Chương 59

Watch how they speak, son. How they stand. It will tell you much. Deep among his Chartermark, buried beneath a mile of gilded knotwork, folded stars, and partially filled progress bars were a series of cascading lines. They were obscured by distance, but once Harker's attention sharpened through the dross, they were unavoidable. A wild, criss-crossing net filled the gaps between stars, a series of curving lines that woven through each other with dizzying detail. Harker reached out.

The lines immediately tightened around his grasp, drawing forth a series of bright spots that flooded his vision. Meaning followed, rolling into his mind like a whisper in the dark. In Sea And Stone, Our Solemn Pact Is Sealed; Though Blood Be Spent, The Bargain Shall Be Kept. Come, Learn Beneath The Waxing Of The Moon; For Every Debt Must Yield Its Promised Boon. A voice followed the meaning like an echo through a cave.

It lilted through the words—a bouncy, almost playful cadence that almost hid the empty animosity behind it. Certainty flooded Harker; these were not the words of a person. Eidhrin. Did they make the Charterstones? What Bargain did the Nine Spires make with them? And why? The lines rolled upward, flowing in the wake of the spoken stanza. They flashed around him, resolving into new words. New meaning, each layered beneath one of the progress bars. Ordeals In Progress…

The Ordeal Of Maelstrom's Passage - The Trial Of Power - 22% BOON: Expanded Reservoir The Ordeal Of Blackwake's Descent - The Trial Of Truth - 5% BOON: Strengthened Tributaries The Ordeal Of Breaking Reef - The Trial Of Change - 25% BOON: Strengthened Locks The Ordeal Of Tidal Climb - The Trial Of Resilience - 30% BOON: Strengthened Skin The Ordeal of Deep Lantern - The Trial Of Harmony - 34% BOON: Strengthened Blood The Ordeal of Drowning Sky - The Trial Of Vigilance - 27% BOON: Strengthened Organs The Ordeal of Mist and Foam - The Trial Of Stillness - 28% BOON: Strengthened Muscle The Ordeal of Siren's Undertow - The Trial Of Judgment - 35% BOON: Strengthened Bones The Ordeal of Abyssal Plunge - The Trial Of Ambition - 39% BOON: Evolved Current Sacred Depths…

Harker leaned back, Talent nearly toppling from his control. The magister had said the top three in the rankings would earn a Boon, but he was certain Sivak hadn't meant this. If Harker completed all nine Ordeals, he would be fundamentally changed… and his place in the rankings would almost certainly be guaranteed. It stirred the question that had been knocking around his head ever since he'd discovered the progress bars. Why did people not know you could complete the Ordeals ahead of time?

Harker pressed his bandaged hand against the wall. It was cool against his palm. Who provides these Boons? If it's the Academy, then I'll imagine they want to restrict access to their resources. Leaving the Ordeals up to the Tribunal to decide… it meant that the Nine Spires had the final say over who was worthy of investment. His lip curled at the bare wall. It all came back to control. The Chartermark trembled again, this time pulling his attention toward the first piece he'd discovered. The countdown?

Numbers flickered, second by second. Less than three months remained to reach the Travelspire. More than enough time, in Harker's estimation—but the Academy seemed far less optimistic. Harker poked at it, grasping around it in the same way he'd seized the hidden evidence of Boons. Just as before, something tightened against him. Harker heaved, pulling everything forward. His stomach lurched and lungs ached as gold skittered up his left arm. Below the numbers, new lines unfolded as if rising from the deep.

These were different from all the rest—the lines were shorter and thicker, with edges that appeared almost serrated. As if they'd been scrawled by an entirely different hand. Addendum #344: Penance Mark The Stones. Region Locked [Phaar]. Travelspire #03 [Vodaten] Failure To Report = Penance Activated Harker ran his tongue over his teeth. Everyone knew of the penalty for not reaching the Travelspire, but no one could ever say what it entailed. Even now, after he'd retrieved…

whatever this was, Harker was still left in the cold. So he pulled harder. Something shifted, deep below his Chartermark. In the depths, golden lines flashed and flexed. A rush like a flood-gorged river howled in his ears, though perhaps that was only his blood as it pounded through his veins. Then silence. Gold rose up through the silvered-dark. PENANCE: Sundered Reservoir Harker couldn't help it; he laughed. Of course. Work for us… or not at all.

"Harker?" Adhira groaned from across the room.

"Abyss, man, it's barely dawn."

"Indeed." He cut off his Talent.

