With my eyes adjusted to the low light, I finally got a good look at her. White hair. Ice-blue yes. A face that could have been anyone honestly, remarkable only in how utterly unremarkable it was. My gaze slid off details as if my eyes were gummed up with sleep.
I walked softly, past Methol who lay curled up under a blanket, and Crystal who snuggled up on her horde of knickknacks. Tusk snored loudly.
Eternity finally fluttered down to my shoulder as I approached what I thought was the edge of Crystal’s lamp. My shadow, cast by the dying fire, plunged her features into darkness. Only the eyes remained shining.
“Klaus, you should not speak to her,” Eternity warned again, its tone as monotone as ever. “She is not someone that can give you answers you need.”
Be that as it may, this nobody was human. Or, at the very least, human-shaped. Even after such a short time on Oresstria, I found myself craving another human face and at least some familiar interaction. Fantasy land is all fine and dandy, until you realise how alone you are among rabbit-people, ant-people, goddesses, and half-elves.
Funny enough, I didn’t even want actual answers to my questions just then.
Why I was there. What lay in store for me. Where I was headed. All those would clear up on their own in time. I could wait. One foot in front of the other would get me where I was going with no rush.
Here, I just wanted to talk. Nothing more. Eternity’s edging me along with “I cannot say” so often just left me craving a normal fucking conversation.
“Hey,” I whispered again. “Can you understand me?”
As I approached, the night took on a whimsical feel. Light danced on the trees and the silver leaves reflected it back, almost brighter the closer I got, softer and hazier. Wind whispered through the canopy, its breath climbing and slowing like a giant heartbeat. Some insect chirped loudly and was followed by a splash in the water.
But no answer.
A feeling of unreality washed over me, like stepping out into a dream, the tether of reality falling behind.
I felt Eternity on my shoulder, like a hand gripping me and trying to hold me back, but whose weight wasn’t enough to even slow me. Odd that. It grew darker among the tree line, a pitch black out of which only those blue eyes shined out. Only them and nothing else.
“Come,” whispered the wind. “Don’t be afraid.” I think I imagined the words.
Without thinking, I nearly passed the threshold. I could feel Crystal’s protection waning as I got within maybe ten steps of the woman. Like pulling aside a heavy curtain to stare at the morning sun. This lamp wasn’t quite like Crystal’s borough lamp, its effect much weaker and less sticky. I felt it lifting off me, like a ghost touch that had no power to keep me from leaving.
Then something grabbed my shoulder with force like a vice and yanked me back just as I was about to step beneath the silver canopy.
I stumbled back and nearly fell, but the same force that pulled now propped me up, a firm hand on my upper back, heavy breath on the back of my neck.
“Don’t move,” Methol’s voice hissed in my ear, distorted with echoes.
Of course I looked back at her. She wore the dungeon set of plate. The gauntlets on her hand were midnight black, their knuckles spiked. Energy crackled across the smooth metal when she stepped in front of me. She towered over me in that getup, and her steps sounded like she was marching to war.
“Wait.”
I reached out to grab her arm. A jolt of lightning turned the bones in my hand straight to jelly, the shock so strong that my vision flashed bright red. I yanked my hand away with a cry, stuffing it in my opposite armpit. Whatever had hold of me suddenly loosened, reality’s grip reasserting itself.
I was in danger! A lot of it!
“You never go near these things,” Methol growled as she raised her fists.
Several mana shards came alive across her armoured back, like eyes staring balefully at me. Power streamed off them to light up her entire gear until she looked like something out of Stormlight Archives.
Ever appeared on her shoulder, fur all fluffed up, ears laid flat across its back. I half-expected the dew drop to comment something about breach of protocol or some other shit. But she she remained silent and emanated a low-thrum of anger.
I cradled my hand as feeling began returning with pins and needles. Methol stalked forward, fists raised, all of her alight with mana.
“Not very sporting of you,” she said. “He’s barely arrived. Mitts off.”
The woman didn’t answer. Her eyes didn’t waver from me. I wanted to go over to her but Methol’s wide back was in the way.
Absurdly, for a moment, I thought about attacking the drake-born.
When Methol passed the point where I’d been just a moment earlier, something changed in the air. The spell broke. All of a sudden the night became black and threatening, those inviting eyes turned terrifyingly empty, and the night’s chill smashed into me. That soft glow I felt turned to cold hard dread.
Worst of all, the wind no longer whispered. I could hear a single world repeated on and on: “Insect.”
Not fucking creepy at all!
What sealed it, however, and wrote the moment into my memory forever as a cold lump of fear to draw on whenever I need a cautionary reminder about Nobodies, was that Methol did not go out into the forest. She stopped maybe four paces ahead of me. The invisible ward she’d set up shimmered just a couple centimetres away from her.
Past that was the woman. And her eyes were glued to me. Just pinpricks of light, dead and cold. I wanted them gone.
