Beastborne

by James T Callum

  Or was it attracted to something?

  It was attracted to darkness. Elaise remembered hearing one of the scouts speak of seeing somebody within the Ruins of Cirta as they made their way back.

  Had one of the Bravers Tribe been foolish enough to venture into that forbidden city and delve into the darkness beneath? It would explain the violent reaction of the Shadesblight.

  But no, that was impossible. Nobody could break through the wards around the ruins, and even if they did, the creatures within the ruins would kill them.

  And if somehow that didn’t happen, nobody could escape that infinite darkness. Some of the best scouts of all the Black Lands had disappeared into that pit. Nobody could make it out of there alive.

  Just because things were worse than she had thought didn’t mean they would flee. Elaise Starsong was no coward.

  Nor was she an idiot.

  With a snap of her fingers, all eyes fastened to Elaise’s tall form. She flicked through several commands using the silent hand signals of the Ebon Star. A full two dozen scouts accompanied Elaise and Elora, she sent them on errands to spy the surrounding area.

  They needed to get a lay of the land first before they rushed in.

  “If you see a creature with a hole in its chest and lines of corruption up and down its body, you run. Understand?” Elaise asked, turning toward Elora.

  Only then did Elora seem to grasp the gravity of the foe they were up against. Elaise had never advised her to run before. That simply was not the way of the Ebon Star.

  Hearing the words seemed to shock some sense - finally - into the lowlander. She began to understand.

  Nobody fought the Voidwracked. You survived them.

  Elora nodded, swallowing hard. “Are they truly that bad?” she asked, her voice quite small suddenly.

  Good. She learns quickly.

  “Worse. We run from Voidwracked. Never fight unless you want to die. Keep Komachi out of this, she will be frightened like she was of the Makoss. We do not want a repeat of that.”

  Elaise turned away from Elora to examine the wall of voidmist roiling before them. They avoided it whenever possible, and where it wasn’t, they had their markings to protect them.

  But never in her long life had Elaise seen such a thick concentration of voidmist.

  A scout came back, flicking her hands through complicated motions that years of training allowed Elaise to read them easily. The wall is ahead, somebody has thrown down a simple rope ladder. I cannot see through the gloom to view its source, however, their hands flashed.

  Elaise nodded, Take two others, go to the top. Do not alert the Bravers if there any there, and be quick, she signed, hooking her thumb to emphasize the need of haste.

  The scout vanished back into the wall of voidmist. Elaise felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and she spun, pulling Elora back behind her like a child.

  At the same moment, she withdrew [Angurvadal]. Its runes blazed with light, pushing back the voidmist with a subtle pressure around her. The wall of the stuff bent and bowed as she stepped back with Elora into the Voidmist. She snuffed the runes’ light immediately.

  They melted from view into the gloom, but with Elaise’s runic enhancements, she could still see easily through the voidmist.

  A figure skulked in the dark wearing a dark brown hood. It had a long black sword that hung naked on its hip. It paused for a moment… and seemed to sniff the air. It did not look to be one of the Fangcaller tribesmen, so the motion struck her as doubly odd.

  The creature looked toward them, its hooded features were indistinct even to Elaise’s magically-aided eyes but she swore for the briefest moment that it was Hal.

  Which was impossible.

  She had picked up his trail easily enough but it had simply disappeared partway back to the Bravers’ tribal lands. A pair of glinting red dots peered out of the hood at her and made her skin crawl.

  Her mind must have been playing tricks on her. That thing was most certainly not Hal.

  Elaise could feel a sense of raw power flowing from the thing, as much man as beast, it seemed. That must have been what made her think of Hal, a similarity, and nothing more. With the voidmist around her, whatever it was using to sense the surrounding area seemed stifled.

  She had no intention of fighting yet another enemy. The Shadesblight was enough, and if this man-thing ventured too close it would kill him just as it had killed so many before.

