The Fusionist Book 3 -- Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Larek followed his friends and bodyguards down the spiral stone staircase, the only light for now coming from Kimble’s Light Orb spell a ways ahead, but it was more than enough for him to see even further back in the group. A moment later, the former Logger passed Bartholomew on the narrow stairway, and he looked at the Martial trainee with confusion.

“Just guarding our back end,” the armored young man whispered in answer to his unspoken question. Larek nodded as he passed him, indicating that he understood.

Everyone was quiet as they descended, not wanting to draw any attention to themselves, though with how much the entire building seemed to shake less than 30 seconds after they started their descent, he didn’t think anyone would hear them. Cracks in the walls and ceiling suddenly echoed through the stairway, followed by puffs of dirt and streams of pulverized stone as everything seemed to shift slightly.

“Faster! It feels like the entire building is going to come down!” Nedira shouted to be heard over the reverberating emanations coming from the walls, and those ahead immediately raced down the stairs.  Another enormous pounding against the building nearly caused Larek to fall, but he managed to catch himself with a hand against the wall; at the same time, he reached out and caught Verne, who was just about to tumble down the stairs in what would’ve been a very painful experience. Up ahead, he heard Kimble let out an “oof,” and he heard Penelope asking if he was alright, but that seemed to be the only injury, as slight as it was.

With Larek now convinced that Nedira was correct, he began urging everyone on, even picking up Verne and Norde and had them hang off of him as he descended; Nedira gave out a started squeal as he picked her up and carried her in his arms. “Sorry,” he apologized quickly. “Faster this way.”

“I’m not complaining.” She said a little breathlessly, which was probably because she was nearly hyperventilating. “Whatever it takes to get to safety quicker, I’m all for it.”

Catching up to the others ahead of them, Kimble looked back to see Larek carrying three people without any difficulty, and he looked at Penelope. “Can I catch a ride?”

“Jump on and we’ll go!” The Pyromancer immediately jumped on her back and wrapped his arms and legs around the blue-haired Martial trainee; other than a grunt when his weight settled on her, the young woman didn’t seem to notice.

With an unspoken command, Penelope (with Kimble catching a ride), Vivienne, Larek (with his passengers), and Bartholomew began moving much faster down the stairway. It was approaching breakneck pace when Kimble turned his head and shouted behind him, “I see the—"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the shaking of the entire stairway, as something impacted the building above them with such force that Larek stumbled and crashed against the wall, nearly falling once again as he crashed into the back of Vivienne. The Ranger was fortunately able to stabilize both herself and Larek, but Penelope took a tumble with the weight on her back. Kimble and the Striker fell another half-dozen steps before they hit what turned out to be the bottom of the staircase; neither of them appeared terribly hurt, though the Pyromancer had dropped his staff on the stairs.

It was then that Larek heard something that caused him to shout, “Run!”

Even as Kimble scrambled to his feet and started heading back for his staff, Larek blocked him as he came down. “Leave it! The stairway is collapsing!”

The red-robed Mage hesitated for a half-second before he turned around, jumping on Penelope’s back once she got up from her own fall. She didn’t complain but instead took off with him on his back, followed by the others. A second later, a tremendous crashing sound behind them shook the stone-lined tunnel they were moving down; unfortunately, the tunnel was only about 6 feet tall, causing Larek to have to duck while he ran, but he had no reason to complain as it was getting them away from the collapsing stairway. A sudden cloud of dust and debris wafted past them from the chaos happening behind, and everyone started coughing as it filled the tunnel to the point where it was hard to breathe. Larek had to put Nedira down because he needed to wipe his eyes, which were now filled with grit, and Verne also hopped down with Norde to do the same thing for themselves.

Despite not being able to see or breathe very well, the group didn’t stop moving down the tunnel. After about 5 minutes, the tunnel cleared up enough that they weren’t coughing every few seconds, and the dust that had filled the corridor had settled enough and was only kicked up as they passed.

Again, no one spoke as they trudged along, not because they thought someone might hear them, but because the tunnel was dark and oppressive. At least, that was why Larek didn’t speak; he could only guess that the others were a bit hoarse from coughing out all that dust.

They walked for what felt like hours, as the tunnel curved slightly to the right before heading back to the left, but the corridor seemed almost endless. Larek was getting a crick in his back as he walked hunched over, but he was reluctant to ease it with his Healing Surge Fusion because it would make him hungry after a while. Given that they had to leave so abruptly, it was entirely possible that no one had any food on them. Unless it was in one of their bags, of course, but Shinpai hadn’t mentioned it before they were forced to flee.

As much as I don’t how both the Dean and Shinpai manipulated me, I hope the old Fusionist is alright.

Thinking about the potential death of his Professor, in the dark confines of the seemingly endless tunnel, made him a bit morose about his situation. First, it seemed as though everyone with some authority who was trying to help him, regardless if they had a selfish reason for it, ended up dead. Fusionist Annika wasn’t even the first if he considered the SIC group that had taken him from Rushwood; they were, of course, followed by Dean Lorraine and potentially Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai – though he still held out hope that he had survived.

