Icarus Awakens

When it became clear their compatriots outside the Spire had been taken down, they’d mourned but stayed resolute. Then there was fear as the Shroud itself was breached, something that would no doubt lead to a final stand. Word was fighting had already broken out in the upper floors, though with the ongoing communication breakdown there was no way to know for sure. What was certain was the spire guard would hold this entrance until the last. They had no idea how much of the city had fallen already, but if the Spoke itself was lost their defeat would be total.

Then the watch sergeant had come in, kicked the alive but bound guard captain into a corner, and started yelling. While Doran handled that, a flood of battered citizens came through. The fear and disgust they showed the interior spire guard only solidified the points Doran was making about how bad the situation had been. Moreover, there was a question people were now raising.

“Hey, are we sure there’s even an enemy left?” Daniel asked his newly christened team while trying to ignore the headache keeping the opening in front of the Spire was causing. “There were those hordes of zombies which may still be around, but it kind of feels like their big push to take the Spires just got shut down. At least this one did.”

“Willow’s mother is still out there,” Evalyn pointed out. “It sounds like she’s some kind of monster, maybe even one that’s just mimicking a dead woman. I’d say that was impossible given she talks, but-” She inclined her head towards Hunter who had exited Khare. The ringcat got looks but answered each hostile one with ‘Druid’. This did little to endear him to Marky, though at this point Farthest Run was putting some distance between them and Wings of Craft.

I’m afraid the situation is more dire than that. Everyone jumped as a grim, almost melodramatic voice entered their heads. Don’t be startled, you’ll give me away!

Lograve!? Where are you? Evalyn asked

Nearby.

Hunter sniffed the air and shook his head. I don’t sense him.

I can be good at hiding when I need to be.

Oh right! Daniel suddenly remembered. You can be invisible. Does that also protect from scent?

Evalyn asked better questions. Lograve, why are you invisible and how long have you been there?

Well. Lograve’s voice shrunk a little. I caught up around when you split off in front of the Spire. At the time it seemed best to stay hidden in case you needed a surprise ally to bail you out. I certainly didn’t have an idea that could top unseating the will of the gods in order to steal their wallpaper. I guess you didn’t need me after all. We will have to talk about respecting the artifices of higher beings after this, Daniel.

If you’re nearby, shouldn’t we feel a cold spot? Daniel asked.

Precisely why I unfroze all of my ice. I’m still not good enough yet to create armor from water so no randomly elbowing the air to find me. My stab wound hasn’t fully healed. But enough of that. I think I know what they’re doing. First of all, I don’t know if it’s a monster or strange class evolution, but there’s more than one of those things. I was teleported to the Divine Quarter, which one of them sieged with an army of those ‘zombies’.

Is everyone alright? Evalyn looked around as she asked, trying to find where he was.

We… lost some people. But that sand thing, whatever it was, looked a lot like a former dusker council member. One whose family was unwilling or, perhaps, unable to revive her. Just like Casia Seliri several years ago.

And Fredreick! Khiat interjected. Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to-

It’s quite alright. Yes, I heard about that too. It happened while we were escaping from the Thormundz.

That makes sense. Everyone looked at Daniel. They’re undead. That ‘bring back the dead’ power wouldn’t work if they are still alive. Or, unalive.

Exactly what can you tell us about these undead, Daniel? Since you are familiar with them. Lograve left his origin unsaid since Khiat was in the conversation.

Well, there are several ways they could work. Daniel was familiar with Earth’s more common zombie mythos, as well as the more out there versions like messed up videogame monsters. I’ve got no idea what these ‘sand things’ are, except maybe mummies. Were they wrapped in cloth?

At times, though I’m unclear if those were actual robes or sand finely shaped to appear as such. The one I saw could control sand and seemed composed of it, able to hide in the storm before solidifying to attack. That’s what I thought was the work of a Geomancer, earlier. They also have a very strong resistance to powers, although I’m not quite sure what it truly takes to kill them. We don’t have the resources to repeat the method I saw used, at least.

