BT II - Chapter 23

Micah appeared in a forest clearing, the chill of Elsewhere still clinging to his armor after teleporting.  Leeka stumbled past him, falling to her hands and knees as she struggled with the disorientation from her trip through the hostile plane.

Mountains rose above the trees, dark brown slopes that all but disappeared into the clouds.  Micah took a step forward, his shoes clicking on the plate of granite that they’d arrived on.  Already, the circle of runes etched into the stone were beginning to cool as the residual energy from the teleportation wore off.

Fighting down a flicker of nausea, Micah surveyed his surroundings, eyes sharp for any sign of an ambush.  Although he suspected that his companions hadn’t noticed, their journey through Elsewhere hadn’t been entirely uneventful.  He had only been in the tunnel created by the teleportation formation for a matter of seconds, but that time was enough for him to sense great beasts, unseen but filled with ancient power as they prowled along the boundaries of the ritual.

He wasn’t sure if the third prince had done something to draw the attention of the entities that had raged at the boundaries of the teleportation channel, but Micah was certain that they weren’t entirely safe.  It was simply too malevolent and feral to level him alone once it had some sort of idea what Micah was up to.

Seeing nothing that sparked an alarm, Micah took another handful of steps into the clearing.  To his right was a thin path, something he ordinarily would have mistaken for a game trail except for the single scuffed and muddy bootprint, barely visible a dozen or so paces into the forest itself.  Other than the narrow gap in the foliage, the only other remarkable feature of the clearing was a small firepit, its ashes cool and long unused.

Micah strode into the woods, stopping at the bootprint.  He sank to one knee, pressing a finger into the mud.  His Arcana skill tingled, and Micah closed his eyes.  One glowing red footprint after another appeared in front of him, each sunk deep into the soft soil and about four paces apart.

“Ravi come over here,” Micah called out with a frown.  “This is definitely the way the Bishop went, but it looks like she’s moving inhumanly fast.  I don’t know what sort of ability she’s using, but when we catch up with her, I want you all to be careful.  It looks like there’s a lot more to her than just blasts of fire.”

“Papa,” Ravi’s childish voice sounded inside Micah’s head as her shoulder brushed up against his side.  “Ravi help.  What can Ravi do?”

“Scent the Bishop,”  he replied, tapping the footprint with his forefinger.  “Given how fast she’s moving, I don’t see any point in testing my tracking skills.  You’re a lot better at this than I am, unless something strange happens you should be able to follow her at a dead run.”

The big panther purred once, rubbing a furry cheek against Micah’s head before burying her nose in the forest soil.  A second or so later, she pulled herself up, sniffing deeply once before shaking her entire body, as if trying to shed some unwanted hold over her.

“Smells bad,” Ravi grumbled in Micah’s head.  “Bad person, unnatural.  Dying but healthy.  Not good.”

“I know,” Micah said, scratching the fur between the pather’s ears.  “She’s doing things that put everyone at risk.  We need to stop her before she makes everyone smell like her.”

Ravi leaned over, licking Micah with a sand-papery tongue before bounding off into the forest, pausing some forty to fifty paces in front of him to look back.  She gestured with a wing, as if calling him forward and Micah chuckled, breaking into a jog to catch up with the big cat.

A couple of seconds later, Leeka matched pace with him, her bow out and an arrow nocked as she moved lithely through the forest.  Esther and Eris trailing after Micah like a pair of chicks chasing a mother hen, struggling to keep up even though they were running on the mostly clear footpath.  Ranging to Micah’s left, Trevor and Drekt wove through the foliage, keeping enough of a distance that a burst or cloud spell couldn’t encompass the entire party.

Telivern brought up the rear.  The stag wasn’t doing much of anything beyond placidly chewing on a mouthful of greenery as it trotted placidly behind them, but after years of living with the animal, Micah didn’t expect any more or less.

“How do you know the lady is running away?” Esther asked in between puffs of breath.  “We can’t even see her.”

“It’s the footsteps dear,” Leeka answered before Micah could.  “They’re far apart and pressed deep.  It’s almost like she’s jumping from step to step, but the extra depth near the toes shows that it’s from sprinting rather than a more evenly distributed long jump.  I don’t know how fast she’s going, but just from the tracks it looks more like we’re chasing a jungle cat than a person.”

