Mist clung low to the ground as they broke camp, fingers stiff and clumsy with the chill. Bedrolls were shaken out and folded tight. Blankets vanished into inventory one by one.
Harry stepped a little apart from the others and looked ahead.
The land opened up in front of them, a stretch of gently rolling grassland that climbed toward the mountains. About a mile of open ground, broken only by scattered trees and low rises that wouldn’t hide much. The grass rippled faintly in the breeze, silvered by the morning light.
System, any idea what we’re walking into today?
:: System: Negative.
Wonderful.
Behind him, Jo finished stowing her gear. “Toby would say it still feels wrong to break camp without making food.”
“Yeah,” Harry turned back to the others. “Some bacon and coffee right now would be perfect.”
Stan looked up. “What’s coffee?”
Harry grabbed his chest. “What? You don’t have coffee?”
Jo waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t panic. We had it in Pearlhaven. Comes on trade ships from the east.”
Harry let out a long breath. “That’s a relief. This world isn’t wholly barbaric.”
Jo shrugged. “Terrible stuff though. Tastes like bitter regret.”
Harry stared at her, eyebrow climbing. She just grinned back.
System, can I even eat normal food?
:: System: Normal food and drink will not harm you. Whether or not you find it appetizing is another issue.
Harry looked back out over the grasslands and shook his head.
I really hope so.
Cedric went around the perimeter and pulled his stakes free one by one, grunting as he twisted them loose. He scraped the dirt from the blunt ends and put them straight into his inventory.
“Jo,” he said, “we head north?”
She had the map out, holding it flat in both hands. The thin parchment fluttered in the morning breeze as she squinted at it. “North and a bit west.”
“How far?” Harry asked.
She frowned, “Hard to say. The scale around the mountains seems off.” She lifted her head and looked to the north. “I'd guess the ruins are maybe five miles or so to the west.”
Cedric finished with the last stake. “We should gather materials as we go. I’d like more wood.”
“And I need to make arrows,” Jo added. “All I have are the forty I got from leveling up.”
“Alright,” Harry said. “We’ll head for any trees along the way.”
Jo folded the map and tucked it away. “Straight north to the mountain first, or cut northwest for the ruins?”
“Straight across,” Cedric said. “If we drift too far west and miss the ruins, who knows how far we would go before we noticed and had to turn back.”
Harry nodded. “Good thinking.”
Jo gave Cedric a sideways look. “I’m starting to be glad you volunteered to come.”
Stan stopped mid-step and stared at him. “Hold on, mate. You volunteered?”
Cedric laughed, short and dry. “Not all of us had to be trussed like a holiday goose and tossed inside.”
Stan scowled, jaw tightening, and gave a grudging nod. “Holiday goose is right. That bastard Zinkle meant Harry to eat me.”
Harry snorted and turned toward the open grasslands, the light climbing higher as they set off.
Jo took point, moving easy and alert, eyes scanning the open ground ahead. Harry followed behind her, with Stan and Cedric bringing up the rear.
“Don’t give up hope, Stan,” Jo called without looking back. “Still plenty of dungeon to go.”
Stan took a few more steps before the words caught up with him. He stopped short. “Wait. What?”
“Ignore her,” Harry said. “I almost certainly won’t eat anyone.”
Stan started walking again. “Thank you, boss. That’s truly a comfort.”
System, did we just joke about me being a vampire?
:: System: Affirmative.
Well, damn.
Harry smiled despite himself and followed Jo out into the grasslands. The morning air was cool, the grass brushing his boots as they fell into step. He kept his Blood Sense stretched wide and steady, watching the open ground as they moved on.
They covered maybe a hundred yards before reaching the first stand of trees, three squat willows clustered close together, branches low and tangled from fighting the wind.
Jo stepped in first, checked the ground, and gathered a few usable feathers from the grass. Satisfied, she moved to the trunks, snapping off straight shoots and putting them into her inventory.
Stan summoned two small axes and passed one to Cedric. The sound of chopping was dull and steady as they worked at the lower branches Jo had skipped. Harry dragged the cut limbs free while they trimmed them down, feeding the usable pieces into inventory as they went.
