Adventures in Comalan: The Untouched City

Somewhere in the deep woods of Tanis lies a lone bunker that seems to lead to one of the elves' many subterranean settlements. This city is not plotted on any map and doesn't appear to have a name. No one seems to be aware of its existence save the scant few who have managed to discover it. The place is completely empty and even those who once swore to have explored it eventually forget all of its details. Concrete evidence of its existence can only be found in the journals of travelers who have seen there, but even those are rare and prone to strange mishaps. The last known recording of such an expedition only reports:

I have seen no one since I arrived, but there seems to be evidence of occupants all around. The shops are fully stocked, food is plentiful and fresh, and you can hear voices when you stop and listen. It's impossible to make out what any of them are saying because it's like standing in the middle of a large crowd. What bothers me about this place isn't that no one can be found here, but that it's emptiness seems clearly deceptive. It is hard to believe this place can even be real.

This is a passage that has only survived because the page on which it has been recorded is carefully preserved by a historian from the city of Setria by the name of Ayriel. She once collected many accounts of this unknown city until the majority of this collection vanished along with any memory of why she kept it. Among these recordings, only the words that are detailed above survived the series of random mishaps that collected the others. The author of the page is unknown and it is unclear why Ayriel has even chosen to keep it. When asked about it, she only replies "It's a very interesting writing. I'm curious about what it's for."

The researchers of Adventures in Comalan have determined that this is a city waiting to be explored, but an unintelligible curse exists to protect the secret of its existence. However, with our mass-produced format, it will someday be possible to attract enough adventurers who are interested in solving this mystery to investigate the city. Unfortunately, information of its location is limited to somewhere in the deep woods of northern Tanis. Given the power that has sealed away this place, it is assumed to be highly dangerous, but we are committed to providing leads to the most exciting adventures this world has to offer, no matter how dangerous even publishing our information might prove to be.

The Robber Was Slain

To Grand Master Blackstone:

As ordered, I have dispatched twenty of my knights to Seres in pursuit of the fiendish witch referred to as Annette Skye. I shamefully admit to my skepticism that it was necessary to send so many and am humbled to report that of the twenty men and women I have sent, only one has returned. There is solace in the report of the lone templar to return from this mission, which is that not all of them were killed in the attempt to apprehend their foe. It seems that the many months of practice we have allowed the Robber in Robes have caused her power to grow to the point of corrupting even some of the most devout men under my command. Per your instructions, I hereby relay the report of the knight, Sir Reginald Hawke, who shall be commended for his exemplary work in the Gods' names in accordance with the Southriver Charter.

The company reached Seres little over an hour past the dawn of the second day which followed their dispatch. Their leader, Knight-Commander Gerald Marle ordered a stay of our customary purge protocol out of misguided concern for innocent civilians. There was some disagreement from another Knight-Commander in the unit, one Elizabeth Winstrom. She felt compelled to remind her colleague of the dangers of dark magic as well as the very necessity of the purge protocol. For the record, I must express that the ensuing discord was quite understandable for it is unclear which idea is more entrenched in our order: the sanctity of Crane's holy city or the absolute prejudice with which we must handle dark magic. An accord was reached on the premise that to purge a holy city required acknowledging that the gods could not protect their most favored settlements, which would be a stain on the honor of us all. However, this dispute was all that was needed to alert the witch to their presence; a sad punishment for their sin of imprudence near the seat of Crane.

Sir Hawke was the knight who was dispatched to gather information on Madam Skye's whereabouts. It was only through this miracle of happenstance that he happened to be separated from the group when the Robber in Robes saw fit to ambush them. Upon returning with knowledge of the heretic's location, he arrived just in time to witness what transpired. Before Hawke could intervene, the witch used her dark magic to corrupt Knight-Commander Marle with an uncontrollable lust for her, which she exploited to manipulate him into turning his blade on his own men. Sirs Ronald and Bartholomew Whitetree, Sebas Gold, and Lady Martha Desmond were all felled in the initial attack. In the heat of the moment, Knight-Commander Winstrom struck down Marle before he could harm anyone else. Unfortunately, it was she who was selected as the next victim of the witch's magic. She was afflicted with a powerful rage and unable to stop herself from striking Sirs Harold Midas, Grant Harret and Ladies Reina Midas, Victoria Whitetree, and Gloria Desmond with this unnatural wrath. It took the combined efforts of Sir Matthew Blackstone and Lady Pomona Clark to defeat the second Knight-Commander, but they both sustained mortal wounds in the process. In a fit of desperation, Lady Rosaline Gold tried to finish off the witch only for the latter to afflict all five of those who remained in the room at once with an unholy tide of magic. 

