Rune Seeker - Book 3: Chapter 75: Splitting The Party

“Pardon?” Seena said to Hiral.

“This Will of the Island, a voice speaking to the Artists, it has to be one of the Fallen. Who or what else would know about an Infested down on the Grower islands? It must’ve brought Fitch up here to… to what? If it’s talking, it’s awake. It must still be trapped within the crystal. That’s what it needs Fitch for.”

“Can Fitch destroy one of those?” Seeyela asked. “Odi was pretty confident even Ur’Thul wouldn’t be able to crack open the one we put around the Urn.”

“What are you all talking about?” Gauto asked. “Fallen? Urn? What’s an o-dee?”

“The Spear of Clouds,” Seena said, ignoring Gauto. “It’s an S-Rank weapon. It might be strong enough.”

“Fitch can’t be S-Rank, though,” Seeyela countered. “That… that Rank disparity thing means he can’t use its full power.”

“Yanily did…” Seena pointed out.

“She’s right,” Hiral said. “The spear has the ability to remove Rank disparity at the cost of some of the user’s life. The Infested is probably strong enough it doesn’t have to outright kill itself to use enough of the spear’s power to break the crystal.”

“Still doesn’t explain what Fitch gets out of it,” Seeyela said. “We’re assuming he’s one of those Refined Infested, which means he agreed to let the Enemy in. He’s still partially in control.”

“Revenge for his sister?” Seena offered. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. We’ll ask him when we find him. Where is he? That’s where we’re going.”

“The Fallen?” Hiral asked.

“You’ll figure something out,” Seena said evenly.

“Me?”

“You. So, stop worrying about the problem and start solving it.”

“No pressure or anything.”

“None. We’ve got your back, no matter what.”

“Hiral, you didn’t exactly explain who these two are,” Gauto said. “In fact, you didn’t explain at all, but I’m getting a bit of a vibe here…”

“Gauto… Seena, Seeyela, Left, Right,” Hiral said, introducing the rest of the party to his friend.

Gauto lowered his head into his hands, then stepped over to Left and Right and lifted his hands to their shoulders. “Obviously he named you. I’m… so sorry. Uh, but who are you?”

“Manifestations of an ability I got on the surface,” Hiral said. “No, don’t even start. We’ll talk about it after we deal with Fitch, the Fallen, and the storm. Not necessarily in that order. Where can we find him?”

“Well, finding him and getting to him could be two very different things,” Gauto said. “He’s been surrounded nonstop by Artists and Shapers. You’re not going to be able to find him alone.”

“Artists don’t fight, right?” Seena asked.

“Not really,” Hiral said.

“How many Shapers, then?”

“A dozen, minimum, but up to a hundred,” Gauto said. “The insurgents took over a section of the art district to make their home base during the fighting. That’s where they all were before I came here.”

“What were you doing here, anyway?” Seena asked. “Hiding?”

Gauto pointed down into the pit. “Weapons. The Artists and Shapers have mostly ignored us Academics, but I don’t know how long that’ll last.”

“You wanted the weapons so you could fight back,” Hiral reasoned. “They’re all E- or D-Rank, though. They wouldn’t do you much good.”

“All E- or D-Rank?” Gauto asked. “How do you know that?”

“We have an ability called View we got on the surface. Lets us see Rank.” Hiral shook his head. “And stop asking questions! I promise, when we have time, I’ll tell you everything.”

“A dozen Shapers is probably too much for us,” Left said, bringing the conversation back on track. “Let alone a hundred.”

“Academics—even with the weapons—aren’t going to even the odds,” Right added.

“Grower reinforcements?” Seeyela suggested.

“Not enough time to get them up here,” Hiral said. “At least, not enough of them, even with the Disc of Passage we found.” He held up a hand to forestall Gauto when his mouth started to open after mention of the disc. “No, we need Shapers of our own.”

“All the Shapers who fought back are injured,” Gauto pointed out. “And they already lost. They won’t be much good.”

“Not those ones,” Hiral said. “You said Loan was one of the ones in the prison? How many others are there?”