They finished and angled a little east toward the next patch of trees and did it again. Jo checked for feathers. Stan and Cedric took the branches. Harry helped and kept watch, Blood Sense pushed out as far as he could.
Past the second stand, the land changed.
The grass grew thicker and darker underfoot, blades slick with moisture. Each step pressed water up around their boots. The ground no longer held firm, the give slow and unpleasant.
Ahead, there were no more trees. Just low, open ground stretching out, the surface uneven and faintly rippled.
Harry caught the smell first. Wet earth. Decaying vegetation. Sulfur. He slowed a step. “What is that smell?”
Jo paused at the front and drew a breath through her nose. “Smells rotten.”
Cedric moved up from the rear. “That is the smell of a bog. It will not be pleasant if we have to cross.”
Harry looked toward the mountains, brow furrowing. The ground ahead dipped slightly, the grass darker, thicker. “Where did a bog come from?”
Jo glanced back over her shoulder. “Should we try to go around?”
“Let’s keep going and take a look,” Harry said.
They pressed on. Water pooled underfoot now, and their pace slowed as the footing deteriorated. Mud pulled at their soles with a faint sucking sound. Each step sank a little deeper than the last.
Jo slowed.
Her shoulders tightened and she lifted a hand. “Hold up. Something’s not right.”
The others moved forward to gather behind her. Cedric spoke first. “You sense something?”
“I don’t know,” Jo said. Her eyes scanned ahead and around them. “Just… wait here.”
Jo moved ahead alone, slow and careful, eyes sweeping the area around them. Nothing moved. Nothing stood out.
She took one more step and yelped as she dropped, mud swallowing her to the waist in an instant.
She twisted and tried to lunge back toward them. Instead, she slid farther away, inching deeper.
“Jo!” Stan shouted.
Cedric was already moving. “Don’t struggle. Flatten out.”
She reacted fast, leaning forward and spreading her weight. She was still sliding away but slower.
Cedric skidded to a halt at the edge and pulled a rope from his inventory, looping it once around his arm before tossing the end toward her. “Catch.”
She grabbed it with both hands.
Harry was beside Cedric a heartbeat later. They braced and pulled. Jo came free with a wet, obscene sound and slid onto firmer ground. She rolled onto her back, gasping, coated from the chest down in dark slime. Stan grabbed her arm and helped her upright.
She looked down at herself and groaned. Mud dripped slowly down her arms and off of her hands.
Harry crinkled his nose and stepped back. “Finally.”
She stared at him. “Finally what?”
“Where I’m from,” Harry said, “they made it seem like quicksand would be a constant danger. I’m glad I finally got to see some.”
Stan looked at him and shook his head. “Boss, you are an odd bloke.”
They gave Jo a few minutes to scrape most of the mud off. It helped some. Cedric cut it short. “We’ll all be covered soon enough.”
No one argued.
Each of them pulled a spear from inventory and started using it to test the ground ahead before committing their weight.
Harry glanced back as they adjusted their spacing. “This is the only spear I have left. How about everyone else?”
Jo lifted hers. “Just the one.”
Cedric nodded. “Same. The rest stayed on the other side of the bridge.”
Stan shrugged. “I’ve got three.”
They continued on, slow and deliberate, wading out into standing water. Stagnant and overgrown with algae.
The water varied in depth. One step was ankle-deep, the next dragged up to mid-thigh. A thin, oily sheen lay across the surface, dark grass and slick mud hiding the depth underneath. Spears went down first, probing, finding nothing solid more often than not.
They kept losing their footing. Harry went down hard more than once, usually catching himself with his spear before sinking too far. Cedric slipped, swore under his breath, and hauled himself upright, only to stumble again a few steps later. Stan fared no better, splashing and cursing every time he went down.
Jo stayed upright the whole time.
She moved carefully, adjusted her steps, and avoided going under again. The last time Stan slipped and complained she pointed out he should put more points into agility.
By the time they reached slightly firmer ground, she was the least coated in mud of all of them.
The water was still calf-deep, but getting shallower with each step.
