Chapter 87: Warnings

  Sol didn’t appear that night. They spent the next day traveling south towards the area Darius had circled, the sun beaming down on them from high above. There wasn’t another soul on the road. The path they’d chosen was a narrower one, a bit off the main course, but the silence was still a bit disconcerting.

  “If fragment hunting is becoming a problem, people might be staying indoors for safety,” Allan suggested. Leo was inclined to agree with the assessment, though if the previous wrecked village was any indication, avoiding travel wouldn’t save anyone.

  The trio continued making their way south, though they took a few more breaks than usual. All three had some lingering injuries from the fight at the manor: Spade’s arm was still wrapped, Allan looked a lot more weary than usual and had the scar on his neck, and Leo could feel various aches and pains throughout his body from scrapes and bruises. Considering what they’d accomplished last night, though, he thought they’d earned a slower travel day.

  Now, Leo sat amidst a field of tall grasses, casually tossing his dagger up and down. Allan was checking Spade’s wounds a little ways away, leaving the [Fragmentholder] on watch.

  He eyed a nearby tree consideringly. After some thought, he hurled the dagger at the trunk, where the blade buried itself into the wood. Focusing, he activated his new skill, [Return]. Almost immediately, the dagger flung itself backwards as though pulled by an invisible thread, and Leo nearly didn’t close his fingers around the handle in time. As the skill description had said, it had flown back in a straight path, and it was a lot faster than Leo had thought it would be. He grinned. It was better than he’d hoped.

  He should test his new spells too, he thought. Leo glanced around. Considering he was surrounded by vegetation, [Firebolt] might be better left for another day. [Intangible Illusion] and [Distant Eyes] would both require someone else’s help, though he was fairly confident he’d be able to use those without much issue. That left [Air Walk].

  Leo rose to his feet and scanned the road. It was as deserted as it had been all day. Spade raised an eyebrow in the corner of his vision, the [Executioner] able to see him while she sat waiting for Allan to finish with her wound, but he ignored her gaze. Instead, he took a deep breath, then jumped upwards and activated [Air Walk].

  It started out the same as normal, a standard jump, but as he began to fall back down towards the earth, his feet abruptly hit something hard. Leo stumbled and landed ungracefully on the ground.

  “Ugh.” He sat up again and brushed some dirt off his clothes, frowning. The spell seemed to work by creating invisible “platforms” in the air that he could step and jump on like hard surfaces, but it would definitely take some getting used to. He could control where the “platform” appeared, but he’d need to practice more to get it right.

  “What’re you doing?” Allan asked. The [Healer] had finished rebandaging Spade’s wound and was now watching him with an amused expression.

  “Testing a new spell,” Leo said. “It’s, uh, a work in progress.”

  “Huh. Is that one,” Allan paused and squinted, presumably reading off the party stat sheets, “…Air Walk?”

  Leo nodded. “Yep. I think it’ll be really useful, I just need to practice more.”

  “You might want to save that for later,” Spade interrupted. The [Executioner] nodded at the road, and Leo immediately lay down so that he was hidden behind the tall grasses.

  After a few moments of tense silence, three figures appeared from the south. As they got closer, Leo could make out what looked like a family of three. They were dressed in cloaks, their attire worn, and they were carrying heavy bags, the younger man pulling a wagon behind him stuffed with carefully balanced pieces of furniture. Leo frowned. The group certainly didn’t look dangerous, and they didn’t even glance at the tall fields, simply continuing north at a steady pace until they’d vanished from view.

  Leo waited a little longer after they’d gone before slowly sitting up again. Based on their bags and the wagon, it looked like the family had been moving north, maybe even to Alnwick. That wasn’t too unusual on its own, but combined with the rumors he’d read about in Darius’s office, he wondered if they were running from whatever was happening down south.

  His mind wandered back to the brief glimpse he’d gotten of the family. All three of their eyes had looked dull and lifeless.

  He met Allan and Spade’s gazes, and he could tell they were thinking the same thing. Leo swallowed and stood, brushing off his clothes. Something heavy and cold settled in the pit of his stomach.

  “We’d better get moving,” he muttered.

  —

  By the time they stopped for the night, they were just above the area Darius had highlighted.

  Here, the surrounding forest was much thicker, growing right up to the road with no bare patches to serve as delineation. It looked like a place where people could disappear, Leo thought, which certainly didn’t help his growing antsiness. So far, they hadn’t seen anything odd or run into anyone besides that family earlier in the day, but he couldn’t shake a feeling of foreboding.

  Logically, he shouldn’t be so freaked out about a bunch of rumors that may or may not be true. They’d just had a huge victory, and he was the strongest he’d ever been. Still, he couldn’t get rid of that nagging unease, and he trusted his instincts too much to completely ignore it.

  It ended up taking Leo an hour to finally fall asleep, a stark contrast to the previous night. But when he finally did, he was greeted with a familiar notification.

  [??? has activated the [Dreamscape] spell]

  The sound of crashing waves was almost nostalgic at this point. Leo opened his eyes, immediately greeted by the blindingly bright sunlight beaming down on the churning waters. He squinted, raising a hand to shield his vision while he looked around.

