PreCursive

  “Fuck.” I said to myself, standing in the middle of a narrow forest clearing.

  Turns out our suspi had been right. Even though it hadn’t yet been a month since his st ‘hunt’, Magnus was doing another one. I guess that malicious little shit just couldn’t wait to torment more sves. When I’d been dragged to the same clearing behind the manor, Magnus had already had two other dead-eyed sves clothed in little better than rags waiting. After a short, self-aggrandizing speech that I holy hadn’t paid much attention to, we’d bee loose into the forest. I knew what I had to do; I didn’t o listen to that asshole jerking himself off over his own perceived brilliance.

  All right. All right! I knew where to go, and I knew what to do! I was strohan I had been st time, and I was more fortable with my css and skills. Monsters at this level, or even fifty levels above me were dumb as shit from what I’d learned from Grey. I’d had the right idea st time, getting that bear-rabbit stu a loop and exploiting it.

  Let’s do this.

  Suffitly hyped up, I broke out into a sprint in the dire of the higher-level zone. However, I didn’t make it very far. No sooner had I passed the tree lio exit the clearing than I found myself inexplicably flying through the air and spinning. Caught off guard, I couldn’t even tell what happeo me it was so quick. Seds afterward, I found myself hanging upside down. Dazed, with blood running to my head, I looked upwards.

  I…somehow, I was caught in some kind of rope trap? Both of my feet were bound by thick lengths of rope, from which I was hung like a side of beef by a tree branch far above me. What the hell? Had I stumbled into a hunter’s trap or something? I didn’t even know anyone hunted in these woods for anything but monsters.

  Before I could reay hidden dagger to try and cut myself down, I heard the sound of boots g in the fallen underbrush. Looking back down, I was stunned by what I saw from my upside-down perspective. Slowly, I saw the blurry figure of a woman fade into view maybe twenty feet from my position. As she walked closer to me, she became more and more defined, until I could make out her form more clearly. My first thought was that she looked like she had a leather fetish. Cd head to toe in it, the only thing visible about her was her bright blue glowing eyes. Not even her hair was visible.

  When the woman reached my position, she crouched down to better meet my eyes. “Well.” I heard a feminine voice say, with an oddly ringiallie to it. “I was w when you would finish your little inspiration party in that clearing.”

  I felt my cheeks redden slightly. I’d thought I was alone, so I’d done plenty of arm pumping. That didn’t matter right now, though. “So, uh, is this your doing then?” I said, gesturing above to the rope.

  “Hmm.” She made a vague noise of assent. She didn’t say anything else though, she just tio stare into my eyes ily.

  “So…” I trailed off. Wheill didn’t say anything, I grew a little irritated despite my vulnerable position. “Do you need something, dy? I’m kind of busy.”

  She let out a small ugh. “I do, yes. I happen to have some questions for you, Mr. Mysterious Sve.”

  Mysterious? The hell was so mysterious about me. Aside, from, you know. The obvious stuff she couldn’t possibly know about. Maybe she’d been trying to Observe me? I kept my Status veiled with Hidden Amidst the Spheres these days as a matter of routiher way…

  “ you cut me down first?” I asked her. “I’m getting a headache. I promise I won’t run without hearing you out first.”

  “How bold of you, to make demands of your captor.” The dy said, amused. “Still, I believe you. Very well.” In one smooth motion, she stood up from her croug position and drew a small throwing knife from a gau on her left arm. She flicked it idly at the rope holding me up, easily slig through and lodging the knife iree behi the same time, I fell face-first into the dirt. Pushing myself up, I spit out a dead leaf that had gotten into my mouth. Wonderful.

  With a grunt, I sat up and leaned against the tree I had been suspended from, still sitting. Looking up, I heave a sigh. “All right. Ask your questions quickly. I’m on a time limit.”

  That sobered the from the mildly bemused manner she’d beeih. Carefully, the woman lowered herself to the ground to sit directly across from me, folding her legs beh her. Leaning forward, the oke ily. “You are the sve that belongs to Azarus of House Savoy, correct?”

