Chapter 5: The Weight of Gold

  The Ashen Canyon didn’t just smell like dust; it smelled like sun-baked iron and a metallic tang that made the back of Ren’s throat itch.

  “Ren, quit wall-hugging,” Vex snapped, not looking back. “Ledge-droppers eat stragglers first.”

  “He’s just branding the ‘moody traveler’ look,” Lyra added, skipping over a jagged shale deposit while sparking kinetic energy between her fingers. “The girls at the Guild love a guy who looks like he’s perpetually lost.”

  Ren wiped sweat from his forehead, his boots heavy in the red grit. In Ota, being noticed meant a trip to the hospital or a debt collector at your door. Here, it meant being a God. He wasn’t sure which was worse.

  “Eyes up,” Vex cut in. The playfulness died instantly. Mia’s detection spell—a faint green pulse at the tip of her staff—flared a violent, jagged red.

  The Ambush

  The sound wasn’t a roar; it was a wet, sliding thwack.

  Three Juvenile Wyrms launched from the heights. One slammed into Kael’s oversized shield, the impact sending the boy spinning into the dirt with a yelp. Another hissed, spraying a glob of caustic bile that missed Lyra’s head by an inch, sizzling and eating into the rock wall behind her.

  Ren’s hand clenched. He felt the cold pull of the void in his gut—a scream of power ready to erase the gorge. He stepped forward, but Lyra shoved her hand against his chest, physically forcing him back.

  “Stay back!” she yelled, her face set in a fierce, toothy grin. “We’ve got the pests! Don’t you dare interfere!”

  She lunged. Kinetic blasts hit the Wyrm with the sound of a hammer on a gong, but the creature was fast. It swept its tail in a blur, catching Lyra’s ankle and slamming her into the shale.

  “Lyra!” Ren’s boots crunched the sand as he moved to intervene, but Kael was already there. With a war-cry that cracked into a high-pitched squeal, the boy jammed his shield into the Wyrm’s jaw. The wood groaned and splintered, bile splashing onto Kael’s forearm.

  “Mia! Now!” Kael grunted, his heels digging into the loose rock.

  Mia planted her staff, her face turning a frantic, deep purple. “Thorn… Surge!”

  Jagged, magically-charged vines tore through the canyon floor, wrapping the Wyrms in a mess of thorns and pressure. One vine whipped past Kael’s ear, nearly taking it off, but it held the beast down. As the last Wyrm went limp, Mia let out a long, shaky breath—followed by a sudden, loud pfft that echoed off the canyon walls.

  The silence that followed was absolute. Mia’s face transitioned from purple to a horrifying shade of crimson.

  “Mana… exhaustion,” she whispered, leaning heavily on her staff. “It… it just happens. Don’t look at me.”

  Kael, covered in blue slime and trembling, let out a hysterical wheeze of a laugh. “Did you just—?”

  “Shut up, Kael!”

  The Sun-Gold Reveal

  Vex knelt by the largest carcass, her expression grim. She reached into a wound near the creature’s neck and pulled out a jagged shard of metal. It wasn’t a tooth; it was a heavy, shimmering arrowhead made of pure gold.

  “Pure-Gold,” Vex said, her voice dropping. “This isn’t a random Wyrm. This is High Temple weaponry. These Wyrms weren’t hunting the caravan—they were being used as target practice by a clean-up crew.”

  Ren looked at the gold. It hummed with a rhythmic heat that felt like a predator’s heartbeat.

  If the Temple was clearing the canyon, they weren’t just looking for monsters. They were clearing a path for something big. Vex said looking at Ren.

  Ren looked away. “Yes, then we should… probably go, right.

  “Yes we need to go,” Vex said. It was the voice of someone who knew how to spot a raid before the doors got kicked in. “If they’re clearing the canyon, they don’t want witnesses.”

  The Shelter

  The purple sandstorm arrived like a wall of falling glass. They scrambled into a shallow, cave the wind screaming through the cracks in the stone. They were all covered in grit and lizard-bile, huddled around a small heater-stone that cast a flickering orange glow.

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  Lyra rubbed a bruise on her arm, the teasing light gone from her eyes.

  Vex tossed a piece of hard cheese at Ren. “Eat. If this cave is herding Wyrms, ‘staying quiet’ isn’t an option tomorrow.”

  Ren caught the food, watching the kids sleep on their bedrolls. He wasn’t the “Calamity” right now. He was just a guy who realized that even in a new world, the shadows eventually run out.

  The Night Watch

  Hours later, the storm’s roar softened to a whistle. Ren sat by the entrance, the matte-black watch he’d found heavy in his pocket.

  Suddenly, the wind changed. It carried a sound that made Ren’s hair stand up—a faint, melodic horn blast followed by a whisper that seemed to come from the stone itself.

  I wonder how long I can keep playing pretend before they find out I’m not their friend. I can’t keep acting like someone I’m not, but at the same time, I can’t keep acting like myself either—I can’t be that scared boy from OTA anymore. I may not know why I’m here or how I got here, but for now, it’s something different.” Ren let out a slit little chuckle “At least these two worlds have something in common: people who hate me for no reason.”

  Ren let out a soft sigh.” Damn this sucks.”

