Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 69: Jane, 1/2

It is important to note, dear petitioner, that the Sovereign Cities are not sovereign at all. They like this name because it suits their egos to call themselves powers unto themselves, able to do whatever they wish. In truth, the powers of the region are hateful, awful, and cruel, and the people who live there are a product of their governance, and themselves.

To put it bluntly, the Sovereign Cities are the true arseholes of Glaquin.

The Wasteland Kingdoms is separated from itself by [Teleport] distances and toxic monsters, while a ruling council decides matters of war and policy, and a lower council decides on trade. They were once a thriving world power, but when toxic ideology took hold and ruined everything, a few hard working young whippersnappers and their level headed patrons reigned in their self destruction. If it weren’t for the few people in charge able to hold together the greater whole of their people, the Wasteland certainly would have become another region like the Sovereign Cities. Some say the Greensoil Republic was responsible for the Wasteland, some say that the Sovereign Cities were the true culprits, but I don’t know the truth. I don’t truck with rumor.

As for the Greensoil Republic, it took ‘em centuries and they’re still working on it, but those humans managed to carve out a semblance of order from without and within, mostly through horrific acts of violence committed against each other, hand in glove with powerful trade agreements. To this day, the Republic spans one of the largest tamed stretches of land on Veird, and the Viridian King works hard to keep it that way. Some say his Green Circle kills all dissidents; but you didn’t hear that rumor from me.

The cities of the Crystal Forest are each jewels in the sand, too far from one another to truly impinge upon each other’s brilliance. Besides, there’s monsters outside the walls, dammit! There’s better things to do than get up in each other’s pockets all the damn time. But not all is well in that wild land. I hear Ar’Kendrithyst is gearing up for something big, so you best watch out if you plan on traveling the Crystal Forest. And then there’s the tiff brewing between Portal and Spur. I hear it’s over the price of grain and the abundance of Spur’s new cropland, so try to steer clear of that, too, if you can help it.

The Wasteland, the Republic, and the cities of the Crystal Forest. These are the major players of Glaquin, and in each one, the rule of Polite Society reigns, and there are enough thriving bookmakers and authors to pump out enough dogma and propaganda to keep their governments intact; if you believe in that sort of thing, anyway. Stories of heartbreak and death, of journeys and destinations, of tragedy and comedy. And of course, the backstabbing and the murder and the toppling of opposing kingdoms. That last one is a popular trope in both the Wasteland and the Republic, but not so much in the Crystal Forest.

But in the Sovereign Cities, there are barely any stories at all. Sure, they have the Script, but only for those lucky enough to escape the grasp of their armies, but furthermore: who owns a book? Certainly not Anna-down-the-way. She prefers to seduce her neighbor Tommy into her bed, and then to wring him for blackmail because Tommy is a married man, whose wife is looking for the littlest excuse to legally murder him. Adultery is as good a legal reason as any, in that lawless place.

Those damn little Sovereign city states are all cesspools of violence, hatred, and killing, where the land is tame enough that the only monsters running around are slimes, the occasional ooze, and your fellow man. Though those occasional oozes do manage to kill a few hundred people every now and then, the constant wars of the region do more damage than that. I have a question for you: Which is worse? An ooze or a greedy king! It’s a question that’s floated around for centuries and will likely float around for a lot more.

There, in the Sovereign Cities, is where you will find the brigands of the world. The harlots and the cheats. The dirty and the pitiful. I’m sure if you look hard enough, you might see a young man or woman who’ll become a hero or something, but there’s a mighty higher chance those bright blue eyes or comely backsides or frontsides are just that; a front. You better keep your own watchful eyes on those that speak too-good-to-be-true stories, or ask for just a bit of trust, or to come heal their ailing grandma just two doors down, or to help rescue their cat stuck up a tree. They’ll kill you just as soon as pick your pocket. Oh! And the pickpockets! And the urchins! Don’t forget those little devils. You take your eyes off of them once and a whole herd of em’ll pour out of the shanties and murder you for your gold.

It has been postulated by men and women and otherwise, each of them much more learned than I, that the Sovereign Cities can afford to act this way because they only have the one border against the one real enemy, and Killtree takes care of them. The rest of the Cities don’t do shit against what should be a common foe.

Make no mistake, dear petitioner. For all the wars and all the killing, there’s only one real enemy: The Forest. And not that ‘Crystal Forest’ nonsense. I mean a real forest, with real trees. Yeah. You know what I’m talking about. Unicorns and wyrms. Moon reachers and shroomspawn. Dragons living out in the open, hunting wolves and deer larger than houses.

In the border villages, nearer to that dark land, they speak of the Forest with reverence and hatred in equal measure. In the southern cities, far from the front line, they speak of the Forest with disdain and dismissal, because didn’t you hear about what North Curio is doing with their wheat prices? Will South Curio rein them in, or will there be another Grain War? Those arseholes will go to war over practically any little thing.

They’re just going to war to kill the common folk, you know. Everyone with even a lick of sense knows this, but the kids still sign up for whichever force is recruiting, hoping for three square meals a day and the shield of a fellow warrior guarding their blind spot, and a chance to be allowed to Matriculate into the Script. Can’t really blame the kids. They raise ‘em in ignorance over there. Try to keep the people dumb and docile. Book burning is a valued pastime in those places. And don’t you dare speak against the people in charge while you’re over there, or you’re likely to be found dead in your bed from ‘natural causes’.

Anyway. Back to the exposition you paid for.

North Curio hates South Curio. The going rumor for the last two hundred years is that North wishes to be the only ‘Curio’, and for there to be no distinction at all because South Curio should be a smoldering firepit, not a thriving city. South Curio hates North Curio, because they want to pick a different name, but because of some old laws, they can’t change their name unless North Curio changes their name, first.

Pearl, nary two [Teleport]s south of the Curios, wishes the Curios would just kill each other already. No one likes those blasted northerners. And they both keep raising the price of wheat! Burn them both and let the slimes take over for all anyone cares; that’s Pearl’s stance.

Charme is of much the same mind as Pearl, but rather than burning both Curios to the ground, they want to burn everything to the ground, including Pearl. Some would say that Charme even wants to burn itself to the ground, too. Pearl and both Curios are mostly indifferent to Charme, because Charme can’t get its bumbling royalty to make up its mind regarding any outside matters. The land of five hundred princes, they call it. If you ever meet a Prince of Charme on the street, run the other way if you value your life. Those people’re just as likely to conscript you into some unwinnable war as they are to shank you and take your gold like some common highwayman. Between you and me, it’s hard to see the difference. A robbery is death by one or two cuts, right there and then, while the army is death by one or two cuts somewhere in the next two months, at the hand of some other poor arsehole standing in the same boots as you, but holding onto a different flag.

And then we’re back to Killtree. For all the ‘good’ they do ‘defending’ the ‘land’ from the Forest, that place is a pile of shit. Full of adventurers looking to die, but with a higher level and in more exotic ways than the rest of us. Best to stay away from that sort of place.

Ah, but yeah. The Forest. Killtree is the only place that puts any resources to fighting the Forest; they’re the northernmost Sovereign City, so that makes sense. But they’re just doing it for their own good, don’t you know? All they care about is money, too. Grand rads, wyrm kills, unicorn season, experience farms, bordellos and houses of ill repute. That’s what they’re about.

… What do you mean bordello and houses of ill repute are the same? No, they’re not. Bordellos are classy places… Or was it the other way around? Whatever. They got holes where you can stick your stick, or get stuck, or just do some heavy grinding if that’s your thing. I ain’t judging.

Black markets are just markets over there.

Be careful of the meat you buy. That’s all I’m saying on that.

I will say one good thing about that place: They have a hard-on for killing doppelgangers like you would not believe. There’s no laws against killing people suspected of not being who they look like. This, as you can imagine, leads to a lot of problems. But at least there’s no Cinnabar Hand over there.

Killtree is still a shithole, though. Best not go there if you can help it.

Ah! One more good thing: At least they’re mostly human over there in the Sovereign Cities. Can’t say that about the rest of the lands of Glaquin.

The Knowledge mage leaned back in his chair. He was an ancient human man, with white hair and piercing, dark eyes. He asked, “That enough of an overview for you?”

Jane stood up from her chair, saying, “Yup. That’s about what I’ve already heard. Thanks for the trouble.”

The Knowledge Mage asked, “You sure you ain’t wantin’ something more specific?”

Jane smiled, then said, “Then you could sell that to someone else.”

“Bah!” He pointed to the door. “Go on then. Go commit murder in the Cities and get yourself a fresh Familiar Form. Not like they can stop ya. I’ll just let you know, though, that the Cinnabar Hand does not recruit people like you, and they do not operate out of the Sovereign Cities. That’s not rumor. That’s fact.”

Jane frowned at the man. She said, “I know you’re baiting me into revealing something, but implying murder? Really? That’s just shameful.”

“Ah! So you’re going after something a bit more—”

Jane walked out of the room, saying, “Bye.”

Light chuckling laughter followed Jane out of the Knowledge Mage’s office.

- - - -

The Knowledge Mage had been right. Killtree was a shithole, but it was still Jane’s destination.

Mud layered Jane’s boots while a dreary sky held above, sprinkling a light rain across the land. If the road under Jane’s feet had ever been solid, it hadn’t been solid in Jane’s lifetime. She walked to the side of a practical river of mud, splattering dirt with every step, while cow-drawn carts and people plodded along, scattering brown puddles as they went, each to their own destinations. The unclean scent of mostly humanity struggled against the rain, fighting to make itself known. Jane breathed easy right now, but she knew that she would be choking if the downpour wasn’t keeping the scent down.

Almost all the buildings around her were wooden shacks, but to call them ‘buildings’ was rather charitable. The planks forming the walls were only half there, with inch-thick gaps separating each plank from the next. The roofs were marginally better. From what Jane had seen on her trip into town, the roofs were generally made of wood and thatch. From what Jane had seen of the people, with their torn clothes and dirty faces, if water poured though a rotted roof, she doubted they cared.

Like. The Script was right fucking there. How the hell could people live like this when [Stoneshape] was a single point away? Ugh! It almost drove Jane insane, but she let it go. She tried not to think too hard about whatever governmental fuckery was going on around here. Registrars for the Script were illegal around here; they got chased out unless they got a local patron, while that patron only allowed people to Matriculate if those people joined their army for a period of however many years. Jane wasn’t sure on that part. She doubted that it was a set number of years, at all.

Some people obviously did have access to [Stoneshape], though.

Grey stone buildings held prominent positions in the city, but they were few and far between. Much more common were squat stone guard towers here and there; like mushrooms growing in a mishmash of wooden shacks.

What was really strange about the whole experience of coming to Killtree, and what still threw Jane for a loop, was that there was no city wall. Jane had walked past shacks, and guard towers, and farmland under heavy guard to get to here, but she had never seen a wall, at all.

A child ran past, barely touching Jane.

The child got three meters ahead before she slowed down. She turned, and with a dirty face and matted hair, she yelled, “Whatsa poor prick like you who don’t got no gold! Piss off, wanker!”

The girl ran off, splattering mud as she stomped away, no doubt to try her pickpocketing against someone else. Jane had prepared for thieves; except for her badge and a few coins hidden in her boots, all of her stuff was in a safe location, back in the mountains that she crossed to get to the Sovereign Cities.

