The trip to the shrine was surprisingly uneventful. Once or twice, they had to stop because Misty thought she saw something ahead, but it ended up being nothing, and they kept moving.
When they approached the shrine again, Aiden had the weird sense that something was off proportion-wise, but he shook his head and turned to Liora.
"I'll show you where it is."
The pair headed for the shrine as Jax and Kaelen began to look around the other buildings, keeping watch for any ash spirits.
The moment Liora saw the circle, she got on her hands and knees and started to mumble to herself. She even reached into an inner pocket of her cloak and pulled out a notebook where she began to make rapid and small notes about the circle with a level of skill that was surprising and impressive to see.
While she worked, Aiden heard what sounded like grunting noises outside. Stepping out for a moment to see what could be making them, he found Kaelen hanging with his legs dangling over the side of the shrine's roof, making various sounds of effort while legs kicked back and forth.
"Don't *grunt* mind me *huff* I can do this."
Aiden slowly made his way back inside, both because he was trying not to laugh and he figured that was where he should be.
Hearing him step back inside Liora didn't look up, but asked a question.
"I know magic more than I know potions, but they must share some similarities of some kind, right?"
"I could assume so, but I don't ever see a magic circle in the potions I brew, if that's what you're asking."
"Then let me ask you a question related to alchemy. If you have a potion that is used to protect someone by making an area around them, does that ever serve as the base of a bigger potion, or is that all it does?"
Aiden thought for a moment, thinking back to the Barkskin Potion and how its properties manifested, but none of the potions he knew had a bubble shield-like effect.
"I don't know of any potions that do that, so I'm not sure. Generally, when you're trying to improve a potion, you use its lowest-rank form and expand on the recipe from there based on the potion. Why do you ask?"
"I ask because the magic circle here is extremely simple. Its entire function is set in this inner ring here. The rest of this is designed to be a system that recycles mana to make the shield last as long as possible. Weirder still, it's written incorrectly despite seeming pretty deliberate."
Liora stood as she explained and started to look around the room as if the answers were hidden in some random corner.
Aiden followed behind her and asked,
"What do you mean written incorrectly? Like it won't work how it's been made, or?"
"I mean the shield is inverted. Barriers are written to expel things outward. This one expels them in the wrong direction. I would have assumed it was an amateur mistake if not for the extra rings on the outside."
"So what, is this a case of good work with a small mistake, or do you think it was intentional?"
Liora reached for a nearby floorboard that had partially fallen off and started to pull at it, seemingly looking at something below.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out now. These traveler's shrines used to always keep a logbook of who came through. If we can figure out who made the circle, then we can at least get a hint to the competency of our caster."
Aiden walked over and helped her pry at the floorboards. The pair finally pulling it free on the third tug only after Liora grabbed her staff and used it as a pry bar. Underneath, they found a ratty book covered in tree roots that looked like it was supposed to be in a museum.
Liora looked at it for a moment before turning to Aiden.
"Didn't you say one of your potions was Firestarter? Got any handy?"
Aiden shook his head as he rummaged through his potions.
"I have three Shadowmeld, three Vomit, two Drowsiness, three Focused Sense, three Irritation, three Vigilance, five Healing, and three Night Vision."
Liora gave him a look that was not impressed.
"Those all sound useful for different situations. Any chance you have a saw in that bag of yours?"
Before Aiden could respond, Kaelen called from outside.
"Jax is coming this way. I can't see any Ash Spirits following him, but they may be behind him."
Both Liora and Aiden turned to each other with a look of concern before heading outside.
Jax was indeed running over however his expression wasn't one of panic or alarm, instead it seemed more like…. worry.
"The Ash Spirits were doing something weird."
"Like how weird are we talking here?"
Liora asked, crossing her arms.
"I don't know. Weird, alright? I saw them shooing a deer away before suddenly all ganging up on one tree and ripping it up. The tree started bleeding too."
Aiden turned to Kaelen, who seemed just as bewildered as he was.
