Zero Potential: Chapter 18 (Patreon)

Chapter 18

It had been the better part of an hour since Terra began heading south. Mentally she was going through escape plans. One simple thing she could do would be to open a portal to a town or village she had already been to. Anywhere that at least two laylines met, she could teleport to. The only problem is that every Spatial mage also knew about this unique trait, as did the kings and queens of the lands, meaning that eventually every such spot in the world had a village or town built up around them. Not only were such convergence points fertile, but they were also conducive to performing other forms of magic as well, meaning that not just Spatial mages sought out such places.

Thus, over time, every city or town could be linked to either a point where two laylines met, or they could be found directly in between where two laylines met, conveniently located on a spot that resided along one of the laylines. Meaning, that while Terra could Teleport far away, she would be easily noticed as having to use the layline intersecting points for her travels. The main problem with that is that mages were always assigned to guarding such points, and it was never good for any Spatial mage to try to sneak into another mage’s territory. Especially not without at least introducing oneself to those in control.

That was why Terra now found herself travelling in parallel to the roads, while easily moving silently throughout the woods that endlessly followed the roads.

Mentally, she was going over her options. The first thing she wanted to do was to change her clothes, get money, and set sail for the faraway island nations, before their fertile dungeons were discovered and worst of all conquered.

Terra was so lost in her own thoughts that she was only pulled out of her internal plans, when she felt a shiver run down her spine.

“HELP!” A panicked voice cried out in the distance.

Hearing the utter lack of hope in the voice, but still crying out for a miracle, Terra found herself charging forward in the woods.

Wind Pulse.

Terra used the power of Wind magic to pulse out from her and tell her of the objects that impeded her path. To a trained magician Terra’s use of the spell would do little more than release a slight pulse of mana in the area. As for mortals, at most they would feel a gentle breeze, which given the time of night and the fact that the sun was now setting, would not be too much of a distraction, particularly if the people were already involved with other activities.

Crackling fire.

As Terra got closer, she could hear the roar of fire burning in intense heat. This was not the work of magic, as Terra would be able to feel the residual traces of mana in the flames, even at this distance. No, this was the crackling of regular fire grabbing hold of dried wood and burning it completely.

Sniff.

Terra also noted the faint scent of chemicals in the air, thus further proving that this smell was only caused by an accelerant, most likely grease fire if the smell and temperature were telling enough.

“Whaa!”

A baby could be heard crying from amongst the flames and wreckage.

“Stay back!” The same female voice that had called out for help a moment ago cried out again. Though this time her voice was dry and in pain. It was clear from the sound that she was near death. If Terra hurried, she could Heal and possibly save the woman.

Moving forward, Terra lunged out of the woods. Thanks to her ever present wind magic, she knew exactly where everyone was in the area. There was a woman standing in front of two kids, a seven year old daughter that was desperately clinging to a crying baby.

On the ground were the bodies of a few males that had been run through. Then there were five bandits.

Nothing particularly impressive about the bandits, other than they had managed to take down an imperial chariot of some kind. Terra recognized the family crest that was even now being burnt to cinders as the crest of the Montagues. They were a middling family that was on decline in her past life thanks to the death of the heir apparent of the line. It was said that the mother stole the heir and the daughter and ran off to live her life as a forgotten beggar in a faraway kingdom.

If this instance right here was any indication of what happened in her past, Terra wondered if the truth about what happened to lady Montague was covered up. As this whole scene seemed too light, as it looked that only one male servant and a driver were on hand to escort the lady of the family and her two children.

Without even thinking Terra moved.

The flames that were billowing up, were quickly under her all-powerful command. When it came to Fire and the use of the elements, Terra was unmatched, and that was before she gained the Arcane Staff of the Elements. Now that she had the Staff on hand, she was a veritable goddess of destruction.

Flames arose, pulling away from the burning carriage and instantly jumped to the nearest bandit. The flames wrapped around once, then twice, before eventually springing off the first barbarian and lashing out to the second and third. Each time the flames spread, they jumped around in a burning cord that sliced into and through the body of each bandit. Burning and then cauterizing the wounds, before lashing out for more victims.

