A Shadow in the Mist

“The relationship between humanity and the fell creatures has always been a strained one. There are prized dire steeds that are bred for combat to be ridden by noble Wardens, and dire hounds used for flushing creatures out of the Mist or bringing down other fell beasts. The meat of fell beasts can be eaten once purified, but its texture and taste are altered, and many do not like it because of this. So, the raising of fell cattle is seldom done, despite their size and the quantity of meat that can be butchered. There is also the matter of their increased aggression. While not as mindless as a rabid animal, the amount of corruption they can be allowed to consume must be managed, lest they evolve into a more deadly variant and savage their owner or some other human.”

-From Domesticating Fell Beasts by Sir Tobias Midreen, 424 AB

Aranea- Wednesday, September 4th, 564 AB

“All right class,” Madam Layrora said. “Today we will begin on simple prevention wards. These are the fundamental wards that hold up civilization. Imagine the disaster we would face if an earth imp was able to spawn inside the cellar of someone’s home inside the settlement walls. It is our job to prevent that by the creation and maintenance of these wards. There are different wards for each of the elements, but we will begin with the most common, earth.”

“Earth djinn are the second most likely to be encountered, but are the most likely to spawn near settlements,” Madam Layrora lectured, drawing a diagram on the blackboard at the front of the classroom. “Who can tell me what is the most common type of djinn to spawn?”

Everyone’s hands went up, including mine.

“Candice,” Madam Layrora said to the girl in the second row.

“Mist djinn,” Candice replied confidently.

“And why is that?” Madam Layrora quizzed.

“Because we can’t breathe the Mist or see into it, and so ether threads tangle inside it the most and can grow in strength before a Warden exterminates them,” Candice answered.

“But other types of djinn can spawn in the Mist, why don’t they also come out in equal numbers?” Layrora asked.

“Because…” Candice faltered. “There isn’t as much of their type of ether in the Mist?” she said, but her answer was more of a question.

“No, anyone else?” Madam asked.

“I raised my hand, the number of hands was a lot fewer than last time.

“Aranea, your element is Mist, let me hear your answer,” Madam Layrora said.

“Because other djinn can’t see inside the Mist either,” I replied. “Unlike animals, or fell men, or beasts, djinn have the same limitations when it comes to sight as us. They cannot see through the Mist. When there aren’t humans nearby, djinn fall into factions based on their etheric element. They will fight djinn of other elements, or fell beasts, in order to gain more corruption so they can evolve into higher tiers of djinn. Since they cannot see within the Mist, this gives the Mist djinn an advantage over them. If another type of djinn spawns in more numbers they can overcome this disadvantage, but it is rare for them to evolve past Jotunn.” The answer came straight from one of the many books in the academy’s library.

“Correct,” Madam Layrora said. “Back to the subject of wards. The only element you will not need to ward against spawning within a settlement is Mist. Despite being the most common type of djinn encountered, they only spawn within fog lands and we don’t build settlements in them for obvious reasons.”

“There is a slate and chalk in the drawer of each of your desks. Take them out and copy the diagram here. I’ll come around and inspect your work in five minutes, so begin now.”

I started drawing the design, working for around four minutes before I set the chalk down and waited while the final minute passed until Madam Layrora inspected our work. She made corrections on everyone’s diagram, including mine, and made us go again. We kept copying the design again and again for the rest of class. I wiped off my slate, putting it back in the drawer. We headed to lunch, I caught sight of Cain but he didn’t see me before heading out the door.

I was disappointed, but remembered he wasn’t done with his training. He had an extra hour of dueling practice to do, and after that he’d likely be heading off to hunt with Enoch again. I went to one of the kitchens where I grabbed some roasted quail and fresh bread along with steamed greens. I sat with Hannah, Deliah, and my other classmates as we ate and laughed together.

I finished eating and went to the powder room, washing my hands and face before leaving and going to the library. I pulled out a book that was a collection of letters from two scholars debating different etheric theories and discussing the evidence for and against each of them. I finished reading it, having read the first half of it the other day. I walked over and put it on the shelf when I saw Prince Noah.

