9 - Ends Without Redemption (Patreon)

Despite their absurd pace across the grassy hillocks, they eventually paused to eat after a solid three hours of… jogging? Was he seriously only jogging that whole time? He didn’t even appear to be sweating, only pausing because he knew that she needed to eat and drink more. For his part, Paul simply slipped what looked like a glassy, green, mostly-flattened, marble in his mouth with a slight grimace and she assumed it was an [Emerald Mana Bit].

He didn’t make camp, instead just setting her against one of the few trees in the biome and handed her the metal canteen once more and another bag of food. This time it was some bread and cheese that she had never tasted before but enjoyed and she thanked him sincerely for it.

Phoenix was accustomed to being the silent one in a group normally but this stoic stranger made it quite clear that he would not be the one to offer conversation. She didn’t mind the silence, having remained that way for their whole jog, but she had questions and desperately wanted information, “So if you’re not going to that Blomstra place you mentioned to turn in your mission, is that where it came from?”

“No, it’s from Teok Lun.”

“Which is where?” she prompted.

Paul gave a heavy sigh, obviously taking the hint that she wanted information and he couldn’t be as simplistic in his answers as he could likely normally get away with since she knew nothing of this place, “It is a smaller city to the south. That is not where I will be returning to, however. This mission’s Reality Rift is just on my way.”

“What exactly is a Reality Rift?”

He assessed her again before adding, “It’s what it sounds like. A rift in this reality that joins it to another, usually much less complete, one.”

“Huh,” she said thoughtfully before asking, “So where are we going after this pocket dimension?”

The paladin looked slightly surprised by her assessment then answered, “Tulimeir. It is much farther northeast, located in the northernmost center point of the Tulim Duchy.”

Phoenix wished, not for the first time, that her book could provide her with a map. It probably wouldn’t help her current situation but she felt much more lost and adrift by not knowing where she was in relation to other places. She continued asking her slew of questions between bites, “What are we going to be doing in Tulimeir?”

He looked down at her from where he stood surveying the area and asked with a raised eyebrow, “We?” She shrugged and he continued with a bit of flint in his voice, “You will be dropped off at the AOA, or just the city gates if that is your preference, for you to find your own path. My business is my own.”

Phoenix was able to see the clear signal and felt a bit down when she realized that she was just another burden to the man. A random civilian in need of saving. She paused her questions, going silent, and not wanting to ask something else that might result in an answer she didn’t like or reiterated how useless she was at the moment.

The Wayfarer could feel his gaze on her, and before she could become too uncomfortable he asked, “Do you have any combat training?”

The young woman shook her head and gave another shrug, “I was bedridden before coming here. We didn’t have magic, which includes healing potions. The only fights I’ve been in were against killer rabbits and other smaller monsters in the forest since arriving eight days ago.”

“Killer rabbits?”

Phoenix wondered if her [Guide Book] had some kind of combat log and thought of asking her book about what kind of monster it had been when it suddenly appeared in front of her with the information present.

Name: None

Species: Caerbannog (Monster)

A white-furred carnivorous monster that attempts to decapitate its enemies with its sharp teeth.

Caste: Mundane

The Wayfarer stared at the description, something about the name tickling the back of her mind, but she shook off the thought and said, “It’s apparently called a Caerbannog.”

She noticed him looking at her book contemplatively as he stated more than asked, “That ability grants information as well as quests.”

Phoenix nodded, uncertain of what he might have been getting at but a breath later he made his disapproval clear, “So you knew it was a Dark Aspect before you bonded to it?”

Shifting uncomfortably under his piercing golden gaze she admitted, “Um… yes. Is that… really that bad?”

“Depends on what you choose next,” he replied.

“What are your Aspects?” she asked then added in a rush again as he frowned at her, “If you don’t mind sharing that is. You, uh, you don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to…”

“I know,” he said bluntly and she was once again reminded of the immense gap in their power levels. After a few moments of the once comfortable silence becoming awkward he spoke simply, “Light, Fire, Sword and Zeal. With the Wrath Blade Class.”

Her eyes widened a bit as she looked up to finally meet his gaze and responded without thinking, “Paladin of the Purifier indeed. That sounds like a very holy-smiting combination.”

His eyes narrowed slightly as he responded with, “Indeed.”

She looked away again, making herself a bit smaller as she took another bite of food and mumbled, “I can see now why you don’t like my Dark Aspect… you must think I’m some sort of tainted soul now…”

He surprised her by giving a slight sigh and shaking his head, “No. Darkness itself is not a taint, merely the balance to light.”

Paul looked out towards the horizon again as his next words came a bit softer and seemed full of regret, “I have seen truly tainted souls.”

The former paladin looked back to her and said a bit more conversationally, “No, there is nothing particularly wrong about the Dark Aspect on its own but it is one of the paths that can branch off into truly terrible ends. Ends without redemption.”

“So you’re saying I should be careful about what I choose for my other Aspects because the class might turn out evil?”

“Evil is not a state of being but a series of actions,” he said resolutely. He then expounded, “There are some Classes and Aspects, however, that corrupt so deeply that they seem to force the user to perform those evil actions. Make no mistake, young one, if your chosen Aspects are one of those that are known to corrupt, I will not hesitate to purge you from this world before your actions can be made manifest.”

