49 - Martyr Complex (Patreon)

Dazien grimaced as the Sapphire Healer finished healing him, which he had been quickly handed off to once Everin Starlark had mended the worst of it, and Saiya explained why she had returned without their final party member. He ran his hand through his hair which was beginning to get much longer than he normally wore it and immediately regretted the smear of blood and sweat. He didn’t have to ask as the Healer cast her [Cleansing Stream] to clean off the evidence of their battle and glanced at the rest of his friends who were watching him with concern.

The gemite frowned trying to think of how best to lead them and began running through options in his head. They could try to find the other portalist to send them back but they were either still recovering or unlikely to listen to a Crystal Caster with no authority to command them. On foot would take too long to matter, so that really only left him with the most unpleasant of options.

“We’ll have to wait for her to get the chance to conjure her portal again to escape. Just like we’ve planned in the event something like this happened,” he said confidently despite his inner turmoil. Saiya helped him to stand, not releasing his hand in her worry, as he rotated his newly mended left shoulder, “Thank you again, Acolyte Barrett. We’ll leave you to tend to the others now.”

The runeforged follower of the Cultivator gave a respectful bow as he muttered, “It is my honor to serve.”

“We need to go back! She’s going to get herself killed!” the small voxen bard yelled at him as he led them all out of the overflowing clinic area, “Emerald Casters, Dazien! Ever since that Crystalline Elemental, we’ve known she doesn’t care about her own safety. We all agreed after that to try and steer her away from those situations! Leaving her there alone… we both know she’s going to do something reckless to try and help everyone else.”

“I had hoped that her sessions with Priest Jacob would make her value her own life a bit more but she almost died again at Vallinsarvi to save a pair of children. She may have some kind of martyr complex,” Saiya added gently, as they made their way toward the edge of the camp where Phoenix’s portal should reappear any minute.

“I think it’s more of a hero complex,” Uriel interjected forlornly, idly rubbing at one of the golden earrings adorning a tapered ear, “It would explain how she gained that particular god’s favor.”

“The result seems to be the same,” Rayna said abruptly, redirecting the focus back onto Dazien as she seemed to urge him with the warning, “She’s going to get hurt.”

“For once, I agree with you, Rayna, but we finally got her to trust us. Now, we need to trust her in that she’ll make the smart choice and return to us as soon as possible,” Dazien replied softly as he glanced back toward the mountains that he could barely make out with his enhanced vision. His [Eagle Eye] perception allowed him to zoom his focus across the molten wasteland and he could just make out the priestess flying through the air, throwing fire and swarming feathers, and periodically clashing with the golden lord of avenging wrath.

Dazien saw firsthand the powers being thrown around in the battle, much closer than he had ever intended, and he knew that a stray spell could easily kill Phoenix if she got hit by one. The thought made his mind roil in a way that was hard for him to articulate the reasoning for. He outwardly schooled his expression and remained calm, however, hiding the apprehension bubbling within him that he knew Saiya could sense but was grateful for her silence despite her concerned glances as she continued to tightly hold his hand.

It was only a brief moment later that his hope rose at the sight of Phoenix’s portal appearing before them but that hope was shattered in the next as five Casters came through that were not his Supporter before the portal winked out again; the magic consumed by the new arrivals.

“Where’s the portalist?” he asked the Sapphire Caster that was helping carry two of the other Crystals that had come through, “How many more are left to evacuate?”

“Just her left,” the cinderen woman said with a glance back at where the portal had been, “I didn’t realize she wouldn’t be able to come through too.”

His teeth clenched and he gestured in the direction they had come from, informing the other Adventurer of the Healers there. When he finally turned back to look at the distant battle once more, the Defender thought he might have been imagining things in his anxiety as he saw a glowing redhead fly into the air above the Emerald Caste woman.

“Can I have everyone's attention please?!” the voxen Cleric yelled out to the entire camp from the clinic behind him, but his focused gaze remained on the absurdity he was witnessing as the Spirit Advocate continued, “I know there's a lot of concern surrounding the Emerald battle back there and the injured here but rest assured that–”

Dazien tuned out the rest of the announcement as his panic skyrocketed over a matter of seconds as the insane Wayfarer grabbed the winged priestess, followed by a swarm of glinting metal embedding itself into her back. Then he wasn’t exactly sure what happened as the two combatants exploded in a ball of blue and gold light that caused him to squint but still observe.