Screaming her disappointment at this embarrassing failure on their part, she left each of them groveling pitifully for the touch of her flesh. This included Sirs Anthony Winstrom, Red Desmond, Wendell Clark, and Ladies Clara Gold, and Emily Clark. Sir Hawke, who remained unseen up to this point managed to strike the witch down unawares with a blow to the back of her head with his mace. He then rushed to check on the survivors, but their corruption was sadly so complete that they could do little more than flee at the sight of him. He enlisted the help of the Town Guard to apprehend these corrupted templars and deliver them into the Grand Temple of Crane where they are currently being treated. The body of the witch was also taken by the clerics of the temple, citing a desire to study any trace of residual dark magic in hopes of developing an effective countermeasure into the future.

The only thing that troubles me more than the tragic loss of fourteen of my greatest knights is the result of Hawke's search of the witch's home. There he found a second set of bedding, but no clue in regards to who had previously used it. I have dispatched more men to watch the house in secret in hopes of spotting this potential accomplice, but no one has been seen going in or out all week. While we do not intend to leave Seres without a templar presence in the near future until we discover who was staying with Madam Skye, the fact remains that the Robber in Robes is no more. Thus, I am happy to declare the Gods' will has been carried out on this twelfth day of Serda in the thirty-first year of the post-war age.

With Both Pride and Regret,

General-Commander

William Skye

I Know What You Did

Dear Mother,

You must be surprised that I have chosen to write to you. The truth is that, despite everything, I am not sure why I am even bothering to do so. It may be true that I accepted all of your lies when last we spoke, but surely there must have been a reason you asked me to write you only in times of desperation. Perhaps this is a desperate letter. I cannot truly hope to accomplish anything by writing to you, but the smallest part of me wishes for any of what I have learned about you to be falsified. I hope that the irreparable damage you have done to our family, and now Auntie Deidre's, was the worst of your crimes. But, as I understand things now, this may be hope against hope.

You see, I have heard rumors that seemed to follow you back west. Stories of lives ruined by violence and base depravity that defy explanation. People have started to change in this land and the most damning thread to connect each of these events is the fact that they all began after you left. Once I began to consider this fact, which should be little more than coincidence in a fairer world, what happened to us began to make more sense. You told me you had to leave because father was unfaithful to you. I didn't want to believe what I heard, knowing what I did about the good man I knew my father to be. From the lips of anyone else, I wouldn't have. I now suspect there may have been some truth to that. Father has brought many women to his bed since you left while professing attachment to none of them. What one could interpret as the acts of a philanderer who was liberated by the revelation of his true self seemed oddly similar to these haunting tales from across the country. Such a condition seems to be an isolated case in the capitol, but placing him at the fore of the list of the warlock bandit's crimes works a little too well.

Of course, this is a purely circumstantial claim, so I had to find out more. Thus I decided to look through that trunk you left behind. You did well to hide it considering what was inside, but you did not do well at hiding it. I discovered all of the notes you had collected as well as the documentation of your earliest experiments. There is an entire book's worth of secrets about "dark magic" here! I am horrified to now know what this is and you should be ashamed of the interest you took in it. You can't just meddle with the Gods' designs however you please and expect there to be no consequences! We were all made to perfectly suit their needs and what you have been doing perverts their goals. I cannot look the other way!

That is why you will no doubt be seeing knights of the Blackstone Order soon. In fact, another reason I am sure the writing of this letter is futile is that I am writing it after I have made them aware of your malicious deeds. Thus, you may never find this letter. On the off chance you do, however, I want you to know that I am ashamed to call you my mother. To me, you are now only Annette, the Robber in Robes. It is with some hope that I expect the clergy can undo what you have inflicted on Father and all of your other victims. But for me, things can never go back to normal because I can't stand the idea of ever seeing you again. If you come near Father, Ronald, or me again, I will not hesitate to summon the templars again. May you burn in the Forge for this!

With regret,

Cecilia Skye

Death Touch Chapter 35 (But Better)

Introducing Chapter 35 of Death Touch, now with a better ending in which the point of view character actually does stuff! The original version will remain up for posterity, but it's no longer canon.

