Divine Apostasy Book 7 - Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Sift bit his lip and refrained from commenting. It looked painful for him.

“I think they’re traveling in lines,” Ruwen said.

The snails Ruwen had seen after the destruction with the Gloom Stalker had alternated direction between each line. “The snail lines alternated which way they crawled.”

Sift wrinkled his brow. “How can they lead us anywhere if they move in opposite directions?”

“I thought the same thing,” Ruwen replied. “But what if the lines aren’t straight?”

No one spoke for a few seconds.

“You mean like a spiral?” Nymthus asked.

“Exactly,” Ruwen replied.

“If it’s a circle, can’t you do a math thing and point us at the middle?” Sift asked.

Ruwen turned to Sift, shocked he knew that could be done.

“What?” Sift asked. “I went to school, too, you know.”

Ruwen discarded his first three responses to that statement. “Very true, Sisen. It’s easy on paper because the circle is small, and you can see all the points. Assuming we’re right, we should first determine how big the snail circles are.” Ruwen pointed at the two closest Adepts. “Continue forward until just before you lose sight of us.”

The two Adepts strode away, one watching the snails, the other for danger.

Ruwen pointed at two more Adepts. “Follow the snail line back the way we came and do the same thing.”

Between the trees, moss, and fallen branches, it only took a minute for both sets of Adepts to stop, each three hundred feet away. To Ruwen’s eye, both sets of Adepts were in a straight line with him. That meant at their current location, the snail circles had a very large circumference and would make finding the center difficult.

Ruwen could easily place markers on his map where the distant Adepts stood. It would make calculating the center almost trivial with such exact distances. That went against the spirit of the trials, however, so he focused on doing it the hard way.

“We need to find smaller circles,” Ruwen said. “But I can’t tell if we should go right or left.” He raised his arms, pointed perpendicular to the line he made with the two pairs of distant Adepts, and spoke to the group near him. “Split into two. One person is in charge of navigation. Pick a tree and walk toward it. Once there, pick another tree in your desired direction and so on. Four of you look for danger and the rest count how many snail lines you pass. After five minutes, I’ll signal with a loud boom. Return here and we should have the information we need.”

The Adepts did as requested, and in less than a minute, only Ruwen and Sift remained.

“I could solve this in ten seconds if I did a flyover,” Sift said.

“I know. But think about the impact these trials are having on the Adepts. When we started, Prythus did the steps out of order, but he’s the one who figured out the balance this swamp represented. That’s because he’s thinking about the Steps differently now. They aren’t just movements and forms, but actual lessons in balance.”

Sift sighed. “I hate doing things the hard way.”

“I know.”

Sift sighed again.

“What?” Ruwen asked.

“Nothing.” A couple of seconds later, Sift continued. “It’s just thinking about the hard way made me think of tanking for Lylan and Hamma in Shelly. As they leveled up, things got difficult, and it really stressed me out. I need to reach Gem to catch up with everyone, but I don’t see how.”

“I have some ideas for that.”

Sift turned to Ruwen, his face hopeful, and with none of the sarcastic pain he usually displayed when hearing Ruwen’s ideas. “Really? Are they any good?”

“Of course. And you’re thinking too small. I spent a lot of time thinking out there by myself. Fractal is some kind of alchemical genius, and when I get back, I’m giving him a couple of projects.” Ruwen placed a hand on Sift’s shoulder. “Don’t stress about it. I promise you, I’m working on a way to protect us all.”

“Okay, thanks.” Sift returned to studying the swamp, and after a moment added. “Back home, all I thought about was getting away. I never appreciated the pyramid for its benefits, and I didn’t worry like I do now. Blapy harassing me was as stressful as my day got.”

Ruwen raised his hands and clapped, using just enough strength to tear the air and cause an explosion. The Adepts would turn back now.

“To be fair, Blapy can be pretty stressful,” Ruwen said.

Sift laughed. “Yeah, but looking back, it made me feel included somehow. The creatures in the pyramid really accepted me because of it.” Sift turned to Ruwen. “Don’t you dare ever tell my parents, but I miss it sometimes. That simpler life. I worked so hard to stay unattached to material things that the relationships snuck up on me. Now I’m bound tighter than Fluffy’s coin bag.”

Ruwen let out a long breath. “Man, I feel that. It petrifies me. Everyone’s expectations are insane, and failure is catastrophic. I’ve taken on so many oaths, and so many people are critical to my life now, that the fear of failure or getting someone hurt is overwhelming.”

“Well, you can’t ruin the Universe until I have a proper vacation. Either someplace with snow, or a nice beach. The Spirit Realm beach doesn’t count.”

“I know. I just have a few problems to figure out first.”

Sift picked up a stick and waved it in front of himself. “I have problems, too. First that stupid Floot chest gave me trust issues, and now,” Sift turned suddenly and stabbed his shadow with the stick. “Now, I can’t even trust myself.”

Ruwen didn’t take the easy opening to poke Sift verbally. Instead, he opened his Void Band enough to launch a sword at Sift. The blade looked like tarnished silver and didn’t have any etchings or symbols to save it from looking terribly plain.

