Book 1. Chapter 28

Book 1. Chapter 28

Brin exited the forest and ran straight across the open plain between the trees and the walls; there was no cover out here, but there was also no reason to be out here looking in this direction. He should be safe, but still he ran quickly.

He decided to climb up the guard platform. Sure, he could simply climb the wall, but the town walls were just big straight logs with sharpened tips all pressed together. It would be a little awkward, and jumping down the other side would make a sound. Probably not an issue, but he didn’t want to start the night taking needless risks.

Once he got to the wall, he threw his grappling hook up to the platform up on the watchtower. It hit with a noticeable clack, but not so loud that anyone would hear it unless they were right there. Hopefully.

He waited for thirty seconds and when he didn’t hear any sign of movement on the other side of the wall, he started climbing.

He climbed to the top with Marksi and the backpack on his back, and it wasn’t difficult at all. It still surprised him all the things his body could do with Dexterity after the first threshold. Sure, he’d been close for a while, but he had a whole lifetime of experience in his old body, and it still adjusted his perception on what was possible. It made him more careful than he needed to be. That might be a problem some day, but for tonight, it was perfect.

He got to the top, wasted no time in rolling up his grappling hook and stashing it away, and then crept down the stairs. Hogg’s sound circle had disappeared the instant he’d started on the road away from the house. Clearly Hogg didn’t plan on helping him with this. He was wondering if the old guy was even watching, or if he was determined to ignore the whole thing in the hopes it would give Brin a better achievement. Either way, he couldn’t depend on him.

Besides, he didn’t really need the sound circle. It had been a useful training aid, but it had served his purpose. He walked down the stairs silently.

At the bottom of the watchtower the only thing in sight was the backs of the nearby houses. Before he could second guess himself, he walked up to the nearest house and pressed his hand against the doorknob. He turned it slowly. It wasn’t locked.

He crept inside and closed the door behind him. The interior was dark but he could still make out the shape of obstacles. He was in a hallway that went straight through to the street, with a staircase on the left and a doorway to the kitchen on the right. The only obstacle was a little entryway table.

He ran his hands along the entryway table, and found that it was the kind with a little drawer. He opened it, and felt inside very carefully, so that whatever was inside wouldn’t roll around and make a noise. He felt a hand-mirror, a pin-cushion, and then a cheap deck of bark-paper cards. He took the cards.

There was no achievement. He hadn’t really expected there to be one, but he’d hoped.

There could be two reasons. The most obvious, and the thing he hoped was the problem, was that he hadn’t gotten away with it yet. He needed to get out of the house, probably out of the town, before he could count this as really “stolen”.

That was easily testable. He left the house the way he’d come, then walked up the watchtower and rappelled down the other side. He walked into the forest.

To his surprise, he got a notification.

Congratulations! You have gained an achievement. Thief (Common) You have temporarily stolen something with every intention of giving it back.

There was no reward. Just like his Blessing of the Hidden Guardian achievement, it acknowledged his accomplishment, but didn’t give him any rewards.

Unlike the other achievement, this one gave him a very obvious clue as to what he had done wrong. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he had every intention of giving the cards back.

Curse himself all he wanted, but he knew he was going to give everything he took tonight back, hopefully before the owner realized it was gone. He could tell himself all he wanted that he was going to keep these cards forever, but as soon as he got the achievement he’d probably change his mind.

This wasn’t going to work unless he changed his determination. Or his strategy.

He made his way over the wall, same as before. He walked through the same house. He thought about giving the cards back on his way through, but giving heed to morality was no way to start a night like this.

He walked through the hallway, opened the front door just a crack, to look at the street beyond. Nothing in sight.

The moon was a thin crescent tonight, and right now it was behind the clouds, which gave him a wonderful darkness to work with. The streetlamps were somewhat scattered, only one for every ten or so houses, and they weren’t the bright electric streetlights of his home, so there were more than enough areas still cast in shadows for him to move around without being seen, even if there were anyone to see him.

