M.D.Syl
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Chapter 122 colorless
🕑 Added 2023-12-07 16:04:19 +0000 UTCChapter 122 The Bloody Aftermath.
Do not shy away from blood.
Do not shy away from guts.
It is a part of killing, a part of war.
Once you’ve accepted the blood and guts.
Only then you are a true warrior.
And remember, your inside is the exact same.
Nuriss, the Maiden of War.
I drag the three unconscious orcs toward the wine cellar. Since they’re all floating, I don’t need to lift them, but once I get to the wine cellar I have to be more creative.
“Myrsha kalfit.” <Gravity lightweight> I take a minute for each orc, reduce their weight to a minimum, pile them together, and use ‘Minor Telekinesis’ to carry them all, draining mana from my necklace at an alarming rate. I drop the orcs on the grimy stone stairs away from the blood. The worm infested corpses on the stairs don’t make me feel better about their safety, but spending all of my mana just to get the orcs out of this place is a bad idea nonetheless. I turn Balgrum on his back and check his muscular abdomen for the gaping wound he received below. My hands drenched in gore and blood, I shove his intestines back inside his stomach and spill a healing potion on the wound. I only let out a sigh of relief when the wound visibly close.
Now let's just hope he survives whatever is in that damned blood...
I run up the stairs to look for Salik and his men. I can hear the fighting as I draw near the palace's entrance, and once I pass through the massive bronze doors, all I find in the corpse littered garden is utter chaos.
Men fighting amidst the gory skinned corpses that the blood fae left out here to rot in the sun. Men bashing each other with every weapon I could dream of, bestial expressions etched across their faces. My eyes focus on a large dark haired man with wide blue eyes, hammering a skull into a pulp on the ground. His hammer strike down again and again. A massive green horse bites the man by the neck and flings him around like a dog's chewing toy. Loyal...
“For Marvu!” “Kill these bastards!” The battlecries register in my numb ears. I notice that most of the red spears gang under Ovin and Salik's command form a messy shield wall around the stairs that lead into the palace, fending off a ragtag of bandits with a wide array of weaponry.
Unlike the men, Loyal is in the midst of the thugs army. They surround him, multiple spears, pitchforks, halberds, and arrows are stuck to his skin with a few actually stabbed into it. But my horse is still fighting. He’s kicking and biting wildly at anyone who gets too close. His adhesive tail whips around and drags men beneath his rear hoofs. His wild movements across the battle catches the weapons that get stuck to his skin. Loyal is most likely the reason the Red Spears did not get overwhelmed in here.
On the staircase right near the entrance I find Zoe. She's unconscious, blood trailing out of her nose and eyes. Mana dehydration. I recognize the symptoms. I know it might lead to blindness and possibly death, but I can't do much about it right now.
“Did you deal with the creature inside?” Salik shouts at me from the front, a shield tied up to his metallic hook. He swings his axe in a steady way that seems tame after I’ve seen orcs swinging axes. His axe is also much smaller compared to the monstrous ones the orcs carry around, a single small head of metal that I could probably swing myself with ease.
“It’s dead!” I shout back. "Balgrum and two of his orcs will need to be carried out of there, send someone to fetch them! I'll take care of this mess."
He nods, and I step forward, making my way between my men. They are all taller than me, and the shields rattle as clubs and sharp weapons batter them over and over. “Open the shields,” I order.
“Are you sure, Your Grace? They have Iron,” Lepp Strongarm to my left asks.
“Actually just open the shield a bit, like you would for an archer!” I shout.
They do. I aim my hand at the opening without poking my hand out, I do not want to lose it. “Kushjak!” <Oil!> I channel all of the earth mana I haven’t used into the opening. A spray of oil exits and covers the thugs behind the shield wall. The struggle over the shield wall gets more violent.
