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Nero Walker, Book 3 Ch.16 (131)
🕑 Added 2024-03-14 22:30:01 +0000 UTCAlthough Cathleen appeared to focus primarily on the surrounding wilds, in reality, she was always paying close attention to what was going on around her. From Wesker’s constant personal crisis’ of faith with the standards set by the military constantly being challenged by the little lord’s improvisation and questioning, to Vikander’s expertly hidden fears and caution, she saw it all.
As a northern warrior, she’d been trained to see with more than just her eyes. It was a skill that southerners usually neglected to cultivate, even the mages here didn’t seem to bother with it. Normally, she’d call them idiots and leave it at that, but she was positive that Lord Walker either learned the skill from Lord Salvatore-Verena, or at least had it explained to him by someone who’d mastered it.
Ever since they’d entered the wilds, she’d felt Lord Walker’s psychic presence getting better at blanketing the area. She hadn’t been sure if he was actually using his perception field to see, but there was no longer any doubt. Ever since the ambush, she could tell that something had changed.
Now, she’d feel his mind practically scouring through the ether, supplementing his material sight with his ethereal gaze. He wasn’t even being subtle about it. And the fact that Lord Salvatore-Verana didn’t seem to notice indicated that he hadn’t been the one to teach Lord Walker how to do it. ‘So who taught the little lord to see beyond his eyes?’ she wondered.
These thoughts kept her occupied while she kept vigil on the party recovering from their most recent battle with a mob.
As her physical eyes scanned the surrounding forest, which had been thoroughly burned out by the little lord’s experimenting, she used her perception field to enjoy the argument going on in front of her.
The sergeant, so accustomed to treating combat like a training exercise, was having trouble dealing with Lord Walker’s use of environmental warfare. It’s rather amusing how the poor man is unable to conceptualize the little lord’s casual disregard for his ‘proper procedure’. ‘This is what comes from training soldiers only to defend walls while deluding them into thinking themselves warriors. He can’t even recognize a true survivor standing right in front of him,’ she thought sadly.
At least Lord Salvatore-Verena was presenting a valid argument. Power is not a toy to be bandied about, it is a weapon to be wielded with purpose. When that purpose isn’t directed, the power will choose its own target.
She felt the little lord’s attention focus on her, both his sight and his mind’s eye. After hearing his question she thought, ‘So you want my opinion, do you?’ She couldn’t help but find the drama a little entertaining.
Running her gaze across the soot covered party members, she locked eyes with Nero and said, “Young warriors often push the boundaries of good sense. They must find their limits through adversity. You saw a potential weakness, devised a strategy, implemented it. Whether or not it was a mistake is something you’ll have to decide for yourself after reflecting on the battle. Now isn’t the time to concern yourself with the opinions of those who are only alive because you acted. It’s better to act in ignorance, then to hesitate and die. If you manage to live through your mistakes, never repeat them. As there is no way to know what would have happened if you hadn’t done as you did, it’s pointless to debate it. Now, we’ve talked enough. It’s time to move on. Sergeant Wesker, the mob is currently dissipating, you might want to deal with that before you lose more of Lord Walker’s spoils.”
Cathleen forcefully suppressed her smile at seeing the sergeant stomp off to deal with the corpse, his pouty attitude almost causing her mask to break. She could feel the amusement rolling off both Lord Walker and Lord Salvatore-Verena, their essence practically dripping with it. Never in her life had she been trained in psychological warfare, but she could see why the little lord enjoyed it so much. Winning pointless conversational battles was an interesting pastime. A useless hobby, but interesting nonetheless.
Before long, they were finally ready to head toward the essence event which was their target. As they made their way out of the burned area of the forest, she could already feel the essence in the area starting to repair it. Without a sentient to reinforce the changes by observation, new growth would cover the ground in a few days. In a month, no one would be able to tell a battle had even been fought here. Of course, that all is contingent on them successfully reinstating the natural essence flows in the area.
She could already feel the knot in the essence effecting the ethereal plane. ‘At least the sergeant’s inner conflict isn’t affecting his sense of direction,’ she thought with some humor.
As time passed, and they headed closer to their target, she kept up her vigil on her surroundings. Often, the beasts or monsters would congregate around their spawn-points, so she maintained readiness in case an enemy showed itself.
“Fuck!” she heard Nero mutter rather loudly from behind her.
The party instantly halted, and she thoroughly scanned the area with a frown. ‘There isn’t anything out there? Is there?’ she wondered, her senses humming with tension.
After confirming nothing was out there, she realized that the little lord was just dealing with some kind of personal issue. A little annoyed, she searched his essence signature for clues. In the ethereal plane, it looked like his center was actively cycling. ‘Is he actually doing active meditation?’ she wondered.
Moments later, she saw the essence in the area violently shake, then a weak level cyclone rose up around their party. Through her perception field, she could see Lord Walker actually leveling! He had actually been active meditating. ‘Who in the infinite planes of the hells taught him how to do that!?!’ she wondered, her eyes wide with surprise.
“What’s the matter? Never seen someone level before?” asked the little lord, his smirk taunting her and everyone around her.
Down to the recesses of her center, she regretted that his soul ended up in the southern cities, it truly was a shame that he didn’t borrow a body from a northerner. Regardless, she now knew for a fact that he was in contact with someone who’d had something similar to warblade training. These weren’t skills or concepts that someone could just come up with on their own. She’d have to be careful with her investigation, but no opponent can hide forever. One way or another, she’d find out who is trying to poach her prospect. ‘Perhaps it was that war-mage that’s been teaching him how to cast their weak southern magic?’ she thought angrily.
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The ambient essence looked… wrong, and every step they took closer to the essence event only made it worse.
