150, 2/2

In a flash of light, Erick, Poi, and Teressa reappeared in the front room of their temporary apartment.

Erick immediately asked Poi, “So what the fuck was that about with Ari?”

Poi looked a bit bluer around the face—

And then he turned and puked out watery bile onto the floor.

Teressa gave a nervous, terrified laugh as she patted Poi’s back, saying, “You’re good, Poi. It was just— Just a person getting torn to shreds.” She cast a [Cleanse] upon them all, dispersing thick air from all of her, and from all of Poi; the results of sweat turning to mana. Only the barest bit escaped from Erick. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Poi groaned and spat up more bile. After a moment more, he stood straight, and cast another [Cleanse]. He looked at no one as he said, “Soul magic is terrifying.”

“I didn’t know you could sunder a soul that easily!” Teressa said, “That was the scariest part! Just a fucking—! Just a damned grand rad and a glass diamond! That’s all it takes? HOLY SHIT!”

“Ah,” Erick said, realizing that he had perhaps glossed over some of the abominable acts of magic that they had witnessed. Was he becoming inured to the horror show? Or was he breaking in odd ways? Probably a bit of both. Teressa not having a grip on what she had seen was understandable, though, but Poi reacting like this? That was a bit odd. He said to both of them, “Sorry. I didn’t think it would be like that. I didn’t know that it would affect… any of us like it did.”

Poi breathed out, forcing himself to calm, his eyes half lidded as he looked away, saying, “I knew it would be bad, but not that… At least I managed to hold off my reaction until now.” He fully opened his eyes, and said, “This was unprofessional of me. I apologize. It will not happen again.”

“Well shit!” Teressa said, “If I have to walk into that place again, I might piss myself, and that surely won’t be professional! Gods damn! That place was like walking in a part of the Forest covered in Deathsoul Shrooms!” She exclaimed, “Souls crying out, everywhere! Holy damn.”

Erick decided that he was definitely becoming numb to the horror shows of the world, and to the suffering of others. He hadn’t seen any of what Teressa had seen. He said, “All I saw were souls summoned for one last talk with their surviving relatives, or otherwise. It seemed kinda nice.” To the dismayed look of both Teressa and Poi, Erick rapidly added, “Except for the soul sundering, of course. I could go without seeing that ever again.”

Teressa’s words failed her. She wanted to tell him how he was fucked up, but her words did not seem to work right.

Poi’s words did not fail him. “Summoning souls is like ripping out a hunk of memories from your loved ones in order to talk to them one last time. You saw how Raidu wasn’t all there, right? You wouldn’t want someone doing that to you, would you? You could still have an afterlife in the realm of a god, or with the angels or demons. But if you’re summoned back, then you might not make it to your destination without forgetting who you were before.”

Teressa exclaimed, “Yes! That! I’ve heard it told different, but yeah. That’s the lot of it.” She said, “Watching all of that in there… All I could see was the pure greed in the eyes of those who summoned their fathers or mothers in order to ask where the casks of gold were buried in the Tribulations. Or the men with the lawyers, and the necromancers working on behalf of the living instead of the dead!” Teressa said, “That was immoral. The entire institution.” She added, “No wonder Elder Arilitilo didn’t want to be there! Holy gods.”

Erick frowned, saying, “Ah… Well. All good points.”

Teressa added, “And the pure disdain for the desires of the summoned! Half of those ghosts were writhing in pain while they were trapped on this plane!”

Poi shivered. “They were losing parts of themselves every moment they were here, so yeah; pain.”

Teressa blurted a nonsensical, “Eethaaghuuu,” also giving a shiver. “I have to walk around a bit.” And then she did, walking down the room, and then pacing the hallway, remaining in earshot.

Erick let them get a grip; he could wait.

Poi relaxed, then said to Erick, “Anyway.” He breathed deep, then exhaled, and said, “Arilitilo is under heavy guard right now because she was an unknown Soul Mage working in the government of Eralis for so long. She’s under a lot of scrutiny from the Palace of the Eternal Court, and she wants you to know that she cannot talk openly, for they question her all the time, and she wants to be able to be truthful with them, to be able to say that she has not spoken to anyone outside of approved meetings. Her talk with you last time was meant to be her break from politics, but she was uncomfortable with the heavy questioning she received afterward. She doesn’t want a repeat of that event. In a few years, she might get something of her life back, but for now, she’s content with what is happening to her.”