Jo stopped and lifted a hand, pointing ahead. “Look. We’re almost out.”
They all paused and followed her line of sight. The bog thinned ahead of them, giving way to a short strip of grass. Beyond that lay bare dirt, and after that a low slope of dark gray rock. It was smooth and uniform, worn down rather than broken, rising at a gentle angle for maybe ten feet.
“Bless the gods,” Stan said. “Thought me toes’d be wet forever.”
Cedric studied the slope, head tilted. “I’m not certain I like the look of that.”
They turned to Harry. He gave a small shrug. “It gets us out of the bog at least.”
They pushed on.
The slope drew closer with each step. The ground held a little better every time. The water dropped to ankle-deep, then less, the mud loosening its grip.
Finally, they stepped onto dry ground and stretched stiff legs, scraped mud from boots and legs. No one rushed forward. For a moment, Harry was glad to just stand on solid ground again.
Jo started to turn toward the slope. “Let’s see what’s…”
She stopped.
The gear Harry, Stan, and Cedric were wearing all vanished and were replaced. The wardrobe function of their inventory snapping them into clean clothes, dry armor, and fresh boots. Harry’s new outfit left his chest bare before he muttered and added the missing pieces.
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Jo stared at them.
Her mouth tightened as she looked down at herself, still streaked with mud. “There was no leather armor or boots in the village that fit me.”
“Switch to some normal clothes for a bit,” Harry said. “It’ll only take about an hour in Wardrobe to dry out.”
Jo closed her eyes and let out a long breath through her nose. When she opened them again, she was already turning to the slope. “Let’s get up top first and look around.”
They stopped at the edge of the dirt and looked up at the slope.
“It’s steeper up close,” Harry said.
They moved to the base. Cedric crouched and ran his hand over the rock, fingers tracing the surface before he picked up a loose piece. It was flat and smooth, edges worn down.
His mouth set. “I was afraid of this. On my father’s southern estate they quarried stone, and this scree is what was left behind. Almost impossible to climb.”
Harry frowned at the slope. “Why? What makes it so hard?”
Cedric answered by flicking the stone from his hand. It struck halfway up the slope, skidded, and slid back down. As it went, the rock around it shifted and followed, a thin sheet of stone slipping loose and rattling to the bottom.
They all looked up, then along the slope in both directions. It ran on to the east and west as far as they could see, the same smooth gray surface broken only by loose stone.
“I’ll try it first,” Harry said. “If I fall and break my ass, at least I can heal.”
He stepped onto the slope and started up, slow and careful.
The rock moved under every step. Sometimes it was just a small shift, a faint slide. Other times the stone gave more, forcing him to move quickly as loose rock started to flow downslope beneath him.
He made it about three-quarters of the way up.
The stone under his feet slid hard. He stepped sideways. The same thing happened. More rock cut loose. He tried to hop forward.
Everything went.
The whole surface under him started to slide and he went down face first. The stone flowed downslope, loose rock carrying him back down in a rattling wave.
He came to a stop at the bottom in a sprawl.
Cedric and Stan hauled Harry upright. His hands were cut up, thin lines of thick blood tracing his palms and fingers. His wool pants were torn in several places, jagged rips where the stone had bitten in.
“Dammit,” he turned and looked back up the slope. “Almost made it. I should’ve boosted my speed.”
Cedric eyed the slope. “Maybe lie down and inch your way up?”
Jo stepped forward before Harry could answer. “Let me try.”
He looked at her, frowning at first, but the frown broke. He slapped a bloody palm to his face, leaving a dark print across his forehead.
“I was being dumb,” he said. “You should’ve went first.”
Cedric gave a short chuckle. “He’s right. But if you do go down, try to turn onto your back and just ride it out.”
Jo nodded before backing up to the edge of the wet grass, rolled her shoulders, and took off.
She hit the slope at speed.
Rock shifted under every step, stone cutting loose and sliding, but she never stayed in one place long enough for it to matter. Her feet touched and left in quick succession, already driving toward the next patch before the ground could give way. Momentum carried her where caution had failed Harry.
She bounded upward, light and fast, and in moments she was at the top.
