Chapter 11: Wake Up Call

"Alright, the first matter is to get Cassie into the Awakened," I say.

"You aren't still upset about me wanting to join them?" Cassie says, looking at me with a touch of surprise.

"No, Cassie," I say. "I'll support you in whatever you want to do, even if I don't personally agree with it. The Awakened are idealists, and I don't think their methods will get them very far, but if you want to join them, I'll do whatever I can to make sure that you are able to."

Cassie gives me a spontaneous tight hug. "Thanks, Lexen."

The four of us Apparate back to Medab and decide to split up to scour the city for the spy Pinner mentioned. I have a feeling that we're likely to utterly fail at discretion again, however. I take a moment to ask a servile guard if they've seen Rispy around.

"Rispy? No, he's not here," the guard replies. "I think he got posted up in Triola."

I thank the guard and move on. I wind up searching out the northeastern part of town as the others go off in different directions. Poking around in one building, I come upon the strange sight of a servile kneeling in front of a fire and performing meditations for magic.

She stops what she's doing as I step in, stands and turns to me. "Greetings, Shaper. I am Larrick."

"My apologies," I say. "I did not mean to interrupt your meditations."

Larrick waves it off. "I'm happy to speak with you, Shaper."

"Well, please call me Lexen, then," I say. "I hate it when people just call me 'Shaper'. Especially when I've already betrayed the Shapers and their cause."

"You would still be a creator of life, even if you do not follow their path," Larrick says. "But very well. Lexen." She inclines her head toward me.

"What was it you were doing when you came in?"

"I was meditating to keep my mind sharp for spellcasting," Larrick explains.

"That's what I thought you were doing," I say, frowning thoughtfully. "But I thought serviles couldn't use magic." Or could they? I seem to recall some mention of ones who had managed it on Sucia Island.

"Perhaps not normally," Larrick says. "There were those who had managed to learn, back on Sucia Island. But it had a tendancy to drive them mad in the process. We had found better methods since then."

This world has really made me question what the line is between a mage and a Muggle. It seems like everyone on this world is capable of magic, even the ones that shouldn't be able to be. Could it just be that there simply aren't any Muggles on this world?

"What sort of methods have you found?" I ask.

"I know little about the details, myself. Perhaps you should visit our research facility to the north? I'm certain that there is much that we could learn from one another."

I give a nod. "I probably will at some point."

I bid Larrick good day and leave her home. I could be mistaken, but I don't think she seems like a spy to me. As I head back out to the main road, Gellert spots me and approaches.

"I found the spy," Gellert says quietly to me. "His name was Crillie. I warned him that he was suspected of being a spy and his cover was close to being blown, and he fled the city."

I nod. "Let's go find Tom and Cassie, then."

We meet up with them again, and Cassie informs Pinner of her success. Then we set out of town to find the crystal mine that the drayk was supposed to be in. This venture seems far more likely to require killing things, and Gellert looks positively gleeful at the prospect.

"Are you excited about getting to kill things, or the possibility of finding canisters?" I ask.

"Both," Gellert says.

The forest to the southeast of Medab is filled with vlish and clawbugs. We're doing better now that we've gotten into the swing of things. I think ten years of a relatively easy life had just made us a bit rusty and complacent. Training exercises aren't any real substitute for actual combat. I still wind up getting poisoned by a vlish pretty badly, but Cassie just rolls her eyes and casts a quick spell to cure it.

Tucked away in the woods, we find a building with a sign proclaiming it to be the "Retreat of Contemplation". It's swarming with rogue clawbugs and vlish.

"I hope whoever was here... retreated," I comment as we finish dispatching a group of rogues.

"No signs of any bodies, but the rogues might have eaten them," Tom says.

Once the rogues are dealt with, we search the building and find a couple of spellbooks that are still intact. The four of us take a moment to study them eagerly before tucking them away in our bags and moving on.

We come upon a side path littered with small greenish mushrooms with little waving antennae on top. I hold up my hand to stop the others. "Mines."

"I thought those red globe things were mines," Gellert says.

"Different kind," I say. "Those are box mines. These are mushroom mines. I can't disarm these."

