Verigenesis: Bounty (Rifthunters Book 1), page 7
“It’s not too bad,” Wes eventually said. “I think the walk here helped. Thanks for grabbing my stuff, by the way.”
“Anytime.”
They trailed off into silence. Wes looked anywhere but toward him, and Nate’s stomach clenched. Commander Grisham’s words echoed through his mind: There’s nothing you wouldn’t do to win, is there? You’ve already proven you’d sacrifice your best friend.
Despite the press of people around them, Nate suddenly felt very alone. “Look, Wes. I…I just wanted to say…”
“I know,” he said so quietly that Nate had to strain to hear him over the murmuring crowds. “I know you’re sorry.”
It seemed like he wanted to say more, but was wrestling with the words. His icy eyes narrowed, a frown splitting his pale face.
“Great,” Nate said with forced confidence. “Then let’s just try to—”
“That’s the problem,” Wes said.
He stopped in the middle of the walkway, whirling to face Nate, who stumbled to a halt as well. A couple of passing verists glared at them as they tried to step around. Wes seemed oblivious to their ire. His ice-blue eyes bored into Nate’s.
“You’re always sorry. Do you know how many times you’ve gotten me killed since we joined the Riftwalkers?”
“What are you—”
“Six, Nate. Six. And that’s not including what happened when we faced the Conqueror Worm.”
“Now, wait a second. It was your mind that spawned that thing in the Trials. That wasn’t my—”
“Oh? And whose clever idea was it to visit the Trials in the first place? Who convinced me to sneak up to the entryway while the guards were distracted and place that token in the slot?”
“Will you just let me finish a Null-cursed sentence!”
Wes fell silent, and Nate took advantage of the momentary pause to gather his thoughts. “You didn’t have to come with me. Not during the Trials, and not any other time before or since. I thought we were on the same page. That’s why we joined the Riftwalkers together: to challenge ourselves and progress.”
“That’s exactly my point!” Wes shouted. Nate had never seen his friend this worked up, not even in the heat of battle.
He glared at Nate, panting slightly as if he were out of breath. “I followed you so we could both advance, but look at us: you’re almost Apprentice Rank 5 and here I am, still only halfway through Rank 3. We’re supposed to be partners…”
Wes trailed off and Nate winced. Maybe he did get carried away sometimes striving to be the hero. Wes was the only genuine friend he’d made since coming to the Nexus. If it meant keeping him happy, Nate could try to listen more and be a better team player.
Nate opened his mouth to respond, and Wes held up a hand. He took a deep breath, visibly calming himself before he spoke. “Forget it. Let’s just drop it for now.”
Nate considered pressing the issue, but it wasn’t exactly a conversation he was eager to continue. Instead, he gave a curt nod. “Sure thing, buddy.”
They walked a while longer after that, watching myriad verists going about their business. Elemental forgelings trailed behind their masters, while binder auras overlapped to warp the surrounding space in eye-bending combinations.
Mixed in with the rest, weavers pushed through the crowd in a perpetual hurry. These stood out the most, with their bodies literally transformed into something more than human.
“You know,” Wes eventually said, “I’ve been thinking about that fight against the ferroceros.”
Nate’s shoulders tightened. He wasn’t exactly eager to return to their previous topic of conversation. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. And I think I’ve got some ideas on how we could’ve done better.”
“Like what?”
“Well, if the two of us had been better coordinated, we could’ve kept it on the back foot…or feet, I guess. Your empowered attack was great to punch through its armor, but then we gave it an opportunity to recover and cast those steel spikes.”
Nate chuckled, relaxing slightly. “You mean when it stepped on you?”
“Hey, you try dodging around a giant monster for that long! Besides, I wasn’t the only one to slip up. I seem to recall a certain verist going for a joy-ride on that thing’s back.”
“Null-cursed boots…” Nate grumbled.
Wes laughed. Nate could tell his friend’s good cheer was forced, but he appreciated it all the same. They continued walking and chatting for a while.