Yet, Nero’s sense of his surroundings wasn’t affected in the least. The material plane through his perception field looked perfectly fine. He could still see and interact with the ambient essence. If he had to describe what was bothering him, he wouldn’t know where to start. Everything just looked…. Wrong! And it was creeping him the hell out.
Minutes passed as the team made their way through the forest. All the while, no one other than Nero seemed to think anything was ‘off’. Everyone stayed in formation, kept their eyes on their assignments, and generally acted as if it was all business as usual in the wilds.
While Nero did his best to concentrate his senses on the area he was supposed to be monitoring, it was incredibly difficult to stay focused. It was almost like he was walking through a haunted house, where there was that underlying sense of ‘eeriness’. But instead of some ineffable sense of danger, it was a feeling of the world around him being subtly ‘incorrect’. The trees looked wrong, but somehow also normal. Same with the shrubs and plant-life all around him. Even the sound of the animals wasn’t right. ‘This must be how Alice felt when she went through the looking glass. Man that movie creeped me the hell out,’ he thought to himself with a grimace.
Nero’s attention snapped to the front of the party when he heard Nick say in a perfectly calm tone, “Huh, it’s just a little baby spawn-point. I’m impressed the scry mages even managed to find this little guy,”
Nero couldn’t believe what he wasn’t seeing. Directly in front of them, bisecting a tree, his eyes saw nothing. But his perception field was clearly telling him that a large undulating blob of ‘something’ was right there. With his mental senses, he couldn’t help but run his psychic presence over it, psychically poking it to prove to himself that it was actually there. It was like there was a giant blob of ‘goo’ hanging in the air, but completely invisible.
In the ethereal plane, it was even more confusing. Streams of essence seemed to curl together like a tangled extension cord, but multiplied by a million. Every type of essence in the area was simultaneously flowing right past it, looking completely normal, but also being dragged into a bubbling vortex of Christmas lights fresh from the box in the attic.
Nero was maybe 20ft away, but that was still close enough to see how freaking weird the hovering ball of insanity was.
Wesker’s harsh voice snapped him out his thoughts. “Vikander, Averett, watch the flanks. Keep an eye out for manifestations. Don’t hesitate. Call out if you see anything at all. I’ll watch over the mages. Verena, get this thing smoothed out. Walker, get over here and listen to everything he says. Orders are to have you learn how to do this, and we don’t have all day,” he said, his voice full of repressed anger, but otherwise unworried.
Nero numbly approached Nick, who was standing their with his arms crossed, staring curiously at the ball of craziness.
Nero muttered, “OK. So, this is a spawn-point. I gotta be honest here buddy, I have no idea what I’m looking at. It’s clearly there, but my eyes aren’t seeing anything.”
Nick turned away from his examination to stare at Nero in confusion, “You expected to be able to see it? It’s in the ethereal plane… not the material. Open up your senses and try to feel out the area in front of us. Tell me what you sense.”
Returning the look of confusion, Nero replied, “Oh, I see what’s not there. Or, I mean, I see what’s in the ethereal plane. It looks like a massively jumbled mess of essence flows that are wrapped around each other… but also not. The thing is maybe 5 feet around, and like a big ball of tangled string…”
As Nero was describing what he was seeing, his mental presence reached out to examine the knot of essence. At first, everything was fine, his perception just showing him hints of various essences squirming around each other. Then, out of nowhere, his mind seemed to slip past the surface, deeper into the spawn point.
His mental projection was overwhelmed with a flash of sensations that made no sense. It was like a mental flash-bang, but instead of sound and light, it exploded with everything from smells to tastes along with images of a dark forest. Then, he was through, and he could see the other side.
All around him were the creepiest trees he’d ever seen. Ropes of vegetation were hanging down from the branches, reaching to the ground like dead snakes stapled to the canopy. The ground had small fog clouds slowly making their way across the forest floor. Shadows seemed darker than they should be, while the sky was almost completely hidden from sight. It would have been pitch black, if not for the few shafts of sunlight that managed to breach the gnarled canopy. But, the light didn’t look right, it wasn’t bright enough. The sense of wrongness was so strong, it was almost just a different type of ‘right’.
While Nero took in the dark forest, which looked like something out of a Tim Burton movie, he sensed a muted presence off to the left of his focus. Reorienting his mental sight, he saw a figure leaning against a tree. They were maybe 6ft tall, possibly male. Their incredibly light hair pulled back in a topknot, allowing the back of their hair to flow around their shoulders gracefully. Intricate combat leathers were wrapped along their body, with small plates of metal attached in strategic places along their limbs and torso. Twin swords sheathed at their waste, with various knives strapped all over the place. The only word Nero could use to describe them, was ‘elf’. It was an honest to God, pointy eared, pretty boy, elf.
Nero’s mind stuttered to a stop, completely flabbergasted at what he was seeing. The damned elf was just standing there, leaning comfortably against a tree, calmly reading a book one handed while his other hand crossed his chest to support his reading arm. His face looked so… bored.
Behind him, far off in the distance, Nero heard Nick’s voice calling out. Still confused, Nero turned his attention around to focus on what was behind him. His mind almost recoiled at the sight of another tangled mess of essence, identical to the one he had just been screwing around with. He didn’t know how, but he knew that Nick was inside that thing… or on the other side of that thing. Probably with the rest of the party… and his body? ‘Did I just astral project through a magical wormhole? Fuck me, I’m a dumb-ass!’ he said to himself in panic.
Comments
Ocean Breeze
Oh. My. Goodness.
Adam Roundfield
Just go around pushing random buttons...
dicloniuslord
well, it could be worse. At least it wasnt like a 40k psyker projecting through the warp
