Chapter 82: Sanctum VII
This was one of the transitional tunnels. The sanctums structure was beyond anything Id ever seen. Massive chambers broken up by bottle-necks that were either equally verdant from that first, staggeringly diverse chamber wed entered, or almost all rock and devoid of life. This was the latter. The rat-lizard menI didnt have time to ask for their official designation before we were under siegewere a new threat. Theyd built up a rickety, shanty like residence in the tunnel, staggering in its verticality, and were about as congenial as your average tolls man. As tribute for passage, they had demanded all our equipment. And Bellarex.
That wasnt happening.
The rat pushed in on me, his incisors flashing in the dim light, spear jutting out. Despite their strange, primal appearance, they were no strangers to combat. He had a sense of my range and took advantage of it, darting inwards, and back out before I could tag him, using his rickety shield to block the magic I cast.
I huffed out in frustration. There were two more approaching on my periphery. I needed to end this quickly.
When the rat darted in to prod at me once more, I called the spark and lit my sword on fire. He looked at it dumbly, then started to shriek, waving it around, trying to put it out. I stoked the fire and turned towards the others.
A massive form shot forward over my head. I ducked, instinctually, as Kastramoth came crashing down on one of the two remaining rat men, pinning him to the ground and ripping his arm off, throwing his head back and swallowing it whole.
He really had a thing for arms.
But Kastramoth was huge, and the bulk of his weight caused the entire platform to shift. I dove, banishing the flame and driving my sword into the spongey surface, hanging on for dear life.
Get to the center, you moose-fucking asshole!
He howled something back at me, probably profane, and began to climb, the rats left behind and forgotten as the primary threat became the flora itself buckling underneath us. I saw Jorra, tumbling in an uncontrolled roll down the floor that had become a wall and stuck my leg out. His whip lashed around my ankle as his full weight was halted, jarring me with a horrible judder that made me feel like something might be dislocated.
A moment later, I was corrected. Maya came tumbling down after him, and Jorra swung from the whip still fastened around my leg to catch his sister with one arm.
Pop.
That was what it felt like when a hip popped out of socket. My eyes rolled back in my head and I nearly let go.
Ow, I moaned.
Cairn, you good? Maya asked, looking up at me in concern.
No!
Okay, hang in there. Maya said.
I really, really hoped the pun wasnt intentional.
Just a few more seconds, Jorra added. Kastramoth and Bell are working on it.
I looked up, through blinding, glaring pain. Kastramoth was slowly making his way to the top. But what was truly astonishing was Bell. She was sprinting across the cap at an impossible angle, knocking down rats that clung to the lower half, ripping the weapons from others in the higher sections and using them to pin the rats in place, slowly but surely evening out the weight distribution.
There was no way that was all void magic. At some point, wed need to have a conversation, to see if I could get her to spill on the secrets of literally running up walls. The cap evened out. More rats jumped down from either side of the structure. Jorra was up first. His whip lashed out, seizing a rat around the neck, holding it in place as he threw a massive gout of water into it, sending it tumbling over the side.
I struggled to my feet but fell, my left leg refusing to budge.
Damn it.
Maya snarled, and intercepted an incoming rat. Her staff glowed green. A single strike to the side of its head was all it took. The rat fell, eyes blank.
Little help? I called out.
The surface was righting itself, but slowly. Maya slid on her knees to me, panic in her voice. Where is it? She asked. Knee?
Hip. I murmured the word.
She slid her staff beneath my lame leg, the top third of her staff nesting right beneath my knee.
No, hip- I was cut off as she yanked outward with the staff, my hip clicking painfully back into place. Elphion thats a bitch!
Breathe, Maya said. Her hand glowed green and the pain receded, if only for a moment. A rat jumped down from an overhead suspension and ran towards us, spear held over its head. I channeled a gust of air and cut its legs out from underneath it. The rat went down a few feet from Maya.
