Chapter 2-17

As though realizing their mistake, my opponent began to retreat. Unfortunately for them it was too late. Now that I understood that I was in their inner world, I had all the context I needed to take action. If this had been a construct, separated from their mind, it would have been weaker. A construct of that kind was only as strong as the spell that created it, while a sorcerer’s inner world possessed all the strength of their soul.

But that strength came at the cost of vulnerability.

All around me was my would-be tormentor’s soul. And they weren’t really leaving, they were attempting to push me out. I focused my will, and went through the motions of harnessing my own mana. I couldn’t feel it, but I knew it was there. A reflection of my lancet flicked out from my palm, anchoring me to the dark ground. It wasn’t my real lancet, my spirit body was still anchored to my flesh in the physical world, but it was my most perfected mental image. As such, it still carried great power here.

The world screamed and tore around me, and I found myself ejected abruptly into the endless gray mists of the Radiant Sea. Sati was there to catch me as I stumbled, her form glowing with a rainbow aurora. Her sweet floral perfume made my head spin for a moment, a welcome sensation that washed away the lingering scent and taste of blood.

“Thank you, little flower. You finished before I was ejected?”

The apsara stammered out a confirmation, and I felt, but didn’t understand, her sudden rush of embarrassment. The dark world from which I had been ejected faded from my awareness, and I gradually found my balance, but Sati remained tucked under my arm. Supporting me with an arm around my waist, even after I’d recovered.

“I don’t think there’s anything left for us to do here. Myta and Denu will need to handle the rest. Let’s return. I mean to get some real rest. You did well. Perfectly, if your marker leads them to our stalker.”

“Of course I did.” Sati’s tone, and her mood, didn’t quite match her boastful words. She was proud, yes. But the satisfied, quiet pride of a job well done. The anchor she’d tied to me to help keep me aware seemed to have strengthened our bond slightly, as her emotions were filtering to me more clearly.

“Before you rest sir, can I speak to you about Guta?” I nodded, pulling us into my inner world, and then gesturing for her to continue. “I don’t believe he will ever be able to align himself to the air aspect as he is. Not without completely changing who he is.”

“That can happen,” I nodded. “Walk me through what you’ve found.”

“His feelings about the air affinity come from a childhood memory.” She began. “He was trapped out in a violent storm, while his brother protected him. So he deeply associates the sky and wind with **** and danger. I could soften the memory, but doing so would be difficult, and might change who he is.

“On the other side of things, his temperament is… agreeable and protective. He tries to avoid or ease conflict. To nurture and provide shelter.”

“So his nature, and the aspect he’s attempting to adopt aren’t just incompatible.” I noted. “They’re directly opposed. Have you talked to him about this?”

“Of course!” She sounded indignant. “But he said you had already spoken to him about it. I pressed him a little more, and I found out that he is determined to match Denu.”

“Yes,” I smiled in approval. “His fixation on matching Denu is the sticking point here. If he doesn’t see the aspect as being able to keep up with her, his mind will reject it. If his understanding of the aspect doesn’t match his nature, his spirit will reject it.”

“So he needs a different aspect?” She asked. “One that he feels matches Denu, but that doesn’t clash with his nature?”

“That, or he needs to refine his goal. I believe what he really wants is to physically be able to keep up with her. So he can always be available to protect her.” I replied. “That desire is newer, but tangled up in his feelings about his brother. It’s less entrenched, but a thorny knot to untangle.”

“You don’t think we have time to untangle it.” It wasn’t a question, but I nodded to her anyway. “So did you have an aspect in mind for him to pursue or…” she trailed off with the thought unfinished.

“I want you to help find one,” I replied. “Search through his memories, and look for strong associations that might open him up to an aspect. It will be good practice for you to search through a mind based on connections. I can’t teach you about your aspect of dreams directly, but this task should serve as good training for that as well.”

I felt a surge of excitement from Myta, and I focused on my bond with her, as Sati withdrew from my inner world. My flame had uncovered the camp of my stalker, not too distant from our own. I cautiously fed her what mana I could spare.

My flame burst forward from her concealment, only to find that her adversary was waiting and prepared. The small figure matched the silhouette from my dreaming encounter, and I could feel the wound I’d left in their soul.