  I grunted; not uhe person she was asking about. “Sort of. I teically belong to Magnus, but Azarus asked for me and Magnus didn’t care to say no.”

  The woman was silent for a moment. I got the impression she was surprised. “You are…shog direct for a sve. Few are the bohat would refer to their owners so frankly.”

  “That wasn’t a question,” I said, irritated. “Get on with it. I don’t want to die from being held up too long.”

  She nodded sharply. “Very well. I’m looking for someone, and my iigation has led me to this town. I’ve been it for some time now, and have noticed irregurities that lead me to believe my quarry is here. I must ask you, have you heard or seen anything that indicates Magnus of House Savoy is harb political prisoners?”

  I was taken aback, though I tried not to show it. I was silent for a moment myself. “Who are you, dy?” I asked cautiously.

  That caused the woman to narrow her glowing blue eyes at me. “Insequential. Now, answer my question.” She said menagly.

  I tensed up. “You wao ahat, you answer mine. Cause my ao that really fug depends.”

  In a move too fast for me to decipher, much less react to, the woman exploded in my dire from her sitting position. Instantly, she’d pinned me to the tree with one hand with the other held a ko my throat. “All you’ll get from me.” She hissed into my ear. “Is that I’m a daughter searg for her Father. Now speak, or suffer.”

  Despite the perilous situation, I wasn’t afraid. Her words had jogged a memory loarding a versation I’d had with Grey several weeks ago. I opened and closed in mounting astonishment. Finally, I mao get the word out. “Sylvia?” I asked in disbelief.

  Slowly, the woman who I suspected was Grey’s Sculpted daughter drew the dagger away from my throat and kneeled in front of me. “Where did you hear that he woman said quietly, voice thick with emotion.

  I stayed where I’d been pinned against the tree, still gob-smacked at the sheer ic ce. This was the one person in the world who probably wanted Grey to be free as much as he did, and she had held me up at knifepoint. I pushed down a hysterical ugh. “Well, because you’re right. Magnus is keeping one specific political prisoner, at the orders of his Father. But he’s been foisted off on his cousin for…reasons. Grey, or rather Headmaster Grey, is in the vilge, sitting around in Azarus’s house.” I paused awkwardly. “It’s, uh, o meet you. He’s talked about you a little.”

  Sylvia closed her eyes tightly and balled her hands into fists in her p. “Excuse me for a moment.” She said tightly, shooting to her feet. Rapidly, she walked some distance away from me and behind a tree. I don’t think she walked far enough way though, because shortly thereafter I heard low, muffled sobs from where I was sitting. I tried not to listen.

  ………………………………………

  Sometime ter, she approached me again, with her posure intact again. While she’d been gone, I’d gathered and dusted myself off. I’d spent the time both awkwardly staring off into spad nearly boung on my tiptoes in impatience. I didn’t have a ton of time to waste.

  Before she could say anything, I held up a hand. “Hey, we, like, run and talk?” I asked anxiously. “I really don’t have a ton of time to get this done for that fucker Magnus.”

  Sylva paused and then me. “Very well. Lead the way.”

  I took off, Silva hot on my heels. Running wasn’t as strenuous for me since I’d gotten my Status, and especially since I’d leveled up more tely, so it wasn’t hard for me to run and speak at the same time. As we started to make out way to the higher-level area of the forest that I’d been to st time, I told her all about Magnus’s little ‘hunts’.

  “Tch.” She said, clig her metal tongue and making a noise akin ting bell. I’d noticed that if I was having an easy time of the run, Sylvia looked like she was nearly gliding around the forest floor, with how simple it was for her. She robably higher level than me, which was unsurprising. “I’d suspected he to such things, and there have always been rumors about him. How…degee.”

  “Degee. Yeah. You could say that.” I said between evehs. Movement caught my eye up ahead. Turning to face it, I saw that it was another damn Warg. “Fuck.” I said under my breath, reag for my still-hidden dagger.

