BT - Book 1 - Chapter 88

“This might be the most boring thing we’ve ever done,” Trevor leaned on his spear, glancing past the steady roar of the waterfall at the rainy afternoon outside.  “I still can’t believe it's dryer in here than out there.”

“I could always explain how the ritual works,” Micah grunted as he used the sonic enhancement on his spearhead to carve a teleportation formation into the stone of the shallow cave behind the waterfall.  “I’m sure that would hold your attention for literal minutes.”

“That would make things worse,” Trevor nodded sagely, picking up his spear and sticking the butt into the waterfall.  “Thank you I guess.”

For a couple of minutes there was silence as Micah kept working on the ritual, double checking the runes he’d chipped into the damp stone before he pulled out a dull clump of quartz.  Trevor poked the rushing water a few more times before shuffling around and facing Micah.

“Are you almost done yet?” he asked, drawing a pained hiss from Micah as the question broke his concentration.

“Not really Trevor,” Micah stood up, wiping the sweat from his forehead.  “This is actually fairly intellectually demanding work.  If I screw up any part of it, the ritual might blow up or send someone into the river or a wall.  Given that I’m the one moving the rest of you around, I’d prefer to avoid any of those potential outcomes, thank you very much.”

“Couldn’t you have just moved the other teleportation hubs,” Trevor shrugged.  “This just seems like you’re wasting time and attunement.”

Micah turned to Trevor, simply staring at him until the older man fidgeted slightly.

“What?”  His brother asked, squirming under Micah’s glare.

“I know you weren’t paying that close of attention when I was trying to teach you basic magic theory,” Micah replied, sighing as he returned to the quartz, “but if you could at least pretend to understand the absolute bedrock principles of the field, I would appreciate it.  Ritual magic like the teleportation formations requires you to account for all variables with location being probably one of the most important ones.  If I reused one of them, the enchantment would be just as likely to turn the user into a squid as actually teleport them.”

“Still,” Trevor grumbled, “there has to be a better way to do all of this than to hike for most of a day to some secluded location, wait a half hour for you to scribble in the stone and then, ‘zoom’ we head home only to do it again the next day.”

“That is generally how moving between two locations works,” Micah grunted as he focused on the quartz.  “The previous teleportation network was compromised, so we have to reassemble it.  It’s either that or we settle for Drekt’s cooking and crudely sewn clothes for the rest of our lives.  I for one don’t mind camping out by the lake, but things are going to get rough when we run out of supplies.”

“I’m not sure Drekt knows how to season things,” Trevor replied, turning back to the waterfall.  “Seriously, I can’t believe we agreed to let him be our cook when we were dividing up roles.  All he can do is sear meat.  When we give them vegetables all he does is stack them up and let us eat them.  Even when I tell him that tomor root needs to be boiled or it’ll be as hard as wood, he just stacks it on the side of the serving plate and tells us to ‘help ourselves.”

“Then for the sake of our poor palates,” Micah brought the quartz closer to his face, inspecting the runic structure, “please let me focus on finishing the formation.  Talking is only going to slow me down.”

Trevor sighed and swiveled back to the waterfall, trying to occupy himself as he looked at the river, trying to occupy himself.  Micah just shook his head and tuned his brother out.  He was almost done with the ritual, the culmination of a week’s worth of work scouting and casting.

Finally, with a flash of white light, Micah held the glowing chunk of quartz up.  He closed his eyes, sinking his perception into the crystal.  A moment later, after verifying the hazy connection between the rock and the formation, he stood up.

Micah stretched the tightness out of his shoulders before reaching down and rubbing some blood back into his legs.  Trevor paced over to him, slouching against the wall.

“Are we done now?” Trevor asked hopefully, despite his lethargic body language.

“Yes,” Micah replied, “I’m done.  This cave is well within range of both Basil’s Cove and the waypoint we put together in that thicket near the Cliff Guardian nest.  Hopefully, this time no one will be able to track the teleportation network.  That means keeping things low key back in town.”

Micah stared at Trevor pointedly.

“Wait,” his brother straightened his back and took a step backward.  “Why are you putting this all on me?  Did Drekt say something or was it Sarah?  Both of them promised to keep their mouths shut.”

“No one said anything,” Micah crossed his arms, “it’s just a matter of logic.  When I hear that someone is making poor decisions and drawing attention to themselves that means it's either you, Jo, or me.  Jo and I have been on lockdown because we didn’t want to get recognized, which leaves you.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Trevor frowned at him.  “It could have been Drekt or Sarah.”

“But it wasn’t and we both know it,”  Micah replied.  “Look, I don’t know if alcohol was involved or not, but you really need to cut it out.  There are some very serious people that want us dead.  Durgh aside, you and I killed a Baron’s son.  That isn’t the sort of thing that people forgive and forget about.”

“I might have been a little drunk and started bragging,” Trevor glanced away from Micah, refusing to meet his eyes, “but it was at a dockside bar.  Barons don’t hang out at dockside bars.”

“By the Sixteen’s unending mercy,” Micah pinched the bridge of his nose, “were you just ignoring everything when Jo and Sarah were talking about how Baron Hurden was hiring every blessed he could find and offering rewards for any information regarding his son’s death?  How in the fucking world did it come as a surprise to you that there might be someone in a bar listening in on you?  That isn’t a surprise Trevor, that’s something you should assume.”

