I had enough vis to shift out immediately. It would be a problem to use much more magic for the next few hours at least but once my flux-level sunk back to more reasonable places I could get right back to it.

Roguk eyed me carefully, his face wrought with concern. Then he looked at the jar held up by my shadows. It had followed along through the darkness just fine.

“That… seemed very exhausting.”

I decided it was for the better to avoid connecting with his mind for the time being and simply nodded an answer.

The goblin looked back at the stone still clogging the hallway.

“What are you gonna do now?”, he asked.

I just hooted and started walking down the tunnel. The node gave off a soft green light through the milky glass, just enough to let me see clearly. The goblin followed with the glowing lantern in his hand. I glanced back at him and nodded once more.

He kept silent for the time being, only our steps echoing on the stone walls. Soon, we reached the village. Two hunters were waiting near the entrance and ran up as they spotted us.

“Did it work?”, the first asked.

I recognized her from the group that first took me to the white forest. I had forgotten her name, however.

Roguk nodded and pointed at the jar.

“That’s it.”

“That’s it?”

“Yup”

Hoot.

With everything cleared up, I set down the jar on the ground and found a place on a nearby stalagmite. There, I closed my eyes to get some rest.

“Fio?”, Roguk asked.

I half-opened one eye.

“What do we do with this?”

I guided a tendril of darkness to the jar and curled it around the glass. Then, I clicked my tongue and let the wand come out of the darkness around my metal feathers.

“Are we using that?”

I blinked slowly, then pointed at myself with another tendril.

“You are?”

I nodded.

“Okay. I’ll have someone come running if the orks start making their way up the tunnel.”

I nodded again.

“Good. Get some rest, then.”

I did as he said. Because I wanted to.

After some time spent between roosting and resting, I woke up again to a village that was just like any other time. Disregarding the fact that a dozen goblins stood guard at the exit down to the valley. I felt somewhat refreshed. Not fully up to power but my flux had gone to less than half of what it was before. I glanced at the jar still standing close to me and felt the wand in my shadows. It was time to set it free and clog the tunnel.

I made my way over to Roguk’s hut and stepped inside. The alchemist was working on something with his pots again. I wondered how he still had enough resources but glancing at the nearby shelves told me he used most of what he had. I hooted and formed a connection to his mind when he turned around.

“You’re back up? How’re you doing?”, he asked.

“I’m good. How long have I been out?”

“Most of the night. Chef should start on dinner any minute now.”

“Anything happen?”

“Not yet. It’s weird how the orks haven’t found us yet. But we’re pretty far away from their town, I guess.”

I considered.

“Maybe there’s some stuff we haven’t considered yet. I’ll go set up the node, first, then take a look outside.”

He nodded.

“Be careful.”

“By the way, how long did it take for the upper tunnel to get clogged?”

“We noticed only a few days after the node had popped up and there hadn’t been any stone there at that time. It took maybe two weeks, after that, before we couldn’t pass by any longer:”

“That seems like quite some time. And the lower tunnel is wider as well. We’ll have a few weeks up to a month, then, before you guys are safe from the orks.”

“That’s fine. We can fend them off.”

“Not if the thaumaturge comes and starts draining the node. That would make it take much longer.”

“Oh.”

“Not a problem, though. I planed to take him out soon.”

Roguk looked down at me.

“Be careful, okay? I know you’re strong but you never know what those madmen are up to.”

“I know. I’ll open up the upper tunnel before. Now that I don’t have any pressure to do it as quickly as possible, I can dig without filling up on flux. It’ll be a day or two at most.”

The goblin raised an eyebrow.

“While I appreciate that, you should let us do some things on our own.”

“And how fast and safely can you dig through that?”

He smirked.

“Pretty fast.”

I tilted my head.

“I have this acid here that can be applied to wood and pushed into stone. It’ll just melt right through for a bit.”

“That’s what you’re making there? I’m pretty sure acid doesn’t melt stone, normally.”

“Well, it’s not exactly acid. I’m pouring in quite a bit of poison and earth vis into every bit. It absorbs the properties of the rock and fuses them with whatever it was applied to.”

“Does it work on people?”

Roguk contemplated.

“I… think it should? Never tried, though. It would turn someone into stone once they touch it, though.”

I shuddered.

“That sounds horrifying.”

“Yeah. It tingles a bit when you get it on your skin but breaks down after a few minutes. It kinda feels like my own vis attacks it and melts it down.”

