7.17

  “I have no idea why you or any of your siblings hate me, I have done nothing but give you the tools to succeed.” - High King Edwards the Oft Overthrown, moments before banishing his eldest son to the sixth circle of Hell.

  “Coming in at eight o’clock!” Noam’s voice heralded a foresty rustle that soon turned into a deep rumbling. Turning to that direction, I saw trees fall over in sequence followed shortly by the tiefling bursting out of the bushes.

  A mass of fur and claws followed him. Lion-like body, large leathery wings and a tail that ended with a thagomizer of spikes. Utoqa blocked the manticore’s first claw swipe, the tail flicked in from his blindspot only to be blocked by Noam’s blade.

  Noam had pulled up his scarf to cover his nose and mouth. Sporages exploded throughout the clearing, both Utoqa and Noam avoided the worst of it with their masks, but Noam still retreated out of the blast radius as Utoqa dueled the monster, any wounds accumulated swiftly healed by Celine’s magic.

  The final blow came from Tai, beheading the manticore in one swift strike. Significantly earlier than I had expected. “You’re getting faster,” I stated as the creature fell to the earth.

  The elf swashed the blood off her blade, splattering it onto the grass. She pulled off her face cloth and took a deep breath of fresh air. “I’ve been getting practice.”

  “We really need to find a better way to avoid your spores,” Noam muttered as he tore off layers and layers of sweat soaked clothing, in doing so, agitating the fallen spores directly onto his now exposed skin. “Ow!”

  Lime popped out of my cap and threw some Balm Spores at him as I said to the air, “Bring in the cart Celine, let’s bring this big guy back.” Utoqa quickly cleaned the carcass, disassembling it into more manageable pieces for transport. He separated portions for both his own Scavenging and Celine’s alchemical use.

  The town that put out the extermination request was a small one, not notable except for the smithy to the edge of town. The owner was an old dwarf named Flokinar with red hair so thick one could mistake him for a very dense bush.

  “We got it,” Tai announced, pulling up a tarp to reveal the manticore’s head.

  The dwarf inspected it with a squint, then nodded. Turning to Noam, he said, “I’ll have ‘er swords fixed.”

  Noam put away the regular sword he had ‘borrowed’ from Governor Hye’s men and passed over his destroyed hook swords, “Looking forward to it.”

  “An’ Tai,” Flokinar eyed Tai’s belt, where three swords were sheathed, “I do remember forgin’ those blades.” Tai let out a quiet gasp, but little more as she nodded firmly in thanks.

  The rest of the day was spent in rest. With the secret of the gods Discovery and Historian, I watched my party members unnoticed. Utoqa, rather than tinker with the parts of the freshly killed manticore in his corner, removed four of his own fangs, his expression and demeanor barely changing with each tooth he pulled out of his jaw. With his weapon he carved scrimshaw patterns onto them, each stroke was rough but purposeful, jagged not because of inability, but because the things Utoqa built were made with function and rarely form. He finished by poking small holes in each of his scrimshawed teeth which he threaded with string, creating four necklaces. He raised his head and looked around before focusing on me, his perception had become better, to the point where he pierced the magic that made me inconspicuous to the point of functional invisibility.

  “Give one to all the others,” he said, handing them all to me.

  I glimpsed over the teeth necklaces with my True Sight, seeing both of his Paths weaved into the charm and nodded. He had noticed from our last adventure our critical weak point; Celine.

  Unlike Utoqa, Celine stayed at the smithy in a room of solid stone, her prudence had evidentally been proven correct as I walked past scorch marks and glass shards from exploded potions, which her living cloak, Nappy, dutifully swept up into a pan for disposal. She had refreshed our stock of recovery potions and was now focused on brewing something that bubbled and smoked of something dangerous, I knew that look on her face, engrossed in her work because she knew she was working on something important, she too had realized that she was the weak link, that if she fell the rest of us would fall in turn as our dolls were taken and her sympathetic magic exploited. So rather than disturb her, I left a note and one of the necklaces with Nappy.