"Time to get moving."

"You're awfully chipper," Adhira groused. Her belongings were packed and her armor had been refitted onto her slight frame, but her hair remained frazzled.

"How long have you been up?"

"Didn't sleep." Harker gestured.

"Do you mind?" Adhira finished tying up her hair—a swift miracle of complicated gestures that confounded Harker. She walked past him, softly clanking.

"This'll be loud."

"What do you—?" She swung her fist at the Bulwark. In a flash of blue-green radiance, it shattered into a dozen slabs that exploded outward in a rush of hardened shrapnel. A high, keening noise crawled across Harker's ears and he shook his head, trying to dislodge it.

"Sorry," she said through a wide grin.

"It's the only way to take 'em down." Harker frowned. She didn't seem sorry at all. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Wait, no sleep at all?" Harker shrugged.

"I thought you said the ground was fine?" Harker walked outside. The storm had broken but rain still came down in a steady drizzle.

"It was." Adhira followed, axe and pack in hand.

"But you didn't sleep."

"Too busy for it." She pulled a face.

"Madman. Sleep is…it's the best thing apart from fighting. Or eating."

"Yes, what sort of monster doesn't allow others to sleep?" Stillwater stood under the Charterstone. A scattering of Bulwark debris collected at his feet. He kicked them.

"Oh, perhaps a beast that couldn't give a single warning that the salted door was gonna explode!" Harker rolled his eyes. The Gilken was alive and unharmed.

"Speaking of eating, here." Adhira shoved a scrap of hard bread and nuts into his hands.

"I'm assuming you haven't eaten since last night." Harker looked at the food.

"... I haven't."

"Thought not. You dedicated types don't think about the practical things enough." She batted his shoulder with the back of her hand.

"Eat. You'll need the energy. I don't plan on stoppin' until noon."" Humans," Stillwater spat.

"Learn to stay still for a few days." Adhira hefted her pack and surveyed the way ahead.

"Looks like the storm did damage." That was an understatement. The cliff curved ahead, bending inward toward the broken fortifications, but now it was all coated in a thick layer of soil that had run off the upper slopes. Rock and mud clogged the path, cut only by the streams that poured from above. Those rushed through the trail and over the cliff, shallow but fierce. With Adhira in the lead, they pick their way across. It's slow going and soggy.

His boots were soaked within minutes, the weatherproofing less than adequate against the constant flow. Mud and gravel threatened to topple them with every step. Adhira tried to raise a Bulwark early on, but the water and mud was moving too fast to handle. Her walls were overcome in seconds—not broken, just subsumed, adding new humps to the trail's architecture. At some point a heavy weight added itself to Harker's pack—Stillwater clung to it like a cat hiding from a bath.

"I thought," he grunted as he lifted his foot through the sucking mud.

"That you liked rivers?"

"Eidhrin are born to them…but this is of the mountains. The earth. It is not our domain."

"Admit it. You just don't want to get muddy."

"Being swept off the face of this cliff is reason enough, human. Now…" he slapped at Harker's head.

"Onward!" Harker was tempted to hurl the little cretin off his back, but while the roar of rain, river, and mud hid his soft conversation from Adhira, it would not suffice for a pitched battle against the Eidhrin. He trudged forward. Carefully. Fueled by kaffa and the prospect of nine separate Boons, Harker felt as if he had accessed new reserves within himself. Each step was strong, purposeful, and an eagerness clung to him firmer than Stillwater.

If he were lucky, he could push his Resilience Ordeal up by a few percentage points. Stillness too, considering how they were required to wait and time their crossings with the ebb and flow from upslope. He pulsed Sovereign Sight with every step, filtering out the chaos of the coursing rivers and focusing on how firm the ground was ahead. It was easier than before. Whether due to practice or some aspect of his tributaries and tiny Current, Harker was unsure.

Whatever the reason, his Talent made their traversal far more trivial than he expected. That won't do. He had Ordeals to complete. So he started experimenting. Harker pulsed his Talent but instead of immediately letting go, he held it, letting the radius linger for three seconds. It fed him more information, naturally, but it wasn't nearly enough to make him lightheaded. Even when he pushed the radius to four and a half feet. He pushed harder. Pulse. Hold. Step.

Each stride across the trail was a perilous battle of knowledge versus untethered force. Rainwater gushed down narrow ravines and flat surfaces from above, bringing with it muck and dislodged stone. His focus was increasing the same as his range, and details sank into Harker's awareness with barely a ripple. Between one step and the next, the water thinned for a moment. Harker pulsed Sovereign Sight. His step was clear… but upslope was a different matter entirely.

