Chapter 110

Talah Ranni dug her spade beneath the soft soil, careful not to disturb the artifact that was peeking out of the ground. She had marked off the area with ropes, more out of habit than any real attempt to keep the drunken adventurers the Archaeologist Guild had hired from stumbling into the dig.

She had been here nearly two decades, excavating the Elven ruins, and it seemed that every year the guards the Guild sent were worse than the last.

The ruins were located deep in the Wilds but were actually considered one of the safest postings for the Adventurers Guild outside of the borderlands. The Mage Guild had erected extensive barriers around the ruins, and the village that grew out of necessity from the Archaeologists and guards.

The consequence of the new security was that although Guild members had to be high Ranked to enter the Wilds for guard duty, they were paid considerably less than other Quests, resulting in high rankers with…problems, being the only ones willing to take the posting.

Talah sighed deeply as she dug, carefully excavating the stone plinth, mindful of her spade as she scrapped the centuries of soil and earth that had accumulated. Artifacts, specifically magical ones, from the Eleven ruins were incredibly valuable. They paid for the entire expedition, and the expensive barriers that surrounded the dig site.

Most of the team were working in the center of the ruins, still trying to excavate what they suspected to be a tomb. The enchantments around the burial structure were extremely powerful, and they would likely need to call in expert assistance from the Mage Guild before opening it.

“Gods damn it.” She muttered, as her spade struck the side of the plinth, taking a small chip out of the artifact. Throwing her tools down in disgust, she stood, stretching her back. She couldn’t think clearly, not with the worries the team had. The ‘Flux’, as the Guild was calling it, was affecting the Teleportation array, meaning that until it stabilized, they were stuck here, with no relief.

The guards hadn’t taken the news that they were going to be potentially trapped here for another year in a good way. Normally they hid their drinking behind a thin veneer of professionalism. That had gone completely away, and they were bleary eyed and belligerent on a good day, outright hostile to the archaeologists on their bad ones.

Looking around at the barrier, a shimmering kaleidoscope of magic that blocked the view of everything outside, Talah was considering ending her work for the day and maybe grabbing a drink with the others, when the barrier field rippled. Like a stone tossed into a still pond, undulations of magic spread out from barrier, slowly fading as they spread.

‘Uh, never seen it do that before.’ Talah thought, about to call the strange happenings to the attention of the others, when the effect repeated, this time with much more force.

Even the ground began to shake as the barrier buckled and shook, as if something heavy was slamming against it. Talah nearly lost her footing, grabbing onto to the stone plinth for support.

“Help! I need help over here!” She screamed, hoping that the guards would hear her. Something hit the barrier again, and this time she saw a small crack form in the magic.

It should be impossible, the barrier was designed to stop the worst creatures of the Wilds from entering. Even finding it would be difficult, with the levels of illusion placed over the area to block it from sight.

“Gods above! Someone get over here!” She screamed, waiting for the barrier to collapse. Expecting the worse, she waited, the ground gradually calming as the ripples in the barrier stopped. Just when she was about to get up, something pierced the shield, forcing its way through the small crack.

From where she sat, she could see that it was a white sword, the slightly curved blade covered in golden mana. Jutting out from the field of magic, it paused for a moment, the mana gathering around the sharp edge of the sword. With a tremendous ‘screech’, it sliced upwards, cutting its way through a barrier that the best Mages of the Guild had erected.

When she thought that the weapon would completely destroy the barrier, the sword stopped. Retracting back outside the shield, it left an opening large enough for a man to walk through. Sitting there, stunned, Talah let loose another scream when she witnessed a figure emerge from the opening.

It was a man, wearing dark blue armor and a long cloak that looked to have been white, once, now it was grey with dirt. His long hair was matted against his head, and his pale skin was coated in blood and grime. Talah thought the young man who entered would have been handsome, if his expression hadn’t been carved from ice, his blue eyes blazing with intensity.

The man stepped through the barrier, the sword hanging loosely from his left arm. His right was heavily injured, she could see through the thick coating of blood that ran in rivulets down his skin that it looked broken.

Despite his severe injuries, his gait was steady, his mana firm around him in a protective shield. Talah had spent enough time around guards to know when someone was prepared for a life and death battle, and this young man fit the description perfectly.

He stopped only a few feet inside the barrier, his gaze sweeping the area for threats, before locking onto her. He almost seemed surprised to find her here, on her bum, defenseless and terrified. She saw him freeze for a moment, a look of confusion on his face before the tension bled from his body.

“You don’t look like someone who should be in the Wilds.” The young man stated, sheathing his sword in the black scabbard that hung from his hip. Talah stared, stunned, at him, before she bolted for the camp, screaming.

She only made it a few feet before she slammed headfirst into a wall.

Falling onto her bum once again, she stared upwards, only to see that the wall was in fact a large, humanoid creature made from earth and stone. Screaming again, she scrambled backwards, terrified that the creature would grab her.

“Gods, would you stop that! We’re not here to hurt you. I don’t even know where ‘here’ is!” The young man said, walking up beside her and waving off the creature. With a nod, the massive creature sank into the ground, disappearing into the soil as if it never existed.

“Look, let’s start over. My name is Wil. I’m from the Adventurers Guild. I got lost over a week ago, and I’ve been wandering the Wilds ever since. Luckily, my friend, who you just met, led me here, but I still don’t know where exactly I am. It can point me in a direction, but it isn’t knowledgeable of the area.” The young man said, kneeling down next to her.

As he spoke, he held up a gold ‘AG’ pin to show her, a symbol of the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Why should I believe that? You could have killed a Guild Member and taken it off their corpse. I’ll have you know, there are over a hundred high ranking Guild Members here, and they’re on their way after hearing the commotion you just made!” Talah said, scrambling back to her feet and backing away from the young man.

“More like a dozen, and maybe a dozen more like you, without a Rank.” Wil said, looking around at the ruins laying half submerged in the ground around them.

“As for proof, I guess you’re right, I don’t have anything to prove what I say. I suppose you could ask me things that only someone from Ur would know, though I likely wouldn’t be able to answer much, I only arrived there a few months ago.” Wil said, walking over to the stone plinth that Talah had been in the middle of excavating.

The young man ran his uninjured hand over some of the elvish lettering that showed through the coating of dirt, and Talah was surprised to hear him whisper quietly, the words clearly elvish. It had a flowing inflection and graceful cadence that was unique to their language.

“You can speak Elvish?” She asked, surprised once again. If the man was a bandit or robber, he was certainly an educated one.

“Some, not fluently. I learned a lot when I visited Elvenhome, although I shouldn’t have bothered. It only let me understand the various ways they were insulting me, rather than gaining their respect.” Wil said, his lips curling in amusement.

“Say I believe you. What are you doing here, out in the Wilds. The last communication we had with Ur, before the ‘Flux’ made it nearly impossible to get message spells, was that they were limiting access?” Talah asked, realizing now that no one was coming to answer her screams.

They were quite far away from the main camp, and most of the guards were likely too drunk to stand at this time of the day. She was on her own.

“I’ll answer one of yours, if you answer one of mine. And the Elvish question counts as yours.” Wil said, smiling at her.

‘If he wasn’t clearly injured, covered in blood and a week’s worth of grime, he’d be rather handsome.’ Talah thought. Nodding her head, she gestured to him to ask his question. The young man leaned against the plinth, exhaustion on his face, while he asked his questions.

“Where am I?” Wil asked.