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 Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:56 pm
Takes place after Northpoint.
Next to his brother, he always felt small and stupid. Halle had jumped into Knighthood head first, and had learned so much, and done so much, he had this crazy boar that just would attack people…and Lisse?
Lisse had always coasted…enjoyed helping, enjoyed being powered, enjoyed the friendships that he gained and that grew due to this side of his life but…he didn’t have a fancy boar, or a bear or a tiger? What was that even about?
And he couldn’t just ask his brother. That was showing weakness…and he wouldn’t do that. Couldn't.
“So! You and me Dering, it’s like our Hillworth days all over again. I like it. I’ve missed this.” The place was creepy, and it was a tense situation…but. Honestly? He was happy for the moment.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:58 pm
Dering clutched the neck of his lute tightly as he shuffled next to Lisse, a tight smile stitched onto his face. He didn’t find as much comfort being away from the group as Lisse did–not that he was upset to be with his friend!
He just felt like spiders were crawling all over him. He’d looked over his shoulder twice since they separated from the group, so sure that he’d find someone watching him when he did so.
There was no one there.
Or, if there had been, he couldn’t see them.
It didn’t make anything better.
His mind was working in overdrive and he couldn’t quite figure out why. His heart was pounding, working like he’d just run a marathon.
Breathe, he thought. Just breathe. In, out. You know how to do this. It’s okay.
And, it was okay. This was just a little bit of fun. Just like doing a patrol, but with your friends. It was practically a game.
And yet, he’d been uncomfortable hearing about the rumors. Unsettled, when they arrived.
“I don’t remember any of our patrols feeling quite like this,” he said with a nervous laugh. He was freezing, well beyond what was reasonable even for the season. His hands felt like ice blocks attached to his wrist. He hoped he didn’t need to channel his magic, he wasn’t even sure if he could get his fingers to move enough to strum the lute.
A brief silence stretched between them–only, it didn’t really feel quiet because Dering’s heart was beating so loudly.
You’re fine. Why are you being so silly? Calm down. Don’t mess this up. The voice in his head, gentler: Please.
Dering drew in a slow, deep breath. Held it. Released it.
Relax.
He tried.
“The hair on the back of my neck is standing up,” he laughed softly, like it was a joke. He kept his head bowed slightly as he and Lisse walked along an empty, half collapsed building. “It’s so weird. I don’t know what’s going on.”
He did. It felt like someone was watching them. It felt like the bite of electricity in the air, just before a storm. It felt like panic, all sharp-toothed and nipping up his arm, at his shoulder–clamping down on his neck.
He flinched and drew his shoulders up a little higher.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:58 pm
Dering wasn’t wrong, he never was really. “No, no this is a little…a lot more intense than we used to get up to but…it’ll be okay. Between the two of us we can really keep one another safe, I’m sure of it.” His voice sounded sure of things, and Lisse gently bumped his shoulder against Derings, hoping to provide some comfort.
“I know what you mean about the…chills? Neck hairs? Like…” Now that he was focusing on it, trying to look past the surface…
It wasn’t something that came easily to Lisse, he never had been very good at seeing beyond what was in front of him, and that was absolutely a weakness. Dering was always sensitive...and that? Was really cool, honestly.
He glanced behind them and forced a laugh. “...I’m going to throw it out there that I don’t think it’s one of our friends coming to play a trick on us, but I kind of hope that it is? That would…”
He broke off and jumped half a foot into the air as there was suddenly this otherworldly shriek. Oh god. Maybe he was still wound up from the youma attack, and his lasso was in front of him in a moment, arm flung out to hold Dering back in case something jumped out.
Nothing did but. Damn.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:58 pm
Dering did not jump. He did not recoil, did not even flinch.
He stiffened, but in a way that made it seem more like he was just looking for his center of gravity. His shoulders curled inward, like he could make himself small, maybe even disappear. He didn’t think about it, he didn’t have to.
His body knew what to do.
Dering’s eyes widened, not in panic but in calculation. He didn’t know what the noise was, nor where it had come from, but he knew there was space between them and it.
“It’s okay.”
His voice was even–calm, really, and he managed to uncurl one frosty hand from the lute to find Lisse’s wrist. He brushed against it gently, but with a clear effort to ground him.
He could hear his own heartbeat, but he thought he could hear Lisse’s, too. Dering’s breaths were silent and slow but he could hear the sharp inhale and exhale from Lisse next to him.
Dering stayed rigid, coiled tightly inside himself, but scanned the horizon.
Still, nothing moved.
The sound echoed all around them, too loud and too unnatural, like the scream itself had chosen to pingpong between the metal scaffolding. It circled them, mocked them.
Quietly, like he was afraid to add to the noise, Dering asked, “Did you see anything?”
He hadn’t. Even now, nothing–nothing–had moved.