“Then how are we going to catch her?” Esther questioned curiously.  “Even if Ravi can follow her all the way to where she’s going, if the church lady moves that much faster than us, we’ll never be able to catch up with her.”

“Save your breath,” Micah replied.  “The Bishop doesn’t actually have a blessing.  She’s being forced to use something else to power her abilities, and whatever it is, I’d bet that there’s a limit to how much power she has access to.  She’ll outpace us for a while, but so long as we keep running, we’ll be able to catch up with her eventually.”

“That’s how you hunt the big cats too,” Leeka agreed.  “They move faster than almost anyone in short bursts, but if you chase them around the jungle for a day or so eventually they overheat.  You can walk right up to them and stab them with a spear and they can barely lift a paw to stop you.”

“Watch out when we catch her,” Trevor called out.  “I could dodge those fire blasts of hers, but while I was jumping around she made some sort of cloud of green gas.  One minute I was running back and forth, firing air knives at her as I tried to wear out her defenses, and the next I had tunnel vision.  It felt like the bishop had reached out and grabbed my soul itself before tugging on it.”

“That is how I was knocked out as well,” Drekt agreed.  “Even with their enhancements, both Trevor and I were faster and stronger than any of the forgotten that came for us.  It was only when we were bogged down in the mist that the battle seemed like anything but a victory, and by the time I realized what was happening, I could barely move my body.  Whatever the fog was, it ignored all of my defenses and left me weak as a newborn in a matter of seconds.”

Micah wracked his memory as they jogged.  The only thing he could think of was the blows his soul had taken once the Dread Chorus began playing in the previous loop.  It reminded him of the handful of times he had inspected the core of another blessed in an attempt to learn more about their blessing.  The weakness segued into nausea and then unconsciousness in a matter of moments.

No spells could emulate the attack, but there probably was a reason for that.  The Sixteen didn’t want mortals hacking away at each others’ souls.  The entire point of life on Karell was to develop and nurture the soul until it was ready to take the next step.  The gods wouldn’t willingly create a magic that undid generations worth of work.

Unfortunately, that meant that almost no one on Karell had a natural defense against attacks directed on their souls.  It was a blind spot in the magical system granted to the blessed given that the only way to even get near another living being’s soul was to study ritual magic and arcana to a level that was almost impossible for an unaided mortal.

“I might be able to fashion some defenses against those sorts of attacks,” Micah spoke up, breaking the silence that had fallen over their party as they ran after Ravi.  “We’ll have to take the Bishop alive so that I can study her.  I have a spell that can knock her out, but with any luck I’ll be able to pick up enough to enchant some protective equipment, and with any luck I’ll learn how to undo whatever it is they’ve been doing to the forgotten.”

“Ooh!” Esther chirped excitedly.  “Are you going to draw a giant ritual circle around Jakint and fix everyone at once!  I read a book about a healer doing that once to cure a plague.  The king made him a duke and everything to thank him for his service.  Then he got to marry another duchess, but it turned out that his wife’s dad was actually working with a rival kingdom so the same king that made the healer a duke had him executed a decade later for treason.”

“Sorry,” Micah replied with an easy chuckle.  “I could probably do something like that with a lot of preparation if we were talking about a natural disease, but I’m almost certain we’re looking at the handiwork of the third prince.  Whatever its doing, the ‘blessings’ take a hammer to the forgotten’s soul.  I might be able to undo the damage, but I’ll only be able to do it one at a time, and even then, if I get even a small part of the ritual wrong I could rip their soul open.  Frankly, death would be a lot more pleasant.”

“Then what is the plan?”  Drekt asked from MIcah's side.  “If we can’t cure everyone, how are you planning on dealing with the infestation?  There’s an awful lot of forgotten that have been changed in Jakint, and there’s no telling how many of them have gone feral by now.”

Micah shrugged, ducking under a branch that stretched across the trail as he ran.  The deeper they got into the forest following Ravi, the more overgrown the foliage was.  It was only a matter of time before the area outside the path was fully overgown, forcing the rest of the party back onto the walkway.

