116. [SEGUE] The Caretaker

  Renate Sandvik should’ve known better than to take her eyes off Inge.

  The day had started promisingly enough, with clear skies and crisp sun to cast a shimmery gloss over the frozen Netherpool. It was the perfect condition for harvesting kelp that had collected beneath the ice layer, and Renate was glad for the chance—a long time coming—to replenish her stocks. The optimism had then bled over into some other decisions, several of which she’d come to deeply regret.

  Looking back, she didn’t know what had come over her. But Inge had looked so much stronger and brighter in recent days, and she’d been clamoring for some fresh air besides. Who was Renate to deny her? As long as they took their usual precautions, a little trip on tortoise-back should pose them no significant risk…

  This, as it turned out, was already Renate’s second mistake on the day—though she didn’t know it at the time. And at least for the first little while, it’d even seemed like a good idea. Certainly, the sight of Inge smiling and whistling in the sun, all while dour-faced Munkfred played the dutiful lounge chair, had been almost enough to justify the whole misadventure.

  But that had been before Renate was ambushed by a Jotuneter during one of her dives.

  She’d been too careless, putting the shifting ripples down to the Netherpool’s capricious ebbs and flows instead of the threat they represented. And before she could react, the kraken had gotten the jump on her, wrapping a tentacle around her right arm and dragging her deeper into the abyss.

  Renate’s third mistake, but still, all was not lost. This wasn’t a KL-64 Yaksha’s first underwater tussle with a tentacled monster, and she kept her cool as she went through her options.

  First things first: making sure she wouldn’t drown to death. To that end, she used her free hand to quickly pop a [Pearl of Immersion], giving herself a temporary buffer against the effects of [Hypoxia]. This was followed by [Pearl of ENDURANCE], a green liquid that negated Stamina consumption for thirty seconds. She would need it for what was about to come.

  Next, the same hand reached for DREDGER—her only real means of fighting back. This did prove to be somewhat tricky; swinging a giant shovel with her off hand was awkward enough without having to fend off a dozen tentacles at the same time. Not only that, but by not having both hands on DREDGER, she was denied access to her Auxiliary techniques.

  The priority then was to free her right hand. In between wide swings to keep the other tentacles at bay, she made sure to give the first one good whacks with the sharp side of DREDGER’s blade. The routine required constant action on her part, and she needed every drop of her infinite Stamina to keep it up.

  The tentacle’s hold eventually did slacken, just in time before the effects of [Endurance] ran out. At this point, the Jotuneter still had half of its health bar remaining, but Renate wasn’t interested in whittling it down any further. No, the main thing now was to extricate herself from the predicament. Right hand on DREDGER’s handle, left hand on its grip, into:

  [Auxiliary Technique: ELEMENTAL FLUX]

  A close cousin to [Surge], [Flux] nevertheless placed the Wielder herself at the epicenter of environmental displacement. Instead of the usual outward swing, Renate spun DREDGER in a tight circle around herself, thereby creating a rippling pocket over which she held full control.

  This artificial pocket of water spun and roiled, out of step with the rest of the Netherpool. Its discordant movement produced a powerful current that carried Renate away from the kraken with a burst of speed. She’d also made sure to direct it surface-ward, the better to give her great escape the tailwind it needed.

  The pocket eventually ‘popped’, a ways before Renate could reach the surface. At this point, however, she’d left the Jotuneter far behind, and she should’ve been safe to complete the rest of the swim in relative peace.

  But that was when she picked up another disturbance in the ripples, one that immediately set her senses ablaze with alarm.

  She couldn’t help but pause her ascent and look back at the abyss—as if the abyss might return the favor. On this occasion, she felt only the after-tremors of a leviathan turning over in the deep. These tremors carried with them the ancient, indomitable [Hunger] of a true apex predator—or perhaps, given its location, nadir predator was the more appropriate term.

  Renate would recognize this ripple signature anywhere. And that was how she learned that she’d already committed a ‘first mistake’ at the top of the morning.

  The bloody Realmhunt! She cursed to herself, even as she resumed her swim at top speed. How did I not think of it before? The beaches must be crawling with hunters now, especially if they know that the Frostkrill has awakened. I picked the absolute worst day for kelp-trawling…

  To make matters worse, when she did reach the ice layer, she found to her dismay that she’d been dragged far adrift of her entry point. She punched a new hole with a hasty [Elemental Surge], then jumped into the air, wide-set eyes scanning all around even before she landed on the ice.

  No bundle of blankets. No tortoise mound. Not even a shadow in all directions.

  Don’t panic, she tried to tell herself, even as her heart threatened to burst out of her chest. Inge and Munkfred couldn't have gone off on their own. I just need to get my bearings and find my way back to them. No problem at all…

  One good thing about being ‘lost’ on the frozen Netherpool was you could always use the Realmtree to reorient yourself. However, deciding whether to turn clockwise or counter-clockwise from there was a different matter. It took Renate the better part of the afternoon and multiple false starts before she finally found a set of footprints that belonged to herself and Munkfred, which she managed to trace back to…

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  … Still no bundle of blankets. No tortoise mound. Not even a shadow in all directions. The tracks continued on, now showing only the weighty imprints of tortoise feet!

  “Drown the gods in brine!”

  This time, Renate couldn’t help but curse out loud, at the top of her lungs and with language that would’ve made even the most rough-and-tumble Rotters blush. She could hardly trust her heart to stay inside her rib cage, but now wasn’t the time to self-destruct. Now, more than ever, Inge and Munkfred needed her to stay calm, collected, and fast.