First Chapter

Previous Chapter

Mia

Frustration pounded in Mia’s head as she felt herself awaken at the sound of someone brushing through foliage. She rolled groggily onto her back as she tried to make sense of her position. She saw that the sun was low on the horizon and cursed herself for her mistake. Then she cursed Sara with double the anger for falling for her own tricks. A whole day, lost!

The rustling among the flowers grew louder, stirring her ever closer to full alertness. She turned to see what appeared to be five large men with thick coal black skin towering above her. Seeing the three horns and spiked tail were enough for the assassin to identify these creatures according to Sara’s prior description. Maulans!

Her drowsiness quickly forgotten, Mia willed herself to her feet as quickly as her momentarily numb body would allow her and looked around wildly for her unlikely companion. Sara didn’t seem to be in the vicinity. In fact, Mia didn’t appear to be anywhere close to the pond that had been nearby when she fell asleep. She staggered backwards while considering running. She should have whipped out her gun and started firing into their necks-- the creature’s only known weak point. But while caught in the grip of this valley’s pacifying magic, fighting back didn’t even occur to her.

Mia watched as the maulans flicked their tails dangerously, daring her to stand still so they could strike. She felt helpless as she began to back away more quickly. The maulans should have been rendered harmless by the fey as well, but it was starting to look like they weren’t even affected at all. Run, damn it! 

Mia finally shocked herself into turning around and running more quickly than she ever had before, realizing as she did just how unusual it was for her to be running away from something. She had only done so for the first time in years a few short days ago when she had to escape from her cell in Beldor. But this was the first time she felt genuinely terrified. Spellwarriors chasing her through open streets could never have hoped to catch her, but this was much different. The flowers in her way slowed her down, but the creatures who pursued her streaked rather quickly through the field by following in her wake. I’m not fast enough!

She was at a loss. They were close to catching up and didn’t appear to be tiring in the slightest. She was alone and unable to fight back. Her only hope was to clear Flora Field and make her stand outside the confines of this damnable pacification. But there was no telling how far she would have to run. She dared not look up to figure out which way she was going, fearful of slowing down or--

She then tripped over an exposed root to one of the field’s larger, tree-like flowers. She cursed as she scrambled to her feet in a panic, but the chase was over before she could begin to run again. They were already whipping their tails at her. Years of evasion practice was all that protected her now. Or so it seemed.

Mia’s heart felt like it was about to explode as her panic reached a fever pitch. But just then, a strong gust began to sweep the surrounding plant-life away. The ensuing wind caused the maulan’s tails to flail around slightly, causing their tail jabs to miss even more wildly than before. Although, a more logical Mia would have recognized this as a sign of good luck, the gust only intensified her alarm. What the hell now?

As the wind intensified with the assassin’s fear, she could see the creatures struggling to maintain their footing. It was at this point that Mia realized what was happening to her. More storm magic that she’d have to learn to control.

Mia began to laugh as the first of the maulans was pulled toward the tornado small that now circled the ground before her. “I should find myself a phobia!”

Soon, all five of the creatures were drawn into the vortex, but curiously the champion was unaffected by the wind. This didn’t make her completely safe, however, as she learned when they began to whip their tails out at her as she passed. These bastards are persistent!

Mia watched her pursuers as her apparent magic tossed them around for several minutes. She might have used this time to plan her next move if she weren’t taking so much satisfaction in the spectacle before her. Unfortunately, her returning calm began to slow down the wind. She was close to running again when something else she didn’t expect happened. Clusters of thorned roots exploded from the ground and began to ensnare the maulans. All 20 limbs, 15 horns and 5 torsos and tails were bound in stems. Okay, why not?

“I must not have made myself clear the last time!” A familiar voice called out from behind.

Mia turned to see Millie the fey spellwarrior, stomping up to the cluster of wrapped maulans with a livid expression.

“I told at least two of you that maulans are not welcome here!” She raged as she held her hands up in what Mia assumed was some sort of spellweaving gesture. “This is supposed to be a safe space of communion for mortals and fey, but your kind never follow the fucking rules!”

Mia finally found herself starting to like the floral sprite as she walked right up to the struggling beasts. With a swipe of her arm, all five of the maulans instantly disappeared and the roots that held them began to sink back into the ground. Mia whistled as the spellwarrior turned back to her with a smirk.

“What did you do?”

Millie smiled and glanced somewhere to the east. “A quick targeted translocation. They won’t be back for a loooong time!”