  The [Dreamscape] looked exactly the same as the last time, from the bright blossoms to the scattered petals twisting in the warm breeze. Sure enough, he spotted a familiar white gazebo deeper into the gardens. There, Sol sat at the same table, sipping from a porcelain tea cup.

  Leo made his way over to the gazebo and pulled out the opposite chair, raising an eyebrow at the steaming pot of tea resting on the table.

  “Can you taste that in here?”

  Sol carefully set his cup down with a light clink. Assuming this was a tea set he actually owned, it only further confirmed that he must be very wealthy. The cup had elaborate designs painted on its sides that looked vaguely Ellisian, but Leo was no expert on art (as Lenore had shown him), and it could’ve easily been imported.

  “I can choose to turn different senses on and off while we’re here,” Sol explained. He picked up the teapot and carefully poured a second cup, which he pushed towards Leo with a nod. “Please, give it a try. I’m quite fond of this blend.”

  Leo eyed it suspiciously, but it wasn’t like he could poison him through a dream. He figured the worst that could happen was that it tasted like shit, so after another pause, he picked it up and took a gulp.

  He was immediately hit with a subtle mixture of floral and woody flavors. Leo raised an eyebrow and set it back down. Sol smiled.

  “Good, isn’t it?”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “It is,” Leo admitted. “Tastes expensive.”

  Sol chuckled at that, but didn’t try to deny it. He took another sip of his tea, looking far more sophisticated than Leo could ever manage, before setting his cup down again. “How have you been?” he asked.

  The [Fragmentholder] blinked. “Uh, pretty okay, I guess. Thanks for telling me about the fragment removal thing, by the way. I tested it and it worked.”

  “Of course, you need not thank me for that,” Sol said warmly. “I do hope it was helpful.”

  Leo cringed, an image of Darius with his chest cut open flashing in his mind. “Uh, not this time, but I’ll keep it in mind for the future.”

  “Ah, I see.” Sol’s expression was sympathetic. “I’m sorry. The other method is not easy.”

  Leo shook his head. “I’ll get over it,” he muttered. He paused, briefly wondering if he should ask Sol about the weird mist Darius had written about. If he did that, though, he’d fully be giving up their location. He shook his head. “Uh, was there something you wanted to talk about?” he asked instead. He must’ve used [Dreamscape] tonight for a reason.

  “Yes, about that.” Sol nodded at the other [Fragmentholder]. “I must confess that I have not been entirely truthful to you.”

  Leo immediately tensed at that. “...What do you mean?”

  “I’ve known your location this entire time.”

  Leo looked up sharply, alarm bells blaring in his mind. His hand instinctively moved to the dagger at his waist, only to find his fingers grasping at air. Leo glanced down. Sure enough, neither his dagger nor his throwing knives were here. Then again, even if they were, he couldn’t hurt anyone in a dream anyway. He mentally cursed, readying to drain his mana if he needed to.

  “How?” His voice was blunt, harsh.

  Sol simply watched him, the man’s expression as calm and unreadable as always. After a few beats of silence had passed, he sighed.

  “In truth, a certain set of [Fragmentholders] have access to a more detailed version of the fragment map. It displays exact locations, the number of shards each person has gathered, and a few additional details.” He cocked his head. “Given my use of [Dreamscape] early on, it was fairly easy for me to match names and faces with the information from the map.”

  Leo’s mouth opened, then closed again. What could he say to that? He could feel his heart racing in his chest as the implications of the words hit him full force.

  Sol knew exactly where he was, and he wasn’t the only one. How many [Fragmentholders] had access to that version of the map? Should he expect to wake up one day to a [Fragmentholder] about to slice his chest open for his shards? How was he ever supposed to relax again knowing something like that?

  Something touched his hand, and Leo jumped. He looked over to see Sol had rested his hand on his in a calming gesture. The man looked as serene as ever, watching the former [Thief] patiently.

  “If it helps relieve some of your stress,” he said, “you are unlikely to be a target in your current state. Very few [Fragmentholders] have access to that version of the map, and the ones who do would not bother attacking someone with so few fragments. We primarily use the map to monitor each other’s movements.”

  A half-disbelieving, half-hysterical laugh bubbled out of Leo’s throat. “So you’re saying I shouldn’t be scared ‘cause I’m too weak for anyone to care about.”

  Sol smiled and sat back again. “Well, I would phrase it differently, but essentially yes.”

  “Yeah. Okay. Sure.” Leo’s brain was still moving a mile a minute, and it was taking every ounce of willpower he had to not completely fly off the handle. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

  Honestly, if he really thought about it, he shouldn’t be surprised that the fragment map could get more detailed. Sol had been vague, but it was very likely that the ones with access to that map were those with core fragments, which meant there were less than twenty total. That was still way more people than he’d ever want to know where he was at any point in time, but it did sound like Sol was pretty uniquely able to identify exact identities, and it was true that he was probably nothing more than an insect to high level [Fragmentholders] with a lot of fragments. It was still unnerving, still something that would probably keep him up at night, but not quite as world-shattering as it had felt at first.

