It took a bit of luck and a lot of persistence, but Velik could cross a thousand miles in a matter of hours and his ears could pick up people miles away. With Jensen giving him a heading to start, he found his target about four hours later. Along the way, he killed several thousand monsters and probably a hundred elites.
“No,” she said warily. She was still holding the mana, but didn’t release it into a skill just yet. Strangely, the longer Velik studied the mana, the more he could see the scaffolding of essence surrounding it.
Ah, that makes sense, though. The system takes essence and uses it to build the template. Then all the person has to do is fill it with mana to make the effect happen. It doesn’t take any actual ability to use, just resources.
That had been the secret to the divine beasts’ flexibility, too. Their essence wasn’t fixed like the system-reinforced version. They could spin it up free-form to make new skills or spells whenever they needed, though it did seem like each one had a particular niche they’d focused their efforts into. He supposed there were still costs related to moving things around too much, at least if his own personal system was anything to go by.
“Who’s this?” one of the other people asked. “You know him, boss?”
One person started gathering mana into the same pattern Sildra was using, and the other two brandished weapons in Velik’s general direction. He ignored them and said, “I need to talk to your god.”
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“Huh?”
“Morgus. I need his advice.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Sildra said incredulously. “You don’t just get to demand a god’s attention.”
“I know I don’t, but you’re his favored druid or whatever. Can’t you get him to talk to me?”
“I can’t even get him to talk to me! He’s a god, Velik. Everything he does is on his terms.”
Velik had some serious doubts about that statement. As far as he could tell, the whole Compact thing was because the gods couldn’t agree on anything and none of them were powerful enough to boss the other ones around. But he supposed Sildra meant more like the god-mortal relationship, in which case he couldn’t really argue.
“I’m pretty sure he’d want to talk to me if he could,” Velik said. “I’m sure you’ve noticed how bad things are right now.”
“The monsters,” the other druid muttered.
“Right. That.”
“You know what’s causing it?” Sildra asked.
“Sure. Morgus caused it.”
“He did not!” the other druid protested.
“Ehhhhh. Debatable. He didn’t do it directly, but the other side decided that he violated some agreement by sending me out past the boundary and started this whole thing. So, in a way, yeah, it’s his fault.”
Sildra finally let the mana drain away and gestured for the rest of her group to stand down. It was probably supposed to reassure him, but it was hard to feel threatened by people who lacked any real power in the first place. Velik promptly ignored them.
“I think you’d better start from the beginning,” Sildra said. “What happened after you left?”
* * *
“You cannot seriously believe this, archdruid,” Vestus argued.
Sildra stifled a sigh. Vestus was… devoted… and overeager. The fact that he was twice her age had complicated their relationship at first, but after a thorough humbling, he’d shifted from combative—with her—to weirdly subservient. Everyone else still got the version of him that was stubborn and brash and somewhat pretentious.
Some days, she thought she liked that version of him better.
“I have no reason to doubt his story,” she said. “And even if I did, I doubt the monster hordes are a coincidence. Velik’s actions are connected to them in some way. For the time being, I’m willing to accept his version of events. If Morgus wants me to know otherwise, he will make it so.”
Invoking their god’s name was a surefire way to get Vestus to ease off. All the druids were devout, but he took it to extremes sometimes, and if there was one thing Sildra had learned, it was how to use that tendency against the man. It was a necessary survival skill to ensure she kept hold of her own sanity some days.
“What I’m not sure of is what you expect me to do about it,” she said, turning to speak to Velik. “I cannot make my god appear to dispense advice any more than you can.”
“I know that,” Velik said. He made no attempt to hide his annoyance. “Stupid gods playing games with each other. But I’ve been cleaning up his mess, and doing what he wanted has resulted in an even bigger mess, so I’d appreciate a bit of guidance from him.
“If it is his will to speak to you, he will. You don’t need me.”
“Well, maybe,” Velik said, scratching the back of his head. “See, the thing is, I’m not sure he can anymore on account of how I’m not connected to the system.”
“He’s a god!” Vestus snapped.
Privately, Sildra agreed, but she kept her voice calm and level. “Very well. I will attempt to reach out to Morgus to hopefully assuage your doubts.”
“Archdruid!” Vestus protested. “Entertaining this is… is… It’s sacrilege, is what it is!”
“That will be enough,” Sildra said, steel creeping into her voice. “If you do not agree with my decision, you are free to leave or, failing that, to simply remain silent.”
Vestus subsided with a sullen glare aimed at Velik. He could pout all he wanted, so long as he did it silently and stopped dragging the conversation off course. Once Sildra was sure that he wasn’t going to butt in again, she took a breath to center herself, then looked back at Velik.
“As I was saying, I will do my best. If it’s meant to be, then it will happen. If not, then you’re on your own in terms of divine providence. We mortals will just have to figure it out between us.”
Velik nodded doubtfully. “Understood, but it seems like the kind of thing he’d want to stay on top of.”
“We shall see,” was all she said.
Sildra settled down into a meditative pose. Over the last year or so, she’d gotten quite adept at this, and the stillness came to her easily. Before she knew it, the moonlight overhead had brightened and the rest of the world had washed away. She was standing in a forest full of shadows, an old man hobbling out between the trees.
“Morgus,” she said, going for respectful but not quite managing to hide her surprise.
He chuckled. “Didn’t expect me to actually answer, huh?”
“I wouldn’t want to presume—” she started to say, but fell silent when he waved a hand.
“No need to make excuses. It’s a bit of a crisis, and the boy wasn’t quite wrong about everything he said.”
“Is that why…” she trailed off.
“Why I look so old?” he finished for her. “Partially, yes. We don’t have a lot of time to get lost in the details, but let me go over what I need the two of you to do.”