timewalk

  Aliandra It was te m by the time their little party reached the gates of Myrin’s Keep. Ali sent all her minions, save the Acolyte, around the heavy battlements to ehe underground cavern via the river el she had bsted through the rock during the Goblin siege. Her Acolyte had attracted enough attention in town already, and she had no idea eople would do if they saw her strolling around with an armed and armoblin Storm Shaman.

  “What do you guys want to do now?” Mato asked, gazing at the open gates.

  “I want to train a bit,” Malika said.

  “I want to explore underground,” said. “I’d like to see if I find where the cave system links to the ruins.”

  “So, bap then?” Mato asked.

  “I’ll join you ter,” Ali said. Her friends wao get back for training and exploration, but Ali had something way more iing on her mind. She had earned a little gold from the items Malika had sold to Weldierday, and she was curious to see if The Reading er had anything she could afford. Bidding her friends a quick goodbye, she took off through the gates with her Acolyte, riding on a disk of her barrier magic.

  It was fun flying through the streets of the town, going as fast as a Human or an Elf in a hurry, feeling the rush of wind through her hair, and it was a matter of only a few minutes before she ushing open the door to the little er bookstore.

  Ding.

  The sonorous chime of the doorway entment was followed immediately by the ctter of a clipboard dropped to the ground and a startled excmation from Ryn, high up on her perch at the top of a stepdder.

  “Oh, hi Aliandra!” she excimed, beginning her dest.

  Ryn wore a yellow outfit with a pretty set of matg earrings this time. She really likes to coordinate her wardrobe, Ali thought, admiriylish scks and jacket bo.

  “I had a feeling you’d be back,” Ryn said with a smile that made her eyes kle as she reached the safety of the floor. Stooping down, she recovered her dropped clipboard and skipped over to the front desk.

  “I put aside a few books I thought you might like.” Ryn reached uhe desk to retrieve a heavy-looking box and pced it carefully on the polished mahogany surface before reag io pull out books o a time. “I didn’t find any more magical texts, but here are two history books,” she pced them gently beside the box, “A monster pendium,” an enormous book that made a thump as it was set dowo the others. “And these are a sele of fi stories I enjoyed reading.”

  Ali’s eyes widened in surprise as each subsequent book emerged from the box of wondrous treasures. Obviously, she needed all of them, and she was rather touched that Ryn had made the effort to selee things especially for her, without even knowing for sure that she would return.

  Well, I might have been obvious about loving the shop, Ali admitted to herself. She had often been accused of not being very subtle about her love of books.

  “I don’t have as much mohis time,” Ali said regretfully. I have to keep enough to pay Lydia ter, she reminded herself, struggling against the temptation. She had already issioned several expeems.

  “I don’t mind hanging onto them for a while if you like,” Ryn replied cheerfully. “It’s not a bother at all.”

  Ali lingered over the monster pendium; it was a beautiful book with magically rendered illustrations of each creature described. It was well out of her price rahough, so she regretfully put it back, choosing one of the history books and two of the novels instead.

  “How about these?” Ali asked, her eyes still dwelling on the geous pendium for eoo long.

  “Sure,” Ryn answered, “I keep a for other books, too, if you let me know what you like.”

  Ali spent a delightful half an hour discussing story preferences and favorite books with a fellow book lover. It seemed her own reading was woefully out of date, most of her favorite titles now long fotten memories, but some of the best ones had been preserved and Ryn had evehem.

  The genres of stories and what made a book excellent had not ged much over the thousands of years that had passed. While she had her preferences, Ali loved a good boardless of genre – fi, non-fi, adventure, romance, mystery, it was all fair game provided the author had a little skill and the material or story was iing.

  Ryn, for her part, had a soft spot for fantasy and adventure, speaking at length about her favorite story – set in a world where magic did , and everything was aplished with fiendishly plex traptions of brass and steam, and Gnomish engineers ruled the world. It had, of course, been written by a Gh a delightfully creative imagination, but Ali had decided to buy it just because of how passionately Ryn described it, and how much she had ehe characters.

  caught up with Mato and Malika by the already open sewer grate where they were waiting to head back down to camp.

  “Got it,” he said, handing Malika the rewards for their two quests. Mieriel had been happy to log the quests as successful, thanking him, and by extensioire group, for doing a good job and helping to promote the Adventurers Guild’s reputation.

  He hadn’t earned any levels on their excursion, presumably because the Kobolds were all lower level than he was, and they had gotten quite effit at hunting them by now. But it had been fun mapping out the caves and the exteunnel systems, and he had even gained a skill point for his Cartography.

  He hopped down into the now familiar sewer tunnel with its all-too-familiar rich stench beside Mato and Malika, listening to them discuss what they wao do for the rest of the day. Up ahead, Ali’s thick Verdant Moss carpeted the unnel, lending a vibrant aura of life to the otherwise dank and smelly sewer.

