It isn’t certain that we were the first gods. There are plenty of mysteries out there that not even I can explain. Even my existence remains a mystery to me.

~Balor, The Primordial God of Chaos

The Shrine was as they left it, and after they exited, Crow summoned out his boat. He set the fins in motion without informing either of his companions and went southwest. The water was reasonably calm, and he could spot a dark spot on the horizon and headed in that direction. It looked like an island, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Prepare yourselves for combat. My mana will be low when we reach that place, so I’ll rely on you two to resolve any issues.”

Hooligan pulled out a pair of leather gloves, but the tips of the fingers were some type of claw. Crow couldn’t tell if they were made of metal or hardened leather, but either way, they looked vicious.

Munro donned quite a few armor pieces, and now Crow was worried about the boat tipping. Nevertheless, once prepped, his gear looked impressive. He’d adopted a knight persona, which was beyond Crow’s expectations.

“Does it get hot under there?” Crow asked, turning back to Hooligan, who glared at him. The sun was bright, and the air warm, so even if there was a cooling breeze from the lake, it wasn’t enough. “I’m not judging you. I just think that you are torturing yourself unnecessarily.”

At this point, they could all see the island, and the large rocks surrounding it looked imposing. Still, a steeply sloping beach with rough-grained sand led up to a thick copse of palm trees. It looked almost like a small, isolated jungle.

They all heard Munro’s sigh and could tell the environment had already agitated the guy. Outside of this trial, Crow was currently on the fourth floor of the tower, so he’d gotten used to the thick undergrowth, but it was an environment he would bypass if possible.

“We’re being watched,” Hooligan told them.

“By what?”

“Unknown. I can’t actually see what’s there, but I catch moving shadows out of the corner of my eye. Stealth, maybe?”

The boat bumped against the shore, and Munro jumped off and landed with a heavy thump on the sand. He held up his shield without looking toward the two at his back and used his spare hand to grab the boat and help drag it further onto land. Hooligan landed next to him and scanned the area for danger.

Crow hopped onto the sand and put the boat away. This time, he took the situation seriously. He brought out Sealladair and Saighead Rionnag (his bow and the Soul-Linked Star Arrow).

“What do we—”

Bang! Thunk!

A bipedal lizard charged at them with a speed that Crow could barely trace. Munro was already braced, so it bounced back when it slammed into his shield. That was when Crow released his arrow and punched a hole through its chest. The man-like lizard fell to the ground and twitched a few times before lying still.

Before they could recover from that, Crow’s sent another arrow toward the forest. Still, it was so fast that everyone could only see a streak of white light before it disappeared. The sound of it striking and the following snapping sound as it fell from a tree indicated his shot was a success. A shriek came from the forest, and a creature stumbled out with a hole in his chest. It fell to the ground, and they could all see it was the same type of creature.

“What is that?” Munro asked.

“Zmajevite,” Hooligan replied.

“I’m not familiar with that word.” Crow nudged the corpse with his foot and flipped it over on its back.

“It roughly translates to Dragonborn children.”

“You think this thing is a child?”

“It is an old word, and yes, it looks like a child from a distance.”

Crow nodded and admitted that was true. He’d have just called it a lizardman, but Zmajevite worked just as well. It also gave him a clue who this girl was, even if he had no way of researching it here and now. If he could find the origin of that word or a mention of Dragonborn children, he might figure out where she came from. More and more, he believed she wasn’t from Tur Briste.

His head snapped up, and before either of the other two noticed the danger, and released his arrow. This time, its death was silent, but Crow was sure it was dead. It was his Soul-Linked arrow, and he could feel it impacting something and punching through it. Since it was an extension of him, the arrow was something he could sense, and that went for temperature, location, damage, and more.

“Is he some sort of prodigy?” Hooligan asked Munro in a low voice.

“With a bow? Yes.”

She nodded as if she expected as much. “How can he see these things?”

“That I don’t know, but I suspect it’s honed reflexes. Crow spent a lot of time hunting beasts in the forests around our home.”

“It’s Mana Sense. Something both of you should master because the more you do, the further away you can sense danger. It’ll save your life. Once I feel a disturbance, I put an arrow in the spot the disturbance seems to be moving.”

They moved closer to the tree line, but no more of those Dragonborn appeared. Reaching the forest’s perimeter, Crow handed Mor-Rioghain to Munro, who stared at the crow’s head falcata.

“Where did you get these weapons?” Munro asked out of curiosity.

“Family heirlooms. The bow was my grandfather’s, and that blade was given to me by Gavin. He claimed it was an old Maddox clan heirloom, so don’t damage it. I’d have taken the lead and chopped the brush aside, but I need my bow because those things move too fast.”

Munro nodded and didn’t say anything else. He put his mace away and chopped through the brush with the falcata. Forging a trail through the densely populated forest, Hooligan followed behind him. Using her ability to the max, she could only point in directions she felt the lizardmen were hiding. She also guided their group toward the only interesting thing she could see on this island.

Those lizardmen were attracted to Munro for a reason that Crow couldn’t figure out. Overall, it was good because while he drew the charging ones toward him, both Hooligan and Crow could dispatch them. The others—the watchers—arrows took them out one by one until silence settled over the area. The only sound was the falcata chopping through the brush.

None of the creatures approached them anymore, but Crow still felt a pervasive sense of danger. It wasn’t immediate, but knowing they were out there was enough to keep them all on edge.

After Munro hacked the way into a clearing, he handed Crow’s falcata back. The only thing here was a wall of towering rocks and the shell of an old stone building. There were three rooms inside the building, and the walls had a strange script that he’d never seen before. It didn’t seem to have any association with the Draiodh.

Memorizing every little detail, he ignored the others until he saw Hooligan touch a line on the wall. She used her finger to trace it and passed through the front and middle rooms. Crow followed her with Munro right behind him.

The line stopped two meters from a prominent symbol that Crow recognized as a sun. It was arguably a cipher that he might be able to use to decrypt the rest of the words on the wall. The more he stared at them, the more he felt it was some sort of coded language. Not that it helped right now, but maybe he could figure it out with enough time and study.

Hooligan frowned when the line ended, and Crow saw her finger lift in agitation as if she wanted to tap that point in frustration. He suddenly felt the pull of karma and realized it was because her finger was about to activate something.

“Wait—!” Crow tried to call out but was too late. Instead, he backed up against the wall when he felt the grown shake.

In the middle of the room, Munro nearly fell on his face as the ground dropped out below him. Three-quarters of a circle sunk into the ground and turned into a winding staircase. Since he was already a half-dozen steps down, Munro quickly brought up his shield and mace and faced downward.