Broken Lands

Chapter 416 – Clear Moon Lake

“I’m happy you made it safely,” Sophia politely told the Lapine. She was aware that the rabbit was only a creation of the World Tree and was essentially guaranteed to make it to the prairie dogs to set up the scenario, but essentially guaranteed and actually guaranteed weren’t quite the same thing. The trail stretched across a number of different zones, which might mean that they weren’t present unless someone was looking for them … or might mean that it was a scenario that could be interrupted at a number of points. In the second case, the Lapine’s arrival at the prairie dog colony wasn’t guaranteed.

Cliff didn’t tell Sophia anything either way, which might well mean both were possible.

“Do you need us to take the statue somewhere?” Sophia continued. “Is that why you were moving it?”

“You have cleansed the shadows? Truly?” The Lapine shuffled forward as if he was uncertain. “I see the light in the moon, you must have. Then yes, I was taking the idol to Clear Moon Lake to cleanse the shadows and prevent them from attaching themselves again but I did not make it there. I can lead you there if you will fight the shadows?”

Sophia grinned at the bunny. “Happily. Do you want to hop or should we carry you?”

Dav snickered, then leaned over and whispered in Sophia’s ear. “Taika’s going to be so upset with you.”

“This is what he gets for abandoning us,” Sophia whispered back with a grin. “Rabbit smell everywhere.”

It was funny to think about, but Taika would probably never use his “portable nest” again. They might as well use it for the Lapine.

Dav slowly lowered his pack to the ground and opened the large top pouch. “If you hop in here, we can carry you . You should be able to push your head out onto my shoulder while we’re walking and give directions.

The Lapine hopped the short distance, then started sniffing the pack. “It smells good. Happy. Happy something I don’t know?” 

“Taika’s a chinchilla,” Sophia explained. “You’re bigger than he is, but I think you can still fit. He liked space and he was very large for a chinchilla.”

The Lapine stuck his head inside the nest, then climbed in face-first. Sophia was impressed that he managed to twist after he was already inside and stick his head out the top almost immediately. It wasn’t as tight as Sophia expected; she was able to zip up the sides without any trouble.

“This feels protected,” the Lapine observed. “Thank you. Are you ready to leave?”

“Let us know when you need out and I’ll set you down,” Dav told the rabbit as he picked up the pack and settled it on his back. “I’d rather not clean up after you and I want to keep it clean. Which way do we need to go?”

The Lapine directed him to turn right and then move forward, away from the prairie dogs. It wasn’t in the direction the light on the statue pointed but it wasn’t far off, either.

Sophia waved and yipped a cheerful goodbye. The Voice-Throwing Prairie Dog that greeted them yipped back, “Good luck!”

They had to deal with a surprisingly annoying if harmless to them flight of bloodsucking butterflies and a field of intoxicating dandelions on the way. The dandelions were only successful at all until Ci’an realized what was going on and drank an antidote, then fed one to Xin’ri. Sophia and Dav were unaffected, which made Ci’an grumble.

The Lapine wanted to eat some of the dandelions, so they stopped for a while to let him browse and collected some of the flowers. Xin’ri wanted them to see if she could do something with them; she wasn’t sure what, but they gave both Ci’an and herself a contact buzz, which meant they ought to be good for something. It might not be worth much, since she didn’t see any dandelions in the outside markets, but it was equally possible that they were simply rare enough that they weren’t out in the open.

The directions were a little slurred after that but they were still clear enough. 

They arrived at the lake in early afternoon. When Dav let the Lapine out of his pack, the rabbit didn’t want to move; he was too comfy. They managed to gather that they needed to wait until nightfall, so they decided to go ahead and set up camp for the night.

Xin’ri was cooking dinner when the first shadow lurkers arrived. Sophia felt them hovering outside the campsite and grumpily headed out to deal with them. They were weak and easily dispatched once she knew they were there.

Three more groups of lurkers arrived and were summarily dealt with before darkness fell. Once it did, it was time to wake the rabbit.

“AAAAAH!” The Lapine’s scream sounded like something dying. The Lapine leapt out of the pack towards the fire. “Shadows! Aaaah!”

There weren’t any shadow lurkers. Sophia was certain of that. “There were some, but they’ve been dealt with.”

The Lapin shivered in place. “The fire. They need light, they are shadows, but they hate it. They will not come too close. I will … I will stay here. It is night. Bathe the idol in the waters lit by the moon.”

Sophia glanced up at the false sky. It was dim, but it was a steady sort of dimness, the same way “daytime” was a steady bright blue sky. “There is no moon.”

“This is Clear Moon Lake!” the Lapin objected loudly. “Of course there is a moon! It is in the lake. Find the moon in the water and bathe the idol in the water lit by the moon.” He snorted, then pushed the dirt he sat on away from himself. “I will be here, in the light of the fire. Return before dawn.”

