The Ishani

Chapter-Six

The Ishani

When I woke up, I went out and stoked the fire, pulling off the cooked meat and adding more of the frozen meat to the grill.

After that, I went and found the books. I had cleaned up the broken glass and splintered wood the day before, then moved the cabinet back where I had found it.

Sitting outside, I opened the books and looked them over. They seemed to be bookkeeping records for the tower’s inventory.

Fifty bags of grain.

One hundred and fifty raw Aurelith alloy.

Eighty-seven barrels of Brimbleberry wine.

The list continued with blocks of stone and spices with odd names, like barrakpepper and solyntal leaves.

There were also entries for clothing, tablets, books, staffs, weapons, and armor. A lot of weapons and armor.

Then came cured meats, rations, and salt, but the numbers were in the thousands. Years’ worth, by my estimate.

Yet I hadn’t noticed a warehouse or storage area anywhere near large enough to hold everything listed in those books.

The last couple of books showed what had been taken.

All of the armor and weapons were gone, along with some other things labeled under research supplies. Based on the amount listed, when the Eurathi left, they would have needed fifty vans or three semi trucks to move it all, assuming I was imagining the typical size of these items correctly.

How on earth did they move all of that?

Unless, you know, they did have flying machines. Or maybe they just teleported it away.

Either way, they had left more stuff here than they had taken. Maybe the Ishani took the rest, but still.

Where did they keep it all?

I put the books back and went outside to see if I had missed something.

What they had stored would have required a large warehouse of some kind, but I hadn’t seen anything like that. So I walked outside the walls and began looking for anything that might indicate a large building or infrastructure beyond the outpost.

I found the covered remains of smaller buildings dotted throughout the forest. Maybe old farmland.

North of the ruin, I discovered a field where trees had not grown. There were the remains of a stone fence, along with a broken statue. The only thing left of it was a pair of moss and algae-covered legs.

It looked like it might have been made of onyx, and there were engravings dug deep into the stone, forming patterns that seemed to run up the legs. At one time, it had all sat on a crumbling stone pedestal.

Nothing looked like a warehouse.

So I headed back to the ruined outpost. After closing the large gate behind me, I made my way toward the tower, still baffled by how they had stored everything.

Then a thought struck me.

What if they didn’t store it in a physical place?

I mean, they had teleporters, so maybe this tower was hiding some kind of dimensional storage.

The thought was interrupted by a whoosh and a thoomb from something landing on top of the tower. Bits of rubble broke free and clattered to the ground.

I looked up, already holding my staff toward it and casting Ice Shard through the focus, when I saw the drake looking down at me. Its obsidian scales and leathery wings caught the light as it shifted above me.

I canceled the spell and immediately began looking for a place to run.

The thing had to be the size of a bus.

Keeping my eyes on it, I began sidestepping toward one of the partially collapsed buildings. The drake kind of nodded as it looked at me, then turned its head east, toward the mountains.

A moment later, it looked back at me and tilted its head before looking east again.

I relaxed, just a little, and turned toward the mountains, wondering what on earth it was trying to tell me.

It was clearly not here to attack me. It seemed more like it was warning me, maybe. Or informing me. I really couldn’t tell.

I turned back to the drake, and it was still looking at me.

I straightened, keeping my eyes on it as I moved toward the tower. It didn’t make any move at all, so I walked to the fire and lifted a piece of the meat, thinking maybe it was hungry.

And, honestly, I was just happy I didn’t seem to be on its menu.

As I lifted the meat, it slowly shook its head at me, then jumped into the air with a whoosh before banking west and vanishing from sight.

“What the hell was that all about?” I asked myself.

Shaking my head, I made my way to the broken floor and tried to look in the direction the drake had looked from an elevated position.

I couldn’t see anything.

Smoke still rose from the mountain, right where it had been before.

I wondered if it had just been telling me that people were there, and that I should go to them.

If so, then I was already working on it. I just didn’t want to venture toward anyone until I was prepared for at least two, maybe three days in the wilderness on my own.

With that, I made my way to the dining area, where I sat down for a quick meal of meat and berries, wishing I had brought coffee with me.

I opened the Spellwright book and looked at the first spell. This time, the concepts tugged at me. I could almost understand them as I studied.

Then I received a window.