He was sitting at a table, his boots propped up on it as he leaned back in his chair, a thick tome in his hands.

“I don’t think you're allowed to put your boots up on the table in here,” I said disapprovingly.

“No one’s told me to put them down, I’ll wait till someone does,” he responded, glancing up before turning his attention back to his book.

“Put them down,” I said.

He smiled but dropped his feet back to the floor. “I guess I set myself up for that one. A pleasure to make your acquaintance again.”

“You didn’t tell me you were a prince when we first met,” I said.

“You didn’t ask,” Noah said with a shrug. “You didn’t tell me you were married.”

“You didn’t ask either,” I said. “Besides it is expected for me to be married, it’s not expected for someone to be a prince.”

“That’s fair, although we’ll have to disagree about the marriage thing. Those backwards traditions are slowly becoming more and more a thing of the past,” he said. “You’re what, sixteen?”

“Seventeen,” I said. “I wouldn’t be a Weaver if I was sixteen, it isn’t allowed.”

“You’d be surprised,” Noah said. “Besides there's hardly a difference. You were married off to some man you never met with no say in the matter on your part. If my father could get around the Church that kind of practice wouldn’t be permitted anymore.”

“And your way of life is better?” Aranea asked. “I’ve heard about the whores you use instead of committing to one woman.”

“Companions,” Noah said sternly, his voice hardening. “I won’t hear you disrespect them; they are Weaver’s just like you and deserve respect just like anyone else.”

Aranea bit back a response to that, it was unkind and didn’t bear speaking. “I’m sorry, but we will have to disagree on this. A Weaver and Warden should bond for life, not bounce from partner to partner like beasts in heat.”

“Well, I hope you’re as happy in the decisions of others years from now as you are now,” Noah said, going back to his book.

“What are you studying?” I asked. “I didn’t think Wardens had much interest in books, you’re all practical applications.”

“There is much to learn here,” Noah said. “And as you’ve discovered, I’m not just a Warden. I’m a prince, I need to understand much more than the common Warden if I’m to be of service to my father. Right now, I’m reading on the conflict that lead to the war between us and Carsway.”

“I thought it was just caused by one of their nobles claiming land in our territory and seizing it,” I said.

“That’s only the most basic explanation for it,” Noah said. “There was much more than that building up to it, trade disputes, broken marriage contracts between various noble families and greed from certain individuals all played their parts. What about you? What brings you to the library in the middle of the day?”

“I’m researching ether,” I said. “I want to better understand it to help with the creation of my wards.”

Noah stood up and walked over to a bookshelf. Reaching far higher than I could, he pulled down a heavy tome and handed it over to me.

“This technically shouldn’t even be here, and would normally be restricted to third year students but… well let’s just say I’m about a person’s right to choose their own path,” he said.

I knew what he meant by this, still arguing our previous disagreement about Companions, but I took the book anyway.

“Thank you,” I said, flipping it open and looking at the various diagrams within.

“You’re welcome,” Noah said, standing up. “Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go do some of that ‘practical application’ you were talking about earlier.”

He winked, and I blushed, his words somehow implying something very different from what I had intended them for.

---

Cain

Enoch and I hit the road again, Hero riding on Enoch’s saddle. Rineer had insisted that if Enoch was to keep it, he had to take it with him and train it to behave properly. The puppy now seemed much less timid than it had just the day before, which was both a blessing and a curse. It kept trying to jump off the saddle and chase after things. We dismounted and Enoch clipped a leather lead to a collar around the hound’s neck. It strained at its leash, and I had to smile at Enoch’s exasperation.

“You’re the one that wanted to keep it,” I said.

“I’m starting to have second thoughts,” Enoch said as he wrapped the leash around his left wrist. “He’s going to alert every fell beast and djinn for a mile of where we are before we even step into the Mist.”

