Dragging two tons of dead weight was not a simple task, but with the temple-beast’s help, a little magic, and a few hours of blistering effort, they managed to remove the bodies of their mounts from the tainted land. Burying them would have been another task entirely, but after a bit of debate they settled on burning the corpses. Trying to pull his own weight with one hand made the work all that much tougher.

  Without the murmox, a few days of travel turned into a week plus, and Greg was anxious to get a move on, but Seraphae refused. She claimed it was due to her own exhaustion, but he wasn’t an idiot. She and Autumn had both been trying to get him to take a break for hours. The sun ducked behind the mountains, and they made camp for the evening a few miles outside the tower.

  “Are you alright?” Isabella asked after Autumn had disbanded the party for the evening.

  “I’m fine.” Greg said, pacing a short distance from the fire they women slept around. He’d been volunteered for first watch, even though he’d grown used to taking the second. While he understood, he was not enjoying being coddled. “I just don’t think we can afford the delay.”

  “You’ve got to rest, Greg.”

  “We’ve lost the murmox. Now it’s going to take us twice as long if we’re lucky to get to Wyrm’s Gap. Maeve doesn’t have time for me to rest, even if I was tired. Which I’m not.” He growled out the last bit, fighting the urge to cross his arms like a disgruntled toddler.

  “And when you show up exhausted to a fight against someone that already overpowers you on nine out of ten days? What do you expect is going to happen? Kael just rolls over and shows you his belly?” He could almost feel Isabella rolling her eyes at him. “Ruarth said she would keep Maeve alive while you took care of the Frost problem.”

  “Oh, we’re trusting the gods now, are we? Or is it just when it’s convenient for what you think is right?”

  Isabella was silent for a long moment before speaking again. “I’m going to chalk that up to your exhaustion and stress and move on.”

  Any venom that had been behind the word fell flat as he pushed his intact hand through his hair. “I’m sorry…” he mumbled, “It’s just a lot.”

  “I know. We will take it one step at a time, though.” Isabella said in a sweeter, more comforting tone. “Why don’t you scan the items you got from the Rillon boy? Shield could be helpful, especially with your hand situation.”

  Just thinking about his hand had phantom pain coursing through his missing digits. “Do you think that’s going to happen every time I use Ruin Edict? I don’t know if I can handle that pain.” He asked as he reached into his inventory and pulled out the shield, armor, and longsword, laying them out in front of him on the ground.

  “Hard to say. Maybe once you get used to them being gone? Or find a healer that can regrow them? I’ve never witnessed a self-healing skill do that, so we’re a little beyond my expertise. Brannoc would know more.”

  Scanning…

  Buckler of the Hidden Guard

  Finely crafted elm and brass bracelet with runes carved onto its face. The wearer may set a command word or gesture that, when used, expands into a banded buckler.

  Siegebreaker Gambeson

  Thick quilted leather armor woven together with metal threads. Attacks against constructs or structures deal double damage. Moderately increases strength stat.

  Strength increased by 10

  Greg grabbed the buckler, turning it over in his hands a couple times before slipping his left hand through the bracelet on the underside. The titanbloods wrist was close to twice as thick, but when his wrist slipped through, it tightened to fit him and thin vines extended up between his two fingers and thumb to brace them to the shield. The wood vibrated, waiting for him to set the command. He could have put some thought into it. Instead, he went with his first instinct and extended his middle finger.

  “Very mature.”

  Greg smiled slightly but didn’t laugh at the attempt at humor. He appreciated the effort. It wasn’t going to fix his mood though. He finished out his watch for the evening and curled up beside the fire to pretend to sleep. Eventually pretending led to a few hours of actual rest before they were up and moving again.

  Their trek through the woods got progressively more cold as elevation increased. The duster protected him from the chill, but once they were traipsing through fresh power more than a few inches deep their pace slowed even further. He was well aware they had no control over the weather. It didn’t stop his already strained patience from growing thinner.

  Autumn did what she could, taking to the sky with Reggie the temple-beast to scout ahead. Even steered them away from potential fights with a pack of gryndwolves on one occasion and a pair of ogres on another. Once they got closer to the pass, she'd need to leave the beast to its own devices, though.

  Slowly but surely, the air grew thinner, and the forest grew more sparse. As someone who grew up and rarely left one of the largest metropolitan areas on Earth, there was a majesty that he had to stop and appreciate for a moment as they reached to top of the first mountain. There were much taller, much more impressive peaks in sight, but he had hiked a full on mountain. Gazing out over what looked like an endless forest they’d just exited, Greg took a deep, cleansing breath.

  “Crazy, isn’t it?” Autumn sidled up beside him and offered him a piece of dried meat.

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  Taking the meat, he gave a brief nod and took a bite. “A year ago, stinky Dave would have been handing me mustard covered ones to deposit in his checking account. Now I’m on top of a fucking mountain.”

  She chuckled, a soft, sweet sound that he’d forgotten made his heart soar. A lump formed in his gut at the thought, and he gnawed on his cheek for a moment. “I owe you an apology.” He whispered.

  “None of us knew we were being followed. I loved Gerty and Jolene but…”

  “Not for that.” He shook his head. “For our last dinner. For the years before that.” He snorted with self-derision. “You deserved so much better than me. At least the ‘me’ I was then. I’m sorry.” When he finally chanced a look over at her, she was smiling gently up at him.

  With the slightest shake of her head, she leaned over and gave him a little bump with her shoulder. “Do you think this place changed you?”

  He tilted his head slightly, squinting at her. He assumed the phrasing of the question meant she was looking for something in his answer. Like she’d been looking for something in him the entire journey. Of course Etheon changed him. He’d been literally killed, brought back to life, and then thrown into mortal danger immediately. He was stronger, faster, and smarter, no matter what Isabella had to say about it.