Ok, that’s different. There are usually some points of commonality though. Radiant or holy damage is better against them, some really don’t like sunlight, healing magic can hurt them, and they can turn people into undead. Bites, normally, but it looks like this kind involves something weird with hearts.

Hmm. We should find Thomas then, Tak pointed out. And avoid getting stabbed in the heart.

They did try a myriad of other powers on the higher form undead, this ‘mummy’. The lesser ones died to just about anything, though I fear the power resistance of the mummy may overwhelm this natural vulnerability to divine magic. I do agree that finding our wayward healer is the best move now, though.

Light? Khare asked in their rather unsettling mental voice. The gestalt rarely spoke, participation in telepathy was even more so. This felt important, but the old problem reared its head. Even Daniel, who had been getting better at interpreting the gestalt, couldn’t pick up on his meaning. Khare kept mentioning light, the sun, and a plan, but as Lograve pointed out even if he’d gotten some kind of natural power related to sunlight, the mummies had shown that they could probably resist it. They had to give up trying to understand them as both Gordon and Doran approached.

“Wings of Craft,” Doran addressed them. “Some of you know me but to be sure, I am Watch Sergeant Doran, HURT squad leader and, apparently, acting authority over the Sun Spire until this mess is sorted out. We owe you for defusing that tragedy. Of course, there’s no telling what else is going on here and there’s been no contact with guard stationed on the higher floors. I have to ask, are you still willing to help?”

“Yes,” Evalyn answered, taking on a serious look. “And of course it would be heartless to discuss payment now, so we’ll handle that after the crisis.” Daniel stared at the Bard but Doran almost seemed to be expecting that.

“Very reasonable. I should add that we’ll be reforming the team after today. I’d be undeserving of my current station if I didn’t extend an invitation.”

“We’ll think on it, thank you Watch Sergeant. I assume Farthest Run’s captain is here to discuss strategy.”

Now, Daniel’s mouth was partly open. Evalyn was handling the situation flawlessly, even including a passive aggressive snub at Gordon through being overly formal. Sure, he could see what she was doing after the fact, but he’d never have gotten there himself. It seemed like such a lame thing to be impressed by, but Daniel couldn’t help it. I’m glad I’m not the leader.

“Yeah.” Gordon stayed neutral and professional himself.

“We have several priorities,” Doran continued. “The first of which is finding the Council. At present, that leaves only Aucrest Seliri and Bennar Hammerson, assuming they live. The spire guard isn’t sure what happens if there are no remaining councilmembers, but at this point we must operate under the assumption at least one is alive. Considering the siege ward was raised it’s likely at least one is in enemy custody. To the best of our knowledge, only Bennar Hammerson should be in this spire.”

“And because they’re on the Council, they’re more important than the thousands out here that could be dying,” Evalyn added.

“They can open the gates and lift the storm.” Doran pointed towards the open front gate and the patch of shifted Shroud. “This sandstorm is clearly unnatural. I haven’t seen one blow this hard or last this long, and that’s not counting what it’s doing to communication powers. We didn’t see the fallen guard approaching, and the spire guard didn’t realize people were defending against them, due to it. Without the storm, we could see into the Divine Quarter from the Spire and figure out why they haven’t showed up yet. We don’t even know if parts of the city have fallen to the enemy or not.” A look of anger crossed his face. “Apparently, the Shroud can protect the entire city from these storms. The only reason the Council hasn’t done it yet is it weakens the overall strength of the shield to the point where a Blessed could defeat it. And, of course, because then a Rogue could sneak through their windows.” The distaste was mirrored on everyone nearby listening, most notably amidst the crowd of refugees.

Oh dear, Lograve commented, still abstaining from revealing himself. I forgot to mention, but like I said I know what is happening and that is a clear sign it’s working. I’ll explain later, but we need to find Thomas and reach the Eye.

“You have a team with two excellent Rangers at your disposal,” Evalyn said. “Can’t they track them down?”