Skill: Concept Sense has increased to 2.

“Huh,” I said. I’d forgotten about that skill. “Guess I know what it does now.”

I spent a day working on it.

The spell was Fire Bolt, and the concepts I had been missing, though I should have guessed them, were fire, heat, and consumption.

The Spellwright spells were a lot more complicated from the start, but I guessed that had a lot to do with the fact that the system handled them. They were meant to be slotted, not memorized.

The next morning, I practiced the spell until I finally cast the bolt of fire.

When I cast it, it looked amazing. Fire materialized around the spell and swirled into a tight, spinning bolt before shooting off into the magical barrier.

It hung there for a moment, then slowly unraveled.

I grinned.

It had taken nearly twenty-five mana to cast, but I was pleased with the result. Plus, I was adding to my arsenal.

After that, I went out into the forest to gather more berries and look for other things I could eat. Foraging was fun, and now that I had Identify, maybe I wouldn’t poison myself.

I found a patch of mushrooms I was curious about. I had already found a leafy plant that Identify told me was a common spice called hollow leaf. It almost tasted like sage, so I picked some and put it in my backpack.

The mushrooms smelled and looked like common whitecap mushrooms, but before I grabbed any, I wanted to make sure they were actually edible.

As I leaned toward the mushrooms, I heard a snap behind me.

I spun around, and my eyes grew wide.

A tall man stood between two trees with a bow pulled all the way back. My eyes went straight to the arrow tip.

It was pointed directly at me.

I dodged left as the arrow sprouted from the tree inches from my face, splinters hitting my cheek. I rolled behind the tree and pulled my staff close as I pressed my back against the bark.

“Found someone!” I heard the man yell.

Then I heard running in the woods, moving toward my area.

“Looks like a mage.”

A younger female voice broke through as the tramping in the leaves stopped.

“What did you do? Why did you shoot at them?”

Then another, deeper voice spoke.

“Ay, girl, if they’re a mage, it’s best to shoot first.”

Another older woman spoke next, her voice smooth and calm.

“Excuse me. Would you just shoot at me, then? Should I watch my back?”

Are they seriously arguing calmly over nearly killing me? I thought.

The deep-voiced man spoke again. “You know you’re different. We don’t know that mage. He’s out here alone, nearly three days’ travel from the city, and clearly dangerous enough to hang around near the ruins.”

I just stood there, listening and thinking.

That man was human.

The people of this world were human.

The younger woman spoke to me first.

“Hey, are you hurt? Do you need healing?”

I sat there stunned.

What? Were these people completely crazy?

“Um, no, but I feel like you might change that if I come out.”

She giggled.

She fucking giggled before responding.

“I won’t hurt you if you don’t attack me first. Can I come over there and properly meet you?”

The guy who had shot at me protested.

“What do you think you’re doing, Lyris? You don’t know if he’s some crazed necromancer or worse.”

“Awww,” she complained. “Now he knows my name before I know his.”

What the actual fuck is wrong with these people? I thought before answering.

“Sure, you can come over here, but I will defend myself.”

She giggled again.

“Good. I’m coming over.”

Good? What is that supposed to mean?

“Somebody stop her,” the bowman said.

The other woman laughed.

“Don’t worry. If he does something, she can take him. She isn’t a child.”

The man with the deep voice spoke next.

“Huh. Could have fooled me.”

Just then, a young woman, eighteen maybe, or as old as twenty, peeked her head around the tree.

“Hi!” she said, waving her hand excitedly.

I stepped away from the tree, putting the end of my staff to the ground and holding it like a walking stick.

“Um, hi. I’m, uh, Adam,” I said, putting my hand out to shake hers.

She glanced down at my hand and smiled, then quickly took it and shook it excitedly.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re friendly. My name is Lyris, but you knew that. What are you doing out here alone? You are alone, right? Near the ruins? You know they attract dangerous guardian monsters, right?”

She bombarded me with questions, talking rapid-fire.

Her energy was both confusing and adorable at the same time.

She was short, around five feet tall, and wore a light dark-brown robe similar to the one I wore, though the threads looked less fine in quality. She also wore a leather belt with several pouches tied to it and a small backpack.

In her hand was a short staff with a loop at the end, and some strange symbol made of green gemstone dangled from a chain in the center.