“Maybe we can use that,” I said. “Draw them in and save us some time hunting them all down.”

“We’re Mist Wardens, stealth is what we’re good at,” Enoch said. “Not full-frontal attacks, we take our opponents down from behind before they even know we’re there.”

“And that’s why we’re looked down on,” I said darkly.

“You're still sore about training?” Enoch asked. “I know dueling isn’t your thing but is it really that bad?”

“I got screamed at for five minutes for being too much of a backstabbing woodsman and not enough of a knight,” I said. “Even the Master of our school thinks like that, ‘A Warden faces his foes head on and does not skulk cowardly in the shadows’.” I said, my voice changing as I quoted Lord Scarisen.

Enoch laughed. “My father got a good laugh out of that, apparently three of Lord Scarisen’s abilities revolve around creating and using shadows.”

“I wish your father was the Master of the Mist school,” I said, trudging forwards. “Maybe then we’d actually all learn something useful.”

Enoch shook his head. “It would never happen. Sir Valren is a good man but he’s only been the head of the academy for a few years. The crown decides who is in charge and my father is just a simple soldier who became a Warden, he’d never be appointed. Lord Scarisen is just a traditionalist. He was raised and trained by other Wardens who just don’t deal with the stuff we have to on a daily basis.”

“But it seems like Lord Scarisen’s teachings are going to get some of our classmates killed,” I said, stepping into the Mist.

Quest

Type:

Search

Difficulty:

Lethal

Search the Mist and find the Soul Forge to upgrade your interface.

Reward: Soul Anvil, 15,000 XP

Yes/No

I dismissed the quest and kept on walking.

“What happens when someone does what he’s saying and charges a pack of djinn head on? We aren’t Earth Wardens, we don’t have the defensive skills to take those kind of hits and we don’t have the area effect skills of a Storm Warden to take them all out in one attack. Or even the sustained healing of a Sun Warden to endure them, or the devastating attacks of a Fire Warden.”

“They’ll figure it out,” Enoch said. “That’s why we always work in pairs. They’lll soon learn which parts of Lord Scarisen’s lessons are important, and which are just valorous fantasy.”

We entered a marsh section of forest, and it reminded me of where I had fought and killed the fell men. Hero started growling and snapping at the end of his leash. Enoch pulled him back, but I looked towards where his nose was pointing.

“Ghost Walk,” I said, and the noise from Hero cut off.

I crouched and moved forwards behind a large rock next to the water’s edge, readying myself. A djinn made of swirling water and bits of ice burst from under the surface. The djinn’s face mask and plating was a pale blue with white marbling. It didn’t have legs, just a long tail made of water. Its two arms were very different, one made of dark waters ending in a four fingered clawed hand, the other clad in sharp spikes of ice ending in a sharp jagged spike of ice.

I sprang up behind the water imp and drove my dagger through the back of its head, shattering its face plate. It collapsed in a spray of water, a muddy mass all that it left behind.

17 XP gained, 1 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 8 ether regained

“I guess the dog is good for something,” I said, kneeling down.

Hero tried to lunge for and dig into the djinn’s corpse but Enoch yanked him back.

“No!” he snapped. “Bad dog! Those are not for eating.”

Hero whined and stared at the pile of mud longingly. I put my dagger into it, absorbing the corruption within before the dog could be tempted further.

1 Corruption absorbed by your Relic, 1 Corruption absorbed by our Core

“You’re going to have to teach him not to eat djinn,” I said. “If he starts absorbing lots of corruption he’ll have to be put down, no matter what your father or you say.”

“How do you suggest I do that?” Enoch asked.

“You might have to put a djinn body where he can get access to it,” I said. “Something like an imp or a beast, and punish him every time he tries to eat it. Maybe lace it with something that will make him sick but not kill him so he associates eating djinn with getting poisoned.”

“Not a bad plan, but having a djinn corpse just lying around where it might spawn another one could prove problematic,” Enoch said.