Am I putting my friends in danger just by being around them? It was a question that was easily answered by the evidence that they were currently now fleeing for their lives through a dark tunnel that led to who knew where, after a Gergasi killed the Dean and somehow caused a Scission to open up in the middle of the Academy yard. If that wasn’t being put into danger, then he didn’t know what would qualify.

Second, he was dreading a bit at telling his friends and bodyguards the truth about him, as he wasn’t sure how they would react. They might even be quite angry and blame him for their current circumstances; that was something he wouldn’t blame them for, however, as that was unfortunately 100% true.

Last, he was trying to decide if he was going to do as Shinpai said the Dean wanted and go to Fort Ironwall while Nedira and his roommates went to Silverledge Academy – if they could even make it there in one piece. While he thought that learning more about his Stama and Battle Arts might be beneficial, he still didn’t have any desire to actually fight in a battle where such “Arts” would be needed. Every confrontation he’d been involved in had been completely circumstantial; there had been no conscious thought to go looking for a fight, as he was only defending himself and his friends from attack. He had no desire to go save the Kingdom by eliminating this hole into another world or whatever that the Gergasi had opened 1,000 years ago; he wasn’t a hero in some tale, nor did he wish to get involved with any relatives of his. He was frightened enough by the figure that was likely his father to ever want to meet another one.

But he had to admit that, with the way Scissions were opening up all over the Kingdom and releasing monsters everywhere, that defending himself with something other than just Fusions would make sense. Since he couldn’t cast a spell, and had already gained one Battle Art (accidentally, but it still counted in his mind), then any advantage he could find that would allow him to survive longer in the crazy environment that the Kingdom was turning into would be helpful. Therefore, heading to the Fort and seeing if they could help him figure out his whole Stama problem seemed like the sensible choice.

Then again, it was what the Dean wanted, and while she was unfortunately deceased, it was almost like she was still trying to manipulate him from the grave. He wasn’t sure what to do, if he was being honest with himself, but he resolved to put that decision off until he was forced to make it. Regardless of what he eventually chose to do, he would at least see to it that Nedira and his roommates made it to Silverledge Academy, as they still needed to finish their magical education, and at least Bartholomew still needed to finish his at the Fort; he was fairly certain that Penelope, Vivienne, and Kimble were all sixth-years that only stayed on because they were guarding Larek, so they were technically free to go and join the SIC or whatever else they had planned after they graduated.

Larek could see that Verne and Norde were dragging their feet after a while, as well as Nedira, but none of them asked to hitch a ride on the Larek carriage again. The rest of the Martial trainees were perfectly fine, likely used to the physical exercise that walking gave them, if not a lot more than this; if there was one detrimental thing he could say about both Academies he’d attended, it was that they didn’t seem to have a comprehensive exercise program.  Granted, it wasn’t as if there were a bunch of extremely out-of-shape and overweight students that went to each Academy, but most of them certainly weren’t able to walk for hours before becoming extremely exhausted. Now, if Larek was in charge, he would combine the curriculum of both the Academy and the Fort so that the Mages obtained a better exercise and even defensive weaponry program than they did at the moment, while the Martials would get a better education about the spells and Fusions that Mages created. His experience with the two graduates from Crystalview hinted that they were relatively unfamiliar with both spells and Fusions, other than in a general sense, but if they attended the same place of learning, then they might pick up a lot more and therefore be more effective in a team.

There must be a reason they kept them separate—

His musings were interrupted when Kimble and Penelope abruptly stopped ahead of the group, and Larek was so deep in his own mind that he bumped into Verne who had halted ahead of him. Thankfully, the Fusionist was fast enough to grab the boy before he could fall, and he apologized to his roommate quickly before he looked to see why they had stopped.

It didn’t take long to realize they came to a dead end.

“What is this? Are we trapped down here?” Kimble asked, running his empty hands over the dirt wall that had stopped them.

Penelope looked back at Larek, a questioning expression on her face, but he just responded with a shrug. He knew just as much as she did, after all.

“Maybe there was a turn-off somewhere that we missed? Did anyone see any hidden passageways?” Nedira asked, leaning tiredly against the stone-lined wall. When no one spoke up, she slumped to the ground, soon joined by Verne and Norde as they got off their feet.

“Anyone have any ideas, then?” Penelope asked, looking around the dead end.

Larek didn’t, but Bartholomew spoke up. “Uh, well, we have an escape tunnel on my father’s estate, though I haven’t personally seen it,” he admitted, seemingly embarrassed.

“You have an escape tunnel? Why?” Verne asked.

“Because, see,” he began, but then forged on, ignoring the question entirely. “Anyway, we have an escape tunnel that comes out away from the city like this one is supposed to, but the exit was hidden somehow. Ours was hidden in the back of a cave in the Worthskill Mountains, covered by a large boulder that would take a strong Martial to shift – or a powerful Mage. It’s possible that this is similar, but instead of a boulder, it’s a wall of dirt.”

