“Dammit, Lux!” she coughed as she picked herself up out of the dirt. “I don’t understand what you’re—”
Her complaint was cut short as I launched into an unrelenting series of quick cuts that pushed her on the back foot. My assault was a mixture of rising slashes, wide horizontal sweeps, and downward stabs, each coming from an alternating blade as I used the other to propel myself forward. Her dodges and parries became slower and more unsure with each strike, culminating in one final mistake: a weak attempt to redirect my rising slash allowed my sword to catch her in the armpit, and I followed up with a sweeping blow to her opposite flank. Despite my best efforts to pull my strikes, I could tell by the way she clutched her side that I had cracked at least one of her ribs.
I dropped my swords and immediately halted my advance as she staggered away from me. “Alright; no more,” I called out. “Lia, more healing practice for you.”
Marin glared at me the entire time Lia looked over her injuries, healing both the fractured rib and the multiple deep bruises forming across her chest. That was...disconcerting to watch, Lia told me quietly.
I can’t say it felt great, either, I replied, rolling the fresh ache out of my shoulders, but it’s necessary. Marin needs to experience...whatever that fighting style is, before it’s a life or death situation. Besides, our fight with that thing only lasted thirty seconds. I thought that maybe, if we trained like that for a bit, we could figure out more of the ways it could fight—and more importantly, ways to counter it.
I’m not fighting like that, she said flatly.
You don’t have to. Primes willing, Val will clean up whatever mess Virram made at Shadowmine, and we’ll never have to see one of those things again. I could feel the discomfort at the thought of the monster on the edge of her aura. I know it’s not pleasant to think about what happened, but we need to be prepared to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
You’re right. I guess, she replied with a heavy sigh. She brushed a patch of dirt from Marin’s coat and gave her a nod. “You’re all fixed up again.”
“Thank you, Lia,” she answered. As soon as Lia had stepped away, Marin charged toward me. “What was that all about?” she yelled, startling me with her sudden wrath. “What was I supposed to do against that? How was that fair?”
I frowned. “Fair? What do you mean?”
“Neither of you have ever trained me to fight like that before!” she yelled back. “How was I supposed to know what to do?”
“Marin, there are thousands of fighting styles out there,” I answered calmly. “It’d be impossible to learn even the basics of all of them. You have to learn to be adaptable instead; learn the style while you’re fighting it, and find a way to win.”
She huffed. “You’re not going to win that easily again,” she barked, bouncing back and forth on her heels.
I shook my head. “Later. We’ve got more important things to worry about now.”
“What, there’s more?”
“Oh, no. I’m just hungry, is all. It’s time for lunch,” I laughed. “When we’re finished, you can come back here and train with Lia on anything you want. You’ve got plenty of options to choose from after this morning, right?”
“And what are you going to be working on?” she asked as the three of us began our trip back home. “No, wait, let me guess: You’re working on your forge, aren’t you?”
“Indeed I am,” I grinned. “It’s finally time to put it through its paces and see if I remember what I’m doing.”
“Boy, you’re really obsessed with that thing, aren’t you?” she laughed, punching my shoulder.
Lia interceded before I could respond. “Don’t be mean, Marin. Personally, I think it’s kind of cute.”
I turned to glare at her. “Yes, thank you, ladies,” I glowered, feeling the heat rising in my cheeks. They both laughed at my embarrassment, and we continued the rest of our trip in relative silence. Once we arrived at the house, we indulged in a lunch of stewed bihorn and leftover bread. The break was brief but largely fulfilling, and we soon found ourselves back on the deck under an early afternoon sun.
“Marin, you go on ahead of me to the practice ring; I need to talk to Lux about something,” Lia said as we stepped down into the grass. “I’ll just be a minute. Make sure you figure out what you want to work on before I get there.”
“I already told you, I want to work on fire magic again!” Marin called back over her shoulder as she bounced her way into the woods. “Don’t take too long!”