  [Explorer] You have entered a dungeon.A Grove – level 29Affinity: Nature, AreAge: NewKnowures: Kobold, Goblin, Ooze, WolfKnown Bosses: --Dungeon

  It happened as soon as he crossed the threshold into the mossy area. grimaced, scratg his ne thought. His errant skill still bothered him every time he came down here, and he had been hoping that it would eventually wear off. Not only was it still excessively noisy, but he had also been updated to match Ali’s level again.

  Hmm…

  The sound of swords crossed in battle and the telltale thrum of a b ripped his attention away from his notification and put him on high alert in an instant.

  “Don’t worry, it’s just the novices,” Malika whispered, pointing up ahead. “Look, they’re practig the Guildmaster’s formations.”

  Down at the far end of the tunnel, he saw three adveangling with two Goblins. With his magically enhanced eyesight, he quickly reized Teagan, Braden, and Willow. Vivian Ross had been encing them to find awo members to fill out their group, but holy, there were not many choices at their levels. Likely, they would have to grind their way to level ten and bronze rank by themselves before some of the uild members would agree to do quests with them.

  “Braden, you idiot, I said formation two. That’s the one where you tank both of them.”

  “I thought that was the one where you let one chase you?”

  “No, that’s six.”

  “Why ’t we just say what we’re doing directly, these numbers are dumb.”

  “Watch for the trap on the left.”

  “You know I ’t see them, right?”

  “Well, get good. Then maybe you might learn how.”

  Their voices carried their banter down the sewer, a little distorted and eg off the a crumbling brick. grimaced for a wholly different reason.

  “The warrior is a bit of an idiot,” Malika observed on cue.

  “But he’s got good instincts in the fight,” Mato tered.

  “A little like you then,” Malika retorted.

  “Hey!”

  “Not nearly furry enough,” chipped in quietly. It was not often that he got one up on Mato, but that opening was way too good to let pass. Mato’s growl told him he had hit home but the big Beastkin had no quick quip ready to return the favor.

  Ali might be a bit grumpy about this, he thought. Whe back from book shopping, she was going to have to make some moblins to patrol the sewers, repg the ohat the adventurers were killing.

  “They’re a det group, good teamwork,” Malika said, still closely the novice adventurers.

  “Looks like the warrior just gained his level up,” observed.

  “Just slow without a couple more damage csses,” Mato added, earning a nod from Malika.

  “Holy,” said, “if it weren’t for Ali being able t a small army of mages to every fight, roup would suffer from the same problem.” His css was the only ohat focused entirely on doing the most damage possible – and even with him, he had two skills that were primarily for scouting and stealth. Theoretically, his damage output could be eveer if those were repced with more attack-focused support skills.

  I in the novices waned quickly and they moved on, heading down to the camp. Something about the se with the novice adventurers g him the whole way back. Something had been out of pce – not quite right – but it was subtle enough that he couldn’t put his finger on it. It was only whe to the camp and looked out across the barren expanse where the Ruins of Dal’morha dungeon had till retly cimed an enormous amount of the cavern, that it finally clicked in his mind.

  It was not that something was off about the novice adventurers practig a dungeon dive in the sewer. It was that it was too close of a match. Perfect even.

  They were not practig.

  It had seemed too real. What if they were watg adventurers battling a real dungeon? What if his skill was not broken?

  Shit! I hope I’m nht about this…

  Taking a deep breath, called, “Hey, I o che something really quick. I’ll join you at the shrine.”

  Ign Mato and Malika’s looks of surprise, he sprinted out into the open expanse of the cavern, but no matter where he went, his Explorer skill no longer pinged him about the old duhat Ali had removed from this area. However, wheuro camp…

  [Explorer] You have entered a dungeon.A Grove – level 29Affinity: Nature, AreAge: NewKnowures: Kobold, Goblin, Ooze, WolfKnown Bosses: --Dungeon

  It has only ever been broken here. It suddenly dawned on him that his skill had been right all along – only… he hadn’t wao believe it.

  That his skill was identifying Ali’s domain was not iion, the information was way too specific for it to be an act. Perhaps it was just his assumptions that led him to believe it was broken?

  What is a dungeon, really?

  Ali had summoned moo roam around and protect her area, just like a dungeon. So much alike, that novice adventurers sought it out to quest for experience – and they were leveling up quickly, that much was obvious. Ali had eve root traps.

  “Hey, guys…” he started, swallowing unfortably. “I think we have a problem.”

  “What’s up?” Mato asked, gng up at him from the cookfire he loved so muaturally, his thoughts had turo their meal right away.

