Kings Game

Chapter 54 - Relatives

(1)

Reaching the end to the tunnel, Nul paused. Karyn was behind them, huffing and puffing but determined to keep up.

"Are you okay?"

Karyn nodded, too busy breathing to respond.

"We'll be walking from here on out."

"Good, I like walking, I know how to use those muscles."

Despite Karyn's comments, they'd made good time to the Upper Rim, performing a day's walk in only a few hours. With a wave of their wand, the gossamer dissipated and the skating effect vanished. They walked up the spiral tunnel to the surface. Reaching the door, Nul drew a sigil in the air. A thin bit of gossamer trailed off their finger, floating to the door and recreating the sigil. The door clicked and slid open.

"Show off," said Akanos.

Nul grinned in satisfaction, proud of their improvised trick, but kept walking, they didn't have time to celebrate every little victory. Karyn hustled after them, shuddering as they walked out into the snow together.

"I wish I knew this was here when I was fleeing," she said.

"I should have told you."

"You didn't know what would happen. Besides, Sarah was supposed to guide us."

"That reminds me." Nul placed a couple fingers to their neck. Nothing happened. Nul sighed. "Right, that's going to be an adjustment."

Closing their eyes, Nul relaxed and felt for their etchings. Within each spiderweb were a dozen trapped sigils and runes, all of them ready and waiting. Nul felt the etchings shift, some sigils shrinking while others grew, their effects changing.

Nul tried again, this time the communication marking activated. They waited a second before saying, "Roran?"

Nothing. Roran was either asleep or otherwise not paying attention. Tapping their chin, Nul reached for their etchings, once more making them shift and change until the desired focus markings were arranged.

"Roran, can you hear me?" Karyn jumped and frowned at Nul. Nul tried again. "Roran?"

Roran's voice came back to them. "Yeah, I can hear you."

"We just got to the Upper Rim. Have you found Kell yet?"

"No, Sarah and I are still climbing up to the castle."

Nul could feel Akanos's memories swirling around inside the back of their mind, old information bubbling to the surface. "It's a fortress, not a castle. It was meant to be accessible by air as a hub for messenger birds."

"...Okay? We're climbing up one of the maintenance stairwells. I'll let you know when I find Kell."

"We're on our way. It's going to be difficult moving around during the day with all of the soldiers about, but we'll manage."

"Okay, be careful. Once we get Kell we can turn tail and run."

"The Uhlarans don't know how to access the old tunnels. We can head back to the library once we find Kell."

"Good, we'll need time to rest and recover."

Nul let the etchings fall dormant before muttering, "We'll have plenty of time for that on the walk home."

"Nul?" said Karyn, "How did you activate our etchings like that?"

"I used the base resonance built into the etching to-"

"In layman's terms, please."

"My new etchings allow me to bend reality even further."

Karyn nodded though she looked apprehensive, scared almost.