  The morning after

  Ren sat at the entrance of the cave, watching the purple lightning of the sandstorm dance across the canyon floor. The silence was broken by the sound of rustling fabric. Lyra sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. When she saw Ren still sitting by the entrance, her expression shifted from groggy to genuinely angry.

  “Ren!” she hissed, her voice sharp.

  Ren got startled and turned around to see Lyra standing in front of him, staring at him in the eyes.

  “Why didn’t you wake me up? We agreed on a rotation. We were all supposed to take turns on night watch!”

  Ren looked to the floor, glancing back and forth at her. “Sorry. I just… I didn’t feel like sleeping. I figured I’d stay awake and keep a lookout since, you know, I wasn’t tired.”

  Lyra sighed, the anger deflating into weary frustration. She crawled over and sat beside him. “Okay, but I don’t care if you weren’t tired—you still need to sleep. Staying awake all night is not healthy. Next time, wake me up. We’re a team, not your fan club. You need rest too.”

  Ren managed a small nod. “Okay. Will do.”

  By dawn, the storm had settled into a fine, hanging mist of red dust. Kael and Mia woke up shortly after, their faces still caked in the grime of the previous day’s fight.

  “We have to go,” Vex said, reaching for his shield. “We need to tell the old man what’s happening.”

  Ren didn’t feel like walking back through the heat. He put his hand out, focused on the image of the village gate, and tore a hole in the air. The violet-black rift swallowed them, and a second later, they were standing in front of Horgus’s small stone house.

  Vex stepped forward as the old man emerged from his home. Her face was grim. “Mr. Horgus, you have to leave. Now.”

  The old man blinked, leaning on his cane. “Why? What’s wrong? My ore—did you find it?”

  “Yes, we did. Here, but the Sun Gods were busy here,” Vex explained, her voice dropping to a cautious whisper. “We found one of their arrows in one of your wyrms. Staying here is dangerous. They were doing something—I don’t know what, but it probably has to do with your village.”

  Horgus’s face paled. “Why? What would they do to us?”

  “We don’t know for sure,” Lyra added, her usual cheer replaced by a haunting seriousness. “But when the Sun Gods are involved, it’s never okay. You need to gather your people and move further into the valley.”

  Horgus sighed, his shoulders sagging. He reached into a tattered pouch and pulled out a big pouch of coins—their payment. He held it out to Lyra, but she gently pushed his hand back.

  “No,” Lyra said softly. “Keep it. You’re going to need it more than us if you’re moving your village.”

  Kael’s eyes went wide. “What? Why?! How are we supposed to pay for food then and our other stuff?”

  Mia quickly grabbed her brother’s arm, her face tight with shame. “Kael, don’t be rude! They clearly need it more than we do since they have to go.”

  Kael let out a long, frustrated sigh. “Okay… but I really wanted to get that money for Mom and Dad sooner.”

  Vex turned to the group. “Ren? Let’s get out of here.”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah.” Ren raised his hand, the familiar cold pull of the void responding to his call. He opened a portal, and the group stepped through, emerging back into the bustling, ale-scented air of the Glintreach Adventurer’s Guild.

  As the portal snapped shut, Kael let out a shout of excitement. “WELL, THANK YOU VERY MUCH, REN!”

  The entire guild hall went silent. Every head turned—veteran warriors, mages, and merchants all stared at the boy in the void-black armor.

  Ren winced, the social anxiety hitting him like a physical blow. “Why are you screaming?” he hissed at the boy.

  Vex ignored the stares and looked at the kids. “Look, you didn’t get paid for that last job. Why don’t you come with us again for another quest? We’re going to pick a new one anyway.”

  Lyra’s eyes lit up. “Yeah! Come on, it’ll be fun. And hopefully, this time, we can actually get you paid.”

  Mia and Kael looked at each other, their faces a mix of shock and pure joy. “Yes! Please! We would love to!” they shouted in unison.

  But then Mia’s expression faltered. “Kael… we have to first tell our parents we didn’t finish this one. We should check on Mom as well to see if she’s doing okay.”

  “Is your mother okay?” Lyra asked, her voice softening.

  “No,” Mia whispered. “She’s actually quite sick. That’s another reason why we needed a high-ranking quest… we need to buy the medicine the High Temple apothecaries sell. It’s the only thing that works, but it costs a bit much.”

  Before Ren could process the weight of that, a voice called out from the counter.

  “Ren!”

  It was Mira, the receptionist. She was waving him over. The group walked over, and Ren gave a hesitant nod. “Yes?”

  “Uhh… well,” Mira stammered, her face turning pink. “Kane Duskbane is looking for you. He was here a few minutes ago; he said that I should stop you when you get back.”

  Vex groaned, a sound of pure annoyance. “What does Sir Duskbane want with Ren again?”

  Ren’s mind raced. Duskbane? Who is that? And what does he want to see me?

  “Well, we should probably leave—” Ren started to say, hoping to make a quick exit.

  But he didn’t finish the sentence. A shadow fell over him—thick, heavy, and cold. A massive, towering man stepped up behind Ren. He was built like a fortress, covered in scarred, dark steel, and his presence felt like a mountain that was about to collapse on him.

  “Ren Sinclair.”

  The voice was like grinding stones. Ren turned around, his heart hammering against his ribs, and looked up into the eyes of a man who looked like he had personally hunted every nightmare in the world.