The Pursuit of Power, page 18
“Awwww,” the children let out in unison.
“Yes, yes, but now is time for bed.” she said.
At her words, the children’s shoulders lost their energy. They climbed down from Jax and slumped their backs.
“On you go.” she said, looking down at them.
“Okay.” they groaned.
The children trudged back inside, but with the sound of whispering back and forth to one another.
“Let me make sure they actually get into their beds.” The kind woman walked away, herding the young ones back inside the darkness of the building.
Now alone again, the whistle of a night wind swept by. Vincent looked around and saw the small dirt lawn patched with grass, a lone ball and a pair of long sticks strewn about, and at the edge of the field he spotted a wooden bench.
Vincent made his way over and gently placed Jax onto the bench. Jax’s head lolled back and his arm draped over the side. Vincent let out a deep relaxing sigh as he took the seat beside him.
Vincent could hear the nightly sounds. The bugs chirping in the grass, the wind floating in the dark sky above, and the close silence that hugged everything around them. And when he looked up he could see the stars. Vast little specks of light that burst through an endless black deep.
“He was out so late.”
Vincent turned and saw the woman walking across the lawn again. “None of them would sleep without knowing he had come home.” she said, sitting down in the open space next to Vincent.
She leaned forward and looked over Vincent toward Jax on the other side of the bench. Jax was a crumpled up mess, with a faint wheezing snore seeping through his nostrils as he slept under the night sky.
“But he’s always gone a little too far.” she said with a young laugh.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I was the one that kept him.”
The woman only smiled. “No ma’am. I am just Mother here.”
Vincent nodded, not knowing what to say.
They both stared at the white building in front of them, looming large above the surrounding empty dirt lot.
“He still stays here most nights. Always brings money to pay for food and clothing for the kids.” she said.
“He grew up here?” Vincent asked.
“Longer than any of them.” she said. “Just the cutest little baby you could imagine. Plump and crying with his little red cheeks in the cold.” She looked off for a moment, then back at the building. “But maybe that is why he does such dangerous things.”
“He is stronger than he looks, especially now.” Vincent said.
She scoffed. “I was the one who forbid him from trying anything. But as soon as he was old enough to leave, he went off.” She looked at Jax again, sleeping like a pig in mud, but her eyes were knowing and caring, as if she could see him as he was the day they crossed paths. “I worry so much for them all, no matter how old they grow.”
“I’m sorry,” Vincent said, “I didn’t know about any of this.”
“He is close lipped about most things that are important. But when you get to know him, he opens up like a spring songbird.”
“Ale may have the same affect.” Vincent said with a grin.
“I’m not so sure. He’s talked plenty about you before.” she said.
Vincent now realized he hadn’t even introduced himself. He had felt so comfortable that it felt unnecessary.
“And the names are easy to remember when he doesn’t talk of many other friends.” She shook her head. “I always told him he needed to act nicer, but he would just punch and bite anyone who came his way.” She rolled her eyes remembering the past.
She turned to Vincent and looked him in the eyes. “But thank you for bringing him home.”
Vincent could see the deep greens and hazels mixing in the catacombs of her iris. “What are friends for.” he said
“Even though he may be a bit of a handful at times?” she said with a raised brow.
“Yes, even so. May God help me.” Vincent said with a chuckle.
“Hopefully whatever god you choose will not be offended by my son.”
They both laughed and felt the gentle cool of night descend. The air was fresh in the lungs and the grass rustled as insects jumped and flung about.
“Mother!” A panicked cry of a child echoed from the building hall.
“I am being called.” she said, rising to her feet. She turned her head back as she was already halfway across the lawn. “Goodnight, Vincent.”
He sat watching as she disappeared into the hall. After only a minute had passed, the cry of the child was subdued back to a calming silence.
Vincent looked up to the sky and stared at a yellow moon. It shined like a massive gold coin, casting everything in enough light to be illuminated. Vincent used all his sight to see the grooves in its surface, the craters and ridges. And he did not recognize one of them.
Vincent looked back at Jax. He was still unconscious, sleeping peacefully.
“I know this may sound weird to say,” Vincent said, “but since I have met you, since I have come to this strange place, I suddenly feel like myself.”
Vincent thought of his time here so far, the few brief months that have been filled with life. Fighting, meeting new people, places, and not knowing what will be around the next corner.
“But I don’t know exactly what that means.” he said. “Maybe for a lifetime, I have been something I was not.”
Jax made a gurgling noise as some spit got caught in his throat. Vincent saw a line of drool coming out the corner of his mouth.
“I’ll let you rest.” he said with a smile. Then Vincent rose from the bench and walked off into the night.
Chapter 18
They met at the front of the dungeon like they had on the first day. The black figure of the tower was just as imposing and filled with majesty. The walls rose until their eyes failed them and everything turned into a blur.
But now, after the first two days of the trial, Jax and Vincent stood at the front of the pack, and that pack was of a much smaller number.
