Robin woke to the soft and rhythmic sound of Eli’s breathing. He hadn’t been asleep long. He didn’t need to be, with his ring. A single hour charged him up as much as sleeping for nine hours regularly did.

He carefully slid out of bed. His wounds twinged. Three were inflamed and looked to be in danger of hosting an infection. Eli was still working on his atonement piece for Vané. Some sort of large wooden sculpture. Though the cleric had only allowed him the smallest of glimpses while it was ‘in progress’.

Robin was hoping he wouldn’t have to hold out until then. He paused, glancing across the room to make sure Eli was still deep in the meditative trance state he enjoyed instead of slumber. The elvish cleric didn’t so much as twitch. Robin slipped out of the room.

The stone beneath his bare feet was cool and smooth. Much smoother than the tunnels, actually. In searching the tower, he’d managed to find an old pair of shoes, cracked with age but solid enough to protect his feet, and large enough not to pinch, but he had no need of them right now. Besides, he kind of liked the feel of the stone on his feet.

The gentle glow of the runes in the hall guided him to the main chamber, not that he needed it. With a smooth motion, Robin called up the Greater and Lesser Arcana interface. Though he’d not managed to find any mention of Rhyth in the files nor decipher any new spells to cast, it was still a treasure trove of knowledge.

He’d done this each of the last two nights. That first day, they’d slipped out and retrieved a large cache of food, mostly edible plants that Eli was able to identify. Robin touched the ring on his finger. Again, not that he needed it.

The touch of the engraved runes on his fingertips was like cold fire. Robin savoured the sensation. He’d read up on a bit of the specialty knowledge needed to create these high-level effects. Currently, it was well beyond him, but if pressed, he might be able to turn a simple effect or two out of a hastily scrawled rune. Maybe. If it didn’t explode in his face.

There was a wealth of knowledge here, and that was the problem. There was so much to sift through, and like any kind of advanced knowledge in his own world, a lot of it relied on a common knowledge base which he currently lacked. Still, that didn’t stop him from reading and learning. Especially once his interface had rewarded his self-edification with several notifications, all in a similar vein.

Congratulations! You have advanced your personal knowledge! The next time you increase Arcane Lore, your experience costs will be reduced by 1/3!

It seemed the way Robin had been advancing was the shortcut method provided by his interface. If he did things the old-fashioned way, learned them properly, he got experience discounts, or maybe even free ranks if he learned enough. He’d have to test it out. In addition to Arcane Lore, his research had helped him unlock discounts on Natural Wisdom, Learning, and Bureaucracy.

Robin took up where he had left off last night: magical properties of plants native to this region. This world had a lot of what he thought of as ‘canned’ or ‘easy-use’ magic—spells with discrete effects that were accomplished through power of will or simple words and gestures—but it also had a lot of lore and charms and hexes that didn’t seem to fit into what he would consider a streamlined class system.

It was another point in the argument that the magical laws of this place were one thing and the messages and interfaces he was seeing were merely a way to interpret those underlying truths. A very convenient one but not something that should be confused with the source of this world’s power. Like a smartphone held a fraktonne of information, but it was only an interface, not the data or code itself.

Rowan. Deciduous tree. This species…

There was a description as well as multiple images to help in identifying the tree. Robin scanned through and dug down to the magical properties. Something was tugging at his mind, something he half-remembered from—

🎶Rowan tree, red thread…🎶

What was the rest of that song!? And why was he so certain it was the clue he was after?

Rowan, rowan, good for spells of protection, particularly those warding against or piercing enchantments or dark magics. That certainly sounded promising, and beating Cherry’s wood-based magic with a forest charm of their own had an appealing poetic justice to it as well. Bardic justice? Either would be good.

There was also an entry cross-referencing the older, folk tradition of magic with the more hierarchical, analytic classifications Robin was familiar with from tabletopping and his own, current interface.

Naturally, there were nine ‘circles’ of magic, with various sub-classifications and descriptors also coming into place (frustratingly, also filed under ‘circle’ in his own interface descriptions). Illusion he was very familiar with, and Enchantment, to a slightly lesser degree. Both circles featured in the few spells he currently knew. There was also Abjuration for protection (which linked to the rowan’s magical properties) and purification, Invocation (calling or conjuring things), Evocation (projection or manipulating energies), Divination (spying, seeing visions, etc.), Vitomancy (magic dealing with the forces of life and death), Transmutation (changing things from one form into another or altering their base nature), and Wayfaring (mostly dealing with portals and teleportation).

There was also a huge database of sub-classifications, like curses and shadow magic and pyromancy. It was more than Robin could currently memorise, but he was working on it.

Robin froze. Was that the sound of a foot scuffing on stone? He glanced into the shadows filling the hall that led into the chamber but could make out nothing, even with his ability to see in the dark. His stomach twinged again, sharp.

There was nothing there. Not a thing. He needed to relax or he’d give himself an ulcer. If he hadn’t already. Robin absently rubbed his stomach as he turned back to the font of information before him.

🎶Rowan tree, red thread…🎶

Fine. Robin finished reading the entry on rowan trees so he could laboriously page through the Greater and Lesser Arcana looking for an entry on ‘red thread’.

He looked for an hour and didn’t find anything. What he did find, however, sent him scurrying around the central column to the Communications panel. He brought up the interface with a touch.

When he’d first investigated this panel, he’d not managed to get it to do much. There were several preset communications lines or signatures, but none of them did anything. Whatever receiver was supposed to be on the other end was either off or long destroyed.

