Grand Game 493: Out and About

74 Days Left for Brokering Peace in Sector 12,560

Blood awakening completed.

Congratulations, Michael! You have awakened the greater memory: blood puppet and have gained the ability: enslave. 

Enslave (champion variant) is a touch-based ability that allows you to permanently dominate 2 subjects whose levels are equal to or lower than your own. In the event that either subject is a player, the effect will last until the player’s death. When the player revives, they will have no memory of their time as a blood puppet.

This ability’s activation time is very slow. It consumes neither mana, stamina, nor psi, and cannot be upgraded. 

Congratulations, Michael! You have awakened your first greater memory, advancing your bloodline trait from anointed scion to House Elite. This trait not only furthers your binding to Wolf, it improves your ability to sniff out a subject’s blood. When reading another player’s signature, you can now sense if they possess any Wolf blood.

Lifting my head, I opened my eyes. 

My thoughts were clear and my eyes sharp. My second blood awakening felt nothing like the first. I’d come out of that one barely able to walk. This time around, I felt… alive and energized. Clearly, the fugue that had been raging in me had long since passed.

“Michael!”

My eyes jerked to the left, recognizing Safyre’s voice. Then I frowned. She was not alone; Adriel was with her. “What’s wrong?” I asked, knowing something had to be if the lich was here.

“You’ve been out for five days,” Adriel replied bluntly.

Five days? Querying the Game, I saw that was indeed so. My frown deepened.

Safyre slipped closer. “Are you alright?”

I nodded slowly. “I feel perfectly fine. But…” I turned to Adriel. “Why was I out for so long?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure. It might be because of some peculiarity associated with the blood memory you chose.” She glanced at the other woman. “Safyre told me your choice… blood puppet?”

I nodded.

“An interesting memory,” Adriel murmured. Then shaking her head in dismissal of her musings, she resumed her interrupted explanation, “Or it could be a result of your champion’s trait.”

“I see.” That meant I would have to plan for future blood awakenings taking as long, if not longer. Not good, I thought, sitting up. Not good at all. 

“Tell us about the blood memory,” Safyre asked with undisguised interest. “Is it everything you hoped for?”

“In some ways it is,” I replied, “but in other ways it's more limiting.” Recalling the Game’s description, I relayed it verbatim to the two women.

Safyre pursed her lips. “Hmm. That it’s touch-based does render it less useful,” she mused. “And the slow casting time doesn’t help either.”

My lips turned down. “It doesn’t,” I agreed.

“Nevertheless, it’s a powerful ability,” Adriel noted, “especially given how your champion trait has modified it.”

“That it will scale with my level doesn’t hurt either.” I paused. “Nor does the fact that it will work on players. That’s going to allow for some interesting possibilities.”

Safyre’s eyes twinkled. “Already planning further mayhem?”

I smiled. “Perhaps.” I turned to Adriel. “You didn’t tell me my anointed scion trait would change,” I said, almost reproachfully.

The lich blinked. “Oh. I forgot about that. It was a fairly trivial upgrade in my day. Although, I suppose,” she allowed, “that in these times it will come in more handy.”

“Oh definitely,” I said. As a recruiting tool, if nothing else, it would be invaluable. It would also help when it came to selecting candidates for were’s bite. I paused, struck by an altogether startling thought. Was Safyre such a candidate?

Giving in to the sudden urge to find out, I reached out with my will and analyzed her.

The target is Safyre, a level 210 human aetherist. She bears a Mark of Supreme Light and is both Lightsworn and forsworn. Safyre carries a minor wolf bloodline strain that has been permanently suppressed.

Needless to say, the Game’s response was disappointing. Deflating, I said nothing of my impromptu inspection and studied the two women anew. “Tell me what has happened while I was away.”

“No disasters have befallen, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Safyre assured me immediately. 

“That’s something,” I said lightly. “Where are the twins?”

“Still out on the tundra trying to acquire their Marks,” Adriel replied. “Don’t worry, they’re not alone. Duggar has taken over my role as chaperon.”

“That’s good.” I turned to Safyre. “And the others?”

“Nyra is progressing well,” she reported. “Her Wolf Mark hasn’t deepened yet, but her skills and level are advancing nicely. She asked to stay out a few days longer, and I didn’t object.” She looked at me questioningly.

“Good decision, the additional training can’t hurt,” I replied. “What about—” 

“Prime? What’s happening?”

Breaking off, I held up my hand. “One second, that’s Ghost,” I told the two women. “My awakening ran late it seems,” I said, replying to the pyre wolf across our familiar bond.

“Oh. Are you alright?”

“Perfectly fine,” I assured her. “Adriel is here now. How are things progressing on your end?”

“Great!” she said brightly. “I’ve earned us a level!”

“You have?” I asked, a little startled.

