Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 76: The Lay of the Land

Toren Daen

I followed after Darrin slowly, my thoughts a jumble. The fact that this zone imitated a city was a constant point in my mind, throbbing like a wound.

I had no illusions about the fact that my presence must have caused this zone to somehow change. This was my fault somehow.

"My team is a few floors up," Darrin said, his breathing finally evening out. "We've been here longer than I'd care to admit, so we can get you sorted."

I ground my teeth. "How long have you been here?" I asked as we entered a stairwell.

Darrin was quiet for a moment. "Nearly three weeks in our time," he said with a slight, defeated air. "The undead are an effective barrier to getting anywhere in this zone. It's nearly impossible to explore without causing an entire graveyard to pull themselves out of the stone."

That news was worse than I expected. The Unblooded party was among the best ascenders. Considering they'd been stuck in a single convergence zone for weeks spoke to the difficulty of this place.

"But that can change, now," Darrin said, opening a door to another floor. "You've got some sort of rune that lets you dampen sound. That... that will change everything. We'll finally be able to get out of here."

The floor in front of us opened up like a penthouse apartment. The ceiling was tall, a balcony with a glass railing looking down over a wide living area. Couches surrounded a coffee table, and I could see an elaborate kitchen setup off to the side.

I recognized Jared lounging on one of the couches. His beard had gotten even longer since I'd last seen him, clearly lacking any sort of maintenance. He was snoring slightly, his hammer resting on the ground beside the couch. His shield was leaning haphazardly against the back.

Alandra was sitting across from him, her auburn hair a mess. She had bags under her eyes, and the slump of her shoulders had a defeated air to them. Her freckles didn't stick out to me as they did in the desert zone, and her white and red battle robes were marked with cuts and burns.

But there was another woman across from them, looking at some sort of map. Her hair was a darker blonde than Darrin's, but her pale blue eyes were the first to catch onto our entrance.

"Darrin," she said, standing up, a frown on her face. "You made it back?"

Darrin smiled slightly, some of his usual jauntiness shining through as he met the stranger's eyes. "I'm afraid so. I can't let Jared keep napping all the time, after all."

Alandra perked up next, her tired eyes widening when they landed on me. "Toren?" she asked, wiping at her eyes as if she wasn't believing them. She looked at Darrin once more. "Was he the one that you found?"

Darrin nodded, clapping me on the back. "We heard the sounds of your battle from up here, Toren," he said. "It's happened quite a few times in the past weeks. I've tried to get to the ascenders that pop into the tombs, but it's rare that I've actually reached them in time. And even rarer that someone gets out alive," he said somberly.

"Toren?" the dark blonde woman asked, standing from her chair and setting down the map she was looking at. "As in Toren Daen? The mage you took on a prelim a while back?"

Darrin ran a hand through his hair. "I almost forgot to introduce you two! Dima, this is Toren of Named Blood Daen. Toren, this is Dima, our caster. She wasn't able to join us last time, unfortunately."

I nodded to the caster. "Pleasure to meet you," I said. "Though I wish it would've been under better circumstances."

Dima snorted. "I heard you had an eventful prelim, though," she said. "Shame I couldn't join. But I've got family back home I need to spend time with."