  With a loud growling snort, the cloaked man rushed off to the southwest and out of sight.

  Your Stealth has risen to Level 74.

  +1% Stealth success (+74%).

  +1% Stealth speed (+74%).

  -1% SP drain (-74%).

  Elora’s eyes were wide as she stared at the voidmist all around them. So deep within the sentient fog, it was trying to hypnotize Elora. Ghoulish faces appeared in the murk around the Ranger.

  Elaise watched her fight the subtle mental intrusion. The runes upon her body would help ward away the killing touch of the voidmist but it was not complete protection.

  If they were going to break through the voidmist to get to the Bravers, Elaise needed to know that Elora could handle herself alone.

  Secretly cheering her on, Elaise watched as Elora battled the voidmist. The gloom around them darkened as if a giant’s hand was cupped over them.

  It only lasted a moment. Elora nearly doubled over, but just as Elaise was about to steady her, the Wildsmaster let out a silent scream. The voidmist bulged around them.

  The voidmist resumed its unsettling roiling dance around them, but no more faces appeared within.

  Elaise patted Elora gently on the shoulder - though the slight woman nearly buckled at the soft touch - in a sign of approval and walked deeper into the voidmist. She paused a moment and turned around, pitching her voice low. “We do not speak in the voidmist, bad things happen. Watch me, do not lose me. Yes?”

  Elora nodded her understanding and Elaise turned again to press deeper into the voidmist. She saw a scout drop thirty feet, and she sidestepped to received them.

  They are besieged on all sides by the voidmist, he said by waggling his fingers. I… His fingers faltered as he struggled for words. Their sign language was intricate and complex, he should have no trouble communicating. I have never seen its like. There is a second sun. It nearly touches the earth.

  Elaise studied the man intently, after a long moment she dismissed any suspicion. He wasn’t possessed or addled by the voidmist. He was speaking the truth.

  With a flourish, Elaise swept her greatsword up and into its sheath on her back.

  Leading the way to the tall stone ridge outside of the gap where all the fighting was taking place, the scout motioned to the rope ladder up above.

  The scout had no need of the rope ladder, but in a moment of sentimental weakness for their newest member, he leaped the 30 feet in a single bound and grabbed the bottom rung.

  Elaise only needed to turn to Elora for her to understand what they were doing. The blonde woman took a running start and kicked off the wall, scrambling for handholds among the crumbling stone.

  While the Wildsmaster lacked the raw power of even the mildest scouts, she made up for it with determination.

  157

  Elora clawed her way up the sheer side of the ridge to grab at the ladder above the scout’s offered hand. A glance at the man’s handsome face showed him smiling with mirth and more importantly, with approval.

  Ebon Star Reputation: +100

  Such was Elora’s growing understanding of the Ebon Star. They were not the heartless creatures that she had once thought. They were kind and caring in their own way, but clearly had different cultural norms.

  The offered hand was not one of disdain or pity, it was a genuine offer. But by ignoring it and trying to do it herself, she earned their respect. Unlike other groups, the amount of reputation she gained was significantly less.

  Perhaps that had something to do with her lower than standar
d CHR, but she doubted it. The tribes were different. She had gained a lot more reputation with average folk for doing a whole lot less.

  The rough fibers of the rope ladder chafed as she climbed up the rungs as fast as possible. Elora was more than aware that for all her vaunted skill and speed, she was like a child to the Ebon Star.

  Her friends - her family she admitted, privately - were in trouble and she would not allow herself to slow their reinforcements.

  In true Ebon Star fashion, when Elora finally crested the rise of the ridge, she found the two dozen scouts already there, assessing the situation. Among them was Elaise who had been standing on the ground just a minute ago.

  How are they so fast? she wondered for maybe the hundredth time.

  It took Elora a moment to realize that the voidmist was gone, and with it the incessant whispering that filled her mind with all manner of dark thoughts. She shook her head, glad to be free of it but when she saw the false sun perched over the gap, she wasn’t so sure the voidmist was gone.

