Dissonance a litrpg adve.., p.39
Dissonance: A LitRPG Adventure, page 39
part #1 of Unbound Series
"Come," whispered Harn, gesturing toward an open window much like the rest, glass and shutters all long gone. It faced onto a flat roof leading toward another building, this one with three levels above the shop's second floor. "Climb out onto the roof. Evie, you first."
The Tin Ranks and Felix did so quickly, filing out the window as quietly as they could, while Harn and Magda hung back. Soon, they were all on the flat roof, and Harn made a series of gestures at Evie who nodded then ran toward the edge. There was a small alley separating the shop from the five-story ruin next to it, but it wasn't any more than five feet; an easy jump for any of them.
Evie sailed over the gap, slipping through a gaping hole in the wall before coming neatly to her feet. Vessilia went next, followed by Felix and Pit. Atar, still visibly winded, made his best effort at the jump but fell short. Felix barely had time to react, but needn't have bothered. At the last second, the mage threw his arm forward and a small metal rod expanded and pierced the stone.
DANG!
The sound was like a gunshot in the air. Magda and Harn went stock still, and Felix reached down and yanked the mage up by the front of his robes. Just in time, as they all heard loud sniffing abruptly coming from below. Felix was locked in a crouch, his arms holding Atar so close that he could smell the floral fragrance he was wearing.
Guh, that's cloying. Probably better than I smell, though. Haven't had a bath in...four, five days? Suddenly Felix felt bad for holding Atar so close. He was probably rank.
Ice started creeping up the side of both of their buildings, and Harn began making wide sweeping gestures in their direction. Unable to understand, Felix looked to the ladies. Both Evie and Vessilia watched Harn a moment longer before nodding and padding quietly toward the stairs leading up. Felix helped the mage to his feet and disengaged, careful to not rustle their clothes or kick any loose stones.
Atar followed after, his face pale and bloodless, still holding the strange expanding rod in his left hand. The rod was maybe the width of Felix's thumb, but was easily six feet long and tapered to a point on one end. Had he had it this whole time?
They picked their way up the stairs. Everything was coated in a fine gritty dust, as if, in the absence of wind and rain, the stone had been reduced to powder by the weight of time itself. Felix was still amazed at how many of these places were still standing at all, considering that they were easily hundreds of years old. If not more, considering magic.
As they neared the fifth and final floor, metal crashed and sudden howling pierced the near distance. The noise was too far away to be an immediate threat, but too close to not be important. He strained his senses, but his Perception picked up nothing else. The others didn't stop, though, so Felix kept on. Shortly after that, they made it to the roof.
"What are we doing?" Felix whispered. The others turned to him, fingers on their lips. Vessilia made a couple of complicated hand signs, but when Felix's blank stare registered, she tilted her head in confusion. Instead, she silently waved him to come with her.
All of them moved to the center of the roof, as far away as possible from any edges, and she made four signs toward Atar. With a roll of his eyes and almost pained grunt, his hands flashed with bright yellow Mana that swelled and covered the five of them. Sound ward in place, Vessilia spoke up.
"You cannot read handsign?" Vessilia asked.
"No, definitely not," Felix said, shrugging. "I've just been following you guys and working off context clues."
"Huh. Well, Harn had us head to the roof. Said he and Maggie would join us soon," Evie clenched her jaw, clearly upset. Vessilia put her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"They'll be fine." Evie nodded, jaw still tight.
Felix cleared his throat, a little uncomfortable. "So do we continue onward?" He nodded toward the towers Harn had in mind. They were a little less than a quarter mile away, if he was judging the distance right. "We should be able to do it if we stick to the roofs."
Evie grunted softly. "Yeah. That's the plan. We go ahead, get to the nearest tower and get in."
Felix made an impressed face. "That's a lot to say in a few gestures."
"Handsign is pretty compact," agreed Vessilia. "I can..uh, I can teach it to you sometime, if you would like."
