“Controller on the hilltop! Due south!” Briggs called out, Endure crashing down in a cleaving arc of angry Lost Light that chopped a Dark Phantom diagonally in half, continuing over to slam through a Panumbris and sending the disintegrating remnants of the shade flying backwards to crash in an eruption of vivus against the canyon wall.

  “Hundig! Kick him down and follow!” I swore, flicking up the Dimension Door. The Saber-wielding Gharu’n Roach dove through the square of blackness.

  A second later a somehow whispery scream sounded as a figure made of blackness came hurtling over the edge of the cliff above us, followed by Hundig diving right after him, avoiding half a dozen blasts of vari-colored War Magic as he did so.

  There was just a beat as Endure intercepted the real shade in midair and blasted him hard against the stone of the cliff face before bouncing back to Briggs’ hand. That didn’t help the shade there at all, Hundig sweeping past it in mid-roll and venting a good chunk of his falling damage by ripping his Saber Qamar through the inky darkness of the thing in a perfect cut of Lost Light and vivic fire, before a casual flaring of his Cloudstepping Sandals Tats stopped him only a few feet above the ground. Then he was on the ground and running back into the fight.

  The small horde of shades rippled as the controller above died, and everyone in combat promptly disengaged coolly, or finished off their current opponents in a blur of Weapons-play and then hopped back.

  The Summoned shades wavered, and then turned around and began hurrying back the way they’d come, their Spawn Points their only destination now with the lack of a living commander.

  Over a score of dead shades littered the area, vivus killing them extra quickly with the combination of shadow and ectoplasm making them pretty much ideal fuel for the unwhite fires. The same number were heading off down the canyon now, ignoring any injuries in their hurry to head home.

  There was no benefit to killing Summons off their Spawn Points, except possibly for some Naming Karma we didn’t need, or a bit of fuel for Isparian Levels.

  “Annoying bastards,” Kris mused, eyes elevated with everyone else to scan the tops of the canyons.

  “Can confirm they didn’t act quite so clever in the past, Highness,” the Mick related. “That’s four times now, an’ quite the control range. Ye think they play war games against one another here, or summat?”

  “They definitely don’t want to see us here.” Briggs had a thoughtful expression as he looked over our backtrail.

  “Thirty-seven group Spawn Points in only a mile. A busy place,” I mentioned, waggling Crown at Mizaya, who hastened to come up and start taking some Healing Reserve while we sat there. Motes of Lost Light started to pump into the Sho Roach and rapidly mend up a cut on her cheek and doubtless some bruising on her chest from the umbris that had been pounding on her.

  The half-dozen others needing Healing lined up behind her, while everyone else got into Aurora Stances and focused on getting back any expended mana used through Lenses.

  Our back trail was a combination of Shaped Markers and broad white spots in the sands of the canyon floor, most coming from a lot of vivified Summons dying on their points of origin.

  The three really big splotches had been more of these hordes being directed to attack us by real controllers. One had been a Virindi Master commanding waves of banderlings and drudges down here, the others had stayed up high and had to be killed up there or brought down here.

  “Final assessment, Mick?” Briggs asked coolly, making no move to advance.

  “Assess Critter be confirming what I be thinking. There be some manner o’ ‘Dires’ boost t’ everythin’ we be fightin’ so far, weren’t there before. Umbris an’ panums should be perhaps two hits, tops, and one with a crit. Taking two crits, four normal blows to eat ‘em through, an’ they be hitting harder an’ more accurately.” He raised a hand, turning around and meeting eyes.

  Heads nodded, and his fingers came up to count those agreeing with him.

  Everybody basically nodded. They’d all fought variants of these creatures down further south, even right outside the Obsidian Plains. Somehow they were all twice as tough inside the Rim.

  “Any reason for not seeing any Rynthids?” I inquired, glancing up at the walls above as Kopf clasped Crown and started getting rid of the results of three blasts of War Magic from the side and to his face. I’d actually had to do combat Heals of him and Gros, the two lugian Vanguards stoically tanking for the group. Hundreds of blasts of War Magic had slammed into their Shields so far today, ‘properly seasoning them’, as the lugians liked to say.

  “Nay. In me day back then, they Spawned low in the canyons, as well as up top on the Inner Rim.” He squinted up at the walls, considering. “Are they up there?” he asked me.

  I didn’t interrupt the Reserve, summoning up an Eagle’s Vantage and tossing it into the sky two hundred paces up above us and displaying the results in the /Marktell for the Fellowship here.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  They all watched its view of us recede as the point of light gained height, and then spin to survey the blackened lands far above us.

  There were points of light in the darkness, as well as splotches of colorful furs and war paint.

  “Aye, the wild colors dancing, there an’ there, for starters,” the Mick indicated, pointing mentally at Spawn Points as I revolved the view. “Ye can see the static glows o’ the Hollow Minions’ fists.”

  “No olthoi spawns, Mick,” Kris remarked.

  “Aye, same as down here. Another change with no reason.”

  There were hundreds of spawns in visible range. It wasn’t quite as bad as the northern Hlaetians had been, but it was still very impressive… and probably close to being as dangerous.

  We hadn’t found a clear normal way up out of the canyons, and the nearest turn going further towards the center was another half a mile ahead of us. It would eventually rise up to the surface as it closed on the Center.