"Well, it's impossible to completely block a path in an open forest," Tom says. "Let's see if we can get around them. Someone must be hiding something here."

He does stun me before we proceed, however, just in case. As it turns out, we don't have much trouble avoiding most of the mines, and there aren't even any directly outside the building that they seem to be protecting. The only notable thing inside is a canister.

Gellert's eyes light up when he sees it, and he charges toward it without hesitation and puts his hand on top of it. "Ahh..." he says softly as the glowing liquid changes his body, letting out a long sigh of contentment.

It's hard to believe that he's already so addicted to them even only after three canisters. How long until the both of us lose track of how many he's used? How long until he loses himself and starts to behave erratically like a madman? It worries me, it really does. I don't want to lose my friend. And I don't know for sure how much the mental effects might wind up being permanent even across lifetimes. It was impossible to judge that from my own perspective. Now, I get to experience the horror of watching a friend slowly lose his mind.

I try to put it out of my mind for now as we head east. After some walking, we come to a sickly marsh. The place doesn't seem healthy at all, like the rebels' efforts to bring life to this area wasn't entirely successful, and to make matters worse, I can hear and smell rogues all over the place. There's a distinct odor of sulphur in the air.

"What are these things?" Cassie says. "Roamers? I've never seen red roamers before."

"Shit," I mutter. "Pick them off at a distance. Don't let them get close."

Gellert flicks his wand at one of them, and as the roamer dies, it explodes in a small fireball.

"Exploding roamers?" Cassie says, eyes widening. "That's just sick and wrong."

"That's what I said when I first came across them," I say.

"I think whoever invented exploding roamers just moved to the top of my list of people who should be hunted down and killed on principle," Cassie says.

"They're probably already dead," Tom says. "It would surprise me if they hadn't been killed by their own creations by this point."

"Their own creations randomly blowing up in their face," I add.

Still, I'm paranoid enough to ask for a stun before we continue. Predictably, despite our best efforts at caution, we wind up getting surrounded and killed by a massive chain of explosions.

"Can we be any more careful about these damned things?" I say as I climb to my feet again.

We try again, redoubling our efforts to avoid getting blown up. We finally make it to the crystal mine, but it isn't exactly much of a refuge. More exploding roamers are inside, and to make matters worse, the air is overcharged with energy in a painful manner. I'm distinctly reminded of my trip into the Power Core on Sucia Island, that got me horribly, painfully killed. Thankfully, it doesn't seem quite as bad, at least this far in. That doesn't bode well for what we might find further in, however.

The roamer problem, thankfully, is quickly dealt with by destroying a spawner just inside the entrance. With that taken care of, the place seems only slightly worse than the similar crystal cave just west of Drypeak.

"I will not touch the crystals," Gellert murmurs. "I will not touch the crystals."

"Good," I say. "This place is bad enough without pissing off the energy shades."

"Hopefully the drayk in here will be less... mentally unbalanced than the last one," Cassie says.

The energy in the air becomes more and more painful as we progress. Healing spells keep us going, and we don't dare try to collect any of the crystals, no matter how valuable they appear. Then, in the deepest part of the cave, we come upon a room that makes my eyes water and my muscles twitch. A powerful glowing crystal, enormous in size, sits in a small excavated cave, surrounded by broken shards. Nearby, there are the corpses of servile miners who didn't make it.

"The drayk isn't in there," I say, backing away from the room quickly. "And I don't think I want to get close to that crystal."

"Agreed," Tom says, giving the place some distance. "That would appear to be the primary source of the unstable energy in this cavern."

"It's beautiful," Cassie murmurs. "And yet, so deadly. Let's just go see if we can find that drayk."

We backtrack away from the deadly crystal, and explore the cave a bit more. Tom's cryoa, however, doesn't fare as well. With a sickening whimper, the poor creation expires and collapses to the floor in a pool of essence. Perhaps it's just as well that Tom hasn't been naming his creations.

In an abandoned tool shop off of one corridor, we finally locate the drayk we're looking for. This one appears to be young, freshly made. The green scales are smooth and unblemished, and the vestigial wings stretching out from the back are clean and unscarred.

