by Dante King
“Look at the glass that holds my supply of Renown,” I said.
She leaned in to look closer. “It’s changed!”
It was empty now, but it was wider than it had been before, as if it would now hold more Renown than previously. Also, it now had some fancy scrollwork around the base and the top—sinuous shapes like twining dragons adorned each end of it. I reached out to touch it.
As my hand hovered over it, the image faded. This time, instead of showing me options, it showed me something new entirely.
“What’s this?” said Cara, sounding surprised. It was an image of the troll we had killed. He was as he had been initially, untainted by the Festering.
Curious, I held my hand over the troll image. The intuition—which I was coming to realize was the special power of the Soul Binder—told me something very simple. This was a bonus. The troll was physically incredibly strong and had great endurance. Having killed him allowed me to bind his qualities directly to myself, rather than to any of my Personas. They would apply to me no matter what Persona I was wearing.
I smiled, explaining it to Cara. “The troll was not wicked or evil on his own account. I think the Tengu forced him to fight, and then the Festering took him. It was the Festering we killed, not the troll itself. Trolls are stupid, and can be cruel, but they are not intentionally evil. I’ll gladly accept the bonus that comes from his strength. It will be a useful upgrade in any situation.”
I reached out and laid my hand on the image of the troll.
This time, the shudder and rush of the upgrade hit me somewhere deep inside myself. I realized that the former upgrades had moved into the Personas, as if they were a skin I wore. This upgrade went straight into my heart. Cara was watching me with wide eyes and an admiring smile on her face.
Energy and strength surged through me. The extra strength was immediately taking effect, and I felt like I could've fought ten trolls single-handedly just at that moment. I felt taller, broader, stronger, and even more confident and virile than I had before.
“How do you feel?” asked Cara.
“I feel amazing,” I said, smiling. “I can't wait to be able to share the Personas with you; it's a really powerful feeling.”
“Me too,” she replied fervently.
“Don’t worry,” I said comfortingly, and reached a hand out to place it on her shoulder. “We’ll get there. I have a feeling it won’t be long until we can share Personas.”
Chapter Eight
The upgrade diagram faded from sight, and we looked around the dale again. We looked first at the civilians we had rescued. All three were sleeping soundly. Cara went over and examined them, then came back.
“Let’s let them sleep,” she said. “They seem to be sleeping naturally rather than suffering any kind of ill effect from their experience. It’s early in the day yet, and my instinct tells me that they will be better if we let them sleep it off for as much time as they need.”
“You’re the healer,” I said. “If you think that’s what’s best, that’s what we’ll do.”
I was keen to try out the upgrades to the Personas. “We can’t just abandon them, though. We’ll need to wait until they wake up. Shall we use the time to see what these new Persona upgrades can do?”
Cara smiled. “Good idea. I was actually just going to suggest that.”
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go over toward the woods.”
“Shall we start with the ice shuriken?” Cara asked. She seemed eager to see the new effects I had obtained. I was pleased to note that there was no jealousy in her attitude. She wanted to learn to use the Personas for herself, but she didn’t resent me for having something she hadn’t achieved yet.
“All right,” I said. “I’ll start by just throwing a few and seeing what happens.”
We walked away from the smoking battlefield until we reached the tree line. I was still wearing the Kitsune Persona, and when Cara stood out of the way, I reached for the shuriken belt and felt three stars slip onto my palm.
“Ready?” I asked Cara.
“Ready,” she replied eagerly.
I flung the stars toward a tree. As before, three became six, then nine, and then there was a rattle of thudding impacts as they hit the tree. There was a loud crackling that reminded me of the sound of walking on packed ice in the northern mountains of Saxe, and a thick coat of ice spread out from where the stars had hit. It rushed out across the bark of the tree, covering the trunk in a spreading coat of glistening white. Then it ran rapidly up the branches and coated the leaves in frost. It only took a very short space of time for every surface of the tree to be covered in a thick coating of ice.
We both looked at it in amazement.
“How many stars do you have?” Cara asked.
I felt the outside of the sash that held them. “That’s another remarkable thing,” I said. “They don’t seem to run out when I use them. Look.”
I reached up and drew my hand across the belt, another three appeared. I did again, and now I was holding six. “I think I could go on and on, there doesn’t seem to be any difference.”
“And can you choose whether they use the ice magic or not?”
“Good question—let’s find out.”
I focused on the shuriken stars in my hands. An idea struck me. I lifted my left hand to my star belt and moved it across, once, then a second time. Now, I was holding six stars in my left hand and six in my right. Still, there seemed no change in the weight of the belt that held them.
With an effort of will, I brought my attention first to the stars in the left hand, then to my right. I felt the ice damage within the shuriken stars, ready to take effect, but not awaiting my input before doing so.
“I didn’t realize before,” I said to Cara. “The elemental damage is there to be used, but it’s not the default. Let’s see...”
I let the ice take effect on the stars in my left hand, but not the ones in the right. It was working... for a moment. Then the magic wavered and fell apart.
“That’s strange,” I muttered, “it’s not working.”