That was a disappointment.

Erick said, “She told you to say that, but that’s not what she was truly thinking, was it?”

Poi faltered. “Not… totally correct. She only had those thoughts in her head, this is true, but without telepathically sending them out, she could truthfully say that she had no knowing contact with you. Some of her thoughts were along the lines of ‘Ah… How it vexes me that I cannot tell him about this scrutiny of being a Soul Mage in Songli’, and the like. No doubt they will question her about her thoughts around me, as well, but the Palace of the Eternal Court cannot sanction her because they allowed her into the presence of a known Mind Mage.” He added, “She was only there because she was your contact, and they wanted to make you happy to know that she was okay. And she is okay. She says she’s okay, for now. She will let you know if that changes.”

Erick relaxed a little, and then declared, “This is fucked up,” Erick decided. “Well. If she ever wants a rescue, or asylum, and you hear of it, let me know. I’ll take her to Candlepoint, or Spur, or something. I’m sure Silverite would be fine with her around.”

Poi’s lips scrunched.

Teressa stopped her pacing at the mention of ‘Silverite would be fine with her around’, her eyebrows narrowed in thought as she came back into the room.

Erick asked the two of them, “… Would she not be welcome in Spur?”

Poi and Teressa shared a look. Teressa shrugged. Poi hummed.

Poi said, “Maybe. Silverite has killed her fair share of rogue necromancers, and all necromancers in Spur are rogue necromancers. If Silverite were here and had power over this land, this Palace of the Eternal Court would be ash and mud with every necromancer either promised to never summon another soul again, or executed.”

“Yeah. Spur doesn’t allow necromancy.” Teressa said, “But Soul Mages aren’t always Necromancers. Ari ain’t a necromancer either… Eh.”

“Arilitilo would get a pass, though, right?” Erick asked.

Teressa shrugged.

Poi said, “I’ll ask her in case the situation goes that way. Elder Ari did save your life and I can vet that she’s exactly the stabilizing force she appears to be.”

Erick frowned, at himself as much as anything else. He said, “I think my sensibilities are getting eroded. I don’t see what the big deal is with Soul Magic.”

“A lot of Soul Magic seems fine; I agree.” Poi said, “But it’s like Blood Magic. It’s easily abused.”

“More so than [Force Beam]s to the face?” Erick countered.

“Yes.” Poi said, “As a Darker thought: If it weren’t for us knowing who you are as a person, and what to expect from you, Erick, and for my own ability to tell what is actually happening in the minds of all involved… This fascination of yours with helping Arilitilo could easily be attributed to soul mutilation caused by Arilitilo when she went inside of you and fixed you from the soul spear.”

Teressa paled a little as Poi’s dark words were trotted out into the light for all to see. She looked away, then looked back; she had these thoughts on her mind, too. But Poi was the only one to give them a voice.

Erick sighed out, and said, “Okay. I see that. I think… I think I need to go lay down for a while.”

Poi said, “Tyli is coming over soon.”

Erick winced. “… Dammit.”

Teressa asked, “I’ll make some coffee? Strong, too. I know I could use some.”

“Yes, please.” Erick said, “I would like that. Thank you.”

– – – –

Erick welcomed Tyli into his house. She carried with her a large wooden box, filled with vials filled with blood, while another two Elites walked at her side. Erick didn’t know the other two people, though Tyli did introduce them, so Erick welcomed them inside as well, and then set them up in the front room; the one without [Prismatic Ward]. He tried to be personable, and especially with the two new people, but seeing Raidu torn apart into mana had him remembering how he tore apart red soldiers with beams of light for the past week…

And it was getting to him.

Everything was getting to him.

He did ask one question, though, “I’m not searching for any dragons with this lot of blood, am I? I don’t want to be a part of that.”

