Spire of Blood: A Cultivation Gamelit Adventure (Spellheart Book 7), page 11
But my body and aura were both greedy and hungry. They wanted to eat and devour all zeal. I felt something deep and primordial well up inside me, just like I had when I was grasping some deeper aspect of my aura.
I embraced the feeling, as I had before. The concepts of the mid-wizard realm were heavier, deeper, and more intimately connected to my aura’s nature than those I’d discovered.
The concept gawked at me as I drank from the power of the orb. Something on the other side of the pocket world caught notice of me and the gap in its realm. It looked like a massive slug, sickly and pale. It lunged for the tiny gap the size of my fist with a gooey appendage.
Despite being many times larger than the gap, the gooey appendage seeped through the hole I’d made like water, flowing through into the Hearthwood a little at a time. Left undisturbed, the entire creature might crawl through this way.
I reached out and pinched the thing between my thumb and forefinger. I cast Return to Dust, and the bonds within its flesh dissolved. The fluid coating its skin like a membrane turned chalky and dry. The flesh beneath it cracked and peeled. In seconds, it was crumbling to a pile of dust at my feet.
The monster squirmed and writhed, but I kept the spell active as I focused on what I was feeling. This hunger and desire...
But then the gap closed, and the feeling faded. I felt like I’d nearly touched on the next level of my wizard cultivation. Now the opportunity had slipped through my fingers. I sighed, knowing I’d missed my chance.
The exercise wasn’t completely wasted though. I gained a lot of zeal just now. Counting what Soul Eater had pillaged for me from my recent victories in the Sunspire Kingdom and the Ancient Tree Temple, I had a lot of power to refine and integrate with my cultivation.
So I headed to the Cultivation Chamber to get to work.
Chapter 12
I exited the Cultivation Chamber after what must have been several days under time dilation. I spent that time practicing my spells and integrating all the zeal I’d gathered. I felt closer to the Silver Marrow realm of the World Titan Fiendbody, but my body cultivation art was truly a difficult one.
With that squared away, I checked in on Segolas, who was already in the Chamber of Tranquility. It was a quaint white room with plants growing around it, and it reminded me of the gardens I’d purchased that Melise liked so much. Last I’d looked at them, Salica, one of my children by Sava, had been testing the new plants we discovered in there.
I bumped into Sava just outside the door. She must have been coming to check on our son as well.
“Theo!” Sava said excitedly. “When somebody said they were moving Segolas, I knew you had to have figured something out.”
I wrapped my arm around Sava’s shoulder comfortingly. “I’m trying something else. But I don’t want you to put too much faith in this. Mac wasn’t sure it would work.”
“I know...” Sava said sadly. “But... we’ve already tried so many things! One of them has to work, eventually.”
“It will,” I assured her. “We’ll fix him. If this room doesn’t heal him, then we’ll try something else. I might even be strong enough to open the Personal Chambers again and pound some answers out of Tim if it comes to it. Though I’d like to wait until I’m certain he won’t slip away.”
Sava bit her lip, and I noticed she was holding something in her hand. I opened her fingers and found a tiny green vial.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Oh, it’s a potion. It was my latest hope for curing Segolas.” Sava shrugged.
“Did you try it yet?”
Sava’s face had a disappointed cast to it, so I knew it hadn’t worked either.
“It’s not a potion for him. It was supposed to be for me.” Sava said. “Remember when you found that Immortal Sightgrass in that new garden room you bought?”
“You pried that out of Salica’s hands?” I chuckled.
Sava rolled her eyes. “When I saw our daughter had an ingredient like that, I simply had to know where it came from. Anyhow, she was trying to concoct a potion that would transform the user’s magical perception from mage sight to something more. The records call it immortal sight, or sometimes spirit sight. Supposedly, this spirit sight is part of what gives immortals an understanding of zeal far beyond what we fleshly beings can grasp.”
I nodded along, suddenly understanding Sava’s plan. “You wanted to give yourself spirit sight so you could see what was wrong with Segolas and use that information to make a cure.”