We both stood quietly in the yard until Marin disappeared from sight behind the trees. “So,” I asked, peering down at her, “you need to talk to me about something?”
“Yeah,” she nodded, looking straight ahead. “But not right now. I was thinking, maybe Marin and I could finish our training early, and we could talk tonight.”
My stomach flipped and wove itself into a tight bed of knots as adrenaline began to course through my veins. “Is something wrong, Lia?”
“What? No!” she answered, waving her hands back and forth quickly. “It’s just something I was thinking about. Or, something I’ve been thinking about. That I wanted to talk to you...about.” She pursed her lips tightly and scrunched up her face. “Sorry, it’s really nothing. I didn’t mean to make such a big deal about it. There’s nothing wrong, I promise.”
Despite her reassurances, I could feel the anxiety tingling in the tips of my fingers. “Uh, okay. That sounds fine.”
Silence crept into the clearing as we stood together, avoiding each other’s eyes. “So, what are you going to make in the forge today?” she asked nonchalantly.
“Oh. I’m not sure,” I chuckled, scratching the back of my head. “I’ll just be testing things, mostly. I’ve probably forgotten a lot of the things I learned back in Alderea; if I can even get my stamp right, I’ll consider it a success.”
“Your stamp?
“My blacksmith’s stamp,” I nodded. “It’s like your signature. A quality blacksmith stamps everything that comes out of their forge so people can identify their work.” I grabbed a stick from the lawn and began to sketch a circle in the dirt at our feet. “Ashedown made me practice his stamp a thousand times by hand before I was allowed to take on any of his real commissions,” I babbled, my mind caught somewhere between nostalgic and flustered. “He didn’t tell me until after the fact that he had a little engraved ring that he used to make his stamp; apparently, he hadn’t done it by hand for years.”
We both stared down at the picture I had drawn in the dust: three concentric circles, the smallest of which housed a drawing of a blacksmith’s hammer engraved with the letter A. “Huh. That’s...neat,” Lia said, fiddling with her hands behind her back. The oppressive silence returned all at once, and I shifted my weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. “I should probably go after Marin now,” she said eventually, taking a small step forward. “She might burn the forest down if I take too long.”
“Right,” I chuckled. “Well...good luck with that.”
“Thanks,” she nodded. “You too.” She made it three steps towards the forest before she paused, spun on her heels, and dashed back to plant a kiss on my cheek. “Thanks,” she said again, her face a dark shade of red. Before I had a chance to reply, she ran off into the woods, leaving me alone in the clearing. I stood and watched her go with my brow furrowed in confusion.
As the adrenaline began to filter out of my bloodstream, my anxiety was slowly replaced with excitement. With a clearer head, it was easy to see that Lia’s uncharacteristically awkward demeanor was due to nerves, not because she was upset. I thought back to my conversation on the road with Layne about my Union offering and the similarly secretive discussion Lia and Lyn had held beside us. Could that be it? The last words Lyn had whispered played out again in my ears: Primes know we could do with a bit of good news.
I walked to the forge with a dumb grin on my face and began the process of building a fire. My mind wandered as I stacked the wood autonom
ously, carrying out the process I had done a thousand times before. Maybe tonight’s the night. I summoned my sword and held it up to my eye, examining the golden band around the pommel. I’m ready. Fire sprang up from the furnace as I invoked the rune on my ring, and the emberwood began to crackle and char, filling the air with a pleasant, smoky aroma.
I sent a quick pulse of mana out around me to watch Lia and Marin train while I waited for the wood to burn down to coals. My Detection found the two in the center of our training field, sitting comfortably across from one another in meditation. Lia’s eyebrow twitched as Marin began to talk, and after a quick reprimand, the pair returned to their quiet introspection. I laughed as I watched the scenario unfold, impressed by both Lia’s resolve as a teacher and Marin’s persistent garrulousness.
