation, which was why he’d tried the peaceful approach. However, he had enough Ethera to fuel Shape of the Predator if they proved less than cooperative.

“Where’d you come from?” demanded the largest spear-wielder. Like all the others, he had two arms, two legs, and opposable thumbs – which set him apart from Earth walruses – yet he still possessed the characteristic whiskers, tusks, and general girth of the creatures with which Elijah had associated him. The fact that he spoke English would have been surprising if not for two things. One, Elijah had heard the little, dagger-wielding gnome speak English months before. And two, he’d grown used to the existence of Ethera-powered magic, so he didn’t think anything could surprise him.

“Uh…the surface,” Elijah said. “I don’t –”

“It’s a tower, Raji,” said one of the other ulthrak’s. “That’s what old Migala’s been tryin’ to tell you. That’s why we can’t get out. That’s why –”

“He’s right,” Elijah said, earning a glare from Raji. “My world…I don’t know if you know anything about Earth, but this tower just popped up out of the ocean. If I don’t conquer it, these things called the Voxx are going to overwhelm my home.”

Honesty seemed like the best policy, especially when he got a distinct impression of danger from the overlarge Raji. Elijah had never been a great liar, anyway, and he had a feeling if he tried to make something up, he’d end up telling such an unbelievable tale that he’d end up with a spear in his gut.

Then, as Elijah was getting ready to defend himself, Raji’s shoulders sagged, and he said, “I knew it. Didn’t want to believe it, but…well, what else could it be?”

“If you knew it, then why’d you argue with Migala all this time?” said the smaller ulthrak. “I think you –”

Raji glared at the other humanoid walrus, which shut him up in a hurry. Elijah took that opportunity to ask, “What is going on here? I thought I was coming in here to fight corrupted reptiles from another dimension.”

It sounded silly when Elijah said it, but it was the best way to describe what he’d expected out of the tower.

Raji answered, “You’d better come with us. Our survival likely depends on you.”

If Elijah hadn’t already been tasked with saving the village, he might’ve refused. However, he reasoned that completing his task would be a lot easier if he had cooperation from the people he was intended to save, so he just asked, “Are you ulthraks, by the way? Is that your species, I mean?”

“We are.”

“Oh. Okay, then. Lead on, I guess,” Elijah stated, wading forward until he climbed onto shore. Once he did, Raji turned and led him into the village, which was a collection of huts that looked like they’d been built from whale bones and the hide of some sort of grey-skinned animal. And to Elijah’s surprise, when he looked up, he saw stars winking back at him via a giant hole in the roof of the cavern.

He followed Raji through the village until they reached a hut that was much larger than any of the others. Along the way, they passed more of the ulthrak villagers, many of whom were clearly female, while the smaller ones were obviously children. None of them looked particularly happy, and in fact, Elijah saw more than a few poorly dressed wounds among the villagers.

As he and Raji passed through the larger hut’s door, he chanced a question, asking, “What happened here? Was there some sort of battle?”

“The water goblins,” Raji said, crossing the single room and taking a seat on a large cushion. He gestured to another, saying, “Sit. I will explain everything.”

“Not without me here, you won’t, you big idiot,” came a scathing voice from the entrance. Elijah’s head whipped around, and he saw an old, incredibly thin ulthrak standing nearby. His skin hung off of him in great bunches – like an obese man who’d recently lost most of his body weight – and he carried a crooked staff with an elaborate head of feathers. “You’ll send our guest out to fight the goblins when he’d clearly be better suited for other tasks.”

“He doesn’t even know what’s going on, Migala.”

“More reason to use him to solve the real problems, hmm?”

“Just let me explain to him what’s going on. Then, we’ll let him pick his path. You know that’s how this has to work. Curse the Gods for putting us in this situation.”

“The Gods? No – curse our own weakness, Raji.”

“That, too.”

“Well, get on with it,” said Migala, crossing the hut. He used the staff like a walking stick, but to Elijah’s senses, it glowed with power. Migala must have noticed, because he said, “Like my staff, hmm? Thinking about taking it? You wouldn’t be the first to try.”

Raji rolled his eyes – a strange sight, given he was a giant walrus man – and said, “Don’t threaten him, Migala. We need his help to get out of this.”