By the time they’d found their way back to the central plaza, the tension between them had eased considerably. They squeezed into an out-of-the-way corner to avoid the thickest clusters of shoppers.
Nate entertained himself by watching a pair of protectors try to explain to an increasingly irate vendor why he couldn’t set up his stall in the middle of one of the main bridges. The entire time, a forgeling shaped vaguely like a raincloud flitted above their heads, sprinkling the glorified city guards with what Nate sincerely hoped was just water.
The twins eventually appeared, each carrying a bundled backpack stuffed full of their spoils. Ellie arrived soon after, though Nate had been watching the bridges and could’ve sworn she’d taken none of them. Even with the number of verists in the area, the crystalline sheen of her aura made her hard to miss.
“Where have you been?” Nate asked her.
She grinned, her eyes twinkling. “Shopping.”
By the Null, she irritated the nil out of him. Still, at least they were all here now. Just one more stop, and then he could be done with this whole business. At least until his next babysitting assignment. This month can’t end fast enough.
“Everyone ready?” Nate said. “Good. Let’s go.”
Nate shepherded them all back onto the pad and, closing his eyes, thought Hub. In a rush of displaced air, they shifted away.
Chapter 8
They appeared at the end of a bridge made of stars. Darkness enveloped them, the only light coming from the bridge itself and from the galaxy of motes that spiraled above them.
At the far end of the bridge, more stars formed a latticework platform with a swirling pillar piercing its center. Nate assumed this pillar was some kind of control mechanism since it crackled intermittently with essence.
An Animated, black as night save the constellations outlining its limbs, stood beside the pillar. The construct kept watch over a steady stream of verists that stretched all the way back across the bridge to the pad.
Every few seconds, a portal would blink into existence somewhere on the platform, and the Animated would wave a group over. Each portal maintained its integrity just long enough for the verists to step through before collapsing in on itself.
“Great, another line,” Nate groaned.
“We could just go back the old-fashioned way,” Ellie suggested hopefully.
“Not a chance,” Nate said. “Even with a line, this’ll be much faster.”
As they waited, Nate considered what his next move should be when he got back. By his estimation, he needed around a thousand essence to reach the fifth rank of Apprentice, plus another two hundred and fifty to pay his overdue guild fees. That should’ve been easily doable in a normal month of duty, but not in two weeks while confined mostly to running errands around base.
I could always just quit. Leaving the Riftwalkers would at least save him the need to pay his fees or waste time on these tedious assignments. But quitting also risked his long-term prospects for advancement.
Without the backing of a guild or connections of his own, it would be difficult to find any missions worth doing. At that point, he’d basically be wandering around the Nexus like a nil-brained fool, hoping to stumble on valuable opportunities at random.
And then there was Wes. Nate had no intention of abandoning his friend. If Wes wanted to remain in the guild, Nate would make it work. Together, they’d move forward and keep progressing, just as they always had before.
By the time they’d crossed the bridge and neared the front of the queue, Nate had come up with a half-dozen different schemes to earn essence. All of them seemed equally unlikely to work.
“What was that?” Ellie said, interrupting his brainstorming. “Did you guys feel that?”
Nate glanced around. “I didn’t feel—”
He cut off as the platform beneath their feet quivered. A low rumble reverberated around them. Searching for the source of the disturbance, Nate’s gaze settled on a hooded figure standing beside the Animated attendant. It looked like the figure was propping the Animated up, one hand resting on its back.
Then the construct burst apart in a small explosion of essence. The figure lowered its hand, and Nate’s pulse quickened. The Animated had all been manufactured by the Architect himself. Whatever the figure had done to destroy it so easily must have involved some incredibly potent veristry.
Ignoring the murmurs from the crowd, the cloaked figure turned to face the celestial pillar in the platform’s center. It pressed a palm against the pillar’s starry surface.
