Spellscribed: Resurgence (7 page)

Four hours passed with no results. Four hours of trotting along the streets of the city, taking a break every fifteen minutes or so when the wolves would sniff around a centralized area. At last, they found someone. Bridget had just jogged around a corner into a street lined with houses, when one of the wolves cried out in pain, hurling itself out of a doorway it had just ducked into. She hit the stones on her shoulder and rolled backwards to stop on all fours with a snarl. Bridget and the four humans came charging up behind the wolf.

Bridget leapt past the bleeding female, in time to see a wooden door swing closed. With a surge of adrenaline and a wordless cry of excitement, Bridget crashed into the door shoulder first. Her leather armor had been reinforced with thick bands of steel, and her right shoulder had a heavy steel pauldron which leant weight to her shoulder. The door cracked and folded in the center, the wood splitting down the middle as it buckled under the force of her charge.

The man behind it was knocked back, falling onto his backside stunned. Three other soldiers, all gritty and clutching swords with white knuckled terror, cried out and charged her. The man she knocked down tried to scramble back up with his hands.

Bridget crossed her blades so that the two edges met just at the fallen man's throat. "Halt!" she shouted, her body language doing more than implying that she would scissor that soldier's head off if they failed to comply. The middlemost of the three stumbled as they all came to a halt, and the other two had to drop their swords to grab him before he landed on the fallen man and pushed his neck into the crossed blades.

"Good." Bridget said, and three of her human subordinates slipped into the room behind her, taking their weapons and grabbing them roughly. "You are now my captives. Do what I require of you, and you will be released."

The man who had nearly stumbled into Bridget's hostage was the last to be grabbed, but he hardly resisted. Bridget could see the defiance in his eyes.

"You'll never win." The man sputtered, and Bridget gestured to the woman holding him to halt. "We will defeat you!"

"That's a broad claim, soldier." Bridget replied, sheathing her short blade. "And I think Endrance would say it's… terribly uninspired? I've never been very good with the sayings of mages. Either way, I'm sure I'd love to hear all about how we won't win in the comfort of a room with a hearthfire. Come along."

The man's face visibly paled. "Wait… Endrance? Wizard Endrance? The traitor?" he asked. He started to struggle in earnest, and the warrior holding him had to adjust her grip to prevent him from twisting free. "Ah, hells. Don't take me to him!"

"Wait…" the warrior holding the captive started to speak. "Isn't Endrance-"

"Not with us?" Bridget interjected, glaring at the woman. "Right. Well, he'll be back soon enough. But since you brought him up, we can have a chat about him too."

"No!" The man cried, thrashing. "Just execute me, hang me, do whatever! Please don't leave me at his hands!"

Bridget groaned, giving the struggling warrior a look of disappointment before swinging her sword. The big weapon had a huge amount of cutting power, but when swung like a paddle the thick steel blade was quite adept at knocking unprepared targets unconscious. The man crumpled as the warrior shied away from her swing, struggling to right herself and keep the man from falling to the floor.

"Take him back with the rest." She said. "I'll check on our wolfmen and then catch up with you."

The warrior nodded, throwing the man over her shoulder like a sack of grain and walking off. Bridget stepped outside and walked over to the cluster of wolfmen. The injured party was seated on an overturned feeding trough, while another wolf bandaged the cut on her torso. The wolf's armor was stripped off to the waist, and Bridget was somewhat surprised at how the wolfmen females were more anatomically similar to humans than wolves. The female was dark gray with almost reddish fur accents along the edges of her ears and scattered over her body in hard to see patches. She looked up at Bridget with bored blue eyes.

"This is the most humiliating part." The wolf said, her voice only slightly graveled. Her ears were aimed out to the sides and slightly drooped, and her tail swished aimlessly. "Not the getting stabbed by a soldier, but getting treated like a puppy while they make sure you don't bleed out."

"If you would just shut your jaws and quit moving around, I'd get this done sooner." The male wolfman grumbled, wrapping a bandage over the treated wound before handing back her armor. He looked up at Bridget and nodded. "Alpha." he said, stepping away from her and standing back. Bridget raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything turning back to the injured female.

