A beetle outside the patch of mud charged me, mandibles raised, while the others struggled against the clinging goop. As the beetle reached me, I brought my sword around in an underarm swing. The sword didn’t pierce its armor, but the force of the blow sent it flying. It landed with a splat in the mud, its belly exposed to the sky.
I brought the Sundered heart down on the creature’s belly. Flesh gave way beneath the flaming blade, and guts oozed out, revealing a magical core hidden within. I grinned at the prospect of acquiring a new power, but there wasn’t time for that yet. First, I had to deal with the other beetles.
Slowly but persistently, the creatures were dragging themselves out of the mud. I drew the Depthless Dream Trident and raised it high above my head. I sent a surge of water magic through it, the power of the tide adding to my own strength. The weapon’s prongs glowed a bright azure as I slammed it down against a scarrick beetle. Chitinous plates cracked, and the creature lay skewered on the end of my weapon.
From there, it was easy to deal with the remaining beetles. I circled them while they were trapped in mud and dealt with each before it could spring free.
“Your new abilities are most impressive,” Kumi said as she approached the mud. “It seems that the desert is good for you.”
“This technique is as much water as earth. I owe it to you and your people.”
“I’ll make sure to claim the debt.” She smiled and looked at me from between lowered lashes.
The Pathless approached, bringing the cart with them. They looked at me in awe.
“You made that look easy,” Shadiy said. “I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
Others in the group were muttering about the Swordslinger and openly staring at me and my weapons.
“Just doing what I had to to keep you all safe,” I said, but that did nothing to change the way they looked at me.
With help from Kumi and Shadiy, I retrieved the bodies of the scarrick beetles from the mud, opened them up, and retrieved the cores. I absorbed them and felt their power join my existing channels, but they weren’t enough to learn a new skill. I figured I could come back later to farm beetles to master a new technique; for now, I’d focus on getting to the fishing spot.
With our path clear, we continued between the cairns and across the boneyard. This was apparently familiar territory to the Pathless, as none of them seemed in the least bit unsettled by the strange landscape with pale bones protruding from the dirt. We walked toward the cliffs at the back of the boneyard as the cart rattled along beside us.
At the base of the cliffs, we stopped while Kumi used Ganyir’s directions to find the place she was after. It proved to be a larger cave than the one where the initiates and I had taken shelter. It had enough space to comfortably fit the cart as well as all the Pathless. I tethered the horse at the side of the cave, gave him some oats and water, then got ready to go deeper in.
I took torches from the cart and shared them among the Pathless. I lit Shadiy’s with a small burst of Untamed Torch, and she used her own to ignite the others. An orange, flickering glow filled the back of the cave as we approached the passage beyond.
The entrance was narrow and low enough that I had to duck to get through, but then the space opened up around us. Away from the bright sunlight and barren desert of the Gonki Valley, I found a cool breeze playing unexpectedly across my skin.
“I can feel it,” Kumi said. “The call of the water.”
She led the way, hips swaying as she followed her nature deeper into the caves. After a few minutes, winding tunnels gave way to a vast cavern.
The light of our torches danced against pale walls and reflected off pools of clear water. Streams ran through a series of openings around the sides of the cave, cascaded down well-worn channels, and fell into pools at different levels across the tiered rock floor. From those pools, they flowed back together, then ran out at the far end in a pair of rivers wide enough to be swum rather than forded.
The pools were mostly lined with smoothly worn stone, but the ground around them was littered with sand. We thrust the bases of our torches into the sand and approached the pools.
Beneath the surface, I could make out the silvery shapes of fish. They drifted slowly around each other, occasionally darting into action to flit away as something moved nearby. The pools were huge, and each one was full of the creatures, as well as thick strands of the weeds.
I smile crossed my face. “I have an idea.”
I stood at the side of the pool and held out my hands. I closed my eyes and channeled Crashing Wave technique. When I opened my eyes, the previously still waters were moving, flowing back and forth in mounting waves. I sent those waves back and forth, rising in size, until they were a good five feet high. Then, I brought one crashing down on the shore. The fish in the water were left stranded on the bank, and the Pathless rushed to retrieve them.
“This certainly makes fishing easier,” Shadiy said as she gathered the fish.
I shrugged. “I never liked waiting around all day with a rod, waiting for something to nibble.”
Kumi stood beside me and looked into the next pool over. She swayed her body, accentuating her wonderful curves, and chanted the Song of the Sea. Trails of water rose from the pool and dropped fish straight into the hands of the waiting Pathless.
“You’ve got a more delicate touch than me,” I said.
“True,” Kumi responded. “But sometimes, it’s good to be firm. And