The illusion instantly shattered, revealing unadorned metal that disintegrated beneath the figure’s touch as easily as the Animated had. The inside of the pillar was hollow. A glowing glass orb the size of a basketball rested there within a wired frame.
“What the Null is going on?” Ellie asked. “Should we do something?”
“I don’t know,” Wes said. “Maybe we should leave it to the protectors.”
Where were the protectors? Nate didn’t see any on the platform; just a lot of people with wide eyes and shuffling feet. No one wanted to be the one to make the first move.
The figure snatched at the revealed orb. As its hand neared the object, it seemed to strain against an invisible force. Then, with a sound akin to ripping fabric, the figure wrapped its fingers around the orb and tore it free. The remaining portals scattered around the platform instantly winked out.
Most of the groups using these latest portals had long since passed through, but a few stragglers cried out as they were suddenly separated from their peers. One unfortunate man’s scream quickly turned into a gurgle when a portal closed on him while he was only halfway in, slicing his body cleanly in two. His corpse shimmered out of existence as the man was reclaimed.
“To the Null with this,” Ellie said, reaching into her satchel. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not just going to stand here and let it happen.”
“We shouldn’t interfere,” Wes said. “We don’t have enough information.” The twins murmured their agreement.
Finally, a chance to prove myself. “No, she’s right,” Nate said. “If no one else is going to act, then we will.” He gestured at Ellie and the twins. “You three stay here out of the way. Wes and I will confront whoever this is and keep them occupied until the protectors arrive.”
“No!” Ellie protested. “You don’t need to put me on the sidelines. I can handle this.”
Nate raised an eyebrow. “No offense, but you’re a binder. Leave this to the weavers who can cast a spell more than once a minute.”
Ellie shot him a glare. Ahead of them, the figure held aloft the stolen orb. Energy coalesced around it, the crackling outline of a portal taking shape. He’s planning to flee.
Nate shoved his way through the stunned crowd, channeling his essence to shape his Ice Blade as he moved. If the protectors wouldn’t maintain order, then he’d have to do it for them.
Wes trailed after him, leaving Ellie back with the twins. Nate was grateful for his show of support.
As he cleared the edge of the crowd, Nate saw that the portal had opened enough to reveal the hazy image of a cavern on the other side. With the weaves still only half-formed, though, it was difficult to make out any details.
“Hey you; stop right there!” Nate called out.
The figure had to have heard him, yet it neither turned nor issued a reply. That sent a chill down Nate’s back. There had to be over two dozen verists here, many of them weavers trained for combat. Did the figure really think they posed little enough of a threat that it could ignore them?
“So much for talking,” Wes noted dryly.
Before Nate could decide what to do next, a thin beam lanced through the air. The energy seared into the figure’s head, and it staggered, almost dropping the orb. Yet, as the afterimage of the beam faded, Nate saw that it had done little but blast aside the cloak’s hood.
What the Null was that? Nate looked back and saw that a pocket of space had formed in the crowd around Ellie. She held a white stone rod the size of a baton, its surface intricately carved with grooved patterns. A slot at its base held a small crystalline cartridge glowing with contained essence. More wisps of expended essence curled up from the rod’s tip.
The twins stood a bit off to the side, staring at Ellie with wide eyes. Nate knew how they felt. How had she gotten a binding in place so quickly? And what had that effect even been? He’d assumed she was an earthbinder when they first met, but that blast certainly hadn’t felt like geologic essence.
Ellie noticed Nate and smirked as if to say I told you so. Then the figure turned to face her, and her mouth fell open. Nate gasped and heard many others around him do the same. That narrow visage would have been instantly recognizable to all but the newest arrivals in Tabula Rasa.
“Is that…” Nate muttered.
“The Lord Protector,” Wes confirmed quietly.
He sounded dazed, and Nate couldn’t blame him. The Lord Protector was one of the Immortals who had brought them all to the Nexus and introduced them to veristry. In particular, he had been charged with leading the protectors to enforce the peace. What the Null is happening here?
