The Secret of the Dark Forest ( (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3) (42 page)

"The other one is broken," Yalininka shared the happy news, but stopped trying to wriggle out.

"Then I'll start turning over very carefully: try not to move! As soon as you can, try to get a leg over the edge – that would help out a lot. Right, off we go. Careful now!"

In the next few seconds I gained extra Respect for the age-old profession of a surgeon. I once read in a book that before the introduction of medical Imitators, people carried out operations themselves. And the first operations on the heart required such concentration and precision that surgeons commanded incredible Respect. Using the wobbly rock as my foothold, I very carefully began to turn away from the edge pulling Yalininka after me. A wrong move could mean loss of balance and a long fall downward. The gray, in places leaden, clouds far below indicated that before its abrupt end it would be quite a lengthy journey.

"Thank you, traveler!" By the time I pulled the woman back onto the plateau, my Energy bar was reduced to 40 points. Considering that it had 210 to start with, I’d had to do some serious exertion there. "I don't know what you were doing in a place so far away from the world. I'm sure you have your reasons, but you've saved me. Give me a moment to recover and I'll heal all our wounds ..."

Struggling to my feet I could finally have a proper look at Yalininka. Thin as a reed, a small woman with long snow-white hair and slightly upturned nose was standing before me. Her eyes, once bright blue, had now turned pale and a pattern of wrinkles that spread across her face indicated that her time of flying above the clouds was nearly at an end.

"Great one." Following a habit I acquired when I was still playing a Hunter, I bent my knee in acknowledgement of Yalininka's great deeds. It looks like I wasn’t fated to become Geranika's apprentice after all, because I didn't have it in me to push this woman off the edge.

"Get up, Shaman," said the lady, "You saved me – I should be the one kneeling to you. What are you doing among these cliffs, if that's not a secret?" As she spoke, Yalininka continued to make various gestures. First, my Hit Points and Energy completely recovered – almost instantaneously, no less – and then her broken and unnaturally twisted arm regained its normal position, following which the lady heaved a sigh of relief.

"Forgive me, Great One, but if I tell you the reason why I'm here, you will stop talking to me. Tell me rather how you came to be hanging off a cliff like that? Where are your silver wings that bore you around all of Barliona?"

"The wings have given out”, she said sadly. "An epidemic arose near Priant and I couldn't leave the Orcs to battle it out by themselves. Leantariel warned me that the wings needed recharging, but ... I've grown tired, Shaman. I've spent such a long time flying around the world that I've forgotten where my home is. The whole of Barliona has become my home – I am welcome everywhere, everyone is glad to see me. ... But my strength is ebbing and each day it's more and more difficult even to get up on my feet, let alone go around saving others. Still, duty calls ... I decided to take a shortcut through the Shining Mountains when the wings failed. But tell me, what were you looking for amidst the mountains?"

Fully aware that what I was doing was pretty daft, I told Yalininka everything – that I was from the distant future, that in my time a Shaman had appeared and destroyed two Emperors and that no-one knew the nature of his power. When I explained the aim of my quest, the Great One gave a barely perceptible start and asked me to continue.

"The portal took me here and the rest you know," I finished my tale.

"You had a perfectly good opportunity to complete your task by simply turning away," said the woman thoughtfully. "Why did you intervene?"

"If I didn't do it, then ... I don't know how to explain this. Honor, the desire to help another human being, the feeling of self-respect ... I could use a lot of words here, but they wouldn't really get to the heart of it. I was just unable to do otherwise."

"I heard you, Shaman, and now you listen to me," replied Yalininka after some thought. "My time is coming to an end. It is already finished and I am only keeping myself in this world by an unspeakable effort of will. I long for rest at long last. As far as I understood you, your task is to destroy me, so ... Let's not disappoint Geranika."

"Great One ..."