"Welcome to my lair, Shapers. My name is Trine. I do hope that it will not be necessary for us to do battle."

"No, mighty drayk, we did not come here intending to fight you," I say, giving a deep bow toward the creation. I make a quick round of introductions. "The Awakened in Medab tell us that you are a spy for the Takers."

Trine lets out a soft, rumbling chuckle. "I suppose you could call me that, yes. Syros, the mighty drayk in Zhass-Uss, sent me here to keep an eye on the little serviles in Medab."

"This place doesn't bother you?" Cassie says. "I guess you aren't hurt by all the energy in the air, but what about all those exploding roamers?"

Trine practically laughs again at that. "Who do you think put the roamers there in the first place?"

"What?" Cassie exclaims. "Are you mad?"

I guess it would stand to reason that someone had to put the spawners in place, but it surprises me that it was the doing of a drayk. "I didn't think drayks could Shape."

Cassie casts a glare at me. "Do you still think supporting the Takers is the right idea?"

"I... don't entirely agree with all of their methods sometimes," I admit with a sigh.

"You? A Shaper? Would support the Takers?" Trine says, looking at me in surprise.

"I bear no loyalty or goodwill toward the Shapers," I say. "Nor do any of us here. We joined up with them only to take their powers for ourselves, to learn what we could from them. We've been pretending to be loyal for the last ten years. But we were never truly loyal."

"And I'd like to point out that I'm not a Shaper in the first place," Gellert says, raising a hand.

"He does that a lot," I comment with a smirk. "Gellert, you might as well just start wearing a sign that says 'Not a Shaper.'"

"Hmm, there's a thought," Gellert says.

"It's just as well that you are not loyal Shapers," Trine says. "Perhaps you might spare yourself the pain of defeat at the hands of the Takers, then. We will strip the Shapers' powers and destroy them utterly. We will take their skills for our own. We will feast upon their bones."

I grin a little at that. "Excellent. But... to the matter at hand, we came here to warn you."

"Warn me?" Trine says.

I nod. "The serviles in Medab have found you out. The spawner has already been destroyed, and they're going to root you out next."

"They sounded like they intended to send a small army," Tom says. "They'll take losses, to be sure, but they seemed to consider removing you to be worth it."

"The serviles mean to attack me? What a bother. Ah, well, I'm surprised that they allowed me to remain here for as long as they did. I had best move on before they get here. Perhaps we'll meet again, Not-Shapers."

We make our way out of the cavern again before Apparating out of Medab. Cassie is afraid that the energy levels inside of the place would interfere with Apparation.

"I can't believe you just let that drayk go," Cassie mutters.

"Did you want to fight a dragon?" I say.

"Not really. Especially not in that sort of environment. But to think he was responsible for the exploding roamers..." She shakes her head disgustedly.

Cassie heads in to Learned Pinner's building to make her report. The rest of us remain outside and go to see about visiting a merchant.

"We could have probably collected a lot of those crystals safely," Gellert grumbles.

"Do you really want to go back and try?" I say.

"Hmm, no," Gellert says.

A little while later, Cassie comes up to us again and says quietly, "Let's head back to headquarters and debrief."

We finish up our business with the merchants. Gellert apparently has been busy scavenging. I can't really blame him. Then we go out and Apparate from a quiet spot.

"So, how did it go?" I ask.

"Well, I'm now officially a member of the Awakened," Cassie says. "Learned Pinner mentioned a Magus Complex located two days travel to the northeast from Medab, where most of their magical training and research takes place."

"And what are her plans?" Tom wonders.

"She spoke of a place near Rising called Radiant College. That's apparently where the Barzites perform their studies and experiments. She wants the place sabotaged, or their main researches killed."

"They don't ask for much, do they," I say. "All of these factions really have it out for one another, it seems."

"I also picked up some supplies and equipment," Cassie says. She pulls out a very nice breastplate from her little bag. "I know you're going to use this to help fight for serviles, even if not directly for the cause of the Awakened." She passes it over to me.

