(TLO) Chapter 68: Hidden Quest (Patreon)

Seth’s time with Dazda was short lived. In fact, it was so brief it might be called nonexistent. The tale of the Negare was the only true piece of anything he got from the man. Although, there was also the emotion. But that was secondary.

It was not difficult to realize the man had a tight connection to the Javalti tribe—if it existed. There had been too much emotion in the story. However, the man was a bit misplaced from the world. It made Seth’s minds agree the man was no wanderer. The story had made the Negare into a big deal. To any who would hear it, they would think the Negare a devout society sworn to their cause. Great men and women seeking out retribution. The Negare would sound like a strain existent against the soul mages of the world.

They were not.

The title was really just a name given to a group of noise makers. The weak who judged the soul mages for possessing a power they did not. After all, what harm could a group of unsouled do against those who burn the world with a breath. As if the Negare didn’t suddenly disappear whenever there was a fissure, speak less of a world crack.

But Seth said none of these. He gave this truth neither voice nor breath. Dazda lived in a delusory fantasy where greatness belonged to the Negare. The man was old and tired and weak, and Seth had no intention of taking away one of his few enjoyments in life.

Dazda left after the break of dawn. He crawled through the small entrance of the frozen shelter, getting snow all over his clothing Seth found was more black fur than anything else and struggled into the forest morning.

Seth crawled after him, all three swords in hand. He stood at the mouth of his shelter and saw the man off, watched him wade through the snow now a foot higher than last night in a forest with too much white and countless trees. He was not sure how long he stood. It could’ve been thirty minutes. It could have teased on for an hour. What he did know, was that he stood until the man was no more than a dot in his sight.

Then he set out preparing for his own day.

He gathered strips of roast meat he had not finished from last night’s meal. He slid them in the pockets of his cassock, made sure they were deep enough that they would not spill.

The warmth from the night was gone from his body and the winter chill was seeping back into him. It pierced his skin and chilled his bones. He missed it. As he stuffed the last piece, he wondered just how much longer he could poison himself before it would begin to take a toll on his body.

He stuffed the last strip of meat in his pocket crudely. “I better get a black fragment for this.”

Ostensibly, there exist people who believed he was struggling so hard just so he could get a chance at being cursed.

Does that mean we’re going to stop this madness? One of his minds asked.

Because it’ll really be disappointing to go through all this just to be cursed, another added.

Perhaps we should go with him; join the Negare. It sounds like a greater cause than this.

It would be more demanding though.

Fighting against magic with no command over reia.

It would be daring.

Legendary.

A story worth telling.

Seth waited for his minds to be done. The silence after the thoughts stretched. He waited longer. Then waited some more.

“Are we done?” he asked, casting an easy gaze west where the nest he sought stood misplaced.

We guess so.

“Good.” He pushed west, waded through the snow roughly. “I listened to an old man when I didn’t have to. It makes me unreasonably nice, sometimes. But it does not make me a fool.” He paused to check the snow was not too high that it would prevent him from drawing his blades. It was not. Satisfied, he continued forward, adding: “Got it?”

Silence met him but he felt affirmation from his minds. Odd. He’d felt whispers of emotions from his minds every now and then, but never in their silence. He sighed and moved on. This test strained him too much to care about the oddities of his minds.

“Now let’s go clear a nest.”

………………………………………….

Seth’s brows furrowed. “Can’t you guys do anything about that?” he asked, annoyed.

Nope, his minds answered. It’s an emergency notification.

“Meaning?”

Meaning you must see it.

Seth frowned at the response and adjusted the empty scabbard at his hip. With one free hand he reached for the hilt of the sword embedded in the hind leg of the reia beast he sat on and, with his weight on it as leverage, pulled it free. The sword’s blade came out with a wet sound that left him disgusted.

Rising to his feet he finished the last of the meat in his hand then cleaned his sword against a tree close to him. It stained the tree with a line of blood and he repeated the motion with the other side of the blade. It left another mark.

[You Have Been Poisoned.]

He read the notification again only so that it would disappear.

When it was gone, he sheathed his sword.

It had been three days since the blizzard that had held him hostage with a stranger in his shelter. And a lot had happened in these three days.

“How many does this make?” he asked his minds and took the reia beast by its broken hind limb.

Eight, one of them answered.

“Eight,” he muttered, dragging the beast.

He winced at the pain in his side and swore under his breath. It seemed he’d broken a rib or two on his right side. That would have to be looked at after the test. Six reia beasts in three days was pushing it, but he was running out of time. He had a week left before the end of the test, but the number of reia beasts he could find now was greatly dwindled.

In the beginning, he’d been luring them from their nest slowly. Now, it was hard to even find one. It was as though they knew they were being hunted. As if they knew the hunter was no longer weak. So they hid.

You are welcome, all three minds thought.

His reply was simple, curt. “Shut up.”

He looked behind him at the trail of blood the reia beast was leaving in their wake and wondered if another would see it and follow.

“Do they even care for each other?” he wondered out loud.

The distance between his shelter and where he had finally killed this one was not far, and he covered it within a short amount of time.

As he had done with the others before it, he parted its limbs from its torso, cracked its ribs and took its core. Unlike the first reia beast, he did all this outside his shelter.