She cocked her head to the side before poking me in the stomach.

“Are you okay? You look confused.”

I looked down at where she had poked me, then back at her.

“Yeah, that is a good read about my current state, yes.”

Then she turned toward her party and said, “He seems cute. Um, I mean safe.”

At that moment, I could hear the rest of the group begin moving toward me.

I didn’t really want to be here, but I didn’t seem to have a choice, so I waited and tensed.

Just then, the bowman stepped around the tree and stopped a few paces back from Lyris.

He wore dark leathers and had a leather cap on his head that tied in the back. His quiver was tied to his belt, and a bundle of arrows poked out of it. He also wore a backpack.

Then a taller woman stepped into view, one hand raised like she was ready to cast at any moment.

She wore a finer silken robe that seemed road-worn but still nice. It was deep red, with runes stitched through it in black thread. She also had several rings and bracelets adorning both hands, along with a necklace bearing a bright orange stone in the shape of an eye.

Her staff was longer, and at the end was a red gem attached by a metal cap. Runes ran all the way up the staff, glowing gold, while the gem faintly glowed red.

Then a monster of a man stepped into view, maybe six foot six, wearing plate armor.

One hand held a long, wide blade with a large crossguard, while the other held a round shield. The front of the shield had an ornate, embossed dragon head.

His armor was dark blue with white trimming, and the chest seemed to bear a stylized, embossed sun. The shield blocked most of it, though, so I couldn’t be sure.

I just waved stupidly at everyone. I’m sure I looked like an idiot.

Then the older woman lowered her hand and tilted her head slightly. She turned to the bowman.

“This is the guy you thought could be dangerous? An acolyte? He isn’t even level ten yet.”

Then she turned to me, put her hands on her hips, and scowled.

“How did an acolyte get way out here without a group, and what were you thinking, hanging around near ruins?”

She turned toward the tower, and for the first time, she realized that my fire’s smoke was coming from inside the ruins.

She turned back to me and put her hand to her temple.

“Please tell me you aren’t camped in there.”

“Um,” I said articulately, “I have been living there for about a week now.”

Lyris’ eyes widened.

“No. You would have had to deal with some monster. I’m pretty sure a Shadow Stalker Panther was reported to have claimed this tower. Have you seen it?”

I nodded and sighed.

“I really hope this doesn’t get me into some kind of trouble, but I killed it and, well, I’m cooking it now.”

Lyris laughed.

“You what? An acolyte killed a guardian? Excuse me if I don’t believe you, but if that’s true, you’re not as harmless as I thought.”

I shrugged. I didn’t really have anything to say to that.

I turned to the older woman and sighed.

“If you want, I can show you the place.”

Lyris looked between me and the older woman before putting her hands on her hips.

“Hey, why are you talking to her and not me?”

“Sorry,” I said, looking a little guilty. “She doesn’t overwhelm me, and you’re a little... intense.”

The older woman raised an eyebrow, then shook her head.

“I’m Emiri. The Stalker here is Horus, the Guardian there is Bhoarn, and you have met Lyris, our healer. If it’s safe, we could use a place to camp for the night. We were sent to investigate the smoke, and it seems we have discovered the cause.”

“Okay then,” I said, waving for them to follow me.

When I approached the gate, Bhoarn spoke in his deep voice.

“Great, the gate is closed, and I ain’t climbing the wall.”

I looked at him, confused, before pressing on the gate. It slid open.

They just looked at each other like I had performed some kind of special magic.

“How did that respond to you?” Emiri asked as she walked closer to the gate.

I shrugged.

“It was stuck open, so I charged it, and it worked fine.”

We all walked through. Bhoarn and Horus looked at the gate suspiciously as I walked over and put my hand on the impression to close it again.

Lyris giggled and stepped up next to me, touching my shoulder with hers as she looked at the impression.

“You control the gate here, then? How do you charge it?”

I looked at her.

I didn’t know why she made me so nervous. Something about her felt off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“You just feed it mana, and it charges. Nothing special.”

She huffed.

“Are you an enchanter?”

I wasn’t sure what she meant.

“Uh, no.”

She gave me a weird look before walking away toward my fire.

What is wrong with her?

The group followed me toward the fire, and Lyris began to laugh when she reached it.

