The Outlands

The next morning, Tess was woken up early by Gramps. “Breakfast is on the table.” He said, “We’ve got a long day ahead of us, so make sure to eat your fill.”

Tess yawned, opening her eyes and checking her clock. It was five in the morning, much earlier than she had been expecting. “Why are we up so early?” She asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

“We have preparation to do.” Gramps said. “Go ahead and get changed. Don’t worry about your armor right now, just get into casual clothes and keep the armor in your bag. I’m hoping to be out of the house in twenty minutes, so don’t take too long.” He left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Tess blearily got out of bed, changing into some day clothes and stumbling her way downstairs to the kitchen. There was indeed breakfast waiting there, which she ate while slowly waking up. And, in another ten or so minutes, she was heading through the door to the Outlands with Gramps.

But, contrary to her expectations, when they entered Gramps’s office, they didn’t go to leave through the exit to the guild. Instead, Gramps rummaged through his drawers, eventually pulling out a bag that was near identical to the one Tess carried, save for looking like it had been used quite a bit more.

From in there he pulled out a chalk-like substance, then moved to a larger open area to the side of the room, where he began to draw what could only be a magic circle. The runes contained therein were dizzyingly complex to Tess, rivaling even those that had appeared when herself and Fortune had been casting Fimbulvetr in their duel with Ilmir.

And then he began to pour magic into the circle and even more symbols appeared in the air, a certain tenseness building up as the magic reached its peak…and then coalesced into a visible portal, through which she could see…a lodge, of sorts. The walls seemed to be made of sturdy wood logs decorated with various heads of which Tess could only identify a few. There were furs lining the floor, and several chairs centered around a fireplace, and what she could see of the room gave off a generally rustic feeling.

“Hop on in.” Gramps said, motioning through the portal, “I’ll explain in a bit.”

Tess made her way through the portal, which was…honestly about as smooth as going through the door between Gramps’s office and their house. No sense of disorientation or anything, she was just suddenly in another place.

What was different, though, was the temperature and feeling of the air. It was cold, a biting cold that immediately made her wish she was wearing something warmer. The cause was clear enough; outside the window she could see a howling blizzard, blowing furiously enough that she couldn’t even make out the surrounding area, or even the ground right below the window.

“Sorry about that.” Gramps said, stepping through the portal and rushing over to the fireplace. “We made this in about as inhospitable a place as we could find.” He said, kneeling down and placing his hand in front of the fireplace. A roaring flame sprung into life within, dispelling the cold she had been feeling and bringing the room up to room temperature within an instant.

“We can’t keep this going all the time because it’s a waste of resources, so it gets really cold in here before it’s lit.” He explained. He stood up, dusting himself off and walking back over to where the portal was still sitting. “Give me another minute to rework the spell and then I’ll explain, alright? Just take a seat for now.”

He took out the chalk-like stuff and made a few modifications to the circle that Tess was now noticing was around this side of the portal as well. The portal blinked out of existence and the circle around where it used to be began to glow. Gramps walked back to the area around the fireplace and sat down in a chair next to Tess’s.

“So, I might have not been telling the whole truth yesterday.” He began, “You are here to learn more about being an Appointed, yes, but it’s not going to be just you and me or anything.”

As if on cue, the portal flared into life once more and Eyfura stepped through, the portal closing once she had. “Hello!” She said cheerfully, walking over and sitting down in another once of the chairs. “Did I miss anything important?”

Gramps shook his head. “Nope. I was just about to tell her about the meeting.”

“Ah. Carry on, then.”

“Right, so, today we’re going to be having a meeting of sorts. A fair portion of us Appointed keep in contact and when something important happens, like…there being a new Appointed, we like to call everyone together and make sure everyone’s up to speed. When it’s something like a war or huge conflict, we decide on a course of action.” Gramps explained. “Today I’ve called the meeting to introduce you to everyone.”

Eyfura nodded. “Here’s something the public doesn’t know,” She said, “All of the members of your Gramps and I’s party are Appointed. It’s how we met each other in the first place. We had been working together on other business for the gods and chose to team up permanently, start being more proactive in making things go the proper way.

