The Sword that Binds (Book of Worlds 1)

by Taran, David

  It was midday before Ropal had asked one of them to scout ahead, saying that the area within the first few hours of a village was the safest and usually didn’t require a forward guard. Sarena had volunteered, using the chance to travel half a mile ahead, just in range of Tyrus’ perception so he could let them know if they encountered any troubles and needed help. With the distance between them Sarena could openly speak to Uckey and Tyrus instead of just having to listen to the two of them talk.

  “I’ve told you before that the lesser races are similar to the creatures in the Godwoods, but only in the sense that they are aggressive,” Uckey began to explain, his voice becoming unnaturally serious, something that Tyrus noticed it tended to do when he was teaching. “They almost all originated from the northern forest, and were at one time just ordinary wildlife. A race called Elves lives within those forests, and they are an all almost entirely magical. Unfortunately, outside of a few rare High Elves, none of them can control their magic and it simply saturates the auras of everything around them. When there are only a few gathered together it promotes growth and the forest flourishes, but if for any reason there is a large gathering of elves their Life magic overwhelms everything, causing mutations and unnatural growth. Almost all of the lesser races were born from this, each of them being products of a gathering of elves. Most of them appeared when the elves took it upon themselves to make a great city within their forest, trying to learn from the Shavren. Before that the lesser races were so few in number that they were mostly ignored, but within ten years the number of them had increased by so much that even the dwarves were willing to leave their mountain and go to war.”

  “What’s so special about the dwarves?” Tyrus interrupted him.

  “The dwarves are peerless craftsmen, more so than any other race, and almost never leave their mountain! Even Stewrix itself was created by them, and we didn’t even ask them to do it! My ancestors were spread out all over Mount Eberak until one day the dwarves said they had a surprise for us!” Uckey exclaimed proudly. “They have always been the greatest allies of the gnomes! Although it is a bit strange that they made Stewrix so far away from them, almost a month’s journey. We’ve never been able to get a straight answer from them about that.”

  Tyrus couldn’t help but laugh. There was no doubt in his mind why the dwarves would want to be rid of the gnomes. If they talked even half as much as Uckey did then even a month away sounded like it might be too close. Before Uckey could continue Tyrus wanted to try and have a couple more questions answered.

  “Uckey, how come I’ve never seen you do any magic? I know you can use the mana element, but what else?” Tyrus asked.

  “Because I’m a horse now! My magic hasn’t been working right since that blasted fake dragon put me in this body! I can sense the elements around me somewhat, but not more than a couple steps away. Gnomish magic works very differently than your instinctive Shavren magic. I need hands and fingers to work it. These hooves just aren’t nimble enough. Normally I could lay out the matrix I need for a spell without them, but this horse’s mind doesn’t let me form them for some reason.” Uckey replied, “If it wasn’t for that I could show you the real power of a gnome! Personally I’ve mastered the elements of wind, water and stone, and I am the foremost expert on the unconquerable mana element! Or at least I was in my time, and I strongly doubt anyone will ever surpass my achievements.”

  “Wait! You can use four elements?” Sarena blurted out.

  “Five to be exact! There’s also earth, but it’s such a boring element that I chose not to study it in favor of stone. Who cares about dirt when you can use rocks? All gnomes can use those five elements, but only by creating a matrix, or magic circle as the Shavren tend to call them. All done through research of course! Far more useful than being limited by just one or two elements like everyone else in my opinion,” he said, his voice brimming with pride.

  “So in other words, you’re completely useless because you have hooves,” Tyrus said.

  “No! As a master of three elements I am able to form the matrix within my mind to cast! It’s just that this horse’s mind is incapable of holding the form of the matrix, otherwise I would be just as powerful as I was before!” Uckey continued to shout, giving Tyrus a mild headache as usual.

