by P. S. Power
"That would be faster, I think, than attending a class halfway through the year."
He walked away, moving to another group of students, these being older and while not better at everything, they were all more well rounded, it was clear. A big stick was placed on her shoulder from behind, which meant that she grabbed at it and rolled away, narrowly avoiding the incoming attack.
It was Havar, and regardless of what he'd intended to do, they fought full force for nearly an hour, with her trying as hard as she could to take her frustrations about his biology out on him. He didn't back off, but for once it was him that ended up being on the ground, waving a stick at her weakly while she beat him unconscious. She got the healing amulet for him, since she'd actually hit him in the head a few times and didn't want him to accidently die from it.
That was the hard part for her. The Baron was one of her favorite Instructors at the school and she still wanted to be his friend, but didn't know if he could ever return that. It made her so angry that her blood wanted to boil up out of her ears, but it was just what she had to deal with.
She noticed something however. His face had been pock marked when they first met, but was smooth and regular now. It had been after the first healing that he'd done. That wasn't new, and yes it made him better looking, but wasn't her actual thought on the matter. No, it was that the scars faded, after one healing session. But Kolb's hadn't.
That meant something, didn't it? He used the device, just like the rest of them, since not being crippled for weeks was useful, but that always stayed and shouldn't have. It was a trick, clearly, but how was it done?
Something on his skin, outside of the body perhaps? Nanos? She didn't know, but it was glaring, now that she realized it.
Her communications device, along with everything else that she had that wasn't clothing or inside her skin, started to glow, over on the weapons table. She jogged to it, moving around people with proper distancing, since she didn't want to end up in their fight at the moment. After tapping the device, not picking it up, a man's voice came across clearly.
That was different, since she knew he was twelve, so had to be faking it.
"Tiera? Tim here. I... could use a bit of help. It seems that grandmother..." There was a horrible retching sound then and all talking stopped for a minute. "I think I've been poisoned. I haven't worked out the delivery mechanism, but I'm in the middle of Ross and don't have a Healing amulet on me. I lent mine to someone whose family was showing symptoms of the plague, I was going to it, but... I don't think I can make it."
"I'm coming. Where are you, exactly?"
He didn't know and was fading while they spoke, which wasn't good. He had his Fast Craft, and she got him to make it light up, as brightly as he could, in red so it would be distinctive.
"On my way. Hang in there." She was panicked and sounded it, collecting her things up and getting her Tor version craft out. It was simply faster after all. She didn't run out of the practice square though, just shouting instead.
"Get back! Emergency. I'm leaving from here!" She slapped the vehicle into being, as if extra force would make it happen more quickly and scrambled into the seat, only to find that some girl that she'd only worked with a few times before was getting in too.
Tiera didn't have time to push her out and simply took off, explaining as she did it.
"My younger brother was poisoned somehow, and is in the middle of Ross. I have a Healing amulet and need to get to him as fast as possible."
"Right. What do you need me to do?"
"On the side toward you, in the pouch, I have a communications device. Do you know how to use it?"
"Yes." The words didn't explain much but she scrambled it out without making them crash, so had clearly gotten the idea. "Who do we need."
Tiera had to think for a second. She wanted Timon, to make certain he was alive still, but people might need to be warned, which meant someone that wasn't rushing to aid others, but would be listened to.
"Prince Alphonse. When he gets on, explain what I said and that we need him to spread the word, since we don't know if this is just Tim or all of us. Anything that might take my brother down would likely slaughter the regular people of the world."
The woman, Mags, looked shocked, but found the right sigil and didn't ask if Tiera meant it.
The device activated in about ten seconds.
"Alphonse here. What may I do for you?"
"Um, this is Mags Helms. Timon Baker is down, poisoned, somewhere in Ross, rescue is in progress, but all concerned parties need to be contacted, in case of further attack. Please alert them." She didn't turn the last bit into a question.
"On it. Who's on the rescue?"
"Tiera Baker and I. We're headed there right now, estimated time..." She had to look over, since it was clear she didn't know.
Working out the math, Tiera estimated it all, trying to be close to right. It was hard to think of, since worry filled her mind. Timon may very well already be dead. Gray knew what he was and if it was her, or another Ancient, then they'd know that her brother could survive a lot, and plan for it.
"Fifteen minutes to the edge of Ross, five to eight more to the center. It might take longer to locate him."
"Understood. Find him, Tiera."
"I will." No matter what. That was her duty.
Mags tried to call Timon then, but for the longest time there was no answer. When it finally came, he sounded so soft and near dead that he really couldn't be understood. The fifth year girl started talking, so he could hear them.
"We're coming. Help will be there shortly. Keep fighting. Do you understand me? Don't give in! This is important. We're nearly there." She didn't stop, even as they were nearly over the right area, with nothing to be seen at all.
It could take hours to find even a glowing craft there, the area being so large. Finally she nodded and looked at the larger girl.
"I'm taking this thing up. It's not going to be fun, and you won't be able to breath, but we'll have a better view. Get a big breath and let it out slowly."
