The Grand Weave

After sending my familiars back into my soulspace, I had Áine patch everyone up before moving on to Panasia. Unconscious, letting Áine's mana enter her body was easy, but that's where it struggled to heal the guildmaster.

With my eyes closed, I watched through Áine's memories in near real-time as she tried to move her mana through Panasia's flesh. It naturally resisted a good portion of her mana while the rest was absorbed like a sponge. By the time the skill took effect and began repairing the guildmaster's body, it was like siphoning water through a straw.

Outwardly, I assumed a meditative pose and sank into my soul space, watching the skill wisp suck in mana from my mana pool.

This is going to hurt.

I focused on the vortex and expanded it, forcing more mana into wisp. Áine's discomfort was a near physical thing in the soulspace, but the little fairy kept silent, and I felt her approval.

It sucked, knowing I was inflicting damage, but Áine wanted it done.

As mana began to fray and slip back into the pool I wrapped mental hands around the stream and held it together.

Time held no meaning, and I continued smoothing the strands of the vortex. Seventy-five percent approached, and I sent a query to Áine; she wanted to continue, so I briefly let go and pictured my inventory.

A mana potion appeared in my palm in the physical world, and I chugged before setting it aside.

Áine improved the longer she continued, but the fraction of a percent of improvement didn't mean much with how much mana we were wasting.

At around sixty percent, mana fatigue began to settle in, and I actively saw parts of the soulspace freeze up with a layer of crystal glass distorting the image.

Gritting my teeth, I ignored it and pushed more strands together, condensing the vacuum until it flowed at a constant pressure.

Once I neared the last quarter, a tapping brought me out of my concentration. The strands unraveled, and the suction came to a halt.

Opening my eyes, I saw Celanae offering me a blanket. It felt heavenly as it steamed from coming into contact with my body.

"Thank you," I whispered.

She frowned and sat back. "You know this isn't normal, right? Mana shock shouldn't actually be freezing your body like this. Not at your tier, at least. Seriously, the amount of mana you have is insane."

I grinned. "You know why; you saw the perk."

"And that perk is a cheat! That's a perk rewarded from tier three rifts; you shouldn't have it," Isaac grumbled.

Enjoying the distraction for what it was, I glanced over to Áine, who flew over and landed on my shoulder to snuggle under the blanket fold.

"Thank you, Áine. Good job."

Áine reached out a hand, and I let her boop my nose before turning away and staring at Teddy, who sat beside Panasia. He had his eyes closed and his aura centered, sending out pulses that occasionally shook the air.

Panasia looked bloody but healed. Judging by her relaxed face, she seemed peaceful as she slept in a small puddle of violet goop.

"Not awake yet?"

"Not yet, but there's a good chance she's been fighting the creature off for a while. You did well healing what you could, but I suspect she's beyond exhausted."

"Gotcha. That thing... what tier do we think it was?"

"Most likely tier three or high end of two," Eodyne said from behind us.

I turned and watched her sit before she glanced over and offered me a flask. Reaching out, I took the flask and uncapped it, sniffing.

"Gaora juice?" I asked after taking a sip.

I never expect the salt.

"Yes. Your pronunciation is off. It's not Gao-rah, it's gaoo-ruh." I repeated with the proper pronunciation, and she smiled. "Perfect."

Igas joined the growing circle and frowned. "I just realized... if you," he stopped and looked at Sereza, who was standing nearby. "Can speak the language of the storm plains. Then that means you understand us every time we use it to speak around you."

It took a second, but the others all widened their eyes. Eodyne, in particular, stared at me like she had seen a ghost.

Unable to resist, I grinned and showed my fangs. "That'd be correct. Not a bad skill to have for a 'God-touched" hmm?"

It was amusing seeing Eodyne's eye explode with lightning inside her irises. Her lips lightly parted, and I shrugged.

She looked away while the others seemed apologetic, well... except for Isaac. He just glared.

"Am I missing something?" Sereza cut in, disrupting the awkward tension.

I chuckled and shook my head. "No. I'll tell you sometime. It's just a small joke I've been playing."

"Right," she said skeptically. "So what now, and how come the room hasn't returned to normal?"

"It will soon. Without Cyrus disrupting the mana, it'll run out and untether now that its creator is dead. I advise staying near the center to prevent anything weird."

She nodded and sat down beside me. "Are you going to loot it?"

"Yeah, once my mana returns. If this is anything like the mega-cultist, it'll take a lot," I said.

"Do you think you'll get anything good?"

"No clue. I hope so. Getting tired of all the alchemy materials."

We sat there for another half hour before rumbling began to shake the far wall. We huddled in together, and Teddy gently lifted Panasia toward the center.

The room distorted, and for a brief second, the void appeared before the room shrunk. I closed my eyes once the wall started rushing at us, and after the vibrations stopped, I opened them to see a perfectly normal-sized room.

"Still asleep?" Celanae called out.

Teddy looked down. "Yes. Igas, help me move her to the bed."

While they grabbed Panasia by her shoulders and feet, I scooched over the severed head and used my spear to shift it closer. It made a disgusting squelch that made everyone cringe.