He started walking on the boardwalk, careful to keep his footsteps silent, and close enough to the side that he would be able to easily duck into an alleyway or doorstep if he needed to get out of sight.

People rarely moved around at night, but that didn’t mean they never did. The fact that they had streetlights at all meant that they recognized there might be reasons to be outside past nightfall.

Also, with winter the nights were so long that there was a weird midnight culture. Instead of sleeping through the night, people would wake up for an hour or two in the middle of the night. They’d mostly read, or work, or do other... nighttime things. But some people would go on walks. He figured he had about two hours until then, but he didn’t really know what to expect. He’d never been out this late in town; he only knew what he’d picked up from conversation.

The public house would be open for that, so Brin was going to stay away from that entire section of town. That meant he couldn’t steal from Perris, but honestly he didn’t want to. Except maybe to take all the stuff he’d already paid for, but that probably wouldn’t help him get an achievement. If he didn’t get the stuff by the time his exile was over, he’d go talk to Perris again.

Random night-time walkers were a concern, but his biggest threat was the lantern-man.

Lantern-man was a job, not a Class. Every night, someone would light the lanterns in the evening and then douse them again in the morning. Then during the night they’d patrol the town, walking up and down the streets. This was the closest thing that Hammon’s Bog had to a police force.

Zilly’s dad was one of the chief lantern-men, because of all his Skills relating to charcoal. He could basically mass-produce it, and make it burn longer and brighter, to the point where the town’s lanterns were charcoal burning instead of oil which is what Brin thought they did in his world’s equivalent era.

Hopefully Zilly’s dad wasn’t the lantern-man tonight. How embarrassing would it be to get caught by his friend’s dad? Another reason not to get caught.

He kept his eyes scanning, ready to pick up any amount of approaching light. He didn’t see any moving light and no one on the street, until he got to his first destination.

The gap in the tall building where the [Weaver’s] house stood.

After all, if there had to be victims tonight, why shouldn’t it be the people that Brin really didn’t like?

This was probably the most dangerous target for tonight, so he figured to get it out of the way first. He’d either succeed or fail right here.

He had a brief moment of panic when he remembered that Hogg had ordered the Prefit to watch Tawna day and night, but no, only day. The Prefit was supposed to watch her whenever she left her house. He wouldn’t wait outside her door all night.

Brin approached the house. Just as he was in the middle of the free space between the house and other buildings, the moon came out of the clouds, and the world lit up. He looked around in panic, but no one seemed to be around. And besides, even if there were someone around, they probably wouldn’t see him. It looked bright to his night-vision adjusted eyes, but still dark enough. He kept walking. He stopped by the house, pressed up close to the woven fibers so that his profile would blend in with the house’s.

He heard two sets of heavy breathing inside. They were asleep. He backed up, back to the side of a building.

He needed a conversation with Marksi first. He should’ve planned this out earlier.

“Marksi, listen,” Brin whispered. “We need to get in there, but there isn’t going to be a doorknob. She opens and closes the door with her Skills. Except Myra doesn’t have Skills and there’s no way she can’t get in and out of her own house, so there’s probably something else that triggers it automatically. Can you help me find it? Find something that opens and closes the door.”

Marksi twitched his tail for ‘yes’ and then disappeared. Brin crept to the house, and when he got there found the door already open. That was quick. Good job, Marksi.

He approached from the side and waited next to the door, listening for the sound of breathing.

Only one set of heavy breathing. Someone was awake.

He waited. He heard a click.

A beam of light shot out of the doorway, so bright that it made Brin shield his eyes. Probably just normal lantern light, but blindingly bright since he was so used to the dark by now.

He didn’t run; that was the dumbest thing he could do. The light wasn’t shining on him, so it would actually make it harder to see him.

Someone had woken up, probably Tawna feeling one of her Skills move. Would she know the reason? If so, he might be in trouble. He slowly started to walk around the side of the house, so that if she did notice the door was open and peeked her head outside she wouldn’t see him.

The light turned back off. He waited.

