LOCATION: THE CRUCIBLE, 50TH FLOOR
PLANET: LAPIS DIVINUS, ORION LUMINARY INSTITUTE
YEAR: 1 | DAY: ?? | TIME: ??
Snow was still falling, causing a mystical feeling of solitude across the forest. Kaela pulled the fur cloak a little tighter around her as she rushed to follow the wolf tracks before they were snowed over.
She had waited until the howling stopped, and watched the pack of nine wolves all turn and trot back into the woods at the same moment.
Kaela leapt down from the wall and stayed low through the clearing until she was fully into the cover of the trees.
Lapis Divinus did not have a moon that graced the night skies, and the designers of this floor of The Crucible had likewise decided one wasn’t necessary. Although the skies never got truly dark at night.
The faint purple twilight cast an eerie glow across the muted whiteness of the snowfall.
Kaela smiled. She would never have imagined herself in a place like this before, and the air was so fresh that every inhalation seemed to cleanse her body.
She stalked forward through the night, following the tracks through the brush, over fallen trees. Past a brook, down the long decline of a hillside.
She had spotted the creatures a few times, but she always stayed far enough back that they wouldn’t see her. The wolves didn’t seem to be in any hurry, either.
It had been just over five hours by her System clock when something finally changed. The wolves stopped far ahead, and began circling something.
Kaela couldn’t see what it was from the long distance, but it appeared to be something embedded in the ground that was six or eight feet high.
She watched as the wolves trotted in a wide circle around the object for ten minutes.
Then, they suddenly dispersed in different directions, walking away as if they had been under some sort of trance, and had now been freed from it.
“What the hell?” Kaela whispered. Her breath fogged in the frigid air.
She remained still for a full hour, watching the distant object, but nothing else happened. Nobody appeared. The wolves didn’t return.
The snow continued falling on the land, adding to the eerie silence after the spectacle she had just seen.
Kaela decided to investigate. She prepared herself for an attack of some kind. Magical or physical, she was ready.
She approached, and found a clearing on the forest floor. It was about a fifty-foot wide circle where there were no trees, no fallen logs, no brush. Just the dirt floor of the woods covered with a few inches of fresh snow.
In the center of this circle was a… totem?
Kaela couldn’t think of any other word for it. It was expertly crafted from sticks and thin branches. The center of the totem was a tree trunk four inches thick. It rose eight feet into the air, where it was cut off and honed into a spearpoint. The sticks and branches were woven together around it into the shape of a wolf.
She slowly scanned the clearing. There was nothing anywhere in sight. This was just a random spot in the middle of a vast forest that spanned miles in every direction.
“Who would create something this intricate out here, in the middle of nowhere?” she asked aloud.
“A desperate woman looking for solace after losing everything.”
The voice came from the other side of the totem. Kaela, who had been fully prepared for battle, was shocked at the sudden appearance of a woman, dressed in a cloak and hood made of wolf pelts.
Kaela prided herself on her awareness. She may not be a stealthy Rogue herself, but she was a Warrior, and she was always paying attention to her surroundings.
“Where did you come from?” she asked.
The woman laughed lightly.
“Oh, I’m sorry if I startled you. I’m a Ranger, and I’ve got pretty advanced camouflage skills.”
“I see…” Kaela said. Her stance tightened up just a bit, still wondering if the woman was friend or foe. The woman was holding a longbow with an arrow nocked, after all.
Sure, it was pointed at the ground, but Kaela was sure that someone with advanced enough—
“Oh, relax already,” the woman said. She put the arrow back into her quiver and slung the bow over her shoulder.
She smiled again.
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“I’m sure you have questions. Follow me to my lodge and we can speak. I’ve got a fire going.”
She turned and began walking, certain that Kaela would follow.
The woman turned as if remembering something.
“Oh, I am Aeryn Fenwick, the widow of the former mayor of Greyhaven.”
Kaela’s brows raised at that revelation.
“I am Kaela Sirova. It’s nice to meet you, Aeryn.”
As they walked side by side, Aeryn stayed silent, so Kaela did the same.
It was another hour of walking eastward before Kaela saw smoke rising from a chimney. As they drew closer, she found herself aching from the cold and looked forward to the warmth of a fire.
Standing on the porch, Aeryn held a hand up to tell Kaela to stay put. She pushed the door open and quickly dismantled a trap she had set.
Aeryn laughed.
“You can never be too careful out here. Sorry for all of that. Come in and take a seat by the fire. I’ll bring over some tea.”
Kaela thanked her and shrugged off her snow-filled cloak, hanging it on an extra hook on the wall. She removed her boots and left by Aeryn’s near the door.
While Aeryn was busying herself with tea, Kaela sat down on a thick hide on the floor in front of the fire.
“This feels wonderful,” she said. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
But then she felt cold steel on the back of her neck.
“Tell me why you’re here, and who sent you.”
Aeryn was quiet for just a beat, then she added: “And who treks through the woods unarmed, anyway?”