  Tyrus suddenly felt a presence pop up within his search radius, instantly causing him to alert the others. Almost immediately several other presences started to appear at the edge of his perception, all of them with auras showing aggression and excitement. Most of them were small, only about half the size of a man and even their auras felt weak, but one of them towered over the rest. He judged it to almost twice the height of Sarena with an aura just as imposing, filled with an earthy brown color that seemed immovable.

  “There’s around a dozen of the smaller ones, and one huge creature. The big one is the only one that feels dangerous, it’s about half again the size of a grown man, and if its aura is anything to go by then it’s probably several times as strong too. They’re about half a mile ahead of us, so we should probably wait here until Jesba and Ropal catch up,” Tyrus warned them.

  “Sounds like goblins for the smaller ones, common and weak, but able to overrun you with their numbers if you aren’t careful. The big one could be an ogre or a troll. Trolls are too stupid to work with any other creature, though,” Uckey said.

  Uckey stopped and waited, and it wasn’t long before they caught sight of Ropal’s cart coming around a bend towards them. Ropal reined in the horses pulling his cart when he had caught up with them. He eyed Tyrus in Sarena’s hand, the faint blue glow drawing attention.

  “What’s the problem?” He said as he stopped.

  “There’s a group of around a dozen goblins hidden in the trees ahead of us. It looks like they have an ogre with them also, but I didn’t get a good look,” Sarena said, “They-”

  “They’re here!” Tyrus yelled to Sarena and Uckey, panic in his voice as his perception suddenly found them surrounded by goblins. Their auras appeared from seemingly thin air, with no warning at all that they were there. He could sense several arrows flying towards them, and began to flood Sarena with power without hesitation. He swung himself towards the arrow aimed at Sarena, knocking it to the side, and instantly shifted to knock the arrow about to strike Ropal out of the air.

  Jesba had somehow drawn his own sword as soon as the arrows had appeared, his aura never showing any sign of surprise as he batted aside the arrow aimed at him. The last two struck Uckey and bounced off of his thick hide. Tyrus hadn’t been worried about him at all. Even if his body was a young glow horse, there was no way any creature in the Godwoods could survive if even arrows could hurt it. He could sense Sarena attempting to pull on his power, so he withdrew on his own and let her draw it in herself. As soon as Tyrus felt the wind element appear within her Sarena had leaped off Uckey. She could move much faster on her own than riding him, and she didn’t hesitate to charge into the forest.

  The first goblin she came across didn’t even have a chance to react. Sarena swung Tyrus across its neck, beheading it before it knew she was there and moving on to her next target. In less than ten heartbeats half the goblins had been killed. Tyrus didn’t even have a chance to tell Sarena where they were at. She moved so fast that most of them had died before they knew they had been attacked. The fight would be over before anyone else could even find a goblin at the rate she was killing them.

  Suddenly Tyrus could feel a mass of dark power moving rapidly towards Sarena. It twisted around the trees, so fast that even with Sarena’s speed she wouldn’t be able to outrun it. It didn’t seem like she had noticed it, and there was no time for Tyrus to warn her. As she was finishing off the final goblin it slammed into her back, latching on to her aura and rapidly diminishing her strength. The wind element in her was doing nothing to stop it, so Tyrus did the only thing he could think of and pulled his power out of her grasp, flooding it back into her as pure mana. Hot red pain was spreading everywhere through
out her aura. Sarena gave out an agonizing scream. He was pushing as much of his power as he could into her, letting it saturate her aura instead of focusing on any individual strand. It only lasted a few moments before the dark power began to fade away, its power spent trying to destroy Sarena’s constantly regenerating aura. Her screams stopped as the pain disappeared from her aura, but she had fallen to her knees and was panting even with it gone.

  “What was that, Uckey!” Tyrus shouted, concern lacing throughout his voice, “How could those goblins appear from nowhere! And what was that dark energy?”

  “The goblins must have a shaman with them. You need to focus on finding an area nearby that feels empty. Normal goblins are no threat, but a shaman can wield shadow magic and are far more dangerous. They can hide their allies and attack the soul of their enemies,” Uckey sent back.