“I think all we can do is stop the third prince from expanding its army,” Micah replied.  “That means finding this Bishop and forcing answers out of her.  As for the rank and file forgotten, I think it’s best to consider them a lost cause.  Honestly, given their ability to attack the soul directly, they’re more of a danger than any monster that has escaped from a dungeon.”

“Does that mean we should just…” Micah could almost hear Esther frowning as she trailed off.

“Yes,” he said curtly.  “Their abilities are damaging their souls.  Honestly, I’m worried that they won’t even be able to reincarnate if they use them too much.  Killing the forgotten swiftly and painlessly will be a mercy.  If they only used their ‘blessings’ sparingly, they’ll probably only be able to come back as animals in their next lives, but if they made a habit of it, I’m not sure there is much that anyone, including the gods, can do for them.”

Telivern snorted unhappily from the rear of the group.

“No,” Micah responded.  “I am not looking down on animals.  Magical beasts have souls on par with a blessed, you just ended up in a different body for whatever reason.  I’m talking about squirrels, sand lizards, and field mice.  The sorts of things that serve an important role in the ecosystem but never manage to make it into the history books.”

The stag chuffed a reply, but Micah didn’t bother to answer.  Telivern was just being its normal moody self and if he tried to explain himself more, Micah would just find himself in a fruitless hour long debate with the deer.  Instead they jogged in silence for another two hours, stopping occasionally so the girls and Leeka could catch their breaths while Ravi searched their surroundings for more clues as to the direction the Bishop had traveled.

Finally, just after their fourth break, Ravi stalled.  Stopping some hundred or so paces in front of Micah, barely visible through the thickening foliage.  She looked back at him, cocking her head quizzically.

As he approached, Micah saw what had grabbed the panther’s attention.  The Bishop’s steps had shortened, and they no longer dug as deep into the forest soil.  Whatever ability had been using to speed herself up had worn off.

He raised his hand, palm open, and motioned for his companions to stop.  Pointing at the tracks, he pressed his index finger across his lips and made eye contact one-by one with the rest of the group.  Ravi nodded at him, wings flapping gently once in time with the movement.

The panther turned, quietly padding forward at a much more measured pace as it followed the trail of footsteps.  Micah slowed, falling in behind Ravi, careful to avoid any sticks or dry brush as they quietly made their way through the undergrowth.

They crept onward in silence for about a half hour.  Micah took note of the Bishop’s footprint as they moved.  It was hard to tell specifics, but there was no doubt that the tracks were getting fresher.

Finally, Ravi perked up.  A second later, Micah heard the sound.  Heavy breathing punctuated a rustling crash as something stumbled through the foliage up ahead.

He held up his hand, turning and placing another finger across his lips before shaking his head and pointing at the ground just in front of Trevor.  Then, he slithered up to Ravi, keeping track of the heavy breathing up ahead as he moved.  Dropping to one knee, Micah put a hand into her fur and leaned closer.

“Can you smell her Ravi?” He whispered, all but burying his mouth in the panther’s ear.  “How close is she?”

“Near Papa,” she replied in his head.  “She is tired.  Stumbling.  Like a wounded camel has been chased all day.”

“Camel?”  Micah hissed.  “I thought I told you to stop bothering the camels.  It took Drekt and I months to train them to not bolt when you’re around.  You scare them Ravi.”

“They should be scared of Ravi,” the panther said smugly.  “Plus Trevor said that I could chase them.  He said that it was fun and that Ravi could play with the camels as a treat.”

“Look,” Micah responded, trying to ignore the tension building behind his eyes.  If he let Ravi keep talking, there was no doubt in his mind that it would turn into a splitting headache.  “Stop listening to Trevor, he’s a bad influence on you.  You remember what happened when he snuck you some of that juusht you had asked for?”

“Ravi got sick,” the panther mumbled, slumping unhappily as she remembered the incident.  “It made Ravi dizzy and she threw up her dinner.”

“Yes,” Micah continued, doing his best to keep the exasperation from his whispered voice.  “Now, we don’t have a whole lot of time to argue about why you shouldn’t be using Trevor as a role model.  I’m going to go straight down the trail to fight the Bishop.  You should sneak up on her from the woods.  I’ll attack her and try to distract her.  You need to be careful in case she tries to summon her mist, but once I create an opening, you should attack her.  Remember, you can go for her legs and arms, but we want her alive.”

