A kaleidoscope of color and shapes swallowed Alex. Fractals of magic pulsed in odd, Euclidean forms that vanished before he got a chance to properly take a look at any of them. It felt like the universe was simultaneously expanding out ward and collapsing upon him from every direction.

Power beat against his skin and pressure bore down on his eyes with just enough force to make him feel ill. His stomach alternated between doing its absolute best to squeeze its way up into his throat and plummeting down into his intestines.

Then his foot hit the ground.

The colors exploded. His sense of balance completely inverted and he plummeted downward, driving into something soft and letting out a surprised grunt as he suddenly found himself falling.

That didn’t last long. He hit the ground amidst a surprised curse that didn’t come from his own mouth. Several other thuds to his sides made it clear that he wasn’t the only one who had arrived in a rather undignified manner.

Alex groaned, blinking furiously in an attempt to wipe the stars and fading splotches of color from his vision. He screwed his eyes shut and forced them open one last time. The queasiness in his stomach showed no signs of stilling as his surroundings reluctantly revealed themselves to him.

He was lying on top of Claire. She stared up at him, the slight discomfort in her features making it clear that he wasn’t the only one that hadn’t enjoyed their return trip.

“Hello,” Claire said. “I may be about to throw up. I would not recommend remaining in that position.”

Alex rolled off Claire and flopped down like a pile of wet laundry. He stared up at the domed white ceiling above them, making no move to try and sit up properly. His arm and a leg were still draped over Claire’s limbs, but he was too tired to move any further. Just lying there was about all he was capable of at the moment.

“That was awful,” Alex said.

Several groans rose up, marking the rest of their group’s position on the ground all around them. It seemed they’d all made it.

“Not an enjoyable trip,” Claire agreed from beside Alex, her voice slightly strained. She blew out a short breath. It tickled his neck. She must have been looking at him. “How’d it go?”

“The trip?”

“No. Shawn.”

“Good. I think,” Alex said. He turned toward Claire, then nearly flinched in surprise. Her face was only inches away from his. His stomach lurched, but that may very well have been from the queasiness still assaulting his senses.

“Good,” Claire said, somewhat lamely. “I… actually, give me a moment.”

She grimaced, then closed her eyes again, resting her ear against his shoulder. That seemed like a remarkably good idea. Alex closed his own eyes and tilted his head against Claire’s.

The churning in his stomach slowly started to fade. He wasn’t sure how long they spent laying there. It could have been a minute or ten. Whatever Shawn had done had been intense. Alex couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this rattled.

Laying still helped. The entire room was silent, save for the sound of breathing.

Then Wess coughed.

“Does anyone have something nasty to drink?” Wess asked from somewhere above them. “Paint stripper or worse, please. I need to forget something.”

“Why did Shawn do that?” Alyssa asked in a choked tone. “I think I fell on my brush. I’m impaled.”

“You’re just laying on top of it,” Derek said. “It’s okay.”

“Oh, hey. It’s Derek,” Wess said. “You dead, Derek? Do you look like a zombie? I can’t be bothered to check yet.”

“I look like Derek,” Derek said.

“Good enough for me,” Wess said. “Where are we?”

Alex’s eyes opened again. His senses had calmed down and his body was no longer trying to invert upon itself. Claire seemed to be sleeping against him, her breaths slow and steady.

He was surprised to find that he was actually comfortable — and extracting himself from where he’d flopped beside Claire would have been difficult to do without waking her.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Then, at the very edge of his vision, he caught a glimpse of Claire’s face. Her eye was open and staring right at him. Alex had been wrong. She definitely wasn’t asleep.

He shifted his arm slightly.

Her eye narrowed. Alex let his arm fall back to its prior position.

Looks like moving isn’t on the table yet.

“This definitely isn’t the entrance of the Ancestry,” Alyssa said from their side. A note of panic entered her voice. “Did we get captured? Shit. Where are we? What happened?”

“Relax,” Claire said. “We’re safe. I figured the Great Families weren’t going to be too happy with us, so I bought passage away from the normal exit. There probably isn’t a safer area anywhere on 274-50 for us at the moment.”

“You did?” Wess asked. He blew out a relieved breath. “Well done. That was clever. I got so happy spending my points that I totally forgot that there were definitely going to be a bunch of Outworlders waiting to lift our shit off our bodies the moment we stepped outside. Was it expensive?”

“Yes,” Claire said. “How much is your life worth?”

“To me? A shit-ton. But if we’re talking repaying favors… I’d say about one credit. Seller’s market, you know?”

