The arclith golem's emergence shook the Veilwoods, sending out tremors that Mirys felt in her very bones. The soul of the forest and the spirit of the river clashed, their discord rippling across every entity linked to them, be it shard or living being. As Rhiannon tried to steady her footing, the same beating energy seeped from the pouch she carried.

"It's… the Shard Warden," Mirys explained. "Something… raised it. A signal? A trigger?"

Behind her, Nisik stirred in his father's arms, his eyes rolling back as primal forces flooded through him.

"Stream and shard, claw and crystal… the balance is broken." Nisik's words echoed in the clearing. His small voice unexpectedly carried the weight of ages, as if a vast, primal entity spoke through him, prompting worried glances between his parents. When his gaze finally focused, he blinked in confusion, the ancient knowledge already fading.

Ashwind, snorted nervously as the flashes of concentrated light and thunderous footfalls pierced through the trees. "Are we in danger?" Rhiannon demanded, straining to keep the horse steady.

"I do not know," Mirys shook her head. "Such titans care not for what gets crushed in its path."

Alvon's face had gone pale. "Great, just what we needed. One more giant fiend to worry about," he muttered grimly.

Nisik, you need to get to your den where it's safe. Rhiannon nudged the little kobold through their bond. Have your father take you home. But… I'll need to borrow your mother for a while. I promise I'll do my best to keep her safe. Can you please tell her for me?

Human-friend Rhiannon. I don't like it when the… rock-monster talks in my head. It hurts. It doesn't want to let go, not like when I talk to you. Please keep safe too.

Rhiannon rested a hand on his shoulder. You're brave, Nisik. Thank you.

The little kobold then explained Rhiannon's request to his parents. Rukrin was torn between standing by his partner and protecting his son, but all it took was a look for Mirys to persuade him.

With the father and son safely sent away, Rhiannon helped Mirys climb up into the saddle.

"Scoot over, Shy scout! Let's raise a racket and widen the gap between your kin and my erstwhile employees." She patted the mare's neck. "I hope you Sunbraves can handle speed better than the Deepshy. Ashwind's at her loudest when she's running her fastest!"

Guided by Mirys' bond with the Veilwoods, they galloped at full clip towards where the trees pointed out some smelly intruders were skulking around. With the trees and bushes politely giving way to Mirys as they rode, Rhiannon wove around the beleaguered guards in a wide arc, carving a generous swathe between them and the convoy.

Upstream, Vikka's ungraceful exit had carried her further along the river than she'd intended. The cold water numbed her legs as she struggled against the current, the heat of her anger at her fellow kobolds slowly leaching away, replaced by a chilling regret. She knew she should go back and apologize, try to explain why Mirys' teachings had left her so confused about her place in their group, her role as a kobold.

But then, the water around her began to glow.

At first, she thought it was her imagination, a trick of reflected sunlight on the ripples. But the luminescence intensified, throbbing like a heartbeat emanating from the depths. The current itself quickened, then began reversing direction, pulling her toward the source of the disturbance.

Panic seized Vikka as she realized she couldn't fight her way back to shore, her claws scraping uselessly against the river rocks. The water was moving too fast, and something vast was displacing it from below. She called out for help, but her voice was lost in the growing rumble that seemed to come from deep within the river itself.

Jerrik rode his catfish through the shallows at full speed, racing to catch up with Alvon at the next bend. As they navigated a tricky set of rapids, his mount grew agitated, wriggling so violently that it threatened to buck him from the saddle. The fish's whiskers twitched in agitation as it tasted the wrongness in the water. Whatever had stirred up the river seemed big enough to alter its very course and composition. This was one time Jerrik regretted his choice of mount, leaving him no choice but to keep swimming through the tainted river.

He urged the catfish toward the bank, keeping an eye out for the trail markers he'd set up leading to the ruins.

Rounding the bend, the Sunbrave caught a glimpse of what was disrupting the entire river system. In the distance, a blinding column of light speared the forest canopy, revealing a massive, jagged silhouette crashing through the trees.

That's when he spotted Vikka. The kobold was struggling in the current, being sucked upstream toward the whirlpool from which the behemoth had sprung forth. Without hesitation, Jerrik raced to intercept her before the undertow could claim a victim. He drove his catfish directly into the churning water, feeling the mount's terror through its frantic thrashing.

"Hold on!" he shouted to Vikka, though his words were swallowed by the roar of the rapids.

Griff and his men had been dizzily tracking Ashwind's distinctive hoofbeats. The drumming sound seemed to pan around them from all sides, driving them progressively more disoriented, confusing them as to where to turn. They were about to risk sticking to a direction when an even louder commotion erupted from the north. The column of light that lanced through the forest was impossible to miss, and the aftershocks of the enormous beast hurtling through the undergrowth sent woodland creatures fleeing in all directions.

"What in the blazes?" Griff began, but Roddick was already pointing toward the disturbance.

