Heretic Spellblade

by K D Robertson

  She ignored his attempts to boost her morale. “There’s over fifty of them!”

  This conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Fei needed to experience her power firsthand.

  Nathan raised his hand and pointed his fingers at the battering ram’s construction site in the distance. In his mind, he found the nearby leyline. He could use the binding stone’s power, but the farther away from it he was, the more expensive it became to use.

  Meanwhile, there was a leyline immediately beneath him. As Bastion, he had a direct connection to this leyline through the binding stone. Plucking a thread of magical energy from the leyline was trivial, and Nathan turned his attention back to reality after a few moments.

  A pair of glowing orange squares snapped into existence around his outstretched wrist. Burning runes scrawled themselves into the surrounding air, embers of light drifting off into the rays of the afternoon sun. Nathan pulled power from the leyline and pushed it into the spell in his hand.

  The air shimmered with the intensity of the magic being cast. The runes became blindingly bright. Too bright to read. Fei shielded her eyes, but still tried to watch, her mouth wide open in shock. Shouts rose up from the bandit camp.

  Nathan closed an eye and tilted his head to one side. With his spare hand, he placed it over his open eye. He adjusted his hand, lined up his spell, and unleashed the power contained within it.

  The battering ram vanished. Vaporized. Plumes of dirt, dust, wood, and ash rose dozens of meters into the air. Flames roared out from within the explosion. The shock wave flattened the closest tents and knocked bandits off their feet. Rocks and massive hunks of earth crashed down, taking out other tents. A bandit went down when a chunk of wood punched a hole through his chest. Dismembered limbs began to fall among the debris.

  “That should get their attention,” Nathan said. He lowered his hand. “Head down there and see if you can’t find the sorcerer. I’ll back you up.”

  Fei turned her head back from the screaming chaos of the bandit camp to look at Nathan. Then she looked back at the bandit camp. She closed her mouth and swallowed.

  “Yes, sir,” she murmured.

  Was that a little too much for his first spell, Nathan wondered. He’d kept the explosion fairly restrained compared to the amount of power he had drawn upon. Most of it had gone up or down, to provide a theatrical effect. He was fighting bandits, not an enemy Champion or demons.

  Fei charged down the hill. Her pace sped up after the first few steps, and she soon kicked up a cloud of dust as she sprinted toward the bandits.

  A few dozen bandits gathered themselves in groups. The closest to Fei stared at the approaching dust cloud, transfixed. Her scimitar tore through them before they reacted. Their bodies hadn’t hit the ground before she flipped over their heads toward the next group. Blood mixed with the dust she left in her wake, and her scimitar gleamed red.

  A collapsed tent went flying, and a giant stepped out from beneath it. His armor was battle-scarred, but Nathan made out old markings of the Imperial Army on it. The breastplate fit too well on the man’s gargantuan figure, so he had to be a deserter. Bandits couldn’t afford tailored steel plate, especially when they’re that huge.

  “It’s just one girl, ya buffoons,” the giant yelled. Nathan relied on his enhanced hearing to overhear the shouting. “Surround her so we can get her properly.”

  Properly? That sounded bad to Nathan’s ears. He guessed the giant to be the bandit leader, or close enough.

  Sliding down the hill, Nathan checked for any active magic. A wise sorcerer didn’t scan for magic in the middle of a battle, given the focus it required, but Nathan wasn’t in danger for the moment. If he found the enemy sorcerer first, he could end this battle before it truly started.

  Before he found anything, a series of yells brought him back to his senses. A crossbow bolt slammed into the ground next to him. Another hit him dead in the chest.

  The bolt snapped on impact and fell to the ground. Pain fountained out within Nathan for a few seconds, as if somebody had punched him very hard in the chest.

  Given a crossbow capable of penetrating steel plate had hit him, he wasn’t complaining about a little pain. The magical protection the binding stone gifted him made him nearly immune to non-magical attacks, but they still hurt. And enough physical harm could kill, like having a fortress fall on top of his head.

  The yelling stopped. Nathan looked over and saw five bandits. Three of them had stopped mid-charge, axes raised. They wore leather armor and chain mail. Behind them were two more bandits with crossbows. All of them stared at him, eyes wide and jaws dropping.