“That’s what my team was intending,” Gordon answered. “We’re a small group, stealthy. If the enemy holds part of the Spire we can sneak in, maybe free Bennar if necessary before their captors realize.”

“What we’re hoping you, Wings of Craft, could accomplish is locating the city’s Fate. Her location is known, and together you possess the second-most coordinated force I have at my disposal. Assuming we can lift the siege wards, which no doubt block her powers, we can use the Fate to better understand the situation. There have been reports of fighting within this Spire so I urge caution. Even if we don’t accomplish this-”

“I can remove part of the Shroud around her anyway,” Daniel finished the sentence, getting ahead of the man.

“That does sound reasonable, but we have our own concerns. There’s a Cleric here by the name of Thomas Kaysian. We need to find him first.”

Doran blinked for a second in surprise. “That is fortunate, then. When I was asking the spire guard about the Fate, his name came up.”

…

It was a testament to herd dynamics that the man had made it this far without being stopped, considering his armor. He’d moved around the entire battlefield, arriving far too late to do anything, before finding what he was looking for. Seeing her, unarmored and in a pile with five other bodies, made everything go completely calm for a second as he knelt. Some people did notice at that point but saw the entire story in that one glimpse and moved on. The pure grief and regret echoed, staying hands that would have otherwise acted.

Then, Jeras rose. He felt different. Like this wasn’t a loss but a trade. It was true that he hadn’t been himself since Sherman had led him into the depths of the Crest. He’d killed someone in the cells and still felt nothing when thinking about it. This was something else. He was breaking down, and at the same time reforming for a single purpose: end the one ultimately responsible for all of this. He already knew where to find her, somehow. Looking just past the top of the Spire, Jeras charged towards the front gates.

…

“Hey you! Hey, stop!” The shout drew everyone’s attention as a man in very poor looking city guard armor rushed through the crowd and into the main landing of the Sun Spire. Several attempts were made to stop him, but the avianoid dodged spells and created space with swings from the huge sword he carried.

Hunter beat Daniel on tagging him, though no one else in the party did much else. Well, Doran was shouting orders, but it was clear this wasn’t an undead. Acting without appropriately assessing the situation had cost too many lives tonight already. This hesitation did allow the man to escape through a side door, barreling his way through.

“Damn. ‘Jeras’. I think he was one of the Mirage traitors that left with Sherman a month ago,” Doran commented, before stopping a pursuit. “I’m tracking him. Looks like he’s on a stairway. Shouldn’t be too hard to find once we’re done here. He’s hauling though.”

“You can see him too?” Daniel asked, causing the sergeant to turn to him. Besides intuiting his plan with the Fate, they hadn’t interacted before now.

“I have Identify Creature. Recognition and aura-based tags. You?”

Daniel was floored. Someone else had his broken power? Well, it was only overpowered because of Hunter, but still. “Same.”

“Really?” Doran thought for a moment. “I am temporarily deputizing you into my HURT squad, do you accept?”

Daniel was nearly knocked off his feet as Khiat nudged him. Say yes.

“Ok, sure.” Suddenly, every aura around him changed. The green of his friends shifted to a sea green, blue edging into it. Lograve was notably absent as Hunter still couldn’t pin down where he was hiding. No enemies were currently marked, so he couldn’t say what difference there was there, but the Jeras tag was still a solid gray. Wait, Vanguard? I didn’t know that was a class.

Doran was more taken aback. “How have you marked so many people?” That was when Daniel realized not every aura had blue shifted. In fact, the majority were still green, and a small outlier were light blue.

This man was about as far from in the know as you could get. Not wanting to waste time on a long conversation, Daniel simply said, “I had a lot of waiting to do when people were first coming in.”

“I see. I’d like to keep us connected for tactical reasons, but this many auras will be distracting. Remove your mark on all the civilians, please.”

Hunter?

Why do I have to? the ringcat grumbled mentally.

It’s your fault there’s so many. What happened to discretion?

Fine. Auras winked out, first one by one, then in batches.

“You must have had a lot of practice with that power,” Doran commented. “This is Squad Sight, by the way. Any other visual, knowledge-based powers you have will also be shared. Doesn’t look like you have anything else active.”