"My decision is final!" The Emperor himself would have envied the authority commanded by this frail old lady’s voice. "Shaman, your task is to save your own time! To save Barliona! If Geranika's armies attack, would the Free Citizens be able to stop them? Right now the secret of the phantoms remains unknown, so the answer to that is no, they would not! You have to walk this path to the end, ignoring any possible punishment! That's the only way to become one of the Great Ones! Here, you will pass this gift on to someone you believe worthy of following in my footsteps." With these words Yalininka handed me a thin blue ribbon. "And now come with me. If I understood you right, Geranika wants me to die before your eyes ..."

Item acquired: The Farewell Ribbon of the Great Yalininka. The description can only be accessed by players that possess the Healing stat.

Requirements: At least 100 levels in Healing.

Item class: Unique.

I never thought that tears could come to my eyes. The thirty seconds that it took Yalininka to reach the clouds below seemed an eternity to me: I don't think I've ever felt such hopelessness, helplessness and anger before. What kind of a quest would make you commit such a terrible deed? Where's the logic?

A minute later the system informed me that Geranika's task had been completed and a portal opened next to me. The Great One was dead. ...

Update to the 'The Making of a Dark Shaman' quest: Should you successfully complete the quest, your Reputation with all the factions of Malabar and Kartoss will change to Hatred.

A flash of light!

"I'm impressed with your actions, my future apprentice," uttered Geranika, as soon as I reappeared in the Castle of the Fallen. My brain had a solid grasp of what was happening, that it was only a game, but my feelings were telling me only one thing: Geranika had to be destroyed. "You made Yalininka kill herself ... I couldn’t have even hoped for something like that. You will become a worthy warrior of Shadow.”

"Mahan ... your eyes are streaming mist now,"
Anastaria informed me.
"The continent-wide quest has once again been renewed: 'Wait for the Shaman's trial.' What the heck are you doing?"

"Saving Barliona and clocking up a ton of penalties,"
I growled in chat.
"Stacey, I might be wrong (though that's unlikely), but very soon we'll see the emergence of a third Empire – the Shadow Empire. You won't be able to play for it, but it will feature the phantoms that we came across when fighting the Lieutenant. At the moment only Shamans have the ability to fight them – that is, only Shamans who've managed to unlock the 'Change of Essence' ability. That wasn't right, which is why Elenium's continent-wide quest has been launched. Right now I'm trying to find out the nature of these things and all your quests will eventually correct themselves into an ability of some kind, which will make it possible for every class to destroy the phantoms. This is why I started the trial and will see it through to the end, no matter the price I’ll have to pay in terms of Reputation. Can you tell me if you know how Yalininka died?"

"She was flying to someone's aid, but overestimated her strength and fell, perishing in the mountains. Judging by what Geranika just said, history has been somewhat economical with the truth. How did you convince her to jump?"

"I'll tell you later."

"It's a pity that you've decided to fight these guys,"
a message immediately came from Plinto.
"I was already looking forward to becoming a warrior for Shadow ... but being the hero of Malabar isn't bad either. Will you kill us in the end? We've probably been kept alive for now only so they can use us for a sacrifice later on."

"But this goes against the social aspect of the Game!"
Barsina intervened.
"Barliona is meant to embody what is good and eternal, not provoke a player into destroying everything that he values. ... That's just wrong!"

"It's a scenario, Barsa. I agree with Mahan here," said Anastaria, “If Shadow really does emerge as a force, everyone, not just Shamans, will have to fight Geranika. Go for it, boss, we'll support you ..."

Ding! You've received 163287 new messages. Do you wish to view them?

"Now comes the second trial," continued Geranika, tearing me away from chat and the Mailbox. 163000 messages?! Why on earth?! The mailbox refreshed every two hours, so how was it even possible to write so many in such a short time?! It looks like I'll have to forget about hand-sorting the mail and cough up the cash for a mail-sorting Imitator – it could handle all the mail analysis for me.

"You are to visit your first teacher in Farstead and destroy him. The link between a teacher and an apprentice is so strong that only a sufficiently prepared sentient is able to sever it. I managed it by myself and didn't need to kill Almis. But you do, otherwise you will never become my apprentice. Go!" Another red portal appeared next to Geranika.

