BT - Book 1 - Chapter 62 (Patreon)

“Are you sure about this Micah,” Trevor licked his lips as he glanced nervously at his brother from inside the half constructed ritual circle.  “I know I asked for you to hurry the ritual up, but uh, you seem to be checking that book of yours an awful lot.”

Micah looked up from the Folio, leaving his finger on a passage about the influence of the confluence of weather conditions and altitude on the ritual.  A frown flashed across his face.

“I would prefer at least another day to prepare,” he responded, annoyance slipping into his voice, “but you were clear that you wanted this done today.  I know most of the ritual already, but there were some complications with my magic during the fight that I’d like to investigate first.  Plus, it’s not like I’ve ever actually used this ritual before.  I’ve read notes on its casting as well as descriptions several times, but there’s a world of difference between a book and practical experience.”

“What do you mean you’ve never done this before?” Trevor asked, his Adam's apple bobbing.  “I thought you did this sort of thing all the time in your last life?”

“I never got the time,” Micah responded absently as he tried to make out his scribbled annotations on the three hundred year old treatise.  “Doing this ritual right would take days and a lot of spare magical energy that I didn’t have.  It just seemed like something else was always coming up.”

“I mean, this is safe right?” Trevor wrung his hands while looking to the deer and panther for support.  The deer simply ignored both him and the large cat as she batted at its antlers.”

“Not at all,” Micah replied, squinting at an unclear passage regarding the orientation of reagents.  “For example, I’m struggling with an issue right now.  The original author was fairly unconcerned with whether copper or birch shavings were used to outline the counter circle.  One of the first rules is that organic and metallic ritual components are treated very differently.  On its surface, if I picked the wrong substance it might either ignite you or turn you into some sort of misshapen plant beast.”

“And,” Trevor’s voice caught for a second before he continued, a tremor in his voice.  “Hypothetically, if you had the time to do this right, how would you deal with this problem?”

“First, I would eliminate any distractions,” Micah shot a glare at Trevor before returning his attention to the Folio.  “Then I would isolate the portions of the ritual that were suspect and try to remove them from the gestalt.  Obviously, I couldn’t test the entire ritual twenty different times without catastrophic results, but with enough points in the skill it’s possible to test specific sub-components.”

“It takes time and burns up resources,” Micah shrugged helplessly, “but it prevents accidents.  If the ritual just fails, that’s unfortunate.  That said, turning your subject into ash or letting unearthly horrors pour through a rip in reality, well.  Those are frowned upon and I’d like to avoid them if possible”

“I,” Trevor fidgeted.  “I think I’d prefer to avoid those too.  I don’t suppose you’d mind slowing down and working the kinks out before you cast it on me.”

“Don’t worry,” Micah responded, flashing him a quick smile, “I’m actually pretty sure I’ve got this.  Copper shavings were for improving earth affinity, and birch shavings were for wood. What I really need is something crystalline like salt.”

“Wait,” Trevor gulped, an orphaned bead of sweat trickling down his cheek.  “Take all the time you need, I insist.”

“Fine,” Micah flashed his brother a bright smile as he slapped the Folio shut.  “You’ll miss your hot date tonight but I can probably get the kinks worked out by tomorrow.  No need for you to stand in the middle of the ritual circle for hours while I figure things out.”

“Thank the gods,” Trevor, tension draining from his body as he mumbled the words at the cloudless sky.

The stag just snorted.  The panther took advantage of its momentary distraction to land a clean hit with its paw on the deer’s antlers.

It shook its head, startling the huge cat and sending it bolting into the nearby forest.  A second later, Micah spotted it on a branch halfway up the giant trees that ringed the grove.  He shook his head as a smile lit up his face.

“How are Claire and you doing anyway?” Micah asked him as he walked over to the shade of a nearby tree and reopened the Folio.  “You’re spending a lot of time with her, but we haven’t really had a chance to talk for the last month or so.”

“Great,” Trevor’s concern evaporated as a smile blossomed on his face.  “We’re making plans to introduce me to her family next week.”

“Sounds serious?” Micah asked, raising an eyebrow as he flipped pages in the Folio to cross reference current weather conditions with the tables in his notes.

“Not really,” Trevor blushed.  “She’s just really close with her family.  I mean, it IS serious, but it’s not like I’m planning on proposing or anything.  They’re important to her so I want to get to know them.”

“Sounds fairly serious to me,” Micah let the edges of his mouth cheat upward into a half smile.  The stag snorted in agreement.

“She just makes me happy Micah,” Trevor’s blush spread across his entire face.  “The Sun seems brighter and birds chirp louder when I’m around her.  I don’t know how to describe it.  It’s like moments matter more.”

Jo’s face flashed across Micah’s vision.  A smile in the darkness, showing just a hint of teeth.  He clenched his eyes shut, trying to clear the image as his body shuddered.

“What was that?” Trevor asked, his eyes wide as he stared at Micah.  “I think that outside of giving me crap, that might have been the first emotional reaction I’ve seen from you yet.”

The panther slammed its head into Micah’s arm, forcing him to drop the Folio.  She looked up at him, concern filling her large yellow eyes as she pushed her head against him.  Almost on its own, Micah’s hand found its way behind her ears.

“There’s just a girl I’ve had to leave behind,” Micah’s mouth twisted into a line as a deluge of bittersweet memories threatened to drown him.

“Every time I restart,” he continued, focusing on the feeling of the panther’s warm fur against his fingers, “I always run into her.  It’s almost fate.  Sometimes we date, sometimes she hates me.  It almost always ends in a fight, but last time just before everything went wrong we made up.  I thought-”

There was no sound but the wind blowing through the grove.  The deer shifted slightly, still laying down.