"Tans fe-lasiuak." <Loud words.>
“Lower shields!” I order. “Revisor ak!” <Light strong!> The blinding flash leave both sides dazed. “Folo fotyr.” <flying fire.> my fiery breath ignites the thugs who are covered in oil. The spreading fire also catch onto the clothes of some of the Red Spears and their shields. They retreat up the stairs in a hurry, leaving me amidst the burning thugs who flail around, screaming desperately.
"AAAAAAHHH MOTHER!!" One of them lets out a scream that sends a chill down my spine, making me all too aware of the fact that I'm burning men to death. The stench of burned meat mixes with the odors of rotting flesh and blood and the acid in my throat threatens to come out.
The other men of Marvu's Raiders back off from the flaming patch in their army. Some fall down while others simply take their distance and raise their shields to block the intense heat.
I let go of my 'Increase Voice' spell. “Myrsha samir” <Gravity protects> My orange bubble flickers into existence, blocking the multiple arrows flying my way, I’m not surprised to see the black reddish iron heads getting deflected from my shield.
“Revisor ak!” <Light strong!> another blinding flash. "Kalidor." A pair of wooden shields float to me and circle me protectively, jumping to block arrows for me. “Fotyr folo!” <Firefly!> I duplicate four fiery bolts that form on burning men in front of me. I send the the 'Fireflies' toward the archers who panic and roll on the ground to put out the flames.
This is enough to scatter them. Most of them turn back and run, while a few remains. Some are still screaming, more focused on their attempts to extinguish the flames. Some of them even kneel with their hands on their napes, yelling that they surrender.
“Cowards! Stand up and fight!” A man with a ginger beard shouts, from atop his horse. He impales one of the thugs who attempts to escape with a long lance. I guess that's Marvu then... just a useless idiotic bandit that this blood fae used as a cover...
Before I can turn my magic on the bandits' leader, Loyal—who is no longer surrounded—charges from the side and bites into the man’s neck. My carnivore horse thrashes his head around while holding onto the man, then throw the lifeless corpse at my feet. “Nighhhh!” Loyal licks his bloody lips with a long black tongue, looking at me with glittering green eyes.
“Good job, Loyal!” I say, patting his bloodied head. I’ve never done anything to earn this horse’s loyalty, but I will do my best to keep it.
My men cheer as the thugs scatter. I turn back to see Salik and five of his men carrying the three unconscious orcs. It’s finally over.
*
{28} Brigit (August) the 4th
The weird curse on the orcs is something that keeps me busy for the rest of that day. I’ve come to care about Balgrum as one of my own. Not to mention that without him, I have no idea if I’ll be able to control the orcish tribe.
I research high and low, go through all of my books, ask Jerro, Sharla, and Salik. But to no avail, there aren’t any answers.
The only similar case of this curse are people in the city, and the only gang that remotely cares about people are the fishermen. But when someone showed these symptoms, they locked them up in a storehouse until they die. Investigating that horrific storage house doesn’t yield any results either, there are no known cure for this curse.
If there’s no cure I’ll have to make one! Why didn’t this curse affect me? Maybe something in my blood that’s different? This curse is obviously related to blood? Maybe it’s the fae part, maybe fae are immune to curses from other fae? Sharla did mention that vampires don’t feed on other fae… It’d make sense because by every other explanation I should be laying down bleeding from my eyes…
There isn’t a potion that fix curses… and my grimoire is still locked... I'll need to open it somehow...
I ponder as I make my way back to my camp. “Inara, they woke up.” Salik welcomes me back at the camp with a smile on his face.
“What?! Take me there!”
Salik leads me toward the other side of the camp.
In a clearing amidst the blue tents, Agilla and Shufa are sparring unarmed and without most of their clothes. Balgrum watches the two silently. He sits on a boulder, chewing his thumb at the edge of his mouth. He grins with a mouth full of sharp teeth when I approach. "Ah Shaman Inara. We hunted a great prey together! We have a worthy tale for the hall of bones, the bone chieftess will be proud."
I smile. He's ok... Good...“Balgrum. Are you ok?” Now let's just hope this thing is truly over...