And still, the air was saturated with an electric hum, worse now than before. He could almost smell the petrichor in the air but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:59 pm
The touch of Dering’s chilled hand almost had Lisse jumping again, but he simply swallowed hard and looked at his friend with some concern. “Sorry. There was a youma not too long ago. It was pretty bad and it just startled me. I know you know, I just……you’re freezing, are you okay? I didn’t see anything, no but…it doesn’t mean there isn’t anything…”
Maybe he should start carrying gloves with him when he was going places with Dering..not that they did all that much anymore but…keeping warm was important.
He shook his head slightly, and glanced around, feeling his head starting to twinge just a bit.
Carefully he slid his hand so that Dering’s was enveloped in his own, and he rubbed the back of it with his thumb in an attempt to warm him as much as he could.
“This is going to sound really dumb. But. Do you hear that? Like…electric noise?” He was concentrating on trying to find where the other sound had come from but now? That was all he could focus on was that annoying, high pitched hum.
“Do you think this was a building? That there’s like…power here? That would be…confusing since it’s so dark...”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:59 pm
“Huh?” Dering asked, and the calm exterior he’d shifted into faltered just slightly, replaced by brief confusion. He looked down at his hand while Lisse warmed it.
“I’m okay,” he said instinctively, still visibly perplexed, like he hadn’t even realized how cold he was. Recognition suddenly passed across his face. “Oh–no, it just does that sometimes, it’s okay.”
He let Lisse keep his hand but he couldn’t shake the sensation of eyes on them–worse now than before.
Dering didn’t want to keep talking about himself. He tilted his head slightly, like that would let him hear better. He was still rigid, still on high alert.
But–for now–nothing else screamed.
“Um–I don’t think that’s dumb, sorry. The hum, you mean?” He finally tore his eyes from the horizon but kept his fingers on the strings of his lute, just in case he needed to summon his shield. “I hear that. But they said there wasn’t any electricity out here. Um, the–I didn’t research it, but I heard them talking about it.” And, he trusted their research. “I–do generators do that? I can feel it, um.”
His teeth were chattering now. He wasn’t cold. He didn’t really feel much of anything right now. His body was just confused again, and he really needed it to please try harder. He couldn’t afford to keep bouncing between ‘okay’ and ‘not okay’. He didn’t know why it was doing this.
Dering had to force himself to breathe again but his lungs didn’t fill up all the way and the air got stuck there.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and forced himself to keep talking despite the wet lump lodged there. “I mean, I hear it. But my skin is a little tingly. I can feel it in my teeth. But, um. That might not be normal. I’ve been grinding my teeth in my sleep a bit, so maybe I’m just confused. Why, what are you hearing?”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:59 pm
The teeth chattering threw Lisse a little bit off guard and he squeezed Dering’s hand, worried that he was going into shock or something. Fear could do that, right? It wasn’t common, maybe but…
“Yeah, like a fridge that’s working too hard, it’s…not a comfortable…sound? Feeling? You feel it in your teeth?” His mind went to the one time he had a cavity filled in and the sound and feeling of the drill…it.
“That can’t be comfortable…do you want to try to see if we can find where it’s coming from? Follow the…tingles? If there’s a generator or something, that could be pretty important, now that I think about it.”
Because he really hadn’t been thinking about it much but…it did make sense. A secret place that was supposed to have no power that had generators supplying power?
“If you’re up for it?”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:59 pm
“Yeah, of course,” Dering said easily, offering another quick smile. His expression failed to relax but he was trying to maneuver it into something friendlier. His heart was still working too hard.
He wasn’t dizzy, but he might be soon if he wasn’t careful.
But, Dering was careful.
He relaxed his shoulders, or something like it, by forcing them back into place. He stood a little straighter.
He stayed close to Lisse, but he’d have done that anyway.
“If there is something weird out here, we should look into it.” Even if it was confusing, or scary. But, ever the optimist, Dering even suggested, “Maybe there’s an explanation for it all.”
Maybe it was normal!
…But, nothing really felt normal out here. He was still waiting for the next scream.
It was strange, in the otherwise silent space, to hear–feel–that electric hum. Dering ignored the soreness in his teeth and bit down like he could brace for the pain. It didn’t help. He thought he might be able to feel it in his eyes, like looking at the sun for too long, or in his head, like spinning in a circle and stopping abruptly.
It wasn’t anything he couldn’t manage, so he took a few tentative steps forward, never moving so quickly that he’d pull his hand from Lisse’s or create much distance between them.
The hum wasn’t quick to get worse–but it did. And it wasn’t coming from the dead wires above them, but Dering was so sure he could feel some sort of buzz beneath his feet–growing, growing, growing–
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 1:00 pm
His steps were slow, measured and Lisse kept himself on high alert, not wanting anything to come and surprise them. It wouldn’t do to be caught off guard, but. If it happened…it happened. He would deal.
Follow the humming. It was…maybe not the strangest thing he had ever done, but it was one of them. The sound? The…feeling? The…electricity seemed to be getting stronger. Louder?
More intense. That was a good way to describe it.
There was a particular loud humming coming from their left and Lisse hesitated. “I wanna…”
He tugged Dering along with him and peered down at what looked to be a wire protruding from the ground. Carefully, he reached out, realizing that this was stupid as he did so, but not stopping, only going so far as to release Dering’s hand so that he wouldn’t get shocked if this turned out to be a bad idea.