"He's giving you deference because you have acted like a pack leader." The female said, starting to pull her armor on without any apparent pain. "And I am especially appreciative that you had been there to back me up."

"Uh… Sure." Bridget said.

"My name is Runa." the wolf said, standing. "Can you help?" she asked, turning her side to Bridget and presenting a set of buckles that could not be easily reached by the wearer. The Draugnoa nodded, helping her buckle up.

"Are you going to be all right?" Bridget asked. "Looked like he got you with his dagger."

The wolf nodded, turning back when the work was done. "Yeah, hunting knife I think." She flicked an ear. "Only got about an inch in before I was able to leap back, but that kinda tore it open worse. I'm not as skilled as Wrach's personal team yet. I am sorry."

Bridget shook her head, using her wooden hand to stop Runa from looking down at the floor. "Hey." She said, wiggling the wooden fingers in front of Runa's face. "I know what it's like, not being strong and fast enough. But you know, Wrach didn't just magically get as good as he is without having had his own battles. Some of us are lucky and get away with only a few scars or a missing finger, while others sometimes aren't so lucky."

"Yeah?" Runa asked.

"Yeah." Bridget replied, smiling as best she could with her lips pressed closed. Endrance had warned her long ago that, like their less intelligent kin, baring teeth was seen as a threat or challenge. "The unlucky ones never lose a fight."

"I don't get it." Runa replied.

"You don't lose a fight, you don't learn your limits." Bridget replied. The group started walking back towards camp. "If you don't learn your limits, you can get yourself killed. Failing, getting hit or stabbed, or even burned, can teach you that pain and you know better how to deal with it. It means you can keep fighting longer the next time it happens. Because it will happen again. With our way of life, not getting hurt would require an act of the gods."

"Ah." Runa replied, walking alongside her. "What are these gods you speak of?"

Bridget shrugged. "I… I dunno." she answered. "I was an orphan and an Ergkinoa, so I really didn't have much time to go to one of the temples. I guess we have a lot of war gods and stuff. I never really prayed to them or anything."

"But, what are gods?" Runa asked.

"You mean-" Bridget started to ask. "Ah. Okay. I get what you're asking now."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Gods are supposedly nearly all powerful beings that exist out there somewhere and they have things they think are important. And we believe that if we act like them, and make the things they think are important also important to us, then they will shower their blessings upon us and make our lives better. Even though there's no proof they actually, you know, exist." Bridget replied dispassionately. "Though, you know, I might be a little biased. I spent quite a few long nights praying to them when I lost my arm, and for all I know, they never even heard me."

"So are gods like mages?" Runa asked. "That sounds like a mage to me."

Bridget shrugged, frowning. "Well, I guess that's the best idea I've ever heard of. Maybe there's a point where a mage becomes like a god, and no longer cares about what's going on in the world. Though Endrance seems like the type to stick his nose into stuff, no matter how powerful he gets."

"Ah, Endrance." Runa replied, letting out what Bridget could only assume to be a sigh. "He smelled so good."

Bridget's step faltered. "Wait, what?" she asked.

"When he came to the pack, years ago. He slept in one of the tents," Runa explained. "I was there, smelled him while he slept."

"That sounds kind of creepy, Runa." Bridget said. "Also, he's my husband."

Runa gave her a sniff. "Could have fooled me." she replied. "You've never mated with him."

"Okay. One, you're starting to get into way personal stuff. Two, how the hells would you be able to tell? I haven't seen him in ten months!" Bridget exclaimed in a huff.

Runa shrugged. "We can tell mated pairs by scent. Your life scent gets changed when you take a mate. A little of them gets added to it, and a little of you gets added to theirs."

"Life scent?"

"I think Endrance would call it aura?"

"You can smell auras."

"Well, we can't very well see them."

"No wonder you all are so good at hunting down mages."

"Probably because they smell the best."

"That would explain why Giselle loved being around him."

Runa perked up. "Oh!" she exclaimed, her tail swishing happily. "How is Giselle doing?"

"She's back in Balator, playing with Joven's kids." Bridget replied, feeling a pang in her chest when she mentioned his name. "She's grown tremendously these last few years."