“Grrrrrrr told you to stop the human sympathy, shaman. I’m fine. Healthy as a young wolf.”
Agilla and Shufa drop to the ground, spasming, blood pouring out of their orifices. At least the blood volumes aren’t as high as the orcs who died back in the cave. Salik orders the human soldiers to carry the orcs back to bed. The soldiers hesitate, wrapping their hands and covering their faces in cloth before obeying the order.
“Sakra’a La’aoko” <Bone grand-chieftess> Balgrum utters, it sounds like a curse word.
Rotten snakes! What am I going to do about this?! I cross my hands. “Healthy as a young wolf, huh? I don’t think so. Go to bed Balgrum.”
“Grrrr I’m fine!”
“You’re not fine, you’re sick. I’m the shaman, I’m responsible for healing, right? So you do as I say when it comes to healing, go to bed!”
“Grrrrraagh!” He gets up and follows the pairs of soldiers who are carrying Agilla and her friend. “Bring me some of that booze!” he demands from one of my soldiers.
“No alcohol! Just rest.” I call after him. He roars angrily and kicks one of the pegs holding a nearby tent. The tent’s side lifts off in the summer wind and Zoe’s screams comes from the inside.
The only way I’m going to find a cure for this curse is going back to Red Cedar. This is beyond my abilities, I’ll need Jolla’s help and the book about dark winter fae to figure out this curse…
I also need to import food to Apricot City, and get this place in order… and there are the remnant of Marvu’s raiders to take care off as well… This is a headache… I should get Ovin and Salik to take care of the raiders… maybe Zoe can join them, it’ll be a good experience for her… ready or not, she’ll want in on this… At least she recovered from her mana dehydration... according to the book one can lose their eyesight from this...
“Zoe! Come out of there. Where is Ovin?”
“But I’m not wearing anything!”
Does this girl spend all of her time being naked? I enter the tent with a sigh.
Her tent is a mess. Clothes are strewn about on the blue carpet. The ground near a folding chair is littered with cut brown curls. Her bed is disorganized and a few or her items are lying about.
“Where’s Ovin?” I ask.
“Meditating in his tent. Can you get someone to fix that?! Who knocks a girl’s tent down like that?!” Zoe stands near the washbasin, holding a sheet to her chest. She eyes the untied edge of the tent as if it’s a snake coming to life.
I close my eyes, hold the edge of the tent with one ‘Minor Telekinesis’ and use a ‘Repulse’ to knock in the stake back in. My fine control over this had improved a lot… I remember when I couldn’t do that… back with Sina… Lezere… I wish she was here… “There. All fixed,” I declare.
“Thanks, Master! Can you teach me how to do that?”
“Gravity magic, open your gravity mana pool first…” I reply with a grin. My feelings toward her are weird, a mix of disdain and patronage, mixed in with envy and friendliness. “Are you alright? Mana dehydration can give you some nasty headaches..."
She nods. "Thanks, Master. I'm fine. It's a little like a bad hangover? A little worse... but nothing too bad. I... I was seeing really blurry earlier and I got really scared, but I'm seeing fine now, so it was only temporary."
I sigh. "It'd be hypocritical of me to tell you and be careful with drawing too much. I do that all the time... Just try not to die or lose your eyes, ok?"
She grins. "Yes, Master. Thank you for not giving me a lecture like Salik just did..."
I smile back at her. "He cares..." No he doesn't. He's simply toying with the poor girl. "At least I hope he does? I thought you hated him.”
She blushes and averts her gaze to her finger nails, then remembers she’s naked and starts getting dressed. “Yeah… he’s not the way I thought he’d be, he’s amazing! Gives me the winds and he’s really really good with his hands, even if he just have one hand, like two days ago he…”
No thank you… “When I want such details, I’ll ask.” I cut her short. “What made you change your mind about him?”
“Other than the fact that he fought and lost his hand to defend my home, and that he saved my sister from certain death or worse? He’s kind, and gentle, and caring, and I love him!” she declares breathlessly as she fixes her corset.