  Nathan raised an arm. A glowing triangle appeared at the end of each fingertip of his hand. The bandits tried to turn and run.

  With a snap of power, Nathan blew a fist-sized hole in the torso of each of the five bandits. He didn’t wait to see if they were dead. Ordinary humans couldn’t survive a hole where their heart should be.

  The ground rumbled. Nathan cursed, realizing he had forgotten his primary objective.

  An inferno of flames rose up in a straight line from the middle of the bandit camp. Fei was nowhere to be seen. Bandits scattered from the blazing fire, unsure if they were under attack by a third enemy. Their tents burned, and soon the inferno engulfed the entire clearing.

  Nathan ran toward the flames. As the original blast faded into ash and smoke, Fei came back into view. She had her arms crossed in front of her, eyes closed and tail tightly wrapped around her torso.

  Opposite Fei was another woman. Her figure wasn’t entirely clear through the smoke and haze, but she wielded a greatsword almost as big as she was.

  “Fei! Counterattack her,” Nathan shouted.

  Fei’s eyes snapped open. She looked down at herself. Pieces of her clothes fell off her body in ashen tatters, and her armor was blackened by something other than paint. But she appeared physically unharmed. She looked at the woman opposite her and grinned toothily.

  The two swordswomen traded blows. Fei struck at every weak point she could reach. She dove behind her opponent and cut at her ankles. Despite the unwieldy size of her sword, the bandit swordswoman kept up with Fei’s magically enhanced speed.

  As the smoke cleared, Nathan saw why. A glowing red hexagon hovered over the crossguard of the bandit’s greatsword. While looking at it, Nathan felt the power slowly filling it up. This bandit was a powerful sorceress.

  The inferno from earlier hadn’t been caused by a sixth rank spell, which the hexagon denoted. Maybe a fourth rank spell at most. If this girl unleashed a sixth rank spell, the power would level the entire clearing. Shattering the barrier wasn’t even a consideration. Half the town would vanish in an instant, and the rest would be turned to ash in the ensuing blaze.

  And Nathan knew she was casting a fire spell.

  After all, he recognized the woman holding the sword. A young woman with short brown hair, who looked just shy of twenty. Her cloak covered up most of her figure, but he knew what she looked like. Petite, short, lithe, toned muscle, tanned skin, and blazing red eyes.

  No, not red eyes. Not yet. He didn’t know her natural eye color.

  “Sen,” Nathan murmured to himself, stopped in his tracks for a moment. He was fighting against one of his Champions from his old timeline, and a former lover.

  Sen’s eyes locked with Nathan’s for a moment. Green. Her eyes were green. He memorized that fact.

  Suddenly, Sen dropped her sixth rank spell and darted back. She raised her sword. A red triangle appeared at its tip. Fei raised her guard, recognizing an incoming spell.

  Nathan raised his hand and cast a protective barrier in front of Fei. An instant later, Sen crashed into the glowing silver wall. An explosion burst from her sword. Nathan lost his view of Sen in the smoke.

  “Pull back,” Nathan shouted. He reached for the binding stone and pulled a chunk of magic from it. He didn’t plan to use it, but Sen was a much more talented sorceress than he had expected to fight.
<
br />   And he refused to kill her.

  Fei glanced back at Nathan in confusion for a moment. His message got through a moment later and she leaped backward.

  Drawing on the magical power he had just gathered, Nathan began to cast a fourth rank spell, and a square appeared around his hand. He raised his hand, palm upright, toward where Sen had been moments later. The moment the dust from the explosion cleared, he looked for Sen.

  Found her, he thought. He clenched his fist.

  Sen’s eyes widened. She immediately stabbed her sword into the ground. Magical power poured off her, but no magical shapes appeared around her.

  She was trying to brute force her way out of his spell.

  The earth exploded upward around her. Like a fist of hardened earth closing over her, Nathan captured her in his prison.

  Dust filled the clearing. All Nathan smelled was dirt. The bandits cursed and shouted, trying to run away. The bandit leader was close, shouting Sen’s name. That confirmed that Nathan was right, as if he needed the confirmation.