“But we talked about business at the Jolly Porker all the time!” Trevor shouted back at him, “and don’t go all creepy time mumbo jumbo on me about how you’re so much smarter than me or some crap like that.  I fucked up and I know it, but it’s not like it was anything too new.  Yeah I ran my mouth off to a couple of guys over drinks, but don’t act like you haven’t done the same.”

“That’s a false equivalence and you know it,” Micah struggled to keep his voice calm.  “When we’re at the Jolly Porker, I’m drinking water and keeping an eye on our surroundings.  If anyone gets close enough to overhear what we’re saying, I stop the conversation.”

“That won’t stop a hearing based blessing,” Trevor replied, unyielding.  “Look, it was a mistake and I’ll admit that.  I’m just getting a little sick of you pulling this ‘everything is part of the plan’ routine.  Even if there is a plan, we both know that neither Baron Hurden nor his superpowered pet wizard were part of it.”

Micah caught himself before he could say something dumb in the heat of the moment.  Trevor was fuming at him, and he wasn’t completely wrong.

“Look,” Micah exhaled, struggling to try and choose his words carefully. “I think we all might have gotten a bit careless.  It was easy for me to feel a bit invulnerable hiding out two days walk from Basil’s Cove.  The problems were literally far away, so I just pushed them to the back of my mind.  It’s hard for you to know what I want if I don’t say it.”

“Thanks,” Trevor relaxed.  “I’m sorry Micah, but we’ll figure it all out.”

“I’ve just been a little worried,” he motioned for his brother to join him on the teleportation formation.  “If they could track the teleportation formations to the cave, they might have traced it to our family.”

“Wait,” Trevor froze.  “They could know about mom and dad?”

“Yes?”  Micah cocked his head slightly.  “I thought you knew that’s why I was pushing us to reconnect with Basil’s Cove as soon as possible.  It’s not like I could just walk in.  If they managed to find the cave, they’re almost certainly watching the gates for me.”

“Shit,” Trevor started pacing, “I just didn’t think-”

“I know Trevor,” Micah sighed.  “Look, the Basil’s Cove side formation is in my bedroom.  They’ve almost certainly seen you going in there.  If they wanted to grab mom and dad right away, they would have.  I’m just hoping that they want me to come back so that they can grab me.”

“The downside is that this might be an ambush,” he shrugged, “but with any luck they’ve left mom and dad alone in order to draw me in.”

“Gods,” Trevor ran his hand through his hair, “why didn’t we rush down to Basil’s Cove right away.  With your magic you could fly over the city wall and-”

“And what Trevor,” Micah winced as he could hear the exasperation in his own voice.  “Flying would trigger an alarm.  They might not be able to stop me, but the city guard would know within minutes that someone had circumvented the gate, and in all likelihood that would mean that Baron Hurden would know a couple of minutes after that.”

“Even if I was able to get to mom and dad,” he sighed, “how do you expect me to get out?  There’s no question in my mind that they’re watching the house, and even if I could fight my way past whoever they have casing the place, there’s no way that Dad, let alone Mom or Esther are going to be able to survive that.”

“Come on Trevor,” Micah extended his arm toward his brother.  “The teleportation beacon for the house still works, and that means it's still standing.  If they hurt our family, we’ll hunt them down and kill each and every one of them, but for now I have hope.  Beyond that? I don’t know what we’re stepping into.”

Trevor nodded, his right hand gripping the haft of his spear tightly.  He stepped across the damp stone floor of the tiny cave.

“Let’s go save our family,” Trevor moved onto the teleportation formation with Micah, grabbing his wrist.

“Be ready for anything,” Micah said grimly, reaching deep into the quartz teleportation beacon with his mind, sensing the hazy trail of white energy that led home.

The darkness of Elsewhere loomed around them, vague formless menace coiling and watching them as Trevor and Micah darted down the narrow channel of energy.  Moments later, Micah pilled out onto the wooden floor of his childhood bedroom, Trevor beside him, as cold sweat poured down his back.

The two of them scrambled to their feet, spears at the ready.

Nothing happened.

From the kitchen, Micah heard their parents talking over the clink of utensils on pots as his Mother made dinner.  Trevor glanced at him, drawing a helpless shrug as Micah heard his Father begin talking.

The two of them left the bedroom, moving quietly down the hallway until they reached the door leading into the kitchen.  Micah just stood there, out of place in his full armor, enchanted spear in hand while his parents chatted quietly.

It was such an ordinary moment, the smell of the cooking food, the quiet chatter, the warmth of the hearth.  Everything he’d left behind on his quest through time to save Basil’s Cove from the coming calamity.

Most importantly, nothing was wrong.  His parents were fine.  The house wasn’t ransacked.  There weren’t any magical alarms or traps.

For a second, he let himself hope that Baron Hurden had never found his family.  That the ambush at the Cave had been a coincidence.

Then his Mother turned and saw the two of them standing in the kitchen doorway.

“Boys!” She gasped, dropping the spoon she’d been using to stir a pot of sauce onto the iron of the oven.  “Thank the Sixteen you’re here.  Did the guild leader tell you about Esther?”

“Once Trevor left,” she hurled herself across the kitchen, wrapping the two of them up in a gigantic hug, sudden tears streaming down her face, “we didn’t know how to get into contact with you.  She’s been missing for almost two days now, and the city guard isn’t doing anything.”