  He had literal fucking magic.

  More decisive.

  Braver.

  His brow softened as the realization hit him. Aside from the obvious magic that, as far as he knew, no human on Earth actually had, he was still himself.

  Just more.

  “I guess not.” He whispered. “That’s a little depressing.”

  She smacked him hard on the back of the head and glared up at him. “Gods, you can be so dense sometimes.”

  He winced and held the back of his head, but she was still grinning at him. “What? What did I say?”

  “It's not depressing.” She rolled her eyes. “You didn’t need to change. You just needed to be you.” She gave him an assessing look. “That being said, you’ve definitely changed.”

  “You love birds done taking in the view? We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.” Seraphae’s voice sounded in their heads.

  “We’re on our way.” Autumn turned away from him and headed toward their leader.

  “Hey! Wait! Changed for the better, right?” Greg called after her.

  Autumn didn’t look back. She just shrugged her shoulders and started running to catch up with Seraphae.

  He watched her run off before taking one last look out at the forest sprawled below them. Maybe he had changed, but if that was the case…it was a change he needed, and he wasn’t sure he cared what anyone else thought about it.

  ###

  Travel up the mountain had been a slog—travel through the mountains was an absolute nightmare. Their first day was spent being stalked by a pack of rimeclaws, a new creature he’d yet to be introduced to but from what he understood were like armored sabertooth tigers on steroids. Days two and three a storm rolled through the pass that had forced them into a cave and dropped enough snow to cover the eight-foot entrance. Day four he’d taken the initiative out of sheer frustration and dug them out with his new shield attached to the edge of the harpoon.

  By day five, Greg thought he’d lost all motivation to keep his legs moving. Having hardly slept and survived almost solely on dried meat and melted snow, when they crested the next peak and he saw something besides another mountain, he nearly had a heart attack.

  “Welcome to Wyrm’s Gap.” Seraphae said as the three of them stopped to take in the sight.

  The summit they stood on and the one across from them that made the gap looked like they could very well have been one mountain once. Their faces shared almost identical gouges in their rock that he’d almost mistaken for claw marks until Seraphae indicated it was their path down.

  The pass itself was narrow, just a long string of trees that stretched for miles in either direction with a river that ran dead center. The other side was their destination, though. Built into the cliff face, Greg could make out a small settlement. It was early in the day, but fires roared, illuminating the rock wall orange every few feet, and occasionally he’d see a speck move from one point to another.

  “Once we get to the settlement, let me do the talking.” Seraphae stuck to talking through the chat function as they maneuvered the narrow path down the cliff. “It takes a certain type of person to live out here. You’re also probably going to see a dragonkin or two. Don’t goggle.”

  “Dragonkin? Like…humanoid dragons?” Greg’s eyebrows rose.

  “Yes. That’s the exact reaction I don’t want you to have.” Seraphae glared at him. “They are incredibly rare, and they choose places like this to live because people are not kind to those of us that are different.”

  “Got it.” Greg nodded slowly. “Sorry.”

  “This seems like a weird place for an affluent family to have a home. Am I missing something?” Autumn asked, not bothering to watch her footing even with the hundreds of feet of cliff below them.

  “The Rillon’s own most of this land up to Drakthor. Several mines, a logging company, and the rights to any dragons that roost in the area.”

  The Rillon family owned the literal mountains they were walking on. That figured.

  The trip down the mountain and across the pass to Wyrm’s Gap took almost no time, to his surprise. Soon enough, the trio found themselves on a path leading up to the first of a large cluster of buildings carved directly into the rock. The smell of roasting meat and vegetables suddenly covered the pine smell that had haunted his nostrils for days, and he almost started sprinting in its direction, but they were stopped dead in their tracks.

  With a ground shaking crash, an enormous titanblood woman with a platinum blond undercut and eyes as white as snow landed in front of them. She hefted a comically large hammer over one shoulder and looked between the three of them.

  “What’s your business in Wyrm’s Gap?” Her voice wasn’t deep, but it scratched like she’d smoked all her life.

  “Passing through to Drakthor.” Seraphae lied, but her voice took on a sing-songy sultriness he’d be able to pick out from anywhere. “Our animals died in the storm a few days back. We just need a spot to rest a day or two and resupply.”

  The well over seven-foot-tall woman looked up at the clear sky with a frown, then opened her mouth and nodded like she’d just remembered the weather from just a couple of days back. “Sorry to hear that.” She stepped back with one foot and gestured to the door directly ahead of them. “Wyrm Gap Inn. General store is two stories up, doubt you’ll be able to find anyone looking to part with pack animals, though.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Seraphae said, looking back at them for a moment before addressing the woman again. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

  She didn’t speak, just twisted the hammer on her fur-covered shoulder and turned to walk back up the path she’d just jumped down from.

  When Seraphae opened the door to the inn, a wave of blistering air hit them as if they’d just stepped into a furnace. A smattering of people occupied tables and sat at the bar, but it reminded Greg of those movies where the city slickers end up in a bar in backwoods Alaska somewhere. Eyes locked on them for a few uncomfortable seconds, and then they all returned to their hushed conversations.

  The three of them walked over to the bar where a young human woman had already set out three oversized steins for them and was filling them with a thick beverage that smelled like honey that’s gone wrong.

  “Welcome to Wyrm’s Gap Inn.” She smiled up at them. “Handsome troupe aren’t you? Get ya some food?”

  “They won’t be staying.”

  The voice that interjected from behind them was familiar, but until he turned and saw the perfect coiffed blond hair and strong jawline, he hadn’t put it together.

  “Will you, Greg?” Brycen Galloway gave him a little grin as two men stepped up to his side, neither of them gifted, but each of their eyes had the faintest of blue glows.