Magic Corrupts, Magic Conquers, page 20
I was hoping that wasn’t true, that they were still making arrangements or were somewhere en-route.
“Before we headed to Bastillen, Gideon and I came to take care of the plants and make sure things were okay here,” Toji said. “The first day we came all these things were piled up in front of the door. There was so much it was partially blocking your neighbor’s door…”
“That would explain the dirty look Mrs. Binow gave me down in the lobby. I thought she was hating on my outfit.” I was once again wearing my armor and had swapped the Bantu-knots for a half-up half-down style.
“We brought everything in and tried to deal with the perishables, but it seems we missed some things,” Toji said.
“What the hell is all this though?” I walked over to a four-foot-tall golden statue that was sitting near the coffee table.
It was of a Quiorit, an elegant creature with the slender form of a meerkat, although it was larger and had three pairs of legs. Their only eye, centered in a flat, scaled face with heavy jowls, changed color depending on their maturity. They weren’t the most hideous creature out there, but they certainly wouldn’t have made my top ten list for creatures I’d want a solid gold statue of.
“They were sent by that queen with the seventeen names that we met at the Council headquarters,” Gideon said, looking around at the clutter. There were at least two more statues that I could see, as well as several woven baskets full of magic-era fruit and wrapped parcels that probably contained meat and were the likely cause of the stench.
“Oh. Queen Rubiyana. She did say she was gonna send things to my home.” An uneasy feeling went through me. Were there more items of legendary magic among the gifts? One of these days I really needed to have a talk with that queen and find out if she was aware she’d gifted me a Pfura Stone. There was something up with her.
The Pfura Stone was hidden in a small pocket in my armor. I didn’t want the thing constantly on me, but I feared what could happen if I stashed it somewhere and it got into the wrong hands. I hadn’t told the boys about Pfura. Keeping secrets was a recipe for disaster, but there was enough bearing down on all of us. I didn’t want to further burden them.
I glanced around and sighed. “Thanks for bringing it in. I’ll deal with all of this at some point. And please take whatever catches your eye.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Gideon was pawing through a basket of vibrant fabric that looked like scarves. He seemed to be doing okay after last night, but we were all on edge, especially because he could time-walk at any moment and we didn’t know enough about this ability to help him control it. I was as eager to check on the community as I was to find Gideon’s soul so we could get it back into him and see if that helped.
While I went to the community, Toji and Gideon would head to Quivess to see if Naranthe had any insight on time-walking and returning a soul to its body.
While Gideon and Toji perused the gifts, I headed over to the weapons wall, staring at it with my hands on my hips as I looked over my collection of Shaped weapons, which included axes, staffs, swords, bows, and daggers. I unclipped the empty sheath and propped it against the wall, staring at the spot the Gladius had occupied.
The empty space seemed glaring, a reminder that the weapon that had helped me save the world had been lost in a magic forest.
“Is it weird to miss your magic sword?” I asked as Gideon drifted over.
“Not at all. Do you think that Kiabi Warrior man could help you get it back?”
“If he shows up again, I’ll certainly ask.” I considered the swords. “Hmm…”
“Looking for a replacement?”
“Yeah.”
Swords were my strongest bladed skill, and I needed to be at my best with everything that was going on. If some entity compromised by a Discordant fragment came for me like Xythen had, it wouldn’t help me purify them, but I would still fight like hell.
I settled on my Claymore and took it down, pulling it out of its dark brown sheath and inspecting the blade. I re-sheathed it and propped it against the wall like I used to do with the Gladius, feeling another pang of sadness for my lost sword.
“You know, now that Toji might be starting some weapons training, that means I’m gonna be the only one in the group with no fighting skills,” Gideon said, pursing his lips as he continued to look over the weapons. “Maybe I should do some training too. Never a bad thing to have self-defense skills. Plus, I can properly deal with certain-people-I-won’t-name when they do the most.” He slid his eyes to me, and I humored him with a grimace.
“Which weapon do you think you’d train with?” Toji asked, coming up on my other side.
“That double-bladed axe Penn gave Callan intrigued me, I must admit,” Gideon replied, tapping his chin.
“Are you ready to decapitate?” I asked amusedly. “Because if you’re wielding a double-bladed axe, it means you’re willing to chop through whatever is coming at you.”
Gideon balked. “On second thought, that Bo staff looks rather nifty.”
Toji and I chuckled.
Heavy thumps on the door startled all of us, including Ashe, who raised her head and started growling as she stared at the door.
Gideon, Toji, and I exchanged glances.
“Maybe it’s Mrs. Binow come to tell you how she felt about her door being partially blocked,” Gideon said.
I rolled my eyes, then headed over to the door, yanking it open without bothering to check the peephole. Before I could register who was on the other side, someone barreled into me and sent me staggering back.
My instincts to defend myself kicked in, but as I raised a fist my eyes caught a flash of blue hair and I realized that it was Sage who’d slammed into me like a tiny missile.