Everyone in the camp could see the bright conflagration as it quickly grew to a terrifying size, sending up dirt, stone, ash, and lava into the air as it collided with the mountainside and stone ruins below it.

He was certain the explosion was somehow part of whatever insane plan Phoenix had attempted by getting involved. What devastated Dazien more than that, however, was the sight of the man he looked up to and admired seeming to thrust his greatsword through the center of his friend’s body. The sight made him feel like his own soul had been stabbed and only a gaping wound remained even worse than the literal hole that had been punched through him earlier.

Uriel said softly, as though stating it would make it true, “She couldn’t have been near the blast, right? She’ll be okay. She has to be.”

Saiya gasped and covered her mouth as Dazien's emotions flooded her senses and the gemite, who had always strived to only show others the confident face he wanted them to see, fell to his knees, tears silently falling down his dirty cheeks as he clutched his hands into fists.

He saw Phoenix fall from the sky and watched Paul grab onto her, but he couldn’t see them land among the ash and what he assumed must be a crater of destroyed ground from the amount of debris in the air. He wondered if maybe their mentor had managed to somehow save Phoenix's life from an attack he thought should have killed her instantly. Hoping that the message he feared the most wouldn’t visit him.

Rayna stared at their party leader and shook her head as her voice trembled, “No. Don’t say it, Dazien. She’s fine. I might have said it earlier but she always manages to pull it off. Just another one of her crazy stunts, right?”

The Striker glanced at the large plume of smoke that had replaced the bright light. Then, taking Uriel’s approach, she stated firmly, “Lord Wayland’s going to bring her back and chew us out. Just like he always does.”

The young warrior was momentarily distracted by the purple lettering he had feared appearing in the air in front of him that only he could see.

Phoenix Fraser has died.

Phoenix Fraser is no longer your Subject.

Saiya flung herself against his side, wrapping her arms around the larger Defender in a hug that was too tight to be comforting but barely felt tight enough as he rocked forward and let out a racking sob.

Paul eventually made his way back to the encampment after double-checking that the ruins were indeed empty of enemies. To his annoyance, it seemed that Phoenix’s loot ability had automatically claimed the boosted spoils of the Priestess of the Purifier, which he had marked with his [Nemesis] Bane, and he found himself slightly envious of the convenience.

He did manage to find the woman's dimensional storage bag, however, during his brief search inside the ruins, along with a disturbing amount of wealth placed around a yet-to-be-activated ritual diagram. He made sure to claim those materials but left the diagram intact so someone more dedicated to interstellar ritual work could hopefully translate its purpose later.

While the Striker had become quite knowledgeable about rituals over the years, able to perform quite a few higher Caste and somewhat esoteric ones, he had been focused on various adventuring needs; not imploding Reality Rifts and traveling across dimensional boundaries. These corrupted organic enchantments with triggering rituals were beyond anything he had ever heard of, let alone dealt with, and he worried about their introduction into his world.

As he made his way back and arrived at the staging point near the entrance to the Reality Rift, he was promptly intercepted by the only other Emerald Caster in this pocket reality. The voxen man greeted him with a wry smile, “Welcome back, Lord Paladin. I take it Miss Fraser ran a sudden errand for you and portaled directly back to your shared home.”

Paul started to shake his head in disagreement but the Cleric interjected with, “Which would explain why the missing Protégé did not return with her Mentor and all those that are clergy to the Favored one should not eagerly await her return.”

His golden eyes narrowed on the snow-colored voxen, speaking too softly for anyone else to hear as he pointed out the major flaw in the proffered cover story, “You and I both know Crystal Caste portals can’t cross reality thresholds like the Rifts.”

“Ah, but Wayfarers break all sorts of rules we take for granted don’t they?” the vulpine grin appeared, fangs gleaming with as much mirth as was in those large blue eyes, “It’s not that unbelievable that some dimensional barrier rules might be… bent a bit. It’s not like completely breaking some other laws that govern our lives… or deaths.”

“The Rebel Fox is a schemer. Wayland should make sure Little Flower never meets him,” Orebela’s voice warned in the back of his mind, having returned earlier to her usual place within him, and he suddenly feared that the crafty Cleric had already made contact with his sister.

The Paladin grimaced slightly but nodded in acquiescence to the silent warning, understanding the point Everin was trying to make, “True. We planned to just meet back home and you know an Emerald can’t go through a Crystal portal.”

“How very true, which is sadly why I had to remain here to assist. I figured once our Sapphire portalist showed up and got the remaining forces back to this side, you would be free to handle the pesky problem, which appears I was right in assuming,” the Cleric said as they both began walking toward the command tent which he had thought to report to first.