A flash of light!

"I was expecting you, apprentice." The portal took me to a familiar room where I was once offered tea. To my surprise, the room was now empty: stripped of all furniture, with the High Shaman Almis in full battle attire standing at its center – staff, cloak, hat with deer antlers ... he was prepared. "If you think that I will allow myself to be destroyed so easily, you are very much mistaken. I was unable to lift my hand against Geranika, but I won't fail to act against a second traitor! Prepare to die!"

"Almis, stop!" was all I had time to shout before a bird dove for my head: the High Shaman's Totem. A message immediately appeared telling me that I had been attacked by an NPC and thus had every right to defend myself. Too bad it was the last thing I felt like doing. "Stop it!" I shouted again, when a Supreme Spirit of Fire flew at me, leaving me with only 10% of Hit Points. Ah well, looks like I failed in my second task. I can't summon Spirits and wouldn't do that even if I could.

"Fight, traitor!" growled Almis. "Or do you think that I lack the will to destroy an unarmed foe? You're wrong! Fight and die like a man!"

"I have no intention of fighting you! If you want to kill me, go ahead and do it. I won't resist. Almis! We need to talk! I'm here to ..."

"No!" I was interrupted by the Shaman's angry shout. "I have nothing to say to a traitor! If you don't wish to fight with Spirits, fine! I'll destroy you with my staff!" With these words Almis leapt over to me, raising his staff, ready to strike me down. All I could do was push him away and jump aside. The reflexes that I honed as a Hunter kicked in fully. I tumbled a meter and a half away, dodging the staff, but Almis ... he froze where he stood and stared into the distance with a surprised expression. Several seconds went by and then the Life Bar of the High Shaman started to diminish.

"How?" my teacher's voice was hoarse as he struggled to get the words out. "This is impossible!"

To be honest, I was in as much shock as Almis. What was happening to him? How could my simple push do something so terrible? This simply couldn't be happening!

"May you be ..." was all the master of the house managed to croak before his Life Bar flickered and disappeared, leaving only his elaborately carved staff, the tip cloaked in a strange mist, in place of the High Shaman.

"Bravo, very nearly, my apprentice – bravo!" The air in one of the corners suddenly thickened and turned into Geranika. "Leave that stick, it's of no use to you," he added when he saw me lean over the staff. "I must admit, I first thought that you’d decided to betray me, but such a cunning move with a single strike was very much to my liking. To make the opponent doubt himself and then deal him a devastating blow when he was least expecting it ... I am pleased with you, my almost-apprentice, but come now, two more trials still await you. After these you will truly become my apprentice. Though, why waste time? Will you drop that oversized twig already?"

"If my future teacher would permit me, I would like to keep it in memory of my first victim," I said respectfully. "It isn't every day that a Great Shaman defeats a High one, so I'd like to remember this moment."

"Good point," agreed Geranika. "I’ll allow you to keep the staff, you can hang it in my castle. But to avoid wasting time (there's never enough of it), I will start your training now. I don't believe that after turning your back on your race and your class you would not reject everything else. Remember this, my future apprentice: the Spirits of both worlds require a sacrifice for the summoning of their progeny. The higher the rank of the Spirit that you summon, the higher the sacrifice you have to pay. If you’d remained an ordinary Shaman, summoning a Supreme Spirit of the thirtieth rank would have cost you all your Life Force. Yes, you could have summoned the Spirit, but that would've sent you to the Grey Lands. This is why Shamans came up with altars in an attempt to placate the Spirits before they are summoned. Fools! Weaklings! How could they fail to understand that we are the ones that should command the Spirits, stripping them of part of their power? For a long time I could not come to terms with such a state of affairs, until I was struck by a revelation: where there is light, there must also be darkness! If there are Spirits, there must also be those that oppose them! But who could this be? I spent a long time studying this matter, until I came upon the source of the power. A power that is the complete opposite of the Spirits! So let's not linger here, it is time we got back. Another trial awaits and I am eager to begin your training. You will greatly outshine Midial."