Broken Lands

Chapter 320 – Zone Hopping

The space that led to the second link was nothing more than another crevice in the rock; it happened to be a little ways below the spot where the mountain they’d started on dipped slightly as it met the rise of the next peak. That meant it was a fairly long walk away, most of an hour in the snow. 

Anyone without proper protective gear was miserable. It turned out that that was about half of the expedition; while they had enough protection to get them through the fights, they weren’t prepared for a long haul in the cold. Sophia was certain that Arak was letting them suffer to make them aware that they’d failed; cold weather gear was on the list he’d provided of supplies they needed, so it was something they all had. She’d wondered why there was extra weather-related gear in the supplies he provided; she was pretty certain she now knew why.

Admittedly, all of them except for Jax were already well-equipped for the cold. They’d just come from a winter in the Skylands, after all, and that meant they’d prepared for travel in the snow. Jax had lost everything, so it wasn’t until they were preparing for the expedition that he finally picked up gear for the cold. They also had quite a bit of other equipment for environmental conditions; it was a good thing the list was so extensive. It would never have occurred to Spohia to pick up water-movement alchemicals to go with the water-breathing ones.

Well, not unless she was preparing to head into a water dungeon; even then, most dungeons back home didn’t actually include fighting underwater. She’d asked why they hadn’t picked up those alchemicals before the water-based Challenge in  Izel where she picked up the Firewater ability, but the answer turned out to be simple: after you took the water-movement alchemical, water acted like air. That meant you didn’t float, and if you didn’t float in that particular Challenge, the first section was actually harder. At that point in their journey, they couldn’t all fly.

Team Rockfist was in similar shape, other than Rockfist himself. In his case, it wasn’t because he’d forgotten to bring cold weather gear; it was because his jacket was damaged in the fight. He had the supplies to repair it, but there hadn’t been enough downtime to do more than a rough patch job yet; even that was complicated by the fact that Jace was trying to fix what he could without Rockfist taking the jacket off. Rockfist was suitably grateful when Sophia offered to extend her Down Coat Ability to him to help him stay warm.

Down Coat

Your feathered Domain gathers around you to retain heat better in the cold and warm up more quickly. Environmental cold must deplete your Shield before it can cause permanent damage to your body. You may lend a Down Coat to another in your Domain at an additional mana cost.

When they finally reached the blue gateway that led to the link, there was one difference Sophia hadn’t expected: the door was surrounded by letters. They were the symbols that were usually used to write Bridge, but they weren’t grouped like the letters of a word and they didn’t seem to form any words that Sophia recognized. It was simply a random collection of letters.

When she asked about it, Meadow told her that decoration like that was common in the Maze. Any exit to a zone that wasn’t the “primary” exit would have a design, but that was all anyone could say. People had tried to figure out what it meant for decades, maybe longer; after all, the legends said that reading the Maze and the ancient Tower of Kestii was how the Lady of Magic found her way through them. Meadow didn’t believe the story; while there were not that many symbols, the patterns they formed didn’t repeat and didn’t seem to mean anything.

It was enough to make Sophia wonder if there was a code involved as well as the language no one seemed to know, but more than that, it explained why no one knew Bridge. If there was no obvious relationship between the incants that some people used to enhance their Abilities and the writing on the walls in the Maze, how would they learn? It wasn’t like knowing that the word “knife” was commonly used to enhance spells that could cut was useful unless you had a relevant Ability.

Sophia had essentially ignored that part of all of her Abilities. There were guides in the Registry buildings to what worked and what didn’t, but she’d found it completely unnecessary. It was simply another way to focus Intent, and that was something she’d been taught since she was a child.

Sophia quickly wrote the letters into her notebook the way they appeared around the doorway. If it was a code, she wanted to have a record of it.

Arak Shade sent team Rockfist through first again, followed by team Flying Stars. By the time Sophia came though, the only threat living on the other side was already dead: a monster known as a “cling monkey” because of the way it attacked. It looked a lot like a chimpanzee, but its attack was to drop out of a tree, grab the head of its target, and hold on, potentially smothering the victim if the initial fall didn’t knock them over or break their neck.

They really weren’t particularly dangerous once you knew they were there, and Meadow had the perfect counter. The trees they hid in grabbed the monkeys before they could find a target and held them in place for Jace to kill. In later parts of the Maze, they could be threatening because they were stronger, heavier, harder to find, and often worked with other monsters, but on their own early in the Maze they were nothing more than a nuisance.