  “Derek, get everybody out,” Sen shouted. “Please!”

  Nathan blinked. She’d escaped?

  An enormous hole had been blown in the enclosed fist of hardened earth. Nathan saw no signs of fire or charring. The only answer was a raw blast of wind.

  But Sen could only use fire magic in his timeline.

  No. Again—like with his memory of her eyes—that was wrong. Nathan shook his head. Sen wasn’t restricted to fire magic yet. He cursed his faulty memory and assumptions.

  “There’s just the two of ’em, girl,” the bandit leader, Derek, shouted back.

  “Do you want to die?” Sen screamed. “He’s a Bastion! And a better sorcerer than me. Run!”

  Those words had the bandits running for the hills. Sen had instantly realized what Nathan was, and probably what Fei was as well. But the bandits hadn’t.

  Many people reckoned they could take a sorcerer down if they had the numbers. There were plenty of stories of brave knights and soldiers overcoming evil sorcerers and the like. The army even recruited less capable sorcerers, and there were plenty of people who thought they were a sorcerer because they could heal a scratch or help crops grow.

  But everybody knew the legends of the Bastions. There weren’t any stories of a brave group of bandits defeating a man with the power to hold off legions of demons.

  Sen never turned her back on Nathan as she retreated. She kept her sword raised. Her eyes were wild. Terrified.

  Nathan grimaced as he watched her withdraw. He could stop her, he knew.

  He didn’t know if he could stop her without hurting her. Or killing her.

  “Is it alright to let them run?” Fei asked. “They seemed a lot stronger than you said they were. Or she was, at least.”

  “She’s a spellblade, so that’s to be expected,” Nathan said.

  The barrier over the town winked out. He heard noises from behind the gate. Presumably, the guards were checking that the bandits were gone and that it was safe to come out. Nathan walked toward the gate.

  “Spellblade? What’s that?” Fei asked.

  “A sorcerer talented with both sorcery and weapons. Many Champions can take out a normal sorcerer by getting up close, because sorcerers don’t fight in melee. Instead, they bombard you from afar. But a spellblade is dangerous at all distances, and often more dangerous up close.” Nathan waved a hand at the burning ruin of the bandit camp. “Think of them like the sorcerer equivalent to a Champion. I’m a spellblade, for reference.”

  “Oh. I was going to ask. I knew you could use magic, but didn’t realize you were a proper sorcerer,” Fei said, grinning stupidly. “You were so cool. Nobody told me that Bastions used sorcery like that.”

  “Most can’t. All Bastions need to understand sorcery, or else they won’t be able to use the binding stones, but most don’t have the talent to be sorcerers.” Nathan shrugged. “I’m not an especially good sorcerer, but I know a lot about the theory, and I have more raw power than most sorcerers thanks to the binding stones.”

  “Not good at it?” Fei said. She looked at the nearby crater and the house-sized fist of hardened earth. She raised an eyebrow but changed the subject. “Um. And when do you use your sword? You said you’re a spellblade, like that woman from earlier.”

  The gate creaked open. Close to a hundred soldiers trooped out through the doors. Each wore the same uniform as the rider who had come to Gharrick Pass.

  “I’ll use my sword when we fight an enemy who needs me to,” Nathan said.

  Fei blinked and tilted her head. He sensed she had more to ask, but the arrival of the town guards kept her inquisitiveness as bay.

  A single officer stepped out in front of the assembled soldiers. He licked his lips and looked around the destroyed clearing. Sweat formed on his brow, visible beneath his helmet.

  After several attempts to speak, he finally said, “On behalf of Lady von Clair, I thank you, Lord…”

  “Bastion,” Nathan corrected. The officer’s eyes widened. “Bastion Nathan Straub. I believe Lady von Clair left a message with my Champion before I arrived.” Nathan gestured to Fei, who blushed and bowed. “If she’s in, I’d be happy to meet Lady von Clair now.”

  The officer stared at Nathan. Once again, he looked around the clearing that had been full of bandits only minutes ago.

  “Of course, Bastion,” the officer said after several seconds of silence. “Allow me to guide you to milady’s manor.”