“Shall we report your victory to Officer Trayvious now? Not many could view such a battle from this distance, my Emerald Caste eyes were barely adequate and I believe your victory came at the same time I was making a motivational speech to the camp, coincidentally.”

Paul raised an eyebrow, not believing that anything this fox did was coincidental, but didn’t stop moving as he said, “What are the chances that you missed the killing blow?”

“Slim to none,” the fangs glinted again with the sly smile the voxen gave, one of the tails wrapping around to cover it a moment later, “That massive explosion of blue mana and golden flames, however, was something that not even my rakish charm could draw attention from once its brilliance lit up the sky.”

Everin’s next whispered words had him pause again, “Unfortunately, I was unable to distract your little band of orphans from witnessing something that should not have been seen. I suggest you allow me to handle the reports while you waylay their grieving and let them know what became of their missing friend.”

Paul spread out his aura sense as unobtrusively as possible in order to locate his quarry and was dismayed to sense chaos in the handful of familiar Crystal Caste auras that were off to the side of the main group. As the paladin laid eyes on them, he groaned internally when he realized what must have happened to the group of young Adventurers missing their teammate. While most of the camp was abuzz with the sense of victory, despite the heavy injuries and casualties that lay as a mournful undertone, this party made it quite clear they thought the price had been far too great.

“This One told Wayland to let King's Dream know sooner. This was going to happen eventually and this is exactly–”

“Not now, Bela,” Paul mentally chided his Familiar in return, despite knowing she was right… again.

Dazien and Uriel were sitting on the stone ground, back-to-back giving both physical and emotional support to one another as their Healer had attached herself to both men's arms, a tail wrapped around each, and was humming a soothing yet melancholic melody even as her own tears stained her cheeks. Their Striker on the other hand was pacing around, angrily kicking loose pebbles that dared to cross her path.

Rayna was the first to notice him approaching and her face fell as she snarled angrily, fangs bared and ears flat, “Where is she? You were supposed to bring her back to us.”

The Emerald Caster frowned as Orebela's reprimand proved true; that he only had himself to blame for the current situation he found himself in. He had insisted that Phoenix keep her resurrection ability a secret and, for once, the stubborn Wayfarer actually listened to him. He grumbled slightly to himself before saying quietly, trying to convey that they should also be discreet, “Not here. We should go back to my home and talk in private.”

“You killed her,” Dazien’s hollow voice said from the ground as he stared at the older man with a tear-stained face and dulled amethyst eyes, “I saw you.”

Paul’s heart broke a little at the dead gaze the young gemite gave him and his own narrowed as he roughly pushed down the urge to console and growled, “Not here. Be silent and come with me.”

Saiya and Rayna moved to follow the mentor they still seemed to trust in but Uriel remained at his friend’s back and Dazien wasn’t moving as he asked bitterly, “Why did you do it? You didn’t need to. She was just a Crystal…”

“She is stubborn and headstrong but I trust in her abilities and choices. More than you do apparently,” the paladin said harshly, wanting to end the conversation before any undesired ears overheard something that would be too difficult to explain away. They were much too in the open for his tastes.

“I did trust her!” Dazien yelled back, finally moving to his feet, “I trusted you too!” stomping towards him and shoving a finger against his chest. The hurt and betrayal were plain on the gemite’s face as the warrior accused him, “But instead of protecting her–like you told me to do–you used her like a potion to be consumed and tossed aside! You chose to sacrifice my friend–” the young man’s voice cracked on the word which incited another pang of hurt in his own chest, “Traded the life of my friend to kill an enemy that you could have beaten without!”

“Nothing to see here, people!” a tenor voice said nearby to the onlooking adventures and Paul noticed Everin serving as a distraction for them, “Just a misunderstanding between student and teacher, you know how that can be! You there, get back to moving those supplies to the clinic! Don’t make me report anyone just standing around not helping!”

Paul was only barely taller than Dazien but he seemed to tower over all of them as he went the more direct route and grabbed the young gemite’s collar, dragging them so close that their noses were almost touching. His aura crashed down on the whole party like a tidal wave of cold fury, completely suppressing theirs and causing them to tremble like terrified children, as his voice spoke with the sharpness of shattered ice, “I will do you a favor, kid, and pretend that you didn’t just accuse me of betraying the person I plan to adopt into my family. Now, if you will all stay silent, let us go and I can explain things to all of you… in private.”

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