“Where are they?” Mia asked, duly impressed with what she was hearing.

“On the ocean floor, hundreds of miles away from our coast.”

Mia snickered and shook her head. “Well, thanks for the assist and… uh…” She began to survey the carnage that had stricken the plants around them. “Sorry for the tornado. I didn’t know I could do that.”

Millie gave the champion an appraising look and chuckled. “Really? An instinctive user of storm magic sounds very uncommon. In fact, since I don’t know anybody who’s heard of one, I’d even be willing to call you unique."

Mia shrugged and nodded awkwardly. “Well, for some reason, Salica thinks I need to be able to do that. She’s shown a lot more faith in me than I deserve.”

“Interesting!” the spellwarrior chirped with an inquisitive stare. “You know, Hem Academy put out the word that we were all to assist some people favored by the Gods as champions. My plan was to put the safety of my home first, but if you’re to be believed, I may have followed that order by accident!”

Mia shook her head impatiently. “This is too weird for me. Two days ago, I was no friend to any spellwarrior, but now you people are all over my business!”

Millie shook her head and chuckled. “Actually, two days ago, you were still asleep.”

“What?!” Mia barked suddenly. “How long have I been out?”

“Almost a week,” the spellwarrior said with a shrug.

“A week?!” Mia screeched in renewed alarm. “If you knew, why didn’t you try to wake us up?”

“Should I have?” the spellwarrior asked indifferently. “Lots of people meet with members of the Serene clergy to have themselves put to sleep here. For all I knew you were both suffering from nightmare-induced insomnia!”

“Wait! What about my--” the next word got stuck in her throat for a moment. “--friend?”

“The woman who put you to sleep carried her out of the valley, somewhere to the north.”

“And you didn’t think that there was anything wrong with two women you knew were looking for one of Maula’s cronies being knocked out and separated?”

“Yeah, I might have been a little distracted in my duties,” Millie replied with a frown. “I may as well redeem myself by helping you find your friend, since I’m supposed to be protecting you anyway.”

Just like that, Mia started to dislike Millie again.

“If you know which way they might have gone, just tell me,” the champion grumbled. “If they’re outside this field, there’s absolutely no reason I can’t save her on my own.”

Millie shook her head. “Unfortunately, I don’t. Unless you have some experience in tracking, you’re going to need my help and I’m happy to give it!”

Mia sighed and growled, “Fine, but you’d better not be wasting my time!”

“I’m hurt!” Millie whined. “I haven’t given you no reason to suspect I’m not good at my job, have I? How was I know that I’d need to protect anyone from a mortal here?”

Mia glared at the spellwarrior. “Save the excuses! I’m not really in the mood! If you want to help, now would be a good time to get started!”

“Oh fine!” the sprite said as she reached into the cleavage of her dress. 

Moments later, she withdrew one of those tiny, curved cones that Mia recalled were used by spellwarriors to summon their mounts. She blew into the narrow end, but no sound came out. Mia watched as flowers in the distance began to rustle.

“C’mere, Vinca!”

In response, a large wolf with a beautiful mane of white hair flecked with green bounded gracefully into the clearing that Mia had made. The beast seemed to float as she galloped to the spellwarrior and began to nuzzle her affectionately.

“Come on, girl!” Millie said, giggling madly. “I just saw you a few minutes ago! Stop!”

Mia watched impatiently as she struggled to get the enthusiastic wolf under control. When she was finally atop Vinca’s back, she offered a hand to the champion. Mia swallowed her chagrin and climbed aboard and took a seat behind the spellwarrior.

“Hang on!” Millie shouted excitedly.

With the help of the spellwarrior’s lupine companion, it only took an hour to find where Sara had been dragged: a small cavern that Millie had referred to as Resbroka Grotto. Mia felt a surge of excitement as the predatory urges that she had become so used to returned to her. Together, she and Millie dismounted and were just about to enter the cave when a boy approached them from behind and called out to then.

“Sen na sai crana eka grag Maula,” he said with a smile.

Mia narrowed her eyes as she studied the boy who had come to follow her. He appeared to be a teenager--maybe two years younger than her--whose skin was brown and completely hairless and who was dressed only in white cotton shorts that were impossibly clean for all the dirt that surrounded them. He seemed to be marked from head to toe with white tattoos that Mia could surmise were druidic patterns thanks to the expertise of Camellia, one of her fellow compatriots in the Scarlet Starlings. Yes, yes, they’re druidic! No need to go thinking about old memories now!