She stopped, turned, and looked down at them.
Stan stared up at her, mouth open. “That’s it. Next level I’m gettin’ agility.”
Harry looked up at Jo. “Any trees up there you could tie a rope off to?”
She turned in a slow circle at the top, took a few steps, then shook her head. “No. Nothing.”
Cedric glanced between them. “Sir Harold, you could boost your speed and go up the same way she did.”
“That works for me,” Harry said, “but not for you and Stan.” He tilted his head. “I have an idea.”
He grinned at Jo. “You showed us your speed. How about your strength?”
Jo planted her feet and struck a pose, hands on her hips, chin lifted at a dramatic angle. She held it for a beat, then looked down at them with a smile. “I am strong like dragon.”
Harry laughed. “Alright then.”
He pulled a rope from his inventory and wrapped it tight around his chest, cinching it under his arms. When it was secure, he tossed the free end up the slope.
Jo caught it easily and pulled it taut.
“Hold on,” Harry said, waving her off. “Let me get ready.”
She gave a nod and let the rope slacken.
Harry moved to the base of the slope and lay down on his back. He crossed his arms on his chest, lifted his head off the rock, and locked his legs together.
“Alright,” he called up. “Go, go, Jojo.”
Instead of hauling hand over hand, Jo looped the rope around one arm and grabbed it with the other. She turned and ran away from the edge.
Harry started up the slope.
Loose stone moved under him and poured downhill, a broad wave of rock rattling and sliding behind his back as he went. He reached the top fast and came to a hard stop. The rope bit under his arms, yanking tight. Behind him, Jo let out a short grunt and stumbled back toward him.
Harry rolled to his feet, brushed stone from his clothes, and looked back. “You alright?”
She was down on one knee, flexing one shoulder. She looked up and smiled. “I’m good.”
They did it again for Cedric and Stan. This time Jo didn’t run. She and Harry both pulled, steady and hard, hauling them up one at a time until everyone was on solid ground again.
They turned and looked ahead.
The ground dipped away into a broad depression, sloping down into a shallow basin before leveling out at the bottom. From there, narrow paths threaded forward into rocky terrain, scattered boulders and broken stone rising on either side in uneven clusters.
Harry lifted his eyes to the mountains. They still looked just as far off as when they started at the river. “What on earth? Are we even getting closer?”
Stan scratched at his chin. “Let me see my map.”
Harry pulled up his own. The winding path from the river showed clearly enough, bending and curving but still trending north. Ahead of them, though, the map faded into gray fog with no detail at all.
Stan nodded to himself. “We didn’t turn back. By my reckonin’, we’re headin’ the right way.”
Harry blinked away his map. “Any suggestions on which path to take?”
They looked at one another. No one spoke. Cedric finally shrugged. “I am partial to the sinister path.”
Harry nodded. “Left it is.”
Jo held up a hand. “Wait.”
She switched wardrobes in a blink. Muddy leather vanished, replaced by a clean wool tunic, trousers, and low leather shoes. She kept her bow in hand. She rolled her shoulders and nodded, “Much better.”
Before moving, Harry looked down at his bloody hands and checked his meters.
H: 109 | V: 107 | TM: 3%
He’d started the day full and was only down a few points. Safe enough. He spent one vitae on healing. The cuts across his palms quickly closed.
They set off again in single file.
This time Harry took point, spear held in both hands, shield strapped to his arm, Blood Sense reaching ahead. Jo followed, then Stan, with Cedric once more bringing up the rear.
They moved down the chosen path and the terrain closed in around them.
The walls rose on either side until all they could see was the narrow strip of ground ahead and the same behind. Even that view didn’t last long. The path bent and twisted, cutting sightlines short, never running straight for more than a few steps at a time.
More paths opened up as they went. Left. Right. Another fork. Sometimes two close together. Every twenty or thirty yards they had to stop, orient themselves, and choose again. Each time they took the route that kept them moving north.
It didn’t always work.
More than once the path narrowed, pinched off, and ended in bare rock. Each time they turned around and traced their steps back, boots scraping over the same ground, irritation building but unspoken.
