Chapter 71: Chapter 1 A long fall

“I approve.”

Those were among the only words Kia had spoken after she’d grabbed Nathan from the Adventurer’s Guild. They had climbed up through Gemore and entered the staircase inside the mountain, headed back to the Seal. There was a gate that blocked access to the stairs, but Kia had opened it with an enchanted key.

It had been a few days since the Solstice, and Nathan’s duel with Simla. The rest of that day hadn’t heralded further surprises. The Heirs had sworn variations of Nathan’s Oath, to fight to stop the Endings themselves instead of merely protecting the people of Gemore from them.

It had been a dramatic moment, to be sure. The other trainees - now Adventurers - had stuck to the standard Oath, but after Nathan’s duel none had spoken against the Heirs. The new graduates seemed to hold Nathan and the other Heirs in even more awe than they had previously.

Yet, they were being shuffled into the standard Adventurer operations. Yesterday the Heirs had gone on an uneventful patrol along the southern transit road. They had another scheduled tomorrow.

Those seem awfully close together now that I think of it. Aren’t usual patrols only every other week or so?

Kia spoke again, pulling Nathan’s attention back to the present moment. “Your Oath. I hoped that others would follow your example, start a new era of Gemore adventurers. But the river of Gemore shifts its path slowly. I am glad that Khachi swore the oath alongside you. You will do great things.”

She looked back over her shoulder at him, golden-red braid catching what little light there was. Her eyes glowed a soft blue in the dark tunnel, and Nathan couldn’t see her expression. “Or you’ll die. That’s the Adventurer’s life. At least you would die attempting to slay a giant.”

Nathan nodded back to her, not sure what to say. He was pretty sure he knew why they were here - Kia was going to teach him the Airwalking Talent, or at least the start of it.

He’d spent some time thinking about the events of the Solstice. It was a lot to wrap his head around. The Tales of Ending had reverberated through Nathan’s head again and again, and he’d talked to the Heirs about them, learning some more details.

Magic, Gods, Monsters, Undeath, Wrath, Storm, Deicide, Elements, History, Spite and Silence.

There were still so many unanswered questions. The Ending of Elements had been last, with a few survivors colonizing Giantsrest several centuries ago. According to a few second- and third-hand accounts, the Ending of Elements had been a shifting conflagration of the natural elements, where a storm of fire gave way to dozens of feet of snow that was soon washed away by a torrent of water from the sky.

How did anybody survive that for three generations?

And Nathan had sworn himself to prevent the next one. The Ending of History. If only he knew what that meant. The general consensus was that all of the buried history of Davrar would reawaken. All of the horrors of all of the dungeons would emerge, to cover the land with myriad death.

So, Gemore cleared the dungeons, and tried to learn how to counter the threats within. They tried to build the weapons, forge the enchantments and learn the knowledge of their predecessors to weather the storm that would be the Ending of History.

How did one go about fighting that? Clear all the dungeons? Nathan didn’t know. But he’d keep an eye out for any clues about it. And prioritize developing his [Magic Absorption].

Except now, Nathan was hoping to pick up another piece of the build he’d planned for - flight. If he was going to fight the mages of Giantsrest, he’d need to catch them.

Yeah, that’s another thing I’m going to do. Protect a city, topple an evil empire, and save the world from a cyclical apocalypse. I definitely have direction. It feels good. Here, I have Davrar, and its assistance means my only limits are my goals. But these goals may be too much.

Nathan voiced some of his doubts, responding to Kia's earlier comment on his Oath. “It seems… like too much sometimes. How can I accomplish such a thing?”

They were approaching the top of the staircase, and in the sunlight pouring through the opening Nathan could see the fond smile on Kia’s face as she gazed upwards. It was the most he’d ever seen the ferocious woman smile. Her response was warm, as if explaining a favored topic. “With perseverance and dedication. The same way anything is accomplished. Stare the Ghoul in the eye over and over, until the Ghoul is the one that flinches back. You have lit this fire, and I have Faith in you and in the Heirs to stoke it to a glorious blaze.”

Then they emerged onto the mountaintop, and Nathan was stunned by the panorama. When he had been up here before, the sky had been dark, and he hadn’t been able to see the world of Davrar spread around him. Now he could. The ruined city of Old Gemore stretched out below him in all directions, marked by roads stretching off in the cardinal directions. The city was split by a wide river that emerged from the eastern mountains, flowing sullenly through the ruins.

The river’s path had once been marked by a broad canal and sculpted parks, but the water had broken its bounds on either side of the Northern transit road, and the sections of the city surrounding the river were sunken and flooded. The only section of the old path that the river seemed to respect was the bridge that the space-compressing transit road used.

Many miles to the west, the placid river curved around the solitary Firewatch peak, a volcano that occasionally belched ash and smoke into the sky. From this elevated position Nathan could just see the village of Firewatch, nestled into the crater of a cinder cone at the base of the volcano.

Nathan looked around, trying to spot more villages from the amazing vantage point. He could see a few in all directions - but less than a handful of the twenty-two he knew were out there. And even those were smudgy dots, barely visible.

But beyond all of that - the landscape of Davrar was revealed. Enormous mountains loomed to the north, snow-capped and rugged. In the very far distance Nathan could glimpse even taller peaks, bereft of snow, that loomed ominously over their cousins. Those mountains were dark, and cloaked in a perpetual gloom. The range marched down south, becoming less severe as it went until it petered into sandy hills that merged with the barely-visible desert to the southeast.