  Sylvia’s hand on my arm stopped me though. Turning to face her, I saw that she was shaking her head slightly. “Allow me.” She murmured. Still rag towards the Warg, she raised her right hand and made a flig motion with it, causing a small heat shimmer in front of it. Ahead of us, the Warg tensed up and ss head to the left. With a distorted howl, the creature sprinted off in the dire it was looking, never even notig the two of us.

  I furrowed my brow. “How…?”

  Sylvia gave a low chuckle. “You sider me something of an illusionist. What that fodder saw was the two of us taunting him off to the side, and then sprinting away. By the time the illusion dissipates, we’ll be long gone.”

  “Cool.” I wao be more impressed, but I still felt pretty focused oask at hand.

  Much soohan I would have expected, we reached the gloomy high-level zone. I was surprised by what I found, though.

  The sinuous red vines were back, snaking through the thorny underbrush. I slowed down when I saw them.

  “What is it?” Silvia asked me.

  “I…know these vines. I killed a mo time I was here that was using them as a trap. But…now they’re back.”

  “Such is the nature of monsters. Ever do they return, no matter how many times you destroy them.” Sylvia said dismissively. “Is this beast a viable didate for ‘Lord’ Savoy?”

  I shook my head. “No, it was immobile. We should go around this stuff though; the brush is too dense.” I’d been pnning on doing this anyway, before Silvia even showed up. Last time, I hadn’t had Thrapple. Now I did. Silvia seemed higher level than me anyway, she could probably keep up.

  Extending a hand upwards, I shot out a blood-red thorny vine upwards towards the tree branches. Feeling it catch, I reeled it in, shooting into the rowth and nding on a tree branch. Looking around, I saw that we were in a particurly dense se of it. I could just hop and skip my way across them, the branches were so dense. When I turned back around, Sylvia was standing patiently right o me, giving me a specutive look.

  I jumped. I hadn’t even heard her, much less felt the branch bend to aodate her solid metal weight. I shook my head to clear it of useless thoughts. “All right, let’s go.”

  Sylvia merely hummed in the back of her throat.

  We set out across the treetop.

  ………………………………………

  It didn’t take us long to find a monster. More importantly, this one wasn’t rooted to the forest floor.

  “That’s one fucked up looking deer,” I said, looking down. I was crouched on a wide bran order to better look down. Idly, I used Observe on the creature below us.

  Name:Corrupted Bde-Rack Hart AlphaLevel:??Age:4 monthsSpecies:MonsterAbilities:??Corrupted, huh. I could see why it was called that. The ‘hart’ milling around below us barely even looked like the monster I’d oten my ass hao me by. It wasn’t even red, dammit. That was what made a stag a hart. I should know.

  Instead of seeming to be flesh like the others, this one looked like it was made out of pnt material. Green and fibrous, it looked like it had simirly green bark-like armrowing on it, but in a haphazard way, shooting off in random dires. It still had the same silverly ahat had goddamn knives growing on them, but they were…wrong. There were too many of them for one, with multiple sets of antlers growing from its head, be and small. That wasn’t what caught my eye the most, however.

  Creeping all along its sinewy body were bright red, thorny, hooked vines.

  Syliva hummed in the back of her throat, catg my attention.

  “What is it?” I whispered. I didn’t know if that monster could hear us up here, but I wasn’t going to risk it.

  “I erhaps too dismissive, earlier. It’s possible that the beast you fought st time was the Prime of this forest if it’s taken to corrupting other monsters.” Sylvia whispered bae. I guess she didn’t know if it could hear us either.

  “Prime?” I asked, fused. I’d never heard the term before.

  Sylvia’s eyes darted away from the moo meet mine. Seeing that I was serious, I could see her furrow her brow behihin mask and hood. ht. She didn’t know I recursor, at least not yet. I’m guessing that was on knowledge.

  “It’s not important right now,” I said in a low voice, shaking my head.

  Sylvia remaiaring at me for a moment before speaking. “Very well.” She whispered. Turnitention to a pou her belt, she rummaged around in it before produg a tightly folded piece h paper. “Take this, and give it to my father when you see him . I took the time to pen it earlier. I believe I knoe’re going to lead your monster baagnus.”