Sophia chuckled at the demanding rabbit. “Do we need to leave someone here to watch over you?”

“The fire must stay lit,” was the Lapine’s answer. 

“I’ll stay here,” Xin’ri volunteered. “I don’t think you need me to deal with the statue and I can watch over the rabbit and keep the fire lit.”

“If you’re sure?” Sophia didn’t want to turn Xin’ri down but she also didn’t want the woman to make a sacrifice she didn’t want to make.

Xin’ri nodded.

“I’m going to leave my pack here, then,” Dav announced. He set it a little distance from the fire and pulled the rabbit-person-moon statue out of the lower pocket. “Everyone ready?”

Sophia decided to leave her pack behind as well. 

Ci’an kept hers, but she had an advantage: she could shift into her Nightowl shape and it would simply disappear. She didn’t hesitate to do that, either. “I’ll scout ahead.”

When they reached the shoreline, Sophia was disappointed to find out that the lake … was a lake. It was no more magical than its surroundings and it wasn’t made of anything other than water. She looked in the water, then to both sides. “Any idea what the rabbit meant when he said to bathe the statue in the waters lit by the moon?”

“No … wait, maybe.” Dav stepped into the water then knelt. It was only about a foot deep that close to the edge, more than enough to soak his pants under his armor but not high enough to reach his shirt. He held the statue out in front of himself just above the water. 

Sophia tried to guess what he was thinking, but nothing was obvious until she noticed that the light given off by the sphere on top of the rabbit-person’s head that reflected off the water of the lake was growing brighter. “You think the sphere is the moon and we need to rinse the statue in water lit by its own light, once it’s bright enough?”

“Shadows!” Ci’an’s mental shout interrupted Dav’s response. “Lots of them running along the surface of the water.”

Sophia offered a silent thanks that they weren’t coming from underwater. While her magic worked fine in water, her feathers didn’t.

That wasn’t entirely true. Feathers that were originally sourced from waterfowl did just fine. Skyeagle feathers, which were still most of what she had, didn’t. Magical plumes that were never feathers also worked fine, but the shadows probably weren’t strong enough to stir up that sort of magic.

There were, in fact, hundreds of shadows. They were incredibly fast but tiny shadow lurkers, but at that size they couldn’t hide in someone’s shadow; they’d simply be lost in its darkness. All they could do was ride the line between light and shadow, the crazy quilt of reflections from moonlight in the darkness on wind-driven waves. 

Xin’ri’s presence would have made this a lot easier. Sophia simply wasn’t set up to deal with hundreds of enemies at once, even when the enemies were no more threatening than a bunch of large mundane ants. Dav and Ci’an weren’t much better; as a group, they were set up for a smaller number of bigger threats. 

Sophia considered half a dozen options and discarded them each. Dav could kill them in groups, but not enough at a time to get ahead of the horde. More shadows seemed to be appearing all the time. Ci’an could delay them and confuse them in large batches, but she couldn’t kill them and they had to be killed. Sophia didn’t have any good area spells; she’d dropped her last one with her third upgrade. It would have been useful here, but this was really the only care where it would be useful.

Sophia brushed the miniature shadow lurkers off herself, squishing them as quickly with her hands as she could have managed with magic. The counter to shadows was of course light; she could make a really bright magelight. That would take a minute or so but they could easily keep up with the shadow lurkers for a minute.

A magelight would only hold off the shadows while it was lit, the same way the fire would near where they left the Lapine and Xin’ri. That would be enough if they could do what they came for, but Sophia had the sinking suspicion that the magelight would interfere with the process of “bathing the statue in waters lit by the moon.” That was probably why they had to wait until nightfall; too much other light would make it not work.

The fact that Sophia wasn’t coming up with a solution meant she was missing something. Her group was much too powerful for this area and they were being overrun. They weren’t being hurt; even a team that belonged here wouldn’t be hurt by this. It was simply unpleasant as long as their Shield lasted and it was being damaged only very slowly. 

A team that wasn’t even to the first upgrade probably wouldn’t have the sort of crowd control Abilities Xin’ri had and they still had to be able to manage this. The fact that they had time was probably a clue, but what did it mean?

“Can you keep them off my arms?” Dav asked. “They aren’t getting too close to the light the statue is giving off, but sometimes when they bite me, I flinch. If the statue hits the water, the extra light coming off the water disappears. I’m pretty sure that means I have to start over.”

Sophia sighed in annoyance at herself. What she was missing was suddenly obvious: this wasn’t a fight at all. It was an annoyance and probably a timer. They could keep going until either their shields got low enough they needed to retreat or the night ended or they got too sleepy to keep trying. “Yeah, I can manage that. How big do you think the moon needs to be in the water before you can dip the statue in without having to start over?”

“I’m going to wait until it stops getting bigger and brighter,” Dav answered as if it was obvious. “I doubt it’ll cover the entire lake but it will almost certainly have to be bigger than the statue.”