It took all I had not to turn around and bolt. I recognized distantly that only the lamp’s protection and Methol’s barrier kept me safe in that moment. And it had been that way since I left Carmill Hill, each night protected by Crystal’s wards.
What would’ve happened, I wondered, had I actually been alone?! A shudder sent my back into painful spasms. Even if the thing didn’t say anything, I felt the weight of its gaze and the terror it stirred within me, like an ache in the bones.
I’d never been more afraid of anything in my life.
For the first time, she opened her mouth. The voice coming out was strange and distorted, like Eternity’s when it got into a huff. High pitch melted and confused with low, like a glitching audio recording, speeding up and slowing.
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“You are in breach, Protector,” the woman said. “You have no business here. You have no business intervening.”
“Where I go is my business,” Methol shot back. She straightened and squared her back and stood taller, hands balled into spiky fists at her side. “I’m in no mood to destroy one of you tonight. Go away, or I might change my mind.”
I could’ve done a better job at feigning bravado. Methol, for all her boasting, couldn’t keep a shiver from rattling her glowing suit. Even her voice trembled, though she did a good job disguising it as anger.
“Insect,” the wind rustled.
The woman tilted her head to peer at me past Methol. “Do you wish to be a pawn, little candidate? Or do you wish to master your own fate? Be a king? Be a god?” Her words were aimed squarely at me and the tone sweetened. “See your true potential realised?”
“Don’t listen to her. It’s all lies.” Methol took a step sideways to cut off the woman’s line of sight. “It’s not a real offer. Her kind devour those gullible enough to listen to them.”
“Insect,” the water gurgled.
“You are not needed here, Protector,” the woman said. She took a gliding step forward. One moment she was beneath the trees, the next she was pressed against the barrier, in full light of Methol’s armour, so close to the drake-born they could slap each other. She still wore the same casual Earth-style clothes, a button-up shirt with some jeans. “You’re alone out here. Do you think you could be enough to resist me? The only reason this fresh one still roams is that I have already fed this cycle.” Her lips drew back over sharp fangs, the human visage now utterly gone. “I am well-fed, Protector.”
Eternity took off from my shoulder and flew away. I chanced a glance after it and saw the dragon settling atop the lamp. Its glow grew brighter again, and the air fizzed with power.
The thing—because I was not going to call it a woman after hearing what it said—took a step back and narrowed its icy eyes.
“I’m not alone,” Methol growled. “Did you forget? Protectors are never alone.” Electricity ignited all across her arms and a buzzing noise drowned out the whispers around us, like a turbine coming to life and revving up. Steam escaped from somewhere under her armour. “The question is if you can escape me before Tiamat gets here.” She laughed hollowly as the thing drew back another half step. “Oh, you know him. You all know him.”
I found myself caught on the edges of a conflict that had my hair standing on end. Whatever forces were about to clash, I knew with dead certainty that I was far outmatched. All I could do was step away and let Methol deal with this, if she even could.
The smart thing to do would’ve been to step back, rouse Crystal and Tusk, and hunker down with them whatever was to happen happened.
But, as Methol had remarked earlier, I can be a bit dim.
Instead of running, I stepped forward, shook my hand until feeling was returned, then brandished my sword and set a mental finger on the Ignis rune. Fuck safety.
“I don’t really go for the grand stuff,” I said, forcing myself to sound unafraid.
With me finally thinking straight, my risk assessment also came alive and showed the kind of result that turn bowels to water.
[Nobody [???]]
[Threat assessment: [???]]
I assumed that was really bad bad news. The “nobody” bit was cute, I had to admit. Less an insult, more a description. I’d been right the first time around with Eternity.
Methol looked like she wanted to object to my presence for a moment, then wisely clammed up. I could not have looked more ridiculous in that moment, but I didn’t care. As before, I had no idea what I got myself into, but instinct dictated it was in my best interest to not even acknowledge the thing’s offer.
Never wanted to be a king. A god even less so. I never even wanted a management position while back home. Fuck that noise. I work alone and I’m really good at it, and that’s all I want out of life. Peace. Quiet. The satisfaction of a job done well.
I’m simple like that.
“So, who the fuck are you?” I asked as I pressed a thumb to my blade’s edge. The Ignis came live with an evil glow as my blood coated the edge. For effect, I flashed the rune once, like revving up a chainsaw.
To my satisfaction, the Nobody took a step back and narrowed its eyes even further. Methol advanced, so I did too. We were pressed right against the barrier, the comforting weight of it hanging on my shoulders and pressing against my chest.
“Tiamat’s coming, Klaus,” Methol said. “We need to hold her here until he arrives. Don’t let her lay hands on you.”
Just for context, we were two rather big people—yay for idealised body—staring down a woman that was barely a metre and a half tall, who looked to weigh about fifty kilos when wet. The irony of the moment was not lost on me, but I didn’t really think it a great time to point it out to anyone else.