The platform was still at a sharp angle, though not nearly as sharp as before. I didnt trust my still unsteady footing with an underhanded blow. Instead, I raced towards the rat and kicked out. The toe of my boot connected with its head, and it flopped to the surface, moaning.
Shards of ice embedded themselves mere inches from me. I ducked, rolling out of the way of another volley.
They had a magician?
Thankfully, there wasnt many. As far as Id seen, there was only one, situated on the highest level of the shanty platform. I was mentally working out how to get up to him without exposing myself to more artillery when he stopped, looking down at the curved sword that jutted around his chest. Bell ripped the sword free, still sprinting. I had no idea when or even how shed managed to get up there, but I wasnt about to complain.
Vogrin floated beside me, watching the struggle analytically.
Are you going to help or just watch? I yelled at him. Another rat tackled me from the side. I wrestled it to the ground and dispatched it with the remains of my dagger. Black, foul smelling blood emitted upwards, covering my face.
I believe you selected me for my analysis and tactical savvy. Vogrin observed. Not my combat prowess.
I wondered, absentmindedly, if he could be set on fire. I could use a little savvy right now!
A rat bit into my side and gnawed. I punched it repeatedly with the hilt of my sword until it let go.
You certainly could, Vogrin said impassively.
For fucks sake!
Vogrin rolled his eyes. Its almost as if the intelligence of these creatures is little more than that of pack animals. Its almost as if-
Vogrin! I will return you!
I am not a household item to beFine! Vogrin snarled. Its almost as if you were to locate their leader and kill him, the rats would be likely retreat. He pointed downwards with a single bony finger.
I wheeled around, surveying the battlefield below. For ever rat we felled, there were a dozen more, storming out of tunnels and from beneath piles of refuse to take its place. There were so damn many of them-
Then I spotted him. He was huge. The average rat stood about three feet tall. This one was nearly six feet, more than a head taller than me, and exponentially heavier. He roared, his red eyes glowing in the dark, pointing a skull-decorated cudgel up at me.
It was a thirty-foot drop. And even if it wasnt, he was surrounded by rats. How the hells was I supposed to-
The solution snapped into focus. When Id watched the never-ending battles for the enclave, Id effectively been forcing myself to solve for an impossible variable. To come up with a solution for an incredible difficult problem. No matter how creative I was, nothing had come. Nothing had occurred to me for a solution with which to defeat Ozra.
By comparison, this was nothing.
Opening up my bag, I retrieved a scroll. I hated the idea of using them, but what good were they if they just sat there. This particular scroll Id grabbed on a whim because it reminded me of the heist at Mifrals estate. I discharged a burst of mana into the scroll, completing the sigil. Then I leapt from the mushroom. The scroll didnt create weightlessness, but it reduced the effect of gravity, allowing the user to fall in a more controlled state, until the effect was cancelled. I drifted above the rat lord, as if aloft on a gust of wind. He made frantic gestures that jiggled his whole body, and a dozen stones propelled by slings whizzed past me, some closer than others, most going wide.
Somehow managing the precise, minute control necessary, I called the air to me, sending a handful of powder from my pouch downwards. It was invisible in the chaos but surround the rat lord in a circle. Then ten feet above him, I cancelled the effect of the scroll. Air plummeted past my face as I plunged downward, sword held high. He roared up at me.
The roar was cut short as the blade sunk home, lodging firmly in his chest. He caught fire and fell backwards. I clung to him desperately as he topped, his still-flaming body landing touching the circle I had drawn, which ignited, flames surrounding us in a circular gale of unimaginable heat.
The hundreds of rats that had surrounded him sunk back. Hissing. Frightened. The rat-lords body grew stiff, bloating.
I pulled my sword out and attempted to run, but it was too late. He exploded, showering me with fetid smelling guts. But Vogrin was right. The rats were too traumatized with the sudden death of their leader to pay any head to the gagging, blood-soaked wretch that had killed him.
They scattered like insects.