“I don’t know ancient, kid!” the champion called back. “Can you even speak with real people?”

The boy shook his head apologetically. “I’m sorry! I have been speaking the old language for so long that it’s become second nature! I don’t even realize I am doing it sometimes!”

“What do you want?” Mia snapped. “We’re kind of in the middle of something!”

“I only mean to warn you that a servant of Lady Maula is hiding within this cave!” the boy said with a cringe. “It falls to me to confront her, but I must urge you to leave this place for your own safety.”

“I know about the witch,” Mia growled impatiently. “I’m actually here for her, so if you want me to leave, you’d better be prepared to make me.”

“I cannot stop you if you wish to rush into such danger, but please at least stay behind me,” the boy said as he began to walk into the cave.

Millie and Mia shared a look of confusion before jogging to catch up with the boy, who seemed to stride into the relative darkness with a sense of purpose.

“Wait a minute!” Mia hissed. “What does this have to do with you?”

The boy stopped in his tracks and bowed slightly. “I have been chosen by Lord Kerun to help stop his sister and her servants from destroying this land.”

Mia smacked her forehead impatiently with her palm. “Another champion? Who the hell are you?”

Recognition seemed to flood the boy’s face. “I see! You must have been chosen by one of the other gods! Let’s see… I think I feel Lady Salica’s solidarity in you!”

“How perceptive,” Mia grumbled. “How about you answer my question instead of your own?”

“I am called Kevin,” the newfound champion said with a friendly smile.

“Kevin what?”

“Oh, I have no family name,” Kevin said with a shake of his head. “The druidic commune that found me as a baby didn’t see any need to give me one.”

“Kevin’s a pretty funny name for a druid,” Millie said as she conjured a ball of light to illuminate their way forward.

“My name is all I have left of my family,” Kevin said with a shrug.

“Well, Kevin the druid, it’s nice to meet you!” Millie said with a friendly smile.

Who the fuck has time for this? “Yeah, yeah, let’s get acquainted later! I’m trying to rescue someone!”

Kevin nodded and strolled deeper into the cave silently. He seemed to be an awkward kid, not that Mia came to think of it. He didn’t seem to care that anyone else was there. He appeared to be concerned with his mission and little else. Without any engagement from Millie or Mia, he seemed perfectly content to focus on his objective. It’s nice to have such an efficient ally for a change! As they watched the boy walk from behind, Millie leaned in to whisper to Mia.

“Hey! Do you want to hear something cool about that boy’s ink?”

Mia didn’t bother to speak, but looked at her with her eyebrows raised. 

“Those tattoos are like welcoming messages to me and other fey,” Millie said with a grin. “I think he’s made a contract with the elder of some fey village.”

“Oh, then it’ll probably look pretty when he decides to make himself useful,” Mia grumbled.

Just then, Kevin disappeared around a corner that Mia had nearly missed in the semidarkness. As she turned to follow, she found what she was looking for. The oni priestess who had put her in her current predicament stood near a brazier positioned under cave paintings Mia didn’t care to do more than glance at. She leered over Sara’s prone form, muttering to herself as she waved her hand over the other champion. When she saw the three people who invaded her dank sanctum, she stood up and regarded them with a cruel smile.

“Well! I was planning to come back for you once I finished with this one. Thank you for saving me the trouble of carrying you,” she said with a smile that looked innocent, but reeked of intent that was anything but.

Millie, who had been staring at Sara, asked, “What are you doing to her?”

“There is great power in the soul of one who is favored by the gods,” the witch said with a roll of her eyes. “This is something that appeals to me. Feel free to use your imagination.”

“No need!” Mia growled threateningly. “It’s going to stop now if you’re interested in keeping the same amount of blood in your body!”

Adaling laughed mirthlessly as she gave Mia a lazy wave of her hand. “The Death Goddess dubs thee… Rego! Wargo! Lugo!”

The witch’s incantation caused three burly maulans to appear in the narrow space between herself and her foes, causing Mia to click her tongue impatiently. She was in a position to fight back this time, but she wasn’t left with nearly enough space to move around. Avoiding their tails would be a problem. She had to think about how to work around this, but she didn’t have long to consider her strategy before Kevin stepped forward and began to approach the maulans. He did so casually, seemingly without any fear of their tails. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Mia shouted in disbelief.