Thankfully, the zap wasn’t bad. More like bad static on a winter's day than anything, and there was a different feeling, like he had gotten some…electricity?
“...Odd. It zapped me but…I’m also feeling really…kind of energized? Like I just downed a few five hour energies…”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 1:00 pm
“Lisse!” Dering exclaimed, too late to stop him from touching a live wire. “What are you doing, what if that–I don’t think–what I mean is, oh,” he was too flustered, and moved to stand between Lisse and the wire.
“Please don’t do that again, you could have gotten seriously hurt!”
His lute swung a bit, still tight against his body thanks to the strap he wore it with, but freed slightly as Dering stretched both hands as if to take Lisse’s into his own. They hovered, only an inch from Lisse’s hand, like he was waiting for permission to cradle it between his own.
“Are you okay? I have some first aid, but I don’t know how to…” his voice softened to a mumble like he’d lost a little bit of steam. If that had been a full electric shock, what would have happened? He didn’t know how to stop someone from being electrocuted, or–
Something sharp clawed up his leg and he jumped, half-spinning like a snake had bitten him. It had been a sharp volt and his heart had jumped back into overtime. He didn’t think he’d been stepping on the wire but some of it was hidden beneath the tangle of overgrowth. Dering’s face darkened in embarrassment. He felt humiliated and invigorated and pained all at once.
“Sorry,” he said, too quickly, and immediately turned his gaze back to Lisse’s hand. “Does it hurt at all? Please be honest. You’re not dizzy or anything, is your vision okay? Your heart?”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 1:01 pm
“I do realize that what I just did might have been…extremely stupid, and I will ask you, no…beg you to not ever let my brother know.”
Lisse took hold of Dering’s hand and squeezed gently. “I”m okay! I promise I’m okay, it hardly even hurt, more like a shock when you wear fuzzy socks and it’s cold out and super dry? I’m fine, are you okay?”
He hadn’t missed the way Dering had jumped and instinctively, he drew him closer, away from the wires. “We…found out that there’s power here, even if it’s…not…as strong as it could be. I think it could be from a generator or something, like you suggested…”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 1:01 pm
“I’m okay,” Dering promised quickly, like it was a thought that didn’t even warrant consideration. He looked at Lisse’s hand uncertainly, like he still wanted to treat it for injuries that might not even exist. Finally, he let his hands fall.
“I won’t tell your brother,” he promised, even though he probably didn’t have to actually say it. Dering was very good at keeping secrets.
“I don’t really understand electronics or generators or things like that. Soleiyu might know,” he suggested, but Soleiyu wasn’t there, and if they messaged him then there was a chance he might just come out to investigate. Dering redirected, “But, um, should we check and see if there are other wires like this, or–do you think we should just focus on figuring out where this one is coming from–and where it’s going?”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 1:01 pm
Lisse nodded and cracked a smile. “Yeah, let’s go ahead and do that. The following this one to see where it’s going, I mean. I’m not any kind of expert either, unless it’s like. Fixing a television or gaming system if it’s not working, and all that ever is is jiggling wires and blowing into things to get dust out…talking to Soleiyu sounds like a good idea if it comes to that!” That Mauvian was very good at what he did, that was for sure, and Lisse trusted him at this point, would trust him blindly, honestly.
He hesitated though and looked at Dering with a small smile. “You’re really okay though? You promise? We don’t have to investigate anything more if you don’t want to. I think the fact that we found proof of electricity means that something in the rumors weren’t completely real so…that’s still something. If you want to be done, we can absolutely be done.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 1:01 pm
Dering nodded along as Lisse went over his niche experience, and nodded quicker and with more enthusiasm when asked if he was okay.
“I’m fine,” he promised. The shock had settled into a persistent tingle. “I’m sorry for worrying you. I think I’m just a little jumpy. I don’t think I want to be done yet, um.” He looked to Lisse, as if testing to see if it was okay to keep going. When Lisse didn’t interrupt or look upset, he explained anyway, “I mean, I don’t want to miss something that might be important. Everyone else is probably going to work really hard. So I want to do my best and make good use of the time we have. Um, if that’s okay? But if it’s not we can go back, that’s okay too. I’m not, um, good at this.”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2026 1:01 pm
“If you’re good to keep going, I am too. I don’t think you’re being jumpy, this place is super creepy. If it were something as simple as a scare zone…it would be a really good one.” He chuckled and reached out, taking hold of Dering’s hand once again, just because it had felt nice before, and he didn’t really want that connection to end.
“Everyone is doing their best, and we will too. Let’s follow the electric and see where it leads.” Following the yellow brick road sounded like a much nicer choice but, this was fine too. And he was with Dering, so they were both safe. “I think you’re good at a lot of things that you say you’re not…you don’t give yourself enough credit, Dering. Seriously. You’re extremely helpful to have around…and your shield is amazing. I feel so absolutely safe with you by my side. Just in case you thought otherwise.”
He began walking again, eyes on the ground, trying to track, or follow the wires that they had found and touched.
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