Tyli assured him, “This is truly blood from the Book Binders. The Headmaster wouldn’t want to be involved with any draconic business outside of what happens at Oceanside. There are no surprises here, Archmage Flatt. I understand your man, Poi, is a Mind Mage. If you want I will subm—”

“No, no. That’s fine.” Erick said, “I just needed you to say the words. I can be mad later if they turn out to be a lie.”

Tyli seemed to take umbrage at his words, but she said nothing.

The four of them got to it.

With the use of the vials of blood, each of which was simply labeled with a number starting at #1, and going to #48, Erick erected [Cascade Imaging]s throughout the nearest 7000 kilometers, searching for wayward Book Binders. Teressa served tea and cookies while maps populated. Over the next few hours, twenty two of the forty eight searches returned matches, most of them in Eralis, in public spaces or in hotels. Some searches that Tyli had expected to find were not found, for some parts of Songli had been destroyed in the fighting. Several searches turned up sites well outside of Eralis and the nearby lands. All of the sites were mapped out by the elites at Tyli’s side, but Erick glanced at each one with an Ophiel.

Aside from the places in Eralis, one target got into Alaralti and the Tribulations. Two people got all the way to the Warlord Clans to the north, along the Wanzhi River.

One person got over to Terror Peaks.

The last one was concerning.

After they searched through all the vials, they went back to the one that had turned up results near the former nation of Terror Peaks. A closer search revealed DNA tracks near Warchanter Farloa’s former research castle. That place had been thoroughly blasted and was little more than rubble and a few scattered towers, but with a [Cascade Imaging] layered over the location, Erick revealed that the target’s DNA survived in some of the less-open spaces. Whoever the target was, they must have been there many times to get their DNA all over the place.

Tyli frowned, her eyes full of red light as she stared through the world, to a distant [Scry]. She came back to herself, saying, “That’s disappointing.” She looked to her people, who nodded, and started packing up. She turned back to Erick, saying, “The Headmaster thanks you for your assistance. I cannot tell you anything about that person right now, as not even I know who the numbers belong to, as I said, but if something untoward should be discovered, the final story will be disseminated through official channels to those who need to know. You count as one such person who needs to know. We might need your assistance for further scanning on the other ones discovered as problematic, such as the one in the pirate coves down south, and the one we found in Holorulo. Can we count on you for further assistance?”

“Of course.” Erick said, “Anytime.”

The other elites each gave their own farewells, with Tyli taking up the rear, leaving Erick’s house last.

When they were gone, he went to bed.

He woke up for an anemic dinner and to check in with Jane to see how everything was going with her. There was light conversation, but nothing too arduous or concerning, so Erick mentally checked out. He knew he was checking out on life at the moment, and he knew it was a sign of bad, unresolved mental stuff; he noticed that shit in other people all the time, so he could certainly see it happening to him, in real time. But, exactly like those people in the charred ruins of their homes in Eralis, or at the gravesites of their loved ones, with their empty eyes staring at nothing and their hearts beating only because that’s what they’ve always done… Erick lived. And that was all, right now.

The sundering of Raidu and the ‘imprisonment’ of Ari had affected him more than he had thought possible. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn’t do anything about either situation.

Whatever.

Erick went back to bed after dinner.

He slept fitfully; without any true rest.

– – – –

Erick woke up and could not get back to sleep. It was past noon.

He needed a distraction.

So he sat in bed for a while, sending his sight to the Ophiel flying around outside, checking out whatever caught their fancy. Some were interested in other birds, copying their form as they flew. Others delighted in the play of wind in the willows. Another Ophiel tracked a bloodied man from high above, as that man walked through a dim street of unremarkable buildings.

Erick sat up and devoted some concern to the bloody man.

He had Ophiel look around. The nearby buildings were unadorned, bare stone and wood, meaning that this was a recently fully-rebuilt neighborhood. There weren’t lightpaints on any of the walls, and those lightwards that survived had been shifted out of position from their normal place atop their lightpoles, or their sconces. Turning his sight further afield, Erick saw that the bloody man was somewhere in Alaralti, the central city of the Highlands. Looking from higher, Erick discovered that the man was on the east side of the city, beyond the river, outside of the Void Wall. He was bleeding from a dozen different wounds, as he shuffled toward a guard house far in the distance.

With a twitch of light, Ophiel checked out that guardhouse.