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A dark forest spread beyond Firewatch peak to the west, reaching north and south as it followed the Drakefish river and its tributaries. Just visible on the horizon as a light greenish smudge was the expanse of the plains beyond.

Nathan shook himself from appreciating the view, hurrying to follow Kia as she walked across the top of the mountain, past the Seal. Nathan glanced at the horizontal disk-shaped vault door laid into the top of the mountain. It wasn’t glowing now - or if it was, the bright sunlight was hiding it. It looked like a twenty-foot wide irising camera aperture set into the top of the mountain, deeply carved with intricate symbols.

Kia led Nathan onwards, to the edge of the mountain ridge that curled over Gemore. Nathan approached the edge carefully, where the stone curved downwards sharply before falling away over the city where Nathan had lived these past months.

Nathan glanced at Kia, seeing her gazing at the drop. “I learned the start of this Talent by accident, in the mountains. I was knocked off a cliff by a Castlebear. Bounced a few times on the way down, frantically trying to use my Faith to slow my fall. Almost died when I hit the ground. Broken legs, bones sticking out of my chest. Used my Faith to heal myself.”

She looked back at him. “I picked up the Talent for [Mid-tier Slow fall] then. That’s where you’ll start. But you will need to survive this fall.”

Seriously?

Nathan blinked. He’d been offered [Low-tier Slow fall] months ago, when he’d jumped over the back wall of the Adventuring Guild to evade imaginary agents of Giantsrest. Who hadn’t turned out to be all that imaginary after all.

Could I have avoided all of this if I’d just taken the skill then, and ranked it up?

Nathan decided to just ask. “I was offered the low-tier version of that Talent months ago. I could have just taken it then?”

Kia exhaled sharply. “Dangerous. Yes, you could have. But that path would be longer than one starting at a higher tier.” Her lips quirked. “It would also be safer. It is good that you know something of falling.”

She shook her head as if clearing errant thoughts. “The low-tier version of this Talent is difficult to properly Develop. It simply makes longer falls less dangerous, and is difficult to train. How often do you truly face long falls while in a fight? I have seen Adventurers who knew my story take a decade to develop the Low-Tier Talent to Mid-tier, and be unable to reach High-Tier, let alone able to achieve the unique Talent. Skipping the early tier is necessary.”

She paused for a second. “It is much better that you start with the Mid- or High-tier version, which requires a longer and more lethal fall, and the following Insight. You must use your class resource to guide and slow your fall when you gain the Talent. But do not push the resource out of you - it is not something you throw away. Your stamina is an internal resource - use it internally. Use your stamina to pull your body in the direction you wish to go. It is inside you, pushing against your bones, constrained within your skin. Guide your stamina inside of you, and use it to push in the direction you wish to go.”

She gestured to the cliff. “The longer the fall, the better the Talent. If you use stamina to control your fall then you will gain the correct version of the Talent, which will be at least mid-tier. I have brought you here because this fall is most likely to provide the high-tier version of the Talent. And you wish to slay Giants all too soon, do you not? The [Airwalking] Talent is unique, and must be developed from a High-tier Talent.”

Nathan gulped, then nodded. He did want to learn this sooner rather than later. He edged forward, looking down. The curving lip of the stone overhang they stood upon meant he couldn’t look straight down, but it was clear that the ground was thousands of feet below. Far beyond the terminal velocity distance. Nathan drew in a shaky breath, contemplating.

He worked his jaw and reached out for his stamina, which was a hair below full after the climb. He started practicing moving it around inside him, trying to get a feeling for the motion that Kia had just described.

He noticed Kia moving around behind him. “Do not practice. You do not want the Talent for [Stamina-Driven Movement].” She placed one armored foot against his back. Nathan had a moment of realization about what was about to happen, and then Kia kicked him off the cliff.

Nathan spent a moment panicking and flailing for the edge of the cliff. Then he was violently angry at Kia for kicking him off a cliff. Then he stabilized his flight, locking into an instinctive skydiving arch.

I honestly shouldn’t be surprised. It’s Kia. This is very much her style. Time to fly or die!

Nathan grinned as he felt the wind rush past him and his mind snapped into a frenzied focus. He had to admit, skydiving without a parachute was one hell of a rush.

The city of Gemore was spread out below on its steep hill. Kia had pushed him off the farthest point of the overhanging curl of stone, and Nathan would land halfway down the slope, not too far from Poppy’s old shop.

How do I survive this? I need to use stamina to slow my fall, just like Kia said. But I should also control my approach angle. If I come in nearly parallel to the steepest slope I can find, then less of my momentum will need to be broken by the ground. I will also need to activate Rage right before I hit, to get the toughness boost. But I need to not distract myself and drain stamina I can use to break the fall. And heal myself afterwards.

Nathan had maybe fifteen more seconds before he landed. He started cycling his stamina throughout his entire body, pushing at every limb, trying to move his chest, his bones in the same direction. He also angled his body, trying to generate sideways momentum downslope.

It worked, and Nathan was almost worried about overshooting the wall and landing on flat ground. But it was too late to worry about that, the ground was speeding up towards him. Nathan activated his Rage, spreading the ember that forever burned inside of him to every corner of his being with a moment’s discipline and the thought of lines of slaves trudging across a stream.

Nathan threw every ounce of the furious energy that surged through his body into casting himself upwards. He would use his stamina to fly, to strike Giantsrest mages from the sky!

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