Glancing at the walls and ceiling around the dirt wall, Larek thought that might be a good assumption. The stone blocks continued into the dirt, meaning that they didn’t necessarily stop there, so it was possible that this tunnel kept going.

“I’m not the best at Earth-based spells, but I can certainly try and move some of this dirt away,” Kimble said, approaching the wall, but Nedira stopped him.

“My second focus was in Earth spells after my Natural bent, so I probably have a better chance of getting through,” she explained. “Alright, everyone get back.”

There was no argument as everyone got behind the fifth-year Naturalist, and Larek watched her cast a spell that he could sense was literally designed to move dirt. Surprisingly, he was able to learn it as she cast it multiple times over the next few minutes, each cast of which pulled dirt from the center and pushed it to the sides of the tunnel, gradually making a hole.

New Spell learned!

Furrow

Magnitude: 3 cubic feet of dirt

Base Elemental Damage: 0

Base Elemental Effect (Dirt Manipulation): Gently moves a certain amount of dirt in the desired direction

Restrictions: Rocks greater than 3 cubic inches cannot be shifted

Base Mana Cost: 15

Base Pattern Cohesion: 2

It took him a moment to understand why she would even want something like that, considering that it just moved dirt. When he remembered that she was also a Naturalist that dealt with plants a lot, he figured a spell like this would be useful in farming; he had seen farm and the people working on them on his travels, and being able to turn the dirt with a spell seemed like it would save a lot of time.

As he began to wonder if this was what Nedira had in mind after she graduated from the Kingdom’s Academies, as she never mentioned actually joining the SIC for a time, his friend’s efforts to move the dirt bore fruit. One moment, there was still a relatively solid dirt wall in front of them, and the next there was a small hole leading into a void. That small hole was widened extensively over the next minute as Nedira cleared even more dirt and moved it to the sides of the tunnel.

“Well, I guess that answers that. Shall we?” Penelope asked, before heading through the hole that was created. Kimble followed quickly after her, his recast Light Orb illuminating what appeared to be some sort of cramped natural cave – or at least that was what it looked like to Larek from his position near the back.

“Looks clear,” Penelope whispered back toward the others, and the Fusionist realized that just because they were out of the city where the Gergasi and the Scission threatened their lives, that didn’t mean that they were out of danger. His father could still be looking for him, or there were enslaved people searching for their exit, or there might even be monsters roaming around from a random Scission. Therefore, it was probably for the best to be as silent as possible.

The others caught on to this quickly as they spoke in hushed whispers, just loud enough to barely hear each other, as Penelope led the way out of the dark, jagged stone cave they found themselves in. When she had Kimble get rid of his light, the way was even darker, but thankfully they didn’t have long to squeeze themselves out of a slight twisting of cave walls that barely let Larek through because of his size. The smell of fresh air and forest, as well as the sight of trees ahead made the former Logger feel nostalgic for Rushwood, though these trees were nothing like the magical wood where he grew up. These were pine trees, whose leaves were actually thin and needle-like, and which didn’t shed them in the winter. They also didn’t grow quite as tall as his familiar Rushwood trees, though these ones were relatively impressive as they were around 60 feet tall, the majority of their branches far above their heads.

As they moved out from the cave, Larek realized that they had gone further than he expected, as they had journeyed nearly to the mountain range that ringed the majority of the valley where Thanchet was situated. It was approaching dusk, meaning that the light was failing, but when he turned toward where he knew the city should be, a break in the trees allowed him to see the Thanchet in all its glory. Or, to be more accurate, its lack of glory, as he could see what was left of the Academy, which seemed to have been halfway destroyed, with the fiery glow of burning wood lighting up the ruins in scattered places.

“Wh-what happened?” Verne asked, as shocked as everyone else was as they stared in silence at the devastated Academy.

Penelope broke the silence as she cleared her throat. “I have no idea what happened, but there’s nothing we can do right now. We’ve got our orders so we need to get moving. I’d like to put as much distance between us and the city as possible before we’re forced to stop for the night.”

As much as he knew that is was dangerous to travel when the light was fading, let alone at full night, Larek couldn’t help but agree.  He wanted—no, needed—to put as much distance between himself and his father as possible, because being discovered by the Gergasi was just too much of a likelihood if he stuck around for long. While he still didn’t know if he would be fulfilling the Dean’s last request of him by going to Fort Ironwall, there was no denying that he couldn’t go back to Copperleaf Academy at this point.

“Let’s go,” Larek agreed, turning away from the damaged Academy. “Lead on if you would, Penelope.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I will. We’ll keep all you squishy Mages safe while we travel,” she said, flashing a smile back at him as she marched on ahead, leading the way in the fading light.

I hope so, Penelope. For all our sakes, I desperately hope so.

Book 3 Chapter 20