Path of Dragons

The moment Kurik laid eyes on the complex pattern of runes, he knew which specialization he wanted to choose. Which was a good thing, because during the battle through the campus of the Academy Arcana, he’d finally managed to reach level one hundred. Since then, the choice had hovered in the back of his mind, waiting to be made. As the others inspected the runes, looking for a way to activate the mechanism, he settled in at the edge of the room and looked at his options:

Before he’d reached the appropriate level, he’d already chosen his route. However, he’d been thrown for a loop when the options were not what he’d been led to expect. Everything he’d read about his class said that his choices were immutable. There wasn’t supposed to be variance. And yet, all of his options were different from what he had expected.

That was why he’d yet to choose a route.

Clearly, his options were much more potent than what was normally given to Sappers. No doubt, his Legacy was far more extensive than most, and his choices reflected that. Any of them would be a great boon, but there were obvious differences between them.

The first, called Arcane Tinkerer, seemed to cover the same ground as the less impressive Tinkerer specialization he’d expected. Yet, it wasn’t just more powerful. It was more expansive, as well, increasing the effects of Arcane Threading.

It was one of the core abilities of his class, and it was responsible for the escalation of his power. Without it, he’d never have been able to make so many different varieties of traps, especially on the fly.

The second specialization option, Runic Siegemaster, appealed to his dwarven instincts, and he could easily imagine living out his dream of hunkering down in a massive fortress while his enemies fell to his masterful traps. In that fantasy, he had a bevy of properly silken-bearded women with him.

And no pesky Druid dragging him away to alien planets.

The final option was appealing for an entirely different reason. Rare was the opportunity that he actually got to plan things out. As a result, he was often forced to rely on short-lived and easily created traps to see him through. The Combat Wardsmith specialization would doubtless assist in that, and given his recent propensity for getting into dangerous situations, it would come in very handy.

Still, there was really only one choice he could rightly make, and it seemed the obvious one to him. Especially considering their current predicament. Even as he made his choice of Arcane Tinkerer, Elijah and Sadie were deep in the throes of an argument concerning how they intended to deal with the runes.

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“I can fly back, snag a crafter, and be back here in less than a day,” Elijah insisted.

“Assuming you don’t get distracted,” Sadie admonished.

“What? I never get distracted!”

“You’re like a squirrel with an attention disorder, bro,” Dat pointed out. “Oo, a ruin. Oo, a welcoming crypt. How did I get into space?”

“That is reductive and you know it, man.”

“Bro. Be honest.”

“I think it’s like a puzzle,” Ron interjected. “Maybe we just need to figure it out.”

“It ain’t no puzzle,” Kurik said, already having made his choice. He immediately felt the difference. What’s more, he saw how everything was supposed to fit together. “Or not the way you’re thinkin’. You could fiddle with all these tiles for days, and you wouldn’t get no further than you are right now.”

“Uh…welcome back?” Elijah said.

“I ain’t went nowhere.”

“Sure. Not physically. But you’ve been sitting in that corner sulking for like an hour,” he persisted. “If this is about me teasing you, I didn’t mean –”

“It ain’t that. But don’t. I don’t like it when you tug my beard.”

“But –”

“Elijah,” Sadie sighed. “Just stop. For once in your life, just stop.”

“Fine. But I’m playing this game under protest.”

“Ain’t no game, you daft Druid,” Kurik said, studying the floor. The runes stretched across the entire chamber, and to the untrained – or unskilled – eye, it looked like a chaotic mess. However, with his newly enhanced Arcane Threading assisting him, Kurik could see how everything was supposed to fit together.

Of course, it wasn’t just his ability at work. He’d been dealing with threads of ethera for years – and even more so lately – so he had the weight of experience on his side as well.

Still, the pattern was complex, so it took him a moment to figure out exactly where everything was meant to go. With his experience and the improved Arcane Threading working in his favor, he soon saw how it all fit together. After that, it was a simple task of solving the puzzle, which required him to shift tiles around until the proper pattern emerged.

Inevitably, the others peppered him with questions, to which he responded by grunting. He didn’t appreciate the distractions, and once he’d found his rhythm, he wasn’t going to interrupt the process.

“I think he’s gone crazy,” Elijah muttered to Sadie. It was just loud enough for Kurik to hear, which was probably the point.

“Shut up, Elijah. He’s fine.”

“He’s in the zone, bro.”

“He’s just shifting tiles around like an insane person. Dwarf. Whatever. And…oh…oh, that’s clever. I think I see it now.”

“It’s ‘bout time, ya idjit,” Kurik said out of the side of his mouth.

“I still don’t know what’s going on,” Ron admitted, his hands on his hips as he tried to figure out the answers to his conundrum.

“And…there,” Kurik announced, finally shifting the final tile into place. The moment he did, the threads that only he could see lit up, revealing the pattern.