  Does that mean that all of the auras I feel are actually their souls? Then how come I can feel auras from things that aren’t alive?

  It took less than the blink of an eye for Tyrus to find the empty space Uckey had mentioned. He had felt it before, but hadn’t considered it a threat since he didn’t even know it was possible to hide an aura. Standing right behind Sarena was the dark spot on his perception, and her aura was still recovering from the attack. Tyrus launched himself forward, stabbing into the empty area where he estimated the heart would be. The moment the tip of his blade passed the boundary he could feel the aura of the creature, a black roiling aura laced with greed and anger. He adjusted his aim as he pierced the veil, skewering the goblin directly through the heart before quickly withdrawing back to Sarena’s hand as he sensed Jesba drawing close to them.

  “You alright?” He asked as he walked around a tree into sight of them. His eyes flickered to the goblin dead on the ground behind Sarena, surprise and concern showing in his aura for a brief moment.

  “I’ll be fine in a moment,” Sarena answered, forcing herself to stand on shaking legs. She was still breathing heavily, but Tyrus could feel her aura and body recovering quickly. Luckily the shaman’s spell hadn’t done any physical damage. It would take him much longer to heal that compared to her aura.

  Jesba nodded at her answer, looking around at the carnage Sarena had created in the brief battle. Approval lanced through his aura before disappearing like every emotion he had tended to do.

  “Good work,” he said briefly, turning back and walking to the road.

  “What a charming man,” Sarena muttered under her breath before looking behind herself at the shaman Tyrus had saved her from. “Thank you, Tyrus. I would have been doomed without you.”

  “It was my fault to begin with,” Tyrus guiltily replied. “I should have known they were there. There’s no such thing as something having no aura. I could have asked Uckey and we wouldn’t have been surprised like this.”

  Sarena was silent for a time as she stared at the shaman’s corpse. “Don’t blame yourself too much. We both have made mistakes instead of just asking. Neither of us has any experience in this world, without Uckey we would be completely blind here. Not that he’s much help, he can barely talk without bragging about himself or some other gnomish achievement,” she said regretfully. “I have to admit, these goblins are some of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. I’m almost envious of you only being able to sense auras instead of having real sight.”

  “Don’t be. That shaman was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever felt, and the others weren’t much better. We should get back to the road, there’s still that other group to deal with,” he answered.

  Sarena walked back to the road that was just beyond the trees. Her body had already stopped trembling, and every step was steadier than the last. The trees were far enough apart that there was still a fairly clear line of sight to the road nearly twenty feet away. Tyrus was sure that without a shaman to hide them the goblins would never be able to surprise travelers on this road. There simply wasn’t enough cover to remain hidden and near them. When they stepped back on the road they both noticed the bodies of almost a dozen goblins strewn about. Most of them were cut down by Jesba’s sword, but a couple had bolts sticking out of their foreheads.

  “Bad luck to run into a shaman here,” Ropal said, holding a crossbow in his hands. “It’s good that you killed it before it could throw its shadow at you. It might only be able to do it once, but that’s enough to kill almost anyone.”

  Jesba’s aura felt odd to Tyrus, an emotion he didn’t recognize flickered into and out of existence every few moments. He decided to ignore it for the moment unless it became more prominent.

  “There’s still the second group up ahead to deal with, but I don’t think they have a shaman with them. I wouldn’t have found them if they did.” Sarena stated, avoiding the subject of the shaman’s spell. Tyrus knew that without his ability to empower Sarena’s aura that she wouldn’t have lasted more than a few moments against that attack, and he wasn’t too keen on them finding out about him. Uckey had made it clear that enchanted objects were very rare.

  “Of course, of course. Did you manage to see what kind of ogre it is?” Ropal asked.

  “There’s different types?” Tyrus sent to Uckey.

  “What did its aura feel like? Some ogres are able to attune to a specific element, usually stone or earth. They’re far more formidable compared to a normal ogre.” Uckey replied.

  “Stone,” Tyrus said to Sarena hurriedly.