“That way being keeping the Outlands neutral, of course.” She continued, “It’s important as the only easy way of accessing any given plane, so it wouldn’t do to have any one plane achieve a monopoly. We made sure that wouldn’t happen. There were a few bloody fights when the other planes started to realize what we were doing, but we had gathered a group of the strongest freelancers and between them and the rest of the Appointed, it was enough to make them all get the picture.”

Tess gave Gramps a careful look. “Does…that mean you’ve killed other people?” She asked. She knew it must be true, but it seemed so at odds with everything about Gramps that she couldn’t help but ask.

He sighed sadly, face somber. “Hundreds, unfortunately. I did my best to resurrect people when I could, but I was in the middle of Descent for much of the conflict and…well, let’s just say that siege mages can do a lot of damage, especially

when augmented by a god.”

He gave her a sad look. “I’m afraid that chances are good you’ll have to kill other people yourself. Being an Appointed isn’t always a peaceful job, even if there isn’t a war going on. Sometimes the gods need you to deal with people, and those people often don’t come quietly.”

There was a silence as Tess sat there, digesting that. She was about to speak when the portal opened again, two people stepping through it.

One was a tall…she couldn’t really tell, honestly. He was huge, most of his body covered in rusty-green scales that looked tougher than armor plating. He wore only a pair of shorts, allowing her to see that the scales started to become thinner as they went towards his bottom, though they seemed to thicken back up again at the legs. His neck was also covered in the scales, which led up the head and around most of it save for the face, giving him the appearance of wearing a helmet. He was smiling, showing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, though it, oddly enough, didn’t seem threatening at all.

The figure beside him was much less imposing. She was human and Tess guessed she was of average height. She had very short black hair and was dressed in a simple white tunic. The only thing about her that really stood out about her were her eyes. There was a certain…sharpness to them that Tess couldn’t quite place, a feeling that they were able to see right through Tess and that their owner already knew everything there was to know about Tess.

“Ah, perfect timing.” Gramps said, standing up and grabbing Tess’s hand, having her stand up as well. “Tess, these fine people are Ava and Atum, the other two members of my party. Ava, Atum, this is Tess, my granddaughter.”

Ava looked Tess over. “Transformee?” She asked, smiling slightly.

Gramps nodded. “Yup. She was Thomas before, but she got a Class from that Challenge Crystal in Slime Tower, and this is what she ended up like.”

Ava arched a brow. “I see. Well, nice to see you again, though from the looks of it, it seems you don’t recognize me.” She patted Atum’s arm softly, “And I highly doubt you’d recognize Atum here.”

Atum nodded. “The scales kind of dominate all my other features, don’t you think?” He said. She had half expected him to have a gravelly voice, but it was smooth, almost comforting. “We met once before at the funeral for Evan’s kids, though I seem to recall you being a bit…different then.” He gave her a wink, walking forward and proffering a hand.

Tess reached out and shook. While the handshake was firm, it was clear that he was paying careful attention to how much strength he was using so as not to injure her. Once the handshake was over, he gave her a couple pats on the back. “Before you ask, I’m sarcosuchuskin, an evolved form of crocodilekin. No, shirts don’t really work out, even the tough ones tend to get shredded to pieces by the back scales. Yes, it gets cold, I have a magic item that keeps me warm.”

He laughed, giving her another wink. “Nice to finally get to really meet you. Ava and I have been dying to see how you and Ellie have turned out, mind spilling the beans? Evan’s been a bit stingy about information on your kits aside from the basics.”

Ava walked over, gently pulling Atum away. “Dear, I think you should wait until at least after the meeting before prying into her abilities.” She turned back to Tess, placing a hand on Tess’s arm. “Sorry about him, he gets excited about stuff like this. Though,” she said, cracking a smile, “I must admit I do as well. I’m just less forward with it. That being said, given your presence here and what Heroes has been telling me, I’m assuming you’re Fortune’s Appointed?”

Tess nodded. “As of yesterday, yeah.”

Ava gave her another smile. “Seems Fortune’s been aiming for that for a while, though.” She said. “Heroes has been talking my ear off about you for the past month.”

“War too.” Atum added. “She got real excited about something to do with monsters and optimized Skills? I’m a bit fuzzy on the details of the monster thing, but she’s been talking theoretical best combinations of Skills with me for a while.”

“Right, well, thanks for coming early you three,” Gramps said, “We can discuss this after the meeting, but for now we need to get everything set up.”

