There was an intruder inside his library. A tangled weave of lines of glowing light danced and throbbed in the air as it floated through the library, dozens of tendrils of light reaching out and touching individual ‘books’ of memories Endrance had set. As he stared at it, the thing was
shuffling books around in rapid order, dozens at a time, as it reorganized his entire life inside his head.
He could not sense any malice from the thing, and it wasn’t destroying his memories. If anything, it was helping restore the damage that had been done when he had tried matching wills with the succubus. What made it painful was, in fact, the amount of damage that had to be fixed. Endrance decided to take the risk and stopped fighting the thing’s influence.
Immediately the spell unraveled from its knotted state, forming into a shape that appeared human, but not. It looked more accurately like an empty silhouette of a human, with only its meridians visible in glowing blue lines. Endrance stared at it for moments before he realized that it looked like him. He could identify the meridians of his spellscribing along his arms and hands present in the spell.
The spell did not seem able to react directly to his presence, and he could not leave himself vulnerable in front of Jalyin. As he had discovered it was not a dangerous spell affecting him, he relaxed his focus, coming back to the real world
Endrance opened his eyes and shook his head. Though it throbbed, the headache he was feeling was rapidly fading. He was on his hands and knees, even though he had not remembered falling. His nose bled profusely, spattering hot blood on the stone below in the dark.
Endrance held his nose closed with one hand and pushed himself up to his feet. He was in pitch darkness again, since he had lost his grip on the goblin’s sight ability. He thought about how he had done it before, and his eyes burned almost before he was done thinking it, his vision returning. The transition was much faster and took less effort and concentration than before. Something about the two bracers working together made using the knowledge gathered from them easier.
Endrance looked around. Jalyin was standing next to him. Almost uncomfortably close to him. He took a half step back, one hand still pinching his nose. A flicker of a grin crossed her face, but then she simply held out a rag of cloth. Endrance took it and used it to blot his nose.
“Well… That was new.” Endrance said nasally.
Jalyin sat on one of the stone blocks. “Are you well?” she asked. “I was worried that she had somehow anticipated you using the bracer and had prepared it for you.”
“She could have prepared it.” Endrance admitted. “But I don’t think she did. These were made by her when she was alive. I don’t think she could add much more magic to them.”
“Are you well enough to continue?” She asked. “I do not have much time.”
Endrance cautiously felt out his aura. Faint flickers of light emerged in the air around him, but faded quickly. “Yes.” He said. “Just a moment.”
He quickly flicked his hands in the right gesture and spoke the correct words of power as he slung a healing spell. Golden light radiated from his injuries as they vanished, healed. He removed his hand from his nose, glad the bleeding had stopped. He went to toss the bloody rag on the table, but paused. It did have his blood on it and he was going to try to treat her for a curse that targets through blood.
He held the rag in his right hand and clenched his fist around it. He connected a trickle of power to his meridians through his lightning spell. Without casting it from him, the lightning crackled across his fingers, igniting the cloth. He tossed the burning cloth on the table and watched as it reduced to ashes.
He turned to her and noticed her watching the rag burn. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Was that important?”
She shook her head, looking back at him as the last of the fire died out. “Just a scrap.” She said.
“Okay, we can get started now.” He said. “I need to see the focal point of the curse.”
Jalyin frowned distastefully as she unbuckled the leather around her chest. She peeled the armor away. It was true; it had been the only thing she was wearing. “Don’t get any ideas.
“Please.” Endrance said with a roll of his eyes. “I live with a woman who is half succubus. I don’t know how it happened, but I have had an excess of women straddling me this week. I’d appreciate it if I could just do this and never hear about it again.”
“You do seem to have a way with supernatural beauty.” Jalyin admitted.
The cursed veins seemed to form a knot of black on her skin just under her right breast. Spreading out in a radius, the veins were visibly shifting as he stared intently at them. He tentatively reached out and touched the site. The areas of flesh burned hot with a feverish temperature, it was especially bad for elves as they had, in general, lower body temperatures than most men. At least, that’s what his studies told him.
Endrance closed his eyes and focused his senses to the magic of the curse. He was surprised when he felt the magic behind it; it seemed markedly similar to the magically fueled disease that Joven had been infected with when he had returned from his skirmish with the wolfmen. It was different in application, but he felt the same kind of energy at work. It must be the particular ‘flavor’ that necromancy had.
Endrance sensed around the structure of the spell, remaining focused for several minutes. Despite the pain she was in and the discomfort of her position and the cold of the tomb, Jalyin remained perfectly still. She had learned patience, and especially so when mages were involved. Interrupting a mage when working on complex magic was one of the most surefire ways to ruin the spell and possibly harm them, depending upon the magic. She would know, it was one of her favorite tactics when combating them.
Instead, she remained still until Endrance opened his eyes and withdrew his hand. “I need time to formulate a spell that will remove this.” He declared. “But I’ve got it.”
“You have it?” Jalyin said, buckling her armor back up.
