Chapter 1: They are back!
“I am so tired of walking… can you carry me?” Milo whined again as he looked down at his newest bond.
Over the last year, Milo had finally decided what path he wanted to pursue with bonded companions, and a surprising number of our missions had revolved around that choice. He had settled on swarm and hive-type creatures, ones that could duplicate at impressive speed and assist him in building traps, laying ambushes, and gathering materials with alarming efficiency.
It had been during the final weeks of battle in Velmine that Milo realized this was a major weakness of his. He needed help, not just in combat, but in preparation and execution. There were only so many hands a halfling could have.
After many long discussions, and just as many failed experiments, he finally found something he liked. That was how Milo ended up with various kinds of bugs and small critters living in his pockets, his backpack, and anywhere else they could find a home.
I could not argue with their effectiveness, even if I did not love… that.
There was something about bonding with tiny creatures while also being a halfling that allowed Milo to accumulate more companions than I could even remember. I honestly was not sure how many he had now.
Milo’s whining caused several of his bonded swarms to spill out from their hiding places. They poured onto the path in a living wave, arranging themselves into a crude but sturdy seat. Milo dropped into it with a sigh of relief, and the swarm began carrying him forward at roughly the same pace as his short legs.
“Ahhhh, this is the life,” he said as he pulled out his pipe and settled in, clearly enjoying the ride.
“You know, you are just going to end up getting fat doing that,” Malorn said, prodding Milo’s stomach with the end of his elven bow.
Fern trotted alongside us, his fox ears perked, staring at the bugs with open curiosity as he always did.
“Hey!” Milo choked on the smoke as he tried to snap back, then settled on a wounded, withering stare when no clever response came to him.
My bonded companion, Dusk, was swimming through the earth beneath us. She always loved exploring new lands and hunting unknown creatures.
We often took contracts to hunt monsters, both for training and to aid local communities. Fayrwynn was our home now, but we were rarely there. There was too much strength to be gained elsewhere in the world, and we needed every advantage we could find.
This past year had been spent shoring up our weaknesses, Milo’s companions chief among them, while gathering any information we could on how to fight back against the Asharkith. There had been no true breakthroughs on our end, but many nations had discovered methods that worked, at least partially.
We needed something more powerful and effective.
That thought drew my attention back to my frustrating interface. I had reached level ten in my path as a Child of the Deep, and it refused to let me progress until I chose a new path. There was no option to upgrade it, no way to adjust it, nothing at all.
I pulled up the translucent purple page again.
Child of the Deep
Path Level 10.
Progression Locked Until Next Path Chosen.
Traits: Shard Assimilations (2)
Tremor Sense: Tier 2
Regeneration: Tier 2
Lithocurrent: Tier 2
Gravitational Entropy
Raptor’s Leap
Detailed Map
Bond Interface
Party Interface: Tier 2
Quest Reward System
Final Wound
Scars of Ending: Tier 2
- Tremor Sense: All five senses have been merged to create a perfect map of the world within a radius of just over one-hundred and fifty feet. A gift gained from the Obsidian Wyrm Shard, empowered by the path upgrade.
- Regeneration: Heals injuries at inhumane speeds and restores physical and mental fatigue while also decreasing the need for sleep to two hours daily. A gift gained from the Obsidian Wyrm Shard, empowered by the path upgrade.
- Lithocurrent: Allows rapid movement through solid stone for an indefinite period of time, fueled by the aether in the earth and grants near-perfect footing on any surface; can travel with one other individual without penalties. A gift gained from the Obsidian Wyrm Shard, empowered by the path upgrade.
- Gravitational Entropy: This trait creates a passive entropy aura reinforced by gravity, slowing regeneration and degrading living organisms. It can be actively controlled for greater effect, at the cost of the ongoing passive area aura.
- Raptor’s Leap: Significantly enhances jump height, distance, and mid-air control for precise repositioning.
- Detailed Map: A living map within the interface. It tracks everywhere the user has been, integrates external maps, and corrects inaccuracies automatically.
- Bond Interface: Grant the interface to bonded companions.
- Party Interface: Allow a user to link a limited number of people to a shared interface page. It offers short-range communication and active health, aether, and stamina readouts.
- Quest Reward System: Aetherically created quest and reward structure tailored to missions, roles, or objectives that the interface deems significant. Upon completion, rewards are generated directly from aether.
- Final Wound: Attacks apply Scar stacks, reducing an enemy's regeneration. Multiple stacks cause regeneration effects to damage the target instead of healing them.
- Scars of Ending: Applies permanent scars that indefinitely reduce the target's overall health and regeneration.
Bonded Equipment: Astral Raptor Bracers (Tier 2 Evolution)
- Astral Claws: Summons aether-draining claws over the hands; attacks stack Scar effects and provide arm protection.
- Storage Space: Thirty cubic feet of storage space.
- Astral Blades: Summoned blades that are propelled with additional astral force when thrown. The blades reform after 3 seconds and can be thrown endlessly.