Kevin made no effort to dodge the maulans’ tail strikes, which in turn failed to even penetrate his skin. He only continued his apparently pleasant stroll until he was close to touch the creatures. When he pressed his palm to the torso of the first, the creature screamed in agony as his body began to dissolve as if affected by his own poison. Kevin repeated whatever he had done twice more, leaving Adaling alone with her prisoner once more. With a snarl, she whipped her arm across the room, causing a cold feeling to come over Mia and everyone else in the room.

“I’m not sure what the hell that was, but it looks like you’re outmatched here,” the assassin said with a smirk as she tried to get closer to the witch, only to be stopped in her tracks by Millie.

“Wait! Don’t move!” Millie shouted urgently as she pointed to the ground beneath them.

Mia followed the spellwarrior’s gaze down to her feet, between which a black stalactite seemed to be protruding. She nudged the spike with her foot, which seemed to cause it to grow slightly. 

“If you don’t hold absolutely still, that thing is going to keep growing from your own shadow until it impales you,” Millie said breathlessly. “I hate this spell! It’s so evil!”

Kevin continued to stare Adaling down for a moment longer before opening his mouth. From it, a dozen tiny winged creatures with white fur swarmed out toward the witch. With a hiss of frustration, Adaling floored the majority of them with a spell which conjured a sickle of black light that Mia might have remembered seeing Seth use in one of his RGT matches. Only one of these new creatures remained flying after this assault and, considering the way it began to bob through the air, it didn’t seem unharmed. The creature retreated to Kevin, who opened his mouth and swallowed it once more. Once he did so, the druidic markings that covered his entire body changed from white to black. 

“Those were eversprites!” Millie whispered excitedly to Mia. “Oh my gods! He’s a feykin!”

As Kevin began to walk once more, a spike began to grow from his shadow as well. But he seemed unconcerned as it grew and grew until it should have skewered him. Instead of harming him, the shadow began to phase harmlessly through his body.

“Thanks to those eversprites he conjured, he’s immune to her shadow magic!” Millie added to Mia’s slight irritation.

“Okay, what’s a feykin?” Mia grumbled, more out of frustration with finding herself helpless again than genuine curiosity. 

“Feykin are mortals who have formed a connection with the fey,” Millie explained while Adaling lashed out with her shadow claw spell. “That means he can use our powers! His hands pulse with the light of a kerunite’s eyes, which explained what happens to the maulans! Hell! I bet he can spit lava like a magmadon or even inflict maulan venom with his touch!”

“Eversprite magic won’t protect you from this!” Adaling hissed! “Amul dala!”

Black flames suddenly erupted from Kevin’s shorts, causing him to jump in alarm, howling in pain.

“He’s going to need our help! How do we get out of this spell?” Mia snapped curtly. 

“There is no escape!” Millie wailed. “We have to wait for the spell to wear off or for the caster to voluntarily remove it!”

Mia was already beginning to feel stiff. “Screw that!” She could feel the insidious spike inching further upward beneath her as she pulled the pistol from her holster and took aim at the witch.

Millie gasped as soon as she saw the weapon. “You can’t! There’s someone innocent in there!”

Millie rolled her eyes as she loaded an unusual round into the weapon. Sometimes, the work of a Starling needed to be public when the target preferred to stick to places that were anything but. When those times came, they had thin glass-tipped bullets filled with a sleeping potion that could be administered when their saturated shards cut into the target’s skin. They were used rarely as assassin tools, but now that she was giving a less deadly lifestyle a try, she would have cause to fire a lot more of these sleep rounds.

“Like I care,” she grumbled as she squeezed in the trigger.

Even in the dimly-lit environment, the Starling’s aim was true. The bullet struck her prey cleanly in the chest, where Mia suspected that the potion would be quickly dispersed. Within moments, Adaling began to falter and her grip on Sara loosened. Millie would then breathe a sigh of relief as the dangerous magic that had rooted them to the spot vanished. The spellwarrior turned toward Kevin and waved the flames that assailed him away with a wave of her hand and an accompanying gust of wind.

“Thank you,” the young druid murmured. “I didn’t count on there being fire. I’ve never been good at handling that.”

Mia ignored the two of them as she went to go check on Sara. She still appeared to be asleep, but didn’t respond to the Starling’s attempts to revive her. When Kevin was reasonably certain that he wasn’t badly burned, he joined Mia at her side and smiled. 

“What was done by the mother can easily be undone by the father. Invigorate!”