“Yes.” Endrance replied. “I’ve encountered some of this magic before with the wolfmen that are attacking the city above. Human and, I guess, Elven life is not able to tolerate necromantic energy. The life energy of your body clashes with the necromantic energy, causing the extreme pain you feel.”
Jalyin nodded. “Our mages are trained in life magic. I know the basics.”
“So why are you here with me?” Endrance asked. “A mage trained in life magic and with hundreds of years of experience would be a far better choice than a sixteen year old mage with little practical experience who is also completely uninitiated in life magic.”
“Do you see any other elves here, considering that my homeland is hundreds of miles on the other side of Ironsoul?”
“Hmm… good point.” Endrance muttered. “Let me see what I can do. It may take time to formulate a counterspell.”
Jalyin sighed and leaned back against the table. “Hurry. I don’t know how much time I have left.”
“Four days.” Endrance replied without thinking. He sat on one of the stone blocks and plunked his head into his hands. “I am not sure how to counter this easily.”
“Why do you say four days?” Jalyin asked.
“Four what?” Endrance replied.
“Four days.” Jalyin said, irritated. “You said ‘four days’ after I said I didn’t know how much time…” She trailed off as she could see Endrance’s puzzled expression.
“Now that you mention it, based off the progression of the curse, current amount of corruption, and the rate of spread I could read from examining the spell, I guess four days does sound about right.” Endrance summarized, perplexed.
“No wonder I had such a hard time predicting your actions.” Jalyin mused. “How can I read your actions when you don’t even know what you can and cannot do?”
Endrance glared at her. Putting her out of his mind, he focused on designing the counterspell needed to remove the spell. After several moments, he realized that the components he needed t
o work with were far too much to work out without tools.
“You wouldn’t happen to have some parchment or quills or some other writing utensils, do you?” Endrance asked. Jalyin shook her head. “Damn.” He murmured.
“All right.” Endrance concluded. “I’m going to be very vulnerable while I work this out. I am going to have to trust you won’t disturb me while I design the spell that will save your life.”
Jalyin didn’t move, appearing both frozen and supple at the same time. “Don’t be foolish. I’m not in the habit of being suicidal.” She replied derisively.
Endrance scowled, but stood and walked over to where the old workers had rested. He found a clear expanse of stone and laid down on his back, his feet together and his hands clasped at his stomach. He closed his eyes and focused solely on the library in his mind. It would take too long to formulate a cure, but he could perhaps design a way to work around it.
Even though he had just left not minutes before, the condition of the interior was significantly improved. Shelves were righted; books sorted and categorized and even the rubble from his prior exploits had been removed somehow. The spell hovered in the air over his reflecting pool, its feet together and hands spread to either side at hip height. Endrance watched the living map of his meridians for a few moments, and then shook his head. It was time for him to get to work.
He came out of his trance nearly an hour later. His body shivered with cold from his bare back pressed against the stone. Darkness surrounded, and it took him a moment to realize that he had let his dark vision slip when he was meditating. A thought brought it back and Endrance blinked as he noted the room was empty. Sitting up, he didn’t see the assassin anywhere in the room, though her pack remained on the table. He stood, and that was when he noticed debris on the floor near the entrance to the chamber. Cautiously, he crept around the stone table, keeping it between him and the door.
He found bones. Several of them were shattered into splinters, while others lay scattered about seemingly randomly. Endrance knelt down and examined the scene quietly. Touching one of the bone splinters, Endrance felt a tingle of magic across his fingertip.
They had been animated at some point. Endrance didn’t know how, but they had entered the room, fought with Jalyin and disappeared without bothering him. He found a spatter of blood on the floor near the doorway, not enough to be lethal, but it could have been from a head wound.
“Why did they take her?” Endrance wondered, touching the drop of blood as he considered. He felt a similar tingle of necromantic magic in her blood. The wizard sighed, standing.
“I see.” He muttered. “Looks like I have to rescue her too. Gods, I hope she’s worth it.”
Endrance set off down the tunnel. He found occasional spatters of blood as he progressed, some of it smeared as if something were dragged through it.
Endrance realized that there might be more of them around and mentally prepared himself to fight. The only problem was figuring out what kind of magic would work on something so difficult to disable. He discounted almost all elemental magics; cold, electricity, and fire were all more effective on the flesh, not bone.
He did have a spell that flung or propelled objects. He even had it scribed onto the palm of his hand, allowing him to use it with a thought. He had used it to fling enemies off of him, but that put him far too close to consider it a viable combat option. If he had ammunition, he could use that instead, firing it like an arrow shot.
He dug in his pockets, only finding a small handful of coins that could be of service. Only copper pieces, each the size of his thumbnail; the people of Balator had hardly a need for anything of a higher value. Shrugging, he held the coins in his left hand, keeping a single copper piece in his right.
Endrance moved down the passage, slowing as he saw movement further down where the tunnel met the open chamber. A skeleton walked slowly towards him. Completely desiccated, the bones shambled down the bridge, it’s head at an odd angle.
Endrance thrust his hand out, keeping his fingers clenched around the coin. He empowered the scribed spell on his palm and it lit up with golden light as it drew up force. He opened his palm, and the light flashed. A sharp crack resounded through the tight passage as the copper bit exploded out of his hand. Endrance gritted his teeth as his palm stung and he was nearly blinded by the burst of light.
