(Nathan)

  “Do you know whose wall this is?” Nathan asked.

  He tried to get Dorian’s attention by steppiween him and the wall. But that didn’t faze the unstoppable elf.

  “It’s just a bunch of rocks. Nobody owns rocks,” Dorian said as he sidestepped his brother.

  “Wrong.” Nathan put a hand on Dorian’s chest and said, “That’s a rock wall and it dehe property line of Judge Urvana Curtis Cobblebain of the Waxford glomerate.”

  Dorian finally gnced up from the rock wall to Nathan. “How do you know that?”

  Nathan stepped bad poio the property sign: “Wele to the estate of Urvana Curtis Cobblebain of the Waxford glomerate.”

  Dorian nodded after reading the sign and admitted, “Fair point, but how do you know she’s a judge?”

  “I met her in court the other day.” He waved his hands. “But that’s not important—”

  “You’re already friends!” Dorian reached for a long, ft rock that topped the wall.

  “Dorian! Don’t you dare touch that rock,” he warned.

  “It’s fine!” Dorian picked up the long stone sb as if it was made of wood. “You already know a judge if we get into trouble.”

  Lifting the rock revealed dozens of basid small gems. They glittered and sparkled in the light. Nathan’s eyes grew wide, and he checked to his right and then to his left. He felt guilty, like they were already in trouble. Nathan didn’t know what rule they were breaking, but Dorian always treated rules as more of a suggestion.

  Dorian grumbled, ued ihousands of credits worth of gems lying on the revealed rock wall.

  “How did you know she kept her gems here?” Nathan looked up at his brother, who still held the sb.

  Dorian shrugged and said, “Those aren’t her gems. It’s my secret ability I told you about.”

  “You have an ability to find people’s hidden stashes?” Natha looking around, expeg Dartmouth stables to surround them at any moment.

  “Nope.” Dorian tossed the sb. The er caught the ground first, and the sb snapped in half.

  Nathan thought, ‘Oh Mother, he broke it,’ as his hands went to his head.

  Dorian noticed. “Oops.”

  Then he proceeded to pick up another of the long sbs that topped the wall. This time, there were creature parts: fangs, bones, pulsing-sacs, a few eyes, and a very rge, twitg i stalk.

  Nathan stared with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. “What is all this?”

  “Alchemy reagents, I think?” Dorian shrugged aly leahe sb up against the wall. “Either way, it’s not what we’re looking for.”

  Nathan couldn’t look away from the array of twitg parts. “What are we looking for?”

  Dorian was mid-reach for the sb when he paused, leaned in to give him a ft look and said, “Glyphs…” as if that should have been more obvious. “What did you think we’re looking for?”

  “Rocks,” Nathan said. “I’m pretty sure you told me to look for rocks.”

  “This is my secret ability.” Doriaured toward the gems and critter parts. “I haven’t told or shown it to anyone else.”

  He hefted the sb up and off the wall. This time, it revealed ks of unrefined metal. Nathan wasn’t a metallurgist and couldn’t tell the differeweehe small ks of ore were so abundant they covered the stones underh.

  Dorian sighed. “Not big enough.”

  A gnomish peared in the doorway of the rge house. “Hey!” she called out to them.

  “Hi!” Dorian stood up straight and waved back. “We should go find bigger rocks,” he murmured to Nathan, keeping his smile.

  Nathan quickly looked at Dorian and then back at Urvana, struggling with how to expin what they were doing. She strolled off her porch, approag them.

  He hung his head and thought, ‘We’re going to be in so much trouble.’

  Dorian pced a hand on Nathan’s shoulder and said, “Hang on.”

  “To what?” Nathan turo face his brother; written on his face. ‘Maybe she doesn’t reize us?’ he wondered.

  “Nathan?” Urvana asked just before both boys suddenly teleported away.

  The teleport was disorienting for Nathan. Dorian held on to his brother’s shoulder, preventing him from spinning and falling over. They now stood on a ft rock jutting up from the ground.

  “Where… are we?” Nathan asked.

  “Oooh, that’s a big one.” Doria go of Nathan’s shoulder, excitedly wandering off to examine a rock the size of himself.

  Nathan stepped off the ft rod onto the ground. They were oop of a rocky hill, which felt both alien and familiar, like looking at the side of a building he’d only ever seen the front of.

  ‘Is this the hill behind the fields?’ he wondered. After some mental mapping, he guessed Nightshade to be on their left. A quice firmed Dorian had takeo the hills, far past the crops. He turned around as Dorian tried to hug a boulder as tall and twice as round as he was. His hands kept slipping off.

  “The big ones be tricky,” Dorian grunted as he tried to squeeze the rock.

  “Why didn’t you grab the loot before we teleported?”

  Dorian paused and took a step back to re-evaluate his approach. “We’re looking flyphs, not just any loot. Also, I’ve got a looting ability, not a ste one.” He looked at his brother. “Do you?”

  Nathan shook his head. “No.”

  “There’s no way I’m walking around with bloody, gooey, moving bits in my pockets. That’s just gross.” Dorian stepped around the boulder and tried again from the lower side.

  “But what about the gems, or the metal? We could’ve used them to buy a glyph.”

  “I didn’t see you stuffing your pockets,” Dorian grunted with another failed attempt. He tio circle around his problem. “Buying a glyph takes all the fun out of it. You think I bought you that Swift glyph?”