Eyfura stood up, stretching. “Yeah, you have a point. Atum, want to help me grab the table?”

“Sure.” Atum responded. “Do the rest of you want to get the chairs?”

“Sounds reasonable to me.” Ava said, “Follow me, Tess, I’ll show you where everything is.”

Gramps nodded, giving her a gentle push towards Ava. “I have other things to get ready, just follow Ava’s directions for now.”

Ava led Tess to another room, where she opened up a closet. Inside were a bunch of wooden folding chairs, and Ava grabbed a couple, handed them to Tess, then grabbed two under each arm for herself. “So, um…how have you been holding up?” She asked, moving towards another room that Tess hadn’t yet been in. “I’m guessing things have been kinda turbulent for you this past month.”

“Fine, I guess.” Tess replied, “I’m mostly used to everything by now. If you don’t mind my asking, what roles do you and Atum fulfil in your party? I’ve heard a lot of people saying you guys were the best that’s ever been but not a lot of concrete details.”

“I’m a generalist. That usually ended up meaning I was our scout or, if Evan was busy, a backup healer or mage. Atum was our dedicated tank, and a good one at that; the rest of us hardly ever took any heat from monsters. But that was a long time ago, as far as the public’s concerned we’re retired now. We’re just living in the city, enjoying a quiet family life with our kids and grandkids.”

They were in the other room now, a long, thin one. There was a fireplace and the walls were filled with mysterious heads of what Tess could only assume were monsters, but other than that the room was empty. Ava placed the chairs down and unfolded them, motioning for Tess to do the same.

“But really we’re not all that retired. The public also

knows that if anyone wants to poke the bear that is the city, they’re going to have to tangle with some of the most powerful people out there. No one has in a while, but it can’t hurt to stay vigilant.”

She gave Tess a wink. “Of course, besides our role as deterrent, we’re doing Appointed things on the side, as well as making sure our family knows how to defend themselves. It’s a fulfilling life, all things considered.”

Having finished opening those chairs, the two returned to the closet in the other room to grab the rest. By the time they were back in the room they were putting the chairs, Gramps was placing what looked to be wood in the fireplace and Eyfura and Atum were busy opening what looked to be a fairly large wooden table.

“Why not just keep the table set up?” Tess asked. “Seems like a lot of hassle to go through this every time you have a meeting.”

“This room is used for other things too.” Atum grunted. “We can’t have the table getting in the way of other things if someone else needs to use this place. We only have a meeting once or twice a year, though, so it’s not generally a problem.”

Tess frowned. “What exactly is this place? I’ve gathered that you all built this, but if it’s not just for private meetings, what is it?”

There was a whoosh as the wood in the fireplace was lit and Gramps stood up. “General-purpose Appointed safehouse.” He said. “If you’re in trouble and have the time to make the proper circle you can pop in here and wait things out. We also use it to temporarily store stuff we might not want the public to see, or even to keep prisoners while the gods decide what to do with them, should it come to that.

“I’ll show you how to get here and how to run the place after we finish with the meeting.” He continued, “The warping process requires a tiny amount of Worship as a sort of validation, so generally only Appointed can get in here, though theoretically anyone that knows how to draw the circle and has a god put Worship in it could get here that way. And we’re deep in the ‘unexplored’ regions of the Outlands, up a high mountain cloaked in an eternal blizzard that’s also swarming with tough monsters. It’s about as safe as a location can be, provided you don’t go too far away.”

Eyfura and Atum finished putting the table up and everyone began to arrange the chairs around it. Soon everything was set up, and Gramps motioned for them to follow him back into the room they had first warped into. “Looks like we have a little extra time before people start showing up.” He said, “Thanks for helping out, the work would have gone much slower with just the two of us.”

“Don’t even mention it.” Atum said, waving a hand dismissively. “But, if we’ve got the extra time, I really would like to hear more from Tess and how she’s shaping up.” He shot Ava a glance. “Surely you can allow me that, right?” He asked pleadingly.

Ava sighed. “I suppose so, but only if Tess is fine with it.”

Tess nodded. “Yeah, let me sit down first, though.” She took a seat in a chair by the fireplace. “So, um, it started a few days after Ellie’s birthday…”