Dusk:(Bonded Companion)
Traits:
- Tremor Sense: All five senses have been merged to create a perfect map of the world within a radius of just over one-hundred and fifty feet before slowly fading away.
- Regeneration: High-speed recovery and healing, allowing her to endure sustained combat.
- Lithocurrent: High-speed travel through the earth; can pull attacked creatures into the ground to disrupt or bury them.
- Molten Blood: Her blood is magma; attackers take immediate burn damage and weapon degradation upon wounding her.
- Anti-Aetheric Breath: Exhales a hazy mist that disrupts spells, wards, and aetheric constructs (affects both allies and enemies).
- Rend: Claws and teeth cause non-stop bleeding and sap magical energy (mana and aether) from the target.
- Scars of Ending: Attacks apply permanent debuffs to enemy health and healing (mirrors your ability).
- Shockwave: Creates devastating kinetic waves when emerging from the earth or landing with force on the ground.
- Consume: Allows Dusk to eat a fallen foe of rival strength to permanently absorb a portion of its power.
Nothing had changed. I had checked this page more times than I could count over the years, knowing it was the primary path to power available to me. Yet there were still no new options. All I could do was wait.
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I was fortunate, if that was the right word, to be the only living being besides Dusk who possessed an interface and the strange path of growth it offered. Everyone else relied on tablets, tattoos, or other external methods to track their progress and plan their advancement. My interface was different. It allowed for direct alteration, upgrades, evolution, and the selection of new traits. At least it did when I was actually able to level up.
That distinction existed because I should have died years ago.
When I was a newly orphaned five-year-old, I accidentally bonded with a wyrm shard. It saved my life and replaced my arm with a new, pale one, but the cost was nearly just as fatal. The tremor sense it awakened tore at my mind, overwhelming me until I slowly adapted to the flood of altered perception. Without gaining the wyrm’s regenerative ability at the same time, I would not have survived at all.
That same shard assimilation made all standard growth measurement tools ineffective. Tablets couldn't recognize me, and other systems refused to detect any data. My friend Sirius, the prince of the recently destroyed Velmine Kingdom, later offered a unique solution using an artifact from an advanced civilization that no longer had a rift connected to our world.
This interface, usually reserved for bonded creatures, allowed them to control their growth. Because I had merged so deeply with the shard, conventional measurement tools no longer identified me as fully human. They saw me as a monster.
For once, that worked in my favor.
The Lethariel elders believed I could only absorb a couple more shards without destroying myself. Now that I was older, it was safer. Humans weren’t supposed to bond with shards until after the age of sixteen.
It worked with the entropy shard in Velmine, but that was during the fall of our kingdom, and I had little choice at the time.
But I still remember the pain of adapting to the wyrm’s shard during those years. I was hesitant to try again anytime soon.
We had collected many shards over the last year and now possessed a sizable collection. Milo made use of them for crafting, and Malorn used his for customized arrows and flail upgrades.
We had learned how to upgrade his bottomless quiver so it could replicate several of his favored designs. While the quiver itself was technically unlimited, these specialized arrows required shards and additional aether due to their unique power sources.
He also carried several mundane arrow types that were truly limitless. Piercing, blunt, serrated, and more.
Malorn had grown fully into his flail-based fighting style, and combined with his runic and shard crafting, it was devastating to witness in action.
There had been no major change to my own fighting. I had tested various weapons to see if anything might fit my style, but nothing truly did. Whip-hooks and sickles came closest, yet in the end, I was simply better with my throwing blades, daggers, and astral claws.
I had only received a handful of quests from my interface this past year. The rewards included improved gear, shards, and, in one case, a unique hive creature egg that Milo had bonded with almost immediately. That one had been the best by far.
Nothing else had come close to my first two rewards, and I was beginning to suspect that the strength of the reward was tied directly to the difficulty of the quest. The ones we completed recently were hard, but they paled in comparison to what I had faced during the Asharkith invasion.
“I will never tire of seeing this city,” Malorn said quietly.
His elven eyes were already fixed ahead, seeing farther than the rest of us.
Lethariel, the capital of Fayrwynn, was breathtaking.
The city had been grown directly from the soil using unique aether-crafted tree seeds. Elven aetheric weavers shaped the trees as they grew, guiding limbs and roots into walls, towers, and bridges until the wood hardened into a substance stronger than stone or steel.
They had created a fortified city that rivaled any kingdom in the world in strength and beauty.
Multistoried homes rose naturally from massive trunks. Canopy-stretching streets wove through branches high above the forest floor. Gardens, workshops, and living spaces spiraled upward together until the seat of power crowned the city at the treetops, watching over Fayrwynn like a living crown.
It was good to be home.
“It took you long enough!” I heard Sirius’s voice carried on the wind.
A smile broke across my face. “Halfling legs are short. It can’t be helped!” I replied just as Milo hurled a pebble at me, one he had clearly been fiddling with for the last mile.