A sharp retort was the only warning before an angular black bough thicker than his thigh tumbled straight for him. He pushed back, water gushing up over his shins, but the branch was too large to avoid. Adhira was there. She wrapped her arms around his midsection as the thick branch hit. It bounced off her back, driving the both of them forward for a single heavy step before she stabilized. She gasped, eyes wide and hands clutching onto Harker's hips as she tried to catch her breath.

"Are you alright?" he half-shouted over the rush.

"I'll be fine," she managed after several seconds. She tilted her head back, pain writ across her mouth and brow in bold letters.

"I'll have a mighty bruise by tonight, though."

"You…" He held his arms aloft, careful not to touch her.

"You can let go of me now." She flinched, hands leaping off his hips as if she'd been burned.

"Right." She cleared her throat.

"Keep moving then!" Harker did just that. He certainly didn't want to dwell on how warm her hands felt. Or how soft her expression had been. Or the silver in her eyes. Stop. Idiot. He eyed the cliff. Perhaps falling to his death wouldn't have been so bad. For two hours they trudged across the uneven chaos of the upper slopes. Thankfully they weren't fighting to climb any longer, but that meant descending amid sluicing runoff and dislodged roots.

More than a few branches joined their path, though Harker made sure to keep a careful eye out for them. What he didn't expect was the ground giving way. Harker scrambled, stones crumbling as the dirt sloughed away rapidly. He twisted his body, reaching for anything to leverage himself, but his pack was too much. It yanked him, spinning him to the ledge, and Stillwater lost his grip.

"Human!" Harker heaved backward, throwing himself toward the cliff. Stillwater's feet, still tangled among the straps, were hauled with him, and the pair crashed sideways into the muck.

"Grabbalebhalhg!" The Gilken shoved Harker over and stood from the streaming soup of mud and cold water. His clothes were dripping and his finned ears drooped like they were going to fall off.

"Disgusting slop!" Harker pushed himself up onto a knee. His body hummed with adrenaline and it was the only thing that kept him from biting through his tongue as the chill set in.

"Are you alright?"

"You fell on me! Of course I'm not alright!" Harker stood.

"Forget I asked." A warming hum stretched between the pair of them. Stature thickened, like a muscle clenched against Harker's chest. It grew? Because I saved his life?

"It means nothing." Harker raised an eyebrow.

"Are you reading my thoughts now?"

"Nothing worth reading." Stillwater gnashed his teeth, spitting out a mouthful of brownish gravel.

"I would have survived." The warmth faded. That connection he felt between himself and Stillwater—the Bargain itself—thinned. Harker glanced meaningfully at the edge.

"Really? That's at least two hundred feet down." The connection thickened. Stillwater adjusted his waistcoat.

"Hardier than we look, us Gilken." It thinned again. I see how it is. Words formed the Bargain, and words could weaken it, it seemed. Harker adjusted his pack. It was waterproofed, thankfully, so it was in far better condition than his sodden clothes.

"Then you'll manage walking by yourself." He strode off.

"Now let's not be hasty!" Stillwater scrambled after him, muck oozing up to his hips.

"I was simply telling you that I'm—""That you're hale, healthy, and more than capable on your own," Harker finished.

"I get it."

"Do you, now?" Yellow eyes narrowed at him.

"Stone and Sea. You do." Harker knelt down, offering his pack to the Gilken.

"Can I save you from this mess?" Teeth gnashing, Stillwater latched onto his back." I accept."

"Everything alright back there?" Adhira shouted from behind a pounding, temporary waterfall. Stillwater grumbled but clung tightly to his pack, their Bargain hummed, unspoken but stronger than ever. Harker grinned.

"We're just fine." Adhira grumbled something but continued forward. Harker followed.

"Child." Stillwater's voice was soft over the rush, but it was sharp.

"What now?" Harker ducked behind the falling stream of another impromptu waterfall.

"More arguments?" The Gilken didn't answer right away, however. When Harker looked over his shoulder, his teeth were bared.

"Something is following us." A figure loomed beyond the fall of rivulets, half hidden by the outcropping and gloom-fed shadows. They were wrapped in a familiar white cloak, though it was tattered at the edges and barely covered the tall, lanky man's thighs. A voice, raspy and broken, rattled from beneath their deep hood.

"Found you, boy."