  Only the gawking expression on the battle-hardened Elaise told Elora that she wasn’t hallucinating.

  Within the gap below, monsters were set aflame by… other monsters? That must be Hal. Red and black streaks of flame forced the many creatures into a winding, circuitous path that greatly slowed them down.

  Choked within small channels to avoid the bite of those strangely colored flames, the monsters were forced to move at a snail’s pace toward the walls. In the distance, Elora could make out the sorry state of their defenses.

  Even with the slow down, things were declining. They would never last until the morning.

  From on high everything seemed so… far away and strange. Something was wrong with the monsters, she noticed after a moment. They weren’t moving right. Like a group of ants, they all seemed to move with a combined will. They flowed around obstacles, avoided the fire in a way that was more than simple group tactics.

  Even more intriguing was the strong tint of magic she could see even through the black gloom of the voidmist deep within the Shiverglades to the south.

  Your Perception has risen to Level 37.

  +2% Perception highlight chance (+74%).

  +5% Awareness of magical items (+185%).

  Turning her attention back to the battle below, she suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of despair rise up from within the pit of her stomach and try to swallow her whole.

  How had she ever thought they could survive out here?

  She had done this.

  Not Hal, not Ashera, not even the Rangers. This was her fault. She had talked everybody around to her way of thinking, they could have chartered a ship instead.

  But no, she was as stubborn as her heartless mother and refused to be chased out of her home. She wanted to overthrow Rinbast.

  Rinbast wouldn’t even need to lift a hand to destroy them utterly. He could sit back and watch their destruction from afar, safe in his imposing castle.

  Elaise’s strong hand clamped onto her shoulder. The bracing touch pulled Elora from her downward spiral. Her face was grim but determined. “Your friends, we will save. You bring salvation.”

  Exuberant hope for the future and unwavering belief in Elora trickled through her bond with Komachi, though it was distant – and sleepy besides - as the pobul was safely tucked away in her personal pocket dimension. It felt almost like Komachi was dreaming, and she was dreaming of Elora.

  Her bond with Komachi gave her a sense of stability and welcome comfort that she had been missing for much of her life after her father died.

  The barbarian didn’t wait for Elora’s emotion-locked throat to open up for her to respond. Elaise rushed off toward the north along with all the scouts, leaving Elora to gather herself up and follow behind like a wayward child.

  More than once she thought to summon Komachi, to use her powers like she had before to conjure a huge arrow of light to smite her enemies.

  The problem with Komachi’s powers - and Elora’s nascent control over the pobul - was their severe randomness. Sometimes Komachi could be very brave and strong, at other times she downright refused to do anything out of fear.

  Sometimes it was pure laziness.

  Every so often Komachi would make a strange quip that she didn’t understand. The last time Elora tried to order Komachi to use a specific attack, Komachi picked her nose and said, “You need more badges to do that.”

  Which, of course, made no sense at all. Just like Komachi.

  Other times, Komachi seemed more than willing to help but would get startled or scared then start keening. And that was exactly the opposite of what she would need here.

  Komachi’s keening had nearly gotten them all killed when she attracted the attention of a small group of Makoss. They were a disturbing cross between a sunflower and a psychic slug that could eat minds as well as anything it came in contact with.

  Elora had never known a plant to cast spells before. She never wanted to see another Makoss so long as she lived.

  Luckily, there weren’t any down in the gap below. If there were, fireballs, ice storms, and lightning bolts would be shooting across the walls.

  They soon came upon a flat rounded top, it looked like the Guild had been busy while Elora was gone. That they had the walls up was a relief to the Wildsmaster. Seeing the extent of their extra fortifications relieved some of the guilt she was feeling for leaving.

  Throughout their run, Elora kept her eyes trained on the wall looking for the telltale silver glint of Ashera’s pale hair.