Seeing the first three get consumed. The leader, or at least the largest and most skilled of the group began to back away. This was fine, as he was too busy focusing on the flame before him and not on the mage behind him.

Za-zap.

A lightning bolt first arced out of Terra’s staff, before splitting apart into two unique bolts that arced through the air striking both the distracted leader and the minion that tried to flee from the scene.

Terra focused her mind on keeping both spells alive and active for as long as possible.

The sparks and flames burned until the bodies crumpled lifelessly to the floor. Even with this, Terra still kept the flames and lightning arcs burning. She burned the bodies until they were husks, and then burned a little further to ensure any last chance artifacts or chances at Revivalmagic were negated. Only then did she stop her flames, letting the heat evaporate harmlessly into the night. The lightning too disappeared almost instantly, causing the exceptionally bright night to turn instantly dark.

Only thanks to Terra’s enhanced senses from her training and from her Burning Eye of the Tiger was she able to maintain visibility in the area.

Before Terra could move, she noticed a change in her staff’s overall percentage.

Her Arcane Staff of the Elements, now read Status: 97% full to capacity.

In the grand scheme of things that wasn’t much, but it did show that Terra had been wasteful, wasting what was essentially one percent of her staff’s power on five common bandits. Especially when she had other methods available to her. She did have her twin daggers available still, and while she could rest assured that she had five replacement arcane power crystals available, she knew those would be hard to come by in the future.

Silence.

At first Terra didn’t understand why that was so odd, until she realized that the three people that she saved, including the small child they were all quiet.

Glancing around, she saw that the mother was dying, but still putting herself in between Terra and her children. Even dying she was still willing to lay down her life.

Seeing that things were too tense, Terra decided to waste a bit more of her Staff’s energy and once again create a bonfire, but this time off in the distance.

WHOOSH!

In addition to the flames, Terra summoned forth wind to feed the flames, and earth to hold the residual heat.

“Sorry about that, I am a wandering magician, and I heard your cry for help.” Terra said.

With the two parties now lit by the bonfire off in the distance, both sides could see the people they were now talking to.

“I didn’t call for help.” The woman said, clutching at a gash on her chest with her left hand, while holding up a trembling sword with her right.

Seeing the fiery resolve in the woman, Terra couldn’t help but feel impressed to be in her presence.

“Lady Montague, I presume?” Terra said, more than asked as she walked forward slowly. As she did, she held up her staff and strung it over her back with the leather cord that was attached.

Now with her hands free of any possible arms or weapons, she held them out and open to the sides. Not that this meant anything when dealing with a mage, particularly a powerful mage like Terra, but it was a nice gesture, nonetheless. At least, that is what she hoped would come across as being a nice gesture.

“Stay back. How do you know who I am.” The woman said.

“Well, your crest on your carriage for one. Normally it would be bad form for royalty such as yourself to be traveling with your mark displayed so brazenly, especially with so few guards around.” Terra said, pointing to the last remains of the burnt family crest.

Seeing the crest, Lady Montague took in a gasp, as if she saw the stupidity of the act right away.

“But that would be…” She trailed off.

Seeing her momentary pause, Terra jumped in. “That would be like drawing a giant bullseye on your carriage and all but asking any would be brigands to attack you? I thought the same thing.”

Terra used this time to take a few more steps forward, now she was within ten paces of Lady Montague, a close distance for most magics, but almost too far for healing magic, well most healing magic anyways.

“I thought the same thing. Which is why, I will ask you the question, who wanted you dead. Or in particular, who wanted him, dead.” I say, pointing to the boy that was now oddly quiet given everything that was still happening.

“What? No one.” Lady Montague said, her mind clearly drawing a blank while trying to think of anyone who would want her or the boy to be killed.

“You’ve been through a lot.” Terra began, of course she already knew who the most likely suspects would be, having seen the succession war that comes from the missing heir apparent to suddenly go missing. “Let me heal you first.”

“Don’t you come any closer!” Lady Montague said.