Áine peeked out from underneath the blanket and shook her fist before slipping back inside. The burst of faux-fury made me chuckle, and I sent mana into The Dead Will Provide.

The spider appeared and landed on my open palm.

If Erebus cared, he didn't show it.

Gently lowering him to the squid head, Erebus crawled to the center and then pushed in slowly. He encountered resistance for the first time and took longer than usual to dive into the shadow plane.

While he started activating his skill, I chugged another mana potion and felt the cool liquid churn in my gut.

Celanae moved near my left and held out her journal, a pen hovering just above the page. "I'm ready."

Erebus began to exit, and I extended my hand, letting him crawl into my palm as the loot orb detached and he held it up.

Letting the spider adjust, I gently squeezed and channeled mana into the shadowy thread. It slowly came undone, and a small jar about half the size of my palm dropped into my hand.

I held it up to the light and saw a chunk of grey floating through purple liquid.

"Is that a piece of brain?" Sereza asked as she peeked over my shoulder.

"Maybe?" I admitted.

Celanae was furiously making a new entry into her journal, so I held it up and turned it accordingly so she could get all the angles she needed for the sketch.

After she set her pen down, she frowned as I uncapped the jar and lightly shook its contents. "We should get it identified first."

I sniffed and pulled back as a sharp, acrid scent burnt the interior of my nostrils. "Oh, that's foul."

"Eat it," Isaac cheered.

I flipped him the bird and recapped the jat as Celanae added another line to her page.

"Are we keeping the head?"

"I'll grab it," Teddy said. "It's best we have something to show the cleansers when they arrive."

I tossed the dripping head to him, and he briefly caught it before making it disappear into his dimensional storage.

"Isaac, inform Elanor that we found the guildmaster," he ordered.

"On it," he replied before sinking into the ground.

Teddy stretched and glanced toward the bed where Panasia slumbered away. "I'm going down and check up on Arturous. Eodyne, inform me when Isaac returns or if she wakes up."

Eodyne nodded, and Teddy walked out. One glance at the bed made me stretch and join him.

I wonder if Artu likes raisins.

---------------

Arturous roared and headbutted me lightly on the arm. I laughed and offered him an entire glazed ham I stole from the Dawnborne party.

"Mmmngh," Teddy mumbled.

I dug some of Arturous' fur out of the way and revealed the pinned man's mouth. "What was that?"

"I can smell the honeycrestle glaze. Did you really take their ham?"

"Yes, yes I did," I said as I tore off a piece before it entered the bear's mouth. "Nobody was eating after your parents and the king."

Teddy slid himself out from underneath Arturous and dusted off his chestplate. "Alright, enough playing around. Elanor should be arriving soon; from there, we'll figure out what we want to do."

I swallowed the ham chunk and summoned a flask of juice to wash it down; I tossed it to Teddy and stood up. "We bunker down and wait for the cleansers to find the source, yeah?"

"Yes. If more of those Mindeaters, as you called them, exist in hidden pockets throughout the city, we are in trouble."

"Are we? Despite how chaotic that was, it wasn't that dangerous, all things considered. We managed to defeat it with our numbers."

"Cyrus, you really need to consider how ridiculous it is that you can stay relatively normal in the presence of a creature several tiers higher," he admonished. "And you're mistaken about that fight. That thing had been exhausted for a while, trying to do whatever it wanted to do with Panasia. With her weighing it down, it obviously didn't wield its full strength against us."

"Without her in the way, we would have been more aggressive in defeating it. It may be challenging, but we could overwhelm it."

"None of us, not even you with your frankly, cheat-like skills, could handle the full force of a tier three mind-manipulator. And what happens if it controls one of us? Isaac would be a menace; Celanae could separate us, cut us in half even."

I sighed and accepted the empty flask. "Understood." A pulse of mana came from behind us, and I spun around, spear lashing out.

Isaac stopped my attack with a tentacle and slowly rose from the ground, his eyes hard. "Again, it's dragonshit that you can detect me."

I pulled back, and he crossed his arms. "Stop trying to sneak up on me."

"Isaac," Teddy commanded. We both turned to look, surprised at the sharp tone. "We're in a danger site, with hidden monsters. Not the time for games."

It looked like Isaac would lash out, his snarl showing as he pulled down his mask, but the man turned away. "Understood. Elanor is five minutes out."

Teddy relaxed his shoulders, and Isaac continued to pout, but the tension was gone.

The door creaked, and we turned to see Sereza peek her head out. She examined us for a second before shaking her head. "The guildmaster is awake. Celanae told me to fetch you."

Isaac sank into the ground, and Teddy rubbed the back of his neck.

"Thank you," Teddy said.

She nodded and held the door open.

Teddy patted Arturous' head and walked inside, heading for the stairway up. And Sereza raised her eyebrow.

"You coming?" she asked as she lightly tugged on the door's handle.

I gave Arturous a hug and snuck him a final piece of honey candy. "Yeah, let's go see what Panasia has to say. Maybe she can tell us what happened."

"I hope so. This city is starting to creep me out."

I glanced behind me and saw a pair of young elves pointing at the guild building while having an animated discussion about their hopes and dreams, all the while ignoring the massive bear and felkins standing near the entrance.

"Yeah, me too," I muttered.