But something had still led that little thief to believe that Jane was rich. Was it her clothes? Couldn’t be. Jane wore brown leathers and tan cloth, with a brown leather cloak to ward off the rain, like almost everyone else around her. No [Conjure Armor] today. She had even left her rings behind. Jane missed the extra Stats, but she certainly did not need artifacts of that quality on her person, as she traveled this awful land. Besides, she would likely need to resort to [Fire Body] and her flame ooze sooner or later.

Jane looked around. No one else on the streets wore anything nicer than dirty linen or marred leathers.

Oh. Shit. Duh. Jane was looking around, exactly like a tourist would. She quickly resumed her forward journey, acting like she belonged, not really looking at anything in particular—

That failed thief wasn’t the only one who had spotted Jane.

To the side of the road, above the mud and atop a short tower of stone, a pair of Killtree guards, wearing full [Conjure Armor], one red, the other maroon, stared down at Jane. Red tapped Maroon on the shoulder, saying something quiet. Jane averted her eyes from everyone and especially from the guards. She walked forward, under the watch of their guard tower.

The guards called to her. “Oy!”

Jane kept walking.

“Oy! Outsider girl! You don’t stop this’ll go bad for you.”

Jane paused, reluctantly.

“Yeah. You hear us.”

The air and rain shifted in front of Jane. A blip of red resolved into Red. A blip of dark red resolved into Maroon. Both of them were the cleanest people Jane had seen since her arrival in town. Red was a dude not much older than Jane. Maroon could have been Red’s brother.

Red asked, “Who are you, what do you want with Killtree?”

Maroon held out a truthstone. The stone glowed faintly green under the rain.

Jane looked at the stone, then at the men. She said, “To kill monsters. I’m here for the unicorn hunt.”

Maroon held the bright green stone up, then hummed.

Red glanced from the stone to Jane, saying, “Good answer. Do you think you can kill one, or should we run you out of town now?”

“I am a hundred percent positive I would be a boon to any Hunt.”

The stone continued to glow bright green, as rain fell all around.

Red frowned.

Maroon tucked the stone away, saying, “You know where to go?”

“Yup.”

“Good.” Maroon said, “Get there fast.”

Maroon [Blink]ed back up to the guard tower.

Red took one more look at Jane, and said, “Those nightmares are dangerous, you know.”

“They’re not the only ones,” Jane deferred.

Red smirked, then nodded. He blipped away, back up to his tower. He called down to Jane, “You be careful out there, adventurer. If the unicorns don’t get you, other people will. The Hunt draws all kinds.”

Jane nodded at the guards, and walked forward.

Rain fell. Mud splashed. People went where they needed to go. Carts and cows plodded by, each carrying their goods to wherever they needed to be. And Jane continued on her way. She took a right at an intersection, and spotted the Guildhouse.

The Guildhouse of Killtree was a collection of large stone buildings with a low stone wall surrounding the whole estate. The central structure was largest of the buildings, and twice the height of the stone towers all around the shanties of Killtree. That large building must have been the main guildhouse, for a central pair of double doors stood open. Sunlight shone out of those double doors, into the rain, setting the weather to glittering like suspended diamonds. Jane stepped toward—

Two people in the meager crowd stepped lightly behind Jane. One lifted a dagger to her back, the other stabbed sideways across her neck. Both weapons skittered across dark blue energy, doing little actual damage. Both attackers cursed, loud and quick, as Jane responded to their attack. A dark blue dagger plunged deep into the stomach of the first man. Another dark blue dagger went through the neck of the second. They gurgled, and died.

Jane had [Hunter’s Instinct] running ever since she left the guards, with [Invisible Rejuvenation] ticking off occasionally to keep her HP high. She had seen her attackers well before they attacked. She had seen their dirty metal knives, and the absolute desperation in their faces. She didn’t want to kill them, but they had honestly tried to kill her first. Whatever their reason for their actions they got exactly what they deserved. If Jane had just let them off with a warning they would have gone on to kill someone else.

It was an awful calculus, but the math did not lie.

A few onlookers lifted their heads to see her kill her attackers, but no one said anything. Some walked faster. Some didn’t seem to care at all. One man on the other side of the street even laughed as half a dozen children poured out of a nearby alleyway, rushing for the bodies Jane had dropped. One of the kids was the girl from before; the attempted pickpocket. She flashed Jane a wicked smile as she began pulling off the boots from Jane’s first attacker.

Jane’s eyes went wide at the girl.

The girl must have recognized that Jane was deciding what to do with her, because she instantly dropped the man’s leg, leaving the half-removed boot behind as she ran back into the alleyway, vanishing into the shadows of the shanties. Jane could easily track her… but... should she?

Had that girl just played Jane into killing for her?

While a rare moment of indecision struck Jane to her very core, and her conjured daggers dissipated from the bodies, the remaining kids stripped the fresh corpses of any and all goods. They rapidly left nothing behind but pale remains, face down in the mud. Jane backed away from the dead. She controlled her breathing as she turned toward the guildhouse. She walked on, hopefully leaving behind whatever had just happened.

Jane felt the eyes of people watching her as she walked toward the stone guildhouse, but nothing happened as she stepped past the low stone wall and onto the stone tiles of guildhouse property. No environmental [Ward] hung in the air around this place. It did smell a bit nicer than the rest of the city, though. Like rain and stone, instead of mud and mold and unkempt hair.

She walked forward, into the light pouring out of the open double doors, into a stone tavern that smelled of spice and ale. Voices carried all around her. People in armor, both real and conjured, sat around talking to each other, discussing hunts and battlefield tactics. Jane stepped to the side as a pair of women in armor walked past her, flipping their hooded cloaks over their heads as they stepped out into the rain.

Jane tried to ignore what had happened in the muddy streets as she went to find the counter and the quest board.

- - - -

A man named Rohn, decked out in full, off-white [Conjure Armor], stood at the head of a classroom. A large blackboard filled the wall behind him while a secretary stood by, ready to change the image on the blackboard at Rohn’s discretion. Currently, half of the blackboard was a map of the lands north of Killtree, while the other half was filled with the image of a cut-off collar. It was a plain band of iron to be worn like a crown. The secretary held an actual cut-off collar in her hands, right now, holding it up for all to see.

Jane was one out of two dozen new-to-the-area adventurers, sitting on wooden benches in that classroom, listening to the man talk about unicorns. Almost everyone in the room was human. Jane sat mostly alone, but some stragglers for the required lecture had taken up spots close to her; a fidgety looking human man, and the only incani in the room. She was a laid back woman with big black horns and dark purple skin. The incani yawned, as Rohn talked. It was not her first yawn since entering the room.

Rohn took the iron band cut-off collar from his secretary, saying, “We’ve already gone over the map, but now we’ll go over this. This is rather standard fare for a unicorn hunt, as I have been explaining. This is how you put it on.” He put the collar on his head, like a crown. “Very simple stuff!” He added, “If you don’t wear a collar, you—”

The incani woman raised her hand.

Rohn looked to her, his eyes full of annoyance. He sighed out, “What?”

“Why’s it called a collar when it goes on yer head?”

Rohn frowned at her. “Because it collars a part of you. It is not an enhancing effect.”

“Right right.” The woman smirked, saying, “Thanks.”

Rohn sighed, then took off the collar, and said, “I’ve lists of people who sell these, or you can buy one from the Guild. They’re a hundred gold apiece—”

Several people in the classroom mumbled complaints.

“— and they’ll serve you well. But they won’t block everything.” He handed the collar to his secretary. “Which is why you must venture in groups to hunt unicorns. Unicorns are Light Essence monsters of the highest order. Their most pervasive effect is an aura that makes the world look pretty. Nothing is able to block this effect, for it is not mind magic, but a trick of the light. If the mangled faces of your ugly partners start to look pretty, you better have a blocking effect in place, because if you don’t, you’re gonna start frolicking in the streets and getting frisky in ways you never thought possible.

“But if your partners have their blocking measures in place, what they’re going to see is your dumb ass playing around with knives and your own beautiful innards.” Rohn stressed, “Maybe, if you’ve been a decent enough partner, your teammates will see fit to wrestle you down and slam a cut-off collar on your head.” He added, “Maybe.”

Rohn looked around the room, saying, “Chances are, of the twenty five people sitting here, three of you might make it back. If you manage to kill a unicorn you’ll be hailed a hero, and then be expected to go right back out, only to face slightly better odds. If you manage to make it all the way through a season you can call yourself a veteran unicorn hunter. In such an unlikely event, you’ll have won yourself a nobility from the King.”

“Fuck your nobility,” said a guy on the other side of the room. “I just want to get paid.”

A small chorus of agreement spread, but was quickly stifled by a heavy hatred, spreading in the room like an invisible miasma. Jane watched as half of the room looked at the other half, some with expressions of disbelief, others with open, silent hatred.

Rohn frowned deeply. He steadied himself and purposefully did not look at the guy who spoke up, as he spoke to everyone, “I can look around this room and tell that most of you are not from here. This is your only warning. Disrespect your betters at your peril. Our King and Queen and entire Court keep this land free so that you can do as you please.” He stared at the offender, and said, “Speak that way again and I will do as I please, and take your head.”

The man in the audience said nothing.

Rohn said, “Good.” He added, “You can listen to your betters. This bodes well for your chances out there and in Killtree.” He gestured toward his secretary. The woman shifted the blackboard to the next image, this time done in colored chalk. Rohn gestured toward the drawing, saying, “This is the classical, undamaged form of a unicorn.”

The unicorn was a thick, white horse. More a clydesdale than an arabian, the monster was layered with enough muscle to shame a bodybuilder. Its mane flowed long, fluffy, and prismatic, like a rainbow cloud. Similar clouds of fur trailed away from its hooves and tail. Its singular horn was a half-twisted, perfect spike of rainbow radiance the size of its long head, while its eyes were pools of black.

Rohn said, “The average unicorn stands at three meters tall, from ground to back, meaning five meters from floor to tip of the horn. We’ve seen unicorns twice that size. We’ve seen runts half that size. The largest ones have an aura that covers dozens of kilometers. We send our Elites after those, so if you see one larger than six meters tall, run and report; this is your job in that specific situation.” He added, “Otherwise you’re expected to kill the beast and bring the corpse in for proper identification.”

He gestured toward his secretary. She changed the blackboard.

The drawing of a unicorn transformed into a nightmare. The singular horn was joined by a ring of lesser horns surrounding its entire head, like a ring of rainbow light. Its entire body turned dark, like night. The largest change was to its face. The mouth was a maw like a lamprey’s, circular and lined with teeth and tentacles.

Rohn said, “This is the tame version of a damaged unicorn. It gets much worse than this if any of your people are missing their mental protection. I’ve seen damaged unicorns made of teeth or eyes, or worse. Some of you might think that this means you should go alone. This would be a mistake. You will undoubtedly find other people who have made this mistake and subsequently become thralls to the unicorn.