“I don’t know. A lot? Shapers all over the city surrendered when the insurgents took the hostages.”

“Enough to fight back, if we can get them to join us?” Seena pushed.

“Definitely,” Gauto said. “The insurgents took the hostages because they weren’t sure they could win against these Shapers. Add in how pissed they’re going to be at having their families kidnapped? Yeah, they’d be enough.”

“So, we need to go to this prison and break them out,” Seeyela said. “No, wait. That won’t work. As long as their families are still held hostage, they won’t fight. We need to free the hostages first…”

“But as soon as we do that, the insurgents will figure out what we’re up to,” Seena finished for her sister.

“We need to do both at the same time,” Hiral reasoned. “Free the hostages and break the Shapers out of the prison before Fitch and his allies know what we’re doing.” As soon as the words left his mouth, a pair of notification windows sprang up one after the other.

Dynamic Quest

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Under the guise of assistance, Enemy forces have infiltrated Fallen Reach.

To get past the army surrounding the Infested, you’ll need an army of your own.

Break the Shapers out of their prison.

Note: A zone-wide notification will go out when prison break is complete.

Note (2): Prison break must occur within 15 minutes of hostage rescue, or the insurgents will have time to mount a counterattack.

When Hiral finished reading the note, the notification window dropped away for the second to take its place.

Dynamic Quest

Under the guise of assistance, Enemy forces have infiltrated Fallen Reach.

Friends and family have been taken hostage to keep possible allies out of the fight.

Free the hostages to gain new partners.

Note: A zone-wide notification will go out when hostage rescue is complete.

Note (2): Hostage rescue must occur within 15 minutes of prison break, or the insurgents will have time to mount a counterattack.

“You got the two notifications?” Hiral asked Seena and Seeyela. Both women nodded. “A zone-wide notification as well? That’s new. Explains why we’ll only have fifteen minutes before the insurgents come down on us.”

“Do we even need to go to the prison, then?” Seena asked. “Won’t they break out on their own once they see the notification?”

Hiral shook his head. “Eventually, maybe. But the people set to guard the prison usually have tattoos which make that very difficult. Barrier tattoos. Reinforcement tattoos. Trap and debuff tattoos. The prisoners would probably be able to get out with enough effort, just not in time. The prison also has crystals that absorb solar energy, so depending on how long the Shapers have been there, they might be completely out of energy already.”

“Hiral’s right,” Gauto added. “The guards outside the prison need to be taken care of before they can activate their tattoos. Or after, I guess. Either way, it needs to happen outside the prison.”

“And the prison and the Amphitheatre of the Sun aren’t close to each other,” Hiral added. “Definitely not within fifteen minutes if we aren’t using our mounts.”

“There are also the Oath Stones,” Gauto said.

“Oath Stones?” Seena asked.

“Magic stones that enforce promises or agreements,” Hiral said. “They use them mainly in the arena as guarantees people won’t cheat. If somebody breaks their promise—or the rules of a duel—the stones give them a very nasty debuff. Similar to System Shock, but it also completely disables their PIM for more than a week.”

“What’s a pim?” Gauto asked.

“They use the stones at the prison as well,” Hiral went on as if Gauto hadn’t spoken. “Make the prisoners promise they won’t try to escape.”

“So, how are we going to make this work?” Seeyela asked. “If they promised they can’t leave, or they lose their abilities when they do… neither of those is good for us?”

“The oaths usually have a time limit, but that’s not how we’re going to do it,” Hiral said quickly when both sisters opened their mouths to object. “The other way is to either get the person they made the promise with to release them… or to remove that person.”

“Remove?”

“Unconscious, or move them outside the range of the stones, which is about half a mile, I think?” Hiral asked Gauto the last part.

“About that,” Gauto said.

“They probably made both sets of prisoners bind themselves to the guards through the Oath Stones,” Hiral said. “Once we take care of the guards present, that should make it so they can leave.”

Seena immediately rubbed the bridge of her nose. “You’re suggesting we split up. We already don’t have a full party, and you want to break us up even more?”