  “I thought maybe you got it from a lootbox,” Nathan admitted.

  “A lootbox?” Dorian scoffed. “Ru cracks the team lootboxes and divvies up the items. Any glyphs she isn’t saving for our rank ups, get sold for League credits or donated fhtshade standing.”

  Dorian narrowed his eyes and gave the boulder a test kick. It didn’t budge. “Besides, now Judge Judy—”

  “Judge Urvana,” Nathan corrected.

  “Yeah, her. Now she’ll have the funds to pay someoo restock her rock colle. Bet she’ll get some fine rocks for all the gems we left her.” Dorian spread his arms as wide as they’d go and pushed himself up against the rock. His fiips iheir way into pce. “Give me a hand, will you?”

  Nathan hurried over and leaned against the boulder, mostly for emotional support. Dorian straio lift it. His feet sank into the ground up to his ankles before the boulder even shifted. The unstoppable elf grunted as it rose just enough to roll it out of the way. Luckily for them, the rock was mostly resting on the surface of the ground.

  Dorian rolled it on its side, but the oversized rock was too round and the grade too steep. Nathan watched helplessly as the boulder slowly wobbled over. The wobble turned into a slide, which evolved into a revolution. Both brothers watched as the rock went downhill toward the forest below.

  “Mother, I hope there isn’t anyone hiking today.”

  As it picked up speed, it started skipping more than rolling, leaping dozens of feet at a time, gouging holes and kig dirt in its wake. The trees were no match for the iia of such a heavy object. It was easy enough to track, even after it disappeared into the forest, with a line in the arking the path of the boulder’s journey.

  Dorian sighed. “It was too big.”

  “You should be more careful. That could’ve killed someone—”

  “No. The rock was too big… We got an orb, not a glyph.” Doria down to pick it up.

  “What?” Nathan couldn’t believe it. His brother just found an orb under a roo, teically, he made an orb by pig up a rock, which was even more outndish.

  “Your on-ranked looting ability gets you orbs? Diviher of the world, Dorian really is Destiny’s favorite child,” he muttered and then sighed. His curiosity overcame his jealousy. “What kind is it?”

  Dorian held up the orb, filled with purple clouds swirling about and an obscured blue object hidden in the ter. He tossed it up into the air and caught it a few times. “Looks like an Are orb, I think?”

  Nathan stared at the orb as his brother casually juggled it in one hand. “That’s… really valuable.”

  Dorian shrugged, tossing it directly at him. “Want it?”

  His eyes went wide, and he raised his hands to catch the precious orb.

  ‘Oh no. What happens if I drop it?’ he wondered, fumbling his first attempt to catch it. They both watched as it popped bato the air. ‘For the love of Mother, don’t drop it,’ he told himself, catg it mid-air on his sed attempt.

  Dorian motiooward the orb. “I bet you could trade that for a bunch of great glyphs.” He turned around, not giving it a sed thought, and started looking for his rock.

  The brothers spent the half hour sc the hillside for rocks about half-Dorian sized. Every rock Dorian lifted, moved, or even kicked revealed a secret treasure underh. Nathan wished he had bigger pockets. He’d stuffed them full of gems, tris, and anything else of value that would fit. Adding more ste to his wardrobe would be the first thing he’d spend his newfouh on.

  Dorian pined as he rolled a quarter-Dorian sized ro its side. He set that his ability only worked on each rock. But Nathan didn’t see the problem. It’s not like they were going to run out of rocks, even with elvenly long lifetimes.

  Nathan envied his brother’s looting ability—it was really something special. He didn’t even have to kill or hurt anything for it to work. Most looting abilities required a retly sin corpse or something simir.

  He strolled along, looking f rocks and dreaming of all the people he could help by just going out and pying geologist with such a wonderful ability.

  In the end, they found twlyphs, one Fire and another Life. Nathan was especially excited to use the Life glyph. The Fire glyph was hot to the touch, an open fme spiraled in the ter of the dark metal band, which made it difficult to carry for long. They left that one on the ground until they were ready to head back.

  Life glyphs were disturbing. A mass of muscle writhed in the ter of the dark metal band—a mimicked heart of the st person to hold it. The mass took the form of an elve, matg Nathan’s heartbeat as he held the glyph.

  Myths of immortality surrounded Life glyphs. Rumors circuted they could sustain your heartbeat indefinitely as long as it matched your own. Nathan was fairly sure they were only rumors, but that was one of the many reasons they were hard to find and, if found, expensive.

  “You ready to go bad glyph up?” Dorian fshed him a grin, his excitement ready to boil over.

  “Are you sure you don’t want t some of this stuff home with you?” Nathaured to all the treasure on the ground. “All of your pockets are empty.”

  Dorian just shook his head. “Imagine when someoakes a walk up this hill. Two things are going to happen.” He walked over and threw his arm around Nathan, waving his hand across the un-looted items. “First, all that loot is going to make their day.”

  Nathan gnced up at his brother. “That’s really kind.”

  “Sed, they’re going to spend the rest of their lives trying to figure out how it happened and if they do it again.” Dorian nodded with a smile.

  Nathan sighed. “That’s… much less kind, Dorian.”

  “I know, but I enjoy causing mystery.”

  ‘Not the word I would’ve used,’ Nathan thought.