“The deadliness of the unicorn shows in four ways. The first, is a mental domination effect. If you are subjected to this at any point in time, you will never come back from the hunt. The second is its light-based illusions. This is why you fight unicorns in a group! It is almost impossible for a unicorn to construct good enough illusions to confound and confuse four people, but if you’re a solo hunter, you will die to something you never saw coming.” He added, “Or you could become a thrall. Unicorns are not like normal monsters. Sometimes, the illusions can make you want to remove your collar, or revert your [Polymorph] form. This is obviously a bad thing, but the ability for a unicorn to do this is directly relative to how many people are in your group. Three is the minimum recommended number. Four is better. But quality is better than quantity. If you go in with a bunch of idiots, they could fall to the unicorn and become yet another problem.

“The third danger of a unicorn is their speed and physical power. These monsters are fast and their secondary ability, known as [Aura of Freedom], will make all your attempts to control the unicorn rather useless. Unicorns run through walls of stone. They disappear behind trees. They walk right over [Force Trap]s without triggering the spell. They are uncaptureable. Most of your spells will shoot wide. [Force Beam]s bend. [Force Bolt]s twist and go off course.” Rohn added, “Unicorns will run at the first sign of real trouble. They are fast.”

He continued, “I have already mentioned the fourth danger you will find when facing unicorns, but I will say it this way: unicorns don’t only transform people into thralls. They also capture the minds of other monsters. Vinespawns are a favored thrall, so watch your footing. Light slimes spontaneously generate in unicorn territory, but the unicorns relentlessly hunt, kill, and eat, any light slime they find. There are historical records of radiant oozes killing unicorns, so you shouldn’t find any of those monsters. If you do find a radiant ooze then you will know that the unicorn got what it deserved, and you come right back here and report the presence of the ooze. The Elites will take care of them.”

Rohn said, “You might find yourself facing a horde of monsters, or people, or mixed company, in addition to the unicorn leading them all.” He said, “I will say this so it’s not a shock out on the field: all those people are still alive, but most of them are in the process of becoming monsters. Most of them will try to bargain for their new master, to get you to lower your guard. When that fails, they, and the unicorn, will attack you in some of the most complicated and coordinated formations that you will ever see. Some of the people are monsters already. They won’t have access to the magic they had in life. Some of them are simply dominated. They will cast and [Strike] at you with all the power they had as a free soul.” He added, “Take solace that you won’t have to kill children. The unicorns eat those.”

Rohn said, “A full unicorn corpse is worth 20 grand. If it’s missing the horn, the price drops to 5 grand. If all you turn in to the Guild is the horn, you’ll get 10 grand. The breakdowns for the other body parts are listed downstairs. I know a lot of you are after the Light Essence in the creature, and some of you are even after the [Polymorph] form. This is fine. Good luck controlling the urges of your unicorn form. You should consider the unicorn as taking up two slots, just to be safe.” He said, “If you don’t already have a group, you should get one. Else you’re just going to die out there, or make a bigger problem for someone else.”

Rohn finished with an exasperated, “Your participation in this briefing has been noted in your guild record; you are now cleared for a unicorn hunt. If you wish to purchase a collar they’re for sale downstairs in the guild store.” He added, “A few of you came to this lecture by yourself. Others came in with one or two others. I repeat: any fight with a unicorn without at least two spears at your side is doomed to utter, bloody failure.” He said, “Hopefully most of you are smart enough to avoid the fate of the unprepared adventurer, but I doubt it. I suggest for solos, duos, and trios, to stick around after I’m gone, and to form a quad, at least.”

“One last thing. Those of you hoping to go through this fight with a slime form, you should know that unicorns really like eating slimes. Almost as much as they like eating children.” He spoke to the room, “Those of you that might possess an ooze form should be aware that unicorns will instantly consider you the largest threat on the battlefield, and will act accordingly.”

Rohn left the room. His secretary followed him out. Two dozen people started talking all at once. Several stood up and made for the door.

The only orcol in the room stood up, speaking loud, “Who’s the ooze? I’m a mind mage shooting for certification. This is my final test. I want you on my team.”

A group of five walked out of the room together with one loud guy who said, “You’d have to be an idiot to get on a team with an ooze.”

A group of four followed the five, mumbling agreements.

Two people in a three person team poked the third member. The third person, a human man, stood up, saying, “We’re not the ooze. But we could use a mind mage, even if you’re not accredited yet.”

The orcol looked at them. He said, “Nope. You’re all going to die.”

“What!” A woman in the trio stood up, saying, “What the fuck. Fuck off. ‘Mind mage’ my ass.” She grabbed her partners, saying, “We’re out of here.”

Her partners followed her walk out of the room. The room had thinned, fast. The only people remaining on the benchs were solos, duos, and trios.

The incani next to Jane yawned again, then said, “Looks like ya’ right, mister almost mind mage. Those tossers gonna die pretty damn fast.” She stood up, stifling another yawn. She spoke to the remainders in the room, “I’m a Polymage going for a unicorn. I want the heart and the brain, and care naught for the rest of the kill. I don’t have ooze, but I do have more than enough capability in my water slime form.” She tapped a hand on the shoulder of the fidgety human man with her. She said, “He’s with me. Control Mage.”

Jane spoke up, “I’d get in on that. I’m the ooze. I also have [Greater Treat Wounds]. But then we’d have to kill two unicorns. I want the brain and the heart, too.”

The incani woman winced, muttering, “Fuck.”

Three people instantly stood up in the crowd. They all shouted at once.

“You can have the body if you stay all season.”

“I just need one horn.”

“I need the blood for potions of [Heal] and [Restore Mind]!”

The mind mage orcol said, “You have [Heal]?”

“Yeah, I have [Heal]. And [Restore Mind],” said a thin, middle aged man. “I also have [Greater Treat Wounds].”

The mind mage said to him, knowingly, “You best stay home. You’re gonna die if you go out there. Buy the blood from an Elite.”

“Those assholes charge too much.” He said, “This is my last resort.”

“Desperate.” The mind mage said, “That does not bode well.”

The healer man stood staunch. He said, “I see I have made the mistake of allowing you to dictate the flow of this conversation. Piss off, greenskin.” He spoke to the room. “Who wants one of the best healers you will ever find?” He asked a nearby duo. “What are you two going after?”

“Nobility,” said the one.

“The right to build a house of stone,” said the other. “So: nobility.”

“I can last a season,” said the Healer. “Anyone else want to come along?”

The incani woman spoke up, saying, “We’d—”

“I don’t truck with your kind, and all you want is one kill. You can piss right off, too,” said the Healer. “Anyone else?”

In seconds, Healer and four others left, together.

A solo man said, “I think I ought to go back to the Crystal Forest.” He pointed at the blackboard, where the image of the unicorn still lay. “I didn’t expect that.” He added, “Also. This place is a shithole.”

A different man instantly punched the solo man, sending the solo man to the floor, as he shouted, “This is my home, arsehole!”

The solo man held his jaw, then said, “Get chomped, mudman.” He vanished in a blip of orange.

“Fucking high and mighty—” Punchy man spoke up, “Ooze girl? You from around here?”

Jane said, “No.”

Incani woman instantly turned to Jane. “I’ll hunt for two unicorns.” As the man with her nodded furiously, the woman added, “Maybe you can tell me how you managed to make your ooze, since you’re obviously going for Polymage. Right? We can swap stories. It’ll be a lot easier the second time around, anyway.”

Jane said, “I’m good with killing two of them.”

“Fuck— Fine!” The mind mage orcol stepped toward Jane, saying, “I want in on this. Incani, you two humans. That’s four of us—”

Punchy man, one of only five others left, yelled, “Fucking foreigners. You’re all the same.” He turned to the five other people left in the room, filling the room with his voice as he said, “You all seem like a good lot.” He singled out a guy, saying, “You. You’re from Lancebush, ain’t you?”

“Yeah,” said a suddenly happy sounding dude from Lancebush, sitting with another guy. “Me and my buddy here both. Unicorns killed his sister years ago. We’re finally gitten some revenge.”

Punchy man said, “Now that’s a good dude there!” He slapped the other man’s shoulder, saying, “Hey good for you.” He asked, “You look familiar, too. You got a ma or some woman that looks like you? She run the vegetable shack by the river?”

Happy guy smiled, saying, “Yeah. That’s my Maw!” He added, “Ya might’ve seen my aunt, though. They’re twins.”

The punchy man and the remaining five people all started talking with each other, while mind mage orcol, fidgety man, and sleepy incani, all came to Jane.

The mind mage orcol, easily eight foot tall with green skin and short black hair, said, “Name’s Marric. Nice to meet you.”

The incani woman said, “Bett.”

The man, who looked rather wired on coffee, or something, now that Jane was looking at him, said, “Scallion.”

Jane said, “Jane.”

Marric looked to Jane, saying, “You’re rather okay with killing two of them. You haven’t even seen one yet, have you?”

“I killed a pack of moon reachers just last week. Solo.” Jane said, “So why don’t you stop with the judgment.”

Scallion quickly itched his arm, then controlled himself enough to string together, “We have a team— we can work out the particulars back at base— please let’s go I want to go now.” He looked at Bett. “Time to leave.”

Bett lovingly, quickly placed her hand on Scallion’s shoulder. “Go ahead. I’ll catch up.”

Scallion turned from Jane to Marric, saying, “Sorry I just need to—” He vanished in a blip of purple.

Bett spoke over the dissipating purple light, saying, “He’s got a problem. Nothing personal, I hope you understand.”

Jane did not understand at all, but she said, “Sure. That’s fine.”

Bett said, “We got a base over a ways. [Stoneshape]d comfort if you two want to—”

“What the damn.” Punchy stepped toward Bett, saying, “I couldn’t help but overhear that you foreigners got a base on our land?”

Bett sighed out, then said, “It’s not on your la—”

Punchy stepped to Bett—

Bett laid him out with a solid smack to the side of the head, cracking Punchy’s jaw and tumbling the man over the student benches. As his friends looked on in shock, some of them stood from their chairs.

Bett spoke to Punchy’s new friends, “Can you let him know that if he wasn’t trying to come at me, I apologize. Otherwise, I already had to kill five of you mudfuckers since I got here. What’s five more to add ta’ the pile?”

Rohn spoke from the doorway. “Miss Bett.” He pointed at Bett with a stack of paperwork. “Please leave the mudfuckers alive and unmolested when on guild property.”

Bett turned to the guildmaster, saying, “As you wish.”

Punchy’s new friends tended to him, lifting the semi-unconscious man up onto a bench. Jane almost offered to heal the man. He was obviously loopy and brain rattles could go bad, rather unexpectedly. But she wanted to punch him, too. Bett just beat her to it and had a better reason to lay the man out. Punchy was coming for her, just like he came for that other guy.

Rohn looked from Punchy, then to Bett, then from Marric to Jane. “You three outsiders— Where's the fourth?”

“Already gone to base.” Bett added, “Outside of Killtree. In the mountains, sir.”

Punchy came to, groggy and almost speaking coherent words. His new friends were certainly speaking coherent words, though, and Jane did not like any of the epithets or threats that came out of their mouths.

Rohn spoke over the burgeoning noise, “Setting up an illegal, defensible base on Killtree land is punishable with death, but a base in the mountains is not a base on Killtree land.” Rohn separated a single folder from his stack of documents, and handed it to Marric. The orcol took the paperwork, then nodded. Rohn took another folder and handed it to a man in Punchy’s group. “Why don’t everyone just go their own ways, quick as you can, and we can leave this Strength measuring contest for some other day.” He added, “[Teleport]ing out of Killtree is fine. [Teleport]ing in, is another matter entirely.”