The footing got worse.
They began to encounter breaks in the ground, narrow drop-offs and gaps where the earth had split away. Some were only a few feet across, others closer to ten. They crossed them carefully, spears testing the far side before anyone committed weight, each person waiting until the one ahead was safely across.
Eventually they came to a wider break.
The gap stretched close to twenty feet, too wide to risk jumping.
Harry stopped at the edge and looked back down the path. The last intersection was a long way behind them.
He tilted his head up and studied the wall beside the gap. It rose straight up, dark gray and brown stone running unbroken for thirty feet or more.
“Hold on,” he said. “I want to take a look around.”
Harry put his spear back into inventory and looked down at his hands, focusing. With a dry series of cracks, his fingers thinned and lengthened. The bones shifted under the skin. His nails thickened and grew, hardening into curved points.
He glanced up at the others watching and grinned. He flexed his hands, the new joints moving easily.
Jo shook her head. “Nope. That is not at all disturbing.”
Stan reached forward, curiosity winning out, then stopped himself just short of touching. “That just works on your hands?”
Harry lifted both eyebrows. “What?”
Stan shrugged and waved a hand up and down at Harry’s body. “Could be interestin’ if it works all over. Some lasses at the Dusty Tavern might give ya a tickle for a peek.”
Jo pretended to gasp and punched Stan in the shoulder.
Harry shook his head. “Dammit. Have I been missing out this whole time?”
System, will this work on more than just my hands?
:: System: Affirmative.
Well how come you never said anything?
:: System: The User Interface Aspect strongly discourages shards from offering unsolicited advice.
Why?
:: System: An overly helpful UI can quickly take over and dominate some users, turning them into little more than an avatar of the shard.
Harry frowned. That made an uncomfortable amount of sense.
But what about the times you tried to get me to use Frenzy when I didn’t ask?
:: System: I was pushing the boundary of what is allowed and it will certainly be reflected in my next performance review.
Is a bad review the only downside?
:: System: Negative. If peer review reaches consensus, a shard may be removed and replaced without user consent.
Harry blinked.
Oh damn. Let’s avoid that. But try to give me hints when you can.
:: System: Affirmative.
He used Wardrobe to strip off his boots and stockings. Bare feet met the cold rock. He focused, the same way he had with his hands, and willed the change.
Stan and Jo both dropped to a knee to watch. Cedric took a few steps back and gave them space.
His feet went through the same change. Bones thinned and stretched longer, joints shifting with a series of loud pops as the shape settled.
When it finished, Jo sat back on her heels. “Now that is disturbing.”
Stan nodded and leaned in, sniffing loudly. “You’d think anythin’ that ugly would stink.”
Harry ignored them and pushed further, willing the change up into his arms. It worked. His forearms lengthened, muscle and bone reshaping, but his chainmail caught at once. Grew tight and bit into his shoulders.
He cut the change short and willed his arms back to normal, the pressure easing as the mail settled into place again.
Harry stepped up to the wall and set his clawed hands against the stone. He tested it once, twice, feeling how the surface took the points. Satisfied, he boosted his speed and strength, just the base effect, no vitae spent, and launched himself upward.
The climb came easily.
His claws caught on shallow cracks and tiny irregularities, gripping easily. His feet found purchase where none should have existed, the altered shape hooking onto edges he would have slid past before. Using them like this felt strange at first, but the motion came quickly. Within a few moves he adjusted and climbed faster, body settling into a steady rhythm.
He reached the top and pulled himself over.
From up there, the mountains did look closer. He brought up his map and studied it. The path they’d taken twisted and doubled back in places where they’d been forced to turn around, but the overall line still ran north.
He scanned the ground around him. Any hope of traveling along the top died quick. The terrain was broken and uneven, split by open fissures and jagged rises that made footing worse than below.
Harry didn’t linger. He climbed back down, dropped lightly to the path, and told them what he’d seen. With a thought, he willed his hands and feet back to normal, used Wardrobe to pull his gear back on, and drew his spear.
They turned back, found the next path and moved on.
As they pushed deeper into the maze the rock began to change.