"Nice," I say, taking it and looking it over. It's magnitudes better than the chitin armor I've been using. "It'll probably take some getting used to wearing armor this heavy, but it'll be worth it."

"Especially if you die less frequently," Cassie adds. "And I got this, too." She pulls out a particularly nasty looking thorn baton from her bag as well.

I let out a low whistle. "A reaper baton. Rispy's going to love that."

"Wasn't this Rispy supposed to be in Medab?" Gellert says.

"He's been posted up in Triola, apparently," I say. "Not sure where that is. Perhaps we should head there next and meet up with him."

"What makes you think he'd even want to help us?" Gellert says. "I say we should make for Rising next."

"I think we should pay a visit to the Magus Complex," Cassie says. "And see if there's anything there that we can learn."

Tom, working on creating a new cryoa, glances up as he finishes and realizes that all eyes are upon him and waiting for his opinion. "Rising can wait," Tom says. "Let's split up. Cassie and Gellert can go to the Magus Complex, and Lexen and I will make for Triola. That way, if either group runs into any trouble, they can send off a Patronus for help if needed."

"I'm still not sure splitting up is a good idea, but... the plan is sound, I suppose," I say.

Cassie passes over the reaper baton to me, and I tuck it away in my bag. "We'll be fine," Cassie says. "We just need to be careful and remember to use the skills we have. Any one of us should be an army in our own right."

"Getting killed by thahds is just embarrassing," Gellert says.

"Hopefully that won't be happening again," I say, tapping my new shaped breastplate.

The next morning, we Apparate back to Medab and part ways. Triola is to the northwest, apparently, and the Magus Complex is to the northeast.

As Tom and I leave Medab, I say to him, "I'm surprised that you were willing to split up like this, or to come along with me rather than go to learn some magic directly."

Tom shakes his head. "It's also a matter of practicality. The serviles might have received word that I'm working with Zakary, and could prove more difficult to deal with if I were present. Cassie and Gellert, on the other hand, should have no trouble getting them to open up their secrets."

"Going to Triola is purely indulging me, though," I say. "We could have started to clear the path to Rising or Zhass-Uss."

Tom grins at me, and says, "It could still prove profitable to come, but what's wrong with indulging you? Whatever tensions and disagreements our little group might have had, I do still care about you, you know. And if we're to rule this world side by side, we'd best be as prepared as we can be."

I snort in amusement. "You say the sweetest things."

"Do you intend to take Rispy along with us?" Tom asks.

I rub my eyes. "I don't know. It might complicate things. We'd have to Apparate him everywhere. And he might prove to be a royal pain in the ass if we do anything he doesn't like. But then, so might Gellert."

"Gellert. Yes." Tom sighs. "He does not seem to realize the precarious position he's in. You hold his life and soul in your hands."

"I don't want to try to force him into anything, yank his chain, or anything," I say. "But he's getting really frustrating sometimes."

"And I do hope that Cassie realizes that the peace and equality the Awakened are hoping for isn't going to happen," Tom says. "I couldn't say yet if supporting the Barzites or Takers would be most optimal, personally. We'll need to see."

"The Barzites are new," I say. "The Takers, I knew them back on Sucia Island. Crazy, violent, and willing to do anything it took for their freedom. I appreciated their honesty and realism. But things have changed since Sucia Island, and I don't know in what way yet."

"Until we learn more, we should avoid doing too much to indocrinate ourselves into any one faction," Tom says. "And especially avoid angering anyone too much yet."

"Agreed."

Along the way to Triola, we're ambushed by a particularly large green thahd. I run him through with the Zarnith before even really noticing that he was yelling at me.

"Grahg, huh?" Tom comments absently. "Well, Grahg is dead, I suppose."

"Grahg?" I say.

"He said his name was Grahg and that he was going to kill us," Tom says. "Although not quite so eloquently. Didn't you hear him?"

I shrug. "Not really. I just saw something to kill, and killed it."

"So, what, the minute your mind registered something as an enemy, anything but killing it didn't matter?" Tom wonders.

"Pretty much."