“Got it,” I said and prepared [Adrenaline surge] and [Eye track].
Whatever a Nobody could do, I’d at least make sure I wasn’t going to get blitzed. Because that would’ve been bloody humiliating after posturing so hard.
We didn’t get the chance to engage. With one baleful glare at us, the Nobody disappeared back into the forest. It glided away quick and quiet as a ghost. The whole “insect” bit went away as well, the wind and water returning to their mundane natural sounds.
I’ve never been happier to hear bubbling brook.
I didn’t move from the spot until Methol did. The moment she dropped her arms and dismissed whatever power she’d summoned, I also dropped the sword and exhaled loudly. My heart raced and thundered in my eardrums.
I crumpled to my haunches and dragged in deep gasps of chill night air. In the last seconds, the pressure had been a physical thing, suffocating in its intensity. The thing could test our barriers, I was sure of it. Maybe my threat analysis couldn’t understand what it was dealing with, but my danger sense skill had gotten a pretty good impression. And it was a wonder I wasn’t crapping myself.
“Good thing it didn’t decide to stick around,” Methol said in a small voice as she let out her own heavy breath.
“There’s no one coming, right?” I asked in a whisper, just to confirm what I’d suspected. “You were just stalling for time.”
“Mhm.” Methol still scanned the forest, her head moving side to side slowly. “She’s actually gone. Ran off entirely. That’s not going to work a second time.”
“The fuck was that?” I cringed a little at how shrill my voice came out, but I didn’t much care in the moment.
“Nobody,” Methol answered, almost deadpan. “A Nobody, more precisely. Agents of absolute order. You never talk to them. Remember that.”
“You were talking,” I protested.
“To get her focus off you, dolt. You have no idea how close you came to your own death.” Her helmet disappeared as did all her gear, to be replaced by the common clothes she usually wore. “Always listen to Eternity when she tells you no. It’s for your own bloody safety.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
My stomach threatened revolt and I felt scorching vomit in the back of my throat. In the moment it had seemed like such an idea to step up and help. Looking back… what the fuck had I been thinking?! That thing was insanely out of my league.
“Is that a vampire or something?” I tried to crack a jokey tone, but only managed to wilt under the idea. “Why is it only coming at night?”
“Because Areestra isn’t overhead.” Methol turned her back to the forest with a last lingering gaze, then headed towards me. She yanked me up to my feet by my pits. “Come on, up you go. Enough wallowing. Big, bad human lookalike is gone now. You can stop being dramatic.”
For a moment I wanted to protest. Then realised I was being a little drama queen, and hauled myself to my feet.
“It’s going to come back, isn’t it?” I stayed, rooted to the spot, and glared at the Brightleaf.
“Of course.”
“And you’re leaving.”
Methol sat by the fire and stabbed at it with a stick. Sparks rose into the air and the little flames came alive again, filling the camp with their light.
Ever and Eternity sat together, talking in that silent way of theirs. Whatever they had to discuss must’ve been important, as Ever remained floofed up.
By now the cold seeped into my bones and I shivered. Reluctantly, I turned my back to the forest and joined Methol by the fire.
“If you can, barter for one of those.” Methol pointed with the charred stick towards Crystal’s lamp. “It’s not spectacularly powerful, but it’ll still keep a Nobody out. Keep the flame low and the protected area narrow, and you should be fine until you get something a bit more powerful. Look for artisans in larger cities, and ask for night wards.”
Before I said anything, she added. “I can’t give you gear. All my things are specifically tailored to myself. They only activate for me. Except for this one.”
A small ring appeared in her hand and she held it out to me. “Call it a parting gift. Your Nobody stalker confirmed I’m on the right path for my own mission, so I don’t want that trail growing cold.”
I took the ring and studied it. My inventory identified it as a [Planar expansion ring - Small].
“Don’t tell Ever.” Methol winked but her face kept that haunted look. “Don’t sell it off even if you get better stuff. I’ll want it back.”
“Will you be alright?” I slipped the ringer on my finger. It was a bit large but, like the gloves, it shrank to fit my hand. My inventory suddenly showed an Reality Marble tab, but I didn’t check it out yet. “Not without the ring. I expect you have more. About your mission? Can I help?”
Methol shook her head.
“I need to leave you be on your way, Klaus. Even if you could help, I couldn’t accept it.” She gave me a lopsided grin. “If I took you along, big Eternity might decide I’m overstepping and physically separate me from you. It’s happened before. Tiamat got sent to the other side of Oresstria, two continents away. The one rule we can’t break is diverting a candidate’s path. You’re on your own.”
I chuckled. “And if I decide my path’s with you?”
A look of horror spread on her face as she turned to me in a panic. “Don’t joke with tha—”
In a flash of light and without a sound, Methol was gone.