  Sarena shook her head before answering, “I wasn’t able to see it too clearly, but it might have been stone.”

  “Stone? You mean a rock ogre?” Ropal furrowed his brow, his aura growing concerned. “That’s a problem. I know Jesba can’t cut a hide that thick, and I doubt you’ll be able to do anything to it with wind as your element. It looks like we’ll have to head back to Tovern and take the eastern route,” he sighed heavily while shaking his head. “It’s a bigger risk, especially if I can’t find any guards along the way, as well as costing me an extra day or two.”

  “Unacceptable!” Uckey blurted out to Tyrus and Sarena, “Stewrix is far to the north west, if we detour to the east we will never make it there in time! We need to break through the goblins and ogre!”

  “I’m afraid we’ll be parting ways then. We have business in the north and can’t afford to lose any time. My horse is more than up to breaking through a goblin defensive line, even with a rock ogre in the way,” Sarena said sternly.

  Ropal looked as if he wanted to stop her for a moment before he shook his head and sighed, “It doesn’t sound like I’ll be able to change your mind. You might even manage it with that demon horse of yours. Just make sure you don’t let the rock ogre get a hold of you. They may be slow, but they’re one of the strongest monsters out there. Good luck in your travels, maybe we’ll meet again if you ever find yourself in Edark. Just ask at the merchant guild for me and they will tell you where to find me.”

  Sarena nodded while patting Uckey’s back. “You don’t need to worry about me, Uckey here is faster than any ordinary horse, and no rock ogre or goblin can stop him. Thank you for everything, Ropal. I wish you a swift journey.”

  With those few words and a quick nod to the silent Jesba, the three of them started onward towards the pack ahead of them. Tyrus could sense Ropal turning his cart around and heading back with Jesba as soon as they had left.

  “We’ll be in sight of them once we go around the bend in the road just ahead. They are probably there waiting to ambush any travelers that were being chased by the first group we dealt with,” Tyrus said.

  “Are we really planning to just run through?” Sarena asked when they were far enough that Ropal and Jesba wouldn’t hear, “I doubt they have another shaman. And I bet that rock ogre’s hide is nothing to Tyrus’ edge.”

  “No! This is a great opportunity for you to try out the strength Tyrus can grant you. You won’t be able to win without it!” Uckey said enthusiastically as usual. “Rock ogres have an immense amount of stone element condensed into their skin,
enough that Tyrus won’t be able to scratch them even with his unnatural sharpness. Make sure to deal with the goblins quickly, then fight the ogre with brute strength! It will be a good measure to see just how much power you two actually have.”

  “What? I won’t be able to cut through it? Uckey, even the strongest creatures we found in the Godwoods couldn’t resist my edge, how could a normal monster be any different?” Tyrus asked indignantly. He had yet to find anything that could match him, so hearing that a normal rock ogre would be beyond him was a little insulting.

  “The Godwoods was saturated with time magic, not life. While the creatures in there are all most likely ancient and mutated, that’s all they have. Time magic can only be used by Ankaros, so those creatures might have been filled with power that they could never use. On the other hand, life magic not only mutates a creature into a monster, it nurtures the natural power they already have. An ogre with a strong affinity for stone will grow even closer to that element, until it merges with it entirely and becomes what we have today, a rock ogre,” Uckey explained, “The shaman was another, lesser, example of that! It obviously had a small affinity with shadow, and was able to cast a couple spells with it. I doubt it could have done any more than it already had when you killed it.”

  “So you’re saying those creatures in the Godwoods were just ordinary animals? They felt a lot stronger than that to me,” Sarena said.

  “Not ordinary! Mutated the same way as normal monsters are, but without any affinity for the elements! Magic might have sustained them, but their abilities are all physical in nature. Take this glow horse for example. I’m much stronger, faster, and tougher than an ordinary horse! But that is all. With no elemental affinity my hide might be able to stop an arrow or slow a blade, but I have no defense against real magic!” Uckey said exasperatedly.