That was the most words she had heard the man ever say at once and Phoenix could feel her heart thudding loudly against her chest as he unflinchingly declared his intent to kill her should she make a wrong choice. Perhaps he had some powerful ability to keep her dead. Then the thought of being turned into some evil corrupted monster by using the wrong Aspect and then not being killable, doomed to an endless tortured existence, seemed like an even worse fate than him ending her.

She reflexively swallowed and asked quietly, “Will you at least warn me before I might choose the wrong one?”

He watched her a moment longer before nodding and looking out to the distance again.

Paul continued jogging with her in his arms until the sun began to set that night. Phoenix was stiff from remaining in that position for so long and her face felt a bit raw from the wind against it. Though, now that they were stopped, she realized there wasn’t really that much of a breeze.

The former paladin worked quickly to set up the camp for the night and she was somewhat delighted to see him pull out a spit roast and a huge chunk of meat to cook over the fire. She hadn’t had a warm meal in over a week, and she wasn’t counting her sorry excuse for “cooked” rabbit. She expressed her thanks for the meal and dug in ravenously.

It was fascinating to see the man’s armor disappear in a shattering of light, leaving him dressed in a plain white shirt and cream khaki traveling pants that he must have been wearing under the heavy looking armor.

“Was that a magic item? How can you move so fast in full plate like that? It must weigh a ton,” she observed then chomped down on the leg of meat, wincing as it burned her tongue slightly.

“A passive ability,” he answered simply, which she was starting to become accustomed to, “No added weight.”

“That seems useful,” she commented, being more careful with her next bite as she blew on it to cool it down a bit. Between her next bites she managed to ask the warrior, “How much longer till we arrive at the Reality Rift?”

“Tomorrow afternoon,” he said before taking a bite from his own bone laden with tender meat. Phoenix found it curious that the man was eating food like she was but didn’t ask why. After seeing his reaction to eating the Mana Bit, she assumed he simply wanted real food like she did. The newly healed Wayfarer remembered what bland hospital food tasted like and wouldn’t begrudge anyone wanting a more flavourful meal.

“Eat then rest,” the former paladin said, interrupting her thoughts as he gestured towards the tent he had finished setting up earlier.

She looked between the single bedroll and back to the powerful stranger then swallowed her bite of meat before nervously stammering, “I, um… I don’t need the bed… You can have it.”

His eyes narrowed at her obvious discomfort and he said a bit disdainfully, “I don’t prey on children.”

“Oh, right. Under thirty are children here, I forgot. That just seems so old to still be considered a kid,” she said, thinking out loud more to herself than the golden man.

Paul’s gaze became razor sharp at her words though and she felt that uncomfortable pressure against her aura again as he asked, “Where did you learn that?”

Dread flooded her as she realized her mistake and she stared back at him like a deer caught in the headlights as she froze in her sudden panic. Even the air seemed to go deathly still as the powerful Caster stared at her intently. Her mind raced, weighing the pros and cons of telling the truth versus attempting the lie.

“I, um… Well… I don’t… I-” she stammered, glancing around the camp for an idea to come to her.

“I can read deceit in your aura,” Paul reminded, his gaze never leaving her as he paused eating his meal.

“I… I don’t want to say,” she murmured honestly.

“Why not?”

Phoenix wrapped her arms around herself, the mostly devoured drumstick forgotten as she whispered, “I don’t want you to send me back.”

“Others found you first,” he deduced then inquired, “Was it the Magi?”

The Wayfarer refused to meet his eyes as she nodded and said, “They showed up after I arrived… one of them… he…”

Paul glanced at the tent as if trying to connect her earlier behavior to her story and she felt a tremor ripple across her aura that she thought came from him but it was an odd sensation she wasn’t familiar with. It made her go silent though in fear that she might have already said too much and he would return her to the people that would try to claim her.

“Did they hurt you?” the former paladin asked with more softness than she would have expected from the gruff man. She bit her bottom lip, not wanting to say more and potentially cause more trouble. When she finally looked at him though, he instead tried to assure her by offering information, “I’m not going to send you back. This is why the AOA tries to bring in Wayfarers. To help protect them from exploitation and harm, often by making them strong Adventurers in their own right.

“However, the OOM prize Wayfarers for their otherworldly knowledge and unique abilities. Their organization also has better means of detecting when and where Wayfarers arrive in our world. If one of them managed to get you alone, I can only imagine the lengths they would have gone to in order to… secure you,” he explained then asked, “Did he tell you his name?”

She didn’t look away this time as she showed her gratitude for the information by whispering, “Miles. He was going to take me to his home in Blomstra. He… he, um,” her story trailed off as she remembered the way he had grabbed her, had tossed her around like a doll, and had nearly broken her back to try and make her submit.

“He hurt you,” Paul stated as though answering his own earlier question and she nodded in confirmation.

The golden paladin glanced back at the tent and then stood, dusting off his pants and tossing the now clean bone into the crackling fire as he said, “I don’t need as much sleep as you do. Rest while I keep watch. Nobody will hurt you while I’m near. You have my word.”

He walked away from the camp then, not too far that she couldn’t see him atop the nearby hill, but it was far enough away that he made it clear that he intended to give her space for the night. She glanced down at the remaining food still clutched in her hand and silently finished it off, not wanting to waste a single bite.

After tossing her own cleaned bone into the fire she practically crawled over to the tent and quickly passed out, glad to finally have something slightly softer than a branch to sleep on. No monster howls awoke her from her dreamless sleep that night.

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