“I don’t want to,” Hiral said, “but I also don’t see any other choice. We can stay in contact and coordinate via the Party Interface. We’ll scout out what we’re up against, then decide if we can handle it.”

“We don’t have time to change the plan after we get there,” Seeyela pointed out. “If we do this, we’re committing to it. I’m guessing it’s me and Seena together?”

“And Gauto,” Hiral said. “He’ll guide you to the prison.”

“I will?” Gauto then nodded. “I mean, I will.”

“Don’t do anything reckless,” Seena said, stepping up very close to Hiral. “And you two, keep him out of trouble,” she said to the doubles without taking her eyes off him.

“We’ll do our best,” Left said weakly.

“Let’s be honest—not making any promises,” Right added.

“You were supposed to reassure me,” Seena pointed out.

“Would’ve been able to tell we were lying,” Left said.

“Hiral,” Seena started, but she stopped when he put his hands on her shoulders.

“I know. I’ll be as careful as I can be, but we can’t lose here. And we’ve already spent too long talking about this. It’s going to take you nearly thirty minutes to get to the prison on foot. That’s not even taking into account breaking out the Shapers. We’re all going to do what we need to do to save the islands. Even if it means taking a few risks.”

Seena held his eyes, then reached up and put one hand on top of his. “I hate that you’re right. And that we don’t have more time before we split up. That six months feels like such a waste right now…”

“We’ll be back together soon enough,” Hiral said. “Don’t worry.”

“Really feeling a vibe here,” Gauto said, standing beside Seeyela. “Are they…? You know?”

“It’s complicated,” Seeyela said. “Time compression, implanted memories, pocket worlds inside pocket worlds. You know, the usual.”

“Ah, of course. The usual.” Gauto just shook his head.

Seena smiled at the exchange, then patted Hiral’s hand once more. “Don’t forget our promise of later.”

“I’ve been looking forward to it for months,” Hiral said. “I know this great cheese shop near the port. And there’s a place that sells wine right next to it that’s supposed to be really good.”

“Your treat? Count me in,” Seena said, stepping back. Another few seconds of meeting Hiral’s eyes, and she turned to face Gauto and Seeyela—who were both smirking. “How many guards at the prison?”

“With the threat of the hostages, there won’t be many,” Gauto said. “Minimal presence at most.”

“Still a Shaper presence,” Hiral pointed out. “These quests mean we’re walking into Mid-Bosses, or the equivalent. We have B-Rank Shapers up here, and by the look on Gauto’s face right now, some of them are on the side of the insurgents. How many?”

“I don’t have an exact count, but I know at least Vule and Jukil.”

Hiral immediately tensed at the names, long-buried anxiety rearing its head.

“You know them?” Seeyela asked, spotting his body language.

“Two of the instructors who failed me during my Shaper test,” Hiral said.

“All ten times,” Gauto reminded him.

“Expect one of them at each location,” Hiral said. “It’s too convenient. Gauto, explain what you know about them both on the way.”

“Sure. But, uh, sorry, Hiral. I need to ask one question. Can you use your tattoos finally?”

“Hrm? No. Left can use some of them, though.”

“But you’re E-Rank. How can you talk about B-Ranks like it’s no big thing?”

“Three reasons,” Hiral said, holding up a trio of fingers. “One, we have to. I doubt we’ll have the luxury of avoiding them, so we might as well plan for them.”

“Okay. And the second?”

Hiral let one finger fall so that only two remained. “We’re not E-Rank.”

“You made it to D-Rank already? What? No way!”

“We’re C-Rank, actually,” Hiral said, and Gauto’s jaw dropped. “Really. Not lying.”

“Even if I believe that—which I’m kind of struggling with, though somehow it wouldn’t be the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard today—what’s the third reason?”

Hiral pulled in his other finger so only one remained, then pointed over his shoulder.

“The broken sword?”

“That’s the Emperor’s Greatsword,” Hiral said. “And I’m looking forward to introducing my old test examiners to it.”