PreCursive

  “That…” I said slowly. “Sounds like a problem.”

  Grey crossed his arms. “A mild one, I admit.”

  “Are ye sayin’,” Bel said in a dangerous tone, g a hand on the pommel of her cutss. “That I risked me crew in’ to this damn isnd, and we ’t even reach the pce?”

  Grey gave her an uned gaze. “Oh, do calm down. As I said, it’s only a mild setback. From what I tell, they’ve simply stripped the opening entment on the door. However, it’s still a mere sb of stone. Many among us are more than capable of simply smashing our way through.”

  “Oh,” Bel said, rexing. “Now that ye mention it, yer right. Hell, I could probably get through a rock like that if you gave me a bit o’ time.”

  “Indeed,” Grey said wryly. “However, the bigger problem is what would happen if we simply broke down the door. The noise from such a thing would no doubt draw quite a bit of attention from the prison at rge. At that point, we would be involved in a running battle throughout the plex as we attempted to locate everyohat we o free from their unjust impriso.”

  Azarus grunted, somehow thoughtfully. “What about if we just moved the door out the way? Don’t got to smash it then.”

  “Again, no,” Grey said, shaking his head. “I structed the door in such a way as to recess into the floor when it is activated. Part of that entment was a sileng effect, to mute the sound of stone grinding against stone, as this entrance was designed for a stealthy infiltration.”

  roup stood around in silence for a moment, before Sylvia broke. “Then we have no choice,” She said simply. “We must prepare for a far more bative entrahan nned.” Her words caused a series of grim nods from members of our little circle.

  Meanwhile, I was sidering the problem from anle. I tilted my head in thought, crossing my arms. I mean, it could work? Worth a shot, at least. “Maybe not,” I said out loud, drawing attention.

  “Nathan?” Grey said curiously, raising an eyebrow.

  “It’s just stone, right? At this point, the door is just a sb of rock with no entments or special properties?” I asked Grey.

  Grey titled his head at me, puzzled. “Indeed? What are you-” He cut himself off, eyes widening. My mentor snapped his fingers in realization. “Of course! I often overlook that capability of yours.”

  “To be fair,” I told him wryly. “I don’t think I’ve ever thought of doing something like this either.” At the curious looks from everyone else, I expined. “So, when I’m using my Profession, I ‘astralize’ materials into po Aether, and then rebihat Aether into forms that I want. However, I don’t have to rebi. I just choose to let the Aether disperse into the enviro.”

  “Ohhhh,” Azarus said, realizing. “So you’re saying that you just poof away the stone and we get through that way?”

  “Yeah, I think it’s worth a try,” I firmed to him.

  Bel gave me a doubtful look. “Are ye talkin’ about that weird stuff I saw ye doin’ to me deck? I…suppose I didn’t hear nothin’ while ye were doin’ it.”

  “Right, yeah,” I her. “My melds are pletely silent.”

  “Well then, please,” Grey said to me, stepping out of the way auring to the ‘door’. “As you say, it’s worth a shot.”

  I stepped past him to the door and id my right hand oone of the door uhe curious gazes of my rades. trating, I fell into my trand let myself start examining the stone. I hadn’t done a whole bunch with pure stoo be ho. Most of my work had been with either metal, wood, or pnts. I just didn’t typically have a bunch of use for a bunch of rocks. However, I had done a brief experiment with it, ba Addersfield.

  Stoo my senses was stubborn. It didn’t like to move and be maniputed. It wasn’t like wood, which was all too eager to obey. It wasn’t like an herb, which might as well have been water from how easy it was to manipute. It wasn’t like fire, which I sometimes had to fight for trol of. It wasn’t even like metal, to be ho. With metal, the eagerness of the fire it was being introduced to coaxed the fire into shape.

  No, stone was a stubborn bastard. It had existed for lohan human civilization, and it didn’t like bending to the will of some uppity whippersnapper.

  I wasn’t anthropomorphizing inanimate materials at all. Shut up, middle ring.

  However, bend it did.

  Under my hand, a fist-sized portion of storansitioned into a haze of glowing blue-green mist. It swirled for a moment in the new pocket in the door, before dispersing into the enviroal Aether around us. I opened my eyes and looked at what I had dohoughtfully. Okay, the test seemed to be successful, but…

  I turned back to the others. “I do it, all right,” I said to them. “But there’s an issue.”

  Grey stopped the gratutions that I could tell were oip of his tongue. He furrowed his brow. “And that is?”

  “I’m going to be exhausted when I’m doh this,” I told him bluntly. “Like the days when I was first getting used to Melding. Just from that little bit of stone, I could feel a drain. Doing the whole door, I don’t think,” I said, stressing the word. “That I’m going to pass out afterward. But I ’t be sure. But what I do know is that I’m going to be useless in a fight, if one breaks out.”

