Boiling Over

Everyone remained silent, stunned by the turn of events. John watched Lynn’s face go through several emotions, her eyes darting between him and Kiera to Beth and back again. Her lips moved, though whatever she was saying under her breath was too quiet to hear.

Mason took a step towards Lynn, putting himself between her and everyone else.

“Now, I’m sure whatever all this is about can be discussed in a civil manner,” he said calmly in an attempt to defuse the situation, hands raised up in a placating manner.

“Lynn,” Beth spoke up, sounding concerned. Before she could follow up with anything, the blonde’s gaze snapped to John and Kiera, a crazed look in her eyes.

“You’re why she’s caught up in this,” she hissed, her red coat twitching along with the sound of sloshing liquids. A loud pop echoed through the diner and a ribbon of crimson liquid shot out from an interior pocket of her coat and like a snake launched out at John.

His earlier game planning had left John ready for this attack and he quickly cast Hex a moment before Mason willed an orange and solid looking sphere into being which he pushed towards Lynn, a tempest of green wind propelling it forward.

Skill Level Up: Hex Lv. 3.

John’s skill moved faster than Mason’s spirit and hit the flowing liquid and disrupted Lynn’s animating magic, causing the leading meter or so of liquid to fall uselessly to the floor. The remaining bit still flowed towards him and Kiera, though it was slower now.

John moved to the side to evade the now lessened attack right as Mason’s spirit hit Lynn, the blonde failing to dodge out of the way though she was trying to step backwards. John managed to sense the wind spirit fade away as what he presumed was an earth spirit from the way it felt grainy and heavy to his senses, phased into Lynn. That feeling of heaviness infused itself into Lynn and she stumbled back, the remaining liquid stream falling.

“Hey,” Beth yelled, overcoming the shock that seemed to have settled on her.

“It’s just a sleeping spell,” Mason explained, his brow furrowed in focus. “Earth is not my forte so it’s more of a drowsy spell, but…”

A stream of neon green shot into Lynn’s mouth and John felt the earthy presence of Mason’s spirit get pushed out of her. The disruption of Mason’s working caused the large man to flinch back. Lynn flicked a hand out and gathered the spilt liquid in the air between them.

Before Lynn could resume her attack, Beth shot up from her seat and vaulted over the table, sliding to a stop between her sister and John.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” she shouted.

“Now is not the time for this, Beth,” Lynn retorted, her breathing growing heavy.

“And when is the ‘right time’? After you acid a hole into him?” Beth shot back.

“You don’t know what’s going on,” Lynn retorted.

“Oh, you mean about the bastards going around and stealing people’s blood?” Beth rhetorically asked. “Know all about them. Helped fight one yesterday.”

That was probably the worst thing Beth could have said and John watched Lynn’s eyes go wide.

“You were… No, no, no,” the blonde muttered, her breathing growing in pace. “You aren’t supposed to get caught up in anything like this.”

The suspended pool of crimson liquid quivered before it just dropped to the ground, followed shortly by Lynn herself. Seeing her sister collapse, Beth darted forward, the floor under her feet slick as ice as she slid to catch Lynn. Her save caused her to turn towards John and he saw her panicked face as she tried to wake her sister up.

Mason was quick to approach the sisters, his steps slightly heavier than normal, and he bent down to check Lynn’s pulse.

“Her heartbeat feel’s fine, if a little rapid,” he said in a soothing voice, trying to calm Beth down. “I think she got a little overwhelmed.”

“Overwhelmed may be a bit of an understatement,” Senka muttered as she took Kiera from John’s arms, freeing the Gamer to approach Beth and Mason.

“Would it help to use a healing effect?” he asked as he placed a comforting hand on Beth’s shoulder. “I made a staff the other day which can restore about eleven percent of her health. It worked on Kiera yesterday when we found her.”

“Couldn’t hurt to be safe, but I think she was just too overworked,” Mason said. “That potion she took to shrug off my sleeping spell might have been some stimulant.”