Oh great… she’s butterfly in the wind for him… she’s going to get hurt… “You know he’s simply toying with you, right? He’ll move to the next girl that catches his eye soon enough…”
“No, he won’t, he loves me! We’re going to marry and…”
I fold my hands. “Zoe! Salik is over ninety years old, he never married a girl and never will. Why do you think he’ll marry you?”
She blushes and turns her back to me dressing up slowly. “Because what we have is special and…”
I roll my eyes. “What you have is snaking. Eventually, he’ll leave, and you’ll get hurt.”
"You think so?" She flinches and close her eyes for a long moment. "I should probably leave him first, that way I won't get hurt... but for now... and..." She stutters and sits down. "No. You’re just jealous!” she accuses me, her chin raised.
“No, I’m not! I have Kolag, why would I be jealous?”
She smirks and gets up, dusting her skirts from dirt that isn’t there. “You don’t love Kolag. You love Salik! I can see how you look at him.”
“You’re crazy! Salik is like a big brother to me. You want to get hurt with him, be my guest.” I shout as I leave her tent.
“Oh wait. You were already with him and he broke your heart! I knew it!” She calls after me.
I ignore her and head out. I meet Salik’s eyes right outside her tent, I forgot he was following me around the camp, and probably heard the whole conversation. “Come…” I say in an attempt to ignore the heat on my face. I make my way toward Ovin’s tent.
He follows me in silence.
“Why are you toying with her feelings like that?” I ask him as we walk.
“I thought you didn’t like her,” he says quietly.
I raise an eyebrow. “Am I that obvious?”
He snorts, fiddling with his axe. “She’s a noisy brat who thinks she knows everything there’s to know about the world, she’s not easy to like.”
“So you’re being petty?”
He lifts the brim of his straw hat and look me in the eye. “Not at all.”
“Then why?!” I ask, peering into his brown eyes for answers.
“I’ve been feeling lonely lately, and a girl to warm my bed at night is just what the healer ordered…” He laughs mirthlessly. “She’s gorgeous, and she’s the only available girl around.”
“I’m sure Sharla will sleep with you if you pay or talk her into it. She’ll take any form you want, and she won’t get hurt over it.”
Salik shakes his head. “Sharla… that thing isn’t a girl, I’m not sure what it is, but it’s not a humanoid. Its real form could be a frog or something repulsing. A good lesson I’ve learned over the years, never sleep with the fae, you know how it starts, but you never know how it ends…”
So he's lonely. He can’t sleep with me or Sharla, so he sleeps with Zoe… “You don’t care about Zoe’s feelings at all, do you?”
He sighs and kicks a pebble out of the way. “She’ll get hurt, she’ll learn an important life lesson, and be smarter about her choices later on in life. Someone has to teach her this life lesson, better if it’s someone like me, than a jerk with a pea brain.”
I cross my hands and stop. “Not really, I learned this lesson without getting my heart broken.”
“That’s because you’re smarter than her.” He pats my head almost distractingly. “That airhead won’t learn it without experiencing it firsthand…”
I move his hand from my head. This is annoying unless my real brother does that, I hate being so short… And what he says isn’t a reason! “So you think it’s your responsibility to teach her some sort of life lesson?!”
“No no no.” He raises his hands in denial, “I’m just lonely…”
“That’s selfish!”
He nods grimly. “It is, do you only commit selfless acts, Inara?”
Do I? I’ve been nothing but selfish… I got Lezere killed for my selfishness… I dragged a whole city into a war over my selfishness… Even yesterday when someone I cared for almost died, I cared about draining the soul of that thing first… Face it… What I want in life is power, magic, I’m nothing but selfish… “I guess not…” But I want that so I can go back to my family… But I guess it’s also selfish in a way…
He smirks. “As I’ve said, you’re smarter than most people your age.”