“Ravi understands,” she replied cheerfully, tail twitching playfully.  Whatever contrition or discomfort she had been feeling evaporating the second Micah gave her a target.  “Ravi gets to play.”

Micah opened his mouth to admonish the cat that what they were doing was deadly serious, not play, only to give up.  She wouldn’t understand.  As far as Ravi was concerned there was only hunting to kill, and playing.  Arguing would only confuse her.

He nodded, and a second later the panther was gone, disappearing into the dense forest.  Micah shook his head, a half-smile on his face as he strained his eyes to try and track her progress only to find that there wasn’t a single leaf out of place.

Satisfied that the Bishop wouldn’t spot the approaching cat, Micah broke into a sprint, mouthing the words to foresight as he moved.  The spell snapped into place, overlaying rainbows of potential action over the world.  After years of experience, Micah was no longer distracted and overwhelmed by the torrent of information.  His mind automatically sorted through the input, automatically discarding the trajectories of falling leaves and-

Grunting, he leapt into the air, barking out the command words to flight as his high body attribute launched him above the tops of the surrounding trees.  A moment later, a blast of green flame tore through the space where he had been standing.  It enveloped a tree.

The plant didn’t burn, instead, Micah could almost feel the vitality leaving it as he flew past.  Bark sloughed off revealing gray and rotting wood even as its leaves disintegrated into a fine black dust that blew away in a gust of wind.

He twisted in the air, ducking through a barrage of smaller fast sized balls of green flame that sprayed upward from his target.  Only once did he have to swipe his spear in front of himself, briefly activating a martial art to deflect one of the attacks.

The mana construct only delayed the ice cold flames for a second before the corrosive influence of Elsewhere deconstructed Micah’s ability, but that was all he needed.  He swooped away from to rapid blasts of flame, quickly chanting the words to explosive thicket as he curled around the battlefield.

A cone of flames sliced through the treetops, turning the leaves into ash above where he had been running toward the Bishop.  Another blast of flame burst through the trees in the opposite direction, spraying a fountain of frigid green away from Micah.

He released his mana, sending it to burrow into earth underneath his opponent.  A second later, hundreds of tree roots burst through the ground in a tangle of razor sharp points.

The forest burst into green light as a pillar of verdant fire speared up into the air.  Below Micah the Bishop burst into a string of curses.  He spun to the side a half second before an eagle talon of green flame grasped toward his floating form.

“Stay still!” She screamed, launching a burst of flame that expanded into a wall as it neared Micah.  Without moving he launched a quartet of air knives into key spots of the oncoming wave of destruction.

The fire rippled as Micah’s mana interacted with the eldritch energy.  It still rushed toward him, but the cohesive wall of power dissolved into chaos.  He darted forward, following the flow of rainbow light granted by foresight to skirt the bubbling flames.

Below him, the Bishop glared up at Micah, her chest heaving as the flames guttered out.  He smiled back, switching his spear into an overhand grip and throwing it with all of his strength  at the struggling woman.

She dropped to one knee, summoning another wall of green flame to block the oncoming spear.  The weapon punched deep into the energy, knocking the woman over backward.

Micah dove toward her, firing a rapid string of air knives at the prone woman.  She thrust upward with both hands blanketing herself in flames to stop the onslaught of low powered attacks.

Once again, she screamed in frustration slashing upward with her right hand.  The protective layer of fire burst upward.  Micah smoothly sidestepped the attack, ducking backwards as the blast of chilling flame disturbed his hair.

With a snarl, Ravi pounced, fangs closing over the Bishop’s outstretched arm.  The bone snapped, a sharp crack followed immediately by a wail of pain.  Almost immediately, the wave of fire the Bishop had been wielding winked out of existence.

One of Ravi’s paws swiped downward, claws punching through the woman’s thigh and into the forest floor below.  The Bishop writhed on the ground.  Whatever advantages she’d gleaned from the third prince’s service, a powerful body or an immunity to pain did not number among them.

Micah landed next to her, ignoring the fear and pain maddened rage in the woman’s eyes as she glared up at him.  He smiled down at her, pressing his index finger to her forehead and saying a single word.

“Coma”