Chapter: 153 - In the Ground (Patreon)

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Tala and Rane walked back toward the caravan, Rane leading his horse, Terry riding on Tala’s shoulder.

She had slipped on her shoes, because even though her feet didn’t generally sink into the cold, wet mixture of snow and toppled grass, it was a little bit more comfortable to have the footwear on, and she saw no need to choose discomfort with no upside.

Tala had given Terry a large amount of jerky as she’d laid on the ground and continued to flick it out for him at regular intervals. I need to restock my stash of this stuff. Terry has definitely earned all I can get for him.

She and Rane were mainly silent as they trekked across the frozen ground. Game trails crossed their path every so often, but they didn’t see any sign of life close by. Their goal was obvious, given the caravan’s chosen resting spot, atop a rise that was easily visible, despite the distance.

There were some mundane birds flying about in the distance, and Tala thought she caught glimpses of deer or elk on occasion, on far hills, but couldn’t tell if they were arcanous or not. Probably doesn’t matter.

There really weren’t that many purely mundane creatures in the wilderness, now that she thought about it. Most found their way through a fount one way or other, picking up innate magics or dying as a result.

She did see some things glinting with colored light here and there, peaking through the snow. But it was hard to get a good look with the white snow around. There wasn’t any power coming from them, so she decided that it wasn’t really of consequence. Probably just odd, shiny rocks.

That thought only lasted until they came to the top of a rise, and saw a crystal wolf, statuesque in death, curled up on the ground.

No magics remained for it to determine if it had been a bearer of crystal powers, or the victim of them.

Not much difference in the end. Though the lack of a visible wound implied that it had died from crystallization, rather being killed while such an entity.

Rane groaned. “This might be bad.”

Tala found herself nodding. “I thought Master Xeel said he was going to clean up the crystal fount. Wasn’t that over a month ago?”

“This isn’t evidence that he hasn’t. For all we know, this is from that clean up.” He shrugged. “Though, Master Xeel also said he cleaned up Terry’s fount.” Rane gestured at the avian to emphasize his point.

Terry let out an angry hiss but didn’t otherwise react.

“So?” Tala glanced to Rane. “What do we do?”

“Get back to the caravan and report it. They should be safe enough, with clear sightlines and the light of day, but we shouldn’t leave them down two Protectors for much longer.”

Tala sighed, sweeping the area with her normal vision and mage-sight together, just to be sure. There were a surprising number of lumps, under the snow. More than elsewhere. She walked over to one and moved the snow aside.

A crystalized bunny huddled among the dead grass. “Another, here.” The next mound looked like a cut stone block, weathered with countless years. “Part of a ruin?”

“The fallen arcane cities.” He had a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Tala nodded, sagely. “Right. This area used to have a few.”

Rane snorted. “I was mainly teasing. There were more magical research stations than cities. A few fortresses, for the various groups to posture against each other with. There were other, less mundane things, but they shouldn’t have any evidence on the surface, at least not from them.” He shrugged. “But those could be anywhere, even under other ruins.”

Tala uncovered more mounds, finding a mix of crystalized animals and plants, along with other remnants of past civilization. Some of the smaller ones were locked into very lifelike poses, and Tala tucked those into Kit. They’re pretty, even if in a morbid sort of way.

Rane interrupted her perusal of the various mounds atop the hill. “We should get to the wagons.”

She sighed and nodded, straightening as she placed a particularly lovely specimen away. It was a falcon in flight, wings tucked in close for a killing dive. I wonder how it managed to survive the fall from the sky.

Crystals lattice structure could survive a lot, if it took the stress correctly. That’s probably it.

“Alright.”

They continued on their way, faster this time, following the rise and fall of the land, making a straight line for the caravan. Rane kept a tighter rein on the horse as they walked, ensuring they took a path that the animal could traverse, which wasn’t that hard as the terrain her was almost universally gently contoured.

As they neared the base of a dell, weaving through some spare, bare trees, movement behind a bush caused them to freeze. The bush itself was mostly just snow-covered sticks this time of year, but they were prolific and did obscure their vision somewhat.