Vincent looked behind him and couldn’t make out a single face he had seen stay behind that day. Tekov and his gang were nowhere to be seen, though sadly, Vincent could not find Aeris either.
“Listen up!”
Elisa, standing right in front of Vincent and Jax, drew their attention back to her. The crowd stopped their idleness and faced forward with a level of seriousness they had not known how to express on the first day of the trial.
Vincent spotted the young man in a suit who had led them out of the dungeon. He was standing a few feet behind Elisa, silent, watching everyone from the background.
“I know this may be unconventional.” Elisa said, her tone solemn. “But we find ourselves having to change our circumstances due to mistakes that were made the other day.” She stared out at the crowd, trying to catch each of their eyes.
“There are fewer of you today, but that is the nature of the trial. Those that cannot understand the dungeon for all that it is, must leave. The world of dungeoneering is filled with danger, the known and unknown. Everyday you must risk your life, where even the smallest of missteps can bring disaster. But, for our city to thrive, for your families, and yourselves to have honor, we must understand each other as one thing: dungeoneers.”
“This sentiment is not something you should expect others to believe if you stumble upon them, for that would be a naive mistake, but this is something the people standing right before me now should hold in their chests. To hurt one of your own, is only to hurt yourself.”
She paused and let the words sink into them. No one in the crowd seemed to look at anyone else. They all knew what had happened, the rumors already spread to each ear. All the participants peered at their feet or unfocused their eyes from what was in front of them as their minds worked behind the scenes.
“There is to be no further mishaps or mistakes done today, yes?” Elisa questioned them, raising them back to life.
And as one, Vincent, Jax, and all the rest nodded in agreement.
“Good,” she said, her mood lightening, “then let us not waste any more time speaking of this.” Elisa turned around and the rest followed.
They made their way up the steps and pushed through the great doors. The change in the world was sudden, but they could clearly feel the shift. The fake sky, the fake sun in what they knew to be an enclosed space. They had come back to the first floor of the dungeon.
With little to say, the crowd began following Elisa. She strode forward into the forest with no regard for danger. Vincent and Jax, the closest to her, saw her not try and push her way through. Elisa followed the open ground for as long as it allowed, and then at the blockage of a tree or too thick brush, Elisa simply turned and made her way around, quickly finding a new open path.
Vincent and Jax tried to keep their sense of direction, but they kept losing grip of it. They were forced to simply follow Elisa as she walked through the forest, knowing it like the back of her hand.
Within twenty minutes they had already covered an incredible amount of ground. Elisa charged her way through, with a long snake line of participants following.
After a while of not running into a single goblin, Vincent built up the courage to quicken his step until he came leading up on Elisa.
She turned her neck back, looking down at him, while not lessening her speed. “Hm?”
“I was wondering, um, is Aeris alright? I didn’t know where they took him so I couldn’t visit. I thought maybe you would know.”
Elisa nodded. “Of course. He's in the best hospital money can buy in the inner ring.”
Vincent felt a great pressure release in his mind. He knew deep down that everything was okay, but hearing it from Elisa was proof.
She looked back ahead. “He was back to his feet by the time I left him yesterday morning. He was maybe a little shaken up, but it was his choice to withdraw from the trial.”
“His choice?” Vincent said in surprise.
“He looked defeated, and not in the physical way that you can pick yourself up again after a good rest. I doubt we’ll be seeing much of him in here.” Elisa looked back again into Vincent’s eyes.
He was busy thinking about what she said, not knowing how to react to Aeris’s choice.
“Don’t let it worry you. Some people aren’t made for this. We are different. We were born to see the dungeon and all it can offer. Some just want to stay outside, and there is nothing wrong with that.”
Vincent nodded. “Maybe there’s something wrong with us.”
Elisa smiled. “Some have made that argument before.”
Vincent slowed his pace and rejoined Jax a few yards back. They continued to walk on and follow Elisa. And like that another twenty minutes passed.
They didn’t know how far they had come but the forest was growing denser than they had ever seen. Elisa made one more sharp turn around a mass of bushes and trees, and the snake line followed her swiftly. As Vincent and Jax stuck on her tail, they suddenly came into a small semicircle clearing.
The trees and tall grass vanished and in its place was rocky earth and a thick stone wall that reached as tall as any of the trees inside the forest. Though what surprised Vincent and everyone who was slowly filing into the open space was that once the top of the stone wall ended, a thin transparent veil began. It reached high into the air, as easy to miss as a gust of wind, and through it was the illusion of more forest, sky, and sun.
Vincent squinted his eyes and tilted his head and tried to look at it in every angle he could. It was above the wall and on either side, bending on an arc as far as he could make out. It seemed that somehow the forest ended here, but a lifelike reflection kept protruding further.
Vincent watched as Elisa walked forward and touched the stone wall with her palm. Immediately, the stone surface gave way and in its place was a dark portal just like the one at the dungeon’s exit. The whole crowd of participants was in shock.