I tried again. And again. No matter how hard I tried, I could not bring the ice magic into only the stars in one hand but not the other. Either both hands took on the ice magic, or neither did.
“Well, at least you can choose to freeze or not for each new flight, just not when throwing double-handed.”
“It’s true,” I said, still feeling a bit disappointed, “but I’d like to be able to control the magic with more detail than that.”
I let the ice take effect on both handfuls of stars, then flung all the stars toward the already frozen tree. The result was impressive—I was holding six in each hand, twelve in total. The stars multiplied, then multiplied again, until a flight of nearly forty shuriken stars, all trailing hissing ice tails like many little comets, smashed in a mass into the tree. The ice expanded, coating the tree again and again until there was nothing but a formless lump of ice where the tree had been.
Cara whistled. “That would have been useful when you were fighting the troll.”
“It would have been, but I think it might be harder to immobilize a moving creature, particularly something so big as a troll.”
“I’m going to try something,” Cara said. “I want to see what effect an exploding arrow has on the ice.”
She pulled an arrow from her quiver and treated it with some liquid from a bottle at her belt, her actions lightning fast. Then she drew and released in one smooth motion, and the arrow flew toward the tree, trailing fire. It slammed into the thickly-layered ice, slicing through it and penetrating deep into the core. There was a thundering explosion, and the whole thing blasted to pieces. Chunks of ice and massive splinters of flaming wood flew everywhere, pattering down all around us like deadly rain.
“That was impressive,” I said.
Cara smiled at the compliment. “It seems that the presence of the ice makes my arrows more powerful. I would never normally expect an explosion as big
as that.”
“Good! That’s new. Let’s try again—do you have enough arrows?”
She pulled her quiver around and checked. “Yes, I have enough to experiment with. Some of the Tengu had bows about the same size as mine. Their arrows would work for me. I can resupply from those arrows later on.”
“All right,” I said, drawing just one shuriken out from the shoulder sash. “I’ll throw this at the ground over there and we’ll see how it works.”
“Ready,” Cara said, nocking a treated arrow to her bow.
I flung the shuriken at a bare patch of earth just beyond the tree line. It trailed ice as it multiplied to three stars that hurtled through the air then struck the earth and stuck, sending a broad patch of ice blasting out in every direction across the brown dirt. There was a twang as Cara released her arrow.
The results were impressive.
When her arrow hit the ice patch, it exploded with massive force, blasting earth and stone in every direction. There was a loud boom, and earth pattered down all around us. The explosion left a cloud of black smoke. As that cleared, we saw that a ragged pit had been blasted out of the earth. Though a lot of earth had flown up into the air and been scattered, most of the dirt had simply been thrown to one side, where it lay in a relatively neat pile, like sand that had been kicked by a giant foot. The pit was not huge, perhaps three feet deep and six feet across, but it was a large amount of earth to have moved with one attack.
“That’s a lot of force!” Cara exclaimed. “We’ll need to remember that next time we face enemies in battle.”
It was true, but it had given me another idea too, an idea that would let me try out the extra strength that I had added from the troll upgrade. I glanced over at the wreck of the shrine.
“We’ve made a bit of a mess over there,” I said to Cara. “Why don’t we tidy up a bit?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, looking puzzled.
“Prepare another arrow. I’ve got an idea.”
When she was ready, I pulled three stars out and hurled them into the shallow pit. This time, since there were more stars, the ice patch was thicker and more impressive. It half filled the pit.
Cara fired her arrow into the ice, and again there was a thunderous explosion and a lot of earth was blasted onto the ground. The pit was much deeper now, easily twelve feet deep and eight across.
“Now what?” asked Cara.
“Now I test my troll-strength upgrade.”
She followed me back over to the battlefield, understanding dawning on her face as she did so. When I got in amongst the dead Tengu, she retrieved a few of their arrow-quivers from their shoulders and pulled them to one side to remove the arrows.
Wordlessly, I hauled the dead Tengu over and stacked them one on top of the other. They were small creatures, and I would not have had too much trouble carrying them normally. Now, however, I found I was able to lift them as if they were made of empty sacking.
Cara watched, her eyes wide, as I picked up seven of them at once and walked steadily over to the pit. I returned and took ten over this time, five in the crook of each arm. Two more trips, and there were no more dead Tengu on the battlefield—they all lay next to the pit we had dug with our magic. I turned to the enormous body of the troll.
When the Festering had worn off, the troll had returned to his normal shape. He was headless now, but his body, at least four times the size of mine, lay peacefully, still clutching his gigantic stone club. I took a breath, rolled my shoulders and approached him.
“Surely he’s too heavy,” Cara said, and I could hear the challenge in her tone.
“You don’t think I can do it?”
“I think you could, but we wouldn’t want you straining a muscle. We have a long quest ahead of us, you know.”
“I won’t be straining anything,” I said, although I couldn’t help feeling a little unsure as I looked down at the massive creature.
