by Eric Vall
“I see,” I replied quietly as I fell deep into thought.
That was a minimum of seventy-five thousand mouths to feed, and assuming only half of them had families, that number could easily be tripled. The only way Hatra would be able to feed so many people was if the farms were expanded into the desert or if the vassal villages were rebuilt.
Either way, it was going to take just as long as I’d originally thought for Hatra to be fully rebuilt. Perhaps even longer than I’d realized or planned for. I wasn’t sure how long King Rodion would be able to support Hatra with food and supplies and if doing so would only be a burden on the rest of the country. Not to mention the fact I’d have to leave Hatra soon to go on my campaign to woo the rest of Rahma.
“Are you worried about feeding your people?” Nikolaus asked gently as he placed his hand on my shoulder.
“How did you know?” I was a bit startled he could so easily read my thoughts.
“Because I’m in the same position you are,” Nikolaus replied with a tired smile. “I’m a Noble of the Sword with a duty not only to protect the city of Leyte, but the rest of this world as well. The burdens we carry are heavy ones, but we have the strength to bear it. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Somehow, Nikolaus appeared even younger to me as he spoke, and I had a suspicion he really was younger than me. Maybe he was even younger than Leon.
“Then I guess the two of us should stick together, huh?” I slung an arm around his shoulder and laughed. “Since we both know the burden of protecting everyone and everything we love, it would be good for us to have someone we can lean against. What do you think?”
Even though I’d only just met Nikolaus today, my instincts screamed at me that he was someone I could trust. He wasn’t in my pack, technically, but I had a feeling I was going to see him as pack soon enough. Maybe even as a younger brother. Could it be because we both shared raven colored hair? I didn’t know how my dragon instincts worked, but I just knew he was my ally.
“It would be an honor to fight at your side,” Nikolaus replied with a smile of his own.
“Well, hopefully we won’t be fighting anytime soon,” I laughed as I stepped away and rubbed at my neck. “Ah, this is going to be tricky.”
“What is going to be tricky?” Nikolaus glanced at me as curiosity gleamed in his silver eyes.
“I’m going to raise up the third wall,” I explained simply as I gathered my power inside of me.
“Lord Evan, wouldn’t it be better to wait until the terraces are completed?” There was a slight concern in Nikolaus’ voice as he took a step toward me. “A structure of the size you’re planning would take a large amount of power, aren’t you worried about an energy drain?”
“I won’t know until I try,” I told him. “I haven’t reached a limit yet with my power, and if I can’t bring it up in one go, I’ll try it in sections. But, if I can get this wall up by myself, then that’s one less thing your architects will have to bother with, and we’ll have a stronger defense that much quicker.”
“Very well,” Nikolaus sighed as he took a step back.
I focused my strength and power into the ground as I visualized a wall three hundred feet high. This was going to be the first line of defense for Hatra, and it needed to be taller than the other two walls. I wanted it to span all around my city and to be an impregnable defense no matter what came after my people.
As for how thick the wall would be, I wanted it to serve as another defensive structure, but have the capabilities for offense. That meant turning the interior of it into a garrison or something like it. So, the wall would have to be wide enough to accommodate troops passing through and living in it. I would have to make it at least one hundred and fifty feet wide for that to work.
So, I pulled forth my power, entirely sure I would be able to bring up the massive wall I was envisioning.
Something went wrong, though. It was like I was being choked, and the very air and life was being squeezed out of my body the longer I held onto the wall.
“Evan!” Nikolaus’ voice faintly reached my ears. “Let go of your power, stop!”
I tried, but it wasn’t responding. It was like I was being sucked in, no matter what I did. My power just kept flowing into the earth and air around me as I was slowly being drained of all life. My healing ability couldn’t keep up with what was happening, I was metaphorically bleeding out, and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening. I kept trying to break off the links with the ground, but the energy flow wouldn’t stop, and it was still trying to raise the massive wall I’d imagined around Hatra.
And that was what was trying to kill me.
Faintly, I felt a small hand gently wrap around one of mine, and then the whole world went white. There was nothing I could see or sense, just a plain and white existence.
I knew I wasn’t dead, I could feel my heart continue to beat in my chest. But what exactly just happened, and who had grabbed onto my hand like that?
Your power exploded out from you, Miraya’s voice echoed all around me in the white expanse. You could have died, had it not been for the Divine Maiden and the Prince of Light lending you their power.
“I almost died?” I asked as my heart skipped a beat, but I reminded myself I was still alive. I’d survived it. “Why did my power do that?”
The Sword of Hatra serves as another well of power for its wielder. Miraya’s voice was calm and serene, even in this situation. Misusing such a power can be potentially fatal, especially when one is unused to it. As you are, you are quite talented and powerful, but you don’t know how to wield or use me at all yet.
“Well, talk about a lesson learned.” I laid down in the white expanse and closed my eyes. “I overestimated what I could do, but I’m not going to make that mistake again. I thought I could raise the wall at once, since I’d already been able to rebuild the aqueducts, most of the city, and the other walls. But this endeavor is so much bigger than everything else, and I tried to do it in one go.”
