BT - Book 1 - Chapter 44 (Patreon)

The Brensen lifted another rock to the top of the formation that housed Micah’s cave.  Above him, the three Onkert that he’d summoned after his return from the Great Depths chipped the boulders into rough bricks and piled them atop each other.  Already the base of a structure was beginning to take shape.

Micah sighed as he looked around the clearing.  The grass was completely dead.  Over the week or so since Esther had fallen ill, the aura surrounding him had grown in both size and intensity.  Already, when he closed his eyes he could see the field spreading almost five body lengths from his outstretched hands.  

Forty days.  Forty days until the cooldown on blessed return ran down.  He closed his hand.  He’d told Trevor not to follow him and sent Telivern away.  He couldn’t stomach the idea of his mere presence hurting another person he loved. 

Almost worse than anything was how easily the Onkert were to summon.  He barely even needed a touch of temporal energy to bring them over for two months.  Communing with Elsewhere was as natural as breathing to him now, and the prospect scared him.  Each ritual he used, Micah could feel the mists on the other side calling to him.

It was becoming harder to resist.  Every time, he opened a portal, his blood sang and through the tethers, his daemons responded back.  Their voices rose in a glorious chorus of chaos and unmaking.  He could almost understand them.  The whines of the Onkert, the squawks of the Brensen, and the hiss of the Luoca, they were like words spoken in another room.  Micah felt like he only needed to concentrate and their meaning would be clear to him.

It was a line he shouldn’t cross.  Somehow he knew that actually speaking with the daemons would cost him something vital.  No amount of arcana gain would be worth what he’d have to leave behind.

Instead, the solution was isolation.  Set himself up far enough from Basil’s Cove that the aura surrounding him wouldn’t harm anyone and wait out the cool down.  The only downside was that already, solitude and worry were driving him mad.  Every day there was nothing to do but read through the books he’d copied into the Ageless Folio from the Academy library and worry about Esther.

If he was honest with himself, his stir craziness was the reason Micah decided to build the tower.  He’d spent days coming up with excuses: it would give him a better view of the area, the building would suspend Micah high in the air, preventing his energy from harming the local ecosystem anymore than it already had, and even just that it would look cool.  

Deep down, Micah knew that he needed a project.  As much as he liked going over the books in the Folio and research, he was struggling emotionally.  During his brief periods of sleep, he still dreamt about the Royal Knights, waking with a start and covered in sweat.  

Sending Telivern away had hit him harder than Micah had expected.  There was something about the stag’s presence that comforted him, it created an island of placidity in the raging ocean of his ambitions.  Now? He had nothing but time and no one to spend it with.  It was enough to drive a man mad, and Micah knew that he was closer to that bridge than he’d like.

Micah turned, his hand reaching for his spear as he heard a twig snapping in the woods.  Mentally, he reached for the threads connecting him to the daemons only to relax when he recognized Jo and Trevor walking out of the forest, their faces grim.

He closed his eyes, watching Jo’s dim glowing form approach his corona of fire.  Just as she approached the edge he opened his eyes and raised a hand, halting their advance.

“That’s close enough,” he smiled slightly.  “After the incident with Esther opened my eyes to what was going on, I’ve explored its limits.  Right now you’re as close as you can safely approach.”

“We’re almost twenty paces from you Micah,” Trevor frowned.  “What’s happening?  You just ran off after Esther fell ill and we haven’t seen you in days.  I was only able to find out about this place after talking with Jo.”

“Did Jo tell you that I’ve seen the future?” Micah asked, cocking his heat toward her.  Jo shook her head, frowning back at him.

“I don’t suppose there’s any harm now,” Micah chuckled slightly.  “My blessing is a Mythic gift from Mursa.  It lets me travel into the past.”

“I thought you got a book?” Trevor asked, confusion evident in his voice.  “I know you’ve been secretive about your gift, but I’ve seen the book.  I don’t know how you could have faked it.”

“I do have a book,” Micah summoned the Folio and paged to a description of Bitollan.  “It records everything I see or do and helps me learn skills and spells.  It also tracks what I’ve learned in my previous lives.”

“This is a lot to take in Micah,” Trevor glanced from Jo back to him.  “It also doesn’t explain what happened to Esther or why you’re hiding in the woods with an army of daemons.”

“In my first life,” Micah turned back to the rock formation, watching the daemons continue their construction.  “I lived it normally.  I joined the Lancers and became a member of Jo’s team.  With a healer, they never bothered to assign you Trevor.”

“Wait,” Jo cut in, her brow furrowing slightly.  “You never told me about this.  That we were teammates in the past.  What else is there?”

“Just let me finish,” Micah directed a Brensen to continue carry another large boulder atop the boulder.  “We adventured and grew close.”

“We dated for a time,” Micah smiled slightly, his face still turned from Jo and Trevor.  “It didn’t work out, but that was for the best.  I was young and timid.”

“What did happen,” Micah turned back to them, his face grim as he began reliving the memories that still occasionally haunted his infrequent dreams.  “Is that the durgh attacked.  Westmarch must have violated their rules of honor, ignored the results of a duel or something.  We were dispatched to investigate the rumors of their attack.  They attacked from ambush and killed almost the entirety of our group.”

“Both of you,” he pointed at them, “died to save me.  I had to watch Jo take her last breath.  Even that was robbed of me with Trevor’s death.  He carried me from the battle and was wounded too badly to continue.  Drekt carried me the rest of the way, leaving Trevor behind.”