“A very good idea, guildmaster.” Bett held out her hands to Jane and Marric. “Trust me, yet?”

Marric took Bett’s hand without hesitation. Jane…

Jane grabbed her other hand. Bett smiled. A flash of purple filled Jane’s vision for a brief moment. Suddenly, they were some unknown distance away. Likely a full thousand kilometers if their base was really outside of Killtree land. The sky stretched overhead as green fields of tall grass swayed in the breeze.

Bett said, “Once more.”

Another flash of purple moved Jane, Bett, and Marric another distance away, to the steep slopes of a grey mountain. Tiny flowers bloomed in the cracks of the rocks all around, while the nearest trees were a good hundred meters down the slope. They were not the trees of a forest, just scraggly things, barely more than bushes. Past all that, kilometers away, laid grassy hills absolutely covered in flowers of all colors, stretching out to the horizon.

Bett dropped Jane’s and Marric’s hands, saying, “Thank Hell that’s over.”

Jane turned around, [Hunter’s Instincts] flaring, but finding nothing too alarming.

Bett had landed them near a large depression in the stone mountain. One or both of Bett or Scallion had carved a nice stone house into the solid granite. It was two stories large, at least, and set ten meters deep into the mountainside. It was almost completely hidden from every view, except directly, and even then the architecture was stone-like. It blended in with the rest of the mountain. Even if someone looked up from those flowery fields, they might not see this base of operations.

Scallion sat on a bench outside the house, looking much more relaxed than in the guildhouse. He wasn’t obviously fidgeting, for one. At Bett’s appearance he stood up and smiled. He said, “That place is a disaster.”

Bett walked toward him, saying, “Yeah. But this is where the unicorns are.” She turned to Jane and Marric saying, “We can put the illusions up when we’re sure we want to stay here. We don’t mind moving.”

Marric looked up and down at the structure. He said, “Looks like good work.”

“It’s not done yet,” Scallion said. “We didn’t know who we might pick up, so it’s not ready yet.” He said, “I— I just had to get out of there. Fuck. I’ve never been somewhere so… lawless. And dirty.”

Bett explained, “We got to the Sovereign Cities last week, hoping to find a group fast, but these shmucks—” Bett asked, “Either of you two have to kill any idiots who try to jump you?”

Marric said, “I didn’t kill them, but it did happen.”

Jane said, “Got jumped by two people.”

Marric asked, “Did you kill them?”

“… Unfortunately.”

Bett said, “Don’t sweat it... Jane? Right?”

“Yeah.”

Scallion said, “I hate this place! No city walls. No proper defenses. The people choose to not Matriculate, just so they won’t have to join the army, but if they did, then they would all kill each other.” He said, “They caused this problem themselves. These fuckers deserve unicorns.”

Jane felt a spike of anger. She blurted out, “No one deserves monsters.”

Scallion flinched. Bett frowned a little.

Marric said, “Monsters are a plague unleashed by the Old Wizards. The solution is the Script, but these people forgo Matriculation and thus, it is their fault that unicorns plague them.”

“Well.” Jane said, “I guess that might be true.” She added, “Still though...”

Scallion frowned a little, but said nothing. Bett’s face turned neutral.

Marric continued, “Instead of these people solving their own problems they choose to allow adventurers into their lands to solve their problems for them. And of those that do choose to Matriculate, and who survive their time in the army?” Marric said, “Punch-boy back there, and all of his cronies, and Healer and practically everyone there… Guildmaster Rohn was right. They’re all going to die, and it’s going to be their own fault. The only ones in that room who have any chance of surviving this are the four of us here.”

Jane said nothing. She had already said her piece. Scallion wasn’t wrong, but there was no need to be so callous about it.

Bett turned to Marric, smirking as she asked, “You scope me out already, almost-mind-mage?”

Marric said, “You were the only other non-human in that room. Doesn’t take much to realize you’re competent enough to survive Killtree’s usual methods of welcoming people to town. I’m taking it on faith that you won’t be a detriment in a unicorn fight.” He asked, “Are you really a Polymage?”

Bett said, “Give me your best [Mind Spike].”

Marric instantly flickered with a pale teal light. Bett just stood there, without any apparent effect.

“Glad to see you’re actually a mind mage.” Bett just smiled wide, as she tapped her head. “Slime core mind.”

Marric said, “Mind magic is not just mind effects. That trick doesn’t work against a unicorn’s bodily nervous system control.”

Bett waved him off, saying, “I’ll be a full water slime out in the field.” She turned to Jane, asking, “To continue with the show and tell. What’s your ooze?”

Jane knew they wouldn’t want to take her word on faith, so she [Blink]ed out of her leathers to end up twenty meters away, across the slope. Fire crawled across her skin as she burbled out of herself, transforming into a twisting, living pile of flame. The ground around her body scorched and blackened, as her heat expanded outward, flash-firing nearby tufted flowers and scraggly grasses. After her transformation settled in, Jane pulled her fire into herself with [Fire Body], holding her heat close to her orange goo.

Bett called out, “Dinnamoth’s Tits! You really do have an ooze!” She leaned back, saying “Flame ooze is a good choice. The lack of a core makes them a lot more durable than you’d think.”

“She’s got [Fire Body], too,” Marric said.

Jane burbled toward her group, stretching her body upward. She walked with legs made of translucent orange slime, her bones and muscle reforming as she completed her transformation into a human. As fire dimmed from her skin, she wrapped herself in dark blue armor and her hair into a bun. She flashed a [Cleanse], washing away soot and ash with thick air. She said, “[Fire Body] and [Greater Treat Wounds]. Though it’ll be hard to heal others on the field.”

Bett said, “Don’t worry about us. We’re pretty self sufficient.”

Scallion added, “It’s still good to have the option outside of combat.”

“You’re one of them sloggers, aren’t you?” Marric asked. “Years to get [Greater Treat Wounds], then months at… Firemaw, maybe? And now you’re going for a unicorn. What Class are you? Where did you study?”

Jane said, “We don’t have to know each other that well, right away.” She added, “But you could call me a slogger and you wouldn’t be wrong. I’m in this for the long haul, to gather enough power to kill every monster out there.”

“A good goal.” Marric smirked. “I’m here to qualify for a Mind Mage post elsewhere.”

Scallion stood up, saying, “I feel a lot better about the decision to come here.” He looked to Bett, saying, “We’re both sloggers, too.”

“We’re here for those unicorn auras.” Bett said, “The goal is carving a city out of Archipelago Nergal.”

Marric asked Scallion, “What do you do?”

Scallion gestured down the mountain slope. The air shifted, as a large, subtly purple [Ward] layered down the mountain, like a blanket half a hundred meters wide. Scree and boulders loosed from the ground, to shoot into the air like they were dropped up. As the rocks and dirt left the [Ward], they crashed back down, normal gravity reasserting itself. Stone floated into the [Ward] and back out, finding some sort of equilibrium on the top edge of the purple space.

Scallion’s body turned misty, as his hair trailed away and his fingers wrapped with wisps of fog. He said, “I’ve got [Air Body] and [Water Body], a lot of other control spells, and the ability to exclude people from their effects. I should be mostly immune to a unicorn while like this. I can hold this form for an hour.”

“Well then.” Marric said, “This is really good. All I have to worry about is myself, which I can already do. Nice to meet you, three.”

Jane added, “Nice to meet you, Bett, Scallion, Marric.”

“Glad to finally find some people who aren’t total murder-freaks.” Bett turned to Scallion, “I told you we’d find some good people.”

“Just had to expose ourselves to the murderous locals for a week, first.” Scallion countered.

Bett smiled as she asked, “Where are the locals not murderous for at least one of us?”

Scallion said, “Portal, Outpost. Pretty much everywhere in the Crystal Forest, and I hear that Spur is finally filling with humans again. Greensoil is fine for me, while the Wasteland is fine for you. Nergal is half okay—”

“Fine fine fine.” Bett said, “Point taken.”

Jane asked, “Anyone want to take on some low level contracts, to see how we do with each other?”

Scallion said, “Sure. But I’m not going back to Killtree without a breather. We finally found a group.” He said to Bett, “You teasing Rohn with ‘Why’s it a called a collar’ almost set him off.”

Bett laughed. She glanced from Jane to Marric, saying, “His speech was a lot worse before I started asking questions. Just one a day, though. That seems to be his limit.”

“I don’t want to go back to town for a contract.” Marric said, “It’s not fun turning away a hundred people a day from looking at you like a piece of meat, or a bag of gold they just have to stab enough to make something good fall out.”

“Same.” Bett said, “Besides! We don’t have to have an adventuring contract to figure out how to play nice with each other. There’s no monsters in this area aside from flowerspawn.” She looked up past the house, up the mountain. “But the Mushroom Forest starts about two hundred kilometers that way. It’s full of shroomspawn and vinespawn.”

Jane said, “I would rather do something productive, if you don’t mind. I volunteer to go back and get a listing.”

“That works, too,” Bett said. “Anything from 4 star to 6 is fine by me.”

“Sure,” Scallion said. “Everyone is waiting for the first unicorn listing to appear so there might be something worthwhile. Bett and I haven’t really looked.”

“I’m fine with a productive kill quest.” Marric looked back toward the house in the mountainside. “What does it look like, inside?”

Scallion said, “I’ll show you.”

Jane said, “I’ll be right back.”

Jane left them to it as she picked up her leather clothes, then blipped halfway to Killtree. She discarded her [Conjure Armor] and put her normal clothes back on for her trip into the city. Thankfully, the rain had stopped.

- - - -

Finding an appropriate quest took Jane an hour.

Most of that hour was spent walking back from the outskirts of Killtree, to the Guild. Her journey was interrupted twice along the way. First, by guards who pointed out that hair clip she had conjured around her hair was an illegal, open use of magic. They let her go with a warning when she told them she was here to hunt unicorns. Jane switched up her hairclip for a bit of string.

The next altercation came when a street urchin tried to pick her pocket. Jane smacked his head while his hand was in her pocket, sending him tumbling to the mud. The kid must have only been ten years old, but his wild tumble turned professional. He barely touched the mud, instead spinning and landing on his feet and hands. The kid raced off down a nearby alleyway.

Back at the guild, Jane instantly found an appropriate quest.

There was no reward listed, but not every place did things like Spur, with upfront rewards. Spur was actually in the minority of how most of Glaquin did quests and managed their guilds. On most of the continent, the monsters themselves were the goal. You just had to kill them, first.

- - - -

Jane returned to Bett and Scallion’s base with a slip of paper. No one stood outside in the setback between the mountain slope and the stone house, or on the slope itself, but as Jane walked toward the open front door, she heard voices inside. Jane walked through the front door, into a spacious room of light and nice conjured furniture.

Marric, Bett, and Scallion, all sat around a large stone table in the back of the room, talking over the splayed out contents of the folder Guildmaster Rohn had given to Marric. All of them were already in their [Conjure Armor]. Both Bett and Scallion were in purple leathers, while Marric was in teal.

With eyes going wide as Jane walked through the front door, Scallion said, “You came back!”

Bett spoke up from a comfy chair beside the table, “I told you she would.”

“I had doubts,” Marric said.