Sara suddenly sat bolt upright and looked around in bewilderment. When her eyes found Mia’s, she mumbled. “Where happened?”

“I hope at least one of you knows!” Another voice boomed from behind them.

Mia looked up to see the spellwarrior that she had first seen in the RGT approaching them from behind. Seth Midas looked impatient, and for good reason. A week of waiting for her and Sara can’t have been good for the nerves of the rest of the group.

“This woman is apparently s servant of Maula,” Mia murmured. “She had us knocked out with some Serene magic this whole time. We had to track her down to this spot because she was trying to steal her soul or something.”

Seth studied the woman’s features and groaned. “Shit.”

The others snapped their gazes toward Seth. “What?” Sara said.

“This is Adamora. She’s my second-cousin,” Seth explained darkly. “I ran into another second-cousin very recently who seemed to serve Maula in the same way. Clint says they were guarding Orion’s artifacts.”

The spellwarrior coated his hands in a black light similar to the shadow magic Mia had recently just escaped before driving his hands into the sleeping witch’s chest. Moments later, he pulled out a thick, black, spiked chain that had apparently been resting within her. 

“This is the last piece,” he said solemnly as he seemed to study his relative.

“By the gods!” Sara gulped. “That… was a thing that happened!”

“This is what we were looking for, right?” Mia said eagerly. “This means we’re nearly done!”

Mia hadn’t invested nearly as much time in this quest as Seth or Sara had, but she was eager to be done with it nonetheless. At this point, she was far more interested in eradicating the Scarlet Starlings than participating in some divine whatever-this-was, but she felt compelled to keep the promise she had made to Sara. Therefore, she was more than eager to see this ultimate weapon’s completion. The sooner this ends, the better!

Next Chapter

The Boy Who Shouldn't Exist Part 12

First Chapter

Previous Chapter

Kaleth peered anxiously into Aennin's eyes as the other Avatar stared intensely into his own.

"How am I supposed to do that?" The boy asked nervously. "If saving everyone really hinges on me figuring out these powers we're going to be waiting for a long time!"

Aennin shook his head and pulled Kaleth from his bed. "Bullshit! Your Avatar powers aren't all you have to offer! Do you think Geos would have chosen you if he thought you were too weak on your own?"

"I'm a druid!" Kaleth protested weakly. "A pacifist! What can I do against an undead army?"

Aennin shrugged and raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't they teach druids healing magic? That's pretty much all Volt wants to do most of the time when she's doing stuff with us!"

Kaleth sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, but that's what I was learning to do before the sai'mul crashed into Orion."

"That's no good," Aennin replied with a frown. "Well, either way we can't have you sitting on your hands now that we know you're part of the team. I'll go talk to Volt to see if she can teach you how to heal, but I can think of some ways your transformations can be put to some use too. We have until Spring before we can get out of Heron to do anything useful, so we might as well use this time to help you get ready.

So began a long winter of what Kaleth would come to know as Avatar School. To be even one Avatar short, Aennin declared, was a disadvantage that no one could afford. In the mornings, he would train with Atunis to sharpen his reflexes by sparring just like his father used to do. During these sessions, the Salican Avatar would talk about the Kartal that he knew and how their templar training informed their decision-making as Avatars. During these times Kaleth struggled to resist asking about how the Kartal from this other timeline differed from the father he had grown up with. Atunis seemed constantly stressed by the idea of his dearest friend causing so much damage by abusing Geos' power and Kaleth couldn't see no good in making him think about it any more than he did. In truth, both of them needed the distraction they found in swinging sticks at each other.

When the two tired of sparring, Kaleth would next go to see Tir to learn what she could teach him of Intalan magic. Aennin adamantly stressed that telepathy in particular was an important skill as a scout when used in concert with his transformations. This was a matter of some irritation to Crane's Avatar as she specialized not in telepathy, but in divination and engineering. Still, she relished in the challenge of linking the principles of these disciplines to the skill Kaleth sought to acquire and learning alongside him. It was during these times that Kaleth would learn about what was happening in the world outside Heron. Through her frequent contact with her predecessor, Mr. Broger, they had learned that the Serene Avatar, Ekera, was alive and using the benefits of her sai'mul body to gather information from the enemy. This role wasn't without risk as she had learned that some of the undead army were able to distinguish the mindless sai'mul they had subjugated from those who still thought freely. But with newfound allies among a guild of warrior artisans, she was already making moves against their adversaries that would hopefully lay the groundwork for the Avatars' return from isolation.