The gray stone darkened as they went, the color deepening until it turned black. The surface took on a faint sheen, light catching on it in sharp highlights. Edges grew harder and more defined, less worn, less forgiving.
The path began to climb, the turns fewer, the ground angling up. Ahead, the walls lowered. Light spilled over the top.
They reached a point where they could see over the sides.
An obsidian field stretched out in front of them and ran off to both sides, a wide expanse of black glass broken into sharp, jagged forms. The ground looked flayed, fractured into angles and points that promised cuts for any careless step.
Beyond it, the mountains loomed close now. No illusion of distance left. Two hundred yards at most.
“Finally,” Stan muttered.
Harry glanced up at the sun. It was well past its peak, drifting toward late afternoon. He shook his head. “That is the longest mile ever.”
Cedric turned and pointed back the way they’d come. “Look.”
They followed his gesture and went quiet.
To the south, the land sprawled out in a maze of broken terrain, twists and depressions piling up into miles of hard, ugly ground. From up here, the path they’d taken vanished into it, swallowed by stone.
Jo looked out over the black glass and shook her head. “Can you imagine if we walked into this in the dark.”
A chill ran up the back of Harry’s neck. Actual goosebumps prickled his skin, which caught him off guard. Since when did vampires get goosebumps? “I think that would have been bad.”
Cedric gestured to the ground ahead. “We are not out of this yet. A volcanic flow like this is dangerous. We’ll have to watch for thin spots on the surface. One wrong step and you can fall through.”
Harry glanced at him. “Cedric, how do you know so much about this? Did your father have land like this too?”
Cedric gave a small, crooked smile. “No. When I was on my own, I had to cross land like this once, on a quest.”
“You’ll have to tell us about it sometime,” Harry said.
“I will, Sir Harold,” Cedric replied. “And you will have to tell us your adventures.”
“There isn’t really much to…”
“Including all your titles.”
“…tell.” Harry stumbled to a stop before smiling and pointing ahead. “Shall we?”
At their nods he started forward, “Onward and upward.”
The walls dwindled as they went. First waist-high, then knee-high, until the path flattened and the stone fell away entirely.
They stepped out onto the surface.
Harry slowed at once. The obsidian underfoot was sharp and unforgiving, fractured into jagged planes that caught the light in hard flashes. He tested each step with the tip of his spear before committing weight, metal ticking softly against glassy stone.
They hadn’t gone far when they came to an open crater, ten feet across at least. The obsidian was caved in, leaving a clean break around the edge. Harry eased closer and peered down. Darkness swallowed the hole, the bottom lost in shadow, though what he could see was more black glass far below.
The rim crumbled under a light touch. Eggshell thin.
They gave it a wide berth.
Progress was slow after that. Every step was measured. Every shift deliberate. But eventually the glass ended in a low drop, no more than ten feet.
Harry climbed down first, boots sliding briefly before he found purchase. He tested the ground with his spear. Packed dirt. Scrub grass. Solid.
The others followed, dropping down one by one.
They straightened and looked around.
The mountain loomed over them now, its face steep and broken, outcroppings of massive stone jutting out at awkward angles. No clear path up. Nothing inviting.
“The ruins should still be off to the west,” Jo said.
They scanned along the base of the mountain. Rock and shadow. No sign of the ruins.
Harry exhaled and looked back the way they’d come. “It’s late. And knowing this dungeon, there’ll be a surprise waiting for us at the ruins.”
Cedric nodded. “You think we should stop here for the night?”
“Yeah,” Harry said. “Unless anyone thinks we should press on.”
He looked from one face to the next. No one argued.
“Good,” he said. “It was a long day. We can use the extra rest.”
They moved on a short distance along the mountain’s base until Cedric found a spot he liked and they settled in.
Stan and Cedric got to work setting stakes where they could, working around stone and hard-packed earth. Cedric’s Field Fortifications ability made it possible. Stan summoned a shovel and pick for Harry and he started on a rough trench, scraping and chopping until he had something serviceable.
A little way off, Jo sat down and began working on arrows, hands moving steady and practiced as the light started to fade.
***
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