"Oh sure. That'd be fantastic," Felix said, already thinking about how easy languages might prove with perfect memory. "Ok, then, let's get moving."
With a gasp, Atar released the silencing spell, and Felix watched the colorful Mana vapor dissipate into the air. He turned and saw the mage regarding him with his usual annoyed expression.
"What are you doing?" Atar's expression fairly screamed. Felix only replied by putting a finger to his lips and making a series of complicated nonsense gestures. Then he walked away.
Magda huddled close to the edge, watching the Hoarhounds prowl the streets below. There were at least fifteen of them now, all spread around the area as they hunted for their group. Harn caught her eye.
Harn hesitated, his face hidden, but Magda knew he had an expression of extreme concentration.
Harn's hands flashed.
Madga nodded. The fighter's Brawler's Physique Skill granted him some distinct advantages, and his Body Tempering had enhanced his senses well beyond what Magda could perceive. But even his powerful senses were defeated by the distorting veil of the Foglands' magic.
They both knew that meant little. Magda was tempted to believe the boy had lied, but that knife was impossible to fake. Giving herself a little shake, she focused on the problems she could solve.
The Tin Ranks would have gotten far enough by then. Time to do their part.
The day wore on as Felix and the others navigated across over thirteen rooftops and passed through structures barely strong enough to hold them. While it astounded Felix that much of this was still standing, it still meant that nearly everything was on the brink of collapse. Most of the time, it seemed hope and probably magic was all that kept the worst of them together.
Regardless, they had made it.
"So this is it, huh?" Felix stared upward at the tower, an impressive construction that rose at least fifteen stories and was utterly covered in complicated statuary. A number of flying buttresses supported the lower levels of the tower, adding width to the base of the building. Felix eyeballed the distance between their three story ruin and the nearest bit of the tower, estimating perhaps twenty feet or so separated them. Whoever had once inhabited these structures had obviously been important, too much of a big shot to be rubbing shoulders with common folk. "Think we can make it?" he whispered.
Atar scoffed, but Vessilia simply smiled, her teeth bright and perfectly straight. Felix’s pulse picked up as his thoughts turned.
How do they have such nice teeth? Do dentists exist here?
Vessilia backed up without a word, then took a running leap off of the edge.
Whoa!
With a powerful rush of air, the spearwoman leaped nearly twenty-five feet, easily clearing the distance and landing amid the crowded statues. Felix gaped.
"Dragoons, ya know?" Evie remarked, pushing up his hanging jaw. "Me next."
"Wait," Felix said, riffling through his satchel until he pulled out his brightweave coil. He unraveled it and handed Evie an end. "Here, take this."
"Sure," Evie shrugged, smiling herself. "Always happy to help the less capable." She held onto one end of the rope with one arm as she unwound her spiked chain with the other. After taking a run up herself, Evie threw her chain out, the end of it moving faster than Felix could track. With a metallic clank, the links struck and wrapped around a weather-worn oblong statue. A simple tug, and somehow Evie sailed through the air, propelled by some force directly onto a ledge above.
"How did she...?"
"She's cheating, sort of," whispered Atar. He had long ago collapsed his metal rod and was looking after Evie with something close to envy. "Her Born Trait has to do with altering the weight of herself and her chain."
That's seriously cool.
"Do you mind if I...?" Atar gestured to the rope in Felix's hands.
"Oh! Sure, yeah, not a problem. You go first." Felix handed the brightweave coil to the mage, looking up to see that Evie had tied it off around another statue. It was elevated now, the rope reaching back at an angle to their roof. "It's an enchanted rope, so you—"
The coil suddenly knotted every five feet or so, creating an easily-climbable surface. Atar's hands flared with orange Mana as he fed power into the rope.
"Oh yeah. Of course you know how to use it."
With Felix steadying the rope from behind, Atar was able to cross the distance relatively easily. While the mage might have low values in most physical stats, he apparently had more than enough to climb the rope.