  “My skill says we’re in a dungeon.”

  “That’s silly, Ali broke it after we killed the wyvern,” he replied, clearly missing the point.

  “Right now?” Malika asked, arm beginning to show on her face.

  “Yes.”

  had the ugly feeling that he was selling Ali out, talking about her behind her back. But his friends o know, and he had no idea how to hahis. Misery had turned his mouth to ash and his usually agile thoughts to brittle shards frantically spinning in circles. Instead, he simply shared the analysis Explorer had provided.

  “Oh,” Mato answered after a moment, standing frozen, the wooden spoon slipping from his grasp to fall unnoticed into the stew pot. “No, that ’t be right. , no.”

  “I don’t believe it,” Malika said firmly. “Ali is our friend. She is not making a dungeon; she is a good person. Your skill must be mistaken or broken.”

  “I thought so too,” answered. “But it is sistent. Every time we return here, it notifies me that we are entering a dungeon. And the attributions for her level, monsters, and mana are all accurate, and they update as she progresses.”

  He took a deep breath, itted now to this path, for better or worse. “I don’t want to believe it either, but it fits. Malika, you just saw those novice adventurers leveling in the sewer. Did that look like faking or practice to you? They’re getting real experience from real traps and monsters in a real dungeon.”

  “No!” Malika said emphatically. “Ali is not evil! How you say that!” She was on her feet, her face filled with anger and denial, her fists ched at her sides.

  “Malika, we all know Ali is good,” Mato said.

  Malika stopped, staring at him in surprise, a riot of flig emotions pying out on her face.

  Mato was fident in his decration and his character assessment. And it supported what Malika wao believe was true. What I want to believe, too.

  But the duhing was true too, and it was clear that Malika was experieng extraordinary flict over the revetion. could tell she really cared about Ali, they all did, but Malika had also lost her parents to a dungeon, and that was not something easily brushed aside. Every passage in Lyeneru Silverleaf’s book – the distilled wisdom of thousands of years of Pathfinder lore – insisted that dungeons were evil and dangerous pces, bent oru and ption above all else.

  “I agree,” said. “She is our friend; kind, a little na?ve, and just trying to figure out how to cope in a strange world. You were there when she earned her css, Malika, standing up to a monster with her schor skills. And she has saved your life, and mioo, many times over. You kly who she is. We know.”

  “So, what … what do we do now?” Malika was still visibly struggling with her emotions.

  “I have no idea.”

  This was the biggest question. Obviously, they couldn’t tell anyone, people would kill her without question if they knew. But beyond that, what would it do to Ali? And how was it going to affect their friendship? Angrily, he swiped at his eyes and g the back of his hand in surprise. It was wet.

  Mato’s massive hand patted his shoulder. “Yeah, I know.”

  Malika swore viciously under her breath, the words almost impossible to make out, but their tone was unmistakable. After the loime, he realized that both of his friends were looking at him for the lead.

  “I’m not sure we tell her,” finally admitted. “Ali has had more than her fair share of shod trauma, and she seems to be starting to enjoy her new life. I fear what this will do to her if we tell her.”

  “What if she starts to go down a bad path?” Malika asked in a shaky voice. “Dungeons… well, they’re dungeons. We ’t do this to her. No. This is Ali. Our Ali.”

  “I think you are the best person to help her,” replied, sharing his ho opinion.

  Malika gaped at him. “Help? How?”

  “We’re all friends,” expined, “but she seems closest to you, and trusts you. And you have a lot of crity for what is right and wrong. Mato would just get us in trouble by act, and I would probably avoid saying anything, but you are mrounded. Ali will listen to you. Look, we’ve been through a lot together – we owe her this.”

  “Ok,” Malika said after a long pause. Then she sighed, slumping back down to the mossy ground.

  “I think she’s going to need as many good friends as she get,” added.

  Suddenly Malika’s raw scream rang out, “Fuck you, fate!” She stood panting for a moment before colleg herself. With hard eyes, she muttered, “See… this is exactly why I hate the Aors.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his fingers into his temples. This will turn out alright… right? It must. Think, . Think!

  Aliandra Ali floated along the main street, seated on her barrier, taking in the bustling sights of the marketpce at lunchtime. She chatted animatedly with Malika about her delightful m with Ryn and the iing books she had bought. Malika seemed a little more subdued than normal, but Ali didn’t mind carrying most of the versation.

  Lydia had only a couple of ts when they arrived, so it didn’t take long before she called them over. As Lydia smiled at her, Ali could sense a barely repressed excitement, and even the movements she made as she id out several items oable had a sense of energy, an eager speed.

  “I wasn’t able to duplicate the bone magitment, and the robes unfortunately didn’t survive the study,” she began. “I’m sorry.” Then her face lit up with a radiant smile as she pced a set of perfectly stitched cloth armor on the ter. “But I learhe healing one! And I got a level in my tailor css for the new entment.”