From his angle, John could see a vial of neon green liquid and he shot an Observe at it.

Sylphen Elixir
An air infused potion designed to provide the drinker a boost of energy to overcome mild tiredness.
Duration: 6 Hours per full dose.

Mason let out a hum as John read out the description. “That would fit. She didn’t look all that well when she came in.”

“We had a hard time reaching her,” Beth quietly said, eyes never leaving the **** form of her sister. “And she sounded a bit off on the phone when she did call, now that I think about it.”

“Sounds like things haven’t been a cakewalk in whatever business she’s caught up in,” Mason intoned.

“She recognized that man Kiera turned into,” Brenda said, extending her arms to Senka to take Kiera from the spirit. “And she seemed to know about those people from yesterday.”

“Hopefully, she’ll be more calm after a bit of rest and can clue us in,” Mason hummed before turning his attention to John. “I think a bit of healing isn’t going to make things worse.”

John nodded and withdrew his staff. A second later, he triggered the Evocation, a wave of restorative and invigorating magic flowing into everyone. Lynn’s pallid tone regained some color and her breathing grew less shallow. Kiera squirmed in Brenda’s arms and she blearily opened her eyes.

For a second, John held his breath, wondering if what happened would have triggered some recovery for the bluenette, but after slowly sitting up on her own, she remained the same passive girl, though her gaze shifted to where the 8-ball had rolled to.

Before anyone could voice what the next step should be, the door opened once more and Aeolia and Vivian stepped in and stopped short when they saw the odd tableau before them.

“Going to guess the family reunion didn’t go so well?” Aeolia tactlessly asked.

“Ya think?” Beth shot back, a bitter edge to her voice.

John sighed, knowing things had become more complicated than they had been only two hours ago.

---

Explaining what had transpired to Aeolia and Vivian didn’t take long, but as the lunch crowd was due to come in, everyone had moved to the back area of the diner. Cramped as it was, it beat having to explain the sleeping blonde to anyone coming in for food.

“Going from how your sister reacted to the person Kiera turned into, it sounds like whatever work she was doing is tied to Phantom Reach. As an opposing ****, hopefully," Vivian surmised.

"If that guy is against Reach, why is he connected to Kiera?" Beth asked in a glum tone. "Ugh, this is all messed up."

"You really think your overprotective sister is going to sign up with those guys, princess?" Senka asked, her voice soft.

"I don't want to," Beth groaned, slumping against the table.

"I don't think that guy is with Reach," John said. "His presence didn't have an 'evil' vibe to it. And, I think he was the figure that was standing off to the side during the vision I had. He was closer to Kiera's shadow in that and she thought of him as being some outside actor."

"One that was working with your sister," Aeolia finished. "Probably trying to take these guys down too."

Beth tried to smile, but her lips barely moved as she looked back to her sister.

“I always figured she was just making potions and selling them,” she said quietly. “She never really worked with others, and with how she went on about the dangers lurking around every corner, I never really thought she’d be caught up in things like this.”

“There is one way we could check before she wakes up,” John remarked. “If you’re ok with me using Observe on her, that is.”

“What girl doesn’t want to peek at her sister’s diary?” Beth joked, some levity returning to her. “Any reason you haven’t fired one off already?”

“I think I want to refrain from using it on friends and family,” he answered. “Hitting monsters and people attacking us is one thing, using it to read the emotions or backstory summary of someone is another. Plus, I figure if someone can sense me using it, it’d lead to problems. And as we saw from Kiera’s bracelet, some magic can give me a false readout so firing it off without checking for anything that might do so could lead to trouble.”

“Not exactly a bad stance on it,” Aeolia commented. “But I don’t think you have to be super restrictive. If you get a vibe on someone, fire away. Might give us a chance to get the jump on them instead. I doubt if it gives us a rap sheet we have to worry about them faking it.”

John nodded, understanding that she, and likely everyone, was still a bit on edge from yesterday’s events. He turned his gaze to Lynn and activated Arcane Sense. He racked over her, searching for any mana signature that might have stood out against her roiling presence.