Do not be so hard on yourself, Miraya chided gently, you aren’t the first Noble of the Sword to have done such a thing, and you won’t be the last.
“Still,” I muttered back to her tiredly, “I have to be held to a higher standard. I almost left my city without any protection.”
Well, you’ve been sleeping long enough, Miraya sighed carelessly, and as much as I want to continue speaking to you thus, the Divine Maiden would not be pleased.
“Wait, what do you mean?” I tried to ask Miraya, but the light around me began to fade and gave way to a different power.
The energy around me was familiar and soothing, and I could tell exactly where I was from it: the River Moonstone House. But I didn’t know how I’d gotten here. I’d been outside of the walls when my power went out of control.
How long had I even been asleep?
My power swirled angrily inside of me, as if it was infected or suffering from a poison. It was upset and vicious as it poked at my insides and made my spiritual sea turbulent.
But it didn’t matter how much pain I was in. Even if it felt like my very spiritual sea had been set on fire, I needed to learn how to stop this from happening again and figure out what had happened during the time I’d been unconscious.
So, I forcibly cracked open one eye and saw the white marble walls of the River Moonstone House. Moonstones glimmered along the walls and floors, and they caught the flickering light of the crystal lamps.
My head was on what felt like a soft pillow, but even so, it ached and throbbed.
“I feel like I got run over by a behemoth or something,” I groaned as I clutched at my head.
“Don’t move too quickly,” Alyona’s clear and sweet voice came from above me, “your power went out of control and spasmed around you. Your spiritual sea needed to be calmed.”
“And you calmed it down?” I winced as I rolled into a sitting position. “How?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alyona murmured back gently as she pee
red into my eyes. “What matters is how you’re feeling and how we can prevent this from happening again.”
“I didn’t hurt anyone though, right?” I asked with a furrowed brow.
“You hurt no one but yourself,” Alyona explained as she placed a gentle and cool hand on my cheek. “I sensed the turmoil in your power from down in the library and made my way to you as quickly as I could. Once I was there, I took in the power you were exuding and quelled it with my own.”
I leaned into Alyona’s gentle hand, and the pain I felt slowly disappeared and became nothing more than a faint memory in my mind. I didn’t know why or how, though, since this wasn’t healing magic I was sensing from her.
“You took my power?” I didn’t know how to react to that, I didn’t even know such a thing was possible for someone who wasn’t a dragon. “How?”
“I’ve skipped ahead of myself,” she laughed gently as she pulled her hand away from my cheek. “There is such a thing as soul magic. It is one of the arts learned not only by cultivators, but by sages as well. It is the power to make what belongs to another person, yours. Be it their mind or their power, you take control over it. Everything belonging to them, their soul and their very heart, is yours.”
Suddenly, Miraya’s words of the geas echoed in my mind, and I thought about the way the miasma had curled around Asher and the prisoners. Could this soul magic be the key to removing them from the control of the miasma?
“Alyona, can you teach me soul magic?” I asked as I stared right into her amethyst eyes. “I don’t care how long it takes to learn, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Are you sure?” Alyona tilted her head to the side as she considered me. “It is a difficult magic to maintain, you have to continually dedicate time to practicing your control. It’s not like a dragon’s Predation. Instead, I would call this a domination of power.”
“Asher and the prisoners from the Green Glass Sect are under the control of a geas,” I explained, “according to the Sword Spirit Miraya. If I know how to wield Miraya’s power properly and have an understanding of a magic similar to the geas, I would be able to do something about it. I just need someone to teach me so I’d be able to put my energy toward doing it.”
“That does make sense,” Alyona replied softly. “It must be a remarkably well created geas if we haven’t picked up on it yet. The geas could be why the first prisoner hasn’t woken up from her coma yet either, it shut her mind down.”
“That’s why I want to learn it,” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “I need to learn how to wield Miraya’s power as well. Can you teach me both?”
“I’ll teach you what I can,” Alyona hummed lightly. “Perhaps Nikolaus can be of help, too. He is a Noble of the Sword, after all. He would have first hand experience in comparison to my knowledge, which will mainly come from scrolls and tomes in regards to the Swords.”
That reminded me, there was still the spirit of my grandfather I could turn to for advice in the catacombs. Not just that, but the wisdom of all the previous wielders of the Sword of Hatra was supposed to be within the Sword and available to its current wielder.
I had a lot of resources. The only problem was I had a million things that needed my time.
“Do all Nobles of the Sword master soul magic?” I asked Alyona as I closed my eyes.
“Yes,” she replied easily, “they all master it to some degree. Some of the Nobles of the Sword have a natural talent for it, and the magic comes easily to them, but some of them learn only the basics.”
I didn’t have the time to dedicate a vast amount of time to learning soul magic, so I’d start with the foundations.
“Alyona, teach me the basics for now.” I opened my eyes, determined to do whatever it took to prevent today’s situation from happening again. “When we’re traveling around Rahma, I promise I will dedicate myself to mastering soul magic, but we don’t have that kind of time right now.”