  Grey hummed thoughtfully, but it was Bel who answered me. “Do it anyway,” She told me, just as blunt as I had been. “Don’t mean no disrespect, mind, but yer the weakest one here. We get into a scrap, the rest of this lot hahemselves.”

  At her words, I cast a raised eyebrow over at Grey. He me in response. I shrugged and nodded. “All right then,” I said. “One demolition, ing up.” At that, I turned back around and id my hand ba the stone door, closing my eyes aering my trance.

  All right, what was the best way to do this? I could slowly ‘poof’ away the stone like Azarus said, one fist-sized portion at a time. But that would likely take me an hour at the earliest. The door wasn’t incredibly thick, but it wasn’t as thin as a regur door either. No, we were in a hurry to get started. That wasn’t the best way to go about this.

  Instead, I think I was going to try and astralize the entire door at ohat would be far, far quicker. I’d o get a mental grasp of the ehing at oo do that, though. Once I did, I think I would be able to just destroy the ehing in one go. It would be a bit tedious, though. I’d retched my Aetherial sense over such a rge structure at once. I allowed myself to sigh, mentally, and then got to work.

  Sure enough, it took me about ten minutes of mentally stretg a figurative hand around the entire door. I was lucky that the incredibly slight seam outlining the edges of it were enough for my seo pee through to the other side. Once I was done, I took a deep breath and braced myself. I was sure this was going to suck.

  I was right.

  When I pulled the mental trigger to atralize the entire sb of stone, I bcked out momentarily from the strain. I didn’t evehe ce to open my eyes to see if it had worked. Instead, I could feel myself falling backward.

  Luckily, I think I regained sciousness moments ter. I regretted it, though. God, I hadn’t missed this sensation of having fully drained my stamina. It had been months since I’d pushed a Meld this hard. I sure hadn’t missed this kind of braiing headache. Luckily, I had a handy new skill to deal with it. I used my middle ring to dull the sensation of the headache and slightly disect myself from it. Odd sensation, that. I could tell that the headache was still there, but I couldn’t feel it anymore.

  I think someone had caught me as I was falling, as I could feel myself lying in someone’s arms. Crag opening an eye, I could see the ed face of Sylvia looking down at me. I felt my face redden.

  Of all people, why did it have to be her? I think my head was eveing in her p, fod’s sake.

  “Are you well, Nathan?” Sylvia asked me in a ed tone, unaware of my embarrassment. She helped me to stand up, holdieady when I wobbled.

  “I think so,” I said in a rough voice. “Just…a little tired. Did it work?” I retty sure it had worked.

  Sylvia smiled slightly, before nodding behind me. “See for yourself.”

  I turned around to see a yawning portal where the previous stone sb had stood. I don’t know if either rey had do when he had initially made the entrance, but the edges of the entryway were far smoother than I would have expected. It looked like a perfect arch, with the other side of it being too dark to see anything oher side.

  However, there was nobody else around. Sylvia and I were alone on this side of the door.

  My Sculpted friend answered me before I could even ask the question. “The others went on ahead while I teo you. Father said we could catch up once you awakened.”

  I furrowed my brow. “How long was I out?”

  “Not long,” Sylvia told me, uned. “Perhaps a quarter of an hour?”

  So much for thinking I'd only been out for a few seds.

  I felt my adrenaline spike. Not long? Who knew what could have happened in just fifteen minutes? Sylvia, I uand having faith in Grey, but this was a bit much. He wasn’t omnipotent.

  I straightened up, making sure that my dagger was secure in its sheathe. “We’d better catch up then.” With Sylvia in tow, I approached the entrao the prison. Stepping through it, I once agaied my ck of a light Skill. It itch bck wherever this secret entranceway exited into.

  Luckily, Sylvia seemed to have something. A flickering yellow light sprang into being to my right, causio shield my eyes momentarily. When they had adjusted, I saw that Sylvia had lit the fmmable end of a small haorch.

  Ah…

  That made sense. You know, having an actual physical light sourstead of relying on other people’s skills…

  Man, Vereden had really ed my perspective on things, and I hadn’t even been here a year yet.

  I shook off my chagrin and examined where we had exited into. Looked like a ste room of some kind, to me. We were surrounded by barrels, crates, and sacks in a rge underground room hewn from the same stone I had noticed prised the prison earlier. On the far side of the room was a rge set of wooden stairs that led upward. I guess we were ihe prison proper, now.

  There was nobody down here, though. I suppose the others had already moved on.

  That presented a problem.

  I leaned in closer to Sylvia. “Do you…know anything about the floor pn of Caer Drarrow?”

  Sylvia paused in her iion of the room. “Ah,” She said slowly. “No.”

  Shit.

  How were we supposed to catch up to everyone else, if we had no idea where they had went?