“I would have shown you yesterday, but now I will explain. This here,” she put her hand on the stone next to the opened portal, “is the only entrance to the second floor that appears on the first. It is in the same spot and does not move. It can be identified by the stone wall erected from the earth. What you can see around the rest of the forest, circling its edges, is a magical boundary that looks like a direction you can travel, but that is just another wall as solid as this one.” She knocked on the stone and a solid thud rang out. “Some find it easier to reach here by following the edges, but the forest is large and the fastest route is straight across.”
Elisa stopped talking. Suddenly, she and the young man who had been stuck to her side the entire time looked back at the forest wall. The participants followed their gaze and watched as a group of people came walking through.
They were a group of men and women dressed in gear. Two hooded figures with large bows at the back, a man in a finely decorated robe in the center, and a man with a large shield stood next to a woman with a long, curved blade at the front.
Vincent hadn’t heard them coming at all. He thought his senses were failing him, but he could still hear birds singing in the forest and a small rodent rustling leaves as it climbed a tree.
The group stopped as they came into the clearing and saw the crowd gathered. The woman at the front with blood red hair looked at them silently. Her right forearm rested on the wrapped handle of her sheathed sword.
The young man next to Elisa opened his mouth, but Elisa spoke first. “This floor is closed off for today.” she called out.
A few of their members looked at each other. Vincent heard a few faint whispers made between them.
“It’s that competition thing today, isn’t it?”
“We have plans and a quota to meet.”
After their whispering ended, the man in robes at the center took a step forward. He had dark hair, pale skin, and a pencil thin lip.
“I see. We thought it had ended yesterday.” he said.
“A change of plans. One more day has been scheduled for closure.” Elisa replied.
“We see. It is our apologies.” The man in the robes did a small bowing gesture. “We will make our way up to stay out of your way.”
“The second floor is also under the guild's supervision today.” Elisa replied.
The man in robes stared at her across the field. “Come now, El. Like I said, we will be going up.”
Without another word, they walked to the stone wall. As they passed by Vincent, he could feel a growing pressure bearing down on his chest. Their every moment was exerting force upon him. He watched as they turned their backs on him, but the pressure never lessened. They entered through the portal and disappeared.
As soon as they were gone, the young man went to Elisa’s ear and they spoke back and forth in hushed tones. After a few minutes of this, Elisa turned back to the participants.
“Remember what I have said. Now let us head through.”
None of what had happened was addressed, like they were children who had just seen their parents have an argument. It was brushed away, out of their understanding. Elisa quickly led the charge again and Vincent, Jax, and the rest passed through the dark portal.
As soon as they were on the other side, the scenery changed and the mood shifted. The air turned to a dreary grey. The sun was gone behind a thick blanket of shadowed clouds. The earth at their feet turned from rich green grass to a mush that made their feet sink. All around them was open space, dotted by thin, sickly white trees and large stone outcroppings. And they could not see in one distance longer than fifty yards due to a thick moisture in the air.
Vincent felt the stark change right away. The sun and familiar territory of the first level made him calm and relaxed. Now that it was all gone and what surrounded him was a painting straight out of purgatory. A rigidness took over his muscles and his senses went on high alert.
“Ogres.” Elisa said, facing the crowd again. “They are the only monster you will find on the second floor. And lucky for you, they will only be found wandering alone. Your trial for the final day is simple. Slay three by nightfall.”
The participants looked at one another, though Vincent and Jax nodded to themselves.
“Don’t fret. This will be a team trial. Now that you have learned to work in small groups on the first day, and hopefully how to be alone on the second, the third prompts you all with the great task of every dungeoneer: joining a guild.”
“Every successful dungeoneer challenges the tower with large groups. We have few support members with us today, but figuring out large scale battles and plans for attack is a necessary skill. Designate leaders and move efficiently even if you have a lot of corners to cover. You must learn that everything cannot be done on your own.”
“It is still early and you will have enough time if you move quick. But the second floor is known for a special characteristic. Once every hour, a fog will rise across the entire floor. If you think it is bad now, just wait. It won’t last long, but during that time you will need to stick together and stay vigilant. Each group will be monitored with the help of Mr. Jamie.” She gestured to the young man standing beside her. “We will each cover one team, but during the fog, it will be up to you.”
Little else was said, maybe because it was the third day or this was to be expected of them from now on. Elisa quickly split the crowd in two, randomly creating the left and right teams.
All at once, the two teams started to separate and focus on themselves. Vincent and Jax were placed on the left team, so they moved toward the group of participants forming.
Instantly, Vincent recognized one of the participants. Lassete stood at the center of the group, talking to a few of the others. They huddled around her and hung on every word.
From what Vincent could see, the team was composed of nine other members, not including himself and Jax. Most of the members had crests, some that he recognized, though a few he did not. And that must have meant the other team was composed mostly of participants without crests. Vincent had already noticed the social pecking order throughout the trial, but sadly that order spoke to their ability as well. Vincent wasn’t sure if he was the lucky one to be put onto the stronger team.