The climb hurt, her ears popping and she did it so fast that her lungs felt like they were going to burst even when she exhaled hard. Mags started to desperately try and breathe, but the pressure inside the little craft wasn't keeping things up well enough at all as far as oxygen went. She realized then that if she'd set it up better they would have been fine for a while, just breathing the air they had, but she'd let it vent out, since that's how it was designed. Stupid of her.
On the good side she saw the glow and lowered the vehicle directly toward it, just as Mags passed out, which gave them better air, and got them to Tim fast. She could see him, sitting in his vehicle, which was large and bright at the moment, the front clear so he could see out. His eyes weren't open and it didn't seem like he was breathing, though that was hard to tell at a distance at the best of times.
She scrambled hard, leaving the other girl in the passenger's seat, gasping for air still as she used everything in her system up, trying to get to her brother. The door was open a bit, thankfully. He looked pale and so still it was frightening, so she tore the amulet from her neck and held it to his forehead.
Tiera couldn't tell if it was working at all, but the only thing she could do was wait and hope.
Chapter eleven
Most of the times that Tiera had ever seen a Healing amulet in use, it simply worked. It wasn't truly instant, but the person would feel a flash of pain, even a few minutes of it, or longer if the injury was bad, and then be better. Wounds closed, poisons left the body and things were regulated. Teeth would even grow back. It was an amplification of what would have happened naturally for the most part, a speeding up of things that took a lot from a person, but in all but the most dire of cases, left them alive and better than well.
Perfect.
Timon just sat there, slumped in his chair for a long time as she pressed the green sigiled focus stone to his head. He was breathing though, which meant it should be d
oing something, at least in theory. It just didn't feel right at all. She waited, not knowing what else to do. Minutes passed and Mags tried to come into the craft, but Tiera yelled at her, sounding upset.
"No! Stay out!" Relenting she bothered to explain, since it was clear she wasn't going anywhere for a bit anyway. "We don't know what caused this, or if it can spread. If it takes me too, then you need to make sure we're both destroyed utterly. Fire at least, and probably from a distance."
It sounded brave, and like she had a real plan in mind, other than dying with her little brother if this didn't work. She couldn't lose him too. Not now. It was selfish of her to think that way, wanting him to live just so she wouldn't have to grieve even more, but it was a thing inside her. It stung her mind, more than a bit, making her decide to simply kill herself rather than go through it again.
If she did it there, before anyone found them, or were called in by Mags, then no one would know she wasn't just making a noble sacrifice to save the land. She didn't think that using a cutter would work, since the only ones she had took focus to keep on while in use. That...
Count Lairdgren had suggested that was a safety measure, so that she didn't accidently go around chopping things apart, since she had one embedded in the back of each hand. It was different than that, she realized in the moment. He had to know that the discipline of holding one of those on would mean she'd be hard pressed to do it in a real fight. So if it was driven by rage, it either wouldn't be an issue, or she might just kick herself out of it, using that much focus.
Clever. She had an explosive weapon on her too, and that just took tapping a sigil. She'd have to hold her shield off to do it, but she could. She practiced that daily, while being beaten and attacked, didn't she? It was the same thing, more or less.
It was a plan and if no one would ever know about it other than her, it was what she'd be doing, possibly shortly.
Timon however, seemed to have a different idea, opening his eyes and groaning a bit.
"That, is not fun." It sounded like him, and not someone near death, though he grabbed at the healing amulet when she started to take it away. "No, this isn't done yet. I... I'm not certain, but I think someone tried to suddenly change my pattern. Into a dog."
There was a bit of a smile on his lips and he went on, giving her information about it, either so it would be remembered, or because he thought he might still die from it.
"I was in Printer, making a delivery to Holly. Countess Printer, I mean. It wasn't anything big, just some produce from Soam. On my way out a man, who looked to be a merchant, walked up and asked me to look at something he'd made. It was clearly a tech device, but different than anything I've seen. It had a bright light that bounced between mirrors and through a thin film that he said was a tissue sample from a dog, held in glass. It hit me, right through my shield, but I figured it wasn't anything really, just kind of neat, for one of us to make here. Then he packed it away, and left, not giving me his name at all."
Tiera just sat, memorizing what was said. It was certainly strange enough to be what had caused this, wasn't it?
"Did the man seem like Gray? You said..."
"Not really. He was friendly and seemed excited to get to talk about what he was doing to someone that knew it wasn't magic. I should have realized that it would do something, but I can't see how it would work at all. I need to get a drawing of him made or something. That's not a thing I know how to do well at all yet." He seemed stronger as time passed, and was almost normal, but didn't let go of the healing device at all, pressing it to the same spot on his head that she had.
"I want to make sure this is really fixed. It was... strange. I don't know what that thing did to me, but I was so close to dead I saw people. Dead ones. Mainly those that died from the Gray Plague. They are not all that happy with me, do you know that?" He said it with a bit of his old charm to the words as if his withholding the healing devices from their rebelling Counts was cute and clever, rather than mass murder. It was a thing that she wouldn't have done. Of course, due to that one action they were engaged with a few clever people trying to attack in ways they weren't ready for, rather than mass armies and conscripts from all over the Kingdom, just waiting for spring, so they could march out and kill them all.