  Hazel eyes focused on Sol. Despite knowing his location this entire time, the man hadn’t attacked them either despite more than likely having the means to do so, if his magic range was any indication. And he had been telling the truth about fragment removal and generally helpful so far. He wouldn’t go so far as to say he trusted him, but he was at least willing to hear him out.

  “…Okay. So you’ve known where I was this whole time. That’s not creepy at all.” He frowned. “Does that mean you know where all the [Fragmentholders] are?”

  “Theoretically yes.” He cocked his head. “However, I was only able to deduce exact identities as a result of [Dreamscape]. A few [Fragmentholders] placed mental barriers before I could use the spell on them, so I do not know who they are.”

  Now that Leo thought about it, that map would also explain how Sol had known exactly where to target with his [Dreamscape] spell, which meant that he’d gotten a core fragment very early on. He might’ve even had it since the initial scattering.

  Leo nodded slowly, a thin smile curling at the corner of his lips. “I’m guessing it’s too much to hope that you’ll just. Forget where I am,” he said dryly.

  Sol chuckled at that. “If it helps, I truly do not mean you any harm. If I did, you would’ve known by now.”

  Leo shuddered. “Yeah, sure, great. Really appreciate the reminder.”

  The other man sobered, his expression suddenly shifting to one more serious that instantly put Leo on alert. Sol pushed his tea cup aside.

  “To be frank, I would not have told you this if it were not relevant. Not for deceptive reasons, but for your own peace of mind.”

  “…I thought you said I was too weak for anyone with the map to hunt.”

  Sol shook his head. “This is something else. You’re currently venturing south, correct? I assume you’ve heard about the disappearances in southern Avel.”

  Leo nodded, muscles tense. “Yeah. It’s really a fragment then?”

  “A [Fragmentholder],” the other man corrected, “and a rather dangerous one at that.”

  Every new word put Leo on edge. A [Fragmentholder] implied someone deliberating targeting people, and if Sol looked so serious about it, he guessed they weren’t just going after people with fragments. He swallowed. How bad was it that someone as powerful as Sol was referring to them as dangerous?

  “…Are you saying I should run away?”

  He shook his head. “No, but I do suggest you exercise additional caution.” He gazed down into his tea cup, the liquid shining slightly under the illusory sun. “I do not call him dangerous because I don’t believe you can handle him. Rather, it’s his exact nature that is the problem.”

  Sol cocked his head. “I believe those of us with illusory magic possess a greater obligation to truth than anyone. We may manipulate what others see, but we ourselves must never be drawn into our own illusions.”

  The words struck a chord in Leo. With [Intangible Illusion], he fit into that category, too. Sol’s eyes narrowed slightly as he continued.

  “However, the [Fragmentholder] you are about to encounter is not like that. He fell mad to his own illusions long ago, and left to his own devices, he’d sooner pull the rest of the world into his delusions than he would willingly wake up from them.”

  A chill ran down Leo’s spine, and he shuddered. Something about the other [Fragmentholder]’s words was deeply unsettling.

  In front of him, Sol was quiet for a moment. Finally, he smiled softly. “This is not to scare you,” he said. “I simply wanted to warn you of what you’re approaching. Please, be careful.”

  Leo slowly nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He swallowed. “Thanks for telling me.”

  A [Fragmentholder] apparently making people disappear who had illusion magic and had gone mad. With every new piece of information gained, Leo’s doubts were only growing. Suddenly that foreboding feeling he’d had during their travels made a lot more sense.

  Sol looked up at the sky, still a clear blue, and hummed. “It seems our time is coming to an end.” He turned to face Leo again. “Thank you for speaking to me, Leo, and for heeding my warning.” He smiled. “I truly do think you will go far. And I apologize for not telling you about the map earlier.”

  Leo snorted at that. Despite his nerves still being jittery, he managed to return the smile. “Yeah, well, as long as you don’t start giving my location out or trying to attack me, I’ll let it slide for now. But maybe you could give me a heads up next time my location’s compromised.”

  Sol chuckled. “Will do.”

  As the next warm wind passed, scattering vibrant petals, their surroundings dissipated into a swarm of glowing lights. When Leo opened his eyes again, he was on the ground looking up at a thick canopy, the earth cool beneath him. Slowly, he rose and rubbed his forehead.

  Around them, the trees were quiet, casting long shadows along the hard earth. He couldn’t see anyone else nearby. Further down that path, he knew, would be the [Fragmentholder] Sol had spoken of. He exhaled, forcing his breaths to steady. His fingers tightened into a fist.

  One thing was for sure, Leo thought. He wasn’t going to run away. Not when the next fragment was so close.

  He turned his head, spotting Allan sitting up a few feet away as the last person on watch. Behind him, Spade had slept seated with her back against a tree trunk, but from her unnatural stillness, Leo suspected the [Executioner] was already awake. He swallowed, feeling Allan’s curious gaze on him. It was now or never.

  “I need to tell you something.”