“You’re the one who has to train him, I’m just giving a suggestion,” I said, wiping my dagger clean on my breaches. “Let’s go, our report talked about mist djinn being spotted, not water djinn.”

We kept moving, Hero rushing around sniffing and pulling at his lead. Enoch kept a tight hold on him as he tried getting the puppy to learn to heel. I moved silently off to the side of them. If we were attacked I’d be able to ambush our attackers while they were distracted by Hero and Enoch. I stopped, bending down and motioning for Enoch to come over.

I pointed to what I had seen. Snapped twigs and disturbed undergrowth. It could have been caused by animals but it was in a wide path so, unless an especially clumsy group of deer had come through here, that wasn’t likely. Based on the height, most of said creatures would come at most up to my waist so we had likely come across the tracks of the djinn we were hunting. The tracks faded to the point where my limited woodsman skills weren’t able to keep following them.

Hero on the other hand eagerly started snuffling along the ground. I looked at Enoch and shrugged. He was a fell beast and it was expected he’d be eager to hunt down some djinn. We followed after the dire hound pup as it tugged on the leash, heading deeper into the Mist. This was just a small patch of fog land, not even connected to the rest of the Mist Wall.

Rineer didn’t want us entering the more dangerous fog lands until we were a higher level and more experienced. For now we’d handle these smaller, unconnected sections that were only a mile or two in width. It was still a massive area in total to clear of threats. Hero started barking and Enoch knelt down to hold his muzzle shut.

“Sshh,” he hushed him.

“Ghost Walk,” I said, silencing both Hero and Enoch with my presence.

We moved forward quickly, breaking through the Mist and swampy forest into open day. Fields of wheat lay a half-mile away and we increased our pace. If the djinn had left the Mist, there would be only one place they were heading. I used Hurricane Step to travel two hundred feet forward in a single second to the top of a hill and spotted movement in the stalks of wheat from my vantage. I teleported forwards again.

I rammed Achlys through the back of a startled beast and the djinn all stopped moving. They turned, the jaws of their masks clacking together as they rushed me. I turned and ran, leading them away, back towards Enoch and Hero. I broke through the wheat and realized with grim humor that I was about to do what Enoch and I had just said was a bad idea for Mist Wardens, face a horde of djinn head on.

Quest

Type:

Hunt

Difficulty:

Moderate

You have encountered a group of djinn very close to civilization, exterminate them before they kill any humans.

Reward: D grade bracers, 100 XP

Hero crested the hill, barking as he and Enoch raced down, and I turned and slashed out behind me.

“Lunar Smite! Cyclone Strike!” I said.

My sudden reversal of direction took some of the djinn off guard and cut into their front ranks, slicing through the first three djinn in the onrush.

16 XP gained, 3 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 11 ether regained

A spear thrust forwards and dug into my thigh.

“Bark-skin,” I said, grimacing as I activated my armor’s ability.

Two more djinn spears struck me but they only grazed my skin this time. Enoch lunged forwards and snarled the words for his Wind Phalanx, spearing through five djinn as they lunged forwards. Hero bowled over a Mist Imp and began ripping into it with his tiny teeth.

“Hurricane Step,” I said, and appeared behind their back ranks. “Lunar Smite, Cyclone Strike!”

31 XP gained, 5 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 19 ether regained

I cut through five imps but this was the largest group of djinn Enoch and I had ever faced and thirty of them still remained. Enoch blocked a spear thrust meant for Hero and his skills lashed out, pushing back the djinn and spearing into them with ether lances. A blinding flash of silver light made the djinn and me flinch.

The djinn in front me turned to face me and threw their spears, the bone like tips hitting against my armor and flesh. Pin pricks of blood appeared wherever they struck unarmored flesh, but the bark-skin effect let me tank the hits of these minor djinn. They started to move around me, dodging back as I slashed out, no longer taken by surprise.

“Hurricane strike, Lunar Smite,” I said and charged through their midst, moving like the blade of a sawmill, faster than they could move out of the way. I cut through a score of them even as spears continued to hit me and, even with the major reduction to their damage, I saw my health drop by a tenth.