Which was better in the end? She knew enough of history to get that invading armies didn't normally just pat those conquered on the back, did they? They'd rape and pillage, burn and kill the men. Often the young boys too, so that they wouldn't grow up to attack them later.
It wasn't better, what Timon had done, but it at least benefited their side. In the end, that mattered too.
She shook her head.
"No doubt. You'd probably best avoid dying for as long as you can, because the shades of those people have no reason not to make you truly miserable. I'm a bit surprised you aren't being haunted already. Except that isn't a real thing."
He chuckled, a dark and brooding thing.
"Oh, isn't it? It makes sense, a pattern lingering past death like that. I've seen a few things... Well, it might be nothing, which is why no one takes it too seriously. Ghosts, if they exist, aren't a real threat. Not to the living. I think I'm better now." He took the device from his head and turned it off, finally looking out the window, where Mags stood, the tall fighter staring at them. That got him to wave at least.
Tiera did too, which got her to come in, looking much relieved.
"You live then, and we don't have a new plague to consider?" The girl wiped a strand of slightly sweat soaked hair out of the way. She'd come from combat practice after all.
Tiera nodded.
"It doesn't seem likely, it was... different. Like a... I don't know. I think you have to stand in front of a specific device however, so as long as we don't do that, we should be fine. I'm not certain what to do at the moment however. Get in touch with the Prince and spread the word, I suppose?"
It was a thing to do and really did make sense, because they had some information and armies wouldn't be needed to fight off a hoard of attackers, most likely. Mags did that, which took time to get in, the Prince actually calling others almost constantly. At the same time Tiera called her own people, updating them. Lawrence Morris promised to spread the word to everyone to be on the lookout for the man, who Tim described to him in high level detail.
Tiera grunted once at the end of it.
"Try to take him alive, if possible. We can bring Timon in to look at anyone we find and see if it's the right person. The odds of him running to County Baker are really small, but we should be on the lookout, just in case. It's probably overkill, but I'm worried, since someone tried to kill my little brother." She wouldn't have done well with that at all, would she?
Her High Councilor made a noise that sounded nearly as distressed as she felt.
"Indeed, Countess Baker. The attempt to kill your current heir will not be taken lightly by anyone here. We wait word as to your other orders." By which he meant getting ready to march out to war, which wouldn't be what she was doing, unless they were attacked first, or it was required for some other real reason.
She felt pleased by the words anyway.
"Thank you. We'll try to do this with as little harm to anyone as possible."
It was all she could promise really. Oh, some people were going to die for it, that was just what had to happen, but it didn't have to be innocent farm kids that would be just as happy going to the harvest dance or sneaking off to hold hands behind the hay barn, would it? Not if she had any say in the matter. Commoners weren't fighters by nature. They could do it, and might at times, with each other, but from what Kolb had mentioned to her in lessons, and what she knew to be true from home, anyone too tall awed them all so much that they'd rarely fight back against them if it came to it. Not even to save their own lives, or those of their families. Putting people like that in harm's way was barbaric, and almost as bad, ineffective.
Count Morris had been willing to do it, which meant it was probably a bad idea.
Timon tried to assure them that he was well enough to fly back to his palace alone, which got Mags to smirk a bit, since he was a kid claiming his home was that grand. It was absurd, so she rightfully thought of it like that, and Tiera didn't correct her. She also didn't let her brother go alone.
"No, I don't think so. This is at least two attacks directed at you, personally. I was there for one, so I didn't really think of it that way, but this changes things, doesn't it? No one else, just you. Why is that, do you think? Are you into something that caused that, or did you figure out a secret plan that someone wants to keep hidden?" Her eyes narrowed, but she couldn't see what might be going on at all. He may not talk in front of Mags either, she realized, since she was an unknown in all this. Some girl that had come to help, because she was there. She might have been involved in something, or just planning to jump Tiera when she wasn't looking, going for a sober version of round two, which they should do anyway.
It wasn't the time for it, or the place, but that was really when she'd stand the best chance, as long as it didn't seem like a real attack.
Timon shocked her then, just explaining. It even sounded like the truth.
"Julie White," he looked at Mags and explained. "She's the leader of Soam, she told me that Gray had a pattern put into her that would cause her to despise me, since I'm the first son of her line. Any son would do, I'm sure. That means that she's been after me since we've met. Our mother is... a duplicate of her, in a way that we don't use here, but... It's similar to how all the Larval Assassins are all one man, but many, you've heard of that?"
"Yes, it's hard to believe, but well known." She still smirked at him a bit, but at least it was that kind that seemed like an attempt to humor someone, rather than an inner battle not to mock them. Tiera wouldn't put up with that toward Tim right now.
"Something like that. So, she doesn't just hate me, on a deep personal level, instead of seeing me as the darling grandson that she's never had, but fears me in a way that means she almost has to try and destroy me. The only good thing is that so far she hasn't been going after the others. Tal or Todd. It was a biological attack, this thing today, but not the kind that she normally uses."