‘Nothing stands out,’ he thought. ‘Though given we took everything off her, I’m not sure if that surprises me. But we could have missed something. Think I should hit her with Hex just to be sure.’

John fired off his negating skill, feeling it wash over Lynn like a blanket, dampening his ability to feel her mana. Before the effect could wear off, John cast Observe.

“Negative fifty isn’t that bad,” Beth said slowly. “Kind of glad I didn’t say you were my boyfriend. She might have really tried to kill you.”

“Not that she didn’t try to hurt me before,” John muttered. “That red stuff was going to act like pepper spray but hurt anywhere it hit.”

“But it wouldn’t have killed you,” Beth defended her sister’s choice in attack.

“I suppose that’s true,” John relented.

“Not a lot to go on,” Vivian remarked, getting them back on track. “Looks like she’s not affiliated with any group. And from the last line in her ‘Information’ box, I don’t think she’d work with the more unsavory factions out there.”

“So we just have to wait for her to wake up,” Senka noted.

"Wish we had a better place to do this," Aeolia griped. "Meeting in our friends' diner or their backroom doesn't exactly say we've got a handle on things."

Vivian nodded. "Even my place isn't exactly ready, and I'm the one trying to start up a proper business."

"Think I'm kind of to blame for that," John said. "Having all the extra loot in your side room and all that."

Vivian shook her head. "I could have done a better job on separating the living space and work space before trying to contact people to build things up. I think I got ahead of myself there."

Aeolia let out a laugh. "That could be our company motto. 'Biting off more than we can chew'."

"Maybe you should start from the ground up?" Brenda suggested. "Figure out everything you need to do and lay out a detailed plan."

"We could use the tree barrier," John said. "Maybe actually doing stuff with it will cause it to grow."

Vivian smiled. "Sounds like it'd make for a good project. But I thought we were going to see if the goblins could use it?"

"It could be a big barrier," John reasoned. "No reason we couldn't have a settlement for them and an office for us."

"Styles might clash a bit," Senka noted. "But killing two birds with one stone would mean not having to overextend."

"Sounds like you're going to turn the place into a whole town," Beth said.

"I mean, the seed did say it could grow into a Kingdom," John remarked. "For all we know, it could go on for miles."

"What's this about a Kingdom?" Mason asked as he slipped into the room to collect their used plates.

John recounted Friday's Dungeon run and the final prize they won. Mason set the collected dinnerware down and rubbed his chin.

"A World Tree Seed, huh," he said. "Your powers certainly don't hold anything back, do they?"

"Are they that rare?" Vivian asked. "I've heard about them, but never that they were something overly scarce."

"I'm not sure what circles you were running in, but authentic World Trees are very rare," Mason said. "Some do drop seeds, but they don't spawn a new tree of the same caliber, just exceptionally good trees. The sort that grows powerful fruit or whose wood has incredible potential magically, but not one that can become the center of a Kingdom."

"Oh," Vivian softly uttered before she shrank back a bit, her head bowed in thought. “Guess I heard about those ones then.”

“Ya don’t need to be a walking wiki for us,” Aeolia consoled the redhead, shuffling close to pull her into a one armed hug, one Vivian leaned into.

“Getting back on track,” Mason interjected. “I can’t say for sure how your powers are going to interact with this seed, but if your info display mentioned a Kingdom, it’ll probably be able to do that. And that could be something very big. I hope you put it somewhere out of the way.”

“Yeah, we took a good hike and I set up some defense to the barrier,” John said.

Mason nodded and Cammie’s voice sounded from the kitchen, “Honey, those orc boys are back.”

“Well, back to the grindstone I go,” Mason remarked good-naturedly.

“Are they a bother?" Brenda asked.

"Well, they do eat about four times of most people," Mason answered. "But they aren't picky about what they want, so it's just a lot to cook in one go."

"Do you need any help?" Brenda inquired. "Because, well, I'm not too bad in the kitchen. And I don’t think I’m going to be much help here anyway."