“I was held up by a thief and a pair of guards.” Jane said, “I found a quest.” Jane walked over and set a slip of paper on the table, on top of the spread out unicorn information packet. She said, “A small, illegal stone town east of Killtree has been overrun with shroomspawn, creating a blight and the beginnings of the Forest.”

Marric frowned as he picked up Jane’s paper. “Ehhh.”

Scallion said, “We could clear a blight. I can [Stoneshape] the buildings into the ground, anyway.” He suddenly said, “Gods! Even their attempts at real architecture are shitty!” He whispered, “What the fuck is wrong with these people?”

“It’s not our problem, Scallion.” Bett turned to Jane, saying, “It’s not a difficult task, but it’ll be nasty enough. Shroomspawn are not fun.”

Scallion said, “I’m just saying that normal, everyday city politeness is a foreign concept around here.” Wide eyed, he added, “Probably literally! Oh! That’s it! Polite Society is a foreign concept, and that’s why they don’t do it.”

Jane wanted to argue for Killtree, but Scallion was right. He would do well to not be so open about it, though.

Marric said, “Shroomspawn… I don’t know.” He turned to look at Scallion, saying, “And you need to cut that shit out. You let it out here, and you might accidentally let it out there, in the field, where people could hear.”

Bett said, “Scallion just hasn’t had anyone else to complain to in a week.”

“I can keep it in my robes.” Scallion desperately asked, “But please, just tell me that you see what I see.”

Jane said, “I see it.”

“Thank you!” Scallion said, smiling brightly. “Yes! Good! I’m not crazy.”

Marric put Jane’s quest information back down on the table. “This is a fine quest. I was hoping to avoid shroomspawn, but it’s fine.”

Bett asked, “What’s the problem with shroomspawn?”

Marric said, “They’re just… disgusting. Emotionally awful, you know.”

Bett burst into laughter.

Marric said, “Jane’ll probably end up doing most of the work. This quest reads like everyone is already dead, and we just have to burn the town to the ground.” He added, “[Stoneshape] it to the ground, too.”

“Something like that,” Jane said.

Scallion said, “So what happens when we discover that the town is full of dissidents, and this quest is just Killtree wanting us to kill their people for them?”

Jane said, “Then we walk away, and I report the quest as incomplete.”

Scallion asked, “And what happens if that becomes a problem?”

“We might have gotten off on the wrong foot.” Jane said, “I’m here for a unicorn; not to make friends with authoritarian governments. We don’t actually need the guild here to help us find the unicorns. It just makes it easier.”

Scallion smiled small, then nodded.

Marric said, “I would like to have a working relationship with Killtree’s guild, if at all possible. But if this quest is a front for state sanctioned murder, we can leave them behind.”

“Guildmaster Rohn ain’t that bad.” Bett said, “Everyone else I could do without.”

Jane asked, “So? Are we doing this?”

Scallion said, “Best to figure out what everyone can do. We still have hours till nightfall. I vote we go.” He added, “I’m arcanaeum trained from Peak Island University, with a Class and Stat-ed for Willpower.”

Bett got up from her chair, saying, “Polymage, Balance. I’ve got [Air Body], [Water Body], and [Stone Body]. Working on [Lightwalk]. If this works out well, I might want to stick around for a while and get [Lightwalk] out of multiple unicorn kills.”

Marric said, “If we need to work out some complicated system regarding the bodies, we can.” He said, “I’ve been given all unicorn season to secure a kill, but if we’re doing multiple kills, I want horns.” He added, “But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. I have some confidence in this group since I’m the only one I need to protect, but unicorns are not easy.” He looked around the room. “What are the worse mind monsters you’ve ever killed?”

Jane said, “You didn’t say anything about yourself.”

Marric said, “And neither did you.”

Jane said, “Flame ooze, army experience up to team leader. With all the non-brainy minds in the group, we won’t be able to communicate with [Telepathy], but I can speak with [Prestidigitation]. I assume Bett and Scallion have some other workaround—”

Bett said, “[Prestidigitation] speech works well enough.”

“I can still talk with [Air Body] active,” Scallion said.

Jane nodded, saying, “I have some medical knowledge with a focus on humans, but I looked up everyone else and my skills should be good enough to remove possible parasites from Marric and Bett, if needed. You already know of [Greater Treat Wounds]. I also have [Hunter’s Instincts] and [Shadowalk]. Scion of Balance. No class yet. Working on Polymage.”

Bett asked, “How many forms do you have?”

Jane said, “The only one I’m going to use around other people is Flame Ooze.”

Bett smirked, then said, “Fine for now, but this might need to change later.”

Marric answered, “Full Mind Mage spell capability, but no Class yet. Scion of Focus.”

“Great!” Scallion said, “And just so we’re all clear. No one needs [Teleport] assistance, right?”

“Nope.” “No need.” “Not for a long time.”

Jane said, “I already scouted the quest location. If you all want to give me a [Scry] eye I can [Teleport] there now, and you can catch up.”

Scallion asked, “You don’t want to see your room, first? Put up your clothes? Get back in [Conjure Armor]?”

“… Probably a good idea,” Jane said, looking over everyone else in their own armors.

Scallion smiled, saying, “Come with me.”

Jane followed the man up a wide staircase to the side of the room, up to the second floor, where three rooms had been crafted down a short hallway. Two of the rooms already had wooden doors over their entrances, but the third’s entrance was completely open. Wardlights inside the third room illuminated the grey granite of the mountain, and nothing else.

Scallion said, “I left it blank. And I’ll leave you to it.”

Jane said, “Thanks.”

Scallion walked out of the room and back down the staircase. Jane looked around the room. It was basically a stone box. It would serve. Jane conjured a small dresser, a door over the entrance, and then switched into her dark blue [Conjure Armor]. She walked back downstairs, ready for battle.

Marric said, “No one answered: What are the worst mind monsters you’ve killed? I’ve hunted Puppetminds before.”

Bett said, “Sirens. Scallion and I.”

Jane said, “Moon reachers, as I said earlier.”

“I remembered the reachers.” Marric nodded, saying, “Sounds good.” He asked, “Then we ready? I’m ready. Not for a full night, but for a while, sure.”

Jane said, “Same.”

Scallion said, “Us, too.”

Bett and Scallion summoned purple [Scry] orbs. Marric summoned a teal orb. The orbs moved to Jane’s shoulders, to sit just above her dark blue armor. Jane nodded, then blipped away in a shattering of dark blue light.

- - - -

Stone houses dotted the prairie like slate grey building blocks tumbled from a child’s toy box. The city was an ode to failed greatness, where nature had come back to break stone and hard angles down to rubble and mounds. Nature was winning. The entire city was crusted in mushrooms.

All across the jumble of grey buildings, white mushroom stalks and webs of mycelium sprouted and stretched. As rain fell, water rolled off of larger umbrella mushrooms, collecting into rivulets. Bulbs of soft white flesh spurted spores under the pressure of raindrops, sending nascent copies of themselves into the air, and into the water. Water flowed away from the town. It collected in pools, where mushrooms grew on the banks.

Some of the mushrooms were not like the rest. Some of those mushrooms were walking around, like they were people.

Shroomspawn were a completely monsterized species, though when viewed from afar, they would sometimes appear to act like people, or in this case, like humans. This was a human town, after all. Specifically, this was a human town, in Killtree land, and the shroomspawn acted accordingly.

Scallion spoke at Jane’s side. “That bluecap just [Force Beam]’d that redcap. Did you see that?”

“I saw.” Marric said, “And now that bluecap and five tiny white caps are eating the redcap.”

“Vicious fuckers.” Scallion said, “And I don’t mean the shroomspawn.”

Bett said, “Where’s the ‘brook’ in the town’s name, though?”

Jane said, “No idea.”

The four of them stood on a hill a kilometer away from the former town of ‘Stonebrook’, still trying to decide the best way to attack. While Scallion used some nuanced part of his [Water Body] skill and water held over his eyes like half a face mask, Bett and Marric seemed to be using [Ultrasight], like Jane, to scout the town. Jane still hadn’t transformed to a flame ooze yet, but she had donned a blue raincoat. The rain had moved on from Killtree to here, it seemed.

Jane looked up. She said, “Rain’s gonna make burning the place awful hard.”

Marric said, “We could set up [Weather Ward]s and come back tomorrow. This rain isn’t going to stop any time soon.” He asked, “How does a flame ooze do in the rain?”

“Not well, but well enough.” Jane said, “The problem will be keeping the town on fire long enough to kill everything living there.”

Scallion dismissed the water over his eyes. He said, “I’ll do the [Weather Ward]ing.”

Marric said, “As soon as they see an outsider they’re going to start shooting.”

“Ha!” Scallion said, “What else is new?”

Marric said, “I just meant that they’re all going to respond as one.”

Scallion said, “Now that would be new.”

Jane pointed to the left side of the stone block city, at a dome barely visible beyond a four story building. “See that? It’s a juvenile Bleeding Veil. It’s days away from releasing its first toxic clouds, killing absolutely everything in ten kilometers. The nearest other town is five kilometers away.” She said, “The ecosystem here is strong. It won’t be a pushover, but it needs to be done. A coordinated attack should not deter us, or else there’s no help for us against the unicorns.”

Marric said, “I bet they’re just leaving it so it can become a worse problem, so the people in charge can gain more levels killing the Bleeding Veil. Or whatever their goal is.”

“Yup!” Scallion said.

Bett said, “Probably.”

“Does anyone have an objection to killing and leveling this town?” Jane asked.

“No.” Marric said, “I just want everyone to be aware that this is going to draw some ire from someone up the chain.”

Scallion smiled wickedly, instantly saying, “Let’s kill it.”

“I agree,” Bett said.

Marric nodded.

Jane said, “Then I’m going in.”

Jane walked down the grassy hill, getting far enough away from Bett, Scallion, and Marric to not accidentally burn them. When she stood thirty meters from them, she dropped her conjured armor and shifted, all at once. Flesh and bone turned into orange goo and radiant fire. The wet grass around her instantly sizzled, flash frying as rain came down and turned to mist before it could touch her new form. Jane’s vision swept out to full, as she felt the tremors of the land underneath.

The majority of the mushroom town in front of her was not the fruiting bodies on the surface, but in fact the network of roots and otherwise that grew under the land. Jane was almost a kilometer away from the town, but still, she felt as something down there moved.

As fog rolled out from her glowing slime body, Jane wrapped herself in darkness, cutting her flame and her light from touching the world. She slipped through the shadows under the grass and the clouds, hidden by cold cover, rapidly arriving in the outskirts of the town formerly known as Stonebrook.

Jane’s shadows spread, unseen among the town. She almost started the attack but she paused when she saw the shroomspawn up close. Not-people walked around in pairs or separately, but if you ignored their broad hats and their papery skin, they looked like almost anyone else in any human town. They had normal, human-sized legs. Normal, human sized arms, and torsos. The smaller ones were squat and childlike, and if they didn’t move it would be easy to mistake them for meter-tall mushrooms in a forest, but the large ones looked like people. They even wore clothes made of fibrous layers. Their hats were their mushroom caps, of course, but as Jane watched, one of the adults removed their hat when greeting another adult shroomspawn in the doorway of a house.