A crystalline doe hobbled past the plant, brushing the bush and causing the entire thing to crystalize and shatter. The resulting pieces were small enough to virtually disappear among the fallen snow.

Rane placed his hand on Force, letting the horse’s rein’s fall. The animal took that as cue to stay where it was, and it began rooting through the snow to get to the grass underneath, seeming unconcerned by the arcanous creature so near at hand.

Tala placed her hand on Rane’s arm. “Don’t, Rane. You are very susceptible to that thing’s magic.”

He stopped, turning towards her and waiting for her to continue.

The doe’s front leg was broken, barely hanging on by glittering tendons. That was likely the only reason they’d gotten this close. It was regarding them with absolute stillness, as if utterly uncertain of what to do about their presence before it. Its gaze wasn’t hostile, but it didn’t seem afraid either.

It was the look of a prey animal that had recently found itself to be a predator. Old instincts were warring with new-found knowledge and power.

Tala could see magic swirling around the creature. “It’s healing. We can’t leave it.”

He moved once again to draw his weapon, but Tala stopped him again.

“I’ve got this.” She brought her left middle finger to her thumb, targeting the deer. Increase.

She began ramping up the deer’s effective gravity as quickly as she was able, without using the Crush mental model.

The animal shifted slightly, then simply continued to stare at them. It was seemingly unable to decide if it should run, even as its hooves began to sink deeper into the turf under the influence of its increased effective weight.

The two humans stared at the magic infused animal as the seconds ticked by.

After half a minute, Tala began to frown. “That’s more than enough to crush a juggernaut to oblivion.”

Rane shrugged. “Crystal can be incredibly strong?”

The deer continued to sink, driving its three good legs into the ground, until its belly pressed down through the snow.

The magic continuing to swirl around it was enough proof that it wasn’t dead, but it wasn’t moving, not really.

Why isn’t it struggling?

After a minute, the belly of the creature began to sink into the ground as well.

Tala threw up her hands in frustration. “This is madness! It should be experiencing more than 300 times normal gravity, now. Something is obviously happening, but it’s still intact.”

Rane had his head tilted, as if considering. “Do you think it’s not moving, because it sensed the attack, and shifted into its most stable, resilient configuration?”

“That would explain-” The faint sound of cracking cut her off. “Finally.”

He was frowning. “Mistress Tala, that’s not coming from-”

A loud crack reverberated through the ground under their feet. Immediately thereafter, the beast vanished, dropping from sight.

The tinkle of shattering crystal, along with a waved of magic, signified the end of the dangerous animal.

By the origin of the pulse of power, Tala knew how far it had fallen. “Master Rane, what could be sixty feet underground, here?” She hesitated. “Well, whatever the deer shattered on is that deep.”

“An abandoned well?”

Tala gave him a deeply skeptical look. “That the doe just happened to be standing over when I targeted it?”

He gave a half smile. “That does seem to beggar reality.”

“Just a bit.” She smiled in return.

After a short moment of consideration directed at the new hole in the ground, he glanced back towards Tala. “Do you think it’s safe to go look?”

Tala frowned at the dark opening, then sighed. “Terry, can you go look?”

The terror bird lifted his head and gave her an incredulous look.

“Not to tell us what you see, obviously. I just want you to test and see if it’s stable. If it isn’t, you can flicker away.”

He tilted his head in thought, then vanished from her shoulder, appearing beside the hole, the size and weight of a small horse. Rane’s horse lifted its head and eyed Terry suspiciously but didn’t bolt. Rane took that hesitation as an opportunity to re-grab the hanging reins.

After a long moment, Terry stomped with one taloned foot, pausing to see if there was any effect.

When nothing happened, he jumped up and down a few times.

When that did nothing, he flickered back to Tala’s shoulder and curled up.

“Seems safe.” She nodded towards Rane.

Together, they walked to the hole and carefully looked down. “I can't see anything.”