The coin’s aim was off, causing it to ricochet down the passage. Skipping off sparks on the stone walls, the coin missed the skeleton. It did, however, catch its attention. The thing turned its head towards him, sickly green light blossoming into existence in its eyes.
Endrance put another coin into his palm as it started to rattle towards him faster than he thought it could have. He held the coin out and desperately powered the spell again. Endrance tried aiming the coin with his fingers as the spell powered up. The coin burst from his hand, clipping the stone and missing the skeleton again. Panicked, Endrance grabbed four coins at once and tried one final time as the skeleton closed within reach. The thing raised its bony hands towards him as Endrance fired the spell.
The four coins cracked through bone and ricocheted down the hallway, causing a strange pattern of sparks in the darkness. The skeleton’s advance reversed, exploding into unattached bones that skittered away from the wizard. One coin hit the thing’s skull, blasting half of it into powder as it was flung away.
Endrance held his breath as pieces of the thing clattered to a stop. He waited for one second, two seconds, three, hoping that it was down and was not going to somehow reassemble. He was fortunate; the undead thing seemed to have been permanently downed. Endrance checked his reserve of coins, grimacing when he realized he had only five left. If he was lucky he could find one or two that he had shot, but he was unsure if they were even recoverable.
Endrance stepped over the skeleton proceeding down the passage onto the walkways. As he did, he tried to figure out how to better aim the coins. If they could stick to his palm they might actually be useful.
He remembered something that he had thought was fun as a kid, where jokingly his father had tried to show him how to balance a spoon on his nose. He failed several times before his father revealed the secret was to breathe on the inside of the spoon first, making it moist. Endrance sighed and looked down at one of the coins. Embarrassed despite the fact he was, for all intents and purposes, alone, Endrance put one to his lips and licked it before trying to stick the wet side to his palm. It stuck well enough and he was able to hold out his hand with the coin attached for a few seconds before it slipped off. It wasn’t very long, but it was long enough.
“I’m just glad Joven isn’t here to see me.” Endrance muttered. “He’d probably find it hilarious.”
Following the trail seemed simple, until he made it to the main walkway. There, a second skeleton was approaching his side passage. Using the trick he had figured out, he was able to aim the coin before firing and scored a direct hit on his first try. Even if it wasn’t destroyed, the skeleton was knocked off the bridge and fell to shatter on the stone below. After that, he felt slightly less embarrassed.
The pattern of blood droplets stopped at the main bridge and Endrance looked about, worried that they had merely thrown her off the side. He looked down the bridge towards the king’s tomb and felt dread begin creeping up his spine again. The doors of Rothel’s tomb were open. He knew then there was only one place she could have been taken.
Endrance balked; he knew what lay within, and he would be incapable of handling anything that went on inside. He also knew he was not welcome in Rothel’s tomb anymore, for reasons that he was unable to fathom. The wizard took a steadying breath, squared his shoulders, and headed into the tomb. He didn’t have much choice; whoever it was had forced the issue.
Chapter 15
Another wolfman leapt down the stone steps at Bridget. She ducked under it, shouldering its legs out from under it as she ascended. The wolfman landed in a tumble, immediately being set upon by two more barbarian war
riors following closely behind the Draugnoa as she stormed up to the top of the outer walls of the city.
Clearing the landing, she swung her blade, cleaving through the next wolfman’s neck. She kicked the still twitching body over, pushing through the fatigue making her arm feel like lead. It had been the first battle she had been in since she had lost her arm, and she had been fighting for hours on the front line of several heated skirmishes. Even before her injury, she would have been exhausted.
Now, she worked twice as hard and still could not escape the fact she was not good enough. That fear gripped her, driving her to fight harder and harder. She had been clawed a few times, but the newly made armor protected her well and her companions had been able to bandage her up. She was starting to recognize she had been acting recklessly, but it was too close to the end of the fight to stop. Just a bit further, and the walls would be back under barbarian control in the first day.
It had better be soon, as the night was falling swiftly. Soon the suns would set, and they would lose much of their advantages. The dead wolfmen didn’t need to sleep, eat, or drink. They also seemed much better able to fight in darkness than an average barbarian.
She pressed forward, stepping under the next wolfman’s swipe and chopping into its knees. As it fell over she hopped past it, striking to disable and delay instead of killing. The men behind her rushed up and were glad to finish off every legless or torn open wolfman she left in her wake.
A pair of wolfmen rushed her together, their jaws wide and claws outspread. She tried sidestepping, but her fatigue slowed her just a fraction of a second too late. One of them barreled past, and the other collided with her nearly straight on. She and the wolfman tumbled across the stones, her weapon skittering out of her hands and over the inner side of the wall, plunging into the amassed battle of barbarians and wolfmen below.
The wolfman had a grip on her one arm, and the other dug into the metal bands on her right side. His initial bite had only caught on the metal pauldron, but she was pinned.
Spellscribed: Ascension Page 20