“Yes,” she said excitedly. “Sulan, Aira, and Oursk have been a great help. We’ve been killing yetis almost non-stop for five days. Did you know…”

A half-smile on my face, I let Ghost ramble on while I checked on my older Game messages, and sure enough, they confirmed what the pyre wolf was saying.

You and Ghost have reached level 236!

Ghost’s magma maw and telepathy have reached rank 9, her stygian claws rank and ash armor rank 10, and her death magic rank 7.

“Well done, Ghost,” I murmured as she ran down. The pyre wolf’s training was progressing better than expected, but I could already tell her skills were beginning to plateau—as mine had during my own time hunting on the tundra.

“Thank you, Prime.” A pause. “Should we return to the den?”

“No, keep at it until all your skills hit rank ten,” I told her. “I haven’t determined what my own plans will be yet. Once I do, I’ll let you know.” Refocusing on my surroundings, I passed on the pyre wolf’s report to Adriel and Safyre.

“Ghost is doing well,” Adriel remarked.

I nodded. “She is and she’s happy too. But I suspect that’s less to do with her skill advancements than the fact that she’s able to hunt with the pack at long last.” I met Adriel’s gaze. “You gave her that.”

She waved aside my words. “What’s the point of being a master of death if you can’t use your powers for good?”

Chuckling, I turned to Safyre. “What about Anriq? Has he checked in?”

“He has,” she replied. “Three days ago, right on schedule. I have his report on the overlord and the nether creatures surrounding the Reach gate.” She hesitated.

“And?” I prompted, sensing the news wasn’t good.

“It’s bad,” she admitted. “The stygians have reinforced their forces again. There are now a little over a thousand of them guarding the gate.”

I sucked in a breath. That was a lot of stygians, but it was a far from unassailable force. What concerned me, though, was how long it would take to clear the creatures out—and what the stygians would do after that. If the void had seen fit to reinforce the gate once, there was no reason why they wouldn’t do so again.

“What about the void tree?” I asked. “Has he found it yet?”

Safyre shook her head. “No, but I told Anriq you were still under, and he returned to nether sector to resume scouting. I expect his next report in two days.”

Nodding absently, I rose to my feet and began pacing the small room. If the void tree had allocated a thousand stygians to guard the Reach’s gate, how many had it kept to protect itself? 

Surely more. Lots more.

The two women exchanged glances, before Safyre asked the question on both their minds. “What are you thinking?”

I turned to face her. “That I should go to Anriq,” I admitted.

Safyre opened her mouth then closed it, before very obviously restraining herself from questioning me further.

“Why?” Adriel asked after a pause.

“Because we’re running out of time.”

“You yourself set the timetable,” Adriel pointed out. “One week you said.”

“And it has been five days already.” I resumed pacing. “I expected us to have located the main stygian nest by now.”

“But you ordered Anriq not to rush things,” Safyre said. 

“I did,” I agreed. 

And there had been good reason for the order. The void tree would undoubtedly be surrounded by a swarm of stygian spores, just like the one in Draven Reach’s had been. The spores had truesight, which would negate both my own invisibility and that of the sylvanain eye Anriq was using. And while the legendary artifact was indestructible, it was not immune to capture.

“I’m not blaming Anriq,” I continued, “but like it or not, scouting the nether is a task he is less suited to than me.”

Neither woman disputed my claim.

I inhaled. “Which is why I think I should replace him.”

Safyre sighed. “We agree.”

I blinked. “You do?” I knew neither of them wanted me venturing into the nether alone. “Wait. You said we. When did you two reach this decision?”

Adriel laughed. “While you were sleeping, wolfling.”

My gaze flickered between the two. Safyre was smiling knowingly. It seemed the pair had anticipated my intentions. 

Looks like you’re not as unpredictable as you fancied yourself, Michael.

“What else?” I asked.

Safyre looked at me innocently. “What else?”

I rolled my eyes. “I know you two will not want to just let me go traipsing into the nether sector without laying down some extra conditions. What are they?”

“No conditions,” Safyre replied easily. “Just this.” She extended her arm.

Glancing at what rested in her open palm, I saw that it was a farspeaker bracelet, and if I was not mistaken, the very same one I’d been wearing all along. I frowned. “How is that—” 

“We’ve enchanted it,” Adriel said. “While you’re wearing it, we’ll be able to track your exact location.”

“And at the same time, you’ll be able to use it to stay in communication with Anriq who’ll be stationed at the Guardian gate,” Safyre added.

“Safyre and I will be waiting on the tundra side of the same gate,” Adriel went on. “If you run into any trouble, we’ll cross over and open a portal to you.”

“And if for some reason the bracelet doesn’t work, Anriq will also track you with the sylvanain eye,” Safyre said. “That way we can be doubly sure of your location.”

I nodded slowly. “It’s a good plan,” I admitted.

“Did you expect any less?” Adriel asked sardonically.

I shook my head ruefully. “No. No, I did not.”