Other than one smashed monkey next to the entrance and several more bodies wrapped in greenery in the trees, the area on the other side of the portal was similar to the first link they’d been in, where they entered the Maze. This time, the courtyard was ringed with trees. There was only one possible way forward, directly on the other side of the courtyard.

Arak Shade seemed happy with the answer he got about its direction, so they moved forward. This time, he called for different teams to lead the way. Sophia had expected that; he’d told them before they started that he liked to rotate which team led because it made the people heading through first more alert without tiring them out as much.

Neither of the archways in the link had writing.

The next zone was a series of tight underground tunnels that looked more like they’d been eaten out of the rock than carved; there were no tool marks at all. It was cool but not nearly as cold as the snowy mountainside, so the heavy gear they’d shed in the link was stowed in Sophia’s pack.

Sophia only saw the enemies as bodies pushed to the side, killed by the lead team; even the second team couldn’t easily fight. The monsters looked more like giant centipedes than anything else, and Sophia was glad to not have to face them. Arak had the teams in the front switch out, but each time that happened it was only a delay for Sophia; they weren’t called forward. 

Sophia was disappointed when they reached the exit and found that they hadn’t stayed to find a secondary exit; the main one was blank, just as Meadow predicted.

The link, on the other hand, held both more cling monkeys and a flock of skyeagles. The team that went through first only managed to kill two of them, but Arak was happy to pause long enough for Sophia’s team to gather feathers; they wanted to collect the meat for dinner that evening in any case. Sophia was really beginning to understand the difference between links and zones; they were both dangerous, but links were small and very similar, while zones were larger and could vary immensely.

The third zone was strange. It was completely dark except for a glowing, misty pathway that looked like it was made of solidified clouds. It felt like walking on either carpet or maybe a thin mat, but other than a cool dampness, it felt almost like a soft stone to Sophia’s fingers. The path was wide, but Arak had them all stay well away from the edge; that was the area most likely to be dangerous.

There were no monsters in the zone; it was simply a maze. It didn’t even take long to solve, which left Sophia wondering what the point of the area was. Was it just a delay, or was there something they’d missed?

Once again, they took the first exit they came to. Like the previous one, it didn’t have any writing. At this rate, Sophia wasn’t going to get anywhere deciphering what the doorways said.

When they reached the next link, which was also fortunately monster-free, Sophia made her way to Arak and asked. His answer was unsatisfying; he didn’t know. Some zones really seemed to be empty, while others held secrets and sometimes treasures. Some “empty” zones were even dangerous; he’d seen one where retracing your steps made the path disappear behind you. If you were lucky, you could find another way out. If you weren’t, you had to race for the entrance. There were ways to make it worth doing in a team, but it wasn’t worth the risk for an expedition their size.

Sophia didn’t really like that answer, but she had to admit it made sense. If the Maze was designed for smaller groups yet could scale up to over a hundred like the expedition, there were going to be places that just didn’t work as well for expeditions. There would probably also be places where an expedition was at an advantage.

The following zone seemed identical to the previous one until the group ahead of them passed along the word that they’d have to travel in smaller groups; if they could, the Flying Stars and Rockfist should stay together. Several other team names were mentioned, and those were passed on to the groups behind them.

There was no real detail in the message other than that, but the reason for the lack of detail was obvious when the group ahead of them jumped onto a platform, then the platform sank into the cloud below before shooting off to the right. The platform was white and glowed, but it looked more like stone than cloud and would probably be a decent surface to fight on. It looked small in the distance, but even with ten people on it, there was plenty of room to move around. Sophia guessed that it was probably forty feet on a side, which meant that they’d had to jump at least a foot and more likely two to get on.

“I hate zones like this,” Meadow muttered. “As often as not, we’re all split up and have to leave through different exits, then work to get back together. Arak’s good at link-searching, at least, so it could be worse. Come on, we’re supposed to get on this one; it’ll go left.” By now, it was obvious that Meadow was the member of team Rockfist who liked dealing with others. Sophia was beginning to wonder if she wasn’t also the one in charge, even though Rockfist was the titular leader.

She had everyone wait until they were all lined up at the edge of the platform before they climbed up onto it. Sophia didn’t even try to make it in a single step; it was far easier to climb on using her hands and knees.  Almost immediately, the platform began to sink into the cloud, which explained why the other team had an easier time; they’d waited a bit longer.