Ten, fifteen minutes later, he started to hear both sets of heavy breathing again. She was back asleep.

He walked into the house. The entire thing was one large room, and the woven floor and walls and ceiling gave the place a nefarious feeling.

In the center of the room, hanging in the air, he saw something awful. A shifting, writhing monstrous tapestry took up the center of the room. The threads that made it up wriggled like worms, and changed colors like Marksi, changing the picture. He saw Hammon’s Bog, black and crumbling. Due to fire or something else, he couldn’t tell; the image was very stylized. Those red threads could be fire, but those light blue ones might mean lightning. For some reason, Brin expected to see himself in the picture, but he wasn’t there. The only human figure was a black-haired girl that could be Myra, hiding in a well.

The moon must’ve gone behind a cloud, because the room darkened to the point he couldn’t see the picture anymore.

What even was that thing? Was that some kind of augury for the future? Hogg had said that [Weavers] couldn’t actually see the future, but what else could it be?

He could think about that later. He needed to steal something and leave. He couldn’t see much anymore, but he’d gotten a pretty good look at the room before the moon had been shadowed, and he knew there was a table to his left.

In the darkness, the breathing of the Myra and Tawna made them seem much closer. Right, there was a woman and a girl in this house, right over there, while he snuck around in the same room. He’d thought being a thief would make him feel cool, but honestly he kind of felt like a creep.

He ran his hands along the table, hoping to touch something he could take. He needed something normal; he wouldn’t take anything that might be touched by Tawna’s power. He found a little brass table lamp, and grabbed it, then retreated from the house as quickly as he could without making a sound.

One last look inside, and the moon peaked out long enough to give him another glimpse of the demented tapestry. It was all chaos except for four figures. Cartoonish renderings of Elmon, Hogg, Tawna, and Toros the [Smith], judging by their hair and clothes. They lay down and had black X’s on their eyes.

He wanted to stay and watch, but forced himself to move on. He had what he’d come for.

Outside, and with some distance between himself and the house, he asked Marksi to close the door again. He waited in silence until he felt Marksi’s familiar weight climb up onto his shoulders again.

A light, coming down the street. Still faint, but a lantern-man was coming this direction. Brin hustled around towards the back of the houses, and then walked alongside the waste canal until he came to another alleyway and went up. There was a light over here, too.

He sent off a quick prayer of gratitude to Solia. It was only right.

Information

Name

Brin isu Yambul

Age

13

Race

Human

Class

Child of Travin's Bog

Level

1

Attributes

Strength

36

Dexterity

31

Vitality

30

Magic

15

Mental Control

19

Will

30

Titles

Survivor of Travin's Bog

Locked

Traveler

Locked

Otherworlder

Locked

Achievements

Warbound (Epic)

You are born for war. You defeated at least 10 enemy soldiers before unlocking your System.

+10% Strength. +10% Vitality. +10% Will. +50% experience from melee combat.

Blessing of the Hidden Guardian (Rare)

You have been seen and accepted by the one who lays beneath.

Strong I (Common)

You have reached 26 Strength.

+10% speed with Strength-intensive activities. +10% Strength attribute growth.

Dextrous I (Common)

You have reached 26 Dexterity.

+10% speed with Dexterity-intensive activities. +10% Dexterity attribute growth. +10% Dexterity

Lively I (Common)

You have reached 26 Vitality.

+10% recovery from wounds. +10% stamina. +10% Vitality attribute growth.

Disciplined I (Common)

You have reached 26 Will

+10% spell power. +10% skill power. +10% Will attribute growth.

Workhorse (Rare)

You work like a horse. You have earned many attribute achievements before unlocking your System.

+1 Strength per level, +1 Dexterity per level, +1 Will per level, +1 Vitality per level

Skills

Know What’s Real

You have the ability to understand when something you experience or remember is real, and when it is an illusion or dream. Hearing increased. Vision in darkness increased. You can now approximate the value of things.

Oaths

Oath of the Quest Survivor

You have sworn never to speak of how you became the beneficiary of a Quest