“The basics are just that,” Alyona smiled tiredly as she straightened her back. “Meditation and mastering your spiritual sea, learning the way your power waxes and wanes until you have a solid grip on it. You can feel not only your own power, but the power of others around you. Your power will press down on others to either fill them with happiness or push them to the point of death. There will come a point, though, if you decide to fully master it, where all people will see in your face is death.”
“I’ll bear that burden.” I gritted my teeth as I forced a smile onto my face for my princess. “If I have to become the face of death in order to gain the power I need to protect what’s important to me, then I will.”
I had to master this power if I wanted to accomplish anything with the Sword of Hatra. It didn’t matter what I would have to sacrifice or become, there were those outside of Hatra who already considered me a demon.
I’d just be showing them how accurate their label was.
Chapter 10
“So, what do I have to do first to start learning soul magic?” I asked as I rubbed at the sore muscles in my neck and looked at Alyona.
“You aren’t doing anything just yet.” Alyona stood and dusted off her dress.
“What?” I frowned at her. “Why not?”
“You need to rest, you’ve already pushed yourself to the brink and collapsed once,” she said with a stern look. “I don’t want you to overtax yourself and your spiritual sea again.”
“Well, that makes sense.” I winced as I remembered how I’d passed out earlier. “I guess I can take it easy on everything for a while. I’ll just start building the walls up slowly again, maybe divide the sections up even smaller.”
“And that’s where you’re wrong,” Alyona said as she tapped my forehead with one of her fingers and smiled.
“Excuse me?” I blinked owlishly at the princess. “What do you mean I’m wrong?”
“You need to rest fully.” Alyona’s tone left no room for argument, but her amethyst eyes softened minutely. “That means not using your powers for at least a full day, maybe even a few more.”
“Seriously?” I groaned as I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
“Yes.” Alyona slid her hand through the air and pulled out blankets and pillows that she set on the ground around me. “You should spend some time here in the River Moonstone House recovering. It’ll do you and your spiritual sea some good and help speed up your recovery.”
“I’m guessing you won’t be spending the night in here with me?” I teased as I made a fake pouty face. “It’ll be rather lonely in here without your lovely presence.”
“You need to be resting,” Alyona replied with a hint of disapproval in her voice, “and that means no strenuous exercise or using your powers for anything.”
“Then where are you going to go?” I sighed as I leaned back on the pillows she’d brought out for me.
“Obviously, I will continue researching in the underground library.” Alyona smiled at me as she walked to the entrance of the hall. “I do hope you’re able to rest this evening.”
“How boring,” I muttered to myself as I closed my eyes and let the power of the moonstones embedded in the walls wash over me.
I spent the night in the River Moonstone House, but I was listless the entire time. I wasn’t used to sitting quietly in meditation anymore, I had gotten used to always fighting or doing something physical. Still, it wasn’t like I didn’t get any rest. In fact, even though I only managed a couple hours of sleep, it was some of the best sleep I’d had in years.
When I finally decided to leave the River Moonstone House, the sun hadn’t risen yet. The stars glimmered high above the rooftops, and the three moons of Inati lent their light to the world in place of the still sleeping sun.
I yawned languidly as I walked through the cobblestone streets of my city. It seemed like no one else was awake except for the guards patrolling along the walls. So, I decided to head toward the kitchens and see if there wasn’t something I could scrounge up.
As I started t
o walk toward the kitchens, I suddenly sensed two other people working outside of the city walls. They weren’t any of the guards from the Blue Tree Guild, though. In fact, it seemed like they were the two architects from Leyte. What on earth were they doing up at this hour? They couldn’t still be working on the plans for the terraces, could they?
Well, there was only one way to find out what they were doing.
I switched my destination from the kitchens and headed toward the main gate. This was more interesting than any leftover food I could scrounge up.
As I walked through the streets to get to the main gate, there wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary. It didn’t look like there was new life and hope in my city, but I knew there was. The people from Leyte had brought new possibilities with them, the plans for the terraces were proof of it, and I was excited to see what they were going to accomplish with their magic.
In fact, there was probably a ton I could learn from them. While Alyona and Laika were both knowledgeable, and there was a ton of information down in the underground library, that knowledge was either dated or limited. Alyona was taught to be a ruler from a young age and had the sacred knowledge befitting a cultivator of her rank, and Laika was a blooded warrior who had a menagerie of skills, but there were things even they didn’t know. Then there was the fact that nothing in the underground library had been updated for a thousand years.
I yawned just as I reached the road that led to the inner wall and the main gate of Hatra. I wasn’t really tired, but damn if my body and spiritual sea didn’t still feel drained. It helped being in the River Moonstone House for those hours, but it wasn’t enough.
The flow of power inside of me had slowed down to a minute trickle, and I wouldn’t have known it was even there if I hadn’t been concentrating on it earlier. My power was slowly resettling inside of myself, but I knew if I even tried to heal a bruise, my power would just futz out and maybe even backfire on me.