Tala’s enhanced vision was better than Rane’s natural eyesight. “I can. It looks like a storeroom of some kind. The deer crystalized some boxes, which broke open. They were filled with… something. I can’t quite see.” She hesitated. “Should I go down?”

Rane looked at her like she was insane.

“Fine, fine.” She held up her hands. “It was just a question.”

“Do you detect any magic down there?”

She looked again to confirm what she already knew. “Not at all. Even the deer’s power is dispersing as I’d expect, no barriers or dampening fields that I can detect.”

Rane smiled. “Good. Then, it shouldn’t be urgent. We need to report it. The Archon Council in Bandfast will likely send someone to take a look. If it’s a low enough priority, they’ll create a mission that any Mage or Archon can take.”

“You mean, they might pay us to come back?”

“Could be.”

She grinned. “That sounds like an excellent plan.”

Rane seemed oddly contemplative as he regarded her.

“What?”

“I’d think that such places would be…” He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. “Unpleasant?” he shrugged, “Unpleasant for you.”

Tala cocked her head, frowning. “Why in zeme would that be?”

“Well, for most people, being crushed to death is unpleasant, but probably fairly quick in the event of a ruin’s collapse. For you, you’d survive for…” He seemed at a loss for words again. “I don’t even know how long you could survive under tons of rock. I’d have thought that would be off-putting.”

She regarded him with something akin to horror. “Well, it is now.” That would be an awful way to go. Nothing I could really do, no way out, my scripts keeping me alive in my suffering. She hesitated. “I could simply divert power away from my scripts and let the end come?”

He considered for a moment. “I suppose, if you did it in the right way, that would work. Otherwise, you’d just fall unconscious, and your scripts would reactivate.” He tsked. “Your gate doesn’t close when you’re unconscious, right? I remember you saying something like that.”

She crinkled her nose. “Yeah…that’s true.”

Rane cleared his throat, seeming to realize that he’d brought up a bad subject. “Even so, I’d be happy to come back to come explore, if you’re up for it.”

She gave him a long look, then shook her head. “Maybe. It might be interesting, at least. Let’s go back. We’ve delayed long enough.”

They began walking again.

After another quarter mile or so, she glanced his way. “What would we have been likely to find down there?”

He shrugged. “The most mundane thing would be a forgotten cache of food and supplies from an earlier cycle’s defense of these plains.”

“Right.” She nodded. “The Leshkin wars.”

“Wars is a bit dramatic. Humanity mainly sets up defensive positions and kills Leshkin by the thousand as they recycle their souls back to the forest.”

Tala had a thought. “Is that why there is so little undergrowth?”

“What?”

“In the forest, is that why?”

Rane paused. “Maybe? If they grab onto any plant life, other than their great trees, and twist it to grow them a body, instead, that would thin things out a bit.”

She grunted. Even if that were a factor, there were likely other factors at play. “But back to the ruin. At the least, it’s a forgotten human supply cache. At most?”

He shrugged. “There are some vestiges of a few of the ancient enemies of mankind. In other cases, some have yet to be rediscovered in the prisons they were locked in by early Mages.”

“Which do you mean?” She was listening more intently, now.

“Well, several liches were buried by early humans who didn’t know any other way of dealing with them.”

“Entomb them in ground?”

“Them and their whole fortress. They couldn’t risk a phylactery being among the spoils.”

“So, what? They sank whole towers?”

He nodded. “Towns too. Cities in some cases.”

She snapped her fingers. “I always thought that the tales saying that the heroes put an evil Mage ‘in the ground’ were saying they killed them.”

Rane laughed. “Probably, more often than not, that’s exactly what was meant, but from what Master Grediv has told me, early human Mages buried a lot more of their problems than they knew how to eliminate. Modern Archons try to hunt down those that they can and end the threats for good, but it isn’t always easy. Ancient Mages didn’t want anyone freeing the beasts. So, they didn’t keep records of the burial sites and did their best to hide any and all evidence. In many cases, they supposedly altered the stories so that those couldn’t be used to sus out the hidden prisons.”