  The smacking of wood on wood led me to Tai and Noam, they sparred on a clear field. Both of them were fighting differently, Tai swung with reckless and wild abandon while Noam did little but play defensively. Soon Tai’s wooden practice sword exploded from the force of her swings, and with a grunt she tossed the ruined stick to the side where numerous other splintered swords were, before pulling out a new practice sword to continue the cycle. She was venting and Noam was receiving it all. Once again he was more considerate than me, I didn’t even realize Tai needed an outlet, the stoic that she was. Neither of them were about to let up, I noticed the dwindling pile of wooden practice swords, and, after returning to the smithy, restocked it, leaving Utoqa’s necklaces with them.

  By the end of the day Noam’s hook swords were repaired, etched onto the blades were dwarvish runes. “Made it tougher,” the dwarf smith explained with a grin, “will save ‘er a trip back.”

  The sun was setting as we left, but that mattered little as most of us could see in the dark, and White acted as an impromptu lantern for Celine. “How are you feeling about returning home, Tai?” she asked.

  “You know,” Tai shrugged, but her gait was hesitant and distracted. She paused in her tracks, “I’m not sure what I’ll find, or remember.”

  “Johnny recalled the people lost to the Accumulation of White Lies,” I stated. “It either affects people differently or he was protected. Regardless, it is not omnipotent.”

  “I know,” she nodded. “I know.”

  We saw Tai’s hometown long before we arrived. Yong Chun Lin, or The Eternal Forest of Forever Spring, Celine explained in the past that elvish always translated to a mouthful in common, their words carried too many meanings at once, and I saw now the name was apt. Tall trees that would dwarf the extinct redwoods of my world shrouded the horizon, they were only truly comparable to skyscrapers in height. Despite covering the sky, the ground was bright, white and pink flowers shed a constant rain of glowing petals all over the forest floor. Overhead, wooden bridges and platforms spanned trees in an interconnected web.

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  Tai led us to a simple worn platform, she touched her hand to a carved symbol, distinct from the dwarvish kind in that it was soft and fluid, the platform shuddered to life and began rising to the city above. My manavision saw no gears or machinery as I would imagine it, instead behind the walls and under the platform, water flowed in organic tubules and piping, constantly moving upwards. “How is this powered?” I asked.

  Our elven guide blinked in confusion, then shrugged, “Something about borrowing the trees’ xylem when they push groundwater and sap up to their branches, I slept through that class.”

  As we rose, we saw houses carved- no, grown from the very wood, smooth and seamless, part of the tree itself rather than an addition. Celine looked over the edge of the platform and turned pale as she saw only a rope net was all that lay as safety, Utoqa pulled her back by the cloak before she could pale further. As Tai hopped off the platform, we passed a water fountain that my manavision saw was fueled by the same xylem that powered the elevator. The entire city was like this, alive in both metaphorical and literal sense, lit by the same glowing flowers whose petals littered the forest floor.

  People called out greetings to Tai, asking her why she was back so early, she gave quick answers as she hurried us forward. Some asked where her brother was, and her dark expression was all the needed answer.

  Tai’s home was nondescript compared to all the other houses. One circular door amongst many that ringed the trunk, further inspection and comparison gave nothing than the impression of neatness. The smell of a rich soup drifted out of an open window, and movement could vaguely be seen inside. Without much wait or ado, Tai knocked on the door.

  Tai’s grandmother looked old. Sagging wrinkled skin hanging off stickly bones, her hair curled up with wooden hair rollers, a scar ran down her cheek, and her left ear was clipped short. She was dressed simply in a casual nightgown and slippers.

  “You’re back,” the old woman whispered in elvish, then in a louder common she called to the rest of them. “Your friends? Come in.”

  Tai’s grandmother shuffled back into the house and Tai followed quietly behind her. Glancing at each other, the rest of the party opted to follow.

  The grandma gestured to the dining table. “Sit,” she commanded, “Lunch will be ready soon.”

  Dustin glanced at Tai, having expected her to open with the news, he opened his mouth, but a nudge from Noam silenced him.

  Tai’s grandma made soup dumplings, warm and supple, but they went down tastelessly in the silence. No one in the room really focused on it, each going through the motions. When they were finished, Tai finally broke the silence by setting an ownerless sword onto the table.

  “Kai’s dead.”

  Tai’s grandma’s face scrunched up, “Tell me what happened.”

  And Tai did.