  She would never forgive herself if Ashera came to harm because of her decision to come to the Shiverglades. Had they been able to leave Murkmire immediately and put up a few tents in the Shiverglades… they would probably be dead by now if this was how the violent place welcomed its guests.

  Without Hal’s annoying insistence to find “the right” spot to set up their Settlement, they would be dead too. Even with only 750 feet of wall to defend, they were stretched beyond their ability to properly man their defenses.

  Elaise’s scouts would drastically increase their strength. Not only because of how freakishly powerful they all were but because their sheer number was roughly a quarter of what was already down there defending.

  There was a shout of surprise as Elaise - naturally at the front of the scouts - spotted a handful of defenders from the settlement facing a mutated spider.

  With a blur of motion, Elaise unsheathed her greatsword. The runes alongside its edge pulsed with bright light. She charged the monster.

  Angram, off to the side, shouted at her.

  In fact, the scene looked odd to Elora. None of the defenders seemed to be actively fighting the spider creature. A golden pulse of light above the cluster of glistening black eyes clued Elora in.

  “Don’t attack it!” she cried, just as Elaise leaped through the air at the thing. The barbarian’s red hair flew out in the wind like a battle standard. Midair, she turned to look over her shoulder curiously at Elora, then at the monster.

  At the last moment, the strange runes along the edge of Elaise’s greatsword dimmed then winked out. Faster than Elora could make out, she sheathed her sword and managed to shift to the side to avoid colliding with the creature.

  “Thank you,” Angram said. As fast as the Ranger was, he had only made it halfway to Elaise before she stopped herself. “That’s Hal… he’s defending each of the parapets.” Angram pointed a bandaged arm across the gap to the west where another gargantuan spider-thing was perched, this one facing away from the group.

  “Down?” Elaise asked him. Angram pointed and the Ebon Star scouts flooded into the dark staircase, leaving Elora behind.

  Allowing herself a brief moment, Elora raced to the larger elf and wrapped him in a big hug. She loved Angram like an older brother, he reminded her so much of her father. She was beyond glad that he was okay.

  He chuckled and returned the gesture just as warmly. “Ashera is below,” he said, reading her mind. “Seek out
the white tents, you’ll find her there most likely.”

  A koblin waddled up with a wicker basket, its handle looped through one short arm. An oversized bat squeaked and chirped as it fluttered over the koblin’s head.

  “Yes yes,” the koblin said. “Make big-eyes at strengthful fighty-tool of koblin! Drop one, and slither-beasts turn to smolder-dust!”

  Angram looked at the koblin then Elora. “You don’t want to know.”

  With one final squeeze, Elora released Angram and rushed after the Ebon Star scouts.

  158

  Shouts of battle filled the air. The thick roiling smoke was at odds with the brilliant radiance of the false sun hanging over the gap. The light pushed away the roiling voidmist that was continually flowing in from the Shiverglades to the south.

  Hal urged the Disara toward a weak-looking creature, hoping his Kol'thil Bleed wouldn’t suddenly kill his weakened body.

  Wherever it was.

  Focusing, Hal called forth the same power he used to think of as his Founder’s Mark, but was actually ancient magic from long before the Founders. Forgotten, it was somehow revived and given a new name and history.

  Renaming magic and concocting a new story for it, however, isn’t enough to change it.

  Hal felt the Gold Kol'thil’s power well up within the Disara. It changed and shifted, fighting against the creature’s form. It didn’t feel right.

  When he tried to release the ancient magic, golden light arced off the Disara’s body… and nothing happened.

  Should have known, he thought sourly.

  He could affect the body of a target he Dominated but nothing external. There was some vital difference between himself and the creatures he Dominated. That gave him a few ideas, but he dismissed them out of hand.

  Having his minions intentionally eaten so they could control the creature that ingested them was a risky move. They might die before he could enact the Sigil, and then he’d be down yet another minion.