"It's coming from up the river. And look at that light! 'Tain't natural!"

A predatory grin twisted Griff's grizzled face. "Whatever that is, it's stirring up the woods like smoke in a hornet's nest. Shapin' up for a fight that's bigger'n us all. Our quarry's gonna run straight into it!"

He raised his voice to address his men. "Let's move! Follow the fire!"

Veyran emerged from his tent, his face grave with concern.

"We need to go," he called out to the others. "Now."

"Tell us what you learned from the shard first" Mara demanded from her perch on Garrett's shoulder.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The Deepshy sighed. "I believe that when Rhiannon tried to leave us a message, she triggered a catalyst by activating that shard," he explained. "Every piece of arclith in the area is now pulsing together like part of a network."

As if on cue, Uiska's harness shard started blinking more rapidly, the pattern synching with the entity upstream.

"That thing doesn't sound happy about being disturbed," Sylven finished grimly. "And it was roused right by the ruins where we left Sela and Ilkin."

Mara shifted to take-charge mode. "We can't abandon our fellow Sunbraves," she declared. "But we need to keep the children safe. We shouldn't take them with us, straight into unknown danger."

Garrett was already moving, stepping up on a rock to get a better view of the area ahead of the clearing. "Those the ruins Jerrik found?" the human sighed. "Why does nothing good ever crawl out of old rubble?"

"If that ruckus hasn't spooked them enough, we can use the opportunity to lead our pursuers further away from this rest stop," Mara strategized. "The children can stay here with Eryl and Gertie. Niva, you hover around on your bluejay to keep watch. At the first sign of trouble, all the kids get on the donkey, then lead them back to the caves. Sunbraves, we head on to the ruins!"

As the Shy regrouped, the kobolds clustered together anxiously. The same primal awareness that had seized Mirys and Nisik was affecting them as well, though more faintly.

"Vikka," Nynka whispered, her worry giving way to panic. "She's heading up the river!"

At the ruins, Menna, Ilkin, Sela, and Vazko rushed away from the river as the glowing water crept towards the bank. The shard they'd recently plucked out from the mud suddenly blazed with such intensity that Menna had to shield her instruments.

"The charge readings are beyond anything we can measure," she reported, fighting to keep her voice steady. "Something's blasting energy to all our shards. But there must be more arclith nearby for this kind of resonance."

The sound of splintering trees heralded the arrival of the river titan. A leviathan of living crystal, the shards along its spine would dazzle even the most jaded Deepshy miners. It moved with inexorable purpose toward the energy signatures it sensed.

The four Shy ducked behind a wall, attempting to hide from the beast's gaze. "By the sun," Sela gasped, gripping her spear. "What is that thing?"

The arclith golem loomed within the clearing at the center of the ruins, its faceted eyes sweeping the area with eerie precision. Its voice thundered through the forest, the words evoking archaic Shy dialects that baffled the Sunshy.

"What's it saying? It sounds like one of your stuffy Deepshy masters haggling with our traders," Ilkin asked Menna in a whisper.

"The balance… is shattered…" she began, but the next statement stumped her.

Vazko squinted as if straining to recall long-forgotten lessons. "The… broken energies must be… harmonized," he filled in the translation, shrugging as the others stared at him in awe. "You can't help but pick up a few things while guarding stuffy Deepshy masters all the time."

Their discussion was cut short as, even with a direct view blocked by the wall, the Shard Warden turned until its scrutiny was unmistakably directed towards Menna. The crystalline creature shuffled towards them, waving its snout as if sniffing out the arclith.

Menna stared transfixed, Vazko had to shake her out of her daze. "Menna! Toss a shard at it, that could shift its attention!"

The beast's eyes flared along with the arclith clutched in Menna's hands. Sela pulled a shard from the Middleshy's grasp and flung it over to the behemoth. Scooping the piece into its maw, it continued its march through woods, the light from its mouth blazing like a beacon.

Downstream, Wyatt pressed himself against an oak's trunk as the guard chasing him cursed loudly while stumbling over roots and pushing through brambles.

"I know you're out here, boy!" the man called. "Might as well come out peaceful-like!"

Wyatt slipped from tree to tree, trying to tread lightly and stay in the shadows to evade his pursuer. Then all his efforts at stealth were made unnecessary by the strange light and rumbling sounds drawing both their attention.

Distracted by the flashes and noise, the guard started heading towards the ruckus as if in a daze. This gave Wyatt the opening to trip him up with a branch, then knock him out with a blow to the head for good measure.

In Greyhold, Ruth stood before the glass case, watching the shards continue to pulse. She'd seen enough. The guards she'd sent to dispatch Rhiannon had yet to return, and her sister's pet rocks suddenly flashing pointed to her pulling out another trick.

She took out one of the larger shards, walked out of the office, and headed down the stairs. Whatever was happening out there, it had escalated to be far more than a simple fugitive hunt. Rhiannon had left to seek out something magical and powerful. She may just have found what she was looking for.

