Chapter Two: Two is Greater than One

“So why are we hiding in bushes?”

“Because we haven’t figured out how to get inside without dying.”

“Oh yeah.”

It’s the third day since they left the Tower of the Gift, and so far the mission seemed hopeless. Several months ago another Apprentice went missing while on a mission. Alda Safada was a Space and Lightning specialist, sent to investigate some suspicious activity that was being reported around some old ruins in the Delnari Region. When she hadn’t returned after a couple months they decided something was wrong and started putting together plans for a rescue team. And now, here they are, two kids barely old enough to go on missions, let alone rescue people, but the Professor thought they were old enough, so here they are, staring at a building that’s definitely not ruins anymore, wondering how the hell they’re going to get in.

“Got any ideas?” Tulm speaks up again as the silence draws on.

“Sorry, Tulm, I got distracted.” He sighs, looking around. We were told it should be simple, find Alda at the ruins, make sure she’s okay, return to the Tower with her if she isn’t or with an update from her if she is. So simple, so wrong. “Come on, let’s go back to camp and try something tomorrow.”

The healer shrugs, “Fine by me.” He stands up and starts heading back to camp, a few hundred feet into the forest. Sars casts one final harried look at the source of their frustrations, then turns and follows him back to camp.

~~\/~/\~~

Sars breathes in, feeling the damp cool air in his throat as he lies on the hard, yet slightly springy, grass covered earth. Above him he can hear the korths singing in the canopy and the occasional flutter of wings as they move from one perch to another. Behind it all he could hear the pitter patter of the morning rain on the leaves, breathing life into the forest as surely as the sun at noon-time. Opening his eyes, he squinted at first, but his eyes adjust quickly, and he could soon see the drops of water gathering on fronds and weighing them down before releasing and falling to the ground far below. He stretches, then sits up. Allowing himself a few more moments of peace before getting up. He uses the Basic Fire Magyk known as Hand Flames light a stick from the fire last night and get it blazing again. Before long, he has a pot on the fire with oatmeal cooking away, various berries and nuts adding some heartiness for the long day ahead.

“Wake up, Tulm, breakfast’s almost ready.” He looks over to where his friend is still sleeping peacefully.

“Whaa?” Tulm blinks a few times, yawning.

“Wake up, you great lump. The oatmeal’s done.” He takes the pot off the fire and pours some into a small bowl, which he nudges over towards Tulm before pouring the rest into another bowl for himself.

“Oh, thanks.” He takes the bowl and carefully blows on it, still finishing waking up.

“So last night I was thinking, and I have a plan that can probably get us in there, but it’ll be dangerous, and it might not work.”

Tulm grunts as he starts eating the oatmeal.

“So you know I’m working on Advanced Change Speed, but I’m not great at it yet, it’s still a little unpredictable, but I’m great at Basic Summon Stone.”

“Mmhmm” Tulm hums acquiescence.

“Well, I was kind of thinking that I could possibly just keep throwing stones at the wall and accelerating them until they start punching through.” He looks hopefully at Tulm, looking for some sign of agreement.

Instead, Tulm snorts. “If you honestly think that a few sped up rocks are gonna hurt those walls, then you weren’t staring at them half as hard as you said you were, yesterday.” He takes another bite of oatmeal. “Your idea does have merit, however, we just need bigger projectiles, and good luck, otherwise you might kill us both.”

“And how do you plan on launching said larger objects? I don’t know about you, but I at least don’t have a catapult in my back pocket.” Sars swallows and sets his bowl down, empty. “Or maybe we should intentionally try and trigger the trips, just to see how well it’s actually guarded. I mean, we don’t actually know how well guarded it is, it’s possible there’s barely anything actually there.”

“Yeah, we don’t know much, other than that that deer rotted the instant it got too close.”

Sars winces, remembering that. Yesterday, while they’d been inspecting the keep, they’d seen a deer wander out of the woods to go eat some of the grass closer to the building. Shortly after it got within 10 feet there’d been a small bolt of some black energy that emerged from one of the windows and hit the deer. Within seconds the deer’s flesh was rotting and peeling, sloughing off by the handful. Within a minute all that was left was a puddle of rotten flesh and visibly spongy, brown bones. Sars suspected he wasn’t the only one at the time with a queasy feeling in his stomach. Thankfully, the wind was away from them at the time, so they didn’t have to smell it.

“You have a point, although we don’t actually know it’s automated. It came out of a window, so it’s possible someone was just walking past the window and took offense to the deer.”

“There’s a difference between possible and likely, I can’t heal you from something like that.”

“It’s all we’ve got isn’t it?”

Tulm just sighed.

~~\/~/\~~

“Well this is exciting.” Sars and Tulm are currently pressed against the wall of the keep, having determined via rabbit that there weren’t automatic defenses, and were now trying to figure out how to stay out of sight and get inside.

“So, uh, Tulm?”

“Yeah?”

“How’s that Shape Stone coming along?”

“Half the time it’s pliable and half the time it seizes up around my fingers after a few seconds.”

“Ah…”

“You want me to try anyway.”

“It’s our only way in.”

Tulm sighs, then turns and places his palms on the wall, concentrating. After a few seconds he takes his hands away and shakes his head. “No good, I think there’s null magyk in the stones.

Sars sighs, then stops and looks up. “Null Magyk is my specialty, I’m probably not as strong as the caster here, but I can at least weaken it.” He puts his hands on the wall, probing it. “Alright, when I tell you to go, start going, as close to my hands as possible, it’ll be weakest between them.” He closes his eyes and an intense look of concentration comes onto his face, and after a few seconds he mutters “go.”

Tulm places his hands on the wall again, concentrating, then frowning and redoubling his efforts. After another few seconds he reaches into the wall and starts scooping out the stone, bit by bit, scraping his way inward and letting it drop to the ground beside them. As Tulm works his way inward, Sars follows, making sure to keep his hands on the wall, keeping the enchantment weak enough for Tulm to overpower, bit by bit. A few minutes later they collapse into the hallway, each breathing hard.

“We made it,” Sars said, breathing hard, “We actually made it.”

“Great observation, Captain Obvious.” Tulm forced his breathing to stabilize and stood up. “Alright, step one done, time to find Alda.”