There was no one there.

This particular section of Alaralti must have been fully scoured from the surface of Veird, but the man didn’t know this until he had arrived. Maybe he wasn’t up on the current news? Obviously not.

Tracking the blood he had dropped on the ground took but a moment. The man had come from the Teleport Square a bit further east. No one was in that guard station near that Teleport Square, either. Not finding what he needed to find, the man had come inward, following roads that he must not have known that well, for his blood tracked several steps down two side roads that did not lead to the next guardhouse, which was his obvious destination. The man knew he had almost gone the wrong way several times, though, so he wasn’t fully out of it.

He had probably expected this city to still be standing, but the entire section of Alaralti he had blipped into was gone. He was likely out of mana, too, otherwise he would have moved onto the next location.

Discovering that information had only taken about twenty seconds. The guy wasn’t dying at that specific moment, for he had managed to walk a kilometer already. Erick had also taken the time to figure out what was happening because the guy looked different, aside from the blood all over him painting him as a possible [Luminous Beam] target, which was the main reason why Ophiel was tracking him.

Erick told Ophiel that the guy wasn’t a target; he was a victim of something. And yes, both types of people ‘wore all red’, but not everyone in red was a target. It’s okay, you’ll get it eventually, Ophiel.

Ophiel just twittered in unsure guitar twangs.

Anyway: the bloody man.

The man wore bloody furs and thick leather wrappings around his feet and a skirt of deer skin. Some of his pale violet skin was exposed, but only because his clothes had been shredded. He was demi, maybe, for there were no horns upon his head. He was also skinny, with his clothes hanging off of him as though suffering from too much healing, but he would need a lot more before the day was done.

Erick flickered Ophiel to the man’s front, staying five meters ahead. Ophiel took the form of Erick, except with a bit more feathers than usual, for that was the form that Erick had shown to Nelboor, over the skies of Terror Peaks, before they used that soul spear against him. Ophiel was still in sunform, though; ready to retreat into a marble-sized form and cover himself with [Animadversion] if needed.

The man took a while to recognize that something had appeared before him. Erick stepped back, so that the man did not bump into him. At the shuffle of Ophiel’s ‘feet’, the man’s shuffling gait halted, and he looked. He saw ‘Erick’.

The man whispered, “Are you a monster?”

“No; I am not. This is my [Familiar] standing before you.” Erick asked, “Are you in need of assistance?”

The man’s whole body relaxed, as he tried to report, “I am in need of assistance. Severing Crescent’s delegation to Warlord Niyazo has been replaced with face stealers. I have only been here once before so I don’t know where to…” He started to wobble as his voice faded in and out. “Where to… go…”

He collapsed to the ground.

… It was a risk to help the man.

But it was a risk Erick would always take.

Erick cast a quick [Greater Treat Wounds] and then a [Teleport Other] to plop the dude into a nearby guard house that was occupied. Erick had helped a lot of people in Alaralti, and a lot of people in this land knew what Ophiel looked like, so it wasn’t hard to get them to rally around their new problem in addition to all the other problems they were already having.

Everyone was having problems.

Erick decided there and then to get involved in this bloodied man’s problems, since this appeared to be something that he could actually solve. A guy needing help, collapsed in the center of the road? Solvable!

He could have picked any number of a thousand other distractions to get himself out of his own head, but this was the one that landed in his lap. So he got out of bed, and went to ask Poi about a talk with Matriarch Tipanri of Severing Crescent. She would want to know what this guy was saying.

– – – –

The [Viewing Screen] popped up in front of Erick while he was having a late lunch in the kitchen. He set down his sandwich.

Matriarch Tipanri of Severing Crescent appeared on the other end of the Screen, her white scales and red eyes seeming to shimmer like her green and pink robes. She glanced at the sandwich, and said, “I seem to have caught you at a bad time.”

For whatever reason, Tipanri seemed more proper than the other people Erick had met in positions of power in Songli, but that was fine. Or maybe she was subtly telling him that while she was perfectly poised, he had crumbs on his hands. Which was odd. In the course of working closely with her in order to rain over Alaralti, Erick had thought that they were acquainted enough to get past some of this formality.