  “What do you think of pulling out now and seeing what happens, Magos?” Briggs asked me as my Vantage completed a full circuit.

  “We need a lived-line connection to the top of the place regardless, I could zip up and establish a Seal Focus up there, and I think we should all get it, too. The main concern you have is if the forces here intend to break the Seals on the Spawn Points, I believe?”

  “Yes, we want a clear road to the Center if we can make one,” he confirmed.

  “I believe they don’t even have to make that decision.” I waved my hand at the canyon floor. “Logically, this should all be covered with black dust and erosion from the higher elevations coming down.” Everyone looked up and around, digesting that.

  Kris crouched down and scraped her fingers through the ground. “Sandstone mostly,” she judged, her pale violet eyes narrowed. “There’s basically none of the energies in the stone up top down here at all. That’s not right.” There’d been two storms up top while we’d been hackfesting our way along here, after all. “The effects of the storms are really minor down here, too…”

  Like, we barely had to worry about the acid rain from the first storm.

  “There’s a slow but constant energy flow moving along the canyons, and its effects are fighting against the wild magic up top,” I surmised. “Given that constant pressure, I’m going to assume it slowly forced any Rynthids up top.”

  “And it’s going to wipe the vivic Seals and open the spawn points up at dawn?” Briggs guessed quickly.

  I pointed at him. “Point! So I believe.”

  “Mmm. Does that make this fruitless?” he frowned, not pleased by that possibility.

  “No, but it does mean we have to take another step,” I shook my head.

  “We have to Mark them with ongoing vivus, don’t we?” Kris said, her arms crossed as she looked back at the way we’d come and the striped Markers on them. “Vivic Eternal Lights or something similar?”

  “Two points to the Hag Princess!” I nodded. “It will make it obvious what is happening and easier to stop. Not too hard to destroy an Eternal Light Marker if you are inclined, then just let the flow of mana uncork the Spawn Point for you.”

  “And of course we helpfully tell them right where to do that.” Kris rolled her eyes dramatically.

  “Kind an’ considerate folk that we be,” the Mick half-laughed at the irony of it. “We’ve got most o’ the combat information we wanted, Commander, save the Rynthids, an’ we can’t find that down here.” There were none of the wild lights anywhere in the canyon’s spawns ahead of us.

  “Then we go up as soon as we can… but I want any real creatures up top identified as rapidly as we can.”

  “Make for that Rynthid spawn there.” Kris pointed it out in the /Marktell Map. “Our avenue of retreat if we get swarmed is going to be jumping off the edge, so we need to stay close.”

  “I won’t be able to discern living from Summons without direct line of sight, so prep your running shoes once we clear the edge, Kris,” I told her with not a little amusement.

  Quaver rang a stern note immediately. “Always ready,” Kris winked at me.

  “So the Commander swears by.” A bunch of eyes widened as that let go, and then Kris was laughing louder than anyone else, while Briggs went beet red. “We can rise up at any time, Commander.”

  The Mick had to spin around and experience a sudden coughing fit at that. Briggs gave him a hairy eyeball at the length of the sudden laughing fit, while everybody else was trying really, really hard not to look at the two of them and keep their faces straight.

  Kris flowed up behind Briggs and up his back, entwining her arms around his thick neck and proceeding to nibble on his ear. “My Fuzzy is always right in his statements about me,” she cooed in his ear, and he groaned in defeat.

  “Since everyone is concerned about rising to the occasion and is done with Healing, Cloudstepping on. Magos, pop the wings and take us up.”

  Misty vapors swirled around the feet of everyone present, and everyone lined up at the edge of the canyon, hands held to either side. I popped my star-filled Wings, and lifted off the ground. Kris and the Mick grabbed my boots, and with basically no effort I hauled everyone up so they didn’t have to run the distance, Crown scraping the side of the cliff as we ascended, said action imitated by dragging toes to establish Lived-Lines.

  The shades that had been around our friendly controllers had run off to somewhere as I came up over the edge, the line of our forces spread out to either side and ready to enter combat. They let go of one another and stepped forward onto the black soil, the sands equal parts fused and affected by unclean energies.

  No Summons within sixty yards. Weapons hissed around, grounded, and unsurprisingly, the ground touched by swirling Motes of misting Lost Light rapidly popped with vivus, poofed white mist, and turned white.

  “That be not worrisome at all, it be,” the Mick said, shaking his head as he looked at the ground. “How many hours did I spend wandering about this place back then?…” he trailed off.

  “Controllers,” Briggs said, stepping up between Gros and Kopf.

  Arcane Sight was a case of elimination. Anything not radiating Conjuration magic was basically ‘real’ here.

  “Virindi Director, there,” I pointed to a mixed squad of virindi, tuskers, and minions, the Executioners being nominally the most dangerous, if you ignored the threat of the hollow attacks from the minions.

  “Pierce Vuln it. Arrows!” Briggs ordered coolly, and the Roaches hopped up on the Disks that peeled out of their Masspacks, multiple Bows and Autobows coming to bear. “Go!” Briggs ordered.

  Harsh yellow light scintillated about the Director. It turned more fully to look at us, started to bow and clasp its sleeves in the monkish Casting motion they used, while the entire spawn of creatures turned my way, staring at me above Briggs and the two Vanguards… and then the arrows came in and swatted the Director dead instantly.

  It didn’t stop the Summons from charging us, but that was fine. They died quickly.

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