Emiri made an odd, strangled sound, then turned and stared at me.

No, I realized a moment later. She wasn’t exactly staring at me.

She was staring at my staff.

“Where did you get that staff?” she asked accusingly.

I just pointed at the tower.

She looked at it, then back at me.

“You can access the floors of the tower? How? Can you show me?”

As I led them all into the tower, Lyris snorted.

“I can’t believe you used Eurathi staves for a grill surface. You must be some kind of crazy.”

“I’m sorry,” I said guiltily.

She giggled.

“Sorry? Did you see Emiri? I thought she was going to die on the spot.”

“Look,” I said as we reached the teleportation pad. “I was only trying to survive before your world dragged me here, and this tower implanted me with some ancient system thing. I am just trying to survive.”

Lyris stopped dead and stared at me, searching my face before she chuckled.

“You’re a displaced citizen. By the Fracture, you do make sense.”

She turned and jumped up and down, clapping.

“Look, a real displaced! When was the last time we had a displaced? What, two hundred years ago? And he was an elf.”

The group stopped.

Emiri smiled.

“Well, that complicates things. I hope you don’t mind coming back to the city with us.”

I shook my head and laughed.

“Please take me to the city. As fun as this has been,” I said sarcastically, “I don’t want to stay out here alone.”

Lyris smiled wide.

“Oh, how exciting. I can’t wait to show you around.”

Smiling at her, I nodded.

“Looking forward to it.”

Gesturing for everyone to step onto the teleportation pad, I brought them all to the next floor up.

At that, the entire group fell over and began gagging.

I chuckled.

I was glad I wasn’t the only one who had experienced that.

Emiri wiped at her face, looked at me, and scowled.

“You could have warned us. Teleportation isn’t something we experience much, you know.”

Then her expression softened.

“I guess you wouldn’t know that, would you?”

I shrugged.

“Honestly, I am pretty clueless here.”

I reached my hand down to help her up, but she pushed it aside and wobbled as she stood on her own.

Lyris put her hand out.

I chuckled and lifted her to her feet. She didn’t feel like she weighed anything.

She smiled at me.

“You’re pretty strong for your level,” she said with a wink.

Horus and Bhoarn got to their feet.

After everyone was on their feet, I pointed out what each room on the floor was and what books I had found in them, starting with Spell Shaper, which caught Emiri’s attention.

“Spell Shaper? That isn’t a class,” she said, then turned toward the room.

I just shrugged as Lyris stepped up beside me, getting into my personal space again.

“Anything here for healers?”

I nodded.

“Next floor. Nothing for fighters here, though. This whole tower seems to train different kinds of mages and enchanters.”

The others dispersed and started exploring. A moment later, Emiri walked out with the Spell Shaper book in hand.

“This is impossible. Without the system, how does anyone cast like this? It seems inefficient and extremely mana intensive. You’d have to have at least one hundred mana to cast some of these spells, and I can cast similar ones with half that.”

I shrugged and looked away for a moment, then looked back at her.

“I dunno. It seems pretty flexible.”

She snorted.

“Flexible, I can agree with. But you need to learn so much, and you can’t just cast a spell. You have to build it first and learn weird concepts. It would take a long time to cast anything beyond the basics.”

At that moment, Lyris bounded out of the room excitedly.

“Look at all of this knowledge! I bet we can sell it!”

“Hey,” I said, feeling a little protective of the books. “I found them. I should decide what to do with them.”

Lyris looked down at the book in her hand, then back at me and pouted.

“But... you couldn’t possibly use all of them.”

I frowned.

“No, but I would like to keep at least one copy of every book here. Maybe you’re right, though. I could use some money.”

Lyris’ pout became a smile way too fast.

“Yes, and we can get a finder’s fee.”

I just stared at her.

“Finder’s fee? For what? I found them.”

Lyris giggled.

“And we found you. Without us, you aren’t going to make it to the city.”

With a harumph, I put my hands on my hips.

“You don’t know that. I would have managed on my own.”

Lyris laughed harder.

“And how did you expect to get all of these books to the city? In your pack?”

I frowned and pointed at her.

“Damn it. I never thought about selling them at all.”

The big man somehow snuck up on me and patted me on the back with his giant, meaty hand, nearly knocking me off my feet.