“Nope, but I can mark things.” A wedge familiar to Doran appeared, and he raised an eyebrow. Now the man wanted the entire team on his squad after all of this was over. Even that weird Druid the other one was so irritated with.

…

With their objective determined, Wings of Craft took to the main stairway and began their climb. Faster methods of reaching the top floors existed, but according to Doran the magic running through the Spoke was entirely focused on its overpowered shield. Even the automatic nature of the staircase wasn’t working, though not everyone needed to use it.

Gadriel had left Belonna to join with them. Despite how quickly he’d formed a connection with her, the songbird wasn’t one to charge into battle. She’d only fought tonight to get to safety, and with Daniel putting the Shroud back where he found it, the main landing was about as safe as you could get. Now he was running up the wall and jumping over where the staircase intersected. Khare was employing a similar if slower method as they were in their creeping vine ball form, which had become either strong or flexible enough to climb rapidly.

“That isn’t remotely fair,” Daniel complained as he took steps three at a time. They had to climb about halfway up the skyscraper, and then if Lograve was right go all the way to the top. His relatively high endurance was struggling to keep up, so he stopped for a moment to breathe.

With some effort, Evalyn stepped over to the railing, grabbed onto it, and looked at Daniel. She wasn’t standing on anything solid but the two affronts to footwear he’d given her earlier. Contrary to his expectations the Bard was picking up flying fairly well, and the assemblage produced enough lift to allow her to slowly ascend without using the heliorite part of the construction. It looked like someone trying figure skating for the first time and immediately being scouted for the Olympics. “You could have just kept the boots yourself.”

“I didn’t know we’d have to climb all these stairs.”

Hunter, climbing beside him, shook his head. “Weak.”

“You have four legs! That means you climb twice as easily or something.” He then glared at the slowest ascending member of the team. “You’re sure you don’t have enough ice for us?”

“Oh, definitely,” Lograve replied with snark in his voice. He was standing on a thin platform of ice, using a similar method that had gotten both himself and Daniel away from perhaps the scariest thing either had seen. The Arcanist was also still invisible, the ability compatible with his active control of a feature.

“Why are you still invisible? There’s a random floating ice disk, won’t people think that’s weird?”

“Oh, yes surely, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch they’ll just assume I’m here.”

“If one of us was on it with you, they might think we were doing it.”

Lograve thought about this for a moment. “No, I’m afraid I don’t see the logic there.” He kept moving while Daniel stayed to take a short break. Evalyn remained too.

“How are you handling everything?” She asked, not holding back the personal question despite Hunter’s presence. Daniel didn’t mind.

“I’m fine.”

“Really? You were kidnapped again. Twice, depending on whatever we end up calling what Farthest Run did besides a knife in the back. Between that and everything else I’m surprised you have it in you to banter.”

Daniel shrugged and slowly began to walk up the stairs. “I don’t know if it’s because of my better attributes or if the breakdown’s going to wait until after all of this, but I just, I don’t feel like I did back then. People have died and it might be selfish for me to say, but no one I care about has. I’m just glad everyone is safe. Damn, I might be getting used to this.”

“Good.” Hunter rumbled.

“Yes,” Tak said. He’d also been there the entire time, yet to gain the ability to fully fly with Grow Wings. Honestly? Daniel didn’t mind his presence either. “It’s good you are better now. I was hurt on the way back from Roost’s Peak, but I remember how worried everyone was for you. Humor is good.”

“As long as you aren’t being too callous,” Evalyn added. “I’m glad you’re doing well. Khiat, I think she may be heading for that delayed breakdown. She’s keeping her head up, what she made it through back in her village probably gave her some mental strength. But I’m still not expecting her to be completely fine after all of this. She was in that slaughter for a long time.”

Daniel sighed. “We all need a break after this. Somewhere not sandy?”

“Threst or Kallical would be nice.” Tak nodded. “I would say Threst, but Hunter may like wide fields better. Better fights there too.”