  Renate sprinted after the tortoise tracks, ruing all the while the failings and misfortunes that had conspired to ruin what otherwise should’ve been a perfect day. And to think that she’d started said day with such optimism and hope!

  Inge had been showing real signs of recovery, thanks in no small part to a fresh batch of [Pearls of Rebalancing]. It’d coincided with the larger restorative changes all around Rotgard which, by some miracle, had transpired without an escalation of the border conflicts. Everything had been looking up for Renate Sandvik ever since that crazy day where she shared a spelunking journey with truly unusual company; so much so that she’d allowed herself to look forward to many more days in the steadfast company of her dearest friend.

  Oh, Inge’s going to get an earful when I find her. Renate fed into her rising anger, which helped to distract from the panic. And Munkfred too. That tortoise has always spoiled and pampered Inge far too much. It needs to learn that ‘love’ is sometimes about setting boundaries…

  Even in the midst of her anxious search, Renate had to take a moment to shake her head, in light of the irony of her own thoughts. Boundary. Wall. Shell. Here she was, a finless, scaleless frog judging a tortoise of all things for being too open and trusting.

  Speaking of open and trusting…

  At some point, Renate realized that the tracks she’d been following had become a multitude again. There were still the tortoise-prints that belonged to Munkfred, but they were now joined by three sets of cleat-prints left by souls much closer to Renate’s own size. She also found herself puzzling over a fifth track, best described as if an extraordinarily large set of jaws had bit into then dragged themselves across the ice.

  So Munkfred was still here, but now it’s been surrounded by at least four other souls. And where was Inge in all of this?

  She followed the tracks to more ominous signs. Now numerous tentacle-sized holes in the ice accompanied the peculiar ‘bite marks’—no doubt a Jotuneter chasing after a landbound prey. The tortoise-prints appeared to cut off here for a moment before resuming some distance away.

  With both her panic and anger having reached a fever pitch, Renate finished the rest of her search in a mad rush. By the time she finally detected the telltale ripples of other souls in the vicinity, she could no longer spare any thoughts toward secrecy or discretion.

  Jotuneter? Kronvakt? The entire Realm? She didn’t care. She was ready to take on any and all comers—and she’d gladly answer for all of her crimes as the heavens saw fit—if it meant she could have Inge back, safe and sound.

  That was her mindset as she arrived at the scene of a Realmhunt loop in progress. And whatever Renate might’ve pictured beforehand, it wasn’t this.

  That gushy Rakshasa and cocky Manusya she’d met from the cave! What were a pair of outrealmers doing in the Realmhunt—and this far out from the main beach besides? They were joined by a skinny mackerel man and a… stone building of some description that struck a surreal figure upon a frozen sea. But there was also Munkfred’s familiar mound, and sitting atop it was the bundle of blankets she’d been—

  “No!”

  Renate Sandvik screamed out at nearly the same time as Serac Edin on the other side of the mound. But unlike the backfooted Rakshasa, the Yaksha had momentum and anger on her side. Renate unslung DREDGER and leapt into the air in the same motion, before bringing the flat of the blade smack against a piranha monster’s open maw.

  [224!]

  The sequence carried her directly onto Munkfred’s back, right next to Inge’s warmly bundled figure. Their eyes met for a brief moment… and Renate’s overworked chest flooded with relief as well as surprise.

  It felt as though she’d traveled back in time. Twenty, thirty years? Perhaps even longer. To a time long before Renate herself had been alive.

  The Inge Bjornsdatter that stared up at her with youthful vigor, joy, and daring was not the sickly, aging, dying woman she knew. No, this was a creature at the height of her spirit and zeal for life. A soul who, for the first time in years, had her time in the sun—and was loving every second of it.

  The shock of it was enough to cut away Renate’s panic and anger in one fell swoop. Left in their place was a numb stupor, the kind with which a child might look to her elder for guidance in uncharted waters. The elder beamed at her with wisdom and warmth—just what she’d needed and missed for so long.

  “Welcome back, Renn—”

  “Renate! I can’t believe you’re here!”

  Down on the ice, the Rakshasa’s face shone brightly as she shouted her greeting. But the same face just as quickly hardened with resolve as the gaze shifted downwards—to the Mennesketer that snapped anew at Renate’s feet. Two booming reports of a six-shooter later, the Mennesketer stopped moving for good, shortly before fading into Dust.

  [376 ?]

  It soon became clear that the loop had only just begun. Whatever magic had drawn the Aberrants to this particular chokepoint had evidently been a powerful one, for the ice soon filled with more snapping piranhas—four, five, six of them at a time.

  The outrealmers got right down to work, showing remarkable coordination for a pugilist-gunslinger pairing. They were clearly in it to win it, but even so, the Rakshasa among them made the time to look over her shoulder and throw Renate a smile of invitation and challenge.

  “Well, are you just gonna stand there?” Serac Edin called out in that endlessly cheerful way of hers. “The fun’s just started, and I wouldn’t want you to miss it!”

  Renate’s heart, previously shocked into stillness, resumed its frenetic pounding.

  The day had started with such promise… and look what it’d turned into! Outrealmers on the Hunt, Inge in mortal danger (and apparently having a blast?), chaos everywhere, and a leviathan that yet lurked in the deep. Surely, enough was enough. Surely, it was time for someone sensible to put down her webbed feet and restore order to this madness.

  Renate looked down at the koi woman beside her. For confirmation? For reassurance? For guidance in uncharted waters?

  Inge the Seeker beamed with wisdom and warmth. She said,

  “Open up your shell, child, and look out with your own two eyes. The world really is your oyster.”

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