Rune Seeker

Hiral sat cross-legged on a flat slab of stone with his back to the cliff wall, eyes closed, and the sound of camp activity bustling in front of him. A deep breath in. Hold. Release. Once more, and he let his eyes open slowly while he inspected his own body with Cycling.

It’d been around twenty hours since the Ex-General and its army had attacked the fortress. Eighteen since Seena and the others had returned to find him comatose with a very strictMilly watching over him and not letting anybody near him other than Seena and the party healers. Eight hours since he’d woken up from that nap, feeling like the entire horde of Chimeras had used him as a dance floor.

Now though? Everything didn’t hurt, finally. Some focused Cycling along with recommendations and assistance from the four healers had gone a long way. His Runic Regeneration had really been putting in work as well, but it had been muted, like the ability knew it was causing just as much damage as it was repairing while his channels were rubbed raw.

Even those had mostly healed up at this point, and Hiral nodded to himself as he watched his solar energy flow. It wasn’t at the same level it had been with Politet’s mystery drug in his system, but he’d definitely walked away from that whole situation with an upgrade. And an idea to make it even better.

The experience with slipping strands of solar energy past his nodes to activate the Edicts – though something he likely wouldn’t be repeating – had been the clue he needed. Frankly, he should’ve thought of it sooner, with how he threaded solar energy into his runes anyway. Whatever, he could berate himself for missed chances endlessly if he let himself. That was the past, and all he could worry about was the future.

With the inspiration, he was already working on separating the single flow of solar energy through his channels into dozens – hundreds – of smaller, individual streams. While it wasn’t easy, he’d already seen the benefits of it in how easily and quickly he’d been able to activate his abilities. At the fact they were even stronger. He’d get there again, without the use of Politet’s drug, and find a way to teach the others to do it too.

Once… he mastered it himself. At this point, he’d managed to turn the single river into four streams, which really offered no benefit. Yet. It was a work in progress.

Satisfied with his healing and his progress, Hiral leaned his head back against the wall and looked straight up. The massive tree that had grown out of the cliff and protected the people of the camp had faded back into solar energy, leaving the stone almost entirely bare. Almost. A small sapling had sprouted from a crack in the rock, coincidently right where the main trunk had been.

Hiral hadn’t had a chance to talk to Grandmother since he’d woken – mainly because Milly had chased everybody away – but it was on his list of things to ask. So, instead of worrying about how the ongoing subjugation of the valley was going, he’d found a comfortable seat within sight of the raid interface, and focused on himself.

Left and Right sat about forty feet in front of him, keeping most of the passer-bys away – more than one had wanted to talk to him after the events twenty hours earlier – but he’d chosen his seat for a reason. Evolutionary Inspirations.

Most people had evolved where they could before coming to the Cradle, since nobody really knew what they were getting into with the raid. Since then, though, people had completed trials. Gained experience and levels. Upgraded their Ranks.

And all that had to be done in one place. The raid interface.

Sure, the Evolutionary Inspirations had been a little uncomfortable to his still-healing body, but the permanent bonus stats were worth it in his opinion.

On the other hand, he hadn’t gone about getting the rewards for his own achievements. His body – his PIM – hadn’t been ready for those. Hadn’t. Now though? Now it was just about time. There was one thing to do first, though. Something far more important than achievements.

Talking to the woman getting let past his overprotective doubles.

“Hey,” Seena said as she strolled up to him. “How are you feeling?”

“Finally like myself again,” Hiral said. “Pain is gone. Solar energy is doing what I tell it to. I’ll be ready to go back out and run trials soon.”

“Mind if I sit?” Seena asked, pointing at the wall beside him.

“Please,” Hiral said, shuffling over so she could sit on the stone instead of the grass.

“Thanks,” Seena said, plopping down. A scootch over to press her side against his, and she intertwined her fingers with his hand.

“Uh…” he started. “Is this the part where you lecture me about being reckless?”

“Nah,” she said. “You don’t need me to tell you that at this point.”

“Thank you…? I think.”

“Don’t think I didn’t see you working on your little project when you thought nobody was looking, though,” Seena said, and Hiral winced just a touch. “How’s it coming?”

“You know about that, huh?” he asked.

“We had a bet going on how long it would take you to remember you had that in your ring and get to work on it.”

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“A bet? Really?”

Seena nodded.

“Who… won?” he asked reluctantly.

“Right,” Seena said without missing a beat. “Since we’re all pretty sure he cheated, Yan was the next closest. By a lot, actually. I thought you’d get it out within twenty hours, tops. The whole Hanging Garden thing obviously threw that off. Seeyela said it’d be more like hundreds of hours, and that’d you’d basically just forget about it until then. She was half right.”

“And Yan?” Hiral asked.

“In between,” Seena said. “I’d say he probably just guessed, except it had it down almost to the hour. Kind of eerie, if you ask me. Anyway, you didn’t answer my question. How’s it coming?”

“I’ve got it back together in one piece, but I’m still figuring out the pathways,” Hiral said. “It moved solar energy a bit differently than we do, and, honestly, using Mold Crystal still hurts a bit. Then there’s the whole question of what it’ll do if I wake it back up.”

“Maybe wait until we’re A-Rank and can put it back down without much thought?” Seena suggested.

“Pretty much what I was thinking,” Hiral said.

“Good.” She leaned into him again. “Let me know if you need any help with anything. Or if you just need it burned again.”

“You’ll be the first one I come to if I need something torched.”

“You should praise the Mistress’s generosity,” Li’l Ur said from where he sat on her far shoulder.

“Oh, I do,” Hiral said. “But, not to get myself in trouble, what brought it on?”

“I’m just happy you’re okay now,” Seena said. “That we’re all… mostly okay.”

“Mostly?” Hiral said.

“Gran is still getting used to having legs again. Not that she was using them much before,” Seena chuckled. “Her PIM is taking time to readjust. It’s good you’re better, but it’ll still be a few hours before we head out, I think. The other parties need some more time too.”

“Nivian found a sixth yet?” Hiral asked, thinking about the sudden hole in the group.

“He has some leads,” Seena said. “Honestly, nobody seems too torn up about losing Politet. Even the other undead. Still, finding somebody strong enough to keep up – who isn’t already in a party – isn’t easy.”

“Guess so. They all close to A-Rank too?”

“Getting there,” Seena said. “They’ll need some of the B-Rank trials, but they’ll get there soon enough. Unlike you, Mr.-I-Already-Have-Enough-Experience-To-Rank-Up.”

“You’re one to talk,” Hiral replied. “You’re nineteen, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” Seena said. “It’s too bad we’ll waste some of the experience we’ll get in the B-Rank trials while we sit at the cap, but… nothing we can do about it. We need Nivian and Ilrolik’s parties at A-Rank with us.”

“Won’t actually be that bad,” Hiral said. “Some of the experience I got since hitting twenty has gone into escrow. I can’t tell how much, but we’ll have a bit of a head start when we evolve.”

“Oh? That didn’t happen before, did it? How does it even work?”

“I think it might be one of those unspoken bonuses of being B-Rank or above. From our PIMs continuing to evolve. Think about it this way. Experience is just a numerical representation of solar energy we get from killing monsters or completing certain PIMP-sponsored events.”

“With you so far,” Seena said.

“That energy we’re getting, it’s not just normal solar energy, the kind we’d get from the sun. Like those intents I’ve been talking about…”

“Nivian’s ‘I protect’?”

“Exactly that. The experience-energy we’re getting now is laced with something like that intent. Like a little piece of the things we’re defeating is getting absorbed into our own PIMs. Teaching it. Evolving it slowly.

“Now, at B-Rank-twenty, my body is storing some of that extra intent. Circling it throughout my PIM until its ready to take the meaning from it that it can.”

“That’s not bad,” Seena said. “Means there’s still a pretty big benefit to running the trials beyond their direct rewards.”

“Yup,” Hiral said. “And, before I ask you about the rewards from the previous trial – and your advanced class, you know I’m curious – how’s Gran doing? Not the leg thing. The Laseen thing.”

“She’s being Gran,” Seena sighed. “Doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“She’ll come around,” Hiral said slowly. “Or, she won’t. It’s up to her.”

“It is,” Seena said. “But, then I remember the young lady we spent a year with in the Rise of Fallen Reach. How happy she was. And… her dad.”

“Any idea what happened to Cederk?”

“Gran hasn’t said anything,” Seena said. “Or about what actually happened to Dr. Benza.”

“From the sounds of what Tomorrow said, it couldn’t have been anything good.”

“You don’t think he’s secretly alive out there somewhere too? Another Progenitor we haven’t met? Or, didn’t realize we have?”

“Somehow, I don’t think so,” Hiral said. “I’m still a little shocked Tomorrow was Fenil the whole time. That she influenced Dr. Benza and the creation of the PIMP from the beginning.”

“Does it really change anything?” Seena asked, then continued before Hiral could answer. “I don’t think so. At least not to us. All that happened too long ago, it’s literally ancient history.”

Hiral nodded slowly. “While I agree with you – mostly – I think it does change one thing.”

“What’s that?” Seena asked.

“It’s not directly connected to Dr. Benza or the PIMP,” Hiral said. “But something Tomorrow said has been bothering me. She said the Raze come every cycle to extinguishthe runes. Doing that triggers the rollover for history to sort of… restart.

“Honestly, I’m purposely trying not to think about how a rollover is any different from history just continuing, but let’s leave that for later.”

“Or never,” Seena said. “Makes my heard hurt just thinking about it.”

“Either or,” Hiral chuckled.

“What’s bothering you about it?”

“Two things. First off, I don’t think it’s possible to extinguish the runes. To just make them go away, like Tomorrow seemed to be suggesting. No, I think it’s more likely the Raze want the runic power to do something like what Amin Thett did. Use it at its peak for… well, this is part of what I haven’t figured out. They want it to do something.

“That something is the first part. Second is where the Raze and the squids are from. The way Tomorrow explained it, getting here to Genesis from her universe is by chance. Even when she got here wasn’t guaranteed. So, how are the Raze tracking the rise of runic energy here, and timing their arrival for when it’s at the peak?

“Until we understand their motives and methods, I don’t think we can beat them.”

“The PIMP?” Seena asked cautiously, like she wasn’t even thrilled with the suggestion. “After some of the things we’ve heard – and experienced – we need to be careful how much we trust it. But, it might have a way of stopping the Raze.”

“It might,” Hiral agreed. “Though, there’s one other person we can ask. Tomorrow spent a lot of time studying the Black Gates and the squids that came through. And she fought the Raze.But, all of that was from the perspective of an enemy. Sure, she knew a lot about them, but she didn’t know them.

“There’s somebody else who might be able to give us a perspective from the inside.”

“Who?” Seena asked, though by the look on her face, she had figured it out even if she didn’t want to say it out loud.

“Vorinal.”