Ruth shivered in anticipation as she reached for her cloak. Time to see what prizes the woods might yield. Rhiannon may believe she's the smarter one, Ruth brooded. But what really matters is who would be left to claim it all in the end.

Drawn to the behemoth's beam like moths to a flame, the various groups converged across its path. The raw power of its vaporizing arc-light ray carving out new trails and clearings.

Astride Ashwind, Rhiannon burst from the treeline in a flurry of leaves and twigs, Alvon and Mirys clinging to the saddlehorn for dear life. The horse reared as it caught sight of the golem, but Rhiannon held steady, her face set with desperate determination.

"Well now," she mused. "Of all the things I planned for… this wasn't one of them."

Vikka came running from the river, straining from the weight of Jerrik and Vazko straddling her shoulders. Menna and Sela rode in on the back of Warby the water rat. The four Shy and the kobold gawked as they took in the scene—the massive golem and everybody who'd somehow been drawn to this spot.

This was Menna and Vazko's first encounter with humans, and if not for the behemoth, they would have been stunned by the sight of the giants. But Menna's attention was drawn more to the shard in Rhiannon's hands,

Then they all whipped their heads to gawk at Garret, Veyran, and Mara emerging from the trees, The Deepshy stood on the deck of the boat strapped to the human's back, while the Sunshy perched on his shoulder. Veyran leaned against the arclith lode, which blazed in tandem with Menna's shard and the golem's eyes. The light reflected off the arc-mage's silver locks, his resemblance to Vazko unmistakable.

Menna was almost too overwhelmed to notice Sylven following on Uiska, along with all the Sunbraves from the convoy riding their mounts or piggybacked on kobolds. The Middleshy was about to spur Warby to head straight to the pika so she could reunite with her friend, but then something else grabbed their attention.

The golem's eyes had been moving from group to group, cataloging each shard fragment, each energy signature that had disrupted the ancient equilibrium. Its voice rumbled again, roaring like a waterfall.

"The balance is disrupted. The shards must be harmonized. Stability must be restored," it repeated its now familiar litany.

Rhiannon surveyed the scene: the Shy poised to fight or flee, the kobolds huddled together in fear and wonder, and the terrifying construct that could end everything with a single blast.

The golem's head turned toward her, attracted to the shard she carried, now pulsing in time with its eyes. The Warden paused as it passed Rhiannon. The searing beam from its maw dimmed, replaced by a soft glow. A line of symbols shifted across its spine, as if processing a complex equation.

"It's… stopping to think!" Menna gasped.

"Or… processing figures and variables, if we're being pedantic," Veyran elaborated, his eyes fixed on the shifting symbols. "Maybe it doesn't just feel the shards… Maybe it recognizes us, who and what we are."

"We are the first Shy outside of the caldera in ages… and wielding arclith at that. Makes sense, my brother," Vazko affirmed with a wink.

Caught in the nexus of disparate arclith energies, the behemoth seemed mesmerized, ensnared in the middle of the triangle formed by the three groups. Pulled in different directions, it found each signal equally compelling, preventing a singular focus. Its faceted eyes now flickered erratically between the clusters of shards spread out among the Shy and humans.

Mirys stepped forward, the knowledge gleaned from her connection to the Veilwoods filling in the gaps. "The Shard Warden is attempting to… correct the imbalance… But is unsure where to start" she tried to explain.

"Ah," Veyran nodded. "Its programming never took into account this sort of situation."

"Is your brother always like that?" Menna whispered to Vazko, who quickly nodded.

Sela tried translating kobold for Menna as best as she could, though thankfully the Middleshy already knew a bit of the language from her research in Obsidara.

Menna's mind continued working even in the chaos. "The resonance patterns!" she called out to the silver-haired Deepshy. "Your lode and our shards. They're reacting with each other…"

"Counterpoints! The river lode and the deep shards are complementary!" Veyran's eyes widened with understanding. "That's why it awakened. All this active arclith within the area it's guarding set off an alarm!"

"But if the different types of arclith were to work in harmony..." Menna continued puzzling out the reactions in her head.

"We… we can maybe control its reactions!" Veyran finished, his voice filled with sudden hope.

Rhiannon's expression shifted smoothly from desperation to sharp calculation. "Fascinating," she murmured, her gaze sweeping from the golem to the flashing shards. "It seems quite valuable… I mean, powerful. It could change everything."

Menna caught the human's gaze, the Middleshy's analytical stare meeting her own. "You understand how this all works?" Rhiannon nodded toward the golem.

A frantic shout disrupted their computations and scheming. Wyatt burst into the clearing, panting and pointing back the way he'd come. "Dad! Overseer! Watch out, more Greyhold guards coming!"

Griff and his men crashed through the treeline, weapons drawn, only to halt in their tracks at the sight of the arclith-fueled nightmare. The Shard Warden whipped its neck towards the new disturbance.

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