I managed to get my hands around their upper arms and pushed them away. “Uh… Hi, Sage…”
“Oh my God, oh my God, you’re okay, you’re back, you’re okay!” Sage was bouncing on the balls of their feet with their fists clutched in front of them, looking at me with wide eyes. They were dressed in slouchy jeans and a military-style short-sleeved jacket over an orange tank top. High-top sneakers and a messenger bag slung over their chest completed the look.
Sage’s head whipped around as I closed the door. “Wow, there’s a lot of stuff in here!” They wrinkled their nose. “And it kinda stinks. But…” They grabbed my hands and thrust their face up. I had to rear back before their forehead met my nose.
“You’re back, I almost can’t believe it! Everyone has been frantic these past couple days!”
“So I’ve heard.” I extricated my hands from Sage’s and headed to the kitchen where Toji was refreshing Ashe’s water bowl and finding some meat for her in the fridge. That roused her enough to trot into the kitchen to make sure he was moving fast enough. Gideon had gotten the coffeemaker going, and that plus the box of pastries we’d bought on the way in were calling my name.
“There were reports that you were spotted this morning, so I was dispatched to see if it was true!” Sage said.
We didn’t have Portalorbs that would have taken us from Bastillen back here, so we’d traveled back through Merewynd and the Aqua Paths, which was a lot of time for news of my return to spread.
“How did you escape? Were you hurt? You don’t seem hurt. We’re all stunned. Why did that Kiabi Warrior snatch you? Did it take you to Drisdari?” Not to be deterred from having their questions answered, Sage followed me into the kitchen.
I poured myself a mug of coffee and added a little brown sugar and coffee creamer. I took a scalding sip and swallowed.
I didn’t want to recount my time in Drisdari Forest again, didn’t want to bring those emotions to the forefront even though they were simmering below the surface.
I took a deep breath and let it out. I was overdue for a good yoga and meditation session. It wouldn’t heal me, but it might help ground me. More than anything I needed to start some serious therapy.
“Penn?”
“Sorry, I’m not ignoring you, I just have a hard time recounting the experience of being in the forest.” It wouldn’t help anyone to keep what I’d learned about the Discordant Dark a secret, but first I wanted to talk to Naranthe again. Since there were other fragments of Discordant power out there, we were certain to be heading into a lot of trouble.
“I…don’t know how I got out, honestly. There was some kind of surge and the next thing I knew, I was out.” It was a watery explanation, but if I wasn’t gonna tell the boys about the Pfura Stone yet, I wasn’t gonna tell anyone else. “I don’t really care about the hows anyway, what matters is that I’m back.”
“Incredible!” Sage said. “Jarron is eager to meet with you for a debriefing. How about this afternoon?”
“I have plans. I need to check on the Temporal community from the Before Times.”
“The one in the time pockets in Kiabi Park?” Sage exclaimed. “I’ve wanted to check those time pockets out. It’s fascinated me that there’s a labyrinth of caves and time pockets under Kiabi Park connected to other ones across the world!”
“Ah well…the business I have there is kinda personal…” People knew about the community, it was documented in the records Kinari and Mix wrote, but the existence of Bastillen was something I wanted to keep close to the vest. Sage seemed trustworthy enough, but…
“You might as well let me come or I’ll follow you, since I know where you’re headed.” They grinned and annoyance frizzled through me. But it was my fault, I had opened my mouth and said where I was going. And I could tell Sage was unabashedly persistent.
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. I’d swear them to secrecy about Bastillen. Or threaten them. Whatever worked.
“Yes! I’ll meet you downstairs—I’m doubled parked. But if they’ve already towed me we’ll take your ride!” They ran out of the apartment and for a few moments Toji, Gideon, Ashe, and I stared at the door.
“Well,” Gideon said. “It appears you have a stowaway.”
“Are they a stowaway if they made no secret of coming along?” Toji sounded amused.
I sighed and took a big sip of my cooling coffee.
…
An hour later, Ashe, Sage, and I were heading into the cave that led to the Temporal community.
I was beyond eager to see if Chelara and the others were still here. As well as Gideon’s soul. I still had the Mortalstones I’d gotten from Varian and brought to the community in the Before Times. Toji had activated one and it was stashed in my waist pouch.
All I’d have to do was get the soul to touch the Mortalstone and it would flow into it. I hoped I would be bringing Gideon and Toji good news.
“I can’t believe I’m here,” Sage whispered. They were looking around in awe even though the view was the dark interior of a rocky cave. “I heard there were creatures down here, and homes carved from the rocks. It sounds like an underground wonderland.”
“Maybe it was for a while,” I commented. “But having to live this way for years had a huge impact on the community. And the repercussions of that were felt by many.”
“Oh…right.” They sounded pensive. “That makes sense.”
We got to the outer cave and paused.
“The time pocket is gone.” That couldn’t be a good sign.
My hope of finding Gideon’s soul plummeted.
We walked across the cave, and I saw that the one protecting the inner cavern was down as well. Unease wound through me as we made our way in. If Chelara had created those time pockets and they were gone…it was obvious what the reason was.
“Shit,” I whispered.
Sage made a horrified sound and a rumble started in Ashe’s throat.