  Chapter 7

  The von Clair manor towered over the town but was less impressive up close. Its stonework showed its age and was built with the same limestone as the keep at Gharrick Pass. The fence was wrought iron and held a pearlescent luster from its finish, and the windows were a beautiful green stained glass, with images of the Watcher Omria imprinted in the larger panes.

  But the newer elements of the manor only drew more attention to how old and rundown the rest of the building was. The roof needed retiling. A previous owner had added gargoyles, and they clashed horribly with the current theme of the manor. The garden seemed unimpressive and overgrown, even to Nathan’s amateur eyes.

  The interior wasn’t much better. The servants wore what Nathan assumed to be the latest fashion in the Empire: vests, collared shirts, and pleated pants in black and white for both men and women. Given the years between his original timeline and now, Nathan couldn’t quite recall what was in fashion or outdated.

  But while the servants dressed up, the furnishings were antiques. Valuable antiques, but antiques nonetheless. Overwrought mahogany furniture cluttered up each room, and any upholstery had lost its original color. Nathan felt like he was walking through a museum.

  “Our keep is so much nicer than this,” Fei muttered.

  “Maybe keep that to yourself,” Nathan said. “We should be polite.”

  A male beastkin with a wolf tail bowed and ushered Nathan into a sitting room. Unlike the rest of the rooms, this room had been redecorated. The coffee table was glass, unlike the back-breaking hunks of wood he had spied in the other rooms. Most of the furniture was made from steel, with natural ebony wood included for decorative purposes. The room was painted in neutral tones, instead of the warmer colors present elsewhere.

  On the far side of the coffee table sat a young woman in a flowing black and blue dress that fell just short of her knees. She stood and curtsied to Nathan and Fei, a polite smile on her face. A glimpse of flesh drew Nathan’s eyes when she raised her dress above her thigh-high black stockings. She had dirty blonde hair, almost rust-colored, that fell just below her shoulders, and a figure that drew the eye to her broad hips rather than her less impressive chest.

  “Good afternoon, Bastion,” she said. “I am Lady Anna von Clair. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I do hope we’ll have a long and beneficial relationship.”

  A tea set sat on the table, laid out for three, so Nathan made his way to the table. Fei followed.

  “I hope so, too. I assume yo
u have a lot of bandits that need dealing with?” he asked before plopping into a seat opposite Anna.

  Her smile turned brittle. She glanced at Fei, who pointedly looked away.

  “It’s not about the bandits,” Anna said.

  She sat down and poured the tea. It gave off the delightful smell of chamomile. Given where he was, Nathan suspected this would be sweeter than the blend he had usually been served in his timeline.

  “What is it about then?” he asked.

  “As I said, forming a beneficial relationship.” She stressed the last word of the sentence. “It goes both ways. You keep the peace of the region as Bastion, and I ensure the economic health of the region as its ruler. That’s what the Emperor expects of us, no?”

  “You got to the point fast. Quid pro quo.” Nathan sipped at his tea.

  Anna stared at Nathan, her smiling slipping for a second. “You have familiarized yourself rather quickly, it seems. I had been informed that I would need to help you settle in, build your keep, and provide military support until another Bastion arrived to give you a hand. At the very least, I can still help with you fortress at Gharrick Pass.”

  “Nathan’s already rebuilt the keep,” Fei chirped.

  All eyes in the room turned to Fei, who preened under the attention. Nathan noticed the beastkin from earlier lurking at the entrance.

  “How long have you been here?” Anna asked Nathan quietly.

  “I arrived yesterday,” Nathan said.

  Anna slowly placed her teacup back on the tray. She topped it up. Her face was expressionless. As slowly as she had lowered her cup, she raised it again and drank her cup in almost a single go.

  “I had been told that you may be a little odd,” she said. “This isn’t the odd I expected.”

  Nathan wracked his brain for the reason for her reaction. Was it the keep being rebuilt so quickly? That was pretty normal for a Bastion to be capable of. The power of a binding stone was enormous and constructing a castle was rather straightforward.

  Although perhaps doing it in a single day was going overboard. Nathan hadn’t built a keep from scratch until he’d been a Bastion for years, and he couldn’t remember building it so quickly even then. Oops.