I’m not sure if he knows my real age, but I don’t mind a nice compliment from him... he used to hold back on those… “And the whole life lesson thing? You’re justifying this to yourself so you won’t feel bad and…”
He raises his hand sharply. “Shhhhh, now you’re spoiling the fun with your big brain. Don’t think so much. Take what you need from this world, and take as much of it as you can grab, because it’ll take so much more from you.”
“When you leave Zoe, please be gentle…”
Salik fixes his straw hat and averts his gaze. “I will. The same goes to you when you leave Kolag. The boy may be naïve, but he has a good heart.”
“I’m not going to leave Kolag!” How could you even think that?!
“Not even when you get lonely?” He glances at me from under the brim.
Am I that obvious? “I love him, and I’m not lonely with him."
“He can’t take off that armor, how do you… oh, never mind, I won’t pry.”
I blush. “We don’t really do it, we just cuddle sometimes. This situation only gives me more motivation to solve his demon problem, but I won’t leave him!”
Salik nods in understanding. “I guess you’re still too young to consider anyone else… you’ll get over it eventually. Ok, let’s begin your training for today.”
“I need you and Ovin to clear out the remaining thugs from the city, I’m not sure if to have Zoe joining you two on this. I also need to find a ship back to Red Cedar City, I have no idea how to solve the curse Balgrum and Agilla have, and I hope Jolla or the books I have back in Red Cedar might help me. We also need to bring some food into the city. It’s not exactly a good time for training.”
“Then I won’t take too long today, you were at fifteen pushups last time, try and give me twenty today.”
I shake my head and do as he asks, that was our agreement. I have to listen to him when it comes to physical training. With coarse dirt against my palm, I push myself up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine… ten… eleven… twelve… thirte…
The world turns red, and dark.
*~*~*
Interlude 122.1
Nolkum Marvu.
"Captain Silde is dead, sir."
Marvu scales shift to angry red with surprise cyan patterns. "Dead?"
The boy fidgets. "Aye, sir. Dead he is. The Queen recruited the Red Spears to her side, the Fishermen too. They attacked the monster under the palace, sir. Captain Silde attacked the Queen and the Red Spears when they left the beast's hideout, the Queen and her monster killed them all."
Marvu scales shift to cowardly blue. "Monster?"
"A giant man-eating horse, sir! Captain Silde never stood a chance, that monster chewed him and spit him out."
"Is she still in Apricot City?" Marvu asks, blue scales form different patterns of curious green.
"No, sir. She left shortly after. We met someone who said she collapsed with the same curse from the beast under the palace, but we don't know if we can trust him."
Marvu's curious green scales shift their patterns as his curiosity grows. "And why is that?"
"He's... not a local, sir. We don't know him, he's strange. He did warn Captain Silde that the Queen have more abilities than just fire magic, but Captain Silde didn't listen. Do we attack now, sir?"
"No. Let me meet this stranger."
"Yes, sir." The boy rushes outside.
After a few long minutes a pair of guards enter with a short young drow. Marvu's scales shift to cyan surprise and suspicious brown patterns. "A drow?!"
"A Silio freak!" The young drow exclaims, shouting loud enough for Marvu's faulty ears to hear him well. The drow's eyes glow in the color of affirmative green like an odd cat.
"What are you doing here, drow? No excuses! I know your kind always scheme."
"Mah kind? Ya know freaks like me?" The drow perks up and licks his lips. "Ya have any good food? Ah ain't talking with no food!"
"Who are you?"
"I'mma rat! Here to rat the queen's secrets. She trust me. Wanna join your gang an' rat ya where her stash is. Gimme somethin' to eat now."
*~*~*
Power level: 3rd stage apprentice.
Mana pools status:
Crown-knot: Affinity 10: connected: 1 gem replenished per minute.