Just before I pulled the energy back, a second set of mana signatures appeared on the opposite edge of my Detection. A familiar carriage marked with the Three Barrels insignia was rumbling down the winding forest path towards the Corells’ residence at a dangerously fast pace. Elise and Bella sat side by side at the back of the wagon with dour expressions, locked in a clearly serious conversation. While the scene alone was enough to alert me that something was wrong, Elise’s coat was the final detail that set off the alarm klaxons in my head; the usually flawless jacket was stained with two long streaks of blood and a messy handprint across her chest.
Leaving the furnace burning behind me, I sprinted inside to find my armor. Lia, come home and get your kit ready, I messaged her urgently. Something’s wrong.
***
16. NO MORE LIES
My mind raced to puzzle out the mystery of Elise’s arrival as I sprinted through the forest on an intercept course with her carriage. It was clear that neither she nor Bella were injured, indicating the bloodstains had come from a third party, but exactly who that party was eluded me. Marten and his wagon were both absent from the Corell homestead, leaving him as a potential answer, but his close relationship with Elise meant he would no doubt have been in the carriage with her no matter how injured he was. Whose blood is that? Why is she coming here?
An answer scratched at the back of my mind like a coil of thorns. Monsters. No matter who had been injured, the fact that she was coming to find us told me everything I needed to know, regardless of whether I wanted it to be true or not. I scowled as the conversation within the carriage unfolded silently before me through my Detection, hiding the confirmations I needed. While I was only a few minutes of sprinting away from finding my answers, the increased processing speed in my head from the Combat Acceleration enhancement would make it feel like an eternity.
Without pausing to consider the improbability of my action, I suffused an extra wave of mana forward into the carriage and attempted to diffuse the energy into the air. Since its discovery, the ability had never been used for anything aside from controlling small currents of air, but I was desperate to focus my mind on anything aside from the churning in my stomach. I fought against the unconscious barriers I held in place as I struggled to remember the feeling I had found in my initial breakthrough, but after a few moments of concentration, a tugging on my mana reserves told me I had succeeded.
The excess energy I had channeled into the carriage diffused through the air inside, slowly filling the gaps in my mental map with a bizarre, sourceless glow. Having never attempted the idea before, I simply shifted my focus to the inside of the carriage in the hopes that I could perceive sound through my Detection the same way I could see. To my surprise, I immediately heard Bella’s voice as if she were sitting directly beside me, although the effort it took to maintain the ability forced me to slow my frantic pace through the woods in order to avoid colliding headfirst with an emberwood.
“Ma’am, I still...be headed south, not...for your friends.” Bella’s voice cut in and out as my focus constantly adjusted. “The Ellawynn Guard...effective than two random…”
“There’s no time,” Elise answered, her nostrils flaring. “Another caravan...in our backyard. The Ellawynn...make it in time to stop...to Mayaan.”
Bella leaned forward and put a hand on Elise’s knee. “I’m sorry. Losing people...had to deal with before. I...whatever you need.”
I nearly tripped over my own feet as I watched Elise lean in and kiss Bella deeply. When the passionate exchange was over, Elise pulled her face back a few inches and leaned her forehead against Bella’s. “I know. This isn’t...are supposed to be.”
The sound of horse hooves pounding against dirt grew louder in my ears as the first flashes of the carriage appeared through the trees ahead of me, and I withdrew my extended mana to allow the couple a final moment of privacy before I arrived. I burst from the treeline a few feet from the carriage door and matched its pace, sprinting alongside as it continued to bounce down the uneven road. “Elise!” I shouted, much to the surprise of the driver and horses. A second later, the curtain pulled back to reveal Bella’s face behind the window, and the door swung open.
Elise watched me with her head slightly askew as I hopped into the moving carriage and sat down across from her. “Lux, you’re...early,” she said, confused.
“Right,” I nodded, uninterested in coy formalities. “What’s happened? What do you need?” The muted red of the blood against her beautiful blue overcoat was more unsettling in person than it had been through my Detection.