Kaela considered using Phantom Step and getting the upper hand, but decided she would try diplomacy first.
“Look,” Kaela said, “I am no threat to you. I arrived in Greyhaven in the spring, and I’ve been helping them raise their defenses against the constant wolf attacks.”
The pressure from the blade on her neck lessened just a little bit, but Kaela felt she had done the right thing not attacking.
“Now that the walls are built and the townsfolk can defend themselves, I thought it was high time someone tracked the wolves to find out what was causing all of this.”
Aeryn sniffled.
Then she pulled the knife back and plopped onto the rug next to Kaela.
“You’re the first person I’ve seen in two years. Please, tell me of Greyhaven. How is Aveline?”
She began asking about different people one by one, crying each time she learned they were thriving. They drank tea and chewed on strips of dried meat. The women talked for hours. The sun was beginning to rise and still they sat and talked.
But then something occurred to Kaela. Aeryn had asked about everyone but three men.
“You’ve asked me about everything except for—”
“Yes, I wondered if you would notice that. You are a sharp one, Kaela Sirova. Okay. Here’s my story.”
Kaela had spent the entire night answering Aeryn’s questions, since the Ranger seemed to be starving for news of Greyhaven. But this was the part Kaela had been patiently waiting for.
Aeryn refilled their cups with the last of the tea, and began her tale.
“I was born in far off lands where elves are the predominant race. I always found more solace in nature than big cities, and when I reached adulthood, I left my family to venture forth into the world.”
She sipped her tea and continued.
“After several years of wandering, one winter night I came across Greyhaven. I entered the village seeking a temporary reprieve from the cold. Aveline Talloway took me in, fed me, and made me feel more at home than at any other time I could remember.”
She looked up at Kaela, a tear forming in her eye. Aeryn brushed it away.
“Aveline became my best friend. I helped her and Edric run The Pewter Tankard by—”
“Wait,” Kaela said. “It’s called The Cracked Tankard.”
Aeryn laughed, but it was a sad gesture, not a happy one.
“We’ll get to that. It used to be called Pewter, now it’s Cracked. Let’s leave it at that for now.”
Kaela could sense that, not unexpectedly, this story was about to take a dark turn.
“Please, continue,” she said, blowing on her tea and taking another drink.
Aeryn nodded.
“Anyway, I helped them out by doing all the hunting for them to keep their larders well-stocked. People came from all around for Aveline’s legendary brews and the deliciously seasoned meats. It was a good time.”
She exhaled, watching the flames dance in the hearth.
“Eventually, I met the man who would become my husband. Hark Fenwick was as unusual and captivating as his name. He was kind and strong and charismatic in a way that made it hard to look away when he was speaking.”
Aeryn smiled.
“I was smitten from the very beginning, and so was he. We married quickly and shortly after, he was elected mayor of Greyhaven. He helped the tiny hamlet grow into the village you see now over a period of twenty years.”
Tears began falling down Aeryn’s high cheekbones. She didn’t bother to wipe them away as she continued, appearing determined to get the whole story out before she broke down.
“Twenty blissful years.” She turned toward Kaela. “We never fought, you know. Not even once. He was simply a wonderful man.”
She turned her gaze back to the fire.
“But one spring day he and three of his friends set off on a hunting trip. I wanted to go along as their guide, but one of them convinced him to make it a men’s getaway. Hark acquiesced, saying they’d be back in four days.”
She sniffed, and the tears kept streaming.
“On the third day, the men returned. Only Hark wasn’t with them. They were hysterical, saying a pack of wolves had attacked Hark in the middle of the night. They said they woke to his mauled body and rushed home.”
A look of ferocity crossed Aeryn’s face.
“But a pack of wolves would never just maul a single body for no reason, leaving others unharmed. So I left the village immediately in search of answers. You saw the spot. The clearing with the totem is where it all happened.”
She stood, tossed the rest of her tea into the fire, and reached for a bottle of what Kaela assumed was something stronger.
Aeryn poured herself a generous amount and gulped it down before offering the bottle to Kaela.
“The soil remembers everything,” Aeryn said. “I’m an expert tracker among other things, and it took me all of two hours to piece together the entire story. There were three wolves. Three! Four men and three wolves! They could have easily defeated them!”
She was yelling now, and her face was redder with anger. Aeryn wiped her tears away but they just kept coming.
“The wolves attacked from the north, and Hark put up a valiant fight. Judging by the amount of blood on the ground, he injured all three of them, but only killed one. The other two took the love of my life from me as three cowards watched from a hundred feet away.”
She poured and downed another.
“They ran away while my husband fought for his life, and I decided I will never forgive them.”
Kaela reached out and pulled Aeryn into a hug. The elf let it happen, and squeezed Kaela back hard, crying into her tunic.
“May I ask who the three men were?” Kaela whispered.
“It was Edric Talloway, Marris Halford, and that blasted Guard Captain.”
Kaela sighed. Somehow it didn’t surprise her.