For a second, no one spoke.  Jo shifted slightly, uncharacteristic anxiety on her face.  Trevor scratched at his chin silently, the only sound the thud of the Onkert placing bricks atop the boulder.

“Hypothetically,” Trevor waved a hand.  “Let’s say that this is true.  What does it even mean?  How does it explain you sequestering yourself out here.?”

“I’ve lived a life since then,” Micah smiled slightly.  “I’m almost thirty now.  I tried to solve the problem of the invasion by asking for help, and I failed.  This time, I tried to solve the problem on my own.”

“What happened?” Jo asked, interrupting Micah’s monologue with worry in her eyes.  “You disappeared and came back.  You told me that everything was fine, that we had time to grow together.  Now, you isolate yourself from everyone and you’re speaking like the protagonist from a bard’s tragedy.”

“A tragic protagonist,” Micah laughed blackly.  “That fits I suppose.  This time I won, but the cost was too high.”

“Seriously,” Trevor looked back and forth between Micah and Jo.  “What in the Sixteen is happening?  You were always a serious kid Micah, but Jo’s right.  You’ve caught a serious case of the melodrama.”

“I needed power and I needed it fast,” Micah shrugged, turning back to the daemons.  “Ritual magic and daemon summoning provided me with that power.  Unfortunately, I didn’t heed the warnings in the grimoire I learned the ritual from.  I took too much power too quickly and it changed me.”

“I barely sleep and eat,” Micah continued.  “At some point I began to emit the same energy as the daemons.  Simply being in my presence harms living things.  That’s the reason why this clearing is a wasteland and that’s the reason that Esther got sick.  I am dangerous to be around.”

“You’ll find a cure Micah,” Jo’s voice rang hopeful from behind him.  “Seriously Micah, you might be the smartest person I know.  If anyone can come up with a ritual to undo whatever this is, it’s you.”

“Yeah,” Trevor chimed in.  “I don’t know half of the stuff you’re saying right now, and it all sounds kinda like mopey navelgazing to me, but if there’s a problem you should just fix it.  Less whining, more studying.  That’s the Micah I know.”

“It’ll fix itself,” Micah replied, watching the ongoing construction.  “My blessing can be used again in forty days.”

“Just over a month,” he turned back, “and this will all be a dream.  I’ll be thirteen again, trying to find a solution to the invasion that won’t involve my enslavement or mass death.  For a fourth time we’ll grow up together.  Maybe next time I’ll be as smart as you seem to think I am and actually solve this dilemma.”

“What will happen to us?” Jo frowned.  “You go back, but what about those of us left behind?”

“Honestly?” Micah shrugged.  “I don’t really know.  Maybe I disappear and you just go on with your lives.  Maybe you fade away with the dream and all of this has never happened.”

“Micah,” Jo bit her lip.  She opened her mouth to say something more but caught herself.  Instead she just stared at him, her gaze hooded.

“Basil’s Cove sent us to bring you back,” she sighed.  “After you left, your parents took Esther to the Church of Luxos.  They were barely able to treat her, but after hearing your parents story they accused you of practicing forbidden magic and demanded that you return to the City for questioning.”

“Well,” Micah chuckled darkly.  “They’re right.  I did practice forbidden magic and right now I’m paying the price.  Of course, having me come back to the City is a terrible idea.  My very presence will kill people, but even if it didn’t I suspect that the Church wouldn’t let the matter drop.”

“No,”  he continued.  “Just tell them to wait for forty days and the problem will go away on its own.  Forgive me for sounding morose, but I realize that my current self is a blight on Karell.  I will leave as soon as I can.”

“They told us to use force,” Trevor frowned.  “Even if that could work, neither of us would lay a hand on you MIcah.  We’ll try and warn them off, but you know the Church.  They aren’t the type to listen to reason when sudden and violent action will do.

“Thank you,” Micah nodded at the two of them.  “It really was good to see the both of you.  Staying out here has been awfully lonely, and it was nice to see some friendly faces before I once more resume my march back through time.

“Maybe next time,” Jo smiled weakly.  “I’m sure you know all the moves to pull on me by now.  Make sure to sweep me off my feet.”

“I’ll be honest,” briefly a flash of light illuminated his eyes.  “I still haven’t figured you out entirely.  Hopefully we fare better this time than our last couple of attempts.”

“Say,” Trevor interjected, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.  “If you’re really traveling back in time, it’d probably be helpful for me to tell you something that only your future self would know.  You know, to convince the other me that you’re from the future.”

“Micah,” he squared his shoulders, struggling for words as he stared Micah down. “I don’t know how to say this.  It’s a secret that’s always hung over me.  For years I’ve wanted to come clean.  Just get it off my chest, but each time I get ready to start, I just can’t.”

“Me,” Trevor smiled weakly at Micah.  “The guy who always stands in the front line fighting off monsters with little more than a spear and a smile, a coward.”

“Look,” Micah smiled back.  “You’re bisexual Trevor.  You told me in a previous timeline.  Once you said the words it all made sense.  Gods above, you can’t stop yourself from hitting on Drekt anytime you get a cup of juusht in you.”

“What,” Trevor’s eyes bugged out.  “No!  I mean, I am but, I was going to tell you that when you were ten, our neighbor Becky and I were the ones that stole all of Mom’s peppers and put them in your clothes.  Remember how you ended up itching and crying for days?  I know the mystery of it drove you crazy for years.”

“You piece of shit,” Micah shook his head, but there were tears in his eyes and a smile on his face. 

“See you on the other side Micah,” Trevor waved at him as he and Jo disappeared into the forest.