  Ali picked it up and identified the item she was holding.

  Tailored Cotton Clothing – level 20Resistance: 288+9% spell power to Healing skillsRequirements: Wisdom 70Created by Lydia Avery.Body – Cloth

  “You improved the amount, too!” Ali excimed, examining the soft fabrider her fiips, amazed at the quality of the garment she was holding.

  This is perfect.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t put the self-repair ent on it too, I only do o a time – I couldn’t get the hang of bining two. Also, the healing power worked better with a wisdom requirement. I hope that works?”

  “It’s perfect.” There were three of them, just as Ali had requested. The other two were weaker – o pert – but all of them were better than the inal.

  “And here’s yours – I mao get it up to level twenty-five for you. It should be a substantial improvement.”

  Tailored Cotton Clothing – level 25Resistance: 360Mana: Self-repairRequirements: Intelligence 88Created by Lydia Avery.Body – Cloth

  The order was expensive, but Ali ted out the s with a broad grin on her face.

  “No, I couldn’t possibly accept,” Lydia objected, pushing the s back. “I learned an entment and got a css level for this.”

  “I insist on paying,” Ali tered. “I ’t just keep taking your best crafting for free.”

  They argued bad forth for a bit until Lydia finally relented, but not before Ali accepted at least a friends and family dist. She was at least half certain Lydia had made up the dist on the spot, but it seemed unfair tue too much.

  Ali made use of the fitting room to ge into her new armor, and when she came out, she found Lydia chatting animatedly with Malika.

  “I know you’re focused on fashion, but I think you would make a lot of money selling these to adventurers,” Malika expined.

  “That’s a good idea,” Ali chimed in. “You could also earn experience faster if they get used by adventurers in dungeons.”

  Malika gave her an odd look.

  “I’m afraid I ’t,” Lydia answered. “I’m already bending the rules with my business lise. Also, most noble ers care about the ambiance – if I started dispying bat gear, they probably wouldn’t stop by to purchase my other work.”

  “What about the guild mert?” Ali asked.

  “Guild merts are a unique case,” Lydia said. “Most cities grant them special dispensation because they buy whatever adventurers dredge up out of dungeons, including monster parts, and they have to supply any bat needs. So, their lises are one of the precious few that are entirely uricted. They sell literally anything, provided it’s not illegal to own.”

  “I meant; we have a guild mert now. His name is Weldin Thriftpenny. What about making a business arra with him? He could dispy your bat items in the guild shop. It’s the perfect market for it, and you keep this store dedicated to your fashion ts. I’m certain Serendipity would want one of these armors if you made it in Gnome-size. Perhaps in blue?”

  “You have a guild mert?” Lydia asked, eyes widening a little at the news. “When did this happen?”

  “It’s pretty ret,” Malika answered.

  “Hmm, I think I might have to pay him a visit. Weldin Thriftpenny, you said?”

  “I’ll let him know you’ll stop by,” Malika offered.

  Lydia fussed with Ali’s new armor a little, makiurn around a few times for adjustments. “Aliandra, you said you learn to make items?” Lydia asked as her tail skills flickered with little bursts of mana.

  “Yes, it destroys the inal, but I usually learn an item after about three or four tries.”

  “ I see?” Lydia asked curiously. “I assume that’s why you issioned so many of these?”

  Ali nodded. She hadn’t shown anyone else how her abilities worked, but she couldn’t imagine Lydia taking advantage of her knowledge.

  Carefully she destructed the old armor she had just taken off, and two of the healing ones Lydia had just sold her.

  Variant: Tailored Cotton Clothing added to Imprint: Armor.

  Then she spent a few minutes creating armor sets. The mail aher she hao Malika who immediately stored them for sale ter. One Simple Robe came out with a bone magitment. Ali ha to Lydia for study.

  And finally, her Grimoire let her create her imprint. She produced a level fifteen Tailored Cotton Clothing with a healing entment. In all other ways identical to Lydia’s work, with the exception that Ali’s Grimoire did not reproduce her personal mana signature.

  Ali ha to Lydia and noticed she had an unusual expression on her face. Ali couldn’t quite read it. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, dear.” Lydia collected herself and her expression ged back to normal. “I just leveled again when you learhat.”

  “You leveled when I learned your item?”

  “I think crafters level if they teaething difficult to someone else, right?” Malika seemed just as intrigued as Ali was.

  “I think so,” Lydia answered. “It’s just never happeo me before. I never expected to earn four levels so quickly. I’m not pining, mind you. Thank you, Aliandra.”

  Lydia seemed very happy when they finally left to return to camp.

  timewalk