If Jane hadn’t checked out this place with her shadow spider before talking to her team, if she hadn’t seen the rads running throughout the entire town, or the hundreds of human, dog, cat, and livestock bodies and skeletons feeding the mycelium in the basement of every stone structure, she would have hesitated. But she had done her research. She had read about the horror that one shroomspawn colony could do, when left to grow unimpeded. There was a story to this town, of how it got here, but that wasn’t important right…

Jane hesitated.

She went back to her group. They still stood upon the hill.

Scallion jumped at her appearance, flashing out a force bolt that slammed into Jane’s goo, but did practically nothing. He instantly realized what he had done, saying, “Sorry! Sorry!”

With a bit of [Prestidigitation], Jane created a facsimile of a voice. “I want to investigate the town before we burn it down.” It was a scratchy, indeterminate voice, but it would serve.

Marric said, “I think it’s a good idea. We don’t know what we’re really stepping into, here.”

Bett said, “Sure. I can help.” She instantly turned to water. A bumbly, beach-ball sized goo ball slipped out of Bett’s clothes. Her water slime core was an orb of dark blue inside of her blue-white body. A scratchy voice, different from Jane’s said, “Books and personal effects, and anything else that looks good.”

Marric said, “If this was perpetrated by someone I doubt they left much behind.”

Scallion said, “If the bodies were all murdered then that should tell us enough.”

Marric countered, “No it wouldn’t. Obviously someone killed this town, but—”

Bett said, “Ugh! Too much debating without any facts.” The dark blue core of her body turned toward Jane. She said, “Scallion’s been looking for someone else to talk to ever since we got here, and Marric seems happy to oblige. Let’s go.” Bett flowed into the water on the ground, her slime body becoming little more than a raised spot in the mud and the wash. She zipped toward Stonebrook.

Jane followed through the shadows.

Jane and Bett quickly went through the town, looking for certain things; books, ledgers, personal effects.

Jane checked through a few basements until she found one of the larger stashes of bodies. She went to investigate. White lace-like growths tangled the bodies together, but they had certainly been piled down here, and elsewhere. With gentle shadows, Jane felt into those piles of bodies, searching for effects and other clues. The bodies were thrown down here wearing all their clothes. Some of them still had items in their pockets. Shroomspawn gathered and play-acted as humans using objects left out in the open, but they did not really care for the hidden things.

Jane gathered several possible clues among the corpses, including their causes of death. No arms smashed, no skulls bashed in, though there were many holes and gouges among the bones. These people died to some sort of cutting magics, before being dumped into their own basements.

If the shroomspawn had done this, there would be broken bones.

She checked several other basements, gathering more clues that she held in her shadows while she moved. She made two trips back to the hill outside of town to deposit those items on to a stone table, under a [Weather Ward] with Scallion and Marric. By her third pass the pile was large enough to need its own [Weather Ward]. By her third trip, water slime Bett waited on the ground nearby, outside of the [Weather Ward]s, seeming to enjoy the rain.

Jane said, “I think we got most of it.”

Marric said, “Time to clear the town.” He looked up at the darkened sky. “Sunset in an hour.”

Bett said, “Looks to me like someone killed the town and planted the shroomspawn.”

Scallion said, “If any of us were in with the locals I think we could get a story out of this from the town down the way, but we’re not, and I don’t want to be.”

“I saw one pair of shrooms mimic the same motions five times.” Bett said, “Creepy fuckers!”

Jane said, “Enough investigation. Time to burn it down.”

A round of agreements followed.

- - - -

In the town square of a dead stone town, where mushrooms lived and everything else rotted, a juvenile Bleeding Veil grew, like a tall, white egg. He grew fat and huge under the near-constant rain, and he was almost ready to hatch. At nearly four stories large, the Veil was the largest growth in this part of the Forest. It couldn’t move, not yet, but it was protected by hundreds of smaller red and blue caps, and even smaller still white caps, who had yet to mature into a battle form, or step out of the white roots surrounding their King. The adult red and blue caps tended to the immature ones by choosing one among five nearby whitecap growths, and plucking out four of them, killing the unborn shroomspawn but leaving one with more than enough room to grow.

The red and bluecaps were busy all the time. When they weren’t on duty to their King and their kind, the red caps and blue caps moved around their conquered stone kingdom, mocking those who came before. They exchanged pieces of stone for bits of trash. They greeted each other as they passed in the streets. They killed each other for sport, or as their King decided. They practiced making noises at each other. When they had played enough or if they played too hard, they moved to the edge of the King’s domain, laying down their lives, becoming part of the real kingdom; an extension to the ever expanding root system that gave birth to them all.

But something was wrong, in this wet, rotting paradise.

The shadow of the nascent King flexed. Fire fountained up from the ground; a miniature volcano that immediately set the fetal whitecaps aflame. Adult red and bluecaps raced to the fire, trying to smother the attack. They merely raced into the furnace, and the furnace grew. Fire spread.

The cradle of the nascent King flickered white as the fire tried to eat the egg. The cradle did not catch; the King survived. The fire surrounded the egg, trying to kill the kingdom before it could truly flourish, but the fire could not catch, for an entire city protected that singular, white egg.

On the very edge of the town, where the white mycelium of the Bleeding Veil ended, the tips of growth caught fire. Rain smothered the flames, but heat still spread. Steam rose, as three more outsiders began their attack.

A creature of wind and water held in the sky. Purple stretched above the city in bubbles and sheets. Rain had protected the town from the fire, and the land was soaked to the basements and beyond, but now, the rain did not fall. It did not smother. It was only a matter of time before the city caught flame.

The King ordered a counterattack.

Blackcaps peered out from their hiding places all around town. They cast at the sky, ripping apart the spells layered by the creature of wind and water. Rain fell again, doing much to extinguish the fires growing around the King.

Flashes of teal struck the blackcaps from out of nowhere. Minds shattered. Spells slipped out of control. Blackcaps fell to the mud as their caps split in half to fall from their decaying heads.

The nascent King rumbled, trying to move in his throne; in his prison. His four story body wriggled as fire raced around his exterior, spreading itself among those without his defenses.

Layers of purple covered the sky again, blocking the rain.

The King noticed another problem.

A bumbling roil of water crashed through a stone street, pulling more water as it rolled through the streets, drying out the city as it passed. Blue caps shot beams of light into the roil but none struck the rapidly moving slime controlling it all. It hid well, somewhere inside the frothing wave.

All the while, loud, human noises filled the sky, as people yelled at each other from across the town.

The fire around the King switched tactics. It left the King, and went elsewhere. Bluecaps and redcaps poured out of nearby buildings, trying to smother the flames with their own damp bodies. It worked, mostly.

Across town, behind the roiling wave, fires stretched up to above the buildings as dried out land and mushrooms caught flame. The living fire and the living water ensured the flame remained, and grew.

Fire spread. Shroomspawn died. The rain did not save them, for whenever a blackcap tried to rip the covering spells apart, a teal spike of warping light ripped them apart from the inside.

The nascent King watched as its nascent kingdom perished in living fire. Burning death spread first among the outskirts, then among the shroomspawn. The would-be monarch watched, helpless, as the fire came for him. He was too young to fight back. He hadn’t eaten enough meat, or been given enough time to mature, and now, he never would.

- - - -

Jane, Scallion, Bett, and Marric, each of them back to their normal forms, stood on the hill.

Stonebrook was an inferno protected from the rain. Scallion’s [Ward]s failed here and there from the intense heat rolling up. A little rain fell into the town, but not enough. The monsters burned. The town would soon be cleaned by fire.

“We’re going to have to put the town in the ground tomorrow.” Scallion said, “I didn’t expect the fire to grow so large. Or for that plan to work out so well.”

Jane said, “[Water Body] was useful. Dried out everything.”

Bett said, “Took me a year to get. How long did it take for you to get [Fire Body]?”

Jane said, “I was kinda lucky. Firemaw Mountain is rather large, but there was no one else there.”

“No one was there because even the ash catches people on fire,” Marric said.

“I could handle that.”

Marric said, “Sure, with [Greater Treat Wounds]. But do you actually have that?”

Jane frowned at him, then glowed her hand with the spell, asking, “Anyone got a wound?”

Marric said, “I got a—”

Jane tapped the orcol on the arm.

Marric smiled, saying, “Yup. That’s [Greater Treat Wounds], alright.”

“There’s a string of volcanoes down in the archipelago with lots of flame slimes everywhere.” Bett said, “I considered [Fire Body], but that place is too popular. People trawl those gentle calderas all the time.”

Scallion asked, “Do you two want to join Bett and I for dinner? I usually cook for two, but I can cook for four just as easy.” He looked up at Marric, and corrected himself, “For six.”

“I’d love that.” Jane smiled wide, saying, “Have you tried those potatoes that came out of Spur?”

Scallion instantly said, “Those potatoes are so boring. Corn is where it’s at.”

Jane frowned. “Corn! That boring old thing?”

Marric asked, “How is corn boring? Potatoes are boring. They’re practically just roots.”

“That’s what makes them so good!” Jane said, “You can put anything on them and it works.”

Bett gestured to the stone table in front of them, full of the stuff taken from the town. “What are we doing with these?”

Marric said, “I’ve looked a few of the more obvious ones over with [Object Reading]. Like that shield with the un-rusted holes in it, and that book with the knife-like marks. These people were attacked by humans, then stacked into their homes and basements like trash. I don’t know how the shroomspawn started, and I don’t have [Witness], so if you want to continue this investigation we need to start talking to the neighbors down the way.” He added, “The ones who would have died if that Bleeding Veil had bloomed.”

Scallion said, “I don’t want to do any of that. I want to kill unicorns.”

Bett said, “I vote for unicorns, too.” She added, “It seems that we work well together, though we had to change plans halfway through when Jane couldn’t burn the Veil by herself.” She looked to Jane, saying, “I didn’t know their defenses were that high, either.”

“I knew...” Jane said, “But I didn’t know, you know.”

Scallion said, “This just means that we might need to adjust in the middle of a unicorn fight, and we’ll only be able to adjust once. Everything I’ve read says that unicorns and their thralls are smart enough to call out false orders. Once they hear a voice, they can mimic it.”

Marric said, “Yeah. I’ve heard that, too.”

Bett said, “We’ll figure it out.”

Scallion said, “Anyone need assistance to get back to base? I got mana left over.”

“I’m good,” Marric said. “Scion of Focus. Don’t worry about me running out of mana for most situations.”

“I can get there myself.” Jane said.

“Okay then,” Scallion said.

Bett reached a hand to Scallion, saying, “Take me home, Scallion.”

As the horizon burned and the sun set under rain, Scallion took Bett’s hand. In a blip of purple, both of them left the field. Marric nodded to Jane, then vanished in a blip of teal. Jane took one last look at the burning stone city, then stared down at the table full of items they had scavenged from the bodies underground. With a push of her hands, she [Stoneshape]ed the items down into the ground, into a water-tight casket. With another push, she pulled dirt laden with grass over the unmarked item hoard.

Jane stared across the horizon, at the burning stone city. As mushrooms caught flame and turned to ash on a rainy breeze, Jane gave a silent prayer for the dead. She stared at the scene for a long minute.

She departed the field in a blip of dark blue.

- - - -

Scallion cooked a nice dinner of various meats and well caramelized vegetables inside flaky pastry crusts. There was a conversation; it was mostly forgettable until Jane started cleaning up, while Bett, Scallion, and Marric sat by the window, smoking bluegrass.