"The more the merrier," he said with a laugh. "I don't abide by that 'many cooks' saying. Well, within reason. The kitchen can only handle so many.”

Mason stepped to the door, holding it open for Brenda.

“Be sure to holler if you need anything,” the large man said as he led Brenda to the kitchen. His boisterous voice and the closing door seemed to push Lynn out of her panic induced slumber and she shot up from where she was lying down, her head whipping about.

“Easy there,” Beth quickly said to calm her down. It had been obvious for her to be the closest to her sister and to be the one to first talk to her. “You passed out, Sis.”

“You haven’t called me that in years,” Lynn groaned out, her voice rough and dry sounding. She flicked a hand and John felt a pulse of mana ripple outward, tugging at his senses like a whirlpool.

"Sorry, we took your potions and stuff off ya," Beth explained. "And what the hell was all that from before? What happened to all that keep a level head stuff?

Lynn leveled a heated glare at Beth. "You're going to try and lecture me? After you broke the rules and got involved with these people?"

Before the sisterly argument could escalate, Vivian let out a cough. "We're not going to make any headway if you two keep going at it. There are a lot of things that I think need to be discussed. So let's try to keep things civil. "

Lynn let out a sigh. "At least one of you has some sense. But we're going to have a long talk after we deal with that girl, Beth."

"Great," Beth huffed.

"Alright, give me the story," Lynn ordered.

"I think there's a bit you have to tell us too," John pointed out, earning himself heated glare from Lynn. Pressing on, he continued, "Who was that guy?"

For a moment, Lynn was silent and John wondered if they were going to have to press the issue. Then Lynn asked, "How much do you know?"

"About the guys going around killing people for their blood, plenty," Aeolia spat.

"What Aeolia means is we have some information on them," Vivian cut in, a surprised expression crossing Lynn’s face. "A rough understanding of their method of hunting people, their name…"

"You know their name?" Lynn interrupted.

Vivian nodded. "Or at least the name of a group one of their associates was connected to. But from what he was saying, we think they're one unified organization going by the name 'Phantom Reach'. But we haven't been able to find anything about them, besides that they were a mercenary group and went dark a few years ago."

Lynn seemed to process that information before she began to put her chips on the table. "The man she turned into is the one paying me to help locate a former associate of his and the artifact she stole from him."

"Any idea how he ended up in Kiera's head?" John asked, earning a look from the blonde before she continued.

"A, let's call him a coworker, built a device for us to track them. A minor tweak to it let Harker connect to the girl. Yesterday, he was in contact with her when everything went haywire. Spent hours working to stabilize him. Which is why I missed your calls and was running on stimulants."

"Think I know what happened to him," John softly said, which drew a scoff from Lynn.

"I'm sure a kid like you is qualified to figure this out over the expert Harker hired to build the machine," she snarkily said.

John held back from retorting hotly, but Beth wasn’t as tactful as she smacked Lynn’s arm, something that didn’t elicit a reaction from the braided blonde.

Before Beth could speak in his defense, John shot her a look and continued, “I mean, I know what happened that caused his condition. Or at least how it happened.”

He quickly elaborated on the vision he was subjected to, adding in what he learned from Kiera’s perspective, mainly focusing on what happened to Harker’s projection. After he recounted the events, Lynn was silent, her face drawn in thought.

After several long moments of uncomfortable quiet, Lynn let out a drawn out sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Why does this job keep getting more and more complicated?” she complained. “Alright, here’s what I think happened. It sounds like there’s some degree of crossover between Harker’s soul and the girl’s, brought on due to the combination of their abilities, the machine we used and the artifact that was stolen by Harker’s apprentice. Harker’s body is in a coma, and the girl’s gone into low power mode to keep from getting overloaded by having too much stuffed into her head. The guy that built the machine should be able to give us a more concise explanation and a way to fix things.”

“And where exactly is this ‘guy’?” John asked.

“The Gnomish Kingdom of Detreye,” Lynn answered. “And getting in is going to be a pain.”