“Yes... but it didn’t work.” Sava sighed. “I washed one eye with it and felt nothing but the sting of failure. And plant juice. I suspect my cultivation isn’t high enough to activate spirit sight, even temporarily.”
“Let me try,” I said as I plucked the potion from Sava’s hands. “I activated mage sight early. Perhaps I can do the same with spirit sight.”
Upon Sava’s instruction, I poured the vial of potion into a small bowl and splashed the strange liquid on my face.
“You’re right,” I said, as I blinked furiously. “This stuff really does sting.”
My eyes hurt, and I was feeling stupid as I washed my eyes and face clean with a mixture Sava had made for that exact purpose.
I was soon thinking hurt was an understatement as I clutched at my face. A pulse ran through my head from front to back, and my vision went blurry.
“Ugh... was it this bad for you?” I asked Sava.
“No, there was just a brief sting.” Sava clutched at my arm. “Let's get you to the Medical Bay and have Mac look at you.”
Sava was sounding nervous as she guided me by the arm. I laughed her off and reminded her I’d felt far worse after a rough fight. This pain was only half as bad as having a hole in my chest and having my heart torn out.
Even without seeing, I should have been able to feel the currents of zeal around me. But somehow they felt fuzzy and indistinct.
“You might have some sort of adverse reaction,” Sava said. “I’ll... I’ll go to the Alchemist’s Laboratory. In the meantime, let me get you some healing talismans.”
“Don’t bother, Sava. I’m already feeling better." That was an overstatement. I wasn't feeling better so much as no longer feeling worse.
But then just as suddenly as the pain came, it vanished completely. I was lying on the bench in the Medical Bay when my vision returned to me.
The hazy fuzziness disappeared as my eyes went into focus again. Soon I could spot a fly on the other side of the Hearthwood, just like I could before.
But the sharpness and clarity continued to increase. I squinted and stared as I watched a fly rubbing its front legs together schemishly as it stared at a pile of ripe fruits a merchant was carting into the Hearthwood.
The merchant saw the fly as soon as I did, and she waved her hand to shoo it away. As she flicked her wrist, the spellheart dangling on a pendant around her neck lit up with power. The power entered the merchant and flew out her finger in a tiny little burst that generated a small gust of wind.
This was no incredible feat of magic. It was one of the simplest works of zeal any elf of the wind aspect could accomplish. I traced the path of the zeal through her meridians, coiling around her center at the base of her stomach, then rising back up in time with her breathing to find its way down her arm and out her pointed fingers, where it generated a tiny breeze as the air zeal from the merchant stirred the natural air zeal around it with the lingering intent of the merchant who cast the spell.
I had never witnessed magic in such detail before. I could observe the merchant’s actions in such depth it was almost like I was casting the spell itself. Every particle of zeal was clear and vivid in my mind, and its every twist and turn seemed natural. By now, I knew zeal was an expression of some higher force, and as I peered closer at the zeal around me I detected patterns shared between different aspects that I’d never witnessed before.
It took little zeal to cast such an insignificant spell. There was more than enough air in the Medical Bay to try it myself. I didn’t have an air spellheart, but I could coax a few particles of zeal towards me with nothing but a thought. They spun and danced according to my will, and when I breathed in they flew into my lungs with the gulp of air. From there, they made their way through my body and became subject to my will.
I pointed my finger, just as the heartwielder had. At my gesture, a gentle breeze ruffled the clothes on the hem of Sava’s dress. I’d copied a spell of a different aspect just by seeing it once. It was a simple spell, to be certain, but all I’d needed to do was look.
I refocused my eyes to my immediate surroundings inside the Medical Bay. There was zeal here, too. In my hands and flesh, it coiled in on itself, like a spring ready to release. The particles and channels in my body formed elaborate patterns, and I witnessed those patterns in a way I’d only felt when deep in meditation.