Pit glided across the distance, jumping first to gain some more height, and climbing up the outside of the tower until he reached the Tin Ranks' level. Last to go, Felix gripped the rope and sent a pulse of Mana through it. The rope began to coil up, and once the slack was gone, Felix took a breath and jumped off the side of the building.
Swinging, Felix fairly flew toward the lower tower walls, and braced himself to hit. With a thump, he landed feet-first against the tower wall, low enough that he was below any statuary. The magically coiling rope yanked him up the wall, like a slow-moving grappling gun. Unwilling to just hang and wait, Felix complemented the magic rope by climbing with his free hand and legs the rest of the way.
Sadly, his Free Climbing didn't bump up at all.
Felix retrieved his coil, directed it to unknot and loop around his shoulder, and climbed the last few feet up into what appeared to be the fourth floor window. It was dark in here, the afternoon sunlight fighting to penetrate much farther than a few feet, though Felix could make out a large room supported by several round columns. The others were waiting around, though Atar and Vessilia were busy inspecting the far wall, eyes bright in the darkness.
"Took ya long enough," Evie jibed, her voice still not much more than a whisper. Felix grinned and dusted his hands.
"Not all of us have magic weight powers to give us a boost," he joked. Evie grinned even wider, green eyes flashing. Then she looked down at Pit, who was on his haunches at Felix's feet.
Felix read the nervousness in her body language. He wondered what freaked them out so much about Pit. Was it just that chimeras usually attack them, like they said? Felix reached down and skritched the tenku's neck, causing his back leg to twitch uncontrollably.
"Don't worry. He's a good boy."
Evie's eyes flashed back up to his, then looked away. He wasn't sure if she was embarrassed or what, but she quickly diverted her attention.
"Hey you! Quit gawking at rocks, and let's get going!"
"There are murals here. They are exquisitely detailed!" Vessilia's smile was wide as she turned back to them. "They've hardly been weathered at all!"
Intrigued, Felix made his way over despite Evie's groan. Vessilia excitedly gestured at the walls where Atar was busy fixedly staring. In keeping with the architecture of this city, the carvings were everywhere. The spots where the ceiling and floors met the walls were the most heavily detailed, repeated patterns of greenery and small four-legged forms among the friezes. The center of the walls featured a sort of scrolling scene, moving across lush natural vistas like mountains and rivers and forests. Felix stepped up to one and ran his hands across the surface, feeling the very slight bas-relief detail worked into the stone.
Wow. This is incredible.
In fact, the designs and markings reminded Felix heavily of the underground dungeon where he had been imprisoned. He glanced at the floor beneath him, scuffing dirt and dust aside to see the neatly-made edges of pentagonal tiles. He looked back up at the main sculptures, the sprawling depictions of nature and picked out a few small figures dotting the landscapes.
Just like under the mountains. Same tiles. Even similar small figures. Did the same people build both? They're pretty close to each other, so that would make sense.
Yet everything in this city and even under the mountain had been made for people much larger than the small figures depicted. Why?
"Ahem, I like uh, rocks as much as the next gal, but we need to get some distance from the ground," Evie said, starting to walk toward a shadowed alcove. Pit was right behind her, and she gave him a wary glance. "Harn said the Hoarhounds are powerful trackers, and I really don't want to wake up to find an ice wolf chewing on one of ya."
The three of them reluctantly followed Evie, discovering that the alcove was actually a series of winding stairs. In fact, it was two series of stairs built into one: the main set of stairs was made for a human (or human-like) stride, while a path along the center was made for much smaller legs. It was two steps for every one.
"Fascinating," Atar murmured.
It was very dark in the stairwell, and Felix had to flare his Manasight to see. The stone all pulsed with a dusty brown laced with flashes of silvery gray. That's metal, same as the bits of armor I've seen. So iron, probably? He wasn't a metallurgist, so it could have been titanium for all he knew. Analyze told him nothing, only that it was "quarried stone." Light carvings decorated the outer wall of the stairwell, scrolling vines and leaves twisting and knotting together in an intricate design, and his Manasight could pick out other flashes of metal and stones in the dusty brown earth Mana. He could Analyze those, though: bits of green copper, blue lapis lazuli, and even a smattering of actual silver. The colors swirled and shimmered within the earth Mana, dimming and brightening in turns like a distant night sky.