“So it doesn’t break down on wood?”

“Not unless said wood touches stone.”

“With the part that was drenched in your concoction or any part?”

Roguk set to answer, then closed his mouth. He looked at the ceiling of his hut and put a hand to his chin. I watched his mumbling for a moment, before the goblin’s eyes suddenly widened and he looked down at me.

“I see… That’s what you’re getting at. No, I never tried. That could be devastating…”

“You should probably experiment with something live. Maybe the hunters or someone can bring back a rodent?”

“Yes. That’s a good idea.”

He turned around, continuing to mumble about this and that alchemical consideration and I quickly lost interest. He was clearly not planning to involve me in this process and I would give him some freedom.

“I’ll be digging, then”, I sent as a goodbye and made to leave. The alchemist did not spare me a glance.

I found my way down to the valley-tunnel and greeted the guards. Ira was talking to some goblin and as the highest authority, I decided to clear things with her.

“I got the node. I only need to place it in the tunnel and then we wait for it to clog it with stone.”

The goblin looked at me. We were almost at eye level with how hunched over she stood.

“Yes, I heard. What do you think how long it’ll take?”

“A few weeks, up to a month. For fully closed. The orks might not be able to get past a little earlier than that but they could mine through.”

“So we need to defend it while the stone grows?”

I nodded.

“That’s looking likely. I’ll open up the upper tunnel after placing it and then get rid of their thaumaturge. He’s the biggest threat, after all.”

“Hmm. That does sound smart. Sure you’re up to the task?”

“Not the first and probably not the last.”

“Good. I’d say you place the node behind the first barrier. The goblins guarding it will be able to observe its progress and the orks won’t be reaching it easily.”

“It also wouldn’t compromise your defensive lines if they get past it. Makes sense. I’ll be on my way, then.”

She nodded and turned back to the guards.

I tuned out their words and made my way past the barriers to my target location. Once more, the goblin on duty was Luk. I quickly connected to him while his colleague, Meeny, was trying her best to ignore me.

“I’m placing the node here”, I pointed at the jar, “You’ll want to keep an eye on it and the stone growing around. It’ll take a few weeks or a month to actually clog the tunnel.”

“Got it.”

The goblin was as curt as ever.

I held up the jar to about the centre of the tunnel and brought the wand forwards. According to the Thaumonomicon, simply pushing the glass with any wand would be enough to break it. I was a little sceptical as I had seen it drop from a metre and not even bounce but tried anyway.

The thaumium cap of my wand slowly approached the jar. I started to feel some sort of connection, similar to what normally happened when I used it to drain a node. There was a small barrier of sorts blocking access, though. I should probably break through that, I thought, as the thaumium touched the glass and the jar shattered. This time, it was not quite the reality crunching sound as I had heard so often in the last few days. Still, it was rather loud and sounded a little more than just glass breaking. The wooden lid splintered as well, only adding to the noise. The shards had a small sparkle around their edges that quickly started to eat into them. Within a few seconds, all signs of the jar were gone and I saw the node in front of me in all its glory. The earth mana spread around rapidly as the world acclimated to this new reality. Quite literally as the tunnel’s walls grew about half a centimetre of stone a few metres up and down.

I looked at Luk and found him standing there with a raised eyebrow. Meeny was gaping openly.

“That’s about it. Might go a little faster than I thought from that.”

Luk nodded.

“Thanks for the help, Fio.”

I bobbed my head and gave a short glance at the girl before turning away and flying back up the tunnel.

The next two days went about as expected. I took a few hours to widen the initial hole into a proper passage I could comfortably walk through. A goblin might have to bend their head a little but that would be fixed later. After a break and some food in my real body, I returned to my work for another day and a half. It took some time to find where the original tunnel had gone but the makeup of the stone changed where it went from node-created to natural and so I had a good guideline.

Once I was done, I stood in the little looking out into the ravine. There was a tiny bulge of stone reaching out on the former pathway that I was confident had not been there the last time I checked. The node must have formed some material even out here.

After cleaning up the tunnel to be easily traversable but not easy to spot from the outside, I told Roguk I was done with it. The alchemist had gotten his hand on a few spiders and rodents that were crawling around in jars to test his concoction on. He barely even registered my presence so I made sure to tell Chef, Ira and Luk as well. That was enough for now. They could use their renewed ravine access as they wished while I did my job. Which, this time, would involve blood.