"In another year or two, she'll be fully grown." Runa said. "Then she'll be a real handful."

"Oh right, that thing you all go through when you hit puberty." Bridget stated. "What's that called?"

"The call of the wolf." Runa explained. "That's what it feels like. Like the primal wolf is calling for you to join her."

"Him." one of the males interjected.

"Her." Runa said with emphasis. She glanced at Bridget. "Each wolf goes through a personal experience, but usually everyone insists the primal wolf is the same gender as them."

"Thank you for explaining that to me, Runa." Bridget said as the camp came into sight. "I would like you to be around, should I need your help again in the future. Until then, I command you twelve to get some rest and be ready to hunt down that mage within the castle when the time comes, okay?"

"Got it, alpha!" Runa exclaimed happily. "We await your command."

Bridget shook her head as the dozen wolves trotted off. "They're almost too good." she muttered.

She didn't have any time to devote to thinking any more about the wolfmen that had worked with her; she had four Iron soldier's to get information out of, and she knew next to nothing about interrogation.

"Well, if I mess it up, I still have three more soldiers I could try it on." she assured herself. "Still, doing this war stuff was more Joven's place to shine."

She followed one of her subordinates to the building where her captives were being kept.

Endrance stared at the ornate, gold inlaid, wooden hatch set in the floor of the central hall of his library between two shelves on the back wall and frowned.

"Huh?" he said. "I didn't know that this was here."

Anna shrugged. "I know, you just made it be there. When you realized that your subconscious could be accessed. Maybe you can change how you access it once you have had time."

Endrance nodded. "Yes. I think I should make the adjustment now."

It had been an untold period of time since he had started searching for it. He had been running himself mentally ragged, trying to finish the spell matrix. Find a way to access his subconscious, and continue his absorption of all the knowledge Kaelob left behind. While his memories and motivations were missing, all of the old mage's spell knowledge had been locked away out of his reach. So Endrance was taking the time to work on fully comprehending it.

Much of the knowledge Endrance already knew the basics of; after all, he was the man who had trained him. However, there was much he had not learned from Kaelob's old apprentice. And Kaelob himself was well known for his mastery of the far hand spell, and his short range teleportation magic. Endrance was pleased to see he had managed to retain almost complete knowledge of those spells, and anything he was missing was easily filled in by his current understanding.

Endrance focused, and the hatch disappeared; becoming a nicely carpeted section of stone floor again.

"Where did you put it?" Anna asked.

Endrance gestured to the silver reflecting pool. "I made the act of going to the subconscious a part of my focus. I should be able to access it on demand now."

Anna nodded. "Well, let's get going then." she said. She looked around. "Wait… does it seem… dimmer in here?"

Endrance looked around, the library indeed seemed a bit darker. "Wait a moment here." He said, letting his mind lose focus.

He came to in the Bastille, and realized he felt very uncomfortable. He had slumped backwards while his mind was wandering, and his head was pushed down, his chin biting into his chest. The awkward angle was making breathing difficult. Endrance frowned, sitting up again. After a moment, he decided to stand and stretch his legs.

"That's strange." Endrance said aloud as he stretched. He realized he felt sore. Alarm bells immediately began to ring in his head. Looking around, he realized that the lights of the Bastille had not in fact dimmed; but instead, his vision had faded. Endrance took a couple of deep, gasping breaths, and the sensation only slightly abated. Was the bubble running out of air?

Endrance felt a moment of panic. What the hells is going on?

He pushed against the walls of the bubble, trying to get a feel for it's surface. While he was there, he looked at the reflection of his face. He discovered that his lips were not blue, but he found another sign that made him shudder with panic.

He sat down again, closing his eyes and going back into the library of his mind as fast as possible. Anna was waiting for him there.

"Well, what was it?" she asked.

Endrance shook his head. "The worst case scenario, really." he said. "I was hoping that it would not be true, but it seems I don't have a lot of time left."

"What?" Anna asked, concerned. "Why?"

Endrance gave it a thought, letting his inward appearance now match his outward appearance. His body was naked again, but now he was looking thinner, and his ribs were showing. His hair had grown longer by an inch, and there was even a hint of facial hair on his chin. His eyes looked sunken and bruised.