This last mission had been our final one for the hive creature Milo wanted, so the banter was louder than usual, sharper, edged with relief.
Sirius came jogging toward us, and we embraced without hesitation. “It’s good to see you, brother.”
“Likewise, Bryn. There is much to discuss,” he said, then smiled. “Zephyra has already sent for a meal to be prepared.”
That got our feet moving faster.
Nothing compared to the food here, especially after weeks of travel rations and fire-roasted meals cooked without seasoning or patience. Even the scent drifting through the city streets was enough to make my stomach tighten with anticipation.
We shared small talk on the walk into the city, intentionally avoiding any real discussions until dinner. Some conversations deserved a table, warm food, and time.
Once inside, our group split off to clean up and change. It did not take long before we were back together again, gathered and celebrating.
It was good to see Zephyra, the elven princess, and Shine, her yellow-scaled lizardkin healer, after the Academy. Their absence had been felt more than I had realized. Sirius and Zephyra’s relationship had surprised all of us, though looking at them together, it made an undeniable kind of sense. However, one does not simply date an elven princess. If things continued as they were, a wedding would follow in the not-too-distant future.
We ate and laughed for over an hour, trading stories from the road and the city, though there was always a hint of sorrow lingering behind our eyes. None of us were untouched by what had been lost.
Grief lived in waves, and the current was always changing. We had learned that if we did not laugh, we would rot from the inside. It was good to be with people who understood that truth and carried it alongside you.
“So,” Zephyra said at last, turning her elven eyes to Milo, “you got the last one?”
“Yeah,” Milo replied. “An ethereal wasp. It can pass through most solid objects and carve through nearly any material, among other things. Perfect for stealth work, carving runes, and various crafting functions.”
“That concludes your missions for bonded creatures,” Sirius said.
Milo nodded, already packing more tobacco into his pipe, clearly satisfied.
It was then that Zephyra reached beneath the table and produced a letter sealed with wax. She set it before us. “This came from Grond.”
Malorn opened it and began to read. His expression shifted as he went, cautious interest mixing with concern.
“It seems our friend is requesting that some of us come aid him in his homeland,” Malorn said at last. “He wishes to join our group and fight against the Asharkith. However, he feels a duty to prepare his people as best he can first. There is a task he believes must be done before he can leave. With our help, he thinks it can be completed quickly, allowing him to join us afterward.”
“That is an interesting proposition,” Sirius said thoughtfully. “We could certainly use the help. And Grond is one of your closest friends, which makes it even more compelling. You all spent a lot of time together at the Academy.”
“I would love to go help,” Milo said without hesitation. “And honestly, Malorn, it would probably be wise for you to go as well. You have taken to runic crafting, and there are few better teachers than the dwarves. Elves do not tend to use runes the way you do, and much of what you know came from Grond himself.”
He gestured vaguely with his pipe. “The same is true with my traps. This could be a chance for both of us to grow in some of our most important skills.”
Malorn inclined his head, acknowledging the truth in Milo’s words.
“I have been considering taking on some smaller missions with Dusk,” I said. “Spending time with her. A brief break from the longer campaigns we have been running. This could be a good opportunity for that.”
“I would like to go to.”
Shine’s quiet, yellow reptilian woman’s voice surprised all of us.
“Of course!” Milo said at once, cheer bright in his tone, and Malorn offered her a warm smile.
“That seems quite settled,” Zephyra concluded. “I still have responsibilities and training at home that my family needs from me this year. I won't be able to fully join the group until after that, so the timing might work out well this.”
“I have also been offered a unique opportunity by Zephyra’s father,” Sirius added. “He has invited me to bond with one of their few gryphon eggs. The process requires a year or more of constant oversight and care to ensure the bond forms properly and that all the benefits are realized. It would be the perfect companion, and I have been waiting for an opportunity like this my entire life.”
The table erupted into congratulations and celebration.
Only two elven kingdoms maintained gryphons, and Fayrwynn was one of them. They produced very few eggs each year, and this was the first time I had ever heard of a human being offered the chance to bond with one.
It was not an opportunity that could be refused.
We agreed to spend a week training and enjoying time together, knowing it would likely be one of our last chances to do so for a long while.
So tonight, we simply appreciated one another’s company.
We shared tales of recent adventures, and Milo exaggerated at all the right moments. Laughter came easily, even when the stories brushed close to danger. Sirius caught us up on his training and spoke of Wraith, still waiting on his return. He was the last living member of the Hand. A group of specially trained soldiers who served as the kings primary council. He had agreed to serve as our primary intelligence agent as we prepared for war with the Asharkith.
Zephyra shared insights into elven politics and news from other nations, along with what little was known of the Asharkith’s movements. There was nothing truly new, only the same steady pressure. Constant probing of defenses. Tests along the lands surrounding what once had been our kingdom. Velmine.
It was late by the time we finally retired for the night.