After lunch, Kaleth would seek out Volt, a notorious late sleeper whose lunches were actually her breakfasts, to continue his training in healing magic. These were some of the hardest times for him because she was rarely in the best of moods. She had counted on the power of Geos to save her husband from whatever fate had befallen him in the midst of this sai'mul onslaught, but hearing that Kartal caused all of this to happen by doing the same for his wife should have soured her to the idea. This didn't change her mind at all, however. No one seemed more interested in his progress in mastering his Avatar abilities than she did and the fact that he was focusing more on his worldly skills did nothing to cheer her up.

This left Kaleth looking forward to his late afternoons with Aennin. The person he had once known as an acerbic rogue quickly became the most welcoming presence among the Avatars. Unlike the others, who had looked to him to master his powers quickly in the hopes that he would single-handedly fix everything, Aennin was the only one who made him believe that he could be useful with or without Geos' blessing. To Aennin in particular, Kaleth was a valued member of the group he was thrust into just as he was. Instead of forcing him to think of his place among the chosen figures of the divine, Aennin's training felt more like playing. Every day, Kaleth would face the challenge of sneaking on the elf in order to steal something from him, spy on him, or ambush him in whatever beastly form he expected least. This gave him an opportunity to explore Dalaska through the eyes of a falcon, mouse, stag, dog, cat, or crow. Although he rarely seemed to surprise Aennin, the elf was always sure to point out when he believed he would have fooled anyone else.

It was always in the evening that Kaleth spent any time thinking about Geos and his future as his Avatar. It had been a month before he reached an important breakthrough in understanding these dilations of time. As it turned out, finding a pattern in the speed-ups and slow-downs had been besides the point. The more he thought about it, the more random they seemed to be. But as contemplating these powers became routine, he found that he could predict these occurrences more accurately when he was completely relaxed. Eventually he realized that this was the key to controlling his powers. It was during these moments of gentle contemplation that he ceased to predict these changes in the flow of time and began to mentally trigger them. 

He decided to demonstrate this power to Aennin during one of their games. He had been tasked with stealing Aennin's coin purse. Normally he would do this by sneaking up and pouncing as a cat or diving from the rooftops as a bird. But he knew Aennin would be on the lookout for these tricks now and he started to doubt he even needed to do so anymore. So, he merely donned a cloak and shadowed him for most of the afternoon. He was sure that Aennin had spotted him before the time had come to make his move, but it no longer mattered. He took a deep breath and concentrated on slowing everything down. As expected, even the quick reflexes of his teacher weren't enough to stop him from sprinting up and snatching his prize for the first time with his own hands. In his excitement, he lost control of the power and Aennin smirked at him.

"See? I knew it was only a matter of time before you started to pick it up!" he declared proudly. "What did you learn?"

"I'm not sure," Kaleth said uncertainly. "I just stopped stressing about it so much and figured it out naturally."

"That's the trick," Aennin said with a grin. "None of the others would know this because they were already far more confident with themselves than you were when they first found out they were Avatars, even Atunis. But the trick to gaining control of your powers is gaining control of yourself. These abilities are a part of you now and the only way you were ever going to learn that was by sharpening your original skills."

"So, what's next?"

"What's next is continuing to practice with this new skill until you are able to use it confidently and doing yourself a favor by keeping this a secret between us. The more progress you make, the more pressure everyone else is going to put on you which we now both know isn't going to help. Just focus on what you're already doing until you're ready to move on to reversing time."

"Wait, what?"

Aennin sighed. "Your dad wasn't always able to avoid getting hit in battle. He only seemed that way because, as Geos' Avatar, he was able to undo any damage he took by reversing the movements of whoever hit him. It's not the same thing as going back in time, but kind of winding the clock backwards. If you can control the speed at which time flows, eventually you'll get the hang of controlling the direction, right?"

"I guess so," Kaleth replied uncertainly. 

"You have to know so," Aennin emphasized with a roll of his eyes. "Remember that confidence is the key to unlocking your new powers."

Kaleth nodded a little more confidently this time. "I will!"

"Good! You should have extra time to work on it tonight since you finished today's mission more quickly than usual," Aennin said with a smile. "I'll be sure to come up with something more challenging tomorrow.

"Okay! I look forward to seeing what you have in mind," Kaleth replied with a smile. 

The two then prepared to go their separate ways until Volt approached them with some important news.

"Ekera's here!"