“I knew it,” Elijah said with a grin.

“You didn’t know nothin’. You didn’t see it ‘til I was almost done.”

“I was just kidding. You know, making a joke for the others. I totally saw it the whole time,” the fool Druid said.

“You didn’t, bro. I saw.”

“Well, not the whole thing. Kurik figured it out first, for sure. But I saw it, too!” Elijah claimed, still grinning like an idiot. It was obvious he wasn’t serious, but it still irritated Kurik. But that could be said about just about everything Elijah did. The only question was why Kurik felt the need to grin right along with him.

It made no sense.

“You are such a liar,” Sadie stated, shaking her head.

“Is that your professional opinion? Does Sense of Sin pick up lies? Or is it just –”

She cut him off with a glare.

“Fine. Shutting up. Good job, Kurik. That’s one down!”

“Whatever. Let’s just get this thing done so we can face down another too-powerful monster,” Kurik said with a shrug. “But I get all the cores! That was our deal. Any magical power source goes to me.”

“Nobody else wants –”

“Of course, Kurik,” Sadie interrupted Elijah.

With that decided, the group moved on. Of course, the second they left the crystal building – which was suffused with so much ethera that Kurik was surprised it wasn’t glowing – they were accosted by a sentry golem patrol. And as always, Kurik was absolutely astounded by the magical engineering that had gone into creating the things. It was an accomplishment just to put something like that together, much less one that moved as smoothly as the sentry golems. However, what really impressed Kurik was how perfectly the ethera flowed through them. If he hadn’t known better, he would have said they had the benefit of a Novice Soul.

But he did know better, which meant that someone had possessed the artistry to mimic the natural system of channels, integrating it so completely that it was nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.

He wished he had the time or resources to arrange a full examination of one, but the things were so hostile – and durable – that he didn’t think that very likely. Still, it was a good goal.

Gradually, they made their way across the campus. The three rune sites formed a triangle that encompassed most of the academy, so they were around seven miles apart. That didn’t sound like a long way, but when they had to fight for every yard they traveled, it seemed quite a lot longer. In the end, it took them nearly ten hours to reach the next site.

From the outside, it appeared much the same as the rest. Elijah claimed that the structure looked like it had fins, though Kurik thought it was closer to a seashell. Whatever the case, entry proved no more difficult than with the last site. However, the guardian was quite different.

“It looks like a tornado of magic, bro.”

That was a surprisingly apt description, but still wholly inadequate. To Kurik, especially with the benefit of the sense afforded by the enhanced Arcane Threading, the creature – which Dat identified as an arcane spirit – was the densest collection of woven ethera that he’d ever seen. If he’d been fascinated by the sentry golems, then the arcane spirit was worthy of obsession.

Unfortunately, it didn’t share Kurik’s fascination, because it opened with an attack, peppering them with missiles of ethera that sent jolts of the disruptive energy to interrupt their spells and abilities.

Then, Dat announced that he could handle it and cranked the mechanism of his crossbow. Before anyone could object, he used some sort of ability and launched a green-glowing crossbow bolt so large that it looked like a spear. When it hit the arcane spirit, the thing’s ethera went wild before winking out altogether.

Kurik was ready for it to recover, but after a few seconds, nothing happened. It had simply disappeared.

“That was a lot of experience, bro. Almost a whole level,” said a grinning Dat.

“Did you just kill that thing alone?” asked Elijah.

“New skill, bro. Seemed to work pretty well.”

“I’d say so,” Elijah muttered, no small degree of jealousy evident in his expression. The Druid never seemed to take it well when someone else upstaged him. Or told him what to do. Or forbade him from anything. In fact, he became a bit sulky anytime he didn’t get his way.

Maybe it was the dragon in him. Those lofty existences probably didn’t get told what to do very often. Or maybe he’d always been like that. Kurik hadn’t known him before his world had changed, so he couldn’t say for sure.

But at least he got over it quickly, a fact characterized by the quick grin that spread across his face as he slapped Dat on his back. After that, he went on and on about how impressive of a kill it was.

Once Kurik solved the latest puzzle – which was satisfying in all sorts of ways – they moved on to the final site. After spending most of another day fighting through one patrol of sentry golems after another, they reached their destination.

From the outside, it looked no different from the ones that had come before. But when they entered, Kurik immediately felt the difference. He was forced to his knees as an enormous weight settled onto his body. Dat and Ron were beset by a similar effect, with the Healer ending up flat on his face, where he remained.

For his part, Kurik felt like his bones were cracking under the pressure, but he looked up to see that Sadie and Elijah remained upright, though both were clearly straining. More importantly, a pulsing mass of darkness floated in the center of the room. Making things worse, Kurik didn’t need Dat to identify the creature.

“Gravity spirit,” he whispered.

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