Something particularly vitreous sloughed off my chin and splattered against the ground. My shoulders heaved.
I was transported into the past, and that whining, nagging voice was obliterated
A lifetime ago, on a day when I was feeling particularly adventurous, I took Lillian down to the coast. It came up, through casual conversation, that neither of us had ever seen the ocean, and I decided that was a criminal offense that had to be rectified. We were royaltyor in her case, soon to be royalty. Why live through books, through artists depiction, when a little gold and a moderate amount of travel was all it took to rectify the situation? It was more for her than for me, or at least that was what I told myself.
And then, we stepped out from the carriage.
The water was so wide and clear it was almost impossible to parse, almost dizzying, sparkling, full of life. Lillianas if shed been there a thousand times before, and would be a thousand times again, kicked off her fancy nobles shoes and stepped barefoot onto the sand. The coastal wind rippled through her dress, teased her hat from her head, lifting and catching the breeze like a bird in flight until it landed and rolled down the beach unpursued, the single blue ribbon bobbing back and forth as if in bittersweet farewell, and the waves crashed down at her feet and she danced away, rotating slowly to face me, joy, pure joy on her face as she spoke the words.
Have you ever seen anything so beautiful? Maya asked. She shifted back and forth on her feet, sinking, shifting, then sinking again.
The water was emerald, the sand light-gray and silty, and the sky was cast in the same overcast cumulus white that had covered the sanctums impermeable dome. And still, the answer was as clear as it had been a lifetime ago.
No, I said. I havent.
----
After making sure our immediate area was secure, I stripped down to the minimal amount of clothes to maintain decency and scrubbed away the grime from the cave. It was fresh water, rather than salt, and the seemingly endless void of water was mostly an optical illiusion. It was more lagoon than ocean, but I loved it all the same.
We saved our rations, feasting instead upon the conch-shelled crabs that wandered up to us curiously, blissfully unaware of their imminent demise. Jorra had been suckered into buying a tube of butter back at the heartsomething I once would have mocked him for, but was now forever grateful.
Jorra, Maya, and I relaxed on the sandbank, using our packs as pillows. Bell delved into the water, floating as she crouched down to her neck and back up again.
Youre better in a fight than I remember, Jorra said to Maya, cracking open a crab-leg between two stones.
Mmm. Its been a busy year, Maya said. You are less annoying than I remember.
Guess it helps when Im the one pulling your ass out of the fire, Jorra said, receiving a snort in response. He looked over to Bell, who was still repeating the same, strange, bobbing motion. The hells is she doing?
Not a clue. Maya said.
I straightened up, studying her for a moment. Bell bobbed back into the water, arms making frantic movements below the surface before she bobbed back up again.
She cant swim, I said.
They both looked at me.
That cant be right. Maya squinted, watching the younger infernal.
Mom taught us to swim before we could even walk, Jorra seemed almost affronted. Her parents He trailed off.
Were teaching her to fight. All she was taught, all she was expected to do, was fight. But I left the words unspoken. It felt like it would spoil the moment, somehow, to bring Erdos into it. I closed my eyes. He had died because of my actions, however indirectly. As much as I wanted to hide from it, to deny it, the fact remained: I had created my first orphan. And if Thoth was right, how many more would follow?
Someone squeezed my arm. Maya. Stay with me, she said, under her breath.
I forced myself to stay present in the moment, to enjoy the peace while it lasted. Jorra looked between us, questioning, the face of someone who was certain he had miss something but was unsure of what.
An idea struck. I pointed towards Bell. Why dont you teach her?
His response was immediate. To swim? Why me?
I mean, I didnt learn until much later in life. Maya is- I came up short, turned to Maya.
Recuperating mana. Maya added seriously.
I pointed to her, smiling. See? Were both either unavailable or unqualified. You learned before you could crawl, right?
Before I could walk, Jorra said dryly, And that was hyperbole.
I dont know what that word means, I lied.
Who knew my brother was so bookish, Maya said.