"The Bastille is not able to sustain my life perfectly." Endrance replied, swathing himself in clothing but leaving the rest of his appearance matching his physical state. "I fear I will either slowly starve to death, or go mad from lack of sleep if I am here overlong."

"But you've already been here for months!" Anna exclaimed. "How bad is it now? How long do you have?"

Endrance shrugged. "I don't know." he muttered, looking himself over. "I don't think I have another year though. Maybe six more months?"

"We better hurry then." Anna stated. "And find a way to break out of here."

"Before I'm too weak to make any attempt." Endrance concluded. He turned and walked to the silver reflecting pool. He waved his hand, and the silver surface underneath the thin sheet of water dimpled. The dimple in the surface deepened, the water pooling in the center before pouring through a hole that opened up at the bottom. The silver pulled away, the hole dilating open with a twist, forming a ladder that disappeared down into the blackness just beneath the reflecting pool.

Endrance stepped up to the ladder and began descending. Anna clad herself in her spear, shield, and light armor before clambering down.

The descent was deeper than he had expected. He climbed down nearly forty feet before his feet splashed into a puddle of water on dirty, brown stone floors. He looked down and realized that there was more water on the floor than would have spilled down. He stepped out of the way for Anna to step off the ladder and looked around.

The chamber they were in was large for what he thought was a basement, almost fifty feet across with the ladder as the center point. The room was hexagonal and each wall had a set of doors in the center that were currently closed. The walls and ceiling were all the same rough textured, pitted brown stone, with faded wood and rusty iron banding on the doors. The rough walls had been chiseled with reliefs of story snippets Endrance remembered growing up. One wall had a mercenary soldier that had nearly attacked Joseph when he was trying to shoe the man's horse. One looked like it had captured the instant that Endrance realized that he had killed, and more on the other sides. Other than the light pouring in from above, there were no other light sources to be found.

"Hmmm." Endrance hummed, looking back at Anna. "This is going to be interesting. I've never been here before."

"It's going to be dark." Anna observed. "Can you make some lights? She asked, taking her spear and shield up again. Endrance nodded, raising an arm and flicking his fingers. Nothing happened.

He frowned, trying again. Like before, no light sprang into existence. He didn't even feel the sense of effort, much less the execution of a simple exertion of his will. "Uh…" he started. "I think I have a problem. I haven't taken control of my subconscious, so I can't control anything down here."

"Well, I'm still here." Anna said.

"I suspect that's because you, Anna, would normally have followed me here, regardless of the situation. I think you probably have more freedom to act than you normally would."

Anna nodded. "Ah." she said. Puzzled, she set the spear aside, leaning it against the ladder rungs. She turned back to Endrance and, in one sudden motion, slapped him across the face as hard as she could.

Endrance reeled, the blow making his face hurt in the real world. "Ah!" he exclaimed, touching his face. "What the hells?"

"Sorry, dear husband." Anna apologized, flexing her hand and picking up her spear. "I had to test the whole freedom thing."

Endrance rubbed his cheek. "I hope that you're done now?" he asked.

Anna rolled her eyes. "Yes." she said. "I'm done abusing my husband. Now, let's go find Kaelob and kick him in the face until he agrees to help us get out of the Bastille so we can survive."

Endrance nodded. "Let's." he said.

They walked forward, approaching the first door. The wall around it was carved with the image of a thin, lanky woman holding a newborn infant. This must have been how draining it was giving birth to him. Endrance noted that there were several swirling lines coming from the mother's body to the infant. Quickly, the amount of ambient light diminished and Endrance realized he still hadn't taken care of the light issue. He sighed.

"Okay, we need to take care of this another way." Endrance stated. "Take my hand."

Anna reached out and took his hand, shouldering her spear with her shield hand. Endrance closed his eyes and focused on the different impressions he had. He thought for a moment about assuming the goblin's powers, but he set that aside. The goblin could see in the dark, sure, but it wasn’t otherwise going to help him find Kaelob. What he needed was the concept of an inescapable hunter.