Neck-Bridge: Affinity 6: formed: max amount of gems drained per day: 79
Abdomen-storage: Affinity 5: formed: 16 gems. Conversion ratio: 6:1
Air: Affinity 4: formed: 26 gems
Fire: Affinity 2: formed: 13 gems
Light: Affinity 3: formed: 19/20 gems
Water: Affinity 6: formed: 39 gems
Earth: Affinity 1: formed: 6 gems
Wood: Affinity 2: formed: 13 gems
Gravity: Affinity 9: connected: 84/95 gems
Cantrip known:
Air: Shavi’s Breeze, Shavi’s Sword. Shavi’s Hair Dryer, Aria’s Enhanced Hearing. Aria’s Sonic Scream. Aria's Increased Voice.
Fire: Nuriss’ Flame. Effrat’s Firefly, Effrat’s Fire Breath. Sorladika's Lesser Heating. Nuriss’ Ignite. Oniga's Soap Creation.
Light: Noxi’s Light. Lako’s Blinding Light. Rika’s energy hand.
Water: Water Evocation, Water to Ice, Ice to Water, Water to Vapor, Vapor to Water, Mayan’s Icy Spike, Ayla’s Water Jet. Ayla’s instant freeze. Ayla's Flowing Shield. Ayla’s Freezing Vapors. Hot Water Conjuration. Boiling Waterjet.
Earth: Alice’s Oil Summoning, Reiko’s Acid Spray. Alf's Copper Bolt
Wood: Arigor’s Lesser Vines. Kolosu’s Vegetable Summoning.
Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield II. Imari’s Minor Telekinesism. Imari’s Jump. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body. Alino's Orbiter.
Transmutation: Oniga's Laundry.
Spells known:
Light: Rika's Electric Channelb1
Gravity: Alino’s Weightless Bodyb1x2. Tukado's Pushb1x3. Tukado’s defense IIIb1x4. Imari’s Lesser Flightb2.
Life: Brigit’s Lesser Cure Poison. Brigit’s Skin Restoration.
Focus capability: 18 patterns.
Social status: The Queen of Red Cedar City. Shaman of the Twin Moon Tribe. Inara, Daughter of Mysteries. Apprentice to the Maven of Mysteries. Sorceress.
Personal Wealth: 1465 Magic Gems. 1420 Golden Peas, 45 Silver Scales, 32 Copper Bits.
Personal Items:
Magical necklace. Contains 100 gems of general mana, can be drained like a mana pool. It’ll recharge by itself at the rate of five gems an hour.
1 potion of lightning body.
1 potion of mana, medium grade.
2 potions of Lesser Healing.
3 potions of Pain Tolerance.
An enchanted belt with eight pouches, the enchantment keeps the pouches’ content fresh. Each pouch may contain 10g of petals or six potion flasks.
10 Unknown Blood Fae soul bottles. Glass with a diamond stopper, put in scaled leather wrapping.
The Great White Egret grimoire. Dedicated by the Maven of mysteries to Inara. 30/100. Locked.
Present Companions:
Zoe
Ovin Bloodspear
Berthold
Ryon
Sharlafyn Nettledew
Jerro
Salik
Languages:
Toml’a <People’s tongue> Fluent
Sinteo <Speech> Fluent
Myrsha <Gravity> 8/10
Felul <Wind> 1/10
Nim <Water> 1/10
A'arkalu <Wolf Tongue> 3/10
Injuries and scars: ???
Curses: ???
-
Kingdom’s treasury: 3836 gold coins. 123 magical gems.
Kingdom’s citizen: Red Cedar City: 3,881 humans, 1,836 human children.
Apricot City: approximate 800+ humans.
Twin Moon Tribe: 1,138 orcs. 293 orc children. 529 sheep-slaves.
Kingdom's army: 1,136 Orc Warriors. 324 Footmen. 49 Peacekeeper Knights. 500 Blood Spears.
Notables at Court:
Tasiya Keyholder.
Jolla SilverQuill.
Talbot Bookkeeper.
Marasi Chef extraordinaire (spymaster.)
Old Gardner Tiom.
Balgrum Orc Chieftain.