Youre both impossible. Jorra threw up his hands and turned, stalking off towards Bell.
We watched the proceedings with glee as Jorra awakened his inner teacher. The light refracted from the water as Jorra pantomimed the motions of swimming for Bell, cupping his hands and demonstrating a simple stroke. Then, he supported her from as far away as he could manage, palm held flat against her stomach. Bell sputtered, came up for air, looking panicked and betrayed, peppered him with questions, and then repeated the process all over again. Eventually, he removed his hand, and Bell took off on her own. Jorra had to rescue her a few times she went too deep and panicked, but beneath the facade of grumpiness, he never seemed to lose patience.
Maya leaned over to whisper conspiratorially in my ear. How long do you think before we add a void magician into the family line. Mother will pitch a fit.
Nethtari would do no such thing, I rolled my eyes. And I think youre getting ahead of yourself.
Maybe. I have a knack for these things.
Says every romantic ever. I smirked, ignoring the fact that I was including myself in that statement.
The silence stretched out. It reminded me of those early days in the Everwood, when my flame was just a spark, and Maya was content to sit beside me, eyes lifting from her book every so often to watch me practice.
What went wrong with you and mother? Maya asked.
Did she say something? I asked, suddenly self-conscious.
No. It was what she didnt say. Maya shook her head. The way she talked around it. What do artists call it? The negative space.
I sighed. What did you want to do before everything?
That is a drastic change of topic.
Its a polite and loving way of asking you to read the room, I raised an eyebrow at her, and she raised one right back.
Alright. I will drop it. For now.
The silence stretched out again before Maya broke it. Life magic always seemed so wonderful to me. She trailed a shape in the sand idly, The ability to heal any wound without a scar, to rectify painful disfigurements, to fix that which was broken.
She trailed off. It was tempting to prompt her, but I let her take her time.
There was a girl. Her name was Rospira, and I called her Ros. Her father worked at the earth temple. I saw them from time to time, whenever we made our monthly visitation. She stood out to me because her father always carried her to the temple in a harness, while I was made to walk. That always struck me as unfair. Maya smiled, sadly. I did not realize how unfair it was until one day the day I wandered into the earth temple and found Ros pulling herself across the floor.
There was no way you could know, I said, a bit too quickly.
Perhaps. But that image stuck in my mind. Mayas expression gained a far away quality. We became friends. And I visited her every time mother let me out of her sight at the temple. Then, one day, I awakened. The power to heal, at my fingertips. Maya held her hand palm upwards, light glowing in her palm. I was such a stupid child. I rushed to the temple to show Ros, to show my friend. I can heal you, I said. You can walk once more. Maya cringed. Ros let me try. As if to satisfy my curiosity. She wasnt even angry when I failed. Somehow, that made it worse. That night, I wept to my mother and father. It didnt seem fair, that I had this power, and yet I could not help my friend.
Noble to a fault. I smiled.
Perhaps. Mother told me that was the way of things. That disparity was the way of life, as difficult and painful as it is. But my father snuck into my room and told me the story of Kathor, the legendary healer. That maybe, one day, if I worked hard, though it was only the smallest of chances, I might be able to help my friend.
Thats... quite a burden to place on a child.
I do not think so. I think, in his own way, father was showing me that there was more than one way to view the world. Maya looked at me, and the deeper meaning struck me like a hammer. That there is a chance that things can be better if we work harder, and strive with all we have.
The weight of it settled on me. I dont know if I can make things better, Maya. I dont know if Im the right person, if Im even capable of it. I remembered Erdos, teaching me how to ward off the trauma of panic. His face was replaced with the image of Ephira dying on the floor of the twilight chamber, the light slowly leaving her eyes.
Maya squeezed my arm. What matters is that you try.
A splash of water hit Maya in the face. Jorra cackled and retreated into the the water. Maya chased after him, and after a moment, I followed, temporarily leaving the weight that had pressed so heavily on my shoulders forgotten on the shore.