He touched upon the imprint of the blood tiger, transferring it onto Anna and himself. Both of them blinked as their eyes became slit, like a big cat's; and they became aware of a fair number of 'scents' that were weaving their way through his mind.

"What is this?" Anna asked.

"Blood tiger senses." Endrance replied. "I transferred the creature's natural abilities to me and copied it onto you."

Anna nodded, sniffing the air experimentally. "That's interesting. Can you do it in the real world?"

Endrance shrugged. "At the stage I'm at, I could project an impression onto someone or something else, yes."

"That's pretty amazing." Anna said.

"It seems that Kaelob's experiences alone contributed greatly to my grasp of magic. With some time to fully comprehend every memory, I should be able to double the capacity of my aura, at the very least." Endrance added. "But for now, we can use this for conceptual ability."

"Conceptual?" Anna asked. "You mean that since we're not actually in the real world, we're using the idea that the blood tiger is able to sniff out any target to let your mind accept that we, too, can sniff out any target; even in your subconscious mind?"

Endrance tilted his head slightly. "You've definitely been in my head a while." he observed, slightly amused. "Bridget would have thought you'd been possessed by evil to be able to keep up with my mind."

Anna shrugged, a grin on her face. "Freedom or not, I'm still technically just a very believable facsimile of the real Anna, powered by your mind. It can't be helped."

Endrance nodded, sniffing the air. The blood tiger had excellent night vision, and could see quite well in the faint light of the room, but Endrance was unsure if it could see in perfect darkness like the goblin shaman could. Either way, he would find out. "Let's go this way." Endrance said, tapping the door they were standing next to. "This smells the most like him." he observed.

Anna nodded, stepping forward and leaning her weight against the doors. The old oak groaned, and the doors swung open slowly, displacing a small wave of water away from their feet as the doors scraped across the surface. Beyond was a dark hall, with pillars splitting it down the center. Each pillar was made of four columns of intertwining stone, looking like they were braided together before being set to the task of holding up the ceiling.

The walls of the passageway were filled with carvings of the forested area around Wayrest, and for a little while he was reminded of walking through the area. "These must be things that I dwell on." he said. "The foundations of my mind."

Anna nodded. "I see that we're not in here at all." she observed. "At least I've not seen us yet."

"Give it time." Endrance said as he reached the end of the hallway and a second set of wooden doors. Pushing on them, the doors swung open. The water on the floor rippled as light poured into the room, temporarily blinding them. Endrance raised an arm to shield his eyes, while Anna lifted her shield.

The room beyond was the same stone, but had been chiseled to look like the dais and throne room in the castle atop Balator. A statue stood in the center instead of the king's throne, and the source of light was a glowing speck of brilliant white light, one of Endrance's were-lights.

The statue depicted Endrance on his knees, holding the dying Anna in his arms as he screamed out in grief. For some reason, the statuary was made of white marble, but some kind of black coloration stained the stone of Endrance's face, coming out from around the eyes of the statue and streaking across his face and down his neck as it faded to gray and eventually disappearing altogether.

Anna stared at the statue, stunned. "I… stand corrected." she said. "How did you know?"

Endrance shook his head. "I don't know." He realized something and sighed. "It was something I knew subconsciously." he said. "I knew you were important, and your death moved me more than anything I had known in my life to that point."

Anna looked over the statue, her eyes glittering in the light. She wiped a lone tear from her cheek and smiled.

"It's a little grim, but thank you." she whispered.

"I think it is a little macabre, but Endrance has always possessed a flair for the dramatic." A voice replied from behind the statue.

A woman in a square-necked fine linen white dress stepped out from behind the statue. She was barefoot, but she stood atop the surface of the water, not within it. Beautiful emerald eyes accented thick, dirty blonde hair and a slender face. Endrance could see similarities with her immediately.

"Didn't it occur to you?" the woman asked. "All this time, you've known about me for years now."

Endrance blinked, stunned. "V-Valeria?" he asked.

The woman smiled. "Archmagus Valeria," she said, giving a nod of her head. "At your service. Well, not really at your service. After all, everything you've experienced was due to me." she smiled. "I would rather say, at your disservice."