He rolled the core into the shelter and stuffed the corpse under a pile of snow. The cold would preserve the meat until he needed it, just as it did the others.

In three days much had changed. It made it odd just to think about how he’d once been terrified of being attacked by some reia beast in his own home. Now, he would welcome them, if only to reach his quota.

And still he won’t thank us, a piece of his mind thought.

“That’s because you almost got me killed,” he replied.

But we came out better.

Seth said nothing simply because it was true. The meat from the reia beast had poisoned him. In fact, it continued to poison him with every bite he took in the last three days. But it also gave him strength. It filled his stomach and strengthened his muscles. But while it didn’t bother him much, he still often found himself waiting for the outcome of his poisoning. At the edge of his mind he worried for when he would have to pay the price. For when the slowly growing warmth budding within him would grow to burn him.

You know, a mind pointed out as he left his territory in search of another prey, we think we have enough meat to last us for the rest of the test.

“But not enough cores.”

About that... We only need two more, right?

“Right.” He dragged the word, suspicious.

So how about we get one more, then go looking for Snaffle’s wanna-be.

Seth stopped.

Vengeance. Was that what they were after? The snake had done them nothing but shatter their trap and steal their prey. It was much in hindsight when he considered how much hunger he had suffered then. But was it worth the risk. He was healthier now, stronger even. Did that mean he could take the creature?

It was a dangerous thought, one he had no doubt philosophers of old would call hubris. He told his minds as much.

“We can’t fight it.”

How can we be sure if we don’t try?

“Try?” he asked, incredulous. “We’ve passed the seminary’s test already. We’ve almost concluded Jabari’s stupid notification’s quest as well. Why would we want to go looking for trouble where there is none?”

In case you haven’t noticed, we have a territory now. And it only took three days. The nest is all but gone which technically makes it an expansion of our territory. We’re at the top of this food chain… quite literally.

“And what does that have to do with anything?”

We’re the second other threat in this forest we know.

Another piece of his mind chose to pipe up now, or perhaps it was the same one. What happens when two predators exist in a space not large enough for one?

It was a scary question. And the fact that he was considering it was scarier. His minds wanted the snake dead. But why?

“Is there a notification you’re keeping from me?”

Everything we know, you know.

This much had been proven over time. Still, Seth couldn’t help the feeling there was something he was missing. He could not lie that his instincts didn’t agree with his thoughts. It made sense that the snake had to die. He did not know why; he simply knew the both of them could not remain. One of them would have to go, and it would not be him.

“Just what are you instigating?” he wondered as he changed his direction and made his way to a new enemy.

In the back of his mind, a voice he did not recognize answered: our survival.

Seth walked a mile in the deep forest snow searching for tracks and paths. When he saw none, he walked another. He walked between trees, slow and steady, displaying more caution than stealth. Then he took a right at an obscenely grotesque black tree made white from its bath in snow. Another mile farther and closer to the evening saw no tracks. There was none made by snakes of any shape or size nor any of reia beasts.

With a tattered cassock that exposed parts of his skin as well as portions of his torso to the cold, he shivered slightly and ploughed on.

His minds were determined on having him face this snake and put all that they were into searching for tracks. They gave him awareness of the slightest flicker of leaves, the barest touch of snow flake. He heard bugs crawl and branches whistle, birds mate and leaves fall.

Still, there was no sign of a worthy prey.

Darkness was drawing nigh. Its promise as adamant as that of death. It was during these hours that his minds picked up a trail. It was a depression in the snow barely an inch deep but wider than his waist.

Gently, so as not to disturb it, he waded through the snow until he stood beside it. With the depth of the snow coming up to his waist it was hard to believe the tracks belonged to the snake he sought. Something so large had no right crawling with a weight so light. But the snake wasn’t light. He had seen the mess it had made when it had crawled out of its hole all those days ago. It had made grooves in the snow.

This was something else. This was…

We’ve found it, one of his minds interrupted.

He paused, puzzled.

“Certain?” he asked, with the disbelief of a child just told the sky was naught but a dome put over his father’s house.

The girth is right, the mind answered.

“Impossible. How can something so large make an impression so light. The snow’s thick but its not that sturdy.”

We don’t know. But we can ask it when we find it.

If it’s willing to share, another mind added.

He heard the sarcasm and followed the trail in silence.

The night was darker when it brought him to something of note. There was no sunlight by which to see, but the moon cast a pale blue glow that spilled through gaps in the canopy of trees. A religious man would perhaps akin it to rays of light, blessing the children of some deified being.

Seth was no religious man. To him they were streaks of light that would guide him to kill a really big snake. Or his potential death. He hoped it was the latter.

Criteria Met.

Minimum Requirement: [Health 115%/80%]

Health status exceeded

Minimum Requirements met

Hidden Quest discovered: [End of a Path].

A reia beast has found a path to the realm of the soul. Its pursuit for superiority has led to the demise of more than the ecosystem is willing to sacrifice. Apprehend its evolution and bring death swiftly to this creature before it continues on the path of a soul beast.

Hidden Objective: [Eliminate Soul Beast 0/1]

Reward: Keen sight.

Consequence: Possible Death.