I looked at Sava, who was cloaked in flowing lines of green with traces of silver. Nature zeal, with just a dash of the space aspect from her little accident when she was ascending to mage acolyte. She looked at my wide eyes with a frightened expression. She hadn’t noticed me cast air magic as she fretted over me.
“Theo!” Sava yelled. “What happened? You look dazed and confused! Focus on me!”
I dropped my wondrous expression and laughed as I pushed Sava’s arms away and sat up on the examination bed.
“Nothing is wrong, Sava. It worked! You’re a genius!” I grinned and kissed my woman on the cheek.
Feeling herself so close pressed against me was a familiar sensation. My hands found their way down to her waist of their own accord.
“I’m a genius?” Sava repeated in pleasant surprise. She blushed at my praise. “Well... I...”
“Come on,” I said as I pulled away. “We have to go see our son.”
Sava and I skipped back to the Chamber of Tranquility, where Segolas, the princess we rescued from the Sunspire Kingdom, the mind-controlled wizard, and Sharakan, the wizard realm matriarch of the Sakaku Clan, all rested with dazed and distant looks in their eyes. Pelise was there. She was my first daughter by Melise and had taken after her mother in spirit healing.
Recently, she’d picked up a mind spellheart as well to help cure Sharakan and her brother.
“Father! Matriarch Sava!” Pelise stood and ran to our side.
Sava placed an affectionate hand on Pelise’s shoulder. “There’s no need for formality with me, Pelise.”
“How are the patients?” I asked Pelise.
“They’re fine,” Pelise said. “I was just getting them settled in. I was hoping if I cultivated mind magic near them, I could strip away the mind zeal that’s causing them problems and thus free these women of the spells they are afflicted by. I don’t know if it’s working, though. For Segolas, I don’t have the faintest clue how to help.”
Previously, my understanding of their afflictions was only skin deep. If a spell existed inside their body, like in the form of the hex afflicting my son, or the mind magic afflicting these women, I was like a blindfolded surgeon. I could try to fix things, but there was no guarantee I wouldn’t make things worse.
But that had changed thanks to Sava’s potion. According to her, the immortal sightgrass was only supposed to bestow these powers upon me temporarily, but I had a feeling this change would not go away.
“Let me look at them,” I said as I examined my son and the elves one at a time.
I pointed to the prisoner we rescued beneath the Sunspire Kingdom. “This one doesn’t need magic. Just somewhere safe, and perhaps someone to comfort her.”
I looked at Sharakan, who seemed pale and ghostly, with her black hair framing her body. She reminded me of her daughter Sharian. Last I saw Sharian, she was in Nela’s quarters massaging Nela’s tired shoulders.
The two Sakaku Clan elves were related, though I’d heard Sharakan had been an honorable and dependable elf when she’d been whole. The corruption and takeover of the Sakaku Clan had been the Cult of the Unblinking Eye’s first step in their invasion. Defending the northern regions of Deania would certainly be a lot easier if it wasn’t just the Hearthwood Clan holding the line.
But I would set things right. By examining Sharakan with the newly rescued elf I’d picked up in the Ancient Tree Temple, I quickly realized that Sharakan had far less stray mind zeal coiled around her head than the other elf. Both of them had mind spells in them, and the natural amber tendrils that dangled in the air around their minds were tied together and reshaped in unusual ways.
Looking at the spells, it almost looked like knots were tying them in place. Perhaps those were what kept the spell from disintegrating.
Based on the tattered state of the spells around Sharakan, I guessed the spells needed occasional maintenance to sustain. That was good news for her because it meant if we kept her away from the Cult of the Unblinking Eye for long enough, then she might recover naturally. But that could take decades, maybe even centuries, depending on how the long spell lasted.
But maybe I could speed that process along. I plucked at the knots of magic, like tugging at a string. I poked and prodded them with mind magic of my own until I felt the knots loosen a little. Working at them like this was the extent of my abilities. Sharakan’s mind had been ensnared by a sorcerer-level mind mage. I was an exceptionally strong mage acolyte of the mind aspect, but I would likely need to wait until I collected a mind-aspect aura before trying to take on Archreaver Tim’s mind magic head-on.