  Slowly and steadily, Tai recounted the parts of the fight she could remember, the creature they fought and eventually slew. The old woman listened through it with sunken eyes, her grandmother seemed to age centuries as she listened. Eyes and cheeks hollow, her face sagged like a mask about to slip off the bare skull beneath.

  “I was too weak,” Tai finished.

  “No, it is I who have failed both of you,” grandmother said. “I should never have sent you out there to experience the world.”

  “It was me who wanted to see it!” Tai slammed the table, scattering bowls of unfinished soup. “I was the one who begged you to teach me, but couldn’t learn your lessons fast enough to save Kai!”

  “No,” her grandmother affirmed. “It was me who failed to teach you.” She turned to the rest of them, “Thank you for bringing my granddaughter back to me, and for taking care of her up until now.”

  Tai gasped.

  “But her journey ends here.” The word rang out, a command set itself into the world. Dustin felt it was like the activation of a Path, but far more casual and yet no less powerful for it.

  Tai glanced at Noam, who in turn glanced at Dustin. Dustin saw Noam’s glance and answered with a disbelieving glance that said ‘Are you serious?’

  Noam returned an affirming glance.

  Dustin exploded the living room with sneezing spores.

  Tai slung Celine over her shoulder and Noam grabbed Dustin, Utoqa being an actual physical class was able to react and keep up with them as they crashed out the window. Leaving her grandmother alone in an empty room with spilled food and broken glass.

  “Run for it!” Tai yelled.

  “Are you sure about this!?” Celine yelled from over Tai’s shoulder.

  “This seems terribly inadvisable,” Dustin said as he piggy backed Noam. “You should’ve at least talked it through with her.”

  “Of course I am!” Tai yelled back, “And she’s stubborn! She’ll never change her mind!”

  Behind them, the tree trunk exploded as a figure leapt straight through the wooden walls and crashed into a street nearby.

  “Tai I don’t want to fight your grandma!” Noam yelled, “She seems like a nice lady!”

  “Then run faster!” Tai yelled.

  Something else exploded into splinters and wood chunks right behind them.

  Dustin looked behind them to see Tai’s grandmother dust splinters off her gown. “We have to jump for it,” he assessed, “Only me and Utoqa should be able to survive the fall. I’ll burn a spell and Utoqa a Survive charge. Celine do you have anything?”

  “I do!” Celine yelled as she pulled out their dolls.

  Without a second thought, Noam tossed Dustin over the railings and flipped over himself. The rest followed immediately, plummeting hundreds of feet towards the grass below. Celine threw the doll of Tai, it’s back wrapped with silver threads that knitted itself into a parachute. The slow falling state of the doll reflected in Tai who jerked upwards, her momentum suddenly arrested. Noam was next, then Celine herself, finally Dustin and Utoqa.

  Together they fell slowly, but when they were only a few feet from ground, a silhouette sped past them and cratered the grass below.

  Tai’s grandmother emerged from the dust.

  Dustin was first of them to land, casting Misty Step to teleport the short distance to the ground. He slammed his staff down, the wisp leaping out of his cap to set up a fairy circle as he secured his parties landing against any potential counterattack. The caution went unneeded as Tai’s grandmother only glared at them as they landed.

  Dustin’s information of Tai’s grandmother was limited, but he presumed she was significantly stronger than any individual they’ve faced so far simply based on the fact she was unperturbed from free falling almost a thousand feet. She was also the origin of Tai’s Path of Discipline, so he presumed powerful cutting attacks and swordsmanship, most likely without Tai’s own flaw of having to charge the attack. She was however limited in the fact that she wouldn’t kill them, but Dustin didn’t presume to count on that fact. Only Utoqa could reliably tank Tai’s fully charged attacks, and he assumed the same here.

  As his party landed beside him, he shouted commands, “Utoqa take point, Noam do beetlejuice strat, Celine be prepared to heal lost limbs-”

  Dustin’s blood suddenly ran cold. He, Noam and Tai all froze at the same time. An instinctual fear gripped them, something encoded into their very DNA. A generational trauma so ancient it didn’t need personal experience to manifest in all three of them. This distinct weakness blanked their minds, and surrendered all thought of battle.

  As Tai’s grandmother kicked off her slipper and brandished it in her hand like a weapon.

  Dustin’s fairy circle collapsed. “RUN FOR IT!”