“Gods, you’re greedy,” Alyssa said. “We owe her. If she hadn’t redirected where we were teleported, there’s a good chance we’d all be dead now.”

“At what point did I ever claim to not be greedy?” Wess asked. “You lot knew what you were signing up for when I tossed my hat in the ring.”

“Hard to argue with that,” Derek said. “Wess is not a good guy. He kind of sucks. But that’s okay. He is good at shooting things. And sometimes he makes me laugh. That balances out.”

Does it?

“That kind of hurt, coming from you,” Wess said. “You don’t think I’m a good guy?”

“No,” Derek said. “I do not. Should I?”

“Probably not,” Wess said. “But it still hurt, you know?”

“Sorry,” Derek said.

“He worded it nicer than I would have,” Alyssa put in.

“Thank you,” Wess said. “Appreciate it. Still, though, where the hell are we? A cave?”

Claire blew out an exasperated breath. Then she reluctantly unentangled herself from Alex and sat up.

Alex sat up beside her, his spinning thoughts clicking back into place. Then he blinked. Finally, he recognized the rough white substance making up the domed walls rising all around them.

“Mirrorwane,” Claire said. “This is our town.”

“We’re in the Teleporter,” Alex said in disbelief. “Shawn was able to send us right back here?”

“It wasn’t cheap,” Claire said. “But I memorized the position on the Astral Map. Just in case something like this happened. And I’m pretty sure the expense was worth it. If we got attacked by something right when we’d emerged from the Ancestry, I think we’d have all been dead. Nobody was in fighting shape.”

“Holy shit,” Alyssa said, pushing herself up to a seated position as well. She blinked heavily, then scrunched her nose. “So… it’s done? The Ancestry is completely finished? Just like that?”

“Were you expecting applause?” Claire asked.

“More like a sword to the gut,” Alyssa muttered. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe we survived that. Gentle Shadow is going to be furious. And the River King…”

“We’ll deal with that nepo baby later,” Alex said. He did some quick calculations in his head. It had around a week since they’d last been in Mirrorwane. Given how recently the Apocalypse had happened, that was actually quite a bit of time.

How much has changed? Is everyone okay? Or have even more people died since I was last here?

“So this is your town?” Wess asked. He rubbed his eyes and squinted at the ceiling. “Why is it made out of bones?”

“Our engineer is a bit odd,” Alex said. “It grows on you.”

Derek nodded sagely. “Yes. Bones are good. I like them.”

They all looked at him.

“Right,” Alyssa said. “That’s mildly concerning. Maybe a bit more than mildly. But I’m a little preoccupied at the moment, so I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. Did you manage to get the Rotkeeper’s Legacy?”

“Oh,” Derek said. “Yeh.”

“Yeh,” Wess repeated. “That’s it? Can’t you say more?”

“It’s good,” Derek said. “I gotta figure out how it works, though. I’ll let you know more once I get a hold of it.”

“Does that mean you’re going to stick around?” Alex asked. “The last time we asked, you didn’t seem too interested in joining the town.”

“Oh, yeah.” Derek scratched his chin. Then he shrugged. “That seems fun. I’ll try it out. Thanks.”

“Just don’t try to kill any town members, please,” Alex said. “I don’t think they’d like it.”

“Oh,” Derek said. “Okay.”

“Welcome aboard,” Claire said. “And don’t worry. There will be more than enough other things to kill.”

“Good enough for me,” Derek said.

“Great,” Alex said. He pushed himself to his feet with a groan, then stretched his arms out before himself. “Let’s go introduce everyone to the rest of the town, then.”

“And we’ve got some work to do,” Claire added, rising beside Alex.

“What, you mean with the Outworlders?” Alyssa asked.

“Always,” Claire replied. “But no. I was more specifically talking about the town. You lot will make it stronger. But not strong enough. We’re trying to compete with the Outworlders. That means no rest when there are steps we can take to grow more powerful.”

“What do you mean?” Wess asked. “You want to go fight something? Now? We just got back!”

“No. Not that,” Claire replied with a small laugh. She extended her hand. A shimmer of light passed over her palm and a stone slate materialized within her hands. Her lips split apart in a grin as she held it out to Alex. “I was more thinking we’ve got to run an analysis on what rewards we got and how they can best be used for the town… starting with this.”

Alex looked down at the slate. The System shimmered before him as it identified the item in her grip. His eyes widened.

Forsaken Grounds (Mythic) — Blueprint

Contains instructions and the materials list required to create the Mythic Forsaken Grounds building.