“You think there’s any way out of this? No – we’re doomed to a –”

Raji said, “Enough. Let me explain.”

“He’s too skinny. And he has so little power. A child could –”

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“Enough!” Raji roared, and the smaller ulthrak flinched back. “Enough.”

“I just want to know what’s going on,” Elijah said. “Is this real?”

“Yes. And no,” Raji stated. “The reality is that no one really knows. I remember my life. I remember fighting against the goblins. But I know that if I’m in a tower, I’m not the real me.”

“Just spit it out, Raji,” said Migala, who’d managed to regain some of his vigor.

“We are projections,” Raji said. “Probably. If this tower is conquered, then our people will get some sort of benefit. It’s all…fuzzy, like everything is obscured. I don’t even think we’re in our normal bodies.”

Migala sighed. “Our people volunteered for this,” he said. “We were given an opportunity to be recorded by the System, which we took in exchange for some sort of power. I don’t know what. Like the big idiot there said, it’s all a little fuzzy. Once the System had our souls in its grasp –”

“We’re not souls, Migala.”

“Sure. Our essence, then. Our reflections. Whatever the case, once it had us, we were put to work populating towers like this,” he said. “For you, this is all real. But for us? When you die, we’ll just loop back around and start all this over again so the next group that comes in here will have a proper challenge. Until we satisfy the terms of our agreement. Then, this little piece will be reunited with the host, and…well, the rest is all just conjecture based on blurry memories.”

It was a lot to take in. If Elijah understood it right, then according to Migala, none of the people he’d seen were real. Instead, they were lifelike projections of people who actually existed – or at least had existed at some point.

“How does that even work? Do you just show up to some System kiosk and tell them you want to get recorded?” he asked.

Migala gave a derisive chuckle. “That’s actually not that far off,” he said. “There are people who –”

“We can’t tell him any of that.”

“Why not? I’m not –”

At that very moment, Migala simply ceased to exist. One second, the skinny ulthrak was there, and the next, nothing of him remained.

“What the…”

“System sanction,” Raji said. “Everyone has to follow the rules. I don’t know anything about wherever you came from, but I’m guessing the System is fairly new to you.”

“It is.”

“The one thing you need to know is that System likes its rules,” Raji said. “Either you follow them, or bad things happen. Out there, you might just have a run of bad luck. Or you could end up being targeted by heaven’s wrath. Probably the latter if you manage to get the System’s attention. But for us, it’s much, much worse. We’re not physical beings, so we’re easy to stamp out.”

Elijah nodded. Nerthus had been prevented from answering his questions on more than one occasion, which supported Raji’s explanation. Still, it seemed incredibly callous to end someone’s existence over something so trivial. Sure, Migala hadn’t been strictly real, but he’d clearly been capable of independent thought. Which made him real enough that Elijah felt sorry for him.

“What happens if you die?”

Raji shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “Nothing good, I’m sure. At best, I’ll just cease to exist while my host continues living his life. Or hers, I suppose. But at worst? They’ll be punished in some way. I feel like I used to know, but…”

“But it’s all blurry. Yeah. You said that,” Elijah said, nodding along.

“I see from your expression that you understand,” Raji said. “We know we’re not real, but we feel pain. We think. We have goals. We have lives. We love. We hate. And we want to live. Will you help us?”

Branching Task: Save the Ulthrak village or destroy them. Choose wisely, because there are rewards at the end of both paths.

There were probably plenty of people who would have chosen the second option. Certainly, it seemed easier. However, for Elijah, it was never really an option. There was no way he could just kill the ulthraks he’d met. If they’d attacked him, it would have been a different story, but that wasn’t how it had happened.

“Can you tell me how this all works?” Elijah asked. “Like I said, I came in here expecting to fight interdimensional reptiles.”

Raji shook his head. “I can’t tell you much,” he said. “Not until you…well, here’s what I can tell you. These towers are just constructs meant to siphon Ethera from powerful interdimensional rifts. But left alone, a siphon isn’t enough. It’ll eventually overflow.”

“The surges,” Elijah said, remembering the waves of reptilian Voxx.