My feeling of impending doom spiked when I saw that the cavern was wrecked; cave homes were partially or completely collapsed, and there were deep crevices in the ground.
Debris was strewn everywhere; furniture and plants had been torn apart, as well as weapons. I saw axes, swords, arrows, and other weapons littered everywhere.
And bodies.
My stomach churned at the scent of death that clung to the air. People lay crumpled like they were discarded wads of paper, limbs askew, clothes disheveled, splattered with blood or lying in it, horrible wounds ripped into their flesh.
But what really made me feel as though I had been gutted was that every single body was covered in the thick black lines I’d seen on the bodies in Drisdari Forest.
The bodies Xythen had told me had been killed by the Discordant Dark so it could consume their souls and grow stronger.
Every bad emotion possible seemed to course through me. Xythen had said he wasn’t the only one that had been compromised. Which meant one of the other entities the Discordant had possessed had ended up down here and ravaged the community.
And it was my fault. I had left them to be sitting ducks.
“What happened?” Sage’s voice was uncertain, their expression shocked as they took a few steps forward and looked around.
I walked further in as well. Ashe was already scenting the area.
“Something very bad.” I felt like acid was churning in my stomach.
At first glance I didn’t see Chelara, but I saw many faces I recognized from my time down here.
I pulled myself together and turned to Sage, who looked like they were regretting their decision to tag along. “I have an inkling of what we’re dealing with, but if I take the time to explain it would delay helping anyone who might still be alive.” Was I confident that there were survivors? No. But I had to search.
“Ashe and I will scout around. Can you go get reinforcements from the Council?”
I had to nudge Sage’s shoulder before they turned to me, their expression spooked. They had a trembling hand on their chest. “Ye…yes, I can, but are you sure about going further before they get here?” They swallowed hard and took another quick glance around.
I shifted so I could block their line of sight from the carnage. “We’ll be careful. I need to see if there are any survivors I can help with the medical supplies I have on me.” I had enough things among Kinari’s collection to help a variety of injuries.
“I’m not sure I should leave you…”
“Sage, you could either continue with me and we both end up in trouble with no one knowing where we are, or you could go make sure help will be on the way regardless of what I come across.”
They made rapid, short nods of their head. “All right. I’ll get back-up on the way.” They turned and scurried out of the cave, almost tripping over their unstable steps a few times.
This was probably the first time Sage had ever seen carnage like this.
I had seen enough battlefields for ten lifetimes, but it never got easier. I wished I had stopped them from following me down here, but hindsight was always twenty-twenty, wasn’t it? At least they’d be able to get help and wouldn’t be in any potential danger.
I turned to Ashe. “Find the freshest scents and let’s see where they lead.”
My heart ached and I felt like my organs were twisting into knots. I could have prevented this if I’d remembered to give them Portalorbs.
Ashe made a sound to indicate she’d picked up a scent, so I hopped on her back and she took off, plunging into one of the tunnels that led to other caves within the underground network.
Soft light from the crystals embedded in the walls lit our way as she ran, but it was still semi-dark. After we ran for a short distance, Ashe almost stumbled over something and I made her stop, slipping off her back to investigate.
When the scent of blood greeted me, I knew what I’d be looking at.
“Fuck.”
Lying on the ground a few feet away was Chelara’s dead body. Like the other corpses, those putrid black veins crawled all over her skin.
Complicated emotions flowed through me. I had no tender heart for Chelara, but I had at least begun trying to hold space for her since she’d genuinely seemed to regret her decisions. I had told her about Bastillen even though it would have put her close to Callan.
Chelara was no friend or ally, but during our last interaction I had seen the steps she’d taken toward repentance. Despite everything, I couldn’t stand here and feel nothing about the fact that she’d been viciously killed by an ancient, soul-consuming entity.
There was a spot of sorrow, seeing her like this. She and everyone else deserved better than what their fate had been after moving through time.
I knelt down and felt for a pulse even though I knew one wouldn’t be there. The stench that filled the tunnel was the sharp scent of blood from the gaping wound in her chest, and her released bowels. Her skin was cold and clammy. A soft ebb of the Discordant Dark’s magic wafted around her, making me recoil.
Anger churned through me.
I wanted to cut down whatever Drisdari creature the Discordant Dark had made do this, but I wasn’t feeling very confident about my chances without the Gladius. If I could figure out a way to use the Divine magic that was inside me in an offensive way, I’d have an edge with or without a Divine weapon.
I remounted Ashe and we continued on. We ran into another, smaller cave, which looked like the first one we’d entered with debris and bodies everywhere.
Splatters of blood and fallen weapons.
There were no time pockets anywhere. Which meant that Gideon’s soul would no longer have a barrier against crossing over.
I was seething for so many reasons. Felt directly responsible for what happened to these people and Gideon’s soul.
Ashe continued tracking, heading down another wide, dimly lit path.
As we moved, I realized how large the community was; I’d only seen a small part of it when I’d been here before and Kinari had given me a tour. Callan had told me more about it, but it was different to be moving through the network of tunnels and caves and seeing how much work had gone into building the haven Callan and the others had lived in.