Jane asked, “You guys really don’t want to figure out what happened to Stonebrook?”

“Absolutely not,” Scallion said. “These people deserve every painful thing that happened to them.”

Jane went stock still for a hot moment. She controlled her anger to a low simmer.

Bett went, “Mmm,” as she blew a stream of blue smoke out of the window, into the night.

Marric said, “They did not deserve that, Scallion. That was murder by their own people.”

“Okay okay,” Scallion said. “Maybe not. I don’t know.”

Jane resumed putting away the dishes, saying, “I put the stuff recovered from the city in a box under the ground on the hill we were at. We can go back tomorrow and figure out what really happened, if you want.”

Marric said, “I think we’ve done enough.”

“We could do more.” Jane shoved a plate into the cabinet, then turned to Marric, asking, “Don’t you want to figure out what happened?”

“We know what happened.” Marric said, “Other people came in and killed everyone, then stacked the bodies in the basements.”

“That is not the whole story.”

Scallion spoke up, “There’s nothing more to figure out, Jane. I might not have [Object Reading], but I saw what was in that pile.” He said, “There was jewelry, and rings, and nice buttons, and wealthy things. Lace on a dress. Embossing on a book. Gold engraving on that busted shield.” He said, “Stonebrook tried to rise up from those around them, and were put down for their actions. Either by Killtree, who seems to hate building with architecture that lasts, or by a neighbor out of jealousy. It might have been an action of war from one of the other Sovereign Cities. It might have been a confluence of complicated events, of which we will never know. We do know that they were robbed, though. Completely and utterly. Neither of you two found any gold or rads.

“And it doesn’t really matter what happened, because we’re not going to do a thing about it, because the only way to change this sort of thing around here is to kill everyone who has any power at all...” His voice trailed away for a second. “It gets more complicated from there.”

“He knows about this stuff, you know?” Bett’s eyes turned soft as she looked at Scallion, saying, “We’re trying to make our own town in archipelago Nergal, and you gotta know this stuff if you want to make it work.”

“Thank you, Bett.” Scallion took a puff of his pipe, before saying, “And yeah. It’s complicated. The biggest problem in the Sovereign Cities is that the populace either believes what the people in power tell them, or, when they do choose to go to the registrar and join the Script, they’re instantly indoctrinated into the Army, which is even more indoctrination into the toxic thinking coming from their rulers. The Sovereign Cities are an impossible, generational problem. I don’t even want to try solving it, and it’s not our place to solve. It’d be like spitting into the wind.”

Bett said, “And you can’t just kill the people in charge. If that worked, then the Sovereign Cities would have been solved a long time ago.”

Jane said, “That’s… really depressing.”

Marric said, “I’m not sure if you should even turn in the quest.”

“Ehh! No need to go that far.” Bett paused. She said, “Or... maybe... I don’t know. A few 'incompletes' won't hurt anyone's record and there wasn't a reward listed anyway.” She added, “Scallion and I don’t need any theoretical money.”

Scallion said, “There’s something rotten in this whole region of the world, and it’s obviously the people who live here.” He added, “I don’t want to get involved.”

"I could use some real money." Marric said, “But if we’re going to be sticking around long enough to kill multiple unicorns, then we don’t need to piss off the people in charge. I still think someone planted that town so that they could kill the shrooms it spawned.” He added, “I didn’t get any levels from it, and I doubt any of you did either. But those were some level 40 monsters.”

Scallion said, “I could easily see some noble killing an illegal town and then planting shroomspawn in the bodies, to then go in with a newly raised army to get some levels on them.” He added, “But yea. We got what we wanted out of it. We’re going to work well together.”

Jane said nothing. Scallion was at least right about one thing: They did work well together.

Bett said, “You were pretty good out there, Jane. Great pyrokinesis.” She turned to Marric, saying, “You killed those blackcaps pretty fast, too.”

“I think this is going to work out,” Marric said. “I’m much more comfortable about sticking around for multiple unicorns than I was before.”

“For sure,” Bett said.

Scallion said, “I agree.”

Jane finished putting away the plates and the utensils and the pots and pans, and said, “I don’t really need the money, but I would at least like to do right by the dead. Whatever happened, a lot of people died. The bodies need to be truly destroyed, or else they’re just going to rise as undead.”

Scallion said, “Ah. Well. We can certainly do that.” He added, “Sorry if I sounded… flippant. I guess I was taking it a bit far. We can go back tomorrow and perform a Final Farewell. I have [Cleansing Flame].”

Bett smoked her pipe, nodding as she looked away, into the night.

Jane said, “Thank you. That would be enough.”

- - - -

The next morning, a [Scry] to Stonebrook revealed the presence of an army camped out in the gutted remains of the city. Mages were already taking down the stone buildings and exhuming the bodies. Jane didn’t get much more information about what they were doing than that. None of her [Scry] eyes lasted more than a second; the occupying army popped them as quick as Jane could cast the spell. None of the other three adventurers got much further than Jane.

It was quickly decided that none of them would ever go back to Stonebrook.

Jane couldn’t shake the feeling that a great wrong had been committed.

- - - -

A unicorn posting went up in the guild’s job board at noon. The monster attacked a settlement far to the north, but someone had managed to get a message out before they fell under the beast’s sway.

Five teams, each of them staying in town, near the guildhouse, instantly deployed from Killtree. Two teams murdered each other in the streets of the muddy city. Two teams [Teleport]ed directly into the field. The unicorn ripped apart both. The last team cleaned up the efforts of the teams that [Teleport]ed directly into the fight, killing dominated adventurers along with a good hundred assorted monsters and villagers. And then they killed the unicorn.

By the time dinner rolled around, and the victorious team returned, the story was already all over the guildhouse.

Jane, Marric, Bett, and Scallion, sat at a corner table in the bar of the guildhouse, playing Wizard’s Towers like they had all morning long, watching the boards for another unicorn quest. Since the major fuckup at noon, all four of them were now acutely aware of just how dangerous a unicorn hunt actually was, and exactly how non-caring the city of Killtree could be. Their group decision to hang back and let the first unicorn of the season go to someone else was already turning out to be a good idea.

And all around, rumors spread. People spoke of adventurer bodies found in the mud in the streets of Killtree, and of the northern village the Unicorn had brought under its power. The winning team that cleaned up the whole mess also had a lot to say. Right now, the leader of the victorious team held the prismatic unicorn horn aloft like it was a meter-long trophy, as he boasted of their accomplishments, while a teammate of the leader bought out all the beer in the guild.

They did not buy the guild a round of beer; they bought it out, to deny others a drink.

Guildmaster Rohn stepped in at that point in time, saying that they could buy an hour of denial for a thousand gold. They bought four hours.

Their leader roared for anyone with ears to hear, how they had won, and how they had killed those that came before. The Healer man from the other day was on the unicorn’s side. The victorious team had to search for the Healer, because the unicorn would sometimes run away, wounded, only to come back fully [Heal]ed. They found the dominated Healer tied up with vinespawn, missing all his limbs and fingers except for one arm and one finger; just enough to administer his magic. They ‘righteously’ killed that ‘monster lover’. It ‘served him right’ for falling under the unicorn’s sway.

Jane almost puked. She almost killed the boaster herself. She almost did a lot of things that would have been very bad, but she did not. She stayed the course. Killtree was not her problem to solve.

Marric had already linked them all into a [Telepathy] network. As Jane shared her revulsion and utter disgust at every other person in the room, Scallion mirrored her sentiments, happy to convert her to his side.

That was their inner, teammate-only dialogue. Outwardly, they all cheered when the atmosphere of the room demanded a cheer. They all gave the barest amount of praise for the ‘unicorn slayers’, as they were now calling themselves. They all watched from the sidelines, as Guildmaster Rohn oversaw everyone.

Rohn might have also been giving the bare minimum of support to the new ‘unicorn slayers’. But that was just a guess. That morning, when she turned in the quest as incomplete, saying, under green truthstone, that an army came in and was cleaning up the place, Guildmaster Rohn had given her a strange, weird look. It was not a look of surprise, as though saying ‘you couldn’t kill some shroomspawn?’ But a knowing look; one that spoke unknown volumes.

The problem, was that Jane had no idea what that look actually meant.

- - - -

The next three days passed without a unicorn sighting, and then two unicorns appeared on the same day. Four teams dispatched for the first sighting, while Jane and her people remained in the guildhouse. They weren’t about to rush out the gate and get ambushed from behind. It turned out to be a good tactic; they were the only people still in the guildhouse for the second sighting.

As Rohn handed them the details of the sighting and the official documents for the transport of unicorn flesh across Killtree soil, he said, “This one is larger than most. If you can’t do this quest either, I suggest you pull out sooner rather than later.”

Jane took the paperwork, saying, “Thank you, Guildmaster.”

- - - -

All four of them sat in their base ten minutes after getting the target identification from Rohn.

Jane sent a [Scry] orb flying fast across the land, traveling north from Killtree, then east. From far away, she saw a gentle white glow, diffuse across the muddy land like a white fog kilometers across. It was the light shifting aura of the unicorn. The monster was somewhere inside that obscuring haze.

Jane came back to herself, saying, “Found it.”

Marric came to, saying, “Me too.”

Bett sat up from her chair, asking, “Jane on the monster, the rest support? According to Rohn the unicorn will go after her.”

Scallion stood up from his chair. Bett stepped to his side.

Jane stood up from her chair to walk outside, saying. “I’ll shift. You all can follow Marric if you want to land somewhere slightly safer. Try not to get near me. I’ll be throwing out a lot of flame.”

Scallion said, “That’s the plan.”

- - - -

Jane blipped onto a field of red flowers, her orange body expanding outward as she tried to find shadows to slip into, but there were none. There also weren’t flowers three seconds ago. The white fog surrounding the unicorn’s domain had shifted, surrounding Jane in an illusion. As Jane looked around, with infrared sight and full surrounding vision, she was both impressed, and worried. To all of her visual senses, the flowers looked real. They caught on the sunlight like rubies after a rain.

But they did not burn, and Jane was a living flame. The very air scorched and flickered with distortion, but the flowers remained whole and unharmed. If Jane had a sense of smell, she might have smelled something burning, but she did not. Or maybe flame oozes did, but they always put out so much of their own heat that taking anything in as subtle as a scent just did not work. [Scent Tracker] and [Hunter’s Instinct] didn’t seem to—

Jane [Blink]ed right, ten meters. She didn’t see anything coming. She didn’t sense anything arriving. Or targeting her, or anything like that. But she did realize that the flowers around her were very pretty, and her mind, even as an ooze, was still subject to standard, non-magical mesmerism. Pretty things still looked pretty.

Jane landed on red flowers that sparkled in the sunlight, exactly how they sparkled before. They might have been arranged exactly the same as they had been before Jane switched locations.

Jane raced forward—

She rolled over something that caught fire in flailing streams. Battle sounded from somewhere close. A fire blazed nearby. Jane saw a flickering heat on the air, briefly, and the heat wasn’t from her.

But oozes did not just hunt by sight alone. They were immaculate ambush predators, where every step and touch and vibration in the ground told them exactly where their prey was hiding. Like in her spider form, Jane felt the land, listening for stomping and running. She spread out like a loose pancake, searching for—

Someone was fighting nearby. A lot of someones.