Sift snatched it from the air before it struck him. “What’s this?”

“It’s to help with some of your trust issues.”

“It’s heavy, but the balance is excellent.”

“That sword is called the Heavy Short Sword of the Comet.”

“I remember this sword. You busted a giant crystal in front of Fractal’s entrance with it.”

Ruwen winced. “I had just figured out what it did. Check this out.”

Ruwen held out a hand and Sift returned the sword. Ruwen placed both hands on the pommel and turned his hands in opposite directions. The sword rotated on the cross-guard and when the two blades reached ninety degrees, they separated from each other.

“Two swords?” Sift asked.

Ruwen held up the blade in his left hand. “This sword sliced through my scale armor at the battle of New Eiru. It’s called the Honed Short Sword of the Rising Star. It has a base damage of twelve to eighteen and it gives plus nine to Stamina and plus eight to Slashing.”

Holding up the other sword, Ruwen continued. “This is the Honed Short Sword of the Falling Star. Same damage but it gives plus nine to Dexterity and plus eight to Piercing.”

“They sound nice, but I really wanted something with a longer reach.”

Ruwen smiled. “Longer than this?”

With a flick of the wrist, Ruwen spun the Honed Short Sword of the Rising Star into the air. Sift focused on the rotating blade and Ruwen lowered Falling Star, the sword still in his right hand, and triggered the effect Meteor Shower.

Rising Star turned in the air like a boomerang and headed back toward them.

Sift looked at Ruwen. “What! How did you do that?”

“Like this.”

Ruwen lifted Falling Star, and they both looked up. Rising Star stopped its decent and climbed upward again.

“Now that is burnt,” Sift muttered. He looked down from the soaring blade and faced Ruwen. “Imagine what I could do with this when I’m flying.”

Sift’s questionably flying combined with the incredibly sharp airborne sword gave Ruwen second thoughts. “Promise me you’ll practice on the ground until your chances of killing everyone around you drops to under fifty percent.”

“Very funny, Starfield, let me try.”

Ruwen handed the Honed Short Sword of the Falling Star to Sift. Sift moved it slowly, studying the effect it had on the Rising Star sword in the air. Within a minute, he had gained a decent amount of control.

“How do I land it?” Sift asked.

“That’s tricky. Depending on its speed, with Gold reflexes, you could try to catch it. The ground is an option if it’s soft. If the swords collide, they merge again into the single blade.”

Sift lowered the sword tip of Falling Star and Rising Star hurtled toward them. Ruwen resisted the urge to step in front of Sift and snatch the spinning blade, trusting Sift’s reflexes could handle the speed.

Sift snatched the falling blade, the sword’s momentum turning him in a circle. He stopped and faced Ruwen, a huge grin on his face. “I love them.”

“I knew you would. They’re yours.”

Sift frowned. “That’s really nice, but I don’t know.”

“You never take anything, and these are perfect for you. In fact, you’re like twins, both of you hiding your potential behind a plain surface.”

Sift narrowed his eyes. “Did you just call me ugly?”

“Plain. There’s a difference.”

Sift flipped Rising Star and Ruwen twisted his body forward to allow the blade to pass him. The air disturbance made following the sword’s path through the air behind him easy, and he noticed what Rami had the first time they’d studied the swords. They vibrated in synch with each other, and he could feel the connection between the swords.

Sift altered the flying sword’s path, bringing it back, and Ruwen stepped to the side to avoid the sharp sword. With a snatch, Sift grabbed the sword and bled its momentum by letting it spin around his hand.

“Now you’re just showing off,” Ruwen said. “They’re a gift. Please take them.”

Sift studied the blades for a few seconds and then combined them into the Heavy Short Sword of the Comet. He locked gazes with Ruwen. “Thank you, brother.”

Tarot floated between them, the Misfortune Golem sitting on his deck of cards. “Any bets on what body part you cut off first?”

Sift pointed the sword at Tarot. “I was just starting to like you, Little Man. Don’t mess it up.”

“Finger,” Tarot said.

“Head,” Ruwen added.

“Oh, very good,” Tarot said with a nod to Ruwen. “What a glorious failure self-decapitation would be.”

“I hate you both,” Sift said.

“You want me to hold that sword for you?” Tarot asked.

Sift dropped the weapon into his dimensional belt. “Absolutely not.”

“The Adepts are almost back,” Ruwen said. “They’ll come into view in thirty seconds.”

“Seriously,” Tarot said, pulling the end of a belt from his dimensional belly. “I’ll trade you this orange belt for that sword.”

“Is that mine?” Sift asked.

Tarot shrugged. “Hard to tell. There wasn’t a name on it.”

Sift jumped at Tarot, but the golem expected it and shot into the air. Sift leaped after him, his eyes glowing with white soul magic. The pair disappeared into the trees above Ruwen.

Not underestimating Tarot’s thieving skills, Ruwen verified his orange belt remained in his Void Band.

Moss and branches rained down around Ruwen as Sift tried to catch Tarot and the Adepts came back into sight. Shortly, they’d know which way the token lay hidden, and not long after that, they’d determine its exact location.

The Third Trial would soon be over.