A Jaded Life

There was a strange lightness to my steps, as I moved through the forest, sneaking up on the two guards at the entrance of the gorge we had left Rai in. It was as if my legs did not have to carry as much weight as they were used to, but at the same time they were weaker, less substantial. The feeling was slightly discombobulating, forcing me to step carefully to keep my balance. That forced me to slow down and control my every move, which in turn gave me time to check each step for loose twigs or anything that might give away my approach. I realised something else as I came closer, my sight was a bit different than normal, there were no colours, only a grayscale but in turn, my night-vision was truly exceptional, letting me see as if it was daylight.

When I got closer, I realised that my standard approach would not work, I had planned to put the guards to sleep before moving into the gorge but the two guards were talking to each other and apparently at least one more person further in the gorge, someone I could not see and thus could not target. So, if the two guards outside suddenly dropped out of the conversation it would raise the alarm. Trying to listen to them was completely impossible, for some reason the sounds reaching my ears were muffled, as if they had to travel through thick wool or something similar. Maybe it was another effect of my shadow-cloak.

Looking the guards over again, I realised that they were not stupid. They had bound a torch to the rocks behind them, illuminating the area around them without messing up their night-vision. Why couldn’t they hold their torches head-high, next to their faces, destroying their night-vision and giving me nice, deep shadows around them? Oh, well, there had to be another way in.

Looking at the area, I thought about a different approach, something to let me close in without being seen and after a moment of video-game-think, the scales fell from my eyes, making the solution obvious. I wasn’t in a normal video-game, forcing me on predictable paths right into my enemies. The gorge I wanted to infiltrate was roughly perpendicular to the cliff it was carved in and the obvious solution was to climb up the cliff and scout them out from above. I could even climb down at the cave-entrance if I wanted to, circumventing the guards in the gorge itself. The climb up should be rather easy with the strengthened avatar I was using; in real life it would be daunting, but in Mundus? Not so much.

As I was planning my approach, I realised something else, the cliff was strange, it was too straight, as if someone had taken a straight-edge to the land and pushed down. Or maybe as if some being had raised the other side in order to create an embankment in some long forgotten battle. The idea made me shiver - if I was right, it was an insane feat of sheer power. Sadly, I could not quite see the length of the cliff due to the forest, but no matter what it was a huge feat, a truly earthshaking display of power I peeked through Lenore’s sight, hoping for some trace of the incredible magic that had shaped the land, hoping for a small gem of insight into that level of power but there was nothing. Either there had never been anything or the relentless march of time had swallowed it, leaving only the broken land behind.

I was proud of my magic, of the power I had used in Tegi to smash the Devourer - but compared to this? Compared to this, I was a drop in the ocean, insignificant. But the idea could be something to strive for, something to achieve. Maybe not during the beta - it was on a time-limit - but in the official game? Yes, power to shake the bones of the world itself, to alter the landscape. I wanted that, craved it even. I felt the small gem, reminiscent of my crossing of the first divide vibrate a little, joining my body in the excitement I felt, the taste of power an almost physical thing on my lips. Sweet like the purest manna from heaven, bitter like the black nectar of the gods, I craved it.

Yesterday, I had tasted a tiny sip of it, the feeling of being one with the darkness, unseen, unhindered, a true harbinger of death. Free and unbound.

With newfound conviction in my heart, I reached the cliffside and started climbing. It was ridiculously easy, the cloaking darkness around me lessened my weight but if I focused it around my arms, they did not lose strength as my legs had, so I was using my normal strength to lift a fraction of my normal weight. In addition, there was quite a bit of ice and snow on the cliff, enough for me to use my Ice Magic, shaping it into secure hand- and foot-holds, allowing me to scramble up the cliffside as if it was a ladder. Climbing up an unknown, sheer, icy cliff in the dark should be an incredibly hard, almost impossible undertaking but the combination of magic and an attribute-enhanced body made it so easy, a part of me wanted to laugh in childish glee. But that had to wait, until I knew what was going on and no longer trying to pull a Mission: Impossible.

Sadly, the two meters were a lot harder, the nice, rock-hard cliffside gave way to an earthen slope, still hard thanks to the frost but not giving me the confidence the rock had given me. Still, I made it up without any incident.

On the cliff, there was a band of almost empty snow running along the cliff, without trees growing there, only small shrubbery and even that looked rather pitiful. But it added a rough outline to the cliff, allowing me to blend in as I walked to the gorge, splitting up the cliff. It should have been almost impossible to see the drop in the dark and I had no doubt that many an animal had failed to sense it, especially if fleeing and fell to its death. But right now, there was no danger of that, a bright light was shining up from the gorge, tinting the shrubbery in flickering, orange light.

Looking down, I saw a brightly burning fire, sized somewhere between a normal campfire and a true bonfire, giving light and warmth to the four Jonari around it. None of them looked like Jongarn had been described by Sigmir, so I guessed that he was inside the cave. There was a smaller, flickering light coming from the cavem almost impossible to see due to the fire outside, but the moving shadows gave it away.

Surveying the scene, I saw that there were deep shadows towards the end of the gorge, close to the cave-mouth. There was a feeling of confidence in me, making me sure that I could make it down there, just as easy as I had made it up here. That would allow us to attack them from two sides, Sigmir and Adra going for the guards just as I attacked those down there. Like that, it would do both, stop them from using the narrow gorge as a defensive position and stop them from escaping. I took the time to make sure that there were no wards prepared, carefully looking the gorge over with Lenore’s sight, paying close attention to the cave-mouth. After all, Lenore would not be with me down there, so knowing if there were wards was paramount. But there were none.

With a smile on my face, I asked Lenore to leave her Hallow and play communication-link, so we could attack at the same time. She was not happy about the cold but understood my plan and obliged.

Now, I just had to get myself into position and scout out the cave before starting the attack. All in a night’s work.

With a voice in my head humming the Mission: Impossible-theme, I started to climb down, a shadow in the dark, silent and invisible. The climb was almost easier than before, now that I had done it once. There was even more ice in gorge, maybe due to some sort of wind-shielding allowing it to accumulate. It mattered not to me why it was there, just that it made the climb down trivial.

Down in the gorge, the shadows clung to me, embracing me amongst their own, shielding me from stray gaze as I slipped into the cave. There was a torch here, small and flickering but even with a torch, without someone to see me, I could easily skirt it’s light and move further into the cave.

At that moment, a familiar smell joined the clean, earthen smell of the cave. A penetrating scent, metallic and slightly cloying. A smell I had smelled quite often since coming to Mundus. Now, I just had to find out whose blood had been spilled here and how much of it.

I made my way further into the dark cave and quickly found my mark. Bound, on the floor, was Rai, bleeding from numerous, small cuts. Not cuts to kill, no, those were cuts to just cause pain. To torture. And in close to him, still holding a bloody knife and smiling in a maddingly familiar way, was Jongarn.