The campsite was half packed up, the fire smothered and our stalker garbed in concealing leathers. Myta summoned her glaive, changing it from ethereal to physical in an instant with a flood of mana. Her opponent blocked the sweep of her weapon, however, with a similar manifestation of outsized claws. Confirming that they were another shifter. I snarled to myself in frustration at once again seeing one of Metic’s elite warriors.

Myta traded blows with her opponent, while I strained to interpret whatever I could sense through her. Unlike the previous attacker, this shifter didn’t stink of corruption, although their spirit was badly imbalanced. Perhaps the Pure had only begun working on this one? They also still possessed their reason, matching my vas in both skill and grace. In the heat of combat, I was finally able to verify that their aspects perfectly matched those of Ket, which should be impossible.

Impossible or not, the shifter was a powerful and skilled opponent. Clashing with Myta time and again, staying too close for Denu to get a clear shot. The two combatants twisted and swirled around one another, while the ranger kept her distance. She didn’t have the skills or strength to join in the melee. But our stalker was wounded, loosing strength from the wound I’d given them, while Myta drew extra strength from me. It was only a matter of time before my flame was victorious.

The end came quickly. The shifter missed their footing, slipping on the wet humus of the jungle floor. Myta seized the opportunity to drive her blade past her opponent’s guard, only to discover that the slip had been a feint. Twisting like a snake, the shifter managed to slip around my vas, kicking her knees out from beneath her, and wrapping clawed fingers around her throat.

“I hear the butcher is quite a healer.” The voice from the shifter was feminine and lyrical, thick with the accent of Metic. “Can he heal a ripped out throat, I wonder?”

“What do you want?” Myta’s mana was still gathered and focused. The shifter’s claws were at her throat, but she wasn’t entirely helpless. And Denu waited with a drawn bow, prepared to take her shot as soon as my vas was out of the line of fire.

“I just want you to leave us alone.”

Myta scoffed. “You attacked us, twice now! We know you've been following us for weeks.”

Myta couldn’t see the shifter’s face, but Denu could, and something caused the ranger to speak up.

“The first attack. The corrupted shifter. They weren't one of yours?”

“Only two ways this goes,” the Metic woman said, ignoring Denu’s question. “Either two of us here die, or we all walk away.” Denu and Myta both nodded reluctantly, having already reached the same conclusion. I wasn’t sure if the shifter really knew how deadly our ranger could be with that bow, but apparently she was giving credit where it was due.

“If I let you go, I’ve no guarantee you’ll not just shoot me as I leave. So here’s my proposal. I’ll cut you here,” she tapped Myta’s thigh with her free hand. “It’s a bad bleedin’ wound. Bad enough that you’ll have to stay to save her. Plenty fixable, if you get her back to the butcher in time.”

There was a certain sick sense to her proposal, but I was overwhelmed with rage. This stranger, who had stalked and assaulted us, was threatening Myta as though her health and wellbeing were nothing. But Myta was mine, she was under my protection, and this woman had no right to threaten or bargain. She’d earned nothing from me but pain and disregard.

*That won’t be necessary,* a mental voice crashed through my rage like a wrecking ball. One that I hadn’t expected to hear again. *You, Saoirse, should return to your sister. While I explain things to Esur. You will be in debt to me, as I will be to him, for sparing your life.*

The spirit appeared, in all her glory. A leopard, the size of a large bear. Her coat was tawny and her spots seemed to form strange, almost familiar, symbols. Ket was fully manifested in the world, and looked into Myta’s eyes directly, but it was plain that it was my gaze she was meeting.

“I’ll not be bound by a debt over this!” The shifter, Saoirse apparenly, shouted. “Especially not to one of the butchers! I have everything under control.”

*You don’t have the power here you think you do.* Ket’s mental voice was mild, but we could all feel her anger. *Esur could heal his vas well enough to keep her alive anyway. Your threat is meaningless, unless you think you can tear her head clean off before the three of them finish you. Now go.*

Saoirse fled. I thought, for one long moment, about ignoring the spirit’s offer. But Ket had been an ally to me, and had earned my goodwill. Besides, I needed answers more than I needed to give in to my temper.