“No sense arguing with her. She is always three steps ahead of everyone.”

Suddenly, Emiri’s book vanished, and she turned back toward the room.

I just looked at her stupidly.

“What the fuck was that?”

Lyris looked up from the book she was reading and followed my gaze toward Emiri.

“What was what?”

“What did she do with the book?” I asked, my voice going higher than I wanted it to. “She just kind of made it vanish.”

Lyris stared in Emiri’s direction, then slowly turned to me.

“Oh. Yeah, she stored it in her ring. I’m still a little jealous she found a storage ring.”

My eyes widened, not because of the storage ring, but because of the implication.

Maybe that was where they had kept all the extra stuff.

I looked to Lyris and smiled.

“Hey, did the Eurathi have anything like that?”

Lyris frowned.

“Obviously. Enchanters can make storage rings. They are really expensive, but the Eurathi could make them large enough to hold an entire building.”

I smiled and kept the thought to myself.

Maybe there was something like that hidden here.

Maybe, when I came back, I would look for it.

After showing them around, Emiri stored several copies of everything she could before she ran out of space.

Then I brought them down to the living area. I tried to show them how to use the portals themselves, but the teleportation ring didn’t seem to work for them for some reason.

I showed them the rooms and the kitchen. Then Lyris found the bath and asked if I knew how to fill it.

I, of course, showed her.

She cheered, stripped in front of me, and dove into the water.

I turned as fast as I could, heat rushing into my face.

“What are you doing?” I asked, embarrassed.

Lyris laughed.

“What? Have you never seen a naked woman before?”

“Of course I have,” I protested. “Just, where I come from, we don’t strip in front of strangers. Or even people we know, for that matter.”

Just then, the rest of the group looked in.

A moment later, they started undressing and joined her in the bath.

Lyris giggled.

“You better get used to it. Communal bathing is normal here.”

“I think I’ll just wait out here,” I said without turning around.

I left and closed the door behind me.

After about thirty minutes, everyone had made their way to a table.

Emiri went to the kitchen and said she was going to cook a meal. A moment later, she asked if I knew how to activate the heating runes.

I shrugged.

“I don’t know how to use the stove here, but I’ll help.”

Emiri placed a pan on the stove, and I put my finger into the depression. The pan got hot.

The stove didn’t.

I put a palm to my forehead.

“Of course it’s induction. Why the hell didn’t I think of that?”

Emiri looked at me curiously.

“Induction? What is that?”

I chuckled.

“You know what? I’m not even sure. I just know it heats the pan, not the stove.”

After an hour, Emiri came out with several plates of food: some kind of spiced roots and meat that smelled amazing.

I hadn’t had decent food in over a week, and I couldn’t wait to eat whatever this was.

“We're leaving in the morning,” Emiri said after sitting down with her own plate.

Lyris frowned.

“Aww, I was looking forward to searching this place. It’s not every day we explore a ruin.”

Emiri shook her head.

“These places have secrets, sure, but they aren’t as amazing as what we have accomplished since the Eurathi left.”

Horus tapped the table.

“Yeah, I agree. We should get back to dungeon delving.”

“Dungeon delving?” I asked. “What do you mean by that? Do you actually have dungeons full of monsters and treasure here?”

They all looked at each other for a moment before Bhoarn spoke. I still wasn’t used to how deep his voice was.

“Dungeons are dangerous for anyone under level twenty. You should avoid them until then.”

Lyris cocked her head to the side.

“Does your world not have dungeons?”

I shook my head.

“No. Where I come from, we don’t have dungeons, or systems, or monsters, for that matter. My world doesn’t kidnap people either.”

Lyris frowned and shrank into her chair.

“You miss your home, don’t you?”

I sighed, thinking about the question.

I didn’t actually miss Earth. Yes, it was less dangerous. Yes, it felt stable and safe.

“I miss my friends,” I said honestly. “I hated it here for a while, but if I’m being honest with myself, this world has given me more than I ever lost. It has given me an odd freedom I never had before.”

Lyris stood and began gathering everyone’s plates.

“I’m sorry about your loss. You are coming with us, right? Maybe you can find new people here.”

I watched her, then looked at the group.

They all seemed to understand, which somehow made me feel worse.