Loosening the spell a little would have to do for now. My delicate manipulations of zeal let the ends of the amber strands dangle free in the air, and more mind magic was coming off them and dispersing into the air, faster than the spell could gather from whatever zeal Sharakan’s empty mind generated. Perhaps Pelise’s methodology really would work with these changes.
Helping the elf I rescued in the Ancient Tree Temple was both easier and more difficult. It was easier in that the spell had only been cast by a wizard instead of a sorcerer, so the mind zeal wrapped around the wizard’s mind lacked the quality of Tim’s spell. But it was harder because the magic was fresh and unworn. It had been well-maintained until I’d stolen this elf from her captor.
After getting a bit of practice, I turned myself to my true subject of interest. My son Segolas.
His affliction was an order of magnitude more complex than those plaguing the elves. At the core of his condition was the Eternal Nightmare of Endless Death, a rather cruel and horrific hex that Segolas wouldn’t have even been able to cast if he wasn’t so damnably gifted.
Unfortunately, he’d been just as overconfident as he’d been talented. He thought he could take on a sorcerer with his spell, but he was wrong. Archreaver Tim reflected the spell right back at him, and the mind zeal mixed with the evil hex, forming something new and completely unbreakable. The whole point of the Eternal Nightmare of Endless Death was to create a spell that would make the cursed elf suffer from lifetime to lifetime until the end of their existence.
But there had to be a way to remove the hex, separating out Segolas, his soul, memories, and everything that made him himself.
The delicate pattern of zeal hovering around Segolas’ body appeared before me with greater clarity than it ever had before. Beyond that, I could see the zeal vanish beneath his skin and watched as it linked with his brain, his heart, and the dantian where he’d implanted that death spellheart he’d been diligently cultivating before his accident.
I stretched out my hand, running my fingers through the parts of the spell outside of his body. I could break these strands in any number of ways. Magical Shattering would let me crush them with my fingers. My aura could devour the magic outright. I could simply siphon the zeal away.
But I could have always done that. I didn’t because I feared what might happen. With a magical hex like this, I’d be more likely to snuff out his existence than cure him. But at least now I had a chance at understanding the problems plaguing him.
“Get me a notebook, please,” I asked Pelise.
“No need.” Sava interrupted. She reached into her bag of holding and withdrew the pad of papers and brush she carried with her. “Just tell me what you see.”
I looked Segolas over from head to toe, examining every facet of magic that made up his body. I had Sava and Pelise record my observations in exacting detail. Recording so much information about such a complex spell took up many pages of notes. After all, this spell was not a static thing. Zeal flowed through and from it like a heartbeat on a parasite. If anything, this hex seemed to be just as alive as Segolas himself was.
“There are a few avenues I could pursue that might help unravel the spell.” I said after our examination was as comprehensive as I could make it. “A few of these strands of mind zeal look like they might come loose with a bit of prodding.”
I worked as I spoke. Strands of mind zeal came loose one after another, and I felt like I was poking at a bowl of noodles with a stick a meter long. I could see what I needed to do, but I lacked the dexterity to do it.
Eventually, I realized I’d done all I could with mind zeal, and I told Sava as much.
“What about this mass of death zeal here?” Sava asked. “If you could uncoil it somehow, you’d have access to what we suspect to be the hex’s self-maintenance features. If we could remove or disable that area our chances of defeating the hex completely would improve significantly.”
“I’d need to have death zeal of my own for that,” I said, as I shook my head. But then I realized that wasn’t true. I had cast a simple air spell just by taking in air zeal and making it my own. I could do the same with death, at least enough to nudge the spell around my son any way I wanted.
So I took a deep breath, inhaling the fresh air of the Chamber of Tranquility, and along with it a lungful of death zeal from what leaked out of my son’s curse.
Death zeal did not spill out as easily as mind zeal. It lingered and festered instead of drifting away. It took me several breaths to take in enough ambient zeal to even attempt to work with death zeal.
