Chapter Seventy-OneIt tickled.

  'You. You. You. You. You.'

  If chronostasis wasn’t on it would be an unintelligible buzz as spirits streamed into, around, and sometimes through her. That was where the tickling happened, vague interactions as two spiritual containers interacted. Both are real but out of phase. When she needed to use soul strike, she needed to adjust for that. It was like squeezing all your muscles tense, but with a snap, she stopped the intrusions of those who went into her. 'What? 'She sent back.

  Body spirit. Body Spirit. Body Spirit. But with those words came the slowly building image of a face, familiar because Harmony constructed it.

  Bea?

  Bea! Bea. Bea. And with that hints of Bea passing through st night. These spirits wanted a stable body too. It was worse than what would happen if you fed a garden gnome. Then you’d just wake up with a dozen of those buggers begging, puking, and pulling at your socks.

  How complex a message could these spirits get? I need to get stronger first, and I MIGHT return to experiment ter. Right now I’m helping my companions find strong spirits to bond with. With that Harmony did her best to send a mental image of Len, Rose, Max, and Tyler.

  Chronostasis ended before she could get a response and it became a stream of buzzing she had to push through while following the others through the wall.

  “Bsted bones,” Harmony muttered on the other side. The others were already speechless, or in Max and Tyler’s case, weapons out. Sword and maul in their hands. The spirit wall was more than just a barrier. Harmony could picture Jin continuing to ugh from his side. She gnced back, actually, she didn’t need to picture it because he was ughing, but the spirit wall muted the sound.

  What had looked like pin woods bustled with spirits. Wispy translucent birds and dragons dancing in and out of trees that were now twice as thick with spiritual trees merged into the woods. The thickness of the lent book, Spirits, Geists, and Oddities of the Deadwoods now made sense. The wall hid them all.

  Adric walked to the head of the group and turned to face the others. “Welcome to the Deadwoods.” The grin on his face showed he enjoyed the joke as much as Jin had. Thorne had decred him the guide because of his experience here. “I know you are used to the mindless attacking monsters of Old Bones. And while I’m not saying there is no danger here. I think you’ll find many of the denizens of the deadwoods much more welcoming, especially when considering what you have to offer.”

  With that, he stepped a few paces forward and rapped his knuckles on a rock. [Awareness] hit Harmony’s gut and [Recall] reminded her what this area looked like on the other side of the spirit wall. That rock had not been there.

  With a rumble the stone rose up out of the ground with the craggy face of what you might think was a rock golem. Harmony could sense that it was but a container for an undead spirit living inside of it. A solid simucrum of rock, the difference probably didn't matter if you were crushed by it. At full height, it towered over twelve feet tall.

  “Adric? What in all the spaces has become of you?” It asked in a deep booming voice.

  “I died. Came back, and have some promises I can now fulfill. Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Garrick, greeter of the Deadwoods.”

  Promises? Retionship with giant rock ghosts? Little details about the nature of his time in the Deadwoods? And while she’d never specifically asked him about his time in the Deadwoods, Harmony thought he maybe should have volunteered all this information beforehand and not made it a surprise. Ambrosia was clearly a bad influence on him.

  “Geh. Geh. Geh.” Hyacinth chuckled at Harmony’s wide eyes.

  Hyacinth, too.

  “I only greet those who wish to be greeted and enter here. On good days it gives me purpose.” The giant grumbled.

  “Well, some of my friends here want to bond spirits to help them with a fabulous quest called the Ascendant Games.”

  “Quest? Fabulous? I will spread the word. Go forth and prove yourselves.” With that, Garrick sank back into the earth.

  Rose stomped up first. “What the hell was that Addy?” she demanded.

  Harmony was gd the princess chose to take the brunt of that conversation. She wanted answers too.

  “The Deadwoods are complicated. You know I went here after my evolution when nothing else worked. There is a history here, the books were old and dusty, and you know I hate reading, but I was desperate. Several attempts have been made to transform this region into a dungeon. There have been failed crusades to cull the whole pce. Hunters still come here. Others wish to commune with spirits to forward their csses. It is important to come in here without too many expectations and a little levity.”

  Thorne hadn’t been the most forthcoming either for this trip. Too many questions had led to extra training, according to Max. The book she’d lent them talked of the wall and then went into detail about the different things you might find and nothing else. Everyone had some opinion of what this pce would be.

  Harmony extended her senses. Where the dungeon was a monoculture of energy. Hundreds of different types of energy ced with death could be felt. The rocky aspect of Garrick still lingered even as he left to alert others.

  “You heard what the greeter said, Let’s go forth and prove ourselves,” announced Max.

  With one of their group taking the lead, the others seeking bonds fell into pce. That had been part of the trust exercises Thorne drilled into the four. Once someone sets a path, you listen to them until they fail or it becomes the utmost emergency.

  Harmony made her way to Adric and cast silence around them. “Are you going to tell me what this is about?”

  Adric, by now familiar with the sound-dampening effect, spoke. “Once it was clear that I was going and that Thorne could use me as a guide, we had some discussions. She cleared my guild debt and reinstated me with a credit in exchange for taking this mission. She really does want them to get the strongest bonds possible. Talking to Garrick. Initiating a quest and having them not know what is coming will give them the greatest chances.”

  “And you not telling me?”

  “You’re too busy with your own problems. I tell you, and you would meddle.”

  “I don’t… Fine.” This wasn’t her mission to find a spirit. Her job here was support. Help, protect, and observe to gain knowledge. It would be nice to not be the center of attention for once. Someone else could have a bloody adventure and be a target.