Hearing the venom within her words, Terra couldn’t help but smile. Even on death’s door she was full of piss and venom, she had a special spot in her heart for such people.

“Don’t worry. I don’t need to get any closer than this.” Terra said.

Then holding out her hand, she began channeling green Healing magic through the open air straight to the injured Lady Montague.

The spell was simple, and one that Terra had cast hundreds of times to heal her soldiers that had entrusted their lives to her. Now, she felt relieved that she was still using it to save a soldier, or at least a person with the heart of a soldier for at least one more battle.

The girl’s eyes lit up. The boy in her arms also opened his eyes in seeming surprised as Terra was almost certain that his eyes lit up with golden mana, a sign that he was destined for greatness.

Seeing these people, Terra couldn’t help but feel that she had made the right decision by following the call. Though now that she thought back on the incident, Terra did have to wonder if the words of the woman were true, that she hadn’t actually called out to her, at least not with her voice. But then if she hadn’t called out, then how had Terra known of her plight?

After a few moments the wounds on Lady Montague healed up completely, leaving behind soft supple flesh, under a bloody slash mark where a life-threatening injury once stood.

Seeing that the lady was healed, Terra by habit reached out and healed both the girl and the little boy. Her magic had the ability to both check for any current injuries and any lingering ones. While she was not so proficient that she could heal defects brought about from birth, she was capable of noting signs of danger to watch out for.

As far as Terra could tell, both children and their mother would live long healthy lives.

With the three taken care of, and Lady Montague still holding up to ward off Terra, Terra just nodded and decided that now was as good of a time as any to begin looting what coins she could from the bodies of the slain robbers. There wasn’t much, just a few charred silver and copper pieces, but that would be enough for a meal or intelligence if she played her cards right.

With everything grabbed that could be grabbed, Terra stopped now even further away from Lady Montague and her charges, and turned to face them before speaking.

“Well then, Lady Montague, children,” Terra said, first bowing to Lady Montague, then to her two children, “I bid you all a good night.”

With that Terra turned a half-left face, and with military bearing began walking perpendicularly away from the Lady and her children.

Silence.

After five paces Terra made up her mind that she would not stop.

“Wait!” Lady Montague called out at exactly fifteen paces away.

“Come now, Lady Montague, only a fool would trust someone they just met on the roads.” Terra said.

“At least tell me your name?” Lady Montague asked.

Hearing that Terra just smiled. She realized that if she was to shed all ties to her previous identity as Terra Rosed, escaped convict and potentially wanted fugitive of the Belaton kingdom this was her chance. With that, Terra went with the first name that came to mind.

“I am but a simple traveler, nothing more, nothing less. Surely I am not one worthy of having their name spoke by someone as impressive as the Lady Montague.” Terra said.

With that Lady Montague’s face began to drop slightly, as she had clearly never expected such a rebuke.

Terra smiling at this decided to go one step further. While Teleporting vast distances was a problem, traveling short distances via line of sight was more than easy for a Spatial mage of Terra’s caliber. Which was why she bowed down. Then casting a quick Fiery Burst spell, and a long-range Blink spell, she completely disappeared from view in a cloud of smoke and fire.

“Whoa.” The girl cried out, having been enchanted by the dazzling display.

Terra of course waited nearby in the woods. Her position high in a tree, as she decided to watch over the trio, to see if any other would-be bandits tried their luck.

Terra might not have the brand of the hero, but that didn’t mean she didn’t intend to be a good person, even when others would not want her to be so.

“Did she go?” The little girl asked.

“I, I believe so.” Lady Montague responded.

“Why did you make her go? She seemed nice.” The girl asked.

“I, just…” Lady Montague said, crying softly as she grabbed her daughter and son tightly, all while the energy that had been fed into the blazing inferno slowly died, leaving behind a few warmly glowing rocks.

Terra watched as the mother found an old burnt dress and used it as a blanket for her kids, while they all huddled next to the rocks for residual heat.

Then setting up a few runes of her own, Terra too let herself relax slightly as today had been a very busy day.