Triola is a crappy little town in the middle of a swamp. And I almost don't recognize Rispy standing watch outside one of the buildings. He's older, nineteen whereas he had been fourteen when I knew him before. He looks like he's seen a lot of hardship in that time, and bears a number of thin scars. His robes are muddy and tattered, and the blade he wields looks like it was scavenged out of a scrap heap.

Still, despite all that, it's a relief to see him again, even if he won't remember me. I go up to him, Tom stepping in behind me.

"Greetings, Shapers," Rispy says wearily. "Welcome to Triola, such as it is. So long as you don't cause any trouble, you are welcome here."

"I'm glad to hear that," I say. "My name's Lexen, and this is Tom. What's your name?"

"Rispy. I'm nobody important, though. I'm just a guard. Guarding this town. In this swamp."

"So, is that your destiny, huh?" I say. "Nonsense. There is no destiny but what we make ourselves."

Rispy snorts softly. "Yeah, very well that's worked out for me so far. I hoped to be an adventurer once. A hero, doing great deeds, slaying horrific monsters. Now? I'm out in a swamp killing rats and the occasional bandit."

"It's not too late, Rispy. You're, what, nineteen, twenty? You have a life ahead of you. You can be a hero still."

"If I ever get the opportunity," Rispy says bitterly.

"Are you going to sit in this swamp forever just waiting for an opportunity? Well, fine then. I give you... Opportunity." I pull the reaper baton out of my bag and pass it over to him.

Rispy's eyes widen when he sees it. "I- I can't accept this."

"Why not?" I say. "It's your chance to change your fate and do something good in this life. Do something important. Make a difference."

"I'm Awakened. We believe in fair trade. And I have nothing that could possibly compare to this."

I don't point out that this was taken from the Awakened stores to begin with. "What if you came with us and helped us?"

"I can't leave my post," Rispy says regretfully. "There's too much to be done here. They need me."

"What if you were to come with us to help secure the area around here, first and foremost?"

Rispy thinks on that for a few moments before nodding. "Yes. I think that would be acceptable. Let me go talk to Griffith first."

Rispy heads inside one of the buildings to speak with his superior. A little while later, he emerges again, beaming. He finally reaches out and takes the reaper baton from my hand.

"It's a deal. You've got yourself a warrior, Shaper Lexen."

"Great. But do just call me Lexen. I'm not a Shaper anymore."

"Shall we get started in the morning?" Tom says. "It's already growing late."

"Good idea," Rispy says. "I'm sure there's room for you at the inn, or the barracks if need be."

I shake my head. "We're just going to teleport back to our headquarters. Would you like to come with us?"

"Teleport?" Rispy says, looking at me in confusion.

"Magic," Tom says. "Blink, we're in one place, then suddenly we're in another."

"You can do that?" Rispy says. "Sure, I'd love to see your... headquarters. I think I've heard of some powerful mages that could do that, but... And you can move me around like that, too? I'm no caster."

"We can. Just hold on and we'll go." I offer my hand, and Rispy takes it.

I Apparate back to headquarters, and Tom pops in after me. Rispy blinks for a moment and stares around at the lavish place. We've done a lot of work on magical remodeling. It's not up to the standards of an old pureblood house, but it's definitely passable. It even has running water and baths now.

"Wow. Where is this place?"

"Just past Freegate," Tom replies. "But we've got the place so spelled up that nobody's going to find it unless they know it's here."

Cassie and Gellert appear in the room after a moment. Rispy jumps as they appear and looks at them warily.

"Friends of ours," I explain. "Rispy, meet Cassie and Gellert."

Cassie waves. "We made it to Belik's Crossing today."

"So, this is Rispy, huh?" Gellert says.

Rispy raises an eyebrow. "Huh? How do you know me?"

"You didn't tell him yet?" Gellert says, looking at me.

I put my face in my palm. "No, I haven't."

"Explain," Rispy says.

"It's complicated," I say. "I'll try to explain. Um... I'm a dimension traveler. The four of us are all from another world, actually. Well, different other worlds. I met you in another timeline. I went to Sucia Island. Except that didn't happen in this timeline. Something different happened instead, and I didn't go to Sucia Island."