Her throat tightened as she swallowed hard, and her eyes flitted to Bella momentarily, where she found a reassuring nod. “I’ve been sending supply caravans east to the Mountain Gate to aid in the reconstruction efforts.” She paused for effect, but my mind was too singularly focused on what awaited us to register any guilt for the difficulties I had caused. “Things were running smoothly for the past week—until this morning. The caravan was ambushed on their way back to Mayaan, about ten miles east of here. Of my thirteen employees, only three survived.” Her eyes fell to the stains on her coat. “No, sorry. Two.”
“What ambushed your men, Elise?” I asked, though the answer already burned at the forefront of my mind.
“They said it was a group of...monstrous, spider-like creatures,” she murmured, closing her eyes against the thought.
The pit in my stomach split further apart as my blood ran cold. “A group of them?”
“Yes, at least five. Maybe more,” she answered solemnly.
Fuck. I swept a wave of mana around the surrounding forest and was relieved to find Lia in full battle gear, on pace to meet our carriage at her parents’ house with Marin close behind. “Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Lia and I will handle it. You two should stay with Hana and Marin while we’re gone.” My brain ticked through a quick checklist of priorities as I spoke. “Do you know where Marten is today?”
“South, thank the Primes,” Elise answered. “He stopped by my office this morning, said he’d be back at dusk.”
“Good.” I unlatched the door behind me and leapt out of the carriage as it began to slow down. Lia sprinted out from the forest a moment later and appeared at my side alone, having pulled a few seconds ahead of Marin on their dash. “Another of Elise’s caravans was attacked,” I told her, speaking quickly in a low, even voice. “Only a dozen miles east of here. The survivors described our monster from the Midlands; apparently, there are at least five of them.”
A brief flash of fear tingled across the back of my neck from Lia’s aura, but it was quickly dismissed and replaced with resolve. “When are we leaving?”
“Now. We can’t let those things reach Mayaan,” I answered. “Elise and Bella are going to stay here with your mother while we go—”
“Where are we going?” Marin cut in, having finally reached our huddle.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” I said sternly. “You’re staying here while Lia and I go deal with this.”
“Wait, what? Why?” she asked, frowning. “I don’t even know what’s going on yet!”
“More of the monsters Lia and I fought showed up,” I said, tipping my
head towards the carriage as Elise and Bella climbed out. “You’re going to stay here with them while Lia and I go hunt the monsters down.”
“No, I’m not!” she insisted, stomping her foot. “I’ve been training for over a month! You can’t just keep me here and—”
“This isn’t another training match, Marin!” I interrupted, my voice quickly approaching a shout. “You don’t get to fall down into the dirt and complain when one of those things beats you; you just die. You might be ready to deal with bandits and thugs, but you aren’t ready for this.”
She screwed up her face into a sneer as I accosted her. “How am I ever supposed to be ready if you never let me fight one, then? That doesn’t make any sense!”
“This isn’t a discussion, Marin.”
I turned to walk away and end the conversation, but Lia caught my arm. “I think she should come, Lux.”
My jaw nearly fell open as I turned back to her. “Why?”
“Well, she’s right; sort of right, anyways. If these...things are going to continue to be an issue, she’ll have to face them eventually. And if things keep getting worse, this might be the safest time to do it.” I could see the struggle plainly on Lia’s face as she spoke. “I’m not saying she should come and fight on the front lines with us, but she needs to see what we’re facing.”
“Oh, not you too!” Marin groaned. “I’m ready to fight! I have the gauntlets, and we’ve been—”
“MARIN!” I yelled, far too loudly; Marin physically recoiled from the shout, while Elise and Bella turned their heads in our direction and stared in interested silence. I put a hand to my head and rubbed my temples as my thoughts screamed at each other, attempting desperately to find the proper answer to my dilemma. “Listen. You can come with us, but you won’t be fighting. You’ll stay back at a safe distance and watch the battle. You’ll prioritize staying safe at all costs, you’ll only fight if your life is immediately threatened, and you’ll follow every order that either Lia or I give you. That, or you’ll stay here: your choice.”
Restart Again: Volume 3 Page 35