“We’ll go to both,” Evalyn promised. “Threst first, we have to meet up with Murdon if you’ve all forgotten, but Kallical borders both.” A moment passed between the four as they looked forward to a bright future. Then, Evalyn pushed herself off the banister and, with only a little bit of unease, kept skating through the air. Lograve, it’s time you explained what the Mirage is doing.

Ah, yes. The Arcanist’s voice sharpened, entering lecture mode. You may not be aware, but it is somewhat difficult to usurp control of a region. For one, an invading army has to deal with the regional boundaries resetting powers, in addition to other effects. A defending army in a properly run region can just screen the border and hit people coming through. But even if Rikendia’s forces, or an incursion army were to blow through here, they would have issues dealing with the Spoke.

So other people can influence them? Daniel asked, confused. Like a few other things he did, people seemed to treat his manipulation of the Shroud as something that had never happened before.

No, and, in a much bigger sense, yes. This is all advanced theory regarding knowledge the gods don’t restrict, but also don’t freely discuss or disseminate. Torch’s church is responsible for what is known where. Even if they don’t ban something outright they can make it akin to a secret. The bottom line is, ultimate control of a region is down to who controls its Spoke. Unlike how it is popularly believed, control of a Spoke isn’t in the hands of whichever god’s Realm it’s in, but in the united will of the populous. Something like a subconscious democracy, if you all are familiar with that concept, and once power is entrenched in one system for long enough it becomes hard to unseat. Both in real terms as well as mentally. People become conditioned to accept the rule of law. I only researched this far into it because this process is inherent to stabilizing a Spoke prior to it gaining its special abilities, and solidifying mortal kind’s control of a region.

The Spokes mind control people into obeying the government?

There was a pause before Lograve answered. No, I don’t believe so, but I cannot disprove that theory either. My belief is that it is a form of societal inertia, or perhaps the manifestation of ‘if it isn’t broken, why fix it?’ Not to say revolutions don’t happen, this region encountered one when a Tyrant trusted his subordinates with too much power and they usurped him. What is important is that they also had to sell this as a populist revolt, otherwise they may not have gained enough popular will to control the Spoke.

Wait. Khiat cut in. They killed the Tyrant and the people who were helping him. Everyone in power now just took what the Tyrant had made when they won.

Daniel could almost feel Lograve shaking his head. That’s propaganda I’m afraid. The original founders of Threst’s government were mostly made up of those directly beneath Armafus. I spent some time here earlier, you see. Traveled the dunes, slayed a dragon, and read some books. Be it the Mirage or just Casia Seliri now, that is the illusion they are attacking. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that scene under the Sun Spire was entirely planned, or if similar instances are occurring throughout the city. I don’t know how I was so blind, they’ve been building towards this the entire time we were here.

Hearts and minds, Evalyn thought distantly. Lograve, I see how they’re breaking the ‘popular will’, but how are they planning to take it for themselves?

I don’t know. I suspect we’ll find out at the Eye.

It was all lies? Khiat asked, and there was uncharacteristic anger creeping into her thoughts now.

Not entirely, Lograve responded carefully. The ones in power today likely have little, if any relation to the original owners of the artifacts. Why don’t we focus on finding Thomas for now?

There was no response. Daniel sent the equivalent of a direct message to Lograve, the only person in the expanded network he was able to do this with since the Arcanist acted as a central relay. Are you sure it’s not mind control? I’m starting to wonder if that mess could have been caused by this.

Or vice versa, Lograve replied sagely. The danger could be greater because the general public has been pushed to this point, primed for unrest. In this case, my guess is that Khiat’s anger is genuine. She has always seemed reverent of traditional teachings. Do you remember how she used to act around Gadriel? We are telling her that the ethical foundation for her society is as strong as your cardio.

Hey! It’s not my fault my class makes me sit down for hours at a time.

I’m sure that’s why you’re the one slowing us down. Lograve seemed to take in a breath, despite not needing to for this conversation. In all seriousness, pick up the pace. We need to hurry.