“That’s one way to do it, I suppose.”

Rane shrugged. “Geologic activity frees some every so often, or battles unknowingly fought atop them. So, it’s worth hunting them down as we can.”

Tala nodded. That makes some sense. “What others do you think fall into that camp?”

So, for the remainder of their walk, Rane told her short accounts a myriad of humanities worst enemies. He spoke of beasts composed all of smoke; of sythenians, humanoids capable of killing with a look; of horrors made of shadows and darkness; of the endless, Black Legion; of immissusi, men who changed into beasts under certain influences, magical or mundane; of creatures who lived by drinking vital things from humanity; and many others.

The vital drinkers reminded her a bit too much of dasgannach. Even so, when she mentioned the seeming connection to Rane, he didn’t think the motile mud and metal was the source of myths of blood suckers or any of the others, but he did admit that he could be wrong. It wasn’t something that he’d studied extensively.

Tala loved the old stories. After all, she’d modeled her very magic after such stories, depicting humanity’s first heroes. Therefore it was hardly a surprise that the rehashing of those tales, even if only in passing, was a wonderful way to spend a walk through the countryside.

*      *      *

Tala and Rane arrived back at the caravan, blessedly without further incident.

Rane handed over his horse to one of the attendants, and they went to meet up with drivers and sergeants. Terry seemed content to stay with them.

Dron, the head of the caravan’s Guards, gave a shallow bow to them as they joined the ongoing discussion. “Good to have you two back.” He then met Tala’s gaze. “Mistress Tala. Thank you for leading the Leshkin away. I don’t think we’d have had an easy time breaking free if the attack had continued at that intensity.”

Tala gave a tired smiled. “It was the least I could do. I’m…” She swallowed. “I’m fairly certain they were after me, specifically.”

Dron nodded, not showing any surprise in the least. “That is what we’d assumed as well. Do you know why?”

After a moment of shock, she shook her head. Glad I didn’t try to deny or obscure it… “I have some guesses, but they are just that.”

He gave her a searching look before nodding again. “I believe you. Sometimes beasties take a fancy to something and act against their pre-discovered nature. I’ve heard of a few Mages who’ve seemed to cause similar, if less extreme, reactions from the forest terrors.” A smile tugged at his lips. “I hope you don’t begrudge me when I say that I will be recommending against allowing you to take forest contracts for the time being.”

She gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah. That makes sense. I’d been giving it some thought, and I wasn’t planning on taking any anyways.”

All the Guards seemed to relax a bit at that. The two drivers simply smiled in commiseration.

She cleared her throat. In for a copper… “I do apologize, however. While I didn’t intend to put the caravan in danger, it seems that I did, nonetheless.”

Dron smiled once again. “Apology accepted, Mistress. Your diversion saved lives, and it seems that no one is likely to die as a result of the Leshkin. We came out ahead, by my count.”

“Ahead?” Tala frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Well, the forest was much quieter on this outward journey than it really should have been. The likely reason, looking back, is that the Leshkin were sweeping the woods, looking for you, killing or driving off anything that could have posed much danger.”

“But we still had to drive off beasts daily.”

Dron waved that off. “Nothing like the number or power we were prepared for. It is unusual for every guard to survive on a leg of a forest journey.” He gave a sad smile. “The hazards of the job.”

“Well, that does make me feel a bit better.”

“Good.” His joviality faded a bit. “Now, I assume you know not to take that as reason to venture back in. We got lucky in that we didn’t encounter any Leshkin until we did. Likely the mushroom invested region helped with that, but even so.”

“Oh, I understand. No forest travel for me until something changes.”

Dron nodded. “Good to hear. Now, we were in the middle of discussing the plan going forward.”

They talked through some logistics and possible paths. Tion ended up having the most to say, there, as the head driver.

In the end, they decided to let the oxen rest another hour or so, then push on once more, making camp as usual for the night. If they did that, they should arrive at Bandfast before nightfall, the next day.

Tala smiled unconsciously at that realization. Home. We’re finally going to be home.

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