The Lord Protector locked eyes with Ellie. Then he spun back toward the portal. It had finished opening onto a dim cavern filled with jagged stalactites and giant glowing mushrooms. If Nate was going to do anything, this was his last chance. But did he dare defy an Immortal?
Coming to a split-second decision, Nate dashed forward across the open platform, raising up his sword. He doubted he stood much of a chance against the Lord Protector, but the man clearly wasn’t acting in the capacity of his office. Why else would he have concealed his identity beneath a hood?
And if the Lord Protector was up to no good, surely the other Immortals would want Nate to interfere. This could be a golden opportunity to earn their favor.
Ahead of him, the Immortal paused, frowning at the open portal. He raised the orb, shaking it like a snow globe. Nate was close enough now to hear him growl, “Do you honestly think to deter me, Valencia? You are being childish.”
Then Nate was upon the Lord Protector, thrusting his sword in a downward sweep. The Ice Blade sliced cleanly through the Immortal’s cloak, but as soon as it hit the Lord Protector’s back, it shattered into thousands of icy shards.
Nate staggered, his aegis absorbing most of the fragments. The Lord Protector had completely deflected his blow without even raising a hand.
The Immortal glanced back at him. For the briefest of moments, Nate swore he caught a hint of regret in the man’s gaze. Then the Immortal’s eyes flashed with a strange violet light, and his lips curled into a sneer.
“Would that I had the time to teach you your place. Perhaps a quick lesson will suffice.”
Even as Nate regained his balance and began the weave to summon a new blade, the Lord Protector moved impossibly fast, bringing his hand up and stretching it toward Nate’s chest.
Nate didn’t have time to dodge, let alone conjure his Frost Armor. He tensed for the impact, but before the blow could land, something hurtled through the portal and crashed into the Lord Protector’s side.
Another shape followed, and then another. They were some kind of verabeast, Nate realized. This portal was clearly accessible from both sides.
Dozens of screeching creatures poured through on beating wings and scattered across the platform. The nearby crowd erupted into a flurry of panicked motion, their shouts intermixing with the harsh shrieks of the flying monsters.
Ignoring them for now, Nate searched for the Lord Protector just in time to see him wrap a hand around a creature’s throat. The flailing verabeast burst apart in a cloud of dust.
All thoughts of Nate forgotten, the Immortal moved toward the yawning portal. I can’t let him get away!
Nate activated his Gusting Boots and hurtled forward…right past the retreating form of the Lord Protector. He desperately clutched at the Immortal’s cloak.
The cloth strained as he tried to arrest his momentum. Then, all resistance vanished, and he was tumbling across the platform, the cloak held loosely in his hands.
By the time Nate had pushed himself to his feet, the portal was already collapsing in on itself. The Lord Protector had escaped.
Nate glared at the discarded cloak in disgust, noting with some surprise that the clasp didn’t appear to be broken. The Lord Protector must’ve unfastened it on his own. But why?
Perhaps he’d been concerned that Nate would deter him if he’d been allowed to keep his grip. Studying the cloak, Nate saw the glint of something metallic in one of its pockets.
“Nate!”
Nate spun toward the source of the shout and saw Wes grappling with a flying verabeast back by the rest of their group. The creature had its claws wrapped around one of the twins’ shoulders and was trying to lift him into the air.
Nate shoved the cloak into his bag; there’d be time enough for loot later. For now, it was time to fight.
Chapter 9
Nate conjured a Fire Bolt, preparing to hurl it at the verabeast attacking his group. As he sighted on his target, however, he hesitated. The flier was flailing from side to side in Wes’ grasp while the twin clutched in its talons pummeled at it ineffectually.
With his low Finesse, Nate’s Fire Bolts weren’t exactly the most precise projectiles. There was a good chance he’d accidentally catch one or more of his allies in the blast. Dismissing his weave, he instead channeled his essence into a new Ice Blade.