I crouched and put my arms under the great carcass of the monster. Then, with an effort, I hefted it upward and stood. To my surprise, and to Cara’s delighted amazement, the enormous dead weight of the slain troll came up from the ground. It was heavy, certainly, but it didn't feel heavier than lifting another man would've been.
Carefully, I walked over to the pit, and tipped him in. Then, with no more effort than I would've had to expend if I was lifting rocks, I pushed all of the Tengu in as well. The pile of dirt we had blasted from the hole sat next to the edge of the pit. Using a plank which remained from the wreckage of the shrine, I pushed the whole pile into the pit. It took a little bit of doing, but soon all that remained of the hole was a mound of freshly turned earth.
I dusted off my hands.
“This Persona’s clothing is good for fighting, but it’s a little tight for this kind of work. I wonder if it has another aspect, the way the Ironside Persona does?” As I spoke, I reached for the Shinobi Persona, looking for a non-combat aspect which went alongside the Shinobi robes. Immediately, the Persona responded. There was a cool feeling, like stepping through a curtain of falling water. When I looked down, I was dressed in beautiful robes of charcoal gray, cinched at the waist with a belt of brown leather.
In style, they reminded me of the robes which the man in yellow had worn, yet they were of a better weave. I held my arms out and turned slowly, displaying the new outfit for Cara.
“Show me the footwear,” she asked, laughing. I lifted the loose trousers to display my feet, clad in high brown boots of supple leather.
“That’s good,” she said. “It suits you, but I’m not sure I’ll want to wear that when we work out how to share Personas.”
She spoke lightly, but I frowned. “I don’t think it works that way. I think... it’s not entirely clear to me but I think... I’m almost certain that if you take on a Persona, it will manifest differently, suiting your character, as it were.”
Cara took a breath to speak, but she was interrupted by a voice from away toward the wreck of the shrine.
“Well,” the voice said, “you are by far the most remarkable warriors I have ever seen.”
Chapter Nine
Cara and I both turned and looked to see who had spoken. The yellow-clad man we had rescued from the Festering was crouching beside the old man and the old woman, the two others who had been afflicted by the evil force. The man in yellow was a wiry fellow in his mid 50s, broad across the chest and shoulders but shorter in height than me or Cara. Gray peppered his black hair and beard.
Now, he rose stiffly and bowed low before me. To my eyes, this was not a normal gesture; no person bowed to another in Saxe, for it was the lowest gesture of subjugation. I bit back my protest, however, recalling the difference between our cultures.
I am the outsider here, I reminded myself.
That didn’t stop me from holding out a gauntleted hand to him once he had finished his bow. He looked curiously at me for a moment, then seemed to instinctively understand the gesture. With a wry face, he reached out and clasped my hand in his.
Cara, who had watched our interplay with a smile that spoke of suppressed laughter, turned her attention to the old man and woman who had been afflicted by the Festering. She went over and started administering some of her potions to them.
“My name is Toshiro,” the yellow-clad man said to me.
“I’m Leofwine,” I replied. “But you may call me Leo. The beautiful woman attending to the elderly man and woman is my companion and fellow warrior.”
“I have traveled to many places and seen many strange things, and you two are by far the strangest. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your intervention. I dread to even contemplate what would have become of me if you and your companion had not arrived.”
Toshiro had a soft, precise way of speaking. It made me think that he was a man who would not say or do anything carelessly. He looked me up and down with a very perceptive eye, taking in my armor’s huge steel plates enamelled in white, my shin guards, my gauntlets, and the myst
erious runes engraved on my armor.
As I watched him examining me, I realized that some explanation of our presence would have to be given. Toshiro seemed too polite to ask directly, but his question was in every line of his face.
“You are right, Toshiro of Yamato. Cara and I have come from a distant land. We were sent to hunt down and root out the evil which has come to this land; the evil which corrupted the Kitsune spirit and entrapped you. The Festering.”
“The Festering...” He repeated the word under his breath, then slow understanding dawned on his face. He nodded, looking pleased. “Ah, I understand what you mean. We have a different word for it. Here, we call it Kanosuru. The legendary darkness that creeps in under the vigilance of men. It searches out vulnerable places, and it takes hold of weakened things, spreading out like infection from a dirty wound.”
I nodded. “Exactly. So you know of this, then?”
A shadow darkened his face, and he looked troubled, as if he were searching for the right words. “I know of it, yes,” he said at last, “and there are others who know of it too, but its presence is by no means generally accepted. There are many, particularly in the more populated part of the land, who do not accept that the presence of the Kanosuru is a threat at all. Perhaps it is for the best. But the people in power, they refuse to acknowledge its existence, and that is a very terrible thing, for they are the ones with the ability to stop it .”
That interested me. I took a breath to ask a question, but at that moment, Cara gave a cry of satisfaction. The old woman had woken up, and now sat up with bleary eyes, looking around her in confusion.
“What happened...?” she asked out loud.
Cara glanced up at Toshiro, who gave his head a small shake.
He knelt by the woman’s side. “The shrine was attacked by bandits,” he said to her. “You were knocked on the head, and your husband too, but you are fine now. These warriors saved you.” He gestured at Cara and I.