"I think you're just confusing him," Tom comments.

Rispy blinks slowly at me. "So... You know me, and I don't know you? This is giving me a headache."

"Time travel tends to do that sometimes," I say.

"I see. Well, that might explain why you walked up to me and gave me a reaper baton out of the blue," Rispy says. "So what exactly happened in this... other dimension, then?"

"You and me, we joined up with Trajkov, the Sholai, and the Takers, and took the fight to the Shapers," I say. "We were doing pretty damned well, too, actually. But then I got killed and my life reset to the beginning again. Oh, yeah, I'm immortal and go back in time when I die."

"I'm not sure whether to be more surprised by the idea of me joining the Takers or you being immortal..." Rispy says. "Why did I join the Takers? I'm Awakened!"

"I certainly have no idea," Cassie murmurs.

"You spent a lot of time traveling with me up until that point," I say. "And we'd both realized that the Awakened... well, their idealism is admirable, but there's no way that the Shapers will ever deal with creations as equals. Bloodshed is regrettable, but inevitable."

"I'll respectfully disagree," Cassie says. "I think it's at least worth trying for."

Rispy looks between me and Cassie, and says, "So do you guys support the Awakened or not?"

"Cassie's in the Awakened," Tom says. "The rest of us aren't. We're intending on trying to join every faction before deciding which one to support in the end."

"I see..." Rispy says. "Have I mentioned yet that you're insane?"

I can't help but grin broadly. "Not in this lifetime. It's good to have you at my side again, Rispy."

The next day, Tom, Rispy and I Apparate back to Triola, and get to work on killing everything hostile nearby. We explore Ellhrah's tomb, help to secure Fort Muck, and overall, spend a lot of time killing things in the swamp.

That afternoon, Cassie's raven Patronus flutters in while we're trudging through the swamp. "Can you prepare for a reset?"

I have Tom stun me, and then send a reply, "Done."

A while later, the Patronus returns and says, "Alright, let's reset it now. Those spells were expensive. We weren't even able to afford them all with what we had on hand."

I age myself out of existence and send us back. Cassie asks for another reset after that, and then when that's done, she sends a final message with, "That should be good. Thanks."

We meet up again with Cassie and Gellert at headquarters on the second night. They're sitting quietly at the transfigured dinner table and eating ravenously. Rispy sniffs at the food and charges in, but Cassie stops him with a raised hand.

"You're covered in mud," Cassie says. "Go take a shower first, at least. I'm not going to clean up after you."

Rispy pouts a little, and then says, "Alright, alright." He heads into the bathroom.

"How did it go?" I ask Cassie. I'm not any less muddy than Rispy, so I hold back and wait for my turn in the bath.

"We learned a lot," Gellert says. "Unfortunately, Cassie got more out of it than I did. Tuldaric wouldn't modify me."

"Modify?" I wonder, raising an eyebrow.

"They had a... a platform," Cassie murmurs, looking a little distant. "It changes people. Human, servile, whatever. Makes them stronger. Able to use magic if they weren't before, able to use stronger magic."

"Tuldaric said that the most powerful spells would kill an unmodified human trying to use them," Gellert says.

"Interesting," I say. "Was it like the canisters?"

Cassie shakes her head. "No. Maybe. I don't know. It wasn't a pleasant experience. But I feel... a lot more powerful. But that's why I asked for the resets. I didn't want to have to go through that again. And Tuldaric charged an arm and a leg for his spells. But one of them appears to be a Kill spell, and doesn't even require a focus or an incantation."

"And I memorized Tuldaric's research notes on the subject," Gellert says, grinning broadly. "With the time and resources, I'm pretty sure I could duplicate it."

Cassie looks at him in surprise. "You could? You could make wizards more powerful? Make Muggles and Squibs capable of magic?"

Gellert practically looks as though his face is about to split open from ear to ear. "I could. I spent the entire time you were training with him reading through and memorizing his notes. And thanks to the Shaper mental conditioning, it's all up here now." He taps his head.

"That's... interesting," Cassie says, her mind clearly miles away by now. "Very interesting indeed."