The image of flowers around Jane broke into motes of light. The battlefield was revealed. A plant horror of a hundred green tentacles raced to get away from Jane; it was already on fire. Its movements only served to spread that fire to other vine monsters.

Scallion flew high in the sky; a being of water and air and gravity. He cast layers of purple light across the ground, one after another, some wide, some tall, some pointed in directions other than straight up. Vine monsters, already on fire, struggled to hold onto the ground as their bodies stretched upward. People covered in blood and intestines, like warpaint and flower necklaces, tangled into the sky, holding onto each other with knives.

Bursts of dark light dispelled purple wards, crashing people to the ground. The people recovered like perfect acrobats, barely having to touch the ground to find footing. They raced forward, toward some unknown goal, only for teal spikes of magic to rip into their minds—

The red flowers returned all around Jane, perfect and glittering, as before.

The air shifted. The center of Jane’s orange body splashed in every direction as dark blue light flashed around her self, absorbing and negating most of the damage. Her gooey constitution negated the rest. A hoof print, a meter across, lay in the center of the stomp. The unicorn had turned Jane from a pancake into a donut. Jane reacted, [Hunter’s Instincts] already flaring.

She slipped back together, unnaturally quick for an ooze. The hoof had already moved on, but Jane lifted upward. She touched something solid, and something furry. She should have been able to catch it, but as her flaming body touched some unknown thing, she tried to dig in, to flare hotter, but she only slipped away. She still managed to burn something.

A roar, loud and breaking, rippled across the land.

Something cold slashed through Jane’s body. But Jane melted around whatever it was. She caught something, this time, but she already felt herself slipping. The only way she was able to hold on at all, was because she conformed her body to the shape of the object she had grabbed; a twisting spike. For the briefest of ethereal moments, Jane hung in the middle of the air, melting into that spike, frying nearby meat. She couldn’t smell it, but she could hear it. That characteristic sizzle of fat. The flower illusions around Jane shattered. The land around her, and the monster attacking her, appeared.

Jane hung on a prismatic horn, ten meters from the ground. Pure hate radiated from the pure black eyes of a unicorn, not a body length away. Its face was a scar of burned and blackened flesh, its mane a prismatic fire, and also on fire.

The unicorn moved backward, and Jane did not. The entire exchange only lasted a fraction of a second. Jane dropped from the unicorn’s horn—

Jane [Blink]ed to where the monster might have been. She impacted something, she couldn’t tell. The flowers surrounded her again.

The flowers vanished. Jane was on the monster’s neck. She wrapped around—

The unicorn moved, and Jane did not. Jane [Blink]ed again, hopefully in the direction of the unicorn, her oozy body blipping across the battlefield in a splash of dark blue. She found nothing. She landed in a field of red flowers.

Jane’s mind raced. Since no retreat had been called, and since the unicorn focused on her, like they thought it would, and the illusion remained completely intact around her… There were two possibilities. Either the fight was still going, or the unicorn had won and Jane was about to die to some coordinated attack.

Jane felt the ground, trying to make sense of anything she could.

She dodged at the last second. A double stomp smashed right where she would have been. She [Blink]ed upward, stretching out, aiming for the general area of the unicorn. She found the beast, like a hidden part of the world, but she could not hold on. She slipped off. She burned multiple meters of unicorn flesh as she went, but she could not find purchase on the beast.

The illusion shattered. The unicorn stood revealed, again, and maybe for the first time.

It was ten meters tall, tall as a house, with a ring of horns around its head. Where fur remained on its body, it was as black as night, but Jane had burned a vast portion of the monster, revealing bloody skin and already scarring flesh. Its mane was burned down to a stiff shock of hair, like a zebra’s, but its tail and the fluff around its meter-wide hooves were like dark clouds. The worst part was the face. The unicorn’s maw was a tentacled, dark thing; an opening to a lightless abyss. Its main horn was somehow fully intact. Jane had clung to that twisted spike of prismatic light and burned with a fire hotter than lava, but still, the horn remained pristine.

And the monster stood there. And Jane stared. It had revealed itself for five seconds already. This was bad. Something was very wrong. Why was Jane still looking at the beast? Shouldn’t she be attacking—

A beam of hissing water sliced across the battlefield, cutting across the unicorn’s neck. Blood erupted from the wound, dark red. The unicorn flinched backward.

Jane could move again. She instantly [Blink]ed onto the beast’s back, turning herself into a blanket of living fire, burning downward with all the power of her [Fire Body]. The unicorn screamed and bucked. The unicorn was two meters away, and Jane was not, but she [Blink]ed right back onto the monster. The beast moved without Jane, again. She [Blink]ed back onto his back. She couldn’t hold on at all, but she could get back on the monster.

The unicorn began to run, heedless of all other concern. It raced across the land, quicker than [Blink]. If the unicorn was a normal creature, Jane’s fire would have clung and burned and Jane could have easily caught with [Fire Body], but the unicorn even outran the burning of its own flesh. Fire trailed in the air like sparklers for the briefest of moments, before it fell to the churned ground.

But the unicorn wasn’t able to control the light around it anymore; not with the surety it had before, anyway. Shadows clung to the monster’s underside. Jane wrapped shadow around herself and sank into the grass at her feet. She reappeared around the unicorn’s legs, wrapping herself upward, burning anything she could possibly burn.

Occasional jets of high pressure water carved across the unicorn, missing Jane but striking monster flesh; Jane was only a few meters wide at most, but the unicorn was ten meters tall, not counting its horns. Frankly, Jane would have been surprised if one of Bett’s water cutters managed to clip her.

One perfect water beam lanced across the unicorn’s left eye, half-blinding the monster, causing it to leap right, digging up the ground as it tried to flee. Jane fell to the ground, but she caught back up, quick enough.

Jane and the unicorn left the battlefield and its hundred corpses far behind. Shadow chased the light, burning bright with every radiant touch.

Something snapped in the monster, a leg or its back, Jane couldn’t tell. The unicorn crashed to the ground. Jane found her opening. She burrowed through its neck. In one horrific second, she severed its head from its body. Blood pumped from the neck in great crimson splashes. The body bucked and kicked with broken legs. A beam of water ripped across the unicorn’s underside. Intestines spilled around its twitching legs.

In its own shit and covered in char, the unicorn died.

You have slain Unicorn A!

46% participation.

+1,038,916,595,098 exp

Jane retreated from the corpse. She pulled her fire close. She wasn’t sure it was all over, even with the Participation box appearing in the corner of her all-encompassing vision, so she remained a flame ooze, but she got far enough away from the body so she didn’t fry the monster.

Under an afternoon sky, she waited for her team. She went over her other Participation boxes. Humans, vinespawn, two orcols, one incani. There were even a few shroomspawn in that horde Jane barely saw. Jane froze, as much as a pile of living fire could freeze, as she saw boxes for moon reachers A, B, and C.

A ball of blue and white goo showed up first. Bett bumbled across the scorched land, avoiding the unicorn corpse to get closer to Jane, but not too close. Jane held her fire back, but she was still radiant.

Bett spoke with [Prestidigitation], saying, “Intellectually, you know oozes are big bad monsters, but that was something else. Not having a vulnerable core does a lot for survivability.”

Jane asked, “Is everyone okay?”

“Scallion and Marric are fine. We all held back while it was going after you—”

The air blipped teal. Marric and Scallion appeared next to Bett’s bubbling slime body. Marric’s left hand was gone, his forearm wrapped in a second application of his teal [Conjure Armor], while his right hand held Scallion upright. Scallion hobbled on his only remaining leg, his purple armor in tatters, while a teal covering wrapped around his pelvis. Blood covered both of them, marring their armor. Jane cursed. She had considered getting [Conjure Force Elemental] just so she could heal at range in situations like this, but she hated the idea of summoning anything to do her bidding.

Bett loudly burbled, then raced over to Scallion, saying, “Holy fucking shitballs! What got him!”

Marric waved her off with his missing hand. “He’s fine, Bett. For now.”

“What got him!” Bett burbled next to Scallion’s remaining leg, saying, “Oh gods, I thought we were good. Fucking—”

“I’m fine! Really. I am, Bett. What’s the problem? Why are you still a slime?” Scallion winced. He stressed, “You don’t have to be an ooze either, right now, Jane. The fight is over.”

“Is it, though?” Jane said, “I saw moon reachers in my notifications.”

Scallion asked, “What’s a reacher?”

“Shit,” Bett said. She shed her bubbly body and came back together as dark purple incani with big black horns, for the briefest of moments. Purple leather armor wrapped around her as she held onto Scallion. “You’re going to be okay.” She conjured a seat and took Scallion from Marric. She sat him down in the seat, saying, “It’s okay.”

Marric stood back from Scallion and Bett, saying, “They half-touched him. Pulled him out of the sky by pulling off his armor, which was not transformed into air and water by his skills. Hence why he’s not in shock right now.”

Scallion sat in his chair then looked down at his remaining leg. His eyes went wide as he looked down at his pelvis. “My magic color isn’t teal.”

“I fixed you up.” Marric looked to Jane, saying, “It’s over. But Scallion is going to go into shock, hard. And soon.”

The briefest, most horrific feeling of ‘It’s not over yet’ washed over Jane. She oozed away from her teammates, just a little bit, as she tried to make sense of her gut instinct telling her to run away and never show her face ever again.

Marric noticed. He said, “Jane. It’s okay. It’s over. It really is. But if you need some time to come to grips with this, then tell me now so I can get Scallion to a healer.”

Jane held herself tight. She could not breathe, but she could relax her body. She oozed outward. Then she said, “Just… One minute.” She added, “Illusions are… rather powerful.”

“I understand.” Marric said, “But there are wounds that need tending, and—”

Jane looked over at the unicorn corpse. She stared across the prairie, and saw nothing in any direction, besides her wounded teammates. She also saw her own oozy body. She was wounded, too. Half of her goo was gone while her fire was considerably less. Luckily, oozes had no cores; she wasn’t critically wounded. She flickered with a dark blue casting of [Greater Treat Wounds]. Her body flexed outward as goo expanded and flickered from orange to yellow.

Her mind cleared. The battle was over, and here she was, worried about more attackers, instead of worrying about her teammates, one of whom was less a hand, and another who was still bleeding from his missing leg. Jane flowed upward, into the shape of her human body, as she transformed back to her most Familiar Form. Back to being human, Jane wrapped herself up in dark blue armor as she controlled the lingering heat and the fire all around her into something more manageable. The grass where she had been was ash, the ground was glassy. Jane stepped out of that cooling crater, quick walking toward Scallion.

Marric smiled as Jane leaned down to the injured man. As Jane touched Scallion’s chest with a glowing hand, the teal wrap around his pelvis disintegrated. Torn meat and body parts filled out. A femur began to regrow, followed by tendrils of muscle, arteries, and veins. Scallion’s eyes went wide as other body parts regrew, plopping out of the remnants of his armor. His face flushed red as he looked away.

Bett burst out in a laugh to hide the pain. She said, “Don’t be embarrassed, dummy.”

Jane smiled.

Scallion looked away, staunchly declaring, “I have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

Marric said, “I’ve seen bigger.”

Jane laughed, as Scallion’s face turned beet red and his mouth crushed into a straight, uncomfortable line.

Bett touched his shoulder, saying, “It’s plenty big enough for me.”