-Callen-

  Luckily cleaning the mess from the encounter didn’t take long, as we had to make a decision quickly regarding whether to dig deeper or move on and be done with the issue. Callia’s decision to let one of the earthkin run both gave us a clear trail that may lead to another hideout but would also alert that hideout of imminent trouble. Looking over to the mutant hybrid people, it was clear that they were the rejects or failures of this organization.

  We had a man with his face half malformed into some kind of feline and his fingernails restructured into claws. The malformed head clearly impaired the man's ability to think, as his expression shifted between feral and confused. The others weren’t in much better condition, with one or sometimes even two animals included in their mutations. However, what I found most concerning was their age. The average between animal maturation and human would equal an adult, and all animals used were animals with a comparatively shorter base than humans.

  The disgust and abhorrence that this was being done to children settled the question of what should be done before any of us even needed to ask. Callia set off to track the fleeing earthkin, and I restored the hollow tree to serve as a shelter for Hew, the guards, and the captives. There was no knowing if anyone in the lord's residence or the gate guards was in on the matter, but it was safe enough to assume that the Baron was firmly against the experimentation. I might not be as good as Callia at sneaking, but I only needed to get close enough to deliver a message to the baron regarding our actions.

  Without the others to slow me down, I was able to run back to the city in a relatively short time. Instead of using the gate, I activated the enchantment on my new arm and climbed the outer walls with ease. There were a couple close calls with the guards patrolling the wall, but I managed to ascend and descend without drawing attention. There was no issue passing through the city proper to make my way to the castle, and now I was faced with the real challenge. Did I have the skill to break into a noble's house? There is only one way to be certain.

  Unlike the walls, the castle watch was more than enough to keep an eye on every direction. Much to my frustration, I even noticed in the centralmost tower there was a team dedicated to watching for birds. If the castle staff had enough spare hands to birdwatch, I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t have someone monitoring the earth as well. After all, this city didn’t have the benefit of Nightshade's extensive subterranean root network to ward away underground monsters. At least nobody appeared to be particularly alert at the present; there was only a well-trained vigilance.

  After some time trying to brainstorm a path, a very risky idea came to mind. Callia had told me how the archer she fought in the battle at the river could shift into and out of shadows. Prior to that, I witnessed Nightshade using my affinity to phase through the Great Bear’s attack. Theoretically it should be possible to shift my body into the void and then shift it back out somewhere within my mana zone. The only issue was if I could maintain the projection of my mana zone while shifted. Which Nightshade’s trick suggested was possible, but I wasn’t going to try it without her personal advice.

  Moving to a relatively quiet alley, I reach over to Callia to check on her situation. The Earthkin she followed had fled to another tree shelter, and that shelter had a secret tunnel leading to what appeared to be a sort of panic base. It seemed they were smart enough to realize we might track them, but eventually they would lower their guard. It didn't matter since at the moment we weren't in a rush to find their base. Callia was content to wait for the Earthkin to calm down and report his circumstances. This meant I should have time to contact Nightshade.

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  I calmed myself and entered a meditation focusing on my bond with Nightshade. Previously I almost exclusively tried harmonizing with her in her presence, so I struggled to adjust to harmonizing with only our bond. It almost felt like trying to remember a phone number that someone had told you while you weren’t paying attention. Luckily my efforts weren’t in vain, as I felt Nightshade notice and reach out to me from her end. Her greeting was a vision of the entirety of Port Town from her perspective passing like a timelapse, sharing every day since we left. Seeing everything helped quell the homesickness that was building in my heart.

  Carefully I built the scenes of what had happened since we left her and shared the purpose behind reaching out to her. I felt a flicker of disappointment from her that this wasn’t because I wanted to stay in touch with her and home, but a solid reassurance followed. Soon memories explaining how Nightshade phased away from the attack flooded my mind. The key cornerstone for the trick was the fact that mana touches every dimensional affinity. She shifted pieces of herself into the void while using form enchantment to fill in the disconnected portions. The fake body constructed from the enchantment would present a decoy until she reinserted her real body.

  In summary, the part I cared about was that the extremities I didn’t shift would hold a continuous connection to my real body. It was like sticking my body into a portal while standing on the other side. Her enchantment just gave the illusion that she was present so they wouldn’t target the parts that didn’t shift. The only drawbacks were a risk of cutting off phased appendages if the shift was interrupted and the inability to move whatever appendage anchored me to reality.

  Under normal circumstances there would be no way I would risk my appendages to practice this, but I conveniently had an arm that was now easily replaceable. I focused my void shift on a specific spot and carefully dipped the tips of my prosthetic fingers in. They shifted in space, and I held the connection in place as I tested trying to move my arm side to side, seeing if the portal could functionally cut anything passing through. To my surprise the edge of the portal functioned more like a wall than an edge. I couldn’t shear off the tips of the half-shifted fingers.

  My experiments and practice continued on late into the night as Callia’s stakeout continued. I practiced dipping my arm in to grab and remove objects, shifting my arm in and shifting it back out somewhere else, and even pressing into the space to try pushing my body. With great care each attempt was successful, and I adjusted to the feeling of holding the void gate while performing different activities. While I wish I could claim there were no accidents, at one point someone entered the alley, and in my haste to hide my activities, I accidentally lost grip on the void gate early, which cleanly severed the tips of my fingers. After that I moved to an inn for the night so I could have more uninterrupted practice away from interference.

  Ba’Salt’s Escape

  Ba’Salt was sent from the woodcut clans to help a promising researcher who had left the earthkin clans in search of a path of research. His contributions over the years had inspired several of the clan's younger folk to investigate what might be accomplished with concept skills. Personally Ba’Salt didn’t care either way, but the clan leader had agreed to send the interested apprentices and a small team of helpers to contribute to his work.

  In general, Ba’Salt thought the work was relatively simple. His team was instructed to intercept young travelers that might hold value for Gramit’s research. With careful consideration, the city never realized that his team was picking off travelers, and they operated with impunity for years. A few years back Gramit got too greedy and started buying or abducting people in the city, and most of the researchers were wiped out. His team, however, was out catching another promising target and thus was spared.

  Sometimes Ba’Salt wondered if what they were doing was the right thing. Especially when he was restocking and retraining the attack abominations. He often recognized who the abominations were before Gramit ruined them. However, he never let that interfere with his duty. As much as he disliked it, Gramit's work was supported by the clan, and thus it was his duty to enable its continuation.

  He never would’ve guessed the day everything came crashing down would do so in a tide of shit. He and the others didn’t hesitate to bail from the operation, but the others were faster and thus were strung up in nets, clearing his way to escape. It was a near thing with an archer’s arrow clipping his leg. Still, despite all the odds against him, he made it to the panic base. He would wait a day watching for any pursuers and then report to Gramit, but as he waited in the panic shelter, the stench haunted him. Despite escaping quickly, he hadn’t been spared from getting soaked in filth, and the shelter had no cleaning equipment. The best he could do was take off his clothes and use bandages to try wiping himself, but there wasn’t nearly enough to clean himself.

  Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction