Aliandra You have been afflicted with Domain Withdrawal.Separation from your domain weakens you.-10% to maximum health.Affli – Duration: Indefinite. t: 1

  Ali woke screaming as an agony like nothing she had ever known tore through her body and mind, rendering her incapable of anything other than curling up into a ball. She hung on, desperate for any form of respite, but the torment was uing.

  A rge hand suddenly cmped over her mouth, cutting off her already hoarse scream. She struggled weakly against the powerful grip, twisting to see who it was.

  Mato!

  At the sight of him looking down at her, she panicked, filing to get away, but she was so small and racked with pain that she was no match for the huge Beastkin’s overwhelming strength.

  “Ali, stop screaming, the Kobolds will find us!” His urgent whisper was edged with desperation. It took a few moments for the meaning of his words to percote through the haze of pain and panic, but suddenly, her awareness so the present and she realized where she was.

  We fell. That was a memory. Some of it. With sudden crity, she realized Mato wasn’t trying to kill her again, and the fight against the Kobolds in the darkness crashed bato her mind as she remembered where she was. She ched her teeth to keep from screaming. She bit so hard that she cut her own cheek, feeling a fresh surge of pain and the taste of blood in her mouth. Surprisingly, the more mundane pain made the pain from her withdrawal very slightly more bearable.

  Mato’s hand released its hold on her. “ you call your rats off?”

  It was only then that she realized she could hear her rats biting and scratg, trying to kill Mato. She sent a quick mental and, and they stood down. The freshly bleeding sshes and bites on Mato’s back slowly began to close uhe influence of the subtle shifting green radiance of the surroundioration circle.

  “It… it’s my domain … withdrawal,” Ali mao whisper between ched teeth, wrestling to get her heart palpitations under trol and slow her hyperventition. The Druidic Restoration magic had already repaired the self-inflicted bite on the inside of her cheek, but it was having absolutely no impa the agony of the domain withdrawal.

  She had been aware of the cost of a domain-bound css and uood domain withdrawal. She had even knowingly accepted it when she had decided on her css, but... I had no idea it would be so painful.

  She slumped back to the ground, curling up into a fetal position, hands ed around her head.

  “You just leveled up, you put some points into endurance?”

  “What?” It sounded like gibberish to her. I just want the pain to stop!

  “Fighters and warriors use endurao mitigate pain.” Mato’s voice sounded uncharacteristically worried. Toug her shoulder, he said, “It’s not just about more stamina, it allows them to fun evehey’re wounded. Maybe it help with this?” She fli his touch, and he snatched back his hand as if scalded.

  Ali was willing to try anything. Even his crazy idea. After a brief struggle to focus oask, she mao spend one of her free attribute points on endurance, bringiotal up to six. As soon as she did so, the pain eased noticeably, as if ualons ed around her skull suddenly looseheir death grip – just a little. Desperate for relief, she rapidly spent four more points, and suddenly, the overwhelming pain was gone.

  Not gone, she realized, as her mind began to clear, and her breathing steadied. She could still feel the pain well enough. It feels less important, somehow? I’m not very good with pain. She found she could put it into the background, and she could think and move more normally.

  “Thanks,” she said, sitting up and keeping herself as far from Mato as she could get while still being ihe runic circle. “The pain isn’t gone, but at least I think, now.”

  “Yes, that’s how it works for me, too,” he answered, and then fell silent, staring at the grouween his feet.

  They sat there for a while before Mato eventually broke the silence.

  “Aliandra…” After trailing off he started again. “Did I… did I really attack you?”

  “Yes.”

  Ali hugged her ko her chest as the unwanted memory of Mato thrashing her body bad forth surged bato her mind.

  The blood drained from Mato’s face the instant she firmed it. “I… I’m really sorry,” he said, his voice crag badly. “I thought I could trol it. The rage. But I ’t even remember half the fight.”

  He couldn’t even look at her.

  Ali simply sat, struggling to process the torrent of emotions that his words had unlocked.

  “ was right, it’s a dangerous skill. I didn’t listen to him because I thought it was cool and powerful. I thought I could be strong like my dad. And I hurt you. I nearly killed you.” He fell silent, staring down at the ground, his shoulders hunched and his hands gripping his thighs till his knuckles turned white.

  He was clearly suffering, but he still terrified her. If he hadn’t been so weak at the end, he would have killed her with his untrolled rage. She had liked the big Beastkin with his outgoing personality and carefree attitude; his gentler side when he read to her.

  It’s just his skill, she told herself. Rationally, she knew he was the same person, simply affected by the nature of his skill, but even knowing that had no impa the primal, instinctive fear she had of being hurt by him. And her fear was rational, too.

  What happeime?

  He groaned, “Are you alright? Ali?”

  “I’m not ok, Mato.”

  He looked up and Ali reized anguish and guilt in his eyes. “You’re right to be afraid of me. I never wao hurt you, but I don’t think I trol it. I wouldn’t be ok if I was in your pce. I think you would be safer without me.”

  “How does it work?” Ali asked finally. The reality of her situation was slowly settling like a millstone of brutal practicality weighing down upon her. She was not sure if she was more terrified of Mato, or the idea of fag the monsters out there in the darkness by herself.

  “The more damage I take, the strohe effect. It gets really hard to trol around half my health. I don’t remember anything after I dropped below a third remaining. I already tried to remove the skill, but I ’t repce it unless I unloething new.”

  The admission that his remorse had driven him to risk crippling his power to make it right tipped the bance a little away from the monsters and in favor of the person she had beeing to know.

  “ we keep it above half then?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I put all my points into vitality and endurance. And my Bear Form skill leveled so I have more armor. But those Kobolds were much higher level than us, and I don’t have any prote against fireballs.”

  “I would definitely die if I had to face a group like that on my own.” All her instincts rebelled against her resolution. If they had been somewhere safe, Ali was certain she would not have eaihe idea of putting herself at risk of fag his rage a sed time. But she was certain she had heard more Kobolds outside, and there was absolutely no ce of her surviving on her own.

  “You sure?” Mato seemed surprised.

  Ali nodded. Even though she hated it, she had no reason to sed-guess her choice. “We o get out of here, aand a better ce together.”

  “Ok. But keep your distan fights and be ready with your barrier.”

  “How much armor do you have?” Ali tried to distract herself from her roiliions by turning to the practical s of strategy and fighting. She didn’t have Malika to help, but she had learned a few things about what mattered to the physical csses.

  “One hundred and fifty-four when I’m a bear. Nearly fifty pert physical damage redu against a level six monster, but it falls off rapidly when they get higher.” He paused for a moment before tinuing, “But that Fire Mage was level nine, and I have no magic resistance.”

  “I have her,” Ali replied. In any fight, the only defenses she had were her barrier and any of her creatures or allies. She had far less health than any of her friends, and now she had ten pert less from her Domain Withdrawal. “If we have to – when we fight something, you take the warriors and rogues in Bear Form and don’t fet to heal yourself. I’ll try to kill any mages first.”

  Ali looked around the room. She had not had much ce to exami till now. There was no light, other than the greenish glow of her restoration circle, and all she could see of the ceiling was a dark void representing the hole they had fallen through. It looked like it had been fashioned with some engineered purpose by the a Dwarven Stone Mages that had built most of Dal’mohra.

  A ventition shaft? It wasn’t a particurly helpful thought, though – without being able to fly, they were not getting out that way. The only option was the doorway she had blocked earlier with summoned sbs of stone.

  “Do you think and Malika survived?” Mato’s subdued voice shifted her focus.

  In the short few days Ali had known them, she had e to see them all as friends. She felt particurly close to Malika after some of the versations they had shared. It had taken no more than a single instant for all of that to be crushed. Her thoughts returo the battle from earlier, and the incredible power of the dark rogue that had appeared from nowhere, shattering Armand’s skeleton with a single blow. If they had survived, it was only because he wahem alive. “I hope so,” Ali finally answered, but her hope felt slim and fragile.

  “Me too.”

  “Let’s see if we find our way out of here,” Ali said, scrambling to her feet.

  “Ali, thank you,” Mato said softly from a little way behind her. “For healing me, even though…”

  She turo look at him and nodded, not trusting herself to answer. Instead, she ged the subject. “I’ll destruct the stone. You get ready in case there are monsters.”

  “Ok,” Mato said, shifting to his Bear Form.

  Ali’s breath hitched ihroat at the sight, and she quickly turo the doorway and destructed the rough stone wall barring the exit. As it dissipated, she also released the mana reservation for her Restoration runic circle, causing the glow to fade. She would he mana.

  Theepped out into the darkness beyond the door.

  Ali found herself in a dark, stone-paved alleyway, littered with dusty broken bones. Here a pile of bleached ribs, off to the side, a partially intact skeleton. And, led up against the shattered stone doorway of a building, she saw an elongated skull with promi fangs that may have e from some reptiliaure.

  Kobold, she guessed.

  There were numerous scuff marks and tracks in the dust, and even the beautifully fitted fgstones were worn down from tless years of passage. Behihe giant stoower taining the ventition shaft she had fallen through vanished into the darkness far above.

  Where are we?

  Ali had a clear ao the question. Without a doubt, she was home.

  Dal’mohra.

  More precisely, this was defihe upper level of the city: the residential level where she and her mom – and all her friends had lived.

  Now it was buried deep beh the foundations of aown, almost unreizable.

  The support towers, like the one she had just stepped out of, had always been visible uhe light of the floating sor orbs. Even at night, when they dimmed the magical lights, the Grand Library Ara had stood out like a bea, glowing with entments and runic magic. A ndmark, visible from anywhere withiy.

  It had been such a fixture in her life that just standing here in the ruined alleyway, covered with bones and the dust of ages, staring at the imperable darkness left her bewildered and disoriented. Like an anchor that had always stabilized her life had been uprooted and swallowed up, leaving her aimlessly adrift.

  Even the electric buzz and vibrance of the city’s ambient magi her skin – the signature bustle of a thriving magical metropolis – was gone, repced by an ominous prickle, an energy that made her skin crawl and want to hide.

  A chorus of strange, distant chirping noises sent chills running down her spine.

  “Kobolds,” Mato firmed in a whisper, joining her in the alleyway.

  “I’m not certain where we are,” she said, keeping her voiatg whisper. “Definitely Dal’mohra, but I ’t tell which way is out.”

  “Let’s explore a little and see if we figure it out.”

  Ali nodded, and then picked a dire at random, instrug her rats to follow along and be ready to defend them. The clig of their cws oone, and the ch as they stepped ments of bone, echoed loudly off the stone buildings in the muffled silence of the ruins, putting her on edge.

  As she turhe er, she directed her attention upward at the cavern roof, somewhere beyond the darkness, i on catg a glimpse of the Grand Library tower, or anything that may help orient her. Something invisible and tight pressed against her shin, and before she k, she hit the ground face first, tripping with all the dignity and grace of a sack of vegetables.

  A soft swoosh and a brush of air at the back of her neck froze her pints and grumbling right ihroat before she had a ce to let them out.

  “You ok? Did you get hit?” Mato was leaning over to help her up.

  “What was that?” she asked, staring at the obstru. The thing she had tripped over was a thin bck wire. Who sets wires across streets? She rubbed the skin on the back of her neck where whatever it was had brushed her and shivered.

  “Dart trap,” Mato answered, pointing to where three small, sleek shapes had smmed into the wall beside them so hard that they were still quivering from the force. A thick dark fluid slowly dripped dowone from where they had hit.

  Ali froze at the sight. That almost hit me! She touched the almost invisible wire, hearing a soft click, and snatg her hand away in surprise. Aah! But fortunately, no more darts were fired.

  “Sorry!” she excimed, barely remembering to keep it to a whisper. I’m an idiot.

  “It’s ok,” Mato replied. “Perhaps I should go first?”

  “Is that poison?” she asked, pointing at the stuff slowly trig down the wall.

  Mato turo exami. “I ’t tell for sure, but that would be a safe guess.”

  “How about we send my rats first?”

  Vigint, now, for the possibility of near-invisible tripwires, they tinued down the alleyway at a much slower pace with one of Ali’s rats in the front just in case. They followed the alleyways through a maze of twists and turns, finding two more tripwires along the way before Mato suddenly stopped.

  “Hide!” he hissed and darted back.

  Ali scrambled for a dark doorway and dove through it as her rats careened in after her with Mating up the rear. One of the rats stumbled and rolled into the room making a terrifyingly loud sound of cttering and g on the piles of bone ihe darkness of the ruined house.

  A few moments ter she heard the chirping calls of the Kobolds – far nearer. And then, as she held her breath in the darkness of the ruined house, two dark shapes passed by the entrance. A few points of mana drained from her mana pool, but she was too focused on not breathing or making any o be distracted by her difficult skill.

  Instead, she used Identify.

  Warrior – Kobold – level ??Rogue – Kobold – level 13

  The Kobolds ambled by painfully slowly, their scaled tails swishing through the dust, occasionally knog loose bone fragments flying. Their gleaming talons clicked ooh every step, sending sharp pulses of tension running through Ali’s chest.

  Level thirteen! And the other ohe warrior, was so high Identify couldn’t even tell her the exaumber; simply revealing it had two marks – anywhere between ten and y-nine.

  As the Kobolds passed, and the chirping sounds began to grow quieter, one of her rats colpsed to the ground, twitched twice, and then she felt her mana reserve release. Ali turned immediately but there was no obvious threat.

  Mato reached out and plucked something from the fnk of her dead rat. Opening his hand, he revealed a dart like the ones from the tripwire trap she had set off earlier.

  “I guess that ahe poisoion,” he said soberly.

  They decided to wait in the dark ruined house till the Kobold calls had pletely faded, and then waited more just to make sure. Ali took the opportunity to summon a new rat, and by the light of her Grimoire, it was clear that the normal tents of a house were long gone, repced by bones and some sticks, and even some kind of in the er with age-darkened eggshell fragments. Behind the , Bed Deathcap mushrooms sprouted, growing on the bone and even part- the wall.

  It's so different to before, she thought, still struggling to e to terms with how old and ruihe city felt. A few days ago, she had been dodging throngs of people on the way to the library or the market, her head filled with the mundane worries of life, and the anticipation of unlog her schor css.

  Dal’mohra felt wrong; wrong in a way that set her on edge. The darkness, the distant calls of monsters, the smell of age and decay, the deeply worn and pitted stone, unfamiliarity aainting the home she had known her entire life. She rolled her shoulders, trying to ease the tension in her neck, but it had settled in, refusing to be dislodged.

  Setting out together once more, Ali resolved – even more than before – to be aware of her surroundings. Taking the time to examine each turn for monsters or tripwires really slowed them down, but they eventually emerged from the twisted alleyways into a wider and straighter street.

  One of the tric arterial roads? While she didn’t immediately reize this street, Dal’mohra’s architectural pn was simple and elegant; a circle with the Grand Library Ara at the ter, enormous radial boulevards cut through the terraced rings, and many tric roads divided the districts. The road they had just emerged oended off into the darkness in both dires, and she could see just far enough to perceive the slight curve.

  That means the ter is that way?

  As soon as she turo look toward where the Grand Library should be, a loud ctter of bone and steel broke the silence. From a shadowy cealed alleyway across the opposite side of the street, two ungainly forms emerged.

  Warrior – Undead Skeleton – level ?? x2

  High levels! Both the skeletons were beyond her ability to Identify. Their stiff cttering charge seemed eoo fast as they rapidly closed the distance.

  Attack! She anded her rats. “Run!” she yelled at Mato. To her surprise, the fight-lovikin followed her dires without hesitation, instantly turning to flee with her into the alleyway. They ran, heedless of the traps and twists and turns until Ali was forced to stop, her stamiirely spent.

  “Mato…”

  The Beastkin boy stopped up ahead and turo rejoin her, motioning to a darkened doorway into another ruined house. Carefully stepping over the dark bck wire, Ali followed Mato inside and slumped down with her back against the wall, breathing heavily. Where are we? She was thhly lost, haviirely lost track of where they had been with all the twists and turns in the dark. She had sensed her rats dying as they ran, by the strange sensation of her mana reservation – the eaintaining her summoned creatures – snapping oer the other in quick succession.

  “I couldn’t identify them,” she told him.

  “Good call,” he whispered. She could barely make him out in the darkness, sitting far enough away that she couldn’t reach him without getting up, but just close enough to see.

  After sitting there in the dark for a few mihey heard the shuffling ctter of footsteps from somewhere outside. But though the noises grew louder for a while, they passed their hiding spot by what sounded like a street or two, never getting close enough to force them to run.

  “I think we lost them,” Mato said eventually after silence had returned.

  Ali nodded and began resummoning her minions.

  We’re never going to get out of here like this.

  timewalk