73 XP gained, 14 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 31 ether regained

Enoch and Hero stood their ground, splitting the djinn’s attention. Spears of wind stabbed out as he and the hound were quickly surrounded. A spear jabbed into Hero’s flank and the hound yelped in pain. I was back next to them and slashed down with my dagger into the imp’s back, turning it to a pile of leaves and bone.

5 XP gained, 1 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 1 ether regained

A mist beast rammed its spear forward with all its strength into my lower back, digging into my skin and punching through. I whirled around and rammed my sword through its mask, shattering it and reducing it to another pile of mulch and yellowed white bone fragments.

12 XP gained, 1 Corruption absorbed into your Core, 3 ether regained

There were so many weak djinn to kill that my ether was easily recharged with each kill. It wouldn’t be until I went after higher tier djinn that didn’t go down in single attacks that my ether maximum would be drained at the end of fights.

“Cyclone Strike, Lunar Smite!” I shouted spamming my skills again.

I spun back through the ranks of djinn, taking down another dozen as more spears stabbed into me.

53 XP gained, 11 Corruption absorbed into your Core, ether regained

Enoch swept forwards, mopping up the djinn remaining, Hero savaging several before being hauled off their corpses as he tried to dig into them.

“No! Bad dog!” Enoch said, swatting his muzzle.

I breathed heavily and looked at the blood soaking mine and Enoch’s clothes.

“Celestial Healing,” I said putting a hand on my back and the wounds across my body closed up and my hit points recovered from the damage I had just taken. I healed Enoch and then scratched Hero’s ears before healing the wound he’d taken. He licked my hand and I smiled, thumping his chest lightly.

Hero – Fell Beast (Dire Hound) – Undefined – Level 3

“He got two levels out of that fight,” I said.

“He only killed three djinn,” Enoch said. “He must have already been close to level two.”

“We should have invited him into our party,” I said.

“You can do that?” Enoch asked, surprised.

I shrugged. “I think so, I’ve heard the stories of Wardens inviting their horses into their parties so why not a dog?”

Enoch and I focused on Hero and I saw a flash in my vision as a new icon appeared underneath Aranea and Enoch’s name.

“There, now he’ll get the same experience as us as long as he gets a bite in on the djinn,” I said, scratching the hound’s head and distracting him from the djinn’s bodies he was eyeing. “And, we won’t accidentally kill him with one of our skills.”

“We still need to go through fog land one more time to make sure this was all of them,” Enoch said. “Though I don’t imagine someplace that small would have many more.”

“First, we need to absorb these,” I said, looking at the mist djinn. “I’m glad they’re mist djinn. I don’t think we could handle harvesting them on our own if they weren’t.”

Enoch staked Hero’s leash a ways uphill, away from the bodies of the djinn as he and I harvested them.

55 Corruption absorbed by your Relic, 55 Corruption absorbed by our Core

Even with them being Mist djinn it ended up being a near thing, and my core burned. I opened up my character sheet and winced. I was at ninety-two out of ninety-four. I resolved to be more cautious during harvesting in the future. I checked over my skills but, disappointingly, none of them had evolved again yet.

Quest Succeeded

You have successfully completed the Quest, Hunt, Moderate and exterminated the group of djinn before they could harm any humans.

Reward: D grade bracers has been added to your inventory. 100 XP gained

We got three ether gems from the djinn, two beast and one imp, and the usual djinn dust and monster cores that were put in the currency tab of our inventory. Picking up Hero’s lead again, we headed back into the Mist. We skirted around the edge of the skitterer nest but once again didn’t encounter any other djinn within it. We mounted up again and rode back to Mistwall.

Enoch and I clasped wrists before we parted ways.

“See you tomorrow,” Enoch said.

“See you tomorrow,” I agreed, and we parted at the fork in the road as I rode into town and he diverted to his family’s homestead.