55th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle
Rose’s heart galloped. Sothing was stuck in her throat as she stared at her empty hands. A mountain-sized rock, based on how she was feeling. The young woman opened her mouth, but failed to utter a word.
“Are there any manabeast ambushers in the geysers?” Jas’s voice trembled, and Rose’s eyes grew wet.
No! No, nonono! Her lower lip wobbled. Not again!
She was suffocating, despite the fact that several seconds without air could never harm her body.
“Don’t spew random nonsense!” Obi roared. “He’s fine. There are no manabeasts that dwell in the geysers. The bestiary would never hide such important information, otherwise nobody would believe anything inside.”
Obi was right. Rose wiped her nose and eyes.
“We got separated in the Valley of the Lost, Newstar is competent in combat, and we can handle ourselves.” Her voice trembled, her gut told her a calamity had befallen them, but she had to think positive. Newstar was alive. They were alive. That was the first, fundantal requirent of life. As long as you are alive, things will get better. They had to.
“And how will he find his way out?” Jasmine just had to ask the one question which Rose’s mind refused to entertain.
“If he kills too many manabeasts, the champions are bound to drag him out so he doesn’t ruin the danger zone for other students.” Obi’s words sounded like a joke, but there was so truth to them. Newstar’s elental affinities made him a god of war in the making. Earth for defense, fire for offense. Both elents were sowhat suppressed in the dual water and air environnt of the valley, but he seed unaffected, or he was even scarier on neutral terrain.
“Obi, you sparred with him, and you think he can do it?” Rose asked, and her friend nodded.
“I’m positive. Newt’s a monster. Besides, you’ve seen how easily he dealt with the manabeasts attacking us whenever he got involved.”
Obi was right, of course. Rose had seen Newstar fight. Whenever they encountered manabeasts, he stood to the side, watching them like their battle was a child’s ga. She had thought that they were dragging him down more than once, but she could also see another truth.
Newstar would leave their team as soon as the next elite tryouts happened. She was also destined to beco an elite one day; once she mastered her healing arts to a satisfactory level. But Newstar was different. He didn’t need to develop special skills. His martial prowess was sothing the order valued, since they could enter him into various tournants, challenges, and competitive secret realm explorations. The opportunities were greater than anything she would receive, but the risks involved were also greater than she would ever dare take.
He will dominate such events. Yes, that’s right. The order’s leadership would never let him waste away here. Once we return and notify the champions that he is lost inside this blasted fog, they are bound to get him out.
Rose cald down. Those thoughts reassured her enough. Her hands still shook, and her heart was still beating too quickly, too strongly, but she was fine. And Newstar would be fine too.
***
Newt was not fine. Not fine at all. He had to sit down and rest from the ntal strain. He closed his eyes and drew deep breaths. Having soone with a compass to follow made navigating the myst relatively simple, but having to rely on your own instincts was another thing entirely.
Worse, the Valley of the Lost seed to have figured out what he was doing, so the right and wrong paths rged, converged, and changed every couple of breaths.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
This isn’t working. It’s impossible for the danger zone to read my thoughts, which ans it’s sohow ssing with the way I think.
Newt mulled over that idea. It seed the best way to explain what was happening to him, how the directions kept changing, and how his innate spatial awareness suddenly beca erratic, useless trash.
But how does it do that?
The likeliest and the most obvious thod seed to be ddling with Newt’s sense of danger sohow. The unease and discomfort born from the dissonance between the obvious safe path, which was everything but safe, and the dangerous path, which was an unknown, was ruinous for the psyche for so reason.
The bestiary stated that creatures native to the Valley of the Lost can track prey, but can’t move between layers. That obviously ans they can navigate the danger zone, and if they can do it, so can I. But how do I do it?
Newt considered the question, and the first answer to co to mind was for him to ignore his sense of danger sohow. If he could do that, the confusion should pass.
Unless there are other underlying techniques beyond that one. Distance seems to stretch, mist grows thicker or thinner to confuse , so I will still end up wandering around, even if I manage to shut out my sense of danger. Worse, I might stumble into higher realm zones if I move around blindly.
No, that’s not the way.
Making a tool or a spell seal to solve the issue also seed like a valid solution, but Newt had nothing on him. A glaive strapped to his back, a short-sword hanging from his waist, three ropes looped around his abdon, a sack full of mist crystals hanging from his belt, and a few miscellaneous, everyday trinkets. Improvising a solution out of such mundane components was out of the question; as for scribing a seal to find his path, that was beyond his current ability.
I should’ve spent more ti learning new runes. Seals are obviously versatile and useful. Master said she dabbles in them, and saying you dabbled in sothing at her realm ans she’s way ahead of , maybe even Dandelion.
The problem was, Newt didn’t know how advanced his knowledge needed to be to solve or counter the riddle of an entire danger zone. He guessed incredibly high, and that level was decades or centuries beyond him, so dwelling on it was pointless.
What else can I do, except daydream about a solution?
Newt’s thoughts wandered, making guesses and discarding them, but he always returned to the sa esoteric concept he didn’t understand - sense of danger.
Master said sothing about it being important and maybe said I would one day have to master it. I guess today is that one day, and it’s much better than blindly wandering the valley, but how do I go about mastering a new sense?
The answer seed obvious. Newt tried the sa approach as when he was developing his mana sense. His master was absent, but he wasn’t doing anything dangerous. The tendril of mana entered the earth and moved around, but there was nothing unusual, save for the ground being heavily saturated with water energy, and having thrice the usual amount of air energy.
Can mana even detect sothing as incorporeal as danger? Well, mana is immaterial too, so maybe?
He extended a tendril into the air. Earth was a poor choice of energy to let drift in the mist, so he chose fire. The abundance of water drowned the tendril, but air would have strangled earth almost completely at his level of proficiency. Newt solved the problem by sending more energy through it, and the near-invisible thread of fla extended. Newt slowly turned, letting the short tendril dance in the air, feeling in all directions, but he sensed nothing out of the ordinary.
The air was naturally full of air-aligned energy, heavy with water from all the vapor, and had traces of fire-attributed mana, but there was no danger in the air, nor did the Valley of the Lost try to use his floating thread of mana to entrap him.
I guess the heavy concentration of mana in the air combined with the natural bewildering spell formation erodes the mana sense. Newt’s conclusion was probably correct, but less than useless for his current needs. He considered the matter a mont longer, then decided on an experintal approach.
He stood and closed his eyes, focusing his attention inwards, then he took a step in an uncomfortable direction. His skin crawled, his gut twisted, his heart rate quickened, and his muscles tensed.
Newt’s body knew danger lurked there, sowhere just beyond his perception, and it prepared accordingly. Then he took a step back, heading in what the Valley of the Lost considered the right direction for him.
The unease disappeared; his bodily functions reverted to normal. The consequences and byproducts of his anxiety were obvious, even if he missed so of the more subtle sensations.
What I need to do is find whatever is controlling my body. It’s outside my normal awareness, sothing I don’t consciously do, but it happens sohow. Where do I look for parts of myself that do their work without my intent?
Newt moved, alternating between going in the safe direction and in the dangerous direction, delving into every part of his body he could find. The changes were easy to find, and they grew more nurous the more attention he paid to each body part. However, the spikebacks pulling all that weight eluded him.
Reviews
All reviews (0)