Had something changed?

Whatever.

“My daughter insists that I eat more, so I am,” he said, giving himself an excuse for his appearance. “I apologize if I was the one that caught you at a bad time. I know you are busy, but this wounded man showed up out of nowhere, spinning a story about face stealers and a compromised delegation from Severing Crescent to some Warlord Clan up north. I didn’t know what the term ‘face stealer’ meant until minutes ago, when my guard informed me that it is a colloquial term for Hunter-who-[Polymorph]s-into-their-victims, so naturally I thought this might be a concern.”

Tipanri seemed to return to some of her former relaxed self, as she asked, “Could you verify his tracks?”

“Sure.” Erick flicked his senses to the Ophiel furthest north, and moved him to a better position in the direct center of the warlord lands. In the work of a moment, [Cascade Imaging] went up into the air, searching for the guy’s DNA. Erick came back to himself and conjured a tiny lightform map, with a blue dot on it, saying, “The map is here, near this bend in the Wanzhi River.”

Tipanri nodded, regally, then said, “We will take it from here. Thank you for your assistance, archmage.”

She dismissed the Screen.

Erick went back to eating his sandwich, but his eyes were focused on the Ophiels he had go north. While the [Scry] eyes of Severing Crescent appeared around his map, Erick was already poking around in the lands lit blue by his search, seeing if he could find out what was happening with the local ‘Hunter’ population.

He briefly considered offering his services to find and kill every single Hunter in the area.

… And then he considered offering his services to find and Bless every single Hunter all around Songli. Hunters were a systemic problem the world over, after all. People who killed others for Levels did not need to exist, and they had been a personal problem for him in the past, for Hunters were some of the only ones who would think to target him specifically for his levels.

This was a problem that Erick could solve for Songli with a method that Olariz, the overseer at the paddy house, had considered a miracle. According to him, the Blessing of Empathy was a wonderful alternative to the usual methods to contain problematic people, which were exile, killing, or the Antirhine Elixir.

There were other, somewhat productive things he could be doing, though.

Like finding Goldie or Queen and figuring out what the fuck was going on there. Or he could go back to Spur and recast Yggdrasil in the Lake. Or he could continue on to the next destination of the Worldly Path. He could go learn of metals from the renowned smiths in the Near Underworld, under the northern Tribulation Mountains of Nelboor, or he could go to the Deep Underworld, and visit the Core. There were level 90 monsters down there, apparently. If he wanted to gain a level, he could do that.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Ah. But Jane wanted to go down that deep, too, and she wasn’t ready to leave Songli…

Or Erick could go to Rozeta’s Orrery, and learn what makes the Script work, or at least whatever they’re allowed to tell petitioners. Or he could try his hand at the Fractured Citadels of Quintlan, to see what the undead civilization was all about over there, though maybe not before he learned more Soul Magic…

Which brought him back to the current situation in Songli; back to Ari’s predicament.

No… He could not move on from this land quite yet. Besides all the obvious reasons to stay, something was telling him that there was still some major event coming up. Something that he would play a part in, no doubt. Maybe this was that thing?

Hunters were a problem the world over.

A problem that didn’t need to exist.

Erick hummed to himself as he glanced around that blooded man’s usual stomping grounds, with Ophiel in an invisible sunform.

It didn’t take long till he found the site of the battle, and also the village that the man had been from. Both looked like normal villages, but it was easy to tell that something bad had happened at one location, and not the other.

Some of the people at the battle site were probably impostors.

Anyway. What was likely the man’s home village was located next to a small tributary of the Wanzhi River, with large yurts scattered on carts in the flat lands between the riverbanks and the tall grasses of the prairie. The yurts were made of wood and animal skin, while the carts underneath were twice as large as the houses themselves, with much of that extra space serving as a porch. Herds of large, shaggy blond cows munched on the prairie grasses, looking like a breed of animal that was fully capable of pulling those mobile yurts if you lined them up and harnessed them, which they probably did when it was time to move.

There were no roads out here in this vast, untamed land, so as long as there was empty space ahead, these people probably moved as they were wont, tugging their homes across the grass. None of the people here seemed worried about being outside of the walls of a city, either, which was a nice change.