“It all almost worked out last time,” Micah smiled sadly, barely even noticing as his vision misted.  “The Durgh, Jo.  It all worked out, almost too well.  Honestly, I shouldn’t have even been surprised when everything fell apart.”

“I never really asked,” Trevor’s voice broke the long seconds of silence that fell over the clearing after Micah stopped speaking.  “You’ve mentioned some of what happened, but you’ve never really gone into any details about what happened.  I know for sure I haven’t heard anything about this ‘Jo’ person.  Are they a girl?”

“Yeah,” Micah shook his head to clear the lingering malaise.  “Her name is Josephine Redflower.  She should be joining the Lancers in about a year or so.  I met her as a rookie and she made me feel the sorts of things you’re saying about Claire.  She became everything to me, and I made some bad decisions.”

“Some very bad decisions,” Micah chuckled mirthlessly.

“Luckily,” he shrugged, a note of bitterness in his voice.  “She picked up on it.  I was too inexperienced to realize what was happening and she broke things off before they could really sour.  Then, the minute I thought I was getting over my feelings for her she died in front of my eyes.  She saved my life Trevor.”

“Even now,” Micah chuckled slightly.  “I don’t really know how to process my feelings for her.  Clearly she doesn’t know who I am, but I remember watching her die at my feet.  I remember learning everything about her twice.  I remember her dumping me twice.  Really, I probably should be avoiding her but I can’t.  When I came back, my first thought was that my family was safe.  My second was that I would get another chance with Jo.”

“What happened?” Trevor asked, trying to pet the deer.  It simply shifted its head to the side, avoiding his hand and snorting its displeasure at him.

“The deer and I took over this grove,” Micah slapped the tree behind him, grimacing slightly.  “I can use the big trees around us to fuel ritual magic.”

“Oh,” Trevor’s eyes lit up.  “Like bigger and better enchantments!”

“Or like summoning daemons,” Micah chuckled darkly.

“Shit,” Trevor muttered.  “I bet the Church of Luxos loved that.  They really don’t seem to be a fan of any summoning, let alone daemons.”

“They might be onto something,” Micah bit his lip.  “At first everything went well.  I was able to clear dungeons well above my level and I started growing stronger at an absurd rate.  Then I hit a wall.  I couldn’t summon daemons with enough power to do what I needed and I began to worry that I wouldn’t be able to fight the Durgh when the time came.”

“What did you do?” Trevor cocked his head to the side.

“Something dumb,” he chuckled darkly as he continued.  “I changed the summoning ritual and connected myself to the place that the daemons came from.  It gave me the power I needed to fight my way through an entire Durgh army and stop the invasion, but it changed something about me.”

“That really doesn’t sound smart Micah,” Trevor frowned.  “I mean, I don’t even know exactly what happened yet but that sounds like an absolutely awful idea.”

“It wasn’t,” Micah shrugged.  “Before too long I started radiating energy that destroyed life.  I didn’t even know until Esther got sick.”

“Oh gods,” Trevor interjected, mouth hanging slack.

“I don’t even know if she lived or died,” Micah sighed.  “As soon as I realized what was happening, I retreated from Basil’s Cove and lived in the forest where I couldn’t hurt anyone.  My last pleasant memories were you and Jo visiting me.  I promised myself during that meeting that I’d do it right this time.  I wouldn’t take everything on my shoulders and I’d work with my old team from the Lancers, you and the stag to fight off the Durgh without turning myself into a monster.”

“Will we even be able to fight the Durgh without summoning daemons?” Trevor slumped down into a crouch next to Micah, his back against the tree.

“No,” Micah shook his head.  “The good news is that we don’t have to fight all of them.  I just have to beat their Khan in single combat, but I don’t think we’ll be able to get close enough to him for me to challenge him to an honor duel without a daemon.”

“Shit,” the word fell, leaden, from Trevor’s lips.

“I’m pretty sure I can summon one Luoca safely,” Micah sighed.  “I don’t think anyone else has reached the same limits I have with daemon summoning, but I’ve spent a lot of time going over the ritual spell forms.  I might be able to push it and summon a couple weaker daemons as well, but I just don’t know if it's worth the risk.”

“I don’t really know what any of that meant,” Trevor shrugged.  “Can you at least let me know if that’s good or bad?”

“Luoca are the equivalent of level sixty blessed,” Micah answered.  “One will help a lot.  Of course, I had more than one last time and it was still a very near thing.  Everyone is going to have to level up a lot to compliment it.  That’s why I’ve been pushing you so hard.  Maybe we don’t up your affinity today, but it’s going to need to be soon.  By the time we hit the Great Depths, you need to be able to seamlessly integrate your magic with your spear skill.  If you thought the dryads were hard, you aren’t even close to ready for the Durgh.”

Trevor sighed, closing his eyes and leaning back into the tree.  The sun beat down on the clearing as Micah calmly pet the juvenile panther, the wind rustling the great trees’ leaves far above them.

Finally, Trevor opened his eyes.

“When can you safely raise my affinity,” Micah smiled as he heard the steel in his brother’s voice.  For the first time in a long time, he actually sounded serious.

“I should be ready by noon tomorrow,” Micah willed the Folio back into existence.

“Sounds good Micah,” Trevor stood up, flashing a toothy smile at him.  “I’ll be practicing with my spear and those stupid spells until then.  If I’m just waiting around, I might as well do something productive.”