There were, however, another set of commands linked to scrying magic. He’d not managed to figure them out before (in spite of how easy this interface was to work) but now that he’d read more about the underlying principles of Divination and cross-referenced with the scrying sub-categorisation and some of the instruction manuals from the Records panel, he just might—yes!

A nonagonal mirror—or the illusion of one—appeared before him. He could use this to search the nearby woods, possibly even find a pathway out of the forest. He should also be able to use it to track down the Sisters Sharp. He had spent enough time with them to try, at least, and technically some of the rags he’d been wearing were once in their possession, which should strengthen the link.

He paused before issuing to commands that would seek them out. Maybe he should check the perimeter first, and then try to find where Cherry was in relation to them. Just to be safe. Then perhaps they could mount another expedition in the morning for supplies and craft materials for Eli.

Robin had something Cherry had given him, too. Though the small pricks left by her grasp had healed over, Robin had saved the splinters. Hey, he was in a world of magic now. You never knew when the wood of a dryad might come in handy.

He pulled one out of the storage his ring afforded him. A piece of his target. This would make things a lot easier. Robin focused and quietly whispered the necessary command words to the magitech interface before him.

The image before him shimmered and blurred. It looked not dissimilar to watching the landscape pass by while on a fast passenger train. After but a moment the image stilled and became clear.

It was Cherry. She was pacing around Neher’s Oak and gesticulating wildly at a cloud of pixies that trailed her.

The dryad did not look happy. From the way she pointed from the cage of roots at the base of the oak to the expanse of the wood around the clearing, Robin suspected she was still upset about their escape and continued freedom from her clutches.

At least there wasn’t anyone else in that cage. He relaxed a bit at that. No new prisoners meant the Sisters Sharp still eluded capture.

If Cherry even had any interest in them, which she may not. Robin shuddered as the sound of the Druid’s voice barely caressed his ear. He had willed the sound so quiet as to be nearly inaudible. He didn’t want to risk waking Eli.

The dryad whirled, and her enraged visage filled the mirror. Robin flinched back before he realised what he was doing. His heart began to race and his mind screamed at him to look away, to turn off the scrying interface, lest she spot him and somehow reclaim him as her prisoner.

Fu—no, actually. No. Robin took a deep breath. That’s what she wanted. Him afraid. Vulnerable. Well, she wasn’t going to get it. She wasn’t going to get him. Cherry could go frak herself.

In any case, she was nowhere near and had no idea where they were. Was that odd? Shouldn’t she remember where she caught Eli before? Or did the tower’s wards have something to do with that? He’d have to figure out how to get Eli to show him how they work and compare that knowledge with what he could sneak out of the Records interface.

Congratulations! You have successfully integrated your own knowledge of magical practices to the workings of this world’s scrying apparatus. Arcane Lore advanced to 2.

That settled that, then. Learn enough and stats advanced without having to spend experience. Interesting. Robin would have to figure out what to focus his training on later. For now he had other things on his mind.

With the scrying functionality up and running, he might as well scry out the Sisters Sharp. Maybe he could find them on one of their supply runs and work together to find a way out of this forest. If they were still alive, that is—no, no time to think like that. It wasn’t useful.

Robin stowed the splinter in his ring and pulled out the rags he’d been wearing for trousers for the last several days. Weeks? How long had he been here now? Well, at least his search had turned up some better trousers as well as new footwear. He even had two spare sets of clothing stashed away in his ring, in case these wore out or fell prey to zombie bunnies as well.

The image whirled again. It took slightly longer this time, but the delay was barely noticeable. The mirror showed a small hollow in the midst of a copse of trees. There were large stones. The vegetation looked scrubbier than any he’d seen since they entered the woods. Huh.

After listening for only a few minutes, Robin frowned. They weren’t in the wood any more. They’d won free of the illusion on their own, somehow.

Without him.

‘We’ve waited as long as we can,’ Lantha said. ‘We’ve still got a mission, and we need to get through that keep and back to the Guild with our report.’

There was a bit of muttering, and Robin realised they had been waiting—possibly looking for—him. But that they couldn’t take any more time to look. The Sisters Sharp were going to leave him behind.

He felt sick. Then outraged. He didn’t know what to feel. He’d been thrown into a new world, thrown into danger and adventure, and formed a bond with these women as part of that, but he also didn’t really know them. They certainly didn’t know the real him.

Eli had warned him that something like this might happen. That first day they’d gone foraging, Robin had reluctantly told him most of his story. The bits since he arrived via a ‘freak magical transportation accident’ anyways. With select edits covering Rhyth and how exactly his abilities worked. Robin hadn’t wanted to believe the cleric then, but it looked like he had been right all along.

‘It’ll take us several days to scout,’ Ora-Jean was saying. ‘If he catches up before we make our way through the keep, fine. If not, we go through and go on. We’ve done as much as we can safely do as is.’

Funnily enough, of all of them, Grathilde looked most like she might object. Robin found that a bit surprising and rather touching. A small spark of warmth kindled in his chest.

Fiamah put a hand on Grathilde’s shoulder. She opened her mouth to say something, but Robin missed it as an entirely different noise grabbed his attention.

Someone else in the room cleared his throat. Robin froze, then slowly turned. Eli was standing in the archway leading into the main room.

‘I see you’ve been busy,’ the cleric said, raising one elegant eyebrow.

Frell. Busted.