“That’s just a side effect, but yeah. That’s the gist of it. When someone like you comes in and challenges the tower, it has to spend that Ethera to run things,” he explained. “And to provide rewards. So, most towers need to be constantly drained of Ethera, or…well, things overflow.”

“But that means I’ll have to keep challenging it if I want to keep this from happening again?” Elijah asked.

“In most cases, yes. There are ways around it, but…well, I can’t speak to that. So, will you help us?”

Elijah nodded. “I intend to, but I’m not sure what I can really do,” he said. “I’m not a great fighter.”

“Is the rest of your team going to join you? Did you get separated?”

“I don’t have a team.”

“You challenged a tower by yourself? Oh, that’s not good.”

“I’m beginning to realize that,” Elijah said. “But I’m here now, and I don’t think there’s a way out unless I finish it. So, tell me what needs to be done, and I’ll do what I can to help.”

“What are your abilities?”

Elijah didn’t want to reveal all his cards, so he chose to keep his ability to take on the form of a mist panther a secret. He said, “I can heal some, and I can –”

“You can heal? How often? And how efficiently?” the ulthrak asked, his words tumbling out of his tusked mouth in a rapid stream.

“Um…”

“Never mind. We’ll figure it out,” Raji said, pushing his bulk upright. “Come with me.”

With that, he strode from the building. Elijah sprang to his feet and hurried after him, catching up just in time to hear Raji tell the smaller ulthrak from before to gather all the sick and wounded in the town square. The smaller walrus man rushed off, presumably to do as he was asked, and Elijah followed Raji into the center of the town, which was characterized by a tall tree with gleaming white leaves.

“So, what do you need? We don’t have much coin, but –”

“I don’t need anything,” Elijah said. “Just…uh…just get everyone clumped around me, I guess.”

Raji nodded, and over the next half-hour, the square slowly filled with injured ulthrak. Some were carried in on leather stretchers, while others hobbled close on their own power. Soon enough, they were clustered so close to Elijah that he began to feel a little claustrophobic. But he pushed that discomfort aside, knowing full well that Healing Rain had a very limited area of effect. So, he needed to get as many people under the clouds as possible, his comfort be damned.

Once everyone had been gathered, there were hundreds of ulthrak in the square. “Is this everyone?” Elijah shouted over the din.

Raji nodded from afar.

Then, Elijah embraced the Ethera in his core, channeling it through his soul and into Healing Rain. When he cast the spell, a localized cloud materialized approximately twenty feet above him before dropping a steady drizzle on the area. It was only a couple dozen feet across, but it covered almost a third of the square.

Immediately, the injured and sick ulthrak began to notice the effects of the Healing Rain. Someone gleefully shouted that their wound had been healed, while others gasped in surprised relief.

Elijah just stood there, preparing to refresh the spell when necessary. He’d tested it many times, so he knew it would last quite some time before the spell faded.

In the meantime, he looked around, searching for someone who needed healing more urgently. And after only a moment, he sighted in on an ulthrak woman who was covered in so many bandages that she looked like a slightly corpulent mummy. Elijah motioned for her to come closer, and she hobbled forward.

“What’s your worst injury?”

“Gut wound,” she muttered, grimacing with each word.

“Here,” Elijah said, kneeling down and pressing his hand against her abdomen. He could practically feel the injury. While he knew it wasn’t the most efficient use of his Ethera, Elijah used Touch of Nature, sending a powerful pulse of healing cycling through his staff, then through his hand and into her body. He tried to guide it to the wound in her stomach, but without actually inspecting the injury, it was safer to simply bathe the area in healing energy and hope for the best.

Still, the combination of the two spells – Healing Rain and Touch of Nature – did wonders, and in seconds, her eyes widened in shock. “It’s…it’s…”

“I know,” Elijah said. And for the first time since gaining his archetype, he understood his place in the world.

He could fight.

He could kill.

But his true calling was preservation.

Sometimes, that would take the form of coaxing natural growth from the landscape, as he had in his Grove. Other times, he would be forced to defend the natural world, as he’d tried to do with the panther. But as he healed the ulthrak woman’s injuries, Elijah came to realize that he preferred the third option: mending the broken.

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