It's even more beautiful in Manasight than my normal vision. Felix looked around, enjoying the shift and flare of Mana as it flowed through literally everything in this world. It's like I'm standing on empty air filled with colored light.
"Oof!"
Felix ran right into Atar's back, who tilted into Vessilia. The spearwoman was braced, though, and kept everyone on their feet.
"What in Avet's name is going on?" Atar whispered, furiously.
Felix could see that Evie was holding up a closed fist. She made several quick gestures, and the other two shifted their stances. Atar looked back at him, eyes wide, and mouthed two words.
"Someone's here."
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
The room ahead was as dark and quiet as the stairwell had been, but in Felix's Manasight it all swirled with color. Evie stalked ahead, moving low to the ground and as quietly as possible. Felix couldn't see much, being stuck in the back, and after two gut-wrenching minutes, Evie returned, her eyes brightening significantly as she stood up straight.
"I was wrong. Can't find anything," she whispered. "If someone was here, they left no trace. Even the dust ain't disturbed. Everyone fan out, though, see if you notice anything I missed."
The other four climbed the rest of the way into the room, inspecting it for the first time. Felix's vantage widened until he could see an oval-shaped room containing four open archways and a single odd depression in the center. He stepped closer and found that it was a pentagonal hole, with two tiers of seating in it. The very center was the lowest and contained a boundary of carved stone.
It's a fire pit with...tiered seating. Reminds me of those old conversation pits from the 70s.
Weird, but not too remarkable. Felix kept looking.
The floor was more of the same pentagonal tile, mazed with stress fractures and coated in a thick dust that, just as Evie said, was undisturbed until they trudged through it. There was no sign of anyone, either via his Tracking Skill or his Manasight, no matter how he strained the ability.
Felix turned back to the women, his Manasight still flaring from his inspection of the room. Both of them were vaguely humanoid shapes dominated by the green-gold of life Mana, a blurry line of power that branched like small saplings along their spines. But for a few flickering moments, he could spot flashes of other colors sparking within their bodies. He blinked and they were gone.
Ugh. He rubbed his eyes, feeling them strained after relying on the Skill for so long. So no one is here. What did Evie sense, then?
"Nothing is here," announced Atar, walking from one of the side rooms and dusting his robes. "Just dust and more impeccable sculptures. Who exactly lived in this place?"
"Not a clue. My father's library is extensive, and still I have not heard of an entire city within the Foglands." Vessilia put her hands on her hips, clearly entranced by the stonework all around her. "It is truly fascinating."
Atar smiled in her direction, a familiar light in his eyes.
Felix smiled to himself, turning toward one of the archways and noticing yet another stairwell. This led upward, much as the last, with the same smaller stairs set into the center.
"Third and final check. Nothing. Anyone else?" Evie asked from across the room.
"...No," offered Atar while fiddling with a pouch at his belt.
"Zilch over here. Just dust," Felix added.
"Vess?" Evie prompted when the young woman didn't reply. She looked up guiltily from inspecting the walls, eyes wide.
"Mhm? Oh! No. Nothing at all."
"Okaaay," Evie drawled, stretching her shoulders and arms. "Then we make camp. We can't stray too far; gotta let Maggie find us somehow."
They did just that. In a short piece of time, the five of them had settled in, not having their packs or even blankets to lay out. Instead, as the wait turned to an hour, Vessilia and Atar had drifted back to the walls, and Evie paced and fretted near the stairwell. She wasn't nearly as calm about her sister going off into danger as she projected.
Does she have the Acting Skill, too?
Unsure what to do with himself, Felix sat at the edge of the tiered depression, idly petting Pit's fur/feather combo. Somehow, the combination was smooth and soft, not nearly as coarse as he would have expected.