Liora however seemed a bit more skeptical to a tree suddenly bleeding.
"You said they tried to attack you every time you all were seen, and now you're saying they were guiding animals away? Are you changing your story now?"
Liora barked as Aiden turned, allowing them to argue while he began to slowly look around the other buildings, looking for this strange inverted barrier Liora mentioned.
Kaelen jumped down next to him and started to walk with him.
"You have the face of someone with an idea. Mind filling me in?"
"It's less of an idea and more of a hunch."
Aiden walked over to the tree that loomed inside the preserved area next to the largest building. He scanned the ground for a moment before picking up a sizable rock.
Before Kaelen could stop him, Aiden slammed the rock into the bark of the tree.
The sound of slightly crunching wood seemed to alert Jax and Liora who stopped arguing and turned toward him.
From where the bark broke under the rock, a crimson liquid came out.
Aiden was not one to be around blood very often, but the smell of copper, and the viscosity of the liquid left no doubt in his mind about it being blood.
They all stared for a moment before Aiden reached down and picked up the small chunk of bark he had broken off before turning to Jax.
"Does this tree look anything like the tree you saw the Ash Spirits go crazy over?"
Jax shook his head.
"No. The tree looked like any other tree on the mountain, aside from the fact that it started bleeding. The leaves are different on this one, and the trunk is much more twisty and much wider."
A strange shiver ran through Aiden's body as he looked to the top of the branches.
Had he lived around monsters more often the clues might have tipped him off as soon as he heard about the inverted barrier.
Aiden wasn't dumb either, so as he stared into the branches and noticed one twitch against the wind, realization set in.
The barrier that kept things in. The fact that the Ash Spirits were trying to rid life from the area. The fact that another tree had been bleeding and had been attacked with fervor by the Ash Spirits.
Aiden turned to the others trying his best to remain calm and keep a poker face. He could feel that his face had gone pale, but he also wasn't used to being in a deadly situation so he was trying his best here. He glanced at his pendant where Misty was resting and made sure she was still there, both to calm himself slightly and ensure he didn't need to call her over.
When Aiden turned to the others, recognition flash across Kaelen's and Liora's faces. They didn't know what was going on, but his expression seemed to convey the message well enough that something was wrong.
Jax however didn't seem to see anything wrong. Instead, he kept looking over the tree behind Aiden, as if trying to find more details that made it different from the one he had seen before.
"Well, for now, let's head back. We can regroup and figure out how to deal with the Ash Spirits."
Aiden offered, keeping the tree in his peripheral vision despite how blurry it was just so he could catch movement at the very least.
Liora and Kaelen nodded, following Aidens lead much to his relief. That relief however was quickly crushed by Jax not reading the room.
"I just said they were acting weird. They may not be-"
Luckily before Jax could try to argue they should keep looking Kaelen jumped in.
"Of course they are the ones we are after. They are burning the whole tree I-I mean mountain."
In that moment Kaelen had gone from a hero saving the day at the last second to a fuckup who was going to get them killed.
Aiden felt the ground shift slightly, as if little snakes had slithered underneath them, coiled and waiting to strike.
He looked at Kaelen, who did not seem to notice it. But from the way Liora's face paled as well, it was clear she had felt it too.
Jax looked at Kaelen, then glanced down.
"Did you all just feel something weird?"
Aiden shook his head and said,
"Nope, but it's going to get dark soon, and we can't kill the Ash Spirits if we can't see them. So let's rest for the night."
Jax looked like he knew something weird was happening, but not sure what to do with that information, he said,
"Alright. Let's get going. I'll scout if any are coming."
Aiden fought the urge to sprint away from the shrine as fast as he could.
Despite the fact that he wanted to run screaming that they were all in danger, he walked. One step at a time. His heart pounded as he expected, at any moment, to feel a sharp pain in his back and then nothing.
Left foot.
Right foot.
Left foot again.
They finally left the shrine and stepped onto the ashen area.